《God of Tricksters》


 Chapter 1 – Emissary

    <h4>Chapter 1 - Emissary</h4>


    Under a huge tree in a forest, a young man was thrusting his spear that looked like it was made of gold and silver toward a turtle that hid inside its own shell. The spear went inside the hole, and blood soon started dripping out the hole.


    [Killed a Carnivorous Turtle (Normal)]


    [EXP+1]


    "Nice work, Theodore." A young man walked toward him. He had short spiky yellow hair and wore a red-colored leather jacket. For his bottom, he had long pants with the same material as his jacket while using a pair of big boots reinforced with steel.


    "Yeah, thanks." He nodded as a strange blue screen appeared.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Normal


    Level: 7


    EXP: 25/42


    Blessing: None


    Skill: Pierce (F), 9 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 10, Endurance 5, Agility 9, Vitality 5, Magic Power 20


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''I have received three experience points from two turtles. Since the experience is shared, I can''t reallyin, considering the fight has be easier with their help.'' Theo let out a long sigh.


    "I am sorry that you are being held back since you are helping me." Another person that turned out to be a beauty came into the scene. She had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Her hands were clenching a silver staff with a blue ball on the top. She wore a light-yellow blouse coupled with long pants to avoid injuries over something small. Still, thebination of all of them made her look cute, especially with the addition of her innocent face.


    "It''s fine. In this situation, we should help each other out." The guy suddenly stopped her from apologizing as if he triedforting her.


    "��" Theo only watched his action in silence before shaking his head.


    "Anyway, we should continue." The guy then turned to Theo with a smile while his vision still remained on the female.


    Deciding not to think more about it, he agreed. He first touched the turtle shell as it disappeared into thin air, leaving nothing behind. He thought nothing of it and moved on.


    But when the two were about to follow him, loud noises echoed in their surroundings, rming the whole forest. Even birds immediately flew to the sky to avoid as if something big would happen soon.


    Theo nced over his surroundings before finding the ground shaking.


    "This��What is happening?!" The girl panicked and screamed. Her face was pale, and she subconsciously leaned on the boy next to him.


    If it happened before, the boy would hug andfort her, but the shaking ground made his feet go limp. It took all his energy just to stand still.


    Theodore gritted his teeth as soon as he found that the sound became closer and closer. He then turned around and yelled. "Run!"


    Out of instinct, the two turned around and began running. No matter what their running form was, they needed to go as fast as possible to avoid whatever that wasing their way.


    Even Theo followed right behind them and soon caught up. He turned his head to see what was happening behind him and dropped his jaw.


    Trees were falling down one after another because of a strange creature. It looked like the turtle from earlier but covered in grey. Instead of a pattern on its shell, it had some sort of rock formation sticking out of its shell. The height alone reached six feet tall with the width twice of that number.


    "That is a Rock Turtle! The leader of the Carnivore Turtle we killed earlier! It is an elite monster that has far surpassed our level. But it should be miles away from us, not here!" Theo eximed in surprise.


    Over a few hundred years ago, the Earth experienced high-level technology, starting frommunication or even transportation.


    With technology like that, humanity had found a way to explore the sea and conquer the sky. To their surprise, under the bottom of the sea, they found a "Pandora Box."


    When they opened it, Earth transformed into something that even science couldn''tprehend. One thousand pirs of light shot through the sky, leaving a kind of magic circle behind all over the world.


    Out of curiosity, humans checked the magic circles only to find themselves teleported into a very strange ce. It was apletely different world. A world that human beings couldn''t have imagined.


    In this world, the humans brought their guns, tanks, or even fighter jets to explore the new ce. But all of a sudden, they were attacked by strange monsters inside the realm. Their weaponry was able to fight them, but it turned out that the monsters living there were the lowest of their food chains.


    As soon as the strong monsters appeared, they obliterated the entire armed force from humanity. The human beings that once stood on top of the food chain fell to the bottom.


    However, humanity didn''t entirely leave with an empty hand. They found another source of strength, new to this world. They were surprised to find their body evolved when they killed monsters, turning the whole situation into a game-like world.


    What made people surprised was that with the addition of this new power, people started receiving a strange voice in their head, introducing themselves as some sort of beings. It was then categorized into seven: Normal (F), Elite (E), Champion (D), Hero (C), Supreme (B), Mythical (A), and God (S).


    Theyter realized that the ranking waspletely the same as the monsters in that world, making humanity think that beings of the past, human or not, that had left their legends on Earth granted them power.


    People could lift a huge boulder or even destroy a skyscraper with this power. The human then united and returned to that world once again, finding that the most primitive fighting skills that were almost forgotten in modern society could bebined with the powering from the other side to create something more powerful.


    The Martial Arts society united and was reinstated, creating a school for many who aspired to be a strong fighter on the other side. The stronger you are, the more respected you are in the eyes of society. It became a popr belief, and many people joined the school, trying to change their fate.


    Of course, most didn''t survive in this harsh world. The horrible creatures that resided in this world murdered many people, but some seeded in life and became famous.


    Theodore Griffith was also one of the aspiring people that wanted to change his fate. Unfortunately, he fell into a situation where people got killed by monsters. To survive, the only way to do it was to run.


    It was at this moment the event that turned his life upside-down took ce.


    "Kya!" The girl got tripped by a big root sticking out of the ground as she immediately wanted to rise again but to no avail.


    Theodore turned around and grabbed her hand, pulling her up. The other one also helped her up before noticing that a mere few seconds were what it took for the turtle to catch up with them.


    Out of desperation, the woman instinctively pulled Theodore''s hand even stronger. At the same time, the man beside him pushed his back.


    With the sudden push, Theo stumbled and fell instead. The two only gazed at him with a weird smile, bulged veins and wide eyes as if they just realized what they needed to do in this situation.


    Theo stretched his hand and opened his mouth wide, albeit no word came out.


    In school, he was often bullied by his ssmates because of his unbnced state. Looking at his status, he appeared to be someone who excelled in both magic and physical ability. However, his status was nothingpared to those who only excelled in one aspect.


    With the addition of his poor status, he became a perfect target for people to satisfy their ego that they were above someone else and got bullied as a result.


    Nheless, he decided to continue his life as if nothing happened, ignoring the bullies since none of them actually tried to kill him or something. He strongly believed that there would be a time where he could change his standing until he got into a situation that kept his sanity this whole time, the betrayal.


    He then sensed the turtle''s presence next to him as he instinctively raised his spear to the side. The turtle struck the spear with its head, almost snapping it into two. It didn''t stop there. The force behind it kept pushing until it reached Theodore and blew him away.


    Bam!


    "Kah!" Theodore spat a mouthful of blood as he realized some of his bones were broken when he crashed into a tree. Due to the impact, his head also hit the tree pretty hard, and blood flowed down his face, dying his vision red.


    ''Ugh. I can''t move." Theo thought after realizing he had no energy left to even open his mouth.


    The monster looked at him, stood proudly, and roared as if telling him that it would kill him.


    ''Is this the end?'' Regret filled his heart. In the face of death, a certain thought appeared in his mind. ''Humanity is idiotic, greedy, prideful, resentful, depraved��In the face of death, betrayal is what most people think. To save their own life, they could do whatever.''


    ''��''


    ''Humanity��Is a f*cking piece of sh*t.''


    ''Ah. How wonderful it is if I have the power to reset mankind once again? They won''t be any worse than this, right?'' His vision had turned blurry, and his consciousness had be fuzzy, knowing that his death was near. No matter how he cursed humanity, his wish wouldn''t be fulfilled. ''If only I have another chance.''


    He looked at the turtle that wanted to crush him, gradually closed his eyes, and epted his death before a strange voice echoed in his ears.


    [God of Mischief is interested in you and wants you to be his emissary. Do you ept?]

 Chapter 2 – Fighting Back

    <h4>Chapter 2 - Fighting Back</h4>


    [God of Mischief is interested in you and wants you to be his emissary. Do you ept?]


    With his fuzzy consciousness and hopeless situation, Theo instinctively thought, "Yes."


    There was no meaning behind it other than his will to live. Just like he said earlier, if he had a chance to live, he would take it.


    [God of Mischief has granted you the representative position. Congrattions, you now have be The Trickster. Mess this world up with your wisdom.]


    [Because you are in the face of death, God of Mischief has given you one skill and a chance.]


    [Clone (F)]


    [Full Recovery.]


    As soon as the notification finished, warm energy started enveloping his body, fixing every broken bone and closing all the wounds. Right after that, Theo finally regained his ability to think and stared at the iing turtle.


    He rolled on the ground and stood up a few feet away from the turtle. Holding his bent spear awkwardly, he recalled what just happened.


    The turtle crashed into the tree and had yet to recover, so he opened up his own status to check the new skill he got.


    Skill: Clone (F) - Upgradable


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can only create the same body and control its movement. Other parts such as voice, skill, and so on are still locked.


    "!!!" Theo was stunned by the powerful skill, and he could hardly believe it was true.


    What happened to him was called a blessing, literally. Beings or legends of the past could lend their power to humans and granted them skills. The higher the rank who gave them the blessings, the more powerful the skills they would get.


    To think he would get a blessing from a God, the one stood on the top; it felt surreal. As much as he wanted to inspect everything he got, the turtle had already recovered and red at him, preparing for another charge.


    "But to think a God will have me as their envoy��Since you want me to screw the world. I will do it. I will reach the top and fix this world." Theo raised his bent spear and pointed it toward the turtle. "But before that, I need to survive here."


    He knew that the turtle''s speed was faster than him, so it would be hard to escape.


    "Clone." Theo activated the skill he got from the blessing. He felt his power left his body, turning into another him.


    "This is such a weird feeling, but I think I can control it with my mind."


    The clone gradually moved its body, and the turtle charged at him.


    With only that little time, Theo learned at least some basic movements for his clone as they both suddenly turned around and ran.


    The turtle followed both of them and entered the woods again.


    "As expected, the trees couldn''t slow it down." Knowing that his n failed, Theo should start panicking, but after getting the skill, a door of opportunities was opened in front of him.


    After exactly thirty seconds of chasing, the two made a forty-degree turn in the opposite direction, confusing the turtle a little bit.


    However, the turtle remembered which one was the original body and immediately chased the one going to the right.


    Theo''s smile became even bigger as he took another turn to the left. Two minutester, he met up with his clone right behind a big tree, disappearing for a split second.


    The turtle easily confirmed Theo''s real body after the first sharp turn and chased only the one carrying the spear, which was the one going to the left side. Little did the turtle know that Theo just passed each other, handed the spear to his clone, and ran straight.


    Due to the turtle''s constant chasing, Theo''s clone started making a zig-zag movement, trying to confuse the turtle in this tree. Unfortunately for him, thest hope flew away as he met a dead end.


    When Theo realized this, it was already toote. Even if he tried to move in another direction, the turtle would be able to strike him, so the only ce he could go to stay alive longer was to go out of the woods and ended up in a bell shaped stone cliff.


    "Roar!"


    The turtle sneezed at his foolishness and kept charging at him.


    But the turtle didn''t realize that this Theo wasn''t sweating at all despite the long run.


    With the tree starting to get cleared, he should have no other way out. It was when he passed thest tree, a surprise came from behind it.


    It was another Theo. He carried a head-size rock and struck the turtle''s eyes. The turtle might have thick skin or high defense, but there would always be a soft spot and, in this case, the eyes.


    The turtle screamed as blood flowed out of its right eye because Theo just destroyed its eye.


    Losing its right vision and feeling the pain were enough to make the turtle lose its focus as it kept going toward the stone wall.


    Theo took this opportunity and headed right in front of the wall. He set the spear''s butt on the wall and positioned it to make sure that it pointed straight at the turtle''s head.


    Bam.


    A huge crack appeared on the wall, but it wasn''t enough to destroy it.


    "Roar!" The turtle''s voice got even louder when the bent spear managed to pierce its head, identally hitting the brain.


    However, Theo, who was supposed to be holding the spear, was nowhere to be seen. Only the one that struck the rock stayed and watched the progress with calmness.


    "As expected, it might be able to bend the spear, but if I had a supporting force like a wall and ced the spear in the right position, it would be strong enough to pierce the turtle''s head." Theo smirked evilly. "Now sleep, foolish creature!"


    The trick he used earlier to change the Turtle''s focus saved his life.


    [God of Mischief is happy with your trick and luck.]


    [God of Mischief grants you the ability to see the skill upgrade''s requirement.]


    Skill: Clone (F) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank F skills (0/5)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can only create the same body and control its movement. Other parts such as voice, skill, and so on are still locked.


    However, Theo''s eyes had yet to return from the turtle, making sure that it died before doing anything else.


    A few secondster, it gradually stopped moving and fell down.


    [Killed a Rock Turtle (Elite)]


    [EXP+1735]


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have leveled up.]


    ��


    ��


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have leveled up.]


    [You have leveled up.]


    After confirming its death, he ced his hand on the turtle''s shell as the body gradually disappeared. When a hunter like him touched the monsters in this world, they could drop a card. This card then became a skill card or material card.


    He expected a card from the Carnivore Turtle but didn''t get anything. Fortunately, he saw a ck card��twice the size of his palm��swaying left and right before it touched the ground. Theo picked the card up.


    Pure Stone (E)


    Fifty pounds of Pure Stone from Rock Turtle''s back.


    "Hmm," Theo stroked his chin and thought, ''The Pure Stone is used to sharpen a weapon. It can even be considered one of the best grindstones. Since my spear is broken, I should sell this card and get the money to buy a spear since I don''t have enough money to pay someone to make a weapon from it.''


    He raised his vision and saw the spear hadpletely snapped into two and most parts had be t.


    "Never mind. I will bring it back with me as it is still usable as a distraction on my way back." He sighed and picked up the ttened spear before checking his status.


    Status: Normal


    Level: 20


    EXP: 110/246


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (F), 8 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 10, Endurance 5, Agility 9, Vitality 5, Magic Power 20


    Free Attribute Points: 65


    "Every time someone levels up, they are granted free attribute points. For me, I''ve got 65 points with five for each level, so I have leveled up thirteen times. Considering I still need to go through a forest," he paused for a minute and chose. "25 points to strength, 10 points to endurance, 15 points to agility, 10 points to vitality, and the rest are to magic power."


    "Perfection. The clone technique is quite taxing for me, so I think it''s fine to add some points to my magic power." Theo nodded. "Well, I was born with exceptional power in magic, but I didn''t have any mary support to get skills on the market. And with me usually going alone, I need to increase my strength to fend for myself."


    "Still, the turtle only gave me 1735 EXP, even though an elite monster is, at least, level 51. The turtle might be close to that level, I guess." He let out a long sigh. "No, I should be grateful that someone like me was able to kill a monster at this level. At least, I have gotten far stronger than I used to be. Time to head back."


    With that thought in mind, he began running toward the portal.

 Chapter 3 – An Unknown Party

    <h4>Chapter 3 - An Unknown Party</h4>


    Not long after Theo left the area, a group consisting of two females and three males appeared.


    "Captain. From the aftermath alone, I believe the turtle died in this ce." One of the men informed a yellow-haired female.


    She pinched the bridge of her nose and observed the cracks on the wall and craters on the ground. "Did someone kill it? I couldn''t see any clues leading to a group killing the turtle. The turtle seemed to go down with just a single strike from the little amount of blood scattered around the area. It must be a vital part."


    "But was there any high-level person in this area? This ce is for new people who try to increase their level."


    "It''s true that the turtle was an Elite Monster, but it just evolved not long ago, so the level was pretty low. This person must be around level 20 to level 30 to have the ability to kill a monster like this. There is a high chance that the Pure Stone card dropped, so I want you to check if the card suddenly gets in the market."


    "Understood. Do you want to recruit that person, Captain?"


    "Yeah. This person must be special just by seeing how the turtle was killed."


    "I will give you the report about the market every day." The man nodded.


    Little did they know the one who killed the Elite Monster was just a level 7 young man. And that person was still running toward the base where he was registered, Art Beats Castle.


    He stumbled upon two matters of importance and kept thinking about them on the way.


    "I wonder when I should get my own revenge? I have finally got the power to change my fate, but I am still clueless about this power. Even the God of Mischief told me that I was lucky to kill the turtle. I should increase my strength first before thinking about revenge. Of course, I have no n in forgiving them who sacrificed me and the others who bullied me in school." Theo''s face was serious and his voice held a glimmer of killing intent.


    The desire to fight back that had been suppressed this whole time could finally see the light even though it wasn''t the time yet.


    While thinking about the time, a giant metallic wall came into his vision as he raised his head.


    It was a kind of traditional castle with a square wall and four outposts in each corner. The only difference was the materials. Instead of stone, it was built purely with metal.


    Theo looked at the big gun on top of the tower. It had two barrels that could shoot a bullet as big as a normal car. This weapon was called a siege gun. Despite its size and menacing name, it didn''t hold the almighty power like in everyone''s mind.


    It started when humans began expanding in this world. After having continuous evolutions, the guns had be more powerful than ever. It might not reach the level of a sma gun or aser gun, but a normal pistol already had enough power to create a giant hole in one''s body with just a single bullet.


    Yet, when they arrived here, they realized that this kind of power didn''t even manage to kill the Rock Turtle. Humanity then brought tanks and any heavy-weight vehicles to crush them. Unfortunately, the stronger monsters came and crushed them again.


    Hence, they realized that the cost was too much to bear and canceled the operation. It was at this time a mysterious power became famous and all countries around the world began researching it.


    After a series of investigations, they confirmed that this power was the most effective and cost-efficient way to fight the monsters in this world.


    The governments then started researching this new power and tried to incorporate them into their current military technology such as guns. Unfortunately, due to theplexity of theposition of a bullet, it didn''t fit well with the materials they could find in this world, resulting in the abundant cost just for a bullet.


    The era of traditional weapons then became poprized again when all the cksmiths around the world learned how to craft a sword, spear, and other things with the materials from this world. And unlike guns and modern weapons, the cost was so low, allowing mass production.


    As for sma guns or something simr? It was just a movie''s concept, not how the real world worked.


    The media kept informing the progress. Before long, every person in the world, even those who didn''t read the news daily, knew about this.


    Due to that, the advancement of mechanical weapons like guns and such stagnated. Even so, there was still a belief that they could modernize the weapon once again, but it was certainly not in the current era.


    Thus, the reason why Theo got slightly concerned when seeing the siege gun was that he didn''t mind about the money the government put on the development, but he realized that they shouldn''t put too much there and help the small citizens like him instead.


    "The turtle should be in the deeper part of the forest, so how could it reach my position?" Theo shook his thought off and furrowed his eyebrows while running. "I didn''t think much about this earlier, but was there someone who brought this turtle here?"


    As soon as he realized the real problem, he hesitated to sell the Pure Stone Card he got earlier.


    He took out a four inches cylinder from his pocket and shook it as a blue screen appeared. Clicking a few times, he arrived at what he wanted to see.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 300 Zil


    With modernized power, the currency had turned into one, and it became even more supported when they found this world. It made everything simpler.


    "Haiz. This is not going to be enough to buy a weapon. It''s barely enough for my cheap rent this month." Whilementing of his poor bnce, he had arrived in front of the base.


    There was a line of people wanting to get in through a small door right next to a giant metal gate. They never used the giant gate except for a big expedition that required big vehicles, so Theo immediately went right behind thest person, waiting for his turn.


    After fifteen minutes, he finally got his turn. A middle-aged man with a green military uniform came to him and asked. "May I see your ID?"


    Theo nodded and took out the same device and opened not his bank ount but his ID Card.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Normal


    The middle-aged man recorded his ID in his own device before giving him a thumbs up, telling him he could proceed.


    "Thanks."


    Theo walked in, seeing the bustling town. He could see a series of buildings on either side. Most of them were stores from restaurants to weapon stores, while the rest were either a hotel or hotel-plus that would let people relieve their stress and rest their body aftering back alive.


    Without wasting a single second, he headed toward the weapon shop where he always bought his weapon, only to be hesitant at thest second.


    ''Pure Stone is still an Elite Rank material. If I suddenlye and sell this material, they will either suspect me stealing this or recording my data in their store when they know I am not an elite. Both cases will give me a headache��'' He stroked his chin, falling into deep thought. ''I know that I am a bit paranoid, but it''s better to be safe than sorry. I should sell it in another store and maybe hide my identity?''


    With that thought in mind, a certain shop came into his view. It was just a stall, but it sold what he needed right now.


    Walking toward the stall, he looked at the merchandise that this stall had to offer. He came across one pattern that he liked.


    "Boss, I want this one." Theo pointed at the mask and asked the middle-aged man. "How much?"


    "Five Zils for one mask."


    Theo nodded and scanned the ID of the store, automatically sending the money.


    "Here you go." The middle-aged man handed the mask. The mask didn''t have any fancy decoration or patterns. It only had one smiley face, but that of a clown. Thinking about the God of Mischief, he thought this one would suit him.


    He took the mask and walked straight down the road.


    ''Time to take a bath first. And I should put on a cloak since I need to hide my hair as well. If people knew that I got an S rank blessing, there would be a bloodbath, especially with those who often bully me.


    ''It''s true that those who have a blessing are often recruited by big firms, but they won''t have their freedom anymore. Other than bing stronger, I still have another thing to do. It''s a bit contradicting my goal, but who cares? I will do whatever I can to change this world whether with heroic deed��Or malice.''


    Without him noticing, there was a slight smile on his face. ''I guess I need another identity as my cover.''


    Theo then walked straight down the road for a few minutes before a big white tform came into his vision.


    There was no decoration in the white tform other than seven pirs on the edges.


    This was the mysterious thing that appeared on Earth when mankind opened the pandora box, Teleportation Circle.


    He was nning to head back to cover his appearance before selling the Pure Stone. He climbed the stairs and saw a magic circle with many weird symbols around it.


    Since the military only checked their identity when they left or came to the base, the people could use the magic circle as they liked except for the fact that they limited that every odd hour, the people could onlye to this world, while every even hour, people could return to Earth.


    This simple rule managed to keep the traffic here minimal since it only needed around one second to use it.


    Pouring a little bit of energy, the magic circle glowed for a second as his vision turned white.


    ''Here we go.''

 Chapter 4 – Weapon Shop

    <h4>Chapter 4 - Weapon Shop</h4>


    A few years ago.


    A 17 years old male with deep blue hair smiled at a young kid with the same hair color.


    Patting his head, he put on the warmest smile and said, "Listen up, Theo. Big Bro needs to do something and I can''t return for a few years. I know that my Theo is strong and can do everything by himself. Big bro is enjoying your food, you know. That''s why I know that Theo will grow up just fine."


    The little Theo''s face turned pale as he grabbed his brother''s sleeve and asked. "Are you going to leave me, big brother? You won''te back like mother and father? Then, won''t Theo be alone from now on? No! I don''t want to be alone anymore."


    He couldn''t help but cling to his hand, not wanting to let it go.


    "Listen to me, Theo. Your big brother needs to go. I need to fight against bad monsters that will endanger my precious Theo. You are smart, but if you find someone more important than your life, you won''t mind doing anything for them. You are the most important thing in my life, so big brother isn''t afraid to fight out there for a few years.


    "Then, I can follow you. Theo can fight too! Big brother is the most important thing to Theo, so I want to protect you."


    "Ahaha, thank you for the thought but hear me out, Theo. You can''t go with me this time. Although it will take a bit too long, please believe in your big brother. I will certainly go home. You must take care of yourself, okay?" He smiled. "When Ie home, I want you to wee me with a big party. Can you do that?"


    "Un." Theo wanted to cry but held back his tears, using all his energy to nod a few times.


    "Good. If you find yourself in trouble that you can do nothing about, take this with you to meet someone." He took out a pocket watch and handed it to Theo. "Remember. Don''t open this pocket watch unless you find yourself in a situation with no way out. You will know what to do and where to go as soon as you open this. Of course, don''t use this to find your brother because you won''t be able to find me."


    "Un, Theo will treasure this."


    "That''s my Theo." He patted his head a few more times before rising to his feet. "I will be going now. Take care, okay?"


    "Yes, big brother. Theo will always be waiting for you."


    Theo looked at his brother''s back until he couldn''t see him anymore before locking himself up in the house and crying.


    Crick, Crick, Crick.


    Crick, Crick, Crick.


    In a small dark room, Theo was sleeping on a broken bed. Next to the bed, on the table, was the same cylindrical device Theo took out yesterday.


    He gradually opened his eyes and grabbed his device with sleepy eyes.


    "Ugh, my head," Theo mumbled and opened his device to watch the morning news while preparing himself.


    As soon as he found his usual channel, the device projected it on the air as if there was a television on the table.


    "Eilric Group President Hans Eilric entered the fifth rank or the one we know as Supreme Rank in the age of 45. He is known as the father figure of the Eilric Group, but it seems he has been working hard not only to build the foundation of our economy but also the strength of our country. This is something to be rejoiced for."


    "However, he himself said that his talent is nothingpared to his daughter, Alea Eilric. ording to our information, she almost reached Champion Rank. We don''t know about her current level, but we can safely assume she is above 130, only twenty levels short of bing a Champion Rank."


    "Many are saying that her strength is as strong as any prodigies all over the world. This is something that we should be proud of because big countries will begin to look our way and brighten the future of our country."


    "It''s true. Everyone holds high expectations of her. I can''t wait to see what will happen in the next ten years or twenty or even thirty years from now."


    Theo stayed silent when he heard the news before sighing. "She is lucky to have a wealthy family."


    Theo let out another long sigh before walking toward the table, holding the neatly framed picture and putting it on the table. It was the picture of four people, all smiling.


    "I don''t know why I would dream about you again, big brother. But you haven''t fulfilled your promise��Well, I can''t say anything because I don''t have enough money to create a big party for you, but I will be able to do it shortly. Since you haven''te home for years, I will try to find you. Father and Mother in Heaven must want to see our family reunite again. Don''t worry. I finally have the chance." He smiled.


    With a newly found determination, he looked at the long ck coat next to his bed and put it on. He fixed his hair and tried his new mask, making sure that his hair couldn''t be seen as long as he put on the hood.


    After having breakfast, he left the room.


    His apartment was inside a small and dark alley since the rent was cheap. Even with the money his brother left him, it wasn''t enough for him tost until graduation, so he needed to keep living like this and used all the money to pay for his tuition.


    When he reached outside, the only thing he found was filled trash bins. The rotting and disgusting smell filled his nose, but he only ignored it as though he had grown ustomed to it. He simply thought there was no different than having a monster corpse in the front door.


    He nced to the right, looking at the bustling city road. The ns should be perfect, but Theo took another few deep breaths before walking, visibly nervous from the thought of him failing the disguise.


    He would surely be noticeable when he went there, but they would most likely think he was just someone who hunted monsters on the other side of the world. With that thought in mind, he finally stepped on the main road.


    The floating cars and loud people''s noises reverberated in his ears. The clean building and traffic filled his vision. He only shook his head and headed straight to the bus station where he could have a free ride, considering it was public transportation.


    The stop was the same magic circle he went through yesterday. At first, he wanted to go to another city''s magic circle, but he had no money to go there. Of course, there was an option where he could sell it on this side, but unlike the other side, the security was strict. The other side didn''t have cameras covering the whole city and business, so his identity was safer if he did his business there.


    Arriving at a simr white tform like the other side, he immediately climbed the stairs and headed straight toward the magic circle, ignoring theke scenery that happened to be next to the tform.


    He blinked his eyes, and the next thing he realized was that the scenery had changed to what he remembered about the other side.


    There was no time to waste for him, so he began walking straight to the weapon shop he nned to visit. This weapon shop was not his usual one, so no one would know it was him.


    After several precautions, Theo believed there wouldn''t be a problem.


    Even though it took him half an hour to walk there, everything felt worth it. He raised his vision, looking at a slightly better-looking building than his apartment building before entering without much thought about it.


    As long as he knew that this shop had the credibility to pay what people sold and sell what people wanted to buy, he had no qualms about its appearance no matter how deserted it looked.


    However, Theo found himself tongue-tied when he entered the building. Unlike his earlier expectations, the inside looked neat and clean. The white floor and wall had no dirt or dust on them, the weapons and armors presented themselves��hanging on the wall and not too crowded ces indirectly told him this was the best ce to sell something.


    He searched for the shopkeeper and found him on the corner of the store, specifically on the opposite of the door, making one wonder why someone made this kind of arrangement since people could hide the weapon and leave without paying.


    ''Did the owner not think there is a possibility of the customers stealing his items?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows before shaking his head. ''No, I don''t have time to worry about the others. I need to finish my objective as soon as possible.''


    He walked straight to the counter. The shopkeeper was a bald old man, including the beard. Even though Theo considered him an old man, it wasn''t like he had too many wrinkles on his face. In fact, he appeared like someone barely in his fifties.


    "Wee, young man. How can I help you?" He fixed his shirt and rose from his seat, greeting Theo with his warmest smile.


    Since the other party acted this polite, Theo chose to remain as polite as possible to an old man like him. "Hello, Sir. I would like to sell something."


    "Of course. We will buy everything as long as it''s in our means." He nodded, feeling a bit happy with how polite Theo was even though he couldn''t see his hair or face. However, he still managed to take a glimpse of the sparkling light blue eyes hidden by the mask.


    "I would like to sell a Pure Stone Card." Theo took the card out of his pocket and handed it to the shopkeeper.


    When he received the card, he furrowed his eyebrows and nced back and forth between him and the card as if he didn''t believe Theo.


    "Is there something wrong, Sir?"


    "No. I will process this immediately. Please wait for three minutes." He shook his head mysteriously before pushing the door behind him and entering the room.

 Chapter 5 – Mysterious Old Man

    <h4>Chapter 5 - Mysterious Old Man</h4>


    Waiting for the old man to finish his business, Theo decided to look around but didn''t move from his position.


    The crime rate in this ce was high in this world, so he couldn''t let his guard down. Even when he was talking to the old man, he had turned on the camera that he hid inside his shirt, recording the conversation.


    This way, even if the old man tried to y the fool, he had enough evidence to get back his card or money aspensation.


    The same applied when he walked around the store. The old man might consider him a new customer instead of a seller. Even if he imed that he had sold the card to him, the old man just needed to say "he didn''t know anything."


    Therefore, this recording could be presented to the authorities as proof to help him.


    With this thought in mind, he proceeded to observe his surroundings. There were not many people in this shop, but he felt that the weapon was clean and looked dazing.


    ''I don''t have eyes for weapons, so I can''t really say anything regarding the weapons here, but from the appearance alone, they look pretty nice.'' When he lowered his eyes a bit, he noticed that the prices were not that different from the market. ''Should I buy a weapon here? No, since I have a new identity, should I use another weapon?''


    He lost in thought until the old man returned and tapped his shoulder. "Young man. Are you going to trade this? I have confirmed the card and can buy it for 10,000 Zils. What do you think?"


    '' 10,000 Zils? Is it high, low, or average? Ah, it''s my blunder. I should research the price first. Because I never had a card like this, I didn''t think it through.'' Contemting for a minute, Theo decided to take the deal.


    However, when he was about to say something, he remembered the weapons inside the store. He checked their prices and asked the old man instead. "By the way, can I buy the weapons using the money I got?"


    "Sure. Which weapons do you like?" The old man nodded with a smile.


    Theo then searched the weapons and took two weapons��one sword, one spear.


    "You have good eyes. This sword is made of Pure Stone as well, so its capability doesn''t need to be questioned. It''s an Elite Weapon. As for the other one, it''s made of Caloric Metal, not that much different than the sword. It''s also an Elite Weapon."


    Suddenly, Theo realized another thing. He had been too focused and overthinking the whole situation to the point he forgot his real identity. No money and no status. If such a person suddenly wielded an elite weapon, especially after a tragic ident not long ago, many would suspect him. With so many bullies in his school, he couldn''t afford to stand out.


    Realizing all this, he picked up another spear. "I would like to buy this one as well."


    "This one is a normal iron spear. The quality is quite good. For your brother?"


    "Ye-yes. It''s for my younger brother."


    "Well, your younger brother is lucky to have a brother like you." The old man nodded and registered the weapons. "The total is 8,700 Zils."


    "Yes. Please proceed." Theo nodded.


    "This is a special service from me. I will give you the belt to carry your sword." The old man appeared to like Theo quite a bit. The belt alone was supposed to be 300 Zils, so it was very expensive for Theo. It was equal to one month''s rent in that cheap apartment.


    Theo epted the gift and nodded his head politely. "Thank you."


    "I will send you the remaining 1,300 Zils." The old man took out his device from the pocket.


    Theo did the same, so the old man could scan the device number to send the money. He then typed the amount and sent it.


    In just one second, Theo received the notification about the transfer and confirmed it with the old man.


    "Thank you very much." He thanked him and grabbed the three weapons, ready to head back home.


    "Thank you for your patronage. Doe here again if you need a weapon or sell material. I will be giving you a special discount."


    Theo didn''t think much about it since he got pretty good weapons. Even though the two were considered Elite Rank Weapons, they were at the very bottom, barely reaching Elite Rank.


    He was still satisfied with it, though.


    He believed the next weapons upgrade woulde soon, so there was no need to search for a perfect and expensive one.


    Turning around, he left the shop and went straight home.


    Unbeknownst to Theo, half an hour after he left, the same woman who hunted the turtle he killed earlier turned up. She walked to the old man and called him with something that no one would ever expect.


    "Grandfather. Let''s go back home."


    "Why? I have already retired."


    "Even so, you shouldn''t be here. If you want to run a shop for your retirement, we have many shops on the other side."


    "This is why all of you are still relying on me. You have never understood my n. Do you think I am here just because I want to be here? No. There is another reason." The old man shook his head.


    "What do you mean?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Our country is small and became independent two hundred years ago. Unlike those superpowers, what we need the most right now is talented young people to raise the country''s worth. Unfortunately, the clean city doesn''t allow me to see talented individuals."


    "So, you are here to scout people? For our family or the country?"


    "Both." The old man shrugged. "Just earlier, I met a peculiar one."


    "Hmm?" The female tilted her head in confusion.


    "I don''t feel the aura of the strong from him. Even if you are a student, I can specte how many battles you have fought with your aura alone. Like you, I can see you are still Elite Rank. However, what I see from here is nothing as if he is just a Normal Rank��"


    "So?"


    "He sold me a Pure Stone card. Can you believe a Normal Rank Hunter actually killed a Rock Turtle?" The old man smiled slyly.


    "What did you say?"


    "He sold me a Pure Stone Card."


    "Where is he?" She mmed the table and looked at him intensely.


    "Why are you acting this way? Look, you are bothering the customers." The old man pointed his finger around.


    "You haven''t returned for a month, so you must not know this." The female facepalmed and exined. "I had a mission to kill a Rock Turtle pack as an assessment. However, we made a blunder and let one of them escape. But when we investigated it, we found that it was already dead in the outskirts of this Art Beats Castle."


    "Ho?" The old man became even more curious. "Look. I just proved my point. I met the man who killed the turtle not long ago. You wouldn''t find him elsewhere in the clean "road." He looked like a poor guy. Even when I bought the Pure Stone Card with 10,000 Zils from him, which was 2,000 more than the marketce, he didn''t realize it."


    "That''s not the point. Where is he? I need to invite him to my group immediately."


    The old man ignored her and continued. "He acted clumsily and changed the topic by buying a few weapons from me. Well, I am fond of his way of dealing with the situation. He just needs the experience to make it look smooth, but that can be fixed in the future. And the way he acted as if he has a brother? I almostughed since he surely didn''t have one. The only thing that piqued my interest was his choice of weapons. He bought two spears and one sword."


    "Grandfather! I need to look for him. I don''t have time to listen to your rumbling. Where is he?"


    "Do you think you can find him? I just exined how he behaved earlier. He must have put careful thoughts in his n, so do you think you can find him if I tell you now? Let it be. And you need time to cultivate someone under level 50, which is the threshold for the next rank��So, it''s better to let him grow a bit before recruiting him. Besides, he has a weird mask and carefully fixed his hair, so I couldn''t see it. Yeah, no point in searching for him." The old man shrugged.


    The female''s body shook and finally calmed herself down. She still remembered what her father said regarding her grandfather. The old man before her might not be the strongest person in the country, but no one could match his eyes for talents in the country. If he told her that person was good, they needed to recruit that person as soon as possible.


    That was why she acted that rashly earlier.


    "I am sorry for yelling."


    "It''s fine. Youngsters should have more energy than this old bone." The old man waved his hand, telling her it wasn''t a problem before looking at his bank ount.


    ID: 280100110231


    Name: Nart Eilric


    Bnce: 1,098,143,700 Zil


    "Look! I only lost 1,300 Zils to find a talented man. You need to learn from me, hoho��" The old manughed naughtily, teasing his granddaughter.


    "You are bullying me now." She pouted. With a single look at his ID, there was no need to say the woman''s identity. But unlike how the media reported on the other side, she acted just like a child that wanted to be spoiled by her grandfather.

 Chapter 6 – Harsh Truth

    <h4>Chapter 6 - Harsh Truth</h4>


    Theo was walking on a clean road, straight to his home, nning to sort out his thoughts.


    Although he bought two spears and one sword, he still needed to familiarize himself with the sword first.


    He believed that once he used another identity, it required him to be perfect to make sure no one managed to distinguish his disguise, including the weapon choice that would narrow the search by a lot.


    Besides, he had a n to use it when he hunted alone. The sword could be used as a vanguard because of its range and offensive ability while he stayed behind his clone. Not only would he feel safer, but he also didn''t have to form a group with other people, lest they betrayed him again.


    While walking down the road, he found two people among the crowd that seemed to be enjoying themselves as they were feeding each other ice cream.


    Theo wasn''t jealous or anything. He simply thought they should at least feel bad about it for a few days. After all, the one he saw was the couple that betrayed him yesterday.


    Instead, what he foundpletely baffled him.


    To his dismay, he couldn''t do anything in this city. The only time he could take his revenge would be when they entered the forest again.


    However, he heard something shocking when he was about to pass them.


    "I am d that we managed to finish our mission. Killing him and making it look like an ident was hard unless you had a perfect opportunity. Heaven must want him to die since it gave us the Rock Turtle." The female snorted and licked her ice cream.


    "Indeed. I didn''t know why that person wanted to kill him��In fact, I do feel that him being bullied in the school was a bit abnormal. Anyway, it was free money for us." The male nodded in agreement.


    "��" Theo fell silent and halted his footsteps. ''Someone wanted me dead? And that person ordered these two to kill me. So it was not that they wanted to stay alive they betrayed me, but for money?''


    He just got the shock of his life. His original n was to beat them up once and let them go since they only did it to survive, yet the shocking truth simply shattered thest kindness in his heart to them.


    ''Calm down��Calm down.'' Theo turned around and followed them even though he still carried the three weapons with him while repeatedly telling himself not to release his killing intent. ''I need to know who ordered them first.''


    The two continued talking.


    "I agree with you. Nothing beats easy money for people like us." The female chuckled. "Still, do you know the reason for their feud? I thought something was fishy because he approached and bullied him first before anyone knew it."


    "Who knows. He is dead now, so there is no point digging the truth that might antagonize him even further."


    "Yeah. He had offended someone he shouldn''t have. Still, did you see his face when we pushed him to the turtle? It was hrious, and somehow, I enjoyed seeing his face the moment he fell into despair." She chuckled.


    "Pfft. Don''t talk about it." The man covered his mouth while grinning.


    Theo, who followed them this whole time, finally stopped. No one would realize that his death was orchestrated.


    He recalled every single person who bullied him in the past. There were around thirty people from three different small groups in the school. He then selected those who attacked him without prior warning, narrowing it down to ten people.


    Not satisfied, he chose another filter to screen them even further. He checked which of them actually hit him when he just started school and got three people.


    The first one was someone from another ss. This person led a small gang in the school. To look cool, he picked the weakest one from another ss, which coincidentally was his ss. Unfortunately, only one person looked like a perfect target.


    It was him.


    Still, this one was nothingpared to the other two in terms of background.


    The second one was also from another ss, specifically an upperssman. People thought it was weird to see someone from the second year bullying a new kid, but none of them dared to raise their opinion.


    After all, the second one was the oldest son of a conglomerate in the country, Sihan Raskaka. Theo put no thought about him and just let him do whatever he wanted until he was satisfied.


    It would end faster that way usually.


    Thest one was a bit special because he was his ssmate. Like the second one, his family was wealthy and had a vast influence over the country. However, such a person should have a good image in public, not bullying someone like this.


    Even though he might be able to cover everything up with his family influence, he shouldn''t do something like that without reasons. Besides, he never met him in the past, let alone offended him.


    This created a big question in his mind. Who actually wanted him dead?


    Looking at the background, only the second and the third could hire his own ssmates to kill him, so the case had narrowed down to two people. However, he had no ability to touch them yet unless he wanted to die before taking his revenge.


    ''This is killing me. I don''t even understand the reasons they bully me��I shouldn''t have brushed the matter off in the past.'' He let out a long sigh, regretting how uncaring his past self to all this matter. ''I only thought I could change everything after this storm passed, but it seems I need to find out now. Betterte than never.''


    Gathering his resolve altogether, he decided to return to his house, not wanting to make a mess without any information.


    Everyone in the street might be more conscious about his outfit had he stayed any longer, so he returned to the dark alley that had nothing but gloominess.


    However, Theo already got his hope to pass this storm. He ignored everything and went back to his room.


    Taking off his disguise, he grabbed a paper lying down on his table and wrote something with the pen next to it.


    "For now, I know I am targeted heavily for unknown reasons. Whether it''s due to a petty reason or a serious one, I will ignore it first and do some investigationter. I need to know who targets me first��" He wrote four names on the papers��the two rich people and the couple.


    It took him three minutes before circling the couple''s name. "Yeah. I will investigate these two first. School is tomorrow, so the investigation will start from school. I wonder what kind of face they will make when they see me again. Besides, the one who originally ordered them to kill me will question their mission since I am still alive. Not only can I know who''s behind this, but I can also make their life miserable by making the employer think they lied to him to protect me."


    Not knowing why, but a smile appeared on his face. Obviously, he refrained himself from killing people, but he just didn''t understand why he felt that he would kill those who deserved it. It might be due to his goal that he had sworn in his heart yesterday when he almost died. Either way, he took the step forward to fix this issue.


    He spent the rest of the day making a detailed n on what he needed to do.


    ��


    The next day. As soon as he woke up, Theo noticed that he forgot to do something the moment the spear came into his vision.


    He didn''t think about checking it yesterday, so he immediately took out his cylinder and scanned the small barcode in the spear''s butt.


    Iron Spear


    Rank: Normal


    A normal spear made of iron. More durable than most of Iron Spears.


    He didn''t find anything weird from it and the spear was indeed registered in the database.


    An honest shop owner usually put the data about the spear inside the government''s database, so it was easy to check whether they were genuine or not. Those unregistered were either something special that only rich people could enjoy or illegal weapons, and he should stay away from this type of weapon first since it would gather people''s attention.


    While checking the spear, he scanned the other two and read the information on the blue screen that the cylinder projected. The cylinder itself was Skylink, a recement for the smartphones.


    People believed that they should have something like a chip, so they invented it, only to regret itter. A few centuries ago, they indeed made such a thing and everything turned sour not long after. The people grew restless because many organizations could get their information such as location, numbers and such, allowing the act of terror. Not long after that, terrorist organizations made an imitation and nted a small bomb in the chip, creating a mass panic when thousands of people''s hands exploded simultaneously, so the world union banned it, reducing the futuristic technology into something like this.


    Still, the scientist made a few models like a wristband, ne and other essories which had the same function, but he simply had no money to buy them. And he believed as long as he had one, nothing mattered.


    Shaking his head, he proceeded to read the information.


    Altrix Spear


    Rank: Elite


    A spear made of Altrix Metal from Metal Mole. Capable of piercing Rock Turtle''s defense without a problem.


    Red Guenna Sword


    Rank: Elite


    A one-handed sword that focused on shing one''s opponent. It has incredible durability and sharpness.


    "Hmm�� Good enough for elite weapons. It''s average ording to the database though." Theo nodded, satisfied.

 Chapter 7 – Shifting The Blame

    <h4>Chapter 7 - Shifting The me</h4>


    After checking the new weapons, Theo reached out his school uniform. It consisted of a white shirt and a white suit. On the edge of each sleeve was one golden stripe, symbolizing his current grade in school.


    However, the uniform had another use other than its appearance. It was true that the academy wanted to make the uniform appear elegant, so they could know which one took care of their clothes. But the white suit itself had a good material that could bepared to armor.


    Theo finished changing two minutester, washed his face, and grabbed his bag on the table before going to the school.


    ��


    A few minutester, Theo halted his step and raised his vision, looking at the majestic white building. The shape itself was the most basic block shape, but the size was fantastic. Spanning for over two hundred meters with its four floors, this school was known as the biggest school in this small country.


    This building was used for their normal sses. It was capable of holding more than five thousand students in all grades and the teachers together.


    Next to the white building was a gigantic hexagonal prism building. It was known as the gym where people from any sses could go there to practice. The building itself could hold ten sses at once, so there wasn''t any shortage of ces to go all out during the practice.


    On the opposite of the arena was a garden with another building in the center that rivaled the other two in size. Its most famous function was simr to that of the gym. However, in this ce, you could fight against any other person to the death with the help of the training chamber.


    Most people visited this building in their spare time because of various reasons, but Theo had no interest in going there for the time being.


    He just sighed when he saw these three buildings again. They were great indeed, but it mostly benefited those at the top.


    However, he soon shook his head while shouting at himself inwardly. ''No. You idiot. Before you can fulfill my goal, you need to reach the top in this school first. After all, if I can''t do it, I should just abandon that goal.''


    Although his drive was a bit weak, he continued walking inside the school ground with a serious expression.


    As soon as he entered the building, he paid no heed on this bustling floor and headed straight to his ss on the first floor, only to find two people appear in his vision.


    Yes, they were the couple.


    They widened their eyes and dropped their jaws as if they just saw a ghost.


    On the other hand, Theo did the opposite. He put on his warmest smile and greeted them while waving his hand. "Hello. How are you two? I am d that you two are alive."


    "��"


    Their faces turned pale. Not knowing why, but they could only see his smile was one that held a grudge.


    However, there was a possibility that Theo didn''t know about their deal, so they thought an apology was enough to settle the matter of them pushing him to the turtle and called it a misunderstanding.


    "Hey, Theo." The man waved his hand, trying to act calm, but others could see that his hand was shaking.


    Theo nodded his head as if he didn''t notice it and smiled. "Hey, Eric. What were you doing after escaping?"


    "Ah, I��" Eric looked away while scratching his head. "I tried my best. I informed the captain and asked for a rescue, but they didn''t want to do anything. I am sorry."


    "It''s fine." Theo brushed it off before turning to the female. "Hey, She. Are your feet fine? You fell back then, so��"


    "Don''t worry. They are as good as new now." She seemed to be able to cope with the situation well, as she didn''t stutter or acted weird like Eric. "I apologize. I didn''t mean to push you. It was all a misunderstanding. I regretted doing it. If I could redo that day, I would definitely not do that."


    "It''s fine. We all were desperate back then." Theo smiled, assuring her. However, he began burning up inside, wanting to kick these two on the faces. He thought, ''You can even lie like this when you have tried to kill someone? Well, a good example. I guess I can try it when I kill you two.''


    "Thank you. We really regretted it. I couldn''t even sleep for a whole day because of it." She showed how sad she was for doing something like that. It would work��If only Theo didn''t see them flirting while eating ice cream.


    "That''s right. I tried to ask the teacher for help as well, but they thought you were already dead. I will try to rify this matter with the teacher for you." Eric tried to be a bit more reliable to see he had repented.


    Theo nodded with a smile. "Thank you guys. This is just a misunderstanding."


    "Yes, yes. This is only a misunderstanding." She repeatedly nodded in order to convince Theo and herself.


    "We''re all good now."


    "Nice!" Eric felt a bit of relief. At the very least, Theo''s problem had been solved for the time being, and he could focus on dealing with his employer after this. He thought for a moment and asked. "How about we get another mission to show you our sincerity? We won''t take anything in that hunt."


    "Really?" Theo looked happy but soon lowered his head with a sad expression. He began shaking and recalled what happened to him. "I don''t feel likeing to the other side for the time being. I��I just have experienced some��Ugh, I don''t want to recall it."


    The couple exchanged looks and nodded at each other. They grabbed his shoulder and tried tofort him.


    "Don''t worry. We can understand. We will help you with anything during this period. I hope you can be strong again."


    "Yes. You saved my life, so I will do my best to help you."


    "Thank you, thank you." Theo gradually calmed down. He took another deep breath before realizing that the hall eventually became empty, indicating that the ss would start soon.


    "Then, since everything is good now, let''s enter the ss. The bell will ring soon." Theo stretched his hand to the side, asking them toe in first.


    They saw his hands were still shaking and his smile looked forced. The two had no choice other than to enter the ssroom while sweating or Theo would suspect them.


    Seeing their reaction, Theo knew that the one who wanted him dead was in this room. The problem would be who it was.


    He halted his step right in front of the ssroom and used those precious two seconds to scan the students whose faces looked up after seeing them. After marking them, he then proceeded to the ssroom.


    He focused on those he marked earlier to see if any of them had a change of expression. To his surprise, there was one person that had a surprised expression.


    In that instant, something clicked in his mind. He had spected three suspects, and it turned out the third person was the culprit.


    He was the second son of the conglomerate from Lange Family, Laust Lange. He began to wonder why he wanted him dead. Bullying and killing were two separate things after all. And if it were known to the public, it would put a bad image on him and his family.


    Even if they tried to suppress the news, the public would still know and the stock price of theirpany would start to shake.


    ''Now, now. He can be considered as the useless sessor. So, bullying can be covered up pretty easily as long as he keeps ying that role. It won''t affect them that much as long as the first son, his brother, is good. But this matter is already beyond this point and I don''t remember doing anything to antagonize him, so there is a possibility that his family requested him to do it.'' Theo thought while walking as if he wasn''t aware of the situation.


    He needed to y the fool for a while until he had a perfect time tounch a counterattack.


    Still, the face on the couple was priceless, especially after Laust red at them as if realizing he was tricked by this couple.


    He couldn''t contain his smile and tried to hide it by looking down as though he had no mood as a bullied person.


    His seat was on the farthest back, far from attention, so it should be safe since everyone faced forward when the teacher started his lesson. He could keep ncing from time to time to see what Laust would do after knowing he was still alive.


    It turned out he didn''t do anything. He only red at the couple while trying to make it look normal. On the other hand, the couple was shaking.


    They didn''t dare to look back because Laust would surely beat them after this.


    The only thing they should do was thinking how they could exin the whole situation to Laust while avoiding any form of punishment from him.


    It was pretty funny to watch this scene.


    Ding.


    Dong.


    Finally, the bell rang and the teacher came not long after that. The oneing in was a middle-aged man with sses. His expression looked serious, but he still wore hisb coat instead of his teacher uniform. He took a nce at his students and sighed.


    "It seems no one is absent. Why are you guys even this diligent? You should skip ss and go kill some monsters."


    Yes, in that one nce, he calcted the number and remembered their face, but all in all, he was a pretty unique teacher.


    "Anyway, let''s start the ss."

 Chapter 8 – Gym

    <h4>Chapter 8 - Gym</h4>


    "What I want to teach you is what to do in order to survive. First of all, I am saying this from my experience, so whether you ept it or not, it''s your choice. And the most important thing of what I want to say today is to trust no one."


    The teacher narrowed his eyes as if he had some experience with it.


    "Trusting someone is fine, but fully trusting someone? I don''t think it''s good unless you think it''s fine to die for them. This is my principle. After all, even a best friend, who knows you for ten years, can betray you at thest moment, so you should prepare for it even if it doesn''t happen. You hear me?"


    One of the students felt something wrong about it and asked. "But the other teachers told us to trust ourrade and watch their back since they will do the same, allowing us to make good teamwork. Isn''t this a contradiction with your statement?"


    "You can y your friend thingy, but for me, I still trust myself more than other people. That''s how I survived on the other side for three decades before retiring here. Of course, I don''t mean to make other teachers look bad and I partly agree with them. I want you to keep thinking about what will happen if the worst situation urs before your eyes. If you have that question answered, you can trust your teammate because with or without them, you can survive just fine."


    Theo couldn''t help but look at this teacher with admiration. He might not agree with this statement if it were the past him. But the timing was just that perfect, and he couldn''t help but nod.


    "That''s my morning advice. Now, let''s continue our boring lesson again, starting from the monsters around our Art Beats Castle." The teacher then began the real lecture about the appearance of monsters, their weaknesses, and other things they needed to know to kill those monsters.


    Theo looked down at his wooden desk. On the top corner, he found a power button and pushed it. Soon the disy screen appeared on his table like a normalputer. He opened the usual application to take a note for the lecture. It was a kind of having a more advanced Ipad, so taking notes became so easy, increasing the desire for the students to make a note in lecture.


    It took him two hours before the lesson ended.


    "Oh, right. You are going to have the practical exams soon��I still don''t know the exact date, but I believe it''s within two weeks. I will inform you of the detailster. And don''t forget to eat since you will have physical training after this. That''s all. Have a good day." The teacherzily walked to the door.


    Before leaving, he took another look at the ss. There were some who seemed to understand today''s advice, so he was satisfied with it.


    As soon as the break started, Laust headed straight to Theo with fierce eyes. Behind him was the couple with a scared expression.


    "I will take care of you again during the practice." He made a sinister smile.


    Theo narrowed his eyes but didn''t answer him like he usually did. He always used this kind of chance to bully him, so it would be faster to ignore him.


    Besides, he didn''t n to take on the beating easily this time. He gained a bit more confidence with his new power. Although he didn''t n to show his new skill this time, he still wanted to fight this guy earnestly to see how he could improve himself.


    After gaining the blessing of the God of Mischief, he had gained the desire to get stronger without being scared of others'' suppressions. And he would surely use them to his own advantage.


    Seeing that Theo remained silent, Laust snorted and took the couple with him.


    ''I will use you to get stronger. Even if you are a waste, your strength is still a real deal, so let me see how this so-called young master fights.'' Theoughed inwardly, getting excited.


    Sending the note he took earlier to his device, he turned off theputer and rose from his seat, heading to the canteen.


    Although he had more money, he picked the same menu. It was one of the cheapest menus on the list and considered as one of the healthiest, so there was no way he would leave it alone.


    As expected, no one apanied him during lunch. Theo had no friends, whether in this school or society, so he''d been alone after he lost his only family, his brother.


    After eating, he looked around the canteen. It could hold more than three thousand people at once, so there were many empty spots.


    He shook his head and decided to return to his ss, waiting for the time for their physical training ss.


    As expected, Laust was waiting for him in the ssroom to make sure that he didn''t run away.


    ''I wonder what is his problem?'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows before finding the same couple with some bruises on their faces.


    It seemed they took quite a beating from him, which made him feel better. It was nothingpared to them betraying him.


    The desire toe to them and ask for their condition began swelling up in his heart, but he restrained that feeling since Laust was here.


    The bell rang again. It was time to go to the gym.


    Laust came to him and said coldly. "Come!"


    The others, who saw Laust forced Theo toe with him, could only shake their heads helplessly, knowing it would be another beating for him today. Did they want to save him? Yes. Did they do it? None of them dared.


    Theo didn''t put much thought into it, only remembering them in his heart and nning to treat them the same way.


    He followed Laust to the gym without saying anything.


    ''Who is the instructor again?'' Theo suddenly tried to remember the schedule of the instructor. They were trained by three different instructors forbat, survival, and physical fitness, and he forgot which one they took today.


    Laust could beat him inbat, make him fail in survival, and overwhelm him in physical fitness, so it was no different which type it was, making him forget what he was going to take today.


    When he arrived at the gym, they entered the ce with a symbol of two swords shing with each other, meaning that they were in abat lesson.


    Theo opened his locker and changed into thebat clothes. It had a simr style with the uniform but with a bit tighter, so it didn''t hinder one''s movement.


    Since Laust had yet to finish changing, he went ahead, walking toward the ce where they would practice.


    Yes, inside therge building on the left of the main building was a huge field that had been separated into three sections. The first section contained all gym equipment that would improve their physical abilities. The second section had a giant realistic hologram that could replicate a certain environment.


    And on the third section, where he currently stood, filled with only empty fields. There were only markings here and there, showing the arena they usually used to fight.


    It seemed there were two other sses having the same sses as them, so they shared this huge field together.


    The principal believed that observing other practices could stimte their potential. Besides, the third-year students could act as a mentor as well.


    However, when he arrived at the field, he also saw someone arriving from another door next to him.


    She was the same person who came to that cksmith and asked for Theo''s identity.


    However, neither of them recognized each other despite one trying to flee and the other one trying to discover the other''s identity.


    The one who came out was Alea Eilric, the student council president. She was known as a warm person that everybody loved. Many people thought that her warm personality came from her blessing, which came from another God, known as God of Fortitude.


    She put on a warm smile and waved her hand to Theo beside him. "Good afternoon. If I am not wrong, the other ss that will use this field is 2B and 1A, right? Which grade are you in?"


    Theo looked at this stunning female and bowed politely without a change of expression. There wasn''t a single thought that appeared in his head other than her being an upperssman. "I am a first-grade student."


    "Oh! Good. I hope you work hard in this school." After nodding her head, she turned back to her ssmate on the field and ran toward them.


    Seeing her leaving, Theo nodded and went toward the field for his ss. In the middle of the field, he found someone who was supposed to be their instructor.


    It was a middle-aged man with a muscr body. He looked like a bodybuilder with that bulging muscle, but Theo could feel that those arms and legs contained powerful strength within it.


    "Ho? You are the first one toe here." The middle-aged man noticed Theo and asked him toe.


    "Teacher." Theo bowed politely.


    "Normally, people will arrive within another fifteen minutes, so what are you nning to do?"


    "I��" Before he could speak, a series ofments echoed in his ears as the people from his ss arrived and saw the people in the field next to them.


    "Look! There is the student council president, Alea Eilric. She is so beautiful."


    "Right. She is also powerful."


    "She is also kind to everyone."


    Three people followed by Laust appeared on the field.


    Theo met Laust''s eyes, and again, they were interrupted by thement that had changed.


    "Look at the other field, he��Isn''t he the famous second year that is known as the Guardian?" One of themmented out loud, admiring his idol.


    Because of this, Laust ignored them and made his way toward the instructor.


    "Instructor. I wish for permission to fight this guy." The reason why they came this early was to have their own fight before the ss started. After all, the moment the ss started, there was only a low possibility that they would get paired up to fight. Even Laust couldn''t change the instructor''s decision at this point.


    "Now I see why you areing here this early." The middle-aged manughed before nodding his head. "Yes, you, young men, need to have fire in your heart to a duel like this. Alright, I approve of this spar. Pick your weapon there ande here. I will supervise this fight."


    Laust''s sinister smile appeared again.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo also made a small smile.

 Chapter 9 – Counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 9 - Counterattack</h4>


    "Pick your weapon."


    Hearing the instructor''smand, they both went to the side of the field where a few baskets lined up��each holding at least ten wooden weapons that came in various types and sizes.


    Laust had his own weapon of choice and grabbed a five-foot-long sword while Theo picked a simr spear as the one he bought two days ago.


    These two gradually became the center of attention, even among the second and third-year students since they didn''t have anything to do just yet.


    "Alea, two people are fighting beside us. Are you going to stop them?" A pink-haired girl walked to Alea while asking. Her tone was yful as if she enjoyed the sight.


    Alea nced at her with a smile. "Of course not. The instructor here is rted to the military. Because of our government policy, it''s better not to get involved with the military even if you have a deep rtionship with some people in the government or military. You know, our country''s current president."


    "Haha, Indeed. Even your family can''t do anything, right?"


    "Stopping the instructor? No. But stopping the participants? I can." Alea smiled mysteriously and stared at Laust. "Well, isn''t this a familiar face? What is his name again?"


    "He is Laust Lange, Lange Family''s second son."


    "And who is the person going to fight him?" She furrowed her eyebrows when looking at Theo. He didn''t seem to be as strong as Laust. Yet, his face revealed no emotion as if he nned to beat him. "Who is he?"


    "I don''t know."


    "Is this bullying?"


    "You tell me. But the other guy seems raring to fight. Well, the instructor will stop them if it goes beyond the boundary."


    "Fair enough. I will still watch it though. Can''t have someone to be injured in front of me."


    "Haha. That sounds like you."


    At the same time, on the opposite court, a grey-haired young man was staring at Theo mysteriously. His stare was deep in thought, while his serious expression made people unable to approach him.


    If Theo actually looked at his way, he would recognize this person. He was none other than the second-year student who bullied him, Sihan Raskaka.


    Sihan nced back and forth between Theo and Laust while frowning.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Laust walked inside the arena, ignoring all the people around them.


    The instructor, whose name was Rektus, took another look at their expression to see if they were ready to fight or not.


    "No killing, no inflicting permanent harm, and no skills. I have the right to stop the match if I deem it''s too dangerous to go on. The fight will end if one side admits defeat or knock out your opponent. If you don''t have a question, you may start."


    The two nodded, but Laust couldn''t contain his smile.


    Knowing Laust''s personal status, Rektus kept an eye on him, not allowing a person like him to do something excessive to a normal student like Theo. After all, it would be terrible for Theo''s family while the other party could simply afford some remuneration and called it a day.


    "Let me show you what it means to be strong!" Laust made a sinister smile and jumped forward, shing his sword down.


    Theo raised his stance and received the blow with the tip of his spear before letting it slide a bit to pull Laust''s toward him. His spear''s de had a diamond shape, so when it got stuck at thetter half, he used all his strength to push the sword to the side.


    "!!!" Laust widened his eyes in surprise. He didn''t remember Theo had this kind of strength.


    Not wanting to lose to him, he put more strength in his grasp, so he didn''t lose his sword, resulting in his sword getting locked on the ground with Theo''s spear.


    With the spear''s butt pointing upward, Theo used his off-hand to m Laust''s head with its handle.


    As expected from a wealthy family, even though he was known as a lecher or something, he still had a good foundation after getting trained by many tutors.


    Before the spear reached him, he sent a powerful kick toward Theo''s stomach.


    "Tch." Theo realized that he couldn''t take advantage of his unknown strength to defeat Laust, so he lowered his spear even more, receiving the kick with the spear''s handle.


    The kick was more powerful than he imagined, blowing him several feet away.


    Hended on the floor with a stable posture and spun his spear to reset his grip.


    "Fu." Taking a deep breath, Theo observed Laust''s movement and thought, ''Haiz. This is not going to work. Speed, strength, and technique�� I am inferior to him in all aspects, so how can I win this time? Even the change of my strength was unable to defeat him. He looks foolish, but it doesn''t mean he can''t think. I need toe up with another pattern then.''


    As he predicted, Laust''s expression turned serious after noticing Theo''s drastic change. The couple told him that he was targeted by a Rock Turtle two days ago, but the change of his strength was too abnormal.


    ''Did he kill the Rock Turtle, resulting in him leveling up several times? Or was there an expert that happened to pass by, taught him something, and even helped him level up during the past two days?'' Laust thought.


    After staring at each other for five seconds, Theo continued the fight by jumping forward. He closed their distance in a few steps and thrust his spear toward Laust''s chest.


    Laust tried to stop the attack with a single swing from below.


    Theo smiled as he had predicted his movement. Laust was a prideful man, so Theo bet that he wouldn''t dodge the attacking from him. Instead, he would stop the attack, showing the difference of strength.


    And this character of him worked perfectly with what Theo had in mind. What Laust didn''t realize was the slight adjustment in Theo''s grip. Unlike the previous one, Theo held the spear slightly toward the tip of the spear''s de.


    As soon as he saw the iing swing, he halted his step. The shorter reach prevented Laust''s sword from hitting his spear.


    Theo utilized this chance by changing the grip to normal and thrust his spear once again, hitting Laust''s on the back of his right palm.


    "Ah!" Laust obviously couldn''t ept that Theo hit him. His pride seemed to be bigger than Theo expected because he didn''t shout something stupid. Instead, he used that anger to bear the pain as his other hand grabbed the sword and swung it at Theo''s left forearm.


    Theo let out a groan as the two leaped back.


    Laust was clenching his fist and loosening it a few times to get the feeling of his hand again, but Theo was a bit worse.


    He took a few deep breaths while holding his spear high. However, everyone could see that his off-hand was shaking.


    "Ugh, that must be hurt." The female beside Aleamented. Although the bruise had yet to appear, she could already imagine what kind of pain Theo had to endure with that shaking hand alone. "Are you not going to stop them? From his expression alone, that Lange Family''s scion will surely hit him a couple of times before the instructor can stop him."


    "��" Alea had an internal conflict with herself, wondering whether she should stop the match here. As long as she asked Laust or Theo to step down, they would surely give her face and end the match.


    However, Theo''s expression remained strong. There was no way that kind of injury would stop him.


    ''He��Does he have some kind of grudge against Lange Family or Laust Lange? To have this strong determination while being at a disadvantage. He might be able to do something great even if his achievement is limited in the future.''


    This was Alea''s honest thought when she observed Theo''s movement. Although he wasn''t particrly strong, especially when she found theck of proper training in his way of handling the spear, she knew that if he had a great teacher, he might be able to reach a bigger step in the future.


    Still, whether he was someone who was capable or not couldn''t be seen in just one moment. She wasn''t her grandfather after all. And she had another person in mind that her grandfather told her.


    Meanwhile, Sihan seemed to have a different opinion than her, albeit he kept it for himself. He could see something behind that shaking.


    He himself wore a shield because his role in a party mainly was guarding the team. Meeting injured teams, perfectly fine teams, or even a team who had fallen into despair, he had protected them all.


    That was why he could see that Theo''s hand might be hurt, but it was still usable like Laust''s.


    However, Laust obviously didn''t share his opinion. With how hurt Theo appeared to be, he smirked and began his ruthless attacks.


    As long as he could knock off that spear from Theo''s hand, he should be able to give three powerful blows before the instructor could stop the match. It should be fine for the time being.


    Hence, his attacks mostly aimed at his spear and his main hand.


    Theo gritted his teeth and his face gradually turned desperate. This was what Laust wanted to see.


    His attacks became even more ruthless.


    A ruthless attack also meant another thing. It meant that the swing was wider to pack up more power.


    In his desperate moment, Theo pushed his spear upward with his off hand, allowing him to make a full thrust with only his main hand. This technique boosted the speed of his thrust.


    In other words, this was all or nothing thrust.


    Laust, who saw this movement, made a sinister smile as he changed the direction of his swing while saying. "Do you think I didn''t anticipate this?"


    The female beside Alea closed her eyes, knowing that Theo had lost, while Alea was about to move to stop the match.


    To everyone''s surprise, when his spear was about to get hit by the sword, Laust widened his eyes as a sharp pain spread all over his abdomen. He lowered his vision and found that he was hit by Theo''s supposed broken hand. "!!!"


    "Did you?" Theo smiled as if everything went ording to his n.


    And it was also the sign of counterattack.

 Chapter 10 – Trickeries

    <h4>Chapter 10 - Trickeries</h4>


    "Gah!"


    Theo didn''t give him a chance to recover and immediately struck Laust''s head with the spear he had thrust earlier for a fake.


    Laust gritted his teeth and shed down his sword, not allowing the attack to continue. However, Theo had seen it and shifted his body.


    Using the momentum from earlier, the spear bounced back from the face toward the hand, hitting it in order to knock the sword off his hand.


    Laust''s eyes brightened as he dropped his sword, only to be caught by his other hand. At the same time, he grabbed the spear''s handle with that newly free hand.


    Laust''s strength was far stronger than Theo''s, so he nned to utilize it to regain the ground.


    The n was easily visible from Theo''s point of view. He used Laust''s hand to make hime closer while sending a kick toward his chest.


    Unfortunately, the sword came into his way, blocking the kick.


    Seeing that they couldn''t move anymore from this stance, they decided to retreat once to get a stable position tounch another attack.


    During this exchange, many people were impressed.


    The female beside Alea couldn''t help but praise Theo''s tenacity as well. "This guy. It''s obvious that his strength can''t bepared to that of Laust, but he''s fighting him on equal ground."


    "Indeed. There are three things that can defeat a stronger opponent. The first is experience. From what I can see, these two seem to have the same level of experience. Laust aside, the guy must have gone to the other side to hunt monsters so many times." Alea narrowed her eyes, observing Theo, who now piqued her interest.


    "His family problem, I think? It''s not that rare for someone to go to the other side for the sake of money." She shrugged.


    "Yes. Then it connects to the second thing, which is control. The more you fight and the more you practice, the better your control or mastery over your technique and form."


    "But I believe Laust has this advantage. I mean, his family must have hired tutors. Although he is known as a useless sonpared to the first son, there is no way that the Lange Family will have their own sons to be that useless."


    "Agreed. The third reason is the real reason why the other guy can fight him on equal ground. It''s trickery." Even Alea couldn''t help but sigh when she said this.


    "You look like you have an experience with this kind of thing? Trickery was it?"


    "Ellen, you know why assassins are dangerous?" Alea nced at her.


    Ellen thought for a moment and answered. "Isn''t it because they are hiding and we won''t know when they are going to appear?"


    "Yes. But above all, they will resort to anything that allows them to win. After all, my grandfather once gave me the best lesson about this. Fighting is not about the process. It''s about the result. Do whatever you can to kill your enemies because no matter what kind of exnation you have, no one will hear it from a dead man." She sighed. "As much as I want to rebuke him, I really can''t."


    "Hehe, you are always righteous."


    "Righteous? Not really." She shook her head mysteriously.


    "Fine, fine." Ellen shrugged.


    Meanwhile, the instructor, Rektus, was impressed by Theo''s movement and thought. ''This guy�� Faked his off hand to strike at his opponent. He is quite talented himself, but the problem will be Laust. I wonder why he wanted to fight this guy? It seems this situation requires me to investigate the problem.''


    The same as him, Laust also had a different opinion of Theo. He never thought that there was a drastic change right after he tried to kill him. Although the Rock Turtle was not a part of his n, Theo should have died from that monster.


    Yet, not only did he return stronger, but he also began relying on trickeries. His expression grew colder the more he thought about Theo''s changes.


    He took a deep breath and stabilized his breathing before charging at him to test his new n.


    "!!!" Theo realized that Laust''s movement was somehow different from his normal form.


    Laust thrust his sword toward Theo. With that small pointed de, it was hard for Theo to stop it with his handle alone. At the very least, his current skill didn''t allow him to do such a precise movement.


    Instead of taking it head-on, Theo decided to jump to the left, avoiding the strike.


    As if he had predicted this movement, Laust stomped the ground to regain his bnce before swinging his sword toward Theo.


    "Kh!" Theo lost his form due to prior movement. He pushed his spear''s butt to hit the floor, gaining the ground to stop Laust''s swing entirely.


    Even so, his strength wasn''t enough. He was pushed to the side.


    Not wanting to lose, Theo shrank his every step and made a 360-degree turn and used that momentum to strike Laust in the head, only to find itself slightly lower due to his off bnce stance.


    Despite missing the original target, this movement allowed him to create enough strength that could rival Laust''s.


    Bang.


    The sound of collision between Theo''s spear and Laust''s sword echoed in the gym.


    "Kh!" Laust clenched his teeth as he was blown away by that strike. He took another look at Theo, who looked down on him.


    His pride took more hits than his body. He just couldn''t ept that the useless Theo, who couldn''t even hit him before, was currently fighting him on equal ground. There would be many rumors spreading about this unprecedented sight.


    When his family realized this, he would surely be the "Useless" son they always thought. That was what Laust didn''t want to see.


    He took another deep breath to calm his mind. If he got too fired up, the new Theo would surely take a chance tond another hit on him.


    ''Is he really that idiot Theo? He never fought back before, and now I need to deal with him seriously? Something must have happened from that incident. That idiotic couple, I will beat them after this. Still, I can''t afford to lose this match. I almost reached level 50 and became an Elite Rank while this bastard''s level was 7 previously. I will be aughing stock if I lose this spar.''


    When he fell into deep thought, Theo closed their distance again and thrust his spear.


    "��" Laust had sensed him and retreated one step back. As much as he wanted to show their difference in strength, winning took priority.


    This one step should never cross in Theo''s mind, so he decided to pull this stunt to create an opening.


    And just like he predicted, Theo''s left side was open.


    Suddenly, Theo stretched his left hand to block the attack, but Laust took advantage of it and hit the exact spot where he struck him earlier.


    "Aah!" Theo clenched his teeth, enduring the pain. He had endured something more painful than this when the rock turtle almost killed him. There was no way he would give up when the chance had presented itself before him.


    However, everything was futile. The moment that pain froze him for a split second, Laust''s sword had moved toward another position, hitting him on the left shoulder and blowing him away.


    Rolling on the ground, Theounched himself to the air with his right hand and stabilized his stance as soon as hended on the floor.


    There was no way Laust would miss this chance. Before Theo could do anything, he charged toward him, nning to keep him unstable.


    Theo smirked and threw a small wooden cylinder along with its splinters.


    "!!!" Everyone watching this had their jaw drop. They just noticed that the spear''s butt had already been crushed by something.


    Theo must have broken it with his own hand. Only some realized when he did all this. It was in the 360-degree turn he performed earlier. When the spear was hidden behind his body, it was the perfect time to do that without having Laust knowing. Now that they thought about it, that was also the reason why Theo''s spear went toward Laust''s shoulder instead of his head.


    Because of those fragments, Laust had no choice other than to cover his eyes with his off hand, giving an opportunity for Theo''s thrust.


    Even with all this, Laust was still strong. He managed to block that thrust with his sword so the spear didn''t hit his body directly.


    Not wanting to end the attack as a failure, Theo pulled back his spear and kicked Laust''s on the chest, blowing him several feet away.


    "You bastard!" Laust couldn''t take it anymore. Theo''s trickery had been chipping away his patience. "I have it enough!"


    His wooden sword glowed, and he swung it down, releasing three blue lights that flew toward Theo from three different directions.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and thought about what he needed to do to escape this attack. He didn''t have time to dodge, and even if he had, he would be injured since he would take one or two attacks during the process.


    The only escape route would be his clone. He needed to use it and had those three strikes hit his clone instead of him. As a result, Laust would also know that he had another skill. There was no doubt that the investigation would follow. In order to fool him, allowing him to realize that only his strength had grown, he needed to hide this one.


    ''As expected, taking this attack is the only way if I don''t want to mess with my overall n.'' He gritted his teeth and braced himself as the three attacks hit.


    Boom.

 Chapter 11 – Aftermath

    <h4>Chapter 11 - Aftermath</h4>


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes when he saw a shadow appear in front of him right before he used his clone to take the hit.


    Boom.


    The field filled with smoke as all people wondered what happened to Theo. No one from the upperssmen knew Theo''s real strength. Even someone like Alea could only roughly calcte his strength, so there was no telling if he had the skill to block this attack.


    Yet, when the smoke was about to be cleared, there were four shadows inside the smoke, and Theo was obviously one of them as he had retracted his clone before the smoke disappeared.


    However, the one in front of him, who took all the attacks, was not the instructor or even Alea. Instead, it was the second year, one of Theo''s bullies, Sihan Raskaka.


    His left hand was holding a kind of sword''s handle that seemed to produce a translucent yellow light, forming a five-foot length and two-fold wide rectangr shield.


    To his left was the instructor. He looked at Sihan with amazement as he could react faster than him.


    To his right was Alea. Instead of ring at the one who broke the rule, she was even more interested in Theo.


    From what she understood, Theo was far weaker than Laust, yet his trick allowed him to fight him on equal ground. However, this raised another concern in her heart as she couldn''t help but say, "You are impressive, but I am afraid that you will have trouble from now on."


    Theo nodded politely, not answering her. Alea came from a wealthy family, the same as Laust. If he said his purpose to her, he was afraid that the word would reach Laust''s ears or, even worse, his family. It would be even more troublesome than the current situation.


    "Well, good luck. It''s not like I can help everyone." She let out a long sigh.


    Theo then turned to Sihan, wondering the reason Sihan helped him.


    ''Why? This guy often bullied me. Although, at this point, I know that he and Laust are bullying me due to a certain reason, I still don''t understand why he protects me.'' Theo frowned but still thanked him. "Senior, thank you for protecting me."


    Sihan turned around and looked down at him. "You are simply too weak."


    "��" Theo understood that as well, but this was the first time he took one step forward, so he felt a bit offended when someone told him off like that.


    Taking a deep breath, he replied. "Yes. I am aware."


    After hearing his answer, Sihan raised his shield as the yellow light disappeared, turning it into a palm-sized block.


    Laust''s expression told him that he realized his mistake and decided to return to his own field.


    Meanwhile, the instructor furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Laust Lange. ording to the academy rule, you are suspended for three days. Do you want to say something?"


    Laust clenched his teeth. He knew that even with connection, it was hard to bail him out in this situation as long as the current country''s president had yet to change. He even punished his own son mercilessly, let alone a second-generation like him.


    His eyes were everywhere, so the moment he noticed this matter, it would surely blow up. Even if his Lange Family tried to cover the media, it was impossible.


    Fighting here would prove to be more detrimental to him, and it would even reach his family''s ears. The only escape for him was Theo''s change. As much as he hated it, he admitted his mistake while shaking his head. "No, I do not. I ept the punishment."


    He politely bowed to the instructor and turned around.


    Theo couldn''t contain his smile when he saw Laust leaving the gym. ''Not only did I gain so much in this battle, but I could also see that Laust gets suspended. He may have the information about the change of my strength, but he doesn''t know that I have a God Blessing. They will be more curious, but at the same time, I can do much more things since they won''t interfere like how they used to be.''


    [God of Mischief likes how you yed with the situation.]


    Theo took a deep breath before thanking the instructor. "Thank you for standing up for me, Instructor."


    Rektus patted Theo''s shoulder while smiling. "As long as you are in the school ground, I doubt they will do anything, but your action is your responsibility. I won''t do anything to help you outside the school."


    "I understand."


    "Go to the medical office and get your treatment beforeing to my ss."


    "Yes. I will do so." When he was about to walk, his shoulder was grabbed by Alea.


    The two guys turned to her with a confused expression.


    "My friend has a healing ability. I will call her to treat you." She smiled, looked back, and waved her hand to her friend.


    It turned out that the friend beside her this whole time was the healer. Her friend could only facepalm beforeing to her.


    She had pink hair that tied into a pigtail.


    "Sit down first. It will only take a minute."


    "Thank you very much." Theo politely bowed to her and Alea.


    "Don''t mind it. I am just doing it because of this good girl." She pointed her finger at Alea before cing her right hand on the injured hand. Her hand radiated a green light. The light wasn''t too bright and also wasn''t too dim, but more importantly, Theo could feel energy rushing to his injured hand as if a thousand ants were swarming that area.


    He endured the feeling without a single groan.


    "Still, you are impressive, little guy. To think you can defeat Laust Lange, who is supposed to be one of the strongest in the first year."


    "I was lucky. He underestimated me, leaving all those openings for someone like me to exploit." He replied humbly. "Besides, this was just a physical spar. If the skills were involved, I would have lost."


    Alea became even more interested in Theo. She wanted to see the strength of the man that recognized all this and even used all kinds of tricks.


    "In any case, you have offended the Lange Family. They will surely not like it." Alea warned him again.


    "I know. Thank you for your concern."


    Alea nced at her friend, who seemed to have finished treating him, and turned around. "Alright. We are going back."


    The pink-haired girl made a weird smile and rose from the floor. "I am going then."


    "Yes. Thank you for treating me." Theo thanked her again and watched them until they were on the other field. He then looked at the instructor, wondering what he had to say.


    "You have potential, but don''t be arrogant. I am your instructor, not your parents, so you will need to deal with whateveres your way. Since your wound has recovered, you can wait until your friendse."


    Theo nodded. "I will be washing my face first."


    Rektus only waved his hand, telling him to go.


    Theo walked to the bathroom in the gym to wash his face.


    After that, he looked at himself in the mirror, feeling a bit exhausted. The adrenaline from earlier hadpletely gone as his hands began shaking.


    ''Laust''s anger will surely go to the couple first and there is a possibility that those two wille to kill me again. Well, I love technology nowadays. Due to how easy you can take video and upload it on the inte, it''s hard for someone to do bad things openly. As for bullying��Haiz, this is why I hate humanity. I will do anything to reach my goal even if I need to use the method I hate.''


    Theo narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought. ''The mystery remains. Why does Lange Family target me? From how Laust reacted, it wasn''t his will to bully me. The only possibility was his family�� The problem is what they want from me. I have nothing.''


    His apartment was cheap and had nothing valuable. His strength was at the bottom of society until recently. And no one had yet to realize his current blessing.


    ''That leaves��My parents and my brother. However, my parents passed away when I was a kid, and my brother left me for some reason and never came back despite promising me. Wait a minute.''


    Theo suddenly remembered one weird thing that his brother gave to him before he disappeared. It was a pocket watch. He told him to take the watch with him to meet someone if he was in a situation with no way out. He would know the way as soon as he opened it.


    ''Do they want the pocket watch? I am dying to open it, but it''s better to believe in Big Brother.'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows. ''Another reason will be the grudge between them and my brother, but I don''t have a memory of him offending such a family. In other words, I think it''s best to assume the reason is the pocket watch. All the more reason why I shouldn''t hand it to them.''


    Theo scratched the back of his head. "Things are going to beplicated soon. Besides, why was the one bullying me protecting me? Did he want my pocket watch too?"


    "Either way, I will need to deal with all those eventually. Let''s take one step at a time." Shaking his head one more time to restore his focus to the training, he left the toilet, ready for the training.


    There were already around twenty people standing on the field while the others kepting.


    Noticing his gaze, the instructor turned to him and nodded, signaling him to gather around him.


    Theo blended in and waited for the others toe.


    After two more minutes, the instructor finally began the ss.


    "Alright. For today, you will��"

 Chapter 12 – Luring Out

    <h4>Chapter 12 - Luring Out</h4>


    "For fighting on the other side, I mean, Hidden Haven, you need strength or you will die. Today, I will be teaching you��" Rektus began his lesson.


    He didn''t teach them many things other than basic moves, such as swinging, thrusting, and such, so Theo felt a bit disappointed.


    At the same time, there was another thing that amused him.


    Two people were ring at him during the ss. Those two were none other than the couple, Eric and She.


    Theo ignored them in contempt,pleted the training, and slipped from the ss as soon as it finished. He changed back to his uniform and quickly left the school.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he kept sensing two people not far from him. "The couple? Are they tailing me? It must be Laust''s instruction. Since Laust is not here, they will only be watching me�� I have a thing to settle with them, so should I lure them out?"


    After considering a few things, his lips curved as he got a nice n for this.


    He nced at his side, finding a junction not far from him.


    As if he didn''t notice them, Theo turned left.


    "!!!" The two suddenly felt something was wrong. Theo''s apartment shouldn''t be that way.


    "Did he realize?" Eric muttered while running as fast as possible to check the junction.


    Luckily, Theo was still there, walking nonchntly.


    Eric and She let out a sigh of relief and kept following him.


    Little did they know, another person also tailed them. And he turned out to be the same Theo as the one walking in front.


    With that single turn, Theo used his clone to rece him while he hid in another corner. In other words, what they followed was his clone.


    After another junction, the clone turned right, disappearing from their sight again.


    These two decided to take their time since Theo hadn''t noticed them yet, but it became their mistake as the real Theo had undone his own clone as he walked in the opposite direction of those two while smiling. "Fools."


    "Public holiday is in two days. I should lure them out and��Hehe." He couldn''t contain his smile, believing that this problem would be solved within two days.


    As soon as he reached his room, he changed his uniform to normal clothes and remembered the shield that Sihan had.


    "To have a shield that can be retracted like that is really a convenient thing. It''s the only thing that can bypass the rule of the school. I will buy one when I get richer." He let out a sigh. Although he was jealous of such a thing and wanted one for his spear, he turned that jealousy into determination.


    "Anyway, I''ve learned a lot in that battle against Laust. No wonder he is a scion of a big family��" Theo grabbed his spear and thought something innovative. He was on edge this whole time, so he didn''t think of it earlier.


    It turned out that he missed an opportunity to train himself yesterday.


    He summoned his clone and had him grab the sword he bought two days ago.


    Theo controlled the clone to swing his sword a few times.


    The swingspletely followed what he instructed. In fact, it was like multitasking.


    When he fought against the turtle or fooled the couple, it didn''t require full control since all it took was a simple movement like walking or running straight.


    However, Theo realized that he could use the clone in a fight and made his enemy feel like taking two Theos at the same time.


    "Besides, I can also train myself with this. It may follow my will, but I can use him to get used to a technique or increase my sword mastery. Even if it weren''t like a real fight, I would have grown ustomed to swinging and thrusting the sword." Theo smiled.


    "Still, I can''t really feel anything with my clone, so I should be the one using a sword." He exchanged the weapon with his clone and held the sword.


    Unlike his spear, he felt that the center of gravity was somewhere else, considering that he wielded the sword with one hand while the spear with two hands.


    He looked up a few free basic swordsmanship books to get used to the basic form like swinging, thrusting, or even standing still, AKA stances.


    The clone raised the spear, pointing it at Theo. Thetter retreated one step back before swinging the sword once.


    He felt the strain when he tried to stop the sword.


    The sword''s weight was slightly heavier than the spear and he needed to wield it with one hand, so it was normal for Theo to have difficulty at first.


    "This will take a while��" He muttered, but on his face blossomed a smile.


    Theo''s sword training began. The clicking sounds kepting out of his room, and the other tenants started knocking on his door because they were getting bothered by it.


    After two hours of constantints, Theo sighed. "It seems I really need to get another ce where I can train without interruption. I can use a park or something, but I don''t want to let someone see my skill. I should try to get some money for a better ce either on the public holiday or on the weekend��"


    He used his pillow as a punching bag instead. Only the body of the sword hit the pillow so that the de wouldn''t damage it.


    After that, he rested his body and prepared to start his n tomorrow.


    When he came to the school, Eric and She came to him.


    They furrowed their eyebrows with a bit of hesitation that even Theo could see in their gaze.


    "Theo, do you have any ns for the public holiday?" She''s tone was calm to ensure that Theo never noticed their intention. After all, it would be a disaster if she let Eric do all this.


    "Yes. I am going to the other side again to hunt some monsters. As you know, I can''t afford my rent this month if I don''t go there." He sighed.


    "Really?" She put a smile on her face and grabbed Theo''s hand. "Can I join you again? I want to repay you for what I have done. Please, let me prove it to you."


    In her heart, all this was just her n. She never had the intention to join Theo''s party. Her aim was to ascertain whether yesterday, Theo realized the ones following him were them or not.


    "As much as I want to�� I think I will go by myself this time." Theo looked down with a pained look as if he hadn''t recovered from what happenedst week.


    "Is that so? Such a shame. But I won''t give up. I will surely obtain your forgiveness and trust again."


    "I''m sorry��" Theo had a guilty expression, feeling bad that he couldn''t do it with them.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. Time will allow your wounded heart to recover. At that time, I will surely make it up for you." She gently assured Theo.


    Theo forced a smile and nodded. "Yes. I will surely be fine after a while."


    "Then, we will be waiting for your invitation next time."


    She and Eric then left him alone after getting their objective. Since Laust ordered them to observe Theo while he was away and get rid of him if possible, they were kind of desperate to kill Theo because of the implication they received just by him staying alive.


    This was the best chance to make up for their mistakest time.


    Even though Theo managed to fight Laust on equal ground, they thought he was lucky and fought him without skill.


    Knowing that he only had one skill, Pierce, they should be able to trap him by using another monster before killing him from behind.


    Unknowingly, Theo had been settingyers of traps to lure them out of this world. This way, he should be able to kill them on the other side without anyone knowing.


    He just made a little smile, not wanting to be confident that everything would go ording to his way.


    ''Anyway, I will need to get used to my sword first. It will increase my chance of sess.'' He smiled and rose from his seat to go home.


    ��


    The next day, Theo woke up in the morning and prepared himself for the big day. He reached the sword and hung it on his waist before grabbing his spear.


    His prediction was that the two would follow him silently on the other side. Even if he brought the sword, they would only think that it was a secondary weapon for backup.


    After checking one more time, he smirked and opened his apartment door, heading straight toward the other side, which people called Hidden Haven.


    "Yep. Everything is ready now. It''s time to lure the rabbits out of their hole��"

 Chapter 13 – Fools

    <h4>Chapter 13 - Fools</h4>


    In the portal, Theo''s figure appeared out of thin air, proving that he just got teleported to the other side.


    Unlike the white and clean city, he ended up seeing the dark but futuristic city. And he had no specific location to choose as his destination.


    Unfortunately, there wasn''t a satellite too, so they couldn''t really make aplete map for this ce, only the ces they had discovered before. They had tried it a few times, but all of them got brutally destroyed by the monsters in this world, not letting the satellite even pass the stratosphere.


    Still, there were some airnes and drones to scout around, but there were only a few ces that they could go with those since they would soon be swarmed by flying monsters. The cost was also a lot, so there was no way Theo could take advantage of it with his current pocket even if they were avable.


    ''I don''t have any specific ce I want to go, so that I will go south this time. The monsters around here are low leveled. I can use them to get used to my weapon and see how strong I''ve be. After that, I will go a bit deeper.'' Theo formted his today''s n in his mind.


    Tightening his backpack, he walked down the tform and headed straight to the south gate.


    Eric and She had been waiting for him. As soon as they saw Theoing out of the portal, they exchanged looks, nodded at each other, and followed Theo from behind.


    Although Theo might have sensed them yesterday, he seemed to not know that they were the ones tailing him after She checked him in the ss.


    They could just tell him that it was all misunderstanding, and they were worried about him before catching him off guard.


    It was supposed to be a perfect n��Assuming Theo didn''t know anything.


    Sensing their presence, Theo kept looking forward, acting as if he never felt them. Probably due to the increase of his level, his senses became sharper despite him not getting any relevant training. Many people thought it was rted to Agility, but there was no concrete proof as of now.


    He took a few minutes to reach the South Gate and looked at many people nning to go out.


    Just likest time, he needed to pass the gate first and registered his name there, so the government knew that he passed this gate. If he didn''t return in thirty days without prior notice, they usually changed his status to dead.


    He found a young man with military clothes standing by the gate and showed him his ID Card.


    Since he was busy from the morning, the military guy didn''t chat with him or anything and simply finished his job.


    After registering his name, Theo took back his ID Card from his hand and walked outside.


    He couldn''t go too far or the couple would lose his track, so he decided to wait for them a bit farther away from the gate.


    Meanwhile, the registration process made him realize another thing.


    ''They can actually see my real identity even if I go with my mask. I should get a fake ID sooner orter, but I don''t really have a connection with someone like that. For now, it wouldn''t be a problem and the military would remain neutral as long as the current president was still in power.''


    Theo scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to do with this problem. ''For now, my identity is safe since no one is using this yet. Besides, I can simply use my real face when I pass the gate while using the mask when hunting. That''s the solution for now.''


    After two minutes, the couple would soon get their turns. Theo needed to get going soon, but it would make them suspicious if he weren''t that far.


    He had prepared for this and opened his bag. Grabbing an empty water bottle, he threw it to the ground.


    ''With this, they should believe that I drank it and wasn''t that far away,'' Theo thought and began his journey.


    It took him another few minutes to encounter the first monster of the day. It was a lion. The lion had a tawny coat with a long tufted tail. Itsrge mane was darker than the usual lion surrounding its head and neck.


    He quickly picked up his device and pointed it at the lion.


    Name: Reum Lion


    Level: 8-20


    The database had the personal information of the lion, but before he could read them, the lion had noticed his presence and roared.


    "!!!" Theo quickly put back his device in his pants and raised his spear. This spear was Elite Rank Spear, Altrix Spear, so its sharpness should be enough to handle the lion.


    Roar.


    With another roar, the lion leaped, pouncing him from above.


    Theo''s agility was not like how it used to be, he avoided the lion by shifting his body to the left. He spun his body once to get his bnce back and thrust his spear toward the lion''s exposed butt.


    "Pierce!" He used all his strength, intending to end the fight in one blow, but the lion managed to sense his killing intent and took another leap forward.


    He somehow stabbed the lion''s butt, albeit it was too shallow to be considered a wound. It was close to a graze instead.


    Therefore, Theo readied his stance again for another charge.


    The pain in the butt angered the lion as it turned around. This time the lion made a zig-zag movement while getting closer to Theo. In addition to the fact that they were surrounded by trees, it limited Theo''s movement while the lion was as if he was ying in the house��Slippery.


    Although the movement was fast, it didn''t cover the distance with the previous speed, giving him a precious chance to prepare for an attack.


    Theo''s eyes moved left and right while waiting for the lion to reach his attack range.


    As soon as the lion closed its distance to three feet away from him, Theo quickly thrust his spear.


    The lion stopped on his right and should move to the left again. So, Theo''s thrust that came from the left should be in perfect sync, but the lion surprised him by taking one more step in the opposite direction,pletely avoiding his spear.


    After that, the lion leaped forward to close the remaining distance in one go.


    "!!!" Theo clenched his teeth. His thrust made him unable to move his upper body immediately, so he might need to take this hit, but he then realized that his lower body could still move.


    The movement was unstable, but he managed to deliver the kick from below, striking the lion''s jaw from its blindspot.


    The lion stopped its movement and retreated a few steps back while ring at Theo.


    "I might have powered up and tied with Laust, but I shouldn''t overestimate myself. To think that a Lion managed to trick me��" Theo realized that he became overconfident recently and tried to calm himself down.


    He might also have put too much faith in his n against the couple. However, he had no time to reflect on his change.


    Taking one deep breath, he focused back on the fight and saw the lion doing the same zig-zag movement.


    The lion did the same technique, and Theo thrust his spear from the left, intending to kill it with this one trust.


    As he expected, the lion moved exactly the same and tried to attack Theo from the right.


    "I have been waiting for this." Theo smiled and rotated the spear to reset his thrust.


    The lion already closed their gap.


    Right before its fang reached Theo, the spear''s handle already came in its way.


    It ended up biting the spear instead.


    After that, Theo kicked the lion with his knee, forcing the lion to open its mouth with pain.


    With his spear gaining its freedom, he thrust the lion.


    Thetter instinctively dodged to the right, but Theo managed to pierce the area next to its neck.


    Roar.


    "Shut up!" Theo pulled out his spear and kicked the lion on the head, blowing it several feet away.


    He then ran toward the lion and stabbed its head, killing the lion before it could recover.


    It still red at Theo in its dying breath, but there was no resistance until it dropped to the ground.


    [Killed a Reum Lion (Normal)]


    [EXP+50]


    Status: Normal


    Level: 20


    EXP: 160/246


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (F), 8 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 35, Endurance 15, Agility 24, Vitality 15, Magic Power 25


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "It''s finally over. I should reflect on myself aft��"


    Suddenly, Theo noticed the presenceing from behind. The two seemed to have caught up with him. He thought, ''I should get going.''


    He touched the lion''s head to check whether it would give him anything, but unfortunately, he found nothing after the lion disappeared.


    "Sigh. Not my luck��" He panted to give the illusion that he was a bit tired from that fight.


    The couple became even more confident in defeating Theo. As long as they let him exhaust himself for a bit longer, it would be a perfect time to ambush him.


    After waiting for thirty seconds, Theo ran again to search for the next target.


    He purposely lowered his speed, so they could keep up until he found a giant tree.


    "��" Theo smiled when he found a wide trunk that he could use.


    As soon as the trunk covered Theo''s body, Eric remembered the incident two days ago. "We can''t lose him again."


    She nodded and picked up the pace. "He might have noti��"


    Before finishing her words, she saw Theo alreadye out of the trunk, returning to their vision again.


    The two realized that they were worried for nothing.


    Both had let out their own sigh of relief. Their eyes intertwined and said something with just a blink of an eye. It wasn''t somethingplicated. They just came to a conclusion to continue following him.


    Little did they know, there was someone who was watching them from the top of the tree. Yes, it was Theo.


    He used the trunk to summon his clone and handed his weapon to his clone before climbing the tree. It took him two seconds to do that, but he managed toplete the task without them noticing.


    "As expected��You two are fools." He narrowed his eyes while smiling.

 Chapter 14 – Tasting Own Poison

    <h4>Chapter 14 - Tasting Own Poison</h4>


    "Huft��Huft��" Theo panted.


    In front of him stood a ck bear, preparing to charge at him.


    Eric and She were hiding behind the tree, watching Theo''s fight that would soon end.


    However, there was another person watching their movement. It was the real Theo.


    His full concentration was taken when his clone began fighting the bear. He thought, ''It''s tough to control the clone in a full fight like this, but this battle taught me a lot. The couple is also ready to attack. I should end this battle as soon as possible.''


    The bear had four finger-size holes in its body��Two on its right arm and two on the stomach. Red blood flowed out continuously from the four holes, weakening the bear.


    The bear was on four and charged at him. Not scared of the challenge, Clone Theo jumped forward, closing his distance with the bear.


    When they were a few feet away, the bear stood up and swiped with its right paw.


    The strength of that paw would surely break a few ribs, so he had been avoiding it this whole time. And this time was no different. He hit the ground with his spear''s butt, stopping his momentum.


    With that sudden stop, the bear''s swipe, which was supposed to hit him, missed the target and threw its bnce.


    The moment he saw that chance, Theo pierced the bear''s head like how he did against the lion.


    Unlike the lion, the bear couldn''t even look at Theo before copsing to the ground.


    [Killed a ck Bear (Normal)]


    [EXP+43]


    The spear''s butt hit the ground and became his support to stand. He panted a few times before trying to take the water bottle from his bag.


    Suddenly, two figures ran toward him.


    Theo widened his eyes and saw Eric unsheathing his sword. She also came closer with her wooden wand.


    "You are dead! No, you should have diedst time and we wouldn''t need to suffer!" Eric shouted in anger. He still remembered how Laust beat them up after suffering in Theo''s hand.


    All of it wouldn''t happen if Theo died, so he hated Theo to the bone.


    "A trash like you has no right to live!" Eric pulled his sword. The moment he reached Theo, he would sever that head. "You��"


    Before he said more useless things, Theo had thrown his spear toward Eric, forcing him to stumble. She also stopped since Theo had a sword and raised her hand.


    "Fireball."


    A round shape blue fire appeared above her head, spreading the heat to its surroundings.


    However, she sensed another presence beside them,ing from their back.


    "What?" ncing at her back, she found another Theo running toward them with his spear. "Theo?"


    Eric was shocked by that shout, took a nce behind him, and got the same shock as She.


    This was a perfect chance that Theo could use at this moment.


    Clone Theo pulled out the sword from its scabbard and jumped toward Eric. Meanwhile, the real him thrust his spear toward She.


    "Dodge!" Eric shouted while dodging the sword.


    She''s magic disappeared so that she could dodge to the side, albeit this was Theo''s true goal.


    He positioned himself perfectly so when She avoided him, he would be able to reach Eric in one go.


    With Eric losing his bnce, Theo struck with his spear.


    To his surprise, Eric managed to move his body even a bit as soon as he reached the ground, forcing Theo to miss his original''s aim, the heart.


    "Argh!" A scream echoed. Although the spear didn''t pierce his heart, it still hit the left side of his heart, which was too painful to bear for an ordinary high school boy.


    His clone quickly waved the sword down to kill Eric, but he felt the heat from the side.


    "Fireball!"


    They nced at She and jumped backward as the fireball passed them, hitting the tree not far from them and causing a small explosion.


    Had it hit him, It might not kill him, but he would have been severely injured.


    Theo sent his clone to distract She while he dealt with Eric. Obviously, She decided to send her magic to Theo''s clone instead of Eric, even though she could save Eric and fought together against these two Theos. Back then, sacrificing Theo wasn''t nned, but it could describe She''s true nature. Yes, she was that selfish.


    Meanwhile, Eric grabbed his sword and swung it. Theo kicked his hand and pinned it on the ground with his foot.


    "I am sorry, but your strength is not higher than me anymore. I leveled up a few times thanks to the turtle after all." He smiled. Without wasting his breath, he stabbed Eric''s heart and killed him in one single blow.


    Without Eric, She shouldn''t be able to do anything. Theo and his clone came from two opposite directions to confuse her.


    "Fireball." She sent another fireball to the real Theo, but he managed to avoid it.


    His clone swiped his sword.


    "!!!" She instinctively leaped back when she ascertained that the sword was aiming at her neck, albeit they were in the forest. Surrounded by trees, she found her back touching one.


    Theo maintained his aim and swung his sword, but She managed to escape to the side, resulting in his sword hitting the tree behind her instead. The splinters flew to her, but it was better than having her head fly.


    Unfortunately, the real Theo wasing from that direction and punched her on the cheek, sending her back to his clone.


    She had no escape route anymore as she moved back, only to find her back hitting the tree.


    The real Theo pointed his spear at her neck while his clone ced his hand on the tree and ready to sh her at any moment.


    "Wait, wait, wait! Please don''t kill me. I was forced by Laust and Eric here. If not, they would **** me." She panicked and began begging for her life.


    "And?" Theo''s eyes remained cold.


    "It''s true. I didn''t lie to you this time. They would have raped me had I not joined hands with them. I can do anything you want as long as you spare my life. I can be your girlfriend��"


    With this exnation, Theo''s eyes gradually became warmer as everything went ording to his n.


    "You��Were really going through all those?" Theo asked as he became hesitant.


    She''s eyes brightened when she heard those words as if a ray of hope just fell upon her. She repeatedly nodded and exined. "I never wanted to hurt you. In fact, I have liked you for a long time, but Laust and Eric found out and forced me with Eric."


    "You��" Theo''s face was filled with doubts.


    She thought she would be able to escape this situation with one more push. She ced her hands on Theo''s hands and smiled seductively. "Yes. How about I prove it to you right now?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a second and retracted his clone. "Whatever��"


    He looked away with a tinge red on his face. He took a few steps back and walked away while saying, "I don''t care anymore."


    She made a sinister smile. As soon as Theo showed her back to her, she created another fireball. With this distance and timing, Theo shouldn''t be able to dodge this attack. And since Eric died in this mission, the money would obviously be her alone.


    "Fireball." She summoned her fireball again while shouting. "Haha. All men are foolish. And you? You are a freaking simp. You disgust me! Die!"


    On the contrary, Theo nced back with a smile, paying no attention to the fireball above her head. "Die? I am not the one who is going to die. It''s you. After all, I am not a simp."


    "What did you say? I will kill��" When she was about to finish her words, she heard something from her right.


    Creak.


    The sound became more and more apparent. Bothered with that sound, she nced over to her right and found out that the sound turned out to be the sound of the wood cracking.


    "Wha��"


    Bam.


    The tree fell on top of her and pinned her down on the ground. Her fireball disappeared and her head began bleeding. A few ribs were broken with that alone.


    It turned out that Theo''s swing had chopped away a huge portion of the trunk, enough to cause the tree to copse. The reason it hadn''t copsed until now was due to his clone supporting it.


    However, Theo already predicted that She would once again betray his trust, so he decided to dismiss his clone and hurriedly went outside the falling tree''s direction. And as he said, she would be the one dying.


    "Argh��" Her shrill echoed in the forest, but no one came to her aid. Although Theo aimlessly wandered around, he knew that this ce had little to no visitor, so there was less possibility that someone woulde to their aid. This was the umtion of experience he had every time he went to this Haven.


    "Ah, I indeed won''t kill you because the tree will be the one to kill you." Theo made a sinister smile. "You are even more dangerous than Eric since no one knows whether you are spouting a lie or not. If I were forced to spare one life, I would choose Eric since he was easier to manipte."


    Knowing that she would die in one or two minutes because of the bleeding if she weren''t treated, She looked at Theo and raised her hand, trying to reach him.


    "Help me�� I was wrong."


    However, Theo turned blind eyes and checked his surroundings to make sure that no one was watching while saying, "I wasn''t wrong either, but you tried to kill me. If you didn''t even want to help me, why should I help you? Having deceived who knows how many people with that poisonous tongue of yours, what it feels like when you are the one dying by the same poison?"

 Chapter 15 – Choice

    <h4>Chapter 15 - Choice</h4>


    Theo waited for several minutes without looking at how She slowly died even though her voice kept echoing in his ears. He only closed his eyes.


    Of course, killing someone, especially in a way like this, bothered him. He would be a psychopath if not. However, he had no regret because his life would be in danger had he not killed her.


    ''Theo��Steel your heart. To reach your goal, you will face it on a daily basis.'' Theo clenched his fists and convinced himself.


    After a while, her voice dimmed, and soon, only the sound of the wind could be heard.


    Taking one deep breath, he peeked and found that She didn''t move anymore.


    As much as he wanted to get anything valuable from what she and Eric brought, he decided to stop.


    It wasn''t because of his morals. Instead, the search party, especially the Lange Family, mighte here and find them. If he showed any more trace than this, they might find out about him.


    "All that left is��" Theo looked to the side. "To lure a monster here."


    After checking the loot from the bear, he proceeded to scout the area around him.


    It took him a whole five minutes before he heard something breaking near him.


    Forty feet away to his left, a wolf just stepped on a branch and snapped it into two. It smelled blood permeating the air and came all the way here.


    Theo, who first saw it, hurriedly hid behind a tree and summoned his clone while taking out his device, checking the monster''s species.


    Name: Night Wolf


    Level: 7-15


    Since the wolf had yet to discover him, he chose to read more of the description.


    ''Night wolf is a hunter of this forest during the night. They hunt alone during the day while moving with their pack during the night��I see. It seems I can safely lure this wolf,'' Theo thought while controlling his clone.


    "Grrr��" The wolf sensed Theo''s presence and turned its head.


    Although it waspletely unnecessary, Theo raised his middle finger with a smirk before turning around, running toward She and Eric.


    As if it got provoked by Theo''s extreme action, it began chasing Theo.


    With his back facing the wolf, he could sense him but unaware of its actual distance. Even so, he kept running as fast as possible.


    "Grr��" The wolf caught up in just a few seconds of running and leaped toward his right hand, trying to bite it off.


    The clone didn''t bring a weapon and let the wolf shred his right arm with those sharp fangs. There was no pain and blooding out of the ripped arm, but the real Theo felt a pressure in his head as his magic power rushed out of his body.


    ''Seriously. The clone uses this much magic when it gets hit?'' Theo thought while sweatdropped.


    Theo''s right hand quickly disappeared as it wasn''t connected with the body.


    Noticing that there was nothing in its mouth, the wolf got angered and nned to strike him from behind to eat him as a whole.


    Theo smiled and jumped to the side, avoiding its charge. He kept running for another ten seconds, continuously avoiding every single attack.


    "Almost," growled Theo in a low voice before finding the big tree that fell down earlier. She''s body was still underneath it while Eric was in the open.


    As soon as he saw them, Theo slowed down his pace and purposely let the wolf hit him.


    The wolf grazed his back with its paw.


    Using that chance, Theo deactivated his clone, forcing it to disappear. Without him blocking the wolf''s sight, it quickly realized She''s and Eric''s bodies on the ground. The blood scent permeated from it perfectly fit with the one it smelled earlier.


    The wolf looked around for one more time.


    After confirming that it was safe, the wolf began munching the corpses as if it was a feast.


    Theo didn''t dare to watch the process and silently walked away.


    He stopped by a tree, a few hundred feet away, and sat on the ground with his back leaning on the tree. His eyes focused on the blue sky.


    "How peaceful��" Theo forced himself to say those two words. Although it was only for precaution, he still believed what he did was a bit too excessive. "I thought I had steeled myself to do this, but why did I be this weak?"


    He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few deep breaths.


    "I should finish my original objective and stop thinking about this topic." He ended up shaking his head a few times to regain his focus and stood up.


    Suddenly, a burst ofughter filled his ears.


    Kiki.


    Kikikikiki.


    In that instant, Theo knew that theughter didn''te from a human.


    He took a peek behind the tree, raised his vision, and thought, ''It''s a monkey. Even without the monster checker, I already know this monster. Deku Monkey. Its level is simr to the ck Bear I faced, but instead of its overwhelming power, this guy is agile. With my current fighting ability, this will be a perfect match-up for me to see how far I can go today.''


    He summoned his clone and gave him his sword.


    As a careful person, Theo sent his clone to go first, so the monkey would focus on him.


    Kiki.


    The monkey had brown furs and red hands. Its tail was a bit longer than the monkey that could be found on Earth.


    Considering the monkey''s position, Theo grabbed a small stone on the ground and tossed it as hard as possible. His aim wasn''t that good anyway, so he just nned to hit the tree instead of the monkey.


    Luckily, the monkey acted as he predicted. It jumped off the tree as soon as the stone hit the trunk andnded on the ground.


    Clone Theo raised his sword while looking ahead to check whether there was another monkey like this around.


    While checking, the monkey saw that Theo dropped a significant amount of his focus. It took that chance to close the distance between them before throwing a punch right to his face.


    Theo smiled and regained his focus. His right hand clenched the sword tighter and waved it horizontally in order to cut the monkey''s hand that came from below him.


    Unfortunately, the monkey was less than a meter, so he couldn''t sh its neck together with the hand.


    Kiki.


    The monkey''s instinct seemed to be stronger than the average Deku Monkeys. It sensed Theo''s attack, pulled the hand, and ducked down. The second attack also came from below, but it didn''t aim at Theo''s face anymore.


    It turned out that the monkey was worse than expected. The second attack actually aimed at his ball.


    "!!!" Clone Theo quickly spun his sword and pierced downward in order to stop the monkey''s fist.


    Not wanting to be stabbed by the sword, the monkey pulled back again and retreated a few steps.


    The real Theo then made his appearance and thrust his spear right on the monkey''s neck.


    To his surprise, the monkey spun its body mid-air and threw a punch. Unlike the previous movement, the monkey acted as if it didn''t fear the spear.


    It turned out that it had confidence in handling the spear.


    Right before the spear''s de pierced its fist, the monkey shifted its body and grabbed the spear''s handle like how he moved around the tree branches.


    With the additional monkey''s weight, Theo lowered his spear. This became the chance that the monkey could take advantage of.


    The monkeyunched itself toward Theo and punched him in the face.


    The sharp pain woke him up and made him realize what just happened. His body rolled on the ground a few times before his hand lifted him up andunched him two feet in the air, allowing him to regain his bnce and stop his momentum.


    For one second, Clone Theo stopped due to theck ofmand from the real him.


    ''It seems I need to continuously operate my clone or people will realize it sooner orter.'' Theo thought while swearing in his heart not to do it again.


    Clone Theo quickly restarted its movement and charged at the monkey, swinging his sword downwards.


    The monkey grabbed the spear again and used it to block the sword.


    "Why is this monkey so smart?" Theo was astonished by this degree of intelligence.


    He remembered when the one bestowed him his current power actually apuded for his luck, not his strength, a few days ago.


    Theo might have yet to be qualified to fight the monster around here.


    "I need more training after this," Theo muttered in a low voice and pulled his spear to throw the monkey''s bnce, but it turned out that the monkey had somehow expected it.


    Kiki.


    A strange white light fluctuated on the monkey''s hand, traveling forward to his stomach.


    "What? A Skill?" Theo widened his eyes, raised his spear, and blocked the punch with the spear''s handle, albeit the force behind that punch was not something that his strength was capable of fully stopping it.


    Kiki.


    In addition to theughter, the monkey blew Theo several feet away.

 Chapter 16 – New Approach

    <h4>Chapter 16 - New Approach</h4>


    "Kh." Theo clenched his teeth, feeling the power behind the monkey''s skill.


    Luckily, the monkey''s height was lower than him, so the attackunched him into the air instead. This situation allowed him to maintain his bnce and recovered the instant hended on the ground.


    The monkey rushed forward, not giving him time to fight back.


    Behind, Theo regained the control of his clone and made him charge forward.


    "Kill him." He couldn''t help but shout.


    His loud voice forced the monkey to turn its head around, finding Clone Theo thrusting his sword from behind.


    Kiki.


    The monkey simply dodged the attack before it realized something just pierced his hand.


    It turned out that the shout was only a distraction for the monkey.


    "Pierce!" Theo also used his skill, prating the monkey''s skin like it was nothing.


    Clone Theo bent down and pulled his sword. As he did so, he took a deep breath that he had been using to gain enough strength to make another full swing.


    Ki��


    Before it could even finish itsstugh, Clone Theo had severed the head, and both of them quickly retreated a few steps to avoid the blood burst out of its body.


    [Killed a Deku Monkey (Normal)]


    [EXP+38]


    "That was close." Theo let out a long sigh. "It seems I have been toocent with the current aplishment. I shouldn''t be too proud and mess everything up."


    Clone Theo disappeared after handing the sword.


    After that, he touched the monkey''s body and saw two cards drop from the disappearing body.


    Monkey Tail (F)


    Nutritious Ingredients.


    Skill: Monkey Fist (F)


    Effect: Allow the user to naturally draw the body''s energy to release a stronger punch.


    When he saw the two cards, he ignored the first one because there was no other use for Monkey Tail other than giving a healthy body. It was amon ingredient for a peaceful family who wanted to get good health, but it had no use for the current him.


    As for the Monkey Fist, he contemted whether to use it on himself or wait for upgrading the clone skill. Theo''s current fighting style relied on his movement.


    Even though he knew that skills were naturally stronger than regr movements, he had no money to buy skills or were lucky enough to find a skill like this.


    After a few considerations, he decided to use it.


    "It''s better to increase my prowess first before upgrading the skill. I can get more money and kill more opponents if I increase my strength after all." Theo smiled before looking at the blood on the ground.


    He recalled how he killed the bear, the lion, and the monkey.


    "It''s really easier to get more EXPs if I fight higher-level monsters. However, it is also riskier. Earlier, if I didn''t have my clone, I might get injured and would be forced to retreat for the day." Theo looked down with his hand on his chin.


    "I usually get 1-5 EXPs every time I kill a monster, and it''s already hard to defeat them continuously. However, I can do more now that I have be a Level 20 fighter. I need to be more careful and not underestimate my opponent next time."


    After reflecting on his action, he continued walking to the south and decided to rest there, where he didn''t smell the blood anymore.


    He took out his device to see the map.


    This map was the umtion of the fighters who risked their lives to explore the area because the satellite was useless.


    Although some were using their drones or something simr, it was still the result of their efforts.


    "South to my direction is a slope. After that slope, I will find the area where most of the level 15-20 monsters reside. This is my original destination."


    Before he could go, he heard something ringing in his head.


    Sshhh.


    Sshhhh.


    It kept echoing as if it was very close.


    ''This��'' Theo felt that it was simr to the hissing of a snake.


    He looked around and found a brown snake hanging on the tree behind the one he used to rest.


    Without hesitation, Theo killed the snake with a single thrust of his spear.


    [Killed a Green Serpent (Normal)]


    [EXP+3]


    "Yep, this is the usual EXPs I got since this snake is only a low-level snake." Theo nodded, finally seeing the normal rate he got.


    "Hmm��I only need two more points to reach Level 21. This fast-paced but dangerous process is tempting one to keep progressing��" Theo looked down and shook his head. "I should meet another monster when climbing the slope, so I will level up before reaching my destination. Let''s go then."


    He turned around and walked toward the south.


    He crossed the woods and found the slope not long after. Since the terrain didn''t really change because the slope was very gentle, close to tnd, there shouldn''t be too much adjustment needed to fight on this slope.


    It didn''t take too long for him to see the first monster.


    The monster was not like what he had seen so far. It had a humanoid shape but walking with four feet like that of a beast. The body had a homogenous green color. The most intriguing was the shape of its head. It looked like a human, but without eyes and other parts.


    Theo quickly checked the monster in the database.


    Name: Ex-Humanoid


    Level: 20-25


    Beware of its speed and w.


    He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the description.


    "All the monsters I''ve hunted so far are lower than my level. Of course, besides the Rock Turtle. Should I face this monster?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "The Rock Turtle incident may repeat in the future, so I should try fighting a higher level monster from now on. Still, it is strange to see a monster like this in front of the area consisting of level 15-20 monsters. Did something happen?"


    Contemting wouldn''t help because he had no further information, so Theo ended the thought.


    "Screw it. It''s better to continue forward while being ready to run at any moment than think about this. It''s not like I will venture too deep, so I think it should be fine." Theo convinced himself and summoned his clone.


    Unlike the previous arrangement, the real him hid with a sword in his hand instead of the spear.


    At the same time, his clone ran toward the monster with the spear in front.


    "Grr��"


    The Ex-Humanoid sensed his presence and leaped toward him with a speed that he had never seen before. It was even faster than Laust.


    Fortunately, his prediction was correct the moment he saw the simple description. He raised the spear, aiming at the monster''s mouth.


    With the spear length, it was enough for Theo to act if something happened.


    The Ex-Humanoid raised its hand that had four sharp and long ws. It struck the spear''s de, trying to destroy it.


    However, Theo managed to hold his spear as the spear''s de was undamaged.


    "As expected from an Elite Rank Spear. Its quality is higher than your average one." Theo smiled while controlling his clone to counterattack.


    "Grr��"


    It picked up Theo''s mutter and turned in another direction while avoiding the spear''s thrust. As if it managed to locate Theo hiding behind the tree, the monster charged toward one particr tree, ready to swipe its w.


    Having no choice, Theo showed himself while shing upward.


    The monster quickly waved its hand, stopping Theo''s de with its ws.


    Crack.


    As one would expect, the quality was really different. One of the ws cracked with that one full swing.


    Theo pushed the monster back and regrouped with his clone. He swung his sword from the left while his clone thrust toward the left arm.


    The Ex-Humanoid didn''t have an option other than blocking both attacks with its ws. However, the cracked w had endured enough and snapped into two.


    The monster jumped backward to assess its w, but Theo didn''t let it reset the fight. He and his clone charged forward, working together to attack the Ex-Humanoid.


    He couldn''t help but remember the time where he fought together with Eric. It was easier than fighting alone. And with his clone that was under his control, the movement became even better.


    After all, Theo knew his weakness, the gap between his movements and his goal in every strike. This fighting style was better than any other pair because a thought could be done faster than any verbalmand or physical signs.


    The Ex-Humanoid slowly got pressured from the continuous attacks. His ws fell one by one because of Theo''s Elite Rank weapons.


    However, Theo thought of something more interesting and important enough to test as soon as possible.


    With this kind of thought, the two Theos purposely got blown away by the creature. The real him turned around and started running as if he intended to escape while his clone stabilized his posture.


    The creature obviously chose the one with his back facing him since it was undoubtedly the easiest one.


    It leaped to the air, nning to trounce Theo from behind.


    Suddenly, Clone Theo came between them and raised the spear handle so that the monster''s two hands hit the spear instead of the real him.


    He used the hardness of the metal handle well and stopped the monster from one second.


    A dangerous glint shed in real Theo''s eyes as he turned around and ran back with his fastest speed.


    Usually, he would go around and shed the monster, taking one of its arms or something, but this time, he nned to do something different. It was something unthinkable before.


    The moment he arrived behind his clone, he shed his sword horizontally while moving forward.


    "Ha!" Theo split the monster and his clone into two with a smile. "The shortest route possible."


    [Killed an Ex-Humanoid (Normal)]


    [EXP+97]


    [Level Up.]

 Chapter 17 – Laust Lange

    <h4>Chapter 17 - Laust Lange</h4>


    In Lange Family''s Mansion, the situation wasn''t peaceful either.


    Two people stood in the room, one facing the other''s back while thetter looked outside the window.


    The first person was Laust. He could only look down while biting his lips. They had been standing without talking like this for ten minutes already.


    In front of him was a middle-aged man with ck hair. He looked at the city through the window with mysterious eyes.


    "Can you even do something right?" A cold voice echoed.


    This voice was like a needle piercing Laust''s heart.


    "You have one job��And you''ve failed miserably."


    Laust closed his eyes as if something just squeezed his heart. There was only one reason for him to get here. It was to discuss his embarrassment after getting beaten by Theo.


    "Not only did you fail your job, but you also got suspended. Luckily, it didn''t bring so much news that would create a scandal for ourpany."


    Everything was Laust''s mistake. Had he not used his skill during the fight, this wouldn''t happen. In fact, he had been under house arrest for the past few days and only got called to this room today, showing how disappointed his father was.


    "Father, that��"


    When Laust was about to exin, his father turned around, picked up the letter on the table, and threw it as if throwing a rock.


    Bang.


    "Gah!" Laust spat out blood and flew to the door as if he just got hit by a boulder.


    "That''s the warning from the military. You should know that it''s better to not mess around with the current government since the one standing on top is holding political power that no other presidents had ever achieved. Tch."


    There was no trace of sympathy to his own son after treating him like that. Only anger was visible in his expression.


    Laust held the letter with his shaking hands and read the first few sentences with his blurry eyes.


    This is the first warning signed by President Acupel for your Lange Family''s behavior. Due to the situation solved in a peaceful way, the matter shall be settled with this letter. Another offense will result in trial ording to Law 28X about Skill Misconduct.


    Laust''s focus was on his family name. This problem should have ended with Laust Lange as the culprit, but the letter addressed the Lange Family as a whole.


    No wonder that his father was furious. He had learned that many people who usually controlled the country in the dark remained dormant for a while. They all were scared of the current president, who was a master in politics and military.


    He strengthened the military to suppress most dark influences that corrupted the country and defeated all the opposition politically.


    In front of the masses, he was just like a ray of hope in this dark country, but in front of a family like his Lange Family, he was a sword that might slit their throat at any moment.


    However, the current president also promised them that as long as they followed thews, he would protect them like the citizens.


    That was why Lange Family couldn''t afford to act arrogantly until the next president reced him, albeit it would only happen in a few years.


    Realizing what he had brought into the family, his body trembled.


    "Father��I��I am sor��"


    "What apology? I don''t need your apology. Why can''t you be like your Brother? He has elevated our face in front of the world, but you? You acted like sh*t." He looked down and released his killing intent.


    Laust started to pant, gasping for air. It was as if he was in front of a beast that looked at him like an already dead prey.


    "You couldn''t even take care of an orphan who had no mary support and skill. I have hired many tutors to teach you, but you couldn''t defeat someone who had no training like that?"


    Laust looked away with a pained expression. He was ashamed of himself and had no right to word to speak. However, the memory of his father was filled with bad things.


    Every time they met, he alwayspared him to his brother and ended up badmouthing him the whole time. Under this kind of pressure, he began to do things in his own way, trying to show him that he could do it.


    When he seeded once, what did he get? Nothing other than a cold gaze from his father. Instead, he only told him, "You have finally done right once. If only you are like your Big Brother, you can do it more."


    He just wanted a bit of recognition from his family, especially the only parent he had, his father. Yet, his father never looked at his way.


    "I would like to apologize for my blunder, Father." Laust chose to endure it a bit longer. As long as he took care of Theo after this, it should be enough to at least force his father to look his way, or so what he believed.


    After apologizing, he turned around. His father would just scold him if he stayed any longer, so it was better to produce the result first.


    "You are really useless. If only one apology is enough��" The father snorted. He walked toward his desk and lowered his head.


    Next to his right hand was a ripped envelope from the government that held that d*mned warning letter.


    Just thinking about it made him angry.


    "You are useless. If you can''t do anything, just finish your education and get married. You still have your worth as a marriage tool to expand the family. Sacrifice yourself for the family. That''s your only use."


    Laust''s body was trembling.


    People say words could hurt you more than you think and Laust believed it was right at this moment.


    The acid gas in his stomach flowed up, making him want to puke. The blood rushed into his head as veins bulged on his forehead.


    He had endured so many things for as long as he remembered. Yet, the moment he heard his father considered him as a tool instead of a son or at least a human being, Laust reached his breaking point.


    He turned around and walked toward his father.


    "Father��" Laust felt like his heart got grasped. However, he braced himself to look at his father''s eyes and said while pressing his chest. His breathing started getting rough. "I want to ask you�� Do you know what is the name of the tallest mountain in the world?"


    "Why are you even asking that idiotic question? It''s obviously Mount Everest."


    "Then, do you know the second tallest mountain in the world?"


    That question was unexpected, and the answer never came out of his father''s mouth. He only turned around and returned to the window, ignoring that question.


    "I want to ask another question�� What is the deepest trench in the world?"


    His father fell silent for a minute before opening his mouth. "Mariana Trench."


    "Then, what is the second deepest trench in the world?"


    Just like before, his father had no answer. It wrenched his heart even more.


    "It''s Tonga Trench!" Laust mmed the table while looking at his father. His re filled with unwillingness and hatred. "You don''t know, don''t you? You alwayspared me to Brother and never paid attention to my feelings. You kept saying this was all for my good, but that was only you forcing your own ideal!


    "That''s right. My brother is number one. And the number one stands out and gets super well-known. What about me? Do you even remember your son''s name?! When was thest time you called me by my name? Do you even remember that? When? It was already a decade ago!


    "You want that map, right? I will bring it to you. I will show it to you that there will be a time silver will be more expensive than gold!" Laust turned around, pushed the door and left the room.


    However, his father simply stood still without even turning back or resolving the problem.


    From the door, a middle-aged man with a butler suit slowly walked toward the room while ncing over the boy who just left the room.


    "Master�� Young Master Laust��"


    "Ji��" The father finally turned around with a cold gaze. His eyes were filled with killing intent as if telling him to shut up.


    "I have overstepped my bounds." The butler bowed his head politely and stopped prying what Laust''s father really thought. He turned around and proceeded to leave the room, but he heard another sentence.


    "Investigate Theo Griffith once again and take care of that useless thing''s subordinates."


    "��" The butler paused for a few seconds as if falling into deep thought. He bowed his head and said, "I understand."


    The door was shut, leaving him alone in the room. Unbeknownst to both Laust and the butler, his right fist that was covered by the table was clenched too tight until blood dripped from it.


    "Useless thing."


    ��


    Meanwhile, just like how Laust''s hand was covered in blood, Theo also had a simr situation. His body and clothes were red. All that color came from the blood of the monster that just got split into two by a girl.


    Sitting on the ground dyed with red blood and leaning his back on a tree behind him, he looked at her face behind his mask and quickly recognized who she was.


    The person who saved him just now was someone he had met in the school. She was��


    Alea Eilric.

 Chapter 18 – Saved

    <h4>Chapter 18 - Saved</h4>


    After killing the Ex-Humanoid, Theo continued his journey to the next area. He killed a few monsters and grabbed all the loot he found on the way.


    When lunch came, he went to a safe ce to have lunch.


    He grabbed the sandwich he bought in the morning while checking his status.


    Status: Normal


    Level: 21


    EXP: 223/267


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (F), Monkey Fist (F), 7 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 35, Endurance 15, Agility 24, Vitality 15, Magic Power 30


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    After defeating the Ex-Humanoid, he realized how much he relied on his clone. And using a clone required magic power. With his current fighting style, he wouldn''t have enough magic power to continue until sunset, so he chose to spend all the attribute points he got on magic power.


    With the additional magic power, even though he still had no confidence, he should be able to get by had he used the clone conservatively.


    "It''s really hard to maintain two different attributes��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows while letting out a long sigh. "Most people don''t need a huge amount of magic power because they usually fight in the front line. Using skill is necessary, but not the most important. However, I need the clone, which happens to take a toll on me��"


    He took out the loot he got from the monsters he met earlier.


    Bear Fur (F)


    Good materials for clothing.


    Ex-Humanoid w (F)


    A hard material that could be used to strengthen a weapon when it''s forged.


    Wilow Bird Great Talon (F)


    A good looking material for house decoration.


    "��" Theo fell silent when he looked at these three items aside from the monkey tail. "Hmm��Everything has been digitalized and I can sell these digitally. However, I can only sell cheaper because of themission I need to pay for selling it, so most hunters, including me, prefer the traditional way of trading since it gives me more money."


    People sold almost everything on the inte, but they also paid a significant charge for the safety of their items. And even though the items would also be delivered to your home with drones, it just drained their money even further.


    That was why the hunters, usually newbies, preferred the traditional way because they could get at least twenty percent more.


    Besides, the transfer wasn''t recorded, so they didn''t need to pay taxes since the government didn''t know about it.


    That was Theo''s reason for trading with the old man.


    "Well, I like the fact that my name or bank ount is not known by the other party when doing the Swift Transfer. This way, I can keep this second identity for a little longer which will benefit me in the long run."


    "Let''s see��If I sell these four items to the traditional market, I should be able to get around 3000 Zils, while if I go for the Skylink route, I will only get 2500 Zils."


    Skylink�� was the name of the biggestwork on the inte that connected everyone in the world. They controlled almost everything, starting from Search Engines, emerce, and any other things that could be found on the inte.


    They had the help of governments worldwide because theirwork also helped them monitor the people to get a tax record.


    "Well, I don''t n to do it the traditional way forever. I will start using Skylink if my situation is a bit better." Theo let out a long sigh. "Anyway, rather than feeling down about this trivial stuff, I need to put more effort in killing monsters today. I should be able to get 6000 Zils at this pace��"


    He finished his lunch and rose from the ground, ready to look for another monster. However, he quickly hid behind a tree when he heard something moving in the bushes. He took a peek and found two people crawling behind the bushes as if they feared something around the area. "Hmm?"


    He almost forgot the fact that this ce was often filled with people. He quickly reached out the mask in his bag and put it on, not wanting to be recognized by someone.


    Theo avoided this type of trouble, so he quickly went around them to stay away from their problem.


    Suddenly, he found himself getting entangled in something that was not supposed to be here. He thought by going around the two people, he would be able to go on his way.


    But to think that the monster had yet to arrive and made its appearance in front of Theo.


    "Wh��" Theo drew a gasp and took a step back when he saw a blood-red bat flying in front of him.


    He had no knowledge about the bat, but he knew that the bat was not supposed to be in this area. The wingspan of this bat alone was ten feet and the fangs on its mouth looked sharp enough to shred him into pieces instead of sucking his blood.


    The bat continued on its way, flying straight toward Theo.


    Theo threw himself to the left, but the bat was too fast. With this timing, the bat would obviously hit him.


    In thest second, he managed to put up his spear on the front, stopping the bat''s charge.


    The impact hit harder than he expected. Rolling a few times on the ground, he kept his mind calm and pushed hard with his hand,unching him to the air to stabilize his body and adjust his position.


    Before the bat turned around, he took out his device to check the bat''s identity.


    Name: Blood Sucking Bat


    Level: 51-60


    "!!!" Theo blinked his eyes a few times. As he expected, the monster wasn''t supposed to be here.


    He found that the bat had turned around and made the same turn for himself before running as fast as he could.


    Unfortunately, the bat caught up in an instant and opened its jaw, trying to his shoulders with those sharp teeth.


    Theo spun his body and protected himself with the spear, but the bat''s strength was far higher than he expected. It pinned him to the ground with its two teeth almost hitting his shoulder.


    ''I won''t die��'' He clenched his teeth and summoned his clone.


    The moment Clone Theo appeared, he drew the sword in Theo''s waist before swinging upward.


    Sensing the danger with that sword, the bat flew several feet back while ring at the two Theos.


    ''Should I fight the bat? I once killed a Rock Turtle. Their level is about the same, so��'' Theo shook his head. ''I shouldn''t be too naive. Even the God of Mischief told me how lucky I was�� I should run.''


    Theo decided not to take the risk. He believed that those who could win against the bat were only protagonists in stories or abnormal people. At the very least, he was neither of the two.


    A normal person followed the most logical option. And that option was run.


    The two Theos turned around and ran away.


    The bat chased both of them, but its movement was more inclined to the real Theo.


    Theo found a giant boulder in front of him and went around it without hesitation.


    The bat surely couldn''t recognize him, so he quickly traded ces with his clone, but Theo forgot one thing.


    The bat let out its ultrasonic sound and followed the movement behind the rock. After locking on the real Theo, the bat increased its speed, trying to hunt him down like earlier.


    Theo nced back with a smile. "I have expected that you won''t get tricked by this��"


    Suddenly, Clone Theo appeared next to the bat, swinging his sword down.


    The bat didn''t even look at him and simply opened its mouth. A high-pitched voice came out, disturbing Theo''s brainwave. His eardrums were about to burst from that sound.


    But more importantly, Clone Theo stopped and dropped the weapon because Theo lost control of it when taking the full brunt of the sound wave.


    "Not good!" Theo used his spear to block the charge, but the same thing repeated. He wasunched, rolled on the ground, and hit a tree with his back. "Gah."


    He spat a mouthful of blood while looking at the bat that had yet to stop its charge.


    "I was truly lucky back then��" Theo finally felt the impact of those words, albeit it was on hisst moment. "It seems this is the end��"


    Although he knew that he would die at this point since his body refused to move, he still managed to set his spear''s butt on the ground and raised it so the bat would die when it tried to kill him.


    Suddenly, the most unexpected thing happened. The bat let out a sound, and its eyes looked hollow.


    The body began to separate from each other, perfectly in the middle. The blood spurted out following the movement of the body, which dyed Theo in red. The ground, his clothes, and his spear were not spared.


    He could see a figure after the bat passed his body. Even though his vision was red, he could recognize who just killed the bat and saved him.


    Alea Eilric.

 Chapter 19 – Reason

    <h4>Chapter 19 - Reason</h4>


    It might be due to the effect of her skill, but the residual particles still lingered around her body, turning her yellow hair into gold.


    On her hand was a thin sword. The handle was gold, but the de was red. She showed no emotion, but she looked not cold and aloof.


    Their eyes intertwined and both of them surprisingly recognized each other.


    Theo aside, Alea was a famous figure whether in the school or public. It wasn''t possible for someone not to recognize her.


    However, he couldn''t understand why Alea acted as if she had met him.


    "You are the one I have been searching for." A smile appeared on her serious face before the atmosphere itself had gotten calmer. She approached him and bent down.


    Theo sweatdropped. A powerful family like the Eilric Family would surely have a way to check his identity, so he should avoid leaving any evidence about his real identity.


    He adjusted his voice to let it sound a bit deeper than his actual voice. "You�� Know me?"


    Alea felt a weird sensation when he spoke. Since she had an agenda with him, she decided to ignore it and said, "Yes. The one who killed a Rock Turtle despite being a Normal Rank. I was too upied back then and let one of the Rock Turtles escape. When I chased it, the only thing I found was just the aftermath. After a few investigations, I found out that you were the one who killed it."


    Theo''s heart skipped a beat as he began to panic. He grumbled inwardly, ''What should I do? Did I get found out? There shouldn''t be surveince cameras on this side, but she could find it was me? Did someone inform her about me? No, her influence was enough for her to get an answer from the cksmiths all over the base��The old man must have told her about me.''


    As he put too much thought into the matter, Alea continued. "It turns out that my second blunder leads me to you. This must be fate. Seeing your body and vibe, you should be a high school student like me. I can''t pinpoint which grade you are though."


    "��" Theo fell silent. ''It seems the situation is still under control. At the very least, she hasn''t known my identity yet. In that case, I should use it to my advantage.''


    Suddenly, Theo looked away, refusing to answer.


    "You��I just saved you, but you couldn''t even say thanks." She pouted before adding. "Is what I want to say, but since this is my blunder, I should apologize to you."


    She politely bowed her head. "I am sorry for this blunder and the previous mistake."


    Theo blinked his eyes a few times, not believing what he just heard. With her status, the matter could be solved with just a word.


    However, the person in question lowered her head to apologize. He had no choice other than to say, "It''s fine. Since you saved my life, we can call it even."


    Though, another thought appeared in his mind. ''How many blunders are you going to make despite being known as a genius?''


    He could take advantage of the situation, but it would just entangle him with her matter, so he decided to draw a line to prevent any troublesome things from happening.


    "But I can''t leave it like this. I need topensate you in one way or another. Do you need anything?" She asked.


    Theo thought for a moment. He might be able to get a high level weapon with her background, but he felt that it wouldn''t be safe for his identity.


    There was one way to settle it in an instant.


    "Money."


    Alea blinked her eyes a few times as if she couldn''t believe what she heard. "I don''t know whether you are greedy or foolish. Well, I already said it, so I wouldn''t take it back."


    What she meant by greedy was because he said money without a specific amount. In other words, how much she would give to him would depend on her discretion. How bad she felt for almost killing him twice?


    At the same time, Theo could be considered foolish. It was the perfect chance to get something expensive. Even if he didn''t need it, he could sell it. Even if it was a bit cheaper than the original price, it was still a fortune for a poor person like him.


    Little did she know the true reason Theo asked for money was so that no one could track him. The Swift Transfer wouldn''t have the record, making it hard to find his real identity.


    "Give me your Skylink." She took out a cylindrical device called Skylink.


    Theo also took out his and put it closer to hers. Her Skylink then projected a blue screen where she put the amount she wanted to transfer.


    "By the way, I don''t know your name." She took a quick nce at his face to get his name, but to no avail.


    Theo refused to give his personal information. But since the situation was him getting saved and got money from her, he decided to give his alias. "Joker."


    "Pfft��An alias. Are you a middle-schooler?" Sheughed while saying, "Ah, I am sorry��Haha��I didn''t mean to make fun of you. Still, hiding your identity, huh. No wonder you want money instead of other things."


    "��" Theo remained silent, not wanting to rebuke her or whatsoever.


    "Say��Do you need a party or something? I don''t have anyone with me, so how about we make a party?"


    "You are far stronger than me. I am not qualified to be your party member. Besides, if you allowed a bat like that escaped with your current strength, can you��Never mind. I don''t want to be rude." Theo shook his head.


    "My bad. I encountered a flock of Blood Sucking Bats. I managed to kill 49 of them, but one of them got past me, so I do feel sorry." She sighed.


    "��" When Theo heard that she fought that many bats alone, he was impressed. The difference of level between the bats and Alea might be far, but the situation changed when she encountered so many bats at once. It was very hard to keep the bats in one ce, so letting only one pass her could be considered amazing instead.


    He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry. I don''t mean to mock you, but I have my own situation. That''s why I can''t join your party."


    "That''s a shame."


    "And I couldn''t understand why you invited me to your party."


    "When I first heard about you, I noticed that you were special. You must have leveled up a few times after killing the Rock Turtle, so I knew that you were weak at that time. I mean��Take a look at your current situation and I can predict your previous level��Not the exact level though." She shrugged.


    "Is that the reason?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I am not unique. Just a bit lucky. If I were to fight the turtle again, I would lose ten out of ten."


    "Look. This is the second reason. You knew your weakness well, but instead of cowering, you kept improving. I could see how you still pointed your spear despite knowing that you would have died with thatst charge." She smiled.


    "��" Theo looked down. It was just hisst attempt and he never expected anything from it. ''To think it could be seen that way.''


    "I have a few more reasons, but the most important one is to ask you to join my party. I feel that you are someone worth grooming. I want to teach you myself."


    "You mean like your student?"


    "Nope. I will be your mentor. There will be a globalpetition this year. It requires a party of six to join. And each grade will need to send two people to participate. For now, my current candidate is Sihan Raskaka and my friend. I still need to search for three additional members. With how polite you are, you must be a junior." She narrowed her eyes, looking at him up and down. "Ah, the school hasn''t spread the news yet, but I think they will do something soon, so don''t spread it, okay? Well, I will know your identity that way anyway, so your choice. By the way, are you a first year or second year student?"


    "��" Theo remained silent.


    "Since you don''t want to answer, it''s fine. But I already know that you are a student, my junior on top of that. Don''t make me catch you." She grinned.


    ''How sharp is this woman?'' Theo''s eyebrows twitched. He never expected that the way he talked could be a clue as well. It was normal to be polite to your senior in school or even in general.


    Alea knew this too well and gathered all the clues she got beforeing to a conclusion.


    "Fufu. And don''t try to drop out or escape, I will know it is you." She threatened him. "I will drag you back. Even if you are not chosen, I will have a backup ready."


    Theo looked at her face helplessly. ''It seems I need toy low for the time being. Luckily, Laust is suspended while Eric and She have died. I can take a breather from bullying.''


    She then stood up and stretched her hand.


    Theo reached her hand and rose from the ground.


    "Then, I think I need to go now. I am looking forward to our next meeting." She waved her hand and turned around. "Don''t forget to take a bath. You reek of blood."


    Just like that, Alea disappeared from his vision.


    "What should I do now��" Theo facepalmed.

 Chapter 20 – What?!

    <h4>Chapter 20 - What?!</h4>


    After seeing how Alea just came and left, he was stunned.


    The bat''s corpse was there because Alea didn''t touch it or probably forgot to touch it.


    "Ugh. I can''t turn it into a card because only the one who kills it is qualified to do so��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "Never mind. I should search for a ce to clean my mask first."


    The image of the big boulder shed in his mind and he decided to go there.


    However, the doubt that Alea left the area remained in his heart, so he took out a water bottle and poured it directly onto his mask.


    "Still, what the heck was that?" Theo muttered. "How could her sense be so sharp? I had done all the things I could think of to hide my identity, but she somehow managed to get it right."


    Ah, Theo could smell it clearly, the smell of trouble, especially in the school. In fact, Alea might be a more troublesome person than Laust.


    He reached out his device and saw his bnce.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 101,600 Zil


    "Seriously? She gave me a hundred thousand Zils in one go!" Theo was taken aback. Even if she needed topensate him, this was far from what he expected. "I thought she would give ten thousand or so. But I think I can move to a new apartment with this money, allowing me to train with my clone effectively. Besides, it''s not like I can buy expensive items because there is a chance she realizes it''s me."


    Deciding to buy something that wouldn''t be rted to school or fighting, Theo put his device carefully on his bag.


    "Anyway, I should be able to rent a nice one for 30,000 Zils. I can''t spend more than that since I need to save money in case I need it in the future. Need to be smart with money��" Theo sighed.


    After thinking for a while, he rose from the ground and looked around, choosing a direction to go. In the end, he set the spear''s butt on the ground and let it drop.


    "That way, huh." Theo looked at where the bat died.


    Before anything could happen, he quickly slipped past the corpse and continued his journey.


    "I should be able to fight three or four more. In other words, aside from the 100,000 Zils, I can earn around 6,000 Zils a day with my current ability." Theo looked down, calcting his earning.


    His fighting ability would surely go up along with his level, so he would surely make more and more money in the future.


    "For my future��If I am strong enough and have saved up a lot of money, I can search for my brother." Theo nodded with a smile. His spirit went up as he was eager to fight more.


    He strolled around the woods while looking for a monster.


    Due to the public holiday, it became harder to look for a monster because people used their time to hunt. It took him ten minutes just to find one.


    The monster had a body figure like that of a bear. Yet, the fur covered only its back. Theo could see abs on the chest and stomach area with the same build as a human. The arms were slightly longer but thinner than a bear''s, but the strength shouldn''t be that much of a difference.


    When the monster turned around as their eyes intertwined, Theo summoned his clone and handed the sword, letting the clone fight the monster alone.


    The monster took the clone head-on.


    Seeing that its attention had been taken, Theo quickly pointed out his device to check what kind of monster he fought.


    Name: Strugil Bear


    Level: 16-20


    It has the same constitution as a bear, but it sacrifices its power for speed.


    "I see. I need to be conscious of its speed." Theo''s expression turned serious as he jumped forward with his spear in front.


    When the bear saw Theo''s sudden emergence from behind his clone, it raised its right paw, sweeping horizontally.


    Theo took a quick look at its size and speed and knew that one hit was all it needed to crush his skull.


    Clone Theo quickly anticipated the movement and shed the bear''s paw, albeit he couldn''t block or avoid the oneing from the opposite direction.


    Just like his prediction, the power of the bear crushed his organ. In fact, this bear was more dangerous than a normal bear he found earlier.


    Because of the speed, the momentum increased, turning the bear''s swipe to another level. If this were the real him, he would be severely injured. Luckily, it was his clone that simply disappeared.


    Without the right paw and the other palm was down, Theo took this perfect opportunity and thrust his spear.


    He didn''t forget to use the skill in which he spun the spear with a kind of special wrist movement to increase the pration power, piercing the bear''s head.


    Roar.


    The bear let out a small groan before it fell to the ground.


    [Killed a Strugil Bear]


    [EXP+ 43]


    Theo slowly pulled off his spear so the blood didn''t spurt.


    "Huft." He let out a sigh of relief, retracted his clone, and touched the monster''s head.


    The monster turned into particles, leaving behind a card.


    Skill: Sweeping Edge (F)


    Effect: Using the power in the lower body to boost the strength of the palm to create a strong swipe.


    "Hmm," Theo narrowed his eyes and muttered, "I already have the monkey fist; hence I don''t think I need another one of the same type for the time being. Yeah, I will keep this skill card and use it to upgrade my clone, my main skill."


    He put the card inside his bag and prepared to continue his journey.


    At the same time, a bit further away on his left spotted a person running away from a monster.


    Crack.


    Pant.


    Pant.


    Cracking noises from the dried leaves on the ground and the panting of someone echoed in Theo''s ears.


    "Ah?!" A feminine voice resounded in his ears as he turned around, finding someone who ran with a horrible expression. Behind him was a wolf. It had blue fur on top and white fur on the other half.


    Meanwhile, the person had short pink hair, tiny but cute stature, and a small and pretty face. She wore a white shirt and ck short pants. Even though the person looked out of breath, his speed was far faster than Theo''s.


    "Help me!"


    Hearing that shout, he had a conflicted mind. On one hand, his mission was to kill all corrupted people who abandoned people. Although he didn''t mind using the same method to rise to the top, he just felt it was a bit wrong. On the other hand, there was an unspoken rule that those who came here shouldn''t interfere with each other since so many people always argued that they stole their kill despite having helped them.


    This turned worse when the only person who could im the monster was the killer. Most people only trusted their own party for this, so Theo nned to do the same.


    When he saw the person tried to go to him, Theo ultimately chose to avoid helping that person. Even the person in front of him was a super beauty, if she would endanger him, why would he even save her?


    Unfortunately, reality wouldn''t always go ording to the expectation.


    She stepped a bit deeper and jumped to the side as if reacting to Theo''s movement.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and dodged it again before starting to run from the wolf as well.


    "Wait a minute! Please help me!"


    "You get into the trouble yourself. Solve it yourself." Theo clicked his tongue.


    "I can''t beat the wolf." She followed him.


    Due to her speed, she managed to catch up with Theo a few times, but thetter always slipped past her.


    The wolf kept charging at them because she followed him.


    Suddenly, the same giant boulder he passed earlier came into his vision.


    ''There it is��Why is this boulder always appearing in my life today? Anyway, I should be able to shake her off with this boulder.'' Theo thought and went around the boulder.


    He summoned his clone to continue while he hid behind the boulder.


    However, his expectation once again got betrayed.


    The female seemed to know him hiding behind the boulder while the one running was a fake. She stomped her foot on the ground, used it to stop his momentum and leaped toward Theo.


    "What?!" Theo never expected this and instinctively tried to run, but thetter already clung to him.


    It was at this time that Theo realized he just screwed up a big time. He could feel something on his back, but not on the upper part, but on the lower part.


    People said that once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is action. The first time was failing to dodge. The second time was when she didn''t get tricked by his clone. And this was the third time.


    ''She is a he?'' Theo widened his eyes and turned around as the wolf leaped into the air. He clenched his fist and threw a punch from the side with the Monkey Punch, sting the wolf to the boulder. "Whaaaattt?!!!"

 Chapter 21 – Phyrill Hilbert

    <h4>Chapter 21 - Phyrill Hilbert</h4>


    Despite the shock, Theo still managed to control his clone, having it throw the spear while heading back with the sword.


    This decision came due to this girl��guy''s grasp. Even if he shook him off, there was no way that the brat would leave him alone.


    "What are you doing? You should handle this problem yourself. Do you want to kill me?" Even so, the calm was nowhere enough to stop him fromining.


    "I just wanted to be a man, but then I realized I couldn''t kill this guy. Please help me. I will pay you handsomely."


    "This is not about payment!" Theo clicked his tongue when he saw the wolf had recovered and leaped at him again.


    Clone Theo appeared between the two, blocking the wolf''s charge. He nned to end this fight in one attack due to a few reasons.


    First, his stature was like a middle school student, so there was no way he coulde here in a normal way. Either he sneaked out or his influence was big enough to deal with the guards. If it was the former, he had enough confidence in throwing this guy off. As for the second��It was nothing but trouble.


    With that kind of background, there should be a few people protecting him. Even if they were not here right now, they would surely arrive sooner orter.


    Theo didn''t want and couldn''t afford to deal with this kind of person. The thought of them watching from afar alone already scared him as he had no ability yet to sh with them head-on.


    Secondly, as he said earlier, it wasn''t about payment. He couldn''t afford to lose his life, so no chance would he y with his life just for money. He had many ns in the future that could bring him money, so risking his life here was nothing but a foolish decision.


    Last but not least was this guy. He couldn''t understand his intention at all. There was no telling that this guy purposely aimed his life or just coincidentally ran to his side. Hence, Theo chose the optimal decision, fleeing as soon as possible.


    Roar.


    Luckily, the wolf opened the jaw wider than the previous time, trying to rip Clone Theo into pieces.


    Theo used this chance to pierce his spear through his clone and ended up perforating the wolf''s head.


    [Killed a Forest Wolf]


    [EXP+43]


    The clone disappeared as Theo caught the sword, sheathing it back.


    "Get off me." Theo shook him off.


    The mysterious "trap" fell on his butt, looking at Theo with a weird look. "You are so cool! Can I call you Big Brother?"


    "No, please. I don''t want to have a nightmare." Theo snorted, ignoring him. Normally, people would surely consider this guy as a girl because of his cute face, but Theo simply didn''t care about gender. Alea could be the strongest in the academy not because she was a woman but due to her strength.


    "You are so cool. Using the illusion to kill the wolf in one hit. I admire you��"


    Instead of paying attention to him, Theo quickly turned around, ready to leap.


    However, this guy seemed to be faster than he expected. He already clung on his back again before Theo could flee.


    "What are you doing?!" Theo really wanted to kill this guy, but with all his assumptions about this guy, it was better not to act impulsively no matter how heavy the burden he needed to endure.


    "I haven''t paid you. ording to my father, a man should fulfill his promise. So��" He reached his pocket while saying, "I will give you something."


    Theo remembered what he said earlier. The promise never actually came into his mind, but it turned out that the other party took it seriously.


    "Where did I put it?" He tried to search all his pockets before remembering something.


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he believed that the guy lost it. This would always happen when he acted like this.


    On the contrary, the guy''s eyes brightened as he slowly reached a palm-sized card inside his shirt. The guy''s hand slipped inside from the cor, making it look even more seductive��If it was for someone else.


    "This is it." The guy handed the card to Theo.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (E)


    Effect: Summon up to 10 magic bullets


    "��" Theo widened his eyes, seeing an E Rank Skill for the first time. He wanted to take it, but this skill card just proved his im about this guy''s identity. The big influence behind him made Theo hesitate.


    "Ah, Big Brother doesn''t want this skill?" The guy pouted before remembering one basic courtesy. "Oh, is it because I am a stranger? I should introduce myself first. I am Phyrill Hilbert. Nice to meet you."


    Theo still failed to see his intention. This guy was earnest, but somehow, all of it felt wrong.


    "I have a blessing that allows me to find you��I can''t really tell you the specific blessing though. I didn''t want to die, so I could only ask Big Brother''s help. Because I endangered your life, I shouldpensate you. That''s why��Please take it, Big Brother."


    "How do you know about my illusion?" Theo asked. Since Phyrill had yet to know the truth about the fact that his "illusion" was a clone, he didn''t want to give the information away like how Phyrill avoided talking about his blessing.


    "It''s rted to my blessing."


    Theo thought, ''Should I grab it? I don''t know this person even among the riches. Even though Magic Bullet is not a rare skill among E Rank skills, he might recognize me if I use this skill. Still, this guy is small like a middle-schooler, so I think I am safe for the time being? I mean, it''s not like he can find me in school. The only possible ce he can find me is this Haven. I guess I should take it.''


    After contemting the pros and cons, Theo reached the card, making Phyrill even happier. Theo instantly took the card after thinking that Phyrill wouldn''t let him escape without it, so before his subordinate came, he needed to get the card and escape.


    When he was about to reach the card, a voice resounded in their ears as Theo instinctively turned around. "There you are!"


    He saw Phyrill handing Theo a skill card and misunderstood him, thinking that Theo forced Phyrill to hand over his possessions. "You Bastard!"


    ''As expected, I was toote." Theo gritted his teeth while looking at this middle-aged man.


    He had spiky yellow hair and wore a ck suit. His muscr body already gave him enough information for Theo to know that this punch would severely injure him if not killing him.


    However, Phyrill''s instinct seemed to be better and his soft heart moved his body,ing between Theo and the middle-aged man.


    The middle-aged man widened his eyes, stomped the ground to stop his movement, and shouted. "What are��"


    "Are you going to raise your hand against me?" Phyrill red at him with a cold gaze.


    "No��"


    "Then, are you going to raise your hand to the one who saved my life?"


    "Saved?" The middle-aged frowned and found the wolf''s body that was hidden behind the boulder. He didn''t see it earlier, resulting in him misunderstanding the whole situation. After seeing the hole in the wolf''s head, he finally understood the situation. "I apologize. I have misunderstood the situation."


    "Good." Phyrill nodded and turned around, forcing the skill card to Theo''s hand. "I am sorry that the situation has be like this."


    "��" Theo had no word to say, simply because he had no idea what to say.


    "You��" The middle-aged man red at Theo hatefully. "I won''t let you get our Young Master."


    ''No, no. What did you say earlier?'' Theo''s face turned sour, not understanding what this guy said. Did he say it without considering their gender?


    "Anyway, let''s go back." Phyrill let out a long sigh.


    "That''s right. Young Master. Why did you suddenly disappear earlier? I was about to kill myself if I found you having injuries to redeem myself." The middle-aged man shouted before grabbing Phyrill''s waist and carrying him like baggage.


    "Wait a minute. I can walk! Let me go!" Phyrill struggled to free himself but to no avail.


    "I won''t let you go away again, Young Master."


    "Ugh!" Phyrill looked down with a sad expression. However, he forced a smile while waving his hand. "Brother, let''s meet again in the future."


    Theo couldn''t react as everything happened ridiculously fast.


    "What just happened?" Theo muttered.


    Meanwhile, the middle-aged man''s expression turned serious as he asked, "What are you nning to do, Young Master? I don''t believe you would approach someone like him without reasons."


    "Ah, you found out?" Phyrill scratched the back of his head. "Alea Eilric is interested in him. You know about my blessing, right? I somehow overheard their conversation earlier, so I chose to give that skill card to him."


    "So, you can narrow down your search?"


    Phyrill made a big smile. "He is a weapon user, but I don''t know if he is a vanguard or not after seeing his clone or illusion. In other words, he has enough magic power to use magic. A weapon user who uses magic, especially a magic bullet, is rare. The Magic Bullet will help me narrow the search by arge margin. Alea might have seen something in him that we haven''t seen yet. After all, she is the granddaughter of Nart Eilric, the one who is famous due to his eyes of talent. She inherits his genes after all."


    "I see. No wonder you are so interested in him. But it doesn''t mean that I won''t report what you did, okay? You will need to find an excuse because Master��Your father will surely not ept what you said earlier."


    "Ugh."

 Chapter 22 – Grand Gaia

    <h4>Chapter 22 - Grand Gaia</h4>


    "Magic Bullet."


    A glowing blue colored ball appeared on Theo''s hand. Its size was slightly bigger than a human head.


    ording to what the skill taught him, he should be able to split them into ten, albeit when he first split it into two, the ball exploded due to the unstable flow.


    It turned out that there was another reason why a skill had different grades. Not only their strength increased, but the requirement to master the skill also increased.


    In the end, he chose to train itter while using this skill to st the opponent''s head like what he was doing right now.


    The ball flew toward the monster he currently faced, leaving a trail in the form of blue light as if the ball never left and instead released some sort of beam.


    Without having enough energy, the monster died with half of its head destroyed.


    "As expected from an E Rank Skill, the power is extraordinary." Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing why those rich people could be stronger quickly.


    He thought four monsters would be his limit during this expedition, but Magic Bullet just increased his efficiency by fifty percent.


    He touched the monster''s head, leaving nothing for him to sell.


    "I should go back right now."


    [Killed a Starling Panther.]


    [EXP+68]


    [Level Up.]


    Status: Normal


    Level: 24


    EXP: 13/332


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (F), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), 6 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 37, Endurance 16, Agility 25, Vitality 16, Magic Power 35


    Free Attribute Points: 5


    After getting the Magic Bullet and realizing its true worth, Theo had significantly adjusted his attributes to increase the amount of his magic power, so he could continue to fight a bit longer.


    The result was extraordinary since he could level up four times in just one day. Had he gotten the Magic Bullet in the morning, he would have reached level 25.


    "No, no. I shouldn''t be too greedy." Theo shook his head and increased every attribute one point. "Meeting those two was like falling straight down without protective equipment. The time needed was significantly reduced, but it kept me between life and death."


    Sigh.


    Theo looked at the orange sky, ready to return.


    He sheathed the sword and carried the spear on his back as he headed straight to the base.


    Surprisingly, it didn''t take too long before he reached the base. He had carefully memorized the path and went around as soon as he met any monsters.


    After returning to the base, he quickly sold everything in his possession to a few merchants so that no one could track him. It was a basic deception move but pretty effective.


    While looking at his bank ount, he couldn''t contain his grin.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 107,900 Zil


    "When I am stronger, I will get more and more every trip. At that time, I will surely hire the best person to find my brother." Theo muttered.


    As soon as he returned to the other side, he made a few turns where the cameras couldn''t find him. He took off his mask and robe, heading home with his true appearance.


    "I am tired, so I won''t practice tonight. It''s not that I want to ck, but I want to prepare myself to buy a bigger apartment tomorrow, so I can train all I want." He convinced himself that he would go to a housingpany to buy an apartment.


    As soon as he entered his apartment, he had no other to do than take a shower and sleep.


    The night passed in an instant.


    Ring.


    Ring.


    Ring.


    The rm woke Theo up because the light never illuminated the dark alley he lived in.


    "Hmm." He let out a groan as he rose from the bed and headed to the school.


    When he arrived at school, three people were missing. Yeah, they were Laust, Eric, and She. The couple had died and the school wouldn''t participate in the investigation because everything could happen in the Haven.


    Unless you had a "big daddy", no one would search for you, so the secret shouldn''te to light. Even if the Lange Family suspected him, he simply needed to y dumb.


    They might kill him on the other side, albeit everything would be solved with his other identity.


    He took a seat and saw the teachering in with a serious but tired face.


    "Alright. I need to bring up an important topic for all of you. This has been in the talk between teachers and the student council for quite a while. To put it simply, our school has been granted the opportunity to participate in a bigpetition." The teacher exined uninterestedly.


    "May we know what thepetition is, Teacher? And why do you exin it today?" A student raised her hand and asked.


    The answer came in the form of another question.


    "Do any of you know about the Grand Gaia?"


    Half of the students dropped their jaw, while some seemed to have no idea.


    "Teacher? Is this a newpetition that the government created?" Another student, who looked unsurprised, asked.


    "Nope. You must haven''t read international news, so��unfortunately for me, I need a bit more effort to exin it to you." The teacher sighed, treating it as a chore. "Grand Gaia is an international contest where you canpete against international participants. ording to the current news, there are a total of one hundred and fifty countries, including us."


    "We have a chance to participate in thispetition?" A student covered her mouth as herment turned the ss into an uproar.


    The teacher mmed the table while ring at them. "If you want to make my life harder, you can go outside right now. You may ask questions, but I don''t like to wait until all of you fall silent."


    The moment they heard it, they quickly closed their mouths, not wanting to offend their teacher.


    "Good." The teacher nodded and continued. "First thing you need to know is the teamposition. It''s a group of six. Each grade will send two participants, so two out of one thousand first-year students will participate."


    He mmed the table with both fists. "Now, let''s talk about the details."

 Chapter 23 – Training

    <h4>Chapter 23 - Training</h4>


    "First. There will be a training camp for all of you. This will be joint training for all grades for six months to see who will join thepetition. The training will be held on the other side, so I can''t give you another hint because the instructors will be in charge of everything rted to your training. Any questions?"


    The students looked at each other and shook their heads.


    The teacher then continued. "The second thing is the requirements. Normally, you don''t need to do this during your first year, but thepetition changes everything. The school allows you to join one of the temples."


    "The temples? Are you sure, Teacher? Is this a special exception," A student asked.


    "Then a small quiz. Give me all the names of the temples."


    "Vanguard Temple, Magic Temple, and Assassin Temple."


    "Yes. Vanguard Temple is basically the home of weapons. You can buy weapons from swords to guns along with a respective skill for a certain price. The Vanguard Temple will give you an identity ording to the job you want. I won''t exin the benefit of bing one of them, so have their staff exin it to you. There are four jobs you can get there: Knight, Fighter, Magic Warrior, and Ranger. Have them exined this as well." He paused and looked at the students. "Who wants to tell us about the Magic Temple?"


    One of the students raised his hand. "Magic Temple is simr to that of Vanguard Temple, but for those who use magic. They have four famous jobs: Magician, Healer, Enchanter, and Summoner."


    "Good and short enough." The teacher then turned to another student and pointed at him. "You��Tell us about the Assassin Temple."


    "Assassin Temple is different from the other two. Their jobs are more specialized, with three big upations: Scout, Assassin, and Illusionist. As the name implies, Scout is focused on looking around the area. The assassin is to kill the enemy while the group distracts the monster while Illusionist is simr to a Magician, but they are��"


    "Alright. You stop right now. I don''t want to hear the full exnation. The temples can exin it better." The teacher stopped his ambitious answer and moved on from the topic. "Anyway, your upation will also be in consideration for picking the team. After all, it''s not like we can choose six magicians to participate."


    "Is there a time limit for this, Teacher?"


    "Yes. The school allows you a day off tomorrow. You must go to the temple and get yourself a job. With the influx of people and the test, I believe you need a whole day to get your license. As for Saturday��There will be another briefing from the principal himself, so make sure to attend. The time and ce will be informed at ater date. The training will start next Monday. Any questions?"


    This time, it was Theo who raised his hand. "Teacher. What benefit can we get from participating?"


    Theo had so many thoughts about thispetition because the announcement was so coincidental. Yesterday, he met Alea. She told him about all this and said to keep it a secret. To think the teacher would announce it the next day, it couldn''t help but raise his suspicion.


    "You will gain many benefits if you can participate in thispetition. First of all, you will get a certain degree of fame which will help you if you want to get a job in a big family or something. Of course, thispetition is one of the most-watchedpetitions, so if you perform well enough, people might fall in love and bring you as their inw, so yeah, getting huge support for your career and so much more.


    "And there is no way we will allow someone topete with those geniuses from all over the world without backing you up. The school will provide you with training and skills to make sure you are ready to beat those geniuses."


    Theo widened his eyes as he thought, ''The terms are good. Should I seriously aim for this? If I be a participant, the government will surely protect me until thepetition ends. As long as I perform well enough, the Lange Family can''t touch me easily. And I don''t think Alea will do something detrimental even if she knows my identity. Besides, I should have saved up enough money to leave the country if things turn worse.''


    Theo contemted whether to risk his identity was worth the effort or not.


    He convinced himself with two more things. ''I should be able to set up a few connections when participating in that tournament. Going international means I can get closer to my goal to be the strongest while searching for my brother.''


    Ultimately, he decided to hide his identity for as long as possible during the training as it wouldn''t matter too much in the near future.


    The teacher then continued. "And one thing you need to know, you won''t be able to return home during the training. The only way to go back home is to give up. The food and shelter will be provided, but don''t expect good quality because it''s a kind of military rations. Of course, there is no special treatment even if you pay us millions of Zils. Any question?"


    "Do you know about the training menu? I mean, what kind of training will we face?"


    "The training will depend on your jobs. They have specialists that will help youplete your training. So, there won''t be a warrior having a magician''s training set. Clear?"


    "Yes. Thank you for the answer, Teacher." The student nodded politely.


    "If you don''t have a question, today will be yourst ss. This opportunity is for all of you, but you can meet me after school if you can''t participate. I will be in charge of your study for one month, so don''t expect me to give you mercy. That''s all." The teacher then turned around and left the ssroom.


    As soon as he closed the door, the ss turned into an uproar, talking about the training camp. The same thing urred in all grades, but the third year''s excitement was slightly less, considering that Alea already took one of the spots. As for her n about inviting Sihan and her friend��It was still a secret because she wanted to prove to the others that they were qualified to participate in the tournament.

 Chapter 24 – Job

    <h4>Chapter 24 - Job</h4>


    After school, Theo had another thought of what he wanted to do. A coffee shop was a good ce for solving his thought.


    ''Hmm, the traininges really soon and will take a long time. Right now, I can buy a cheap apartment, but I won''t get that much of a space. What I need right now is arger one where I can train with my clone, so it means I need to go for a more expensive one which can only be acquired by rent right now.''


    His Skylink was already open, searching for the apartments. He skimmed all the information to find a perfect apartment for him.


    ''I should rent this one. It has two master bedrooms. I can turn one of them to my training room. Besides, the living room is quite big, so it should be enough. It will be perfect if I have a mansion where I can use the garden to train, but that''s only a long-term goal for me.''


    He remembered the benefits that the school offered if he was selected. With this kind of benefit, he believed he could reach his goal soon, so he was determined to obtain one of the spots even if Alea knew about his identity.


    ''This was a pipe dream before, but to think I can see it now, I should thank the one who granted me this power, the God of Mischief.'' Theo thought and looked at the ceiling.


    [The God of Mischief is pleased to see your attitude.]


    "��" He shook his head with a smile. ''Anyway, if I am going to rent an apartment, it''s better to only do it after the training. I will be wasting money if I rent it now. In other words, if I can register myself in the temple, I can go to the other side again to increase my strength. After all, there is no way they will choose a weak person for thepetition.''


    Unfortunately, he needed to spend a few hours in the school on Saturday because they would announce his group.


    ''Haiz, if they announce it on the Skylink Network, I won''t need to go to school and spend three days straight training on the other side, but I guess this is too important.'' He finished his coffee and left the shop, nning to finish the registration as quickly as possible.


    He arrived in front of a tall building. Despite calling it a temple, the building was just like any other skyscraper.


    Not having an interest in admiring the building, he entered.


    The first room he saw was a giant lobby. With twenty feet high ceiling and limited pir, the lobby looked spacious despite many people walking around.


    On his right were lines of chairs where people usually waited. On the opposite side, Theo found a giant billboard where people could link their Skylink to it and searched for a party or mission. He himself didn''t understand that much regarding how it all worked, so he nned to test his strength first while understanding the system.


    He walked straight from the door where three receptionists handled all the matters in the guild.


    Theo simply chose the one who didn''t deal with anyone right now.


    She appeared to be a woman in her mid-twenties with her long red hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a ck suit that seemed to be the uniform of this temple.


    "Wee to the Warrior Temple. How can I help you?" She politely asked while wearing her warmest smile.


    "I am here to register."


    "May I see your ID?"


    Theo nodded and handed the ID Card.


    "Hmm? I am sorry, but you are one year too early to register. If you have special permission, then I can begin processing it."


    "Actually, I am here from the academy."


    "Academy? Oh, I almost forgot. Yes, we have been instructed to register the first year student from Evergreen Academy. In that case, may I have your school ID to check if you are a student there?" The receptionist quickly recovered and asked.


    Theo nodded and handed her his school ID.


    She found his picture and matched it with his current appearance.


    "I have confirmed it. Please follow me." The receptionist pressed the green button on her desk, where another receptionist quickly took over her ce.


    Theo nodded and followed her. "Excuse me, can I ask a few things?"


    "Of course. I will help you as much as I can."


    "I would like to know about the jobs first. What benefit do I get if I have a job?"


    "Many parties will have different preferences. For example, there is a party of one knight, two magicians, one scout, and one assassin. Usually, they will need a fighter or another knight to fill thest hole in their party since a party should consist of six people."


    She pointed at the back and continued. "If you look at the billboard in the lobby, you will find many groups searching for a member for hunting. They have a requirement for their job and level while stating how long they will stay on the other side and any other information. It will make things easier to get a party."


    "But isn''t that too vague? You won''t have good coordination with a newly created party?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Indeed. However, you can see the members'' information and their track record, so you can judge whether to go along with them or not. Of course, we hope that you don''t easily choose a party because there are some evil parties that keep preying on the weak just for money or items, so if you want to get a party, you should join with your friend or at least, look for one that has a good reputation."


    "We can watch each other back that way." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Exactly."


    "How about the four big jobs?" Theo asked, contemting his own choice.


    "Knight is the one taking all the attacks from the enemy. If you say it with a game term, you can consider them as a tank or guardian. The job is fairly simple. As for the second job, Fighter, they usually do the most damage to the monsters while the knight holds the monster off. They can also participate as a second knight if necessary."


    Theo nodded, thinking that he might be suited to Fighter.


    "As the name implies, Magic Warriors are simr to Fighters but have the ability to use magic. It''s a hard job, but this will show how talented they are. Thest one will be the ranger. Yes, it''s for the people who use a bow or a gun." She took out her device and opened the form for Theo. "So, what is the job you are going to apply for?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes as he had two options: Fighter and Magic Warrior.


    "I choose��"

 Chapter 25 – Information

    <h4>Chapter 25 - Information</h4>


    "I choose to be a fighter," Theo answered with a smile. "That''s right. Can I change my jobter?"


    "Yes, you can. However, you are required to inform the guild first. The process usually takes seven workdays and you can only change your job once a year to prevent people from abusing it."


    "I understand," Theo remembered about his other identity. He hesitated a bit but still asked her. "Can I actually hide my name with an alias or something?"


    "Yes, you can. Many people use their alias because they feel ufortable putting on their real name. However, it also means that we can''t give all privileges. For example, if you use a weird name with a random picture, it''s hard to trust you other than your track record, right?"


    "Understandable."


    "Also, you can get a quest there. From my experience, there are many big families putting one quest after another. In some cases, they choose who they want to let in, so having this mysterious status will put you in a difficult position. In other words, if you are fine with losing so many benefits in exchange for your identity, I can issue it for you. Of course, there is an additional fee." She smiled.


    "I see. This is for a training camp, so I can''t really make it mysterious, can''t I?" Theo scratched the back of his head embarrassedly before recalling he still had another identity. He probably used it when traveling on the other side.


    "Fair enough." The receptionist nodded and asked, "Do you know about the testing process?"


    "I don''t." He shook his head.


    "First, we need to record your status and your level, so we can present it on your personal information. Of course, we will keep the exact number a secret. Instead, we will use A to F grades depending on your status. In other words, if you are at a certain level and have a certain point in strength, you will get the grade that symbolizes the allocation points into your strength."


    Theo agreed with her. "True enough. I can''t im to be a mage if I have low magic power, right?"


    "Exactly."


    "After recording my status, what is the next process?"


    "We are doing a medical check-up to make sure that your body is fit enough to go. Of course, you need to do it every six months. You can either use this ce or call the staff toe to your home if you have the machine."


    "Call the staff?"


    "Yes. Every hunter will be assigned to one staff. They are usually the ones helping you register, so you can say that I am your assigned staff. I will give you my work numberter, so if you need any help, you can just call me. Of course, please limit it to work only."


    "I understand, but you must have a rough time." Theo nced at her.


    "No, no. Every staff only handles fifty people at max. We have so many staff, so it''s not like we have too many jobs." She shook her head. "I don''t mean to be rude or curse you, but if you are confirmed to be dead, it means I will lose one of my people and force me to go to receive new blood in our temple."


    "In that case, if you have fifty people under you, you will be stationed elsewhere?"


    "Yes, but I can''t disclose more than this."


    "Alright. Thank you for the exnation." Theo nodded while taking all the information in.


    "The third stage will be your track record. We have a system where you can record every single monster you kill to your track record and disclose it ording to your jurisdiction. Of course, we will protect people''s privacy. Even the government asks it, unless you are an international criminal or something, we won''t give it to them."


    "Okay. What''s the next step?"


    "It''s done. Your Fighter ID will be issued in a few hours."


    "I see. I will wait then."


    "By the way, this is my ID, you can call me if you need me." She handed him a name card.


    Sarah Silcox


    06104xxx


    "Thank you, Miss Sarah."


    "No need to talk politely. We will be meeting each other every now and then in the future. Besides, I am just four years above you."


    Theo nodded. "Then, I will be counting on you, Sarah."


    "Yes." She smiled.


    They had been walking through the corridor for a few minutes. Even Theo couldn''t remember where he came from as this ce looked like abyrinth.


    At the end of his corridor, a gate gradually opened as if waiting for them.


    There were fifty people inside the room. Each seemed to be handling someone with their assigned staff.


    Sarah led him to a person. He was a middle-aged man with white hair. He was busy looking at the screen.


    "Can I ask you for help, Mister An?" Sarah smiled.


    "Oh? A newbie? Alright." He nodded and pointed at the round ck crystal on the corner of his table. "This is the crystal that allows us to see your status and level. Of course, we can only see those two. Blessings and skills won''t be registered since it''s your trump card. We won''t store the information here either."


    Theo nodded and ced his hand.


    Level: 24


    Attributes: Strength 38, Endurance 17, Agility 26, Vitality 17, Magic Power 36


    "Hmm, let me process it a bit." He nodded and stretched his hand to Sarah. "Can I have his personal information?"


    "Here." She handed the form she had been filling until now.


    Mister An typed for two minutes and gave a small tablet. "This is your identity."


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Level: 24


    Attributes: Strength B, Endurance D, Agility C, Vitality D, Magic Power C


    Health Problem: -


    Kill: -


    "Please proceed to the medical bay 1-A. I have sent the information there."


    Sarah nodded. "Thank you, Mister An."


    Theo also nodded his head to show his thanks as he followed Sarah to the medical bay.


    The same as the previous one, Theo got a medical check-up and found no health problem. After that, he went to another room to confirm his track record, but Theo chose to not disclose the information and only wanted them to track what he had done after getting his Fighter ID which was approved by the one in charge there.


    Theo''s reason was simple, he couldn''t afford to shock them with a newbie killing a Rock Turtle, couldn''t he?

 Chapter 26 – ID Card

    <h4>Chapter 26 - ID Card</h4>


    A few hours after the process, Theo, who had been waiting in the lobby, found Sarah walking toward him. On her hand was a small white card. It appeared that he needed to scan it with his deviceter to ess it online, but either way, it wouldn''t take too much time.


    "This is your Fighter ID. For now, you have no track record and medical issues and can start searching for a group."


    "I have one more question. Is it possible for me to go on a mission alone?" Theo asked after contemting on what he wanted to do during the next three days. He nned to level up like a madman, considering that he and his clone were counted as two people.


    "There are three types of missions that you can take from the billboard. First will be the daily mission. They are there just to get the daily supply for apany or other things. The second type is amissioned mission. They are the same as daily missions, but this is just for a special asion where you need to kill a specific monster or grab a certain nt on the other side because someone happens to need it at that time.


    "The third type is a special mission which usually came from a big family. There is no guideline in this. Right now, some missions require a group of fifty and the rest are a normal group or for one person only. In any case, they are hard to predict."


    "Hmm. So, do I have a possibility to go for a mission alone?" Although the answer was obvious, Theo still asked it again since Sarah had yet to answer. He just wanted to confirm it.


    "To be honest, yes." Sarah sighed when she looked at Theo''s serious face. There was no way Theo would back down from this. "You can go for the first and second types for now."


    "I see." Theo nodded, connected to the billboard, and opened the temple''s website, logging in with his new Warrior ID to check the missions. There were indeed two options like the one Sarah said earlier.


    "Even so, I still need to say this to you. I personally ask you to form a party because it''s safer to fight in a group rather than alone. Besides, you can do more things, especially if there are so many monsters."


    "I understand," answered Theo with a calm tone. He just didn''t want to get into an argument with his staff right after registering, so he just went along with her concern, even though he had no n to follow it.


    Sarah let out a long sigh. She had met so many people like Theo, but most of them ended up dying. Still, she had done her best, so the rest would be up to him. "I can''t do anything about that. But I would like to ask you to take care of yourself. Even though I often see livese and go, I would like to support people as long as possible, including you."


    "Thank you for worrying about me." Theo nodded with a smile. "I will do my best to stay safe. That''s right. Can I grab multiple missions at once?"


    Sarah twitched her eyebrows, wanting to hit Theo. He just said that he would do his best, but he broke that promise in his next question. "You can, but you should know that some missions have a time limit, so it''s best not to take two or more missions at the same time."


    "Then, it means I can still go through the missions and finish them without taking the missions. Only when I return here do I get another mission and quickly confirm that I have finished it��" Theo quickly grabbed the loophole he could use to get more money.


    "As long as someone hasn''t taken the mission or the one who gave the mission hasn''t put it down yet. If it''s the former, you can choose to sell the items or anything to them or I can only say, "Don''t mind" for thetter."


    "Ahaha��" Theo scratched the back of his head and nodded. "I think I have finished everything here. Thank you for helping me, Sarah."


    "Sure. d to be of help." She smiled and bowed politely as she shook his hand.


    Theo then left the temple, not heading straight to his home. Instead, he went to the Magic Temple. He met a brown-haired young man that handed him his card. Of course, his profile was him using his mask. A bit creepy, but no one would know it was him.


    His status was the same other than his name, Joker.


    "This is your Magician ID Card, Mr. Joker." He smiled.


    "Thank you, George." Theo nodded and took the ID Card. Theo didn''t show his ID Card this time because he already told him that he wanted another identity other than his new one. After arguing for a few minutes, George finally approved his ranking after showing the official letter from the school that he could have the identity.


    Theo tried hard to make sure that George didn''t know anything about him other than his age and status. Even when he took this Magic Temple ID Card, there was only one creepy mask to remember.


    Luckily, George seemed to be fine after that and treated him politely ording to their standard operating procedure.


    "No, I just did my job." George shook Theo''s hand before thetter left the temple since Sarah had answered all his questions.


    On the way, a thought arose in his mind.


    ''Ugh, to think I needed to pay 50,000 Zils just for another identity. It''s not like I need another ID Card or something��No, no. I do need it for a backup n.'' Theo sighed. ''Albeit, I don''t know how effective it will be after the training starts. Either way, better safe than sorry.''


    With that thought in mind, he quietly walked under the moonlight while searching for a mission. After all, no one could ess the Skylink on the other side without any signal due to theck of satellites.


    As for the reason why Alea could send the money to him��She didn''t. It was only registered after Alea returned and got the inte back. But the fact that she sent it there through the most direct way, Alea couldn''t cancel the transfer and whatsoever to protect the receiver''s right.


    "I think this one is great." Theo smiled when he found a mission that caught his attention.


    Mission: Kill Giant Toad and get the Poison Sac Card.


    Level: 24-28


    Reward: 5000 Zils

 Chapter 27 – Giant Toad

    <h4>Chapter 27 - Giant Toad</h4>


    The next day, Friday, hade where most students would register their name in the temple. They should have discussed it with their parents and only came today as instructed. However, Theo didn''t have a family, so he could decisively choose to register yesterday.


    Today became the best opportunity for him to raise his level.


    "Alright. Let''s go. I hope I can reach level 30 today." Theo made it look easy, but little did he know that his own leveling speed was far from normal. Not only could he get the full amount of EXP, but his clone allowed him to kill a monster faster by sacrificing itself or doing something in perfect coordination.


    Theo didn''t need to talk it out or nned a strategy because the clone would follow his thought.


    Usually, a group needed at least a month to understand what each other was going to do and how they were going to achieve it perfectly. However, the clone simply broke the system and became Theo''s ultimate partner.


    If not, Theo would have no confidence in getting to level 28, let alone 30.


    He opened the map again and moved it to the west, where he found a ce named Danr Swamp.


    Sometimes, he hoped he could buy a vehicle to travel after knowing that this journey alone would take one hour on foot. Having no money, he could only endure it for now.


    As soon as he arrived at the swamp, the Skylink rang, telling him that they reached their destination.


    He turned off the rm and raised his vision, finding giant trees every now and then. Next to the trees was a meandering river that flowed smoothly as if there was no steep ground beneath it.


    His nose was soon filled with a pungent smell that came out of a small hole on the ground.


    "Sulfur?" Theo narrowed his eyes, covered his mouth with spare clothes, and put on his mask. "The Toad is powerful, so I really need to watch out for its tongue."


    After recounting all of his preparations, he finally stepped forward, entering the swamp.


    The green twiners covered most of the trunk, but his concern was snakes. In this type of environment, there should be snakes hiding somewhere. Even the information provided by his Skylink told him to watch his surroundings to avoid snakes.


    He kept advancing for a few minutes before finding a giant toad.


    Most of its skin was light green except its belly. Ten feet in height made his heart skip a beat because it was almost twice his height. Combined with its giant body, the toad would surely crush all his bones if it happened to fall on him.


    He summoned his clone and handed the spear.


    Before the toad could find him, Theo raised his hand. A blue round light formed on top of his palm, shining dimly.


    He had tried to do this yesterday, but his control was so low that he couldn''t even split the light ball into two despite ten being the limit.


    The magic power fluctuated. When Theo was about to release his magic bullet, he waited for a bit more since the toad seemed to be stronger than him.


    "Magic Bullet."


    The light flew off his hand, leaving a trail as if shooting aser.


    The toad noticed it and turned around. It leaped several feet above the ground and saw Clone Theo holding his spear. Meanwhile, the real one was hiding behind a tree, nning for an ambush.


    Croak.


    The toad''s belly bloated up and released a weird sound before the toad opened its giant mouth,unching the long tongue to smash Theo.


    Using it as an opening, Clone Theo leaped to the side and closed the distance between them while the real Theo looked at the ground that just got hit by that tongue. Itpletely sank three inches. Without a doubt, his clone would be done for as long as the toad hit it once.


    Clone Theo stomped the ground and changed direction, going around the toad until he arrived behind it. However, the toad managed to follow his movement, avoiding exposing its back.


    The tongue struck forth.


    Clone Theo raised his spear to stop it for a few seconds.


    In the meantime, Real Theo left his hiding spot and charged from the side before gradually making his way toward the toad''s back.


    He waved his sword, slicing the toad''s skin.


    It was supposed to cut the monster, but he didn''t feel it.


    The toad quickly turned around and found another Theo attacking him.


    Having no time to waste, Theo retreated a few steps to get a distance before shooting another magic bullet.


    Surprisingly, the toad swiped the bullet, changing its direction to a tree next to him.


    The magic bullet exploded after hitting the tree.


    Croak.


    Croak.


    "It''s time." Theo smiled and summoned another one. The toad must be feeling sick after getting injured on its hand.


    However, everything changed when he looked at his sword. The sword was covered with a thick sticky green mucus. It was thick enough that he wouldn''t be able to cut himself with this on his sword.


    His clone quickly threw his spear, not far from him.


    Theo pulled the spear out of the ground while making his way toward the toad.


    As if receiving his killing intent, the toad''s instinct kicked up as he turned around and nned to p Theo with its other hand.


    Clone Theo jumped to the toad''s head and covered its eyes.


    Theo smirked and halted his step for a split second to allow the toad toplete its swipe before making his way toward the toad again. He thrust his spear with a little spin.


    "Pierce."


    Unlike the green skin, there was no mucus in the white belly. Ultimately, Theo''s spear pierced the belly before green substances began to flow out of its body.


    Trusted his spear''s quality, Theo took a few steps back before another magic bullet hit the toad''s head.


    With his clone covering its eyes, the magic bullet sted its head along with the clone before the same green liquid spurted out of the head like rain.


    "Huft. To think that it is this hard to fight a toad." Theo sighed as he grabbed his spear.


    As he was about to touch the toad''s body, he found another thing, far to his left. He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth in surprise.

 Chapter 28 – Memory

    <h4>Chapter 28 - Memory</h4>


    Meanwhile, at the same location where She and Eric died, five people appeared. They wore the same tight ck suit, covering every part of their body other than their eyes.


    As soon as they found two cracked skeletons, the middle one raised his hand. "Investigate the body."


    The other four disappeared. Two of them began looking for any clue about the skeletons while taking out blood samples from the ground, whereas the other two checked the two skeletons. With the present technology, they should be able to get enough information from the blood test even if the blood dried up.


    Next to the tree was a small bracelet with blood smearing on it. It was none other than the Skylink that the skeleton had.


    "I have found the Skylink. We need to confirm the serial number."


    The one, whomanded them earlier, took a step forward as he raised his hand, activating the Skylink, which happened to be the same bracelet.


    It projected a blue skin to which the man typed a few things before getting his hand close to the Skylink.


    Suddenly, the screen changed, turning into an ID Card.


    ID: 1534197856371


    Name: She Alberona


    Status: Normal


    "It''s confirmed. She is the one we are searching for." The captain nodded before turning to the other skeleton. "That means the skeleton belongs to the male. They are the useless couple that the chairman wishes to remove."


    "Still, we can''t really get any information with all this evidence. Everything has been eaten, leaving only blood and broken skeletons. There is no artificial wound in the bone, so we don''t know what they experienced before dying from a beast." The man presenting the bracelet sighed in defeat.


    "There are only two possibilities. ording to Young Master Laust, he asked them to follow Theodore Griffith. Assuming that thetter killed them and left them here, he might be more dangerous than we expected. The chairman needs to know this."


    "How about the second possibility?"


    "He is not involved at all. A beast killed them when they followed him. Considering Eric Lautre was a Level 12 and She Alberona was a Level 9, it would be tough to fight in this ce. They would constantly face Level 10-15 monsters." The captain paused for a moment before his tone turned grim. "But��"


    His subordinates stopped what they were doing, listening to his words.


    "Either way, they were following Theodore Griffith. Calcting the direction and range, his original n should be the forest beyond the slope where many Level 20monsters reside. This means that our information is not urate anymore."


    The subordinates drew a gasp as they quickly checked Theo''s level again in their information. He was only a mere trashy level 7. With him going to that ce alone, he needed to be at least Level 20 if not 25.


    To think their data was not this urate. If the chairman knew, he would have punished them.


    "Captain. What should we do?"


    "First. From the current information, we can safely assume that he came here during the public holiday, so we had no information about his current position."


    "How about we go to the Temples, Captain? The academy allows the first-year students to register themselves in the Temples, so he must be there."


    The captain thought for a moment. "The Temples, huh. The first-year students are forbidden to register there because the academy wants them to gain enough experience during their first year to make sure they don''t regret walking on this path. However, many of them have begun killing the monsters here, so it''s also the way for the academy to measure the talented one. This proves the importance of the temples��"


    After contemting for a while, he gave the confirmation, and the group quickly left the scene. They didn''t forget to bring all the samples they could get for identification.


    Little did they know, someone was watching them this whole time.


    She was an olddy with long white hair tied into a ponytail. Despite her aged face, it still brimmed with energy as if she had barely reached the threshold of old age. Her silver eyes slightly squinted when she heard their conversation.


    "Temple, huh." She looked down with her right hand supporting her chin. "Should I visit the temple or search this ce? Never mind. Today is a special day, so I will go to the temple first."


    She jumped off the tree before she disappeared mid-air.


    ��


    Unlike their predictions, Theo was having a good time after dealing with the poisonous toad and finding another pair.


    "Ho? A pair of toads?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Before thinking about those two, he looked at what he got first from the first toad.


    [Killed a Giant Toad.]


    [EXP+51]


    He touched the toad''s body as it slowly disappeared, leaving not a single card.


    "Such a shame." Theo shook his head helplessly before hearing someone''sughter.


    "Hahaha! This is our lucky day. We shall use this pair of toads as the first celebration of our party."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and came closer as he was curious what was going on. He hid his presence while peeking through the gap between bushes.


    It turned out that while he was rummaging the loot, a group of three reached this ce and fought the toads.


    The first one was a red-haired man with a big "X" scar on his chest, while next to him was a timid-looking boy wearing big round sses. Behind them was a big muscr guy holding a giant club with spikes on the club''s head.


    ''I am unlucky today. They might not need my help too.'' Theo sighed and thought. ''Let''s say they need help and I bust in to help. I might be able to turn around the situation, but is there really that much merit in going that far in this situation? And what if they use that chance to say that I am hoarding all the good things and use it to go against me.''


    His face was distorted when thinking so many bad possibilities and concluded it in one sentence. ''Seems like a hassle.''


    As he was about to turn around, Theo witnessed onest thing that changed his mind. The person with an "X" scar on his cheek pushed the sses young man toward the toad, making his bnce unstable.


    "Go, Rookie!"


    The two toads quickly stretched their tongues from two different directions. However, their target was the same, the sses guy.


    The first tongue hit his face, destroying his sses and deforming his face. The second one struck his stomach, blowing him several feet away.


    "Gah!" The guy seemed to still have his consciousness and stretched his hand toward the two guys, asking. "Help��"


    "Now!" Contrary to the guy''s expectation, the two ignored him and quickly attacked each toad, leaving a huge mark in their belly. "Haha. Using someone as a sacrifice indeed makes everything easier. We can kill this pair of toads in under three minutes. Let''s go, Second Brother. Rookie is indeed good since they are easy to be fooled."


    "Yes, First Brother." The big guy smiled before looking at the rookie on the ground, still trying his hardest to survive. "Before that��"


    The big guy hit the sses guy''s head, crushing his skull. The half-broken sses flew to the air beforending on the ground smeared with blood.


    Theo''s expression turned cold when everything unraveled before him. This scene reminded him of what would have happened to him after Eric and She betrayed him.

 Chapter 29 – World With Only Good People?

    <h4>Chapter 29 - World With Only Good People?</h4>


    Theo''s expression turned cold when everything unraveled before him.


    After killing the couple, he almost forgot that humans were the most dangerous species in the world. Due to their "Extreme" intelligencepared to other animals, they could do "Extreme" things like this.


    He couldn''t help but recall when the couple betrayed him.


    "Should I kill them?" Theo muttered in a low voice. "Do I have enough strength to kill them? It''s true that I want to destroy humanity, especially people like these two, but I need to make sure that my strength is higher than them or else I will die before fulfilling my goal."


    Suddenly, a path came into his vision when he saw the toad hit the big guy''s right hand with its tongue, knocking the club to the air.


    Thispletely made him understand those two''s prowess as he decided on what to do.


    ��


    Meanwhile, the small guy shouted. "Second Brother. Are you alright?"


    "Ugh. My hand is broken, but I can still fight."


    "Okay. I will finish soon!" He shouted and shed the toad again, albeit it was too shallow like the first one.


    Due to the injury, the so-called First Brother kept ncing over to check if his brother could handle the toad or not. However, after the third nce, he saw another human approaching his brother with a spear in his hand.


    Normally, people would think that this person was nning to save him from the frog, but the big brother didn''t share the same view.


    "Second Brother. Behi��"


    Before he could finish his words, Theo already pierced the big guy''s heart from behind and pulled his spear.


    "Ah!" The big guy roared. Blood flowed out of his mouth and wound at the same time as his face turned pale.


    The man roared as he turned around and charged at Theo. "You bastard! What have you done to my brother?! I am going to ki��!"


    "Aaahh��"


    Albeit, before he finished, Theo had pierced the big guy''s neck to make sure he died while ignoring the other guy.


    "Y-you!"


    When he was about toe out, Theo realized that he didn''t have two masks for himself, so he covered his facial features with clothes as a temporary solution.


    Theo simply smiled when watching this as he nced over the two toads first before leaping diagonally to where the man is.


    "!!!" The man realized why Theo suddenly changed his direction and realized that blood rushed into his head earlier. He nced at the left side and quickly raised his left hand when the toad was about to stick out its tongue again.


    A translucent green sphere covered his body as the tongue hit it instead. Unfortunately, the tongue shattered the sphere into pieces.


    Theo was ready to intercept him and thrust his spear. However, the man seemed to be better than he thought and managed to barely escape death.


    "I am going to kill you!" The man spun his body and shed sideways with his sword started glowing.


    Unfortunately for him, his luck ran short. He might have gone beyond his expectation, but it was still within Theo''s imagination.


    A blue light fluctuated behind the bushes as it flew toward the man, piercing its body. But at the same time, the reason Theo leaped to the side was so the man and the toad were aligned, thus allowing him to kill the toad right after creating a hole in the man''s stomach.


    "You talk too much." Theo snorted. He finally took one step forward to fulfilling his goal. "It seems that the rumor that Haven is the most dangerous ce you can find is true since it''s filled with people like you."


    ''Human''s true nature��Despite being so depraved, are like that of the light. At least some of them��'' He thought while recalling his past. He realized that his brother must have sacrificed many things to let him alive and his disappearance might be rted to the Lange Family. ''I wonder what will happen if I kill all people like you, so only the people like my brother live in this world.''


    It turned out that the Theo who appeared first was none other than his clone.


    After killing the man and one toad, Clone Theo kept the remaining one busy as the real him sneaked around and struck its belly. Due to the wound that the man gave earlier, the frog had no chance against him and died in one strike.


    [Killed a Giant Toad.]


    [EXP+51]


    [Killed a Giant Toad.]


    [EXP+51]


    [Level Up.]


    He let out a sigh of relief and unsummoned his clone. "The best way to kill the toad seems to be with my Magic Bullet. However, I can''t waste too much magic power or I won''tst too long."


    Theo took out a pair of gloves in his bag and wore it as he began searching for any possession the two bad guys had.


    As the guy earlier said, these were their first monsters, so Theo couldn''t find any item other than their equipment. However, he didn''t know whether they were registered under their name or not, so he decided to look for a card since it was the safest one to bring home.


    After getting disappointed, Theo searched the body of the sses guy and found one card.


    Skill: Wolf''s Howl (F)


    Effect: Allows the user to howl like a wolf. Good for gaining attention for various reasons.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and sighed. "I don''t need this one. I will just use it to upgrade my clone. With this��I already have two spare F Rank Skills. Nice."


    Before leaving the sses guy, he looked down on him with a poker face. "It''s not my intention, but I have avenged you. Rest in peace."


    Theo then walked to the two toads and ced his hands on them.


    Sticky Mucus (F)


    It''s so slimy that it almost makes people unable to hold something. It is usually used as a base material for lotions.


    Surprisingly, each toad dropped the same card, albeit none of them made him happy, considering that he couldn''t find what he was searching for.


    "Haiz. This will take a lot of time. Well, the information says that the chance is only 5%, so I will need to hunt at least twenty toads to get one. No wonder the mission gives 5,000 Zils." Theo checked everything first to make sure he didn''t leave any evidence behind. "Right. I should buy another pair of disguises for my clone. It''s useful to hide from other people."


    After taking a note of what he needed to do as soon as he reached the base, he continued his journey toplete his mission.

 Chapter 30 – Immature

    <h4>Chapter 30 - Immature</h4>


    "Magic Bullet."


    Boom.


    Theo''s Magic Bullet just created a hole in the toad''s body. He had been hunting more than thirteen toads and leveled up two times, but none of them dropped the Poison Sac he wanted until this one.


    He ced his hand on its head as a card fell from the disappearing body.


    Poison Sac (F)


    Giant Toad''s Poison Sac.


    The exnation was pretty much it from the card, but if he used his Skylink to identify it, he would be able to get detailed exnations about its usage since the people had researched it in the past.


    "Finally! It''s almost lunch already�� To think I have hunted the toads for hours." He let out a long sigh and decided to take a breath, finding a safe spot. He had his lunch to rejuvenate himself to fight for the rest of the day.


    After that, he ended up killing a few more monsters and getting a bit lucky as they dropped two skill cards.


    Having no use for the current situation, Theo stored them in his bag as he had gathered four F Rank skills in his bag.


    To upgrade his clone skill, he needed one more F Rank Skill, albeit it seemed to be not possible today.


    It was already past 4 PM and the return journey needed an hour. To avoid getting stuck in the dark, Theo had no choice other than to go home.


    But a ridiculous thought appeared in Theo''s mind. "I think I can fight one more time. I''ve never fought two monsters at a time. Should I test it today or just wait? No, I shouldn''t waste too much time because I will be more hesitant in the future. I will just fight a pair of toads since I have been killing so many of them today to the point I learn their attack patterns. It should be perfect for today''sst fight."


    This thought came after remembering what happened to thest party he killed. He began wondering whether he had the ability to take on two toads simultaneously since he had leveled up four times today.


    "Can I do this?" Theo muttered in a low voice while looking at the two toads staring at each other. ''From my perspective, I should be able to do it since it''s been a pretty easy fight for the whole day even though all of them came only one at a time.''


    He summoned his clone after gaining a bit more confidence but hesitated for onest time when he was about to charge.


    ''Still, I was once in a party myself. Every single member boosted the whole party''s overall strength by arge amount.'' He thought for another minute before shaking that thought off.


    ''I can escape by sacrificing my clone, so it should be fine.'' Theo nodded with a solemn expression as he rose from the ground.


    He made the first move by sending his clone to the front, bing their target.


    "It''s time."


    Croak.


    The toads noticed him and turned their giant bodies, facing this person who dared to face them by himself.


    Their cheeks bloated a little as they both stretched their tongues to kill him like what Theo witnessed a few hours ago.


    Unlike that sses guy, Theo stomped the ground and leaped to the left while thrusting his spear with a spin. "Pierce."


    He struck the tongue instead of avoiding it because the tongueing from the right would miss him either way.


    Still, as he would expect from a tongue that could crash the soil, the moment he took it head-on, his grip almost slipped off his right hand, forcing the position of his hand to move from the center of the handle to three inches away from the de.


    At the same time, the spear''s butt struck the ground, bing his foundation for his "power".


    The spear that only managed to graze it finally pierced it.


    "!!!" The toad quickly retracted its tongue as if it was scared of that spear and leaped back to gain a distance. Meanwhile, the other one shot out its tongue again to prevent Theo from chasing.


    ''Despite people saying that monsters have lower level intelligencepared to humans, they are still intelligent enough to help their kin. This is new to me.'' Theo realized that fighting a horde would surely invite such a reaction from multiple creatures at once.


    Not knowing why, but the story Alea told him lingered in his head. Just thinking about her defeating fifty bats alone already made him respect her a little bit. Of course, it didn''t mean he diminished the fact that her blunder almost killed him twice.


    Theo took another deep breath and charged toward the other toad.


    At the same time, the real Theo sneaked behind the toad. He knew that the mucus behind the toad would just deflect his sword, so he went around and struck him on his belly while the toad''s focus remained in his clone.


    Due to the continuous fights, he should have used Magic Bullet here to kill one, but he didn''t want to rely on it too much in order to conserve mana. After all, the situation was still under his control, so he wanted to see how far he could go without the Magic Bullet.


    The toad that escaped earlier watched how Theo struck his teammate and released its wounded tongue.


    The tongue missed as Theo jumped up. Once it hit the ground, the toad closed its eyes for a few seconds, feeling the excruciating pain. But his teammate managed to jump back to his side, escaping imminent death.


    Theo obviously had no n to release him after his efforts. The clone marched forward as Theo summoned his Magic Bullet because his n had failed.


    This should kill one of the toads and create an opportunity for both Theo and his clone to kill the other.


    To his surprise, the toad that was supposed to die due to this Magic Bullet puffed its cheek like a squirrel and spat out round purple mucus.


    It directly hit his Magic Bullet, melted it in an instant and continued flying toward his direction.


    Theo gasped and tried to throw himself to the side, albeit barely seeded.


    The small purple ballnded on the ground and dissolved the soil.


    Theo sweatdropped. At this moment, he realized that not every n would go ording to his expectation and he should make at least one backup n, not only at a peaceful time but also in a battle. "One failure will be my demise��I should proceed every step with this thought in mind. To think I was and am still this immature."


    He also lost his focus for a second and the second toad hit his clone, obliterating him. The spear dropped to the ground with Theo, who had yet to stabilize his stance. He looked up and saw the left toad''s cheek bloated again as it prepared for another attack.


    "��" Theo''s expression turned grim.

 Chapter 31 – Growth

    <h4>Chapter 31 - Growth</h4>


    "Kh!" Theo gulped down. The attack was so close that it almost hit him. He didn''t dare to think about the possibility of it hitting him, so he shook his head while leaping backward.


    Bang.


    The tongue hit the ground, precisely where he was at previously.


    He ran to the left while summoning his clone again.


    "Magic Bullet." Theo raised his hand and tried to confirm whether the toad could do it again.


    Surprisingly, the toad spat another purple ball and melted his Magic Bullet. Unlike thest time, he avoided it effortlessly and continued running.


    Meanwhile, his clone faced the other toad''s tongue but managed to avoid it before bending his knee to grab the spear on the ground and ran back to regroup with the real him.


    "To finish this, it''s better to use Magic Bullet but split it at least two�� But I''ve never seeded." Theo thought hard. "Screw it. It''s do or die!"


    Clone Theo raised the spear and nned to take on the toads alone, while Theo stepped back a few times and stretched his hand.


    Between his two palms, the magic bullet appeared.


    "Now!" Theo shouted inwardly as he channeled his power to control the magic bullet.


    Unfortunately, the magic bullet turned unstable as it started wobbling around like rippling waves in the water.


    The round-shaped magic bullet was slowly deformed as it began to split like a cell divided itself. However, the reaction increased as Theo started losing his control over the magic bullet before it exploded like a balloon popped out.


    The small shock wave made his hands a bit numb as he forfeited his clone for that split second.


    Seeing that difference, the toads stretched out their tongues, hitting the clone.


    "Kh." Theo felt the toll earlier and ran to the side, so the toads couldn''t hit him. "What should I do? Should I just run away? But if it''s only one, I can beat it. Why is it so different when there are two?"


    When he was about to escape, an idea shed in his mind as he couldn''t help but clench his teeth.


    Theo summoned his clone again and ran into the woods as though he was running away from them.


    Of course, he didn''t lose contact with his clone, allowing him to maintain its movement.


    Clone Theo charged at the injured toad, nning to finish it.


    The toads turned around and focused on the clone instead, thinking that the other one truly escaped.


    ''People said that luck is also a part of weapons. Even the God of Mischief told you how lucky you were. To think you let such a thing get into your head and be more arrogant. When will you stop relying on luck?'' Theo clenched his teeth as he went around the toad where he could barely see his clone fighting.


    It was harsh to control the clone that way, but he thought it was worth it because no way the toad would notice this.


    "No. I''m not going to rely on it anymore. Even if I have the luck to see a miracle, I will need to have enough strength to perform the miracle itself!" Theo raised his hand, summoned the first magic bullet, and shot it toward the healthier toad because this would surely kill it. "Magic Bullet."


    The Magic Bullet flew straight between the trees and hit right on its head.


    Croak.


    The other toad was surprised to see that lighting out of its friend''s head and saw a hole on his head.


    Clone Theo took this distraction to pierce his spear on its head as the toad fell to the ground.


    "I might not be able to form two Magic Bullets right now, but there are always multiple answers. The reason why I thought only the two Magic Bullets was the answer was due to my naivety and experience. If I couldn''t hit the toad because of the poison ball, I just needed to shoot it from their blind spot."


    Theo let out a relieved breath as he regrouped with his clone. "It''s really hard to fight one. No, this might also be the point of view of all single monsters I have killed with my clone. No wonder it''s so easy to fight two versus one. I am d to experience it this early."


    He ced his hand on the two toads, and surprisingly, one of them dropped a skill card.


    Skill: Spitting Poison (F)


    Effect: Allow the user to spit out poison mucus from their mouth. Effective only for Level 40 or below.


    "Huh��Are you serious?" Theo twitched his eyebrows, wanting to throw this card immediately. "The poison that the toad used earlier was far stronger�� It even melted the ground. Why would it be this useless? I mean, level 40 is good, but I don''t think it will be useful in the long run. If I can level up four times every day until I reach Elite Rank, I will surpass this card limit in just three to four days."


    After considering for a while, he grabbed the skills he put inside his bag. Staring at the five skills, he hesitated for a second due to thest skill he got. "Screw it. I should upgrade my clone first. After all, it''s the skill the God of Mischief''s granted me. Besides, an E Rank Skill like Magic Bullet helps me tremendously."


    Suddenly, the God of Mischief talked to him again, confirming his decision.


    [God of Mischief wants your confirmation to upgrade your Clone Skill.]


    "Yes."


    Skill: Clone (E) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: Fuse 20 Rank F Skills and 1 Rank E Skill


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can create the same body, control its movement, share vision, and talk. Other parts are still locked.


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes. Although there wasn''t much of an improvement, this would help him masking his ability. After all, he could control his clone remotely, maybe to scout or impersonate someone.


    Theo summoned his clone and wondered how he used the skill. When he closed his eyes, he felt fuzzy as though something was pulled out of his body. He quickly opened his eyes to check his body but saw his "Clone" held a sword before his eyes. It was supposed to be his real body.


    "That means��" Theo looked down and saw the spear on his hand. "I can''t feel the weight of the spear. No, I don''t even have a sense of touch. It feels weird."


    Theo shuddered while touching his hand or even gently pped it but still had no feel. It crept him a little bit, but the most important question was how to return to his body.


    Since there was only one clue, he decided to close his eyes again, having the same feeling before his consciousness returned to his real body.


    He touched his hand again and sensed it. "Ah, yes. I''m back. I will explore this skill a bit moreter after reaching home. It''s going to be dark soon."

 Chapter 32 – Group

    <h4>Chapter 32 - Group</h4>


    The next day, Theo went to school.


    It was Saturday and students normally didn''t go to school. He, however, could only see people after peopleing into the school, showing the students'' enthusiasm for the Grand Gaia Competition.


    When he was about to enter the school, a crowd of people took his attention. They all faced the same direction, which turned out to be a billboard. On that wooden board, several name lists were pinned.


    Each paper contained five hundred people with "A", "B", "C", "D", and so on below the lists.


    Making his way through them, Theo gradually reached the very front, where he began to search for his School ID to see his group.


    Surprisingly, he noticed many unusual numbers that a first year student wouldn''t have.


    ''Seniors from second and third grades?'' Theo asked inwardly before frowning. He took a nce over his number and group. ''I am in Group D. I hope I don''t need to meet Laust or anyone I know��''


    Suddenly, a series of love-struck shouts pierced everyone''s ears as they turned around.


    "Kya! It''s the Wolf Prince."


    "My Prince!"


    The girls began to scream as if their idol arrived at the school.


    Theo also became curious and turned around as he didn''t know about this title thing, only to find himself regretting it in that instant.


    The Wolf Prince in their mouth was someone he knew. This man had a petite figure and acted cute like a woman. Yes, he was none other than Phyrill Hilbert.


    He had put him in his "Not to talk" list to avoid getting dragged into the spotlight, albeit he seemed to have epted and relied on something he shouldn''t have.


    ''What should I do? I have been getting used to the Magic Bullet recently. Although I have no n in revealing it, he might know it in one way or another.'' Theo''s heart skipped a beat. ''I thought he was just a middle-schooler, but it seemed you couldn''t judge the book by its cover.''


    Only one hope remained in Theo''s head.


    ''Please. Don''t make him in my group. I want to stay away from him. God, Please. Don''t let any of these guys be a part of my group.'' Theo prayed to God while thinking about four people: Alea Eilric, Laust Lange, Sihan Raskaka, and Phyrill Hilbert.


    ''I mean, I don''t mind being a part of their group, but it''s only after the training is over.''


    Phyrill waved his hand to the crowd while slowly making his way toward the billboard.


    The normal students didn''t dare to stand in his way and quickly went to the side, allowing him to check his group.


    Theo also followed what the others did so as to avoid his radar while thinking, ''Still, I can''t understand why I don''t know a famous person like him. Has he ever gone to school?''


    As Theo thought about it, he heard a few people talking.


    "Ah, my prince is so tragic. To think he needs to leave school this whole time due to his body, I wonder if there is a cure for his illness. If he doesn''t need such a thing, he would have surpassed Sihan Raskaka."


    "Ssshh. We shouldn''t talk about it so as to avoid hurting our prince''s heart."


    ''Illness?'' asked Theo in his mind, ''What kind of illness he has? And how strong he is? Did he lie to me a few days ago? As expected, this guy is dangerous. I should stay away from him.''


    Phyrill looked left and right before finding his ID. "I see. I am in B Group, huh."


    In that instant, Theo felt ecstatic and clenched his fist like a winner. With his wish fulfilled, he could breathe out of relief.


    ''Now, I only need to search for the other three. For now, I should wait here to see if there are any more people from my listing here.''


    After knowing his group, Phyrill waved his hand and said, "Those who are in B Group�� Please take care of me, okay?"


    "Kya!"


    The girls began to scream hysterically as if they couldn''t control their lust for a small kid like him.


    Theo didn''t care and searched for an empty chair where he could wait until the principal called them to gather.


    ��


    Meanwhile, unlike the peaceful atmosphere outside the school, the school principal''s office didn''t share the same sentiment.


    There were two people in the room, staring at each other. The first one was a middle-aged man with a long ck mustache despite him not having even a single strand of hair on his head. He wore a brown suit and looked at the girl before him.


    "Principal. Why did you agree to this term?" The woman shouted while mming the table.


    The principal remained calm and even said menacingly. "Alea Eilric. Who do you think you are? You might be a genius, but there are so many geniuses in this country that can rece you. Besides, this order is not mine��"


    Suddenly, Alea felt something was wrong and stopped pressing him for an answer. "Not from you��From who?"


    "It''s someone above your grandfather," answered the principal with a t tone. "There will be someone overseeing the progress of the students and will choose the students himself. He handles everything, from body training to team creation. I can only tell you one thing. He is an entric man. Even your participation ticket might go up in smoke the day after tomorrow if you can''t even pass his test."


    "!!!" Alea stared at the principal and took a few deep breaths. She might not like the situation, but it didn''t mean she would me everything on the principal, who had nothing to do with it. "So, you are saying I only need to get epted, right?"


    "From the bottom of my heart, I wish you to be one of the participants�� Your chance is pretty high too. Unfortunately, I can''t give you any assurance." The principal shook his head disappointedly. "In any case, I will be announcing the training regimes right now. If you don''t have any moreints, go to the gym."


    Alea furrowed her eyebrows and turned around. As she was about to leave the room, she stopped and said herst piece. "No matter what you throw me, I will show you that I can get chosen."


    "I will look forward to it." The principal closed his eyes, feeling that trouble would starting.

 Chapter 33 – Three Stages Of Training

    <h4>Chapter 33 - Three Stages Of Training</h4>


    Unfortunately for Theo, no one came afterward. Laust aside, who had yet to return despite his suspension had finished, neither Alea nor Sihan took a look at their number or they probably already knew their number beforehand.


    The principal''s voice soon resounded inside the school, asking all students to head to the gym for the briefing.


    Theo followed the crowd and entered the gym, only to find ten groups. Each group had one g with a character on it.


    The principal stood a few feet in front of the gs and said, "Line up ording to your group since I am going to start in five minutes."


    Finding the g with the "D" character on it, he quickly walked toward the line and found someone who was his worst fear in this training.


    Alea Eilric.


    Theo wanted to escape or change the group right now, albeit it was impossible. With Alea in his group, he needed to hide his power continuously and acted like a weak. This would lower his progress by arge amount if they had intensive training, considering he couldn''t properly use his strength.


    ''Unfortunately, I can''t escape if I want to change my fate. I need to get all the resources the government can offer to be the strongest, giving me the opportunity to reach my goal. And I won''t break my promise to the God of Mischief as well.''


    This was Theo''s n. Even the God of Mischief, who had been silent this whole time, finally replied to him.


    [God of Mischief only wants to see the world chaotic and doesn''t care about the aftermath.]


    Although surprising, Theo felt happy because God of Mischief replied to him with something that perfectly aligned with his goal. This meant he could kill many people in the future.


    He slowly entered the line and made sure he didn''t get too close to Alea.


    After waiting for five minutes, all people had gathered inside the gym as the principal climbed the stage, standing above them.


    In front of their gazes, the principal waved his hand a few times as he nced over the students and looked at the few noteworthy ones, such as Alea or Sihan.


    "Good morning, my students. On this great day, I would like to announce a few things to you concerning your future training." The principal smiled and raised three fingers. "There are three types of training you will receive during the six months period as we will select those who we deem worthy.


    "Without further ado, I shall exin the first training. This one is the most simple because you have been doing this in our regr curriculum�� It''s Physical Training.


    "The military will send people to supervise all your training. And I will say this just once�� You are free to give up if the training is too hard for you. However, it will also be the end of your hope to attain one of the positions in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    "The training willst for three months and the details will be exined by your own instructors at ater date, so I won''t talk about it to avoid wasting everyone''s time.


    "The second training will be fighting. In this stage, you will form the ideal group in your mind based on luck and discretion. The only advice I can give right now without spoiling the detail is to win. As long as you win, you can keep encountering strong people that allow you to get them into your team.


    "In fact, if you can beat Alea Eilric''s team, you can even force her to join your team, so good luck." The principal smiled.


    This was a kind of warninging from the principal to all the talented students. Normally, Alea Eilric, Sihan Raskaka, Phyrill Hilbert would be leading a team, but if they lost to someone else, not only would it affect their standing, but they also needed to bear the shame in their school life. Imagine Alea Eilric losing to someone, her ability would be questioned without a doubt.


    Seeing the tension in their faces, the principal continued with a poker face. "There is one thing that gives you an opportunity to beat someone stronger. Each team will face each other inside the Simtion World and all of you will be set at Level 50 to ensure the fairness between grades."


    "Last but not least, it''s hunting training. What do you use your power for other than hunting monsters in the Haven? Suppressing other people?" The principal shrugged. "After getting your own group, you shall be thrown into the dangerous Haven.


    "You have to survive for one to two months, depending on the result of the second stage. That''s the three stages. If you have any questions, you may ask them to your instructors during the training�� That is if you can��" The principal ended his speech with a provocation, inciting the students'' fighting spirit.


    ''I will survive no matter what.''


    ''I want to get into Alea Eilric''s team because it''s a winning candidate.''


    ''I want��''


    Everyone was pretty eager to show what they could, hoping that they would be selected as one of the candidates. After all, each student had a fair probability of achieving this.


    However, there was a hidden catch that only a few students noticed.


    The principal left a topic they needed to decipher, starting from the first stage. Since the training was to select a few elites, the training must be so brutal to chip down the number. After all, the second stage couldn''t go with their original number because it wouldst too long, preventing the third round from happening.


    As for the second stage, the principal wanted them to test their adaptability and luck. They needed to adjust themselves to the team and made a correct choice as the instructors would observe their judgment whether they could see someone''s potential or not, and their luck�� Yeah, luck ultimately was a part of skills.


    Theo reached the same conclusion as the talented people in this gym. However, his focus leaned on the third stage as he felt something was wrong.


    Earlier, he believed that the third stage of training wanted them to create perfect synergy in the entire team, but it changed after considering the fact that they were going to fight people from other countries.


    To that end, what mattered the most was none other than level. They must n to increase the level of the first and second year students with the help of their third-year.


    Theo couldn''t help but mutter in a low voice. ''Interesting.''

 Chapter 34 – Tailing

    <h4>Chapter 34 - Tailing</h4>


    After the big announcement from the principal, the students began to embark to either their home or the Haven, preparing for the challenge in two days.


    Even Theo had the same intention as them, nning to grab his equipment back home and returning to the Haven to increase his level. He hoped to reach Level 35 before the training started. The schedule was pretty tight, but it wasn''t impossible.


    Little did he know that someone was watching him from the school roof. She was the same olddy that followed the guys from the Lange Family.


    After chasing them to the Temple, she returned with disappointment since she didn''t find him there.


    "Well, I have found him now, so no need to look at the past. I should fulfill my promise now."


    Suddenly, her smile turned into a frown as she saw five people following Theo from the roof. They were also the same people from yesterday.


    "Hmm��I think I have a better n for this." Her killing intent leaked a bit but disappeared right after she leaped off the roof, following those guys.


    It took him half an hour just to reach the Haven until he came out of the Art Beats Castle.


    Since he reached level 28 yesterday, he nned to go to the forest beyond the one he visited yesterday. It should be filled with monsters above level 25, giving him pretty good EXP points.


    Unaware of the fact he was being followed, Theo continued his journey like usual and put on his mask.


    This created a reaction among those who followed him.


    The group from the Lange Family frowned as one of them asked. "Why would he wear a mask? Is he aware that we are chasing him? Or he doesn''t want to get exposed?"


    "I think it''s thetter." The captain narrowed his eyes. "The previous report that came before he defeated Young Master Laust was him being a Level 7. Yet, he managed to surpass that and nned to go this deep. I assume he is above Level 25, if not Level 30, since he is alone."


    "Won''t this be bad for us, Captain? We should report it to Master immediately."


    The captain contemted for a minute before shaking his head. "Let''s follow him for today. We will confirm his fighting ability and level today before giving the full report to Master. Besides, Master has given an order for us to break a few bones if we deem him too dangerous. With that condition, he will suffer when Young Master Laustes back to the academy."


    "I understand." He acknowledged the decision while shrugging. "It''s not like he is that good to notice our presence. Tailing for a whole day shouldn''t be too much of a problem."


    "You are toox. You might almost reach Level 100, but we live in a world where we can''t underestimate someone or we will end up dying. So, be serious about this." The captain shook his head helplessly.


    As he said, they had enough strength to cover their presence in front of Theo. Yet, who was the woman following them that they couldn''t even detect? The answer would remain unanswered for a long time.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo kept going deeper and deeper while slipping past every single monster he found, not nning to waste his time against them since he thought it would be better for him to hunt in his destination instead of here.


    The tree became denser and the thick smell of leaves began to fill his nose. This was the true appearance of the rainforest. The swamp was just a part of the outskirts and couldn''t reflect what was inside.


    Theo noticed the drastic change from the swamp to the rainforest. The foul smell was reced by a cool breeze. Yet, it made him shiver for once as if his instinct warned him to stay focused.


    "It seems this is not going to be an easy journey," muttered Theo while summoning his clone. At the very least, he wouldn''t need to hand the weapon to his clone as they would walk together.


    Of course, yesterday was a great lesson for him as he quickly put on the disguise for his clone while having him carrying his bag since the weight wouldn''t affect his movement.


    Theo held his spear while scanning left and right. His clone walked in front of him, so it could protect him.


    Because the number of trees had significantly increased, Theo needed to focus on spotting any kind of monsters lingering in this forest. Luckily, if one would think what the best thing they would find in the Haven, it was the fact that most monsters had a quite big body. There was no monster with a small body like an ant, so they could focus on what they could see above the ground.


    The hidden danger only came from bushes and trees because they could emerge from there at any moment. The same applied to those that could change their skin color.


    Theo took a close look at every tree and bushes to make sure nothing was moving while walking forward.


    Sak.


    Sak.


    A noise other than the cracking noises from the dried leaves he stepped on echoed in his ears. He instinctively turned his head to the right while raising his spear.


    After turning in the mission yesterday, he already picked up another mission. It was to kill Leaf Rabbit and took their white fur. However, this one was a bit dangerous for people, considering the rabbit had a simr size to that on Earth. Coupled with their agility, this rabbit was hard to kill and might even bite him instead.


    Clone Theo walked toward the bush on his right side. Due to the shorter reach of the sword, it should be perfect for stopping any attacks from the rabbit.


    Meanwhile, the real him summoned his two Magic Bullets and held them for the moment the rabbit came out.


    "Qiu!" A white rabbit suddenly leaped out of the bush and spun its body, trying to kick Clone Theo''s face. Its fur was white and the eyes were ck. If it were not for the green ears that looked like a tree leaf, he would mistake them for the one he found on Earth.


    He had prepared for it and raised his sword to sh the Leaf Rabbit. Surprisingly, the rabbit changed its position mid-air and kicked Theo''s sword instead, going in another direction.


    The real Theo smiled and thrust his spear. The rabbit shouldn''t be able to move during that time, so it should be perfect.


    Yet, the rabbit surpassed his expectation and spun its body a bit, allowing it to barely put its feet on the spear andunched itself to the top of Theo''s head. The moment it fell down, Theo would surely feel the kick on his skull.


    Learning from hisst mistake, he made another backup n and released the Magic Bullets.


    "I got you." He smiled.

 Chapter 35 – Death?

    <h4>Chapter 35 - Death?</h4>


    The Magic Bullet flew straight through the rabbit''s stomach, killing it in one go. The rabbit fell behind him due to the momentum while Theo frowned.


    ''I used the Magic Bullet to the sky because the trees are high enough to cover someone''s vision. Unless they are nearby or flying, they shouldn''t be able to see it. But it''s truly risky��I should use it toward the trees or ground instead.'' Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    He turned around and bent his knees, touching the rabbit''s fur.


    A card with a rabbit''s drawing fell off the corpse. Theo picked it up without hesitation.


    Leaf Rabbit Fur (F)


    Solid Ingredients for fashion clothes. It has soft and durable characteristics that canst for a long time.


    "Nice." Theo smiled and nodded.


    ��


    Meanwhile, the five guys had watched his actions and discussed their decision.


    "This kid is dangerous to Young Master Laust. We should kill him right now."


    "Master''s order is to keep this guy alive. We can''t afford to do it."


    "Then, should we break all his limbs and force him to open his mouth?"


    "That''s the only way. His transformation is too dangerous. Coupled with how he used his skill, Young Master''s position will be in danger. No, he may lose in the near future. And if he continues this way�� I''m afraid we can''t touch him in the near future."


    "Grand Gaia!" They gasped as if realizing Theo''s n. "He must have been hiding his real power this whole time and only properly used it recently."


    "Roy. Break his limbs. He needs to stay in the hospital for a few months, so he has no chance to get into thepetition and the young master doesn''t need a rival." The captain ordered them as they walked together toward Theo, noticing the real problem. If Theo were able to make this kind of judgment this whole time, he had a big chance to get selected as one of the six participants since each grade could only have two people. By that time, it was impossible to touch Theo even if the head of the Lange Family made a move himself.


    "��" Theo sensed theming, but they were already several feet away from him, surrounding him in four directions while one of them walked forward while cracking his fingers.


    ''Assassins?'' Theo''s heart skipped a beat. ''On whose order? Laust? Wait, why are they here? Since when they actually followed me? I already put on my mask. Unless they started tailing me from��!''


    It was at this moment, Theo realized he f*cked up.


    "You brat! You are not going to die today, but it doesn''t mean you can leave without suffering." The man smirked.


    "A set of ck uniforms that only shows your eyes�� What are you? Ninjas? Oh,e on. Don''t impersonate someone''s job." Despite knowing it was useless, Theo tried to buy time while searching for an escape route.


    However, the other guy seemed to feel nothing with Theo''s provocation as he said, "I wonder if you can scream as much as you talk."


    "I see. That bastard Laust, huh." Theo snorted while releasing his killing intent.


    Although they didn''t shout back or whatsoever, Theo could see the slight change in their expression. They were disturbed when he said that, so it must be from Laust.


    "Your mouth isn''t qualified to utter his name." The guy started bing agitated.


    "It''s freedom of speech. He has been bullying me this whole time and when he suffers, he is relying on his family. No wonder he is a trashy young master. He can only rely on his family." Theo made a smug smile as if he wasn''t scared of dying.


    Little did they know Theo''s heart beat rapidly as cold sweat covered his back.


    "You Bastard! You don''t know anything about the young master!" The guy couldn''t ept Theo''s words and snarl out loud.


    "Roy!" The captain called his name, reminding him what they needed to do.


    Theo, on the other hand, found something wrong with his words. In that instant, everything clicked in his mind as he shook his head in disappointment. "I see. It''s not Laust, but someone higher. Either way, this is the deed of the Lange Family.


    "I have never even offended you, but you all have been targeting me this whole time. This is just bullying the weak." Theoined to see their reaction again.


    When Roy was about to rebuke him, the captain shouted. "Roy! Do your mission. Did you forget what you have been taught? And he is dangerous. Destroy his vocal cords."


    "!!!" That sentence woke Roy up and regained his calm in one breath. He was the most hot-headed guy among them, so he almost forgot that they were not supposed to say anything during the mission.


    Usually, they went to a high-level mission to deal with someone powerful, so his guard was lowered a bit because he just needed to deal with a boy without any background. Even with Theo knowing a little bit of information, it wasn''t like he had the ability to pursue this in a legal way, but it certainly would displease their master.


    Using the time he took to calm his heart, Theo turned around and ran as fast as he could.


    Roy suddenly appeared in front of him and tried to block him, but Theo leaped to the air while releasing his skill.


    "Magic Bullet."


    Boom.


    ''Did I get him?'' Theo thought but shook it off his mind as he needed to escape this encirclement first.


    As if reading his mind, Roy appeared right in front of him as he punched him to the ground while saying. "No, you didn''t."


    "!!!"


    Bam.


    Theo was hit right on the face and crashed to the ground as the dust kicked up due to the Magic Bullet''s explosion and his body.


    The five assassins waited for a moment but didn''t hear anything from Theo for a minute.


    "Did he die?" Roy frowned and decided to check him, resulting in him walking closer to Theo.


    He waited for the dust to settle down, so he could check Theo''s condition.


    When he was about to duck down, Theo emerged from the smoke and shed his sword downward, trying to split this guy into two.


    "Roy!" Another assassin warned his teammate, albeit it was toote.


    The so-called Roy had not enough time to cast his skill, so he tried to rely on his strength andbat techniques alone, grasping the sword with both palms.


    Had Theo waited for another second, his n would seed.


    However, a blue light fluctuated inside the smoke that almost disappeared. It flew straight toward Roy''s abdomen.


    "Gah!" Roy spat blood. The pain was there, but everything he could think was how? How could Theo use such a technique when he himself couldn''t. Yet, that thought didn''tst long as his grip loosened, allowing Theo toplete his swing.


    When Roy''s body fell, he found another figure among the smoke on the ground and died with shock.


    "Roy!" The shout echoed again as he leaped toward Theo, punching his abdomen.


    However, Theo disappeared without any trace.


    Unknown to him, the blue light appeared again within the smoke, flying through the man''s heart.


    "Impossible!" The man widened his eyes in surprise, finding Theo on the ground.


    Theo''s figure rose from the ground and grabbed the sword with his left hand, looking at the remaining three.


    "!!!" The leader shivered when he saw this. His eyes were wide open and his teeth were clenching. ''This brat had known that he wasn''t our opponent and pretended to be unconscious within the dust then waited for us to approach and suddenly killed us by surprise! This kid��Is he really the same Theodore Griffith in the report?''

 Chapter 36 – Ants

    <h4>Chapter 36 - Ants</h4>


    Despite him killing two of them, it didn''t change the fact that he was still in a dangerous situation.


    ''What should I do?" His expression darkened when he realized something. ''I didn''t realize that they were following me this whole time, so our difference was big. Just like a weaker person could kill someone more powerful with poison, but it''s a trick that can only be used once. I��''


    Theo summoned his clone again as he passed the spear instead of the sword this time.


    "Catch him! He must be using a skill to create a clone of himself, but the main body should be the one holding the sword! Be careful of his trick! No matter how high your level is, if you don''t have a head or heart, you will die!" The captain shouted andmanded the rest of his subordinates.


    When Theo heard that speech, he couldn''t help but smile and look at his clone once.


    The captain obviously didn''t let it pass and shout. "No! There is a possibility that he can change position with his clone. Apprehend both of them!"


    The two hesitated for a split second before going to separate ways.


    On the contrary, both Theos turned around and ran in a different direction to make the captain''s words more believable. It was just a small gesture, but it was enough since Theo just killed two of their friends.


    "If I can escape today, I will haunt the Lange Family until they perish!" Clone Theoughed and shouted, using the ability he got from the upgrade yesterday to the fullest.


    "!!!" They were attracted to that voice as the one following Clone Theo smirked and sped up. "I see. You must be the real one."


    When he was about to strike Theo, his friend''s voice echoed in his ears. "Watch out!"


    It turned out that the clone could speak, fooling them in that instant. Or it might be like what the captain said, Theo could switch position with his clone, albeit in a far smoother detail as they didn''t notice it happened.


    Little did they know Theo actually used the same trick to kill the toad. By attacking the enemy from their blind spot with a powerful E Rank Skill, he would be able to severely injure if not kill someone in one attack, allowing him to gain a massive advantage.


    However, Theo''s move was read by the captain as he appeared between the two.


    His eyes were fierce as he struck the magic bullet, deflecting it to the ground.


    "It''s enough, you punk!" The captain leaped toward Theo and grabbed his head before crashing it to the ground.


    "Gah!" Theo felt his skull was about to crack as that force alone created a small crater on the ground.


    His clone halted for a second and got apprehended by the other assassin. He quickly took a knife and hit the clone''s thigh. It turned out that he had been chasing the clone this whole time as it disappeared, leaving only the spear behind.


    The reason he believed Theo was the one in front of him was due to things. First was his speech ability, while the second was his weapon. ording to the information, Theo was a spear user, so if he needed to run, it would be better to have the weapon he knew the best.


    But it turned out to be a deception. Theo tried to y the mind game and managed to kill two Elite Rank Assassins by taking advantage of their carelessness.


    Unfortunately for him, his luck ran short when the captain appeared and handled everything by himself. Theo might not know this, but they were just a bunch of trainees while the captain was the real elite, so everything would be useless when the captain made a move himself.


    After pinning him down on the ground, the captain fixed his posture before kicking Theo''s abdomen,unching him to the air.


    Theo''s body spun a few times before his back hit arge tree and stopped on its track.


    "Gah!" Theo spat a mouthful of blood. His consciousness became fuzzy and the pain made his body feel cold. His body was shaking as he lost control over them. In other words, Theo was f*cked up.


    ''Ah. I have been trying to rely on my power, but I guess this is the end. The assassins said that I wouldn''t die, but I will definitely suffer after this. I really wish my luck is higher, so when everything is over, I can still increase my power to have my revenge. It''s nothing different from what I have undergone this whole time.''


    Despite giving up, Theo''s determination remained. He didn''t want this to be the end of his career and died before finding his brother. Theo knew�� The only thing that could take him away from this situation was luck, but he had no knowledge in what form it woulde or would they evene to him?


    The captain, on the other hand, walked toward him and grabbed his hair, lifting him up. "You punk. How dare you kill my subordinates. I can''t kill you, but it doesn''t mean that I can''t make you a disabled person. I will make you feel dying is better than living."


    As he was about to torture Theo, a breeze swiped the area, sending a chill down their spines as someone justnded behind them. She had long white hair tied into a ponytail. Despite her aged face, the way she held the spear looked like a warrior.


    Her hair fluttered due to the breeze, but more importantly, the wind suddenly stopped when she smiled.


    Unknown to them, they felt fear for the first time their eyes intertwined as though an invisible hand choked their necks.


    "W-who are you?!" The one who chased Clone Theo shouted while pointing his sword toward her with his shaking hands.


    After five seconds, the answer had yet toe, so he clenched his teeth and leaped toward her so thetter didn''t run away.


    However, the conclusion came in a sudden. The old woman raised her hand and pped the assassin''s head like it was nothing. There was no reaction or whatsoever as if her pping the guy was nothing but a fate.


    That p turned out to be the most dangerous p that the guy would ever get. It obliterated the head instantly as the blood sttered all over the floor while the body flew due to the momentum,nding only several feet away from them.


    The old woman shook her head and fixed her hair with the same hand that killed the assassin. She looked at them with a slight curve on her lips while saying. "Just get out of my way, ants."

 Chapter 37 – Student?

    <h4>Chapter 37 - Student?</h4>


    "Just get out of my way, ants."


    After that sentence, her voice became calm and indifferent. Her gaze was collected and bored. Yet, the two assassins felt that they were doomed to die when their eyes intertwined. "I want that kid."


    "Who are you?!" The captain pulled out his sword, raising his stance.


    "Who am I��" The olddy smiled. "I''m just a passerby who happens to meet an unfortunate kid bullied by adults. So, I want to screw the adults by making them in his position, so they know what it feels to be helpless."


    "You�� You are strong, but are you sure you want to offend a big family just for this kid?" The captain tried to negotiate without mentioning his backing to test the water.


    "Big Family? I don''t give a sh*t to your Lange Family. Even if the head of your family here, he only has two choices: Kneel or die." The olddy snorted as the spear on her hand glowed. The spear had a beautiful silver handle with rose patterns on its head and butt. The de was half ck, half green, bing contrast to the silver color.


    The sudden action made these two panic as the trainee screamed out loud while trying to attack her.


    Unfortunately, he might be doing it for spite, but Theo wanted to have revenge for himself. He shot the assassin with his magic bullet, destroying his heart.


    "Ho?" Impressed by Theo''s action, she smiled and walked closer to the captain.


    "Tch." The captain clicked his tongue and took out a shbang and a smoke grenade, throwing it to the ground at the same time.


    Bang.


    A high-pitched sound echoed, followed by a disturbing ringing sound. Theo managed to protect himself from the sh by looking away, but he was too weak to lift his hand to close his ears, so he had a hard time opening his eyes due to the pain in his ears.


    At the same time, the smoke grenade masked the area with white smoke as he escaped with his fastest speed, knowing that the old woman was far stronger than him.


    "He��" Theo wanted to tell the olddy that if the assassin escaped, they both would be in trouble, but the pain stopped him.


    Seeing the resolve in his eyes behind the smoke, the olddy smiled and thrust her glowing spear to the right.


    The golden light surrounding the spear''s de flew and turned into a torrential shock wave.


    The trees were shredded into pieces while the ground was pushed back and created a huge half-circr trail on the ground. The moment the shock wave hit the captain, it burst him into pieces as his blood dyed the ground red.


    Because the smoke was still rising, the olddy gently waved her hand as the breeze once again appeared, blowing all the smoke away before kicking the smoke grenade away.


    "To point that spear at me�� Brat, do you want to die?" asked the olddy with her cold expression. "You do know that I just saved your life, right?"


    "I��know." Theo struggled just even to utter one word, so he couldn''t really answer her.


    Feeling a bit interested in Theo, she grabbed something from her right pocket. It was a syringe filled with green liquid.


    Theo couldn''t react as the olddy had injected that liquid into his body.


    However, he noticed the change immediately as the green liquid spread all over his body.


    His wound closed with a speed visible to naked eyes. Although it didn''t refill his energy, it was enough for him to speak.


    After checking his vocal cord, he hurriedly exined with his hoarse voice. "I don''t mean to be ungrateful, but I don''t know your motive for helping me. You''ve admitted that you know their rtionship with the Lange Family, so it means that you have been tailing them or me.


    "Hence, I know that this situation is not simple. Even if I am going to die now, I will die trying." Theo red at the woman. It was the only clue he got from the woman since it was a strange phenomenon to be saved by someone who knew their identities.


    She might know about it from the way they protected Laust''s name, but it reinforced the fact that she didn''t encounter them by chance. Instead, she had been tailing him even before they beat him up. Thus, Theo couldn''t trust her just yet.


    The old woman should also know the fact that this was a test from Theo to know about the rtionship between them and felt displeased about his ungrateful attitude. Yet, she made a big smile as if she found a treasure.


    "I like you, Brat. Do you want to be my personal student? I will make you the strongest in the academy."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering the purpose behind her words.


    "No need to think hard. I truly want you to be my student. You could consider the earlier performance a test from me to find your talent. It seems��I haven''t made a wrong decision. Despite knowing that you can''t win against me, you still try to talk like a smart*ss. You should just kneel and thank me since it will give you a bigger chance to survive." The old woman shook her head in disappointment.


    "I know. But I know that you have an ulterior motive just by seeing your rtionship with the Lange Family and the medicine. There''s no way that someone is like a saint and helps an unknown person like me. So I conclude that I''m not going to die."


    "Good good. I want to test you a bit more, but I will just let you go because I''m going to be your teacher no matter what. This is a fixed matter." The olddy harrumphed. "Besides, I have promised someone to take care of you."


    "Someone?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and thought of people who cared about him. Unfortunately, they were only histe parents and missing brother. It was an obvious choice since his parents had died when he was a kid. "You are rted to my brother?"


    "Your Brother?" The olddy''s eyebrows twitched. "Ah, right! Yeah, I promised your brother to teach you."


    "You are not rted to him." Theo instantly got his answer from her reaction.


    However, the olddy changed her expression again, bent her knees and smirked right. "Listen here, Brat. You shouldn''t take the conclusion too early. What if I faked my own reaction? Didn''t you pretend to be unconscious earlier? Are you going to fall for your own trick?"


    "!!!"


    The olddy gently flicked his forehead. "So, what is your answer? Will you be my student?"

 Chapter 38 – Five Aspects

    <h4>Chapter 38 - Five Aspects</h4>


    The answer was obvious for most people. The olddy before him was an extraordinary expert with a powerful background to the point she didn''t think much of the Lange Family. Yet, Theo simply couldn''t understand why such a person wanted him to be her apprentice.


    If this person came from the military, such a person would be famous in the country. Hence, she could be either an expert that moved in the shadow or a foreigner.


    "Who are you?" asked Theo with a hesitant tone.


    "Me? You don''t need to know my name." The olddy waved her hand as if her identity was not important and continued, "That''s right. You can try to take a picture of my face during the training. However, I need to warn you that I will destroy the camera and memory card as soon as I notice it.


    "On the other hand, I will teach you how to be an expert during these six months�� Or at least until you are qualified to participate in Grand Gaia. Of course, my training is not that easy, so you will be tired during these few months. So, what do you think?"


    Theo clenched his teeth. Although he had many doubts, he knew that there was no escape from this situation. He opened his mouth. "Do I have a choice?"


    "Nope. Try to reject me and the next thing you know, you are already in the middle of level 200 area." The olddy smirked as if thinking it was amazing.


    "Then, why do you even ask��" Theo resigned to his fate.


    "Good. Now, you are officially my student. First of all, you must being here for a mission, right? What is the mission?" She asked.


    "Getting Leaf Rabbit''s fur."


    "Easy enough. I can locate all the nearby rabbits in one minute." The old woman nodded with a confident face.


    "Ehm�� May I ask how to address you?" Theo politely asked.


    "Just call me Teacher or Master. It''s up to you."


    "Then, Master, what should I do?" Theo chose "Master" because he called those who taught him in the school "Teachers" or "Instructors", so he didn''t want it to ovep.


    "I will be teaching you five most important aspects that you should have as an elite." She raised all her fingers before pointing at her thumb. "First, it''s awareness. If your awareness were good, you would have noticed their ambush and reacted ordingly. This could also allow you to hide your presence and act as a part of nature to escape."


    "Do you mean that I can sense someone a hundred feet away?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. As I said earlier, I could locate all the nearby rabbits within a minute. Each life has something inmon. They have a presence. You must have turned around a few times when you felt like someone followed you, right?"


    Theo contemted for three seconds before nodding a few times. "Yes. When someone stared at me, I somehow noticed their gaze."


    "That''s right. There are two types of awareness: Internal and External. When you are aware of your internal awareness, you can hide your own presence. Like this." The olddy smiled and stared at him.


    "!!!" The change sent a chill down to his spine. If he relied on his eyes alone, he would be able to see her staring at him. However, there was a weird sense that appeared in his head. It was like she was there, but not there at the same time. She stared at him but felt no gaze. "It''s confusing someone''s sense."


    "Exactly. By bing a part of nature, you would be able to confuse someone''s sense. This is Internal Awareness. But if your skill in sensing nature were higher than my own power, you would be able to sense me no matter how hard I hid my presence earlier."


    Theo seemed to have grasped something and asked for confirmation. "So, if I had a more powerful External Awareness, I would be able to sense you earlier. At the same time, if my Internal Awareness were stronger, I could hide my presence from you."


    "Yep. And you could sense any arrows or random attacks that flew toward you. Something like that." She nodded with a smile and pointed at her forefinger. "That''s the first thing. Before I move to the second thing, I want to ask, what do you think are the most crucial things when fighting? Give me three aspects."


    Theo looked down and supported his chin with his hands, falling into deep thought. "Skill, Strength, and Speed?"


    "I give you ten points�� Out of one hundred of course." She smirked and teased him. "Show me your butt. I''m going to spank you."


    Theo''s face became pale as he imagined what would happen if she pped him. His butt would be obliterated like the assassin''s head.


    Seeing that reaction alone was satisfying, so sheughed. "Hahaha. Joke aside, the answer is Breathing, Control, and Technique. Breathing is the most important thing you need. Just like a sport, you will gradually stop thinking when you move too much at a certain period because the oxygen can''t fully circte in your body and brain.


    "On the contrary, if you can keep your breathing stable, you will get a clear vision and head to think something. Even if your opponent is stronger or faster than you, you maye up with a trick or two to overturn the situation, like what you did earlier.


    "As for Control, it''s basically the control over your body, including magic power. If I''m not wrong, you can split your Magic Bullet into a few, right? Unfortunately, your control is too low to do it. This is what I will teach you. Look at me." The olddy stood up. Her spear glowed like before and she thrust it toward a tree.


    However, Theo was shocked when the light flew in a crescent-shaped form, piercing anything in its way.


    "Do you remember what happened when I used it for the first time?"


    Theo nodded. "It''s like a torrential shock wave."


    "Exactly. I use my control to make it burst to create that shock wave. In other words, if you have enough control, you can easily turn the Magic Bullet into ten or even increase its size." The olddy then stabbed her spear to the ground. "Then, it''s time for technique. There are two types of techniques: Internal and External.


    "Internal Technique is something that we do repetitively like Martial Arts. For example, if my opponent is stronger, I can deflect his attack instead of taking it head-on. If my opponent is faster, my body may move faster because of the repetitive movements that have been instilled into my body.


    "The second one is skills. However, I won''t help you with this. You need to search for your own skills because you are the one who knows what kind of fighting style you want to achieve, not me. A real teacher guides you to your own special style, not restricts you to follow his/her style."


    She then pointed at thest finger. "Last but not least, it''s stamina."

 Chapter 39 – Training Schedule

    <h4>Chapter 39 - Training Schedule</h4>


    "Stamina?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I just need to add my Endurance, no?"


    "Nope. This is not rted to Endurance. What I''m talking about is your mental endurance. Let me ask you, what is the reason most people die under the siege of monsters? It''s due to theck of mental endurance. You will feel stressed after fighting continuously for a period of time and it''s not rted to Breathing or something.


    "It''s like burnout if you are a content creator. You will be crazy or fall into despair sooner orter. That''s why you need to be strong from the inside too. That''s what I will teach you."


    "I understand. I will do my best." Theo nodded with a serious expression. Since he ended up bing her student, it was better to take advantage of it to the fullest. "What should I do right now?"


    "Awareness and Breathing are not physical training while Control and Technique are. As for Endurance, you just need to get used to it, so I will be pushing you to the limit every single time." She smirked.


    "So, I will be doing all of them at the same time?"


    "Yep. I will teach you how to control your Magic Power. After you are tired, you are going to rest while practicing your Awareness. Then, I will teach you about Technique and rest while practicing your breathing. I will push you hard to increase your mental endurance during the practice. We will keep repeating this."


    "I can understand the order, but I have a training camp after this. How am I going to��"


    Before he finished, his master already smiled and opened her mouth. "I have seen the schedule. Basically, you will stop training at 5 PM due to theck of light. At that time, You will head to my location and start practicing with me. Don''t miss even a single day, alright?"


    "How about the meal?"


    "I will provide it."


    Theo agreed to the arrangement since this was the biggest chance for him to be stronger. "I shall follow Master''s arrangement."


    "Good. How about your body?"


    "Yes. It''s been an hour since Master injected that liquid into my body. Although I still feel fatigued, I think I can move." Theo raised both hands and swayed his body left and right, checking whether he was in pain or not. "By the way, what was that liquid, Master?"


    "It''s abination of medicine and poison. It has the ability to heal someone''s injury, but there is a side effect. Unless you take antidote from me every month, you won''t be able to move." She smirked.


    "Is that a joke?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he flinched just hearing it from her mouth.


    "Yep." Surprisingly, she admitted it with a big smile as everything was just something she used to tease him. "It was just a regenerative medicine that speeds up your metabolism to heal your wound. You can search for the medicine in Skylink if you don''t believe me."


    "��" Theo was speechless of her attitude. Sometimes, she acted like a cool Master, but the other time, she acted like a yful granny. Yet, he couldn''t tell whether his master was telling the truth or not because of this constant mood swing.


    "Ah, you must be thinking how my attitude makes you unable to discern my real thoughts. This is intentional�� Well, it''s a part of training too. You see, if you have an important position, you need to put on a serious face in front of the media, but to those who know you personally, they will need to know your yful side."


    "Why?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. He thought that he needed to be serious, so the others couldn''t look down on him like how he had done it this whole time.


    "This is not about a fake smile or something. It''s deeper. For example, by changing my tone every minute, people will be confused about what is wrong and right. At the same time, when this yful side is known to others, it can create even more pressure in your words alone by simply making a serious expression. I call this deception." She smiled.


    "!!!" Theo felt a goosebump. As she said, her words were truly effective to Theo this whole time. "But�� Isn''t it tiring to keep a persona like that every time?"


    "How about you? You are trying to create a persona with that mask of yours. Isn''t it the same? Besides, when you are old and have a family, you will love this persona because it''s the one bringing the family together. What? Do you want your family filled with tension due to your seriousness?" She stuck her tongue out.


    Theo looked down and shook his head helplessly. With his current goal, there was no way for him to have a family since they would be in constant danger.


    His master seemed to notice something from his expression and decided to change the topic. "Anyway, let''s begin your training."


    "I understand." Theo nodded and rose from the ground, picking up his mask and bag. "By the way, can Iplete my mission during this time?"


    "You can. In fact, I''m nning to train your control over magic power by fighting an enemy," she said while walking toward a tree. "What is magic power anyway?"


    "It''s something like air. It can''t be seen, but you can feel it. Magic power resides in our heart and circtes like blood. Our understanding and strength are rted to talent, not magic power. That''s why there are magicians, while some are fighters or assassins.


    "However, they have the form of gas. When you are using magic, the skill will automatically absorb your power and excrete it through your pore. You should be able to release that magic power without a skill�� This is going to be my lesson.


    "It''s like controlling your magic power to envelop your body to avoid getting injured by something trivial. This is something you will learn in your second year, but I''m going to teach you right now." She ced her hand on the tree with a gentle smile. "And by the time you finish this training��"


    She paused for a second and directed the magic power that circted in her hand toe out of her hand at once.


    Bam.


    The tree cracked as if it was hit by a huge boulder, only one step away from destroying it. "��You will be able to do this."

 Chapter 40 – Ordinary Or Genius

    <h4>Chapter 40 - Ordinary Or Genius</h4>


    "Good good. Continue," said the old woman as she observed Theo''s progress with great interest. "I can feel your magic powering out. Although it''s very small and unstable, at least you can get it out."


    Theo took a deep breath before opening his eyes. His forehead was covered with sweat as he panted a few times. "This is really hard. It feels like something is stopping the magic power froming out."


    "Of course, it''s hard. Do you think you can be an expert overnight?" The old woman flicked his forehead. "As I said, magic power is like gas. If you want to release them, you need to open the valve. For now, you can barely open the valve in your hand, but I guess that''s good enough for a newbie who has never practiced this."


    "What is the ideal age for the children from a big family to practice this?" Theo asked with an innocent face as if he wanted topare himself to people such as Alea or Laust.


    "What? Don''t be sad or overconfident because of a little progress like this." She sighed and shook her head helplessly. "Well, I will just tell you this one, so you can be a bit proud of yourself. It''s seven years old. That''s the ideal age to start. Of course, most families emphasize Techniques and Breathing first because these are the most important things and easy to brag about. Young people love it, right?"


    "I see. With your in-depth knowledge, Master muste from a big family as well. I don''t know whether you are rted to the military or not though." Theo narrowed his eyes as he just outsmarted her once.


    Even the olddy widened her eyes with a dumbfounded look before messing with his hair. "Haha, I really like you. Immediately applying what you learn, eh? You brat."


    "I just have a good master." Theo shrugged.


    "Alright. Enough with ttery. Let''s continue."


    Theo nodded and closed his eyes. Luckily, they had moved to another location since thest ce was reeks of blood, making him unable to focus.


    Suddenly, a thought appeared in his mind as he remembered the exnation about magic earlier. He gently raised his hand and used his usual magic bullet.


    "!!!" When his master saw it, she took a step back and couldn''t contain her smile.


    What Theo did was taking advantage of his own magic. Since Magic Power woulde out every time he used Magic Bullet, the process should be simr if not the same.


    Although he could only observe a portion of it, he only needed to repeat the process a few times to understand the process.


    ''This technique is not an official way to learn it because everyone''s talent is different, but this process can indeed improve one''s understanding. My initial n is to teach him after he gives up, but it seems blood never lies, eh.'' The old woman closed her eyes while smiling. ''Besides, neutral magic like this is far better for practice than fire magic and the like.''


    Because Theo had been focusing on his Strength and Magic Power every time he leveled up, he had enough reserve tost him for a while. During this process, he felt like he had been watching a few-second movie so many ten times.


    After three minutes passed, Theo''s back was already drenched in sweat after using his magic power excessively.


    "I think I have grasped it," Theo muttered as he began focusing all his attention on his hand. He channeled his magic power like a running river. His heart became the higher ground while his entire body became the lower ground, so the magic power could flow naturally.


    And right before he released it, he imagined a waterfall. The water fell and sshed when it hit the water on the bottom.


    "Ha!" Theo was suddenly woken up and gasping for air. His hands supported his body as he raised his vision, looking at his master.


    "Hehe, do you want me to call you a genius?" His master smirked, wanting to tease him again.


    "No. If I were a genius, I wouldn''t have to experience bullying in school. I''m just an average guy who relies on tricks to speed up the process." He shook his head with a serious expression.


    Theo truly meant what he said because his life wouldn''t be this miserable were he a genius.


    "You know yourself well. I have seen many geniuses, and you won''t believe what they could achieve when they are in front of you. However, there is one thing that you need to know�� It''s the method to beat genius."


    "A method?"


    "Yes. This is a way for an ordinary person to defeat a genius. You see, a genius can understand everything perfectly and use it right away. However, we, ordinary people, analyze what they see with our wisdom and apply it to make ourselves stronger.


    "We seek magic geniuses to learn magic. We seek spear geniuses to learn their moves. And then, we use both of their skills to ovee them. Instead of getting swallowed by your pride and refuse to be taught by them, you should ask this question to yourself. Who is the one getting thestugh?"


    She raised her hand as her lips curved, showing her teeth. Her eyes were wide open, brimming with excitement. If one took a closer look, they would feel goosebumps from that stare alone. She clenched her fist and said, "I am!"


    "Trick? Mind Battle? Whatever you want to call it, as long as you get thestugh, you don''t need to care about people''s opinions? That''s how you be a true expert. And this is the true meaning of why hard work will allow you to beat geniuses. It''s not aimlessly working hard. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and work hard by doing everything that can bring you to your goal. If one trick is not enough, then use two. If two are not enough, use four." She pressed her forefinger on Theo''s forehead. "Polish that rationality of yours, so you, an ordinary person, can beat those geniuses! I will help you by training your basic abilities to open that possibility. Are you prepared for hell, Brat?"


    Theo took a deep breath to stop panting. He looked at his master''s deep eyes with a serious expression. He didn''t know why but his heart was filled with excitement, yet, his head became calmer. "Yes, Master."


    "Good. Now stand up. We will hunt the Leaf Rabbit until your magic power is empty before starting your next training." She rose from the ground and stretched her hand to Theo, helping him up.


    For a second, he forgot the suspicion he had in this master of his and took her hand, rising from the ground. Little did he know that the magic power he released earlier that ended up with his hand touching the ground would leave a palm mark on the ground. Theo''s focus remained on his master as he said.


    "I''m ready, Master."

 Chapter 41 – Prepared To Fail

    <h4>Chapter 41 - Prepared To Fail</h4>


    "Magic Bullet." Theounched his magic and shot another Leaf Rabbit.


    They had been hunting the rabbits for half an hour already and ended up killing more than ten. If he hunted alone, he wouldn''t be able to get this much kill, let alone leveling up three times.


    His Master was the one locating all these rabbits with her awareness, showing how everything could be easily done with the things that she taught.


    *Pant*


    *Pant*


    Theo was short of breath as hisplexion was bad, his eyelids were heavy, and his action became dull.


    "Hmm��" His Master, who had been watching his progress from the side, came up to him and asked. "In your state, I think only one or two more Magic Bullets and you are out. Alright, how about we search for thest one?"


    "I understand." Theo epted it even if his brain felt hot as if he was inside the oven. Normally, he would''ve stopped here and recovered his magic, but for the sake of training his mental endurance, he needed to fight against the enemy in this state.


    "That''s right. Can you cook?" She asked.


    "I''ve been living alone, so I cook for myself from time to time to lower my food cost every month." Theo nodded. "But it''s not that good."


    "In that case, I will cook for you." She smiled. "Cooking is essential, you know."


    "Why so?"


    "In an expedition, you will be staying in this ce for a long time. Instead of eating from the food cans, it''s better to bring spices and cook them yourself with the ingredients you can find around the area. Besides, do you know that as long as you don''t touch the dead monster, we can extract everything from it?" She smiled.


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "That''s right. This is the biggest advantage of a party." She smiled. "For example, if you touch the dead rabbit, it will disappear and drop a card, right?"


    "Yes."


    "But if I am the one touching it, it won''t disappear, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, I can dismantle everything and get their fur, meat and blood. Did the school not teach you? Or maybe you will receive this lesson in your second year since the first year is not required to go to this world yet?"


    "I think it''s thetter."


    "Anyway, that''s how it is. You can get meat and more materials from every single monster. Hence, this is the reason why people oftene out with carts or trucks. They need something to transport those materials."


    "I see. I have never thought of it." Theo narrowed his eyes and looked down, thinking, ''I wonder if my clone does it, will it be the same? I need to check it after this.''


    "Well, there are many rare monsters out there, you know. Instead of making them disappear and getting the card, it''s better to dissect it, no? This way, we will get more materials in an auction. Of course, this is the case if you don''t care about the potential of a skill dropped from the monster."


    "But that''s only possible for a limited number of monsters, right?"


    "Yes. In an expedition, you will need to kill thousands of monsters before getting what you want. And there is no way to transport all of them, so you turn most of them to cards." She then turned around and pointed forward. "Go there, boy. There is a rabbit. We can talk moreter."


    "Understood." Theo nodded and leaped to the front.


    "I want to give you a challenge for this one. Before using your Magic Bullet, you need to split it into two, okay?"


    Although he didn''t understand her reasoning, he still acknowledged her order and ran forward while scanning the area to find the exact location of the rabbit.


    He summoned his clone and handed the spear to him while pulling his sword. With this, he only had one Magic Bullet''s worth of magic power left, and there was that challenge.


    Suddenly, a rabbit leaped toward his clone from behind the bush.


    Thrusting his spear, Clone Theo intended to bait it again for another jump to the air. Theo, on the other hand, summoned his Magic Bullet and tried to separate it into two.


    "Eh?" It was at this time he suddenly realized. He looked at his Magic Bullet that somehow became two in an instant. Although it was unstable, he indeed had seeded in splitting the Magic Bullet into two. But still�� "Ugh. It will explode in my hand before the rabbit enters my field of vision. Shoot it? That''s not a question."


    The shock from the exploding Magic Bullet was a bit too much to handle in his current state, so he decided to release it.


    The Magic Bullet pierced the clone''s body and shoulder but ended up missing the rabbit.


    On the side, his master clicked her tongue.


    "Ugh. He should spread it more, but I guess this is what the kid can do right now, much less in his exhausted state." She shook her head helplessly before smiling. "He has shown me something good anyway, so I will show my cooking skill this��"


    Before she finished, she stopped and realized why Theo used a sword instead of a spear. "He is expecting him to fail�� No, he is prepared to fail this whole time, so even if he fails, he can still kill the rabbit."


    Because of the hole in the clone''s stomach, Theo could see the rabbit and swung his sword, shing the clone''s head along with the rabbit, but��


    "Kh!" Theo clenched his teeth as his feet trembled because his magic power was empty, and he ended up missing the rabbit. But it didn''t end there.


    Theo himself knew what kind of drawback he would experience as soon as he used up all his magic power, so he grabbed that spear that the clone dropped after disappearing.


    "That kid��" The olddy''s lips curved as her heart was filled with excitement. She muttered, "He knew he couldn''t hit the rabbit and used that swing to throw the rabbit''s bnce off. Everything was just for thest hit with the spear?! I was trying to push him to the limit and helped him, but this�� far surpassed my expectation!"


    Just like what she said, the rabbit couldn''t even move its body properly because Theo forced it to move its body to avoid his sh. And with the longer reach from the spear, he could reach the rabbit even if he didn''t stand up.


    "Qiu." The rabbit wailed as its blood flowed on the spear, dying.


    Theo, on the other hand, dropped to the ground while panting. He stared back at his master. "Huft��Huft�� I''ve done it, Master."


    "!!!" She grabbed Theo with one hand and the rabbit with the other hand andughed. "Haha, you did great, boy. I will give you something delicious as your reward."

 Chapter 42 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 42 - Return</h4>


    Ton.


    Ton.


    Ton.


    Hum.


    Hum.


    Chopping sounds and humming voices kept echoing in Theo''s ears as he looked at his master, who was preparing the meal.


    Everything was prepared at a speed he had never seen before, and unknowingly, there was already a te made of leaf in front of him.


    The rabbit meat was chopped into the single-bite size and cooked together with vegetables they found in this area.


    His stomach was rumbling with the smell alone and his mouth was watering because of its appearance.


    "I couldn''t prepare more since I didn''t n for it earlier�� Wipe your hand first and eat." She made a gentle smile like a grandmother.


    Theo nodded and took out a sanitary kit before washing his hand with sanitizer. His master used his as well, butpared to the food in front of her, it was something trivial.


    Theo couldn''t contain himself anymore and ate the food like a child that didn''t know table manners. He ended up eating all his food in less than a minute.


    His master only smiled at him the whole time and offered him her own portion but rejected.


    Surprisingly, there was another effect that good food brought to him. The earlier fatigue somehow got reduced as he realized. "This�� So, that''s how it is."


    "Do you understand something?" She asked with a smile.


    "A good meal can lessen one''s mental fatigue. Just like rest and other forms of entertainment."


    "That''s right. Mental fatigue is unbearable, especially in a perilous situation. There was once a man and a woman stuck inside a cave, but because of the situation, the man ended up r*ping the woman and ate her flesh to survive. I want you to remember this one thing�� Humans can be evil, but by no means should they act like a beast."


    His expression turned serious as if something touched his heart. He clenched his fists and nodded his head. "I understand, Master."


    "Good. Do you enjoy your food?"


    "Yes, very much so. That''s the best food I''ve ever eaten."


    "Is that so? Thanks." She smiled. "As long as you work hard, I will reward you with good food."


    "Train and eat." Theo nodded, knowing what this meant.


    "That''s right. That''s how you create muscle." She nodded. "Besides, I believe your training camp purpose is to add additional status points."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Have you ever trained yourself to the limit?"


    "Ehm, no?"


    "So, you have been relying on your status this whole time. There is a secret which you might have heard from a rumor. Training your body can give you additional strength or any other status. I mean, if there are two people, one has a simr body to yours with 10 Strength points while the other one is a huge bodybuilder who also has 10 Strength points. Do you think you can ept it if they are both level 1?


    "No, right? They will gain additional points depending on their body condition, so this body training must want to develop your body to its peak condition first, giving you some additional points to your status without leveling up." She exined while chewing the meat.


    "I see. That''s indeed something good for a starting point." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I will do my best there without exposing myself."


    "Exposing yourself? Well, whatever." She shrugged before continuing. "I want you to learn another thing since you have finished eating. I will exin the basics of awareness with an analogy. Do you know the term aura?"


    "Yes. But isn''t that a fantasy term like in the game?"


    "As I said, this is just an analogy. Imagine yourself being enveloped by this "aura" and think of this as your awareness. Imagine covering your entire body with a calm aura as if in a thin coat, you will be able to hide your presence. This is what I mean by Internal Awareness. And if you expand that aura to your surroundings, you will be able to sense or even see your surroundings. This is External Awareness.


    "Of course, it''s a moreplicated thing since awareness isn''t something you can touch or see." She sighed.


    "I understand the analogy, but what should I do?"


    "Sit in afortable position and focus your entire sense on yourself and your surroundings at the same time."


    Theo nodded and moved toward a tree as he nned to lean on it, albeit he got reprimanded by his master.


    "Don''t lean on something. You will be too conscious of it instead of the two."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he took two steps forward.


    "Ugh, just sit on the lotus pose."


    Theo nodded, sat down, and crossed his legs. He ced his hands on his knees before closing his eyes.


    "Now, try to sense the ground you sit on, the breeze that brushes your skin, the chirping sound echoing in the arena, and more importantly, what is your position? Has your body swayed one degree to the left? Or have you tilted your back a little bit? You need to feel all these at the same time."


    Theo followed her instruction but to no avail. It was just a concept that was harder to grasp than the Control.


    Even so, Theo kept trying without saying a singleint because he wanted to get stronger.


    Although he didn''t seed after a few hours of training, he felt his mind was refreshed. His Master then brought him to another ce that had a bigger space, so she could teach him Martial Art. It was just some basic movements since his master actually wanted him to polish it himself after experiencing many battles.


    After that, there was breathing as well. The training became more effective because he practiced breathing right after he was exhausted physically.


    His master turned into a devil and forced him to control his breathing despite him not being able to stop panting.


    The practices kept repeating over and over again as Theo ended up reaching Level 46 since he had been killing monsters while practicing his Control without sleep.


    And finally, his master brought him to the Art Beats Castle on Sunday night, where he parted with his master since he needed to go to school for the training tomorrow.


    "Then, Master. I''m thankful for the past two days. I never thought I could reach Level 46 this soon. Though, you always brought me to dangerous ces with high-level monsters."


    "Why did you say it like we''re not going to meet anymore? Your hell just begins, you know. Besides, you got stronger this fast because I was ruthless in my training." She shrugged.


    "Ahaha. I will see you again tomorrow." Theo looked away.


    "Yep. Rest your body for today."


    Theo then turned around and waved his hand to his master while walking away. On the way, he didn''t forget to check his status.


    He was just four levels away from bing an Elite Rank Fighter.


    Status: Normal


    Level: 46


    EXP: 287/968


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (E), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), 6 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 68, Endurance 32, Agility 41, Vitality 32, Magic Power 66


    Free Attribute Points: 0

 Chapter 43 – Military Instructors

    <h4>Chapter 43 - Military Instructors</h4>


    After returning to his home, Theo took a shower and went straight to bed because the past two days had been tiring for him.


    The next morning, he justpleted his daily routine and headed to school. Because this was a special day, everyone was required to bring a weapon to the school since they would only go back after a while.


    Theo had thought this through and handed both his Elite Rank Spear and Sword to his master. After all, Alea already knew about his other identity having that pair of weapons, so the least he could do was tone down his weapon.


    He decided to pick up Normal Rank Iron Spear and somehow searched for a way to acquire another Elite Rank Spear. His only regret was how he didn''t think of acquiring another weapon when he was on the other side yesterday.


    As one would expect, the moment he arrived at the school, the gym was swarmed by people.


    Theo also quickly made his way toward the gym since the principal was about to give them onest briefing about the training they needed to endure.


    ��


    A few minutester.


    "�� All in all, there are two things you need to know. First, the area around the training camp is safe, but beyond that, we won''t be responsible for your death. Second, if you give up, we will dly send someone to pick you up. That''s all. For now, you should go outside and get into your own aircraft within fifteen minutes. They each have a character on it, so you should know where to go." He smiled and walked off the stage.


    "��" Theo knew that this would be a disaster so he waited for a few minutes before going to the aircraft.


    Outside the school, there were ten white airnes parked.


    The ne had two wings on the left and right side, but unlike the conventional airne, each wing had a small turbine that allowed it to maneuver like a helicopter. At the same time, there were two engines that could boost their speed at any time.


    These military nes were usually used to transport something big or carry many people, considering that there were enough spaces to bring two thousand people in each of them as long as they crammed the people inside.


    When Theo arrived at his airne, he saw that the cabin was divided into two floors. The second floor was filled with the seniors, so he just sat on an empty seat on the first floor without hesitation before closing his eyes. As long as he didn''t talk, no one would bother him anyway.


    After fifteen minutes, the ne finally took off. It rose to the sky vertically before flying toward the Teleportation Gate.


    Because the procedure had been met, they were transported to the other side almost immediately and flew straight to their destination.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t see what kind of terrain they would have beforending on the ground.


    What he did as soon as he got off the ne was to check his surroundings.


    As obvious as they could get, there were six tents capable of housing two hundred people at once with bunk beds. Of course, each year got two tents to separate males and females.


    On the north, he could see a dense forest while on the two sides were rocky slopes, one was steeper than the other. Andst but not least, he found a valley behind him, filled with swamp and grasnd with a running river.


    After getting a clear picture of what he needed to do, Theo found a group of people with a dark blue uniform. Although they chatted like buddies, he knew the military had strict rules, so he only thought about following orders.


    As he expected, a middle-aged man with a gentle smile stepped forward before his expression turned serious, shouting. "Attention! Stop whatever you are doing and stand in front of me right now!"


    People, who were familiar with the military, quickly ran, stood and straightened their backs. Theo also followed suit as soon as he saw Alea Eilric was among them.


    The remaining people were still bewildered as the military instructor once again shouted. "You piece of sh*t who can''t even follow an order. What the heck are you doing here? Do you think this is camping? No, this is training! If you can''t follow my order once again, no need to say give up. I''m going to expel you right now with my jurisdiction even if you are from a big family."


    When they heard about it, the rest of the group hurriedly followed what the first fifty people did, sweating.


    "Good. I will introduce myself first. I''m Major Sam and the nine people behind me are my teammates who will train all of you here. We will help you build your body into something that can handle people from other countries.


    "If you can''t even do this kind of drill, just pack up your bag and go home. On the other hand, if you can do this, I will guarantee that you will be stronger even without leveling up.


    "There are five basic routines. Run, Physical Training, Lunch, Games, and Run. Everything in this list is not meant to be a joke, but training. You will understand thatter. The schedule will be followed from Monday to Saturday. You can have free time on Sunday. Whether you want to do some personal training or just resting your body, we will allow it. Just make sure not to go back to your home because you will be disqualified. We have people to supervise it as well.


    "Due to theck of lighting, we will start at 6 AM and stop at 5 PM. Also, we will be supervising you only for one month before continuing to your next training session. You have two missions during this training camp: survive and form a pair. You can go to any of us and ask someone to be your group. We will deal with it after that."


    "If you don''t have a question, we will start right now. Don''t worry about your luggage because you can take itter. Anyway, my friend, First Lieutenant Rick, will show you the course. Follow him and run until you are allowed to retire. We will be running alongside you to make that decision."

 Chapter 44 – Running Course

    <h4>Chapter 44 - Running Course</h4>


    Lieutenant Rick shouted after hearing the instruction. "Alright. Follow me. This will be your training routine every single running session, so you need to remember the course even though the training is only about running around the area. Now, let''s go!"


    Without waiting for the students to react, Rick already ran toward the dense forest.


    Alea was the first to react as she ran right behind Rick, trying to follow his pace. Many other students also did the same to make sure they didn''t get left out.


    Meanwhile, a bald soldier narrowed his eyes and sighed, staring at their leader. "Major, you are too strict, aren''t you? The instruction from above is to allow them to get used to their new environment first, especially for the first year."


    "Not at all. I''m just trying to see their capability first. In other words, this is a test."


    "Well, you have specifically chosen this area to train agility in the dense forest, judgment in the steep slope, adaptability in the swamp, speed in the grasnd, and bnce in the gentle slope." He scratched the back of his head.


    "Exactly. Even the second or third year students have this problem. They may have muscle from the physical training in school, but this kind of terrain will allow them to gain and use them properly. Besides, we can see the students that are cut above the rest."


    "Well, yes. If they can''t even follow Rick to the end instead of someone''s back, they are better than most. And there is still stamina and speed to put into consideration. Still, the main problem is whether they will be separated from the group or not." The bald guy nodded in agreement.


    "Exactly. With that many people, it will be hard to follow Eric since they have no visual of Rick. Hence, this is a perfect ce to check their talent and advise them from time to time. After all, the boss wants us to teach them without looking at their talent," said Major Sam as he turned around and continued, "I hope you all can help me during this one month."


    "Yes, Sir."


    Just like what they discussed, Rick entered the dense forest.


    Theo was a bit behind, but he could still see Rick''s figure, so he had no problem keeping up with him. He then started thinking about the reason for this training menu. ''With my current level, I don''t think I have a problem finishing the entire course. From my observation alone, if we are truly going around the area, it will be around ten miles.


    ''It''s too much for a normal first-year student, but I think I should remember the course first before putting my n into action? No. Instead of thinking of this, isn''t this a perfect time to practice my breathing?''


    Deciding what he wanted to do, he continued running without talking to whoever next to him.


    The terrain was well-thought.


    Due to the density of trees, many people were required to take one step to the left or right to avoid them, but at the same time, there were too many students near them, making it hard for them to adjust their course throughout the entire forest.


    In addition, there were many rootsing out of the ground and fallen branches that could throw their bnce off, so they needed to be careful to avoid falling over.


    Not long after, they arrived at the gentle rocky slope. People began to slow down their pace, resulting in half of the students getting stuck behind just like a traffic jam.


    Luckily, Theo was part of the advance group, so he didn''t get into that trouble. He descended ording to the pace Rick set.


    Everything changed when they entered the next terrain, the grasnd. Rick sped up like that of a tiger, throwing them off.


    This was a challenge for them.


    Even Theo needed to sprint to catch up with Rick, only to find him slow down again as soon as he entered the swamp. The swamp didn''t have anything special other than the fact that it was hard to move since every time they took a step, their feet sank a little bit.


    Theo had no problem in this terrain since his master training was worse than this.


    Last but not least, the steep rocky slope. This terrain was the hardest so far. It tested their judgment as to which path they should take.


    Although Rick showed the best example of how to climb this slope, the students decided to find another path that could be crossed easier since there was no way the path earlier could allow more than five students to cross it at once.


    Suddenly, Theo raised his vision, feeling the stares from the top of the hill.


    "��" He furrowed his eyebrows when he found the military instructors to be waiting for them, bringing all his teammates to observe them.


    After waiting for a while, he saw Alea talking to them and continued running. At the very least, his number one threat had left, so he began to climb the hill. It was quite a steep hill, so he needed to watch his footsteps.


    It took him a whole fifteen minutes just to climb the hill, even though the entire ten miles run took less than half an hour.


    And surprisingly, the moment he arrived at the top, Major Sam was the one who stopped him.


    "Congrattions. This is the running course for the whole month. I will also add some twists once in a while, so please keep that in mind. For now, thirty percent of the group can keep up with Rick, so you can take pride in being able to do it in your first year."


    "Thank you, Major."


    "No need. Anyway, you need to keep repeating this process until you are too exhausted to even move. We have a doctor here, so we will know whether you are faking it or not and it will affect the overall evaluation."


    ''They have a doctor? Doesn''t this mean I can''t hide my ability? Well, I can control it to prevent me from standing out, so I guess that''s fine.'' Theo was screaming inside when he heard this. However, he couldn''t afford to show it to them. Instead, he smiled and nodded. "I understand."


    "Alright. You should continue." Major Sam released him and waved his hand as if cheering for Theo.


    Theo nodded and started running again.


    Major Sam, on the other hand, saw Theo''s file after scanning his face to search the database. "Theo Griffith. A level 7 can defeat a Level 47 Fighter, Laust Lange, in a fair duel. There seem to be many interesting students in my camp. Anyway, there are only two people in each grade that will pass. I wonder who will get the quota."

 Chapter 45 – A Genius?

    <h4>Chapter 45 - A Genius?</h4>


    While Theo was running through the dense forest, he found that Alea seemed to be more rxed as she began to visit other participants, have a talk with them, and cheer them up.


    Seeing that she almost reached his position, Theo turned left and distanced himself, going around her position before passing her.


    Albeit, the next few seconds he did that, Alea appeared next to him with a big smile on her face.


    "Ah, you were the guy who defeated Laust Lange. So, you are still alive. To think we are in the same group." She waved her hand, greeting him.


    "Ehm�� Nice to meet you? How can I help you?" Theo asked politely. His heart beat faster because he didn''t feel Alea''s presence despite seeing her. ''She must have the control over her Awareness.''


    "Well, I''m just greeting everyone here since we will be here for a whole month together. And I believe most of the people who manage to follow Instructor Rick are not going to leave just like that."


    "Okay?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, trying to stop their conversation using his boring attitude without offending her.


    However, he underestimated the woman called Alea Eilric. Firstly, he didn''t expect that Alea would slow down and talk to them one by one. If he knew something like this would happen, he wouldn''t have finished the firstp just to confirm the route.


    And the second thing was Alea''s persistence. She ignored Theo''s attitude and asked him. "Still, You are here safe and sound. I see. Hey, do you want to form a group with me?"


    That question stunned Theo even though what she aimed at was entirely different. She thought, ''Hmm, I already have candidates for the third-year, who is my friend, Ellen. As for the second-year students, I have settled it with Phyrill Hilbert and Sihan Raskaka. Due to the rule limitation, I need two candidates for the first year.


    ''I can choose Laust Lange, but this guy is also interesting. Although the fight wasn''t that serious, he truly managed to keep up with Laust Lange. And there are another ten first-year students who are among the top in this group.


    ''If only I could find that "Joker" that seems to be hiding among first or second-year students, I will definitely choose him. Well, I need toe up with a recement first for this training camp. Thus, I will be choosing one of the first-year students for the first session.''


    "Ehm�� I''m afraid that I''m not qualified to be your partner." Theo shook his head. To be honest, he had two opinions. Alea would be a great teammate to push him to the top, yet, it came with a huge risk. He didn''t know if he had prepared enough to face that risk.


    "You don''t need to look so annoyed." She suddenly pouted.


    "Eh?" Theo was bewildered by her statement since he only replied to her with a poker face. Even his tone was calm and polite.


    "The movement of your eyes, the fact that you are so polite to me, and a few other clues�� I know that you are annoyed with my presence here." Alea made a grin before saying, "I''m born with a pair of good eyes, you know. Discerning your hidden intention is something that I''m good at."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he recalled how Alea read him openly when he acted as Joker. This was the reason.


    After a few more steps, he suddenly realized something ridiculous.


    "Ah, you are really interesting." Alea didn''t miss that as well.


    What Theo noticed was her movement. It waspletely the exact same to him. Every time he avoided a tree, she would take the same step as him while keeping their distance and position the same. In other words, even if he tried to shake her off, she would be able to read him and knew what he was about to do.


    ''Master�� Is this what you mean by Genius? I can be this strong because of Master''s help and if Master trained me from a young age, I would have be like Laust�� I see. Laust is not a genius, but someone who has a head start. Compared to the one before me, who can literally do something like this, it''s not even worth mentioning.'' Theo sighed inwardly, realizing why his master said he wouldn''t believe what a genius could do.


    Meanwhile, Alea was scanning him from top to bottom before turning on her Skylink that had the form of a bracelet.


    It projected a blue screen where she clicked on a note, giving her a blue paper. She started everything she found about Theo while muttering, "Hmm. His abilities are hidden, he is calm andposed as well as has a good observation sk��Guak."


    Before she finished, she hit the tree because she wasn''t paying attention to where she was going.


    Theo, on the other hand, kept moving as he began turning left and right to confuse her and disappear from her sight as if he just escaped from a tiger.


    "Ouch." Alea made a weird smile while stroking her forehead. "It hurts. Anyway, I should check the other candidates first, but I think he is the most interesting guy. Though, I wonder if he has realized the true meaning of this training camp."


    She shook her head and ran to another candidate, doing the same thing to get their reaction.


    On the contrary, Theo was sweating profusely, muttering. "That wasn''t good. Everything was backfired. What was the deal with that woman? I couldn''t understand her mind. She looked like an open book, telling others her secret, but her actions were so random.


    "Besides, that woman was dangerous. Now I wonder how many "geniuses" like her are there in school��" Theo took a deep breath. "It seems I need to discover them one by one and have them in my team. That will allow me to win the spot for Grand Gaia."


    Knowing what he needed to do, he started creating ns toward it while wondering whether he should ept Alea''s invitation or not.

 Chapter 46 – Limit?

    <h4>Chapter 46 - Limit?</h4>


    Two hourster, Theo dropped to the ground, panted continuously, and looked at the sky. "I''m tired."


    "��" He had finished fourps in this course, so he thought this was enough.


    Crack.


    Dried leaves were crushed when Major Sam appeared next to him. "How are you feeling?"


    Theo tried to get up since it was rude talking to him like this, but Major Sam patted his shoulder, telling him it was fine.


    "I don''t think I can do anotherp." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "I see." Major Sam smiled and looked at his document before asking. "How about one morep?"


    "Eh, but��"


    "Just one morep. I will be waiting for you here�� Right at this position. In other words, until you finish thisp, I won''t move from this ce. Can you do one morep for me?"


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing why this Major Sam did something like this for him. He thought for a moment, took a few deep breaths ording to the rhythm that his master taught him, and calmed his heart.


    After that, he rose from the ground with a serious expression. "I understand. One morep. But I feel like this is going to take a while and there is no guarantee that I will reach this ce."


    Major Sam didn''t say anything and waved his hand.


    Theo let out a sigh as he started running again, thinking that he would get into trouble if he disobeyed thismand.


    He knew that almost every single first-year student had given up, while it was only a portion of the second-year that did the same. It just showed their endurance and high level, so Theo thought no more and tried his best to finish thestp.


    Although his pace dropped, he should be able to finish onep within an hour. Unfortunately, it wasn''t as good as he imagined. When he descended the gentle slope, it put a huge burden on his knees, making him unable to sprint in the grasnd.


    He was soon forced to walk through the muddy swamp. Still, the worst thing that he needed to face was the steep and dangerous slope, especially in his current condition.


    In the end, he managed to pass all this, albeit he could barely walk at this point, wondering if the Major really waited for him. Surprisingly, he saw his figure right in the Dense Forest where he stood earlier.


    He felt relieved, but at the same time, that adrenaline he had earlier disappeared. His feet went limp as he fell on his knees.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and used his hand to grab the tree next to him to help him walk. It might be turtle-pace, but the Major only smiled at him as if encouraging him to reach his position.


    It took him five minutes just to cover fifty feet.


    Theo''s face was pale, but his eyes were still alive. His back was drenched, but his breathing gradually calmed down.


    "I have finished��"


    "Well done." Major Sam smiled. "I want to congratte you for being the top first year in my group and sessfully challenge your limit."


    "Limit?"


    "Yes. What was your thought earlier? I''m done. Too tired to go anotherp? But when I asked you to do anotherp, you couldplete it. That''s why you need to know this. Your brain has set a limit upon yourself and you��have never questioned it. However, whether you have reached the limit or not, it''s not something that can be answered until you fall unconscious.


    "Besides, I can see that your mental endurance is quite good and your breathing has rhythm. I guess you already have a mentor, so I won''t bother you that much. I just want to say this�� Keep breaking your limit like this. This is important for you, a first-year student, because you need topete with second and third-grade students."


    "I see." Theo nodded and asked. "Why did you help me like this?"


    "As I said, you are the top among your peers. Although you seem to be hiding it, it will be known sooner orter. Since you have worked hard to run for the longest and the farthest than anyone in your generation, I should give you a gift, right? This lecture is my gift."


    "In that case�� Is it possible to��"


    "Don''t worry. I won''t mention your name during the lessons."


    "T-thank you." Theo dropped to the ground as he didn''t have any more energy to even stand up.


    "Anyway, you can rest here for the time being before returning to the middle area. You have another two hours to spend before the physical training, so you can do whatever you want." He then took out a piece of green paper with "55" on it. "Take this with you. This is your identification number as well as the number of your bed."


    "Thank you very much." Theo nodded and received the paper. After that, Major Sam disappeared like his master. However, he knew that Major Sam only moved faster than his eyes could follow, not teleported.


    Without any other people around him, he leaned on the tree and looked at the blue sky. "My limit, huh."


    Since there was nothing to do other than rest, he closed his eyes and began practicing the Breathing Rhythm that his master taught him.


    Luckily, he was in the furthest area, so no one would ever bother him.


    Even though he needed to run more than the others, the calmness and undisturbed atmosphere were worth it.


    ��


    One hour had passed. Eighty percent of the students had dropped out, and the ones who kept going were only third-grade students. Yet, they also soon stopped and got permission to rest.


    Meanwhile, Theo gradually opened his eyes, finding a piece of paper, folded into four, in front of him.


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes as he didn''t expect to find a note. After all, this meant that someone had stopped by and put down the note before leaving without him realizing his/her presence. "Alea Eilric?"


    Although he was full of doubt, he reached for the paper, opened it up and read the message.


    "After training, head to the Dense Forest and keep going straight. Whatever happens to you, you need to keep going until you meet me, Your Master."


    "Ah, it''s Master. No wonder someone can put it here." Theo''s heart calmed down as he hid the note in his pocket. "Anyway, there is only an hour left, so I think I should return to the middle area. If I have more time, I will practice Awareness until the next session."

 Chapter 47 – Chase

    <h4>Chapter 47 - Chase</h4>


    As soon as he reached the middle area, he sat down as if he watched the others who still ran with their lives on the line. No one doubted him, even though the fact was him training his Awareness.


    After the training was over, most people returned and had lunch first before the physical training. The lunch was just a simple military ration.


    Theo ate his lunch alone as Alea found him again, grabbing his hand before he could escape.


    "Ya, we meet again. Don''t run. I know that I''m annoying, but I will be more annoying the more you push me away."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched when he heard that as he couldn''t help but ask. "Are you sure you are a third-year student?"


    "I''m. And I don''t feel ashamed to admit it if that means I can get you to join my team." She smiled.


    "Please spare me. I''m not somebody. There are more capable seniors there." Theo sighed.


    "What I want is a first-year."


    "�� Do you swing that way? Going for an underage person." Theo knew that she would read his expression again, so this time he openly showed a disgusted expression.


    "You don''t need to show it openly��" Alea sighed and exined. "I already have a candidate for the other two grades. That''s why I want you to form a pair with me. I will tell you the reason why after you ept."


    "There are others��"


    "As I said, I will tell you the reason why I choose you over themter. Join me, will you?"


    "No."


    "Then, I''m going to stick around until you ept."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and could see trouble wasing, but he snorted and left. "Are you trying to y ignorant about what will happen to me when you get close to me? If you think that I''m going to partner up with someone as clueless as you, you''re wrong."


    "Aiya." Alea could only scratch the back of her head, knowing that she had pushed him too hard. "Well, I still have five more days to do this. It''s not like he doesn''t give me a chance from his words. Since there is a possibility, I should take it. After all, he is the most interesting first-year in this group. Fufu."


    Just like that, Theo escaped from her grasp and ran back toward the group, finding Major Sam preparing for the next training.


    "Everyone, listen to me," shouted Major Sam while looking over the documents. "I have grasped your ability a little bit from the earlier training. Hence, I have decided not to do the physical training for today, allowing you to have precious time to get ustomed to living here."


    The cheers erupted as they could take a break from that harsh training.


    "However, you need to y a game first."


    That statement bewildered everyone. Although they already knew about the schedule, they still couldn''t see what kind of game they would y, considering they came here to train, not y.


    "You will form two groups, boys and girls, and y a game of tag in this area for thirty minutes. To have women chasing you�� You like it, right, boys? I know you like it because I do too. Anyway, you will y it. Whoever loses will face two times of physical training tomorrow."


    "Eh?!" The students shouted,ining. The training was already harsh, and the Major actually wanted to increase the difficulty? It was the same as asking them to die.


    "I don''t care. You boys should start running now. One minuteter, the girls will chase you. Go!"


    "!!!" Although it was true that flirting with the girls in this game was a dream, they also didn''t want to get that amount of training, so the boys spread all around the area.


    Theo also took this chance to enter the Dense Forest.


    "No skill is allowed, okay?" Major Sam didn''t forget to set the limitation for this game.


    Theo knew that the best ce to hide would be the forest. There were many big trees over there and he could even climb them.


    But he sensed someone staring at him as if he was prey. There wasn''t a need to think who that person was.


    Theo clicked his tongue and entered the forest before going to the very edge. He stood behind a big tree without anyone around him. This ce should be able to hide him pretty long.


    Meanwhile, Alea entered the forest and halted her movement. People wondered what she was doing, but they still didn''t stop, not wanting to get the double training.


    As for Alea, she focused her entire sense to control her Awareness, spreading it all over the forest. Obviously, her strength wasn''t on par as Theo''s master, so she could only cover a small portion of the forest.


    ''I couldn''t find him at least one hundred feet around me. I need to move to another spot.'' She took a deep breath and went to a deeper area.


    A few minutester, there were so many people that had been caught by the girls, while Alea had yet to find Theo until one moment�� She picked up someone on her radar.


    She couldn''t contain her excitement and somehow sent that feeling to Theo.


    Theo, on the contrary, shuddered as if he felt someone just found him. The feeling he sensed earlier was like a hand clutching his heart.


    "This�� Was this how you transmit your killing intent? But what I sensed was that of a wild beast��" Theo gulped down as he only had one person in his mind that had the ability to do such a thing.


    Knowing that he was found out, he leaped to the side to avoid her chase, only to see her not far from him, charging at him at fast speed.


    "You!" Theo gritted his teeth.


    "Haha! As I said earlier, I want you to form a pair with me."


    Theo looked to the front and jumped left and right, trying to shake her off but to no avail.


    "After thinking for a while, I understand why you want to avoid me. That''s why I came up with a proposal. You can consider it as me seeing you as my equal. Would you like to hear it first?" She suddenly changed her mind and jumped toward Theo, hugging him from behind before pinning him to the ground. "No. You are going to hear it."

 Chapter 48 – Getting A Teammate

    <h4>Chapter 48 - Getting A Teammate</h4>


    "No, you are going to hear it." She smiled as she managed to tag Theo out, but in a more "forceful" way.


    She sat on his back and stopped him from escaping. "Anyway, since we have limited time, I will cut to the chase. If you join my group, I will let you set the conditions of our group. You can say that I can''t go near you while we are here. I believe this is what you want, right?"


    "��" Theo gritted his teeth and fell silent. This news was like that of a sweet in his mouth. Alea wouldn''t bother him again, meaning that his exposure wouldn''t increase and he would be a public enemy. At the same time, he would get the most powerful teammate he could hope for. Even Theo, who didn''t want trouble, was tempted by this offer.


    Seeing a bit of hesitation remained in Theo''s eyes, she released one more shoot right to his heart. "And if you agree, I can understand your power level and give you something like a skill or weapon to train. How about it?"


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. But I want to set the condition first before I agree to be your partner. If I see that it''s impossible, I won''t ept."


    "Find." She pouted as she released him. "You''re a hard man to get, aren''t you? There are twenty minutes left, so let''s make it fast."


    Theo shrugged and asked. "Although the answer is obvious, I really want to confirm it first. Are you sure it''s alright with me?"


    "Yes." She smiled. "Besides, I believe you already know the real meaning behind this training camp, right?"


    "I realized it once I heard we have free time on Sunday," Theo admitted and exined. "The sooner you form a group, the better. After all, you can bring your partner to hunt some monsters, allowing you to understand each other''s fighting style better. In other words, your teamwork will be better than most of the guys out there."


    "Exactly. Unfortunately, I can''t train with you because of what you want, but I don''t want to push it either. Hence, I will be satisfied with just four Sundays. That''s the only condition I want to set."


    "I don''t mind as long as we can meet up in another ce." He might have said that, but inwardly, he asked himself. ''Will Master be angry if I do this? I will tell her tonight.''


    "Sure."


    "As for the condition, I don''t want you to get close to me during the training."


    "I understand. I won''t bother you anymore as long as you agree to be my partner."


    "Alright. That''s the only condition I have. Or at least for now."


    "Then, I think I will tell you the reason why I choose you over the others. Actually, I only have one reason."


    "One reason?" Theo narrowed his eyes as he was afraid she knew about his other identity.


    "Yes. I may have the ability to read someone, but I don''t have the confidence to make a great n and think about the aftereffect. From what I can see, you are the calmest guy among the first-year."


    "So, you want me to n everything for you?"


    "No. I want you to stop me if I''m too reckless. I''m sure you can do that, considering how you talk to me this whole time."


    "��" Theo felt like he was trapped the moment he met this woman.


    "Anyway, I will give you some benefit since I personally choose you. However, I need to see your ability first this Sunday to know what to give, alright?"


    "I understand. I don''t expect much from the gift anyway." Theo shrugged.


    "Fine, fine. Anyway, I will inform Major Sam about this, so he could register our names. Is that fine?"


    Theo nodded and stretched his hand.


    Alea shook his hand with a big smile. "Good. I''m counting on you, Partner."


    "Likewise." Theo let out a long sigh, knowing that he was defeated in this battle.


    "That''s right. I think I have enough right to ask your status, right? I don''t mean about your real status, but the status that the Fighter Temple issues." Alea then activated her Skylink and showed her status.


    Name: Alea Eilric


    Level: 148


    Job: Magic Warrior


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance A, Agility B, Vitality C, Magic Power C


    "This is my status. I updated it yesterday, so it''s urate."


    Theo thought for a moment and opened his Skylink to open the ID Card, showing it to her.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Level: 24


    Job: Fighter


    Attributes: Strength B, Endurance D, Agility C, Vitality D, Magic Power C


    "Hmm��" She narrowed her eyes, feeling that something wasn''t right. "Your status�� Are you sure it''s like this? When was thest time you updated your status? I feel like your power is much higher than that of a Level 24 fighter."


    "Two days ago." Seeing that they would form a group, he decided to disclose his level��Only his level. "I am Level 46 right now."


    "!!!" Alea dropped her jaw, staring at him with an empty gaze.


    "Now I can see why Laust lost against you. Ahaha, to think everything turns into my favor. What they said again��" Alea recalled the thing she read not long ago and smiled. "I came looking for copper, but I found gold."


    "Ehm. That''s already so outdated." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "But isn''t that funny? I mean, people are literallyughing at it."


    "They must be your subordinates or someone lower than you." Theo shrugged.


    That statement literally shut her up as she flinched and looked away before changing the topic. "Anyway, I believe that in this training camp, you can raise your Strength to A and Endurance to C naturally. So, you better not ck, okay?"


    "I am going to take one of the spots, so you don''t need to worry about it," said Theo with a serious expression.


    "Alright then." She nodded as they finally came to an agreement.


    Theo also felt happy since he managed to acquire the best teammate without exposing himself�� Or that was what he thought��


    One hourter, Major Sam wanted to finish their first day of training with running. And surprisingly, Alea came to him again.


    "What are you doing here?"


    "Sorry. When I told him about our group, he asked me for your signature so as to show that I have your consent. Don''t worry. This will be thest time�� I think."


    "Really? I will trust you in this, alright?" Theo sighed and signed the document before saying, "To be honest, you can just ask me on Sunday since there is no need to rush because of our agreement."


    "Ahaha, I have told you the reason I chose you, right? Bye!" Realizing what she had done, she grabbed the document and ran as fast as possible, escaping from him before Theo changed his mind. She realized that she might be able to read him, but she wouldn''t win even once in terms of argument.

 Chapter 49 – A Test?

    <h4>Chapter 49 - A Test?</h4>


    After that run, they finally finished their first day at 3 PM, giving them a long free time to adjust to the new environment.


    However, Theo didn''t have the time to waste as he quickly put his luggage above his bed, telling that it was his ording to the number Major Sam gave earlier.


    He then came out of the ce with his spear and entered the Dense Forest. Of course, he made sure that Alea didn''t see him or she might suspect him.


    It turned out that his master was waiting for him in the deeper area of the Dense Forest.


    Passing the boundary that had been set by the military, he ran straight ording to the instruction.


    Suddenly, he sensed something from his left, which turned out to be a small log, attached to the tree branch with a rope, swinging toward him.


    "!!!" Theo instinctively took two small steps to the right since he knew it was enough. And his master told him not to waste any movement, so this was the best option. "Master''s test? Really? I just got into the training camp today�� There wouldn''t be any improvement or whatsoever."


    He shook his head helplessly, remembering how his master behaved. "Never mind. She must be liking this, so I should try to dodge everything with minimal movement, believing this is just training."


    Theo proceeded into the deeper area as more and more logs came to greet him. Unfortunately for him, his master was a sadist. The pace became even faster the deeper he got and those logs kept hitting him on the face and body.


    It continued for thirty minutes before he arrived in the middle of nowhere, barely having enough space for his training. It was surrounded by giant trees, so it wasn''t really that visible even if Theo used his Magic Bullet.


    His master stood in the middle of the area with a smile on her face. "How is it? Do you like it?"


    "I''m not a masochist." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Oi, oi. Everything I do has a meaning." She shrugged.


    "So, you are saying taking a beating is also training?"


    She made a big smile as if she didn''t feel guilty at all. "Anyway, I think you have gotten yourself into trouble."


    "Yes. I underestimated Alea Eilric. To think she would have done something like that�� I couldn''t escape her radar anymore and ended up bing her teammate."


    "Despite that, I know that you like it."


    "For the benefit, yes. Other than that, she is annoying."


    "Hahahaha!" His master onlyughed and said, "Anyway, that''s your problem, not mine."


    "I understand. That''s why I want to ask whether I can stop practicing during Sunday."


    "For a date?"


    "For another training. Master, can we get a bit more serious here?"


    "I''m always serious. I even put my everything into teasing you."


    "I don''t need that kind of seriousness." Theo sighed. "Anyway, I have agreed to hunt for monsters with her."


    "No need to get my permission. Since you will be hunting monsters every weekend, I can focus on training you during weekdays." She contemted for a few seconds before opening her mouth. "Though, I do have a condition."


    "What is it?"


    "Unless you get into a life and death situation, hide your Magic Bullet and Clone. I know that it will leave you with Pierce and Monkey Fist only, but trust me, it will let you grow faster."


    Although he didn''t understand it, he decided to trust her as he remembered something. "That''s right. I couldn''t understand why Major Sam put a game of tag in our schedule. Although it would give peace of mind, it��"


    Before he finished, his master shook her head with a smile. "So, you don''t understand?"


    "Yes."


    "The reason is simple. He wanted you to use your muscles properly. When running around, you must feel that you need to adapt, right?"


    "Indeed."


    "If it were in a normal condition, you would have adjusted ording to your pace. To speed up the process, he used that game to force you into a situation where you needed to adapt faster to the point it became an instinct to your body. This will allow you to fight in a different type of situation without the need to adjust it since you have instinctively done it."


    "Ah, I see."


    "Anyway." She waved her hand and pointed her thumb to the back. "Look. I have made your practice partner."


    Theo tilted his head in confusion as he took a peek behind her, finding ten thick logs nted on the ground.


    "Those will be your training partners. I made them in a way they could endure your Magic Bullet. Anyway, let''s start your training from Control to Awareness."


    "Understood." Theo nodded as he put down his spear and started practicing.


    When it was time for dinner, his master cooked another delicious meal as a reward for working hard. Theo savored everything without hesitation and returned to his training right after.


    Unfortunately, because of the schedule and harsh training he would receive tomorrow, his master reluctantly allowed him to return at 9 PM.


    "Master, I''m going back now."


    "Yes. And I want you to know that I will be teaching you the basics for only a month. The rest will be your own study. Of course, I will be observing you for six months and give you advice from afar. Other than that, I don''t think I will make another appearance."


    "Why?"


    "Well, I have my reason."


    "��" Theo looked down, feeling a bit sad. Although their bond was just forged a few days ago, it felt like it had progressed more than a year.


    "Don''t be sad. I''m still with you during that time, so don''t you dare to procrastinate, alright? Or you will be facing my wrath."


    "Yes. I will keep training ording to Master''s schedule."


    "Good." She smiled and patted his shoulders.


    "Then, I will see Master tomorrow."


    "Actually, I have something to say about Alea Eilric." She narrowed her eyes as she was a bit hesitant to tell him.


    "What is it, Master?"


    "There is no way for you to keep up with her. Your level and fighting prowess are still too lowpared to her. However, I do believe that you have something in you that can allow you to reach her. I have seen it in you and you need to understand that yourself. When you do, put a leash on her��" She smirked and grasped his neck, imitating how a leash would feel on his neck. "Will you?"

 Chapter 50 – Progress

    <h4>Chapter 50 - Progress</h4>


    "I will do my best." Theo made a weird smile as he didn''t have the confidence to do something like that without offending her.


    After saying goodbye, he turned around, returning to his camp.


    On the way, he recalled what his master said earlier, telling him that everything she did had a purpose.


    However, that soon turned into confusion again when he sensed somethinging from his left that made him take two steps to the right.


    "Kh! She has restarted the trap?" Theo clenched his teeth and knew that it would be another pain in the ass journey.


    He stepped forward and took three steps to the left, one diagonal step, and one small step back.


    He suddenly opened his mouth in surprise as he remembered this movement. "This�� Isn''t this the same pattern like what I have done whening here? This�� One step forward and one to the left before taking three steps to the right."


    He surprisingly seeded in dodging everything without even looking at them. It was at this moment he realized what was going on. "This is footwork? She is teaching me footwork but in a practical mode?"


    He couldn''t contain his smile when he realized this training, albeit the log finally hit him on the face. "Gah! I forgot this one. Ugh, I can''t remember the rest too. Maybe my first step should be remembering this one and taking a note to know the pattern. Alright, let''s go."


    Instead of pain, his heart was filled with excitement. Even though his body was beaten ck and blue, his concentration didn''t decrease.


    His master, who had been tailing him this whole time, smiled and closed her eyes. "That''s right. Youck too many things right now, my disciple. Footwork, basic spear techniques, magic control, and so on. You need to catch up with those people if you want to participate in Grand Gaia."


    After seeing that Theo had returned to the camp, she disappeared.


    ��


    The next day, Theo started practicing like Major Sam intended.


    Alea, who had be his teammate, began to be more conscious about him, so she noticed the bruises on his body. When she was about to talk to him, she remembered their agreement and decided to give up. Though, she would certainly ask it when Sunday arrived because she was worried about him.


    At first, she wanted to tail him, but if Theo found her, he would be disappointed. Instead of risking the current partnership, she pushed her curiosity away for the time being.


    During the day, Theo fulfilled every task sessfully. Still, they ended up getting double practices every day because of the woman named Alea. She alone managed to catch five percent of the guys. And there were still other females that participated, making the boys unable to win a single time.


    When the night came, Theo kept visiting his master. Although his level stagnated, his ability increased by leaps and bounds.


    Saturday night, Theo finished his training with his master as he once again brought the topic. "Master. I can''t go back here tomorrow. Maybe I can after the hunt?"


    "You don''t need toe here tomorrow. Besides, I have disarmed all the traps around here. Just think of it as your master''s approval. Rest your body for tonight and hunt those monsters."


    Theo smiled, thanking for her understanding.


    "That''s right. How is your status progress?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and opened his status window.


    Status: Normal


    Level: 46


    EXP: 13/332


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (E), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), 6 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 70, Endurance 34, Agility 43, Vitality 32, Magic Power 66


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm�� I got an additional two points for Strength, Endurance, and Agility."


    "I see. That''s good enough with the fact that you only do basic training. I think they will step up next week."


    "Step up?"


    "Yep. Probably with weight or something to develop your body faster."


    "Now I feel like you are rted to the military." He narrowed his eyes. "Don''t tell me, you actually know about their training schedule?"


    "I underwent such a thing back when I was young." She shrugged and looked away. "Anyway, you are free to think anything about me. I won''t give you answers rted to my background again. If you don''t like it, how about you outsmart me?"


    Theo shook his head helplessly. Although his master was mysterious, he never tried to get her picture in order to search it on the Inte. Besides, he couldn''t squander his money for the time being, considering that his master would destroy his Skylink or any other cameras he used if she found out.


    In addition, her training was very effective for him, so he decided to trust her until enough preparation.


    When he returned from the forest, he saw a woman figure standing near the exit of the dense forest. The translucent blue light from the moon made it as if there was a fairy standing in this calm night.


    On the contrary, Theo''s heart was far from calm as he looked at that figure. Of course, for a different reason��


    ''Did she tail me? I thought I had��"


    Before he even finished his thought, she looked at him and made a gentle smile. "You have finished your training?"


    "��" Theo frowned, wondering how much she knew. But his master should know about this and she must have prevented Alea from knowing. He thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes."


    "That''s good. Anyway, I just wanted to give you the location of where we will meet up tomorrow. Open your map."


    Theo took his Skylink out and opened the map.


    Alea gave him the coordinate and inputted it on the map. Fortunately, the people who fought in this ce updated the map, making their current map a bit bigger for other people to use.


    When his focus was on the map, her voice suddenly resounded in his ears.


    "I didn''t follow you, alright?"


    "Eh?" Theo was confused as he raised his vision. Alea already turned around and began to walk.


    "At least, I will give that much respect and privacy. You can also tell me off when something is too important to you, and I will stop bothering you about it. One more thing�� Just call me Alea without an honorific. This is a request because honorific is a hassle that will dy our chain ofmand in the battle. Okay? If you understand, then rest your body. We will travel tomorrow after all. See you tomorrow at 7 AM." She leaped out of the forest without looking back.


    Theo scratched the back of his head and made a weird smile. He just had another impression of Alea. Even though she was annoying, she didn''t seem to be that bad.

 Chapter 51 – Plan

    <h4>Chapter 51 - n</h4>


    The next day, Theo quickly went toward the meeting spot, finding Alea, who seemed to have been waiting for a while.


    She tied her blonde hair into a ponytail, so it wasn''t in the way when she fought. She wore a white shirt coupled with a ck vest. However, what he couldn''tprehend was her choice to use a skirt.


    "Ah, you are here." She smiled and waved her hand.


    "Ehm�� Before we go, can I ask you something first?"


    "Sure. Ask me anything."


    "Why do you wear a skirt? If I am not wrong, you have been wearing pants this whole time, and if we are moving around, isn''t pants better?" Theo frowned, bing worried about her well-being.


    "Eh? Are you��" She stepped back while looking at him with a weird smile.


    "I''m just worried about your IQ," Theo waved her hand and said with a poker face.


    "IQ��" Alea''s eyebrows twitched. "You really don''t hold back after I give you permission to talk casually, eh? Anyway, to answer your question, I have two reasons."


    "I''m listening. Though, I will start questioning whether I should ask Major Sam to renounce��"


    "Wait, wait. You don''t need to finish that sentence. I''m going to tell you right now!" She hurriedly closed his mouth, panicking. "It''s training."


    "Do you think I''m dumb?"


    "I can see that your skill is increasing by leaps and bounds, especially in Breathing and Control. What I am practicing right now is Control. I don''t know if your mentor has taught you this, but you can envelop your body with Magic Power. It''s like you are wearing invisible full-body armor.


    "But if I wear pants like usual, I would end up not being conscious about it. So, if I show a bit of my skin, I am forced to focus on protecting my skin from thorns or something, so it won''t graze my skin.


    "Of course, I only do it when we are going to a low-level area because I don''t mind spending my Magic Power to maintain this ability for a whole day. If I need to go to a dangerous area, I will wear proper clothes."


    Theo closed his eyes, contemting her answer. "Well, I can ept this reason. And?"


    "And?"


    "You said you have two reasons."


    "Oh! The second reason is for you. I heard that boys like to take a nce over this��" She smiled and slightly raised her skirt as if tempting him.


    Theo, on the other hand, opened his Skylink and took a note, typing "50" and "-1" on it.


    "What is that number, Theo? Ah, since I allow you to call me Alea, you don''t mind me calling you Theo, right?"


    "I don''t mind. As for your question, it''s the point to see if I should continue being your partner. In other words, this is my mental number." Theo answered.


    "What will happen if it reaches 0?"


    "Obviously, I will ask Major Sam to break this pair up."


    "Eh?" Her face became pale as she asked. "But a part of your word was a lie. Let''s see�� I think you have another intention of keeping a tab on this number. You want to see how much I am going to be annoyed with your cold attitude, right? This way, you can see my seriousness in being your partner."


    "��" Although he wanted to show no expression, he knew that it was impossible to hide from Alea. Instead of fussing about it, he added another "-1" out of spite.


    "Oops." Alea gently rubbed her cheek. "Fine, fine. I won''t say anything useless, alright? Can you just be nicer to a girl?"


    "But you will be more annoyingter, thinking I will do anything for you." Theo shook her head. "Besides, I don''t care that much. The moment you step here, you are not a female or male anymore. You are a fighter. If I need to kill, I will kill even you."


    "With this attitude, no girls will like you, you know." She pouted.


    Hearing this, Theo made a gentle smile and said without a care. "You don''t need to worry about it. Not only girls, but guys also don''t like me, saying I''m ipetent and bullying me."


    Alea froze as she recalled the incident in school. With Laust confronting him, Theo must have experienced worse. "Ehm, I''m sorry."


    Instead of replying to her, Theo walked forward while waving his hand. His eyes were ring at her as if telling her, "If you keep spouting those useless things, I''m going to leave you behind."


    "Wait for me." Alea turned around and chased him as they ran forward.


    "So, what is our n? Your level is far above me, so I believe you have more say in this, considering this ce relies on power, not rationality," asked Theo when she caught up as if nothing happened earlier.


    Alea really couldn''t handle Theo in this part as she answered honestly. "For now, let''s go to Art Beats Castle. I want to buy some spices. I know that it''s going to take us two hours of running, but this is important."


    "Don''t tell me you are nning to camp��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Nope. I mean, we still need to make our lunch and dinner ourselves. I don''t want military ration or canned food, so I will be cooking for both of us. Of course, this included the other weeks."


    "Well, if that''s your intention. Should I pay half of it as well?"


    "No need. I will buy everything. How about buying a better spear for you? It''s a Normal Rank Spear, right?"


    Theo looked at the spear in his hand and nodded. "Yes, I think I will buy an Elite Rank Spear."


    "Then, I��"


    "No need. I will buy it with my own money." Theo shook his head.


    "Eh, but you��" She looked at him with a worried expression before she suddenly realized, thinking. ''Wait a minute. He could level up so much during the past few days. He must have hidden so many things and built his own secret this whole time. He probably won''t lose against Laust��''


    She drew a gasp as she stared at Theo dumbfoundedly. Suddenly, a smile appeared on her face. "It seems I''ve chosen the right person. You are truly the most interesting one in our group. I am looking forward to working with you."


    Theo ignored her remark as they continued their journey.

 Chapter 52 – Returning To The Weapon Shop

    <h4>Chapter 52 - Returning To The Weapon Shop</h4>


    Two hourster, they arrived at the Art Beats Castle.


    "We will meet again here in thirty minutes, alright?" She smiled and waved her hand as she turned left, walking toward the market.


    Meanwhile, Theo looked to his right as he nned to visit a weapon shop. He remembered the weapon shop from back then and had no intention to return there, albeit the situation was far worse than he thought.


    He visited the first weapon shop he used to visit. Although the interior wasn''t that much different from where he bought his Elite Rank Weapons, he realized how good that weapon shop was.


    ''Ugh. I am not someone who is good with weapons, but I can feel the difference between the weapons here and that shop''s." Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the first Elite Rank Spear in this shop.


    The spear before his eyes looked good. With the white handle and some sort of patterns beautifying the spear, it was apparent that the quality was good even for an Elite Rank Spear. However, when hepared it with the spear he entrusted to his master, this one feltckluster.


    He simply lost the desire to wield this spear.


    ''What is the difference?'' Theo thought before shaking his head, searching for another weapon, but to no avail. The result was the same. ''Why? Is there anyone that can exin it to me? Maybe I should ask Masterter. For now, I need to search for another weapon shop to confirm my guess.''


    Theo then visited around ten weapon shops only to find themcking. He was kind of disappointed, but at least he sold his current Iron Spear to one of the shops, so he didn''t need to carry it around.


    In the end, he returned to where he brought his previous weapons.


    He hesitated right before the door as he thought, ''Last time, I covered my face with a mask, so no one recognized my face. This time, I am buying as Theodore Griffith, so I think I will be fine.''


    He gulped down and entered the shop. Once he entered the weapon shop after visiting eleven other shops, the difference became even clearer.


    ''This�� I don''t know what it is, but there is something that pulls me in. I really should ask Masterter.'' Theo sighed and went around the shop, finding a blue spear. Although there was a golden flower pattern on the handle, he liked the look of it. And the de seemed to be far sharper than his Elite Rank Spear.


    "I think I will take this." Theo nodded and took it to the counter, finding the same old man. "This one please."


    Theo handed the spear to the old man.


    "Sure." The old man nonchntly nodded his head and took the spear before he saw who was buying it. Theo''s appearance stunned him as he instinctively straightened his back as he became conscious of the pocket watch hidden underneath his shirt.


    Not wanting to be known, the old man tried hard to keep his poker face and continued. "This spear is made of Radiant Blue Ore while the de is from the horn of Stigmata Rhino. It is considered one of the top Elite Rank Spears and can be used for a long time. The price is 40,000 Zils."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I will take this."


    "Okay." The old man took out his Skylink.


    Theo did the same and transferred the amount to him. Since he got every card from the hunt with his master back then, he had enough money to spare, so this spear was a kind of investment to himself, hoping that he could get stronger and get more money in the future.


    After the transaction waspleted, Theo exited the ce before finding Alea in front of the shop.


    "Ah, Theo. As expected, you are here. I forgot to suggest this shop to you since this is the best weapon shop in this ce."


    "Is that so?" Theo understood that the moment hepared this shop to the others, but he had yet to know the reason.


    On the contrary, Alea''s voice stunned the old man as he dropped his jaw. "Eh? My granddaughter is with him? How? Did someone arrange this? Wait, wait. Did I overthink this? That Theo is Theodore Griffith, right?"


    His heart was full of surprise, but Theo and Alea had already left the vicinity. As the former head of the Eilric Family, he should still have the knowledge about what was going on with the other big families, including the Lange Family.


    But�� No one knew his objective yet as he facepalmed, thinking about Theo and Alea. "That''s right. If I am not wrong, they are in the training camp right now. They must have formed a group�� Haiz, I don''t know if this is fate or simply coincidence, but things will get interesting soon."


    Unaware of the old man''s thought, Theo walked toward the castle''s gate with Alea while asking. "That''s right. Why did you say that shop is the best?"


    "Hmm? Because the old man at the counter is my grandfather, so of course, it''s the best."


    "Eh?" Theo dropped his jaw, his heart skipped a beat, and sweats started to drench his back. "What did you say? Your Grandfather?"


    "Of course, there is another reason. My grandfather loves to see good seedlings that have no influence backing them. Selling weapons there is the best way to get acquainted with them. And since he runs a shop, he will prepare the best things from a famous cksmith. Though my grandfather can refine a weapon too.


    "Not only are their skills guaranteed, but he also never sells a used weapon. In other words, if you found a weapon and sold it to that shop, that weapon would be reduced to metal before bing a new weapon. This is very different from other shops that only repair the weapon and resell it." Alea exined the reason why he had a mixed feeling from the other shops.


    "But if there is a shop that famous, why��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "My grandfather doesn''t use the family name for this. Besides, the location is deserted, so only a few people wille. And it''s not like other people want to tell many people about it since the moment they know, the weapons will either be sold out or increase in price."


    "I see." Theo''s heart calmed down as he thought, ''I think that old man doesn''t recognize my other identity, so I guess I am good for the time being. I should be more careful next time.''


    "So, what did he say to you?"


    "Eh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "He didn''t say anything��"


    "Really?"


    "Yes. I just transferred the money without any talks."


    "Is that so��" Alea felt conflicted as she doubted whether Theo was a great partner or not, remembering the praises he uttered about the "Joker".


    Either way, no one was better than Theo in the group, so she decided to stick with him.

 Chapter 53 – Alea’s Fighting Style

    <h4>Chapter 53 - Alea��s Fighting Style</h4>


    "So, how about this area?" asked Alea while running toward the northeast. "This area is filled with Level 51-60 Elite Rank Monsters, so I think this is good for you right now. And it''s not too low for me to showcase my ability to you.


    "After knowing my fighting style, we will hunt together to find the best pattern we can do as a team. How about it?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Well, the area is only one hour away from the training camp, so I think it''s a good ce."


    "That''s good. Let''s go then."


    The two traveled by foot. Although the journey took a bit longer, they still had an hour left before lunchtime, so Alea offered a suggestion. "I want to find a group of monsters�� Probably more than five."


    "It''s up to you." Theo shrugged as he remembered that Alea managed to kill fifty Elite Rank Bats by herself, albeit thest one almost killed him.


    They ran for a while until reaching their destination. Since Theo never came to this ce, he was surprised to see the area was a prairie.


    "This�� Won''t it be easy for the monsters to spot us?" asked Theo while scanning the area.


    "Yes, but the same applies for both of us. Don''t worry. Even though the grass around here reaches our knees, the data has confirmed that no small monsters like a snake or whatever appears, so I think it''s rtively safe to rely on our eyes. Of course, I will be spreading my awareness the whole time. You know about it, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression and noticed a small hill on their right. "How about we climb that hill before lunch? Not only can we get a good grasp of this ce, but there are a few buffalos on the way there."


    "Alright. Let''s go then. I will trust your decision." Alea agreed without hesitation as she started running. "Seven buffalos spotted. You stay here first and watch how I fight, okay?"


    Theo nodded while taking out his Skylink to check their status.


    Name: Rhino Buffalo


    Level: 51-56


    A three-horned buffalo powered with speed and power. Don''t touch their horns as it is sharp like a spear.


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and stared at the ck-skinned buffalos. The two curved horns seemed to be able to pierce his body, but the most dangerous one might be the one in the middle. "The size is the same as a regr buffalo, but��"


    Finding Aleaing toward them, the buffalos roared as they made a "V" formation. If Alea leaped to the side, she would just get rammed, so this should be enough to stop her movement.


    Instead of changing her direction, she chose to charge toward them.


    When he was about to call her a fool, she took one step to the right. The buffalos noticed it and slightly tweaked the direction, so the one in the middle could hit her.


    "Toote." Theo clenched his teeth, knowing that Alea didn''t have enough time to avoid them.


    This was where Alea proved him wrong. She never had any intention to dodge.


    After taking that step thatpletely killed her momentum, she spun her body to regain her bnce, aligned herself with the center buffalo and shed it into two.


    "What?!" Theo dropped his jaw. His eyes were wide open. "Did she just fake that movement to throw their bnce off and end it with one strike, but why? She could''ve done it without a fake."


    The answer came in the form of action. With them slightly turning to the left, it meant that after killing the first buffalo, the three on the left would be the closest ones to her. After all, they could only continue running ording to the direction.


    With the back facing Alea and the distance still within Alea''s range, she jumped toward them and killed the three in session with a horizontal sh.


    Theo had no word to say as four of them had gone within the first move. Meanwhile, the other three tried to escape from Alea, knowing their disparity.


    Unfortunately for them, Alea''s power was far too great as she caught up in a few seconds and killed them one by one.


    The grasses around them were smeared with their blood, dying this ce with red paint.


    She didn''t even use magic or any special technique. It only took her one fake move to end this fight.


    Alea smiled and swung her sword once to get rid of the blood before sheathing her sword. Turning around, she asked Theo. "How is it?"


    "I have no words to say." Theo facepalmed and sighed. "Should I say as expected a genius from the Eilric Family?"


    "Haha. I don''t care if you want to say that, but just don''tpare me to you, okay? We can''t choose our parents after all."


    ''She is strong in that aspect too, huh.'' Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he realized that it was hard to rile Alea up.


    "If you fought together with me, what would you do?"


    Theo looked down and closed his eyes. "Stay behind you and watch your back."


    "What? You serious?" Alea looked at him with a weird expression. She didn''t know whether this Theo actually observed her or not. "Oi, oi. You can only get the EXP points if you kill them, you know. Why do you want to stay behind me?"


    "First of all, I don''t understand why you would use a feint earlier. Second, who said I wouldn''t do anything?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "What I mean is one or two feet behind you, so the moment you strike the right, I will pierce my spear to the left side, killing them in one move."


    "Ah, sorry. I misunderstood you." Alea apologized. "That''s good enough. But do you think you are strong enough to kill them in one strike? Their skin is pretty tough, so I doubt you can do it at once, even with your current weapon."


    "Is that so?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what he should do at that time.


    "No need to think about it. First of all, you need to reach Elite Rank first."


    "Is there a difference between Normal Rank and Elite Rank? It''s only a couple of points difference, right?"


    "Yes and no. I will tell you about it while eating." Alea turned around and looked at the dead body before shing it to gain the meat. "Can you bring that with us? I can''t really bring it with my hand. Also, can you cook?"


    "A little bit, but I have never worked with buffalo meat."


    "I will tell you about the recipeter, but you are the one going to prepare it, okay?"


    "Sure." Theo nodded as he grabbed the meat and walked toward the hill together.

 Chapter 54 – Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 54 - Challenge</h4>


    As soon as they climbed the hill, Alea took out the spices before handing Theo the knife.


    Theo, on the other hand, prepared the meat ording to Alea''s instruction.


    These two were cooperating with each other in order to create their lunch.


    "So, I will exin why Level 50 is Normal Rank while Level 51 is Elite Rank. It is indeed rted to status points, but they vary in number depending on someone''s potential and blessing."


    "Potential and blessing, huh." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "The majorityes from a blessing though. Since the potential will only vary five to ten points, or in other words, one or two levels which are not much big of a deal."


    "Oh?"


    "Do you have a blessing?"


    "Yes. But not as cool as you." Theo shrugged. Rather than ying the fool and being read by Alea again, Theo instinctively answered her without telling the full story. This way, she shouldn''t doubt him that much and didn''t think of his blessing highly.


    "Either way, you will get at least ten bonus points if you have no blessing and potential. The maximum number that has been recorded is fifty points or ten levels'' worth."


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes and contemted, feeling a bit dissatisfied.


    "Haha. Don''t worry. It won''t be that much in the beginning, but there are still Champion, Hero, Supreme, Mythical Ranks. Last but not least, the realm in the legend, God Rank. At that time, the bonus will add up and make you far stronger, you see."


    "I see. That''s understandable."


    "Also, I think you will receive a special skill from your blessing. Depending on their rank, you will get more and moreter."


    "Do we need to experience a trial or something?" asked Theo, remembering what he learned from the Inte.


    "It depends on your blessing. Some make a trial, some give it directly, some tell you to do something. Basically, if you look up on the Inte, most of them are true as it''s based on their experience."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded.


    "It''s fine. Anyway, let''s eat."


    Theo agreed and finished his lunch. After that, he climbed the highest tree together with Alea to observe the entire prairie.


    On the north, there were another group of buffalos that might be their first target. However, Alea''s focus remained on a pack of horses not far from it.


    "How about we hunt those monsters instead? If I am not wrong, it''s called Horned Fighting Horse. They are a bit more interesting because the information states they have a skill called Haste. It basically increases your speed for a period of time. There are two versions, F Rank and E Rank. If we are lucky, we might be able to get that skill for you. What do you think?"


    "I understand. Thank you for doing this." Theo agreed without hesitation. "By the way, are we going to clean it up first?"


    "Hmm? What?"


    Theo pointed at their tools on the ground.


    "It''s fine. We are not going far away from this ce, so yeah, no one will steal them. And I think we will have dinner here, considering I don''t really like the food in the camp."


    "Won''t it be too dark��"


    "Ah, right. You don''t have night vision. Actually, I have sses here with me equipped with night vision. I will lend it to you, so you will lead the way while I''m spreading my Awareness to prevent any monsters from sneaking on us. Although I can''t see their movement with my current level of Awareness, I should be able to sense their presence."


    "Okay."


    "Good. Let''s go."


    Seeing Alea jump off the tree, he followed suit and went straight to the horses.


    He observed these five horses that seemed to have unity like the buffalos earlier. It had brown-colored skin, but there was a strange feeling in this skin. It was as if the difference between looking at wood and metal. This one was thetter.


    "Your spear should be sharp enough to kill one of them easily. However, it depends on your strength."


    "I know. I will be watching your movement and match it." Theo nodded.


    "Alright then." Alea sped up, charging at the horses. They didn''t have good teamwork like the buffalos, but two of the horses suddenly increased their speed as if responding to Alea.


    Alea smiled and shed her sword horizontally.


    However, the horn on top of the left horse''s head struck the sword.


    "��" Alea narrowed her eyes when the horse managed to stop her. Seeing that the other one was about to hit her, she smirked and took another step with her right foot as the foundation. Turning her body to the right, she bent her knees and positioned her sword on the back.


    She then swung it upward, continuing until she sliced the right horse''s head. With this, she managed to kill one horse while avoiding the other one.


    ''It''s mine,'' thought Theo, who observed her movement, as he smiled and thrust his spear. "Pierce."


    However, like Theo, Alea also kept track of his movement and smiled while continuing her swing, cutting through the ground before splitting Theo''s target into half from below.


    "Ha?" Theo opened his mouth in surprise when he saw Alea actually kill the monster he was about to stab. "Isn''t that mine?"


    Alea, on the contrary, only looked at him with a teasing smirk.


    That smile of her made him shudder as if he noticed what she was doing. "Is she testing me right now?"


    It was weird to see someone like her be so understanding about the arrangement.


    Like how he tested how serious she was to form a group with him. She also tried to test him to see whether Theo had the skill or not to participate in Grand Gaia.


    She felt happy that Theo could understand her intention and said while jumping forward.


    "The battles we are going to face in the future will surely be far more dangerous than this. You need to increase your ability to the point you can keep up with me. I can give you the skills or equipment that you need if it''s necessary for us to win, but the problem is��" She turned her head around and made the same smirk, saying. "I won''t be carrying you through thepetition. So, can you keep up with me?"


    This became a direct challenge from Alea to Theo as well as her personal training to stimte Theo''s potential. After all, no matter how she worded it, Theo wasn''t good enough to handle the second or third year, so she needed to do this to close that gap.


    Albeit, her action was misunderstood by Theo, who suddenly remembered what his master said about Alea. His expression turned serious as he gazed at her back coldly. Taking a deep breath, he jumped forward with his spear. "Fine by me."

 Chapter 55 – Frustration

    <h4>Chapter 55 - Frustration</h4>


    There were three other horses remaining, so Theo nned to kill at least one of them.


    On the other hand, Alea arrived in front of them as she stomped the ground with her right hand, channeling more power from her lower half to her upper body, specifically her hand.


    Swinging her sword from right to left, she struck every single horn on the horses'' heads and pushed them back by using her pure strength.


    She then took three steps diagonal to the right and shed her sword before the horses could react.


    ''This is my chance,'' thought Theo as he went in the opposite direction to kill the farthest horse from her.


    Unfortunately for him, there was a reason why Alea actually positioned herself on the side. If her back faced Theo, she wouldn''t be able to see his action, meaning that there was a chance for Theo to take the kill.


    However, Alea had yet to allow Theo to take the kill since she wanted to rile up his ego. She thought, ''Grandfather said that someone should have the talent to lose. Meaning that if he kept losing and didn''t eventually try to do something to escape from that trap and just give up, he is just a loser. That''s why to test someone''s potential, I need to make him feel bad first to see if his potential can truly bring him to Grand Gaia.''


    Theo, on the contrary, didn''t notice this reason and simply thought he needed to kill a single monster among the remaining two.


    Alea smiled as a red fire gushed out of her hand, enveloping her sword. Before Theo could even reach their position, she made another swing from below and extended her own de by using the me.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting Alea to use a skill. Suddenly, he came to a realization that he had relied on his Magic Bullet and Clones so much because he knew he could kill all these monsters by himself if his master didn''t ban the usage of the two skills. No, he had realized it�� he just underestimated the scale.


    Alea smiled, turned around, and stared at Theo, who halted his steps. "I didn''t say I wouldn''t use a skill, right? You''re free to use your own skill and try to get a single kill while I''m here."


    Without waiting for his reaction, she already touched the horses and grabbed all the cards they dropped.


    She then headed to the buffalos they saw earlier. "Come on. I''m going to leave you behind, you know."


    Theo shook his head and followed her before four buffalos came into his vision.


    Just like how coordinated the buffalos Alea killed earlier, the four of them divided into two groups and tried to hit Alea from two different directions.


    Alea checked Theo''s position, smiled, and jumped to the right, heading toward the two buffalos.


    Right before the buffalo hit her, she leaped above them and struck the left one''s head.


    Unfortunately for her, the buffalo blocked it with its horn and threw her into the air.


    Little did the buffalo know that Alea turned out to have predicted this move and used that momentum to spin her body and extend her de again to cut the first buffalo.


    Shended on the grass, jumped backward, and miraculously stood on top of the buffalo like it was nothing. She even took that chance to see Theo''s expression and gestures.


    The buffalo knew they would crash into each other, so it turned to the left while the two in front of her went in the opposite direction.


    Alea didn''t allow such a thing to happen and kicked the buffalo''s neck strong enough to force it to run toward the right, ending up crashing with the two buffalos.


    The two buffalos slipped and fell to the grass on top of each other while the one Alea rode managed to stay on its track with only slowing down its speed to avoid falling.


    On the contrary, Alea had jumped off his back and stepped on the two bulls before cutting their necks simultaneously.


    Theo saw this as a chance. Not only was this thest buffalo, but its bnce had also been thrown off by Alea. He needed to end this in one strike before Alea could make another move.


    Due to the distance between them, the buffalo managed to recover a bit and charge at Theo.


    "Pierce."


    Theo thrust his spear toward the buffalo, albeit as one would expect from an Elite Rank Monster, it blocked Theo''s spear with its horn.


    He suddenly remembered what Alea said about him not having enough power to handle the buffalo from head-on. Theo clicked his tongue as he was so disappointed in himself.


    ''Kh!'' Not wanting to give up, Theo clenched his teeth and pulled his spear, so the buffalo coulde closer. ''I need to calm down. I am not done yet.''


    Taking a small step behind him, he threw a punch from the left.


    "Monkey Fist."


    "Mo!"


    ''This is it,'' thought Theo as he nned to thrust his spear, albeit Alea''s voice resounded in his right ears. "Thanks."


    The buffalo was indeed hit and moved slightly to the right, but more importantly, Alea took advantage of it and killed the buffalo in a single strike.


    "Oi." Veins started bulging on his forehead since he thought Alea would just let him kill this one.


    Alea confronted that anger with a serious expression as she stretched her hand. "As I said earlier, try to kill a monster in my watch. You''re free to do anything."


    Shrugging her shoulders, she started getting all the dropped things from the buffalos, ignoring Theo''s anger.


    Alea''s constant provocation truly annoyed him as he nned to pay her back. However, he needed something to allow such actions, so Theo tried to calm his heart down.


    "With the way I am right now, I won''t be able to keep up with her. Even if Ie from a different direction, she will be able to spot me with her Awareness alone. She will just see me right after to ascertain my intention," muttered Theo while looking at Alea back. "Is this the gap between us? No, Master said Normal and Elite Rank difference is like between normal people and athletes. It''s still possible to beat her. That''s why I need to find that something��"


    Meanwhile, Alea, who got the constant stare from Theo, gulped down and thought, ''Have I actually pushed him too much?''

 Chapter 56 – Blindspot

    <h4>Chapter 56 - Blindspot</h4>


    "Kh! Sh*t!" Theo cursed as he thrust his spear, only to find Alea''s sword shing the monster''s head.


    Despite his determination to control Alea, there wasn''t a single attempt he managed to seed.


    Alea killed all the monsters for thest three hours, leaving Theo in the dust.


    "Huft." Theo panted as his forehead was covered in sweat. However, the frustration in his heart was more painful than anything that could hurt him right now. He never thought that someone actually pissed him off this much.


    Alea took a deep breath and sheathed her de while looking around. "It''s been three hours. Are you giving up soon?"


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched. She wasn''t trying to mock him or something. Her t tone only told him that it was a genuine question, but the fact that she was not saying that just to be mean was even more infuriating.


    Theo clenched his fists and hit the ground before looking at Alea.


    Alea smiled when she saw his eyes that seemed to haven''t lost their light. "That''s enough for the answer."


    ''With my current pace, I''ll never be able to keep up with her��'' Theo looked down and closed his eyes, recalling what his master said. He stared at Alea''s back and thought, ''Search it. I have to find the power that Ick. Perhaps, changing my tactic is not enough. Something�� Something bigger�� Oh, wait�� There''s that option.''


    Theo was lost in thought even when he walked behind Alea.


    Meanwhile, Alea sensed his gaze as if there was a wolf behind her that seemed to be waiting for her to lower her guard before devouring her. The stare had changed.


    She instinctively gulped down as she continued moving forward.


    "5 bulls spotted," Alea shouted, reminding Theo that the enemies wereing.


    Fifty feet before them, a group of bulls charged at her. Alea furrowed her eyebrows and decided to step forward, not understanding Theo''s current state.


    "I need to lecture him after this. Anyway, I need to end this first." She pouted and saw the bulls spread out to pincer her. An orange-colored me burst out of her sword.


    The bulls seemed to be wary of it, creating confusion for a split second. Seeing their eyes and action, Alea leaped to the left to avoid the bull from the opposite side.


    "mming Ge-Sword."


    Surprisingly, Alea shed her sword to the bull behind her even though there were at least thirty feet between them while the one in front of her was only ten feet away.


    The fire covering her sword suddenly flew forward, forming a crescent-shaped me.


    "Mo?!" The bull panicked for a second, albeit it was toote.


    Boom.


    The fire exploded the moment it touched the bull, roasting it until it died.


    Meanwhile, the fire in her swordpletely vanished, so there was no way to do something like that again. And she needed to face the bull that was about to hit her.


    Alea took a deep breath, jumped on top of the bull, and ced her hand on its body, supporting her body to stay afloat before slicing the bull''s head.


    After killing the second bull, sheunched herself into the air by using the power in her hand, preparing to kill the other three.


    ''Kh. Why didn''t he move yet? Did he seriously give up? Was it wrong to rile him up this whole time?''


    While having her own thoughts, Theo seemed to have no interest in helping her until one moment.


    "Ah, so that''s how it is. Blindspot. A human''s field of vision is only in front of them. So, whenever someone needs to check their surroundings, they have to move their head for that to be possible. The same applies to Alea. She can predict my movement just by seeing my gesture. If I continue following her in her blindspot while seeing through what she sees��Ah." He smiled and rose from the ground. "She said that her Awareness can only detect my presence and not my movement, right?"


    While Theo found his answer, Alea turned around, finding two bulls�� one faster than the othering toward her. She shed the bull from below, striking the bull''s head.


    ng.


    The bull managed to react to her attack and struck her sword to avoid the sh and let the one next to him attack Alea.


    Alea, on the contrary, already predicted it and straightened her wrist, ready to strike the second bull. She slightly turned her body and head to the left to focus on the second bull, but��


    "Ha!" Alea swung her sword before widening her eyes as Theo suddenly entered her Awareness domain. She tried to look at him, but her head already turned to the left, so even if she tried to look at the edge of her vision, she wouldn''t be able to find him. At the same time, the timing was so perfect that her sword was already in motion, so there was no way to stop or change its direction.


    But it got even more shocking when she lowered her vision, finding a spear had pierced the first bull''s head.


    "Theo?" Alea caught a glimpse of Theo, who finally appeared in her vision, killing his first monster of the day.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo ignored her voice and even used her existence as bait to attract the second''s bull attention before he pushed the spear again to pierce its head.


    Before she could react, Theo already pulled his spear and shouted. "Watch out. On your left."


    Alea clenched her teeth and turned around, barely stopping thest bull''s charge.


    Surprisingly, Theo''s breath brushed her ear as he was literally a few inches away from her. Even her Awareness showed her that he was right behind her�� No, it could be said he was already too close to her as if he wanted to hug her at any moment.


    Thinking Theo actually wanted to do something to her, she flinched and let the bull get closer as she lost her grip.


    This was the time Theo had been waiting for. His spear emerged from the side, literally one inch away from her waist and struck the bull''s head. Because of the bull''s momentum, he grabbed Alea''s waist and got pushed back by the bull until they stopped.


    [Killed a Rekiren Bull (Elite)]


    [EXP+71]


    [Killed a Rekiren Bull(Elite)]


    [EXP+71]


    [Killed a Rekiren Bull(Elite)]


    [EXP+71]


    Theo ignored the message as he took a step back as Alea spun her body and looked at Theo with a shocked expression, thinking, ''The strike that killed the two bulls and the way he killed the third one�� Did�� Did he use me as bait?''


    Alea drew a gasp as her body shuddered. Theo''s eyes were just like a predator that aimed at her instead of the monsters.


    Suddenly, he opened his mouth, saying with a cold tone. "My physical ability may not be enough to keep up with you, but it doesn''t mean that''s all there is to a fight. Just like ''a great person'' once said, "To beat a genius, you need to learn from them." I will read what you''ve seen and react to it before you even do.


    "And I won''t stop at just reading your movement, I''m going to predict what you will see and eventually devour your talent!" He clenched his fists and couldn''t help but smile. That smile didn''t show his happiness to beat her this time. Instead, it was a smile showing his excitement in controlling a genius. A "normal" controlling a "genius".


    The moment he could read her like a book, it was the moment she waspletely at his mercy.


    Even Alea took a step back as she instinctively felt the pressure emanating from his eyes, blinking her eyes a few times. ''Did I just do something I shouldn''t do?''

 Chapter 57 – Unsealed Talent

    <h4>Chapter 57 - Unsealed Talent</h4>


    Although there was a huge gap between them, Alea instinctively felt the pressureing from Theo as if he truly was capable of doing something like that.


    She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but the words stuck on her throat as if an unknown object preventing�� No, as if Theo put a cor on her neck, choking her.


    This was the first time Alea experienced something like this. Normally, people woulde to her while lowering their heads, knowing that they had no chance with her and followed hermand.


    Theo might be different from others, but she still believed Theo would be like them sooner orter. She thought she would be taking advantage of him while he remained this way.


    However, everything changed when he showed this side of him. She had no doubt that Theo would change, albeit that transformation surely reached another level.


    Despite knowing that she might be devoured and probably end her career, Alea couldn''t help but smile. A fuzzy feeling arose in her heart, turning it into excitement.


    Unfortunately, before she could say anything, her attention was taken away by something from afar.


    Both Alea and Theo turned their heads at the same time, finding five four-legged monsters. They had the height of a horse, but their bodies were that of a tiger. And their heads looked like a bear.


    Theo took this chance to point his Skylink at them.


    Name: Vitigre Horse


    Level: 53-58


    A monster with a feature of a bear and tiger, but acts like a horse. Beware of its speed and sharp teeth.


    "We need to handle them," Theo shouted at Alea, who was still in a trance because of the shock Theo gave her, so they could start taking their positions.


    "Ah?!" Alea shook her head to regain her focus and nodded as she ran toward them.


    The orange fire appeared again on her sword as she sent it flying toward the group.


    Boom.


    It exploded again, killing the middle monster. Meanwhile, the other four separated in two directions. The right one looped around her while the left pair charged head-on.


    Alea ignored the right one and moved forward, trying to kill that pair. However, Theo once again used her as a shield,pletely hiding his body behind her.


    The moment she and the two monsters were about to sh, Theo took one step further and appeared next to them, piercing their heads in session.


    [Killed a Vitigre Horse]


    [EXP+71]


    [Killed a Vitigre Horse]


    [EXP+71]


    Alea widened her eyes as her head became even more in disarray. She spun her body with an anxious expression while trying to attack the remaining two monsters.


    Then Theo''s voice resounded in her ears. "That''s right. Kill the right one. Hurry up."


    She drew a gasp as she instinctively followed his word and killed the right one in a single sh. Of course, with Theo''s current strength, he might be able to control her a bit, but by no means was he strong enough to get all the kills. He understood it and gave a portion of action to Alea.


    Sensing Theo behind her, ready to strike, she gritted her teeth and dropped to the ground while thinking. ''With the sword on my right hand, it''s impossible to kill the monster. If I keep this up, we can kill it. Is this what they call a real team? This is the team that I hope��''


    Suddenly, she had the same feeling as earlier as though Theo was putting a cor on her neck. It was when a thought appeared. ''Is this good enough? Giving Theo her everything so we can win�� This is what we''re going to do to fight against those��''


    Yet, at this moment, she realized what had been going on. This was like a crossroad for her. If she let Theo rein her, she couldn''t see the path to victory for Grand Gaia. Theo might be good at this point, but they needed to be far better if they wanted topete against international students.


    ''No. This is not enough.'' She gritted her teeth, switched her sword to the other hand, and released her killing intent. ''I''m sorry, Grandfather. I will return to who I used to be.''


    While Alea was deep in thought, Theo sessfully confused the monster as his body became visible the moment Alea fell on her knees. Taking advantage of that split-second confusion, Theo thrust his spear while thinking. ''This is it.''


    Unknowingly, just like him earlier, Alea''s expression turned cold as her de swung faster than anything she had shown this whole time, shing the monster''s neck. That swing was sharp, precise, ruthless, and swift. Her previous fighting style couldn''t bepared to that one swing.


    "!!!" Theo''s rhythm was disrupted as he looked diagonally to his right, finding Alea on her knees.


    It turned out that she swung that sword with her left hand while using that right hand to support her body to make a clean cut with her left hand.


    He stepped to the right to avoid the monster''s momentum and looked at her eyes. This wasn''t even a fighting spirit or something like that. He literally sensed her killing intent from her eyes.


    The pair of eyes that always showed its warmth now became unbelievably cold and ruthless.


    For three seconds, their eyes locked at each other, sensing an indescribable emotion between both of them. It was like a rival that kept fighting against each other to show their supremacy but also trusted their back to each other like that of arade.


    Suddenly, Alea blinked her eyes a few times and made a big smile. The killing intent from earlier disappeared without a trace, reced by the usual fluffy feeling from her.


    "You said you want to devour me, right? Try it, I will make sure to take two steps forward in every step you take to reach me." Alea made a big grin. "It seems meeting you is the best thing I can get in this stage of training."


    Theo closed his eyes, let out a long sigh, and shook his head helplessly. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he chose to walk toward her and stretched his hand. "Fine by me."


    She took his hand with a smile as he helped her up. However, instead of rising to the ground, she pulled Theo as sheid down on the ground.


    Theo stumbled and fell to the ground. When he raised his head and was about to scold her, he heard her saying, "Ahaha. Let''s rest first. I''m tired�� mentally. I don''t know if I can face you continuously like this."


    Theo lowered his head to the ground and sighed. "Whatever, I want to thank you for showing what Ick right now. You can do everything you like, I will keep up with you."


    "Sorry, I take that back. It''s not keeping up with me. You are my teammate right now, so I''m counting on you, Partner." She smiled.


    "Suit yourself." Theo harrumphed and looked away.


    It might be because they were too focused on each other, but they didn''t realize that their hands were still entangled as theyid on their back, facing the blue sky.

 Chapter 58 – Alea’s Left Hand

    <h4>Chapter 58 - Alea��s Left Hand</h4>


    A decade ago.


    Inside the Garden of the Eilric Family, a young Alea Eilric took a deep breath and stared at the training dummy made of straws that had been fully equipped with metallic armor. On her left hand was a short ck sword that she often used for practice. The length was perfect for a nine years old girl, so she didn''tin.


    Raising her sword above her head, she took a step forward and swung her sword downward, slicing the dummy into two, including the armor.


    "Huft."


    Suddenly, a deep voice resounded in her ears, saying, "Oh, my little Alea is training."


    She turned around and saw a middle-aged man with blonde hair. He wore a ck suit as if he just got out of work. Despite his stern face, his smile would be able to melt one''s heart.


    "Papa!" The young Alea made a big smile as she dropped the sword and jumped toward him, hugging him tightly.


    "Haha,e here. This is my little Alea." Heughed and hugged her back while stroking her hair. "How are you doing?"


    "I''m fine. It''s been a while since Papa is home, so can I show you the result of my training for thest two weeks?" She smiled and crossed her arms, looking very proud.


    "Oh? Show me, show me." He became excited as he released her.


    She then looked at the grass beneath his feet and sat down without shame. "Go, go. Papa wants to see Alea in action."


    "Un." She repeatedly nodded her head before going to the right, grabbing another practice dummy and nting it on the ground.


    "That''s right. Since you have sessfully cut the current armor, how about Papa giving you Elite Rank Armor that you can use to practice? This one won''t be cut by your sword for a while." He smiled and walked toward the storage room in the garden.


    "Really? Grandfather doesn''t want to lend me the armor." She looked at her father with an expectant face.


    "That''s because you don''t call him Grandpa. If you call him that, I''m sure he will give you one."


    "Hmph. Grandfather is a bully. Alea won''t call him Grandpa." She pouted and looked away.


    "Haha, wait for me, alright? I will grab it for you." He waved his hand and started walking.


    Alea nodded while humming, expressing the joy in her heart. Not long after, her father returned and brought a blue armor, putting it on the dummy.


    "This is a good one. I''m sure you will like it." He smiled, sat on the ground and cheered for Alea.


    She made a big smile before she picked up her sword.


    Suddenly, her aura changed. The smile was reced by a serious expression. Her warm eyes turned cold as if she was possessed by something.


    Her father already realized it, knowing that she was a genius. However, it might be due to his love, his vision only contained Alea in it. Hepletely ignored the sword on her hand and miscalcted how much she had practiced during the time he was away.


    The moment she struck the sword with the same blow as earlier, a cracking sound rang like a thunderp in his ears.


    The sword snapped into two, with the other part bounced back toward Alea.


    Alea couldn''t react at all as only a shocked expression remained on her face.


    A shadow suddenly appeared from the left andpletely blocked everything from touching her.


    "Alea? Are you alright?"


    Alea was shivering as she raised her head, terrified. Her mouth opened and closed again and again as if she was freezing. Using all her energy, she said, "Papa�� Are you alright?"


    "I''m fine." He made a gentle smile.


    "But�� But��" Tears started swelling up and flowing down her cheeks. Even Alea could understand with her eyes that the sword hit her father.


    "Don''t worry, Papa is fine. You did nothing wrong. In fact, Papa was in the wrong this time. How about you go back first and call your mother here?"


    "Uhn." She broke free from her father and rushed toward the house. Her feet gave up several times, but she continued pushing herself to stand up and run while shouting. "Mother! Mother!"


    Meanwhile, her father closed his eyes and sighed, trying to take out the sword with his Magic Power. Looking at Alea''s terrified expression was more painful than the wound on his back.


    Two monthster, he met his father, Nart Eilric, in his study room. "Father."


    Nart Eilric let out a long sigh and shook his head. "It''s impossible. She still feels down and can''t even use her left hand again. I have done everything I can, but it''s useless. The thought of her killing her own beloved father�� Alea is the one who suffered the most��"


    "I''m sorry, Father. If only I used my Magic Po��"


    "Stop!" Nart mmed the table with a serious expression. "It''s not your fault. It''s your instinct to protect your daughter. That''s it. There''s nothing wrong with that."


    He looked down and clenched his fists.


    "There is only one thing that can be done."


    "What is it?"


    "Abandon her left hand." Nart shook his head helplessly. "You should know that something will emerge the moment she wields a weapon with that hand. When I asked someone I trusted, he told me that Alea is the same as him.


    "She is truly a genius. Even I am not confident to say I know everything about her. That''s why I think of sealing that left hand even if it means sealing her talent."


    "But��"


    Nart waved his hand and stopped him, adding. "Of course. I am not saying that she will abandon it forever. I will just think of it as her in a slump. That''s all. ording to my friend, there will be a time where she meets a certain condition that she doesn''t mind unsealing it again. After that, she will be stronger than ever."


    He sighed. "I think we can only do it that way. I will be leaving everything to you, Father. I''m afraid that my existence will scare her more if I''m present. Hence, it''s better to distance myself for a while and let her recover first."


    "I understand. Well, just think of it as your own punishment, you idiotic doting father." Nart then sighed and rose from his seat, leaving the room.


    He quickly made his way to the garden and found Alea sitting there with a sad look.


    "Alea��" He gently called her name.


    Turning around, she wanted to cry again. "Grandfather."


    "I have a present for you." He smiled and presented a ck sword again. "This is an Elite Rank Sword. This is the best Elite Rank Sword that Grandfather has ever made. I''m sure that it won''t snap again. Grandfather will also tell you how to maintain its quality."


    "But��" Alea looked at her shaking hands. Every time she held a sword, her hand felt weak. She was afraid that the sword would hurt her family again.


    However, Nart Eilric made a gentle smile and opened her right hand. "Then, how about you use this hand? I''m sure you know that your right hand is weaker than your left hand. But�� If it''s weak, doesn''t it mean you can''t hurt anyone again?"


    Alea sobbed as she looked at the sword, finding that she could hold it just fine. She cried again. "Grandpa�� Is it alright for me to wield a sword again?"


    "Of course. Alea is the best, so I''m sure that even without your main hand, you can still be the best." He smiled. "Grandpa will help you in getting used to the other hand."


    "Grandpa."


    He patted her head and asked, "But can you promise Grandpa something?"


    "Promise?"


    "Yes. Promise Grandpa that when there is a time that you think everything will go away from you, don''t hesitate to use your left hand again. It may be ten years from now or it may nevere, but Grandpa wants you to promise me this first. Is that alright?"


    She sobbed and repeatedly nodded her head as she dropped the sword on the ground and hugged him tightly. "Grandpa�� I''m sorry. I''m sorry."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. You did nothing wrong." He smiled and stroked her hair.


    After a while, she suddenly asked with a hesitant tone. "Can�� Can Alea visit Papa? Alea wants to apologize for hurting him. More importantly, Alea wants to apologize for worrying him."


    Thinking for a while, Nart agreed to her request with a smile. "Sure. Let''s go to your Father. Grandpa will apany you."


    "Un."

 Chapter 59 – Side Effects

    <h4>Chapter 59 - Side Effects</h4>


    After continuing the hunt for a few more hours, the night finally came.


    Alea and Theo returned to their basecamp, where they left some tools, mostly for cooking.


    Since Alea was satisfied, she cooked a full course meal for both of them. Although it wasn''t as good as his master''s, it was better than average. His cooking couldn''t bepared to her to be honest.


    They sat in front of a small campfire, eating their meal peacefully with some crickets noises in the background.


    Suddenly, Theo opened his mouth, asking the question he had this whole time. "Why did you not use your left hand earlier? I mean, even an amateur like me could see that your swing was faster, sharper, and more refinedpared to your right hand''s. Are you trying to take pity on me?"


    Alea looked down with a sad expression.


    Theo sighed and shook his head helplessly. "That''s not important. I just want to know whether you are going to continue using your left hand or right hand."


    Alea smiled and raised her head. "I am sorry that I can''t share this story with you. However, I can assure you that I will continue using my left hand. Though, I''m not sure whether to use it or not when fighting against the others."


    "Why? That''s dumb."


    "Sorry." Alea looked down, recalling her past again. Somehow, her left hand started shaking and forced her right hand to stop it. "I think you need to know this one. After losing the ability to wield the sword with my left hand, I began practicing my right hand.


    "But even with my right hand, which I think only amounts to 30 percent of my power, I''m still considered the number one in the school. I''m just afraid that if I use my left hand again�� People will fear me just like how I fear my own left hand."


    "Trauma, huh." Theo narrowed his eyes and contemted.


    "Sorry."


    "I''m sorry to say this, but I will just say what I''ve seen about you. I am assuming that you''re nice to everyone because of your trauma."


    "Part of it. Well, I do indeed like them, but the thought of me losing them scares me. I''m pathetic, right? It''s fine to make fun of me."


    "Yes. The reason for your trauma is pathetic, dumb, childish, insignificant, idiotic�� I can insult it with every word I know." Theo suddenly paused and Alea looked down, knowing that she needed to face this at some point. However, Theo continued with something outside her expectation. "Yes�� It is everything�� but not humorous."


    Hearing that answer, she couldn''t help but smile.


    "Though, I still need to say it. Annoying." Theo narrowed his eyes. "What will you do in front of death? Will you keep it away like this?"


    "That�� I can''t answer. But as long as we are hunting monsters together, I think I will be using my left hand."


    Theo thought there was a need to force her to ovee that trauma, but the only way to do it was by risking his life. At the moment, he didn''t feel like gambling with his life for her, so he chose to discard that option.


    ''That means it''s in the second stage of training��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and contemted. "I want to confirm it again. You don''t want to use your left hand in the second stage of training?"


    "I think yes. Even with that, I''m pretty strong, you know."


    "Whatever. I don''t care whether you''re strong or not. I only know that you''ll be significantly weaker than the current you."


    "Ugh." She looked away, embarrassed.


    "Whatever." Theo shrugged. "Since I can observe your movement in your top form, I won''t have the trouble to control you during the next training session. Hehe��"


    "Ehm��" She leaned to the back, looking at Theo with a weird expression. "I think you should keep that to yourself."


    "Huh? It''s intentional. Just so you know that you''re going to follow my instructions from this point on. Objections are not allowed," said Theo with a serious expression. He truly believed that would be the case.


    "Ugh. That serious face of yours gives me a chill. To think you keep maintaining your position in my blind spot."


    "You can''t read me that way while I can know what you see." Theo stuck his tongue out. "Anyway, I think we should get going."


    "True." Before rising from the ground, she grabbed her bag and reached the cards in it. "I think you can have these cards. There are many materials and skill cards. I believe if you sell them all, you can get around thirty to forty thousand Zils, considering there are a few Elite Rank Materials. If you add the ones you got, it will reach forty to fifty thousand Zils."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Yep. It''s not like I need it. If I hunt in the area around my level, I can even get one hundred thousand in a day alone. So, it''s not a big deal." She paused for a moment while looking left and right, continuing with a hesitant tone. "If you want to repay me, how about going easy on me? You''re truly ruthless in this mind game."


    "That''s impossible." Theo shrugged and took the cards. "But thank you for giving me these cards."


    "You''re wee."


    Theo looked through all the cards. They managed to get eight skill cards, in which one of them was an Elite Rank Card on today''s hunt alone. This could be used for upgrading his skill since he didn''t need skills other than the Elite Rank Skill.


    Skill: Haste (E)


    Effect: Increase the user speed by 30% for five minutes. Due to the effect it brings to the body, this skill can''t be used for another two hours.


    "Hmm. There is a side effect?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Well, yes. If I''m not wrong, Haste increases your metabolism to increase your speed, so if you do it again, it surely has a side effect. So I suggest you not use it carelessly."


    "But that means I can still use it, right?"


    "Yes. People often use it to escape since having disabled legs is better than losing your life. But I''m not too sure about its side effects. In fact, starting from E Rank, you will see side effects or something like that, making you unable to use the skills continuously."


    "Even the skill from the God of Fortitude?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes." She nodded.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and wondered why his clone didn''t have any side effects. He thought, ''Is it due to the fact that it starts from F Rank Skill? Maybe I will see it when I receive the next skill? But how about Magic Bullet? I should ask my Master about it. I only need two more levels before reaching Elite Rank, so next Sunday will be the day I be an Elite Rank Fighter.''

 Chapter 60 – Second Phase

    <h4>Chapter 60 - Second Phase</h4>


    After packing all their luggage, they made sure there was no trash left in the area since they didn''t want to destroy the environment.


    Alea then took out sses from her pocket and handed them to Theo. The sses had a rectangr shape with a red frame which would look good on Alea but weird on Theo.


    Either way, Theo didn''t care about his appearance, so he took the sses from her and put them on. The frame seemed to be adjusting its size to match Theo''s head. Even when he shook his head, the sses didn''t fly away, so it would be fine even if he used his full speed when running back.


    Surprisingly, the dark world which lowered his vision range to only ten feet in front of him had brightened to the point he had no problem in seeing somewhere around fifty to sixty feet in front of him.


    "This is��" Theo drew a gasp. The scenery he looked at was certainly not like when the sun was up. It was filled with blue light from the moon. Yet, it was bright enough to find anything he needed.


    "It''s good, isn''t it?" Alea smirked.


    "Yeah. As expected from a rich youngdy�� Should I grab your thigh right now?" Theo threw a joke with a poker face.


    Alea surprisingly didn''t answer him as she looked at Theo with eyes wide open, wondering if she heard it right.


    ncing over her, he frowned. "What?"


    "No. I''m just surprised that you can joke."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he really wanted to hit this girl for thinking of him as someone who couldn''t even talk properly. "Is that a problem?"


    "No, I am just d you can do something like that. After all, it means you trust me a bit, right?"


    "��" Theo turned around, added another minus on the point, and started running to their camp. "I was wrong. I shouldn''t do it since you would make fun of me."


    "Wait! I didn''t mean to. Wait for me. I apologize okay? Theo! Sorry!" She hurriedly chased Theo, trying to talk it out during the journey. Although it was annoying to have someone''s voice echoing in your ears continuously, the journey, at least, wasn''t that boring because of it.


    ��


    The next day, Major Sam had gathered them in the middle area. Unlike the previous day, Theo could find a bracelet on the side.


    "We have measured your strength, stamina, and other things during the first week. For this entire week, you''re going to wear this weight all the time, including sleep. This is where the real training starts, soe to me if you feel like quitting." Major Sam shrugged. "We will be calling your name. The people with the name start from A to D follow me. I will be handing the weight."


    Most of them wanted toin since the training was already hard enough. Yet, it would be even harder from this point on. Some of them already had a thought of giving up because they couldn''t find a need to get some extra points by working this ward.


    After all, it was just a matter of a few levels. It would be easier for them to get levels instead of training like this.


    Theo, on the other hand, was amazed because his master truly predicted it. He should be asking about the training again to his master to know what kind of training he needed to endure next.


    Either way, he followed the person who seemed to be handling him. It was the bald soldier that questioned Major Sam a week ago.


    "This is your weight. You need to wear it all the time. Don''t worry. It''s waterproof, so you can wear it when you take a bath in the river during the night." The bald soldier smiled and handed four bracelets to him.


    "I understand. Thank you very much." Theo nodded. But as soon as he grabbed those bracelets, he stumbled to the ground and dropped the bracelets. "Eh?"


    "Ah, you need to be careful. They are heavy, you know."


    ''What the heck?'' Theo screamed inwardly as he looked at the bald soldier with a shocked expression. "May I know their weight?"


    "Haha. Major Sam seemed to like you, so he watched your performance more than anyone else. He ordered the headquarters to give you 40 pounds each. Don''t worry. It''s possible with your physique." He smirked and patted his shoulder.


    ''Seriously?'' Theo just got the fright of his life. His weight alone couldn''t even bepared to these weights, and they wanted him to wear this? Although his body seemed to be more powerful than normal humans, it would surely take a toll on him. Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t rant at all and epted it with a smile. "Ah, I see. Thank you. I''m just wondering whether I can do this or not. Ahaha."


    "Don''t worry, Young Man. I have confidence in you." The bald man suddenly got closer and whispered. "It seems that the Major has prepared body armor for next week. The weight is around 100 pounds."


    "��" Theo facepalmed and quickly took the bracelets with him, leaving the ce as he didn''t want to think about it. Although he''d realized how dangerous it was to get into someone superior''s radar due to Alea, he never expected Major Sam to favor him like this.


    He recalled the first time he met Major Sam during the first run. It must be where he entered him.


    ''I truly have no luck with this.'' Theo sighed and reluctantly put on the bracelets. One in each leg and hand.


    He then tried to move his body around to see the difference. As expected, it reduced his ability for about half and he would be tired faster. The situation was truly dangerous to him.


    After everyone got their portion, the training started with the same schedule. The first was running. As one would expect, the training became harder and harder.


    The dense forest became harder to dodge because their feet refused to move, the gentle slope turned into a dangerous zone because the weight pulled them down faster than their body normally reacted, the sprint exhausted their stamina, their feet sunk even deeper in the swamp area, and their body refused to climb the steep hill.


    It was a disaster for most people, making them wish to drop out of this training. However, Theo kept his belief, and since he already had gotten the strongest partner, there was no way he would throw this chance.


    And another disaster urred on the other side where the principal was going to meet the one in charge of all this training.

 Chapter 61 – Clash Between Principles

    <h4>Chapter 61 - sh Between Principles</h4>


    While the students began their training in the second week, the school needed to face another visitor.


    The school principal let out a long sigh while looking outside the school through the window.


    He turned around and looked at the pile of documents on his table. Next to the table was a shelf filled with books. They all had abel from "A" to "J".


    Sensing someone''s presence right in front of his door, he frowned and said, "Come in."


    Creak.


    The door gradually opened as a middle-aged man entered the room. Gray, short hair hung over a long, tense face. His sharp brown eyes emanated an indescribable fighting intent, watching the principal cautiously.


    He wore a in shirt and buttoned it up fully to support the ck tie circling on his neck, barely hiding the muscle underneath it. The pants were in ck leather pants, but it was just his way of clothing that had been tailored perfectly for him to move like he was on the battlefield at any moment.


    "Good morning, Principal Eigen. I''m sure you know my name from the letter, right?" The man made a simple smile and walked to him, stretching his hand.


    Principal Eigen closed his eyes and nodded, shaking his hand. "Yes. It''s my pleasure to meet you, Mr. Radvils."


    "Thank you. Let''s skip the formality and talk about the real thing, shall we?"


    "Yes. We, from the school, have done everything ording to the instruction."


    "How many people have dropped out?"


    "Currently, five percent. I''m sure that with the training regime you have sent to me, there will be a total of thirty percent if not forty percent."


    "Yeah, I''m sure." Radvils nodded and contemted for a while. "I''m sure most of them will be eliminated in the next stage."


    "I''m sorry for asking this, but I can''tprehend why don''t you just form a team with other schools? There are seven schools in this country and I believe they have the so-called "ace" in their school like our Alea Eilric."


    "That''s where you''re wrong." He smirked. "In a poker match, a Royal Flush can beat four aces. Talents? So what? Even if the so-called genius Alea Eilric begs me, I will still expel her the moment she is eliminated in thispetition.


    "I just want to know that a losing genius means nothing to me. In the Grand Gaia, once you lose, you''re out. Meanwhile, in thispetition, I''m already good enough to give them a few more chances."


    "��" The principal frowned and clenched his fists. "Are you trying to win by momentum?"


    "That''s not it. Do you know what was the problem with our teamst year and the year before that?"


    "We were not strong enough." Eigen shook his head helplessly, knowing that they were defeated in the very first round.


    "No! They simply have no desire to win."


    "That''s not true. They have done their best�� Their opponents were too good." He mmed the table and released a bit of his killing intent.


    "That''s it. You can always make excuses when you lose. It''s all the same for everyone. And that''s exactly the reason why you lost!" Radvils smirked and raised his hand, showing his excitement. "I don''t need those f*cking losers. What I want is for each person to go for the win, even if they need to do it by themselves.


    "I want to build their character. I don''t need weaklings who think they are good. I want those strong people who think that if their teammate is weak, they just need to carry them. Every time they win, they will think that they are the best. I have specifically made this training with this thought in my mind.


    "And eventually, they will think of themselves as the best in the world. Even when those talented people from all around the world gather, they will still think they have the chance to fight them even if their enemies have shown the difference between them. What I want is the will!


    "I will sacrifice all the students in your school to make that peerless team, and they will be representing our country, Thernd, on the world stage and bring our country name that has only been established for two hundred years to the entire world."


    Eigen widened his eyes in astonishment. In his eyes, there wasn''t a single doubt that they would go to the world stage, even if they needed to use all the students in school. He took a step back as he couldn''t understand this man''s mind. He wasn''t qualified as a teacher at all, but he indeed had the marking to be an instructor who would guide their team to the world stage.


    Radvils narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger right at the principal. "Now, I''m asking you. Do you have that kind of resolve, Principal? If you don''t have it, don''t ever bother me."


    For the first time, Eigen was afraid when he was wearing this suit. Usually, he would face this feeling when fighting a powerful monster in the Haven, but his instinct told him that this man''s ambition could even suppress him.


    He gritted his teeth and shook his head, throwing that fear. He red at Radvils with his own resolve. "I''m still the principal of this school. My top priority is the students, not the Grand Gaia. I won''t make you destroy my students."


    "Of course. That''s your job after all. I believe that you can save every single student from breaking, Principal." He smiled and turned around. "Still, my objective remains the same. I hope that you don''t stop me at all."


    Radvils walked to the door, opened it and left the room with onest message. "I don''t need glory. Glory is for the kids. As for me? If we don''t even reach the main stage, then I will shoulder all the me andmit suicide. This is my resolve as well as my personal belief. I just want you to know it, Principal."


    The moment the door was closed, the principal mmed the table again, snapping it into two. "Kh! You mad bastard."


    His will got shaken once again when Radvils told him that he would kill himself. He was serious about this.


    "Fine by me. Try to wreck my students, I will be sure to be there for them and prevent them from going astray. This is my job as this school''s principal."

 Chapter 62 – Learning

    <h4>Chapter 62 - Learning</h4>


    Meanwhile, Theo and the others underwent their training while wearing all that weight the whole time. It was truly a chore because their movement was restricted. They were not even allowed to take them off when sleeping or they would be expelled.


    Unfortunately for Theo, his torture had yet to end when they finished their training. He needed to go through all his master training during the night.


    Although reluctant, he still came to his master, having something to ask her.


    "You''ve finallye. I''m tired of waiting for you before and now you''re even slower." She shook her head in disappointment.


    "I''m sorry. It''s all because of these bracelets and now I''m tired." Theo raised his hands, showing the weight he put on.


    "Don''t make excuses. I don''t need those." She snorted. "We are still going to practice even if you are dead tired."


    "Eh? Where is the gentle master from two days ago?" Theo sighed.


    "You brat�� Do you think you will fight every enemy in your best condition? Sometimes, even when your legs give up, you still need to run. That''s why don''t make those excuses in front of me or you will one day face your death."


    Seeing the cold look from his master, Theo''s face turned serious as he lowered his head. "I''m sorry, Master. I was wrong."


    "As long as you understand." She sighed and asked. "How were your trip and your progress with Alea Eilric?"


    "Ehm, I think it was good. For the first time I realized that geniuses were truly different. Of course, I don''t say they are perfect." Theo smiled, remembering Alea''s trauma. From other points of view, it might look like something that could be easily ovee, but it might be the hardest thing to face for Alea.


    He was sure that Alea also tried to fix that, but as one would expect, she still couldn''t. He also thought about solving that problem so their team could win and participate in Grand Gaia.


    "I am asking you whether you have controlled her or not."


    "Well, I''m not sure myself. It''s true that I have grasped her fighting style, but she has surpassed my expectations from time to time. Besides, our gap is toorge, so it''s hard for me to keep that up for long."


    "Ho? That''s an improvement. I thought you were going to fail and ended up getting overwhelmed. And here I have prepared to console you."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched. "You don''t have confidence in me?"


    "Haha." His master onlyughed it off before asking, "So, what did you do?"


    "I know that she could learn my intention from observing my gesture alone, so I tried to position myself in her blindspot while figuring out what she sees. Well, I often guessed it wrong and we ended up stumbling with her, but I think it can be improved over time.


    "For now, I know that I have the chance despite our gap." Theo smiled, feeling happy to know that he wasn''t like the useless him in the past.


    She contemted for a while before opening her mouth. "Well, the gap between you is not that far since Elite Rank and Normal Rank are like the gap between a normal person and an athlete in the past. But when you enter the Champion Rank, the gap starts getting bigger and bigger. I won''t tell you much about it since you''re going to experience it yourselfter.


    "For now, you will train your observation when you''re hunting with her. After that, you will start learning about prediction. I mean, if Alea''s eyes and reaction ability is 100% and your observation ability and reacting to it is 75%, prediction is 120%.


    "For example, if you predict that your enemy will sh you from your left, you already know it and stop him before he even swings his weapon, it will be a perfect block, right? I know how hard it is, but I want to train your eyes and rationality to the utmost limit. These two are the only things that we can rely on to fight those geniuses who are always at 100%."


    "So, that''s why you don''t mind me pairing up with Alea Eilric?"


    "Exactly. I want you to get used to her movement to improve your abilities while increasing the five aspects. Of course, because you are too reliant on your Magic Bullet and Clone, it''s hard for you toe up with something like this�� After all, only in adversity withck of resources will you find a creative way to deal with your own situation."


    "I understand. I will do my best." Theo nodded in amazement. He never expected that his master actually had thought that much ahead. ''I wonder if I can reach her level one day. I want to see what kind of view my master sees��''


    She patted her head with a smile. "For now, let''s not overreach ourselves and start from the basics again."


    "Yes, Master."


    "How is your Magic Bullet?"


    "It''s only five." Theo shook his head and raised his hand. The Magic Power fluctuated as blue light gradually formed, illuminating the area. It then split into five smaller Magic Bullets as he released it toward the dummy a few feet from him. "That''s all."


    "I will make youplete this magic bullet this week."


    "That''s right. Does every single skill above E Rank have a weakness like harming one''s body or preventing you from using it continuously?"


    "Yes. Are you talking about your Magic Bullet? You haven''t realized it?"


    "I think I can use my Magic Bullet in session without stopping."


    "Haiz. You should feel your magic power a bit more. You will see that your Magic Bullet will take more and more Magic Power from your body every time you use it. That''s why it''s easier for you to get tired when training this skill. Why is that?" His master took out a water bottle and poured it on her hand.


    She then reached a small branch and poked her palm before slightly turning it to the left so the water would form a for a small area as if the water climbed the stick. "You can see that the branch is actually lifting the water a bit, right? You must have learned it in school.


    "Magic Power is like water. It''s wetting the pores where you release your magic power, making it easier for the magic power to flow out excessively. Of course, the only solution is to let it dry. The Magic Bullet won''t take too long�� Probably thirty seconds to a minute. You need to feel it yourself.


    "I thought you''d realized this, but It seems I need to change my schedule and cram the knowledge into your head first. Alright. I have decided. Tonight will be a study night. You''re not going to escape from me until midnight."


    "Ugh. I will do my best." Theo nodded.

 Chapter 63 – Money Bag

    <h4>Chapter 63 - Money Bag</h4>


    A few dayster, inside the dark forest, a blue light glowed, illuminating the surroundings.


    Theo was standing in the middle of his training area while raising his hand. The blue light ball on his hand was the one shining before it suddenly split into ten smaller size balls.


    Suddenly, he opened his eyes, looking at the practice dummy in front of him.


    "Magic Bullet."


    The ten light balls flew toward the dummy and left a blue trail like how he usually did with Magic Bullet, making it look like it never moved and released energy like that of a bullet.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    A series of noises resounded in his ears, albeit not every bullet actually hit the target. "Ugh. It''s still not possible."


    "It''s good enough for what I can see." His master appeared next to him while observing the damage he gave to the armor. "At least, you can use the Magic Bullet to its full potential. Do you know the time limit every time you use the Magic Bullet?"


    "I''m not very sure myself, but it''s around one to two minutes." Theo shook his head in disappointment. "Well, I can spread the bullet evenly, so I can aim to a wider area, preventing anyone from dodging these bullets."


    "Indeed. But I will leave the judgment to your discretion." She nodded and exined. "For now, let us take a look at your training. First of all, Awareness�� Although you now can sense the Awareness, it''s still too early for you to control it, so we will work on it a bitter."


    "Yes. It''s truly my weakness." Theo sighed. "I feel that this is the hardest one among the others."


    "Well, it''s your problem." She shrugged. "I will continue to Breathing. You have already grasped the rhythm, so I won''t say much about it since you will master it sooner orter as long as you keep practicing it.


    "And the most important out of all will be your Control. Even though you have managed to summon all ten Magic Bullets, don''t be toocent. It''s the first step you need to reach a broader area of study. For now, I''m nning to improve your uracy first by spreading all ten dummies in a different area and asking you to shoot them."


    "Oh? Now it''s more practical training?" Theo widened his eyes in amazement.


    "Yes. It also includes the technique. You have remembered the footwork, but you''re still too green to even use it to the fullest potential. As for the way you''re handling your spear, it sucks. The same applies to the sword. And I can''t teach you anything other than fixing your form. Although I kind of understand the reason you choose these two weapons, I still believe that it''s better for you to master one weapon only."


    "I know that, but I need a powerful backing first. At least, I need to protect myself for the time being." He sighed.


    She looked at him mysteriously as if she wanted to say something but chose not to. Shaking her head, she continued. "Last but not least, your mental endurance. How about it?"


    "I canst longer," answered Theo with confidence, albeit his master hit his head with her spear. "Geh-!"


    "You should fix your words, idiot."


    "I talked like that because I''m with Master. It''s not like you''re going to act like a girl, right?" He sighed.


    "Well, yes. But, you still need to watch your word to me, you brat. I''m your master." She then remembered something and asked, "That''s right. How about your clone? How far have you gone to understand your clone?"


    Theo thought for a moment and decided to summon his clone.


    After observing it for a bit, he exined. "I think I can already split my vision into two. However, it''s still beyond my ability to control it like my own body. Maybe in one or two weeks, I should be able to use this perfectly.


    "And I will be able to fight with my own clone, turning it into my sparring partner." He gave a thumb up, telling her that everything was under control.


    "Alright. I won''t bother you again with your skills training." She waved her hand. "Anyway, today''s training is done. You should go back and have another date with your little girlfriend."


    "She is not." Theo remained calm as he truly thought that way.


    "So, what is she to you?"


    "A partner?" Theo thought for a moment before recalling the scene where he got the skill and material cards from her and said. "A money bag?"


    "You better not tell her about the second one, okay?" She facepalmed and waved her hand, shooing him away. "Anyway, just return. I''m sure that you''re going to be an Elite Rank Fighter tomorrow."


    Theo nodded and left.


    ��


    When he returned, he saw Alea waiting at the same spot likest week. Knowing that today was Saturday, she must be here to tell him about tomorrow''s destination.


    "How is your training?"


    "What do you want?" Theo ignored her questions and asked what she wanted without wasting a single second.


    Alea also understood that Theo was a person like this and answered him. "Tomorrow, I believe you''re going to be an Elite Rank, and it''s not like we need to restock our items, so I have a ce I want to visit. It''s near a cave, so it''s perfect for your advancement to Elite Rank.


    "After all, we can hide inside the cave if you need to face the trial. Next week, I will probably advance to Champion Rank as well, so we will be doing the same thing."


    "I understand." Theo nodded and asked,


    "The monsters in that area are the same level as the ones we facedst week. Hence, we are changing our meeting point."


    "Give me the destination and our meeting location." Theo took out his Skylink and opened the map.


    Alea agreed and set two coordinates. The closer one was obviously their meeting location, while the other was a bit far to the east.


    They probably needed around one hour of running.


    "Alright. We will meet again tomorrow. Same time?"


    "Yep." Alea then waved her hand and turned around, leaving the forest first. "Ah, if youe first and wait for me, I will be giving you a present, you know. I''m sure you won''t regret it."


    "Well, if it''s only thirty minutes, I can reluctantly wait for you." Theo nodded.


    She stuck her tongue out and disappeared.


    Meanwhile, Theo wondered what kind of present he would get. ''Skill or item? Whatever�� Master, you told me not to say it, but she really looked like a money bag to me��''


    He shook his head and left the forest.


    Unbeknownst to them or anyone else in the training camp, an imminent danger had descended upon them. It all started from the Art Beats Castle.

 Chapter 64 – Earthquake

    <h4>Chapter 64 - Earthquake</h4>


    6 AM in the morning at Art Beats Castle; the city had yet to properly "wake up" as it only had around ten percent of its peak.


    However, it was different for an agency that handled the "ground" movement. Two buildings next to the portal that led to Earth, there was a certain three-story building with all light turned on.


    If one took a closer look inside, all people were panicking over something as they held a meeting in a small room.


    There were ten people gathered, facing each other. One of them stood up and mmed the table. Next to his hand was another Skylink, projecting a blue screen.


    This translucent screen glowed brightly even under the shining light bulb.


    A middle-aged man, who mmed the table earlier, clenched his teeth and looked at the research. "This is not possible. We need to inform the government to announce the closure immediately. What is the magnitude?"


    "Our prediction is around 7.0 - 7.5, but the situation has be a bit more extreme, so I''m afraid it can go all the way to 8.0." Another man raised his hand and answered him.


    Although the satellite couldn''t beunched in this world, they could still detect an Earthquake and estimate its impact, giving a prior warning to save many lives.


    "Time?"


    "It''s between three hours to half a day."


    "Kh. It''s barely enough." The middle-aged man frowned and said, "We can''t save every single person outside this castle. They also need that kind of resolve to hunt monsters there. However, an Earthquake with this magnitude will surely cause a huge migration for monsters, so I''m afraid there is a ce where it will endanger so many lives."


    "Where is it, Leader?"


    "It''s the training camp. My son is on it too. Although they have fighters from the military, I''m not sure what effect the Earthquake will give to the entire camp." He gritted his teeth and pointed his finger to the first subordinate next to him. "You''re going to inform the government to send their nes to pick the students up."


    "Yes, Sir. I shall do it immediately." He nodded and left the room.


    The leader then pointed to another one. "You go signal for the military to prevent any of the peopleing out of this castle. I will give the Earthquake warning too. The others will continue observing this Earthquake and inform me if there''s a chance."


    "Yes, Sir."


    The building became busy so soon.


    As one would expect, the government had understood the graveness of this matter and sent their military airnes to evacuate the students until they deemed it safe enough to continue.


    Unfortunately for them, there was still a chain ofmand. The time they took to reach was more than two hours. Of course, this would be fine since they could return to Art Beats Castle with the airne, even in the worst-case scenario.


    Yet, they couldn''t rejoice because around ten percent of the students had actually gone hunting monsters. And most of them were elites in the school who understood the real test in the first training camp.


    "��" The moment Theo''s teacher overheard their conversation, she closed her eyes for a minute before leaving with a serious expression. She also felt something didn''t match up and wanted to see the real cause that might add something to this incident.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Alea just reached their destination as they ended up finding a cave first before hunting.


    "Are you sure we will use this cave?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I don''t rmend venturing too deep, but I think we will be fine if we use only around the entrance." Alea looked at the cave. "Looks, the entrance will hold at least ten people at the same time. Not only that, the rock formation above this cave doesn''t seem to be that tall either."


    Theo raised his vision and found a fifteen feet tall rock formation. On the bottom, there was a half-circle entrance leading to a pitch-ck cave. It was made of limestone, so it should be pretty durable.


    At the same time, if he turned around, he could only see trees and bushes covering the cave pretty neatly.


    He thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. Let''s use this cave, but I''m not going inside alone. Who knows what kind of monsters are hiding inside."


    "Haha. I will be here protecting you, so don''t worry. Besides, we don''t know whether you''re going to take a trial or not." She smiled. "At least, ording to the information, there is only a level 60 monster as the highest inside this cave, but you need to go deep inside."


    "Is there any other cave around?"


    "Yes. But it''s one hour away from here and you will find Level 60 to Level 70 monsters there. That cave is pretty small, but no monsters should reside in it. We can make our way there for now, but if we meet more enemies than expected and you somehow level up first, we will go back here. What do you think?"


    "Sure. Let''s go there. I''m going to be an Elite Rank like you, so I think I can face higher-level monsters too if we are together. I can increase my level faster that way." Theo nodded and asked, "And what kind of present did you want to give me? You said I need to wait until we reach the cave��"


    "Ah. This is what I want to give you." Alea took out a skill card from her bag and handed it to Theo.


    Skill: Focused Charge (E)


    Effect: Infuse the user''s energy into the spear and charge with the user''s spear to impale the enemy. Depending on the range, the energy umted in the user''s spear will be higher.


    "Such a simple skill��" Theo was surprised by the description and looked at Alea. "I never thought you would give me an E Rank Skill."


    "Hehe. I just want to thank you for allowing me to use my left hand again. Although it''s only with you, I know that I will be able to wield it without a problem in the near future." She smiled.


    "If that''s the case, is there a need for me to wait for almost half an hour earlier?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he realized that he was getting yed.


    Alea confirmed it by sticking her tongue out. That wait was just out of spite because she couldn''t win in every single argument. "Hehe, this is my win."


    "Ah, I don''t know if you have realized this yet, but I''m a vengeful person, you know," Theo added with a poker face, making it look like he wasn''t joking.


    At the same time, Alea read his expression and gesture and knew that he didn''t lie. "Can I take back what I said earlier and apologize?"


    "No." Theo shrugged, ignored her remarks and used the skill. "Anyway, let''s hunt some monsters already since we have confirmed the cave''s position."


    "Sure."


    The two then began their journey, not knowing that something big woulde their way.

 Chapter 65 – Uproar

    <h4>Chapter 65 - Uproar</h4>


    A few minutester, they arrived in a savanna.


    The rolling grasnd scattered around the area was blown away by the gentle breeze that also swiped the isted trees and shrubs.


    There were some big grey-colored stones now and then, but not a single monster appeared in this area.


    "Hmm�� No monsters?" Theo narrowed his eyes and looked around as he couldn''t believe that a huge open ce like this didn''t have a single monster.


    "There is something I want to show you." Alea smiled and started running toward one of the giant stones.


    Although he didn''t understand her n, he followed her.


    Rumble.


    Rumble.


    Blue lines suddenly appeared on the stones as if they were markings.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and took one step back while aiming his spear toward the stone. Alea also did the same while saying, "Not every single monster will appear like all the monsters we fought yesterday, there are many that hide their appearances like this stone."


    Theo instinctively took out his Skylink and checked the monster''s identity.


    Name: Limestone Golem


    Level: 59-61


    The body is very strong and it''s almost impossible to be destroyed. There is a core hidden inside the stone. Destroy it and you will kill the golem.


    As he inspected it, the stone gradually rose from the ground.


    "Is there a possibility of an explosion?" Theo asked while walking forward.


    "Nope," Alea answered with a smile. "You''re free to do whatever you want."


    Theo nodded and jumped forward, thrusting his spear right on the stone.


    ng.


    "Kh!" Theo hit the stone with his Elite Spear, but it was not enough. Only a small crack appeared on the stone''s surface and Theo leaped back a few times to regroup with Alea.


    "You''re doing it correctly. Normally, they will take time to wake up, so that''s the best way to end it. Many magicians with high firepower aim at this monster because they can kill it before it wakes up, but you really need high firepower to do it perfectly." Alea exined.


    "I''m still not strong enough to pierce it." Theo narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath.


    "Not really, you have the power to kill it now." Alea smiled. "The only thing you need to do is to search for the core."


    She suddenly pointed at the golem''s stomach and said, "I will give you the first location. It''s on the stomach. You''re going to learn why I can know its positionter."


    Theo nodded and looked at the golem that eventually reached ten feet high. It had a pair of huge stone hands that would be able to crush him like an ant, but Theo knew what Alea suggested.


    He made a bit more distance and raised his spear.


    "Haste." Theo ran forward with the additional speed with his spear in the front. A blue light appeared and swirled around the spear''s de as it gradually became bigger. "Focused Charge."


    "Is this the reason why you give me this skill?" Theo asked as he passed her.


    "Hehe. It''s not the sole reason," she answered him in a roundabout way, refusing to tell him the whole reason.


    "Hmph." Theo snorted and jumped to the air, striking the golem''s stomach with his Focused Charge.


    Crack.


    The stone began to crack as it crumbled, revealing a shining red crystal underneath it. However, he hit it too hard to the point the force bounced him back.


    Alea smiled and used this chance to leap toward the core to kill the golem, but Theo clicked his tongue and threw his spear toward the golem core before the distance became too far. He simply didn''t have a good enough aim to do something like that.


    "That''s mine."


    The golem''s core cracked as its body began falling apart. He even got the notification about the kill.


    [Killed a Limestone Golem (Elite)]


    [EXP+112]


    "Haha." She chuckled and said, "You should give it to me, you know. If you throw your spear like that, you won''t have anything to protect yourself, you know."


    "I''d checked our surroundings and confirmed that as long as I hit it deep enough, I would be able to kill it without suffering any consequences from other monsters. If I didn''t have enough confidence, I wouldn''t even throw it." Theo shrugged. "It''s a uselessment."


    She remembered him asking a question and sighed. "Come on. I''m just trying to have a conversation with you since it will be boring if we both stay silent."


    Theo ignored her and ced his hand on the golem, but nothing dropped.


    When he was about to regroup with her, a strange incident urred.


    Croak.


    Croak.


    Creak.


    Various noises resounded in the area as the silence in the forest next to the savanna turned into an uproar. Many monsters roared as birds also flew to the sky in panic.


    "Hmm?" Alea narrowed her eyes and turned to the left, looking at the flying birds. "Something big is going to happen soon. Is there a hidden monster that threatens them? But this reaction��"


    "This kind of reaction is like an��" Before Theo finished his words, the ground began to rumble, shaking both Alea and Theo until they dropped to the ground just to stabilize their postures. "Earthquake!"


    "Kh. There is no warning!" Alea widened her eyes andined. "There should be a warning before this��"


    "I''m afraid. We''re in the worst case scenario." Theo narrowed his eyes and looked around, still feeling the shake from the ground.


    "You''re telling me that the notification came after we were gone?"


    "You have another exnation?" Theo harrumphed as he tried to assess the situation. "We need to hide somewhere because this ce will be swarmed by monsters since monsters don''t like Earthquakes and wille out of the forests to search an open area in every report."


    "I know. Many monsters will surelye out from the earlier cave, so we need to go straight to the smaller cave. It''s thirty minutes from here, but that''s the safest option for us. Are you with me?"


    "Let''s go as soon as the Earthquake stops." Theo nodded with a serious expression while taking off the weights.


    "Sure." Alea also took off the four bracelets and left them there.


    The Earthquakested for two minutes.


    Thoe and Alea looked at each other and turned in the same direction as they both started running at the same time.


    Unfortunately for them, their journey would be a rocky one as a series of roars shook the savanna from behind them.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Alea clicked her tongue and said, "We will lose them with our speed."


    "Roger."

 Chapter 66 – Theo’s Real Skills

    <h4>Chapter 66 - Theo��s Real Skills</h4>


    Alea and Theo headed straight to their next location


    It might be their instinct or whatsoever, but the monsters began emerging from the forest behind them.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Theo took a nce at them and clicked his tongue. "Do you know how to lose them?"


    "We go to the forest one miles from here. However, the entrance should be filled with monsters like this too." Alea shook her head helplessly. All the thoughts in her head led to a situation where they needed to break through them.


    Her abilities were enough to do something like that, but Theo was ten to fifteen levels below the monsters, so she worried about him even though Theo''s ability was above average.


    "Understood." Theo nodded with a serious expression. His eyes still contained a belief that they would be able to survive this ordeal.


    Alea contemted for a second and asked, "Do you have anything to say?"


    Theo didn''t answer immediately as he fell into deep thought. ''Since the situation is this dire, I will surely use my Clone and Magic Bullet, but unlike thetter, my clone won''t have a weapon right now. Well, I will be exposed, but it''s better than dying, so��''


    After reaching a decision, he asked, "Do you have any weapon with you? Spear is preferable."


    Alea shook her head. "I have a shield and a sword for backup. Do you need a weapon?"


    "Yes. Give me the sword." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Alea then came closer and matched his pace. "There is a pocket on the side of my bag. Open it and you will find a small sword''s handle."


    Theo nodded and carefully opened it, finding a white block that fit the description of a sword handle. He grabbed it without hesitation and asked, "How do I use this? I''m sorry that I''m too poor to even know something like this."


    "Just say ''Activate'' and the sword wille out or you can pour your magic power. It will then drain your Magic Power bit by bit automatically. But it''s not at the level you need to worry about."


    Theo looked at this white handle and opened his mouth. "Activate."


    The golden stripe in the middle of the handle glowed and drained a little amount of his Magic Power. A translucent orange light gradually emerged from the sword, creating a one-foot de translucent de.


    "Do you need the shield?" Alea asked.


    "I don''t know, but will it be okay for me to keep it as another trump card?" Theo asked.


    "Sure. I have confidence that I can break through them, but I don''t know if you��" Alea shook her head as her expression turned serious. She then went in the opposite direction and showed the same pocket on the bag. "It''s on the other side."


    Theo nodded and grabbed a blue handle before nodding his head. "I have both of them."


    "What are you going to do with it?"


    Theo summoned the clone that perfectly looked like him and handed both the sword and the shield to him. "This is what I want to do."


    "Eh?! Is that an illusion? No. It''s a clone, right? If I''m not wrong, the temple that issued your card was the Vanguard Temple�� Then, does it mean you are actually a Magic Warrior, not a Fighter?" Alea widened her eyes in surprise, never expecting that she needed to reevaluate Theo after knowing this.


    "That''s not important. I''m going to have my clone be the ''Knight'' while I support you from behind. I don''t ept any objection," Theomanded with a serious expression.


    "Fine, fine. You look like you''re smarter than me, so I will give you themand. I will follow your order for our survival." Alea agreed without hesitation, knowing that Theo might be hiding something more. Because she didn''t know anything about this hidden power, it was better for Theo to give the order since he would give the bestmand for both of them.


    "Sure thing." Theo nodded as they continued running through the savanna. They realized that the monsters starteding out from all directions as they tried to stay in a safe ce after an Earthquake like earlier.


    Both of them continued running for a few minutes while discussing how they were going through this problem.


    "Ultimately, that cave will be the ce where we can stay alive. The effect will stop after ten hours, so we can return at night while making another breakthrough. Are you ready?"


    "Alright. Let''s stop talking, the monsters are waiting in front of us." Theo shook his head as his expression turned cold. His clone also raised both shield and sword, charging from the very front.


    Although he didn''t have good enough skill to use both of them, he should be able to block and kill a couple of monsters before it went down.


    Alea turned her head and found five different monsters. Four of them were four-legged monsters, while the other one stood on its two feet. She didn''t have enough time to describe their appearances even in her head and took her vision for granted. "What are we going to do?"


    "There will be more monsters behind them. Focus on the two on the right since they seem to be the weakest and kill them. Every second will be precious for us, so going around is not an option. You take the right one, and my clone takes the left one. I will create a distraction for the other three."


    "Okay." Aleaplied as she wondered how Theo would create that "distraction" since he never used anything that could be used for something like that.


    Suddenly, she was stunned when she saw blue lighte out of Theo''s hand, forming into a head-size blue light ball.


    "Seriously?" Alea made a weird smile as she truly couldn''t measure Theo''s strength right now. At the same time, it fired her heart up as she switched her hand and held the sword with her left hand.


    Her expression soon turned cold as she didn''t have any shred of emotion to joke around. She opened her mouth, letting Theo know something with her cold tone. "I''m not going to be in your way. Do whatever you think it''s the best."


    "Understood." Theo nodded and split the ball into ten as he shot them. "Magic Bullet."

 Chapter 67 – Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 67 - Coordination</h4>


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions resounded in the savanna as it kicked up the dust on the ground, creating a thin smokescreen.


    Clone Theo went straight to its target and smashed the monster with its shield.


    The monster seemed to be a five feet grasshopper. It swung its scythe to cut Theo in two, only to be blocked by his shield.


    Meanwhile, Alea faced a monster that had a simr appearance to that of a zebra. But on its skins, she found many thorns that would be able to injure her if she was careless.


    Alea took a deep breath and stomped the ground, swinging her sword from above. Her strengthpletely changedpared to when she wielded the sword with her right hand. The sword cut the zebra like butter even with that hard thorn before she kicked the body from the left, clearing up the path between her and the grasshopper.


    Since Theo took its attention, Alea went around it and cut the body in one clean strike before jumping to the air. She said, "Let''s go."


    Theo nodded and continued running like before.


    "Seriously, I think we have more hope than earlier�� Thanks to the abilities you have hidden this whole time." Alea couldn''t help but praise him. If they truly wanted to kill all five of them, Theo only needed to aim the Magic Bullet toward them.


    In fact, the reason why Theo could adapt to her movement so easily must be because of his clone. He had gotten ustomed to fighting with a clone, so he simply treated her as a recement for his clone.


    "Just shut up. I can see the forest, but we will have a problem before entering that forest." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Hmm�� fifty or sixty." Alea also understood and checked the monsters. They were a bit spread out, so there must be a way to slip past them.


    Suddenly, Alea and Theo said their answer at the same time.


    "Left."


    "Middle."


    "Eh?" Theo and Alea widened their eyes, never expecting to have a different opinion.


    "Your reason?" Theo asked without hesitation.


    "There are multiple monsters behind what you''re pointing at. If we go there, we will be stopped by them and swarmed by the monsters we''ve passed." Alea let out a long sigh. "Huft. To think that more and more monsters wille out of the forestter."


    Theo nodded. "I thought the same thing, but if you see it a little bit, the monsters are rtively leaning to the middle, so we can use them to halt the advance from the middle to right side. That''s my n. Do you have anything that can stop them for a few seconds?"


    "I have. It uses up a bit more of my Magic Power, but your n seems to be better than mine, so we will use yours." Alea agreed without hesitation after understanding Theo''s thoughts.


    "Good. This is going to be a bit dangerous, but I will signal you when to use it."


    "Roger."


    Theo then raised his spear as Magic Power fluctuated around his spear.


    "Focused Charge."


    Seeing Theo had gotten ready, Alea released her fire and raised her sword. She shed it before even reaching the monsters, shooting out a crescent-shaped red sword wave.


    "mming Ge-Sword."


    Boom.


    The fire hit the monster between the left side and middle area, creating another smokescreen to mask their movement for a while.


    Still, they needed to handle ten monsters on the left side, considering they couldn''t really go around them for two reasons. One, they needed a longer time to go unnoticed since it would be the same if they got noticed. Second, there were many monsters around there too, so they might be chased by two groups instead of one. In other words, circling around them was not an option.


    A rhino charged from the front as Clone Theo grabbed both the sword handle and shield handle with his left hand at the same time. Then his right hand mmed the sword handle, so the sword would be nted on the ground.


    This way, he could create a situation as if the shield was nted on the ground, allowing him to take on this Rhino''s charge.


    "Good job." Alea''s voice resounded from above as she leaped over them before slicing the Rhino.


    The real Theo didn''t do something that fancy and slipped next to his clone and saw Alea focusing on the monster on her left.


    Believing Alea would kill it, Theo turned to the right and saw another Rhino. He thrust his spear that had been enhanced by Focused Charge.


    Surprisingly, Theo managed to stop the Rhino without even getting pushed back. Although it was due to his Focused Charge, it was still an impressive feat.


    His clone then came from the side and cut the Rhino''s body.


    "Theo, two on our front and one on our back."


    Theo heard her voice and turned around, seeing Alea already charged toward the two monsters in their front.


    He summoned his Magic Bullet and split it into ten, aiming for all three monsters. "Duck."


    The moment she heard hismand, Alea had no hesitation and bent her knees before seeing five Magic Bullets flew over her and hit the right one.


    Although it wasn''t enough to kill it, the bullets stopped its movement and left it almost dead.


    ''Nice shot.'' Alea smirked, used all the power on her tight and transferred it to her legs to make a fast jump toward that monster and killed it. She then extended her sword with her me and cut the second monster. "Nice job, Theo. Keep it up."


    "Your turn hasn''t ended yet." Theo snorted and continued running forward, slipping past her.


    "Right." Alea hurriedly followed him from behind while ncing to the right, finding that the monsters had begun to charge at them. If they stopped here, they would probably get surrounded.


    There was no other way other than to go to the left, but ultimately, they would find another group of monsters, so the timing needed to be perfect.


    As soon as they passed the left side and faced the monsters behind them, Theo took one big diagonal step to the left and shouted, "There."


    "Okay." Alea understood his intention and went straight to the mark Theo left by that stomp and raised her de, which had been covered by fire. It red up to be a bigger one, and Alea mmed the sword to the ground, channeling all the fire on her sword to the ground.


    "Grand Burst."

 Chapter 68 – Struggle

    <h4>Chapter 68 - Struggle</h4>


    "Grand Burst."


    The fire created a chain of explosions in a fan-shaped area, hitting all the monsters on the way and creating a wall of me that would cover their movement for a few seconds until the Magic Power ran out.


    "Good. Let''s go." Theo nodded as he and his clone went inside the forest.


    Alea caught up with them and ran through the forest like back in the Dense Forest, where she matched his movement perfectly. Their synergy looked like a couple that had been married for years.


    "By the way, are you not afraid of burning the forest?" Theo asked.


    "Not really. I think you''ve misunderstood something. There is something different between the fire from a Fire Skill and natural fire. The former requires our Magic Power to burn while thetter needs oxygen." Alea exined why she didn''t worry about her fire.


    "So, as long as the Magic Power that you pumped out to release that skill became empty, it would just vanish?"


    "Exactly."


    "What''s the difference between Fire Skill and Ice Skill?" After thinking about it one more time, he shook his head. "I''m not asking about their element�� Either way, you can forget about that question."


    "Indeed." Alea nodded and asked, "What''s your current status? How many monsters can you kill before reaching Elite Rank?"


    "I am at Level 49. Do I still need to level up to 51 or will I just get one level after reaching Level 50?"


    "The former."


    "In that case, I need around 1800 EXPs. In other words, seventeen monsters if all of them are around this level or higher."


    "That''s going to be rough because our journey is still too far. We approximately need to run for another eighteen minutes and��" She stopped as she looked around. "�� And we are surrounded by monsters."


    "We need to go around. It''s not possible to storm them from head-on�� Too many monsters." Theo sighed. "Give me your gut feeling."


    "Right!" Alea answered whatever in her mind at the moment without hesitation.


    "Alright. Let''s go to the left." Theo instantly chose the opposite direction.


    "Oi!"


    Theo shrugged and continued without looking at her. "Prepare forbat. Go wild, I will surely support you and take advantage of your movement."


    "Can you please not say the second one?" Alea''s eyebrows twitched as she raised her hand.


    Hearing that, Theo made a small grin, summoned his Magic Bullet, and said, "That''s more important than the first one."


    "Hmph." She pouted and charged toward the monsters.


    These two began hitting all the enemies to survive. However, this incident affected not only them but many others.


    In a barrennd, a pair of young man and woman looked at their surroundings. The man had white eyes and wore full body armor. There was a giant metal shield on his hand without any decoration. On the other hand, he wielded a simple but sharp sword.


    The woman, on the other hand, had long pink hair, letting it loose so the wind could gently sway them. She wore a blue robe that covered her entire body.


    She suddenly raised her hand, wielding a metal rod with a shining blue crystal on its tip, and tapped the ground twice as her rod released blue light in all directions. If Alea were here, she would recognize both of them since the woman was her friend, Ellen, while the man was none other than the known Guardian, Sihan Raskaka.


    When that light shone upon the barrennd, the monsters seemed more conscious of her and charged toward her.


    However, among them was a giant red scorpion. Its tail pointed at Ellen before getting surrounded by fire. It then released the fire in one straight line that looked like a bullet, capable of piercing her head.


    With his job as a Knight, Sihan moved in front of Ellen and raised his shield.


    The fire hit the shield he had before Sihan slightly twisted his grip a bit, turning the shield to the left.


    The fire ended up getting bounced back toward the monsters on the left, killing some of them until the scorpion stopped its attack.


    "That''s enough. Thank you." Ellen said and raised her staff. "Ice Waves."


    The area''s temperature dropped for a second as ten-foot ice crystals emerged from the ground in session in a fan-shaped area.


    "Let''s go outside this madness." Ellen smiled and saw through the path to leave this encirclement.


    Sihan nodded with a serious expression as he followed the path she created, escorting her from this ce that was surrounded by monsters because of the Earthquake.


    In another forest, there was a small boy moving around the forest while killing monsters one after another like they were ants. He clicked his tongue out and cursed. "To think I would end up with a coward�� He left me right after this happened and ended up getting himself killed. Disappointing.


    "Come on! I truly need that Joker who seems to be someone from our school! I, Phyrill Hilbert, want someone that can fight alongside me and won''t give up even in the face of death," he shouted as he jumped toward another monster and sliced its neck with his two short swords. "Argh! You all are annoying. I will kill you all here."


    At the same time, not far from there, there were another pair of two boys. The first was none other than Laust Lange, wielding a sword whose length was longer than its user''s height. After getting beaten By Theo, he had been practicing like crazy and reached Elite Rank before him.


    Behind him was a ck-haired man wearing sses. Like Ellen, he also had his own staff and killed the monsters with his magic. He asked, "Where should we go?"


    "To the south before making our way back to the Art Beats Castle, Vice President of the Student Council," answered Laust as if he was the one in charge of this group.


    "Sure thing. I will follow right behind you."


    Laust nodded and jumped forward as they prepared to break through from monsters after this mess.


    There were many other students that tried their best to live after getting surrounded by monsters. People knew that the Earthquake was a natural disaster, yet, in this ce, it was more than that because the situation would be far worse with so many monstersing out of their habitats in fear.


    Whether they were humans or monsters�� They all struggled to live.

 Chapter 69 – Gamble

    <h4>Chapter 69 - Gamble</h4>


    "Magic Bullet."


    Ten Magic Bullets flew past Alea and Clone Theo as it hit all the monsters in its path.


    Red fire rose from Alea''s sword as she shed them without hesitation, advancing through the forest.


    "I can only kill five monsters before leveling up," Theo announced as he checked his status.


    "Don''t worry. There''s not much of a distance left. If you see through the woods, you will be able to see a huge cliff. We only need to go around it and we will be safe." Alea shouted as she checked her own status. Her expression turned serious when she saw her level and EXP.


    Theo nodded and followed her instruction. On his side, he found three monsters and used his Magic Bullets to hit some of them as he struck one to definitely kill it.


    He then punched the second monster and sent it toward Alea, to which she killed without a problem and the third one was killed by the joint effort of him and his clone.


    "Let''s go!" Theo shouted as the path toward the cliff had been secured.


    Alea nodded and killed the monsters near her before regrouping with Theo. "Be careful, there should be another group of monsters around the cliff because of this situation."


    "I know." Theo nodded as Alea led him around the cliff.


    When he saw that one-hundred-foot tall cliff still standing without any crack, there should be no problem of them staying underneath it. Besides, it was formed by a stronger stone than limestone, so the potential of andslide was small.


    "It''s been ten minutes since the ground has stopped shaking."


    "Yes. The aftershocks should have finished." Theo agreed with her before finding ten monsters next to the cliff, covering the cave entrance. "Should I level up right now?"


    "Yes. Just kill them all. If you don''t feel anything, that''s good, but if you feel something, it means you need to hide in the cave. I can handle the rest of the monsters by myself."


    "Understood." Theo nodded and said for the first time. "Be careful."


    "Eh?" Alea widened her eyes as she stared at Theo with a dumbfounded expression. "What did you say? Let me hear it one more time. Louder."


    Theo rolled his eyes. He only said it because Alea would be protecting his life in case something happened, so he thought he should say something nice to her from time to time as his thanks since he couldn''t repay her kindness. "Shut up. Focus on the monsters."


    "Come on, one more time please. I think I can release 120% of my power if I hear it one more time." Alea made a big smirk.


    "I know that you are strong enough to win against them without that 120%." Theo shrugged and raised his spear. "Focused Charge."


    The energy began to cover his spear as his clone emerged first to gather their attention.


    Alea attacked them from a different direction andpletely cut off seven of the monsters from Theo, allowing him to get thest three monsters which should be enough to fill the remaining EXP to level up.


    Theo smiled and looked at the monsters. To put it simply, the three were a wolf and two orcs.


    The first orc ran toward him only to be stopped by his clone.


    Meanwhile, the second orc mmed its fist to Theo from above.


    Theo leaped to the air to avoid it, letting the orc smash the ground instead. However, the wolf suddenly jumped to bite him.


    Expecting something like this, Theo did a frontflip and hit the wolf with his spear''s handle, using the energy from the Focused Charge to do this instead of killing it.


    The wolf crashed to the orc, as thetter ended up falling down.


    Theo summoned his Magic Bullet and suspended it in the air for two seconds.


    The moment hended not far away from them and took one more step to get away, the Magic Bullet rained the two monsters down, instantly killing them.


    He then went around the other orc and stabbed its neck from behind.


    "Pierce."


    Seeing there was no notification that it died, Theo punched the orc''s head, so it stumbled to the ground before his clone beheaded it.


    [Killed an Orc (Elite)]


    [EXP+98]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Normal


    Level: 50


    EXP: 1110/1110


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (E), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), 4 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 37, Agility 47, Vitality 39, Magic Power 71


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Suddenly, something struck his head from the inside as Theo couldn''t help but scream in pain. "Aaaahhh!"


    Theo clutched his head as pain filled his brain. Forcing his eyes to stay open, he gritted his teeth and leaped out of the way. "Kh. What''s this?"


    Due to the pain, the clone disappeared as he couldn''t maintain it anymore, dropping both sword and shield.


    "It seems you got the call. Hurry up and enter the cave. I will handle the rest. After killing them, the cave darkness should be enough to hide us," shouted Alea, knowing what Theo was experiencing.


    Theo trusted her and entered the cave without hesitation. While in pain, he kept advancing until he met a dead-end one hundred feet away from the entrance. Just like she said, there shouldn''t be a light that would give away their location in this ce, so Theo sat down and finally closed his eyes.


    However, their ordeal had yet toe to an end. They once felt it not long ago, and this time, another aftershock shook the ground again.


    "Kh. How can this happen?" Alea stumbled on the ground, gritted her teeth as she shed thest monster but could already foresee how many monsters actually woulde out after this. "No, this was supposed to be the right choice since we need more than two hours to return to the training camp, so it''s not possible with our current state. In that case��"


    She crawled to where Clone Theo disappeared while maintaining her bnce and grabbed the sword she lent to him earlier.


    As soon as the aftershock stopped, she rose from the ground with a sword in each hand. The dark cloud had gathered around their area, ready to pour its rain.


    "Haiz�� If I were a normal person�� I would have abandoned you already. After all, I don''t have time to wash the blood smell away." Alea nced at the cave with a small smile, feeling pretty pathetic. "I wonder if our situation is reversed, will you do the same for me�� Theo?"


    Roar.


    Roar.


    The roars filled her ears as she turned around and found many monstersing out.


    "Whatever the case, I shall gamble this life away."


    Her expression turned serious as she smiled and jumped toward them, recalling what she saw earlier.


    Name: Alea Eilric


    Status: Elite


    Level: 150


    EXP: 29990/31171


    Blessing: God of Fortitude

 Chapter 70 – Messages

    <h4>Chapter 70 - Messages</h4>


    While Alea fought against those monsters with her EXP points almost reaching max due to her killing almost all the monsters, Theo arrived in a strange space.


    He looked around and felt that there was no end to this ce. Everything was white without an edge or whatsoever, feeling like it was stretching forever.


    "Where am I?" Theo muttered since he didn''t have much time to waste.


    Unfortunately, nothing appeared within a minute, so Theo decided to step forward, only to find a presence behind him. That presence was overwhelming as he instinctively ran away from it before turning around, finding a giant snake.


    Yet the next second, he realized that he began to sink and looked down, finding that he was stepping on a solid lilypad but still couldn''t hold his entire weight. Below him was a dark deepke that he couldn''t even see the bottom.


    To his surprise, he then saw a fifty-foot-long purple te that emerged from the water to help him stay afloat.


    He truly wanted to escape from this, but he knew that there was no point because the floor had turned into ake and there was no way he could escape from this snake in this environment. The snake only revealed its head, but he needed to raise his head just to see him eye to eye because it reached almost one hundred feet above the water.


    ''Is this a trial?'' Theo narrowed his eyes and braved himself to look at this snake. This purple snake had deep blue eyes, unlike any other snakes he had ever seen. The spikes on its back seemed to be sharp enough to cut down his spear. It was then he realized that the te he was on right now was none other than the snake''s body.


    He checked his hands, wielding no weapons. Even when he tried to release his magic power, nothing woulde out.


    "Who are you?" Theo asked. His tone was hesitant and his face was pale. Although he wasn''t afraid to die, he couldn''t afford it for the moment.


    The snake opened its mouth and spoke in a humannguage.


    "I''m just a mere sea serpent, bearing a message from the one bestowing you that blessing."


    "God of Mischief�� If that''s the case, then you must be��" Theo dropped his jaw as he couldn''t handle the shock.


    "As I said, I''m just a mere sea serpent. Your current condition is too bad, so I won''t waste too much time." The sea serpent then came closer to him as its eyes glowed.


    Theo felt fuzzy to the point he almost fell off because he couldn''t sense a single thing when those eyes shone.


    Suddenly, a notification appeared, granting him a skill to his repertoire.


    [God of Mischief grants you skill: Blink (E)]


    Skill: Blink (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 3 rank E skills and 10 Rank F skills


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to five feet from them. Due to the current skill rank, the user has a limited amount of distance. The distance can be increased by upgrading the skill.


    "Eh?" Theo took a step back and found another upgradeable skill. He then realized the requirement was different from his Clone.


    "I have two messages that need to be passed down to you. One is from me." The serpent paused for a moment as his eyes glowed again. It was then he saw all his skills at the time.


    Skill: Pierce (F) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 Rank E skills


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to create a stronger force after spinning the user''s spear to its absolute limit.


    Skill: Monkey Fist (F) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 20 Rank E skills


    Effect: Allows the user to umte Magic Power to the hand to create a more powerful blow.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank E skills and 5 Rank F skills


    Effect: Allows the user to summon ten light balls.


    Skill: Haste (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank E skills and 10 Rank F skills


    Effect: Increase the user speed for a period of time.


    Skill: Focused Charge (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank E skills and 10 Rank F skills


    Effect: umte the energy into the hand before channeling the power to a pointed de.


    "��"


    "Eh?" Theo simply couldn''t believe what he just witnessed, but before he could remember everything, the descriptions had gone from his vision. Though, he knew that all of his skills could be upgraded to the next level. The reason for the difference between each requirement must be the potential of the skin. The higher the potential, the easier he could upgrade it.


    Unfortunately, that wasn''t the main point. He simply couldn''tprehend why those skills were actually upgradeable.


    "You are his emissary, yet, you haven''t even tried to understand why his is different. Just like the girl outside there�� Fortitude is the ability and willingness to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. The girl keeps fighting to protect you even though she knows there''s a chance you will abandon them to save your life, but why haven''t you thought about why he chose you? Even if the luckiest man alive can be chosen by the God of Misfortunate because that luckiness can be his own misfortune�� Have you forgotten what he has granted you?"


    Theo widened his eyes and couldn''t even speak a single word. God of Mischief only told him two lines.


    [God of Mischief is happy with your trick and wishes you luck to be a great trickster.]


    [God of Mischief grants you the ability to see the skill upgrade''s requirement.]


    "That''s ability�� Not the ability to see only the things he has granted, but everything." Theo realized that he actually granted something far greater than any others.


    God of Love performed a miracle by matching two people that couldn''t be matched. God of Fortune made a miracle by granting someone a one in one "zillion" chance. God of Mischief created a miracle by��


    Theo noticed how shallow his thought was until now. "He cheats the entire system itself?!"


    The God of Mischief tricked the entire power system in this world and granted him the ability to understand how to upgrade a skill as his "miracle".


    Unfortunately, the sea serpent didn''t confirm his question. Instead, he continued. "I have said my piece. I will ry his message to you. Have you ever thought of these questions�� Will a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? Will a man be called a bad guy when he joins the enemy side to protect the people on his side? A tricky question, but the answer wille to you sooner orter. And you shall understand the weight of these two questions in the future. Now, return and stay alive. We shall meet again."


    Before he could react, The snake''s eyes shone brightly, forcing Theo to cover his eyes. And the next thing he knew, he had already returned to the real world with two messages.


    [God of Mischief is pleased to see you continue as his emissary and grants you the following.]


    [Level +1]


    [Free Attribute Points +47]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 51


    EXP: 0/2000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (E), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste(E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (E), 3 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 32, Agility 47, Vitality 34, Magic Power 71


    Free Attribute Points: 47

 Chapter 71 – Escape

    <h4>Chapter 71 - Escape</h4>


    As soon as he woke up, pouring rain filled his ears as he squinted his eyes to look at the outside. There was a single woman wielding two swords and standing alone under the rain.


    If not due to the pouring water, her whole body would have been covered by the blooding from the monsters nearby as well as her own body.


    There was a graze now and then, bleeding continuously. There was even a stab injury on her left thigh. It became even visible since she wore a skirt.


    Still, a thought appeared in his mind as he never expected to see her standing like that. He instinctively ran toward her in a hurry before finding hundreds of corpses right in front of the cave.


    "Alea!" Theo called her name as his body began to wet due to the rain. Yet, his focus remained on her, checking her condition. "Are you alright?"


    "You have finally finished." Alea''s consciousness was already fuzzy as she fell right into his embrace. "You need to go right now. There will be moreing to this ceter. Just hide me inside the cave and I will be fine."


    Theo then realized something he almost forgot. It was when Alea showed her ID Card, showing her level. She herself had almost reached Level 150 and became a Champion Rank Magic Warrior. In addition, she had been killing more than 95% of the monsters they had encountered during this journey along withst week''s rivalry.


    Even though their level gap was huge, she should still get around five or ten EXP points for every monster. That was why�� with the number of monsters she had killed, reaching Champion Rank was possible.


    At the same time, Alea should be strong enough to kill these guys without injuries, yet, there were numerous wounds on her body, meaning that she had been weakened because of the "calling" from her own God like what he saw earlier.


    All that for him? Whether it was her kindness rted to her trauma or the fact that he was her teammate, it was still not worth wasting her life for someone she knew since two weeks ago.


    "You�� You have been fighting in this state this whole time?" Theo finally understood why God of Fortitude chose her.


    "You need to go. There''s no time. Leave me." Her tone was weak, but she truly meant it. As long as Theo was safe, she would have helped one more person in her life.


    Theo clicked his tongue. "It''s true that I''m selfish and want to win everything. But I still have standards."


    Leaving his teammate that had been protecting his life this whole time despite her condition was not in his standard.


    Before she fell unconscious, he asked, "Can you still do it while your body is moving?"


    Alea closed her eyes, feeling that he wouldn''t seed if he carried her. Yet, Theo''s question got the better of her. "Yes. I only need to sleep for a moment."


    "Alright. Sleep now. Leave everything to me." Theo quicklyid her down on the ground before grabbing both her swords along with the shield he dropped earlier.


    He then opened the bag she carried and threw all the spices and a rope that seemed to be prepared for climbing, but it was the perfect item for him. He threw all the spices and started tying her body tightly before attaching her to his body. This would at least give him better control in handling her body while she was unconscious.


    Theo then carried her on his back and moved her hand to touch all the monsters'' bodies in the area, getting all the cards.


    "Tch." He ended up not getting satisfied, but it was still better than nothing. "Only five E Rank Skills and twenty F Rank Skills from two to three hundred Elite Rank Monsters?"


    Theo started calcting all the things in his possession and remembered that he also had some skills in his bag.


    "It''s barely enough now��" Theo narrowed his eyes as he hesitated for a second.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Suddenly, a series of roars resounded in the area, forcing Theo to make a decision.


    "This is not the time to think about it. I will use all of them to upgrade my Blink and Clone right now," said Theo while remembering the upgrade requirement.


    Blue light starteding out of his body as all the skill cards in his hands disappeared, leaving only two F Rank Skills.


    Skill: Blink (D) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank D skills and 10 Rank E skills


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to ten feet from them. Due to the current skill rank, the user has a limited amount of distance. The distance can be increased by upgrading the skill.


    Skill: Clone (D) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: 2 Rank D Skill and Fuse 20 Rank F Skills


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can create the same body, control its movement, share vision, talk, and use skills. Other parts are still locked.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and looked at his skills before looking at the monsters that would soon arrive.


    He threw away all unnecessary things they had, so it wouldn''t hinder his movement before summoning his clone, giving him Alea''s sword.


    "I can''t return to the cave and I don''t know which direction I should go. Still, with so many monsters chasing me, I doubt I can do much about it." Theo then raised his head, finding a few flying monsters. "It''s not possible to hide too."


    He rose from the ground and quickly started running together with his clone to the other side of the cliff, trying to avoid being surrounded.


    Seeing his movement, the monsters began to chase him as this was a part of their instinct despite theming here because of the aftershock.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    "!!!" Theo found three monsters in his way, trying to hinder him. If he stopped once, it would be over.


    Theo and his clone raised both their hands simultaneously, trying the thing he just got. "Magic Bullet."


    Each of them summoned a blue light ball and split them into ten at the same time.


    The three monsters were sted by twenty Magic Bullets and died without being able to fight back. He then slipped past them and continued running forward. "Kh�� The Magic Power consumption is a bit more than two times. And to escape from this situation, I need Endurance and others�� I feel like I''m going to regret this, but lifees first."


    After contemting for a few seconds, Theo added 9 points to Magic Power, 15 points to Endurance, 15 points to Agility, and the rest went to his Vitality.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 51


    EXP: 298/2000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), 3 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 47, Agility 62, Vitality 42, Magic Power 80


    Free Attribute Points: 0

 Chapter 72 – Miracle

    <h4>Chapter 72 - Miracle</h4>


    *Pant*


    *Pant*


    Panting voices kept echoing inside the woods, only to be suppressed by loud cracking noises when monsters broke the trees or when thetter hit the ground.


    Theo had been running for five minutes with mad monsters right behind him.


    He stretched his hand to the side while his clone spun his body and pointed his palm toward the monsters.


    "Magic Bullet."


    The two rained the monsters again with the Magic Bullets to prevent them froming, but Theo found three monstersing from his right while two from the front.


    "��" If he used another Magic Bullet, he would be able to destroy one of the sides, but it would mean that his clone would disappear to sacrifice itself to let Theo escape. Meanwhile, the left was filled with monsters that prepared to attack him.


    He took a deep breath and used another Magic Bullet, hitting all the monstersing from his right. At the same time, his clone handed the sword back to Theo.


    After putting his spear on his mouth, biting it on the handle to carry it, Theo grabbed Alea''s sword as he controlled his clone to charge toward the two monsters before them.


    They were close to that of a tiger and a bear, so Theo decided to make a riskier move to maintain his stamina because he didn''t know how long Alea would stay in this way. Remembering Alea''s condition and how many monsters she had killed, he believed he needed to buy time for at least thirty minutes.


    Roar.


    The two monsters roared as the tiger leaped forward, trying to strike him.


    Clone Theo went between them, protecting the real one with its body. Before the tiger hit him, he punched the tiger''s face with the Monkey Fist before kicking it away.


    However, this action allowed the bear to close their gap.


    Theo''s momentum was too fast, so it was impossible for him to make another maneuver that could let him slip past this bear without an injury.


    The bear also knew it and swiped its paw from the left tounch Theo and Alea to the tiger.


    Seeing the bear''s paw, Theo smiled and used another skill.


    "Blink!"


    His body became blurry as the next thing they realized, Theo already passed the bear, only to find himself stumbling to the ground.


    "Ugh. The skill didn''t kill the momentum?" Theo eximed in surprise as he did his best to go back to his feet and kept running. He summoned his clone again and handed the sword to him.


    However, his ordeal had yet to end. Right after he passed the bear, he found an exit of the forest before his heart fell into despair. The monsters would surelye out of the forest, so the exit would be filled with monsters.


    His only option was to go around this forest to avoid getting caught, but he soon realized that there wasn''t a single monster outside.


    "Huh? Why?" Theo asked himself and thought, ''Has someone killed them all? If that''s the case, it''s good because we can ask for help.''


    He was desperate since his Magic Power had yet to recover. After all, Theo and Alea had been using their power to go to the cave, where he used half of his power to reach it. Then, running around like this was taxing enough because he needed to use his Magic Bullet constantly to make sure not a single monster could reach him, draining his Magic Power faster.


    Hence, Theo thought that as long as it was safe, he didn''t mind going there.


    "Let''s go out," Theo muttered as he steeled his resolve, nning to search the group that butchered all the monsters.


    Unfortunately for him, that hope was shattered once again when he exited the forest. He instantly understood the reason why there wasn''t a single monster in this area.


    "No way." Theo dropped his jaw as he saw a huge valley right outside the forest. He then looked at the other side, which was separated by at least two hundred feet.


    With how matched the two fragments at each other''s end, he knew that this ce was once the same thing, yet the Earthquake earlier made them shift like this.


    He looked at the ck gap between them and couldn''t see anything underneath. The moment he entered that ce would be the day he died, so it was not possible.


    Roar.


    A series of roars resounded in his ears as he saw the beasts would reach his position soon.


    He was at his wit''s end as he looked left and right, only to find them surrounding him.


    "What should I do? Oi, Alea Eilric. I think this is the best time for you to wake up��" Theo gulped down, wondering if he should take the risk. Either way, he would die if he stayed.


    Suddenly, a thought arose in his mind. It was when he stumbled to the ground after using his Blink. "Should I risk it?"


    His answer came in the form of a roar.


    Knowing that he had no time to hesitate, he grabbed Alea''s sword and sheathed it into the scabbard on Alea''s waist. His clone was next to him, preparing to follow him jump to cross this huge gap.


    Theo took one deep breath to calm his heart down as he and his clone used Haste simultaneously, increasing their speed.


    The real Theo set off first as he nned to surmount the huge gap with his speed.


    He jumped as high as possible because it was impossible to do it if he were alone. But Clone Theo arrived right behind him, made a front flip, and bent his feet, nning to kick the real one to the other side.


    Theo then adjusted his position and used his clone to boost himself to the sky, trying to surmount the impossible gap to cross.


    "Go!" His eyes were filled with resolve and hope, yet, Heaven seemed to not agree to this n. Despite all his efforts to do this, he realized that he had started falling just by crossing half of the distance. "Impossible. I''m going to die��"


    Suddenly, the scene where he first met his master shed in his mind. He felt useless because he relied on a "miracle" to save him.


    "No! I have decided to change my way. I can''t rely on it anymore. I''m going to perform the miracle itself." Theo widened his eyes as he used his mouth to hold the spear and took out the shield. He then summoned his clone not far from him, facing his shield. "Come!"


    Clone Theo raised both hands and created ten Magic Bullets, aiming them toward the shield.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded after not being able to pierce the spear, giving another boost to the sky. "Go!"

 Chapter 73 – Have Yet To End

    <h4>Chapter 73 - Have Yet To End</h4>


    "Go!" Theo couldn''t help but scream in excitement because this might be the first time that he solved the impossible by himself.


    His hand was numb after taking the full brunt of the Magic Bullets, but he didn''t even realize it because of the excitement.


    Unfortunately for him, he miscalcted the momentum he got from the Magic Bullet, sending him farther than he thought.


    If he continued like this, nothing would break his fall and he probably ended up with broken bones. And with Alea on his back, her "sleep" would surely be disturbed.


    Hence, Theo looked to his left, finding a tree tond.


    The moment he found one, he cut the rope attached to his chest before grabbing Alea and pulling her to his embrace.


    "Blink."


    Theo arrived right in front of the tree, still carrying the momentum like the first time he used Blink. However, he already had a n for this and summoned his clone, handing him the shield.


    The clone then went right in front of him and became a cushion for Theo and Alea to hit the tree safely without injury.


    Bam.


    The clone was destroyed immediately, but Theo confirmed that his body was alright without any sign of excessive injury. Originally, he nned to use Blink to teleport himself a few feet upward, so he could fly even longer, but he realized the Blink wouldn''t be enough to send him to the other side. However, Theo didn''tin about it because he managed to use it at the right time.


    Hended on his back, gently hitting the tree while protecting Alea''s body from getting hit.


    "Huft. I want to go home right now��" Theo let out a long sigh before Alea let out a moan as she opened her eyes, finding her face so close to Theo.


    Theo already prepared for a p, but Alea acted differently. Instead of going for the normal route, she stood up and released her Awareness.


    All it took was the spear that Theo held with his mouth to know that they were in the middle of something, so it was better to be alert instead of acting like an ungrateful b*tch.


    "What happened?" Alea blinked her eyes, finding nothing in her surroundings.


    Theo only pointed his finger at her before she realized something was happening behind her.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    "Seriously?" Alea dropped her jaw, watching around three hundred Elite Rank Monsters behind them. She looked at the gap and thought that it was impossible for Theo to cross this gap since it was obvious that they came from the other side.


    "Theo�� What did you do? We came from that side, right?" She turned around and quickly checked his body to see the injury. "Do you have any injuries? Internal injury?"


    "I don''t think so, but I am so exhausted right now. I think I only have around twenty percent of my Magic Power left and my two legs are refusing to move." Theo sighed.


    Alea never expected that Theo would take a risk like this while she was asleep. Still, no matter what anyone said, just like how she protected Theo, he also saved her life.


    And Alea needed to say that one thing. "Thank you."


    "I am just repaying what you have done for me. That''s all." Theo shook his head. "I don''t know whether this ce is safe or not, so I am counting on you. Let me rest a bit."


    "Sure thing." Alea nodded with a serious expression. "Still, I can''t believe you could cross that kind of gap."


    "Do you think you can?" Theo asked.


    "Hmm�� With all my physical ability and Magic Power, barely."


    Theo agreed since he only seeded due to his Magic Bullet and Clones. "But I think I need to level up a bit more because I have wasted too many attribute points to escape from them."


    "Ahaha, I will help you regarding that. Normally, the first-year student doesn''t need to go to this side many times, so they are only Level 20 to Level 30 when they advance a grade. Even most of the graduates are at my level�� Because we are actually learning more about knowledge instead of increasing our level.


    "Although I do admit that level is important and many people actually prefer it more than knowledge, I think school is still important because not only you can gain connections, but you can also increase your normal abilities.


    "For example, unless you have a mentor, no normal fighter thates to this side without a school will know about five most important aspects until they have a few years of experience. This school is built for that purpose. But because of Grand Gaia, we have another option where we can gain more levels than history.


    "To be honest, I may have the chance to be a Level 251 Hero Rank Magic Warrior before graduating. As for you? I believe it will be far higher since I''m thinking of helping you reach Level 70 before the training camp is over."


    "Level 70 huh." Theo looked down, contemting for a moment. "There are still five months left before everything is wrapped up."


    "Yeah. I believe in the third stage, you may have a shot to get to Level 100 or even more." She nodded.


    "I see." Theo looked down. "Though I believe I can reach Champion Rank��"


    "That will depend on our team in the future. If they are good, I''m sure that everyone can reach Champion Rank because I know this will be the first step topete with other countries'' students."


    "We will see." Theo nodded. His confidence was based on his previous data. The fact that he could be an Elite Rank Fighter from Level 7 Fighter within two weeks allowed him to specte what kind of thing he needed to do to reach the Champion Rank. "Anyway, let me rest first for two or three hours."


    "Let''s eat, shall we? I''m going to hun��" Before she finished her words, a loud howl vibrated the ground.


    It was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. Even the monsters from the other side of the cliff stopped as if they got scared of this roar.


    Due to their distance, Theo and Alea could clearly hear that the howl came from inside the gap they crossed earlier.


    "!!!"


    Boom.


    Giant ws reached the edge of the cliff as if it was trying toe out. Each w had a width of six feet, while the entire hand had a span of fifty feet. Without a doubt, the monster that was hidden this whole time was massive. And to think that there was something this big in this area�� Even Alea didn''t have such information.


    Theo couldn''t help but mutter, ''Oh, sh*t. Did the roars from the monsters I brought to the cliff wake this monster up?''

 Chapter 74 – Buying Time

    <h4>Chapter 74 - Buying Time</h4>


    From one w, a huge monster gradually climbed out of the valley and revealed its true appearance.


    "A turtle?" Theo widened his eyes and started gasping for air just by looking at the monster''s appearance.


    The monster was two hundred feet tall above the ground and its length could go as far as five hundred feet. Even if Theo and Alea used all their speed to escape, one step was all it took to reach them.


    The appearance itself was like a turtle, but the skin was white and had some dirt covering its ck shell. They could see many holes on the turtle''s shell, releasing a ck aura that eventually formed a skull covered in purple smoke.


    "Theo! Theo!" Alea shook his body to wake him up from his trance. She gritted her teeth because if she didn''t have the blessing of the God of Fortitude, she would have been in the same state as him.


    Despite shaking his body for a minute, Theo had no sign of waking up, so she clicked her tongue and raised her hand. "Sorry!"


    Pak.


    She pped his cheek as his body suddenly shook. "Thank God. You have finally returned. We don''t have any time to waste. Let''s escape!"


    Theo looked at the turtle once again as he gulped down. His hands were shaking uncontrobly, but the heat from Alea''s p managed to force him to stay awake.


    "Fight that feeling! That turtle is weird. It''s sending a certain aura that can easily influence someone weaker than it!" Alea shouted.


    Theo bit his lips until they bled before shaking his head. "Yes. Let''s go!"


    Alea helped him up as they started running away.


    However, the time they were in a trance allowed the turtle to fully support its body in the new environment. It noticed Alea and Theo, who tried to escape from him.


    "It notices us! Use your Haste right now. We are going at full speed!"


    Theo nodded as the Magic Power revolved in his body, letting out a green aura from his feet. It took all this to help him match Alea''s speed, but it was worth it because they truly went much faster.


    "What is that monster?" Theo asked.


    "I''m not sure. Looking at that aura alone, it''s probably above Champion Rank�� At least, its level is above 250. Even I don''t have the confidence to defeat it."


    "How could such a monster be hidden in this area?"


    "You tell me."


    Their day couldn''t get worse. Not only did they need to do anything to survive because they ranked up, but they also needed to escape from a monster like this. If they could restart today, they would go for a safer area or just stay quiet in the Art Beats Castle.


    Suddenly, a high-pitched sound reverberated in that area before a translucent yellow light came out of the turtle, shooting to the sky. It then spread to all directions like a pir of light, surrounding the entire area.


    When Alea took another look at it, the light pirs started getting tied by millions of yellow threats, forming an unbreakable wall.


    "What?!" Alea gasped and turned around, realizing that they were trapped inside a yellow dome. There was also a light pir on top of the turtle''s shell, which might be the only way to escape.


    Even so, Alea didn''t want to give up and shouted to him. "We will break through it. Do everything you can to the barrier."


    Her sword started zing as she tried to umte as much energy as she possibly could at this point.


    Theo nodded as he also used his Focus Charge to umte it while preparing to use his Magic Bullets.


    The dome itself was one mile in diameter, giving them enough time to charge.


    However, before they arrived, Theo turned his head around while looking at the turtle with his Skylink to see its status.


    MONSTER DESCRIPTION


    Name: ???


    Level: -


    No information.


    "What did you see?" Alea noticed his action and asked.


    "No information," Theo answered before his face turned pale when all the skulls left the holes and marched forward. "Not good! The skulls areing! I don''t know anything about them."


    "No need to think about them first. The wall is right in front of us. We will hit it first before panicking over those." Alea reminded Theo to focus on their objective instead of getting distracted.


    Theo nodded with a serious expression as he calmed his heart down, looking at the yellow translucent wall that blocked their way.


    "Watch where I strike!"


    "Understood."


    The two moved as fast as possible to carry all that momentum. When they arrived right before the wall, Alea took one deep step on the ground and thrust her sword forward.


    "Ignition Rune Sword."


    "Focused Charge." Theo also struck the exact same spot as her, trying to break this wall.


    Unfortunately for them, It only ended up with Theo''s spear shing with Alea''s sword as the two ended up failing to destroy it.


    No, they didn''t mess up. It just showed how strong the wall was that was capable of dealing with both strikes without a scratch and forced the two des to collide.


    "Kh!" Theo and Alea''s shoulders hit each other before they slipped to the ground.


    Alea looked at the wall and punched the ground out of frustration as she turned around. "I''m afraid it''s not around Level 250 anymore. This monster may be close to Level 400."


    "There is still one opportunity!" Theo shouted and grabbed Alea''s waist without hesitation. "Blink."


    Bam.


    The next second he appeared, his and Alea''s bodies hit the barrier. "Kh!"


    "It''s not effective? We''re doomed this way?" Theo drew a gasp as he looked at the skulls in the air. The turtle itself had yet to do anything, so he thought they should have a chance to fight against these skulls to buy time. ''That''s right. With such a huge appearance, there is a possibility for the military to detect this. And my Master may also be on the way. If we hold it long enough��''


    As he gained a new objective, Alea also refused to give up as she shouted. "Do you have an idea, Theo?"


    "Buy time. The turtle must be in deep slumber before the Earthquake, so it''s not fully awake yet. That''s why we will fight those skulls until the reinforcementes. There are two possible safest locations. The dark valley where the turtle came out and behind its giant body. But I don''t know if there are more monsters hiding inside the first one, so we will go for the second option."


    Alea nodded with a serious expression. "Alright. We will fight them, but we will maintain our distance from the turtle while making our way there."


    "Yes. Same strategy." Theo nodded and summoned his clone, handing both sword and shield.


    "Understood. Let''s escape this nightmare alive, shall we?" Alea forced herself a smile.

 Chapter 75 – Survive Together

    <h4>Chapter 75 - Survive Together</h4>


    "Hmph!" Theo snorted and raised his hand as a blue light ball appeared above his palm, splitting into ten. "Magic Bullet."


    The Magic Bullets spread and hit the four skulls out of hundreds of skulls. Surprisingly, the skulls were obliterated just like that as if they didn''t have anything to protect their physical bodies.


    When Alea saw this reaction, she informed him. "They don''t have physical bodies. Unless you are using Magic Power for skills or something, you won''t be able to cut them down."


    "In other words, I can''t rely on my weapons?"


    "Yes. However, it will be a different case if you can d your spear with Magic Power. Can you do it? I can barely do it even with my left hand."


    "Only through skills. I barely can control my Magic Bullet at this point. Do you think I have enough skill to do something like that?"


    "��" Alea sighed. "Why did you��"


    She wanted to ask why Theo hid his Magic Bullet and Clone skills, but she stopped, knowing it was rude to ask someone''s skills. He had been understanding about her left hand, so she needed to respect him as well.


    "Anyway, we can''t do much with our current Magic Power, which has been depleted because of the continuous run, so reserve your power as much as possible."


    "I know." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Here theye!" Alea shouted as they continued going around the dome, right next to the translucent wall, so they had enough room to react if the turtle attacked them or something.


    "Focused Charge." Theo looked at his spear as he only had one shot by using this skill. Still, it was better than nothing.


    Unfortunately for them, Alea''s observation was wrong. The turtle was far beyond her imagination as the skulls suddenly halted their movement in the air and opened their mouths.


    "Alea! That''s bad, right?!" Theo noticed their actions and saw purple light shone within their mouths.


    "Hide behind me right now!" Alea ordered, not epting any objection.


    This was the first time Theo heard this tone, so he quickly hid behind her.


    "Fortitude!" Alea stabbed the ground with her sword as a giant red shield appeared.


    Theo couldn''t see anything since he was right behind her, bending his knees. The only thing he felt was the shock, loud explosion, and vibrating ground.


    Boom.


    She was rained down by purple light that exploded as soon as they touched their target. Fortunately, Theo and Alea managed to survive that onught when everything around them was wiped out, leaving only a huge fan-shaped crater with only the middle left out.


    "!!!" Alea didn''t stop there. She noticed that the skulls seemed to be fusing with each other while some formed a group and created a purple-colored barrier which had the appearance of the dome''s barrier.


    "We need to destroy that big skull!" Alea shouted and pointed her forefinger at the bigger skull after absorbing half of them. "Launch me to the sky."


    Theo nodded and ran ten feet with his hands joining together.


    Alea then ran toward him, stepped on his hands, and jumped to the sky with Theo''s assistance.


    The groups of skulls quickly stopped them with their barriers.


    Alea managed to cut a few of them, but it killed off her momentum as she finally stopped and started falling.


    "NO!" Alea''s voice was filled with regret as she saw the giant skull preparing the same attack.


    Theo called his clone and flew to the sky with the shield, preparing to take it on as Alea would be a better person to carry him if he fell unconscious after this attack.


    "I''m going to tak��" Before he finished his words, they passed each other, where Alea grabbed him and reversed their position, so she could take this attack. "You may haven''t felt it, but that attack will destroy the shield and kill you! This attack is directed to me, so let me face it."


    Theo widened his eyes as Alea spun her sword and wielded it backward. She then pointed the sword downward as she shouted. "Fortitude!"


    A red me shield appeared right before her eyes as it was translucent enough for her to see through it.


    "Oi! That''s bad news." Theo eventually realized how powerful that attack was and clenched his teeth. Even Alea might not be able to block it. Yet, he was also in dilemma. Although he didn''t want to admit it, he could only use one more skill. He had two choices, Magic Bullet or Blink. If he chose thetter, he would be able to destroy the skull. As long as he survived this attack, they should be able tost a bit longer. But if he chose thetter, they could only survive this attack while running under their onught. In that instant, Theo decided to trust Alea. "Alea!"


    Alea ignored him and stood firm in the air as the skull shot out a purpleser from its mouth.


    The moment it struck her shield, Alea, who didn''t have any foundation in the air, got pushed back.


    Obviously, Theo caught her as both of them wereunched to the ground. However, before they even hit it, Alea suddenly spat a mouthful of blood and the shield cracked.


    Theo''s clone finally arrived at its destination, where he could snipe the skull from its blindspot.


    "Magic Bullet."


    The Magic Bullet flew and obliterated the big skull, stopping the attack, but Alea''s shield broke and the residual attack would surely kill them both.


    Theo instinctively grabbed her waist and carried his shield to the front for thest line of defense. Seeing this, Alea also helped him hold the shield to make sure it didn''t get blown away.


    "Focused Charge!" Theo instinctively used his Focused Charge on his shield instead of his spear, allowing him to gather all his Magic Power because of the push and sessfully blocking it.


    Yet, their problem hadn''t ended.


    Their current momentum would surely break Theo''s bone at this point and potentially kill him, so Alea turned around as her hands clung on Theo''s back before spinning their body again, nning to use her body as a cushion.


    Bam.


    The two crashed on the ground as Theo waspletely fine with his headnding softly on her chest, but his hair quickly turned red as Alea spat another mouthful of blood.


    "You��" Theo quickly broke free and looked at Alea''s condition.


    "You should go. My body refuses to move. I''m sure that you can hold long enough," said Alea as her eyes slowly lost their light. "I''m sorry. I shouldn''t bring you to this ce��"


    "Oi! Stay with me!" Theo shouted as he checked her body''s condition. Although he wasn''t a doctor, he could feel that her heart still beat. Even though it was weak, it didn''t get any weaker. In other words, she just fell unconscious.


    Knowing that the skull would chase them again, Theo quickly stood up and carried her with both hands, trying to stay alive as long as possible. "Master! Where are you? Your student is going to die right now!"


    As if answering his prayer, the dome suddenly cracked all over before getting shattered into pieces.


    A white-haired old woman figure gradually fell down from the sky.


    "I''m sorry, my beloved student�� Your master iste�� Wait, no�� Your master has arrived at the perfect minute."


    Relief and happiness overwhelmed his heart, but he just wasn''t in the mood for jokes, especially with their current condition, so he raised his voice. "I don''t need your joke right now!"

 Chapter 76 – Master’s True Power

    <h4>Chapter 76 - Master��s True Power</h4>


    "Hahaha!" His masterughed out loud as she checked their condition, shouting, "True enough. Still�� You''re doing great dealing with a Supreme Rank monster. Let me handle this guy first."


    "Supreme?" Theo gasped as he recalled that Supreme Rank could only be achieved when they were above Level 500. No wonder that they couldn''t even handle the ghost.


    Shended on the ground and raised her spear.


    Thunder started rumbling as the sky became even darker.


    As if knowing that Theo''s master was stronger, the skulls suddenly turned around and flew back, nning to kill her first.


    "Hmm��" The olddy looked below her and muttered, "Is this a Ghost Turtle? It''s a rare breed that is hard to find even among Level 500 monsters�� To think there is something this big in this ce. It''s seriously concerning. Never mind. I will just kill it and be done with it."


    She then looked at the skulls surrounding her, preparing to attack with the sameser that Theo and Alea received.


    However, thetter only smiled. She channeled her Magic Power as lightning struck forth, albeit slower than normal lightning.


    "Lightning Descent."


    Before reaching her position, the olddy started swinging her spear to the side before spinning her body as if she was dancing.


    Surprisingly, that bolt of lightning followed her movement and went to the side, destroying all the skulls until nothing remained.


    When Theo witnessed such a thing, he dropped his jaws. "Impossible. Did she actually use her own spear like a lightning rod? But she can even control the direction of the lightning�� Is she a human?"


    His master ignored his reaction and swung her spear down after killing all skulls, dispersing the lightning to the ground.


    "If I am not wrong, this guy''s shell is too hard to even be prated, making it a fortress. And with the skulls he carries when moving, he is known as a mobile fortress. Well, I have met it once when I''m not in this country. So, what should I do?" She muttered before noticing three presences behind her.


    She turned around and found three flying skeletons twice the size of her. The skeletons wore a tattered ck robe and wielded a scythe on their hands.


    "Hmm��" She narrowed her eyes as the skeletons disappeared, only to appear next to her a split secondter, swinging their scythes down.


    On the other hand, the olddy simply raised her spear and blocked all three scythes without much effort as she looked up. "You''re annoying. Out of my way."


    She pushed them back and blew away all three scythes simultaneously, along with her own spear spinning in the air. Blue lightning then started sparking all over her body as she bent her knees, cing her hand on the turtle''s shell.


    "Great Lightning Shock."


    Boom.


    A crater suddenly appeared on the turtle shell, spanning over seventy percent of its body. She also pushed the turtle too far to the point there was a huge crater underneath the turtle''s feet, vibrating the ground.


    The turtle screamed in pain as its body swayed left and right.


    She didn''t stop there. Grabbing the spear that had fallen right before her, she thrust the spear with the move she showed Theo, bursting the three skeletons.


    The turtle opened its mouth again as it prepared another attack.


    Sensing this power, the olddy hurriedly went straight to the turtle''s head and hit it with the spear''s handle as if smashing a giant hammer down.


    Bang.


    That one hit created a powerful shock wave, blowing trees to the side. Some even snapped and fell to the ground. The turtle''s head flung downward as if something broke inside his head.


    Even Theo needed to stop and ducked down while protecting both their bodies with the shield. "Kh�� Is this Master''s true power? She said this is a Supreme Rank Monster, right? To toy such a monster with ease, she��"


    Theo drew a gasp as he realized something weird. "She must be a Mythical Rank Magic Warrior. However, there is not a single person who is above level 750 in this country. Don''t tell me she is from another country? Why would such a person find me because of a certain promise? And it''s not my brother?"


    This question turned into two questions and they kept multiplying one after another.


    However, that wasn''t important, the fact that she handled this monster like this was enough to know that he and Alea would survive this ordeal.


    After closing that mouth with a single strike, Theo''s master went back to the turtle shell and nned to make another big move to settle everything since she didn''t even scratch the turtle''s head earlier.


    The turtle also didn''t n to give up and created a huge purple circle above its shell.


    Purple light then shone upon her as if a UFO wanted to kidnap her and she even felt that way, albeit it was closer to her soul being kidnapped instead.


    "I am not ying here. You''re too big and can''t move that well�� That''s your major w. Facing someone far stronger than you is your greatest setback, big boy." She smiled and raised her spear again before waving it down as another bolt of lightning struck forth.


    The lightning hit the purple circle and destroyed it, allowing her to move freely again.


    Another lightning flew down, but its target was the olddy instead. Surprisingly, the olddy took it head-on before using her Magic Power to force the lightning to coat the spear.


    Theo could see that the lightning sparked on her spear alone while her entire body was perfectly fine as if she was a human istor.


    She then spun her spear and pointed it down.


    "Divine Lightning��" She lightly pierced the shell and channeled all the power to the turtle. "Discharge."


    The lightning quickly spread all over the turtle''s huge body as it even spread to the forest, sting all trees like none other. The lightning sparked from one ce to another, crushing, cracking, or even shattering the shell into pieces.


    The turtle''s skin wasn''t that good either as red blood started flowing out of its body. On the legs, on the head, or even inside the shell. The lightning brutally skinned this turtle with its mighty power until the turtle lost its strength and dropped to the ground lifeless.


    The olddy checked something before tapping the turtle with her hand, turning it into three cards. She grabbed the cards and disappeared.


    Meanwhile, Theo gasped as he never thought such a thing was possible. When he blinked his eyes, his master already arrived before him, saying. "What do you think of that battle? There are many people at that level and I''m not even considered a genius. Do you think you canpete with them?"


    Theo looked at his master''s eyes, having no words to say as he couldn''t answer it.


    On the contrary, the olddy bent down and took out another medicinal tube that she used on him and injected it into Alea''s body.


    "You don''t need to answer it right now." She smiled and grabbed both of them. "Now, let''s go back first to heal from your injuries."

 Chapter 77 – Mr. Eilric

    <h4>Chapter 77 - Mr. Eilric</h4>


    Inside the Swake General Hospital, the nearest and biggest hospital near the portal, Theo sat next to a white bed.


    His body was covered with bruises as well, but it wasn''t as bad as Alea, who was unconscious on the bed.


    Suddenly, he turned around and found his mastering in.


    "How is she?"


    "No change at all. But the doctor said she will wake up tonight, especially due to your strange medicine."


    "That''s good." His master felt relieved before looking at him. "I''m leaving in the next five minutes, so I will just say two things."


    "What is it?" Theo squinted his eyes before he lowered his head. "Before that, I would like to thank Master for saving us first."


    "Haha, I didn''t do anything. The reason you could stay alive until now was due to your perseverance. You have told me about the story and I can only say one thing about it. You''ve done a great job. I just want you to remember this�� She has done it when in the group, but whether you''re a man or a woman, you each have an obligation to help each other.


    "Instead of taking the full brunt of an attack and killing you, it''s better to share it together and live on just like what you''ve experienced with her."


    Theo remembered when Alea took the first blow before he blocked the residual attack. And because they would be in troublete, Alea took the fall too. If he were alone, there was no doubt that he would die immediately.


    His expression mellowed a bit as he nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Master."


    "Good. The next thing is, what do you think about this trip?"


    "Horrible."


    "But I can proudly say that you have learned a lot, right?"


    "Yes."


    "The greater the risk, the bigger the reward. This is very true even in the very basic form of EXP points. There are many Elite Ranks hunting in a Level 20 to Level 30 area because they can kill more of them without high risk. It will be slow, but they will definitely progress.


    "However, if you go to a higher level area, you will find yourself surrounded by powerful monsters. It''s true that you will get more EXP points, but your life will constantly be at risk. You need to be on alert the whole time.


    "I want to ask you�� Do you still have the confidence to keep challenging monsters with a higher level than yours? That''s the only way for you to catch up with the rest of your peers�� Well, you are already among the top for the first year, but you are still nothingpared to second and third year students. That''s why I ask you this question. Look at my eyes and tell me your answer."


    Theo took a deep breath as he recalled everything he experienced today. It was truly a gruesome experience where he could die at any moment. Even Alea experienced the same thing despite her level. There was also the fact that the assassins didn''t care about his age.


    Yet, when he opened his status window��


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 53


    EXP: 537/2206


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), 3 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 47, Agility 62, Vitality 42, Magic Power 80


    Free Attribute Points: 10


    Just by running around and killing around twenty monsters, his level already increased two levels. It was truly worth the effort in his opinion. Besides, ying it safe would just slow him down to reach his goal and there was even a possibility of him failing to reach his goal in the future.


    So, Theo knew his answer. "I am ready to do anything. Of course, I will be assessing the information from this point on. Since I have been relying on her to choose the location, this time I want her to tell me first, so I can get enough information about that ce."


    "That''s a good resolve." She smiled. "As much as I want to reward you, I won''t for the time being. Instead, I''m going to increase your training tomorrow since I believe the training will be restarted either tomorrow or the day after. But you need to make sure that you meet me at the usual time tomorrow."


    "Yes��" Theo let out a long sigh and nodded. "I will definitelye there."


    "Then, it''s time for me to leave. Take care��" She patted his head and left the room.


    Theo then leaned on his chair as he looked at the white ceiling, recounting his own performance.


    Suddenly, he felt another person entering the room.


    Since he had no family, he quickly rose from his chair and turned around, finding a middle-aged man with a ck suit. His blonde hair looked like Alea and his eyes were locked at Alea until he arrived right in front of Theo.


    It was then he slightly widened his eyes before his vision lowered a bit for an instant to see Theo''s pocket watch, which was hidden underneath his clothes.


    Appearing to be unsurprised, he stretched his hand with a smile. "Are you Alea''s teammate in the training group?"


    "Yes. My name is Theodore Griffith."


    He closed his eyes for a few seconds as if pondering over something before patting his shoulder. "I have met the doctor and paid the bills. You should rest too."


    "��" Theo never expected this reaction. He thought that her father would be mad at him, saying he was useless or something to even let his daughter in this state. Believing that it was better to address it, Theo apologized. "I''m sorry, Sir. I was too weak."


    "There is not a single monster around the area that can reduce my daughter to this level. And the fact that he has chosen you over other people means that your ability is above the rest. Hence, the only conclusion why she ends up in this state is a very powerful monster. So�� I can understand. I''m angry, of course, but toward myself." He patted his shoulder while offering his best smile.


    Theo knew that her father was trying to hide his sadness because his heart must be wrenched in pain to see his daughter in this state.


    "Since you''re here, I should probably leave now."


    When he was about to leave, he stopped Theo again and asked, "How is your injury?"


    It took him a moment to answer him as Theo just knew this person today. "The worst part is my legs because of continuous usage of Haste. Other than that, it''s fine, Sir."


    "Is that so��" He thought for a moment and grabbed another chair on the corner of the room. Sitting down next to Theo''s chair, he gently hit the chair a few times as if telling him to sit down. "Do you mind telling me about your experience today?"


    "I understand." Theo nodded with a smile. He sat down and started exining how the story went.

 Chapter 78 – Speech

    <h4>Chapter 78 - Speech</h4>


    As Theo told him the full story, Alea let out a small moan and gradually opened her eyes, finding Theo and her father talking with each other.


    "!!!" Alea was surprised to see the two together and realized she hadn''t died yet. Not knowing what they were talking about, she quickly rose from the bed, wanting to exin, but the pain jolted her brain as she dropped again to the bed.


    "Oi, oi! You shouldn''t push yourself." Her father quickly rose from the seat and checked his daughter''s condition.


    "Father�� Where am I?"


    "You''re in the hospital. You should rest first since you''re not healed yet." He shook his head helplessly while answering her.


    Theo, on the other hand, felt that he shouldn''t intrude on this family, so he said, "Since she has woken up, I should return home."


    Alea''s father tilted his head in confusion. "Eh, why? You haven''t told me everything yet."


    "Eh?" Theo opened his mouth in surprise as he didn''t expect such an answer. He blinked his eyes a few times and made a weird smile. "That�� You can learn from your daughter. I''m sure that she is more believable than me."


    It was a perfect answer to leave this situation, but Alea''s father might have a screw loose in his head as he actually looked at him coldly and said, "Did you say you want to force my daughter to tell me the whole story in this condition?"


    "Wait, what?!" Theo was dumbstruck. Considering the Eilric Family''s reputation, they should have something strict manner in their home, and an unknown guy should have left them alone now that everything was alright. Yet, he became angry because Theo wanted to leave them alone to respect their privacy?


    "As I said, you''re staying here." Alea''s father demanded before grabbing an apple on the basket next to the bed. He then showed it to Theo before the skin waspletely peeled as if it was burst from inside. After that, the apple was cut into eight perfectly with Magic Power. "Come,e. I still haven''t heard the whole story from you. If it''s from my daughter, I will be biased, so I need someone like you to tell me. Come,e. I will let you eat this."


    He stuck one of the pieces in Theo''s mouth before pulling him back to his chair. "You said you are going to tell me, right? Now you need to finish the story."


    "Eh?!" Theo''s expression twisted, notprehending why he acted this way.


    "Father�� You shouldn''t force him. No matter what anyone else said, he has saved my life. He also needs to rest."


    "Tch." He clicked his tongue and scratched the back of his head. "Since you have said it, I will let him go."


    Not understanding the sudden change, he just continued to leave the room before he changed his mind.


    The next day, Theo returned to the school, where they were informed about listening to another briefing because of yesterday''s Earthquake.


    Surprisingly, Alea had already recovered enough to walk and a simple run, but since the agreement between him and Alea was still effective, Alea only took a simple nce at him to check his condition.


    Theo gave a nod to her before going to the gym to listen to the principal.


    When he entered the stage, he was apanied by another person who happened to be the organizer of the training.


    "I''m sure that every one of you has known yesterday''s condition. Out of ten percent of people who are hunting outside the training ground, twenty-three people have been confirmed dead and fifty are still missing. I''m sure that this is a shock to you, but you need to remember that the moment you step on the other side, your life will be in constant danger.


    "After this, you shall register your name in the school database so we can check whether you''re still alive or not before doing some investigations." He then stretched his hand and said, "And I would like to introduce you to the head trainer for Grand Gaia, Mr. Radvils."


    As soon as the principal gave him the ce and time to talk, Radvils started with a strong vibe of a viin as he said, "You all are pathetic. To think that only ten percent actually realize the meaning of my training. Do you think you are going to be provided with information all the time? No!


    "If you want to survive on the other side, sometimes you are required to get to know the monsters by yourself as there are no data about those monsters. The same applies to the tournament. Do you think you can get every information about otherpetitors? No! If you can''t even see through the real reason why I set up that type of training, I don''t think you have the right to evenpete in Grand Gaia."


    This immediately kicked their pride as most of them looked at him in anger. However, Radvils simply ignored them and continued. "What? You are mad at me? I don''t care. You can hate me all you want because it won''t change the fact that you''re useless? If you don''t like it, prove it to me and p me right on my face.


    "Either way, I won''t waste my time to the likes of you. That''s all. You can try to rece me as the trainer if you don''t like it, but I can assure you it''s impossible unless you have the president''s authority." He shrugged and turned around, leaving the stage. "That''s all."


    Eigen made a weird smile before shaking his head helplessly, trying to smoothen the mood. "Mr. Radvils''s strength is among the best despite his personality. However, it''s also formed by his experience. If you can ignore all profanities, you will get the best advice from him.


    "Other than that, I am here to tell you that the training will be resumed starting tomorrow and there''s no change in the schedule. You''re to arrive here at 6 AM tomorrow so we can send you there or go by foot today. The choice is yours. That''s all. I hope that you work hard."


    Eigen then went off the stage and found Radvils waiting for him with a smug.


    "As expected from the principal��"


    Eigen''s eyebrows twitched as he gritted his teeth. "You''re too harsh!"


    "I''m not harsh at all. When we get to the main stage of the Grand Gaia Competition, no one will favor us because we''re simply a team from a small country. Many people will look down on us and do you think how much pressure the students need to endure?


    "If they are beaten by this small "talk" alone, then they will be useless in the Grand Gaia. I have said it to you, Principal Eigen. I don''t care what they think about me. My main goal is to have those kidspete in Grand Gaia, not participate." Radvils shrugged his shoulders and left.


    Eigen clenched his fists. He knew he hated this method but couldn''t rebuke him because he understood the reason and its importance.

 Chapter 79 – End Of Training

    <h4>Chapter 79 - End Of Training</h4>


    Two weekster.


    The group was gathered again in the middle area as they had finished their training camp. Major Sam was giving hisst speech.


    "Seventy percent of you haven''t given up as of now. However, your true training has yet to start, eliminating 99% of you, leaving only six to represent our country to the grand stage. That''s why I won''t congratte you today. The next training will start on Friday or the day after tomorrow. And yes, you can return today. Use today and tomorrow to rest your body. For now, pack up your stuff and we will go back in three hours. That''s all."


    Hearing his speech made many people relieved since the training was tough.


    Theo only looked at them and shook his head helplessly, recalling what had happened in the past two weeks.


    Because of the incidents, there was no big movement from both the trainers and the trainees. Theo got the recement for his weight. Due to bing an Elite Rank Fighter, Major Sam became even more merciless and gave him the body armor he was required to wear all time.


    It was yet another hell. His master also stepped up their training.


    Theo managed to grasp his Awareness, though it was very weak because it was the hardest one so far. As for his breathing, Theo managed to master the breathing rhythm and maintained his calm for one hour of continuous stress.


    His Master taught him Control by hiding the dummies behind the trees where he needed to use his eyes to find them before using his Magic Bullet to hit them. She even forced him to shoot two or more different targets in separate directions.


    She also asked Theo to control his body and his clone at the same time while sharing the vision. In thetter stage of the training, he ended up fighting with his own clone.


    After that, Theo''s understanding of the footwork wasplete. His body only needed to remember it to the instinctual level to make the movement even more fluid. The same applied to the spear technique.


    Last but not least, Stamina. Theo had been enduring all this kind of training without even a break from his teacher. In addition to the constant mental pressure to keep up with Alea during the weekends, it was pretty harsh even for him.


    Despite getting all those "tortures", Theo didn''t ck even once and kept maintaining the same discipline even if his legs were to give up or his consciousness was to go nk.


    During the secondst day of training, specifically after Theopleted his Master''s training, his master said one thing that stuck in his mind.


    "Although you have learned all five aspects, it doesn''t mean you have gotten enough strength to fight all the people�� You understand that, right?"


    "Yes." Theo''s expression was calm and collected, fully knowing that his current self was still weak. Well, with his teacher showing him the real "power", there was no way that Theo would consider himself strong even to his peers.


    "That''s good. Hence, I want to seal your Magic Bullet and Clone once again. With your current skill sets, I believe you have more than enough to win. Only when you have lost once in the second stage of training will you get my permission to use your Clone and Magic Bullet. Will that be okay?"


    "I know that Master wants me to break free from my dependency on the two skills, but I''m perplexed this time. I feel like I don''t rely on them that much after getting all the skills."


    "My reason remains the same. Only in the face of adversity will you find a new way of fighting. Refine that rationality of yours and your fighting style. Unlike the second and third years, no one has information about you yet since you''re not popr. Using that to your advantage, I want to polish you as much as possible to make you a secret weapon. Of course, if you still don''t understand my real reason by the end of the training, I will exin it to you."


    "Since Master is so confident in me getting the quota, I shall follow Master''s wish." Theo took a deep breath and nodded. "I can see that the reason why Master wants me to be that way is because if we fight against international teams, they may have two or even more Geniuses like Alea Eilric in one team, right?"


    "You know me well, but that''s not all. Anyway, go rest your body for three days. Don''t train physically."


    Theo agreed and returned to the camp, packing his stuff and returning to the other side.


    ��


    This marked the end of the training that exhausted him both physically and mentally. He looked at his status to check the result of his training.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 69


    EXP: 754/4318


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), 3 Slots Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 115, Endurance 68, Agility 77, Vitality 59, Magic Power 110


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    In total, Theo had gotten around ten levels worth of points in the training camp and twenty-five levels in this one-month training camp. This was truly a game-changer for Theo, considering he had gotten so many points from the God of Mischief. He could evenpare himself to a normal Level 90 fighter and understand that the gap would be even bigger the moment he reached Champion Rank or above as Alea said previously.


    To his surprise, that same Alea suddenly went into his vision and signaled him to meet her. Since the other party went all her way to give this hint instead ofing to him, he decided to answer her properly and pointed at the dense forest.


    The moment he saw her disappear, he also sneaked out of the group and headed to the dense forest.


    As soon as he arrived, Alea turned her head and smiled at him. "You''vee��"


    "Yeah. Do you need anything from me?"


    "The next training camp will be held in two days, right? It means that tomorrow is our day off."


    Theo nodded as he thought about going to this ce again to increase his level.


    "Are you free tomorrow?"


    "No. I still need to hunt for levels."


    "��" Alea''s eyebrows twitched and she ignored his answer. "I see you''re free."


    "Like I said, I need to��" Before he finished his words, she covered his mouth and pouted. Theo was confused by her actions.


    "You should know how to rest your body as well or it will start screaming at you. I know that you try to work hard, but I can see that your muscles are screaming, so please��" She shook her head helplessly before grinning, changing the atmosphere around her entirely. "So, tomorrow, let''s go out with me. Hihi��"


    "Ehm�� No."


    "��"

 Chapter 80 – Buy Skill?

    <h4>Chapter 80 - Buy Skill?</h4>


    The next day, Theo ended uping to the school where Alea waited for him. Yes, he agreed to Alea because of her bri��persuasion. Also, his master asked him to rest too, so he decided to ept her invitation.


    Right next to the school gate stood Alea under the tree. She wore a one-piece light blue dress, leaving the top of her shoulders uncovered but still covered the sides. The dress''s waist was tightly wrapped by a cotton ck-colored belt. Below the waist, the dress rested gently and stopped right above her knees.


    "You have finallye." She made a big smile before approaching him. "Don''t worry. Not a single studentes here."


    "You must have waited for thirty minutes." Theo nodded while checking the road, confirming what she said.


    "Haha, you know me well." Chuckling, she fixed her hair after getting swayed by the wind when she was waiting.


    Theo''s expression remained calm as he asked, "So, what are we going to do today?"


    "We will go to the temple first. I have made an appointment there."


    "To update our status?"


    "Nope. It can wait since I''m assuming that we will get more levels before the Grand Gaia starts. It''s better to do itter once. We will go to the temple to buy skills."


    "Skills? You can buy it there?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "Yes. Ah, you haven''t gotten any exnation about the reward system?"


    Theo shook his head. "No. I only know that I need to update my status every six months."


    "Let''s go there while talking."


    Theo looked left and right until Alea asked, "What are you doing?"


    "I''m searching for a fancy car."


    "You won''t find it. I''ming here on foot. I prefer walking, you know. It''s not like the ce is that far. It''s only a thirty minutes walk." She shook her head helplessly.


    "Can I go back right now?"


    "Why do you make it like it''s troublesome to be with me�� Many people are lining up to have a date with me."


    "That''s even worse." Theo shrugged. "I''m here just because of the bribe. If someone ends up finding me with you, there will be so many death threats, oppositions, and so on. In other words, it''s endless trouble for me."


    "��" She facepalmed and let out a long sigh. She then tied her hair into a ponytail and took out a white hat and sunsses, putting them on. Her aurapletely changed to a tomboyish girl and the sunsses seemed to be big and dark enough to cover half of her face. "Well, I have put this a few times and no one has recognized me yet. It''s fine, right?"


    Theo shrugged and looked away. "It''s because you look weird. I don''t even know whether you are trying to be a tomboy or feminine. Nah, never mind, you''re trying to be a freak."


    "This is the first time I meet someone like you. Even the others who don''t like me are still polite, unlike you."


    "I have no family and friends, so what? If you don''t like me, you can always ruin my life or even kill me. It''s not like you can torture me with my family or friends," Theo nonchntly said, not caring about her opinion.


    "Oh God, please smite this man who doesn''t know courtesy." She pouted while cursing.


    "Did you say something?"


    "Nothing. Let''s go." She stretched her hand and started walking first.


    Theo followed her to the temple and asked her about the skills.


    "You should know that the temple is taking twenty percent of your money topensate for their service, right?"


    "Yes."


    "It''s true that way, but there is also another reason for that. When you have reached a certain amount, you will have the privilege to go to the skills center."


    "Hmm, if I''m not wrong, the temple also buys skills and material cards from the fighters."


    "Yes. All of them are there."


    "Then aren''t they bad skills?"


    "Not necessarily so. What we are going to buy is a Rank D Skill. Imagine that the people have hunted so many Champion Rank Monsters and get their skills. Even if it''s useless for them, it''s good enough tost us a long time."


    Theo looked up before agreeing to her opinion. "Indeed."


    "That''s why we are going there."


    "I still have one question. I''m sure that the temple buys the cards at a lower price than the Skylink Network, right?"


    "Ah, the Skylink Network just means that you''re selling the skill because you want extra money, considering it will depend on the demand. Meanwhile, if you sell your skill to the temple, you will get the money immediately."


    "I see. So it depends whether you''re rushing to get money or not." Theo nodded, remembering that sometimes the shops on the other side refused to buy skill cards or material cards from him. Only her grandfather''s shop would buy everything from him.


    "Yes. Let''s go then. I''m nning to buy one skill for myself as well." She paused for a moment. "Of course, after knowing about you, my grandfather wants to thank you by giving you something from his shop. It will be good if we can get a custom spear or armor for you since you are more like a Magic Warrior instead of a Fighter. Actually, that part makes me confused. Why do you choose to be a Fighter instead of a Magic Warrior?"


    Theo remembered that his Magic Bullet came from Phyrill Hilbert. Since he wanted to hide the fact that he was the joker, he chose Fighter instead. But there was no way he could tell her, right?


    Theo only looked away, refusing to answer.


    "I don''t expect an answer anyway." She shrugged and continued walking.


    On the way, she started going left and right, buying something from food stalls just to enjoy her time and her only excuse was, "This is bonding between teammates."


    Of course, he still ate anything when she bought it for her. It wasn''t good to waste food, especially since the other party was paying for it.


    Other people thought of them as a couple going on their date, but Theo never considered it even once. Alea might be beautiful, having a cheerful personality, and easygoing. Yet, even if he met another woman, he would treat them the same because he couldn''t afford to fall in love, especially with the mission of screwing the world.


    The moment he started doing it, he would be the world''s enemy. Hence, it was better to stay away from them to avoid hurting or getting hurt. That was the price he didn''t mind paying after getting the God of Mischief''s blessing.

 Chapter 81 – No Affinity

    <h4>Chapter 81 - No Affinity</h4>


    When they arrived at the temple, Alea quickly went to the receptionist and handed over her card to the receptionist. "I want to go to the skill room."


    "I understand. Let me guide you." The receptionist gave a signal to her co-worker to rece her before leading both Alea and Theo to the second floor.


    This was the first time Theo entered the second floor, but other than the huge lobby and bustling people, nothing changed. He still couldn''t understand theyout of this floor at all.


    Suddenly, the receptionist turned left and ced her thumb on the door''s lock, scanning both her thumb and retina to open the door.


    She then let them inside, where only a few people were searching for skills inside. Alea didn''t mind them and quickly went to another counter to see the skill catalog.


    "This is Mr. Meiman. ording to your current privilege, you can only get two skills this year."


    "Two? This Year?" Theo widened her eyes and looked at her with a weird expression.


    Alea only waved her hand as if it wasn''t a big deal. "It''s fine. I can buy more skills if I wantter. Also, we are going to increase your overall strength, so take a look at the catalog to see if you have something in your mind."


    "��" Theo couldn''tprehend why Alea would waste one of the two chances she got in a year but remembered the fact that she came from a wealthy family. She could buy another one directly on the Skylink Network no matter how expensive it was. Still, he doubted that would happen unless something extreme happened since Alea didn''t rely on her family that much.


    After receiving the catalog, they began searching for their respective skills. Alea ended up getting an E Rank Skill that allowed her to send a shock wave through the ground and hit the enemy.


    Theo also picked one skill. Considering all his skills were offensive type skills other than the Haste, he chose a defensive skill to fix his bnce.


    Skill: Elemental Shield (E)


    Effect: Creates a magical barrier on the caster, blocking both physical and magical damage. The magical barrier disappears once its durability reaches 0. The magical barrier will be significantly weaker if used within ten minutes of the previous usage.


    Alea then took out her Skylink and paid for both cards before handing him his card.


    When Theo received the card, he couldn''t help but peek at its true form, but to no avail. He had been trying to replicate the eye that the God of Mischief gave him and he still had a hard time sessfully using it. Fortunately for him, he managed to get it right after three tries, albeit it only appeared for an instant.


    Skill: Elemental Shield (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 3 Rank E Skills and 10 Rank F Skills.


    In an instant, he realized that this skill''s potential was higher than he thought. In fact, it had the same potential as his Blink.


    Even though he just used it for a split second, excruciating pain roasted his brain to the point he couldn''t help but let out a single groan despite trying to endure it. He dropped to the ground while clutching his head.


    "Kh."


    "Oi, Theo? What''s happening to you?" Alea''s face turned pale, misunderstanding the whole situation. In her mind, Theo seemed to be suffering because of some sort of injury back when that Earthquake urred two weeks ago, making her feel more guilty. After all, She saw Theo suffer when he was alone from time to time, unaware of the fact that he could see how to upgrade a skill.


    The others also panicked because they didn''t know the whole story, trying to call the ambnce, but the pain subsided and Theo said, "I''m fine. There''s nothing wrong."


    Theo took a few deep breaths before rising from the ground, showing a smile to make others not worry. "I''m fine. No need to go to the hospital. I know what''s going on with my body."


    Alea grabbed his arm and looked at his eyes with a worried expression, but Theo didn''t give a slight signal that his words were a lie.


    "Don''t worry. It''s not because of you." Theo shook his head with a calm expression. "If you don''t believe me, how about I give you the money for the skill?"


    Alea hesitated not because she thought about the money but because she doubted Theo was alright. Ultimately, she shook her head and said, "No need. Let''s go back."


    Theo nodded and exited the building.


    After discussing a bit with Alea, they decided to visit her grandfather''s shop.


    Surprisingly, the moment they entered the shop, Nart Eilric, her grandfather, instantly recognized her weird appearance and facepalmed. "I''m sorry, who are you? I don''t remember raising my grand��"


    "Grandfather!" Alea pouted and nced at Theo.


    Seeing his figure again, Nart wasn''t as shocked as before, even though it was still astonishing that Alea would bring this man to him. However, Nart had no intention of ruining this, so he teased them again. "Yo, boy. You are great. This is the first time my daughter can listen to anyone other than her family."


    "Grandfather!" She mmed the table and red at him.


    "Fine, fine. I got the message yesterday. You are here to get a specialized weapon for him, right? Well, I remember him getting a blue spear in this shop, so what do you think about that spear?"


    Theo thought for a moment and exined, "I don''t have a problem. I feel I have gotten used to it already."


    "Is that so? I will create a simr spear while imbuing a Magic Stone as its eye. Do you have an element that you like? I mean, what is your affinity?"


    "Affinity?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "��" Nart widened his eyes and nced at his granddaughter.


    "He is a first year and has no advanced education." She shrugged. "Even I don''t know about his affinity."


    He scratched the back of his head, opened his drawers and took out nine palm-sized crystals. "Go inside there."


    Alea opened the door next to the counter and led Theo inside. It turned out that this room was like that of a change room where the owner could take measurements and such for his customers.


    He then presented all nine crystals to Theo, each in a different color. They were red, light blue, dark blue, brown, light green, dark green, yellow, pink, and white.


    "Can you control your Magic Power?"


    "Yes��" Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Try pouring it on these stones one by one."


    Theo nodded and poured his magic power in session, but nothing gave any sort of reaction. "I''ve finished."


    "No reaction, huh��" Nart narrowed his eyes. Even Alea couldn''t help but frown.


    "Did I do something wrong?"


    Nart shook his head and exined. "Each person has a natural affinity to one of the elements in nature. Fire, Ice, Water, Earth, Wind, nt, Lightning, Space, and Time. Like Alea beside you, she has an affinity with fire, allowing her to wield the fire easier than anyone else.


    "Of course, it doesn''t mean that you can''t use a Fire Based skill. You can�� You just need a bit more effort to control it. I''m sure you know what I mean, right?"


    Theo closed his eyes and nodded. "Does it mean I have no potential?"


    "Not necessarily so. As I said earlier, each person has a natural affinity and your affinity is not toward the element but to the Magic Power itself. This means that if you wield a skill without an element, you will feel morepatible than any other skill.


    "Ites with advantages and disadvantages. For example, you can''t burn someone with your affinity unless you have the skill to burn them or something like that. However, you can wield Magic Power better than anyone else. That''s what it means to have no element affinity.


    "I know that having an element like fire or lightning makes you cool, but I have a friend with no affinity as you. He is the one I respect the most. As for his strength�� Well, he can destroy this entire castle with just a single punch by controlling his Magic Power. I''m sure that you can imagine how powerful he is��" Nart couldn''t help but smile when looking at Theo.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. Art Beats Castle could still be consideredrge, spanning over two miles in radius. Yet, the person in his mouth could actually destroy it with a single fist? Theo felt like this person was even stronger than his master.


    "That''s why I don''t think you need a specialized weapon. Looking at your build, I think you need a pair of boots, gloves, and armguards to avoid hindering your movement. Alright. I will just make those three for you since I can''t fulfill my granddaughter''s request. Well, you better be nice to my granddaughter, okay? I will be holding a grudge if you are not."


    "Grandfather! There''s nothing between us." Alea shouted, wanting to beat her grandfather that continuously teased her.


    "You don''t?" Nart made a shocked expression. Considering that Alea would bring someone to him as well as giving so many things, he thought that there was something between them. But her expression looked too serious to even lie. Nheless, Nart didn''t stop teasing her just to see her cute reaction, pouting. "Hmph. It''s the first time seeing you bring someone like this�� But it seems I can''t be a great-grandfather in this life."


    "Either way, since I''ve misunderstood your rtionship, I will shamelessly misunderstand it all the way. It''s not that easy to see my Alea be this good to other people after all."


    "Hold up! Stop that grandpa joke."

 Chapter 82 – Get Lost

    <h4>Chapter 82 - Get Lost</h4>


    After getting the arm guards, he finally left the ce. Alea kept apologizing to him about her grandfather''s teasing even though Theo didn''t mind it anymore. In fact, if they didn''t have anything between them, why should they overreact to a simple joke made by an elderly man? That was why both of them handled the joke pretty calmly.


    Although Alea wanted to stay with him for a bit more to know what kind of environment and personality Theo had in order to read him better, Theo decided to return to his home, saying he would like to rest.


    Since she didn''t want to be that pushy either, she let him go and returned to prepare for tomorrow.


    ��


    The next day, Theo quickly did everything needed before going to school. Surprisingly, he found his spear and sword in his room, delivered by his master, albeit he never saw or felt hering.


    When he checked the two weapons, he found a piece of paper.


    "Focus on your Awareness and Technique for the first month. No need to go out to get to another level unless your team asks you to go with them." Theo fell silent and pondered the reason his master gave this kind of instruction.


    His Breathing had been pretty good and became the first one he mastered and his control had improved as he could even aim at ten different targets at the same time. Although it wouldn''t be as urate, the level of control he grasped was still apparent.


    However, it was different for his Techniques. He managed to remember all the steps in his footwork, but he needed so much practice before it could be instilled into his instinct. There was also a spear technique which he would probably rehearse in this room.


    But his Awareness was more important because it was his worst aspect and he needed to work a bit harder topletely understand it.


    As soon as they returned to the gym, they found their instructor, Radvils, waiting for them. He seemed to be holding his Skylink, checking some files that he deemed useful.


    After another five minutes, he raised his head and looked at them. "You all have finally arrived�� Five minutes before the schedule. That''s good enough."


    Rising from his chair, he then tapped something on his Skylink as the gym''s light turned off while another blue screen appeared right behind Radvils. "I''m going to exin the rules for this second stage of training. You have two months, specifically eight weeks, including this one, for this session. Every Monday to Friday, you are to study like usual. We can''t afford to have you cked in your exam after all. School and Grand Gaia have the same importance to me, so don''t make trouble�� I will be listening to your teachers. Those who are causing trouble will be expelled from thepetition.


    "On Saturday, you can have a group meeting all you want and how you spend it is up to you and your group. On Sunday, you have the chance to fight against another group. The one who wins will get someone from the opponent''s team.


    "Once you only have yourself in your group, your chance has gone to smoke. In other words, the first round of battles will surely eliminate half of the people here.


    "Anyway, I don''t care about trash who lose in the first battle, so let''s move on to the winner. After getting the third member, you will continue with this schedule until you get the six members. If you don''t want to participate to rest your body, you can tell me to stop your matchmaking every Sunday.


    "And yes, the decision is yours. I only have one thing I want from you. Whatever you think about your teammate, prioritize yourself over them. Win! Even if you need to do it by yourself. I don''t care what happens to the losers anyway. Alright, I will now allow a few questions." Radvils finally stopped and looked at them with a serious expression.


    Surprisingly, the first person who raised her hand was none other than Alea. "I just want to confirm three things. First, you said we have the right to choose for ourselves�� Is it including the matches? Something like a challenge match. Second, since the Grand Gaia requires two participants from each grade, there is a possibility of us having no one to choose, especially when we have five members. Lastly, do we have an option to not pick anyone in a particr fight?"


    Thinking about it for a while, Radvils nodded his head. "For the first question, no, you won''t get a challenge match. Everything will be random and I don''t want to hear you say, "I lost because my opponent was too strong�� It was bad luck." Once you say it, get lost. The Grand Gaia won''t let you pick your opponent as well, so it''s a preparation for the real deal.


    "For the second and third questions, I can assure you will get at least one member from each fight. Also, you have to choose someone in every fight. Don''t want to choose? Just lose. You won''t choose anyone at that moment." He shrugged.


    Alea closed her eyes for a few seconds before lowering her hand. "Thank you."


    "Any more questions?"


    The second person was a small guy. Yes, it was none other than Phyrill Hilbert. He asked, "Suppose we lost, would we have the chance to exact our revenge?"


    "That''s an interesting question. As long as the number of the team is the same, you will have the chance to get a revenge match. Of course, once you''re defeated, your opponent won''t stop going forward, so you have no chance to fight them again just like in real life. And congrattions, you''ve be a loser."


    "That''s an interesting answer, thank you."


    Suddenly, another person raised his hand and asked, "It''s just my opinion, but I can''t ept your statement. What do you mean by prioritizing yourself? We are here to make a group of six. For most of us, our team is our main priority, particrly those of us who''ll participate on the international stage. There''s no way I can ept that statement."


    Radvils widened his eyes as if he was taken aback. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment to see if he could give an answer with propernguage. Unfortunately for him and everyone else, Radvils simply had no other words in his mind other than his usual style.


    Even the principal had been obliterated by his own speech, and he was toozy to even change it, especially for a kid before him.


    His expression was calm but his tone was annoyed. He opened his mouth, and the words that came out of his mouth stunned everyone.


    "Get lost, then."

 Chapter 83 – Play Friends

    <h4>Chapter 83 - y Friends</h4>


    "Get lost, then." He let out a long sigh while scratching the back of his head. "Do you realize that your question is too cringe? Are you implying that the power of friendship or love will ovee anything in this cruel world? No. It''s your power."


    "Take those words back!" The guy gritted his teeth and remembered how he got saved by his teammate during the training. "You don''t know anything about people! Our friends will help us when the time is needed. Some even sacrifice their lives."


    Radvils chuckled and replied. "I don''t mean to be rude against the deceased, but who? Those dying people can participate in Grand Gaia? How about you resurrect one of them here? I wait. No matter how weak you arepared to your friend or rival, you will automatically be stronger once your rival is dead. Friends help us? Don''t make meugh. Everything is give and take. If you want to y friends, how about you quit this school?"


    The guy shook his head. "You''re wrong. If you truly believed it, why did you choose our school instead of going to create a perfect team with the ace from each school!"


    "That''s where you''re wrong. They can be an ace because of their background. That''s all. The true ace is someone who has experienced up and down in their lives andes out victorious. Your starting point is simply different. Only when you reach a far higher level will you find these aces. And now, I''m giving you the chance to be one of these aces. If you desire to be one, thene back on Sunday.


    "And two more additional rules since you like your teammates too much. The first rule will be the one choosing your next teammate will be thest person to join your team. In other words, if person A asks person B to be his teammate, person B has the right to choose the next member, which is person C. After that, person C will get the right. This will continue until you get all the members. You like your teammate and can''t abandon them, right? I will let you trust them with everything. I''m a good person, you know."


    On the surface, Radvils truly considered the person''s belief and took it seriously, but for those who were more skeptical about this, they could only think the opposite. Radvils arranged this rule out of spite.


    If thest person they chose didn''t have the desire to win or continue, they would simply choose trash in the next round. The cycle would continue before their choice ended up ruining the entire team. At the same time, this would also show that person''s judgment level.


    Seeing some had realized the real meaning of his rule, Radvils continued, "I almost forgot to tell you something. No one is allowed to say something or contact the one who has the right. We will monitor your gesture through the camera. Those who are found out will be disqualified along with their teammates."


    Thump.


    That statement just reinforced the fear in their hearts since they wouldn''t be able to make a good group once they chose the wrong person.


    "Additional rule number two. Since information will be spread everywhere, the matchmaking will be revealed half an hour before your match and the record of their fight. But, of course, there is nothing that can be shown in the first round.


    "You can use those thirty minutes to research your opponents as well as your battle n. After all, only fools areing to the battlefield without any preparation at all. And with the current technology, you will surely get one or two pieces of information on the Inte. Then, I will excuse myself."


    After giving that long exnation, he finally stepped down and walked off the stage.


    Surprisingly, the principal had been waiting for him, crossing his arms.


    "You are contradicting yourself. You say that you don''t want anyone to say they have bad luck, but all your actions and training are based on luck. Whether it''s the people chosen in their respective group or their match up�� Everything relies on luck."


    Radvils made a big smirk as he halted his steps, saying, "As expected of Mr. Principal, you are quite observant. I just don''t want to see them relying on it. In Grand Gaia, we don''t have the right to choose our opponent, so luck will be ying its might there. No matter what kind of method I need to use, I will bring a team that is capable of fighting against international students. That''s all."


    Without waiting for his response, Radvils left since he didn''t want to get bothered anymore.


    Because their schedule seemed to be only listening to Radvils today, many students decided to call it quits and had a fun time sincest month''s training was too harsh.


    Alea tried to look around to find Theo, thinking, ''I should ask him tomorrow to talk about our n for this training and finalize our current setup. But��''


    Unfortunately for her, she couldn''t find Theo at all. At first, she thought abouting over to say her thoughts, only to abandon the idea right away since Theo didn''t like exposure. Then, she tried to send a message to Theo, but other than giving his skills, she never got his number, so it was impossible to talk to him.


    She facepalmed and felt helpless. It turned out she forgot to do something that important. Because of the constant living in the other world where they couldn''t even contact each other with Skylink, it somehow directed the importance of contact information to another thing.


    Dejected, Alea looked down before looking at her right, finding her best friending to her.


    "Alea! How are you doing? Who is your partner? You don''t bully him or her, right?"


    "I don''t bully him."


    "So, it''s a boy."


    "What is his name? What grade? As expected, you must have chosen a third-year."


    "No, no. He is not a third-year."


    "Ho? A junior, huh."


    "I won''t say anything about him. Besides, you are usually pretty chill; why have you be like this today?"


    "Haha, I''m just curious because I have heard from Uncle that your current teammate is among the best crop. He didn''t tell me anything though."


    "Anyway, we will be rivals from now on. Don''t expect me to tell you everything." She looked away.


    "Haha, right�� You just want to groom the boy as your��"


    Alea covered her mouth with her hand and red at her. "Don''t say it."


    "I see. To have Alea give this kind of reaction�� He is interesting." She smiled and waved her hand. "I''m going to meet up with my teammate then. See youter."

 Chapter 84 – Reason For Bullying?

    <h4>Chapter 84 - Reason For Bullying?</h4>


    After getting the instruction from his master, Theo decided to hole up in his apartment, trying to practice his spear technique and Awareness. Of course, the room was small, so he pushed all unnecessary things from the center and imagined holding a spear since it would just hit the wall.


    He didn''t even care about Alea since there was no agreement beforehand, forgetting the fact they didn''t even have each other''s contact numbers.


    Still, it was a fulfilling rest since he didn''t need to be in constant fear like on the other side.


    When Sunday arrived, Theo prepared everything, including his spear. Yet, he felt as if his feet were chained down to the ground when he was about to leave. His eyes were fixated on his mask.


    Theo decided to take one minute to consider it. First of all, the benefit of using a mask was to prevent anyone from knowing his identity, but he would stand out either way since Alea''s presence was the biggest one in school.


    At the same time, Alea would probably realize he was the Joker just by putting on a mask when no one did it. Hence, he didn''t n to bring it with him.


    After considering a few more pros and cons, he decided to bring it as a backup n, hiding it in his bag since everything could happen. Either way, he didn''t care anymore if Alea knew about his other identity.


    The trip to the school took only a few minutes. Surprisingly, Alea seemed to wait for him by the school gate and ended up creating traffic since many boys and girls wished to know her teammate.


    When their eyes intertwined, Theo realized he didn''t think it through and raised his vision before returning to normal.


    It was a signal for her and only Alea would understand this.


    Theo didn''t wait for her and went to the main building''s roof first since they needed to talk somewhere private.


    Unbeknownst to both of them, there was another pair that had been waiting for her mysterious teammate. They were none other than Sihan and Ellen pair.


    Knowing her best friends for almost a decade, Ellen already learned about her eyes. Her body swayed left and right as if the wind blew her, but it just showed a bit of her excitement.


    "What are you doing?" Sihan tilted his head in confusion.


    Ellen''s eyes were half-open like her usual appearance. With a small smile on her face, Ellen answered half-heartedly, "I have finally found Alea''s teammate. It''s surprising to be honest."


    "Hmm? Who?" Sihan felt a bit curious about the strongest student''s partner in thispetition since they might fight against each other sooner orter. He tried to look at Alea''s face again but found nothing out of the ordinary.


    "Do you remember the guy you protected a month ago? It was a fight in the gym."


    "!!!" Sihan widened his eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. Of course, he remembered this person.


    "Now that I think about it�� I was curious about that guy after defeating Laust, so I searched his information for a day and found out that you bullied him. Well, I''d confirmed the rumor was true too." Ellen squinted her eyes with a serious expression in thatzy expression of her. "What was your reason?"


    Sihan closed his eyes and calmed down before shaking his head. "It''s nothing."


    "Then how about I guess it?" She smirked and continued, "You don''t want this type of person to get hurt, so you bully him to protect him. At the same time, you also give him a choice whether to get stronger and fight back or quit school so he doesn''t throw his life away. Which one?"


    A sad, nostalgic stare started to show in Sihan''s eyes. It was apparent that Sihan indeed bullied him for aplicated reason, not just like a regr bully. Still, he decided to shake his head, refusing to answer. Ellen managed to catch a glimpse of a small smile that appeared for a split second on his face, knowing that he was just ying the role of a bad guy. As for the reason, she didn''t want to ruin it by asking another question.


    Instead, she said, "Well, I hope we can meet them in a fight. I really want to see someone who piques Alea''s interest."


    "Aren''t you a bit too mean? That means we are going to separate them."


    "Hoho, you seem to be confident we will win in a fight." Ellen smirked and shrugged. "Anyway, let''s hope that we will find a good team in thispetition."


    "Agree."


    Meanwhile, Theo had been standing on the rooftop, waiting for Alea toe. Only after ten minutes, she finally opened the door to the rooftop to meet him.


    "Sorry, sorry. I have taken too much time to deal with the others." Alea apologized while smiling. "Ehm, before we talk about anything, can I ask for your number first? I was in a bind two days ago, you know."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I don''t mind."


    The two took out their Skylink and shared their contact information. Theo then wasted no time and asked, "What are we going to do?"


    "Ah, you must have worried about your identity. Don''t worry. I will take care of it." She pointed her finger to her Skylink. "We can contact each other now, so it''s not that big of a deal to go alone. We can also head to the room separately. Anyway, do you know anything about the simtion room?"


    "Not really."


    "I see. Because the duel is usually open for two people to fight each other, they have one table, one screen, and a pair of simtion capsules to prepare for everything. And each room is separated by a thinyer that can be opened with a slight force, so yeah, I think that''s how it is."


    Theo looked down while crossing his arms. "I see. Thank you and sorry for doing all this��"


    "I will ept your apology as long as we win. I will also ept your thanks if we can continue without losing a single time." She smirked.


    "That''s the problem." After pondering this matter for two days, he decided to reveal the restriction his master put on him. "In a battle, I''m not allowed to use my Clone and Magic Bullet because I have been too reliant on them. The condition to break free from this condition is to lose once."


    "��" As one would expect, she was stunned. With those two, winning would probably be easy. "As much as I want to say something bad about it, I know that I have no right since I can''t even use my left hand."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Well, we can only try. Just so you know, I have no n in losing."


    "Alright. I''m a bit fired up. I''m going then. Call me if you need anything."

 Chapter 85 – Virtual World

    <h4>Chapter 85 - Virtual World</h4>


    After that meeting, Theo quickly headed to thest of the three buildings in this school. Surprisingly, the lobby looked simr to that of Fighter Temple. It had a huge lobby with only a single counter that managed the entire fighting system.


    On top of the counter hung a huge screen where he found a few codes like F21 and F549. He then remembered the number he got from Major Sam. If he looked at the pattern, his code would be D55. So many people were waiting for their turns, making Theo feel a bit nauseous.


    He walked to a little less crowded area and found three corridors with "A", "B", and "C" on them. When he took another look at the screen, he would find another code that seemed to be telling them about their room.


    Since they were waiting for an unknown period of time, Theo decided to go to the corner while practicing his Awareness. It shouldn''t be that visible for others since he didn''t openly show it.


    Surprisingly, their turn came one match before lunch. He furrowed his eyebrows when he looked at the match-up.


    D1 and D55 in A-023 Versus J2 and J109 in C-017


    ''Hmm?'' Theo narrowed his eyes. Without anyone telling him, the moment he saw Alea''s code, he realized that number was based on their ranking on the first day of their training camp. In other words, he would be fighting against the number two in J Group together with someone who almost reached the top one hundred people.


    Although he expected that someone powerful as J2 would choose a better guy, Theo instantly knew J109 was also a first-year student like him.


    Since theirbination was most likely the same, he became a bit fired up, thinking he would be fighting against someone in the same year while Alea took care of the other.


    He let Alea go first before following her to Corridor A a few minutester, considering they had thirty minutes of preparation and there was nothing to be reviewed in the first battle.


    Inside, He found so many doors inside the six feet wide corridor.


    ording to the distance between the door alone, he could roughly judge the room''s space. Though, he ignored it for the time being and headed straight to his room.


    A-023


    After confirming the tag on the door, Theo opened the door, entered the small room, and quickly closed the door.


    The room was twenty feet wide and sixty feet long. On his right was a wall stretching from the door to the end of the room with a screen in the middle. On his left was a two feet tall cylinder known as a training capsule. There was one in the opposite direction, only separated by a table. Behind the table was a long couch connecting from one training capsule to the other.


    If there were no training capsule, he would think of this room as a karaoke room to be honest.


    Alea had been waiting for him while typing a few things on the table.


    Out of curiosity, he saw her profile on the table''s screen, showing the allocation of her points.


    "Come sit." Alea gently tapped the spot next to her as if telling him to sit there. "I just finished allocating my points. It''s your turn."


    Theo nodded his head and sat on the spot she pointed at earlier while Alea typing a few things before the screen showed Theo''s picture with a nk status point.


    "The point is a normal Level 50 person. I''ve allocated mine at a simr ratio as my current status points. What will you do with yours?"


    Theo contemted for a moment and started allocating his points. Because there was no need to fight for a long time, he allocated slightly less on his Magic Power and turned them into Strength.


    "This will be my status."


    "That''s good enough." Alea nodded with a smile before swiping from left to right, changing the screen.


    "Hmm." Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw two pictures along with their names. One of them turned out to be one of his bullies, the one that had gotten physical with him other than Laust and Sihan.


    Hontar Dagher.


    Scott Brown.


    "This guy, Hontar, is among the top ten in this school. His and my fighting styles are pretty simr. I will take care of him since the other one is a first-year like you. Do you have something to add?"


    Theo contemted and asked, "Is there any rule in this battle?"


    Alea nodded and swiped the screen again, showing three rules.


    "There are only three rules. First, no physical contact before the match starts. Both teams only need to say "start" for the countdown to start. Second, the information you put here is guaranteed by the temples, so your information will be safe. Feel free to enter all of your skills. Of course, you will be disqualified if we realize you don''t have the skill yourself. Last but not least, wreck your opponent."


    "I have no doubt that the instructor was the one writing thest rule." Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Agreed." Alea facepalmed and shook her head helplessly.


    "Anyway, as you said earlier, you take care of this Hontar while I handle the other one." He paused for a moment. "Still, please don''t say or react to anything that will happen before the match, alright?"


    Although she didn''t know why Theo requested it, she still nodded. "Okay."


    After inputting all skills except Blink, Theo then rose from the couch and looked at the capsule.


    Since this was Theo''s first time, Alea walked with him and showed him what to do. "You do it like this."


    The capsule''s door was opened with a single push of a button.


    "Just enter with your spear. It will scan the weapon information and recreate it in the Virtual World."


    Theo nodded and entered the capsule. The inside had some rubber that seemed to be going to withstand his body weight when he entered the Virtual World.


    "To activate the capsule, you need to say "Activate" understand?"


    "Yep." Theo then tried to lean back while matching his posture with the one shown on it. The rubber then came out and locked him up gently to prevent him from falling to the floor.


    "I''m going to finish everything else. You can experience the Virtual World first." Alea waved her hand and closed the capsule''s door.


    Theo closed his eyes and said without hesitation, "Activate."


    Suddenly, he felt something changed and opened his eyes, finding himself inside a one hundred by one hundred feet room. The sidewalls and ceiling werepletely white, while the floor was filled with short green grasses.


    He tried moving his body while raising his hand, looking at his spear.


    "There''s no abnormality. It''s like moving my own body." Theo was satisfied since there wouldn''t be a problem in this state.


    Not long after, Alea appeared behind him and surprised him with a question. "What do you think?"


    Theo''s body shook, and he turned around, replying to her. "Yes, I don''t have a problem."


    "Good. Now we need to wait for our opponents."


    Theo agreed and waited for a whole three minutes before two young men appeared out of thin air.


    The first guy was a collected ck-haired young man. He wielded a sword in his hand. However, the other one was a blonde-haired male with a slightly bigger body than the other. Heughed out loud when he found Theo bing his opponent.


    "To think we will meet again, Theodore Griffith. I need to thank God for granting me this opportunity. I can''t wait to ruin your chance to go to another stage since you are going to lose. No need to thank��"


    Before he finished his words, he suddenly felt a breeze around his cheek. He widened his eyes and found that Theo already raised his hand with his spear nted on the ground behind him.


    "What did you do? Were you going to attack me earlier?"


    Theo chuckled as he looked down on Scott. He made a mocking smile and said sarcastically, "Oops. I think your voice is more powerful than your fighting skill. My spear missed too far from your face because of your speech. I''m impressed."

 Chapter 86 – A Plan?

    <h4>Chapter 86 - A n?</h4>


    "You bastard!" Scott clenched his fists and stepped forward, raising his voice.


    However, Theo ignored everything he said and walked toward his spear, passing them as if nothing happened.


    When Scott was about to blow up after Theo passed him, Hontar grabbed his arm, preventing him from moving while ring at Scott.


    In an instant, there was fear in Scott''s eyes as he shut his mouth and cursed Theo in his mind. This action became another point of observation for Theo, considering he had the chance to pick up the next member.


    While Theo grabbed his spear, Alea furrowed her eyebrows, never expecting Theo to have this kind of side. When he was with her, Theo was passive-aggressive since she allowed it. But this time, Theo was full of anger, trying to piss this Scott off.


    ''A promise is a promise. It seems he has a lot of frustration since he has been in this situation for a long time.'' Alea sighed inwardly as she sensed Hontar''s gaze aiming at her.


    He must be thinking about the reason Alea would pick a first-year, this kind of first-year. Either way, he didn''t have the intention to back down in this matter. He whispered to Scott, "You handle that Theodore Griffith first. As long as we can get Alea, we will have a high possibility of winning."


    Scott stayed silent, but his murderous gaze alone already told him the answer.


    On the contrary, Alea couldn''t help but shake her head in disappointment. She never thought that someone among the top would choose this type of guy as his partner.


    He seemed to be strong, so she could also understand the circumstances since it was also the reason why she recruited Theo.


    Still, she would rather choose a second or third ce with good character instead of an easy one like this. But there was also another question in her head after working together with Theo for a month. She remembered Theo was a bit more submissive, letting the others talk down on him to make them underestimate his power.


    It was at that time he turned the situation around, exchanging his role with the hunter. Hence, she never expected Theo to create this kind of chaotic situation.


    After grabbing his spear, Theo returned to his position and made a mocking smile, saying, "Hehe? What did you say again? How about going into politics? I''m sure your words are effective in destroying your opponents. Oh wait, you''re a muscle brain since you can only try to hit the person after you lose in an argument."


    Scott wanted to hit this guy''s face as soon as possible. If Hontar didn''t hold him back, he would have charged at him from the start.


    Theo snorted and returned to Alea while waving his hand. "You can''t touch me here, right?"


    "It''s funny to see that Alea Eilric will partner up with a scumbag." Hontar couldn''t let it slide and returned Theo''s mockeries right back at his face.


    However, Theo only shrugged and looked at Scott while saying, "It''s better than a gori."


    "You bastard!"


    "Theo��" Alea decided to step in because she worried about his reputation.


    Theo shrugged and said with a smile. "It feels good to get back at your bullies after experiencing it for so long. I couldn''t help it."


    "!!!" Alea widened her eyes, not because of the bullies, but it was due to Theo speaking his mind out loud. This had never happened to her, so she quickly realized Theo must be nning for something big. She assumed Theo would be showing his prowess in this battle, making the second opponents wary.


    Still, Alea needed to say one thing. "You don''t have protection after this, you know. Your life is going to be much worse after this."


    "I am nning to win by relying on you. What''s wrong with that?" Theo shrugged, acting like a scumbag while putting his hand on her shoulder with one finger lifted.


    Alea frowned as if she got a signal from Theo. Although she didn''t understand the whole meaning behind his words, she could safely assume that she needed to work harder to dominate the opponents in this round since that one finger meant she needed to fight alone.


    She let out a long sigh and said, "This is only because of our agreement."


    Hontar opened his mouth in surprise when he heard those words, thinking, ''Agreement? Is he ckmailing her?''


    "You��" Hontar paused to contemte his actions before saying, "Let''s start the match!"


    After having her shoulders tapped twice, Alea nodded and said, "Let''s start!"


    Just like the instruction, a huge number appeared in the middle of the field.


    Theo sighed and raised his hand, "I''m going to watch the battle from there."


    3.


    2.


    When Theo showed a nonchnt attitude, it became even more apparent that they would only face Alea in this round. However, right before it hit "1", Theo turned around and charged forward with his spear.


    1.


    Theo quickly closed their distance, arriving in front of Scott, who just lowered his guard after seeing Theo''s back. But Theo just took advantage of the rule again like how he did when angering Scott.


    The rule stated they could have physical contact after the countdown was zero, so it didn''t count if they just positioned themselves�� Even if Theo ced himself right before Scott with his spear on his throat, waiting for the countdown to reach 0.


    0.


    Scott quickly threw himself to the back to avoid this sudden movement from Theo, who almost pierced his throat.


    "You bastard!" Scott gritted his teeth and raised his blue-colored sword. The sword itself was six inches wide, making it a pretty big sword that emphasized power instead of speed.


    Before Scott could recover, he charged forward. Hontar raised his sword, which seemed simr to what Alea used other than the color, to prevent Theo from advancing, only to find Alea swinging her sword to stop him.


    "Kh!"


    "Your opponent is me." Alea smiled as they engaged in a fight.


    Meanwhile, Theo kept charging at Scott and tried his best to suppress him.


    "Pierce!"


    Still, as expected from a person chosen by the number two in a group, there was no way he was that bad of a fighter. When he was about to get stabbed, he blocked Theo''s skill with the huge body of his de andughed. "Is that all? Hahaha! No matter how many tricks you use, you won''t defeat me! Just ept your fate. You won''t go so far in your life."


    Theo gnashed his teeth, looking very irritated. He stomped the ground and nned to do a second strike, but he suddenly felt excruciating pain on his right waist before finding Scott''s foot at that spot.


    "!!!" That kickunched him several feet away from them as Theonded on his belly.

 Chapter 87 – Deserve Better

    <h4>Chapter 87 - Deserve Better</h4>


    "Hahahaha!" Scottughed when he realized Theo was weak. "This is our power difference. Even if our levels are the same, you won''t be able to defeat me."


    "��" Theo gritted his teeth and quickly stood up. He pointed his spear toward Scott and made eye contact with Alea, who seemed to struggle to help him because of Hontar. As he was about to leap toward Scott, he stomped the ground as if making his location known.


    To everyone''s surprise, Theo''s shout echoed in the field. "Alea! On your right. He ising for you!"


    Both Scott and Hontar were bewildered as thetter quickly nced to the left to confirm it, only to find he got fooled by Theo.


    As for Alea, she simply watched Hontar''s facial features to know the answer. The moment she saw him lowering his guard, she matched Theo''s lie and broke free from Hontar, making her way toward Theo.


    "Don''t lie!" Scott became angrier and nned to kill Theo in this strike to stop Hontar from getting distracted.


    And before Scott hit Theo, Alea appeared between them, stopping Scott''s sword, giving Theo a chance to thrust his spear, stabbing Scott.


    Unfortunately, Scott managed to react and step to the right, making Theo miss his heart and ending up grazing Scott''s side. But to show that he didn''t pretend to be weak, Theo kicked him on the chest,unching him several feet away like Scott did earlier.


    He changed the grip of his spear and nned to throw another one before finding Hontaring from his side to kill him first before Alea. It was at this time, Theo instinctively stepped behind Alea, exchanging their position and let Alea take the blow.


    Theo then leaped toward Scott before he could recover and kicked his face,unching him again.


    Seeing this, Hontar decided to take one step back and covered his sword with a torrential wind.


    Alea found his intention and swung to the side, sending a crescent-shape fire toward Scott. "mming Ge-Sword."


    "Wind Burst." Hontar, on the contrary, hit the ground as all the wind on his sword burst out. The shock wave flew toward Theo at a faster speed than Alea''s, so it hit Theo first.


    But since he saw Alea''s me lined up with Scott, he decided to take a step forward as a translucent white-colored hexagram appeared. The hexagram was twice as big as his body, so it should be able to protect him.


    "Elemental Shield."


    "!!!" Hontar widened his eyes in amazement as he saw how Theo''s barrier stopped his shock wave. Scott obviously gained enough time to recover and nned to attack Theo from the back, but this was the reason Theo took one step forward. "Watch out!"


    He cleared the line between Alea''s mming Ge-Sword and Scott. When Scott was about to hit him, Theo twisted his shield and protected himself from getting hurt by the explosion while watching how the st killed Scott. Unfortunately for him, it also meant Theo would be hit by the full force of the shock wave, crushing him and ultimately blowing him away to the wall.


    Bang.


    His body was stuck on the wall as his body got covered with blood.


    Hontar was surprised to see Theo acted like a man to block that attack with his body. He thought, ''Did he just use his own body so Alea could kill Scott?''


    However, Alea didn''t share the same opinion as she asked inwardly, ''Why did he do that? He should have just used it by taking one step backward and my attack will cause a huge explosion when hitting Hontar''s strike, killing that Scott in the process.''


    Alea couldn''tprehend his intention anymore as if Theo just reset himself to the previous him, who knew nothing about battles. ''What are you nning, Theo?''


    With this thought upying her mind, Alea decided to get rid of Hontar as soon as possible. Alea raised her sword and shed downwards.


    As one would expect from a top ten among the third-year, he managed to react to her swing and blocked it with his sword.


    Alea read his movement and sent a low kick to his right foot.


    Hontar reacted to this action as well and raised his foot to block the kick with his knee before pushing back Alea''s sword.


    Suddenly, something entered their Awareness as both of them couldn''t help but turn their eyes, finding a spearing toward Hontar''s head.


    "!!!" Hontar gritted his teeth and threw his head backward to avoid this spear. Alea didn''t let this chance go and stepped forward, swinging downwards with both hands to get more power.


    "Ha!"


    "Sh*t!" Hontar cursed as his sword got struck down until it nted itself on the ground as the swing continued, cutting his body diagonally.


    A blue screen then appeared in front of her eyes, saying, "Congrattions on winning. Your group, Theodore Griffith, has gained the chance to pick the next teammate. Logging out in 3��2��1��"


    The system just transferred their consciousness out of the systems right after the battle ended.


    As soon as they came out of the training capsules, Alea had a serious expression on her face, ring at Theo as if she didn''t agree with this kind of setting. She walked toward him and grabbed his shoulder, asking, "Why? This is the chance for you to get your own revenge, Theo! Why are you pretending to be weak?"


    Theo widened his eyes in amazement. "Wow, to think you would say it like that�� I''m impressed. Anyway, my revenge can be postponed, but winning and getting into the tournament is once in a lifetime. I just want to show you that my head is clear and won''t be clouded by revenge. And it''s surprising to hear those words from you, considering you have been a good girl until now."


    "I''m a good girl, one that defies logic. But that doesn''t mean I don''t know good and bad. There is always enough and that one is enough." Alea shook her head in disappointment and raised her voice. She was just frustrated to have her teammate get looked down on by people.


    "Are you sure you are older than me? I am looking at the bigger picture here, you know."


    "I know��" Alea clenched her hands, gripping his shoulders even tighter. Yet, her hands began shaking as she stuttered. "I''m just frustrated. You deserve better."


    Theo smirked and asked, "Do you know what my master told me about this?"


    Alea frowned and shook her head.


    "It''s whether you get thestugh or not. This is not thest." Theo smiled and looked at the table where he could choose either Hontar and Scott to be their next teammate. He gently put down her hands and tapped on Hontar. "And let me show you how I will get thestugh."

 Chapter 88 – Theo’s Reason

    <h4>Chapter 88 - Theo��s Reason</h4>


    And not long after their fight, someone knocked on the door.


    After opening it, Alea found Hontar in front of their room and asked, "Would you like to go to a family restaurant or something? We are nning to grab a bite while talking about our next n."


    Since there was nothing wrong with this n, Hontar nodded his head while secretly ncing at Theo, remembering his thought earlier.


    After he agreed, Theo turned off the machine and told them their fight was over so that the room could be used for another pair.


    Since the restaurant wasn''t that far, they decided to go on foot. Of course, Theo exitedst because he didn''t want to get more exposure, forcing Alea to drag Hontar first while exining the situation to him.


    A few minutester, they arrived at the restaurant and asked for a private room.


    It was a 2��2 couch arrangement where Alea ended up sitting next to Theo while Hontar sat on the opposite side of Theo, looking at him with a serious expression.


    Alea didn''t care and picked up the menu while showing it to Theo. "Order?"


    Theo only pointed out two things, fried rice and melon juice, without having a change of expression.


    "What about you?" Alea asked Hontar with a smile.


    "I will have the same as him."


    Alea nodded and called the waitress. Meanwhile, Hontar red at Theo as if he was his enemy before he asked Alea, "Are you ckmailed?"


    Both Theo and Alea widened their eyes at the same time, exchanging looks and blinking a few times. They just couldn''tprehend how Hontar could arrive at this conclusion. They even acted like normal teammates.


    "Ehm, sorry? I heard it wrong, right?" Alea tilted her head and asked with a weird expression. "If you''re talking about ckmail, I don''t happen to understand what you''re talking about."


    "But you were��" Hontar frowned.


    "Ah!" Alea remembered the word "agreement" and with how Theo acted like a douchebag, he must have had this kind of thought. She couldn''t help but chuckle. "You''re misunderstanding things. Let me exin a few things to you. First of all, he actedpletely like someone I''ve never seen before, so yeah, I couldn''tprehend his way of thinking. Maybe we should have him exin it first?"


    Hontar then nced at Theo with a serious expression, wondering if this was true.


    Theo let out a long sigh and asked, "What''s the purpose of thispetition? It''s to win, right? And I''m nning to do that."


    "But you should just beat that Scott guy a crap out of him since he was your bully." Alea pouted, still feeling not satisfied with Theo''s exnation.


    "I could do that and y weak before turning the situation around, but that''s only for one round. There are still a few more fights!" Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "Ah!" Alea suddenly fell silent and looked down, contemting the meaning behind his words. Meanwhile, Hontar, who first met him this way, didn''t know what they were doing.


    "What do you mean?"


    Theo thought for a moment and believed it would be fine to tell them. "First of all, what do you think about my performance earlier?"


    "You''ve good head but poor skills. Nothing great about you."


    Theo gave a thumb up. "Exactly. Our fight earlier was different from three versus three. Since you were a third-year while the other one was a first-year, Alea alone should be enough to handle both of you. The moment that thought appeared in my mind, I quickly decided to y it this way.


    "And when our next opponents think of me that way, what will they do?"


    "I will��!!!" Hontar understood what he meant. "They will underestimate you and it''s the best chance to turn the situation around."


    "I think that''s not all." Alea shook her head, feeling something was off. "Your n is not only for the next fight, right?"


    Theo smiled and acknowledged her statement.


    "With that kind of acting, when we reach four versus four, the opponent will be wary of him and his scheme. This will be a mind battle soon. And in thest five versus five fight, he will do another trick which I can''t figure out."


    "!!!" Hontar was beyond speechless. He only stared at Theo with eyes wide open, but Alea could find a fear behind his eyes. "You�� Are you really the same grade as Scott? You''re not a big boss of an evil organization, right?"


    "What do you mean?" Theo rolled his eyes and said, "I am just a regr student."


    Unbeknownst to them, he just wanted to be like his master, trying to see a few steps ahead even if it meant sacrificing a bit of his satisfaction. After all, he could only think this way because he got the restriction from his master.


    Without revealing his Clone and Magic Bullet, he needed to get through this training, so yeah, he needed to be more creative. Of course, he was grateful to his master for giving him this chance.


    "Anyway, he can obliterate Scott in a few rounds. I think he can also fight you and even I don''t know who will win." Alea smiled. "So, don''t underestimate him in that aspect as well."


    "I understand." Hontar nodded and looked at Theo, extending his hand. "Nice to meet you. I''m Hontar Dagher. I will be your teammate from now on."


    Theo shook his hand politely and asked, "How may I call you?"


    "The same as her. Just call me Hontar. No need to be polite in a fight."


    "Sure. Then, I need your contact information so that we can talk about your fighting style, etc. I can make a fighting arrangement against our next opponent after that. You don''t mind sharing it with me, no?"


    "I won''t share my skills with you, but I will teach you how I fight, including what kind of attack I have without mentioning the specific skill names. Do you mind?"


    "Nope. As long as I know what to expect, I think we will be fine." Theo waved his hand, telling him it wasn''t that big of a deal. He then took out his Skylink and exchanged their contact.


    Alea, on the contrary, had her mouth wide open, staring at the two with a dumbfounded look.


    Noticing her gaze, Hontar asked with a weird expression. "What?"


    "He has never given me something this smoothly! No, he has never treated me this way. What spell did you use? I need to learn it as well to have him treat me a bit better."


    "Ehm? Seriously?" Hontar only looked away, not knowing what to say.


    "Hey, hey�� Howe?" Alea came closer to Theo, demanding this kind of treatment. "Theo, howe?"


    Theo only covered her face and pushed her back while saying, "Shut up. You''re annoying."


    Hontar only looked at them with a smile. If it were not due to Alea''s saying Theo was strong, Hontar might have noticed something was wrong with this pair�� The only thing that could only be seen by an opponent who had fought him not as a teammate but as an opponent. And this one thing they missed might cause Theo''s destruction at one point.

 Chapter 89 – Ridiculous Match

    <h4>Chapter 89 - Ridiculous Match</h4>


    "So, do you have anything you don''t like?" Theo asked. "Like hitting a girl or whatever."


    "No, I think it''s fine. As long as you don''t ask me to do something too excessive." Hontar shook his head. He didn''t care about gender until it became like torture, such as gouging their eyes or burning their skin.


    "I don''t mean to be rude, but can I expect you to stop someone from interfering with her or mepletely?" Theo pointed at Alea.


    "I can''t guarantee it, but I will do my best."


    "Then, I guess that''s fine. I will ask you a few more things after this since we have school. I will probably ask you more after school. That''s fine, right?"


    "Yep. I''m free."


    "How about hunting together on the other side?" Alea raised a suggestion. "We have Saturday as free time and I think it''s good enough to understand each other''s fighting style, right?"


    Theo thought for a moment, feeling a bit unsure.


    "Why? You don''t want to hunt with us?" Alea asked.


    Surprisingly, Hontar was the first to raise his hand, "I''m sorry, but I don''t think I can go there yet. I need to go to the hospital."


    "Is that so?" Alea narrowed her eyes, expecting Theo to reject it but to think Hontar was the one who abstained. She sighed and nodded, "Fine, I will trust Theo''s strategy for our next fight."


    "Once again. I''m sorry."


    After getting to know Hontar, Theo quickly disappeared from the area, wanting to settle everything through calls. However, Hontar couldn''t help but shake his head when he understood Theo''s action. To think such a man was still a first-year student and a bullied one on top of that, he didn''t know what would happen if he grew up.


    Alea couldn''t do anything since he was her best finding in group D. They then went separate ways as Theo simply returned to his small apartment.


    Like how he wanted to do it, Theo learned that Hontar seemed simr to Alea in fighting style, making him a bit unsure how to y along with both Hontar and Alea.


    After all, Theo couldn''t assist them with his Magic Bullet, so all three of them were basically the same type. If they didn''t have a Magician or something, things would start to get annoying.


    Thus, since he couldn''t tell Hontar about getting a Magician or something in the next group directly, he dropped clues one after another for the past week.


    While talking about Hontar''s preference in fighting, Alea kept asking about what he nned to do. Unfortunately, he couldn''t say anything to her because they didn''t know their opponents yet.


    Saturday came very fast, and Theo had nothing to do other than training. It was at this moment he realized he could just rent arger apartment since the instructor seemed to avoid having people on the other side for too long likest time.


    Even if he wasted half a month on the other side, he would bepletely fine. But since it was kind of rushed, he decided to take one week to consider this, making sure he didn''t go for a rash purchase.


    After all, he needed to consider the third round too, which wouldst for three months. From his point of view, there was no way the students were allowed to camp there for three months. Hence, he would surely use the apartment for training and not embarrass his master if she visited him.


    Thinking about so many things, Theo just stared at his screen with a nk look for an hour, deciding what move he should take next.


    Alea was in the same condition. Because no one went to the other side, she practiced in her home alone, swinging her de from morning to night.


    Meanwhile, the situation wasn''t that serene in the principal office. Radvils was sitting on the couch, sipping his coffee with a nonchnt look while Principal Eigen mmed the table and said with a cold tone. "Can you exin why the match is like this?"


    "What?" Radvils raised his vision, staring at the principal with a calm expression.


    "I''m talking about matchmaking�� Isn''t it supposed to be random?"


    "It''s random. I don''t know what you''re talking about." Radvils tilted his head in confusion.


    "I''m asking why the pairing is like this? Do you think I haven''t noticed?"


    Radvils furrowed his eyebrows, put his coffee on the table, and crossed his arms. "So, what''s the problem? I don''t see a problem. Just like how you want the ace to participate, now I make thempete. What''s wrong with that? I have fulfilled your wish, right?"


    "I''m not talking about that! In this scenario, there''s no way you can create the best team that this school can offer."


    "So you are aware that your students are not that good." He shrugged. "Anyway, my point is�� After calcting all the things, I have ranked them from 1 to 10. Those in "1" are the students who are at the top of their grade, while thest is the cannon fodder.


    "That''s why I''m ranking all the candidates that I feel will win this training camp in that first group. What? You want me to have the number one student to pair up with the worst one? That''s not going to work. No matter how I scramble it up, the top will stay at the top. If they don''t like the arrangement, they can prove it to me in the third training session.


    "I don''t know if you like novels that romanticize the bottom guys with hidden potential, but I have weeded them out during the first training. I have found several of them who have been hiding their abilities since the beginning and made a rational decision. If they''re not chosen, it means their chance has gone to smoke for all I care." He shrugged. "This is my final decision as the head instructor. Please keep that in mind."


    ��


    The next day, the second round had finally begun and the trio gathered again in the building, waiting for their match. Unfortunately for them, their opponents were far beyond their expectations.


    F1, F3, and E2 in B-022 and B-023 Versus D1, D55, and J2 in B-036 and B-037.


    Theo opened his mouth in shock when he saw thisposition. "What? Three top people?"


    Theo saw Alea and Hontaring toward the ward without a care, so he followed not long after, only to find five people standing in front of their room.


    Alea and Hontar were among them, but what he couldn''tprehend was the three opponents. When he arrived, he came to a realization that he f*cked up. His n might not work this time. The three were a silver-haired reliable guy, a pink-haired carefree girl, and the only petite guy in the school.


    Yes, all of them were: Sihan Raskaka, Ellen Marcines, and Phyrill Hilbert.

 Chapter 90 – Impression

    <h4>Chapter 90 - Impression</h4>


    "Oh! Who do we have here?!" Phyrill was the first to jump forward, checking Theo from top to bottom.


    Theo flinched and took a step back, looking at this Phyrill with bewilderment. He knew this guy was weird, but he didn''t know he was this weird.


    "Alea has chosen you as her first partner�� I wonder what is truly the reason�� Have you seduced her?" He walked in circles while saying all those words. "Hey, do you want to join my family? My Hilbert Family?"


    While Phyrill scanned Theo, Alea turned around, nning to stop her only to have Ellen, her best friend, hug her from behind. "So he is a man, huh�� Is he a good man? I haven''t watched the video since we''ve gotten into the room yet. I wonder for what reason this princess decided to invite him? Come on, tell me. Don''t say it''s love, okay?"


    The two tried to tease them, but Sihan seemed to be awfully quiet. His eyes kept staring at Theo for whatever reasons before closing his eyes, contemting a certain thing in his mind.


    Since they were his opponents, they would surely choose Alea if they lost. And it might be the end for him who was aiming for the Grand Gaia. Hence, there was no choice other than winning. But soon, he remembered what his master told him.


    ''I can''t use my Magic Bullet and Clone as long as I keep winning. However, if I lose, that restriction is gone�� Did Master want me to lose so Alea will leave my team? Did Master wish for me to drop out of thispetition? I have heard so many quotes about losing bing the key to sess, but no matter how hard I twist my brain, I can''t understand. Should I trust Master here and prepare to lose? Or Have I grown too reliant on Alea''s power?''


    Theo suddenly came into a realization as his eyes turned cold and walked forward, grabbing Alea''s cor from behind and dragging her into the room. "Let''s not waste our time with the likes of them."


    "Theo?" Alea widened her eyes before seeing his eyes looked so cold. She couldn''t help but shut her mouth.


    Theo also asked Hontar with a cold tone. "Come in."


    Ellen was the most shocked one among the three. This was the first time she found Alea bing so docile to someone, especially a younger man.


    However, Theo paid no heed and closed the door without saying anything. Inside the room, he found that theyer that separated the two rooms was gone, allowing Hontar to take the third training capsule.


    "What''s wrong with you, Theo?" Alea asked with a serious expression.


    Theo shook his head and continued opening the video of their opponent. It was a two versus two match.


    He ignored her question and said, "I think it''s the right time for me to turn around the situation. After thest match, they will think I''m not good, making this match look like two versus three. That''s why I''m going to use my power to assassinate someone and ultimately win the match."


    "Well, I agree with your strategy, but who will fight who?" Alea asked.


    "You will fight Sihan Raskaka while Hontar takes care of Phyrill Hilbert with me. When the chance arrives, I will go as quickly as possible to Ellen Marcines to kill her since she is a magician."


    "Fine by me. Just one thing to warn you, Ellen is powerful. This is not me giving an opinion about her as her friend, but because I''m her friend, I know her strength very well. And she has been hiding something from me. I feel like she will use it today. Be careful."


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    Meanwhile, after watching the match, Ellen, Sihan, and Phyrill stared at the screen ufortably.


    Theo was supposed to be Alea''s partner, the one she had chosen herself, but it seemed Theo''s strength wasn''t that great.


    "How did he get together with Alea?" Phyrill asked Ellen, who seemed to know everything about Alea.


    However, even she could only shrug her shoulders.


    "Hey, hey, I can feel that this guy is evil and cunning, but his ability is not that good. I don''t know what''s wrong with her�� Maybe he ckmails her using something? Won''t the Eilric Family take care of it? Or does she have that big sense of justice that forces her to deal with this by herself?" Phyrillined after watching the match.


    Alea was angry for this particr reason. She knew Theo''s reputation would be a mess since he portrayed himself that way.


    Sihan even had a look of disappointment when finding this footage.


    Phyrill contemted for a minute before saying, "I believe I will be enough to handle this guy with this Hontar. You should worry about Alea instead��"


    Sihan felt Phyrill''s gaze and nodded. Ellen sighed and said, "I will help both of you from behind, especially Sihan. If we allow Alea to move freely, it will end up in a disaster. Anyway, let''s grab Alea from them. This way, I can ask the reason she follows him. Maybe I can do something for her��"


    "Haha, maybe I''m thinking about him seducing our princess." Phyrill chuckled and pointed at Theo. "Look. His face is quite good looking because hisplexion is not like a bullied person anymore. And his body is quite buff, so maybe he is good on the bed."


    "I don''t know the reason, but I don''t think it''s that bad. Yeah, seduction is a possibility. I mean, I saw surprises on her face, not fear. In other words, it''s not something like ckmail." Ellen started humming while saying, "I see. Alea has started climbing the stairs of adulthood�� As her best friend, I am overjoyed."


    Listening to her, Phyrill couldn''t help but make a joke while pointing his finger at himself. "How about you too? I can be your partner."


    As expected from a woman Alea called a chill person, Ellen didn''t have a change of expression. Instead, she ced her hand on top of Phyrill''s head and patted him a few times. "Good boy, don''t talk about things like that easily. Instead of a one-night stand, you should worry about your future. It''s not about "Enjoying your life first before settling down", it''s about nning your future first and being a good husband. Grow up, okay?"


    Phyrill obviously couldn''t stand it, knowing he just got owned, and shouted, "Why are you lecturing me? You''re only one year older than me!"

 Chapter 91 – Come

    <h4>Chapter 91 - Come</h4>


    After the discussion, they finally entered the field, facing each other.


    In front of Alea stood tall Sihan with a serious expression. Meanwhile, Phyrill released his killing intent and locked them to Hontar and Theo simultaneously, trying to pressure them.


    "I''m sorry, Alea. But this is how it is." Ellen smiled apologetically. "I need to defeat you this round."


    Alea narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No. The winner is me."


    This statement made Ellen confused. It seemed Theo had another good n in his head, but she decided not to pry it further. Instead, she said, "Let''s start then."


    Suddenly, Alea made a small smile before Theo snapped his finger as a signal.


    Alea and Hontar turned around and ran toward a certain spot in the room.


    As if they had predicted this movement, Sihan and Phyrill followed Hontar and Alea as they were more important than Theo.


    "I''m sorry, but you''re not going anywhere. After watching your previous match, I know that you will do this type of strategy." Phyrill smiled and raised both his short swords.


    Meanwhile, Sihan took a deep stance and said with a cold tone. "You''re not going to pass me."


    Alea smiled once again and shouted, "Start!"


    "!!!"


    Theo turned around and acted as he was one stepte to do this despite his nning mind like their previous match. This action already forced Ellen to shift her focus to Alea and Sihan first.


    "Haha,e here. I will handle both of you." Phyrill was sure that their n was to have Alea buy enough time, so these two could kill him, but as one of the top people among the second-grade students, he had pride that wouldn''t lose against this guy.


    He raised his short swords before lightning covered the des, sparking left and right.


    Hontar quickly released the same wind that he used during their previous match, but he didn''t let it burst to create chaos this time.


    Phyrill shed downwards.


    Clink.


    The clicking sound echoed in everyone''s ears, but more importantly, Theo was forced to take one big step to the left because the lightning bounced off and ran through the ground, trying to electrocute him.


    "Oh, you can avoid it?" Phyrill smirked.


    Theo remained silent and never thought Phyrill could direct the residual force of his Lightning Magic. Although he had seen his master doing it, he just never expected Phyrill to be able to do the same.


    He became even more cautious and proceeded by thrusting his spear from as far as he could. Of course, he had used his Focused Charge to amplify his power like how both of them covered their swords with wind and lightning.


    Phyrill tilted his head to the left and found Theo swinging his spear to slit his neck, so Phyrill used his other sword to stop that movement.


    Hontar took one step forward and used all his strength in that one swing, releasing all the wind he had stored.


    Theo retreated slightly while raising his shield, blocking the wind.


    "Elemental Shield."


    Albeit, Phyrill seemed to be awfully familiar with their movement as he turned around and looped behind Theo to get his shield''s protection while shing his neck.


    Theo prevented this swing by using his spear, nced to the right and clicked his tongue. ''Four Magic�� three to go.''


    What he meant by four magic was how many times Ellen had released her magic to Alea. He nned to use it as a countdown for his ambush.


    "Despite being such a jerk, you have pretty sharp movement. Are you hiding something?" Phyrill''s senses were tingling. As someone who got a blessing from a certain werewolf, his senses instinctively picked something from the others'' bodies. And he had this familiarity when he saw him, even though he didn''t remember Theo.


    After all, there might be another reason why Alea wanted to team up with this guy. He might be someone from a fallen family that was so close to the Eilric Family. Hence, he tried to recall where he had met this guy.


    Unfortunately for him, the hesitation that slightly appeared in his eyes became Theo''s best chance to strike back. He spun his body and sent a kick from the side.


    Because of the wrists'' positions, Phyrill could only use his arm to block the attack thatunched him to the wall, where Hontar prepared to use everything in his repertoire to stall him in this corner.


    Bam.


    Ellen released another Ice Magic as it rang sweetly in Theo''s ears. He had been waiting for this moment.


    ''Seven skills! It''s time.'' Theo''s eyes brightened as he turned around. His feet glowed in green color as his speed increased exponentially. Ellen should have many E Rank Skills and each of them had a weakness that forced her to not be able to use it continuously.


    Hence, after the seven skills, which he believed the most reasonable number where she only had three skills to use to which two skills were the correction number in case she used it forcefully. If it were only a Magician at the same level and had five skills to use, he should have enough chance to kill her.


    Phyrill realized the sudden change in Theo, saw his back, and found his true target. He shouted, "Oi, Ellen Woman! He has been hiding his strength and is targeting you. Be careful!"


    "!!!" Ellen was surprised because she was too focused on Alea. Unfortunately for her, the moment her focus returned to Theo, thetter already closed their distance and thrust his spear.


    Clink.


    She luckily managed to react and redirect that thrust by using her metallic staff. However, her expression remained calm even in this situation. No, she, in fact, could still joke around.


    "Ahaha, a bad guy who lies this whole time�� How cute. Let this big sister teach you something." She smiled before Theo experienced excruciating pain on his stomach, finding Ellen''s foot already struck him on his abdomen before blowing him twenty feet away.


    Theo clenched his teeth and raised his vision, looking at Ellen, who was still smiling, but there was only one word to describe her smile this time. It was terrifying as if everything he would do from now on was useless.


    "Come here." For the first time in this match, Ellen released her killing intent and locked Theo.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 92 – Showdown

    <h4>Chapter 92 - Showdown</h4>


    "Theo!" Alea shouted as she stomped the ground and charged forward.


    As someone responsible for stopping Alea, Sihan took one step to the right and made a small swing to block her offpletely.


    If it were in the real world, Sihan obviously had no chance of stopping her. However, the Virtual World was different. Working in the same condition and having the same level, Sihanpletely read her movement and matched it to the very detail, preventing her from taking another step forward.


    Unfortunately for him, Alea''s eyes caught his n. She halted her movement, struck Sihan''s sword, and used the force from his swing to help her spin her body.


    ''Spin?!'' Sihan widened his eyes in surprise, looking at Alea moving in the opposite direction.


    This was the same move she pulled during the first fight when Alea showed her fighting style to Theo. However, Sihan was not a monster. He had enough reaction speed to take one deep step to the ground andunched himself in the opposite direction, pushing her to the side with her shield. "If our levels were not the same, you might have passed me just now�� Unfortunately for you��"


    "Kh!" Alea clenched her teeth as she kept moving with small steps so as not to fall because of the force. As someone who didn''t know to give up, Alea kept pushing forward until she managed to do it.


    Feeling the push got lighter, Sihan hurriedly spun his body and sent another swing toward her.


    The swing threw her off as it came from her blindspot and appeared in her vision right before it hit her.


    Alea managed to block the sword, but the force also pushed her a few steps back.


    Sihan released his killing intent and said with a cold tone. "��You''re not going anywhere."


    "��" Alea frowned while ncing back and forth between Sihan and Theo, worrying thetter. She just hoped Theo was able to fight against her best friend�� At least, until she killed this Sihan who didn''t want to budge.


    Hontar also had a simr situation with Phyrill.


    Phyrill actually allowed Hontar to help Theo, but the opening was none other than the traps he devised. The moment he slipped past him and helped Theo, it was the time for Phyrill to deliver the killing blow. Hence, Hontar stopped his motion and stayed where he was.


    While those two remained in their position, Theo had risen from the ground, staring at Ellen with squinted eyes. He recounted the earlier attack before sighing.


    "Oh?! You''re noting?" Ellen remained calm and offered him a gentle smile. Her eyes slightly widened, but they were still the same uninterested eyes. She simply said, "Since you managed to surprise me, I will show you something amazing in this fight. Also, please don''t underestimate magicians by attacking them without a n.


    "Nowadays, Magician is someone who wields magic while maintaining their own life, not the same as magic throwers in the past."


    Theo frowned, understanding what she said. She indirectly implied that magicians needed to be able to protect themselves by learning Martial Arts.


    Coupled with their magic, they were like an imprable fortress. And this was the first time Theo fought a full-fledged magician unlike She in the past.


    He took a deep breath and raised his spear. His haste was still in motion, so he nned to use it to the utmost limit while searching for an opening.


    Ellen raised her staff and summoned three palm-sized translucent blue ice lotuses above his head.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    "!!!" Theo once again realized that she had been buying time this whole time. Because of the position, Theo took one big step backward and watched the lotuses hit the ground, blooming. They literally expanded.


    With the width of two people for each lotus and the height of ten feet, Theo needed to go around the lotuses to charge toward Ellen. Yet, when he was about to move to the side, he heard Hontar calling for his name.


    "Theo! Right!"


    "!!!" Theo turned around and saw Phyrill''s de almost reach him. Luckily, he held his spear on the right, so he nted the spear on the ground and stopped the attack with the handle.


    The forcepletely died because the ground acted as his second hand, but thebination attack had yet to end.


    Five crystals, the size of a human head, revolved on top of Ellen''s head.


    When she waved her hand to the side, the five crystals released their ice power straight toward Theo.


    Thetter quickly moved to the side and hid behind the ice lotuses, making them all slip past him. He then decided to go in the opposite direction, running away from Phyrill.


    Seeing Theo move around the lotuses, Ellen smiled and looked at him with a calm,posed look.


    In Theo''s mind, he already counted the magic she used.


    With the additional two, there was only one magic left she could use before waiting for a while to use it again. Hence, he tried to reach her as quickly as possible.


    ''I can cover the distance between us within three seconds. As long as I look out for herst magic, I should be fine.'' Theo frowned and kept running.


    Not wanting Theo to reach her, she summoned four crystal-shaped glowing blue lights, two on the right side and two on the left side.


    "Ice Star."


    The four lights flew straight to Theo in a more spread way, hoping one of them would hit him.


    But Theo already predicted such an attack woulde and stomped the ground with his right foot before turning his body to the left. With force he umted in that right foot, heunched himself to the side, avoiding those blue lights.


    ''As expected! Everything is ording to the n.'' Theo couldn''t help but make a small smile as there was nothing between them anymore. Even if she had some Martial Arts, he had his own confidence he could beat her in closebat. ''I will kill her.''


    Sadly, Theo himself might be pretty good in a fight, yet, there was one thing that differentiated the first-year student and third-year student.


    Trick? He indeed managed to defeat Laust and won thest match, but all of them were still first-year students. Tricks alone wouldn''t be able to let him go far in battle. And this was the reason why his Master wanted him to seal the Clone and Magic Bullet again.


    Only by oveing this ordeal could Theo be even stronger. And the difference between them was��


    "Wait, Theo! Stop!"

 Chapter 93 – Experience

    <h4>Chapter 93 - Experience</h4>


    "Wait, Theo! Stop!" Hontar''s voice resounded in the field, warning Theo about his current situation. Yet, at the same time, his concern became his nightmare as he dropped his guard for a split second.


    For a master assassin like Phyrill, this split second was the difference between life and death. He waved his sword diagonally in order to kill Hontar, but thetter managed to react, albeit barely.


    He dropped to the ground beforeunching himself to the side, leaving his left hand behind.


    "Kh!" Hontar didn''t feel any pain in the virtual world, but he was covered in sweat. This was the worst-case scenario.


    "You''ve let your guard down." Phyrill made an excited smirk as he raised his swords for another swing.


    Meanwhile, Theo was currently on the ground,ying on his belly. A huge piece of ice crystal stuck on his back, pinning him down.


    "Kh!" Theo gritted his teeth and recalled what happened a few seconds earlier. When he heard Hontar''s voice, everything went nk due to the freezing ice that numbs his senses and brain. The next thing he realized, he was already on the ground without being able to move his body.


    It turned out Ellen could control her own magic to move ording to her bidding. The spread shot earlier was just bait for him to show his back to her magic. The two on the right would turn around if he indeed came after her from the right while the left did the same in the opposite direction.


    Hontar realized it at thest second and called him to stop because the path in the middle would be cleared soon, but he couldn''t respond to him even with his action, reducing him to this state.


    Due to the damage the body sustained, his vision became blurry as his consciousness was about to be transported back.


    Before dying, Ellen actually came to him and bent her knees, patting his head a few times while saying, "You have talent, Theodore Griffith. You''ve made me believe it. Unfortunately, what you''recking is experience. I don''t know if you have realized it or not, but your movement is too straightforward even with your tricks. Tricks can indeed surprise a person, but when they''ve prepared for it, your advantage will be gone, especially with your current movement. Keep getting stronger�� I believe in you."


    Listening to those words, Theo''s vision finally went nk. He arrived inside a pitch-ck room, floating as if there was no gravity.


    In this ce, he felt empty as if there were no thoughts other than the battle earlier.


    He recounted Ellen''s advice from word to word andmented his failure. "I see�� Experience, huh�� I have once again failed. I have been toocent with my own progress even though most of my experiences came from the monsters. As for my fights against humans, there were only three attempts.


    "The first was my fight against Laust. Back then, I managed to beat him by using tricks, but he was unaware of my tricks. Then, the second one was with She and Eric. Due to my sudden power-up, I destroyed them. But��"


    He suddenly realized what hecked in the fight against the assassins from the Lange Family.


    "Ah! So, that''s how it was�� I managed to kill several assassins due to their carelessness. They must not have enough experience to be that careful, allowing me to kill them.


    "It was different when the captain joined the battle. He literally reacted to everything I threw at him and almost killed me. Even the way they moved was vastly different."


    Theo regretted why he didn''t notice it sooner. He then remembered his master''s restriction about his Clone and Magic Bullet.


    The reason was actually not him being too reliant on them. Instead, she simply wanted Theo to lose once to understand this important problem.


    And the greater the setback, the easier for him to find his fault. With him losing this battle, he would most likely lose Alea and had a low chance of getting into thepetition. It looked cruel, but when he thought his master didn''t want him to learn this with the result of him dying in real life, everything looked so insignificant.


    "I have truly messed up." Theo let out a long sigh. "After knowing what Ick, Master wants me to continue trying to reach the opportunity. This hurdle is her test for me to ovee. The only problem will be�� Can I do it?


    "The answer is simple." Theo couldn''t help but smile. Losing was hard and sad for him. Not having Alea in her team would lower his probability to reach it, but it didn''t mean they had no chance. He would quickly reinforce his rtionship with Hontar and understand him better, so they could win in the next round.


    "We don''t need to be embarrassed when we lose. We can go into depression after experiencing it. But what we absolutely need to do after that is to rise again and keep trying. I believe this situation is still salvageable." Theo found a new determination and a thought pattern after understanding today''s loss. He would use this experience in all his future fights.


    Light suddenly came to his eyes and blinded him. It soon dimmed down and he had returned to reality. He sighed in regret, "Still, I''ve lost. I wonder if Master actually wanted me to drop out of school, so I could follow her instead of going to the international stage?"


    He opened his capsule with a sad expression. Hontar and Alea both looked down, feeling dejected. They knew Alea would probably leave the team and there was nothing they could do to change the result.


    Knowing the reason they lost was him, Theo lowered his head and apologized. "Everything was my fault. I''m sor��"


    "Theo��" Before he finished his apology, Alea stopped him. She gritted her teeth and grabbed his shoulders.


    Her hands were shaking as she looked at him in the eyes, saying, "I will try to stop them for two weeks. You need to get me back from them, okay?"


    Theo only closed his eyes because it might not be possible. He let out a long sigh before the screen showed them the other team''s decision.


    On the screen, there was a picture, a name, and an instruction. However, the picture was not female, but male. The name was not Alea, but�� Theodore Griffith.


    Everyone in the room was utterly shocked when they saw this announcement. All the assumptions were broken down by this one decision.


    It said, "Theodore Griffith is chosen as the 4th team member. Congrattions. Now go to Room B-022 to meet your new teammates."

 Chapter 94 – Reason

    <h4>Chapter 94 - Reason</h4>


    Room B-022.


    Sihan frowned upon the sudden change of choice while Ellen raised her eyebrows, opening herzy eyes slightly wider.


    "This��" Ellen gently stroked her cheek while making a weird expression. She simply didn''t know what to say since Alea was the right choice for their fourth member. Yet, Phyrill actually chose Theo over Alea, she wondered whether Phyrill wanted them to lose or something.


    But she couldn''t brush Theo''s potential off that easily either. Hence, she asked, "Phyrill�� Did you choose the wrong person?"


    Sihan also nced over, trying to find the answer.


    "You said something good about him, but you seemed to have no intention of getting him. I wonder what is wrong with your head�� Well, in fact, it seems you are only proud of your own experience instead of your head, eh?" Phyrill snorted.


    Ellen squinted her eyes and asked with a serious expression. "What do you mean?"


    "You haven''t seen all his tricks yet." Phyrill shook his head helplessly, feeling slightly disappointed. "Why did you finish the battle with him as quickly as possible? If you wanted to say something about his experience, you might as well show it to him first."


    "��" Ellen narrowed her eyes and replied, "The only way to prevent any surprising trick from killing me, I needed to defeat him as soon as possible."


    "Exactly. I''m afraid this guy''s tricks are much higher level. After all, he could reveal his power to turn around the situation in the match before us, yet, he chose to hide it until the previous fight. Why? Because he nned to win the next match. Everything was just a build-up for him." Phyrill shook his head.


    Ellen closed her eyes for a few seconds before staring at the door.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    "Come in," Phyrill shouted, ignoring them.


    Theo then pushed open the door and showed himself. He didn''t go to them immediately as he still couldn''t understand why they would pick him.


    "Since you havee here, I will just ask you this question to exin why I chose you." Phyrill smirked. "You are going to use this match to scare your opponents to be more conscious about you, right? Before our match, it was like two versus three. But if you managed to beat us, you would make your presence known, meaning the hidden member suddenly showed his appearance and became an even bigger presence due to the shy entrance."


    Theo widened his eyes, never expecting someone to figure his n out.


    This reaction alone was enough for Ellen and Sihan to understand Phyrill''s choice.


    "Why did I choose you? It''s simple. I want you to be the brain of this group, creating the n. What youck right now is experience. We can provide it for you." Phyrill then turned to Sihan and Ellen. "How about you guys?"


    "Ehm��" Before they answered, Theo raised his hand and asked, "Are you sure that''s the only reason?"


    "Look, this guy understands me well." Phyrill grinned and pointed at Theo. "Just like you, we''re nning to win. Do you remember what I asked when the instructor exined about our training?"


    "��" Theo looked down for a minute before drawing a gasp.


    "It seems you have noticed my n. That''s right. We have a bigger chance to meet Alea''s group for the revenge match. Knowing her ability, I''m sure she will climb her way up again, meaning she will win the next two matches, or she is not worth our time.


    "Hence, I n to train you to remove your weakness, which is yourck of experience, within two weeks while waiting for Alea to catch up before having another match. This way, we will be able to meet her again and make her our fifth member.


    "I can see that your head is above the rest. Even a third-year like Ellen can''t understand you. That''s why I believe you are a rare catch among first-year students. Rather than letting you rot, I better choose you since Alea has a bigger chance to get you." Phyrill made an evil smirk as everything was going ording to his n.


    Ellen and Sihan remained silent as they were impressed by Phyrill''s judgment. They never thought this guy saw that far ahead.


    "I''m�� honored that you think of me highly, but I''m afraid I will let you down."


    "No need to say it for the time being. I just want to ask whether you''re prepared to take down everyone else in the next match or not." Phyrill asked.


    "Actually, I have just gotten my freedom again. I have two skills that are not shown yet. I can only use it after losing once."


    "!!!" The three of them, including Phyrill, looked at him in shock. Phyrill smirked and said, "Well, well�� What do we have here? I thought I chose gold, but it seemed I found a diamond."


    "Since that is the case, I''m willing." Ellen let out a sigh and rose from the couch, walking to Theo and extending her hand. "Nice to meet you, Theodore Griffith. What should I call you?"


    "Theo is fine. Alea calls me that too." Theo shook her hand politely.


    "Good. No need to be polite and call me Ellen too. Ah, you should also call this silent guy, Sihan. He is a good guy." Ellen tried to introduce Sihan due to their misunderstanding. Up to this day, Theo must think of Sihan as one of his bullies, so she wanted to cheer up the mood first.


    Sihan, on the contrary, looked at Theo with an indifferent face. He opened his mouth and said two words. "Not enough."


    Ellen made a weird smile and blocked Theo''s vision of Sihan, exining. "He is really a good guy, you know."


    Unbeknownst to them, there was a small smile on Sihan''s face as if he was happy with Theo bing his teammate. Unfortunately, no one saw it.


    Phyrill then raised his hand and said cheerfully. "Me too! Just call me Phyrill. Anyway, our n is to teach you one-on-one from Monday to Saturday after school and we will mentor you together on Sunday. I think this is the best n to have you understand how to fight an experienced fighter or a veteran you may say. What do you think?"


    Theo remained silent for a minute before lowering his head, bowing to them since they would be teaching him. "Please teach me how to fight."


    Ellen and Phyrill smiled while Sihan nodded.

 Chapter 95 – Theo’s Talent

    <h4>Chapter 95 - Theo��s Talent</h4>


    "That''s all. I''m looking forward to working with you, Theo." Phyrill waved his hand.


    "Yes, thank you very much." Theo couldn''t help but remember the first time he met Phyrill. He was truly annoying. Yet, the same annoying guy actually helped him in getting into this position. He didn''t know what to say anymore.


    "Let me have your contact first. I''m going to add you to our group chat. We will discuss everything there." Ellen smiled while taking out her Skylink.


    Theo nodded, took out his Skylink, and gave his contact.


    Ellen then added him into the group chat and said, "Alright. It''s done. We can''t waste our time too much in this room, so we will give you one day to sort everything out since we won''t give you any mercy during the next two weeks. All the information and who will teach you the next day are to be discussed in the group, okay?"


    "Yes."


    Since they were about to leave, Sihan quickly ended the match and told the system they were leaving, so others could use the room.


    "Then, let''s leave." Phyrill opened the door and came out first, finding Alea and Hontar waiting for them. "Oh? There are two people waiting for us outside."


    Ellen took a peek and made a sly smirk. "Alea, what are you doing here?"


    "I just left my room too. It''s a mere coincidence." Alea looked away.


    "You are missing your guy already?"


    "He is not. And I only want to make sure you don''t treat him badly." Alea harrumphed, walked away, and left one message to them. "Just want to let you know�� I''m going to get him back no matter what."


    Ellen only smiled without saying anything. It was the first time she saw Alea acting this way, making her be even more curious of Theo who made such a thing possible.


    Phyrill and Sihan surprisingly left first, leaving Ellen and Theo behind.


    Ellen then said, "Anyway, no one asked this question, but may I know what the two skills are? You may probably use it in the next match, so why not say it to me first? It''s fine if you don''t want to answer it though."


    The answer didn''te immediately, but she still heard it.


    "Well, yeah. I have been thinking about it and I believe it''s fine to let you know first. It''s Magic Bullet and Clone," replied Theo while turning around, facing her with a serious expression.


    Seeing his face, Ellen straightened her back as she had a feeling Theo wanted to say something important.


    Surprisingly, Theo lowered his head again and said, "I know that I''m asking too much, but may I ask you to teach me how to control my Magic Power so I can bend them like what you did?"


    Ellen opened her mouth in amazement. "So this is why you are so open to me�� Well, I can''t promise you anything, but I will do my best to teach you. I see�� You are a Magic Warrior huh. What is your affinity? I''m sure you can answer this question, right? Just think of it as my payment for teaching you this specific topic which is usually taught in your third year."


    "I have none." Theo decided to answer. As he expected, the school indeed taught all the five aspects to the students as it might be the sole reason why all the rich families sent their children to the school instead of taking them to the other side.


    "I see. No affinity. No wonder you have a Magic Bullet skill." Ellen actually had expected this answer and it was the reason why Theo didn''t mind answering. She just wanted to confirm it from his mouth. "I understand. I don''t think two weeks will be enough, but I believe you can do it before the next training session."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded.


    "Then, let''s go." Ellen pushed Theo''s back as they walked outside.


    After that, Ellen said goodbye and left Theo alone in the school.


    Since he finally had the time alone, he couldn''t help but hit the wall next to him and closed his eyes with a twisted expression as if he experienced so much pain.


    No matter how he epted it, losing was indeed painful, especially when the opponent broke all the tricks he had devised for a long time. He was frustrated.


    "I was lucky to be chosen over Alea. That''s all." Theo gritted his teeth and decided to walk to his home.


    Little did he know his master had been observing him this whole time on the school roof. She watched his reaction with a small smile. "No matter whether you are in the business sector or Martial Arts sector, there will always be a time where you lose or make a wrong decision. I want to teach you the frustration early on.


    "I''m sure that you can ovee it ande back even stronger. Still, learning the basics of five aspects in less than two months��" She closed her eyes and sighed. "You may not realize it yourself, but only a genius can do it. Just like a budding flower, you have experienced the barren soil, the fertile soil, or even the right or wrong fertilizer all these years. Now that you have chosen the best soil and fertilizer to grow, it''s time for your talent to bloom and show its might to the world."


    Meanwhile, Theo was oblivious about such a thing and returned to his apartment, feeling dejected.


    He sighed and thought something when he saw this small apartment and took out the Skylink from his pocket.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 221,800 Zil


    He got more than 150,000 Zils during the hunt with Aleast month and was satisfied with the result. But a thought appeared when he saw his bnce.


    "Wait a minute�� Since the situation is not that strict, I think it''s better to rent a house or an apartment. This way, I can train even when I''m here since the others won''t teach me until midnight. It will probably be until school is closed, which gives us around five hours. I can still train until midnight while having enough rest for the next day."


    Theo believed this was the best day to search for one since he wouldn''t have enough time for the next two weeks.


    Knowing what to do, Theo quickly opened his Skylink and opened the web for housing while saying to the Artificial Intelligence who managed it. "Search for an apartment for me."

 Chapter 96 – House

    <h4>Chapter 96 - House</h4>


    One hour after the contact, Theo arrived at the housing agency, where he found a red-haired female waiting for him. She wore the formal ck suit outfit and tied her hair into a ponytail so they wouldn''t disturb her while maintaining her youthful beauty.


    When she turned around and found the student that called her earlier, she quickly rose and greeted him, extending her hand. "Hello, Sir. I''m Rica, the one on the call earlier."


    "Ah, yes." Theo shook her hand and asked, "Thank you for receiving me here."


    Theo didn''t even have time to admire the lobby as she had asked him to sit down in the corner to talk.


    "There are two ces that meet your criteria. Since we have crossed the apartments out��" She opened the file and projected it to the screen in front of them, showing a few pictures. "We only have these two houses here. The left one��"


    She continued talking, trying to sell him, but Theo had already found the house he was looking for. The reason Theo didn''t go with an apartment was the price, size, and location. Surprisingly, he felt it was better to rent a slightly more expensive house instead of an apartment.


    The two houses had backyards where he could practice with his clone while having enough room to rx inside.


    The two houses were simr in characteristics and appearances, but the one nearer to the school was more expensive, so he needed to n his finances a bit.


    After learning them for another fifteen minutes, he chose the house near the school since he didn''t want to waste so much time traveling just to save a few thousand Zils. The stronger he became, the easier it was to get money, thus the choice.


    "I will take this one."


    Seeing that Theo chose the more expensive one, she obviously felt happy and smiled more sweetly at him. "I understand. We can go to the house first to check everything."


    Theo nodded and epted her invitation. She guided him to the parking lot and stopped in front of a white car. The car design looked the same as the old cars, but there was no wheel below the car as the body touched the ground.


    Theo came in and waited for Rica to start the engine before the car started floating a few inches above the ground.


    Rica tried to make conversations with him like how Theo is a student and the reason for purchase, but she soon felt Theo was ufortable with it and stopped.


    Unknown to her, shepletely misunderstood Theo. Inside Theo''s mind was how he needed to pay 41,200 Zils every month. It was a huge leap from his previous rent, but he felt it was money well spent.


    After all, not only could he get a training field, the house area alone was around 400 square feet. He had nned for the next leap to be a few million Zils to buy a house.


    When they arrived, Rica guided him to all the rooms and asked about his n to move. She was slightly surprised to hear that Theo wanted to move as quickly as possible, but she still politely discussed the matter with him.


    Theo paid a few more thousands to prepare the house as quickly as possible, which he could afford to spend. Rica then agreed to the terms and promised he could move in tonight.


    On the other hand, Theo was satisfied with this house. The backyard was quite big and had enough space needed for him to fight his clone with some small movements. As for the house, it had two bedrooms and one bathroom with a kitchen and living room.


    Theo wanted to make the first bedroom for sleep while the second was for his Control or Awareness Training.


    The distance between each house was quite big, so they wouldn''t hear the clicking sound of the fight that loud.


    After reaching an agreement, they went back to the office and finished all the paperwork. Theo then left the building after Rica told him to return at 8 PM since everything would be ready by then.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 171,800 Zil


    Theo agreed and returned to his small apartment whilementing how fifty thousand Zils just left his ount within hours. But when he entered his room, he realized how small his room was. It was a mere 60 square feet room which was barely enough for one bathroom, one bed, and a table.


    There were not many things that needed to be brought. Most of them were his clothes which could be fit into one bag. He then used another backpack for all the other things while carrying all his weapons in his other hand.


    After that, he informed hisndlord that he would be moving soon which thetter agreed and told him he would vacate the room one weekter since it was the time he needed to pay the rent each month and wished him luck in his next ce.


    Theo thanked her and headed to his new house, finding everything was ready. Rica had been waiting for him in front of the house and presented all the documents after showing all the things that had been cleaned.


    He was satisfied, started exploring the new house, and unpacked his items. For the first time, he ordered a bit more expensive food to celebrate his new house.


    Meanwhile, in Eilric Family Mansion, specifically inside a steamy bathroom.


    Alea tried to rx her body in the bath, yet, her loss in the previous match distracted her the whole time. She was embarrassed, thinking she would be chosen and asked Theo to get her, but there was one more feeling that hit her the hardest. It was the fact she couldn''t see through Theo''s problem.


    No, the worst part might be her hand. She lifted her left hand out of the water and stared at it for a few minutes.


    ''If only I used my left hand, I might still be able to turn the situation around. Theo wouldn''t have gone to the other team. And��''


    Her hand was shaking when she recalled the fight, but the frustration surprisingly stopped that thought for a few seconds to the point the shaking stopped and Alea could clench her hand.


    "Ha��ha��" Alea''s stutteringughter echoed in the bathroom. Facepalmed, Alea opened her mouth. "How could I not see it this whole time? It seems I''m still not good enough."

 Chapter 97 – Magic Control

    <h4>Chapter 97 - Magic Control</h4>


    After getting a good rest in the new home with a soft bed unlike the one he had back in the previous apartment, Theo went to school fresher than ever.


    It was just a normal boring ss, but he still listened to everything the teachers said.


    Time went by and as soon as he finished all sses, Theo saw a message from Ellen.


    "Theo, I have booked room A-042. Come here."


    "On my way," replied Theo as he quickly made his way toward that room after leaving the ss.


    He returned to the third building and entered the room, finding Ellen waiting for him alone.


    "I will be guiding you today." Ellen smiled and typed a few things on the screen. "We will use the same t field like yesterday."


    Theo nodded. "I have no problem as long as I can get stronger."


    "Haha. I had gotten all the information about you before you fought Laust Lange. To think you are apletely different person right now�� I''m impressed." Ellen smirked, telling him she had dug up his information. She didn''t want to identally slip up, so she told Theo first to avoid any misunderstandingter. She was sure Theo didn''t like it, but it was better to know it sooner thanter.


    Theo, on the contrary, had prepared for getting a background check, so he paid no heed. It wasn''t like they were in a business rtionship either, so he said, "Is it wrong to change?"


    "Nope." Ellen smiled and continued after checking the screen again. "Alright. Done. We''re good to go. Let''s continue our talk inside the virtual world."


    Theo nodded and entered the training capsule, arriving at the same grass field. He nced to the side where Ellen appeared and asked, "What are we going to do today?"


    Ellen touched her forehead a few times while her body swayed left and right, contemting their next move. "I think I should exin about this moving magic first."


    "Do you know anything about five aspects?"


    Theo nodded. "Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance."


    "That''s good. I don''t need to exin from the start. Then you should know what you want to learn is inside the Control Category, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, how much do you know about control?"


    "I don''t know much since I can only summon all ten Magic Bullets and shoot them together. As for other knowledge, it''s only about releasing my Magic Power."


    "Hmm." Ellen paused for a moment and started exining. "There are different types of control. They are Soft Control, Force Control, and Perfect Control. Soft Control is the type where you try to convince your Magic Power.


    "It''s the one that you use if you want to release your Magic Power. You convince them by opening the pores for your Magic Power to flow and so on. I don''t need to exin it anymore since you already understand this one.


    "Then, let''s move on to Force Control. Force Control is simr to the Soft Control, but you let out more Magic Power than necessary, creating a turbulent flow in your Magic Power. At that time, you use your skill to help you control the Magic Power flow.


    "Last but not least, Perfect Control. At this stage, you can do everything with your Magic Power. It''s every magician''s dream to reach this stage. And all those, who reach it, are at least above Level 500.


    "Anyway, back to the topic. Which category does my control belong to? It''s the beginning of Force Control."


    Theo asked, "It''s only the beginning?"


    "Yes. I want to see how good you are in your Soft Control to see how much Magic Power you can release at onceter�� Need to check if you are qualified to learn Force Control or not." She shrugged and continued, "And it''s not like my level is that high either in terms of control."


    Theo nodded. "Please teach me."


    "Alright. I will exin the different levels of Force Control first. In the beginning stage of Force Control, you are able to program your Magic to follow a certain path. For example, I want it to make my Magic turn around or shoot to the sky at a certain range just like what you''ve experienced.


    "In the next level, you will be able tomand them a few times like turn fifty feet to the left before making a turn. After that, you will be able to program them to doplex movements like zig-zag, loops, and so on.


    "And finally, in thest stage, you will be able to program them to a certainmand like following a person. After that, it''s Perfect Control, where you have enough control to do everything you want. I won''t go too much into details since I will only teach you about the first level of Force Control."


    Ellen then raised her hand and summoned four Ice Crystals that killed Theost time. "You remember that I forced the Magic to turn around, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Yes."


    "Then, I will be fine-tuning it to force them to turn to the left together." Ellen then inputted a bit of Magic Power and released the Magic. At the same distance where he got hit yesterday, the magic turned to the left and hit the wall in session.


    "That''s it. I can force my Magic to move in a certain direction depending on how much Magic Power I release to my Magic. This is like searching for a perfect radio channel with a wheel where you need to rotate it to left and right for fine-tuning.


    "And each amount of Magic Power will result in one direction. You have two tasked. You need to do trials and errors to see all the possible movements and perfectly control how much you release in your Magic to know where it will turn and such. That''s why it''s going to take a long time and a lot of practice."


    Theo took a deep breath and nodded with a serious expression. "I will do my best toplete both."


    "Good. I''ve set so the Magic Power in your body is unlimited. You can go all day to do this, but I will limit it until the school closes to prevent you from overworking yourself." Ellen then walked backward a few steps and let out the same smile that scared him yesterday�� The same smile that seemed to appear only after Ellen figured him out. "Before that, let''s fight. I want to see your real prowess, so I can give you advice."

 Chapter 98 – Rematch

    <h4>Chapter 98 - Rematch</h4>


    Theo frowned and took a deep breath. He didn''t bring his spear today since he thought he would only learn Magic, but since the other party wanted to have a spar, the fight should be hand-to-handbat with Magic.


    Ellen also didn''t have her staff, so he might have a chance.


    "I want you to kill me without holding back," said Ellen while looking at Theo coldly. "I really want to see your strength. I hope you can make me see the potential Phyrill mentioned yesterday."


    Before Theo could reply, Ellen already raised both hands with her left hand in the front, ready to intercept any attack that came to her.


    Theo took one step back and prepared himself for the battle.


    Without any warning, Ellen raised her hand while summoning three Ice Lotuses above Theo''s head.


    "You don''t expect to let your opponent wait for you, right?" Ellen smirked before releasing her killing intent to jolt Theo''s mind. "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Theo already knew Ellen would do something like this.


    As the ice lotuses fell from the air, Theo had taken another few steps back, avoiding all three lotuses that became his shield against Ellen.


    Summoning his clone, Theo jumped to the left side while his clone went to the right side.


    "Which one��" Ellen muttered while squinting her eyes.


    Due to her ice lotuses, she didn''t know which one was the real him. Luckily, Theo needed at least three seconds to reach her with his full speed since they used yesterday''s data, giving both of them Level 50 status.


    Ellen summoned five head-size crystals above her head and shot them toward the real Theo.


    "Freezing Shot."


    The ice magic shot like aser. Facing this attack, Theo ran as quickly as possible and leaped forward, trying his best to avoid this attack without any skill.


    Unfortunately, one of the Freezing Shots hit his thigh. He used both hands tond on the grass while his clone stopped and summoned the Magic Bullets.


    "!!!" Ellen narrowed her eyes and turned around, smiling. "So, you''re the real one."


    "Magic Bullet." Clone Theo released all ten Magic Bullets with a pinpoint trajectory where all of them would hit Ellen.


    Seeing this, Ellen simply moved to the right and sessfully dodged all those bullets. She then gave another piece of advice. "Theo. Even if you''re confident with your aim, you should go for a more spread-shot. Some may miss, but it''s better than no hit at all. With our distance, it''s easy for me to avoid, so you should take into ount where I go. If you go for a spread, that means I only have two options. Either use a shield or jump. That''s where you should strike."


    Clone Theo nodded and shouted, "I understand."


    Unbeknownst to her, right when she started giving the advice, the real him had gotten so much closer despite his injury.


    "Of course. You need to have a clear field of vision. Don''t focus on one person alone." Ellen made a smirk and pointed her hand to Theo as if she had predicted him going at her. Four star-shaped blue lights emerged from the air, shining. "Ice Star."


    Theo frowned, remembered how he got hit by this attack in their match and promised himself to avoid it next time.


    He used the same tactic as yesterday. He went around the Ice Stars while maintaining his vision by using his clone''s eyes.


    Surprisingly, the stars didn''t turn around anymore, so he thought he was clear to attack her.


    Clone Theo summoned another wave of Magic Bullet as cover fire.


    "Magic Bullet."


    "No, you won''t." Ellen raised her right hand toward Clone Theo before a ten-foot ice wall emerged from the ground, stopping all the Magic Bullets. At the same time, she used her left hand to use a different skill to the real one. "Frost Nova."


    A blue light emerged from her hand as it flew like a bullet.


    Theo didn''t have a change of expression and seemed to be receiving this attack without being able to do anything.


    Boom.


    An explosion urred as the Ice Mist produced by the Frost Nova spread around, hiding Ellen inside.


    Clone Theo used his Magic Bullet again and tried to aim where Ellen was standing, but he realized he couldn''t find her.


    Before he could release all those bullets, Ellen already released another skill of hers.


    "Ice Wave."


    It was the same Ice Wave she used to create a path for her and Sihan to escape from encirclement. Theo released the Magic Bullets, but all of them hit the ice spikes from the ground.


    "Oh no." The Ice Wave ultimately arrived at his position and pierced his body in a few different spots.


    "Victory." Ellen smiled.


    Suddenly, A torrential wind appeared among the mist as Theo emerged from the white ice mist and ran toward Ellen''s back while releasing his Awarenesspletely to make his presence bigger.


    Ellen gulped down as Theo''s presence sent a chill down to her spine. Her body became tense and her heart beat rapidly. She nced at the one she believed as a clone, finding the same Elemental Shield that blocked Hontar''s attack in the first round.


    Half of the shield was broken while the other half was frozen, but the shield managed to protect Theo from any damage, so it had done its job well.


    But what made it surprising was the fact that both Theo and his clone could use skills. It was more amazing than any clones she knew. It was at this time, she realized what just happened. ''Wait a minute? They both can use skills? Then the one that I thought was real��''


    She widened her eyes and drew a gasp, finding the "real" Theo turned out to be a clone as it disappeared after getting hit by her Magic.


    In other words, Theo had been tricking her since the beginning by letting her hit his leg. And she couldn''t react the same way as yesterday since Theo came from her blind spot.


    She couldn''t help but smile while saying, "Creatingyers of tricks, you managed to trick me from the beginning. So, this is the real Theodore Griffith, huh. You are twice if not thrice stronger than yesterday�� No wonder Alea chose you."


    "This won''t be like yesterday," Theo said in a cold tone and used his Monkey Fist. With his right hand glowing, his fingers joined together as if it was a spear. He took one step behind Ellen and pierced her heart. "Thank you for defeating me yesterday. It''s a great help."


    "Is that so? That''s good." Ellen closed her eyes while smiling.


    *Stab*

 Chapter 99 – Sihan

    <h4>Chapter 99 - Sihan</h4>


    After killing Ellen, Theo dropped to the ground and spat a mouthful of blood before he realized Ellen still managed to react to his attack and hit his chest with her elbow. If she were a fighter like him instead of a magician, he would have died too.


    "Seriously�� Even with all my current power, I can''t beat herpletely. No, I feel like Ellen is stronger than the assassin leader the Lange Family sent." Theo narrowed her eyes and sighed. "So, this is what it means to have enough experience and skill."


    He shook his head helplessly before finding Ellen returning to the field.


    "You should recover first," said Ellen as soon as she met Theo.


    Theo nodded, closed his eyes, and returned to the real world. A few secondster, Theo''s figure reappeared as he said. "I''m good now."


    "I have understood your level and I think you can fight a second-year equally. In fact, you would have won if you used these two skills in our match." She smiled. "Restriction is it��"


    "Yeah." Theo let out a long sigh, feeling disappointed in himself too.


    "Have you ever thought about breaking that restriction yourself?" Ellen asked after finding Theo''s restriction muste from another person. She wanted to see whether Theo would follow that person blindly or trust himself a bit more.


    However, Theo''s answer changed her opinion. "Only during life and death situations."


    "I see. I worry that you trust someone else blindly to the point you would do everything that person instructs you to do."


    "Don''t worry. I won''t do something like that."


    "Good. Anyway, I have grasped the extent of your control in that Magic Bullet earlier. I will train you as much as possible, so you will fight both Phyrill and Sihan for experiences. Make sure you understand your role and how to cope with it. I believe the you two weekster will be a different you."


    "Thanks."


    "Now, let''s start our training." Ellen smiled and began exining her views about Theo''s skill.


    Although Ellen wasn''t as good as his master in terms of teaching, her exnation wasn''t that hard to understand and Theo managed to absorb all the knowledge she gave.


    It was the start of his trials and errors. Ellen kept watching him while offering some suggestions when he was confused.


    This never happened when he was with Alea since they both focused on hunting instead of training. Of course, Theo was grateful to Alea since he leveled up so much during that one month.


    Surprisingly, Ellen didn''t teach him Force Control alone. She also provided some guidance about Soft Control and magicians in general.


    The time went by in an instant and Theo had no choice other than to go home.


    Now that he had a house and a backyard, going home felt like a blessing to him since he could rx and train whenever he wanted.


    The next day, Theo received an invite from Phyrill. His training was practically simple since they kept doing one on one from start to finish. Theo kept losing one after another because he only used his Clone to fight Phyrill, not his Magic Bullet yet. He believed it wasn''t the right time to tell him he was Joker.


    What Phyrill taught him in this training was how to fight assassins. After all, he learned that Theo had never actually killed an experienced one like them.


    Of course, Phyrill already told him to bring his spear with him since they would fight at least one hundred battles today.


    Despite getting killed continuously, Theo''s eyes didn''t lose their light. He kept looking ahead, learning as much as possible.


    Phyrill even sucked a cold breath when everything Theo did was reading his movements. He always asked at least ten questions about their fight with one same line. "Why did you move this way?"


    This one question could be answered by different reasons depending on how he moved. When Phyrill asked him about his obsession for understanding each movement, Theo simply answered him with, "I don''t have much time to practice, so it''s better to understand it and see what move I can use to counter it."


    There was a risk of being too repetitive, but Theo promised Phyrill not to stick to one pattern. The one thing that kept Phyrill from questioning him was how he proved himself to Phyrill by showing a few different attack patterns to counter one movement.


    After getting Phyrill''s seal of approval, they kept sparring for tens if not hundreds of battles. Theo had gotten used to his death since he didn''t feel any pain inside this Virtual World.


    His footwork, spear technique, and breathing improved tremendously. He gradually polished his footwork and made some changes to make himselffortable since repetitive footwork would just be a target to take advantage of. The same applied to his spear technique. The length of his hands and the size of his palm started adjusting as Theo searched for their ownfortable positions from half an inch to an inch and so on.


    He was pretty satisfied with the two days of progress.


    When he thought all the past two weeks would pass by quietly, he was wrong. The moment he opened the door where he was supposed to meet Sihan, thetter gazed at him coldly.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a few seconds in front of the door before lowering his head. No matter what, Sihan would be teaching him, so he needed to be polite. There was no shame to lower one''s head to the one who taught you. "Nice to meet you."


    Before letting him sit or enter the capsule, Sihan pointed his hand to the wall in front of him as if telling him to stand there.


    Frowning, Theo walked carefully and asked, "May I know what you would like to say?"


    His tone was cold since he didn''t like Sihan either despite respecting him as his mentor. He didn''t forget the fact that Sihan also bullied him.


    "Theodore Griffith��" Sihan called his name and paused for a minute while closing his eyes, steeling his resolve. He took a deep breath, rested his arms on top of his thighs and continued with a question. "Do you know why I bullied you?"

 Chapter 100 – Theo Vs Sihan

    <h4>Chapter 100 - Theo Vs Sihan</h4>


    "Do you know why I bullied you?"


    That question stuck in his mind as Theo stared at Sihan with his mouth open.


    There was no change in Sihan''s expression, so he didn''t know why he talked about this. But since thetter asked him, he answered with whatever he experienced. "For me to get stronger and fight back the bullies myself?"


    Sihan shook his head while closing his eyes as if it was thest thing he considered to bully him.


    Theo''s heart beat rapidly, filled with displease.


    "I have several reasons, but I guess one of them is due to a certain man."


    "A certain man?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Edward Griffith."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and drew a gasp before he pointed his spear toward Sihan. "Who?"


    "No need to point your spear at me. You won''t get any answer with it." Sihan shrugged. He simply rose from the couch and said coldly, "If you want to know something about him, beat me. I will only tell you a clue after you beat me."


    Without caring about Theo''s spear, Sihan entered the training capsule and activated it.


    On the contrary, Theo was panting. He didn''t know if this was fatigue, anger or something else, but indescribable things filled his heart.


    He took a few deep breaths to calm his heart, but the scene where Sihan mentioned his brother''s name kept shing in his eyes.


    "He�� He is rted to my brother?" Theo clenched his fists. His thought was in disarray.


    ''Did my brother know him? Did my brother ask him to bully me? Does he know the pocket watch my brother gave me?''


    There were many unanswered questions in his mind, but Theo understood no answer woulde unless he beat Sihan.


    Instead of going to the Virtual World in this state, he decided to sit and calm his mind down first.


    No need to sort out his thoughts since he distracted himself with another goal.


    It took him two minutes before Theo rose from the couch and entered the training capsule.


    He soon found Sihan with his sword and shield several feet away from him. Despite believing he had calmed down, the uncertainty in his heart started increasing and filling his heart.


    "As long as you can kill me, I will give you the answer." Sihan raised his sword, pointing it at Theo''s neck.


    Theo summoned his clone and handed the spear while he nned to stay in the back.


    Sihan squinted his eyes before looking at how the clone and Theo himself went in a different direction.


    Suddenly, Theo raised his hand and summoned his Magic bullet, releasing it on Sihan and spreading them a bit more ording to Ellen''s advice.


    "Magic Bullet."


    Seeing these Magic Bullets, Sihan stomped the ground and pushed forward, taking the full brunt of his attack. Of course, only four of them hit his shield since Theo spread it.


    Even if he concentrated those bullets to one spot, Sihan only needed to take one step to the side and avoided itpletely, so the Magic Bullet earlier was for a distraction.


    His clone took that split second and ran forward while Theo kept walking closer but not too close.


    Clone Theo activated the Focused Charge and Haste.


    Sihan decided to y with his clone, who happened to have the ability to use skills, and charged forward.


    Clone Theo thrust the spear, but Sihan leaned to the right to avoid it instead of blocking the spear with his shield.


    "Circr de." His sword started glowing as he shed his sword to kill the clone, but thetter summoned the Elemental Shield to stop that strike.


    "��" Sihan remained silent before noticing the real Theo had positioned himself in the opposite direction,unching the Magic Bullet.


    Unfortunately for him, Sihan had seen it a mile away and blocked another four bullets with his shield.


    Yet, Theo smiled when he saw this development. What he wanted the whole time was to seal Sihan''s movement. With Clone Theo sealing the front side and Magic Bullet blocking the area behind him, Sihan could only escape to the air or go to the right since Clone Theo was on his left.


    Sihan chose the right, but his neck was stopped by the spear he dodged earlier and it would also hit his shoulder if he jumped right now. Hence, he had no way to go.


    This was how Theo had changed his attack pattern after learning from Ellen and Phyrill.


    The Real Theo ran forward before leaping to the air, summoning another wave of Magic Bullets.


    His clone, on the other hand, tried to strike Sihan''s neck.


    The Magic Bullet then rained them down, but most of them only hit the ground, kicking up the dust that turned into a smokescreen.


    But this was the ultimate mistake Theo made in this fight.


    "Emerging Ground."


    Right before the spear hit, Sihan stomped the ground as the ground in front of him rose andunched Clone Theo to the air.


    Predicting such a thing might happen, Clone Theo tossed the spear to the real Theo in the air.


    Catching the spear, Theo fixed his grip in less than a second before he thrust his spear.


    "It''s a good n, but you shouldn''t throw your spear because I can find your position��" Sihan noticed Theo''s presence behind him by looking at the trajectory. With his hand in the rest position after the Elemental Shield disappeared, it shouldn''t be possible to hit him unless he turned around


    However, Sihan went one step further to show Theo their difference in strength.


    He gently tossed his sword next to his waist until it reached his chest level. Meanwhile, his hand had rotated clockwise as he grabbed his sword without even looking, shing his sword.


    "!!!" Theo couldn''t even react as he simply twisted his body to the right while Sihan imed his right hand. If there were another person before him, Sihan would have continued that swing to hit the second person. But since he only fought Theo, Sihan deliberately turned around and struck Theo with his shield.


    "Shield Charge."


    Theo raised his grip, almost reaching the de while using his foot to step on the handle to stop that shield. In other words, Theo used one hand and one foot to push the spear''s handle.


    Unfortunately, that was what exactly Sihan was aiming for. With him getting thrown out of bnce, one swing of his shield wouldunch him to the ground.


    And at this time, Sihan moved with his fastest speed and beheaded Theo before he regained his ground. "This is over."

 Chapter 101 – Problems

    <h4>Chapter 101 - Problems</h4>


    Theo looked at Sihan unwillingly. He truly wanted to know anything about his brother, but it became just a dream after he died.


    Theo''s consciousness returned to his body before he reemerged in the field, ring at Sihan.


    "It''s useless. Now that you have lost, I won''t say anything." Sihan shook his head. "You use tricks after tricks, but you don''t know that you get tricked too. Your movement is still too straightforward since I know you will be aiming at my blindspot. There was a sniper who could shoot a heart or a head from far away and he never missed�� However, he still lost because of the very reason since his opponent knew he would aim for either his head or heart. You''re like this now.


    "It''s a good thing to aim for the vital area, but if you fight someone strong, they will be able to react to your tricks without doing anything. One thing youck in employing your tricks is patience. This whole time, you have been the one initiating the trick.


    "But if you want to win with your tricks, you need to have patience. You need to be patient, waiting for your enemies to think no tricks wille or you won''t be able to turn the situation around. That''s where you are going to use your tricks instead of initiating them yourself. If you were more patient with me until I thought I managed to save myself from that situation and tried to escape, you would have won.


    "There are a few more fatal mistakes that I want to address, but��" Sihan stopped for a moment, looking Theo in the eyes. "I just want you to know, my rtionship with him isplicated, but at least we are not enemies. As to the exact rtionship and any other information, I will keep it to myself for the time being.


    "Since you have lost your chance to know that secret, I will only tell you another after we officially be the candidate for the Grand Gaia."


    "��" Theo remained silent as he took a deep breath, calming his heart down.


    "I am not ming you for being rash, especially after getting taunted. Even I have something that will trigger me like a dragon''s reverse scale. You can keep that me in your heart but suppress them so it won''t enter your head. With your brain, you should be able to make a poker face as if you are indifferent and so on. If you manage to do that, you will be strong enough to kill me."


    Theo clenched his fists to let out his anger. He simply wanted to know something about the brother that had been missing for almost a decade, but he knew his mistakes in this battle.


    Closing his eyes for a moment, Theo calmed his heart down while looking at Sihan. Sihan just showed him that his heart was unclear, and it was indeed a precious experience for him, so no one would trick him again in the future.


    Now that he had calmed down, he started seeing things differently. First of all, Sihan seemed to be telling the truth about his brother and their rtionship. Although he couldn''t trust him one hundred percent, he knew that connection was the one forcing Sihan to bully him.


    Sihan must have a different reason for bullying him though.


    "If you''re done sorting your thoughts, we will have another battle," said Sihan, not caring about Theo''s opinion.


    Theo had alsoe to terms with the current situation and nodded, continuing their training.


    For the next two weeks, Theo kept dying over and over again, but his eyes remained strong. The loss count gradually became less, showing Theo''s improvement. Even Ellen praised him for his progress in Magic Power.


    When they were together, they would fight together as a team or two versus two matches, trying to work out their coordination.


    Theo realized how much thought they put into the team. This was something he didn''t learn since he mostly relied on his clone as his partner.


    Instead of sacrificing his clone, Theo needed to take care of the lives of each teammate and coordinate with them.


    They were awkward at first, but Theo found it amusing because as they got better and better, more and more patterns were opened in his mind. He had many ns that he couldn''t do before.


    Of course, Theo and Sihan still maintained their silent rtionship while Phyrill became even more impressed by Theo''s ability. He recruited him to his family a few times, but Theo rejected all of them.


    He also hadn''t used a single Magic Bullet in front of Phyrill, even though he knew he needed to use it in thispetition.


    Finally, two weeks had passed and Alea seemed to have found two more teammates, climbing her rank to their level.


    After another week, specifically, the night before the third Sunday arrived, Theo got a call from Alea.


    He just took a bath and prepared to train his Awareness, so finding Alea''s call surprised him.


    "Does she want to talk about tomorrow?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. He picked up the Skylink and picked up the call.


    The call was filled with silence in the first ten seconds until Theo said, "What''s wrong?"


    "Ehm��" Alea''s voice finally rang in his ears, but her tone seemed to be filled with worry.


    "If you don''t have anything to say, I will hang up." Theo sighed. "Even if I need to fight you, I will use everything to win against you."


    That was also the highest form of respect Theo gave her.


    But Alea didn''t say anything regarding their fight. Instead, she focused on another thing. "Actually�� There are more problems than I thought."


    "Problems?"


    "Yes. Many have known that I have lost once, so there are several groups holding their progress. Hence, I am not sure whether I can meet you again or not in the next match or maybe in the match after that."


    "So that''s how it is." Theo closed his eyes and sighed, "I will do my best to repay you for everything you have done for me."


    "Oi, oi. Why do you sound like you don''t want to partner up with me again? Where''s the one month''s memory we have spent together?"


    "Not every effort will be rewarded, including this." Theo wanted to let her know that even if they had worked hard together for an entire month, there was no guarantee everything would go ording to their n. He had understood it after getting trained by Phyrill, Ellen, and Sihan.


    "Tch. You are cold as always." Alea pouted before saying, "Fine. We will see what happens in the next match. And don''t mention the payment again."

 Chapter 102 – Fate

    <h4>Chapter 102 - Fate</h4>


    The next day, it might be their fate or something, but when Theo regrouped with his teammates, he soon found his match.


    Unfortunately for his group or even Alea, Theo couldn''t find Alea''s code in their match.


    D55, E2, F1 and F3 in B-025 and B-026 Versus B1, B30, C2 and G1 in B-006 and B-007.


    Theo and the others remained silent when they found this pairing.


    "This�� What do you think, Theo?" Ellen asked without a change of expression.


    "I am not sure. Alea told me there are many groups trying to aim for her and they must be among them." Theo narrowed his eyes. "And to amodate Alea, they will have the same members like us: One third-grade, two second-grade, and one first-grade students."


    "Hmm�� Two second-grade students?"


    "Yeah. None of the first-year students are qualified to challenge the authority of other years�� I have learned it myself. And I''m afraid this will be the hardest fight we will ever experience��" Theo contemted for a moment.


    "Let''s enter the room first. We need to check who they are�� Though, I already have some guesses." Phyrill shrugged and pulled them to the room.


    While they were walking to their room, Ellen couldn''t contain her curiosity and asked, "Who are they?"


    "Student Council." Phyrill smirked and squinted his eyes. Killing intent was leaking from his eyes.


    "��" Ellen turned serious for the first time, saying, "Now it seems we will indeed face some problems. The Student Council is known for its strength�� That''s why Alea is chosen to be the student council president."


    "You are not chosen?" Theo asked with an innocent face.


    "Yeah. The Vice President is a powerful magician�� If I''m not wrong, his affinity is Wind. Well, you can say our match-up has a simr level of strength to each of us, so you are our trump card, Theo." Ellen smiled.


    "I understand." Theo nodded and starteding up with the n.


    After entering their room, Sihan opened the battle videos of their opponents. And as expected, their enemies were the Student Council.


    The strongest among them was none other than the Vice President of the Student Council, Jay Mao. A cool-looking ck-haired intelligent guy. He was the person Ellen mentioned. His application of wind magic was very peculiar and was different from Ellen.


    "Just be careful, this guy can use Force Control too," Ellen added while watching his movement.


    "I understand." Theo then looked into the second person.


    It was their Treasurer, a second-year student called Kong Sovan. He was a muscr guy with one big sword in his hand. On top of that, the guy appeared very agile in his movement, making him an imprable fighter. No wonder he was chosen as a Student Council Member.


    "This guy is a Magic Warrior. I will protect or call you from time to time, but he is a terrible opponent of mine, so I''m not sure if I can stop all his skills. So watch your back," said Sihan with an indifferent look as if all the praises seemed to be a normal assessment that he could ovee easily.


    However, Theo didn''t look back and continued to the third person. The person was another second-grade student, their secretary, Iv Rith.


    "Hmm�� It''s interesting." A smile appeared on Phyrill''s face as his voice echoed in the room. They all looked at Phyrill with a question in their eyes.


    Phyrill waved his hand and said, "This guy seems to be an Enchanter. But�� If you take a look at his weapon, which is a Sword imbued by Magic Stone to boost his skill, you will find this person as a force to be reckoned with. May I request to fight this guy?."


    Theo widened his eyes and stared at Phyrill.


    "Of course, if you say otherwise, I won''t do it." Phyrill shrugged nonchntly.


    "Well, I also want to fight with the vice president to see who is superior among us." Ellen agreed with Phyrill''sment.


    Meanwhile, Sihan didn''t say anything since he wasn''t a person who talked much to begin with.


    "To be honest, in one nce, I would like to pair Phyrill with this Enchanter Iv Rith. Not only could he increase his teammate''s strength with his skills, but he can also strengthen himself while fighting Phyrill one on one." Theo nodded. "That''s why I will be leaving him to you in the first engagement."


    "Yesh!" Phyrill gave a thumbs up as he was satisfied with the arrangement.


    "Meanwhile, Sihan will mark this big guy." Theo pointed at the Treasurer, wanting him to stop the guy like how he stopped Alea.


    "Unlike Alea Eilric, this guy has enough Magic Power to do one big move after another, so I want you to be careful." Sihan shrugged.


    Theo then turned to Ellen. "You can fight against the Vice President. Just don''t forget to wreak havoc in our battlefield as support."


    "No worry!" She winked her eyes sweetly.


    "As for me��" Theo stared at thest person that managed to widen all their eyes. Yes, thest person in his enemy group was Theo''s old enemy.


    "Fate," Phyrillmented beforeughing. "This is hrious."


    "I don''t know what to say anymore. You can do whatever you want��" Ellen shook her head helplessly.


    Theo only shrugged and pointed his finger at his enemy, who wielded a sword almost taller than him. Yes, this sword was unique in the school, and only one person possessed it. He was none other than Laust Lange, the person he beat two months ago.


    "I will handle him. It''s easier since he may be obsessed with me." Theo let out a long sigh before closing his eyes. "As for the n��"


    While Theo formted a n, Phyrill and Ellen talked about their opponents for a few minutes before Theo suddenly said while opening his eyes. He seemed to have thought of a n. "I have seen enough."


    "It seems our course has been decided." Phyrill smiled while ncing at Theo. "Please instruct us without holding back."


    Theo nodded his head as if telling him he never had the intention to hold back before cing his hand on the table. "I don''t have any problem with the pairing, but my n requires someplex movement. There''s no guarantee it will seed too."


    "No need to hold back. If any of us fail to fulfill our role, me everything on us after the match. For now, tell us the n." Sihan spoke with a cool and strict tone.


    Phyrill still joked around and made a pistol gesture on both hands, pointing at Sihan with a smile. "You took the word of my mouth."

 Chapter 103 – Each Other’s Plan

    <h4>Chapter 103 - Each Other��s n</h4>


    After the discussion, Theo and his group appeared on the same field that had yet to be expanded despite fighting more people.


    Theo then looked at the opposite wall where the enemies entered the field.


    He could see the confidence in their look, feeling they would be able to win this match.


    When Theo and Laust''s eyes intertwined, they both knew no matter who won this fight, they would go to the other team. After all, they needed to save thest spot for Alea and took a talented first-year student while they were at it. And both of them were reluctant to do it.


    "It''s been a while, Jay." Ellen waved her hand with a carefree expression, greeting the Vice President.


    "You are always like that, Ellen. If you take things more seriously, this position should be yours��" Jay narrowed his eyes while fixing his sses.


    "I never wanted that position since it would just keep bothering me." Ellen shrugged. "It''s a perfect position for someone like you. All I want is an easy win while getting all the benefits."


    "Oi, you are just saying an awful thing for those people who have worked their hardest but can''t achieve anything." Jay red at her, releasing his killing intent.


    Ellen shrugged. "I mean I am justzy. Why do people get mad at me when I''m not even doing anything?"


    "That''s basically the reason." Jay clicked his tongue and shouted, "Start! Talking to you just makes my blood pressure go up."


    "You are talking like an old man right now. You need to enjoy life more." Ellen smiled.


    Jay ignored her while demanding her to start the match. But before she said anything, Phyrill stepped forward and shouted, "Hey, you Enchanter Guy. I''m watching you, okay?"


    "��" The Enchanter furrowed his eyebrows before ignoring him.


    Phyrill snorted and looked at Ellen in disappointment.


    Ellen smiled and said, "Let''s start then."


    The count appeared again as they started preparing everything they needed for this fight.


    Right before the count hit zero, Theo, Phyrill, and Sihan ran forward in three directions. Theo took the right edge to see who woulde at him while Phyrill charged head-on. Sihan took thest ce, the left edge, as his battlefield.


    "!!!" This took the enemy team by surprise, but they managed to react almost instantly.


    As expected, Sihan''s opponent was the big guy, Kong Sovan.


    Kong was the first to make a move as he raised the sword with both hands and swung it down, using the advantage of his height to pin Sihan down.


    Sihan raised his shield to stop that strike, but a small crater appeared after that one sh, showing Kong''s strength.


    "You''re going to fight me." Kong snorted.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill needed to handle the Enchanter. His sword glowed and swung it from the side.


    Phyrill used both his swords to stop this attack, only to find himself getting pushed back. Yet, the smile didn''t disappear from his face as he said, "Powerful indeed."


    Last but the most important match, Theo vs Laust.


    "I have never thought that you can grow this much within one month." Laust released his killing intent while raising his sword. "Anyway, I am going to fight you."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and thrust his spear to Laust''s neck.


    Laust took one step to the left and parried the thrust with his sword before it slid down the spear, heading straight to Theo''s hands.


    Before he managed to cut his finger, Theo changed his grip and pushed Laust to the edge.


    However, Laust seemed to be improving as well since he used a lie to trick Theo.


    nk.


    The clicking sound of their sh echoed as both of them seemed to be pushing each other with their weapons, creating a six feet distance between them.


    This was the start of them trying to outsmart each other''s ns.


    Theo, who finally got a distance from Laust, turned around and continued charging forward, heading straight to Jay. "My business is wi��"


    Before he finished, he saw Laust staring at him while moving toward Ellen. Their eyes widened as they thought the same thing.


    ''He is aiming for the magician too?''


    With this thought in mind, the two seemed to have no intention of stopping in their tracks.


    Laust''s sword glowed as Laust himself waved the sword gently, releasing three arrow-shaped blue lights toward Ellen.


    "Three Way Sword."


    This was the same technique he used that almost killed Theo in their sparring match. And Ellen was there to personally witness it, so she summoned an Ice Wall to block all the three lights while preparing to fight him.


    At the same time, Theo was looking upward and found three green wind spirals flew toward him, curving in the air. In that instant, Theo realized it was Force Control, and they were supposed tond right on him, so Theo used his Haste to outrun them as all threended on the ground behind Theo.


    However, Jay seemed to have predicted Theo''s movement and shot one giant tornado horizontally to swallow Theo as a whole.


    Seeing this movement, Phyrill, whose back faced Jay instead of Ellen, smirked and leaped backward before turning around.


    "Wait�� What are you doing��" Iv drew a gasp before realizing Phyrill''s real target was none other than the magician.


    He could only see Phyrill take off from his position, heading straight to Jay while realizing all of them had been lying this whole time.


    "kh!" Iv gritted his teeth and turned around, but when he was about to catch up with Phyrill, he found another presenceing from another direction.


    "What?!" Iv dropped his jaw as soon as Theo came into his vision, perfectly dodging Jay''s magic. In other words, Theo''s real target was Iv all along. Theo nned to stop him, so Phyrill could kill Jay.


    Phyrill released his killing intent and said with bloodshot eyes. "Assassin''s prey is magicians, so don''t hold a grudge against me, okay?"


    Theo struck his sword with his Focused Charge, pushing him back before Sihan came into his vision. Both him and Sihan said at the same time, "Phyrill!"


    Those shouts were enough for Phyrill to stop in his tracks as a blue crescent-shaped light flew before him, creating a three-foot deep sword mark on the ground. The light continued and dispersed after hitting the wall.


    Just like how Sihan described him, Kong was someone who would do one big move after another. And with just a slight gap, he would use that big move to stop Phyrill before taking care of Sihan again. "I don''t think so."

 Chapter 104 – Another Level

    <h4>Chapter 104 - Another Level</h4>


    After Ellen summoned the Ice Lotus to separate them, Laust raised his sword again and reached the lotus. Unlike Theo or any other else, he mmed his sword toward the ice without hesitation.


    "Gargantuan Swing."


    Ellen widened her eyes and leaped backward to avoid this strike. She nned to go around the ice to strike Laust, but he seemed to be better than her expectation.


    Laust cut all the ice spikes in his way into two.


    With his figure reappearing after the top of the ice fell to the ground, Ellen summoned four blue lights and shot them at the same time. "Freezing Shot."


    Laust disappeared again, but Ellen could fully see his figure floating in the air.


    "I know you''re going to jump." Ellen smiled and summoned another magic to shoot him down.


    But Laust shocked her once again, showing his huge leap of improvement after his defeat. He stepped on the air like solid ground andunched himself to Ellen, reaching Ellen before her magic waspleted.


    "Ho?!" Ellen didn''t feel any excitement and simply stopped using her magic while blocking Laust''s sh with her staff. She even jumped a few inches above the air and turned Laust''s attack as a free ride to gain distance. "This is getting interesting."


    Laust clicked his tongue, knowing a third-year student wouldn''t be that easy to deal with.


    The center of the field.


    Seeing this attack before him, Phyrill stopped and turned around, looking at Kong. His eyes were icy cold as if there was no shred of yfulness anymore in those two eyes.


    Since Phyrill stopped his movement, Jay quickly raised his staff. One palm-sized green light shone brightly above Phyrill, illuminating both the ceiling and him with light.


    Raising his head, Phyrill took one deep nce at Jay as if he was stunned looking at this magic.


    The green light suddenly expanded as the air started to swirl around.


    It became bigger and bigger until one huge tornado swallowed Phyrill as a whole.


    Phyrill, on the other hand, let out a long sigh before a pair of wolf ears and grey tail emerged from his body. Right before the tornado swallowed him, Phyrill disappeared.


    This was a part of the n and Sihan knew it. In fact, Sihan had been cing himself on the very edge to make sure he could go around to approach Jay without stopping.


    After taking one deep breath, Sihan suddenly ran around Kong, and his path gradually curved toward Jay.


    Kong and Jay were dumbfounded, never imagining Sihan to be the one iming Jay''s head. This was truly unexpected, especially since they thought Theo would be the one. But the reality kept changing to Phyrill andstly Sihan.


    "You won''t��" Kong tried to follow him, but he suddenly felt someone''s presence on his right.


    The next thing he realized, he heard a loud sound of himself crashing into the wall and felt the pain all over his body.


    "!!!" Kong clenched his teeth and raised his vision to see what just happened, finding Phyrillnding on the ground after he kicked him in the face. "You."


    Phyrill looked down on him and said coldly. "Dumbass. It''s because of you I can''t make the biggest contribution in this match."


    "Ha?!" Kong obviously couldn''t understand him. But he soon noticed Sihan almost reached Jay.


    "Wind Storm." Jay used another skill to summon a gale that would swallow Sihan like how it almost killed Theo.


    ording to Theo, the moment Jay''s assassination failed, they would have him stop Jay for a period of time because they needed to change their target and Theo said he had freedom if he wanted to kill Jay because it would confuse the entire battlefield. Hence, Sihan didn''t hesitate to use one big move like Kong.


    He raised his hand as his sword glowed in orange. Before the tornado hit him, Sihan shed downwards, releasing all his power. "Dawn Strike."


    A crescent-shaped sh ran through the ground, cutting the tornado into two as Sihan followed right before the sh, traveling between the tornado that had yet to disperse.


    "What?!" Jay widened his eyes and leaped backward to gain more distance with him, but Iv''s shout made him think otherwise.


    "Jay. Watch out!"


    "!!!" Jay''s head turned around to see why his teammate warned him and found a flying spear in his direction. Jay stopped in his tracks and avoided the spear, but at the same time, he let Sihan catch up.


    The spear pierced the wall behind him, but Sihan took it to another level. He shed his sword, which was stopped by his staff, before mming his shield to pin Jay to the wall.


    However, there was one thing missing in this strategy. They indeed managed to corner Jay, but Theo also lost his spear.


    Trying to take advantage of the situation, Iv nned to cut him down.


    "Since you have abandoned your spear, I''m going to kill you!" Iv reached Theo with his glowing sword and shed Theo''s back since Theo just turned around to throw that spear.


    Little did he know, Theo grabbed the sword someone left behind earlier and turned around, striking Iv''s sword with his own version glowing sword.


    "Focused Charge."


    nk.


    Iv widened his eyes and found the familiar-looking sword. "Wait, that sword�� Phyrill!"


    Yes, they didn''t pay attention to it, but Phyrill stabbed his sword to the ground before moving to intercept Kong. And hearing that shout, Kong realized Phyrill only held one sword in his hand.


    "You��" Kong sucked a cold breath, wondering how many steps ahead they had nned.


    Phyrill only pointed his sword and smirked. "Our n is simple. You''re the one who makes itplicated."


    Still, no matter how good he was, Theo''s main weapon wasn''t a sword.


    When Iv realized it, he began to take it to his advantage and suppressed him within a few moves. "Hmph! Switching your weapon to something you''re not familiar with, it''s your worst move!"


    It was at this time, Theo showed another degree of nning. The one he had been building since he was with Alea.


    "Do you think so?" Theo made an evil smile before his clone suddenly appeared next to him.


    "Clone?!" Iv widened his eyes. When he was about to take a step back to assess the clone''s situation, Theo''s de slid down his sword and cut two of his finger before Iv managed to get away. "Kh!"


    Iv red at Theo before finding his clone making his way toward�� Laust. Yes. Their n was for Phyrill to kill Jay. But one simple move from Kong turned the entire nplicated and changed their target to Laust Lange.


    Theo pointed his de toward Iv with a smile after showing a bit of his sword prowess. This was the weapon he used the most other than his spear, so he had a certain degree of mastery. He smiled while looking down at him. "Sword may not be my main weapon, but my mastery should be enough to stop you for a while."

 Chapter 105 – Assessment

    <h4>Chapter 105 - Assessment</h4>


    In the Principal Office, Eigen still couldn''t let Radvils go because of the previous match-up. He never thought Eigen would discriminate against the students and put all the very talented students in one group regardless of what he said to him.


    However, he could also understand why he did such a thing. He simply had a mixed feeling of his approach.


    After contemting for a while, Eigen decided to invite Radvils to his office to discuss his n.


    When Radvils entered his office, his eyes were glued to the screen on his Skylink.


    "Radvils."


    "Wait a minute." Radvils raised his hand while his eyes still remained on the screen. "I need to focus on this match."


    "What match?" Eigen narrowed his eyes. It was the first time he saw Radvils so focused on a certain match, piquing his interest.


    "Want to see it together, Principal?" Radvils shrugged and found a wall. He activated his Skylink as the device projected his screen on the wall, turning it into a giant one.


    "This battle��" Eigen widened his eyes. He remembered Alea lost a few weeks ago but didn''t get chosen, so he was wondering why Theo got picked instead of Alea. Yet, he couldn''t see a single match after that, making him even more curious about this man called Theodore Griffith.


    Since he finally rejoined the match, Eigen fell silent and watched the match carefully.


    A few minutester.


    "This��" Eigen started sweating as he felt that the entire battlefield went ording to a certain person''s n. It was an amazing maniption at the school level from his perspective. Although he needed to do more to surpass the veterans all around the world, this person could still be considered a good fighter.


    Hearing Eigen''s surprise, Radvils nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I can see both teams have a simr strategy. The Student Council team tried to eliminate the magician first by sending Laust Lange. That fake would certainly throw someone off, and Theodore Griffith, his opponent, should chase him to stop anyone from harming the magician, only to find himself trapped by Laust Lange and Jay Mao.


    "But since Theodore Griffith also aimed for their magician, it didn''t happen. Jay Mao had prepared to hit Theo either way, so heunched his magic to kill him. Once again, Theodore Griffith adjusted his n and hit Iv Rith in the middle.


    "This gave an opportunity for Phyrill Hilbert to go for Jay Mao''s neck. Yet, if you take another look at the battlefield��" Radvils narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes." Principal Eigen seemed to understand it as well and said, "Phyrill Hilbert had been maintaining his position, so his back faced Jay Mao. If Jay Mao could carefully assess the situation, eliminating the shock element, he would have hit Phyrill Hilbert first. This is why it''s good for student-level maniption.


    "However, Jay Mao is also a student. It''s hard for him to notice it, especially with Ellen Marcines putting pressure on him��"


    Radvils nodded in agreement. "At the same time, Sihan Raskaka was always standing on edge instead of leaning to the middle as if he had no intention in stopping Kong Sovan. They probably wanted to test Kong Sovan''s reaction speed. And that one sh decided the next course as Phyrill Hilbert aborted his mission and activated the only thing that made him famous�� The werewolf''s kid��


    "Using that increase in strength and agility, he blew Kong Sovan away, so Sihan could go to Jay Mao."


    Principal Eigen furrowed his eyebrows and mentioned the sword and spear. "You should consider the sword cement and the timing for spear throwing. Only due to those two could their team operate at this high level. No, I should say these guys trust each other to do their duty."


    "No. I don''t think so." Radvils shook his head, finding something weird in their coordination.


    "What do you mean?"


    "They don''t trust each other that much. Instead, they trust their abilities. If the coordination is stopped, it''s basically that person''s fault and they will be med for it. This is not pro-level coordination but a forced one. Well, it''s a good one among the students nheless." Radvils rolled his eyes.


    "This��" When Principal Eigen heard they trusted each other''s abilities, he was stunned and asked with a weird expression. "Is this what you want?"


    Radvils didn''t answer. He clearly knew Principal Eigen asked him about their will to win and the confidence that gave them the victory even if they needed to carry the whole team. This was happening to Theo''s team.


    All of them believed they had the ability to follow the n and wouldn''t be a burden. And even if the others messed up, they could me them while fixing the mistakes.


    Even without Radvils'' answer, Principal Eigen already understood what kind of team he wanted to see. It was true that Theo''s team was strong, but he stillined, "However, this team�� They are just ying at high risk. Although I won''t say something like one mistake will determine the fate of the battle, they will still experience a huge setback that will impact their overall performance. They may even lose this battle."


    Radvils ignored him and continued with his assessment.


    "You can see from this point, they change their target. Instead of going for Jay Mao, Theodore Griffith is nning to handle Laust Lange together with Ellen Marcines. And he will handle it with��" Before Radvils finished, Theo already summoned his clone and pushed Iv Rith back.


    "What? Clone? Did he hide it this whole time?" Eigen widened his eyes in shock.


    "After getting a word from my subordinate, I''ve been following this child''s progress. And although I can say hisck of experience may be his greatest setback, his head is above the rest. This is the n he has built since the beginning of this training session. The reason he dares to execute this n was due to this very trump card!" Radvils couldn''t help but smile. "Interesting."


    Eigen narrowed his eyes, stared at him for a few seconds, and said, "You seem to have fun with this kid. Are you nning to��"


    "But��" Radvils waved his hand to stop Eigen''s words, let out a long sigh and pointed at a certain person in the field. "Their n was perfect, except they miscalcted on one thing. No, I should say, they hadn''t experienced the might of this person and the burden ced in his position."

 Chapter 106 – Enchanter

    <h4>Chapter 106 - Enchanter</h4>


    Clone Theo headed straight to Laust Lange.


    "!!!" Laust widened his eyes and took a step back. He wondered what kind of surprise Theo would bring, but he also didn''t want to see it at this time.


    "Laust. Be careful!" Iv shouted when he found a glowing blue ball in Clone Theo''s hand. "That clone can use skill!"


    When Phyrill saw that skill, he dropped his jaw in surprise before a huge smile appeared on his face. "I shouldn''t say a diamond anymore�� What is more expensive than a diamond? Ah, I don''t know. Just say, it''s moon rock!"


    Even the others were shocked because they never saw a clone using a skill before.


    "Magic Bullet." Theo released all his Magic Bullet simultaneously so he could reach his destination without any interference.


    Seeing this attack, Laust gritted his teeth and leaped to the air before there was another blue glow above him.


    Laust hurriedly raised an Elemental Shield like Theo, but he skillfully created a huge screen to prevent any of these ice attacks from hitting him.


    Boom.


    The ice attack exploded when it hit Laust''s Elemental Shield, but the burden of that ice was far heavier than he expected.


    Laust soon fell to the ground while maintaining eye contact with Theo to avoid getting hit from behind.


    It seemed Clone Theo didn''t have an intention to hit him because he only had his fist, so Theo decided to regroup with Ellen first.


    "Give me five minutes. We will handle this." Ellen raised all five fingers with a nonchnt tone in order to provoke Laust, but thetter seemed to have cooled down after getting defeated by Theo previously. She clicked her tongue since the cheap provocation didn''t work. "You too have grown, eh�� Such a shame. What are you gonna do now that your enemy has evolved too, Theo?"


    Laust obviously wanted to shut him down, so he charged again.


    However, before the fight restarted, Laust halted his footstep and turned around, finding an object flying to them.


    Bam.


    The spear magnificently returned to its original owner. On the opposite edge, Sihan extended his hand to the limit as he threw that spear from one edge to another.


    "Oi, oi, Sihan! Are you trying to kill our Theo?" Ellenined with a pout. "Take a look at the spear, it impales the wall."


    Sihan snorted. "Just be grateful that I return it or I will impale your head with that spear next time."


    Hearing Sihan''sment, Phyrillughed out loud. "Our Sihan has finally followed up a joke. Now, this is nice."


    "��" Theo himself didn''t say anything and pulled the spear as quickly as possible.


    Jay, on the other hand, clenched his teeth, knowing it was his blunder. He never expected Sihan to throw that spear back to Theo. With the addition of Phyrill''s second sword, Clone Theo now had one weapon that could slowly suppress Laust with Ellen''s assistance.


    "I will be helping you." Ellen smiled and raised her staff, summoning a few more blue lights above her head.


    Clone Theo didn''t respond to her for the time being and maintained his focus on Laust.


    Thetter started running toward them while knowing it took all of him just to buy time against Ellen, and yet, Theo now had a weapon.


    Theo also charged forward and thrust his spear to Laust''s neck while thetter used the same lengthy weapon to cut his neck.


    Both of them used Elemental Shield at the same time, parrying each other''s weapons.


    "��" Theo and Laust looked at each other without any expression. The moment they got separated, Ellen would be using her skill to bombard him, so his best shot to buy more time was to remain close to Theo.


    Knowing this reason, Theo tried to leap backward. Laust responded beautifully and followed him straight within one to two feet away from him. He widened his eyes as veins bulged on his forehead. He was angry at Theo for several reasons, but he certainly felt frustrated to see Theo leading this battle.


    Even so, winning remained his priority, so he swallowed that anger and maintained his distance.


    "I think you are underestimating me�� I''m still an enchanter, you know." Seeing Laust try his hardest, Iv Rith smirked and dropped to his knees before a golden circle shone below his feet. It expanded and shone brightly until it covered the whole room. "My job is always the same. To increase everyone''s strength."


    "Boost. Leu Aran (Enhanced Talent)."


    Theo widened his eyes while Ellen and the others knew this possibility. Unfortunately, they couldn''t do anything to Iv because Theo hadn''t experienced fighting an Enchanter.


    When the light hit Laust, a circle that looked like a bracelet appeared on both wrists and ankles.


    In that instant, he felt an amazing power swelling inside his body. He raised his sword and mmed it on Theo without hesitation.


    Not wanting to die yet, Theo raised his spear and blocked the attack. But�� Theo clenched his teeth soon after feeling Laust''s boosted power. "Kh."


    Laust didn''t y with him anymore andunched him several feet away before turning to Ellen. "Now, this is more like it."


    With Laust''s new strength, the situation started getting worse. Yet, it didn''t end on him.


    When the light hit Kong, he received the same power as Laust and mmed his sword to Phyrill.


    Phyrill, who only had one sword, used both hands to hit his sword, but despite the increase of strength from his transformation, he was blown away.


    "Bam."


    It was Phyrill''s turn to get mmed into the wall.


    "It''s your loss."


    The same applied to Jay. He took advantage of the additional strength to push Sihan back despite being a magician.


    Sihan then raised his shield because Jay already summoned a twister flying toward him. Surprisingly, the twister got enchanted by another power until it gotpressed right in front of Sihan''s shield.


    As soon as it hit, thepressed wind burst and created a powerful shock wave, shaking the field. At the same time, Sihan was pushed back twenty feet away from his original position and left a huge trail on the ground.


    "��" Sihan narrowed his eyes and checked everyone''s situation, wondering if he should regroup to do another thing.


    Iv also took this chance to talk down on Theo. "You think you are great? No. The fact they chose you is due to luck. If they had Alea, their team would have already won."

 Chapter 107 – Turn Around The Situation

    <h4>Chapter 107 - Turn Around The Situation</h4>


    "Thisment��" Ellen narrowed her eyes and took thatment personally. No matter what factor they chose to bring Theo, Theo had already be their teammate. She couldn''t tolerate anyone looking down on him, especially after seeing how hard he worked during the past three weeks.


    Her expression turned unimaginably cold as though her carefree attitude and expression never existed to begin with.


    "Haiz�� I don''t feel like doing it anymore. It seems The Student Council has never disciplined their own mouth." Ellen raised her staff, looking at them with anger. This was the first time she showed such an expression. "Jay. I apud your team for making me sick."


    "!!!" Jay widened his eyes and felt a chill down his spine. He instinctively shouted. "You idiot! Be careful. She is always hiding behind Alea''s shadow with that uninterested expression, but she is doing it to hide her strength! She is stronger than me!"


    Laust widened his eyes when she summoned five glowing balls. This shouldn''t be surprising to him, but when he added the three lotuses above his head, he didn''t know what to say anymore. Instead of using skills in session, Ellen appeared to be using two skills simultaneously.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Laust gritted his teeth and stepped forward to avoid the lotuses that slightly leaned to his back before he summoned his Elemental Shield to block all the iing magic.


    "Freezing Shot."


    Bang.


    The three lotuses expanded and turned into a wall on his back, making him unable to retreat or redirect the hit, while all Freezing Shots hit Laust simultaneously. Ultimately, one of the Freezing Shots shattered a part of his shield and pierced his arm.


    This was why Jay said Ellen could have taken the top spot for the magician in this school. He shouted, "Laust. Leave that ce. Ellen Marcines has a split personality that allows her to use two skills simultaneously! I thought she would never release it again, but I was wrong!"


    "!!!"


    "I don''t want to get angry, but you are trying to challenge my patient this entire time." Ellen snorted coldly before raising her hand to use another magic.


    Theo himself was stunned when he saw Ellen''s change.


    Even so, he quickly calmed down since Ellen was his teammate. Instead of focusing on Ellen, Clone Theo and Theo raised their hands and summoned Magic Bullets.


    "Laust. Watch out!" Iv warned Laust because it might heavily injure him if those attacks hit him.


    Yet, Theo actually changed his target andunched all his Magic Bullets to Jay.


    "What?!" Jay widened his eyes as he could see that the Magic Bullet was too spread, making it impossible for him to dodge even to the air. Even Sihan might be hit by all these bullets.


    "Are you insane?" Jay pointed his staff to Theo and created a translucent green barrier to block all the Magic Bullets in his direction.


    However, unlike Jay, Sihan had two weapons. He simply raised his shield to block the bullets from hitting him while shing his sword.


    "Sh*t!" Jay clenched his staff and tried to block it with the handle, but Sihan simply ducked down and shed both legs.


    This was simply a difference between their specialty. Even Ellen admitted she would be nothing if she needed to fight Sihan or Phyrill in closebat.


    Jay lost his bnce and dropped to the ground. His barrier dissolved and two bullets pierced his stomach and right leg. Sihan then sliced his neck and killed Jay.


    Seeing him turning around after killing Jay, Theo hurriedly pointed his forefinger to Iv as if telling him to handle Iv Rith next.


    Sihan nodded and charged at him.


    "If I''m not wrong, Ellen''s past nickname was Demon Witch��" Phyrill narrowed his eyes and remained calm despite the difference in strength between him and Kong.


    Surprisingly, Ellen heard his words as she red at him with all the killing intent she had suppressed this whole time. "Brat. You don''t want to anger me right now."


    All the hairs on his arms rose as Phyrill shuddered as if someone just clutched his heart. Her cold gaze literally scared him out of his life. This reaction showed how different she had be.


    "Sca�� Scary!" Phyrill paused for a moment, straightened his back, and shouted, "Sorry, Ma''am!"


    Kong didn''t care about all the bullsh*ts Phyrill uttered this whole time. What he cared about was the fact one of his teammates died and it was the Vice President of the Student Council.


    He turned around andmanded. "Iv! You handle both Phyrill and Sihan. I will help Laust to turn around the situation. This match is still salvageable."


    Before he could leave Phyrill alone, Phyrill''s voice resounded in his ears. "No. Why are you looking down on me? I may not be a Student Council Member or a Disciplinary Committee like Sihan, but it''s only because I often fell sick."


    Phyrill walked forward and raised his sword, but Kong had enough of him, so he mmed that big sword to him to pounce him away.


    To avoid this attack, Phyrill raised his sword right before his face. When Kong''s sword hit his de, Phyrill let it flow and bent his body sideward, showing his flexibility. Instead of getting blown away, Phyrill avoided it by twisting his body almost ny degrees to the side.


    "What?!" Kong lowered his vision and saw Phyrill using one step to regain his bnce. He also dropped his sword as blue lightning sparked around his hands.


    "You''re pissing me off." Phyrill''s expression turned cold and hit Kong''s exposed chest with those two small hands. "Electric Shock."


    Boom.


    A shock wave flew out of Kong''s back as if Phyrill''s electric shock managed to pierce through his body, stunning all other people in this room. They never thought Phyrill hid this kind of power.


    But then some of them remembered a certain rumor. If Phyrill didn''t have a weak body, he would have be the number one among the second year by utilizing his werewolf transformation and lightning affinity.


    Phyrill made an evil smirk as he blew away Kong''s giant body until it crashed to the wall in the opposite direction that should be almost a hundred feet away.


    Bam.


    "Luckily, I don''t need to hold back since it''s only a virtual body�� How I love this virtual world��" Phyrill pointed his finger at Theo and Ellen. "The challenge is on. Let''s see who can kill their opponent faster. You and Ellen or I or Sihan."

 Chapter 108 – Rude Kid

    <h4>Chapter 108 - Rude Kid</h4>


    Theo didn''t answer him while Ellen only red at him. When Phyrill was about to move, Theo already surrounded Laust from two sides.


    His clone faced Laust with his spear from the front while Theo would find a way to kill him from behind.


    "To the side." Ellen''s voice resounded in his ears as a warning before something big happened.


    And with Theo looking at Ellen, he already understood what magic she nned to use. He and his clone move around in unison, giving way to Ellen''s magic.


    "Ice Wave."


    Ice Spikes emerged from the ground in a fan-shaped area, making their way to Laust. With Theo and his clone on his side, he had two choices, either jumped to the air or beat one of them.


    Although he didn''t want to admit it, he didn''t have confidence in beating Theo in one move, even if it was only his clone.


    Laust ultimately leaped to the air to avoid the Ice Wave, but Ellen''s second magic already appeared to strike him.


    "!!!" Laust widened his eyes and summoned his Elemental Shield.


    The attack was a blue ice crystal with a shape simr to that of a snowke. The crystal expanded to ten times his body and dropped on top of him.


    "Gh." Feeling the weight of the ice crystal, Laust started falling down.


    Theo and his clone finally made their move. They leaped to the air and struck him.


    It might be hisst struggle, but Laust managed to spin his body and made a 360 swing, hitting both Phyrill''s sword or Theo''s blue spear.


    Sadly, Theo only smiled at him and said, "You''re strong, but this is the end."


    As soon as he finished those words, the Magic Bullets both he and his clone had left earlier pierced his body. It was like when he hit the Orc during the battle beside the cliff with Magic Bullet suspended for a few seconds in the air.


    Laust looked unwilling, but the fight had already ended the moment Jay died.


    His body began to disappear and eventually crashed to the ground with a giant ice crystal on top of him.


    He then turned around and found Kong standing still with Phyrill behind him.


    Kong looked at his chest and clenched his teeth as Phyrill''s sword already pierced through his heart. "Gh. This is impossible."


    "Nothing is impossible. You''re the one underestimating me, so keep doing so from now on." Phyrill shrugged and pulled out his sword. "I can kill someone easier when they underestimate me."


    Kong''s body also disappeared, leaving only Iv in the enemy group. Thetter could only say, "Seriously? Do you want me to fight against all of them?"


    Without being able to return a single blow, Iv finally died in Phyrill''s hand and the match was concluded.


    Their consciousness returned to their body and Theo was the first toe out since he needed to pick their next member.


    Although he hated Laust Lange, he knew the best pick would be him. He could endure Sihan in this team anyway, so adding another person wouldn''t be a problem.


    The others had left their training capsules and Theo could see the worry in their eyes, especially Ellen, who wanted to see whether Theo could ovee his hatred and see the big picture or just let the hatred take over his rationality.


    Sihan believed Theo could do it since he had seen his character for the past three weeks while Phyrill''s expression brightened. He couldn''t care less about the fifth member since he had found the wielder of the Magic Bullet he gave to Joker.


    Before Phyrill made a fuss with his Magic Bullet, Theo picked Laust Lange as the fifth member.


    "Oi, Theo!" Seeing Theo had made his choice, Phyrill quickly made his way toward Theo and grabbed his shoulders. "You�� You must be the one I met back then!"


    Theo already knew this was supposed to happen, but Theo didn''t want him to know either. Instead of admitting or ying dumb, he decided to redirect it to another person to make it more believable, saying, "I don''t know what you mean�� I received this skill from someone else. He is my mentor. Do you happen to know him?"


    "Your mentor?" Phyrill was taken aback and frowned, wondering if what Theo said was true. Obviously, after getting used to Alea''s reading eyes, Theo''s poker face had improved.


    Although Alea could still see through him, it was enough for Phyrill.


    "Yes. Now that I think about it, my mentor said he received the skill from someone else. That person was a petite guy that acted annoyingly cheerful. Wait a minute�� That person sounds like you��" Theo narrowed his eyes and drew a gasp. "You were the one who gave this skill to my mentor?"


    "You are not the person I''m looking for?" Phyrill started to doubt himself. Even though there was a fifty percent chance that Theo was Joker, he couldn''t find anything to prove it too. Hence, Phyrill didn''t know what to say to him.


    "You seem to know each other?" Ellen smiled and tried to find out what was going on, but Phyrill knew it would be moreplicated if Ellen were involved.


    He sighed and clicked his tongue. "I have found the wrong person, but you''re the clue to that person. So, how about it? Do you want to join my Hilbert Family?"


    "I am honored to receive the invitation, but I would like to remain neutral for the time being." Theo smiled and shook his head.


    "Tch." Phyrill didn''t show anything else to Ellen or Sihan and returned to the couch, waiting for Laust toe over.


    Ellen was confused, but she soon heard the knocking door.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    "Come in," said Ellen while opening the door, offering her best smile.


    Surprisingly, Laust didn''t enter and looked at them with a serious expression. He refused to see Theo, so he said, "I have no n in cooperating with Theodore Griffith. You can count me out of your n. I will only do one thing for you in the match, but that''s all."


    He rudely threw that remark and turned around, leaving the building.


    Sihan and Phyrill frowned and wondered if they just took in a time bomb. However, Ellen seemed to have a more extreme view of Laust.


    An evil smile appeared on her face as she said with squinted eyes, scaring Phyrill as he instinctively hid behind Sihan. "I see�� A rude kid needs to be punished."

 Chapter 109 – Punish Laust?

    <h4>Chapter 109 - Punish Laust?</h4>


    "Oi, oi. Are you sure to let him leave like that, Ellen?" Phyrillined while hiding behind Sihan.


    Sihan simply moved to the side to show Phyrill''s body if Ellen wanted to beat him up. The impact of Ellen''s second personality seemed to influence Sihan too.


    Theo, on the other hand, didn''t care much since he also hated to cooperate with him.


    "This is not going to work if there is no coordination. We can somehow handle it with Theo''s clone, but the problem remains the same. There is also a possibility of us losing, so what should we do?" Phyrill asked Ellen.


    Ellen had yet to answer his previous question, so she also didn''t answer this one.


    Instead of Ellen, Sihan focused on Theo since he was the one nning their strategy. "What is your opinion?"


    Theo nced at Sihan and contemted. "It''s surely troublesome, but nothing can be done. Even if there are only four of us, I will try to work it out."


    "I guess that''s the only way." Phyrill nodded in agreement.


    However, Sihan seemed to feel Theo had yet to finish his words, so he asked, "And?"


    "And?" Phyrill furrowed his eyebrows before giving another thought.


    Neither Phyrill nor Sihan would expect Theo to say something so cold as they widened their eyes and opened their mouths when they heard the next wordsing out of his mouth.


    "And��" Theo took a deep breath and faced them with a serious expression. "If Laust makes one strange move, I would like all four of us to kill him first! Even if we keep winning, it''s probably to remove him for good."


    The room fell silent as the atmosphere turned heavy. Even Ellen frowned, feeling Theo shouldn''t do something like that, but she also knew where he came from. Theo became this ruthless due to the deep grudge between them.


    Instead of lecturing him or something, Ellen walked toward him, circling around the couch.


    Phyrill quickly changed his hiding spot while Sihan maintained his calm.


    Ellen stopped behind Theo as he raised his head, ignoring the two peaks between their faces. He looked Ellen in the eyes, showing he had no interest in that regard. "Are you going to lecture me because of what I said earlier?"


    Ellen suddenly smiled. There was no anger in her eyes, but her current condition made her smile look even more terrifying. "Theo�� Would you like to help me punish a problem child?"


    Theo gulped down and pondered over the matter since he didn''t want to disturb the match bnce.


    "Don''t worry. It won''t disrupt our coordination." Ellen waved her hand, trying to convince Theo.


    After a few minutes, Theo finally nodded his head. "What is your n?"


    "To punish a rude kid, there is one thing that you need to do��" Ellen made a huge smile and said something disturbing, contrary to her smile. "We need to put him in his ce."


    "O-oh?!" Phyrill thought Ellen wanted to convince Laust by talking to him, but he realized Ellen was still angry. "Dark Ellen."


    "Do you say something, Phyrill?" Ellen narrowed her eyes and looked at Phyrill, who quickly disappeared behind the chair.


    "No, Ma''am!"


    Theo shook his head helplessly. Phyrill wouldn''t change even in this situation, so he just ssified him as someone beyond redemption. He then looked Ellen in the eyes and asked, "What do you want me to do?"


    Ellen lowered her body and put her mouth next to Theo''s ears, whispering something to him. It took her two minutes to exin everything, making the others curious about what she nned to do.


    Meanwhile, Theo''s expression kept changing, finding a huge change in her manner and n.


    Ellen appeared to have been holding back this whole time behind thatziness.


    When Ellen released him, Theo let out a long sigh and nced at Ellen, "You know what�� I don''t particrly agree with your method, but it doesn''t mean I won''t ept it. Let me give it another thought and revise the n a little bit before exining it to you. You don''t mind, right?"


    Satisfied, Ellen closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a deep breath. Once she opened her eyes, she revealed the samezy eyes that didn''t have an interest in this world. She only smiled and gave a thumb up to Theo. "Good. I will be waiting for you."


    Sihan turned off the system and told the system that they would be leaving soon. Ellen patted Theo''s shoulders from behind while saying, "Alright. Since we are done here, do you want to have another training or rest for today?"


    "I''m good for another round." Phyrill raised his hand while adding a condition. "As long as I don''t need to fight the Demon Witch, I will do it."


    Surprisingly, Ellen didn''t re up anymore and nodded. "Good. How about you, Theo?"


    "I don''t mind."


    Ellen then turned to Sihan and simply looked at him for a few seconds before saying with a smile. "Alright. Sihan is fine too."


    "��" Sihan''s eyebrows twitched, but he didn''t correct her or something.


    "Let me ask them whether we can use another room since this ce will be used for thepetition." Ellen quickly made her way out to ask them, leaving the three guys above his head.


    "Theo, what did she say to you?" Phyrill couldn''t contain his curiosity and hurriedly asked.


    Theo shook his head and refused him. "Well�� How do I say it�� I don''t feel like I want to offend her."


    "Ugh. Why are you so mysterious about it? You make me even more scared." Phyrill made a weird face and became a good boy when he heard someonee.


    Ellen magically returned within less than a minute, saying, "Alright, guys. I have found a room for us. Let''s go."


    The group ultimately left the room.


    ��


    One weekter.


    After another week of training, Theo felt he had been ready for everything. If he didn''t meet Alea this time, it just meant they were not destined to be teammates.


    He went to school and met up with his teammates before finding Laust Lange hiding in the corner of the building alone.


    Theo couldn''t care less about him for the time being since what he wanted to know was the next pairing.


    "Theo," Ellen called him while pointing at the screen.


    Theo turned around and raised his vision, finding their group as well as Alea''s group.


    B30, D55, E2, F1 and F3 in B-001, B-002, and B-003 Versus B5, D1, E4, J2 and F10 in B-021, B-022 and B-023.


    "We have finally found Alea. It''s time to hunt the so-called genius." Theo smiled.

 Chapter 110 – Alea’s New Teammates

    <h4>Chapter 110 - Alea��s New Teammates</h4>


    When the group went toward their room, they saw Alea and her group standing in front of their room, looking very excited.


    Alea stood in front and crossed her arms. "Hehe, since you stopped us in front of our room back then, I am stopping you right now."


    Theo and the others simply looked at her as if she was a fool. Instead of focusing on her, Theo checked her teammates.


    As expected, Hontar remained in the group as he was the only one waving his hand to Theo as a greeting.


    Next to Hontar was another male that seemed to have the same build as Theo. He had short straight silver hair and ck eyes.


    Before he checked the other one next to him, Phyrill widened his eyes and looked at both of them in surprise. "The twins?!"


    "Twins?" Theo narrowed his eyes and saw the female that looked like him. It was simply the man with a bit more femininity and long hair. He understood what he meant by the twins, but they seemed to be a bit different, especially with the warning from Phyrill.


    Before he could assess the situation, there was another girl in the group. She was slightly shorter than Theo. Her face was pale but matched her grey-colored short hair. She looked at Theo with a calm expression and asked, "Are you Theodore Griffith? The one that Alea has been searching for this whole time?"


    He looked at her and tilted his head in confusion, wondering what Alea had told her.


    "I have been wondering what kind of person you are, but you don''t seem to be someone special." She gave a rude remark before Phyrill made his way between them, stopping this person.


    "I don''t think you need to say anything more because you can see it in the arena. And do you think you''re special?" Phyrill smirked and released a bit of his killing intent. "Let me tell you one thing, don''t talk big unless to an unknown person. The p in your face will hurt you so much if you lose against him."


    "��" The female narrowed her eyes, stared at Phyrill and Theo, and turned around. "Interesting. I am looking forward to our match."


    "Well, well, this is rather not a pleasant meeting." Ellen smiled and decided to trigger all of them, especially Alea. She slipped her hand in Theo''s arm and gently pulled him into the room. "Rather than wasting our time with them, let''s go inside."


    Theo didn''t show any resistance, making Alea drop her jaw. Hontar could only shake his head helplessly, knowing what kind of treatment Alea received from Theo. He just thought, ''It''s over.''


    Theo''s group didn''t hesitate to enter their room with a cool expression as if Alea and her team never existed.


    "Hontar�� Howe? Howe?" Alea turned around and pointed at the room with a shocked expression.


    "Chill, Princess. Let''s go to our room too�� We are their opponents right now."


    While the two returned to their room with Alea throwing a fuss, Ellen pped her hands and said, "Sorry, Theo. I just wanted to tease Alea a bit."


    Theo shrugged. "It''s fine. Anyway, let''s check the information about them first."


    "While you are watching the videos, let me exin all the things I know about the twins." Phyrill raised his hand. "The male is a ranger. His name is Makkal Avtor. From what I know, his uracy is said to be the best in the school.


    "From the information I have, he seems to be a good archer with a clear field of vision, pulling one random shot after another to confuse us. Some miss some hits, making us unable to know which arrow will hit us. Hence, we should take caution in dealing with him as his uracy is a real deal.


    "As for his twin sister, Leca Avtor, she is a summoner. I don''t know how many she can summon at once, but I am afraid we will be outmanned by them. The twins often hunt together with the summoned creature as their fighters while the brother bes the main hitter.


    "Both of them are among the top in the second year, but the most dangerous one will be the brother. If I''m not wrong, the brother has a blessing from a Hero Level figure."


    "A blessing?" Theo frowned, feeling a bit pressured.


    "Yes. This is a well-known fact since the brother refused to join the student council because his sister was not chosen. The blessing came from an Archer called Einar Eindridesson Thambarskelfir�� I don''t know if I pronounce it right, but you get the idea.


    "That archer is famous in the Viking era. He is known to use a heavy bow, making the string even stronger to match with the quality. There is a record of him shooting an arrow and piercing a stone wall or bending a metal te."


    "I see." Theo nodded and asked, "Anyone knows anything about thest girl?"


    Surprisingly, Sihan was the first to answer. "The girl''s name is Aisha Gata. The main candidate for the Disciplinary Committee. In terms of fighting prowess, she is at the same level as Laust and you, but if you take her blessing into ount, there will be a big difference��"


    "Another blessing?" Theo wondered how many people actually had a blessing. "By the way, is it alright to have a blessing from another country''s hero?"


    "Yes. That''s perfectly fine." Ellen nodded. "You don''t know about it? They always choose a candidate that suits them the most regardless of their race, nationality, and so on. Of course, there are a few cases where the home country finds the blessing and invites them to their own country by giving many benefits�� For the country, it''s necessary, especially if the blessingse from a famous hero or being. It''s a matter of face."


    "No wonder." Theo contemted for a moment and saw the screen, finding Aisha return to life. "Wait�� This��"


    "Yes. She is a healer as well as a fighter, and her blessingse from the father of Western medicine. The blessing is known to be from a man who developed an extensive understanding of how the body works, including the interconnection of organs, bones, wounds, diseases, and other things.


    "Understanding everything and getting a new kind of power from the other side, the blessing evolved and basically turned her into a pseudo-immortal like healing her wounds in an instant and attaching her separated body like a zombie. The only way to defeat her is to slice her into pieces, especially her heart and brain."


    The entire room fell silent, knowing this girl would be a pain in the ass since she was also a good fighter.


    Theo pondered and asked, "And who gave her the blessing?"


    Sihan took a deep breath and answered. "He is�� Hippocrates."

 Chapter 111 – Strategy

    <h4>Chapter 111 - Strategy</h4>


    "��" Everyone was confused. Although they knew many things, their brain couldn''t remember everything, so most didn''t know anything about Hippocrates. Even so, they understood that killing Aisha would be insanely difficult.


    "And�� She is crazy." Sihan added as there was another reason she was recruited. "Due to her ability, she doesn''t care about death and her pain tolerance is practically maximum. Hermon sense is distorted due to the continuous pain she experiences when dying."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and contemted their next move.


    "For now, I think their formation will be like this." Theo projected his screen after fooling around with his Skylink.


    At the bottom of the screen, they found Leca and Makkal''s names. They were a summoner and an archer, so it was normal for them to stay on the back.


    To stop their enemy''s advance, Alea would be filling up one spot, which was basically at the edge, allowing Aisha to take the middle position. She would be able to heal her teammates like Iv Rith in this position. Last but not least, on the other edge would be where Leca''s summoned creatures stopped their force.


    "Hmm��" Ellen squinted her eyes and asked, "What is your basis?"


    "Before that, I will give you our position first." Theo stopped her and put their names on it.


    Sihan''s name appeared in front of Alea while Theo took the role to stop Aisha. Ellen would be on the back, bing their support to maintain the coordination of the others. Phyrill and Laust would be dealing with the summoned creatures.


    Theo pointed at Ellen''s name, "I don''t think I should give you another exnation about your role and the reason I position you in this ce, right?"


    "Yes." Ellen nodded in agreement and said, "I will support anyone in trouble. Besides, I agree with your suggestion. I will try to match your moveter."


    Theo nodded as they nned to "punish" Laustter. He then pointed to Sihan''s name. "Since we''re sure Aisha will take the middle spot so her healing skill can reach all directions, Sihan will be in charge of Alea. Just be honest, who can stop Alea as long as Sihan? But��"


    "But��" Phyrill and Sihan looked at him while furrowing their eyebrows.


    Theo opened Alea''s video and showed it to Sihan.


    "This��" Sihan widened his eyes in amazement.


    "You know about it, Theo?" Ellen was amused. To think Alea would give that secret to Theo, she wondered how far their rtionship progressed.


    "She hunted like that when she was with me." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, Alea is more dangerous than ever. ording to her, she is three times stronger with her left hand. Be careful."


    "Three times." Phyrill and Sihan twisted their eyebrows before Phyrill chuckled. "Oi, oi. Our number one genius in the school is evolving to a far higher level? Are you serious? Sihan, can you even hold her back?"


    "I can''t give you any promise, so my answer is I am not sure. I can see that her swing is sharper and more precise, so I believe it''s true. In that case, I can only do it for ten minutes�� I think." Sihan shook his head helplessly since he didn''t know Alea''s current strength.


    "Well, we can''t afford Alea to have her way, so we need to end the fight as soon as possible." Ellen then turned to Theo with a small smile. "Still, to think Alea starts recovering from her trauma because of losing you�� I''m curious about your rtionship with her."


    Theo ignored her words and moved to his name. "I will be handling this new girl, Aisha Gata. She seems interested in me, so I believe I can take her attention for a while."


    "Alea will get jealous, you know." Ellen teased Theo again, but thetter only looked at her coldly before she pouted in disappointment, knowing that look only appeared when Theo didn''t want to continue with a certain joke.


    "Next will be Phyrill and Laust. You two are going to handle the summoned creatures. ording to Phyrill, their number will be above us, so having a pair between second-grade and first-grade students is a good idea to make her focus on you. Besides, I believe Hontar will be among them, making it hard for you.


    "After all, Alea will be on the other side and Ellen will stop her from interfering with the fight. If hees to me, I can buy time with my clone, so they will probably understand that too and choose this way." Theo exined the reason.


    "Well, killing Hontar, huh. I have done it once, so I will simply do it again. The problem will be how many creatures will appear on the battlefield." Phyrill voiced their problem.


    "I know. But considering my skill, they will take a precaution of me suddenly making my way to them, so the summoned creatures will be concentrated on one side while one or two will remain at the summoner''s side. From what I can see, this girl can summon three creatures: an ape with a sword and a shield, a bear with gauntlets, and a huge fire lizard that will protect her. I can send my clone to help you, but��"


    Before he finished, Laust''s voice resounded in his ears. "No need. I can handle that Hontar myself."


    Ellen narrowed her eyes and felt displeased. Theo, on the contrary, nodded his head without mentioning his rude tone or attitude. "Fine. You take care of Hontar. Phyrill, can you handle the other two?"


    "Sure thing." Phyrill agreed without hesitation, knowing Theo must have a n for Laust and this battle.


    "You all should pay attention to the archer because his arrow is powerful. If you are careless, you will die before you know it. If you can, keep using your Awareness." Ellen added a simple piece of advice.


    "Don''t worry. I will be raining them down with Magic Bullet from time to time. Since we''re nning to end this fight as quickly as possible, I won''t have a problem throwing continuous Magic Bullet even if my Magic Power will be drained sooner than I expected. This way, I can suppress them a bit, making it hard for Makkal to shoot at you. Of course, please pay attention to him for extra caution." Theo nodded in agreement. "To be honest, I don''t have a n like yesterday. Let''s just do a simple maneuver, shall we?"


    Phyrill and Ellen smiled as they were waiting for this. Although the n would surely not work one hundred percent, it should be enough to shift the battlefield like yesterday.

 Chapter 112 – Last Match

    <h4>Chapter 112 - Last Match</h4>


    Theo and the others appeared on the field and found Alea and her team waiting for them. Ellen smiled and pointed her finger at Alea. "Start."


    Alea narrowed her eyes because she thought Theo would use some kinds of tricks before the match and by starting the match as soon as possible, Alea should be able to prevent Theo from using any tricks, so she shouted without hesitation. "Start."


    Everyone except Ellen went to the middle before Sihan turned to the left while Phyrill and Laust went to the right. Of course, Laust was reluctant to do it, but Phyrill forced him to do it by watching him.


    Alea''s group reciprocated their strategy by sending their best fighters to do all the work while seeing the number in the middle of the field.


    The moment it reached zero, Leca made the first move and summoned three creatures. The first was a red ape holding a sword and shield at the same time. The second was a brown bear equipped with metal gauntlets on his hands. The bear and ape walked on two hands, raising their guards while making their way toward Phyrill.


    Obviously, Hontar led both of them from the front while raising his sword before turning around, seeing Laust making his way toward him.


    "Interesting." Hontar smiled and pointed his finger at Phyrill.


    Leca understood the signal and made the two creatures intercept Phyrill while the third one remained on her side, protecting her from any attacks.


    Phyrill stared at the red-colored lizard for a second and regained his focus.


    Meanwhile, Theo was facing Aisha from their side. As representatives of the first year as well as the person Alea was searching for, Aisha had a great interest in Theo.


    "I would like to know what kind of person you are�� I have never heard anything about you after all." Aisha smiled and went close to him.


    Last but not least, Sihan looked at Alea, specifically her left hand. "So, you have been holding back this whole time."


    "I just realized how hard it was for me to take in when I lost Theo to you guys." Alea shook her head helplessly and raised her left hand. "And now, I don''t think I want to experience it again. As expected, I shouldn''t think of my stupid trauma anymore."


    "You can only win if you can pass me�� But that''s not happening today." Sihan raised his shield and saw the count turn zero.


    Alea was the first to leap forward and shed his neck.


    Sihan simply raised his shield and blocked the swing before waving his sword.


    Alea already showed the difference in her fighting style by making her sword slide on the shield''s surface and hit Sihan''s sword.


    "��" Sihan narrowed his eyes and used his skill. His shield started glowing as he charged forward, pushing Alea back.


    "Shield Rush." Sihan kept pushing her back without mercy.


    Alea spun her body to avoid getting dragged to the wall, slipped past him, and tried to attack him from behind. Sihan threw his sword to his back like he did in his fight against Theo and made an almost 360 degree swing.


    Clink.


    The clicking metal sound echoed in their ears as Sihan turned around and shed his sword upwards.


    Alea blocked the swing while smiling. "Thank you for taking care of Theo this whole time."


    Sihan frowned and ignored her as they continued to sh.


    On the other hand, Theo thrust his spear at Aisha''s neck. Aisha raised both red-colored daggers and deflected the spear with one of the daggers while waving the other to stab Theo''s waist.


    "So, are you nning to talk to me while we are enjoying our fight?" Aisha smirked.


    He looked at this tomboyish girl and shook his head. "Unfortunately, it''s not possible."


    "!!!" Aisha sensed another presence behind him as she leaned to the left, taking a sneak peek at what was behind him and finding Clone Theo standing behind him.


    Before she could say anything, Clone Theo already summoned his Magic Bullets. Right before he released it, Theo quickly stepped to the side so that he could kill Aisha, but surprisingly, Aisha didn''t do anything to dodge or avoid this attack. Instead, she took it all as the ten Magic Bullets pierced through her body.


    There were holes on her head, body, and hands, yet, Aisha didn''t disappear.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and found the wounds closing at speed visible with naked eyes. ''Seriously? This is going to be troublesome.''


    "That''s hurt, you know." Aisha smirked as she had fully recovered and pointed her de at him.


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he said, "Don''t lie. This is a virtual world."


    "Oh, this is the first time you talked to me." Aisha licked her lips and said, "Do you think I''m a monster, Theodore Griffith?"


    Theo didn''t expect such a question, but Theo already knew the answer in his heart. His answer was simple. "Monster is a matter of attitude."


    "Ho?" Aisha widened her eyes in surprise while hitting Theo''s spear with her dagger.


    What Theo meant by attitude was their character. Instead of calling the beasts on the other side a monster, he ssified a human who raped, tortured, and did all those things as a monster. Appearance or skills were simply an empty shell.


    "That is the first time I heard that answer since I started asking this question in thest five years." Aisha smiled. "Now I think I can agree with you joining our group since I''m thest member chosen."


    "Do you talk this much every fight?!" Theo snorted.


    "It''s boring to fight without saying anything." Aisha shrugged. "Since I would only die in the worst case. It''s what I have experienced this whole time anyway."


    Theo sighed and stomped the ground, channeling the strength in his lower body to his arms. He then swung his spear and pushed Aisha back.


    "Then die for me." Theo and his Clone summoned Magic Bullets.


    "Try it and see if you can kill me." Aisha smiled and opened her hand wide as if she wanted Theo to rain her down with all those bullets. However, she soon got another thought when she saw Theo ncing over Phyrill and Laust''s side for a split second and understood what he wanted. "Not good! Hontar!"


    As she called Hontar''s name out loud, Theo released all twenty Magic Bullets to Hontar and the two beasts."

 Chapter 113 – Break Laust Apart

    <h4>Chapter 113 - Break Laust Apart</h4>


    A minute ago in Phyrill''s side, the most chaotic side of all, Phyrill dove right into the space between the ape and bear.


    "Hello, you zoo animals, nice to meet you." Phyrill smiled even though he knew these two were just data and the real monsters Leca summoned would be stronger than them.


    Leca ordered them to attack Phyrill, but before they could evenunch an attack, Ellen used her first skill of the day in this ce, nning to rain them down with some huge lotuses.


    "Ice Lotuses!"


    However, before the three lotuses fell to the ground, a loud explosion echoed in their ears as the shock wave greatly shook the ceiling.


    "��" Ellen raised her vision and found huge freezing marks on the ceiling. When her vision turned to the left, she found Makkal with his bow as if he just released three arrows to snipe all those three lotuses.


    "You won''t be able to do anything on my watch." Makkal''s lips curved as he challenged Ellen.


    "Interesting. It seems I need to teach this boy a bit." Ellen smiled with an unbothered expression as if she didn''t mean what she said earlier.


    As the two prepared their next move while watching what the others nned to do, Phyrill just hit the ape''s gauntlet but couldn''t even graze it.


    "This metal glove�� I am afraid it''s expensive." Phyrill narrowed his eyes and asked out loud. "Oi. How much is this glove on the market? It is impossible to buy such a thing at a cheap price in the market, right?"


    "You want to buy a more expensive one for me?" Leca smiled sweetly.


    "No. I just feel like you can hide inside the glove with that small body of yours." Phyrill shouted.


    "But you are shorter than me." Leca tilted her head in confusion. She said shorter instead of smaller because she was proud of having a slim body.


    "Since you insulted me, I don''t want to y with you anymore." Phyrill snorted and looked away as if he was truly offended by her remarks. Little did she know this gesture was for him to see Theo''s current action.


    They both agreed that in one minute, they would exchange positions, so he had been waiting for him.


    The ape and bear nned to strike Phyrill, but thetter saw Theo summoning all twenty Magic Bullets, so before they hit him, Phyrill transformed into a werewolf again and increased his strength and speed.


    Bam.


    Both the bear and ape missed Phyrill as he already disappeared,ing to Theo.


    ��


    On the other hand, when she first saw Theo''s Magic Bullets, he thought Theo nned to hit him or concentrated it to a certain point where he could kill her. However, it soon changed when she saw Theo taking a glimpse of the other battlefield.


    It was at that time she found Phyrill leaping toward them. "Not good. Leca!"


    Unfortunately, that shout came toote as Phyrill was already half way and Theo had released his Magic Bullet.


    The blue light balls released their power, leaving glowing trails in the air.


    Theo ran behind the Magic Bullet, heading straight to the two beasts. However, he was unlucky since the ape was in front of Hontar and the bear. The ape took a split second to react and raised his shield to block all the Magic Bullets.


    With its ten-foot body and the power and stability of that shield, the result didn''t need to be questioned anymore. At the same time, the bear with a bigger body hid behind the ape until all the Magic Bullets disappeared before looping around to attack Theo from the side.


    Theo didn''t let the bear do what he wanted and activated his Haste to increase his spear before changing his target to Hontar.


    His spear glowed as Theo recharged it with Focused Spear.


    Hontar widened his eyes. With Laust''s back facing Theo, Hontar could clearly see what Theo nned to do.


    Theo turned out faking that movement and summoned a Magic Bullet instead.


    "Laust!" Theo shouted, asking Laust to take one step to the right to clear the way for him to shoot.


    However, Laust didn''t even budge from his position despite sensing Theo behind him.


    Hontar opened his mouth in surprise, knowing that their coordination seemed to be not that good.


    Theo clicked his tongue and shot all the Magic Bullets to the bear. After that, he resummoned the clone, leaped to the air and tried to use the gravity and weight to strike the ape, who just raised his shield with all the force he could gather.


    "Focused Charge." He struck the shield and created a small shock wave.


    Unfortunately, the ape didn''t even budge an inch as if his attack wasn''t considered powerful.


    Theo then used the shield as his stepping and jumped off to the ground several feet behind Laust, reuniting with his clone.


    His clone tried to find another timing to use the Magic Bullet since he believed eliminating Hontar would be their top priority.


    To check Theo''s attention once more, Hontar slightly lowered his guard, allowing Laust to make aplete swing to break through his defense.


    Clone Theo already used his Magic Bullet and was ready to shoot it as soon as Laust gave the opportunity. Unfortunately, thetter chose to charge forward to end Hontar himself, only to find the bear went into his way and tried to hit him.


    Laust halted his steps and leaped back. He clicked his tongue as soon as hended on the ground.


    "Laust!" Theo called his name out loud.


    Unfortunately for him, Laust only looked at him coldly and said, "I already told you. I wouldn''t follow your decision."


    "Ho? A discord?" Hontar muttered and charged toward Laust. "Good enough for me."


    Leca tried to take another look at the situation to make sure they didn''t fake it and found Theo clenching his teeth


    He thought. ''I thought I could use Laust by matching his movement, oh boy, I was wrong.''


    He took a deep breath and clicked his tongue. ''No. I should have realized sooner that Laust can''t be changed no matter what method I use because I am the one controlling his change. Ellen said back then, to change Laust, we need to break him apart so he can reassemble himself. If he fails, he will just be useless and we are free to abandon him.''


    Theo nced at Laust''s back coldly as he threw all the matters out of his mind. ''Fine then. In order to win, I won''t expect anything from Laust.''


    He then turned around as his and Ellen''s eyes intertwined. There was no word exchanged, but Ellen understood what Theo nned to do.


    ''Time to break Laust.''

 Chapter 114 – F*cking Trash

    <h4>Chapter 114 - F*cking Trash</h4>


    While fighting Hontar, Laust thought about Theo, especially how he tried to control the entire battle with his strategy. ''I''m sick of being controlled. You are just like my father, who won''t acknowledge something in me. Don''t think you can control me.''


    Laust snorted, charged forward, and swung his de at Hontar.


    Hontar only smiled and received his blow while saying, "Oi, oi. You must be hated by the group since you are acting like an *sshole. Are you sure you can fit in a team? Or is it due to your defeat?"


    "Shut up!" Laust shouted and pressed him with all his might, but this was just a trap devised by Hontar.


    "Laust!" Theo shouted to warn him about an iing arrow.


    Laust instinctively shifted his vision to Makkal, who had drawn his bow.


    The arrow was ck as if it was made of metal, but they didn''t know what kind of arrow he currently used, so Laust only prepared his Elemental Shield to block the arrow.


    "Heavy Arrow." Makkal released his arrow as the arrow released an orange glow upon release.


    "Elemental Shield!" Laust summoned a translucent shield that blocked the arrow for a second. However, the arrow''s force was far greater than he expected as the shield cracked and shattered right after. The arrow continued on its way.


    "No!" Laust shouted and threw himself to the back to avoid the arrow, albeit the arrow still grazed his chest.


    At the same time, Hontar took this chance to get closer to Laust to get a clean strike at him.


    Laust could still parry that attack, but it surely left him in a disadvantageous position.


    This was the time Theo made his appearance by going around Laust and appeared on his left, leaving the bear and ape behind. Obviously, they chased him, but they needed to watch out to avoid hitting Hontar.


    Theo summoned his Magic Bullet as if he nned to help Laust. This was a different kind of move since Theo would stop Hontar and allow Laust to make a counterattack.


    And Laust thought Theo had decided to support him instead of controlling him. He couldn''t contain his smug smile as he said, "Nice decision, you f*cking trash."


    However, Laust and Hontar suddenly shuddered when Theo hadn''t released his Magic Bullet yet.


    He simply stared at Laust with eyes wide open as if telling him, "You want my help, don''t you?"


    Laust clenched his fists, wanting to shout, "Just shoot it, you dumbass." But his pride made him swallow those words. This was what Ellen wanted when she whispered her n to Theo.


    To follow the scenario both of them created and due to their discord earlier, Theo shot the ape with his Magic Bullet and stopped it.


    Theo charged toward Hontar with his spear while finding the bear and the ape helping him. Hontar leaped backward since he thought it wasn''t good to fight Theo when he was in an advantageous situation.


    The bear struck the ground where Theo was, but thetter jumped to the air.


    "You need to help each other or you won''t be able to beat us��" Leca smiled and asked the ape to hit Theo in this perfect position since he couldn''t dodge in the air.


    However, a sense of danger appeared in Makkal''s heart. As someone who observed the entire battlefield like Ellen, losing a certain figure would prove to be fatal.


    "Wait, where is Theo''s clone?" Makkal widened his eyes, noticing he lost track of Theo''s clone and trying to find him. He didn''t forget to warn the one in front. "Hontar. Be careful, Theo''s clone is missing."


    Unfortunately, it was toote as the ape suddenly had ten lights piercing its body. It turned out Clone Theo was behind them and had been waiting for this moment.


    Losing the strength to protect itself, the ape died in one sh with Theo''s Focused Charge.


    "What?!" Hontar sucked a cold breath when he realized what happened. He thought, ''Seriously? In order for Theo to position himself in the advantageous position and kill one of the summoned creatures, he turned Laust into bait from the start?''


    Makkal observed things differently and thought, ''No, he actually utilized the discord they have to make us focus on Laust. He kept making Laust shine brightly to use him at the very end.''


    Ellen only smiled with her squinted eyes as, without anyone realizing it, she had turned to another personality. She was enjoying this scene very much.


    Theonded on the ground softly and looked at Laust coldly.


    "Huh?" Laust obviously couldn''t ept that he got used, but his brain still tried to process what just happened. Sweats covered his back and confusion filled his face.


    Theo snorted and said while releasing his killing intent. "I don''t care what you want to do. You can keep doing things like always�� Just don''t you drag us down."


    "What did you say?!" Laust clenched his teeth and couldn''t ept his remark, but he didn''t know why he felt scared of Theo for once and instinctively took a step back.


    Even Alea somehow turned her head as if something dangerous was going on. A helpless smile appeared on her face as she muttered, "It seems there is someone pissing him off again�� Like me. Theo is truly scary if he is trying to control you. Laust Lange, huh. You have woken up something you shouldn''t."


    Alea remembered when Theo did this to her, she felt scared for the first time and couldn''t think of anything. It felt like submission. As long as she did what Theo said, everything would probably be fine.


    There was only one thing that could break the suppression. It was a trump card. She used her left hand to break free from his control and became his equal, but she didn''t know whether Laust had something like that.


    Even Aisha and Phyrill, who had been paying attention to Theo and Laust during their whole fight, stopped for a second to witness what would happen.


    They saw Theo saying one more thing to Laust to answer his question.


    "I''m telling you to not get in my way." Theo raised his middle finger and cursed him with the word Laust called him earlier. "Understand, you f*cking trash?"

 Chapter 115 – Pride

    <h4>Chapter 115 - Pride</h4>


    Theo didn''t want to hear anything from Laust, so he escaped to handle the bear.


    Laust gripped his sword even tighter. He wanted to attack Theo right now but knew it might be the worst thing he could do.


    He thought he could control his own emotion, but the treatment he got from his father and everyone else kept getting worse after that defeat.


    ''Will people keep looking down on me? When�� When will I break free from this curse? If I can''t even win against him, there won''t be a shred of hope to ovee this curse of mine.'' Laust began getting desperate as all the bad memories he had gotten from the past decade shed in his eyes.


    "No!" Laust gnashed his teeth and charged forward, trying to kill Hontar with everything he got. His sword started glowing as he made a fast sweep from the left.


    Hontar blocked that attack but didn''t push it away. Instead, Hontar took one big step to the front until his body and face were near Laust''s. He then grabbed Laust''s arm while smirking, "I got you!"


    "Sh*t! I was careless." Laust tried to shake him off, but Hontar didn''t budge.


    Hontar even had time to nce at Makkal as if saying, "He and I are almost aligned, but I''m sure you can hit him, right?"


    Makkal chuckled as he drew his bow, aiming at the slight opening to sever Laust''s hand.


    Laust also got a clear vision of Makkal''s arrow and used his Elemental Shield, hoping it could hold the arrow for a split second so he could move away.


    Hontar was happy with this since he might be able to kill Laust after that shot. Yet, someone entered his Awareness as he turned around at the same time as Makkal released the arrow.


    ''Theo? No weapon?'' Hontar drew a gasp as he realized Theo only took care of the bear while his clone was basically free. He made them think he would focus on the bear first before helping Laust, but it turned out Theo was secretly manipting the match.


    In other words, Theo was the most dangerous man in this small room. Unfortunately, it was useless to realize it because he had locked Laust in a certain position, which meant he and Laust couldn''t move at the same time.


    When Theo arrived, he gave a slight push on Hontar''s arm, forcing him to the side where the arrow would arrive.


    ''Instead of killing the easiest one, it seems our choice is wrong.'' Hontar truly underestimated Theo as his shoulder got pierced by the arrow, sending his hand flying. The arrow continued on its path, but it lost a portion of its original strength and allowed Laust to block itpletely.


    Hontar clicked his tongue while Laust didn''t feel happy that he blocked it.


    After all, in his thought, there was only one thing. ''Theodore Griffith. Why are you there?''


    In that instant, he realized that he was too angry at Theo, unlike the past him. In fact, he turned even worse than the past him who fought Theo even though his strength was far stronger than that time.


    He remembered Theo''s specialty and understood what was happening. His body trembled, not because of anger but fear. ''Did�� Did he utilize my anger to his own advantage? Did he know I would be targeted and messed up and positioned himself ordingly?''


    "Sh*t!" Makkal also came to the same conclusion and turned to Theo. "I need to eliminate him first."


    He quickly drew another arrow and killed Clone Theo to give breathing room for Hontar. Thetter still managed to wield his sword with one hand and with the current blood loss, he should be able to fight for another one or two minutes.


    Theo smiled and hid behind the bear while maintaining eye contact with Laust to check his condition.


    He summoned his clone again and went behind Laust, using the Magic Bullet again.


    When Laust was about to sh with Hontar again, he sensed Clone Theo ready to release that attack before Makkal''s arrow came.


    At this moment, something Laust couldn''tprehend happened. He instinctively moved to the side and made way for Theo''s Magic Bullet while looking at Hontar, asking himself. "Eh? Why did I move?"


    Although he didn''t admit it, His heart already understood that Theo was superior to him.


    Yet, the Magic Bullets couldn''t kill Hontar because thetter channeled all his power into the de and created a wind burst that basically destroyed his Magic Bullets.


    Makkal also released his arrow and destroyed Theo''s clone.


    Unfortunately for him, he missed Theo''s real body and�� Ellen.


    Yeah, Ellen hadn''t used any magic to support them the whole time to make them think she was supporting the two. And with a signal from Theo, she knew it was the right time to act.


    "Ice Meteor." She created a ball��the size of three humans��andunched it to the bear.


    Obviously, the bear caught the ice, so it didn''t kill him, but Theo managed to escape from his pressure, moving toward Hontar with his spear.


    Theo and Laust''s eyes intertwined as Theo ordered with a menacing tone. "Follow me, Trash. We will kill Hontar right now."


    Laust gulped down and went forward to match Theo''s movement. With Hontar having only one hand, the battle should be decided pretty quickly. His hand was covered with sweat when he saw Theo''s expression as if he was looking at his father, the one who scared him the most. It was the look of someone who didn''t have any expectations from him.


    "Oh, it seems I''m in a bind." Hontar nced at them back and forth before smiling. "Just kidding."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and took a glimpse of someone in the corner of his vision.


    However, as one would expect from a skilled archer, which was scouted by many, Makkal finally made his appearance by mystically arriving twenty feet away behind Hontar while drawing his bow.


    For the first time in this match, Theo hesitated and felt a chill down his spine because he understood what kind of result if he killed Hontar at this moment. ''If I continue, that arrow might kill Laust or me. Although Laust is hateful, he still has his use�� Should I risk it?''


    While Theo contemted in the one second he had, Makkal was releasing his killing intent, challenging them as if he said, "Come on. Make your decision already. Are you afraid of me? Why don''t you kill Hontar? You don''t dare, don''t you?"

 Chapter 116 – Laust’s Resolve

    <h4>Chapter 116 - Laust��s Resolve</h4>


    "Come on. Make your decision already. Are you afraid of me? Why don''t you kill Hontar? You don''t dare, don''t you?"


    Under the constant pressure, Theo decided to halt his movement, backing off from this attack.


    "Huh?" Laust widened his eyes when he saw Theo stopping.


    This hesitation resulted in Hontar blowing Laust away. In addition, Makkal quickly changed his target to his right and released his arrow.


    "Not good, Phyrill!" Theo shouted.


    Phyrill''s body shook as he saw the iing arrow. He did his best to avoid it, but his elbow was destroyed by that arrow.


    "Sh*t!" He took a few steps backward while assessing the situation, but it was also another mistake Theo''s groupmitted.


    Aisha shouted and her hand started glowing as she used her skill. "Hontar, grab that hand and attach it to your body."


    With both Theo and Laust couldn''t move, Hontar had free time grabbing his hand and trying to reattach his hand.


    His shoulder then started regrowing muscle and such before a golden light glowed between the body and the hand. That golden light warped the missing part and regenerated all the necessary parts to reconnect them.


    This was Aisha''s skill. Although her skill wasn''t at the level of regrowing limbs, it should be fine to attach a body part to the original body.


    Even Theo didn''t expect this to happen as he realized how one mistake turned the situation around.


    They would have a hard time winning against them since Phyrill had lost one hand.


    More importantly, Hontarughed and showed that his hand finally returned to normal. "This is good. Now, the winner is not yet to be confirmed."


    Theo clenched his teeth and pointed his palm at Makkal. A blue light ball appeared and split into ten.


    "Magic Bullet."


    Suddenly, a giant lizard dropped from the air. The ground vibrated due to the force, but the Magic Bullet also hit the lizard''s scale and got neutralized in an instant.


    The lizard itself was fifteen feet high and thirty feet long, so it covered arge portion of the area, making it a bit special for a meat shield. The lizard''s scale seemed to be powerful too.


    Theo raised his vision and their eyes intertwined. The lizard opened its mouth and released a breath of fire.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Three ice lotuses fell from the air and turned into a giant ice shield for Theo. He couldn''t take time to observe what happened as the bear threw away that big ice he received earlier.


    "Tch." Theo clicked his tongue and jumped to Laust to avoid the ice. And another shout came from Phyrill to wake him up.


    "Theo! What the heck are you doing? There is always a risk in a certain n and everything won''t go ording to your n. I''m sure you already know this! Even if it means sacrificing my life, don''t hesitate! In the previous Grand Gaiapetition, there was a team that utilized this concept and won an impossible match. If you don''t have this kind of resolve, you''re not fit to make a battle n!"


    Theo''s body shook as he sucked a cold breath, realizing what kind of blunder he just made. His expression turned serious again as his gaze became unbearably cold.


    "Sorry." With that wording out of his mouth, Theo started moving forward again.


    Looking at Theo''s expression, Laust already knew the conclusion. He didn''t know why but Theo seemed to be releasing a certain aura that made one want to follow him, knowing it was the path of victory.


    ''What is this? Something is squeezing my heart that somehow it''s more painful than the beating I''ve gotten this whole time. So, this is a disappointment my father felt when I couldn''t do anything.


    ''I don''t understand it myself, but the urge of wanting to follow him�� No, it''s the urge that makes me want to follow him. Wait�� Doesn''t this mean I am trash?'' Laust''s legs went limp and his hands were shaking.


    Their eyes suddenly intertwined as Theo released another wave of killing intent, telling him, "Move for the sake of me. We will kill Hontar this time."


    Laust was tempted to do that and gained recognition from his family since this team might be able to reach the main stage of Grand Gaia. ''Ah, yes. He is showing me the way to victory. The way I am right now is not good. If I entrust myself to him, we can win and get Alea.''


    Yet, when he took a step forward, his legs felt so heavy. He wanted to fall on his knees at this moment.


    All the frustration he felt when his father always shunned him andpared his and his brother''s achievements shed in his mind. The frustration told him that if he followed Theo and killed Hontar, everything would end for him. He would always be a useless puppet.


    ''No. I''m going to change myself in this training. I will show to the world that I''m not less than anybody else.'' Laust clenched his teeth and gathered his resolve. He then ran forward with his sword and saw Theo thrusting his spear at Hontar.


    Thetter deflected the attack with his sword, but he saw Lausting from behind Theo, nning to attack him.


    Makkal didn''t let him do his way and released his arrow, but a huge ice spike emerged from the ground and blocked the arrow.


    "Ellen?!" Makkal widened his eyes, never expecting her to make another move at this point.


    If Laust swung his sword, Hontar wouldn''t have any other choice than to stop that big sword while allowing Theo to stab him somewhere in his body. He could still recover with Aisha''s skill anyway.


    When taking these steps, Laust thought, ''The steps are so heavy�� This is the crossroad where I will decide my future��"


    However, when Laust arrived in front of him, his foot leaned to the left as if he tried to stop and made an extreme turn.


    "And my future won''t end in this tournament!"


    It was at this moment Laust shocked everyone by changing his direction to Aisha instead.


    "What?!" Hontar and Makkal were taken aback and couldn''t react to that sudden change.


    Phyrill and Aisha didn''t know that Laust wasing to them until Makkal shouted. "Aisha!"


    Unfortunately for him, it was toote. Phyrill could clearly see how Laust suddenly came into his vision, appearing behind Aisha before slicing her neck.

 Chapter 117 – Near The End

    <h4>Chapter 117 - Near The End</h4>


    ''If Theo shines in the future, then I will absorb that light and make me brighter than him, so everyone will recognize me!'' thought Laust as he arrived behind Aisha and sent her head flying.


    "Eh?" Aisha widened her eyes as she couldn''t understand what just happened.


    Before she had time to think or heal herself, Laust and Phyrill had the same idea.


    "Three Way Sword." Laust summoned three lights that helped him cut Aisha''s head. With the addition of his sword, he sliced Aisha''s head into fiveyers.


    At the same time, lightning began to cover Phyrill''s sword as Phyrillughed. "This is great, this is great. I don''t mind this development."


    "Lightning sh."


    In that instant, Phyrill made several cuts as Aisha''s heart turned into pieces, thus ending her life.


    "!!!" Everyone''s attention was grabbed by this sudden death. After all, Aisha was the most important piece that would buy them time until Alea killed Sihan.


    Now that she died, the entire situation would change drastically. And the one who brought that change was none other than Laust.


    Feeling the hype of his aplishment, Laust thought, ''Yes. This is it. If they want to use me to reach their own goal, I will allow them. But�� It doesn''t mean I won''t do anything. As long as there is a chance, I will use it to make me shine brighter, no matter how slim that chance is. Eventually, I will be recognized in that grand stage and make my father regret his decision!''


    He raised his hand and turned around, looking at the surroundings. "What are you all doing? The battle has yet to end."


    Phyrill smirked while thinking, ''Nice.''


    He raised his hand, looked at the sword, and threw it to Hontar.


    "Hontar. A sword ising!" Leca shouted and nned to use her Fire Lizard to attack.


    Hontar nced and saw a swording into his vision. He took a step back while lifting his head to avoid that spinning sword, but it still managed to graze his neck, leaving a swallow mark.


    To prevent Theo from attacking Hontar in this condition, the bear sent another punch to crush Theo, but thetter alreadyunched himself to the side, going around the bear. He saw the sword nted on the wall, so he quickly made his way to the sword to grab it.


    Obviously, Makkal didn''t allow him and released another arrow.


    "Heavy Arrow."


    Theo looked at him and asked coldly, "Say, don''t you think your arrow is too repetitive?"


    His clone appeared behind Theo as both of them used Elemental Shield in unison, creating twoyers of a translucent shield.


    The arrow shattered the first one to pieces, but it only cracked the second one before falling to the ground.


    "What?!" Makkal clenched his bow and knew his weakness clearly. Due to him using a Heavy Bow, which was not normal, he couldn''t find many skills that suited him, especially with his blessing. At the same time, his family wasn''t that well off either, so he didn''t have many skills that were enough to kill Theo.


    Because he understood the reason very well, he was envious of others since they had the resources to gain anything they wanted.


    Leca also felt offended since her brother had done everything for her and made the fire lizard release another breath. At the same time, Hontar came into his range, trying to prevent him from grabbing that sword because he knew Theo would be able to equip his clone, making him even more dangerous.


    "Our mistake is we didn''t kill you in the beginning. To think even Alea still underestimates you��" Hontar gritted his teeth. Laust''s improvement or the control of the battlefield could only happen because Theo was still here. Hence, killing Theo would be the top priority even if he needed to sacrifice himself.


    ''This guy wants to stop me and die together with the fire breath?'' Theo widened his eyes and understood what Hontar nned. However, he saw a shadow appearing between Hontar and the me.


    With a wand on her left hand and a small glowing ball on her right hand, Ellen''s voice sent a shiver to them. "It seems you have forgotten about me, eh? Now that the annoying girl has gone, it''s time for me to make my move, right?"


    Theo knew Ellen had be that way again and watched what she did.


    Her left hand summoned a giant ice crystal that blocked the fire breath and deflected it to the side. Meanwhile, she pointed her right hand to Hontar and released it. "Frost Nova."


    It was the skill she used to kill him during their match. The ball flew so fast that it reached Hontar almost instantly and blew him to the wall before it created an ice shard with a shape like that of a cobweb, pinning him to the wall.


    "Sorry, I''mte and good job."


    "I''m just d that you''reing." Theo smiled.


    Since Theo was already safe, Phyrill shouted, asking for their n. It was normal for them to go for the twins, but Phyrill wanted to check it first. "So, what are we going to do now, Theo?"


    Laust didn''t say anything. And although it made him sick just to follow Theo''s order, he wouldn''tin anymore and stick with the n since he had recognized Theo''s talent.


    The hatred had turned into some sort of rivalry. The more Theo grew and the brighter he became, he would gain more when he devoured him.


    Theo instantly understood their worry and shouted back, "Phyrill, go for the summoner. Laust will kill the archer. Ellen and I will handle Hontar and the bear."


    "Roger." Phyrill made a big grin as he released all his power. "Let''s go, Laust."


    Once again, the situation escted to something beyond their imagination. As Laust and Phyrill were about to chase Leca and Makkal, they heard Sihan cursing someone.


    All their eyes were taken away by Alea, who just sent Sihan''s head flying.


    Tit for tat. If they killed one of them, she should also kill one to stop their momentum.


    Alea released her killing intent toward Phyrill, Laust, and Theo. "I''ming."


    Phyrill clenched his teeth and took a deep breath, saying, "You��"


    Before he finished his words, Laust already took off with his giant sword. "I will go. You have two minutes. Kill the remaining three."


    Alea smiled and moved forward while saying, "Do you think you can handle me alone, Laust Lange?"


    "I can''t." Laust surprisingly shook his head, admitting that he wasn''t strong enough to kill her. However, there was a continuation. "But that doesn''t mean I can''t buy enough time for the others? Winning takes priority here."


    "Fine by me."

 Chapter 118 – Last Battle

    <h4>Chapter 118 - Last Battle</h4>


    A moment ago, Sihan just got the shock of his life. He understood why Alea was considered a genius after that one move.


    She had been using both hands to get more power to somehow break past his defense.


    Although Sihan managed to stop it, his hands felt numb and refused to move because of the constant hit. He couldn''t even use his sword anymore since the pressure Alea gave was too heavy.


    Like how Ellen and Theo described her, she indeed became at least three times stronger than her past self. And no one ever reached this level in history, making him impressed.


    ''Seriously? This is beyond my imagination. How can someone challenge this kind of monster?'' Sihan clenched his teeth and thought no more as he kept blocking her attack with all his might to buy as much time as possible.


    But the conclusion came suddenly.


    When Alea was about to slice him, Sihan raised his shield, slightly facing his right. Normally, the sword would slide down the shield''s surface before flying to his left. At that time, he would face the left to withstand another swing.


    Yet, Alea showed him something that he never thought was possible. In the middle of her swing, she stopped that swing, so the sword carried the momentum and the centrifugal force. She then released that sword in the air and let it spin two times in the air like a baseball yer trying to spin the bat with their swing before catching it again.


    She did exactly that and caught the sword after spinning for less than a second. However, it was enough to fool Sihan''s body.


    Due to the continuous pressure from the start of the match, Sihan already remembered her attack pattern. And it became the weapon that killed him.


    ''Impossible. Is she a human?'' thought Sihan as his body instinctively leaned in the opposite direction even though his eyes were still glued on Alea''s sword, leaving his defense open. He shouted, "Careful!"


    Alea caught the sword and continued her swing.


    Now that Sihan didn''t have any more defense, her sword sliced his neck and sent his head flying.


    Sihan dropped to his knees and disappeared.


    "You are a strong opponent. Unfortunately, I can''t afford to lose this match." Alea let out a sigh before looking at Theo, who appeared to be the second challenger.


    Meanwhile, Ellen and Theo looked at Hontar and the bear.


    He grabbed the sword and summoned his clone before handing the sword to him.


    Clone Theo then headed to the bear to buy time while they killed Hontar.


    Obviously, Hontar''s wind was strong enough to shatter the ice and freed himself from the restraint.


    Theo moved to the front and activated his Haste and Focused Charge at the same time.


    Hontar, on the other hand, covered his sword with wind and struck Theo''s spear.


    His Focused Charge destroyed the wind and created a powerful shock wave that almost blew him away. Luckily, Theo still used his Haste that improved his speed since he kept making small steps to return to maintain his bnce.


    Knowing it had no use, Hontar quickly changed his strategy to prepare for Ellen''s attack, but unfortunately for him, it wasn''t going to happen.


    After all, the next attack wasing from Clone Theo.


    Yes, he used the Magic Bullet while faking his mission of stopping the bear. Of course, Clone Theo didn''t need to take aim since the vision came from the real Theo. While getting a shared vision, the clone also managed to avoid the bear strike.


    As for Hontar, his condition was worse after being rained by Magic Bullets. His body was full of holes and Ellen appeared next to him and delivered the killing blow.


    In another fight, after Phyrill sent off Laust to face Alea, he ran toward the twins.


    "No, you won''t!" Makkal shot the arrows, but Phyrill moved like a fish in the water.


    He moved freely and unpredictably while making his way toward the twins. In addition, he used his lightning to gain more speed to avoid all those arrows that prated the ground every time they hit.


    In a few seconds, Phyrill only needed to get past this fire lizard and he would be able to kill them. He purposely went to the right, making his way around the lizard.


    But this was his poor choice�� Or at least that was what the twins thought. The lizard shifted his body to the opposite direction, so he could use his tail to stop Phyrill.


    When the fire lizard was about to p its tail to hit Phyrill andunch him away, Theo''s Magic Bullets had arrived along with giant ice from Ellen.


    The Magic Bullets hit the tails and repelled the tail away, creating a path for Phyrill. Leca tried to stop Phyrill with another breath, but the giant ice hit the lizard''s head and crushed it in an instant. This was the reason why Phyrill chose this direction.


    As the lizard started to disappear, Phyrill smirked and used all the power in his foot tounch himself to Leca.


    Leca wanted to stop him with her staff, but it was simply a difference between an Assassin and a Summoner.


    Phyrill avoided her swing effortlessly and stabbed her heart. "This is over."


    "No." Leca smiled and hugged Phyrill tightly, using the remaining one or two seconds she had.


    "What? Release me!" Phyrill struggled to break free, but even if he freed himself, it was toote to dodge.


    Makkal pointed his bow at her and Phyrill, thinking as long as he could kill Phyrill, Alea might be able to win against Ellen and Theo, so this was the gamble that had the biggest chance.


    Unfortunately for him, Clone Theo had prepared himself for this and sent another wave of Magic Bullet since he wasn''t that upied like his real body.


    Before Makkal could release his arrow, his body, head, and heart were pierced by Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    Despite killing the twins, they couldn''t feel happy because there was thest boss they needed to face to win this match. They turned around and saw Alea killing Laust.


    "To think I will be facing you three in this battle." Alea smiled at them.

 Chapter 119 – Swing

    <h4>Chapter 119 - Swing</h4>


    "I don''t want to talk too much." Ellen smirked and raised her staff. A rotating circr blue energy formed above her hand and expanded, gradually turning into a cloud.


    "Ice Storm."


    Small ice particles began to rain down, where they diagonally fell as if there was a wind blowing them.


    Alea smiled and channeled her energy into her sword. Red-colored fire emerged from the sword as sheunched it into Ellen''s attack.


    "mming Ge-Sword."


    The fire flew to the air and hit one of the particles, evaporating it in an instant. The me continued, hit the cloud and exploded, dispersing the cloud and ultimately canceling Ellen''s attack.


    However, Ellen Ice Storm was just bait. Her real attack was the five light balls that released the ice energy to her, leaving a trail of ice behind.


    "Freezing Shot."


    The Freezing Shot flew two feet above the ground while spreading enough for Alea to jump to the air, avoiding the attack.


    Ellen knew Alea would surely go to the air if she attacked her with this Freezing Shot. Hence, she channeled a bit more Magic Power into her skill earlier, programming them to turn upward.


    Alea was amused by the variation and took a glimpse of Ellen''s expression, knowing that her best friend was nning something.


    The fire covered her sword as she struck all the iing Freezing Shot with one swing before finding Theo and his clone already surrounding her on the ground.


    They both summoned their Magic Bullet and shot him since there was no way Alea could strike down all twenty Magic Bullets at once.


    As expected, Alea pointed her sword below and summoned a translucent shield.


    "Fortitude."


    The Magic Bullet hit this shield, which managed to stop an attack from a monster above level 500, and disappeared in an instant.


    However, an emerging presence shook Alea''s body as she instinctively spun her body while swinging her sword.


    Clink.


    To her surprise, she could hear the clicking sound and found Phyrill not long after.


    "Tch." Phyrill clicked his tongue and tried to push it, but Alea didn''t budge. "You''re indeed like a horse. How strong are you��"


    "Wait, what did you call me earlier? Which part of me looked like a horse?" Alea widened her eyes and pushed Phyrill back as they fell to the ground.


    "You should ask Theo. I''m sure he will give you the best answer." Phyrill chuckled andnded on the ground before leaping backward.


    "Theo? Is this the reason why he treated me so horribly?" Alea widened her eyes and turned to Theo, only to find Ellen cing her hand on the ground.


    "Ice Wave."


    Ice Spikes began to emerge from the ground in session in a fan-shaped area, heading straight to Alea.


    "Wait a minute." Alea stabbed the ground with her sword and released the fire on her sword. "Grand Burst."


    This was the same technique she used to create a huge explosion for Alea and Theo to cover their trail. Those continuous explosions shed with Ellen''s Ice Wave and neutralized each other.


    When she was about to call Theo, thetter already charged forward with his clone while using Focused Charge and Haste. He came in two different directions.


    Yet, when the actual thing happened, Theo, who wielded the spear, stumbled and dropped to his knees. "Kh."


    "It must be the side effect of Haste." Alea smirked and saw the iing clone before striking her sword to blow the clone away and making her way to the real one. Yes, Alea had seen the side effect of Haste, so she knew Theo''s legs were ready to give up since he had been using it continuously.


    Together with his Magic Bullet, he must have exhausted his Magic Power since his face looked so tired.


    Still, even though he was on his knees, he managed to strike Alea with his spear to prevent her from getting close.


    Alea saw his eyes and knew where he nned to hit her. She shifted her center of gravity lower and struck the spear upward, nning tounch it into the air.


    However, Theo barely held it back before forcing it to the ground, only to find Alea''s sword was about to hit him.


    Phyrill obviously couldn''t let this go on and interfere with her movement. Theo also seemed to prepare to grab her sword even if he needed to sacrifice his life, so Aleapleted her swing hurriedly, blowing him away.


    After that, she struck Phyrill''s sword without a problem.


    "Seriously? I feel like I don''t know you anymore. Why don''t you just admit defeat and get absorbed into our group? You can be with your best friend and Theo."


    "No thank you. After losing against you guys, I realized something." She smiled and pushed him several feets away. "I like to create my own team, not join someone''s team."


    "Well, you need to defeat us first." Phyrill shrugged and jumped backward again, creating a distance.


    At the same time, Ellen already released another attack. It was the same ice boulder that she threw at the bear.


    "Try it, Alea. Both of them are only buying time for this." Ellen smiled. "Ice Meteor."


    "��" Alea furrowed her eyebrows when she saw this huge ice boulder. She straightened her back and raised her sword above her head. "Then, it''s time to test the skill that I bought when I was with Theo."


    "Inch sh."


    She swung down so fast, yet so silent. There was no sound as though air resistance didn''t exist. However, that sh might be the sharpest and most precise strike she had ever shown today.


    There was a kind of transparent energy that flew to the Ice Meteor but didn''t disturb the air in its surrounding. It simply�� cut.


    Bam.


    The Ice Meteor split into two without any warning.


    Alea could see a three-foot-deep sword mark appear on the ceiling, meaning her sh reached as far as the ceiling.


    But for someone who had been working together with Alea like Ellen, they understood that there was a huge difference in Alea''s swing. That swing was the same swing she did in the past, where she got her trauma. The swing was so natural that even Theo couldn''t help but say, "It''s beautiful." Despite not having an extended knowledge about the sword.


    This also showed Alea''s resolve in getting rid of her trauma. She smiled and looked at Theo and Ellen. "Now, now. Let''s continue, shall we?"


    "Oi, are you forgetting me?" Phyrill twisted his eyebrows, wanting to kill this woman for pretending like he didn''t exist.

 Chapter 120 – Killing The Last Boss

    <h4>Chapter 120 - Killing The Last Boss</h4>


    "Don''t talk too much in a fight." Ellen harrumphed and rained them down with four glowing star-shaped blue lights. "Ice Star."


    The four Ice Stars flew forward and targeted Alea.


    Even Alea didn''t want to be surrounded by this attack, so she proceeded to move to the side. However, Theo and his clone had been waiting for her. "Magic Bullet."


    "Fortitude." I wenty Magic Bullets rained her down, stopping her movement. Phyrill was also ready to strike her if Theo''s Magic Bullets were not enough, but it went ording to their n.


    The blue lights were supposed to hit Alea, but they suddenly dropped vertically and hit the ground, creating four huge spikes that made it look like she was inside a boxing ring.


    In front of her, Ellen was smiling while waiting for her to make a mistake so she could strike her down.


    Theo upied the left and right sides since he would be the main attackers while trying to create an opportunity for Phyrill to strike from behind.


    Theo and his clone made the first move, summoning the Magic Bullet. Obviously, Alea focused on the clone first since Theo''s body must be feeling it and his clone didn''t have any sort of feeling ording to Theo. If she took down the clone, she could kill Theo right after.


    "Magic��"


    Before he finished, Theo failed his Magic Bullet as it dispersed, only leaving his clone to summon one sessfully.


    Due to her facing Clone Theo, she only took a glimpse to know that Theo just failed to summon his Magic Bullet before regaining her focus on Clone Theo. A smile appeared on her face as she received Theo''s Magic Bullet with the translucent shield.


    "Fortitude."


    As soon as all the Magic Bullets disappeared, Alea turned around and jumped forward, heading straight to Theo to eliminate him.


    Theo clenched his teeth and summoned Magic Bullet again. "Magic Bullet."


    His expression was distorted as if he was enduring massive pain in his head and barely released the Magic Bullet that ended up going in a different direction.


    "You have worked yourself too hard, Theo. You need to rest." Alea smiled and raised her sword before shing downwards, trying to split Theo into two.


    "Frost Nova." Ellenunched a small ball that contained so much ice energy to hit Alea''s sword.


    Alea clenched her sword tightly and tried to stop that swing since her sword would be blown away if it got hit by that particr skill. She felt her stomach just drop an inch from its original position, but she managed to stop her swing.


    As soon as she avoided the attack, she continued her swing.


    Due to the instant stop, Theo managed to get away by leaning to the right side and let Alea cut his left hand instead.


    At the same time, he thrust his spear to her head while falling down.


    Alea took a step back to avoid the thrust, but Phyrill just entered her Awareness,ing from the opposite direction of Ellen. His de struck forth to her neck.


    Alea shouldn''t have enough time to raise her sword to block this attack, especially with her current internal condition. Hence, Phyrill had a huge chance of delivering the killing blow.


    Yet, Alea went one step further. Her sword remained down, but she sneakily waved her sword to Theo''s spear before pushing it to Phyrill. And with Theo''s tightening the grip, the tangential force made the spear go to Phyrill.


    ''What? Did he use Theo''s spear and his tight grip to her own advantage? Sh*t. You freakingst boss.'' Phyrill gulped down and looked at the iing spear de and had his head shed.


    Theo dropped his spear and pointed his hand toward Alea, summoning his Magic Bullet.


    "!!!" Alea widened her eyes and summoned her Fortitude Shield instinctively. ''He still has it? Or is he faking it? Wait��!''


    Before she finished thinking, she saw a crack in Theo''s Magic Bullet. In that instant, she realized Theo was faking it.


    With the Fortitude Shield disappeared, she continued her swing.


    However, Theo didn''t let go of this Magic Bullet. He used it to thest second, sted the ground with the imperfect Magic Bullet, and kicked up the dust that turned into a smokescreen.


    "Hmm? Last struggle? As long as I know you are there, I will cut you." Alea smiled and continued her swing without hesitation before her mind was shocked by the pain in her stomach.


    Without her realizing it, she was blown away to the air.


    ''What did he just do? Did he kick me knowing I couldn''t block it? No, was that the reason he faked the Magic Bullet first? He wanted me to use my shield first?'' Alea was stunned and tried to find another alternative, but Ellen already made her move.


    "Ice Storm."


    The same ice cloud appeared, forcing Alea to send her me again to destroy it.


    "mming Ge-Sword."


    Boom.


    The explosion dispersed the cloud, but Ellen had prepared the second skill.


    "Freezing Shot."


    Alea narrowed her eyes and waved her sword, hitting all the Freezing Shot in session, preventing them from hitting her.


    However, it wasn''t the end.


    Clone Theo appeared above her head before a spear flew to the air.


    "What?!" Alea was surprised at first and decided to twist her body to the side so that the spear didn''t pierce her stomach. However, it deformed her stance and she might crash to the ground with one strike from Clone Theo.


    Ellen was also ready to attack her the moment she fell to the ground.


    "Even so, I won''t give up!" Alea clenched her teeth and waved her sword. Unfortunately for her, before she could even do anything, ten Magic Bullets pierced her body from below.


    "Wha��!" Alea widened her eyes and looked at Theo, who still managed to use his Magic Bullet like normal. She then realized every time Theo failed, there was a distractioning from his clone or other people, making her unable to catch a glimpse of his expression, so she couldn''t ascertain whether he was faking it or not. Even in thest fake, Theo purposely blocked her vision of his face with his hand and Magic Bullet.


    In other words, Theo had been faking it this whole time and everything was for this one attack that would have the highest probability of killing her.


    Clone Theo smiled at her while saying, "Do you think I will let you read me?"


    "You know me well." Alea chuckled as she closed her eyes and disappeared.

 Chapter 121 – Post Battle

    <h4>Chapter 121 - Post Battle</h4>


    Ellen and Theo smiled at each other, knowing they managed to win this hard fight.


    "Good job." Said Ellen while giving a thumbs-up as she disappeared.


    Theo also disappeared from the scene and returned to the training capsule. He then realized there was another problem he needed to finish even though he had won earlier. And that matter took away his joy for the time being.


    Sighing, Theo opened his capsule before his eyes intertwined with Laust''s.


    The two remained silent for a few seconds.


    Suddenly, Laust turned around and looked at the others while slightly lowering his head. "I would like to apologize for my behavior earlier."


    To show that he was sorry, he quickly opened the screen and chose Alea for the next member since it was the team''s will.


    Ellen, Phyrill, Sihan furrowed their eyebrows but didn''t say anything.


    Laust then faced Theo with a serious expression. "I hate you."


    Theo had expected this and talked back. "The feeling is mutual."


    Laust closed his eyes for a few seconds to calm his heart down. After that, he continued, "Still, I will be working with the team''s coordination as long as the n is logical.


    "My Lange Family still wants to kill you, but due to thepetition, the family shouldn''t be able to do anything yet. Of course, my family wants me to help them to kill you. But�� I won''t do anything to you until the Grand Gaia is over."


    Phyrill and Ellen winked at each other since their rtionship had be better while Sihan''s eyes became unbearably cold, looking at Laust.


    Laust didn''t care about their reaction and continued. "If I were you, I wouldn''t rejoice first. After all, everything can happen in the future."


    Laust turned to the others and said, "I am sorry, but I would like to skip today''s meeting and do the rest tomorrow."


    Without waiting for their replies, Laust already walked to the door and opened it. When he was about to leave, he stopped and looked at Theo. "Just to let you know�� I''ll never lose to you again�� Theo."


    Theo remained silent and watched how Laust left the room.


    Without Laust''s voice, the room became quiet, so Phyrill broke it with another joke. "Ah, so tense. Still, what did I watch just now? The legendary riv��"


    Surprisingly, Sihan was the one who covered his mouth while ring at him coldly. Even Phyrill couldn''t fight back from that gaze, noticing that when a silent guy actually did something serious, he would be so menacing.


    ��


    Room B-21, B-22, and B-23.


    Alea and the others left the training capsules at the same time. All of them knew that Alea would get chosen since they obviously wouldn''t choose Hontar. Thetter also understood that his strength was far below Alea.


    Still, Leca felt the frustration and dropped to her knees,ining out loud. "Why?! How could we lose? We had prepared all the ns possible! We managed to restore Hontar''s hand, recovered from our state and turned the situation around. Meanwhile, that Phyrill Hilbert had lost his arm and Theodore Griffith had discord with his teammate! Why?"


    "Shut up," Aisha shouted, stopping her unnecessary rampage. She looked at Leca and opened her hands. "If you want to me someone, it''s me! Everything started getting messy because I died."


    Hontar shook his head and sighed in defeat. "No. The real reason we lost was due to letting Theodore Griffith live for so long. He managed to wake Laust up from his darkness and turned it to his advantage."


    Alea looked at Hontar and closed her eyes, knowing that Hontar might not be the one the instructor was searching for since he med someone from the enemy team.


    "Still, I can understand why Alea wants Theodore Griffith in our team." Aisha looked at Alea with a bitter smile, knowing that Theo was actually the one who deserved the spot in either the Student Council or Disciplinary Committee, the two big groups that controlled the school order.


    "Ah��" Aisha sighed and looked at the ceiling. "I feel like undergoing my training again. The world still has so much to offer."


    Before Alea said anything, her image appeared on the screen since Laust had chosen her.


    "Alea Eilric is chosen as the 6th team member. Congrattions. Now go to Room B-001 to meet your new teammates."


    They saw the screen and clenched their teeth because they didn''t like the result. Even so, they had truly been beaten by the opposite team despite having the iparably strong Alea Eilric. In fact, if Alea were in the opposite group, they would surely win, unlike a certain someone who never doubted his victory.


    That certain someone was none other than Theo. He kept trying to develop a way to win while tricking them one after another to buy time for the next move. And Ellen had supported him brilliantly and the n worked so well.


    Alea smiled bitterly and patted everyone''s shoulder one by one before walking to the door. As she was about to reach the door''s handle, she couldn''t help but turn around.


    "Whatever you said�� It''s useless. This may be a cruel thing to say, but this is myst advice to you guys." Alea took a deep breath and looked at them without any emotion. "The world is never fair. This training session truly shows how unfair it is because that Instructor, Radvils, tells us one indirect message."


    "One indirect message?" Leca looked at her while her hands were shaking.


    "If you don''t like the way this world goes, then you should keep winning. Only the winner can set everything right. Instead of waiting to be chosen for an opportunity at the next event, you should aim to be the one that chooses! Whether you want to participate or not, that choice should be in your hand instead of getting someone to ce it in your hand."


    Alea, for the first time, tried to say something harsh, not an encouragement like she usually did. This was to show them she respected their skills because she could see the talent in them. Lastly, she said, "There are two more matches after this. Get swallowed by this defeat or survive and rechallenge them and me again�� It''s your choice."

 Chapter 122 – Important Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 122 - Important Discussion</h4>


    When she headed to Theo''s room, she saw Laust leaving the room with a serious but relieved expression as if he just finished a certain matter.


    She slightly raised her eyebrows when their eyes intertwined, "What are you doing here?"


    Laust shook his head and passed her without any words, confusing Alea.


    When she was about to grab him, she remembered that Theo and Laust couldn''t see eye to eye, so she thought there must be a problem. Instead of jumping to a conclusion and making the situation even moreplicated, she decided to go to the room first to understand what was going on.


    She knocked on the door two times before opening the door, finding all the people didn''t say anything to each other. The atmosphere was heavy to the point Alea wondered what just happened.


    "Ehm? Why do you all like this?"


    Ellen shook her head and said, "It''s fine. We just resolved a serious problem. Anyway, we don''t need to handle it anymore."


    "Is that rted to Laust Lange?" She pointed at the door with her thumb while tilting her head.


    "More or less. Anyway, you don''t need to care about it anymore." Ellen walked to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the seat. "Let''s have a chat."


    "Ehm, before that��" She turned to Sihan and Phyrill. "Nice to meet you. I am looking forward to our cooperation."


    Sihan nodded while Phyrill made a smug smile. "Hehe, doesn''t this mean you are below me, Alea? How about you bow down to me and call me a senior? I am the senior in this group."


    Alea squinted her eyes, looked away, and snorted. "Hmph. Instead of feeling proud, how about you get a few more inches to your height? No one will be able to look you in the eyes at this point, you know."


    "As expected, your mouth is still as nasty as always."


    "I don''t need to do something good to someone who is trying to make trouble." Alea shrugged.


    When Phyrill was about to say another thing, Alea turned around and waved her hand at Theo. "It''s been a while."


    Theo only nodded his head and asked, "What are we going to do now? If I am not wrong, we still have two weeks left, right?"


    "Indeed. We should��" Ellen suddenly stopped before looking at the screen on the table, finding a small icon glowing. She instinctively pressed it and a new screen popped out.


    It was a call with the instructor, Radvils.


    He looked at them with a serious expression and said, "Congrattions on getting yourst member. This way, you have sessfully cleared the second stage of my training. Thest stage will start in another two weeks, so it''s up to you what to do.


    "I will exin everything you need to know first. There are three main points in this discussion." Radvils paused for a moment after noticing Laust was missing. However, he didn''t mention it to them and continued as if nothing happened.


    "First, I will be direct. The third stage will be training, where you can level up. In other words, it''s time to pull ahead, but that''s your choice. I won''t say anything regarding your decision."


    Alea suddenly raised her hand. "Does this mean we''re going to fight a huge number of monsters during thest three months before the tournament?"


    "Yes." Radvils''s face then turned small as he presented a little information to them. "This is the information about the previous tournament. All the third years are at Hero Level, meaning their level are above 250.


    "There are a few second-year students too, but they are rare, let alone the first year. We don''t know any participants from other countries yet, so I can''t say anything about them. For now, I want all of you to focus on leveling up, especially the third year. The others are required to be at least a Champion Rank within three months.


    "This is bing a race for the first year, but whether you can do it or not, it''s not my problem. The government or I won''t give you anything to help you. After all, if other students can do it, they will be the ones getting the ticket to represent this country in the Grand Gaia."


    Theo asked, "Does this mean we can be the winner as long as we fulfill the requirement faster?"


    "Ehm, no." Radvils shook his head. "It''s just the basic requirement to go to fight other countries. I will give you a certain mission when the time arrives, so don''t ask me anything about it for the time being."


    Theo looked down with his hand supporting his chin. "I see. This means we will have an advantage as long as we get more levels as quickly as possible."


    "I can''t deny it, but I warn you to not make a conclusion yet."


    Theo nodded since there were two other topics he wanted to talk about.


    Seeing Theo fall silent, Radvils continued, "Secondly, all your records have been deleted. The only data you can get is in the hard drive inside the table. You may copy it and delete it yourself for study."


    "Data?" Phyrill narrowed his eyes and realized what was going on. "So, the fight is already on."


    Radvils didn''t have any change of expression. He simply stated the truth. "Whatever the case, I am not nning to have other countries find any data about all the participants of my training even if the other countries don''t see us in their eyes. It''s time for all you guys to step forward and devour them."


    Phyrill smirked, feeling excited. "That''s nice, isn''t it? Fine by me."


    "Fine by you? I don''t care what you think, you little sh*t. You are still nothing but a baby bird to me who can''t even fight against other countries. Don''t talk big or I will put you in your ce." Radvils raised his eyebrows and his voice, making Phyrill shudder.


    Even the other members fell silent as Theo asked coldly. "What is the third?"


    Radvils paused for a moment and looked them in the eyes. "The third is��"

 Chapter 123 – Opinions

    <h4>Chapter 123 - Opinions</h4>


    "The third is, of course, your reward for bing the candidate for thest stage of my training. After watching all your battles, I will be giving you one D Rank Skill to boost your power even more. I will be sending each of them to your address and you are free to choose whether you absorb it or not. If you want to choose something for yourself, you can only do it after you are selected as the candidate or buy it with your own money.


    "As you can see, all the other students can''t resist their thirst for this tournament and I''m sure you can see many potential candidates to be selected. If you want it, get it. Anyway, the skill will be sent tonight. That''s all I want to say. The next instruction will be sent to your Skylink."


    After saying thest piece of message, Radvils ended the call, leaving them alone again.


    "So�� Wow?" Alea tilted her head in confusion. "I feel like I just heard something amazing, but the content was a bit weird."


    Ellen ignored her and asked Theo instead. "Theo, your opinion?"


    Theo shook his head and sighed. "First of all, I think it''s good to ask you first what do you want to do in the next two weeks. We will be able to decide other things together."


    "Fair enough." Ellen nodded in agreement and uttered her will. "I would like to hunt on the other side. Since we need to go to a higher level area, we need to adjust ourselves first, especially with Laust."


    Alea pointed her finger at Ellen while answering Theo''s question, "She took the word out of my mouth."


    "Why are you girls so barbaric?" Phyrill made a weird smile as he was confused why they suggested fighting on the other side the moment they had the time for it.


    Ellen only smiled and chilled down without answering his question. Instead, Alea was the one getting worked up and asked, "Then what is your suggestion?"


    "Of course, we will stay here for the next two weeks. Even though it''s about leveling up, the instructor said he''s gonna give us another mission, so it''s best to reserve our strength for the real deal." Phyrill shrugged before smiling at Theo. "How about visiting my house?"


    "Why are you looking at me?" Theo raised his eyebrows and ignored him. He went for thest member present and waited for his response.


    "I am in favor of staying in this ce."


    Ellen finally opened her mouth. "May I know the reason?"


    Sihan raised two fingers. "First, the instructor must have been watching our fight this whole time. A person at his level should be able to understand our fighting style, so his skill suggestion may turn out good.


    "I don''t know it myself, but the instructor may send something beyond our imagination, especially since we''re talking about D Rank Skills. It''s better to get used to this skill first before thinking about going somewhere.


    "Even if we somehow master that skill in a week, we still need to work on our coordination. So, two weeks is perfect for preparing ourselves for the real ordeal."


    When they heard his exnation, the two girls exchanged looks and nodded in agreement. What Sihan said was reasonable since their group had yet to get ustomed to both Laust and Alea''s strength, so they wanted to work it out.


    With Laust''s change, they should be able to do it from the start. Getting real experience might be important, but raising their fundamental ability would be the top priority.


    Theo also felt the pressure of his responsibility. He thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know any nests around the area?"


    "We can get that information from my family. No, I should say, my Eilric Family and Phyrill''s Hilbert Family have some nests'' locations. For the Grand Gaia, I think they won''t think twice and give it to us as long as it''s for leveling up." Alea answered with a calm look as if that kind of location was just a mere random location.


    Phyrill acknowledged what Alea said and said, "That''s right. We can raise our level so quickly as long as we destroy a nest."


    "So, that''s why you want to rest on this side for another two weeks? We can go to a nest afterward?" Alea asked Theo.


    "That''s a good idea." Ellen nodded in agreement and looked at Alea. "Of course, we have Theo now, who can keep you from causing another ruckus�� You should be ashamed that you always tried to kill all the monsters even though you were alone since some of us needed to clean up for you. You might have killed one or two people due to your carelessness."


    "��" Alea scratched the back of her head, wanting to say, "Please don''t open the secret in front of Theo." But she was too embarrassed to correct her.


    "Now I feel like I''m d that Theo is here." Ellen smiled and winked at Theo. "I don''t need to correct her anymore."


    "Indeed. Theo can kick her out of the group if she does something annoying." Phyrill nodded a few times, showing how horrible Alea was.


    "Wha�� You two." Alea was shaken and tried to close their mouths, but Theo already looked at her coldly. He still remembered that he almost died because of her fault twice.


    Luckily, he managed to control Alea a bit to avoid her making the same mistake, but it was very taxing. He also felt relieved that his one month''s effort paid off since Alea wouldn''t do something that reckless anymore unless she nned to piss him off.


    "The-Theo. Listen to me." Alea quickly came to him while stuttering.


    Theo only shrugged and said, "I don''t care about your problem. Just make sure you don''t end up like Laust earlier."


    Alea gulped down and straightened her back. "Sir, yes, Sir!"


    "Why the army?" Theo sighed in frustration beforeing to a decision. "Anyway, my decision is to stay in this base for another two weeks. Every day, we will have a training session together in this ce like one-on-one training, duo training, three people or even the whole group training. The first three will be held from Monday to Saturday while the whole group will be on Sunday.


    "I don''t think we will need a long time to adapt after that, so this decision is final." Theo then asked, "Any questions?"

 Chapter 124 – Skills

    <h4>Chapter 124 - Skills</h4>


    "Nope!" Alea shrugged. "You are in charge. In fact, I feel sad for you since you need to keep us in check."


    "No, no. Everyone is cooperating. The one that makes it hard for me is you." Theo shook his head with a smile. His tone was serious as if he truly felt that way.


    "Wait, what?!" Alea grabbed Theo''s shoulders in panic. She asked, "What do you mean? There is still Laust, right?"


    "He will be cooperating right now."


    "Wait, no way, I am��" Ellen covered her mouth while saying with a smile. "Alright, alright. Let''s stop here first, okay? I want to ask one thing. Do you think we should share information about the skill the instructor ns to give us?"


    "That''s up to you. Sooner orter, we will know, so there''s no point in hiding it. You can simply say it while training or something, so no pressure."


    "Okay."


    "Then, we should wrap everything up, right? Do you want to celebrate somewhere?" Phyrill asked.


    "No, I don''t think I will. Just let me rest after this long fight. I''m tired." Theo shook his head. He indeed felt tired mentally since controlling all these guys was hard.


    "Well��" Ellen felt embarrassed and looked at Phyrill and Sihan. "Let''s return and rest then. We can deal with the rest in the chat group."


    Alea also didn''t say anything and agreed without hesitation. Theo was indeed the one who worked the most in this match, so he deserved a full rest.


    He and the others then left the school as Theo went separate ways and returned to his new apartment. He remembered he needed to pay the rent in another ten days, making him even more frustrated.


    However, he decided to not think about it since he nned to grab everything he could and turn them into money in the next stage of training.


    When Theo reached his house, he couldn''t help but fall to the bed, feeling lifeless. This was a time where he didn''t want to do anything or think about anything.


    Without realizing it, he began to wander around his dream.


    ��


    8 PM.


    Everyone received their own package. When they opened it, all of them were surprised for various reasons.


    Alea stared at her skill with a nk look for a few minutes because she didn''t understand why the instructor gave this skill to her.


    Skill: Enchant de (D)


    Effect: Enchant your de with magic power.


    "Does he want me to be an Enchanter?" Alea tilted her head. "Besides, my affinity is Fire. Although I can use this perfectly fine, I won''t be as good as Theo, who has no affinity."


    Despite thinking for an hour, she couldn''t understand the instructor''s n and thought he just wanted her to have a sharper sword while trying to help her teammate from time to time with this skill.


    The same confusion was also present in the Hilbert Family.


    Phyrill actually had the vision of which direction he was going. In this match, hecked a powerful attack that could be used to deliver a killing blow to an enemy in an instant without relying on others. Yet, the skill he got was his best ability, his movement.


    Skill: Lightning Step (D)


    Effect: By manipting the electric current in the ground and foot, the user can be two to three times faster.


    "Why does he send me something I''m good at?" Phyrill shook his head while trying to find the answer.


    Ellen wasn''t that confused since she understood her role very much.


    Skill: Frost Misty (D)


    Effect: A thick mist at low temperature.


    Like the mist that Theo took advantage of to kill her when they first trained the Force Control, the instructor seemed to want her to help for the support by creating an opportunity by weakening her opponents. This mist could lower one''s ability with the cold. And it could also be a smokescreen for them.


    Meanwhile, Sihan didn''t hesitate and absorbed the skill as soon as he saw the skill description.


    Skill: Frenzy (D)


    Effect: Increase blood cirction in the body so the user can use twenty percent more of its physical abilities for five minutes. After that, the user will feel tired for thirty minutes. Caution: Maximum usage every day (2).


    The same didn''t apply to Laust. He simply stood in front of his room, looking at his garden. In his hand was the card he got earlier.


    Skill: Sonic Speed (D)


    Effect: Increase one''s speed by creating an explosive burst of Magic Power in the foot.


    While they contemted their next move about the skills, Theo was woken up by a bell ringing in his house. It must be the package.


    With sleepy eyes, he made his way to the front door and found a wrapped paperying on the ground. He quickly grabbed and opened it, finding something unique.


    "This��" Theo didn''t know what to say when he saw this skill.


    Skill: Illusion Multiplier (D)


    Effect: The user can duplicate skills multiple times in one use. (Max: 3 times)


    Theo tried to check the skill in the database and was shocked by its real power. From what he learned, the monster possessing this skill was a rare monster that was hard toe by. A skill like this was probably worth at least a million Zils.


    Still, what he learned from the description in the Skylink Database was beyond his imagination. He understood that the skill would be super powerful in his hands. It might not be that good for Alea or the others while having some goodbinations with Ellen.


    However, the one that had a perfect affinity with this skill was him.


    "This skill can allow me to imitate the Clone Skill, Magic Bullet, and Elemental Shield. In other words, since my clone can use this skill too, I can bring out this skill two hundred percent of its potential. At the same time, I and my clone can summon three more Magic Bullets, meaning we will have a maximum of eighty smaller Magic Bullets.


    "Even though the Magic Bullets produced by this skill won''t give any damage to my opponent, they need to protect themselves from all my bullets because the real ones are in the mix. This will be fatal and make it easier for me to manipte someone, especially people who don''t understand my skills.


    "This instructor��" Theo couldn''t help but smirk, feeling excited about this instructor. Just like the principal said, this instructor might not be the best in the words department, but he might be the best instructor they could get. "Interesting."

 Chapter 125 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 125 - Return</h4>


    After giving the package to Theo''s team, Radvils was chilling in his own workce. He was looking at the screen his Skylink projected for him while ying with a skill card in his hand.


    "Hmm?"


    His peace was soon disturbed by a knocking sound as Radvils looked at the door with an annoyed expression. "Come in. Do you have any problem, Principal Eigen?"


    Principal Eigen opened the door and entered the room with a serious expression. "I just want to confirm something with you. It seems Alea Eilric has been absorbed into another team and be their sixth member, is that��"


    Before he finished his words, he somehow found this weird sensation when he looked at Radvils'' face. This was the first time he felt it, so he was unfamiliar with it.


    "You�� Are you happy?"


    Radvils narrowed his eyes and shrugged, spinning his chair to the window behind him and staring at the sky. "Who knows��"


    "You are even ying with a skill card." Eigen nced at his hand.


    "Well, you can say so." Radvils sighed and didn''t want to y word with him anymore.


    "It seems you have found the perfect team for the tournament," said Eigen when he saw Radvils opening a certain team''s profile in his Skylink.


    "No, I have found someone who can push this team forward. That''s all. Whether they can do it or not, it will be up to them."


    "Sounds like you�� I think you have someone special since you are holding that kind of card." Eigen narrowed his eyes when he caught the name of the card and its exnation when Radvils spun it on his hand.


    Radvils couldn''t help but smirk and said, "You are right. It made me think hard whether to give this card to him or not."


    There was an excitement in his tone. He got this feeling after observing thatst fight. Radvils stopped ying with the card and grabbed it.


    In the card, there were two things shown.


    Skill: Illusion Maniption (C)


    Effect: Manipte one''s perception to make one get a sense of touch and vision of an illusion along with the ability to manipte a certain level of reality.


    ��


    While the two had a chat, Theo returned to his room to discover more about his next skill. However, he suddenly felt a presence in his room, making him halt his step to assess his situation.


    Before any misunderstanding appeared, an aged female voice resounded from his room, calling his name.


    "What are you doing, Theo? You brat, you don''t want to see your master?"


    Theo''s body shuddered as he quickly opened the room and saw his master standing by the window.


    "Master��"


    "Heh, you brat." The olddy smiled and looked at him with gentle eyes.


    "You are breaking into someone''s house, you know."


    The olddy widened her eyes and stared at him in disbelief. "You brat, it seems I will need to destroy all the security cameras here."


    "Oi, oi. You know I can''t catch you even with the help of the police or even the strongest person in this country, right?" Theo sighed in defeat.


    "Anyway, it''s not like you have any real footage about me, so it''s fine." She shrugged and continued. "Still, I want to congratte you for finishing the second stage of training."


    "Thank you." Theo politely bowed his head. "I wouldn''t have reached this far without Master''s help. No, I would say I should have died in that forest when the Lange Family searched for me."


    "No need to thank me." His master shook her head helplessly. "You are the real reason you can stand in this stage. Don''t look down on yourself."


    "Ahaha��" Theo let out a hollowugh while putting his hand on the back of his head, feeling embarrassed.


    "How do you feel about losing?"


    "Hateful and grateful. I wish you could inform me something like this and train me in another way, but I guess I won''t hold you ountable since, in the end, everything is alright." Theo smiled. "I get good teammates and people I can ask for advice. I can get stronger from this point on."


    "That''s good. To be honest, I need to go home, so I am thinking of visiting you onest time before returning to my country."


    "So soon? I thought you��"


    She shook her head and sighed. "It''s quite unstable right now, so I need to break my promise with you. Besides, you have understood the basics of all five aspects. Each of them has something special that you may see in the Grand Gaia�� If you manage to enter the main stage, that is."


    "Like Force Control?"


    The olddy widened her eyes in amazement. "I don''t know where you get that word, but yeah. It''s something like that. But I want you to keep practicing your foundation even if you are advancing to the next stage. After all, the variations are derived from these five."


    "I understand. I won''t abandon them�� No, I will set a time to practice them every day. Even if it''s only fifteen minutes, I will still do it." Theo smiled.


    "That''s good enough." She was satisfied. "If you have a strong foundation, learning the variations will be an easy task for you. Still, I must say, it''s better to master one thing instead of everything. That''s right. Jack of all trades, was it? Something like that.


    "Don''t say you want to master everything and be a master of all trades! It''s good to have a goal, but you need to set it realistically and try to achieve it first before getting a bigger goal. Last but not least��"


    She paused for a moment and walked to Theo before hugging him tightly. She said with a gentle tone. "Last but not least, you have worked hard, Theo, my disciple. I''m proud of you."


    In that instant, all the past training shed in his eyes. Although his master kept pushing him too hard, she always took care of him afterward. In his training, his master never looked away, even if it was to reply to a message or something to solve her boredom. When he couldn''t move anymore, she would nurse him until he was back at full health.


    Hearing her words truly made him emotional. He couldn''t contain his smile and replied.


    "Thank you, Master. I''m d that you are my master."

 Chapter 126 – A Scheme?

    <h4>Chapter 126 - A Scheme?</h4>


    While the group had mixed feelings about their achievement in bing a participant for thest stage, there was one person who made a fuss about it.


    It was none other than Laust''s Father, Endo Lange. He sat down in his office and looked at the report about the school.


    Someone knocked on the door and opened it right after, revealing a middle-aged man in a butler suit. He brought tea, walked to Endo Lange, and put the cup down on the corner of the table.


    "This is your tea, Master."


    Endo Lange didn''t answer him and paused for a moment. Before the butler left him alone, he finally opened his mouth. "What is that trash''s status? I heard he has reached the third stage."


    The butler felt pain in his heart, hearing his Master calling his own son trash. Even so, he didn''t retaliate orment on anything. He simply answered his question. "Yes. Young Master has reached the next stage. There are still two weeks before the third stage of training officially starts. Young Master��"


    Before he finished, Endo Lange stopped him by waving his hand and asked coldly, "I want to see his team members. I don''t need anything else. They are useless to me."


    The butler fell silent for a minute before taking out his Skylink to send him the list. He already knew that this information would be another controversy in his eyes.


    And yes, he was right. The moment Endo saw the file and found Theodore Griffith among them, he mmed the table strong enough to crack the surface and gritted his teeth. "That trash�� To think he will stoop so low to the point he is at the mercy of his enemy. As expected, he is not needed in this family."


    "Master, they have the powerful Hilbert Family and Eilric Family support. I''m afraid if you do something to them, the two families may join hands to suppress us. There is also a Golden Eagle Group. I think it''s better to wait until the Grand Gaia is over before doing anything."


    Endo clenched his teeth and shouted in anger. "I don''t care. All I want is that map! I don''t care whether he is alive or not."


    "This��" The butler didn''t know what to say since the participants were observed closely by the government, making their moves limited.


    "There are more you can do!" Endo took a deep breath to calm his heart down and said, "I will give you all the things you need to do. I don''t mind if that trash dies in the process. Even the Hilbert or Eilric Family won''t be able to find something in this scenario."


    The butler narrowed his eyes and sighed, wondering if he should just mess this up so there would be some kind of penalty to the Lange Family or not. After all, if they got hit and Endo stepped down, Laust or his big brother would be able to take over, meaning they would be leaving their father''s suppression.


    However, he only nodded his head, left the room, and looked at the ceiling, thinking, ''Mdy, what should I do? Master has gone too far.''


    Nothing could be done.


    ��


    Theo, unaware of this fact,id down on his bed, looking at the ceiling with an empty stare. Now that his Master had left and he was wide awake, he wondered what he should do.


    He thought he needed to put all his goals down before thepetition to see if he could do something special.


    Grabbing his Skylink, he began to type.


    "Three months goals."


    Theo thought for a moment and started typing. "First of all, I need to reach Champion Rank within three months because the enemy will be far harder than the student councils and such. In fact, they may reach Alea''s level. Hence, I need the strength to keep up.


    "I should also get the armor piece from Alea''s grandfather before going to the other side. This armor maye in handy.


    "Then, there are the missions from the instructor. I am wondering what kind of missions he will assign to us.


    "I also need to strengthen my foundation about the Five Aspects. Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance�� Since there is Force Control in the Control category, I wonder what kind of next level the others have?


    "To be honest, I think Aisha Gata has powerful Endurance. Maybe she knows something about it�� Should I visit her to understand a bit more�� Nah, I should focus on my Force Control first before thinking about the others. Besides��"


    Theo paused for a moment and raised his hand, summoning his Magic Bullet. He then stared at it for a while before using his other skill, Illusion Multiplier.


    Just like when he used it with his clone, he sessfully summoned another one next to the original Magic Bullet. It looked simple, but Theo understood he still didn''t have enough control to create another two Magic Bullets.


    "As expected, this is going to be more difficult than I thought. And I also need to master it together with my clone, making it even harder. And I think I should start changing my skills�� At least, for Pierce and Monkey Fist, to something better while still leaving one slot open." Theo thought for a moment, remembering he would be able to get more if they managed to get the participation ticket. Hence, he nned to wait for a moment since he might change his F Rank Skills directly to D Rank Skills.


    "Anyway, I need to consider more about this team since it''s kind of unbnced. Alea is simr to Laust in fighting style, so I think they are a goodbination in the front, with Sihan getting the attention of the monsters.


    "We don''t have anyone supporting us like Iv Rith, so I''m slightly concerned about our coordination�� Since there are no people like the twins. Only Ellen can fight from behind. I can do it too, but my attacks aren''t that strong like the others�� I rely on tricks�� Wait a minute, I should improve my firepower to make my tricks even more effective. That''s a goal, I guess.


    "Then there is Phyrill." Theo let out a long sigh. "We should have an Archer or Healer to support us. Maybe taking Laust with us is a big mistake�� But there''s nothing I can do. Ah, thinking about this is giving me a headache."

 Chapter 127 – Simple Training

    <h4>Chapter 127 - Simple Training</h4>


    The next day, Theo and the groups returned to the training room, upying three rooms. Since they were nning to train together, they split into three groups and the pairs were random.


    Theo got together with Ellen, Sihan was with Alea while Laust practiced with Phyrill. Yes, Laust decided to practice because of yesterday''s matter, obvious to his father''s n.


    When they entered the virtual world, Theo asked Ellen. "Can you give me any information about the other groups? I mean, some should have fulfilled the conditions as well, right?"


    Ellen tilted her head in confusion but still nodded. "Yes. I''m not sure about the information since my family is not good at it, let alone myself. If you want to ask this kind of thing, it''s better to go to Phyrill and Alea."


    "As expected, I need to go to them, huh." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Haha." Ellen chuckled and said, "They are a troublesome duo, aren''t they?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded.


    "For what reason do you want the information?"


    "It''s nothing�� I feel like the third stage is more troublesome than I expected��"


    "More troublesome? How?"


    "There is a possibility that the mission will be the same as anybody else, making it harder for us." Theo scratched the back of his head. "It''s kind of a race, you see."


    "Hmm�� I don''t know the logic, but I will try asking Alea and Phyrill about this information. Since you are thinking about our next move, this is the only way I can help you." Ellen gently bumped her fist on Theo''s chest while smiling. "You are not alone, Theo. If you need something, you should ask."


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Thank you."


    "No problem." Ellen then remembered the skill she got yesterday. "By the way, I got this skill yesterday and I feel it will be a good one for us. Let me show it to you first."


    The two then began their training. Ellen showed her mist skill that was capable of creating a smokescreen. And when Theo entered the mist, he felt the cold was trying to numb his senses and lower his ability.


    Theo was slightly surprised, but he didn''t know what to do yet with this kind of skill. After discussing it a few times, Theo practiced his Soft Control and Force Control as the Illusion Multiplier relied on Soft Control more than Force Control.


    Meanwhile, Sihan nned to get stronger by taking Alea''s blows continuously like a sandbag to understand how this girl attacked him. This should improve his perception.


    Alea didn''t mind and tried to reinforce his shield and her sword with the new skill while continuing her attacks.


    Phyrill and Laust were the same. They tried to do everything possible to get stronger since they felt the others would be leaving them behind if they didn''t improve.


    After all, Alea herself already moved at her own pace, outshining them. Theo was trying to pursue her in his unique way and had been improving greatly. On the other hand, Ellen hadn''t used her all since they hadn''t seen her tired this whole time. Meanwhile, Sihan''s role was the simplest but the hardest at the same time, making him irreceable in this team.


    Phyrill had realized it and told Laust that they could be reced easily. Instead of an Assassin, the group would be better with a Ranger. The same applied to Laust, a Fighter. Not only could Theo rece his position easily, but Laust himself hadn''t shown anything good other than the sudden change of movement in thest match.


    With Radvils as their instructor, they didn''t know whether Radvils would suddenly rece them or not, so Laust and Phyrill aimed to be someone special in the group to avoid any problems.


    This kind of training continued for two weeks. The partners kept changing, and Theo didn''t mind being paired with Laust or Sihan since it was the rule he ced on this training.


    Theo kept trying one thing after another to see if they had good coordination or not. They even held three to three matches to see if something good would happen.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo couldn''t find anything within the two weeks.


    ��


    Two weekster, specifically on Monday, all the participants for the third stage had arrived in the school where Radvils nned to exin the third stage.


    When Theo arrived in front of the school, he found Alea standing in the middle of the street.


    Due to most of the students in their ss, not many would stop by to see her, making it perfectly fine for her to wait for Theo.


    Behind her was Ellen. She took a peek at Theo and waved her hand. "You''ve finally arrived. Wee."


    Sihan sat silently on the bench right next to the road while looking at him. After seeing Theo arrive, he closed his eyes as if feeling relieved.


    Next to him was Phyrill. His hands rested on his thighs while supporting his cheek, looking at this scenery with a cheerful expression.


    Last but not least, Laust. He had been crossing his arms while leaning against the tree next to the bench. When he saw Theo, he looked away and harrumphed.


    "Sorry, Theo. I don''t mean to create a scene, but I wonder if it''s alright to go together? I mean, we need to gather at the gym in our group, so don''t you think it''s better to go together?" Alea gently stroked her cheek since she felt this wasn''t going to work.


    Phyrill already told her that Theo always went together with them since their reputation was far below her. That was why they decided to stop here to wait for Theo.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and thought it wouldn''t be necessary to hide anymore. Even if trouble arose, he could use his other identity to solve it. After all, Clone Theo could act as a recement with that ability to speak and use skills. And if the other groups were together while Alea''s group only had five people with him standing alone, there would be too many misunderstandings.


    After contemting for a minute, Theo closed his eyes and smiled, saying, "It''s fine. But�� If everyone hates me, don''t defend me or something. Just stay quiet."


    "Eh?!"


    "Let them underestimate me. It''s better that way." Theo smiled before releasing his killing intent. "It''s more convenient for me to move with that condition."


    "��" Alea didn''t know his intention, but she still supported him. "Okay, okay. I will follow what you want, but put away that killing intent first."


    Theo nodded and retracted his killing intent. "Let''s go then."

 Chapter 128 – Understimate Me? Fine

    <h4>Chapter 128 - Understimate Me? Fine</h4>


    After exchanging a few words, the group went to the gym, where all the participants for thest round gathered.


    As expected, as soon as they entered the gym, everyone''s eyes were on them. Many were astonished because they might be the leading group as of now, especially with Alea on board.


    "Look. That is Alea''s group."


    "Yeah. They have Ellen Marcines. She is rumored to have the same strength as our Student Council''s Vice President."


    When they talked about it, the Student Council Group and the other two members looked at Jay Mao. Jay only shook his head since they knew Ellen was far better than him. They just didn''t know it yet.


    The amazement didn''t end there. They saw the two second-year students and had a mixed reaction. Obviously, the fangirls quickly screamed like they were in love while calling Phyrill''s title out loud.


    "Kya!"


    "My Prince."


    While those fangirls focused on Phyrill, some of the stronger ones actually looked at Sihan Raskaka. Sihan was known as the number one Guardian without anyoneing close to his level like Alea. Phyrill, Ellen, or Laust all had a kind of rival that people alwayspared them with, such as Aisha or Jay Mao.


    That was why they took Sihan''s matter seriously.


    Still, the most shocking one was the first year.


    "Laust Lange?"


    "He is the younger brother of Ben Lange, the genius senior who graduated with the highest level in history. He also participated in the Grand Gaiapetition of his generation."


    "It seems the younger brother is trying to pursue his brother''s footsteps."


    Yes, this was what Laust had been listening to for a decade. People always knew he was Ben Lange''s younger brother, not Laust Lange. People alwayspared him to his talented big brother.


    After a long decade, the hatred in Laust''s heart that had been suppressed was released when Theo defeated him. In fact, with how long this matter infuriated him, it was surprising Laust managed to control himself from using some dumb moves due to his judgment being clouded by hatred.


    Theo took a glimpse of Laust''s expression, but everything seemed normal. He appeared to be calm if not numb to this situation.


    But as expected, when their eyes locked on thest person in the group, Theo, everything began to question how things could reach this point.


    "Wait, who is thest person?"


    "We don''t have any information about that person?"


    "Do you know something?"


    They all looked at their first-year students to see whether they knew something. However, most of them didn''t know unless they were in the same ss.


    "He�� Isn''t he the bullied person in my ss?"


    "Who is his name again?"


    "That''s right. Theodore Griffith. He is Theodore Griffith."


    "Someone among the lowest in our ss."


    "But look at that, if I''m not wrong, Sihan Raskaka and Laust Lange are bullying. How do they even be his teammates?"


    "No, that''s not the problem. How can someone like that be their teammate?"


    "It''s not fair."


    "There are still many people better than him."


    As expected, thosements blew up. Theo already prepared himself for this and just let it go. However, it was different for Alea and Ellen. Ellen often took care of Theo like a big sister while Alea had been working with him for the longest in their group, so those two understood Theo the most.


    Even Sihan had an ufortable expression. Phyrill had a scheming look. He seemed to be enjoying how everyone underestimated him to the point they looked down on him. No wonder Theo wanted them to ignore their remark.


    He nned to use this situation to his advantage in the third stage. In fact, there was a chance Theo had been looking much further to the Grand Gaia Competition. If he established himself as a lucky person of this group, the enemy would be underestimating him even further.


    ''He is good�� Really, really good.'' Phyrill licked his lips and nced at Theo, who kept his cool. ''I really want him in my Hilbert Family. I''m sure he can rise to the top. At that time, my Hilbert Family will soar to the sky.''


    Phyrill might be the one who understood Theo''s n the most since they were the same type, even though he was slightly behind.


    While they were talking about him, Theo took a simple nce at his surroundings, counting on how many people managed to survive to the third round. He found Aisha''s group in his right, looking at the others with contempt. The same applied to the Student Council group in the opposite direction.


    They simply thought these people were foolish because Theo had been hiding his strength this whole time. In fact, Theo''s strength was equal to Aisha and Laust and his head was above them.


    Only those who had fought against him understood what kind of consequence they needed to bear if they underestimated Theo, but none of them cared enough to warn them since Theo would wipe them out, eliminating theirpetitors.


    As Theo counted the people in this gym, Radvils showed up, walking to the stage without an expression. He simply didn''t care about their impression of Theo unless he managed to pass all thepetitions.


    Only a few felt Radvils''s presence as their eyes followed his movement.


    When Radvils arrived in front of the microphone, Theo and those who saw him quickly closed their ears before a high-pitched sound disturbed their ears.


    "Kh." Many closed their ears because of the sound and turned around.


    Before theyined, Radvils already opened his mouth. "If I were a terrorist, most of you would have died already. Pathetic. I don''t care about your private life in school, but as long as you are in this training, you''re going to follow my way. For now, I don''t want to hear any sound other than my voice."


    The students gulped down as they stared at him. Despite his calm but annoying tone, none of them opened their mouths since they knew things would be troublesome if they messed with Radvils.


    Radvils nodded and continued, "Alright. Let''s start then."

 Chapter 129 – Missions

    <h4>Chapter 129 - Missions</h4>


    "Alright. Let''s start then." Radvils opened his Skylink and typed a few things before they felt their Skylink just received a message. He extended his hand and said, "Please open your Skylink."


    Theo frowned and took out his Skylink. As soon as he opened the mail, he could find a certain instruction from Radvils.


    Mission:


    1. Reach level requirement. Third-year students are to reach Level 251 and be Hero Rank Combatants. First-year students are required to be a Champion Rank or a minimum of Level 151. The time limit is three months.


    2. Each group will kill three Hero Rank Monsters of your choice. The school will be providing one hundred Level 250 to Level 270 monsters. They are a rare breed, so their strength will be different from your typical Hero Rank Monsters. If you are not strong enough, then don''t challenge it. As long as you don''t bring any outside help, everything is fair.


    3. Please provide proof of all the monsters you killed during the three months. We will measure it to see who among you gets the most kills.


    Radvils gave them five minutes to understand the missions first. After that, he continued his exnation. "As you already know about the first mission, I have personally exined it to your group�� If the first mission is notpleted, you won''t be qualified for the second mission even if you bring me the proof.


    "As for the second mission, you are required to handle three Hero Rank Monsters. There are fifty groups among you, so��" Radvils stopped his exnation as the students gulped down.


    Someone finally took this chance to continue it for him with a scared expression. "So, it''s a natural elimination?"


    Radvils took a deep breath. The students gulped down since "yes" would be the most believable answer.


    However, Radvils decided to say, "No!"


    "Eh?" His statement stunned all the students.


    "The mission only stated you are to kill three Hero Rank Monsters of your choice while the school will be providing the information about them. If you find another one that can be ssified as one of those one hundred monsters, it will be counted towards your contribution.


    "In other words, if all the one hundred monsters have died, you are free to continue searching for another one. As long as there is no outside help that will help you to fight these monsters, you''re free to do anything." Radvils exined.


    Alea seemed to notice something as she asked, "You said help in the fight�� Does that mean we''re free to use our influences to get the information?"


    The other students turned to her and never expected that kind of help.


    Radvils even nodded his head. "Yes. You can post the information gathering mission in the Temples, get your family to help with the information, or whatever ns you can think of as long as they are not there physically. Of course, you are to record all the fights, so we can make sure the monsters are healthy, meaning they are not weakened by your influence."


    "Wait. Getting help from the family? That''s not fair. It''s also relying on the mary resources if you want to post a mission in the Temples." One of the students shouted.


    Radvils made a bewildered expression while feeling cringy about this guy''sment. He simply answered with an annoyed tone. "Kid, has no one ever taught you that this world was never fair and never will be? I don''t need your cringy ideal. If you don''t like it, just piss off. You won''t be missed."


    The students obviously didn''t like thatment since they couldn''t choose their parents. Even so, the life of the rich people wasn''t that smooth either. There was a family like Laust''s and there was a different kind of family like the Eilric Family.


    Radvils understood that and never thought about it in his head. He continued his exnation. "If you think this is already unfair�� you will realize this is a Havenpared to the international stage. Either way, I don''t want to delve into this matter. I only want to say one thing if you still have a question regarding this fairness. Grow up, kids."


    Many students had their expressions twisted, acknowledging that Radvils might be one of the most unpleasant people they had ever met. And thetter said it like it was a natural thing, not deliberately, thus making it even more frustrating.


    Without waiting for them, Radvils continued his exnation. "During these three months, I have gotten permission to let you go to the other side for fifteen days every month. In other words, you have a total of forty-five days in these three months. Of course, you will need to take at least fifteen days for permission. Saturday and Sunday are counted among the fifteen days. Even if your permit ends on Saturday, you are to go back here right away.


    "If our staff finds you utilizing more than you''re allowed to, you will be disqualified. Last but not least, to give you some leeway, we will be providing tents and other basic equipment for camping."


    Ellen raised his hand after Theo whispered a question to her to not make others change his opinion about him for being able to discern something good.


    "Are there any tools we are not allowed to bring?"


    Radvils widened his eyes in amazement for a split second. He thought for a moment and smiled. "A good question. Since this is for Grand Gaia, let''s follow their rule. Other than your main weapons, any kind of weapons, especially the explosive and expensive ones, are not allowed. After all, how can we allow you to bring sma bombs or tanks there��


    "You can bring all the necessary tools ording to your judgment. You should remember that you may probably need to camp for two weeks straight, so you need to think about the journey to go back to the Art Beast Castle or you will be disqualified. Vehicles are not allowed as well. Think of it like physical training." Radvils nodded and asked, "Any other questions? If not, I will be ending it here."


    He waited for another two minutes, but not a single student raised their hand, so he closed it there.


    "Since you don''t have any questions, I will be ending the session here. You are free to buy anything you need today and get the free tents from me after this. The count will start tomorrow, precisely, 1 April, I wish you luck." Radvils said his final piece, turned around and left the stage.

 Chapter 130 – Expedition Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 130 - Expedition Preparation</h4>


    After Radvils went off the stage, all fifty groups began their discussion, wondering how they should finish these assignments.


    Alea turned around and asked, "Anyone has an opinion regarding the schedule?"


    "Fifteen days a month, huh." Phyrill looked down, thinking how he should utilize the time.


    "I think we should leave first." Sihan stopped them since he didn''t want others to bother them or know more about Theo.


    The group furrowed their eyebrows and nodded their heads.


    "Let''s go to a restaurant outside then. We don''t have any ss today, so it''s good." Alea offered a solution.


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "I think it''s better to stay in the school."


    Phyrill and the others actually agreed with Alea''s suggestion, so they were surprised Theo wanted otherwise.


    "If you want to talk about something, we can use the third building''s private room. Instead of training, we can just talk." Theo tried to convince them.


    Their eyes began to waver as they thought it was also a good solution.


    Since Theo was a better nner than Alea, they decided to follow Theo''s demand.


    Before leaving, Phyrill asked, "Why do you want to stay in the school?"


    Theo''s answer came in the form of another question. "Why do you want to go outside the school?"


    "Ehm? It''s private. Well, I don''t know." Phyrill found himself unable to answer his question. At first, he wanted to answer that school made him sick, but that was not exactly the right answer.


    Ellen shrugged and walked first. "If you don''t want to go, then I will go there first."


    The group exchanged looks and followed her, wondering what Theo was thinking. Not long after, they arrived inside the building as Ellen talked about renting the private room.


    After getting the permission, Ellen invited them inside, where they only had one room to talk. After all, this wasn''t a cafe where they could simply ask for a room.


    Ellen took the seat together and pulled Theo to the couch since he needed to rx if he wanted to think of something good. The other side was Phyrill, while Laust, Sihan, and Alea stood in the opposite direction.


    "So, what do you think about this assignment?" Ellen asked.


    "How about going right away? With our current information, we can take one down almost immediately. If we continue at our pace, we should be killing one every month without a problem. Even if there are no more monsters, we can utilize our family influence to get the information." Alea answered. "We can start tomorrow."


    "I don''t think we should do it like that. How about webine the two months together? We will start from mid-April and ask for fifteen days and another fifteen days from May 1st." Phyrill offered another solution.


    Sihan and Laust looked away since they would only follow what the group decided. Only Ellen and Theo had yet to convey their opinion.


    Since there was something he wanted to ask Ellen, he decided to show them his thoughts. "Let''s put both answers together."


    "You what?" Phyrill and Alea opened their mouths in surprise as Theo''s answer just surpassed their imagination again. Even Laust and Sihan tried to see what he was nning.


    "We will go to the other side tomorrow and rest for a month before doing another expedition that willst for one month." Theo smiled.


    "Theo, we are here not to y, you know." Alea shook her head, trying to convince him that both answers had their own benefits. It was impossible to use both ways.


    "I am not sure myself since I have never gone on any expedition that requires me to stay for a long time. Unlike the training camp, we will be in constant danger after all." Theo then turned to Ellen, who looked back with a questioning look.


    Theo asked, "What are the things we need to do in a situation like this?"


    Ellen contemted for a minute before saying, "I see. I will answer your question first."


    Before giving any exnation, Ellen took out her Skylink and opened the file Radvils sent to them. It was information about the monsters.


    After that, she opened the map on the table screen so everyone could see it. She marked the Art Beats Castle and another location that she believed where the monster lived.


    "Take a look at this distance; I just grabbed one random monster from the information. You can see there is a huge distance between them. If I need to roughly calcte the distance, we will need around three days to reach there by foot. Of course, with our current level.


    "Theo doesn''t want to waste time on traveling, so he wants to join the opportunity together, extending it to a month like Phyrill suggested. However, if you take another look at this map, there are hills, cliffs, mountains, and such.


    "We need to scout this area first before doing something to see whether our group can cross it or not. We can''t bring any vehicles after all, meaning there won''t be any drones, choppers, and such that would take us there.


    "That''s why Theo takes Alea''s suggestion as well. It''s all to assess everything. As you all know, the problem with an expedition like this will be our number due to the path and resources. I mean, I always help in this matter, so I know we need to check our water and food supply.


    "Water will be a big problem, so we need to know where we can gather enough water supply. Then, we need to see how much all you guys eat to ensure no one fights while feeling hungry and so on. Theo wants to understand everything before having a long expedition.


    "Of course, since the first is important, we will be challenging one Hero Rank Monster during the first one while trying to adjust our coordination. That''s my opinion." She smiled and turned to Theo. "How was it? Did I miss something?"


    "No, you exined more than I imagined. I didn''t have any experiences, so I couldn''t say much." Theo shook his head helplessly before thanking Ellen.


    Ellen simply smiled and gave him a thumbs up. "Do ask me if you want to know anything. I can tell you everything other than my three sizes and the color of my underwear. If you want to know Alea''s, I can tell you too��"


    "Wait, what?!" Alea widened her eyes after getting dragged into Ellen''s lewd joke.

 Chapter 131 – Roles

    <h4>Chapter 131 - Roles</h4>


    After ying for a bit, Ellen then continued, "Anyway, I think that''s Theo''s n. What do you think?"


    Surprisingly, Sihan was the first to support Theo''s decision. "I agree with the arrangement. In that one month off, we can use it to get more information from our influence or something. And if needed, we can change our skills to further enhance our overall performance. One month will be enough to master the D Rank Skill Radvils gave us too��"


    Phyrill nodded in agreement, saying, "I will ask my Hilbert Family for the information, including the nest. Maybe we can set out an expedition to hunt Hero Rank monsters while destroying a few nests to increase our levels. We will also need to rank up once in the wild anyway, so I don''t see any problem with this n."


    Alea looked at Laust and Ellen, who seemed to have no problem with this arrangement, so she said, "Then, we need to prepare everything today. Let''s assign everyone''s job, shall we?"


    Since the topic had changed, Theo began to exin their role. "For now, Sihan will be getting our tents. Ellen will apany you since you will also ask for permission to leave the school. Phyrill and Laust will get more information about the map, terrain, and other information. Alea and I will be in charge of the supply."


    Ellen agreed. "Alright. Leave it to us. We will probably have three tents and pair each other. I will be with Alea. Theo will sleep together with Phyrill. Sihan doesn''t mind sharing a tent with Laust, right?"


    Sihan and Laust exchanged looks. Seeing there was noint, both nodded to Ellen.


    "And a pair should be watching outside during the night. We need to split it into three as well and I don''t think we should have the same pair as the tents. The reason is if there are two people in the tent and wake up together, they will sh when there is an emergency, rushing to the outside. That''s why I will be changing the pair. At least two tents or two people cane out immediately.


    "How about this? Alea and Theo have been working together, so you two can pair up. Sihan will be with me while Phyrill will take care of Laust."


    Alea and Theo obviously didn''t have any problem since they had been doing it for so long. Sihan and Ellen were also a pair previously, leaving only Phyrill and Laust together. However, the two seemed to have some sort of mysterious bond after knowing their role could easily be reced.


    Hearing noint, so Ellen nodded, ending the conversation. "Alright. That''s all."


    "Then, Laust and I will prepare for information, including the water supply like rivers, fountains, and any other water sources. We can handle the food without a problem anyway since we can find herbs and meats on the field. I will also provide nests, monsters, and other information to make our journey go as smoothly as possible."


    "Thanks." Ellen gave a thumbs up before looking at Theo. "I think everything has been set. What do you think, Theo?"


    "I am just wondering, does anyone have an allergy or something they can''t eat? And can any of you cook?"


    Their eyes intertwined before Ellen raised her hand. "I''m not that good, but if I bring a cooking ss which gives me the simtion on how to cook, I think it will be good. I have experience in cooking as well."


    "Same." Sihan pointed his finger at Ellen.


    "I can''t cook." Phyrill raised his hand without hesitation. A smile was nted on his face as if he wasn''t ashamed to admit it.


    Laust contemted for a moment before swallowing his pride instead of making everyone suffer from food poisoning. "I never cook."


    "Then, it means only I, Theo, Ellen, and Sihan. Well, Theo and I have been preparing our food together, so I will cook together with him for lunch while Ellen and Sihan cook for dinner. Breakfast will be the leftover food from the previous night, okay?" Alea concluded their role.


    "By the way, don''t forget your night vision sses," added Theo, remembering the first time he used them. These sses would be extremely useful in the fight, especially during the night.


    The group nodded without hesitation since sses like these were not that expensive for them. Only Theo needed to think about it before spending so much money, especially since he needed to take care of the rent.


    Seeing his expression, a small smile appeared on Alea''s face. She knew his money problem and nned to do something about it. She raised another problem in the group expedition. "How about the kills and items?"


    "I think we should allocate the EXP Points to Laust and Theo first. Well, it''s not that much of a problem to be honest, since we can simply help if someone is too far behind from the progress. As for items�� The one who kills it will get it.


    "Only the special skills or items dropped from the Rare Hero Rank Monsters will be shared. We can sell them first and split the money or decide to give it to someone. This is our group, so it''s easy to decide, especially since almost all of use from a big family. Items of this rank are worth a lot but by no means that important to us." Phyrill shrugged after exining the allocations.


    "That''s good enough." Alea nodded.


    Since this was the first time he went out with six people, he turned to Ellen and asked, "Is this how usually a group decides things before an expedition?"


    "Yes. The most influential person, the oldest, or their employers are usually the ones deciding things."


    Theo felt it was troublesome and thought, ''I don''t think I want to be in the group again. I will only stay with this group for the Grand Gaia. I think my clone will be enough to be my teammate since I can get everything while not having to worry about someone backstabbing me.''


    Nevertheless, they had agreed to almost everything. And even if there were more, they could decide on the spot, so Alea decided to end the meeting.


    "Then, let''s meet again tomorrow�� Where and when?" Alea furrowed her eyebrows and asked Theo.


    "Tomorrow at 5 AM. The ce will be in front of the Teleportation Circle."


    "That''s it." She pointed at Theo before waving her hand. "Alright. Let''s end this meeting and do our things."


    They nodded and left the room together.

 Chapter 132 – Going Together

    <h4>Chapter 132 - Going Together</h4>


    While the rest handled their jobs, Theo and Alea headed to the supermarket to buy the spices and water bottles.


    The supermarket itself was a square building with a giant "M" on the front door. Of course, Alea brought her hat and mask that covered her mouth and nose. She also tied her hair into a ponytail to make her a bit unrecognizable, so Theo didn''tin about going together with her.


    Theo and Alea entered the building and grabbed a cart. Theo pushed it while Alea brought all the spices they needed.


    "That''s right, Theo, do you want to grab your arm guards? I think my grandfather has finished the creation." She asked while handing a bag of salt and sugar to Theo.


    He grabbed the two bags and put them in the cart while thinking about the visit. Since he needed it to go tomorrow, it would probably be good to have anotheryer of protection. Alea was the one who had any rtionship with her grandfather, so bringing her would smooth the process. "Sure. I''m nning to buy another spear as well. And probably the night vision sses."


    "If you''re worried about the sses, I will be the one supplying them."


    "Are you sure?" Theo nced at her, who was picking another spice.


    "Yes. You don''t need to worry about it."


    "Well, I will be shamelessly taking it for granted." Theo nodded. "I will try not to break it and give it back to you after everything is done."


    "��" Alea thought for a moment and decided not to say, "You don''t need to." Since Theo might not like it. Even a cheap skill alone made him feel a bit ufortable, so she didn''t push everything even though it was her basically giving him things.


    Theo probably didn''t like how he always received things and did not give anything since Theo kept mentioning give and take.


    "Say�� How about you join my family? I mean, we have a few groups that act as our personal agents. They all are sponsored by the family and trained into an elite. If you join, I think we can talk about sry and such." Alea asked with a hesitant tone, wondering how Theo would react.


    Surprisingly, Theo remained silent for a few minutes, making her tense the whole time. Ultimately, Theo shook his head and said, "I don''t have a n to join a family at the moment. I will think about it after the Grand Gaia."


    She made a smirk as if she understood what he was nning. "Trying to increase your value first, eh? It''s a smart move."


    Theo shrugged and continued. When they finished, thedy at the counter kept looking at them with a smile.


    Theo and Alea thought of it as nothing and quickly left the building with many spices in hand.


    Alea took a glimpse of Theo''s indifferent face and asked, "Why do you think thatdy grinned at us?"


    "She probably thought we''re couples. A stupid thought." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    Alea didn''t say anything nor felt hurt about his remark. After all, their rtionship was only at the level ofrades. Putting that aside, Alea also didn''t want Theo to enter the Eilric Family in this way for a few reasons. First, the family was warfare for inheritances and shares of their own business. Second, knowing more would put him, someone who didn''t have any background, in danger. Third, he would surely be hated by her pursuers. They might even kill him in the process.


    That was why Alea never looked at Theo as a love interest.


    After leaving the building, the two headed to the other side, specifically Nart Eilric''s shop.


    When they saw the same old man standing on the counter, Alea waved her hand, telling him she was visiting.


    "Hmm?" Nart was surprised that Theo was with her but didn''t mention it.


    "Grandfather, I know you have finished Theo''s armguards." She put down her mask and smiled.


    "You girl�� Shouldn''t you say ''I miss you, Grandfather,'' first before asking for equipment?'' Nart shook his head helplessly.


    "But we metst night��"


    "Anyway, it''s true that I have finished the armguards." He nodded and took out a pair of armguards. Nart then pointed at the metallic part and exined, "This armguard has the length of your lower arm. It should perfectly fit your arm. Underneath this metallic part whiches from a Silver Iron Lizard is leather from Pugion Bear. The leather had good durability and I had added some cushions so your arms wouldn''t get hurt when someone hit you.


    "I am confident with this one�� It should be able to protect you from a level 200 monster''s attack, so yeah, no need to hesitate to use it." Nart gave a thumbs up to end his exnation. "How about you try it first?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the armguards. He grabbed one of them and ced it on top of his lower arm. He then gently pulled the belt under the arm guard and tightened it.


    "Ah, let me help you." Alea offered the help, to which Theo didn''t object.


    After sessfully putting it on, Theo extended his hand to the front and tried to make all kinds of movements he could think of and said, "It fits perfectly. Although it does feel a bit ufortable since I''ve never put on something like this, I don''t think it will hinder my movement."


    "That''s good." Nart nodded and asked him to try the second one.


    While Theo put it on, Alea told Nart what happened in the school, including their missions, hoping he could help them to hunt more monsters, especially the monster nests and rare Hero Rank Monster.


    "I can''t say no to my granddaughter." Nart onlyughed it off while saying, "Still, since you''re going to leave for fifteen days, you should bring all your equipment, you know."


    "Don''t worry. I have cleaned up my gloves and greaves back home." Alea winked her eyes.


    "Then, I don''t think I will need to worry about you anymore." Nart then agreed to her requestpletely, feeling assured. He then turned to Theo and said gently. "Boy, please take care of my granddaughter. I know she is a pain in the ass, but I hope you can do this favor for this old man."


    "Grandfather�� How about you tell him something good about your granddaughter��" Alea''s eyebrows twitched.


    "I will." Theo nodded with a smile as if he already epted that fact that easily.


    "Wait. Don''t agree with him that easily!" Alea''s face turned pale, trying to correct him.

 Chapter 133 – Equipment

    <h4>Chapter 133 - Equipment</h4>


    Aftering to an agreement, Theo tried to move around the store while testing his new equipment before telling Nart everything was good.


    Suddenly, a white spear grabbed his attention. It had this white metal handle with some flower patterns that could put him in a trance. The de was simr to what he had right now, so he thought he would be able to get this spear for his clone to use.


    Taking the spear out of the shelf, Theo went to the counter and handed the spear to Nart. "I would like to buy this spear."


    "Now that you are here, you also need the night vision sses, right?" Nart asked while grabbing the sses from the drawer next to him.


    He presented it on the table, which seemed to have the same appearance as Alea''s.


    ''It must be the same model,'' Theo thought and nodded. "Yes. How much is it?"


    "Ehm�� Are you sure?" Nart tilted his head in confusion with a hesitant face.


    "Why do you ask?" Theo didn''t understand it at first, but when he saw Alea''s awkward expression, he realized the price might be beyond his expectation. "Before that, can I know the price first?"


    "It''s 250,000 Zils."


    "��" Theo was speechless when he heard the ridiculous price.


    "These sses are the newest model with innovative technology. It can enhance the light reflected by the moonlight by twenty times, allowing you to see the world like during the day. That''s why it''s so expensive. You can also use the basic function if you go somewhere that doesn''t have ess to sunlight." He exined where the ridiculous price came from.


    Theo scratched the back of his head, asking, "Can I rent it instead?"


    "Ahaha��" Nart chuckled and said, "No, no. You don''t need to give me anything. Since you said you are going to take care of my granddaughter, you can consider these sses as your payment. If you think you can''t ept it, then you can return it to me afterpleting the task. How about it?"


    Theo widened his eyes, staring at Nart for a while. He wanted to know whether Nart had a hidden intention or not, but he seemed to be pretty genuine.


    After considering a few pros and cons, he nodded. "I understand."


    "Ah, by the way, you still need to pay for the spear, okay?" Nart chuckled and continued, "It''s 38,000 Zils."


    Theo nodded and transferred the money to him.


    It took them one hour to settle everything, including Alea''s equipment. But they got so much from Nart, so Theo didn''t mind spending that much time.


    Theo took a chance to wave his hand to Nart to say goodbye as well as tell him he was grateful for his gifts.


    Outside the store, Alea tapped his shoulder.


    Halting his step, Theo turned around and asked, "Do you need anything?"


    "Actually, I have something to tell you. I don''t know much, but I am afraid our journey won''t be that smooth. There is a few disturbing news in this area. As you know, our country has two portals, right?"


    Theo nodded. "This one is a low-level one. The monsters here are only Hero Rank or below. That''s why it''s perfect for building the school here."


    "Exactly, but when you take the monster we faced when the earthquake happened��" She let out a long sigh. "It''s going to beplicated."


    "Do you mean there are a few more monsters like that lurking in this ce?" Theo asked.


    "I''m not sure myself, but I heard the military will be moving soon to scout the area. They are here to check the entire situation to make sure no powerful monster like that ever hits the citizens again."


    "You''re mentioning it to me at this particr time�� Ugh, it feels like a curse��" Theo shuddered and said, "Anyway, I will be searching for the rumors and information in the Skter."


    "Yeah."


    "That''s good. Then�� This is for you." Theo opened his Skylink and presented a number to her.


    25


    "Ehm? What is this number?" Alea tilted her head in confusion.


    "You forgot about it?" Theo opened his eyes in surprise before subtracting the number with five, turning the number to twenty. "That''s for you trying to scare me with your information. I feel like we will have a mishap soon because of that story."


    "Wait, don''t tell me, that''s the number you showed me back when we first went out?" Alea dropped her jaw to the ground and looked at how the number turned twenty.


    "I am still keeping a tab on it." Theo shrugged.


    "But you never mentioned it again after that, I thought you were joking."


    "It was never a joke."


    "��" Alea was taken aback as she stepped back while asking, "By the way, what are mymon mistakes?"


    "You talked too many useless things."


    "!!!" She remembered when he first introduced the point. She said she wouldn''t say anything useless just to keep up the conversation and realized Theo had been deducting the number.


    "Anyway, we have finished our jobs, so I will be leaving soon."


    "Wait a minute. Don''t tell me the reason you''ve been avoiding me is due to this number?"


    "Half of it." Theo stuck his tongue out. But seeing Alea''s empty stare, Theo added while walking away. "Well, that''s a lie."


    With how he kept changing his tone, she didn''t know whether Theo told the truth or not. Little did she know, Theo just managed to copy how his master kept tricking Theo by changing her tones once in a while.


    However, what she paid attention to was the fact that Theo had be a bit more cheerful than in the past when he could only talk with a cold tone. "At least, you''ve been improving. Though, it truly bes harder to understand you."


    ��


    The next day, they gathered in front of the Teleportation Circle. Theo brought two spears with him, one on his hand while the other was on his back. Ellen had a durable leather robe she usually used to hunt, while Sihan had full body armor along with the helmet. He would be taking all the hits, so protection was necessary for him.


    Laust had some leather jacket and other protective equipment to increase his defense without restricting his movement. Phyrill had a simr gear but with the addition of a mask to conceal his breathing.


    Alea was wearing metal gloves and greaves that seemed to have the same functionality as his arm guards but for both hands and feet. As she said a few months ago, since they were going on the expedition, she wore long pants instead of a skirt. It was never a good thing to underestimate the dangerous world anyway.


    Seeing everyone gathered, Alea said with a smile. "Let''s go then."

 Chapter 134 – Impossible Missions?

    <h4>Chapter 134 - Impossible Missions?</h4>


    Outside the Art Beats City, Theo and Phyrill, who got inspected first, went together a bit farther from the gate. Phyrill took out a map and showed it to him.


    "After looking at the information, I have found good spots for us. There is no one who can deal with these monsters because it''s too hard for them." Phyrill marked the three locations with red dots. He pointed at the closest one. "This is the closest one. Only two and a half days by foot.


    "As for why I say no one can do it is due to their levels, including the monsters around them. In fact, we may need to destroy one or two nests to let Ellen reach Champion Rank first, so we will be able to contend with this guy, a barely Level 251 Monster." He sighed. "That instructor is a sadist, isn''t he?"


    Theo also understood what he meant, but he remained silent, letting Phyrill exin his view.


    "For example, it''s hard for a single group like us to defeat a Hero Rank Monster. After all, the level gaps are just too far. That''s why the instructor wants us to level up as soon as possible. However, if you take another look at this problem, Alea is the only one who manages to reach Champion Rank or you can say Level 151 in this training.


    "If you don''t even reach this step, I doubt you have enough strength to contend the Hero Rank, which basically has at least a hundred levels above you. The difference in strength is too far and six people won''t be enough.


    "We are lucky that your average monsters don''t have that much intelligence, so you can predict what they are going to do, allowing us to kill monsters with higher levels than ours. Still, with our current group level, I don''t think we can go for a nest filled with level 150-200 monsters even with E or D Rank skills. Even your Magic Bullets won''t be that effective against Champion Rank Monsters.


    "That''s why I''m taking all of us to a nest with Level 100-150 monsters. Even the monster has only monsters at that level surrounding him."


    "I''m sure you know what this means, right?" Phyrill furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He had thought about it yesterday and it was also the reason why he hurriedly returned to his house after getting all the equipment.


    "There are three possible actions we can take right now," Phyrill exined.


    "Three?" Theo nced at him.


    "First, we can ambush the Hero Rank Monster and deal with it as a group. This will be a hard fight, but I think it''s possible for our group." He then pointed at the other information. "Second, we can form an alliance with another group, making a total of twelve people. I''m sure we can do it this way. However, this strategy will require us to help them as well. Time-wise�� It''s not very effective."


    "And thest one?"


    "We just abandon this mission and focus on leveling up, hoping that we will somehowplete the missions. I''m afraid most of the groups will fail�� After all, reaching Hero Rank within 45 days is close to impossible and we need to do other assignments as well. That''s why I believe the instructor will just settle with someone at the top." Phyrill shrugged.


    Surprisingly, Theo chuckled after listening to his assessment.


    "Why are youughing? Do you have something in mind, Theo?" Phyrill narrowed his eyes. "Care to exin?"


    Theo chuckled for a few more seconds before saying, "What makes you think there isn''t a fourth possible action?"


    "Fourth?" Phyrill widened his eyes.


    "Why do you think the instructor gives each of us a D Rank Skill, especially something that suits us?" Theo smirked while clenching his hand.


    Phyrill took a step back and drew a gasp as his face went pale. Theo''s smile was all he needed to understand that the instructor turned out nning to use the D Rank Skill for them to hunt a Hero Rank Monster. After all, only Hero Rank Monsters or above would drop a D Rank skill.


    "You��" Phyrill was simply stunned as his mind became empty, staring at him for a minute until the rest of their group finished the check-in at the gate.


    "I didn''t realize it until we got the assignment as well, but I''m d that we chose to master the Skill first before going to this ce. With this, we will gain experience first so Ellen can reach Champion Rank before going to kill them." Theo smiled and asked, "If you don''t mind asking, what is your current level?"


    "Me?" Phyrill thought for a moment and said, "I''m Level 103 right now. Sihan is around my level."


    Since Phyrill didn''t mind sharing that information, he thought he should tell him as well since it was a kind of showing him his truth. "I''m Level 69 right now. We will reach that ce within three days, so I think we can use the first few days to raise our level, especially Ellen''s, before hitting the first Hero Rank Monster. What do you think?"


    Phyrill smiled and nodded. "It''s a good n. After that, let''s just raid nests after nests."


    Showing him the map again, Phyrill marked many spots with blue dots this time. "From what I know, these are the nests. Although they are a few hours away from each other, we can also kill the monsters on the way. It should be giving us a few levels as well. How is it?"


    "Yes. That''s good enough." Theo nodded in agreement. "You will navigate us through the area and there is a chance that we will keep fighting even past 6 PM�� That''s why I asked for night vision sses. I''m afraid we won''t have enough time to raise our levels."


    "Haha. I guess this assignment is not a lost cause after all." Phyrillughed out loud.


    The rest approached them and asked, "You two, what are you discussing to the point youugh like that?"


    "It''s a boy''s secret. I don''t mind telling the rest, but you cannot listen to it." Phyrill made a smug smile and said, taunting Alea.


    Before Aleained, Theo let out a long sigh and exined. "We are just talking about our ns. We are fighting against time and powerful enemies and just saw a glimpse of sess. After all, these assignments are close to impossible."


    Alea tilted her head and said, "I don''t understand much about it and I think I will only learn half of it from your exnation, so I won''t waste your time and trust you. Let''s set off."


    Phyrill and Theo exchanged looks as if they weremunicating through their heads. Theo gave a simple nod and Phyrill said, "Alright. You all need to follow me closely."

 Chapter 135 – Improve Or Die

    <h4>Chapter 135 - Improve Or Die</h4>


    The group followed Phyrill right behind him. Of course, they were running since they wouldn''t arrive within three days of walking.


    They crossed ins and forests just to get there while Phyrill scouted the entire area, trying to avoid any useless contacts from the monster.


    However, as one would expect from the world filled with monsters, they found a group that even Phyrill couldn''t find any way to slip past them other than killing them.


    It was a small path between two cliffs, so they didn''t have any choice unless they wanted to climb the cliffs.


    "So, what are they?" Theo asked Phyrill while looking at the surroundings. They were in the middle of a forest and there was only one path to cross this ce which was this small path between two cliffs. This was the fastest way to cross this area.


    Phyrill gave him his Skylink, showing the monsters.


    Name: Rock Lizard


    Level: 120-125


    Beware of its hard skin and mobility. The Rock Lizard''s specialty is ramming their head to kill a person.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at the path again. "The width is only twenty feet, allowing three lizards to move at the same time. There are nine lizards between these two one hundred feet tall cliffs."


    "Yeah. After this cliff, we can choose either a faster route or a safer one." Phyrill nodded.


    "Alright. Sihan and Laust will be in front. Alea and Phyrill will go for the kill when you see a chance. Lastly, Ellen should kill the most�� So, prepare your Ice Wave." Theo smiled as he nned to level up Ellen as quickly as possible.


    Sihan nodded and charged at them without hesitation. Ellen followed behind him until the entrance, waiting for Sihan to lure them.


    Laust entered the path not long after while Phyrill disappeared from the area, leaving only Alea and Theo behind. The two walked to Ellen and waited for the chance to strike.


    The nine lizards on the ground suddenly felt Sihan''s presence as they turned around, looking at Sihan.


    "Scree!"


    The lizards let out a hollow roar before they began to move toward him. Sihan quickly ran away to lure them, but the lizards had superior level and ability. They managed to catch up almost immediately.


    This was when Laust made his appearance. He had been waiting for Sihan to reach this ce. As Theo said, the path only amodated three lizards at the time.


    This was all he needed to swing his sword that had been glowing this whole time.


    "Three Way Sword."


    Three pointed white energy flew out of Laust''s sword and looped around Sihan.


    Bam.


    They hit the lizards at the same time and exploded, stopping the lizards for one second. This caused the other lizards behind them to halt their movement because they couldn''t see what happened in the front.


    Sihan and Laust quickly made their way out of that path as Ellen raised her staff.


    "Ice Wave."


    Ice spikes began to emerge from the ground in a fan-shaped area. When they hit the walls, they somehow climbed the wall and summoned the ice vertically before hitting the same crystals on the ground. However, Ellen''s Ice Wave already reached the lizards and pierced their hard bodies.


    "Scree!"


    The lizards started screaming in pain, but two lizards seemed smarter than the others because they reached the wall to avoid Ellen''s attack.


    Ellen raised her sword while a blue light ball appeared on Theo''s hand, ready to strike them down. Yet, a shocked expression appeared on Theo''s face as he saw two figures jumping into the air next to the lizards.


    ''Why did they jump there?'' thought Theo while looking at the figure. ''Laust?!''


    Before Theo finished his thought, there was a blue glow on the tip of Laust''s de as he waved his sword.


    "Moon sh."


    Due to the glow being only on the tip, it created a light trail like that of a crescent moon in the air before the lizard fell down with its head dropping to another direction.


    The same applied to Phyrill. He somehow managed to pierce the lizard''s head and killed it in one stab.


    Phyrill and Laust started falling, but Laust decided to nce at Theo with eyes full of killing intent. The ground was covered with ice crystals, so they would be in trouble if they didn''t have any footing. And Laust''s gaze was telling him one thing.


    "You''re going to support us, aren''t you? Why don''t you go ahead and do it? I''m going to follow your strategy, but I have stated that I will take any chance."


    Theo instantly realized Laust wanted him to use that Magic Bullet, no, he might have read the Magic Bullet and hurriedly took that chance to kill the lizard. This was different from his previous actions because Laust had calcted what Theo would do instead of ignoring it. However, this also showed Laust''s improvement as he would grab every chance Theo didn''t take immediately.


    ''Tch. He read me huh.'' Theo clicked his tongue and directed his Magic Bullets to destroy the spikes below Laust and Phyrill.


    Boom.


    The two spikes disappeared and the twonded on the ground safely.


    "Oi, oi. That''s dangerous, you know." Alea tried to reprimand the two, but Phyrill only said, "That''s why we need a teammate, right?"


    "��" Alea was bewildered by his smiling face because if Theo didn''t use his Magic Bullet, they would have been seriously injured.


    Laust, on the other hand, said, "I am here not to y friends, but to take every chance to make a name for myself. I will make sure that I won''t stand in your way, but it doesn''t mean I have an obligation to follow your everymand."


    Alea wanted to continue, but Theo stopped her by cing his hand on her shoulder, saying, "Let it go."


    "What do��" Alea turned around and stopped as soon as she saw Theo''s expression. His eyes were wide open and there was this smile on his face that made her feel goosebumps. He was excited but angry at the same time.


    Theo raised his hand and clenched it while saying, "Good. This is the reality of our team. There won''t be any improvement if there is no challenge. Keep improving, so I can use you to get stronger."


    Alea gulped down and remembered how Theo had been improving rapidly. It was due to him challenging her, Ellen, and the others. All of them were far better than him, but he used them as a role model and kept thinking about oveing the challenges, eventually bing the person before her.


    They always met two choices when Theo used them like this. You either improve or let your talent die.


    ''Only people who will keep improving can survive in this group, huh��'' Alea sucked a cold breath and noticed Ellen''s expressions, confirming her guess.

 Chapter 136 – Reliable Ellen

    <h4>Chapter 136 - Reliable Ellen</h4>


    After understanding how the group worked, they arrived at the other side of the cliffs and found two obvious paths.


    "What lies after this cliff is a huge grass field with tall grasses, making it hard for us to see the beasts hiding inside. Normally, people will use a truck to cross this field." Phyrill pointed forward. The grasses were ttened while some on the two sides were leaning to the ground. "This is the trail. After getting blown away by the thruster that lets the vehicle float, they turn into something like this."


    Ellen sighed and said, "But we don''t have any vehicles. If any monsters tried to attack us, with the grass slightly taller than us, it''s impossible to find them."


    "Yeah. Vehicles are anotheryer of protection and the speed is good, so it''s the best way to cross this field." Phyrill then pointed to the right. "But if you take a closer look, this ce is like a giantke with the wall circling around us. On our right, you will find some form of a path that will allow you to walk around the wall until we reach the other side. If I''m not wrong, the shortest route is ten miles, so our best chance will be this dangerous path. With our speed, we should be able to cross this ce within ten minutes, but I''m afraid we will be attacked inside there."


    "We can use our Awareness, right? I think everyone has enough ability to activate your Awareness��" Alea nced over her teammates while slightly squinting her eyes.


    "I can." Ellen, Sihan, Phyrill answered at the same time.


    Laust also nodded his head but added, "Not that much. It will only give me a presence within ten feet around me."


    "Five feet." Theo raised his hand and answered. He trained his Awareness just recently, so it was impossible for him to have a big one.


    "My Awareness is around one hundred feet," Alea said and pointed at Ellen. "I will be leading us from the front while Ellen stays in the back. Sihan and Phyrill will protect Theo and Laust from the sides."


    "Then, I will be helping all of you when we are attacked," Theo added, not wanting to be useless.


    "Good. Let''s go. We shouldn''t waste too much time because there is a nest not far away after we cross this grass field." Phyrill smirked and activated his Wolf Transformation, knowing it would be a dangerous run.


    Since they''d agreed, Alea raised her sword and started running. The rest followed her ording to the formation, crossing this small path.


    Surprisingly, the moment Alea stepped on the grasses, a series of roars resounded in this big field.


    "Huh?" Theo narrowed his eyes and realized something was wrong. They had been talking this whole time and the monsters remained calm, yet, when Alea stepped on the grass, the monsters knew their presence even though she only let out a small noise. He looked at Phyrill, "What is this ce��"


    "This is called Unending Grass Field. The only weird thing in this ce is the grass. Each of them seems to be connected and transmits a certain signal to the monsters that reside inside this ce. At the same time, if we cut these grasses, they will grow again within a day. If there is no continuous effort of a group crossing this field, we won''t have this kind of path." Phyrill exined.


    "I guess there are many mysterious ces in this world."


    "Of course. There are Singing Hill, Illusion Forest and a few other ces in this country. If you go to another country, you will find more. This is not Earth after all."


    Before the two continued, Alea gave them a warning. "Talking is fine, but three monsters areing from our right. One is probably a snake while the other two are four-legged monsters."


    Sihan, on the right, raised his shield as Theo went closer to help him.


    And when Laust was about to move, Alea hurriedly shouted, "There are two moreing from the left. Get ready!"


    "��" Laust clicked his tongue and went to Phyrill, so there was no confrontation with Theo.


    "Whatever you do, don''t you dare to stop even for a second," said Alea while releasing her killing intent.


    Ellen took a deep breath after seeing Alea''s expression, knowing they would be facing a lot more.


    Roar.


    A series of roars echoed again as the ttering sound of grass filled their ears.


    "It''sing," Sihan warned Theo and raised his shield. A grey-colored wolf emerged from the grasses and aimed to bite his neck, only to meet Sihan''s shield.


    Theo activated his Focused Charge and went around Sihan. When he got the visual of the wolf, he thrust his spear on his head, stabbing it to death. At the same time, Sihan waved his sword to the ground with his colored de.


    "Dawn Strike."


    The energy was released and cut the snake that was about to bite Theo''s foot and somehow extended a few feet underground.


    Sihan then plunged his shield to the side as another grey-colored wolf appeared, trying to kill Theo.


    But with Sihan stopping his momentum, Theo and Sihan stabbed the wolf together until Theo got the kill, albeit he didn''t feel satisfied as heined in his mind. "Sh*t. I couldn''t kill them easily. It seems the difference in level was still reflected even with my spear."


    The left side wasn''t that peaceful either. Laust and Phyrill killed each enemy, but Laust stopped for a split second and got left behind. He quickly used his fastest speed to catch up, albeit met another problem because the group was the one actually slowing down.


    Many monsters appeared one hundred feet away from their path and Alea could feel more presence hiding behind the grass.


    "Theo!" Alea called his name out loud, asking whether he had an idea.


    But before Theo could think anything, Ellen had summoned a giant chunk of ice and hit the monster that hid behind the grass on their left.


    "Ice Meteor."


    She hadn''t finished using her second skill yet. Aiming at the ones on the right, Ellen summoned three ice lotuses above them. "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Each skill hit its target. The huge boulder became a wall that made many monsters crash to it while the other side was blocked by the Ice Lotuses, meaning they only needed to handle the ones in front of them and outrun the rest as long as they were fast enough.


    Ellen raised her fingers and made a "peace" hand gesture while saying with an uninterested expression. "Don''t forget about me, okay?"

 Chapter 137 – Alea’s Trick

    <h4>Chapter 137 - Alea��s Trick</h4>


    "Don''t forget about me, okay?"


    Alea couldn''t contain her excitement as she lowered her sword, pulling it to the side. With her sword slightly above her head, she diagonally waved it down until it almost reached the ground in the opposite direction.


    "Inch sh."


    This unnatural energy flew and cut the giant boulder into two. Due to her shing diagonally, the boulder had a slope, making the top part slide down to the ground, creating a huge wall of ice.


    At the same time, almost all the monsters in front of her got cut down as she showed an excited smile. "Left side is safe. Just be careful with the right side�� Anyway, I''m going in."


    After giving a warning, Alea stomped the ground and leaped forward, increasing her speed to the maximum. There were only one ck-colored bull and a blue snake in front of her.


    The bull couldn''t react as it needed to prepare for the charge first while the snake moved forward and leaped into the air, trying to bite her.


    Alea raised her hand and let the snake bite her metal glove.


    Her gloves were higher quality than Theo''s, so the snake''s fang couldn''t even make a dent.


    Alea then shed the snake, showing the power of the equipment. Without wasting any time, she quickly made her way toward the bull, who somehow managed to charge forward, ramming its horn against her.


    Alea struck the horn and fought against its power before magically pushing the bull back.


    "I hope you don''t forget about me." Theo appeared next to her with his spear, nning to kill the monster. His expression was cool as if the kill was already in the bag. Yet, as one would expect from a genius, Alea surpassed his expectation once again.


    "After that first time you beat me by using my blindspot, I have been training my Awareness to make sure you don''t get a step ahead of me anymore, Theo." Alea smirked, knowing Theo took off as soon as she increased her speed and the fact that he had been using her figure to hide his body. She halted her movement and allowed Theo to do his things.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting Alea to give him a way to kill the bull. Even so, he thought no more and stabbed the bull''s head with his sharp spear that was supposed to be able to prate all Elite Rank monsters.


    However, the ground beneath his feet cracked as two moles leaped out of the ground, trying to bite his head.


    ''Wha��'' Theo sucked a cold breath, not because of the moles, but because of Alea''s action. She already made her swing before the moles even appeared, meaning she already knew there were monsters underground. And she used his eagerness to be bait for her and shed the two moles into two.


    "I already said monsters might appear in the weirdest way possible like the golem we fought in that savannah, so you shouldn''t forget to check the ground too. I don''t know if you know about it or not, but it''s possible to prate the ground with your Awareness, even though it''s not that effective, you know." Alea winked and smiled.


    As he said earlier, Theo was excited to see his team improving by leaps and bounds because it was worth surpassing them with his trick. This was his way to polish his rationality. And the excitement he felt in his heart surpassed the great EXP Points he received from the enemy.


    [Killed a Raging Bull.]


    [EXP+870]


    Due to the level difference, Theo got a ton of EXP Points. Even though the difference in their levels surpassed fifty levels, the EXP points didn''t go higher than when he killed the Rock Turtle. After all, they both were Elite Rank, while back then, Theo was a Normal Rank and the Turtle was an Elite Rank. If he killed a Champion Rank monster, he would be raining for EXP Points.


    In fact, this would be the main reason why they had Alea and Ellen raise their level. Yeah, the instructor wanted to raise their levels rapidly with the least amount of time by using someone stronger. This term is known as Power Leveling.


    The school obviously didn''t condone such practice normally because high status points without any skills to back it up would end up limiting their future.


    However, this didn''t apply to Theo''s group because they constantly challenged each other and improved their individual skills.


    Radvils already said he wouldn''t mind sacrificing all the students to create this kind of team. And He was probably getting chewed out by the principal while thetter tried to mitigate the disaster by ordering the teacher to help the students�� Especially the ones that felt they couldn''t seed.


    Ignoring all thoseplicated thoughts, Theo and Alea stopped, exchanging looks with a smile. They waited for the others to catch up before running again.


    "Don''t underestimate me, okay?" Alea stuck her tongue out. "I can do it like you."


    Theo didn''t say anything and returned to his position as they outran the monsters that chased after them. After feeling safe, Theo looked at Alea''s back and smiled. ''I have never underestimated you.''


    They continued crossing the grass field while fending off the monsters without rest.


    Due to the constant attacks, they ended up decreasing their speed and only arrived at the other side of the field an hourter.


    Surprisingly, the moment no one stepped at the grass anymore, the monsters suddenly stopped as if they were blind even though Alea and the others were in front of them.


    They returned to the grass without doing anything.


    Phyrill quickly checked their surroundings while the group dropped to the ground as the adrenaline disappeared.


    Theo opened his status and dropped his jaw.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 73


    EXP: 1254/4985


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (E), Illusion Multiplier (D), 1 Slot Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 115, Endurance 68, Agility 77, Vitality 59, Magic Power 110


    Free Attribute Points: 20

 Chapter 138 – Business

    <h4>Chapter 138 - Business</h4>


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes since he didn''t pay attention to the notification he received earlier. He never expected that sixty minutes gave him four levels. ''Seriously? Now that I think about it, these guys are fifty levels above me, so I''m getting so many EXP Points for each kill right now.


    ''At the same time, the reason I can somehow kill them is my equipment. If my spear is not sharp enough to cut them�� I''m afraid it will be far more difficult to raise my level. And of course, the entire team is the one that allows such an opportunity.'' Theo thought beforeing to a realization.


    ''Wait a minute. It''s not normal to face so many monsters at once, but if we can encounter two of these per day along with other monsters in the wild�� I think I can get another ten levels before fighting the Hero Rank monster.


    ''Still, a Level 85 Fighter versus a Level 251 Hero Rank Monster�� One p is enough to kill me while I don''t know whether my Elite Rank Spear will be enough or not. Wait a minute��'' Theo drew a gasp. ''Instead of going for another Elite Rank Spear, shouldn''t I buy a Champion Rank Spear instead? It''s one level above the Elite Rank and it won''t be as expensive as the Hero Rank Spear.


    ''Ehm, now that I mention it, if the top of Elite Spears cost me 40,000 Zils�� I think a Champion Rank Spear will cost me around 200,000 to 400,000 Zils. My money is not enough�� Ugh, I should have predicted this and gone to get some money.''


    Theo scratched his head, wondering why he didn''t think of this. ''Ugh. It seems my battle sense is good since I can react and utilize my tricks, but my eyes can''t see what I need in the real world. In other words, I need to improve my preparation because I''m sure Master has foreseen this problem. I have been too focused on improving my strength.''


    He just wanted to beat the past him and asked why he became too focused. At the same time, he noticed something he didn''t want to admit. ''Wait, I keep improving my Martial Prowess without caring about the rest�� Doesn''t this mean I''m also a muscle brain like Alea?''


    Theo just facepalmed and didn''t want to talk to anyone while Alea was bewildered by his action, without knowing he actually considered her a muscle brain.


    "Theo, are you fine?" Alea asked.


    "Ye-yes." Theo sighed before he looked at a total of thirty cards next to him. He grabbed the cards and stunned everyone.


    Alea made a weird expression. "Theo�� What are those cards?"


    "Eh? These are the loots I got from that ce." Theo pointed at the grass field. He then took ten of them and handed it to Ellen, "By the way, these are yours. ording to our agreement, you get half of what I grab."


    "Thank you." Ellen smiled sweetly and stuck her tongue out when she saw Alea''s expression.


    "Since when did you two��" Alea suddenly remembered that Theo had been using his clone this whole time and stayed together with Ellen. She thought Theo was just protecting Ellen since it was quite dangerous without any protection. However, it turned out he had made an agreement with Ellen to grab both his and her loots.


    "My family is not as wealthy as yours, so money is important. Rather than leaving them to rot there, it''s better to get half of it and help my junior while I''m at it." Ellen smirked and patted Theo''s shoulder. "Good job."


    "No, no. Thank you for your patronage." Theo shook his head and felt satisfied to receive a bunch of E Rank skills and materials. Some were F Rank, but he didn''t care much since he still needed those F Rank Skills.


    Skill: Clone (D) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: 2 Rank D Skill and Fuse 20 Rank F Skills


    Skill: Blink (D) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank D skills and 10 Rank E skills


    Skill: Magic Bullet (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 rank E skills and 5 Rank F skills


    Skill: Elemental Shield (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 3 Rank E Skills and 10 Rank F Skills.


    What he wanted to rank up during this training were these four skills. Since Normal Rank was equal to F Rank and Champion Rank was equal to D Rank, he nned to have at least his Clone reach C Rank, which was equal to Hero Rank.


    Still, it would be far easier for him to get more skill cards after he leveled up and they entered the ce filled with Champion Rank monsters that basically were Level 151 to Level 250 monsters.


    He nned to sell all the cards other than Skill Cards to raise money to buy another Skill Card if he happened to miss the requirement.


    These four were the main skills that he used continuously, so it would be better to raise them since their potential was high.


    He looked at the cards he received and found two E Rank Skills and four F Rank Skills. It seemed he would be able to upgrade both Magic Bullet and Elemental Shield to D Rank soon.


    Not shameless from doing such a thing, Theo approached Alea with a cheeky grin while rubbing his hands. "How about it? Do you need someone to get all the cards for you? You will only need to touch the corpses once and I will only receive half of the loot."


    "Haha." Alea chuckled and exined, "We surely don''t need the service since it''s not like we will be crossing the path like this again. At some points, we will have enough time to grab all those."


    Theo also knew it and no one seemed to be asking him for that since it was just a rip-off even though they didn''t need that small amount of money.


    However, Alea just went beyond their imagination as she gently flicked his forehead and said with a bright smile. "It''s indeed not a profitable business�� But I''m on it if you agree to get everything for yourself."


    "��" Theo widened his eyes in surprise while the rest dropped their jaws as if they didn''t believe what they heard.

 Chapter 139 – A Herd

    <h4>Chapter 139 - A Herd</h4>


    That statement stunned everyone. What she meant couldn''t get any clearer.


    She wanted to give everything she killed to Theo.


    "This�� This�� Alea, you, since when did you turn into a simp?!" Ellen couldn''t help but ask with a worried expression.


    "Huh?" Alea tilted her head in confusion, wondering where that question came from. She thought about her statement again, chuckled, and exined to them. "No, no. As you already know, my original teammate is Theo. Back then, I promised him that I will support him by giving him equipment, skills, and anything as long as we can be the participants of Grand Gaia."


    "��" Theo recalled that statement and nodded, confirming what she said.


    "You forgot about it?" Alea red at Theo while pouting. She had been fulfilling every promise she made and this support came in the form of skills, arm guards, night vision sses, and these cards.


    Theo had realized how much Alea had given him and sometimes refused since he shouldn''t use her for granted.


    "Now that I think about it�� Doesn''t this look like I''m a sugar mommy?" Alea asked Theo with an innocent expression.


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head and corrected her. "I think you should call yourself a sponsor? No, wait, we''re business partners."


    "But you always treated me coldly." Alea acted as if Theo had done something bad to her.


    "Not coldly, but logically." Theo shrugged.


    "Fine, fine. Anyway, you can get everything. No need to think about it." Alea smiled and said, "Of course, this is only for thispetition. After that, there won''t be anything like this anymore."


    Theo let out a long sigh and said, "I will shamelessly utilize this opportunity."


    "Shamelessly? You have shame?" Alea rolled her eyes.


    Ellen simply looked at them in silence. She never expected Alea would give Theo all her loot. Even though they didn''t need money from these cards, it was still a good way to boost their achievement.


    Looking at the shocked group, Alea stuck her tongue out and said, "Anyway, let''s have lunch first. I''m kind of hungry. It''s already 1 PM too."


    "What should I do with you��" Theo shook his head and said, "We are the ones who should prepare it, you know."


    "That''s right. Let''s grab a monster from that ce��" Alea pointed at the previous grass field before finding Clone Theo already grabbed a three feet tall chicken. "You''ve grabbed it already."


    "Anyway, here is for you." Clone Theo handed the chicken to her.


    Theo then said, "I''m sure you''re tired�� If I''m not wrong, we''ve killed around four hundred monsters, so we should rest here first before going to our destination�� No, why don''t we use this ce to increase our levels? We can simply step on the grass and kill them from this side."


    "Well, I think we have killed most of them." Ellen shook her head. "There are probably less than a hundred inside. We can''t really kill all of them since the grass field will simply not send its monsters to us. There is a need to recover, you see."


    "Ah." Theo simplified her exnation. "Like when you fish in ake, you don''t get everything so the rest can multiply again."


    "Yeah."


    "Well, that can''t be helped then." Theo nodded before Alea handed the chicken wing, asking him to dress it. He grabbed it casually as if they had done something like this before while Ellen tugged Sihan''s shoulder and pointed her finger at them, telling Sihan they were like that too when preparing a meal.


    Sihan remained silent and eventually ignored her.


    While eating, Phyrill returned and told them what he had seen.


    "I''ve found a herd. The monsters are Tri-legged mice. Their bodies are quiterge, which is half of our average height, and their teeth can easily tear our arms in a single bite. Their levels are 125-130 and the number is one hundred."


    Theo put down his spoon and nced at Ellen, "How many monsters do you need to rank up?"


    Ellen calcted the number in her mind and said, "Two hundred? As you know, my level is above them��"


    ''Well, that''s true. The reason for my fast leveling is the fact that my level is so low. For Ellen and Alea, these monsters are not that great.'' Theo contemted for a moment and said, "We will lower our speed to our destination by two days to have Ellen rank up first. After that, we will try to attack the Hero Rank monster to see the gap between us. If it''s possible, we will kill it�� But just make sure we have an escape route already."


    "Understood. It means we will use five days to reach that monster''s area. Subtracting the three days we need to reach Art Beats Castle, then we only have seven days," added Phyrill, the only one who would understand Theo''s n.


    "Yeah. We can spend the remaining time to level up. With this leveling speed, I believe Laust and I can reach Level 100 within the remaining time easily." Theo nodded in agreement. "And we should be able to reach our mission somehow."


    "Indeed. Theo, care to bet with me? How many groups will be able to fulfill the requirement?" Phyrill grinned. "We can start with 100,000 Zils."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I won''t. I don''t know much about the people in the school, so I don''t dare to make an assumption. But without any miracles, it''s hard for even five groups to pass the first assignment."


    "��" Alea and Ellen furrowed their eyebrows before realizing how hard it was to reach Level 250. They had been leaving everything to Theo and thought no more, but it seemed Theo had been wrecking his brain just toe up with a feasible n to fulfill all the requirements.


    They started feeling bad for Theo, wondering what they could do to help him.


    Laust didn''t care much since he was a first-year like Theo, so as long as he managed to reach Level 151, he didn''t care much. As for Sihan, he never really spoke, so no one understood what was going on in his head.


    Theo finished his meal and said, "Anyway, we will rest here until 2.30 PM. Our next target will be the herd."

 Chapter 140 – Mice

    <h4>Chapter 140 - Mice</h4>


    After finishing their lunch and resting for some time, Phyrill led them to another ce not far from their location.


    It was a giant savannah filled with monsters.


    Phyrill didn''t give them a chance to feel the breeze as he led them straight to a herd of mice.


    "I haven''t heard of mice living in a savannah." Ellen made a casual remark with a joking tone.


    "Ellen woman, don''t say something like that in a dangerous ce like this��" Phyrillined before pointing his hand to a hundred monsters. "What we need to discuss is how to handle them�� There are at least a hundred mice after all."


    Ellen stroked her cheeks gently and said, "Well, Sihan and Laust don''t talk too much and Theo only opens his mouth when something important needs to be addressed, making the atmosphere always tense."


    Phyrill sighed and asked, "What do you want then?"


    "I just want to grab your attention. Anyway, you see the third leg in the front?"Ellen''s expression turned serious as she exined, "I feel it''s stronger than the two other legs and due to the heat in this savanna, I think I can do something about their legs."


    "Hmm��" Theo frowned and came to a realization. "Your Mist?"


    Ellen winked and gave a thumbs up.


    "Then, the n is like this��" Theo gave them the battle n and rose from the ground with Sihan. "Let''s go."


    Sihan nodded and charged toward them.


    Due to the size of the herd, not all of them saw him, so Theo jumped into the air and summoned his Magic Bullet, shooting them to the ground.


    "Cie?"


    "Cie?"


    The mice began turning around and saw Theo and Sihan on the field.


    Before Theo and Sihan did anything, a translucent shield appeared in front of each mouse, protecting anything that would hit them from the front.


    "Ho." Sihan was amused and saw these mice creating a pointed formation with only three mice in the front. In addition to the shield, they wouldn''t be able to kill them that easily.


    Theo had seen it before in the grass field and watched how the monsters kept using one skill after another. That was why he asked the group to rest for a while. They were all exhausted.


    "They are using a shield-type skill like your Elemental Shield. I''m assuming it''s an E Rank skill. Any change of n?" Sihan asked with a cool expression.


    "No," Theo answered almost immediately as the two began to retreat, luring them a bit farther away.


    "Roger."


    Theo also gave a hand signal to the others, so they could start moving.


    Seeing Ellen rise from the ground and summon a giant Ice Boulder, Theo and Sihan turned to the left.


    The mice followed them, but this meant their back would face Ellen.


    And this was why Theo''s movement was straightforward in the past, the mice simply didn''t have a brain to think of the possibility of ambush.


    Everything would go ording to his n in the past because he understood their instinct.


    And with this, everything had been set up.


    "Ice Meteor."


    A huge shadow covered the herd as the mice turned around to see what happened, albeit they were toote. The Ice Meteor crashed on top of them and ttened them in an instant.


    Something might change if Ellen attacked them from the front like blocking with the shields or going sideways, but the mice didn''t know the concept of ambush. As long as Theo targeted their blindspot, it would be pretty easy to exterminate them.


    Alea, Laust, and Phyrill jumped forward, nning to hunt those who didn''t get killed by the meteor.


    "Lightning sh." Phyrill struck the mice only to find himself stopped by the shield. "Kh. Without getting any advantage, I guess it won''t be that easy to kill them. Well, it''s not like we had an advantage in that grass field��"


    Just like Phyrill, Laust waved his sword and released three pointed energy. Unfortunately, all three were blocked by the shields.


    Only Alea''s swing managed to cut through the mouse''s shield and sliced them.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Sihan continued running while looking at the mice between them.


    "I wenty mice have died in the first ambush. Let''s go for step two." Theo informed Sihan as thetter nodded.


    They went separate ways and led those who chased them. Sihan brought thirty and Theo brought twenty. The remaining twenty were for Alea, Phyrill and Laust to handle.


    Ellen reached the spot designated by Theo as he looped around to meet her.


    "Frosty Misty." Ellen summoned the freezing mist.


    Theo released a bit more magic power from his body and entered the mist.


    As soon as he entered the mist, his skin dried in an instant as if all the water on his hand vanished. If it were not for his Magic Power, he might feel the hot sensation as if touching dry ice. The mice followed him and slowed down beforeing to a halt because of the extreme temperature, giving Theo a huge opportunity to pull ahead.


    He looked forward, finding Sihan bringing all thirty mice toward him. Ellen had also made her way to him, so he could start.


    Theo jumped to the air and summoned his Magic Bullet. Instead of one, he used his Illusion Multiplier skill and cloned his own Magic Bullet to four Magic Bullets. Although it wouldn''t do any damage, it was enough for him to make the mice they would be in danger.


    Theo split all four Magic Bullets into forty glowing balls.


    "Magic Bullet."


    He shot each side with twenty magic bullets, specifically the edge of a fan-shaped area, forcing the mice to gather in the middle and create one straight line.


    Ellen smiled and ced her hand on the ground before Sihan jumped to the side. With all the monsters in one direction, Ellen used one skill to kill them all.


    "Ice Wave."


    Ice crystals emerged from the ground. The mice might be able to protect them from any attacks head-on, but they, by no means, were capable of defending an attack from below.


    Bam.

 Chapter 141 – The End Of The First Day

    <h4>Chapter 141 - The End Of The First Day</h4>


    The ice crystals emerged one after another, piercing the mice without mercy. Blood sttered on the ground, dyeing the ice red.


    Sihan turned around and ran with Theo, killing all the mice that somehow survived to ensure they wouldn''t bring any more unknown variables.


    After that, the ice mist disappeared, exposing the mice to the sun and warming them up again.


    Sihan appeared before them to be the center of attention while Theo summoned his clone and went around, trying to hit them from the back. Ellen also supported them during the killing feast.


    These threepleted the job at the same time as Phyrill, Alea, and Laust.


    It took them around twenty minutes to handle the rest because they didn''t use big moves anymore to conserve their power.


    When all mice died, they touched the mice one by one to get all the loot and Alea surprisingly gave everything she got to Theo.


    "So, what do you think about your Magic Power reserve?" Theo asked Alea while receiving the cards.


    "Hmm�� It''s not that good. We can do it one more time�� probably, since my Magic Power is running low due to the Grass Field earlier." Alea shook her head before letting out a long sigh. "We should destroy another group like this and spend the rest of the day heading to the Hero Rank Monster, I guess."


    "No, we will conserve our magic power and end the day." Theo shook his head. "The grass field indeed took a toll on us and I don''t want any of us excessively exhausted since it will endanger our lives."


    "Well�� Sorry, I didn''t think of that." Alea smiled embarrassedly. This was her personality, so it was hard to change it. And due to her not thinking much ahead, Theo almost died twice because of her blunders.


    Luckily, she understood her weakness and followed his order, preventing any more idents like that.


    "By the way, your sword��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yeah. It''s a different sword with the same appearance. This sword is a Champion Rank Sword." Alea nodded.


    "I guess that''s to be expected." Theo felt defeated because even Alea had thought about using a Champion Rank Weapon.


    "Oh, right�� You don''t have enough money to buy a Champion Rank Weapon�� I should have realized and lent you a Champion Rank Spear."


    "Nah, it''s fine. It''s not like I will be of any use against the Hero Rank Monster." He shrugged and said, "Anyway, you and Ellen are the ones qualified to challenge the Hero Rank Monster, so the rest of us will remain in the back while trying to create an opening for you."


    "Do you have a n in defeating the monster? It''s still almost 100 levels above me, you know. I will probably level up several times once I kill it." Alea smirked.


    "Yeah." Theo sighed. "I don''t have any experience with Hero Rank monster, so I don''t know whether we can do it or not. And it''s not like the enemy is above level 500 like the one we foughtst time."


    "Supreme Rank monster, huh." She remembered how useless they were in front of a Supreme Rank Monster. "We will defeat one in the future. For now, let''s focus on our objective."


    "Sure." Theo nodded and gathered all the people, saying, "We are now to conserve our power and continue our journey. We will only hit another nest tomorrow. Phyrill, you are in charge of our path."


    "Roger." Phyrill gave a thumbs up, acknowledging his request. "We should be able to reach a river in another six hours, so we will camp around there. We can wash our bodies and clothes there."


    "Don''t worry about Fire, I will use my Magic Power to boil water or use the lighter to do it." Alea smiled.


    "Then, let''s go." Phyrill raised his hand and started running. The group followed him for a few hours as they slipped past some monsters to avoid unnecessary fights because of their low Magic Power.


    The Magic Power could only be recovered naturally by resting your body or sleeping, which allowed the Magic Power to reproduce like blood. This was the basis of Theo''s decision to avoid all monsters.


    Before the sun disappeared and darkness enveloped the world, Theo and the others used their night vision sses and continued their journey without any change. The night was indeed beautiful, but they didn''t have time to enjoy it because more and more howls echoed in their ears.


    As Phyrill said, they arrived at the riverside surrounded by trees behind them and a river in the front. The sides were wide open and they could spot any monsters before reaching their ce, so it was a perfect spot to set up a camp.


    Theo quickly assigned each person a mission since it was already prettyte.


    "Ellen and Sihan will hunt a monster. Alea and I will grab some herbs for our dinner. Laust will be setting up the tents and Phyrill will scout the area. Okay?"


    "No objection."


    "Understood."


    After receiving the instructions, they gathered all the necessities for dinner and set up the tents.


    An hourter, they all had filled their belly and the group sat down in front of a campfire.


    "You two can wash your bodies first," said Theo without any change of expression and pointed to the right side. "There is a small turn one hundred feet in that direction. You can use that junction to avoid any of us spying on you."


    Ellen made a sly smile as she came closer to Theo and whispered with a seductive tone. "How about youe with us? Or maybe do you want to take a peek?"


    Alea was bewildered and felt embarrassed. She grabbed her best friend''s cor and stopped her, but Theo''s answer came with a surprise. "If I can take a picture or a video of you and sell it to people, then I will do it. I believe many will still buy it even if I sell one picture for 100,000 Zils."


    "Eh?" Even Ellen slightly widened her eyes and chuckled. "Haha, you are seriously the best, Theo. This is the first time I met someone like you."


    Theo shrugged and returned to the camp while Phyrill nced at them with a serious expression.


    Before leaving, Alea brought her sword to warn the only one who got excited about it, Phyrill.

 Chapter 142 – Rank Up

    <h4>Chapter 142 - Rank Up</h4>


    Ultimately, Phyrill didn''t do anything after seeing how uncooperative the three men in his group were. Theo himself wasn''t interested in getting a girlfriend since he would endanger her in the process, so he had closed the gate to his heart before letting anyone enter.


    Laust was too focused on surpassing his brother, not woman, so he wasn''t interested in anyone here. As for Sihan, no one understood his thoughts. Hence, Phyrill didn''t even bother him.


    And if he tried to peek alone, he would be brutally murdered by Alea. Ultimately, he decided to sit patiently in the camp.


    After that, the group decided to leave the area at 6 AM, so they didn''t waste any effort and quickly fell asleep with Alea and Theo the first to guard the night. This was the first time Theo camped in a dangerous ce, so he didn''t know whether he could sleep or not. Still, considering he was pretty tired after moving around, he slept like a log after his shift was over.


    The group continued their journey ording to Phyrill''s n and destroyed two nests on their way before Ellen ranked up.


    Theo observed her and realized Ellen ranked up in an instant without any change in her body. "Eh?"


    Seeing his surprised expression, Alea realized Theo was still clueless about the blessing system. "Do you want to know why Ellen didn''t experience anything?"


    "Ehm, is it due to theck of blessing?" Theo asked with a small voice to avoid anyone other than Alea hearing it.


    "Yes. Well, it''s hard to find a first-year reaching the Elite Rank, so you haven''t gotten any lectures about it, so I will give you some lectures here. First, I''m sure you still remember the two things that will influence the extra points you get from a rank up, right?"


    "Yes. It''s potential and a blessing. If I remember correctly, you will still get ten points even without any potential and blessing." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Well, Ellen should be able to get twenty to thirty points in this rank up, but who knows�� Anyway, there is something changing other than your status points. I don''t know if you have realized it or not��" She looked at him with a smile.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes and thought about it. He wondered what was changing when they ranked up. Unfortunately, after one minute, he gave up and asked, "I don''t know anything. What is it?"


    "It''s the Five Aspects."


    Alea''s answer amused and confused him at the same time. After all, the five aspects needed to be trained and shouldn''t have any change during the rank up.


    Alea continued, "Then do you think why we call it Five Aspects? And what is the category of bing one of the most important aspects?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. "I don''t know."


    "Exactly. After long research, we have realized there are five big aspects that will improve when we rank up. They are Awareness, you can say our aura, killing intent, pride, senses, emotionlessness and so on. The second thing is Breathing. It''s not that clear for breathing, but there may be some kind of change in your brain that leads to the improvement of Awareness and Breathing since every movement is controlled by your brain.


    "Then Magic Control and Endurance for an obvious reason along with your technique�� Again, the technique is connected to your brain. ording to scientists, our brain is improving every time we rank up, so we understand something better, thus improving the Five Aspects. And they believe the potentiales from the brain."


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding. Although there would be much that needed to be covered, this exnation was enough for the time being. He added, "And the blessing is another variable that gives us more power in the rank up."


    "Yes. It''s like outside interference." Alea pointed to Ellen and continued, "Of course, you need some time to adjust your state, so we still need time after a rank up. If we have a blessing, we usually enter our subconsciousness while our mind adjusts itself."


    Before he asked another question, Ellen already rose from the ground and waved her hand, showing she had finished.


    Theo smiled and came to them with Alea as they continued their journey immediately.


    Since they lowered their pace to get some levels, they needed another two to three days to arrive. On the way, they destroyed another three nests and stopped hunting even a single monster on thest day because they needed to conserve their strength for the Hero Rank monster they wanted to kill.


    They were only a few hundred feet away from another river and Phyrill told them to stay because they were already inside the Hero Rank monster territory and the monster poption in this area was low due to its reign.


    After another few minutes, Phyrill returned with the information.


    "This is the monster. It''s alone right now." Phyrill handed him his Skylink. "The monster is drinking the river water right now. If we go forward another two hundred feet, we will immediately get a visual."


    Name: Hardrock Mammoth


    Level: 251-255


    An aggressive type of mammoth that can destroy many things with its hard head or sharp ivories. The skinprisespressed stone, making it just a bit less durable than normal steel.


    "��" Theo looked at this twenty feet tall mammoth, wondering if they could fight against him. The image was the recent picture that Phyrill took a moment ago.


    "I believe we can outrun the mammoth even if we fail," added Phyrill to help Theo make the decision. "Theo, no one has fought against a monster like this before, so I think it''s better to not give specific instructions because things may go beyond our expectations."


    The others looked at him while maintaining their silence, but they seemed pretty eager to fight a Hero Rank monster.


    Before saying anything, Theo looked at his own status to add some points. He hadn''t added any points since the start of this journey, so he had many points to allocate.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 85


    EXP: 3512/7343


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (E), Illusion Multiplier (D), 1 Slot Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 115, Endurance 68, Agility 77, Vitality 59, Magic Power 110


    Free Attribute Points: 80

 Chapter 143 – Fighting A Mammoth

    <h4>Chapter 143 - Fighting A Mammoth</h4>


    Theo added thirty points to Strength and Magic Power to boost his attack power. The remaining twenty points went to his Agility because even if he added Vitality or Endurance, the mammoth might have the ability to kill him in one hit.


    He agreed with Phyrill and challenged the mammoth.


    As expected, Alea and Sihan were the ones in front this time because Sihan alone wouldn''t be enough to handle the mammoth. Phyrill and Ellen stood several feet behind them while Theo and Laust''s position was next to them.


    "Let''s see the difference in our strength, I guess�� The reason why it''s easier for humans to hunt higher-level monsters is due to our ability to think, so�� let''s fight. Are you ready, Sihan?" Alea smiled and raised her sword.


    Sihan only nodded his head as Theo looked at the river, knowing they would need to cross it first to challenge the mammoth.


    Thetter seemed to have felt their presence too as the grey-colored mammoth raised its head and stopped drinking the water.


    "Ellen," Theo called her name as a signal to start.


    Ellen smiled and ced her hand on the ground, "Ice Wave."


    The ice crystals emerged from the ground and continued at the flowing river, freezing the water.


    Sihan and Alea quickly crossed the rivers.


    The mammoth had retracted its trunk from the water and swept them from the left.


    "Hmm�� It''s quite fast or maybe its size allows him to cover more distance despite moving slowly?" Alea muttered and jumped together with Sihan. Even Alea didn''t dare to take the full hit from a monster far higher level than her.


    Theo summoned his clone and went to the side while using his Magic Bullet along with the three cloned Magic Bullets.


    He wanted to see the mammoth''s reaction to his Magic Bullet.


    Fifty magic bullets flew to the other side of the river and hit the mammoth, but thetter formed a translucent silver-colored shield in front of him.


    The shield blocked all the magic bullets without a problem.


    "That shield is strong," muttered Theo as he kept trying to think of a way to defeat the mammoth.


    Theo''s instruction was simple. They needed to keep attacking until they found a weak spot they could utilize.


    Ellen summoned another Ice Meteor andunched it to him. "The bigger the better. Ice Meteor."


    The mammoth saw it and his head started shining. This green light seemed to be covering his head, simr to how he used his translucent shield, but a concentrated one.


    The mammoth ran forward and struck the Ice Meteor with his head.


    Boom.


    The collision caused a shock wave that shook the area. However, the Ice Meteor started to crack before getting shattered into pieces.


    "Seriously?" Ellen made a weird smile, surprised by how easy the giant mammoth shattered her Ice Boulder. It was probably the one thing that could fight the mammoth. "I guess you can expect something like this from a Hero Rank monster��"


    Sihan and Alea already went around the mammoth when their teammates took its attention.


    Sihan struck the feet with his glowing de, using a skill. "Dawn Strike."


    ng.


    Surprisingly, it didn''t even graze the mammoth hard skin even though it didn''t look like it was covered bypressed stone. In fact, the skinpletely looked like that of an elephant''s skin.


    "Kh. The foot is too hard." Sihan clicked his tongue and saw Alea, whose sword was above her head.


    "Inch sh."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he noticed something. When Alea used her Inch sh, the mammoth seemed to flinch for a split second.


    Unfortunately, the shield that blocked Theo''s attack appeared next to his body and blocked the Inch sh.


    However, Alea''s attack power was the highest among the group.


    The shield was split into half as the residual energy flew to the mammoth''s body, only to disperse without giving any scratch.


    Even so, the possibility of them defeating the mammoth was there. Although most of their attacks were not that effective, as long as Alea''s attack was effective, they should go for it.


    "The possibility is there��" Theo muttered before shouting. "We will fight the mammoth with Alea as the focus. Don''t ever get hit by that mammoth, okay?"


    "Roger." Ellen, Alea, and Sihan agreed immediately while Phyrill and Laust crossed the river, not wanting to be outdone. They hadn''t tried to attack the mammoth, so they might be able to cut this mammoth too.


    Lightning sparked in Phyrill''s legs as he disappeared, moving at the speed no one''s ever seen before. This was the new D Rank Skill he received from Radvils.


    He instantly appeared next to the mammoth and struck its abdomen.


    "Lightning sh."


    The lightning tried to shatter the mammoth''s skin but to no avail. It only created a small graze that could be ignored.


    "Seriously?"


    The mammoth didn''t like it and swung its trunk toward Phyrill.


    Sihan appeared between them and tried to stop the trunk before escaping, but Theo called his name.


    "Sihan."


    Sihan''s eyes went to Theo and saw the iing Magic Bullets. He quickly blocked the magic bullets and used that force tounch him to the sky, avoiding the trunk while saving Phyrill.


    "I have said not to take a hit. Are you insane?" Theo protested and let out a long sigh.


    Laust appeared on the other side, taking advantage of Phyrill''s position. A blue light appeared on his de tip as he waved his sword and created a crescent-shaped glowing trail.


    Unfortunately for him, just as he finished a third of his swing and hit the mammoth''s skin, his de got repelled and he fell to the ground.


    "Even though my level is too low, my weapon is a Champion Rank Sword�� And it''s still not enough? I should have brought a Hero Rank Sword." Laust narrowed his eyes and looked at the mammoth, wondering what he should do next.


    Since everyone was already there, Theo left behind his clone to protect Ellen from any potential danger while the real him crossed the river, helping the others.


    "Theo, all feet, body, and head seem to be harder than any parts of its body. It will be tough to chop them off," said Alea while watching the movement of the mammoth.


    Theo took a deep breath and answered, "We can take it apart from the thinnest parts. First its ears, eyes, tails, and then the trunk."


    Theo''s tone indeed assured one''s heart as she smiled, "Roger."

 Chapter 144 – Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 144 - Retreat</h4>


    Laust and Phyrill gradually made their way to the tail while Alea faced the mammoth from the front. Theo and Sihan went to the side, trying to make an opening for them.


    Ellen was the first to make a move as three ice lotuses appeared above the mammoth''s head.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    The mammoth looked at the iing lotuses and raised its head before sweeping the lotuses with its trunk.


    "This mammoth." Ellen clicked her tongue and used her second skill. "Freezing Shot."


    The mammoth used the shield again to block these Freezing Shots, but Theo and Sihan used this precious chance to their advantage.


    Sihan appeared next to the mammoth''s eyes and struck its eye, only to find the mammoth closed its eyes.


    The sword bounced off due to the hard surface.


    At the same time, Theo sent his Magic Bullets to the other eye, but the trunk suddenly rolled up, turning into a shield for its eyes.


    "Inch sh." Alea obviously didn''t stay quiet and attacked him from the front.


    The mammoth tilted his head and struck the energy with his ivory, cutting it into two.


    When Laust and Phyrill were about to move, the mammoth raised its leg and stomped the ground.


    The ground cracked before some of them flipped.


    "Tch." Everyone lost their footing in an instant and the dust kicked to the air, turning into a smokescreen.


    Theo used his Awareness and found a trunking his way.


    "Why me?" Theo clenched his teeth and disappeared by using his Blink. Little did he know, the mammoth was intelligent enough to understand Theo was the one he needed to defeat first because he seemed to be their leader,manding all the strong ones, especially Alea.


    "��" Theo appeared outside the smokescreen as Alea released her fire sword.


    "mming Ge-Sword."


    Boom.


    The explosion created a powerful shock wave that blew all dust around, showing everyone''s condition.


    Laust and Phyrill appeared to be together, away from the battlefield. Sihan still maintained his position. Ellen was far from it, so she was fine.


    Alea was in the air as if she just jumped.


    ''The trunk seems to be trying to hit both her and me��'' Theo frowned.


    "Don''t worry. This guy''s body is big, so I can feel his movement clearly." Alea assured Theo.


    And with the situation calmed down, Phyrill and Laust went for the tail.


    "Lightning sh." Phyrill had activated his Wolf Transformation to increase his strength and matched Laust''s movement, trying to strike at the same spot as him to add more pressure on that part of the tail.


    Laust, on the other hand, waved his sword down with his strongest technique. "Moon sh."


    Both of them struck at the same spot and felt the restriction.


    "It''s so hard." Phyrill clenched his fist and continued to slice it. "As expected, only a Champion Rank Fighter like Alea can fight against this monster."


    "It''s not enough," Laust informed him as his power slowly died.


    Suddenly, Sihan magically appeared as he mmed his sword on top of their swords. "Then add one more guy. Dawn Strike."


    "!!!" Both of them were surprised, but they quickly focused and used all their energy to sh the tail.


    "Ha!"


    The trio used all their strength and somehow sliced the tail.


    "!!!" Phyrill couldn''t contain his smile as he said, "It''s still possible after all. But this is the softest part�� How about the others?"


    No one could answer that question, but their aplishment made the mammoth scream in pain.


    "If it''s not sharp enough, I will just use this. Thank you for creating the opportunity." Alea smiled before a golden aura came out of his sword. Enchant de."


    She charged at the mammoth with her new skill. When the mammoth was about to strike her with his trunk, Alea ducked down and slipped past the mammoth.


    She raised her head, looking at the giant stomach and sliced the stomach.


    The mammoth screamed in pain, but Alea''s strike didn''t even cut it.


    Alea could only find graze that wasn''t enough for the blood to flow out. "How hard is this mammoth? Maybe we should change our target to another monster that doesn''t have a high defense? But it also means it''s more dangerous since they have speed unlike this mammoth. This one is hard for us to kill, but the same applies to him."


    While she was thinking about her next move, the mammoth tried to crush her by lowering its body.


    "Oh, no." Alea tried to leave, but another variable appeared.


    "Alea, prepare your Inch sh," shouted Theo as he ran to her.


    Alea didn''t understand what he wanted, but she still halted her movement, raised her sword and released her energy.


    Theo grabbed her waist and used Blink to appear on top of its giant body.


    Alea was surprised at first but soon showed an excited smile and waved her sword. "Inch sh."


    The energy flew away, but the mammoth somehow reacted to it by reinforcing his head with the same technique he used to smash Ellen''s Ice Meteor.


    The Inch sh quickly showed its might as she opened the skin a little bit, revealing a very shallow wound without only a trace of blood, but it didn''t flow outside.


    "It''s not strong enough?" Alea widened her eyes and sucked a cold breath. Frustration filled her heart because it meant they were not strong enough to challenge this mammoth. "Is this the end?"


    "We can try to attack the same spot a few times to see if it''s enough or not," Theo answered before they jumped off because the mammoth began to shake its body.


    Alea nodded in mid-air while saying, "Alright. Let''s try it."


    Unfortunately for them, they didn''t get a chance to do it because a series of roars resounded in the area.


    "Huh?!"


    "Monsters?" Phyrill turned around and saw monstersing out of the forest behind the mammoth. "Huh? There shouldn''t be any monsters in this area!"


    Listening to Phyrill''s distress shout, Theo clicked his tongue, assessed the situation, and made a decision. "It''s impossible to handle both the mammoth and the monsters. We shall retreat."

 Chapter 145 – Not A Subordinate

    <h4>Chapter 145 - Not A Subordinate</h4>


    "Retreat."


    The group looked at him and saw his serious expression. Even though they somehow managed to get the tail, they indeed didn''t have enough strength to kill the mammoth. They might need to fight it for another few hours to wear it off and at that time, they would be in the same condition.


    And with the monsters emerging from the forest to get them, that sliver of hope had gone.


    Ellen summoned another Ice Meteor andunched them to the right side of the mammoth.


    Surprisingly, the mammoth decided to turn around and headbutt the Ice Meteor, blowing it to the side so no monsters would be hurt.


    Theo observed their movements while crossing the river together with Alea. As soon as he stepped on the other side of the river, Theo summoned his clone and turned around, using his Magic Bullets to attack those monsters just to slow them down.


    "Magic Bullet."


    All twenty Magic Bullets hit the monsters, but none of them killed the monsters as he expected since one small Magic Bullet was not enough to kill a monster fifty levels above him.


    Still, he managed to slow down their movement, allowing Sihan, Phyrill, and Laust to cross the river.


    "mming Ge-Sword." Alea waved her sword and released the fire skill, but the crescent-shaped me didn''t fly toward the mammoth or the monsters. Instead, it crashed on the frozen river and destroyed the ice bridge, letting the water flow again.


    Theo took another look at the mammoth before turning around and running to where they came from.


    The mammoth absorbed the river water and sprayed it to Theo.


    Alea appeared behind Theo and stabbed the ground with her sword before a red shield appeared in front of her. "Fortitude."


    The water pressure was too much to the point Alea got pushed back almost ten feet back, leaving the sword trail on the ground.


    Theo hurriedly stopped and grabbed Alea as he used his "Blink" to teleport them several feet away and start running again.


    "Let''s go," Theo said as he noticed that none of the monsters actually crossed the river. The mammoth had yet to move.


    Even if the mammoth ran toward them, they could outrun him since this was the reason why Phyrill chose this monster as their opponent. The mammoth had an overwhelming defense and strength, but its speed was the worst among Hero Rank monsters.


    At the same time, if they managed to prate this mammoth''s defense, it meant they had enough offensive ability to kill other Hero Rank monsters.


    Unfortunately, they couldn''t find themselves winning against it yet. The group took advantage of the surroundings and disappeared into the woods so that no monsters could track them.


    After running for fifteen minutes, they stopped in the middle of the woods.


    "Phyrill�� Can you scout the area? We will wait here," asked Theo while looking at the regrets in his teammates'' faces.


    Phyrill nodded and disappeared without leaving a single word.


    "It seems we really can''t fight one yet." Ellen closed her eyes and leaned on a tree.


    Alea dropped to her knees and punched the ground, clenching her teeth. She wasmenting the fact that none of her attacks could do any damage.


    Sihan maintained his silence, wondering what he should do to deal with that monster.


    Although he didn''t show it, Laust had been crossing his arms and gripping his arms tightly, showing his frustration.


    Theo closed his eyes and sighed.


    He believed none of them were his friends. Alea looked like a rival while Ellen acted like a mentor to him. There was aplicated rtionship between him and Phyrill, but he certainly did not consider Sihan and Laust as his friends since he hated them due to the past bullying. Even if there was a reason for it, whether good or bad, he just couldn''t do it.


    He personally liked how his master approached him more. There would always be a talk between them, exining things. They might not talk about everything, but it was enough to satisfy Theo''s curiosity. That was why he had a distorted rtionship with Sihan and Laust, something like he could withstand and cooperate with them, but he wouldn''t act friendly to them.


    He thought this kind of team would allow the group topete with each other, thus forcing them to improve so as to not get left behind. Yet, the mammoth just showed them that it wasn''t enough.


    They had improved indeed, but the gap between them was still too far.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "I won''t beat around the bush. We''re not strong enough to kill that mammoth. For today, it''s better to cool our heads and retire. We will continue ording to our original n, which is to increase our levels."


    "Theo��" Alea rose from the ground and grabbed his shoulder, looking into his eyes. She took a deep breath and asked, "We can''t really let that monster go, can''t we?"


    "I can''t see it being possible at the moment." Theo shook his head with a calm face.


    "We can rechallenge it maybe tomorrow when there''s no monster around him. Although I can''t cut him in one stroke, if I attack him at the same spot a few times, it should be effective."


    Theo closed his eyes and grabbed her wrist tightly as he moved her hand off his shoulder. "Princess."


    "!!!" Alea suddenly felt a chill down her spine just by listening to Theo calling her Princess instead of Alea. This was the first time Theo called her this way, making her understand that Theo might be the most frustrated of all. After all, he made the n and controlled the battle the whole time.


    It was them who couldn''t execute the n well, leading it to failure. She remembered no matter how good their ns were, it wouldn''t matter if they didn''t have the skill to execute them.


    "I want to make one thing clear. I am thankful for your assistance this whole time, but��" Theo opened his eyes wide and looked at her eyes.


    There was this kind of pressure that clutched her heart as she gasped for air. She wanted to call his name, saying she knew, but her mouth refused to move.


    Theo clenched her hand tightly and said, "By no means am I your subordinate. I am not obligated to agree to your request if it endangers the team!"

 Chapter 146 – Change

    <h4>Chapter 146 - Change</h4>


    After saying those words, Theo closed his eyes to calm his heart. He gently released her wrist and turned around. "I don''t have time to y along with all your charade, especially in a mission that is close to impossible."


    Alea''s hand was shaking as she looked down and closed her eyes.


    Ellen let out a long sigh. Although there might be another way to say it, she believed it was necessary to stop Alea. After all, she indeed needed someone to stop her thoughtless remark.


    Laust and Sihan looked away as they didn''t want to disturb their problem.


    However, Alea had once said that she wanted Theo to be someone to stop her if she became unreasonable. And this might be the right time.


    This could only happen because Theo didn''t see her as someone special that he needed to respect at all times.


    He might want to hide his identity, so not many knew him, especially the Lange Family, and died before he could reach his goal, but he was someone who would step up if necessary.


    Phyrill returned to the group and met the heavy atmosphere. He had no idea what kind of things would lead them to this kind of atmosphere.


    In the end, he walked to Theo and told them it was fine to use this spot to rest before going to another ce to rest for the night.


    He understood and Theo asked them to rest since going with a disturbed mind would be dangerous. They would make one mistake after another and it would be bad if it continued, destroying their coordination.


    Hence, Theo chose to let them cool their heads for a day and focused on leveling tomorrow.


    Although he didn''t tell the group of his train of thoughts, they got the gist of his intention and didn''tin.


    After resting for two hours, they moved to another spot that Phyrill deemed to be safe.


    It was t ground on a gentle hill. The ce was surrounded by trees but not that dense, allowing them to see their surroundings easily.


    Due to their conflict earlier, Alea had yet to open her mouth the whole time. And since Sihan and Ellen were in charge of the cooking, Phyrill and Laust took care of finding herbs and some vegetables to apany their dinner. Of course, Ellen lent Phyrill her cooking sses to discern the nts from poisonous ones.


    Theo was in charge of procuring water from the nearby water source while Alea set up the tents.


    After dinner, Ellen asked whether Alea wanted to change position with her, but thetter refused, saying they would be fine.


    Since their shift would be the first, Theo decided to sit on the ground alone, wanting to cool his head to think about the next course.


    Suddenly, Alea walked and sat next to him. The atmosphere was filled with silence.


    Before Theo left the awkward situation, Alea opened her mouth. "Theo��"


    Theo didn''t answer her, but his eyes shifted to her as if telling she got his attention.


    "I apologize for my action earlier and would like to thank you for stopping me earlier." She looked into his eyes with a serious expression to tell him she wasn''t joking or made light of the situation.


    Theo didn''t say anything, but he looked back at her.


    "I once told you that I want someone to stop me, but to think it would be that hard to swallow. I''d realized how much others had pampered me due to my status." Alea sighed. "That''s why I won''t mention the mammoth anymore�� Can you tell me what we''re gonna do next?"


    Theo looked at her for a minute before opening his mouth.


    "Back in the previous fight, my power was still too useless to even distract it, but the mammoth noticed mymanding ability. I need to do something about my power to have the mammoth notice me not only for that but because he felt danger from me. Only at that time could the mammoth start fighting me seriously.


    "Phyrill and Laust had done a good job there, but their strength is stillcking. Only due to Sihan could they cut the mammoth''s tail. Even if they couldn''t injure the mammoth, as long as they could slightly move the mammoth and make it lose its bnce, it''s good enough.


    "The same applies to Sihan. No matter what, he is our Guardian, the one who needs to be the center of attention, so the others can freely hit the enemy. That''s why if he can''t shine, the team coordination won''t work.


    "Ellen''s Ice Skills were good and I can see it was effective in distracting the mammoth. However, I can say our group is like a five-man team because the enemy can simply remember Ellen is there and they will be able to fend any attacks from her. I practically liked the time she appeared between the fire lizard and me before she attacked Laust and saved me. It was unpredictable.


    "And as you said, if you hit the mammoth a few times at the same spot, he would start bleeding, but there is a limit to how many we can hit him. After all, the mammoth wouldn''t take all the hits forever. You need to get another power up�� Now that I think about it, the skill you received�� Can it bebined with other skills?"


    Alea dropped her jaw and the others looked at him with a shocked expression.


    ''When everyone is still thinking about calming their heart down, he has started reviewing the fight and what they should do to improve?''


    At this moment, Alea felt embarrassed and mad at herself, realizing her immaturity. She raised her head, looked at the dark sky with a sad expression, and said, "Ha��Ha�� Compared to you, I have been too immature. Ah, I''m embarrassed and hate myself��"


    She looked at Theo with a big smile to the point her eyes closed. This smile was different from any other smiles she had shown so far. Her smile was like that of a refined and relieved smile who just got over something big.


    Theo was stunned by her change as her sweet voice rang in his ears. "Thank you, Theo."


    Ellen closed her eyes, thinking the guy she had been mentoring about magic and other things had be a better person than her and now taught her. Laust and Phyrill, who got the same type of skills from Radvils, looked at each other.


    As for Sihan, he had been clenching his fists the whole time and his nails would have prated his skin had he not controlled his strength.

 Chapter 147 – Another Group

    <h4>Chapter 147 - Another Group</h4>


    Listening to Theo''s assessment, the group suddenly gave another thought to their own performance.


    When Alea realized that she had been looking at her skill wrong, she suddenly thought of something and ran to the woods with her sword. She apologized to Theo for suddenly leaving, but she just needed to test her inspiration as soon as possible before she forgot about it.


    Theo shrugged, letting her do whatever she wanted.


    Phyrill and Laust had finished looking at each other as if they just understood what both of them wanted to do. Like Alea, they walked to the woods together.


    Ellen waved her hand while shouting something vulgar but was shot down by Phyrill right after.


    Sihan didn''t say anything and returned to his tent to pick up his armor while Ellen changed her seat to the empty space next to Theo.


    Theo ignored her and thought about what he could do to get stronger. In the end, he returned to his own tent and grabbed all the skill cards he got. Due to Alea, he had gotten 3 E Rank Skill and 15 F Rank Skills, making him wonder whether he should proceed in leveling up his Elemental Shield or not.


    After a while, the group returned to rest because they needed to continue their leveling tomorrow. And Alea also needed to finish her shift first since she couldn''t let Theo do it alone.


    Unfortunately for them, the peace didn''tst for long. A series of explosions resounded in the area.


    Ellen and the others quickly opened their eyes and came out of the tents.


    Alea and Theo furrowed their eyebrows and turned around, looking in the direction where the explosion came from.


    "A fight?" Theo nced at Alea.


    "Probably. This was not a rare urrence when you camped long enough in this world. I''m afraid the battles are near us."


    "Is that so?" Theo thought for a moment and turned around, walking to their camp.


    "What are you nning to do?" Alea frowned.


    "Return to our camp. I won''t do anything to help them." Theo shook his head. "I will just ask Phyrill to scout the area to make sure nothing goes wrong."


    "��" Alea didn''t know what to say because she could see Theo was serious.


    "If you don''t like my decision, you''re free to do something. But the moment you be useless, then this mission is as good as lost."


    "What if you are in their position? No, what if we''re in that situation again, Theo? The one where we almost died together. In that situation, we hoped there would be someone to save us, right?"


    "In that case, I will die. I realized I was too immature back then when I still hoped for my master toe." Theo shrugged. "This is why I''m nning ahead."


    Without waiting for her reply, he already sat down on the ground, acting as if nothing happened.


    On the other hand, Alea was lost in thought.


    Theo turned around and looked at Phyrill, asking him to scout the area while the others prepared for anything that mighte their way.


    Suddenly, six people climbed the hill and found them.


    The front was a young man that seemed to be the same age as Sihan, while the one behind him was a purple-haired female.


    In that instant, Alea realized and couldn''t help but utter her surprise out loud. "Students?"


    "Please help us!" The male shouted. His clothes were covered by blood.


    They seemed to have undergone a hard battle earlier, especially with how dirty they were and the amount of blood on their bodies and clothes.


    The four behind them were two males and two females. And as expected, they were another group that became the qualifiers for the third stage. All of them looked exhausted and wanted to copse at the moment.


    When they found Alea in their group, a smile appeared on their faces. Alea furrowed her eyebrows when she saw their expressions, but she thought they might be desperate, so she didn''t mention anything.


    Theo also observed their condition without a change of expression.


    "Are you alright? What happened?" Alea quickly came to them and asked with a worried expression.


    "We were ambushed by a group of monsters when we were about to sleep," said the male while panting. "Please, please help us. I''m Lex, another group from the school that challenges thepetition. If we knew it would end this way, we wouldn''t have gone to this area and quickly retired from thepetition."


    The male was shaking while the others looked down with a sad expression.


    "Please�� Please save us. We will return to Art Beats Castle tomorrow�� Just for tonight."


    Alea was unsure what to say because of what Theo said earlier. As expected, Alea''s personality, which had been ingrained since she was young, wouldn''t disappear in an instant just from Theo''s words. She clenched her teeth and looked at Theo with a begging expression. "Theo."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows as his expression had turned extremely cold. He looked away and said, "It''s everybody''s choice."


    Alea clenched her teeth and looked at the others, asking for their opinions.


    Laust turned his head away while Ellen made a smile, showing her approval. Sihan was silent but still nodded his head while Phyrill shrugged, abstained from the vote. This meant three were in favor while one abstained and the other two rejected the idea.


    "I understand. Come in first. We will bring you some water. Please tell us what happened."


    "Ye-yes."


    While they were taken care of, Theo met Phyrill a bit farther away from their location, talking about this incident.


    "So, what do you want me to do, Theo? I can assassinate them if you want, you know." Phyrill smiled.


    Theo shook his head and asked, "Can you check their trail and learn anything from it, including their camp and the monsters that attacked them? I can cover your night shift today."


    "Hmm?" Phyrill squinted his eyes and said, "Nah, you don''t need to. I should be able to check the distance to their camp and the monsters. However, I won''t go to their camp if it''s too far, okay?"


    "That''s fine. Thank you." Theo nodded.

 Chapter 148 – Two Ideologies

    <h4>Chapter 148 - Two Ideologies</h4>


    After arranging the mission for Phyrill, Theo returned to his post, not having the intention to help them at all. Instead, he kept observing them.


    This whole incident was just too absurd. First, there was a sudden movement from the monsters in the forest when they fought the mammoth.


    And before a single day passed, there was this incident where the group MIRACULOUSLY reached this ce.


    He felt there was a connection between the group and the monsters'' appearances. Hence, he didn''t want to let his guard down.


    There were also a hundred monsters in the information. Even if they tried to aim for the easiest monster, there were many choices because the mammoth was considered one of the hardest, especially its defense.


    At the same time, with a team like them, they shouldn''t have enough strength to face the monsters in this area, making this entire situation even weirder.


    Hence, Theo sent Phyrill to check whether their tent was around here and the trace of the monsters. If they didn''t set up a tent or something, it meant this group had a hidden intention.


    Alea noticed his expression and approached him, wanting to apologize.


    "You don''t need to say anything." Theo shook his head and sighed.


    The two people who were in the front earlier walked behind Alea.


    Theo seemed to be the leader of this group since even Alea asked his permission before letting them in, so they introduced themselves to him.


    "I am Sonia," said the female with a bitter expression, knowing Theo didn''t want them here.


    "I am Lex." The male introduced himself too, but Theo ignored both of them.


    His expression was cold as he raised one finger. "One night. You and your group can only stay here for one night. You will leave as soon as the sunes out. Even Alea asks me, I won''t change my decision."


    Theo looked cold and heartless at this moment, making the others feel ufortable. After all, they were students from the same school.


    Theo couldn''t care less about them. Even among the students, they didn''t mind killing him just to get money. With how coincident all of this happening, he had his right to be suspicious of them.


    Seeing how unfriendly Theo was, the two awkwardly looked at each other before stepping down.


    Theo looked at Alea and sighed, "It must be hard for you to be a good person. No wonder it''s easy for a bad guy to take advantage of a good person."


    "Don''t say that." Alea felt embarrassed and shook her head. "What if it''s you in this situation? I will definitely help you. I know that you have no family, so you won''t know how it feels to be in their situation. Sometimes, humans will move their body instinctively and sacrifice their lives to protect their loved one."


    Theo shook his head as he couldn''t agree with her. "If the monsters were smart enough and told me humanity was trash, I would totally agree."


    "That includes you, you know."


    "Who said I''m not?" Theo shrugged.


    Alea looked at him for a while without saying anything. Her expression became sad soon after.


    Theo frowned and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"


    "You�� are trying to act logically, right?" She let out a long sigh.


    "Of course. Don''t tell me you don''t? No wonder you are doing things like this."


    "That''s sad. You are thinking of yourself acting logically just to convince yourself." She shook her head helplessly. "You have lost hope in humanity. Despite the darkness you have faced so far, there will be a time when the light wille and shine brighter, eliminating all the darkness in your heart. Theo�� Don''t get lost inside that darkness��"


    Theo''s expression turned cold as he said, "Alea, there is no need to lecture me. You and I can''t see eye to eye on this matter."


    Alea closed her eyes and sighed, "I won''t disturb you anymore. But�� Thank you for giving us the opportunity to vote instead of making the decision for the entire group by yourself."


    Theo looked away without a change of expression. Alea helplessly returned to the group while adding, "Don''t worry. You can return to your tent and we will help them in the other two tents."


    Theo didn''t reply and continued watching. Half an hourter, Phyrill had returned and told him about the things Theo wanted to know. He thanked Phyrill afterward.


    Phyrill made a twisted expression when Theo''s killing intent leaked from his eyes. He retracted it soon, so no one felt it, but Phyrill already understood that Theo was angry. He wondered how this situation would be resolved.


    After talking a bit with him, he returned and informed them that their ce was safe with a smile on his face.


    Theo watched the group for another few hours since it was his shift before retiring for the day.


    After entering the tent to rest, Theo put down his arm guards and Skylink to the side. He gently stretched his body a bit to make his muscles rx beforeying down.


    Meanwhile, the girl that was next to the captain this whole time came out and looked for water. She turned her head around and saw Ellen and Sihan.


    Ellen noticed her and asked, "Do you need anything?"


    "Actually�� I can''t sleep, so I think hot water will help me."


    "Ah, I have one. Let me grab it for you." She smiled and entered her tent.


    When she was with Sihan alone, she quickly dropped to her knees and coughed uncontrobly.


    Cough.


    Cough.


    They suddenly heard Ellen''s voiceing from the tent, saying, "Sihan, she might still experience the shock and anxiety. Can you help me bring the medicine?"


    Sihan didn''t say anything and quickly rose to help Ellen searching for medicine to calm her down.


    Since the two had gone, she smiled and acted as if nothing happened and made her way to Theo''s tent.


    ��


    On the other hand, Theo had closed his eyes, ready to sleep. When he thought everything was over, his vision suddenly turned darker than he used to feel.


    He instinctively opened his eyes and saw a shadowing to his tent.

 Chapter 149 – Devil Plan

    <h4>Chapter 149 - Devil n</h4>


    He remembered what Phyrill told him about the camp and such.


    A few hours ago.


    After Phyrill returned, he quickly asked Phyrill how it went.


    Phyrill had a serious expression when exining. "I noticed the monsters'' trails were there. However, there was one thing missing. The camp was not far from here and I investigated their camp but found nothing. When I thought nothing could go wrong, oh boy, I was wrong.


    "I checked the footsteps of the monsters to the camp and ended up finding one human''s trail. I tried to look at it and found that the trail led to a nest a quarter mile away from their camp, which basically won''t give you any problem if you don''t wander around.


    "I was convinced it was a nest due to the number of footsteps and if their scout was the one who did it, they did it horribly because it was so easy to know that this person wasn''t that good in covering their trail when scouting the area. In fact, I noticed that this person came to the nest, not stayed away from it."


    Theo''s expression started turning cold as he asked for confirmation. "So, you''re assuming someone tried to lure those monsters to the camp and used that excuse to lead the entire group to us?"


    "This person can''t be working alone." He shook his head and asked, "Don''t you have any suspicion already?"


    "Yes. First, Alea seems to have noticed something wrong with them. It may be the scheme of two or three people. And there are too many coincidences in this encounter, especially with how they chose this one specific direction." Theo nodded. "Besides, the fact they are this close to us is already suspicious. The mammoth is among the hardest ones to kill for a Hero Rank Monster, so it''s impossible for them to challenge it if they even need our help to defeat the monsters.


    "That''s why they''re kinda suspicious. Our location and this kind of timing�� It''s as if they are tailing us. I don''t know, but I feel a connection between the monsters that emerged from the forest and them. And if everything is like how I describe it, you will see that it''s all connected to them. In that case�� I''m afraid they were behind us the whole time or someone continuously leaked our location.


    "Do you think this is rted to Laust?"


    "He is the most suspicious one, but I don''t have any proof. After all, he indeed told us he wouldn''t do anything until the tournament is over. At the same time, he also rejected the idea of them staying in this camp. Considering Sihan and you, who probably will remain neutral, it''s a huge gamble to do it and there''s a huge chance the entire n falls off. And it may be his family doing it behind his back, so he is clueless about it, making the entire scheme perfect. And I don''t know how you transmit one''s location in this ce��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I can''t say anything about the tracking process, but I think the methods require a summoner most of the time to use their summoned creature to pick up one''s scene. There''s no signal here, so no tracking technology is working. That''s why It''s either a summoner or a traditional method." Phyrill licked his lips excitedly. "We can torture them."


    "And there may be other people that want to eliminate me��" Theo squinted his eyes. He thought there might be another person or influence that wanted to take advantage of this situation to get his pocket watch since it was too mysterious even for him. He often thought about opening it, but his brother''s words stuck in his mind. He told him to use it when he had nowhere to go. Now that he thought about it, he had been too focused on the tournament and didn''t open it when he was about to die with Alea.


    As much as he wanted to reflect on it, he should put this thought away for a moment.


    "Hmm�� Now that I think about it, you are with the masked guy I met back then�� I see." Phyrill misunderstood him, thinking Theo''s problem came from his partner or maybe his other identity, which he didn''t even bother to rify.


    Theo just let the misunderstanding continue since it was convenient to him.


    "So, what are you going to do? Expose and torture them? I can help you without any cost since I just want to see how you usually operate. That''s enough for the payment." Phyrill smirked evilly as if he didn''t mind spilling some blood. "Maybe there is a chance for me to see the joker."


    "Do you think Alea and the others will help us?" Theo shrugged, feeling not confident in fighting all of them.


    Phyrill understood him. Theo didn''t have confidence in fighting them due to the fact that he couldn''t handle multiple people in the second stage. However, Phyrill had more experience than him, knowing that these people actually were not that strong.


    After all, Theo couldn''t fight multiple people because they were the best among each year and this group wasn''t that good.


    "Theo�� I want to say three things to you. Your current level and prowess are above average to the point you can be mistaken as a second year. They don''t have night vision sses making this ce good for assassination. Third, you have your head. As long as we can eliminate one or two people in an ambush, the rest will be easy."


    "And that is when we don''t need to control our strength to leave at least two people alive to get information, right?"


    "That''s�� right." Phyrill nodded. "However, there is seventy percent of sess here."


    "No. It''s one hundred percent." Theo shook his head.


    Phyrill was taken aback by his sudden rise of confidence and asked, "What do you mean?"


    "I will force them to leave as soon as the dawnes, meaning whatever they''re nning to do, they will need to do it tonight." Theo made a wide and evil smirk while saying, "And who said this is all my power?"


    Phyrill''s lips curved as he tried his best to contain his excitement. "You�� are really the best student I''ve found in school."

 Chapter 150 – Slave

    <h4>Chapter 150 - ve</h4>


    Remembering that scene, he figured out what happened and looked at the side, finding no one in his tent.


    He looked at the shadow that sneakily entered his tent. It was Sonia, one of the two people that introduced themselves to him.


    She wore a simple shirt that wasn''t too revealing, along with a mini skirt. It seemed to be her nightwear if they were in the middle of nowhere. It wasn''t that revealing, but she could do it easily without even removing her clothes.


    And Theo perfectly understood what she nned to do.


    "What are you doing?" asked Theo coldly.


    Sonia suddenly dropped to her knees and grabbed Theo''s shoulder without hesitation, begging him. "Please don''t kick us out. Looking at how Alea asked your opinion first, I know you are the leader of this group. I will do anything, but please don''t kick us out tomorrow."


    Theo was bewildered, wondering if she thought of him as a fool. It might be working if he didn''t know anything, but the moment he was suspicious of her, all her attempts could easily be dismissed.


    "I don''t need anything and you are to leave tomorrow morning. That''s the final decision." Theo shook his head calmly, not affected by anything.


    "Please don''t say that." Sonia brushed her purple hair and slightly squeezed her chest to show a bit of her cleavage. She then crawled to Theo''sp and whispered with a seductive tone. "I can do anything for you. No one will be here for a few hours and I can just say I entered the wrong tent."


    "I don''t need it and remove yourself from this tent." Theo continued to ask her to leave.


    "Are you sure you want to do this?" Sonia smirked and said, "If I leave right now, you will be branded as a scum, you know."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he thought, ''This woman�� Who the hell hired this woman for a job like this? She did things predictably�� Is the person, who hired her, underestimating me or does this person have another agenda by throwing a fool at me?''


    To check the situation, Theo acted as if he was scared by the threat. "You�� Is this your n all along?"


    Before answering him, she hit herself on her face and stomach a few times. She put all her strength in those hits and her skin gradually changed color.


    "Do you think you have the option here?"


    "��" Theo fell silent, watching how she even dared to hit her own body just to make a false usation. He continued his act and gasped, asking with a terrified expression. "You�� You�� What do you want?"


    "I want you to be my ve during the remaining days we''re here. You will also agree to everything I say and convince the group to do it." Her hand gradually reached Theo''s neck as she gently squeezed it. "It seems your n in removing us won''t be happening soon."


    "Who asked you to do this?" Theo clenched his fists and red at her.


    Sonia''s body shook as if she remembered something before she red back. "I don''t know what you''re talking about. It''s not your ce to question me! You''re my ve right now."


    "ve? Geez, you love role-ying that much? Even though you''re a ve too?" Theo sneered at her as if mocking her n.


    "What did you say?" She raised her hand and pped Theo, but thetter caught her hand and pushed her away. "I am sick of you. Tell me what you want?"


    Sonia held her anger back before smiling sweetly, sitting on Theo''sp again. "I want you to help us level up to finish the first mission. You will also help us kill a Hero Rank Monster. I know that you can do it since everyone respects your opinion."


    Theo remained silent and kept ring at her as if he didn''t like to do it, but he had to.


    "And��" She noticed the chain on his neck before raising the chain, finding a pocket watch. She smiled mysteriously and said, "What a cute pocket watch�� I will take this too."


    Before she could do anything, Theo grabbed his wrist and looked at her coldly. "You can do whatever, but don''t you dare put your filthy hands on this pocket watch."


    "Are you rebelling against me?" Sonia squinted her eyes and her tone became cold. "You should know that your life is in my hands, right?"


    Theo gripped her wrist even tighter until it hurt her.


    "You��" Sonia gritted her teeth.


    Little did she know that her story already had a plot hole. If she came out with that kind of bruises and from Theo''s tent, everyone would already recognize him as a scumbag. After all, no one would believe she just fell over or something. The moment she injured herself, she had cornered Theo with no escape route other than fighting back. If she wanted to ckmail him, she should have threatened him first with body bruises instead of the face because no one would see it.


    That was why Theo thought of her as a fool this whole time.


    Sonia pulled her hand from him and moved away, looking at him while gritting her teeth.


    "I will give you one more chance. Apologize and give that pocket watch to me."


    Theo remained calm and threatened her the same way, knowing it would be pointless to act any longer. "I will give you one more chance. Apologize to me and everyone else while kneeling in front of the tent and I won''t pursue this matter further."


    Sonia''s expression was distorted. She wanted to scold him in anger but unable to do so at the moment. "You will regret this."


    Theo didn''t say anything and watched how she actually jumped out of the tent as if she got hit by Theo.


    "A bad jump�� You need to spin your body if you want to fake it." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    Meanwhile, Sihan and Ellen widened their eyes outside as they found Ellen staring at Theo''s tent intensely.


    "You�� You bastard! We just wanted to survive in this cruel world and you forced yourself on me and beat me up like this?!" She shouted in anger while crying.

 Chapter 151 – Make It Triple

    <h4>Chapter 151 - Make It Triple</h4>


    "You�� You bastard! We just wanted to survive in this cruel world and you forced yourself on me and beat me up like this?!"


    Her shout immediately woke everyone up, knowing something happened.


    Ellen and Sihan frowned, wondering how Sonia ended up in Theo''s tent. They thought she had gone back earlier, but they seemed to be wrong.


    Before Ellen and Sihan came to her, she crawled on the ground and revealed her face and bruises. She cried with a terrified expression. "Help�� Please help me. He tried to force himself on me. He told me that as long as I slept with him, we could stay for a little longer, but he ended up beating me."


    Ellen and Sihan exchanged looks with the same expression. They both were clueless about this situation.


    There was only one person in that tent and it was Theo, but the fact that she suddenly went missing when they tried to help them made her suspicious. They simply couldn''t believe Theo asked her to do something like this. Theo wasn''t that kind of person.


    When her teammates came out of the tent and saw her condition, they quickly surrounded her and looked around with a terrified expression, especially Theo''s tent, trying to protect their friends.


    Suddenly, her teammate shouted, "Is this the reason you epted us? You help us just so you can rape our teammate?"


    Alea and Laust woke up and came out of their tents with a clueless expression, not understanding the problem.


    "What has happened?" A shout resounded in their ears as Lex ran toward Sonia with a concerned face. "What happened? How could you end up like this?"


    He was her boyfriend, so it was no wonder he would be so concerned. If res could kill, he would have butchered everyone here. Unfortunately, Lex could only stare at them with hatred, never expecting that Alea and her friends would do something this inhumane.


    Alea stood in the middle of the camp with a darkened expression. She could only look down with her body trembling. She appeared to be angry and disappointed in Theo, so they wanted to gaslight her to expel Theo from the group.


    At this time, Theo finally came out of his tent with an indifferent look as if he had done nothing wrong.


    "You Bastard! What are you doing to my girlfriend? I know that we''re refugees here, but what you have done is too far! You just raped my girlfriend. I''m going to kill you!" Lex, who couldn''t contain his anger, gritted his teeth and threw a fist.


    Theo nced at him and raised his hand, catching his fist and hitting him right on the ribs with his Monkey Fist. That fist contained all his strength and broke a few of Lex''s ribs. Heunched Lex back to his teammate, but that moment of carelessness cost him so much to the point he couldn''t even stand.


    Blood also starteding out of his mouth as he clenched his fists and red at Theo.


    The remaining four turned hostile to him. Not only Theo rejected them, but he also wanted to rape their friend and hit Lex.


    Sihan appeared between them and Theo, ring at the four with a cold gaze. "One move, blood will spill."


    "You! Your teammate has tried to rape our teammate! That person is not a human!"


    When they argued, they didn''t realize Alea''s expression had turned dark. Her hands had been on her sword this whole time, not because of Theo''s action but due to her negligence. To think the person she wished to help would betray them�� It just reinforced Theo''s ideology. And Alea knew this incident would make him even harder to see the "light" that would be his kindness.


    However, this was her thought. No one shared the same opinion because they didn''t know Theo''s personality.


    And they foolishly looked at Sihan and Alea. "Is this really how the Eilric Family acts?"


    Ellen''sughter suddenly stopped them as they looked at her. She looked at them with eyes full of killing intent. "You ungrateful wretches! Now you''re iming something this useless? If Theo is like how you described, he would have done it to Alea already. If you want to use someone, it''s better to do it to the other guys in our group since it''s more believable."


    The group was bewildered and frowned. When they wanted to rebuke him, another distraction appeared.


    "Oh!" Phyrill''s shout stunned everyone as they turned around, looking at him. They saw them picking up a Skylink that had been resting on the ground, facing the entire group.


    Phyrill noticed that the Skylink was active and made an evil smirk. He said, "Look at this�� This Skylink is active this whole time. And it seems the camera is working��"


    "!!!" Everyone dropped their jaws as they stared at him withplicated expressions.


    Phyrill nced at Sihan and opened his mouth. "I believe this is yours."


    Sihan shrugged and exined, "I agreed to ept them because it was easier to exin their behavior to the princess. Action speaks louder than words after all."


    "Haha, indeed." Phyrill didn''t stop there. Before they could even recover, he dropped another bomb by taking his Skylink out and showing it to them. "By the way, I have my own Skylink here. It has been recording in front of my tent to make sure I don''t lose something, but it seems my camera has captured something interesting."


    Sonia''s face turned pale as she looked at Phyrill''s tent, facing the spot where she acted to make Ellen and Sihan leave.


    "If we check the recordings, won''t it be better to understand what''s going on?" Phyrill smiled like that of a devil, controlling their emotions, conversations, and lives at this moment. "In addition to my Skylink, it is double the proof!"


    However, there was another miscalction in Sonia''s idiotic n. Theo already suspected something would happen during the night, so he put down both his Skylink and arm guards to his side. He even put an effort to hide his Skylink between his arm guards so it will capture all things happening in the tent without getting found out.


    Before the problem got resolved, a Skylink flew in the air, spun a few times, andnded on someone''s hand. Yes, it was indeed on the devil''s�� Phyrill''s hand.


    And when they turned around to see who threw the Skylink, they found Theo pointing his hand at Phyrill with a cool expression. He said, "Make it triple."

 Chapter 152 – A Prank Of Fate

    <h4>Chapter 152 - A Prank Of Fate</h4>


    Phyrill didn''t let them redeem themselves and opened all three Skylinks, showing them the recording.


    Phyrill''s recording showed simr things to Sihan''s recording. Sonia faked her condition just to meet Theo. And Theo''s recording just broke everything she said. Nothing could save her anymore.


    "This�� This��"


    Everyone could see how she threatened Theo and wanted him to be her ve. If that happened, they should expect the worst because Theo was the brain of their group.


    Everyone lost their right toin because Theo had decided the right thing. It was their decision to shelter these people that messed up the whole group.


    Alea''s hands were shaking, not knowing what to say.


    Meanwhile, Sonia and her group were terrified because they never expected there was this undeniable proof. Only some people, like Lex, were clueless why this could happen.


    They looked at Sonia with a mouthful of curse words, yet, none of them left their mouth. Only disappointment and sadness filled their hearts.


    Phyrill and Sihan suddenly raised their swords while ring at these people as if they wanted to kill them right now.


    "Ungrateful b*tch." Phyrill snorted as he prepared himself to kill these people, especially Sonia, as soon as Theo gave a signal.


    Sihan seemed to be nning the same.


    Due to the emergency, they all had weapons in their hands. Only Sonia, who had been nning to take things into her hand, didn''t wield any weapon. They all raised their weapons, trying to protect their lives.


    Theo still maintained his silence, making things tense.


    Before it escted even further, Alea shouted, "Leave this ce right now!"


    The group widened their eyes, staring at Alea with a dumbfounded expression.


    Alea repeated herself. "Leave this ce right now before I change my mind!"


    Theo obviously didn''t like her decision and released his killing intent. However, Alea turned to him.


    "Please," Alea begged Theo not to do anything to them. Her eyes were already red because she once again failed to do anything and just worsened the situation.


    Her kindness just hit her not long after she warned Theo.


    "I have told you myself. This world will never go your way, Princess!" Theo shouted back, releasing his anger. "You tried to lecture me, but what? What do you want to show me? And do you think I will let others beat me without fighting back?! No! This is proof that your kindness will just bite you back!


    "And what impact will it bring to us? What if I don''t have any proof to save myself? I might need to go to jail if the police heard this. And what? Who do you think they believe? This is why there are so many false charges! Cameras may have been installed everywhere, but they are just a measure to prevent it; it won''t fix the route of the problem. I don''t say I hate women, I just freaking hate this world''s justice system along with all the people like her!


    "And if�� What if I don''t go to court and follow her words? What do you think will happen to this group? Not only are you going to fail the missions, but you will also destroy everyone''s ambition! Tell me again, Princess?! Show me that self-righteous personality of yours!"


    Her expression became even worse when Theo said all of those words.


    Looking at her miserable expression and knowing that tomorrow would be worse if he continued. Sometimes, you needed to swallow everything first to stop the group from breaking apart. And this was the weight he needed to bear as the group leader, so Theo clenched his fists for a minute before turning around while saying, "I feel sick. I''m going to rest."


    Alea couldn''t say anything and closed her eyes, regretting her choice. She thought she could do something to Theo''s hatred, but it ended up backfiring her. She wanted to ask "Why?" but no one could give the answer.


    When Theo entered his tent, the others quickly tried to beg for forgiveness.


    "We�� We are sorry!"


    "We don''t know anything about this."


    "Please let us stay just for tonight."


    All these words just made one want to puke. Alea''s expression turned even darker until she shouted. There was no hatred or killing intent. It was just a disappointment.


    "Leave!" Alea''s shout stopped all their pointless rumblings as she red at them while raising the sword on her waist. "Don''t force me to unsheathe my sword!"


    They wanted to beg Alea again but knew it was pointless. They helped Lex stand up and dragged Sonia out of there. Lex couldn''t move after Theo broke a few ribs while they just wanted to deal with Sonia after this.


    Phyrill suddenly walked toward them from behind before Alea asked with a tired expression. "Phyrill��"


    Phyrill stared at her and shrugged. "I just want to follow them to make sure they''re nowhere near us. I will return after they are at least five hundred feet away from us. After all, I need to thank you for making our group''s mood worse."


    Alea''s face turned pale as she returned to her tent without leaving a single word, showing that she wouldn''t say anything. Everything was her fault.


    Laust didn''t care about all these dramas, so he returned to his tent. This would surely affect their performance and be the first crack of their group, but whether it would continue or not surely depended on Theo''s ability.


    As much as he hated to admit it, he believed Theo could do something about their current situation.


    The atmosphere became awkward and filled with silence. Ellen and Sihan shrugged their shoulders as they continued without saying anything, knowing they shouldn''t discuss this matter any longer.


    Little did they know, Theo had been hiding behind the tree not far away from them.


    There was actually a reason why he came out of his tentte. He summoned his clone first to substitute him while he used his Blink to teleport him away.


    And Phyrill had understood Theo''s n and chased them, so he and Theo could eliminate the threatspletely. After all, there was also a possibility of them taking revenge for this. They simply needed to spread a rumor about Theo to cause mutual destruction. Hence, Theo wanted to end things personally even if he wasn''t that confident in dealing with six people.


    The confidence only came when he broke Lex''s ribs and incapacitated him. This way, it would be three versus five.


    Having the chance to do so, Theo smiled and disappeared by using his Blink to avoid anyone from noticing.

 Chapter 153 – Killing

    <h4>Chapter 153 - Killing</h4>


    The group walked in the middle of darkness.


    Having nowhere to go, they didn''t know what they should do.


    "Sonia, you b*tch! Why did you do that?" A male teammate shouted as he cursed Sonia, pinning all the mes on her.


    "That''s right."


    They continued to put the me on her while Lex didn''t even try to protect her. In his eyes, their rtionship was already over since she had betrayed him just to gain another person''s support.


    Sonia didn''t say anything and could only look down. She would die if they left her here, so she decided to swallow everything first until they returned. At the same time, her eyes wandered to two people before sneering at them.


    They were the Knight and Ranger of their groups. The two knew about her ns, but when everyone mocked her, they also med her to avoid anyone''s attention. They knew Sonia wouldn''t be able to do anything for the time being.


    Suddenly, the sky turned brighter. It wasn''t supposed to happen and there shouldn''t be any monsters in the area.


    As soon as they raised their vision, the light flew toward them. They then realized it wasn''t light but Magic Bullets. There were forty Magic Bullets raining down on them.


    Their magician saw this attack and somehow reacted to it by creating a giant translucent shield on top of their heads.


    "Magic Shield."


    "Ene��" The group wanted to warn them, but they realized something was wrong. Unfortunately for them, the next thing they noticed, a spear had already pierced their magician''s head, killing him in one blow.


    The group dropped Lex and Sonia at the same time because they needed to look around to see the enemies.


    They were wondering who would attack them. Because of the incident earlier, there was only one personing to their mind, albeit they were toote.


    The moment they recognized the enemy, Phyrill had appeared above them.


    He was so fast after relying on the skill he got from Radvils, Lightning Step.


    He waved both swords and chopped down their Fighter''s head in that moment of confusion.


    This was Phyrill and Theo''s strategy.


    Because Alea asked Theo not to kill them, they thought Theo wouldn''t do anything to them, lowering their guard.


    Theo took advantage of this chance to kill two of them. And with Lex and Sonia''s condition, they only needed to fight the Knight and Ranger.


    "You bastard, don''t you think you have done enough?!" Lex shouted while ring at Theo, who emerged from the woods. He had realized they had gone too far that even if they made amotion, Alea and the others wouldn''t hear them.


    Theo remained silent and pointed his hand at them, summoning his Magic Bullet.


    Lex clenched his teeth, wanting to move, but the excruciating pain that jolted his mind every time he tried to move his body stopped him. Sonia, on the other hand, raised her stance. Even though she didn''t have her equipment like the others, she was still a fighter of this group.


    Sonia and the Knight realized Phyrill was here, so if they charged at Theo, Lex and the Ranger would be exposed to Phyrill. At the same time, if they didn''t do anything, they would also be in deep trouble.


    There was also a chance that other members of Alea''s group were still hiding behind a tree, so they didn''t know what to do.


    Theo suddenly raised his head, looking at the Ranger since it was their concern. "Magic Bullet."


    The Knight saw Theo''s eyes and its trajectory, so he moved to the left to block the Magic Bullets, yet, a smile appeared on Theo''s face as soon as the Knight went between them.


    "Wait, no!" The Knight shouted as he saw the Magic Bullet suddenly turned to the left, diagonally to the ground.


    Yes, the Magic Bullet''s real aim was none other than Lex, who couldn''t do anything on the ground. Theo believed Lex could still use his skills to help his team, so before he could do anything, it was best to eliminate him.


    Boom.


    Lex gritted his teeth and tried to summon his Magic Shield, but it was toote. He looked at the Magic Bullets while cursing in his mind. ''A first-year student has achieved Force Control and he is not even famous in the academy? Are you freaking kidding me?''


    There was only a glimmer of people who could do force control, even among the third-year students. Never in his mind appeared a nameless first-year student would be able to achieve the control.


    Due to this sudden reveal, Lex couldn''t react to whatever he had and died with five holes in his body.


    As one would expect, even though Theo was able to do it, his aim was still not perfect. Luckily, he managed to kill Lex since one of the bullets managed to hit the heart.


    "You��" Lex dropped to the ground and died with a regretful face.


    Before anyone could react, another shadow emerged behind them.


    Sonia turned around and tried to stop whoever came from behind, only to be shocked after finding another Theo.


    "What?!" Sonia drew a gasp and instinctively grasped the spear Theo threw to kill their magician.


    Right after Theo took her attention, Phyrill once again appeared next to her, trying to kill Sonia.


    The Ranger pointed his bow at Phyrill and released an arrow to stop Phyrill''s movement.


    Unfortunately for them, it was also another distraction. The Knight saw Theo releasing four Magic Bullets at the same time, turning them into forty.


    "What?!" The Knight widened his eyes. This technique wouldn''t be that useful to fool a monster, but it was different for humans. In that instant, the Knight didn''t realize thirty of them were fake.


    Theo pressured him even further by releasing his shot diagonally to the left, where no one was there. However, the Knight knew Theo was trying to do the same trick to ambush Sonia and the Ranger.


    He quickly stepped over to the right while raising his shield.


    As he expected, the Magic Bullets turned and hit him. Yet, it was also another distraction.


    There was no change in Theo''s expression, but the Knight lost sight of him in an instant. He tried to activate his Awareness and found Theo appearing behind the Ranger.


    "What?!" The Ranger sensed his presence as well, but he couldn''t react to Theo''s Blink before his mind went nk when a spear pierced his heart. "Impossi��"


    And with the fall of the Ranger, only two people remained.

 Chapter 154 – Torture

    <h4>Chapter 154 - Torture</h4>


    (Explicit Content Warning. Skip it if you can''t stand it.)


    With the Ranger dying, only Sonia and the Knight remained.


    Phyrill smirked and leaped to the side, changing his opponent from Sonia to the Knight.


    He mmed the shield with both swords.


    The Knight raised his shield and blocked it. As a third-year, he couldn''t afford to lose against Phyrill, especially with their level difference.


    Unfortunately for him, if it were before this journey, Phyrill would be overpowered by his strength and there was no chance of killing him. But Phyrill had leveled up so many times to the point he far surpassed his level from a week ago.


    "You know what�� My level is now equal to your level��" Phyrill smirked and released all his power and hit the shield again until the ground beneath the Knight cracked.


    "Kh. Impossible. How can you be this strong after just a few days?" He gritted his teeth.


    "You should ask yourself how you can be this weak after getting the chance to level up in the past few days. Are you challenging something you can''t beat and end up without any level up?" Phyrill smirked and understood perfectly.


    The group had been stirred by Sonia and her aplices to go to this ce to gain Alea''s trust and cooperation. However, their n was ruined by Theo without him even doing anything. He simply waited for them to make a move and record it.


    Yeah, they had been tailing Alea''s group the whole time in the face of leveling up in a higher-level area so they could get stronger. But their journey wasn''t that great either.


    When they faced the Unending Grass Field, they wasted a whole day just to give up the dangerous path and used the small pathway to go around that grass field, wasting another day of walking.


    Aftering here, they couldn''t withstand the monsters'' power and got overwhelmed a few times. Even so, they took advantage of that situation to stop Alea and the others from killing the Hero Rank monster by sending the monsters that tried to kill them.


    They managed to stop Alea and somehow found their location. They just followed Alea and her group''s trail and led the group slightly farther from their location.


    During the night, Sonia executed her n to bring the monsters to their camp while the two aplices directed the group in Alea''s direction, making them identally meet.


    Theodore Griffith became famous not long ago, but it was for a different reason. They never expected Theo to be this strong because he was known as a bullied person. Hence, Sonia thought they could take advantage of him to get Alea''s favor and somehow got their help. Sonia also had another agenda, but Theo ultimately stopped her.


    Thinking about it and seeing Phyrill''s devilish smile, the Knight understood that they wouldn''t be alive tomorrow.


    He clenched his teeth and shouted, "You�� Have no intention to spare me, right?"


    "It''s funny how you can be sharp this time and be foolish when you execute your n." Phyrill smirked and transformed into a werewolf while saying, "And do you know that a werewolf can get stronger under the moonlight?"


    The Knight let out a long sigh before raising his shield, throwing it to Phyrill. "Take this!"


    Phyrill furrowed his eyebrows as the shield blocked his vision. He thought the Knight tried to ambush him, so Phyrill took one step back. However, when the shield dropped, he saw the Knight stabbing his own heart. He didn''t forget to give Phyrill a middle finger. "F*ck you!"


    "!!!" Phyrill widened his eyes and shouted, "Theo! Don''t let that woman die too!"


    Theo was confused by his instruction, but when he saw the sword that pierced the Knight''s heart was his own, Theo quickly stepped forward and thrust his spear to Sonia.


    Not very familiar with the spear, Sonia barely stopped Theo''s thrust, but Clone Theo already appeared and grabbed her hands and legs, locking her movement from behind.


    He took the spear back and punched Sonia on the stomach with his Monkey Fist until she spat a mouthful of blood.


    "Gah!"


    Sonia red at Theo, but thetter opened her mouth to prevent her from killing herself before sticking his spear inside her mouth.


    Phyrill appeared next to him as he released his killing intent, looking at Sonia. "Who gave you the instruction? What was your original purpose?"


    Theo lowered Sonia to the ground ording to Phyrill''s instruction but still had his clone locked her movement.


    Phyrill surprisingly brought a rope and tied her to the tree, so he would have a great time interrogating her.


    Before asking any question or listening to Sonia''s reply, Phyrill jabbed Sonia''s hand with his sword and ultimately nted his sword to the ground.


    "Gah!" Sonia cried while enduring the pain.


    "Listen here, you little b*tch. I don''t like wasting my time, so I will be asking the question here and you have to answer me honestly." Phyrill red at her while releasing his killing intent.


    "You inhuman monster!" Sonia kept cursing Phyrill for a few minutes in one breath until thetter was fed up with her.


    Phyrill stabbed her hand with the other sword, but he didn''t nt it to the ground this time. Instead, he stopped in the middle of her hand before slicing her palm sideways and ripping it off.


    Flesh and blood spurted out of the hand as one could see the white bones on her hand directly. The pain she experienced right now couldn''t be described with any words.


    She shook her body to the left and right while shouting and crying.


    Phyrill''s expression had be unbearably cold as he said, "It seems you don''t understand your position here. If I ask, you will answer honestly. If you don''t answer, then I will let you know why my Hilbert Family is a famous underground family."


    Sonia screamed as if she just met the devil. She wanted to copse right now, but the pain kept her awake. She didn''t know why, but this kind of pain actually didn''t knock her off, making her realize Phyrill''s�� No, Hilbert Family''s torture might be a little bit special.


    Theo closed his eyes before turning around. Although he had prepared for it, he just never expected that Phyrill would do something more than stabbing or punching. He literally skinned her palm and gouged her flesh and blood.


    Even though Theo could endure the cruelty, he still couldn''t endure the sight and entrusted Phyrill with the tort��Ahem, interrogation.


    "I am going to bury the corpses." Theo shook his head. "We may cross this area in the next few days, so it''s better to bury them instead of letting the monsters eat their remains."


    Phyrill looked at Theo and sighed. "Yeah. That''s the best choice."

 Chapter 155 – For Oneself

    <h4>Chapter 155 - For Oneself</h4>


    Another fifteen minutes passed and she had finished spilling the beans.


    In the end, all she asked was nothing but to kill her. Even Theo got a chill down his spine after seeing the aftermath, especially with how much blood spilled on the ground.


    It was something he would never see even in the Sk, where almost everything was posted there including restricted contents. It was just too brutal to see.


    Theo simply made a burial ground for her and her teammate before he and Phyrill cleaned up the area. They even tossed the red soil into the hole to cover most of the problem.


    While they were working on it, Phyrill asked, "So, what do you think about it? You don''t need to say anything about the little gore. I just want to hear your thoughts about her confession."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "I don''t know anything. Her story was too vague. I mean, she herself was too gullible and easily convinced. Meeting the client with a ck robe and a mask? Without knowing anything about the client, she epted it, thinking she would be able to receive the help of Alea by manipting me. In other words, she was tricked by the client this whole time."


    "Fair enough. So, what are you nning to do?" He asked with a serious expression.


    "I am not sure. I believe the client used her for a reason." Theo narrowed his eyes. "It felt like the client was trying to purposely mess up�� Hmm, I don''t know about the nature of this incident anymore."


    Phyrill shrugged. "It''s indeed confusing. This is what we have been dealing with. It''s a daily urrence in my family and only those who can outwit their opponent will be the winner. That''s why I''m seriously asking you to join my family since I know you will go far."


    Theo shook his head. "You overestimate me. I''m just a nobody."


    "Well, we will leave it at that." Phyrill shrugged. "Still, how many people actually realize you are not in the tent?"


    Theo didn''t want to answer and changed the topic. "Anyway, starting tomorrow, I will be more merciless to everyone in order to increase our level. We will only be chasing Elite Rank Monsters�� Probably around level 120 to 150."


    "Changing the topic huh." Phyrill shrugged and answered. "I know. I have been working on it. But I do think we can do more if we kill some Champion Rank monsters�� I mean, you and I are still Elite Rank. All those Champion Rank monsters give a lot of EXP points."


    "No. You can do it next month. I don''t want to take any risk right now."


    "Fair enough. But sure�� It will be awkward tomorrow, especially after your outburst yesterday. I can''t say I agree with you one hundred percent, but if I need to choose one side, I will choose you." Phyrill smirked.


    "Whether it will be awkward or not, it will be entirely up to me." Theo smiled.


    "I will be looking forward to it." Phyrill nodded, finished the job as quickly as possible, and returned


    Theo also followed him, entered his tent using Blink, and changed his clothes to something new.


    ��


    The next day.


    Theo came out of the tent and looked at his teammates.


    Phyrill had the best talk with Theo yesterday, so he was full of energy, ignoring theck of sleep from yesterday. Ellen was slightly concerned about Theo and Alea''s mental states since those two fought yesterday. Laust still acted as if he didn''t care while Sihan maintained his silence.


    When they gathered, Theo and Alea''s eyes intertwined as the atmosphere became silent and heavy.


    Before anyone opened their mouth, Theo pointed his spear at her neck while releasing his killing intent.


    Alea was surprised by his action and looked at him with a confused expression.


    Theo''s tone was cold and indifferent as he said, "I don''t care what you are thinking right now. If you want to think about yesterday''s incident, then do it. As long as you follow mymand, I won''tin."


    Alea closed her eyes while biting her lips. She knew Theo was still angry due to yesterday''s decision.


    However, Theo continued and shocked her. "But I only need to say this one thing. I don''t need someone who is weak. If you can''t keep up with the mission because of those useless thoughts of yours, don''t mind if I discard you.


    "Simple is thest word we can use to exin our rtionship. Rival, partner, teammate? I don''t care. Just like you want to use me for your own purpose, I will also use you. I want to let you know the moment you are useless to me, I won''t expect anything from you.


    "What? You don''t like me and my views? It''s not my problem. If you want to try to change me, there is only one way." Theo made a twisted smile as he pointed his finger to the sky.


    The group was confused by his statement and raised their heads before lowering it again.


    Theo continued while clutching his hand. "Be strong enough to beat me up until I can''t even disobey you. Only the strong can decide anything, including people''s will, dreams, and ambitions."


    Alea''s body shook before letting out a long sigh. She was disappointed in himself and realized two things. Theo must hate to say this kind of thing, especially in front of everyone. He must hate her due to yesterday''s events.


    Yet, he decided to tell her all this.


    ''I would never win against him in this area�� As expected of the man I''ve chosen. In front of him, I am just a naive girl who is proud of their fighting prowess. In that case, I will stay simple. All I need to do is get stronger�� stronger to the point Theo can''t do anything against me. That''s what he wants�� He doesn''t care whether I''m his puppet, opponent, rival, or friend. What he wants is someone he can learn from to make him even stronger.


    ''If I back down just because of yesterday''s events, he will leave me in the dust soon. This sense of urgency. I see, so this is the excitementing from the feeling to get stronger, not for other people, but myself. Only the strong, smart, innovative, and cunning can help others in this cruel world. I can''t do anything about the other three, but if it''s strength, I can do it. I will get as strong as possible to the point my strength can overpower the other three. Fine by me��''


    Alea closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind felt refreshed after sorting her thoughts. There was this goal in her mind that she wanted to do no matter what.


    A smile appeared on her face. It was a different kind of smile because it could influence everyone''s excitement even though she didn''t say anything.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as he said, "I like your current expression. Now, it''s time to hunt."

 Chapter 156 – Magic Bullet (D)

    <h4>Chapter 156 - Magic Bullet (D)</h4>


    For the rest of their time, the group used it to increase their level as much as possible. They destroyed one nest after another.


    Theo and Laust got the most benefit from this practice because their levels went up like crazy.


    Because of the previous argument, even though she somehow recovered from Theo''s speech, Alea didn''t talk much and focused on killing monsters. At the same time, Theo could see that she was nning something.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill had been coordinating with him better after knowing how he usually operated, including his full ability.


    Theo believed Phyrill''s strength was far higher than this, especially during the night. Of course, like Alea, he had been training himself every now and then as if he wanted to do something different.


    The same applied to Ellen. After listening to Theo''s inspiration, Ellen started fighting together in the front. She might need to learn more about fighting closebat, but she didn''t need to be perfect.


    Her role was using her Ice Skills to cause a ruckus. Theo particrly liked how she used her Frosty Misty since it helped the group tremendously. Her positioning and timing were also perfect.


    Meanwhile, Theo had been contemting whether he wanted to rank up his Magic Bullet or Elemental Shield.


    He didn''t make his decision for the time being because he needed to consider whether he wanted to rechallenge the mammoth or not. They had only a few days remaining, so he needed toe to a decision fast.


    His teammates had indeed improved by leaps and bounds, but he didn''t know if they were ready or not.


    They only had five days left and they had used one for hunting, meaning if they wanted to kill the mammoth, they needed to hunt it tomorrow.


    During dinner, the group was ncing at Theo over and over again to see his n.


    Theo hadn''t said anything to them but understood what they wanted to discuss.


    In the end, Theo sighed and uttered a question.


    "I know what you want, but I will ask you this one particr question. Will you trade five levels for something that is not guaranteed?"


    When they heard the questions, they all fell silent. The first to answer was Phyrill. He had a smile on his face and said, "My level has increased many times. I believe if we move to Champion Rank monsters, we will be able to increase our pace again and ultimatelyplete the assignment, so I think we can afford to waste one more day for this."


    Sihan agreed with Phyrill and added, "There is one more thing. If we kill the mammoth right now, it will be easier for us to challenge the others because we have experienced killing a Hero Rank monster."


    Ellen shrugged. "Personally, I rather want stability, so I will choose the former."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.


    "I am confident in killing the mammoth, so I will choose thetter." Alea raised her hand.


    Laust seemed to have made his decision. He pointed his finger at Alea, telling Theo he agreed with her.


    "Then, it''s four to one. We will fight the mammoth tomorrow. Phyrill, you are in charge of scouting the area�� If possible, make sure the mammoth is alone just likest time. This time, we will limit our time to fifteen minutes. If we can''t kill it or I can''t see any chance to kill it, we will retreat and continue with our usual stuff. Okay?"


    "Roger!" Phyrill gave a thumbs up while the others agreed with Theo''s n.


    "In that case, that''s all." Theo finished his dinner and walked to the woods, not wanting anyone to see. He also brought his bag filled with cards and his equipment.


    They were curious about what he nned to do, but no one followed him. No one had ever tried to peek at each other to respect their boundary, so their secret was safe for themselves.


    When he reached his desired location to practice, Theo grabbed all the skill cards he had from the hunt.


    "So�� After more than a week, I have gotten seven E Rank skills and forty F Rank Skills. To think it will be this hard to receive the skill cards even with the help of Alea. I don''t know what to say anymore." Theo let out a long sigh and remembered how easy it was to get powerful skills from the Unending Grass Field.


    "Hmm�� I think there is something weird in that grass field. I don''t know what, but the loot is much better than our usual rate." Theo thought for a moment and looked at the material cards. There were various materials starting from a monster''s skin to w.


    "Let me see, I''m not a merchant, but if I need to roughly estimate the value of fifteen E Rank and seventy F Rank Material Cards, I should be able to get at least two hundred thousand Zils. It should be enough to buy a Champion Rank Spear, which will improve my performance greatly. And I don''t need to worry about the money for rent." Theo narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Well, I can buy E Rank skills and upgrade them to D Rank, I guess? At the very least, I will be trying to gather enough money to make all my skills D Rank before the Grand Gaia.


    "Then, this leaves��" Theo opened his status and looked at his skill again, using his ability from God of Mischief. "Since we are going to challenge it, I should rank up my Magic Bullet to increase my overall offensive ability."


    Although his head started heating up, he endured it a bit while grabbing five E Rank and five F Rank skills.


    All ten skills disappeared as if they turned into particles and Theo finally saw the change in his Magic Bullet, along with the requirement to upgrade it to the next level.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (D) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank D skills and 10 Rank E skills


    "It''s too much for me at the moment." Theo gritted his teeth as he didn''t have confidence in gathering all those before thepetition. He then checked the skill and couldn''t contain his smile.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (D)


    Effect: Summon up to 10 powerful magic bullets. Tracking (Optional).


    There was an additional "powerful" word in front of the magic bullet, meaning their power increased. Although he didn''t know the tracking ability, he had gotten the gist of what it could do.


    Theo couldn''t help but say, "Nice."

 Chapter 157 – Tracking

    <h4>Chapter 157 - Tracking</h4>


    He tidied up his belongings and put them all in his backpack. After confirming everything was in the bag, he rose from the ground and tried to call his Magic Bullet.


    The Magic Power started gushing out of his body and gathered on top of his palm.


    The same Magic Bullet appeared on his palm and something was wrong.


    "Hmm�� There''s no change in its appearance." Yes, the problem was there was no change in the Magic Bullet despite ranking up. Theo frowned and continued to split them into ten.


    Due to his continuous training in both Force Control and Soft Control, he managed to do it in one try even though he felt it was harder than usual.


    However, he started feeling the change when he aimed the Magic Bullet at the tree twenty feet away in front of him.


    "Eh?!" Theo widened his eyes and looked at his Magic Bullet. It was a weird feeling. "This feeling�� Usually, I would point in a certain direction where the Magic Bullet would fly, but this time�� It feels like I can choose a specific target instead of a direction. At the same time, I can ignore that feeling and choose the previous way. Is this Tracking?"


    After savoring and understanding the feeling, Theo ignored the feeling first to see what was wrong with his Magic Bullet.


    The ten Magic Bullets flew toward the tree like how he had been using the skill this whole time. But the moment it hit the trunk, the Magic Bullet sted it until nothing remained. The splinters flew in a fan-shaped area.


    Without having anything to support the upper half, the tree dropped to the remaining bottom half before losing its bnce, falling to the ground.


    Bam.


    It created a loud sound, but no one appeared in the area. This was a normal urrence during the night. As long as it wasn''t continuous, the team would leave them alone.


    Theo assessed the Magic Bullet and looked down with his hand supporting his chin. "The power has increased. That''s for sure. However, I am wondering what the tracking feature is?"


    Without waiting, he quickly summoned another Magic Bullet. Instead of ignoring that feeling, he tried to focus on it.


    Theo tried to think about the tree that just fell down to the ground and his consciousness got absorbed into it due to the skill''s effect. He shot the tree and the Magic Bullet flew straight to the tree.


    "Hmm�� Isn''t this a normal Magic Bullet? Or is it only effective against a moving object?" Theo frowned and assessed his skill.


    After thinking for a moment, he summoned the Magic Bullet again. He indeed focused his attention on the fallen tree, but he didn''t aim it there immediately. Instead, he pointed his Magic Bullet to the side.


    The Magic Bullets followed his path for a second before they curved and hit the log again.


    Theo smiled in amazement as a feeling of excitement emerged in his heart. "This�� This is good. I feel like the skill is favoring me. If I use this skill together with my Illusion Multiplier, doesn''t this mean I can create an attack from all directions before hitting the target with minimal effort? This can certainly cheat the Force Control for a while�� And I don''t think many people can block all of them like this.


    "To be honest, I don''t know if this skill can follow a moving target or not, but this is a good start. I can check about itter. And I think I can add��" Theo drew a gasp before he changed his position.


    This time, he positioned himself facing the fallen log. He didn''t want to destroy another tree, so he nned to stick with the fallen log.


    However, there was another tree standing between him and the fallen log. His n was to add Force Control to avoid the tree before the Magic Bullets curved again with the help of the skill.


    He took a deep breath and used the Magic Bullet again. Although he felt the Magic Power consumption increased by at least two folds, he didn''t mind because this Magic Bullet just opened a huge door for him. There were many possibilities in this Magic Bullet he could discover, so he nned to use half of his Magic Power tonight since he could recover all of it in his sleep.


    After summoning the Magic Bullet, he locked the fallen log again and shot the Magic Bullet. However, he inserted more Magic Power than he needed to the Magic Bullet at the same portion, forcing the Magic Bullet to curve to the left of the standing tree.


    Due to the tracking effect of his Magic Bullet, the Magic Bullet ultimately curved again and created a half circle as if avoiding the standing tree.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullet hit the tree and destroyed the logpletely.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he just thought of a bunch of strategies with his Magic Bullet, Blink, Clone, and Illusion Multiplier. He might be able to control the flow of the fight using thebination of these four.


    At the same time, he nned to buy more E Rank Skills and upgrade them to D Rank Skills to be used for thepetition. Just the thought of its potential alone made him feel so excited.


    "This�� With this�� I should be able to reach the main stage and fight against the geniuses from other countries in Grand Gaia." Theo smirked and looked at the sky. "I will do my best to make it happen."


    That night, Theo was so eager to practice his skills. The others didn''t want to lose and had their own preparation for tomorrow.


    Alea was swinging her sword around in a small ce while closing her eyes as if she was fighting against an enemy of her own imagination.


    Phyrill was jumping around from one ce to another while using the trees to be his obstacle. He looked like a rabbit that couldn''t be stopped by anything, but the terrifying thing from his training was his speed. He had been using his Lightning Step to increase his speed while avoiding these trees.


    Meanwhile, Laust had simr training to Phyrill, but he jumped from one tree to another by using the skill he received from Radvils.


    In the camp, Ellen was meditating to get a good grasp of her ability, while Sihan did some push-ups and sharpened his weapons.


    All of them were busy with their own tasks, but all of them had their heads focused on tomorrow''s objective.


    Kill the mammoth!

 Chapter 158 – Rematch Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 158 - Rematch Part 1</h4>


    The next day. The group had a serious expression on their face because they were about to rechallenge the mammoth, the monster they couldn''t defeat previously.


    Phyrill had disappeared from the camp while the rest packed up their belongings because they were about to move again.


    After another two hours, Phyrill returned and said, "I''m sorry for taking too long. I found the mammoth an hour ago, but only now the mammoth returns to the river to drink some water. It''s the best time to ambush him."


    Theo nodded. "I don''t have any change in n. We will do it like how we worked a few days ago. There was nothing wrong with the n other than us being too weak anyway."


    The group nodded in agreement because they felt a huge leap in their strength after figuring out what they needed to do with their new skill. As expected, Radvils didn''t give them something without considering it carefully.


    Looking at his teammates'' serious expressions once again, Theo opened his mouth. "Let''s go. If you have anything that you hide, it''s better to use it as early as possible."


    "Roger." They replied and Phyrill guided them to the mammoth.


    The group didn''t take too long to reach the same river they messed up a few days ago. Although most of them had returned to normal, they could still find some cracks where the mammoth stomped the ground.


    It might be because he expected them toe; the mammoth quickly raised his head before they even crossed the river.


    The water he stored inside his truck was released toward Theo, trying to kill the one whomanded them.


    "Blink."


    Before Alea protected him, Theo already disappeared, stopping whatever move they nned to use to stop that attack.


    His destination was several feet above the air.


    He summoned his Magic Bullet and split it into ten. "Magic Bullet."


    All ten Magic Bullets flew toward the mammoth head-on, forcing the mammoth to release its shield to block it. Of course, he didn''t use the tracking or Force Control this time since he needed to wait for the others to cross the river first before revealing his skill.


    At this time, Ellen had finished preparing for her skill and ced her hand on the ground. "Ice Wave."


    Just like the previous one, the river was frozen, creating a twenty feet wide bridge.


    The mammoth let out a loud cry as it raised its trunk, trying to smash the bridge to prevent them from crossing over. He decided to do it after feeling the power behind Theo''s new Magic Bullet.


    However, Sihan already arrived right in front of the bridge. He dropped his shield and jumped to the air.


    The veins on his body began to bulge as if it was receiving tremendous stress, but Sihan felt the surge of strength he received. This was the strength Sihan needed to be equal to the strength that a Champion Rank like Alea had. This was the powering from a D Rank Skill that Radvils gave him, Frenzy.


    With the additional twenty percent of his strength, he struck the trunk from the side with his glowing de.


    "Dawn Strike."


    A huge clicking sound echoed in their ears and the mammoth''s trunk stopped for a second as if fighting against the powerful blow Sihan released.


    Ultimately, the trunk moved an inch from its current location.


    Sihan obviously didn''t like the result, but due to that one inch, the trajectory changed drastically as the trunk went diagonally instead of vertically.


    Bam.


    The trunk hit the ground and sshed the water, but it was six feet away from the bridge due to Sihan''s one inch.


    Alea, Phyrill, and Laust crossed the river and surrounded the mammoth in three different directions. Theonded on the ground and made his way to the other side with Ellen while Sihan quickly grabbed his shield to cross the bridge before the mammoth could break it.


    As they expected, the mammoth swept the bridge from the ground and destroyed the bridge. Unfortunately for him, Theo and his group had crossed the river.


    Theo was the first to make his move as he summoned his Magic Bullet once again and aimed at the mammoth''s body.


    "Magic Bullet."


    The mammoth nced at his bullets that flew straight to his body and just braced for impact because he knew it wouldn''t do much damage. However, right before the ten bullets hit, Theo smiled as the Magic Bullets turned diagonally to the left, heading straight to the mammoth''s left eye.


    "!!!" The mammoth tried to close his eye to protect it, but the Magic Bullets had reached his eyes and grazed it first.


    "Cry!" A loud scream resounded on the river as blood came out of his eyes and the mammoth was forced to close his left eye.


    Meanwhile, the others had an amused expression as they found out Theo''s real skill.


    "Force Control?!"


    It was a hard technique that even a third-year student had a hard time gaining, yet, Theo managed to do it in his first year and within a few months. Insane might be an understatement.


    Before they knew it, Ellen already positioned herself below the mammoth and tapped the ground with her staff. "I hope you don''t forget that Theo''s number one mentor for Force Control is me."


    "Frosty Misty."


    A freezing white mist emerged from the ground as it gradually swallowed the mammoth.


    However, Ellen''s real intention was to use the freezing temperature from the mist to slow down the mammoth''s reaction.


    And Alea obviously didn''t want to let this chance go.


    "Now, let''s see whether I have enough qualifications to challenge you." She raised her sword and took a deep breath. A golden-colored aura enveloped her sword. This was her Enchant de. And with this skill, she waved her sword down.


    "Inch sh."


    The invisible energy flew to the mammoth''s body. The white mist Ellen released earlier was surprisingly cut by this energy as if the mist was swallowed into a line in the middle.


    It continued moving forward until it hit the mammoth. Although it was hard to see, a straight line from the top of the mammoth''s body to its neck appeared before red-colored blood gushed out of the mark.


    As if the rest of the energy had caught up with the energy that cut the mammoth, a huge shock wave shook the field and slightly blew the mammoth to the side.


    Bam.


    The shock wave was followed by a loud bumping sound as if something just crashed and exploded on the mammoth''s body.


    "Cry!" The mammoth screamed in pain as his body slightly leaned to the side. His right feet also left the ground.


    Alea couldn''t help but smile when she saw her attack go through.

 Chapter 159 – Rematch Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 159 - Rematch Part 2</h4>


    The mammoth obviously wouldn''t allow his body to fall, so he tried to reach the ground again.


    Phyrill didn''t let him do whatever the mammoth wanted. To make sure he fell, Phyrill used his Lightning Step and jumped.


    He spun his body and kicked the mammoth''s body with the power of momentum. This was what he learned from Radvils'' skill. Sometimes, you only need to increase your speed to create enough force to release a powerful attack.


    Bam.


    The kick didn''t prate the mammoth''s defense, but it certainly pushed the mammoth. Unfortunately for him, like Sihan, he didn''t have enough force to push the almost fallen mammoth.


    It was at this time Laust made his appearance.


    "Eh, Laust?" Phyrill sensed his presence and looked to the side, finding Laust kicking the mammoth.


    When Laust''s footnded on the mammoth''s body, a powerful shock was released from beneath his shoe,bining with Phyrill''s force.


    This was his Sonic Speed which could increase one''s speed by creating an explosive burst of Magic Power beneath his foot.


    Laust used that explosive burst to give enough power to push the mammoth down.


    The mammoth widened its eyes. There was no way he would be pushed down by these humans, but the reality was different.


    His body was about to fall to the ground and he would be under so many attacks as soon as he fell. To avoid that situation, the mammoth used its trunk and pushed his body back up.


    "Seriously? You can do that?" Phyrill clenched his teeth as the shock ran through his body. He just never thought his trunk was that strong. "That small trunk manages to push a body that heavy? Seriously?"


    Because the mammoth managed to push his body back to its original position, Phyrill and Laust used that body to leap backward, managing their distance once again.


    "Ellen! Change ces with me." Theo shouted as he went toward Ellen which was in the opposite direction.


    Ellen didn''t understand Theo''s n, but everything immediately connected when she saw the blind eye.


    Theo summoned his clone and became the focus due to his Magic Bullet.


    The mammoth became overly conscious of him because of the technique he used to blind his eyes.


    This created an opportunity for Ellen. She summoned a huge ice boulder andunched it to the mammoth.


    Sensing the huge presence on the opposite side, the mammoth tried to turn its head around, but Sihan jumped and struck its ivory.


    "Dawn Strike."


    Sihan used all his strength to push the mammoth back but to no avail. He only managed to stop the mammoth from looking to the other side for half a second.


    Luckily, it was all she needed to hit the mammoth with her Ice Meteor. "Now, let''s try how you can take this��"


    "Ice Meteor."


    The mammoth blew Sihan to the ground and created the same shield that blocked Theo''s Magic Bullet. However, due to theck of vision, he needed to erge the shield even if it meant lowering the defense capability.


    Unfortunately for him, when Ellen''s Ice Meteornded on the shield, the ice boulder shattered it instantly since its weight was simr to that of the mammoth''s.


    The ice boulder hit the mammoth''s body as if there was another mammoth charged at him.


    The mammoth let out another scream as he used his trunk to stop him from falling over, but this was what everyone wanted.


    Before Laust and Phyrill made their move, the mammoth roared as loud as possible before a series of roars echoed in their ears. All of them came from the forest and everyone understood that the mammoth was calling other monsters.


    "!!!" All of them gritted their teeth, not wanting to have this as another failure.


    Hence, Phyrill and Laust exchanged looks and understood each other''s intentions.


    "Laust and I will lure the monsters away. We should be able to do it because of our speed. But if there are monsters slipping past us, you''re the one going to deal with it. Okay?" Phyrill informed the others as he turned around and leaped to the forest with Laust.


    "Roger." Alea, Ellen, Sihan, and Theo replied at the same time.


    Unbeknownst to them, Clone Theo had appeared in their original position, which slightly leaned to the back of the mammoth to rece them.


    And due to the mammoth stopping the Ice Boulder, the left side was covered unless the Magic Power Ellen poured into the Ice Meteor was exhausted. In that case, the mammoth only needed to protect three sides of his body.


    That was why Ellen came over to Clone Theo as thetter showed her how it was done.


    Clone Theo summoned his Magic Bullet and aimed every single bullet at the mammoth''s asshole. It was the only weak spot other than the wound Alea created.


    Hence, all the Magic Bullets precisely entered that hole and exploded.


    Boom.


    The mammoth let out another cry. It experienced a massive organ failure because of the explosions and Ellen tried to help extend the damage.


    With the minimal Magic Power, which would make the ice disappear as soon as it hit, Ellen used two skills simultaneously, aiming at the same hole.


    "Freezing Shot."


    "Ice Star."


    Nine star-shaped lights appeared above Ellen''s head and flew together to the hole. They entered in session before exploding to create another burst of Ice.


    The mammoth couldn''t handle it anymore and struggled left and right to make sure nothing would happen again.


    The Real Theo stopped the mammoth''s movement by summoning his Magic Bullet and used his Illusion Multiplier to create forty Magic Bullets. He sent all those Magic Bullets right on the eye.


    "Take it. My present."


    The mammoth quickly closed its eye. He didn''t want Theo to seed in destroying his other eye since he would go blind after that and his life would end under their onught.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the mammoth stopped its body for a second to let Theo hit the eyelid that couldn''t be prated by his Magic Bullet and turned the Magic Bullet as another feint for the main attack to arrive.


    Alea jumped and positioned herself right next to the wound she created with her sword above her head.


    Golden aura had enveloped her sword as she was ready to strike.


    "Point nk range��" She took a deep breath and waved her sword down as hard as she could.


    "Inch sh."

 Chapter 160 – Killing The Mammoth

    <h4>Chapter 160 - Killing The Mammoth</h4>


    Alea''s Inch sh cut through the wound and deepened the wound. The mammoth could only scream due to the excruciating pain that shocked his mind. The blood flowed out of its body and dripped to the ground like a water source.


    Theo looked at the wound and shouted, "It''s going deep. The mammoth should die within a few minutes with that kind of wound. Keep it up."


    "Roger." Alea nodded and moved away from the mammoth. Since his death was just a matter of time, she chose to conserve her energy for the next fight against the monsters that came from the forest.


    Although they had been killing the monsters around this area, their number was still huge. Hence, Alea wanted to wipe them out and celebrated their victoryter.


    The mammoth''s eye lost its focus before it went rampage with thest bit of its strength.


    The ground began to crack every time he stomped the ground and some even rotated orunched to the air.


    At the same time, the roars from monsters echoed in their ears as all of them turned around, finding seven monstersing out of the forest.


    "Sihan, we are going to handle it," Theo shouted and leaped to the monsters with his clone. "Alea, Ellen, you two are to kill the mammoth before helping us."


    "Roger," said Sihan while the two girls nodded their heads with serious expressions.


    Sihan quickly made his way to the front and challenged seven cheetahs that seemed to be trying to save the mammoth. Unfortunately for him, Sihan suddenly dropped to his knees as he forgot the time limit of his Frenzy.


    "Kh!" Sihan clenched his teeth and recalled he only had five minutes for the Frenzy Skill. The strength in his body left his body as it was hard for him to even lift a finger.


    "Tch." Theo clicked his tongue as he looked at all these cheetahs. "Seven opponents with at least twenty levels above me�� I wonder if I can do it."


    Before they shed, Clone Theo grabbed Sihan and used Blink to send him away before regrouping with the main body. Meanwhile, three ice lotuses appeared between them.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and nced to the back, only to find Ellen still facing the mammoth. She seemed to release one of her two skills to support him.


    Theo felt grateful for her initiative and used his Illusion Multiplier and made another three clones. In other words, coupled with the original clone, he had five men to fight against seven cheetahs.


    The illusion clones leaped to the side to see how many cheetahs they would take. Their job was only to run away, so they should bring at least one of them away.


    As he predicted, three cheetahs decided to follow Theo''s illusion clones as the clones tried to run around the area.


    Unlike his clone, these ones couldn''t share their vision after all.


    Theo used this chance to fight the four cheetahs with his clone.


    Both of them activated Haste and Focused Charge at the same time. Four cheetahs leaped to the air and tried to bite their necks, but both Theo and his clone disappeared, appearing only three feet behind them.


    They turned around and released the Magic Bullet. Theo focused on the right cheetah while Clone Theo killed the left cheetah with his Magic Bullets.


    He somehow managed to defeat them within the first engagement, leaving only two more.


    Theo quickly charged forward without hesitation and thrust his spear, but the cheetahsnded on the ground, turned around, and avoided his thrust.


    After that, they leaped to Theo and opened their mouths, showing their sharp pointed teeth.


    Instead of Blink, Theo and his clone used Monkey Fist and punched the cheetahs before they reached them, blowing them several feet away.


    He then summoned his Magic Bullet again and focused on the cheetahs, locking them with the tracking feature.


    "Magic Bullet."


    Each cheetah faced ten Magic Bullets as they started running away to avoid them, but the Magic Bullets surprisingly followed their movements. The Magic Bullet lost its energy one by one and either dispersed or hit the ground, but it should be able to buy enough time for him.


    "!!!" Sihan dropped his jaw when he saw this type of result. He couldn''t believe Theo''s Magic Bullet could follow their movement since he doubted Theo''s Force Control wouldn''t allow him to do such a perfect chase. In other words, Theo must have been hiding his skill''s real power this whole time.


    The cheetah kept running, so Theo and his clone appeared next to the illusion clones. The spears had glowed as they struck the first cheetah with Focused Charge.


    The cheetah managed to avoid the first spear but had his head pierced by the second one.


    Sihan simply couldn''tment on Theo''s fighting style. What Theo had been doing right now was manipting the battle using tricks. He didn''t look like a Fighter or a Magic Warrior at all.


    He started wondering whether Theo would change his job or not. After all, he could benefit more if he registered for a more befitting job due to the skills he could buy from the Temple for that one specific job.


    Little did he know, Theo understood his concern well, but he didn''t know if the Temple would sell skills with a high offensive ability like his Magic Bullet or not. After all, illusions and maniption sometimes wouldn''t work if you didn''t have any high offensive ability to scare or affect your opponent''s mind since illusion wouldn''t allow one to give a huge amount of damage to the opponent.


    He knew that illusion could affect one''s mind greatly, but he was a controller instead of an Illusionist, so he wanted to stick to this path.


    At the same time, his opponent wasn''t only human that could be confused with normal illusions, but also the monsters.


    Hence, he had been thinking how much he needed to change his ten skill slots to be a perfect Illusionist with a powerful spear technique and skill like that of a Fighter and a Magician.


    In other words, Theo''s vision of a powerful Illusionist was thebination of three jobs.


    Not bothered with the thought at the moment, Theo kept fighting the cheetahs but was unable to kill the remaining four. Sihan wanted to help, but his body refused to move, making it hard for the entire group.


    Suddenly, a scream resounded in the area as Theo quickly turned around and saw the mammoth releasing itsst scream while falling to the ground.


    Bam.


    The mammoth was so heavy that its fall vibrated the ground, but it was the best sight he had ever seen today.


    Ignoring the mammoth, Alea and Ellen moved to the chased cheetah, killed both of them, and helped Theo with the remaining two.


    "Sorry for making you wait."

 Chapter 161 – Chicken

    <h4>Chapter 161 - Chicken</h4>


    Theo smiled as they killed the remaining cheetahs.


    "Ellen will help Sihan and cross the river first. Alea and I will rescue Laust and Phyrill. We will use the same strategy as the previous one, which is to escape to the woods after destroying the ice bridge. For now, we will focus on Sihan''s condition and not fight them." Theo gave them themand.


    Ellen nodded and walked to Sihan''s side while Alea waited for him to enter the forest.


    Before they entered, Theo summoned his Magic Bullet and released them to the sky that served as the signal for them to return. To avoid any further involvement, Theo quickly used his Force Control and made them curved to each other, so they created a huge explosion after impact.


    Boom.


    An explosion urred, and Theo wondered whether they should enter the forest to search for Phyrill and Laust or wait here.


    "Alright. Let''s enter the forest but not too far." Theo nodded and walked to the forest with a cool expression, believing Laust and Phyrill had noticed his signal.


    Alea also raised her sword while looking around to see any potential peopleing.


    Surprisingly, when they entered, Phyrill immediately came to Alea''s view and shouted, "Oi! I''m here."


    Behind him were thirty monsters he brought while moving around the forest.


    Before Theo and Alea helped him, Laust also managed to return with twenty monsters.


    "Theo! Do you want to kill these guys or just run away from them?" Phyrill shouted, stunning them.


    Theo didn''t know why he asked that question but still answered hurriedly, "Sihan can''t fight. We will run away."


    "Then, do you know about chicken?"


    "Huh? I don''t have time to y a joke with you." Theo shouted in displeasure, feeling Phyrill just insulted him by saying he was a coward. He just never thought Phyrill would make a joke about this situation.


    Phyrill soon corrected his words, showing that Theo wasn''t the only one who coulde up with a good n. "No! I mean, the game, Chicken!"


    Theo opened his mouth in surprise as he understood what he wanted instantly. Theo quickly turned to Laust and saw thetter nodding his head.


    Theo then calcted their distance and such before shouting, "Come at me."


    Theo moved several feet away from them while asking Alea to leave the forest as they would take care of these monsters.


    Alea didn''t know what he was nning, but seeing his serious face was enough to scare her away. She quickly left the forest, not wanting to object to Theo''s n anymore and repeating the same mistake she made a few days ago.


    As soon as he reached his position, he summoned his clone, smirked and said, "I''m ready. Come."


    Laust and Phyrill continued on their way and yet to turn to Theo. It wasn''t the time yet.


    Only when they were about to pass him, they made a ny-degree turn, surprising the monsters behind them.


    The monsters also showed some degree of maneuver that allowed them to follow Phyrill and Laust''s sudden turn and make their way toward Theo.


    Theo looked at theming at the same speed and the same distance and smiled. What he meant by Chicken was none other than the Chicken Game.


    It is a game in which two yers drive cards at each other. The first to swerve away and slow down loses and is humiliated as the "chicken". If neither yer swerves, the result is a potentially fatal head-on collision.


    However, Phyrill and Laust were bringing the luggage that all three of them believed wouldn''t even flinch against collision.


    Both of them had no intention of backing down, especially with Theo acting as a buffer.


    The moment they almost reached each other and hit Theo in the process, the two Theos grabbed their shoulders at the same time and used his Blink to teleport them ten feet away.


    Due to his back facing each other, Theo and his clone killed the momentum Phyrill and Laust had before jumping to the side to avoid the collision. After all, Theo''s blink range was only ten feet away from their location.


    Phyrill and Laust also understood because a skill that could teleport them to a certain area was too restrictive and short in range, so they didn''t have anyint in Theo''s procedure as long as they could get away.


    At the same time, they noticed Theo''s Blink seemed to not be able to carry more than one person at a time.


    Without Laust and Phyrill in front of them, the monsters ultimately created a chain of fatal head-on collisions.


    Phyrill and Laust struggled to get up while Theo helped them as they all ran to the exit. "Hurry up, we don''t have much time before they get up on their feet again."


    The two agreed and followed Theo, but it turned out thetter still tried to take advantage of this situation.


    He and his clone released the Magic Bullet and hit the fallen and injured monsters. He didn''t bother to save his Magic Power and ultimately released three waves of Magic Bullets before they exited the forest.


    Theo could see that he leveled up once after killing ten monsters with sixty Magic Bullets he had upgraded to D Rank.


    After leaving the forest, they found Alea, Ellen and Sihan waiting for them on the other side of the river.


    Because of the situation, Ellen had stripped his armor and asked Laust to carry him on her back while Phyrill and Alea brought his armor.


    After Theo destroyed the ice bridge with his Magic Bullet, the group entered the forest again to recover from the fight. Meanwhile, Theo couldn''t help but smirk when he saw his status while putting the status he received earlier to Magic Power, bringing it at the same number as his Strength.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 103


    EXP: 129/10825


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (E), Illusion Multiplier (D), 1 Slot Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 160, Endurance 93, Agility 97, Vitality 89, Magic Power 160


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    However, due to him looking at his status, one thing escaped his vision. It was the message from the God of Mischief.


    [God of Mischief is pleased with your growth. Continue developing your wisdom and taking advantage of every situation and be a genuine Trickster.]

 Chapter 162 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 162 - Return</h4>


    In the resting area, the group discussed their next n to see whether they should sacrifice one more day or just start running to the castle.


    "So, what do you think about returning now? We should have one more day to exploit or at least, the rest of this day." Phyrill asked.


    As a careful guy and the experience that told him everything might not go his way, Theo had learned from his past mistake and said, "I want to return right now."


    The group was surprised by Theo''s sudden answer because this was the first time Theo voiced his opinion right off the bat.


    Little did they know, the reason why Theo never voiced his opinion first was because he learned from his teacher that a good leader should take others'' opinions first.


    After all, if the leader gave them his opinion, the people would naturally go with the flow and end up agreeing with him most of the time without even arguing with you like a rival or an opponent. That was why people said your enemies know you the best.


    Hence, his teacher always told him that he needed to be thest in a long discussion if he wanted a genuine response.


    That was why he agreed with the vote when Sonia and his group intruded. But when there was a crisis, he should be the first person who gave the sense of urgency to them by saying something with a serious expression and a strict tone.


    He understood that the urgency wasn''t there, but Theo wanted to ensure that his team would always have time to spare to ensure they were not racing against time. Thus, resulting in him voicing his opinion first.


    And his master''s words were proven in this discussion.


    Phyrill actually agreed with him in an instant as he said, "Let''s return. Unlike the departure, the return doesn''t have much time for correction. Leaving one day early will allow us to change our course if necessary."


    Ellen understood his words and showed her approval. "I think that''s good. I mean, the rest should have leveled up so much, right? Before that, I think it''s fine to confirm your level, no?"


    Theo and the others thought for a moment before Ellen told them first. "I''m level 159 right now."


    They also didn''t find any reason for keeping their level a secret, considering they would leap to at least level 150 two monthster.


    Laust opened his mouth. "I''m level 107."


    "137!" Phyrill raised his hand before looking at Sihan. Thetter didn''t care about their rivalry and revealed his level. "134."


    Phyrill pumped his fist, but Sihan simply looked away before hearing Alea''s answer. "I''m level 175. I''m that high due to the mammoth."


    Thest one to reveal their level was Theo. After looking closely at their progress during the training and his spection of their level, Theo thought their level should be around the number they said, so Theo said, "I''m level 103."


    With the group revealing their levels, Theo understood they needed to work harder one monthter. Phyrill, Sihan, Laust, and Theo shouldn''t have the problem in reaching Level 151, so that meant Alea and Ellen needed to go beyond their pace and turned them to be the focus of the group.


    Theo understood this and started wondering where he should move the group.


    On the other hand, Alea was satisfied with hearing their levels, so she agreed with Theo''s n toe home early. "If there''s no problem with our level, I think it''s best to go home. We can hunt Champion Rank monsters, so I don''t see a problem in seeing any of you guys reaching level 151 within one week in our next expedition."


    Theo seemed to agree with her and looked at Laust and Sihan for their opinion.


    Laust shrugged and said, "The majority has decided. There''s no need to continue the vote."


    Sihan supported him and chose to return.


    Theo nodded and concluded their meeting. "We will return then, but since it''s past eleven, we will rest and have our lunch here before making our way to the Art Beats Castle."


    "Understood." The group acknowledged his n and started dividing their tasks.


    Obviously, they nned to celebrate their sess in killing the mammoth, so they brought more meat, herbs, and sadly water for a celebration.


    They had a feast as they exchanged information on how the fight continued and what Phyrill and Laust encountered in the forest. They didn''t have any information about it since they were separated for a while.


    After finishing their lunch, they started packing up and left no trash to avoid damaging the environment. Although it was hard to make humanity follow thismon sense because they might consciously or subconsciously leave trash in this world, Theo and his group still tried to protect the environment by not leaving anything behind.


    They then started running to Art Beats City under Phyrill''s guidance.


    The group encountered a few monsters on the way, but Phyrill left all the nests behind since Theo didn''t want unnecessary confrontations.


    Everything went smoothly and the group made good progress within the first day. However, it soon changed on the third day.


    With the sun almost set, they reached the Unending Grass Field and prepared themselves for an onught of the monsters, so they could make a nice camp on the other side of this field.


    With them getting much stronger, their confidence also increased drastically.


    Phyrill remembered the trade Theo had from before and approached him before shouting. "Theo, I think I will agree with your trade a week ago. Half-half."


    The reason Phyrill shouted was to jolt the others'' minds, telling them they should let Theo grab the cards.


    Ellen and Alea had obviously be his regr and agreed without hesitation. Unfortunately, Laust didn''t share their opinion. He and Theo might be able to get something, but he didn''t see the point in getting these cards just for quick money, so Laust didn''t agree with him.


    Seeing Laust didn''t ept, Sihan also chose not to trade with Theo for an unknown reason.


    Theo didn''t care about it since he didn''t know whether he could keep up with them while getting all the cards. Hence, three people might be ideal for him.


    However, when they were ready to face the challenge and stepped on the grass, they noticed something was wrong.

 Chapter 163 – A Horde

    <h4>Chapter 163 - A Horde</h4>


    "What is this?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise as when they stepped onto the Unending Grass Field, not only did they not hear any roarsing from behind the grass, but no monsters also appeared to attack them.


    "This�� What had happened in this ce?" Phyrill narrowed his eyes and checked his surroundings. "This ce should have many monsters and I don''t think people will be foolish enough to eliminate all of them.


    "That''s right. Although no one says it, they know that this ce is a checkpoint and a special spot. There are no signs of fighting as well. It means this ce is untouched or the people, who killed the monsters, have fled a few hours ago.


    "Still, I believe one or two monsters should have been trapped here within that time frame, so I can''t see any reason for this to happen."


    Listening to Phyrill''s assessment, Theo said, "Either way, we will set up our camp on the other side of this field. Since there''s no monster, we will use this opportunity to cross this ce, discuss the urrence and search for a clue around here. If we can''t find anything during the night, we will continue our way, reach Art Beats City before lunch and report this finding."


    The group agreed with Theo and followed his n. As expected, Phyrill was the one investigating most of the area while the rest searched for anything they could find.


    Unfortunately for them, they couldn''t find a single reason for the group to leave this ce together, so they decided to end the day and return tomorrow.


    Yet, when they moved to another ce and continued their way, the ces were filled with emptiness. There wasn''t a single monster in this ce. Everything from the Unending Grass Field was simply empty.


    They thought they could find a single monster from this, but they didn''t know the reason for this emptiness. Even with Theo and Phyrill thinking together, they couldn''te up with a single reason as to why the monsters disappeared from this ce.


    Phyrill learned that the monsters went toward Art Beats Castle together like a horde, yet, he knew it wasn''t this simple. No horde attack should happen without any big trigger like an Earthquake or something.


    Even the previous earthquake didn''t create this kind of situation. That was why they wondered what moved the entire horde to attack the city.


    Theo and Phyrill kept contemting this matter while making their way to Art Beats Castle.


    Since the Unending Grass Field wasn''t that far from the Art Beats Castle, the journey didn''t take a long time.


    As expected, everything remained quiet until they reached the Art Beats City perimeter. A thunderous roar echoed in their ears and was followed by a huge explosion. It wasn''t supposed to happen.


    "What is happening to the Art Beats City?" Alea narrowed her eyes. But when she was about to move forward to see the situation, she stopped and remembered that they shouldn''t act carelessly. She didn''t want to make the same mistake, so she looked at Theo first to listen to his opinion.


    "I don''t know�� Judging by the explosions and roars, I think the Art Beats City is under attack." Theo contemted for a moment and said, "We need to secretly move forward to witness what is happening to understand the situation better. Phyrill, you go ahead and lead us."


    Phyrill smiled and nodded. "Understood."


    After acknowledging themand, Phyrill disappeared and started looking around before returning to the group a few minutester with a grim expression. He looked at Theo and sighed, "Rather than exining, it''s better for all of you to see it first. Follow me�� Just make sure you don''t make a loud noise, so we don''t get found out."


    The group agreed and followed Phyrill carefully while watching out for each other. After around five minutes, the group reached the exit and took a peek at the situation of Art Beats City behind the city.


    Theo drew a gasp while the rest couldn''t believe what they just saw.


    The Art Beats City was under an onught from a horde of monsters. In front of them was the southern wall, so they could only see the monsters around this area. Yet, they were numbered at least a few thousand. Combined with other areas, they might reach as far as thirty thousand monsters.


    Their ranks varied from Normal Rank to Hero Rank, making the situation iparably difficult. They could see numerous monsters trying to destroy the wall and open the gate while many soldiers and hunters defended the city from the city wall.


    This was also the first time Theo saw the cannons on the city wall used. Each round destroyed tens of monsters while leaving a huge trail on the ground.


    "This is catastrophic. A horde?" Theo narrowed his eyes and wondered if there was a connection between this ident and the Unending Grass Field.


    "What is my grandfather doing?" Alea remembered that her grandfather should be in the city. If he came out, the monsters should be suppressed easily.


    After seeing the current situation, an army soldier seemed to have spotted them hiding behind the trees while watching the situation.


    He leaped from the city wall to the sky beforending on the ground next to them. He was a middle-aged man with ck hair and a thin beard. His body was muscr as he suddenly took out his Skylink.


    "My name is Captain Hilkert. You must be one of the student groups that wandered in the wilderness. As you can see, the base is under attack, so we require as many helpers as possible. I hope you can help us fight the monsters on top of the western wall where most groups like you gathered. I will create a path for you and personally request the continuation of your leave from the school as this is a special emergency. Reinforcements are alsoing our way and it''s possible to eliminate them within two days in order to minimize the casualties."


    Hilkert exined them perfectly and the others looked at each other, agreeing to help since they couldn''t afford to have the base get destroyed. However, Theo''s face remained indifferent as if he didn''t have the intention to help.


    Uncaring of their opinion, Theo just kept observing the situation as well as the so-called Captain Hilkert as thetter said, "Let''s go. I will lead you to enter the city."

 Chapter 164 – Sabotage

    <h4>Chapter 164 - Sabotage</h4>


    Listening to his words, the group nodded their heads and followed him.


    Hilkert gave a signal to the wall while leading them to the center of the battle by foot.


    Before they reached the monsters, Hilkert pped his hand once and a wind tornado suddenlyunched them to the sky.


    Hilkert showed his great control and somehow pushed them closer to the wall. The monsters seemed to notice them as well and a wolf ran on the vertical wall and leaped to the sky, trying to bite them. However, another soldier jumped off the wall, kicked the wolf, and used the force to return to the wall.


    After that, Hilkert pushed them a bit more as theynded on top of the wall without a scratch.


    Since theynded a bit far away from the soldier that saved them, they couldn''t thank him. And Hilkert quickly saw his Skylink again and asked, "ording to the list, you''re Alea Eilric, Ellen Marcines, Sihan Raskaka, Phyrill Hilbert, Laust Lange, and Theodore Griffith, correct?"


    "Yes," Alea answered without hesitation, confirming their identities.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t afford to lead you to the western gate, so if you don''t mind, can you head there immediately by yourself? You can just follow this path." He pointed at the small opening where they found stairs leading downstairs.


    "I understand. We have our duty as well, so we will fight to defend Art Beats Castle."


    "Thank you. I will inform themander that your group has arrived and extended your stay here for emergency leave."


    Alea nodded and looked at the others, signaling them to go.


    The group followed her and went to the small corridor downstairs. It was a simple corridor with onlymps on the ceiling, some emergency stairs and elevator doors from time to time. Their only purpose was to transport the soldiers from the ground to this ce.


    There should be no way for them to go missing, but due to the high amount of people walking in this corridor, Alea and the group didn''t realize that Theo had summoned his clone and made his clone follow them as the real him disappeared into the crowd.


    Since they should be fine for the time being, Theo quickly headed to the elevator door, knowing he had two ces to visit.


    When he entered the elevator, he started remembering the so-called Captain Hilkert.


    ''There was no weird thing in his appearance because it might be the procedure since there was another soldier that helped us to reach the wall without saying anything. However�� Why did he know we require the continuation of our leave from the school? Even if he knew about the school event, there was no way he could know we don''t have much time to spend on this side.


    ''No. There were countless possibilities of him thinking that we still have a few days left. It is as if he already knows who we are and when we first left this base��'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''He is kinda sus��picious.''


    As he thought about this matter, the elevator door had opened. It directly led him to the outside of the wall.


    Seeing the bustling city, Theo quickly came out of the elevator and headed straight to the Teleportation Circle, not wanting to waste any time.


    When he reached the other side, he quickly opened his Skylink and contacted the school, especially Radvils, to question them about their extended leave for emergency purposes.


    Surprisingly, he got a reply from Radvils in an instant before thetter called him.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and picked up the call as Radvils''s face appeared on the screen. He opened his mouth and asked, "I''m curious about what you have seen on the other side. I''m listening."


    Never expecting Radvils to call him, Theo panicked for a second and gathered his thoughts. After his heart calmed down a bit, he asked, "I would like to know whether we get an extended leave for the horde happening outside the Art Beats City."


    Radvils squinted his eyes and nodded. "Yes. For the army, it''s a chore to deal with, but for a student like you who ispeting with each other�� Isn''t this your big opportunity?"


    "��" Theo agreed with him. They could kill so many monsters in this area and level up quicker than ever. Still, it didn''t diminish his doubt on the officer, so he asked, "So, how can I get the leave?"


    Radvils suddenly tilted his head in confusion before frowning. "You don''t meet them in front of the Teleportation Circle on the other side?"


    Theo tried to recall what he had seen and remembered there were two soldiers standing by, but because he was alone and knew nothing of them, he ignored them. "Yes. I met them, but I didn''t know anything."


    Radvils started suspecting that something must have happened and said, "I see. Then did the officer that brought you to the wall ask you to go to the two soldiers? That''s where they will ask you whether you want to continue or just return to this side."


    "Nope. He asked us to go to the western wall where most of the students are stationed."


    "That''s indeed the ce, but��" Radvils pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. After a minute, Radvils gradually opened his eyes and his gaze became cold. "I see. So that''s how it is."


    "Do you know anything, Instructor?"


    Radvils brushed Theo''s question off. "I will register your name right now and handle the situationter. You should return to the other side and ask your teammate whether they want to stay or not and continue ordingly. No, I think you should continue fighting there."


    "That''s what my team is doing right now."


    Radvils fell silent before saying, "Then don''t ask anything. Just do your jobs and I will handle the rest."


    Although Theo was unsatisfied with his response, he still nodded his head and said, "I understand."


    Radvils then hung up as Theo waited for the hour to pass so he could go to the other side again.


    Meanwhile, after hanging up, Radvils closed his eyes for a few minutes before a smile appeared on his face. It wasn''t a smile of happiness. Instead, it was a distorted smile as if he wanted to murder someone.


    His tone became colder and colder as he said, "I see, so that''s how it is. The unusual horde and the change of order�� It seems someone is trying to sabotage my n. Still, the horde is very useful for the students to improve their level, so I should give this person a present to thank him, no?


    "I just brought new torture tools from my previous office�� To think I would be able to give him something new, it''s good."

 Chapter 165 – Identity

    <h4>Chapter 165 - Identity</h4>


    After reporting to Radvils, he finally got his answer.


    He sat next to the portal, waiting for the hour to pass, so he could go to the other side. Meanwhile, he used this time to take another look at their current situation.


    ''I see. It seems someone is trying to sabotage us. From the sudden appearance of another group to this horde�� They''re indeed trying to do something. The problem is who? Laust is the primary suspect, but there is also a possibility of others aiming at other members or�� My pocket watch.'' He lowered his head but didn''t take out his pocket watch.


    He remembered when Sonia wanted to get it as if she already knew about his pocket watch and included it in her mission.


    ''My current level and influence are not enough to conduct this kind of investigation. It seems my goal can''t be fulfilled by myself alone. I need to get stronger and create a small influence to work for me, but��'' Theo didn''t know and had any experience in building one. He ultimately shook his head and thought he should think about it after thepetition since his fame would soar if he managed to seed.


    This would open a big door for opportunities, so he decided to wait for the time being.


    After contemting for a while, he realized the hour had passed and quickly made his return to the other side to help his teammate.


    But when he reached the other side, he didn''t go to the western wall right away. Instead, he walked to Nart Eilric''s shop to buy a Champion Rank weapon. That was why he went to this ce with his real body, carrying the backpack. Even if the others realized they were with his clone, they wouldn''tin because he had a good reason to exin.


    Surprisingly, he saw the store was empty with only the old man sitting on the counter. He had a cool expression as he looked at the news he received this morning beforeing to this side.


    As soon as he noticed Theo, he raised his head and smiled. "It''s really unusual to see you in this ce, boy."


    Theo thought Nart remembered him because Alea brought him here for the arm guards, so he nodded his head and greeted him politely.


    Nart asked, "What are you doing here? If you have returned, you should go to the western gate, right?"


    "That''s my n, but I have something I need to do first."


    "Ho?" Nart raised his eyebrows, appearing to be interested in what Theo had to do.


    He then put down his bag and ced all the Material Cards on the table. "I would like to sell all these."


    "You sure?" He smiled and asked.


    "Yes." Theo nodded. He remembered the loot for the mammoth was still Alea since they agreed to discuss who got it or sold it to the city after they returned. Unfortunately, it was under attack, so he didn''t think much about it right now. In any case, he would return to this ce again soon, so he didn''t bother with something he didn''t have.


    He also didn''t sell his Skill Cards, knowing he might need them to upgrade his skill in the future.


    The old man, on the other hand, looked at the Material cards and nodded, calcting everything in his mind.


    "There are various types of items, so their prices are varied. I will need five minutes to calcte them all, but the rough estimate is around three hundred thousand��" Nart frowned and asked, "Why do you want to sell me these Material Cards? I believe it''s better for you to get a mission and turn in the Material Cards for your contribution points in the Temple. It will give you more benefits."


    Theo shook his head and said, "I need it to get a Champion Rank Spear. If you''re worried about the contribution points, one monthter, we will head to the ce filled with Champion Rank Monsters, so the Cards dropped by the monsters will be better."


    "I see��" He closed his eyes for a moment and asked, "Boy, do you want to make a deal with me?"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "I will lend you a Champion Rank Spear if not two and you can pay meter after the second expedition you''re nning on. You can exchange those Material Cards for contribution points. In exchange, I want you to do one thing for me."


    Theo felt this was a risky deal and took a step back, but thetter already told him the condition. "I want you to clear a certain nest for me."


    "A certain nest?"


    "Do you know an artificial nest?"


    Theo frowned and shook his head.


    "An Artificial nest is a kind of ce you build in this world to capture monsters naturally. The structure will be the nest for monsters to hide, so the people can enter the facility to increase their level. Big influences usually built their nests all around this ce for training purposes, including my Eilric Family."


    Theo became even more suspicious because this deal only benefited him since it gave him the chance to increase their level quicker.


    Seeing the doubt in Theo''s eyes, the old man chuckled as if he knew what he wanted to say. "The deal that is too good to be true is usually a trap�� You must want to say it right to my face, but you haven''t forgotten the fact that my BELOVED granddaughter is with you, right?


    "This deal is a way for me to take care of my granddaughter as well as my personal interest in the man called Joker�� Oh boy, I wonder why you hide your identity?" The old man smiled as if he had seen through Theo.


    Theo obviously didn''t want to admit it and kept his poker face even though his heart was beating rapidly. He tilted his head in confusion and decided to match the story with the one he exined to Phyrill. "Do you know my mentor?"


    Nart instantly understood what he was up to and smiled. He opened his Skylink and showed a screen of the CCTV right at the front entrance featuring him and Joker. "Now, now. Where should I start exining things to disclose your identity?"

 Chapter 166 – Old Fox Vs Little Devil

    <h4>Chapter 166 - Old Fox Vs Little Devil</h4>


    Without waiting for Theo''s reply, Nart quickly pointed his finger at the joker. "Look at this�� You looked like you were here for the first time and never expected that my store was that good. Every single person that ever visited this ce had the same reaction as you did.


    "But�� When you entered without a mask, you lookedpletely indifferent as if you had seen it once and knew what to expect. It would be good if you were together with someone, but unfortunately, no, you were alone.


    "And you should know my intention in giving you many deals, right? Yes, I just want to make a connection with people who have potential. So, I always remember all the people who bought stuff from this store, including you. After judging from many aspects, I soon realized you are him." Nart''s smile was filled with confidence.


    Theo''s heart was racing, but he didn''t let out a single emotion that would lead him to suspect him more. He needed to thank Alea for making him understand his expression and control it better because it was truly useful.


    He simply smiled and nodded. "My mentor told me about this shop and I shouldn''t be surprised when I got here. And yeah, he was right, so I decided to go."


    "Well, if you want to continue ying the fool, then be my guest. It''s not like I care about it as long as you know my reason for offering you this deal. And you should know that the people around you are not that foolish either, especially those who have reached the top." Nart shrugged and asked, "So, what is your opinion? Are you going to take the deal or not?"


    Theo looked down, contemting for a moment. He just got the shock of his life, never expecting an old man to be this sharp, so it took a while for him to calm down.


    After a while, he suddenly opened his mouth and answered him in the form of another question. "Why do you want me to get this deal? And you''re a strong person without a doubt, why don''t you help the people outside? I''m sure the horde will be suppressed if you go there."


    Nart shook his head helplessly. "I will answer your second question first. Unlike my bbermouth and selfless granddaughter, I''m just a selfish one that won''t act without any benefits unless necessary. Of course, I will help them if the monsters break into the city, but not at the moment.


    "Everything has two sides like that of a coin. On one side, this horde is devastating, but on the other side, this is a perfect opportunity for people to go. Try to see the bigger picture.


    "Would you rather send a Level 500 man to suppress the horde with so much cost and only one level as the reward or would you rather bring a hundred Level 200 people to fight the horde without so much cost by saying it''s for the good and training with at least five levels for each person as the reward?"


    Theo frowned and said, "As you said, this is an opportunity and I''m sure that people will die if you bring those men, but those who survive will get far stronger than five levels. They will get experiences and other things�� So, obviously, I would choose thetter."


    Nart gave a thumbs up. "Exactly. That''s why the military only sends the soldiers of that level to increase their level,bat experience, and pride. It looks inhumane, but the military has already told you that you will lose your life, especially since it''s more dangerous than the small wars that are happening all across the world. It''s just a matter of your decision�� Would you rather choose the bad cause for a good result or the good cause for a disappointing result?


    "Of course, there''s always a limit like I said earlier. You should set your own limit and act more confidently because I can see that your carefulness is actually limiting you right now." Nart smiled.


    Theo frowned and understood what he said. In his thought, he realized why Nart Eilric was famous for his eyes for talent�� Everything was due to him having the heart of a teacher.


    Not wanting to waste the youngster''s time, he continued. "As for the first question�� It''s simple. If Alea presents it to you and the group, it will just be her using her own influence. I don''t want her to bear that burden for now. Hence, I want to use you by making this deal. Whatever you say, a deal is a deal and no one will know what kind of a deal it is until you disclose it."


    "It''s not like people will believe me if I say anything, right?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched while thinking, ''Alea''s grandfather is indeed a sly fox.''


    Nart only made a smug smile as if saying, "You know it."


    "I understand. If that''s all you want, I can go along with it."


    "Good. Of course, I would like you and your team to sign a non-disclosure agreement along with the right to use the Artificial Nest of my Eilric Family. Since it''s impossible to see you here, I will visit you in the school after some time. And I believe it will benefit you, right?" Nart smirked.


    Theo couldn''t help but admit defeat this time. The benefit Nart said was the fact that people would misunderstand him being connected to Nart Eilric. The current horde was surely something rted to Theo. He surely knew about it because his Awareness should let him know what was going on.


    With a single observation, he should know that his team was sabotaged by not giving the instruction to meet the soldiers in front of the Teleportation Circle.


    And with this misunderstanding, whoever tried to sabotage them would think twice because the Eilric Family would be on the move. And his offer allowed Theo to take advantage of this situation to protect himself while the Eilric Family would know whether they aimed for Theo, Alea, or anyone else in their group. After that, they could start their investigation with the current goal. It seemed he was also angry with the fact that someone tried to sabotage his beloved granddaughter''s team.


    "I understand. I agree." Theo nodded and looked at him with a serious expression. "However, I''m not going to be used by you after this."


    "Hehe. Little Devil." Nart chuckled and extended his hand. "We have a deal."


    Theo shook his hand, agreeing to the deal.

 Chapter 167 – Monster Classification

    <h4>Chapter 167 - Monster ssification</h4>


    "Then you should pick one or two spears first." He smiled and extended his hand to the left as if telling Theo the direction of the shelves.


    Theo nodded with a serious expression and walked to the shelves, finding a bunch of Champion Rank Weapons. He looked at each price tag and learned that Champion Rank Spears were around 100,000 to 400,000.


    He stumbled upon a red-colored spear. The handle was ck and there seemed to be a gold connector between the handle and the red de that made the whole spear appear more elegant.


    When he lowered his vision, he knew this spear was the one.


    "250,000 Zils and if I get another one, I think I can afford to pay 500,000 Zils in two months," muttered Theo as he grabbed the spear while searching another one for his clone.


    The second one had a simr appearance to that of the first spear, but instead of ck, the handle was orange with red and gold patterns. The length and other things were the same, so he didn''t need to try it.


    At the same time, he could feel that the spear was rtively heavier than his Elite Rank Spears. He didn''t care about it since he had a month to get used to it.


    He carried the spear to the counter and presented it to Nart.


    "Hmm�� Nice choice, well, you can''t get a bad choice since all the weapons here are good choices." Nart chuckled and continued, "Anyway, the total is 490,000 Zils. I will be expecting the payment from you two months from now."


    "I understand."


    He should have finished his objectives in this store, but Theo didn''t leave immediately. Instead, he looked at Nart with a serious expression as thetter found something wrong with him.


    "Do you want to say something?"


    "Actually, do you know anything about the reason behind the horde?"


    Nart slightly raised his eyebrows as if a thought appeared in his mind. He waited for a while before saying, "There are a few reasons for a horde. It''s not about provoking the monsters around since you won''t get so many monsters to chase you at once�� But it''s about provoking the leader of the monsters."


    "The leader?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. I''m sure you know there is a difference between Normal Monster and Rare Monster, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Rare Monsters are stronger than the normal ones and have certain characteristics like they are viewed as a leader�� Does that mean there is a leader around here?"


    Nart shook his head. "There are two types of monster ssifications. The first type is the rank of the monsters: Normal, Elite, Champion, Hero, Supreme, Mythical, and God. These are the seven ranks that we, humans, have too.


    "However, there is another ssification known as the ss of the monsters. Instead of those seven, there are only five sses for monsters with three of them only appearing around this area. They are Normal ss, Rare ss, and General ss Monster.


    "To put it simply, Normal ss Monsters are the same as pawns. They are everywhere just like normal hunters around us. Above them are Rare ss Monsters. As the name implies, they''re a rare variety of monsters�� Most of them are usually leading a small pack or being aloof.


    "If a Rare ss Monster mutates even more, they will reach General ss. This General ss has the ability tomand all kinds of monsters. If you take our own world as an example, Normal ss is like our Normal Hunter. Rare ss Monster is simr to that of a Leader of a small group. As for General ss Monster�� You can say it''s me or my previous position that is�� A leader of a big family."


    Theo closed his eyes and nodded. "And there are two more sses above them�� What are they?"


    "King ss and World ss. You can say King ss is equivalent to a country while World ss is equivalent to the UN. I won''t exin too much in detail since you will receive the lecture in your ss sooner orter. World ss Monster was the one preventing humanity from expanding its territory andunching the satellite to make the whole exploration easier.


    "But don''t worry, in our country, there is only one King ss and that monster is hiding in a far away ce even if you go to our other gate, which has rtively higher level monsterspared to this gate. Anyway, I can feel a General ss Monster in this area and the army seems to have dispatched someone at the same level to take care of it, so don''t worry and keep hunting those monsters.


    "I believe�� It''s Unending Grass Field''s General ss Monster."


    "Huh?" Theo narrowed his eyes, never expecting to hear that name from his mouth.


    "It seems you know about this field but don''t know about the secret��" Nart smirked. "Unending Grass Field can attract so many monsters due to the General ss Monster. I can''t exin much, but you can say there''s a secret entrance to enter the real Unending Grass Field where Champion Rank and Hero Rank monsters reside, including the General ss Monster�� If I''m not wrong, that monster level almost reaches 500�� Hmm, I don''t know much."


    Nart shrugged. "Either way, nothing will go wrong as long as I''m here. Just go and hunt right now, I won''t apany you anymore."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he nodded helplessly. "I understand. Thank you for the information."


    "Good." He nodded and waved his hand. "Thank you for your patronage."


    Theo walked quietly to the outside before making his way to the wall again. People started looking at Theo as someone who actually brought two spears behind his back and two on his hands. His appearance was weird, but all of them just whispered to each other, talking about it without correcting Theo or something since he was just a stranger.


    Theo also didn''t care about them and entered the elevator, quickly making his way to his teammate. As soon as he reached the top wall, he already knew where to go since he shared his vision with the clone.


    He muttered with a smile. "Time to hunt�� I hope I can witness a great battle between the army and the General ss Monster."

 Chapter 168 – Art Beats Castle’s Wall

    <h4>Chapter 168 - Art Beats Castle��s Wall</h4>


    When Clone Theo suddenly stopped, the group looked at him, only to find him staring in a certain direction. The group instantly realized that Theo had returned and followed his gaze.


    They soon found Theoing with four spears and a backpack, looking very weird.


    "Haha, I''m sorry for missing so suddenly." Theo chuckled and reached them. He handed the backpack to his clone along with the two spears. For the time being, his clone became his luggage carrier while he fought with the new spear.


    "You took so long�� What did you do, Theo?" Phyrill nced at him, asking nonchntly.


    Listening to his tone, he knew even if he didn''t want to say it, it would be fine.


    However, Theo decided otherwise. He opened his mouth and exined the situation. "To put it simply, someone tried to sabotage us and made us lose this round by not registering for the emergency leave. There is an official soldier that will do it for us in front of the Teleportation Circle. Anyway, I will exin the detailster�� I just want you to know that everything has been processed."


    The group widened their eyes, never expecting Theo to find something like that. They looked at each other and wondered whether Theo never trusted anyone.


    Despite having doubts in their eyes, they didn''t utter it so as to avoid hurting anyone.


    "In any case, we should focus on the matter right now." Theo smiled and recalled what the clone had seen.


    As he closed his eyes to ponder their next move, a monster reached the top and leaped to the sky. Its appearance was simr to that of a lion, but its body was blue and the mane was ck. Blue lightning suddenly covered the lion as thetternded on top of the wall.


    "It''s a Blue Lightning Lion."


    "It should be a Level 200 Lion."


    Many started shouting while Theo opened his eyes to check the lion along with the left and right sides to see whether they had reinforcement or not.


    From what he could see, the people around them were students or some low-level hunters, so he knew this monster would kill them.


    Without bothering to check, Alea and Sihan already charged at the lion to prevent any casualties.


    Sensing their presence, the lion turned around and waved its right paw, trying to slice both of them with the ws.


    Sihan knew he might not be strong enough to handle this, so he used his Frenzy again and stopped the powerful sweep using his shield.


    The lion widened its eyes but soon leaped backward to avoid Alea''s attack. Suddenly, Laust and Phyrill appeared from both sides and kicked the lion''s stomach.


    "Roar!" The lion roared in pain, but Alea cared no more and charged at him, cutting his head into two. Their level difference wasn''t that much anyway. In addition to her blessing, Alea''s strength was equal to the lion, resulting in her killing the lion in one blow.


    "��" The people on the wall stared at Alea in silence. Even the soldiers stopped their movement and turned around immediately while checking the condition under the wall.


    Meanwhile, a cheer erupted after witnessing Alea''s skill.


    "She is Alea Eilric!"


    "She can kill a Level 200 Lightning Lion in a single swing?"


    "Wow."


    "Doesn''t this mean her strength is close to Level 200 already?"


    They realized despite the vast knowledge and technique the family and the school granted her, her level was already close to 200.


    There was a saying that the students in the school wouldn''t have enough level when they graduated because the talented people of their generations that chose to not go to school actually spent their lives hunting the monsters, resulting in bing high level individuals.


    However, Alea just broke that saying by showing her prowess. Without any level advantages, there was no way that those talented people could go against Alea, who attended so many lectures and understood many things.


    Because of those two reasons, the school produced elites in thetter days. The graduates'' only problem was their low level. When they caught up with other people''s levels, they started to shine, thus bing a renowned elite.


    That was why the big families chose to send their children to attend the school and make connections with other influences at the same time.


    While they were praising Alea, Theo stood on top of the wall to see what happened under him.


    The scene was simr to the one he witnessed a moment ago. The monsters were stacking on top of each other, trying to climb the tall wall while the soldiers and hunters killed them to the best of their ability.


    His gaze then turned to a certain monster group. There were only ten monsters in this group, but the fact they tried to destroy the metallic door piqued his interest.


    "Now that I think about it, why do the monsters have the need to stack up? They can just destroy the wall with their skills, can''t they? Even if they can''t, then there are gates?" Theo narrowed his eyes and suddenly ducked down as the wall shook.


    It was another barrage of skills from the monsters.


    The skills hit the wall above the gate, which surprisingly left no mark.


    "Ho?" Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at the wall. "Now that I think about it�� The wall�� Is it built from a metal capable of stopping a powerful barrage of attacks from Champion Rank Monsters? Dang, the materials may be from Supreme Rank Material Cards. If I''m not wrong, making this base requires many resources and every plot ofnd for the stores is expensive�� No wonder it takes almost a decade just to build this one even with ten thousand workers��"


    Theo remembered he once watched the record of this base out of curiosity in the past and understood that unless they had a Level 500 Monster, they wouldn''t be able to break through this wall, bing the opportunity to increase one''s level.


    Knowing what to do for the rest of the day, he quickly summoned his Magic Bullet and rained the monsters down with his Magic Bullet, trying to kill as many monsters as possible to increase his level. He needed to pick up his pace and became a Champion Rank hunter since he was curious about the gift he would receive from the blessing.


    "Magic Bullet."

 Chapter 169 – Another Hero Rank Monster

    <h4>Chapter 169 - Another Hero Rank Monster</h4>


    After three hours of fighting on the wall, Theo realized the decrease in their number. Due to their wall advantage, humans managed to minimize their casualties while continuously raining the monsters with their skills.


    Theo also had been fighting nonstop while maintaining his Magic Power usage, resulting in him leveling up several times.


    He didn''t use his Magic Bullet recklessly and waited for a minute before sending another one because he didn''t want to exhaust his Magic Power so soon since the Magic Bullet required more and more Magic Power each usage if he used it continuously. It was the drawback of his Magic Bullet after all.


    ��


    Suddenly, they heard someone''s voice from the speaker that was installed inside the wall.


    "The enemy number has significantly decreased, so we will start fighting them on the ground. It will be a hard fight due to theck of stable footing, so please think carefully if you want to stay on top of the wall or the ground. Those on the walls are to aim a bit farther. Any friendly fire will not be forgiven."


    When Theo heard this announcement, he smiled and looked down. It was true that there wouldn''t be a stable footing because the ground had been covered with blood and corpses. In other words, they needed to fight against the monsters on top of the corpses, not the ground.


    However, three soldiers suddenly leaped off the wall, heading straight to the corpses.


    A wind formed beneath their feet and softened their fall.


    The monsters noticed them, but they were toote. The three soldiers used their skill to create three giant tornados and blow all the corpses away. This way, they wouldn''t need to fight on top of the corpses but red-colored mud.


    Before they could kill the soldiers, the three soldiers had jumped to the sky and used their wind to return to the top of the wall.


    "Ho?" Theo widened his eyes, fascinated by the strategy and considered the announcement seriously.


    Although the people were still raining the monsters down with their skills, half of them had been moving to the stairs, trying to go to the ground.


    After looking at his teammates'' expressions, Theo shrugged and asked, "I don''t think there''s a need for a vote, right?"


    The group smiled as they quickly made their way to the ground, waiting for the army to open the gate.


    He could see more than two thousand people standing in front of the gate, excluding the one thousand soldiers.


    "As soon as youe out, quickly search for a ce to fight and don''t chase them too far!"


    Another instruction was announced and the gates started to open right after. Since the soldiers were in the very front, they set up the example and quickly killed all the monsters around the gate, securing the ce for the people toe out of the base and spread around.


    Theo and his group also left the base. Theo had been observing the movement of the monsters, so he knew where to go to kill high-level monsters.


    Theo led his team to the position while other people were around them, fighting all the monsters that ran toward them.


    Theo''s team wasn''t an exception. After running for a minute, a monster slipped past other humans and leaped toward them.


    It was a humanoid monster with green skin, walking on two feet. It had long, sharp ws on its hands.


    Those ws hit Sihan''s shield as thetter appeared between them, trying to stop its advance.


    Surprisingly, Sihan got pushed back several feet away, but he was still fine.


    Feeling something different from this monster, Theo quickly took a look at the monster''s information, finding it was a scary Hero Rank Monster.


    Name: Humanoid Vagabond.


    Level: 255-260


    A humanoid monster with sharp ws and extraordinary agility.


    "Oh, no. It''s a Hero Rank Monster." Theo informed them out loud as he said, "I don''t know if this is a normal one or a rare monster, but we need to be careful. Alea, Sihan, you two will handle it first to take its attention."


    Alea acknowledged and tried to help Sihan, but thetter quickly mentioned. "This monster doesn''t have powerful strength, but beware of its speed, Alea."


    Alea nodded, raised her sword, and shed downwards, trying to cut the enemy.


    The monster was intelligent enough to match Alea''s movement and raised its hand as the green skin became glistening before it stopped Alea''s sword without a problem.


    It then raised its other hand and waved its ws. Sihan used his shield to push him back.


    The monster ultimately missed Alea, but it didn''t want to stop there. It grabbed Sihan''s shield and threw it away.


    Sihan used all his strength to hold the shield, but even though strength wasn''t its forte, the monster gradually overpowered him.


    Phyrill and Laust appeared from both sides, trying to slice its neck.


    "Die." Phyrill gritted his teeth before widening his eyes, seeing that the monster somehow caught his sword with its ws.


    The same applied to Laust. His sword couldn''t move when the monster caught it.


    "The w is so sturdy. The skin doesn''t look like it can handle our weapon though." Phyrill observed the monster before leaping away.


    Laust followed him right after as they nned to use a sneak attack to kill the monster if Alea couldn''t deal with it quickly.


    "It''s fine." Alea smiled and emerged behind Sihan. After finding no one in the front, she didn''t hold back anymore this time and waved her sword. "Inch sh."


    The monster didn''t understand her action and quickly raised its ws to stop this invisible energy but to no avail. All the ws were cut before a huge sword mark appeared on its body, almost cutting him into two.


    This Inch sh had been reinforced by the Enchant de to the point it could kill the mammoth, so Alea was slightly surprised that a monster could withstand it.


    Before anyone could react, Ellen already appeared behind the monster and ced her hand on the monster''s slimy back. The sticky mucus on the surface was frozen and ice crystals formed on the monster''s chest.


    "Frost Nova." Ellen smiled and delivered the killing blow.


    It wasn''t over yet. Two monsters slipped past the people and leaped to Ellen with their mouths wide open.


    "Ellen!" Alea called her name out loud before she found blue light pierced through their heads mid-air.


    There was only one person who could do that. She turned around and found Theo shooting his Magic Bullet while grumbling. "Seriously�� Can''t you all just wait a bit to look at your surroundings? Don''t just focus on one monster."


    Ellen simply waved her hand and said with a smile. "Theo is always dependable. I''m going to be your fan now."


    "Don''t brush it off with that useless thing��"

 Chapter 170 – Huge Tree

    <h4>Chapter 170 - Huge Tree</h4>


    "You should be aware of your surroundings first�� If I weren''t here, Ellen would have been attacked��" Theo shook his head helplessly, looking at this group.


    The group fell silent before Alea made a joke but a bit more serious. "Ahaha, but look�� We can kill a Hero Rank Monster again. Though I believe this one is a Normal Hero Rank since I don''t particrly sense any difference from the others. That''s why this one is a bit weakerpared to the mammoth�� And without the extraordinary defense, once you cut it down, it will die."


    Theo squinted his eyes as Ellen and Alea gulped down, wondering what he was thinking.


    Theo simply recalled what happened and knew that they should be able to kill another Hero Rank Monster like the mammoth in one month from now. However, he wanted Sihan and Phyrill to reach Champion Rank first before attempting it, so he thought about going to Eilric Family''s Artificial Nest to increase their level.


    The assignment looked doable this time as he would exin the agreement after signing the contractter.


    "Anyway, don''t focus on one monster at a time. This is a chaotic battlefield. Monsters cane from all directions." Theo fell silent and observed the group''s expression. Satisfied, he continued, "If you understand this, then let''s go."


    "O-oh!" Ellen jokingly raised her hand and cheered like a fangirl.


    "And stop that one over there." Theo pointed at Ellen while sighing.


    The group chuckled and continued hunting the monsters.


    Like Theo''s instruction, they became a bit more careful.


    Still, as one would expect, monsters sometimes slipped past other parties, making Theo keep switching their position to kill them. He had a hard time doing it continuously because he needed to formte one n after another.


    It was a different feeling when he guided the group to fight a nest or something. After all, he already knew that those monsters would attack them one way after another. But in this ce, the monsters were fighting against other people first before they went to them.


    He needed to act fast and carefully because there might be other monsters in another direction.


    Theo was sweating the whole time and it gradually became worse. If not because of the Endurance Training his master forced him, he might have fallen unconscious after an hour.


    This was the first time Theo felt it. His mind became fuzzy and his eyes started to blur as if hecked oxygen despite using his Breathing continuously.


    Seeing his condition, Alea suddenly stopped, stunning the others.


    When they turned around and saw Theo''s tired and pale face, they remembered how Theo had been ordering them the whole time.


    They didn''t feel any pressure because they just followed his order.


    "Sihan, Phyrill, Laust, you three will go with me and watch out for the four directions. Ellen, grab Theo and retreat to the wall. We will stop the hunt for ten to twenty minutes." Aleamanded.


    They nodded in session as the group retreated from the battlefield, despite seeing the humans slowly pushed the monsters back to the forest.


    Theo waved his hand, telling Ellen he was alright and could go alone while looking at the monsters. He thought they were about to win this battle before a brown root emerged from the ground.


    That ten feet wide brown root instantly became the center of attention as almost all people on the ground and the wall stared at it.


    The root pierced through the sky, reaching as close as twice the wall''s height. And the rest gradually made their appearance.


    "What is happening?"


    "Why are there huge roots appearing from the ground?"


    "Uah!"


    The shouts of confusion began to fill the battlefield as some people got distracted by the roots before dying in the monster''s hand.


    Theo and the others looked at their surroundings before Alea looked down and shouted, "Not good. Everyone jumps to the wall!"


    Everyone was confused, but they saw the ground cracking and hurriedly followed Alea''s instruction, jumping to the wall.


    Another root emerged from their position and would destroy them if Alea didn''t warn them. They quickly made their way to the wall to avoid any more confrontation until they knew what was going on.


    At the same time, the hunters and students tried to return to the city because they were afraid of death.


    This created an unorganized army that made the monsters regain their superiority, killing the humans one after another.


    Meanwhile, Theo and his group also found ten monstersing to them. They thought they would need to kill one or two at the same time, but no, it was ten. No one bothered to form a line to destroy the monsters anymore, so this was the result.


    Yet, they found that this nightmare hadn''t stopped. The roots swirled before extending them to the top of the wall, bing the bridge for the monsters toe.


    Some roots pierced the metallic wall, showing its prestige by creating a hole in them.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and looked around, but when he slightly raised his vision, he saw a huge tree gradually standing tall inside the forest.


    The tree reached as far as two hundred feet to the sky, which was basically the same as the wall''s height. The tree didn''t have a face but seemed to be able to see its surroundings.


    The root that appeared in front of them suddenly moved and pierced through the wall right above them. Some metal pieces fell as Alea warned them, "Watch out."


    They raised their heads and quickly leaped to the side to avoid the falling pieces of metal.


    When they thought everything was over, they couldn''t be more wrong. The tree''s branches finally began to extend to the ground, bing a bridge for the monsters to reach the wall.


    Those who were at the top of the wall gasped and tried to cut or burn the branches, but they were surprised that the wood couldn''t be cut or destroyed by any means.


    "What is this?"


    "What is happening?"


    "Is Art Beats City going to fall soon?"


    The people panicked as they tried to destroy the branches before finding that the monsters began to climb the branches, making their way to the wall. If they fell here, Art Beats City would surely fall into chaos.

 Chapter 171 – Plant Vs Human

    <h4>Chapter 171 - nt Vs Human</h4>


    When the people started falling into despair, four red round-shaped mes appeared in the sky, not losing against the brightness of the orange sky.


    People were curious about the sudden light and raised their vision and saw all those fireballs flying to the tree.


    As if reacting to the mes, another four roots appeared from the ground, piercing all those mes in an instant.


    Boom.


    All of them exploded in session before they heard a clicking sound that appeared tranquil but able to dominate any other sounds on this battlefield.


    The people turned around to look at the source of the sound, finding a green-haired man walking to the tree with a calm expression. He wore the same military uniform as any other soldier in the army, but there was a translucent red-colored shawl hanging on his neck.


    The source of the clicking sound turned out to be his golden-colored staff with a circr head and many rings attached to it. The rings collided with each other and made the clicking sound like that of a bell.


    The man smiled and looked at the tree, asking, "For what reason do you invade the city? I know that you can understand me. We have remained neutral for the past five decades�� If we made some mistakes, would you please tell us?"


    Theo dropped his jaw to the ground when he heard that someone tried to talk with the monster. Monsters were different from animals. They were aggressive and would attack you the moment they noticed you, so it was hard to talk to them. And yet, this person tried it.


    "Wait�� Can they talk with you?" Theo remembered the ssifications Nart told him. "If Ranks are divided by Level, then sses divided by�� Intelligent? I need to ask for more details."


    Theo shook his head and began killing monsters again since the battlefield was still chaotic.


    Meanwhile, the tree didn''t answer the man and stood still for a minute.


    Even the man had realized something must have happened and it required a series of investigations. But he wanted to know the problem from the tree itself and tried to do anything to solve it as quickly as possible.


    "I am sure you know that your existence greatly benefits us�� And as promised, we won''t do anything against you and will punish anyone who does that�� Would you tell us the problem? We can solve this issue together." The man called the tree again, hoping it could fix the problem together.


    Unfortunately for him, the answer he waited for came in the form of an attack.


    Four roots that stopped his fireballs moved to him, striking him down.


    Bam.


    The dust kicked up and they thought the man just got hit by those roots and died. However, the same man appeared right in front of the tree with a serious expression.


    "It seems peace was never an option��" He narrowed his eyes, extended his hand to the tree, and hit the tree''s branch that seemed to expand to cover whatever trick he wanted to do, showing its reaction speed.


    "Ignition." The man''s hand started getting covered by his red-colored me as it burst in a fan-shaped direction, engulfing the tree.


    Some of the leaves got burned as well, but everyone who witnessed it was surprised by the fact that the me couldn''t burn the leaves at all, let alone the branches and the trunk. The me was proven to be ineffective as if the tree was immune to fire.


    The tree suddenly shook its body left and right as some leaves gradually fell from the branches.


    The man realized that they were not normal leaves either.


    The moment they fell from the tree, the leaves suddenly flew to the soldiers, hunters, or even Theo and his group, bing a sharp de.


    Many people couldn''t react to it and got pierced by the leaves.


    Luckily, Alea managed to shield the group with her "Fortitude" skill and prevented anyone from getting injured.


    Theo, on the other hand, confirmed that the enemy was simr to the turtle he met back then.


    If that Ghost Turtle could summon thousands of skeletons to hunt anything around him without even moving, This tree could assassinate them with just a slight shake.


    He wondered what kind of scene the turtle would have made if he managed to get to the city.


    The soldier didn''t have time to think about the dying people because his enemy was one of the strongest monsters around the area. With his level around the same, he indeed couldn''t switch his focus even for a split second.


    He raised his hand and a huge fire sphere appeared on top of the tree.


    "Crimson Rock." The man dropped that huge me on the tree.


    As if responding to this attack, the tree extended its branches again and formed a, nning to catch it and throw the ball to the city.


    But the man had discovered its intention and showed the might of his Force Control. The huge mes suddenly burst out and split into one hundred smaller mes that looped around the and hit the tree''s body.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions resounded on the battlefield, followed by the roars of the people. They believed the soldier managed to hit the tree with his skill.


    The tree even flinched due to that attack, proving their guess even further.


    However, the man knew it just did little damage to the tree because the fire was extinguished within seconds.


    Ten roots emerged from the ground and tried to stab the man, but thetter dodged every single of them. If this were anyone else, they would have died several times because the roots kept appearing from the ground and returned soon if the attack failed, making it hard for the soldiers to follow the attacks even with his Awareness.


    "Since you don''t want any peace, then shall be it." The guy gritted his teeth and pped his hand.


    Another sphere ball appeared on top of his head before it grew and started spinning like a tornado. It grew bigger and bigger to the point it reached the height of the tree.


    "Hell Vortex." The guy nned to burn this guy to dust, only to find that his strategy was nothing to the tree.


    Before the vortex could swallow him, the roots attached to make a hole in the wall suddenly fell back as if they were nning to pierce another spot.


    Many people jumped off the wall to prevent the roots, but all of them were surprised when one of the roots went first. It didn''t go to the wall anymore. Instead, that root pierced the gate that was filled with humans, killing at least fifty of them that tried to enter the wall to avoid dying.


    But with this, there wasn''t anyone that could stop the monsters from entering the city anymore.


    As if they understood the tree''s intention, the monsters quickly slipped past all soldiers and hunters around the gate without caring about their condition. They didn''t care whether some of them got struck down or injured by those people as long as they could enter.


    "What?!"


    "The monsters areing into the city."


    "Not good!"


    "The city will fall into chaos soon."


    "Help! Help!"


    "What is happening?"


    The people started panicking as they tried to kill the monsters, but it was toote. Several monsters hade inside the city and the rest would follow soon.


    "No!"


    Hearing their voices, the soldier that fought the tree gritted his teeth and looked at the tree. "So, this is your answer. Since that is the case, I''m going to kill you right now."


    Meanwhile, The city soon fell into chaos. The people were panicking as they never thought the monsters would be able to enter the city when all the soldiers were fighting outside.


    But before they continued, an old man suddenlynded on the ground after flying in the sky for quite a while.


    He scratched the back of his head with a tired expression. "Haiz�� Sometimes humans are eviler than monsters�� I am tired of dealing with this."


    He raised his hand and summoned a smallpressed wind sphere on top of his palm.


    "Still, I already told him that nothing would go wrong�� So, I guess nothing will go wrong with me here." Yes, the old man was none other than Nart Eilric. He had finally made his move and appeared on the battlefield.


    Before the monsters started rampaging the city, Nart threw thepressed wind sphere at them.


    It burst out in mid-air and formed a horizontal tornado that swept all creatures, no matter if they were humans or monsters, to the outside.


    The people were confused, but Nart simply shook his head helplessly and carried a ck bag in his other hand while walking to the gate. "Time to work."

 Chapter 172 – Nart And Radvils

    <h4>Chapter 172 - Nart And Radvils</h4>


    Fifteen minutes ago, Nart suddenly left his store and locked it up for a moment while looking at the front even though his mind wandered somewhere.


    There was one thing Theo didn''t know. The fact he realized the problem was one particr monster, he should also know the reason such a monster attacked this ce.


    He indeed didn''t move because he wanted to give an opportunity to the kids and other people. But there was another reason he stayed in his store.


    It was to search for the cause of the monster outbreak.


    After identifying the monster and its connection to the source of the problem, Nart let out a sigh and looked at the sky. "This is going to be troublesome."


    He disappeared from his shop, heading straight to a certain dark valley before finding another person appearing before him.


    "Hmm�� To think you''re here." Nart Eilric squinted his eyes and smiled. "For what reason does the great Radvilse here?"


    "Nart Eilric��" Radvils narrowed his eyes and looked at the dark valley. "Ie for the same reason as you."


    "Ho? Even though you followed me here?" Nart had noticed his presence this whole time and just let him do whatever he wanted.


    "As expected from the number two Awareness user of this country��" Radvils smiled. "Using your unparalleled Awareness, you managed to locate the source of the problem. No, should I say the connection between the Unending Tree and the source?"


    "Hmph. You are taking advantage of my ability." Nart smirked. "Well, I''m nning to give the source back since I''ve found it�� Even though I want to let my granddaughter and her team take advantage of this situation for a bit longer, since the Unending Tree has made its move, I''m afraid it''s going to be more troublesome than the army originally thought so it''s better to end it here. Still, I wonder what the thing these people stole from the Unending Tree is��"


    "My aim is just the people. I have no intention of partaking in this situation." Radvils shook his head.


    "Well, I will let a famous Special Forces member do his job." Nart shrugged and turned back to the Alley, walking inside before finding a small circr manhole that led to the sewer system.


    Radvils had also disappeared.


    Surprisingly, the manhole suddenly opened by itself as Nart jumped into the sewer without hesitation. The moment hended, he saw the big circr tunnel. The foul smell began to fill his nose, but luckily, he used his own wind power to iste his nose for a while.


    He raised his head and looked around. Since there was amp built inside the tunnel, even though it was a bit dark, he by no means had a problem seeing every single detail in the tunnel.


    He ignored the green water next to him and walked forward as if he already found his target.


    A minuteter, he saw two people wearing a ck mask and robe that made one couldn''t see anything other than their eyes, camouging in a small dark spot.


    Unfortunately for them, Nart had used his Awareness to spot them and looked at both of them, saying, "I don''t care your reason, but I need you to give me the thing you''ve stolen from the Unending Tree. And I''m serious."


    They didn''t move or anything and still maintained their position, hoping Nart was just bluffing. However, their hearts started racing because they felt he wasn''t.


    "It seems that two youngsters are underestimating me��" Nart narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Since you don''t want to show yourself, then I will kill you first."


    When he raised his hand, the two men wanted to move to avoid his attacks, but their feet suddenly lost their strength as their bodies suddenly fell to the ground as if they suddenly lost their feet.


    As soon as they looked down, they saw a scythe cutting both their feet in an instant without them realizing it. And the bag they hid inside the robe got exposed and flew to Nart''s hand.


    "Wha��" They couldn''t help but utter their confusion and saw a shadow appearing next to Nart Eilric. The shadow gradually formed into Radvils as he pointed at the bag. "Anyway, that''s your thing. You can go back now since I''m sure you don''t like to see all the things after this."


    Nart''sugh echoed in the tunnel as he turned around while saying, "Since the famous Special Forces'' Shadow wants to do something big, then there is no need for the old man to be here�� If I didn''t see you when you were small, I wouldn''t have known anything about you. Sometimes my eye for talent is�� it''s almost frightening."


    "Shut up, old man." Radvils snorted and saw that the two men panicked as they tried to activate the suicide chip they had inside their bodies.


    But little did they know, there was already a ck knife made of shadow pierced their chest. On the tip of the de was a small chip that was used to destroy the heart if something happened.


    They just couldn''t believe it when they saw Radvils taking out their suicide device in an instant without even killing them.


    Nart, on the other hand, turned around while teasing Radvils. "Oh, such scary precision. As expected, you''re good at torture too, since you know human anatomy to such a scary level to the point you can locate the suicide chip�� I''m scared�� Hahaha, anyway, I have bought you enough time. I should get going right now."


    "��" Radvils was speechless as everything indeed as he said. He snorted and found the two tried to kill each other by piercing their hearts, but Radvils waved his hand as another de appeared from the dark spot in the tunnel and shed their hands.


    "Don''t be so fast tomit suicide. I would like to thank you for giving such a blessing to the kids, allowing them to increase their levels quickly�� Hence, I want to give you a present��" Radvils'' lips curved like that of a devil as he continued, "Of course."


    Meanwhile, Nart jokingly shuddered as he came out of the hole while muttering with a weird expression. "That guy indeed has a screw loose in his head. What kind of person giving torture for a present�� Those guys will surely remember it for the rest of their life. Though, it''s not like they''re going to live past the torture. Such a scaryd."

 Chapter 173 – Unending Tree Spirit

    <h4>Chapter 173 - Unending Tree Spirit</h4>


    After getting his bounty, he quickly came to the gate, only to find several monsters had entered the city. He swiftly swept them out of the city and tossed the bag to the tree.


    As he expected, when the tree saw the iing bag, it didn''t immediately destroy the bag. Instead, it gently used its branch to catch it.


    Even the soldier stopped for a moment and turned around, finding Nart standing in front of the gate with no monsters dared to even move.


    "Unending Tree�� I''m sure this is what you''re looking for. We have dealt with the perpetrators, so I hope you can return right now." Nart fell silent.


    Theo, Alea, and the others looked at Nart in confusion.


    "Grandfather has finally made his move?" Alea looked at him while muttering.


    At the same time, Theo narrowed his eyes and turned to the bag, wondering what it was. However, he suddenly felt pressureing from Nart along with his killing intent, making him want to kneel. His legs and body were trembling, but he gritted his teeth and endured this feeling as he found that the others, monsters and humans, experienced the same thing.


    "This is�� Awareness?" Theo remembered his Master and felt this killing intent was the same. "But this kind of powerful Awareness that feels like you''re facing death itself�� Ugh."


    A scene where Ellen told him the specialization of each aspect like Force Control shed in his mind. He realized this kind of thing might be one of the advanced skills in Awareness.


    "You can suppress someone with your Awareness alone?" Theo muttered while sweating. He didn''t know why but he couldn''t stop his mouth from curving. Although he felt suppressed, there was an excitement in his heart. "This��"


    Nart ignored the others for the time being and proceeded to threaten the tree that seemed to have felt his power too. He said, "Or�� I will join this battle and hunt you down."


    The tree used its branch to gently open the bag like that of a mother before a small humanoid person came out of the bag. It was a female humanoid monster with a pair of wings. Its body was surrounded by leaves and branches.


    "A Spirit? A Dryad?" was the question everyone had in their mind when they encountered this monster for the first time.


    This ten-inch monster seemed to have felt the suppression from Nart and shook her head, telling the tree something.


    After a minute, the tree branches and roots slowly descended and returned to their original location. The monsters also had miraculously stopped while ring at the city.


    Suddenly, the tree shone and projected light to the ground. That light descended as a humanoid formed from the light.


    Its appearance looked like a human female. With long green hair and a well-developed body that was barely covered with leaves and branches, her appearance stunned everyone. Saying she was a beauty was an understatement.


    Everyone had difficulty in describing her appearance, while the female ignored thempletely.


    Only Nart and the soldier realized this female because this was the projection of the Unending Tree Spirit.


    She looked at Nart Eilric and the soldier with a solemn look and said. "Fortunately, my child is alright, but you, humans, are not able to control your own kin and let them trespass my territory. Hence, I am warning you that anyone who enters my Unending Grass Field will die. This is the punishment you will receive for a year. If you try to attack me within that time, I will contact my Queen to tten this city."


    After saying those words, she closed her eyes and disappeared. The tree then left Art Beats City while the monsters dispersed instantly, returning to their own territory.


    Theo and the others dropped to their knees after feeling the pressure from Nart and the beauty with their heads covered with sweats.


    "Ha�� Ha��" Theo took a deep breath as he had difficulty breathing. He was tired the whole time and still needed to endure the pressure�� he just wanted to pass out at this moment, but his will kept strengthening his consciousness to avoid it.


    "There is a monster like that?" Theo asked with an ignorant face.


    "You should know there are many humanoid monsters, right?" Alea answered while sitting on the ground.


    "Yeah. Maybe this one is an extreme example to the point they can understand ournguage��" Theo narrowed his eyes and sighed.


    "Indeed." Suddenly, they had an aged voice resounding in their ears as the one who replied to Theo was none other than Nart. "Unending Tree herself doesn''t have a human form. It''s just a projection of what she thought about humans and used it tomunicate with us."


    "Grandfather!" Alea turned around and saw her grandfather appearing out of nowhere.


    "Yo, Granddaughter. Do you miss me? I''ve heard from him that you asked where I was��" Nart chuckled, teasing Alea jokingly, only to find it was true.


    She looked down, feeling embarrassed. However, she didn''t have time to respond before the soldier that faced the tree walked to him and saluted.


    "I am General Herkman. I would like to thank you for your help in fending off the Unending Tree, Sir Nart Eilric."


    Nart nced at him and waved his hand. "Nah, it''s fine. The situation could''ve be a bit too dangerous, so I decided to end it right away instead of tomorrow."


    "Too dangerous?" The man widened his eyes, not understanding what he meant.


    Nart smiled and exined, "Yeah. That Unending Tree almost reached the next rank, Supreme Rank. I''m afraid she will be one within one year like the condition she stated��"


    "This��" The man was bewildered and drew a gasp.


    "What? Do you want to form an extermination group? I wouldn''t do it if I were you." Nart chuckled. "No one in this country can kill the "Queen". If she were to make a move, both our bases on this side would be destroyed�� Our country may need to face a stampede led by the Queen herself and at that time�� I don''t know what future our country needs to face."


    "The Queen?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Hearing him, Nart smiled and said, "That''s the King ss Monster I told you earlier. No one knows her appearance, but she is the one keeping this country in check. Even if we get experts from other countries, the Queen will escape and bring us trouble in the future. That''s why we don''t want any big conflict with the monsters, especially the Queen."


    "��" Theo fell silent as he was curious to get more knowledge about Monster sses.


    Nart, on the other hand, said to Herkman. "Anyway, you should just report this incident to the higher-ups. I''m sure they won''t have anything to do with it like me."


    "Yes. I will certainly do that. We may also need to put a ban on the Unending Tree Forest." Herkman agreed with him, saluted once more, and left. "Thank you, Sir Nart. I shall handle the rest."


    "Yeah. Good luck."

 Chapter 174 – Loots

    <h4>Chapter 174 - Loots</h4>


    "Anyway, I shouldn''t be here anymore and let you enjoy this moment. Bye." Nart also left the battlefield, returning to his store.


    The group was baffled by his action as they looked into each other''s eyes.


    Alea turned around and looked at Theo with a weird expression. "I didn''t expect you to go to my grandfather''s store."


    Theo shrugged and lifted the two new spears he used in this battle.


    Alea understood it and decided to take three cards out of her backpack. "By the way, these three are the cards dropped by the mammoth."


    Theo and the others looked at them and found one skill and two material cards.


    Skill: Jade Head (C)


    Effect: Covering your head with strong energy capable of destroying a giant cliff.


    When they saw the first card, they were confused about the description. However, Phyrill asked before they had any opinion. "Can I get this card?"


    Everyone raised their head and stared at him in confusion.


    Phyrill gently stroked his cheek while saying with an embarrassed tone. "I am sure that you already know my Lightning Step�� If Ibine both this card and my Lightning Step, I think I can create enough momentum to bring down monsters or people."


    They remembered when Phyrill knocked the mammoth off together with Laust. Realizing that it might go in the way he described it, the team exchanged looks before their faces ultimately turned to Theo.


    Theo stared back with a weird expression. "That''s everyone''s choice. If you don''t have the problem, then so be it."


    "I can buy it from the team as well if you don''t mind." Phyrill smiled.


    After contemting for a minute, Alea decided to hand the card to Phyrill since no one chose to move their hands. On the other hand, Theo was more focused on the Material Cards instead.


    Hardrock Ivory (C)


    The hardest part of Hardrock Mammoth. It can pierce metal and shatter anything.


    Hardrock Skin (D)


    Its endurance is extremely high and the hardness is second to Hardrock Ivory. A good material for armor because it has sticity.


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes and asked, "How about we sell these two?"


    "You don''t want it, Theo?" Alea tilted her head, feeling that a decent armor or a C Rank weapon would be good for Theo.


    Theo had thought for a moment and shook his head. "Unfortunately, a C Rank Weapon is still a bit too heavy for me, so I can''t afford to have the armor from the mammoth''s skin. It''s gonna decrease my overall ability instead. As for the weapon�� It''s indeed tempting, but I will stick with my current spears for the time being because I just upgraded them and haven''t gotten used to them yet and I''m sure there''s another thing I need to consider before upgrading to C Rank Weapon, including money. Don''t worry. I do think I will get one before thepetition."


    Hearing his answer, Alea and the others understood and asked each other whether they needed a weapon or armor, only to find them shaking their heads.


    In the end, Alea decided to buy it for her grandfather and the money would be transferred to them after the assessment.


    "That''s how it is." Alea smiled and asked, "Do you want to ask something, Theo?


    Theo shook his head and took another look at their expression before listening to a soldier saying, "We hope that all people who have killed a monster touch the monster they killed. We would like to clean up the area, including the blood smell, to make this ce pleasant again."


    "You heard them." Theo pointed at the soldier and Clone Theo suddenly walked to him, bringing at least thirty cards.


    The group already forgot that they needed to clean up the battlefield by touching those monsters since they knew they needed to do it from the beginning. And Theo turned out to have finished his own task by using his clone.


    Theo was happy with the cards since he could upgrade his Elemental Shield, but he found that his teammates stared at him withplicated expressions.


    "What? I just use my time efficiently." Theo shrugged. "I don''t have anything to say about this group other than the date of the next expedition, which is one month from now. We will probably meet asionally to discuss their next n."


    Theo rose from the ground and looked at them. "If you don''t have anything to say, I will go back right now since I''m too tired to do more than this."


    "��" They were just speechless to see Theo able to finish this kind of work with his clone. Ellen even said. "I wonder if I should have a Clone Skill too��"


    Theo shrugged.


    The group agreed to clean up and rose from the ground. It might be due to him looking from above, Theo saw Phyrill taking a deep breath even though there was no point in doing it.


    He looked at him and whispered. "Are you alright?"


    Phyrill shook his head and smiled. "Nah, I''m fine. Just slightly tired since my body is a bit weak."


    Theo remembered the rumor about Phyrill and nodded. "If you think you can''t keep up, do tell me. I will adjust our schedule."


    "It''s fine. Thank you." Phyrill smiled and said, "We have a one-month rest anyway, so it''s good enough for me."


    "Okay." Theo nodded while putting this into his mind.


    Theo then said his goodbye, leaving them to clean up their own mess. It wasn''t like they were friends to the point he needed to wait for them until they finished, so Theo didn''t hesitate to return to his home.


    His brain and body were just too tired, while he knew that the students would soon recognize him a bit since many saw him contributing to the team. That was why he agreed to Nart''s offers. It wouldn''t be that much different with having ten or twenty people recognizing you in school.


    There might be some problems since they might try to challenge him or anything, but he would just ignore them for the time being. He could even use the Eilric Family influence to handle the situation, so he thought it would probably be fine.


    He just needed to proceed more carefully after this point. Hence, he wanted to return immediately.

 Chapter 175 – Phyrill

    <h4>Chapter 175 - Phyrill</h4>


    As soon as he reached his house, he dropped to the couch on his belly before turning around, opening his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 111


    EXP: 7583/14484


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (D), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (E), Illusion Multiplier (D), 1 Slot Remaining


    Attributes: Strength 170, Endurance 98, Agility 107, Vitality 94, Magic Power 170


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm�� I have leveled up from Level 69 to Level 111 in two weeks or a total of 42 levels. And if I were alone, I should be able to surpass that number, but I guess it''s fine since I need to work with this team for the time being. After gaining recognition from the country, I will ride that wave to increase my level as quickly as possible�� alone." Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at his status. "For now, I should go to the Magician Temple to change my job to Assassin Temple''s Illusionist.


    "Before, I believed that my strength was focused on my Clone and Magic Bullet, which gave me powerful attacks, making Magician suitable for me. As for the Fighter, it''s the best one for me since I''ve been fighting with a spear as my main weapon.


    "But after the Illusion Multiplier, I know that I am more suitable in directing the entire fight. Although I feel the need to have Magician skills to make the entire situation even more effective, it''s not my main concern.


    "From my point of view, I think it''s good to have two specialized skills from each temple while the rest will be used asplementary skills for my overall ability. What I need right now are two Spear Skills since I don''t think Focused Charge will work for me after this.


    "Then, Magic Bullet will be my main offensive ability while Illusion Multiplier works for my Illusionist Job. The rest of the skills will consist of Haste, Clone, Blink, and Elemental Shield. In that case, I need four more skills. And I feel like I can get a clearer picture of what I want to be after experiencing so many battles. I guess experience does matter.


    "Still��" Theo closed his eyes, remembering that many things happened. His consciousness slowly faded away as he fell asleep. Even though he didn''t show it during the trip, it was his first time camping that long in that world, so his body had been worn out this whole time.


    And when he thought he could rest upon returning to Art Beats Castle, he met another hard battle. Only at home could he finally rx his body a bit and drift away into the dream world.


    ��


    A few hourster, Theo woke up and quickly rose from the couch, looking left and right. He realized he dozed off unintentionally.


    "What did I want to do again?" Due to his sleep, he still needed time to gather his thoughts for a moment. "Ah, right. I should go to the Magician Temple to change my job. As for skills, I should probably search for one or two in the Sk."


    Before going to the Magician Temple, he took a shower and found Radvils'' message. Curious, he opened the message and read it.


    "Don''t reply to this message if you have told your friend about the sabotage and meet me at my office tomorrow. It''s just two rooms away from the principal office. I need to discuss something with you after school tomorrow."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and muttered, "I don''t know what he wants to talk about, but I guess I should go since he helped me register the leave even though we ended up not needing it. The battle ended earlier than expected after all.


    "And I do want to understand what''s going on, so I hope he will answer that question. Also, it seems this is going to be a private talk." Theo let out a long sigh, feeling he would face another headache to talk face to face with this instructor. Although he felt happy he could talk with many people, including a cunning one like Nart, since it improved his understanding greatly, it was tiring to have a mind battle in a conversation.


    After arriving in front of the Magician Temple, he looked at the building with a smile behind his mask. Yes, he registered in this guild as Joker, so he needed to put on his mask. "Time to go."


    Little did Theo or any other people in the group know, Phyrill''s condition wasn''t that good either. In front of Hilbert Family Mansion, Phyrill, who just returned from his trip, walked with his body swaying left and right. A middle-aged man quickly came out of the house, running to him while crying. "Young Master! Are you alright?"


    If Theo were here, he would''ve recognized this person. He was the same person that tried to rescue Phyrill when he met him.


    Phyrill smiled at him before his legs went limp and fell.


    The middle-aged man increased his speed and gently caught him before he touched the ground. "Young Master�� You��"


    "I am fine."


    "We need to call the doctor right now. Have you taken your medicine?"


    "Yeah." Phyrill nodded. "I am just too tired after these two weeks."


    "This�� You should still rest for at least a couple of weeks. If not, your body will��" Before he finished, Phyrill stopped him by gripping his hand.


    The middle-aged man looked at him worriedly before he saw Phyrill making a genuine smile. He looked to the sky and said, "Still, the past two weeks are one of my happiest memories. It''s been a while since I felt so free."


    The middle-aged man closed his eyes with a pained look. He had been watching Phyrill since he was small, so he was a bit overprotective. At the same time, during those years, Phyrill had suffered so much due to the condition, making him unable to do what normal people can do.


    Looking at him smiling like this, he couldn''t help but tear up, feeling overjoyed. While wiping his snot, he said with a smile. "I�� I''m d. Just a bit more, Young Master. I will help you until the time hase��"


    "Don''t cry. I can still endure this." He shook his head and said. "I feel like the next few months will be interesting for me. I hope this body can endure��"

 Chapter 176 – Privileges

    <h4>Chapter 176 - Privileges</h4>


    Theo arrived inside the Magician Temple and headed straight to the receptionist as he called his personal aide, telling him he had arrived.


    Soon, the receptionist that helped him back then came out of his waiting room and walked to him, extending his hand. "Hello, Sir. I have heard and prepared the paperwork for you, but I need to confirm whether you''re going to change your job or not."


    "Yes." Theo shook his hand.


    "I understand. Then please follow me. I need your signature to finalize the documents." The receptionist guided him to a room. He activated the Skylink on the table directly connected to the entire system and opening Theo''s file.


    "This is the file. You need to sign here and here." The receptionist pointed at two ces politely.


    Theo nodded and read the statement first. Since it was just a formal statement, he quickly signed the document.


    "And done��" The receptionist smiled and asked Theo for his device to send the document directly to his Skylink.


    After giving the document, the receptionist continued, "All you need to do is show this document to the receptionist in the Assassin Temple and you will be able to change your job ording to your preference."


    Theo then rose from the chair and extended his hand before shaking the receptionist''s hand. "Thank you."


    "d to be of any help."


    Theo then left the guild without wasting his time and quickly made his way to the Assassin Temple. There, the one who managed him was another guy with white hair. He had a calm expression and handled Theo professionally without even caring about his appearance.


    Theo handed him the document and received another one, handing it to him. "I would like you to fill this form, including the job you wish to have."


    Theo filled the form without hesitation and filled the job with "Illusionist".


    After that, the receptionist finished the rest while Theo opened his Skylink to ess the Temple''s Network. He wanted to submit the items he had collected during his hunt.


    Surprisingly, he only found seven of them, resulting in a total of 45 Material Cards.


    The receptionist was bewildered by his action and quickly submitted the mission, including transferring the reward money.


    However, he realized there was another number below his ID Card.


    Name: Joker


    Level: 24


    Attributes: Strength B, Endurance D, Agility C, Vitality D, Magic Power C


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: -


    Kill: 734 (+)


    Zils: 140,000


    Contribution Points: 700 (700)


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes when he saw his ID Card that had been updated. This was the first time he took a mission, so he didn''t know the process yet. He asked, "This is my first time submitting the missions. Can you exin the Privilege and Contribution Points?"


    "Certainly." The receptionist pointed at Theo''s Zils and Contribution Points. "The ID Card itself can act as your wallet, allowing you to store your cash in here. If you like to buy anything from the temple, they will deduct your money directly from here. Or you can link it to your current bank ount to withdraw the money.


    "Other than money, you will get Contribution Points. This point is used to determine your privilege level. We have four levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond. Your current level is none. To reach Bronze, you need one thousand points, allowing you to be able to buy skills from us."


    "I see. Are there any other benefits? For Silver, Gold and Diamond ��"


    "As you may have guessed, the Bronze Level is the first footstep to be an Authorized Hunter. You''re just one step away from this step. After that, you can rank up to Silver, allowing you to get various discounts in shops acquainted with us, along with the second level trade."


    "Second level trade?"


    "Yes. Bronze is the first level trade, allowing you to buy F to D Rank Skills. You will be able to buy up to B Rank Skills if you reach Silver Level. This can be your identity as well since you''ll be recognized as an experienced hunter.


    "As for Gold Level, you can buy up to A Rank Skill, which rarelyes, and if it happens to appear in the market, it''s usually auctioned. As for Diamond Level�� Unfortunately, no one in this country has achieved this level yet. Of course, the discount you will receive will be bigger and bigger as you rank up."


    Theo nodded in understanding. "I see. It''s something to be looked forward to."


    "Yes." As a receptionist, he also saw Theo submitting multiple E Rank Materials and it wasn''t possible to achieve it unless he was an Elite Rank Hunter. Hence, he asked, "Would you like to renew your ID Card?"


    "Ah��" Theo remembered the six months thing and decided to shake his head. "No thank you. There are still a few months, so I will do it near the limit."


    "I understand. Please put a one-week notice first so that I can prepare everything."


    "Okay." Theo then rose from the chair, thanked him for the help, and left the building in disappointment.


    His n to buy cheap skills ended up a failure. However, he still needed to buy one or two skills to increase his strength since he needed to hunt Champion Rank Monsters next month.


    After returning to his home, he quickly opened the Sk and looked at the market, trying to find new skills.


    He decided to search for an E Rank Skill which could be upgraded to D Rank Skillster. After one hour of continuous search, he stumbled upon two skills.


    Skill: Cannon st (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 7 Rank E skills and 5 Rank F Skills


    Effect: Gather the energy to the spear and spin it to create a torrential wave of energy. Once released, it''s able to hit all targets in a straight line up to twenty feet long and six feet wide.


    Skill: Swift Energy (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 Rank E skills and 10 Rank F Skills


    Effect: Creates sharp and fast energy around the spear that can hold up for three quick piercing strikes.


    He chose these skills for two reasons: to increase the pration force of his spear and a killing blow.


    He also nned to use thest slot and reced the Monkey Fist for these two skills.


    Theo smiled and muttered. "Nice."

 Chapter 177 – Ben Lange

    <h4>Chapter 177 - Ben Lange</h4>


    The next morning, a purple-haired young man arrived in front of a mansion. From the outside, this mega-mansion looked ssic since it had been built with white bricks.


    The young man raised his vision and saw the chimney poked out the center of the roof, releasing purified smoke.


    "I see. Someone is there, huh." The young man smiled and fixed his messy blue shirt and tightened the ck belt that hung his ck leather pants.


    He lifted his bag, took a nce at the gate, and couldn''t help but smile when he found some scratches on it. It contained many memories.


    Ultimately, he shook his head and walked inside, opening the door alone since he never said anything about his return to surprise them.


    When he entered the house, the young man looked left and right before deciding to go in the opposite direction of the chimney and stopping not long after in front of a wooden door.


    He opened the door and saw another young man, slightly younger but looked like him. He smiled and waved his hand, "Yo, Laust."


    Hearing his voice, Laust flinched and turned around with a terrified expression. Laust swallowed his fear and anger, clenched his fists, and replied. "So, you''vee back, Ben Lange."


    "Of course. Hahaha." Ben Lange walked to him before his hand circled Laust''s neck as he gently pressed the top of his head. "Besides, it''s Brother, you know. Why did you call me by my name?"


    "I don''t care." Laust snorted. He hated this person for taking away everything and making his life miserable. After all, this person was none other than the first young master of the Lange Family, Ben Lange. The genius whose reputation wasn''t below Alea.


    Ben understood the reason Laust was so hostile. He only smiled for a moment as if he remembered a certain scene before saying, "I''m really proud of you."


    Without waiting for him to reply, Ben quickly released him as his expression turned serious. He stopped saying anything to Laust and quickly left the room. There was no trace of happiness and smile left on his face as it turned into a stone-cold.


    Even Laust couldn''t and didn''t want to understand the sudden change. He only knew that Ben always returned and said that same particr line about him being proud of him. After that, his expression would immediately change as he left the room.


    This time, Ben Lange walked in the Chimney direction and found a middle-aged man.


    "First Young Master." The middle-aged man politely bowed his head, greeting him.


    Ben Lange stopped and made a cold smile. "I have heard about your matter. Hiring a group of newbies was not like you, Butler Ji. There was a risk of you leaving any trace that could lead them to us. If that happens, it''s going to be difficult for us."


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." The butler shook his head in confusion.


    "And I do know you stole something from the Unending Tree and gave it to some people. Luckily, they didn''t find anything about you�� But this one was a narrow escape." Ben released a bit of his killing intent and asked with a cold tone. "Butler Ji�� Are you�� purposely messed up?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, First Young Master. I did everything like the usual." The butler denied him again while shaking his head helplessly.


    "Are you treating me like a fool?" Ben became even colder, but the butler didn''t give away any clue of him messing up. He simply remained silent and closed his eyes.


    Surprisingly, Ben snorted and patted his shoulder twice before continuing his path.


    The second room he visited was none other than his father, Endo Lange''s office. He opened the door and saw a middle-aged man sitting in his chair, looking at the documents.


    His father was an old-styled person since he loved paper more than digital documents in this current society. Hence, there were a few piles of documents on his table.


    Ben Lange looked left and right, only to find shelves that stored all of the documents neatly. He took a deep breath and walked to his front and said politely. "I''m back, Father."


    When the man heard his voice, he finally raised his head and looked at Ben without any change of expression while saying, "It seems you''re back."


    Ben didn''t care about his cold attitude and sat on the sofa where he usually met his guesses. He rxed his body, leaned on the chair, and said nonchntly. "I''ve heard everything on the way."


    The father stared at him for a moment and just hummed as his answer, acknowledging his reply.


    Ben then picked up the apple on the table and cut it with his Magic Power while saying, "It seems you''re in trouble. I can help you."


    Endo suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at him with a serious expression. "Don''t mess up my n. Everything is just the start."


    "I know, I know." Ben chuckled and took a bite while saying, "I have a proposal."


    Endo coldly red at him but remained silent.


    If this was Laust, he might have started rampaging to his cold attitude, but Ben Lange simply smiled and stated. "How about I eliminate all the monsters right now?"


    "Hmm?" Endo contemted for a moment as the n piqued his interest.


    Ben smiled and said, "I visited my foolish little brother earlier and copied the data that the school distributed. With this data, I can kill all of the monsters without a problem. I only need ten to twenty people to finish this within one month."


    "What is your n? You should know that Art Beats Castle is under heavy watch, right?"


    Ben smirked and put down his apple while stating coldly. "Just like how cities are connected to each other, the other side is also connected."


    "Are you��" Endo seemed to have understood his n and narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. I n to go from the other gate and head there by foot since we can''t afford to be seen. This way, I can kill all of them swiftly." Ben raised his fist and clutched it while saying with excitement. "I''m going to finish and return within a month."

 Chapter 178 – Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 178 - Negotiation</h4>


    While Ben and Endo talked about their n, Theo made his way to Radvils'' office after school.


    It was indeed a few rooms away from the principal office and there was his name te hanging on the white metallic door, so he couldn''t go to the wrong ce. When he was about to knock on the door, the door was already opened to the side, revealing the room and Radvils inside.


    Radvils had a serious expression, sitting on the chair in the opposite direction. His desk was filled with nothing but his own Skylink.


    Surprisingly, there was already another chair in front of the table. Radvils extended his hand and asked, "Come in and sit."


    Theo hesitated for a second before walking inside the room and sitting on the chair, facing him.


    "Let me confirm it again. You have told your teammates about the sabotage, correct?" asked Radvils while crossing his arms.


    Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "In that case, I will ask you a few questions. Do you have any suspects in mind?"


    Theo didn''t know whether Radvils was an enemy or not since the person who tricked them was also a soldier. In other words, whoever wanted him had some people inside the army.


    However, Theo was afraid no more and stated. "The Lange Family."


    "Ho?" Radvils narrowed his eyes and noticed the meaning behind his answer. "Instead of Laust Lange, you''re saying the Lange Family is involved. Does that mean you believe in Laust Lange?"


    "No." Theo shook his head but stopped after that one word.


    Radvils understood that Theo must have his own deduction based on what he saw, so he asked another question. "Then, the second question, how did you figure it out?"


    Theo was confused for a second before realizing Radvils must be talking about the soldier and how he knew he was lying. He then began to tell him a short story and his suspicion.


    Theo didn''t forget to leave some irrelevant details.


    "Alright." Radvils nodded and said, "We will continue our investigation. However, it will be bad if another family participates in this, so I want you to stop them."


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned.


    Radvils already knew his doubt and continued his exnation. "I know your doubt, but I want you to tell your teammates that everything is just a test, so they will tell their family to stop the investigation, making it less suspicious and easier to catch the culprit."


    "So, you want me to redirect them?"


    "Basically."


    Theo thought this was something to cover up the one behind this scheme.


    With the help of other families, not just the Eilric Family, he could learn it faster, especially with the Hilbert Family since they were an underground family.


    "I am afraid I need to refuse."


    Radvils'' expression turned cold as his face became even more serious. "Did I hear it right?"


    "Yes. I don''t see any merits in me." Theo refused him with a calm expression. "I don''t see any point in stopping them since I will benefit more in letting them do whatever they want. Besides, I have never seen someone like you in Sk, so for what reason should I obey you?"


    Radvils smirked and said, "Are you sure you''re going to talk to me like that, knowing full well I have the right to disqualify you?"


    Theo didn''t back down as he made an evil grin. "That means you''re going to disqualify everyone in my group, right? That''s fine by me. It''s even more convenient for me."


    Theo took advantage of Phyrill and Alea''s backgrounds to fight with Radvils, but thetter was still unfazed and continued, "I''m saying that you''re the only one I''m going to disqualify."


    Theo''s expression turned cold as he said, "Try it and see what will happen next. The reason you asked me to do this is due to my position in the team. I can easily influence their opinion�� You want to take advantage of it, but it doesn''t mean I can''t take advantage of it, right?"


    Radvils released his killing intent at maximum as he said with a cold tone before a shadow appeared from beneath Theo''s chair and became a sharp dagger that stopped right on his neck. "Then, I will just eliminate you here. Do you think I''m weak? The first basic requirement to be an instructor is to have a high level. I can simply kill you here and no one will know."


    Theo nced at the sharp de at his throat, but he didn''t cower. He remained calm and even smiled like he had gone insane. "You can do it�� But I would like you to know that I have an appointment with the Eilric Family''s Nart Eilric not long after this. The moment he gets involved, he will surely find you."


    Radvils furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Theo''s fearless expression. He soon realized something was wrong and retracted the de while asking, "What do you want?"


    "I would like to hear who wants to aim at us or me as well aspensation for lying to my teammates."


    Radvils clicked his tongue and leaned back on his chair while crossing his arms. Nart Eilric wouldn''t protect him if this boy didn''t have anything special. Yet, he couldn''t find a lie in his statement as if Nart Eilric indeed would meet him soon.


    If Nart indeed saw something good in this boy, he might do something to him ording to his own memory. At the same time, Theo seemed to be fearless even in the face of death as if he didn''t care whether he died or not. It wasn''t that he didn''t fear death, but he simply thought that death mighte to him sooner orter, so he didn''t care about him dying now or in the future.


    And Theo appeared to have another trump card that he might use in this conversation and probably mess up his n for the Grand Gaia.


    After several minutes, he closed his eyes, grabbed a card, and tossed it to Theo. "This is yourpensation."


    Theo caught the card and furrowed his eyebrows, wanting to extort him a bit, but then he realized it was better not to go over the limit since Radvils would still y a big role in this tournament.


    With him being far stronger than him, Theo decided it was time to pull up and smiled with eyes as cold as Radvils. "Thanks for the skill."

 Chapter 179 – Determination

    <h4>Chapter 179 - Determination</h4>


    "Remember, tell everyone that it''s just a test."


    "Of course. I will tell my friends that it''s just a test." Theo nodded while thinking, ''I won''t tell anything to Nart Eilric though, since he is not my teammate.''


    Radvils snorted and waved his hand, opening the door. "You may go. I won''t see you off."


    Theo closed his eyes and calmly rose from his chair, heading to the outside.


    As soon as he was outside, Radvils quickly mmed the door with his Magic Power as if he was angry.


    Theo took a deep breath and smiled over his small victory, but little did he know, anger might be thest thing that Radvils would think of.


    Behind that door, Radvils was actually smiling in excitement, seeing Theo''s character. He had been watching Theo this whole time to see whether he had the potential to bring his team to victory.


    However, there was indeed one thing that Theo forgot due to hisck of experience in this area. He forgot to add the fact that the missions were impossible to seed because of the first assignment alone, let alone the other two.


    If he added it into their negotiation, Radvils might end up giving him more.


    He muttered with a smile, "But I guess it''s enough for his level. He is still rough around the edge, but he has potential. I wanted to give that card to him, albeit I had no good opportunity. I need to thank him for standing up and making my job easier."


    That conversation turned out to be not a simple negotiation. Theo and Radvils were trying to outwit each other, but Theo ended up making the situation a win-win for both of them.


    Radvils smiled and said, "I guess this year''s students have the potential to reach the grand stage. There are two other groups that may be their rival in this smallpetition, but we will see.


    Meanwhile, Theo left the building immediately while looking at the skill he just received.


    Skill: Illusion Maniption (C)


    Effect: Manipte one''s perception to make one get a sense of touch and vision of an illusion along with the ability to manipte a certain level of reality.


    "Ho?!" Theo widened his eyes as he didn''t expect such a haul. "A C Rank Skill? Isn''t this Hero Rank Skill?"


    Theo fell silent when he read the skill effect and realized this might be more useful than he thought. He had one month to master this C Rank Skill and two other E Rank Skills and just thinking about it made him feel excited.


    After taking another deep breath, he went to the third building, where he got intercepted by someone on the way. That person pulled him to the side of the building where no one was watching.


    And that person was none other than another Theo. Yes, the reason Theo dared to talk back and negotiate with Radvils was due to him sending his clone instead of his real body.


    If Radvils sliced his throat at that time, Theo would simply disappear since it was just a clone. Meanwhile, the real him would know Radvils'' evil n and simply redirect Nart Eilric to Radvils. Those two could fight against each other at that time.


    Even if Radvils realized it, he still had the pocket watch his brother gave him.


    While grabbing the pocket watch, he looked at the sky while smiling, "I wonder what kind of secret this pocket watch has. Anyway, I will trust my brother and use it only when I can''t do anything, like if Radvils wants to kill me."


    Thinking about all this somehow made him excited as he smiled with an ecstatic expression, muttering, "I see�� I now can see what kind of people I will face in the future. I really need to grasp human psychology better like earlier to gain upper hands in future negotiations or problems.


    "Those who are at the top are sly, smart, cunning, and ruthless�� If I can''t outsmart them, I will be doomed in the future. Still��" Theo tightened his grip on the pocket watch while staring at the sky, smiling. "Brother, watch me�� I shall cower no longer."


    He was determined to search for his brother and walked on this path. His goal was to be someone strong and influential enough to affect the entire world. At the same time, he realized since the God of Mischief wanted him to mess the world up, he could simply kill the bad guys.


    After all, the bad guy surely had some sort of deals and influence in the underground world. The moment they were destroyed, those around them would start creating chaos, trying to be the new leader. It might also affect the people around it and probably someone influential that had been cooperating with them and killed those bad guys altogether.


    This way, he could fulfill both his goal and God of Mischief''s wish simultaneously.


    Feeling satisfied with this new determination, Theo made his way to the building and entered a certain room with Alea inside. Yeah, his training partner today was Alea and since he had a better grasp of her than anyone else, he better exined it to her first so she could help him convince the otherster.


    It was a perfect scenario for the day. Theo and Radvils believed that everything would go well and there wouldn''t be any more interruption for the rest of thepetition since the government had gotten involved.


    However, both of them miscalcted one thing. They would never expect that someone would go from the other gate all the way to Art Beats City.


    Inside the other gate, Ben stood together with ten people that seemed to be Lange Family''s elites. He smiled and said, "I have only one mission. It''s to kill. Since you all are at least Level 251, I''m sure we can reach our destination within a week. After that, it''s going to be a free kill as we will split up. Okay?"


    The guys nodded and started leaving the city right after. With them already on this side, there was no way for Radvils to block them anymore and the future investigation would surely lead to nothing�� Or that was what was supposed to happen.

 Chapter 180 – Nart Is Coming!

    <h4>Chapter 180 - Nart Is Coming!</h4>


    Three dayster, Theo was inside the ss, looking at hiszy-looking teacher with a calm expression.


    However, his ssmates, males and females, were staring at him and Laust since they were in the same group and seemed to have the capability to finish the assignments.


    They simply never thought that Theo would be able to change his situation and somehow mended his rtionship with Laust. They didn''t know that Laust and Theo had a passive-aggressive rtionship. They were neither friend nor foe at the moment.


    The guys were filled with envy and admiration. They wanted to be like him, changing from zero to hero. After all, the story that was spread around the school was about him bing the group leader. If it were any other group, they wouldn''t care much, but his team members were among the best.


    They even had Alea Eilric in the group, making his performance even brighter.


    Some still didn''t believe him because Alea might just give him the role to show off, while the rest just carried him all the time.


    Meanwhile, the girls had a different thought and started looking at Theo in another light. There was indeed jealousy since they wanted to change positions with him, considering the males in his group were cool and handsome like Laust, Phyrill or Sihan.


    He himself was above average. Some even thought about whether they should start to approach Theo to have a rtionship with him before he became too big and out of their league.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo ignored most of them and just pushed them to the side after a few polite lines. He didn''t mean to be aloof, but he was simply sick with how everyone treated him differently once he became one of the top people in this ss or even in the school.


    He simply knew they had a hidden intention in approaching him, so he didn''t want to have anything to do with them and increased his worth even further.


    This had continued for the past three days and Theo even got teased by Phyrill and the others as this was the first time he was in the limelight.


    Now that he had grown ustomed to it, he had no problem listening to the teacher while being stared at.


    In the past three days, Theo also had gathered information about the smallpetition. ording to the other students, there were already thirty groups who dropped out of thepetition. Five among them were found dead, including Sonia''s group.


    Those retired groups realized that no matter how hard they tried, they would just challenge death itself. Even then, they couldn''t even find a speck of hope in finishing the first assignment. After a while, they realized they couldn''tpete with Alea and the others, resulting in them dropping out of thepetition.


    At first, the students were mocking them because they didn''t have the guts, but when the assignments were shown to them, they simply shut their mouths, embarrassed.


    There was no way they had the skill to achieve the first one, let alone killing three Hero Rank monsters. After that, no one mocked them anymore and simply praised those who were still in thepetition.


    After a few hours, the bell finally rang and they were soon released from the teacher''szy lecture, heading home or doing something else in the school.


    Theo also nned to go back to the Virtual Simtion Building to train, so he rose from his seat. Luckily, three days had passed and the people''s curiosity had decreased as no one stopped him anymore to ask him questions or cheer for him.


    He didn''t want anything with them anyway, so he quickly left the ss and building, only to find another storm wasing.


    Suddenly, the school turned into an uproar when they saw an old man walking to the school. He wore a simple white shirt and blue leather pants, looking like an ordinary parent, but the others could still recognize who he was.


    The people that were about to leave the school were stunned and made way for him. They looked at him, pointed their fingers at him, and whispered about him.


    "Look!"


    "That''s�� Isn''t that person the famous Nart Eilric?"


    "The one who is known for his eye? Many people he recognized in the past have be great figures right now."


    "That''s right. He even taught some of them personally."


    "Chosen by him is the sure way to sess."


    "Wait, why is such a personing to this school?"


    "Doesn''t he want to see his granddaughter?"


    "You don''t know anything yet. I have been here for almost three years, never once I saw someone visiting Alea Eilric. I''m afraid he has something important to do."


    "Yeah, he must want to do something else."


    "Wait, he may find someone interesting in the school."


    "I didn''t think of that. Yes, since there is apetition going on, he may have found someone participating in it."


    "In other words, is there a chance that someone has piqued his interest among the fifty groups?"


    The students kept talking about him while Nart simply smiled and didn''t reply to them or anything.


    However, a young man, surprisingly, stopped before him, trying to impress him. He had blue hair and sses, politely saying, "Sir, do you need anything from the school? I can guide you to anywhere you want to go in this school. My name is��"


    The other students never expected that someone would be so shameless to try bootlicking, but they soon thought why they didn''t do it first. After all, it was better to try than staying unnoticed. If you came out there, they would be either an embarrassment or a hero.


    Unfortunately for him, the sses guy turned into the former because Nart didn''t let him finish. He simply took a step to the left and ignored him directly before his eyes stumbled upon a young man with an annoyed expression.


    When people saw him stopping, they quickly followed his vision and found Theodore Griffith standing at the end of his vision.


    Nart smiled and said, "It''s been a while. How are you?"


    Although he had prepared for it, Theo still felt ufortable and said, "It''s worse than I expected."


    "That''s good."


    "��"

 Chapter 181 – Misunderstanding

    <h4>Chapter 181 - Misunderstanding</h4>


    All people''s eyes were focused on Theo as they simply didn''t expect that Nart Eilric would be greeting him. And his reason for visiting the school seemed to be rted to Theo.


    "Isn''t that Theodore Griffith?"


    "Don''t tell me��"


    "No way, he is just a mere first-year that happens to be lucky enough to enter thepetition."


    "No, no. You can''t say that."


    "That''s right. He led the entire group. I witnessed it myself."


    "I also saw it."


    The situation turned into an uproar. Some people who had put Theo in high regard now put it even higher. Meanwhile, those who were jealous of him became more envious. They simply thought that the fact that Theo could meet Nart Eilric was due to Alea Eilric, unwilling to admit that his strength might y a role here.


    Not wanting to make this even bigger, Nart Eilric said with a smile. "How about we go somewhere else? We need to discuss something."


    He just confirmed that Theo was the one he was looking for and the voices ringing on their ears just got bigger.


    Theo, on the other hand, nodded with a calm expression. "Yes. We should."


    Everyone instinctively made way for Theo to go with Nart Eilric, leaving the school. That momentary silence turned into another uproar as they discussed the rtionship between them.


    "What? He is the one Nart Eilric is looking for?"


    "No way. What is the topic they want to discuss?"


    "It must be about his training and recruitment to the Eilric Family."


    "But there is Alea in the school�� and he evenmands the group himself, including Alea Eilric. Don''t tell me�� This is going to be an engagement talk?"


    "What?! There''s no way that''s going to happen. Alea Eilric will only marry someone with the same status."


    "Still, right now is an era where strength rules�� If he can be strong enough, doesn''t this mean he is qualified to be the head of the Eilric Family?"


    "No, no. That''s just your wild imagination."


    "But what if Theodore Griffith was just faking his bullied self�� All for this?"


    As one would expect, the students started gossiping about this discussion as those two who were responsible for the entire chaos had left the school.


    But a few important people had seen them together, especially Radvils and Theo''s group.


    In his room, Radvils furrowed his eyebrows and remembered Theo said Nart would meet him soon. It seemed Theo had something special to the point Nart would directly involve himself in this situation.


    Although he felt ufortable with his involvement, it just meant his choice in Theo wasn''t wrong.


    Radvils leaned on his chair and smiled, "It seems my choice is not wrong. Even if everyone is disqualified, you need to be a member of the Grand Gaia team, you shrewd little devil."


    At the same time, Alea and Ellen happened to see those two leaving the school together when they passed by.


    Listening to the people around, Ellen smirked and said, "So, what''s this all about, Alea? Is it true that they''re going to discuss your engagement?"


    Alea tilted her head in confusion and looked at her without any clue. "I doubt even my father knows about this��"


    "��" Ellen was the one surprised this time. Her father would be the current head of the Eilric Family, so he must know everything about engagement. However, seeing that there was no clue, Ellen didn''t know what they nned to do.


    Still, it didn''t mean the teasing would stop. Ellen made a smug smile and continued, "It may be his desired grandson-inw. It''s true that he is the only one who can handle you in this school. Maybe your grandfather has seen that quality and wants him to be your husband, so you don''t destroy your own family?"


    Alea furrowed his eyebrows and shook her head. "I have no n in marrying someone this early. It''s normal for people to marry in theirte twenties or early thirties. I''m only a neen years old girl and still want to explore the world."


    "Yeah, but yours is an only child and has a big family." Ellen shrugged.


    "Either way, I will just run away from home." Alea harrumphed and pushed her to the third building to practice, but her eyes lingered at the school gate where Theo and Nart passed.


    While they were guessing Theo and Nart''s rtionship, The two had arrived in a restaurant that Alea once invited him to discuss the battle n with Hontar.


    They had a personal room to talk freely.


    "Hoho, how about it? Do you find bing famous interesting?"


    "No. It''s just taking my time and privacy away. You only get the attention while sacrificing something that you need the most�� It''s dumb." Theo shook his head, knowing the reason why people actually wanted toy low.


    "Haha. Doesn''t this mean no one is looking down on you anymore? You can start having a rtionship with powerful people and getting as many beauties as you want." Nartughed even though he agreed with Theo that staying low was actually more efficient. "Those who are young like you have their ambition to be popr."


    "They just have too much hormones." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, let''s go back to the topic."


    Nart nodded and opened his Skylink before Theo did the same, so he could transfer the document to him.


    Theo quickly opened the document and started reading it while Nart exined the few important parts. "Actually, the contract is mostly filled with�� First, you can''t tell anyone of any information rted to the nest. Second, you are to leave the ce within one week. Third, you''re to avoid using it or leading anyone into it again with your own knowledge. And fourth, everything you get from there will be yours."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and kept reading. As he said, the important points were those four, he could see a few more, but all of them were just formalities to make sure no one other than the Eilric Family knew and used the artificial nest.


    "I can understand the condition." Theo nodded and kept scrolling down. "I can agree with all of them and I don''t think there''s any problem with the others too. I can convince them."


    "That''s good. Anyway, I''m sure people misunderstand our rtionship." Nartughed.


    "Whatever. They can guess as they like, but they won''t get anything from me." Theo shrugged and continued, "And I need the information about the artificial nest."


    "Of course. This is the information." Nart sent another file.


    Little did they know, when they were discussing this kind of agreement, Theo and his group actually received another help from a certain group.

 Chapter 182 – Unexpected Betrayal

    <h4>Chapter 182 - Unexpected Betrayal</h4>


    On the other side, Ben and his group kept advancing without any problem. They met monsters from time to time, but no monster was strong enough to stop them.


    At the same time, since they were going to a low level area, the monsters gradually turned weaker and the group got an even easier time.


    If this continued, they would be able to kill all the Hero Rank Monsters in that area, albeit everything couldn''t go ording to their n.


    When they reached a forest. Surrounded by trees, Ben suddenly halted his step when he sensed someone behind the tree.


    Even the others felt something was wrong and stopped behind him, looking at their surroundings.


    Ben felt a powerful Awareness had surrounded them as he shouted, "Come out!"


    Suddenly, the atmosphere became cold as the group could feel the hair on their hands rise.


    "Ben Lange?"A middle-aged man called his name. He was one of the group members that followed him to finish the task assigned by Endo Lange. Yes, this was another reason why Endo Lange permitted Ben to take such an action. He wanted to assess him by using this man whose level wasn''t that different from him.


    This middle-aged man was worried since he knew they were in danger, but he couldn''t sense anything other than the killing intent that shrouded them.


    Ben Lange, on the other hand, looked at the woods and shouted. "Ten�� No, eleven people."


    When everyone heard those words, a ck hooded man with a lion mask came out. No one could see his face nor his hair, but they were able to see his young hand and a sword hanging on his back waist.


    The masked man raised his hand and one by one, ck hooded people with masks came out from behind the trees. Their appearance was simr to the ck hooded people, and no one could see their appearance other than their gender and weapons.


    However, there was one distinct feature that differentiated them from the others.


    There was a red mark on their wrist and animal masks. All of them were animal heads.


    Suddenly, the middle-aged man took a step back in horror as he recognized all these hooded people. "Red tattoo on the wrist, animal mask, and a swift appearance�� They�� They are the Twelve Daemon."


    "What?!"


    "One of the top Assassin Groups in the country?"


    "Why are they attacking us?"


    "Did someone hire them to kill us?"


    Ben Lange furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "I don''t understand this. I don''t think there is someone who wants to challenge my Lange Family. Under whose order youe to us, Twelve Daemon?"


    The one with the lion mask simply shook his head without a single word as if they had no intention to ask.


    "You should know that the moment you''re getting into this mess, the Lange Family will take action, right?" Ben continued, trying to see a way out. Or at least, he tried to buy time, so he could think of another way to escape from here.


    At the same time, the middle-aged man seemed to have noticed something and pointed his finger at them. "Look�� There are only eleven of them. Where is their head, the Daemon Dragon?"


    "No, you should ask why they want us dead." Ben Lange corrected him and continued, "I can pay you three times what the other party can afford."


    The group quickly made a formation and looked in all directions, preparing for any attacks while listening to the negotiation.


    Suddenly, all eleven Daemons released their Magic Power and Killing Intent, making their intention clear. The Twelve Daemon indeed wanted to kill all of them here.


    Ben and the others knew that the only way to survive was to break through. However, Ben and the middle-aged man understood that among the Twelve Daemons, there were three people on a whole different level. They must have passed Level 500 and entered the Supreme Rank.


    When the hope disappeared, the middle-aged man said, "Young Master. Let me handle the rest. You should escape from here and tell the family to exterminate the Daemons."


    Ben gritted his teeth and shouted, "How can I do that? I''m still following my father''s order."


    The middle-aged man shook his head, knowing that this mission was bound to fail no matter what. After all, the Twelve Daemons were at least Level 400 people, so there was no way they would be able to escape, considering all of them might be Hero Rank Experts but below Level 300.


    The middle-aged man said, "I''m sure that your father can understand since the Twelve Daemon is involved in this matter. Please take care of our family after this, Young Master."


    Ben clenched his teeth. The reason why the middle-aged man said that was due to him knowing Ben Lange was a bit different than his ruthless father. Ben still hadpassion and kindness to take care of someone from the same family.


    But this made them miscalcte something. There was someone more important than his father or his family in Ben''s heart.


    Ben took a deep breath and said, "I will."


    When everyone was ready to fight the Daemons, Ben also unsheathed his sword as if he prepared to fight them.


    The middle-aged man raised his sword to make a path for him, only to find that his vision suddenly flipped and moved at the same time. He couldn''t understand in an instant but soon found that his body no longer had a head and the blood started to pour like a fountain.


    And he also found that Ben''s sword was the one slicing his neck with that red blood dripping off his sword. In hisst few seconds, he could only think, ''Young Master�� You��''


    Yes, he realized something in that split second. The one whomissioned the service of one of the top assassin groups was none other than Ben Lange. And the reason they found them here was also him.


    Thest thing he saw was Ben''s cold face as if he didn''t care about their lives at all.


    Ben said in a cold tone. "Hmph. Do you think I don''t know that you''re my father''s men and your job is to observe me instead of helping me? That bastard old man shouldn''t involve himself in my little brother''s business anymore�� Besides, killing one of my father''s top groups will weaken his power. So, die, vermin!"

 Chapter 183 – Father And Son

    <h4>Chapter 183 - Father And Son</h4>


    A few dayster.


    On the outskirts of Eaveton Castle, the fort that stood tall to protect the second Teleportation Circle in the country, Ben''s figure emerged from afar.


    A soldier on top of the tower got a sight of him and checked it again with his binocr, finding someone was indeeding back with a huge wound running from his left shoulder to the right waist. His body was also covered with some smaller wounds thatpletely covered him with blood.


    Confirming his condition, the soldier''s heart skipped a beat, wondering how such a person managed to walk in that condition. Even so, he quickly dropped his binocrs and shouted, "Not good. We need a medical team!"


    A few minutester, Ben was sent to a hospital on the other side after his condition stabilized. Due to the concern of having no sessor if he died, Endo Lange made his appearance to check Ben Lange''s condition.


    Endo maintained his cold expression and looked at Ben''s body that had been covered with bandages. Although the medicine was enough to close that wound, they still needed to be bandaged to avoid any contact with the air or anything for a while.


    Ben weaklyid down on his bed while looking at Endo. "Father��"


    Endo narrowed his eyes and asked with an indifferent tone. "What happened?"


    Ben simply closed his eyes, knowing that he shouldn''t expect some sympathy from this ruthless father. He calmed his heart down and said in anguish. "I�� I don''t think it''s good for us to mess with them anymore."


    "This is because your n is not that good. I have told you not to mess up my n and this is what you get. I tried to trust you, but you were still a failure."


    Ben shook his head calmly and continued, "I will consider myself as one, but this time�� It''s truly not good. The one who attacked us was the Twelve Daemon."


    "!!!" Although he was startled, Endo didn''t show any expression on his face. He simply crossed his arms and contemted.


    The Twelve Daemon was a new group of assassins that became famous in recent years due to their extremely powerful members. They were said to have twelve members with someone called Daemon Dragon as their leader. However, no one knew anything about their leader, even the gender.


    "I don''t know why the Twelve Daemon attacked us, but I''m afraid it''s rted to those kids�� No, should I say your real target, Theodore Griffith?" Ben hesitated for a second before saying, "Maybe the pocket watch is rted to Twelve Daemon? Or maybe it''s the map to their hideout? They are a very mysterious group with no one who can move them unless they are interested in the mission itself."


    Endo knew what would happen if his family was targeted by the Twelve Daemon. Although they wouldn''t be enough to destroy the Lange Family, the family would still suffer a huge blow from their attack.


    Endo fell silent for a few minutes while Ben began telling the whole story of how the Twelve Daemon ambushed them along with his wounds.


    Little did he know, Ben was lying this whole time. The wounds that covered his body were shallow while that big sword mark was made by himself before returning to the castle. The reason he could go back in that condition was due to him exhausting his Magic Power by using Magic Control to prevent any blood from flowing out of his wound�� It was just exhaustion.


    After a while, Endo finally came to a decision. "I understand."


    Ben didn''t understand his "I understand" at all, so he tried to rise from the bed only to be struck by the excruciating pain of his recovering wounds.


    Surprisingly, his father didn''t even flinch when he suddenly dropped to the bed while wailing in pain. He simply stared at him without a single word, wondering if he was an idiot or not.


    Ben wasn''t convinced and said while enduring his pain. "Father. Please stop! I heard another family was destroyed by them because they picked a fight with the Twelve Daemon. Even the government couldn''t find anything about them�� We can''t have any revenge for the time being and��"


    Before he finished his words, Endo already waved his hand, stopping Ben from talking with his Magic Power. He simply looked at him coldly while saying, "It''s not your ce to talk. Since the Twelve Daemon wants to stop me, fine, I will stop for a while. But don''t mind if I break themter��"


    "Ye-yes." Ben repeatedly nodded and asked, "I''m afraid this is not over yet. That''s why�� Can Father spare some elites to protect me while I recover? There is a possibility that the Twelve Daemon is stilling at me."


    Endo had considered this in his mind. It took him so long to think because if he gave him elites to protect him, he might need at least ten people. However, for Endo, it also meant that he couldn''t do anything for at least one week until Ben recoveredpletely.


    And since this son of his would surely go to the other side again, there would be a possibility of the Twelve Daemon attacking him again.


    Unbeknownst to him, this was Ben''s main objective. With him unable to order his elite groups and the supervision from other families and government, there was no way he could interfere with Laust and the others anymore, putting a halt to his scheme.


    "Fine. I will send some people to protect you for the time being. I don''t care if that monkey dies, but you''re my sessor. I can''t afford to have you dying." Endo snorted and turned around, leaving the room with a cold expression.


    When he saw Endo leaving the room, he finally felt rxed, knowing that his mission had been aplished.


    He looked at the ceiling and smiled, ''With this, Father won''t interfere with Laust anymore�� or at least, there won''t be any movement until the Grand Gaia. Laust, this is all I can do for you. Treasure this chance to get stronger. I promise you�� Within a few years, we will have a chance to break free from his suppression.''

 Chapter 184 – Artificial Nest

    <h4>Chapter 184 - Artificial Nest</h4>


    Laust had no idea about what his brother had gone through for him and still hated him for what he had shown the whole time.


    Still, with his brother returning to the home a few days ago, he still couldn''t wrap the hatred for quite a while.


    Even though the others already pointed at him to stop what he was thinking and focused on the practice, his mind often wandered about his brother.


    The same applied to today. Theo had asked them to meet up in a restaurant to discuss their next n. With a troubled thought, he entered the restaurant and headed straight to their meeting ce.


    He opened the door and all of them had been waiting for him with food already on the table.


    "Oh, Laust. We''ve been waiting for you. Come in and grab some bite." Phyrill waved his hand, asking Laust toe in.


    "��" Laust didn''t do anything for a few seconds before entering the room. Before thinking about food, Laust stared at Theo and said, "What do you want to talk about?"


    Theo nced at his expression and contemted. He hadn''t said anything since the start, but now that Laust had arrived, he thought it was fine to drop a hint while finishing the food. He swallowed the piece of chicken in his mouth and answered with a calm tone. "Artificial Nest."


    When they all heard about it, their hands stopped and their jaws dropped to the ground. Taken aback by the answer, everyone simply couldn''t understand why Theo mentioned Artificial Nest.


    As someone who was familiar with Artificial Nests, Alea asked, "Theo. Do you know about the Artificial Nest? If it''s something you discover, I think it''s better not to go there because it''s someone''s property."


    Phyrill agreed with her and added, "Although there''s no rule that states that you can''t trespass anyone''s property on that side other than inside the fort, they may attack you if you enter."


    They were worried that Theo thought it was fine to enter someone''s property, especially big families, since only those who had enough budget could create one.


    However, Theo only shrugged and said, "That''s what I want to say today. I have rented an Artificial Nest for a week and we''re free to kill all the monsters and grab the loot."


    "What?!" Alea put down her fork and stared at Theo in bewilderment. "Are you sure you don''t have any background? Renting an Artificial Nest is nearly impossible. Maybe you are someone from a big family? Young Master Theo, how about we be friends?"


    "Enough with the joke." Theo let out a long sigh and continued, "The Artificial Nest is your Eilric Family possession."


    "��" Alea drew a gasp while Ellen became so interested in this talk as she remembered the scene where Nart and Theo left the school.


    She tilted her head while smiling. "Theo, I saw you leaving the school with Alea''s grandfather�� Was it to discuss this nest?"


    "Yes." Theo confirmed it with a nod.


    "It''s close to impossible for even Alea''s grandfather to rent you this kind of nest, especially with those conditions. You must have hidden something�� Maybe, that talk was actually a discussion of your marriage with Alea?"


    "Enough with such ament. Marrying her is one of thest things I want to do." Theo pointed his finger at Alea while replying with a calm tone.


    Alea''s eyebrows twitched. Although she didn''t see Theo as a love interest yet, she was still somewhat confident with her look. No, if someone outside their group were to hear his response, they would think Theo was blind.


    Alea had almost everything to be called beautiful: alluring lips, cool and beautiful eyes, a small and cute nose, a well-developed body along with enchanting curves.


    Yet, Theo''s statementpletely disregarded everything. She couldn''t help but pout and argue, "Wait, why is it thest thing you want to do? Am I not beautiful?"


    Theo didn''t answer her since she wasn''t the problem, it was just him trying to stay away from love. Even if he managed to see his brother again, he doubted he would acknowledge him as his brother because people might try to hunt him down in the future. But�� They didn''t need to know about this thought.


    He only made a simple reply. "Lady. Don''t confuse love and lust, thanks."


    "��" Alea fell silent when he heard this remark.


    Theo then showed them the contract and said, "Anyway, this is the contract. Let''s not stray from the topic anymore. I want all of you to sign this contract, so we can hunt in that nest. After seeing theyout, I believe Laust and I can reach Level 150 inside there, while Alea and Ellen will be close to Level 200 within one week. And there seem to be two Rare Hero Rank Monsters as a bonus�� You can say we willplete the second assignment in this nest.


    "The remaining three weeks will be used to focus on Alea and Ellen to make sure they both be Hero Rank Experts. For now, we will focus on increasing our strength."


    Alea skimmed the contract and nodded as it was their standard contract with only a few adjustments since they were still students.


    Since Theo also gave one to her, it seemed she needed to sign it as well, even though she didn''t even need permission to go to a nest that her family owned.


    Seeing Alea signing the contract, the rest decided to stop eating and took a look at the contract.


    It wasn''t that hard andplicated to understand, so they decided to sign it after a few minutes.


    "Anyway, I will be giving you theyoutter. Don''t forget to give me your ns and suggestions, so I can make a few adjustments to my own n. The time limit is a week, so do your best in your nning," said Theo while picking up a fork and a knife.


    The group then ate while discussing some topics, especially about Theo and Nart''s rtionship. Alea even made a joke that Theo was an illegitimate grandson or her own brother but stopped by Theo.

 Chapter 185 – Objective

    <h4>Chapter 185 - Objective</h4>


    Three weekster, Theo was standing in a virtual grass field, wielding his Elemental Shield to face the iing Magic Bullet from his clone.


    However, his Elemental Shield wasn''t like the previous one. Instead, there were two Elemental Shields in his current possession and both of them could be used when he was fighting with his spear, making it a mobile shield that didn''t need any hands to operate.


    After a week, Theo knew that no matter what he did, there was not enough time to master all ten Skills like his n, so he had started early, hoping that he could master at least seven or eight D Rank Skills.


    In order to start early, he sold every Material Cards he possessed while buying a few skills to fulfill the number he needed to upgrade his Elemental Shield.


    He looked at the forty Magic Bullet, fake and real, flying toward him. All of them tried to loop around since Clone Theo tried to send all of them away while using the tracker to hit the real Theo from all directions.


    The real him, on the other hand, took one step back and raised both Elemental Shields and blocked every single Magic Bullet. Despite not being held by his hand, Theo could feel the pressure seeping through the Elemental Shield to his hands.


    It was so painful and made his hand soon numb, wanting to drop the spear. Yet, when he finished blocking all the Magic Bullet, he surprisingly felt as if nothing had happened.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and sighed, "This Illusion Maniption�� It''s so strong. As expected from a C Rank Skill��"


    He smiled and recalled the effect of his Illusion Maniption.


    "This skill can manipte a person''s perception to make them able to gain the sense of touch and vision of an illusion. I can somehow make my own Magic Bullet feel real as long as they don''t hit them directly on the body. Even if they hit once and realize the secret, they will just be more careful since no one can see which ones are the real bullets unless they have powerful Awareness."


    Theo smiled as he felt that this Illusion Maniption indeed worked like magic to him.


    "Although I can''t do anything about thetter part of the function, which is to manipte a certain level of reality yet�� I feel like this will be enough for now. I can slowly practice until thepetition." Theo contemted for a moment and opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 111


    EXP: 7583/14484


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (E), Clone (D), Cannon st (E), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 170, Endurance 98, Agility 107, Vitality 94, Magic Power 170


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Now that I think about it, I already have one C Rank Skill and five D Rank Skills. I''m nning to rece my Focused Charge and Hasteter while ranking up Swift Energy and Cannon st�� After that, I would have nine D Rank Skills and one C Rank Skill.


    "If I''m not wrong, the school will provide skills too, so I think I will rank one of my D Rank Skill to C Rank. I can take advantage of the government to give me D Rank Skills�� Though, I can''t really take too much or they will start to be suspicious of me." Theo nodded in agreement, feeling that his n was good enough.


    "Anyway, I don''t have much time. I need to master all D Rank Skills right now and finish the remaining fourter."


    After knowing what he had to do, Theo started training again, knowing they needed to leave in four days.


    Although he holed up inside his own training room, he still got the news from his other teammates, especially Ellen, who loved to tell everything to him.


    ording to Ellen, there were more groups giving up on the mission after the unsessful first raid to increase their level. No matter how hard they tried, it was tough to reach Level 150, let alone Level 250.


    And with the limited time and schedule limitation, the mission had be impossible for them to finish.


    It turned out there were still five groupspeting with them and they all had shown something great in their first raid. Alea''s former group led by the Undying first-year and the student council''s group were among those five.


    Still, they would soon get thrown off by Theo''s n as the group didn''t n to waste their time anymore. After fighting together for two weeks, each individual understood what they needed to do and how to improve their current role.


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Theo and his group had finally finished their preparation and had gathered in front of the Teleportation Circle, preparing to have another expedition.


    With a slightly chilling morning air, Theo walked to the Teleportation Circle, finding all his teammates standing next to the Teleportation Circle.


    Both his Champion Rank Spears were hanging on his back along with his backpack that would be very usefulter.


    He made a natural smile as he asked with a calm expression. "How are you? I hope no one is sick since we''re going to have a tight schedule."


    Ellen gave a thumbs up and replied with a smile. "Of course. I have been preparing myself to kill at least one Hero Rank Monster�� If not two."


    Phyrill smirked and reacted to it, "You do know that all of us will have reached Champion Rank by the time we fight the Hero Rank Monsters, right? Maybe�� The one who kills the monsters is not you or Alea. It''s me. Haha."


    Laust simply looked away while Sihan nodded, saying that they were ready to face everything and didn''t need his concern.


    "I think you forgot about me or something? We haven''t trained together for a while, but I can assure you that I''m not cking." Alea''s lips curved as she became excited to show them her current prowess. She clutched her hand and said, "I will kill both of them."


    Phyrill and Ellen wanted to tease him before they suddenly stopped, feeling something ominous from the side. Even Laust and Sihan nced at Theo, finding him chuckling.


    They sucked a cold breath when they heard Theo saying with a cold but excited voice.


    "As if those two Hero Rank Monsters can satiate our thirst��"


    "Theo�� You mean��" Phyrill realized what he nned to do and gulped down with his heart started beating rapidly.


    Theo smirked and said, "Yes. I''m nning to target multiple Hero Rank Monsters in this expedition and�� Those who are unable to kill a Hero Rank Monster will be this group''s trash!"

 Chapter 186 – The Facility

    <h4>Chapter 186 - The Facility</h4>


    After that powerful statement from Theo, the group finally started their journey to Eilric''s Family Artificial Nest.


    The journey took a bit longer than they previously needed to hunt the mammoth, but they could understand it since they went to a farther but more difficult area where monsters residing in the area were above Level 120. Most of them were at Level 150 to Level 180, making it a perfect spot for them to level up in their current situation.


    Of course, they fought monsters from time to time on their way to the Artificial Nest and ended up leveling several times due to the absurd amount of EXP caused by their level difference.


    On the fourth day, they arrived at a savanna filled with monsters. The group sneaked inside the savanna, knowing that their destination was within. They slipped past the ignorant monsters while hiding under the swaying yellow grasses.


    The grasses were tall enough to cover their body if they crouched and it somehow prevented the group from killing the monsters nearby, knowing that it would only just attract another group soon.


    It took them two hours before they stumbled upon a trapezoid building made of limestone. That building had giant gates in four directions as if inviting the monsters to stay inside.


    Before they arrived, Alea opened her mouth and exined, "There should be people hiding inside the building. They are the guards of my family. Although I believe my grandfather has informed them when sending them supplies, I still need to walk in front so they recognize me, avoiding any suspicion."


    Theo and the others agreed without hesitation as Alea moved up, leading them from the front. There were around twenty monsters in their perimeter and they didn''t want to antagonize them for the time being. So, they kept crawling on the ground.


    Theo also said they coulde back for them after one week inside to level up a bit since there was no time limit outside the building.


    When they were about to enter the building, Alea suddenly rose and slipped inside the building before getting spotted. Meanwhile, Theo was admiring this twenty-foot tall building, stretching up to two hundred feet wide, making it possible for many monsters toe at once.


    Before following Alea inside, he took another look at the side of the building, finding a valve that led to the basement. It was probably a pump to suck out all the water that flowed to the basement under the downpour.


    Seeing the rest of his team had entered, Theo finally sneaked inside the building, finding a colossal pitch-ck hole inside the ce. He could also see gentle slopes that allowed the monsters to enter the Artificial Nest.


    Right when they entered, someone suddenly opened a door that was a bit far away from their position, revealing a middle-aged man wearing a blue shirt.


    He instantly recognized Alea''s face and arrived before them, lowering his head. "Young Miss��"


    "Yes. I believe my grandfather has informed you what I am about to do, right?"


    "Yes." The middle-aged man nodded, swaying his short ck hair. He grabbed his hat and ced it on his chest to act like a gentleman while extending his hand to the room hidden by the darkness earlier. "We should talk about it in the observation room. Also, I was informed that Theodore Griffith is the man holding the key and the contract. May I ask about his presence?"


    Hearing his name called, Theo took a step forward and introduced himself. "I''m Theodore Griffith. I have both of them with me."


    "That''s perfect." The middle-aged man nodded and led them to the room. "Now, please follow me so we can talk in a rxed way."


    They both nodded as Theo didn''t have time to observe the lower floors since he believed it was a huge hall with walls that made it look like abyrinth to prevent one monster from interfering with the others.


    The group soon arrived inside a room that waspletely different from the pitch-ck underground halls.


    To his right, he realized that the room was several floors down from the stairs that led to the underground. In the opposite direction were many screens that projected all the information about the monsters. To his front, he could see a few people operating it to check the monsters'' condition, including inputting the data of their habits and such.


    "As you can see, this is the Eilric Family''s Artificial Nest called Goliath. It''s one of the biggest Artificial Nests in the vicinity." He started exining while leading them to his team. "There are five people taking care of this nest to ensure that no one sneakily enters this ce since we have ced cameras in all corners. There are a total of two thousand cameras in this ce and this is my team."


    The remaining four rose from their seats and lowered their heads to Alea while politely nodding to the others, showing their priority.


    "First of all, I would like to confirm the contract and the key first." The middle-aged man looked at Theo with a calm expression, extending his hand.


    Theo nodded and took out a small cube that was slightly bigger than a die while grabbing his Skylink and showing him the contract. "That''s the die and this is the contract. Where should I send the contract?"


    The middle-aged man grabbed the small silver cube and put it inside a rectangr hole that matched with the cube''s shape.


    The hole then projected a blue screen, asking for contracts.


    Theo understood immediately and moved his Skylink to the sensor, so it could begin the direct transfer.


    The machine quickly processed the contract and the sign before showing a green light with a check mark, confirming that it was authentic.


    The middle-aged then smiled and continued, "Now the authentication ispleted. You can start anytime for seven days. We will also give you a map and directly mark your location. If you have finished for the day, there is a door leading to this room on every floor, allowing you to rest and clean yourself in this facility. In other words, you can focus on killing the monsters here and leave the rest to us."


    "Thank you." Alea nodded and said, "We''ve gotten theyout and the data from two weeks ago. Is there any big change?"


    "No. There is only a slight increase in their number, but nothing else happens." The middle-aged man shook his head.


    "Alright. I think we can start now��" Alea hesitated and nced at Theo.


    Theo, on the other hand, looked down and crossed his arms, contemting.

 Chapter 187 – First Floor

    <h4>Chapter 187 - First Floor</h4>


    After Theo''s decision, the group finally came out of the room, staring at the gentle slope that would bring them to the first level.


    Suddenly, themps started shining, illuminating the whole building, but it wasn''t too bright that it would harm the monsters. Instead, the brightness increased slowly, so the monsters thought the sun came out.


    There was no natural lighting in because of the architecture, but Theo could see that the light was too dim in his perspective.


    Alea and the others quickly used their Night Vision sses.


    It turned out the light was simr to that of the night, allowing them to operate normally with the sses.


    Theo also put it on while checking the first floor.


    He found walls upon walls around the nests, making it look like abyrinth. It wasn''t that confusing, but still enough to block monsters'' visions of the others.


    He also remembered theyout of this facility. Each floor wasn''t that big if one talked about hunting the monsters, but if all floorsbined, they would have at least twenty ser fields.


    Theo knew they were supposed to have at least two thousand monsters inside, making it more than enough for four juniors to reach Champion Rank.


    Theo''s nose was soon filled with a moist smell, signifying the humidity of the area. Although there were no decorations or something, he could see that the floor was filled with dirt and grasses, trying to slightly replicate the outside''s environment.


    Alea turned around and said in a low voice so her voice didn''t echo inside the facility. "Anyway, make sure we don''t talk too much unless we''re fighting since it''s going to make too loud noises. The guys up there will update us on the monsters'' movements, so keep checking the map.


    "It may not be as strong as a satellite, but the room generates enough signal for direct connection, allowing us to see the map. And don''t worry about going all out, this ce has been reinforced by expensive materials. Even if you''re a Hero Rank Monster, you won''t even be able to graze it."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "Don''t worry. We can see their movements and will decide our next course based on their reactions."


    "Okay." Alea nodded and took out her Skylink, informing the five people upstairs. "Lock the first floor. We don''t want to disturb any other floors."


    The middle-aged man heard her voice and replied. "I understand. Please be careful. We will rescue you immediately if something goes wrong."


    "Thanks."


    After hanging up, the middle-aged man went to another screen and asked one of his men. "Sir Nart''s order. Monitor that guy called Theodore Griffith and make sure you capture his every single movement. Sir Nart is interested in that kid."


    "But Sir, isn''t this stalking?" The man tilted his head in confusion.


    "No. This is information gathering." The middle-aged man shrugged and continued, "Anyway, you can prioritize Young Miss and that guy, the rest can do with normal surveince."


    "Roger." The guy then proceeded to shut the floor.


    ��


    Without knowing the secret mission Nart gave them, Theo and the others finally arrived on the first floor. Surprisingly, all exits and gaps had been closed with soundproof materials, making sure that no monsters on the other floor knew what was going on.


    Theo tried to recall the information as he took another look at the first hallway with no monsters spotted.


    ''This facility has five floors. The first floor still has Elite Rank monsters, but from the second floor onwards, everything will be Champion Rank with one Hero Rank monster residing on both the fourth and fifth floors.


    ''And we have seven days here. I think it''s better to use the first four days to clear the three floors since I need to consider the need to stop to rank up��'' After considering his n once again, Theo''s expression turned serious as he said, "Let''s hunt some monsters."


    "Roger." Alea and the others nodded their heads, quickly making their way to the end of the hallway, finding two ways.


    Theo quickly asked them to go left and found another ten-foot wide hallway with only two monsters inside. It was a pair of minotaurs without any weapons. They, instead, covered their fists in metal, preparing to charge at them with both fists and horns.


    Theo summoned forty Magic Bullets, testing whether the monsters would feel his Illusion or not.


    "Magic Bullet."


    All those bullets flew forward, leaving the light blue trail in the air.


    The minotaurs were famous for having a strong body, so they simply crossed their hands in front of them, withstanding all those Magic Bullets.


    Some Magic Bullets hit it and as one would expect, they didn''t pierce the minotaurs'' bodies with only one Magic Bullet alone. However, some real Magic Bullets hit a certain spot together, piercing through their body.


    Still, Theo''s real aim was fulfilled when he saw the minotaurs flinching. They took a step back as if they were hit by forty Magic Bullets instead of ten.


    Theo''s lips curved as he was satisfied with what he had seen. There were so many possibilities he could explore, but it was for another time.


    After all, Alea and Laust had stepped forward, knowing that the two minotaurs had yet to recover from the shock.


    Laust appeared next to the minotaur with his sword above his head. Surprisingly, the minotaur managed to react and waved his hand to the side, trying to blow Laust away.


    Seeing this attack a mile ago, Laust actually faked that preparation and jumped to the side, going around until he reached the minotaur''s back.


    Having no defense that would be able to stop him, Laust shed his sword down. "Moon sh."


    With one clean swing, the de shed the minotaur into two.


    If this already showed Laust''s new prowess, Alea took it to another level. She shed her sword head-on where she met those two metal fists from the minotaur.


    Alea''s sword simply glowed in orange as if the de started heating up, just almost bing moltenva.


    That hot de shed with the metal hands as smoke was produced, melting those hands.


    Alea smiled and continued her swing with all her strength. "This is my new D Rank Skill, Melting Sword."


    She split the minotaur into two with a smug smile.


    Looking at those two, Theo said, "No need to hold back. We don''t have much time, so we will kill them as quickly as possible, allowing us to get more time to recover."


    "Roger."

 Chapter 188 – Show Off

    <h4>Chapter 188 - Show Off</h4>


    The two continue on their path, killing monsters after monsters.


    After killing the around fifty monsters, they stumbled upon a giant room in the corner of the floor.


    ording to the map, this facility had a hundred by a hundred feet room in each corner other than the control room, making it spacious enough to hold at least thirty monsters inside.


    This was the first time Theo and his group faced all those monsters in an enclosed space like this.


    The monsters noticed Theo''s presence due to the noises earlier but didn''t have the intention to move the whole time.


    Theo soon found the reason why the monsters that were supposed to move to follow the ruckus they made actually stayed here. It was a five-foot tall white tiger with purple bat wings on its body.


    It was a Champion Rank Monster, but he could see it was different from the rest. It reminded him of one monster.


    "Hmm�� The same as Hardrock Mammoth�� Rare ss Monster?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    The monsters seemed to have turned this room into their nest.


    Noticing their presence, the white tiger rose from the ground, staring at them while spreading its killing intent.


    Alea and Sihan quickly moved forward, trying to gather their attention first.


    Meanwhile, Theo summoned his clone and summoned twenty Magic Bullets together with his clone, focusing on those monsters in the front.


    It hit several monsters and wounded them, but none of them died yet. Hence, Ellen ced her hand on the ground and summoned Ice Crystals in a fan-shaped area.


    "Ice Wave."


    Alea and Sihan made way for it to go through while they got separated like they nned to. In other words, Alea would take care of the left side while Sihan took the other side with this one ice line as the border.


    Laust pulled his sword as his sword glowed brightly. Seeing that the monsters began to move, Laust waited for a bit to send his attack.


    Unlike him, Phyrill wasn''t that patient. When he saw the ice border, lightning sparked around his body before covering all parts of his body. He then jumped on top of the Ice and hopped from one tip to another without ruining his boot or getting pierced by the sharp-pointed ice tips.


    Phyrill used his Lightning Step to reach the enemies even before Sihan and Alea shed with the monsters.


    "Haha�� I''m going in for the kill." Phyrillughed and moved forward until he reached the white tiger that had yet to move from its position.


    Not liking Phyrilling over to him, the White Tiger leaped to the air, trying to strike him with his paw.


    Because of Phyrill''s lightning, it covered its paw with spinning wind, nning to blow Phyrill away.


    Yet, thetter made a smirk as he had expected it.


    "If you were a Hero Rank Monster, I might not be able to hit you or something, but�� our gap is not that big right now!" Phyrill smirked as he spun his body right before the paw hit, avoiding the attack.


    Surprised by the sudden movement, the tiger widened its eyes and tried to bite him instead.


    However, Phyrill reacted once again by striking his sharp teeth with his swords and used the force of the collision to send him on top of the tiger''s body.


    He raised both swords and cut the tiger a few times as he crossed over the lion''s body. "Multiple shes."


    The tiger suddenly roared before blood began to spurt like a fountain. The top of his body and one of his wings were cut by Phyrill, dyeing the white fur to red.


    It seemed many of them had new techniques in the past month and Theo himself was happy with their improvement because he knew this team could keep getting stronger to fight against the world.


    Due to its wound, the tiger quickly turned around, facing Phyrill with caution. It didn''t want to get any injury like this anymore, albeit it was the real reason he lost. One simply didn''t turn around and left his back to their opponent.


    The moment he saw the opportunity, Laust shed his sword and released a crescent-shaped blue sword wave, cutting through all the ice spikes.


    Phyrill widened his eyes as the white tiger finally noticed what was happening, albeit both of them were toote.


    Laust''s attack had reached the white tiger and split it in half before continuing its journey until it was stopped by the wall, dispersed without leaving any mark.


    Phyrill gritted his teeth and realized that Laust just used him as bait.


    Laust simply showed no emotion as he said with a cold tone. "Thank you."


    "I should have known��" Phyrill clicked his tongue as Laust simply kept growing at a fast rate. Although he wasn''t as cunning as Theo, he indeed hade a long way�� Even surpassing his previous cool head before Theo defeated him in a spar.


    Seeing that both of them had shown something special, Sihan finally stepped up his game. His shield began to shine brightly along with his sword as he walked forward, challenging all those monsters before his eyes.


    He suddenly showed something no one would''ve expected. His shield cut the monster in half as if he was using his sword.


    Theo''s Focused Charge actually inspired him to d his own Shield and turn it into a weapon. He realized that sometimes, defense might be needed, but the best offense might be a good defense at the other time.


    Using that concept, he learned a new skill capable of turning his shield into another de despite not changing its shape. Though, it was enough for him as he had considered the shield as a part of his body.


    "��" Ellen, on the other hand, remained in her position, looking at her teammates that kept evolving and showing off their new prowess. Although Theo hadn''t shown anything outstanding yet, it was enough to turn on her switch.


    Her eyes became extremely cold as she raised her staff, using both Ice Star and Freezing Shot. She made them stand side by side before releasing them at the same time and the same target.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as her attacks hit the floor.


    Theo observed her with a surprised face, thinking, ''Did she�� just use two skills as if she''s using one skill�� What is she gonna do next? Double the amount? Four skills at once? Interesting.''

 Chapter 189 – Progress

    <h4>Chapter 189 - Progress</h4>


    Seeing them show off their current prowess, Theo didn''t have any intention of doing it, knowing that having thestugh was more important than the short win in the front.


    They continued to fight the monsters for a few hours while heading to the control room on the first floor since it was connected to all floors, allowing those who used the facility to have an easy time essing all floors.


    It was a swift sweep from the ground as they managed to clear the first floor in a day. The second day was a bit of a struggle, but it wasn''t that hard.


    The tough part was when Phyrill was required to sit down for a while to get his inheritance. Because the floor was built as a smallbyrinth, the group only needed to protect two entrances, making it easier, but Theo realized something might go wrong if he was the one in Phyrill''s position.


    After all, one couldn''t simply trust Alea since she had messed up a few times, endangering his life continuously. Although it had been solved when he was inmand, he couldn''t do anything if he went to face the snake again, remembering that thetter told him they would meet again.


    In the end, Phyrill finished his inheritance but told the others that the skills he received were a secret, as he nned to show itter when they fought against the Hero Rank Monster.


    Not caring much about his skill, Theo asked the team to keep going, only to find Sihan ranking up not long after. In the end, he let the others rest until Sihan finished adjusting to his current rank like Ellen.


    Another day passed as they barely finished the second floor after a few hours on the third day. At that time, Theo had reached Level 140, considering he had murdered many Level 180 monsters with the help of Alea and the others. He couldn''t do something like that alone, but it didn''t mean he would level up slower than when he was alone.


    Still, the great reason why they could level up this much was due to the Control Room. It was such a perfect room that existed solely to help the people inside level up.


    It provided a resting area, healing area, recovering chambers, and other things. They simply felt their stamina had recovered within one nap thatsted for three to four hours.


    Theo finally saw the reason why big families like the Eilric Family were able to create many experts at the same time. He even thought about acquiring a facility like this from a big family, but it wouldn''t be possible unless he made a big name for himself in the Grand Gaia.


    Hence, he nned to realize that wish and used his big name to raise his worth and option in the future without caring about his identity anymore. He indeed had waited for too long.


    When they were recovering from their fatigue before hitting the third floor, Alea came to him.


    She asked about his blessing, noticing that things might not go as nned if she were in charge. Theo praised her without mentioning the danger he met due to her mess to avoid hinting at anything that led to Joker.


    Although Theo didn''t answer her much, he already had some ns in his mind.


    In the end, the group continued on the third floor, hunting down monsters as Laust ranked up while the others protected him.


    Before his turn came, Theo asked the others to turn around, hitting all the monsters that chased after them this whole time.


    It was a normal move that Theo always used from time to time, but they were surprised he asked it so early.


    Even so, no oneined about his decision as the group kept hunting those monsters on their back. Unknowingly, the group had been moving to the Control Room as Theo maintained his level at 150 for a while until they were close to the Control Room before killing a monster that literally maxed his EXP Points.


    Theo received the same pain that he experienced in the past. It was none other than the call from the blessing, but he didn''t know what to expect in this call other than skill.


    The group soon realized that they had returned to the front field in front of the Control Room. It wasn''t surprising, but they didn''t know what to do and continued hunting the monsters.


    Alea, on the other hand, noticed Theo''s face that gradually turned pale as if he endured massive pain. She knew that Theo needed to stay inside the safe ce for a while before she realized why he led the team back to the Control Room.


    Alea tried to call him out, but thetter had already opened the Control Room''s door, which stunned everyone.


    They all stopped and looked at him with a confused expression, but the answer indeed surprised all the people except Alea as they heard, "I need to stay inside."


    Everything happened in an instant as the group realized why Theo had them hunting near the control room where he could stay safe inside.


    It turned out that when he reached Level 150, he needed to receive his inheritance. In other words, Theo actually had a blessing and no one knew about it.


    Alea thought Theo had just hidden it well when they were hunting together, but the others didn''t share the same opinion. Instead, Phyrill and Ellen were utterly shocked by the revtion because they thought only Alea and Phyrill had gotten a blessing in their group.


    Sihan, on the other hand, remained silent and observed him. But Laust�� He crossed his arms and gripped them tightly while gnashing his teeth, knowing that he had lost to Theo once again.


    Theo didn''t care about their opinion since people would realize it sooner orter. As long as they didn''t know that his blessing was a God Rank Blessing, it should be fine, making him even more mysterious.


    He simply entered the control room and sat on the floor, facing another great "battle".

 Chapter 190 – Fenrir

    <h4>Chapter 190 - Fenrir</h4>


    After entering the Control Room, sitting down and closing his eyes. His pain gradually subsided as his consciousness appeared in another ce.


    This time, it wasn''t ake or anything. Instead, it was a giant in filled with green grasses reaching to his knees. He could see five hundred feet of hills surrounding the areas, making him unable to see the end of this grass field.


    The sky was blue and the wind gently brushed his skin.


    Theo looked around, finding no one to be found.


    "Ehm�� Mr. Serpent? Or should I call you by your name?" Theo asked with a hesitant but polite voice, not wanting to be rude, especially to someone he had no way to kill.


    Suddenly, the same giant serpent made his appearance, crawling on the hills. Its enormous body made the hill small inparison.


    The serpent descended the hill without any sign of its other end appearing, reinforcing the myth of him.


    "It seems you remember me."


    "Ehm, yeah. You said we would meet again and it''s not that long either." Theo nodded.


    The serpent nodded and didn''t continue the conversation. Instead, he looked in the opposite direction, confusing Theo.


    Before Theo could speak, he heard footsteps echoing. Every step it took shook the ground as an enormous wolf appeared on top of the hill, looking down on him.


    The fifteen-foot white wolf finally made his appearance as he descended from the hill in an instant, stopping before Theo.


    Theo had got a clear vision this time, realizing its ferocious and bloodthirsty eyes. He realized that this wolf was none other than the famous legendary wolf, Fenrir.


    He opened his mouth and showed its sharp fangs, saying, "So, this is the one?"


    "Yes." The serpent nodded and said, "I have seen his talent. And HE is satisfied with him."


    HE in his mouth was probably the one who gave him the blessing, the God of Mischief.


    The wolf narrowed his eyes and looked Theo in the eyes.


    Theo''s heart beat rapidly, but he had the feeling that the wolf was testing him, so he stared back without flinching.


    After a while, the wolf looked away and snorted. "Hmph. I guess his talent barely passes. I don''t care anyway."


    "In any case, you need to give him something." The serpent calmly said as Theo remembered when the snake gave him a skill, Blink.


    The wolf shrugged. "You''ve given him my abilityst time and you want me to give him another one?"


    "Your ability is more effective than mine and it fits him very well."


    "Hmph. I refuse. But��" The wolf suddenly thought something and said, "If you can hit me once, I will give you one skill��"


    Before he finished his speech, Theo already summoned his Magic Bullet after finding he could do it when the wolf gave him the challenge.


    "So, you are already raring to go. Fine, I am��" Unknown whether it was something normal or not, but he always stopped in the middle of his speech for various reasons.


    This time, he stopped due to Theo''s Magic Bullet.


    Instead of flying to him, Theo''s Magic Bullets actually flew straight to the serpent''s head.


    The wolf widened his eyes and looked at Theo''s ungratefulness since the serpent was actually the one who tried convincing him to give a skill.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullet hit and exploded right on the serpent''s head as the wolf turned around and red at Theo while berating him in anger. "What are you doing? Do you know��"


    Once again, he stopped and realized Theo was nowhere in his vision. He only heard the serpent saying, "What a cunning child. You''ve won."


    The wolf soon realized and looked down, finding Theo''s fist connected to his leg.


    Before the wolf scolded him, the serpent continued, "Not fearing to do something unpredictable�� And even if people will be angry with your action, you have managed to do three things. First, you managed to distract this brother of mine and won his challenge. Second, you managed to check what I was. Andst but not least, you just proved yourself."


    "Wait a minute. Did you just forgive this child? He is like those ungrateful Gods and Goddesses! Hmph! They were leeches! Even though they were benefitting every time, they��"


    Before the wolf finished, the serpent stopped him and shook his head. He didn''t show a hint of anger. Instead, he gently praised and warned him. "Your cunningness is good, but I''m sure that you will be easily misunderstood in the future.


    "However, no matter what you do, you should keep pressing forward. Every problem has a solution. You just need to discover it even if it means benefiting people you don''t like."


    Theo fell silent and lowered his head. "I''m sorry for earlier."


    "It''s fine. I know your intention." The serpent then looked at the wolf. "Now, it''s your turn to deliver the promise."


    "Hmph!" He looked reluctant, but the wolf extended its paw. "Touch it."


    Theo hesitated for a second but still touched the paw with his palm before a surge of knowledge flowed inside his mind.


    Skill: Telekinesis (D)


    Effect: Entry Level of Telekinesis. Able to lift small objects and control them with Magic Power.


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 D Rank Skills and 20 E Rank Skills


    "This power should be able to get you far in life." The wolf snorted.


    The serpent, on the other hand, wanted to close this meeting soon, so he stated. "Sincest time, I gave you a message. This time, I will allow you to ask me one question. I promise to give you an honest answer."


    Theo widened his eyes and looked down, contemting his question. There were so many things he wanted to ask, but he remembered that the serpent waspletely fine after being hit by the Magic Bullet, meaning that the serpent still contained a bit of its power. And that degree of power wasn''t that high, considering the wolf couldn''t react to his movement.


    He then asked, wanting to confirm something. "Are you all still alive?"


    The serpent was quite surprised by this question as he chuckled before shaking his head. "Unfortunately, not. We''ve died in the past. Unfortunately, I can''t tell you the details, but I can promise you that someday you will know. Curiosity, rationality, and patience�� I wonder which one wille at the top."


    Theo knew that the serpent signaled him that he was free to seek the knowledge, but he wanted to see his rationality whether he wanted to wait or pursue the depth of the mystery. Theo could also choose the third way, waiting.


    The wolf harrumphed as he didn''t want to get interrupted once again.


    "You''ve done here. Go back." The wolf waved his paw and sent Theo back to his real body.

 Chapter 191 – Champion Rank

    <h4>Chapter 191 - Champion Rank</h4>


    After what felt like a long talk, Theo finally opened his eyes, finding Alea sitting next to him while the rest fought outside.


    "Good morning." Alea smiled and knew what Theo would ask in this situation. She quickly exined without waiting for the question. "The others are fighting outside, not wanting to lose to you. After all, you just gave them a shock��"


    "Only ten percent of the entire world''s hunters will receive a blessing. Then, they''re categorized from Normal Rank Blessing to God Rank Blessing. It''s no wonder that they''re shocked." Theo nodded in understanding.


    He then closed his eyes for a little longer and recalled what he got from the wolf. The Telekinesis seemed to be good, but he couldn''t picture himself levitating in the air just yet.


    It seemed the power needed to be improved. Only C Rank if not B Rank Telekinesis would allow him to fly.


    When he opened his eyes, he asked, "Why are you waiting for me?"


    "I wasn''t shocked." She shrugged and turned around, looking at the door as if she was looking at the others fighting outside. "Unlike them, I don''t see any reason for you to not have a blessing. It''s true that blessings are rare, but whether you have it or not, I don''t think it will be a problem. You have that brain of yours after all."


    Theo looked her in the eyes and shook his head. "Anyway, I''ve finished the process, so it''s a good time to continue. Besides, the hunt will be focusing on you and Ellen. As for me, my ultimate goal is to reach Level 200, but I don''t think it''s possible to do it within three weeks."


    Before he heard her reply, Theo tried to look at his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 151


    EXP: 0/50000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (E), Clone (D), Cannon st (E), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Telekinesis (D), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 230, Endurance 123, Agility 132, Vitality 119, Magic Power 230


    Free Attribute Points: 48


    ''It seems I''ve got 48 points after ranking up, which is good. It''s one more point than my previous rank-up. And due to theck of a slot, I need to sacrifice my Focused Charge and rece it with my Telekinesis.


    ''In any case, I have filled all my needs from Fighter Skills such as Swift Energy and Cannon st, my Magician Skill such as Telekinesis and Magic Bullet, and Illusionist Skill like Illusion Multiplier and Maniption. It means I only need to change my Haste this time to something more useful, but we will see��'' Theo was satisfied with the arrangement since he managed to bnce his skill.


    At the same time, he divided the free attribute points to Endurance, Agility, and Vitality equally.


    He wanted to upgrade his skills right now, but he knew that the guards were observing him the whole time.


    And it was probably Nart''s order. Hence, he postponed the n and leveled up both his Swift Energy and Cannon stter when they were outside the facility.


    He would also have enough D Rank Skills to level up one skill to C Rank after this one month.


    Theo then rose from the ground and extended his hand to Alea, helping her up, while saying, "Anyway, it''s time for us to go."


    "Yep." Alea smiled and opened the door.


    After locating them from the map, Theo and Alea headed toward them. It took them two minutes before they regrouped with the team and Theo began in control again.


    Obviously, Laust became even more frustrated to know that Theo had a blessing. Theo could also feel it, especially when Laust waste every time he gave an order and started bing a bit of a rebel again.


    Phyrill, on the other hand, kept asking him to join his family and promised him many things. Unfortunately for him, Theo rejected his offer every single time.


    Ellen didn''t say anything, but it was present that she was thrilled for Theo''s blessing. She was the only one who genuinely felt happy for him.


    She simply remembered Theo''s past, knowing that the bullied man had finally grown up and gradually became someone everyone looked up to. Theo had been working hard this whole time and she was one of the few people who saw that progress in the VIP Seat other than his master since Ellen taught him Force Control. And she knew Theo deserved this.


    She congratted him and encouraged him to ride the wave.


    Theo also thanked her and continued with killing the monsters.


    Due to his improvement, even though Theo hadn''t used his Telekinesis yet, the group had improved by a lot. Surprisingly, Theo realized something from this rank-up.


    Although he barely confirmed it, he realized his Five Aspects had improved. His Awareness had reached as far as 50 feet and his Technique had be even better as he learned more about how to move his muscles, understanding the techniques he learned from his master.


    It was such a big improvement for him, knowing that he started closing to Alea Eilric''s back, the number one among the younger generation.


    Unfortunately for him, the gap needed to get a bit bigger again due to the assignment as Alea and Ellen delivered the killing blow most of the time to level up.


    Nevertheless, the group also knew that once Alea and Ellen finished ranking up to Hero Rank, they could aim as high as possible.


    Hence, they were a bit more energetic when clearing the rest of the third floor and quickly went to the fourth floor afterward, clearing the monsters while trying to make their way to the Hero Rank Monster.


    Although they couldn''t reach it on the fourth day, they believed they would be able to kill the Hero Rank Monster on the fifth day, albeit there was one miscalction Theo had made.


    The miscalction was that both Hero Rank Monsters positioned themselves at the same position on their own floor. And everything soon turned worse after they arrived in front of the fourth floor''s Hero Rank Monster.

 Chapter 192 – Unexpected Guest

    <h4>Chapter 192 - Unexpected Guest</h4>


    The next day.


    After several hours of struggle, Theo and his friend had finally arrived in the corner of the fourth floor, finding a six-foot-tall rhino. Its body was covered with fire to the point they couldn''t find any of its skin. However, the intense heat from the rhino warmed up their skin. They noticed the reason there wasn''t any monster in this space other than him was due to the heat.


    Ellen''s Ice Magic might prove to be useful in this battle, so Theo said, "Alea, Sihan, take care of him from the front. Phyrill, Laust, go hit the rhino from the side. Ellen and I will help you from behind. We''re lucky to meet a Hero Rank Monster without any bodyguards."


    They agreed with Theo and moved to their position.


    Seeing the intruder, the rhino rose from the floor and covered his face and horn with fire. Thisbination not only would tear someone open, but it might also melt their organ once hit by the rhino.


    To that end, Sihan came to the front with his shield and used it as a second sword. He then decreased his speed right before the rhino''s eyes and hit his horn with his shield.


    Clink.


    The collision ended in an instant with Sihan getting blown away. It was to be expected since thetter didn''t use his Frenzy and the rhino''s overall strength was stronger than the mammoth, who only relied on good defense and body weight.


    He rolled a few times on the ground and stopped.


    Before the rhino managed to run him over, Alea appeared next to it and struck its neck.


    "Inch sh."


    The rhino had expected this to happen and formed a spinning fire that burst out to her sword, sting it away before she couldplete her swing. Luckily, Alea''s grip was pretty strong, so the sword didn''t fly. Instead, she was pushed several feet back.


    This time, Phyrill made his move and used his Lightning Step to close their distance before using his head to strike the rhino on its stomach.


    As one would expect from a C Rank Skill, it had the same effect as when Theo hunted the E Rank monsters with his Magic Bullet.


    The moment Phyrill''s translucent green helmet struck the rhino, it momentarily swayed to the side.


    The rhino even took one second to understand what was going on by looking at Phyrill, seeing his "Jade Head" skill.


    Theo then appeared on the side and used his Magic Bullet, cloning it to forty Magic Bullets. All Magic Bullets then hit the rhino from the side.


    Theo realized one of the ws of his Clone Magic Bullet this time. Before the Magic Bullets were able to hit him, the Magic Bullets had evaporated, meaning he couldn''t allow the clone Magic Bullets to hit something.


    Only the remaining ten real Magic Bullets somehow hit the rhino on the body. The shock wave from the explosion slightly scattered the me covering his body, revealing its jade ck skin.


    "Ellen, freeze the fire please," Theo shouted, noticing that they might be able to kill the rhino if they managed to put down his fire. After all, the rhino''s skin wasn''t as strong as the mammoth''s.


    "Roger." Ellen agreed and stepped in front of the rhino while tapping the ground with her staff. "Frosty Misty."


    A white freezing-cold mist appeared from beneath her feet before thetter moved out of the way.


    The rhino didn''t have the time to stop and charged right through it, only to find that the freezing temperature extinguished his fire and lowered his body temperature in an instant.


    Laust then took this chance to kill the rhino.


    "Water Moon Wave."


    A crescent-shaped blue sword wave flew inside the freezing mist and turned into an ice wave instead of water. The ice then hit the rhino on the neck and blew it away from the mist.


    Remembering the agreement they had with Theo before leaving the castle, their eyes turned greedy in an instant, wanting to kill this monster as soon as possible.


    Seeing thatpetition was inevitable, Alea decided to stand by and watch what would happen. After all, she had killed a Hero Rank Monster and it wouldn''t be fair if she continued to hunt for another one unless necessary.


    Sihan, Phyrill and Ellen approached the rhino at the same time. And Theo quickly shouted, "Thanks."


    I wenty Magic Bullets appeared on top of his hand and his clone, which he summoned a moment ago. He knew that his challenge would turn them greedy, making it a perfect opportunity for him to take this chance.


    The three realized and nced at him, knowing that the Magic Bullets would hit the rhino first before they could kill him. Though, there was no guarantee that Theo could kill it and the rest should be able to take advantage of that wound to kill the rhino, but�� Things turned unexpectedly.


    If everything went well, they would be able to kill the rhino in this one sh, but fate certainly liked to y a prank with them.


    Before Theo released his Magic Bullets, he, who was near the wall, suddenly sensed something behind the wall.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes and leaped to the front while looking at the wall behind him. His Magic Bullets were in disarray before disappearing into thin air.


    Everyone was surprised by his action, but they needed to focus on the rhino, only to find themselves unable to do it after hearing a loud bang on the wall.


    It was so loud that it made them understand the graveness of this matter.


    Alea and the others tried to use their Awareness to check on the wall and found a huge body moving toward them. It wasn''t supposed to happen, but they soon saw a five-foot-wide snake emerge from the corner, crawling to them.


    In that instant, Theo knew that the snake was none other than the second Hero Rank Monster that should reside on the fifth floor.


    The miscalction Theo had made was the fact that if he could find someone''s presence through the wall, the Hero Rank monster should be able to do it as well.


    With his experience, he knew how intelligent a General ss Monster was. And there was a possibility that the monster could actually sense them with their own Awareness.


    Theo hurriedly turned around and shouted, "Enemy!"

 Chapter 193 – Theo’s Scheme

    <h4>Chapter 193 - Theo��s Scheme</h4>


    A few minutes ago, the control room had noticed the movement of the second Hero Rank monster.


    "Sir�� Sir�� I think you need to see this," informed the guy who was watching the bottom floor. Theo and his group had cleared the entire first three floors, so he was able to focus on the fifth floor, not letting any kind of movement escape on his watch.


    The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and went to his screen, finding the snake had begun to move.


    He stopped for a moment and observed the snake before realizing that the snake was nning to head to the floor above it to fight against Theo and the others.


    "This guy wants to help the rhino." The middle-aged man muttered while contemting his order.


    The guy, who found it, looked at him and asked, "Should we move to prevent the snake?"


    "��" The middle-aged man took a deep breath and shook his head. "No. We will let them handle it."


    "But Sir!" The guy obviously didn''t want to y with lives because Alea was among them.


    However, the middle-aged man only said, "I have gotten the report about their previous achievement to give me another consideration before sending help. In that document, I found that the group killed a Hero Rank monster when Young Miss and her best friend, Ellen, barely reached Champion Rank. The others were Elite Rank."


    "What?!" The guy widened his eyes, obviously couldn''t believe what he heard.


    "Yes. I know that it''s hard for you to believe, but this was due to themanding ability of a certain person."


    "Theodore Griffith." The guy sucked a cold breath, knowing why Nart Eilric wanted to keep a close eye on him.


    Fighting talent could easily be trained, but leadership was hard and a huge part of it required talent.


    "Since they all have reached Champion Rank, are we going to let them fight the two monsters at the same time?" The guy asked for confirmation even though he already knew the answer.


    "Yes. As long as no other monsters bothered them." The middle-aged man nodded before looking at the two next to him. "Even so, we need to be ready at any time. You two will prepare yourself to join the battle if necessary."


    The two acknowledged his order and rose from their seats.


    ��


    While those five were upied with what they were asked to do, Theo had already made his decision. The moment he saw the snake, Theo quickly shouted, "Alea. You''re useless. Go fight the snake instead of the rhino."


    She knew that her me wasn''t that useful, especially her new skill, Melting Sword, so Alea quickly leaped to the side, trying to face the snake by herself while shouting, "Theo, you should pay attention to your words."


    "No time." Theo shrugged andmanded the others. "Ellen, you''re going to be with me. While Alea keeps the snake on the corner, Sihan, Laust, and Phyrill will kill the rhino."


    "Understood." All of them acknowledged his decision.


    Because of the snake''s sudden appearance, they didn''t manage to kill the rhino first, but luckily, the me had yet to recover, meaning the rhino was still weakened.


    Ellen quickly pulled back and came to Theo, positioning themselves between the two monsters.


    Laust and Phyrill then ran to the side of the rhino, trying to gather his focus while Sihan took the full charge as if he nned to face it head-on.


    The people in the control room were amazed by how fast they transitioned. Their fast reaction speed was top-notch, but Theo''s quick thinking indeed solved the immediate problem.


    But what made them even more surprised was Theo''s skill.


    He summoned his clone again and used his Magic Bullet. However, Theo went one step further and used his Illusion Multiplier on both him and his clone, turning the two Magic Bullets into eight before splitting them into eighty Magic Bullets.


    "Now, now. Let''s try this, shall we?" Theo smirked and finally showed the result of his training in front of the others.


    "Wha��Since when you''re that good at controlling your Magic Power?" Ellen couldn''t help butment, only to find Theopletely ignored her and shot the Magic Bullets to the snake.


    However, he made sure that his Magic Bullets slightly missed the target, including Alea, and used the tracking to bend the Magic Bullets back to the original target.


    All eighty bullets turned and hit the snake, who thought Theo just missed him.


    Alea widened her eyes and leaped backward, watching how all Magic Bullets hit the target.


    "Scree!"


    The snake let out a scream with his body swaying left and right.


    Alea could see that only a few Magic Bullets managed to pierce through the snake''s skin, injuring it.


    "Inch sh." Alea didn''t want to waste this opportunity and struck the snake with the skill that killed the Hardrock Mammoth.


    The snake felt the invisible energying to him, tilted his head to the right, and opened its mouth, biting the invisible energy.


    "��" Alea simply stared at the snake dumbfoundedly, never expecting that a snake could actually bite it and eventually destroy it.


    Ellen wanted to get thest hit, but she needed to help the other three. She realized that Theo had manipted the battlefield to the point there was only him and Alea fighting the Hero Rank monster.


    Knowing Alea''s personality, she would surely leave someone to kill the monster because of thepetition.


    In other words, Theo had just made a situation where he became the winner as long as they beat the snake first before the rhino.


    And yes, everything was like what she thought. A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he used his Blink to appear next to the snake while pulling his spear.


    "Swift Energy."


    The spear''s de started shining in golden color.


    Alea nced at him and realized his n before her sword turned bright red and charged forward.


    "Theo, it''s not fair to the others. I''m going to kill this one to make it fair." Alea surprisingly didn''t like the idea and wanted the snake for herself.


    Theo ignored her and aimed his spear. The situation required the snake to choose whether to repel Alea or Theo because he might die if he made a wrong choice.


    Yet, thetter actually showed the real might of a Hero Rank Monster. He raised his head, opened its mouth and formed a green-colored liquid on top of its head before it burst in all directions.


    "!!!" Alea and Theo widened their eyes. Alea used her Fortitude while Theo summoned two Elemental Shields at the same time to block this attack.

 Chapter 194 – Easier To Kill But More Dangerous

    <h4>Chapter 194 - Easier To Kill But More Dangerous</h4>


    The green liquid sttered all over the floor and their shields. Theo had two Elemental Shields, but one melted while the other one was half destroyed. Alea, on the other hand, saw her shield having no problem.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and realized that her shield was more special than he thought. Considering thetter got the shield from her blessing, it was obvious that it wasn''t your typical shield.


    ''Huft. I really need to work harder. My D Rank Elemental Shield is not enough.'' Theomented on his skill.


    Little did he know, Alea didn''t share the same opinion. She simply found that Theo could summon two shields from his Elemental Shield amazing.


    She bought that skill together with Theo at that time, so she knew the exact description of that skill. It was impossible to summon two shields unless Theo did something special.


    And the only thought in her mind was Theo''s Force Control. She dropped her jaw and thought, ''Did his Force Control allow him to wield two shields? Is he still a human? How can someone evolve so fast?''


    Unfortunately for them, both of them didn''t have time to praise each other''s skills as they had trouble with the snake.


    Theo took a nce to the side and summoned his clone to help the other four. They seemed to be struggling, so Theo nned to finish both monsters at the same time.


    Not knowing his n, Alea didn''t fear the snake anymore and charged forward. Seeing her shield didn''t melt, the snake recognized Alea as its true contender.


    Alea could see that the other end of the snake had emerged from the corner, revealing its true length. The snake was a very long one. At least fifty feet in length, the snake suddenly looped around Alea with his skin covered in a white liquid.


    "Poison," Theo warned Alea while looking at the residual poison that got sttered on the ground. Surprisingly, the poison didn''t melt the ground, which was weird. If the poison was enough to melt his Elemental Shield, the ground should start to melt. But if it didn''t work�� Theo raised his eyebrows as he noticed something useful.


    The snake then opened its mouth once again and formed a white liquid. He spat that white liquid right at Alea before Theo used his Blink to appear between them, blocking Alea from that liquid.


    Surprisingly, the Elemental Shield that melted earlier didn''t even feel anything and simply let the poison dripped from the shield and touched the ground. This time, the ground began to melt.


    "Theo?!" Alea was still clueless about what happened, but Theo didn''t have the time to exin. He said, "I have a n. I need you to hit the tail for me."


    Alea didn''t understand his reasoning, but when she was about to reject, Theo leaped forward.


    Although there were some mysteries, especially why Theo shielded her earlier, she decided to follow Theo''s order and ran to the tail.


    Knowing Alea was stronger than Theo, the head moved to the tail instead of facing him.


    Alea used her Melting Sword and struck the tail immediately.


    The snake surprisingly flipped over to avoid serious damage and scattered the white liquid all over the ground.


    With the snake facing Alea, Theo covered his spear in golden light once again,pleting the move he couldn''t earlier.


    "Swift Energy."


    He struck the snake three times on its head and at the exact same spot, piercing through the snake''s skin.


    [Killed a Dual Poison Snake.]


    [EXP+401200]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and felt good, knowing that the snake gave him seven levels at once. He remembered when he killed an Elite Rank monster when he was a mere Level 7 and leveled him up more than ten times, it was insane. He never thought he would be able to experience it again.


    Still, if this snake were his first kill, he might end up reaching Elite Rank in an instant.


    Although the EXP he received from the monster increased as his level increased, the requirement for each level also increased, so he felt nothing about this insane amount of EXP points.


    "Theo?!" Alea furrowed her eyebrows while Theo pointed at the ground.


    "Before talking about other things, how about thanking me for saving you first?" Theo shrugged and looked at the other party, who almost killed the other monster. He didn''t want to have a lengthy lecture from Alea after an anti-climatic ending.


    He never thought that they managed to kill two Hero Rank monsters at the same time. But considering their current firepower, it should be enough to overpower two of them unless they had other monsters near them, making the battle overlyplicated.


    "Huh?" Alea tilted her head in confusion, wondering what he meant by saving her.


    Theo pointed his finger to the ground as she saw the melting dirt and the normal one.


    "��" She was dumbfounded and seemed to have noticed what was going on. After a while, she drew a gasp and stared at him in disbelief. Even so, her mouth still said, "Thank you."


    "You''re wee." Theo nodded. "It seems the green liquid can melt Magic Power while the white liquid only affects the physical body. Your Shield��"


    "Yes. It''s rted to my sword. The strength of my shield depends on my sword''s materials." Alea exined while feeling guilty. She knew that if she took on that white liquid, she might be injured, if not heavily injured.


    "As expected. Anyway, I can confidently say that the snake is easier to kill than the mammoth, but it''s certainly more dangerous because you almost died." Theo nced at her, exining the difference between both monsters.


    "Yeah." Alea agreed and noticed that the other teams had finished as well with Ellen delivering the killing blow.


    Theo ced his hand on the snake''s skin and turned the snake into one Skill Card and two Material Cards. Ellen did the same thing before regrouping with Theo and Alea.


    "I think we can agree that we''re capable enough to kill a Hero Rank monster as long as we''re careful��" Theo stated with a serious expression.


    The others nodded while Phyrill raised his hand. "My right hand is still numb. I need to rest."


    "Yeah. We should rest first and continueter." Theo smiled and tossed the loots into his bag.

 Chapter 195 – Lycaon

    <h4>Chapter 195 - Lycaon</h4>


    Three weekster.


    Theo stood in front of his teammates. They had returned to the Art Beats Castle safely and strong as if they were not like their previous selves.


    Theo''s face was tired, but he still maintained his calm, saying, "We have finished our assignments. All of you should get rest soon and send me the footage of the huntster. I will hand it to the instructor."


    "No, no. I will be the one finishing the matter. You''ve worked too hard, Theo. You deserve to rest." Alea waved her hand.


    Theo closed his eyes and recalled what happened in the past three weeks.


    After killing the two Hero Rank monsters, the group continued their hunt, focusing on Alea and Ellen.


    Theomanded them and made ns after ns. It was tough because he also needed to hunt during the day.


    That was why Ellen often helped him a little bit by making him something warm every time. Phyrill wanted to help, but Theo knew that his health had been deteriorating, so he didn''t wish to burden him more to avoid anyone from copsing.


    And he couldn''t trust Sihan and Laust, so he decided to agree with Alea''s suggestion, knowing that his data would be safe in her hands.


    He nodded and said, "Alright. I will leave everything to you."


    "Yes."


    Before dismissing them, Theo looked down for a moment, falling into deep thought. ''Alea and Ellen had reached Level 250 a few days ago�� I think Alea has surpassed Level 270 while Ellen is around Level 260, but that''s just my rough calction.


    ''Although I couldn''t reach my target, my level is already quite high, so I don''t think I will lose against people from other countries. This is the best thing I can do for the team, so I guess I should leave it at that. Well, I''m curious about Alea''s blessing skill she received right after bing a Hero Rank Expert since she keeps saying that the skill would help her tremendously after she can control it.''


    ''There is still a need to update my status in the Temple too�� Argh, I still have many things to do.'' Theo let out a long sigh and decided to finish his tasks one by one.


    "Let''s return then. I am tired." Theo sighed.


    "How abouting to my house a few dayster? We can update our status together since I have the necessary equipment." Alea winked her eyes to Theo.


    Phyrill was the first to recognize her n in poaching Theo and wanted to stop her, but Theo had already rejected her. "No thanks. The temples are more trustworthy."


    "Wha��" Alea dropped her jaw, but thetter already turned around while saying, "Alright. Dismissed. Let''s talk in the group chatter."


    The others ignored the shocked Alea and followed Theo to the Teleportation Circle.


    Laust returned almost immediately while Alea decided to visit her grandfather at first. Ellen took a ride in Sihan''s car, leaving only Theo and Phyrill standing in front of the circle.


    Theo didn''t go home immediately after noticing Phyrill''s condition.


    While waiting, Phyrill started telling him a certain story. "Theo�� Do you know why I want to recruit you? This time, it''s for a genuine reason."


    Theo didn''t open his mouth as if saying he was listening.


    "I guess you''re fine to know about this. My blessinges from a werewolf."


    "That''s not the first time I''ve heard it."


    "Yes, of course. But there is one thing that not many people know. The werewolf is not an ordinary werewolf." Phyrill smiled and continued, "It''s the first werewolf. My twisted head actuallyes from the blessing�� Yes, the one who gave me a blessing is a legendary king of Arcadia, an impious and cruel king who tried to trick Zeus into eating human flesh, Lycaon.


    "Due to the origin, I received a curse along with it as well. It''s my tiny and weak body. I have a way to ovee the curse, but it''s not possible unless I''m a Hero Rank, if not Supreme Rank. That''s why I would like to apologize first if I end up letting you down. And you see, I have a sense of threat against Alea or any other people who have blessings�� Except you. I feel like I can trust you."


    Phyrill decided to tell him his origin to warn Theo before the big important event.


    Theo closed his eyes and thought, ''Hmm? Lycaon? Zeus? They''re both from Greek while minees from Norse Mythology�� Or does it make sense considering both of them are into trickery?''


    He couldn''t find the answer, so he redirected the topic. "You''re too tired and started mumbling unimportant things."


    Obviously, Theo acknowledged Phyrill and Ellen as only those two who helped him during the entire ordeal, but he couldn''t trust him fully yet.


    "Is that so? I''m probably too tired, I guess." Phyrill''s lips curved before he turned around, finding that the car that was supposed to pick him up had arrived. "Do you want a ride?"


    "It''s fine. My house is not far." Theo shook his head and watched Phyrill waving his hand with that pale face until he couldn''t see the car anymore.


    Theo then walked back to his home, opening his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Elite


    Level: 193


    EXP: 13451/100459


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (D), Clone (D), Cannon st (D), Magic Bullet (D), Haste (E), Telekinesis (D), Blink (D), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 290, Endurance 169, Agility 178, Vitality 165, Magic Power 290


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    After a long six months, he finally reached Level 193 from Level 7. He didn''t know what to say as nostalgia filled his heart.


    "I have ranked up all my skills to D Rank, except for Haste. Maybe I should search for a recement tomorrow when I submit all my missions to the temples while updating my own status."


    He stopped for a moment and took out all his skills from the backpack while muttering, "I wonder which one is a good skill to upgrade. I think everything has gone exceptionally well this whole time other than my level and I can utilize the help from the government to rank up another D Rank Skill along with my money, so I will end up with four C Rank and six D Rank Skills�� It''s awesome."


    "In that case�� I will rank this skill up." He had considered this skill to be the most useful to fight against humans, so he wanted to rank it up once more.


    Five D Rank Skills and ten E Rank Skills quickly disappeared from his hand as he saw the new upgraded version of his skill.


    Skill: Blink (C) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank C skills and 30 Rank D skills


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to fifty feet from them. Due to the current skill rank, the user has a limited amount of distance. The distance can be increased by upgrading the skill.

 Chapter 196 – Flowmotion

    <h4>Chapter 196 - Flowmotion</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo woke up and felt refreshed. All the fatigue from one month of training had gone away. In fact, he felt a bit more energetic than his usual self and finally had the time to think about his next move.


    He opened his Skylink and sent a message to his assistant from the temples, telling them that he wanted to update his status.


    Surprisingly, Sarah, his assistant from Warrior Temple, replied that she was free and could do the update today. The other one required three days to finish his job before he could make time for his update.


    After telling her that he would arrive at the Warrior Temple after lunch, Theo rose from the bed and took a shower.


    He walked outside his home and took a bus to the Assassin Temple. He still remembered how Phyrill, Laust, and Sihan killed a Hero Rank Monster. Although it was a bit disappointing as there was no leap in their performance other than their overall ability from level up, he felt it should be enough for the time being.


    On the way, he sent Alea the record of him killing monsters, especially from his Assassin ID Card. Theo also searched for missions to submit as soon as he arrived at the Assassin Temple. After all, both identities couldn''t share the contribution points, so he chose to do it for his Joker''s identity.


    Upon his arrival, he quickly went to the receptionist to submit the missions he just picked.


    Name: Joker


    Level: 24


    Attributes: Strength B, Endurance D, Agility C, Vitality D, Magic Power C


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: -


    Kill: 2021 (+)


    Zils: 720,000


    Contribution Points: 2000 (2000)


    Obviously, the one who helped him with the missions was dumbstruck when he saw a Level 24 hunter was able to get two thousand contribution points. He even asked Theo for an update, but Theo said he had an appointment with his assistant three dayster.


    After that, he quickly asked the receptionist to update his privilege level and guide him to buy skills.


    The receptionist was more than happy to guide him while Theo thought how good it was to have so much money in his ount. He hadn''t even sold every Material Cards in his possession.


    Even after settling his debt with Nart, he should still have five hundred thousand left. He needed to start saving his money for a house and a Hero Rank Weapon.


    The receptionist then handed him a catalog for the skill of an Illusionist. He was stunned when he saw so many illusion techniques.


    Blurry Vision (E)


    Sweet Poison (D)


    Mental Retribution (E)


    He swiftly looked through the catalog until he stumbled upon one skill, a perfect skill to rece his Haste.


    Skill: Flowmotion (E) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 Rank E skills


    Effect: The user can use the environment to their advantage, allowing them to perform feats such as kicking off almost any surface.


    In that instant, he believed, instead of speed, flexibility was his top priority since he couldbine this move with his Blink, making it more unpredictable.


    Theo quickly bought the skill for 300 Contribution Points and left the Assassin Temple.


    He then grabbed a bite beforeing to the Fighter Temple to meet his assistant.


    Surprisingly, Sarah had been waiting for him in the lobby and approached him as soon as she saw his figure.


    "Hello, how are you doing? I''m d that I can do an update for you." Sarah offered her warmest smile. She had seen so many people noting back after a mission, so she just felt relieved that Theo wasn''t like them.


    Theo smiled and shook her hand. "I''m great. How are you?"


    "Awesome. Do you want to do the update right now or do something else?"


    "I will do the update."


    "Alright. Let me guide you."


    She led him to the previous room, where his status was made. And fate decided to let him meet the same person who issued his status.


    "Mister An, can I ask you for help? I would like to do a status update." Sarah smiled and called the middle-aged man.


    "Ho?" Mister An widened his eyes in amusement. "If I am not wrong, you''re the guy from a few months ago��"


    "Hello, I''m back here again."


    "That''s great. At least, you''re alive." Mister An nodded with a relieved expression while handing him the same ck crystal he used to measure his status. "Just touch it."


    Theo didn''t hesitate and touched the crystal before Mister An dropped his jaw to the ground. He raised his head and stared at Theo in disbelief, confusing Sarah.


    On the contrary, Theo had expected this kind of reaction since he did almost the impossible. He leveled up from Level 24 to Level 193 within six months after all.


    "You�� You�� I don''t know what to say anymore." Mister An shook his head helplessly while wiping the sweats on his forehead.


    "Mister An? What happened?"


    "No, no��" Mister An refused to answer andpleted Theo''s update before handing her the ID Card.


    Sarah took a nce at Theo''s ID Card and subconsciously dropped it to the ground.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Level: 193


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance C, Agility B, Vitality C, Magic Power A


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: -


    Kill: 0


    Zils: 0


    Contribution Points: 0


    Sarah hurriedly picked it up with her shaking hands.


    "I-I''m sorry." Sarah apologized and blinked a few times, not knowing what to say. Just like Mister An, she waspletely speechless of this sudden increase. She never heard someone getting 170 levels within six months.


    "��" The old man looked at Theo with a troubled expression. He hesitated for a while but still asked one question. "You brat, you''re not doing bad practice, right? There''s no way that you''re not submitting any missions��"


    He had a suspicion that Theo''s level up was due to other people weakening the monsters while he delivered the killing blow, but he asked this question purely out of concern.


    "No." Theo shook his head with a calm expression. "And I''m submitting my missions normally."


    Hearing his answer, Mister An let out a long sigh. "Two identities, huh. In that case, I won''t say much. I just hope that you don''t limit your future just for the sake of levels."


    "I understand. Thank you for your advice." Theo politely thanked him with a smile. Mister An must have a long experience and since thetter advised him out of concern, Theo had no reason not to take it.

 Chapter 197 – Negotiating Skill

    <h4>Chapter 197 - Negotiating Skill</h4>


    After that surprising leap of his levels, Sarah finally regained her calm. There was no other absurd change in his status since everything was recorded in his other identity.


    Before leaving the temple, Theo asked, "Is it possible to fuse two identities together?"


    Recalling the scene where Mister An realized Theo had double identities, Sarah nodded for the answer. "You can contact the other staff or me tobine the identities. If you want your main job to be a Fighter, then you will be dealing with me."


    "I understand. Thank you for your help."


    "Yes, please call me if you need something else." Sarah tried to be as professional as possible instead of sucking up to him. She knew that people in this line of work would be rich, but only a small portion of them could live their life to the fullest and she didn''t want to see it happening before her eyes.


    Theo then left the house and called Nart to ask how he could pay the debts, including selling the rest of the Material Cards.


    In the end, the two decided to meet in a restaurant during the night as Nart seemed to have another topic to discuss.


    Theo arrived at a small family restaurant with no one else inside the store.


    He saw Nart on the corner and quickly made his way to him, sitting in the opposite chair. Before saying anything, Theo quickly handed the Material Cards as he transferred the remaining debt.


    Nart smiled and congratted him. "You''ve done a great job during thispetition. I don''t have any doubts that you''re going to be picked as a participant, so you should prepare yourself for another hardship."


    "You don''t need to say it. I know." Theo shrugged and asked, "So, what''s the thing you want to tell me?"


    "I have three to be honest." Nart pointed to his neck with a serious expression. "That pocket watch of yours�� It''s very important."


    "��" Theo quickly rose from the seat as he was ufortable discussing it, thinking Nart Eilric wanted to steal it from him.


    However, Nart used his Magic Power to stop him from leaving while continuing his exnation. "Listen to me first. I have no intention of getting the pocket watch because it''s from someone I know."


    "Someone you know?" Theo narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who is it?"


    Although Theo had a hunch that the answer was his brother, he still wanted to confirm the identity without giving him any information.


    "It''s your brother." Nart smiled and said, "My Alea is in danger if I get that pocket watch, you see, so I don''t have the intention of getting it."


    "You know my brother?"


    "Yes. I don''t know his whereabouts, but I can assure you that he is living well." He thought for a moment and smiled. "How about this, I will give this information for making my granddaughter reach Hero Rank, but I will tell you more about your brother if you can reach the main stage of the Grand Gaia and make my granddaughter shine. Depending on your achievement, I will tell you anything you want."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and realized that the agreement actually benefited him since he also nned to make a big name in thepetition. If it were the past him, he would have agreed to this condition.


    Unfortunately for Nart, Theo had seen his path and this kind of agreement wouldn''t satisfy him anymore. Hence, Theo rejected it outright. "No, thanks. I don''t think you know anything about my brother. Searching for his name and some information is easy to do in this current era, so I don''t see any benefit in this agreement."


    Nart didn''t get surprised at all. He simply smiled as if he had expected something like this sooner orter. "I know. You seem to have be greedier than before and I don''t see any fault in it. That''s why I want to know what your demand is."


    Seeing Nart didn''t act like Radvils, Theo knew that an older man indeed had a calm heart that wasn''t easy to sway.


    However, he didn''t want to drown in the surprise and started thinking about his request.


    "Making one''s shine is easier said than done, especially in the internationalpetition, so I won''t give you any promise. That''s why I will be lowering my demands too. I want a few Rank D Skills and two C Rank Spears as my payment�� In advance."


    Nart chuckled and asked, "My boy, let me tell you one thing. When negotiating, you shouldn''t say you can''t promise anything. It''s one of the things that puts people off. Instead, you should say you have the ability to do it, but it depends on my granddaughter''s ability and cooperation.


    "This will assure me while shifting the me to my granddaughter if you can''t deliver the promise. You seem to have been improving your negotiating skill, but it''s stillcking. All I can give you is 40 points." Nart crossed his arms with a smug smile.


    "In that case, thank you for the lecture. I know that I shouldn''t promise you anything, so let''s put this on hold." Theo calmly continued as if telling him his confidence had been shattered by him.


    "What?" Nart finally had a dumbfounded expression and stared at Theo in disbelief. "What did you say again?"


    "I said I won''t do it." Theo shrugged, acting like a petty person who didn''t feel like doing it after the other party gave him a good lecture.


    "Wait, wait, I don''t remember you being a quitter like this."


    "Then you must haven''t seen the real me."


    "Wait, listen to me. You don''t want to show your weakness like this. You need to take a firm stance in your demands."


    "I am taking a firm stance. I said I won''t do it." Theo shrugged. "Let''s continue to the second topic."


    "No, no. Let''s discuss the condition again. How about this, I will give you your brother''s information, including all the stuff you need for thepetition like new weapons and skills. In addition, I''m going to give you a house after thepetition. The size will depend on the result. I know you need a house."


    A smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face as he looked Nart in the eyes, saying, "Since you''re so adamant about this, let''s continue the negotiation."


    "��" Nart blinked his eyes as he realized that Theo used his own lecture and utilized his perception to strike him back in this negotiation.

 Chapter 198 – Family?

    <h4>Chapter 198 - Family?</h4>


    "Haha." Nart chuckled when he realized he just got yed by this young man. He didn''t find it offensive or anything. He was simply fond of such an act because he knew that the younger generation had enough talent to even pull something like that.


    "Good, good, good. Let''s continue." Nart nodded with a smile. Even though he had thrown a house into the agreement, with how Theo restarted the conversation, Theo would at least demand another thing.


    Theo then continued with a smile. "Instead of a house, it''s better if you give it to me in cash. That''s my demand."


    Once again, Nart widened his eyes, never expecting such an answer. If Theo agreed with the house, he could simply choose a house where he could monitor Theo. Yet, thetter demanded cash instead of a house, meaning that he could get a house of his own choice without going under his supervision.


    He waspletely surprised to see that a young man two years younger than his granddaughter could actually see so far ahead.


    Little did he know, Theo had another reason. He wanted to buy a house near the second Teleportation Circle since after thepetition, he would go to the other side through that gate. The monsters around that area were far stronger than the current gate he utilized after all.


    "Say, how about I add another demand? Why don''t you just marry my granddaughter? I feel like my Eilric Family will be fine if you''re my grandson-inw. You''re the person my granddaughter chose too��"


    "No, thank you. This and that are two different matters." Theo politely rejected him. "Alea and I don''t have such a rtionship."


    "Haha, many are married this way, especially if you''ve such a big family. Love can be nurtured."


    "That''s not my problem." Theo shook his head, not wanting any rtionship that would hinder him in achieving his goal.


    "Well, that was just a grandpa joke." Nartughed while pointing at him. However, he soon let out a long disappointed sigh and said, "I wonder what you dislike from my granddaughter�� I thought I''d given the best education, time, and enough love so the child won''t go astray."


    "It''s not my position to say it." Theo declined to answer again while continuing, "Anyway, do you agree with the conditions? I have a feeling that you''re just trying to make me forget about the deal."


    "Hoho, you''re certainly right." The old man didn''t feel ashamed to admit it. "Just like you, I want to make the deal in my favor, but I guess you win this time. Fine by me, in order for you to make my granddaughter enter the mainpetition and shine on that big stage, I will be giving you money to buy a house, D Rank Skills, Two Hero Rank Spears, and information about your brother."


    Theo extended his hand as Nart shook it almost immediately, signaling they had agreed.


    "I will send you the contractter."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded and asked, "So, what are the other things you want to tell me?"


    "It''s about the movement. I''ve promised to give you some information about the update, right? Well, you are lucky that not a single movement ever happened again after that incident. I''m afraid there was something big involved behind the scene, but I didn''t find a single clue.


    "With you showing an overwhelming result, the government has begun to act, so I doubt there will be any more threat that wille your way until thepetition ends."


    "That''s indeed good news."


    "Then, there''s something you need to know with your current reputation. I am fond of someone who doesn''t act big, but someone like you is just the minority. Even if the government has acted, there will be many petty people trying to pick on you, especially if they think that you are taking your power for granted."


    "I don''t care about them. It''s not like I am going to revolve myself around them and I don''t think I will get into trouble before thepetition. After that�� Let theme." Theo shrugged and said, "I trust the government will do something about their backing, so it''s not like I''m afraid of other students. Even if they''re trying to kick me out of the team, only first-year students will do it because of thepetition system." Theo exined with a calm expression.


    "It seems you have thought it through, so I won''t bother you with it anymore. Thest thing I want to say is�� How much do you know about your family?"


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes as his expression became serious.


    "I''ve searched for your background this whole time and I can only see your parents and brother there. I can''t see your cousin and other rtives, making it a bit weird. That''s weird because I see that your parents are listed as orphans, but they are not actual orphans."


    "I don''t need to care." Theo abruptly stopped him and rose from the seat. "All I know is that my parents have died, and there''s no rtive taking care of me this whole time. Even if they came into my life, I would simply ignore them. When you can''t even help the family in their lowest point, then don''t expect something in return at their highest point. That''s all. I hope that you don''t mention anything about my family."


    "I can respect that." Nart nodded with a calm expression. "Anyway, I have told you everything I want you to know. Since we''ve finished, you can go. I''m going to eat."


    "��" Surprisingly, Theo sat down again as he ordered some food.


    "Ho?! Are you going to eat here? This old man doesn''t mind havingpany though, hahaha." Nart chuckled and returned to his usual loving grandfather''s character. "Comee. Are you sure you have ordered enough? We can''t let a kid like you starve."


    Theo remained silent while waiting for food as Nart kept talking about his experience. He even thought that Nart was trying to tell him the most fabulous story that every grandpa had�� It was how there was something amazing when he went to school.


    In any case, he didn''t remember when was thest time he had eaten with someone other than his teammates.

 Chapter 199 – Recognition

    <h4>Chapter 199 - Recognition</h4>


    Surprisingly, there was a call from Radvils, ordering every participant to gather in the school despite thepetition hadn''t finished.


    Theo didn''t understand this call and headed to the school like normal since the gathering was after school.


    When he came out of his ss and was about to head to the gym, he saw traffic ahead.


    Too many people wereing to the gym to see the winner of thepetition as they wanted to see who would represent the country topete in the biggestpetition for high school students.


    Suddenly, their cheer became an uproar as soon as people found the student council and Alea''s former group appeared.


    "They��"


    Theo didn''t care about them, so before he would hear so many unnecessary cheers, he used his Blink to sneak inside the building, arriving at a corridor that was slightly less crowded, only to find hiszy teacher, Rai, standing in front of him.


    Rai''s eyebrows raised before his expression became distorted, looking at Theo while standing still.


    Theo slightly bowed his head to greet him before thetter called him. "If I''m not wrong, you''re Theodore Griffith, correct?"


    "Yes." Theo was surprised the teacher knew his name. Normally, the teacher wouldn''t even bother to know you unless you were someone special or troublemaker. But considering the recent rise of his poprity, he could somehow understand why the teacher knew him. "Can I help you?"


    "Not really. I am just here to bring the participants to the center stage and since I found you before even searching, it''s a good thing. Come with me, I''m going to lead you there and finish my job here. I don''t like being in crowded areas��" Rai exined with a tired expression.


    Theo was confused by his exnation, but he still followed him since he might need to move again after this.


    Rai actually never looked back and trusted Theo to follow him, while the rest didn''t even realize Theo was next to them.


    However, Rai could sense that Theo was actually using his Awareness to erase his own presence like how his master erased her own. And Rai was doing the same. They both simply didn''t want to get bothered by the crowd.


    Not long after, they arrived in a small corridor where Theo found a te, saying, "Only teachers/participants can enter."


    Rai opened the door and led Theo in as he turned around. "Anyway, you just need to go forward. I have heard about your bully case and what do you think about me not helping you in your case?"


    "It''s normal. I''ve never expected a teacher to protect a student after all." Theo shrugged.


    "Well, that''s certainly true. As for me�� Just hate me since I''m toozy to even deal with it. It''s not like I''m going to get a pay raise for doing such a job, especially since I will offend a rich family along the way." Rai shrugged.


    Theo tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what was inside his mind.


    "Anyway, I won''t apany you. Just follow this route and you will find the others."


    "Alright. I understand." Theo nodded and saw Raiing out of the corridor as he became evenzier.


    He obviously didn''t trust Rai that much because someone might try to sabotage him by locking him inside this corridor.


    Before going any further, he took out his Skylink only to find that the group was actually talking about it, directing him to enter the right corridor near the entrance.


    Realizing it wasn''t a trap, Theo moved forward and found another gate at the end of the corridor. He took a peek and saw this door leading to behind the stage.


    He also found Alea, Ellen, and Sihan standing next to each other, waiting for the others toe in. When he was about to enter, he felt a presence creeping behind him as he instinctively turned around, finding a girl.


    Her pale face and grey-colored hair reminded him of the one he fought in the second round.


    "Hmm�� You are�� Aisha Gata"


    "Hello." The girl politely greeted him. "I am d that you remember me, Theodore Griffith. I would never expect that we will meet again in this way."


    It had been three months since hest saw her and her short hair had grown to shoulder-length hair, making her a bit cuter instead of tomboyish.


    "I would like to congratte you for bing the participants. I admire you." Aisha put on a small smile.


    "There''s no guarantee yet."


    "What guarantee? My team can''t even finish the first assignment due to the huge stressing from the Hero Rank. That''s why I know that if someone participates, I''m sure it''s your group. After all, you''re there."


    "��" Theo tilted his head in confusion, not knowing why she believed in him instead of Alea or Ellen.


    "Well, after losing to you, I have watched the battles again and again. I know that you were the real reason we lost. That''s why I respect you from the bottom of my heart�� It''s amazing to see that someone can change his destiny by using their brain alone." She smiled. "If you''re going to fight in Grand Gaia, I will cheer for you."


    Theo was speechless. Although this wasn''t the first time a girl talked this much about him, Aisha was different. She truly saw him as someone strong without even a single shred of doubt in her eyes, unlike the others who still thought he could achieve all this due to Alea and the others.


    "Thank you." These were the only words that came out of his mouth.


    Aisha simply opened the door and extended her hand. "We shouldn''t talk too much. Let''s go in."


    Theo remained still for a few seconds and stared at her with nk eyes before his lips curved a bit, showing a little smile. Although he didn''t want to be popr, getting someone''s genuine recognition indeed felt nice.


    Aisha smiled and entered first, not wanting to disturb him in this situation. She knew exactly what one would feel in a situation where you had no one to support you, but you still needed to keep going in order to survive. She was once in that environment, so she had genuine respect for Theo to be able to achieve this.


    After a while, Theo shook his head helplessly and entered the ce.

 Chapter 200 – Winners

    <h4>Chapter 200 - Winners</h4>


    Almost all students gathered in the gym, wanting to see the participants. They just wanted to see who could actually finish all the assignments. After all, it was the first time they heard someone entering Hero Rank before graduation, it was an unknown concept.


    At the same time, they wanted to see the first-year students who had be Champion Rank. If there were another two years, they might easily reach Hero Rank before graduation.


    Hence, most people were curious to see the appearance of the participants.


    "Who do you think will win thepetition?"


    "Will they assemble the team from scratch?"


    "But there''s no announcement they will do such a thing."


    "Indeed. I hope they can assemble the team from scratch. I know that Theodore Griffith has worked hard, but he can easily be reced by other first-year students. He is just lucky."


    "Yeah. I don''t even understand why Alea Eilric wants to be in the same group."


    "That''s right. I don''t understand as well. We have so many great first-year students like Aisha Gata."


    "Ye-yeah."


    Many people were talking about Theo most of the time. After all, he was the joker that no one would ever expect to be one of the candidates. Theo''s reputation, although had increased, wasn''t to the point he got recognized by many like Laust.


    As the discussion became even more heated, the principal finally walked onto the stage with a smile on his face.


    He waved his hand and clutched his palm, signaling the students to be silent. In that instant, there was no whisper inside the gym as if his motion truly had the power to silence the entire building.


    "My dearest students. After a long six months, we''ve finally finished our smallpetition. In order to be a candidate, all of you have worked hard during the past six months. And finally, two days ago, we''ve received the information that thest group has finally returned from the other side, ending thispetition.


    "I can''t exin how proud I am to see the students of my academy achieving this kind of feat. And by no means am I belittling those who fail. You all are the same�� You all are my beloved students.


    "Before going to the participant, I would like to present you with honorable mentions�� I believe their achievement is worth it for all of you to witness."


    He took a deep breath and called the winner. "For third ce�� They have almost fulfilled the first assignment with all of them bing at least Champion Rank Experts. The group has also killed two Hero Rank Monsters, almost finishing the second assignment and with the total kill of five thousand monsters, I present you the third winner: Aisha Gata, Hontar Dagher, Makkal Avtor, Leca Avtor, Milea Ashifer, and Ginza McKeroy."


    All six participants entered the stage with proud faces. No one managed toe close to them in this assignment because they had different strategies.


    With Aisha Gata bing the second leader after Alea, the group had be more solid.


    The principal smiled and apuded them together with all students and teachers inside the gym.


    "Although they can''t participate in the Grand Gaia, the school has decided to reward them one D Rank Skill for each of them."


    The apuse became louder when they heard about the reward. D Rank Skill was worth more than a hundred thousand Zils, so it was a lot for a reward.


    Yet, this type of reward was only for the third ce. The school must be going big for this event.


    The principal decided to ride the hype and continued his speech, calling the second winner. "And now, for the second winner, with only one of them failing to reach Hero Rank, the group is barely unqualified to finish the mission. However, they have sessfully killed three Hero Rank Monsters, finishing the second mission. Last but not least, I can proudly say that the group has killed seven thousand monsters within the past three months! Let me present��


    "Jay Mao, Kong Sovan, Iv Rith, Aydemir Tauqi, Pnaswe, and Katita!"


    This time, the second winner was the group led by the vice-president of the student council. They deserved such a spot since all of them were strong people.


    Another round of apuse shook the gym as some of them even cheered for them, knowing they barely missed their target.


    "To reward their effort, the school will give them one D Rank Skill as well as a Champion Rank Weapon."


    The reward became even bigger and bigger, making the other students drool. However, there was still one group that had yet to be called and they were the most hyped group because of the members.


    "And finally�� It''s time to announce the first-ce winner!" Principal Eigen smiled when he saw their names. "No words can describe their achievement because I myself can''t even believe how this could happen, but�� I can undoubtedly say that this group has created a miracle!


    "To our surprise, they have surpassed our first assignment easily! I wonder if I should give them a harder assignment to be honest."


    The studentsughed and were astonished at the same time. They could hear many people whispering to each other.


    "What?!"


    "Does that mean the Champion Rank is not a mere Champion Rank Experts�� Instead, they are level 200 or something?"


    "If that''s the case, this is the strongest team in history."


    "That''s right. No one has ever achieved this before."


    "Maybe they canpete with other countries'' schools, bing the pride and joy of our country!"


    All of them were excited to see the winner, but the principal increased their excitement even more. "However, that''s not all. Even if they can finish the first assignment, I can''t say it''s a miracle yet. That''s why they surpassed their own limit and let all members kill at least one Hero Rank Monster. We''ve even seen their footage and I can proudly say that none of them were cheating. In other words, they used their own strength to kill a Hero Rank Monster!"


    "What? Each member killed a Hero Rank Monster?"


    "This group is insane."


    "As expected of the champion, if they can''t even do something like this, they don''t deserve such a spot."


    With their excitement at the peak, the principal finally called their names. "With a total of twelve thousand kills, let''s invite them to the stage! Alea Eilric, Ellen Marcines, Sihan Raskaka, Phyrill Hilbert, Laust Lange, and Theodore Griffith."


    "Oh!"

 Chapter 201 – Embarrassment

    <h4>Chapter 201 - Embarrassment</h4>


    "Oh!"


    "O-oh?!"


    Suddenly, something unexpected happened.


    Principal Eigen thought their excitement was at the peak, yet, he could see that half of them actually became confused and stopped cheering.


    They all turned to each other and started questioning the decision.


    "Theodore Griffith?"


    "What?!"


    "There''s no way he can kill a Hero Rank Monster."


    "That''s right. He must be cheating. The school doesn''t want him to lose his face, so they try to cover this up."


    Many were dissatisfied with Theo because Theo''s previous poprity was among the worst. They simply couldn''t believe the lowest of all actually became the candidate. If they looked at the other two groups, they could easily find multiple reasons to rece Theo.


    Hence, many were baffled to see Theo bing the candidate.


    "This is not fair!"


    "There are more talented first-year students, but why did the school choose someone as untalented as him?!"


    "That''s right. There must be some sort of deal behind the scenes."


    "We need justice!"


    They began to pressure the principal because they couldn''t ept the result.


    Alea and Ellen were clenching their fists in anger, wanting to beat all these people up because they didn''t know Theo was the reason they could achieve such a feat.


    However, they remembered when Theo asked them to promise to not blow a fuse if others tried to underestimate him. Theo surprisingly wished for this kind of situation to ur because if they managed to reach the main stage and their opponents investigated him, they would find him as nothing but trash.


    With them underestimating Theo, he could turn around the situation and shut their mouths with his action, raising the bar even higher. That was why even before Grand Gaia had started, Theo had begun his own n in order to win on the main stage.


    Even Phyrill couldn''t help but chuckle, seeing all these fools. They didn''t need to know Theo''s deed because he didn''t want any otherpetition to get Theo into their own influence.


    Laust, on the other hand, had mixed feelings. On one hand, Laust''d recognized Theo''s talent. His talent was one of a kind and Theo''d also worked hard for it. Even he had suffered multiple times under his ns. Theo was someone he needed to ovee sooner orter�� That was why he didn''t like when someone looked down on him since it made him look bad as well. On the other hand, he still loathed Theo, so this kind of atmosphere made his heart a bit happy.


    But the one that hated this situation the most wasn''t him or Theo. It was Sihan.


    If not because of their distance, they would have felt Sihan''s killing intent leaking from his eyes.


    Theo didn''t know what was going on with him, so he simply ignored his teammates and all the people doubted him. His only thought was, ''Thestugh is the bestugh.''


    Seeing that the situation had gone out of control, the principal shouted. "Ha!"


    That shout jolted their brain as they looked at the principal with confused expressions.


    The principal knew this type of thing was bound to happen because Radvils had been telling him that Theo would be the most controversial participant.


    He shut them up and said with a cold tone. "I don''t know your problem with him, but I can assure you that what he has done to the team is better than what any of you can do. Unless you''re nning to suspect me for covering something, then feel free to continue mocking him.


    "I will only say this once, this school will train you to be an expert�� And an expert is actually someone who utilizes everything in their possession. Whether it''s luck, opportunity, and so on, as long as you''re winning, it''s all the same.


    "Nothing''s wrong with you suspecting his qualification, but it''s wrong when you think he doesn''t deserve such a spot. Everyone deserves this spot�� I think I have made it clear to all of you at the start.


    "There would be three stages of training where you all would be guided to be a powerful expert to participate in the Grand Gaia�� Now, I would like to ask you, where are you? I can say that Theodore Griffith was in the same group as Alea from the start�� And now tell me, there were many first-year students to choose from, but where were they? Why did Alea Eilric choose such a person to be her partner? Tell me right now�� Give me one answer and I will take every word I have said."


    They all heard the principal and fell silent, not having the courage to speak up. At the same time, they also couldn''t tell the reason because if Alea chose him from the start, she must have considered it carefully. It also showed that Theo should also deserve such a spot.


    All of them were thinking they were better than Theo and Theo could reach this stage because he was lucky, but that wasn''t the answer. Alea first recognized Theo''s talent and tried to improve it. She had seen something in Theo that they couldn''t even see.


    The only thing that remained for them was embarrassment.


    The principal also didn''t want to exin everything to them due to Radvils'' request, asking him not to disclose Theo''s information that much. Theo was Radvils'' joker card that could turn around the situation, so he didn''t n to y it yet.


    After taking a deep breath, Principal Eigen finally continued, albeit in an awkward situation. "Now that everything hase to this, I will just announce the reward for the winner. Not only will they represent our country in the Grand Gaia Competition, but the school will reward them with two D Rank Skills and one Champion Rank Spear.


    "At the same time, the government has worked with us to allow them to get intensive training, including all kinds of skills they want and are capable of mastering during the training. They will experience the training for three weeks and fly to Italy topete with other countries.


    "Let''s apud these six students and wish them luck."


    Although it was a bit awkward, the students decided to p as loud as possible, hiding the embarrassment they received from the principal earlier. They simply wanted to forget about it.

 Chapter 202 – Observation

    <h4>Chapter 202 - Observation</h4>


    After that ceremony, Theo and the others returned from the stage.


    "Ah, I''m pissed. How could they even say something like that without even seeing his power?" Alea grumbled with a distorted face. Her heart was beating rapidly as her anger took over.


    Ellen didn''t say anything but still looked at Theo with a worried expression. She asked, "Theo, are you sure about this?"


    "Of course. There''s nothing wrong with them underestimating me." Theo shrugged nonchntly as if the mockeries earlier didn''t affect him.


    Aisha, on the contrary, smiled at Theo, praising his mental forbearance. She didn''t even know if she could stay calm like Theo when the others mocked her like that.


    Principal Eigen came to him and patted his shoulders. "No matter what, I will support you. If you need anything, just talk to me."


    Theo smiled politely. "Thank you."


    "Anyway, I��"


    *Bang*


    Before he finished, a loud bang resounded in their ears as Radvils mmed the door open and walked inside. He scanned the room and looked at Theo and the others. "You six don''t have much time left."


    "��" Alea and the others turned around, surprised to see Radvilsing to them in this ceremony.


    "As you all know, you''re going to fly to Italy in three weeks. And within those three weeks, I will be personally overseeing your training." Radvils then turned to the principal and continued, "I hope the school will allow them to leave the school for three weeks to focus on their preparation."


    "Of course." Principal Eigen nodded with a serious expression. "As much as I hate to say this, these six are extraordinary. All the knowledge can be studiedter, but thispetitiones only once in their lifetime. That''s why I will grant them a special leave for this."


    "Good." Radvils nodded and said, "Before that, I would like to congratte the second and third winners. Although you failed, both teams had done exceptionally wellpared to the fourth or fifth ces. That''s why you can take pride in your achievement."


    "When can we redeem the reward?" Theo suddenly raised his hand and asked a question. His tone and expression were calm, yet, the question made him look like a greedy person.


    It took Radvils a moment to answer his question. "The reward from school, you need to ask the principal about it. As for the government, you can see the skill catalogs and inform me what skill you want. Of course, I need to see whether you''re capable of mastering it within three weeks. I still have the right to reject your application."


    Hearing his name called, the principal added, "The same as him. You cane to meter about the skills��"


    "Then��" Theo walked to him and said, "I want these two."


    Theo showed a picture from his Skylink, revealing two skills he wanted.


    "Eh�� Ah?! Alright, alright. I will send it to your addresster." Principal Eigen never expected that Theo would be this shameless. He thought Theo would wait until everything was over before informing him of the reward, but he ended up asking for it right away in front of these people. "No wonder you''re the most controversial participant."


    Radvils, on the contrary, narrowed his eyes, feeling something was weird. Theo was supposed to use Spear and Magic, but the skills he wanted were for sword users. It wasn''t logical at all. Hence, he thought Theo must want the skills for other people, unaware that the real reason Theo asked for the reward was to make him think that way.


    "Hahaha, he''s the best!" Aishaughed out loud while looking at Theo and Principal Eigen. She just found it funny that Theo could even stun the principal.


    "A-anyway, I have something to do. The reward will be sentter, including the skills of your choice. Just inform your teacher or meter, okay?" Principal Eigen shook his head helplessly while leaving.


    Seeing that the one who kept them here had gone, the others started to leave the hall to either go home or do extracurricr activities.


    Even though Aisha wanted to stay, she knew that Radvils wanted to talk with Theo and the others alone, so she reluctantly left with her eyes lingering on their backs when walking away.


    After gaining their peace, Radvils continued his exnation. "As a part of the reward, I will be training you personally in order to fine-tune what you need.


    "There are so many types of battles in the Grand Gaia. However, there is one type that appears every single year. It''s a brawl. There are four types of Brawls, 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, and all. Instead of preparing you everything, I will be focusing on your individual ability to win the Brawls.


    "With the ability to react to every single movement at an instant''s notice and overall good physical attribute, you''re the main star of this team. If the main star can''t even shine, the rest will be shunned as well. That''s why I''m going to fix one of your greatest ws�� Alea Eilric." Radvils pointed at Alea with a serious expression.


    "One of my greatest ws?" Alea widened her eyes in amazement. She thought she was already good enough, yet, thetter could see her greatest w, amusing to her.


    "Yeah. Your reaction speed is already top-notch, but your flexibility isn''t. For example, if you maintain a fluid movement all the time, in the 5vs5 match, your team would be the one who won. Even if this guy tricked you, you would have the ability to react to it. Thus, I will be training your flexibility for three weeks."


    Alea and the others were astonished to see Radvils'' observation skill. Alea nodded and agreed to receive the training. "So that''s your basis�� Okay."


    "Next. Ellen Marcines. You have an amazing field of vision along with the ability to wield two skills at the same time. Fighting you is like battling two Magicians at the same time. However, what youck is reaction speed. Your opponents won''t be someone thatcks experience like Theodore Griffith and Laust Lange over there, but a monster in human clothing. Their skills and abilities are top-notch, so I will be increasing your reaction speed to fight those monsters."


    Ellen narrowed her eyes and nodded. "I understand. Please take care of me."


    "Moving on. Even though you two are the same type, your approaches are vastly different. Phyrill Hilbert, you have enough power, agility, and brain to mess up with your opponent, but you''re mainly an assassin. I can see that you''re in charge of scouting and taking care of each other, but the only way to take care of each other in thispetition is to kill. If you don''t have enough capability to kill, then you''re useless."


    Phyrill smirked as he understood it as well.


    But Radvils didn''t care much about his reaction. He simply turned to Laust. "And��"

 Chapter 203 – Distorted

    <h4>Chapter 203 - Distorted</h4>


    "And Laust Lange, you are a fighter but act like an assassin, speed is not your problem anymore, but there is another reason why I gave you that skill. That big sword of yours has a sharp edge and weight, so it''s enough to cover your strength. I only need to increase your speed to match it.


    "However, I''ve seen a fatal weakness in your swordy�� You''re simply too reliant on your skills. That''s why I will try to help you in your Five Aspects, especially Force Control and Awareness."


    Laust closed his eyes and remained silent. He knew Radvils said the right thing and his advice was good for him. Hence, Laust agreed with him bing his instructor.


    "Then��" Radvils looked at Sihan. "Your fighting style is too nd. Using a shield as a sword is indeed a good addition, but that''s all. All I can see from you is a guardian that I don''t need to fight. If I were Theodore Griffith, I would rain my opponent with Magic Bullets while fighting you, meaning that your existence will be pretty much useless. What you need right now is unpredictability.


    "You need to make your opponent think you have something in your sleeve that the moment they try to help the others, they will be dead. So, in your training, I will add more techniques in your reservoir, making sure that you will be a better Guardian."


    "I understand. Fighting monsters and fighting humans need two different approaches after all." Sihan agreed with a solemn expression.


    "That''s right. Last but not least, Theodore Griffith. As someone with the best field of vision, sense, and head�� I want you to be the beating heart of this team. With Alea Eilric at its center, this team will be specialized in the aggressive offense.


    "If the main star has shone brightly, but there''s a weak link that stops the light from illuminating the rest, then the entire system will be broken. That''s why I need someone to maximize Alea Eilric''s performance to make the others shine as well.


    "Among all the people who interacted with her, the one who was able to bring out the best of the team and still had the talent to "surpass" them�� It''s you, Theodore Griffith. I want you to look at your teammates and devour their talent."


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he felt the pressureing from Radvils'' eyes. Him telling Theo to watch the others meant Theo needed to work harder than those five.


    Radvils saw that the rest couldn''t improve much if Theo didn''t show his absolute reign over them and that was the reason why Theo didn''t find any satisfactory improvement when they killed Hero Rank Monsters. There was simply no great wall to ovee.


    Theo clenched his fists and opened his mouth. "Yes!"


    "Good." Radvils made an evil smirk as he said, "These are the six students who will face the world."


    Theo took a deep breath. His heart had been beating rapidly. After all, his goal had been achieved.


    ''That''s right. I have finally be a candidate for the Grand Gaia Competition. Mess the world up, eh? If I can''t evenpete with the geniuses from all over the world, then there''s no way I can mess the world up. In that case, there''s only one solution, just like Alea, I''m also going to use all those geniuses to make me even stronger!'' Theo unintentionally leaked his killing intent as the group turned around and leaped backward instinctively.


    Alea and Laust had specifically felt this feeling from Theo.


    It was his desire to absorb everything, including their own style. And Theo would use that knowledge to destroy them.


    "How cute you are, Instructor." Theo chuckled as he looked at their eyes with a cold expression. "Surpass them? Devour their talent? I thought you were better than that."


    "Ho?" Radvils'' eyebrows raised as what Theo said piqued his interest.


    "Not only would I do both, but I''m also going to wreck thempletely like trash. I already told them, those who are useless will be this group''s trash. If they can''t keep up with the rest, they should prepare to be the world''sughing stock."


    Theo''s word meant that if they didn''t n to risk everything on the line, they wouldn''t be able to keep up with Theo. After all, thispetition was another stepping stone for bing the best trickster in the world.


    Although her hands were shaking, Alea still walked to him and looked him in the eyes. "Theo�� Look at me."


    Theo squinted his eyes and turned to Alea.


    "I know that this is a teampetition, but I''ve realized that my biggest threat is not from other teams. It''s you! That''s why I don''t mind losing against other teams, I simply don''t want to lose against you!" Alea red back with her own determination and resolve. "Helplessness, fear, and anxiety, I''ve felt it from you. Even if I need to break my bones, you won''t be able to beat me."


    "Hmph." Theo shrugged and looked away. "I have said everything. You just need to make sure that your performances match your words. The moment you''re useless to me, I won''t hesitate to throw you away in thispetition."


    "Fine by me."


    Ellen smiled and said nonchntly. "As expected of Theo, you''re the best. That''s why I''m your fan."


    Phyrill nodded in agreement as he felt excited as well. "For real, this distorted team�� I love it."


    Sihan and Laust remained silent, but their eyes showed that Theo''s pressure indeed had gone to their hearts. They could see that Theo had been nning to reach the main stage. At that stage, they would be seen by millions of people.


    There was no way they wanted to be theughing stock and disappointment. They would simply lose all their faces when they returned.


    The two closed their eyes for a moment before opening them again with determination.


    Radvils shook his head and opened his mouth.


    "I don''t care about your distorted motivations, kids. I only want to let you know that all of you only have three weeks left. Keep practicing with the resolve to risk it all, you brats, there is no longer any room for failure." Radvils suddenly let out a small grin and opened his eyes wide. "Hence, we will nowmence thest training session."

 Chapter 204 – Ready To Go

    <h4>Chapter 204 - Ready To Go</h4>


    After the meeting, the group began their personal training with Radvils to fix their own ws.


    Theo also began to observe the others, trying to find a way to surpass them.


    He nned to surpass other countries'' students, so he needed to find a way for his teammates as soon as possible because their opponents would be very strong and didn''t give him too much time like this.


    Radvils often asked him to y a mind game to train his problem-solving ability.


    On the other hand, Theo asked Radvils about his reward, only to find that thetter had already known that he wanted sword skills instead of spear skills. However, Theo was happy with the development because his n worked on Radvils.


    With the addition of the skills from the school and Nart Eilric, Theo decided to improve two skills to C Rank.


    His clone was always with him, so it didn''t take him too long to think whether he wanted to improve it or not. At the same time, he needed to choose between his Magic Bullet and Telekinesis.


    After training his Telekinesis, he realized that the skill had more potential than Magic Bullet, especially in fighting humans, so he upgraded Telekinesis to C Rank.


    With the addition of two C Rank Skills, he now had four C Rank Skills and six D Rank Skills. He believed there wasn''t anyone in his team who could replicate such a feat. And the ability to upgrade skills was indeed overpowered for Theo because thetter didn''t need to search for a new skill and just upgraded the ones he was alreadypatible with.


    Also, his teammates'' progress was pretty good.


    To train her flexibility, Alea began to train her physical body, including her reaction speed. It was intense, but Alea''s capability was much stronger than the training, so she often had her own training menu after the training from Radvils.


    There was always one thing in her mind during the entire time. It was Theo. The words she said to Theo kept appearing in her mind, embarrassing and motivating her at the same time. It was a weird feeling, but she indeed moved toward her goal.


    Ellen underwent a simr training, but due to herck of reaction speed, she often got covered by bruises on her skin. It seemed Radvils trained her with actual items that would hurt her if it was hit since it must have quite high speed.


    Even so, Ellen didn''t give up and kept pushing forward, not caring about the pain she needed to endure. Luckily, Radvils kept a close watch over her nutrition and such to make sure she was in perfect shape.


    Radvils was a bit skeptical about her two personalities, but she believed that was Ellen''s greatest weapon, so he decided to fight against her to improve her power.


    Laust and Phyrill were the same types, but their training was vastly different. Phyrill focused on assassinating his opponent in a Virtual World and each kill would give him a different environment, forcing him to improvise his own way.


    On the contrary, Laust mostly meditated to improve his Awareness and Control.


    Last but not least, Sihan often fought Radvils to increase his repertoire and Theo could see Radvils'' techniques and tactics, using them to refine his own experience.


    ��


    Three weekster.


    Theo wore a blue shirt and long ck pants, bringing a backpack on his right shoulder. His other shoulder carried two spears for him and his clone.


    He stood in front of his house''s door and turned around, seeing the house for one more time.


    This trip would take a few weeks, so he needed to ensure that his house had been paid for. After that, he took a bus ride to the airport, where he and the others agreed to meet.


    As soon as he arrived at the airport, he saw seven people standing in front of the airport, waiting for him.


    Alea wore a one-piece white dress coupled with ck silk pants. Her sword was hanging on her waist, making one confused whether she wanted to have a vacation or chop someone.


    On her right, Ellen stood while waving his hand. Instead of the usual school uniform, she wore a pink t-shirt that matched her hair color and blue jeans. She brought a suitcase with her wand hanging on the side. "Theo, you''ve finallye."


    Laust crossed his arms and looked away, acting cold to Theo. He wore a white sweater and blue jeans, casual but matched his purple hair. Sihan, on the other hand, had a simr outfit with a different choice of color while carrying a giant shield as well another bag for his armor.


    Phyrill appeared to fit his own character. With that petite body, he wore a t-shirt with a stripes pattern and short blue jeans with two leather belts hanging on his shoulders.


    Radvils himself didn''t look any different from his usual appearance. He only wore a ck shirt and blue jeans. However, the one that shocked Theo the most was a middle-aged man wearing ab coat. It was his teacher, Rai.


    "He is part of our medical team. Although he has retired from the army, his skill is pretty good." Radvils pointed his finger at him, introducing Rai.


    "I am here just to procrastinate. There''s no need to teach students if I''m with you and the longer you stay in thepetition, the longer I can ck off. So�� Keep winning." Rai nodded with his eyes half-open.


    "��" Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing that this teacher never held back. Such a unique teacher, he thought.


    "Anyway, let''s wait in the lounge." Radvils shrugged and said nonchntly.


    "Yes. I''m sorry for arrivingst."


    "You arrived on time." Radvils corrected him and turned around before hearing some sighs around him.


    "Haiz, it''s time for economy ss, I guess. No matter what you''re doing, you will still need to face economy ss during the flight. It''s hard for athletes��" Phyrillined in disappointment while walking as if he had resigned on his fate. "If we didn''t go together, I would have booked a better seat."


    However, Radvils snorted and showed the tickets on his screen. "Amateur. That''s because their coaches are plebians."


    Phyrill took a nce and saw a different ticket than what he expected. "Ho, a business ss?"


    "Yes. All of you are the strongest members no one has ever seen before, so your treatment should be special. If you can get to the main stage, obviously, we will fly home with first ss."


    "That''s great." Phyrill smirked. "As expected from you, instructor, you''re indeed different."

 Chapter 205 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 205 - Arrival</h4>


    No matter the era, flying with something above economy ss was always great. Despite having more advanced technology, the aviation industry still had three average sses: Economy, Business, and First sses to get money.


    Theo just enjoyed their flight and ate until he was full. It had been so long since he got spoiled anyway, so he took advantage of the flight to spoil himself to the fullest.


    Unfortunately, the ne didn''t take too long to arrive. It was just a simple six hours flight and they needed to leave the airport as soon as possible, going to their amodation for a few weeks.


    As soon as they left the airport, Theo stretched his hands while yawning.


    "Someone got spoiled during the whole flight," Phyrill smirked and teased Theo while thetter only ignored him and looked around.


    "I''m sure you don''t forget that we''re here topete, right?" Radvils nced at them with a serious expression.


    "Of course." Phyrill smiled and looked around. "But it''s fine to stroll around, right?"


    "Thepetition will start in three days and what you''re doing for those three days is to grow ustomed to the environment here. Just do some light training and do everything together, that''s all."


    "Roger." Alea smiled and said cheerfully. "That means I don''t need to find a reason to drag Theo out of the hotel to look around."


    "Haha." Ellen chuckled and gently stroked her cheek with a helpless expression. She patted Theo''s shoulders and said, "Just enjoy, okay?"


    Theo shrugged and looked away.


    "Anyway, let''s go to the hotel first. Our ride��" Radvils looked around before finding a minibus with a white g swayed by the wind. The white g had an eagle symbol on it coupled with a crescent moon acting as a branch where the eagle perched. It was their country''s g. "There��"


    "Oh!" Although Alea often flew to other countries, it was the first time she went with friends like this, so she became too energetic after leaving the ne.


    Sihan and Laust remained silent while following Radvils. And the others also started walking to the bus before meeting a middle-aged man standing next to the minibus.


    He had white hair and gentle eyes. He wore a long brown coat and ck pants, smiling at them. "Hello, I will be your guide during your stay here. Just call me Old Herman and I''m from the same country as you guys�� I''ve lived here for a decade, so wherever you go, I can bring you there."


    "He has been driving our teams for the past three years."


    "Of course. Since my hometown will participate in thispetition, it''s time for me to show my support." Heughed. "Keep working hard and don''t give up, okay?"


    Radvils ignored him and entered the bus, albeit he didn''t forget to give one message. "This team is different from the past. They''re already at the international level, so you may be our driver for a little longer."


    The middle-aged man smiled when he heard that. He was always saddened by the cries of the team every single year because none of them could participate in the grandpetition. Seeing that there was hope, the middle-aged man was delighted. "I will be looking forward to it. Please make me be your driver for weeks, okay?"


    Theo didn''t have a change of expression, entered the minibus and sat next to the window.


    The rest also followed them and hopped on the bus as Herman drove them across the city.


    The group enjoyed the scenery different from their country while Theo took his time to get the information about thepetition.


    Seeing his focus, Radvils decided to change his seat next to him while giving him some of what he wanted.


    "This is the information."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and took a look at it.


    "There will be cameras everywhere, but it doesn''t mean you can''t kill people. Not a single time thepetition was broadcasted live since the blood needs to be reced by some CGI to amodate younger viewers. After all, fighting in thepetition are also aspiring young children.


    "And all those who watch from the actual seats are adults, so it''s pretty safe to go all out. From the past information, the referee this time will be at least a Mythical Rank Expert, meaning that he''s above Level 751.


    "In other words, the referee can stop the match in a split second. Even the strongest contestant cannot prate the referee''s shield, so you can say you don''t need to hold back or anything."


    Theo nodded in understanding. "That''s a good choice. Well, the enemies will also have no hesitation in killing us, so it''s something I should put into consideration."


    "Indeed. Moving on to the elimination rounds�� among one hundred countries that participate, only eight of them will appear on the main stage, so you can see why it''s so hard to get onto that stage."


    "Yeah. Do you have any idea about thepetitions?"


    "Not really. I haven''t heard anything about the challenge, but in the elimination round, all countries will be split into eight blocks. The winner of each block willpete on the grand stage while the losers can go back to their home country.


    "During the elimination round, they employ the point system, so the one who gets the most points wins. There are three stages which are a puzzle, a hunt, and a race. I don''t know much about the details because it''s supposed to be a secret."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I understand. A puzzle, a hunt, and a race�� I see. We''re going topete on the other side, right?"


    "Yeah. I''m afraid thepetition this time has surpassed everyone''s expectations. There will be many bribesing into y, but our country isn''t that big to do that, so yeah, I wish you luck."


    "Indeed. Do you have any information about ourpetitors?"


    "Yep. These are the ten other countries you need to face. From my personal experience, you need to be wary of two teams." Radvils handed the list. "Indonesia and Australia."


    "��" Theo took another look at the list and nodded. "I will."


    "Well, just make sure you get to the main stage first before looking at your future opponents from other blocks, okay?"


    "Yeah."


    "That''s good. You can read the rest." Radvils left the seat and returned to his original seat before falling asleep.


    The others were curious, but Theo would surely tell them if the matter was important enough, so they decided to give him time to understand the information first.

 Chapter 206 – Cousin?

    <h4>Chapter 206 - Cousin?</h4>


    Theo put down his luggage in the hotel room.


    As one would expect, the room wasn''t that big, but it was clean and enough for him to livefortably for a week or two. There was a bed, a bathroom, and a pair of table and chair for him to work.


    After putting down his spears, he opened his Skylink, finding a message from Ellen and Alea.


    They asked him to meet them in the lobby.


    Of course, Theo didn''t follow it immediately. Instead, he checked every door to make sure it was safe. Even if they were a small country that no one had high hope for, it was better safe than sorry.


    He reached for the TV screen, turned it on, stood in front of the window and looked outside while listening to any kind of news. Even though it was in Italian, he got the tranted version in his Skylink, so he didn''t get bothered by it.


    However, as one would expect from a Grand Competition surpassing even that of a serpetition like FIFA, the Grand Gaia had taken over the media, elevating the scale of onepetition to an Olympic.


    He heard the ringing melody of the theme song and smiled. "Before thinking about the main stage, I need toe up with a way to fight against Indonesia and Australia in my block. There''s a chance that we need to fight them, so we can''t lose if we want to get into the top eight.


    "Thepetition is still unknown, so I can only wait for thepetition to start, albeit it''s not going to be easy. A puzzle, a hunt, and a race, huh." Theo closed his eyes and took time to think about what kind of round it was.


    After getting enough time alone in his room, he finally left the room and headed to the lobby, finding Alea and the others waiting for him.


    "Theo, we are going to the stadium where we will fight in a few days. Wannae with us?" Alea waved her hand while ncing at Ellen and the others.


    "Has the instructor told us anything?" Theo asked first while looking at the lobby. It was quite bustling with people, especially since the entire city was in a festive mood.


    He could see many decorations for the Grand Gaia Competition on the way. There were balloons, merchandise and other things that filled the city, making it even grander.


    That was why the stadium might be packed with people even though thepetition hadn''t started yet.


    "Yes. He said the training starts tomorrow. Right now, it''s only 1 PM here, so Instructor Radvils said as long as we''re back before 8 PM, everything is allowed. Just make sure we don''t get lost."


    Theo pondered for a moment and nodded. "Then, I guess we can rx for a bit today. Do you have any n to��"


    Before he finished, Alea, Ellen, and Phyrill actually took out a pamphlet showing a few locations.


    Without giving any answer, Theo already knew they had ns.


    "I know it''s going to be like this." Theo let out a long sigh and said, "Alright. Let''s go."


    "Yeay!" Alea and Ellen had a high-five as they both managed to get the serious Theo out of the hotel.


    When they had just left the hotel and turned to the left, ready to go sightseeing, they saw a young girl walking on the street alone.


    She had long blue-colored hair tied into twin tails. Surprisingly, her face appeared a bit simr to Theo''s, especially her dark blue eyes. She wore a white blouse with a belt tightly wrapped around her waist before it entered the inside of her knee-length skirt.


    Due to her petite body, her walk wasn''t a pleasant one. When she thought it couldn''t be worse, a car stopped next to her and the window gradually came down, revealing two men with a smug smile.


    "Hey, kid. You''re not a native, aren''t you? Are you separated from your parents? Do you want us to drive you to your hotel?" The guy said in English with a chuckle.


    "��" The girl tilted her head in confusion before her eyes brightened, recalling something. She then asked them with a poker face�� A question they never expected to hear. "Do you have candies?"


    "Ehm��" The guy didn''t know how to express his confusion and looked at his friend for a moment before replying, "Nope."


    "Hmph?" She snorted and turned back, ignoring them. "Amateur."


    "��" The two guys dumbfoundedly stared at her, not believing what they just heard. The driver ''s face was distorted as he stuttered, "Wh-what did you say again?"


    "Amateur. Not only do you not have any candy, but you also want me to spell it for you. You guys are not amateur anymore. You''re pathetic." The girl shook her head in disappointment before her eyes looked forward, finding Theo''s group.


    It was then she froze, not even moving an inch.


    "Hmm?" Alea widened her eyes as she felt something weird from this young girl but couldn''t find what it was. She wanted tough at the earlier joke, but she realized she was caught in a trance.


    Surprisingly, the other had started walking toward them and stopped right before Theo.


    Theo looked the girl in the eyes and felt a weird sensation in his chest. He didn''t know why but he felt this girl looked too much like him.


    Without saying a single word, the girl gently grabbed Theo''s right hand using her small hands and looked at him with a small smile.


    "I have finally found you, Cousin."


    "Huh?" The first "huh" came from his teammates and the two guys as they looked at the two.


    ''What did she say? Cousin?'' Alea widened her eyes in confusion.


    ''Cousin? What? Did the girl just want to use Theo to escape from the two guys?'' Ellen thought while ncing over the two guys.


    ''Pfft. How about you call him big brother instead?'' Phyrill chuckled as the girl''s petite body made her a perfect fit to be Theo''s younger sister, considering they both had the same hair color. But then he realized, ''The same color?''


    "Huh?" The second "Huh" came from Theo as thetter was stunned. He looked to the left, right, behind and found no one other than him, realizing it wasn''t a mistake. He pointed at himself and looked at the girl before shouting. "Huh?!"

 Chapter 207 – Nella Griffith

    <h4>Chapter 207 - Ne Griffith</h4>


    "Huh?!" The shout took everyone''s attention, including the passer-by.


    "Theo?" Phyrill looked as confused as him, knowing that Theo shouldn''t have anyone as his family. He had checked Theo''s background after all.


    "I-I think you''re mistaking me with someone else, youngdy." Theo gently denied it.


    The two guys didn''t want to get embarrassed even more by the little girl, so they quickly left the scene, knowing that it was impossible to do what they wanted to do.


    On the contrary, the young girl shook her head with a smile. "No, I didn''t mistake you for someone else. Let me introduce myself first�� My name is Ne Griffith."


    "Griffith?!" Theo''s teammates drew a gasp as they took a step back, looking at Theo dumbfoundedly.


    Griffith might not be amon name, but it didn''t mean people in the world couldn''t share the same family name. There were many asions where twoplete strangers had the same name from given to surname, so it wasn''t weird to see someone with "Griffith" in their name.


    But there was a problem with the little girl. It wasn''t a coincidence or whatsoever because the girl mentioned her name only to Theo, who happened to have the same family name. If it were just a coincidence, she would''ve introduced herself to Phyrill or any other people.


    "I didn''t mistake anyone else. You''re Uncle Ignotas Griffith''s only child." The small girl smiled.


    Theo took a step back and freed his hand from her hands while staring at her, bing even more vignt. "How do you know my fat��No, that''s not important. Only child? You must get the wrong person. I have a brother, so I''m sorry, youngdy, I am not your cousin."


    Ne tilted her head in confusion beforeing to a realization. "Ah, so that''s how it is. In any case, I didn''t find the wrong person. You''re indeed my cousin. If you happen to want to know more about your origin, we can talk after you reach the main stage."


    "Main stage?" Theo furrowed her eyebrows as his expression turned serious. "You��"


    "Yes. I am also a participant. Fortunately, I couldn''t find your country''s name in my block or else we will have a sh soon." She smiled and took another look at his teammates. "I see. So these people are your teammates�� Only one of them is decent. The rest is not so much��"


    Sihan and Laust crossed their arms as if they felt a bit offended by what the girl said. Phyrill, on the contrary,ughed as he walked to them while pointing his finger at the girl. "What''s this little girl saying, Theo? Pfft. There''s an age restriction for thepetition and her body��"


    Before Phyrill finished, he wasunched into the air,nded on the ground, and rolled a few times before stopping.


    "!!!" The others looked at the girl in shock before appearing next to the girl, trying to restrain her, only to find five more people appearing on the scene.


    The first one was a blonde girl sucking a lollipop with her hand circling around Theo''s neck. Another one was a brown-haired female that grasped Ellen''s wrist. The third one was also a girl with ck hair. She appeared behind Sihan and simply stared at him.


    The other two were both males. The blonde guy grabbed Alea''s hand to stop her while the green-haired guy put his foot in front of Laust, ring at him as if telling him to stop.


    The blonde girl held the lollipop for a bit while speaking in English. "Hey, hey. What''s happening? What do you want to do with our little princess?"


    "��" It wasplete silence as Alea and the others also had their guard up and prepared to react to any kind of movement.


    "It''s enough." Ne let out a long sigh and looked at the blonde girl. "Zara, I believe you should remove your hand from my cousin."


    "Your cousin?" Zara widened her eyes dumbfoundedly before shaking her head helplessly. "Oi, we just lost you for a few minutes and you got a cousin now?"


    Responding to Zara''s nonchnt attitude, Ne leaked her killing intent a bit as she stared at Zara with an irrefutable stare. "I won''t repeat myself."


    Zara felt a chill down her spine and took one step back instinctively. Sweats began to cover her forehead as fear remained on her face.


    Seeing Zara stopped, the rest suddenly put down their hands, thinking it was just a misunderstanding.


    Ne took a deep breath and turned to Phyrill with a calm expression. "You''re only a little�� a little bit taller than me, but you''re older than me. You''re the one smaller. I''m also 17 years old."


    Phyrill gritted his teeth and red at Ne while thinking, ''What just happened? I don''t know what was going on, but I felt as if my body got hit by a car. Something invisible, but different from Alea''s Inch sh��''


    "Who are you��" Theo squinted his eyes and acted as if everything didn''t bother him.


    "I''ve introduced myself earlier. My name is Ne Griffith, your cousin. If you are interested in knowing more about me and what I know,e to the grand stage and meet me privately. I will tell you anything I can say." Ne smiled and gently grabbed his hand again. "I hope that we will meet again."


    "I don''t have any memory of you, so I don''t think there''s any need for it." Theo shook his head.


    "If you believe such a thing, then I can''t help you. But��" Ne suddenly took out another pocket watch hanging on her neck before moving it closer to the one on Theo''s chest.


    Suddenly, both pocket watches resonated and a circle of white light shone on each of them as if showing that both of them matched.


    Even Theo couldn''t contain his shock anymore as he never expected that the pocket watch could actually do such a thing. "You��"


    "This is the proof that I''m your cousin. Unfortunately, I can''t say anything at the moment." Ne smiled and tiptoed to increase her height a bit before giving a small peck on his cheeks like a greeting. "I''m d that I can meet you here. I believe we will see each other soon."


    Ne then took a step back before walking away while waving her hand at Theo.

 Chapter 208 – Theo’s Real Worth?

    <h4>Chapter 208 - Theo��s Real Worth?</h4>


    After leaving Theo''s group, Zara couldn''t contain her curiosity anymore as she walked while tilting her head to look at Ne. "Hey, Princess. Is he really your cousin? It''s the first time you''re ring at me like that."


    The blonde guy raised his right hand and pointed at his lower arm, supporting Zara. "If you took a look at my arm earlier, all my hair rose. It gave me a goosebump."


    "You don''t even thank me when I''m saving your asses." Ne shook her head in disappointment.


    "Huh? What do you mean?" said Zara as she was as confused as the others.


    "If you take another look at the rule, you will realize we''re forbidden to have any contact with other countries. If there''s a fight between two countries, the initiator country will be disqualified. He calmly went through everything, but if you looked at his hand a bit further, you would realize he almost had enough proof to frame us. It''s not something that hard to pull a sympathy card while framing a big country like us. Besides, even if we clear our nameter, it''s toote since we will be under heavy investigation and can''t participate in the tournament."


    "What do��" Zara suddenly fell silent and looked back, realizing that Theo actually held his Skylink in his hand. In addition to the security camera, it was indeed as she said. "But you blew that small guy away."


    "Anyone seen me doing it?" Ne snorted and looked away.


    "Kh�� Argh, I''m frustrated just by talking to this girl." Zara scratched the back of her head, wanting to beat Ne up, but knew she couldn''t do it.


    "Anyway, it seems our preparation is not enough. I don''t care about thispetition, but I still need to get number one. And with my cousin in that team, our winning chance has decreased even further."


    "Are you sure about it?" Zara narrowed her eyes and looked at her teammates. "I feel like our team is the best already. We have prepared more than enough to confront our rivals like China, Japan, the United States, or even this country."


    "Did I stutter?" Ne''s expression became colder.


    "No, but you are��"


    Ne stopped her and shook her head before closing her eyes for a moment, remembering the talks she had with her father. "Let me ask you a question. Do you think I''m talented?"


    "Of course! You are very talented. Your talent is hard toe by. I think only some from the same generation will be your match in the entire world."


    "There''s one more person." Ne shrugged while sighing. "And as far as talents are concerned, my father said that I wouldn''t be able to inherit the house if my cousin demands it. The one with bigger capability needs to bear more responsibility�� It''s such an ironic idiom."


    *Gasp��!* The rest couldn''t believe her statement. Ne was already one of a kind, yet, thetter said Theodore Griffith was a far bigger person than her. They simply couldn''t believe it.


    However, Zara also noticed one thing. "Why is he in that small team and in that small country?"


    "Who knows." Ne shrugged.


    ��


    While Zara continued asking about Theo, thetter indeed nned to frame them because he could see they were dangerous. He wanted to use the footage to sabotage the enemy since everything was legal as thispetition wasn''t a sportspetition but a battlepetition. And everything is fair in war.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t use it and put the Skylink back into his pocket and received stares from all his teammates.


    "What is your rtionship with that girl? Is she really your cousin?" asked Alea with a weird expression.


    "I don''t know myself. As far as I remember, I haven''t met the girl even once." Theo shook his head, denying the fact that he was her cousin.


    "But she seems to know you�� And Griffith�� Your family name�� I don''t think I''ve heard it anywhere." Phyrill crossed his arms and looked down, falling into deep thought.


    Laust''s focus remained on Theo''s pocket watch hidden underneath his clothes. He clearly saw the reaction when another pocket watch with the exact same appearance came close to it, meaning that it was a kind of his identity.


    His original task was to im the map inside the pocket watch, but it seemed the task was harder than he originally thought. Whatever the secret of that pocket watch had, it was surely not something small.


    After all, there was no way a family that was able to send two of their younger generations as the representative of the countries was an ordinary family. And it was even more amazing when both of them were from two different nations, meaning that the family''s influence had spread internationally.


    Ellen seemed to have the same thought as she gently poked his cheek while making a cheeky smile. "Maybe your family is actually rich? You just never found anything about them because they live in another country?"


    "I don''t know." Theo calmly shrugged his shoulders as if it didn''t matter. Theo himself believed that a family who could abandon their own member when he was a child wasn''t a good family. Hence, he didn''t want to have anything to do with that family even if they turned out to be a big family. "And I am ufortable talking about this."


    Since Theo had stated it, Alea and Phyrill exchanged looks as they made a small smile and dropped the matter.


    "We should stroll around then. It''s nice to cool your head." Alea changed the topic.


    "Before that, what''s the thing that blew you away earlier?" Theo nced at Phyrill with a serious expression.


    "That''s��" Phyrill scratched the back of his head and thought hard. Unfortunately, no answer came to his mind as he replied. "I truly have no idea."


    But as one would expect from someone who had been ying with Magic Power since young, Ellen noticed something that Phyrill couldn''t feel. She said with a hesitant tone. "I am not a hundred percent sure, but I think it was Magic Power. I felt a faint Magic Power fluctuating in the air earlier, so yeah��"


    "Ho?" Theo was amused because he also used Magic Power actively, making him curious about that power.


    Seeing that the situation would just be serious, Alea decided to grab Theo''s hand and dragged him. "Let''s not talk about this today. We should rx a bit."


    Little did they know, there was one person who had watched them the entire time. It was Radvils.


    When he was looking through his window, he noticed that the group stopped and talked to someone they barely knew, making it a bit suspicious.

 Chapter 209 – Opening Ceremony

    <h4>Chapter 209 - Opening Ceremony</h4>


    Three days went by swiftly. Although everyone didn''t mention a single word about Theo''s cousin, all of them knew they were still thinking about her. They simply wanted to know who she truly was.


    After a series of simple checks, they all found out about her identity.


    Ne Griffith, her name was real. And just like Theo, she had been living a quiet, humble life because both of her parents were still with her. She was the representative from the United Kingdom because she was well-known to be a genius of Magic Power coupled with the blessing from the Goddess famous for her magic and spell, Hekate.


    Other than Alea''s level advantage, there wasn''t a single of her traits that were actually superior to Ne.


    They finally realized that Ne was actually one of the strongest contenders in the entirepetition. That was why the group kept thinking about Theo and Ne''s rtionship.


    With a blood rtionship, they would think Theo was a spy sent by her, but Radvils dispelled that thought because there was no reason for them to use Theo as a spy. Their country was simply too weak.


    In the end, they continued their training ording to Radvils'' menu, adjusting their body to Italy''s environment.


    ��


    The awaited day had finallye.


    The city was filled with euphoria and cheers as they all had been waiting for Grand Gaia to start.


    Many drones and small nes were dispatched in the sky, flying banners upon banners. More than a hundred gs were standing tall in a grand fifty-foot-wide entrance.


    Still,pared to the building behind it, the entrance looked small. The building was a gigantic circle. The size alone might go as far as thirty thousand square feet, simr to that of a ser field.


    But they had looked inside the building and found that instead of a giant green field, there was only one round arena where the students could fight each other. In other words, the stadium could hold more people inside.


    Due to the traffic, all countries were to arrive at one middle point where they did a parade for thirty minutes before entering the stadium. Of course, all people were to remain on the bus to protect the safety of the students.


    Theo looked at the window and saw many people cheering for many countries, not just their home country. Their cheers were shaking the ground as the theme song kept reying over and over again until they reached the stadium.


    Theo had no interest in them, so he calmed himself down with his headphones.


    Ellen got a bit carried with the atmosphere, slightly pulled his headphone and whispered. "You''re not going to wave your hand to them, Theo?"


    "You can hear their cheers. It''s obvious they don''t have any thought about us winning. All their eyes are on other great countries like China, the United States, and so on. That''s why I don''t really care about them." Theo shrugged and closed his eyes after putting his headphone back.


    Ellen showed a small smile and left him alone. Although what he said was true, it was hard for them not to get carried by the atmosphere.


    After a long parade, they finally arrived at a special parking lot where only the buses from the respective country could enter.


    As soon as Theo came out of the bus, he heard someone shouting.


    "Please go to your own line. Simply follow the person holding your g for the opening ceremony."


    Theo looked around and found men and women holding national gs and those in the front already lined up neatly. Theo searched for the person carrying their national g and walked to him.


    Ellen and the others soon followed, leaving Radvils in the bus.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in the stadium, a huge show from the marching band entertained more than a hundred thousand people who kept bursting into cheers.


    The hype continued until the performance finished and the speaker announced. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Are you ready?"


    "We are ready!"


    "We shall now hold the onepetition that most people can''t forget, the Grand Gaia Tournament. I''m sure that you can''t wait anymore, so without further ado, let''s call all participants to enter the stadium!"


    The cheers erupted as they all kept shouting each country''s name, echoing inside the stadium.


    Each country''s representatives began to enter the arena in session, starting from the host, Italy.


    All big and powerful countries showed off their faces. They all looked proud as they wanted to show they came here to win.


    Theo and the others were among them, but they didn''t get the attention like the others because people thought of them as cannon fodders that would soon lose. Only those from their own countries would actually cheer for them.


    As soon as all participants entered, a ck-haired girl wearing a one-piece red dress walked into the arena with a smile on her face. She was apanied by a bald elderly man, but almost everyone recognized both of them.


    "Look. It''s Sheira!"


    "That''s right. It''s Sheira!"


    "She is the Diva of the younger generation. Unfortunately, she can''t participate in this tournament. But I''m settled with her as the host."


    "The one beside him is the Mythical Ice Emperor, Diego Mastandrea. With him as the referee, everything will be fair."


    A blue screen appeared in the stadium as if they were hanging on the ceiling. They all zoomed to either the participants or the two people who just entered.


    "Hello, everyone! My name is Sheira, I will be your host for this tournament. I am apanied by an honored guest, who will also act as a referee in thispetition. Please give a big apuse to our Mythical Ice Emperor, Sir Diego Mastandrea."


    "Uoh!"


    They all shouted, whistled, and did everything in order to create noise for the hype. Sheira and Diego just waved their hands with a smile in all directions.


    "I am sure that all of you can''t wait anymore, so I won''t take much of your time with my boring speech. Without further ado, I announce that the 16th Grand Gaia Competition officially starts!"


    The cheers kepting. Even her voice got overpowered by the shouts and she needed to raise a bit of her voice. "There will be a total of 104 countries participating in the Grand Gaia. Unfortunately, only eight cane to the grand stage. In the first round, we will eliminate 96 countries just like in previouspetitions. Now, I will tell you about the first round��"

 Chapter 210 – First Round

    <h4>Chapter 210 - First Round</h4>


    "Now, I will tell you about the first round." She then raised her hand and the screen changed into another scenery.


    It was a forest filled with green trees of various sizes, but if one took another look, there was a small cube that seemed to be out of nowhere. The cube seemed to be able to hold a few people at a time.


    "Please take a look at this cube, if we open the door of this cube, it will lead us to an underground facility of the government. In that facility, you will find threeyers which is basically the entire elimination round.


    "This elimination round emphasizes three things: Mind, Physical Abilities, and Overall Offensive and Defensive power of a certain group. Each group is required to have all those aspects in order topete in the next round.


    "Of course, we guarantee that our home country team hasn''t known anything about this facility because the UN helps us build this facility. The test will revolve around a puzzle, a hunt, and a race.


    "In the firstyer, you will face a series of mind challenges and your group is required to solve it ording to your own personal answer. You will have a total of four hours to escape from the tower and win the ticket to the grand stage.


    "However, you will soon face the secondyer, which is the hunt. You will need to hunt the right monster inside the facility in order to advance to the thirdyer, which basically gives you the right to leave the tower.


    "But it''s not over yet. In thest stage, you are to race against other teams to get a g in a certain spot outside the facility. Each test will give you a certain amount of points, so each team should focus on getting as many points as possible because the team with the highest amount of points will win.


    "Due to the time limitation, all of you are divided into eight blocks which you have been informed about. Each day, two blocks will determine its victor. Of course, we will heal any injury and prevent any killing, so please go all out during this whole time. I wish you luck." Sheira finished her exnation as simply as possible. "To avoid wasting your time, I hope Block A''s participants can go to the facility right now�� Our people will guide you."


    "��" Theo fell silent and looked at Alea in front of him. "I think our luck is not that good."


    As Theo said, the guy who carried their national g smiled and waved his hand to the side, telling them to go.


    Yes. They were the first block, so Theo couldn''t get any data from the previouspetition. Fortunately, the information told them that the challenge was random, so there was a small possibility they would get the same challenges with any other teams. Only those in the same blocks wouldpete with the same challenges.


    "Let''s go." Theo shook his head helplessly as the group left the stadium, heading to a chopper provided by the host together with all other countries from Block A.


    Theo''s eyes focused on the two teams while the rest looked around Italy from above, enjoying their time. They soon arrived in front of a Teleportation Circle and were transported to the other side.


    Theo didn''t see the base Italy had, but from just a nce, he knew it was far bigger than their Art Beats Castle.


    A few minutester, they arrived in front of the cube, where they were greeted by a middle-aged man.


    To entertain the people in the stadium, there was a drone flying around and their movement would be monitored through the camera inside the building.


    ''Hmm�� It seems this is going to be more difficult than I think.'' Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at the door. ''From the looks of it, I need to choose which skills to reveal because I can''t show them too much during this round to give as much advantage as possible.''


    He then looked at the middle-aged man wearing a white military uniform that seemed to be their referee in the elimination round.


    "My name is Abas and I will be the referee of the elimination round. The drones will be flying around you but won''t hinder you, so please don''t mind them. As for the round itself, there is a much detailed exnation of what you need to do to escape from this facility." He then opened the door and said, "For now, each team can go inside one by one to travel to the bottom of this facility."


    "First, Thernd!"


    Hearing their name called, Theo and the group exchanged looks as they nodded, entering the cube that turned out to be an elevator to the underground. As soon as they entered, the door closed and the elevator started going down.


    "Wow��" Alea was amazed there was a facility like this, but more importantly, she turned around and cheered her teammates. "We can do this, guys."


    There must be little to no people that would actually think they would win. After all, the people of their country would surely cheer for them but never put any bets on the team because they all knew it was impossible for them to win since they never reached the main stage even once.


    That was why Theo remained expressionless to avoid embarrassing himself.


    However, there was actually someone who watched the screen intensely.


    It was Ne Griffith. Her teammates still wondered how Theo would be able to beat the other teams with that kind of team, but seeing Ne''s confidence, they decided to watch his performance quietly.


    Ne, on the other hand, smiled when she saw his face. "I hope you can win."


    Unaware of the silent prayer, Theo''s group had arrived at the bottom floor as the door opened, revealing a small corridor with a few doors on both sides. All of them showed a number. The number one door opened as soon as they arrived on the bottom floor as if telling them to enter.


    Theo and the others looked at each other and nodded as they entered the door and walked through another corridor before reaching a two hundred square feet room. The room waspletely white with only a big screen in the middle of the room and a ck box on the floor. There was another door on the opposite side, so all of them thought the door would only open after the other teams had entered their respective rooms as the signal of the start of thispetition.


    They all saw the screen saying, "Please wait for the other teams." Along with the live footage of the other teams entering the facility.


    (PS: Country Name Change)

 Chapter 211 – First Hurdle

    <h4>Chapter 211 - First Hurdle</h4>


    Seeing they needed to wait for the other teams, Theo decided to walk to the ck box and examined it.


    Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t find anything useful other than the lock that seemed to open only when the sensor got activated. The box itself was around twelve inches, so it was a quite big box that could contain so many things.


    "So, what are we going to do here? Waiting?" Alea asked while looking around. "Maybe we should look around to see if there''s anything hidden in it?"


    Theo shrugged and said, "Suit yourself. But there won''t be anything else in this room."


    "��" Alea gently stroked her cheek, wondering whether Theo would hold back or not when berating her in front of the camera. She shook her head helplessly and said, "We have nothing to do anyway, so a little check won''t hurt."


    Hearing Alea''s desire, the group looked at each other and decided to look around the room while Theo kept ying around with the ck box while watching the screen.


    His teammates tried to investigate the room from the wall, ceiling, and floor, only to find nothing.


    The reason Theo was confident they wouldn''t be able to find anything was due to the absolute advantage if you came down first. They might use it for thest team that might win among the others, but they simply wouldn''t look down on us that obviously. Hence, there was no reason for them to leave any clues in this room other than the ck box.


    After a few minutes, all the teams had finally entered their respective rooms, locked inside. The screen gradually changed as a clicking sound echoed inside the room.


    ck.


    Theo felt something was moving from the box he held and raised it up, seeing it open and revealing what was hidden inside.


    There were six silver bracelets inside the box with a green light emanating from it. The screen then changed as they received a clear instruction.


    "Please wear the bracelet on your right wrist. It''s a special bracelet that will protect you in the time needed."


    Seeing the instruction, Theo grabbed one bracelet and handed the box to the others. He put it on and saw nothing suspicious about it.


    "The first mission will give you five points for every single person that crosses the finish line within one hour. So, please escape from this room."


    ck.


    "!!!" Theo heard something from behind and turned around, finding the floor tile to raise by a few inches and they seemed to create a small path inside the room, connecting all four corners.


    "In order to obtain the key, all members are to run fiftyps circling the rising floor tiles."


    "What?!" Alea furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Theo. However, thetter had already walked to the rising floor tiles with a calm expression.


    He looked at them with a confused expression. "What''re you doing? Let''s run. We only have one hour to escape from this room."


    Seeing that Theo had amand, the group quickly followed him and started running. They tried to run as fast as possible to make sure they cleared the first hurdle with some time to spare.


    It took them ten minutes to finish that run because they felt quite dizzy after going around the room a few times.


    As soon as they finished, all the rising tiles suddenly dropped to their original position except for one which was in the opposite direction of the door.


    "Hmm?" Theo pointed to that one particr tile.


    "That��" Alea walked closer and looked at Theo. "Should I?"


    "With your hand first." Theo nodded.


    Touching it with her hand would allow her to quickly avoid anything that happened on that tile, so he wanted to be safe.


    When Alea pressed the floor, they heard another sound from the opposite direction before seeing that the door opened. Surprised by the sound of the door, Alea released her hand only to find the door shut down again.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in the stadium, Sheira said, "Block A''s participants have finally started. They need to face this challenge where they require someone to step on the pressure te to open the door for their teammates."


    The screen showed various groups running and trying toprehend how the te worked and wondered if they needed to sacrifice a person to pass the floor.


    "I wonder how they will solve this puzzle. Will they sacrifice themselves so their team can advance? Or will they find another way around?" Sheira kept entertaining the people before she found one group that already decided to go. "Wow, look at that. One team has moved on from the first puzzle with all team members!"


    All the people gasped as they never expected to find a group that could solve the riddle instantly. And that group came from a rtively small country.


    ��


    Theo smiled when he saw the pressure te as he walked to it, analyzing their situation. "It''s indeed a good riddle. In order to open the gate, we''re required to sacrifice someone here."


    "Then, I will stay here. The rest of you can go." Alea quickly decided to be the sacrifice to avoid losing any more time. She panted a few times because she had been running at full speed. The others had a simr condition and became pretty tired as they couldn''t think for a long period of time.


    However, Theo shook his head as if he didn''t have any problem with the tiredness.


    "What do you want to do, Theo?" asked Ellen while looking at the door nervously.


    "Remember the way to get the points?"


    "Five points per person." She nodded.


    "Exactly. I don''t like losing five points for no reason since I don''t know how many points we need in this situation, so��" Theo smiled and summoned his clone. "This guy is the solution."


    "!!!" All of them opened their eyes wide as they almost forgot that Theo had a clone. They soon realized their fatigue actually prevented them from thinking straight.


    "Your fatigue and the short time limit make you rush everything, so keep calm, okay?" Theo smiled while trying to calm the team down. Because of the festive mood and the expectation from the people of their country, his group had be a bit too active in this challenge, so he wanted to use this asion to calm them down.


    Surprisingly, it greatly affected them as Alea and the others gradually turned serious, knowing that they didn''t need to be panicked even if there was a time limit.


    Clone Theo then stepped on the pressure te and opened the door for them.


    Seeing that their path had opened, Theo smiled. "Let''s go, shall we?"

 Chapter 212 – Second Hurdle

    <h4>Chapter 212 - Second Hurdle</h4>


    Theo and the others quickly followed the path that turned out to be a slope, leading to the next level. As soon as they arrived at the upper level, they found another white room precisely like the previous one, but smaller in size. At the same time, there were two doors on the opposite side.


    They saw another screen in the middle of the room, saying, "Congrattions."


    The screen changed when the room detected the signaling from their bracelets.


    "Congrattions for reaching thisyer. This is the second challenge of the first round. To make it more interesting, there will be a bonus point for the team that passes this ce first. The reward is as follows:


    1st ce - 25 Points


    2nd ce - 20 Points


    3rd ce - 15 Points


    4th ce - 10 Points


    5th ce - 5 Points


    "Behind the screen stands two doors. The left door will allow all people to cross easily, but the distance is too far. The right door will allow you to go straight to the finish line of the first round, but three people are required to remain."


    After that exnation, three tile floors emerged like the previous one as if telling them to choose. The three were so far apart that one person wasn''t enough to hold two or all three of them down.


    Even with Theo''s clone, they still needed to pick two people.


    Current progress:


    1. Thernd (6 People) - 0 Point


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes as his group quickly came to discuss their n.


    "Theo, is it worth exchanging 10 to 15 points for 25 points?" Alea asked.


    "I think it''s worth it. With Theo''s clone, only two of us need to remain here, giving us 15 bonus points." Phyrill nodded in agreement. "We can also prevent the other teams from getting those points."


    Theo, on the other hand, didn''t share the same opinion as them. "If we could go with all members and win first ce, we would receive 55 points. And if we sacrificed two people, we would only get 45 points."


    The rest turned to him with a serious expression.


    "I see. The purpose of this escape tower is to eliminate most participants, allowing only a few top groups topete with each other on the surface. For example, if we can receive a total of 55 points in the firstyer, the secondyer and the thirdyer may give a simr amount of points, but in several hurdles like this.


    "That''s why there''s a certain minimum of points we need to receive from eachyer. If we sacrifice two people here, there''s no guarantee that you can fight together with us on the surface, so it''s not a good option to sacrifice someone here." Theo shook his head beforeing to a realization. "I have a n."


    Listening to Theo''s exnation, they had realized that the puzzle was actually trying to force them to make a hasty decision. The run and this small bonus point, all of them influenced their mind.


    Theo didn''t wait for them to reply as he quickly walked toward the door while pointing at the three tile floors. "Laust, Sihan, and Ellen. Stand on the tiles, please. Phyrill, you watch over the screen and tell me if there''s another team appearing in the current leaderboard. Alea, youe with me."


    "Roger that!" The group smiled as they quickly went to their positions ording to Theo''s arrangement.


    When the three rising floors had been pressed, the right door finally revealed another path leading to upstairs. They realized it indeed brought them to the upperyer.


    However, when Theo and Alea approached the door, they realized the left door had a sensor that opened the door when someone came closer.


    "Theo! Indonesia has appeared on the leaderboard with six people!" Phyrill shouted as soon as a name appeared on the screen.


    Theo nodded and shouted back. "All three of you, you can remove yourself from those tiles."


    The three took a few steps away from it and the right door closed again while the left one remained open.


    Theo was a bit confused with it since he realized that they didn''t need to choose the two doors. The left door would always be opened for them. While he was thinking about the possibilities, it gave enough time for another team to catch up.


    "Theo, Australia Team ising too!"


    "Tch. There are too many uncertainties." Theo clicked his tongue. His main concern was how long the other path was�� he didn''t dare to take the risk for everyone. Hence, he decided to ce his hand on Alea''s shoulder before using his Blink to transfer Alea inside the door leading to the upstairs.


    "Theo? Are you nning to use that skill to bring everyone here?" Alea asked when they arrived on the other side of the right door.


    "Yes. Wait for us here since we may need all the team together to arrive at the same time. I need to wait one minute every time I use this technique, so it will take a bit longer than I expected��"


    "I understand." Alea nodded without hesitation. "Thank you for doing this�� We''re useless without you in thispetition."


    "No, you''re not. You can make a quick decision, but sometimes, it''s not the best one. I''m just trying to find the best solution for all of us." Theo shrugged as the corridor fell silent, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.


    However, he soon disappeared again when one minute passed and shouted, "All of youe here. Phyrill, keep watching the screen, will you?"


    "Okay!" Phyrill gave a thumbs up while the three came to him.


    When they walked toward him, Theo could see the screen turning into something unexpected.


    Current progress:


    1. Indonesia (6 People) - 45 Points


    2. Thernd (6 People) - 0 Point


    3. Australia (6 people) - 0 Point


    Theo dropped his jaw in surprise as he realized that his method was wrong.


    Those 45 points Indonesia Team received came from four people going straight to the right door while the other two challenged the left door that was avable for everyone.


    The first ce only required one person to actually cross the finish line and the rest would be added as soon as theypleted the path behind the left door. It was shown by the fact that Indonesia still had six people instead of four.


    ''There''s no word telling us that all of us need to go together. I''ve overanalyzed everything!'' He gritted his teeth, hurriedly turned around and banged the door while shouting. "Alea! Go straight to the finish line! Don''t ask, just go!"

 Chapter 213 – Second Place

    <h4>Chapter 213 - Second ce</h4>


    In the stadium, Sheira watched how Theo cleared the first hurdle in an instant. She took another look at the screen, showing Theo''s profile. "Oh! We have Theodore Griffith from Thernd destroying the first hurdle like it''s nothing with his clone. I''ve been curious about the reason he brings two spears with him, but I guess the clone can help him fight. What do you think, Sir Diego?"


    "Haha�� I like the young man already." Diegoughed and said, "From what I can see, he is the leader of the group. Seeing a first-year student lead the group is possible but certainly umon. He has a great head, ability, and swift decision-making. I can see why Thernd entrusts the leader position to him. Unfortunately, he has one w."


    "One w?" Sheira tilted her head in confusion. "From my perspective, he is good enough for me. It''s already surprising to see someone solving the riddle in an instant without any data from the previous block."


    "Indeed. It''s good, but his head maye to bite him. He is overanalyzing everything." Diego shook his head helplessly. "I don''t mean his ability is bad of course."


    Sheira was still confused, but she decided to move on because Theo and his group had arrived at the second hurdle. "Moving on to the second hurdle, the team has to make a choice whether they want to get the bonus point or the overall point. I can see that Theodore has a great effort in analyzi��Wait!"


    Diego smiled and nodded. "It seems you have noticed it as well. If we take another look at his decision, you can see he is someone who thinks everything through before making a decision. However, everything may not be asplex as he thought.


    "If I were him, the moment I realized I could unlock the left door and the right door at the same time, I would have instructed someone to enter the right path while the rest go to the left path."


    "Take a look at that, Sir Diego. He even has a rare ability. Teleportation is among the rarest skills we can have��" Sheira saw Theo''s Blink andmented on it.


    "Indeed. It''s such a rare skill. And the more reason why I will send someone to the upperyer as soon as possible. He is like someone in our math ss who uses so manyplicated calctions to solve a problem. However, the true problem only requires one set of forms�� You use it and solve it correctly. I don''t say this trait is bad. In fact, it''s very good. Humanity can advance this far because there are people like that and we, theter generations, gradually simplify it. I admire such a talent."


    "Ah!" Sheira was surprised when she saw Indonesia taking first ce. "Look, Indonesia just used the tactic Sir Diego said and cleared the firstyer with the maximum point!"


    Diego only smiled and didn''t say something people hated to hear, such as "I told you so". He simply encouraged Theo.


    "I believe Theodore Griffith has a big future ahead of him. I wish him the best." Diego paused and continued, "I am happy that there are a few teamspeting for the spot, putting us on edge to see who will actually win."


    "Indeed."


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo and his teammate were facing a challenge inside.


    The moment Alea heard his shout, she hurriedly followed the path as soon as possible.


    "Come on! I need to do this." Alea clenched her teeth and ran at her full speed. Her heart felt a bit painful because she felt anxious, not wanting to disappoint Theo and her teammates.


    She gasped for air as this short path felt like forever. Her hand reached to the front, hoping to reach the finish line as soon as possible.


    When she saw the door, she almost stumbled to the ground.


    Luckily, her training was very effective and her feet adjusted the position in an instant, allowing her to regain her bnce.


    She ran as quickly as possible and reached the door, throwing herself inside.


    "Ha!" Her shout echoed as it was followed by another door opening next to her and four more peopleing inside the room.


    She then widened her eyes to take a look at this simr white room, finding four people inside. The screen in the middle of the room showed their score.


    1. Indonesia (6 People) - 45 Points


    2. Australia (6 people) - 35 Point


    3. Thernd (6 People) - 25 Point


    Those 25 points meant it was her point along with the second-ce bonus point, she clutched her hand and shouted. "Yes!"


    Indonesia and Australia teams furrowed their eyebrows, looking at her with a weird expression. They simply couldn''t understand why this girl appeared exhausted like this. They thought she must have been too tired due to the run in the first hurdle and felt desperate after leaving her teammates behind.


    However, that "Yes" didn''te for her alone. Theo and the others also cheered when they saw the points.


    "Yes!" Phyrill raised both hands as if they had just won. "We got second ce."


    Even Sihan and Laust couldn''t help but secretly give a fist bump to each other.


    Only Theo who couldn''t share the same joy. He closed his eyes with a sad expression, entering his own self-reflection. After all, this happened due to him overanalyzing things.


    "I apologize. It''s my mistake. We should do what you all intend to do��" Theo lowered his head a bit because this was indeed his mistake. If they sacrificed two people without hesitation, they would have gotten first ce.


    However, Ellen patted his shoulders before pping his back, sending the heat from that one p.


    Pak.


    Theo''s body shook, and he looked at Ellen smiling at him.


    "Theo�� Don''t beat yourself like that. You have been thinking about the team. This wasn''t your mistake, but our mistake. We are a team right now. Instead of beating yourself like that, how about you give the next instruction?"


    Theo took a deep breath and nodded.


    After thanking Ellen, he told them he would teleport all of them to the right path to conserve their stamina due to the second and thirdyers, the hunt and the race. Obviously, Theo didn''t show that his clone could talk or use skill since he didn''t want to give away the information for free and there wasn''t a need to rush anymore.

 Chapter 214 – Second Layer

    <h4>Chapter 214 - Second Layer</h4>


    Ten minutester, Theo and the others arrived at the finish line, finding more than twenty people inside.


    He couldn''t use his Blink immediately, so he required nine minutes to get all his teammates inside that right path and during that time, other countries also had reached this ce.


    Obviously, the moment they reached this ce, 25 points were added to their score, iming the throne from Indonesia Team.


    The other teams only watched them without thought, believing they were just one of the teams who couldn''t finish it fast enough and relied on their sheer number alone to get an advantage. Five people gave them 25 points after all.


    However, Indonesia and Australia teams'' expressions turned serious because they remembered exactly who came out of that door earlier. It was none other than Alea, who hurriedly approached them as she didn''t have any friends during the past ten minutes.


    Due to the number of doors inside this room, they believed the door for those who took the left path was different than those who took the instant one. Hence, they realized Thernd actually had all their members crossing the right path.


    They simply couldn''t find a way to do such a thing, making Thernd more mysterious than they thought.


    "It seems there is another team we need to reconsider in this round." A ck-haired guy from Indonesia Team whispered to his teammates. Australia seemed to be discussing a simr thing as all their attention was focused on Theo''s group.


    The others soon realized that Theo''s group was actually not a nobody. It was shown by the score on the screen.


    Due to the long path, Indonesia and Australia teams were stillcking two members of their teams, allowing Thernd to im the first position.


    The other teams began to pay attention to them, but Theo had led his teammates to another corner to discuss their condition.


    "Alea, do you know anything about the two teams?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    Alea thought for a moment and shook her head. "I am not sure since they don''t talk too much during this time."


    She pointed at the ck-haired guy from Indonesia Team and another guy with long hair tied into a ponytail. "Those two guys are their leaders. I can see that they are trying to investigate us."


    "I understand. Just make sure not to show anything to them."


    "Understood." She smiled and asked, "What are we going to do right now? There are approximately twelve minutes to spare."


    Theo looked down and fell into deep thought before it was broken by the sound of a door opening. Two people emerged from the path, looking very exhausted.


    Their body and face were covered with sweat, but those two didn''t hesitate and walked to Indonesia Team as 10 points were added to their team, allowing them to regain their throne.


    "Uah, I am thankful that Theo is carrying us." Phyrill made a weird expression, knowing that their performance would be lowered greatly in that state.


    Those two could barely match up to one of them from his perspective. In other words, their country still had six men while the others only had five, giving them an absolute advantage.


    "In any case, there''s nothing I can say regarding the next round. We can only deal with it after seeing the test." Theo shook his head. After acknowledging his overanalyzing mistake, he decided to stop doing it excessively and only focused on the test.


    After several more minutes, eight doors were opened as eight country names appeared above them, showing that three countries had been eliminated in the firstyer.


    Theo and the others entered their own doors respectively, going through the hallway and arriving in another white room. The white room made them wonder what it would throw at them next.


    "Theo, look." Alea pointed to the door in their front. Unlike the previous one, this one was several times bigger.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at the screen that happened to be instilled on the wall instead of the middle of the room.


    "Something is wrong. I can feel it." Phyrillmented as he walked to the screen, wanting to see the next instruction.


    However, all of their expressions turned serious when they saw the description for the next hurdle.


    "For the secondyer, you are going to hunt monsters to get the key to the nextyer. The time limit is also sixty minutes, but you can only challenge one monster every ten minutes, so choose the monster right.


    "In this screen, you can find a hundred Level 300 Monsters. One monster is the key to the next round.


    "Hint for the key: All I see is darkness and within me is the key."


    Reward:


    Sessfully retrieving the key is 50 Points.


    One wrong monster choice is (-5) Points.


    "It''s indeed a hunt, but they''re also incorporating the riddle. Yeah, great��" Theo rolled his eyes and looked away.


    "A level 300 Monster won''t be too much for us and we should be able to kill it within three minutes. But we can''t get another monster for ten minutes, so we need to carefully choose it. They will also deduct our reward for every wrong choice." Alea crossed her arms.


    "All I see is darkness. That''s the most important hint to know the monster." Laust decided to open his mouth for the first time. "The other half is simply to rip that monster apart to retrieve the key."


    "Indeed." Theo nodded in agreement and turned to the screen, finding Sihan had started touching the screen to add some filters. "What do all of you think about this monster?"


    "It''s saying something about Darkness, so maybe a monster that is active during the night or a monster that possesses Dark Element Skill?" Phyrill raised his hand.


    "Probably Dark Element Skill Monster." Ellen agreed with Phyrill since it was the most logical one.


    "Yes. How about searching for a monster with Darkness Affinity?" Alea asked Sihan.


    Sihan then proceeded to add the filter, leaving only two monsters. "This is the result."


    The first monster was a tiger with ck wings on his back. It was known as Bat Tiger that used Dark Element Skill. The other was a ck Snake that could camouge itself during the night, making it a quite troublesome predator during the night.


    "Doesn''t this mean we only need to choose the right one among them?" Alea asked Theo for confirmation.


    "This��"

 Chapter 215 – Third Hurdle

    <h4>Chapter 215 - Third Hurdle</h4>


    "This��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment to think. "I feel like there is something wed in your decision, but I don''t know what��"


    "There are only two monsters, Theo. If it''s not the first one, then it will be the second one." Ellen felt it wasn''t that hard for them. "I know that making the wrong choice will give us minus points, but don''t you think it''s good to test the water first?"


    "But you should think about the wasted time along with the points reduction." Phyrill somehow agreed with Theo and tried to take another look at the hint.


    "Theo said that thispetition is meant to reduce otherpetitors, allowing only a few best teams topete. We seem to have gained five more points than Australia Team, so we can afford to waste one or two chances, right?" Laust asked. "You can''t win all the time�� You can''t��"


    Laust''s voice turned heavy as he spoke from experience.


    Theo took another three minutes to think about their decision before letting out a long sigh. "I can''t find anything in my head. It''s not like we can use all sixty minutes since there''s time for brainstorming. In other words, we only have five chances. So, which one do you want to fight?"


    With Theo''s confirmation, the group looked at each other and pointed at their own personal choices.


    Alea, Phyrill and Laust chose the tiger, while Ellen and Sihan chose the snake.


    "The result is there, but I still want to ask the reason why you chose that monster."


    "The key is within the body, so the body must be big." Alea raised her hand, only to find Ellen nodding in agreement. "That''s right. The key is inside the body. They need a snake to swallow it�� Considering the snake can even swallow a human."


    "��" Both of them looked at each other, acknowledging their reasons.


    "For me, I simply knew that this tiger would be easier to fight, allowing us to recover our stamina during the waiting time." Phyrill shrugged while Laust pointed his hand to Phyrill as if telling his point was the same as Phyrill''s.


    "The snake is slower than the tiger, so it''s easier." Sihan shrugged.


    "Alright. Let''s go with the tiger." Theo made a quick decision after listening to their reasons. At least, they had something in mind, not a simple "Because I want it."


    Since they hade to an agreement, Sihan then chose the tiger as their opponent.


    "Get ready. Sihan and Alea will be in the front. Laust and Phyrill will take the chance to strike it from the sides." Theomanded the team while moving together with Ellen.


    The giant gate opened automatically before an ominous feeling enveloped the room.


    There wasn''t a monster behind that gate, but they could feel that the monster wasing. Surprisingly, the one that appeared first was not the monster. It was a shadow extending on the ground.


    Seeing an incredibly powerful Magic Power in that shadow, Sihan quickly moved forward with his shield in the front.


    The shadow emerged from the floor and turned into a sharp de that struck Sihan''s shield, pushing him back.


    "Tch." Sihan clicked his tongue and felt the power of that shadow. Even though he had surpassed Level 200, it was still hard to block a Level 300 monster''s attack with his strength.


    "Get ready!" Alea shouted as she saw the tigering from the corner and marching toward them with full speed.


    To prevent the tiger from hitting Sihan, who had yet to recover, Alea came between them as she mmed her sword to the tiger''s head.


    The tiger floated in the air and tilted his head, stopping Alea''s sword with its fang. At the same time, it used its weight along with his wings to drag Alea to Ellen and Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, Alea only smiled as she became a bit too excited to finally show the result of her training.


    She indeed got dragged by the tiger and almost flipped, but she managed to react to that movement and took advantage of it.


    The moment she was upside-down, sheunched her body to the air with the help of her other hand while extending her foot straight. Using that momentum, she kicked the tiger and blew it to the ceiling.


    "You won''t get past me, stupid tiger." Alea snorted. "Ah!"


    The tiger let out a growl and spun its body to slip past Alea, heading straight to Sihan.


    "Sihan!" Alea shouted and chased the tiger from behind.


    Sihan readied his shield again and prepared to face the tiger, but the tiger made a small zig-zag movement, trying to confuse him.


    Sihan charged forward to stop that tiger, but thetter used that chance to leap forward, slipping past Sihan.


    However, due to that speed, the tiger had no way to avoid anything that came next.


    "Jade Head."


    "Sonic Speed."


    Phyrill appeared from the left while covering his head with a translucent green barrier and rammed the tiger''s stomach while Laust created a burst of Magic Power the moment he kicked the tiger''s neck, sting its neck.


    On the other hand, Theo, who became the tiger''s next target, simply stared at the tiger without even flinching as if he knew that the tiger wouldn''t reach him.


    When his and the tiger''s eyes intertwined, the tiger''s body shook for a split second without everyone noticing. However, in Theo''s eyes, the tiger hesitated for a second and dropped his guard down.


    Feeling that sudden drop, Sihan appeared right above the tiger and sliced its neck, killing the monster. "I''m here, Monster."


    He and the monster dropped to the ground.


    Sihan just showed them his training too. It turned out, Sihan actually let the tiger slip past him on purpose. He knew that both Laust and Phyrill would stop the tiger, so he used those two to his advantage to kill the tiger, showing that he actually lured the tiger in their formation, which was basically an executing ground.


    However, one thing was missing. There was no notification of killing the tiger.

 Chapter 216 – Blind

    <h4>Chapter 216 - Blind</h4>


    They thought the tiger was dead when Sihan sliced its neck, but as one would expect from a monster of that level. The tiger''s body turned ck before returning to its original form, a shadow.


    "I haven''t killed it yet," Sihan warned them after realizing he didn''t get the sign.


    The shadow then gathered and formed a small circle on the floor in the middle of the group.


    "Watch out!" Alea shouted as she appeared right in front of Phyrill and used her Fortitude Shield. Sihan also did the same for Laust while Theo activated his Elemental Shield to block an iing attack for him and Ellen.


    Suddenly, spikes emerged in all directions and tried to stab Theo and the others but to no avail. Their shields were too solid for the shadow to pierce them.


    Seeing that the tiger didn''t die, Ellen ced her hand on the ground and tried to bring the tiger to the surface. "Ice Wave."


    Ice spikes emerged in session in a fan-shaped area and the shadow had no ce on the floor anymore, forcing the tiger to return to its original form.


    Alea took a deep breath and waved her sword with all her might. "Inch sh."


    The tiger widened his eyes and tried to form a shield by using his shadow, but the Inch sh split it into two before a sword mark appeared on the tiger''s body.


    Bam.


    The tiger let out a growl as blood spurted out of the wound.


    "We''re not done yet."


    The tiger opened its mouth as ck light began to shine on its throat.


    "No, you won''t." Ellen pointed her hand on the tiger''s back and used her fastest skill to stop the tiger. "Frost Nova."


    A small blue light flew like that of a bullet and hit the tiger''s back, forming an ice crystal right after.


    Roar.


    The tiger felt numb due to that ice, but it was unable to kill the tiger as thetter still had enough strength tond on top of the ice. He covered all of its legs with shadow to avoid hurting himself from those sharp ice crystals.


    To avoid the tiger from creating any more trouble, Phyrill and Laust nned tounch it back to the sky by striking the tiger from below with high-speed movement.


    Unfortunately for them, the shadow that covered its legs was just a distraction. The bat wings pped and released another shadow that cut the ice crystals beneath him as he used both paws to strike Phyrill and Laust, blowing them away.


    The tigernded on the ground and roared as loud as possible before his shadow expanded and covered the whole room with shadow. No light entered this ce, blinding all the people inside.


    "Use your Awareness to locate the tiger! Also, only those with shields are to move!" Theomanded.


    "Understood."


    Sihan and Alea located the tiger and leaped toward the tiger at the same time.


    Thetter felt their presence and tried to avoid them, but Theo had already used his Blink to appear right before the tiger.


    The tiger was too focused on Alea and Sihan, so it gave him a great chance to strike it and without any light, the camera wouldn''t be able to see what he was doing.


    He waved his left hand down and pressured the tiger using his Telekinesis as if the gravity around the tiger increased by several folds. After restricting its movement, Theo thrust his spear forward and released a torrential wave of Magic Power and hit everything in a straight line.


    "Cannon st."


    That torrential energy cut the tiger all over his body and blood began to flow out at a fast rate, weakening the tiger with a second.


    Due to the blood loss, the tiger removed its shadow skill, retracting his shadow before dying.


    [Killed a Bat Tiger.]


    [EXP+400,328]


    [Level Up]


    [Level Up]


    [Level Up]


    "Nice." Theo smiled and said, "I wonder if we should kill a few more monsters to level up��"


    "We can''t. It''s already troublesome enough to deal with that tiger because one mistake might injure one of us. Besides, we''re in apetition�� Don''t say something like that." Alea rolled her eyes.


    "Indeed. Instead of leveling up, I am more curious whether this guy will drop that skill or not. We can''t see each other in the dark because of that shadow enveloping the room earlier and I think this skill is good because it can blind our enemy." Phyrill narrowed his eyes while cheering for Theo to touch the tiger.


    However, thetter came to a halt when he heard Phyrill''s words. He turned to Phyrill and asked with a frown. "What did you say?"


    "Ehm? What?" Phyrill''s eyebrows raised as he didn''t understand Theo''s question.


    "I want you to repeat what you say."


    "Instead of leveling up, I am��"


    "No, no. The onest part." Theo shook his head and stopped him right away.


    "Because it can blind our��" Phyrill dropped his jaw as he came to a realization. "All I can see is darkness."


    When the others heard those words, they thought they had the right monster since they indeed could only find darkness earlier. Alea even asked for confirmation. "So, does this mean we have gotten the right one?"


    "No! We got the wrong one! If Theo touched the tiger, it wouldn''t drop us any key. Trust me." Phyrill shook his head and nced at Theo as if asking him to touch the tiger.


    Since they had realized the true meaning of the hint, Theo touched the tiger, leaving only one skill and a material card�� Nothing else.


    "All I see is darkness. That''s the key. This tiger can see the light, so it''s not true. The monster who can only see the darkness is a blind monster or a monster that doesn''t have eyes!" He told them with great confidence.


    Even Theo nodded in agreement, supporting his argument.


    "!!!" Sihan and the others drew a gasp as Sihan quickly headed to the screen and searched for such a monster. There was no such a filter for the monster, so he needed to look through it one by one. But as one would expect, Sihan found a single monster with wounds in the eye part, blinding it. It was a one-eyed cyclops.


    He showed it to the rest while saying, "I think this one is the correct answer."

 Chapter 217 – Last Layer

    <h4>Chapter 217 - Last Layer</h4>


    Ten minutester.


    Theo let out a breath of relief and looked at the blind monster lying on the ground lifelessly.


    After figuring out the hint, Theo and the others quickly hunted the monster without any mercy.


    Since Alea was the one who killed the monster, she hurriedly ced her hand on the monster''s body and made the monster disappear.


    Because there was an abnormal substance inside its body that shouldn''t belong to this world''s system, the body got erased, but two cards and a ck card dropped to the ground.


    "This is the key." Alea quickly grabbed the ck card and tossed it to Theo. "Here you go."


    Theo nodded and asked them to clean up while he walked to the giant gate, the only door other than the entrance.


    There was no key or mechanism that seemed to be connecting the gate, confusing him a bit. But when he saw the gate opening, he felt something was wrong.


    "All of you, assemble here, will you?" Theo called the others, who quickly ran to him. He led them inside and walked through the corridor, finding it connecting to another room.


    In this room, there was a ck-colored box ced next to the door. On the right side of the room was a simr giant gate, so he thought the facility must have the floor where they kept all those monsters and connected them to this door, allowing them to be their opponent.


    Even so, Theo had no intention of wasting his time in this ce and quickly put the ck card inside the scanner box.


    Beep.


    After a series of "Beep" sounds, the door finally slid to the left, revealing another path to upstairs.


    "Let''s go." Since the card didn''te out, Theo shrugged and walked inside the path that kept climbing for several hundred feet.


    Alea kept looking around as if she could see what was going on. "Theo��"


    "I know. Just keep climbing." Theo nodded. "It''s the ce where they keep the monsters."


    "Their number is quite big�� Eh��" Phyrill whistled after hearing a bit of their sound with his ears that were slightly more powerful than normal humans.


    "They''re probably for other Blocks as well." Ellen replied while saying, "I wonder how much longer we need to climb."


    "Who knows." Theo shrugged. After another ten minutes of walking, they finally reached the upperyer, which turned out to be another white room.


    "I don''t feel like staying inside a white room after this��" Phyrill scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit sick with the same room.


    "It''s effective to hide things in this room after all." Theo nonchntly walked to the middle to see the current leaderboard.


    1. Indonesia (6 People) - 105 Points


    2. Australia (6 people) - 95 Point


    3. Thernd (6 People) - 95 Point


    Minimum Requirement: 90 Points


    "��" Theo was surprised when he saw there was a requirement next.


    He then raised his head and looked at the announcement for their team.


    "Congrattions for clearing the secondyer. For the thirdyer, you are required to get a g in the middle of nowhere. That g is in one of the four major directions.


    "Hint: The clue is inside the tower."


    "Seriously?" Theo shook his head in disappointment, realizing that the facility was built to eliminate many groups and let only a few top groupspete. "Such a cruel tower."


    "Theo?" Alea came to him and asked, "What do you think about thisst challenge? I mean you can see that the requirement is 90 points��"


    "It''s simple. That g is worth 20 points. And 90 points are enough to eliminate all otherpetitors. In other words, only the three teams willpete in the thirdyer." Theo pointed at the leaderboard. "For now, I don''t think they will start immediately."


    "We can rest first then." Alea smiled and felt a bit tired.


    "Yeah. Make sure all of you recover to full stamina. After all, the other two teams have two people too tired to fully recover in the span of twoyers. In fact, that''s why the second and thirdyer is done in an instant, unlike the firstyer. They don''t want those who get sacrificed to recover." Theo smiled, feeling lucky that he carried everyone to the right path back then.


    Before anyone opened their mouth, the door in the opposite direction was opened as if asking them to enter.


    "Ehm�� I think we should go there." Ellen pointed at the door after seeing the next announcement.


    "Please enter the waiting room for the next task."


    The announcement broke no argument, so Theo agreed with Ellen''s suggestion and led the team to the next room since they could rest there.


    Alea came in the front like a group leader and guided the group through another corridor that led to another floor.


    On the way, Alea asked, "Theo, what do you think about the hint earlier?"


    "The clue is in the tower, eh? I don''t know." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I am thinking about it now. And I hope all of you can help me with this one."


    The rest agreed without hesitation and started thinking about the solution.


    As soon as they arrived at the next room, they found twelve people sitting on the floor, resting. Theo''s team never entered the main stage even once and their country was rtively weakerpared to the rest, so they had be the center of attention as a dark horse from this block.


    Hence, the moment their figures emerged from the corridor, all twelve pairs of eyes hurriedly locked onto them.


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he recognized all of them. They were none other than Indonesia and Australia Teams, their mainpetitors in this round.


    A ck-haired guy rose from the ground and walked toward them with three other members while letting the other two rest. All of them seemed to be wearing silk t-shirts with Indonesia''s g on their right chest, Garuda Symbol on their left chest and Batik pattern on their sleeves. Their white pants matched the base color of their T-shirt.


    The ck guy smiled at Alea politely, extended his hand, and said politely in English. "Hello, my name is Hengki Susanto, Indonesia Team''s Leader. I am d to see all of you here and wish topete to the best of our ability."

 Chapter 218 – Jealous? Not Really

    <h4>Chapter 218 - Jealous? Not Really</h4>


    Lowering her head and seeing the extended hand, Alea raised her right hand to shake his hand, only to find Theo''s hand was the one shaking her hand.


    "Theo?" Alea''s eyebrows raised in surprise before she slightly felt embarrassed, misunderstanding his intention. Even though it was just a handshake, she thought Theo was jealous seeing her shaking hands with a guy. She thought, ''Eh? Why? Theo is jealous? But how can? He never shows anything like this before? Is this really the cold Theo?''


    When she looked him in the eyes, Theo only smiled at her, shook her hand, and gently pushed her back. "If you want a handshake, there''s me."


    Alea dropped her jaw, unable to speak. She waspletely speechless by Theo''s action. Even the others opened their mouths in shock as if they just saw a ghost. Theo would never do something like this, or they might have actually been fooled by Theo.


    He might just y hard to get this whole time and use the camera to broadcast to the world that Alea is his.


    Even Alea couldn''t help but feel nervous. ''Wait, wait. What is this? I have never expected something like this. Wait a minute, why was my dad that kind to him back in the hospital as if he wanted him to stay? Why was grandpa giving Theo the contract for the use of the family''s artificial nest? Don''t tell me�� They''ve been doing something behind my back?''


    Unfortunately for all of them, Theo released her hand and turned around, smiling at Hengki. "I am sorry if it''s rude, but I can''t help but do it in order to protect my teammates."


    Hengki was confused for a moment as his hand flinched, feeling no hand to shake. He raised his hand and looked at Theo, raising both his hands as if telling him something.


    "If I were you, I would have done something in the handshake. For example, curse or poison, so I hope you can understand why I am worried. It''s not ethical, but it doesn''t break the rule�� This is a hugepetition and everyone is dying to win, so I hope you can understand." Theo smiled and exined the situation.


    "��" Hengki gulped down as he took a step back with a smile on his face. He then gently joined his hands together in front of his chest and slightly bowed his head. It was the traditional way of greeting in Indonesia. He said, "I understand. I''m sorry to make you worry. I thought about greeting you since we were going topete, but I guess it could be seen that way. I apologize."


    "No problem." Theo smiled, ced his hand on the chest, politely bowed his head like a gentleman greeting unless he didn''t have any hat to hold. "I would like to apologize as well for my earlier rudeness."


    Ellen and the others were bewildered when they realized they misunderstood Theo once again. In the Fighter Temple, they had Magic Warrior that might be able to inflict a dyed Skill. In the Magic Temple, they had Magician, Enchanter, or Healer that could check their body condition or do something without anyone noticing. In the Assassin Temple, Assassins or Illusionists could put something in their body such as poison, curse, or even illusion that could be activatedter.


    With a Blessing, especiallying from the people of the past, it became scarier because the legend was far more ruthless than their current way of living. They covered many curses, poisons, and other things to make their enemy in misery.


    That was why Theo refused to have a handshake with them. He just wanted to protect his teammate, not showing his jealousy.


    Alea''s heart beat rapidly for an unknown reason. It was the same as when he told them that marrying her was thest thing he wanted to do. She still had her pride since she took care of her appearance all the time and had confidence that she was beautiful. That was why disappointment, pain, and anger filled her heart.


    She couldn''t help but pout and look away.


    On the contrary, Hengki introduced himself again. "As I said earlier, my name is Hengki. I''ve noticed that you''re the real leader of this group. May I know your name?"


    "Nice to meet you, Hengki. I''m Theodore, Theodore Griffith."


    Hengki nodded and pointed at his teammates. "They are my teammates. You can call the red-haired girl Ratu Ayu. The one beside her, the muscr guy, is Gunardi. And the one next to me is Yuda Kusuma. Those two who can''t move are Nicko and Dewi. I start to be curious about your team, especially when all six of you actually took the right path in the firstyer."


    "Haha, we''re nothing. In the end, we can''t even take first ce." Theo smiled and introduced themselves. "They''re my teammates. From the left, they are Sihan, Phyrill, Ellen, Alea, and Laust. We''re just a small team from a small country."


    "Ahaha, you''re too modest. We won''t pull our punch in the next round." He smiled, joined his hands, and bowed again. "Then, please excuse us."


    Theo nodded politely and took a step back.


    After they left, Ellen''s hand circled Theo''s neck as she poked his cheek. "You little�� I thought you were jealous."


    Theo didn''t say anything because no matter what he said, misunderstandings would follow. Hence, he simply shrugged his shoulders while turning around, walking to another corner.


    On the other hand, Hengki''s face turned serious after he regrouped with the other two. He came to realize that Theo was more dangerous than they thought.


    "That group is indeed a dark horse." Hengki shook his head helplessly. He couldn''t understand what Theo was thinking even a little bit.


    "Is he really that dangerous?" Yuda crossed his arms and frowned.


    Hengki came closer to him and whispered to his ears. "I need you to take special care of him. Watch his every move for me because he may be more dangerous than that guy."


    Hengki nced at the long-haired male from the Australia Team. He thought this guy was his mainpetitor, but he might be wrong after seeing Theo''s reaction.


    "In any case, there is no change in our n."

 Chapter 219 – “Correct” Answer

    <h4>Chapter 219 - ��Correct�� Answer</h4>


    While waiting, Theo began to think about the solution to the problem.


    "What do you think about the hint earlier?" Theo asked in a low voice, not wanting other groups to hear him.


    Alea couldn''t think anything due to the earlier misunderstanding, but Phyrill had an idea. "How about we gather the information about all the hurdles from before?"


    "Indeed." Laust nodded in agreement and decided to talk, not wanting to let the world know that Theo was the only one shining in this group. "In the first hurdle, we needed to run fiftyps inside the room and leave someone behind to open the door. In the second hurdle, we needed to leave behind three people to open the right path, but we were able to finish it with all of us going through the short path.


    "In the third hurdle, we killed monsters to grab a key which was a ck card. Last but not least, thest hurdle, we needed to find a clue inside this facility."


    Theo looked down as his body swayed left and right, not able to get a single clue from the information he had.


    Time continued to pass as no one was able to get the answer they wished for. Luckily, the other two teams seemed to have no answer as well.


    "We still have the same condition��" Theo muttered while thinking, ''What if�� What if the hint is actually fake? We need to finish the elimination round within four hours and I can see that we only used two hours for the first two. Hence, thisst hurdle gives us two hours to finish.


    ''There''s no way the host will put the g so far away because we have no map or whatsoever. They only want us to go in one direction. In that case, can the hint be fake? With that kind of time limit, we can search for the g. Someone with a flying ability will surely get a huge advantage over this race. No, is this the reason why they call it a race?''


    Theo realized that everything was just an illusion. They wanted them to oveplicate the hint. That way, they would surely take down all other teams first so their team could search for the gter without any pressure. This would also give a huge excitement to those people in the stadium.


    ''This may be the answer��'' Theo finished his thought, opened his eyes, and raised his head before finding Ellen standing in the middle of the room. "Ellen?"


    He called her name, but that also gathered everyone''s attention as all of them turned to her with a curious face.


    Ellen acted as if she didn''t hear him and kept doing something weird. Her body turned left and right like a robot while her hands pointed to the front.


    Suddenly, she stopped in one direction before walking to a certain door, staring at it inplete silence.


    "��" Theo didn''t understand her, so he decided to approach her, trying to figure her out. When he was behind her, he extended his hand and tapped her shoulder a few times until her body shook.


    "Ah! What?" Ellen turned around and blinked a few times in a split second.


    "What are you doing? Did you enter an illusion?" Theo frowned and nced at the other teams, wondering if they used something on Ellen without him noticing.


    However, Ellen surprised him when she grabbed him and her head moved closer to his face as if she wanted to give a peck on his cheek. Unfortunately, something like that wouldn''t happen because her mouth stopped in front of Theo''s ears.


    She covered her mouth and Theo''s ears with both hands, whispering. "Theo. I think I''ve got it. Listen to me first, okay?"


    She took a deep breath and began her exnation. "As you may already know, I have two personalities. People say I have a mental illness, but for me, it''s kind of a blessing because I can understand both of me at the same time.


    "After a while, I have gained the control for both personalities, allowing me to turn one of them off or turn both on at the same time. And I''m thetter this whole time.


    "Because of that, you will feel that one personality wants me to go to the left while the other one wants me to go to the right. That''s why I am overly sensitive to direction. This sensitivity makes me realize something big in the entire facility.


    "I don''t know if you notice it too, but whenever we went to another area, we would face the same direction. I mean, when your clone opened the door in the first hurdle, we went through the door in that particr direction. Then on the second one, I realized that the path we took gave us a 360-degree turn, making us face the same direction again. The same applied to the third hurdle. The second gate that needed the ck Card�� It''s facing the same direction as the other two. That''s why we needed to take a turn in that corner."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he quickly recalled what happened from the start. Although he wanted to start doing the same thing as Ellen to prove that theory, he had a gist of direction and realized Ellen had been staring at the door facing the same direction as the other three previous doors.


    But he soon noticed that they were in the center of attention, so he took advantage of his surprised face and turned to another door in the opposite direction, watching it with a shocked face for a few seconds before realizing he shouldn''t do it.


    He quickly retracted his gaze to that door and shook his head in disappointment as if he just gave away the answer that their team got.


    And he got what he wanted. Both teams noticed that he stared at the "correct" door. Only Theo''s group could actually find something in that hint, making it more believable.


    However, the real answer was the door next to them.


    Theo sessfully redirected them to the wrong answer while inside his heart, he had been smiling like a devil.

 Chapter 220 – Don’t Need To

    <h4>Chapter 220 - Don��t Need To</h4>


    "��" Both groups stared at the door that Theo nced at earlier as they quickly wondered how Theo came to reach that answer.


    Theo scratched the back of his head as he looked down while clenching his teeth as if he realized he had made a mistake.


    "Ugh." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. "Ellen, let''s go back."


    "Yes." Ellen nodded.


    "By the way, you''re not in an illusion, right?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, remembering her earlier movement as if she was out of this world.


    "I''m not."


    Theo frowned and raised two fingers. "Are you sure? Who am I? How many fingers do you see?"


    "I am fine, Theo. There''s nothing wrong with my eyes as well since you raise two fingers." Ellen understood why Theo did such a thing. He simply wanted to give her time to think or probably make her focus on the illusion instead of giving away his n.


    Knowing Theo was tricking their opponents, Ellen decided to y along with his little scheme while chuckling inside. ''This little trickster. He has done it a few times today, tricking everyone this whole time. How many times will he trick me if we''re enemies?''


    "Is that so?" Theo''s face was still quite unsure, but he decided to trust her. He led her back to the team.


    "Theo�� You��" Alea frowned. Her eyes were filled with worry.


    "I''m sorry. I just got a bit too shocked by the answer from that hint and ended up giving away the answer. Let''s move to that door, shall we?" Theo smiled and walked in front of the door of the answer, ignoring the two other teams.


    They realized that they would be too shameless to get that answer from Theo, so they nned to take another door and headed in his direction as soon as possible.


    After all, there were only five doors in this room. One was where they came from, while the other four reflected the four great directions.


    The group continued to discuss their n for the race before a hologram of the same man who became their referee appeared in the middle of the room five minutes before the time limit.


    "Ahem." The man let out a little cough to get their attention. After that, he waved his hand and showed them another screen next to him. "First of all, I would like to congratte everyone here for reaching thest stage."


    With that sentence alone, Theo knew that no one woulde to this room anymore because they couldn''t reach the minimum requirement.


    "On this asion, I would like to exin the rule for the thirdyer. What you need to do in this one is retrieve the g that is hidden somewhere around this area. I''m sure that you have understood the hint, so I won''t say anything about it.


    "Instead, I want to announce that I will be following you around to ensure that no one gets killed. Also, the time limit is two hours. Each team is required to choose one of the doors no matter the direction you''re going inter.


    "The one who gets the point is the team who holds the g for five minutes. In other words, as long as you get the g and protect it for five minutes, you win." He then flicked his fingers and changed it to the camera outside the facility.


    Four cubes that had the exact same appearances like the one they took to get inside emerged from the ground. Without anyone saying it, those four undoubtedly reflected the four doors in this room.


    All teams understood that elevators were behind these doors. "Those doors will lead you to the outside, so I wish you luck."


    The hologram then disappeared, leaving the room inplete silence. However, all students here had serious expressions on their faces because this was thest battle. If they wanted to reach the main stage, they needed to beat the other two teams, especially Theo''s team, whose members were not exhausted.


    Seeing their focus was on them, Theo closed his eyes for a moment and thought of a quick n.


    On the other hand, Alea smiled and extended her hand with her palm facing down. "Let''s go with this, alright?"


    "There are only two minutes left." Not following Alea''s unnecessary bullsh*t, Theo said in a slightly louder voice, "Okay. I hope everyone is ready to run, right? Phyrill, you''re the fastest, I''m sure you know your job��"


    "Get the g as quickly as possible and run away. Got it." Phyrill nodded with a serious expression, preparing himself to protect the g at all cost.


    "Oh, God. Please smite this man." Alea pouted as Theo kept doing this on purpose.


    Hengki chuckled before he politely bowed to them with his hands joined together. "Let''s have a greatpetition."


    Theo''s team remained silent, but surprisingly, Australia Team Leader suddenly nodded and replied. "Let''s have a greatpetition."


    "!!!" In that instant, Theo came to a realization that the two decided to work together. Unfortunately for him, this shock stopped him from reacting immediately.


    Everything was toote.


    When the doors opened simultaneously, Australia and Indonesia Teams entered the elevator that appeared


    "Tch!" Theo clicked his tongue and shouted while turning around, looking at the two teams. "Not good! There''s no rule stating we couldn''t fight before finding the g. With them going this fast, they''re nning to pincer us from two sides!"


    "What?!" Alea gasped and panicked for a second, but the doors for their teams had been closed as those two already moved toward the surface. She realized that the fact they figured the problem out and having all members in full stamina instead of four was actually the trigger that forced the two teams toe to an understanding, trying to eliminate them first. "Theo, we are in great trouble. Can we win against both teams?"


    "Attacked from one direction, probably. Pincered from two directions, wishful thinking��" Theo shook his head, lowering the team morale. To their surprise, he dropped to the floor, crossed his legs and used his hand to support his cheek, saying nonchntly, "Since we can''t handle both of them together, then we don''t need to."

 Chapter 221 – Deceptions

    <h4>Chapter 221 - Deceptions</h4>


    As Theo said earlier, the two groups quickly headed in the same direction, heading straight to the g side by side.


    Hengki looked at the Australia Team with a smile, thinking, ''If that team tries to keep up, they will be between us, making them a perfect target. During that time, we can eliminate the team together and fight against each other for the gter.''


    However, seeing Theo and his group didn''te out immediately made him know that Theo wasn''t as foolish as they thought. ''The only way to solve this kind of setting is following us from behind. It seems he''s going to wait for a while before chasing us. But�� By that time, we would have fought for the g. I wonder how he will react in the midst of chaos. Also��''


    Hengki looked forward andmanded. "Keep an eye on the Australia Team and our backs. Nicko, I know that you''re tired, but you''re the fastest among us. I need you to get the g as soon as possible."


    Nicko was still panting, but he still nodded his head, knowing the importance of the g. "I understand. I will be going ahead."


    With those words, Nicko stepped on the ground with a bit more power and activated the muscle on his thigh and leg, giving a powerful thrust on this one jump.


    Fwoosh.


    That one leap created a small shock wave as Nicko became further and further away.


    Seeing Indonesia Team has made their move, the long-haired guy from Australia Team called a name too. "Molly."


    "Understood, Captain." A girl nodded her head as she released a bit more Magic Power on her feet and began to run three times her original speed, catching up with Nicko.


    ��


    Although the two teams had started their ownpetition, Theo was stillzing around as if he didn''t care about the result.


    "We what��?" Alea was taken aback by Theo''s actions and words.


    Theo only smiled at her without bothering to stop her.


    "Thirty seconds��" Theo had been counting the time this whole time and since it was done, the other two teams should have gained enough advantage.


    Ellen shook her head helplessly and turned around, walking to the door in the opposite direction. "Let''s go, Team."


    "Ellen, what are you doing?" Alea widened her eyes, confused by those two actions.


    "I will exinter, but we need to get out of this ce first." Theo rose from the floor and headed to the door.


    The rest were as confused as Alea, but they still followed Theo and left the facility.


    Theo quickly summoned his Clone and handed him a spear before thetter entered the woods.


    "Alright. Let''s go, shall we?" Theo then ran forward, heading in the opposite direction as the other two teams.


    While running, Alea asked, "Theo, what is your n? Why are we going this way?"


    "Alea�� Do you remember the question Theo kept asking you earlier?" Ellen was the one who answered with another question.


    "Hmm?" Alea tilted her head in confusion and recalled the question. "He wants me to see their facial expressions to know whether they know the answer or not."


    "Exactly. Nothing will escape from your eyes, especially for people who don''t know your uniqueness. And your answer��"


    "They don''t know the answer."


    Ellen smiled and nodded. "Using that information, Theo created multipleyers of deception. First, with me figuring out the answer and walking to the correct door, our opponents certainly have their own suspicion.


    "He then took advantage of that suspicion and my action by whispering the answer to him to look at the wrong door, making them believe that he just messed up. The opponents will think it''s the right one."


    "Ah." Alea blinked a few times with a dumbfounded expression. She was speechless.


    "Ellen. You''re missing one thing." Phyrill shook his head in defeat. "Theo created anotheryer when he said something about them working together to pincer us from two sides. It makes them believe that they will being a bitter than them to avoid confrontation and turn thepetition into a battle royale.


    "However, the real truth is�� He simply wants to push the opponents far away by forcing them to run in the opposite directions, giving us a huge time to work with. Five minutes�� We may be able to do it."


    When the truth was revealed, she realized that Theo had been fighting against the opponents without them knowing.


    "Hahaha. Then, I should start doing my job right now." Phyrill smiled as wolf ears and a tail emerged from his body. "Werewolf Transformation."


    "I am going then." Phyrill waved his hand and prepared to go ahead.


    "Wait, Phyrill." Theo stopped him with a serious expression.


    "Do you need something from me, Theo?"


    "Lend me your ear. I need you to do something for me."


    ��


    While Theo whispered his n, Hengki had just gotten a weird feeling, messing up his heart. He didn''t know why but running this way made him uneasy.


    ''What is this? Does Australia Team have a trump card?'' Hengki narrowed his eyes.


    "Captain, what happened?" Yuda asked with a worried expression.


    Meanwhile, Dewi, one of the two tired people in the team, told him her condition. "Captain, I''m sorry, but I will slow down my pace a bit. I think I will buy time for the team by stopping Thernd Team."


    "Thernd��" Hengki widened his eyes as he finally saw through Theo''s deceptions. He stopped in an instant, forcing the entire team to follow it, including Australia Team, who had locked on them. Everyone was confused.


    "We''ve been had!" Hengki gritted his teeth and crossed his lower arms before a pair of brown wings emerged from his back. "Garuda Transformation."


    "Captain?"


    "That guy just tricked us into thinking this is the correct way while the girl was the one who gave us the real answer." Hengki looked at his teammates. "Dewi. Help Nicko, who has gone ahead, and take your time to catch up with us. The rest of you are going to follow me in the opposite direction."


    Without wasting any more time, Hengki soared to the sky, flying in the air to stop Theo''s team. The same applied to Australia Team who seemed to have realized after seeing Hengki''s action.

 Chapter 222 – Trickster Vs Garuda

    <h4>Chapter 222 - Trickster Vs Garuda</h4>


    Theo and the others still ran with no g in sight.


    Unfortunately for them, their journey was interrupted by a loud cry from the sky.


    "Tch. As expected, it won''t be that easy." Theo sighed and turned his head around, raising his vision to the sky.


    Hengki was following them from the sky with a pair of wings.


    "That wing�� I''m afraid that is Indonesia''s national symbol, Garuda." Ellen recognized the brown-colored wings and informed her teammates.


    "Interesting. It mustn''t be an ordinary one if such a person bes their captain." Theo then stopped and turned back while saying, "You guys go ahead. I''m the best person to hunt a flying bird. The rest of you will catch up with Phyrill."


    Ellen, Sihan, and Laust were not Magicians or had skills that were enough to hit him, so they understood Theo''s resolve. However, Ellen''s Skills should be able to handle him as well.


    "Theo, do you need my help?" asked Ellen with a worried expression.


    "You should worry about yourself first. There will be around seven to ten people that you need to fightter. This guy is just nning to hold us back." Theo smiled. "Go."


    They exchanged looks and nodded to each other before increasing their pace, leaving Theo behind.


    Hengki saw them moving and flew forward, trying to catch up with them. However, he soon lowered his vision and flew sideways when ten Magic Bullets almost pierced his body.


    "You''re not going anywhere." Theo smiled while running at a slower pace.


    Hengki stopped for a second and looked at Theo. "As expected, you''re indeed the most dangerous from Thernd Team. Since that''s the case, let''s see whether you have the ability to stop me or not."


    He dove as his speed drastically increased.


    When Hengki was right before him, Theo disappeared.


    "What? He disappears!" Hengki widened his eyes because he couldn''t see Theo''s movement at all. It was either Theo''s speed was far faster than him or�� Hengki quickly turned around and saw Theo appearing above him, sending his fist forward. "Teleportation��"


    Hengki raised both hands to the front and received Theo''s punch, albeit he got struck down to the ground.


    "You should use that spear instead of your fist." Hengki controlled his wing to catch Theo.


    "Yes. I''m using it right now." Theo stopped both wings with his spear and raised his fist once again, nning to strike him.


    Hengki became more serious as brown light began to cover his fist. ''Garuda Talon.''


    Hengki gripped the ground as if he wanted to catch it with a talon before the ground turned into a crater, making both of them fall a few inches.


    Due to their positions, Hengki reached the ground first and regained his bnce before using both hands to support his body while sending a kick to Theo''s abdomen.


    Thetter managed to catch that kick, but Hengki''s power was far stronger than he imagined. That kickunched Theo to the sky.


    Hengki rose from the ground, pped his wing once, and flew to the sky, heading straight to Theo to confront him in his own "home".


    ''Cannon st.'' Theo gathered his Magic Power in his spear and thrust that torrential energy to Hengki.


    Seeing the swirl of energy, Hengki pped his wings once more. Although it stopped his movement, the p generated enough wind pressure to sh with Theo''s Cannon st.


    "You''re better than I thought�� Looking at your facial expression, you''re only a First-Year student�� That impresses me even more." Hengki smiled and flew in another direction before reaching Theo from the side. "However, I can''t afford to lose to you in the air."


    Theo saw Hengki doing a backflip along with a kick that aimed for his head.


    He raised his spear to block that kick, but once again, he got blown away horizontally,unching him to hisrades. In other words, Hengki had been trying to fight him while catching up with Alea and the others by sending Theo their way.


    ''As expected from a team that is most likely to win the first round. Their strength is at Alea''s level and their judgment is better than her.'' Theo clicked his tongue and summoned his Magic Bullet and shot them not to Hengki but the air behind Theo.


    The Magic Bullets then turned around and hit Theo''s back, which of course, stopped by Theo''s Elemental Shield.


    The force generated from the Magic Bullets was enough to stop his momentum as he began to fall from the air.


    "I see what you did there." Hengki smiled and said, "Your Teleportation. It seems you can''t use it continuously and it will also carry your momentum, making it hurt even if you try to teleport yourself to the ground because you may hit a tree or something."


    "��" Theo remained silent, but it was already enough to give the necessary information that Hengki wanted.


    With Hengki starting to move to his teammates again, Theo spun his spear and gathered another form of energy to his spear and sted a thin tree next to him.


    Bam.


    The tree began to fall, but Theo used that movement to aid his aim before kicking the trunk into the air.


    With his current strength, he was strong enough tounch a small thin tree that seemed to weigh around 100 lbs to the air.


    Hengki thought it was to stop him, but he soon realized that wasn''t the case when Theo suddenly appeared on top of the tree, using the trunk as his stepping to get the height advantage.


    Thetter turned around and covered himself not with his arms but wings. "Steel Wing."


    The brown-colored wings turned ck as if they became metal.


    Theo hit those metal wings that produced a clicking sound from their collision. However, the torrential energy in his spear wreaked havoc and sted Hengki to the ground, creating a small crater from that fall alone.


    Hengki waved his body left and right while looking at Theo in the air. Theo''s expression made his body shudder for a split second as if telling him. "I have been training myself in order to surpass Alea. You''re not an exception."

 Chapter 223 – Battle Royale (1)

    <h4>Chapter 223 - Battle Royale (1)</h4>


    Hengki clenched his teeth and realized that he had underestimated Theo.


    Theonded on the ground with a calm expression, saying, "It''s time for me to leave. Goodbye."


    Without any shame, Theo turned his back to the enemy and ran away.


    "What?!" Hengki was bewildered by his action before he soon realized something was up. It turned out, Theo had been calcting their fight, including the time of their fight.


    They had been fighting an intense fight for one and a half minutes, allowing the others to catch up.


    "Captain!" Yuda widened his eyes, never expecting to see their Captain look injured. "Did they gang up on you?"


    "No. Kh. We should chase them right now." Hengki shook his head and began to fly to the sky again. "I''m afraid they have arrived at the g."


    Australia had five peopleing while they only had four. Hengki nced at the long-haired man and said, "Nichs. How about we team up first to stop Thernd from taking the g? The time limit is five minutes."


    The long-haired guy thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, knowing that their immediate threat was Thernd. As long as they bought enough time, they could win by defeating all their opponentster.


    "Let''s��" Hengki wanted to tell the others to go, but he soon saw forty Magic Bullets flying toward him from the ground. Yet, the one who shouted was also him. "Watch out."


    The Magic Bullets that flew toward him suddenly made a sharp turn to the ground, aiming at both teams.


    They all avoided it of course, but they soon realized why Hengki actually stopped here until they caught up. The opponent was indeed a troublesome one.


    Little did they know, a bit farther away from them was Theo''s clone, who kept giving him the visual for him to strike them down. However, Theo hadn''t revealed the clone he dispatched from the start yet.


    After recovering from that attack, all of them quickly ran forward and found Theo regrouping with his teams one minuteter. At that time, they saw Phyrill holding a metal pole with a red g on top of it. Luckily, the g was still attached to the ground, so he thought Phyrill couldn''t move if he held it. However, Hengki could see the timer on that red g from the sky.


    2 Mins.


    It was an abbreviation for two minutes. Whether Phyrill had held it for two minutes or they only needed to hold it for another two minutes to win, Hengki didn''t care anymore and ordered. "They''re here. Attack!"


    He pped his wings as many feathers fell off his wings. He waved his hand and the feathers suddenly came to a halt in the air before Hengki released them like that of a bullet.


    "Castle!" Sihan came to the front and a translucent green shield with the height of fifteen feet formed in front of him, blocking all the feathers that felt like Theo''s Magic Bullet.


    Because of the severity of the fight, the referee also watched them nearby, close enough to stop the fight if necessary but had enough distance to avoid any of their attacks so as to not bother their fight.


    Suddenly, Phyrill turned to the right as he saw a man appearing out of nowhere. When he was about to protect himself, Phyrill''s transformation became undone.


    "What?!" Phyrill drew a gasp and took out his sword, blocking the man''s dagger. Unfortunately for him, due to his power leaving his body, he got blown away and lost his grip on the g.


    Not wanting for the others to grasp it, Phyrill tossed the g to the side as thetternded just next to a tree.


    Still, it was enough since no one would possess the g for a moment.


    Phyrill then took a closer look at the man and noticed he was Yuda from Indonesia Team. Just like Theo, Phyrill might be the one who cared so much about information and realized who he was. "You''re Yuda. Your blessinges from Indonesia''s Famous Evil Spirit, Tuyul. Robbing the rich�� I see, the reason I can''t use my transformation right now is due to your ability��"


    Yuda stopped for a moment before jumping to the g as another person from Australia Team emerged from thin air, trying to grab the g.


    "It seems Alliance is not necessary." Yuda smiled and kicked the girl away. "I see. You''re Lucy McKenzie, the famous Rainbow Snake."


    "��" Phyrill''s expression turned serious as he realized that the female had just returned from snake form. In other words, all of them seemed to have a blessing. Phyrill released all his lightning while grinning excitedly. "It seems�� getting the "W" won''t be that easy."


    At the same time, water began toe out of the ground, trying to flood the area. The one who caused something like this was none other than Indonesia Team''s Ratu Ayu.


    "Ellen, be careful. That one is quite tricky. Her blessing is ssified as either Mythical or God Rank, Nyi Roro Kidul." Theo informed her while he focused on Hengki.


    "Understood. To put it simply, I only need to handle the queen of the sea, right?" Ellen smiled and ced her hand on the ground. "Ice Wave."


    Not only the Ice Spikes emerged from the ground in a fan-shaped area, but the ice also froze the water to prevent her from using it.


    However, a man appeared and hit the Ice with his fist, cracking the topyer of ice and allowing the water to rise again. After that, he waved his hand upward and created two pirs of water that somehow moved like a whip.


    The left one went toward Ratu, which thetter neutralized with her control over water, while the right one was cut by Laust, who came to Ellen''s rescue.


    "That guy is Harrison. He also has a blessing called Luma Luma or whatever its name." Laust turned serious as he gritted his teeth. "And I hate those guys who have a blessing."


    To fight two Blessed People, Laust and Ellen decided to stick together.


    Meanwhile, on the other side, Sihan took a deep breath and looked at his opponents. Luckily, his opponents seemed to have no Blessing, so it was going to be a full brawl.


    His opponent was Gunardi, the muscr man from Indonesia Team, and Dominic and Logan from Australia Team.


    Still, the one that excited people the most would be thest one�� The battle between all four leaders.


    Australia Team Leader, Nichs. Indonesia Team Leader, Hengki. Thernd Team Leaders, Alea and Theo. It was the peak of the battle.

 Chapter 224 – Battle Royale (2)

    <h4>Chapter 224 - Battle Royale (2)</h4>


    Nichs'' expression turned serious as he ced his hand on the ground. "I call thee. Adnoartina."


    The ground began to crack before a giant orange-colored lizard emerged from the ground, allowing Nichs to ride on its back. The lizard was ten feet in height and fifty feet in length, upying arge portion of the battlefield.


    "Alea, be careful, as the name implies, his blessinges from the local Lizard God called Adnoartina. It''s the Diyari People''s guardian spirit." Theo informed Alea of the status of their opponents.


    Even Hengki stopped for a second to look at the lizard, knowing he was supposed to face the lizard if there was no dark horse like Theo''s group.


    "Understood. Killing a big monster is my specialty." Alea nodded with a smile and raised her sword.


    Nichs furrowed his eyebrows because Lizard was traditionally a sacred being in his belief, so he felt a bit offended by Alea''s thoughtless remark. The lizard suddenly opened its mouth as red light shone inside its throat.


    "Alea!"


    "I know." Alea became serious as she waited for the lizard a bit and leaped to the side, looking at the Lizard, releasing a small red light that turned into a huge explosion as soon as it touched the ground.


    Alea and Theo were pushed to the side with both of them using their Shield to block the intense me. However, Alea didn''t let that attack go. She waved her sword vertically toward the Lizard''s neck. "Inch sh."


    The Lizard seemed to have felt the iing attack and raised its hand, mming the energy from Inch sh like nothing.


    As the two began to fight, Hengki also dove to the ground in order to strike Theo. Yet, right before he reached him, another huge hand appeared above his head.


    The shadow from it instantly made him notice the iing attack and turned around, using his wings to block this attack.


    Bam.


    The hand mmed Hengki to the ground and made a small crater, but Hengki seemed alright.


    This was a battle royale, so Theo quickly took advantage of the situation and appeared above the lizard''s hand using his Blink and thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    Unfortunately for him, Hengki used the same trick as earlier and destroyed the ground beneath him to set him free from the lizard''s hand. After that, he flew to the sky and pped his wings as fifteen feathers fell off.


    "Feather Shot."


    He aimed all those feathers at Nichs, to which thetter blocked it by using the lizard''s tail.


    At the same time, Theo also summoned his Magic Bullet. Although his head faced Hengki, his eyes took a peek of Nichs'' position in the corner of his eyes and released all forty Magic Bullets.


    Because he needed to use the hand to attack Hengki earlier and the tail to block the feathers, there was nothing that he could do to stop Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    Hence, Nichs himself turned around and raised his hand. Red light covered his right hand and formed a huge w like that of a lizard and swept all Magic Bullets from the left.


    "��" Theo sighed, ''I guess, using Illusion Multiplier and Maniption are not enough to control the situation.''


    Suddenly, Hengki appeared next to Theo, nning to kick his head with both feet, albeit he was the one who got kicked by Alea.


    Nevertheless, this was a 2 vs 1 vs 1 fight, so Alea and Theo had a great advantage by covering each other.


    As soon as shended, Alea then leaped back to Nichs with her sword turning red as if it started to melt. Meanwhile, Theo ran toward Hengki to beat him up in that position.


    Nichs kept his calm and noticed the secret behind Alea''s sword before a fire appeared in his lizard''s hand, stopping Alea on her track.


    "Melting Sword." Alea struck the w, only to find it was useless. Both of them had Fire Affinity, so it was hard for them to melt each other.


    Hengki, on the other hand, dodged Theo''s spear as soon as hended on the ground before flying to the sky again.


    Theo didn''t let him and summoned his Magic Bullets again. Instead of him or Nichs, Theo nced at his teammates.


    "!!!" Hengki noticed Theo''s intention andnded on the ground again as the Magic Bullets flew toward his teammates.


    He stretched his wings, so no Magic Bullets hit his teammates, but him not flying was what Theo wanted.


    ''Blink.'' Theo appeared next to him and thrust his spear. "Swift Energy."


    Hengki used his right-wing to stop Theo, but he found his wing pierced by Theo''s spear.


    However, Theo was the one who realized he f*cked up. Because of that thrust, he slightly moved forward and lost his bnce, entering Hengki''s attack range. ''Sh*t.''


    It turned out Hengki sacrificed his wing after knowing Theo would just drag him down to the ground by using his teammates. That sacrifice was precious because his punch finally hit Theo on the face and blew him fifty feet away.


    Theo''s body spun,nded on the ground, and rolled a few times before stopping. At that time, Hengki already came closer to him and prepared to deliver another devastating blow.


    Seeing Theo was about to get attacked, Alea tried to help him, only to find the lizard appear between them. For Nichs, as long as one enemy got eliminated, no matter who it was, it would improve the situation greatly. Hence, he hoped Theo dropped out of thispetition immediately.


    Hengki''s hand was covered with Magic Power and turned into a talon. "Garuda Talon."


    He nned to crush Theo, but thetter summoned two Elemental Shields.


    Hengki was quite surprised by its power. Although he managed to destroy the first shield, his attack stopped on the second shield as he had no energy left to spare for that attack.


    Suddenly, Hengki threw himself to the back before a spear appeared right before his eyes. Yes, Theo actually faked his own condition and used it to lure Hengki in.


    After stopping that fist, Theo rolled his body once more and thrust his spear to his neck.


    As expected from Hengki, he managed to react and throw himself out of that trouble, albeit the spear grazed his right chest and cheek.


    Blood began to drip from the wound as Hengki looked at Theo rising from the ground and wiping the blood that came out of his mouth and had mixed with the dirt.


    "You''re one hell of a guy, Theodore Griffith." Hengki smiled and acknowledged Theo''s tricks. He had truly been beaten by one trick after another.

 Chapter 225 – Battle Royale (3)

    <h4>Chapter 225 - Battle Royale (3)</h4>


    Meanwhile, Phyrill also faced the same challenge as Theo and Alea.


    He couldn''t transform due to Yuda''s ability that stole his transformation skill. He believed it wasn''t permanent, so he continued to fight in his human form.


    Lucy, on the other hand, had her own transformation that allowed her to be a half-human half-snake. She raised both hands and two chunks of dirt emerged from the ground next to Yuda.


    Pak.


    The moment Lucy pped her hand, the two chunks of dirt joined each other, crushing Yuda.


    However, she soon realized it wasn''t working as Yuda reappeared next to the dirt.


    Phyrill narrowed his eyes as he assessed Yuda and Lucy''sbat prowess. ''Hmm. Rainbow Snake�� The snake has many names andes in male and female form. There are two famous names, Yingarna, the female, is the original Mother of Creation, and the other one is her son, Ngalyod, the Great Transformer of Land. Seeing her ability, I think she received the power of her son��


    ''As for Tuyul�� I don''t know much about it because it''s a kind of Evil Spirit that steals the rich. I guess it has the power of a ghost or something? That''s how he slips from those two chunks of dirt.'' Phyrill''s expression turned serious.


    He leaped toward Lucy with both swords in his hands. Thetter raised both hands and summoned a fewyers of dirt that acted like that of a wall to stop Phyrill. However, Phyrill''s training was to assassinate someone.


    Hence, Phyrill went straight to the wall with his Lightning Step while covering his forehead with a translucent jade screen.


    "Ha!" Phyrill sted all the dirt and shattered it like how the Hero Rank Mammoth destroyed Ellen''s Ice Meteor.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    Lucy realized that she couldn''t stop him at all and prepared another attack, but she found Yuda first in the corner of her eyes.


    His aim was none other than Phyrill, who had been upied with Lucy.


    The moment he appeared next to Phyrill, he plunged his dagger and struck his neck.


    However, Phyrill had actually expected it. No, in fact, Phyrill had been waiting for him toe closer.


    When he saw the iing dagger, Phyrill halted his movement and spun his body, striking the dagger from below.


    Clink.


    The two des shed with each other. Yuda''s eye was closed as he clenched his fist as he almost lost his dagger in that one strike. Yes, his job was to kill someone and who was his real target? It was Yuda.


    Not wanting to waste his time, Phyrill then struck him with another sword, but Yuda managed to react and disappear like smoke.


    However, the moment he reemerged, he realized he was inside a cage made of stone. It turned out Lucy had predicted his movement and located his position with her Awareness before trapping him inside the cage. It wasn''t much, but it should be enough to buy some time.


    Phyrill saw this chance and continued shattering the dirt walls,ing for Lucy''s neck.


    When he shattered thest wall, their eyes intertwined. Phyrill''s gaze told her that she would die, while Lucy''s eye told him he had no ability to defeat her.


    Lucy proved herself with an arm that suddenly rose from the ground and turned into a ten-foot-tall golem, protecting her.


    Phyrill clicked his tongue and released all his lightning in that sword.


    "Lightning Discharge."


    The powerful lightning obliterated the golem''s hand and freed Phyrill''s sword.


    At the same time, Yuda had broken through the cage and appeared between them.


    His hand was covered by torrential ck-colored energy as he struck the golem''s body, covering it with that ck energy. Soon, the area that got hit by the energy melted to the ground and the golem returned to thend.


    After that, he covered his right foot with the same energy and kicked Phyrill on the chest. Luckily, thetter managed to put his sword in front of his chest first and used his lightning to disperse that ck-colored energy to prevent it from affecting any of his possessions.


    All three of them made another distance and looked at each other with a serious expression. They realized it wouldn''t be that easy to defeat any of them.


    ��


    The same applied to Laust and Ellen.


    Facing two Blessed people, both of them didn''t have time to worry about the others.


    After cutting the water whip, Laust raised his giant sword that amazed Ratu and Harrison. They just never saw someone using a sword that big.


    "Three Way Sword." Laust waved his sword and released three pointed energy like that of an arrow to Ratu.


    "Water Wall." The Water rose to the air with a powerful current that carried all three pointed arrows.


    Seeing Laust attack Ratu, Harrison decided to attack Ellen since her ice was a perfect suit for his strength.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus." Ellen summoned her three lotuses that turned into ice crystals, creating a wall to stop Harrison.


    Yet, thetter surpassed her expectation when she saw her Ice Crystals were shattered into pieces with one fist.


    "It''s not enough." Harrison smiled and charged at Ellen.


    Laust came to him from the side to stop him, but he soon saw the water rise and formed a sword. Harrison grabbed the sword and hit Laust''s big sword that came from above.


    Surprisingly, that water sword actually had a solid form instead of a liquid form. Laust felt as if he struck a metal, not water.


    However, the thing that shocked him the most was when Harrisonunched him to the air purely with his strength. Despite Laust using momentum, body position, and gravitational advantage, Harrison still had enough strength to do something like that.


    Laust couldn''t help but grit his teeth, hating the Blessed People more.


    Not caring about his thoughts, Harrison continued on his path and prepared to strike Ellen.


    "Let''s see how far I can fare in thispetition." Ellen smiled and summoned four star-shaped blue lights andunched them.


    Like Ratu, Harrison summoned a water wall from below and the blue lights hit the water, turning it into ice. It was soon shattered into pieces by Harrison''s fist.


    Unfortunately for him, Ellen was nowhere to be seen.


    ''Where is that woman?'' Harrison looked left and right before feeling the presenceing from below. He soon lowered his vision and saw Ellen''s palm had touched his chest.


    "Frost Nova."

 Chapter 226 – Battle Royale (4)

    <h4>Chapter 226 - Battle Royale (4)</h4>


    "Gah!" Harrison spat a mouthful of blood and flew to the air.


    It was supposed to be a perfect hit, but Ellen surprisingly dropped to the ground as she spat a mouthful of blood.


    Cough.


    Ellen clenched her teeth and red at Harrison, realizing that he could react to her attack. No, he simply didn''t mind that Ellen hit him as long as she also got hit too. And in that instant, he summoned a fist to hit her stomach and reinforced it like what he did to the water sword.


    "Ellen?" Laust widened his eyes, confused as to what happened. He only knew Harrison had something to do with it.


    "It seems that none of you know the background of my blessing�� Not only my strength, but I can also control water." Harrison smirked and raised his hand, lifting the water and forming it into a human figure. The water gradually rose and expanded into a twenty-foot-tall figure. "After all, I''m a whale. Let''s try it again, should��"


    Before he finished, he soon realized that his golem exploded. He stopped and turned around, finding the culprit. "Ratu Ayu��"


    "I think you''re underestimating me a little bit." Ratu snorted.


    Ellen and Laust could only look at these two abnormal people. They realized if they were alone, they would have a hard time dealing with them. This also showed that those who received a blessing were also not a nobody.


    They had a certain talent that piqued the interest of the one that gave them the blessing. That was why they could shine brighter than most people.


    Of course, there were also many great people without having a blessing. But Laust and Ellen were not at their level yet.


    Even so, it didn''t mean they couldn''t fight them.


    Ellen rose from the ground with a smile on her face. She wiped the blood on her mouth and raised her staff. "Water and Ice, it''s obvious that I''m superior."


    She pierced the shallow water and tapped the ground. "Frosty Misty."


    A white fog appeared on the battlefield as the temperature dropped drastically, turning the water into ice again. This time, even if Harrison struck the ice, they would soon be ice again.


    Laust understood this move and leaped away so as to not get affected by the temperature drop.


    To test it, Ratu lifted her finger and formed a ten-foot-tall waveing toward the fog. However, the water wave froze almost immediately, making Ratu and Harrison realize that they couldn''t afford to enter that white mist unless they wanted to get frozen.


    Seeing Ellen act like this, Laust couldn''t help but stare at her with envy. He wanted to do something too, so everyone remembered his name, but he knew he couldn''t do anything to Harrison and Ratu without her help.


    He could only clench his fists and thought of another way to win with style.


    ��


    Another battlefield.


    Sihan panted as he kept watching his opponents'' movement. Unlike Laust and Ellen, Sihan''s opponent had no blessing. Yet, it didn''t mean they were weak. In fact, because they possessed powerful strength, they were chosen as a representative.


    He raised his shield to the left and found Dominic striking his shield with a metal club.


    "Kh." Sihan gritted his teeth and took a step back.


    But�� Dominic also felt some pressure when fighting Sihan. Every time he struck, his heart always skipped a beat to the point he couldn''t help but think, ''What''s the deal with this guy? He is only blocking my attack the entire time, but I can''t shake the feeling that the moment I let my guard down, it''s the end for me. Why? His strength is below me, but this feeling haunts me. Should I just risk it?''


    Little did he know, Sihan had been training with Radvils in order to master this tactic. He had a few things in his repertoire that he could use to pressure Dominic, but Sihan didn''t use any of them because his job here was to buy enough time for the others to defeat their opponents.


    After all, the one that had the highest chance to win was Alea and Theo who fought together. Even if their opponents were two team leaders, he believed Theo would do something about it.


    Hence, Sihan kept defending and waiting for the right time to move. What gave Dominic that feeling was actually Sihan''s footwork. Yes, what Radvils taught him was none other than footwork.


    This footwork allowed Sihan to react to any kind of movement with all his repertoire, giving his opponent a sense of fear every time they moved.


    Sihan looked at the other two and thought, ''It seems Australia Team is not nning a battle royale here. They''re trying to deal with Gunardi and me by themselves instead of taking advantage of their numbers like Theo and Alea or even Laust and Ellen. I am pretty lucky. I can hold back my strength for the main stage.''


    ��


    The fierce battle royale continued as each participant tried to defeat their opponents. Yet, such an exciting battle needed to stop after six minutes since the battle started.


    A torrential wind suddenly shook the battlefield as they felt a powerful pressureing from the center of the battlefield. This kind of pressure wasn''t supposed to appear from a student, so they all realized the referee had entered their battle.


    "That''s enough. We have the winner! Thernd Wins!" The referee appeared on the battlefield and stopped the match with a serious expression.


    "What?!" All people looked at the referee with a dumbfounded expression before their vision turned to the g that was still on the ground.


    "How can that be? No one has gotten the g!"


    "That''s right."


    "Is this rigged?"


    All people protested his decision because they clearly had yet to determine the winner. Even Alea and the others felt bad and were as confused as them because they indeed hadn''t won.


    However, their doubt soon got answered when they heard Phyrillughed.


    "Hahahaha!"


    Thatughter gained everyone''s attention as they looked at Phyrill with a dumbfounded expression.


    "Truly�� In thispetition�� I may find so many geniuses whose strength is far above me. However, I fear no one except that guy." Phyrill pointed his finger at Theo. "He scares me."


    All of them became even more bewildered as they all looked at Theo, only to find a huge grin on his face.

 Chapter 227 – Dark Horse

    <h4>Chapter 227 - Dark Horse</h4>


    When everyone looked at Theo, thetter simply stuck his tongue out. "I thought the objective of this "RACE" is to get the g, not to fight other participants��"


    "Race?"


    "g?"


    All of them, of course, understood that, but the g��


    They were stunned when they took another look at the g. It started to disappear right before their eyes. And after that, Clone Theo came out of his hiding spot behind the tree with a spear and a g in his hands.


    Phyrill was the only one who could smile excitedly in this situation.


    ��


    Ten minutes ago.


    "Lend me your ears. I need you to do something for me."


    Phyrill was confused at first and still came closer to Theo.


    Theo whispered something so no one other than them could hear. "I know that this is a ridiculous request, but I am afraid the enemies will be desperate if you start running away. You should know how dangerous a person can be if they''re desperate.


    "Not only will they use all their strength and act like a suicide bomber, but it will also greatly affect our teams. Some of us may get injured or dropped out of thepetition due to their insanity.


    "Hence, I want to do it in another way. I hope you can stick the g to the ground as if you''re not allowed to move. I am sure they wille for you without warning, trying to force you to drop the g.


    "You need to throw that g away from them and, if possible, to a big tree. I will take care of the rest." Theo finished exining his n.


    Phyrill couldn''tprehend Theo''s attack, but he soon remembered when Theo summoned his clone and made him enter the woods. He looked at Theo with a chill down his spine.


    ��


    That was why when he heard the announcement, he couldn''t help but smirk. "All ording to the n."


    Clone Theo then nted the g and the spear on the ground before vanishing into thin air.


    Theo, on the other hand, came to get his spear back before Hengki and the others realized Theo indeed carried two spears.


    Yet, in the whole fight, he only held one spear.


    "This�� This�� This is insane!" The one that shouted was Sheira. She had been witnessing everyone''s performance this whole time, but as one would expect, Theo was the brightest one among the participants in Block A.


    "He is not a Fighter, not a Magician, but an Illusionist?!" Sheira uttered her confusion out loud, remembering that only illusion could make them see a g that wasn''t supposed to be there.


    Diego smiled and chuckled. "Haha, I often came to schools to hold a seminar about everything. Back then, someone asked me what''s the quality of illusionists, since they will be useless alone. After all, their only attack is an illusion and if someone is immune or has some resistance to do that, then it''s easy to break free from the illusion.


    "At that time or even this time, my answer remains the same. The best illusionist is not someone who relies on Illusion. Imagine if you enter an illusion and realize the scenery changes like that of a dream. It''s easy for someone with a calm state of mind to realize and break free from it.


    "However, the best illusionist is someone who incorporates illusion to reality. Yes, it''s a mixture of both. At that time, you won''t trust what you see anymore because you don''t know whether the one in front of you is real or not.


    "That''s why I can see that Theodore Griffith is indeed a good one. From using his Magic Bullet Skill or even his outstanding close-quarterbat techniques, everything is there to make sure that his illusion is effective.


    "All I can say, such a good one performance from a young man like him, it seems even I have underestimated him. Maybe, he is the biggest dark horse in thispetition. I am looking forward to seeing how he willpete with geniuses from other countries." Diego finished his exnation with a chuckle.


    Sheira stared at him for a few seconds before continuing her job. "I see. Thank you very much, it''s very beneficial for us. What do you think, people? As Theodore said, the objective was to get the g, not fight others. He clearly showed us why he deserved the spot in the mainpetition!"


    "Uoh."


    The cheers erupted for those who enjoyed it. However, people from Australia and Indonesia who came all the way here to cheer couldn''t do the same. They simply cried and didn''t want to admit it. Everyone wanted their countries to win after all.


    "If we''re looking at thepetition, I feel like we''ve missed a lot of details, right, Sir Diego?" Sheira smiled. "Let us see the star of the Block A, Theodore Griffith. He used his clone toplete the first hurdle in an instant before using his Teleportation Skill toplete the second hurdle.


    "Although his team failed once in the third hurdle, their score tied with Australia Team��"


    Diego suddenly cut in when she was about to exin the fourth one. "I like the fourth one. He already knew that the enemies were conscious of him and his female teammate and used it to trick them into thinking he had messed up.


    "Creatingyers of deception, he managed to buy four minutes for his team toplete his grand n. I believe that''s why Phyrill threw that g next to a big tree. When no one was watching, Theodore or Theo grasped that g and hid behind the tree.


    "Of course, I should mention his strength. He could fight Hengki from Indonesia Team on equal ground. He indeed has shown us his prowess, even though I''m sure he is still holding back. There''s simply no information I can find with a quick search on the inte, unlike his team members, especially Alea, who seems to have God Rank Blessing.


    "That''s why I think he is the biggest dark horse in thepetition. However�� We are only at Block A, there are seven other blocks. I am excited to see their performance and be the referee in the main stage." Diego smiled.


    "Uoh!"


    The cheers erupted as all of them heard how high Diego had been praising Theo''s skill and potential.

 Chapter 228 – Reactions

    <h4>Chapter 228 - Reactions</h4>


    When the audience cheered for Theo and his group, all other participants seemed to have another thought in their heads, especially Ne''s team.


    Zara, who hadn''t believed Theo''s strength despite Ne talking about it continuously, was stupefied and clenched her fists.


    Ne, on the other hand, still watched Theo with a calm expression until the screen changed to another person.


    "That guy�� I mean, Theodore Griffith is��" Zara gulped down and nced at Ne with a serious expression. She even corrected herself to avoid calling Theo "that guy" because he was clearly not a random guy.


    Feeling Zara''s gaze, Ne smiled and turned around. "Anyway, I need all of you to keep your de sharp. I have seen it all and I can confidently say he hasn''t even gone all out.


    "Also, the mainpetition is not only for fighting. There is one morepetition that makes the entire situation overlyplicated, especially in terms of tricks. All of you need to watch out for his tricks because no one can tell who our opponent is in the mainpetition."


    Zara closed her eyes and nodded.


    ��


    On another side, a blonde-haired girl whistled and munched her gum. She wore a white t-shirt with American g on her right chest and short pants.


    "That guy is interesting, isn''t he?" She smiled and nced at the guy next to her.


    He shrugged and said, "Not really."


    "Are you jealous? Haha, we need to win the first round to meet that kind of guy. I want to test this team." She smiled and closed her eyes. "Anyway, our fight is tomorrow. Make sure you all are ready."


    Her teammates only ignored her as she was the one who always had more energy than the rest.


    ��


    China Team.


    "There''s one thing I would like to know�� Griffith is certainly not amon name, but I''ve heard he has met Ne Griffith. I am afraid his identity is deeper than we imagine," said China Team Leader Cheng Sui. He nced to the side, staring at another ck-haired guy like him. "Right, Li?"


    "I have asked someone to investigate his background. ording to the information, thetter confirmed he is her cousin."


    Cheng Sui smiled and said, "That''s interesting."


    ��


    Italy Team.


    "Have you heard about the dark horse?" asked a brown-haired man as he walked closer to a ck-haired girl with a nun outfit, wearing a blindfold.


    "Yes. I may not be able to see them, but I have certainly listened to thementary. Sir Diego has given us enough information from hismentary alone. Unfortunately, we can''t really see anything because he needs to stop giving too much information to other teams."


    "What do you think about Theodore Griffith? I feel like he is quite a contender, considering he bears the name Griffith."


    "When listening to his voices, I feel like he has a rough past, but it is also the one that shapes him to the him right now. Other than that, I think I should say, as one would expect from the one who bears that name. Ne Griffith, Theodore Griffith. They''re indeed a dangerous family, even though their practice is not something we like to hear."


    "Agreed."


    "Still, we''re going to win, okay?"


    "Haha, since you, Pope''s student, participate, I expect no less than a victory."


    "Well, we have manypetitors, so I can''t really guarantee anything." She shook her head with a smile and walked forward. "Anyway, we are next. Have all the preparations finished?"


    "Yep. We just need to gather and wait to be called."


    "Let''s go then."


    ��


    While many teams started talking about Thernd and Theo and began their investigation about this team, Radvils, who had been watching the wholepetition, couldn''t help but smile.


    He gambled by creating that kind of system to get the joker card he needed to enter the worldpetition and, luckily, won that gamble with Theo''s appearance.


    As one of the Special Force Members, Radvils had some information about the Griffith Family that he dugst night. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find anything rted to Theo''s identity. All he knew was the fact Theo might be one of them in terms of talent alone.


    Whether they would approach Theo or not, he couldn''t care less. With them having no Mythical Rank Experts, those with a level higher than 750, it was foolish to challenge that kind of big family. Hence, if Griffith Family would try to get Theo back, he wouldn''t involve himself in this. Either way, they wouldn''t do anything to Theo in thispetition, so he simply needed to act his part as their instructor.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t have the resources to investigate the Griffith Family. Despite having searched for that name on Sk, he couldn''t find much. If he wanted to know more about the family, his only way was to meet Ne.


    Though, it was a different case whether he wanted to see her or not.


    On the battlefield, Theo simply raised his hand like that of a winner.


    Alea and Ellen couldn''t contain their joy and ran to Theo before hugging him.


    Theo''s expression remained unchanged as Phyrill shook his head, watching him.


    "If it''s another guy, they would have been grinning when two of our brightest flowers hugged him." Phyrill shrugged. "I am concerned whether he is a healthy man or not."


    As he was about toe to him, Yuda extended his hand to Phyrill.


    "?" Phyrill was confused at first but soon realized his intention. He hurriedly shook Yuda''s hand with a smile.


    "Congrattions. Who would have thought there''s someone that clever in your team." Yuda chuckled.


    "Haha, indeed, he scares me."


    "Anyway, you should have gained back your Transformation ability."


    "Oh?" Phyrill nodded. "Your skill is sick. I really want to know where you get it."


    "Haha, sorry, it''s from my blessing." He shook his head. "Anyway, good luck in the mainpetition."


    "Thank you."


    Just like Phyrill and Yuda, the rest knew it was the end for them and shook their opponent''s hands, acknowledging their loss.


    Even Hengki came to Theo for a handshake. "Theodore, I am impressed. If you visit Indonesia in the future, you should call me. I will give you a tour."


    "Haha, thanks." Theo smiled and shook his hand.


    "Good luck with your future battles. I''m cheering for you."


    "Thank you. I will do my best."

 Chapter 229 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 229 - Return</h4>


    After having a sportsmanship handshake to all people there, Theo and the others were escorted back to Italy.


    Only at this time, Theo had the time to look around, enjoying the views. He saw a metal base that looked like their Art Beats Castle, but when they flew above the base, he realized the base was more advanced in technology than their Art Beats Castle.


    He could see there were some transportations from one ce to another along with the entire stylish look. Italy must have poured so much money into this and believed their defense was enough to protect the base for at least a few hundred years.


    In the end, they returned to the stadium.


    Theo and the others came out of the ne before the one who held their g earlier came to them with a smile on his face. On his hand was a letter addressed to them.


    He politely handed the letter. "Congrattions. Because you have entered the mainpetition, you''re invited to the cultural banquet that will be held in three days."


    "Hmm?" Theo nced at Alea since he wasn''t supposed to be the one dealing with this.


    At the same time, Hengki came to them and said, "You should ept it. It''s a privilege for the winner. Before the mainpetition starts or after the elimination round ends, they usually hold a banquet for all eight teams, allowing them to know each other, making a connection and wishing them a fair battle."


    "Ho?" Theo was amused by it and nodded, asking Alea to get the letter.


    "I and my team will probably return to the stadium to watch the rest of the match since it''s good to learn from others. My coach will be there too. What will you do?"


    "We will return as well, our instructor is waiting for us after all." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Great. Want toe together?"


    "Sure."


    Since the two leaders had agreed, the two groups began to walk inside the stadium through the back door, heading toward their own coach.


    After that, they went separate ways as their seats were far from them.


    As soon as they regrouped with Radvils, thetter pped his hands without an expression. "Congrattions. I''m sure you''re going to be a superstar in our country since you''ve be the first team in our country that reaches this stage. However, this is just the beginning, you''re only famous in your country tomorrow, but if you want to be famous in front of the world''s eyes, then you need to work on your performance on the main stage.


    "First of all, if you lose at the first battle, then everyone will think you were lucky to get that win from Indonesia and Australia Teams. I''m sure you don''t like to be branded like this, right?" Radvils smiled.


    All of their expressions turned serious. The answer was clear.


    "Who''s fighting next?" Theo grabbed a chair and stared at the screen that broadcasted the same things as the one in the big stadium.


    They were inside a small room so as to not bother the audience too much and vice versa.


    Radvils pointed his finger to the front. "You can see the participants there, but I believe there are three teams that willpete for the slot. Italy, Germany, and Singapore."


    "Ho?" Theo nodded and looked at the screen that now showed the list of participants of each team.


    "To be honest, Italy seems to have a big advantage. As a host, they surely won''t like to lose their face. They even send the Pope''s student who seems to have the blessing from Archangel Raphael, another person with a blessing from Mars, the God of War, and another one known for her beauty�� She receives Aphrodite''s blessing."


    "Oh?! We should send Theo to fight thest one." Alea couldn''t help but utter that remark. She still felt sour from Theo''s previous action.


    "Princess, I am a healthy boy, alright? Do you want me to show you? As long as I don''t need to take responsibility, I can show it��" Theo rolled his eyes, telling her settling down was not good, but a one-night stand was fine.


    Alea stuck her tongue out and looked away.


    "That aside��" Theo asked, "So, what are you nning this time?"


    "Just watch their performance first along with the other six blocks. I will give you the information, but I won''t interfere with your decision no matter how silly it is. So, everything will depend on you," said Radvils to Theo. "Though, if you want to ask me some questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability."


    "I understand." Theo nodded and looked at his teammates. "What are you guys doing? You don''t want to sit down? It''s going to take a bit longer."


    "Also, your lunch." Radvils pointed at the bag on the corner of the room.


    ��


    One and a half hourster, the teams had been sent to the facility.


    This time, the challenge was like that of an escape room. They needed to solve the riddle one by one to open the next door without sacrificing anyone.


    Theo could see that thepetition was very fierce since there was yet a hurdle with physical abilities involved.


    However, when they arrived at the secondyer, three countries started to show their extraordinary prowess, leaving the others to the dust.


    They were simply overwhelming. Yet, everything was useless in front of Italy. They had two God Rank Blessing and one Mythical Blessing as the main, but it turned out all their members received blessings. Although they were Hero Rank Blessingsing from the heroes of the past, it literally showed that Italy Team wouldn''t like to lose their face as a home country.


    However, the one that grabbed Theo''s attention was the Pope''s student. He realized that the woman wasn''t blind or anything, but thetter still put on that blindfold. She might be forced to seal her "special" eyes or there was another practice that he was unaware of.


    Still, even with her eyes covered, she was the one reacting to every movement, preventing any attack from connecting, and healing all injuries. In other words, as long as she was there, the two teams had practically no chance to win.


    After half an hour, Italy finally defeated Germany and Singapore.


    Theo''s face was serious all the time as he realized he needed to do something if they wanted to win.

 Chapter 230 – Fame

    <h4>Chapter 230 - Fame</h4>


    The next day. Thernd was turned into an uproar.


    All media were covering their team that advanced to the mainpetition, bing the first team in history to do that.


    The school became the center of attention because they thought they had been wrong this whole time. In the past, they had been mixing all powerful students among the seven schools, but none of them seeded.


    When Radvils took over and chose only one particr school, it created an immediate sess. All people, especially those working in the education field, were perplexed and questioned whether their way was wrong this whole time.


    Even the principal made a speech for this joyous news.


    It was a sight to behold when they all heard Theo became the center of attention as the biggest dark horse. They all felt ashamed to ever doubt him without getting all the information about him first.


    Of course, not all of them insulted him. Some of them admired him and didn''t doubt his ability. Those people banded together and created Theo''s fan club as Theo might be a prominent figure in the future.


    With just a little digging, they realized Theo was bullied in the school. His fan club dramatized his unwillingness to be bullied and chose to fight back and show the world that it wasn''t over for him yet.


    As a result, all those bullies were exposed. And one person was hit the hardest. It was none other than Hontar''s first partner, Scott.


    Everyone quickly shunned and mocked him openly. They felt it wasn''t enough because Theo wasn''t only verbally bullied but physically as well. However, they believed Theo would be the one delivering the punishmentter, so they only mocked him without touching him.


    Scott''s reputation turned worst to the point he didn''te to school anymore to avoid the angry fans. Even then, they kept mocking him, telling him what he endured was only a few days while Theo needed to face that harsh situation without any family to support him for almost a decade. If Theo were here, he would haveughed out loud. This was theugh he talked about when he and Alea defeated Scott and Hontar.


    Theo''s mental fortitude became an inspiration for many people and his reputation soared through the roof, surpassing that of Alea. They all realized Theo''s face seemed to be handsome, but because he didn''t take care of his appearance, he was only above average. They believed if Theo took his time to take a bit more care of his appearance, he would be an idol like Phyrill, Laust, or Sihan.


    Even Thernd''s President conveyed his happiness in their sess, hoping the citizens could pray for their continuous sess.


    And this was what Theo had envisioned in mind. That was why when he participated in the school''spetition, he did everything and stopped hiding his ability to get the spot.


    As long as he did something great, his reputation would soar and open many connections inside the country. After that, he would aim a bit bigger. Thernd didn''t have the necessary resources to reach Mythical Rank, so he nned to go to another country in the future.


    Thispetition would be the bud of his connection when he reached that step, thus this Grand Gaia was the turning point in his life.


    On the other side, above a mountain stood tall a small treehouse. A blue-haired man walked outside the house with a smile on his face. He had just gotten the information from his friend about Theo, so he obviously felt happy.


    He looked at the sky and said, "It seems we will meet soon, Theo."


    ��


    Meanwhile, Nart Eilric decided to close his shop for a day and returned to the family.


    As one would expect, his son, James Eilric, visited him in Nart''s study room with a grin on his face.


    "Father. Have you heard the news?"


    Nart smiled as he kept reading the news on his chair. However, the news wasn''t about Alea or Thernd. Instead, it was about Theo.


    "Yeah, I heard it earlier."


    "Why are you so uninterested? Alea, Alea has gone to the main stage, you know."


    "Of course, I am happy. But that''s only to be expected��" Nart shrugged.


    "Huh?" James tilted his head in confusion and saw Theo''s article. "Normally, you would have gotten all the news about Alea, but why are you so fixated on him, Father?"


    "Ah, I haven''t told you anything about this��" He looked at James while scratching the back of his head. "Do you remember the reason we are staying in this country?"


    "Father was expelled from the family and settled down in this country forty years ago."


    "Indeed. But that''s not the real reason."


    "Huh? So, Father has lied to me this whole time?" James was bewildered.


    "No, but actually yes. You should know the Eilric Family is not from here, right?"


    "Obviously."


    "Actually, I wasn''t expelled. I was young and unruly at that time, even though I didn''t have any talent. Because of various reasons, I decided to settle down in this country. However, that''s also for a reason." Nart showed Theo''s picture and asked, "Recently, I received a task from the family to care for a young man."


    "And he is Theodore Griffith?"


    "Yes. That''s the reason why I made a deal with him for the Artificial Nest and some information. I also took special care of his skills and weapons since he''s a regr of mine."


    "Why do the main family want you to��"


    "It''s simple. I was curious about him and searched for his information, only to find nothing about it. His information wasn''t erased but manipted as if it was nk paper. After doing my job for a while, I happened to receive some knowledge about him, especially his background."


    "His background? It''s not a simple poor boy?"


    "No, not at all. His family is something I don''t like, but they certainly have enough strength�� That''s why the main family wants me to protect him."


    "That''s why you investigated the horde that seemed to be connected to him?"


    "Yes." Nart nodded.


    "I still can''t understand. Why do you care about him that much? If all you need is to protect him, why don''t you take him here and send a few bodyguards?" James asked with a grave expression. "Father�� What is the rtionship between our families?"


    "Do you want to know?" Nart sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a bit troubled. He then pointed at the chair. "Grab the chair and sit down. It''s going to be a long story."

 Chapter 231 – Nella’s Strength

    <h4>Chapter 231 - Ne��s Strength</h4>


    While the euphoria filled Thernd, Theo and his teammates couldn''t share the same joy because their focus was on Ne Griffith and her team.


    Theypeted in Block C, showing an unprecedented strength from the start.


    What made them bewildered was thest battle between the three teams.


    Unlike Theo''s trick, Ne held the g with a calm expression. She didn''t even feel scared to dere, "None of you shall get this g from my hand."


    "Nonsense."


    "Get her!"


    All the other two teams focused on Ne while the rest of her team faced their opponents in a 1 vs 2 situation.


    Even Ne needed to face two people. One was the leader of Brazil Team while the other one was Vietnam Team''s leader.


    Brazil Team Leader raised his hand and covered it with a yellow glow, heading straight to Ne. Vietnam Team Leader, on the other hand, summoned a few light cubes in order to help the other guy.


    Seeing the iing attack, Ne remained uninterested. She simply raised her hand and waved it to the side.


    Surprisingly, Brazil Team Leader was thrown to the side like Phyrill when they first met. After that, she stared at those few cubes before lifting her hand toward them.


    Bam.


    All the cubes exploded as if they hit something invisible.


    She then moved to Brazil Team Leader, who was still lying on the ground. cing her hand on his back, she released some sort of power. "Ha!"


    Crack.


    Bam.


    The ground turned into a crater as Brazil Team Leader spat a mouthful of blood and fell unconscious. Even the referee quickly checked his condition and released him again after knowing it was just a minor injury.


    However, everyone who watched her performance was simply tongue-tied.


    Even Sheira dropped her jaw and stuttered. "This�� This�� This is madness. What is this? Ne Griffith has knocked out Brazil Team Leader with�� with�� It''s not skill, right, Sir Diego?"


    "Yes." Diego nodded with a serious expression. "I can''t tell you much to avoid putting her at a disadvantage, but all I can say is it''s an advanced technique, not a skill. I am sure that those who understand this technique will agree with me, she is an extremely talented youngdy. Achieving that level of mastery at 17 years old, I am afraid only a few can bepared to her talent in this world. She is among the best younger generation all around the world. That I can say with confidence."


    "However, her face and her name remind me of Theodore Griffith. I happen to hear that they have met and thetter ims he is her cousin. What do you think about this, Sir Diego? Why would both of them represent two countries? If they''re together, I am afraid��" She fell silent and turned serious.


    Diego had a mysterious look in his eyes but shrugged his shoulders. "They must have a family problem. We shouldn''t say anything about it here. But if they''re indeed together, this year will certainly be a huge mess. Haha. I don''t know if I should hope for them together or not."


    Hearing Diego''s remark, all of them began to whisper to each other their views about Ne. After all, Ne showed extraordinary prowess that impressed Diego.


    While they were chatting with each other, Theo suddenly rose from his seat and stared at her dumbfoundedly. Although he couldn''t feel it, he somehow understood a little bit of its mystery.


    "Instructor�� That is Force Control�� Isn''t it?"


    "Ehm, no. I am not a master of "Control" so I can''t say much regarding this technique. However, I am confident that this is abination of Soft and Force Control and a high-level one at that. I can''t replicate it though, so don''t ask me about such a thing. Maybe I can gather some information from the country, but we will see��" Radvils exined with a serious expression.


    "Soft and Force Control." Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Ellen, who shook her head, clueless.


    "Still, what a monster. 17 years old with that kind of control, are you sure you''re rted by blood?" Radvils nced at Theo.


    "You tell me." Theo shook his head helplessly. Ne''s confidence might not be exaggerated. After all, she hadn''t used a single skill, yet, already overpowered her enemy. "Haha."


    Theo came to a realization and thought, ''I can see it now. Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance. It seems I can see all those advanced types in thispetition. I remember the nun from yesterday could see with a blindfold�� her Awareness may have advanced to Ne''s level of Control too.


    ''Now, I am looking forward to seeing the advanced type of Breathing, Technique, and Endurance. I wonder if I should be hoping for this or not since it will certainly burden me in thepetition.''


    Theo couldn''t help but let out the same stare as when he pressured the others to keep evolving. Even if it was not directed to them, Alea and the others could feel it as well.


    Theo had set his sight on Ne next. If they couldn''t show their improvement, Theo might be disappointed in them and simply throw them away.


    This created anotheryer of pressure in their hearts as all of them turned serious, staring at Ne as if saying, "I won''t lose."


    The battle continued for a while, but as one would expect, none of them managed to snatch the g from Ne''s hand. They even regained their advantage when Ne defeated the two leaders.


    Those from the United Kingdom cheered for Ne''s strong appearance. They all knew about her reputation there, so they already expected Ne to do such a thing.


    Although they were outshined by Ne, the rest of the team also had overwhelming power, bing one of the favorite teams in thispetition.


    Even if they didn''t want to admit it, Ne had more impact than Italy or Theo, but it didn''t necessarily mean her win was guaranteed.


    However, like Theo and his group, other countries began their discussion on how to deal with Ne after she showed such prowess. As Diego said, only a few of them might have the chance topete with her.

 Chapter 232 – “Feast”

    <h4>Chapter 232 - ��Feast��</h4>


    The following days, thepetition showed a fierce battle between countries.


    There were more than five countries that showed powerful might, but only five could be chosen for the remaining spot in the mainpetition.


    The winner of Block D was Japan. They showed an unbnced but unique formation as their teams had five Warriors. It was such a bizarrebination, but it worked perfectly with Japan as they managed to defeat all theirpetitors.


    Not losing against Japan, two other countries from Asia Continent won their right to the mainpetition. They were India and China. Both of them had an amazing lineup that wouldn''t lose to Japan or even the United Kingdom.


    In fact, Theo could see that those whopeted for the championship had a simr level of prowess.


    It was shown by another three Blocks.


    Egypt showed such a wondrous might with their Deitiesing at full force.


    However, the United States showed another form ofbat. Unlike those who relied on Blessing and Talent, the United States relied on their weaponry. It was reflected with their leader, who imed herself as the greatest cowboy in the world.


    Her family seemed to be rich since she used some grenades and sma guns wastefully. In the elimination round alone, she might have used more than a few million Zils.


    Yet, that money showed an overwhelming might in thepetition, telling the world that not everything needed to be categorized by Blessings.


    Theo could somehow understand a bit of their strength, even though those people clearly hadn''t shown everything. They couldn''t afford to reveal their trump card in the elimination round after all.


    Even Theo didn''t want to use his trump card.


    With this, eight participants had been chosen. They were Thernd, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, Egypt, China, and the United States.


    As one would expect, Thernd had the lowest expectation to win the battle, but Theo and the others didn''t care much about it.


    After watching thest match, Theo simply rose from the seat and nned to work on his n.


    However, Radvils stopped him with a serious expression. He took out a ck card and said, "Anyway, you shouldn''t leave. After this, you''re going to dress up for the banquet. The country will pay for everything."


    "Is it going to be a high-end banquet? Ugh, can''t we just go with casual clothes?" Theo let out a sigh, feeling ufortable since he never participated in this kind of banquet.


    "Well, good luck. I won''t have anything to do with it anyway. Also, the mainpetition will resume in two days. Prepare yourself." Radvils shrugged. "Let''s return to the hotel first so you can take a bath�� I have reserved a ce for you to dress up and fix your appearance, especially Theo. If you want to be famous, you need to get used to this kind of party."


    Theo looked away and sighed, knowing it was something he needed to do.


    Ellen and Alea looked at each other as if they came to an understanding.


    As soon as they returned, Radvils sent a car to pick them up for this banquet. They needed to do some make-up and picked their clothes after all.


    Luckily, they returned to the hotel at 2 PM and the party would start at 9 PM, so they had time to spare. And with Radvils resolving the entire process, they only needed to go there and be done with it.


    ��


    One hour before the banquet, Alea and Ellen had finished their make-up and were ready to go.


    Alea had a small bun on the back of her head, with the rest of her hair falling smoothly on her back, reaching to her waist. The side hair also rested gently on her chest. She wore a light blue long dress, close to white, with a white silk belt wrapping her waist. Two silk gloves covered her hands up to her elbow. She appeared to be more elegant and mature than her casual style.


    Ellen, on the other hand, tied her pink hair into a ponytail and rested it on her chest. She wore a long white dress, making her appear shining. Her red lips added a bit of a mature side to her face. With a small smile on her face, she looked enchanting.


    "You''ve finished, Ellen��" Alea smiled and spun her body once, checking her appearance.


    "Yep. How about the boys?"


    "They entered one hour earlier. I think they''re going to finish soon."


    As Alea exined, Phyrill finally came out of the room. He wore a red shirt coupled with a ck tuxedo thatplemented both the shirt and his pink hair. He gracefully fixed the sleeve and walked to the girls, finding they had finished. "Yo, you have finally finished. I thought we''re going to wait for another two hours."


    "That''s why we started two hours earlier," said Ellen with a calm expression. "We, girls, have many things to do, you know."


    Before Phyrill replied, Laust and Sihan exited together.


    Laust paired a white shirt with a ck tuxedo that had some purple glows that matched his purple hair. He tightened his white gloves and walked together with Sihan.


    Meanwhile, Sihan also wore a white shirt with a tight suit light-blue tuxedo. He didn''t care much about his appearance anywhere, so he was the only onecking in terms of appearance.


    Still��


    "Ellen, our group is quite a looker, eh?" Alea smiled and looked at the three.


    "Indeed."


    "What are you two talking about? We are always like this��" Phyrill shook his head helplessly.


    "No, no. You all are charming right now. Just like how guys love to feast their eyes on beautiful women, we also love to see handsome guys." Alea chuckled.


    "Where is Theo?" Ellen asked Phyrill.


    "He has a lot of things to do since he never takes care of his appearance. It''s going to be a bit��" Phyrill suddenly stopped and turned around, noticing Theo had finished.


    With Alea and Ellen feasting their eyes, Theo exited the dressing room.


    "Ugh. It''s really ufortable," said Theo while walking with a cool and aloof expression.


    However, both Alea and Ellen were stupefied and dropped their jaws to the ground, seeing Theo''s new appearance.

 Chapter 233 – Predicament

    <h4>Chapter 233 - Predicament</h4>


    Theo had a new haircut, shortening his messy dark blue hair a little bit. His bang gracefullyid on his forehead, highlighting his grey eyes. He wore a light blue vest and tuxedo to cover his white shirt together with white silk pants.


    His previous messy hair and rundown clothes had disappeared, reced by a fresh new look. It suited his cool and aloof expression the most.


    Even Alea and Ellen were stunned when they first saw his appearance.


    "Have you guys eaten yet, especially girls? You took a bit too long, ain''t you?" Theo asked with a calm expression while fixing his shirt''s sleeves, hiding it under his tuxedo.


    "Cool, aloof, but caring handsome guy��" Ellenmented on what she thought about Theo and quickly took her Skylink, taking a picture of Theo.


    "What are you doing?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Do you know that you have a fan club right now?"


    "Huh?" Theo was stupefied. "I don''t have time to check it."


    "Right. I am just telling you as one of the managers there."


    "What did you say?"


    "I am one of the founders, you know. I already said I am your first fan." Ellen chuckled and asked while showing his picture. "Do you mind if I share this? I am sure it will be popr."


    "Do you think I will agree? I don''t wish for a fan club��" Theo shook his head.


    "Of course, but your age is perfect for it. And the fact that you''re single, a rising star, and have no huge family background makes you the perfect target for girls. I mean, unlike the three next to you, you''re more down to earth, making one think it''s more feasible to date you than the three guys."


    "��" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing it was something unavoidable.


    "Anyway, I will save this, okay? Hehe, I got an exclusive shoot on new Theo�� Even without these clothes, I am sure you will stun many people with the new haircut alone. You should pay attention to your appearance, you know��" Ellen gave a thumbs up.


    "Well, you are also charming tonight." Theo nodded as heplimented her back.


    "Thank you." Ellen then pointed at Alea. "You shouldpliment her as well, you know. After all, I am sure that you two need to show up because you are the leaders of this group�� For the red carpet, ording to Instructor Radvils. They want to see all eight groups after all. We''re just going to enjoy the scene from behind."


    Theo gently scratched the back of his head and looked at Alea, who obviously became very stunning tonight. However, he remembered when Alea had a messed up fashion sense in order to cover her face.


    "Well, you don''t look a mess like back then when I don''t know whether you''re mature, tomboy, or whatsoever."


    "That''s not apliment." Alea pouted.


    "You haveplimented yourself. I shouldn''t add more to avoid making you arrogant." Theo shrugged.


    "I wonder when someone will smite this guy." Alea shook her head helplessly and sighed.


    "You should do it yourself." Ellen chuckled and continued, "Anyway, we should go right now. Can''t afford to bete��"


    Theo and the others agreed with Ellen and left the building, finding a long floating car, perfect for this asion, prepared specially for them.


    It took them half an hour to reach the venue and as one would expect, they saw so many people standing in front of the venue. Many people were actually cheering for them.


    They could barely see another team having a photo session next to the hall.


    Before they came out, the driver asked, "I am informed that there are two leaders in this team. Would you please walk side by side? After a minute, the rest of the team can start walking to take the picture. Don''t forget to lock your arms together for the media. There will be another guy leading you to the banquet hallter."


    "��" Theo remained silent while Ellen enjoyed this. "Theo, even if you hate it, you need to do it. Choose! Be aughing stock or a cool leader!"


    "I know." Theo let out a sigh as the driver finally left the car, opening the door for them. Theo was the first toe out as he took everyone''s attention due to how much difference he had be.


    "Look!"


    "That''s Theodore Griffith."


    "He is so different."


    "I have a feeling that he is handsome, but this is beyond my imagination. To think a haircut can change people so much��"


    "Of course. He looked a bit rundown before."


    Theo ignored them and extended his hand inside the car as Alea''s hand gently rested on top of his hand.


    He slowly helped here out, showing their appearance together.


    All of them had their breath taken away when they saw both of them.


    Alea slipped her hand on Theo''s arm as she smiled and waved to all of them. After that, she smiled at Theo, "Let''s go."


    Theo nodded and walked together with Alea under so many shlights from the camera. If there were only one leader, they would probably have a mild reaction, but due to Thernd having two leaders, they all couldn''t help butment.


    "I wonder if they''re a couple."


    "They look perfect."


    "To think someone who keeps fighting on the other side would be this handsome and beautiful."


    Unintentionally, it started turning into gossip.


    They took a picture together as the leaders of the group while Theo wasmenting his predicament, thinking he shouldn''t have revealed his strength yet and got mistaken as the leader.


    Even if he tried to exin it, the management would surely hope he could do it together with Alea. They were the only ones who had two leaders after all. It was a scoop that everybody loved.


    Alea couldn''t help but feel happy since the one who kept looking down on her got the retribution. He needed to be with her until they entered the hall, so she nned to savor the short win she received from this situation even though she had her priority wrong.

 Chapter 234 – Meeting Nella Again

    <h4>Chapter 234 - Meeting Ne Again</h4>


    The banquet hall was a huge one hundred by one hundred feet room with a giant chandelier handing in the middle of the room.


    Almost all participants had gathered in his room. All of them talked to each other with the assistance of Skylink''s trantion, allowing them to talk to each other even if they didn''t understand each othernguage.


    Because of the positioning, Alea and Theo needed to enter the hall first while the rest would follow one or two minutester.


    When they arrived, they quickly gathered everyone''s attention since they were the dark horse of thispetition.


    However, no one reacted faster than Ne. For whatever reason, Ne quickly made her way to Theo, only to be stupefied by Theo''s change.


    Ne dropped her jaw to the ground as she finally had changed her expression for the first time since their arrival.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and let go of Alea''s hand since they didn''t need to pretend anymore. At the same time, he looked at Ne wearing a yellow dress that only reached her knees. Her waist was wrapped by a blue-colored cloth that kept everything neat. She tied her hair into twin tails.


    Ne quickly recovered and raised her right hand as a screen appeared from her bracelet. It turned out the bracelet was a Skylink. Theo knew such a model, but it was still too expensive for him, so he decided to stick with the one he had for a little longer.


    Skylink aside, Ne had opened the camera and tried to take his photo. "Cousin, you''re handsome. Let me take a hundred�� No, a thousand pictures of you first."


    "Huh? What?" Theo was speechless by her words. Since he felt a bit ufortable, he tried to grab the Skylink to stop her, but Ne avoided Theo and took his picture from another angle.


    "I think you should stop that��" said Theo, reminding Ne.


    "No, it''s not enough." Ne shook her head and kept taking pictures of him.


    Theo tried to grab it again, but thetter managed to avoid him. In the end, Theo did a couple of moves, only to find Ne couldn''t be caught.


    "Is this harassment?"


    "No, it''s the bond between cousins." Ne denied it immediately. "I have a gut feeling that I will get something good in this hall, so I need to use something easy to move. I guess my instinct is right."


    "��" Theo felt tired in doing this, so he halted his step and sighed. "I thought you were��"


    "A calm and silent girl? I am. But it''s different if it concerns family." Ne stuck her tongue out yfully. "By the way, can I have a photo with you?"


    "No."


    "��"


    "To think both of you are indeed cousins." A female voice echoed in their ears as another girling to them. However, no one would ever mistake her as she was the only one wearing a blindfold, even in this situation. She was the Pope''s student.


    Instead of a nun outfit, she wore a pure white long dress that matched her innocent and gentle image. She lifted her skirt a bit and politely introduced herself. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Theodore. I am Italy Team Leader, Enrica Herrero."


    "Ehm." Theo nodded. "Theodore Griffith. It''s my honor to meet the Pope''s student."


    "Ahaha, I like to be addressed with my name, but I guess it''s fine." She smiled.


    "Then, I apologize. I will call you Miss Enrica."


    "Why are you here, woman?" Ne''s expression turned cold as she red at Enrica. "This healthy woman even tries to use blindfold in this situation. Are you going to roley the entire time?"


    Enrica ignored her rude remark and gently replied, "Of course not. I have my own reason."


    "Then, since you have introduced yourself and confirmed our rtionship, shoo��" Ne waved her hand as if asking her to leave.


    "On that note, I don''t acknowledge that rtionship and have no idea or whatsoever." Theo quickly corrected her with a calm expression.


    "Oi!"


    "Now I doubt your rtionship with her. Did she force you into it?" Enrica instantly bought what Theo said.


    "I didn''t force him!" Ne twitched her eyebrows. She wanted tounch this woman away, but she knew she shouldn''t mess with anyone here.


    "In any case, I am sure that everyone is curious about you, so I will leave you here to let them approach you." Enrica smiled and turned around, leaving both of them.


    Looking at Theo and Ne, Alea couldn''t help but feel something was amiss. She truly wondered about their rtionship. Although she believed Theo wouldn''t simply choose to give up if he met Ne in thepetition, she knew something was bound to happen in that situation.


    Before anyone approached him, Ne decided toe closer and said, "Do you have time to talkter?"


    "Huh?"


    "I have promised you, haven''t I?"


    "Talking about the family after reaching the main stage?"


    "Yes." Ne nodded. "We can go to your hotel too. It''s going to be a long story after all."


    "I am indeed curious, but I think I will pass right now."


    "Eh? Why?"


    "Meeting you right now will invite some suspicion, especially since the mainpetition is about to start. Besides, I haven''t acknowledged the family yet. They are nothing in my eyes."


    "Even though you can be the head of the family as long as you want it?"


    "What do you mean?" Theo frowned as his expression turned serious.


    "I am saying if you want the seat, I will give up thepetition of that seat. There are many things you can gain if you be the head of the Griffith Family, you know."


    "But it will restrict my freedom, right?"


    Ne looked down and nodded with a helpless expression. "Yes."


    "Then I will politely decline. I have no intention of getting that sh*t. A ruthless family isn''t my thing." Theo shrugged.


    "I think you are the most suited person to get it."


    "No. Speaking of talent, yours is higher than mine. A big family prefers talent more than gender, right?"


    "��" Ne looked down. Her expression was sad as if she wanted to say something but could not do it for an unknown reason. "Well, there will be another banquet like this after thepetition. We can talk more about the Griffith Family at that time. Will that be alright?"


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded.


    "That''s good. I will be looking forward to it." Ne nodded and turned around, leaving him while saying, "By the way, this is my number. Call me if you need anything, okay?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows before taking out a piece of paper, noticing Ne had put a name card in his pocket when he tried to grab her Skylink.


    Alea then came to him and asked, "Are you okay, Theo?"

 Chapter 235 – Meeting All Team Leaders

    <h4>Chapter 235 - Meeting All Team Leaders</h4>


    "Yeah, I''m fine." Theo nodded and raised his head, finding a pair of man and womaning to them.


    They both had slightly squinted eyes. The man had a formal red traditional Chinese coat with two big flower patterns on the top right and bottom left. He wore ck pants to add contrast to them.


    The female had a long royal blue qipao with flower patterns as well. They both smiled at Theo and Alea as the male introduced themselves. "Hello, we are pleased to meet you. We are China''s representatives. My name is Cheng Sui and she is Deng Luoyang. Mister Theodore, I admire you for what you have shown us in the first block."


    No one acted arrogantly in this ce. After all, they were not that foolish to fail to understand that those who reached this ce had a certain amount of talent that could literally go international.


    Even a big young master like Cheng Sui needed to acknowledge Theo''s talent, way of thinking, and connection with Ne Griffith. They also didn''t like to make unnecessary enemies, so all of them behave politely to each other while observing their opponents.


    "I don''t know if I pronounce it or call it right�� But, it''s my pleasure to know you, Mr. Cheng Sui, Miss Deng Luoyang."


    "Haha, it''s quiteplex, but you can simplify it by calling me Cheng Sui or Mr. Cheng. But thetter makes me feel a bit too old, so I guess it''s the first one. As for the pronunciation, it''s not in China, so you won''t mistake anyone with the wrong pronunciation, so don''t mind about it." Cheng Sui nodded with a smile, correcting Theo.


    "dly, Cheng Sui." Theo nodded. "You can call me Theo to simplify my name."


    "Yes. I am looking forward to thepetition, but who knows if we will fight each other."


    "I truly need to work really hard if I want to stay in thepetition." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "You''re looking down on yourself too much." He smiled and turned to Alea. "Hello, Miss Alea. It''s my pleasure to meet a beautifuldy tonight."


    "Thank you." Alea smiled sweetly.


    "Haha, I can see why Theo is smitten by you. There''s no way he can''t say no to someone this beautiful."


    "Of course. He just can''t be honest with himself." Alea chuckled and tried to attack Theo once more.


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched, cursing. ''What the�� You have your priorities wrong.''


    "You''re a perfect pair. Not only are both of you handsome and beautiful, but both of you have God Rank Blessings. I am in awe." Cheng Sui once again praised them, but his intention was clear to Theo.


    He quickly shook his head in disappointment while raising his hand. "If only I have God Rank Blessing��"


    With Cheng Sui implying them as a perfect couple with God Rank Blessings, he wanted to check Alea and Theo''s reactions to see whether Theo indeed had a certain reaction.


    Unfortunately, Alea didn''t know about it while Theo yed hard to get, preventing them from figuring out his blessings. Of course, Theo''s statement couldn''t be trusted blindly, but at the same time, they couldn''t confirm it either.


    Cheng Sui realized Theo was indeed cunning and dangerous.


    "Ah, that''s right. Since this is the first time you''re here, do you know what we''re going to do in this ce?" Cheng Sui asked.


    Theo thought for a moment and shook his head. "Just get to know each other?"


    "That''s one of the reasons, but it''s the main priority for the second banquet at the end of thepetition. This banquet''s only purpose is to draw the lots for the mainpetition."


    "Interesting."


    "Indeed. I have fulfilled what I want to do here, so I won''t upy you any longer." Cheng Sui then left together with the woman.


    Theo let out a breath of relief while turning around, seeing his teammates ignoring them and talking to other participants.


    Obviously, they all wanted to tease Theo and Alea by forcing them together this entire banquet as the representatives of their group.


    Alea was obvious to it, so Theo just resigned to his fate.


    After that, several other Team Leaders visited him and Alea to have a chat with him, observing Theo''s character. They were more scared of Theo than Alea after all.


    Theo could see the diversity of the people here.


    The US Team Leader was the female cowboy. She acted like a tomboy and acted extremely casual to Theo. In the end, her teammate came to him and exined that she was always like that.


    On the other hand, Egypt was a bit more conservative. They were too polite when talking to Theo. Even Alea had trouble dealing with them. In the end, Theo just let Alea talk to them because she had more experience in this tiring conversation.


    Meanwhile, Japan showed a bit of uniqueness. Alea couldn''t sense it, but Theo felt something was wrong with their team leader, the only female in the group. If Theo was someone without a cool head, he might start ogling all over her. There was a kind of mysterious charm in her eyes that seemed to be rted to her blessing, Theo thought.


    Although Alea felt nothing to her, she sensed something weird in Theo''s expression. As expected from her eyes, it picked something unnecessary.


    Alea even teased him while feeling a bit of rivalry, wondering how that woman could invite such a reaction from Theo. Her beauty shouldn''t lose against her, but Theo never showed such a reaction to her. It might not be necessary, but it certainly hurt her pride as a woman.


    After a while, Sheira suddenly entered the hall while bringing a projector and putting it down on the ground, showing a huge blue screen with a bracket on it.


    Without saying anything, all participants walked to her with a serious expression, knowing she would start soon.


    Seeing everyone was already staring at her with anticipation, Sheira smiled and opened her mouth. "Hello, everyone. As you already know, I am Sheira. I am here to oversee the entire event and announce the rules for the mainpetition."

 Chapter 236 – Bracket

    <h4>Chapter 236 - Bracket</h4>


    "Without further ado��" Sheira raised her two fingers and said, "Each of you will be required to fight twice because the mainpetition will be divided into game and brawl.


    "The game will be randomly chosen by our system. I can''t exin much about the game since I may end up giving you some clues about it, but I am sure you will understand it when the mainpetition starts.


    "As for the brawl, it will be a total of three matches: 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and 3 vs 3. This is a spontaneous choice as you don''t need to submit your name before thepetition. You can even challenge your opponent to fight you, but it will also depend on whether your opponent will ept it or not. To this point, I assume everyone understands my exnation, right?"


    Suddenly, Cheng Sui raised his hand and asked, "How do you determine the winner?"


    "The game itself will be divided into two parts, so each game and brawl will score you one point. That''s why you need to choose your order well, because one mistake may cost you and your team the entire game. whichever team gets three points first will be the winner."


    Cheng Sui nodded in understanding.


    "And this is the bracket. There are four Blocks. Each block will get a winner and the semifinal will start. I''m sure it''s easy to understand from the image alone.


    "Also, we will determine up to 3rd ce, so those who lose in the semifinal will be fighting again."


    "That''s a given." All of them nodded in agreement.


    "Each battle will take one day with the first battle starting in two days, so all of you can rest your body to make sure you fight with full strength."


    Theo chuckled inwardly as he thought, ''Heh, fighting so hard just to receive a small medal. That''s certainly an irony�� Though, I believe if one makes an impression in thepetition, they are usually scouted by other countries. It''s a great first step I should establish in this ce.


    ''Well, I can''t say I have much loyalty to the country since I prioritize myself more. Whatever the case, getting a medal should be enough to repay the country for their support. Depending on the result, I may choose a different option in the future.'' Theo felt a bit fired up, wanting to win.


    "Then, how about we start drawing the lots?" While Theo was thinking, Sheira continued and pointed at eight names on the screen. The names began to change as it was trying to draw a random name.


    The United Kingdom.


    "Ah? It''s us." Zaramented and tapped Ne, who seemed to be eager to get it. Ne had been showing such enthusiasm the whole night, so she could only let her do whatever she wanted.


    Seeing it was alright, Ne came to Sheira as thetter raised a wooden box with a small hole on top, allowing her to draw one paper from inside.


    Ne dove in without hesitation and pulled out a paper before showing it to everyone, including Sheira.


    B2


    "B2, I''m sure no one has any objection, right?" Sheira asked with a smile, confirming that she wasn''t cheating. With no one raising an objection, Sheira proceeded to fill their name in the top right corner.


    Following her action, everyone gradually had their turn to get their own cement. The bracket was as follow:


    Block A - Thernd vs Italy


    Block B - China vs The United Kingdom


    Block C - Japan vs India


    Block D - The United States vs Egypt


    "This is the final matchup." Sheira presented them with the bracket with a smile.


    Seeing the cement, Ne suddenly came to Theo and grabbed his hands, saying with an innocent face. "I am happy that I can meet you in the semifinal, Cousin."


    "Oi, oi. Are you underestimating us?" Cheng Sui furrowed his eyebrows, ring at Ne.


    Ne nced at him and smiled. "Of course not. Underestimating you and defeating you are two different cases."


    Cheng Sui''s eyebrows twitched as he snorted, "Fine by me. I wonder what kind of face you will make when you lose against us in the first match."


    "Why are people so easily provoked?" A chuckle resounded in their ears as they saw Enricaing to Theo. "I am sure it will be an exciting match between us. Whoever wins, I hope there''s no hard feeling."


    "Likewise." Theo nodded as their country surely couldn''t do anything to Italy with the current disparity.


    "And we''re first again��" Enrica smiled, recalling that Thernd and Italy won their rights on the first day.


    "Right�� Now we need to do it like this." Theo shrugged while saying, "In any case, no matter the odds, I am aiming for the win."


    "Of course. That''s how thepetition should be. I am looking forward to our battle." She smiled and stepped back, regrouping with her team.


    "That woman is dangerous." Ellen''s voice suddenly echoed in Theo''s ears as thetter nced to the right, finding her face close to him.


    "Do you know anything about her?"


    "No, but I can feel it. Those eyes, I am sure it''s not blind."


    "I know. Whatever they will throw at us in two days, we can only deal with it." Theo shrugged.


    "Yes. So, how is your condition after dealing with Alea this whole time?"


    "Tired. This girl sets her priorities wrong." Theo pointed his finger at Alea while shaking his head in disappointment. Ellen just chuckled.


    The rest also began to talk about the brackets, challenging their opponents.


    However, Theo certainly got a surprise tonight.


    [God of Mischief is interested in thepetition and gives you a trial.]


    Trial: Get the first ce to tell the world tricks are the best


    Reward: Upgraded Skill Eyes.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and made a weird expression, thinking, ''I just got the first trial, and wow, not holding back, eh? Getting first ce is easier said than done, but the reward is rted to Skill Eyes. I''m sure it''s the name for the eye ability that allows me to see the requirement to upgrade my skills. I wonder what kind of effect the upgraded version will give me.''

 Chapter 237 – Italy Team

    <h4>Chapter 237 - Italy Team</h4>


    With thempleting the bracket, the banquet had officially ended as this was their main purpose besides the fact they needed to take a picture for the media.


    Theo and his group then returned to their car before getting stopped by Ne.


    Ne, once again, came to Theo with a serious expression. "Since you want it that way, I will talk about the family after thepetition."


    "That''s probably the best. I am not interested in my family that much, but it doesn''t hurt to know your origin." Theo nodded in agreement.


    Ne smiled and nodded. "In that case, I am looking forward to our meeting in the semifinal. I hope you can win the first round."


    "Well, I happen to have one question."


    "Sure. I will do my best to answer your question."


    "Then, can you exin how your power works? Is it really thebination of Soft Control and Force Control?"


    Ne and Theo''s teammates widened their eyes, staring at him dumbfoundedly. They never thought Theo would be this shameless. It was the same as him asking her weakness from her own mouth to defeat her.


    Ne chuckled and said, "You truly don''t hold back, don''t you? Well, I can show or even give you some tricks about my power and how to master it, but that can only happen after thepetition. As of now, I will only answer that small question. Yes, it''s thebination of Soft and Force Control. They are both like medicine, each dosage will result in a different effect. That''s all I can say."


    This time, Theo was the one who couldn''t believe Ne truly answered his question.


    "That''s all. I should return to my hotel right now." Before leaving, Ne hugged Theo once again with so much feeling while saying with a sad tone, "Cousin, you''ve endured so much hardship in Thernd. It may not be enough, but let this hug be the one that fills the emptiness you needed to endure for more than a decade."


    "��" Theo fell silent as he looked at Ne. She seemed to have looked into his background and felt sad about his past. He didn''t know how to react since the family he despised actually showed such care. Even so, his expression remained indifferent.


    Ne then released him and smiled, "Then, I will be going. If you don''t have anywhere to go, you shoulde to my ce. I can provide you better than them."


    Theo had no words to say, but he still nodded his head.


    Ne walked away while waving her hand.


    Alea and the others stared at her in disbelief, recalling what happened during their first meeting. The girl was iparably cold to others, yet, they found nothing like that during this meeting.


    Meanwhile, Theo had mixed feelings about this.


    On one hand, he felt Ne showed her honest feelings. On the other hand, without his own parents or brother confirming that rtionship, he had no way to trust herpletely.


    Still, his peace was disturbed by another group that came to introduce themselves as they were their first opponents.


    It was Enrica and her teammates.


    "Hello, this is our first official meeting, I believe." Enrica smiled at Theo and Alea. "Wee to introduce ourselves a bit."


    "Not to be rude, but I think you should talk about the real reason��" Theo stopped her with a serious expression.


    Unknown to him, the other three men were looking away as they believed they needed to do such a thing.


    "Ahaha, it seems they are wary of me." A brown-haired female stepped forward with a chuckle. Her face, her small and gentle eyes, her curves�� Everything! Everything looked perfect at one nce.


    She had been in the center of attention this whole time because of her beauty. The female was none other than Agata Mota, the one who received the blessing from Aphrodite.


    Just like the myth, Agata truly had an unparalleled beauty that could put everyone in a trance. She wore a pure white dress that showed a bit of her cleavage, making her even more enchanting.


    "We don''t mean to be rude, but that''s how it is." Theo shook his head and looked at her in the eyes with a calm expression.


    "Though, you seem to not be affected��" Agata smiled.


    "Not at all. I do find you attractive." Theo gently denied it while saying, "But I also feel a bit sorry."


    "Pity, huh? That''s the first time someone said it to me." Agata clearly understood why Theo said such a thing and didn''t feel offended by it. With her bearing Aphrodite''s blessing, she naturally charmed all men.


    Many tried to act like a gentleman as if they didn''t get influenced by that power, but deep inside, she knew all of them lusted for her beauty.


    Theo pitied her because her beauty might be her curse as well. Whoever her partner in the future, she needed to recognize that everything was born from lust instead of love. And many tried to possess her beauty, making her life harder. That might be the reason why Aphrodite betrayed her husband.


    Her expression mellowed a bit and she nodded in agreement. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."


    "You''re wee."


    Alea stared at him from behind with a suspicious stare. Even they couldn''t help but have their breath taken away by her beauty, yet, Theo didn''t seem to be that affected. She truly doubted whether he was still healthy or not.


    "Well, my purpose here is to see the true you." Enrica decided to interject and returned the talk to its proper way. "Werewolf and Fortitude, it''s easy to find their information. However, I couldn''t find anything about you, Mr. Theodore�� Or should I call you Mr. Griffith?"


    "My name is Theodore, so the former is appreciated." Theo shook his head. "My power is nothing specialpared to Mars, Aphrodite, Archangel Raphael, Befana, Thyrus, and Striga. Though, I also believe that those who can use their power better are stronger."


    Theo didn''t forget to say thatst sentence to tell them that his teammates might not have blessings, but they, by no means, were weaker than them.


    "This is a challenge, I assume. We can only resolve it in the arena, right?" She smiled.


    "That''s what we n to do."


    Enrica nodded. "It''s indeed a pleasure to know you, Mr. Theo and his team. See you in two days."


    Seeing them leaving actually made Alea and the others turned serious. They realized Theo was the only one in their eyes and decided to prove them wrong.

 Chapter 238 – War Plan Vs Petty Tricks

    <h4>Chapter 238 - War n Vs Petty Tricks</h4>


    "Hello, everyone. Coming back with me, Sheira as your host for the Grand Gaia Competition. I''m sure that you can''t wait for this anymore, right?" Sheira announced out loud with Diego standing in the middle of the field since he was the referee.


    "Uoh!"


    The cheers erupted, shaking the stadium. After the bracket was announced, the tickets were sold out within one hour.


    Obviously, more than ny percent of them were for Italy. This was their home country, so there was no way they wouldn''t cheer for them.


    The remaining ten percent were actually those who wanted Theo to pull another absurd move and turned thepetition upside down.


    Just like any other sport, under these overwhelming cheers, the contestants would surely feel the pressure. The odds for Theo''s team to win this fight was less than ten percent.


    Although Sheira believed in her country, she needed to remain neutral for the entirepetition, so she continued, "The battle will be divided into two parts. The first round will be a game of tag between two teams.


    "To put it simply, each contestant will be required to put a pressure te on their back. They are required to push the pressure te to defeat their opponents. Each team will send a group of three two times and they will gain one point for each win beforeing to the second round, the full brawl.


    "The team who achieves three points will win." Sheira raised her hand and shouted, "Raise the wall!"


    Suddenly, hundreds of ten feet high stone walls emerged from the ground. They all had the same width and were put in a random position, making the entire arena look like abyrinth.


    "Uoh!"


    "Let us call the first three participants from Thernd. Phyrill Hilbert, Laustnge, and Alea Eilric!"


    The audience pped while some were booing, trying to lower their morale.


    However, some had seen Phyrill and other appearances in the banquet, so some of them were converted and cheered for them just for the sake of having fun.


    The three walked into the arena surrounded by walls. They all couldn''t see the people around them, so they needed to rely heavily on their Awareness.


    At the same time, none of them brought any weapons since this was a game of tag.


    Theo ced them in one group because all of them had extraordinary speed that should dominate this battle.


    But it would be a different matter if they fought in this ce.


    "On the opposite side, we have our Italy Team''s Marco Vi, Alys Amores, and Agata Mota!"


    As soon as Sheira announced their names, the cheers turned into an uproar, mostlying from men.


    As Theo mentioned at the banquet, Agata Mota was one of the most beautiful people in the world. Bearing the blessing of Aphrodite, she was the flower in men''s eyes.


    "Agata!"


    "I see a goddess!"


    "Alea Eilric is good, but our Agata is unparalleled."


    "Hmph, men." Alea snorted and looked away.


    "Ahaha, our princess seems to be angry. Are you jealous?" Phyrill chuckled and teased her.


    "Even if she is beautiful, she can''t arouse that vegetative man."


    "Pfft. I am going to tell Theo about it." Phyrillughed out loud while ignoring all their cheers.


    Alea looked away. Laust simply shook his head helplessly, wondering if this team was okay.


    "Since all participants have entered, I will give Sir Diego the time and ce," Sheira announced.


    Diego then rose to the sky and floated in the air, looking down on the arena. He raised his hand and said, "Begin!"


    Another wave of cheers erupted as both teams finally started making their move.


    "Laust!" Phyrill shouted.


    Laust nodded and ran forward before stopping right next to the wall with his back facing it. His hands joined together and extended it, nning to use his hands as a stepping. "Come."


    Phyrill nodded and stepped on his hands.


    After that, Laustunched him to the air as Phyrillnded on top of the thin wall that was slightly thicker than his foot.


    "Hop!" Phyrill smiled while trying to regain his bnce.


    "Oh! Phyrill is actually walking on top of the wall? This�� Has he figured this game out?"


    When Italy Team heard her voice, Agata quickly understood and clicked her tongue. "That man is indeed dangerous. Our God of War has a perfect strategy, but it seems Theodore Griffith''s never ceased to amuse me. Instead of using the wall like how it is intended, he goes beyond our imagination."


    Marco nodded in agreement and asked, "How do we respond to this?"


    "Marco, you''re going to stop Phyrill on the wall. You have the best sense of bnce among us, so I''m counting on you."


    "Understood." Marco nodded and looked at Alys, "Can you help me?"


    "Sure." Alys nodded andunched him over the wall like Laust, allowing him to meet Phyrill.


    "That one is unexpected." Marco smiled at Phyrill.


    "Of course. His thoughts are something that I can''t tell at all." Phyrill chuckled and nced at the side, getting their position.


    "Marco, there won''t be a big change to our n. Just adjust it with your current position."


    "Understood." Marco agreed without hesitation. "That''s how it is, I am going to be your opponent."


    Phyrill was already in the middle of the arena, so he could hear what Marco said, especially with his enhanced senses.


    "I don''t mind. I hope you can follow my movement." Phyrill smiled and came closer, moving on top of the thin wall as if it was normal ground.


    Marco had some difficulty, but it didn''t hinder his movement that much.


    When they were about to begin their sh, they were surprised by Sheira''s voice once more.


    "What?! Alea is doing something unexpected again!" Sheira shouted in surprise, staring at Alea with a dumbfounded expression.


    Agata tried to use Sheira to gather information, but she soon heard a loud "Bam" as if something just crumbled.


    On the opposite side, Alea''s fist was stretched to the limit with rubbles pouring to the ground. The dust kicked up, but she already got what she wanted.


    Sheira finally recovered from her shock. "Alea has just shattered the stone wall!"


    "What?!" Agata sucked a cold breath as she couldn''t imagine why she destroyed the wall. "Does she want to destroy all the walls here? Is she insane?"

 Chapter 239 – Make One!

    <h4>Chapter 239 - Make One!</h4>


    No one could discern Alea''s real intention because what she did was truly too absurd. Her strength shouldn''t be enough to destroy all the walls here, even though there was no rule binding them except for the fact they needed to leave their weapons behind.


    Agata looked to the sky while thinking about her intention. Unfortunately, she soon realized that it was impossible for her to discern the real n no matter how hard she thought.


    "Marco. Keep Phyrill at bay while investigating the reason why Alea destroys the wall."


    "I can''t promise you thetter, but sure." Marco nodded and leaped forward.


    Phyrill had transformed into his werewolf form as he took another look at Marco, who also had transformed.


    Marco''s hands began to grow green scales as his nails turned into ws and his eyes became sharper.


    "Thyrus. The river dragon��" Phyrill narrowed his eyes. "But it shouldn''t be that high in rank."


    "That''s something you need to experience!" Marco smirked and leaped toward Phyrill.


    Phyrill waved his hand with all his strength to blow him to the side, but Marco caught and stopped his hand rather easily.


    "Your strength is not my match."


    "Obviously." Before Marco took advantage of the situation, Phyrill smiled as lightning started sparking on his foot. He spun his body and kicked him in the stomach.


    Marco wasunched but soon recovered andnded safely on top of the wall. The area Phyrill hit was covered with his dragon scale, so he didn''t get hurt.


    Marco then pointed his hand to the sky and a water bubble the size of three humans formed. "Burst!"


    The water bubble exploded and turned into a small dragon.


    "This water dragon is connected to me and it can channel your lightning. But surely, you will be the first one to be electrocuted. I wonder who''s among us will go down first." Marco smiled.


    "Hmph. Since it''s already at this phase, I don''t need to hold back anymore." Phyrill snorted as his Magic Power fluctuated strangely. "Lycanthrope Transformation."


    His hands were covered with grey fur as his nails turned into ws like Marco''s. However, Phyrill took one step further as his feet underwent the same transformation. With this, all four limbs had changed together with a pair of ears and tail. His pink hair turned grey along with his eyes that now became gold.


    Phyrill raised his hand and waved it down as four crescent-shaped lights were released from his hands,ing toward him.


    "!!!" Marco widened his eyes and leaped to the air, seeing how the four white lights destroyed the walls in a straight line without any sign of stopping.


    Even Diego was forced to move to stop that power to avoid destroying the arena''s wall and kept everything inside even though they had some countermeasure for such a power.


    However, Phyrill didn''t end it there. He released all his Lightning power and covered his body with all the blue lightning he had.


    Lycaon already gave him extraordinary strength and speed, yet, Phyrill added it again with his Lightning. This was the secret skill he gained after reaching Champion Rank. And this was also the perfect time for him to show this skill.


    "Let''s see whether my Lycanthrope and Lightning power can hunt a dragon, shall we?" Phyrill smiled and released his killing intent as the match became serious.


    Laust ran through thebyrinth and followed the trails Phyrill had left behind, making his way toward the enemies. Since Alea would take care of Agata, he decided to go for the other female.


    It didn''t take him too long to sense someone near him after following Phyrill''s guidance.


    When they were only separated by a single stone wall, Laust created a burst of Magic Power beneath his feet andunched him to the wall. He gathered all the power he had and struck the stone wall.


    Bam!


    "��" Alys quickly halted her step and leaped back, staring at Laust. Without wasting a single second like Phyrill and Marco, Laust grabbed two palm-sized stones and threw them to Alys. He didn''t care about anything other than winning. Even if he needed to turn everything into his weapon and used it as a shameless individual, he wouldn''t mind.


    Alys dodged both of them by sacrificing her bnce, but she managed to use her own skill and summoned a box wrapped in silk cloth above her head.


    "Good boy or bad boy��" She smiled before getting interrupted by a shout from afar.


    "Jump!"


    This was Alea''s voice. Laust already knew what she nned to do, so he jumped without hesitation.


    Alys had a bad feeling about this and followed Laust''s action and everything soon turned upside down, even if it meant retracting her skill.


    "Inch sh."


    The powerful invisible energy shook the arena as more than fifty walls were sent to the air.


    Even Agata needed to leap to the air after sensing that dreadful strike.


    "What?! This is madness! Is this not a vition of the rule? Wait, there is no rule! They are only required to leave their weapon behind!" Sheira shouted in excitement and panic. After all, this meant her home country was at a disadvantage.


    Agata didn''t understand Sheira, but the answer soon came. The stone wallsnded on the ground. Some shattered into pieces while some simply dropped to the ground, creating a small area without any wall.


    Agata raised her vision and saw Alea. She subconsciously drew a gasp when she took a look at a brown sword in her hand. It was a stone sword. The shape wasn''t perfect and its strength was basically zero, but Alea covered it with her Magic Power and Enchant de, turning it into the lowest grade sword.


    It was enough for Alea to wield it and gain a massive advantage.


    At the same time, two more short swords flew to the sky as Phyrill grabbed both of them. The length matched his short swords, so it became his weapon as long as he could control his Magic Power.


    Unfortunately, only Laust couldn''t do it since his control wasn''t that good. If not, they would have three people fighting with weapons.


    Agata was speechless as the only wordsing out of her mouth were, "This�� This is Theodore''s n, right?"


    Alea remembered how she used the shattered rock to create a weapon for her and Phyrill. She smiled and looked at her while licking her lips. "If you can''t bring a weapon, you just need to make one."

 Chapter 240 – Love Or Lust?

    <h4>Chapter 240 - Love Or Lust?</h4>


    A few minutes ago, Phyrill and the others had a strategy with Theo.


    Theo had understood the game a little bit and said, "I have a few things I want to confirm. There is no rule, right?"


    "Yes. But we need to leave our weapons here." Alea replied.


    "Then, how good are you at controlling your Magic Power? Can you cover your sword with it?"


    "Not really. I can do it, but it''s not that good." Phyrill shook his head.


    "That''s enough." Theo nodded and turned to Laust. "How about you?"


    "Below him."


    "I guess only Phyrill and Alea will wield a weapon." Theo sighed, feeling it was not enough.


    "What do you mean? We can''t bring weapons to the arena." Alea narrowed her eyes and asked, "Theo, what are you nning?"


    "I have checked it with them. The walls are made of stone." Theo smiled and looked at Alea. "If we can''t bring a weapon, we just need to make one."


    "A stone weapon��" Phyrill gulped down.


    "Exactly. We will take advantage of the wall and use it to make a weapon."


    "But thementary will cover it and unintentionally tell them."


    "That''s why I want you to gather their attention." Theo smirked.


    "How? It''s hard to find them, you know. We need to spread our Awareness to locate them before fighting."


    "Remember, there is no rule." Theo smiled and pointed to the ceiling. "We just need to go up."


    Phyrillughed as he understood Theo''s n. "I see. You want me to fight above the wall. My bnce is indeed good enough to do that and they will surely be taken aback. It seems to be the time I unleash all my might."


    "Alea will destroy the stone wall and use a piece of stone to create the weapons. I''m sure you can still use skills that way, right?"


    "Yes. I can also use a few skills to cut the stone with a small piece of sharp rubbles." Alea nodded. "In that case, I will do ording to your n."


    "That''s good. One more thing, the disadvantage of this arena is the line of vision. Alea will create a huge clear area. The moment they are escaping to thebyrinth once again, something will happen, so keep your guard up." Theo finished exining his n.


    "Understood." Alea, Phyrill, and Laust agreed.


    ��


    Remembering the n exnation, Alea smiled and looked at Agata.


    "He is indeed an excellent individual. I truly want to possess him." Agata felt excited instead of surprised. Just like Theo, their God of War had expected something from Theo and informed them to keep their calm as he gave a dull but reliable strategy to the entire team. Hence, Agata simply said, "How about you give him to me?"


    "Huh?" Alea furrowed her eyebrows. "If you want him, why don''t you just seduce him?"


    "I may bear the blessing from the goddess, but I am just a simple human. Other than my beauty, I don''t possess her traits. Since I can see love is in the air, I don''t like to steal someone''s boyfriend, you see." Agata shook her head with an enchanting smile.


    There was no microphone around, so no one could hear their conversations. The audience only knew they were talking to each other.


    "Huh?"Alea was bewildered and looked back before pointing at herself. "Me? His girlfriend? I think you''re mistaken."


    "Is that so? I guess you are one of that type�� The one who can''t always be honest to yourself. No, should I say someone who keeps convincing themselves that they''re not?" Agata looked at her with a mysterious gaze as if she saw something different from Alea.


    On the other hand, Alea''s sharp eyes became her curse as she realized Agata didn''t lie at all.


    Alea became even more bewildered as Theo''s image shed in her mind.


    Theo had been a huge part of her life as he managed to ovee almost everything with his wits and abilities. He even brought them to this stage. However, Alea questioned herself, ''Huh? Why am I thinking of him right now?''


    Her heart was shaken for the first time as she couldn''t understand herself at the moment. But her eyes came to her rescue when she saw Agata''s right hand was on her back.


    "You! Show me your hand!" Alea''s body shook as she quickly leaped toward her, swinging her sword.


    "Tch." Agata clicked her tongue and saw a small pink heart on top of her finger. "Busted, huh."


    Alea then recalled Aphrodite''s traits. She was jealous and unfaithful. She often cheated on her husband but also became a matchmaker.


    In that instant, she realized Agata must have used her skill to make her think of Theo in this fight, messing up her mind.


    Seeing Aleae over, Agata''s hands joined together and formed a heart symbol before a huge pink heart appeared between them and Alea.


    "Inch sh." Alea had no n to waste her time on her, so she waved her sword and cut the heart into two.


    The heart burst out pink-colored smoke that swallowed both her and Agata.


    "Poison? Smokescreen?" Alea furrowed her eyebrows and covered her mouth and nose with her hand.


    However, the sweet fragrance already filled her nose and lungs.


    ''What''s this sweet scent? It''s making me hot��'' Alea felt a bit itchy down there as her body warmed up. "Aphrodisiac?"


    "Nope. It''s a gasified "Lust". My special skill." Agata''s voice echoed.


    Alea looked around and saw Theo running toward her. With her current state, her view of Theo drastically changed, especially when thetter leaped to hug her.


    Alea gritted her teeth and sliced this Theo into two, knowing it was just a fake.


    The Fake Theo quickly disappeared into thin air, but Alea faced another problem. Another Theo appeared behind her and grabbed her from behind.


    "Clone."


    Another Theo appeared in front of her and put the hand that covered her mouth down while his other hand lifted her chin as if he wanted to kiss her.


    Theo looked so charming in her current eyes as she felt weak both on her body and heart. Her body was warmed up as her eyes gradually lost their lights.


    "What is happening to me? Theo is just my junior, but why is it my body not capable of resisting this? This must be her power��" While thinking about it, Theo''s lips gradually came closer as Alea closed her eyes.

 Chapter 241 – Team Play

    <h4>Chapter 241 - Team y</h4>


    However, the moment she closed her eyes, she somehow could hear Theo''s voice echoing in her mind.


    "Lusting over your own junior. -5."


    Her body jolted as if she got electrocuted before her mind felt refreshed.


    "Grand Burst!"


    She stabbed her sword to the ground as a series of explosions filled the arena. The shock wave produced by the explosion blew all the pink-colored fog away.


    Noticing she didn''t smell the sweet fragrance anymore, Alea panted on the ground while searching for Agata. "I heard something good a few days ago. You need to incorporate illusion into reality, is it? He is right. There''s no way that Theo will say those romantic lines."


    Agata fell silent and observed her condition before smiling. "Is that so? I am not using any illusion though."


    Alea didn''t want to hear anything from her anymore. As soon as she regained control of her body, she leaped forward, trying to stop her again.


    ��


    Those two created another destruction in the arena, but there was another pair that brought the same amount of destruction. It was Phyrill and Marco.


    "Ha!" Phyrill threw a fist that was caught by Marco. The collision alone created a powerful shock wave to the surrounding, followed by lightning sparking on the ground. Phyrill didn''t stop there and twisted his wrist to use the sword to cut his hand. "Lightning sh."


    "!!!" Marco quickly leaped back beforeunching the water dragon to Phyrill.


    Phyrill jumped straight to the dragon with his head.


    A translucent green screen appeared above his head as Phyrill struck the headbutted the dragon, destroying it.


    After that, he threw one of his short swords toward Marco.


    It was covered with lightning, so Marco decided to avoid it instead of catching it. He couldn''t use it anyway, so there was no point in catching it.


    "Moon ws." Phyrill waved his right hand and released another four crescent-shaped white lights.


    Instead of dodging, Marco took this attack head-on, resulting in him getting blown away to the ground.


    However, Phyrill soon realized what Theo said was true. Marco used the dust that kicked up to the air as a smokescreen and disappeared into thebyrinth, trying to make Phyrill search for him.


    Theo had instructed them about this, so Phyrill didn''t hesitate to search from above the wall as it would be more effective.


    ��


    On another side, Laust panted a few times while staring at the female before him. As expected, it was still hard to fight someone with a blessing when you didn''t have one yourself. That was why Laust had some hatred for those blessed people.


    "Bad Boy Present!" Alys summoned three head-sized charcoal that were burned by fire. "This is the present for you, a bad boy."


    The three burning charcoal flew straight to Laust as thetter had no way to avoid it because of the wideness of the path.


    "��" Laust clenched his teeth and raised his foot instead. Beneath his shoe, Magic Power began to concentrate.


    "Ha!" Laust used that foot to kick the middle charcoal, returning it to the sender. "I am not a kid, so I don''t need a present. You can take it back."


    Alys smiled and dodged to the side while staring at Laust. "Haha, you can''t simply return the present, you know. Bad kid needs some spanking, though, I won''t be the one who spanks you."


    As soon as she finished her words, she leaped forward.


    Laust responded kindly, but soon he realized her words. "Not you?"


    Laust suddenly opened his eyes wide. The real threat wasn''t Alys, but Marco, who suddenly emerged from the corner and appeared on his back.


    Since Laust had noticed him, Marco smiled and waved his hand to Laust''s back, nning to hit the white pressure te attached to his back. "You''re mine."


    "I have been waiting for you." Laust smiled back as he took one big step to the left before turning around with a perfect bnce as if he had expected him toe this whole time. Theo obviously didn''t say anything about this. It was purely Laust''s assumption that the "something" in Theo''s mouth was a surprise attack.


    "What?!" Marco widened his eyes and raised both hands to block Laust''s fist that soon hit his stomach. He couldn''t afford to go down with that strike after all.


    However, due to his sudden appearance, Marco couldn''t release his powerful strength and got blown away.


    "Surprise!" Just like him, Phyrill appeared behind him to hit his back.


    Marco looked at Phyrill and knew he would drop out after this and said, "You won''t be able to stop her."


    "Hmph!" Laust snorted and turned around again as if he had prepared enough to stop Alys'' attack.


    But as expected of the strategy made by the one who received a blessing from God of War, it was still one step above Theo''s n.


    Bam!


    A loud and powerful shock wave shook the arena as a few more walls flew into the air.


    Phyrill gulped down as he sensed someone''s presence on his back. "Seriously?!"


    Phyrill quickly pushed his hand to Marco''s back, but thetter already summoned his Water Dragon to Laust.


    "Go!"


    Phyrill managed to tap the pressure te, but his own also got pushed by the one appearing behind her, Agata. She hade all the way from the other side to this battlefield as if this was the execution ground for their team.


    The Water Dragon hit Laust''s shoulder and stopped his movement, allowing Alys to go around him and push his back. "Ha!"


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    A series of loud noises resounded in the arena as those three loud noises were the signals for them to drop out.


    In other words, Phyrill took Marco out while Agata took him down right after. Marco had resigned to his fate and chose to help his teammate, Alys, to stop Laust. His n seeded and Alys managed to get Laust.


    This way, the battle soon became a disadvantage for Thernd as Alea, who just cut down the stone walls, was shocked to find that she was the only one left.


    "What?"


    The three people were instantly escorted out of the arena by Diego.


    It didn''t even take one second, so the battle could continue as if nothing happened.


    Agata smiled and looked at Alea. "Unfortunately for you, we have someone that can make a perfect n too, you see."

 Chapter 242 – Blunder

    <h4>Chapter 242 - Blunder</h4>


    "Wo-woah!" Sheira showed her amazement, looking at the entire arena from above. "Did all of you see that? That was literally a high-level team y. If you took a closer look�� while fighting Alea, Agata kept moving toward her team. They must have some sort of signal to pinpoint the location of their teammates and the timing, bringing the entire team to ambush Laust.


    "However, their miscalction was Phyrill. He managed to catch up with Marco and assisted his team, but it turned out Marco was ready to sacrifice himself, so Agata, who just came to that path, could take down Phyrill while Alys defeated Laust.


    "I could say that Thernd''s n was also good, but Alea couldn''t make a single move in that exchange�� She just never expected to see Italy''s real aim was Laust. If their n seeded, it would be a 3 vs 2 fight, but Phyrill turned it into a 2 vs 1 fight.


    "Such a magnificent y from both teams!" Sheira was excited about the development.


    Even the crowd liked it as they cheered for Italy.


    Alea furrowed her eyebrows and stared at Agata and Alys with a serious expression.


    Agata smiled and waved her hand at Alea. "We''re going to restart the fight�� Do you think you can defeat both of us?"


    "That is something I will answer with my action." Alea raised her sword and renewed the power of her de. "Enchant de."


    This power should be enough to defeat them.


    Even Agata took a step back when she realized Alea was serious in defeating both of them alone.


    "This is going to be a hard one, Alys." Agata smiled and waved her hand. "Flower Dance."


    Agata began to dance with some short steps as flowers began toe out of the ground. Their petals flew to the air, highlighting her movement. Every movement from her body showed her perfect curve in a conservative but arousing pose.


    The entire stadium, mostly men, was dumbstruck when they saw that dance. It was simply otherworldly. They never once met a human more beautiful than her.


    Alea could feel that this was another move of her that would put her in a trance, so Alea quickly jumped backward and bent her knees.


    "Inch sh."


    She waved her sword horizontally to force Agata to leap into the air, but it turned out to be a mistake.


    The flowers or petals that flew to the sky this whole time were not the actual threat. The pollen that they released was far more dangerous.


    Even Alys was already nowhere to be found as if she had escaped from the battlefield to avoid the pollen.


    Alea quickly followed suit and turned around, but before she could take off, she heard Agata''s voice.


    "The performance is not over yet. Please don''t leave."


    Alea furrowed her eyebrows and saw the petalsing after her. They all poured like rain.


    Not knowing what kind of effect it would bring, Alea dodged to the side but soon saw the petals pierced the flower on the ground like a de.


    "��" Alea knew how dangerous it was to confront them, so she began to search for a way out.


    "I should apud you for standing this long against me. If you''re a man, I am sure you are almost burst. And after the earlier skill, you should have been weak in the knees. As expected from someone receiving God of Fortitude''s blessing�� I don''t know which mythology you belong to, but you indeed have a powerful mental strength." Agata praised her wholeheartedly, but since they were enemies, she also needed to y with her words a little. Hence, she added, "Oh, don''t forget to change your underwear after this. I''m sure you feel ufortable.''


    "Shut up!" Alea turned around and stabbed the ground. "Grand Burst!"


    A series of explosions destroyed the flower field as Alea began to retreat to the previous battleground as she could also spot Alys if she decided to ambush her.


    Agata followed her carefully, maintaining the distance between them so Alea didn''t suddenly turn around and hit her.


    "I should expect something like this from a leader, I guess?" Agata smiled and recalled Theo''s fast. "But I am a bit curious as to why your name is registered as a leader instead of him? I do believe he deserves that spot. If you, Thernd, don''t appreciate him, why don''t you send him to this country? We or�� I will be receiving him with an open hand."


    "Theo is Thernd''s citizen. That''s all to it." Alea snorted and raised her sword, preparing to attack her.


    "Is that so? That may change after thispetition though." Agata smiled and teased Alea again. "At that time, you won''t be seeing your boyfriend again."


    "He is not my boyfriend!" She jumped toward Agata and waved her sword.


    However, Agata quickly went around her to strike her from behind. During the process, she didn''t forget to keep teasing Alea. "By the way, the skill I used earlier didn''t make you hallucinate. I just increased the level of your desire. In other words, the thing you saw was your actual desire that you buried inside your heart?"


    "What?!" Alea gritted her teeth and turned around, waving her sword as hard as possible. "I won''t let you sway my feelings anymore!"


    "No. I have seeded." Agata replied with a calm expression as she vanished when Alea''s sword sliced her throat while leaving the same pink fog again.


    Thetter appeared on Alea''s back and pushed her back. Luckily, Alea managed to react first and blew Agata away with a kick. "No!"


    "Yes. I''ve seeded�� in getting your attention, that is��"


    "!!!" Alea widened her eyes and realized that her Awareness wasn''t working inside this ce filled with pollen and felt a push on her back.


    "That''s the end. Italy wins!"


    Diego''s announcement was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. It was especially true for Alea.


    The pink smoke disappeared as she found Alys standing behind her.


    Alys politely nodded and said, "You''re a great opponent."


    Their defeat was not something so easy to swallow as she was dumbfounded for a few seconds.


    "We lost?" Alea''s heart felt empty. Theo had been giving his instructions to gain a major advantage, yet, they couldn''t take advantage of it and lose. She was ashamed.


    If Alea didn''t waver inside that "illusion", they would have won. Alea clenched her fists and closed her eyes, realizing this defeat was her fault.

 Chapter 243 – God Of War Vs God Of Trickster

    <h4>Chapter 243 - God Of War Vs God Of Trickster</h4>


    "The first round is won by Italy Team," Sheira announced out loud after Diego''s verdict, so everyone could hear.


    As one would expect, some sang the National Anthem while some cheered to the top of their lungs.


    The same euphoria could be felt from Italy Team. When Agata and the others returned to the waiting room, they all shouted cheerfully.


    "Yeay!"


    "We did it!"


    "Thanks to Ignazio''s n, we won!"


    However, Ignazio couldn''t share the same sentiment. His face was dead serious despite Agata''s cheerful expression. He simply felt threatened when he watched the entire battle.


    Enrica noticed his expression and called his name. "Ignazio?"


    "��" Ignazio shook his head helplessly and sighed. "We''re in trouble. To think they are this good��"


    The cheers stopped as Alys asked, "What do you mean? Wasn''t your n working?"


    "Of course, but it''s only working because of the difference in our strategy."


    "The difference in our strategy?" Enrica furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Yes. Assuming the n they used came from Theodore�� His entire n was a short term one while mine was building up before one big explosion."


    "What is the difference?"


    "My n was for all of you to adapt and adjust as time goes on. It''s a dull strategy, but there''s no need for a big change of n. Meanwhile, Theodore''s n was like a general whomands the army that can change its formation in a short time, creating onemotion after another, making a perfectmotion to destroy our team if we''re not careful."


    "Hmm?" Agata tilted her head and asked, "Doesn''t that mean your n worked better?"


    "In the previous fight? Yes. But in the second fight�� We are going to face Theodore directly. During that time, he will have time to reorganize the entire n and create amotion ording to his observation. This kind of short term n will work effectively if themander is on the field."


    "��" Agata fell silent and noticed that the entire fight became dull as time passed on. She thought it was due to Ignazio''s n, but it turned out because they had no leader thatmanded them to a changing situation. With Theoing up on the second battle, the way they moved might be far sharper than the previous one and it would keep at that pace to the end of the battle unless they defeated Theo.


    Agata couldn''t help but smile and said, "Hmm�� That guy is more amazing than I thought, making me want to possess him even more. What do you think about inviting him to Italy after thispetition?"


    "Well, he seems to be interesting enough, but we can''t give any guarantee. If you want to do it, better tell Sir Diego after thepetition, so he can get the proposal to the government." Ignazio shrugged. "But with what he has shown until now, the country won''t make a move yet."


    Agata nodded with a calm expression and changed the topic, "So, what are you nning for the second battle?"


    "After acknowledging his power, I realize that it''s better for us to win this round as soon as possible." Ignazio frowned and turned to Enrica. "I wonder��"


    "I don''t know the answer." Before he continued, Enrica already shook her head. "If you think this is the only way, I can ask my teacher about it. However, I doubt we will get a reply for this round."


    "That''s enough. I just want a guarantee for my n. It''s for the worst case scenario." Ignazio nodded and continued. "Moving on. I am sure Theo will aim at Enrica in this battle. He is wary of her eyes even though he has no idea about it."


    "Are we going to lure him in?"


    "He will certainly feel it. And I believe Enrica has enough strength to fend off Theo alone�� At least a couple of minutes. The best will be ten to fifteen minutes."


    Enrica thought for a moment and nodded. "I can''t guarantee, but I will do my best. I will also keep a watch on his clone since he may ambush you during the fight."


    "Yes. I can see thating." Ignazio nodded and turned to Lavinia. "You and I will eliminate the other two as soon as possible."


    "But won''t Theodore see this as well? He may stay together with his team." Lavinia had some doubts after seeing Theo''s n in the first battle.


    "Don''t worry. He will make a move as soon as wee toward them. I have ny percent assurance for this."


    "I understand. I will follow your strategy."


    Ignazio gave a thumbs up before continuing, "Anyway, there are fifty percent the other two will move, but I think they may do something big to the arena again. Although I don''t believe it as well, I think Theodore used the first battle to see through our level and what kind of move will be eptable in the entire battle. This will give him a gist to the extent he can do without harming their country''s reputation.


    "Hence, have your guard up all the time. The other two don''t have a blessing, so we have a massive advantage over them. As for Theodore�� I don''t know who gave him the blessing, but I''m sure it''s a pretty high one."


    "Hmm?" Agata squinted her eyes and said, "Mythical Rank? Or maybe a God Rank Blessing?"


    "Yeah. However, we have no information about his blessing or which mythology ites from. Before we can discern it, it''s better to assume he can do everything. That''s why I want you to be on the defensive all the time, Enrica."


    "I understand." Enrica agreed without hesitation.


    "Good. Now, this is the details of our n��" Ignazio began to tell them his entire n.


    Meanwhile, Theo had given them a detail that Ignazio had mentioned before looking at Alea, who was down after returning here.


    "Alea. I don''t have time to babysit you. If you are down just because of this, why don''t you give up now?" Theo shrugged before turning to the others. "Alea aside, You may not hear what I''m saying in the arena because of the loud cheers, so I will also add my Magic Bullets as my signal."


    "Alright. You''ve given the details earlier and we will keep looking at the sky." Ellen smiled.


    "That''s good. It''s time for us to go then." Theo raised, took another peek at Alea''s face, and walked away.

 Chapter 244 – Taking The Initiative

    <h4>Chapter 244 - Taking The Initiative</h4>


    "It''s time for the second round!" Sheira began the round with another announcement. "On the opposite side, our country has sent Enrica Herrero, Ignazio Guero, and Lavinia Pintor. After the first win, will they be able to carry the momentum?


    "Or will Thernd snatch the momentum in this round?" Sheira paused for a moment. "Challenging them are Thernd Team''s Theodore Griffith, Sihan Raskaka, and Ellen Marcines. This is an exciting match to see."


    All of them appeared in the arena that had been restored to its former appearance. However, everyone took a special focus on Theo, who had gotten a haircut that turned him from above average to a handsome guy.


    "Look!"


    "That''s right. He is better than the one I''ve seen on the news."


    They began to discuss Theo''s new appearance since it certainly piqued many people''s interest, considering Theo was the center of Thernd.


    Diego had positioned himself on top of the arena, observing their movement.


    After confirming that the two were ready, he announced, "Start!"


    "Let''s start with this, shall we?" Theo smiled and summoned ten Magic Bullets as an opening, shooting it to the sky. He had measured the distance and the direction of the other gate, so he knew exactly where to aim. "Go."


    Ten Magic Bullets flew to the sky and turned sharply to the ground, falling on top of Enrica and the others.


    However, Enrica simply looked at them before raising her hand.


    A translucent golden barrier appeared out of nowhere and received all Magic Bullets simultaneously.


    "You guys need to go right now. I will be luring him here," said Enrica while smiling, feeling the power of the Magic Bullets. And there were only ten bullets, not forty. If all of them hit her at once, her barrier might not be able to block itpletely. She didn''t suspect him at all as she thought Theo used only ten because it was easier to controlpared to forty with a blind aim like this.


    Ignazio agreed with her and nodded to Lavinia as they began to move. They went around to avoid Theo''s detection, so they needed to be fast since Enrica might go down within ten to fifteen minutes.


    "Oh! After a ferocious wee from Theodore, Ignazio and Lavinia are moving forward." Sheira''s announcement became the signal for the battle. "Theodore Griffith has also made his move, advancing forward. His aim must be Enrica. Ignazio and Lavinia don''t respond to Theodore''s movement, so we can safely assume that they''re aiming for Sihan and Ellen."


    Theo made his way through thebyrinth, knowing Enrica hadn''t moved from his position. To speed up the progress, Theo summoned his clone and used him tounch him to the top of the wall like Phyrill did.


    He then moved forward and leaped to the sky, finding Enrica alone. "It seems I have made you wait."


    "Not at all. You can take your time��" Enrica smiled.


    Theo summoned all forty Magic Bullets and rained them down to hit Enrica.


    Enrica furrowed her eyebrows and summoned the same golden barrier, but she didn''t expect anything from it. After all, she seemed to have seen the real power behind those Magic Bullets.


    She quickly sped her hands together as if she wanted to pray. "Protection."


    Another golden barrier in the form of a half-sphere appeared as Theo''s Magic Bullets suddenly turned to the side as if it knew the barrier would stop them again before returning to its original target, Enrica.


    Boom.


    Forty Magic Bullets hit the barrier in session as Enrica could feel the pressureing from all these bullets. She had yet to realize that the pressure was actually generated by Theo''s Illusion Maniption skill.


    After enduring that relentless onught, Enrica smiled and faced Theo. "What a powerful skill��"


    "I should be the one saying something here." Theo shook his head helplessly as hended on top of the wall in front of her.


    As they were about to start, a loud "boom" echoed in everyone''s ears as it certainly gathered all the attention.


    "What is this?!" Sheira drew a gasp as she saw a huge Ice Boulder hitting the center of the arena, crushing all the stone walls they had prepared for this game. "Did they just destroy the center of the arena?"


    Sheira soon saw Sihan and Ellen moving to the center as if they destroyed it to gain a bit of a clear area for both of them to work with. At the same time, it also became an invitation for Ignazio and Lavinia.


    Sheira even announced it so everyone could hear. "Sihan and Ellen are making their way to the center, the area they have cleared just now!"


    "!!!" Ignazio twitched his eyebrows and came to a halt. "As expected, this is not going smoothly."


    "Ignazio?" Lavinia didn''t understand why it became that way since they only needed to go after them.


    "The fact that the battlefield is going to be at the center of the arena, Theo doesn''t need a long time to reach us,pared from one side to the other. Even Enrica will be forced to move away and who knows if there will be a trap he has set before facing her. That guy is indeed different." Ignazio sighed in defeat.


    "Then��"


    Before she finished, Ignazio already had the n in his mind. "Nevertheless, our strategy won''t change just because of this. All we need to do is to watch out for a potential ambush, okay?"


    "I understand." Lavinia nodded with a serious expression as they changed their direction, nning to attack Sihan and Ellen on their battlefield.


    Although Enrica didn''t know Theo''s intention, she noticed that move certainly made a big difference. She tried to poke him a little bit. "Why don''t you destroy the stone wall over there first to make a spear for you? I can wait."


    "No, I don''t need them. I only want to ask you one big question."


    "Ho? I shall answer it like a long essay��"


    "Can you heal your own body?"


    "!!!"


    Theo had two intentions in that question. First, he wanted to know whether he would fight her like fighting Aisha, the immortal. Second, it was just a simple distraction.


    He used his Blink to transfer him behind Enrica as he gathered all his strength into one punch. "Because I am not a person who cares about gender in a fight."


    Bam.

 Chapter 245 – Enrica’s Boldness

    <h4>Chapter 245 - Enrica��s Boldness</h4>


    Bam.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Enrica caught his fist with her bare hand.


    On her hand, several golden lines emerged as if they gave her power.


    "As expected, your strength is equal to that of a top-notch fighter. Maybe you''re focusing on your Strength and Magic Power��" In that instant, she seemed to have understood Theo''s status points allocation.


    However, Theo obviously denied it and tried to break free from her grip. "You too. Are you nning to be a berserk priest or something?"


    "Of course not. If you don''te at me, I won''t even use my power."


    "No, no. You can give up right now. Then, I won''t have a reason to go after you anymore." Theo shook his head and summoned his clone because he couldn''t escape from her.


    But a smile appeared on Enrica''s face as soon as she saw his clone. It was at this moment, he realized what she nned to do.


    Clone Theo quickly threw himself to the side before a translucent golden barrier appeared, trapping Theo and Enrica inside.


    "What are you nning��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and used his Blink to get away, only to crash to the translucent barrier. "Wha��"


    Enrica smiled and exined. "Even your Teleportation Skill won''t be able to escape from this barrier."


    "��" Theo frowned and checked with his clone. He needed to decide whether to recall his clone inside or send the clone to help Ellen and Sihan. After a while, Theo quickly controlled the clone to enter thebyrinth because Enrica wanted to trap his clone inside.


    "Since that''s the case, I won''t be holding back." Enrica pped her hand as a golden light shone from her hand. "Smite."


    Theo abruptly looked to the sky and noticed a small star-shaped golden light that gradually expanded.


    "!!!" Feeling something big would happen, Theo came to Enrica again because even she wouldn''t escape this attack unscathed. "Wait�� That''s the reason you do this��"


    "Of course. I can heal myself, so why am I afraid to hurt myself?" Enrica answered Theo''s question earlier, but it indeed came in a scary tone.


    "It''s already enough for one person to want to smite me. I don''t need the real thing��" Theo raised his hand and sent another punch.


    However, Enrica caught it again with her hand as the golden light finally sent its power down.


    They were inside the barrier and Enrica needed to open the barrier so the golden light could swallow them.


    This time, Theo decided to risk it and used his Blink to go straight to the Golden Light, finding the barrier to open.


    As soon as he left the barrier and was about to be hit by the golden light, Theo used his Telekinesis tounch himself to the side, avoiding the golden light at thest second.


    That golden light finally descended and struck Enrica alone as Theo felt relieved he wasn''t inside that barrier anymore.


    When everything ended, Theo could see both her sleeves had been shredded together with some parts of her nun uniform.


    "Such a fast reaction,"mented Enrica as she walked out of that light without any injury.


    "You''re insane. Double suicide is not my thing."


    "Haha, I can''t say anything about it. That''s the only thing I can do to defeat you�� I am a healer after all." She shrugged. "Well, at least, I have protected the area that needs to be protected, so I don''t do any misconduct for the time being�� Let''s continue, shall we?"


    Theo clicked his tongue and realized defeating her couldn''t be done within a few minutes.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Ignazio and Lavinia had finallye out of their hiding spot, facing Sihan and Ellen.


    Ellen didn''t hesitate and waved her hand, summoning four blue lights above her head.


    "Ice Star."


    The four blue lights flew to Ignazio and Lavinia. The two marched forward while dodging all the blue lights, but thetter turned around and chased them.


    Ignazio had recognized the power behind those blue lights, knowing it was under the influence of Force Control, so he snapped his fingers as a giant golden shield emerged behind him, receiving all the lights.


    It created a couple of Ice Crystals, but all of them disappeared together with the shield.


    Sihan stepped forward to prevent the two from approaching Ellen, acting as a Guardian. He raised both hands as both began to glow.


    When their attention was taken away by Sihan, Ellen created three Ice Lotuses above their heads.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    However, Lavinia stomped the ground as a head-sized stone came out of the ground.


    "Ratten." She then kicked the rock to the Ice Lotuses above Ignazio''s head since Ellen wanted to eliminate her first by sending two Ice Lotuses upon her.


    However, Lavinia''s eyes glowed a bit as if she was possessed. When the two Ice Lotuses fell, she leaped to the side at the right timing. Her maneuver and movement ability didn''t look like a human at all.


    "Striga�� A witch or a sentient beast�� It resembles a woman, bat, dog and rat. I see." Sihan became serious as he recognized the first two moves. They came from Rat and Dog, giving her the ability she needed to counter their attacks.


    Right before they arrived, a blinding light came into their vision as they all noticed it wasing from the other battlefield.


    "It seems they''re having fun as well." Ignazio smirked and went in another direction, going around them to ambush them from behind.


    "Take care of him," said Ellen while staring at Lavinia.


    Sihan agreed without hesitation and turned around, protecting Ellen''s back.


    To create an opportunity for Ignazio, Lavinia took a deep breath before opening her mouth as big as possible, letting out a Sound Wave.


    Before that, Ellen hit the ground with her "Frost Nova" as an Ice Crystal appeared from the ground. The Sound Wave hit the Ice Crystal first and got redirected, preventing the sound from hurting their eyes.


    Due to the Ice Crystal''s uneven form, the Sound Wave was dispersed in all directions.


    Ellen clicked her tongue andmented with a calm expression. "Still, the sound itself is not that loud, but it certainly hurts one''s ears."


    Despite such a failure, Ignazio continued on his track, facing Sihan directly.


    Unbeknownst to them, there was Theo taking a peek on the corner, watching the entire situation. He had been standing behind the wall to observe the entire situation and waited for the right time to strike them.

 Chapter 246 – The Clone That Shocked The World

    <h4>Chapter 246 - The Clone That Shocked The World</h4>


    "Stratagem." Ignazio raised both hands and released several red lines from his hands. They all were attached to each person, including Sihan and Ellen.


    "Eh? What is this?" Ellen furrowed her eyebrows before finding Lavinia had closed their distance. "Frosty Misty."


    "Shatter!" Lavinia pointed her hand to Ellen as the white fog was dispersed mysteriously.


    "Kh!" She blinked a few times and took a few steps back as Ellen turned around, exchanging position with Sihan. "Ice Wave!"


    ''My stratagem allows me to calcte all your movements and predict your next movement. And I saw this one a mile ago.'' Ignazio thought, smiled and halted his step. Right before the Ice Wave hit him, he leaped to the side and went around them.


    Lavinia also did the same and attacked them from both sides.


    Ellen and Sihan needed to readjust their position, so Sihan faced Ignazio again. He jumped to Ignazio to stop him while Ellen pointed her finger at Lavinia, shooting a small blue light at her.


    "Frost Nova."


    With this kind of speed and this distance, Lavinia should be avoiding this attack by going to the side. It would surely disrupt their n, but Lavinia went ahead and received that blue light with her own left hand.


    "Argh!" Lavinia screamed in pain but kept running to Ellen.


    "What?!" Ellen widened her eyes in shock.


    "We have a healer, you see." Lavinia endured the pain, smirked and slipped past Ellen while leaving a green ball on the ground and heading straight for Sihan''s back. "You''re mine."


    "Not Good. Frosty��" Ellen tried to freeze the green ball that was going to explode, but it was toote.


    Boom.


    "Ah!" Ellen protected herself from the explosion with her power, but she was still engulfed by the explosion, trapping her inside for a moment.


    Within that time, Lavinia came to Sihan''s back, extending her hand to push that pressure te.


    As if he knew Lavinia wasing, Sihan turned around and ignored Ignazio. Before Lavinia or Ignazio could eliminate him, Sihan gave a powerful push to Lavinia and blew her away to the explosion.


    It was at this time the explosion got frozen as Ellen came out and hit Lavinia in the back.


    ''Kh.'' Lavinia clenched her teeth. ''I know that the n has failed the moment Sihan pushed me away, but he should be in the same position. Ignazio will�� Wait!''


    Lavinia saw Theo appearing behind Ignazio and shouted, "Ig��"


    Before she could warn him, she was stopped by Diego as if telling her that she was already eliminated and had no right to influence the battle anymore.


    Bam.


    Ignazio used a bit of his strength to hit Sihan''s back and eliminate him, but Theo also nned to do the same thing, albeit Ignazio already knew about his presence this whole time.


    "I know you''re already there, Theodore''s Clone!" Ignazio smirked as he turned around and elbowed Theo, only to find thetter disappeared. "Huh? Where is he?"


    Suddenly, he felt the tap on his back, signaling that the battle was over.


    "What? Since when?" Ignazio widened his eyes and thought, ''I have predicted himing after me and acted as if I don''t know his position. Even Enrica has used her skill to inform that his clone ising�� Don''t tell me he knows that I am waiting for him? No, this kind of movement can only be possible��''


    Ignazio suddenly sucked a cold breath as he came to an understanding. He looked at Theo before he got carried to the side of the arena together with Sihan and Lavinia.


    "What is this? Did I just see something unprecedented?" Sheira announced her shock when she saw Theo''s clone using a skill. "Did Theodore''s Clone just teleport like the main body? Does this mean Theodore''s Clone can use a skill like the main body?


    "There is not a single record that a Clone can do such a thing! He faked his movement and used his Teleportation Skill to appear behind Ignazio and hit him! This�� This�� Doesn''t this mean Theodore Griffith alone can be counted as two people?"


    The cheers erupted as they just witnessed something amazing. However, all those from big influences that had watched this battle for scouting or enjoying their time couldn''t help but rise from their seats. Even the other students who participated in thispetition stood up and stared at the screen in disbelief.


    All of them were shocked that Clone Theo could actually use skills. Whether it was in this game or the brawl, they quickly realized Theo was someone who could change the entire course of the battle. After all, no matter the condition, they would gain an "additional" member.


    China Team.


    Cheng Sui quickly turned around and said, "Quick. Inform the country there is someone we need to catch this time. Tell them if they don''t want Theodore Griffith, my Cheng Family can nurture him."


    "Cheng Sui?" Deng Luoyang squinted her eyes. "I am sorry, but I am not understanding."


    "We need to raise the stake first to invite him." Cheng Sui looked at his best friend, Zhong Li. "I am sure you understand my intention, right?"


    "Yeah." Zhong Li nodded in agreement. "A Clone that can use skills, his thinking ability that can bepared to Ignazio, and his extraordinary battle prowess. From those alone, getting someone like him is the same as getting two experts. In addition, he can cooperate with his clone far better than what a normal team can do because they''re one person. If he is nurtured well and reaches Mythical Rank, it''s the same as getting two Mythical Rank Experts. I''m sure you all can see that his clone has the same physical ability as him, right?"


    After that exnation, they came to realize Theo''s true worth. His skills aside, the clone alone could be a peerless skill if the real person were able to grow well.


    Like Ne previously mentioned to Theo, the banquet after thepetition would be used to scout other members. Loyalty could be bought for a period of time and if they treated those people well enough, that loyalty might be permanent. That was why thispetition''s banquet might have him as the center.


    As for the one who said it to him, Ne couldn''t contain her smile when watching his ability.

 Chapter 247 – First Win

    <h4>Chapter 247 - First Win</h4>


    Watching Ne''s excitement and Theo''s real worth, Zara staggered and reached for Ne''s shoulder with a pale face.


    "Ne, you�� you know something about this?" Zara stuttered as she simply couldn''t believe what she had seen.


    As Cheng Sui said, Theo''s clone could be another Theo if used properly and thebination of one man that became two was far better than two different people. That was why getting and nurturing Theo would be beneficial to them as they could take two people worth with just one contract.


    "Not at all." Ne calmly smiled as she truly had no idea of what he had hidden in his repertoire. What she knew was only one thing. "But please remember, he is my cousin."


    "��" Zara gulped down as she understood perfectly what that meant. "We�� We need to snatch him before anyone else can. Even if the Griffith Family wants to intervene, they have their own rule, right?"


    "Haha, it''s true. I am the younger one, so I guess you need to work harder. The time limit is his uing birthday." She chuckled.


    "You�� Why don''t you help us?"


    "Why should I help you?" Ne tilted her head as her expression turned cold. "Please remember, I am a normal participant from the United Kingdom. I side with you just for thispetition. If you ask me who I choose�� I will be on my cousin''s side."


    Zara took a step back as Ne''s stare made her shudder. It felt scary as those stares told her if she hurt Theo, Ne would being for her life. Whether it was due to the fact they were blood-rted or unknown reasons, Ne actually meant it.


    "And you seem to be missing one thing." Ne licked her lips and continued, "His blessing. Do you think some random guys or beings can give you a skill this powerful? His blessing muste from at least a Mythical Rank being of the past�� No, I believe ites from a God! Who is that God? Even I don''t know. Ah, Cousin, you''re truly the best. I wonder what path you will choose�� Griffith Family or another country?"


    ��


    After what Sheira said, the entire stadium turned into an uproar. Everyone was talking about him and his potential.


    However, Theo simply retracted his clone and resummoned it next to him while waiting for Ellen to catch up.


    "You�� This entire battle seems to be controlled by you. Ignazio told me earlier�� And I have realized that you''re indeed dangerous."


    "Well, I should be the one thanking him." A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he told her, "Thanks to Ignazio, we can win this round. That''s right. Three people against two�� This strategy ispletely good if it''s yed right."


    Enrica felt a chill down her spine. Theo implied that he used their own strategy against their own. Because of Theo, they couldn''t do the same strategy and, in fact, Ignazio already recognized Theo''s ability and knew Theo wouldn''t be tricked again by the same strategy. That was why he created another n.


    However, for the same reason, Theo knew it was the best strategy to beat them. After all, no one would have thought they would be defeated by the same strategy they used previously.


    And what made Theo sessfully pull it off was his clone. No one would have expected a clone that could use a skill.


    This was actually one of the biggest reasons Theo wanted to stay low when he first got this clone. It was something unprecedented and the potential was limitless.


    With this skill, he could entice all those people in power. However, fame also came with resentment and danger. He had heard so many stories about missing rising stars in the country. All those people just became famous not long ago.


    That was why he nned to finally open this skill for the world to see. He could get some contracts from other big countries and grow while getting some sort of protection. Some ns had been made even before participating in thispetition.


    Although Enrica didn''t see how far he had nned, she still had a feeling that Theo had done something amazing. She couldn''t help but say, "You''re amazing. What do you think abouting to our country? That''s right. Agata seems to be interested in you. How about you take her as your wife?"


    "Wow, you''re deciding someone''s life on a whim��"


    "Of course not. I and Agata are best friends, so I know her personality. Her blessing made her mature faster, but she is cute deep down, you know." Enrica smirked.


    "Haha, please don''t pressure me to make a decision in a battle. I can''t make a good decision." Theo then raised his fists together with his clone. "And we''re still fighting, I need to end this as soon as possible."


    "Ahaha, you''re not someone who ys by the rule, are you?"


    "No, you are."


    "Anyway, since you want to end this match, I will give up this round." Enrica raised her hand and looked at Diego with a smile. "I forfeit this match."


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes, not expecting her to give up.


    "Match ends! Thernd wins!" Diego announced after listening to Enrica.


    "Why��" Theo frowned.


    "I don''t have any chance to beat you and your clone. And I still need to add your teammate who ising here, I would rather save my energy instead of fighting you here." Enrica smiled and took a step back. "The banquet after thepetition�� I hope you can lend me some of your time."


    "��" Theo was speechless as Enrica simply turned around and left with a smile on her face.


    Theo closed his eyes for a second and smiled. Without a doubt, he hadpleted what he wanted in thispetition. The rest of thepetition was just him paying back to the country for giving him this chance and fulfilling the agreement he made to Nart.


    However, the same couldn''t be applied to his team. They had taken his clone for granted and never ced any importance on it. But when Sheira announced it and made them realize how important it was, they felt pressure in their heart, knowing whatever they did in thispetition, nothing would outshine Theo.


    Only Ellen had a smile on her face, remembering how Theo never wasted any second in his training and kept practicing even after returning home. She thought, ''Working that hard�� You deserve it, Theo.''

 Chapter 248 – Argument

    <h4>Chapter 248 - Argument</h4>


    "What a rollercoaster! From one shock after another, Theodore has proved himself as the leader of Thernd. Now, we would like to see the other leader of Thernd Team, the one who has been officially named as the leader.


    "In any case, Italy Team has lost their momentum and Thernd has gained a huge boost in their morale. No one can predict the oue of this match anymore. After taking a fifteen minute break, the participant will start the first 1 vs 1 fight."


    Sheira kept saying everything about her observation, especially regarding Theo. It was such a scoop because Theo''s life wouldn''t be the same anymore.


    At the same time, the audience was perplexed as to why Thernd put Alea''s name as their leader. Usually, the leader was chosen by one of the three criteria. They could be the strongest person, someone with extraordinary leadership or talent, or the oldest.


    People didn''t like thest one because it was simply demeaning those who had the talent. Just because you were older didn''t give you the right to suppress the young. Even Diego understood this principle and kept making constructivements no matter how poor their performance was.


    If Thernd put Theo in that situation, despite the fact he had the potential to be the first Mythical Rank Expert from Thernd in the future, the people would have be disappointed.


    However, those who wanted to scout him actually hoped this was the case. After all, it would make the process of inviting him to their country easier.


    Everything would be relying on Alea. Yes, the country''s name would go bad if Alea couldn''t show something big to prove she was worthy of being their leader.


    Alea also understood the entire situation and sped her hand with a grave expression. As she had expected, the number one threat in thispetition was none other than Theo, not anybody else.


    The waiting room fell into silence as Alea raised her head, finding Ellen, Sihan, and Theo returning.


    She quickly rose from the seat and walked to Theo.


    Theo had expected Alea would try to do something without thinking it through. Before she could say anything, he had stopped her. "Rejected. Keep your calm first."


    Alea clenched her teeth. For the first time in her life, Alea lowered her head to someone, let alone the fact that Theo was two years younger than her.


    "Theo. I beg you. Please let me participate in the first round."


    Even so, Theo didn''t want to risk thepetition just because that person wanted to do it. His job was to win, not to satisfy his teammates after all.


    "I already said, calm your head first," said Theo with a cold tone.


    "I am calm. This is a decision I have made as the leader of this team. I promise you that I will defeat whoever my opponent is."


    "Did you even listen to me?!" Theo raised his voice, feeling he might need to argue with Alea to stop her. No one said anything because they knew the third battle was important. Theo knew the best person to go, so they believed in Theo''s decision.


    "I��" Alea raised her head and looked Theo in the eyes. "I promise you I will defeat my opponent. Even if I need to put my title, reputation, or family name, I will defeat my opponent. If I fail to do so, I am ready to carry this shame for my entire life. You can even tell the world that I am just using my family name or my authority to be the leader."


    Theo widened his eyes as he knew what it meant to say something like that. Reputation to a big family or someone who received a God Rank Blessing was a big part of their life. Not only would it affect them, but her family might also start declining. That shame indeed would be together for the rest of her life.


    On the other hand, if she managed to win with something special, it would restore people''s faith in the government and Alea''s family would be a "hero" in the government''s eyes. In other words, depending on the result, Alea could be either the greatest loser or the bravest hero.


    Seeing that determination in her eyes, Theo closed his eyes for a moment and sat on the chair, contemting this matter. As expected, this was a hard decision for him. This matter might not affect him since if Alea came up in the next match, people would think Thernd used their authority to force Theo to choose Alea, but it would affect the chance of winning.


    After several minutes of waiting, Alea finally received the answer.


    "Our opponent for the next round will be either Agata or Ignazio. They are the only two who can regain momentum with their extraordinary prowess. And you just lost to Agata��" Theo looked at her intensely and asked with a cold tone. "Tell me one thing that makes you think you can win against her."


    Alea had been waiting for this. She would get what she wanted if she passed Theo''s test. And it seemed Alea had an answer even before he asked this question. She opened her mouth. "It''s��"


    ��


    While those two continued their argument, Enrica chuckled as they were talking about the next battle. "So, it seems there won''t be any strategy for the third round, right?"


    "Yes. The one-on-one battle is the battle of might. I believe Theodore will send their strongest fighter or win it by himself. If they win this battle, they will gain huge momentum and settle it in the next match.


    "However, I don''t know whether he''s influenced by the political parties or not because everything can change if that''s the case." Ignazio pondered for a moment.


    "What makes you think he will y by the rules?" Enrica smirked.


    "��" Ignazio had thought about it as well, but he still shook his head. "That''s impossible. He won''t throw away this match because our strength is still superior in this brawl. I can guarantee it. That''s why it will be either me or Agata who will fight in the third round."


    Remembering the battle earlier, Ignazio couldn''t help but clench his fists. "He used my own strategy to defeat me. There''s nothing more frustrating than this in war."


    "Fine, fine. In that case, I can choose who will fight in the third round, right?"


    "Yes. It''s useless to read what''s inside that guy''s mind, so it''s better if we go unpredictable as well. The leader will choose!" Ignazio agreed without hesitation.


    "In that case, for the next battle, I choose��" Enrica licked her lips as if she thought something good.

 Chapter 249 – First Labour

    <h4>Chapter 249 - First Labour</h4>


    "Now everyone! The break time is over. It''s time for the third round to start. Each team basically has five minutes to choose their representative, so without further ado, we shall call the participants!"


    "Uoh!" The cheers erupted.


    "Who wille out first?!" Sheira shouted in excitement, waiting for the first person toe out.


    Soon, all people''s eyes were glued to a certain figureing from Italy Team.


    Their hearts were pierced by a zing lust that put them in a trance.


    The first one to make their appearance was none other than Italy Team''s Agata.


    "We have Agata on our side. Her beauty aside, her power is also overwhelming. Now, how will Thernd respond?" Right after she finished her words, she noticed someoneing out on the opposite side. "Oh! In response to Italy Team, Thernd Team has sent their leader, Alea Eilric! They have fought in the first round�� Is this the legendary revenge match? Will Alea be able to defeat Agata and reim her honor? Or will Agata defeat Alea in order to regain their momentum?"


    Agata stood in the middle of the arena with a calm expression. Next to her was Diego, acting as the referee.


    They both looked to the other side as Alea gradually came.


    "We meet again." Agata smiled and waved her hand. "So, have you thought about my proposal earlier?"


    "Proposal?" Alea frowned.


    "Give Theo to me. I can take care of him better than you." Agata stuck her tongue out as she already knew Enrica had invited Theo to their country.


    "��" Alea''s eyebrows twitched. "I believe that is his decision, not mine."


    "That''s good then." Agata smiled.


    "If youe here just to talk about it, then you should give up right now. Maybe he will be happy with your thoughtfulness?" Alea made a smug smile after attacking back.


    "That''s certainly interesting." Agata nodded in agreement, but she ended up shaking her head. "But it''s certainly inappropriate."


    "��" Diego simply closed his eyes when he heard these two were fighting for a man. He wondered whether their priority was on the man or thepetition. Though, Agata was more to a role she used to entice Theo toe to their country while Alea seemed to only be responding to Agata''s taunts. Deciding to put a stop on them, Diego said, "Since the two sides are ready, I dere. Match starts!"


    Alea quickly raised her sword while Agata leaped backward to gain some distance.


    Alea didn''t let her escape and hurriedly waved her sword. "Inch sh."


    Agata took a step to the side and let the Inch sh cut anything, including the ground next to her. The distance was far enough to avoid it anyway.


    Her index fingers and thumbs joined together, forming a heart symbol as Alea''s became the center of that symbol.


    Realizing Agata would attack her mind again, Alea quickly approached her with caution. "Now that I know you are going to mess up my mind, I won''t be influenced by you anymore. Prepare yourself."


    Much to her provocation, Agata remained calm and retracted the "love" gesture, letting Alea approach her.


    Alea soon waved her sword down to cut her, thinking Agata was surprised. "This is the end."


    "I think you are missing one verse of Aphrodite." Agata smiled before a pink sphere covered her hand as she grabbed Alea''s sword as if it was a glove. "Love Glove."


    "!!!" Alea widened her eyes in surprise as she tried to pull her sword away, but the resistance was too powerful.


    In other words, Agata actually had a powerful strength behind her weird skills.


    Alea then recalled all Aphrodite''s myths. Everything leaned on her being a Goddess of Sexual Love and Beauty, but there was indeed one version where she was portrayed as a Goddess of War. It was when she was in Sparta. With the epithet "Aeria", meaning "Warlike", she was depicted in full armor like the war god, Ares.


    Before she could pull away, Agata sent another punch to Alea''s stomach.


    "Gah!" Alea spat a mouthful of blood before getting blown away. Fortunately, she didn''t lose consciousness and her mind was still clear.


    Landing on the ground safely, Alea hurriedly raised her sword while calming her heart down.


    *Pant*


    *Pant*


    Alea observed Agata, who seemed to have another side of her. Instead of a gentle and mature look, Agata showed a fierce and sharp gaze as if she nned to devour her in this battle.


    "I wonder why Thernd didn''t give the leadership to Theodore? Nah, I''m just gonna call him Theo from now on." Agata yfully asked as a smug smile nted on her face.


    "That''s because I''m stronger!" Alea leaped forward and raised it above her head, preparing to swing it any moment.


    Knowing another attack like Inch sh would being, Agata quickly summoned the same heart balloon that would explode the smokescreen to make her hallucinate.


    However, Alea had seen through this move. Instead of attacking her, she had one more way to counter this attack.


    Meanwhile, Theo recalled what she said earlier when watching Alea from behind the screen.


    ��


    A few minutes ago.


    "Tell me one thing that makes you think you can win against her."


    "It''s��" Alea took a deep breath and said, "It''s something equal to your clone. I have a few of Twelve Labors."


    "!!!" In that instant, Theo realized what she meant by Twelve Labours. It was obviously God of Fortitude, Heracles, twelvebours.


    Theo had seen all her Blessing Skills other than the one she received from Hero Rank, along with eight other skills. The fact she said it "a fewbours" made him realize it waspressed into one single skill.


    Just like him, who could be treated as two people, Alea might have the potential to have more than ten skills.


    ��


    And when the pink heart almost reached her and exploded to influence her mind again, Alea came to a halt and gathered all the air to her lungs before releasing all of it along with a high-pitched sound.


    "First Labour. Great Lion Roar!"

 Chapter 250 – Theo’s Lesson

    <h4>Chapter 250 - Theo��s Lesson</h4>


    "First Labour. Great Lion Roar!"


    An ear-splitting round shook the entire arena, silencing the stadium for a split second. The Sound Wave formed a shock wave and flew straight to Agata and her Love Balloon.


    The shock wave ripped the pink heart open, releasing all the pink-colored fog inside it. However, the shock wave continued working its magic and blew away all the fog to the side.


    Agata drew a gasp as she took a step back. Alea just neutralized her attack that proved to be more effective against Alea.


    "��" Although she took pride in her strength, Agata knew she couldn''t win against Alea in brute strength alone. And with her main weapon rendered useless, she started thinking Alea might indeed have some qualities that would defeat her.


    Still, the battle just started. There was no one who could predict the oue.


    "Cupid Arrow." Agata raised her hand as a pink colored bow and arrow appeared on her hands. She pulled the bow and aimed at Alea.


    "Enchant de."


    The moment Agata released her arrow, Alea shed her sword and shot out a crescent-shaped me that collided with the arrow. "mming Ge-Sword."


    Boom.


    The fire exploded and obliterated the arrow, but one would think what she did was wasting her power because Agata didn''t put much Magic Power inside her technique.


    Even so, Agata and Alea couldn''t care less about it. They all knew the battle would end within ten minutes as none of them nned to hold back.


    Alea''s eyes opened wide as she started observing Agata''s movement like what she always did to Theo. As expected from a World ss Student, it took her so long to learn her movement. Luckily, this was the second time she faced her, it was enough for her to understand Agata''s movement.


    "Grand Burst."


    A series of explosions engulfed Agata, but thetter released a pink translucent barrier that protected her from the fire. After the explosions stopped, Agata quickly charged forward and attacked Alea with her fist.


    Alea took a deep breath and received her attack with her sword, but thetter continued its attack in an unpredictable way as if she moved based on instinct instead of logic. She was supposed to hit her chest after her shoulder, but she ended up hitting the stomach. This should create a w in her movement, but her left hand was always there to stop anything from happening.


    If this were any other person, they would have difficulty figuring out her attacks, but Alea simply looked through her attacks and emotion to know where the next attack woulde and block it.


    ''She can keep up with me?'' Agata furrowed her eyebrows as this was the first time someone could do it on their first try. Little did she know, Alea simply knew her next movement and had no intention to figure out her movement. ''No, I need to break free from this shackle��''


    She received Alea''s de with her hand again while sending another punch to her face.


    Alea received it while kicking her stomach.


    The two blew away each other and coughed out blood.


    Before Agata stood up, Alea smashed the ground with all her strength. "Herculean Strike."


    Bam.


    A crater, a fifth of the arena, appeared, shocking everyone.


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes and fell a bit, losing her bnce again.


    In that split second, Alea used another skill and waved her hand. "Phoenix Talon."


    Because Alea used her sword most of the time, many people almost forgot that she was a Magic Warrior. The first requirement to be a Magic Warrior was to fight like a Magician and a Fighter at the same time.


    And she summoned a phoenix made of her bright red me.


    The phoenix flew straight to Agata. However, Agata formed a pink shield before her and said, "Love is the strongest force in the world."


    The shield blocked the phoenix and swallowed the explosion right after.


    Regaining her bnce, Agata quickly leaped toward Alea.


    Alea also responded in kind and released another strike. "Inch sh."


    Agata snorted and avoided it easily as she moved around Alea and arrived at her back. "Your power�� I may have no chance against them, but just like the myth, your weakness is your brain and emotion. This is why I prepare another one for you to indulge in."


    "Desire Perfume. Ssh."


    A pink ball appeared on Alea''s back as thetter turned around, ignoring the ball and staring at Agata. Surprisingly, Alea smiled. "Yeah, you are not the first person who knows my weakness. That''s why I am prepared to take everything you give while presenting it back to you."


    "!!!" Agata quickly lowered her vision and found a red ball in front of her stomach.


    Boom!


    The two balls exploded at the same time. The red ball blew Agata away until she crashed to the wall while Alea smelled the sweet fragrance and stabbed her sword to the ground, using it to support herself as she breathed heavily.


    No one knew what happened, but Alea felt her body extremely hot. If she didn''t have God of Fortitude''s blessing, she would have already drowned in pleasure. At this point, even the slightest touch would arouse her.


    Agata had several cuts on her body and hands because of the crash, while blood came out of her nose and mouth. Yet, she stood strongly in the arena before charging forward, not wanting to give Alea enough time to recover.


    "This is the end. You can''t win against pleasure."


    Listening to her words, Alea couldn''t help but smile as she recalled the day Theo defeated her. Theo actually used her own unique eyes to make her think she had the advantage even though she didn''t.


    "It''s not that you read me�� It''s me who allows you to read me, huh. Thanks, Theo." Alea turned out to be faking her own condition as her mental strength was actually beyond Agata''s prediction. She simply looked weak and lured Agata in just for one moment. "I may be dumb, but I''m not that dumb."


    "Huh?"


    "Second Labour, Rhyme Hind." Alea smirked as her feet started glowing.


    When Agata was about to reach her, Alea disappeared from her vision.


    "What?!" Agata widened her eyes and turned around, finding Alea swinging her sword. "Your speed��"


    "This is the end. Third Labour, Devouring Hydra." Alea waved her sword from below as if she yed golf. However, the friction between the tip of her sword and the arena ground created a little bit of spark that soon turned into nine heads.


    These nine heads were none other than Hydra''s heads. They had green skin with big blue dots on them. Their appearance was a mix between a dragon and a snake.


    "Swallow her!"

 Chapter 251 – Skill Verse

    <h4>Chapter 251 - Skill Verse</h4>


    "Devour!"


    This attack took her by surprise as Agata turned around, finding nine headsing toward her. All those heads were five times bigger than her body, so it was easy for them to swallow her. And with Alea faking her condition, the surprise threw her bnce off.


    ''Ugh! I can''t dodge this one.'' Agata thought while summoning a pink shield to protect her.


    However, the nine heads came at her from all directions in session so as to avoid Agata using their timing to escape.


    ''Will I be able to handle them?'' Agata gulped down as she didn''t realize one important thing from Alea. Even so, Agata still tried her best to protect herself.


    The first head came at her and bit the shield, shattering it into pieces. The second and third heads came from the side and Agata punched both their teeth with all her might to repel them, but the fourth and fifth had already appeared right before her eyes.


    Agata clicked her tongue and tried to use another skill, only to find all nine heads were trapped in ice the next second.


    Diego stepped on one of the heads while announcing, "With my right as the referee, I announce that Alea has delivered a killing blow to the enemy and Agata has no skill to counter it. Hence, Thernd wins!"


    "O-oh?!"


    The audience was stunned, never expecting Alea to win this match, despite her earlier condition. At first, both Agata and Alea tried to deal some damage to each other, even if it meant they were injured as well.


    It was Alea''s strategy since she had the God of Fortitude''s Blessing, allowing her tost longer than Agata. However, in the previous exchange, Alea certainly seemed to have no more power to fight Agata after getting influenced by that pink ball.


    That was why they couldn''t see Alea winning this match. But it turned out everything was fake. Alea made Agata think she was influenced even though she still had enough mental forbearance to endure the desire rising in her body.


    The shock didn''t stop there. Those who scouted Theo would also consider Alea because they looked good as a couple back in the banquet even though they were not. Alea might be the key to get Theo. Hence, they began to investigate her.


    But this battle showed them Alea indeed had the qualification to be the team leader.


    "Did she�� Did she have twelve skills?" Ignazio gasped as his hands were shaking.


    Fortitude Shield, Inch sh, Melting Sword, Enchant de, mming Ge-Sword, Herculean Strike and Grand Burst were her seven main sword skills. To add her repertoire, she had two skills that Magician usually possessed, Ssh Explosion and Phoenix Talon.


    This meant she already had nine skills. Yet, in this battle, Alea actually used three more skills: Great Lion Roar, Devouring Hydra, and Rhyme Hind from God of Fortitude Heracles'' Twelve Labours.


    Realizing her power, Ignazio shuddered and said, "Impossible. There is not a single person that has more than ten skills."


    The room fell into silence as they understood his words. Not only could Theo be counted as two people, but Alea was also someone who broke the norm.


    Before the othermented, Enrica suddenly opened her mouth. "No. There are a few people who can use more than ten skills."


    "What?!" Ignazio turned to her with a shocked expression.


    Enrica started sweating but still exined this phenomenon. "Once, I was curious about the limit of a person. My teacher told me that there were still a few people out there having more than ten skills. This is called Skill Verse."


    "Skill Verse?"


    "Yes. When someone receives an inheritance skill, they usually refer to their myth, right?"


    "Indeed."


    "Within that myth, a selected number of people had one skill that could be several skills. I met a person who possessed the same thing when my teacher visited his friend. He received Verethragna Blessing, giving him ten incantations in exchange for five skills. There is also Sun Wukong, who has a transformation ability that allows him to use one skill of a selected few creatures.


    "My teacher told me such an urrence was normal, but none of them have more than twenty skills in total. Looking at her three inheritance skills, I believe she exchanges threebours for one Skill Verse. If shepletes all twelvebours, she will have a total of eighteen skills. Well, people like her are umon, so it''s hard to find information about them." Enrica exined with a serious expression.


    "Seriously?" Ignazio dropped to his chair while pinching the bridge of his nose. "I need to fight Theo�� Theo and his clone, together with this abnormal girl? I thought we had a chance, but I think they have been nning for this."


    "What do you mean?" Enrica frowned.


    "You see�� With them winning this battle by using Alea, they will certainly throw away the fourth battle and focus on the third battle. Instead of challenging both of us together with Phyrill, he will gain another advantage by using one morerade. His main body and Phyrill will stop us while his clone and friend destroy one of our teammates.


    "This way, Theo will sessfully create a 4 vs 2 match. It''s better than a 3 vs 2 match on the fourth battle condition. At the same time, if we try to throw away the fourth battle, Theo may strike us by sending their best fighters topletely destroy us in the fourth battle. One of us needs to be on the fourth battle to avoid this kind of situation. We''ve been had." Although he didn''t want to admit it, Ignazio had lost against Theo in battle tactics.


    Enrica fell silent and felt the pressure from Theo''s n. As she said, he was indeed dangerous. "And if one of us participates in the fourth battle, they will gain a huge advantage in the fifth one��"


    "Yeah."


    "Such a talented man. To have this kind of foresight at such a young age�� Should I say as expected from the Griffith Family?" Enrica bit her lips and said, "Either way, I''ve got the permission to take off this blindfold."


    "��" Ignazio scratched the back of his head. "It''s better than nothing, I guess. No matter the result, we will fight to the best of our ability."


    "Indeed. We can''t have them just step on us like this." Enrica nodded in agreement.

 Chapter 252 – Horny

    <h4>Chapter 252 - Horny</h4>


    Meanwhile, Agata wiped the sweat on her forehead and walked to Alea, the person who just defeated her. She extended her hand with a smile. "I guess I understand the reason why you''re the team leader��"


    Diego stared at Agata with a mysterious gaze as thetter noticed Alea''s state and assured, "Don''t worry. The effect will be gone in ten to fifteen minutes. As long as you''re in the waiting room with your teammates, you won''t attack a random person. Besides, it''s not like you''re going to do it with your boy��Ahem, teammate, right?"


    Alea took a deep breath and shook her head, only to find her senses were greatly enhanced as her mind became fuzzy.


    "Well, you can also seek professional help, but my skill won''t leave a permanent effect, especially to a person with a strong mentality like you." Agata then turned to Diego. "I believe this is fine, right?"


    "If the effect disappears within fifteen minutes, yes. If not, we will need to seek professional help along with some penalty to the entire team." Diego nodded with a calm expression then looked at Alea. "Will that be alright?"


    Alea nodded her head timidly as she just wanted to hide right now.


    As Alea was about to turn around, Agata hugged her while whispering something to her before leaving the arena with a smile.


    Alea''s face was red as she couldn''t bear it anymore. She quickly ran to the waiting room, which was right after the gate.


    Upon entering the room, Alea quickly leaped to Ellen and hugged her waist, burying her face on herp.


    "Wha��" Ellen was surprised because she didn''t have time to congratte her. "Alea, what''s wrong?"


    Alea didn''t answer her. No, she couldn''t reply unless she wanted others to see her expression.


    Ellen was a bit worried about her, but Phyrill stated, "I think it''s some sort of aftereffect of the enemy skill or the drawback of her own skill. ording to the rule book, if it''s the former and the effectsts longer than thirty minutes, hindering someone from participating in the next round, our enemy will be disqualified. The home country will also need to make sure she recovers while receiving some punishment. Seeing the entire situation is not that bad, I think it will be gone sooner orter."


    "Is that so?" Ellen was still a bit worried, but she decided to trust him. "I understand. If you need anything, please tell me, okay, Alea?"


    Alea slightly nodded her head and kept her face down.


    Phyrill then turned to Theo. "So, what''s our n for the next one? Will you and I go out this time?"


    "I have two scenarios. The first scenario requires a sacrifice from Ellen and Sihan."


    "Us?" Ellen widened her eyes while ncing over Sihan.


    "Yes. You will be the one fighting in the next round. You can think of it as us throwing the match or concealing your skill for the next round. That''s up to you. If you can''t ept this, I and Phyrill will need to go forward, even if it means lowering the chance for us to win."


    Ellen furrowed her eyebrows as no one liked to be a sacrifice for the team. Still, Ellen agreed with one question. "I can ept that condition, but I want to know how slim our winning chance is if it''s thetter?"


    "Thirty percent. The former is eighty percent."


    "I understand. My side is fine, but I don''t know if��" Ellen took a peek at Sihan''s face, who happened to nod his head.


    "We shall be today''s sacrifices. As long as we keep winning, the chance is there. If we lose, it''s over."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled and continued, "For now, just rest for a little longer. You can onlye out right before the time limit."


    "Why?"


    "They will be panicking right now and without any guarantee, Ignazio will surely send either himself or Enrica to ensure their second win. Unless he is someone who likes to gamble in overwhelming odds, they won''t be together. After all, there will be me or Phyrill who can close this battle."


    "I see. There''s no hard feeling then." Ellen smiled. "Even so, we will try our best to win thispetition for us."


    "That''s also the biggest respect we can give." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    After the discussion, Ellen and Sihan waited for a while before leaving the room. Alea was reluctant to let her go, but she ended up letting her go. Her hair was a mess as she tried to hide her face by using her hair before walking to Theo.


    "��" Theo raised his eyebrows and wondered what she needed from him.


    Without saying a single word, Alea sat next to him. Since the chair was a long bench for everyone to use, she lifted her body to the bench, lying down with her head on top of Theo''sp.


    "Hmm?" Theo was confused by her action and asked, "Do you need anything?"


    Alea chose Theo because he was the closest to her aside from Ellen.


    Alea gently shook her head and looked down, avoiding anyone from seeing her expression. At the same time, she remembered Agata''s words before leaving the arena.


    She said, "My Sexual Desire Skill is only reinforcing one''s personal desire. If you don''t have any desire at all, there won''t be a single illusion. It means you have some sort of feeling for him and you have denied it the whole time.


    "I just want you to know that I have never lied a single time since thepetition. After knowing this and you still don''t want him, I will visit Thernd and snatch him for myself and my country. That''s all, see youter at the next banquet."


    She asked for Ellen''s help earlier because she couldn''t face Theo. She had been telling everyone that she had no personal feelings for Theo since their rtionship was simply a partnership.


    With Ellen leaving, she wanted to go to the corner, but her body was more honest and came to Theo. Luckily, She didn''t let anyone see her face to avoid anyone noticing her red faceing.


    Whether she would be conscious of that feeling or ignoring it in the future, only Alea knew about it.


    However, she currently med the skill effect for this predicament.

 Chapter 253 – Ignazio’s True Power

    <h4>Chapter 253 - Ignazio��s True Power</h4>


    After leaving the room, Ellen and Sihan exchanged looks.


    "What do you think about this situation?"


    "If we win, we have two chances to stand out. If we lose, people will think we are lucky. Either way, Theo and Alea will be the stars of this team." Sihan shrugged, not caring about the result of thispetition.


    "That''s true, I guess. Should we put on a spectacr show?"


    "I don''t think so. This time, Alea, Theo, and Phyrill have shown their current power, bing everyone''s target. People will think of us as their burden, but that''s not it. We will make them think we''re weak before revealing our new power in the next match."


    "I guess it''s decided. We can''t really be too weak since they will suspect us." Ellen agreed with Sihan''s exnation.


    Sihan nodded to her before he heard.


    "The time limit is almost over. Both teams have yet to send their participants. What''s going on here?!" Sheira was bewildered by the decision for both teams.


    While Sihan and Ellen enjoyed their time, Ignazio and the others were ready toe out. All of them stood right before the gate, just slightly behind from the spotlight. They thought Theo''s Team woulde out a bit sooner than them, so they all could run toward the arena together.


    However, Ellen and Sihan were more daring than he thought. They waited patiently as if they didn''t care, even if they needed to forfeit this match.


    Seeing the timer, Sheira shouted. "We only have ten seconds left. Let''s count them together. Starting from 5!"


    "5."


    "4."


    The audience''s voices echoed in the stadium, calling the participants. Even so, no one had yet toe out.


    "3."


    "2."


    "1."


    "Uoh!" At thest second, the entire stadium was shaking with cheers.


    "What''s this? Everyone''s voice is shaking the stadium! Because right now, Italy Team and Thernd Team are present!" Sheira shouted in excitement.


    Not able to handle the pressure, Ignazio decided to lose this gamble and came out together with Alys.


    When Ignazio saw Ellen and Sihan as their opponents, he knew they had predicted his train of thought. Theo had won this bet.


    Ignazio walked to the stage with a serious expression and said with a sigh. "So, is he evening together with you?"


    "He" in his mouth was none other than Theo, so Ellen answered him while shaking her head. "Nope. He is taking care of our little girl�� I wonder what your team did to my cute best friend."


    "I don''t mean to be rude or use profanity, but to put it simply, Agata told me that she made her a little horny."


    "Ahem." Diego forced a cough as if he wanted to warn him.


    Ignazio scratched the back of his head while feeling stressed by the entire situation. "Either way, we need to fight."


    "Indeed. We still have the intention to win though��"


    "I am sorry, but Italy Team still needs to regain their face." Ignazio smiled while stepping back, gaining a bit of distance from them. Alys simply waited for Ignazio''smand.


    Because of the importance of this fight, Sihan wore full body armor made of the same white-colored metal. ording to him, this was a new armor he received from his family topete here. The material itself was ssified as C Rank Material which dropped from Hero Rank Monsters.


    With the pointed wing on top of his helmet, Sihan looked like a knight of the past, trying to protect his princess. Holding a giant white shield and blinding silver sword, Sihan took a step forward.


    "Match Starts!" Diego quickly dered after confirming their expressions.


    "I am sorry, but this is the end." Ignazio sighed as he raised his hand, nning to do what he couldn''t do back in the game. "Summon Infantry."


    "Suddenly, ten white-colored armors with red fur on their shoulders appeared on the battlefield. There wasn''t a human or a ghost inside the armor, but it seemed ten people were wearing them. They held a spear and a shield each while walking forward like that of a soldier.


    Many people thought God of War would mean Ignazio had a powerful battle prowess, but his true job was none other than Summoner. He wasn''t a Fighter or a Magic Warrior!


    Sihan quickly came to the front to face these soldiers, but Ignazio raised his hands once again. "Summon Archer."


    Ten bows made of green light appeared behind him as Ignaziomanded them to aim at Ellen.


    "Castle!" Sihan created a huge castle brick wall, stopping all the arrows, but he saw the infantrying from two sides, surrounding them.


    "Ellen, retreat a little bit," Sihan shouted while leaping together with her, forcing all the soldiers to follow him.


    Seeing Sihan was going to be surrounded, Ellen raised her hand and used her Ice Meteor, mming the huge boulder to the infantry to crush them.


    However, Ignazio moved them to the side while waving his hand to the side. "Summon Cavalry!"


    Ten armors riding a horse''s armor emerged from thin air, running toward Ellen.


    "!!!" Ellen quickly shifted her aim and threw the huge ice to the cavalries. "Ha!"


    Due to its high mobility, the cavalries went to the left, avoiding the ice boulder before returning to their original target.


    To stop them, Ellen raised her hand. "Bloom, Ice Lotus."


    Three Ice Lotuses appeared above the air, fell to the ground, and turned into huge Ice Crystals.


    However, this wasn''t Ignazio''s real power, he used the same technique to attack Sihan and Ellen previously. "Stratagem!"


    This was the only control inheritance skill that allowed him to fully control all his soldiers.


    The cavalries showed their astonishing ability by leaping above the Ice Crystals while preparing to attack Ellen with their spears.


    Sihan obviously didn''t want to let him seed, so he sheathed his sword and grabbed one of the soldiers, throwing it to the cavalries.


    It stopped the cavalry for a little bit since they needed to loop once more, giving Sihan enough time to return to Ellen''s side.


    Sihan was surprised by the amount of summoned creatures Ignazio had. "Their numbers�� Ellen, take care of the low-speed ones like the infantry and the archers. I''m going to handle the rest."


    "Understood." Ellen nodded without hesitation, but they all had one big question, especially after seeing how powerful Ignazio''s summoned skills were.

 Chapter 254 – A General

    <h4>Chapter 254 - A General</h4>


    "If he has these soldiers, why hasn''t he used them in the previous match?" Ellen muttered while observing Ignazio before finding his nose started bleeding. "!!!"


    Despite Ignazio''s poker face, Ellen understood the reason he participated in this match instead of Enrica. This power could only be controlled for a period of time. It was proven when blood flowed out of his mouth. The skill must have put a huge toll on his mind.


    With how cunning Theo was, Ignazio must have had no confidence in settling the fight within that time. Hence, Ellen changed her strategy and said, "Sihan, he can''t control this for long. We will buy enough time until he copses."


    Sihan nced at Ignazio and nodded before saying, "On your left."


    Ellen squinted her eyes and pointed her index finger to the left.


    "Frost Nova."


    "Tch." Alys clicked her tongue because she was going around to attack them from behind. As long as they eliminated one of them, the battle would be one-sided.


    "Bad girl." Alys harrumphed and summoned burning charcoal, sending it to Ellen''s Frost Nova.


    The two shed as the fire evaporated the ice but ended up frozen from the residual power of the Frost Nova.


    Ellen raised her staff and tapped the ground twice with her staff.


    The ground began to freeze, starting from her staff, spreading to half of the arena.


    "Freezing World."


    With this slippery ice, the armors might slip and be left unguarded.


    Alys needed to stop for a moment before Ignazio provided her with cover fire.


    The ten archers changed their arrows into fire arrows and shot the ground near Ellen and Alys, melting the ice floor in an instant.


    "��" Ellen wanted to use another skill, but something big happened.


    Ignazio suddenly raised his sword and a horse that seemed to be thirty percent taller than a normal horse or those his cavalries rode on emerged from his shadow. The horse had ck skin and a solemn look.


    The horse stared at Ellen as if understanding the owner''s target.


    "There are two generals on the battlefield. The first is someone who stays in the rear while giving instruction so as to provide some sort of relief to their soldiers. The second is a general who rides his horse in front of everyone so as to inspire their soldiers." Ignazio said with an aloof expression as he raised his sword.


    His horse''s front legs jumped while letting out a cry. That cry was the signal for the cavalries to regroup with him.


    As the cavalries were about to arrive, Ignazio gently kicked the horse and started riding forward, targeting Ellen. "And I am thetter."


    Ellen ced her hand on the ground. "Ice Wave."


    Ice Crystals appeared in a fan-shaped area as they nned to kill Ignazio and his cavalry.


    "Bad��" Alys tried to stop her skill, but Sihan had appeared in front of them, waving his sword. Alys ended up taking a huge leap to the side, retreating from Sihan''s range.


    However, she had done enough for the team since Sihan wouldn''t have time to help Ellen.


    Sihan believed in Ellen''s Ice Wave, but Ignazio was one step ahead. As one would expect of the God of War, the moment the Ice Wave arrived before his eyes, the scattered Infantry regrouped and formed a formation to stop the Ice Wave.


    "!!!" Ellen widened her eyes when she saw a yellow screen appearing in front of her Ice Wave and prevented any more Ice Crystals from being born.


    The rest that struck the shield were shattered into pieces, so her Ice Wave had officially stopped.


    At the same time, Ignazio moved to the side and charged at her from the other side, where Sihan couldn''t interfere.


    Even so, Sihan quickly leaped to Ellen. As long as she retreated a little bit, he should be able to stop the cavalry.


    Unfortunately for him, ten arrows flew straight at his head. Sihan raised his shield to block it, but he soon realized the arrows hit one spot, creating enough inertia force for him to flip.


    ''Kh. I was careless.'' Sihan gritted his teeth before finding a present box above his head.


    "Bad boy needs to be punished. It''s another surprise!"


    Alys'' voice echoed in his ears before the present box exploded instead of releasing some toys or confetti.


    Boom.


    Meanwhile, Ellen released her Ice Star to stop Ignazio, but thetter swept every single of them in one stroke. He charged through her defense and pointed his sword at her neck.


    With the smoke produced by the explosion had been brushed by the wind, it revealed Sihan protected by a translucent white sphere, protecting him from any harm.


    As a Mythical Rank Expert, Diego obviously had enough speed to react to any of their movements. This was also the reason why thepetition was for students instead of old men like him.


    He just showed a bit of assurance to everyone in thispetition that no one would be critically hurt under his watch.


    "Sihan has taken a direct hit. The explosion may cause him severe injury, so as to prevent any of it, I use my right as the referee and dere that he is unable to fight anymore." Diego then took a nce at Ellen''s condition and continued.


    "Italy wins!" Diego announced with an indifferent look.


    Ignazio, for the first time, showed a strong side of him in thispetition and raised his hand up high as if he had just won thepetition.


    He simply wanted to show that the second battle was important to them. No one would know the oue of the third battle, so he wanted them to know that their team had done their best to fight Thernd. Theo was the one screwing everything up.


    Ignazio wiped the blood on his mouth, looked at Ellen and said with a cold tone. "Tell Theodore this�� Don''t think you have won. Defeating us is harder than you think."


    Without waiting for her response, Ignazio turned around and left the arena, showing a cool andposed look.


    Ellen, on the other hand, wondered what he meant by those words. Only Theo might know about it, so she thought there was no harm in rying his message.

 Chapter 255 – Last Battle

    <h4>Chapter 255 - Last Battle</h4>


    "Theodore Griffith has a God Rank Blessing?"


    "Having a clone that powerful, it''s weird if he doesn''t have it."


    "His brain is also on par with Ignazio as both of them have been shing in the entirepetition."


    "That''s right. I wonder how many countries will approach him this time."


    "We don''t know. That depends on the next performance. Whether losing or winning, he will have two more rounds topete after all."


    Laust gradually opened his eyes after recalling what people''s thought about Theo. Most of them were his imagination, but half of them had been discussed by Sheira out loud.


    He couldn''t help but clench his fist when he saw Theo looking at the screen with a calm expression as if he had expected the oue of the fourth battle.


    He never cared about Alea, whose head was on hisp. Instead, his focus remained on his blessing this whole time. Although he already knew about his blessing, no one knew about its rank and identity.


    His brother, Ben Lange, acted almighty in front of him, showing an action he would never understand whenever they met. He felt his brother was actually mocking him for not understanding his actions and words.


    His father''s continuous insults also haunted him.


    "You''re useless."


    "Why were you even born? If not because Ben wants you alive, I would have disowned you and fed you to the dogs."


    "Trash, don''t make this house smell with your continuous failures."


    Everything had been haunting him for a whole ten years. Laust knew if they returned right now, Theo and Alea might be the hero in the citizens'' eyes while he became an eyesore, considering he once wanted to kill Theo with his skill in a sparring match.


    If he didn''t participate in thispetition, his fate would have been the same as Scott''s. And even he couldn''t imagine what kind of things his father would do after that.


    "��" Seeing the match had ended, Laust grabbed his sword and used his shoulder to support it while rising from the floor. "There''s no more battle after this. No need to wait, right?"


    Theo nced at him and nodded. He then tapped Alea''s shoulder and asked, "Are you alright?"


    Alea''s body shook as she quickly raised her head from hisp and fixed her hair. "A-Ah, yes. I am fine now, I think. Thank you."


    Since her face wasn''t red anymore, Theo nodded and rose from his seat before taking a peek at Phyrill, who actually had left the room.


    "He''s fast," Theo muttered and turned around, leaving the room with a calm expression.


    "Theo��" Alea called his name with an unsure tone. When Theo nced at her, she couldn''t help but flinch while saying, "Ehm�� Win, okay?"


    "No one can predict the future, but I will do my best." Theo nodded and left the room.


    When she saw the door closing, she scratched the back of her head, feeling embarrassed by what she had done this whole time.


    Ellen and Sihan returned soon, while the three guys had headed to the arena.


    ��


    "This is it�� This is thest battle. The moment we have been waiting for!" Sheira shouted. "Whether Italy Team wins or loses, we shall see it through. Sir Diego passed me a message for all of you.


    "He said, we are not stronger than Thernd. Thernd is also not stronger than us. Only the winner of this battle is stronger!" Sheira was about to continue but got interrupted by a sudden cheer. She looked down to the arena and saw three figures standing right in front of the gate.


    Theo, Phyrill, and Laust made their appearances in the arena with a cool and aloof expression. They soon became an "eye candy" for the female audience as all of them wished to see a good performance from them.


    "There they are�� Thernd Team members. With Theodore and Alea''s leadership, the team has stepped on this stage and achieved this level of result. Now, the big question is can they defeat Italy Team in order to advance to the semifinal?"


    However, the cheers were once again changed as Sheira quickly noticed three peopleing out. They were Lavinia, Marco, and Enrica.


    Theo widened his eyes in surprise when he looked at Enrica. Although her eyes were closed, she didn''t wear her blindfold anymore, making Theo shudder.


    As he expected, her eyes must be something special. Now that the condition had be like this, Enrica had no choice other than to release those eyes.


    Depending on the eyes'' abilities, the chance to beat Italy Team would decrease significantly.


    "On the opposite team, Italy Team has sent their remaining fighters! We don''t know who will win anymore as this is the battle that will decide the oue of everything. Will their hard work be rewarded? Or will they swallow their pride and return with regret?" Sheira kept talking while seeing the two teams gradually walk to the center of the arena.


    She dered, "Now, let us witness whether Italy Team can fight in the semifinal! Or�� Will we witness the birth of the biggest dark horse in history?!"


    Listening to Sheira, Enrica couldn''t help but smile. She faced Theo and said, "You''ve messed up our entire n and made Ignazio a run for his money."


    "It''s nothing. We''re just a small country. We can only do our best to defeat a country with a deep history like you." Theo shook his head. He remembered Ignazio''s message and continued, "Whatever you throw at us, we will face it."


    "If you can do it, that is." Enrica smiled and turned to Diego, nodding her head as if telling him she was ready.


    Theo also asked his teammates to move back a bit because he felt Enrica would open those eyes at any moment.


    And his prediction turned out to be true. Enrica gradually opened her eyes, revealing her golden eyes. However, in those golden eyes, they found a yellow cross that humans weren''t supposed to have normally.


    Although her eyes were beautiful, Theo could only perceive its eeriness and strangeness that made him flinch.


    "This is going to be a bit more difficult." Theo smiled and informed his teammates. "No change of n. We will defeat them."


    The two nodded as they all raised their swords.


    Since the two teams were ready, Diego raised his hand and dered. "Match Starts!"

 Chapter 256 – Laust’s Blessing

    <h4>Chapter 256 - Laust��s Blessing</h4>


    "Match Starts!"


    All the eyes in the arena turned sharp as Phyrill and Laust set off.


    Marco and Lavinia also responded ordingly, stopping them in the middle of the arena. Behind them stood Enrica, who seemed to be able to help them as soon as a wound appeared on their body, so Theo didn''t waste a single second to unleash something he had shown to the world.


    He summoned his clone as they formed four Magic Bullets each before splitting them into a total of eighty Magic Bullets.


    "!!!" It took all of them by surprise as Theo just confirmed that his clone could indeed use the same skill as him. It wasn''t his teleportation skill alone, but all skills!


    Even Enrica started getting the pressure from it as she raised both hands, covering them in golden patterns.


    Theo released all eighty Magic Bullets at the same time, shooting half of them to Marco and Lavinia while the rest went straight to Enrica.


    "Protection!" Enrica erected a translucent sphere to protect herself.


    All forty Magic Bullets hit her and Enrica felt more pressure than the one she received during the second battle.


    Little did she know, all real Magic Bullets hit her while the cloned Magic Bullets went to the other two, exerting enough pressure for Laust and Phyrill to make their move.


    Lavinia and Marco quickly stepped away to dodge the bullets, resulting in them moving a bit closer to each other.


    "Lycanthrope Transformation."


    "Dragon Transformation."


    Both Marco and Phyrill had transformed to their respective form as Phyrill waved his sword at the same time as Marco was sweeping his w.


    Bam.


    A powerful shock wave shook the arena as the two stopped each other with their power.


    Meanwhile, Lavinia raised her right foot and kicked Laust on the stomach. Laust stopped it with his sword, but Lavinia''s strength was slightly higher than him, so he took a step back.


    Since Theo had the first move against her teammates, Enrica waved her right hand and created five white spheres. All of them were glowing, but it didn''t appear that way because the sunlight was brighter than them.


    Still, Enrica released all five of them at the same time.


    Two of them flew to Laust as thetter threw himself to the side while Phyrill didn''t even bother to stop it because he noticed Theo''s presence next to him.


    He took a peek at Theo''s condition and realized the lights seemed to have some sort of homing effect as one of them was still chasing Theo.


    Theo formed two Elemental Shields and passed next to Phyrill, receiving the attacks that came for Phyrill.


    After blocking the two, Theo continued his way toward Enrica with the light chasing him.


    "��" Enrica sighed as she observed Theo for a moment before releasing the same shield right before they collided with each other.


    At the same time, Theo''s body disappeared as he just used his Blink to arrive behind her, resulting in the light hitting her.


    Bam.


    Enrica blocked the attack easily while turning around, catching Theo''s hand before he thrust his spear.


    However, the clone that had been following him raised his spear, gathering the energy to the tip of his spear.


    Theo smiled and kicked her on the stomach, blowing her to his clone, but as one would expect from Italy Team Leader.


    She only took a few small steps to stop the force while creating a small sphere to surround her. "Protection."


    "Cannon st." Clone Theo thrust his spear right at the sphere as the energy dispersed and hit all over the sphere''s surface, albeit it still failed to destroy the barrier.


    The Real Theo smiled and came with his spear, using a different skill whose main purpose was to break something.


    "Swift Energy." Theo thrust his spear three times ording to the skill''s description, cracking the shield.


    "��" Enrica furrowed her eyebrows and saw Theo shatter the barrier.


    Surprisingly, Enrica took a peek at her teammates instead of focusing on Theo''s spear. This took Theo by surprise as he tried toprehend Enrica''s eyes.


    After all, Enrica was his opponent, not his teammate. Unlike Alea, who told him her secret, Enrica knew when to open her mouth and when she was required to keep her mouth shut.


    This created a certain level of doubt as he couldn''t go for a full offense because those eyes might show their true power at unexpected times.


    For the time being, Enrica surprised him by receiving her spear with her bare hand, allowing Theo to pierce her palm. She didn''t even let out a single sound, even though it must be painful.


    Her focus remained on Laust and Lavinia at this point.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and realized how she wanted to help them despite being surrounded by two Theos.


    Before Clone Theo arrived right in front of her, Enrica already shot a powerful bullet-size light sphere, flying like that of a bullet from her forefinger.


    "Laust!"


    Laust nced at Theo and located Enrica''s attack. He gritted his teeth and leaned to the side to avoid it, but the attack elerated and pierced his side.


    Blood began to drip, but Laust faced another problem. After seeing Laust''s condition, Lavinia shamelessly sent another kick to Laust''s wound to make him experience more pain.


    Laust grabbed her foot with his other hand, but it wasn''t enough to stop him. His hand was pushed back until it pressed the wound.


    "Argh!" The pain jolted his mind as he gritted his teeth.


    Lavinia felt his grip be weaker and pushed him back beforeunching him to the air.


    Laust spun a few times in the air, rolled on the ground, and stopped while ring at her.


    "Kh."


    He gritted his teeth while asking himself. ''Is this really my limit? Will I be confined by this fate and suffer for the rest of my life?''


    Laust grasped his hand and squeezed the dirt inside his hand while ring at Theo. ''No, I won''t be someone''s shadow anymore. I will break free from the family to show the whole world that I am alive! I won''t die inside that cursed ce.''


    Fate worked miraculously. After gaining his resolve, Laust suddenly received a notification before his eyes.


    "The Great Minotaur, Bull of Minos, has answered your determination. In order to break free from the cursed chain that will tie you for the rest of your life, he wants you to bear his power and fulfill his wish. Do you ept?"


    "!!!"

 Chapter 257 – Minotaur And Laust

    <h4>Chapter 257 - Minotaur And Laust</h4>


    In front of that question, Laust tried to recall everything fast as he was still in the middle of the battle. Although he wasn''t aware of its original myth, the bull called himself the Bull of Minos, meaning he should be the son of Pasiphae and the snow-white bull that Poseidon gave to Minos as a sacrifice.


    Its rank should be either Supreme or Mythical Rank. However, seeing Theo''s God Rank Blessing, he hesitated to take it because he wanted the best of the best. Yet, Laust had no assurance such an offer woulde to him or not.


    A part of him wanted to immediately agree, but another part of him asked himself whether this power was enough to break free from the chain of his own household or not.


    Laust recalled another thing. Minotaur had superhuman strength and speed. With a giant hammer in his hand, he killed all the enemies. That kind of weapon was actually simr to his own sword in that regard.


    Seeing the affinity, he gritted his teeth and answered. "I ept!"


    [Minotaur is pleased with your decision and decided to give you a present for the first meeting.]


    [Minotaur Blessing (A)]


    [Raging Bull Strike (B)]


    [Full Recovery.]


    Name: Laust Lange


    Status: Champion


    Level: 201


    Blessing: Minotaur


    Laust closed his eyes for a second as his body was enveloped by a warm orange light.


    Suddenly, his consciousness entered another ce. On both sides, he saw orange-colored brick walls. The gap between them was only several feet, so only Laust could fit in this dark corridor.


    As if hearing someone''s voice, Laust furrowed his eyebrows and walked forward, exploring this dark corridor. There were some torches hanging on the wall to brighten the corridor, but it was too dim for him to see far ahead.


    However, his expression changed as soon as a white light shed before his eyes, blinding him for a second. Laust instinctively covered his eyes with his hand.


    Three secondster, he gradually opened his eyes as the light vanishedpletely.


    He soon realized he arrived in another room. The room size was thirty feet wide and sixty feet long. In the four corners were four torches that somehow lit up a blue fire, illuminating the room.


    "Where is this?" Laust took a look around, but when he made a half turn, he saw a giant creature chained by golden-colored chains attached to the two pirs next to him.


    The giant creature was as tall as ten feet despite sitting on the floor. His body was big and muscr, yet, it was covered by orange scales. His head and legs were that of a bull, but Laust''s interest remained on the two horns that didn''t lose against the size and length of his upper arms.


    With a monster this big, Laust needed to raise his head to look the creature in the eyes.


    "You are�� Minotaur," said Laust with a frown. "Why are you calling me here? I am still in the middle of the battle! Return me right away!"


    "You don''t need to worry about it. I can see that no one can hurt you for three minutes. So, I will make this one quick."


    "��" Laust didn''t know if he could trust him, but since he had received his blessing, Laust asked, "What do you want from me?"


    "I gave you my blessing because you reminded me of my young self."


    "Huh?" Laust furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing why he talked this way.


    "I am an unwanted child, born from the sin of my father. My father didn''t honor a promise and received his retribution. However, with the union of my mother and a bull, my appearance became like this. At the same time, I didn''t have a natural source of nourishment, so I could only kill humans to sustain myself.


    "In the end, I was locked inside abyrinth in order to hide this sinful body forever. Their hearts filled with regret as they couldn''t bear to kill me. This was the biggest suffering I needed to endure. I''m sure you know that sometimes, living is more painful than dying."


    Laust didn''t say anything as he perfectly understood it. He never once smiled for almost a decade. With the continuous hardship in his life, his only hope was to get some recognition. He even thought about ending himself a few times, but his butler intervened every single time.


    If not because of his promise to the butler who took care of him wholeheartedly, he would have stabbed himself to death.


    "I know everything about you, human child." Minotaur continued as the chains suddenly disappeared. He then rose from the floor and bent his knees in front of Laust, getting his head closer to Laust. "Your house is the same as thisbyrinth. They are made to chain us down for the rest of our lives.


    "However, I can see your potential! You have the potential to break free from this curse. I don''t want you to end up like me�� I was trapped for a long time and killed humans for a living. I just did it to survive, yet, the people told others I was evil.


    "In the end, I died in that man''s hand��" Minotaur closed his eyes with a painful expression. "We have a great affinity between us. That''s why I will lend you my strength."


    Laust closed his eyes as if he could rte to Minotaur. His anger toward Theo and anyone else was also simr to that of Minotaur. Even so, he raised one more question. "Before that, what is your wish? I am sure you won''t give that power to me for free, right?"


    "I only have one wish. It''s to fulfill my only regret."


    "Your only regret?"


    "Yes. I wanted to kill my father for making me born like this! And he didn''t dare to kill me and took me out of my suffering�� Even if he didn''t do it, he could simply let me loose so I could find another purpose of my life no matter the cost."


    "So you want me to kill your father?"


    "No. I want you to kill your own father!" Minotaur dered with anger.


    Laust''s expression darkened, making Minotaur think he couldn''t do it as a child. However, Laust''s reaction turned out to be the opposite of his imagination.


    Laust simplyughed like a madman while releasing his killing intent. His tone became extremely cold as bloodlust permeated the room. "That''s my intention all along! Even without you, I am going to kill my father and show him that he is wrong and let him die in regret!"


    Minotaur was shocked for a moment, but he alsoughed like Laust. He then extended his hand to Laust and ced it on top of his head. "The contract has been made. This is myst present. I hope you don''t disappoint me��"


    Laust felt massive pain in his brain as he couldn''t open his eyes. He seemed to be transferred back while being aware of another thing.


    [Free Attribute Points +28]

 Chapter 258 – Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 258 - Eyes</h4>


    Although the person in question didn''t feel anything, his body actually sent out a shock wave filled with Magic Power to the entire stadium.


    "!!!" Everyone halted for a second and turned to Laust, seeing his current condition.


    "This�� This�� This is the calling for a Blessing! Did Laust just receive a blessing?" Sheira drew a gasp as she never saw someone epting a blessing in thispetition. "This is a unique phenomenon for those who receive a Blessing! I wonder what''s the blessing! However, he is also in big trouble!"


    Enrica clutched her head for a bit as if she experienced tremendous pain before shouting, "Defeat him right now!"


    Lavinia''s body shook as she quickly recovered from her shock.


    Fortunately, Clone Theo had appeared next to her in that instant using his Blink while saying, "I am afraid you need to wait for a bit."


    "Dog��" Lavinia nned to pass him, but Theo had already summoned his Elemental Shields on Lavinia''s side.


    Having no choice other than to go forward or backward, Lavinia was stuck in Theo''s trap.


    Theo didn''t waste a single second and thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    Lavinia clicked her tongue and leaped back before throwing herself to the side, avoiding Theo''s attack.


    At the same time, Enrica looked at Theo and said, "I need to defeat you."


    "Do you think you can?" Theo smiled and charged forward with his spear. He thrust his spear to her abdomen, but thetter somehow caught the spear''s handle and grabbed Theo''s wrist with her other hand.


    "Huh?!" Theo widened his eyes before his vision flipped. "What just happened��"


    In an instant, he recalled that Enrica somehow knew his movement and threw him to the air.


    "Magic Bullets." Theo released another wave of Magic Bullet to stop her from her tracks, but Enrica simply took a nce over his Magic Bullets and returned her focus to Laust, nning to strike him. After all, this was the best chance they ever had to defeat Laust, turning the situation around.


    When the Magic Bullets poured down like rain, Enrica moved her body in a strange pattern as she avoided every single bullet without even looking.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes and realized what was going on. He used his Blink to stop Enrica on her track. "You are not going anywhere."


    "You''re annoying." Enrica raised her hands to the side.


    However, Theo had already gone straight to her to stop her hand. Yet, thetter simply released a yellow-colored light from her hand.


    "��" Theo''s expression turned serious as he used two Elemental Shields andunched himself to the side to block her attack. He knew she nned to attack Laust, so he managed to receive itpletely.


    "Kh." Enrica clenched her teeth as she looked at Theo before widening her eyes. "You��"


    "Your eyes are indeed interesting. Although I am not sure, your eyes seem to be able to predict a certain movement. I don''t know how it works, but you surely need to look at your opponents first to see that. The effect is not limited to humans ��" Theo smiled.


    "You have been testing me this whole time?" Enrica noticed that Theo had been doing various movements instead of one attack pattern to defeat her. It turned out those movements were his effort to figure out her eyes. She soon realized that she hadn''t used her eyes like usual in this battle.


    ''Is he really human?'' Enrica began to sweat as she thought, ''My eyes are called Eyes of Destiny. It can see every single thing''s destiny in the near future. That''s why I know every single movement and where all those bullets will fall�� People often thought of this as eyes that could see the future. But he is telling me he has figured it out�� And this soon?''


    Enrica had many doubts, wondering what was inside Theo''s brain for him to be able to achieve something like this.


    However, Theo only told her, "Sorry, but I have been working with someone who also has special eyes, you see. I know a bit of the trick. Besides, you have the same fight pattern as when you put that blindfold on. Your powerful Awareness has be my biggest clue to understanding your eyes."


    Enrica''s eyebrows twitched as she mumbled inside, ''He is now using my own power to understand me? Is he not satisfied with Ignazio? Is this what it means toe from the Griffith Family?''


    Little did she know, Alea was also a huge part of this due to the simrity between their eyes.


    Suddenly, another wave of Magic Power shook the arena as Laust finally opened his eyes. He felt tremendous strength in his body and couldn''t help but shout to release it. "Haaaa!"


    The roar was loud, making one''s heart skip a beat.


    "Not good." Enrica gritted her teeth as her thought process was interrupted by Theo''s discovery. "Lavi��"


    She stopped after taking another look at Lavinia, realizing she wasn''t destined to be hit. In other words, Lavinia should be able to take care of Clone Theo and Laust at the same time for a period of time. During that time, she nned to reorganize her thoughts.


    Yet, everything soon changed when Laust stopped his roar and grabbed his sword, charging ahead.


    "!!!" Theo saw Lausting to him but felt something different from Laust. His expression reminded him of Laust''s unwillingness to be defeated in the group battle back in Thernd.


    Although he wasn''t one hundred percent sure, Clone Theo went around Lavinia with his back facing Enrica. At the same time, Theo positioned himself right before Enrica''s eyes, making her unable to see what happened in the gap between Lavinia and Marco.


    "Huh?" Enrica narrowed her eyes and took another peek at Lavinia. She should be fine. Laust might approach her while she fought against Theo''s clone, but her eyes told her that she wouldn''t get any strike from Laust. She felt a bit relieved, but everything changed the moment Laust was about to arrive in front of Lavinia.


    Laust suddenly disappeared from Enrica''s vision and Theo came closer to her so as to block her view with her body.


    She heard another whisper from Theo that messed her mind.


    "Ah, right. Since we are talking about eyes, it''s useless if you can''t see anyone." Theo made an evil smile as he raised his hand, summoning the Magic Bullets. He released all of them to the ground to kick up the dust on the arena, turning them into a smokescreen.


    "Boom."

 Chapter 259 – Improvisation

    <h4>Chapter 259 - Improvisation</h4>


    Seeing Lausting to her, Lavinia frowned while destroying Clone Theo''s Magic Bullets. Clone Theo went straight to her with his back facing Enrica, protecting Laust with his body while allowing him to strike Lavinia from the side.


    "I am not that easy to defeat!" Lavinia raised her hand and gathered a huge amount of power on her legs as she prepared tounch herself to the wall. Even if it meant injuries for her, she should be able to stop Laust if she also caught him in the process.


    Laust raised his sword when the distance between them remained ten feet. Yet, when Lavinia was about to use her skill, Laust released a bit of his killing intent as if he wanted to kill her, only to use another skill to leap to the right.


    "Wha��" Lavinia widened her eyes, thinking Laust wanted to hit her from behind.


    However, Laust had used his skill once again and leaped to Marco.


    "I won''t lose if it''s only a one-on-one fight." Marco smiled as he grabbed Phyrill''s swords.


    Phyrill squinted his eyes as he believed in Theo and Laust. "I am here just to buy them time."


    "Hmph." Marco also knew about it since Ignazio already told him. However, hearing it straight from his opponent somehow pissed him off. "I''m��"


    Before he finished his words, he sucked a cold breath as he felt someone killing intenting from the side.


    He took a nce to the right, but the presence already arrived behind him.


    "You what?" Laust''s voice echoed in his ears as if ice cubes just entered his ears.


    Laust had been waiting for this moment. He utilized the same strategy as the one he used in Thernd. Luckily, Theo understood his intention without even exchanging a single word and created a perfect opportunity for him to strike Marco.


    In that instant, Clone Theo positioned himself between Lavinia and Enrica, allowing Laust to go past her through her blindspot. At the same time, the real Theo used Magic Bullet and covered Enrica''s eyes.


    Theo just defeated him once more, but Laust somehow didn''t feel like hating him anymore. Although he also didn''t like him, Laust seemed to have a more important goal in his mind, surpassing his hatred.


    Instead of hating Theo andparing himself with that guy, he should have just solved it from the roots. After all, the roots of every suffering he had were none other than his father.


    That was why when Minotaur mentioned it, Laust came to a realization that the one thing he wanted to see was his father''s face filled with regret and despair after knowing he was an irreceable son.


    Solving a bit of his hatred for Theo made his heart feel a bit refreshed. This situation allowed him to see the entire situation even clearer.


    "Dragon w!" Marco spun his body while waving his hand, trying to stop Laust, whose de was already on top of him.


    However, Laust''s giant de was already covered by a red aura filled with anger and bloodlust. Laust took a deep breath and used all his strength in this one strike. "Let me test my new skill on you."


    "Raging Bull Strike."


    Before the two collided, another palm grabbed the sword and stopped it as a shock wave shook the arena, going past the man and brushing everyone''s skin.


    Fwoosh.


    "Sir��Diego?" Marco widened his eyes and recognized the man who intervened with their fight.


    Before anotherment, Diego disappeared together with Marco, bringing him to the side of the arena.


    "If I didn''t take that attack, Marco''s hand would be chopped off. I can guarantee it by my name and title." Diego dered that Marco had dropped out due to that one particr attack.


    "Sir Diego! I am��" Marco wanted to protest, but the referee''s decision was final.


    Diego simply left him and returned to the arena before two men in ck suits came to Marco to lead him inside so as to not bother the rest of the fight.


    "��" Laust only stared at them in silence, feeling a bit anticlimactic.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Enrica had enough of this smokescreen and summoned the same star-shaped golden light above her head.


    "Holy Smite."


    The golden ray descended on the arena and swept all the dust away, revealing Theo and Enrica''s position.


    Due to her being enveloped by the light, her outfit began to disperse like the previous battle with Theo. However, her situation seemed to be a bit better because Enrica called a yellow screen to protect her head and body.


    The same applied to Theo, who used his Elemental Shields to withstand the power of this Holy Smite, using it like an umbre.


    Crack.


    But the first shield soon shattered into pieces as Theo had no choice other than to use his Blink to escape from that attack.


    "��" Enrica frowned after blowing the smokescreen away before she was stunned by the situation.


    "W��What is this?!" Sheira shouted. "When Laust was about to sneak attack, he actually turned around to hit Marco? It turned out Thernd''s real intention wasn''t Lavinia but Marco? This�� How high has the strategy in this battle reached?


    "I have no words right now because this situation will give Italy Team even more problems." Sheira was speechless. She wanted to talk more, but no words came out of her mouth.


    Listening to her words, Laust clicked his tongue but soon calmed his heart, cursing inwardly, ''I was the one who spontaneously executed that n��''


    Because of his meeting with Minotaur, he realized his rage was misced and turned him into an unreasonable being. The rage and bloodlust Minotaur released was pure and refined. Unlike Laust''s hatred of Theo, his had a clear goal.


    That was why Laust calmed down a lot after that meeting and it was also probably the reason why Minotaur wanted to meet him as soon as possible, even if it meant endangering the whole team.


    However, Enrica had a distorted expression on her face. She never thought that one of them was defeated just like that.


    Ignazio had warned him about Theo''s trick, but she realized that was Laust''s n. With her focus remaining on Theo, she simply couldn''t see it. Theo even used his own body to help the execution despite them not saying anything.


    ''This team is more amazing than I thought��'' Enrica sighed inwardly while looking at Lavinia.


    "Laust, Phyrill, handle that girl before helping me." Theo recalled his clone and walked closer to Enrica. "She is mine."

 Chapter 260 – Perfect Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 260 - Perfect Coordination</h4>


    With Theo and his clone joined hands, he could fight Enrica earnestly.


    "If I can''t defeat you earlier than them, then I don''t see the point continuing." Enrica let out a sigh while raising both hands, preparing herself to fight Theo.


    "Don''t worry. I''ve got the gist of your eyes'' abilities, so I n to defeat you first." Theo shook his head while summoning his Magic Bullets.


    All eighty bullets flew straight to Enrica.


    "Protection." She erected another barrier to protect herself from those bullets. She knew that it wasn''t enough, so she prepared to use another shield to block the remaining bullets.


    Yet, the bullets didn''t even crack the barrier, shocking Enrica in the process. She dropped her jaw to the ground. Although she felt the power behind each bullet, none of them was strong enough to take down her barrier.


    This could only mean one thing.


    She sucked a cold breath. Her eyes opened wide as if she couldn''t see the depth of Theo''s n. "Most of your attacks were just illusions?"


    In that instant, Enrica finally understood why they lost against this man called Theo. It turned out they never understood every trick he applied in their battle. It wasn''t that they saw and reacted to Theo''s n, it was him showing his n to them as such.


    "But can you even see which one is real?" Theo made a smug smile as if he already expected her question.


    As Theo said, Enrica couldn''t tell which one was real. Even her eyes could only see that all those Magic Bullets were destined to hit her. Whether it would give any damage or not, it was a different case.


    "I don''t know your eyes'' abilities, but I can see that it''s simr to the person I have worked with in the past." Theo nodded with a smile, recalling Alea''s eyes.


    Alea''s eyes allowed her to "read" while Enrica''s eyes had the ability to "predict". Both of them were simr in a sense and Theo could adjust himself a bit better despite not understanding the depth of Enrica''s eyes.


    Enrica was able to im the team leader position with her eyes, yet, her opponent was just too cunning and had grown ustomed to this type of eye. If she fought another person, she could show the difference in their power, albeit she wasn''t. Theo was simply the worst match-up to her.


    "Then we will see whether you can do it or not." Enrica smiled as her hand glowed. She extended her hand before releasing five golden lights, looping around Theo to hit him from behind.


    Theo already knew the purpose of this ability.


    ''Inviting me in, eh? After that, she can use her eyes to throw me like earlier��'' Theo knew Enrica expected him toe in, so he recalled his clone and wielded two Elemental Shields, blocking all the attacks.


    After that, his clone looped around and charged at Enrica from the side.


    When Enrica was about to unleash another skill, the real Theo thrust his spear from a distance. "Cannon st."


    "I already saw this attacking from a mile ago." Enrica smiled as the golden patterns on her right hand glowed. Feeling the surge of strength, she punched the shock wave and scattered it around.


    "And yes, I already knew you saw iting too��" Theo smiled as Theo''s image suddenly became blurry in her eyes. His appearance gradually returned to when he was charging his energy.


    "!!!" Enrica widened her eyes and remembered what Theo did in the elimination round.


    With her realizing the illusion, Theo started brazenly utilizing his illusion, so it looked as if his real body had unleashed an attack. At the point of impact, he used his skill to make her feel the impact like the Magic Bullets.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo had yet to release his skill.


    The moment she recognized it, Theo had already shot his true attack.


    "Cannon st."


    With no momentum left on her fist, Enrica needed to stop the powerful shock wave from him, albeit the power contained in that attack was more powerful than the previous one.


    "Ah!" Enrica screamed in surprise as she got blown away with her right sleevepletely ripped off.


    Clone Theo didn''t waste this opportunity and used his Blink to appear in Enrica''s blindspot. "Swift Energy."


    He thrust his spear three times, only to find it was blocked by Enrica''s barrier. Without any bnce, she couldn''t use her small shield to protect her after all.


    The moment shended on the ground, she raised her head and saw forty Magic Bullets raining upon her while using the sunlight to blind her, making it hard to see them.


    Without her "Protection", Enrica needed to block all of them with her shield.


    She quickly equipped the shields in her hands as she began spinning.


    Right before the bullets hit her, they scattered in all directions and looped around to hit her from the sides.


    Enrica used her shield to protect her vital parts while escaping from the onught.


    Boom.


    Some of the Magic Bullets hit the ground, but some actually pierced Enrica as a few wounds were seen on her body.


    Theo didn''t let her catch a breath as the real him had already arrived in front of her, thrusting his spear.


    Enrica gritted her teeth and spun her body a bit more so her shield could perfectly be aligned with the spear, stopping it.


    Due to the sudden spin, Enrica lost her bnce and gave a perfect opportunity for Theo.


    Thetter kicked her on the stomach andunched her to his clone.


    Clone Theo thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    "Protection!" After getting bullied for a while, Enrica managed to erect another barrier to protect her.


    However, the force behind Cannon stunched her back to Theo.


    "Swift Energy." Theo used the prating strike three times and cracked the barrier before thrusting it again to break it.


    Of course, the hole wasn''t that big because he didn''t shatter everything. It was a mere head-sized hole.


    Still, it was enough for Theo''s hand to slip through the hole and grab Enrica''s neck. "Blink."


    Both of them teleported right in front of Clone Theo, who already thrust his spear before Theo even used his Blink.


    Diego already saw everything and appeared between them, grabbing the spear and catching Enrica. "That''s enough."

 Chapter 261 – Win

    <h4>Chapter 261 - Win</h4>


    "That''s enough." Diego stopped Theo together with the battle.


    Theo quickly turned to Laust and Phyrill, who somehow stopped Lavinia with two swords pointed at her neck.


    "��"


    The people were confused at the moment as they never expected their country to lose to a low-level nation like Thernd.


    But this was also the proof that Thernd needed to show they were different this year.


    Theo quickly raised his right hand while clutching his fist. His expression was cool and aloof as if telling them that the win was the result of their power, not luck.


    "This�� This is a big scoop!" Sheira drew a gasp as she looked at the arena in disbelief. "We have just witnessed the birth of the greatest dark horse in thispetition''s history! Theodore Griffith and Alea Eilric have led their team to the victory."


    While Sheira focused on Theo''s deeds, all other people actually discussed what Theo had done earlier.


    "Theodore Griffith, it seems we have underestimated him. His coordination with his clone is already at this level��"


    "That''s right. Every movement of his would be followed by his clone, resulting in the clone sending Enrica back to the real body. This movement repeated continuously, preventing Enrica from counterattack."


    "No, no. It was due to him focusing on Enrica''s blindspot. The pope knew the problem with special eyes is blindspot, so hepensated it with powerful Awareness. Unfortunately, Theo''s strength was too strong for Enrica to handle."


    "You should also mention his Teleportation Skill that made such a thing possible."


    "No, no. It should be his Illusion. Enrica sent a punch before Theodore even released his power. She must have been under his Illusion this whole time, making her unable to see which one was real and which one wasn''t."


    "It doesn''t change the fact that his clone is extremely dangerous. It seems Theodore can share his vision with his clone together with his thinking ability. This way, their coordination is close to perfect. With some experience and personal training, he may surpass the worth of two top-talent individuals easily."


    "We need to get a good tutor for him. Mythical Rank Expert is the lowest standard."


    "That''s right. We need to make a move before the Griffith Family tries to stop everything."


    "I am going to make a call right now."


    Many people were discussing Theo''s ability. Even though Laust had shown them his blessing, it was not enough to ovee Theo''s Clone.


    Enrica could also feel iting as she walked to Theo, extending her hand. "Congrattions."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a smile.


    "You are going to be a hotmodity among the countries after this."


    "I know. I have prepared for it."


    "In that case, I will retreat first and make you an offerter." Enrica smiled as she just told him she was among those who wanted to invite him. "Anyway, I have one question. How well is this result in your scenarios? I''m sure you have made several of them, right?"


    "In the middle, I guess." Theo smiled. "Ignazio''s n made all the good ones disappear��"


    "Haha, I''m going to tell Ignazio about it." Enrica smiled before releasing his hand and walking to Laust and Phyrill to congratte them.


    Marco and Lavinia also came to him, showing good sportsmanship.


    Theo walked back to their waiting room with Phyrill and Laust.


    During their walk, Theo couldn''t help but say, "Congrattions for receiving your blessing."


    Laust''s body shook as he looked at Theo while gritting his teeth. Instead of sneering, he took a deep breath and muttered, "Thanks."


    Phyrill heard it and hopped on his back, teasing him. "What is this? I seem to have heard something interesting. Say it again."


    "You''re annoying. And get off me!" Laust''s body shook, but Phyrill kept clinging to him like what he did to Theo in their first meeting.


    Theo only smiled and returned to the waiting room before he got the "second" Phyrill, attacking him right after he opened the door.


    "Theo!" Ellen leaped to him and hugged him to express her joy and gratitude to Theo, who made all this possible. "You have worked hard, Theo. Thank you so much!"


    Theo nodded and let her do whatever she wanted for the time being. Just like her, he was also in the mood for celebration after all.


    "It''s because of everyone''s effort and cooperation."


    "Alright, alright. I don''t need that cliche line. We all know that without yourmands, we won''t even pass the first round, let alone get this kind of result. I wonder what will happen when you return to Thernd."


    "It''s going to be tiring." Theo shrugged and nced at Laust. "Though I believe the Lange Family will try to kill me."


    Laust closed his eyes and said with a calm expression. "I won''t take part in it. But if you''re standing in my way, I will kill you."


    Theo was amused by the different responses from Laust. That answer seemed to carry the change in Laust''s heart as well.


    Ellen''s eyebrows twitched as she felt awkward having this kind of conversation. She released Theo and said with a smile. "Let''s not talk about it during the celebration. We should celebrate!"


    While they were talking about their win, Alea just stood still in the corner, looking at Theo. She closed her eyes as the scene of their meeting shed in her mind.


    ��


    It was inside the woods back then. She said, "Ah, you were the guy who defeated Laust Lange. So, you are still alive."


    His reply was like a timid but polite junior. "Nice to meet you? How can I help you?"


    After "forcefully" dragging him into her team, Theo gradually showed his power to her. However, she felt Theo had been holding back the whole time as if he was trying to protect some sort of secret that couldn''t be seen by other people yet.


    Then, their rivalry came into the picture. She also helped him from time to time, mostly with mary support, but Alea soon realized every decision Theo made would alwayse to help him in the future.


    And the same Theo finally showed the world everything he had in thispetition, just like he always wished.


    That gesture right after they won gave her a goosebump. The memory of Theo''s timidness just made the impact even more powerful.


    This impact might bring him good and bad in his life, but Alea couldn''t help but smile as she recalled the scene and muttered, "Still, it''s the first time I see you expressing yourself to the fullest."

 Chapter 262 – Nella’s Confidence

    <h4>Chapter 262 - Ne��s Confidence</h4>


    Ne smiled when watching Theo''s victory.


    "It seems we are going to meet in the semifinal, cousin."


    Hearing Ne''sment, Zara said, "We need to win against our opponent first."


    "I know." Ne nodded with a serious expression. "However, I will be holding back tomorrow."


    "Eh?" Zara and the others quickly turned to her in disbelief.


    "I said, I won''t use all my power. My Control and three skills alone should be enough for this. The rest will be up to you." Ne shrugged.


    "But they are��" Zara wanted to protest, but Ne stopped her again.


    "They have the Dragon King, Longwang. His water ability should be rendered useless by our Boreas�� God of Northwind. The bringer of winter. I will handle that Leigong�� What is it again? God of Thunder?" Ne thought for a moment. "Anyway, rk and I will handle both of them. Their power won''t be that effective against us.


    "As for Mo Ning, who seems to have Three Legged Crow''s blessing, I don''t know if anyone can do it, but I will let Zara fight her. Last but not least, the bearer of Mu Guiying''s blessing. Both of you are the same type, Luka. Your Lancelot against her Mu Guiying. That should be enough, right?"


    When they thought about it, they seemed to understand what Ne nned to do.


    "ording to the exnation, we are going to have the same game as Block A." Zara paused, knowing Ne should have understood what she wanted to ask.


    "Don''t worry. We will be getting at least one win in that game. I will go for the third battle, while Zara and rk will go for the fourth battle. I am not underestimating or looking down on them, but for China, we are their worst match-uppared to any other team. If we can''t even win this, then we''re simply too weak."


    Zara and the others exchanged looks. Ne wouldn''t change her mind no matter how they talked about it, and they also knew, even though Ne might not have the observation and thinking skills like Theo, her strategy should be working.


    "We understand. We will do something about the first round." Zara replied with a serious expression.


    ��


    While Ne''s team continued their strategy meeting, Radvils had arrived at Thernd''s waiting room.


    Bam.


    The door was mmed open as Radvils entered with a serious expression.


    "I suppose�� I should say congrattions to all of you." Radvils turned to Theo and said, "What are you nning to do now? Just for your information, I am not going to tell you anything."


    "I will return tomorrow to watch the next match before locking myself inside my room to think about the next n. As for the other two blocks, I will watch their videos." Theo answered.


    "Is that so?" Radvils nodded and said, "I have sent the result to the president. I think you don''t want to talk to him right now, so I told him that the meeting would only happen after thepetition. Hence, I ask him to send us more money to squander. For now, let''s go to a restaurant and get some food and drink to celebrate."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I guess that''s a good idea."


    "Yes! Let''s go!" Phyrill raised his hand. "I am going to eat and drink. Right, can we get some wine after this?"


    "Your next battle is in four days. Suit yourself." Radvils agreed. "It''s better to be drunk because of wine instead of your victory. It means that you can still perform the same way as today."


    "Haha, that''s an interesting belief you have there." Phyrill chuckled.


    The rest chuckled as they followed Radvils to a restaurant where they could have a good time.


    They got a round table, so Theo couldn''t get away with the farthest seat and ended up having Ellen and Radvils sitting next to him.


    With food on the table, Ellen hurriedly said before anyone started eating. "No matter what he said, Theo brought us to victory in this battle. We should have him deliver a speech first, don''t you agree?"


    "That''s a good suggestion." Phyrill agreed without hesitation.


    Surprisingly, Laust nodded right after him as he wanted Theo to suffer a bit.


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he took a nce at everyone''s expression that seemed to be telling him they wanted to hear his speech.


    "I am not good at this, but I can say one thing for everyone."


    "Good. We would like to hear it." Ellen nodded with a smile, enjoying herself with this.


    "Alea, tone down your arrogance a little bit. Laust, handle your anger issue. Ellen, get serious, will you? Sihan, don''t be too passive. Phyrill, don''t talk too much. You all are annoying." Theo harrumphed.


    "This guy�� We just praised him and this is what happened��" Ellen chuckled and grabbed Theo''s shoulder, pulling him to her side while poking his cheek. "You too, how about you calm down a bit? You are too serious this whole time. How about making a big smile as if you are enjoying your time, Not that viin smile that sends me a shiver? For starters, here is your wine."


    She poured wine into his ss and handed it to him.


    Theo gently pushed it away and said, "I don''t drink no matter the asion. I don''t like to do something outside my control."


    "Haha, look." Ellen smiled. "I will drink this one then. Anyway, cheers."


    Theo nodded and grabbed a juice. "Cheers."


    "Cheers!"


    They all had some fun with food and drink. As one would expect, they didn''t hold back since their match was still far away, so they drank to their heart content.


    Alea soon had her head on the table like Laust as they couldn''t handle more. Sihan had been drinking moderately to make sure everyone was alright if they were to return to their hotel. The same applied to Radvils.


    However, to anyone''s surprise, Ellen and Phyrill truly had some resistance to alcohol. They had been drinking nonstop, yet, there wasn''t even a tinge red on their cheeks.


    In the end, Theo carried Alea while Sihan took Laust with him. Even though they were fine, Radvils decided to apany the boys to ensure nothing went wrong as they returned to the hotel.

 Chapter 263 – A Relaxing Walk

    <h4>Chapter 263 - A Rxing Walk</h4>


    While carrying the drunk Alea on his back, Theo walked together with Ellen.


    "Theo." Ellen gently called his name. A small smile appeared on her face as she remembered the first time they met. "Do you remember our first meeting?"


    "It was in the gym, right? You healed me."


    "Nah, it was when Alea greeted you. I was right behind her."


    "Ah, yes."


    "I underestimated you back then, you know."


    "So?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "I don''t see any problem with it."


    "I guess that''s how you are��" Ellen raised her head and looked at the dark sky. "I just wanted to say that I regret underestimating you even if you cared nothing about it. And I would like to apologize for that."


    Seeing Ellen''s expression, Theo turned serious and nodded. "I understand. I ept your apology."


    "Thank you." Ellen smiled. "I guess this is the first time we have a conversation like this�� You usually talk about training and�� training."


    "I just set my priorities right." Theo shook his head.


    "Indeed. Your perseverance was the one that brought you to this step. I don''t know if anyone has told you this, but I want to say�� Theo, congrattions. You have worked harder than anyone else in our group and your hard work has been rewarded. What you have gotten until now, whether you are aware of it or not, you deserve it. From the bottom of my heart, I feel happy for you."


    "Thank you." A genuine smile couldn''t help but appear on Theo''s face. It was a different feeling from when Aisha praised him. Ellen had been one of the most important people in his growth other than his teacher�� And a girl like her praised him with more understanding than anyone else, how could he not feel happy about it.


    "You''re wee."


    "I also want to thank you for helping me with all kinds of problems I encountered in school."


    "Ahaha, it''s just the difference of experience. Nothing more than that�� Though, I will still ept it." Ellen chuckled while saying, "Do you want some food or drink?"


    "Nah, it''s fine. I''m already full."


    "Okay."


    They continued walking at a fairly slow pace, just enjoying themselves talking to each other with a small thing. It might be because of Ellen''s action, the emptiness of his heart as he had no one to talk with in the past decade, or just because his heart was still in the mood for celebration, Theo often let out a chuckle.


    This looked simple, but the burden in Theo''s heart was lifted for a bit, making him realize that thepetition put too much stress on his heart.


    The guys were still in the restaurant since they couldn''t let the girls sleep toote just for a small celebration and Radvils also wanted to say something to the guys, so no one bothered them right now.


    Theo and Ellen had a rxing walk since the ce wasn''t that far from the hotel.


    Suddenly, Alea moved her body while letting out a small but seductive moan. However, she seemed to be half awake as they heard her voice echoing in their ears.


    "Mhm�� Theo, why are you always so harsh to me��" Alea muttered in her sleep. "I know that I haven''t been that mature like Ellen, but I have been progressing too. Or am I just unattractive since guys tend to be nicer to a beautiful girl? If you tell me what''s wrong, I want to try to fix it."


    "That''s what I want to hear too." A smug smile shed in Ellen as she looked at Theo. "You have been treating Alea differently. It''s normal for your personality to do it, albeit I do find it a bit excessive as if you have a more important reason."


    Theo fell silent and looked at the sky, thinking, ''How am I supposed to say that she almost killed me twice? Alea once told me about the turtle that I first met, so I realized it was her fault too. In addition to the mess she created with the bat��Ugh, I knew those two were not intentional, but I couldn''t seem to forget about it every time I was with her.''


    After a while, Theo smiled and said, "It''s nothing you should be concerned about. However, I do feel she is attractive and I do know she has grown for the past six months."


    "Then do you have a problem with her? Or do you have another thing that is more important than this? And it''s somehow rted to the Eilric Family or Alea herself?" Ellen asked politely. "Of course, if you don''t want to talk about it, I won''t mention it anymore."


    "I do have a goal more important than this simple thing and all I can say is that my goal is beyond your understanding. I will leave it at that." Theo smiled as he obviously couldn''t exin his ultimate goal, which was to fulfill God of Mischief''s mission.


    "Is that so?" Ellen nodded. "Anyway, thank you for opening up to me."


    "It''s just because of you�� Thank you for taking care of me this whole time." Theo smiled.


    Ellen couldn''t help but remember Theo didn''t have any more family members. It had been a few years ago, so she had been taking care of him like a little brother.


    And this was the result. Before she replied to him, the hotel hade to their sight. "Could you help me carry Alea to her room? I will deal with the rest."


    "Sure."


    They then walked to the elevator and quickly made their way to Alea''s room. Ellen used Alea''s keycard and opened the room.


    Theo gently put Alea down on the bed and positioned her in the middle of the bed. He then straightened his back and said while walking out. "I''m leaving."


    "Yeah. Thank you, Theo."


    "You''re wee."


    After Theo left the room, Ellen began to undress Alea and covered her with the quilt before returning to her own room.


    Little did they know, Alea might not open her eyes, but her hands couldn''t help but clench the sheet.


    It was unknown whether she was jealous to see Theo opening up to Ellen, the confusion came from Theo''s answer, the anxiety of this "incident" that resulted in his harsh treatment, or the excitement when Theo said she was attractive. In any case, her heart was filled with frustration, joy, and sadness.

 Chapter 264 – Nella Vs Cheng Sui Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 264 - Ne Vs Cheng Sui Part 1</h4>


    The next morning.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    Someone knocked on the door as a female''s voice echoed. "Alea, have you woken up yet?"


    Alea, who was still sleeping, immediately opened her eyes and let out a moan as she rose from her bed with messy hair. She shouted with a hoarse voice, the unique voice that only those who just woke up had. "Y-yes!"


    "The match is going to start, you know. Theo, Sihan, Phyrill, and Mr. Radvils are already there. Since you have woken up, I need to wake up the drunk man�� He was too happy yesterday since he got a blessing and got drunk like that." Ellen''s voice then soon disappeared.


    Alea quickly took a look at the clock and hurriedly washed her face and fixed her hair before changing her clothes.


    However, no one would know her pillow was wet as it was also the reason she woke upte.


    Alea soon came out of her room and saw Ellen walking toward her.


    "Laust will go alone, so we need to get going�� Hopefully, we can still watch the second battle."


    "I''m sorry."


    "It''s fine. It''s also my fault for waking up a bitter today." Ellen waved her hand as she turned around. "Anyway, it''s time for us to go."


    "Y-yes." She followed Ellen and walked a bit faster than usual.


    It took them ten minutes to reach the stadium and enter their waiting room to witness the battle, but when they arrived, Ellen knew the second battle was already over.


    After all, the one who stood in the arena was Ne Griffith.


    "Theo?"


    Theo nced at her and nodded before pointing at Phyrill. "Ask him anything. I need to focus on this match."


    Phyrill agreed with Theo, so he exined, "There''s not much about it. All I can say, the United Kingdom first overwhelmed China. Then, thetter fought back and won the second battle, so the situation was simr to ours. Well, two big countries are fighting each other, I should say as expected of them��"


    Meanwhile, in the arena, Ne stood with a poker face as she waited for her opponent to arrive.


    "Woah! Here ites! The person who showed up from China Team is none other than their leader, Cheng Sui. Unlike the previous day, this time, the two leaders are going to fight!" Sheira became excited even though she was still sad with yesterday''s defeat.


    "O-oh!"


    The cheers erupted as this might be the peak battle between the two teams.


    Cheng Sui said with a calm expression. "You are very calm��"


    "Nothing is different from my day-to-day life, it''s just the one that I need to challenge is a bit more powerful than the rest."


    "A bit, huh�� I should probably feel offended with that word." Cheng Sui jokingly sneered before taking a deep breath. His expression turned serious as he released his fighting intent.


    Ne''s right foot stepped backward as she lowered her center of gravity while raising both hands.


    Since the two were ready, Diego announced, "Match Starts!"


    Cheng Sui quickly disappeared from his position. From above, they barely saw Cheng Sui leaping to Ne.


    However, Ne wasn''t someone who could be shaken from speed alone. She pulled back her right hand and sent a fist. "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    When Cheng Sui''s foot almost hit her head, Ne''s small fist appeared before it and stopped the kick.


    "You''re str��" Cheng Sui didn''t manage toplete his sentence as he was blown away. A shock wave followed that force and created a powerful gale that went to all corners, brushing every audience.


    "��" Cheng Suinded on the ground safely, but his expression turned grave as he felt the power behind that fist. "This is the famous Magic Saint Fist Style. Impossible. You''re not supposed to know about this yet."


    "Who said I need to go to my family to learn about this?" Ne sneered as it was her turn tounch an attack. The ground cracked before she disappeared like Cheng Sui, elerating as fast as possible to gain enough momentum to create a powerful strike.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Twister." Ne released her punch while spinning her hand to create a torrential Magic Power to hit Cheng Sui.


    Cheng Sui frowned and raised his right hand, catching Ne''s fist. The torrential Magic Power grazed his lower arm, but Cheng Sui didn''t even have a change of expression.


    He simply stood there and grabbed her hand before punching her with his other hand.


    Ne saw iting and opened her fist, blowing Cheng Sui''s hand from below with her palm. After that, she spun her body upward and kicked Cheng Sui on the head.


    Bam.


    The powerful might was released from that kick as itunched Cheng Sui several feet away. However, Ne was dragged by him due to his grip that had yet to release her.


    "Tch." Ne clicked her tongue and took a deep breath as she gathered enough Magic Power in that area. "Release."


    The Magic Power burst at once and threw the hand away as Ne leaped back, looking at Cheng Sui, who gradually rose from the ground.


    "That was a great kick." Cheng Sui smiled as he stretched his hands while showing that his body had already begun to recover. The wounds on his hand were almost closed at this point.


    "Endurance��" Ne furrowed her eyebrows.


    "So you know it�� However, I am not learning half-ass Endurance. I have both mental and physical endurance." Cheng Sui smirked as he pointed his finger at Ne. "Your Control or my Endurance. Let''s see whoes at the top, shall we?"


    "��" Ne recalled the thing she knew from Endurance. If Cheng Sui had gained the next stage of Endurance, it would mean he had some sort of natural regeneration for such a thing.


    If Magic Control emphasized in attack and Awareness focused on "vision", then Endurance was leaned to defensive ability and natural regeneration. It would make a person hard to be defeated and be a dream power for Guardians.


    Cheng Suiughed as a pair of sharp horns grew on his head, red serpentine scales covered his arms, andrge ws reced his nails.


    "I can''t do a full transformation yet, but I think this is enough against you."


    "I don''t know if you have fought before, but you usually don''t talk this much in a fight." Ne sneered and leaped forward.

 Chapter 265 – Nella Vs Cheng Sui Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 265 - Ne Vs Cheng Sui Part 2</h4>


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    "Multiple Strength."


    The two fists collided as Ne''s Magic Power flowed to him, trying to blow him away. However, Cheng Sui only got pushed three feet back and stopped.


    His previous calm expression was reced by a smile and bloodlust, filled with excitement.


    Ne narrowed her eyes and released her power to blow Cheng Sui''s hand again.


    This time, Cheng Sui didn''t let her go. He quickly raised his hand and said, "Lake Authority."


    Ne seemed to notice what he nned to do as she took a peek of her back, finding a small pool of water in the middle of the arena. The water kept expanding as if it was alive. She quickly made another burst of Magic Power and fled.


    "I know that your power is strongest at night, making this win a bit too anti-climatic�� Still, I need to defeat you." Cheng Sui leaped toward Ne as his hand started glowing. The reddish light emitted bloodlust that tried to stop Ne on her track.


    Ne leaped back to avoid it, but Cheng Sui snapped his finger. "Rise."


    "��" Ne''s expression turned grave as she stopped and stretched her right hand to the back, spinning her body.


    It turned out Cheng Sui used the water pool to form a torrential water current that would hit Ne''s back.


    And with his main bodying at her, it would be a two-way attack.


    Cheng Sui smirked and sent his fist, matching the timing with the current attack. "Try this��"


    "As I said, don''t talk too much, you masochist dragon." Ne sneered before she suddenly ducked down with her legs splitting in both directions and her body leaned to the ground,pletely avoiding both the fist and water current.


    It ended up with Cheng Sui getting surprised while destroying the water current with his own fist.


    This was the agility and flexibility she showed to Theo during the banquet. It was also the reason why Theo couldn''t even grab her Skylink.


    Ne spun her body with the help of her hand and kicked Cheng Sui''s left foot with a burst of Magic Power.


    Cheng Sui tripped in the opposite direction as Ne quickly rose from the ground and punched him in the face. "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    Bam.


    Cheng Sui flew to the air before falling down to the ground, rolling a few times, and crashing to the wall.


    Ne followed him without hesitation to defeat him as soon as possible, but thetter somehow rose from the ground in an instant as if the attack earlier didn''t affect him despite blood streaming down his nose.


    "You are not going to defeat me." Cheng Sui nned to catch Ne''s fist again.


    Unfortunately for him, Ne understood his n, stomped the ground six feet away from him, and extended her hand.


    "!!!" Cheng Sui widened his eyes when he saw Ne''s hand was two feet away from his body. "You don''t even touch me? You won''t defeat��"


    "Shut up." Ne utilized her Magic Power again. "Magic Saint Fist Style. Burst."


    The Magic Power gathered on her hand was released through her palm and flew straight to Cheng Sui, burying him inside the wall.


    However, Ne didn''t have enough control of this technique yet, so the forceing from the Magic Power also pushed her back, allowing Cheng Sui to regain hisposure ande out again.


    "That''s not hurt at all!" Cheng Sui shouted with blood flowing out of his mouth. He raised his guard and prepared to attack Ne.


    As if feeling challenged, Ne jumped forward before noticing something weird from Cheng Sui''s stance.


    "Hmm? An opening?" Ne frowned and knew it was bait right away. The fact that Cheng Sui didn''t n to avoid her attack already gave her the real reason.


    He nned to use his own body to take a hit from her before catching her. It was bolder than his previous strategy because he didn''t lower his guard for a big time like this, trying to make Ne''s body react instinctively to end him.


    Little did he know, this n would actually cost him the battle.


    "I guess I should give this guy the thing he wants�� It''s best not to use all my power right now because Cousin will be able to learn from it." Ne muttered as she leaped to him and punched Cheng Sui''s chest.


    Bam.


    Cheng Sui widened his eyes and coughed out blood. However, as Ne predicted, Cheng Sui still smiled and grabbed Ne''s wrist.


    "I got you." He pulled her to his side before throwing a punch on her stomach, blowing her away.


    Ne spat blood and dropped to the ground. Sensing another fisting at her head, she rolled to the side andunched herself to the air.


    "Underworld Dog!" Ne finally used her first real skill and summoned a dog. The skin was ck as if it was charred, but the eyes were red, filled with bloodlust. If not because the dog had some rotten parts, this dog would be mistaken as a bigger "Dobermann" by normal people.


    "Grrr��" The dog charged forward and leaped to Cheng Sui''s face, trying to bite him.


    Thetter managed to tilt his head and avoided the dog. "This is ea��"


    Before he finished, he saw a palm-sized cylinder right in front of him. Due to the cylinder hiding behind the dog, he didn''t see this attack at all, allowing it to explode next to his face.


    Boom.


    The explosion wasn''t big and Cheng Sui only closed his eyes to prevent any sharp objects from entering his eyes. However, the explosive somehow covered his side face with burn wounds.


    "Hahaha, you need to bring a bigger explosion if you want to do this." Cheng Suiughed. There was no rule about weapons, including explosive weapons and guns, so he already expected something like this, albeit not from Ne.


    That was also why he got hit by the explosion.


    Even so, his natural ability was more terrifying than the explosion as the wound already began to heal.


    "This is not enough. Since you don''t want to go all out and use this cheap trick, I will force you to use every ounce of your strength before defeating you." Cheng Sui shouted and prepared to charge at her.


    However, his words turned into his embarrassment as Diego announced. "The match ends. The United Kingdom wins."


    This announcement brought a huge shock to Cheng Sui, albeit he didn''t lose because of the explosion.

 Chapter 266 – Rai’s Hidden Power?

    <h4>Chapter 266 - Rai��s Hidden Power?</h4>


    "What? I withstood the explosion alone!" Cheng Sui turned around while shouting at Diego.


    However, thetter simply shook his head helplessly while pointing to the right.


    Cheng Sui furrowed his eyebrows before finding two sharp des were stopped by a translucent white barrier, which obviously came from Diego.


    Before him stood a monster with a unique appearance. The monster had a female body and a dog head, while her four limbs were made of copper. All of them looked like a sharp pointed de, but the hands slightly curved like that of a grasshopper.


    This was the famous monster controlled by Hecate, Empusa. It was said bybining dark magic, animal, bronze, and ghost, Hecate could create the Empusa.


    He understood the reason he lost was due to this creature. Still, he couldn''t understand how such a creature appeared without him noticing.


    Cheng Sui turned around and shouted in confusion. "Ho��"


    As he always did, he stopped before even finishing the question as he came to a realization. "Dark Magic, Animal, Bronze, and Ghost�� Don''t tell me��"


    "I will repeat it once again. Thanks to you shouting continuously, I could summon it and attack you from your blind spot. With your weak Awareness, it was even more impossible to spot this creature. If only you stayed quiet for a period of time, the battle would continue for at least another ten minutes�� In other words, your big mouth was the reason you lost, muscle brain." Ne smirked and turned around.


    "Ahem, please be mindful of your words." Diego coughed, trying to correct Ne.


    Ne''s expression darkened as her eyebrows twitched. After a moment of silence, Ne apologized to him and left the arena.


    Meanwhile, Cheng Sui was dumbfounded by Ne''s n. She used her summoning technique to call a dog to be a part of the entire ritual. At the same time, the small explosive she threw earlier didn''t create a huge explosion for one reason. The explosion''s only purpose was to send the metal used for the cylinder, copper.


    With the copper flying to the dog or probably with the dog caught the copper with its mouth, two of the items had beenpleted.


    And this was when Ne became even scarier. The Dark Magic obviously needed blood to operate or it couldn''t bring a living being like that. Hence, Ne came to him and got punched for the sake of spitting the required blood without making Cheng Sui realize her n.


    In that instant, the Dark Ritual had started and Ne simply waited for it to unravel itself.


    The one thing that confused him was the ghost part. Not many people could see the ghosts. In thispetition, only Enrica probably had the power to see them with her powerful Awareness.


    However, there was one more way to sense them, not see them. It was through Control. With Ne''s extraordinary Control, she might be able to sense the ghost in this arena.


    "��" Cheng Sui finally realized how he lost this battle. He muttered, "My original n is to use my own body to capture her, but she seems to use my own n to defeat it�� This is like Theodore Griffith and Ignazio Gurrero. No, I should say as expected from a blood-rted rtive��"


    Cheng Sui closed his eyes and decided to leave the arena, ignoring how Sheira tried to hype the entire battle up.


    ��


    In another ce, the so-called rtive of hers watched her performance while clenching his fists.


    He simply couldn''t believe Ne had this much power in her.


    That was right. Theo''s expression had been grim this whole time, realizing the gap between them.


    "Theo," Phyrill called his name with a serious expression.


    Theo nced at him before turning to Radvils. "So, do you know anything about this power?"


    "Let me hear your opinion first."


    "It''s thebination of Force and Soft Control as you said. She gathered the Magic Power around her hand and released it in an instant by using her Force Control. That''s also the reason why she can release that amount of power in one go�� I could see that the Magic Power was swirling around her hand at one point and there was also a time she released it like a bullet."


    "Indeed. You probably want to ask our healerter since he has learned acupuncture from China back in the old days. I don''t know if he still practices it, but his knowledge is more important. I just remembered it not long ago�� We can''t really let someone ck for more than a week, no?"


    Theo widened his eyes. "Do you mean Teacher Rai?"


    "Yes. He is a doctor and his acupuncture technique requires this kind of power to regte your metabolism, Magic Power, and other things. Of course, his level of control is not at the same level as that girl." Radvils nodded while exining that he brought Rai here for a reason. "Well, if you suffer injuries, he would alreadye here, so that''s why I never wait here together with all of you. As long as he deems your condition is safe, I can simply let you do whatever you want��"


    "To think there is someone that is powerful in our rank." Theo scratched the back of his head, realizing why Radvils and Rai never appeared before them during their battle despite the rule allowing them to do so.


    It turned out both of them were together this whole time, watching the match with their own eyes. However, they didn''t want to bother Theo and let him grow even more in thispetition while making sure the entire team was alright.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile. This element of surprise made him feel relieved as he said, "I will visit him after thispetition."


    "You won''t be able to learn it within a few days, you know."


    "Yeah. I just want to know more about it." Theo shook his head. "Besides, I already know I need toe out in the first battle��"


    "Ho?" Radvils narrowed his eyes. "Despite you preventing Alea from participating in the previous round? Are you favoring your own family?"


    "No. However, I know that the only one who stands a chance against her is me." Theo shook his head. "Alea may have the chance, but she is simr to Cheng Sui in this regard. I don''t want to belittle others, but I also need to calcte the next two rounds. Hence, I decided to go and fight her. Besides, if Ie out first, she will certainly appear before me."

 Chapter 267 – Peak Battle Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 267 - Peak Battle Part 1</h4>


    While they continued talking about Ne''s power, the United Kingdom had sent their next participants, showing their confidence in winning this round.


    "It seems the United Kingdom is risking everything in this round. What a bold move from the United Kingdom!" Sheira announced with excitement. "Even if they lose this one, they still have the next round and the two teams'' strength will be equal at that point because China Team requires two of their strongest fighters in this match. After all, their opponents are none other than Zara Kennedy and rk Martin."


    Zara waved her blonde hair with a cold expression while ncing at the guy next to her. "Are you sure this is going to work?"


    "We can only do it. I will be in the front while you support me."


    "Okay." Zara nodded with a serious expression. "I just want to know, we may not be able to hide our power anymore."


    "Agreed. Let''s do our best, shall we?"


    The cheers suddenly changed as Sheira shouted, "Oh! This is what we are waiting for. China Team has sent their participants. They are the bearers of Leigong and Mu Guiying''s Blessings, Zhong Li and Mo Ning.


    "This will be a big battle that may decide the oue of the fight between two teams. Let''s cheer with all our hearts."


    Ignoring Sheira''smentary, Mo Ning looked at Zara and rk with a serious expression. "It seems you are pretty confident to even do something like this. I thought you were going to use the same tactic like Theodore Griffith��"


    "No strategy is wrong. Only the people who can''t execute it are." Zara shook her head before raising her golden staff.


    Mo Ning furrowed her eyebrows and pulled her sword. rk raised both hands as a huge robotic hand appeared out of thin air. The robotic arms were five times bigger than his hands, making them look heavy. In addition, these robotic hands had ws on the tip. Its white color aside, the rest looked like a bear paw.


    Zhong Li frowned and took out a small mallet along with a drum on his other hand.


    "��" All of them looked at each other, observing their movement.


    "Match Starts!"


    The moment they heard Diego''s voice, rk and Mo Ning leaped to the front.


    Mo Ning waved her sword from the left, only to be stopped by rk''s robotic gauntlet effortlessly.


    "You may need to put a bit more effort into your swing." rk smiled.


    "You think?" Mo Ning smiled sweetly even though her body didn''t share the same sentiment. She simply stomped the ground to gain more power before putting all the new power into her arms.


    "��" rk fell silent and felt the swing just got stronger to the point it flipped his body upside down.


    "Once again, you sure you want me to use my strength?"


    However, rk only smiled and said, "Yep."


    When his head was about to hit the ground, he used his hands as support before another robotic limb turned his small legs like that of a bear. He then kicked Mo Ning from above as thetter blocked it with her sword.


    Unfortunately for her, rk''s power was so great it blew the sword to the ground.


    Mo Ning quickly pulled the sword and shed rk, but thetter already used his hand tounch himself to the air,nding on his original position.


    After that, a thunderp shook the arena as most people closed their ears because of this sound.


    rk couldn''t do it because he needed to leap to the left, positioning himself between Zara and Zhong Li as blue lightning ran through the ground.


    rk raised his hand and grabbed the lightning with his robotic hand before releasing his power. "Freeze."


    In an instant, the temperature dropped and the lightning froze. If this were normal lightning, it wouldn''t be possible, but the lightning formed from Magic Power didn''t carry the same heat.


    Even so, it required a quite good amount of Magic Power to even freeze this attack and rk seemed to have good control as well.


    "Elenkias." Zara followed rk''s movement and controlled her own shadow as four sharp des at the height of two humans ran through the ground, heading to Mo Ning and Zhong Li.


    Mo Ning took a deep breath and closed her eyes before she waved her sword from the left. "Celestial sh."


    Suddenly, all four des were cut into two as Zara jumped to avoid the invisible energy.


    When Mo Ning was about to hit Zara, who couldn''t escape while in the air, she turned her head and leaped back, avoiding rk''s fist.


    "Freezing Fist."


    Although his punch missed, he still hit the ground, turning it into ice. The area expanded before it started to crack.


    Bam.


    Because of the ice lessening its resistance to impact, the ground turned into craters as there were many rubbles falling a few inches from their position.


    Zhong Li nned to use this chance to attack rk, but Zara raised her staff.


    The rubbles began to rise from the ground before they flew to Mo Ning and Zhong Li with a wave of Zara''s hand.


    "Telekinesis."


    "Thunder." Zhong Li hit the drum again and produced the same loud sound. However, this one produced a powerful Sound Wave that blew away the rubbles to the side.


    Unfortunately for him, Zara managed to prevent a quarter of its number and sent them to rk.


    Mo Ning emerged in front of Zhong Li and waved her sword clockwise. "Twister."


    The wave of her sword formed a twister that blew away all the remaining rubbles.


    Not wanting it to end, rk waved both hands and turned the twister into another ice before breaking it with a single punch. "If you want a cold tornado, this is the way."


    The same tornado Mo Ning made reappeared in the arena, albeit with a single twist. The tornado carried ice and the cold temperature. Even Mo Ning didn''t dare to underestimate this power.


    Suddenly, a huge hammer emerged above them and obliterated the tornado in a single strike. "Hammer of Judgment."


    They all found that Zhong Li had put away his Mallet and changed into a hammer. Yet, Zara also made her appearance next to him. Surprisingly, there was a sword in her hand instead of a staff. And she used it to strike Zhong Li.


    Noticing her presence, Mo Ning turned around and stopped her sword. "Kh��"


    "Such an amazing team y!" Sheira shouted in excitement while watching the battle.

 Chapter 268 – Peak Battle Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 268 - Peak Battle Part 2</h4>


    "Such an amazing team y." Sheira began her exnation. "Both teams are trying to defend their teammates while attacking their opponents at the same time. Seeing how both teams can react to each other just shows how high their level as an individual is.


    "Still, what makes me curious is the blessing of Morgana Le Fay, a powerful sorcerer. In her legend, it''s stated that she is also an excellent swordsman despite her extraordinary magic.


    "It''s stated that Zara is a Magician. So, this must mean she is trying to hide her real power! Even I am not sure who will win in this battle!"


    And the one who experienced that power for the first time was Mo Ning. She also had heard about Morgana being an excellent swordsman.


    "Hu��" Mo Ning took a deep breath while trying to get another surge of strength to push back Zara.


    However, Zara already leaped first to avoid Mo Ning while ncing to the left.


    Thetter quickly turned around as she thought either Zhong Li or rk came to this ce, only to feel excruciating pain that jolted her mind right after.


    "Kh!" Mo Ning lowered her vision and saw Zara''s foot on her waist before getting blown away. She almost forgot the fact that Morgana was an honorable swordsman in the past but soon turned into a cruel witch. Of course, she would know how to y a trick or two.


    All of them had been using their Awareness to conceal their own presence so as to not get tracked by their opponents'' Awareness�� Even if they had enough strength to sense them, they needed to consider the speed of the battle and how powerful their opponent was, making them unable to focus on their Awareness.


    When she was in the air, rk appeared with both giant gauntlets, preparing to take her down with a single strike.


    Fortunately, Zhong Li hade to stop rk by smashing his gauntlets with his hammer, albeit this was Zara and rk''s n all along.


    Their target was not Mo Ning but Zhong Li. The moment rk received the attack, he tried to grab Zhong Li''s hand to prevent him from going away while Zara appeared next to him.


    Unexpectedly, a smile appeared on Zhong Li''s face as his hand slipped past rk and struck Zara with his hammer. His expression was filled with fighting intent as his eyes turned bloodshot.


    "!!!" Zara widened her eyes and struck back the hammer, only to find her strength couldn''t go against Zhong Li. She wasunched into the air while finding Mo Ning, who was in the same predicament as her earlier, had already recovered.


    On her hand was not a sword but a bow. She pulled a green-colored bow and aimed at rk.


    "A general should be able to wield anything." Mo Ning''s eyes turned sharp as she released the arrows.


    rk gritted his teeth and turned around, trying to use his right hand to block the arrow while his other hand got stopped by Zhong Li.


    rk had used his power to freeze Zhong Li''s hand, but thetter withstood the cold temperature while his lightning shattered all ice that appeared on his and rk''s hand.


    The sh between the two created a powerful shock wave that slightly disrupted the arrow''s movement.


    But as one would expect from Mu Guiying, the arrow continued on its path and flew straight to rk''s stomach without getting stopped by rk''s hand.


    "You are not the only one who wants to win." Zhong Li sneered as he raised his hand, trying to punch rk to end him.


    However, rk shouted, "Zara. Use it on me!"


    Zara noticed the graveness of his request, but they might indeed need to do it in order to win. She raised her hand as ck energy began to surround her hand. "Madness!"


    rk''s body jolted as his eyes turned bloodshot, releasing all the killing intent he had. He seemed to feel no pain from the wound on his stomach and exerted a more powerful strength to flip Zhong Li with his robotic arm. "Haaaa!"


    Zhong Li widened his eyes as his vision flipped. He still raised both hands because there was another fisting straight at his chest.


    Bam.


    rk punched Zhong Li''s two hands and created a small crater on the ground.


    "Kh!" Zhong Li gritted his teeth as his organs felt the pressure of that impact.


    "Get away!" Mo Ning leaped to him, but she soon saw Zara did the same.


    Both of them swung at the same time, but their target was different. Mo Ning waved her sword to slice rk''s neck, but Zara aimed at Zhong Li instead of protecting her teammates.


    There was one thing Mo Ning didn''t know about the skill Zara used earlier. It was the same skill that Morgana Le Fay used to brainwash people.


    Zara hypnotized rk''s mind to feel no pain, utilize his muscle more proficiently, and draw histent strength. This might injure rk a bit, but they had brought their own doctor that would be able to take care of this kind of injury once. If it were twice, rk''s body would start to break down because it was already beyond human''s capacity.


    And with this power, rk reacted to Mo Ning''s sword as he tried to catch the sword with his other hand.


    In the end, Mo Ning lost this psychological battle as she retracted her sword and used that swing to strike Zara''s sword, saving Zhong Li in the process.


    Unfortunately, this also resulted in rk having enough time to punch her stomach and blow her away.


    Bam.


    Mo Ning crashed to the wall, but she still smiled when she saw someone had risen from the ground. "Show them your might."


    "I won''t let this end yet!" Zhong Li shouted as he summoned the same hammer that destroyed rk''s icy tornado. His drum was already nted on the ground as a support, so it was waiting for him.


    "!!!" rk widened his eyes and thought with sweats covering his forehead. "He is using that big hammer to hit the drum? The power produced by the two��"


    He couldn''t imagine what would happen as he quickly regrouped with Zara, preparing to take on everything that came their way, albeit it was toote.


    "Hammer of Judgment!"


    Bam.

 Chapter 269 – Clark’s Condition

    <h4>Chapter 269 - rk��s Condition</h4>


    "Doing this kind of attack will injure your teammate in the process and she may die in this attack�� Why?" rk muttered inwardly and widened his eyes while going to Zara beforeing to a realization. "No, he is nning to create the third possibility of this match. Knowing that there is no chance to win, he is trying to create a draw.


    "He may defeat both of us and im the win, but because of the friendly fire, which bes a controversial topic, there will be a penalty. Depending on Mo Ning''s condition, the judge will overrule his judgment and conclude this match as our win or a draw! In other words, Zhong Li is trying to make this battle a draw.


    "As long as they can win the fifth fight, there will be another fight, the six rounds!" rk gritted his teeth and looked at Zara''s expression, which seemed clueless about his real n.


    In that instant, rk made a hard decision for himself and turned around, looking at the iing lightning that spread in all directions.


    "Ice Boundary!" rk ced his hand on the ground as Ice Crystals emerged from the ground in all directions.


    This skill looked like Ellen''s Ice Wave, but it expanded in a circle.


    However, rk was even more daring than his look. He ripped the connection between his right arm and the robotic hand before using his other hand to point it to the lightning.


    With the lightning shattering the ice that protected rk''s team, especially the one behind him, the iing lightning changed its destination and turned to rk.


    "!!!" Zhong Li spat a mouthful of blood as he also got the impact from the lightning as well. He raised his vision and muttered, "He is using that metal arm as a lightning rod? He is insane��"


    "rk!" Zara shouted with a worried expression as she realized what Zhong Li was nning.


    Right after the lightning struck rk''s hand, Diego froze the entire arena, including the lightning.


    The cold atmosphere stunned all four people in the arena as they all realized the power of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "The United Kingdom wins!" Diego announced.


    rk couldn''t help but smile as he closed his eyes. His face was pale and his legs finally gave up.


    Before falling down, Zara quickly caught rk and checked his condition. "Medic!"


    "Medic!" Diego also called for it.


    They all ignored Mo Ning, who was protected by white barriers, stopping all the lightning and ice that came to her.


    Zhong Li''s condition was simr to rk''s, but his was close to exhaustion instead of injury.


    The reason for Diego to stop the match after the lightning hit rk was to show that the lightning wouldn''t hurt Zara while China Team needed to take their loss because of this incident.


    He also believed that kind of injury could be fixed within a few days.


    When everything was over, Zara gritted her teeth and wanted toin to their opponents, but rk''s hand refused to let her go.


    This also showed Zara that rk was still conscious despite closing his eyes.


    In the end, Zara let it go and chose to believe rk as the medical team brought him back, so the audience didn''t need to see his condition and Sheira could talk about the ending of this battle.


    As soon as they returned, Ne and the other teammates quickly came out, looking at rk''s condition.


    The middle-aged man they brought as their medical team started sweating when checking rk''s injury. "This��"


    "What is it?" Zara was the first to react by grabbing his shoulders. rk was in this state to protect her, so she felt responsible for this condition.


    "The lightning itself is not harming his body that much. With some treatment and medicine, he should be fine after two days of rest. However��"


    "Don''t tell me�� It''s my��" Zara drew a gasp as a terrified expression nted on her face.


    "Yes. Because of the hypnotize skill, his body took the lightning worse than expected and put a considerable amount of stress on his body�� Healing the wound can be done, but I''m afraid he can''t utilize his powerpletely. At most, seventy percent."


    "��" Ne and the others fell silent.


    "I''m sorry�� It''s my fault." rk gritted his teeth as if he had done something awful.


    "What are you talking about? You did it to save me. I should be the one to apologize!"


    rk smiled and turned to Ne. "I can still fight. It''s not like we can find my recement since it''s not allowed��"


    What rk said was mentioned in the rule. To replicate the situation on the other side, no team could bring a recement because if one were injured heavily on the other side, they would be a great burden to the team.


    Rescuing him was a priority, but there was a time where rescuing him needed to sacrifice more than ten people. This way, the team needed to make a hard decision.


    And Ne was the one who needed to make it�� Ne closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Please proceed to treat him. I will let you fight, but you need to follow my arrangement. I am required to bring all of you safe and sound, so I won''t allow any irreparable damage to your body that may affect your future."


    rk smiled and nodded. "I understand. I shall follow your arrangement."


    "I hope you can take care of him." Ne turned to the middle-aged man with a serious expression.


    "Yes. I will do my best."


    "rk��" Zara still regretted the result of thispetition. And the fact they needed to fight Theo''s team with this kind of condition made it even worse.


    Ne suddenly bent down and gently bumped her fist on rk''s chest. "I am not good with words, but I need to tell you one thing. If you still want to contribute to the team, you shall think of nothing other than your recovery. Even if it means you can''t fight with your full power, for me, seventy-one percent of your power is better than your seventy percent. Understand?"


    rk chuckled and said with a smile. "I got it, Captain. I shall put everything into my recovery."

 Chapter 270 – Reverse Force Control

    <h4>Chapter 270 - Reverse Force Control</h4>


    After watching how the United Kingdom won, Theo couldn''t help but frown. China Team was by no means weak, but they still lost because of one particr match. It was the battle between Ne and Cheng Sui.


    The fact that Ne hadn''t used her everything in that match and decided to end it with a trick told Theo that she had some assurance against them.


    Although he couldn''t see the extent of rk''s injury, he simply considered rk as healed.


    Even so, looking at their strength, Theo couldn''t help but wonder if they had enough power to win.


    Laust''s blessing might be one of the greatest assurances, but it would mean nothing to their current difference. The biggest problem would be Ne.


    They had this huge advantage over them, so the only way to remove that advantage was to have him fight Ne and defeat her in one on one fight.


    And with the current condition, Theo didn''t have enough confidence he could im the victory for both game battles. Hence, this match would be prolonged to the very end.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose while trying toe up with a good n against Ne''s team. Unfortunately, as he expected, it was hard to even win against this kind of power.


    "Theo, what do you think?" Phyrill asked with a serious expression.


    "It''s not good. I can''t see how we can win��"


    His reply got everyone''s attention. Phyrill let out a long sigh and asked, "Are they that good?"


    "Yes. That rk may be stronger than Alea. Even their Zara has excellent swordsmanship on top of her magic, which obviously was stronger than Alea. Zara alone could stop Alea and if they werebined��" Theo shook his head. "There are a few other things I want to mention, but for now, I should go to Teacher Rai first, asking him about Ne''s power. If I can understand it, our chance to win will greatly increase."


    "I understand." Phyrill nodded in disappointment, knowing their future was a bit bleak.


    But if they considered it from another perspective, they were already in the top four. Compared to every single time theypeted here, this was the first time they reached the main stage and ranked fourth for the very least. There was still a chance to get the bronze medal if they defeated whoever lost in the other block.


    It was a high achievement for them. No one mentioned it, but Theo could already see Eilric Family''s business increase in price. It was because they trusted Alea would be able to reach Mythical Rank in the future. If they could get Theo to work for them, it would have a simr effect.


    Ellen and the others would also bring some benefits, so even if they lost, nobody wouldin about their performance.


    "Anyway, that''s it." Theo rose from his seat and nced over Radvils. "I believe I can return��"


    "Do as you see fit. You can bother thatzy Rai to death." Radvils nodded with a serious expression.


    "Thanks." Theo then left the room without saying anything to other people.


    Seeing his expression, Alea couldn''t help but ask Radvils, "Can I have the recording?"


    ��


    As soon as Theo returned to the hotel, he banged Rai''s door.


    Rai scratched the back of his head with a sleepy face. "Do you need anything from me?"


    "I need you to exin Ne''s power."


    "Ah, that��" Rai looked down, falling into deep thought. After a while, he opened his door and said, "Come on in."


    Theo entered Rai''s room as thetter pointed to the chair.


    When he was about to sit, he saw Rai grabbing a paper and a needle.


    "My control is not at her level and it''s also not the same," Rai exined and sat on the bed. "I''m toozy to listen to your understanding, so you just need to listen to me.


    "First of all, Control is divided into several categories, depending on the way you use it. However, in this topic, they are categorized as Soft, Force, and Perfect." Rai raised the paper in his hand. "Soft Control can allow you to channel your Magic Power to another thing outside your body. It can also cover your whole body as if it''s a sword.


    "Many great people are doing this to protect themselves from any damage. And�� What you want to learn is the release of the Soft Control." Rai then ced the paper on top of his palm before the paper began to float staggeringly. "When you release a certain amount of Magic Power, you can float something like this, albeit the flow of Soft Control is limited despite being trained to the extreme.


    "That''s why we need tobine the Soft Control with Force Control. You usually charge a bit more Magic Power to your Magic Bullets to bend them, right? That''s the way��"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "But how can you release that much power? I mean, we don''t use any skills, so we can''t really release that abundant Magic Power�� Can''t we?"


    Rai nodded. "That''s why I saidbined. The "Skill" we are talking about is none other than Soft Control. By using this trick, you are able to create a certain disruption in your body."


    "A disruption in my body?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yes." Rai pointed at his yellow paper. "Imagine this is your hand. The yellow color of this paper is your Magic Power, which basically gathers all over your hand. In order to create a massive influx of Magic Power, we are going to cut the paper into two.


    "This will create a disruption of Magic Power inside your own hand,unching half of them back to the heart while the other half came out of the pores on your hand. How to cut them and how do we control their flow? The answer is simple. It''s none other than Soft Control. In other words, this technique is the opposite of your normal Force Control with skill."


    Theo closed his eyes before recalling what Ne said back then. "Depends on the dosage, huh��"


    "Dosage?"


    "How do we want them to move, what kind of impact they will give, and so on." Theo closed his eyes before opening them again with a gasp. His eyes were wide open as he stared at Rai with a dumbfounded expression. "!!!"


    "So, that''s how it is��"

 Chapter 271 – Winners

    <h4>Chapter 271 - Winners</h4>


    "��" Rai furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what Theo was thinking. He scratched the back of his head and continued, "I don''t know what you have understood earlier, but I will continue now. In any case, this is all I can say regarding your opponent''s power.


    "Other than that�� I probably have two pieces of advice for you. First, Even though Magic Power is formless, you can imagine them as gas, liquid or solid, depending on your intention. Second, you can focus on your Awareness to see the flow of Magic Power.


    "Of course, I can''t say anything regarding Awareness since I''m not good with it as well despite being a doctor."


    "Cheng Sui seemed to have mastered the next level of Endurance, increasing his natural regeneration and defensive ability�� Also, Enrica has shown me the power of Awareness, albeit I don''t really understand it. Can you tell me a bit, Teacher?"


    "As I said, I''m not that good, but if you desire a textbook answer, sure." Rai sighed and started exining. "Awareness means increasing your senses to the highest limit. Touch to feel the flow of Magic Power by your own skin�� Vision to see the movement directly�� Or Taste to know more about Magic Power and the affinity and so on.


    "This is the next level of Awareness. Your Awareness is not that good right now, but I can teach you a bit about Awareness, letting you feel the movement of Magic Power. In other words, I can strengthen your sense of touch in a few days. What do you think?"


    "That will be great." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "But how?"


    "It''s simple. You''re going to feel it continuously. I want you to grow ustomed to Magic Power." Rai smiled and raised both his needle and paper. "These two will be helping me to do that."


    "��" Theo paused for a moment before making a big smile. "Of course. I''m going to bother you to death."


    "Just give me a break every other hour, you little sh*t." Rai''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Hahaha��" Theoughed as their training began.


    Rai tried to use his acupuncture to make Theo feel the movement of his own Magic Power inside his body. It almost felt nothing, but Theo managed to sense the faint movement as if an ant crawling inside his body. Meanwhile, the paper had been imbued by Magic Power to make Theo know how to control and feel the Magic Power at the same time.


    This training allowed Theo to grow by leaps and bounds. It might not strengthen his overall Control, but his understanding of Awareness, Magic Power, and Control increased drastically to the point Rai drew a cold breath.


    He had the same expression as others who had trained with Theo, excluding Theo''s Master. All of them just couldn''t believe Theo could learn something really fast.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the team kept visiting him from time to time while watching the other two Blocks.


    In Block C, although India Team had fought their best, they couldn''t defeat Japan Team. India Team Leader had Shiva''s Blessing, but Japan Team wasn''t that pushover either. On top of Benzaiten and Susanoo-no-Mikoto''s blessings, Japan was controlled by the only female in the group, Shibuya Mami.


    Her power might not be as powerful as the other two, but Shibuya Mami showed another unprecedented level of talent.


    Like Ne''s Control, Cheng Sui''s Endurance, and Enrica''s Awareness, she mastered one of the five aspects, Technique. Her Technique was so profound that even without skill, she could defeat her opponent.


    It was a different fighting style, but Shibuya Mami managed to win with only three skills like Ne.


    It wasn''t like India Team were weaklings. However, some had noticed it. Their current generations relied heavily on Blessing instead of the versatile Five Aspects.


    After all, the easiest thing to make them famous was none other than Blessings. Yet, it wasn''t enough to maintain that degree of fame if they didn''t bnce it with Five Aspects.


    Although it came with disappointment, this incident told them to practice the Five Aspects more. As long as they didn''t give up, they would be able to be great figures in the future.


    Block D''s battle happened the next day. It was the fight between Egypt and the United States.


    This had be the most anticipated fight because the audience could see two different fighting styles. Egypt Team used the same strategy as most of the team here, relying on both Blessing and Five Aspects. Their team even had Goddess Sekhmet, Bennu, and Horus.


    They were all strong in their own right and employed a good strategy. However, America Team turned the situation around with its weaponry. Despite having a God Rank Blessing, God of Thunder and protector of the mountain Pam, Maya Hamilton still relied on a booster on her back to add more thrust when flying with her wing and some more.


    However, the most fascinating among them was none other than their team leader, Hannah Baker. Her unique use of grenades and guns made her style unique.


    Many people thought it was just a waste of money, but for Hannah, it was her own lifeline. She earned money to gain more money and used it to gain more money. That was why she didn''t mind throwing money away.


    People even started counting on how much money she used in the Block D alone and ended up seeing a whooping seven million Zils or seven hundred thousand US Dors. Born from a wealthy family and mastered business, she had built manypanies to supply her own needs, making her known as a unique, independent woman.


    After two long days, they finally got two days'' rest before the next match began. The first match would be between Thernd and the United Kingdom.


    Many were curious what would happen when two Griffiths fought each other, especially after seeing how talented the two were. Actually, most of them wanted to see Thernd toppling the United Kingdom, creating another uproar in thispetition.


    Meanwhile, the other block also might have an exciting match because they wanted to see the winner between "Technique" and "Weapon".


    In any case, Thernd was in the mood for celebration because every time they won, another record was broken�� Which was also their own record.


    Theo and Alea''s names almost resounded in every corner of the country as the news about them never ceased.

 Chapter 272 – Bet

    <h4>Chapter 272 - Bet</h4>


    A few dayster.


    Theo woke up from his sleep and stretched his body a bit before rising from his bed.


    "Today is going to be a hard battle��" He muttered while going to the bathroom to wash his face.


    After changing his clothes, he brought his spears and left the room, only to find a person standing in front of his room as if she had been waiting for him this whole time.


    "Hmm?" Theo was confused and furrowed his eyebrows, asking, "What are you doing, Alea?"


    "Do you have some time? I want to talk." Alea made a weird smile while looking away.


    Theo checked the clock and nodded. "Five minutes should be fine."


    Alea nodded and raised three fingers. "I have three questions I want to ask."


    "Ask away."


    "Many people are convinced that you and Ne are blood-rted. However, I want to confirm it again�� Are you really her cousin?"


    "I have no idea. On one hand, I believe I am because of our simrity and the way she does things. On the other hand, I have no definitive proof other than my pocket watch." Theo answered honestly.


    "Will you pull your punch when you fight her?" Alea asked another question with a serious expression, observing Theo''s every gesture to ensure Theo didn''t lie.


    However, Theo had no intention to lie. He smiled, "I don''t have any problem beating you. Do you think I will have one with this so-called rtive with no proof?"


    "Ehm��" Alea gently stroked her cheek while saying, "Can you not say the first line? It seems that the grudge in your heart is too deep�� What did I do to offend you? I want to apologize for it."


    Theo shook his head. "It''s better for you not to know, especially when the battle is approaching. Emotion and mood are the worst things to influence your performance."


    "Well, how about a bet? If I win, you tell me the reason. If you lose, I will do anything."


    "Anything, eh?" Theo suddenly smiled.


    "Ehm, anything in my means and it must be rted to me, not my family." Alea quickly corrected her words.


    "What''s the bet?"


    "I don''t know. How about if we lose this battle, I win the bet?"


    "Never mind then. The risk is too big." Theo shook his head and closed his door, nning to leave. "I only want something I can win. Tch, I thought about turning you into my ve."


    "Well, I don''t have the confidence in making you ept the bet. And�� ve��" Alea made a weird expression as she shook her thoughts off and uttered herst question. "This is the third one. Do you hate me?"


    Theo nced at her expression and thought for a moment. "Even a person has something they love and hate from their best friend. So, I think it''s neutral for me. I won''t say much, but I guess I can give you a clue."


    "What is it?"


    "Every action gives birth to another cause, whether you are aware of it or not. Even talking to you right now may cause another problem for me in the future, but I will always do my best to know what will happen. That''s all." Theo sped up and gathered together with his teammates in the lobby, heading straight to the stadium.


    As soon as they arrived and were about to reach the waiting room, they saw Ne standing not far from them, staring with a serious expression as if telling them she had something to say.


    And whatever came out of her mouth was probably meant for Theo, so Phyrill said, "I think it''s better to give them some time."


    The others decided to enter the room because no matter what, they were rtives. Alea didn''t find anything suspicious from Theo, so she thought she could believe in him.


    With no one getting in their way, Ne approached him before stopping a few feet away to show him she had no bad intention like a curse or something.


    "Cousin��" Ne looked Theo in the eyes.


    "Do you need anything from me?"


    "I actually want to ask you for a bet. If I win this battle, please allow me to call you by your name. If I lose, I will teach you all tricks of my "Control". How does this sound?"


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Why do you even need my permission to call my name?"


    Theo remembered Ne never called Theo by his name. "I�� I don''t understand. Why?"


    Ne shook her head. "I can only tell you the reason after thepetition."


    "It''s rted to the Griffith Family?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Thetter nodded her head and continued, "It''s going to be a long talk after the banquet."


    Theo thought for a moment. The bet itself was actually too ridiculous for him, but calling his name shouldn''t carry any other meaning. It was probably rted to his status in the Griffith Family, but he would soon decide what his stand to the Griffith Family was, so it was probably not that big of a deal.


    "I don''t see any problem with the bet." Theo agreed to the bet because he had nothing to lose and he would gain a huge benefit if Ne taught him the tricks of her Control. It would make him grow even stronger after returning to Thernd.


    "That''s great." Ne showed a big smile as if she just won something big.


    "You sound like you just won a lottery�� I suppose I should retract the bet."


    "Wait, you can''t just retract something you have promised."


    "I am shameless enough to do it, especially with no one witnessing us." Theo shrugged.


    "I truly don''t have any ulterior motives. I just want us to get closer and hope you will let me in your room to talk about this. After all, no ce is safe to discuss this information. I thought with me bing closer to you, I could do this��" Ne panicked and exined everything.


    "Either way, I only want the information about the Griffith Family. I, by no means, have the intention to get involved. If you are nning to eliminate me or something, you don''t need to." Theo shrugged.


    "There''s no way I will do that. No matter what happens, I will love you, Cousin." Ne smiled and turned around, leaving while waving her hand. "Anyway, that''s all. See you in thepetition. We won''t be pulling our punch, okay?"

 Chapter 273 – First Meeting In Battle

    <h4>Chapter 273 - First Meeting In Battle</h4>


    When he returned to the room, a staff member came to the room to inform them of everything regarding the game they would y.


    "Excuse me." The staff opened the door while carrying a silver pole in his right hand. "I will exin the next game."


    Theo and the others nodded and asked him to continue.


    "The game is a castle defense. The name aside, this is a game that requires three people."


    "��" Theo suddenly understood before he said everything. He thought, ''I see. One of us is required to hold the g, huh.''


    While they were listening to the staff''s exnation, Sheira began hermentary.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen. After one day''s break from thest round, we are back with another new fight that is far more exciting than what we have seen so far. This is a battle between rtives. We have no information on why they fight for separate countries, but this is worthy of being called a fated battle.


    "This is the first time I have seen rtives fighting each other in thispetition. On one hand, Theodore Griffith has shown us his fighting coordination which can''t be described by any word other than perfect. On the other hand, Ne Griffith has powerful Control that may give no chance for her rtive to deal with her even with his clone.


    "Will Thernd create another uproar by toppling the United Kingdom? Or will the United Kingdom prevail over its opponent? We shall bear witness to this great match.


    "For now, let me announce the game for today''spetition. Each team will send three participants where one of them is required to hold a g signifying their country. Their objective is to steal the opponent''s g. As long as they take over the g for one second, it''s counted as their winning. That''s all." Sheira smiled and shouted. "This may be a great advantage for Theodore Griffith because he has his clone to help him. In any case, without further ado, let''s call the participants of the first round!"


    "Uoh!" The cheers erupted as they all saw six people emerging from the gate.


    "Here they are! From the United Kingdom Team, Ne Griffith, Zara Kennedy, and Luka Fletcher have taken the field! Meanwhile, from the opposite team�� Surprisingly, they are Theodore Griffith, Sihan Raskaka, and Ellen Marcines. This is truly a fated battle between rtives. I can''t wait anymore!"


    Contrary to her excitement, Ne''s expression darkened as she couldn''t understand why Theo actually came out first. To fight Theo, they realized no matter how hard they thought, they wouldn''t be able to defeat him with strategy.


    Hence, Ne proposed to overwhelm Theo with power. Because of rk''s injury, he agreed to be on the second team as the first team should be the one getting the first win.


    However, Theo truly just beat them with another trick of his. No one would expect Theo toe out on the first round since he should have known that it was impossible to win against them, especially with his teammates.


    Zara and Luka couldn''t help but frown, knowing Theo must have prepared something for them.


    When the two teams arrived before each other, Ne''s eyes turned bloodshot as she couldn''t help but make a big smile, purely filled with excitement. "Cousin. What are you nning?"


    Theo chuckled as the other two remained silent.


    "What''s funny?" Ne''s expression turned grave as if she wanted to tear Theo up. There was no happiness in her eyes anymore like how she always presented herself. Her tone was cold and her gaze was sharp. "I am telling you now�� Since I need to win against you for that bet, I will be as ruthless as I need to be."


    "It''s truly funny." Theo let out a hollowugh, making Ne mad. He looked down on her and said with a smug. "You can''t even understand what I am trying to say? I only want to say that I''m going to beat your ass here. We three are enough."


    Ne clenched her teeth and stomped the ground with the pole. "Since that is the case, I won''t hold back anymore."


    "��" Diego also wondered what was wrong with this family. As a Mythical Rank expert who also had some big influences globally, he also knew about the Griffith Family. That was why he could only shake his head when seeing these two mad people. In the end, he raised his hand and said, "Match Starts!"


    Theo and the others quickly leaped back to gain their distance. He was holding two spears in his hands and carrying the silver pole on his back, so it was obvious he was the target this time. The same applied to Ne, but Theo had one advantage over Ne.


    "Clone." Theo summoned his clone and handed the spear to him.


    "Oh!" Sheira recognized Theo''s clone andmented, "There it is! Theodore''s Clone. With his clone, this fight has be a 4 vs 3 fight! Now, what will the United Kingdom Team do in order to destroy this advantage?"


    Hearing her words, Ne smirked and looked at Theo, saying coldly. "I already said I won''t hold back anymore."


    Ne dropped a copper coin the size of a palm, summoned her "Underworld Dog", and cut her palm, pouring the blood to the ground.


    Suddenly, a ck ball appeared above them before three tentacles expanded from its body, grabbing the two items and touching the blood.


    "I call thee, Empusa."


    "Oh, this is the legendary Empusa! It turns out Ne is using her own summoned being to fight against Theodore''s clone!"


    However, before she finished, Ne quickly ced her hand on the ground as ten skeletons emerged from the ground. They might not have a weapon or a shield on their hands, but their number should be an annoyance for Theo.


    "Wh-what?! Ne doesn''t pull her punch. She has overturned the situation before they even sh!"


    "Hmph. Cousin, if you take back your words, I will retract my skeleton soldiers." Ne grinned while releasing her killing intent to pressure Theo to make his decision.


    The answer came in the form of action as Theo and his clone summoned all eighty Magic Bullets.


    He released all of them simultaneously while saying, "Take back my words? Someone who is about to lose wants me to do it? Keep sleep talking when you are asleep, little girl."


    "Then so be it!" Ne''s switch flipped off when he called her little girl.

 Chapter 274 – Got You

    <h4>Chapter 274 - Got You</h4>


    "Then so be it!"


    Ne quickly sent all her skeleton soldiers and the Empusa to fight Theo and the others first.


    Theo, expecting the horde, sent out all his Magic Bullets. However, his real target was not the skeletons or the Empusa. Instead, it was Ne.


    All eighty Magic Bullets looped around the arena before heading straight to Ne from all directions. This gave Sihan the time to close his distance and waved his sword, following the Magic Bullets.


    Ne pped her hand as the Magic Power gathered in her hands shed with each other, creating a small shock wave of Magic Power that created a half sphere with Ne in the center.


    All of the Magic Bullets hit the boundary of the Magic Power and exploded at the same time. But Ne truly understood him well.


    Due to hisck of understanding about the Magic Power, Ne''s attack earlier destroyed the real Magic Bullets and made the other clone bullets disappear.


    "��" Seeing such a reaction, Ne and Theo''s expression turned grim before Sihan waved his sword from below. "Dawn Strike."


    A green-haired man suddenly shed before Sihan, striking his rapier against Sihan''s sword right before Sihan released that attack. The attack was not hard, but Sihan somehow was unable to push him back even with his skill.


    Noticing his struggle, Ellen raised her staff and summoned four star-shaped blue lights, sending all of them at the same time. "Freezing Shot."


    "Einhaj!"


    Suddenly, a ck circle appeared between them as four tentacles emerged, stopping the lights with their own bodies.


    The Ice Crystals appeared as soon as they were hit and destroyed the hole altogether but Ne and the others were fine while Sihan was still in trouble.


    Ellen hurriedly raised her hand as a huge meteor appeared out of thin air. She waved her hand down,unching the Ice Meteor against them. "Sihan."


    Noticing what she nned to do, Sihan leaped to the side to avoid the meteor.


    The meteor hit the ground right before the skeletons, mowing them down.


    Ne''s Empusa noticed it as well and struck the boulder with her two des, but it was futile. The ice was too big and the weight was no joke. It pushed the Empusa back until Ne appeared above her.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    Ne struck the ice boulder right in the middle and stopped the boulder in an instant. However, cracks soon appeared all over the boulder before the ice was shattered into pieces, revealing Ne''s appearance behind the boulder.


    She looked down on them with a cold expression while saying, "Your Magic Bullet�� I calcted it earlier. It seems the ratio was three to one. In other words, three of your four Magic Bullets were just nothing but fake."


    Theo smiled and summoned them again, releasing it to Ne. "Then, can you find the real one?"


    "��" Ne fell silent before she leaped to Theo. "There is no need to find them. I just need to break through them."


    The Magic Bullets came from all directions, but with Ne leaping at fast speed, he could overrun most of them. As for those who stood in her way, she simply sent a punch to them, obliterating them effortlessly.


    Sihan wanted to stop her, but Luka quickly stopped him again, not letting Sihan do anything to Ne.


    Because of her blunder in thest match, Zara also didn''t hold back anymore. She hurriedly came to Ellen with her sword because Ellen shouldn''t stand a chance against her in close quarterbat.


    Not wanting to lose, Theo used his blink to appear behind Ne with his fist ready, albeit Ne seemed to have thought ahead by making the Empusa run right behind her.


    When he appeared, the Empusa leaped to Theo to strike him from behind.


    Just like Ne, Theo understood what she nned to do and had his clone cover his back from Empusa''s attack.


    When the Empusa waved its de-shaped hand, Clone Theo used his spear''s handle to receive it.


    Theo, on the contrary, sent a fist to Ne''s back, only to find her body emitting a powerful wave of Magic Power that blew him to the back.


    "Huh?" Theo narrowed his eyes and got thrown to the air whilementing out loud. "Did you just fart? Wow, your fart was so powerful."


    "Cousin, your words are terrible."


    "Better than your action." Theo shrugged before bending his knees and spinning his body. He tried to position himself in the air as when he reached Clone Theo behind him, he stepped on his back to return to Ne with stronger momentum. "Flowmotion."


    This was the first time he used Flowmotion, the skill that allowed him to use any surface as his stepping.


    His spear began to glow as Theo thrust it with all his might. "Cannon st."


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Burst."


    Theo''s spear stopped right in front of Ne''s hand before thetter generated a powerful shock wave that passed through his body, shaking the air nearby.


    Theo felt his hand as if it was pushed by Ne''s real hand, trying to break his bone. And when the Cannon st''s energy disappeared from his spear, that powerful energy struck his body with full force,unching him to the sky like how it made Cheng Sui crash to the wall.


    Theo and his clone collided in midair.


    Taking advantage of Theo losing his bnce, Empusa alsounched herself together with the two Theos, so her master could defeat him in one go.


    However, Clone Theo used his Blink and teleported them away from this ce, returning to Ellen''s position and dropping to the ground.


    "There you are��" Ne smirked and leaped to Theo without hesitation.


    Both Theo struggled to get up, but luckily, Ellen summoned three Ice Lotuses above Ne''s head.


    "Bloom, Ice Lotuses."


    The ice crystals, which appeared right after the three lotuses hit the ground, stopped Ne for a second before thetter destroyed it with her fist.


    Still, it gave Theo enough time to stand back up, albeit Ne already appeared right before him. She, without hesitation, grabbed the spear in Theo''s hand while smiling. "I got you. I can feel Magic Power in this spear. It''s not the one you use to coat your weapon�� Ah, is this the pole?"


    "!!!"

 Chapter 275 – Battle Between Relatives

    <h4>Chapter 275 - Battle Between Rtives</h4>


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched a little bit before maintaining his poker face.


    This small movement didn''t escape Ne''s eyes as thetter quickly poured more power into Theo''s spear.


    "Kh!" Theo felt a jolt in his brain as if Ne''s Control managed to hit his mind. But the truth was the Magic Power shing with each other. Due to the disruption of the flow, Theo couldn''t control his Magic Power anymore. He gritted his teeth as if he felt extraordinary pain before his white spear turned into a blue spear, which was his other spear.


    The silver pole on his back also returned to its original form, the white spear. "What did you do?"


    Hearing Theo''s mumble, Ne smirked and exined a bit. "I''m just pouring my Magic Power into yours. Without enough control, it will disrupt the flow of your Magic Power, which is working for me because I know the two spears are in your�� Hmm, using your clone to hide it�� As expected from you, Cousin. Such a clever trick."


    Before he replied, Ne already shouted, "Zara, Luka, these two are his spears. You go for the clone. He is holding the real pole."


    "Understood." Both of them replied at the same time.


    Because of their situation, Clone Theo raised his spear before changing his spear to a silver pole. There was no point in hiding it anymore.


    Luka raised his sword and thrust it right at Sihan''s neck.


    Sihan avoided it, but the thrust shot white energy shaped like that of silk, flying toward Clone Theo.


    Clone Theo used his Blink to teleport himself away from the Empusa while avoiding this attack.


    At the same time, Sihan mmed his shield to Luka, which was stopped by his sword. Unexpectedly, Sihan hid behind the shield before his sword came at him from the left.


    "Huh?" Luka widened his eyes while ncing at the right. He thought, ''What? Is the swording from my right? But he should wield it with his right hand and with this shield in front of him, his hand will be stuck and stopped before the sword hits me. Surely he��''


    Before he finished his words, Luka quickly ducked down to avoid the iing sword that was supposed to stop.


    The sword went full swing before he saw Sihan''s left hand appearing in his vision. In other words, Sihan just exchanged hands to wield his weapon.


    "What?!" Luka widened his eyes in amazement. He said inwardly, ''I have seen many people using both hands to handle a weapon, but this Sihan can exchange his hands in a matter of one or two seconds?''


    Luka''s heart skipped a beat, realizing Sihan wasn''t a pushover either.


    This was one of the small tricks he practiced during his training session with Radvils. With this dual wielding and blocking the enemy''s vision with his shield, he should be unpredictable.


    "You shall not pass."


    Sihan''s voice echoed in his ears before thetter took a step back while shouting, "Sorry, Ne. My hands are full right now."


    This showed many people that Sihan had enough strength to stop him for a period of time, if not defeat him.


    Ellen couldn''t help but smile, not wanting to lose to Sihan.


    With her barely keeping up with Zara''s sword, Ellen tried to push her away with her staff by spinning her own body to generate enough force.


    Zara only stomped the ground to gain enough strength to suppress Ellen again, but above them, three blue lights appeared out of thin air, preparing to hit them.


    Zara narrowed her eyes, but before she could do anything, Ellen had released her skill, shooting all the lights.


    Thetter soon noticed that the attack wasn''t for her. It was for the Empusa.


    With their current position, the Empusa had no way to know the fact it was about to be destroyed.


    Hence, Zara shouted, "Ne, stop it!"


    Hearing that shout, Ne felt the iing attack that was about to pass them. She immediately realized the target and raised a blue light ball like Theo''s Magic Bullet.


    But�� Theo recognized this skill as it was the exact same thing as his Magic Bullet, albeit a bit weaker since it must be an E Rank Skill, unlike his D Rank Magic Bullet.


    Unfortunately for him, Ne''s control was just too godly. The Magic Bullets flew straight to the moving lights.


    Because they kept moving, the Magic Bullets missed it, but Ne''s force control made them turn in the attack''s path, hitting the three lights in session.


    She didn''t stop there. The remaining seven bullets quickly made their way to the Empusa before getting a few more turns, surrounding Theo in all directions.


    "��" Theo frowned as he knew Ne''s Control was this good. He remembered Ellen''s exnation about Force Control. Seeing that the Magic Bullets could turn a few times, Ne must be one step above Beginner Level Force Control, the Practitioner Level.


    Clone Theo quickly leaped backward while summoning two Elemental Shields, one in the front and one in the back. The one in the back helped him get away while the other one stopped the Empusa''s attack.


    "This is our difference, Cousin." Ne smiled.


    "Yeah, I know. That''s why I am going to need this." Theo grabbed Ne''s pole as Ne also grabbed his spear. He then pulled the pole to invite Ne in and jumped with both feet kicking Ne''s abdomen.


    Understanding his movement, Ne smiled and showed her flexibility once again. She let go of the spear and held the pole tightly while leaning to the side, grabbing Theo''s feet.


    Ne didn''t give the time for Theo to recover his bnce and closed in, using the split second to arrive in front of Theo.


    Because of the urgency, Theo let go of the silver pole and used the newly freed hand to stop Ne''s advance.


    Both of them thought the same thing and hit each other''s hand with the metal pole in their hands. Ne''s silver pole hit Theo''s upper left arm while Theo''s spear handle hit Ne''s lower left arm.


    They all used their strength to st each other away, but Ne had more advantage here as she released a burst of Magic Power, hitting straight to his chest.


    "!!!" Theo felt his chest just got a powerful impact before flying into the air. He red at Ne, who quickly used that time to head straight to Clone Theo.


    "Not good!"

 Chapter 276 – Tasting Own Poison

    <h4>Chapter 276 - Tasting Own Poison</h4>


    "I will be doing this by myself." Ne leaped to Clone Theo, leaving the real person behind.


    She even coordinated with her Empusa as thetter struck Clone Theo to prevent him from moving.


    With Neing closer, Clone Theo quickly summoned his Magic Bullets to stop Ne on her track.


    Ne looked around her and realized there was something different in those Magic Bullets. Hence, she kept marching forward without losing any speed, destroying any Magic Bullets that were on her way.


    Some Magic Bullets were overrun by her, but Theo was not that easy to defeat.


    The Magic Bullets suddenly chased her from behind as Ne instantly understood what the Magic Bullets were capable of. She couldn''t help but think, ''Homing Ability? As expected of Cousin, to think you are still hiding something like this.''


    Ne poured a bit more of Magic Power to her feet and released it like Laust''s skill.


    Her speed increased drastically as she reached Theo faster than his Magic Bullets.


    She grabbed Clone Theo''s head and mmed him down to the ground.


    Bam.


    The clone disappeared due to that much damage, but Theo''s real body had arrived together with the Magic Bullets, trying to regain the silver pole before Ne got it.


    "Tch." Ne clicked her tongue and pped her hand, trying to form the same boundary that stopped Theo''s Magic Bullet. Sadly, it also gave Theo enough time to pick the silver pole up while summoning his clone, handing it over again.


    "Swift Energy." Theo thrust his spear at her neck.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Twister." She sent a punch, but Clone Theo prevented her by releasing two Elemental Shields in front of the real Theo, taking her punch directly.


    Bang.


    The energy pierced shattered the first Elemental Shield, but Theo had enough time to leap to the left, avoiding her attack while attacking her from her right side, which should be impossible to protect because she used her right hand to punch the shield.


    Ne took a deep breath as she already knew it was impossible to defeat Theo without using all her strength. Hence, she waved her left hand to the side.


    "!!!" The next instant, Theo realized he was blown away and rolled on the ground a few times before coughing. He raised his vision and looked at Ne. "What''s that��"


    He instinctively ced his hand on his waist as he felt a powerful impact hit that area. Although it didn''t injure him, the force was enough to make him suffer some pain.


    Ne didn''t say anything and leaped toward him. "Since if I defeat you, the clone will disappear too, I should focus on you instead of your clone."


    "Magic Bullets." Theo summoned ten Magic Bullets and shot everything, but Ne showed another secret of her power.


    She simply waved her hand to the side before all the Magic Bullets exploded without even touching her.


    Theo widened his eyes and rose from the ground, preparing for her attack.


    "Since that is the case, I will also defeat��" Before he finished, Theo stopped as Ne was about to arrive before him.


    Ne suddenly turned around and saw Clone Theo''s appearing behind her with his spear. "Swift Energy."


    Ne used the same power and waved her hand from left to right and left again, blowing the spear in that direction before even reaching her.


    At the same time, she called the Empusa to help her handle the clone, but she soon realized someone was missing despite her preparing to take on Theo''s attack from behind.


    "I guess you want to do it that way." Ne smiled because he knew what Theo was doing.


    Theo used his Blink to appear next to the Empusa''s head and pierced her head with all his might. "Cannon st."


    The energy from Cannon st obliterated the Empusa''s head without her being able to do anything.


    This action didn''t escape Ne''s defense as she already expected to fight him in a 1 vs 2 situation. And this should be the time for her to show a bit more of her prowess.


    She raised both hands and poured her Magic Power into the air like usual. "Heaven Fall."


    Theo gasped when he felt the pressureing from the air above him. Although he barely saw it, he was sure there was ayer of an unbreakable screen that seemed to be falling down.


    "Since I''m just a little girl, I''m sure Cousin can withstand this first before me. I''m short after all��" Ne smiled.


    Theo gritted his teeth and raised both hands, releasing all his strength to hold this screen.


    ''Kh. I used my spear to defeat the Empusa, so I didn''t have enough time to nt it on the ground to support whatever this is��'' Theoined directly while feeling the pressure from above.


    Just like its name, it was like Heaven falling down on top of him. He needed to lift it up whileing up with a n to escape.


    Ne quickly charged at him to defeat him first before stealing the g. Unexpectedly, Clone Theo quickly grabbed the real body first and utilized the Blink skill, teleporting both of them away from this ce.


    Unfortunately for him, when things were going smoothly, he heard shoutsing from behind.


    "Theo!"


    It turned out both Ellen and Sihan called his name at the same time. Clone Theo faced the back of the original, so he could see what their concern was.


    It turned out, Zara and Luka had stopped his teammates and marched toward him, trying to defeat Theo together in one single move. And the reason they would dare to do this was due to Theo using his Teleport together with his clone, preventing him from using another one for a while.


    Hence, this was the signal for their tactic.


    However�� This strategy was none other than his own strategy.


    "Your tactic is so perfect, Cousin. Let me use it too." Ne only smiled at him.


    This time, Theo finally experienced how Ignazio felt when he was defeated by his own technique. It was a weird feeling, but he felt no anger in his heart. He simply made a grin while saying, "Heh, you are good."

 Chapter 277 – Scary Girl

    <h4>Chapter 277 - Scary Girl</h4>


    With the two iing people behind him, Theo was finally in a dire situation. At the same time, he couldn''t really throw the pole because Ne had positioned himself in between, nning to grab everything if Theo indeed dared to do it.


    At the same time, ten skeletons emerged from the ground and ran toward Theo, making the situation even moreplicated.


    Both Theo and his clone summoned their Magic Bullets and used Tracking Ability to destroy all the ten skeletons.


    Luka and Zara arrived at the same time, waving their swords at Theo''s back.


    Theo turned around and struck their swords with his spear, but as one would expect, the two had better swordsmanship than him, resulting in him getting pushed back while parrying their attacks as it was all he could do at the moment.


    Ne took this chance to arrive behind Theo and punched him on the back. "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    "Elemental Shield!"


    Two Elemental Shields appeared on her way, but Ne didn''t care about it anymore as she used all her strength in this one fist. She struck the shields and shattered them in session.


    Even though she lost a considerable amount of power and momentum, her fist still connected to Theo.


    "Gah!" Theo spurted transparent acid from his mouth as his consciousness went nk for a second.


    At that time, Clone Theo disappeared and left behind the silver pole on the ground.


    "Oh no!" Everyone panicked because this would be the end of the match as Ne only needed to pick that up.


    Theo also got blown away by Zara and Luka to stop him from getting on their way again.


    "I got it!" Ne raised the silver pole from her hand, albeit no announcement came, except Sheira.


    She immediately understood the Magic Power covering the staff again and Diego had yet to dere the match''s conclusion.


    Ne couldn''t help but look Theo in the eyes, "You��"


    Theo only smiled as he stuck his tongue out.


    Ne used her Magic Power to dispel the illusion ced on the pole, revealing the real appearance that turned out to be a white spear.


    What Ne didn''t know about Theo was the fact he had trained with Rai for a couple of days. During the training, Theo had gotten ustomed to having the Magic Power around his body, so when she tried to disrupt the flow of his Magic Power, he simply faked his reaction and used his Illusion Maniption to change all three spears to another one.


    And his strategy seeded as Ne thought she had discovered Theo''s trick. Little did he know, Theo just tricked her into thinking she managed to discover his trick.


    The real pole should be in real Theo''s hand, not his clone. It was either the spear he used or the one on his back. With the current illusion, no one could figure it out.


    "You trick me into thinking I unravel your trick?" Ne drew a gasp as Theo corrected her words. "You want to outsmart me, so I should outsmart your outsmarting."


    What Theo implied was that he thought his n from his own head and tried to see what the enemy would do. In other words, he himself had been creating his enemy inside his mind, trying to figure out what would be the most extreme thing they would do.


    After getting her answer, Ne raised her head and looked above her, finding a huge ice meteoring at them.


    "Bye." Theo stuck his tongue out and used his Blink to escape from this situation.


    With their current position, Ne and her team would need to break this Ice Meteor in order to escape.


    "What, what, what?!" Sheira waspletely shocked by the fact Theo tricked Ne and her team again. "The pole is not the real one? He made us think that the first change was returning to its original form? What is this man? Is there a limit to his potential?"


    Unfortunately, Ne couldn''t care less about Sheira as she had something more important to do. Even more so with veins bulging on her forehead.


    Yes, for the first time in this tournament, Ne was pissed off. She grabbed Theo''s spear and coated it with her Magic Power.


    "Don''t stop me anymore!" Ne gritted her teeth and threw the spear right at the Ice Meteor. "Shooting Star."


    The spear flew like that of a bullet and hit the Ice Meteor right in the middle, causing a huge shock wave to erupt.


    But what made everyone shocked was when the Ice Meteor began to crack.


    "!!!" Theo, Sihan, and Ellen widened their eyes as they all realized what just happened.


    The Ice Meteor was shattered by Theo''s spear. Only Alea''s Inch sh might be able to stop this Ice Meteor in Thernd Team, and Ne managed to replicate the same thing with a spear. Even Theo needed to recalcte Ne''s worth.


    After getting destroyed, the momentum still carried the rubbles as they fell down on top of Ne.


    Zara and Luka nned to use their skill to blow this away, but Ne had already grabbed the spear that came down first.


    "Move!" Ne''s eyes turned bloodshot as they emitted killing intent. She then waved the spear from left to right before all the ice pieces on top of them got swept away as if there was a giant brush that smacked them away.


    "Haha, as expected from our captain, her Control is too terrifying." Zara scratched the back of her head and looked at Theo. "I guess�� You have woken up the sleeping tiger."


    Ne joined her hand together before making a slight gap between the two palms. A translucent light ball appeared out of thin air, shining.


    After that, Ne waved her hand, pulled it back, and threw the translucent ball as if throwing a baseball. "Magic Concentration Bomb."


    "!!!" Both Theo and Sihan cooperated with each other and marched forward, stopping the light ball from hitting the ground as they both knew it was going to be catastrophic.


    "Castle."


    "Elemental Shields."


    The two protected Ellen with their shields, but the moment the ball hit their shield, it created a powerful explosion that engulfed both of them. The sound of explosion covered the crashing sound for both Theo and Sihan, who were somehow already nted on the wall.


    "Huh?" Ellen widened her eyes.


    "She is terrifying indeed��" Luka let out a long sigh. "To utilize a high-ranking skill, you need enough Control. And the most important reason for her to be feared is that her control talent allows her to even wield a B Rank Skill. A skill that only Level 500 Monster would drop. She''s scary��"

 Chapter 278 – Last Laugh

    <h4>Chapter 278 - Last Laugh</h4>


    Italy Team.


    Enrica had taken her blindfold for the sake of this battle and stared at the screen in amazement. "Theodore will lose��"


    "��" None of Italy Team''s Members denied her because they could clearly see how Ne blew away Theo and Sihan together.


    "That attack." Ignazio frowned as his expression darkened. "B Rank Skill, isn''t it?"


    "Yes. It''s already hard to even use C Rank Skill and it turns out she has been sealing a power above that this whole time." Enrica scratched the back of her head. "I don''t want to admit it, but I can''t see any way to win against her."


    "Are you telling me Theodore�� Theo will lose this battle?" Agata asked. Her tone was filled with disbelief. "Are you sure Theo can''t do anything in thispetition and his team is bound to lose against the United Kingdom Team?"


    "As much as I hate to tell you, you can employ so many strategies on the battlefield, but it will only be effective to someone on a simr level or just a bit higher than yours��" Ignazio shook his head in disappointment. "It''s useless in front of absolute power."


    "Still, doesn''t this feel weird?" Agata asked.


    "What''s weird? Agata�� I am sorry to force you of that role to pull him to our country, but I think it''s better for you to remain neutral and observe this situation a bit more clearly, okay?" Enrica pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how Agata could fight for Theo in an argument like this.


    "I know, but he hasn''t released all his skills yet. From my point of view, I have only seen eight skills. Two Spear Skills, Magic Bullet, Clone, Teleportation, Shield, and two Illusion Techniques��"


    "!!!" Ignazio widened his eyes before adding, "He used nine. When he used his clone tounch himself, I saw something weird. The power didn''t match up, so I believed it was another skill."


    "��" Enrica let out a long sigh before smiling, "I take back my word then. He may have been hiding this trump card this whole time."


    "Yes. To think I am still underestimating him." Ignazio agreed as he exined, "Take a look at his teammates. With Sihan and Ellen apanying him in this round, his n must be that."


    "That?"


    "Yes. He wants to take the second battle with Alea, Phyrill, and Laust. I doubt the injured rk can do anything against them." Enrica nodded with a serious expression.


    "At the same time, with Ne releasing all this attack, he is making her exhaust herself. Even with thirty minutes of rest, Ne won''t be able to fight at her full strength in the next battle. Meanwhile, have you seen how the others moved?" Ignazio continued.


    "They are conserving their strength? Even Theo never used something big other than his Cannon st a few times." Lavinia answered.


    "Yes, I can see that the Cannon st is not that powerful. With the continuous illusion tricks, he is baiting Ne and the others to exhaust themselves. In other words, the only reason he participated in the first round was for the preparation of the next battle.


    "In the past, if one couldn''t win against their opponent, they simply aimed for their supplies. They will start getting hungry and can''t exert all their strength. Theo is doing the same thing, but he is trying to exhaust the enemy with his illusions. Dammit, I can''t help but admit this guy is too sly." Ignazio clicked his tongue and looked at Agata. "How do you even know about this?"


    "I don''t know. I just feel something weird in his movement, but I can''t understand the rest. It''s like a woman''s intuition, okay?"


    "Should I ship you to Thernd to drag him back here?" Enrica shook her head when she looked at her childhood friend.


    "Ahaha��"


    "Anyway, I''m sure that he is going to annoy the enemy once more and stress the enemies out once again, like how he defeated me." Ignazio sighed and pointed to the screen. "Look."


    ��


    Bam.


    "What?!" Ellen turned around and saw her teammates were already gone.


    At the same time, Ne waved her hand once again. "Mana Wave."


    Ellen widened her eyes and quickly ced her hand on the ground. "Ice Wave."


    Ice Crystals emerged from the ground to stop Ne''s attack.


    Ellen somehow saw the attack between the gap of her ice crystals. ''What is that? It''s like Alea''s Inch sh. It has a crescent shape and unlike Alea''s Inch sh, this one doesn''t have any sharpness at all. Instead, this one has an almighty power like a swing from a club.''


    Ne''s Mana Wave destroyed the Ice Wave in session before hitting Ellen.


    Diego stepped in and blocked that attack for Ellen before saying, "Ellen is out."


    "Hmph." Ne snorted before widening her eyes, grabbing something that came straight at her neck. The moment she caught it, her eyes were blocked by white cloth as she heard Diego announce. "The United Kingdom wins!"


    "Huh?" Ne didn''t understand it, but when she pulled back and saw the g on her hand, she raised her head and saw Theo smiling after throwing it to her.


    "What are you doing, Cousin?'' Ne widened her eyes while looking at Luka and Zara.


    "Seriously?" Luka made a weird smile as she facepalmed.


    "What do you mean?" Ne frowned.


    "Control may give you the ability to utilize B Rank Skills like your Mana Concentration Bomb and Mana Wave, but it doesn''t change the fact that only Supreme Rank Expert can wield it without experiencing any bacsh. Meanwhile, you are merely a small Champion Rank Expert, not even Hero Rank. It must put tremendous stress on your Magic Power reserve, right?"


    "!!!" Ne instantly understood what Theo nned to do. She came to the same conclusion as Ignazio and Enrica as she looked at Theo in disbelief.


    ''I have used all my trump cards in this battle and Cousin has faced my Control with his own eyes and body. Doesn''t this mean this is just to exhaust me while learning more about my technique so he can beat uster?'' Ne thought before drawing a gasp.


    Ne looked at Theo with a shocked face. "This is your n?!"


    "Powerful Control and Skills. And I don''t believe you can recover to your full strength within twenty minutes." Theo nodded as this was what he always did. Even during thepetition in Thernd, he let go of the firstugh or the secondugh. For thestugh, he didn''t hesitate to sacrifice this round to gain all that. He made a smirk as if everything had gone ording to his n while saying, "Thanks�� Little girl."

 Chapter 279 – Second Battle

    <h4>Chapter 279 - Second Battle</h4>


    "��" Everyone was stunned when they saw the result. They all dropped their jaws, not believing what just happened.


    "Did�� Did Theo just throw his own g?" Sheira''s voice echoed in their ears as she seemed to be as perplexed as most people in the stadium.


    Only a few people actually understood Theo''s tactic.


    "He is only a first-year student, but he is already this good?"


    "This one is so nasty."


    "His intent may have been discovered, but no one will know who is going to fight in the remaining battles."


    "Indeed. He doesn''t behave like a normal student as he seems to not care much about his fame and reputation. He simply wants to win."


    "Recruiting him may be harder than we thought."


    "But if we seed, the reward is big."


    All those who understood Theo quickly reconsidered their offer, wondering how they could invite Theo. A loner like him should be easy to change nationality, but they required more information about Theo, especially as an individual.


    While those people talked, Theo and the others had returned to their room with a poker face.


    "Hahahaha! I truly love that move. Did you see your cousin''s expression? It''s so satisfying!" Phyrillughed out loud.


    Theo looked at him with a serious expression to shut him up.


    After feeling his re, Phyrill took a deep breath to stop hisughter.


    "I''m sure you have understood her level right now. It''s impossible for us to challenge those B Rank Skills. Although it looks like one upgrade from C Rank Skill, you should still look at the difference between D to C Rank and C to B Rank.


    "From D Rank or Champion Rank Monster to C Rank or Hero Rank Monster, there is only a 100 levels gap. Meanwhile, from C to B Rank, there is a huge 250 levels gap. Those two skills are too powerful." Theo shook his head. "It''s close to impossible to defeat her."


    "Hoh? Close to impossible?" Alea frowned and looked at Theo.


    "The n is the same. I''m going to fight her one-on-one. After all, the only one who can handle her is me�� Don''t you agree?" Theo shrugged.


    "I guess your Teleportation Skill is the only way to escape from it��" Phyrill noticed the hidden meaning behind his arrogance.


    "Exactly. I don''t need to take it head-on. Just use Blink together with my clone, which adds up to two. Two B Rank Skills against two Teleportation Skills�� I think this is the best chance against her."


    "You have exhausted her a bit after all." Phyrill nodded in agreement.


    "Yeah. That''s all. We don''t have any change in the basic n. We can only respond to what they throw at us during the brawl."


    "Roger." Phyrill nodded and rose from the chair. "Let''s go."


    Laust and Alea agreed as they couldn''t waste any more time.


    They quickly headed to the arena.


    Before entering the arena, Phyrill added, "Theo''s request. We are to end this fight within five minutes."


    "Can you do something like that?"


    "Yes. Alea will handle rk. Laust and I will aim for the g. We both are speed-type fighters, so we should be able to do it better than the previous match."


    Alea fell silent, falling into deep thought.


    "What? Do you have any objections?" Phyrill asked while squinting his eyes.


    "No�� It''s just that��" Alea hesitated for a moment and soon shook her head. "Never mind. I''m going to check it first."


    "Is that so?" Phyrill nodded and turned back to the arena as they stepped outside, making their appearance in front of the audience.


    Hearing the cheers, the opposite team also came out.


    rk sighed as soon as they stopped before them. "Our princess is still mad, you know."


    "You should tell Theo, not us. Besides, she seemed to be happy whenever she met Theo�� It''s surprising to hear she is angry." Alea smiled while raising her vision. rk seemed to be their target, so they understood what they needed to do.


    "That''s the thing. We can''t really understand what''s in her mind. I guess puberty hit her hard." rk shrugged.


    "Well, I don''t want to waste any more time�� Can we start?" Alea smiled and pulled her sword. Laust and Phyrill followed her movement as they raised their swords, preparing to move right away.


    Because of Alea''s confirmation, Diego red at rk and his team, preventing him from buying more time.


    "I guess you are right." rk nodded and summoned his robotic arms while his teammates, Scarlet and Laura, prepared to receive an attack.


    The ck-haired girl was the one who stopped Sihan in their first meeting in front of the hotel, so Laust decided to be her opponent, considering she also used a sword.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill took the other one. She was with Ellen if he remembered correctly, so since he was scared of Ellen''s second personality, Phyrill decided to end her personally.


    "Match starts!" Diego announced as he leaped back, giving them the ce to fight.


    "Lycanthrope Transformation." Phyrill released his transformation as his hands and feet were covered with fur and nail. His pink hair changed to grey as Phyrill''s eyes became sharper.


    Releasing his lightning, Phyrill waved his right sword down. The lightning in his sword ran through the ground and made its way to Laura.


    "Channeling."


    Laura snapped her finger as a wall emerged from the ground, dispersing the lightning.


    Scarlet, on the other hand, waved her sword to Phyrill, but Laust already appeared before her, striking her sword to the ground.


    Clink.


    "��" Their eyes intertwined as if they seemed to understand what each other nned to do in this battle.


    "I will be your opponent, I guess." Scarlet smiled sweetly.


    However, rk didn''t let anyone talk as he struck the ground with his fist.


    It was the same Ice Technique that covered the arena with Ice Crystals.


    "Inch sh." Alea sent her strike and destroyed all the Ice Crystals that came at her group and took a deep breath. Her expression turned grave as her gentle eyes gradually became colder, matching the atmosphere.


    It was a direct challenge for rk.


    "So, that''s how it is." rk smiled as he raised both hands. Killing intent started emanating from his body as rk waved his hand provocatively. "Let''s see if you are stronger than them?"

 Chapter 280 – Injury

    <h4>Chapter 280 - Injury</h4>


    Seeing the movement from rk, Phyrill and Laust quickly leaped to the side as if inviting their opponents to follow them.


    Laura and Scarlet knew that these two were trying to separate them from rk and might utilize some chance to ambush him.


    Even so, they still followed them carefully. As long as they maintained their position between their enemy and rk, these two shouldn''t be able to help Alea.


    On the contrary, rk raised his hands and formed a vortex of ice particles on the gap between hands, leaving a frozen trail on the ground. He then released the attack at once as it formed into a tornado.


    "Ice st."


    Alea frowned as she realized an attack like this was only to force her to move and the real attack would appear soon. Hence, she sucked the air before releasing a roar. "Great Lion Roar."


    The sound waveing from the roar sted the ice particles to the side, freezing the ground.


    Alea ran forward as soon as the way was open, but he soon saw rk using another attack right upon her.


    "I believe you have the power to destroy that attack instead of dodging it." rk smiled and ced his hand on the ground.


    Alea''s Awareness sensed something was moving on the ground and jumped into the air, witnessing a huge spike emerge from the ground to pierce her. But she raised her vision right after and saw five diamond-shaped ice flying toward her from above.


    It turned out the attack was just a simple distraction, so she leaped into the air.


    "Enchant de."


    She shed her sword horizontally, hitting all the ices with a single swing. Luckily, the Enchant de prevented the ice from forming on her sword, so Alea could release another attack.


    Seeing rk was about to release another attack, Alea waved her hand and released a phoenix.


    "Ice Mirror." rk also summoned multiple ice spikes that joined together, bing his shield.


    The phoenix hit the Ice Mirror and exploded, engulfing the shield with its extraordinary me. However, Alea''s phoenix also ended up vanishing, leaving only a pool of water as the result of their sh.


    "Inch sh."


    Alea had fallen down on top of rk and waved down her sword, using the momentum, weight, and gravity to enhance her attack.


    "Tch." rk clicked his tongue and punched Alea''s de.


    However, his hand was stopped before he even hit Alea''s de while his ice began to freeze this invisible attack.


    The shock wave emitted from this sh carried rk''s ice, making the air chilly. Even those on the sides felt this cold air as they took a nce at their condition.


    Bam.


    The conclusion came in a sudden as Alea pushed rk back.


    Continuing her movement, she waved her sword upward and shot out a crescent-shaped red fire to rk. "mming Ge-Sword."


    "��" rk grabbed the me without flinching before freezing it and throwing it to the ground to shatter.


    "Grand Burst." Alea summoned multiple explosions in session. Meanwhile, rk countered it by creating a small wind that carried his Ice. "Ice Gale."


    The two shed and neutralized each other again.


    "I thought you were stronger than this," said Alea with a smile before dding her sword with me.


    rk smiled back and jumped forward, sending a punch right on her face. "Test it then."


    "Melting Sword." Alea struck his hands, albeit the fire couldn''t do anything to him because of his powerful ice.


    Alea kept hitting him with her sword a few times, but none of the attacks dealt actual damage, so she decided to step up a little bit. "Herculean Strike."


    She released all her might in one strike and struck rk from above.


    rk furrowed his eyebrows and avoided it by taking a few steps back, letting the sword hit the ground, turning the arena into another crater.


    rk and Alea lost their bnce for a second due to them dropping to the lower level.


    After that, Alea marched forward while waving her sword.


    rk did the same, but Alea''s movement turned out to be a fake as she suddenly came to a halt while pointing her left palm at rk. "Ssh Explosion."


    A small red ball appeared in front of rk''s belly as thetter quickly covered it with his hands.


    Boom.


    "Kh." rk clenched his teeth as his hands felt numb after taking the explosion. The ws didn''t have any scratch on them, but the impact truly numbed his hands.


    Even so, rk didn''t show any expression to everybody else as only Alea could see through the slight change of his expression. As expected from a man who took the entire lightning strike from Zhong Li, he was indeed strong.


    "What is this�� Alea and rk can''t hurt each other. Their elements are the opposite of each other, so they are canceling each other. However, rk seems to be holding back a bit because his blessing should have enough power to overpower Alea''s fire for a moment. Or does rk have another n?" Sheira tried to rile up the audience.


    They didn''t know who would win because both of them seemed to be equal.


    Hearing that question, Alea couldn''t help but smile. She said inwardly, ''No, that''s not it. He may have hidden it this whole time, but I can see his facial expression clearly. He is not holding back. Even Theo can''t escape from my eyes and choose to let me read his expression before using it to his advantage.


    ''There''s no way rk has enough ability to cover his facial expression. Hence, there is only one more possibility��'' Alea remembered what she wanted to say before the match started. Although she ended up stopping, she just wanted to confirm it with her own eyes in this arena.


    And with all these exchanges, she had gathered enough information to gain a massive advantage. She smiled and wondered, ''What will Theo do if he knows that rk hasn''t recovered from his injury? His strength is probably sixty to seventy percent of his previous power��''


    "It''s time." Alea smiled, waved her sword to the ground and created a small spark that soon turned into a nine-headed hydra, flying to him. "Third Labour. Devouring Hydra."

 Chapter 281 – Alea’s Plan

    <h4>Chapter 281 - Alea��s n</h4>


    rk took a deep breath to calm his heart, trying to figure out a way to handle all these heads. However, he soon counted the heads and found only seven charged at him.


    He nced left and right, finding the other two targeting his teammates. "Laura, Scarlet. Be careful!"


    "You should think about yourself first." Alea smirked.


    rk saw the first iing two heads that were about to swallow him from two sides. He jumped and grasped the two heads before freezing them.


    However, three more heads wereing at him, so he used the frozen heads as a support to push him back to the ground. The side heads shed with the two frozen heads and destroyed each other while thest one struck him from above.


    rk grasped the two fangs and stopped its advance, but the remaining two approached him from the two sides again.


    At the same time, thest two that headed to Laura and Scarlet struck them from above, forcing them to avoid it by leaping into the air.


    "Sh*t!" Both Laura and Scarlet gnashed their teeth because it was a coordinated attack.


    Laust also jumped together with Scarlet and smashed her with his sword.


    "Raging Bull Strike."


    Although Scarlet managed to block it with her sword, Laust''s extraordinary strength blew her to the arena wall.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill used his lightning to get away from Laura. Even if it was only for one or two seconds, he should be able to cover the distance between him and rk.


    "rk!" Laura shouted and raised the ground again, so she could step on it and chased Phyrill, but Alea appeared in the corner of her vision, swinging her sword.


    "Herculean Strike."


    "Golem Arm." Laura covered her hand with a thick rock and grasped Alea''s sword, but she was also blown away by Alea.


    Even so, Laura smiled as she seemed to have gotten Alea''s attention, reducing rk''s burden. In other words, rk only needed to handle Laust and Phyrill.


    On the contrary, after ripping the hydra heads to shreds, rk nced to the sides, finding Laust and Phyrilling at him.


    Phyrill charged at him with his head. The jade-colored screen protected him as the momentum was enough for Phyrill to create enormous damage to rk''s body.


    Laust also did the same and waved his sword down, creating a crescent-shaped light trail in the air. "Moon sh."


    Despite being injured, Phyrill and Laust still underestimated the man called rk. He held Boreas'' blessing.


    If one asked who should be the captain of the United Kingdom Team? They would tell them it was rk.


    He was the strongest among the participants and his head was above average, allowing him to lead the team perfectly.


    Only due to Ne''s sudden appearance was rk demoted from the team leader. In other words, rk''s strength was only second to Ne.


    And this strength couldn''t be underestimated.


    rk''s eyes turned bloodshot as he couldn''t help but smile when facing these two. "Since you want to end it here, let me show you my true power."


    rk ced his hand on Phyrill''s jade-colored screen while summoning an ice spike beneath his feet to hit the sword''s handle in Laust''s hand, knocking it a bit upward, making his attack go slightly higher.


    This created a new trajectory for the sh as it should even reach Phyrill''s Jade Head. Using Phyrill''s momentum, rk pushed himself back and let Phyrill''s Jade Head sh with Laust''s Moon sh.


    "What?!" Laust and Phyrill widened their eyes in surprise, never expecting rk to avoid it while making them attack each other.


    After that, rk raised both hands and sent a punch to them. "This is the end of your ambush. I know you are going to aim at me this whole time, so get lost."


    When rk was about to hit Laust and Phyrill, he sensed another presence on his back.


    A female''s voice echoed in his ears, bringing a sense of fear in his heart. "Yes. That''s why Theo didn''t tell us anything other than to win. He knew you would know we will ambush you, so one of us needs to do something to surmount our previous strategy, you see."


    "!!!" rk drew a gasp as he felt a chill down to his spine. "Alea�� How?"


    rk nced at her and saw her feet in the corner of his eyes. It was covered with green light, reminding him of one technique. "No way��"


    Right after he noticed the reason, Alea grabbed the g and stepped back, raising it as high as possible to show they won.


    "Thernd Wins!" Diego quickly announced their win like the first battle.


    rk turned around and looked at Alea''s disappearing energy. "Secondbour��"


    It turned out stopping Laura was Alea''s misdirection. By making rk think she helped her teammates so they could fight him together, she managed to take her figure out of the picture. This became a perfect opportunity for an ambush.


    Also, with her and Laust sting Laura and Scarlet to the wall, it kicked up the dust from the rubbles and the field, making them unable to see her movement, thus unable to warn him. It was at that time Alea used her Swift Hind skill to move as fast as Phyrill and Laust, turning them into the bait.


    In other words, Alea just used both her teammates for her own convenience like how they always operated.


    Alea smiled and sheathed her sword, looking at Laust and Phyrill. "Thank you guys."


    "��" Laust fell silent as his expression darkened.


    Phyrill didn''t hold back and sneered. "I can ept it if it''s Theo, but you�� Ugh, this is unpleasant. How could I lose against this stupid Alea��"


    "That''s not a nice thing to say." Alea rolled her eyes and shrugged. "You lose. Just admit it."


    "Kh." Phyrill red at her while gnashing his teeth.


    rk scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "You guys. Seriously, you seem to have some sort of distorted rtionship�� Aren''t you?"


    "A certain cold guy has turned the team like this." Alea pouted.


    "Haha, as expected of him." rk chuckled, knowing it was Theo.


    "Well, there''s no way we can reach here if not because of his way." Phyrill shrugged and turned around, walking back while waving his hand to rk. "That''s a good match. See youter."


    "Y-yeah." rk shook his head helplessly, looking at these three.

 Chapter 282 – Fated Battle

    <h4>Chapter 282 - Fated Battle</h4>


    The two teams returned as Sheira started discussing her opinion regarding this match.


    "With Thernd taking the second battle, each team has one point. Everything will be resolved in the brawl after this match. I''m curious who is going to show up in the third battle. The team who will win this next battle will gain a lot of momentum for their team after all."


    Despite Sheira''sment, all of them seemed to have one particr thought. They all wanted to see the battle between two siblings, Ne and Theo. Both of them were very talented, so they desired to witness the conclusion of their battle.


    While they discussed it, Alea and the others had returned to their room with a big smile.


    "Theo, we won! It took us four minutes." Phyrill gave a thumbs up with a smug.


    "So?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Come on. I know you are happy with this development." Phyrill shrugged.


    "I don''t care. I need to focus right now." Theo shook his head.


    "Actually, I want to tell you something." Alea stopped him with a serious expression.


    "Is it rted to the match?"


    "Yes."


    "I understand. What is it?"


    "After observing rk a few times, I realize he is injured because of the previous battle against China Team. ording to my judgment, his strength is around sixty to seventy percent of his original power."


    "There is a chance that he is faking it."


    Alea shook her head and asked a question. "Can you fake your expression to lie to me?"


    "Hmm, I can, barely. But most of the time, I am just using your eyes to make you know what I want you to know before utilizing it against you." Theo answered honestly.


    "But that''sing from you who has been together with me the longest, second to Ellen, right?" Alea shrugged. "For rk, who knows nothing about my eyes, I don''t think he has figured it out."


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "I am pretty sure this is true. However, the number may be higher than my prediction, but I can assure you that he won''t be able to utilize all his strength."


    "I know. I will consider this as well." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Anyway, I need toe out as soon as possible before they change their mind, so I will tell you my nter, okay?"


    "Understood." Phyrill gave a thumbs up to Theo. "Good luck."


    Theo waved his hand and exited the room, heading straight to the arena.


    Suddenly, the cheers erupted in the arena, shocking Sheira.


    When she looked down, she couldn''t help but feel the excitement. "The arena�� The arena is shaking! Thernd Team has sent their representative and he is no other than Theodore Griffith!"


    With just his appearance, Theo managed to grasp everyone''s attention as he was the main focus of Thernd Team.


    His expression was cool and aloof. His eyes were sharp and looking down on people as if he didn''t care about others'' opinions.


    Carrying two spears, Theo walked to the center of the arena while staring at the drone that took a closer look at his face.


    There was no change of expression in his face, making one understand he was here to win.


    However, this carried a different meaning for the United Kingdom Team. This action managed to invite the one person he needed to fight on this asion.


    In United Kingdom Team''s waiting room, Zara''s eyebrows twitched as she said, "Look at this guy, it''s not even that long and he is already in the arena. Even someone, who doesn''t know much about strategy like me, understands that he is baiting us to take the field."


    "No, that''s the invitation for Ne, I guess. They are rtives, so I can see why he is doing this." rk sighed. "He is the only person who can force Ne to take the field�� Besides, I can confidently say he has something up to his sleeve."


    "Well, we still need to win. For now, let''s calm down and think about it. I''m sure Ne won''t be provoked easily, right?" Zara turned around to look at Ne, only to find her nowhere to be found. "Eh?"


    Zara rose from the chair and looked around, finding only five people in this room. "Where is Ne?"


    Laura looked away as she answered her. "She''s already gone�� Before we evenment on Theo''s action honestly."


    "��" Zara''s eyebrows twitched a few times before she started gnashing her teeth. All her anger erupted at the moment and she shouted. "That girl! I''m going to beat her!"


    "Can you?" rk asked with an innocent face before his cors were grabbed by Zara as thetter red at him with killing intent. "What did you say, Punk? Want me to beat you?"


    "I didn''t say anything, Ma''am!"


    ��


    "Uoh!" In the arena, the cheers changed when they noticed another personing to the arena.


    "She hase!" Sheira showed her excitement. "Ne Griffith has taken the field. This battle has be the battle between rtives. Two talented people from two different countries are going at each other. I can''t wait for another second to see this match!"


    Ne ignored them and came straight to Theo with a calm expression. "I believe you want me toe."


    Theo smiled. "I guess so."


    "Since Cousin has pissed me off earlier, I wonder if I should get another warm-up first."


    "Do you think you can win in your condition?" Theo shook his head.


    "I think I should be the one asking you that question." Ne smirked. "Even in this condition, can you defeat me? You knew you couldn''t win, so you used that kind of tactic against me after all."


    "Right? I am too scared of you. How about you give up so I won''t be scared anymore?" Theo chuckled.


    "I don''t care about thispetition to be honest. However, I have promised to bring this team to victory, so I can''t really break my promise. I''m sure you don''t want to know someone who can easily break her promise, right?"


    "That''s true." Theo nodded. "Then, we can only fight to settle this."


    "That''s what I n to do." Ne stretched her hands, preparing to fight him.


    Theo took a few steps back to get enough time to summon his clone.


    Seeing the two siblings were ready, Diego raised his hand. "Match starts!"


    "Uoh!"

 Chapter 283 – Brain Vs Brawn Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 283 - Brain Vs Brawn Part 1</h4>


    "Clone." Theo summoned his clone and handed the spear in an instant.


    "It won''t be the same as the game anymore." Ne smirked and walked forward carefully, observing Theo''s every movement.


    On the contrary, Theo summoned all the Magic Bullets and split them.


    Looking at all these eighty Magic Bullets, Ne didn''t show any fear. She simply stated, "You can''t fool me anymore."


    "Yeah. Try this one then." Theo smiled and shot all the Magic Bullets to the sky, using the blinding light from the sun as his cover.


    Even Ne squinted her eyes because she couldn''t see the Magic Bullets. She quickly pped her hands and dispersed her Magic Power, turning it into a protective barrier.


    The Magic Bullets poured down like rain and created a series of explosions.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Ne managed to stop all of them and saw Theoing at her with his clone.


    Both of their spears had started glowing as Theo infused his Magic Power into them.


    "Cannon st."


    This attack was more powerful than Ne''s barrier, so she quickly retracted the Magic Power and waved her hand to the side, releasing the Magic Power to hit both spears from a distance.


    That power knocked Theo''s spear to the side and hit his own clone in the process, obliterating him.


    When Ne was about to grab this opportunity, three Magic Bullets suddenly fell down as one of them struck her hand and grazed it while the other two missed.


    "What?!" Ne widened her eyes in surprise.


    Using this shock, Theo spun his body once and delivered a kick to Ne''s stomach.


    Bam.


    Thetter crashed to the wall with a small graze on her hand.


    Seeing this sh, Sheira couldn''t help but share her observation. "Did Theodore just change the trajectory of his bullet?


    "From what I can see, the reason there were threete bullets was due to him adding a bit more power in his Force Control for those three bullets, allowing him to send those bullets to a higher level.


    "When the bullets started flying down, the three still flew upward for another one or two seconds. And, with all eighty bullets in the picture, it''s not possible to count the bullets anymore. That''s why Ne didn''t realize there were three more bullets left.


    "Also, the fact that he used the sunlight to blind Ne made her think she had destroyed all of them, creating a perfect opportunity for this type of attack to connect. As a result, there is a small wound on her arm and she just got blown away by a kick."


    The audience was astonished after hearing Sheira''s exnation. They never expected Theo to think that far ahead.


    However, Sheira missed one thing. There was a chance for Ne to move forward, escaping this situation easily.


    Hence, Theo used that Cannon st to stop her to prevent this from happening.


    After all, he couldn''t use the Tracking ability his Magic Bullet possessed due to the change of multiple bullets. That was the reason two of them missed.


    Listening to her exnation, Ne couldn''t help but smile. "As expected from you, Cousin."


    Theo already summoned his clone and prepared to charge at her, but Ne hurriedly summoned her Magic Bullets and sent it to Theo, creating multiple turns to confuse him.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo and his clone used their Elemental Shields. Those four shields could protect them from all directions.


    On the contrary, Ne only used it toe out of the wall and regained her stability.


    She dropped the blood that flowed out of the wound on her arm, dropped a copper coin and called the dog before summoning the Empusa.


    "I call thee, Empusa."


    The ck-colored sphere reappeared as it gathered all the necessary ingredients before turning into the Empusa.


    Without Ne''s instruction, the Empusa quickly charged at Theo before his clone came in her way.


    "Swift Energy." Clone Theo thrust his spear three times while the Empusa blocked all three of them with its sharp hands before a crack appeared on one of them.


    "Blink." Theo used his Teleportation Skill to emerge next to the Empusa, nning to end it in one blow. "Swift Energy."


    "Do you think I will let you do it again?" Ne came straight at him, nning to hit his head to knock him out.


    However, Clone Theo used his Blink to appear before her eyes.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist." As if she knew what Clone Theo nned to do, she already used her attack to deliver the most powerful blow that would pierce through him and hit the real him.


    Unexpectedly, Clone Theo didn''t use his Elemental Shields. Instead, he snapped his finger and stomped the ground, destroying the ground beneath them.


    Ne widened her eyes and lowered her vision, noticing it was an illusion. She quickly stomped the ground and destroyed that illusion, turning back the crater to a mere t ground.


    After that, she continued her strike, albeit that split second was what Theo needed to deliver the killing blow to the Empusa while Ne did the same to his clone.


    With no one between them anymore, Theo and Ne''s eyes intertwined.


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Theo''s face, stunning Ne for a second. In fact, that smile somehow scared her a bit as if something unexpected woulde had she continued.


    Little did she know, that smile was just a fake. He used that split-second confusion to regain his bnce and waved his spear to blow her away.


    "!!!" Ne used both hands to protect her body but ended upnding a few feet away.


    At the same time, Clone Theo had already reemerged and picked up the spear before bing four Theos with the exact appearance.


    "What? There are four? No, they are an illusion. Sh*t, I missed the real one�� Which one is��" Before she finished, her vision returned to Theo as if she understood his n.


    Theo turned out to use that confusion to copy himself.


    ''There are only seven. Where is the other one?'' Ne thought before turning around as she felt another presence, albeit found nothing behind her.


    "!!!" She instinctively waved her hand to the side before Theo entered the corner of her eyes, but it turned out she managed to hit Theo''s spear and tried to use that movement to stop Theo''s sneak attack.


    However, Theo actually let Ne hit that spear to make her think like that. He then ducked down and kicked her at the same spot he struck earlier, blowing Ne to the wall again.


    Bam.


    "This is great�� This is great!" Ne chuckled as her hands joined together. She created a small gap between the two hands and formed a small ball of concentrated Magic Power. "Mana Concentration Bomb."

 Chapter 284 – Brain Vs Brawn Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 284 - Brain Vs Brawn Part 2</h4>


    "Mana Concentration Bomb."


    "!!!" Theo saw the iing bomb that would soon hit the ground. After experiencing it in the battle, he quickly used his Blink to teleport him away from the area of impact.


    Boom.


    The bomb hit the ground and created a powerful shock wave that would push him away to the wall. Unlike the previous round, without Sihan, he might be heavily injured if he took it directly.


    "You won''t get away." Ne smiled and waved her hand. "Mana Wave."


    The crescent-shaped Magic Power flew straight at Theo.


    To avoid the attack that defeated Ellen, Theo retracted his clone and resummoned it to his side, forcing thetter to use the "Blink" skill to send him away to another ce.


    The Mana Wave hit the wall before it was revealed that Diego used his power to block this attack himself.


    Using this kind of attack would seriously hurt her Magic Power Reserve, but Ne dared to do this because she wanted to send Theo to one certain ce.


    Due to their previous location, she needed one second to close the distance. But with Theo using his Blink to the side twice, he was just one step away from her.


    Without hesitation, she quicklyunched herself to Theo.


    "Elemental Shield." Both he and his clone summoned a total of four Elemental Shields.


    However, Ne didn''t even flinch and struck the shield.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist."


    Bam.


    All four shields shattered into pieces but at the cost of Induction Fist.


    Clone Theo ran away to grab the spear he left behind while Theo thrust his spear at her neck. "Cannon st."


    Ne took two steps back and pointed her palm at Theo. "Magic Saint Fist Style. Burst."


    The energy that flew away from his spear suddenly got pushed to the side in almost an instant before a shock wave formed behind him.


    The pain started to spread on his chest as if Ne''s fist sessfully struck him.


    He soon flew away because of the Magic Power and crashed to the wall.


    After that, she leaped forward to follow him before pping her hand to spread the Magic Power again.


    Forty Magic Bullets hit her simultaneously from behind before she halted her movement and looked up, finding nothing in the sky.


    Due to the previous incident, Ne kept thinking there would be another ambush prepared for her, hindering her movement a lot.


    At the same time, Ne''s overwhelming offensive ability also prevented Theo from using his Blink continuously because he knew there might be a powerful attack like earliering at him.


    Although their approaches were different, both of them excelled in their own way and managed to fight equally.


    Theo came out of the wall with a serious expression. Surprisingly, no injury was present on his body.


    He took a deep breath and raised his spear. He didn''t know why, but he remembered his first encounter with his master.


    It was in the forest and his master kept changing her personality as if there were multiple personalities residing in her body.


    Back then, she said, "You must be thinking how my change of personality prevents you from discerning my real thoughts. This is intentional. By changing your personality from time to time and making others know about this side of yours, they will seriously think of your every moment unnecessarily. Even a simple smile can pressure them from making any movement. I call this deception."


    Remembering her words, Theo couldn''t help but recall the smile that stopped Ne. He thought, ''Master�� I have finally understood what you mean. My reputation may be my weapon to defeat other people stronger than me.''


    With a smile on his face, Theo nced to the left and summoned his Magic Bullets. He shot them to the left without hesitation.


    "!!!" Ne didn''t understand the meaning of his action and followed his gaze before finding nothing, including the Magic Bullets. Yes, the magic bullets didn''t even go to the left.


    The earlier movement was just to deceive Ne before the Magic Bullets turned sharply to the right and looped around her. It then hit her from the right using the Tracking ability.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Twister." Ne punched the air and released a powerful current of Magic Power that swept away all the iing bullets.


    Theo''s expression turned grim as he watched that technique seriously. He thought, ''Hmm, Induction Fist, Twister, and Burst. ording to her, those three have different dosages of Soft and Force Control. I can understand her a bit after the lesson with Teacher Rai, but there is something missing�� Something I have yet to discover. What is it?


    ''That Twister and Burst are releasing the Magic Power to the air so it can hit the enemy from a distance. However, why does Twister require her to clench her fist while pointing her palm at the opponent to use Burst?


    ''It''s as if they are��'' Theo gasped and gulped down. ''I need to check it myself. And probably with my body to get a better feel.''


    Steeling his resolve in his heart, Theo leaped to Ne.


    Ne furrowed her eyebrows and waved her hand, using the Magic Power to strike Theo''s spear from the side, knocking it away.


    Surprisingly, Theo didn''t even flinch when he lost his spear and punched her.


    ''What?!'' Ne was surprised but still used this asion to strike Theo''s fist. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    "Kh." Tremendous pain jolted his brain as if his bones were about to crack. However, Theo couldn''t help but smile as he finally understood what was going on.


    After that, he jumped backward and used the force of Ne''s fist tounch him back.


    "What are you doing?" Ne asked as she couldn''tprehend his action.


    Theo remained silent before a huge, excited smile appeared on his face.


    "I see. So that''s how it is. Your exnation is still iplete. The dosage is one of the ways to use this ability, but you also need to control the direction and which pore you need to open to release this amount of Magic Power, right?"


    "Yes. It''s a hard process��" She didn''t finish her words because she saw Theo approaching.


    However, what shocked her the most was his gesture.


    He suddenly stopped in front of her and raised his hand, extending it to the front without touching her.


    ''What? That gesture? Burst? He shouldn''t��" She didn''t have enough time to think as she also followed the same gesture and extended her hand as their palms almost touched each other.


    But this action brought a shock to the world.


    A shock wave appeared behind Theo and flew away from him like how it was supposed to be since Ne had mastered this power. And yet, another shock wave was also formed behind her at the same time.


    It was smaller inparison, but it generated a simr power to that of Ne''s.


    "What?!"

 Chapter 285 – Shocking Fight

    <h4>Chapter 285 - Shocking Fight</h4>


    "What?!"


    The shock didn''te only from Ne. It came from everyone, including his own teammates.


    Alea stood up in shock. "Did he�� Did he just replicate Ne''s ability? But that kind of control��"


    The same applied to other teams. Even Enrica couldn''t contain her surprise. "He has this kind of control? No, he is not supposed to have this level of control."


    "Are you telling me he has gained this ability in just a few days?" Agata shouted back as sweat covered her forehead.


    "Look at this dude. Control, huh�� I guess the blood never lies." Cheng Sui clenched his hands together and looked at Theo from behind the screen.


    "Griffith Family." Zhong Li pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled as to how they should approach Theoter.


    Upon seeing this, rk coughed a few times and clutched his heart. He looked at Theo as if he was in pain. "This power."


    Zara gnashed her teeth, knowing that rk was a bit traumatized by Ne''s power because she utterly crushed him back then.


    "Still��" Japanese Team Leader, Shibuya Mami, couldn''t help but bite her thumb''s nail. "On top of having that brain and Clone, he has enough power to learn this kind of power within a few days?"


    Just like Japan, who might face Theo in the future match, The United States Team Leader, Maya Hamilton, made a big smile as her eyes were filled with excitement. "It seems no matter who wins this match, we will have some fun with them."


    The cheers turned into an uproar as Sheira stated, "This is insane. Theodore Griffith is built differently!"


    Still, the one, who was shocked the most, was none other than Ne.


    Her body shuddered as she breathed rapidly, gasping for air.


    "Cousin, you��" Ne gulped down. "Can you not be this crazy?"


    Theo ignored her and threw another punch.


    Seeing this gesture, Ne also struck his fist with the same movement.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    The two energies shed and canceled each other. It shocked the people again because they understood that the previous attack was not a fluke. Theo was truly capable of using this power.


    "This��" After experiencing it with her skin, she realized there was something different from what she did. However, the power intensified and threw her into the air before she could identify the difference.


    "Kh." Ne gritted her teeth, not knowing that the entire stadium was stunned when Ne lost in terms of power. After all, this meant Theo''s Control was stronger than her.


    When she reached the apex, a spear flew into the air and pierced the ground next to Theo.


    "Not good!"


    Theo hurriedly pulled out the spear and raised it, covering it with Magic Power.


    "Cannon st." Theo thrust his spear before Ne couldnd.


    Ne created a small st of Magic Power to fix her posture before punching the Cannon st.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister."


    Ne Magic Power circled the Cannon st and destroyed it, but the residual force blew her away.


    "Come out!" Ne shouted as ten ck dots appeared on the ground. From there, ten skeletons emerged from those ck holes and ran to Theo from all directions. At the same time, Ne released her Magic Bullet to buy her some time.


    Unfortunately for her, all skeletons were destroyed in an instant by twenty Magic Bullets from Theo and his clone, who had regrouped with the main body.


    After that, the Magic Bullets were blocked by the Elemental Shields.


    Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Theo raised his spear and charged at Ne with his clone following right behind him.


    Ne used another st of Magic Power tounch herself to the top of the arena. To prevent any attack from hitting the audience, the arena''s barrier was erected. And Ne took it one step further and stepped on the barrier.


    She regained the control of her body in a split second before leaping to Theo.


    "��" Theo raised his Elemental Shields.


    Not having many choices, Ne struck the shields with her fist. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    Her punch shattered the Elemental Shields easily, but Theo and his clone were already prepared for another thing for her.


    Seeing both of them were pulling their spears in order to attack her, Ne raised her other hand. "Heaven Fall."


    The invisible barrier emerged ten feet above them and fell at Theo. Because of their condition, Ne should be hit first, but no one doubted she had enough power to protect herself.


    Hence, Theo and his clone raised their hands together and channeled their Magic Power.


    Crack.


    The invisibleyer suddenly cracked, making it visible. However, Ne had bought enough time as she already made a summersault and extended her foot right above Theo''s head.


    "!!!" Theo changed his n. His clone continued to destroy the barrier above them while the real him used his power to blow away this kick.


    It was at this time Ne showed her superiority once again.


    "I am nning to keep this a secret, but Cousin, you are truly the best." Ne smiled and felt the resistance from the Magic Power before piercing through it and hitting Theo''s palm. "Magic Saint Kick Style, Ground Splitter."


    Theo gasped when he felt the power of this kick and caught Ne''s foot with his hand before doing it with both his hands together.


    The ground beneath his feet began to crack before turning into a small crater and forcing him to use his Blink Skill to get away from her.


    Ne didn''t stop there. She waved her hand and obliterated Theo''s clone while picking up a small rock from the ground. "Shooting Star."


    Theo saw the iing rock that seemed to have been strengthened by a skill. Recalling the power of his spear that Ne threw to Ellen''s Ice Meteor, he used his spear''s handle to contain this power. However, the power was still beyond his imagination.


    The moment it struck him, Theo''s hands were pushed back until the handle hit his chest as the rock continued until Theo crashed to the wall.


    Bam.


    The dust kicked up, hiding Theo inside it.


    Even Ne didn''t dare toe and chose to regain her breathing, calming her heart down.


    A smile appeared on her face as she stated in excitement. "I finally know the reason why you can replicate my technique�� Your tenth skill�� it''s Telekinesis, right?"

 Chapter 286 – Mutual Destruction

    <h4>Chapter 286 - Mutual Destruction</h4>


    "Your tenth skill�� It''s Telekinesis, right?" Ne smirked.


    Theo emerged from the dust without any injury on his body as if no attack from Ne worked against him.


    He stared at Ne without giving any answer.


    Hence, Ne continued. "I know, I know. It''s impossible to recreate this technique within a few days, even for you. That''s why I am searching for a skill that allows you to do something like this. There is only one skill in my mind�� It''s Telekinesis.


    "After experiencing your attacks several times, I can see there is an additional push from you. This is not possible if you use the same technique as I do. After that, the feeling of the Magic Power and the fluctuation of energy just prove my point even further.


    "In other words, all the clues you have given to me are enough for me to deduct your tenth skill. Still, such a rare skill and the power is above Zara''s." Ne smiled. "Either way, you may be able to copy my technique a little bit to make me think that way, but the power won''t be close enough to match mine.


    "However, by using Telekinesis, you can stop the first process and create another flow like the usual Force Control. With you understanding how my power works, it''s possible for you to replicate my feat without having enough Control to actually do it." Ne exined with a satisfied smile as if she wanted Theo to praise her.


    Unfortunately for her, she received nothing but a cold gaze.


    Of course, he could only stare at her. Although he didn''t want to admit it, she exined the entire process correctly.


    Theo took a deep breath and asked with a cold tone. "So?"


    "So�� I will defeat you."


    "Do you think you can? I know that your Magic Power reserve is rather low at this point." Theo shook his head in disappointment. "Even if you know my trick, you are going to lose sooner orter."


    "Unless I defeat you first." Ne leaped forward and restarted the fight.


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Theo''s face as he nced to the right.


    Ne stomped the ground to stop it and turned around, only to find nothing in her sight.


    "��" She clicked her tongue, never expecting Theo to use this kind of trick. Although there were times she could just ignore it, she was afraid that Theo might end up using something to defeat her with a single blow.


    When her vision returned to Theo, thetter had already arrived in front of her and thrust his spear.


    "Swift Energy."


    Ne covered her fist with Magic Power and struck Theo''s spear as if she wore metal gauntlets.


    Bang.


    Ne took a chance to hit Theo''s spear to the ground before sending a round kick right at his waist.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to stop it, but Ne''s kick was stronger than her fist.


    "Magic Saint Kick Style, Inertia."


    "��" Theo felt his hand was almost broken and quickly threw himself in the direction sheunched him.


    At the same time, Clone Theo appeared on her left and thrust his spear, using this chance to injure Ne even more.


    Unfortunately, Ne didn''t hold back anymore and waved her hand, knocking the spear away and obliterating the clone.


    It was at this time, she suddenly spat a mouthful of blood and coughed a few times before finding a foot on her stomach.


    "Huh?" Ne widened her eyes and saw another Theo appearing in front of her. "Huh?"


    ''Did he use his own body to be the bait just to strike me?'' Ne muttered inwardly while leaping back, finding enough room to breathe. She then began sorting her thoughts and looked at the two Theos. ''Because he knows my Magic Power is rather low at this point, he wants to see who among us has better endurance? Even so, my kick is stronger than my punch, I won''t go down that easily�� Or probably not.''


    Ne suddenly recalled Theo''s appearance. Despite hitting him a couple of times, Theo didn''t have as much injury as she expected. He might wear powerful armor that could deflect all her attacks, but Diego should have noticed if he cheated in this match. Hence, she couldn''t understand how Theo managed to remain unharmed.


    Seeing Theoing to her, Ne waved her hand. "Mana Wave."


    Clone Theo threw his spear to the main body and disappeared into thin air. Meanwhile, the real him used his Blink to pass this Mana Wave and kept marching forward. He didn''t forget to resummon his clone and handed him the spear.


    Ne, on the other hand, raised her hand, controlling the Magic Power to sweep Theo from below.


    Clone Theo used his Blink skill this time, teleporting them several feet away back to avoid this attack. At the same time, Theo thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister." Ne wasn''t afraid of Theo''s attack to be honest. She was scared of Theo''s scheme because she would be hurt without her realizing it.


    The two energies shed and canceled each other. Clone Theo used that time to go to Ne''s right and punch her.


    Ne ducked down, showing her flexibility, before kicking him on the knees, breaking Clone Theo''s bones and ultimately destroying the clone. After that, she grasped the spear and pointed it at Theo.


    "Magic Bullets."


    Forty Magic Bullets flew in all directions and used the Tracking ability to loop back, surrounding Ne.


    However, thetter simply pped her hand and formed a wave of Magic Power that destroyed all the Magic Bullets.


    Theo took that movement as a chance for him to close his distance and extended his hand.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Burst."


    Both of them used the same technique, but because of Theo''s Telekinesis, there was another power that lifted Ne''s body and threw her to the wall while knocking the spear away.


    Bam.


    Ne crashed to the wall, but surprisingly, Theo also fell on his knees before coughing blood.


    "Gah." Theo widened his eyes and tried to see what happened.


    It turned out Ne allowed herself to be blown away and used that motion to send another kick from below, striking him on the chest with her Magic Power.


    "I know you want mutual destruction. But�� Even though I am small, I am quite resilient, you know." Ne smiled and wiped the blood that came out of her mouth. "Cousin, let''s see who among us is stronger."

 Chapter 287 – Brutal Fight

    <h4>Chapter 287 - Brutal Fight</h4>


    "Kh." Theo pressed his abdomen to suppress the pain a little bit and quickly leaped to the back to gain some distance, looking at Ne, who gradually came out of the wall.


    Before he recovered, Ne leaped toward him and sent a punch. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    "Elemental Shields." Four Elemental Shields appeared to block this punch, but right after hitting the Elemental Shields, Ne kicked him from the side.


    The Magic Power from her kick blew his clone away while Ne destroyed the Elemental Shields.


    Ne and Theo extended their hands at the same time.


    "Telekinesis."


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Burst."


    Their Magic Power shed and Ne ended up getting pushed back again.


    "As expected, your Telekinesis is still too powerful. It seems to be a C Rank Skill." Ne took a deep breath and leaped to the air. "But that doesn''t matter."


    Theo saw Ne punching the air and hurriedly used Blink to escape.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister."


    The torrential Magic Power hit the ground and shattered it.


    Theo quickly used that chance to lift the rock with his Telekinesis.


    "��" Ne instantly regretted her decision to hit the ground instead of air. She looked at multiple rocks floating around her, trapping her in the middle.


    When Ne was about to move, Theo leaped to the rock and jumped from one rock to another. "Flowmotion."


    "Ho?" Ne indeed understood this skill. To think Theo would use his Telekinesis and Flowmotion this way, even she couldn''t expect.


    However, it was normal for someone to use one skill at a time. Only a special person like Ellen could wield two skills at the same time. In that case, the only reason Theo could use both of them was due to his clone using the Telekinesis. Theo''s earlier motion was just to trick her.


    As soon as she realized the trick, Ne summoned her Magic Bullets, sending it to him. "Magic Bullet."


    "��" Clone Theo furrowed his eyebrows and decided to synchronize with the real body.


    Theo sprung to Ne with his spear. "Cannon st."


    At the same time, the rocks fell down, but Clone Theo managed to save himself using the Elemental Shields.


    Looking at the iing Theo, Ne thought, ''This won''t be good for me. My Magic Power won''t hold long for this and Cousin only has several wounds on his body. In that case, I think I should risk everything from now on. It''s impossible to win against him without sacrificing something.''


    Steeling her resolve, Ne raised her fist, trying to strike Theo''s iing Cannon st.


    However, as soon as Theo thrust his spear, Ne waved her hand from the side. Instead of hitting him, the Magic Power hit Theo''s body.


    "!!!" Even Theo didn''t expect her to be this daring.


    The Magic Power knocked Theo off while the spear pierced Ne''s palm. If not due to her Magic Power, that spear would hit her abdomen. Still, Theo''s condition wasn''t that good either.


    He rolled several times on the ground and remained down.


    "This is it." Ne ran to Theo, but Clone Theo reappeared on the battlefield.


    "Swift Energy."


    Ne clicked her tongue and halted her steps, barely avoiding the spear that almost hit her head.


    After that, Clone Theo kicked her away and threw the Magic Bullet again.


    Ne pped her hand to fend the bullets off, but the two Theos had used their Blink to appear next to her, thrusting their spears.


    Surprisingly, Clone Theo was affected by the wave of Magic Power and disappeared.


    Even Theo felt as if his hand was ripped apart by the Magic Power.


    Still, Theo preserved and pierced her.


    Knowing it was unavoidable. Ne grasped the spear and pulled it to the side, letting the spear stab her waist.


    While enduring the excruciating pain, Ne hit Theo''s chest. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    The punch blew Theo to the wall.


    She hurriedly spun Theo''s spear and tossed it to him. "Shooting Star."


    Theo raised his hand and stopped the spear with his Telekinesis. Although he failed, he managed to slow its momentum. After that, his Elemental Shields were the ones to stop it.


    When everyone thought it was over, Ne didn''t stop and threw a small concentrated Magic Power. "Mana Concentration Bomb."


    Theo summoned his clone. Thetter grabbed his wrist and threw him away, avoiding the bomb that almost hit him.


    The shock wave messed up hisnding, but at least, he didn''t lose yet.


    Ne turned around before falling to her knees. "Gah."


    She tried to cover her wounds and looked at Theo.


    Luckily, Theo''s condition was simr to her. He was also struggling to get up.


    The audience was shocked by this fight. Even Sheira was speechless because this was a desperate fight. Ne had superior prowess, but Theo could solve everything she threw, giving him the chance to defeat her.


    Yet, both of their bodies obviously couldn''t handle all this pressure and started to give up.


    "Hahaha, good, good." Neughed, not caring about the wounds on her body.


    When they stood on their feet, they continued their sh.


    Even with Theo''s wits, it was impossible for him to escape unscathed when Ne already didn''t care about defense and just brutally hit him.


    After another five minutes of the brutal fight, Ne and Theo stood in front of each other, panting with tired faces.


    "This is thest. If I can''t defeat you with this attack, I lose." Ne said with a serious expression as she gathered all the remaining Magic Power in her fist.


    Theo also felt drained. Although he had enough Magic Power tost for a few moves, his body couldn''tst longer than one more attack.


    Surprisingly, he also found another weakness of his clone. It turned out the clone might not feel any pain, but it was indeed hard for him to control the clone anymore as thetter seemed to be following his body''s condition.


    Knowing this, he summoned his clone again but not moved him. He simply used his clone to release the Magic Bullet as cover fire.


    At the same time, he dragged his body to move.


    ''What will she do after this? No, if I were her, what technique should I use for thest blow in this situation?'' Theo thought and raised his spear, covering the tip of his de with energy.


    "Here Ie." Ne ran to him and hit the air. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister."


    "Cannon st." Theo released his spear technique together with his Magic Bullets.

 Chapter 288 – Win

    <h4>Chapter 288 - Win</h4>


    The Magic Bullets hit first and lowered the power of her attack. And a change was made to his Cannon st.


    With the remaining Magic Power, he used his Telekinesis to pressure the air in front of his attack and dispersed it to the side, making his Cannon st swirl like Ne''s Twister.


    In other words, this was thest battle where they decided everything with a head-on confrontation.


    "I will win!" Ne shouted and released every ounce of her strength to push back Theo''s strength, albeit she seemed to have forgotten Theo was not chivalrous as he seemed to be.


    To win, he would use whatever.


    And it was also the reason why Theo summoned his clone. At that moment, Clone Theo used his Telekinesis to bind Ne''s body, stopping her from doing any movement.


    "Kh!" Ne gritted her teeth. Due to his Telekinesis, the Magic Power was disrupted and stopped the flow in her technique, allowing Theo''s Cannon st to gain enough momentum to hit her.


    "Gah!" Ne coughed up blood as the Cannon st brushed her skin, adding more grazes on her skin. At the same time, the energy pushed her body down as she didn''t have enough strength to even support herself. She muttered, "All fair in war."


    She couldn''t help but remember what her father said in the past. It was when she was a mere six years old.


    At that time, she asked her father. "Father, is it true that Ne can''t win against Cousin? Ne wants to fulfill Father''s wish, so Ne wants to win."


    Hearing that question and Ne''s wish, her father replied with his back facing her, giving a sense of loneliness. "Ne, it''s impossible. Your talent can''t bepared to him. If he truly wishes to im that position, no one will dare to object to it."


    "Why? You said Ne has the same level of talent as the Magic Saint."


    "Yeah, but his talent��" Her father looked to the sky with a sigh. "Have you ever heard this phrase�� Improvise, adapt, ovee?"


    "Yes."


    "That''s his talent. You are a genius that may surpass the Magic Saint. However, he can look at your power, learn anything from your talent and cope with the difference, and finally strengthen that power."


    Ne opened her mouth in amazement.


    "It''s a useless talent if he doesn''t have any desire to go up, but it will be his greatest weapon when he wants to get stronger. That talent is useless if there are no people around him, but in this world, he will meet many people and geniuses like you. With him learning from a thousand geniuses, will you be able to defeat him?"


    Ne couldn''t say anything when her father exined Theo''s talent.


    And even now, Ne could only close her eyes as her body fell to the ground. She muttered, "Father, he is too strong."


    "Thernd Wins!" Diego announced after Ne fell down without any energy to stand up.


    "Uoh!" The cheers were shaking the arena. Theo just proved himself to be stronger than Ne despite fighting for a weaker country. With that kind of harsh condition, Theo managed to win, showing that his talent was bigger than Ne''s.


    Theo remained still while Ne gathered enough strength to sit on the ground, staring at Theo. "Cousin, you are truly the only one."


    Unfortunately, her words didn''t reach Theo.


    Theo''s appearance suddenly changed.


    There was blood here and there previously, but it turned out Theo had been faking his appearance this whole time.


    With the illusion leaving his body, Ne sucked a cold breath as she looked at Theo. His shirt was torn and covered with blood while his eyes had lost their light. In fact, it made one wonder why he hadn''t copsed yet.


    As soon as that thought appeared, his body unexpectedly fell to the front.


    Out of desperation, Ne crawled and barely caught him in her embrace.


    Theo had lost his consciousness.


    Seeing Theo in this state, she couldn''t help but hug Theo tightly while saying, "Cousin, if you are like this, how can I even hope to win against you�� You are truly a big dummy."


    She just realized the blood in the arena was more than what they had seen. In other words, Theo had been covering up his condition and kept fighting to the very end.


    "This�� This�� I am speechless. I don''t know how toment on this fight." Sheira scratched her head, trying toe up with something. "I seriously don''t know what to say. Even though Theodore''s fighting prowess was below Ne''s, he managed to solve everything skillfully. This is his undeniable strength.


    "On the other hand, Ne kept pushing herself in any situation. After she couldn''t keep up with Theo, she changed her strategy and chose to let Theodore hit her. In exchange, she also managed tond a couple of hits, causing mutual destruction.


    "They all wanted to defeat their opponent, but the enemy was simply far too strong. I can confidently say that this was the best battle in thispetition. You just can''t change my mind.


    "I want everyone to give a big apuse to both participants." Sheira paused for a moment before her eyes were fixed on Theo. "Still, I admire one person in thispetition. Despite being injured this whole time, he never showed it on his face.


    "Even with blood covering his body, Theodore hid it under his Illusion. Looking back at his previous fights, I have noticed that his illusion technique can''t be considered a skill because he can wield two skills at once. In other words, it''s probably a small portion of the skill that can be activated simultaneously with others. There are several examples about this��"


    Sheira continued her exnation and didn''t forget to praise Theo for his guts.


    Diego quickly raised his hand and shouted, "Medic!"


    However, Ne seemed to have noticed something. She whispered to Theo while smiling, "Cousin�� Do you know? I may lose this battle, but I win the war. I can''t wait to call you by your name, my dear cousin."

 Chapter 289 – Falling Apart

    <h4>Chapter 289 - Falling Apart</h4>


    After that, the medical team carried him back as the doctor checked his condition. Even Rai and Radvils returned to the team, trying to discern his injury.


    Unfortunately for them, the doctor could only shake his head. "I am sorry, but he has lost consciousness. It''s better to send him to the hospital to get better medical care."


    "��" Radvils'' expression darkened as he nced at Rai, who agreed with the doctor.


    "The injuries are not that much, but his body can''t take it anymore. He may also need a blood transfusionter, but for now, it''s better to get him to the hospital. The ambnce is ready downstairs," The doctor added.


    Radvils nodded with difficulty, saying, "I understand. Thank you."


    "Well, I will be with him." Rai raised his hands. "He should be fine in one or two days after applying some medicine and rest."


    "Yeah, I will leave him to you." Radvils ultimately sent Theo off. "I will get the president''s support for you, so give him the best treatment."


    When they had left, Radvils turned to the team with a serious expression. "So, did he tell you anything?"


    "Sir. What do you think will happen to Theo?" Ellen asked with a concerned expression, thinking nothing about thepetition.


    "He''s going to be fine. It''s you who are in trouble." Radvils shook his head helplessly. "I ask you again. Did he tell you anything? I gave him the right to deal with thepetition ording to his judgment, but this made me clueless about his n. That''s why I need to know his thoughts from you guys."


    Sadly, all of them looked down, not being able to answer him.


    Radvils facepalmed and let out a long sigh. "Nothing? Seriously?"


    "After returning from the first match, Theo didn''t say anything to us." Ellen raised her hand in disappointment. "Then, Alea told him that rk is injured and can''t fight with his full power. At that time, he only said he would think about it and left."


    "Seriously?" Radvils sighed.


    As Ne said, Theo might win the battle, but she was the one who won the war. Without the brain, the team ceased to function, not knowing how to handle the United Kingdom Team.


    They didn''t know the current n and might choose a different option than Theo''s. They recalled what happened in their first battle against the Italy Team.


    Theo only told them a few things to gain a massive advantage, but the advantage soon disappeared because they couldn''t properly utilize it. In other words, without Theo, they wouldn''t be able to perform perfectly and might lose this battle.


    Knowing the team had grown too reliant on Theo, Radvils said, "Either way, I will take charge of this team for now. Phyrill, you can rebuke my n if you don''t like it, but this is my n��


    "Theo has proven the effectiveness of the n, so we''re going to use the same strategy that managed to defeat the Italy Team. Alea, Phyrill, and Laust are to challenge thest battle. Ellen, Sihan, you two will fight in this round. Is that a problem?"


    Sihan looked down, knowing that with Theo, they might be able to shine at one point, but because of the current situation, they became the sacrifices again.


    Ellen, on the contrary, nodded her head without hesitation. "I understand. Even with Theo exining all his ns, I couldn''t understand half of them. I will follow this n until Theo returns. Also, if we can finish this match as soon as possible, we can visit him."


    "Ellen." Alea furrowed her eyebrows before looking down, knowing this was the best thing they could do without Theo.


    "It''s fine. I am more concerned about Theo than this match." Ellen shook her head and nced at Sihan. "You are with me, right?"


    Sihan ultimately agreed with her and asked, "Are we also going to wait until the time is almost up?"


    "Yeah." Radvils nodded. "There aren''t many things I can give you, so you can fight to the fullest without following any orders."


    "��" The group looked down, thinking, ''If Theo were here, he would say a few things to get the first advantage in the next battle before a way to throw the enemy off, so we can defeat our enemy and shine in thispetition.''


    Unfortunately, no matter how hard they wished for him to be there, Theo couldn''t just regain his consciousness and lead the team.


    On the other hand, Ne enjoyed this situation as she made a smug smile when returning to the room even though she lost the battle.


    "Hehe, we won!" Ne puffed her chest proudly.


    "You little girl, I am going to beat you up! You were always trying to be serious, but you decided to bite the bait." Zara rose from the chair, fuming in anger.


    "No need to say that. This battle turns in our favor now. If not because of me, Cousin won''t be unconscious. With this, there won''t be any daring strategy in the next two battles." Ne pouted.


    "That''s true." rk nodded in agreement. "So, what is your n?"


    "Luka and Laura will win the next match. I''m sure Ellen and Sihan are the ones fighting against us. After all, we are desperate to win in this situation and it''s hard to defeat rk, Luka, and Zara together. Hence, Luka is going to be there to make them think they have this in the bag before destroying them in the next one.


    "rk is injured, so Scarlet and Zara are the ones who can make such a change. rk will buy some time for the team by taking care of Phyrill and Laust. Zara and Scarlet can aim for Alea with your Brainwash skill. This way, our team should be able to win." Ne smiled. "What do you think?"


    "I am fine." Laura nced at Luka and extended her hand. "Will you be going?"


    "Of course. There will be another two days to rest before the final, so rk will be fine after that. With this strategy, we shall im the victory of this year''spetition." Luka grabbed her hand and rose from the chair. "Let''s prepare ourselves, shall we?"


    "Yes."


    "Lady first."


    Laura smiled and walked outside with Luka, heading to the corridor right before the arena to wait for the right time.


    rk had a serious expression on his face and closed his eyes as if he tried to focus.


    Zara crossed her arms and sighed. "Fine. I will let you go this time since you have taken down that guy."

 Chapter 290 – Switch On

    <h4>Chapter 290 - Switch On</h4>


    "Here we are, waiting for the next participants toe out. However, looking at this condition, I''m sure that both teams will appear before the time limit." Sheira paused for a moment. "In that case, let''s talk about the current situation for both teams.


    "First of all, the United Kingdom Team may have lost the third battle, but they have gained a huge advantage over Thernd Team. After all, from what I know, Theodore is the onemanding the entire team. Now that their leader has fallen unconscious, I wonder how Thernd Team will perform.


    "Will the team show an unprecedented level of determination? Or will they copse and lose this huge advantage they have gained?"


    After uttering that question, Sheira stopped because both teams had finally sent their representatives to the arena. "Here they are! Ellen and Sihan are going to fight for Thernd Team while Luka and Laura are trying to regain their chance for victory."


    Ellen and Sihan stopped in front of Diego with a serious expression, ring at their opponents.


    Luka raised his hands and said nonchntly, "Please don''t re at us. We are scared, you know."


    Laura nced at Luka and thought, ''What Ne said is right. Their faces are a bit tense because Theodore is not with them anymore. This may be the biggest chance for us to win.''


    Luka pulled his rapier while Luka stepped back and raised her staff.


    Ellen also did the same as Sihan covered her from the front.


    "We will im our victory." Ellen harrumphed.


    Diego took another look at the participants before saying, "Match starts."


    Luka quickly charged forward and thrust his rapier.


    Sihan came before him and stopped him with the shield before waving his sword two times in Ellen''s direction. Surprisingly, the sword released two white lights that bent and looped around him beforeing straight to Luka. "Reverse Strike."


    "��" Luka furrowed his eyebrows.


    When he was about to block those two strikes, two giant walls emerged from the ground, stopping the two strikes.


    At the same time, another one appeared beneath Sihan''s feet andunched him to the sky.


    "Knight Thrust." Luka thrust his rapier again to the sky. A blue light flew upward, leaving a trail of the blue line.


    Sihan didn''t use his defensive skill. Instead, he slightly turned the shield to the side, so when it hit the shield, the light would slide down the shield and fly in another direction.


    Knowing Sihan would be fine, Ellen had gained enough distance for herself and started using her skills.


    "Ice Meteor."


    A huge ice boulder started falling down upon them. Even if it didn''t hit Luka, Sihan would gain enough time to return to his original position.


    "��" Luka thought for a moment and nced at Laura.


    "I understand." Laura nodded and ced her hand on the ground. "Titan Spike."


    A spike came out of the ground, piercing through the ice boulder like a skewer. The size of the spike alone was a third of the boulder and its power somehow managed to support the Ice Meteor''s weight.


    Still, Ellen obviously had no need to hold back anymore. That was why four star-shaped appeared on top of the ice boulder and flew straight to Luka.


    "Huh?" Luka was taken aback by this skill because he knew that Ellen wasn''t supposed to be able to use another skill.


    He leaped backward to avoid it, but Sihan was already on top of him.


    "Dawn Strike."


    Luka gritted his teeth and blocked it with his rapier, albeit he got overpowered by Sihan, who had the momentum, gravity, and initiative to boost his power.


    "Kh." Luka dropped to his butt before his back touched the ground. All the attacks suddenly disappeared.


    With Luka being pinned on the ground, Ellen quickly followed the attack. "Ice Storm."


    A cloud was formed on top of Ellen and started raining small ice cubes.


    This would seriously hurt someone if they were not careful, but luckily, Luka had a backup.


    Another wall emerged from the ground and blocked all the iing cubes for Luka.


    However, three Ice Lotuses appeared above Sihan, preparing to go down.


    "Kh��" Luka gritted his teeth, knowing he wouldn''t be able to avoid this.


    However, Laura decided to do it in another way. When Sihan was about to leave, she raised the ground, lifted the two guys up and forced them to hit the Lotuses.


    With the eleration and gravity, Sihan had difficulty leaping away.


    In the end, he could only roll to the side and cover his body with his shield.


    Luka also did the same with his rapier.


    As soon as the ground stopped, Luka shouted, "Laura! That Ellen can wield two skills at the same time!"


    "What? Dual Wielding?" Laura dropped her jaw to the ground and shook the thought off, regaining her focus on the match. "I will handle her."


    Laura quickly made her way to Ellen. She raised her hand as multiple sphere-shaped dirt floated to the air before turning into palm-sized nails.


    "Ice Wave."


    The Ice Crystals appeared in front of Ellen and blocked all the nails.


    "I have finally understood it, Theo. Looking at the synergy between you and your clone reminds me there is one more effective way to use my dual skill wielding." Ellen smiled as if she had been waiting for Laura toe. She pointed her finger at her and released a small ball. "Frost Nova."


    "!!!" Laura furrowed her eyebrows as she realized Ellen''s speed was too fast for her to replicate.


    Right before Ellen''s Frost Nova hit her, the ground began to shake and reemerged, blocking that attack at thest second.


    But Laura soon noticed the drop of the temperature as she looked up, finding the same three lotuses that hit Luka.


    She wanted to use her skill, but she couldn''t keep up anymore. "It''s toote."


    In the end, she tried to cover her hands with rocks.


    Because of the short time she had, the golem''s arms were iplete as she was required to destroy the wall she just made.


    "Ha!" She struck the wall as hard as it could until it snapped into two with the top part falling on top of her. Still, without the golem''splete arm, the force transmitted from the sh turned into pain. "Gah!"


    Bam.


    The lotuses hit the broken wall and pushed her to the ground. Because she was surrounded by Ice Crystals, some of them snapped because of the dirt wall above it as the pointed tip somehow grazed her left arm and right thigh. "Kh."


    Laura realized Ellen''s fighting style and red at her while enduring the pain.


    "Just like yourbination, I can simply use my skills in session. In other words, I can cast my skill without stopping, allowing me to rapid-fire my skill." Ellen couldn''t help but smile, thinking about Theo. The smile contained her excitement as her switch turned on, and she said to Laura while releasing her killing intent. "Now, now. Let''s enjoy this match, shall we?"

 Chapter 291 – Desperate

    <h4>Chapter 291 - Desperate</h4>


    "Ellen, Ellen just showed us something incredible. Let me exin If you haven''t heard about this yet. When you reach a certain level of mastery, you can wield two skills at once,bining them to create a whole new level of skill.


    "This is different from Theodore''s illusion because it doesn''t impact much and the control required to use it is probably not that much. This is the true Dual Wielding. However, I can see that Ellen''s control has yet to achieve this kind of mastery. Even I can only hope for it in the future.


    "In other words, she has the talent to use two skills at the same time from the start. In the future, she may be a scary magician that keeps using her skills continuously.


    "Take a look at her fighting style. Instead of using two skills simultaneously, Ellen decided to use them in rapid session. In other words, no magician can keep up with her attacks, especially Laura.


    "This is a very smart move. If Ellen used her skills simultaneously, Laura could counter it with perfect skill. However, now that Ellen uses it in rapid session, Laura has no choice other than to counter it one by one. Unfortunately for her, Ellen will use another skill to destroy her technique.


    "As I said earlier, Laura can''t keep up with her, so it''s going to be a hard fight for Laura. What is this team?! The leader is the holder of Skill Verse. The other leader is one of the top experts among all students in the world. Ellen also has Dual Wielding�� No wonder Thernd can reach this stage."


    The crowd was astonished after listening to Sheira''s exnation. Although she didn''t mention it, Laust also received his blessing in thispetition and Phyrill was also a blessing holder.


    Laura could only grit her teeth when she saw another skilling. Because of the uncertainty, she decided to retreat after summoning a huge wall that covered her vision.


    At the same time, Luka called her out loud. "Laura."


    Laura turned to him and saw his expression. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath.


    After avoiding Ellen''s attack, Laura ced her hand on the ground. "Golem Creation."


    "��" Ellen''s expression turned grim when she saw the rocks start to join together, building up to thirty feet in height.


    At the same time, Laura suddenly entered the golem''s body and controlled it.


    "Seriously?" Ellen clicked her tongue. "Controlling a massive body like this will seriously hurt her Magic Power Reserve and brain. She''s not going tost long, but I wonder if I can stay alive under its onught."


    The golem''s palm went to Ellen, trying to smack her like a mosquito.


    The speed was slow, but because of its giant body, it could reach Ellen''s position faster than everyone could see. This was why a giant body was harder when you fought it instead of watching someone fighting it from afar.


    In Ellen''s eyes, the golem moved fast. Despite running with all her might, she barely avoided the smack.


    "Freezing��" When she was about to release her skill, the hand moved again, sweeping her from the left.


    "Kh." Ellen ran away as far as possible.


    Seeing this, Laura quickly chased her.


    Even though she moved slowly, Laura managed to catch up with Ellen this whole time while trying to hit her.


    "Ice Meteor." Ellen summoned the Ice Meteor as it might probably be the only one that could destroy the golem, but she instantly regretted the decision.


    As soon as the Ice Meteor waspleted, Laura grabbed the giant boulder with the golem''s hands and tossed it to Ellen.


    "Ellen." Sihan pushed Luka back and ran toward Ellen.


    Obviously, Luka wouldn''t let him as he instantly caught up and thrust his rapier.


    Sihan gritted his teeth and used his shield to block it before getting upied by Luka again.


    On the other hand, Ellen was rolling on the ground after jumping to the side as far as possible, barely dodging her own Ice Meteor.


    Unfortunately for her, Ellen saw the golem''s foot almost stepped on her.


    "Kh." Ellen clenched her teeth, unwilling to lose, albeit she truly had no other option. She closed her eyes before the golem stomped the ground, turning the arena into a crater.


    Diego obviously appeared next to Ellen and contained that stomp with a single hand.


    "Ellen is out," Diego announced out loud, so Laura could hear it too.


    After that, the golem started to crack and crumbled, revealing Laura''s appearance. As Ellen predicted, Laura''s condition was worse than hers.


    There was blood streaming out of her mouth, nose, and eyes as Laura almost fell unconscious.


    She just took another look at Ellen and smiled. "I''m d. We still can win��"


    She coughed up some blood before Diego caught her and sent her to the gate together with Ellen.


    "I''m sorry. To think I needed to do the same thing as Zhong Li�� You were strong enough to make me know it was impossible for me to win without sacrificing something. Haiz, it seems I need one month to recuperate." Laura apologized while leaning on the wall, waiting for the medical team toe.


    Ellen let out a long sigh and replied helplessly. "We both were desperate to win. I guess second ce due to injury is better than third or fourth ce."


    "Ahaha." Laura chuckled before Ellen picked her up, carrying her inside to ensure they were not in the arena, showing good sportsmanship.


    Even Laura was amused and couldn''t help but smile.


    Meanwhile, Sihan and Luka were ring at each other with their bodies remaining still.


    "I apologize. We need to win." Luka raised his sword.


    "Tell that line after you defeat me." Sihan raised both his shield and sword before golden light began to envelop them.


    "Huh?!" Luka widened his eyes because he thought it was supposed to be only one of them covered with this Magic Power. "Dual Wielding? No. This is��!!!"


    Luka drew a gasp before Sihan sent out a cross crescent-shaped Sword Wave from thebined effort of his sword and shield.


    "Grand Cross."

 Chapter 292 – Weakness

    <h4>Chapter 292 - Weakness</h4>


    "Grand Cross."


    "Ho?" Luka furrowed his eyebrows, understanding that no trash mixed in this team. Sihan, at least, had something remarkable like Laura and Scarlet.


    Seeing the iing attack, Luka raised his sword in front of his body, perfectly in the middle.


    Suddenly, a burst of Magic Power urred on his sword before it was enveloped by gentle blue light.


    "Its power is remarkable and the style is unique. However, it''s not elegant at all." Luka thrust his rapier, releasing sharp energy that was slimmer than his own de.


    The blue light continued and hit right in the middle of the cross as the two attacks shed.


    Surprisingly, Sihan''s attack started to bend backward as if the blue light managed to overpower it and was about to pierce through.


    Sihan widened his eyes and quickly put the shield in front of him as the blue light broke his attack perfectly in the middle and continued.


    The moment the energy hit his shield, Sihan felt as if there was a mountain trying to push him back. It wasn''t like a bullet because the force it carried was far more powerful.


    Coupled with the fact it hit the upper area of his shield, Sihan couldn''t help but duck down, being pressured by the inertia forceing from the attack.


    "��" Sihan narrowed his eyes and nced at Luka, trying toe up with a way to defeat him.


    Before Sihan did anything, four mirrors, the size of a human, appeared and floated in the air. The frame was golden, but the mirror wasn''t that clear.


    "Golden Mirror."


    Sihan didn''t know anything about this power because Luka hadn''t used this power when he fought China Team.


    That was why the moment Luka leaped forward, Sihan quickly gained another distance, only to find himself being surrounded by the golden mirrors.


    "Dawn Strike."


    He tried to strike the mirror, but thetter flew to the side, avoiding him. In other words, Luka had the perfect control over his mirrors, making it even more dangerous.


    "End."


    Unexpectedly, the mirrors stood still for a moment as Luka emerged from behind one of them, thrusting his rapier, releasing the same attack as the one that destroyed his "Grand Cross".


    Knowing it was bad for him to receive it with his shield, Sihan dodged to the side.


    However, it turned out to be a bad choice for him because the moment the mirror behind him received the attack, it reflected the attack with the angle that perfectly matched Sihan''s movement.


    "!!!" Sihan widened his eyes and turned around, receiving it with his shield before deflecting it to the sky. Sihan muttered inwardly, ''Two skills? No, he has let go of his control when the mirrors stop moving. As long as I destroy the mirrors, I can escape from this prison.''


    He stood up and struck the mirror behind his back, only to find his sword getting repelled by an unknown force.


    "Huh?"


    "That mirror is unbreakable. The moment you enter this ce, you have lost." Luka chuckled and reemerged behind him.


    Sihan clicked his tongue and waved his de to Luka''s feet.


    However, thetter blocked the sword with his rapier and kicked Sihan''s head, returning him back to the middle of the execution ground.


    "sh."


    Luka''s hand suddenly shone brighter like that of a shlight before he pointed it to the mirror. The light then bounced in all directions and blinded Sihan.


    "Kh." Sihan closed his eyes and relied on his Awareness, but his power was simr to Cheng Sui. Their Endurance was the strongest, but they werepletely unable to use their Control or Awareness that well.


    Even though Sihan managed to sense Luka, his reaction was still too slow.


    ''Behind me!'' Sihan furrowed his eyebrows and raised his shield, covering his body from the strike above.


    "It''s better you don''t rely on your eyes too much." Luka''s voice echoed in his ears before his shield wasunched to the sky.


    Because he was trying to defend the attack from above, Sihan pushed the shield a bit, so he didn''t get overpowered. Unfortunately, it became Luka''s biggest weapon to end this battle.


    In addition to that pushing force, he kicked the shield upward, sending it flying with half the effort.


    After that, Sihan used that kick to determine Luka''s position and struck him, only to find Luka bending down to the ground and rising again while pointing his rapier at Sihan''s neck.


    "The United Kingdom Wins!"


    Luka smiled and retracted the mirrors as the light gradually disappeared.


    Sihan opened his eyes and found Luka sheathing his sword with his eyes closed.


    "Using the shield as if using a sword�� You also used it to bait and push me back at the same time, making me feel a bit weird�� However, in the end, you relied too heavily on the first one. As long as I seal your eyes, you won''t be able to defeat me." Luka smiled. "You are strong�� but I''m still stronger. If I can''t defeat you, I will be too ashamed to meet Sir Lancelot, you see."


    After those words, Luka opened his eyes and nodded to Diego as if thanking him before leaving the arena.


    "��" Sihan was speechless as he clenched his fists, knowing he just lost. Despite using everything at his disposal, he couldn''t hold the candle against Luka.


    Still, the one that decided the match was Laura. If she didn''t sacrifice herself to defeat Ellen, their team would be the one to win because Ellen could protect him in that situation.


    Sihan looked down. His face was filled with disappointment.


    He walked back whilementing his own weakness before Ellen''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "Good work out there. We were close." Ellen smiled, not bringing up whose fault they lost. Instead, she quickly appreciated all the efforts they had done in this match.


    Ellen was like a big sister, not only for Theo but also for everyone.


    "We can still get stronger and should use this experience to grow." Ellen then looked at the iing trio. "However, let''s return to the room for now. We can only trust this match to them."


    Laust, Phyrill, and Alea walked toward them with serious expressions.


    "Leave it to us."

 Chapter 293 – Former Captain

    <h4>Chapter 293 - Former Captain</h4>


    Meanwhile, rk and the others still prepared themselves as Ne said, "You''re our only hope right now. Go have some fun and return here with a smile on your face."


    "I still haven''t forgiven you for the third battle." Zara harrumphed.


    "Then, how about you fight my Cousin and send him to the hospital?" Ne stuck her tongue out and returned to the waiting room, not nning to waste her time.


    rk chuckled and turned to Zara, "By the way, I have something to say to you."


    "Hmm?" Zara furrowed her eyebrows.


    "I won''t mess with the love birds. You can flirt all you want." Scarlet shrugged and walked to the arena first.


    When she arrived, she faced Phyrill, Laust, and Alea and waved her hand. "Ya, I hope we can have a fair battle."


    "That''s something you should say after your teammates arrive." Phyrill shook his head helplessly.


    "Come on. Don''t be so unfriendly. Our friend is hospitalized too." Scarlet smiled, mentioning Theo''s condition indirectly.


    "Ho?" Alea narrowed her eyes.


    "Oops, I shouldn''t say that to his girlfriend. Though, Ne has been mentioning you as a�� I shouldn''t mention that as well." Scarlet smiled and took a step back.


    "I am not his girlfriend. And what did she call me?" Alea''s expression turned cold as her fighting intent rose.


    "I don''t know anything." Scarlet chuckled and nced back, finding the twoing out.


    Zara and rk had serious expressions on their faces, staring at Alea as if they wanted to destroy her.


    "Apologize for taking too long." Zara smiled. "We need a long time to send our friend off, you see��"


    "��" Alea''s eyebrows twitched as they kept mentioning Theo indirectly.


    "You can solve it in the battle," Diego said while raising his hand. "Match starts!"


    Laust, Phyrill, Alea, and Scarlet quickly pulled their swords. However, before they even moved out, rk already appeared in front of them.


    Because he didn''t need to take out his weapon, he could move faster than anyone else. And he took this chance to grab Phyrill and Laust''s heads and throw both of them to the side.


    "Laust, Phy��" Alea widened her eyes, never expecting rk to steal the march. She hadn''t even started reading his expression.


    When he was about to move to intercept him, two swords attacked her from two sides.


    Alea quickly took a step back and stopped the two swords with her own, staring at their faces and understanding their real intention. They truly wanted to stop her here.


    "Enchant de." Alea used her Enchanting Skill and strengthened the power of her weapon. After that, she stomped the ground as the surge of strengthing from her lower half was transmitted to her hand.


    She then pushed both of them back and released another attack. "mming Ge-Sword."


    Seeing the iing me, Zara raised her hand as a small ck ball appeared in front of the attack. "Chaos Disruption."


    When Alea''s mming Ge-Sword hit the ck ball, it dispersed instantly.


    At the same time, Scarlet had positioned herself to the side and stabbed the ground with her sword. "Channeling Sword."


    Blue lines spread from the sword, making their way to Alea.


    Alea looked down and waved her sword right before the blue line reached her.


    Suddenly, the blue lines emerged from the ground, turning into a de that almost cut her. However, Alea already understood this attack and destroyed it when it only formed half of its original size.


    When she was about to charge at Scarlet, Zara had arrived in her position.


    ''Hmm? She used my motion earlier and positioned herself between rk and me? As expected, due to his injury, rk is trying to buy time for them to defeat me.'' Alea furrowed her eyebrows as her expression turned grim. "You two can''t defeat me."


    "Inch sh."


    Alea sent an Inch sh to Zara.


    "��" Zara understood what this Inch sh meant.


    Alea was trying to test their intention. If they avoided this attack, rk would be hit from his blind spot, so they had no choice other than to protect his back while defeating her.


    However, they obviously dared to proceed with this strategy because they had enough confidence in defeating Alea with this handicap.


    Zara''s eyes turned red as she destroyed the Inch sh with a single sh as if it wasn''t a big deal.


    At the same time, Scarlet emerged from the side and struck Alea''s sword. Surprisingly, she even pushed her several feet back.


    "Huh?" Alea took another look at Scarlet and realized her eyes had turned bloodshot. She recalled their battle against the China Team. "The brainwash skill huh��"


    Scarlet and Zara raised their swords at the same time, ring at Alea. "We are going to win. It''s a fact, not mere confidence."


    The red me started to cover Alea''s sword with fire as thetter smiled. "Then I will prove you wrong."


    While the three women were fighting, the three men also had a powerful sh.


    "Lycan w." Phyrill had transformed to his Lycanthrope Form and released four crescent-shaped lights.


    rk waved his right hand. The ground started to be covered by ayer of ice. It spread to Phyrill''s attack and froze them.


    At the same time, rk raised his hand to the side as Laust fell down and struck him from above.


    "Raging Bull Strike."


    rk clenched his teeth as the ground beneath him cracked.


    "That''s it?" rk made a smug smile as if this attack wasn''t enough for a warm-up, despite facing Laust''s strongest skill.


    Getting provoked by that cheap taunt, Laust used every ounce of his strength and pushed him to the ground until he made a crater.


    However, the gravitational dy when they dropped a few inches gave rk what he needed to solve this attack.


    Yes, that cheap provocation was to get the perfect opportunity to grab Laust''s de.


    "What?" Laust stared in disbelief, realizing as long as the de didn''t connect, there wouldn''t be enough force to pin him down. Even with Phyrill moving to them, there was nothing Laust could do to prevent rk from grasping his sword.


    Yet, when he was about to grab the de, rk extended his hand a little bit and grasped his wrist instead.


    "That girl is an anomaly, the same as your Theodore. However, I also have my pride as the former captain of this team." rk raised his eyebrows, revealing his excitement and pride reflected in his eyes. He threw Laust to Phyrill as the two collided and fell to the ground.


    rk made a big, excited smile as he raised his hand, waving it a few times as if challenging them. "Come. I will show you the power of the United Kingdom Team Former Leader."

 Chapter 294 – Fierce Fight

    <h4>Chapter 294 - Fierce Fight</h4>


    "Come. I will show you the power of the United Kingdom Former Team Leader."


    "��" Laust and Phyrill exchanged looks as if they understood that this person was strong.


    Noticing their battle, Alea turned around and shouted. "Change of n. Both of you will defeat him. I will be fine."


    Hearing her answer, Phyrill and Laust nodded as they leaped to the side, proceeding to beat this person.


    Alea, on the other hand, had her own problem.


    The clicking sounds kept echoing in the arena as Alea parried Scarlet and Zara''s attacks.


    However, Alea had difficulty in fending off their attacks, especially with Zara''s extraordinary swordsmanship.


    As one would expect from the holder of Morgana Le Fay''s blessing, Zara knew where to strike, utilizing the little opening Alea showed.


    Itpletely disrupted Alea''s rhythm, making her unable to contain Scarlet after Zara hit her.


    To regain her momentum, a green light began to cover her two feet. "Second Labour, Swift Hind."


    Noticing the glow, Zara and Scarlet quickly regrouped and maintained their position, preventing Alea froming to help Laust and Phyrill.


    "Tch." Alea clicked her tongue and waved her sword upward and didn''t forget to create a small spark on the ground. "Third Labour, Devouring Hydra."


    The nine hydra''s heads came out and flew in all directions. Five of them tried to stop Zara and Scarlet, but the other four flew toward rk.


    Not wanting anyone to disturb rk, Zara and Scarlet had prepared their own solution to stop this attack.


    Zara raised her hand as a small ck-colored hole appeared on the ground. Five giant tentacles emerged from the hole and caught all the five iing heads as if there was a giant octopus inside the hole.


    After that, both Zara and Scarlet went in different directions, waving their swords at the same time.


    "Chivalry sh."


    "Magic Sword."


    Both of them struck the heads in session, ultimately destroying all the heads.


    "Annoying." Alea gritted her teeth as she wanted to help Phyrill and Laust to win. After all, as long as rk was down, the two would be able to help her. She took a deep breath and released it with a roar. "First Labour, Great Lion Roar."


    "Chaos Disruption." Zara used the same attack that destroyed Alea''s ming Ge-Sword.


    Although the high-pitched sound shook the arena, the Sound Wave didn''t pass her defense.


    Scarlet went around and struck her. "Enchanting Strike."


    "Herculean Strike." Alea countered it with her powerful swing.


    The sh ended in an instant as Alea sted her away. "Phoenix Talon."


    A fire phoenix emerged from her hand and flew straight to Scarlet, trying to burn her alive.


    Unfortunately for her, a guillotine appeared out of thin air.


    "Execution." Zara was obviously the one who summoned it. The moment the phoenix was about to pass it, the de fell down and chopped the phoenix''s head.


    "Grand Burst." Alea used another skill to deal any damage to Scarlet that had yet to fall to the ground.


    Despite not reaching the ground, Scarlet had enough time to fix her posture mid-air. She waved her sword. "Magic Sword."


    The movement created a current in the air before turning into a powerful gale that swept the explosions.


    "Dark Alchemy." Zara used that chance to summon another ck hole near Alea, using a total of ten tentacles to strangle her to death.


    "Inch sh." Alea didn''t hesitate and waved her sword horizontally.


    Her Inch sh flew straight to the tentacles and cut them like a tree.


    They all fell down and Alea finally saw a chance to escape this situation.


    "Ssh Explosion."


    "Chaos Disruption."


    Both of them created a small ball next to each other as their energy collided.


    Obviously, Alea''s Ssh Explosion exploded, creating a huge amount of smoke and kicking up the dust.


    "Second Labour, Swift Hind." She used her fast speed to charge through the fire.


    Zara furrowed her eyebrows, but the smoke suddenly changed shape as Alea emerged from the smoke with her clothes partially burned.


    "Not good." Zara never thought Alea would be this daring and had no time to react.


    However, when everything went ording to her n, Alea raised her sword, finding Scarlet striking her from above. "Kh."


    Scarlet turned out to have enough time to follow her.


    Alea took a deep breath and blew her away.


    Scarlet rolled on the ground and struggled to get up, but Alea also couldn''t move because Zara locked her sword, stopping her movement.


    "Thank you, Scarlet." Zara smiled.


    Alea started to get annoyed.


    ��


    Meanwhile, like Alea, rk was also suppressed by the two.


    "Is this your power? Hahahaha!" Phyrill had been taunting rk to mess up his rhythm, but thetter managed to maintain his calm this whole time.


    Even so, he knew that rk''s condition had been deteriorating, so if they continued this fight for another few minutes, rk would fall eventually.


    "Laust, just hit this guy as you like. Don''t let him have the chance to breathe."


    Laust remained silent, but he certainly proved it with his action. As soon as he heard it, he looped around, approaching rk from his blind spot.


    "Raging Bull Strike."


    rk knew that Laust nned for a sneak attack, so he quickly turned around and grasped his sword, but Laust used his full strength in this strike.


    Heunched rk into the air like that of a baseball yer while saying, "Your turn."


    Phyrill nodded and jumped on top of rk, plunging his swords to his body.


    As if expecting this attack, rk raised both hands and blocked the attack.


    This was supposed to end, but Phyrill released another attack before they started falling down.


    "Discharge."


    "!!!" rk widened his eyes and saw that the lightning flowed out of his hand and moved to the swords before electrocuting him.


    "Gah!" rk felt his body was torn apart by that lightning and was about to give up. However, his desire to win allowed him to endure this kind of attack. He even said, "Lightning again. I hate it!"


    Phyrill turned around and saw rk''s knee hitting him on the head, blowing him to the ground.


    Bam.


    Phyrill tried to get up as soon as possible while Laust wanted to attack him.


    On the contrary, rk released a blue ball that turned into a giant ice spike with a clear area perfectly in the middle when it hit the ground. "Ice Istion."


    As soon as hended safely, he leaped back, trying to regain his breath.


    "Zara!" rk shouted as he panted, struggling to fight these two.


    Zara quickly turned around and saw rk''s condition. She understood that rk couldn''tst any longer. However, he soon bit his lips and stared at her as if begging her for a favor.

 Chapter 295 – Their Determination

    <h4>Chapter 295 - Their Determination</h4>


    Seeing rk''s gesture, she recollected what he told her earlier.


    "Zara, I want you to use that skill on me again."


    "What?!" Zara opened her mouth wide and rejected him with a serious expression. "No. I''m not gonna do it."


    "Please. This is my request."


    "I won''t. With your current condition, you''re going to be hospitalized for at least a few months!"


    rk also understood this consequence and his face gave a feeling that he had epted it. He sighed. "It''s still better than getting third or fourth ce. This is a battle that I can''t afford to lose."


    "Why?! Is your future not important to you?"


    "It''s important, but the present is my priority right now." rk shook his head helplessly. "You know, I am an orphan and have been living in the orphanage this whole time. After getting my blessing, I can finally start repaying the debts that I can''t wash away in my entire life.


    "All I want is to give the kids the happy life they deserve. And winning silver gives me something better than bronze or nothing." rk let out a long sigh. "Still, I have never thought that someone this strong will be our opponent. As expected from Ne''s cousin."


    rk took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. "Zara, please. If I can''t see any possibility of winning, please use that skill on me again. This is the only way we can win."


    "You��" She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She obviously understood how hard it was to challenge them, especially with Alea fighting in the arena.


    Just like rk, Alea might be able to defeat both she and Scarlet. Hence, they first needed to take the hindrances, which were Laust and Phyrill.


    And rk''s n was to use this skill to destroy them.


    rk only smiled and patted her shoulders. "That''s all I want to say. I''m leaving it to you."


    "You jerk."


    ��


    Remembering the scene, Zara, although reluctantly, still used the skill. "Berserk."


    rk''s eyes turned bloodshot as they emitted all his killing intent. Phyrill and Laust attacked him without realizing he had changed.


    "Lightning sh."


    "Moon sh."


    Both of them sent their attacks, but rk suddenly stepped over to the side with the speed they never saw before.


    ''Five minutes. My body can only handle it for five minutes�� In that case, I won''t hold back anymore.'' rk grasped both their des to stop their attacks, covering it with his ice.


    However, Phyrill had another de on his other hand. He plunged that sword to him.


    rk leaned to the back to avoid it, but the sword still managed to scratch the side of his stomach. Blood began to flow out of that wound, dyeing his clothes red.


    Not wanting to be outdone by Phyrill, rk sent a kick to Phyrill''s side and blew him away.


    "Gah!" Phyrill coughed up blood as if he was exaggerating it.


    Phyrill was blown away to the ground while Laust struggled to pull his sword out.


    When he was about to be hit, Laust changed his attack. "Raging Bull Strike."


    "!!!" rk furrowed his eyebrows as he stopped his movement and tried to counter Laust''s extraordinary strike.


    Bam.


    A small crater appeared beneath their feet as rk smiled and froze the entire ground, including Laust''s feet, to prevent him from moving.


    After sealing his movement, rk sent another punch. The fist was covered with ayer of ice, so Laust knew it would freeze him if itnded.


    Luckily, Phyrill had returned and struck his fist from the side, stopping it. "You''re not going to hit Laust."


    "Your strength is not enough anymore."


    "Yeah, but we are enough." Phyrill smiled as he stomped the ground, cracking theyer of ice that trapped Laust.


    Laust used that chance to kick rk''s lower abdomen.


    rk stepped back as if feeling the pain, but he didn''t forget to grab Phyrill''s sword. "I caught you both again."


    Before anyone made their move, rk pulled Laust to his side and used his knees to hit the same spot he kicked him.


    "Gah!" Laust widened his eyes as he felt his organs were shaking.


    Lightning sparked from his body and covered Phyrill''s entire body.


    "Lightning. I''m already resistant to it!" rk gritted his teeth and endured that power.


    Seeing it wasn''t effective, Phyrill tried to make some changes, but rk threw him to the wall.


    Laust had recovered by that time, but rk also wanted to finish it at this moment.


    Laust and rk sent a punch to each other''s cheek.


    "Kh." Both of them quickly recovered from it and sent another attack, but Laust decided to do another trick.


    "Sonic Speed."


    Since his sword was still grasped by rk, he decided to use his speed to loop around him, twisting his wrist.


    Even rk felt his intention and quickly let go of the sword.


    As Laust tried to stop the momentum, rk leaped to Phyrill, who just recovered.


    "Lightning Stab."


    Phyrill covered his weapons with lightning and thrust the right sword to rk''s iing right fist.


    At the same time, he remembered Radvils'' teaching. "My objective is to kill."


    Phyrill''s sword suddenly changed its direction, sliding next to rk''s arm and heading straight to rk''s chest.


    "!!!" rk drew a gasp and hurriedlypleted his punch, blowing Phyrill away.


    Phyrill rolled in the ground a few times. As soon as he came to a halt, he struggled to get up.


    But rk''s condition wasn''t that good either. He had a quite deep cut on his chest, shortening his time limit even further.


    "He has prepared to take my blow and use it to kill me? If it''s not due to his stature, I would have died." rk gulped down, understanding why Phyrill was an assassin. Even if he needed to sacrifice a few bones or his arm, Phyrill would surely take down his target.


    Phyrill rose from the ground as Laust appeared in front of him, covering him from rk.


    Phyrill released all his killing intent which wasn''t inferior to rk''s.


    He was the closest person to Laust in this group, so Laust took a deep breath and swallowed his pride. "You''re the boss. I will match your movement."


    Phyrill couldn''t help but smile as he stated, "I am not afraid of you. Can you defeat me or can I kill you first? Let''s see what will happen in this match."

 Chapter 296 – This Is Not Over Yet!

    <h4>Chapter 296 - This Is Not Over Yet!</h4>


    Phyrill charged forward with both swords in his hands.


    Even rk needed to be careful of Phyrill''s recklessness.


    "Come." Phyrill smiled and arrived in front of him while lowering his guard as if inviting rk to attack him.


    After what Phyrill showed earlier, he obviously didn''t dare and chose to go to the side, avoiding him once.


    This was when Laust made his appearance and struck rk from the side. "Raging Bull Strike."


    "Aren''t you relying on this one too much?" rk narrowed his eyes and stopped the sword with his robotic arm.


    Laust didn''t answer him, but deep inside, he knew this skill was the most effective one against rk. He used this skill to push rk back to Phyrill''s attack range.


    Phyrill hurriedly used this chance to plunge both swords against rk and pass him to give another one from behind.


    The attack indeed hit rk as there was a wound on his waist, bleeding continuously.


    But Phyrill suddenly dropped to his knees before an ice spike appeared on his chest, blooming.


    "Gah!"


    rk knew that Phyrill would surely trade his safety in order to defeat him, so he decided to y by his rule and gave Phyrill the chance to injure him while giving it back with a stronger one.


    Phyrill never expected to get an injury from rk and tried to get back to his feet while destroying the ice crystal with his lightning.


    Phyrill charged at him again, but rk chose another dirty move. He grasped Laust with both hands and spun his body, using him as a meat shield.


    Even Phyrill halted his movement for a second.


    Seeing Phyrill had lost his momentum, rk threw Laust to the wall and followed right after him.


    Bam.


    Before Laust coulde out of the wall, rk already pinned him to the wall.


    rk sent a fist while thinking, ''This may probably be myst chance. My consciousness has started getting fuzzy because of the excessive blood loss and my previous injury.''


    "Gah." Laust spat a mouthful of blood after getting struck by rk''s fist right on his chest.


    With his left hand pinning Laust to the wall, rk quickly sent another punch to knock him unconscious.


    However, this was when Diego stopped the second strike by letting rk hit his barrier, signaling the end of Laust. If he truly let it hit, Laust might suffer a few broken bones that couldn''t be fixed within days.


    "Laust is out."


    Hearing that announcement, rk felt a bit relieved before he instinctively walked to the front.


    Phyrill appeared behind him and struck him with his de. If it weren''t for his one step, that attack would have been fatal.


    Even Diego already raised his hand, preparing to summon another barrier to end the match.


    However, rk simply ignored that pain and turned around, banging his robotic arm right at Phyrill''s face.


    Phyrill used both his hands to stop it, but rk''s strength overpowered him. No, it was Phyrill who got weaker due to his blood loss.


    rk grabbed his head and mmed it to the wall.


    "Oh sh*t!" Phyrill used all his Magic Power to strengthen his inside.


    Unfortunately for him, rk showed no mercy. He banged him to the wall a couple of times until Diego stopped him.


    "Phyrill is out."


    Hearing that voice, rk finally stopped and turned around as if he wanted to help the other two.


    But with numerous wounds on his body and blood flowing out of his wound continuously, rk suddenly fell unconscious and copsed to the ground. In fact, he had been moving by his sheer willpower alone for a whole minute.


    Checking his condition, Diego quickly called the medical team and brought the trio to the side.


    Alea, on the other hand, faced another difficulty after knowing her friends were already out. In fact, she needed to apud rk for defeating both of them in that state.


    "Your teammates and rk have gone. This way, you won''t be able to utilize rk again." Zara smiled.


    "You should check your condition first." Alea shook her head as she managed to gradually suppress them after understanding their swordsmanship with the help of her eyes. Looking at their expression to read their move indeed proved to be beneficial.


    If there were another five to ten minutes, Alea had the feeling she could defeat them. Unfortunately, there was no "if".


    "Zara, it''s still hard for us to defeat her." Scarlet shook her head helplessly. "I think it''s better to leave everything to Ne for the final."


    "You are not thinking��"


    "That''s what Laura and I need to do for this team. It''s not like we canpete for the victory anymore because of rk''s injury." Scarlet smiled in understanding. "Don''t stop me, okay?"


    "Inch sh!" Alea hurriedly sent another strike because she felt Scarlet wanted to start something ridiculous.


    "Chaos Disruption." Zara quickly protected Scarlet as if telling her she wouldn''t stop her anymore.


    Scarlet nodded with a serious expression before changing her hand.


    With the sword in her right hand, she slightly cut her left palm as the sword was covered with blood.


    She then wielded the sword with her left hand again before the blood started emitting dark red energy. "Blood Sacrifice."


    "Huh?" Alea widened her eyes as she felt an ominous feeling from that sword.


    Scarlet raised her sword and Zara leaped to the side as if she wanted to avoid something.


    The moment Scarlet waved her sword down, a huge wave of dark red energy ran through the ground, heading straight to Alea.


    The height alone reached twenty feet.


    "Melting Sword." Even so, Alea still struck it with all her power, albeit getting pushed back at least thirty feet from her original position before she could cut it down. She realized Scarlet seemed to be doing the same thing as Laura when she defeated Ellen.


    With the energy disappearing into thin air, a huge sword mark was revealed.


    Scarlet took a deep breath and looked at Alea. "I may have no blessing, but you shouldn''t underestimate the power of desperate people."


    Alea gritted her teeth, knowing she fell into a deep disadvantage. Still, she remained strong and raised her sword with a serious expression.


    ''No matter what, I will carry this team to the final. I am Alea Eilric, the team leader. This is not over yet!'' She thought and ran forward.

 Chapter 297 – Reality Or Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 297 - Reality Or Illusion</h4>


    "Hmm?" Theo gradually opened his eyes and stared at the white ceiling. "That''s right. I fell unconscious after that fight��"


    Theo tried to move his hands and body. "It seems there is nothing wrong with my body."


    Theo then nced at left and right, trying to find someone who was waiting for him. However, he got the shock of his life because what he saw was not the typical hospital room filled with only a chair, a bed, and a small table on the corner.


    The room was filled with a drawer, a closet, a few doors, and all his spears. "Huh? Isn''t this my room? Did I sleep for that long?"


    When he was about to rise from the bed, someone opened the door as Alea came to the room and dropped her jaw.


    "You have woken up!" Alea suddenly kneeled in front of his bed and grabbed his hand, crying. "I''m d. I''m d."


    "Ehm, what?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "First of all, can you tell me what happens?"


    "Y-yes." Alea nodded carefully.


    It seemed the doctor was confused with his condition. Even though his body had recovered, he didn''t wake up even after a few days. Ne had gone crazy and returned to her country, asking for help to wake him up.


    They also had lost thepetition without amander like him.


    Filled with guilt, Alea seemed to be taking care of him, hoping that someday he would wake up.


    "I see." Theo closed his eyes with a remorseful expression.


    "Right�� Since you have woken up, you must be hungry. Let me make you something." Alea smiled.


    When she was about to leave, Theo continued, "So, when are you going to reveal yourself?"


    "Eh?!" Alea stopped and turned around, looking at him with a dumbfounded expression.


    "Come on, I don''t have time for this sh*t." Theo let out a long sigh. "First of all, if you were Alea, she would have gotten me the best hospital. After that, there are a few lies I picked up from the exnations. Come on, I just want to return."


    "Wh-what do you mean? That''s right. Since you have just woken up, you must still feel weird. I will let you eat something first." Alea was extremely worried.


    "How much longer do you want to pretend��" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Should I call you Dear God, God of Mischief or something else?"


    "Theo?" Alea''s body was shaking. She approached him carefully.


    "I know that you are here for a reason. This ce feels like the same ce I have gone every time I am receiving something from your kids." Theo shook his head. "And since you''re not in your former form, I don''t need to be polite, don''t I? There''s no guarantee that you''re him."


    "Well, I don''t want to waste my power as well." Alea suddenly created a chair out of nothing next to the bed and sat, crossing her legs. Her tonepletely changed despite her voice sounding the same. "I guess this is our first meeting."


    "Yes." Theo nodded politely. "It''s my honor to meet you."


    "Nah, no need to be polite. As long as you respect me, it''s fine to be casual." Alea or Loki waved her hand casually. "I have three reasons for meeting you this way."


    Theo remained silent, but his expression turned serious.


    She smiled. "First, I want to teach you something. It''s about your skill, Illusion Maniption. All I can say, you''re only utilizing five percent of its power."


    "Five percent?"


    "Yes. You don''t understand the art of illusion."


    "I don''t understand what you''re talking about."


    "It''s fine. I will show you an example instead." Alea smiled and summoned a clone to her left. "This is your usual clone. Now, which one is the real one?"


    "Normally, I will say the left one, but since you''re trying to make an example, then the one on my right." Theo looked at the clone that had just been summoned.


    "You''re not supposed to say thetter but whatever." Alea shook her head as what Theo said was right. "Do you know the reason why I''ve exchanged ces?"


    "I don''t know. Seeing that the skill can be upgraded, that''s the reason?"


    "Nope. I''m only using the illusion of your Illusion Maniption skill." He smiled. "To be honest, I want to send my kids again to teach you since they''re more trustworthy than me, but this is something I excel in.


    "In any case, this is the biggest clue I can give you. What that geezer said about incorporating illusion into reality is right. You can be a great master in doing that. However, that doesn''t touch the true Illusion.


    "Say�� What if Illusion has a will of its own? What do you think it wishes for?" Alea stopped with a smile.


    "Wish��" Theo looked down for a moment beforeing to a realization. "If I am an illusion, I want to be real."


    "Exactly. The true illusion is the reality itself." Alea smiled and waved her hand, slicing the neck of her clone.


    Surprisingly, the clone spurted out blood like a human and dropped as if a human just died. Alea pointed to the headless corpse on the ground. "If you don''t talk with me this whole time, do you think this is real or fake?"


    "��" Theo frowned, knowing the answer.


    Alea continued, "Have you ever been wondering where Heaven and Hell are? What if I told you Heaven and Hell are on Earth? What if I told you all the Gods in the past actually hailed from Earth and were also a human?


    "What if I told you that those people had been watching you and will continue from now? What if I told you that this reality that everyone believes in is only a mere illusion?"


    Theo was taken aback by his statements. Thatst metaphor was the one that stuck in his mind the most.


    "What if I told you that you have been dreaming this whole time and I can free you from this illusion with a snap of my finger?"


    Theo gulped down and calmed his heart down.


    "I am happy that you''re calm and collected. It makes this conversation easier."


    "True Illusion�� Reality��" Theo closed his eyes, feeling some sort of understanding in that sentence.


    Alea nodded with a smile, thinking, ''That''s right. No one can tell whether the world you have been living in is an illusion or not. You only know and believe that this world is real. And I may also be another illusion of yours��''

 Chapter 298 – Talk

    <h4>Chapter 298 - Talk</h4>


    After a while, Theo finally opened his eyes, feeling a bit refreshed. "I see. So that''s how it is."


    Sitting on the bed, Theo summoned his clone. However, the clone suddenly punched the original and made it disappear like it was the clone.


    "It seems you haveprehended it a little bit. Your next task is to understand how to make the illusion a reality."


    "It''s not a reality for me, but for others, right?"


    "Depends on your target. At some point, you will also need to cast the illusion to yourself." Alea smiled.


    "Well, I used the illusion to make people think I''m summoning my clone, but the real trick is that I summon my clones and use blink to make it look like the real clone. Ugh. I don''t have any sentences to simplify it at the moment because I haven''t fullyprehended it yet. But that''s the gist of it."


    Alea nodded. "In any case, that''s what I want to teach you. You need to keep improving your mastery and use your brain to ovee the so-called absolute power. Tell them that tricks can defeat absolute power as well."


    "I will. It''s going to be tough, but I just glimpsed the possibility."


    "That''s good. Still, I am impressed that a human like you doesn''t ogle this beauty here." Alea crossed her arms, looking at Theo as if he was impotent. She raised her plump breast with her hands while saying, "Come,e. This woman is the closest one to you right now. How about you taste her a bit? This is your consciousness, so she won''t know."


    "What are you saying��" Theo facepalmed and shook his head in disappointment.


    "That''s it. I am going to teach you my Metamorphosis power next time."


    "The one that can give bir��" Theo''s mouth was covered by her hand as thetter red at him with killing intent. He remembered a certain story about him. Even Odin agreed not to speak anything to get that eight-legged horse. The one before him certainly didn''t want to discuss it.


    "You''re forbidden to say it unless you''re tired of your life. I can trap you inside here for a few years and mess up with your life, you know."


    "That''s impossible." Theo shook his head. "I don''t have the exact exnation, but I know that it''s impossible for you to trap me here. In fact,ing here alone should drain your power, right?"


    "Tch. I don''t know whether I should be happy or not to get someone smart." She shook her head. "Moving on. The second reason is I want to talk to you about one topic."


    "Hmm?" Theo squinted his eyes.


    "I am telling you how to annoy someone. I love it when someone loses their tempers." She made an evil smirk, reminiscing about the past.


    "Annoy someone? For what reason? It''s not like I am nning to make an enemy out of nowhere."


    "Nah, it''s not like that. This is how you annoy someone to your advantage. I know that''s hard for you to learn, but as long as you can do it from time to time, it''s already good."


    "Annoy someone to my advantage? Is that kind ofmunication skill?"


    "Yeah. To put it simply, you just need to do what they don''t want."


    "That''s it?"


    "Yep. Doing it is easier said than done. There are several conditions you need to follow. First, you need to know your and his purposes. This is necessary to manipte the conversation to what you want. Second, you need to be known by many, so they understand that you''re that kind of person. Third, don''t lie when you''re trying to annoy that person. Those are the three conditions you need to follow."


    "I can understand the first and second reasons, but the third��"


    Alea only shook her head and stepped back as if telling him that it was the only thing he needed to follow and he shouldn''t ask anything about it.


    "I will seek the answer by myself. Can I ask you something?"


    "Sure."


    "Why me? Why did you choose me at that time?"


    "No particr reason. When I was alive, I hated others because they were always taking advantage of someone''s life and using it for themselves for whatever reason and med them when something went wrong.


    "In fact, I utterly detested someone who used the so-called justice to do his evil deed. I like chaos, but I am not a hypocrite. And I can see that you''re the same. That''s why��" She extended her hand and touched Theo''s head with her finger. "Don''t try to convince yourself that you don''t mind doing this and that. Anyway, you will find what is correct for you. Just stick to it like me."


    Theo fell silent and thought for a moment. He didn''t understand why but there seemed to be something deep hidden beneath those words. Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t see through it just yet.


    "Alright. It''s time for thest one." Alea took a step back. "This is a warning. For someone who will tread on this path, your words will be hard to believe by other people. If you wish to keep going, then you should prepare yourself for no one shall trust you anymore."


    "Huh? That''s a given. Without your help, I would have died in that ce. At the very least, you can get almost anything with power and money, so I don''t think I will be bored of this world soon. But I can''t tell how I see the world in the future, so at that time, I may make another decision." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s it. I''m already satisfied." She smiled and raised her hand. "It''s time for you to wake up."


    "Wait, I still have so many questions."


    "Just remember, this world always has a fool. However, sometimes, we don''t hate that foolishness." She shook her head before making a genuine smile. When Theo was about to open his mouth, she snapped her finger. "See youter."


    Theo''s vision turned aplete white as his consciousness began to fade. At that time, he remembered he was still in the middle of the tournament.


    He wondered what the result of his team was as his consciousness returned to his body as he gradually opened his eyes.

 Chapter 299 – Win Or Win?

    <h4>Chapter 299 - Win Or Win?</h4>


    When he woke up, he felt a deja vu as he quickly moved his body to check his condition and turned left and right, trying to find someone in this room.


    He soon found Ellen sitting next to his bed while arranging the fruit she just bought.


    Noticing Theo''s movement, Ellen turned around and smiled. "You have woken up."


    "If you are here�� Doesn''t this mean the match is already over?"


    "Yeah." Ellen nodded with a calm expression.


    However, this kind of action was already enough for the answer. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "I guess we can only aim for third ce."


    "I am sorry." Ellen apologized, looking down with a sad expression.


    "It''s fine. This one was my fault. I should have given you the strategy instead of keeping it inside me the whole time."


    "But you were just trying to force Ne toe up, leaving no time for you to exin."


    "I could write it and pass it to Phyrill or I should have told you while watching the second battle. The n was already formted in my head when watching the second game."


    "NO!" Ellen denied it, but she knew she couldn''t convince Theo on this.


    "Where are the others?"


    "They need to do something." Ellen looked away.


    "Okay�� So, who cried?"


    "You''re not supposed to ask it, you know." Ellen sighed.


    "It''s my responsibility. I guess I should start babysitting them."


    "Can I know�� Your previous n?"


    "My n?" Theo smiled. "I would have thrown your staff to the arena."


    "Huh? That was your n?"


    "Yeah. It should confuse them for a moment because there was a high chance you would appear in the next one. They might think we are going to be stronger with Phyrill, Laust, and Alea together, but that''s exactly what I wanted them to think. By throwing your staff, they would bring only either Luka or Zara, but since Zara''s power can amplify her teammates, it''s better for her to be the decisive match, thest one.


    "Hence, I was nning to send Alea and Phyrill for the next match and win the match. Of course, you could alsoe out at that time. Depending on their answer, I can beat them in the fourth round." Theo sighed. "I guess you used the normal strategy."


    Ellen looked at the ceiling and felt horrible. "I guess we are really useless without you."


    "Not really." Theo shook his head. "The reason I dare to use something like this is due to my view toward all of you. To win, I will do whatever, even if it makes me or you look bad. That''s why I can be this bold.


    "Ahaha. Anyway, what we can do is to win thest one and get the bronze. I am not letting this slide anymore." Theo smiled while trying to take another look at his mission.


    Trial: Get the first ce to tell the world tricks are the best (Completed)


    Reward: Upgraded Skill Eyes.


    "Huh?" Theo couldn''t help but utter his confusion out loud.


    "Theo?"


    Theo waved his hand and coughed to calm his heart down. "Nothing. Just thought about something."


    Theo continued looking at the trial before pinching the bridge of his nose. He muttered, "Reality and Illusion��"


    Sorting his thought, he took another look at the trial and noticed its change.


    Trial: Get the first ce (MVP) to tell the world tricks are the best (Completed)


    Reward: Meeting


    PS: Your team sucks. There''s no way I''m leaving your and my fate in their hands.


    ''This is indeed the best trick��'' Theo thought as he wanted to curse this sudden change because he was already feeling sad that he couldn''t get the gold. ''After defeating Australia and Indonesia Teams, I have be a dark horse. Then, defeating Italy Team just proves the point even more. With myst battle against Ne, people will think I''m carrying the whole team since they can''t do anything without me. Is this a blessing in a misfortune? Now that I take another look at this result�� I want to feel happy, but I certainly can''t. Whatever.''


    Suddenly, the door opened as Radvils entered the room, checking on him. "How is your body?"


    "I am fine. All the wounds have recovered. I don''t feel any pain."


    "I guess it''s good since I asked the president to arrange a healing chamber for you as the top priority. Anyway, you still need to rest for another two days here to see if there''s any side effects from your previous condition."


    "I understand." Theo nodded and continued, "Where are the others? Are they not going to meet this sick me?"


    "��" Radvils furrowed his eyebrows, feeling something had changed in Theo, but he couldn''t see what it was. "I will ask them toeter, but all of them are ming themselves because they suck."


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled. "I do too. Anyway, I shall perform my duty and whip them back into shape again. Our battle is not over yet. Besides, this is good��"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Tell me the enemies'' conditions."


    "��" Radvils couldn''t understand what he wanted but told him the truth. "Ne is gonna be fine after a rest. rk is hospitalized and can''t participate anymore. He is in this hospital too if you want to meet him. Laura and Scarlet will be fine, but I don''t think Scarlet can fight with her full strengthter."


    "See. I bet Ne thought she won the war, but the one who got thestugh is us." Theo chuckled.


    "Ho?"


    "With their current condition, even if they arepeting for gold or silver, the people will be disappointed because they can''t perform to the best of their abilities. Then who will get the spotlight?" Theo smirked.


    "Semifinals are usually an opening for the final. But with a final like this, they will already know who gets the gold, who gets the silver medal. Hence, the most exciting battle will be the semifinal, the opening act. The one who gets the spotlight will be��" Ellen drew a gasp,ing to a realization.


    "That''s right. We may not win, but we certainly get the spotlight. Seriously, for me, the spotlight is better than a gold medal because this will bring me a brighter future than an empty medal." Theoughed. "So, who cried the most? Send that person to me right now. I''m going to force them tough."

 Chapter 300 – Thank You For Losing

    <h4>Chapter 300 - Thank You For Losing</h4>


    On the hospital''s rooftop, a single female looked down, crying. She kept recalling what just happened an hour ago.


    ''It''s not over yet.'' She thought, facing Scarlet and Zara.


    "Third Labour, Devouring Hydra." She sent a wave of hydra heads, trying to strike them both this time.


    Zara ced her hand on the ground, summoning the same ck hole that obliterated the hydra''s heads.


    Nine big tentacles emerged from the hole, caught the heads, and snapped them.


    Scarlet, on the other hand, waved her sword once more. "Blood des."


    All the blood that had been sttered all over the arena began to rise and turned into sharp knives.


    Alea widened her eyes as she never expected to be attacked from all directions, considering the blood from Phyrill and rk were in the mix.


    "Fortitude." Alea formed a shield and charged to the side where there were fewer blood knives.


    Unfortunately, Zara prevented her from escaping.


    "Chaos Disruption."


    "Ssh Explosion." Alea decided to create an explosion above her head that blew away all the blood knives, but this was what Zara wanted.


    In that instant, she closed their gap and approached her while swinging her sword.


    "You''re so boring." Zara smirked.


    "What did you say?!" Alea frowned.


    "You may have the courage to challenge everything, but by no means, you have the resolve to do it." Zara suddenly dropped her sword and grasped Alea''s head before smashing her own forehead against her. "This is why you are boring unlike him!"


    Alea and Zara thought of different people this whole time, but they both indeed fit the description. In Alea''s head was Theo while Zara was thinking about rk''s sacrifice.


    That headbutt was unexpected as both of their foreheads got cut and started bleeding.


    "Wha��" Alea widened her eyes. She quickly used her sword to stab her, but Scarlet grasped her from behind, restraining both hands.


    After that, Scarlet lifted them up to the air and threw them to the ground. "German Suplex."


    "Gah!" The shock jolted Alea''s mind as she struggled to move her sword and stabbed Zara.


    However, Scarlet''s hand was already around her neck and stopped the match.


    "The United Kingdom wins!"


    Remembering that scene made her blood boil. She hated herself for not even sticking up for so long and just got beaten by her opponents. Her thoughts were easily distracted as well.


    She was a failure as a team leader.


    Clenching her fists, she started gasping for air. She didn''t know why but her heart felt like it was squeezed by someone.


    Dropping to the ground, Alea looked left and right, finding no one.


    "Why? I should have done it better. Why? Despite all that confidence��" Alea hit the floor multiple times.


    Suddenly, the door was opened as a male''s voice echoed in her ears. "So, this is where you are."


    "Th��eo��" Alea stuttered and turned around with tears covering her cheeks. "I��I am sorry."


    "What for?" Theo walked to her with a smile.


    When he reached her, he sat down on the ground. "So, what do you want to say to me? Is it about the match? Is it about your loss? Is it because you suck?"


    Alea gritted her teeth, not denying whatever he said.


    "Since this is the first mental breakdown I have witnessed, I shall treat you a bit better. How about you calm down and talk to me?"


    Alea looked Theo in the eyes, never seeing this side of Theo. She couldn''t help but apologize again. "I am sorry. Everything was my fault. If I could defeat them, we would have gotten to the final. And right now�� I just wasted the chance you had given to us."


    "I see nothing wrong, so I don''t know what you are talking about." Theo shook his head and replied with a calm tone.


    "Did you hear me?" She rose and grabbed his shoulders. "I just wast��"


    Theo suddenly put his finger on her mouth, silencing her.


    "Let me tell you something. I came to Italy for a reason�� I''m sure you already understand what I wanted, right?"


    Alea looked down and nodded timidly.


    "My goal has been achieved. I don''t want to brag, but I am probably the hottestmodity for those who want to scout people here. But that also puts me in a difficult situation because I don''t have any backing currently. What is this Griffith Family? I know nothing of them and they haven''t appeared before me even once. Ne is an exception. That''s why getting the gold medal will only upset people more than you can imagine.


    "I mean, do you think Thernd can handle all the pressure from other countries if we win the gold? I''m sure you know they will pressure us to get me, right? And they will also say we are not supposed to be qualified for that one.


    "If you don''t stand out, you will be scrutinized or even bullied like me. At the same time, if you stand out too much, you will be criticized and pressured by those around you, whether it''s pride, jealousy or whatever it is. That''s why this world sucks." Theo sighed. "And you losing is actually working for me better in the long run. So, thank you for losing.


    "Besides, if we lose, we get the spotlight while getting enough reward without being pressured by them." Theo winked, telling her that losing was actually the right thing to do. "I call this an absolute win."


    "You��" Alea opened her mouth, but all words stuck on her throat. She was simply speechless.


    "Anyway, no need to cry anymore." Theo smiled and handed a handkerchief. "Here, wipe those tears and snot of yours."


    "There''re only tears!" Alea quickly grabbed the handkerchief and covered her face in the pretense of wiping the tears. She was too embarrassed to show her face to Theo now that she had calmed down.


    Seeing Alea was already fine, Theo rose from the ground and tried to settle everything with the rest of his teammates.


    However, Alea suddenly reached his arm as if asking him not to leave her alone. She couldn''t help but remember what Agata told her. Yet, no words came out from her mouth after that.

 Chapter 301 – Future Path

    <h4>Chapter 301 - Future Path</h4>


    After a while, Alea had finally calmed down and decided to go back with Theo.


    All she could do was lower her head, avoiding anyone from looking at her current expression.


    She was just too embarrassed by all the things she did earlier. She thought, ''What is happening to me? Why was I crying like a child in front of Theo? He is two years younger than me and I showed such a thing. How could I face him anymore?''


    Unknown to her, Theo simply walked back to his room to get some rest before finding another person jumping toward him. "Theo!"


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he avoided her with his Blink.


    "Why did you dodge?"


    Theo ignored her question and asked back, "What do you want, Ne?"


    Ne made a big smile, feeling proud of their win. She even started calling Theo by his name already.


    "Nothing. I was about to visit you to check your condition, but it seems you are already alright."


    "Yes. Thank you for worrying me." Theo nodded calmly. "How are your teammates?"


    "I guess we can''t do anything for the next battle. Do you want to visit them? They are in that room." Ne scratched the back of her head while pointing at the left door that was still slightly open. Without any shame, she turned to Alea and said with a cheeky tone. "Oh, isn''t this the cry baby?"


    "��" All the embarrassment instantly changed to anger as Ne''s voice was probably thest one she wanted to hear right now.


    Theo ignored them and entered the room, finding three people lying on the bed while Zara and Luka were taking care of them.


    Noticing his presence, Zara turned around and raised her eyebrows. "You can already walk��"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I thought about visiting you since Ne ambushed me outside."


    rk chuckled. "That must be hard for you. But to think you even defeated Ne�� I have no words to say anymore."


    "I was just lucky." Theo shrugged. "How are you feeling? I heard you''re the worst among them."


    "I''m gonna be fine after six months. It''s a precious time, but it''s not going to hinder my progress that much." rk shrugged.


    "If only you gave us that win, you wouldn''t need to do something like this." Theo shook his head in disappointment, teasing them with a sly smile.


    Zara rose and confronted him. "That''s better than your current predicament. We are still guaranteed to get a silver medal this year, but you?"


    "Silver Medal?" Theo made a shocked expression before sneering, "Oh, you mean that constion prize?"


    Zara''s expression darkened as she gritted her teeth and said in the same tone as when she wanted to hit Ne in the tournament. "Have you ever considered washing your mouth? Both you and Ne have this same sh*tty smelling out of your mouths."


    "It''s better than a mere dirt trying to be a diamond." Theo shrugged, indirectly mocking her silver medal again.


    Theo maintained his smile while Zara gradually ran out of patience.


    To avoid doing anything to him, Zara decided to leave the room. "I''m going to get some drinks."


    "Buy me orange juice!" Luka raised his hand and pointed at Scarlet, "She wants melon juice."


    "Okay." Zara walked to the door before hearing another one.


    "Ah, I want apple juice," Theo added.


    "Go to hell." Zara snorted and left immediately.


    Zara''s teammatesughed.


    "Anyway, that''s all. I need to return to my room and have some rest." Theo waved his hand and left the room, albeit finding another quarrel between Ne and Alea.


    Theo just ignored both of them and slipped away, thinking, "At least Alea is already fine since she has enough energy to quarrel."


    When he returned, Rai seemed to be bringing a lot of presents in his hand.


    "It seems you have returned. Well, I have finished dealing with all those annoying peasants. These are all their "goodwill" along with the invitation letters," said Rai with an annoyed tone.


    "Ahaha, thank you." Theo thanked him before returning to his bed.


    "Anyway, my job is done here, so I will return to the hotel. Don''t bother me until you''re done with thepetition. I''m too tired for this." Rai sighed and left the room as fast as he could before getting another job.


    Theo only smiled and looked at the mountain of presents next to his bed. He couldn''t help but remember his life seven months ago. "These are gifts from countries, organizations, and others�� The past me would never get something like this in my entire life.


    "I guess I am d that I can change my life for the better. Still, the higher I climb, the bigger the problem�� It''s going to be rough, but it''s better than having no power to even protect oneself." Theo shook his head.


    After saying those words, Theo began to look through all the gifts, including the letters.


    Despite saying they all wished for his recovery, Theo knew they wanted him to choose them after thispetition.


    All seven other countries in thispetition were among them.


    Other countries also didn''t want to miss such a talent, especially since Thernd obviously had no power to nurture him well.


    He even saw many famous groups,panies and even organizations that invited him. Unfortunately, they couldn''t talk to him personally because it might raise suspicion that they would do something to a participant.


    At the very least, Theo knew he had many options in the future since there was no way he would stay in Thernd, who didn''t have enough resources to help him increase his levels in the near future.


    Laying down on his bed and staring at the ceiling, Theo muttered, "I wonder where I should go after this�� And there is another problem which is when�� Anyway, I will probably need a year or two to settle everything before I can travel to another country, so I will just think of it along the way."


    Unbeknownst to him, Alea was right behind the door with her head down. She had been watching him when he was in the middle of opening the gifts. Even though she couldn''t hear him, she could understand a bit of what he was saying from his mouth gesture, yet, she couldn''t say anything as their rtionship was not a friend or a couple�� They were just partners or teammates.

 Chapter 302 – Five Aspects Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 302 - Five Aspects Part 1</h4>


    Tomorrow, Alea and the others went to the tournament to see the match while Theo waited in the hospital alone.


    Theo sat on the bed while putting a piece of paper on top of his hand.


    Suddenly, the paper began to float staggeringly as if there was a fan on top of Theo''s hand, blowing the paper upward.


    "This is the Control that I need�� No, Ne is far stronger than this, so I need to practice more. Despite understanding how it works, I can''t really replicate her power without enough practice." Theo shook his head in disappointment before Ne suddenly opened the door.


    "I heard that, Theo!"


    "Why are you here?" Theo facepalmed.


    "This is the only time you are alone, so I can talk to you a little bit." Ne stuck her tongue out.


    "You are not watching the match. Is this even more important than the match?"


    "Don''t you want to know the secret of my power?"


    "Are you gonna tell me your secret?"


    "Of course. Now that we are not enemies anymore, I will tell you everything. Of course, today is only for this one."


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Why? I don''t see the reason��"


    "This is purely my will. I admire you because you have been living alone for so long without any love or support from your surroundings." Ne smiled. "In fact, win or lose, I have already nned to tell you the secret."


    "��" Theo frowned and asked, "Aren''t you afraid of me? I mean, you have been very polite to me this whole time, so it must be because of our status, correct?"


    "To be honest, I don''t really care about this position. If you want it, I will just give it to you. It''s more or less an obligation or a simple wish. That''s all." Ne chuckled. "Also, I want to warn you to not replicate that power if you don''t want to get entangled with this family."


    "Ho?"


    "To be honest, I am happy if you want, but I don''t wish to force you. I am going to tell you about this first, so you can understand what I''m implying."


    "Please." Theo nodded and pointed to the chair next to his bed.


    However, Ne brazenly sat on his bed and made herselffortable there.


    "Releasing and controlling your Magic Power at the same time is a technique that everyone can practice. However, if you understand the power of Twister or Induction Fist, you will notice a difference between the normal Control and Magic Saint Fist Style''s Control.


    "Thetter is thebination of Breathing and Control."


    "Thebination of Breathing and Control?" Theo frowned and tried to understand what she said.


    "Yes. To be fair, it''s hard for someone to master two Aspects at the same time. Rather than learning both aspects, it''s better for us to master one Aspect. That''s true, but we can''t really avoid learning the other four.


    "Because all of them are actually connected to each other." She smiled and raised her hand. She took a deep breath before releasing in one go, creating a small shock wave on top of her hand. "Can you spot the difference?"


    "I see. When I release my power, it doesn''t have a certain rhythm that gives it such explosive power." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Exactly. This rhythm is gained from the Breathing Technique�� Of course, Griffith Family''s Breathing Technique." She smiled. "I would be lying if I am not sad when you don''t go to the UK after this, but I will respect your decision. I will give you a simple hint for each country that you may want to visit in the future.


    "Currently, the leading country which excels in Awareness is Italy, AKA this country. You will find many people who understand more than other people in the world like Enrica. As for Breathing, there are three countries. They are Indonesia, China, and India.


    "Aside from our family, you can go to Russia or America to learn Control. Japan, Egypt, and France are known for their mastery of Technique. Last but not least, Endurance. You can go to Kongo, China, or America.


    "Of course, aside from five aspects, there are many things you need to explore. The US is the primary example. You see their weaponry? It''s good to buy some of them when you visit there."


    Theo thought for a moment. "I can understand what you mean by leading countries, but I don''t even know what path I should take. I mean, I don''t have enough understanding of each path."


    "You can try all of them first before deciding."


    "Can you tell me a bit about them?"


    "You mean the advanced skill?" She thought for a moment and nodded. "Let me start from my own specialty, Control. I''m sure that you are already aware of my technique, so I will give you an example of the next stage.


    "This is still in training, but��" She raised her palm and released her Magic Power. A golden light suddenly appeared on top of her palm and gradually changed its shape to that of a knife.


    However, it disappeared when it was only half done. Ne clicked her tongue and sighed. "This is Control called Materialization."


    "Materialization? Normally, we can''t see the Magic Power, but that one��"


    "Yes. It''s Magic Power. When you are concentrating the Magic Power on a single point, you can materialize them. This power requires Master Level Force Control or above. As for its power�� I can create the same amount of power as my B Rank Skill, Mana Concentration Bomb."


    "That powerful?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise.


    "Yes. I can see that your Control is at the peak of Beginner Level. I''m sure you only need a few weeks to reach Practitioner Level like me. That''s why while you are at it, you need to master External Flow which is the technique name of what you''re doing."


    "External Flow��" Theo looked at his hand and tried to release the Magic Power again.


    "That''s right. Releasing a powerful amount of Magic Power is an application of Force Control''s Concept." She paused for a moment. "Moving on to the other Aspects."

 Chapter 303 – Five Aspects Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 303 - Five Aspects Part 2</h4>


    "I can''t show you their power, but I can give some exnation about them." She smiled. "First is Awareness. If we have Soft Control, Force Control, and Perfect Control in Control category, Awareness has Expansion, Prediction, and Future Views."


    "Future Views��" Theo raised his eyebrows, thinking about something.


    "Yes. Expansion is simply a more powerful vision while transmitting your intention or something, like Killing Intent or sensing those around you. I''m sure you already have it. After that is Prediction�� Using your Awareness, you can observe your opponent like watching from behind the screen. It will allow you to get a better understanding of their movement and predict their movement. When you''re already at the top of Prediction, you will start understanding more and more, making you able to glimpse the future.


    "Of course, even though I''m saying the future, it''s just you predicting your prediction, making you see this kind of "future". And it''s indeed hard to grasp this power."


    "I see." Theo nodded.


    "Then there is Breathing. It''s also divided into three Major Categories: Burst, Innate Regeneration, Unlimited Generation. The one I showed you earlier about thebination was ssified as Burst plus Force Control. Breathing gives you a rhythm after all, allowing you to gain a momentary boost or calm mind.


    "After that is Innate Regeneration. It allows you to create a more powerful Burst and regenerate your Magic Power. At the peak, it''s called Unlimited Generation that allows you to naturally absorb or use the Magic Power in the air to make it look like you have unlimited Magic Power."


    "All I can see this whole time is that each power has its own use. And I''m sure they''re the power every person wishes for��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Of course it is. The technique is the same. Mastery, Original Technique, and Divine Abilities. Hmm, let me take an example of a famous person in the past. Do you know Tsubame Gaeshi? That Kojiro Sasaki?"


    "The one where you make a feint by swinging your sword down before waving it one more time?" Theo asked.


    "Yep. That''s an Original Technique. At a nce, it''s a technique that only you can use�� Unless you''re teaching them to another person. Divine Abilities is the stronger version of it."


    "I understand." Theo nodded.


    "Last but not least, it''s Endurance. It''s quite simr to Breathing to be honest, but this one is more physical. Harden, Innate Regeneration, and Inhuman Physique. These are the three categories for Endurance. Harden means hardening�� I remember when I''m reading an article, you know about a normal human destroying bricks and other things? This is Hardening.


    "Innate Regeneration means your wounds will gradually heal by themselves, whether it''s external or internal injuries. As for thest one, have you ever seen someone burning, but it''s actually his normal form? Something like that. He can assimte his body with his power, turning himself into a fire, water or something that is capable of giving them power beyond human''s limit."


    "Yep, as expected, all of them are pretty badass powers that are hard to deal with."


    "Indeed. But the most annoying one is thebination. Like my Magic Saint Fist Style, which requires powerful Control and somewhat okay Breathing�� thebination of more than one aspect will give tremendous power to the user.


    "For example, the current head of the Griffith Family can use Breathing, Control, and Endurance at the same time. His peak power allows him to destroy half of Italy''s base we saw a few days ago.


    "There is also a samurai in the east thatbines Breathing, Control to create his own Technique that can cut the same base to half with a single sh. There are many examples in this world, but I shouldn''t waste your time." She smiled. "I''m sure this exnation is enough for now."


    "Indeed. I can see the benefits of learning them. For now, I have the Control at my disposal, but I don''t know if this one is what I want." Theo smiled. "Thank you. You just opened my eyes."


    "Hehe." Ne made a big smile before putting her head on hisp as if wanting to be spoiled. "How about patting my head as a reward?"


    "What are you? A kid?" Theo shook his head helplessly but still gently patted her head as thanks for her exnation.


    While enjoying the pat, Ne was muttering inwardly, ''I wonder what will he do when he realizes he can learn everything. An enviable talent that is useless by himself but bes the strongest when he meets many people. Still, the Griffith Family has its own rule, which they haven''t broken yet for centuries. I wonder if they are going to break the rule for Theo if he doesn''t want to be the family head.''


    Ne suddenly chuckled. ''You may not know it, but ever since my father talked about you, I have already be your fan, Cousin. I want to see how far you can go from here.''


    "What is it? Why are youughing like an idiot?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    Her smile only just got bigger as she replied, "Nothing, I just love you, Cousin. Hehe."


    "Whatever." Theo sighed. "Anyway, you''re going to tell me about the Griffith Familyter, right?"


    "Yes. After the banquet, I will tell you about them. However, my parents don''t talk much about them, so most of what I knowes from my own research. Also, do you think I cane to your room at that time? It''s going to be a long story. Or we can talk in my room. Either ce is fine as long as no one can bother us."


    Theo thought for a moment. "Well, thepetition is already over, so I don''t really mind."


    "That''s great. It''s an important matter after all. I can''t really say it in front of other people."


    "Still, judging from the reaction of other people, the Griffith Family seems to be a big family, yet, they are not that well known?" Theo was suspicious.


    "I will tell you in detailter, but I can give you one hint." She smiled. "They are a hidden family."

 Chapter 304 – Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 304 - Discussion</h4>


    The next day. Theo still sat on the bed, waiting to be discharged.


    However, the entire group decided to hold a meeting there, including Radvils, to prevent the previous incident from happening.


    Still, Theo couldn''t help but remember what happened yesterday. After giving that hint, Ne refused to say anything and simply left the room.


    ''It seems I have underestimated the Griffith Family. They seem to be adept in Control and their influence is quite big. The experts are many and the family head is strong. I wonder what''s wrong with this family. Either way, I can feel that there''s something that''s gonna bother me in the future. I need to know more about them from Neter.'' Theo shook the thought off for now.


    "Theo, what are you thinking?" Ellen whispered while watching the match.


    Theo nced at her for a moment before changing the topic. "It seems our next opponent is Japan."


    "Yeah." Ellen nodded. "Nakajima Miyoko has the blessing of Susanoo-no-Mikoto."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "He''s dangerous. Looking at that sword covered with lightning, I''m afraid it''s hard to fight him."


    "Indeed." Radvils agreed and pointed to another one. "But you also need to take a look at the other one, Kurihara Masahiko, the holder of Benzaiten''s blessing."


    "Who is this beautiful man��" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "��" Alea and Ellen rolled their eyes.


    "His appearance aside, his power is considerably strong. His movement may look feminine and beautiful, but each strike contains a high amount of power." Radvils shrugged.


    "Ehm�� I think I know a bit about her�� I mean, his strength." Alea raised her head as if noticing something off from him.


    "What is it?"


    "His movement seems to be a Sword Dance." Alea exined, "A Sword Dance is a bit different from a Sword Art. Each movement will be continuous and each dance will have its own meaning. In other words, you will be fighting an unpredictable and endless onught. Take a look at his opponent, he has difficulty stopping him unless someone disrupts him. However, from what I can see, he has yet to master many types."


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Last but not least, their captain, Shibuya Mami. She has Kitsune''s Blessing. I don''t know whether her blessing is a God Rank or a Mythical Rank. If it''s the former, I''m afraid the Kitsune has be a Tenko or you may say a Celestial Fox," said Radvils with a serious expression.


    "Nheless, she is the opponent we need to beat. Let''s assume the worst." Theo looked at them. "Does anyone want to say something?"


    "The others don''t have blessings, but they are strong too."


    "I know that already." Theo sighed. "Alright. Since no one wants to talk, I can only say, I can''t give you any ns this time. First of all, I need to check their condition first, so I, Alea, and Ellen will be going in the first game.


    "From what I have seen, the opponents also rely on strategies, so we will have no trick in the game section. The remaining three battles will be personally overseen by me and I won''t forget to take a note, so if I end up in the hospital again, you guys can know my n. Is that alright?"


    "��" All of them lowered their heads, feeling ashamed.


    Radvils nodded in agreement, finding no problem in Theo''s n. As long as there was a note, they could do something about it. "But are you sure it''s okay to fight them with an empty head?"


    "Of course. They will be confused why we''re using our strength in the game section, so everyone is required to make them think we''re going to overpower them, especially after me gaining strength from my battle against Ne. Though, I will still stick to my own fighting style." Theo smiled. "Also, I''m nning to end this match as soon as possible, so all of you will take the field with the intention to win. Don''t hold back anymore�� Understood?"


    All of them couldn''t help but feel excited as they replied. "Yes."


    ��


    Meanwhile, the opposite party also had a strategy meeting to discuss how they should handle Theo''s team.


    Nakajima Miyoko looked at his teammates behind the round table and asked Mami. "How are we going to deal with them? Theodore has shown an unprecedented level of strength along with his brain. This is not going to be an easy task."


    The rest also looked at her, wondering if she had some sort of trick to fight them.


    "From what I have seen so far, they are trying to gain at least one win in the game section and another one in the one versus one match." She thought for a moment. "That''s why we are going to abandon the third match since Theodore or Alea wille up in that stage. After that, we will send our strongest fighters to fight them. I''m sure Theodore will y something weird in this match.


    "He will close the match using that trick, so if Theodore goes for the third battle, Alea and either Laust or Phyrill will go. This is the strategy he has never used, so it will catch us off guard. That''s why we will counter it with me there.


    "After losing his momentum, we will close the match in the fifth round." Mami smiled.


    "As expected of you." Miyoko nodded. "He has never used the same strategy twice, so I guess he''s nning to do something like that. No matter how dirty it is, a win is a win. Also, with the hype of the audience, if they can destroy us in the fourth match, it will give enough hype for them not to think about the dirty trick."


    "Indeed. Let''s see who will emerge victorious." Mami felt confident.


    "Has the request been approved yet?"


    "Theodore aside, I''m more interested in Laust''s unique swordsmanship. His uniqueness may give him the potential for an Original Technique. That''s why I am adding him together with Theodore in the request. Both of them have gotten their approval. If Theodore rejects us, we will simply get Laust."


    "I trust your judgment." Miyoko nodded and rose from his seat. "In any case, we will fight to the best of our ability."

 Chapter 305 – Chill

    <h4>Chapter 305 - Chill</h4>


    "On this great day, we are back here for thest day of the Grand Gaia Competition. Japan and Thernd will bepeting in the semifinal while the United Kingdom and the United States will be fighting against each other in the final.


    "We have truly never expected such a surprise in thispetition. I''m honored to be the host of this importantpetition where I could witness the biggest dark horse in history. Now! Will Thernd im their first medal in thispetition or will Japan protect the seat and leave Thernd with nothing?


    "The answer wille in the arena." Sheira took a deep breath. "Let me exin the game section for the first match between Japan and Thernd. If you look at the arena, there is a smaller circle in the arena where the team will bepeting. All they need to do is to throw their opponents outside the ring. Without further ado, let''s call the participants for both teams."


    "Uoh!"


    The cheers erupted as the audience called the name they wanted to see in the arena. It turned into an uproar when six people made their appearances.


    "This is it! This is what we are waiting for. The two teams have finally shown themselves!" Sheira shouted in excitement. "From the left side, Theodore Griffith, Alea Eilric, and Ellen Marcines are taking the field. On the opposite side, Japan Team has sent Nakajima Miyoko, Kurihara Masahiko, and Kondo Takuro."


    "Oh? We are dealing with these two and the summoner?" Ellen furrowed her eyebrows. "Are we going to win this?"


    Theo nced at her with a smile. "That''s something you shouldn''t ask."


    "I guess you are right��" She chuckled.


    "I''m going to fight Nakajima Miyoko." Theo shrugged. "You two will deal with the rest."


    Meanwhile, Takuro sighed. "I wonder if we pull the short straw."


    "In any case, if it''s only Phyrill and Laust, she should be able to win," said Masahiko while ncing over the enemy team. However, his focus remained on Alea.


    "Why are both of you talking as if we''re already lost? If we can win the two games, we can end everything quickly. No cking." Miyoko snorted and red at Theo. "Who wins? It''s obviously the one who throws them out of the ring."


    "Right?"


    The two chuckled as they walked to the middle of the arena, meeting Theo''s team.


    "I hope we have a good fight." Theo smiled nonchntly as if looking down on them.


    Miyoko''s eyebrows twitched as he rebuked him. "Just because you have grown stronger, it doesn''t mean you are going to win."


    "I am already winning." Theo raised both hands and grabbed Ellen and Alea''s shoulders as if implying they had more girls in their team unlike them.


    Cough.


    Cough.


    Miyoko and Masahiko coughed as they never expected Theo to show off like that.


    "This guy is the best." Takuro, on the other hand, couldn''t contain hisughter.


    Theo shrugged and walked to the edge of the ring. The ring itself had a hundred feet in radius, making it quite big.


    Surprisingly, their opponents also started from the edge of the ring as if they wanted to figure out Theo''s n.


    "Match starts!"


    With Diego announcing the start of the match, both teams turned serious.


    Alea pulled her sword and Ellen prepared to use two skills simultaneously. The same applied to Japan Team as all the three unsheathed their katanas.


    However, Theo took them by surprise because he didn''t summon his clone and walked slowly to the other side as if he felt no threat from his opponents.


    "!!!" Miyoko raised his eyebrows and clenched his teeth. Theo was openly mocking their team. "You��"


    "He is a bit too overboard." Takuro shook his head helplessly before summoning a red ape. "Fiery Ape. Let me see how strong you are�� Can you defeat a Hero Rank Ape alone?"


    Roar.


    The fifteen-foot ape let out a loud roar as he mmed his fist to Theo, albeit three lotuses dropped on top of his head, pinning the ape to the ground.


    Ellen smiled, "Your opponent is me."


    "So it seems��" Takuro''s expression became serious.


    Masahiko also couldn''t let this chance go and decided to test Theo.


    "Blossom Sword Dance." Masahiko wanted to strike him a few times to check Theo''s level of spear y, but his sword was stopped by Alea''s sword.


    Their swords shed a few times before Masahiko leaped back.


    "It''s a Sword Dance indeed��" Alea took a deep breath. "This time, I''m not going to lose anymore."


    "Let''s dance together, shall we?" Masahiko smiled.


    Theo scratched the back of his head and asked, "So, when are you going to move like them?"


    "You are overly confident��" Miyoko squinted his eyes and leaped to him while shouting. "I''m going to put you in your ce right now."


    Theo smiled and pulled his hand, staring at Miyoko''s de that came from above.


    "Lightning Sword Art, First Sword."


    Looking at the overbearing lightning emanating from the sword, Theo finally pushed his hand, excreting all the power like Ne.


    But��


    Zab.


    No power was released and Theo was split into two in an instant.


    There was even blooding out of his body as the body and the spears dropped to the ground, letting out a clicking sound and making it look real.


    "What?!" Diego was bewildered for a second.


    No one would believe it was the real Theo, albeit the corpse didn''t look like a clone since thetter was supposed to disappear after getting chopped like that.


    Even Alea and Ellen stopped for a split second, staring at the corpse.


    "Did I just kill him��" Miyoko drew a gasp and took a step back before Theo''s voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    The corpse suddenly disappeared, including the blood, as another Theo emerged right on his original position.


    He was sitting on top of his spear''s handle that he lifted with his Telekinesis, chillin like nobody''s business.


    "Come on. Why are you all taking this seriously? I haven''t even moved from my original position��" Theo sighed in disappointment.


    "Gh!" Miyoko just realized that everything was an illusion, meaning Theo was just toying him this whole time. Veins bulged on his forehead as he gnashed his teeth. "You�� Motherf��"

 Chapter 306 – Toying

    <h4>Chapter 306 - Toying</h4>


    All of them wouldn''t expect that Theo never moved from his position.


    It was only the illusion of himself.


    Yet, despite everyone hating him after getting tricked, this performance didn''t satiate Theo''s desire.


    He clicked his tongue and muttered inwardly, ''Tch. This is the only thing I can do after learning it for two days. If only I had learned how to use illusions better from the start, I would have gotten better than this. Illusion bing a reality, huh.''


    Obviously, no one in this ce shared the same disappointment. Even Diego narrowed his eyes and gulped down, thinking, ''He is already this good? I could see that it was an illusion, but everything looked so real that I doubted myself for a second there.''


    Miyoko couldn''t see it because the anger already got into his head. He discharged all the lightning to his sword and charged at him.


    "Ha!"


    Theo smiled and raised both spears before using his Blink when he was about to reach him.


    "Yep. And here I am��" Theo smiled as he appeared in front of Masahiko.


    "Seriously? I''m the first target?" Sweats covered his forehead as Masahiko took a leap back.


    At the same time, a blue-colored wolf showed its presence behind Theo.


    Yet, Theo continued extending his hand to Masahiko despite knowing the wolf already opened its mouth.


    Theo took a deep breath, used his Telekinesis and released his Magic Power to the limit.


    Masahiko clicked his tongue and got pushed back. However, he somehow changed his dance and escaped that powerful push from Theo right on edge.


    On the contrary, the wolf had its own head flying before reaching Theo.


    Next to the wolf was Alea with her sword down as if she just made aplete swing.


    However, Miyoko obviously wouldn''t let this slide as he quickly returned to help Masahiko. To prevent Theo from pushing him off, he nned to strike Alea to force Theo to help Alea instead of focusing on Masahiko.


    And he did exactly as he thought, albeit with his clone.


    Clone Theo struck his sword and stopped it easily. The lightning couldn''t get close to him because of Theo''s Telekinesis and both of them had the same amount of strength.


    "I guess it''s not that easy to push him off," Theo muttered and turned around, heading straight to Takuro.


    "I won''t let you!" Miyoko roared as he released all the lightning inside his body. "Lightning Speed."


    Clone Theo tried to stop him, but Miyoko''s strength was indeed a bit faster than he imagined.


    "Theo!" Alea shouted, nning to strike Miyoko down, but Masahiko already struck her again, not letting her help Theo.


    "Your opponent is me." Masahiko smiled.


    Theo stopped and turned around, raising his spear against Miyoko, who already got fed up with him.


    "Thunder Strike."


    "Cannon st." Theo struck his sword with all his energy, but Miyoko released an unprecedented level of might and pinned him to the ground as a loud thunder echoed in everyone''s ears.


    "I won''t let you escape again," Miyoko shouted in anger.


    "But��" Theo shook his head helplessly. "You never caught me."


    Suddenly, Theo disappeared, leaving only his "Clone" standing on the battlefield. And once again, he soon realized that the "Original" Theo was actually the "Clone".


    In that instant, Theo summoned his clone again and charged at Matsuhiko together.


    "Magic Bullet." Theo and his clone released all eighty Magic Bullets and used the Tracking ability to slow down Miyoko.


    At the same time, Alea understood what he nned to do and waved her sword. "Melting Sword."


    "Water vanquishes Fire." Matsuhiko released his power and swallowed Alea''s fire with his own water. After that, he used another dance to take a few step backs in quick session before walking to the side in an unpredictable way.


    "Grand Burst." Alea didn''t let him escape, at least until Theo caught up.


    "River Wave." Matsuhiko obviously wouldn''t allow him to be at a disadvantage since Alea and Theo would be the worst pair to chase you in thispetition.


    The water formed a current and suppressed the explosion, but there were already three explosions that urred in the arena.


    And Alea had fulfilled her objective because Theo used his Telekinesis again to lift the rock up, throwing it to him.


    "Water Spiral." Matsuhiko spun his body and created a water sprout that swallowed everything and tossed them to the sky.


    "Cannon st." When Theo was about to attack Matsuhiko, Miyoko appeared before him and struck his spear down to the ground.


    He looked frustrated because Theo had been ying tricks on him this whole time as if he was nning to ignore him.


    However, it didn''t stop there. Theo took one step forward by shouting, "Alea!"


    ''You are truly a messed up one. Using my own eyes to give me a signal��'' Alea smiled because Theo let her see what he nned just by a few nces of his eyes. And during that time, he kept ncing over to the side, specifically Ellen''s position. It was the biggest hint she could get.


    With that signal, Alea waved her sword upward, creating a small spark on the ground that turned into nine heads.


    "Third Labour, Devouring Hydra!"


    "No!" Matsuhiko shouted and realized Theo''s real target was not him but Takuro.


    In that instant, Clone Theo used his Blink to appear on top of his own spear. He picked it up and ran together with the hydra''s heads while Theo finally shed seriously with Miyoko with a smile on his face. "You want to face me, right? Sure. Let me y with you."


    "Takuro!"


    Takuro was taken aback because they clearly saw how Miyoko and Matsuhiko failed to control Theo in this arena.


    The ape went between him and the hydra and nned to sacrifice himself to stop them. But Theo slipped past the ape''s defense and charged straight at him.


    His spear was covered with Magic Power that was supposed to be the signature appearance of his Cannon st.


    Hence, Takuro raised his sword to stop him for a second before summoning another creature to help him, albeit the Magic Power was actually fake.


    Right after their weapons shed, Theo dropped his spear and extended his hand, pointing it at Takuro''s stomach.


    "Not good." Takuro''s expression turned pale as he knew what Theo nned to do.


    "Bye." Theo released the Magic Power and his Telekinesis,unching him away.


    After that, Ellen kicked his waist and blew him outside the ring.


    "Takuro''s out!"

 Chapter 307 – Theo’s Plan

    <h4>Chapter 307 - Theo��s n</h4>


    "You!" Miyoko couldn''t contain his anger anymore as he charged at him with his lightning sword, only to stop in the middle because of the four iing star-shaped lights raining down on him.


    "Spread!" Miyoko waved his sword to the side and spread his lightning to destroy all the light that turned into a massive Ice Crystal.


    At the same time, Masahiko also received a simr attack and leaped back to gain some distance while avoiding Ellen''s attacks.


    "Oops." Theo chuckled and moved his clone to help Alea while shouting, "Ellen, help Alea."


    "You��" Miyoko was supposed to be stronger than Matsuhiko, yet, Theo had been neglecting him as if he wasn''t strong enough to make Theo put some importance on him.


    "What?" Theo sneered and pointed his spear.


    "Act big!" Miyoko leaped forward and swung his sword down.


    Instead of taking the sword head-on, Theo took one step back and let Miyoko strike the ground.


    Bam.


    The lightning spread on the ground while Theo was still waiting for him without even looking at that attack.


    When Miyoko was about to move, he suddenly stumbled on the ground before realizing his hand entered the ground.


    The illusion was then revealed.


    The ground turned into a crater with some rocks holding Miyoko''s feet. The reason he didn''t fall earlier was due to Theo''s Telekinesis, using it to float the rock underneath his feet.


    This chance became the biggest chance for Theo as he arrived before him and struck his spear. "Swift Energy."


    Miyoko gritted his teeth and tried to parry his spear, but two strikes slipped past his defense and grazed him on his cheek and upper right arm.


    Theo then spun his body and sent a round kick on his head with the power of his Telekinesis, blowing him away.


    Miyoko rolled on the ground a few times and quickly raised his head, looking at Theo still standing in his position without taking this chance to give him another blow.


    "You�� How long are you going to look down on me?"


    "Can''t you see it already? I''m telling you that you alone are not enough." Theo snorted, finally starting his n to show his real power.


    Masahiko, on the other hand, was sweating. Not only was his teammate getting owned by Theo, but his condition wasn''t that good either.


    Alea couldn''t really grasp his sword dance, but she still managed to cope with it.


    Little did he know that due to the extraordinary swordsmanship from Zara, she managed to use it as another reference to understand his Sword Dance better.


    Alea used that frustration in her loss to be the boost of her own progress.


    ''I will be stronger. I won''t let Theo surpass me easily.'' Alea gritted her teeth and released a bit more Magic Power into her attack. "Inch sh."


    Masahiko struck that Inch sh with his sword to neutralize it, but Clone Theo appeared behind him, grasping his shoulders.


    "Tch." Masahiko clicked his tongue and elbowed Clone Theo, but thetter managed to use his Blink first, carrying Masahiko in front of Ellen, who was already in motion.


    "Frost Nova."


    "I won''t make it!" Masahiko gritted his teeth and said, "I''m out!"


    Diego quickly stopped Ellen''s attack before carrying him to the side of the arena.


    "I almost got injured by that attack. Theodore will still put something in this fight, so I know I need to conserve my Magic Power and be injured. This is why��" Masahiko suddenly fell silent as he saw Clone Theo talking to Ellen and Alea instead of helping the original Theo.


    "Why are they talking? Theo is�� Wait!" Masahiko yelled. "We give up!"


    Diego heard his words and stopped the match. "Thernd wins!"


    "What?!" Miyoko obviously didn''t understand this action because he hadn''t lost yet.


    However, Masahiko could only regret the result. "We''ve been had."


    As he thought about it, Masahiko saw Theo clicking his tongue with his face filled with annoyance.


    In that instant, Masahiko already got his answer.


    Miyoko, who couldn''t ept the result, quickly came over, but Masahiko already left the arena in a hurry.


    He could only find Masahiko talking to Mami in the corridor.


    "Masahiko! I can still fight!" Miyoko shouted in anger and frustration.


    Mami''s expression turned cold as she confronted Miyoko with a cold expression. "Shut up. You can''t even see what was going on? If Masahiko didn''t realize it, we would have fallen into his n.


    "With this, I''m sure that he is trying to finish the battle on the fourth match. Why? Because your strength is only second to me. With you losing your rationality and getting taken over by your anger, do you think you can perform the same like when your head is cool?


    "And if the fight continued, you would have gotten several injuries that stopped you. It would lower our chance to win. Masahiko even told me Theodore seemed to be annoyed that he stopped the match. It means that it was exactly his n.


    "Couldn''t you even see that Theodore is actually aiming at you? Couldn''t you see that Theodore was making you mad this whole time? Even after the match ends, you are still like this?" Mami''s outburst certainly created tension in the corridor.


    Even Masahiko stepped back, not wanting to be involved in this. He slipped away with Takuro, leaving both of them.


    Meanwhile, Theo walked calmly after the match ended, heading straight to the waiting room.


    "Theo�� Are you purposely targeting that guy?" Alea asked as if she had noticed it too.


    Theo widened his eyes and looked at him with a dumbfounded face. He even put his hand on her forehead, checking her temperature. "Alea? You are not sick. Are you an imposter?"


    Even Ellen froze with a shocked face.


    "How rude." She pouted. "After losing, I have been thinking about what I can do in order to improve myself so as to avoid losing again. That''s why this whole time I have been questioning your order�� I want to know the reason you gave that order and understand the whole process. I want to get stronger."


    "Oh�� I thought you were sick." Theo let out a sigh of relief.


    "Somehow I want to punch you�� I mean, seriously. Did you take any pills? I feel like you have changed�� For�� I can''t really say it''s for the better since you are more annoying than usual." She sighed.

 Chapter 308 – Tricky Opponent

    <h4>Chapter 308 - Tricky Opponent</h4>


    "The next match ended abruptly due to Masahiko''s call. It is a bit disappointing, but they may have a hidden n within that call." Sheira also couldn''t understand Masahiko''s decision, so she continued, "Anyway, now that the first battle has ended. We are moving on to the second battle. Let''s call the participants to the arena."


    Soon, six people entered the arena.


    Phyrill thought for a moment when he saw the opponents. "Our opponents are an archer, an assassin and a fighter. In that case��"


    Phyrill suddenly reached Laust''s shoulders and pulled him a bit, whispering something to his ears.


    Seeing that action, Mami furrowed her eyebrows and decided to change her strategy.


    The two teams came face to face. However, they certainly didn''t let out a single word unlike the first battle.


    "��" Diego paused for a few seconds to check their expressions. Knowing there wasn''t much grudge to even release their killing intent, he decided to start it. "Match starts!"


    In that instant, Phyrill transformed while taking his swords. He then ran forward with Sihan and Laust.


    The first threat came from the right as Umeki Kyoichi, the fighter, waved his sword to Sihan''s neck.


    Sihan struck his sword and stopped it before channeling his Magic Power to the shield, using it like his sword. "Ha."


    "!!!" Kyoichi widened his eyes and slid down his sword to block this shield, only to find himself getting pushed back.


    Since Sihan had his opponent, Phyrill and Laust quickly made their way to the archer.


    Not wanting to give her opponents the advantage, Mami appeared above their heads with a dagger in each hand. She struck Phyrill and Laust at the same time. "Ending Swipe."


    Suddenly, Laust and Phyrill smirked as they turned around at the same time, waving their des as strongly as possible.


    "We have been waiting for this!" Phyrill smirked and struck her dagger. "Lightning de."


    "Moon sh."


    Both of them aimed at her daggers because they wanted to make her lose her bnce and drop to the ground where they could defeat her.


    Mami let out a small smile as she hit both their weapons before sliding her daggers to change their directions a bit.


    "!!!" Laust and Phyrill widened their eyes as they realized Mami wanted them to strike at each other like rk did.


    "The previous team has given such valuable information to defeat you guys." Mami smiled.


    "That is if we don''t learn from our mistakes." Phyrill stomped the ground to gain enough force from his lower body to move his other hand, plunging his short sword to her neck. "Don''t underestimate me."


    "��" Mami harrumphed as she abruptly spun in the air and kicked both their heads, pushing them back.


    "Kh." Phyrill gritted his teeth and looked upward, seeing Mami floating in the air. "There it is�� The Flying Skill."


    While Phyrill watched Mami''s movement, Laust took another step forward and waved his sword, cutting an arrow that came to them.


    Mami smiled. "Kazu, help me. I am going to defeat them."


    "Roger, Miss." Kazu nodded with a serious expression and pulled another arrow.


    When Laust was about to get Kazu, a red me flew over him and hit the ground like a meteor. It then created a wall of fire that separated them before Mami stopped above the fire. "I hope you don''t forget about me."


    Phyrill sneered. "Standing above your fire, are you trying to roast yourself?"


    "Whether it''s strong enough to burn you or not, why don''t you check it yourself?" Mami raised her hand and summoned five fireballs that created a star behind her. "Fox Fire."


    "Lightning Step."


    "Sonic Speed."


    Both Laust and Phyrill used their movement skills and leaped to the air, shing their swords together.


    "Lightning sh."


    "Raging Bull Strike."


    This would make her crash to the ground if they managed to hit her, but�� Mami simply rose to the sky, not intending to fight them.


    "Kh." Phyrill and Laust clicked their tongues before they exchanged looks,ing to a consensus.


    As soon as theynded, both of them ran forward, targeting the archer.


    Kazu had prepared for them this whole time, so he released his arrows. "Nine Fallen Stars."


    The arrow turned into nine green lights and flew to them.


    Laust and Phyrill needed to take care of four lights each while thest one hit the ground, kicking up the dust to be the smokescreen.


    Once again, they increased their speed and tried to slip past them.


    And their effort wasn''t fruitless.


    The two managed to do it and emerged from the smokescreen, seeing their target hadn''t moved a single inch.


    They thought they could take him out in this move as long as they watched out for an attack from above, but to their surprise, the threat came from their right as Kyoichi waved his sword, releasing energy that ran through the ground.


    "I am here." Kyoichi released his killing intent to gain their attention.


    However, the only reason he managed to make Laust and Phyrill look at him was his appearance.


    ''What? He is not supposed to be here. Did he defeat Sihan in this time span? No, I haven''t heard Diego''s announcement yet.'' Phyrill''s expression turned serious beforeing to a realization. He raised his vision, finding no one in the sky.


    The threat from the sky had disappeared and he could only find her on the side of the arena, throwing Sihan out.


    "Sihan''s out!"


    ''Seriously?'' Laust frowned as his expression darkened.


    ''I haven''t felt this for long to the point I have forgotten about it. What if Theo is my opponent? What if all the tricks he used until now are used against me right now? What if the current Theo, who has gained experience and strength, fights me now?'' Phyrill sucked a cold breath as the answer was Shibuya Mami.


    ''We''ve been had.'' Phyrill gritted his teeth and shouted. "Laust. We need to use it now!"


    Despite not understanding his order, Laust agreed and raised his sword, gathering all the power to his de. "Raging��"


    Phyrill struck Kyoichi''s sword with both des. "Lightning de."


    "Don''t tell me��" Kyoichi raised his vision and saw Laust''s de behind Phyrill. "You want to die together?"


    Suddenly, Laust made a spin and slipped past them, changing his target. It turned out he was just faking it because his real target was still the archer.


    Both of them shared the same thought, ''We need to defeat the archer first to make it two versus two again.''

 Chapter 309 – Smile

    <h4>Chapter 309 - Smile</h4>


    Seeing Lausting toward him, Kazunori remained calm as if he wasn''t his opponent. He only pulled his bow.


    Laust raised his sword to block his attack, but Kazunori took him by surprise as he leaped to the left.


    ''What? He is leaving the arena?'' Laust widened his eyes as he saw Kazunori releasing his arrow before he touched the ground.


    The arrow flew straight at Phyrill from his blind spot.


    "Phyrill!" Laust shouted in panic before a woman emerged from thin air. "Invisibility!"


    Mami, who just made her appearance, smiled and punched Laust''s on the stomach, blowing him away from the arena. "I''m sorry, but we need this win."


    Bam.


    "Laust and Kazumori are out!" Diego announced.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill just got pinned to the ground by Kyoichi. That arrow threw off his bnce, resulting in Kyoichi throwing him to the ground.


    After that, he saw Mami''s arrival and made a weird smile. "It seems this is the end for me. I''m not nning to get hurt."


    Mami swung her dagger to hit him, but Phyrill already said, "I give up."


    Diego grasped her wrist to stop her while announcing, "Japan wins!"


    "��" Mami remained silent while looking at Phyrill. She couldn''t do the same thing as Theo nned to do earlier, which was the same.


    The cheers erupted as Phyrill chuckled. "You are scaring me right now. Luckily, it''s not PTSD."


    "��" Mami couldn''t understand what he meant and simply nced at her teammates, wondering if they understood.


    Unfortunately, none of them had an answer for her. Phyrill hade to Laust, asking him to return together.


    "I guess we fail." Phyrill chuckled and asked, "Did you notice it too?"


    "What?" Laust frowned.


    "I mean, do you feel deja vu when fighting her?"


    "��" Laust looked away. "Well, a bit."


    Phyrill smirked as he noticed Laust''s change. Normally, he would remain silent, refusing to answer, but after getting the blessing, he seemed to have matured a bit. It was as if he managed to control a bit of his anger.


    Phyrill cheekilyughed and said, "Right? I thought Theo was my opponent. A beautiful but cunning woman�� I guess a Kitsune is a perfect person to bless her."


    Although he didn''t want to admit it, Laust also understood that the battle might not go ording to Theo''s way as there was someone the same type of Theo as their opponent.


    After returning to the waiting room, Phyrill waved his hand to Theo. "Theo, that woman was so scary. I thought I fought against you."


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Is that so? Then our guess is right. It''s a bit trickier than fighting Ignazio." Alea squinted her eyes and asked, "Did you find anything from the other two?"


    "Not really. The archer one is simr to that of a pawn, but his skill is quite good. However, I don''t think I can lose against him." Phyrill shook his head and nced at Sihan. "What do you think about the fighter?"


    Sihan closed his eyes for a moment as he never thought it came down to this. Theo and Alea had shown their strength to the world, while Phyrill and Laust''s blessings were powerful enough to be noticed by many. Even Ellen''s Dual Wielding had be well-known.


    Only him who had the chance but failed to take it. Sihan felt unlucky in thispetition because people would think he was trash that Theo randomly picked as his team. He didn''t want to return with this, since his life might be too horrible because of Theo''s poprity.


    In order to prevent this from happening, he needed to do something spectacr no matter the cost. Still, if he ruined this match with his selfishness, he would be condemned too. Sihan was truly on edge.


    After considering it for a while, he answered, "The swordsman''s ability is around my level. There seems to be no trick or whatsoever."


    "As expected, the ones we need to watch out for are Masahiko and Mami. The former had quite sharp observation skills while the other one was Theo''s Female Version." Phyrill sighed and asked, "Depending on the arrangement, this match will be harder than we originally thought."


    "Ho? Than you originally thought?" Ellen made a teasing smile while saying cheekily. "You have be a bit arrogant after getting some attention, no? How about you be like Theo?"


    "What?" Phyrill snorted and said, "I was just trying to praise my teammates'' abilities."


    "Right?!" Ellen made a smug smile.


    "Kh. I''m going to beat you."


    Ellen stuck her tongue out and hid behind Theo. "Theo, what''s the n? If we lose, Phyrill is going to beat me up."


    Theo let out a sigh and opened his eyes. "We are going to wait until the time limit beforeing out."


    "Hmm? No one will mind with that arrangement, but for what?"


    "I have my reason." Theo shook his head, too tired to exin.


    "Then, will you fight in this round or me?" Alea asked.


    Theo paused for a moment, making everyone curious. An evil smile suddenly appeared on his face.


    ��


    Japan''s Waiting Room.


    A few minutester. After sending their participant, Masahiko asked, "So, what should we do after this? Should we proceed ording to our original n?"


    "It''s a shame that we can''t injure Phyrill in the previous match, but with this, I''m sure that either Alea or Theo will appear in the next match. You sure have your fun in the other block, but now that you meet me, it''s time for you to admit your defeat, Theodore Gr��" Before she finished her words, she dropped her jaw to the ground with eyes wide open.


    She simply couldn''t recover from her surprise because what she heard and saw were just too much to take on.


    In the arena, Sheira finally announced the participant as both of them had made their entrance at thest second.


    "Here they are! Representing Japan is this man, Umeki Kyoichi. I am looking forward to his admirable swordsmanship." Sheira paused for a moment and turned around. "On the opposite side is this man. He has been in the shadow for too long and this may be the right time for him to show his might. Thernd Team''s Sihan Raskaka!"


    In that instant, Mami dropped to the ground with veins bulging on her forehead. She wanted to spat blood because of her anger, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was. "What the f��"

 Chapter 310 – Narrowing The Possibility

    <h4>Chapter 310 - Narrowing The Possibility</h4>


    "This��" Ellen furrowed her eyebrows, looking at Theo with a concerned expression. "Theo��"


    She couldn''t ept Theo''s decision because it was a bit too harsh, she thought.


    Phyrill also frowned, ncing at Theo''s expression. "Theo. I know that Sihan just lost and probably umted some hatred. But�� Do you think that emotion can let Sihan destroy our opponent?"


    They couldn''t help but remember what happened earlier.


    Three minutes ago.


    Theo stood up after sorting his thoughts and walked to Sihan. He looked him in the eyes with a cold expression. "Say, you are like trash in thispetition."


    "Oi, Theo." Phyrill raised his eyebrows, trying to stop Theo from picking a fight with Sihan, at least, until thepetition was over.


    Sihan suddenly stood up, ring at him up close as if trying to intimidate him and telling him he was wrong.


    Theo ignored everyone''s concern and continued, "I don''t care about your feelings. All I want is to win thispetition, so I will give you another chance." Theo smirked and pointed at the door. "Wait until the time limit and go to the arena. You are going to redeem yourself in the third battle.


    "If you can win this one, you can justify your name. However, if you cannot win and getpletely trashed, your reputation is going to be worse. This is yourst chance. Whether you ept it or not, it''s your choice. I will only give you five seconds, choose!"


    The moment Theo stopped, Sihan already walked past him, heading straight to the door without a single word.


    "Theo, what was that?" Phyrill asked with a concerned expression. It was obvious that this battle would signify the death of Sihan''s career because the opponent would send��!


    As he thought about it, he remembered that Theo was not someone who did meaningless things.


    He might lie or deceive you, but when Theo promised something, he would certainly fulfill it.


    Still, he simply couldn''t understand Theo''s motive in this one.


    "Theo�� What are you nning to do?" Phyrill''s expression was grim as his tone was hoarse.


    Even the others tried to understand Theo''s n but to no avail.


    Suddenly, Theo''s finger was pointed at Alea.


    Everyone was bewildered as they turned to her, wondering what Alea did to Theo.


    "Ehm, sorry, what?" Alea tilted her head in confusion.


    "This is something I devised in order to put her on the leash."


    "Leash?" Ellen made a weird expression. "SM y?"


    Theo ignored Ellen''s remark and continued, "This Buffon certainly has strength, but more importantly, she has those observant eyes. If I want to do something, she will certainly understand me."


    "Buffon?" Alea''s body shook.


    "I''m sure that you will have a hard time fighting her, right?"


    "Yes, obviously." Phyrill nodded in agreement.


    "Then, what if youbine her and me?"


    "That''s certainly gonna be annoying!" Phyrill confirmed without hesitation.


    "What are you going to do in that case?"


    "This is the same as rk. She noticed her injury and you were supposed to give your n. If I were your enemy, I would fake��" Phyrill suddenly fell silent as his expression turned grave. "You show them what you want them to see?"


    Theo nodded with a solemn expression. "I always asked myself this one particr question. ''What will my enemy do if I do this?'' And that answer is narrowing their ns."


    "Narrowing their ns?" Ellen tilted her head in confusion.


    "Yes. For example, if the enemy has five ns for today''s match, depending on how I move, I am narrowing it to two by a gesture of mine."


    "Gesture��" Alea widened her eyes and asked, "Is that the reason you clicked your tongue and looked frustrated in the arena?"


    Her answer came in the form of a smile as the others began to realize.


    "Yeah. If you take another look at our opponent, they have been winning by using a strategy like mine. I assume it must be the only female in their group. I have searched for her origin and found a verse saying that Kitsune can do some trickery, so I am just trying to decrease the number of her options.


    "It worked especially well when Masahiko stopped the match because I knew he is an observant one. Hence, I made him believe it was my n to win the third and fourth battles, settling the match.


    "He would rally the information to Shibuya Mami. With some trust among teammates, I''m sure she would take the bait.


    "She would think like this, ''If the enemy wanted to end it quickly, I would just need to throw away the third battle and win the fourth and fifth battles.'' However, it also means that Sihan will get his match in this battle while we are conserving our strength.


    "If Sihan wins, I and Alea can close this match in the next battle. If he loses, the same applies, but with Laust, Phyrill, and Ellen as the backup. In other words, it''s not them beating my strategy, it''s me who let them think they have beaten my strategy." Theo made an evil smile as if he enjoyed the entire thing.


    "You��" Phyrill pinched the bridge of his nose. "It seems my point still stands, you are scarier than our enemies."


    "Let me see what I want to see��" Alea shuddered as she looked at Theo with a weird expression. "Ehm, I am happy that you are thinking about me that much, but are you seriously nning to use it on me?"


    His answer was only a simple smile.


    However, this was also the scariest answer she could receive. The fact Theo didn''t answer her meant the possibility was high.


    "Narrowing one''s perspective, huh." Alea sighed and asked, "I didn''t do anything bad to you, right? You won''t take revenge against me, right? No, no. What have I done? Tell me right now�� Let me sleep in peace."


    Theo stuck his tongue out.


    "Oi! No, no. Give me the answer!" Alea panicked. "What should I do?"


    "I guess they are really angry right now." Ellen ignored Alea and nced at the screen, seeing Sihan and Kyoichi taking the field as Theo predicted.

 Chapter 311 – Sihan Vs Kyoichi

    <h4>Chapter 311 - Sihan Vs Kyoichi</h4>


    Sihan stood in front of his opponent, who obviously had the shock of his life since Theo or Alea was supposed to be the one standing before him.


    Sihan took a deep breath and looked Kyoichi in the eyes.


    "Ahaha, I am sweating right now." Kyoichi shook his head helplessly.


    "I don''t care." Sihan squinted his eyes as he raised his shield and pulled his sword with a serious expression. "All I need to do is defeat you."


    "Match starts!"


    Kyoichi leaped forward and unleashed the first attack. His katana glowed in red as he waved his sword from the side.


    Sihan went to the side to push the sword with his shield, but the red glow turned into a red fire that burst out of his weapon, creating a small explosion whose force helped push Sihan back.


    As if already preparing for it, Sihan adjusted his stance and managed to stop the force with only one step back.


    After that, he waved his sword from the side, but Kyoichi waved his sword counter-clockwise and repelled his sword from below.


    "Reverse Strike." He used that repelling force to swing backward, releasing two blue lights that looped around him like a crescent moon and hit Kyoichi''s shoulders.


    Luckily, Kyoichi raised his de in time and received it with his de instead of his body.


    And Sihan used that chance to m his shield to Kyoichi, striking both hands that were still holding the sword.


    "Kh!" Thetter took a few steps back, but Sihan followed right behind him. He thought, ''Sword will being��''


    Kyoichi raised his eyebrows, trying to figure out where the sword would appear. "Left or right? Or will ite from the top?"


    However, Sihan''s action was truly beyond his imagination.


    The shield started turning with the small blunt edge facing Kyoichi. Sihan then mmed it straight into Kyoichi''s katana like that of a sword.


    "Kh. A shield like that of a sword." Kyoichi gritted his teeth before jumping on top of Sihan with his body upside down.


    It was where Sihan and Kyoichi shed their des until Kyoichinded on the ground.


    Suddenly, a graze appeared on both Sihan''s cheek and Kyoichi''s shoulder as they both seemed to be able to strike their opponent.


    With their backs facing each other, Sihan leaped to the back, trying to m his body against Kyoichi''s back.


    Thetter also nned to do the same thing and their backs hit each other. They then spun their bodies at the same time and struck each other''s swords again.


    Sihan took this chance and mmed his shield again, but Kyoichi already got ustomed to it and spun his body, using that momentum to slide his sword and hit the shield.


    With his sword missing its target and his shield getting stopped, Sihan saw Kyoichi raising his foot.


    The next second he felt an excruciating pain in his lower abdomen and flew in the air.


    "Iron de."


    The sword struck the ground and split it into two until it reached Sihan, who justnded.


    There was only one purpose of destroying the ground.


    He approached Sihan from the side and struck his shield again.


    "Tsk." Sihan clicked his tongue. Because of the ground, he needed to spread his legs a bit wider than usual, meaning he couldn''t get enough force to stop the attack.


    Bam.


    Sihan floated in the air for two seconds before dropping to the ground.


    Kyoichi took this chance to pin Sihan''s on the ground by faking his sh.


    When Sihan was about to block his strike with his shield, Kyoichi stopped andnded on top of Sihan''s shield, using his body''s weight to prevent Sihan from using his shield.


    At the same time, his katana already made its way toward Sihan''s neck.


    "This is the end." Kyoichi released all his power at this moment.


    However, Sihan still had one more thing to use.


    "Frenzy." Sihan increased the metabolism of his body to gain additional strength.


    He used that strength to raise his shield, making the katana miss his neck because it was already out of reach.


    Using that chance, Sihan rolled his body and forced Kyoichi to leap away.


    "Hmm��" Kyoichi furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Sihan''s condition. "This skill�� It''s a skill that can increase your physical ability for a period of time. You won''t need to fight anymore, so I guess it''s fine, but there''s no chance I''m going to let you win.


    "Your Sword and Shield are indeed troublesome and you have been awfully close to me since the beginning, stopping me from using most of my skills. However, if you think you can win against me with only this skill, you are wrong.


    "I am stronger than you." Kyoichi raised his sword and took a deep breath. "I''m going."


    He leaped forward with his de in the front.


    Suddenly, Sihan threw his shield to the front to stop Kyoichi''s charge.


    And he sessfully did it since Kyoichi stopped for a second to strike his shield.


    "What are you doing? Throwing your weapon so easily?" Kyoichi shouted and took a step to the side before continuing his charge.


    He saw the flying shield, Sihan, and his sword.


    "Without your shield, I am not afraid of you." He quickly arrived at Sihan''s side and struck him. "Extra sh."


    "Dawn Strike." Sihan struck his sword, albeit got pushed back by Kyoichi''s strength.


    "This is your choice!" Kyoichi snorted and released all his strength.


    However, Sihan exaggeratedly slid his sword and continued until his body spun, resulting in Kyoichi''s sword going past his defense.


    "I got him. We��" When the sword was about to hit his back, a huge item suddenly hit his left, injuring his left arm and left cheek.


    "What��" Kyoichi was still shocked, but he somehow rolled his eyes to the side as Sihan''s shield appeared in his vision. "How?" was the only question on his mind, but he soon found a string, that was covered by blue-colored energy, attached to the sword before disappearing to the side.


    Because of his current vision, he already knew that the string''s other end was tied to the shield and Sihan spinning his body was to call back the shield he threw. "Seriously?!"

 Chapter 312 – String

    <h4>Chapter 312 - String</h4>


    "Seriously?" Kyoichi gritted his teeth as Sihan indeed impressed him. He never thought that someone would dare to do something like this.


    "What is this? Sihan has shown us something interesting. There is something connecting his sword and shield." Sheira shouted and took a closer look from the camera. "It''s a string. However, the string has been reinforced by his Magic Power like how he covers his own Sword and Shield. This is the first time I see a Guardian this free because it will surely take a lot of control over the string. He may have been preparing it for a long time."


    Sihan remained focused despite all the words from Sheira. But he also recalled how he actually learned how to use wires.


    A few years ago.


    He was chased by a monster because he wanted to get stronger, but because he was still weak, he almost died. In front of him was a tiger that had shown its sharp teeth, ready to devour him.


    At that time, there was a blue-haired personing to his help. Right before the tiger bit him, the tiger stopped as if it had no ability to move.


    "What?!" Sihan widened his eyes and looked at the tiger before finding a few wires circling all over its body, restraining the tiger. "Strings? But a string this thin shouldn''t be strong��"


    "You can im you are strong in front of a small ant. You are strong in front of a baby. Hence, strong is not a good word to use. However, there is one thing absolutely right. Those who defeat, break or even kill you are stronger than you. There is only stronger, not strong." The blue-haired man suddenly appeared with his soothing voice echoing in his ears.


    Sihan stared at the man''s smiling face.


    "Hi, kid. Why are you here? I don''t think it''s possible for you to enter this ce unless you meet the age requirement�� Or someone brought you here." He smiled, asking gently.


    Sihan looked down with an innocent face. "I want to get stronger. My family doesn''t want to train me, so I sneak here and leave my parents��"


    "So, you are a bad boy." The blue-haired guy patted his head. "You can''t do that, you know. You need to cherish your family when you can. Do you hate them or did they abuse you?"


    Sihan''s expression turned sad, realizing his foolishness. "No. They love me and support me."


    "That''s good, right? They want to protect you. When you have reached a certain age, you can talk and reach an understanding with them." He smiled.


    "Ugh." Sihan couldn''t look him in the eyes. "But I still want to get stronger. Big Brother has something so powerful despite it doesn''t look that way. I''m jealous."


    "Haha. Then do you want to learn something?"


    "Big Brother wants to teach me?" A smile appeared on Sihan''s face.


    "Sure. However, you need to promise me that you can onlye to Art Beats Castle once every two weeks and don''t let your parents worry. I will teach you how to get stronger?"


    "Then can I practice the string too?"


    "Of course."


    After that day, the two kept meeting every other week as the blue-haired guy taught him a few things to get stronger.


    After six months, Sihan saw him looking at the sky as if he was missing someone.


    "Big Brother�� You always have that lonely expression whenever you see the sky��"


    The blue-haired person smiled. "I can only see the unattainable sky from here. He is bound to be great but I can''t be there for him if I want him to stay alive. He must be suffering right now�� People said I had suffered so much, but my suffering can''t bepared to him. All I wish to do is support him, albeit this is the only thing I can do right now."


    "Then Sihan can help you take care of this person for Big Brother."


    "This��"


    "Please, Big Brother. You have taught me many things. I want to repay you."


    "Listen here. The only thing we can do is something that will only make me, you, and my little brother suffer. I don''t want to involve anyone." The blue-haired guy rejected him.


    "Please. I want to do everything to repay Big Brother. Big Brother has saved my life. Some suffering can''t bepared to it."


    "This can also involve your life!"


    "Even then! I wish to do it." Sihan looked at him with a serious expression.


    "��" After a while, he sighed. "I will teach you my string technique first."


    Sihan drew a gasp and witnessed it again after so long.


    ��


    Recalling that memory, Sihan took a deep breath, thinking, ''I am here to fight for him and myself. The path that may lead to my ruin�� Even then, if we lose here, his path will also receive a great strain�� This may be fate or whatever, but I know that I shall dedicate this match to this technique.''


    Sihan suddenly threw his sword to the right, forcing the Shield to stop as the remaining force pushed Kyoichi back.


    With the shield stop, Sihan had no difficulty in reaching his shield, wielding it again. At the same time, he pulled the string and twisted it a bit, so the sword looped around with him in the center and hit Kyoichi from the side.


    "What?!" Kyoichi had yet to recover from that surprise attack, and he needed to take another blow from the sword. He could only block it for a moment before Sihan rammed his shield onto him.


    "Gah!" Kyoichi spat a mouthful of blood as if he just got hit by a car.


    At the same time, Sihan grasped the floating sword and waved it behind him. "Reverse Strike."


    The two iing strikes forced Kyoichi to throw himself to the side, but Sihan alreadyunched his sword once again.


    "Kh!" Kyoichi''s shoulder was struck by the sword, but Sihan''s empty right hand suddenly twitched before he pulled it again.


    However, Sihan was the one who got pulled instead before he realized Diego had stopped the string and ended the match.


    "There is a string on his right hand attached to the string connecting the two weapons. If he pulls it again, I am afraid there will be too much bloodshed. Hence, I shall dere��" Diego shouted. "Thernd wins."

 Chapter 313 – Who Tricked Who?

    <h4>Chapter 313 - Who Tricked Who?</h4>


    "Thernd wins!"


    "Uoh!" The cheers erupted because Thernd was one step away from third ce. If they could defeat their opponent in the next one, they would be able to gain the honor.


    Mami bit her nail with a frustrated expression.


    "What should we do now?" Masahiko asked.


    Mami closed her eyes for a moment. "There is nothing we can do other than to do our best. Theodore and Alea wille up next. With Miyoko unable to control himself in front of Theo, Masahiko and I will go this round. Even then, they still have Phyrill, Laust, and Ellen as their backup."


    All of them closed their eyes, knowing that everything seemed to be under Theo''s control.


    Still, the one thing that defeated them was a mere small gesture.


    "I''m sorry. If I didn''t tell you anything about his frustrated expression��" Masahiko clenched his fists.


    "Stop it." Mami shook her head helplessly. "All we can do is to fight there with all our power. At least, show them that we are strong."


    Masahiko''s expression turned serious as he nodded.


    Suddenly, the cheers shook the arena as two people had arrived, checkmating them. Alea and Theo stood in the middle of the arena.


    Mami sighed and turned around, heading to the door. "Let''s go, Masahiko. We will do everything we can to win, so if it''s possible, you better get thest one."


    After leaving that message, Mami and Masahiko left the room.


    Meanwhile, Sheira couldn''t help but be excited about this match. "This is it! Thernd Team has brought their strongest fighters, Theodore Griffith and Alea Eilric. This means they are nning to end it right here.


    "Will they be able to gain their victory right here, right now? I can''t wait for it anymore." Sheira''s voice contained so much energy as if this was the final.


    Even the cheers had changed as all of them wanted to witness the birth of history.


    "Thernd."


    "Thernd."


    "Theodore!"


    "Defeat them, Theodore!"


    "Alea!"


    The majority of them wanted them to win.


    When Mami and Masahiko made their entrance, there were some cheers for them, but they were overwhelmed by those who wished for Thernd''s victory.


    "You know it''s impossible to know which n will work, so you narrowed it down by using Masahiko, right?" Mami red at Theo.


    "I don''t know what you are talking about." Theo shrugged.


    "So be it, don''t think you have won!" Mami clicked her tongue and nced at Diego.


    After confirming their expressions, Diego announced. "Match starts!"


    Mami quickly summoned five red mes behind her that formed a star before floating in the air.


    "Inch Sl��" When Alea was about to pull her back to the ground, Masahiko already appeared in front of her, striking her sword to stop her.


    Theo summoned his clone and handed the spear.


    "Magic Bullets." Both of them summoned all the eighty bullets and used the Tracking ability, locking on her.


    Mami furrowed her eyebrows and flew upward, trying to avoid them, but all Magic Bullets chased her.


    "��" Mami immediately decided to go back to thend before using her invisibility, wondering if that could let her escape.


    However, before shended, Clone Theo appeared before her, extending his hand on her chest.


    Mami used her me and shot it to the back, engulfing the Magic Bullets that had been following her.


    Meanwhile, she received the full force of Theo''s External Flow and Telekinesis with only her hands.


    Mami took a deep breath and covered her hand with Magic Power as much as she could afford before getting blown away.


    Despite the strong force from Theo, Mami''s bnce wasn''t off as she managed tond on the ground with ease.


    "Seriously��" Theo smiled as he realized that Mami might be more powerful than he thought.


    "Invisibility." Mami hurriedly disappeared into thin air.


    Theo took a deep breath, knowing that he couldn''t see the enemy. He activated his Awareness to locate her while using his clone to protect Alea''s back to avoid an ambush.


    However, he couldn''t find Mami with his Awareness as her Awareness seemed to be stronger than his.


    "If I can''t find her�� What should I do?" Theo thought while looking around.


    Suddenly, he felt Mami''s presence on his left as Mami herself emerged from thin air.


    "Elemental Shield." Theo summoned his Elemental Shields and blocked Mami''s dagger.


    "End Swipe." Still, Mami''s attack was stronger than he expected as both Elemental Shields shattered within a second.


    Yet, his goal was already achieved.


    Using that chance, he teleported himself on top of Mami with his spear. "Cannon st."


    "Fire Star." The mes on her back grew and engulfed Theo.


    Mami took a deep breath, knowing it was dangerous. She quickly used her Invisibility again, knowing that Theo wouldn''t be defeated with only that particr attack.


    And she was right. Theo emerged from the fire unscathed.


    ''Luckily, I have my Telekinesis and use my External Flow to blow away the fire from burning me. That one is dangerous since she can use it together with other skills, it seems�� No, should I say it''s an Original Technique?'' Theo recalled what Ne exined about Technique.


    He looked at the empty field and opened his mouth. "I see. You can''t use your skill while using that Invisibility, so you need to be on the ground. Also, that me of yours that formed a star on your back�� Is that an Original Technique? That''s why you can wield two skills at once?"


    Suddenly, Mami''s voice echoed in his ears. "That''s right. No one has managed to make me use it because I always won my battle, but this time�� You force me to use it. What do you think? Do you want to go to Japan after this? You can learn this, you know."


    "That''s where you are!" Theo smiled and turned around, thrusting his spear.


    Mami emerged from thin air and struck his spear with her two daggers. "End Swipe. So, this is your intention."


    Theo only smiled before he disappeared again, using his Blink to attack Mami from behind.


    However, Mami disappeared again as another one emerged from thin air right behind Theo, who almost ambushed her.


    "Of course. I''m not that foolish to give my position. It''s just an illusion." Mami smiled.


    Mami struck Theo with her dagger, but it was his time to disappear as the "Original" Theo reappeared where he stood this whole time.


    "And of course, I''m not that foolish to not see iting." Theo smiled.


    This scene reminded her of what happened in the first round, where Theo ended up sitting on his spear.


    Knowing that she couldn''t dodge it because of her momentum, she said to Theo, "You outsmart my outsm��"


    Before she finished, Theo already punched her cheek with all his strength.


    "My Version of Induction Fist."

 Chapter 314 – Two Sword Style

    <h4>Chapter 314 - Two Sword Style</h4>


    "My Version of Induction Fist."


    Bam.


    A shock wave appeared as Mami''s body flew in the same direction. Her body was spinning in the air and unable to get back up immediately.


    "Magic Bullets."


    Theo released all his Magic Bullets to end her, but Mami had already used her Invisibility which confused the Magic Bullet''s Tracking ability.


    The bullets hit nothing and Mami reappeared next to the explosion, ring at him.


    "It seems I can''t defeat you with only some tricks. You are stronger than I thought��" Mami sighed.


    "Is that so? Then you can give up now." Theo smiled.


    "Don''t be toocent. I can still defeat you." Mami gritted her teeth as three golden-colored tails appeared on her back. "Celestial Fox Transformation."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes because he knew Mami never used this technique. From the past matches, she seemed to have situated herself in an easy position, but this one seemed to be inevitable.


    "I apud you for making me go all out in thispetition. However, I am also desperate to get that bronze medal, you see. It''s not about money, but pride." Mami smiled and disappeared.


    "!!!" Theo raised his spear as quickly as possible because Mami suddenly appeared before him.


    She struck his spear''s handle and blew him away without Theo being able to do anything.


    "What?" Theo''s hand felt numb in that instant as her strength seemed to have doubled. "Seriously?"


    "I hope you can entertain me." Mami smirked as she took a few steps back.


    "This is�� Demon Fox." Theo shook his head helplessly. "Since you wish to do it, then I shall do it. Let me see whether your Celestial Fox Blessing can defeat me or not."


    ��


    Meanwhile, Alea and Masahiko still shed their swords, unable to push each other''s backs. However, Alea seemed to be on the losing side since Clone Theo asionally helped her.


    "Magic Bullet." Clone Theo released forty Magic Bullets to give Alea another second to breathe.


    Masahiko clicked his tongue, wondering if he could withstand both of them for another ten minutes since Theo wouldn''t go down that easily.


    "Theo��" Alea called Theo. When she saw Theo''s eyes turn to her, she said, "Do you trust me?"


    "No."


    "��" Alea''s expression darkened as he replied without hesitation. Still, she continued. "I can handle him by myself. You should use your Clone to fight her. I''m afraid the situation will just get worse if your clone doesn''t return."


    Theo squinted his eyes, not believing what she just said. She had been getting overwhelmed this whole time, so he needed to think about it carefully.


    However, Alea simply took a deep breath as he recalled what had happened during the past decade. Despite saying it was just a trauma, Alea indeed learned a lot during the past ten years.


    She learned to wield the sword with her right hand instead of left. Her left hand was indeed powerful, but her right hand couldn''t be underestimated either. With that right hand, she managed to be the top expert of the school.


    Hence, she decided to take another risk. If she failed, she could simply throw it away and get suppressed a bit, but she might fight Masahiko toe to toe or defeat him if she managed to do it.


    After considering it in her head, Alea pulled her scabbard from her belt and raised it like a sword with her right hand. "These past ten years are real. I will turn my misfortune into a blessing myself."


    "Huh? Two Sword Style?" Masahiko widened his eyes, wondering if this was a bluff or not.


    However, Alea showed him something even more interesting.


    "Enchant de." She released all energy in her body and poured them to enchant both of her Swords.


    Although the scabbard wasn''t that sharp, Enchant de should be enough for now.


    "The past ten years are really bountiful experiences to me." Alea smiled and leaped to him. "And I am gonna defeat you alone by using that experience."


    Little did she know, she was influenced by Sihan''s String Technique. After all, even Sihan released hisst trump card, which might cost him dearly, so she needed to take some risk to defeat her opponent.


    "I am ready." Masahiko waved his sword from the right and started his dance.


    After shing the de with Alea''s first strike, Masahiko tried to hit Alea''s body, but thetter raised her scabbard and pushed him back.


    "!!!" Matsuhiko saw what happened and used the handle to block it, making his wrist twist a bit.


    "Two Sword Style, huh." Masahiko clicked his tongue.


    "I have noticed that your technique may look elegant andplicated, but you have one fatal mistake. You don''t have enough weight to defend my attack." Alea smiled.


    "Strength doesn''t determine everything." Masahiko shook his head and marched to her in a zig-zag pattern as if trying to confuse her.


    Alea spun her body and used that gesture to make a full swing from the left, stopping his advance.


    "As I said��" Masahiko tilted his sword a bit to throw Alea off-bnce, but thetter struck him again at the spot next to her first target, blowing her away.


    Alea chuckled and said, "Strength may don''t determine everything, but fighting requires strength too."


    She quickly leaped to Masahiko, trying to sh with him by using two swords.


    Seeing her state, Clone Theo decided to go back to his Original, finding Theo getting overpowered by Mami.


    "Haha, you may be able to predict my Invisibility, but you can''t keep up with me if you rely on your physical ability alone, you know." Mami smiled as she managed to regain her advantage by using her new speed and Invisibility to confuse Theo.


    Suddenly, Theo raised his hand and waved it down, using his Telekinesis to move the air downward. This created a bit of pressure on the ground.


    Although it didn''t manage to crush someone, it was enough to locate Mami, who managed to trick his Awareness.


    He turned around and raised his spear. "So, that''s where you are."


    "!!!" Mami widened her eyes as she reappeared.


    When Theo was about to thrust his spear, another presence intruded the battlefield as Mami turned around, finding Clone Theo plunging his spear to her heart.

 Chapter 315 – Trust

    <h4>Chapter 315 - Trust</h4>


    "Tch." Mami clicked her tongue and leaned to the side, barely striking both spears. Theo''s spear managed to pierce her lower right arm while his clone only grazed her thigh.


    Mami endured the pain without a single groan, despite tearsing out of her eyes. She truly felt it was hard.


    Even so, it didn''t stop her from leaping back to set herself free and used her Invisibility again. However, the blood that dripped down her arm gave away her location, so she stopped using it.


    Mami took a few deep breaths while sweating profusely. She kept ring at Theo as if telling him that it wasn''t over yet.


    Theo smiled and raised his spear, responding to her determination.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Alea waved her sword to the right. "Ha."


    Clink.


    Her sword struck Masahiko''s sword that came from the opposite direction, carrying all the momentum of his dance.


    Their power was about the same, but Alea boosted her strength with another strike from her scabbard, hitting the back of her sword.


    Bang.


    Masahiko frowned because he started getting suppressed after Alea used her scabbard.


    ''How can she be so proficient with two hands? Although I can say that the power of her scabbard and the sharpness of her swing can''t bepared to her sword, it''s still so hard to handle her. And the fact that she didn''t use it until now and only used it with her scabbard, all this came from her whim. Yet, why is she so proficient as if she had once used it for a long time?'' Masahiko couldn''t understand Alea''s secret, thinking they must have missed some information.


    "To think you have been hiding your power this whole time�� Don''t you think you could win if you used it when you fought against the United Kingdom?" Masahiko said while shing with Alea.


    "Hmph. I got thanked for losing. That''s enough." Alea sneered, knowing she couldn''t say she only thought about it just now.


    "For losing?" Masahiko widened his eyes as if he was looking at a fool. They might be able to grasp the victory against the United States if they beat Ne''s team, yet, someone thanked her for losing? He couldn''t understand. "Don''t tell me you were bribed?"


    "Nope. It''s more important than a bribe." Alea shook her head and released her Magic Power. Suddenly, her sword glowed. "Inch��"


    Masahiko raised his sword to block that attack. He couldn''t help but recall how Alea had abandoned her Fire Skills because it was suppressed by his water affinity. Hence, she had been focusing on her Inch sh and Skill Verse this whole time.


    Knowing that this attack was quite powerful, Masahiko stomped the ground to gain a stronger footing to confront this attack.


    However, he was taken aback when the Inch sh that was supposed toe disappeared, leaving only a normal swing.


    Clink.


    The sound was also fresh in his ears as he quickly turned around to observe the sword, realizing her scabbard started glowing.


    "What?!" Masahiko widened his eyes.


    "Inch sh." She waved her scabbard as hard as possible, hitting him with her strongest attack.


    Bam.


    Masahiko was blown away.


    "Second Labour, Swift Hind." Alea used her fastest speed to catch up with him and struck him again.


    The moment she arrived before him, Alea struck him. "Herculean Strike!"


    "Kh!" Masahiko somehow managed to block it with his de, but he crashed to the ground with pain spreading all over his back.


    Alea kept using her strength to pin him on the ground.


    "You�� You are nasty. I thought you were not capable of using something like this."


    "If I didn''t improve, he would leave me in the dust. It''s not something I can allow yet." She smirked.


    "Even so, you can only keep me here for a minute or two. You can''t defeat me." Masahiko tried to move his body, but Alea would overpower him in that instant, so he could only buy time for Mami.


    However, Alea made a smile that seemed to contain her cunningness. "I know, but he can."


    In that instant, Alea used her Fortitude to block everything that came to her body while Masahiko couldn''t do anything yet.


    "!!!" With the blinding sunlight as the cover, twenty Magic Bullets fell from the sky.


    "What?!" Masahiko widened his eyes, knowing that these were Theo''s Magic Bullets. "No, I can''t block it."


    He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, knowing his role was over.


    The Magic Bullets rained down on him but were blocked by Diego''s barrier as the aged''s voice resounded across the arena. "Masahiko is out."


    Alea couldn''t help but recall what Theo said to her earlier. He said he couldn''t trust her, so when she thought about it another way, it turned out to have a hidden meaning.


    Theo actually trusted her ability. What he couldn''t trust was the fact that Alea would defeat Masahiko. Hence, she changed her target to pin him down and let Theo defeat him because he and his clone would always maintain a different perspective, so she would always be in his vision the whole time.


    Still, Alea couldn''t help but smile because Theo actually believed in what she said earlier. He knew that Alea would think about why he made such a decision, allowing her to gradually understand his n. With that smile on her face, she then waved her sword upward, "Third Labour, Devouring Hydra."


    "I''ming!"


    All nine heads flew in all directions, surrounding Mami, who had gotten into trouble because of Theo''s tricks.


    "Roast those eels!" Mami pointed the star fire on her back to the hydra and burned them one by one.


    "Second Labour, Swift Hind." Alea appeared in front of her and struck her, forcing Mami to use both her daggers.


    Theo came from the other two sides, trying to defeat her in this one moment.


    Mami used her Flight Skill to get away, but Theo surrounded her with all his Magic Bullets, which forced her to return to the ground. In the end, she leaped back to avoid everything.


    Theo and his Clone used their Blink at the same time, but Theo grasped Alea''s hand for a second to bring her as well.


    "Three?" Mami gritted her teeth, knowing she couldn''t avoid this one. She thought, ''I have Magic Bullets from the sky, a wall behind me, and three people in three different directions. This is it�� I guess.''


    As she predicted, Diego appeared and protected her from all attacks while announcing the conclusion. "3-1. This is Thernd''s Victory!"


    "Uoh!"

 Chapter 316 – End

    <h4>Chapter 316 - End</h4>


    "What an upset in the semifinal! Thernd, for the first time in history, hase to the main stage and ultimately gotten third ce!" Sheira shouted.


    Earth-shattering cheers resound across the entire arena to the point all people outside could hear it too.


    Even so, the one that was happy with their achievement was none other than the participants.


    Alea dropped her weapons to the ground and leaped to Theo, giving him a peck on the cheek while hugging him like a kid.


    "Theo, we won!"


    "We won!"


    "WE WON!"


    Alea kept jumping up until she eventually knocked him down.


    Phyrill and Ellen were the first toe out of the gate and jumped on top of Alea, wanting to celebrate together.


    Sihan and Laust also came out, but both of them were calmer than those three.


    Watching this, Radvils couldn''t help but close his eyes while feeling relieved. "It seems they have gained another honor for the country."


    "Isn''t that because of your way of holding thepetition?" Raimented with a nonchnt expression.


    Radvils shook his head. "No. I didn''t have confidence in my own n. A person like Theo was my target and luckily, he indeed appeared before me. The rest of the training camps were to build their confidence and strength. That''s all."


    "But you still take the credit, right?"


    "Of course."


    "��" Rai fell silent, recalling how shameless this person was.


    Meanwhile, after having their fun for two minutes, Theo finally used his Blink to appear in another ce, not wanting to get strangled by them again.


    And the ce he appeared was behind Sihan.


    "I didn''t have time to say it earlier, but I will say it now�� Now that thepetition is over, that String Technique�� It''s my brother''s technique, right?" Theo''s face turned cold. "I won''t ruin the celebration mood for now, but you have a lot to exinter."


    "I know." Sihan sighed.


    They found Theo again and called him. "Theo! Come here! We haven''t finished."


    "Spare me��" Theo shrugged and ran away from them.


    ��


    After a one-hour break, thest match started to end thepetition with a st.


    Unfortunately, due to rk''s current condition, there was no way Ne''s team could win.


    Ne fought with her strength and utilized all her strategies, but her opponent had an overwhelming advantage.


    Every time Ne appeared, they let her win while destroying the other three battles.


    Zara''s expression was sour the whole time, knowing that everything was her fault.


    rk, on the other hand, denied it every now and then since he couldn''t fight.


    Ne remained calm because she already expected the result, but it was still frustrating to not have the power to fight to the very end.


    After a long fight, the match finally ended with disappointment not only from the participants but also from the audience. They all loved the semifinal, but the final couldn''t raise the same excitement despite Sheira trying hard to pique their interest.


    After another short break, Thernd, The United Kingdom, and the United States were called back to the field to receive their medals and trophy.


    Ne met Maya, the US Team Leader and shook her hand.


    Ne made a smug smile and said with an arrogant tone. "We let you win."


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched. "There''s no telling we would lose even if you came at us with full power. Unfortunately, a chance like this won''t appear again, so I will still im the credit for defeating you."


    Ne and Maya released a bit more strength in their handshake.


    "Well, that''s how it is��" Suddenly, Ne released her hand and ran to Theo as if she had never met someone. "THEO!"


    Theo sighed and took a step to the side, avoiding her grasp.


    "Why did you dodge?" Ne pouted.


    "Isn''t that normal?" Theo shook his head helplessly before finding Mayaing to him.


    "Hello, we met back at the banquet. I''m Maya�� I will be a bit shameless, but will you join our country? No, how about you let my Starry Group be your sole sponsor? I can give you everything." Maya smiled.


    "Wha��" Ne quickly came between them, stopping her. "He won''t ept it!"


    "Well, we can talk tomorrow at the banquet. I will let this one go for now." Maya turned back and left while waving her hand.


    Theo gently chopped her head with his hand and said, "Alright, alright. Let''s not make a scene."


    "Ehehe." Ne chuckled and returned with a big smile on her face.


    After that, Italy''s Prime Minister came to the arena, presenting a golden trophy for the champion.


    Then, he began to put on the gold medal to all the team members before going to Ne''s team. Last but not least, Theo''s team also received their bronze medal. It might be the most expensive medal in the world since gaining this medal was a kind of getting an identity.


    All of them could say they were elites that managed to eliminate many countries to receive this medal.


    However, the closing ceremony had yet to end. The Prime Minister reached the podium and gave his speech.


    "It''s an honor to be present on this wonderful day, putting on the honored medals in the Grand Gaia Competition." He smiled. "But as you may already know, there is one more position left in thispetition. Now, I will reveal the MVP of this year''spetition!"


    He raised a small ring. It was a golden ring with a blue jade as the ring''s eye, but no one could see what was weird from this ring.


    "ording to the tradition of every Grand Gaia Competition�� This is the Ring of Honor. It contains the powerful Blue Emperor Jade that can simte one''s energy to form a shield that can block even the strongest attack from a Level 500 monster. The special reward for the MVP of thispetition." After pausing for a minute, the Prime Minister finally announced the winner. "The MVP this year is�� Theodore Griffith!"


    "��" Theo closed his eyes, wondering if this ring would increase his poprity more or not since he couldn''t afford to mess with so many people aftering back. At least, the status and strength that he gathered in thispetition weren''t enough.


    Unfortunately, the Prime Minister ignored him and continued, "He brought his team bravely through any hurdles in Block A. With his careful ns, he managed to bring his team to third ce. Andst but not least, his strength is among the greatest in thispetition. Presenting this ring to him is an honor for me."

 Chapter 317 – Schedule

    <h4>Chapter 317 - Schedule</h4>


    After receiving the ring, he put it on his right middle finger. Theo thanked him once again and returned to his position.


    "And now, Grand Gaia''s officially ended. Let''s give another round of apuse to everyone that haspeted in thispetition."


    With the prime minister ending thepetition, Theo finally felt relieved before using his Blink after sensing Ne''s presence.


    "Why are you running?" Ne pouted again. "I only want to congratte you for bing the MVP. That Ring of Honor may be your greatest boost in official organizations. Though, I doubt anyone can recognize it at a single nce, so you can only use the power inside it to help you in battle�� But I''m afraid it will require a lot of Magic Power."


    "Well��" Theo nodded, remembering the effect of the ring. He thought about experimenting with the ring when he returned. And He had no n to take it off because he could simply use a bit of his Magic Power to make the ring disappear with his illusion.


    After that, they needed to do some interviews with the reporters in the arena, especially Theo.


    They asked all types of questions and because Theo was the most mysterious person among them, they asked more questions than others.


    It took him half an hour more than most people as they were too curious about his blessing. In the end, he could only say it was a God Rank Blessing since most people had already believed it was the case.


    As for what kind of God gave their blessing, Theo didn''t say anything because that identity might be used against him sooner orter. He wanted his blessing to remain unknown for a little longer.


    After finishing all the questions, Theo finally returned to the waiting room, only to find the others already celebrating.


    Theo only shook his head helplessly.


    "Theo, why do you have no expression?" Ellen smiled and came to him, checking his condition.


    "It''s fine. I don''t like to express myself too much." Theo let out a sigh. "It''s tiring."


    Suddenly, Radvils entered the room and silenced them.


    "Alright. I know that you are in the mood for celebration, but listen to me for a minute." Radvils raised his hand and clenched it as if asking them to stop talking. "We will return to Thernd in a week, so you can do anything you want in this country for a week.


    "However, you need to do a few things in the first few days. Tomorrow will be the banquet, so use the rest of the day to rest and prepare for the banquet tomorrow.


    "The day after tomorrow will be your interviews with other countries. Instead of rejecting their offers which may end up worsening our rtionship with other countries, we will allow them to approach you and let you make the decision.


    "But I hope all of you can remember that Thernd will pour their resources to you if you still wish to stay in the country. And we will also do our best to ensure your safety from any foreign parties.


    "I will handle your interview schedule, so you can meet them during that one whole day or stretch it to two, depending on the numbers.


    "You can spend the remaining days doing everything you want. We will board the ne on the eighth day in the morning and get a huge greeting from many parties. Still, it won''t take that longpared to your schedule here.


    "Of course, there''s a meeting with the president since he wants to thank all of you for bringing the honor to our country.


    "That''s all. You can continue your celebration since Rai and I will wait on the bus. Just return as soon as possible since it''s kinda boring to wait there." Radvils shrugged and turned around. "Alright. See youter."


    Although it was pretty awkward at the start, Ellen and Alea began to cheer again.


    Suddenly, Theo came to Sihan with a serious expression.


    Understanding what he wanted, Sihan nodded. "When do you want to talk about it?"


    "Tomorrow. I will inform you about it."


    "Okay." Sihan agreed without hesitation.


    To avoid ruining the mood, Theo returned as Ellen offered him some drink. Since there was only juice and energy drink, Theo drank it there while watching them celebrating.


    It was loud, but it didn''t feel so bad. This celebration just indirectly told him that his efforts were not in vain.


    He couldn''t help but remember the past him who couldn''t do anything. He smiled and muttered inwardly, ''At least, I don''te back with disappointment. This Ring of Honor alone is enough to make me the hottestmodity among the new generation. And it''s not like I can go to another country immediately�� It seems I need another n for my future.''


    ��


    After their celebration, the group finally packed up their luggage and headed back to the bus.


    It didn''t take too long for them to return to their hotels as their pictures were disyed everywhere.


    When they were about to reach their rooms, Theo waved his hand and quickly made his way to the room. "Since everyone is done here, I''m going to do a few things in my room, so see you tomorrow."


    They could only look at him for a moment before Ellen suddenly remembered something. "That''s right. I almost forgot to ask him about whether he wanted to go with us touring the city in our free time or not."


    When Ellen was about toe to him, Alea grabbed her hand.


    "Alea?"


    Alea shook her head. After seeing his expression, she understood that Theo had worked too hard in the past few days even though he was hospitalized. His expression told her he was tired. "Let''s ask him tomorrow, okay? There''s still time."


    Ellen thought for a moment and realized why Alea did it.


    "I guess you are right." Ellen nodded and decided to leave him alone.


    In Theo''s room, Theo already fell asleep. He only took off his shoes and went to bed. He evenid on his belly, not bothering to fix his sleep position.


    Theo just wanted to sleep and restart his mind.

 Chapter 318 – Story?

    <h4>Chapter 318 - Story?</h4>


    The next day, Theo opened his eyes and remembered what happened yesterday.


    "Ah, I became the MVP and won the bronze. It surely felt surreal." Theo extended his hand up. He could maintain hisposure yesterday, but he was just too tired for it since he had been thinking about everything he needed to do to reach this point.


    Hence, all that excitement and happiness just came to his heart as soon as he woke up.


    He clenched his fist and smiled. "I have won, but there are a few things I still need to do. It''s not like I can reject all the proposalsing from those people, so I think it''s better for me to choose one?


    "No, If I choose one, I can''t do anything with my brother. Should I add a condition for them?" Theo thought for a moment and sighed. "I will be hunted if I don''t choose�� What should I do?"


    Suddenly, he remembered he hadn''t taken a bath yesterday, so he quickly rose from the bed and headed to the bathroom. "I should take a bath first and deal with Sihan."


    Theo took a shower after informing Sihan that they would talk one hour from now.


    After getting his agreement, Theo finally came knocking on Sihan''s door.


    Sihan looked at Theo with a calm expression and tilted his head upward as if telling him toe inside.


    Theo entered and Sihan closed the door.


    "Sit wherever." Sihan then walked to the bed. "So, what do you want to ask?"


    "I need you to tell me everything you know about my brother."


    Sihan closed his eyes for a moment as though thinking about something important. After several considerations, Sihan opened his mouth. "I don''t know much about your brother, but I can give you some information about him."


    "Is it true that you met my brother?"


    "It''s the truth." Sihan nodded.


    "How do you meet him?"


    Sihan looked up and recalled their meeting. However, the words from his mouth certainly came unexpectedly. "It was a few years ago. I apanied my father to the other side to gain some experience. Back then, I met an injured man.


    "When he saw us, he copsed on the spot. We decided to bring him back to heal him and he thanked us by teaching me this String Technique."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows because this story was too good to be true. If Sihan and his brother met that way, there was no reason for Sihan to bully him. So, Theo wondered whether Sihan told the truth or not.


    Suddenly, Sihan released his killing intent and red at him. "But�� To think that ungrateful bastard dared to attack us when we met again, ignoring the fact we once saved him on the brink of death."


    Theo suddenly rose from the chair and grasped Sihan''s neck, pushing and pinning him to the wall. "What did you say? I know my brother won''t do something like that!"


    "Heh." Sihan chuckled and said, "The version of him in your mind is not my responsibility. However, that was what happened. If not because my father was stronger than him, I would have died! Hmph! Looking at you alone made me want to puke this whole time.


    "The ungrateful bastard''s brother must also be an ungrateful scum." Sihan smirked. "What? You don''t like it? It''s the truth."


    "You!" Theo put more strength into his grip as his eyes became unbearably cold. "Don''t think I don''t dare to kill you."


    "Your brother could attack us after we saved his life. I don''t doubt that you dare to kill me. Unfortunately��" Sihan gripped Theo''s wrist and pushed it away. "You can''t kill me as long as we are still here or else, everything you have achieved so far will be ruined."


    Theo gritted his teeth. On the one hand, he couldn''t trust Sihan''s story because he knew his brother''s character so well. On the other hand, he started doubting whether he knew the truth this whole time.


    After all, even his family, the Griffith Family, never came into his life as if they were lying to him this whole time.


    He wished his parents were still here, so he could know more about them, but both of them had died in an ident.


    Theo also didn''t want toe to a conclusion that easily because he wanted to hear his brother''s side of the story as well.


    This would allow him to understand the situation better.


    Yet, he still remembered what Sihan had done to him this whole time. That experience was true, but there might also be another story behind that action.


    He started doubting what was happening this whole time and questioned himself whether what he knew was the truth or just a pretense.


    "��" Theo gritted his teeth and wondered what he needed to do. He wanted to beat Sihan right away for what he had done to him, but he wasn''t someone who acted based on his emotion.


    "Where is my brother?"


    "I don''t know. If I knew that bastard''s location, I would have chased and killed him." Sihan sneered. "Hmph. You may have be stronger, but there is always a limit to what a single person can do. You want to kill me? It''s not that easy to slice my neck."


    Theo''s expression darkened as his killing intent filled the room. However, Theo also took this chance to close his eyes for a few seconds and considered everything from his point of view. This might be the hardest decision he needed to make right now.


    He took a deep breath and muttered inwardly as if he hade to a decision. ''I guess I should search for my brother first to hear his side of the story. If Sihan is lying, I will kill him. If Sihan is telling the truth�� I don''t know what I may do in the future�� Thanking him for saving my brother''s life or having my revenge for what he has done to me this whole time.''


    Theo turned around and reached the door. Before leaving, he said with a cold tone. "I am going to hear the story from my brother. If I know that you are lying, prepare that neck of yours, for I shalle for revenge."


    Little did he know, Sihan had been lying this whole time. Whatever purpose he had, he indeed lied to Theo.

 Chapter 319 – Banquet

    <h4>Chapter 319 - Banquet</h4>


    After finishing his business with Sihan, he returned to his room and stayed there to make his next n to deal with his reputation and turn it to his advantage.


    He spent most of his time inside his room, only toe out after Ellen and Alea called him to start his preparation for the banquet.


    He also got invited by Phyrill to take care of his appearance at the banquet. Theo epted it since he had nothing to do other than thinking about his response to others in the banquet.


    It took him an hour to get ready. There wasn''t much different from hisst appearance other than the color of his tuxedo, so there was no more shock from Phyrill and others.


    As soon as they finished, Theo and the others were picked up by the driver to go to the venue.


    However, as one would expect, Theo indeed needed to deal with the camera again as the driver told them. "I''m sorry, but Theodore Griffith and Alea Eilric are required to take a picture together again before Theodore gets his own session since you are the MVP of thispetition."


    "So, I need to put up with her again?" Theo sighed while pointing his finger at Alea.


    Thetter only pouted as she didn''t have any more grudge like the previous banquet. "What do you mean you need to put up with me again? I won''t do anything today. I will just follow your lead."


    Theo raised his eyebrows and stared at her dumbfoundedly.


    "Don''t look at me with those eyes��" Alea sighed.


    "Anyway, it''s time for us to go." Theo shrugged and opened the door. He was greeted by the sh of the camera.


    Ignoring all those people, he turned around and extended his hand.


    Alea gently reached his hand and came out of the car. She didn''t forget to sneak her arm into his before waving to the camera with a smile.


    At the very least, they managed to escape from that ce. Even though Theo needed to go to another one, he somehow ended it before his teammates and escaped to the venue.


    There, he found Alea had been talking to a few people like Cheng Sui, Enrica, and Zara.


    "Hehe, I have been waiting for you, Theo." Ne''s voice echoed in his ears as many of them noticed Theo as well.


    "How is the ring? Is it too small for you?" Ne asked.


    "If it''s too small, I can simply use my pinkie." Theo shrugged and showed her the ring, which was still on his middle finger.


    "That''s good then." Ne nodded. "Do you have any ns to visit my house after this?"


    "Ehm�� No." Theo rolled his eyes.


    "I guess so." Ne chuckled. "You can choose whatever future you want, but is it okay if I am present with you? There are a few things that you need to know after all."


    "In the discussion?" Theo asked while squinting his eyes.


    "Yes. You will know about itter."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Trust me. I never lied to you, Theo."


    "Well, okay then." Theo nodded. "But only at this banquet."


    "I don''t n to do anything beyond that."


    While those two were talking, a female''s voice echoed in their ears.


    "We finally met again."


    Theo and Ne turned their heads in unison, finding this one girl whose beauty was iparable to anyone else in this venue.


    "It''s my pleasure." Theo smiled.


    "Wepletely lost against you in the first match. If luck didn''t help her��" She nced at Ne with a small smug. "I think you would have be a finalist."


    "Haha. I wonder if it''s true��" Theo grinned.


    "I don''t care if I lose or not to be honest as long as I have done everything I can." Ne shrugged as her expression turned hostile. "And what are you nning to do to my Cousin? Enrica should be the one whoes here, not you, Agata."


    "I am just trying to apany today''s hero." She smiled, indirectly implying Theo''s Ring of Honor. She asked politely, "I wonder if I have the honor to dance with you."


    "I am sorry, but I would rather not embarrass myself. I am just an orphan boy without any high-ss education you see." Theo chuckled.


    "It''s fine. I can lead. You just need to follow my lead."


    "No. He is going to be seduced if it''s with you." Ne pouted, trying to protect Theo. "If you want to talk, it''s better to call another person. What you are doing ispletely different!"


    "I think I already told you that I''m nning to apany today''s hero, not talk. In fact, I am interested in him." Agata boldly imed.


    "Ahaha, it''s my honor to hear something like that from the world''s most beautiful woman." Theo chuckled. "Albeit, I am not brave enough to make the whole world''s my enemy, you see."


    "I guess it can be seen that way." Agata smiled before gently extending his hand. "Before that�� This is what I really want to do. Aside from that bronze medal, Congrattions for bing the MVP."


    Theo shook her hand while saying, "I was just lucky. Many people are better than me�� If I am not from Thernd, I doubt I can achieve this honor."


    She smiled mysteriously and nodded. "If it''s possible, can I ask for your number?"


    "Sure." He thought it wasn''t that big of a deal since it was only his number.


    Theo took out his Skylink and moved it closer to the bracelet Agata wore.


    After a beep sound, Theo put it back inside his pocket and said, "It''s done."


    "Thank you."


    "No problem."


    "Well, it seems I can''t really upy you any longer. There are already so many eyes staring at us, so I will back away from today." Agata took a step back and politely nodded her head. "If you happen to be interested in making a deal with me, please call my number."


    Theo nodded politely, noticing the few people who had been staring at him. In fact, all the representatives had been waiting for him.


    With Agata moving away from him, they finally approached him.

 Chapter 320 – Offers

    <h4>Chapter 320 - Offers</h4>


    "Hahaha, this is interesting. I guess everyone has some interest in him." Laughter erupted as all of them turned around, finding a blonde woman having a smug smile on her face.


    "It''s weird if you don''t put some importance on him." Cheng Sui shook his head helplessly.


    "Indeed. Hahahaha!" She chuckled and opened her mouth. Even though her words looked arrogant, her tone wasn''t. "Theodore Griffith. Be mine! I will give you all skills, money, women, and whatever you want! I will also bring you whatever teacher you want. Skilled Teacher, Lewd Teacher, or even No Teacher.


    "There is only one thing I want from you. You need to go on an expedition once every three months. Other than that, you are free! I am not someone who will y words with you since I am talking to you, not from my usual business self or anything. Hahahaha!" Mayaughed out loud.


    What she said held some truth because Maya had manypanies under her, giving her huge revenue every year. And people like her usually hired powerful people to protect theirpany and their lives to avoid getting assassinated by theirpetitors. They were also good at covering that kind of incident up since they had money to spare.


    However, Maya also added, "As for my country, they are the same. It''s just you need toe to their military school as they will also prepare a green card for you. That''s all."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched, wondering if she truly negotiated with him this way. But thanks to her, he could understand the proposal easily without worrying about any tricks or whatsoever.


    Cheng Sui sighed and shook his head helplessly. "Her proposal aside, you alone are worth two people, so I believe we can do it in a better way. We will train you to be a peerless expert so no one can bully you anymore. We will prepare the contract if you wish for it."


    "You will probably add many uses to trap him in your country, right?" Maya made a smug smile.


    "I advise you not to talk about countries in front of me unless you are nning to create an unnecessary fuss between the two countries." Cheng Sui squinted his eyes.


    "This is why we will never get along." She sneered.


    "Alright, alright. Please make this conversation civil." Enrica shook her head, trying to stop them.


    "Why are you acting like a saint? Are you a saintess?" Maya red at Enrica.


    "That''s what people call me." Enrica smiled, indirectly answering her question. "If youe to Italy, we can promise you to train your Awareness to the best of our ability. And since your Control is also extraordinary, we can work together with it. With the twobinations, you will understand that real power doesn''te from mere skills but from the way we use those skills.


    "Besides, you can take Agata as your wife, you know. She seems to be interested in you too." Enrica chuckled while looking away.


    "Oi! You are cheating!" Cheng Sui gritted his teeth. "You can have his body, but you can''t have his heart!"


    "No, no. You can have his heart, but not his body. They are literally trying to seduce his heart to stay." Maya shook her head. "This is why you shouldn''t bring a muscle brain here."


    "What did you say?" Cheng Sui red at her as they had another staring contest.


    "Shoo, shoo. It''s cheating. I don''t approve of this rtionship." Ne pouted behind Theo and tried to push them away.


    "I am sorry, but what I need is his consent, not yours." Enrica rebuked her with a small smile.


    "��" Ne red at her.


    "Just ignore them." rk came while shaking his head. Zara was supposed to be handling this, but because of Theo''s action back in the hospital, she didn''t know whether the conversation could go smoothly. Hence, she asked rk to handle Theo.


    "How is your condition?"


    "I can do some basic activities, but nothing past that." rk shrugged. "Anyway, if you go to the UK, you can meet Ne every now and then since you will be close to her. Also, we are more of an all-rounder, so we can fulfill everything you want to a very high level."


    "Heh, jack of all trades? You still can''t beat someone who masters one thing." Maya shook her head in disappointment.


    "It''s better than having no option. You say you can hire many teachers, but I wonder if those teachers are more qualified than the teachers we can prepare��" rk stuck his tongue out.


    "Ho?!" Maya''s expression turned serious.


    Meanwhile, Alea could only watch Theo from afar with a worried expression. Theo certainly deserved such attention from all those people, but she couldn''t put a smile on her face with the thought of Theo leaving the country.


    Despite being her junior, Theo had been teaching her many things and brought the team to this glory. She wanted him to stay for a bit longer in Thernd so she could repay him, albeit her words only meant for a chain to bind him. It wasn''t something that would be appreciated by other countries.


    Alea could only shake her head helplessly and turn around, watching him from afar as she returned to Ellen and the others.


    "Wait a minute. I think you forgot about us." Mami suddenly smirked as she looked at Theo. "I am impressed by your ability, but I know that your strength is in that brain of yours. I am more interested in that because I know that you can rise even higher than your current self.


    "Also, have you ever thought about getting an Original Technique? This is the best offer we can give you. Wait, no, with your Control, I believe you can reach the Divine Technique level. This power doesn''t require any skill slot because itpletely depends on your Magic Power and Control.


    "This way, you can wield more than ten "skills" and allocate other skills to something that suits your current self. Hence, I believe Japan is the best country to nurture you."


    "Don''t trust someone who just lost to you. I''m sure they still carry some grudges against you." Cheng Sui shook his head while looking at Mami and Enrica.


    It seemed their argument would still continue.

 Chapter 321 – Sly Proposal

    <h4>Chapter 321 - Sly Proposal</h4>


    After that, Egypt and India also stated their terms. Hearing all their offers, Theo finally looked down, considering them seriously.


    With how many countries,panies, and organizations would invite himter than them, they knew that Theo would need the time to think.


    Surprisingly, Theo opened his mouth here. "I am honored to receive all this favor, but I know that I need to be in Thernd for a bit longer. There is something I need to do there."


    Unfortunately for him, that statement wasn''t well-received as all of them stared at him with nk and clueless eyes.


    "Ehm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, not understanding the reason why they gave him this gaze.


    "This is why I am offering to be by your side." Ne shook her head helplessly.


    "What do you mean? Is there something wrong with my words?" Theo asked with an innocent face. "There should be nothing wrong with my words, right?"


    "Yes." Ne confirmed it with a nod but still continued, "However, you need to consider your status as the Griffith Family Member as well."


    "But I am not and won''t be a part of them."


    "No, no. Let me exin it a bit for you." She smiled. "Every Griffith Family Member is going to choose their life choice on their 18th birthday. Whether you want to affiliate yourself to a certain country, organization, orpany, the Griffith Family will get the priority.


    "As soon as you held your 18th birthday, someone woulde to ask about your choice. If you wish to be with the family, you can return to the main family. If you wish to affiliate yourself to another influence, they can''t interfere with your decision.


    "Although you may carry on with that family name, you are not registered as a Griffith Family member anymore. This will continue for the generations after you, so your children, grandchildren and so on, can''t utilize this status."


    Theo widened his eyes in amusement. "So, if I grab an offer here, doesn''t that mean I can break free from that curse?"


    "That curse, huh." Ne scratched the back of her head. "Well, yes. This means that the country can immediately state your status and separate you from the main family. In fact, due to this rule known by many who are influential enough to hear our family name, there are many Griffith Family Members, who are already not registered as one, working for various influences.


    "Only due to this can the Griffith Family maintain their status in this world. I can only exin it to this point for the time being. I will exin the others after the banquet."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, knowing that the n he made earlier was useless.


    "So, if I didn''t choose someone from here, it could be implied that I might choose the Griffith Familyter."


    "That''s basically the case." Ne nodded with a serious expression.


    "Hmm��" Theo frowned.


    "You may need time to think over your choice, so we can wait," said Enrica, trying to observe Theo''s response.


    From Theo''s words alone, she could somehow guess the rtionship between Theo and the Griffith Family. And with how he suffered during his childhood because there was no family to rely on, Theo shouldn''t be able to see the Griffith Family in a good light.


    However, she also couldn''t trust himpletely because Theo often yed little tricks like this.


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Can I separate myself from them right now?"


    "That''s difficult, I believe." Ne shook her head.


    "Tch. I don''t need a family that can easily abandon��" Theo shook that thought off as he didn''t want to ruin the mood. "I actually have an idea."


    "Ho?" Ne squinted her eyes.


    Theo smirked and said, "How about I make a written statement that I will go to one of the seven countries present here after finishing my business? I will also promise that I won''t ept the Griffith Family''s offer."


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes, understanding his choice of words.


    ''As expected, he is sly.'' Enrica smiled. ''Using that written statement can indeed pressure the Griffith Family to not pull any trick while giving enough credibility in Theodore''s words�� At the same time, none of the countries can actually do something to him.''


    ''No, he is using that statement to make all the countries anxious.'' Mami narrowed his eyes.


    ''Without knowing what kind of offer each country gives him, they will wonder whether to raise their offer to Theo or not. And they will be inclined to the former.'' Cheng Sui gulped down.


    ''And some countries will certainly approach him a little bit by giving him extra help for his trouble. This way, they can gain some favors from him to make a favorable impression.'' rk started sweating as he understood why Theo could reach this step.


    ''If he is unable to fulfill his promise, it''s easy for the seven countries to destroy his reputation.'' Ne''s expression turned serious.


    "Also, I will choose which influence I will join in that particr country. If you are fine with this, I can prepare and sign that document right away." Theo added with a smirk.


    ''Kh��'' Maya licked her lips. ''That statement�� gives him the authority to choose while avoiding a civil war. And the seven countries will protect him from other countries that may try to do something funny to him because they still hope to curry some favor. If he gets into the business world, he will be big.''


    ''But when you look at it another way, after bing a citizen of that particr country, Theo will be a great boost since other countries would have poured some resources for that favor. The country he chose will be the biggest winner because they only pour a fraction of the resources to get a mighty Theo that has been strengthened by seven countries. This will make thepetition even fiercer and the fiercer it is, the greater the benefit.'' Agata thought with a cunning smile. ''This is a big gamble between seven countries.''


    ''No. The biggest winner is none other than him.'' All of them realized the same thing.


    After contemting for a moment, Enrica smiled, "Italy can ept that condition, but we would like to see the agreement first before making a full statement."


    "China can ept it too." Cheng Sui nodded, not wanting to lose to Enrica.


    "As Japan''s representative, I can agree with your proposal." Mami nodded.


    "I��"


    "My country��"


    In the end, all seven countries agreed to his proposal.

 Chapter 322 – Proper Conclusion

    <h4>Chapter 322 - Proper Conclusion</h4>


    However, Theo had another purpose in making this proposal. He smiled when everyone epted it and muttered inwardly, ''There is also a possibility of them trying to eliminate me before I can grow. This can be done without resources since I''m weak. Hence, with all seven countries watching me, those countries will also watch each other.


    ''In other words, if a certain country tries to assassinate me, the other countries should be able to find it and prevent that attempt. This is the perfect scenario that I can think of right now.'' Theo let out a sigh of relief.


    "We will be looking forward to your written statement." Maya waved her hand and turned around.


    "Well, this discussion seems to have its proper conclusion." Enrica nodded and stepped back.


    The others also pulled back while talking with other countries'' teams, trying to poach each other.


    Agata came to him and asked, "You still don''t want to dance?"


    "Ahaha." Theo scratched the back of his head. "I am honored to get the invitation, but I am afraid I need to turn you down."


    "That''s fine." Agata sighed. "To be honest, I am more curious than interested in you. Usually, the people whoe to me will flock like lecherous bastards. Only those who have someone they love or muscle brains will treat me normally.


    "Even among these people here, I can still sense their gazes from time to time, so it''s weird to see there is someone like you." Agata suddenly narrowed her eyes, staring deep into his eyes. "It is as if you don''t have any desire��"


    "What did you say? Are you saying my cousin is a vegetable?" Ne red at her.


    "You are the only one who said it." Theo grabbed her head and pushed her a bit. "Also, you should talk to others, not stay with me."


    Agata chuckled and took a step back. "That''s all I want to say. And I don''t mean to be rude or insult you, okay?"


    "Most men have such a desire�� I have it too. However, it is never my priority." Theo shook his head.


    Agata''s lips curved as she seemed to be satisfied with the answer. She showed him the most genuine smile. "Is that so?"


    Theo remained calm while Ne pouted. "To think that woman can still smile like that. It makes all her previous smiles look fake. Or maybe they are? Whatever."


    "Anyway, it''s time for you to go away." Theo sighed helplessly.


    "Fine. I will talk with others too, though, I doubt I can get along with anyone. Also, you haven''t forgotten that we are going to talk after this, right?"


    "Yes."


    "I can go back together with you, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then I won''t let you sleep tonight."


    "Girl, please choose your words carefully."


    Ne stuck her tongue out and walked away, leaving him alone.


    He thought he should greet others too, but when he looked around, he found his teammates talking with a few people.


    Maya and Egypt''s representative, Hamadi Asker, seemed to be interested in Ellen. Considering the United States was among the leading countries for Control, Ellen would have a huge growth there. After all, as long as she could gain enough Control, her natural Dual Wielding would be even more ferocious.


    Phyrill seemed to have some sort of bond with Marco and Ignazio since they seemed to be talking like good friends.


    Little did he know they were talking about him since only Phyrill understood Theo''s strategy better than others. And Ignazio was very curious about it�� As expected from someone who received God of War''s Blessing.


    Still, he was a bit surprised when he saw Zara and Luka approaching Sihan. It seemed they were interested in his unorthodox style of Knight. Normally, a Knight like Sihan had only one job. It was to protect everyone''s safety.


    Sihan indeed could y that way and if they tried tobine it with Sihan''s unorthodox offensive style, he might be able to fight them toe-to-toe without having a blessing.


    Zhong Li also thought about getting Sihan, but he chose to back away because he didn''t know anything about the String Technique. It was a weird one and he needed to make sure with their representative first whether to bring him back or not. He might also leave it to some individualpanies or organizations.


    Alea was a bit more popr than the rest. Despite being outshined by Theo, Alea''s performance surely struck many people''s hearts. Her skill verse also gave her more skills than most people who had the same thing.


    Hence, China, India, Egypt and the UK gave their invitation to her. However, what shocked him the most was when Ne came to talk to her face to face.


    Ne seemed to whisper a few words to her ears and Alea''s expression was darkened. Luckily, there was no killing intent or else others would sense it.


    Still, Theo found Mami getting closer to Laust. Laust''s blessing was still unknown and he didn''t shine as much as Alea or Phyrill, so it was quite a surprise to see Mami extending her invitation to Laust.


    Theo didn''t care much and chatted with rk, Ignazio, Agata, Cheng Sui, and Maya most of the time. He did notice something in this banquet.


    The moment they became the underdog, everyone''s eyes would lock onto them. After all, Thernd didn''t have a single Mythical Rank Expert, so it was hard for them to nurture them to that level, allowing all countries to give enough benefits to poach them.


    All in all, the banquet had be a great sess.


    After having fruitful discussions with many and getting some of their numbers, Theo decided to step away from the banquet on the pretense of going to the restroom.


    Not many people noticed such action as Theo slipped away nonchntly. However, as soon as he walked for a while, a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulders and stopped him for a second.


    Theo turned around and raised his eyebrows.


    It turned out to be Laust.


    Laust tilted his head to the side as if telling him to follow him. "I want to say something."


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he thought for a moment before nodding his head. "Sure."

 Chapter 323 – Confronting Theo

    <h4>Chapter 323 - Confronting Theo</h4>


    The two walked a bit farther away.


    Theo''s expression turned grim while Laust maintained his calm.


    He never thought that Laust woulde to him.


    "I think we have walked far enough." Theo turned around and asked, "What do you want to ask?"


    However, when he was about to see Laust, thetter already lowered his head.


    He even added a 45-degree bow.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes, not expecting to see such action from Laust. "What are you doing?"


    "I would like to apologize for everything I have done to you," said Laust while fully knowing that apology alone wasn''t enough to settle everything.


    This was proven by Theo''s killing intent that came out naturally because of their grudges.


    "I know that this is not enough for everything I have done to you. And telling you that everything was my father''s order is also not the solution." Laust raised his head and looked him in the eyes. "That''s why if you don''t like me, you can beat me however you want. I have truly wronged you by directing all my inferiorityplex and anger to you.


    "As much as I hope that everything can be restored as if nothing has happened, I know that it''s impossible." Laust took a deep breath. "This may be a huge request, but you can beat me however you want�� I only ask you to avoid my bones and vitals, so I have noplications in the future.


    "After returning, I have decided to take Shibuya Mami''s offer and go to Japan. I would like to get stronger there to settle everything with my own household.


    "Let me settle everything first. After that, you can break my bones or whatever you want�� That''s the least I can do for what I have done to you and for you who creates this opportunity for me. It''s an opportunity that I may not have in my entire life." Laust clenched his fists and lowered his head once again. "That''s why�� I know how hard this is for you since I have seen the extreme case, which is myself. But�� All I can say is�� I would like to ask for your forgiveness."


    People often ask themselves, "When people made a mistake in the past and had changed for the better, would you be able to forgive them?"


    Many famous people in the world often did something horrible in the past, especially when they were young. But their current sess usually reflected their change for the better. Petty people usually bothered them for something that didn''t make sense and kept clinging to their past mistakes without even looking at their effort to change.


    And Theo, who was involved directly in this mistake, suddenly needed to ask himself whether he could forgive Laust or not.


    Theo gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He himself didn''t wish to cling to the past. He even decided to know more from his brother first before dealing with Sihan. And Laust, who did the worst thing among his bullies, showed an extreme change.


    When this happened, there was no calm or happiness reflected in his eyes. There was only rage.


    ''Why? Why did you need to change? Why are you trying toplicate the feeling in my heart?'' Theo started panting while trying hard to suppress his anger.


    Laust didn''t raise his head because he knew Theo''s anger.


    Suddenly, a pain jolted his mind as Laust flew away, rolled on the ground, and coughed a few times.


    "Gah." Laust panted a few times before Theo kicked him in the stomach a few times and stomped his chest, weak enough to avoid breaking his bones.


    The rage reflected in his eyes was clear enough for Laust as he endured everything.


    However, Theo ended up stopping after that stomp.


    "Kh." Theo was fighting his rage too, which was apparent to Laust because he already fought such a thing after meeting Minotaur.


    Although he didn''t admit it, Theo had a special position in his heart. In fact, he had been thinking about Theo as his rival and somehow managed to move on and became stronger faster than clinging to that rage. That was why he felt guilty for what he had done and wanted to confront him.


    He knew that apology was not enough since Theo surely had a deep enough grudge to the point he wanted to kill him. Yet, Laust wished to kill his own father, so he couldn''t afford to die or be crippled for the time being.


    When Theo stopped, Laust closed his eyes, preparing for another strike. Yet, Theo''s voice echoed in his mind.


    "I will stop here. I will requirepensation to agree with your request." Theo turned around and walked away.


    Laust struggled to get up, but he thanked Theo for everything. He beat him only at this level and with Theo agreeing to his n, he didn''t need to worry Theo for ruining his opportunity because he knew Theo had that capability.


    He coughed a few times and used the wall to support his body.


    Before Theo left, Laust shouted, "Since I''m going to Japan, you don''t need to worry about me anymore. I won''t be able to contact my family too. In other words, I won''t be involved in this matter anymore."


    He also remembered one thing. He wished to kill his own father, but the result of that action might be the decline of the entire family. Since the family was going to be ruined either way, Laust continued, "And�� There won''t be any retaliation from me for whatever you will do to my family."


    Theo ignored him and walked away. His heart was already in a mess after everything that happened in thispetition.


    He needed to deal with Sihan''s story that was hard to ept, the truth about the Griffith Family he had known and would know soon, and Laust''s change.


    If Laust remained like an asshole, there wouldn''t be such a feeling in his heart because he knew he just needed to kill him in the future.


    However, for the first time in his life, he hesitated whether to kill Laust or not. After all, he couldn''t dismiss his change for the better.


    Theo was never a person who would kill people for a slight grievance, so this situation truly made it hard for him.


    Seeing his back, Laust tried to regain hisposure while returning to the venue. His hand used the wall to support his body as he walked staggeringly.

 Chapter 324 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 324 - Return</h4>


    An hourter.


    Alea''s eyebrows kept twitching as her eyes seemed to be filled with annoyance. She squinted her eyes and nced to the side. "I have a question�� Why is she here?"


    All of them actually had the same question in their mind because they never expected they would return to the hotel with another person in their car.


    And that person had been smiling from ear to ear as if she didn''t care about what others thought about her actions.


    "Why can''t I go with you? Our destination is the same, so it''s more efficient this way." She chuckled.


    Theo let out a long sigh and instinctively ced his hand on her head since Ne usually stopped talking when he did it. "Alright, alright. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but since we are going to talk after this, it''s more efficient this way. If it''s not possible, then Ne and I can go back in a separate vehicle."


    "No, ah, no. I don''t mean it that way." Alea gently stroked her cheeks and looked away. "I mean she can�� It just feels weird without knowing the context."


    Ne remained silent while staring at Alea.


    When their eyes met, a smug smile appeared on Ne''s face.


    Alea crossed her arms and looked away.


    On the way, despite the silence, Alea and Ne kept staring at each other as if they tried to pick a fight with each other.


    Ellen, on the other hand, asked Theo, "Is this what you have in mind?"


    "What?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "��" Ellen suddenly stopped. She wanted to ask about the result of the earlier negotiation with those seven countries, but she stopped, knowing it was Theo''s business. "Never mind."


    "Ehm? Okay." Theo nodded. The discussion had disappeared from his mind since he needed to n everything he needed to do as soon as he returned to the country.


    There wasn''t much talk in the car. And it was especially awkward after what happened between Theo and Laust. The two refused to even look at each other.


    It wasn''t like Laust needed to follow Theo''s order anymore since he nned to leave the country after this.


    As soon as they arrived, all of them quickly came out and went back to their own room. Still, Alea couldn''t take her eyes off when Theo and Ne entered the room together.


    Although Ne was short like that of a middle-schooler, she was still a 17 years old youngdy. And Theo never acknowledged his rtionship with the Griffith Family, so she was afraid that Theo would just ignore it altogether and do it.


    Unfortunately for her, she couldn''t say anything as it would just piss Theo off.


    When Theo opened the door, Ne quickly entered the room and looked at the bed.


    "Yahoo!" Ne leaped on top of the bed andnded on her back, burying her head in the pillow.


    "What are you doing? You should take a shower and wash away your makeup before lying on the bed." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Lend me your clothes," Ne said. "I am going to stay here for a few days."


    "Huh?" Theo squinted his eyes, wondering if he should kick her out right now.


    "You misunderstood me." Ne hurriedly exined. "I am going to teach you a bit about External Flow and Materialization. I should be able to answer most of your questions, so when you go back, you can start practicing it. Or�� You don''t want to learn it?"


    "Is it for free?"


    "Why are you even asking that? Of course it is." Ne sighed. "I am now curious about your life��"


    "It''s nothing much." Theo shrugged and pointed at the bathroom. "Anyway, go take a shower. I will grab you some clothes. Also, you should bring your clothes if you want to stay over."


    "Does that mean you agree?" A smile appeared on her face as she looked at Theo with expectations.


    "Since you want to teach me about External Flow and Materialization, I don''t see the reason why I should reject you."


    "That''s great. I am going to take a shower first." Ne energetically entered the bathroom, leaving Theo alone.


    Theo sighed and picked his a white shirt and training pants and put them in front of the bathroom.


    After that, he sat on the chair while looking outside.


    He closed his eyes and said inwardly, ''I will receive the reward from Nart and Laust. The government will probably reward me with some money. Using all this money, I n to buy a house a city away from the second teleportation circle where I can meet a higher-level monster to keep leveling up.


    ''And I believe my brother is also in that ce. Since the house should be pretty cheap, I can use the remaining money to buy skills to upgrade my skills. Renting a house is also good, but I can give the house to my brother if I buy it. I can earn more money at that step anyway, so I think it''s better to buy a house instead of renting it.


    ''In any case, I believe School is just an annoyance for me right now. They teach the students the Five Aspects, but now that I am already aware of them, it''s better for me to start practicing by myself.


    ''Alright�� It''s decided. I will learn another Aspect depending on which guide I get�� It''s not like the seven countries will be that stingy, right?'' Theo smiled. ''And I can keep myself busy with what Ne will teach meter. After finding my brother, it''s time for me to move to another country where I may spend the rest of my life there�� I guess that''s how it is��"


    Fifteen minutester.


    "Theo, I am done." Ne came out of the bathroom with the white shirt and training pants while wiping her hair with the towel. "You should take a shower too. I should have finished drying my hair by then."


    "Sure." Theo went to the bath without hesitation and took a shower.


    After he was done, he saw Ne lying down on the bed while watching the news.


    "You done?" Ne rose from the bed. "Good. Let''s talk about the Griffith Family."

 Chapter 325 – Crumbling

    <h4>Chapter 325 - Crumbling</h4>


    "Good. Let''s talk about the Griffith Family." Ne smiled.


    Theo nodded and moved the chair in front of the bed, so they could have a nice chat.


    Ne put the pillow on herp and rested her hand on top of it while supporting her chin. "So, what do you want to know? To be honest, I can''t really give you too much information regarding the Griffith Family since my father refused to talk about it most of the time.


    "I only have some information about rules and stuff. The rest of my knowledge came from my own research. If you don''t mind, we can separate which one is the verified oneing from my father and which one is my research."


    "That''s good enough." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "First, tell me everything you know about the Griffith Family."


    "Sure." Ne adjusted her position before starting to talk. "Okay. First of all, the Griffith Family is a rising hidden family. I''m sure you often heard of some legendary families such as the Rothschild Family, no? We are simr to them.


    "However, the Griffith Family''s rise only came after the emergence of the teleportation circles. The ancestor of the family reached the peak and was known as Magic Saint. This Magic Saint was very peculiar because his fighting style was close to that of a melee fighter like what I showed you in thepetition.


    "As for their location�� Even I don''t know. There are a few branches, but no one knows the location of the main family. That''s why on your 18th birthday, you are to make your life choice. If you go on the separate way, you won''t get any more information regarding the Griffith Family.


    "If you are back, you can get all the resources you need to increase your strength by leaps and bounds. Also, you will have a shot at bing the family head because the one who holds that position is normally the strongest expert in the family. In other words, it depends on your strength.


    "Either way, that''s what my father told me." She let out a long sigh. "I''m sorry, but I can''t really talk much about them."


    "It''s fine." Theo nodded and asked, "So, what''s about your research?"


    "Hmm�� This one is too long since I have many things to show you. We can do thister after talking about your family. Don''t you want to know about them?"


    "That certainly interests me more than the Griffith Family."


    "To be honest, if my prediction is correct, your parents are still alive."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes with his mouth open in shock. He rose from the chair and shouted, "What did you say?"


    "That''s just my spection. I don''t have any proof to show you they are alive. But when I mentioned your father''s name to my father, he always dodged the topic as if he feared something." Ne thought for a moment. "Also, my father seemed to know your father very well, so I am assuming they were pretty close, but because of the difference of status, my father refused to give me his information.


    "In other words, your father may be in the main family with a reputable status. And I don''t think he is treated badly because of his strength. I have tried to look at many videos, hoping to find the trace of your father, but I only found one thing.


    "It''s an old video where he destroyed a small hill with a single fist." Ne''s expression suddenly became cheeky as if she remembered something bad. "Well, I sneaked inside my father''s room to find that record. After getting found out, I couldn''t sit for a whole day since my father spanked me so many times."


    "��" Theo widened his eyes as he came to a realization. "Doesn''t that mean��"


    "Exactly." Ne smiled. "Do you think such a person can die easily? Absolutely not. Hence, he must have his reasons for returning to the main family and faking that incident."


    Theo''s expression darkened.


    "I am sorry." Ne quickly reached to him and hugged him. "I don''t mean to say bad things about them. Even if you don''t have anyone, I can be your only family."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, wondering which one was actually fake and which one was the truth.


    He couldn''t help but remember what God of Mischief said to him as he muttered, reying what he said. "What if this reality that I believe in is only a mere illusion? Doesn''t this mean I have been living in an illusion��"


    "That''s right. You are living in a nightmare this whole time. Don''t worry. Since I have found you, I can guarantee that everything will be better."


    His body started shaking as his heart filled with sadness, anger, and confusion. He had trouble controlling his emotions after Sihan''s information and Laust''s change.


    "��" Theo clenched his fists and asked with a hoarse tone. "What about my brother? No�� Is he even my brother?"


    Ne looked away. It was hard to answer his question.


    "Answer me." Theo looked her in the eyes. His eyes wanted to know the truth, but his heart couldn''t take it.


    With a heavy heart, Ne opened her mouth. "ording to my research, the Griffith Family is required to only have one child in their family. More is not allowed. When I asked my father about a little brother or sister, my father told me they were working for it and told me some random excuses or illnesses.


    "That''s where I know that the rule must be like this. In other words, your brother is not your blood-rted brother and probably an adopted one or your bodyguard that is tasked to defend you when needed."


    Theo reached out his pocket watch with his unstable hand as he stared at it, remembering what his brother said in his mind. ''Don''t open this pocket watch unless I find myself in a situation with no way out. I will know what to do and where to go as soon as I open this. But�� I can''t use this to find my brother because he''s not rted.''


    Everything didn''t make sense to him, but he could somehow understand that Ne told him the truth. The family he cared so much about started to crumble in his mind.


    He clutched his head while letting out rough breaths. His expression was sad, but no tears came out because of the pain of getting lied to by the people he held dear.


    Ne pulled him into her embrace and hugged him tightly. She gently stroked his hair. "It''s fine�� It''s fine�� Everything is going to be alright."

 Chapter 326 – Enlightenment

    <h4>Chapter 326 - Enlightenment</h4>


    "It''s fine. It''s fine. Everything is going to be alright." Ne couldn''t help but let out some tears, knowing how hard it was for Theo.


    He had been fending off by himself since he was still a child.


    Just simple family support would actually make his life a hundred times better. He didn''t need to have a big house or money�� He just wanted someone to be there for him.


    Even if they needed to live in a small apartment while barely fulfilling their stomach, it was fine. At least, he knew he had a home to return to.


    After reaching this point, his only hope was to meet hisst family member and go home together. Unfortunately, reality hit him hard.


    His parents turned out to be alive and never cared about him this whole time. It was easy to meet him with their status, so he knew his parents never visited him.


    And thest member of the family was actually not a blood-rted brother.


    All of those hit him hard, wreaking havoc on his heart.


    Ne tried to calm him down by hugging him. She waited for a moment and gently said, "Theo. I know that my words may be hard to believe since everything is crumbling apart in your head. I also know that you may have some trust issues after this.


    "Still, I want you to know that I will always be your family. If you don''t know where to go, my ce will always be open for you. If my father doesn''t ept you, we can just leave the house for a while. I can''t do many things, but I can lend you my ears."


    Theo didn''t reply or move. He simply closed his eyes with mixed emotions in his heart.


    Even when Ne graduallyid down on the bed while embracing him, Theo didn''t show any reaction.


    Ne continued, "You know�� When I told my father I wanted to help him be the family head, my father broke my heart. He literally told me it was impossible.


    "I had a grudge back then, thinking my father discriminated against me because I''m a woman. However, I soon learned the truth. It turned out there''s someone more capable than me.


    "My father called me a little genius of Magic Control, but my father once called you the genius of Adaptability. Have you ever thought you can learn many things easier than others? It''s your talent. It''s not smart or whatsoever.


    "At that time, I idolized you because I wanted to work with such an amazing person. If you became the family head, I wanted to be someone supporting you. I wanted to see what kind of scene sh before your eyes. I wanted�� many things.


    "However, two weeks ago, when I first met you. I quickly investigated everything and matched the record with my past research.


    "It was then I realized you are much cooler than I thought. You are literally the person I look up to. With such a hard life, you can still rise to this point. If it were me, I don''t know whether I can continue living or not.


    "That''s why�� Please never give up. Just like how you always are, please stand back on your feet and march forward. Instead of clinging to the past, how about creating a bright future for yourself?


    "Just remember, if you are stuck, I will always be here. I will be someone you can rely on�� Even if you surpass me in the near future, no matter how small it is, I want to help you. You don''t need to trust me right now, but I won''t give up until I gain your trust.


    "My views may be a bit childish, but this is the feeling that has grown inside me for twelve years and my stubbornness won''t leave you alone." Ne smiled.


    Theo''s body shook as he gradually calmed himself down. As Ne said, he somehow couldn''t trust everything people told him and it might continue for quite a long time.


    But one thing for sure, he needed to demand an exnation from his big brother. Depending on what he found, he prepared to sever the family rtionship with them.


    ''What kind of trickster I am�� God of Mischief entrusts me that title, but it turns out, I have been tricked this whole time. Which one is an illusion�� Which one is reality?'' Theo gently pulled Ne''s hand off as he rose from the bed and returned to his chair.


    He closed his eyes and muttered inwardly, ''The answer to that question is�� Whichever I believe in. If I believe this is the reality, it shall be a reality. God of Mischief gave me three conditions to annoy people, but the truth is�� It''s not how to annoy someone, but how to manipte their mental state by forcing your reality on them while making everything turn into a mere illusion in their mind. That''s how he tricked people in his myth��


    ''I see. My current purpose is to learn more about the truth of my family to know how to deal with them. Second, I have established my own reputation in thispetition. Third condition�� It''s to not lie. I can see it now.


    ''It''s easy to lie to confuse people. And when many people believe in that lie, it can be treated as truth. However, God of Mischief doesn''t want something like that. This lie will only end up as the imagination in many people''s heads��


    ''What God of Mischief wants is an illusion that can be a reality. In other words, it''s never been a lie in the first ce. If I believe it''s the truth, that means when I tell someone about it, I tell them the truth, not a lie. If I believe that''s the reality, that means it''s the reality! Others have no choice other than to believe it. The illusion that doesn''t end up bing a mere imagination but a reality!


    ''To think how to annoy someone can be a guide of the true illusion�� Both are the truth.'' Theo took a deep breath to calm his heart down. ''I don''t care about it anymore. From this point on, I shall only trust myself. Even if other people told me a lie, if I deem it as the truth, it shall be the truth.''


    He sorted his thoughts for a while before looking at Ne once again. He opened his mouth with a gentle smile on his face. "Thank you, Ne."

 Chapter 327 – Goal

    <h4>Chapter 327 - Goal</h4>


    "Ehm?" Ne flinched as she felt some changes in Theo''s eyes. It made her a bit ufortable, but she believed she had reached his heart afterforting him, so she replied with a smile. "I just did what a family should do."


    Theo smiled back without saying anything regarding his thoughts. "Thanks to you, I have calmed down."


    Ne muttered inwardly, ''I wonder if that''s the case? I know that Theo would break apart after knowing the truth, so I have searched for a way tofort him. But when I saw people breaking, they normallysted longer. Maybe Theo''s mental fortitude is among the best, so he can calm himself down faster?


    ''I don''t know anymore. There is also that smile that seems to be able toprehend me�� No, it''s a smile that judges me. Well, whatever. As long as he is fine, I am good.''


    Since Ne didn''t speak, Theo continued, "That''s right. Since you said you had researched many things about the Griffith Family, can you show me? I would like to learn about them even if I don''t want to be a part of them."


    "Sure." Ne nodded without hesitation. She took out her Skylink and opened some files she prepared earlier. "Let''s take a look at this��"


    Ne began showing him everything she got. Theo even asked a few things that she never thought about.


    With all those questions, she felt she could continue her research, making sure she didn''t make a mistake in choosing her life choice.


    They ended up using the entire night to discuss many things about the Griffith Family. Theo also understood and confirmed his decision to avoid that kind of family.


    The next day.


    Theo gradually opened his eyes as the sunlight blinded his eyes.


    "Mhm?" Theo let out a small groan as he rose from the chair. Although he felt ufortable sleeping on the chair, he had gotten enough information to make him satisfied.


    He looked at the bed where Ne slept and called the room service to bring him food. He took a shower and prepared himself for the interview today.


    After taking another look at Ne, Theo finally left his room.


    Little did he know, Ne had already woken up.


    She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. Tears flowed out of the corner of her eyes as she muttered, "People said indifference is thest stage of hate�� When you hate people, it means you still care enough to think about them. However, I couldn''t see any of it left in his eyes as if he just feels indifferent toward them.


    "I don''t know why his parents left him�� Suppose they have a big reason like having enemies�� No, no. The Griffith Family has many enemies, but it''s not enough for them to leave their son behind. After all, if that were the case, I would have the same experience.


    "Is it because of his talent? But with how miserable his life was, their next target was supposed to be me. Did my father actually make his parents leave him? No, there is a rule that binds him. In that case, what''s the reason? I can''t just find any big reason��


    "Should I go to the main family to investigate it? But it also means I will be trapped there for the rest of my life." She sighed. "This is a hard choice. I love and care for Theo, but I still hope I can get my own life instead of making my life revolve around him.


    "What should I do?" She closed her eyes again before rising from the bed, seeing a hot breakfast on the table. Next to them was a note from Theo.


    She nced at the food on the table, picked the note up and read it. "Thanks for everything. I will try to return as soon as possible, but if you are bored, you can go around first. You can call me too. And don''t forget to eat this breakfast and pick up some clothes if you desire to stay here. I''m expecting to learn many things from you."


    Ne tilted her head with mixed feelings. After a while, she chuckled and said, "Well, if they have their own reasons for abandoning him, I will still punch them, especially if they dare to say we also suffered too and we were forced to leave you. The one who hurts the most is not them, but Theo. I suppose�� I still have a few months before my 18th birthday, so let''s take my time and consider my choice�� Shall we?"


    Meanwhile, Theo began his exchange with the representatives ofpanies, countries, organizations, and wealthy families.


    Only those who came from the seven countries understood that this was only a farce since Theo had decided everything. At the same time, Theo had prepared the written statement and sent it to their representatives.


    He stated three things. First, he would have the time to take care of one thing in his country. Thetest he would go to them was when he reached Level 500, which might require around two to three years. Second, no country could threaten him to make this choice. Third, he had the right to choose any influences he wanted to have in the future.


    Theo stated these things because no matter how bright the country operated, they could still kill him in the dark. After all, the moment he didn''t choose any of these countries, all of them would be angered and chase him to death. This was something he couldn''t afford unless he were a Supreme Rank Expert.


    He considered having the influence to rely on was for one thing: their connections.


    Theo had once thought about creating an influence, but he realized not only would it take a huge amount of resources, but he also needed an insane amount of connections to make it big. Hence, rather than creating it from scratch, he nned to take over an influence.


    He could work his way up and controlled the entire influence. However, what he desired the most was their informationwork.


    He didn''t even know how to establish such a thing, so it was better to rely on them and he could pour the time he wasted on creating this influence from scratch to training and leveling up.


    With such a clear goal, Theo finally took a step forward.

 Chapter 328 – Marry

    <h4>Chapter 328 - Marry</h4>


    After listening to the people who invited him, Theo saved all their offers while remembering why Radvils said this might take two days. The number was too much for him to handle. If not because of Radvils managing his schedule, he doubted he could finish it even within three days.


    During the night, Theo trained together with Ne. This training continued even after his schedule was free.


    Ellen and the others asked him if he wanted to stroll around the city, but Theo decided not to spend his day leisurely and focus on his training. He only had a few months left before the Griffith Family came to him.


    Obviously, Ne had a good time with Theo, discussing Control from Theo''s point of view.


    After Ne taught him, Theo could understand the concept and gradually replicate it.


    Ne asked a few things from him and realized Theo had simplified the concept of her own research. She recognized that talent and understood why Theo might be able to master five Aspects at once.


    Like Theo, she also progressed by leaps and bounds to the point she doubted whether she was still herself or not. If it were with Theo, she felt like she could achieve anything.


    During thest day, Ne was looking at the night sky through the windows. Her eyes were nk as if she was in deep thought.


    Theo, on the other hand, just finished taking a bath and walked to Ne. "It''s time for me to return tomorrow. When will you return?"


    "Two dayster." Ne smiled. "rk still needs some treatment, so we can''t really return that fast. After dealing with his problem, we can finally move rk to the UK for another treatment."


    "I see. Tell him to get a good rest and recover." Theo nodded.


    "Sure. Oh, I made you a coffee." Ne took a nce at the table.


    Theo found the cup filled with piping hot coffee. He brought it and sat on the chair, putting the cup down on the table in front of him.


    "Thanks."


    "You''re wee." Ne then came to him before asking, "Mhm�� Can I ask you something? This is very important��"


    "Sure. Ask me anything." Theo nodded and sipped his coffee.


    Ne suddenly got down on bended knee, taking out a single small box. She opened it and showed a ring inside��a golden ring with a beautiful diamond on top of it.


    "Will you marry me?"


    *Cough*


    Theo coughed a few times as he put down the coffee and stared at Ne dumbfoundedly. "What did you say?"


    He waspletely taken aback by the whole situation.


    Ne was his cousin. It was impossible for him to marry her, let alone when he only cared for her because she was his cousin, nothing more.


    That''s why this statement bewildered him.


    Ne''s expression remained serious as she asked once again with determination. "I want you to marry me."


    "What the��" Theo stopped right before it and shouted, "You''re kidding me, right? Just tell me that you are kidding me. Alright? Let me admit that you indeed surprised me."


    "I am not kidding." Ne shook her head. "I have told you that I would never lie to you��"


    "!!!" Theo blinked his eyes a few times and recalled what she had told him until this point. He remembered she often said, "she cares for him and loves him."


    Theo always thought it was because she was his family member. When everyone looked fake, Ne was the one who showed something genuine.


    "I truly want you to marry me, Theo." Ne looked Theo in the eyes, showing her genuine feeling.


    "First of all, you and I are cousins!"


    "But our blood rtion onlyes from the ancestor of the Griffith Family. It has been seven generations. With some medical treatment, there won''t be a need to fear the blood rtion. We can be treated as strangers!


    "There won''t be any deformed in our future children!" Ne exined calmly, like how she told him her research.


    "��" Theo flinched, wondering if Ne had some sort of brain problem. "It''s still not morally correct!"


    "We are hidden families. We can work with it. Also, when I marry you, I can change my name to the same family name, which I already have. People will simply think I have taken your family name." She smiled sweetly, believing it would be the case.


    "Did you have brain damage?"


    "I don''t." Ne shook her head. "You have been my idol this whole time. Is there any reason for not loving my own idol? After meeting you, I have realized that you are far more powerful than I originally thought.


    "If we are together, we can ovee anything. Our children will also be the strongest!" Ne nodded with conviction. "After considering everything, I realize we are good to go."


    "Good to go, my ass." Theo''s expression darkened. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.


    Ne misunderstood his action as she continued, "I know that this is a hard decision for you. That''s why I have prepared to wait for your response, even if it takes years. Even if you don''t have any feelings for me right now, love can grow."


    "Yeah. This is really a hard decision." Theo said with a tired tone.


    "Right? I��"


    Before she finished, Theo stopped her. "This is truly a hard decision. I am contemting whether to expel you from this room or throw you out of the window right now��"


    "Eh?" Ne widened her eyes. "Wait, wait. That''s not how you are supposed to answer."


    "It seems I have misjudged you."


    "Wait, wait. I am kidding, ehm, no! I''m serious, but I am kidding." Ne''s face turned pale as she grabbed the bed. "My feelings are genuine! I have been harboring this feeling since a few years ago!"


    "Shut up. If it were not for the fact you taught me many things, I would have thrown you out already." Theo shook his head helplessly before looking at her coldly.


    "I-I am sorry, I won''t mention this anymore." Ne quickly hid under the quilt. "I promise."


    "I am truly speechless. Is there anyone normal in the Griffith Family?" Theo let out a long sigh. "In the eyes of other people, I may be abnormal too�� I guess. What''s wrong with this family�� seriously."

 Chapter 329 – Returning To Thersland

    <h4>Chapter 329 - Returning To Thernd</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo had packed up his luggage as Ne also prepared to return to her own hotel.


    Ellen widened her eyes when she saw the twoing out together.


    "Now that I think about it, you have nevere out of your room�� What are you two doing?" Ellen made a small smirk, teasing them.


    Ne took this chance to grab Theo''s hand with a cheeky smile. "What do you think?"


    Before Ellen replied, Theo already escaped with a nonchnt expression and walked away as if telling them the answer.


    Ellen chuckled and made a bigger smile.


    Ne pouted and looked away.


    After everyone gathered in the lobby, they left the hotel and headed straight to the airport.


    Ne waved her hand to their bus.


    When Theo saw her, he couldn''t help but remember what she saidst night. Even so, he decided to ignore it and raised his hand as if waving back.


    Ne smiled and saw them off until the bus couldn''t be seen anymore before returning to her own hotel.


    Theo and the others enjoyed the luxury of the first ss on their way back. However, he already knew what kind of scene he would face as soon as he returned.


    Since he had been working for too long, Theo decided to take a nap while the others just enjoyed their time leisurely.


    It took them another six hours to reach Thernd''s International Airport.


    When he picked up his luggage, Radvils already arrived next to him, saying, "There are media in the airport, so you should act ordingly. Also, there will be a talk with the president."


    "Don''t worry. I know��" Theo nodded, thinking this was the price to be famous.


    Since they were the stars, Radvils and Rai let them go out first, with Theo and Alea leading the team.


    As soon as he reached the airport lobby, he saw arge number of cameramen.


    "There they are�� The proud team of Thernd who managed to win the honor for the country," a reporter said as the camera focused on them.


    Those who had been waiting for them to arrive finally got their curiosity answered. In the live news, Theo walked with a cool and aloof expression as if winning the Grand Gaia was something expected from him.


    His fans quickly glorified him more as an uproar shook the fan club.


    "Look! Our Theo has returned."


    "He''s so handsome! That haircut looks good on him."


    "That''s right. He''s the rising star who has changed his fate."


    "Look at his finger! It''s the Ring of Honor."


    "I hope the country doesn''t take it."


    Alea walked next to him, but as one would expect, Theo was the focus because of what he had shown during the whole parade.


    At the end of their long walk, they found a middle-aged man. His body was muscr and significantly bigger than Theo.


    There was a big scar on his cheek, intensifying his appearance even further. He wore a formal ck suit and sunsses, but it couldn''t suppress the fierceness reflected in his body and eyes.


    When he found Theo and the others, he quickly walked to them and extended his hands. "Wee back. I am Chan, Minister of Defence. It''s my pleasure to meet the young heroes."


    Theo shook his hand and nodded. "It''s an honor."


    He quickly let his hand go, so he could shake the others'' hands.


    "I am thankful for all of you for bringing the honor to this country," said Chan while extending his hand to the side. "As much as I want to let all of you rest after a long journey, I am here to guide you to meet the president. If you don''t mind��"


    Theo and the others nodded as they followed him.


    It was better to settle everything today since he could do all the things without any hindrance tomorrow, Theo thought.


    They reached the presidential pce of Thernd and were escorted inside with all their weapons confiscated.


    There were also numerous guards that prepared to make any necessary move if there were any threats from them. After all, their strength had been shown to the world.


    If Theo took action, things might go crazy.


    Of course, Theo never nned such a thing, but it would leave a deep scar when the guards failed to protect the president.


    They met the president in the room where he worked.


    "Mr. President. We have brought Theodore Griffith and his teammates," said Chan after knocking on his door.


    "Come in."


    Chan opened the door, showing the room.


    It was a simple 20��20 feet room with a chair and a table on the opposite side. On the right side stood tall a drawer with many important files on it. Facing the drawer was a pair of couches where the president usually met the guest.


    The president rose from his seat and put down his sses. His age seemed to be around in thete fifties. Although there was no auraing from him that made one think he was a fighter, his eyes were profound enough to make Theo and the others feel ufortable, as if he somehow managed to pry upon their character.


    He put on the best smile, walked to them while opening his arms in a weing gesture, and hugged Theo first. "Wee, wee. Haha, wee, my heroes. You all have worked hard�� You truly kept surprising me in thepetition."


    Theo stayed still as he didn''t know what to talk about with the president. He even wondered whether his words were too crude to talk to him politely.


    "It''s my pleasure to do it for the country." Theo�� tried his best.


    The president smiled and patted his shoulders a few times before showing his appreciation to the rest of the team.


    "You must be tired. Come,e. Let''s talk a bit. I won''t take a lot of your time, so you can go back and take a rest."


    "Mr. President is too polite. It''s us who takes your time." Alea made a gentle smile, knowing Theo didn''t know what to say to the first person of this country.


    The president extended his hand, inviting them to take a seat as he walked together with them.

 Chapter 330 – Threat

    <h4>Chapter 330 - Threat</h4>


    The talk was just some boring questions like their experience, feelings, and such. However, the atmosphere suddenly changed when the smile on the president''s face disappeared.


    In fact, they felt an indescribable pressureing from his eyes as if there was a huge lump of iron on top of their heads.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and looked the president in the eyes as he gulped down, thinking, ''How? Isn''t he supposed to be a normal citizen? Even if he has some sort of experience, it shouldn''t be to this extent.''


    Surprisingly, he felt the president suddenly turned big in front of him.


    After everyone sensed that feeling of oppression, the president suddenly opened his mouth.


    "Now, let''s get one serious question before we end this conversation." His tone was cold and his expression turned grim. "What will all of you do after this? Are you nning to go to another country?"


    Theo suddenly understood why the president managed to suppress all the oppositions to the point those who usually ran rampant didn''t dare to do their operation in his reign. This president wasn''t just a gentle old man. He was an old devil.


    Alea was the first to answer his question. "My big family is here."


    Sihan followed hurriedly, "I don''t have any intention of going somewhere."


    Ellen thought for a moment and said, "I am nning to graduate in this ce."


    "I will only study abroad." Phyrill looked away. He even emphasized "study abroad" as if telling him that he would return after learning from another country.


    They didn''t realize they had been telling him the truth due to that pressure.


    However, Laust had determined to escape from this country. He said with a calm but serious tone. "Can this country make me a Supreme Rank Expert?"


    The president raised his eyebrows, finding this one a little amusing. Instead of answering him, he dared to ask back. And as he said, some of their talented people usually went abroad for the chance to be a Supreme Rank. However, none of them returned to this country because they chose to stay there for the rest of their life.


    Losing these six talented people was surely a huge hit for Thernd, especially after they just won the Grand Gaia Competition. Hence, the president smiled and said, "I can give you anything you want. I can even use my authority to bring a famous instructor from abroad."


    Laust''s expression distorted a bit as he closed his eyes.


    Meanwhile, President Acupel turned to Theo as he was the only one who had yet to answer his question.


    However, Theo never feared this president. Even though he had stated to the seven countries that he would visit them, he already made sure that none of his friends could hear their conversations. There were only a total of ten people who listened to their conversation back then.


    Using that situation to his advantage, Theo''s expression turned cold as he pressured him back by saying, "Is that�� A threat?"


    All of them suddenly opened their eyes wide as Theo might be the first one who dared to talk back to this old man. Even Alea heard from her grandfather that it was better to have a good rtionship with the government. And it was the stance of the Eilric Family.


    Yet, Theo, who had no people behind him, used this chance to fight back.


    Luckily, the Minister of Defense had already raised his hand, stopping all the guards from any action.


    He was already aware of Theo''s status as the Griffith Family''s member. His talent was even better than Ne''s, so his position was obviously higher than hers.


    They could deal with the Eilric Family, but they certainly didn''t dare to oppose the Griffith Family.


    President Acupel''s expression changed again, returning back to that warm and big smile of his. The pressure disappearedpletely as if they were never there before.


    "Of course not," said the president with a smile. "This is just a friendly question."


    Theo sighed inwardly. Instead of continuing, the president quickly backed away as if he already saw thising.


    "My mind is still filled with thepetition, so I can''t give you an answer." Theo smiled back. He didn''t lie but didn''t give an answer as well.


    He was still thinking over the country of his choice, which was rted to thepetition. And there was no way he could say he was going abroad right to the president''s face, resulting in those two sentences.


    "I see. I shouldn''t take your time any longer. You should go home and have some rest. I was thinking about rewarding all of you, but I realized I didn''t have anything special to give. Instead of making a choice that didn''t suit you, I shall reward you twenty million Zils each, so you can buy anything you want."


    The president shook their hands once again and let them go.


    They were escorted by the guards as the room became silent again with only two people remaining.


    "Steve." The president called the minister of defense''s name. "What do you think about them?"


    "Ellen, Sihan, and Phyrill have a high probability of staying here. However, the Eilric Family here is only a mere branch, so I am assuming Alea Eilric might have considered going to the main family. As for Laust, I am certain that he''s going somewhere. ording to Radvils, Laust is nning to go to Japan. But I can''t say anything regarding Theodore Griffith."


    "That child is interesting. Although I shouldn''t say this as the country''s president, Theodore Griffith truly doesn''t suit Thernd."


    "!!!" Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "But his potential is the biggest among them. Are you sure you are going to let such a talent go, Sir?"


    "Then, can you tell me whether you have enough capability to protect him from seven countries?"


    "Sir? I am not sure I''m following you."


    "This morning, I have received seven calls from the other seven countries, telling me not to touch Theodore Griffith."


    "What?!"


    "If it''s only one or two, I can somehow handle it. Even if he needs to go somewhere, I can somehow negotiate the terms to make him stay as Thernd Citizen even in a foreign country. However, I am afraid it''s not possible to do it against all seven of them."


    "That kid did it?" Steve started sweating. "What are we going to do then?"


    "We will do nothing. Since they want him, we will simply let him go. We can simply use his family as the scapegoat, telling the citizens that he has returned to his family. As long as we can maintain our neutrality, we won''t be held ountable�� especially if he dies on the other side."


    "Sir�� You��"


    "What? I onlyplied with their request." Acupel shrugged and returned to his desk nonchntly.

 Chapter 331 – Home

    <h4>Chapter 331 - Home</h4>


    The military decided to drop them off at the school since they didn''t know whether they could disturb their family or not. It also came from the consensus of the entire group.


    When they came out, Ellen quickly waved her hand and walked away. "Alright. Goodbye, everyone. I need to go home as soon as possible. Also, Theo, thank you for everything. See youter!"


    She disappeared in an instant with a happy face, so there shouldn''t be a need to worry about her.


    Since her best friend had gone, she decided to return too. "Alright. It''s time for me to go back."


    After Alea, Sihan and Laust took off without saying anything, leaving only Theo and Phyrill again.


    "This is likest time, eh? There are only you and me."


    "How is your body condition?"


    "It''s surprisinglyfortable enough. Maybe my body has gotten ustomed to Lycanthrope Transformation? I am not sure. Though, I do still feel ufortable from time to time."


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes and nodded, "At least you are alright. You secretly snuck to the hospital a few times during the night after all��"


    "Ahaha, you noticed it?" Phyrill chuckled. "I am embarrassed."


    "It''s nothing. Since you are fine, I''m going back first." Theo shrugged.


    "Yeah. Goodbye Theo. Thank you for this opportunity. I''m d that I met you�� Joker. I''m afraid Alea has suspected your identity too, considering she hasn''t met the real joker, only you."


    "Who knows? And it''s not like I am afraid if my identity is discovered." Theo started walking away.


    Phyrill smiled and saw him off until he couldn''t see his back anymore. After Theo disappeared, he walked to the bench on the side of the road and sat on it with a tired face. Sweats covered his forehead as his face turned pale.


    "Well, how long will I be hospitalized after this?"


    ��


    Meanwhile, when Alea reached her home, her father and grandfather quickly leaped to her. "Uoh! My (grand)daughter!"


    However, a woman in herte thirties appeared behind them and smacked their heads, knocking them to the ground. "Don''t bother her. She is tired, so let her rest first. Also, I have prepared your favorite food, dear��"


    "Mom." Alea smiled and hugged her. "I''m back."


    "Yes. Wee home. Let''se in." She patted her head while saying, "And congrattions for the third ce."


    "Ehehe, I couldn''t do anything without Theo''s help."


    "Mom is interested in him now. I have watched his performance too." She chuckled. "When will you introduce him to mom?"


    "Don''t tease me." Alea pouted and looked away.


    "Haha. Let''s enter first."


    "Yes."


    ��


    Lange Family Mansion.


    Upon his return, he was greeted by his butler, not even his brother or father.


    Laust hated them, but his anger was very calming as if they were ready to swallow them instead of openly confronting them.


    His butler was happy for him after knowing that Laust nned to go to Japan to pursue more strength with that bronze medal. However, another shock came from Laust as he dropped another bomb.


    "Young Master�� What did you say?" His butler asked with mouth wide open.


    "I am telling you. I still have fifteen million Zils in my ount, right? I want you to send it to Theo��dore�� right away."


    "But that''s your life-saving!" The butler protested, not understanding how his brain worked.


    "It''s fine. He created this opportunity for me. Without him, I would have suffered many things, including the brutal treatment other bullies received after what they had done to Theo��" Laust shook his head. "Besides, I''m going to Japan after dropping out of my current school and they have agreed to provide everything. Hence, I don''t need anything other than my body and skill.


    "After what I have done to him, this is the least I can do for him. After all, if I received such treatment, I would havemitted suicide. Life-saving is nothingpared to my life." Laust smiled and gently asked his butler. "Also, I can make more money when I''m there, so it''s not a big deal."


    The butler was surprised by Laust''s change. He couldn''t help but feel happy for this change because Laust seemed to have matured.


    "I understand. I shall do as you say." The butler nodded and turned around.


    When he was about to leave, Laust added, "That''s right. I made too many mistakes this whole time. And one of them is standing before me. Butler�� No, uncle. You have been working and taking care of me for 17 years. I would like to thank you for everything. I know that I can''t give you anything right now other than this thanks."


    "Your words and thoughts are enough, Young Master." The butler smiled. "Also, this is my job. As long as Young Master grows up just fine, I can face mydy in the afterlife. Anyway, I will continue my job right now."


    The butler hurriedly left the room and closed the door. However, he stood still for a minute while looking upward as if staring at someone in Heaven.


    He muttered inwardly, ''Mdy, Young Master Laust is growing up just fine. You don''t need to worry about him anymore. He has taken his path�� My only wish is his safety and well-being. May fortune bless him with its presence.''


    ��


    As the others had their moment with their families, Theo returned to his empty home, knowing no one would be there. The sky had started turning dark, so he quickly entered to put down everything.


    He dropped his luggage and spears in the living room while making his way to the kitchen to drink some water.


    However, before he could even rx, he sensed someone''s presence in his house as he instinctively turned around, jumped at that presence and punched it as no one should be in this house right now.


    Because the light had yet to be turned on, he couldn''t see the shadow''s appearance.


    He only saw how the shadow caught his fist easily despite his Magic Power and Telekinesis. No, the shadow even neutralized his power.


    "Who are you?!"


    "It''s only been four months and you have forgotten about me?" A familiar female''s voice echoed in his ears as she snapped her fingers, controlling the Magic Power to turn on the light switch.


    With the light illuminated the room, Theo finally saw her appearance. It was none other than his��


    "Master?!"

 Chapter 332 – Materialization

    <h4>Chapter 332 - Materialization</h4>


    "Yo, brat! Congrattions on your victory." She smirked. "To think your sense has be sharper since thest time I saw you��"


    Theo''s eyes became colder. Even though he was happy seeing his master again, he couldn''t help but remember his status.


    "Oi, you are directing this kind of gaze to your master?" The olddy closed her eyes with a smile. "I guess you have found out a bit more about your family."


    "And I am assuming you are also one of them." Theo sneered.


    "You can say I am a part of them since my family is under their jurisdiction. However, I don''t bear "Griffith" in my name. You can say my family is their vassal family," she said while lowering her hand.


    "I am not trying to be ungrateful, but�� for what reason did you teach me?"


    "All Griffith Family Members deserve good teaching. I was picked as your teacher. In fact, I''m sure that many people want to be your master." She shrugged. "In the process to be your master, I needed to beat eight Supreme Rank Experts, you know."


    "And do you think I will start saying, ''Thank you for doing it for me, Master?'' No, you must have your own reason. For what purpose are you trying to be my master?" Theo red at her.


    The old granny knew that Theo was on a deep emotional rollercoaster, so she understood his reaction and disappeared.


    Theo turned around and saw her sitting on the couch of his living room.


    "Well, well, well�� Where should I begin?" She pointed at the couch next to her. "Anyway, you should take a seat first."


    Theo knew that his master was a Supreme Rank Expert, so it was no use if he wanted to fight her. In fact, she could kill him in an instant and nobody would know.


    After some consideration, Theo followed her words and sat in front of her.


    "So, what do you want to ask? I will allow three questions. I won''t answer more than that. Also, don''t bother about asking for my name and nationality. I''m not giving away my identity."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a moment. His master said that her family was associated with the Griffith Family, but she herself was not a ''Griffith''.


    He thought it was enough for her identity. What he needed to focus on was something else.


    "What are you nning to do now that you have met me again?"


    "Since you have met thatss, Ne, I''m sure you already know a bit about the Griffith Family, considering that girl is so yful and has dug up a lot." She paused for a moment and said, "I am assuming you already know about the Five Aspects, including External Flow and the stage after it��"


    "Materialization." Theo squinted his eyes while muttering.


    "Exactly. I am here to give you a hint for Materialization." She smiled and touched the table with her forefinger.


    "This blue light is Materialization." Surprisingly, her hand started glowing in blue light as she began to draw a glowing blue star on the table. "Concentrating enough energy to a certain part of the body to create asting effect."


    She then snapped her fingers as the water started flowing out of the faucet. But�� Instead of flowing down, the water floats in the air, forming a single line until reaching them. "Orbining it with the External Flow to form a certain shape��"


    The water gradually gathered together and formed another shape. It was a small eastern dragon with no wings. The body circled around in the air and its head was facing Theo. However, the most impressive thing about this dragon was the scale. The scales were replicated in detail.


    "This is an example." She suddenly recalled something. "That''s right. You once saw how I controlled the lightning, right?"


    Theo nodded.


    "I used my skill to call forth the lightning and my spear acted as a lightning rod. Then, the External Flow slowed down or countered the lightning force, making it stagnant in the air before I used the Materialization to create a small string that connected the lightning and my spear. That''s why when I spun my body, the lightning followed my direction. This is the power of Materialization." She raised her and waved it to the side, returning all the water to the sink.


    Before Theo uttered a single word, she took out a small notebook and handed it to him. "This is the detailed exnation about Materialization. I only have one tip for you, Telekinesis is a good way to practice your Control. That''s all."


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. He suddenly came to a realization and opened his mouth in amusement. "Water�� But Master''s affinity should be��"


    "Haha. As expected of you, you have realized it already. Actually, that small dragon was my limit. Unlike me, you have no affinity, which is perfect since you can control everything.


    "Of course, when there''s an advantage, a disadvantage will follow. The disadvantage of having no affinity is that you have no element to rely on. You can''t summon lightning or burn anything. However, the advantage you have is enormous. There are abundant natural resources around you. When there is a thunderstorm and lightning struck forth, you can use it to control the lightning.


    "When you are on the sea, you can use your Magic Power to control the water. When there is a boulder, you can use it as a huge bullet. Anything!" She suddenly rose and extended her hand to the front as if she wanted to grab her spear. The next second, a small spark appeared on top of her palm before gradually forming a blue spear made of lightning. "You can even form a weapon!"


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes.


    "Materialization requires Control because the better your control, the more Magic Power you can concentrate in it. When you reach Perfect Control, a spear like this can rival a Supreme Rank Spear�� The one made from a Supreme Rank Material. Everything depends on how good your Control is.


    "Of course, it''s better to have a normal weapon too because using this power exhausts your Magic Power faster." Her spear disappeared as she sat down again. "And this is Materialization. This is the answer to your first question. I came here because I want to teach you this."

 Chapter 333 – Master

    <h4>Chapter 333 - Master</h4>


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and took another nce at the book. If he managed to use this Materialization, he might not need a few skills and rece them with something he couldn''t replicate.


    "Everything you need to know is in that notebook. Don''t give that book to anyone else since it may lead to some problems. If you don''t want it anymore, just burn the book to make sure no one other than you can possess it. Also, don''t throw the pocket watch on your chest until your next birthday."


    Theo closed his eyes and took a deep breath, understanding her words, albeit his master didn''t let him have that time.


    "Alright. Let''s move on to the second question. What do you want to ask me?"


    Theo stopped thinking about Materialization for the time being and asked his second question. "Which one is your priority? Me, Griffith Family or your Family?"


    "If you ask it that way, I guess the first will always be my family. You can''t simply ignore your own family when you know they have been good to you in your entire life, you know. Then, the second one will be you since you are my student. Last will be your Griffith Family. After bing your teacher, I am a kind of independent force from the Griffith Family, so you will be my priority instead of them. Unless they break their own promise, they won''t touch my family no matter my decision. That''s all."


    She exined it carefully to avoid any misunderstanding.


    "��" Theo frowned. "Doesn''t that mean if they threaten your family, the position will easily change? Ignore this question if you count it as my third question."


    She smiled. "Yes. But that chance is only one percent. And if you try to go against the Griffith Family, then I guess that one percent can increase. As long as you don''t have any conflict with the Griffith Family, this position won''t change. I still need to ensure the livelihood of my family, you see."


    Theo never expected his teacher to give him full support since it was hard to revolve her own life around a mere brat like him. That was why this answer didn''t break his heart or something.


    Instead, it was enough for him to know his future path. He contemted his answer for a second. "I just want to learn more about them and decide whether to sever this family rtionship or not. Though, the chance to choose the former is already above ny percent."


    "Haha. So honest. No��" She suddenly narrowed her eyes as if she realized his intention. "You want to see my reaction to see the rtionship between me and the Griffith Family. To see�� If I let them know something like this or not. You have turned into a clever brat."


    Theo rolled his eyes, not admitting it. He changed the topic by uttering hisst question. "What is your purpose for teaching me?"


    "Hmm, this one can''t be answered easily. I am your ally, but close to a neutral party, I guess." She answered in a roundabout way. "In fact, there may be a few people approaching you to be your teacher like me, especially after your 18th birthday. All I can say, you need to be careful of these people because some of them are chill like me even if you reject them, and some of them are going to force you and get angry if you reject them. I am here to fend them away."


    "Did you forget that you forced me too?"


    "If you managed to escape from me at that time, I wouldn''t get angry." She shrugged and looked away. "But those who wille at you may try to torture you to ept them as your teacher�� Or even kill you. That''s all you need to know. I can help you fend them off from time to time, but there''s a limit I can do."


    "I understand it. I can only prepare for what happens." Theo nodded.


    "Also, you need to remember that I''m your ally. For now, they only know about your real identity, so it''s going to be fine if you choose another identity. Well, this is the only case after your 18th birthday. You are safe for at least a few months."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "One more piece of advice. Don''t be too focused on one Aspect. Raise your proficiency on the others as well since I have taught you the basics. Combining two or three Aspects to create something is what you should strive for.


    "That''s all. Since I have answered all the three questions, it''s time for me to leave again." She said and extended her hand, patting Theo''s head. "Even if you don''t recognize me as your teacher anymore, I will always take pride in my student. Live however you want."


    Before Theo could react, the door was already opened by the Magic Power and his teacher disappeared right after, leaving him alone in the house.


    Of course, she didn''t forget to close the door.


    Theo froze for a few seconds before his elbows used his thighs for support while his hands covered his eyes. He was confused about what to do anymore. All he knew was every confusion he had was rted to the Griffith Family.


    "In any case, I can learn everything about the Griffith Familyter since I''m sure many countries have the knowledge about that family. What I need to do right now is to get stronger." Theo stared at the book. "I am going to get the money from Nart, quit school and search for another house tomorrow before buying skills to upgrade my current ones."


    Theo decided to take a bath and sleep for the night.


    He thought nothing could go wrong anymore, but his wheel of fate started spinning again when he heard someone ringing the bell early in the morning.


    He thought Nart or Laust was visiting him to give the money, but when he looked down, he saw a white rabbit, just a bit bigger than a baseball and seemed to fit around his pocket. However, what surprised him was a white envelope in the rabbit''s mouth.

 Chapter 334 – Moon Rabbit

    <h4>Chapter 334 - Moon Rabbit</h4>


    "!!!" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and never expected to see a rabbit this smart. However, his instinct told him another reason as he subconsciously took out his device, pointing it at the rabbit.


    Name: Moon Rabbit


    Level: ???


    Description: A Rare monster that has little to no information.


    "Huh?" Theo opened his eyes wide as he quickly looked around the area before grabbing the rabbit and bringing it inside.


    There was a reason why Theo panicked.


    At first, he thought this rabbit was an animal or a summoned creature. If it were an animal, he would have gotten the description for an animal. If it were thetter, the monster detector wouldn''t pick up anything.


    In other words, the one before him was genuinely a monster from the other side.


    "What? How could a monstere to this world? I know that there was an instance where the monsters came to this side and attacked humans, but I haven''t seen a single one that can enter this ce without any warning." Theo looked at the rabbit, who remained still, staring back at him while tilting its head in confusion.


    "Why me? Is this the Griffith Family again?" Theo narrowed his eyes and finally decided to take the envelope from the rabbit''s mouth.


    Surprisingly, the rabbit handed it to him without hesitation.


    Theo carefully took a step back while staring at the rabbit. Normally, the monsters would be very violent because their only instinct was to survive. However, he also had seen the monster with high enough intelligence to talk to humans.


    Assuming the rabbit was considered thetter, Theo made some distance first and asked, "Can you understand me?"


    "Kyu!" The rabbit nodded a few times.


    This was the first time he saw this kind of rabbit. The fur was white like that of snow and its eyes were silver as if gathering the moonlight.


    "You will stand there. Don''t move��" Theo extended his hand and waved it a few times as if he tried to calm it down.


    "Kyu!" The rabbit nodded again and didn''t move.


    Seeing how the rabbit was rather cooperative, Theo nced at the envelope before realizing there was a letter inside.


    He quickly opened the envelope and found a piece of paper. However, he almost dropped the paper when he saw the writing.


    "It''s my brother''s��" Theo widened his eyes. While keeping his vignce, he started reading the message from his brother.


    ''Theo, I know that everything must be a shock to you, but I have one thing to confess. My real name is not Oliver Griffith. It''s Oliver Sangaria. Yes, I am not your brother. I am��''


    ''Unfortunately, I can''t tell you much in this piece of paper. If you wish to know more about my identity and your parents, bring Ava with you. As soon as you reach Level 350, Ava will bring you to my ce. She is a clever kid, so take care of her for me, okay?''


    ''Even if you do bad things to her, she won''t tell you the location. I will answer every question you want to ask me when you reach this ce. Also, never mention my name, whether it''s my real name or my name as your brother.''


    ''Two more things you need to know are that the time limit is six months and don''t let others capture Ava. That''s all I can say in this piece of paper.''


    As soon as he finished reading the note, he couldn''t help but crush the paper with his hands as his eyes became extremely cold.


    "A level 350��" Theo narrowed his eyes and opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 196


    EXP: 13451/100459


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (D), Clone (C), Cannon st (D), Magic Bullet (D), Flowmotion (D), Telekinesis (C), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 295, Endurance 169, Agility 178, Vitality 170, Magic Power 295


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "154 levels in 6 months��" Theo''s killing intent leaked.


    "Kyu!" The rabbit panicked but didn''t move from its spot, fulfilling the promise she made to Theo.


    Noticing Ava''s small cry, Theo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. After calming down, he looked at the rabbit and asked, "I just want to make sure�� Are you Ava?"


    The rabbit nodded and raised its right foot. "Kyu!"


    "It seems that you can understand my words." Theo sighed. Since he nned to ask everything to know whether to sever his rtionship or not, he decided to go to his brother. He came to Ava and extended his palm. "You will be my guide, so I''m counting on you."


    Ava hopped onto Theo''s palm, which was still bigger than her body. She then looked up and raised her foot again as if saying ''Nice to meet you,'' since they were going to be together.


    "Kyu!"


    Theo sighed. "Still, this is the first time I am having a monster in my house and a monster without any information on top of that. What do you eat? Don''t tell me you can only eat my blood, right?"


    "Kyu!" Ava shook her head furiously before opening both front feet wide as if telling him she could eat anything.


    "I don''t understand what you''re saying, but I get the gist of it. So, you can eat everything? Want to order a pizza?"


    "Kyu!" The rabbit nodded before hopping up and down a few times as if rejoicing from his choice.


    "A rabbit wants to eat pizza? Seriously?" Theo shook his head helplessly. He quickly ordered one and sent it to his address while asking Nart about his promise. He seemed to be able to get the money and his brother''s information as long as he visited his shop.


    However, now that Theo had gotten enough information about his brother, he wondered whether the information Nart possessed was good enough for him.


    Either way, he nned to do a few things today, so he took a shower before eating together with Ava.


    To his surprise, Ava ate a few slices to the point what she ate alone exceeded ten times her body size.


    After eating, sheid down on the table cutely while rubbing her belly with a satisfied expression.


    "Seriously�� I am even wondering whether you are a monster or a human." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    He took care of the garbage and said, "Anyway, I need to go out today. I want you to stay here and don''te out to make sure no one sees you, understand?"


    "Kyu!" The rabbit nodded, staring at Theo, who had reached the door.


    "If you don''t listen to me and get captured, I am not risking my life to get you back anyway." Theo opened the door.


    The rabbit raised her right foot and waved it left and right. Her body also followed that motion. "Kyu Kyu!"

 Chapter 335 – Quit?

    <h4>Chapter 335 - Quit?</h4>


    He walked to the school as he wanted to directly hand in the document to quit the school.


    Since he couldn''t meet the principal immediately, he walked to the teacher''s office and met Rai.


    To his surprise, Rai''s face was filled with annoyance as he said, "Again?"


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean, Teacher Rai?"


    "Let me guess, you are going to quit the school?" Rai sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.


    His voice took the attention of the remaining teachers who didn''t have any ss to teach during this period.


    They obviously recognized Theo''s face and Rai''s shout just made them understand what was going on.


    "I am afraid I need to quit the school to progress even further." Theo shook his head.


    "Do you think the teachers in our school are ipetent?" Rai asked with a serious expression.


    "Of course not. However, I already have a mentor to train my strength and leaving the school can make me progress even faster." Theo shook his head. "I am sorry that I need to leave right after thepetition, but this is my decision. ording to the school rule, no one can force me to stay."


    The teachers furrowed their eyebrows.


    Knowing that it was better to avoid any more scenes in the teacher''s room, Rai rose from his chair and said with a tired tone. "Come with me. We are going to meet the principal and exin your situation."


    Theo nodded and followed him to the principal room.


    "Principal, it''s me."


    "You again?" The principal''s surprised voice echoed from behind the door as he had the same reaction as Rai.


    Rai didn''t care about his reaction and opened the door,ing inside the room.


    Theo followed right behind him.


    The moment Principal Eigen saw Theo''s face, he couldn''t help but facepalm, feeling stressed.


    "Seriously�� Let me guess, you are going to quit school."


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Eigen let out a long sigh and his face was distorted as if he had aged more than a few years today. He pointed to the seat on the opposite side of his desk. "Sit down. Let''s talk."


    "I will leave then. Tell me the resultter." Rai sighed and quickly walked out of the room, not wanting to bother with this matter anymore.


    Eigen, on the other hand, had a grim expression. He looked Theo in the eyes and asked, "I won''t beat around the bush. Is it possible to convince you to stay in the school? At least until youplete your first year? You don''t need to stay in school and can do anything you want."


    Theo looked at the principal and smiled as though he had something in his mind. Instead of answering Eigen''s question, Theo asked him back. "I won''t beat around the bush too. I have brought honor to this country and the school. Do you think it''s rather impolite if you don''t give me any reward?"


    "��" Eigen squinted his eyes and released a bit of pressure.


    "There''s no need to use this kind of pressure." Theo shook his head. "Unfortunately for you, I am not afraid of the school. Besides, I have gotten a reward from the government while I don''t get anything from you. Don''t you think it''s rather cheap if the school doesn''t give me anything?"


    Eigen understood what he was implying. If the school didn''t give him the reward, his reputation would be ruined. Although he had great hope for the teams, he still doubted they could do it at first.


    It was only after Theo led the team to victory that he finally started to believe.


    "Of course. I have prepared it for you. Unfortunately, the school is not as big as the government. We can only give you 500,000 Zils. This is already our upper limit, so we will exchange the rest with Skill or Material Cards of your choice. What you can get right now is two C Rank Cards."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and said without hesitation. "I already know what kind of skills I want. I can choose it immediately."


    The principal gritted his teeth and continued, "The catalog has yet to arrive, so I can''t give it to you right now. You can go back after three days."


    Eigen was nning to buy time with this y, so Theo didn''t hold back anymore. "Can I exchange the cards with money?"


    "No." Eigen harrumphed.


    "Then I don''t need the card." Theo shook his head. "All I need is the money and for you to handle my matter."


    Eigen shook his head calmly, even though he was already fuming in anger inside. "We can''t let you walk away with half of the reward since we don''t want to be rude. How about you go back first and return three dayster?"


    "Then I don''t need the reward too." Theo shook his head. He had gotten a total of 35 million Zils from both the Government and Laust anyway. With the additional reward from Nart, he wouldn''t care about this kind of reward.


    "!!!"


    Theo smiled and muttered inwardly, ''I think you don''t realize that the one who has the initiative in this conversation is me�� Also, you are too stingy with the reward, even though you are trying to make me stay for free publication. I won''t do that, especially since the school didn''t help me when I was bullied. The military is more trustworthy than school.''


    Knowing that this was the time to attack, Theo said with a cold tone. "All I want is one thing. It is for the school to process my matter."


    "And I don''t ept that."


    "You can''t stop me from quitting the school unless you are nning to challenge the school rule, which has been adjusted by the presence of the government."


    "The principal has the right to have thest say in the school''s matter." Eigen shook his head.


    "I think you don''t understand your current position. If this matter is known to the public, the reputation will be destroyed."


    "And it will be solved as long as you stay here." Eigen released all his Magic Power, pressuring Theo.


    "Let me ask you again. Are you sure you want to do this?" Theo''s expression turned grim.


    "Do you think the public will know your action if I say you are focusing on your training here?"


    "Try it and see whether it will go your way or not." Theo smiled evilly. "I give you onest chance. Give me the reward and process my matter. Else, this school will be destroyed along with your career."

 Chapter 336 – Again!

    <h4>Chapter 336 - Again!</h4>


    "��" Eigen''s expression darkened as he knew Theo''s capability. If this guy were let loose, he and the school would suffer a loss.


    Just imagining what would happen when Theo said, "Despite what I have done for the country and the school. They don''t support me in my progress and try to chain me down by forcing me to go with their curriculum even though they know it''s illegal and they don''t have anything to teach me anymore."


    It might look arrogant, but all people knew the fact already.


    And if Theo brought the sympathy card by saying, "It''s no wonder why they dared to do that. Even when I was bullied, the school didn''t do anything. Only military instructors would judge fairly, as I experienced it once where the instructor punished another student ording to the school rule without feeling afraid of the other party''s background. It''s disappointing."


    With those two statements, no one would trust this school anymore and Theo''s fans would go crazy. The school would be destroyed and he wouldn''t be able to do anything to prevent the catastrophe.


    Not only Theo, but all his teammates would also question and might leave the school in that instant. The school might even be closed after this incident. After all, the impact Theo had created in the Grand Gaia Competition was too big.


    If such a person couldn''t even be treated fairly, why should they even trust the school anymore?


    He wanted to catch Theo, but if he took another look, there was one reason why Theo was so confident before him.


    Eigen stared at Theo and said, "You are only a clone."


    The answer came in the form of a smile as he said, "I already said what I want."


    "��" Eigen gritted his teeth. Looking at Theo again, he realized why Theo could bring the team to third ce.


    Sweats began to cover his forehead as Eigen finally resigned to his fate.


    With a long sigh of disappointment, he stated, "Alright. I will give you your reward right now."


    "Then the skills?"


    Eigen clicked his tongue and took out a Skylink as he opened the catalog for Theo to choose.


    Theo didn''t hesitate and chose two C Rank Skills. "These two."


    "Give me your document."


    Theo handed him his document.


    "That''s all. It should be finished within two days and your reward will be sent together with the formal document."


    Theo smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work."


    He let out rough breaths as he really wanted to punch Theo''s face. Unfortunately, Theo already disappeared, answering his previous question regarding his identity.


    If he continued to press Theo earlier, he would have ruined the school.


    He facepalmed and looked at the document on his table.


    However, before he could even calm his heart down, someone knocked on the door.


    "Principal, this is Mia. May Ie in?"


    "Come in." Eigen sighed and calmed his heart down to avoid worrying other people, albeit his switch flipped again when he saw Alea entering the room with her homeroom teacher, Mia.


    He was already fuming in anger from Laust and Theo''s case. Seeing Aleaing inside just turned everything upside down. He couldn''t help but m the table. "Again?!"


    "Hiii!!!" Mia panicked for a second, looking at the fierce anger from Eigen''s eyes.


    Still, since Alea was behind her, she stuttered in fright. "T-that�� I want to say�� That Alea is requesting to leave the school."


    "Not only Laust Lange and Theodore Griffith, but you are also going to quit too?!" Eigen gritted his teeth and tried to control his rough breaths.


    "Theo did?" Alea opened her mouth in amazement before ncing on the table, finding Theo''s document. "All the more reason why I need to quit the school. The way I am right now won''t allow me to catch up with Theo. I can''t afford to have him leave me in the dust just yet.


    "In thepetition, I realized how useless I am without Theo, so this time, I''m going to prove myself that I can get stronger," said Alea while adding inwardly, ''I need to know the reason why Theo hates me too. I don''t think I can sleep peacefully without solving that issue and I don''t have much time before he leaves the country.''


    Although Alea didn''t know the agreement between him and the seven countries, she knew Theo wanted to leave the country because it was the only way to be a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "Do you think what will happen to the school if all of you leave? Can''t you even understand that?!" Eigen red at Alea.


    "I know. That''s why I am trying topromise." She nodded. "My grandfather told me that there would be huge news from the school, so instead of quitting the school, I am "leaving" for a "mission" until graduation. I will surely return for graduation to show them that I''m still with the school.


    "This is the only thing I can do for the school that has helped me for two and a half years. I hope that Principal Eigen can understand my situation too andpromise."


    Eigen still red at her, but his heart seemed to be calmer, knowing that Alea''s solution wasn''t that bad.


    After considering her offers, Eigen said, "I understand. However, you also need toe to the school once every month or every other month, so other students can see you too. And I am going to announce to them that you are on a mission and intense training after seeing the other students around the world that ignite the me in your heart to get stronger."


    Alea nodded. "I understand. It''s not like I can stay on the other side for that long either."


    "Alright."


    Fortunately, Ellen, Sihan, and Phyrill didn''t meet him as they had no intention of quitting school for the time being. Or else, no one could predict what Eigen would do.


    Knowing that Theo decided to focus on getting stronger, Alea couldn''t help but feel the sense of urgency. All the advantage she had was her level, so if she couldn''t reach Level 300 by the time Theo became a Hero Rank Expert, she was afraid Theo would have far surpassed her by that time.


    After dealing with Eigen, Theo made his way to the other side since he wanted to get a house after lunch.


    ��


    Thirty minutester.


    Theo finally arrived in front of Nart''s shop. He opened the door and looked at the nostalgic, silent shop where only two or three people searched for something.


    He walked to the counter without hesitation and met the old man who seemed to have been waiting for him.


    "Well, well, well�� It seems that you are ready to soar to the sky." Nart smiled. "I guess I have failed to rope you in."

 Chapter 337 – Nart

    <h4>Chapter 337 - Nart</h4>


    "I don''t care about it." Theo shook his head, looking at him with a serious expression. He only had one purpose ining here. It was to get his reward. He took out his Skylink and opened the contract they had made before thepetition. "I want the reward."


    "Sure." Nart smirked and looked up, recalling the contract. "Anyway, the promised rewards are two C Rank Spears and Skill Cards in advance, money for the mansion with the size depending on thepletion, and your brother''s information.


    "I have given you the first one and since you have done your job splendidly for the second one, I am thinking about giving you forty million in cash. It should be enough to get you a quite big home for yourself.


    "As for the information, you need to get inside first so as to avoid anyone from listening to it." Nart pointed at the door behind him.


    "Is that so?" Theo nodded and used his Blink to appear behind the counter, reaching the door as if he had done it many times. "Let''s go inside and talk."


    "��" Nart was speechless as he looked at Theo''s back while shaking his head. "Looking at this guy makes me want to sigh."


    The two entered the room, which happened to be the storage of this shop.


    Theo could find many weapons, armor, and cards scattered around. However, he had enough equipment, so he turned around and stared at Nart, wanting to end the business as soon as possible.


    Nart leisurely took out his Skylink and pointed it to him. "Come. I''ll send you the money�� Though it will only arrive after I go back to the other side."


    Theo nodded and handed him his Skylink.


    After that, Nart fell silent and scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, I don''t have much information about your brother. All I know is that his base of operation is on the other gate and it''s in a quite high-level area.


    "If you wish to visit him, you are required to have a high level or you will just be the prey of the monsters."


    "Can''t I just bring you there?" It was clear that the problem would be solved the moment he brought a high-level expert to protect him.


    Albeit, Nart shook his head. "I''m sorry, boy. As much as I want to help you, you and I have nomon rtionship. I don''t have any reason to help you. Since many countries want you so much, you should probably ask them. Of course, you can also marry my granddaughter since you looked so cute when you were together."


    Theo looked away. He didn''t want to rely on those countries easily because they would pick this contribution as their main negotiation point. And as he said, marrying Alea was never an option. For the time being, he couldn''t rely on anyone so as to force them to give him something of their own initiative, making him able to negotiate a bit more in the future.


    And as his brother said, he really needed to reach level 350 first before even venturing to that area if what Nart said was true.


    "Where is that area?"


    "It''s beyond the Great Canyon. That''s where I met your brother. However, I don''t know the exact location, so I can''t say much. The monsters residing in that ce are mostly around level 400-500, so please proceed when you have enough strength."


    "I know. Thank you for that information." Theo nodded and looked down, contemting the information he got. "What else do you know?"


    "Hmm�� Other than that, I think your brother is involved in something bad, considering he never visited this ce anymore. I don''t know. Not many people want to live in that ce for a long time, so I think that''s probably the reason. Even so, this is just an empty usation. You can choose to believe it or not." Nart shrugged. "That''s all I can say regarding your brother."


    "That''s enough." It was clear to Theo that the message Ava brought with her was genuine. His brother believed he should have enough strength to challenge that ce when he reached level 350. However, that also meant it was going to be a gruesome journey.


    It was hard for a normal Level 350 expert to kill Level 400-500 monsters with the status alone. Hence, what he required to close that gap were the Five Aspects. He needed at least to master the Materialization and another Five Aspects at the same level of Materialization. Else, he might not get a chance to meet his brother.


    Steeling his resolve, Theo looked at Nart and said, "Thank you for the information. With this, the contract has been fulfilled."


    "Are you not going to threaten me? If Alea knows about this contract, she will be disappointed in me, you know. You can threaten me to give you more." Nart smirked evilly as if he was challenging Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo simply shook his head as if he had thought about it. His answer came to amaze Nart.


    "I can do it easily. However, there is a certain price I need to pay. First, our rtionship will be worse. I don''t know what you will do�� And you may even make my entire n fail if you put your heart into it. I don''t need to make the Eilric Family my enemy just for a couple of million Zils. That number can easily be obtained as long as I work hard enough."


    Nart smiled and patted his shoulders. "You have grown up. Well, it''s a shame that I can''t recruit you to my family, but I think my family will only bind you down. I have one more thing to say�� Thank you for making my granddaughter shine in front of the world.


    "It makes me proud and happy. I would like to thank you not because of the contract, but because I''m her grandfather. Thank you."


    Theo extended his hand with a smile.


    Nart smiled back and shook his hand. "Good luck, Young Man. May your wishe true."


    Theo nodded while adding inwardly, ''You won''t say it if you know my goal��''


    "Goodbye."


    "Goodbye." Theo turned around and left the room before using his Blink to disappear from the store, returning to the other side to buy or rent a house.

 Chapter 338 – The Importance Of Identity

    <h4>Chapter 338 - The Importance Of Identity</h4>


    As soon as he returned to the other side, Theo''s Skylink rang. He furrowed his eyebrows and saw the name who called him.


    He picked up the call with a serious face. "Yes. Do you need anything from me, Sarah?"


    It was his assistant from Fighter Temple.


    Normally, the assistant was forbidden to call the one they supported unless something was important or received a mission.


    Hence, Sarah hurriedly made her point before saying anything useless. "Hello, Sir Theo. I apologize for calling you right now, but I have just received a mission for you personally."


    "A request?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. The mission ising from an individual called Taerk. The reward is two million Zils. As for the mission, it''s to kill a Level 280 Monster called Squiddy Lamp, which resides in Lambert Lake. I can send you the map and information if you choose to ept the mission."


    Theo gently pinched his chin and fell into deep thought. He muttered inwardly, ''A mission with this kind of reward is certainly normal, but I never expect to get a mission like this easily. In other words, this Taerk has a hidden intention in giving this request to me. Besides, I need to level up a bit more if I want to kill this powerful monster.


    ''The risk is too big, not because of the monster, but because of the hidden intention behind it. I guess this is my decision.'' Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "Thank you for calling me. However, I have a few things to do since I have just returned here. Hence, I am afraid I need to turn down the request."


    "I understand. I shall exin it to him and do you wish to let others know that you are not getting specific requests for the time being?"


    "You can do that?"


    "Of course. It''s my job. I can even arrange all the mission information for you in your email instead of calling you like this. Since this is the first time, I thought I should call you to establish an agreement."


    "Can you do that for me? Maybe, justpile it and send it to me every week. If I happen to find a good mission for me, I will go. Else, I will just stick with normal missions in the quest board."


    "Certainly."


    "Alright. I think that''s all."


    "Before you hang up, I would like to thank you on behalf of this country and the Fighter Temple for getting third ce in the Grand Gaia Competition and bing the MVP."


    "It''s my pleasure." Theo nodded. "That''s right. Can you change my job to Magic Warrior instead of Fighter? And do I need to go to you personally to handle this matter?"


    There was no need for Theo to hide his power from all citizens since everyone surely had watched his performance. At first, he thought it would be effective if they expected him as a Fighter, but it turned out he used Magic too. He just never had the urge to utilize it until thepetition.


    Now that everything had been revealed, Theo chose to change it to his proper job.


    "Yes. It should be easy to do it. And due to the fact that both Jobs areing from the same Temple, you don''t need toe personally."


    "That''s good. I will leave it to you."


    "Understood."


    After hanging up the phone, Theo muttered in a low voice only he could hear, "Hmm, no one has my contact for the time being, including my ce to live. As for my other identity, I don''t think anyone other than my own teammates suspects it, so this is a good chance to use it.


    "At the same time, if I add another identity right now, it will be extremely suspicious because it''s not normal for a high-level person to register unless they have a certain objective. It seems my Joker Identity can finally be used to its fullest potential.


    "All I need to do is to wear my mask whening out. No, I should use a mask to rent my new house. It''s true that I need to use my real ID to register the house, but unless they are checking the estatepanies one by one, it''s hard to find my identity. And if they find me, I will know where I should go. I guess this is a temporary solution."


    With that thought in mind, Theo decided to return to his home first to grab his mask before going to another city where he wished to live.


    The city was called Nesi City. It was only fifteen minutes away from the other city and thirty minutes away from the second gate of Thernd. The housing in this ce was cheap, so it should be perfect for getting a cheap but big house while spending the rest of the money on Skill Cards to upgrade his own skills.


    He chose a random real estatepany and entered the office with his mask.


    Obviously, such an appearance made him suspicious, but at least, they didn''t know it was Theodore Griffith.


    "Hello." Still, the employees needed to be professional as one of them approached him. "Wee. I am Alisa. I will help you to find the best house or apartment you want."


    "I am nning to rent a house." He thought for a moment, recalling what he needed from a house. "I want to rent a big house with a garden, a pool, and a gym if possible."


    "Certainly, please follow me first. I will check it for you." She extended her hand to her own desk, asking Theo to follow her.


    Theo nodded, followed her, and waited while she started typing a few things on her keyboard.


    "There is one house that matches your description. However, the owner needs a one year deposit��" The employee made a slightly pained expression as she knew that one year option wasn''t that good of an option for an expert like him.


    Those who fought on the other side had the chance to be rich in an instant or lose everything, including their life, so this was usually burdening someone like him.


    However, Theo still asked, "What''s the rent?"


    "Because it''s one year rent, the owner has put a discount. The price is 15 million Zils per year. However, the owner built this house specifically for hunters."


    "The price is not a problem."


    "I understand." The employee nodded with a relieved expression. "When do you wish to move?"


    "Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow if possible. I don''t mind paying a bit extra."


    "In that case, we will arrange the cleaners, gardener and others to make the housefortable for you to use. You should be able to move in two days."


    "That''s good." Theo nodded.


    "Then, let''s finish the paperwork."

 Chapter 339 – Money

    <h4>Chapter 339 - Money</h4>


    After renting the house, he quickly returned to his own house and was greeted by Ava.


    "Sorry, it took me a whole day. Are you hungry?" Theo asked.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded her head and jumped to the couch as if waiting for Theo to order something.


    He thought for a moment and muttered, "I should probably buy Night Vision and Cooking sses. They are quite expensive, but both are essential if I want to stay for a long time on the other side. At the same time, I need to find a way to watch out for monsters during the night if I want to sleep."


    "Kyu!" Suddenly, Ava raised her foot as if wanting to show Theo something. She raised both front feet and punched in session.


    "You can fight?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    Ava nodded and pointed her foot to Theo. "Kyu!"


    "You want to show me your power?" Theo narrowed his eyes and extended his palm to the front. "How about you punch this?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and hopped from the couch before kicking Theo''s palm.


    "Eh?!" Theo widened his eyes before crashing to the wall behind him. Luckily, the force wasn''t powerful enough to make a dent or something. But he was still taken aback by Ava''s strength.


    Although he wasn''t serious, that hit alone was simr to a Level 200 monster if not higher.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "Anyway, it''s good to know that you can fight. But doesn''t this mean you need to kill another monster to level up?"


    "Kyu!" Ava shook her head before pointing at her own mouth.


    "So, you eat to level up." Theo nodded and looked up, recalling something in his mind. "Now that I think about it, a summoner can rank up their summoned creatures by making them consume monsters'' meat and some herbs. That''s how it is, I guess��"


    "Anyway, I will order some food first. What do you want?" Theo asked while browsing all the menus avable online.


    After waiting for a while, they had their dinner. As expected, Ava seemed to be satisfied with the food.


    Theo had grown ustomed to Ava''spany, so he just let her lie down on the couch while opening Sk to search for Skill Cards online.


    "I have two C Rank Skill Cards from the school and around 63 million Zils in total. I got it from the previous hunt with the group and the rewards from school, Nart, Laust, and the government. Though I use Laust''s money for the house." Theo thought for a moment.


    "One C Rank Skill cost me 1-7 million Zils while a D Rank Skill has the price around 500,000 Zils. In that case, I should upgrade one C Rank Skill to a B Rank. With the remaining money, I should be able to upgrade another two to three D Rank Skills."


    He opened all his skills to see the upgrade requirements.


    Skill: Blink (C) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank C skills and 30 Rank D skills


    Skill: Telekinesis (C) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: Fuse 5 C Rank Skills and 40 D Rank Skills.


    Skill: Clone (C) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: 7 Rank C Skill and Fuse 15 Rank D Skills


    Skill: Magic Bullet (D) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 rank D skills and 10 Rank E skills.


    Skill: Cannon st (D) - Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 25 Rank D skills and 50 Rank E Skills


    "Hmm��" Seeing these five skills, he seemed to have made his decision. "Because of my Control, I think Telekinesis is more beneficial in my current state. Not only can it help my training in Control, but it can also power up my External Flow during a fight.


    "Then, I should upgrade Magic Bullet because it has been my main skill in misdirecting or attacking my opponents. Cannon st is a bit harder to upgrade, but I don''t think I should get another skill to rece this one. This will be thest time I upgrade Cannon st before changing to a new skill.


    "Meanwhile, I need to master my Illusion Maniption skill first since it''s a good way to fight humans. Monster may also be fooled if I use it in the right way. As for the Illusion Multiplier, I will just hold it for the time being because I know that it still has some uses for me.


    "Flowmotion, on the contrary, is very useful in going aroundplicated terrains like forests. I will upgrade this skill after hunting enough monsters there. That leaves only my Elemental Shield and Swift Energy. Both of their upgrade requirements are too big for me to handle, so I won''t upgrade them.


    "Ever since I can use External Flow, I don''t use Swift Energy that often, so I will just hunt monsters and rece the skill after finding a skill I fancy. The same applies to Elemental Shield, I guess." Theo nodded. "Another rearrangement for skill. To think it will be this costly.


    "Also, I remember that God of Mischief can upgrade my own eyes. What kind of ability do those eyes have? Maybe I can upgrade other people''s skills? That''s certainly going to create chaos in society, but if I y my cards right, I can utilize it to get more money to buy more skills to upgrade my own.


    "It''s going to require a lot of money if my skills are B Rank Skills. After all, each B Rank Skill will cost me at least 30 million Zils. Money, money, money�� Why are you so hard to get and so easy to leave?" Theo sighed.


    "Anyway, I should buy the skills tonight and upgrade tomorrow. I also need to buy equipment and test this Ring of Honor tomorrow. I guess I can only start exploring the other side in three days."


    "Kyu!" Ava arrived next to him while waving her hand as if telling him to bring her along.


    "Don''t worry. I know. Though, you need to hunt the monsters if you want to eat something. I can''t touch or cook them if I kill them, you see."


    "Kyu!" Ava agreed without hesitation and told him that he should leave it to her.


    "Alright. Don''t bother me for the time being." Theo waved his hand, began to search all the things he needed on the Sk and ended up buying 3 C Rank Skills and 75 D Rank Skills, 60 E Rank Skills, Night Vision sses, and Cooking sses which cost him a total of 58 million Zils.

 Chapter 340 – New Home

    <h4>Chapter 340 - New Home</h4>


    The next day.


    He received the message and the skills from the principal. Theo read the message that told him the approval and upgraded three of his skills.


    Skill: Telekinesis (B)


    Effect: Intermediate Level of Telekinesis. Able to lift medium-size objects and control them with Magic Power.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (C)


    Effect: Summon up to 20 powerful magic bullets. Tracking (Optional).


    Skill: Cannon st (C)


    Effect: Gather the energy to the spear and spin it to create a torrential wave of energy. Once released, it''s able to hit all targets in a straight line up to fifty feet long and ten feet wide.


    Looking at the upgraded skills, Theo couldn''t help but smile. "Nice. This way, I can do more with my Telekinesis. But I will need to try and get ustomed to it first before trying it on the other side.


    "As for the Magic Bullet, I really need to check that power again because I can summon forty with my Clone. This kind of attack is not to be underestimated. Last but not least, Cannon st''s power has increased, but it''s not at a satisfactory level. Well, I can use my Telekinesis to pair up with this skillter."


    Theo sighed as he watched the two sses on top of the table. He had prepared everything needed to camp for a month on the other side.


    "I only need to buy some spices which can be acquiredter. Other than moving to another house, I don''t think I have anything to do right now." Theo looked down and sighed.


    ��


    The next morning.


    Theo had packed everything and walked to the door.


    "Ava, let''s go. Where will you hide?" He tilted his head.


    "Kyu!" Ava hopped on top of his shoulder before sliding down his clothes and hiding inside his pocket.


    "Your body is sticking out, you know."


    "Kyu!" Ava froze and looked left and right, trying to find a new ce to hide.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and put his Skylink in his shirt pocket. "They will think there is another item inside my pocket other than my Skylink this time. If you can put up with it, then it''s fine."


    "Kyu!" Ava raised her feet before using the Skylink as her body pillow, telling Theo that it just made her morefortable.


    "I guess that''s fine." Theo sighed and gently stroked her head with his finger.


    "Kyu." Ava''s lips curved as she closed her eyes, showing such a blissful expression.


    Theo chuckled and came out of the house. There wasn''t much luggage, so there was only one backpack and handbag for all his items while carrying two spears in another bag.


    He used a facemask, sunsses, and a hat to avoid people recognizing him, considering he was a celebrity.


    The journey took two hours as the gate position was on the opposite side of the country.


    He arrived at the house he rented two days ago and examined it closely.


    The building was three-story-tall, with the first floor filled with a living room and a pool. The second floor had a gym and the master bedroom, while the third one was for the storage room and other bedrooms.


    The fence separating his house and the others were six feet tall, so no one could peek at him normally. At the same time, the white paint brightened the wall, making this house lookfortable to live in.


    He looked down, staring at the small card that was used as the house''s key.


    After entering his new home and putting down his luggage on the side, Theo quickly made his way to the pool with his spears. Normally, he would swim, but the pool had only one purpose in his eyes.


    He just wanted to have a quick try, so he lifted his hand up.


    ''Telekinesis.'' Theo took a deep breath and carried thirty percent of the water. Since he had managed to carry rocks bigger than this, he had no problem carrying all this water.


    After that, the water began to gather at one point, forming a sphere.


    "Huft." Theo let out a breath of relief. "This is the standard form. I don''t have a problem with this, but it''s going to be hardter on."


    Theo poured a bit more Magic Power to change the water shape. It gradually formed into a cube like what he had in mind, but a portion of the water fell down, making an imperfect cube.


    "Yep, this is something to be expected. What I usually did, including the External Flow, was a simple push and pull. Those two were simple techniques in Telekinesis. And now that I have upgraded my Telekinesis power, if I use the External Flow again, I could easily create a stronger force.


    "But what I am trying to do now is control this push and pull to form a certain shape. And I failed in turning a sphere into a cube. This is something I should expect from my current Control and I think I should practice this alongside my Materialization."


    Theo contemted his choice for a moment before using his Telekinesis to carry his spear right next to the pool to his hand.


    Grabbing the spear, he spun it once before he waved it down to the pool. "I can also do this."


    Woosh.


    The water bent down before forming a wave in all directions as he gradually replicated his External Flow and Telekinesis but with his spear. "A pool is the perfect ce for me to practice my Control."


    "Also��" Theo turned around and looked at the situation. "The pool is separated into two sides: indoor and outdoor. The garden on the back is 100��100 feet, so it has enough space to train with my clone, while the pool won''t bother my movement that much. The house is quiterge with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a gym, a kitchen, a pool, and a living room.


    "I should befortable enough to live here for a year. I don''t think I need more than that." Theo nodded.


    Ava came out of his pocket and looked at their new home. She raised her right foot with a smile as if telling Theo she approved this new home. "Kyu!"

 Chapter 341 – Missions

    <h4>Chapter 341 - Missions</h4>


    After settling down on the new house and testing every single room, Theo had finally gotten his free time.


    He sat in the beach chair next to the pool, enjoying the breeze that mixed with the cool water.


    Next to him stood Ava with an innocent face, looking at Theo''s Skylink.


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head in confusion.


    "I am just trying to find some missions for our journey. We are not leaving until I reach Level 230, you know." Theo smirked, feeling a bit fired up. He thought 44 levels were enough for his first trip and it shouldn''t take him a month to do it if he judged his speed ording to what he had experienced with Alea and the others.


    "Kyu!" Ava suddenly pointed at a single mission.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the mission.


    Mission: Kill a Rare Zombie Warrior and get the Undead Flesh Card.


    Level: 230


    Reward: 500,000 Zils


    "Hmm. This is an easy mission I guess. The reward is also appropriate." Theo thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Sure. Let''s take this mission. I will find the information about the zombie, the location, and its environmentter."


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled.


    Theo squinted his eyes and nced at Ava, who stood next to his head. "The reason you are suggesting this mission is not that you want to eat it yourself, right?"


    Ava opened her mouth in surprise before shaking her head furiously. She even opened her mouth and made a gesture as if someone was vomiting, trying to tell Theo that the flesh was disgusting and she didn''t want to eat it.


    "Well, if you don''t have any hidden intention." Theo shrugged.


    Ava nodded a few times.


    "For now, let''s check the map first so we know we can get another mission in that area. I know that it''s impossible to get more than a mission, but I can just put it in my notebook and try to get a reward from the missions that remain on the quest board." Theo then checked the zombie''s location.


    "Hmm, it''s in the Mystic Valley. The ce is not that dangerous since there''s only Level 255 Monster at the highest. Let''s check the missions around that area."


    Theo added the filter of the area, including the ces surrounding it.


    Surprisingly, he found another mission that seemed to be perfect for him.


    Mission: Find three Purple Haze Grass in Big Sin Valley.


    Level: 245


    Reward: 1,000,000 Zils


    "Purple Haze Grass is usually used for medicine, so the reward is quite expensive. Mystic Valley has two entrances. The first one ising from the Deserted Great Hill and the second one is Big Sin Valley.


    "I can enter the Mystic Valley from Deserted Great Hill and increase my level there for a while. Afterpleting the mission, I can make my way to Big Sin Valley and get this grass. Then that means I can get another mission in this area." Theo smiled.


    He scrolled down a bit more and soon found another mission.


    Mission: Kill Megalo Fish in Kai River.


    Level: 250


    Reward: 1,000,000 Zils


    "This Megalo Fish is the king of the Kai River that runs through next to the hills. Its first destination is Lambert Lake��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as soon he saw this familiar name.


    He remembered that he received the request to kill a monster in thatke. Now that he found some connections between them, he wondered if he should choose another mission.


    "Ehm? Should I choose a new one that is not around this ce?" Theo thought for a moment and looked at the sky. "But if I am scared because of this, how about those who wille at me a bitter? Not to brag about my achievement, but thosepanies or organizations will surely try to recruit me.


    "If they are trying to aim at me, should I be afraid? Still, it won''t end well if I do everything recklessly." Theo sighed. "This is hard."


    "Kyu!" Ava suddenly pointed at the map next to Kai''s river.


    Theo nced at the map and saw a small path that was drawn on the map. It seemed to be the path that many hunters used to go to Big Sin Valley directly.


    "Hmm�� This path is between Kai''s River and Lambert Lake. If I am unsure, I can always retreat through this path or fly by using my Telekinesis. At the same time, if Megalo Fish is swimming near Lambert Lake, I can choose not to finish this mission since I''m not officially taking it. That''s it." Theo gave a thumbs up to Ava. "I also need to raise my levels along the way, so this kind of trip will take a whole one or two weeks. Together with the time I need to take to travel from Ark City, it will take almost a month�� I guess."


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava puffed her chest as if trying to encourage him.


    "Right�� I have no one behind me right now and the government won''t protect me like when I''m in the tournament. Hence, I shouldn''t be afraid and take some risks while making sure I have a backup n to safely retreat." Theo nodded.


    Ava agreed with Theo''s statement.


    "But I will just take a look at another ce''s missions to see if I can get a better offer than these three or four��"


    "Kyu?!" Ava opened her mouth wide in surprise, never expecting Theo could throw away something they had worked together that easily.


    "Haha." Theoughed at Ava''s reactions. "It''s fine, it''s fine. I will remember your efforts."


    Unfortunately for Theo, such a missionbination wasn''t that easy to find. If everything went smoothly, he could get 2,500,000 Zils in one month. It could increase drastically if he decided to go for the one in Lambert Lake.


    Meanwhile, the missions he found couldn''t even give him 1,500,000 Zils, so it was quite a letdown for Theo.


    Theo ended up agreeing with this schedule and prepared everything, including his weapons, sses, spices, and tents, since he needed to go for a long journey.


    Because he didn''t have Phyrill, he needed to n for the water sources and other things. It was quite tiring to know that he needed to do all of those tasks alone. He would surely find a teammate if he didn''t have his Clone Skill.

 Chapter 342 – Trial

    <h4>Chapter 342 - Trial</h4>


    Theo finally stood in front of his door, bringing a huge back containing his tent, spices, two water bottles and two spears.


    With his current strength, this kind of baggage wasn''t a burden, but it certainly would restrict his battle movement a bit.


    He intended to use his clone, but he needed to ensure that he had enough Magic Power. The clone itself might require a minuscule amount of Magic Power to maintain, but it would be a different case if he used it for a whole day.


    At the same time, Theo didn''t have his group, which meant he needed to use more Magic Power than he was supposed to.


    After some considerations, Theo decided to carry it with his physical body alone and only made his clone carry it if there was a serious fight.


    "Ava, let''s go," Theo shouted.


    "Kyu!" Ava hopped onto his shoulder before snuggling inside his shirt, trying to camouge herself like a piece of baggage.


    "You''re going to fight too, you know."


    "Kyu!" Ava puffed her cheek as if she became serious and told him to leave it to her.


    When he was about to reach the door, Theo suddenly found a notification from his blessing.


    [God of Mischief wants you to challenge the danger to prove that you are not a coward. Knowledge and preparation can turn reckless to well-nned.]


    Trial: Complete 4 missions at the same time.


    Reward: A Meeting with Fenrir.


    "��" Theo''s expression remained unchanged, but it certainly surprised him. He never thought that God of Mischief wanted him toplete something like this. Unlike thepetition, this one requires him to put his life on the line.


    But he was quite curious why the reward was a meeting with Fenrir. "Why him? Anyway, it''s rare to find a trial like this, so I shouldplete it to the best of my ability. I have taken a look at this trial with all my abilities, but it seems this one is not a fake. I guess this is it."


    With this trial in his mind, he finally put on his mask and hood and came out of his house, heading straight to the Teleportation Circle.


    Nothing changed in Eike City, the ce that held the Teleportation Circle. It was the same as his previous city.


    However, Theo quickly recognized the difference between Art Beats Castle and Ark City when he entered the other side through this portal.


    To his right were several government buildings such as military barracks and other organizations that ensured the safety of the city. He could even see a total of fifty soldiers running on the road toward him, training their bodies.


    On the opposite side, he found many shops, including arge shopping mall and brothels. Considering this ce was treated as international water, there weren''t many rules restricting this ce. In fact, had the military base refused to maintain the control, the condition would be even worse.


    Still, he could see that this ce was a kind of business district.


    He had memorized the map of this city yesterday and next to the business district was supposed to be a ce for hotels and inns.


    This city had around fifty thousand people going and leaving every day, so he could understand why they needed to build a massive city like this.


    He then raised his vision, finding a tall wall a mile from his current position. The blue-colored wall was built from Supreme Rank Materials, which cost the country several years of revenue.


    But with all these businesses running around, the country should be able to recover it sooner orter. It was a worthy investment.


    After observing enough, Theo finally entered the tram that would lead him to the south gate.


    It took him five minutes to reach his destination.


    As soon as he arrived, he lined up with the rest like how it was supposed to be.


    When his turn came up, Theo handed him his Illusionist ID Card.


    The soldier was a young man in his twenty. Looking at Theo''s spears, he couldn''t help but smile. "Good spears you have there. Is Theodore Griffith your idol too?"


    This was the reason why Theo never bothered to change his spears, even though all people already recognized his spears. There were many imitations of his spears from those who idolized Theo, so he didn''t need to bother to hide it.


    "Too? He is also your idol?"


    "Of course. He is the hope of this country. He is the perfect example from zero to hero and I admire his effort." The soldier nodded with a smile while inputting his data.


    "Haha, indeed." Theo chuckled. "I wore this mask, so I can imagine I am him when fighting."


    "Is that so? But are you alone? You are an Illusionist, right? Isn''t it better for you to have a group with you? And you haven''t even reached level 200. I am not looking down on your ability, but since I have met someone who idolizes the same person, I don''t want you to die."


    "It''s fine." Theo shook his head. "I am not nning to go too far, so I can return here if something goes wrong. Besides, if it''s not working, I will find a party."


    "So, you just want to test it out?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. He couldn''t help but feel funny.


    The soldier''s reaction would certainly be funny if he took off his mask, but it was impossible since he had things more important than his reaction.


    After a minute, the soldier handed back the Illusionist Card. "This is your card. I don''t know your name, but let''s talk like this if we meet again."


    "Sure." Theo chuckled and put his card safely as he finally left Ark City.


    He opened his Skylink and set his direction.


    "Now that the course has been set, it''s time for us to go. Are you ready, Ava?" Theo smiled and looked in the southeast direction.


    "Kyu!" Ava let out a small answer to avoid anyone from hearing her voice.


    As soon as Ava confirmed, Theo quickly marched forward with his right hand holding the spear.

 Chapter 343 – Tough

    <h4>Chapter 343 - Tough</h4>


    "Magic Bullet."


    I wenty Magic Bullets flew to a ten-foot-tall bear with rocks covering its paws. The bear didn''t have fur and cracking skin as if it was made of stones.


    The bear roared and waved its hand while spinning its body, destroying all the Magic Bullets that were about to hit him. If not because the Magic Bullets arrived at the same time, the bear wouldn''t get hit by the Magic Bullets on his back.


    Bam.


    Roar.


    The bear screamed in pain as the crack on his back becamerger.


    "Cannon st." Theo thrust his spear right at the bear''s heart and concentrated the Cannon st on that area.


    Bam.


    The shock wave produced by the collision kicked up the dust. However, Theo could finally let out a breath of relief when he saw the hole on the bear''s chest.


    Surprisingly, the bear seemed to be more resilient than he thought. Using thest strength in its body, the bear swiped its paw from the left in order to kill Theo.


    Theo used his Blink and appeared behind the bear, punching the bear with all his might. "External Flow."


    The attack created the same amount of force as his Cannon st, knocking the bear to the ground. Without any more strength, the bear could only stare at Theo in hisst breath.


    Roar.


    He let out a hollow roar before the notification appeared.


    [You killed a Rock Bear.]


    [EXP+17,460]


    "Huft." Theo started breathing a bit roughly as he ced his hand on top of the bear, turning it into a card.


    Rock Bear Paw (D)


    Nutritious Food for a monster with Earth Affinity.


    "��" After confirming his kill and loot, Theo summoned his clone and handed the spear, using his clone to scout the area.


    On the contrary, Theo dropped on his butt as he groaned. "Mhm. It''s harder than I thought."


    "Kyu." Ava''s voice echoed in his ears as she stood next with a bone in her mouth as she began to swallow it inside her body.


    "Seriously, how can you even fit something like that in your belly." Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing that it was from the monster Ava hunted alone.


    Theo checked his status first.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 199


    EXP: 78645/110913


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (D), Clone (C), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (C), Flowmotion (D), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 295, Endurance 174, Agility 183, Vitality 175, Magic Power 295


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "This is only the first day, but my level has increased by three. I know that this ce is filled with level 220 monsters, but to think it will be this hard��" Theo shook his head. "To be honest, it makes no sense.


    "I should have no problem defeating Hero Rank monster alone�� but to think I''m struggling with level 220 monsters, is it because this ce has a harsher environment that makes the monsters even stronger?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Should I just return to the other gate to hunt easier monsters to get EXP points?


    "But I can feel that I gradually hone my skill since this ce requires me to go all out and keep improving to avoid dying." Theo looked down, thinking about his choice for a moment. "I will stay here for the time being.


    "To be honest, because I am alone, I can get all the monsters and turn them into my own EXP�� My progress is even faster than when I worked together as a team and fought against higher-level monsters�� Still, this is rough.


    "I should stay in this area for a bit, even if it means I need to slow down my pace. I will take my time and reach Level 215 first before challenging that Zombie Warrior."


    As Theo adjusted his n, his clone found another monster approaching.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and pulled another spear.


    "Ava, there are three monsters approaching. You take the left one while I handle the other two," said Theo while looking up. The sky had be orange, so he thought they would probably need to stay here for the night. "I think this one will be ourst fight. I can''t keep up with tomorrow if I deplete my power too much."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and began to hop forward at speed even faster than him.


    Theo had understood that Ava''s strength should be beyond Level 270 monsters and might approach level 300 monsters'' power. He had the opportunity to fight one in thepetition after all.


    Theo followed Ava and met up with the clone, where thetter brought three orange tiger-looking monsters. However, these monsters didn''t have any eyes and relied on their senses to know their prey''s location.


    "Magic Bullet." Both Theos released their Magic Bullets at the same time, shooting a total of forty bullets to the right one.


    The right monster leaped to the left to avoid it, but the Magic Bullets turned and chased him, giving the opportunity for Theo to help his clone end the middle one.


    However, thest one decided to jump and bite his clone, only to find himself flying.


    Ava already calcted its path and kicked the monster in the face. "Kyu!"


    The monster rolled a few times on the ground while screaming in pain. However, Ava didn''t let this chance go and stepped on the air once to gain enough height to st his head with a single kick.


    "Kyu!"


    Watching how Ava contained the monster, Theo decided to step up his game and used his Blink to appear next to the middle monster.


    "Cannon st."


    The monster noticed Theo''s appearance and threw itself to the side, but his clone took that chance to stab the monster''s head while using the External Flow and Telekinesis. The extra energy from those two ripped apart the monster''s head, sttering the blood on the ground.


    [Killed a Blind Eating Tiger.]


    [EXP+ 9,060]


    However, they still had another fight as thest one managed to destroy all the Magic Bullets and charged at them.


    Before Theo could turn around, the tiger opened its mouth and released a small ball.


    "!!!" Theo instinctively used his clone toe to his front and use the Elemental Shield to block it.


    But he was certainly surprised when the ball exploded, destroyed the shield and engulfed his clone, leaving only the spear on the ground.


    Theo had already known the result of his clone, so he already threw his spear before his clone was destroyed. That kind of movement could only be done if one shared their senses with their clone like Theo and the tiger had no time to dodge that spear.


    The spear pierced the tiger''s head as Theo picked the spear on the ground and used his Blink to arrive on top of the tiger.


    He delivered the killing blow with his Cannon st, destroying its head.


    [Killed a Blind Eating Tiger.]


    [EXP+ 9,060]


    "Huft. That''s tough."

 Chapter 344 – Ava

    <h4>Chapter 344 - Ava</h4>


    "Huft." Theo wiped the sweat on his forehead while staring at this dead tiger. He touched it and found nothing dropped and did the same to the other one.


    When he finished, he heard Ava''s cry. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    Theo raised his vision and saw Ava standing on top of the tiger while waving her cute little foot, asking Theo toe.


    Thetter shook his head helplessly and walked to her.


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled as if telling him, "Dinner is acquired."


    Theo could only shake his head helplessly and say, "I guess you are right. You don''t turn the monster into cards after killing it, I guess the human system doesn''t apply to you."


    Ava nodded a few times before rubbing her belly.


    "I know, I know. For now, let''s move to another ce without blood scent. After that, I am going to set up our camp."


    "Kyu!" Ava leaped off the body and pulled the tiger with her little front foot, dragging the corpse as if it was nothing.


    "Seriously�� I will be in trouble if I meet a monster as strong as you and as small as you." Theo let out a sigh, understanding that Ava was one of a kind.


    He then used his Clone to scout again while searching for a ce to settle down for the rest of the night.


    They ended up walking back for fifteen minutes since they had cleared the monsters in that area.


    Theo lit the fire and boiled the water while setting up the tent. As soon as he was done, he started cooking the tiger for both of them.


    Even though she could eat anything, Ava seemed to be fond of cooked food instead of raw meat. Since this was her prey, he had no hesitation cooking the meal until she was full since Ava had been a great help during this journey.


    "Kyu!" Ava moaned while rubbing her belly and staring at the dark sky.


    "Did my brother ask you to apany me, Ava?" Theo asked.


    Ava opened her mouth in surprise before looking away.


    It was enough for the answer.


    "I am sorry for making you go through this." Theo sighed and leaned on the tree. "If I weren''t born from the Griffith Family, you wouldn''t need to do this."


    Ava suddenly stood up and leaped on top of his thigh.


    "Kyu!" Ava puffed her cheek while ring at Theo as if he was mad at him.


    "Right? You should be mad because I''m the one causing this situation." Theo sighed.


    "Kyu!" Ava gently hit Theo''s stomach before shaking her head. She then leaped around on his thigh while waving her hand upward, telling him that she was happy.


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean? This is suffering."


    "Kyu." Ava suddenly walked on his leg and returned to her original position before throwing a punch in session.


    She wanted to tell him that she was happy because she could go on a journey and fight others together.


    "I guess we have different opinions."


    Ava confirmed it and pointed at the food while rubbing her belly with a blissful expression.


    "Well, since you are enjoying it, I guess that''s fine." Theo scratched the back of his head, wondering what was going through her mind.


    Ava''s strength was extraordinary, so he thought Ava could just do fine anywhere since she was intelligent enough. At the same time, she might be able tomand all the monsters around the area, but he didn''t know how a monster could control other monsters, so he didn''t dare to expect something like that.


    Still, knowing Ava''s strength and feeling, Theo thought he could entrust the night to her. Of course, he wouldn''t sleep that deep, so he could react if something happened, but if Ava could do it, the days he would experience in this ce would surely be easier.


    He stroked Ava''s head and back while saying, "You should sleep first. I need to reconsider a few things after seeing the result of the first day."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and made herselffortable on top of Theo''s thigh instead of his tent.


    "You are not going to use the tent?"


    "Kyu!" Ava shook her head. She turned around and reached Theo''s waist as if she was trying to cuddle him.


    "��" Theo fell silent as he couldn''t understand Ava the more he was with her. Ava always surprised him with her intelligence.


    While leaving her sleep, Theo opened his Skylink and looked at the map.


    ''Hmm, the monsters here are stronger than I expected, so I need to adjust my course.'' Theo had a mixed feeling when he didn''t have his teammates anymore.


    On the one hand, he leveled up two or three times faster than when he fought together and waited for his turn to increase his level. On the other hand, he was a bit tired since he needed to do everything alone.


    He needed to fight, cook, n the course, scout, and do other things. It was the price he needed to pay. He thought he had prepared enough, but it was rougher than he expected, so he wanted to slow down their pace.


    He rearranged the checkpoint where they should stay and the expected destination.


    Little did he know, inside a cave next to Lambert Lake, a human was clutching his belly. He had lost his right arm and there were many bandages on his body.


    However, those injuries couldn''t stop him from releasing his killing intent. Despite his injury, all he did was look forward, imagining a certain image that made him smile, forgetting the pain he needed to suffer.


    In fact, he seemed to be numb to this pain, as if he had a screw loose in his head. What he knew was the scene in his head instead of the wounds.


    "I have thrown the bait with a good reward. I don''t care for how long. I''m sure that you are going toe here." He panted a few times and continued, "Even if I need to starve, even if I need to die�� I am going to make you suffer, Theodore Griffith."

 Chapter 345 – Beautiful

    <h4>Chapter 345 - Beautiful</h4>


    After that first day, Theo had been improving his method and n, trying to get the best of his effort.


    Most of the days, he got three levels, but when he was unlucky, he only got two.


    In addition to the level he got from the first day, Theo had surpassed the level he desired in a week.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 216


    EXP: 44350/146826


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (D), Clone (C), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (C), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 320, Endurance 184, Agility 198, Vitality 185, Magic Power 320


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    At the same time, he had upgraded his Flowmotion to C Rank with the skills he got from hunting monsters.


    He stepped on the green grass as he looked around, finding nothing but short grass. There was no monster or whatsoever and he had yet to kill a monster in this area.


    Although he felt a bit suspicious, it wasn''t worth going over since there was a big hill separating this ce and the Mystic Valley.


    He looked up and calcted the hill''s height.


    "Hmm��Six hundred feet?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Kyu?!" Ava nced at Theo as if asking how they were going to climb it. However, this was something he had expected, so he used his Telekinesis to lift his body up.


    "Kyu!" Ava widened her eyes and looked down, seeing Theo was floating in the air.


    "I didn''t use this skill to travel because I need to adjust myself to their levels and learn their fighting prowess. This is the preparation for the real battle. If there''s a need, we can fly to escape from whatever is targeting us. Though, this skill indeed drains my Magic Power, especially now that it has be a B Rank Skill.


    "I am not a Hero Rank Expert but use a Supreme Rank Skill�� I can understand why Ne didn''t use B Rank skills that often in thepetition." Theo nodded and took a deep breath. "Anyway, grab something. We''re elerating."


    Ava panicked and grabbed his shirt tightly while looking upward.


    Suddenly, Theo used the Pushing Force to push his body upward, elerating. "Let''s go."


    The air resistance was blowing him in the opposite direction as his face distorted a bit. Still, it was clear that this kind of force was not worth mentioning with his current level.


    As much as he wanted to boost his speed, he was afraid of using too much energy.


    Ava, on the contrary, stared at their surroundings. She was simply mesmerized.


    This was the first time she experienced it like this.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" She couldn''t help but share the excitement with Theo, but thetter only focused on what was ahead, not letting his guard down even for a second.


    It took him thirty seconds to finally surpass the hill and see the scenery beyond the hill.


    Multiple green hills filled with trees surrounded a small valley as it continued from the bottom of the hill to the horizon.


    He couldn''t see what was ahead due to the fog, but it should be a bit clearerter since it was still early in the morning.


    The blue sky brightened the whole day and the rising sun illuminated the tip of the right hills.


    He could see the same grass field on the bottom of the hill in the valley. At the same time, he found a river from the left hill going down the valley.


    "ording to the information, the Megalo Fish will go down the mountain in the morning and swim back to the hill during the dark��" Theo suddenly fell silent and looked at the scenery again.


    The white cloud and fresh air just elevated this entire scenery to another level.


    Even Theo couldn''t help but say, "This ce is beautiful."


    "Kyu!" Ava raised her foot in agreement.


    "If this is Earth, I''m sure this is going to be a tourist spot�� The resort will continue all the way down to Lambert Lake." Theo chuckled. "I can''t imagine there is a Zombie Warrior in this ce, but I still need to hunt that zombie down.


    "Although I can see multiple trees here and there, I think most of the field is just a grass field. This should be easy for us to cross while maintaining our field of vision." Theo muttered, observing the valley. He then pointed at the horizon and said, "If we continue this way, we will find a turn to the Big Sin Valley. That''s the only thing that separates the Big Sin Valley and Mystic Valley."


    "Kyu!"


    "I know. We should focus on the zombie first." Theo nodded. "For now, let''s go down."


    "Kyu!"


    Ava agreed without hesitation.


    Theo then used his Telekinesis again to fly down carefully as he still couldn''t find a single monster in this ce.


    Because there was no monster in sight, he thought about surveying the area from the air but ended up lowering his altitude to five feet above the ground. With his body''s height, he could see the majority of the grass field.


    "!!!" Suddenly, Theo felt presence underneath the ground as he instinctively flew upward and floated twenty feet above the ground.


    A purple rotten hand suddenly emerged from the ground as the dirt began to crack and burst open. A pair of red eyes shed between the gap, staring at Theo with bloodlust.


    Another hand came out of the ground as both hands touched the dirt next to it and pushed its body out.


    Theo found a purple rotten human bodying out. Molds and dirt filled the part where the rotten body couldn''t cover, so Theo had yet to see the bone underneath that rotten flesh.


    "So, this is the Zombie Warrior." Theo squinted his eyes, observing its movement.


    Surprisingly, the zombie used its hand to grab something from underneath the ground where he stayed. He then picked a sword with a curved de like that of a scimitar.


    "Is the reason there''s no monster here because the zombie can feel the presence of living beings? It thenes out to ughter the living beings?" Theo widened his eyes in realization.


    The zombie then looked up, locking its killing intent at Theo.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 346 – Zombie Warrior

    <h4>Chapter 346 - Zombie Warrior</h4>


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and raised his hand, summoning his Magic Bullets. He released all twenty of them simultaneously.


    The Zombie Warrior simply looked at the bullets before waving his sword. Dark Colored Energy surrounded his sword and soared to the sky, meeting all the Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as all Dark Energy that resembled the scimitar''s shape destroyed all the Magic Bullets in rapid session. Luckily, Theo had upgraded his Magic Bullets to C Rank Skill or this attack would hit him instead of rapidly decaying after it served its purpose.


    "This zombie is not even a Hero Rank Monster and you are telling me it''s as good as a Hero Rank?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I thought I had prepared enough with the difference in strength between this gate and the one where I used to hunt, but this one is above that expectation.


    "Wait, this monster is a Rare ss Monster like the first Mammoth I killed back then, right? Doesn''t this mean the difference between Rare ss or even General ss Monster is bigger than the normal one?" Theo observed the zombie again as he adjusted his n a little bit.


    "Kyu!" Ava blinked her eyes, feeling a little bit excited. She wanted to fight this monster too.


    "This monster is mine." Theo shook his head as he couldn''t help but smile. "Let''s see how much I will struggle to kill this one."


    Since Theo didn''t fly down, the zombie warrior felt a bit offended as if he wanted to fight Theo fair and square.


    He spun its body and released another attack. This time, the ck-colored energy followed his rotation and turned into a small tornado.


    "Cannon st." Theo poured his Magic Power and thrust right into the middle of the tornado.


    The two spinning energies shed, canceling each other. Theo''s blue energy blended with the sky color, trying to disperse the dark energy that tainted this beautiful ce.


    Unfortunately, both of them disappeared without a trace as the color of the area returned to normal.


    Since the Zombie Warrior wanted him to go down, Theo gradually lowered his altitude.


    To his surprise, the zombie warrior seemed to have enough intelligence to recognize his motion. He stopped doing anything, waiting for Theo tond on the ground.


    As soon as hended on the ground, the zombie warrior raised its sword, pointing it at his neck as if challenging him.


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he also pointed his spear, nning to kill this zombie with his usual power.


    Theo took a deep breath and jumped forward.


    The zombie did the same as he waved his sword from below, trying to knock Theo''s spear into the air.


    However, Theo used his Telekinesis and External Flow, hitting the sword before the zombie could even raise its sword.


    Bam.


    A shock wave burst out as soon as he hit the sword, cracking the ground. The zombie couldn''t raise its sword even further but still cling to its sword, refusing to let go.


    The zombie then proceeded to show Theo a high level of flexibility and fighting style as the zombie spun its body and sent a kick right at Theo''s stomach.


    This kind of movement, although surprising, wasn''t enough to get him. Theo punched the zombie''s shoe with his fist.


    The Telekinesis and External Flow began to work their magic as the force blew the foot away, forcing the zombie to spin in the opposite direction.


    Theo, obviously, didn''t let this chance go. He summoned his clone and handed him the current spear while pulling out the other spear. The bag also fell to the ground as Clone Theo quickly picked it up.


    Before the zombie''s focus returned to him, Theo struck his face to buy enough time for Clone Theo to pick up the bag.


    The zombie caught his fist, albeit got blown away because of the force contained in that fist. If not because Theo hit his fist instead of his body, his body would have flown to the air.


    Seeing that something was wrong, the zombie jumped to gain enough force to counter Theo''s strength.


    That was when Theo started showing his superiority. The moment the zombie broke free from his restraints, Theo took a step back and looked to his side, finding his clone ready to fight.


    Theo and his clone jumped together, striking the zombie at the same time.


    However, the zombie was better than his imagination. He showed something that he never thought was possible.


    But he had to believe it when the zombie''s eyes shed, increasing the intensity of its bloodlust. After that, the zombie hit his spears in rapid session, giving enough force to knock them away.


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes and drew a gasp. "Wait a minute. This kind of attack, doesn''t it feel like a Sword Art?"


    Theo came to a realization and understood why this zombie was far stronger than he expected. Other than higher level, stats, and battle efficacy, the zombie could even use Sword Arts, allowing him to fight Theo back.


    "Haha, this is insane." Theo couldn''t help but smile. His heart was filled with excitement even though he met a stronger opponent. He only knew that the monster before him could utilize its sword properly.


    While he was admiring the Sword Art, the zombie used that chance to deliver a blow to the real Theo.


    Theo effortlessly blocked it with his spear''s handle, but the Dark Energy emerged from the sword. It sshed like water, trying to cover him with this kind of energy.


    Luckily, Theo had put an immense expectation in this zombie, so he was ready to react to this kind of move. He instantly used his Blink to disappear as his clone thrust his sword right at the zombie''s head.


    The zombie leaned back and tilted his head upward, avoiding the spear. However, the real Theo appeared in his vision when he looked up as he delivered a punch right at his nose.


    Bam.


    The hit knocked the zombie to the ground as Theo nned to kill this zombie in the next attack.


    Unfortunately for him, his n changed when he saw two more handsing from two different spots.


    He didn''t freeze upon this discovery and nned to end the zombie beneath his feet first, but another hand came out and caught his foot.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 347 – Zombies

    <h4>Chapter 347 - Zombies</h4>


    Clone Theo hurriedly grabbed Theo''s and used his Blink to send them three feet above the ground. At the same time, Theo used his Cannon st to create a hole in the zombie warrior''s body, not wanting to be caught in a one versus four situation.


    However, he soon clicked his tongue when he saw no notificationing. In other words, he failed to kill the zombie.


    The hole started closing while three other zombie warriors came out of the ground. The one beneath him took out a shield from the ground as his bloodshot eyes shed.


    The same applied to the oneing behind him. Instead of a shield, the zombie grabbed a bow as it formed a ck-colored arrow on its other hand.


    Thest one was a female zombie. Each hand held a dagger as the ck-colored energy enveloped her instead of her weapons. Suddenly, she disappeared into thin air.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he utilized his Awareness immediately while floating in the air using his Telekinesis.


    "Things are not looking good." Theo clicked his tongue and questioned himself, "Still, should I go back? I never expected to find four of them? They seem to be as strong as the zombie warrior."


    Suddenly, the shield user charged at him, nning to ram that shield to him.


    Before he jumped, Ava came out of his shirt and covered her body with lightning before kicking the shield with her cute feet.


    "Kyu!"


    Surprisingly, the shield user was pushed back and crashed to the ground.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava shouted to Theo while her focus remained on the shield user.


    Theo knew that these zombies were stronger than he expected, but the memories when he challenged other geniuses around the world shed in his mind.


    All of them were extremely powerful. He could use his strategy to withstand those powers, but he still needed a considerable amount of strength to even fight them toe to toe.


    He might never fight more than one enemy at once since his clone would take care of the other one, but those people were far better than these zombies.


    He couldn''t help but say, "Thepetition ended three weeks ago and my body has gotten rusty already?"


    "Uneptable." Theo squinted his eyes as he released his killing intent. His stare gave an extremely cold chill that would go down their spine if they were alive. "They may have numbers, but the opponents I have fought this whole time are a lot stronger."


    "Ava, take care of the invisible one," Theo shouted.


    Ava panicked for a moment as she hadn''t experienced this side of Theo. Even so, Ava nodded her head while trying to search for the one that became invisible.


    However, Theo already raised his hand and waved it down. "No need to find it. I will give away her location right now!"


    He spread his telekinesis and used it to the maximum capacity, pushing the air above their heads to pressure them.


    Other than Theo, his clone, and Ava, all of them had a crack on the ground beneath their feet. Yes, all of them.


    Ava saw the crack without anybody above it, so she understood what Theo meant by showing her location.


    She took a leap as Theo retracted his Telekinesis, allowing Ava to cover the distance in an instant without any pressure.


    Even the invisible zombie couldn''t do anything to this speed as Ava already kicked the female zombie.


    Rolling on the ground a few times, the female zombie retracted its invisibility.


    "Kyu!" Ava looked at her with a serious expression as if this was the time she needed to fight with everything she got because Theo relied on her.


    The female zombie tried to turn invisible again but noticed there was a trace of lightning that kept sparking on her hand. She raised her vision and saw Ava''s smile, knowing that the culprit was none other than Ava. This kind of power would continue giving away her location, so she decided not to be invisible anymore.


    Ava used this advantage and leaped toward her, challenging her one on one.


    On the other hand, Theo and his clone faced the three remaining zombies. Because of their current position, Theo needed to use his Telekinesis to fly over them and situate himself between the zombie and Ava, preventing the monster fromunching a sneak attack on Ava.


    Theo and his clone raised both spears as they smirked like that of a devil. Blue-colored energy covered their spears as they said simultaneously, "Come."


    The shield and sword users charged forward as the former took care of his clone while the recovered sword user challenged the original.


    Clone Theo used his External Flow and Cannon st, releasing a more powerful Cannon st. The zombie responded by raising his shield to block its attack, only to find Theo pushing him back.


    Original Theo, on the contrary, used his Magic Bullet and sent it to the zombie archer to prevent him from helping them.


    Seeing those extraordinary Magic Bullets, the zombie warrior nned to strike the Magic Bullets like he once did.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo used his Telekinesis tounch himself toward the zombie, arriving a bit faster than the zombie expected.


    He struck the sword and stopped it from releasing any skill, resulting in the bullet raining down the archer.


    The archer furrowed his eyebrows and leaped back, avoiding this attack, but the Magic Bullets turned and chased him.


    "!!!" The zombie archer seemed to understand what was going on and shot an arrow into the sky.


    The arrow then turned into green-colored light and released a total of ten arrows, hitting everything in a certain area.


    Whether it was Theo or his clone or even the other zombies, everyone had a share of the arrows.


    Theo and his clone used Elemental Shields at the same time, protecting their head and body from being hit. On the other hand, the zombies let the arrows hit their bodies.


    However, one certain movement didn''t escape Theo''s eyes. When one arrow was about to hit the zombie warrior''s head, he decided to receive it with his hand instead of letting it hit his head.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Ava. This is just spection, but st her head and she will die! Don''t attack the body."


    "Kyu!" Ava''s eyes turned red as lightning sparked around her body, leaving a small crack on the ground.

 Chapter 348 – Running

    <h4>Chapter 348 - Running</h4>


    Seeing Ava get fired up, Theo smiled.


    "!!!" The zombies were rmed when Clone Theo used Magic Bullets. After all, this one wasn''t the same as what he used previously. Instead of summoning one Magic Bullet that could be divided into twenty, he summoned four and split them into eighty Magic Bullets.


    All those Magic Bullets were released to the Zombie Archer, surprising the zombies.


    ''As expected��'' Theo had calcted that the zombie would react when he used his Illusion Technique. After all, the zombies acted based on their intelligence instead of instinct, allowing him to fool them.


    This could only happen because he was fighting four Rare ss Zombies, not Normal ss Zombies.


    Seeing such a thing, the shield user suddenly pushed Theo back with all his might before jumping back to help the archer.


    This allowed Clone Theo to focus on the Zombie Warrior, eliminating him first.


    And the Zombie Warrior seemed to have expected something like this toe, so he prepared for the iing attack from Clone Theo, albeit it never came.


    He instinctively turned to the right, finding nothing other than grasses.


    Instead of killing the Zombie Warrior, Clone Theo followed the shield user instead, making sure to eliminate him.


    The shield user had seen iting, so he turned around to stop him first before helping the archer.


    Unfortunately, he was never his target since the beginning. The moment the shield user turned around, he found only Theo and the Zombie Warrior in his vision.


    The clone had already reappeared right behind the Zombie Archer, thrusting his spear to the distracted one.


    "Cannon st."


    Clone Theo focused on the head and obliterated the entire head until the chest area with this Cannon st, not wanting to get the same result as the first attempt.


    [Killed a Zombie Archer.]


    [EXP+6900]


    "Nice." Clone Theo smiled as he looked at the shield user that had seen everything.


    The shield user charged at him with his shield gathering the Magic Power around, covering the shield with ayer of dark purple screen.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Fortunately, the Magic Bullets arrived, kicking up the dust on the ground.


    When the shield user emerged from the dust, Clone Theo was nowhere to be seen. He was once again fooled by him as the two Theos had joined hands to defeat the Zombie Warrior.


    Meanwhile, Ava also did her best. She looked at the female zombie whose left hand was already gone. Ava had severed it with her kick earlier.


    Noticing that Theo had killed one despite fighting three of them at the same time, Ava didn''t want to wait for too long anymore as she jumped toward the female zombie.


    The two daggers suddenly glowed as the female zombie skillfully stepped to the right, avoiding Ava''s jump while plunging both her daggers on her body.


    Ava watched her reaction and smiled as if she had predicted. Right before her eyes, Ava stepped on the air, jumping in the opposite direction.


    Because they were too close, the female zombie thought Ava disappeared as her eyes were not fast enough to keep up with her speed.


    And she also didn''t have enough time to understand what Ava did because her cheek was distorted the next second.


    The female zombie still managed to nce to the side, but it was a nightmare. Ava''s face was right before her eyes, but her feet had already hit her cheek.


    Ava didn''t stop there. She remembered what Theo said earlier. Hence, the lightning that covered her body sparked once more, obliterating the entire head and sttering the blood around as if the head just popped out like that of a balloon.


    "Kyu!" Ava thought the match was already over but still turned back to check her condition, making sure the dead remained dead.


    After confirming the female zombie didn''t regenerate anymore, Ava raised her vision, only to find Theo fighting the shield user. There was no Zombie Warrior anymore because that guy was already lying on the ground lifelessly.


    Theo used his Cannon st to the same spot at the same time, striking the shield that somehow ended up destroying the shield altogether, leaving a hole on the zombie''s chest.


    It wouldn''t kill the zombie, but it gave Theo enough time to use his Magic Bullet to destroy its head.


    [Killed a Zombie Knight.]


    [EXP+8900]


    Theo smiled and nodded. "I guess it''s done."


    Seeing no movement from Ava, Theo nced at her and gave a thumbs up, praising her effort. "Thanks, Ava. You were a great help."


    "Kyu!" Ava blinked a few times while leaping out of joy. It was hard to receive Theo''s praise.


    In fact, Theo had been a cold guy that seemed not to be bothered by anything in their daily lives, so this praise certainly made her happy.


    Theo then began collecting the zombie''s loot since he needed to get the Undead Flesh Card toplete the mission. She heard him muttering, "I wonder if I can submit multiple times��"


    Ava chuckled before her ears picked up other noises.


    *Rumble*


    *Rumble*


    She followed the source of the sound which came from the left.


    Suddenly, a total of ten right hands came out of the ground as if responding to what Theo had done in this ce.


    "What?!" Theo and Ava widened their eyes, never expecting to see more of them.


    Ava panicked since she might not be able to fight all of them at once, so she nced at Theo, asking what they needed to do next, only to find something unexpected.


    Theo was nowhere to be found. Even the zombies had disappeared.


    She opened her eyes wide and looked to the left and right, finding Theo already running away with his clone.


    In fact, Theo had been sitting on top of the huge back that his clone carried, sitting leisurely while watching how the zombies came out of the ground.


    Noticing Ava''s gaze, Theo extended his hand and shouted, "Come. We''re running!"


    Ava panicked when she saw the zombies that almost left their hiding ce. She used her lightning to jump to Theo, while telling him not to leave her behind. "Kyu!"

 Chapter 349 – Situation

    <h4>Chapter 349 - Situation</h4>


    Theo had regrouped with Ava and took off from the ground, flying back to the top of the hill to get enough distance to observe the enemies.


    "��" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose while seeing how all the zombies came out. "Doesn''t this mean there are numerous undead in this valley?"


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head in confusion.


    "I mean, the fact that ten more areing out means there are still more zombies hiding underground."


    "Kyu!" Ava suddenly came to a realization and looked at the valley from the bottom of the hill to the horizon. They were supposed to go in that direction, but it also meant they needed to cross numerous zombies hiding underground.


    "Right�� There may be thousands of zombies inside. If all of theme out at once, it''s gonna be troublesome." Theo sighed.


    Luckily, the zombie seemed to have short sight since they couldn''t find him on this hill despite him openly showing his appearance. Like the Zombie Warrior, they should have a certain level of perception that could sense and see their surroundings.


    "Kyu?!" Ava looked at Theo with a curious gaze.


    "Kill them huh�� It''s easier said than done." Theo thought for a moment. "To be honest, I am not sure whether I can handle ten monsters at once. No, even eight monsters will seriously put me into trouble. You can take two and kill them, but you need time from me."


    Ava looked down, feeling that the situation was trickier than she expected.


    "I have spent a week toe here. And I''m nning to spend one week each in Mystic Valley, Big Sin Valley, and Lambert Lake before returning home. In that case, how about this? I will kill those zombies here for a week. If we can''t annihte them, I will use my Telekinesis to go from one hill to another, looping around this ce until we reach the Big Sin Valley.


    "I am not sure myself, but I don''t think the zombies can go out of this ce or the humans would have experienced the zombie disaster.


    "That''s why we will kill at least three hundred monsters in the span of three weeks." Theo looked down. "For now, we need more information regarding the monsters."


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava jumped to the ground before tapping it a few times.


    "I don''t understand." Theo shook his head in confusion.


    Ava suddenly scooped the dirt and threw it.


    "So you want me to use the dirt? No, you want me to use my Telekinesis to throw a giant chunk of dirt at them?"


    Ava nodded a few times, confirming Theo''s guess.


    "It''s not possible. First of all, I don''t think it''s going to be that good as an attack. As for the distraction, it won''t give us too much time. Hence, we need a different n.


    "Also, due to the limitation of our stamina and Magic Power, I think fifty to a hundred zombies a day are good enough. It should allow me to level up three times a day. It''s going to be a bit slower in a few days because my level will be approaching their levels, but I don''t think that''s a disadvantage.


    "My power will certainly reach a level where I don''t need to be afraid of these zombies anymore." Theo thought for a moment and stared at the entire valley. "I have an idea."


    "Kyu!" Ava blinked her eyes with excitement.


    "I need your cooperation. Instead of you fighting two of them while I''m fending off eight of them, we are going to fight together. In other words, you are going to kill more than two while I''m supporting you." Theo smiled.


    "Kyu?!"


    "Yeah. You are going to be in the front. I will support you from behind before killing them when the time is right. Of course, I''m going to kill more�� Do you think you can defeat me?" Theo smirked.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava pouted and looked away as if she didn''t agree with that statement.


    "Alright. The battle is on." Theo smiled. "For now, I want you to wait for my signal before moving forward. I am assuming that the zombies have a certain range of perceptions, making them aware of our presence.


    "In other words, as long as we don''t reach their range, we won''t call more zombies. With this strategy, we can handle three to five of them at a time, allowing us to kill a total of fifty to one hundred zombies per day while conserving enough Magic Power."


    Ava nodded, agreeing with Theo. She hopped back on his shoulder as if she would wait there until Theo gave a signal.


    Seeing her cooperation, Theo''s expression became serious as he took another look at the zombies'' movements.


    "Let''s go." Theo used his Telekinesis again to bring them down the hill.


    As soon as they stepped on the ground��a hundred feet away��three zombies suddenly turned around. The others only did the same after the three zombies made such a reaction.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, taking note of their reaction while leaping back to avoid waking up other zombies.


    There were three Zombie Warriors, one Zombie Mage, two Zombie Archers, and four Zombie Knights, so he knew this would be a tough battle.


    "Our targets are the Mage and Archers�� The ones with the staff and bows on their hands." Theo said and summoned his clone.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded a few times.


    "I will be taking you to them, so be prepared." Theo smiled as he released his Magic Bullets, summoning a total of forty Magic Bullets.


    He and his clone pointed those bullets to the front as the four Zombie Knights stepped forward with their shields.


    Theo released the Magic Bullets straight as if he had no intention of defeating the zombies since all they needed to do was put their shields in front.


    That was what the zombies did while running forward with the Zombie Warriors following right behind them.


    Theo waited for a bit more until they were only six feet away from him. When all of them tried to plunge their weapons at him, Theo finally used his Blink, carrying Ava to the Zombie Archers and Mage. "Now."


    They arrived right next to them, preparing tounch their attack.


    "It''s killing time."

 Chapter 350 – Eliminating The Zombies

    <h4>Chapter 350 - Eliminating The Zombies</h4>


    Theo left his clone to ensure that the other zombies wouldn''t be back so soon.


    Clone Theo waved his hand down and pushed the air above them to the ground, pressuring all seven of them for a few seconds.


    Meanwhile, Ava leaped to the Zombie Mage who had cast his spell, trying to hit Theo with ck me.


    He adjusted his target and shot Ava with his ck me, but Ava had covered her body with blue lightning as she kicked the me, dispersing it to the side by the sheer pressure generated from her lightning.


    That kick continued straight to the zombie''s head.


    The zombie was better than the one she fought as he raised his staff, blocking Ava''s all-out attack.


    The moment the kick connected to the staff, the force was enough to push him back, leaving a small and short trail on the ground.


    However, the Zombie Mage seemed to be fine as it continued to summon another spell.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo''s Magic Bullets finally showed their might. The bullets had looped around them and hit the mage from the side, creating several holes in its head.


    "It didn''t kill him," Theo muttered while clicking his tongue, knowing that unless the zombie''s head was obliterated, the zombie could still recover.


    Ava heard Theo''s voice with her rabbit ears and quickly kicked the head, crushing it.


    As much as he wanted to get the EXP from the Zombie Mage, he didn''t have that much luxury.


    As soon as he shot those bullets, the archers released their arrows.


    As he just used his Blink, he couldn''t use it again. So, Theo used his Elemental Shields to block their attacks.


    The arrows, however, red up, spreading the ck-colored energy to his Elemental Shields, corroding it until nothing remained.


    "That looks dangerous," Theo muttered and thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    His Cannon st dispersed all the energy to the side while destroying the ground and hit the Zombie Archers.


    As if they expected such an attack from Theo, the two archers jumped to the side to avoid it.


    Theo followed the one on the right with his spear.


    The archer released another arrow, but Theo struck it with his spear while making his way to the zombie. The other one obviously wouldn''t let Theo hit her, so he aimed once again, wanting to stop Theo on his track for even a second to let the other zombie get away.


    Unfortunately for him, his head was already turned upside down when he saw a small rabbit blowing his neck. After that, his vision went nk after the small rabbit struck him with her lightning.


    "!!!" Thest archer took a moment to see herrade, who had fallen in Ava''s hands, albeit it was the worst mistake that someone could make when facing Theo.


    Theo used that chance to thrust his spear to the zombie''s neck before pulling it up, ripping the zombie''s head apart.


    [Killed a Zombie Archer.]


    [EXP+9700]


    Theo nodded to Ava and turned around, finding that his clone already died.


    The remaining seven zombies charged at them.


    If they still had support, it might be hard, but with only these seven, he had confidence in killing them within three minutes.


    He summoned his clone by his side as they shot forty Magic Bullets. The Zombie Knights put their shields in front again, blocking everything that came their way.


    However, Theo sent the Magic Bullets to the side and used the Tracking ability to loop around, hitting the Zombie Warriors on the back.


    The Zombie Warriors waved their swords to strike down all these bullets, but because all of them did the same thing, Theo and his clone used their "Blink" again and arrived behind the Zombie Knights.


    ''Zombie Knights have the slowest response while Zombie Mage and Zombie Archer don''t have a good awareness of their own surroundings, allowing me to finish them easily with an ambush. The Zombie Warrior is the strongest but useless if they''re upied,'' muttered Theo inwardly as his eyes turned bloodshot.


    Ava leaped from Theo''s shoulder and destroyed one head while Clone Theo used the External Flow to punch the head, giving the same result.


    Theo struck his spear to the first one and waved it to the side. Due to the Zombie Knight''s slow movement, they didn''t manage to react to this kind of attack, so thest one had his head chopped too and died after Clone Theo crushed it.


    He had observed them enough in the first one, so Theo smiled and turned around, ignoring the fallen corpses and focusing on the living ones instead.


    "There are only three left. Ava, you get the right one. My clone and I will handle the rest."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and leaped forward.


    Theo did the same and confronted the Zombie Warriors.


    ��


    One minuteter.


    [Killed a Zombie Warrior.]


    [EXP+7800]


    [You have leveled up.]


    "Hmm, I guess this is it for today." Theo looked down, contemting his choice before calling Ava. "Ava, let''s go back."


    "Kyu?!" Ava''s body shook as she refused to move. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    "What are you doing?" Theo asked with a poker face.


    Ava threw two punches to the front as if she was still raring to go.


    "We are not going to kill more zombies today, though." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Kyu?!" Ava opened her mouth wide as she was shocked that they were not going to fight anymore, even though Ava started getting the hang of it. At the same time, she raised her head, still seeing the blue sky.


    The sun had yet to be on top of their head, so she didn''t understand Theo''s decision, especially with their current Magic Power reserve, which couldst for another twenty to thirty zombies.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Sheined while pointing up, telling Theo that it was still in the morning.


    However, Theo made a smile as if looking at a fool while saying, "Is that so? I guess you can skip your meal for a week. And since you don''t like eating rotten flesh and I need to eat, I thought I needed to go back to another area to bring enough food for us tost seven days here so we can focus on our hunt after setting our camp and food shortage here. That''s not needed anymore, no?"


    "Kyu!" She took a step back as she just got the scare of her life. She quickly disappeared, only to find her hopping on Theo''s shoulder in an instant.


    "Why are you changing your mind so fast? Just go hunt those zombies." Theo shrugged.


    Ava stuck her cheek to Theo''s cheek while moving it up and down as if telling him that she was just joking. "Kyu��"

 Chapter 351 – Zombie Lich

    <h4>Chapter 351 - Zombie Lich</h4>


    "Ava, help me bring this one," Theo shouted while dragging a six-foot-tall boar with his bare hand. "A monster this big canst for a day, so this is the end of our search."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and jumped to the monster, asking Theo what he wanted to do with it.


    "Help me push this monster to the bottom of the hill."


    "Kyu!" Ava agreed without hesitation. They had been hunting several monsters, which Ava killed to allow Theo to cook.


    She pushed the monster from behind, exerting a powerful strength that certainly didn''t reflect her body size.


    Theo, on the contrary, brought four smaller ones together with his clone as they returned to the hill together.


    When they arrived at the bottom of the hill, Theo used his Telekinesis to carry all of them to the top, finding another five corpses lying down on the grass.


    Theo took out a small knife from the bag while saying, "Anyway, I''m going to dress these monsters and preserve them. You watch over the entire area to make sure no one is approaching us. We don''t want our food stolen, right?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and left him alone.


    Theo activated his Cooking sses and searched for the method to preserve the meat. He followed every step ording to the instructions, such as draining their blood and cutting them into pieces.


    He wanted to make sure that the monsters didn''t go bad while they stayed here.


    As expected, it took him three hours, considering the monsters'' size.


    After he finished, he set up the tent and other things. Luckily, there were no monsters on this hill and they were surrounded by trees, so it was hard for this location to be spotted in a single nce.


    And as Theo predicted, he only finished his jobs when the sun hade down.


    Ava returned to the camp when she picked up a delicious smell from Theo''s cooking which was obviously assisted by the Cooking sses.


    Theo saw her drooling, considering they skipped lunch because of all these preparations.


    "Sit there. I will be done in five minutes." Theo pointed at his baggage.


    "Kyu!" Ava happilyplied while waiting for dinner.


    ��


    An hourter.


    Avaid down on the ground while rubbing her belly like she always did. However, she suddenly heard something from the valley as she rose from the ground with a shocked expression.


    Her action didn''t escape Theo''s eyes. He asked, "What are you doing?"


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed down the hill while jumping toward the best spot without any tree, allowing them to watch what was happening in the valley.


    Although Theo didn''t understand Ava''s intention, he still followed what she wanted and followed her.


    Ava brought her surprise when he saw three hundred zombies walking on the valley peacefully as if they just strolled around. There was no sign of aggressive movement, so it should be safe to assume that the zombie''s perception didn''t pick up any living being in the valley.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows because he watched more handsing out. There were around a total of 500 zombies in the valley, making Theo suck a cold breath.


    He might have suspected there were thousands of zombies, but this number alone was enough to make him a bit scared. From what he got, the zombie might be on the weak side among the Rare ss monsters, but they were still Rare ss monsters.


    "500 Rare ss Monsters?" Theo gulped down. "Is this what I''m going to kill for the next seven days?"


    Suddenly, the ground began to tremble as there was an eruption of a green-colored me from the ground. The energy was coated by a ck glow, making it look even more ominous, especially with the current darkness.


    If Theo didn''t use his Night Vision sses, he wouldn''t be able to see this glow.


    Theo observed this energy before finding a handing out of the ground.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava suddenly pulled Theo''s pants down, grabbing his attention.


    "Ava?!" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Kyu!" Ava tapped the ground a few times beforeying down on her belly while looking down the valley.


    "You want me to lie down?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously, asking Theo to speed up.


    Although he didn''t understand what Ava said, her instinct was supposed to be better than him, so he followed her words to see what she was up to.


    He lied down and crawled a bit to get a better angle while watching what wasing from that hand.


    The body began to make its appearance. At one nce, the body seemed to be simr to that of a zombie. It had rotten flesh here and there.


    A few holes were visible on its body, but half of it was hidden by the dirt attached to the flesh and bone. Unlike other zombies, this one didn''t have blood-red eyes that only knew how to kill. Instead, his green eyes appeared to have a certain amount of wisdom.


    Theo quickly took out his Skylink and pointed it to this special zombie.


    Because of their distance, he needed to do it a few times before he luckily captured the zombie''s face, thus resulting in the investigation of the Sk.


    The Sk quickly pulled out the zombie''s information that somehow shocked him.


    Name: Zombie Lich


    Level: 251-255


    A peak Rare ss monster. It is said that the zombie has enough wisdom to use at least five magic or skills. The zombie requires a thousand corpses to be sacrificed to make a perfect body to advance to a General ss monster.


    "!!!" Theo''s body shook when he saw the exnation.


    "A General ss monster�� Isn''t that like the Unending Tree?" Theo muttered while sucking a cold breath. "The Zombie Lich may have the ability tomand all those zombies as well? I want to fight it, but it''s not possible to handle all of them at once.


    "For now, I need to mark the lich''s ce and make sure not step too close to that area while eliminating the zombies. If I can eliminate all of them in seven days, I can probably challenge the lich. But�� We will see," said Theo before his heart skipped a beat.


    The most frightening thing that happened to both Theo and Ava was when the Zombie Lich turned around and looked at the top of the hill as if it felt their gazes.

 Chapter 352 – Lich Vs Fish

    <h4>Chapter 352 - Lich Vs Fish</h4>


    "!!!" Theo instinctively used his illusion so as to make them appear like a normal tree.


    After that nce, the Zombie Lich furrowed its eyebrows before turning around.


    "What''s that?" Theo took a deep breath and asked Ava. "I don''t think there''s a zombie that can see that far ahead, right? But why does�� Wait, this hill doesn''t have a single monster around them. Is this the Zombie Lich''s work?"


    Ava shook her head in confusion. "Kyu."


    "I know, I know. You are like Alea, so I will do the thinking." Theo let out a long sigh while peeking at the Zombie Lich and the other zombies. "Anyway, I have downloaded all the monsters'' information in my Monster Detector, so I''m going to take a look at the lich first."


    Name: Zombie Lich


    Level: 251-255


    A peak Rare ss monster. It is said that the zombie has enough wisdom to use at least five magic or skills. The zombie requires a thousand corpses to be sacrificed to make a perfect body to advance to a General ss monster.


    It was the same description as earlier, but he wanted to look at the detailed exnation, so he tapped the lich''s picture, which was the same as the one he saw just now.


    Description: A former Necromancer that uses its own spell to prevent its own imminent death. It''s bound by a restriction that forces the Necromancer to stay in one ce until itpletes the perfect body to roam around.


    It''s advised to fight the Necromancer during the day because their skills will be enhanced during the night. There are various types of Necromancer, such as Skeleton Necromancer, Zombie Necromancer, and Soul Necromancer, depending on the previous'' life mastery.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Doesn''t this mean the Necromancer was a human? As he was about to die, he cast his own spell to resurrect himself?


    "If that''s the case, doesn''t this mean I am facing a former human? It''s not like I don''t want to kill a human, but his skills�� Does he still retain his skills? This is going to be troublesome if he can use all his former skills." Theo then looked at the hill and its surrounding beforeing to a realization.


    "Wait�� Don''t tell me. The Zombie Lich has been clearing this entire ce because he wants to invite humans toe since it''s like an easy path? After killing them, the lich resurrected them to their current appearances.


    "It''s no wonder why they fight like humans. But doesn''t this mean a human can be a monster too? This doesn''t make sense." Theo gritted his teeth and looked down, falling into deep thought. There were many questions in his mind, but no one could answer him.


    He simply had no knowledge regarding this stuff, considering all the knowledge in his mind was mostly about fighting.


    "This is the time I wish I had someone beside me. They can exin things to me." Theo shook his head in disappointment. "Or it''s better if we can use Sk here��"


    "Kyu?!" Ava looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "We are going to kill that Lich. It is a Hero Rank Lich�� Although it''s quite powerful, I alone should be enough if we fight one on one. The problem is those zombies. If we can eliminate them first, I''m sure we can take the lich on. Hence, I''m going to make sure where that lich is resting before exterminating the rest of the zombies."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded in agreement before leaping on top of his right hand and closing her eyes.


    Theo smiled and shook his head helplessly, knowing that Ava decided to sleep first because the lich was supposed to sleep during the day.


    However, right before Theo moved from the spot, a loud sound rmed him and Ava.


    They opened their eyes wide and looked at the valley, finding a huge fish leaping from the water.


    The fish had golden skin with a red fin and each scale seemed to be covered with a blue dot that made the fist unpleasant to be seen. The fish itself was fifteen-foot-long or four times bigger than the lich.


    Still, what shocked Theo the most was the two long and sharp fangs in front of its mouth.


    When the fish leaped to the air, their eyes intertwined.


    The lich and the fish seemed to understand what each other wanted to do.


    The fish opened its mouth as the river water began to flow to its mouth as it maintained its position in the air.


    At the same time, the lich raised its right hand as a green-colored me appeared and covered his hand.


    The fish spurted out all the water inside his mouth, creating a strong spinning current that might blow the lich away.


    Responding to its attack, the lich let out a small line of fire that should be extinguished in an instant by that amount of water.


    Yet, the result was different from what everyone could expect. The fire prated the water and split it into all directions. The water sshed a few zombies around and blew them away, but none of them died from that attack.


    ''What? The me is not extinguished?'' Theo''s body shook in surprise. ''No, the me should be suppressed by the water, but the fire''s purpose is a bit different. It''s trying to deflect the water in all directions, weakening its power. Instead of destroying or blocking the attack, it''s deflecting the attack. Sihan used the same technique, but this lich dispersed it to all directions�� It will take less effort to do it because the area of contact is smaller, resulting in a stronger force. I see.''


    Theo realized the lich''s level. He perfectly understood that the lich might be a powerful human in the past because his skill was this profound.


    Still, the fight wasn''t over. After seeing his ineffective attack, the fish took a few seconds to re at the lich before jumping back into the water.


    Before leaving, he sent another strike by pping its tail, generating a fifteen-foot-tall wave that should sweep the zombies.


    The lich shook his head and waved his hand, creating a crescent-shaped green me that cut the wave on the bottom, destroying the wave.


    The lich also took another look at the fish that had swum to the corner of the river, preparing to climb the hill.

 Chapter 353 – A General Class?

    <h4>Chapter 353 - A General ss?</h4>


    After sending that attack, their conflict ceased, confusing Theo.


    Since Ava was also a monster, he thought Ava knew something about their exchange, so he asked, "Ava, what did they just do? Is it a territorial dispute?"


    Ava furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. She also couldn''t get it quite well. There was something weird in their exchange that made her doubt the two''s intentions.


    "Their sh was a bit weird." Theo pondered over what he just saw.


    "Kyu." Ava suddenly punched the air a few times, telling Theo that it was a real fight, not a show.


    In other words, the two monsters seemed to be nning to kill each other.


    "They wanted to kill each other, but wasn''t the sh too brief?" Theo asked.


    "Kyu!" Ava punched again, opened her mouth in shock and ran away.


    "So, the fish was too weak and ran away?"


    Ava shook her head. She punched the air and walked to the opposite side and did the same. After that, Ava continued ring at her own reflection, snorted, and left the battlefield.


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head. In fact, he never understood Ava''s word to word. All he could do was to say something ording to her actions.


    For this one, he was a bit clueless and started thinking about a few scenarios. Luckily, the first one was the correct one. "So, the fish and the lich were equal. Instead of wasting their time, they chose to leave for training. They want to defeat the other party the next time they meet�� Something like that?"


    Ava nodded in agreement.


    "It''s tooplicated." Theo shook his head helplessly. "Anyway, our n doesn''t change. We will kill the lich. Although it looks powerful, I have my confidence in defeating it one by one."


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled and made herselffortable again.


    Theo, on the contrary, kept watching the lich.


    To his surprise, the lich was using his skills from time to time as if he was practicing to defeat the fish.


    It was at this moment Theo realized Ava wasn''t wrong.


    If he counted all those zombies to kill before the lich, Theo had confidence in reaching Level 225, which should be enough to confront a barely Hero Rank lich. Hence, Theo was determined to locate the lich, making sure where he stayed for the night so as to avoid waking it up tomorrow.


    ��


    As nned, Theo finally began his n the next day. Because he didn''t know when the lich slept, Theo decided not to sleepst night to mark the area where the lich slept.


    After going a bit farther away from that spot, Theo and Ava began killing the zombies far from that area, thinning their number.


    Because the level difference had begun to shrink, he didn''t get as many EXP anymore, resulting in his leveling to a halt.


    In one day, he could only level up once or twice if he was lucky. However, that was the limit.


    Knowing this restriction, Theo still smiled as if this was what he wanted. Ava could understand Theo''s feelings because Theo could fight so many former humans who somehow retained a portion of their human instinct and basics.


    This was what Theo needed this whole time. After all, the time Theo faced humans face to face wasn''t that many. There were only the schoolpetition and a few teams in the Grand Gaia.


    Facing all these zombies let him advance his own spear mastery, which strengthened his basics. That was the reason Theo stayed for a little bit longer in this ce and chose to clear all the zombies.


    If he took this result back to Earth, the result of the training he spent together with his clone would surely be faster and more bountiful.


    On the second night, Theo saw the sh between the fish and the lich again as if their sh was never-ending.


    Theo then continued killing zombies with Ava for several days as their food supply also became a bit short due to Ava''s endless stomach.


    ��


    On the sixth day.


    Theo took another look at his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 223


    EXP: 106314/167545


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Swift Energy (D), Clone (C), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (C), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 320, Endurance 200, Agility 204, Vitality 200, Magic Power 320


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "I guess the EXP is less than I expected��" Theo sighed. His first expectation was to reach level 225, but it seemed to be possible since there were only fifty zombies left, including the lich. "Ava, we are going to kill only thirty zombies today. We will kill the rest tomorrow."


    "Kyu!"


    The pair once again went down the hill, facing the zombies�� Or that was how everything was supposed to be.


    However, everything suddenly changed when he saw fifty zombiesing out at once despite him not entering their range.


    At the same time, among those fifty zombies, there was one that called out green me upon his emergence. He was none other than the Zombie Lich.


    But what shocked Theo the most was the fact that this zombie came out at the very front.


    "What? He''s supposed to sleep far away��" Theo suddenly came to a realization. In his mind, he pictured the lich digging the hole toe to this ce so he would be the first one to be awakened during this whole mess. "I know that the lich is already aware of me killing the zombies, but a monster using a strategy�� Isn''t it only for a General ss monster?"


    As much as he wanted to ponder the urrence before his eyes, he didn''t have time for it.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he clicked his tongue, knowing that he had entered the worst-case scenario.


    Theo quickly used his Blink and grabbed Ava before utilizing his Telekinesis to fly to the sky.


    Unfortunately for him, he saw a green me that expanded and turned into a, trying to catch him.


    Because he just used his Blink skill, he had no choice other than to take this attack head-on.


    "Tsk."

 Chapter 354 – Enemy? Friend?

    <h4>Chapter 354 - Enemy? Friend?</h4>


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and raised his spear. "Cannon st."


    He dispersed the Cannon st to get enough range to blow all the me away.


    At the same time, a total of ten archers and mages summoned their respective power.


    Because of their current race, their affinity had been converted to Darkness, but it didn''t mean they became weaker.


    All ten attacks flew straight to Theo.


    Clone Theo appeared behind Theo and used the Flowmotion to jump toward a few attacks, receiving four arrows at once. As expected, it wasn''t easy for the clone to do it because one of the attacks hit him.


    The clone was destroyed while Theo needed to repel the remaining attacks.


    Suddenly, Ava turned around and raised its foot toward the attacks. Lightning started sparking around her foot since she couldn''t release all her power on top of Theo''s body. She didn''t want to electrocute him after all.


    "Kyu!" She shot the lightning and spread it in all directions, trying to catch them, but a ck fireball and an arrow slipped past her attacks.


    Ava panicked for a second before deciding to leap off Theo''s shoulder and hit them herself.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and stopped for a split second. Since Ava did it to protect him, Theo quickly turned around and grabbed Ava, who started falling to the ground.


    "Got you. Time to��" As he was about to escape, Theo raised his head, finding a huge green-colored me on top of his head.


    The me dropped on top of him as Theo instinctively used the Telekinesis to push him to the ground, avoiding this me.


    Because of his speed, he managed to gain enough distance from the me.


    Theo used that time to stabilize his posture on the ground and leaped to the left.


    The me touched the ground and exploded, engulfing the area and turning it into a crater.


    "Magic Bullets." Theo summoned his clone and summoned a total of 160 Magic Bullets,unching them to the zombie pack.


    The Zombie Lich seemed to be observing this attack while the zombies prepared to take down the bullets.


    Theo nned to use this chance to escape, but the Zombie Lich let out a hollow roar.


    Surprised by it, Theo nced at it and saw all the zombies chasing after him while those Zombie Archers and Mages had surrounded him from the sky, preventing him from flying.


    The Zombie Lich, on the contrary, showed an unexpected skill. He tapped the ground twice before his shadow expanded into a circle with his height as the radius.


    Ten tentacles emerged from the hole and reached the Magic Bullets, swaying left and right as if trying to catch every single Magic Bullet.


    "��" Theo''s expression turned serious as the lich seemed to be nning to kill him in this ce.


    Surrounded, Theo decided to fight the zombies.


    "Ava, we are going to kill them. I will send you the signal, so prepare to fight," said Theo whileunching himself to the side, escaping to the deeper part of the Mystic Valley.


    He nned to go to the Big Sin Valley to make the zombies sh with the monsters there.


    Sensing his intention, the Zombie Lich let out another roar as the Zombie Warriors and Assassins chased him, not letting him escape.


    The Assassins'' speed was much faster than him, so they caught up to him in no time.


    Theo nced at the ten assassins and spun his body, striking them with his spears.


    Half of the assassins managed to protect their body with their daggers, while the other half never had a need to do so since Theo''s spear didn''t reach him.


    Although regrettable, Theo thought it was enough if he could stop a few of them. He could m the rest to the ground by using his Telekinesis to pressure the air above them.


    Bam.


    All the assassins dropped to the ground, but they managed to hold on with their body and started charging at him, albeit with a slower speed.


    This was only for buying time, so Theo quickly turned around and changed his direction, running away from them to the right side of the valley. After all, the river was fifty feet away from them.


    Suddenly, another volley of ck me came from the sky.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Blink to avoid them.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    The ck me burned all the grass while those around it began to wither.


    "Ava, get ready. My clone will tell you what to do," said Theo with a calm face as if everything was still within his expectation. In fact, his expression told her that they were going to counterattack.


    Ava nodded with a serious expression, not wanting to disappoint Theo. "Kyu."


    "Good."


    Suddenly, Clone Theo reappeared next to Theo as he grabbed Ava before disappearing.


    This surely made the zombies hesitate and search for the two whereabouts, but before they could do anything, Theo changed his direction and jumped to the right as hard as possible, trying to reach the river.


    "I''m lucky��" Theo smiled.


    Theo saw a reflection of Megalo Fish''s golden scales on the water a bit farther away. He quickly used his Magic Bullets and shot the fish.


    "Magic Bullet."


    All those Magic Bullets hit the water, but the Megalo Fish showed an incredible reflex by leaping into the air with its mouth wide open.


    Theo gulped down when he saw those terrifying teeth. Yet, this wasn''t enough to make the smile on his face disappear. In fact, the smile became even more intense as everything was going ording to his n.


    "That''s right. This is early in the morning and the fish should be on its way to Lambert Lake. In that case, this guy will surely appear before me. I need to thank the Zombie Lich for ambushing me immediately since this guy has yet to pass this ce.


    "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now,e. Fight the Zombie Lich for me." Theo smirked even though the fish didn''t stop on its way and turned to the Zombie Lich. It continued as if the fish wanted to devour Theo first.

 Chapter 355 – Mine

    <h4>Chapter 355 - Mine</h4>


    "Fight the Zombie Lich for me." Theo smirked, ring at the fish which was about to engulf him.


    Even the Zombie Lich stepped to the side, never expecting to see Theo using this daring move.


    However, the fish had no intention of chasing the Zombie Lich. It just wanted to devour Theo, who was on his way.


    "You should just follow me��" Theo sighed as he pointed his thumb to the Zombie Lich. "Go there. This is an order."


    The fish released its killing intent, preparing to swallow him as a whole, but excruciating pain suddenly spread on its body.


    The fish''s right eye suddenly realized something. It saw a small objecting to his body earlier. The fish thought it was just a white stone because of its small appearance, but it turned out to be another monster like him.


    Theo smiled. After summoning his clone, he took Ava to the other side of the flowing river and hid within the illusion. Everything was for the sake of this moment.


    "Kyu!" Ava released her lightning, jolting the body as the spark sent the fish flying to the Zombie Lich. At the same time, Ava looked at Theo, wondering if she had done a great job or not.


    Theo smiled and gave her a thumbs up. After confirming that the fish was jumping around as if searching for water, he took Ava and used his Blink to send them to another ce near that spot and hide.


    Theo then summoned his illusion to blend with the surroundings while watching the fish and the Zombie Lich fight.


    The Megalo Fish pped its fins to jump, trying to see where Theo and Ava hid, albeit it was hard for him to find them, especially in this situation.


    Still, Theo was surprised when the Zombie Lich switched his target already, even though it was obvious the lich had enough intelligence to go after Theo first before handling the fish.


    "��" Theo squinted his eyes, watching this gesture. ''Did the lich die because of the Megalo Fish? It wants the body and the army to deal with the fish?''


    No answer came to his mind, but the lich''s action was there for him to see.


    The lich waved his hand and released its green me, flowing like a wave current that tried to devour the fish.


    Sensing this danger, the fish quickly pped its tail to throw the body back to the river.


    Suddenly, ten Zombie Knights appeared next to the river and mmed the fish with their shields simultaneously, generating enough force to push the fish back.


    The fish was surprised, but he didn''t have any more time as the green me was about to engulf him. Not having much to do, the fish spun its body before calling the water from the river.


    The water burst and flowed into the air. However, the fish wasn''t in the water, so all he could call was a water torrent, six feet in diameter.


    The water put the fire wave out, creating a small hole in the fire wave''s body. Although smaller than its size, the fish leaped straight into that hole to avoid this attack.


    Although it was only for a brief moment, there were some burn marks when the fish passed the fire.


    Even so, the fish ignored the wound, gathered all the water in his mouth and released it straight to the Zombie Lich like a breath.


    The Zombie Lich snapped his fingers as three tombstones made of blue light emerged from the ground. The three tombstones released their energy to the front, forming a circr shield in front of the lich.


    The water could only hit the shield as thetter dispersed the water in all directions.


    It was supposed to be a sessful defense, but the fish took that chance to close their distance to p the lich''s head with its tail.


    "!!!" The Zombie Lich was blown away and rolled on the ground a few times.


    However, the fish''s condition wasn''t that good either because the fish decided to give up on its body.


    There were five Zombie Warriors next to the fish, stabbing the fish simultaneously. Even the assassins were ready to strike down this fish, albeit the fish still had enough energy to p all those Zombie Assassins, blowing them to the river.


    Theo suddenly reappeared next to the river with his Magic Bullets and Cannon st.


    He sted five Zombie Assassins with his Magic Bullets while using his Blink to arrive next to them. He then thrust his spear with all his strength, creating enough force to obliterate everything in a certain area.


    This Cannon st reduced the Zombie Assassins to nothing as the blood was sttered around, including the river water that turned red for a split second before bing clear again.


    [Killed a Zombie Assassin.]


    [EXP+2500]


    [Killed a Zombie Assassin.]


    [EXP+2760]


    ��


    ��


    He saw ten notifications while smirking. "I know you are excited about the fight, but I will still be the one killing all of you."


    As he said those words, Theo disappeared again, revealing it was only Theo''s clone and the real body was still hidden somewhere.


    Seeing that Theo just killed his subordinates, the Zombie Lich knew the battle would be harder if he couldn''t end the fish as soon as possible.


    He had gained enough advantage from Theo throwing the fish to the ground anyway.


    He then raised his staff as his shadow expanded, creating a circr ck hole beneath him. His eyes shed as the ten tentacles emerged from the hole.


    The tentacle tried to grab the fish, but thetter pped its tail again, generating enough wind pressure to blow most of the tentacles.


    Unfortunately, three tentacles managed to grasp its head, trying to bind the fish.


    But before they could do so, the fish opened its mouth and pierced two tentacles with its long fangs, ripping it apart, thus freeing himself since one tentacle wasn''t enough to hold him.


    The Zombie Mages and Archers showered the fish with their magic and arrows.


    Instead of destroying their attacks, the fish decided to do a bold move. It waved its side fins as the water, that the ground had yet to absorb, flew to those zombies.


    The water droplets gathered to create a palm-size bubble before expanding a bit more and changing its shape to nails.


    More than twenty nails pierced their bodies and heads.


    It was at this time, Theo reemerged from his hiding spot with a calm expression. "The EXP is mine."

 Chapter 356 – EXP

    <h4>Chapter 356 - EXP</h4>


    "The EXP is mine." Theo used his Magic Bullets to pierce another five zombies before knocking the other heads off their bodies with his bare fist.


    The zombies couldn''t do anything because the water droplets rendered them useless.


    [Killed a Zombie Mage.]


    [EXP+2500]


    [Killed a Zombie Archer.]


    [EXP+2760]


    ��


    ��


    Theo smiled before disappearing again, leaving nothing behind. He didn''t bring a spear anyway, so it was easy for his clone to leave everything behind, unlike the first attempt where he needed to let the spear drop to the ground and stay there for a while.


    The Zombie Lich furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what Theo wanted. At first, heunched the fish to thend, weakening its power. In a normal fight, the fish was obviously going to die if it fought the lich. Yet, every time he had a chance, Theo killed the zombies, weakening the lich even further.


    Even so, the target of his revenge was before his eyes. The Zombie Lich chose to ignore Theo''s intention for the time being and focused on the fish first. As long as he could kill it, he could think about how to handle Theoter.


    The lich raised the staff and summoned a crescent-shaped green me.


    The fish narrowed its eyes and opened its mouth again, stopping the green me with its two fangs.


    However, this was what the lich actually wanted this whole time. The moment the green me hit the fangs, it then circled around the two fangs and enveloped them.


    This attack contained powerful toxicity and corrosive power, melting the two fangs and snapping it into only a third left.


    "!!!" The fish widened its eyes. It panicked for a second and pped its tail again, trying to return to the water as soon as possible.


    Even the Zombie Lich seemed to be surprised by such a reaction from the fish. Yet, it never intended to let the fish escape. He summoned another wave of green me, trying to swallow the fish.


    At the same time, the Zombie Warriors and Zombie Knights had been waiting for the fish next to the river, blocking its way.


    When the fish was about to reach them, they charged together, releasing their attacks simultaneously.


    Unfortunately for them, the fish had another trump card on his sleeve.


    The water suddenly burst out and sshed everything around them, knocking the zombies away. Some zombies managed to hold on, but they could only see the fish jumping into the water.


    However, Theo, who wanted to kill this fish obviously, didn''t let the fish achieve what he wanted.


    Ava reappeared together with Theo on the opposite side of the river. They both leaped together to the fish.


    "!!!" Due to that technique earlier, the fish couldn''t move its body.


    Even though the water was just a few steps away from him, it looked impossible to reach it no matter what.


    That was the thought of the fish before Ava hit it again,unching the fish back to the Zombie Lich.


    Theo, on the other hand, used the chance the fish gave him by copsing the zombie formation to summon forty Magic Bullets with his clone, sting most of the zombies'' heads.


    The real Theo then used his spear to kill the remaining zombies while his clone picked up the spear he dropped earlier.


    The three of them then stood next to the river, looking at the lich and others with a smile.


    "��" The Zombie Lich was dumbfounded. He then realized the fish had created an opportunity for Theo to kill almost forty zombies he had. Also, the fish was heavily injured, making it an easy target even if the fish somehow defeated him.


    In other words, Theo wanted to kill both of them by making them sh against each other.


    His hatred for the fish was just another catalyst that came into the y.


    The Zombie Lich suddenly wondered whether he should fight the fish or not. In the end, hemanded the rest of the zombies to fight Theo, preventing him from interfering with the duel.


    His time should have ended in the past, so whether he would be dead or alive after killing the fish�� It wasn''t important anymore.


    The fish was still oblivious to Theo''s intention and thought Theo just wanted to help him destroy these zombies. Hence, he allowed Theo to do whatever he wanted even though the rabbit next to him had kicked him twice.


    As long as he killed the Zombie Lich, everything would be over.


    Feeling the intense killing intent from the fish, the Zombie Lich responded to that challenge by snapping his fingers.


    Three tombstones made of light re-emerged from the ground.


    The fishunched its body to the lich by pping its tail, trying to strike the lich with his remaining fangs. Even though both fangs had been destroyed, they should still be powerful enough to pierce the zombie''s body.


    Unfortunately for him, the Zombie Lich pped its hand, gathering all the energy from the three stones to form a big blue shield in front of him.


    The two long teeth hit the shield, trying to shatter it. However, the situation turned out to be different than he expected.


    The shield refused to break and held that huge fish body in the air for a moment.


    This allowed the lich tomand five of the zombies to strike the fish.


    Bam.


    "!!!" The fish opened its mouth in pain while dropping to the ground with five huge wounds on its body.


    The lich wanted to kill the fish, but two lights came into his vision and hit the fish''s head, creating two holes in it. Each hole was as big as a human head, so the fish died very soon.


    The lich''s body shook and turned around, seeing Theo, his clone and Ava finally came to them.


    He soon realized all ten zombies had been defeated in an instant.


    "I already said you could win the battle, but I would be the one getting the EXP." Theo smirked and raised his spear. "Ava, you and my clone will take care of the five zombies. I will handle the lich myself."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously as she released her lightning.


    Theo pointed his spear at the lich with a smile on his face. "It''s only you and me."


    *****


    AN: Alea''s Character Art should be finished tomorrow�� Hopefully.

 Chapter 357 – Emptiness

    <h4>Chapter 357 - Emptiness</h4>


    "It''s only you and me." Theo smiled.


    Because Theo took the kill, the Zombie Lich was fuming in anger.


    The lich raised its staff, summoning a huge ck fireball above their head.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and quickly used his Telekinesis tounch himself. Yet, the lich was taken aback when Theo flew straight at him instead of sideways and pushed him back with the Telekinesis, using that move to take both of them away from the iing fireball.


    This wasn''t Theo saving the Zombie Lich. He simply didn''t want the Zombie Lich to kill itself using that attack since he couldn''t get his EXP and kill or the skills that might drop from the lich.


    Boom.


    The fireball engulfed the ground and turned it into a crater while some zombies were devoured by that me.


    Luckily, Clone Theo and Ava had gotten enough distance from them.


    Theo looked at the lich a few feet away from him and shouted, "Useless struggle. I''m going to kill you right now."


    Suddenly, Clone Theo appeared next to the lich, thrusting his spear. "Cannon st."


    "!!!" The lich widened its eyes while avoiding Theo''s Cannon st, albeit it took his right arm as he dropped the staff to the ground.


    The lich was bewildered since Theo said he wanted to fight him alone. This was an insult.


    When he saw the anger in the lich''s eyes, Theo smirked evilly while saying as though he did nothing wrong, "I never lie to you. My clone is myself, so basically, I''m still fighting by myself."


    At the same time, Theo used his Blink skill to appear behind the lich and thrust his spear right at his head.


    Sensing his presence, the lich turned around and leaned to the left, avoiding this attack. However, Clone Theo had ducked down and shed both the lich''s feet before the real Theo kicked him away.


    The lich was one step away from dying, so Theo prepared to finish him with Magic Bullet. At that moment, he couldn''t help but recall a certain memory.


    ��


    A few years ago.


    A middle-aged man stood in this valley. He was a courageous man who kept challenging everyone he saw, including monsters. That was why he was alone in this valley.


    There were numerous monsters lying down lifelessly as he had killed every single of them.


    However, his body was also heavily injured after fighting a total of fifty monsters alone.


    His green hair swayed to the left as he took a deep breath, saying, "This is it. It''s already dark and I can barely see the enemy. It''s time to take a rest since no monster shoulde here during the night.


    Yet, when he was about to turn around, he heard the river water sshing as if something big hit the water.


    The middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows and tried to check. With barely enough light, he needed to approach the river to know what was going on, albeit that action turned out to be a fatal mistake.


    A huge wave of water appeared in his vision, only a few feet away from him.


    "!!!" He leaped back but still got engulfed by the wave. He ended up rolling on the ground before raising his Awareness to check his surroundings.


    His attention was grabbed by several water spikes above his head that already fell upon him, piercing his hands and feet.


    "Argh!" His body wasn''t particrly muscr since he was a Necromancer.


    As a necromancer, there were two paths they could take. The first was to go to the Magic Path, using the Darkness Affinity to wield many kinds of magic that could help the undead in a fight.


    Or he could go to the undead path and perfected his own undead summoning.


    He chose the former, so the moment he got pierced, he quickly regained his calm and summoned a graveyard from the ground.


    "Graveyard Sacrifice." The man looked up, finding the fish leaping out of the river with its mouth gathering the water.


    The fish released all the water and used the current and high pressure to st him away.


    The man, on the contrary, utilized his Graveyard Sacrifice to gain the Magic Power of the dead and formed a huge blue shield.


    Unfortunately, the water was stronger than he expected and shattered his shield and pierced his body, creating a hole in his stomach.


    ''What? In an instant? Although I haven''t reached Hero Rank yet, I should be able to withstand this fish for a few rounds?'' This was thest thought in his mind. It was such a ridiculous thought, yet, it suited him very well.


    What he wanted was a battle that could make him stronger, thus the reason for him challenging these monsters.


    However, it seemed that he just got bad luck when he encountered this monster. ''I have been fighting for as long as I remember�� It''s true that it''s my honor to die in a fight, but this is a humiliation��


    ''No, I refuse to die. Even if I need to die, I will drag my enemy down.'' The middle-aged man didn''t want to die, not because of a grand goal orplex emotion�� He just wanted to win. He refused to lose and promised himself to fight to the very end. And that drive, although shallow and weird, made a decision for him.


    ''If I can''t defeat you, I won''t be able to rest in peace. In that case, no matter how long it takes, I''m going to kill you!'' The middle-aged man''s hand was covered with ck-colored me as he burned his own body, which turned out to be the me that turned him into a zombie.


    The fish simply ignored him and returned to the hill, but the former human woke up and remembered only thatst vow. He kept building his undead army to kill the fish.


    Yet, in the middle of remembering his life, the lich was reminded of the reality. When he was about to kill his archenemy, two rays of light pierced the Megalo Fish''s head, killing it. And he could only stand there in shock.


    With thest struggle and regret in his mind, the lich raised its hand, trying to grab Theo''s foot. However, Theo used the Magic Bullets to destroy its headpletely, killing it.


    "��" Seeing such a struggle from the zombie, his expression somehow turned grim.


    [Killed a Zombie Lich.]


    [EXP+30,400]


    [You have leveled up.]


    "Despite seeing so many EXP and killing both monsters�� Why do I somehow feel empty?" Theo frowned.

 Chapter 358 – Loot

    <h4>Chapter 358 - Loot</h4>


    "Why do I somehow feel empty?"


    This question was hard to answer, especially with his goals that would involve numerous people''s lives. He looked down with a grim expression.


    Despite having steeling his resolve, it was so much different when he needed to face it. And this was only a monster or a former human.


    He thought he would be fine with it, considering he had killed a few people before and all of them were his enemies. Both wanted to kill him, but the lich simply followed its natural instinct as a monster.


    It reminded him of a certain matter.


    There might be a time where he needed to kill the innocent who he never met. At that time, could he do it? What if the person before him was a good guy that had helped thousands of people? Could he still kill him?


    Many questions shed in his mind, but more importantly, there was a slight change in his heart. Whether this change would be good or bad for Theo, he knew he still needed to step forward.


    After sorting his thoughts, Theo''s expression became calmer as he looked at the lich and ced his hand on the lich''s head.


    The silence suddenly broke when Theo saw the cardsing out of the lich.


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C)


    Effect: Gather the Magic Power in the surroundings to form three small tombstones that will act as an antenna to form a shield of concentrated Magic Power. The shield can be moved and expanded, but the user can''t move as long as this skill is active.


    Skill: Zombie Fire (C)


    Effect: Produce a special fire that can turn normal humans into undead. It can only be used to create Champion Rank Monsters or below and the level depends on the target''s former level.


    Lich Jewel (C)


    A small crystal that became the lich''s source of power. It contained all the Dark Energy the lich had.


    "Three C Rank cards?" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting to get such a bountiful reward. "Two C Rank cards from a Hero Rank monster is already too much and can be said you are very lucky when you encounter such an urrence, but this zombie gives me three? Two skill and one material cards.


    "Is this the effect of a lich who trained himself just to kill the fish?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the cards, finally examining each of them. "Hmm, I have a feeling that Lich Jewel can be sold at a high price, considering this can be transformed to be a perfect staff for a Magician with Dark Affinity.


    "I mean, they really need this one as their staff''s eye and I''m sure this crystal can boost their power and casting speed." Theo nodded and took a look at the skills. "First skill is Zombie Fire�� Normally, Necromancer only calls the soul of the dead, but this one can turn a human into a zombie.


    "And there is no warning that they need to be dead. In other words, they can be turned into a zombie by burning them alive�� Such a devious skill, I am afraid this skill will shake the market. For now, I shouldn''t sell it since it will be too dangerous if this skilles to the hand of a psychopath. I can use it as a material to upgrade my skill anyway.


    "Also, my goal is to create chaos or chaotic situation, not genocide. I can use genocide to create chaos, but chaos doesn''t necessarilye from genocide." Theo shook his head. "Even God of Mischief never took a life when he pranked someone other than thest moment��


    "Well, let''s move on to the second skill. This Three Great Defense seems to be useful. I have seen its power and I think it''s far more powerful than Elemental Shields. It''s true that I can''t move while using that skill, but I have my clone. I may be an immobile fortress that keeps sending Magic Bullets one after another."


    After getting a bit understanding of this skill, Theo suddenly grabbed it with a serious expression. He closed his eyes and the card suddenly disappeared from his hand as if it was burned into ashes.


    There was a change in Theo''s skill.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 226


    EXP: 13788/173166


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (C), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (C), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 320, Endurance 205, Agility 209, Vitality 205, Magic Power 320


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "��" Theo nodded in agreement after seeing his Swift Energy was reced by Three Great Defense. He had Cannon st, Magic Bullet, Telekinesis and External Flow for his attack power anyway, so he needed powerful defense or mobility.


    Since this Three Great Defense was a different type than his Elemental Shield, he chose to abandon the Swift Energy for the time being.


    After getting the reward from the lich, he made his way to the fish he just killed. Unfortunately, he didn''t find anything interesting.


    Skill: Water Wave (D)


    Effect: Control the water in the surroundings.


    Megalo Fish Fang (C)


    A powerful fang that can improve one''s water affinity.


    Megalo Fish Fin (D)


    A nutritious ingredient, especially for Water Affinity monsters. It can increase one''s health as well.


    The skill was useless to him, who didn''t have any affinity. And it was the same as the two Material Cards. All he could do was sell these cards.


    "Kyu!" Ava came to him after Theo finished gathering his loot. She seemed to have sensed Theo''s doubt in his eyes, so she asked, "Kyu?!"


    Obviously, Theo didn''t understand what she was saying. However, her concerned face was enough for him. "I''m fine."


    "Kyu?!"


    Theo smiled and nodded while extending his hand to Ava.


    Ava quickly leaped to Theo''s hand and looked at his face to confirm his condition.


    "In any case, we have used too much Magic Power today even though it''s still in the morning. But since there won''t be any monsters around here for a while, let''s bring down our camp a bit closer to Big Sin Valley."


    "Kyu?!" Ava asked again while pointing at the Big Sin Valley while waving her hand left and right.


    "How are we going to proceed?" Theo suddenly smiled. "That''s simple��"

 Chapter 359 – Continue The Mission

    <h4>Chapter 359 - Continue The Mission</h4>


    A few dayster. Theo sat down next to the campfire to warm him up while waiting for someone to return.


    When he was about to reach the hot water he just boiled, he sensed another presenceing his way.


    It was none other than the small rabbit, Ava.


    She just arrived after going around the area.


    "Do you have something for me, Ava?" Theo asked, noticing that Ava was unnaturally quiet.


    Normally, she would have started talking to tell him everything she experienced, but Ava looked a bit serious this time.


    "Ava?" Theo frowned, wondering whether this was Ava or not.


    He checked her with his Awareness, noticing that she wasn''t an illusion. After taking another look at her appearance, Theo approached her while extending his hand.


    To his expectation, Ava instinctively leaped on top of Theo''s hand as if this was the natural thing to do.


    "Kyu!" Ava''s expression melted as she finally let out a sound.


    "Why were you quiet earlier?" Theo asked to confirm the situation, wanting to see whether Ava was alright or not.


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed behind her while raising her hands as if she wanted to express the happiness in her heart. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "You found something interesting?"


    Ava nodded furiously.


    "What is that?"


    Ava jumped around, trying to exin it to Theo, but in the end, she waved her hand as if telling him he could see it tomorrow.


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    After killing the zombies, Theo and Ava had been hunting separately because Theo wanted to train his new skill while increasing his leveling speed.


    The Big Sin Valley wasn''t that different from the Mystic Valley other than a small but steep hill that separated the valley into two.


    Due to that reason, Theo asked Ava to explore the other way while he hunted the monsters on the original path.


    Of course, Theo still took care of Ava in the first two days by sending his clone with her. The monsters around this area were slightly higher than those on the previous valley after all. They all were around Level 240 to Level 255 monsters.


    However, Ava showed incredible prowess, telling Theo that she had leveled up a bit and no monsters under Hero Rank possessed a threat to her. She could even handle a Hero Rank monster easily as long as it was alone.


    In the end, Theo agreed to let Ava explore alone in the pretense of giving her a chance to experience the world herself.


    Ava then began her adventure and discovered many things she never saw before while fighting against monsters as usual.


    Theo also did the same and searched for the Purple Haze Grass.


    Unfortunately, these few days were of no luck.


    Theo and Ava didn''t find a single clue about the Purple Haze Grass despite almost searching every corner of the valley.


    Then, when she returned today, Ava seemed happy and pointed at Theo''s Skylink, asking him to take it out.


    "What do you want?" Theo asked and took out his Skylink, opening it for Ava to see.


    Ava pointed at the grass. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    "Do you want to know about this grass?"


    Ava shook her head and tapped Theo a few times.


    "Ah, you mean the mission grass? Purple Haze Grass?"


    Ava nodded without hesitation.


    "Don''t tell me you have found the grass?" Theo asked carefully, observing her expression.


    "Kyu!" Ava puffed her chest proudly as if telling him to praise her.


    "Really?"


    Ava pouted when she saw Theo didn''t believe her. She looked away as if telling him that he would regret not believing her.


    "Haha, I believe, I believe��" Theo chuckled. "We should rest for the time being. Our n is for me to reach level 240 first before challenging the monster in Lambert Lake. ording to our pace, we still need three to four days, so yeah, it''s going to take a while."


    Ava nodded in understanding.


    Theo chuckled and stroked her head and back. Her fur was smooth and felt good to touch anyway.


    ��


    The next day.


    Ava guided Theo to where shest saw the grass.


    The valley had a simr appearance as the other side, but Ava soon saw a small crack on the cliff. It was hard for her to even see what was inside.


    However, Ava quickly jumped to that crack while tapping it a few times. "Kyu."


    "The grass is inside there?" Theo was bewildered because he never thought Ava wanted him to destroy the cliff just to get what they needed. "But��"


    Before Theo said another word, he looked down, finding a strand of purple-colored grass standing out among the green grasses.


    "This�� Isn''t this the Purple Haze Grass?" Theo asked Ava.


    Ava nodded and pointed at the crack, saying that the source was inside the cliff.


    "So, is this because of the constant search of the grass that the natural resource has begun to disappear? I mean, Purple Haze Grasses shouldn''t be that hard to find in this valley, ording to the information, so it must mean that there are so many people gathering the Purple Haze Grass to the point the poption is almost extinct in this area." Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    Ava shook her head before opening her two feet wide.


    "There are so many grasses inside?"


    Ava confirmed it with a nod.


    "But you don''t expect me to destroy this cliff, right? Wait��" Theo suddenly came to a realization and walked to the crack and tried to look inside from every angle. Even then, he failed to see anything.


    He soon asked himself how Ava knew there was a space inside��


    That answer came with a shock as Theo stared at her dumbfoundedly, "How did you find it?"


    Ava smiled from ear to ear while moving a bit farther away, showing Theo a small hole, a bit bigger than her actual size.


    "Kyu!" Ava made a smug smile as if her time hade. With a hole of that size, only Ava or something smaller could enter. Meanwhile, the reason for the grass to bloom in this area was probably through the crack.


    In other words, the grass lived peacefully inside the cliff and those that lived outside became the prey of humans.


    "��" Theo sighed. "Ten strands are considered one Purple Haze Grass, so we need thirty strands."


    Ava opened her feet wide, telling him that the number was much bigger than that and she wanted to take everything out.


    "Alright, alright. We can sell the excess grasses easily, but just take half of them. Don''t take everything. With half of them remain, it will gradually recover its poption again. I am not a good guy, but it doesn''t mean I don''t respect nature, okay?"


    Ava smiled and raised her foot. "Kyu."


    *****


    Alea Character Art is in thement section below.

 Chapter 360 – Money

    <h4>Chapter 360 - Money</h4>


    Ava quickly came inside the hole.


    While waiting for her, Theo searched his surroundings to ensure their safety before leaning on the cliff, staring at the blue sky.


    ''How should Iplete the fourth mission? It''s clear that this mission reeks of a bad scheme, considering how fast they are sending the mission. However, I also need to finish this one to get the chance to meet Fenrir. All I hope is that everything is worth the risk.


    ''Anyway, I need to find a way to do this. I have been making several ns, but I need to choose between two big choices. Will I expose my identity to see what they are up to or should I hide my identity to make them think I''m just a random guy who attacks the monster?


    ''If it''s thetter, I''m afraid it''s hard to do it because my fighting style is there for everyone to see. At the same time, it''s not normal for a random guy to challenge the monster since there''s no mission like that other than my personal mission.


    ''Also, if I choose the former, I can learn their intentions first before handling them ordingly. But I have no guarantee that it will be solved easily�� So, what should I do right now?'' Theo pondered over his choices, not wanting to make a wrong decision.


    "As expected, an unknown enemy is worse than a very powerful family. This is the same case as the Griffith Family. Their strength is outstanding, but I don''t know the full extent yet." Theo''s expression turned serious. "Maybe it''s better if I choose the family? Nah, either way, I will be treated as one of their assets, that''s all.


    "Anyway, this is irrelevant right now. I need to choose how I should approach this matter." Theo looked down.


    He fell silent for half an hour before Ava finally came back to him.


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head when seeing Theo''s grim expression. She didn''t know what kind of thought he had to make such a face.


    She didn''t want to wake him up, so she decided to silently move away to give him time.


    However, she soon heard Theo''s voice.


    "Ava, you done?"


    "Kyu?!" Ava quickly turned around and saw Theo had changed his expression to a smile. She smiled back and nodded a few times. "Kyu."


    She then pointed at the ones she had pulled out. It was located next to the hole she entered. Because of the size of the hole, Ava needed toe back a few times to put those grasses down, albeit Theo was in deep thought, not able to watch over her.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock because he saw so many strands. "This�� Are you sure this is half of them?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded with a serious expression.


    "How many are there? Two hundred? Three hundred?"


    Ava made a smug smile as if she had done exceptionally well.


    "Thirty strands alone can give us a million Zils. If we have this much, we can get at least ten million from this mission alone. In addition to the zombie flesh, I''m afraid we can get at least twenty million for all the missions. There are also a Megalo Fish Fang and that jewel��" Theo scratched the back of his head.


    At first, Theo thought they could barely make ten million on this trip. However, it certainly surpassed not only his expectations but also his imagination.


    Never in his wildest dream did he think of getting that much money from four missions. Of course, finding buyers for Zombie Flesh and Purple Haze Grass would take some time, but it shouldn''t take another month.


    "Haha, one month gives me this much money. Of course, I need to thank the fact that we can get more than we are supposed to, but��" Theo sighed. "I guess getting a mission that requires us to bring an item in high demand is good because we can submit some of them while selling it at the same price. Of course, we are very lucky with this one."


    Theoughed. "How about we spend a million just for the feast? I think we can get a ton of food��"


    Ava''s expression brightened as she jumped in happiness. "Kyu!"


    "Haha, with that much money, I doubt we can finish the food within a month. And we also have several monsters flesh that I have killed�� I won''t sell them and just cook it for you."


    Ava was ecstatic as she could get all the food she wanted.


    Theo smiled when he saw this reaction.


    Theo then walked to the grass and sat next to them. "Help me separate ten strands each. I will use the grass around us to tie them up. This can make us sell these grasses easier."


    "Kyu!" She happily came to Theo and helped him.


    Meanwhile, Theo had decided on their course of action after seeing this result. "Anyway, after doing this, we will go back to our camp and set a new one near theke. I think we''ll use the remaining time to train and prepare ourselves for the next seven days."


    Ava nodded while putting down ten strands before giving it to Theo. He then plucked the grass next to him and tied the ten strands using it as a temporary measure.


    Theo also counted them one by one. It seemed Ava also brought back every ten strands she found, so they got a perfect number for everything. It turned out there were a total of 430 strands that Ava brought back.


    The two then returned to their camp and brought everything near theke. Of course, he made sure they didn''t get too close because he didn''t know what kind of scheme they would meet there.


    After all, Theo knew there were two types of scenarios. The first scenario was a person who just wanted to meet him by submitting the mission, while the second scenario was an ambush.


    After thinking it through, Theo made this decision and spent the rest of the day training while spoiling Ava.

 Chapter 361 – Squiddy Lamp

    <h4>Chapter 361 - Squiddy Lamp</h4>


    The next day.


    Lambert Lake was ake surrounded by a gentle slope from two directions. The trees themselves only filled the direction where the river was, not the slope. Instead of trees, the slope was filled with green grass and some blue-colored rocks.


    The cool atmosphere made one want to spend their vacation in this ce. However, they couldn''t do so because theke had a monster inside it.


    The monster was called Squiddy Lamp. It was basically a freshwater squid. Because this ce was surrounded by monsters, not many visited this ce other than to grab some Purple Haze Grass in Big Sin Valley. That was also the reason why there was a small path leading outside the hill formation.


    ording to some rumor, the monster woulde out if they stayed too close to theke, so Theo set up the camp a bit farther away.


    Suddenly, a young man stepped on the sand near theke. He brought only a white spear while wearing a confident smile on his face.


    It was none other than Theo himself. He didn''t wear a mask nor bring his big bag. It was just him trying to challenge the monster like how he usually did, except for his second spear.


    If one took a look at this scene, one would think Theo wanted to challenge the squid one-on-one.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment before raising his hand, forming his Magic Bullet.


    As if sensing this Magic Power, a white tentacle suddenly emerged from theke. Its width alone was ten feet and reached as high as a hundred feet.


    Theo became a bit serious when he knew what kind of monster he needed to face. He couldn''t help but remember when a certain serpent brought him into a bottomlesske.


    "I couldn''t see how long that guy is�� Also, it''s easy for him to circle the hills around me. Compared to him, this monster�� it''s just a small squid." Theo released all his Magic Bullets to the tentacle''s head, trying to st it away.


    He also used his Tracking Ability, making the Magic Bullets hit right on the middle of the tentacle''s head.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as the tentacle was blown away and fell into the water again.


    Suddenly, three more tentacles emerged from the water, followed by a sharp-pointed tentacle, two times thicker than the others.


    Theo soon found a pair of eyes on that big one, knowing it wasn''t a tentacle but the squid''s main body.


    The squid itself was white. However, he finally knew why the squid was called Squiddy Lamp.


    Inside the main body, there were several lights that suddenly glowed. Although the sunlight suppressed the light, Theo could still see the blue lights behind the squid''s skin.


    When those lights shone even brighter, the tentacles also produced the same glow. Each tentacle seemed to have four light sources, with the first two being in the tip of the tentacle while the other two were scattered in the long part.


    "Hmm." Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw a tentacle mmed the ground on his right.


    He thought it missed him, but the tentacle soon moved to the right, sweeping him.


    Theo used his Blink to avoid it, reappearing above the tentacle, but he soon saw two more tentacles trying to smack him to the ground.


    He remained calm and used his Telekinesis to push himself to the left. It was clear that Theo wasn''t that bothered with the size.


    Even though the reach was bigger, the movement of the squid was too slow to even keep up with him.


    However, it soon changed when the first tentacle reappeared from the water, almost hitting him from the side.


    Theo clicked his tongue and used his Cannon st and External Flow to hit the squid.


    The squid didn''t like Theo''s movement, so it confronted Theo''s attack without doing anything.


    The Cannon st should blow away if not create a hole in the tentacle�� Or that was what was supposed to happen.


    Suddenly, the two light sources on the tentacles shone brightly, forming a small sphere in front of the tentacle.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because his Cannon st was repelled to the side as the tentacle continued its way toward him.


    "Elemental Shield." Theo formed two Elemental Shields just to stop the tentacle for a second. In the meantime, he used his Telekinesis tond on the ground.


    During that short flight, Theo confirmed the squid''s remaining arms, which seemed to help the squid stay afloat.


    "Hmm�� Unlike the squid from Earth, this guy has two pairs of tentacles. Interesting." Theo smiled and prepared to take this squid down. "Also, I need to watch out for that blue light. It seemed to be releasing Magic Power like External Flow that helped the squid repel my attack. Well, I think the stronger the monster, they can use a certain degree of Five Aspects, but at an intuitive level. Only those General ss monsters or above that can use it at an intellectual level.


    "I guess that''s why they are far stronger than Normal and Rare ss monsters." Theo''s expression turned serious. "This one is a Rare ss�� I guess. If the blue lights can repel my attacks, I''m afraid I need to target a specific area where there is no light."


    Theo then saw a pair of tentacles swiping from the left and right, forcing him to use his Blink again.


    Since the squid wanted him to go back to the air, he changed his direction and reappeared fifteen feet behind his previous location,pletely avoiding the tentacles.


    He stared at the huge tentacles before releasing his killing intent.


    "However, the squid doesn''t have speed, so it''s easier to deal with than the lich as long as I am careful. I don''t feel like getting injured in this fight." Theo smiled.


    Suddenly, another presence came from behind him.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and turned around, looking at whoever dared to ambush him.


    But this person truly shocked him. He never thought this person woulde again before him, especially after what happened in thepetition.


    "Scott!" Theo widened his eyes and called his name.


    Yes. He was none other than one of Theo''s three big bullies, Scott Brown.

 Chapter 362 – Scott

    <h4>Chapter 362 - Scott</h4>


    Scott Brown.


    His appearance couldn''t be messier.


    His right arm was gone, leaving only less than two inches left. There were bandages stopping the bleeding, but it was already red. It even showed a ck dot as a sign of infection.


    The body was so skinny that one could easily differentiate his bones.


    Still, what shocked Theo was the killing intent emanating from his eyes. With a small dagger on his left hand, Scott struck Theo with all his might.


    However, his speed couldn''t be considered fast since his level was far below him.


    Theo avoided him before kicking his back, blowing him next to the tentacle.


    "Scott Brown," Theo called his name again with a grim expression.


    "You arrogant bastard! Do you think you are good? Even if I can''t kill you, you won''t be able to escape this ce alive." Scott got up andughed out loud while shing the remaining right arm he had left. "Argh!"


    The blood was dripping from his right arm.


    Before anyone could react, Scott threw the chopped arm into the water.


    Seeing this bloody arm, the squid turned around and submerged into the water as if it nned to leave them alone.


    "The squid returns to the water?" Theo narrowed his eyes, thinking that the squid might note back to the surface again because of that blood. He thought Scott wanted to make him fail his mission to damage his reputation.


    "You bastard killed my family!" Scott gritted his teeth, ring at Theo. "Because of you, my father and mothermitted suicide. If you didn''t exist, I wouldn''t need to suffer like this."


    What Scott was referring to was none other than his life after Theo made his name in the mainpetition. After that kind of treatment from the citizens, thepany that his father worked at decided to fire him. The same applied to his mother.


    As both of them had no job and were being scrutinized by people because of Scott''s bullying, the entire family was on the verge of copsing.


    Everything began to fall apart at that point as many people took advantage of the situation to make their life even more miserable. At the same time, none of their friends or rtives wanted to help them, afraid of getting the same treatment.


    Leaving no other choice, his father started drinking and jumped off the roof. His mother couldn''t endure the sadness as well and hung herself.


    Scott''s heart was torn into pieces as his only thought was revenge. He sold every possession he had even if he could only get less than half of the original money as it was impossible to see Scott as nothing but a scumbag.


    Luckily, he managed to raise money and nned this kind of assassination. He didn''t want to leave it in the hands of assassins�� He wanted to kill Theo by his own method, thus resulting in him venturing to this ce with a small group that protected him until they reached this ce.


    After his supply ran out, he ate his own arm and drank his blood to quench his hunger and thirst, waiting for Theo toe here.


    However, what he got here was a shake in the head from Theo. "You reap what you sow. I am just a mere orphan and I could endure all those treatments from you and many people just to wait for my chance�� I endured it for a whole decade. Even if I needed to sleep in hunger, I still waited for the chance to be better.


    "Unfortunately, what you have chosen is the easiest method." Theo shook his head. "Instead of fighting, you choose to run away and do something like this. If this is all you can do��


    "Then, you can die." Theo shook his head helplessly. "This is why you are in this current predicament. Do you think you can stop me from leaving this ce?"


    "Haha, you are always arrogant. That arrogant person wille and bite you!" Scottughed as he heard loud noises from theke.


    Suddenly, eight tentacles emerged from the air as two squids came out of the water together.


    "Two?!" Theo widened his eyes in shock.


    "This will be the time where your arrogance will kill you!" Scott smirked. "There is another squid inside thiske that can only be called by blood! I have sold everything my family owns to buy the information and set up this trap for you!"


    "Another squid that can only be called by blood?!" Theo drew a gasp before four tentacles dropped on the ground, circling around them as if they nned to catch them.


    "You just used your Blink, so it''s not possible for you to escape this ce. Hahaha!" Scottughed as he had prepared to die.


    However, to his surprise, Theo alsoughed like him. He ced his hands on his belly as if he couldn''t withstand the irony. "I am arrogant? I think you are mistaking my arrogance for something else. Even though I act like this, I, by no means, underestimate them, including you. Do you think I walk here without knowing this is a trap?"


    "Huh?!" Scott suddenly felt something wrong. Theo had the same expression like how he tricked other people in the Grand Gaia. He remained calm and collected as if everything was going ording to his prediction.


    Little did he know, Theo had been holding hisugh this whole time because he forgot that those who represented other countries were the geniuses in their respective country. If not, they wouldn''t fight him and be that much of a challenge.


    In other words, he had been fighting people of the same generations that were at a far higher level. As for Scott, who couldn''t even get into the mainpetition, it was foolish of him to expect a high-level n.


    After all, the entire scheme turned out to be only at this level.


    "This is our difference. If this kind of scheme could kill me, I would have died several times." Suddenly, Theo raised his middle finger and started to disappear, leaving his spear behind to show this body was just a mere clone. He didn''t forget to say, "Die, foolish motherf*cker. Also, thanks for the information."


    Theo disappeared while the tentacle raised to the highest peak, mming it down to the ground.


    "What? You bast��" Scott cursed him out loud, realizing what just happened. Unfortunately, before he could finish his word, the tentacle had hit the ground.


    Bam.

 Chapter 363 – Two

    <h4>Chapter 363 - Two</h4>


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw what happened. He had been preparing his mind to fight the squid after understanding the situation, but what Scott did earlier just made him understand one thing.


    "Desperate people are indeed scary. They sometimes can exert 120 percent of their power or do unthinkable things like this. It may not be that hard for me to handle it when I''m alone, but it''s going to be troublesome if they''re aiming for those who stay by my side.


    "This is why I don''t want to have someone by my side, whether it''s a friend or a girlfriend." Theo let out a long sigh. "Well, thanks to him, I think I have steeled my resolve a bit more�� I am not an optimistic person, so as much as I am longing to have such a thing, it''s not possible.


    "I will let them use me because I know I will also use them. That''s all." Theo closed his eyes and let out a long sigh in disappointment. "Anyway��"


    Theo turned around, looking at Ava.


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head innocently, wondering what Theo wanted to do.


    "We will be dyed for another day. Let''s wait until everything calms down and kill a squid. After that, we can kill the second squid." Theo then began exining the situation to Ava, especially regarding the second squid.


    Ava was amused because she thought it would be tough for them to handle two level 280 monsters together. Theo thought it was possible, but there were several steps they needed to do.


    "This is my n. We''ll kill the first monster without injuring it. No, it''s not injuring it, but more to lure it outside the water. If it''s not possible, we will check its weak spots using my illusion before striking those points. I want to deal with as much damage as possible before the second squid appears.


    "Of course, it''s even better if we can kill the first one without having the second one appear, but I think that''s close to impossible. What do you think, Ava? Can you handle the second squid�� At least, buy me some time, so I can kill the first one. My clone will support both you and me."


    Ava looked down, thinking carefully. She clearly understood what Theo''s clone could do, so she simted the battle in her head for a while.


    After understanding the graveness of the matter, Ava nodded with a solemn expression. "Kyu."


    "Is that so?" Theo smiled. "I am counting on you then."


    Ava nodded.


    "In that case, let''s spoil ourselves for the rest of the day." Theo smiled.


    "Kyu!"


    ��


    After a few hours, the squids returned to the water. Luckily, they left the spear behind, so Theo sent his clone to retrieve it.


    Although the squid tentacle came out, the entire body didn''t due to Theo leaving the scene as soon as possible.


    In any case, Theo decided to fight his clone to prepare himself for the next day.


    Ava only watched his spar before hunting monsters nearby, trying to get some supply. She also refilled the water bottles to drink.


    Theo had been doing many things for her, so she thought about giving some back to him by doing this. In fact, she somehow felt even happier when she could do something for Theo, especially in the Purple Haze Grass case.


    It was the first time she felt that it was her time to shine. Theo didn''t smile that often, so it gave her a quite powerful impact when Theo genuinely praised her.


    ��


    The next day.


    Theo stepped on the sand next to theke once again. This time, he was apanied by his clone from the start.


    They both held a spear in their right hands, looking at theke with a smile full of confidence.


    On Theo''s shoulder, Ava was standing proudly, waiting for the enemy toe.


    Little did they know, Theo miscalcted one thing.


    Scott might know a portion of the information, but he never understood the entire fact.


    The squid that became active due to the blood wouldn''t be inactive in an instant, especially after getting the blood from his entire body that was ttened by the tentacle.


    The blood would keep the squid awake for an entire week.


    That was why when Theo summoned his Magic Bullet to call it out, a total of eight tentacles emerged from the water, showing Theo that he would be fighting two squids.


    "Seriously?" Theo''s expression became grim as he raised his spear, seeing how the squids came out and looked down on him.


    Theo observed their situation and muttered inwardly, ''Both squidse out at the same time? Should I retreat? No, the fact that the second squides out right means it won''t go back inactive for a while. I have wasted two days preparing�� I can''t waste more time than this, especially since I don''t know how long the second squid will be awake.


    ''In that case, I need to handle both monsters at once. This one is different from the Megalo Fish and Zombie Lich, but I haven''t used all my power in that fight, so��'' A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he released his killing intent while saying, "We shall kill these two squids right now.


    "Our n won''t change. You take care of the left one while I handle the right one. They may help each other, but at that time, my clone will be ready to use my Blink skill to help you.


    "Of course, I am nning to kill both squids, so don''t identally kill the second one, okay?" Theo instructed Ava while looking at the squids, who raised two tentacles each, ready to m them.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded, telling him she understood.


    While hearing her reply, Theo looked at the lights inside their bodies again before calcting all of them.


    The Magic Bullets then multiplied as a total of 160 Magic Bullets were ready to be shot.


    Right after the squid mmed the tentacles, Theo released them to multiple spots where the distance between one light and another was huge.


    "Magic Bullet."


    "Let''s see how they will react, shall we?" Theo smirked excitedly.

 Chapter 364 – Three Great Defense

    <h4>Chapter 364 - Three Great Defense</h4>


    All Magic Bullets flew in all directions. Theo''s targets were both squids'' weaknesses.


    He hit their tentacles, arms, and even various spots on the main bodies.


    Bam.


    The tentacles hit the ground, but none of them hit Theo and Ava. At the same time, the squids released their translucent screen from the glowing blue light, protecting their skins.


    As expected, around 80 percent of the Magic Bullets hit those protective barriers. However, the rest somehow hit the squids, albeit all of them were just illusions.


    "��" Theo became serious as he already saw the reach of each protective barrier, knowing that he could target several spots for the time being. But��


    "The vitals are protected tightly." Theo let out a long sigh before shouting to Ava, "You should know their weak spots already. Hit on those areas by using your speed, Ava. We shall cut them into pieces until we kill them."


    "Kyu!" Ava replied as lightning began to spark from her body. She stepped on the air andunched herself to the left squid.


    The squid obviously wouldn''t let Avae closer.


    It used the remaining tentacles to create an obstacle for Ava, stopping her from her track. At the same time, the other two that hit the ground earlier returned, hitting her from behind.


    Unfortunately, Ava already saw thising. Instead of moving away, Ava only stood still and shouted, "Kyu!"


    Seeing the two pairs of tentacles, Clone Theo used his Telekinesis to fly to Ava, touching her back while using his Blink before they were squeezed to death.


    The four tentacles ended up hitting each other.


    "!!!" The squid never expected the enemy to be so sly. Angered, it red at Ava and found hering at him with her fastest speed.


    Having all tentacles stuck after the sh, the squid didn''t have anything left to protect itself. Hence, he erected the protective screen to block this attack.


    It was at this time, Ava took another step andunched herself to the top of the squid''s eyes. Her feet were covered with powerful lightning that pierced the squid''s body and ripped the surrounding apart, creating a hole ten times Ava''s size, which was only a palm-size creature.


    It was small, but it would certainly weaken the squid.


    "Kyu!"


    Ava smirked as she had done her job, but a shadow soon covered her, stopping the sunlight from directly hitting her.


    She raised her vision and saw another huge tentacle that almost reached her. The tentacle came from her right, so it was obvious whose tentacle was this.


    And Theo wouldn''t allow such an action. He appeared next to the tentacle and used his Cannon st in the spot that didn''t get protected by the blue protective screen.


    The powerful energy hit the tentacle and almost ripped apart the tentacle, albeit it didn''t prate enough like Ava''s strength.


    This attack should be over and the tentacle would have fallen down and gone somewhere else, but the squid was a stubborn one. It sent another tentacle, not only to help the first tentacle hit Ava but also to hit Theo simultaneously.


    Theo smiled when he saw these two tentacles while ncing at the squid.


    Suddenly, a hole appeared in the squid''s right eye as a blue light pierced through it.


    "You don''t activate your protection the whole time, so it must exhaust your strength quite a lot. And the fact that you didn''t realize it wasing means I can easily defeat you by aiming at your weak spots." Theo smiled.


    The squid''s body swayed left and right because of the pain.


    It never realized that Clone Theo used the Magic Bullet, sent it away, and used the Tracking ability to hit the squid from behind.


    Theo smiled. Before the tentacle went away, he pierced the tentacle and utilized the Telekinesis to move around it, cutting the remaining uncut tentacle and sending it flying.


    "Goar!" The squid let out a loud sound. It dropped to the ground before ck ink began to cover the entireke.


    "Ah, right�� I forgot the fact that the squid usually used ink to get away from the predator. But since it''sing from their bottom, I guess it won''t be dangerous for us?" Theo muttered while looking at the ck water.


    Noticing that its partner was in trouble, the other squid waved its tentacle to Theo, trying to stop Theo from killing its partner.


    Theo raised his vision and used his Blink to escape from it, but his Awareness picked something big from behind.


    Theo turned around, saw another tentacle approaching him and spun his body. This way, his feet should hit the tentacle first.


    When the tentacle almost touched him, Theo activated his Flowmotion and stepped on the tentacle, leaping away.


    "What will happen if I have a squid like this as a pet? It can help me in my fight, especially since I can use my Flowmotion continuously." Theo smirked, looking at the squid.


    Since Ava''s hearing was several times more powerful than that of humans, she picked up Theo''s voice and got the shock of her life.


    "Kyu!" She let out a hollow cry as if asking him, "Are you not satisfied with me?"


    "Haha, I''m kidding." Theoughed while using his Telekinesis to fly around the squid while observing Ava''s movement, who had been helped by his Telekinesis to remain in the air while jumping around from one tentacle to another this whole time.


    Suddenly, the squid mmed the tentacle to the ground and the water and used that force to jump into the air, pointing its butt at Theo.


    "Seriously?" Theo widened his eyes in amusement and used his Telekinesis to fly away.


    However, he soon realized the squid was following his movement and he didn''t have enough time to fly around the squid.


    The squid then shot out a high-pressured ck ink.


    Theo raised his hand and summoned two Elemental Shields but soon found out that the pressure from the ck ink pushed him back until he dropped to the ground.


    His Clone quickly came to him as he used the Elemental Shields to help Theo take this kind of attack.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and ced his hand on the ground. "This kind of power�� I think it''s time to use this one."


    Three tombstones made of blue lights emerged from the ground as they formed a blue screen in front of him.


    "Three Great Defense."


    The Elemental Shields then disappeared, leaving only the blue screen to take on this ck ink.

 Chapter 365 – Forced Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 365 - Forced Retreat</h4>


    The blue screen dispersed the ck ink in all directions. However, due to him being on the ground and the Three Great Defense skill itself, Theo didn''t get any more pressureing from the shield, allowing him to supply the Magic Power needed to block this attack.


    Still, it didn''t dismiss the disappointment in his heart.


    "Ugh, I feel like this ink won''t get off my clothes or my skin�� Luckily, the shield is dispersing it, so it doesn''t touch me or whatsoever. But��" Theo nced at his clone, obliterated by the ink, before looking at the spear who already blended with the ground color.


    His spear obviously had been painted ck and seemed to be unusable after this. "I need to buy a C Rank Spear, which will cost quite a fortune. And�� The price is even higher than a C Rank Skill. Suck to be me."


    With that disappointment filling his heart, Theo kept blocking it until the squid stopped spurting the ink, realizing it could not prate Theo''s defense.


    In that instant, Theo used his Blink to take him upward and used his Telekinesis to fly straight to the squid.


    The squid seemed to have noticed Theo''s movement and returned to the water while sending all three tentacles to stop Theo.


    Theo summoned his Magic Bullets once again and shot all eighty Magic Bullets.


    The squid was obvious to what happened and tried to smack the bullets, not wanting to be hit by those bullets again.


    Using this chance to resummon his Clone, He sent Clone Theo to grab the spear back. Even if he needed to discard itter, the clone could still use it since no ck ink would matter to something that was bound to vanish sooner orter.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo observed the squid''s movement, trying to see where he should go.


    At the same time as Clone Theo started heading to Ava, Theo went in the opposite direction to loop around, trying to hit the squid from its blind spot.


    Unfortunately, the squid saw him and followed his movement even if it meant turning its giant body.


    This was the time Clone Theo showed its superiority.


    Theo wanted to create this opportunity, so his clone could change his direction and hit the squid''s back where the protective screen couldn''t reach.


    "Cannon st."


    Theo stabbed the squid and ripped apart the skin, creating a hole with twice his height as the diameter. The position of the hole was above the right eye that had been destroyed by Theo earlier.


    "This should weaken the squid even further," Clone Theo muttered while ncing at Ava, who still managed to hold on.


    Because of the attack, the squid turned around and pped Clone Theo, but the real him utilized that movement to make a sneak attack, ripping another tentacle from the squid.


    Bam.


    The tentacle fell to the ground and created a small shock wave that kicked up the dust nearby.


    Meanwhile, the disappeared clone reemerged next to Theo as they took this chance to unleash another attack to widen the wound they had made.


    They ripped the skin apart and connected the hole in the eye and the one above it, widening the wound, which allowed the green blood to flow out even faster.


    Due to that wound, the squid began to move slower than ever, giving Theo an easier opportunity to strike it.


    "Ava, I''m almost done. Take care." Theo shouted after cutting down another tentacle.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded and jumped in the air, avoiding the tentacle that almost hit her. At the same time, she headed to the left and hit the tentacle, blowing it away to prevent the tentacle from reaching Theo.


    Thetter couldn''t be more grateful because the fight had been much easier with her help.


    With the constant blood flowing out of the body, the squid had be weak to the point one of the tentacles dropped on its own while the other could barely move.


    Theo didn''t hesitate in iming that other''s tentacle, rendering the squid useless.


    Before it could move its body, Theo pierced the squid''s second eye and hit right in the middle of the eye, connecting the wound on both eyes and eventually killed it.


    [You killed a Squiddy Lamp.]


    [EXP+120,400]


    "As expected from a level 280 Squid��" Theo smiled before he got another one.


    [Missionpleted.]


    [Hurry up and get to a safe area instead of killing the other squid.]


    "��" Theo frowned when he saw the message. The other squid had been weakened by Ava''s continuous attacks, so he thought it was such a waste of opportunity to retreat.


    However, he couldn''t dismiss this warning as well since it might be important.


    After a few considerations, Theo shouted, "Ava, we''ll retreat."


    "Kyu?!" Ava''s body shook as she turned to Theo with a shocked expression.


    She never thought that Theo would choose to retreat after getting this much of an advantage.


    Theo ced his hand on the squid''s body and turned it into cards. He picked them up with his Telekinesis before bringing Ava away.


    His clone remained on theke to withstand the squid''s onught, buying them time to escape.


    Theo returned to the camp without hesitation.


    Avanded safely while staring at him in confusion. "Kyu?!"


    Of course, she would question his decision. It was abnormal for Theo to retreat when they had the advantage.


    From the past month they had been together, the only time Theo would run was when he was at a disadvantage.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t exin it either because the notification told him to quickly return to a safe ce.


    "I don''t know. I need to take this reward first it seems�� That''s why you can take care of my body?" Theo asked.


    "Kyu." Ava hesitated for a second before nodding with a serious expression.


    "After everything ends, let''s celebrate, shall we?" Theo smiled.


    Ava didn''t let out a sound and simply stared at Theo with a smile on her face.


    Theo nodded and closed his eyes while muttering, "I hope this reward is worth the hassle."


    His consciousness was transported back to where he took the reward after bing a Champion Rank Expert.


    He was surrounded by mountains while standing in the middle of a grass field.


    Turning around to observe the ce, Theo found a huge wolf standing behind him and ring at him.


    "You have finallye. I am tired of waiting."


    "��" Theo almost forgot that the one standing before him was considered a Mythical Creature that had killed a God. Normally, such a creature would be arrogant. In fact, his reaction might be more appropriatepared to God of Mischief or the serpent.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile.

 Chapter 366 – In Motion

    <h4>Chapter 366 - In Motion</h4>


    "I''m tired of waiting," said the wolf with his eyes glowing.


    Theo''s heart began to beat rapidly as he couldn''t help but show an excited smile.


    "��" Seeing such a reaction, the wolf fell silent for a moment before shaking his head. "Anyway, if it''s not because of him, I wouldn''t be here to teach you something."


    "Are you going to give me another skill?" Theo asked with a solemn expression. Instead of an excited smile, he showed a calm and collected appearance, knowing there was no need to fear the wolf before him.


    "What skill? You can''t even use your skills properly to the point I need to teach you here."


    Theo widened his eyes and asked, "Is it my illusion?"


    "See? This is my point. You don''t even understand the power behind the two skills you received from me." The wolf shook his head in disappointment.


    "!!!" Theo was surprised and corrected his words. "Blink and Telekinesis."


    The wolf harrumphed as he tried to pressure Theo with his giant body ring at him. However, Theo simply stared at him without any trace of fear in his eyes.


    "What I will teach you is how to use the two skills effectively and the current problem of your power�� What did humans call it again? Control?" The wolf frowned before continuing, "Anyway, we only have two hours here. So�� You and I are going to fight for two hours."


    "A spar?" Theo opened his mouth in amazement.


    "Don''t worry. Even if you are going to die, you can be revived endlessly. All you need to do is to withstand ten attacks from me consecutively and you can be as good as the so-called Supreme Rank." Fenrir raised its paw. "Anyway, you can use all your skills here."


    When the paw raised to the maximum point, Theo''s white spear appeared in the air and eventuallynded on Theo''s hands.


    "I will limit my strength to your level, so you can handle my strike. Now, we fight. Five minutes have passed." Fenrir didn''t waste a single more time and swept his paw from the right, striking Theo.


    "!!!" Theo was caught off guard and tried to use his spear''s handle to stop the paw.


    Bam.


    As he said, the strength wasn''t that powerful. The paw couldn''t even blow him away.


    When Theo thought he got a good grasp of Fenrir''s strength, he noticed somethinging from his left. He nced to the side, finding twenty Magic Bullets flying just a few inches from the wolf''s paw, curving ording to the paw''s structure.


    "What?!" Theo quickly used another skill to block it. "Elemen��"


    Unfortunately, he wasn''t fast enough as those bullets pierced his body, killing him in the process.


    His body disappeared for a second and reappeared the next second.


    "Huh?!" Theo drew a gasp when he remembered what happened. He muttered inwardly, ''Did he just use his own body to block my vision? Creating a blindspot that allows the Magic Bullet to hit me?''


    "What? There''s not much time for you to think," snarled Fenrir while doing the same thing.


    Theo blocked the paw again, and when the Magic Bullets appeared, he erected the Magic Shield. Due to the shock earlier, he couldn''t do anything, but he managed to stay alive this time.


    ''To think he killed me in the first move��'' Theo gulped down, understanding why he could kill a God.


    However, what piqued his interest was how Fenrir used his body to release the Magic Bullets.


    "Did you program the Magic Bullets to loop around your body so you can make a sneak attack?"


    "Hmph. Sneak attacks are not a thing. What I know is an opportunity. You don''t get killed because you are ambushed�� You are killed because you give the ambush opportunity to your enemy. If you''re the target, you simply need to destroy that opportunity and never let your enemy have it, but if you are the assassin��" Fenrir raised his paw again and did the same thing.


    This time, Theo saw Fenrir covering his ws with red-colored energy. He waved the paw and created three crescent-shaped red ws that struck Theo''s spear.


    Theo obviously used his strength to block this attack, but the force was too much to handle because he needed to wait for the Magic Bullets toe.


    Unfortunately for him, he died once again after the ground trembled and Magic Bullets came out, piercing his body.


    "��" Theo reappeared the next second and saw ten holes in the ground. "Magic Bullets pierced through the ground and hit me from below?"


    "If you are the assassin, what you need to do is to create that opportunity." Fenrir nodded with a serious expression.


    "So, that powerful strike was to stop my movement while the first wave of Magic Bullets was to distract my mind, making me focus on that. Thus, the opportunity was created��" Theo was shaken, realizing how amazing Fenrir was.


    "You can say that. Isn''t this your specialty?" Fenrir snorted. "You keep falling for my tricks�� Pathetic."


    To his surprise, Theo didn''t feel offended at all. He simply observed his movement and listened to his words carefully because all of them were words of wisdom. He wanted to learn from Fenrir because he felt he could get stronger.


    "Still, you summoned your Magic Bullets first because you knew where it wouldnd. Then, you used that paw to make sure I stayed in that position." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "What you have been doing until now is using your skills ording to what general people do, such as your Magic Bullet or Telekinesis. You have been too fixated on them. Every time you used Magic Bullets, you instinctively raised your left hand and summoned it. If it were me, I would have summoned one behind my back to avoid you from realizing it. The same applies to your Telekinesis. You kept using it together with the External Flow in a very straightforward way, copying that girl''s technique.


    "What you need is not that. Do you know why they are called a Fist Style? It''s because each movement means another attack. Straight punch, uppercut, spinning the arm, and so on. What you are doing is just the simplest one.


    "The thing you need right now is the flexibility to use External Flow. Have you realized that she spun her arm to create that spinning Magic Power? Have you realized the flow can be easily created as long as you follow a certain movement?" Fenrir looked down on him while saying, "This is one of the things I will teach you right now. I call it��


    ��In motion."

 Chapter 367 – Most Important Aspect

    <h4>Chapter 367 - Most Important Aspect</h4>


    Fwoosh.


    Theo waved his spear like swinging a baseball club, hitting Fenrir''s paw.


    At that moment, Theo utilized his External Flow and Telekinesis to turn his spear into a hammer to generate an extraordinary smashing power.


    Bam.


    "Your strength and control are still too weak," shouted Fenrir and blew away Theo''s spear. "No need to remember what you have been doing this whole time. It''s time for you to break free from your habit to get this more versatile movement."


    "Yes!" Theo replied aloud as he spun his body to generate centrifugal force and hit the paw with his fist.


    Bam.


    He barely stopped that paw before sensing another wave of Magic Bulletsing from the ground.


    Theo instinctively jumped but realized another wave of Magic Bulletsing from above.


    He ended up using his Elemental Shields to block the ones from above and below him. He ultimately used his Blink to get away after seeing an iing paw from the opposite direction.


    However, Fenrir followed him using the Blink and reappeared right before his eyes, hitting Theo with his paw and killing him again.


    "That''s how you used Blink''s momentum. Momentum is not a bad thing if you utilize it properly," said Fenrir while ring at the revived Theo.


    "I am sorry." Theo apologized again and kept observing Fenrir''s movement.


    Before the fight restarted, Fenrir raised his paw. "Look at this�� Don''t be too fixated on your weapon for a certain skill. Most of them are versatile and can be used depending on your need. I will show you the example of your Cannon st.


    "As long as you don''t get fixated on using it with your spear, you can channel that energy to cover your hand or foot��" said Fenrir while covering his paw with Cannon st energy. He then hit the ground and said, "�� to do something like this."


    Bam.


    The Cannon st touched the ground and turned the ground into a small crater. The residual energy generated shock waves in all directions.


    "If you stomped the ground earlier, you could have destroyed the Magic Bullets that aimed at you from below. Of course, you needed a certain level of control to do that."


    "I understand. I will reflect on my actions." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He had been impressed every time by Fenrir during the past thirty minutes. His movement and battle sense were beyond his imagination.


    Fenrir had been showing the infinite possibilities of all his skills.


    "I have been telling you that most skills are versatile. What do you think is the most important aspect of each skill that can bring out their fullest potential?" He asked.


    Theo contemted for a moment and said, "Versatility?"


    "You are half correct." Fenrir shook his head. "In fact, any skill is versatile. Because this is not the most important thing to a skill. The most important thing is the user. Skill is weak if the user can''t use it properly. Even an F Rank skill can kill you right now as long as I am the one using it.


    "For example, what do you think about your former skill�� What was it again? Haste?"


    "Yes, Haste. The one that increased my speed." Theo nodded.


    "Then I asked you�� Have you ever thought about using it another way?"


    "Another way? Other than increasing my speed?" Theo frowned.


    "Of course, it''s still to increase your speed."


    Theo became even more confused beforeing to a realization soon. He drew a gasp and looked at Fenrir. "You are telling me��"


    "Yes. It seems you are not that foolish." Fenrir sneered while looking away. "What if you use that Haste of yours to increase the speed of your hand instead of your foot? You can create a stronger momentum in each attack. If it''s your body, it can make your body more agile.


    "What you think about skill when you read the description is their main purpose. However, if you use them differently, their purposes can be greatly enhanced. You can even think about one skill being one Martial Art Style to create a few moves that can do almost everything."


    Theo sucked a cold breath because he finally understood Fenrir''s question. "The most important thing about skills is how we use them."


    "That''s right. I can''t teach you anything about illusion, but I can offer you some pieces of advice. For example, instead of multiplying your Magic Bullets, why don''t you multiply your Cannon st or Elemental Shields? It''s the power of your Illusion Multiplier.


    "The same applies to your Illusion Maniption. You can make them think you have tens of Elemental Shields to block it while, in fact, you withstand that power by using only one. They can think they are powerful since those who think they are bound to win will leave a gap in their defense from time to time."


    Theo closed his eyes, absorbing the knowledge he passed on.


    "I have learned so much bying here." Theo nodded and remembered a certain question. "It''s an unrted question, but�� Now that I think about it, how do you even make a connection with me? I mean the trials and such. I have read many articles, but they say the same�� It''s random. However, you are bound to a certain system that works to the entire humanity, so I''m sure it''s not that simple."


    Fenrir shook his head helplessly. "If I tell you right now, it will break the system flow and you won''t be able to receive it anymore. And I believe I''m not the one who should exin it to you since there is someone more qualified than me.


    "You can raise your doubt and search for the answer yourself since I''m not going to forbid you just to increase your curiosity regarding this matter. I will only warn you if you wish to know the answer.


    "The moment you get the answer, it will be thest time you can meet us. It''s not certain, but you can say the probability is about 90 percent. That''s why if you still want to proceed after knowing the risk, go ahead.


    "Also, I want to say�� You can rely on illusion, but you still need to increase your power. Only absolute power can create a reality. Tricks can remain as mere tricks. Unfortunately, this is the only thing I could say��" Fenrir harrumphed. "Let''s continue your training for another hour. I still have one more thing to teach you after that."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 368 – Advice

    <h4>Chapter 368 - Advice</h4>


    "Ha!" Theo waved his spear to the side, hitting Fenrir''s paw before Magic Bullets curved behind his back and arms, forming a single line that hit Fenrir''s foot in session.


    "Is that my win?" Theo asked, implying that he had hit him twenty times with his Magic Bullets.


    Unfortunately, Fenrir already smacked him to death like a mosquito while snorting, "Of course not, you idiot. That kind of attack can''t even tickle me. Can''t you see that I used the Telekinesis to form a kind of domain that shook your Magic Bullets to the point they exploded?"


    "��" Theo sighed and took a deep breath, calming his heart down. He had learned many things with Fenrir here.


    In fact, if he wasn''t limited by his Control, he might be able to replicate everything he taught him in an instant.


    Although he didn''t show it in his face, Fenrir was amazed by Theo''s learning speed.


    Theo never took his harsh words to heart and kept learning like a student. Theo also managed to pick many important points as soon as he exined them, making his improvement even faster.


    He realized why God of Mischief chose him. Still, he couldn''t stand the fact he needed to talk politely to him, so he continued what he had been doing this whole time.


    "Besides, your Control is still unstable. Thosest Magic Bullets were so weak that I wondered if it could kill me even if I didn''t do anything," Fenrir rebuked him again.


    "I know, I know. Sorry that I can''t do anything in two hours." Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Anyway, the training ends here. I''m sure you have noticed it too, but all these things require a good amount of Control. From my training alone, I have managed to make your Control level from Beginner to Practitioner level.


    "And with all this advice, I know that you can reach Master Level within six months. There is one thing you need to remember. Rank up your Clone Skill as soon as possible. That is a power that can bring limitless potential.


    "You should be able to increase your training speed by more than fifty percent after understanding what your clone can do. Also, you need to participate without your mask from time to time." Fenrir stopped for a moment, trying to think of another topic to talk about. "Ah, I almost forgot this one. What you need to do right now is to learn how to use Control in quick session.


    "For example, you can use Cannon st, Telekinesis, Magic Bullet, Illusion Multiplier, and Illusion Maniption in rapid session before the attack is even connected. The key to this one is none other than In Motion. You should remember it well.


    "And you should master Materialization first before learning any other Aspects. This will create a deep foundation of other Aspects, allowing you to increase the possibility ofbining two Aspects at once. For now, I won''t tell you about thebination since I believe someone is more qualified to teach you that one."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I understand. I will follow your guidance."


    "Shut up, don''t talk politely like that. It irritates me. You just reminded me of those guys who loved to talk politely while saying something else behind your back."


    Theo scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say. Fenrir also decided to drop it.


    "This is myst advice regarding your Control," said Fenrir as he formed another spear before him. "Don''t ever get fixated again into one form. I know that you are a spear user, but if you take another look at it, your job is to trick your opponent.


    "Instead of using it like the norm, it''s better if you get some understanding of all weapons." The spear''s de suddenly glowed before the Magic Power formed an extension of the de, turning it into a sword, albeit with a long handle. "If it''s like this, you can replicate the use of a sword. Of course, ignore the handle."


    He then formed another spear de made of Magic Power on the spear''s butt, turning it into a two-headed spear. "It can be used this way too, but more importantly��"


    A string made of Magic Power suddenly appeared, connecting between the two heads. Fenrir then used his Control to bend the string and spear as if wielding a bow. "You can even use this spear as a bow."


    "But a spear can''t bend that way��" Theo pointed at the spear in confusion.


    "Huh? Ah, I forgot that humans are useless. Those people from the mountain could make a durable, hard but flexible spear."


    "Ehm, sorry that we are not as good as dwarves." Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Either way, this is also a form of Materialization or whatever the name of that sh*t. This Materialization can be anything you want, depending on your imagination. Hence, I advise you to train your Control."


    "I will." Theo nodded.


    "I am not giving you any tips on how to improve it though�� I only want to tell you how to utilize this power." Fenrir looked away.


    "I know. It will be the best if I get both, but I know that even if I get stronger, as long as I can''t utilize it properly. That power is useless. Knowing how to wield it alone has given me a limitless possibility." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s good." He nodded. "We don''t have much time, so I will allow you to ask a question before sending you back."


    Theo looked down for a moment before a certain thing came into his mind. He scratched the back of his head and bowed his head politely, "This is not a question, but I think this is the most important thing I need to do right now. I am grateful for your guidance and I believe I am the luckiest person right now��"


    "!!!" Fenrir widened his eyes as if he understood Theo''s hidden meaning.


    His reply came in the form of a smack, killing him and sending him back at the same time.


    Seeing Theo had gone, Fenrir''s lips couldn''t help but curve as he harrumphed. "Hmph, I guess he is not as foolish as I thought. That''s right. You are the luckiest person in the world�� After all, you receive the best of the best from four of us instead of one like any others��"

 Chapter 369 – Rechallenge The Squid

    <h4>Chapter 369 - Rechallenge The Squid</h4>


    Theo gradually opened his eyes.


    When Ava, who just returned from hunting a monster for them to eat, saw him, she instinctively took a step back.


    There was a kind of beast smell lingering around him and his eyes seemed to be filled with it. This kind of beast was obviously far higher level than her to the point the aura alone managed to suppress and frighten her.


    "Kyu?!" Ava stared at Theo''s eyes, frozen.


    Theo hadn''t noticed her yet as he was still gathering his thoughts about what Fenrir told him.


    It took him three minutes before he turned his head, finding Ava hadn''t moved a single step from her position.


    "Hmm?" Theo''s expression mellowed again after adjusting his mental state. "Why are you standing there?"


    "Kyu?!" Ava''s body shook as the aura disappeared. It seemed Theo met a powerful beast.


    "Come here." Theo smiled and extended his hand.


    Ava leaped on top of his palm while checking whether the aura had truly disappeared or not. It scared her so much after all.


    "How is the situation in these two hours?" Theo asked.


    Ava shook her head as if telling him nothing happened. She pointed to a hundred feet away from them where blood sprayed the grass, showing that she just hunted the monster not only to protect him but also for their food supply.


    "Is that so?" Theo stroked her back while saying, "Thank you, Ava."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously.


    Suddenly, a thought shed in Theo''s mind as he raised his eyebrows. "Wait a minute. Is this the reason why he wanted me to go there immediately? He wanted me to test my current strength against the squid?


    "Although I couldn''t replicate almost everything he showed me because of myck of Control and practice, I still could do a few things by changing my mindset." Theo looked down, contemting his n for a moment.


    After several considerations, Theo''s lips curved as he said, "Ava, do you mind waiting here for a bit longer? I n to kill the squid by myself. And yes, without my clone."


    "Kyu!" Ava raised her foot.


    "You can watch my battle, but no help, okay?" Theo smirked.


    Ava nodded a few times before leaping off and looked back at him, wondering when he nned to do it.


    "I just gained this knowledge, so it''s better to do it when my mind is fresh. Besides, I still have enough Magic Power to do it." Theo rose from the ground and nced to the right, finding his white spear nted on the ground. He picked it up whilementing the blue spear that had bepletely ck due to being covered with ink.


    Even when his clone touched the ink, there was no sign of wiping it off.


    After letting out a short sigh, Theo then looked in theke direction. His expression became serious.


    "Let''s go." Theo turned and dashed back to theke.


    As soon as Ava heard hismand, she followed right behind him, stopping two hundred feet away from him where the squid couldn''t reach her and she still had a visual of Theo''s fight.


    Theke was still ck, but Theo paid no heed and shot his Magic Bullet to theke, calling the squid again.


    Angered by him, the squid quickly resurfaced.


    Theo raised his vision and saw the hole Ava made earlier.


    When the squid saw Theo''s appearance, it released its bloodlust, filling the entire atmosphere with killing intent. Inside the squid''s head was only one thing. Not only had he killed his partner, but he also dared toe back with that rxed face.


    The squid raised all four tentacles at once, nning to beat him.


    Theo, on the contrary, smiled and used his Blink right before the tentacles hit him. Reappearing in the air, Theo flew straight to the squid.


    However, thetter seemed to have learned from their previous fight too. Since it couldn''t use the tentacles, the squid tilted its head and hit Theo with his long head.


    "!!!" Theo flew to the side, but he was still hit right on edge.


    He might have blocked it, but the powerunched him into the water.


    Not wanting to be wet, especially getting covered in ink, Theo used his Telekinesis to create a counterforce before stopping him one foot above the water.


    Although he didn''t understand why, at this particr time, Theo recalled the scene when his master saved him from the giant turtle.


    "She might say Materialization, but�� I remember she spun her body to direct it��" Theo suddenly got a brilliant idea since he was right on the water surface.


    His expression became solemn as he pointed his spear to the ck water, forming a ripple that went to both sides, and used his Telekinesis to raise the water.


    Like his master, Theo used the tip of his spear to control the water. The circr-shaped water, ten feet in radius, began to rise. And due to the spin of his body, the water formed a spiral.


    Theo even used his Telekinesis to elevate himself into the air, so the spiral could go even higher while still connected to theke water.


    Unfortunately, his control couldn''t allow him to form a snake or a dragon like his master. And this spiral of water was simr to that of a long earthworm circling around an invisible pir.


    Even so, this was the best thing he could do right now.


    The squid obviously didn''t want to let Theo finish doing whatever he nned to do. Hence, he tried to p Theo into the water and drown him.


    Theo smiled and flew to the side, carrying the spiral of water.


    Bam.


    The tentacle missed Theo and hit the bottom of the spiral.


    Meanwhile, Theo had arrived right next to the squid''s face and mmed the water right on him.


    The speed of the water current created enough force to push the squid to the side.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. "I guess my Control is still not strong enough, but��"


    Not wanting to waste this chance, Theo took another spin and hit the squid''s face with his spear like he used a hammer. The Telekinesis and External Flow boosted the power of that swing, creating a force that knocked the squid down.


    "Goar!"

 Chapter 370 – Change

    <h4>Chapter 370 - Change</h4>


    "Goar!" The squid''s body swayed to the side, almost falling into the water.


    "Wait a minute��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as he thought something. He recalled what happened when he used the water and smirked. "So, that''s how it is��"


    Theo flew back, gaining a bit of distance from the squid.


    "Cannon st."


    Magic Power covered the tip of his spear as he focused on the blue light not far above the eyes. If he attacked there, the protective screen should appear.


    And the technique he had in mind seemed to be perfect to see his current strength.


    He pulled his spear back, preparing to thrust it tounch the Cannon st.


    "When I fought Ne, I used my Telekinesis to create a small disruption that forced the energy from the Cannon st to go to the side, so the area of impact became wider. But��" Theo took a deep breath and smirked. "What if I reverse it?"


    Theo thrust his spear, releasing the Cannon st.


    The powerful energy wreaked havoc. The size wasn''t that big since it was only ten feet in diameter, but if hepared it to the previous version, this one contained even more power, despite dispersing it to create a bigger area of impact.


    However, Theo didn''t want to create something like that to handle Ne''s twister anymore. What he wanted was a concentrated power of his own Cannon st.


    He imagined a funnel appear in front of his Cannon st. This funnel was formed by Telekinesis and absorbed all the Cannon st energy.


    The concept in his head was when water flowed inside a big pipe and entered a smaller pipe and the water velocity would increase.


    Using the funnel, he increased the velocity of his Cannon st, creating a faster speed and generating a more powerful force from what he had been doing this whole time.


    The smaller but stronger Cannon st flew straight to the blue light.


    Seeing such powering, the squid quickly activated the blue protective screen, blocking the Cannon st.


    As expected, the Cannon st dispersed to the side and created a tremendous shock wave to the area. However, what Theo did wasn''t futile.


    Crack.


    Theo smiled when he saw a small crack on the protective screen, proving that his Cannon st could be stronger if he concentrated it into one small line.


    "Great! In that case��" Theo smirked before seeing a tentacle from left and right.


    As if not wanting to give Theo any more chance to release such an attack, the squid tried to concentrate all the tentacles to p Theo to death.


    Unfortunately, Theo was too sleek. He avoided every tentacle effortlessly and even used his Telekinesis and Flowmotion to generate enough force to outrun the squid, arriving behind the squid.


    Since the squid had yet to turn around, Theo gathered the Cannon st energy again.


    In fact, he yed around a little bit just to buy enough time so he could use his Cannon st again.


    And using this opportunity, Theo wanted to do something even more insane.


    Theo channeled his Magic Power into his Cannon st and pulled his spear back, preparing for a thrust.


    He was waiting for the squid to turn around so it could use the protective screen. After all, that might be the only one the squid could do to stop this attack.


    As soon as their eyes intertwined, Theo thrust his spear. "Cannon st."


    Instead of a funnel, he formed a small coin hole to concentrate the power of his Cannon st, turning it into a kind of extension of his spear.


    The golden light from the Cannon st flew straight into that hole and waspressed into a single thin line like that of a de, leaving a golden-colored trail as if his spear expanded.


    The de continued forward, hitting the protective screen.


    A portion of the tip returned to a normal Cannon st as the energy was dispersed like usual. However, the protective screen cracked again even though the energy had yet to be depleted.


    This energy continued to push forward and suddenly�� *ng!* The protective screen was shattered��


    "Goar!" The squid roared in pain as Theo pierced through the protective screen, shattering the blue light inside his body.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he understood what Fenrir talked about.


    "Each movement has its own intention. Dispersing the power with my Telekinesis can give me a bigger reach while concentrating it can give me a more powerful force." Theo licked his lips in excitement, knowing that this change alone would improve his fighting prowess so far. And there were a few more tips that Fenrir gave him.


    He couldn''t wait to explore and master all of them.


    "Anyway, this is the extent I can do right now: Replicating my master''s Materialization by using In Motion and Telekinesis and changing one''s perspective to release a skill." Theo''s heart calmed down as his eyes became extremely cold. "I guess it''s time to kill the squid."


    "Magic Bullets."


    I wenty Magic Bullets flew to several spots that couldn''t be covered by a protective screen.


    The squid had no choice other than to use its tentacles to destroy the Magic Bullets, not wanting to be hurt anymore.


    Unfortunately, this was thest thing he should do when facing Theo.


    Theo used this chance to close his distance with the squid.


    Appearing in its vision, the squid instinctively sent one of the tentacles to push him away. Unfortunately, Theo raised his hand and covered his spear as if he used his Cannon st, aiming at the tentacle.


    Realizing that the attack could pierce the barrier and destroy the blue light, the squid flinched and tried to change the direction of its tentacle.


    It was then Theo''s image disappeared, revealing that he actually pointed his spear at the squid''s eye instead of his tentacle.


    "As expected, absolute strength can make an illusion better." Theo smirked as he just managed to scare the squid with only an illusion.


    He then thrust his spear with his External Flow and Telekinesis as if using a drill, creating a bigger hole than his spear was supposed to.


    "Goar!" The squid screamed in pain.

 Chapter 371 – Movement Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 371 - Movement Part 1</h4>


    One minuteter.


    [You killed a Squiddy Lamp.]


    [EXP+120,400]


    Theo floated on top of the giant squid''s body that had fallen to the ground. There were several holes where blood continuously flowed out.


    He wiped the sweat on his forehead with a smile on his face. The excitement had yet to leave his body because he truly saw the possibility of what Fenrir taught him could do in the future.


    "I can fight at a higher level with this. Unfortunately, I don''t know how much I can do within two weeks, considering I''m nning to reach Hero Rank after this." Theo paused for a moment. "Of course, the next ce where I hunt will be a higher level area since I am confident that my power is enough right now."


    Theo ced his hand on the squid''s body and used his Telekinesis to bring the two cards dropped from this monster.


    He thennded on the ground as Ava greeted him.


    "Kyu!"


    "I''m done, Ava. What do you think?"


    Ava threw a few punches in the air before falling on his back as if she was defeated, telling Theo he had grown stronger.


    Theo smiled and touched his shoulder. "Let''s go."


    Ava nodded and jumped on top of his shoulder as they returned to their camp.


    "Anyway, I have gotten all the things I want from this expedition. I will rest and consolidate the new power I learned for two weeks before going to another one. You are with me, right?" Theo asked while checking his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 240


    EXP: 201456/218165


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (C), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (C), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 330, Endurance 220, Agility 229, Vitality 220, Magic Power 330


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously, not wanting to be left behind whenever Theo went to this ce.


    Theo smiled and continued, "Anyway, I can level up once more on the way back since I''m not nning to deal with all the monsters on the way."


    Theo looked at Ava and thought that Ava''s appearance might also make him a bit different from the Joker Alea and the others knew, considering he would appear as a Summoner, not Magic Warrior or Illusionist.


    There was a fighting style, but Fenrir just gave him an idea of how to conceal it.


    As soon as Theo returned to the camp, they had lunch and started packing up, quickly leaving this ce with all the loot they got.


    It was slightly surprising to see more than a hundred Skill Cards and two hundred Material Cards in his possession.


    However, this number was normal. He had killed more than two thousand monsters since the first time he ventured from Ark City after all.


    While he was on the way to Ark City, many people talked about him, especially those who were influential enough.


    ��


    In one of the Skyscrapers in Nesi City, the city where Theo lived, stood a man on the very top of the building, looking down on the scenery.


    This building was the headquarters of one of the biggest organizations in Thernd, the Faerie Group. He managed to make this group one of the biggest groups in Thernd when he was just a mere 32 years old.


    Without ambition, it wasn''t possible. And that ambition of his could only be achieved if he got Theo under his wing. After all, not only would the group be even more prominent, but Theo would also be their strongest fighter in a few years.


    Suddenly, another middle-aged man opened the door and entered the room.


    "How is it?" He asked with a calm tone.


    "It''s hard for us to get his information, especially his address. No one has seen him either. We can only do onest thing, which is to gain the support of all the real estatepanies to check his address." The middle-aged man said with a worried tone.


    "Hmph. To think he would move from that ce right after he returned to the country�� Has anyone contacted him yet?"


    "I don''t think so. They should have the same difficulty as us right now. We have made a simple mission to visit our ce for a talk in his personal mission, but his personal assistant refuses us."


    "Don''t mess with the temples. It''s under the UN jurisdiction�� We don''t want to involve the government too." The leader thought for a moment and said, "For now, increase the reward. I''m sure he will agree to talk with ten million. At that time, we can force him into our contracts or he will lose his life."


    "But that��" His assistant frowned. "This will enrage the government and citizens."


    "We can still use drugs." The leader shrugged. "Anyway, I have several ways to force him into a contract. After that, he can''t do anything�� Besides, the government has stated that they won''t do anything to him, including inviting him. So, we are good to go."


    "But he may go to another country soon. I''m sure many countries are interested in him."


    "Don''t worry about it. The contract won''t forbid him from visiting another country."


    "That will just anger them. They may appear good outside, but they may assassinate us if we put him in this position."


    "There is no guarantee that Theodore Griffith has epted their offers. If not, he would have gone to them already like Laust Lange. His case is not the same as those third years too, since graduation is on the corner. Besides, he won''t realize he has signed the contract until a few yearster. It''s better if another country nurtures him for me since I can reap such good fruitter." The middle-aged man shook his head. "I, Rolf Steen, will get him and rise to the very top of this country as soon as the current president leaves his seat. For that, I will obtain Theodore Griffith no matter what."


    "This��" His assistant gulped down and sighed. "I understand. I will go to Fighter Temple to add the reward."


    He sighed and left the room. His assistant opened his Skylink and shook his head helplessly, looking at his resignation letter. He had yed with fire when he served as Rolf''s assistant, but he didn''t want to y with magma, so this task might be hisst task. Of course, he also knew other groups'' intentions too, but whether they could control Theodore Griffith or not would depend on their ability.


    ��


    Meanwhile, In Vatican Pce, a woman sat on the chair with a troubled expression, asking the other woman who stood before her. "Are you sure you want to do this, Agata?"

 Chapter 372 – Movement Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 372 - Movement Part 2</h4>


    "Are you sure you want to do this, Agata?" The woman, who was none other than the pope''s student Enrica, asked her best friend.


    "Yes. I believe I''m the best candidate to go to Thernd." She nodded as her hair turned red and her face got slightly fatter, toning down her beauty a little bit. "I have prepared myself to do this."


    "But do you know how to find him?" Enrica asked.


    "I have my way."


    "So, you n to seduce him?" She smiled, teasing her.


    "Nope." Agata shook her head and turned, walking to the bed and using it as her chair. She raised four fingers. "First of all, I doubt it can be done so easily and a person like him won''t fall into tricks like this. Hence, I want to make a connection with him first�� Probably as a friend. Everything can be builtter with time."


    "Ho?" Enrica became serious as Agata continued.


    "Secondly, the closest one to him in our tournament group is me. I know that this kind of rtionship is not that big of a deal, but he will certainly give me some face. That''s when I can start my own ns.


    "The third reason is to handle his problem there. As you know that although he has promised toe to us, not many know this truth or it will be big news already, especially from those who get rejected while being unaware of this agreement the entire time. Even his teammates were far from him when we held the conversation, remember?"


    "Certainly." Enrica nodded. "I guess you have your reasons. I can send several people to help you, considering you need to deal with Supreme Rank Experts�� After all, I''m sure you want to give some warning to those who covet him, right?"


    "It''s fine. My family''s bodyguards can handle it for me. For now, I need to get a second identity."


    "Wait, you are asking the wrong person if you want to do it." Enrica raised her hands instinctively. "Don''t ask me for a counterfeit��"


    "Haha." Agata chuckled. "I can do it by myself. I just want you to know I can only go in a week or so."


    "Okay. In that case, I can inform my teacher so that he can talk with our Prime Minister about this matter." Enrica nodded, knowing why she talked to her regarding this matter. However, she continued with an unsure tone. "Then what is the fourth reason�� You are raising four fingers, right?"


    The blindfolded Enrica obviously couldn''t see it as she was also still unsure about the vision in her mind.


    Agata couldn''t help but smile as she said the fourth reason. "What other reason could I have?"


    "So, you are interested in him." Enrica sighed. "Well, I might have teased you this whole time, but I know that he is not interested in you, you know. I''m just afraid that you will get hurt after this."


    Agata shook her head and put on a genuine smile. "All I know are two things. The chance will only be zero if I don''t pursue him. After all, it''s rare to see someone like him, so I can''t afford to give up without even doing anything. The second thing is when I shall give up�� Rica, I know when to act and when to give up. Please believe in me."


    Enrica let out a long sigh. "Fine, fine. You can do whatever you want. I will just lend you my shoulder if youe to me cryingter."


    "Shouldn''t you pray for my sess?" Agata pouted.


    "Haha, it''s just me teasing you. Of course, I will pray for your sess." Enrica smiled. "God bless you."


    ��


    Simr discussions were happening in China.


    Cheng Sui just came out of the meeting room while looking down.


    Zhong Li, who stood behind the door, apanied him while asking, "Why the long face? Is it still a no-go?"


    "Yes. At first, they agreed to this, but since Theodore only said he woulde to our country instead of joining our country, they are retracting their offer. Well, it''s been debated as soon as they get the document from Theodore, though�� I have tried to fight for the contract, including my pops, but it doesn''t look that good."


    "Have you considered the manual way?"


    "I have, but we can''t do anything unless Theodorees to us directly. Yeah, they have forbidden us to send anything for a favor as well. It''s true that Theodore may be stronger, but those people won''t take the gamble. They will try to weaken him for the time being and when there is a chance, they may eliminate him. At the very least, we can''t do anything before his 18th birthday." Cheng Sui shrugged.


    "Well, he can choose an International Family that can rival the Griffith Family, so while he doesn''t belong to the country, he can do anything in every corner of the world with that influence. I think this is his real n��"


    "Yeah. My pops said so too�� The Griffith Family may be exceptionally strong, but it''s not like they are at the top too. It''s such a shame that we don''t know which family he will go to. For now, we have narrowed the targets down to Italy, the US, the UK, Japan, and this country."


    "Ho?" Zhong Li furrowed his eyebrows. "Italy''s Pope is the target. There are several groups in the US that can stand toe to toe with the Griffith Family. The British Royal Family and that crazy Duke can do it too. Japan has two as well, while your Cheng Family is considered one from our country."


    "Yeah. In any case, we can''t do anything for the time being, so I will just see Theodore''s choice."


    "I don''t want to be his enemy to be honest. Imagine if one of our strongest Mythical Rank Experts runs rampant in this country. Stopping them will be a mess."


    "Indeed. What Theodorecks right now is time and resources. As soon as he chooses an influence, he solves that problem." Cheng Sui sighed. "Either way, the country will try to prevent other countries from sending any support to him, so we don''t get any disadvantages."


    "That''s impossible though."


    "It''s hard, but we should be able to stop some." Cheng Sui shrugged. "Anyway, let''s go back to my house and have a drink. We can continue our talk there."


    "Sure."

 Chapter 373 – Movement Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 373 - Movement Part 3</h4>


    Meanwhile, Ne punched forward, creating a small shock wave that blew everything in front of her.


    There was even a fan-shaped trail on the ground, showing she had been doing this for a while.


    Suddenly, a middle-aged man with blue-colored hair came to their garden, asking, "I think you have practiced enough for today��"


    Ne nced at him as her expression turned serious. "Now that I think about it, isn''t it the time for other countries to start making their move? Father, I want to learn about Theo''s parents. Who are they? Seeing the record alone already tells me that they are not weak. They are among the top fighters, right?"


    "��" The middle-aged man closed his eyes and looked away. "It''s not the time yet. Just wait for another few months and you will know about them."


    "You always told me the same answer. If I don''t have enough information, I can''t choose my life choice, you know."


    "You will be informed after your 18th birthday." He still refused to answer.


    Ne frowned and said, "Still, with them being one of the strongest, I doubt the family can do anything to Theo for a while. I don''t see the reason why they chose to fake their suicide��"


    "That''s enough. You shouldn''t pry anything about his life anymore."


    "So, you didn''t deny my im about their strength." Ne smirked and nced at him. "If they are among the strongest, they should meet him��"


    "You now started ying tricks with your father." The middle-aged man sighed while shaking his head helplessly. He extended his hand to grab Ne, bringing her forcefully inside.


    However, Ne quickly took a step back and nned to avoid him, but her body suddenly moved toward him as if an invisible string pulled her into her father''s hand.


    In the end, her father''s hand circled around her stomach as he carried her inside. "I need to punish a bad girl."


    "I''m almost 18 years old!"


    "Even if you are 50 years old, you will always still be a little girl in my eyes." He smiled as they returned to the house.


    ��


    Unlike her conversation, Shibuya Mami certainly didn''t have such a rxed conversation, especially with the guy who always puts on a serious face, Laust Lange.


    "So, what do you think about it?" asked Mami while pouring tea for him and her.


    "What?" Laust furrowed his eyebrows.


    "I''m sure you already know this, but this is the time for the countries to start making their move. And this wave will surely shake Thernd, let alone the epicenter of this entire problem, Theodore Griffith."


    Laust shook his head. "I don''t really care. I will settle everything after I have gained enough strength. As long as I haven''t reached the Supreme Rank, I won''t think much about what''s happening there."


    "Haha, you''re no fun." Mami chuckled.


    "Then, why are youughing?"


    "The fact that you are not fun is a joke in my eyes." Mamiughed. "Anyway, I can promise you. You can reach the Supreme Rank within three years. Of course, the speed will depend on your Original Technique. The sooner you create one, the faster you can reach Supreme Rank."


    Laust quickly rose from the floor, not even ncing at the tea that Mami poured. He just turned around and walked away.


    However, before he reached the door, Mami continued, "Also, you are not allowed to die. We are not raising you just to have you die. If Theodore wants to im your life, depending on the situation, we will put a stop there."


    Laust stopped for a second as if telling her that he was listening before storming out of the room without a single word.


    "Such a boring man. No, should I say he is just shy��" Mami chuckled and looked at the tea. "I guess I need to drink two cups now."


    She let out a sigh and looked at the window, muttering, "I guess it''s going to be troublesome after this. Laust is the right catch for us since he is naturally talented for Technique training�� As for Theo, we still need to wait for the Prime Minister''s decision. I guess we will wait for a while."


    ��


    Miami, the United States.


    A woman was lying down on the beach chair. She wore a white bikini thatplemented her blonde hair and revealed her alluring curves.


    Suddenly, another woman, who appeared to be slightly older than her, came to her while saying, "There are several debates in the White House about our stance��"


    "Theodore Griffith?" She replied with her eyes still closed.


    "Yes. They are arguing about his loyalty. After all, not many want to pour all the resources for other people to leave after getting all that��"


    "Of course. He is from the Griffith Family. Unfortunately, we can''t get any information regarding his parents, but I think he is nning to gain enough support to ensure his safety from other countries and the Griffith Family."


    "Then, what should we do?"


    "Tell my grandfather to recruit him." She nonchntly answered.


    "Wha��" Her body shook, never expecting this kind of answer. "But Miss'' Starry Group alone should be enough to handle this matter. Why would you bring the Star Group to the picture? I''m afraid Sir��"


    "That''s enough. You don''t need to exin it to me. Do you think I don''t know about it already?" She sighed and rose from the chair while taking off her sunsses. "I smell money from him. That''s enough."


    "This��" She didn''t know what to say.


    The blonde woman sighed. "To think you doubt my ability�� Listen here, I, Maya Hamilton, never take an investment that I may lose in the future. Just trust me."


    Suddenly, Maya fell silent as if she just thought of another incredible n.


    "Wait a minute. Tell my father this instead�� Remember to say every single word without any mistakes." She smirked. "Grandfather, let''s have a gamble. In three months, I''m going to Thernd to settle everything with Theodore Griffith.


    "If hees with me along with all his worth that may exceed everyone''s expectation, he will be the person of my Starry Group, but Star Group also needs to help him too, especially his protection. If I lose, I will go to the matchmaking he arranges."


    "But you just will go there simply for formality��"


    "Muhaha, Of course. No man is qualified to bring me to their bed!" Sheughed.


    "Yes, I understand. I shall tell him everything, including yourst sentence." She nodded and left.


    "Wait, what?! There''s no need for thatst one��" Maya scratched the back of her head. "Well, it''s not like my grandfather doesn''t know�� Whatever." She just leaned back to the couch and closed her eyes again, rxing her body.

 Chapter 374 – Movement Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 374 - Movement Part 4</h4>


    In the Lange Family Mansion, Laust''s father, Endo Lange, mmed his table and red at the butler. "You are so freaking useless!"


    The butler only closed his eyes, not saying anything.


    Endo Lange wanted Theo''s information and there was still no news about him after more than a month, making him angry.


    However, the butler seemed to have understood why Laust wanted to mend the rtionship between him and Theo.


    Although Theo didn''t have an informationwork like them, concealing his whereabouts was still possible, albeit things like this would soon be found out sooner orter.


    And he had predicted what Endo Lange wanted to do after this.


    "I already saw everything about his personality. Do you think he will forgive us?" Endo red at the butler. "I want him dead. I don''t care how much money you use, I want to know his whereabouts!"


    Yes, this was what they should do to get Theo''s information. Only by using their connections and money could they ''ask'' all Real Estate agencies about Theo''s personal information, especially after the government stated they wouldn''t be involved in Theo''s matter.


    "I understand." The butler politely bowed his head before leaving the room.


    To his surprise, two people had been waiting behind the door as they entered together.


    Those two were Ben Lange and Sihan Raskaka.


    Ben politely bowed and said, "Father. I have returned home. I am bringing someone with me."


    When Endo saw Sihan''s face, he subconsciously muttered his name. "Sihan Raskaka."


    "I am d that Father knows him. This will make it easier." Ben smiled and pointed his hand at Sihan. "I''m sure Father knows he is Theodore Griffith''s bully and Theodore Griffith must be targeting him to kill him. That''s why I brought him to you. We can use him as bait to lure him out, allowing us to ambush him."


    "Hm?" Endo stopped for a moment as his expression became serious, understanding this information. If he could use Sihan, he might be able to lure Theo out.


    "He only has one demand. It''s for our family to guarantee his safety. In other words, we will jump in before Theodore kills him." Ben smiled.


    Ben Lange suddenly recalled what happened two days ago.


    He and Sihan met face to face for the first time. In fact, he didn''t expect to have Sihan meet him.


    "So, what does the winner of the Grand Gaia want from me?" Ben smirked as he didn''t n to waste any time for pleasantries.


    Sihan seemed to share the same sentiment. He stated, "I offer myself to be your bait. You must already know my rtionship with him. As long as you can kill him, I am satisfied."


    "Ho?" Ben''s expression turned grim as he looked around, confirming there wasn''t anyone nearby. "Let''s cut to the chase. What do you want? I don''t think killing him is all you want, right? I''m sure you don''t want to die, else why do you even bother toe to me?"


    Sihan nodded with a calm expression.


    When he saw that reaction, he muttered inwardly, ''Hmm. This Theodore Griffith�� has helped my brother ovee his matter and change for the better. I should repay him, no? Maybe I should provide some time for him by slowing Father again?


    ''No, I''m sure that father will send someone strong this time, so I may need tomission the Daemon group again to eliminate them. I can put all the me on Sihan as well, since I can say he traps us.


    ''This way, Father will think twice about harming Theodore Griffith in the near future. This should be enough to let him be a Hero Rank Expert. At that time, I believe he should have enough strength to escape andy low for a while.'' Ben nodded with a serious expression as if telling Sihan his decision.


    "I can bring you to my father, the current master of the Lange Family. However, I can''t guarantee you that he will agree."


    Sihan nodded without hesitation. "That''s enough. I believe we share amon goal."


    "Then, I''m looking forward to our cooperation." Ben smiled.


    Recalling this scene and seeing his father''s expression, Ben thought this was indeed a perfect opportunity not only to help Theo but also to weaken his father''s power.


    "What do you think about it, Father? I believe this is a perfect chance for us to strike Theodore Griffith. Besides, I''m sure you want to use the family''s money and connection to know his home, right? Instead of doing that, I think it''s good to go along with this n. It''s free." Ben smiled.


    "!!!" The butler seemed to understand what Ben tried to do. Ben told him that he wanted to repay Theo''s kindness for changing his brother for the better. And if that were true, Ben would be nning to make this n fail, dying everything for about two to three months.


    After that, Endo needed to use money and connections to resume the current n. However, due to the multiple failures, that n would face many problems, dying it even further. At the very least, they could give Theo around six months.


    This should be enough to repay Theo''s kindness. As long as Ben could talk it out with Theo, they should be able to resolve the misunderstandings and direct Theo''s anger to Endo.


    Seeing all these ns made him remember the time he served their mother. If only he could smile right now, he would have put on a genuine smile, feeling happy about the brothers'' growth.


    Unfortunately, he needed to put on a stern face as the butler stepped up. "Master. I believe this n is good. It doesn''t cost us any money either."


    "You are too lenient. Have you forgotten that he has failed once?" Endo mmed his table and red at his butler.


    However, the butler didn''t back down as he faced his master with a solemn expression. "It''s normal to see failures when you grow up. And us, adults, should be cleaning it up. That''s why�� If Young Master failed this time��"


    The butler released his killing intent as the ground started to crack and the windows began to tremble. He continued, "I shall be the one who does the next n myself."


    "��" Endo suddenly fell silent and closed his eyes. He thought for a moment and checked his butler''s expression.


    After several considerations, Endo finally opened his mouth. "Two months. I won''t give you more time than that."


    "Thank you, Father. I will do my best not to fail your expectations��" Ben politely bowed to him.

 Chapter 375 – The First Mischief

    <h4>Chapter 375 - The First Mischief</h4>


    When they reached home, all Theo did was throw a party for Ava since only because of her support could he achieve all these.


    Though, all Ava wanted was food.


    Hence, He cooked for her until she was satisfied. And since they returned at night, Theo quickly went to sleep after filling his hunger and washing his body.


    The next day, Theo wanted to sell everything from his mission. However, before leaving his room, he suddenly thought about something.


    He turned back and looked at Ava, who was lying down on the couch, staring at the news. It was hrious to see a rabbit watching the news, but considering Ava understood it perfectly, he thought it was fine.


    Still, he had something to ask her. "Ava, do you mind helping me?"


    "Kyu?!" She tilted her head in confusion.


    "How far can you spot or hear a sound?" Theo asked.


    That question made her understand what her role was. She thought for a moment and wondered how to convey it to him.


    She then looked at the door and the swimming pool on the other side of the house, pointing at both of them. "Kyu!"


    "From the wall to the swimming pool? The range is roughly 50 feet." Theo was confused and still waited, feeling Ava had yet to finish her answer.


    She then tapped the couch twenty-five times and raised her hand. "Kyu."


    "Hmm? So above a thousand feet?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Although it was just a rough idea, he understood that her hearing was quite powerful. "Still, normal rabbits can hear four times that range��"


    "Kyu?!" Ava took a step back in shock before finding raising her hand and nodding her head. After that, she pointed to the sky and pointed at her ears before making a surprised expression but shaking her head.


    "Ehm�� Wait, I need time to interpret that one." Theo scratched the back of his head. "What you said earlier is when you can understand the sound. Past that range, you can''t understand it but still hear it�� Something like that."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously, showing she wasn''t useless.


    Theo looked down and pondered. "You can''t show yourself outside, but I can use my illusion to let you peek without getting spotted by others. If you are satisfied with it, will you help me?"


    "Kyu!" Ava''s expression brightened as she jumped to Theo''s shoulder without hesitation, not wanting to waste any more seconds at home.


    "Ahaha," Theo chuckled. "I want you to use your ears to spot any possible spies that follow us. Do you think it''s possible?"


    "Kyu!" Ava raised her foot with a smile on her face, telling him to leave everything to her.


    "In that case��" Theo put her down and changed his clothes.


    A few minutester. He came out with a white t-shirt and covered it with an orange shirt. On his back was a backpack filled with the Purple Haze Grass and Several Material Cards since he wanted to register the items on Sk and allowed the agency to handle everything. They took 5 percent of the sales, but it was better than handling it himself.


    "You can hide behind my shirt and peek through the gap of the buttons. I will put on an illusion to make it like there''s no one peeking. Just make sure you don''t struggle too much since I don''t want you to be found out��" Theo nodded with a smile.


    "Kyu!" She nodded, leaped to his shoulder and entered his shirt. Standing on top of his belt, she slightly opened his shirt, so she could look around. "Kyu?!"


    "Yeah. That''s okay." Theo confirmed it and put on an illusion as if his shirt didn''t have anything behind it.


    Of course, he had prepared another pair of clothes inside the bag since he wanted to visit both Assassin Temple and Fighter Temple, considering he needed to submit three missions to Assassin Temple and the personal mission to Fighter Temple to get the best of everything.


    In Fighter Temple, he obviously couldn''t wear his mask. That was why he wanted Ava to spot anyone following him.


    Besides, he had gotten all the missions sent by Sarah. All of them were personal missions, considering many people wanted to meet him to discuss something with him, probably to invite him to their group.


    He opened his missions.


    Mission: Meeting with ragie Corp. in rk Tower


    Level: -


    Reward: 500,000 Zils


    Mission: Meeting with Judgment Group in the Judgement Group Headquarters


    Level: -


    Reward: 1,500,000 Zils


    ��


    ��


    Mission: Meeting with Faerie Group in the Faerie Group Headquarters


    Level: -


    Reward: 10,000,000 Zils


    "Seriously��" Theo sighed. He had seen it a few times, but he was still impressed by the number. It felt like a fan meeting if he ignored the purpose of the meeting. "Haha."


    Suddenly, another notification came up, not from his Skylink but from God of Mischief himself. It was such a ridiculous notification to the point Theo coughed a few times in bewilderment.


    Trial: The First Mischief


    Description: Meet those people, get all their money, and leave!


    Reward: You get the reward from those people already


    "What the��" Theo facepalmed, staring at the trial in disbelief. "Are you freaking kidding me? It''s the same as making those people my enemies?"


    Theo flipped out as he couldn''t understand his intention. Making enemies left and right was thest thing he wanted to do, yet, the trial forced him to do it.


    "Is there a way to reject this?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    Unfortunately, God of Mischief replied.


    [No.]


    [You can''t create amotion in the world without learning to do it on a smaller scale like this. Besides, you get money to buy more skills. Don''tin and quickly go. The benefits are worth more than the risk.]


    "What benefit? They will try to kill me after this��" Theo clicked his tongue. However, he also found something strange. "Wait a minute. My main identity right now is Joker and I have no n in using my real identity for the remaining mission, so I am good to go. Also, I should be able to buy time since I am mostly fighting on the other side.


    "As long as I y my cards right, I can handle everything. Well, knowing there are many influences inviting me, I believe they understand if I don''t choose them. It''s not like I''m nning to offend them. Only two or three of them will probably think this way.


    "With my current skills�� I think I can escape from them." Theo thought for a moment. "If only I had a Metamorphosis to change my appearance�� My escape is nothing but assured. In other words, this is free money."


    Suddenly, another notification came and steeled Theo''s resolve.


    Trial: The First Mischief


    Description: Meet those people, get all their money, and leave!


    Reward: Guarantee Metamorphosis Skill in Hero Rank Advancement

 Chapter 376 – Submitting The Missions

    <h4>Chapter 376 - Submitting The Missions</h4>


    Theo wanted to ask why the skill reward needed to wait until Hero Rank Advancement, but God of Mischief ran away from the question by answering him to wait.


    In the end, he just gave up and went out of his house, heading straight to a public area.


    Since no one knew about him yet, Theo didn''t put on his mask. He simply wore sunsses and a hat to cover his face, making no one realize it was him.


    He nned to settle the matter in Fighter Temple first.


    Theo had contacted his personal assistant that he woulde. So, as soon as Theo arrived, he found Sarah standing outside the building, waiting for him.


    Since he was still in disguise, Theo approached her with a calm expression. "Sorry for making you wait."


    "Ah," Sarah instinctively let out a shout in a low voice as her body flinched. She took a closer look at his face and realized he was Theo. "Pleasee inside. We can talk in a room to discuss everything."


    "I understand." Theo extended his hand, asking her to lead the way.


    The two entered the room on the third floor. There wasn''t much he could see from this room other than a pair of chairs and a table in the middle of the room. There wasn''t any decoration other than a window on the opposite side of the room.


    This was a private room of the temple where they could discuss many things regarding the mission. If Theo wanted to bring out everything he had, no one would know about it as well.


    That was why Theo didn''tin or anything. He simply sat on the chair and put down his sunsses and hat. "I have told you about my reasons foring here, right?"


    "Yes." Sarah nodded with a serious expression and opened her Skylink, showing multiple missions.


    "For the time being, I have killed the Squiddy Lamp in Lambert Lake," said Theo while handing his Fighter Card, showing that he had killed one.


    After confirming the kill, Sarah quickly marked the mission aspleted. "I have marked it aspleted. You will receive the money within 24 hours."


    "Sure." Theo nodded. "Also, I am nning to take all those invitations today."


    "All of them?" Sarah raised her eyebrows. "There are around twenty invitations, you know."


    "It''s fine. I have my way." Theo waved his hand as if telling her it wasn''t a big deal. "Just tell them I''m going to visit them today."


    Although Sarah didn''t understand what Theo wanted, she still followed his request. "I understand. I will call them after this."


    "Okay." Theo smiled.


    "Is there something else?"


    "No. I think that''s all. I need to catch up with my schedule and visit them right away." Theo chuckled. "It''s going to be a tough day."


    "I understand. I shall confirm the request with the client after this." Sarah rose from the seat and guided him outside the room.


    However, as soon as they came out, Theo asked, "Where is the toilet?"


    "Just go straight to this corridor and turn left. You will find it on your right." Sarah pointed her finger to the right.


    "Okay. Thanks." Theo turned and walked away. "You don''t need to wait for me. I know the way out."


    Sarah then left the corridor and returned toplete her tasks.


    Meanwhile, Theo quickly summoned his clone and changed into other clothes and put on his mask. This way, he had a clone that would handle the meeting while he could report to the Assassin Temple and sell the rest of the materials.


    Of course, Theo was the first toe out because he was the main guy, while the original waited for a moment and left with another attire and a mask that covered his face. He hid his hair with a hood that had been tightened to avoid anyone seeing his hair color.


    He then walked out of the building safely and headed straight to Assassin Temple with Ava, confirming that no one followed him as of now. As for his clone, he didn''t care much, considering it was just a clone and he could simply disappear if he were being followed.


    Theo told his personal assistant toe out since he wanted to deal with some missions.


    "Hello, I am here to help you." The white-haired guy came out. He was Theo''s new assistant after leaving Magician Temple toe to Assassin Temple, Raith.


    "Sure. I just applied for three missions on my way here and since I havepleted all of them, I would like to submit everything." Theo nodded.


    "I understand." Raith opened his Skylink to check the missions and received Theo''s Illusionist Card, confirming the mission. "Zombie Flesh, Purple Haze Grass, and Megalo Fish, am I right?"


    "Yes."


    "In that case, please." Raith checked Theo''s Illusionist Card and found Megalo Fish among the monsters he killed and quickly marked the mission aspleted. "For now, I need the Undead Flesh Card."


    Theo took out the card without hesitation and asked, "This is the card. By the way, is there anyone wanting to buy more Undead Flesh Cards? Maybe you can contact the issuer of the mission, asking whether he wants more or not."


    "Let me check it first." Raith nodded and opened the Quest Log and realized multiple people had submitted the same mission, so it seemed he could submit it a few times. "It''s possible."


    "That''s good." Theo smiled and took out 32 Undead Flesh Cards. "I have 32 more cards."


    "That much? I need to confirm it first�� Let me make a call first," said Raith before thinking. "That''s right. How about the Purple Haze Grass? Do you want to submit it first before I handle the Undead Flesh Card?"


    "Sure." Theo nodded and took three Purple Haze Grass out of his bag.


    "Excuse me�� Can you sell those Purple Haze Grass to me?" Suddenly, a female voice echoed in his ears.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and turned, finding a brown-haired girl approaching him. Still, what took his attention was the fact that she was in a wheelchair.


    "If it''s possible, can you sell the Purple Haze Grass to me? As you know, the grass is nutritious, especially for strengthening the bones. I wonder if you can sell it to me��" She asked again while looking at her legs, implying that she wanted the grass to make her bone recover faster and get out of the wheelchair as soon as possible.


    "��"

 Chapter 377 – Contribution Points

    <h4>Chapter 377 - Contribution Points</h4>


    "I am prepared to pay for the termination fee." She overheard their conversation that Theo just took the mission beforeing here. So, if he wanted to cancel it, he needed to pay the termination fee because of the loss of time. Even though it was only two hours or so, it was mandatory.


    And with the girl paying the termination fee, he could sell the Purple Haze Grass at full price since the former needed the Purple Haze Grass to treat her injury.


    In fact, because people often got injured on the other side, Purple Haze Grass was always in high demand.


    Normally, one would take pity when they saw a girl going all the way to call him to buy Purple Haze Grass, especially in her condition, but Theo simply ignored her and looked at Raith. "Anyway, this is your three Purple Haze Grass. Please submit the mission."


    What Theo wanted was not entirely the money. He also wished to get the Contribution Points, so he could increase his privilege level.


    "Wha��" The girl was shocked at first, but Theo turned back and said, "Alright. How many Purple Haze Grass do you want?"


    "Huh?" The girl tilted her head in confusion, never expecting to hear this kind of question from Theo. After all, he just submitted his Purple Haze Grass.


    Little did she know Theo still had forty of them.


    "I want everything you have�� That is if you have more." She hurriedly replied because she was about to post a mission for the Purple Haze Grass too.


    "You sure?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yes. I can buy each grass for 400,000 Zils. It''s higher than the mission earlier," she said without hesitation.


    ''Ah, rich kid?'' Theo thought for a moment and said, "Okay. I can sell it to you, but please do it through the missions. I don''t mind if you give me just 350,000 Zils per grass if you go through the mission."


    What Theo wanted was Contribution Points together with money, so he thought this should be enough.


    "Okay." She nodded. "We can use your personal assistant to handle the mission."


    "Good."


    Not long after, Raith returned to Theo, bringing good news. "I have contacted him. He said it''s okay to buy everything."


    "Then I will submit all of them." Theo took out the remaining Undead Flesh Card and said, "By the way, is it alright to get a private room? Thisdy here is going to make a personal request too."


    Raith pondered for a moment and acknowledged the request. He got a little bit ofmission from Theo''s mission anyway, so he thought it was fine to handle this much problem.


    "Sure. I will guide both of you to the room." Raith led them to the third floor, so they could finish the matter.


    Meanwhile, the woman was curious about how much Purple Haze Grass he could fork out, considering it was quite rare grass nowadays.


    Upon entering the room, Raith opened his Skylink to register Theo''s mission. "I have added the Contribution Points for you and because of the amount that needs to be transferred, you''ll receive the money within 24 hours. Each Undead Flesh Card gives you 500 points and the Purple Haze Grass also gives you the same. As for the Megalo Fish, it gives you 1,000 contribution points."


    "Good." Theo nodded and checked his Illusionist Card.


    Name: Joker


    Level: 193


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance C, Agility B, Vitality C, Magic Power A


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: -


    Kill: 2849 (+)


    Zils: 140,000


    Contribution Points: 18,700 (18,700)


    Theo smiled as he got a total of eighteen thousand Contribution Points and almost reached Silver Level Privilege, where he could buy Rank B and Rank C cards from this ce.


    And he had one more person he could use to increase his range. He quickly red at the woman as if implying she needed to hurry up. "Please."


    The woman nodded and called Raith to give her the form to fill, issuing the mission.


    It took her ten minutes to fill everything and set it to Theo''s personal request.


    "I have certainly received the form." Raith nodded. "I''ll repeat it. The mission will be to search for Purple Haze Grass, and each grass will be rewarded 350,000 Zils and 150 Contribution Points. The mission will be continuous until Sir Joker runs out of supplies. Is that correct?"


    "Yeah." She nodded.


    "I understand. Please wait a minute. I will record the mission." Raith then left them for a moment.


    Meanwhile, Theo looked at the woman in silence.


    "Nice to meet you. I''m Risa�� Ehm, Just Risa." She smiled, barely stopping herself before she told him her full name. "I identally saw your Illusionist Card. Sorry."


    "It''s fine." Theo shrugged, knowing there wasn''t much to be seen there.


    "By the way, how many grasses can you fork out?" Risa asked with a serious expression. "You surely won''t sell only one, right?"


    Risa tried to pry the information by checking his reaction, considering Theo seemed to be confident with the amount of his Purple Haze Grass.


    Theo shrugged, not wanting to scare the girl to the point she retracted the offer. "Let''s wait until Raithes back."


    "You''re boring." She smiled, feeling that Theo might be better than reported. After all, the mission he took was usually for Hero Rank or someone close to it and they would go there with a group.


    Yet, the one before him did it alone, considering he didn''t even flinch when Raith sent the Contribution Points.


    Not long after, Raith sent the mission to Theo and returned to the room. "I have sent the mission. Please submit the Purple Haze Grass."


    Theo nodded and took out a total of 40 Purple Haze Grass, stunning the woman as she didn''t expect to spend so much for a single mission. In fact, five Purple Haze Grass should allow her to recover by tomorrow. She never thought she would buy so much and realized she had been had.


    Raith knew that the situation would be serious, but he simply followed the mission and marked itpleted forty times, sending Theo his 6,000 Contribution Points while the money would be sentter.


    Theo smiled at thedy and shamelessly said, "Thank you for your patronage." And escaped from the room without waiting for her reply.


    Surprisingly, thedy wasn''t angry at him. Instead, her lips curved. After all, it wasn''t easy to gather all these materials with his level.


    The card needed to be updated in six months and his level was only 193 on his card. With the number of monsters and the missions he took, he should have reached level 230 if not level 240, within six months on top of that. It was a rare talent in her eyes.


    "Interesting. Joker, is it?" She smiled and shouted at Theo, who just escaped. "If it''s someone else, you just end their life with debt, you know!"

 Chapter 378 – Agata

    <h4>Chapter 378 - Agata</h4>


    After getting what he wanted, Theo quickly picked up his pace to a ce called Runa Group. This group usually acted as a third party that helped people selling their products on the Sk.


    They would take care of the advertisement and other things and sell the products as quickly as possible. Theo wanted to use them to get the money as quickly as possible since it was a better option than the temple since people usually got thirty percent more.


    However, he was utterly shocked on the way, not because of what he saw but because his clone met someone he knew.


    His clone was standing still after opening the door. The meeting ce was a simple room in a restaurant, so Theo didn''t suspect anything from this meeting, but when he opened the door, he saw an otherworldly beauty sitting there with a smile on her face.


    When Theo opened the door, she waved her hand and asked him toe in. "It''s been a while, Theo."


    Theo understood why she came here and calmed his heart within seconds before entering the room and closing the door so no one could see or hear them.


    He sat in the opposite direction, looking at the beauty he never expected to see in this country. Letting out a long sigh, Theo said, "Yeah. It''s only been a month, though. I guess you''reing here to��"


    "What if I tell you Ie here because I am interested in you?" She smiled from ear to ear.


    "Don''t joke around, Miss��"


    "Ohe on, just call me Agata since I have been calling you Theo this whole time. I thought you were more shameless than me."


    Theo scratched the back of his head. "Fine, fine. So, care to tell me the truth, Agata?"


    "You''re so cold. Normally, when people get a surprise like this, they will keep the conversation going so as to not bore me."


    "Well, if you are bored, you can simply go outside and search for something more interesting." Theo shrugged. "Besides, it''s not like you can leave whether you are bored or not."


    "As expected, you''re truly interesting." Agata chuckled. "Yeah. I can''t leave since I need to give you something."


    "As Italy''s representative?"


    "Yes." She nodded before gently cing her hand on top of her breast as if pointing at herself. "Italy decides to give you�� me!"


    Theo closed his eyes and fell silent before pointing at the door. "The exit is that way."


    "I rent this room, you know. You''re making me hurt." Agata chuckled even louder. It was truly amusing to see Theo''s reaction that didn''t go with the norm.


    "So, are you nning to get serious or not? Just for your information, my schedule is tight today." Theo sighed and looked at her.


    If one asked Theo whether Agata''s appearance was beautiful or not, he would definitely say, "She is beautiful and my heart certainly moves by her beauty. I''m just like any other guy."


    However, he would also add, "But that''s all. I appreciate her beauty, but that doesn''t mean I want her."


    Despite knowing this, Agata still decided toe here. He was the first person that piqued her interest, but whether she could get him or not�� was the purpose of this trip.


    She looked at Theo with a serious expression before taking a sip of the orange juice on the side. "Anyway, I havee here to negotiate the offer with you."


    "I am listening."


    "If I am not wrong, you''re aiming to be an influence at the same level of the Griffith Family, right?"


    Theo thought for a moment and decided there wasn''t a need to hide his intention since other countries must have realized it too. "Yes."


    "You should know that such influences are rare. I mean, if you want to topple them, you may need an influence with at least a trillion Zils or approximately a hundred billion US dors�� as their worth. Only such a family has enough money to fight the Griffith Family by hiring experts or something.


    "Or you can search for an international influence that has a long history, having so many Mythical Rank Experts. They will have overwhelming might�� Of course, I don''t think the Griffith Family wants you after you choose to separate yourself from the family, right? Unless you have something they want��


    "Last but not least, you need another hidden family." She smiled. "For now, I can only say there are two influences that can satisfy you. They are the War God Family and the Pope. Unfortunately, I don''t think you can refrain from killing your enemy, right? Or act like a good person outside, so I guess the Pope is not suitable for you. He can give you some guidance, but that''s all."


    Theo closed his eyes and nodded with a serious expression. "Yes."


    "Then, the second option will be the War God Family. This family has been producing many experts for the country. And I can proudly say that the family has always been receiving blessings rted to war like figures. I''m sure you know one of them��"


    "Ignazio?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Correct. How about a kiss as a reward?" She jokingly asked.


    "Sure." Theo nodded without hesitation while pointing at his right cheek.


    She opened her mouth and stared at Theo in shock. She thought Theo would refuse ording to what she had seen from his action this whole time.


    "What? Do you think I will refuse?" He smiled. "I know that you think that way."


    She facepalmed andughed, realizing she was just defeated. "Haha, this is truly interesting."


    "So, are you going to do it or not?" Theo shrugged and sighed.


    She keptughing for another ten seconds before saying while wiping the tears on the corner of her eyes. "Say, do you want to know a bit about your mother?"


    "What did you say?" Theo frowned as his expression turned cold. However, the timing was a bit too perfect, especially when she said the War God Family always received a blessing from war like figures. In that instant, he came to a realization. "My mother is rted to this family?"


    She raised her eyebrows and showed a smile filled with excitement. "What do you think?"

 Chapter 379 – War God Family

    <h4>Chapter 379 - War God Family</h4>


    "What do you think?"


    Theo''s expression became extremely cold as he said, "What do you know?"


    "Do you think I will give the information to you easily?" Agata shook her head. "After a long investigation, we have realized that your motheres from the War God Family. Well, you can say Ignazio is also your cousin."


    Theo shook his head. "Do you think this kind of information can force me to join you? Besides, my father and my mother have died from an incident a long time ago."


    "That is what you think. I can assure you that they are still alive."


    Theo raised his eyebrows and rose from the chair. "What did you say?"


    He looked surprised, but this action couldn''t escape her eyes. "I am sorry, but I had used my skill when I was waiting for you. The skill allowed me to make a certain illusion where you would see the figures you want to see the most.


    "Seeing you have no reaction when your parents are next to me means you don''t have a longing attachment, so you must have known about their conditions." She shook her head while sighing. "There''s no need to fool me with your expression."


    "What? You used your skills?" Theo mmed the table and looked to the side, "Is that the reason I''m seeing my brother next to you?"


    "Ah, sorry, I lied about my skill. This is why I know you are lying." She smirked.


    "And of course�� I just want to y along with your little trick." Theo shrugged and sat down as if nothing happened.


    The two twitched their eyebrows as they both couldn''t see which one was a lie, which one wasn''t from each other.


    ''She is dangerous indeed.'' Theo muttered inwardly while maintaining his calm face.


    Agata, on the contrary, chuckled and said, "See? This is why I have a backup n."


    She smiled and extended her hand, typing a few things on her Skylink to project a screen on top of the table. The screen showed two pictures.


    The first one was a family picture with a total of thirty people. She then pointed at one person.


    The woman had ck braided hair and ck eyes. She seemed to be around twenty years old in this picture, but her appearance indeed struck Theo''s heart deeply.


    "I''m sure that you can recognize this woman." She smiled.


    "��" Theo''s expression became serious. "It''s easy to edit this type of picture."


    "Then why don''t you check War God Family on Sk. They usually have an annual family photo that is posted on their website. You can check the website, including the date it''s taken. Try to check thoseing from twenty years ago since she is still the person of the War God Family. I don''t need to prove it to you since the proof is already there."


    Theo quickly searched for it and found several photos of his own mother.


    "After training with Magic Power, a Mythical Rank Expert can live for 150 years on average. Your mother was around 30 years old when those pictures were taken. Of course, she was only a Hero Rank Expert back then, just a little bit away from Supreme Rank.


    "It''s been twenty years since your father eloped with your mother. Well, I don''t think I can exin more than this unless you agree to my terms."


    Theo looked down. Even though he didn''t want to admit it, her pictures and the image in his memory really matched.


    That was why he couldn''t really deny this. However, one thing piqued his interest. "Elope��"


    "I am sorry, but I can''t say anything. Besides, this may also be the reason your head can give all those strategies. Blood can never lie. You have the Magic Talent from your father and the War Talent from your mother. If you wish to know about them, I hope you can agree to my term."


    "I think you misunderstand something��" Theo''s tone was cold as he released a bit of his killing intent. "I hate parents who can throw away their son so easily. With their power and influence, I doubt something big can happen to them.


    "Your tone told me that my father is equal to her if not stronger, so with the status in their respective family, I don''t think elopement is a big problem." Theo closed his eyes and paused for a moment. "That''s why�� I don''t need to know. Don''t you think this information will just keep me away from Italy or the War God Family?"


    Agata''s expression gradually turned serious as she never expected this answer from Theo.


    "Even so, I think it''s fair for you to know more about them." She shook her head. Instead of cowering, she decided to confront him head-on by telling him her condition. "I only wish to participate in a single expedition together. Of course, a big expedition with at least twenty people. I don''t care if you are a sidekick or not, I want to see you in that situation and fight alongside you.


    "This is my only condition. If you agree, I can tell you about your origin." She smiled. "This should be an easy task for you, right?"


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment, making the atmosphere awkward.


    Even so, Agata wasn''t disturbed by it and casually took another sip of her juice.


    As she said, Theo indeed wanted to know more about his family even if he didn''te to the Griffith Family. After all, the one thing that repulsed him so much from this Griffith Family was the fact that all Griffith Family members needed to stay outside the family without any knowledge about them until they were 18 years old.


    This was Theo''s conclusion after understanding his and Ne''s situation. If he returned to the family regarding the situation, he might need to do it as well.


    "By the way, this is just me interested in you. I have brought you something as the sincerity of my country. And��" Her hair and her eyes turned red as her face was distorted a bit, making her not look like herself. "I have learned Mimicry to change my appearance. With this appearance, I won''t be the focus."


    "��" Theo let out a long sigh. "Alright. I agree, but I have several conditions too."


    A smile appeared on Agata''s face as her appearance returned to normal. She said with confidence�� "Alright, let''s hear it."

 Chapter 380 – Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 380 - Agreement</h4>


    "Alright. Let''s hear it." She thought she had passed the first stage of the negotiation.


    "I have three conditions. First, I will take the lead, meaning I will choose the mission and you will also follow mymand when we are on the other side."


    "That''s easy." She agreed without hesitation. In fact, she wanted to know how Theo led his teammates during thepetition, so this opportunity was one that she couldn''t let go of.


    Theo paused for a moment and nodded. "Then, the second condition is the time. I will inform you of the mission within a month and the mission won''tst for more than two weeks."


    "I don''t have a problem. I can extend my visit to six months without a problem. It''s better if I can stay at your house, though."


    "Enough with your joke." Theo shook his head helplessly. "The third condition is simple. I take everything during the mission. In other words, all Material and Skill Cards belong to me."


    "Haha, if youe to the War God Family, I don''t think you will put much thought into these cards. Well, it''s okay though. It''s not like I need them." She shrugged. "Okay. I can ept all three conditions."


    "That''s all. How should I contact you?"


    "Here, here." She opened her Skylink, asking her to add her. "You only added Enrica and Ignazio previously and hid from me. You didn''t say anything to them either, especially regarding your whereabouts. I was about to spend some considerable amount of money to find you��"


    Theo shrugged and added her number to his contact. "I will be contacting you as soon as I find the information."


    "Sure." She nodded and took out a book. "Take this."


    Theo narrowed his eyebrows and saw the book title.


    Eagle Vision.


    "This is a gift from my country. Unlike the one circting in the market, the pope has given several tips inside. This will consolidate your foundation regarding Vision Enhancement. Sadly, we can''t give you the method for Prediction Eyes or Future Vision."


    Theo received the book and stared at the book. "Thank you."


    "Don''t sell or lose it, okay?"


    "Yes. I understand." Theo nodded without hesitation. "By the way, I know that I have just agreed to your condition, but how about you throw some information about my family?"


    "Hmm." Agata looked at the ceiling while tapping her chin a few times, pondering Theo''s request. After a minute, she stared at him and said, "I can''t say much for the time being. However, I can give you a hint of your mother''s identity. Your mother''s blessinges from Brynhild. She is known as the Valkyrie."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and thought for a moment. "If she is that well-known, why can''t I find my own mother''s information with just a basic search? I''m sure she appears in the media, right?"


    "Well, yes. The Griffith Family hides your father''s information, but the War God Family doesn''t do that to your mother. It''s easy to find her on the Sk. However, she never took off her helmet and her armor, so no one recognized her face.


    "That was why if Ignazio''s family didn''t tell me about it, I wouldn''t know." She sighed. "Anyway, that''s the extent I can tell you right now. I will exin the rest after the mission. Also, Ignazio insisted on meeting you previously because of this identity. I managed to convince them though."


    Theo closed his eyes and opened the Sk, searching for his mother with the keyword "Valkyrie".


    Surprisingly, he found many pictures of her. In every picture, she always wore white armor that covered all parts of her body other than her small nose and enchanting mouth.


    "You can find her information all you want now that you know about her identity."


    "Then, it''s time for me to leave." Theo rose from the seat and reached the door.


    "Oi, oi. You are really a cold man. I just told you something about your mother and you decide to leave right after��"


    "Then do you have any other matter to inform me?" Theo asked with a nonchnt tone.


    She let out a long sigh and followed him to the door to see him off, but when he was about to leave, Agata grabbed Theo''s wrist and pulled him in, giving a peck on his left cheek.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and instinctively took a step back, freeing himself from Agata.


    She winked her eyes and said, "It''s the reward earlier. Do you think I don''t dare?"


    "Unfortunately for you, this is a clone, so I didn''t feel anything." Theo shrugged.


    "Haha, of course, I know. I know you are a clone because I have been using my skill to make you hallucinate. But considering you didn''t see anything, it means the skill didn''t work." She chuckled.


    "Here we go again."


    "Nope. This is true." She pointed at her bag on the side of the chair, releasing a small trace of pink smoke.


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    She licked her lips and pointed at it while saying with a seductive tone, "That''s why�� If you don''t put your guard up, I might steal your lips next time."


    Theo realized why Agata could charm many people. With just a simple gesture, she could somehow turn it into a very seductive pose. Every action of hers had a lingering effect on one''s heart.


    Theo couldn''t help but say, "Seductress," and quickly closed the door, escaping.


    She chuckled and nced at the right. "So, what do you think about him?"


    Suddenly, a figure appeared when the window was covered by a quilt, darkening the room. The figure was a middle-aged man with spiky green hair. His body was considered skinny, but it just made him harder to find.


    He walked to the door and took another look at Theo''s back, smiling. "His appearance caused an uproar in the family for two weeks. We needed to open some old records and contacted his mother for confirmation.


    "Still, I can''t understand his father''s decision in agreeing with the Griffith Family''s custom despite having thrown away that identity since he was only 18 years old. And it''s weird to see his mother agree to this decision."


    "Can''t you just find the reason by asking mother-in�� Ahem, aunt?"


    The guy rolled his eyes and answered, "She didn''t tell us anything. And it''s not like we can just storm the Griffith Family to demand the answer. Also, don''t push your limits too much, little girl. You can be here because our War God Family agreed to send you here."


    "It''s better than letting your family handle it." She shrugged and looked away.


    "Whatever, I am just d that my little nephew can grow up just fine despite the struggle." He let out a long sigh of relief�� "Though, it''s time for me to help him a bit."

 Chapter 381 – Bye

    <h4>Chapter 381 - Bye</h4>


    After meeting Agata, Theo went to another ce to meet another representative. He had been doing it for three hours and had visited a total of seven influences, but the one that made him go through so many thoughts was Agata.


    First of all, she was lucky to request a personal meeting when Theo was about to visit them to get their money. If not, she would have spent a considerable amount of money to search for his whereabouts just to meet him.


    Though Theo might meet her if Enrica or Ignazio told him that Agata just entered Thernd to discuss the matter of cooperation.


    Either way, Theo continued the meeting for another few hours to get all the money just by doing a visit to theirpany. Considering they had realized there were many groups that wanted him as well, they didn''t offer so much money and tried to entice Theo with only their contract.


    And since Theo just went back to consider it, they couldn''t do much.


    However, everything changed when Theo reached thest ce that gave him the highest amount of money. There was even a huge leap between the second and this Faerie Group.


    He sat on a two-foot-wide red couch, facing a famous middle-aged man. Yes, the middle-aged man was none other than the Faerie Group''s leader, Rolf Steen.


    Everything started peacefully like formally greeting him and such, but when Theo thought the conversation was over, Rolf applied some pressure on Theo as the ground beneath him began to crack.


    "What are you nning to do?" Theo''s tone was extremely cold, releasing his killing intent.


    "You can''t go." Rolf snorted and took out a contract. "You can only go after signing this contract."


    Theo just took a nce at the contract and found two points that disgusted him. Basically, the contract wanted him to be their ve even if he went to another influence in the future.


    "Are you sure you want to do this?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "I can assure you that you can''t leave this ce without signing this contract." Rolf red back, confronting him head-on.


    "Don''t you think it''s too much to bully a junior like me?"


    "It''s your fault for standing out too much." He snorted.


    "You cane up with better lines if you want to coerce me to sign this ve contract."


    The atmosphere of the room became even colder as the cold wind started blowing in the room. Ice started to spread from Rolf''s hands and feet.


    Theo''s expression remained calm as if he had predicted this. He even pped his hands and said, "Congrattions. You are the first one to coerce me."


    "Do you think I''m joking?"


    Theo suddenly fell silent while saying, "Anyway, before you do anything, it''s better to mark the mission asplete first."


    "Do you think you are in a position to demand something from me?"


    "So, you don''t want to talk about the contract?" Theo asked.


    "Wha��" Rolf dropped his jaw and looked at him in shock. "What did you say?"


    "Listen here. Since I don''t have an escape route here, shouldn''t I fight for a better contract?" Theo shrugged. "That''s why I''m asking you to mark my mission asplete first to show your sincerity. After that, we can go through the contract together."


    Rolf raised his eyebrows, never expecting Theo to suddenly change his mind, especially after he appeared so adamant earlier. "You�� You want to sign the contract?"


    "Isn''t that what you want? It''s not like I''m nning to die here. Let''s just consider this ce as my bad luck." Theo shrugged with a calm expression. "Stop wasting time."


    "You��" Rolf narrowed his eyes. Obviously, it would be good for him if Theo signed the contract willingly.


    However, Theo kept looking down on him and ignored his reaction. "Faerie Group Master, can''t you see that I''m in a hurry right now?"


    "You dare to talk like that to me?" The veins on his forehead bulged as he never thought a mere brat dared to look down on him.


    Albeit, Theo simply stated with a cold tone. "Should we fight it out then? If you have watched my performance in the Grand Gaia, you should know that I am still capable of killing myself while creating a small disturbance in this area, making everyone know that you''re the one who kills me."


    "You ca��" Rolf was about to show his power, but his body shook as he quickly said, "Wait. I understand��"


    He opened his Skylink and marked the mission asplete while maintaining eye contact with Theo to ensure he didn''t do anything foolish. After all, it was better to solve it peacefully.


    "I have been learning so much, including strategy, baiting, trickery. You can''t even use honey traps to bring me down." Theo sighed while taking the contract and opening it as if he wanted to read the whole contract. "To think my greed would lead me to my own doom."


    "It''s just you who thinks that way. You are just a mere brat with a little bit of confidence under your belt." Rolf sneered.


    Theo''s expression turned extremely cold as he rose from the seat, releasing his Magic Power. "Do you want me to rip this contract and fight it out?"


    Rolf gritted his teeth and knew Theo was unpredictable in battle, so he swallowed his pride. "Sorry, continue."


    "Your brain is not even as good as the people I fought in the tournament�� Haiz, it seems I have been too full of myself." Theo sighed. "I am so embarrassed."


    "You are��"


    Before Rolf continued, Theo stopped him and said with a strict tone. "Shut up. Do you want me to sign the contract or not?!"


    Rolf''s body shook, but before he reacted, Theo gave another surprise.


    "Do you have a pen?" Theo extended his hand.


    Rolf''s anger subsided again as he instinctively grabbed the pen from his pocket and threw it to Theo.


    Theo caught it and opened the contract. To Rolf''s surprise, he signed the contract, closed it and handed the contract to him.


    "Hmph. You are at least smarter than your foolish talk." Rolf sneered and opened the contract to check his signature, only to find two words instead of a sign.


    F*ck you.


    In that instant, Rolf''s anger took over as he raised his vision, seeing Theo pointing both his middle fingers as his figure disappeared, showing he was only a clone.


    "Bye, you old sh*t!"


    Rolf instinctively crushed the contract�� He was fuming in anger as he couldn''t help but shout. "You motherf��"

 Chapter 382 – Master And Uncle

    <h4>Chapter 382 - Master And Uncle</h4>


    "I''m going to kill that bastard!" Rolf screamed while clutching his head, releasing his Magic Power and killing intent.


    However, a burst ofughter suddenly echoed in the room.


    "Hahaha, as expected of my nephew. He is good."


    Rolf turned around and waved his hand, sending a wave of Magic Power to blow this person away. However, the next second he realized, he was the one flying and crashing to the wall.


    "Gah!" Rolf spat a mouthful of blood. Even though crashing to the wall wasn''t that painful, he experienced extreme pain inside his body as if someone tried to rip his organs apart. Heid down while clutching his stomach.


    It was at this time Rolf finally raised his vision, trying to take a good look at who did this kind of thing. "Who are you?!"


    "I am��" When he was about to answer Rolf''s question, he spun his body and raised his palm, catching another person''s hand.


    The sh cracked the windows and the floor, but what made it even more surprising was when both of them said, "Huh," at the same time.


    They just realized each other''s identity.


    "Demonic Granny?"


    "War Shadow?"


    "Why are you here?!" Both of them shouted and released their Magic Power at the same time because they were not supposed to be in this ce unless they nned to do something big. And this big event was rted to Theo, considering he just vanished from this ce.


    "I am here to beat this bastard!" Surprisingly, they pointed their fingers at Rolf in unison.


    "Huh?" They became confused again, never expecting their interest to be the same.


    Suddenly, the middle-aged man came to a realization and asked, "You�� Are you Theo''s teacher?"


    "As expected, you are aiming at my disciple! Do you think I''m afraid of you?!" Lightning started covering her body as she prepared to blow him away.


    "I''m not afraid of you either. If we fight here, this entire building will disappear in an instant��" He sneered as if asking her to take this out on the other side instead of this ce.


    Even Theo''s master knew that it would be problematic if she used her power here. She thought for a moment and reappeared in front of Rolf, who couldn''t even move his body due to the pressure from the two.


    "W��who are you?!" Rolf panicked as his brain refused to work in this situation.


    She extended her hand, nning to ce her hand on top of Rolf''s head.


    Rolf quickly raised his hands to stop her, but both hands wereunched to the ground as if there was a powerful force that repelled him.


    "To think there is someone who tries to threaten my student." She snorted and released her lightning from her hand to Rolf''s head.


    The lightning spread all over his body to the point Rolf began convulsing and wailing in pain. "Argh!"


    "This is just a warning to you since I''m in a bad mood." She harrumphed.


    Suddenly, the blood burst out and scattered on the floor. Rolf looked down and found the skin on his hand was shredded apart by the lightning, leaving only the red flesh for his entire lower arms.


    "Argh!"


    Rolf''s body shook uncontrobly as he tried to withstand the pain.


    "As expected of the Demonic Granny, truly worthy of your nickname." The middle-aged man smiled. "To think my nephew has you as his teacher."


    "Nephew�� What?!" She stared at him.


    Before she reacted, the middle-aged man had ced his hand on her shoulder. "This is just a simple warning. You dare to bully my nephew again, this group will cease to exist. You should be happy you just got a warning."


    "Don''t touch me!" She prepared to release her lightning to blow his hand away, but all the windows were suddenly covered by a ckyer.


    The room darkened and the two disappeared from the room right after.


    However, they didn''t go that far. They simply took the matter to the rooftop when they faced each other earnestly.


    "What did you say? Your nephew?!" Theo''s master frowned before realizing what was going on. "From his mother''s side!"


    "Correct."


    "His mother came from the War God Family��"


    "It seems you don''t know about it. Well, even us just realized it not long ago." He shrugged while looking at her from top to bottom. "Still, using your lightning to stimte his brain and shaking his organs as if ripping them apart�� Then shredded only his skin. Demonic Granny''s reputation is well-deserved. I''m in awe."


    "Shut up! What is your intention ining here?!"


    "Oi, oi. I''m here just to see my nephew for the first time and confirm it with the family." He raised both hands nonchntly. "Well, if you are here to watch over him until he is ready, I think it''s fine for me to return straight away."


    "Hmph. I am more reliable than you."


    "We don''t know that yet��"


    "You were running away for your life back then."


    "I was only a Supreme Rank Expert. You should be ashamed to bully a junior like me."


    "��" The two stared at each other before the middle-aged man took a step back. "Either way, I am already satisfied with the development. I just wanted to check my nephew for onest time before returning to Italy and ended up following him after seeing how interesting his n was. To get free money by meeting them for a while�� Even a business consultant doesn''t get that much. Haha."


    "He is my disciple. That''s all you need to know."


    "I know, I know. I''m surprised that you''re making your move right now. I thought you were just going to observe the situation since it''s not your job."


    "I sensed you."


    "Ah, a Mythical Expert who you thought wanted Theo to be his disciple��" He chuckled, knowing the misunderstanding. He continued, "Well, I will be sticking around this ce for a month or two to watch his progress. After that, I will return to Italy since I have served my purpose here."


    "Flowery words. Just say you want to bring him back to the War God Family. He has rejected the Griffith Family after all."


    "That is something he needs to choose. The former master, his grandfather, wanted to bring him back, but he didn''t want to let his mother''s incident happen again, so he ultimately decided to leave the decision in Theo''s hand."


    "That incident��" She furrowed her eyebrows and sighed. "So, his mother is Valkyrie."


    "Yep. Anyway, I need to warn the one below once again to make sure he remembers it��" He waved his hand and disappeared again.

 Chapter 383 – Buy

    <h4>Chapter 383 - Buy</h4>


    "President Rolf?" A middle-aged man opened the door leading to Rolf''s office. However, he soon found Rolf sitting on the floor, convulsing uncontrobly.


    His head tilted left and right with nk eyes as if he just turned into an idiot.


    The middle-aged man panicked and saw the blood on the floor and Rolf''s hands. His face was ghastly pale, not knowing what happened during the negotiation.


    Because he wanted to coerce Theo, Rolf had turned down the monitoring system inside his office, so no record could prove Theo''s im had he decided to strike him. However, this also became a fatal mistake for him since two people could enter his room and do all this without going all the way to delete their records.


    "President! President! What happened to you?" The middle-aged man fell to his knees and looked left and right to see whether there was an enemy nearby. After not finding anyone inside the room, he shouted, "Call an ambnce. Call an ambnce!"


    A few people stormed inside and saw the incident, hurriedly calling the ambnce to save their president.


    Meanwhile, the middle-aged man or the new assistant asked, "President. Stay with me�� Please tell me what happened."


    Unfortunately, Rolf could only chuckle. "Hehehe. There''s nothing. There''s nothing."


    His expression didn''t change as if he truly believed such a thing.


    They were all confused why this could happen, but the answer never came to light. In fact, this was also the reason why Thernd didn''t dare to offend many countries.


    A Mythical Rank Expert alone could brutally destroy a Supreme Rank Expert. All Rolf could do from that point onward was cowering in fear whenever he heard Theo''s name.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo let out a long sigh after experiencing such a situation, unaware that the problem had been solved.


    He simply made his way to his home after handing all the Material Cards to thepany.


    "Ava?" asked Theo while ncing around to check whether someone was on their tail or not.


    However, Ava only tapped his stomach once instead of twice, telling him that they were clear.


    Since he had finished his job, Theo returned to his house and felt relieved.


    Ava leaped off his body while Theo dropped to the couch, sighing. "I guess this is one of the best scenarios. I thought there were at least a few influences that would threaten me, but to think there was only one�� I guess I''m pretty lucky.


    "Also, I have sold everything, so my money should be increasing gradually." Theo muttered while looking at Ava, "What do you think? I mean, the city."


    Ava''s expression brightened as she raised her hands until she fell on her back. "Kyu!"


    "I''m d." Theo smiled, seeing Ava had her fun. He needed to hide her since it would be troublesome if someone pointed the monster detector to Ava. After all, not only was she a monster, but she was also so rare that not much information was recorded. On top of that, Ava was extremely cute.


    This kind of monster would certainly incite people''s greed.


    He then remembered another matter and opened his Skylink, typing "Valkyrie" on the Sk.


    "Still, this is my mother, huh." Theo sighed. He did a quick search to find all information rted to her, but he couldn''t find a single piece of information about his father. He thought this happened due to the Griffith Family, so he didn''t pursue this matter any longer.


    Instead, he was looking forward to the next mission, so he could get the information from Agata.


    "Well, I have many things to do right now like training�� Ehm? Training?!" Theo remembered his advice from Fenrir and quickly grabbed all the Skill Cards he had.


    Out of a hundred Skill Cards, he only had four C Rank Skill Cards due to the fact he hunted in an area where there weren''t any C Rank monsters.


    Only the Zombie Lich, Megalo Fish, and Squiddy Lamp were Hero Rank monsters.


    He then checked the upgrade requirement again.


    Skill: Clone (C) - Upgradable


    Upgrade: 7 Rank C Skill and Fuse 15 Rank D Skills


    "��" Theo could only let out a long sigh. "I don''t have a problem with the D Rank Skills anymore. However, I can only upgrade when I get my money."


    Theo checked his ID Card to see the money in his ount.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 3,101,600 Zil


    "This is not enough." Theo let out a long sigh. "I will get 17 million from the Undead Flesh Cards, 15 million from Purple Haze Grass, 1 million from Megalo Fish, 2 million from Scott, and a total of 19 million from meeting people. In total, I will get 54 million.


    "If I sold the Material Cards without caring about the money, I could only get around 20 million. And the current method may take a while, but I can get around 25 to 30 million if I let thepany take over the sales.


    "Well, rare items like Megalo Fish Fang and Lich Jewel should be easy to sell, so I should get at least 10 million within a week. This should be enough for the time being, but I''m frustrated not to be able to use this money today.


    "After all, the money I get from the temples will onlye to my ount after 24 hours. In any case, I should be able to upgrade two C Rank Skills to B Rank skills with this money. The problem is which skill. The Clone skill will take the first spot, but�� should I upgrade Blink, Magic Bullet, or Illusion Maniption?" Theo''s expression turned serious, pondering the pros and cons of every skill.


    In the end, he waited for the money toe first and calmed his mind by practicing on the pool, trying to increase his Control over Magic Bullet before reading the Eagle Vision book during the night.


    The next day.


    Theo received the money from the temple and used it to buy C Rank Skills. Of course, he bought all the cheap ones. He ended up getting more C Rank Skills than he needed, so he decided to level up his main firepower first.


    Skill: Magic Bullet (B)


    Effect: Summon up to 2��20 powerful magic bullets. Tracking (Optional).


    Skill: Clone (B)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Due to the current skill rank, the user can create the same body, control its movement, share vision, talk, use skills, insert blood, and gain five senses. Other parts are still locked.


    "Perfection."

 Chapter 384 – Training

    <h4>Chapter 384 - Training</h4>


    "Perfection." Theo couldn''t help but smile when he saw the Magic Bullet and his clone.


    The Magic Bullet''s power increased drastically by doubling the number alone. At the same time, he could do something big with what Fenrir taught him.


    The clone, on the contrary, began to evolve into that of a human. He never thought that he could gain five senses for his clone.


    "This is great." Theoughed excitedly as he clenched his fists, doing a fist bump. "No wonder he told me that I can increase my training speed by at least fifty percent. I know that it''s not twice as fast because our thoughts are linked. So, if I fight my clone, the spar won''t be that effective.


    "Even so, if I am trying to figure out my Control and increase it, this will surely make it more efficient. Two weeks�� I believe I can do all the stunts that Fenrir taught me. Of course, other than Materialization. Even so, I can master Materialization within three months�� Or that''s what my gut tells me after getting this skill.


    "I have promised Agata, but I think I will wait for a moment and reach Hero Rank first. Since I''m going to hunt at Level 260 to 270 area, I don''t think it will take a week��" Theo became fired up and nned to spend his time training.


    However, he soon found another problem. "In the next mission�� Should I bring Ava? If it''s only Agata, bringing her won''t be that much of a problem, but the condition is to have many people in the group. This will be a problem."


    Theo couldn''t find the answer since he needed to ask Ava''s opinion as well.


    "Never mind, I should look for what kind of mission I should get before deciding this matter." Theo shrugged and began practicing.


    He had three training menus. During the morning, he practiced In Motion, gradually making his movement more fluid.


    The approach Theo used was none other than a spar with his clone. He used his clone to take all the beating since he knew what kind of attack he would use, giving him a fight thatsted more than three hours.


    It tremendously helped him in getting used to In Motion. Although he couldn''t replicate what Fenrir did when he shot the Magic Bullet into the ground without exploding, he managed to use the full power of his Magic Bullet while waving his hand or something, camouging his skill.


    The second training was to increase the versatility of his skill.


    Once he delved into this area, he discovered that all his skills were better than he imagined. Like Fenrir showed him, Theo used his Cannon st with his hands or feet.


    The same applied to his Magic Bullets. He tried to form a different shape of Magic Bullets, albeit he failed every single time.


    However, this didn''t stop Theo because he knew that the Magic Bullets were the basic skill to overpower his opponent.


    Last but not least, he also used the Three Great Defense. This new skill might immobilize him, but it certainly contained enough power to stop Ne''s Mana Wave or Mana Concentrated Bomb despite having one rank difference.


    And Theo tried to reshape the shield instead of shrinking or expanding it. He made a fan, a slope, and other things depending on what kind of block he needed.


    The third training menu was to train all his Five Aspects in a set of training, especially with the Eagle Vision book from Agata and Materialization notebook from his master.


    In the span of two weeks, Theo felt the change in his vision. It felt sharper and easier to focus when he looked at something small in the distance.


    At the same time, he felt like his instinct improved too. Whenever he had a spar with his clone, there was a tingling sensation that jolted his mind when the real body was about to hit him.


    He assimted it to his fighting style as well because that instinct might be able to save him in the future.


    As for his Materialization, with the help of Fenrir, he managed to form an eel. Although there wasn''t much detail, it was the first sess for Theo.


    The eel also contained a raging current inside the body, so the moment the eel touched a surface, it would generate a quite powerful force that knocked the enemy out.


    Of course, Theo didn''t forget about the other three Aspects: Breathing, Technique, and Endurance. However, he could only train ording to his master''s method, which simply consolidated his current power.


    These three were Theo''s main focus in this training session.


    ��


    Two weekster.


    "Ha!" Theo shouted while raising the water from his pool. The water formed an eel within two seconds.


    This was already a simple thing for the current Theo.


    He only needed to shorten the time and he would be good to go.


    After that, he took a step further and started making a scale.


    One scale.


    Two��


    Ten��


    Fifteen��


    Boom.


    Unfortunately, the water burst and copsed into the pool.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and looked at the sky. "Well, it''s already 8 PM. I usually continue my training for another three hours, but I need to search for a new mission to reach Hero Rank and get another one for the promise."


    To his surprise, another blessing came to him as Ava came out of the house with Theo''s Skylink in her mouth.


    She handed Theo his Skylink.


    "Kyu!"


    "There''s something important?" Theo widened his eyes and opened his Skylink, finding a notification.


    This message surprised him, not only because he didn''t expect to get a message from this person, but because the content also suited his current problem.


    The message came from Alea to the group they created for the tournament. He had yet to leave the group, so he got the message too.


    "There is a special expedition request for the young generations to challenge their limit. The mission is to subjugate a level 400 Ground Dragon. Does anyone want to participate in this mission?"

 Chapter 385 – Dragon Subjugation

    <h4>Chapter 385 - Dragon Subjugation</h4>


    "Does anyone want to participate in this mission?"


    When he saw the message, Theo furrowed his eyebrows and muttered, "My strength can''t do much to a Level 400 Dragon. I can injure it, but killing it is close to impossible. So, it''s no wonder this mission requires many people to get enough firepower to heavily injure the dragon."


    With that thought in mind, Theo asked, "What''s the scenario and n?"


    Alea never expected to see Theo bing the first one to reply to her message. Of course, it didn''t mean she hated it. Instead, she hurriedly replied back. "The n is to have a total of 30 people, ranging from Level 250 to Level 320, to kill this monster. You will need to pair up at least with someone in this subjugation.


    "Also, the one who kills it is not allowed to touch the corpse because all the materials can be extracted by other people, giving a huge amount of resources to us. If you participate, you will get one million Zil per person and depending on your contribution, you will get more than that."


    "When is that and how long will this expeditionst?"


    "It''s going to start in ten days. With the expected pace, we could reach the nest in three days. If everything is ording to the n, we will return to Ark City within a week."


    Theo thought for a moment and nced at Ava. "Unfortunately, I don''t think you can follow me in this mission, Ava."


    "Kyu��" Ava looked down with a sad expression.


    Theo sighed and sat on the ground, carrying her. "As much as I want to bring you, if they know you are a monster, the situation will be extremelyplicated. I will try to make up for it, okay?"


    Ava, although reluctant, still nodded her head.


    "Thank you."


    Theo smiled and sent the mission to Agata, wanting to see her opinion.


    To his surprise, it didn''t take even ten seconds before Agata called him.


    "��" Theo sighed and picked up the call. Before he even said anything, Agata already shouted in excitement. "I''m in!"


    "Oi�� Have you read the mission?"


    "Something about Level 400 Dragon, right?" Agata chuckled. "My power is not that powerful, but I can still use a few skills to blind the Dragon."


    "At least, you skim it." Theo didn''t know what to do with this Agata, but since the other party had agreed, Theo said, "Okay, I''m going to register us. Since the mission requires a pair at the very least, the group will only be you and me."


    "That''s even better."


    "��" Theo facepalmed and said, "Okay, send me your information. I know that you don''t use your real identity toe here, no?"


    "Yep. I will send you right now."


    "Sure." Theo hung up without hesitation.


    Agata, on the contrary, was surprised for a second before shaking her head helplessly. She sent the information to him while muttering, "Such a cold man. However, with how he keeps chasing his brother, I guess he treats his family far better than others. It''s so special to the point it feels that chasing him is worth it��"


    After receiving the information, Theo replied in the chat group. "I''m in."


    Alea was excited to see Theo participating and replied, "Great. Do you want to pair up with me?"


    Unfortunately for her, Theo shot her down by saying, "I have someone who will go with me. I will send her informationter, but yeah, register her and me as a pair. I won''t ept anyone to my group for the time being."


    Alea didn''t reply to him for three minutes before another message came through. However, the reply only had one word.


    "Okay."


    Theo tilted his head in confusion and sent his and Agata''s information. Agata''s current name turned out to be Moana Heins.


    Alea only told him she would process it and never replied to him after that. Meanwhile, Phyrill and Ellen rejected the invitation because they had another thing to do.


    Only Sihan epted the mission.


    In the end, Alea used her private connections and told everyone in her circle to join this mission, assembling all 30 people within days.


    On the other hand, Theo talked to Agata after asking for all the necessary information, including the assembly point.


    They decided to regroup on the other side, which was a good thing for him. All he needed to do was make sure Ava had her fill when she stayed in his house.


    In the end, he ordered a bunch of meat and stored it in the house.


    The next day, Theo was ready to leave the house to reach Hero Rank before this mission.


    He called Agata first.


    "Hello?"


    "I just want to inform you to meet me in the Ratata Hotel in Ark City ten days from now. Since the departure time is 10 AM, meet me at 7 AM, okay?"


    "I can meet you at 7 PM, you know�� And even warm your bed."


    "I''m not going to take responsibility."


    "Haha, okay, okay. 7 AM in the morning. See you there." Agata chuckled and hung up since she needed to prepare how to impress Theo during the mission.


    After finishing his call, Theo put his mask on and left the house. "Ava, I''m going."


    "Kyu!" Ava waved her foot.


    ��


    Little did he know, this was just another scheme from the Lange Family.


    Ben Lange was standing before his father and said, "Father. Theodore has taken the bait."


    "I will send fifteen Level 300 experts on this mission. Tell Sihan that if he fails to kill Theodore in this mission, he can think on how to escape from him because all the me will be on him."


    "��" Ben nodded. "I understand. I shall prepare everything."


    Ben turned around and left the room while thinking how his father used the money to create this mission. He even made sure that Alea wouldn''t get suspicious after receiving the mission.


    Of course, he had been sending a couple of missions to Theo, but none of them had been epted by him, so they used Alea to make Theo join.


    They were lucky that Theo was also searching for a mission to join or else, they might need to find another way to force Theo toe to the other side.

 Chapter 386 – Potential Danger

    <h4>Chapter 386 - Potential Danger</h4>


    Four dayster.


    "Cannon st." Theo kicked a monster right on the stomach.


    The monster itself had a simr appearance to a bear, but the arms were thin, giving enough speed instead of power on its sweep. The body was also not that big, but it was certainly taller than a bear.


    With the ten-foot-tall height, Theo''s straight kick hit right on his belly.


    The energy from the Cannon st dispersed.


    Fenrir could turn the ground into a crater with this power. Although Theo wasn''t as good as him, there was a trace of a spiral on the fur, showing the effect of his Cannon st.


    At the same time, the energy ripped the skin a little bit as blood began to flow out of the wounds.


    Still, the majority of the forceunched the monster back as forty Magic Bullets hit the same spot in rapid session, giving an extra thrust to the kick.


    "Roar!" The bear let out a huge roar, but the skin couldn''t contain thebined power of Theo''s Cannon st, External Flow, Telekinesis, and Magic Bullets, resulting in a head-size hole on its belly.


    With that hole in the body, the bear fell to its knees, and Theo sliced its neck to deliver the killing blow.


    [Killed a Ban Bear.]


    [EXP+15,090]


    Theo took a deep breath and wiped the sweat on his forehead. "Alright. The situation is going ording to the n. I still have five more days to increase seven levels. With the current pace, I should have a long time to spareter."


    Theo looked around, seeing trees all over the ces with a river on his right side.


    "Anyway, I have been following the track Alea sent earlier to see what kind of terrain we are going to cross," Theo muttered before looking a bit far away to the west. "Either way, going too far will just mess up my schedule, so I will just hunt around here and return to Ark City."


    Right after he said those words, buzzing sounds of the bush and grass began to fill Theo''s ears. The sound was followed by a huge roar two hundred feet away from him.


    "!!!" rmed, Theo summoned his clone, preparing to fight.


    "Ha, ha! Help!" A man''s voice resounded in the forest. Theo furrowed his eyebrows and saw the figure that came into his vision.


    He looked like a male in his twenties. His green hair had turned into blood red that seemed to be not his own blood.


    As if noticing another presence, the man turned around to see Theo, only to find an empty space.


    Theo had escaped since he didn''t want to get into trouble by saving this man. After all, if he was chased by a monster, the man must want him to bring him back to Ark City, wasting his time. That was thest thing he wanted to do right now.


    To his surprise, that decision turned out to be the correct one. Another shadow emerged from the bush and jumped on top of the human.


    "Hi!" The man panicked for a second, but that was thest thing he could do before the shadow killed him with a wave of its hand that seemed to be covered by dark red fur with ws as sharp as that of a wolf.


    But what shocked him the most was the fact that this figure seemed to be a human. His body, head, and all other limbs other than his right hand were that of a human. However, this human ripped apart the guy''s head and devoured his body.


    "!!!" Theo''s expression became serious as he muttered inwardly, "Hmm? Is the other guy a human? But he is eating human flesh�� Raw. Cannibal? But this is already a civilized society, so there shouldn''t be something like that here. Even if you are a criminal, you can hunt many monsters here.


    "But��" Theo took another look at the mysterious person''s eyes and saw a sharp-pointed light that glowed on the right eyeball, making him doubt this guy''s identity.


    Suddenly, another person emerged from the bush and looked at the corpse. The next guy seemed to have the same feature as the first one. The only difference between them was the color of their fur.


    ''I thought about adjusting myself to the track environment so as to not be a burden, but to think I found something more�� I need to warn Aleater.'' Theo thought and observed them a little bit, albeit his choice to stay was the wrong one.


    As if sensing Theo''s presence, the second guy turned around with his bloodshot eyes.


    "!!!" Theo felt their eyes intertwined and took a step back, preparing to run. "Oops."


    But before he could use his Flowmotion to escape, his Awareness picked a presenceing at him. The next second, the tree he used to hide was ripped apart by the wolf''s hand.


    The mysterious guy revealed himself and struck Theo with his w.


    Clone Theo quickly made his way between them and waved his right hand to knock the w away.


    "Cannon st."


    He used everything to strike the wolf''s paw, but the ws also began to glow.


    When Theo hit the hand, the w twisted and reached Theo''s hand, ripping it apart.


    "!!!" Theo quickly used his Flowmotion to escape.


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo kept observing the enemy''s movement while clicking his tongue. "I couldn''t test his strength because the ws ripped my hand apart as soon as my attacknded, but I can say that this one has speed and flexibility. The level�� It''s probably above 280. It''s quite dangerous."


    Right after that assessment, the mysterious guy roared to the sky.


    Roar.


    The sound echoed through the forest and rmed the other one that was trying to have his fill. But it didn''t end there. When the other guy howled, numerous howlings followed after him, shattering the silence.


    The original body turned around while taking out his Skylink, pointing at the mysterious person.


    Name: Mutated Chimera Wolf


    Level: 300-320


    A nomadic mutated wolf that changed its appearance based on what it eats. Always moving in a pack.


    "Well�� That sounds dangerous. There are at least a hundred there��" Theo sighed and used his clone to make them busy while he flew to the sky, escaping by flying to get out of that ce sooner. "I need to inform Aleater."

 Chapter 387 – Fighting A Chimera Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 387 - Fighting A Chimera Wolf</h4>


    Roar.


    Unfortunately for him, escaping from the Chimera Wolf was easier said than done.


    When he saw Theo escaping, the Chimera Wolf in front of his clone struck the clone with all his might.


    However, Clone Theo was still better than expected. He used his Telekinesis tounch himself away to avoid this attack.


    To his surprise, the Chimera Wolf nced at him before chasing the original body instead of fighting the clone.


    It was the other Chimera Wolf that approached him to prevent the clone from following the other chimera.


    "Tsk." Clone Theo clicked his tongue and waved his hand to the right, using his Telekinesis and External Flow to block the w.


    This time, Theo summoned all forty Magic Bullets right after the attack connected.


    "!!!" The Chimera Wolf acted surprised and wasunched away by force from his Magic Bullets. At that time, Clone Theo shot the ground with another wave of Magic Bullets, kicking up the dust in the area that turned into his smokescreen.


    This gave him enough time for the real body to escape while the clone used it to fool the other one and took that chance to follow after the real body.


    However, the closest Chimera Wolf had yet to stop the pursuit.


    "What''s wrong with this monster?" Theoined while focusing on the Chimera Wolf that leaped around like a human but had speed and agility like that of a wolf. "Should I fly even higher�� No, I shouldn''t do it because there will be a huge problem, especially if a monster tries to shoot me down. And it''s not like I''m better than a flying monster."


    Theo''s expression became colder as he tried to calcte the distance between him and the previous roars.


    After flying for another two minutes, Theo finallynded on the ground, summoned his clone, and handed him his spear.


    He thought this distance should be enough to fight this guy.


    Although he had no assurance in defeating a level 320 monster with his current power, he needed to try.


    He raised his spear and thrust forward, releasing his Cannon st.


    The wolf waved his hand from above. His right hand let out a crescent-shaped red light that sliced the Cannon st and split it into two sides.


    It didn''t stop there. The crescent-shaped attack continued on its path,nding on Theo''s spear.


    "As expected from a monster at this level, my power is not at his level yet." Theo clicked his tongue and used his spear''s handle to receive this attack.


    Theo clenched his teeth when he found the power was far stronger than him and pushed him twenty feet back.


    Using that kind of force, Theo jumped into the air andunched himself to the back, trying to gain more distance between them.


    However, the wolf quickly leaped forward, not letting him go.


    Clone Theo made his way to the wolf and struck him from above.


    "Cannon st."


    The wolf caught the spear, but because it wasn''t the wolf''s hand, the spear pushed him down, stopping him for a second.


    Because of the force, the real body returned and struck the wolf with his spear as if swinging a hammer. "Ha!"


    Bam.


    The wolf dropped to the ground and spun its body to avoid getting pinned down. However, the wolf soon saw a total of eighty Magic Bulletsing his way.


    "!!!"


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as Theo wondered whether this could injure the wolf or not. After all, he had used his Magic Bullets and matched the timing with his strike like Fenrir''s In Motion.


    Unfortunately for him, a blue shield formed on top of the wolf''s body, blocking all the Magic Bullets despite ending up with cracks.


    "It''s not enough��" Theo clicked his tongue. The monster''s defense wasn''t that good since its vocal power was none other than its speed and agility. However, he soon realized this skill muste from the human he devoured.


    In that instant, he realized why it was called Mutated Chimera Wolf.


    ''The appearance of this monster is close to a human, so I am assuming this guy has eaten so many humans to the point it can use their skills?'' Theo clicked his tongue. "It''s rare for a normal ss monster to even use one skill, but that w technique and this shield�� my guess should be right."


    Theo thought for a moment and leaped back, trying to escape again.


    The wolf seemed to continue following him and it was then Theo used his Blink to disappear from the wolf''s vision.


    Unfortunately, the wolf had a strong sense of smell and quickly located him behind a tree. At the same time, he noticed Theo''s clone had disappeared.


    The wolf charged at the real body and plunged his w to the spot where he smelled Theo''s scent, only to find nothing there.


    "Grooar?!" The wolf was confused for a second, doubting his sense for the first time.


    Clone Theo reappeared on top of the wolf and struck him with Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded upon hit and kicked the dust in the area. However, the wolf managed to defend this attack by using the same shield while piercing Clone Theo''s stomach with its w.


    The blood sttered on his face and confused it once again. This blood was certainly real, so he wondered if this was the one, considering the clone still remained there.


    To check his finding, the wolf instinctively lowered its arm and put Theo close his nose before smelling him.


    Little did he know this was what Theo wanted.


    Theo retracted his illusion and thrust his spear, using his Sound st to pierce through the clone''s body and hit the wolf''s stomach.


    "!!!" The wolf looked down when he felt the pain, but the only thing he found was a hole, blood, and a spear''s handle nted on his stomach. "Groar?!"


    The wolf had yet to understand the situation before Clone Theo disappeared, showing the real Theo.


    "Go die." Theo sneered and raised his spear, cutting the wolf from the stomach to the head.


    [Killed a Mutated Chimera Wolf]


    [EXP+201,500]


    [You have leveled up.]


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and let out a sigh of relief. "I''m lucky to sustain no injury, but handling two of them at the same time, I may need to prepare for heavy injuries�� Still, I guess this is fine."


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 245


    EXP: 40,546/236,917


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (B), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (B), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 340, Endurance 220, Agility 229, Vitality 220, Magic Power 340


    Free Attribute Points: 5

 Chapter 388 – Ranking Up

    <h4>Chapter 388 - Ranking Up</h4>


    After killing the Mutated Chimera Wolf, Theo continued leveling up to make sure he ranks up as soon as possible.


    However, Theo stopped on thest day of his training, with only two monsters away from reaching the maximum EXP points to rank up.


    "Clone." Theo looked at his clone and grabbed everything he had, including the spear and the luggage. He was already close to Ark City, so there wasn''t any more danger on his path.


    And receiving inheritance outside was extremely dangerous, especially if he didn''t have anyone to protect him. Hence, Theo had another n for this rank-up.


    He returned to Ark City with all his luggage and headed straight to a hotel that seemed to be fairly popr ording to the information on Sk.


    It was a fifteen-story building. There was a huge sign saying "Ratata" on the highest floor and above the entrance. This was the hotel he and Agata agreed to meet before meeting Alea.


    He wasted no time and entered the building, finding thevish decoration with gold ting, red carpet, and a huge chandelier on the ceiling on top of the receptionist desk.


    On the right side were several sofas used for waiting, while on his right side was a dining room. He had no time admiring them and quickly made his way to the receptionist.


    The receptionist put on a smile and waved her red hair to the back. She politely said, "Wee to Ratata Hotel. May I help you?"


    "A single room for two days," Theo replied.


    The receptionist didn''t know Theo''s real identity because he put his mask on to avoid unnecessary attention. And it was clearly working as the receptionist thought this was a regr urrence.


    She nodded and typed a few things on her keyboard before asking, "I need your ID Card."


    Handing his Illusionist ID Card, Theo began to look around, wondering if anyone had stayed in this hotel.


    Theo was nning to stay thest two days in this hotel for two reasons. First, he simply wanted to learn all the information regarding his group, the dragon, and Agata''s fighting style. He knew that he wouldn''t be the leader of this expedition and it wasn''t like others would voluntarily agree to hismand.


    The most he could do was advise the group leader, Alea. And he believed Alea would take his advice seriously. He didn''t mind because he had no experience inmanding a huge group.


    As for the group, he only knew there would be ten Magicians, two Scouts, five Knights, five Fighter, two Enchanters, and three Healers. The rest would be him, Alea, and Agata. He needed to understand what they could do in an emergency here.


    The other reason was due to rank up. He had been blessed by many things every time he ranked up, so he needed time to adjust himself with the new skill he would get.


    After processing his data, the receptionist gave him the key to his room.


    Theo hurriedly went to his room since his clone had killed the first monster and encountered the second monster.


    As soon as he entered the room, he made a quick check on the decoration.


    He was greeted by a couch and a screen to watch movies in the living room. There were two doors on his right leading to the bedroom and bathroom.


    Because he needed to rank up, Theo simply put down his luggage and reached his bedroom.


    He sat on top of the brown quilt and crossed his legs, shifting his focus to his clone.


    ��


    In another ce, Clone Theo had finished fighting thest two monsters he required to fill up his EXP Points.


    [Killed a Blue Rock Turtle]


    [EXP+5,040]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Champion


    Level: 250


    EXP: 257,302/257,302


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (B), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (B), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Elemental Shield (D), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 340, Endurance 220, Agility 229, Vitality 220, Magic Power 340


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Normally, Theo was supposed to have a headache soon because he needed to meet God of Mischief, but there was no reaction this time since it was his clone.


    "I have finally finished." Theo smiled and disappeared.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo was sitting inside a room. The pain was indeed attacking his head, but Theo was already prepared for it and closed his eyes as soon as possible.


    In that instant, Theo''s consciousness went to the same scenery as his previous meeting: the green field surrounded by mountains and hills.


    A serpent whose body was a tenth of a mountain, but with a tail that had yet to be seen, appeared on the mountain peak and crawled down the slope.


    A wolf that had taught him the power of Control also appeared on top of the mountain and climbed down. However, what shocked him the most was the man with short ck hair sitting on top of the wolf''s head. The man had a white shirt and long ck pants, covered by an unbuttoned long dark robe.


    He was crossing his legs and using it to support his hand as he rested his head on top of his hand, looking at Theo with a smile that somehow made him shiver.


    Theo subconsciously took a step back because it felt very different from the first time they met. Back then, he used Alea''s body and voice to talk to him, giving no sense of danger. Meanwhile, this one seemed to be his real appearance.


    ''So, this is the God of Mischief, Loki�� The one who gave me the blessing.'' Theo thought while gulping down, staring at this human figure that made his heart race. Now that he had practiced a bit of Awareness, his instinct told him not to let his guard down in front of this man.


    As if understanding what Theo had in mind, the man smiled. Fenrir came to his front, standing proudly while looking down on Theo, but the man simply tapped his head once and the proud Fenrir lowered his head and body, so the man could jump off his head andnd gently on the ground.


    "It seems my appearance startles you a little bit. Though, I wonder if you believe this is my real appearance��" He smiled and said before changing his appearance back to Alea�� "Maybe this one is my real appearance."

 Chapter 389 – God Of Mischief

    <h4>Chapter 389 - God Of Mischief</h4>


    Looking at Alea''s body and face, there wasn''t a change in his poker face. He just kept staring at the one who yed this trick before him.


    "You are no fun. People usually took it seriously when I impersonated someone��" He shook his head helplessly and changed back to his former appearance. "Anyway, I will just use this appearance to talk."


    Theo nodded politely and carefully, not knowing what kind of reaction the two behind him would make if he disrespected him.


    "There is no need to fear." He shook his head. "I''m sure you already know my name, so I won''t bother to give you my name. Also, I am here to give you the promised skill, Metamorphosis. Though, you can''t use this skill to its full potential yet."


    "I know." Theo nodded in understanding. However, the God of Mischief yfully said, "It''s because I can''t give you the full power of this skill yet."


    "Skills? I thought there would be many names in the past�� I mean, there was Magic or Sorcery��" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "I am just adapting to the current terminology. Although we have died in the past, it doesn''t mean we have perished from this world. That''s why even though we are not with you, we are always watching over you."


    "Is that what it means when God said they will be watching over us?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Oi." Fenrir suddenly released his killing intent and red at Theo before Loki waved his hand, stopping him from showing hostility.


    "I can''t say much regarding our current situation and I believe you will learn about it in the future. All I can say is that we have a connection with all of you, thus learning the development of the entire civilization."


    Theo looked down, contemting for a moment. Suddenly, a thought shed in his mind as he couldn''t help but draw a gasp, looking at God of Mischief. "Is this rted to the fact you give me the skill right now instead of the day Ipleted the mission?"


    Loki smiled and nced at Fenrir, saying, "I think this little guy has given you a little hint, but you can say there is a requirement for us to connect with you. That requirement is not something I can tell you or something you should seek. After all, if you know it, the connection may disappearpletely."


    ''That''s the same thing as he said��'' Theo thought while ncing at Fenrir. Although he couldn''t trust what God of Mischief said entirely, he certainly could pick up the truth from Fenrir''s mouth.


    "Whatever you think right now is less important to the skill I will give you." God of Mischief shrugged his shoulders and walked to him, pointing his palm to Theo''s face.


    [Metamorphosis Skill acquired. Please remove one skill if you wish to ept this skill.]


    [Level +1]


    [Free Attribute Points +48]


    Seeing the skill, Theo already made his choice and erased his Elemental Shield.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 251


    EXP: 0/300,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (B), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (B), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Metamorphosis (C), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 340, Endurance 220, Agility 229, Vitality 220, Magic Power 340


    Free Attribute Points: 48


    After seeing his new skill and rank, Theo somehow felt another zing sensationing from his heart. He fell on his butt and crossed his legs instinctively.


    "As you may already know, you are currently training your Five Aspects. The reason I told you to focus on one thing is that��" God of Mischief walked to his front and ced his hand on top of Theo''s head. "You can gain the foundation to mix the rest of the aspects. "I will give you an image to help you understand it better."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows as his consciousness somehow sensed something built next to his heart. It was a kind of blue me that glowed brightly in the dark. Soon, the me branched out into four, forming a cross with the blue me in the center.


    If what God of Mischief said was right, the four branches were none other than the other four Aspects.


    "Normally, people can create one branch that will strengthen their main source. Genius can form two or three branches at once. You should be able to do it too, but this is a special case. I will use a part of my power to create all four branches. Of course, this power doesn''te from me alone��" He continued.


    Suddenly, the four branches became brighter as each of them started forming a small blue-colored me. "Four of us will lend you our strength. You have your purpose; we have our purposes too. We are simply using each other.


    "Though I can say this one thing. Heaven and Hell are one. They can be connected, but both shall not disturb each other''s bnce as the inevitable end wille to us again."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he didn''t understand the meaning of his word. He simply had no idea what he was talking about.


    All his focus remained on the intense glowing blue fire that somehow woke him up.


    "Ha!" Theo subconsciously let out a shout before panting. Sweats started covering his forehead and his back while strength started seeping out of his body.


    He used his hands to support his body while gritting his teeth to endure the extreme pain striking his brain.


    "What is that? What is it again?" Theo raised his vision to look at Loki while gritting his teeth. "Heaven? Hell? Survive? I can''t remember the whole thing."


    "Are you sure you don''t remember? Or is it you who refuses to remember?" Loki smiled while narrowing his eyes as if he tried to confuse Theo once again.


    Theo didn''t know why but every time he talked to him, there was always a doubt in his heart. However, Theo remembered one thing.


    With his pale face, he asked the only thing he remembered entirely, "What do you mean four of you will give me strength?"


    As if answering his question, a soft female voice suddenly echoed in his mind�� "He is talking about me, boy."

 Chapter 390 – Goddess Of Death

    <h4>Chapter 390 - Goddess Of Death</h4>


    "He is talking about me, boy." A female''s voice echoed in everyone''s ears as Fenrir instinctively looked away and took a few steps to the side.


    Theo noticed the appearance of the ck pir at the same time the voice rang in his head. The pir was behind God of Mischief and reached the sky. Soon, a female figure emerged from the pir, starting from her hands and legs.


    "��" Theo was stunned in an instant. Her beauty could make everyone freeze. Unlike Agata, she had a mature feeling that attracted everyone''s attention. Yet, when their eyes met, a sense of death filled their heart as if someone just clutched their neck.


    "W��" Even Theo wasn''t an exception. The moment he looked into her grey-colored eyes that seemed to have been deprived of all lives, his consciousness traveled to another ce.


    It was a ck, gloomy space with nothing but darkness. The ground had been turned into red-colored mud as the blood scent permeated the air.


    "Where is this?" Theo muttered and looked around before he saw his hand flying right in front of his eyes. The scene was followed by the extreme pain that jolted his brain and heart.


    He dropped to his knees and clutched his right arm while screaming in pain. "Argh!!"


    This might be the first time Theo felt this kind of sensation. The pain couldn''t bepared to the wounds he had suffered this whole time. However, before everything stopped, his vision suddenly turned red, as if his eyes were covered with blood. Yet, there was a burning sensation that engulfed his head.


    Luckily, before Theo experienced much worse, his consciousness returned to his body, followed by Loki''s voice. "That''s enough. Are you trying to give him trauma?"


    Theo coughed a few times and started gasping for air. His hand was clutching his heart, but he still struggled to raise his head to see the person who just caused him to experience that nightmare.


    Despite his strength leaving his body, Theo''s priority remained on the person instead of his severed hand. It was proven when he raised his head first instead of checking his arm.


    "I''m just trying to give him something��" The female''s voice echoed in his ears again.


    Theo gritted his teeth and looked at the otherworldly beauty that stood next to God of Mischief. There was only one person who fulfilled all the criteria and was able to talk to God of Mischief like this. She was none other than the Goddess of Death, Hel.


    She wore a long ck robe covering her body, leaving only a slight glimpse of her alluring curves and beautiful face.


    "Hmm?" Hel noticed Theo''s nce and smiled, brightening the atmosphere yet still giving the chill down his spine. "It seems this one is more amazing than I thought. Despite sensing death itself, he still has the willpower to fight."


    "That''s why I don''t want you to overdo it." God of Mischief shook his head helplessly before pointing his finger at her, introducing her to Theo. "You may already know her identity, so I won''t bother with that anymore. All I want to say is she doesn''t have ill intentions. She just wanted to show you what kind of amazing thing you can do if you master both Control and Awareness. So, you should learn from it instead of hating that sensation."


    "��" Theo gnashed his teeth.


    Before he said anything, the Goddess said, "I changed my mind. If you don''t mind, I would like to get the opportunity to meet him next time. And from all I can see, his current path is aligned to my power.


    "Since my power is the hardest to master, he should have more time toprehend it. So, if the opportunity arrives, I will teach him a bit of this so-called Awareness and Control. It may prove to be beneficial to him." She turned around and returned to the ck pir while leaving another message. "Maybe, he can withstand my Death Avatar��"


    Even God of Mischief was astounded and scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say. He sighed and said, "Well, she is a good girl, albeit very willful. Though, her strength is undeniable. Either way, it seems she is willing to teach you that power�� Although I can''t exin what kind of power that is, I can tell you that it''s extremely powerful."


    He then pointed at Fenrir, who was already on the bottom of the mountain. "See that guy over there. That''s the proof."


    ''Since when he got there?'' Theo widened his eyes as this was the first time he saw Fenrir shivering in fear while trying to hide his presence. If not because of the God of Mischief pointing at him, he wouldn''t be able to see Fenrir in this state.


    "Anyway, the time is limited." God of Mischief said while looking up, seeing that the sky began to crack. "You already have your foundation as I let you see the connection between Five Aspects. I''m sure your ability will increase sharply after this. Test and get used to it because it will be beneficial for you in the long term. Also, reach Master Level for your Control within months. That''s all I can say for now, see you."


    "Wa��" Theo wanted to ask one more thing, but his consciousness had already returned to his body. He gradually opened his eyes and released a bit of killing intent that seemed to be the residue of what Goddess of Death sent him earlier.


    "What is that power to be honest? Awareness and Control�� With just a nce, I was tortured inside my mind. And it would continue if he didn''t stop it." Theo gulped down as he started feeling a bit afraid of her ability. Still, he understood that the Goddess of Death, Hel, was indeed as powerful as her myth described.


    More importantly, such a person wanted to teach him something. There was no way he would reject it. All he needed to do right now was prepare himself to receive that kind of power by training his Awareness and Control.


    At the same time, Theo opened the skill he received earlier.


    Skill: Metamorphosis (C)


    Effect: Basic Transformation. The user can transform into another creature ording to the detail in the user''s head�� Limit: 5 Forms.

 Chapter 391 – Meeting Agata

    <h4>Chapter 391 - Meeting Agata</h4>


    ''��" Theo blinked his eyes a few times when he saw the skill. Compared to what he had in mind, it was certainly less powerful. However, he ignored it for the time being and allocated his Free Attribute Points.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 251


    EXP: 0/300,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Three Great Defense (C), Clone (B), Cannon st (C), Magic Bullet (B), Flowmotion (C), Telekinesis (B), Blink (C), Metamorphosis (C), Illusion Multiplier (D), Illusion Maniption (C)


    Attributes: Strength 340, Endurance 236, Agility 245, Vitality 236, Magic Power 340


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Well, this is good." Theo nodded. "I should start using my Metamorphosis first before getting used to my current prowess.


    "Metamorphosis." Theo activated his new skill while closing his eyes, trying to make all the details in his mind. What he pictured was a man with long red hair tied into a ponytail. He wore a white shirt and ck pants that were covered with a long ck coat that added his elegance.


    His red eyes carried a trace of bloodlust that made one look away, but there wasn''t a difference in his build from the original Theo.


    "��" Theo could feel the sess, but when he reached the mirror, he found a distorted nose as if it was broken by someone. The clothes looked in and embroidered weirdly. Overall, it was a mess.


    "Well, this is my first time." Theo let out a long sigh. "Either way, the fact that I can turn into someone else just makes it easier for me to do something. Also��"


    Theo transformed into another creature like a fish and dropped to the ground. The fish had silver scales and red eyes, the fin had a red rose pattern and the tail was covered with in silver. However, Theo''s transformation soon became undone as he dropped to his knees and started gasping for air. "What is that? I can''t breathe��


    "Is this the natural ability of the Metamorphosis?" Theo gulped down. Although it would bring him disadvantages, if this skill could grant him the natural attribute of the creature, he thought he could transform into a fish and cross the ocean. The benefits were just far more important than the slight disadvantages it would cause.


    The skill piqued his interest as he began his training. He transformed into a few forms and somehow ended up getting disappointed because of the limit.


    It turned out, the five forms limit was to restrict his ability to transform into another creature. All the five forms were a human, a fish, a monkey, a tiger, and an eagle. These five forms would benefit him because the human could be his Joker Identity when exposed, the fish could escape underwater, a monkey would be agile in the woods, a tiger had extraordinary speed, and an eagle allowed him to fly in the sky.


    After the test for his skill, Theo began to check his Five Aspects. Unfortunately, he couldn''t recreate the feeling the "Branches" God of Mischief showed him earlier.


    All he could test was how much that foundation gave him his new strength.


    His Control progressed by leaps and bounds as he felt he could do a few movements with his Magic Bullets instead of a mere two turns.


    This became a solid foothold for him if he wanted to reach master level.


    After that, he used the remaining time to either practice his transformation or his Control.


    The next day.


    A red-haired girl walked into the Teleportation Circle and arrived at Ark City. She couldn''t help but feel excited, wondering what kind of fight she would experience with the one who brought a nameless team to third ce in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    She wore a in white t-shirt and long ck pants. Carrying a bag half of her size, she started making her way to the meeting point.


    Despite changing her appearance, it didn''t diminish the fact that she was still a beauty. So, she put on a mask and a hat to cover most of her face to avoid people''s attention.


    "It''s time to meet him," she muttered while licking her lips, soon finding a big "Ratata" sign on the building.


    Remembering Theo''s personality, she decided to wait next to the entrance, only to find herself standing still for thirty minutes before Theo finally came out of the entrance.


    Noticing her presence, Theo looked at her and said, "So, you havee."


    "You''re really cold. I have been waiting for thirty minutes, you know." She stuck her tongue out.


    "You''re thirty minutes too early." Theo shook his head and raised his vision as a gesture to invite her into his room. "Anyway, let''s talk in my room. I need to tell you a few things."


    "Ho, a bold invitation. I guess waiting for thirty minutes is worth it." She chuckled.


    "Then, wait for me in the lobby. I will bring my equipment first." Theo shrugged and turned around, leaving her.


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes and quickly followed him. "Come on. I was joking. You have no sympathy even though I have been waiting with this bag for thirty minutes."


    "I have given you the exact time, so that''s on you." Theo sighed.


    "Haha, seeing you act like usual is good, I guess?" Agata chuckled as she followed him upstairs. "By the way, what do you want to talk about?"


    "Just need a couple of confirmation and your fighting styles."


    "Don''t worry. Although fighting is not my forte, I won''t be your burden. Besides, I am a level 290 Illusionist, I should be able to avoid an attack from a Ground Dragon thatcks speed." She nodded with a serious expression.


    "Ah, you were representing the second grade back in thepetition�� I almost forgot." Theo nodded as this was the first time he heard her level.


    "How about you? Have you reached Hero Rank yet?"


    "Yeah. You don''t need to worry about me." Theo looked up and reached the door''s handle as they arrived at his room. He opened the door and stopped. "Besides��"


    "Theo?" Agata tilted her head, not knowing why he halted.


    Theo, on the contrary, smiled and entered the room. At the same time, his head turned around and looked at her while saying, "Besides, your country or the War God Family may need to raise your condition a little bit after this mission."

 Chapter 392 – Warning

    <h4>Chapter 392 - Warning</h4>


    Meanwhile, Alea also came into the other side three hourster, leading a group of ten. All of them seemed to be older than her, yet, they looked at Alea with adoration. It was clear who was the leader of this group.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that this group was quite famous.


    As soon as they appeared in Ark City, all eyes were on them as the people began whispering.


    "Hey, is that��"


    "That is Alea Eilric. We have heard that she is currently hunting monsters around here. But considering the people behind her, I am afraid it''s an expedition."


    "Behind her is Xavier Roto. He was also a participant for the Grand Gaia�� the previous one."


    "Rumor said he is a Level 330 Knight."


    When they heard such information, they shifted their focus from the blonde-haired girl to the purple-haired guy who walked next to her.


    They saw Alea handing a document to him while saying, "This is the necessary file. Is the team ready?"


    "I have gotten confirmation from twenty of them." He nodded and put the file inside the handbag hanging on his muscr arm. "I believe the rest is waiting for us at the meeting point."


    "Good." She nodded and nced back, finding a white vehicle floating on top of the teleportation circle.


    The vehicle had a shape of a cube, fifteen-foot-wide. However, there were four of those appearing in session as they followed Alea and the rest inside Ark City.


    Ignoring the bystanders''ments, Alea continued their way to the meeting point.


    However, as soon as she came, her heart was disturbed by the sight of Theo waiting with another girl she never knew.


    "!!!" Alea widened her eyes and gulped down. Despite seeing other members that had been waiting for her, including Sihan, Alea kept ncing over Theo and the girl, thinking, ''What the��''


    What shocked her the most was the fact that Theo didn''t push her away or anything. Instead, he talked kindly to the girl and even smiled.


    ''That Theo is talking to a girl?'' Alea stared at him in disbelief, wondering if this was the same Theo she knew.


    Theo, in her mind, was a cold guy that seemed to have no intention of having any rtionship, yet, this one was different.


    Curious, she put down her work and said, "We still have time, right? I''m going to meet an acquaintance first."


    "��" Xavier fell silent and furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Alea, who calmly walked to Theo.


    Noticing her presence, Theo and Agata stopped talking and turned to her.


    "It''s surprising how much you have changed in the past two months." Alea smiled. Her eyes kept moving back and forth, implying about the girl.


    "Yes?" Theo ignored her reaction and pointed at the girl next to him. "She is Moana. You should have gotten her information, right?"


    "Yep." Alea nodded and extended her hand. "Hello, I am Alea Eilric."


    Agata somehow understood why Alea approached them andughed inwardly. She put a smile on her face and extended her hand to her. "Hello, I''m Moana. Theo often talked about you being a reliable ''Teammate.'' It''s my pleasure to meet you."


    "��" Alea''s expression darkened when she heard "Teammate"ing out of Agata''s mouth. She couldn''t help but remember what Agata said to her in thepetition. She had the courage but never acted.


    Theo scratched the back of his head as he remembered the rivalry between them in thepetition. He sighed and changed the topic, "By the way, I have something to tell you. This may affect our expedition as well."


    Agata was confused because Theo didn''t tell her anything.


    This expression didn''t escape Alea''s eyes as she somehow felt a bit content and asked, "Yes, what is it?"


    "Do you know Mutated Chimera Wolves? I met them on our path to the dragon nest." Theo asked.


    "Hmm?" Alea shook her head. There were numerous monsters around this area, so it was impossible for them to know every single monster. That was also the reason why people invented the monster''s detector and database. It was so they could gain enough information against the monsters they fought for the first time.


    "Let me check the information." Alea opened her Skylink and searched for the monster''s name. Her expression turned serious when she read the description. She subconsciously raised her voice and asked, "Are you serious?"


    This certainly gathered everyone''s attention, especially the vice leader of this expedition, Xavier.


    He approached Alea with a frown and asked, "What happens?"


    "This is the picture." Theo raised his Skylink and showed them a photo taken a few days ago. It was a picture of a human with a wolf paw. "This is a Mutated Chimera Wolf. There were around a hundred of them�� I couldn''t confirm it since I fled the area immediately."


    To his surprise, Xavier denied him in an instant, "That''s impossible."


    Theo squinted his eyes and asked, "What do you mean it''s impossible?"


    "This is why you are still new here," Xavier harrumphed and said.


    "Ho?" Theo looked at Xavier with a grim expression. "Then, do you mind exining it to me?"


    Xavier didn''t back down and opened his Skylink, showing him a map. It was quite arge map with Ark City in the center. He then pointed at a certain area southwest of the city.


    The ce was called Sinx Forest and there was a level restriction of 300 to 350 in that area.


    "This is the original ce of the wolf," Xavier exined while pointing at their destination, which is located on the east of the city. "And this is our destination. They may be a nomadic group, but all they can do is around this area."


    He tried to expand the range and marked it. However, the marking only reached the south of the city, not even the southeast, showing his point.


    "This is the area. It''s impossible for them to appear like what you described. It''s simply too far for a journey. Also, there are other factors like terrains and such. That''s why it''s impossible for them to travel that far to the east." He shook his head with disappointment�� "I know that you are trying to impress your former teammate or your girlfriend, but this is not the way to do it."

 Chapter 393 – Change Of Plan

    <h4>Chapter 393 - Change Of n</h4>


    Theo''s expression turned cold. "I may be a nobody here, but I''m certainly not someone who ys with other people''s lives. If you think you can shoulder the fact that you just let the dangere because you think I''m green, then feel free to do it. I have done everything I can. All I want to say is�� The moment our group is at a disadvantage, I will be the first to escape. Coward? No, it''s on you.


    "I don''t have any proof other than this one picture. I don''t have their locations or even videos." Theo closed his eyes and raised his hands. "I have told you my point. That''s all."


    Seeing such an argument, Agata turned serious. Although she didn''t know Theo that much, she knew Theo wasn''t someone who often yed with such a joke. Hence, she made a mental note that no matter how ridiculous the topic he mentioned, it was better to be addressed properly.


    This would certainly solve the dissatisfaction in Theo''s heart if he came to Italy. She really needed to tell it to the higher-ups, considering this was one of the reasons she came here. Everything was to assess Theo from his improvement to his judgment.


    And she thought that even if Theo didn''t have much experience, they shouldn''t diminish Theo''s talent, especially as the MVP of the Grand Gaia Competition.


    Alea shared the same sentiment as she looked at Xavier. "If this is true, it''s worth mentioning even to the military. I''m sure the military can gather the information too. Also, it''s not that big of a deal to change our route."


    "If it''s really an anomaly, you can indeed report it to the military, so they can take over." Xavier nodded before stating, "However, changing our route is easier said than done. First, it''s hard to predict why the anomaly could happen and where it''s going. For example, can you say certainly that changing our route will avoid them?


    "Supposed we changed our route, what will happen if the Mutated Chimera Wolf who loves to move in a pack also stays there? We need at least a few days to let this anomaly pass or let the military take action. I can''t afford to waste that amount of time.


    "If you think I''m harsh, I''m just stating my point. This is the reality. There is a time you can''t cancel an expedition because the preparation alone can be worth tens of millions if not hundreds of millions. You also need to consider the other members and a few other things. I don''t have time to list everything for you right now." Xavier shrugged and looked at Theo with cold eyes.


    This was the first time Theo had an expedition like this and he certainly understood that everything wouldn''t be as smooth as moving alone or in a small group.


    He nced at the vehicle parked at the side of the road. It was a car where one could sleep or store equipment. Each cost tens of millions of Zils, so he could understand that it wasn''t that easy to change their ns.


    However, Theo also had another n for this and suggested it with a poker face. "We can use our Scouts, no, increase the number. Fighters and knights can do the job as well, helping the two scouts."


    "We can also eliminate the potential route by looking at the characteristic, especially where they live," Alea added, supporting Theo''s argument.


    Agata also wanted to say something, but she decided to remain silent as if it wasn''t something that important.


    "He is someone who won''t do something meaningless. That''s why I will be responsible for this decision. Rearrange our group to match our situation and we will also dy our departure for an hour,"manded Alea while turning to Theo. "You are also going to participate in the scouting, so prepare yourself."


    "Well, the Mutated Chimera Wolves aren''t that fond of a mountain. There is one in the route, but it depends on where he found the monsters��" Xavier nced at Theo coldly.


    "Ainsi Forest," Theo answered without hesitation.


    "It''s close to the mountain. We can increase the surveince around that area, but this will increase the cost, time, and jobs for everyone." Xavier closed his eyes. "There will be a need to raise the pay for the entire group."


    Alea nodded, agreeing to the request.


    "Alright." Theo nodded and turned around, leaving. "We will wait for the decision."


    Moana smiled and waved her hand to Alea before following Theo.


    Although Alea wanted to stay together with him, she couldn''t afford to do that due to the current order and situation.


    Xavier also did the same and left while saying, "I will take care of the route."


    Unbeknownst to them, when Xavier''s face couldn''t be seen by them anymore, his lips curved mysteriously.


    However, there was also certainly another person who reacted to it. He stood on the side of the road while furrowing his eyebrows. After confirming what just happened, the man left while waving his long red hair.


    After returning to their position, Agata asked, "Theo. Are you disappointed that you can''t change the entire n?"


    "Hmm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Not really. I don''t have experience in a big expedition like this. I understand that this expedition requires a lot of money, so I can see why it''s impossible to stop it. The only thing we can do is to change the route, but��"


    "But��" She stared at Theo for a moment.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "It''s nothing. I am just afraid that you are getting dragged into this. That''s why I need to warn you one more time��"


    "A scheme?" Agata''s expression turned serious as she looked down, falling into deep thought. "Anyway, I will be following every single one of your orders."


    "Your trust is expensive, you know." Theo rolled his eyes. "What will happen if the world knows the most beautiful woman is entrusting her life to me��"


    "Haha, jobs like this will always be between life and death. It''s not that big of a deal." She chuckled. "Besides, you said you will retreat as soon as we fall into a disadvantage."


    "Fair enough." Theo shrugged. "Though, you still need to prepare to do anythingter."


    "I''m ready��" She answered with a smile.

 Chapter 394 – Cubicar And Expedition

    <h4>Chapter 394 - Cubicar And Expedition</h4>


    "Alright. We have a new route and everyone will be briefed on their new jobs on the way." Aleamanded out loud. "Move out."


    Because they were trying to reserve their strength, Theo and Agata had the chance to enter the vehicle called Cubicar, which was the simplified version of a cube and a car.


    It floated a few inches above the ground, so even if they faced extreme terrain, they could still follow the group.


    When he entered the Cubicar, Theo found four pairs of bunk beds on the opposite side with a small room to store their supply on the right side. The rest was filled with the handle to operate the cubicar and an open area.


    "Hmm�� It''s quite spacious." Theo muttered while looking at the blonde-haired man who seemed to be driving the cubicar.


    "Hello, I''m Marcell." He waved his hand. "I have heard a lot of things about you and even watched your videos in thepetition. I admire you a lot because when I was your age, I couldn''t act or do everything like you. And more importantly, I couldn''t even have a girlfriend because I was unpopr."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched. "Was thest one necessary?"


    Marcell chuckled before returning to his serious expression. "No."


    "Anyway, nice to meet you." Theo nodded and shook his hand.


    "Is me being this casual bothering you? I mean, you are among the top of your generations if we put miss Alea aside. I''m sure you will be at the top sooner orter." He asked with a smile.


    "No, it''s fine. I was lucky in thepetition and I have no experience in a big expedition like this." Theo smiled and remained humble.


    Agata rolled her eyes as those who understood Theo''s role like Ne, Enrica, Ignazio and the others would deny it immediately.


    "That''s great. If you have any questions, you can ask me. Although I don''t have much experience, I have gone on an expedition like this four times. I can give you some tips." He nodded while ncing back and forth, making sure the cubicar didn''t hit the other one. "Anyway, it won''t take us four days even with the new route. I just hope we won''t meet an anomaly like what you described."


    "Ahaha, I hope so." Theo chuckled before turning around to Agata, "Why don''t you have some rest first? After two hours, we wille out and guard this cubicar."


    "Sure." Agata nodded and sat on the floor since no one had dirtied it yet with their shoes.


    "By the way, I am wondering if there is no rule in this cubicar? I mean, we have girls here," asked Theo with a curious expression.


    "Ah, there are some conservative countries that gather all the women in one ce and the men in the other, but we''re a quite open country, so as long as they don''t mind, it''s fine. Also, they are going to keep the order among us since men will amodate women and vice versa. This will improve the bnce between the same sex since they can''t go wild with the opposite gender watching them."


    "I see." Theo nodded.


    "Though, there are many types of vehicles. I believe there is one like a bus or a truck, transporting more people and resources. There are even nes and drones, but we can''t fly too high to avoid being targeted," Agata added with a calm expression as if she had experienced them.


    Marcell only pointed his finger at her while winking his eyes, supporting her point.


    "Anyway, the usual formation will be half outside and half inside and we will switch every two hours." He pointed at the green screen next to him. "Look at this, we are using radar to make sure nothing goes past us. When we are closer, the scout will confirm the monsters and the guards will hunt them before we even pass.


    "Also, we have a short-rangemunication device to check their movements. Though, using this radar has its advantages and disadvantages. There are a few types of monsters more sensitive to the sound wave. There is also a monster that can use EMP, so before the departure, we scout the route first and create a n to avoid those monsters.


    "This is why it''s hard for us to change our route and an anomaly is the worst nightmare for us because the mission can be interrupted. I know that this is dangerous, but if you take a look at these four vehicles alone, they are worth hundreds of millions of Zils. Even if we rent the cubicar, the entire n alone can cost us more than a hundred million. Base reward is included.


    "Moreover, we need to consider other members'' schedules and other things. It''s annoying if there is a willful member who makes trouble for us because of the change of n. Luckily, this one is salvageable.


    "I know that you are warning us in a good way, but we also have our own circumstances. Since you are new in a big expedition like this, I can teach you, so you can understand what you can do and you can''t do in an expedition, including all the details." Marcell exined everything with a calm tone.


    "I see. Thank you for teaching me all this." Theo nodded in understanding and asked, "Still, I do think life is more important."


    "Yes. That''s why we ssify the threat level first. There are three levels: Red, Yellow, and Green. Red means cancel the mission, yellow means proceed with caution, and green means just kill them all. This one is yellow for the time being."


    Theo nodded a few times. If he visited another country, he was bound to experience an expedition like this, so he needed to learn everything now rather thanter.


    Curious, Theo looked at the windows and saw a few people running next to the cubicar. They often moved ahead when the scout found a group of monsters and eliminated them in an instant so the car wouldn''t be targeted.


    When he saw all this, he couldn''t help but think of a certain scene. It was him driving this cubicar. Normally, a single person wouldn''t venture with this vehicle because they couldn''t protect this cubicar, but Theo could use his clone to protect his car.


    Click.


    Suddenly, someone opened the door, shattering the image in Theo''s head.


    Theo and Agata nced at the person entering the cubicar and were slightly surprised when it turned out to be Alea.

 Chapter 395 – Exposed

    <h4>Chapter 395 - Exposed</h4>


    "Miss." Marcell quickly greeted her with a nod while keeping his eyes on the road.


    "Now that I think about it, you are Marcell from my uncle''s side, right?" Alea asked with a smile.


    "Yes. I''m honored to be remembered by Miss."


    "Ahaha, I will leave the road to you." Alea chuckled and turned to Theo and Agata. "I will be using this cubicar as the second girl here."


    She extended her hand to Agata, putting on the warmest smile she could afford.


    Agata shook her hand and nodded her head. "Once again, I''m Moana. I''m looking forward to working with you."


    Alea didn''t know why but this Moana seemed familiar now that she finally met her with a calm heart. She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Actually, have we met before?"


    "I don''t think so. I have only heard about you from Theo and thepetition." Moana shrugged with a calm expression. However, some small details couldn''t escape Alea''s eyes.


    "I see." Alea nodded in understanding and tranted her gestures. "It seems we have met. Also, you and Theo appear to have met in thepetition. In other words, you are someone from another country, probably a participant."


    Agata tilted her head in confusion while her heart was screaming, asking, "Did she not hear what I said?"


    Unfortunately for her, Theo already facepalmed and let out a long sigh. "You don''t need to act anymore. I should have told you that lying to Alea is close to impossible because of her unique eyes."


    "What?!" Agata widened her eyes.


    "The reason I didn''t tell you is to avoid you from bing too conscious about it and making an unnecessary lie, albeit this is the result." Theo shook his head helplessly, seeing Alea''s smile.


    Agata turned back to Alea and realized she already lost.


    "Only Theo can manipte the conversation and make me doubt my decision. As for you, I don''t think you are at that level yet, so I know that you are someone from another country. No matter how good your ent is, your gesture and facial features can''t lie," exined Alea. She didn''t know why but this just lifted a burden in her heart.


    "In that case, are you scouting Theo now?" Alea asked with a curious expression. She already knew what the others nned to do, so only Theo had an unknown future in front of him.


    Theo looked away, not wanting to bother with this matter. He unintentionally exchanged looks with Marcell.


    To his surprise, Marcell winked and gave a thumbs up, as if telling him, "You are the winner in life, bro."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes and shook his head.


    "So, who are you? There are a few noticeable female participants��" Alea looked at Agata with prying eyes and soon realized another way to get her answer.


    Agata never expected Alea to have this kind of ability. Knowing it would be better for the other party to not know her identity, she quickly changed the topic. "Since you know my identity, I guess that''s enough. I can tell you many things, but my identity is not among them. It''s better for both of us."


    "Well, I can understand that. Besides, I will know about your identity as soon as you fight." Alea shrugged before ncing at Theo. "So, you are going abroad soon?"


    "Who knows." Theo chuckled.


    As Alea expected, Theo answered with the most ambiguous answer possible. Though, deep in Theo''s heart, the only way to fool Alea was like how God of Mischief talked. Even with a single word like "yes", he could make his heart doubt the answer.


    "It''s not my ce to know it anyway." Alea sighed and changed the topic. "By the way, how are you? It''s been a few months and I''m sure you have reached Hero Rank, right?"


    Theo shrugged. "Just a bit of luck."


    Alea closed her eyes with a bitter smile. She didn''t want to admit it, but Theo''s leveling speed was faster than her.


    Although the increase of their levels was simr, Theo''s effort came from missions and the journey he chose by himself. On the other hand, her levels came from the intense leveling inside her own facility, where she could fight relentlessly and increase her levels quickly.


    Still, it wasn''t like she only leveled up during the past few months. She had something she wanted to show him as well, so she said with an excited but serious tone. "Theo, I know that you have be far stronger, but I won''t lose to you."


    "You think?" Theo put on a gentle smile as if he didn''t believe her.


    "Hehe, you are already acting arrogant." Alea chuckled.


    "Arrogant and underestimating someone are two different things." Theo shrugged and looked at Agata, "Anyway, I will be fighting with her in this expedition, not you. And you are the leader, not me."


    "But that doesn''t mean I can''t talk to you, right?" Alea smiled. "Your strategy and strength made us win. That''s proven by the ring on your hand."


    Theo looked away and stopped talking.


    Meanwhile, Alea asked Marcell, "That''s right. How is the situation going on?"


    "We have eliminated several small groups along the way. There''s no problem currently."


    "Though, there will be er," Theo added with his eyes closed.


    Alea and Marcell turned to him hurriedly with their eyes wide open. They had the same expressions, asking him, "What''s going on?"


    Theo only said one thing. "I''m just gonna apologize in advance."


    "Ehm�� You are not trying to kill someone here, right?" Alea gently stroked her cheek with a troubled expression.


    "Killing is bad, you know." Theo put on a gentle smile, but that smile just made Alea remember what happened every time Theo smiled.


    In that instant, she quickly knew that Theo might indeed kill someone here. And the only person who he might kill would be Xavier. She wondered if she made a mistake in inviting Theo here.


    Before she said anything, Agata already leaned on the box next to her while saying, "Anyway, you better get some rest. It''s going to be a tiring journey."


    "��" Alea shook her head, seeing Agata''s ignorance�� She simply didn''t know what Theo could do.

 Chapter 396 – Theo’s Current Prowess

    <h4>Chapter 396 - Theo��s Current Prowess</h4>


    Two hourster.


    A blue-haired young man entered the cubicar while speaking with a poker face. "It''s time to change."


    In that instant, Theo, Agata, Alea, and Marcell rose from their positions and grabbed all their weapons before heading out of the cubicar.


    They started running to match the cubicar''s speed, which was simr to joggingpared to their full speed.


    They soon found the other three members, slowing down their speed to match the cubicar.


    Theo observed these guys since they would be together inside the cubicar for the rest of the mission.


    However, the other three guys seemed to have no intention of talking with them, and Alea didn''t say anything regarding their stance. Instead, she went straight to the vice leader, Xavier.


    "How is the situation?" Alea asked with a serious expression.


    "There is a fight in front of us, so we need to dispatch the fresh guys to head there. Other than that, everything is normal." Xavier exined while giving Alea a small device.


    "Thanks." Alea grabbed the device and said, "I will take over. Get some rest."


    Xavier nodded and returned to his own cubicar.


    Meanwhile, Theo kept staring back and forth between Xavier and the surroundings.


    They were in the middle of a in, so all monsters that could attack them were in sight. They only needed to make sure no monsters came from unexpected spots.


    And with Xavier''s report in mind, Alea decided to send Agata and Theo to help the group annihte their enemies.


    "Theo, Moana, go there and help them. Make sure you don''t go too far from the group and keep eye contact with our cubicars. Also, tell them to retreat to get some rest," shouted Alea while turning to Theo from the front.


    "Roger." Theo nodded and nced at Agata, whispering, "Shall we?"


    Agata smiled and started increasing their pace.


    They could see a group of four fighting two monsters which seemed to be green scorpions. Its height reached ten feet above the ground and the wingspan of these scorpions was fifteen feet.


    The people that fought them were one knight, one fighter, and two magicians.


    "We are here to help you," Agata shouted, making sure they knew they wereing so as to avoid friendly fire.


    Hearing their voices, the two magicians nced back with a serious expression. The knight quickly pointed at the other scorpion. "Help him. Magicians, focus on me."


    "Understood." They started moving in unison.


    "To the left." Theo pointed at the left side with no one in sight, giving Agata a safe spot to get the scorpion''s attention.


    Agata nodded without hesitation and released her killing intent when she reached the spot. Pink-colored energy covered her fists as she was ready to fight.


    Both the scorpion and the fighter noticed her presence and shifted their gaze for an instant.


    Theo took this chance to appear from the other side using his Blink and struck the joint connecting the body and the huge pedipalp.


    "Cannon st."


    The energy from Cannon st exploded and crushed the joint in an instant before Theo used his Telekinesis and External Flow to sever the joint.


    Scree.


    The scorpion realized what just happened and turned its vision to Theo, but before it could see anything, a wave of Magic Bullets fell right on top of its head.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    All forty Magic Bullets exploded in session, cracking the scorpion''s head. At the same time, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly on top of his body, made his way to the second pedipalp and hit it, sending the pedipalp flying.


    Scree.


    The scorpion screamed in pain as it couldn''t realize what was going on since Theo''s movement was smooth and quick.


    Unfortunately for him, Clone Theo already appeared above its head and pierced through it.


    "Cannon st."


    Bam.


    The Cannon st created a hole through the scorpion''s skull and killed it.


    [Killed a Grass Scorpion.]


    [EXP+27,000]


    Theo smiled, feeling satisfied with his performance.


    However, Agata and the fighter couldn''t share the feeling because they both dropped their jaws.


    The fighter was as confused as the scorpion since he didn''t see Theo moving other than when his clone pierced its head.


    On the contrary, Agata managed to see the whole fight due to her body facing Theo.


    ''He summoned his Magic Bullets first and sent them into the air. Using me and the fighter to gather the scorpion''s attention, he appeared next to it and destroyed that one joint, gathering the scorpion''s attention.


    ''However, the Magic Bullets had perfect timing and hit the scorpion half a second after Theonded his first hit. It was to create anothermotion in which became another opportunity to send the other pedipalp flying.


    ''But his true attack was none other than the clone that had been summoned even before they attacked. The clone had been standing in the air using his Telekinesis and used the opportunity created by the original to kill the scorpion.


    ''It might look like he did all the work, but the most important part of this strategy was me and the other guy. If it were Theo alone, the scorpion would have prepared for Theo''s numerous attacks, making the situation a bit harder.


    ''But still�� This guy�� How strong is this guy right now?'' Agata gulped down, realizing why Theo could be the MVP. In fact, she had been seeking Theo''s information after that tournament.


    She found out that Theo was just a normal guy a few months before the small tournament his school held. It was in that tournament Theo showed an improvement that no one could believe. No, they just believed Theo had been hiding his skill before that tournament.


    Unexpectedly, Theo just shattered that rumor because this kind of improvement speed matched Theo''s improvement in the smallpetition.


    That was why she finally grasped Theo''s real talent.


    She couldn''t help but mutter, "So, this is the real Theo."


    However, she wasn''t the only one who saw it. Alea had been keeping her eyes on Theo this whole time since that was the only reason she asked Theo to help the team ahead.


    To her surprise, her improvement seemed to be subparpared to Theo''s. It was due to her partnering with Theo for the longest she could understand how much Theo had improved this whole time and she couldn''t help but gulp down when she watched how Theo took down a level 290 Scorpion in an instant.


    "It seems I should stopparing myself to a freak like him��" Alea sighed inwardly.

 Chapter 397 – Realization

    <h4>Chapter 397 - Realization</h4>


    "Done." Theo smiled and nced at the side, seeing the magicians overpowered the scorpion with their concentrated power. He then stopped and said to Agata, "Let''s go back."


    "Yep. Let''s go back." Agata nodded her head, albeit with an awkward face. She also didn''t forget to inform the warrior. "The other one is going to die at any moment. We should retreat right now and exchange roles."


    The fighter took another look at the other scorpion and nodded his head, following them back to the cubicars.


    After that, Agata asked, "You''re really a mysterious guy. I do believe that what you have done in thepetition is your efforts this whole time, but to think it''s just a mere shell��"


    "I don''t know what you are talking about." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Either way, I think the War God Family will take a liking to it." She smiled. "I guess I understand what you are trying to show me and why you said they may need to raise the price. You are trying to sell your future value too, right?"


    "Lady." Theo smiled back and said, "You haven''t seen anything yet."


    "Bragging." She chuckled, trying to tease him.


    "I''m fighting for my own price, so I need to show off a little bit." Theo shrugged.


    "I''m looking forward to it then." Agata nodded as she kept running with a smile on her face.


    Suddenly, Alea came to her with a serious expression, asking with a voice only both of them could hear. "I finally know who you are. You are Agata Mota, right?"


    After getting informed about Alea''s eyes, Agata didn''t bother to hide it and smiled. "So?"


    Alea was bewildered that she admitted it right away.


    However, Agata shut her down with, "I don''t care about you, self-centered woman."


    She harrumphed and left her side. There was a mountain of things she wanted to say to her, but she decided to wait until they finished this expedition.


    Meanwhile, Theo continued without any word, unaware of what the two talked about.


    In the expedition, they kept changing their roles to maintain their stamina and magic power reserve.


    Theo also had grown ustomed to his role, learning more about a big expedition.


    Because they brought cubicars, there was no shortage of water and food on the way. Of course, they still hunted some monsters to avoid being reliant on the preserved food and it would be more enjoyable that way.


    After that, the group split into four and watched out during the night. The group was split ording to their cubicars, so Agata and Theo were together most of the time.


    Agata also understood that Theo was the one who made her feel the need to have Mimicry skills, not anybody else. For the first time in her life, she wanted someone to see her characters, not beauty. Unfortunately, she couldn''t utter those words because she felt Theo would be annoyed to listen to those words with their current rtionship.


    Marcell and Agata exined many things regarding the expedition, making him understand everything, including the small stuff.


    However, things started to change when Theo was sitting on the cubicars leisurely.


    Marcell, who was quietly driving the cubicars, opened his mouth to warn them. "We''re entering Sigil Mountain Range. The slope is one mile in front of us."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes before his expression darkened. He muttered inwardly, ''I guess this is the time.''


    As he expected, the trouble seemed toe immediately. Marcell was leisurely driving before a warning issued by the radar. There was a word stated on the radar screen.


    Caution.


    The sh of red lighting from that word rmed his eyes right away as he lowered his head, finding many dots moving at fast speed.


    "Hmm?!" Marcell hurriedly shouted when he noticed it. "There is a big grouping at us."


    "!!!" Agata raised her eyebrows while Theo had expected something like this.


    Marcell reached hismunication device and shouted, "Warning, warning. Huge pack ahead. All personnel are to stop the cubicars ande out to face them. Their number�� above a hundred!"


    After warning them, Marcell asked while stopping the cubicar. "Miss, your order?!"


    Alea''s body shook. She took a nce at Theo once before pping her cheeks.


    ''No, I can''t do this. I need to stay focused for now.'' Alea regained her focus and said, "I wille out to give my order personally."


    Alea hurriedly exited the cubicar and jumped on top of it, getting a better look at the situation. She soon found a cloud of huge dust kicked up by a pack of monsters and clicked her tongue. "How?"


    However, she soon saw a human female standing a few hundred feet in front of them, looking at the pack as if she nned to kill them.


    "Leader?!" Xavier called Alea, asking her opinion.


    Alea pointed at the girl and shouted, "See the girl over there?"


    Xavier furrowed his eyebrows and jumped on top of the cubicar, finally finding the girl. "Yes."


    "Get her out of here. We will also start retreating and directing the monsters to another direction." Alea shouted.


    "Understood." Xavier pointed at the front and shouted, "Bring her back here."


    Two fighters acknowledged his orders and headed to the front.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Agata just came out of the cubicar. Theo could finally see Alea bing a real leader.


    From her orders, the cubicars began to drive backward.


    The two fighters that were ordered to bring the girl back had arrived not far from her.


    The girl herself seemed to be wearing a blue t-shirt and long jeans, casually staring at the pack.


    "Ehm,dy? How about youe with us? There is a huge packing at us." The fighter asked politely, not knowing thisdy''s identity.


    Alea used binocrs to see the monsters and soon dropped her jaw to the ground when she recognized them. "This is��"


    She couldn''t help but remember Theo''s warning before the expedition. It was soon reinforced by what he said inside the cubicar.


    "Mutated Chimera Wolves��" Alea muttered and remembered Theo once said the Mutated Chimera Wolf had started turning into a human after devouring multiple of them. In that instant, she took another look at the girl and panicked, shouting on top of her lungs. "Not good. Get out of there right now! Get the two back here!"


    Unfortunately, they couldn''t hear her voice as the female suddenly turned around, looking the two fighters in the eyes with her own bloodshot eyes.

 Chapter 398 – Resolve

    <h4>Chapter 398 - Resolve</h4>


    The two fighters felt a chill down their spine when their eyes met. However, they still hadn''t realized that the human before them was nothing but a monster.


    "Lady?!" The fighter called her again, albeit got no response.


    "I''m sorry if I offend you, but I need to get you out of here." The other fighter decided to take action because the monsters were already near them.


    Unfortunately, that was the biggest mistake he could make as the female suddenly leaped forward, waving her hands from the side.


    Four crescent-shaped red lights shed.


    Luckily, the fighter was still an elite among Level 300 fighters. He somehow managed to pull his sword to stop these lights, albeit he gotunched into the air,nding with his body and rolling a few times on the ground.


    "Wha��" The other fighter widened his eyes and raised his weapon, rmed.


    Alea''s voice started echoing in their ears as she came forward to warn them herself. "Watch out. She is a monster, not a human."


    When the other fighter heard it, he raised his sword, intercepting another attack from the woman. That timely warning made his body react faster, blocking her hand with his swordpletely.


    "Her fingers are not cut?" The fighter gasped and confirmed that the female in front of her wasn''t a human.


    He leaped backward while warning hisrade. "Quickly escape. We are regrouping with the rest."


    The fighter, who was blown away earlier, rose from the ground and checked her again with his Skylink, confirming it as a Mutated Chimera Wolf, the monster they wanted to avoid with the new route.


    "What is happening?" He shouted and started running.


    Seeing the others had returned, Alea also began to fall back while shouting, "We need to get away from here."


    The two fighters nodded and ran away while keeping an eye on the female that somehow stopped moving after that attack.


    Behind her, numerous wolves with different forms chased after them. There were half-human, half-horse, and many other forms.


    However, Theo would be surprised if he heard what came out of Alea''s mouth next.


    "It''s really an assassination attempt. I guess it''s good that I am prepared for it." Alea sighed, remembering thest thing she decided to trust other people despite Theo''s warning. Theo was almost framed by another person.


    At that time, she swore to not repeat her mistake, so she made another preparation for this.


    She returned to the group and said, "We will fall back."


    "Understood." All of them acknowledged her orders and began to look at the huge cloud of dust approaching them.


    Xavier frowned and shouted, "They are faster than us. They will catch up soon."


    "Magicians! Get on top of the cubicars and hit them with your skills to buy us some time. Knights and fighters prepare to intercept them. The rest will match our movement." Aleamanded while looking back, watching theming closer.


    The magicians started going to their position and released their attacks.


    "Electrical Net."


    "zing Powder."


    ��


    ��


    Numerous skills flew at the same time, but when they were about to reach the pack, ten Mutated Chimera Wolves jumped into the air. All of them had taken half-human form with their limbs still maintained their original form.


    All those Chimera Wolves formed a screen in various colors and received the attacks simultaneously.


    "What?!" The magicians were surprised by their interception. Meanwhile, Xavier shouted while ring at Theo. "Where are you going?"


    "I have told you, right?" Theo snorted and looked at him coldly. Seeing Xavier''s agitated expression only reinforced his suspicion of this whole anomaly.


    "We are still not at a disadvantage. There is still a chance." Xavier shouted to make others notice what Theo nned to do. He wouldn''t dare to escape that easily. After all, if the group survived, his reputation would be hit.


    Understanding what he nned, Theo shrugged and summoned his clone. Both he and his clone summoned their Magic Bullets and cloned them with his Illusion Multiplier.


    Because the Magic Bullets had be a B Rank Skill, Theo managed to summon a total of 160 Magic Bullets.


    "!!!" Agata was surprised because the Magic Bullets were double in number from the one that suppressed them in thepetition.


    The Magic Bullets flew to the sky and started falling down, creating parabolic trails in the air.


    Due to the number of the Magic Bullets, the Chimera Wolves panicked, not knowing what to do to withstand that number of attacks.


    Around thirty of them leaped to the sky to take the hit, but they obviously couldn''t get them all.


    Some of the real bullets flew past them and hit the Chimera Wolves on the ground, injuring them and knocking them down to the ground.


    This created a certainmotion among the Chimera Wolves as they barely avoided those who fell.


    "What?!" The Magicians were surprised and realized Theo utilized their number against them. Instead of giving a powerful blow, Theo just wanted to buy time with his numbers that knocked them down.


    However, another unexpected thing appeared as a whistle suddenly filled their ears. Another group just arrived on the battlefield.


    All fifteen of them wore a white uniform with two swords on their chest.


    "Eilric Family''s Battlefront Group S is requesting to join the fight!" A middle-aged man stepped forward and shouted, making their presence known.


    "!!!" Alea''s group looked at their location while Alea smiled. "Turn around! We are fighting them back. They are our reinforcement and their number is fifteen people with two Supreme Rank Experts among them!"


    "What? There are Supreme Rank Experts?"


    "The wolves are only level 320, so we may be able to do this even with our number."


    "Turn around and attack!" Aleamanded out loud while smiling and saying inwardly, "Theo, I know you never y with lives. Look at me! This time, I will show you that I have changed. I will show you that I can save all of them and stop all the plots while still listening to your warning. If my Eilric Family makes their appearance, the group that aims at you won''t dare because they may still be tailing us. I will show you that everything can be resolved peacefully, not by killing. This is��


    �� My resolve."

 Chapter 399 – The Military

    <h4>Chapter 399 - The Military</h4>


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the iing group. "Hmm��"


    Agata approached him and whispered. "Theo, they are��"


    "They should be like what they said since Alea confirmed their identity. However��" Theo frowned, feeling something wasn''t right.


    "That''s right. I believe she wants to use her family influence to make the person targeting you fear their presence. I mean, this will make them stop what they are doing in this expedition just by making them realize that the Eilric Group may appear suddenly."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "But��" Agata also added, "Can''t she understand it won''t solve the roots of problems? If you are targeted like this, I doubt they will stop after this just one incident."


    "Well, I have mixed feelings about it. First of all, if you saw Alea a few months ago, you would realize she had grown up�� Enough to bring tears to your eyes. But yeah, I may need to change my n a bit." Theo shrugged.


    "What are you nning to do?" She asked.


    "Hmm, with the appearance of the Eilric Family, I guess I can draw them out. Just follow meter." Theo smirked.


    "I guess someone is going to have trouble." She couldn''t help but feel excited, knowing Theo had something up his sleeve.


    Suddenly, Theo pointed his finger in another direction.


    There was another group of peopleing out of the forest facing their direction.


    "Hmm?!" Agata turned around and squinted her eyes, realizing that there was another group of twenty people.


    Alea also noticed it and looked to the side, finding a group of people wearing their military uniform.


    "I am Major Sam, I have brought with me my deputy and eighteen soldiers to help you."


    "Huh?" Both Agata and Alea widened their eyes, not knowing why the army reached this ce.


    "Theo, what did you do?" Agata asked with a dumbfounded expression.


    "You want to know?" Theo smirked.


    ��


    Two days ago.


    A red-haired man watched the conversation of Theo, Xavier and Alea. However, he soon found something weird in Xavier''s facial expression as if he had another n.


    It was when the red-haired man confirmed their intention and turned around, leaving the za where the group gathered.


    Instead of wandering around, the red-haired man hurriedly made his way to the military''s station inside Ark City.


    It was a building next to the teleportation circle. He entered it without hesitation, finding a huge receptionist desk with a middle-aged man sitting behind it. The middle-aged man also wore a military uniform, so the red-haired man politely greeted him.


    "Hello, Sir." He smiled.


    "Hmm?" The middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows. "It''s rare to have someone visit this ce, but you need to know we are not dealing with search and rescue, okay?"


    "Yes. I would like to report an anomaly." He shook his head and exined the reason he came here.


    "An anomaly?" The middle-aged soldier straightened his back as his expression became serious. "What kind of anomaly?"


    "The anomaly is a Mutated Chimera Wolves pack. There are more than a hundred of them and I have learned that they have begun to transform into humans. I''m afraid they have killed and devoured many humans." The red-haired man exined with a calm expression.


    "Mutated Chimera Wolves��" The soldier started searching for the information and found it. However, he soon found someone entering the office and quickly stood up to greet him. "Major."


    He saluted another middle-aged soldier whose face was very familiar to the red-haired person.


    "Major Sam." The red-haired man called his name with a surprised face.


    "Hmm?" The Major frowned and tilted his head. "Yes? Do I know you?"


    "You don''t know my current appearance�� But I guess this will jog your memory." The red-haired man smiled as his hair turned blue and his face slightly changed.


    "!!!" Both middle-aged men gasped and said his name at the same time. "Theodore Griffith."


    "I''m d that Major Sam remembers me. Thanks to your extra ''love'', I could be a participant in the Grand Gaia Competition." Theo smirked.


    "Heh, you are teasing me now." Major Sam harrumphed and asked, "Why are you here? And why are you changing your appearance?"


    "I can''t reallye out without it, no?" Theo shrugged.


    "Fair enough." Sam nodded in understanding, feeling that celebrity life was kind of a hassle.


    "He is reporting an anomaly of Chimera Wolves. It''s been mutated to a human, so I''m afraid they will trick other humans and kill them. If this continues, it may be a problem for us." The middle-aged soldier exined everything to Sam.


    Hearing the report, Major Sam looked at Theo for a moment and patted his shoulder. "Come with me. I will take care of the report myself."


    The middle-aged soldier saluted and let the two go.


    As soon as they reached his office, Theo cut to the chase and said, "Major, how about we make a deal?"


    "Oh?" Major Sam understood Theo''s talent and sat on his chair. His interest was piqued by what kind of deal this little genius had for him, so he asked, "What is the deal?"


    "This anomaly may be rted to my assassination. However, the others only know about it as an anomaly." Theo stated with a smile.


    Major Sam instantly understood what he wanted. "So, you want me to follow you to deal with this problem. I can take the credit for this anomaly while you can save your life. It''s an interesting deal to be honest, but it''s not enough to convince the soldiers and me you know. Especially if we need to follow you, considering you are on an expedition to exterminate the dragon, no? And there is a chance that this is not an assassination attempt and the entire anomaly is just a coincidence."


    "Major knows about me in the expedition?"


    "There is an official document for it." He nodded. "I signed it two days ago. Your name just piqued my interest, you see."


    "Ahaha, that''s true. That''s why I don''t want to beat around the bush." Theo raised his hand, showing the ring on his finger. "If everything isn''t an assassination attempt, I will give this ring to the country. I''m sure this will bring the country''s honor, right? And you who can make me give this to the country will certainly get a promotion.


    "Besides, it won''t be good if I die right now since the country will be seen as one who can''t even take care of their own champion who has brought them so much glory, no?" Theo smirked. "And do you know if this is my real body or my clone? There are many things I can put as my leverage, but I will only tell you one thing. Trust me and you will get profits whether it''s a sess or a failure."


    Major Sam only pped his hands with a smile. "To be honest, I''m impressed. If you make a written statement for this deal, I will believe you."


    "I can send you er." Theo nodded in agreement.


    However, Major Sam simply pointed at his desk. "Just sit here and make one. I will wait."


    "You sure?"


    Major Sam only gave a thumbs up.


    Seeing the problem would be able to be solved immediately, Theo spared no effort in making the document and signing it.


    Major Sam, on the other hand, added after the document was in his hand. "Actually, there are already many reports stating a huge number of casualties in the east. Since you are reporting this, I believe the ce is in the east Ark City, no?"


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched and he chuckled. "I guess even without me, you are already about to act."


    "I won''t have this seat without this level of shrewdness. But either way, this is a win-win agreement, don''t you think?"


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded with a smile, extending his hand. "I guess I can rest assured now."


    "You do." Major Sam made a smug smile.


    "Then, it''s time for me to leave. I believe your words are easier to ept by your soldiers." Theo smiled and disappeared, revealing that he was only a mere clone.


    "Heh, I guess I can''t say I won either��" Major Sam shook his head helplessly when he saw Theo was just a mere clone. That ring must also be a clone or an illusion. "I guess this is what you get when you win too much�� The epicenter of trouble. Poor him."


    ��


    Remembering and telling Agata a bit of his story, Theo smiled, "Well, with the Eilric Family and the military joining in, it''s time to turn the situation in my favor."

 Chapter 400 – Naive

    <h4>Chapter 400 - Naive</h4>


    Hearing his story, Agata couldn''t help but chuckle. "I guess this is not the end."


    Theo smiled and said, "For now, keep your eyes on me, but don''t get too close to me. Understood?"


    "Roger." She nodded in agreement.


    Theo then quickly charged toward the Mutated Chimera Wolves with his group together. The same applied to the soldiers and the Eilric Family''s squad.


    They all pincered the monsters from two directions, trying to engulf the wolf pack.


    "Let''s go." Theo ran for a moment as he finally reached his first target.


    His clone was already beside him and thrust his spear to this Mutated Chimera Wolf whose body had be a human. However, the lower body was still that of a wolf. Its two hands also remained original.


    Seeing the normal attack from the clone, the Mutated Chimera Wolf waved its hand to block Theo''s spear.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo had disappeared from its vision.


    The wolf sensed iing presence and turned to the right, finding numerous Magic Bullets that would hit him.


    The wolf extended its right hand and formed a blue protective screen, but it didn''t realize this was the concentrated power of Theo, so the shield began to crack.


    Using that chance, Clone Theo covered his fist with the Cannon st and struck the half-destroyed shield, shattering it and releasing the energy on the w.


    Because the wolf didn''t have the chance to react, the energy started shredding the wolf''s fur and skin, leaving some grazes where blood flowed out.


    The Chimera Wolf leaped on top of him and tried to kick him, but Theo finally used the power of the ring in a fight.


    As soon as he infused his Magic Power into the ring, a golden circr screen appeared in front of him.


    It covered his entire body. When the Chimera Wolf kicked him, the shieldpletely blocked it, startling the wolf.


    "!!!" The Chimera Wolf looked at Theo before turning to the right, finding another wave of Magic Bullets. The wolf used the shield again, but this time, the real Theo and his clone used their Blink to appear on top of him, thrusting their spears simultaneously.


    The Chimera Wolf waved its w, but Theo''s Cannon st ripped its hand apart while his clone pierced it from the side until it flew off, resulting in Theo''s spear continuing on its path and piercing through the wolf''s body.


    [Killed a Mutated Chimera Wolf.]


    [EXP+54,500]


    [You have leveled up.]


    Theo smiled and looked at the numerous wolves before him.


    With the army and the Eilric Family gradually destroying the pack, Theo killed a few more and got another level.


    Meanwhile, Major Sam raised his head and released his power. With a single wave of his hand, the wind that circled his right arm flew off, expanding on the air and cutting everything on its way.


    There were three Chimera Wolves that came to block it, but all of them were blown to the ground and died when the second ring hit them.


    It was truly a nightmare for the Chimera Wolf to handle a Supreme Rank Expert. Not only was their level difference huge, but they were also separated by rank.


    The same applied to the Supreme Rank Expert from the Eilric Family. The middle-aged guy wielded his war hammer and struck the ground. Soon, the ground beneath the Chimera Wolves rose to the sky,unching a total of ten Chimera Wolves into the air.


    A woman in herte twenties then appeared and waved her sword.


    "Purgatory Sword." The sword traveled with a speed far faster than the wolf. Even Theo would have a hard time following it. After all, she was someone who did everything to increase her speed.


    She relied on the sword''s sharpness to cut her enemies. And that n seeded as she cut all the wolves in the air within one second.


    "Oh, that''s cool." Major Sam raised his eyebrows while saying to his deputy, who seemed to be another middle-aged man with blue hair. "Hey, how about we do that too? Combination attack?"


    "Major, you are two years older than me. Why are you still so childish?" His deputy could only shake his head helplessly.


    "How many years have you followed me? You already know my personality. Besides, smiling and feeling happy are always a remedy for long life. See, I look ten years younger than you." He harrumphed.


    "Ehm�� No." He shrugged. He looked younger, but not that young.


    "You are supposed to say ''that''s right'' there." Major Sam sighed and said, "Well, we can''t really y too much since there are civilians and another group there."


    "That''s right."


    "��" Major Sam was speechless by his deputy''s poker face and said onest time. "You just don''t want me to be happy, don''t you?"


    "That''s right."


    "��"


    All 65 people quickly swept the entire pack of Chimera Wolves. They didn''t leave a single of them alive.


    Major Sam killed the one who tricked them initially, while Theo managed to kill seven of them and leveled up twice in this fight alone and the fight came to a conclusion.


    Alea immediately stood in the middle of the group and shouted, "Is there a casualty among us? Injured people are to have the healers check you."


    After informing them, Alea went to the middle-aged man from her family who seemed to be talking to Major Sam. Before meeting them, Someone came to her and said, "Leader. I saw Theodore Griffith chasing someone into the woods. Sir Xavier and his men are searching for him to make sure nothing happens. He said you can talk to the other two groups and thank them."


    "Oh, okay. Thanks. I will go after this." She nodded and realized that Theo was pursuing the assassin, so Xavier should be enough to bring him back. She then came to the two important people to thank them. "Thank you foring to help us."


    "Since young miss needed my help, there was no way this old man wouldn''t help." He smiled.


    Major Sam only nodded his head while asking, "Where is that guy? I''m here to help him and he doesn''t even thank me��"


    "He is chasing someone into the woods. A few people are trying to get him back." Alea answered innocently.


    "Holy sh*t." Major Sam widened his eyes.


    "What happens?" The middle-aged man from the Eilric Family asked in confusion.


    "That guy told me the anomaly was an assassination attempt."


    "!!!" The middle-aged man dropped his jaw to the ground and quickly looked around, finding half of the group missing. "Who wants to kill that guy? Half of them are missing. Young miss, why didn''t you tell me this earlier?"


    "W-what?" Alea was confused.


    "Ah, you are still too naive. It''s obvious the first guy he chased is the bait to bring him out of this ce, while the guys who want to bring him back are the real assassins. This is the only time they can kill him after we make our appearance��" The middle-aged man turned around. "I''m going to help him."


    "I''m going too��" Major Sam nodded in agreement.

 Chapter 401 – Sihan Vs Theo

    <h4>Chapter 401 - Sihan Vs Theo</h4>


    Just like the two expected, Alea missed a single big catch. With the Eilric Family tailing them or just the potential alone was enough to make the assassins think that they only had one chance to act if they didn''t want to miss this opportunity.


    They needed to strike Theo when the battle just ended because that was the only time they could see the military and the Eilric Family gathered in one ce without doing anything.


    And Theo also knew that timing, thus allowing him to draw all of them out by chasing the bait they had.


    Inside the forest, he had started fighting the bait, which was none other than his former teammate, Sihan Raskaka.


    Theo waved his spear from the side, using his Telekinesis, Cannon st, and External Flow.


    Sihan stomped the ground and raised his shield, stopping this attack head-on. However, he soon gotunched away because of the power difference between them.


    "You won''t be able to fight me anymore." Theo snorted and said, "I thought about sparing you until I got the clear answer from my brother, but since you seek death, I will deliver it to you."


    "Since when you talk too much." Sihan snorted and regained his foothold while waving his sword backward, striking Clone Theo.


    Clone Theo hit the sword as the two shed for a moment before Sihan''s sword flew to the air.


    With a single wave of his hand, the sword fell down at fast speed, almost impaling him. Clone Theo used his Telekinesis to push the sword into the air to avoid him using it.


    However, Sihan adjusted his fingers a little bit as Theo noticed two more strings were attached to the trees next to him. This string tightened and straightened, almost slicing Clone Theo''s neck.


    Clone Theo took a step back and shed the string while the real body arrived and swung his spear together with his clone, trying to incapacitate him in this strike.


    Sihan snorted and ced his shield on the ground, tweaking his fingers a little bit. A series of strings began to make their appearance, coated by blue-colored energy.


    These strings stopped Theo''s spear right below the spear''s de where there was no energy that could cut them.


    Seeing this, Agata furrowed her eyebrows and maintained her vignce. She didn''t want to help Theo because he wanted to solve this problem by himself, so all she could do was watch out for the iing enemies that would help Sihan.


    "Theo, we don''t have time. I can sense theming," shouted Agata while asking, "Do you need help?"


    "No. But this is certainly annoying." Theo nodded and covered his foot with his Cannon st energy before stomping the ground. The energy from the Cannon st destroyed the ground, turning it into a crater.


    Losing their foothold and incapacitating Sihan''s string for a moment, Theo kicked him on the stomach while his clone hit him on the back.


    Because Theo just used the Cannon st, he couldn''t use it anymore. Only his clone could throw a powerful strike next.


    Knowing Theo''s power, Sihan used his shield to block the Cannon st while using his hand to stop Theo''s fist.


    Unfortunately for him, each of Theo''s strikes wasn''t the same anymore. All of them contained at least External Flow and Telekinesis unless he didn''t n to use them.


    The force blew his shield and his hand in the opposite directions, making his body spin. His wrist was twisted while he felt his lower''s arm bone that held the shield cracked.


    "Kh!" Sihan gritted his teeth andnded on the ground, coughing out blood. Still, he couldn''t let down his guard when fighting Theo, so he hurriedly rolled once to look up, finding Theo swinging his spears downwards.


    Using the ground as his support, Sihan raised his shield to block this attack.


    Bam.


    The crater became deeper when his spears hit the shield.


    "Argh!" Sihan screamed in pain as his hand just broke and used his broken wrist to help.


    However, the most shocking thing Theo did just now was cracking Sihan''s shield. The shield was made of C Rank Material, the same as his spear. This meant Theo''s power was far above an average C Rank monster.


    "Kh!" Sihan gritted his teeth, knowing that this would be his end.


    Meanwhile, Agata was impressed by Theo''s power while thinking, "Theo''s strength is extraordinary. He may be on par with Ne in terms of control. So, this is the genius that shook the world a few months ago��"


    But her expression turned serious as she looked to the side, seeing their pursuers.


    "Theo!" Suddenly, Agata''s voice resounded in the area as she appeared next to Theo, releasing a heart-shaped pink balloon and shooting it to the sky.


    Theo raised his vision and saw a red fireball that fell on top of the balloon, exploding together with the balloon. Luckily, the pink-colored smoke prevented the fireball from exploding.


    "There are ten�� No, fifteen of them. We need to get away right now," Agata warned him out loud.


    Instead of running, Clone Theo reached Agata''s shoulder while the real him nned to deliver the killing blow.


    He nned to stab his throat to make sure he died since the heart was protected well by the shield.


    "Die." Theo snorted and stabbed him.


    As if this was hisst struggle, Sihan raised his right hand and waved it down. In that instant, not only his wrist but also his arm bent in a weird way. Luckily, his gamble paid off as the strings restrained Theo''s spear and redirected it.


    In the end, Theo pierced the side of his chest, missing his vital spots.


    "Tsk." He clicked his tongue as the pursuers reached his position.


    Without any choice, Theo pulled his spear out and used his Blink together with his clone, teleporting them away.


    "He went in that direction." Xavier pointed to the left after getting his position through his Awareness. "Healer, stay behind to heal him. The rest of you will follow me."


    "Understood!"


    Sihan watched everything happening slowly, knowing that he was dying. He opened his mouth and looked at the blue sky while muttering inwardly, "Life for life. You saved my life back then�� Now I have paid you back."

 Chapter 402 – Sihan Raskaka And Edward Griffith

    <h4>Chapter 402 - Sihan Raskaka And Edward Griffith</h4>


    A few years ago.


    Sihan asked, "I want to help you with this n of yours."


    The blue-haired man smiled as he said with a sad tone. "This will just make us three sad, you know."


    "That''s fine. I will always repay what I owe. Even if I need to gamble with my life, I will do it. I would have already died if you didn''t help me. And�� not only you helped me, but you also trained me. Please��" Sihan pleaded with hope filling his eyes.


    "��"The blue-haired man let out a long sigh before saying, "I understand. I will tell you my n."


    Sihan opened his eyes and mouth wide in excitement. This was what he wanted. He remained silent, listening to every single word that came out of his mouth.


    "My n is simple. I want you to be his enemy." The blue-haired man smiled, yet, spoke with a sad tone.


    "Enemy?" Sihan dropped his jaw as his excitement became confusion in an instant. "How can I protect him if I am his enemy?"


    "I want you to be his enemy, so you can make others stop bullying him. He is currently suffering in his school. If a talented person bullies him, they will look at your face. As long as you threaten them, only you will be the bully. Of course, I don''t need you to control everything because I''m sure a few people are crazier or have a bigger background than yours. Only control those little guys who bully him."


    "But it doesn''t change the fact I''m the bully." Sihan furrowed his eyebrows.


    "No, this is just the shell of my n." He shook his head and said, "This is only to make many people know that you are his enemies. As I said earlier, there are crazy people out there who may use their influence to bully him or even aim at his life.


    "That''s why I want you to establish yourself and make connections with them, bing their allies. This way, we will know their n and you can inform me everything about it. Tell me about their n or shift them to suit our situation. This is something that can''t be done by those who protect him on the surface." He exined.


    Sihan looked down and muttered, "People hire bodyguards to protect them from an assassin. However, you want me to be another assassin who will meet up with this assassin to kill him and solve the problem from the roots��"


    "Yes." The blue-haired man nodded with a serious expression. "That''s why this will just make us suffer. But I can''t show myself in the open, so I can only protect him this way. He may suffer on the surface, but I know that my brother''s fate will, one day, change. And the world will know his talent.


    "At that time, your help will be significant. By shifting the enemies and informing me about their movement, I can bring my friends to eliminate them." He sighed. "Now that you know about this, I will still give you the options. Will��"


    Before he finished his words, Sihan already replied with eyes full of resolve. "I will do it."


    "��" Theo''s brother fell silent when he saw Sihan''s expression and smiled. "Okay. When everything is over, tell me everything you wish, I will do my best to fulfill it. This is the only thing I can do to repay you for doing all this."


    He looked at the sky and sighed. "Even if I need to be the greatest viin, if it means my brother can live with his head up high, I don''t mind dying in his hand."


    "Why do you wish to do such a thing?" Sihan asked.


    "I am not Theo''s blood brother. However, I owe his parents enough to sacrifice my life for him." He smiled. "I guess dying by my brother''s hand is more preferable�� I''m such a hopeless person. Either way, even if he hates me, I will�� will always love him."


    ��


    Remembering that scene, Sihan couldn''t help but smile. Another scene shed in his mind.


    It was back when he was in school.


    He fought all the bullies, getting the supremacy to bully Theo. He made sure he was ruthless and acted properly like a bully. Even Theo should believe his fake acting.


    Theo might end up hating him and wanting to kill him, but he already swore to do this.


    He continued fighting that way and bullying Theo. Soon enough, he was approached by several people that wanted to bring Theo to the other side.


    With a few people asking Theo to go to the other side, he leaked their n to Theo''s brother.


    Thetter eliminated all of them on the other side.


    It was a rough situation, but he never regretted his choice. This was the path he had chosen and he wanted to see it through.


    There were multiple attempts because they thought Theo could be easily bullied, but every time they did it, a few people were gone.


    He always took the me, saying he eliminated them because he was the only one who could bully Theo.


    There was even a time that they wanted Theo to be tied to a tree and let a monster eat his arm or something. It was a crazy person and after telling it to Theo''s brother. Thetter was furious and did the same thing as the n but to the bully instead of Theo.


    When there was a problem, Theo''s brother would always be there. Remembering this one thing made him realize the only reason he could redirect Theo''s spear was due to someone''s help.


    As soon as he regained his ability to speak, he opened his mouth. "I know that you are here�� Brother Edward."


    "Huh? What are you talking about?" The healer frowned, not understanding what Sihan was saying. But he soon found out that his hand suddenly moved backward as strings began to appear on his arms, twisting both arms to the back.


    Crack.


    "Argh!" The healer roared in pain as he didn''t understand what was going on.


    "It''s been a while. Thanks to you, we can somehow dy the Lange Family for a few months." A male''s voice suddenly echoed in their ears.


    "!!!" The healer turned to the right, finding a person wearing a long ck robe and a goat mask�� Everything was covered other than his blue hair swaying left and right.

 Chapter 403 – Daemon Group

    <h4>Chapter 403 - Daemon Group</h4>


    "Dark robe and animal mask��" The healer widened his eyes, realizing such an outfit. "You�� You are from Daemon Group."


    "Correct. The reward for you is��" He waved his hand to the right as the strings tightened. However, the strings turned out to be attached to his whole body instead of his arms.


    And those strings sliced the healer''s body into pieces, soaking the ground with blood.


    "I''m sorry that I pushed you too much." He smiled and bent down his knees in front of Sihan. "As promised, I am here to fulfill everything you wish for."


    Sihan smiled and said, "When I trained under you, I always adored you. To give up your life for your own brother, I always felt envious of Theo. Still, for me, you are the coolest person and the only person I will look up to. I wish you were my brother�� I wish�� to be with you�� I wish�� to join your group."


    Edward Griffith smiled and took off his mask. He then put his mask on Sihan and covered his body with a long dark robe.


    Sihan couldn''t help but smile as the person he adored so much really fulfilled his wish in an instant.


    Edward carried Sihan on his back while walking in a certain direction, saying, "I may not be able to fulfill your first wish to be my brother�� However, if you don''t mind, we can be sworn brothers."


    Sihan only tightened the hands around Edward''s neck, showing his excitement. Suddenly, Sihan asked, "How about Theo?"


    "He��" Edward smiled and took out another mask from his robe. Unlike the goat mask he had earlier, this clearly had a pair of horns like that of a dragon. The mask had two zing tattoos around his eyes, bing the symbol of might. The mask was known as�� the Dragon Mask. "Those who are targeting my little brother only have one end. Death!"


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo and Agata were still chased by fourteen people with Xavier leading from the very front.


    "Theo. What are we going to do?" Agata asked.


    "We are going to buy a bit more time." Theo nodded and released his Magic Bullets, shooting them.


    "Dodge them and strike those thate at you," Xavier ordered as they leaped to the side.


    As expected, the Magic Bullets dispersed to chase their own targets.


    But with his brother''s order, ten people with their bodies fully covered with clothes and masks appeared, taking this chance to eliminate them.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes as he saw ten people appearing and killing ten people from Xavier''s group in an instant. There wasn''t even a time to react as if they were prepared to do it in an instant. And Xavier didn''t even realize due to them making no sound.


    "This is not good." Theo gritted his teeth and took out his pocket watch while Xavier had yet to realize that his subordinates had been killed.


    Theo got another surprise when those ten people moved in Sihan''s direction instead of chasing him. They even slowed down to show Theo that they had no n to harm him.


    "What just happened?" Agata was as confused as Theo, but she knew that out of all fourteen of them, only four of them were alive.


    They had Theo and his clone and she should be able to confuse the other two to buy some time. If those mysterious people didn''t have the intention to harm them, it might be the right time to make a counterattack.


    ��


    On the other hand, Edward was walking leisurely until he suddenly felt multiple presences. He stopped on his track and turned around, finding three people making their appearance.


    The two middle-aged men dropped their jaws to the ground the moment he saw Edward and Sihan.


    "You�� You are the Daemon Group''s leader, Dragon!" Major Sam quickly raised his hand, forming a circr wind around his arms.


    "What? Dragon�� That Dragon?" Alea soon realized. The rising assassin organization that terrorized Ark City, Daemon Group.


    "The military and the Eilric Family, huh." Edward let out a long sigh. "If you take another step forward, I''m afraid blood will be spilled."


    "What do��" The middle-aged man from the Eilric Family soon realized and turned to Alea, finding three strings on her neck, body, and legs. "Wait."


    "I''m just telling you that no one goes past this point. We will clean everything up and won''t harm anyone other than our targets."


    "You think we are going to let you do all that?" Major Sam gritted his teeth, preparing to cut down the strings as soon as a chance appeared.


    Unfortunately, that chance wouldn''t appear because ten people with the same outfit but different masks made their appearance behind him.


    "!!!" Major Sam widened his eyes.


    "I know that you are strong, but wiping out the little group you have on the in is an easy thing to do." Edward released a bit of his killing intent.


    ''Daemon Group will definitely kill their target, but��'' Alea''s face became pale as she shouted, interrupting him. "Your target�� Is Theo your target?!"


    "The little girl from the Eilric Family��" Edward looked at Alea and continued, "You have the courage, but you are still too naive. Before talking to me, you should take a lesson from your grandfather about how the way of the real world works. Other than your talent�� Everything about you is trash to me. So, shut up. No one cares about your opinion here."


    "��" The middle-aged man from the Eilric Family took a deep breath and asked, "Okay, what do you want to release our princess?"


    "I only want your Eilric Family to return to the in. Everything will be solved within five minutes," said Edward with a demanding tone.


    "I understand." The Eilric Family nodded.


    Edward raised his hand as if telling him to go back.


    The middle-aged man hurriedly walked to Alea and carried her on his shoulder, leaving the scene.


    "Major��" Edward turned to Sam with the same attitude.


    Major Sam gritted his teeth. He wanted to protect Theo, but all his subordinates and the others might die from the Daemon Group''s onught. The best chance he got was to regroup with his people and rearrange everything before marching to this ce. That way, they would stand a chance against the Daemon Group.


    He could only pray for Theo''s well-being since the situation indeed pressured him to make such a decision.


    With a heavy heart, Major Sam disappeared.

 Chapter 404 – Illusionist Duo

    <h4>Chapter 404 - Illusionist Duo</h4>


    "Theo, there are only four of them. We need to gamble here because if those guys appear again, we won''t be able to do anything." Agata warned him with a serious expression.


    "Hmm?" Xavier frowned and took a look at his back, finding ten people missing. "What?! Where are they?"


    The others also began to nce back and were as shocked as him. It just showed how clean, smooth, and quick the assassins killed them. This was a real assassination. They didn''t leave a sound and killed their target without anyone realizing it.


    Theo, on the contrary, remembered what Agata''s ability could do. He thought for a moment and nodded. "If it''s only four of them, I can do it. Confuse them with your skill and support me by showing their location and illusion. I will handle the rest."


    "Got it." Agata nodded and stopped, cing her hand on the ground. Pink smoke started rising from the ground, surrounding them.


    "What?!" Xavier gritted his teeth and said, "Anyone can blow away this pink smoke?"


    Before they could reply, Theo appeared in front of him, waving his spear.


    Xavier gritted his teeth and raised his sword, blocking Theo''s spear.


    Clink.


    A clicking sound echoed as Xavier released all his strength, nning to blow Theo away.


    However, he soon got another pressure from above his head, pushing him down and making him bend his knees.


    "What is this?" Xavier widened his eyes and said, "I''m losing in strength? I''m losing to a mere new Hero Rank brat?"


    In terms of strength, Xavier took pride in being the strongest, second only to Alea. That was why he couldn''t ept this loss.


    Suddenly, he sensed another presence on his back and dropped to his knees. This allowed him to gain enough distance from Theo''s spear and use it to block this iing presence.


    It turned out another Theo appeared behind him.


    He stopped both Theo''s spears without a problem while shouting, "I''m here, fighting two of them. He and his clone are here!"


    The other three picked that call and quickly located their leader, heading straight to him.


    Wanting to stop them, one Theo pulled back and disappeared within the smoke.


    "Wait. One of them is aiming at you guys. Use your Awareness!"


    Clink.


    The clicking sound echoed in everyone''s ears as they thought Theo went to them.


    They had yet to realize Theo had been incorporating his own illusion and clone to Agata''s Illusion Smoke. This time, each of his teammates found Theoing toward them and fighting them. The sound looked perfect, even though it was only another illusion from Theo. He produced that sound like how he produced blood illusion in thepetition.


    Theo really had fun manipting their hearing and vision, stopping the other three in an instant.


    Meanwhile, the one that stopped Xavier from moving retracted his spear and disappeared inside the smoke.


    "I won''t let you escape!" Xavier shed the escaping Theo and sliced him into two. Theo''s voice then echoed in everyone''s mind and no one could pick up which direction the sound came from. "You won''t be able to catch me in this smoke. And you are so pitiful that you have been fighting this way for a minute. I guess I expected too much from you all, so I will give you a handicap."


    "Retract the smoke," Theo shouted.


    Agata widened her eyes and doubted Theo''s decision. However, Theo''s order was absolute, so she decided to trust it.


    The pink smoke soon disappeared, revealing everyone''s position.


    Agata was shocked when only one person died in this smoke despite Theo fighting them. She even assisted Theo with her illusion, so she couldn''t understand why Theo only killed one person.


    Still, the thing that shocked her the most was when Theo revealed himself in front of Xavier, sitting on top of his spear and yawning like nobody''s business. It was like when he yed a certain guy in thepetition.


    Theo facepalmed and shook his head helplessly. "Seriously�� Come on. I''m sitting here and one of you already dies? Are you even the people whoe after my life? Not very professional. No, should I say, you are too weak?"


    Xavier gnashed his teeth as he couldn''t handle such an insult. Theo had been ying with him this whole time.


    Meanwhile, Agata soon realized Theo didn''t lie but didn''t tell the whole thing either. She muttered, ''He didn''t say he''s sitting there the whole time because he is not. He has been fighting them the whole time and no matter what, the distance between them is huge. That''s why Theo can only kill one person within a minute.


    ''But why did he order me to retract my Illusion Smoke? He should kill a few more to gain an advantage. I can''tprehend his decision. Did I miss something? No, if his ns were so easy to figure out, we wouldn''t have so much trouble during thepetition. In fact, when his n became too ridiculous, Theo was considered the most dangerous�� Right�� Right?'' She truly doubted Theo''s decision this time.


    However, her answer soon came in the form of action.


    Xavier charged forward with anger filling his heart. "You bastard. Die!"


    Theo smiled and remembered a certain scene in his mind. It was when Fenrir used his Blink and momentum to kill him.


    He couldn''t help but mutter, "Momentum is great. Isn''t that right?"


    Theo extended his hand slowly as if trying to catch his sword.


    Xavier didn''t care about Theo''s movement anymore and only thought about killing Theo.


    "Theo!" Agata called his name out loud, panicked.


    Theo smiled and reached Xavier''s wrist, touching it gently. In that instant, Theo used his Blink and brought Xavier to the back of hisrade.


    With that momentum, Xavier split his ownrade into two.


    "What?!" Xavier and Agata dropped their jaws, not believing what they just saw.


    Xavier''s anger began to waver as he rxed his grip for a split second,prehending what happened first.


    Theo smiled and used that chance to turn around, pull him up to the air, and m him down while muttering, "Your skill doesn''t really matter. What matters the most is how you use your skill, right�� Fenrir?"

 Chapter 405 – Surprise

    <h4>Chapter 405 - Surprise</h4>


    "Right�� Fenrir?" Theo smirked and mmed him to the ground.


    Xavier widened his eyes and muttered inwardly, ''Did he just use my own strength to m me down? And did he just use my slight hesitation as a chance?''


    Xavier couldn''t believe what he experienced right now. However, he didn''t have the time to think because Theo thrust his spear at him.


    "Xavier!" Thest guy, who seemed to be a magician, called his name out loud while pointing his staff at Theo. Then, several wind spheres appeared above him.


    Xavier also tried to wave his sword to Theo''s feet, preventing him from attacking him.


    Unfortunately, this became another blunder. Because of how ridiculous this battle had be, Xavier forgot the fact that Theo had his clone.


    And that clone never entered his vision this whole time.


    Even Agata forgot about it for a second and tried to help him before finding Theo''s figure behind the magician.


    Agata dropped her jaw in shock while screaming inwardly, ''He is this good already?''


    Because she had seen what Theo could do with his Blink, she could already foresee what was going to happen.


    And she turned out to be right.


    Clone Theo grabbed the magician from behind and used his Blink, appearing right between Theo and Xavier.


    "What?!" Xavier widened his eyes, but he couldn''t stop his attack. And the clone''s feet restrained the magician''s feet, resulting in them getting cut together.


    "Argh!" The magician screamed in pain as he couldn''t struggle anymore.


    However, Theo was a mere clone, so it wasn''t that troublesome.


    The original Theo, on the other hand, had leaped a few inches above the ground to avoid that strike while thrusting his spear.


    The spear pierced the clone, the magician, and Xavier in session. But because Theo had something to check, he avoided Xavier''s vital spots, giving him time to live.


    After that, Theo went around the clone and faced Xavier directly with his spear piercing his arm.


    "Argh!" Xavier gritted his teeth as his teeth started turning red because the blood flowed out of his mouth. "You bastard. I''m going to kill you!"


    Theo facepalmed and shook his head helplessly. "To think the Waterie Group sent an assassin to kill me."


    "Waterie Group?" Agata tilted her head in confusion while Xavier grinned. "That''s right. You dare to provoke us�� This grudge won''t end even with my life. Soon, there will be a few Supreme Rank Expertsing after you. At that time, you won''t be able to do anything."


    Theo chuckled when he heard that response.


    "What is funny?!" Xavier gritted his teeth.


    "You look dumb, so I told you a lie to see your reaction." Theoughed out loud. "I''m just trying to see whether you are sent by which enemies. Since you didn''t even flinch when I said Waterie Group, that means the enemy isn''t a group or organization. Instead, it''s a family. And I don''t think I need to guess which family aims for my life�� The Lange Family�� it seems they haven''t given up."


    "You�� You are ying with me this entire time! I''m going to kill��" Xavier gritted his teeth, never thinking that Theo kept ying with him even at the end of his life.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo covered his right foot with his Cannon st and obliterated his head with a stomp. "Stop. Dead people can''t kill me."


    But there was one more thing that Theo could never calcte because he never met him in person�� He never met Endo Lange in person to know his personality.


    Theo didn''t know that Endo Lange was very intolerant of failures. Hence, despite giving the task to his own son and believing that his butler would personally do it after that, Endo Lange still sent a separate team to do one more job for him.


    *Rumble!*


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned and looked down, staring at the ground. "What is this? Did the ground tremble just now?"


    Agata quickly dropped to her knees and touched the ground.


    Soon, another shock vibrated the ground as she nodded. "Yes. The ground did shake. What is happening? Earthquake?"


    "No." Theo shook his head with a serious expression. "I don''t believe this is an earthquake�� Have you ever experienced an intermittent earthquake?"


    "Nope." Agata furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "Then, what do you think��"


    "Maybe there is a mine nearby?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Or people using powerful magic and somehow hitting the ground?"


    "Ehm�� I am not sure. Is it even possible to make it tremble like this?"


    "I don''t know. I will fly to check the situation. Tell me if the tremor stops." Theo said while using his Telekinesis.


    "Okay." Agata focused on the ground while staring at Theo, who suddenly dropped his jaw. "Theo?!"


    Theo just got the shock of his life because the thing he saw shouldn''te this early. The group needed to cross the mountain and run for another day to reach that area.


    "This is impossible," Theo muttered and looked at a giant monster that walked slowly. The monster was two hundred feet high and five hundred feet wide. It looked like a turtle except for the spikes above its shell that indicated another thing.


    The creature had red skin and slightly pointed eyes. The monster''s size wasparable to the ghost turtle his master killed to save his and Alea''s lives.


    He never saw that monster moving, so this was the first time he saw a monster this big moving. He was shocked that each step made the ground tremble and released a powerful shock wave that blew the trees in its surroundings.


    Still, Theo recognized this monster because this was the monster they were supposed to defeat in this expedition�� The Ground Dragon.


    Little did he know, after suffering multiple failures, Endo Lange decided to take the matter into his own hand. He sent another team to drag the Ground Dragon toe to another area.


    It didn''te immediately because it needed time to travel due to the change of route. And luckily, Theo had been upied by the anomaly of the Chimera Wolves and the assassins.


    "The level 400 Ground Dragon is here��" Theo stated in surprise.


    "Ground Dragon? But isn''t that monster supposed to be in another area?" Agata shouted.


    "That''s what I think too��" Theo looked down and thought. "No. This one muste from another group�� That group brought the dragon all the way here, unaware that the Eilric Family and the military helped us. And there was even that mysterious group. So, this must be another person''s n��


    "It''s not like this one came from a different influence because whoever brought the ground dragon must know about the expedition scheme." Theo contemted for a moment. "Wait a minute. Sihan? Sihan must n for the assassination while the Lange Family came after me with this n, not trusting him."


    "Is that the case?" Agata frowned.


    "Then, do you have another idea?" Theo asked.


    "No." Agata shook her head. "By the way, what do you want to do now? Should we request the Eilric Family and the military to take care of this dragon since our group has lost half of its number?"


    Theo hesitated for a second before a smile appeared on his face. "Nope. We are going to defeat this dragon. The mission states that there will be a bonus at the end of the mission. Since that is the case, I am going to deliver a simple blow to the Lange Family. I''m going to get all the bonuses by contributing the most and get their money for myself�� Since they are this bold, I''m going to make them pay. We will try to fight this dragon first to test the difference between our power. Support me."


    "Roger."

 Chapter 406 – Dragon Extermination Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 406 - Dragon Extermination Part 1</h4>


    Meanwhile, Marcell was sitting on his seat leisurely, waiting for this operation to restart. They would need to cross the mountain anyway.


    But he soon found out that there was some sort of trouble when Major Sam and Alea returned as they quickly reorganized every single of them.


    Unfortunately for them, this wasn''t the only problem they needed to face. Marcell''s vision was blinded by a red light for a split second as he took a look at the radar.


    There was another caution.


    Unlike the previous reading, a huge dot was approaching them. "This�� A huge monster ising our way."


    He quickly came out of the cubicars and shouted, "Emergency."


    "!!!" Major Sam turned around and asked, "What happens? Also, I need to see the radar to make sure of something."


    "Y-yes. But something big ising here." Marcell shouted. "I don''t know what it is."


    Major Sam wanted to check the Daemon Group''s movement, but when he heard that information, he soon cursed out loud. "Daemon Group�� Are you trying to stop us?"


    The wind started gathering and spinning around him, lifting him into the air. With such height, Major Sam could see what happened and found the same monster Theo spotted, the Ground Dragon.


    "The Ground Dragon is here!" He shouted.


    "!!!" Alea and the entire group gasped, not believing what he said. After all, the dragon was supposed to be one and a half-day away from here.


    However, he soon fell silent when he saw numerous blue lightsing from below, hitting the dragon and taking its attention.


    After that, Theo made his appearance and flew to the sky, nning to fight the dragon.


    "What? He is alive?! Daemon Group should have killed their targets by this time�� Yet, Theodore Griffith is still alive. No, he is fighting the dragon. In that case, that Daemon Group should have left and he is not their target." Sam pondered for a moment. "Did he hire the Daemon Group? But��"


    Not having enough information, Major Sam quickly flew forward. At the very least, he knew that the Daemon Group had left the vicinity since they were skilled enough to take care of the rest in an instant.


    "I am going to help Theodore Griffith fight the Ground Dragon! Daemon Group should have left the area, but you are in charge��" Major Sam pointed at his deputy. "Be careful."


    "Yes, Sir." Because of various variables that had yet to be determined, his deputy decided to march with extra caution.


    Major Sam, on the contrary, arrived at Theo''s position in an instant.


    "Theodore Griffith!" Major Sam called his name out loud.


    Theo nced at him and said, "I need to take down this dragon."


    "I need information from you first. What is your rtion to the Daemon Group?"


    "Huh?" Theo''s eyebrows raised as he realized what he was talking about. "You mean that group wearing a ck robe and weird mask?"


    Major Sam shook his head. "Nevermind. It seems you don''t have any knowledge about them. And where are the others?"


    "They all got killed," Theo reported to him without hesitation. He didn''t say he killed them, implying that the Daemon Group was the one who killed the rest.


    "��" Major Sam wanted to ask many things about it, but he also noticed there wasn''t a single body left in the area.


    Of course, Theo had taken care of their bodies, especially the four that he killed. When he wanted to clean up the rest, no corpses could be found.


    At first, he thought Major Sam and the Eilric Family were the culprits, but the Daemon Group seemed to be the one who did it.


    "You want to know many things from me and I also want some information from you. Unfortunately, it''s better if we kill this dragon first." Theo shook his head. "If you don''t mind, please leave this dragon to me. I''m nning to kill it."


    "Are you insane?"


    "Yep. At the very least, I want to make the one who plotted the entire scheme suffer a little bit. Gotta rip their wallet apart." Theo shrugged.


    "Are you sure you don''t need help?"


    "Ehm, I''m not sure. I am trying to test my power right now." Theo nced at the dragon that gradually opened its mouth.


    Its throat began to shine with orange light.


    "Since I made you talk too much, I will take this one��" Major Sam moved in front of him and waved both hands. The wind started gathering, forming a circr sphere. "Wind Sphere."


    The sphere reached thirty feet in radius, allowing him to cover their bodiespletely.


    The Ground Dragon released its fire breath.


    The intense heat increased the temperature around them. The fire hit Major Sam''s Wind Sphere, but the Wind Sphere flowed in all directions, dispersing the me effortlessly.


    Unfortunately, the fire ended up hitting the forest below them and turning some trees into charcoal while the rest was still burning.


    While taking the full brunt of the fire breath, Major Sam said, "I will remain in the in for the time being. I hope we can talk about a few things on the way home."


    "Agree." Theo nodded a few times. "In that case, it''s time for me to go."


    "Also, the rest will be joining you soon. I can control the soldiers, but you may need to convince the Eilric Family again," he said as the breath stopped, allowing him to retract the shield. He then turned around and flew away while saying, "Show me what you are capable of, Mister MVP."


    "��" Theo shook his head helplessly and signaled Agata on the ground.


    Agata had prepared for it and raised both hands, summoning the smoke again to cover the dragon''s vision.


    Theo summoned his clone and flew together to the dragon.


    "Let''s see how strong this dragon is�� It doesn''t have speed, while its strengthes from its weight. In that case, the monster should have a powerful defense." Theo took a deep breath as he flew to the dragon.


    Roar.


    The dragon obviously didn''t like the pink smoke and released an earth-shattering roar.


    The Sound Wave blew the smoke away.


    "No way��" Agata tried to control it, but the smoke soon dispersed.


    Fortunately, Theo and his clone were already close enough to the dragon''s head.


    Cannon st energy covered their spears as the two Theos struck the tip of the dragon''s head, trying to give more inertia force.


    "Cannon st."


    Bam.


    The energy created a powerful shock wave as the attack contained not only his Cannon st but also his Telekinesis and External Flow as well. At the same time, Magic Bullets hit the head, boosting Theo''s first attack.


    Roar.


    The dragon wailed as his head slightly turned to the right because of the force from Theo''s attack.

 Chapter 407 – Dragon Extermination Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 407 - Dragon Extermination Part 2</h4>


    Roar.


    Theo''s attack slightly pushed the dragon''s head, albeit leaving no mark on its scale.


    "Seriously?" Theo gritted his teeth. "That attack is among my strongest��"


    "Theo!" Agata called his name out loud when the dragon''s eye shed.


    Theounched himself to the sky, avoiding whatever the dragon nned to do.


    At the same time, his clone made his way to the dragon''s right eye to destroy it, blinding the dragon.


    Unfortunately, it wasn''t possible because the dragon turned its head while closing its eyelid, protecting the eye. And the head hit the clone,unching him to the body.


    Bang.


    The clone crashed to the body''s scale but managed to retain its form.


    Theo clicked his tongue and pulled his spear back.


    He took a deep breath and pointed the spear to its head.


    The scene of when he used his Cannon st and concentrated it to one thin line like the extension of his spear shed in his mind.


    "In that case, let''s try the strongest piercing power I have��" Theo gathered all his energy to the brim. As soon as he could use his Cannon st again, Theo released the move in an instant.


    The Telekinesis became the funnel to shape the Cannon st and concentrate it to a very thin line.


    That concentrated power flew straight at the dragon''s nose and shed with the dragon''s scale for a moment.


    The Cannon st started to disperse, but as he expected. Now that he had more control over his energy, that strike became even stronger and somehow pierced through the dragon''s skin.


    "That attack��" Agata widened her eyes in surprise. "He is concentrating all his power within one single line to gain the most powerful piercing power�� If it''s not because the wound is too smallpared to the dragon''s body, it will be very painful.


    "Still, this kind of control�� He must be close to Master Level in terms of Control. But ording to the analysis, in thepetition, Theo still hadn''t reached Practitioner Level, let alone Master Level. This guy�� The way his strength is increasing doesn''t go with the norm�� Even his past record can''t handle this type of improvement.


    "Has thepetition stimted his talent even further?" Agata drew a gasp and her body started shaking in excitement and fear. "Is this the union of the War God Family and the Griffith Family?"


    Unlike Agata, the dragon obviously didn''t feel that attack becausepared to its giant body, Theo was just like an ant stinging his skin. "Hum."


    Instead of roaring in pain, the dragon raised its head and red at Theo, trying to strike him down.


    When he opened his mouth to let out his fire breath, a wave of attacks hit him. There was lightning, fire, ice, wind, and earth hitting the dragon''s head. All of those attacks exploded at the same time, creating enough force to knock the dragon''s head down.


    Roar.


    The dragon felt offended because he almost killed Theo if the earlier attack didn''t happen. It lowered its vision and found many peopleing at him.


    Alea wasmanding this group from the ground as she shouted. "Release all your power. No matter how small it is, we need to wound this dragon. One wound at a time and this dragon will go down sooner orter."


    Due to him killing fifteen people from the Lange Family along with Sihan, only twelve people came to them.


    As Major Sam said, he stayed on the in and ordered his soldiers to search the forest to see the clue about the Daemon Group. Meanwhile, the Eilric Family decided to do another thing.


    Because of Alea''s blunder, Theo''s life was almost taken away. Hence, they wanted to protect him a little bit by spreading in the perimeter to watch out for the Daemon Group and any other potential attackers. After all, there must be people that brought the dragon here.


    And they suspected those people were still around this area. If they could catch them, this should make the matter even. Although they never had the duty to protect him, they truly needed to act since he was with their young miss.


    Seeing the cover fire, Alea pulled both swords hanging on her waist and ran forward.


    On the way, she maintained eye contact with the dragon. She had created several simtions in her mind to defeat this dragon, so she waved her left sword without hesitation. "Let''s not hold back. Theo is nning to kill it, but��"


    "Second Labour, Devouring Hydra."


    Alea released all nine hydra heads to the sky, making their way to the dragon''s head.


    "Theo, we are here to help," Alea shouted from the ground while her hydras circled around the dragon''s head and tried to bite him.


    Crack.


    Their teeth began to crack and shatter because of the hardness of the dragon''s skin. However, Alea tried to bring down the head by circling around its head.


    Unfortunately for her, the dragon''s strength was beyond her imagination. It didn''t even budge.


    Roar.


    The dragon let out a loud roar and stomped the ground.


    The foot shook the ground and released a powerful shock wave to its surroundings, blowing the trees.


    The residual shock wave continued to Alea''s group.


    The fighters and the knights quickly made their way to the front, shielding the rest of the group, especially the remaining healer and magicians.


    Agata also faced the same situation as she raised her hand, nning to build a shield. Fortunately, Theonded in front of her first. His back looked so broad at that time to the point Agata gulped down.


    Three tombstones emerged from the ground as Theo formed a triangr shield in front of him and leaned it to the top, redirecting the shock wave to the air.


    The same happened with Alea.


    "Forti��" When she was about to form the Fortitude Shield, Theonded in front of her to shield her. "Three Great Defense."


    The shield covered them from the shock wavepletely.


    "!!!" Both of them widened their eyes and looked at Theo''s serious expression as if he nned to do something.


    Theo''s head turned around and said to the two girls at the same time�� "I have a n."

 Chapter 408 – Dragon Extermination Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 408 - Dragon Extermination Part 3</h4>


    "I have a n," said Theo with a serious expression. "This dragon may have slow movements, but it doesn''t spare any effort to move. That''s why if we go around to take down this monster, it will just make him move and create this kind of shock wave continuously.


    "Hence, we are going to hit only his head and kill him with one strike to the brain or neck. To do that, we need powerful firepower to crack the dragon''s scale."


    Theo paused for a moment. The one in front of Agata said, "I want you to gather the dragon''s attention for a few seconds." While the one before Alea stated, "I want you to use your stronger power to hit a specific spot, creating a bigger wound with me. Can you do that?"


    Agata nodded without hesitation. "Understood. I will do it."


    Meanwhile, Alea shouted to the people on the back. "The rest of you are to remain in your position and ready to st the dragon''s head. Fighters and Knights are to protect our main power, okay?"


    As soon as the two girls agreed, Theo used his Telekinesis and lifted all four of them together to the sky.


    "Don''t move so suddenly, even I don''t have enough control to let you swim around in the air," Theo warned both of them.


    Agata knew it, so she stood still while sping her hand. Her body began to release the pink smoke, but instead of covering the dragon''s eyes, Agata formed a certain shape above her head.


    It was a scythe.


    The smoke soon changed its form, bing a real scythe with a proper and menacing ck and white de and a humongous silver handle. The scythe was a hundred feet high as if announcing its supremacy over the dragon.


    Feeling a sense of threat from the scythe, the dragon nned to beat the scythe to shatter it. Hence, its head moved forward while rotating to match the scythe''s position.


    At this time, Theo, his clone, and Alea had flown to the base of his head or it could be said the dragon''s neck.


    "Use your strongest attack," Theo stated while releasing his Cannon st, Telekinesis and External Flow. His Magic Bullets also had been summoned and shot, matching his movement.


    "It''s like when we tried to escape from the ghost turtle''s barrier." Alea smiled.


    "Talk less, do more."


    Alea nodded with a serious expression as she raised both swords. The swords were covered with blue light, but soon a me-like green colored aura fused together with the blue one.


    "mming Enchantment."


    "Third Labour, Swift Hind."


    "��" Theo nced at her swords, remembering that her Swift Hind should be used on her feet.


    Sensing Theo''s nce, she exined, "I''m trying to utilize the skill in another way."


    Theo obviously knew about it because Fenrir taught him.


    ''I guess it''s a given.'' Theo thought, remembering that Alea said she had been working on something. "So, that''s your trump card��"


    "Yep." She smiled and raised her swords. "Let''s go."


    Theo nodded andunched them to the neck, getting as close as possible.


    Theo and his clone released the same technique, which was the concentrated Cannon st since it was the only thing that could pierce the dragon''s scale.


    Meanwhile, Alea''s swords were covered with red me. The intense heat seemed to be able to melt even a metal. She swung her swords, striking the same spot as Theo. "zing Enchanted sh."


    Both of them hit the same spot simultaneously.


    However, Theo improvised his own technique by moving his spear down. The Cannon st energy kept piercing the scale, but because the spear moved, the wound started to expand as if he was gradually cutting the dragon.


    And with Alea''s firepower, that wound became easier to make.


    Right before the energy from the Cannon st dissipated, the Magic Bullets finally arrived and hit right in the middle of the wound as some of them even slipped inside and hit the dragon''s flesh directly.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets'' explosions should hit them too, but Theo had a solution. The ring of honor formed a shield to block it, preventing any possible injuries to Theo and Alea.


    Roar.


    This was the first time the dragon felt the wound he suffered because the sharp sword mark on his body exceeded six feet.


    It wasn''t a sting anymore but a graze to the dragon''s giant body.


    "Even though your naivety hasn''t improved, I guess your strength has�� As expected of a muscle brain." Theo chuckled.


    Alea pouted and looked away. She had been told by a few people and gradually became aware of it. That was why she couldn''t reply to Theo''s remark.


    Unfortunately, Agata misunderstood Theo''s sarcasm as his way of flirting with Alea. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, feeling jealous of Alea. Just looking at Alea already frustrated her because Theo had been suffering from her selfish decision, yet, he still smiled at her.


    She indeed never saw how bad Alea was in the past, but sometimes, they didn''t have enough time to improve because the chance only came once like when Theo was forced to improve to join the Grand Gaia Competition.


    "Would it be different if I were born in Thernd��" Agata sighed when watching the two''s expressions. She shook her head and hit the dragon''s head with her scythe, only making the scythe turn back to smoke.


    After all, she could only utilize her illusion, so this was the best thing she could do.


    "At the very least, I have fulfilled my mission." She sighed. "I feel powerless�� Maybe if I''m stronger, I can be there too��"


    Unaware of her grumble, the magicians also supported Theo and Alea, hitting the dragon''s head and pinning it down to make sure the two could fly away unharmed.


    Theo appreciated their efforts and flew away with Alea,paring the wound and the dragon''s head.


    "Hmm, we need to widen the wound�� five timesrger. After that, we can hit the dragon''s head from the side to expand the wound and cut the meat inside as if we are ripping the dragon''s head apart from its body." Theo exined his n with a serious expression.


    "I understand. Expanding the wound is easier than creating it. Should we split up?" Alea asked.


    "Yes. I''m above, you''re below."


    "Copy that��" She raised her swords again with a smile.

 Chapter 409 – Dragon Extermination Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 409 - Dragon Extermination Part 4</h4>


    "Ha!" Alea shed the dragon again while Theo aimed at the wound and pushed the spear up to widen it.


    This scene would make one think they wound the dragon greatly, but the monster was stronger than expected.


    The fire in his body began to re up as his red scales brightened as though they started glowing.


    "Hmm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and distanced himself while saying, "Something is not right."


    Alea nced at the dragon''s body and furrowed her eyebrows. "It''s redder than usual. Maybe, the dragon is releasing its fire�� I''m not too sure."


    Right after she said those words, the spikes on top of the dragon''s body turned reddish, making it look like a superheated molten rock.


    Soon, the tip of the spikes shone brighter than the others.


    "Not good," Alea shouted. "Something ising. We need to get more distance."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and used his Telekinesis to send them back, including Agata.


    "What happens?" Agata asked, not understanding the situation.


    However, the one that answered her was the ground dragon. The tip of the spikes began to melt as a red fire began to burst out of the hole.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes. It turned out that the spikes were empty and created a small tunnel leading to the dragon''s body.


    After that, the me erupted. There were around a total of a hundred spikes on the dragon''s back and with all of them spurting out a me, the atmosphere gradually became hotter.


    It didn''t stop there. The fire started to move backward due to the wind, eventually creating a forest fire.


    Because they didn''t want it to be happening, the military decided to extinguish the fire while maintaining his distance from Theo so as to avoid getting the dragon''s attention.


    "What are we going to do?" Agata asked.


    Theo thought for a moment and released his Magic Bullet. "Let me test it."


    "Magic Bullet."


    Forty Magic Bullets flew to the top of the dragon. It then dove, aiming at the holes that were connected to the dragon''s body.


    This was the time Theo showed his progress again. The Magic Bullets had another two turns to adjust their positions and entered the hole.


    "That''s��" Agata furrowed her eyebrows, hoping the Magic Bullets hit the target.


    Unfortunately for him, the Magic Bullets were extinguished before it could even touch anything. Theo shook his head in disappointment, "I''m afraid this dragon is more troublesome than we originally thought."


    "What do you mean?" Alea asked.


    "The dragon''s scale is too hard and each step will cause extensive damage to the surroundings, including us." Theo pointed at the fire cloud formed from the continuous release of its me. "Then, there is that. I''m sure you can notice the gradual increase in temperature.


    "We can''t destroy those hundreds of spikes, so our only choice is to defeat the dragon as soon as possible or we will be roasted alive��" Theo sighed, "The temperature is gonna keep rising."


    "I can do anything as long as we can win," Agata added while saying, "Do you have a n?"


    Theo contemted for a moment. "Actually, no. All we can do is widen that wound. Although it''s still smaller than my original n, the wound itself is already sixty percent of the side''s neck. I''m sure we can force the neck open and gradually cut it with our efforts. But it will surely be a gruesome experience, especially for those who are closer to this me."


    Agata clenched her fists and nodded. "I understand. I will make the dragon follow me. I should be able to do that much."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He then turned to Alea, "We need to hit the tip of the head to give more inertia to our blow."


    "Understood." Alea agreed without hesitation and shouted. "Magicians, we need you to hit the dragon''s head on the tip. The wound we''ve created will naturally be wider after that."


    "The time limit is ten minutes. If we can''t kill this dragon within ten, we will retreat," said Theo and flew back to the dragon.


    Agata also summoned the same pink smoke from her head. Instead of a scythe, she summoned a huge humanoid figure without a face and human features like that of a mannequin. The giant mannequin raised its hands, nning to m the dragon.


    Seeing such a thing, the dragon lowered its body to shoot the me to this giant mannequin.


    But this was the opportunity Theo needed in order to kill the dragon. Seeing that kind of reaction, Theo sped up with all his strength in his spear.


    He, his clone, and Alea struck the dragon''s nose from the side, blowing the dragon''s head to the side.


    "Ha!"


    Bam.


    Thebination of their attacks created a strong wind that somehow deformed Agata''s giant mannequin.


    Even so, Agata didn''t give up and caught the dragon''s head. The dragon started moving left and right to shake her hand off, but it ended up stopping and roaring to the sky.


    Roar.


    Its voice was filled with pain and anguish because the dragon''s just made his wound even bigger.


    Even Theo was impressed by the result. He gave a thumbs up to Agata while waiting for the next attack.


    Agata smiled and soon clicked her tongue when the dragon opened its mouth, releasing its breath. The fire breath reduced the mannequin to nothing.


    Not wanting to be outdone by the three people who stood in the front line, the magicians used their strongest skill and poured more Magic Power than usual, hoping to injure the dragon.


    Five elements hit the ground from above,unching the head downward, which further widened the wound next to the top of his neck.


    Roar.


    The dragon realized it was at a disadvantage, so he tried to move forward in order to shake the human group.


    Theo didn''t let it happen and struck the head with his clone.


    Bang.


    The Cannon st energy dispersed and pushed the head back, albeit Theo still gritted his teeth and said, "It''s still too weak. I can''t really do too much, considering there are more than 140 levels in our gap. But��"


    Theo suddenly fell silent, remembering a certain thing in his head.

 Chapter 410 – Dragon Extermination Part 5

    <h4>Chapter 410 - Dragon Extermination Part 5</h4>


    "Can I really do it?" Theo asked himself in a low voice.


    "Theo? Are we going to do it again?" Alea asked out loud, noticing Theo had stopped moving.


    "Give me a minute." Theo waved his hand. "I want to try something."


    "Ehm? Seriously? We are in the middle of the battle, though."


    "It''s something I can use, but it''s in the middle of training, so I''m not that good yet." Theo shook his head and took a deep breath.


    Alea nodded and focused on the dragon''s movement, making sure they didn''t be the target.


    Agata also shifted her body and summoned another illusion. Instead of another mannequin, she summoned a fox as big as the ground dragon.


    The fox leaped forward and grabbed the dragon''s head, trying to break it. However, as one would expect from an illusion, it didn''t do any damage.


    Still, it managed to upy the dragon for a moment before the dragon used its breath to burn the illusion.


    "Tsk." Agata bit her lips. "My illusion is not effective�� I need something even more powerful. I wish I knew this feeling of powerlessness sooner."


    Unfortunately for her, this was the limit of her current power.


    Theo, on the contrary, remained his focus on the spear. He and his clone did the same thing as if they prepared something big.


    "I can use Materialization to a certain extent. However, I don''t have enough water to perform it." Theo sighed and recalled what his master said. "Still, because I have no affinity, I can utilize all kinds of elements next to me. And��"


    Theostly recalled the shock wave produced by his attack and the dragon''s stomp. "A shock wave is just a strong pressure in a medium, usually wind. Yes. Wind. I will use my Cannon st to generate wind and control it with my Telekinesis."


    As Theo understood what he needed to do. He started applying his knowledge to this new attack.


    me like aura started to cover his spear''s de. This was his Cannon st. The Cannon st erupted, creating a small shock wave to the surroundings.


    Theo quickly trapped the shock wave around his spear and made them coexist with the Cannon st.


    "I don''t know if this is gonna work, but this is the best chance we have to take down the dragon," Theo muttered and nced at Alea and the dragon. "Ready!"


    "Ready!" Alea replied right after she heard him.


    Theo then used his Telekinesis tounch them to the dragon.


    "mming Enhancement."


    "Swift Hind."


    Alea clenched her two swords tightly and nced at Theo with a serious expression, waiting for him to make a move.


    However, she soon noticed the swirling air near his spear that seemed to be trapped inside an invisible bubble.


    As much as she wanted to ask Theo about it, this attack required her undivided attention. Hence, she started moving her hand when Theo and his clone swung their spears like ying baseball.


    "Ha!" Theo subconsciously yelled to raise a bit of his fighting spirit.


    The three weapons struck the dragon''s head at the same time.


    The wind bubble exploded, creating a powerful shock wave. It was then enhanced by Theo''s Cannon st.


    After that, Telekinesis showed its magic, and External Flow boosted the overall power.


    Bam.


    "What?!" Alea widened her eyes when she felt the shock wave. It was twice as powerful as the previous attack. Due to her shock, she couldn''t help but ask, "What was that? What did you do to make a powerful attack like that?"


    Obviously, she couldn''t contain her shock when she saw the dragon''s head was just blown away as if the dragon couldn''t hold it anymore.


    And the people could see a huge crack on the dragon''s scale.


    "!!!" Even the Magicians in the distance could see that crack as they dropped their jaws to the ground. Despite them using their strongest skills together, it couldn''t do that much damage to the head.


    Theo just showed them that he could do better and even cracked it. A level 250 Hero Rank Expert did it instead of a joint effort of level 300 Magicians.


    Of course, Alea helped him, but the crack only appeared after Theo showed something even more amazing. In other words, the improvement was big enough to do something like this.


    Suddenly, one of them fell on his butt as she pointed at Theo. "Is he really a first year student? He is using Materialization!"


    "Materialization!" The other magicians or any other person in the area drew a gasp as they couldn''t believe what she said.


    Materialization was supposed to be an advanced technique that couldn''t be easily practiced. It was a dream technique for a magician.


    And just now, Theo proved that he could use it to some extent.


    They all raised their vision, staring at Theo in awe.


    Though, Theo himself was also satisfied with his growth as he smiled, "This is it. I can really do it. It takes time, but I can do it. The practice is needed to decrease the time needed and the detail of the wind to make sure nothing goes wrong and enhance its performance."


    "Ehm, what?" Alea didn''t understand Theo''s words at all.


    "Ah, you don''t need to care about this." Theo waved his hand. He then checked the dragon''s head to see the extent of their damage.


    Due to the sudden turn of its head, the wound on its neck becamerger. The flesh and muscle were literally torn.


    The top part had almost reached the top of its neck. The same applied to the bottom part.


    If they continued like this, two or three hits might be able to sever the dragon''s head from its body.


    At the same time, a huge amount of blood kept flowing down the wound and created a small pool of blood on the ground.


    Roar.


    The dragon really felt the pain from the wound as its body started swaying left and right, making the fire cloud above its body unstable.


    Not wanting to waste any more time, Theo said, "It''s time to seriously kill the dragon�� Haha, I am going to get all the money."

 Chapter 411 – Dragon Extermination Last Part

    <h4>Chapter 411 - Dragon Extermination Last Part</h4>


    After seeing how effective that attack was, Theo started doing it a couple of times with Alea, gradually ripping the flesh and skin apart.


    The blood loss also forced the dragon to fall to the ground, not being able to do anything. In fact, the dragon actually died first before his head flew off.


    As for the killer�� It was obvious.


    [Killed a Ground Dragon.]


    [EXP+277,500]


    [You have leveled up.]


    Yes, it was none other than Theo. He had been aiming for everything. So, Theo killed the dragon, reinforcing his position as the biggest contribution of this expedition.


    As soon as he killed the dragon, Theonded next to Agata while wiping the sweat on his forehead and saying, "I guess the mission ispleted. Have you taken a good look?"


    "Ehm, I am actually wondering how much more you are hiding right now." Agata shook her head helplessly before ncing at Alea, who seemed to be cutting the dragon''s head, as it made the dragon look bad when the head was barely hanging on his body.


    Theo had nothing to do with it anymore since he couldn''t touch the body or he would turn it into cards. "Now that I have finished, I think it''s time to listen to your story."


    "Yeah. We will go back first so as to avoid anyone hearing it�� Unless you arefortable to have them listen to our conversation."


    "Hmm, maybe you can." Theo nodded. "I don''t like the Griffith Family, but I am a bit neutral to the War God Family. I mean, even my mother, who hailed from it, is doing fine in the Griffith Family, not the War God Family, right?"


    "Yes." Agata agreed and realized what he was up to. "So, you want to announce that the War God Family is your mother''s family? I mean, it''s good that you are announcing that, but you need to know that the moment other countries hear about it, you won''t get their support."


    "Hmm, isn''t that your purpose ining here?" Theo nced at her in confusion.


    "It''s just my own selfishness, so don''t tell anyone about it." Agata shrugged. "So, are you sure you want to release that information?"


    Theo scratched the back of his head. "I need to apologize, I guess. I''m sorry for trying to test you when you are thinking about my well-being."


    "It''s fine. At the end of the day, I''m still taking advantage of your situation to satisfy my curiosity." Agata shrugged.


    Suddenly, Theo got a notification from God of Mischief.


    [You have finished the expedition, but boy, do you forget about that condition?]


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head, knowing which condition he was talking about. It was the condition to annoy people.


    Although he did it to search for information, it ended up annoying Xavier. So, him lying actually broke the third condition ced by God of Mischief.


    ''I am guilty. I have no defense.'' Theo sighed inwardly.


    To his surprise, God of Mischief dismissed his problem immediately.


    [As long as you understand that. I already said that it''s fine to annoy people from time to time. However, there is a reason why I ced that rule. It''s not affecting the so-called illusion, reality, or something along the lines. Instead, it''s rted to a more fundamental aspect. Unfortunately, I can only disclose this information when you reach Mythical Rank.]


    [That''s why I want you to avoid lying again. It is easy to lie ande up with such a ridiculous request, but it takes talent to not lie but not give the truth either�� I just want you to be more careful right now.]


    ''I understand. Once again, I''m sorry.'' Theo scratched the back of his head after getting lectured by God of Mischief.


    "Theo?" Agata tilted her head in confusion, calling his name since Theo seemed to be in his own world.


    "Ah, right?" Theo''s body shook as he snapped back. "Yeah. What did you say again?"


    "I just want to know where we should meet upter."


    "I will let you choose the ce. And if it''s possible, can you do it as soon as possible?"


    Agata thought for a moment and nodded. "Well, your birthday ising soon, so I guess you are busy leveling up. Are you nning to reach the Supreme Rank even before your birthday?"


    "Do you think it''s possible?"


    "No." Agata denied it without hesitation. "However, it''s possible if it''s next year. In this case, you are likely to use most of your time to level up. If you want to have an easier schedule that allows you to have some time to train, then it will be two or three years. You won''t be the youngest Supreme Rank expert recorded, but your strength should be far above that person."


    "Yeah. That''s the n. When Iter leave this country, I will be around level 350." Theo nodded in agreement. "Also, you should better leave this country soon because I have another enemy besides the Lange Family."


    "Do you mean the Faerie Group?"


    "You know them?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "Yep. Although it''s not my doing, you can consider it a little present from the War God Family. They have taken care of the situation."


    "I see." Theo looked down, removing the Faerie Group from his head. "Also, it''s possible to return to this country after some time, right?"


    "If you are talking about the Lange Family, the War God Family will help you take care of them. Of course, ording to your way since they are your enemy. Seeing that you are nning to leave with this n, I know that you won''t be strong enough to destroy them by then. Hence, you cane back sooner orter as long as you get permission."


    "Sure enough. Okay then, that''s all I want to know now. We can discuss the rest after returning to Ark City."


    "Yep. How about you go to the military guy first? I assume he wants to say something to you."


    "Yeah. I have agreed to meet him." Theo turned around and left while saying, "I will talk to him for now."


    Agata waved her hand with a smile before her expression turned serious as she nced to the side, seeing Alea standing next to her.

 Chapter 412 – Confrontation

    <h4>Chapter 412 - Confrontation</h4>


    "��" Agata stared at Alea with hostility. "Have you had your fun, eh? Princess?"


    Alea''s body shook as she turned around and asked, "What is it again?"


    "Well, that''s not important. You can say I''m petty, but I want to tell you one thing." Agata shook her head helplessly, not wanting to beat around the bush. "You should leave Theo to me. At the very least, I won''t hurt him unnecessarily like you."


    "Huh? I don''t understand what you are talking about."


    "That''s the problem. Your naivety goes through the roof. How many times have you almost killed him?" Agata asked, looking down on her. "Take a look at this incident alone. By moving your Eilric Family, you made the assassins move and kill him right away.


    "It''s different from the military because they could simply state they are investigating the anomaly. But your Eilric Family didn''t have a ce in this scenario�� You thought you could solve his problem? No, you just made it worse.


    "I''m sure that your Eilric Family is more aware of your naivety than me. Instead of focusing on that talent of yours and that little cage you made for yourself, you should learn how the real world works." She shook her head in disappointment. "Either way, I am going to take Theo away from you.


    "You have no right to stop what I''m doing. He is not yours anyway. And do you think your Eilric Family is qualified to stand against his background alone? Maybe, if we are talking about the main Eilric Family�� As for your little branch, I don''t think so. Since you can''t even be honest about your feelings, just let him go. I am envious. Unlike you, I can''t express my feelings right now because it will just annoy him."


    "My main family?" Alea widened her eyes in confusion.


    Seeing her expression, Agata snorted. "See�� Have you ever thought about anyone other than yourself? You are too self-centered. Have you ever considered what it feels like to be him? No, right?


    "I admit Theo is selfish, but in his selfishness, there is a principle�� reward and punishment. Despite taking everything and using all of you, he still gives you all the chance to be in the limelight��


    "Every single one of you. I still remember Sihan in hisst fight, Ellen with her natural dual wielding skills, Phyrill with his natural transformation, Laust with his new blessing, and you�� with multiple fights. How about you?


    "In our fight, you must be thinking about your pride or something instead of the team and the n he had made. Am I wrong?" Agata shook her head helplessly and started moving away. "If you don''t want him, give him to me. I won''t treat him like you do."


    "��" Alea waspletely speechless. Her body was shaken and her heart felt empty. She was asking herself whether what she said was true or not.


    It might be because of her upbringing. She didn''t realize it until now as if it was the natural thing for her to do. Now that Agata told her straight on the face, all the past scenes with Theo shed in her mind.


    Not knowing where it came from, the realization struck Alea''s heart as she muttered inwardly, "Wait�� The reason he hated me�� Was it because of�� He is the joker, the masked man I saw back then. Because of my blunder, he almost died.


    "No, I remember that joker sold the Pure Stone to grandfather. Doesn''t this mean there were already two monsters that almost killed him? And all of it was because of�� me."


    It felt like someone gripped her neck and heart at the same time to the point she felt dying. And all those feelings started haunting her heart in this expedition.


    She couldn''t move even if she wanted to. The only thing she did was sit on the ground while gasping for air.


    There was only one question that kept repeating in her mind. "Why did I never realize it until now?"


    All the information was already there and the question had been answered the moment she realized Joker was Theo all along. In fact, if she and Theo exchanged ces, he would have found it in the schoolpetition.


    And she even needed Agata to tell her straight on her face before she realized it.


    Her stomach felt awful. She wanted to vomit but didn''t have the energy to do so.


    Alea could only sit there with energy leaving her body.


    Suddenly, the middle-aged man found Alea in the forest in this kind of position, wondering if something had gone wrong.


    "Young Miss." He looked worried, especially when he saw her body convulsing. Alea''s face was covered by her knees and arms, so he couldn''t see her expression. "Young Miss, did something happen to you? Who is the enemy? I shall kill him."


    The scene where he told her she was naive reyed in Alea''s mind as she grabbed his hand while keeping her head low.


    "Am I really that naive?" Alea asked with a hoarse voice as if she just cried. "Please tell me the truth."


    The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head. With his position, he shouldn''t tell something too brutal, yet, Alea only wanted the truth. After a moment, he decided to make a roundabout answer. "Everyone is naive at the start. It''s their experience that erases their naivety.


    "For example, Theodore Griffith has a rough life during his childhood, forcing him to grow from his naive self so early on. In your life, you will find a certain setback where you realize it and start growing up. All I believe is that if you can ovee it, you will be stronger, more mature, and kinder than your current self.


    "Only you can choose whether you confront this problem head-on or run away from it. And I believe that young miss is strong."


    There was no reaction from Alea for a few minutes and the middle-aged man didn''t know what to do anymore.


    Suddenly, he heard her saying, "Can you tell the rest to dismantle the dragon? I need time to be alone."


    "Ehm�� Okay��" The middle-aged man nodded and started thinking about how to report this incident to her father, the current family head.

 Chapter 413 – Small Discussions

    <h4>Chapter 413 - Small Discussions</h4>


    Unaware of the conversation between Agata and Alea, Theo continued his way to Major Sam.


    "We are done here," said Theo while staring at him with a calm expression.


    "Sure enough. I have underestimated our genius here." Major Sam smiled. "Materialization�� To think you can utilize that power already. If not because the president had asked us not to interfere with your business unless it''s something important, I would have asked you to join the military. Maybe we should kidnap you��"


    "You jest." Theo raised his hands. "Others also have improved, not just me. Anyway, I think it''s better to cut to the point�� If you don''t mind."


    "Sure." Major Sam thought for a moment and waved his hand, "Let''s go to the side."


    Since he wanted to avoid anyone hearing the conversation, Theo agreed and followed him to the side while watching his surroundings.


    "Let''s do it with one question at a time, shall we?"


    "Sure. Since I helped you, I have the right to question you first, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Yes. Alright, it''s my turn. What is this Daemon Group?"


    "��" Major Sam widened his eyes, never thinking that his confirmation was considered a question. He shook his head helplessly, remembering that he was also shameless enough to bully a kid when they negotiated regarding the help. "Ahaha, you are good."


    Theo shrugged and looked away.


    "I will still answer you though. The Daemon Group is a rising assassin organization. You know about twelve Chinese Zodiacs?"


    "Yes."


    "There are only twelve members in this Daemon Group with their leader, Dragon. It''s hard to even see their appearance and we don''t have any information about this group."


    "Can''t you just use the data? I mean, all people will be registered at the gate, no?"


    "You have Teleportation skills, so I am sure I don''t need to exin this question��" Major Sam sighed while ncing at him.


    "I see. No wonder." Theo nodded in understanding. The Daemon Group must be using the Teleportation skill to go through the thick wall and leave."


    "ording to our information, they have, at least, seven Supreme Rank Experts in their group. That''s all I know. And they usually touch only their targets, unless there is a big resistance from bystanders."


    "I see. So, that''s why they killed them." Theo nodded in understanding. "How many people were killed earlier?"


    "Wait, I will ask you right now." Major Sam waved his hand to stop him before uttering his question. "What is the rtion between you and the assassination attempts?"


    "You don''t need to ask it in a roundabout way." Theo shrugged. "It''s the Lange Family. That answer should be enough to give you all the necessary information between them and me."


    "Fair enough. I have been digging for your information ever since I remember you were one of the students I taught during the training camp." He nodded in agreement. "As for your question, there are a total of sixteen people, including Sihan Raskaka, your former teammate."


    "��" Theo fell silent and thought for a moment. "I don''t think there is a corpse left in the area, right?"


    "Yes. They have been disposed of."


    Although he felt awful to not be able to confirm it, he decided to let it go since the other party seemed to be a skilled assassin group. He still remembered how they killed ten people in a single move without anyone noticing unless they were watching it directly.


    "Since I have answered your questions in session, I will also ask multiple questions." Sam thought for a moment and said, "Why do you need to kill Sihan Raskaka? Who is nning the assassination and who is nning the dragon''s rampage?"


    Theo frowned. As he expected, Major Sam already recognized that there were two people nning for the scheme. Otherwise, their strategy wouldn''t be contrasting and could be easily destroyed by the joint effort of the Eilric Family and the Military.


    "I have no proof, but with how I see it, Sihan seemed to be nning the assassination. As for the dragon, I am assuming it was the Lange Family. They were cooperating with each other, but they didn''t seem to trust each other that much. That''s my guess." Theo answered honestly. "As for the first question, I don''t know what you are talking about. The enemies died in the hands of this Daemon Group."


    Sam rolled his eyes, obviously not believing hisst statement. Even so, he understood the need to not admit his killing.


    After all, what kind of killer would admit they just killed someone in front of military personnel.


    "By the way, are you going back together with this group?" Theo asked.


    "Since more than half of your group have died, I think it''s better to escort you. We can also confirm that the anomaly of this Chimera Wolves pack has passed. Of course, I don''t mind if youe to me to chat during the journey."


    "That''s a good idea��" Theo smiled before his expression turned back to a poker face. "But no."


    "Are you talking to your friends like that?" Major Sam''s eyebrows twitched.


    "��" Theo remained silent, not answering that question.


    However, Major Sam just used that chance to tease him. "You just don''t have a friend, don''t you?"


    "Are you picking a fight with me?" Theo sighed.


    "Hahaha. Alright, let''s stop here. I have fulfilled my side of the agreement and you also have done everything. With this, the agreement has been fulfilled." Major Sam smiled and extended his hand. "It''s a pleasure to be working with you."


    Theo shook his head with a smile.


    "Ah, it''s impossible to call me again next time. I don''t have any more curiosity about you. Unless you bring me something better, I won''t work with you anymore."


    "That''s fine. I can just ask other people for it." Theo shrugged. "I''m sure I can entice them with this Ring of Honor."


    "��" Major Sam shook his head helplessly and left while muttering, "Little devil."


    Theo looked away and found Agata sitting next to the cubicar while waiting for the next instruction�� Since the dismantling process would take a bit longer, he decided toe to her, only to be handed a towel and a cup of water since he had sweat too much due to the temperature earlier.

 Chapter 414 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 414 - Return</h4>


    After a few hours, Theo oversaw the process of dismantling. They took the scales, the eyes, blood, and some dragon flesh.


    Obviously, due to the dragon''s size, they could only take a certain amount until the cubicars were filled to the brim. Some of them even got stacked on top of the cubicars to get more.


    Normally, if one touched the monster, the card would only give them tens of millions. But with them dismantling it manually, they got more ingredients and could sell them for hundreds of millions. In other words, the quantities increased the value to 5 to 10 times.


    And they couldn''t get all the materials and needed to send another group to get it back. Albeit, it was impossible since the monsters around would eat the monster''s flesh and some groups that found it would have scavenged it.


    Of course, since many of the Lange Family''s elites had been eliminated in this expedition, the loss for the Lange Family was far greater than what they got from this dragon.


    After all, fifteen level 320 experts could bring around ten million zils for profit to the family, so it was quite a big deal to lose them. At the same time, they also needed to train their recement which cost more money and paid Theo arge sum of money.


    This was why Theo was a bit sure that he managed to deal a bit of damage to the Lange Family.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t ask for the meat as a present for Ava since he would end up touching it and turning the dragon into cards. His job was only to move together with them until they returned to Ark City.


    As soon as they reached their destination, the military and the Eilric Family left them.


    Theo and Agata didn''t have much luggage anyway, so they hurriedly went to the other side after Theo told Alea about the reward.


    Although Alea promised him to fight for the reward, Theo could see her disturbed expression the whole time.


    And apparently, the cause was Agata. Considering Agata refused to say anything, Theo put the matter down and believed Alea would ovee it sooner orter.


    They called a taxi for Agata and agreed with one thing.


    "Theo." Agata called his name and continued, "We will meet at the previous restaurant. As for the time�� How about 1 PM?"


    "Sure." Theo agreed. "By the way, are you going to talk about the contract?"


    "Nope. We will wait until you are ready. After all, I believe you will grow even stronger at that time and the War God Family also needs to reconsider their first offer because it''s just too disappointing." She thought for a moment and continued, "Though, you areing there as an agent or something instead of a family member, no?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. Although he didn''t hate the War God Family, the impact from the Griffith Family on his heart was just too big. He didn''t feel like being too attached to a certain family because the blood running in his veins came from them.


    Agata smiled and waved her hand. "Then, I will report what I have found. And since I have recorded the battle, I will give it to them. If you need the copy, just call me."


    "Okay." Theo waved his hand and left after she entered the taxi.


    He then headed straight home after leaving Ava alone for two weeks.


    "Ava!" Theo called her name while opening the door.


    In that instant, Ava rose from the couch with a sad expression. She even put her feet in her belly before leaping to Theo in tears. "Kyu!"


    "Ahaha, are you hungry? I thought I had ordered a bunch of meat." Theo chuckled and caught Ava, cing her on top of his palm.


    "Kyu!" Ava shook her head helplessly as if telling him cooked food and raw meat were not the same.


    "Glutton." Theoughed out loud and closed the door. Before putting down his luggage, he raised his handbag and said, "I have brought the ingredients. It''s a level 400 Thunder Cockatrice meat. This will be our dinner."


    "Kyu!" Ava blinked a few times and stared at Theo with expectation.


    "Haha, you like it? I am going to cook it for you right now." Theoughed and put his bag on the floor. "Help me organize the stuff on my bag while I cook this."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded a few times and quickly went to work with full energy.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Nart Eilric was sitting inside his study room until his son, James Eilric, entered the room.


    "Father."


    Nart nodded with a serious expression.


    "Alea wants to talk to us apparently," said James.


    "Oh, you got her message too?"


    "Yeah." James nodded and stopped before ncing at the door, soon finding his daughter opening it.


    "How was your expedition, darling?" Nart put a big smile on.


    The answer never came as Alea looked down, not showing them her expression.


    "Alea?" James approached her carefully while trying to stroke her hair.


    Before he touched her, Alea lowered her head even more and said out loud. "Papa, Grandpa�� No, Father, Grandfather. I am sorry for everything I have done. I never realized my naivety made you suffer this whole time.


    "I�� I even��" Alea took a deep breath and decided not to continue it. "I�� I just want to apologize for everything. I should have realized all this sooner."


    Nart and James widened their eyes and exchanged looks as if they came to an understanding.


    Nart couldn''t help but smile. "I have been waiting for 10 years, 11 months, and 20 days for these words."


    "Ten years��" Alea''s body shook as she raised her head. She calcted the number in her head and soon realized it was the day she suffered her stupid trauma.


    "Please forgive your father. It was my fault." James bent his knees and hugged her tightly. "I should be a better father to avoid the trauma. At that time, we agreed that we would support you without saying anything until your trauma was gone. After all, it''s best if you were the one who got rid of that trauma, not your family forcing you to end it. Unfortunately, it ended up creating a smallfort zone in your heart."


    "I was the one who asked him." Nart shook his head. "I have been informed about the problem. Although I am a bit hurt to know that a boy causes this movement in your heart, I am still d that you have ovee it.


    "Everyone will experience this setback in life that he thinks he is at the lowest point of their life. What you need to do is to learn from your mistake." Nart smiled and nced at James. "Now that you have started walking on your two feet�� if you want us to be harsh, we will do it. If you want to know everything, we will impart all our knowledge and experience. We will support you with everything we have�� That''s because we are family."

 Chapter 415 – Love

    <h4>Chapter 415 - Love</h4>


    After dealing with Ava for the rest of the day, Theo was ready to hear many things about his mother from Agata.


    In fact, he somehow felt a bit of anticipation because this was the first time he heard her real information. Even if he didn''t like his parents that much, he still desired the information.


    With that thought in mind, he met with Agata in the restaurant they first met.


    Agata was wearing a white tank top with a red-colored jacket that emphasized her current appearance. She wore a white skirt that reached her knee, gracefully matching the color of her top.


    Seeing Theoing in, Agata smiled and said, "Wee. You are truly someone who loves to make others wait, no?"


    "I am just someone who is on time." Theo shook his head and took his seat, facing her. "So��"


    "How about ordering some drinks? It''s going to be a bit of a long story." Agata handed the menu. "Also, have you eaten yet?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded without hesitation and ordered his usual orange juice.


    "Before moving to our important topic, I am gonna update you about your performance first." She smiled. "To be honest, you should look at your grandfather''s expression when he watches your videos. It was funny, you know.


    "The War God Family is strict, but not that ruthless with their rules, so yeah, they are still taking care of one another normally. Unless they are aiming for something big like the positions in the family. Either way, your grandfather left you a message.


    "He said�� ''To be honest, I don''t want you toe to the War God Family, not because I hate you, but because you seem to love freedom. Bing a part of the War God Family means you are being restricted to a certain extent and thepetition among the juniors is insane.


    ''I don''t want you to hate the family because of that. Of course, I will be happy if youe to the War God Family. Even so, I can''t give you more love than the others to ensure the fairness of this big family and avoid other juniors picking a fight with you because of their own jealousy.


    ''Hence, I won''t ask you to join the War God Family. Instead, if you wish to return home, I will wee you as a grandfather. Even if you don''te here, you can stille to the War God Family to visit rtives, especially me. Also, I can help you with your problems to a certain extent. Juste here, and grandpa will bring you justice.


    ''Either way, having a big family like this doesn''t feel that good because you get more problems than living alone. So, I want you to choose without being pressured by others. That''s all. I know that I am not qualified to say this, considering I never knew you for the past seventeen years, I still wish to say it. I love you, grandson.''


    "That''s the message from your grandfather, the former lord of the War God Family, Fabio Guerrero." She looked at him with a smile as if trying tofort him.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and let out a long sigh. At the very least, he found his grandfather to be a fair person, not promising something big but not pushing him away either.


    The message literally told him to choose after contemting his choices. He didn''t want Theo to join the War God Family just because it was the right thing to do, and he also didn''t wish for Theo to hate them for petty reasons.


    "I��" Theo facepalmed and sighed again. "Let me hear the information about my mother first."


    "Certainly." She nodded and opened her Skylink. "Your mother''s name is already the same as the one in your memory, Valerie Guerrero,ter changed to Valerie Griffith to follow your father''s family. She is known as Valkyrie after getting the blessing of Brunhild.


    "Her blessing rank is Mythical Rank and her talent is among the best. I mean, her main Aspect is Technique with Awareness and Breathing as her additional support.


    "ording to the information, your mother once led a small group to handle a thousand monsters and ended up killing half of that number. I mean, it''s already ridiculous to take care of five hundred with six people altogether.


    "And your mother killed almost four hundred of them. Because of her Awareness, her battle sense was great and her Breathing allowed her to have a long battle without getting exhausted. As for her Technique, we couldn''t find much information since she eloped with your father not long after.


    "All I can say is that your mother was called Valkyrie for these reasons, not just because she happened to receive Brunhild''s blessing."


    Theo listened to the story attentively, but it also pained his heart, wondering why she abandoned her son when he was still a child. After all, if she relied on a bit of the War God Family, everything would have been better.


    He subconsciously let out some tears. Sadness, disappointment, and loneliness just struck his heart as if someone clutched it tightly.


    Agata somehow couldn''t continue when she saw him this way. Theo was a strong man as he had endured all those hardships in his early days. Yet, the same man just shed tears.


    It turned out Theo loved his parents so much. Unfortunately, due to that very reason, his disappointment was immeasurable.


    Why did they need to leave him? Why did they fake the ident? Was he an unwanted child that was born because of their recklessness when they eloped?


    All those questions crushed his heart and Theo couldn''t help but break down.


    He didn''t say anything or cry like a child.


    His expression was austere, yet sadness was reflected in his eyes.


    Agata''s heart felt empty when she saw Theo''s expression. She thought inwardly, ''Theo must hate to cry. I bet he rarely ever did it for the past decade. But this�� he still loves them. He cries not because he hates them, he cries because he loves them so much�� He is afraid of losing that love. He has been telling people he doesn''t like the family, but all of it is just him trying to redirect his feelings.''


    Unknowingly, her eyes let out some tears as her body started approaching him. She just wanted to give a big hug to this man.


    Even his uncle, who had been watching since the beginning, decided to close his eyes and leave.

 Chapter 416 – War God Family

    <h4>Chapter 416 - War God Family</h4>


    Theo remained silent for a few minutes. Agata''s arms were circling around his neck while she kept saying, "It''s okay. It''s okay."


    Theo used those few minutes to calm his heart and sort his thoughts. After a while, he finally opened his mouth. "I''m okay now."


    Agata widened her eyes and took a step back, releasing him. Instead of teasing him or something, she asked with a worried expression. "Are you alright?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded and let out a long sigh. "Sorry for showing you such an embarrassing thing."


    "It''s okay." She made a gentle smile and returned to her seat, saying, "I see you as a normal human now�� Like anybody else. Normally, you have that stern and uninterested face, but�� What is it again? It just feels down to earth when you are this way."


    Theo closed his eyes and made a modest smile. However, remembering Theo''s smiles that were mostly forced smiles oring from a joke, this genuine smile somehow entranced her.


    She thought, ''So, he can smile like this too.''


    "Ehm, was my mother happy with her decision to leave the family?" Theo asked.


    "I am not very sure. I don''t get the information from them as well." She shook her head. "All I know is their love story. Your mother met your father when there was an alliance between three countries to take down a monster. They didn''t tell me the names though.


    "After several twists and turns, they both fell in love. Because the Griffith Family and the War God Family were kind of equal, they thought it was easy for them to marry each other. Unfortunately, both of them had made a few enemies while they fought together for a few years, forcing them to separate for a while.


    "Hmm, how long was it?" Agata paused for a moment before shaking her head, not remembering the context. "Anyway, your father came again to the War God Family and eloped with your mother.


    "Together, they killed all their pursuers. When they became Mythical Rank Experts, all of their enemies cowered in fear. Unfortunately, at that time, they disappeared from the world. Some thought they provoked another enemy and were heavily injured.


    "But the truth was��" Agata nced at him mysteriously.


    Theo understood her nce and nodded. "I see. It was me, right?"


    "Yes. The date matches, so after enough tracing, your grandfather knows that you are their son." She nodded. "After a few years, they finally left you and returned to the Griffith Family."


    "What''s about my father? What is his position in the Griffith Family?" Theo asked. He was disappointed to know their enemies were cowering in fear. After all, this meant his parents had the choice to live together with him for a long time instead of faking their death.


    Fortunately, he had shed his tears earlier, so he didn''t feel like doing it anymore. He simply focused on the important matter.


    Hearing his question, Agata shook her head in disappointment. "I asked your grandfather, but he didn''t give me an answer. He only told me to wait until the Griffith Family came to you. He said he couldn''t help you with this information for the time being unless you are one of them."


    "I can understand the situation." Theo nodded and scratched the back of his head. "In other words, my father is someone important in this family. If he were a peasant, the information could be easily disclosed. If he were in a bad situation, he wouldn''t tell me to wait for the Griffith Family since they might juste to bully me or something."


    Agata chuckled and said, "Your grandfather told me you would realize that your father is someone important from the message alone. I guess he is right."


    Theo shrugged and looked away.


    "That''s all I can say regarding your mother."


    "Okay, thank you very much for the information." Theo closed his eyes. "Can you exin to me what you know about the War God Family?"


    "Certainly." She nodded her head and continued, "The War God Family has a long history. Blessings from war-like figures are more preferred in this family�� I mean, look at the family name."


    "So, if we don''t have that kind of blessing, will I face some prejudices?" Theo frowned as he started clenching his fists.


    Knowing Theo was bullied in the past, she hurriedly exined, "Not really. The people won''t look down on you because of that, but only those who have it can be the family head. If you don''t have one, the highest position you can have is an elder position. Well, they need to retain their reputation as well since they are the "War God Family."


    "Understandable." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "The family itself has a few branches in other countries. The ones on the surface are in Indonesia, China, Russia, France, Ennd, and the US. There are a few smaller branches and hidden branches, but even I don''t know much about them."


    "That''s the same as the Griffith Family?"


    "Quite like them. Each of these branches has at least one Mythical Rank Expert holding the fort."


    "No wonder." Theo nodded. "Then I guess the Griffith Family only has hidden branches in other countries."


    "Yes. They arefortably manipting many things from the shadows. As for the details, you will probably need to ask your grandfather yourself. My family is quite big but can''t bepared to the War God Family after all. If we poke the Griffith Family carelessly, my family may get wiped out in a single night."


    "Well, I still have shallow knowledge of the scale of their influence, so I can''t say much regarding it."


    "If youe to the War God Family, you will gradually learn it."


    "Yeah. Any big influence will certainly open my eyes." Theo nodded calmly, implying he still needed to consider his answer.


    Agata didn''t mind such an answer. At the very least, she hadpleted the task from the War God Family and learned a bit more about Theo. She would be happier if she knew that she was the only one Theo had ever shown that side of him, but there was no way Theo would admit it.


    Instead, she replied with, "I guess that''s all. Do you have any questions? If you don''t have one, do you mind if I ask you what you are going to do after this?"

 Chapter 417 – Agata

    <h4>Chapter 417 - Agata</h4>


    "What are you going to do after this?" asked Agata before realizing her words weren''t right. "I mean��"


    Theo waved his hand casually and exined, "I don''t have any ns to be honest. I''m just nning to reach level 350 within three months."


    "Three months��" Agata furrowed her eyebrows. "If I am not wrong, your birthday is in four months. What was it again? 29 June?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. The reason he wanted to rush this process was due to the target set by his brother. His brother told him that he had six months for the time limit, but he realized his brother was going to talk about his parents.


    Instead of using that time limit, he used his birthday as the time limit.


    And Agata seemed to have made a connection between the two dots and nodded her head. "In that case, I have one piece of advice."


    "Hmm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "You shouldn''t focus on two Aspects for the time being. I can see that you are almost at Master Level for your Control. It''s better to reach that level first and learn the materialization before learning about Awareness."


    "Yes. That''s what I''m nning to do." Theo nodded without hesitation. He already learned it from the God of Mischief and the skill that the Goddess of Death wanted to teach him seemed to be interesting as well.


    Seeing Theo''s expression, Agata smiled and said, "Then, I have nothing to worry about. I am nning to stay in this country for the time being because I have the feeling you will encounter a certain problem soon."


    "Ehm, don''t jinx it."


    "Haha, sorry. It''s just�� The problem is not with this country. Instead, it will being from other countries."


    "What do you mean?" Her statement piqued his interest as Theo''s expression became serious.


    "ording to our spies, China doesn''t n to support you and they are convincing other countries to do the same. In other words, instead of letting you be the biggest winner, they want you to be desperate enough to choose.


    "They have asked us as well, but if not because of your grandfather''s insistence in supporting you, I don''t think Italy''s Prime Minister would agree to send me here. I heard that the moment your grandfather heard this matter, he stormed the Pope''s house to discuss this matter.


    "I mean, your grandfather said he can only give you equal love, but he always told others that he wanted to make it equal first. He hadn''t given anything during the past seventeen years, so he did all those." Agata chuckled. "That''s why I said you should see your grandfather''s reaction. Despite his age, he is very willful."


    "��" Theo let out a long sigh. "You are not telling me this to convince me to go to Italy, right?"


    "Of course, I am trying to convince you. But you can be assured�� I haven''t lied to you this whole time." Agata raised her hand as if she surrendered and told him the truth. "I truly wish you coulde with me right now. Well, I don''t mind if youeter. After all, I am still trying to steal those lips."


    "Please don''t joke about it." Theo looked away and continued, "How many enemies do I need to face if the world knows about this? I won''t be able to sleep during the night."


    "I am not joking. I''m serious." Agata raised her voice a bit while staring at him with a grim expression. She had been nning to say this after noticing their rtionship had grown a little bit.


    Alea was also in her mind. She didn''t wish to hand Theo to her because Alea would just mistreat him again. That was why she gathered her courage and said it this time.


    Her heart was racing, waiting for Theo''s answer. Her hands were shaking as she clenched her fists in anticipation.


    Theo waved his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are you serious about it?"


    "Yes." Agata put on a genuine smile to show him her feelings. "When we first met, you said you pitied me. I''m wondering, what is your opinion about me this time?"


    "I just want you to make sure you don''t choose the wrong person." Theo wasn''t dense, so he knew her feelings and her approaches. However, there was another thing that made him a bit repulsive.


    After thinking about it for a moment, Theo decided to tell her. "Let me tell you a story, there was a girl who had been in an abusive rtionship. Her parents also treated her the same. Having such a life, the girl suddenly experiencedfort from a boy.


    "She thought she wanted to be with him for a long time. Unknowingly, the girl mistook her feeling as love, even though it was thefort that she sought. In the end, the girl started regretting it after a long marriage�� The end."


    Theo rose from his chair with a calm expression. He didn''t reject her nor ept her.


    Agata had been living a life where she was surrounded by lustful desire. And with him showing such indifference because of his twisted perspective, he was afraid Agata mistook that feeling.


    So, he wanted to remind her once again.


    After that, Theo quickly rose from his seat and reached the door, opening it.


    Agata was startled and could only see him off from her seat. Her eyes were nk as she looked at his back.


    When Theo was about to leave, he stopped for a moment to leave one message. "Still, thank you for sharing your feelings. I appreciate it."


    Agata''s body shook as she blinked her eyes a few times. She opened her mouth, but all the words stuck in her throat.


    She just couldn''t do anything as her mind focused on Theo''s little story. It was obvious he was talking about them.


    Still, she remembered thest thing he said. That "Thank you" was embedded in her mind as her lips couldn''t help but curved. She shook her head in defeat. She murmured, "You can''t simply leave after saying those words�� It''s not fair."

 Chapter 418 – Mission

    <h4>Chapter 418 - Mission</h4>


    Theo didn''t hear anything from Agata as he returned home right after leaving the room.


    He needed to consider his next mission to level up. And after staying home for two weeks, Ava was eager to act with Theo again.


    He spent the rest of the day making some ns regarding his next leveling up.


    Before that, he checked his status once again.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 260


    EXP: 0/349,526


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (C), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (C), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 360, Endurance 236, Agility 250, Vitality 236, Magic Power 360


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "I only have three months left to do this." Theo thought for a moment. "Seeing the time and my current progress, I need to reach level 310 within the first month. After that, I will need a week off to consolidate my power and train a bit. I also need to resupply everything before heading back to hunting.


    "And I will use the rest of my time to reach level 350. It''s going to be hard to be honest. Unlike the previous scenario where the monsters are one rank above me, which gives me additional EXP, this one onlyes from the level difference, meaning the EXP will be a lot less.


    "If I want to keep up with my progress, I really need to fight higher-level monsters. For example, with my current strength, I should start fighting level 300 monsters.


    "It will take more energy and the situation will be more dangerous, but this is the only way," Theo remembered how he performed in the fight against the dragon. "To be honest, I couldn''t do much to the dragon.


    "If Alea didn''t help me wound the dragon and if Agata didn''t take the dragon''s attention, I wouldn''t be able to do anything. Even so, I should be fine with level 300 monsters. Each level gap has gradually berger, but I can still manage them. It will be a bit impossible if we are talking about Supreme Rank, but I''m still a Hero Rank Expert.


    "In that case, I should start searching for Level 320 monsters for a small boss in my training. Since I am nning to reach level 300 in this expedition, myst enemy should be around level 350 to 370." Theo thought for a moment and searched for a monster."


    Theo thought for a moment and searched for monsters he could hunt.


    "Ava, do you have any idea?"


    Ava tilted her head in confusion and shook her head. "Kyu."


    She left everything to him, even though she still watched him choosing the missions in case she found something interesting.


    Theo, on the other hand, kept searching for his missions until his Skylink started ringing.


    "Hmm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at it, finding the caller''s name.


    Raith.


    "Ehm, isn''t this my personal assistant from the Assassin Temple?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and picked up his call. "Yes. Do you need something from me?"


    "Actually, I want to inform you about a personal quest." His tone was hesitant, yet, he seemed to be pressured by someone.


    Theo, on the contrary, remembered he hadn''t established some sort of rule regarding his personal mission with Raith. He only did it with Sarah since his real identity was far more famous than his other identity.


    "Sure enough." Theo nodded in agreement. "Send me the mission."


    "I understand." Raith quickly sent the mission details to him.


    Mission: Meeting with Waterie Group.


    Level: -


    Reward: 1,000,000 Zils


    "��" Theo fell silent and quickly checked his bnce.


    ID: 280104977610


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Bnce: 76,102,600 Zil


    He had gotten all this money from the reward. He also had the Material and Skill Cards from the expedition he had yet to sell.


    Thinking for a moment, Theo didn''t feel like wasting his time for one million Zils. It was big, but he would rather go to the other side tomorrow instead of meeting this person.


    Not only had he met their representative when he acted as Theo, but he also thought money was less important than the level in his current situation.


    Hence, he replied, "I am sorry, but I don''t have time to do this. I already n to leave for Ark City tomorrow morning."


    Suddenly, there was a clicking sound from the other side as a female''s voice echoed in his ears. "Hello, Mr. Joker. I hope you still remember my voice."


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as this voice struck his mind. It was none other than the woman he scammed back then. "Yes. I certainly remember your voice. Thank you for your patronage."


    "Let me introduce myself again. My name is Arba Haestus. I am the general manager as well as the sessor of the Waterie Group. Your ability is remarkable, so I would like to invite you for a simple lunch."


    Theo facepalmed and realized what she had nned. He knew this woman was rich, but he never expected her to be the daughter of the current Waterie Group''s CEO. The Waterie Group alone was considered one of the top five organizations in this business, so it certainly surprised him.


    Even so, Theo''s tone didn''t change as he said, "So?"


    "Eh, So?" Arba''s body shook as this was the first time someone talked this casual when she mentioned her background.


    "Yeah. If you just want to talk, I can only do it a month from now." Theo didn''t care about her and continued running his mouth.


    "Wait, wait. I''m the representative from the Waterie Group, you know."


    "So what? If you don''t have anything to say, I am going to hang up." Theo let out a long sigh.


    When he was about to hang up, she quickly added, "I am talking about cooperation. I can give you a hundred million as long as you sign up�� No, you said you are nning to go to Ark City tomorrow, right? I am about to request a mission.


    "The mission is to kill a level 280 monster."


    "Not interested. Thanks for the offer. Goodbye." As soon as he heard thatst statement, he rejected her and hung up.


    *Thud!*

 Chapter 419 – Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 419 - Preparation</h4>


    After that, several calls came again, but Theo ignored them and continued searching for missions. If his joker identity got targeted, he simply changed back to Theo.


    At the very least, there wouldn''t be a problem within the first month since he would have gone somewhere.


    And the moment they chased his Joker identity, he switched to Theo and reached level 350 with that identity. The Lange Family should be searching for Theo''s real identity and might have found him, so there was no need to hide it anymore.


    By that time, he should have finished his training and met his brother. Not long after that, there would be someone from the Griffith Family meeting him. He only needed to leave everything behind and go to another country.


    And with them chasing Joker or Theo, he could publicly shame them and have another country release a statement that he fled from Thernd because he was threatened by them.


    This would give them and the country a severe blow, while Theo simply went ording to his n�� After all, the citizens could easily choose which one was right, the hero or a big "businessman".


    "Besides, if I agree to this, I feel like I will end up in a team and some several troublesome missions. I don''t have the time to do it, so it''s better to stay away. I have another assurance anyway," said Theo while remembering his Metamorphosis.


    Knowing all this in his head, Theo calmly ignored the call and continued searching for missions.


    After a moment, Theo came across three missions that piqued his interest.


    Mission: Kill five Atrocious Wolves and get their Vampiric Fangs Cards (Repeatable).


    Level: 300


    Reward: 2,500,000 Zils


    Mission: Kill an Ancient Fire Mummy and get its rejuvenating bandage (Repeatable).


    Level: 320


    Reward: 3,500,000 Zils


    Mission: Kill an Alpha Mutated Chimera Wolf.


    Level: 350


    Reward: 5,000,000 Zils


    Theo showed Ava the map and pointed at a certain area. "See this? I''m nning to go to Sinx Forest, where the Mutated Chimera Wolf lives. Around this area, there are several missions I can get. I believe this is the best choice. So, instead of searching for the missions, I''m choosing the area first and work my way from there."


    Ava nodded in understanding. "Kyu."


    "Well, Sinx Forest and its surrounding is known as a ce filled with wolves, so I can guess why there are many wolf missions." Theo chuckled. "Though, the fact we are fighting wolves continuously means we can grow ustomed to fighting them, allowing us to end the fight faster. More EXP."


    "Kyu!" Ava stuck her tongue out while looking at Theo with expectation as if she wanted to try the delicacy.


    "You''re really a glutton." Theo shook his head.


    "Kyu." Ava chuckled and leaped on top of his shoulder before rubbing their cheeks together. "Kyu."


    Theo rolled his eyes and continued with what he needed to do.


    With the money he got from the Lange Family, Theo started the shopping spree, buying as many Skill Cards as possible andbining them into one to upgrade his skills.


    He ended up upgrading two more skills, even though it used almost all his money.


    The two skills he upgraded were none other than his Blink and Illusion Maniption. These two were his main skills, so he thought he needed to upgrade them.


    And he certainly wasn''t disappointed with the result.


    Skill: Blink (B)


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to 100 feet (MAX) from them.


    Skill: Illusion Maniption (B)


    Effect: Manipte one''s perception to make one get a sense of touch, smell, hearing and vision of an illusion along with the ability to manipte a certain level of reality.


    "Seriously?" Theo couldn''t help but smile when he saw this result. First of all, his Illusion Maniption allowed him to bring two more senses to the equation. "This is great. I can make the illusion a bit more realistic. Though��"


    Theo looked at his Blink and noticed the word "MAX" in the description. "What is this Max? I can''t update the skill anymore?"


    Theo was confused and checked his Blink skill.


    Skill: Blink (B) �� Upgradeable


    Upgrade: Fuse 10 Rank B Skills, 30 Rank C Skills, and 100 Rank D Skills


    "Ehm, I can still upgrade it. Does it mean the skill will have an additional effect?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Unfortunately, he couldn''t get the answer and God of Mischief seemed to have no intention of answering him. So, he just put the matter down by saying, "I guess it''s good now. At least, I will know it after upgrading it once more.


    "And the fact this skill came from Fenrir meant this is a good skill." Theo chuckled. Although Fenrir was harsh, he was indeed a very skilled individual. "Anyway, I''m going to restock our supply for our next expedition."


    ��


    Meanwhile, the Lange Family, especially Endo Lange, didn''t have any patience left. He mmed his own table and snapped it to half.


    "Bastard!" Endo gritted his teeth. Because of what happened to the dragon, the military began to investigate his family.


    After all, they wanted to save face by not letting Theo be harmed with so many witnesses.


    Still, the biggest miscalction he had was none other than the fact the military and the Eilric Family got involved in this situation.


    Not only that, but his family also needed to suffer the loss of their elites. He gritted his teeth and red at his butler. "It''s your turn. I want his address!"


    "It will take time," said the butler calmly. "I need to search for all real estatepanies along with the city he lives in. It will take one to two months. Only after that can I start following him and kill him with a few people."


    "Just go! I want the result!" Endo Lange raised his voice. He started panting as the anger filled his heart to the brim.


    Luckily, Ben didn''t stay here. Otherwise, he would have been beaten by Endo Lange for his continuous failures.


    "Still, Sir�� I am afraid we can''t do anything for the time being. The two failures were connected to the Daemon Group. I have the feeling that this Daemon Group is protecting Theodore Griffith."


    "I don''t care. I want the result as soon as possible!" Ben stated with a stern tone.


    "��" The butler lowered his head and left the room.

 Chapter 420 – Big News

    <h4>Chapter 420 - Big News</h4>


    After getting everything he needed, Theo picked up the bag that was almost bigger than his body. Ava was already sneaking inside his clothes to position herself.


    "Let''s go." Theo smiled and opened the door as he started heading to Ark City.


    The scenery soon changed to the dim lights of the busy Ark City.


    With the goal in his mind, Theo finally stepped outside Ark City, heading straight to his destination.


    Little did he know something big was going on near Sinx Forest. It was all over the news, but Theo had no connection to even see it.


    The news was covered by one male and one female. The female wore a long yellow dress while carrying a small card in her hand�� She sat on the couch while waving her blonde hair.


    "Hello, Mr. Hendrick." She smiled at the male, who happened to be a middle-aged man. He wore a white and ck formal suit while looking at the camera with a smile. He greeted her back. "Thank you for having me here, Annie."


    "Today, we are going to talk about the sudden rise of conflicts between monsters in Sinx Forest and Eion in." She then raised her hand as a screen appeared, showing a video.


    In the video, there was a giant spherical dome. The dome was ck with some small holes that couldn''t be crossed by humans. Still, the most shocking thing about this dome was its size.


    With one mile as its radius, the dome looked majestic, especially with its fifty-foot-high.


    "What we have here is an Ancient Structure that we call Coal Dome. There are a lot of monsters residing in this ce�� Mostly monsters with a fire affinity. What do you think about this structure, Mr. Hendrick?"


    "Thank you, Annie." He raised both hands and started exining. "Actually, this Coal Dome itself is a remnant of an ancient civilization in the past. The dome was found one hundred years ago after an earthquake struck the vicinity, which somehow sent the dome to the surface and not the other ground around it. Even the scientist couldn''t exin this incident. After all, If a certainnd went up, the entire area would also be affected.


    "After a long investigation, we found that this dome has numerous monsters inside and has be an active dungeon for us to explore. The government also dered this ce to be a public dungeon for others to use.


    "There is a rumor that an ancient mummy is residing in this ce, considering the ce was filled with mummies the first time it appeared. Also, this ce has be a bit more active as many hunters have been reporting an unusual movement from the mummies. And we believe the problem is��"


    Before he continued, another screen appeared, showing a small in in the middle of the forest. In that in stood tall a small castle made of wood and rocks.


    There was even a wall of thebination of the two, protecting several tall buildings in it.


    "This is the problem, Wolf City, or that''s what we call it. There is a very intelligent wolf leading many wolf species to gather in that area to build this kind of city. We have been investigating them for the past three years and have been making contact with them, trying to talk it out, but to no avail.


    "I''m sure that many of you are aware of the fact that the monsters are mostly instinctual, but some of their leaders are intellectual. Hence, we assume that both the dome and this Wolf City have a General ss monster.


    "And each of them is trying to take each other''s territory, causing a great conflict between the Eion in and the Sinx Forest.


    "So, we, the military, have been given an order to keep a watch of this conflict because hey�� the rule of the jungle is effective here. Also, the government has been releasing several missions to suppress both of these ces. If not, they may need to evacuate the area within 100 miles radius so as to avoid unnecessary deaths.


    "That''s why there are many hunters approaching this ce to partake in the missions, as this ce has turned into a gold mine for them. Of course, I don''t say it''s wrong. I just hope the conflicts can be dealt with and we can start researching about their lives and other things, increasing our understanding about this world."


    Annie smiled and nodded her head. "Thank you very much, Mr. Hendrick, for your exnation." She then turned to the camera and continued, "There you go. The government is issuing missions for hunters to help the government suppress this conflict.


    "This is a win-win situation for both the government and the hunters. I believe there are many enthusiastic peopleing to those ces right now��"


    The two started talking again, discussing the monster''s habits and other information.


    And this news, which had been broadcasted through the entire country, piqued many interested parties, including Theo''s former teammates.


    Seeing such a thing, James asked his daughter, who had been learning many things from him for thest couple of days. "So, what do you think? You want to go there?"


    "I want to, but it''s not like everything will be resolved so quickly. I want to learn from you for another one week or two." Alea answered. She didn''t know why but after recognizing her mistakes and naivety, Alea didn''t feel like reacting extremely and maintained her calm expression. "I want to understand the entire story first and learn about the pros and cons before participating."


    James nced at her calm expression and smiled. "Is that so? Well, we have sent our scouts there, so we should be able to learn the situation very soon."


    Not only them, but there was also Ellen watching the news and falling into deep thought. Even Phyrill''s Hilbert Family was interested in this news.


    Phyrill murmured while reading the news. "So, this ce is kind of interesting. How many groups do we have in Ark City?"


    The middle-aged man, who always served by his side, answered, "Ten groups."


    "Good. I will lead the team there."


    "You just happen to be interested in the Wolf City, aren''t you? The reason is probably due to your blessing��"


    "What are you saying? I am a good and responsible citizen like this family. I will contribute to the greatness of this country," Phyrill pumped his chest and said dramatically.


    The middle-aged man rolled his eyes, not believing him at all.


    "Well, I will convince my father first." Phyrill shrugged. "You should get ready too."

 Chapter 421 – Mummies Vs Wolves

    <h4>Chapter 421 - Mummies Vs Wolves</h4>


    "Ava," Theo shouted while watching the four-legged monster behind him. It looked like a buffalo that almost rammed him with that giant pair of horns.


    However, Ava came from the side and kicked the monster in the face, directing it to the side and almost hitting him in the process.


    Theo had calcted this and waved his spear, cutting the monster''s head without hesitation.


    [Killed a Rampaging Buffalo.]


    [EXP+ 70,505]


    "Good work, Ava." Theo smiled and turned around, seeing Ava standing on top of the corpse.


    Because of the current fight, Theo somehow understood Ava''s strength a bit more.


    She seemed to be a level 300 to level 350 monster because she didn''t manage to obliterate the buffalo''s head like when she did it in the past, especially the zombies.


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled and raised her hand.


    Theo had been running straight to Sinx Forest this whole time and was one day away from the location. He encountered so many monsters along the way and somehow killed ny percent of the monsters they encountered.


    Normally, Ava would take at least thirty percent of them because of her power and enthusiasm, but due to the level gap bing smaller, Ava couldn''t kill as much as before.


    Hence, Theo often took advantage of the situation and killed the monsters to get more EXP points while giving Ava their meat so she could get stronger by eating them.


    And this seemed to be a good strategy since they were in a win-win situation.


    Theo managed to get a good few levels during the process.


    Their progress looked normal until Ava''s ears suddenly picked up something. She usually warned him about monsters and located them to get a better chance of killing them, but this time, she started panicking.


    "Kyu!" Ava leaped in front of him, gathering his attention. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    Theo frowned. It wasn''t rare to see Ava panicking, but this time, her expression was more distorted than ever.


    She pointed at her left while warning Theo. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    "There are monsters over there?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "They areing here?"


    Ava nodded furiously before taking another look at her left and jumping on top of Theo''s shoulder. "Ky��"


    Before she even finished, a blue-colored wolf emerged from within the woods.


    "!!!" Theo instinctively raised his spear and examined the wolf. The wolf body had light blue fur except for the ones around its feet and mouse.


    However, he recognized this wolf as he had learned various wolf species beforeing to Sinx Forest, which nested more than a hundred types of wolves.


    "Blue Carnal Wolf," Theo muttered the monster''s name and waved his hand upward.


    The wind around his hand started getting riled up and circling around.


    The moment Theo was about to pass the wolf''s, the wind hit the wolf''s belly andunched it into the air.


    The wolf growled while trying to spin its body tond on the ground.


    Meanwhile, Theo summoned twenty Magic Bullets and shot the wolf.


    The wolf released all his strength and forced the wind to move back and forth, forming a thin barrier.


    When the Magic Bullets hit the barrier, it exploded and dispersed the wind. And this was what Theo wanted as he used his Blink to appear next to the wolf and slice the wolf''s head without giving it a chance to dodge.


    [Killed a Blue Carnal Wolf.]


    [EXP+ 75,400]


    "Hmm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw multiple wolves jumping from one ce to another, using the trees to confuse him.


    "Ava, you were warning me about a wolf pack earlier?" Theo asked out loud as his heart skipped a beat.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously.


    "Seriously? If only you can speak��" Theo suddenly turned around and ran away. "Never mind. We need to get out of here first."


    While running, Ava looked at the chasing wolves. Her ears picked twenty more wolvesing and their speed was higher than Theo. She wondered if Theo could outrun them.


    "I''m going to fly, so hang on."


    Before Theo took off, she pointed at the front while mming her foot a few times. This was the usual gesture she used to tell Theo there was an enemy.


    Feeling her warning signal, the foot, Theo quickly used his Telekinesis to halt his step andunch himself into the air. He only had the option to fly to the right or left.


    But before he could even fly past the branches and leaves, two yellow-colored clothes that seemed to be a shawl flew at him.


    "Hmm?" Theo squinted his eyes and looked down, finding a humanoid figure standing on the ground.


    The humanoid figure had muddy brownish dark green skin, with almost all its body covered with a yellow-colored bandage. The bandage itself was quite thick because it only wrapped the body once and Theo already couldn''t see through it.


    The teeth were in disarray and the mouth opened wide, showing a ck tongue. The eyes were red like that of blood and emanated killing intent and bloodlust all the time.


    The mummy''s hand grabbed tight the yellow bandage to catch Theo.


    "A mummy?"


    Theo instinctively raised his spear, so the bandage reached his spear instead of his body. To his surprise, the bandage began to warp the spear''s handle as if it had consciousness of its own.


    Theo tightened his grip and felt the pulling force that almost took away his spear.


    Without hesitation, he pulled the other spear and cut the bandage. Freed from the restraints, Theo disappeared using his Blink, hiding behind a tree to fool the monster.


    The wolves had arrived on the scene and found Theo wasn''t there, only a mummy. But several mummies started making their appearance as both sides stared at each other.


    Their eyes were filled with hostility until the wolf began to jump, pouncing them.


    The mummies didn''t like it and started using their bandages to fight back.


    "��" Theo widened his eyes when he saw the sh between mummies and wolves. "What the heck is happening here?"

 Chapter 422 – Blessing In Disguise

    <h4>Chapter 422 - Blessing In Disguise</h4>


    The wolves all jumped on top of the mummies while thetter grabbed them and mmed them to the ground.


    "Ava, do you know anything?" Theo asked with a low voice while peeking at their fight.


    He also began to move away because the wolves could surely find him even if he hid nearby.


    Ava nodded with a serious expression as she threw a few punches while changing her sides a few times to show they were fighting each other. She then pointed down her foot before changing to another side to kneel.


    "Something like a territorial dispute?" Theo frowned. "Conquering each other?"


    Ava nodded her head again.


    "Did something like this happen all the time in the ce you lived before meeting me?"


    Ava shook her head and pointed at the surroundings while looking down on them��


    "Hmm? There is an absolute king in your area?" Theo interpreted it with a hesitant tone but soon got confirmation from Ava. He looked down and started thinking. "I see. What will happen if we join the fight?"


    Ava thought for a moment and sent punches from three sides.


    "I see. Battle royale." Theo somehow understood the situation and halted his steps, turning back to look at the fight. The sh was quite surprising, considering this was the first time he saw this kind of conflict.


    However, Theo had another n and said, "I n to disturb and kill them. What do you think? The wolves are Blue Carnal Wolves. Their levels are around 290. The mummies are simr, so we have the chance to get so many EXPs."


    "Kyu!" Ava agreed without hesitation. She believed Theo''s n would seed, so she prepared herself to help Theo.


    "Great." Theo smiled and started running back. He summoned his clone and handed the spear while going separate ways.


    Real Theo approached the mummies from behind while assessing the situation. It seemed the wolves and the mummies were equal, so Theo and his clone sent all their Magic Bullets to each side.


    Because the two might have enough strength to block it, Theo targeted a mummy and a wolf that were about to kill each other.


    The mummy was on the bottom, getting bitten by the wolf several times while the wolf struggled because the mummy grasped its neck with that yellow bandage.


    Suddenly, forty Magic Bullets entered into the mummy''s vision without a sound and hit them at the same time.


    [Killed a Bandage Mummy.]


    [EXP+76,000]


    [Killed a Carnal Blue Wolf.]


    [EXP+ 77,500]


    Despite killing two monsters like this, Theo couldn''t smile because the wolves seemed to have spotted him.


    "Aooo!" One wolf let out a loud howl as four wolves suddenly leaped to the side, chasing Theo and his clone simultaneously.


    ''As expected��'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows and started running away.


    To his surprise, the mummies that fought four of those wolves chased them, making the situation even worse.


    Luckily, they spread evenly. Theo and Ava only needed to handle two wolves and two mummies at a time.


    "Ava, you are small. The mummy will have a hard time catching you with their bandage, so go beat them up. I will also steal the kill if I have the chance." Theo smirked.


    Ava nodded furiously before leaping off his shoulders to a tree''s trunk. The moment she stepped on it, lightning burst out of her body, crushing the tree trunk and sending the splinters flying.


    She used that force tounch herself to the first mummy, nning to use it as a cushion.


    As expected, the mummy raised their hands and caught Ava with their bandage that stretched upon impact, preventing Ava from hitting its body.


    However, Ava''s power was still stronger than they expected. Each hand had one or two broken fingers.


    Ava smirked. Since the mummy stopped her charge, she simply used that chance to leap again to itsrade, doing the same thing.


    The other mummy didn''t expect Ava to be moving freely like this, so it didn''t have enough time to react and ended up getting blown away and crashing into the tree.


    "Kyu." Ava smiled proudly.


    While Ava was fighting, Theo also picked up his pace by waving his spear to the first wolf that almost bit him, resulting in the wolfing to a halt to avoid his swing.


    Unfortunately, the other wolf became the victim as Theo used his Blink to arrive in front of the second wolf with his hand momentum, slicing the wolf''s head without enough time to react.


    The wolf obviously witnessed everything and red at him in shock and anger. Wanting to have his revenge, the wolf leaped at Theo with all his might and covered his two paws with a spinning wind to give a boost to its swipe.


    Theo snorted and used his Cannon st and poured his Telekinesis along with his External Flow into his spear, striking the wolf''s paws.


    The Cannon st dispersed the wind while his Telekinesis blew and the actual hit blew the wolf away.


    The wolf''s back hit the tree as it fell down, but twenty Magic Bullets rained on him, creating multiple holes in its body.


    After killing the two wolves, Theo didn''t rx. Instead, he went to Ava immediately, finding her blowing away the left mummy.


    Seeing the mummy struggling to get up, Theo reached the mummy as soon as possible and sliced its neck before making his way to Ava.


    Noticing Theo''s presence, Ava released her lightning and formed a small lightning ball in front of her, shooting it straight at the zombie''s head.


    The zombie leaped to the side to avoid it, but this was what Theo wanted. He followed the mummy''s movement and severed its head.


    "Good work, Ava." Theo extended his hand as they needed to go somewhere else.


    Ava knew what to do and reached his hand as the two headed straight to Theo''s clone.


    The clone had an easier time because he managed to fool the mummies and the wolves into thinking he disappeared. The two ended up fighting again while the clone bid his time to kill them.


    That chance appeared when Theo and Ava had dealt with their pursuers and arrived at the scene.


    Theo ended up killing another two pairs of monsters.


    ''This is good. The situation might be more dangerous because of the territorial feud, but I can find more monsters�� Ahem, distracted monsters that fight each other. Using that distraction, they are gonna give me so many EXP points.'' Theo thought as he couldn''t help but smirk.


    He quickly revealed himself to the sh to kill all of them.

 Chapter 423 – Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 423 - Reunion</h4>


    After those four, Theo and Ava started killing the rest of the monsters one by one. He utilized his Magic Bullets mainly as a distraction while his normal swing, especially with the help of his Materialization, became the greatest weapon that suppressed them.


    Although it was true that Theo wouldn''t be able to do anything if he fought the level 400 Ground Dragon alone, it still didn''t change the fact Theo''s strike was powerful enough to kill it.


    Not a single of the monsters could block the attack and die on the spot.


    Of course, using Materialization, Telekinesis, External Flow, and Cannon st exhausted his Magic Power reserve at a rapid rate. Even if he could kill the monsters quickly, he still had his limit.


    *Sigh!*


    Theo wiped the sweats on his forehead and put the mask back on. He looked down and saw all the corpses lying around.


    "I managed to level up a few times�� And with my current reserve, it''s better to rest for the rest of the day. I may reach my target sooner than I expected though." Theo couldn''t help but smile.


    When he was about to reach the monsters'' corpses to turn them into cards, Ava suddenly looked to the side, leaped on top of his shoulder, and hid underneath his clothes.


    "Ava?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and raised his spear. Ava only showed this kind of reaction when a human was nearby while Theo faced a dilemma.


    On the one hand, he wanted to grab all the dropped cards. On the other hand, he didn''t want to meet other humans nearby because these monsters might incite their greed and kill him.


    "Never mind. They won''t be able to do anything to the corpses, so I will take care of itter." Theo ran away while staying within five hundred feet range to see what they nned to do.


    To his surprise, the human that came into his vision was a pink-haired woman. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the woman, not because of her beauty but due to her identity.


    "Ellen?" Theo widened his eyes and remembered that Ellen''s level was perfect for hunting around this area. She should be approaching level 300, so it was no wonder that Ellen was hunting in this area.


    But what shocked him was the fact she was alone in this ce. A magician would face great trouble if they fought alone in closebat.


    She looked left and right when she found the monsters'' corpses.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t see her expression from this distance. He soon decided toe closer, only to find another surprise.


    Three Blue Carnal Wolves emerged from the bushes, leaping toward her.


    Ellen waved her hand and summoned three pieces of ice cubes. The cubes were three times her size as sheunched them forward, making the wolves crash to them.


    She then started running again, making Theo doubt his judgment.


    "There''s no way Ellen is luring the wolves. The number is too low. In that case, she must be running away from them�� Should I help her?" Since Ellen had been helping her before the Grand Gaia, Theo decided to help her.


    Ellen, on the contrary, summoned a small snowke in front of her palm as it exploded, sending freezing wind to the wolves.


    The wolves were blown away andnded on the ground, ring at her.


    When they were about to chase her again, Magic Bullets flew between the trees and took a few turns to confuse the wolves before hitting the one on the right.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as Ellen and the wolves nced to the side where the Magic Bullets came from.


    rmed, Ellen shouted, "Please help me defeat these wolves."


    Without hesitation, two masked people appeared on top of the wolves while punching the wolves with their fists.


    The energy around the fists dispersed and pierced through the wolves'' bodies, creating a small hole in it.


    Ellen was taken aback by this sight and looked at these masked men. Unlike Phyrill and Alea, Ellen never saw Joker, so he could help her without getting recognized�� Or that was supposed to be the case.


    Ellen surprised him by hugging one of Theos while shouting, "Theo. It''s been a while!"


    Theo''s body shook as he couldn''tprehend what just happened.


    Before he said anything, Ellen said, "Before thepetition, Alea told me about a great first or second year wearing a mask called Joker. She wanted to recruit him, so when I saw Cannon sting from your fists, ruthless Magic Bullets, and your Teleportation skill, I knew it''s you."


    "bbermouth." Theo shook his head helplessly. Although he wanted to stay anonymous, he didn''t mind if Ellen knew about it. Unlike Alea, Ellen should be able to keep his identity a secret.


    So, Theo put down all his act and said, "Yeah, it''s been a while."


    "Thank you for helping me." Ellen obviously didn''t forget to thank him. "Are you here for the Coal Dome and Wolf City''s dispute too?"


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned and asked, "What''s that?"


    "You don''t know? You should know there are some ancient structures in this world, right?"


    "Yeah."


    "Coal Dome is one of them and they are fighting a small city built by a General ss wolf," Ellen answered. "The news was released two days ago."


    "Hmm? I was already out of the city at that time." Theo nodded before finding something weird in her statement. "Wait a minute. If you are leaving before me, why can you reach this ce faster?"


    "Ah, that?" Ellen chuckled and said, "I came here with Phyrill. However, our group was hit by 100 mummies and wolves and I got separated from them."


    "Well��" Theo didn''t know what to say as he thought 100 was a huge number. There was no way a group could withstand them.


    Suddenly, a male''s voice echoed in their ears.


    "Ellen! Reply to me, Ellen!" That voice was so familiar to the point Ellen shouted without hesitation. "Phyrill, I''m here."


    Recognizing her voice, Phyrill quickly emerged from the woods, finding Ellen and a masked man who was no stranger to him. "Theo!"


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched when he saw this petite guy wearing long ck pants and a white t-shirt covered by a camo jacket.

 Chapter 424 – Information

    <h4>Chapter 424 - Information</h4>


    "Young Master." A few people began to emerge behind him, catching up with Phyrill.


    In that instant, Phyrill came to a realization and changed his act. He smiled and pointed at Theo. "Joker. It''s been a while. I never thought you woulde here."


    Theo wanted to protect his identity, so he thought this would help him.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile at Phyrill''s thoughtfulness. "Yes. I happen to be in the area."


    The middle-aged man behind him obviously recognized Joker and took a step back. "You��"


    Phyrill waved his hand to stop him from talking and came to Theo.


    "What is happening here to be honest?" Theo nced at Ellen.


    "There is a dispute between Sinx Forest and Eion in." Phyrill shrugged and nced at his surroundings. "There are so many corpses�� Did you kill these monsters?"


    Theo nodded. "Yeah."


    "Thank you for saving Ellen, though." Phyrill smiled and winked at Ellen as if asking her to y along.


    "Ah, right. I am really grateful�� Thank you for saving my life." Ellen politely nodded.


    "Anyway, I am going to turn these monsters into cards first." Theo nced at Phyrill and Ellen. "You can just exin the situation here to me and we will be even."


    "Certainly." Ellen smiled. She was surprised to find Theo killed all these monsters by himself but soon thought it was normal as Theo was always beyond what was reported. Ellen decided to respect his decision and said, "I will do my best to exin it to you."


    Phyrill then raised his hand and nced at his group. "I want you to make sure nothing bothers us for a while. Also, recall our advance party and bring the rear to the front. The situation has be more dangerous than we expected, so yeah��"


    "Understood." The middle-aged man nodded his head and started rallying the group, which consisted of twelve people.


    Theo then began to turn the wolves and mummies into cards together with his clone to speed up the process.


    Meanwhile, Ellen and Phyrill followed him.


    Phyrill looked at Theo while muttering inwardly, ''These wolves and mummies were level 290. If I am not wrong, Theo was only a level 193 Fighter before thepetition and there was no opportunity to level up in that ce.


    ''In other words, he has be this strong in just two months? There are around fifty monsters here�� Seriously?'' Phyrill could only sigh in defeat, seeing Theo''s progress. It was no wonder that Theo was among the best even internationally.


    ''And this is his own effort�� If he gets the best support from international influences�� He may be far stronger than we can imagine. Well, thinking back about the extraordinary willpower that keeps him going, I guess this is something to be expected. Still, this can only be achieved because Theo has that kind of talent.''


    Phyrill couldn''t help but smile. He patted his shoulder and said, "Theo. Good luck to you. I''m sure you can keep going."


    Theo tilted his head in confusion but still nodded. "Thank you."


    "By the way, do you want toe with us?" Ellen asked. "I mean, we have a group and it''s easier to get information with these many people."


    Theo looked down, contemting the pros and cons. He ended up shaking his head. "No, I''m going alone. It''s more dangerous, but this is the fastest method to reach my goal."


    "Is that so?" Ellen gently stroked her cheek and sighed. "Well, I don''t think we have a problem in disclosing all the information we have so far, right?"


    Phyrill nodded. "Yeah. It''s Theo anyway, so I don''t think there will be a problem. I will also give you a bit of my n so we don''t sh with each other."


    "Thanks. It will be a great help." Theo nodded.


    Ellen then started exining the current situation to the area of dispute.


    This gave Theo''s a clear representation of how chaotic the situation had be and where to go.


    Phyrill even added the expected number of people and their hunting areas, so Theo could avoid them.


    "By the way, how strong are you right now? To think you can kill these many monsters�� At first, I thought you fought them in one go, but I believe you killed a few at a time, no?" Phyrill said while looking at the corpses, which had been separated into specific numbers.


    Theo nodded. "Actually, you can let them fight first before killing one or two in one single strike, revealing your position. The wolves will be the first to react and chase you. The mummies then will chase after them.


    "So, your people only need to disappear from that area and let this small group that chase after you fight again. It will be a perfect time to ambush them." Theo shared his approach in dealing with these monsters. Of course, Ava''s confirmation allowed him to make this kind of judgment.


    Phyrill looked down while Ellen raised her eyebrows in surprise.


    "The problem is�� We have 60 people in our group, so it''s quiterge. We can''t move ording to your strategy�� I mean, we don''t have the flexibility to do that. Though, I believe we can replicate it to a certain extent if we split our group into five." Phyrill thought for a moment and nced at Ellen. "Well, showing you how the Hilbert Family operates a bit won''t be a problem, I guess."


    Ellen chuckled with an apologetic expression. "Sorry for that."


    "It''s fine." Phyrill shrugged. "By the way, does Alea n toe here? I had contacted Sihan, but�� he didn''t reply to me."


    Theo didn''t have any reaction even though he knew Sihan had died, while Ellen replied, "I have asked Alea, who has been acting weird for the past few days. She told me she wanted to wait for another one or two weeks."


    "Hmm? That''s weird. Did someone hit her on the head? She would have jumped on this opportunity right away." Phyrill''s expression was distorted a bit as he couldn''t figure out what happened to her.


    "That''s rude��" Ellen shook her head helplessly. "Though, I can''t deny it."


    After knowing all the necessary information and getting all the loot, Theo finally said goodbye to Ellen and Phyrill. "Okay, I will go on my way now."


    "Yep."


    "Take care." Ellen waved her hand while smiling.


    Theo gave them another nod before he left.

 Chapter 425 – Surrounded

    <h4>Chapter 425 - Surrounded</h4>


    As soon as he left them, Ava''s head popped out of his shirt while clinging to Theo''s shirt, assessing the situation. She thought the situation wasn''t that safe because of the number of people in this area.


    "So, where are we going, Ava? The missions I chose are rted to both ces." Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Because we have no group or whatsoever, we can freely move from one ce to another, so I will let you choose our first destination. My right hand represents the Sinx Forest while the other represents the Eion in. Which ce do you wish to visit?"


    Seeing Theo raising his hands, Ava looked at both of them for a moment before pointing at the right hand. "Kyu!"


    "Okay. Let''s go to Sinx Forest." Theo chuckled.


    Since he was already in Sinx Forest, Theo went around this ce ording to Phyrill''s information, making his way to his first mission��


    Mission: Kill five Atrocious Wolves and get their Vampiric Fangs Cards (Repeatable).


    Level: 300


    Reward: 2,500,000 Zils


    He almost reached level 270 because of that huge group, so he thought Atrocious Wolves wouldn''t be that much of a problem.


    It took Theo one hour of running to reach his destination. The ce where Atrocious Wolves lived was quite a horrible ce. The tree poption was quite dense and each tree trunk was as big as three Theo gathering up.


    The ground was filled with dry leaves, rootsing out of the ground, and various colored vines.


    "Atrocious Wolves can walk with two feet or four feet depending on their needs. With this feature, they are able to maneuver in this forest without a problem." Theo thought for a moment. "Tell me if they are nearby, okay?"


    Ava nodded, came out of his shirt, and stood on top of his shoulder like usual.


    It was only three minutes before Ava pointed at their right, locating the wolves. However, Ava also added several punches and jumped. "Kyu!"


    Theo got the gist of what she was talking about and raised his spear, moving to the right. "Are their ears that good?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded without hesitation.


    "But we had encountered many monsters even before this and they didn''te after us."


    Ava sent a few punches again. "Kyu!"


    "Because they are at war? They are attacking every single living creature other than their own kin?"


    Ava confirmed it and let out a sigh. "Kyu."


    When Theo was about to answer, a shadow appeared in the corner of his eyes. Theo clicked his tongue and started looking around while releasing his Awareness.


    He soon realized fighting in this ce wasn''t as easy as he thought. The dense forest limited his vision, giving the wolf a huge advantage.


    His heart began to race as he observed everything with his Awareness, only to raise his head.


    The wolf already leaped off the tree and pounced at him. The wolf''s ws glowed in blue as it released a single strand of water.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and raised his left hand, using his Telekinesis to disperse the water.


    ''A water wolf?'' Theo frowned before his heart skipped a beat when he saw the wolf jumping in another direction. ''There is nothing that can be used as its foothold��''


    Theo couldn''t understand how the wolf could do such a thing, but he still confronted the wolf head-on. He thrust his spear, not letting the wolf leave.


    Seeing this, the wolf opened its mouth and released a small breath of water to stop it.


    However, Theo continued using his Telekinesis to disperse them again before Ava jumped off his shoulder.


    "Aooo!" Another brown-colored wolf came out of the woods, trying to pounce Theo.


    nning to stop him, Ava kicked the wolf where it fought back with its w.


    Ava released her lightning while the wolf shot out his water.


    The lightning spread on the water''s surface, so the wolf instinctively stopped the water supply to avoid being hit. At the same time, the wolf changed its attack pattern.


    Its four feet glowed white as it leaped to the side, avoiding Ava.


    Not wanting to be outdone, Ava released her lightning before spinning her body to release a small lightning ball, shooting the wolf.


    The wolf waved its paw and deflected the lightning ball, but Clone Theo appeared behind it, slicing the body.


    Things went smoothly as Clone Theo even said, "Good work."


    Ava smiled as she was proud of this work before raising her foot. "Kyu!"


    Clone Theo and Ava spun their bodies at the same time as they found another two wolves trying to kill them from behind.


    Clone Theo used his spear''s handle to block the wolf''s w while Ava hit the wolf''s paw with her own foot, trying to see who was stronger.


    "Kyu!" Ava widened her eyes when more and more wolves wereing at them. She wanted to warn Theo, but the moment she turned around, the wolf used all its strength to blow her away.


    Bam.


    Ava crashed to the ground while Theo nced to the side, calling her name. "Ava. You alright?"


    Since the ground wasn''t that dry, there was no dust kicked up. Theo found Ava standing back like nothing happened, but he could see Ava''s angry face.


    She released all her lightning that somehow turned the ground where she crashed into a crater. Leaping off the ground, Ava arrived right in front of the wolf in an instant.


    "Ao��" The wolf was surprised by Ava''s speed and tilted its body to the left, but Ava managed to hit the side''s belly, creating a half-circle wound on its belly.


    As nothing stopped Ava, she eventually crashed to the tree and her lightning shredded the trunk apart. The tree began to fall down as a "Bam" sound echoed inside the forest.


    "Kyu!" Ava puffed her cheek as she looked at her body that was covered by mud. "Kyu."


    She was angry because she couldn''t stand on Theo''s shoulder anymore if she were this dirty. Unfortunately, that anger made her forget to warn Theo as three more wolvesnded on top of the broken tree.


    "Aoooo!" The wolf howled, letting its presence known.


    "!!!" Theo nced to the side before noticing all the presence surrounding them.


    Wolves after wolves made their appearance as they red at Theo and Ava with their bloodshot eyes.


    "��" Theo assessed their situation while muttering, "We''re surrounded."

 Chapter 426 – Theo And Ava

    <h4>Chapter 426 - Theo And Ava</h4>


    "We''re surrounded," Theo muttered while his clone returned to his side, protecting his back.


    Ava widened her eyes as she realized it was her mistake. She quickly leaped to Theo''s side with an apologetic face.


    However, Theo never med her because if his brother didn''t send Ava, he would have gone through this alone. This ident just showed him he had grown ustomed to having Ava around to warn him, proving that he had relied on her too much.


    Theo took a deep breath as his expression turned grim, roughly counting the enemies. "There are twenty wolves or something��"


    Ava''s body shook as she nced at Theo a few times, not daring to see his face.


    "This is going to be a brutal fight," Theo said before smiling from ear to ear in excitement. "Still, this is the first time I am fighting this many wolves at once."


    The wolves were riled up by Theo''s bloodlust and fighting intent and heard him saying, "Ava, we''re going to kill them all. Watch my movement."


    Although the wolves didn''t understand what Theo was saying, they were offended by his bloodlust alone and the leader howled. "Aoooo!"


    In an instant, the wolves charged at them.


    Theo raised his hand as the dust started rising into the air despite the wet ground. If he fought against humans, they would have realized something like this wasn''t supposed to happen and confirmed it was just an illusion. But he was fighting wolves right now.


    The wolves only thought Theo and Ava were inside the smoke and all they needed to do was kill them.


    Unfortunately, Theo already grabbed Ava and used his Blink to leave the smoke, resulting in the wolves crashing into each other.


    Theo reappeared with Ava and his clone, a hundred feet away from them.


    The wolves obviously recognized his change and turned around, chasing him. But the ten wolves that crashed needed time to recover.


    Things had gone ording to his n as they weren''t surrounded anymore and they only needed to focus on the wolves behind them.


    Seeing ten wolves chased after him, Theo used his Telekinesis to lift the huge trunk destroyed by Ava earlier, smashing it to the wolves.


    "Aoo��" The wolves were shocked and jumped up to avoid it, albeit two on the right couldn''t see iting. Their bodies were hit by the trunk and rolled on the ground, struggling to get up.


    With only eight of them left, Theo and his clone released forty Magic Bullets at the same time. There was a reason why he didn''t utilize all the illusions to make more Magic Bullets. He had yet to be able to control all of them at the same time.


    The Magic Bullets flew to the right and turned left two times to loop around the wolves. After that, some of them flew upward while some had another turn to confuse them.


    Theo utilized his Force Control to the limit before using his tracking to aim at the wolves.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as the wolves never saw theming.


    Two of them died, while the rest only got small injuries. Theo took that chance toe closer, finishing the one with the most wounds.


    Clone Theo also followed his movement.


    Not wanting to disappoint Theo again, Ava chased after him.


    The wolves leaped toward them, but Ava and Theo managed to overpower them, blowing them away.


    At this time, the ten wolves that hit each other had recovered ande to the real Theo.


    "Grr!" Three wolves jumped straight at him.


    "Three Great Defense." Three tombstones channeled the energy to form a big shield, stopping the wolves'' charge. He then activated the shield from his ring, making a protective screen on his right.


    Two more wolves hit the shield with their heads.


    They didn''t stop there. Theo needed to wave his spear to stop another three wolvesing from behind.


    "Kyu!" Ava panicked for a second when she saw Theo was under the relentless onught. Even his clone started moving to help him.


    However, little did the two know the wolves had been aiming at them and made their appearance from behind.


    "Tsk." Clone Theo clicked his tongue as a wolf scratched his back,unching him forward.


    Ava also experienced the same thing as she wasunched in Clone Theo''s direction.


    When they were about to copse, Theo saw Ava in his direction and rotated his spear, making a smile before he disappeared.


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes when she saw the floating spear before her. She remembered Theo told her to watch his movement and this spear was the sign of trust he had.


    She opened all her feet wide and caught the spear with her body. Because Theo had rotated it and positioned it to match Ava''s movement, Ava could wield this spear as soon as she touched it.


    She spun her body around, resulting in the spear following her body''s movement and the spear''s de on top of her body moving downwards.


    What Theo wanted for her was to kill the wolf that hit his clone with this spear. So, she channeled her lightning to the handle and ultimately to the de, hitting the wolf and splitting it into two.


    "Kyu!" Ava''s heart skipped a beat as she was excited to do what Theo wanted her to do.


    At the same time, the spear rose a few inches as Theo''s voice echoed in her ears. "Good work. Keep it up."


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled as she held onto the spear while Clone Theo waved it to the right.


    The moment Theo tilted his spear, Ava knew she needed to jump, especially after seeing a wolf in front of her.


    She released her lightning again and used the force of Theo''s swing tounch her to the wolf, faster than it expected.


    "Kyu!" Ava kicked the wolf''s belly and used her lightning to obliterate it. She continued flying until she crashed into the tree, destroying it. Even so, Ava used that tree as her foothold and leaped into the air, assessing the battle situation.


    Clone Theo just overpowered the wolf and crushed its head with all his strength as another wolf came at him from another direction.


    Theo only nced at the wolf before thetter fell down with Avanding on top of him. He quickly thrust his spear to the wolf''s head, killing it in an instant.


    "Good work." Clone Theo smiled and leaped to help his real body.


    That praise somehow excited Ava as she felt she could release more than a hundred percent of her power in this situation. "Kyu!"

 Chapter 427 – Lesson Learned

    <h4>Chapter 427 - Lesson Learned</h4>


    "Good work." Theo smiled as he used his Telekinesis to pressure the monsters that came after him. He mmed his hand down and the air pressure increased, pushing the wolves to the ground.


    The wolves didn''t expect such an attack and used their feet to withstand the pressure even though the ground underneath them began to crack.


    Obviously, Theo had no intention of wasting his time, so Ava emerged from the right side, kicking the two wolves in session as the pressure in that area started to dissipate as she moved.


    "Kyu!" Ava released her lightning to the limit, obliterating the first head and almost killing the other two wolves.


    Theo took this opportunity to send a wave of Magic Bullets to them, killing the remaining wolves.


    With this, there were only five more wolves that upied him from two different directions.


    His clone handled the other wolves while Ava tried to free Theo by striking the wolves on his left side��


    The wolves didn''t want to die, so one of them quickly turned around tounch her to the tree.


    Ava threw a punch from her front foot, shing with the wolf''s paw.


    However, the wolf couldn''t release its water when it fought Ava. This became a fatal disadvantage against her as Ava mustered all the electricity in this punch.


    Although it wasn''t as powerful as the kick she released earlier, the lightning cracked a few bones and shredded the skin.


    "Aoo-!" The wolf wailed in pain, but it couldn''t even finish its scream before Theo''s foot kicked him with his Cannon st, destroying the body like popping a balloon.


    The other wolf wanted to turn around to handle Ava, but thetter already made her way to the wolf even before Theo killed the one she fought.


    She hadplete trust that Theo could kill that wolf, so all she needed to do was get as close as possible with this second wolf and hit it on the head.


    Unfortunately, the wolves that his clone fought managed to slip behind Theo and Ava.


    Theo quickly turned around to stop two wolves that aimed at his back. He waved his spear against their heads, so they could back away, but the wolves somehow employed a new strategy that Theo never expected.


    The closest one to the spear spun its body and took the spear head-on, using its body as a meat shield. It took all the force contained in that spear until his body bent like a "C" around his belly. Unfortunately, the wolf couldn''t survive after that attack because the spear''s de cut the stomach.


    Theo couldn''t smile yet because the wolf managed to stop his attack at the cost of its life, allowing the other wolf to reach him.


    Theo called the shield from his Ring of Honor, but it was toote.


    The shield formed but only at the size of his fist.


    The moment the wolf struck it, its body leaned to the side and hit Theo''s with its other paw.


    Luckily, the wolf had infused all the power into the paw that hit the shield while giving nothing to the other paw. If not, this attack would create quite a deep graze around his chest area.


    Theo clicked his tongue and took a step back to regain his bnce, but the two wolves that were attacking him this whole time split into two and attacked him. The first one aimed at his chest while the other one aimed at his right arm.


    Theo waved his left hand using the Cannon st and struck the wolf''s w, blowing it away.


    But the second one managed to hit his arm.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and saw the Telekinesis was fighting the power of the w that almost hit his arm.


    Unfortunately, the wolf was stronger than his Telekinesis and broke the technique, hitting Theo''s right arm.


    Little did the wolf know, Theo had adjusted his arm position within that one-second sh to receive its attack.


    So, when the paw reached his right arm, Theo used it to spin his body whileunching himself a bit farther from them.


    After regaining his bnce, the three wolves managed to see there was no scratch on his right arm, only a rip shirt.


    Theo smiled and raised his vision.


    The wolves immediately sensed somethinging from above and followed his line of sight, finding a wave of Magic Bullets.


    Theo hadunched another wave of Magic Bullets in the middle of the chaotic fight without anyone realizing it.


    The wolves quickly leaped out of the way while Theo waved his spear despite no wolf was present in front of him.


    Theo utilized the momentum and disappeared.


    "Blink."


    One of the wolves watched Theo reappearing in shock as Theo''s spear was already close to his neck and sliced it before it could react.


    "Ao��!" The wolf fell down, dying.


    Theo then made his way to the second one with his Telekinesis, Materialization, and External Flow, smashing the wolf to crisp. Blood even came out of the pores because of the powerful force from Theo''s attack.


    Seeing his friends dying, thest wolf didn''t care about anything and just pounced at Theo, trying to kill him.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything as Ava made her entrance by kicking the wolf on the head.


    Theo then proceeded to kill the wolf while assessing their situation. He panted a few times while turning his body, finding his clone killing thest wolf.


    There were 21 wolves he fought earlier with 16 of them died in his hand while the rest was destroyed by Ava.


    "Seriously�� To think I barely managed to deal with them��" Theo scratched the back of his head. Even though he had read about many wolves here, he didn''t know about this species. Out of curiosity, he took out his Skylink to confirm them.


    Name: River Water Wolf


    Level: 275-285


    The wolf lives near a river. Beware of its powerful w and ability to manipte the water. Make sure you don''t fight this wolf near a river.


    "Ehm, seriously?" Theo widened his eyes andined, "All those efforts for 21 wolves that have ten to twenty levels above me? Well, this shows how I shouldn''t be surrounded by many people of my level�� Quantity can change the oue as well�� I guess."

 Chapter 428 – A Damsel Not In Distress (Anymore)

    <h4>Chapter 428 - A Damsel Not In Distress (Anymore)</h4>


    Before thinking about other things, Theo used his clone to turn the monsters into cards while asking Ava to make sure no monsters approached them again.


    After that, he began to recall what happened during the fight. "Ten to twenty levels won''t bring that much difference, so the quantity indeed made the battle far harder than I expected.


    "Ava helped me this time, making the whole workload easier. If I were with my clone�� I could probably fight eight of them at the same time." Theo still remembered that he was once chased by fourteen people at once. "Now that I think about it, I was lucky that Daemon Group killed them.


    "Unlike monsters, they could employ strategy one after another, making the situation hard for him. Of course, I couldn''t expect my enemies to have a dumb leader all the time. In other words, I should be able to fight four of them without a clone and other assistance.


    "If my enemies were more than that, I should avoid getting surrounded and start exhausting them first before engaging them��" Theo''s expression turned serious. "Luckily, I learned all this when fighting these monsters, not those who almost assassinated me.


    "And the future will surely be harder�� After all, the enemies, whether they were humans or monsters, will be even stronger. They also have more experiences under their belts, making their movement refined.


    "Of course, I am not nning to ck off, but my advantage will gradually be less and less. The only way to widen the gap is through the Five Aspects. God of Mischief has created a foundation for my Control to get all the help from Awareness, Breathing, Technique, and Endurance.


    "I really need to speed up my training, so I can start learning Awareness." Theo thought for a moment. "Then, should I go to Italy? I can''t really decide, considering I may be able to do something better with Breathing, Technique, or Endurance."


    After thinking for a moment, Theo just shrugged while saying, "I will make the decision when I face it, I guess."


    Theo soon lowered his head, finding Ava looking at him with an apologetic expression.


    Her rabbit ears were lowered as she tried to nce at Theo but kept turning back to the ground.


    "Kyu��" Ava wanted to apologize to Theo.


    However, Theo soon bent down his knees and extended his hand for Ava toe up.


    Ava was a little hesitant but still hopped onto his palm. She heard Theo saying, "I''m not ming you."


    Listening to his words, Ava couldn''t help but raise her head, staring at him in disbelief.


    "Haha, mistakes can happen. Even I can''t escape from making mistakes." Theo smiled and continued, "All we can do is to learn from it. That''s why I''m actually thankful to you. The mistake you made earlier gave me something far more important."


    "Kyu?!" Ava still couldn''t believe it, but Theo didn''t seem to be lying.


    "Yep. I will tell you what I realized earlier after taking a bath." Theo pointed at the sky. "It''s going to be dark soon. And these wolves live near the river�� We can go there to wash our bodies before camping near the river. Of course, I will be counting on you to locate any wolves around there."


    "Kyu!" She nodded furiously, not wanting to mess up again.


    The two then headed to the river, which turned out to be a mile away from them.


    After making sure there were no monsters in the surrounding area, Theo put down his luggage and took off his clothes, wearing only his trunk. He started cleaning the dirt on his clothes while Ava jumped into the water.


    "Ava! Check whether there is a monster or not in the river!" Theo shouted while washing the mud off his clothes.


    "Kyu!" Ava came out of the water, raised her hand as if acknowledging his order, and submerged again.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and finished washing his clothes. After that, he hung them near the tree, where he put his bag down before dipping into the water.


    It was a few minutes of bliss as the cold water cooled down his mind.


    However, Theo soon found himself in another problem when Ava suddenly picked up noisesing toward them.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava panicked for a second because of the speed of the iing people. She recognized them not to be monsters from their footsteps and hurriedly warned Theo. "Kyu!"


    Seeing Ava in such a panicked state, Theo asked one immediate question. "Their speed is slow?"


    Ava shook her head instantly, prompting Theo that this was another emergency. After all, the sky was already this dark. The people were not supposed to advance with that kind of speed, so he understood something must be going on.


    Because he didn''t know what would happen, he saved his Blink first and returned to the surface with his Telekinesis, grabbing Ava on the way.


    Ava kept urging him, so he at least wanted to grab his mask and a coat to cover his body from the chilling wind and hide his bag to avoid getting found out.


    Unfortunately, before he managed to grab his bag and clothes, Theo saw a blue-haired woman running away from a group of twelve. He knew it wasn''t possible for him to put on his clothes, so he used his Illusion to make others believe he was wearing something while utilizing the Metamorphosis to turn himself into a red-haired man.


    The woman had many wounds on her body as her eyes quickly intertwined with Theo.


    "Hel��" Before she even finished, an arrow pierced through her heart as she dropped to the ground because of the momentum.


    Even so, she still raised her head and extended her hand as if asking for his help, albeit the group that chased her didn''t let it slide.


    They severed the woman''s head as they looked at Theo, who had grabbed all his stuff.


    "Ehm��" Theo obviously had no words to say. Never in his wildest dream would he witness a murder scene like this. Luckily, he had grabbed everything and used his Blink that he had kept until now. "I�� didn''t see anything, I guess."


    Right after saying those words, Theo disappeared into the nearby woods with all his stuff.

 Chapter 429 – Chasing

    <h4>Chapter 429 - Chasing</h4>


    "Two of you, take care of the corpse." One of them suddenlymanded while looking around, trying to figure things out. "The rest will follow me to chase after him. We can''t have any witnesses."


    Theo was already running for his life, wondering what just happened.


    ''Seriously�� Did I just stumble upon an assassination?'' Theo thought and entered the dense woods. ''But this is really dangerous right now�� They seem to be calm in dealing with the situation, meaning they have an experience�� Unlike younger generations.''


    While thinking about it, he recalled their appearances. He didn''t know the woman at all. Considering the other party was this skilled, Theo believed the woman was someone important.


    Hence, he concluded the danger level he experienced right now��


    "Kyu!" Ava warned him while looking at the back.


    "So, they know my position��" Theo frowned. His heartbeat increased as he started panting, trying to get the air into his brain to keep thinking about the solution.


    Unfortunately for him, he had little information about his pursuers.


    "What should I do?" Theo thought while remembering a certain thing. He subconsciously reached the pocket watch on his chest but soon realized it was missing since he put it down earlier. "Ava, grab my pocket watch in the bag."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded.


    ''Considering the level of monsters in this area, I think I can safely assume they are level 300 or more. And I just learned that I couldn''t handle so many people at once, especially with the enemies being this experienced.'' Theo took a deep breath and summoned his clone, sending him to test their strength. "If I end up overthinking this, it''s good. If not, I will open the pocket watch."


    Clone Theo then headed straight to them while summoning his Magic Bullets.


    Seeing Theo''s movement, a ck-haired guy, whomanded them earlier, shouted, "He''sing."


    "Wait, Captain. I have another visual from afar!" Suddenly, another person informed him.


    "Then this must be an illusion or something. As usual, everything thates after you is real until proven otherwise. We will break through this illusion and chase after the original." The ck-haired guy said.


    They didn''t bother to cover their face, so Theo reassessed them.


    ''They are not assassins, but an elite group or something. Still, this level of calmness��'' Theo clicked his tongue and realized this was the first time he fought such a group. He took a deep breath and covered both hands with Cannon st.


    "Eit, Sin, go forward!" The leader announced out loud after seeing the Cannon st. "The rest will destroy those iing bullets."


    Two guys increased their speed to block Theo while the rest maintained their speed.


    "!!!" Theo punched both of them with all his might, trying to see their strength.


    The two muscr guys that came to the front also punched Theo''s fist, trying to destroy the illusion in one go.


    However, something big happened when their fists collided.


    The energying from Theo''s fists contained not only the Cannon st but also the wind that had been controlled by his Materialization, External Flow, and his Telekinesis.


    He released his most powerful strike hoping to kill them. After all, killing them also meant Theo''s current strength could handle these guys, especially together with Ava.


    To his surprise, the two muscr guys felt something was wrong with Theo''s punches and released all their power in an instant.


    That decision saved their lives as the four fists collided.


    Their wrists suddenly snapped as the hands bent backward for both guys. Theo thenunched them back with the residual force, stunning all of them.


    "Argh!" The two guys gritted their teeth, enduring the pain.


    "What happened?!"


    "We don''t know!"


    The ck-haired guy instantly assessed the situation and coped with whatever this was. "Three of you stay behind and destroy whatever this is. Eit, Sin, you should still have enough power to fight, right?"


    "Yeah." The two guys nodded.


    "Okay, the rest of you, follow me." The leader then continued his pursuit after leaving enough people to handle the situation.


    "Roger." The other four quickly followed him as Clone Theo needed to face the rest.


    "Seriously?" Theo, on the other hand, had a grim expression. "This situation is no joke. I still can''t properly check the enemy''s power, but I guess their strength is around 320 to 350. They are at least 50 levels above me and we haven''t talked about their calmness in coping with every situation.


    "It''s hard to make them fall for my tricks��" Theo was finally on his wit''s end. "My luck is really bad."


    He thought he was able to flee by using the forest terrain, but the pursuers managed to match his pace and locate him that easily. So, Theo thought about flying.


    Before that, he had one more thing to do, "Ava, have you found it yet?"


    "Kyu��" Ava''s voice was suppressed by the bag as she still searched for the pocket watch.


    "It''s inside. I don''t put it on the bottom." Theo clicked his tongue.


    Even though Theo said all those words, Ava really had a hard time searching for it. Not only the bag kept shaking, but the items were also bouncing around.


    Theo had yet to realize this as his mind was upied by the escape route. Otherwise, he would have used his Telekinesis to fly to stabilize his movement.


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava told him to wait a bit longer as she tried her best.


    Theo nced at his back while sharing his vision with the clone. He soon found out that everything turned out to be as he said.


    Their pure strength was close to that of Alea and each of them could maintain their calm even with their wrist broken. He knew it would be hard to lose or kill them.


    Hence, he wanted to open the pocket watch.


    After considering his situation, Theo decided to do one thing before flying to the sky.


    He recalled his clone and summoned it again. The clone went in a different direction while Theo halted his step and retracted his Metamorphosis, showing his real appearance.


    Theo straightened his back while making a shocked expression.


    "!!!" They met up in three seconds, staring at each other in shock.


    Theo pointed to the right while saying, "Are you chasing that guy?"


    Without hesitation, he directed their focus to his clone while preparing for his escape.


    Everyone surely knew Theodore Griffith, and not many of them dared to kill him unless they dared to face the implication. At the same time, Theo believed the killers would chase after his clone first as "Theo" didn''t see them killing the woman. Instead of killing the famous Theo, they would surely choose the witness�� Or that was what was supposed to happen.


    The ck-haired guy recognized Theo''s face and came to an instant decision. "Theodore Griffith! He is on the top priority. Kill him first!"


    "Wait, what?" Theo took a step back. "That''s not what you were supposed to say��"

 Chapter 430 – Chase Or Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 430 - Chase Or Retreat</h4>


    Without hesitation, Theo used his Blink to regain his distance and started running again.


    The ck-haired guy furrowed his eyebrows and ordered, "Kill him. Don''t let him get away."


    The group hurriedly followed him.


    ''That''s not working?'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows. ''I thought I could use my reputation to probably make them hesitate or something, but to think I''m their target�� What is going on? Who are they?''


    Theo remembered that Agata had dealt with the Faerie Group, so he thought there was only one more influence that still aimed at him, the Lange Family. However, there was no indication of the Lange Family as everything seemed to be unbelievable.


    He recalled their strength and his expression became grim. "Their mental fortitude is undeniable, but their strength is not too strong. If they were from the Lange Family, why didn''t they send them on the Dragon Extermination? They are clearly calmer and more troublesome�� Are they from a different influence?"


    Theo couldn''t grasp their identity and understand their intention with this limited information.


    At the same time, Ava finally came out of his bag with the pocket watch in her mouth. "Kyu!"


    Seeing the pocket watch, Theo grabbed it and slightly opened the pocket watch to avoid anything inside flying into the air.


    To his surprise, he could see a paper sticking out of the gap.


    Theo pinched the paper with two fingers while handling the pocket watch to Ava. "Carry this for me first."


    Ava nodded while turning around, seeing several people approaching. "Kyu!"


    Theo clicked his tongue and noticed their presence too. However, he also had a fair share of his problems as well.


    From the big sh between the wolves and the mummies to when he was surrounded by many wolves, he already exhausted most of his Magic Power.


    It was true that he could injure two guys with a single blow, but fighting all ten of them was not possible with his current strength. That was also the reason he thought he could get away by using his identity and why he had yet to use his Telekinesis to fly.


    B Rank Skills were too exhausting for him. If not for the fact most of his B Rank Skills didn''t require too much Magic Power like Ne''s powerful skills, which reflected the Magic Power consumption, he would have exhausted all his Magic Power.


    "What should I do?" Theo opened the map while Ava warned him again. "Kyu."


    Seeing two people closing in, Ava looked at them from on top of Theo''s head. She raised both feet as lightning started to spark in front of her.


    The lightning formed a small sphere and flew to one of the enemies. "Kyu!"


    "!!!" Unfortunately, their enemies had seen iting and leaped to the side. Even though they couldn''te closer, tailing him like this was good enough.


    Little did they know Ava''s power was far beyond their imagination. The small lightning sphere suddenly dove to the ground and exploded, sending multiple lightning in all directions.


    The shock wave blew them away.


    "What?!" The two were surprised as they needed to halt their movement while the rest used their shields to proceed as if nothing happened.


    "If he is really Theodore Griffith, this means not only he has a clone, but he also has a summoned creature, that rabbit�� Be careful with his illusion. One mistake may take your life." The ck-haired guymanded, fully aware of Theo''s threat. "How are the others?"


    "They''re catching up to us."


    "Good." The leader waved his hand to the right. "We are going to trap him with the terrain. Tell the rest about the new meeting point. Make sure your focus is on me."


    "Understood."


    Ava furrowed her eyebrows when she listened to their conversation, albeit she had no way to tell him the real details. And Theo was trying to open the piece of paper in his hand.


    Unfortunately, the moment he saw what was inside the paper, he was very disappointed.


    "What the heck is this?" Theo widened his eyes, staring at the paper in disbelief.


    There were seven hand-drawn stars connected by a single line that looked like a constetion.


    However, nothing else was spotted, making Theo frustrated.


    "I don''t need a freaking constetion, goddammit!" Theo simply couldn''t understand the meaning of the constetion, especially when his brother told him he could save his life by opening the pocket watch. "Did my brother lie to me?"


    His disappointment just increased. From his parents to his brother, he somehow lost trust in them right now.


    "As expected, I shouldn''t rely on someone else��" Theo''s expression abruptly changed to an extremely cold one. He felt there was no need to trust others anymore because there wasn''t a single family member telling him the truth and now he risked his life for something like this.


    "Ava��" Theo took a deep breath while assessing his situation. "I have a n."


    Now that he didn''t care about the help from the pocket watch, his mind became clear as he started thinking about another escape n.


    Theo nced to the right and saw three people closing in. Hence, he slightly changed his direction to the left to avoid them.


    After that, Theo used his Blink to cover himself for a moment and summoned his clone.


    Because he was carrying the bag, he used his Illusion to make him not carry a bag.


    With this, the pursuers could see his face.


    "What? There is that red-haired man again?" One of the enemies eximed in surprise.


    "It should be his clone. He put on a disguise by using his illusion," said the leader before finding Theo and his clone split up.


    "What?!" All of them were surprised while the leader gasped. "The real Theo is�� Wait, he may be using the illusion to confuse us. Which one is real?"


    From the Grand Gaia Competition, he remembered Theo could make one doubt whether it was a clone or not.


    And facing it directly, he realized there was no real answer. He gritted his teeth and raised his hand. "Rath,e with me to the one with his real appearance. The rest will handle the other one."


    "Roger."


    They split up ording to the situation while Theo couldn''t help but smile.


    Ava hid again as Theo continued with this pace for a few minutes. During the escape, Theo used his Magic Bullets two times with the Tracking on to buy some time.


    However, the enemies were stronger than he expected because they dealt with them easily.


    In the end, Clone Theo disappeared and Theo used his clone again to split them up.


    And it turned out the leader had followed the right one.


    But he still needed to answer another question.


    "What? He is splitting once again?" The leader''s body shook as he realized what Theo nned. "From ten to five to two to one�� He wants to kill us one by one? He also has his clone and that rabbit��"


    He looked at Theo while shaking. There was one thought in his mind as soon as he noticed the trap Theo had nted.


    Chase or retreat.

 Chapter 431 – Perilous Situation

    <h4>Chapter 431 - Perilous Situation</h4>


    Both Theo and his clone nced back while giving a smile to the ck-haired guy as if saying, "Why don''t you chase me? You don''t dare, don''t you?"


    Theo turned back and muttered inwardly, ''I want to use my Metamorphosis, but I really can''t do anything with them yet. I haven''t even practiced my transformation for a single day�� I can''t fly, run with four feet, or swim like a fish. The only thing I can do right now is to split them��''


    "You go to the left, I will go to the right." The ck-haired guy decided to follow after him and the one he chased turned out to be the real Theo.


    At the same time, Ava came out of his shirt while wailing, "Kyu! Kyu!"


    "What''s wrong Ava? I can''t understand you right now. If youe out, he will immediately recall his subordinate." Theo gritted his teeth as Ava was under his chin, where he couldn''t even see her long ears.


    "Kyu." Ava kept saying something, but Theo simply couldn''t understand.


    When he had enough distance from the other guy, he stopped using his illusion and put on his pocket watch. He also nned to throw away the useless paper, but Ava suddenly jumped and caught it before the paper left Theo''s hand.


    "Ava?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows while ncing to the back.


    "So you are the real one!" The leader gritted his teeth and raised his sword, preparing to strike him. "That makes it even more convenient."


    Theo summoned his clone and split up behind the tree once again, confusing the leader.


    Unfortunately, the only thing he got was a smirk from the ck-haired guy. "I think you are underestimating us a little bit."


    As soon as he said those words, Ava suddenly jumped off Theo''s shoulder as the guy that he broke his wrist earlier reappeared.


    The guy sent a punch forward, meeting Ava''s kick.


    Surprisingly, their power was equal and Ava ended up leaping back to Theo''s shoulder.


    "Ava." Theo nced at her before raising his spear, blocking a de that struck his handle.


    ng.


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes and saw another guy.


    "Do you think you are the only one who can employ tactics? Splitting our group into this small�� A great tactic indeed. You can either run away by splitting yourself once more or kill me to disrupt the chain ofmand." The ck-haired guy smiled as more and more people began to reappear.


    Theo never realized them this close and soon understood why Ava kept warning him.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t listen to what the guy was saying. If not, he would have realized that he was already in his trap the moment he heard the group focus on him instead of Theo.


    With that order, the entire group moved ording to their leader''s movement, making the entire situation moreplicated.


    The five people on the back caught up when the leader forced Theo to shift his direction to the left.


    After that, as soon as his subordinates realized they were chasing the wrong target, they quickly caught up with that left shift that allowed them to get the closest path to overtake him.


    And now, Theo had been surrounded from all directions.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and gulped down, wondering how he could escape from this situation.


    While maintaining his calm, Theo asked, "Why are you targeting me? You were not supposed to chase me or you will receive the implication��"


    "A dead man doesn''t need to know the reason." The leader snorted and red at him coldly. "All you need to do is die."


    "Come on. I won''t be able to escape from this ce alive�� Can''t you just satisfy my curiosity a little bit?" Theo shrugged and maintained his eye contact with all ten people here.


    "We are not that dumb." The leader shrugged. "Just die with that curiosity."


    Suddenly, Ava leaped onto Theo''s shoulder while ring at them as if he wanted to kill all of them.


    When the leader saw Ava and the paper in her mouth, his vision turned to the pocket watch on his chest, realizing what the paper was.


    But after being with Alea for a long time, Theo didn''t let that reaction escape. He let out a long sigh and understood the whole situation. "I see. The Lange Family''s dogs are here to kill me and get this paper, eh?"


    Two of the enemies flinched as if they couldn''t stand Theo''s insults. Still, they managed to calm their hearts in an instant.


    He needed to apud their calmness, even though they already gave the answer he wanted.


    "No wonder why I''m your priority. To think the Lange Family has yet to stop�� I guess I will destroy the Lange Familypletely." Theo snorted even though he already decided that a long time ago.


    "You talked too much." The leader snorted and leaped forward.


    Theo summoned his Magic Bullets as if he nned to hit him, forcing the leader to stop.


    However, Theo used the bullets to hit the ground, kicking up the dust and creating a smokescreen.


    "!!!" The leader shouted with a calm expression. "The ground is too wet to be used as a smokescreen. He is using his illusion!"


    With that shout, those, who could release their Awareness, tracked him and got the same answer as they looked up. "Above!"


    This reminded them of when Theo floated in the air by using his Telekinesis.


    "He is flying! Moryu! Use your wind to fly and chase him in the air. The rest will follow him on the ground and shoot him down."


    Just like the previous orders, they all focused on their jobs at the same time, moving in unison.


    Meanwhile, Theo had flown past the trees, seeing the marvelous starry sky with a bright full moon. Unfortunately, he had no time to admire them as he flew as fast as possible.


    Ava came to him while pointing her hand to a cliff to his right. "Kyue, Kyue!"


    "A cliff?" Theo frowned, not understanding her choice.


    "Kyue!" Ava nodded furiously and looked Theo in the eyes. Her expression was severe as if telling Theo to trust her.


    "Okay��" Theo chose to trust her because he didn''t find anything he could use to escape.


    He flew straight to the cliff with someone on his tail.


    At the same time, two giant fireballs flew into the air and dropped on top of him.


    Theo clicked his tongue and used his Blink to avoid them.


    The fireballs hit the tree below him, but Theo also lost his bnce for a moment. "Kh."


    Cold sweat started to cover his forehead as Theo looked at the cliff, half a mile in front of him. "My Magic Power has almost run out. Can I really reach that cliff?"

 Chapter 432 – Moon Rabbit

    <h4>Chapter 432 - Moon Rabbit</h4>


    "Can I really reach that cliff?" Theo muttered as he was concerned with his Magic Power. He truly never had a break to let his Magic Power recover the whole day. He clicked his tongue while noticing another volley of fireballs.


    Theo flew to the left and almost fell down when a sudden drop happened.


    "��" The ck-haired leader noticed Theo''s strange movement and said, "I think he has exhausted his Magic Power. He must have fought continuously during the day and must be unlucky to meet us today. However, there is a chance that he''s faking it. Keep that in mind."


    "Roger." The group nodded their heads while observing Theo.


    The one in the sky noticed the strangeness as well and pointed his palm forward�� "Wind Shock."


    The wind gathered around his palm before exploding, creating a small shock wave forward.


    Ava turned around and raised her hand, summoning another lightning ball. As if feeling the iing shock wave, the lightning ball exploded, creating a spark that caused another shock wave.


    The two shock waves shed and neutralized each other.


    Theo kept flying with all his might while maintaining his focus on the cliff.


    "He''sing to the cliff."


    As soon as Theo reached the bottom of the cliff, he stopped andunched himself to the top. He didn''t dare to fly too high because of the wind earlier. But with the cliff blocking the wind, he increased his flying speed with everything he got.


    This also showed how desperate Theo was in his current situation.


    "Make it!" Theo gritted his teeth, trying to reach the top of the cliff.


    He soon saw an iing fireball that would surely strike him because he had no more power left to protect himself.


    Ava didn''t let it happen and shot down the fireball with her own lightning ball. However, she miscalcted the shock wave produced from their collision.


    "Argh!" Theo shouted and reached the top of the cliff before the shock wave hit him.


    The shock wave blew Theo to the cliff, almost hitting the cliff with that kind of speed. If he truly hit the cliff, he would have broken his arm.


    Luckily, he only rolled a few times on the ground and came to a stop.


    "Alright! I got him!" Moryu smirked and flew up, chasing after Theo with a smug smile. "You were indeed troublesome."


    However, he soon saw Ava standing on the edge of the cliff with the paper in her mouth.


    "That paper�� That''s the map." Moryu frowned. "I will kill you and take that map from you, little rabbit."


    Moryu felt satisfied as he saw Theo struggling to get up after that st.


    Unfortunately, this was the biggest mistake he could make. It wouldn''t happen if Theo didn''t open the pocket watch. Now that the paper was with her, Ava finally let out her true power.


    Lightning, three times stronger than her usual lightning, sparked to all directions except Theo''s, hitting Moryu.


    Moryu obviously didn''t let her attack him by forming a wind sphere that dispersed the lightning. But that was futile as Ava concentrated the lightning and broke through the wind sphere.


    "Are you ser��" Moryu widened his eyes as the lightning hit his right hand, obliterating it together with the stomach behind it. Moryu spat a mouthful of blood and looked at the hole on his stomach before falling down. "Impo��"


    "Moryu is down!" One of the enemies announced with a shocked expression.


    They were already on the bottom of the cliff and prepared to climb it when they saw Moryu falling to the ground.


    On the other hand, Ava raised her head and threw the paper into the sky.


    The paper opened up as the constetion that consisted of seven stars shone brightly.


    "What''s going��" Theo tried to raise his vision while calling her name. "Ava��"


    Ava turned around to see Theo but soon raised her vision to the moon in the sky. The moment she saw the moon, her body gradually changed and grew like none other.


    From a hand-size creature, Ava''s body gradually turned to a five-foot-tall humanoid figure with white fur covering her neck, arms, legs, and stomach. Her pure silver eyes became ominous blood-red eyes that kept emanating bloodlust.


    Her front feet had be her hands as three sharp ws emerged on the tip of her hands. She then turned back and leaped to the sky, specifically to the constetion that turned out to have the shape of a rabbit.


    The constetion that consisted of seven stars changed its shape, forming a circle with seven bright spots.


    "What in the world��" The ck-haired guy drew a gasp as he couldn''t understand what was going on.


    As if the circle that shone brightly like that of a moon attached to Ava''s back, it descended together with her.


    "Moon Rabbit��" Theo muttered Ava''s species once again and realized the paper turned out to be some sort of a seal that contained Ava''s power. He muttered inwardly, ''Why is the paper connected to you, Ava? It''s supposed to be the trump card that I can use to protect my life at any given time. Don''t tell me you have been with me this whole time?


    ''And the reason you haven''t done anything this whole time is that the forest is too dense for you to get something from the moon? That''s why you asked me to bring you to this cliff?''


    Ava didn''t know his thought as she stomped the ground and spread her legs. This might be the first time Theo saw it�� Ava let out a roar that reverberated through the forest.


    Roar!


    The roar was loud as birds flew to the sky and the wolves howled. The entire forest became chaotic as if they were scared of her presence.


    All the monsters caused a ruckus as the sounds kept echoing inside the forest.


    Yes, Ava just let them know her presence in the forest. That roar�� told them that the queen is here.


    Ava stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down the forest.


    However, her eyes remained on the nine people that almost killed them.

 Chapter 433 – Ava’s Unsealed Power

    <h4>Chapter 433 - Ava��s Unsealed Power</h4>


    The leader was still shocked to see Ava''s huge change.


    "What is going on?" asked the leader while looking around. Hepletely had no idea why Ava could transform. However, Ava couldn''t care less about their reaction.


    She waved her hand upward as the seven stars hanging on the small circle behind her rose to the air.


    The seven stars shone brightly as lightning began to spark from them.


    She lowered her arm and aimed at those nine people, shooting all the seven stars like shooting a railgun.


    The white stars flew down while leaving trails with lightning sparking around them.


    "Dodge!"


    Some of the fast ones managed to leap to the side, but two of them were not fast enough to jump. They could only summon their shields to stop the iing attacks, but the stars shattered their barrier upon impact and hit them on the chest, destroying their entire right chest.


    Bam.


    The stars hit the ground and cracked the ground.


    Seeing the result, Ava turned to Theo for a moment, staring at him with a gentle gaze.


    "Ava��" Theo called her name as he struggled to get up.


    Ava only put the best smile on her face and tilted her head slightly. That smile couldn''t help but put a warm feeling on his heart as if everything was going to be alright.


    Without saying anything, Ava turned back to their enemies while stepping on the edge of the cliff. She crushed it a little bit as she jumped straight to them.


    "Iing!" The leader announced. After the death of his three friends, the leader knew Ava wasn''t a monster they could defeat. So, he ordered, "Run!"


    Ava didn''t care about him as she had disappeared from his sight.


    "Wh��" The leader opened his eyes wide, only finding the small spark she had left.


    Ava already reached the one whose wrist was broken by Theo earlier and grabbed the back of his head before mming it to the ground.


    Bam.


    The sound echoed in their ears, waking them up. However, the next instant they turned around, they saw their friend''s head was already missing as if it had popped like that of a balloon.


    This was the first time they were scared out of their lives as they quickly turned around and ran for their lives. "Run!"


    "Run!"


    Ava used their reaction as a chance to reach the other one whose wrist was also broken. Instead of mming his head to the ground, Ava grabbed his hands with both hands, piercing his skull with her ws.


    After that, she ripped him into two as though he was clothes.


    "What?! You monster!" One of them chose to turn around and attacked Ava with his sword.


    Unfortunately for him, Ava disappeared before his swing reached her.


    He somehow followed her movement but regretted his choice to turn around right after.


    Ava already appeared next to his friend, sending her fist.


    "No!" His friend tried to strike Ava''s fist with his own, but the lightning that covered her hand obliterated the hand as if drilling the guy''s hand.


    It continued until he lost his entire arm.


    "Argh!" He dropped to the ground, clutched his arm and screamed in pain.


    Ava thought nothing and spun her body, sending a back kick to his head and severing it from the body.


    With this, six of them had died.


    Even the leader only managed to get away a little bit from her as Ava moved to another one with her full speed using that lightning of her.


    "Hiii��" The guy panicked and saw Ava waving her hand up.


    In that instant, the seven stars sheunched earlier rose from the ground and hit him from different directions, turning it into a bloodbath.


    The seven stars returned to the circle on her back as she looked around, finding only three of them left. One was escaping, one was going to hit her, while the other one dropped to the ground, scared for his life.


    Ava appeared in front of the scared one.


    Her shadow alone made his body shake as he raised his head, seeing the rabbit head with bloodshot eyes.


    "Hiii��" He shrilled but ended up getting killed by Ava''s lightning right after.


    "You monster!" The angry guy already lost all hismon sense and just wanted to hit Ava even if he needed to die.


    Ava already sensed his presence on her back but didn''t even move, letting the angry guy hit the circle on her back.


    Clink.


    The clicking sound reverberated in their ears as the angry guy realized everything he did was futile. The current Ava wasn''t a Hero Rank Monster�� Her strength might be close to the Supreme Rank if not surpassed it.


    He fell into despair when he saw nothing could injure her. Hisrades fell down one by one as if Ava just ughtered chickens. She effortlessly killed them.


    Seeing the despair on his face, Ava sliced his neck with her ws, killing the ninth person. There was only one guy left, the leader.


    Ava located him with her ears.


    The leader was running away. His expression was calm but soon became pale when Ava appeared next to him.


    "!!!" Ava punched him, which was blocked by his two arms, but the forceunched him into the air until he crashed to the cliff''s wall.


    "Argh!" The guy coughed blood as Ava mmed him to the wall.


    She controlled her strength as she didn''t want him to die first.


    The guy gritted his teeth when his neck was gripped by Ava and pinned to the wall. However, he soon screamed again when Ava kicked his right hand, reducing it to nothing.


    After that, Ava''s other hand formed a small electrical current as she grasped the guy''s other hand. The lightning not only electrocuted him but also cut his hand.


    "Gah!" The guy struggled to escape, but Ava had enough strength to keep him on the wall.


    However, Ava soon stopped and looked up, worrying about Theo. She decided to end it immediately and helped Theo, so Ava delivered the killing blow to his heart, crushing it.


    After confirming his death, Ava threw him like trash and jumped back to the top of the cliff to check on Theo.

 Chapter 434 – Ava’s Answer

    <h4>Chapter 434 - Ava��s Answer</h4>


    When Ava reached the top of the cliff, she saw Theo leaning to the tree, sitting calmly while waiting for her.


    Theo looked at her withplicated feelings. On the one hand, he wanted to know the truth from her. On the other hand, he somehow didn''t feel like learning it anymore as he might be even more disappointed.


    The fact that the paper turned out to be something rted to Ava meant she should be somewhere around him. After all, it would be useless because he would have died if the one, who protected him, wasn''t near him.


    At the same time, there might be another clue about this.


    Ava knew Theo had so many questions, so she waved her hands, returning the star to the piece of paper. Her body gradually shrank and returned to normal.


    With this palm-size body, she jumped closer to Theo with the paper on her mouth�� "Kyu."


    Before Theo said anything, she put the paper on Theo''s hand and poured a bit of her Magic Power into the paper. "Kyu."


    Suddenly, the seven stars glowed dimly as one of the stars shone brighter than the others.


    "What are you trying to show me?" Theo asked with a hoarse voice.


    Ava looked at him for a moment before spinning the paper ny degrees to the left. This time, the light from the first star faded away and another star glowed.


    In that instant, Theo noticed the paper''s function.


    It turned out the constetions had been drawn so precisely that they could cover all 360 degree angles to tell Theo where to go like that of apass. And the shining star would always point in Ava''s direction.


    Theo couldn''t help but recall what his brother told him word to word. "If you find yourself in trouble that you can do nothing about, you will take this with you to meet someone. Remember. Don''t open this pocket watch unless you find yourself in a situation with no way out. You will know what to do and where to go as soon as you open this. Of course, don''t use it to find your brother because you won''t be able to find me."


    "��" He soon realized that it was him who had misunderstood the entire thing or he might still be misunderstanding it. "So, I can activate it to find you as though using apass. That''s why he said I would know where to go�� I just didn''t know what to do because I was too upied with the assassins.


    "From his tone and words alone, it was proven that the situation needed to be calm, not in the middle of a chase like this. And�� Remember�� Don''t open this pocket watch unless you find yourself in a situation with no way out��" Theo fell silent when he murmured thest sentence.


    Ava closed her eyes and stopped infusing her power into the piece of paper. In that instant, the stars lost their light and the paper was torn into pieces by the residual power as if telling Theo that it had served its purpose.


    "The paper is gone now." Theo stared at the pieces of paper and let out a long sigh, seeing the wind carry them.


    "Kyu." Ava nodded her head and raised her foot, waving it to form a question mark in the air while pointing to herself. "Kyu."


    "I can ask you anything?"


    Ava confirmed it without hesitation before grabbing Theo''s leg as if she didn''t want to let it go.


    She just wanted to tell Theo he could ask anything as long as he didn''t throw her away.


    Theo sighed. Even though he didn''t want to rely on someone else anymore, Ava still helped him through this ordeal.


    It felt like he owed her his life, since the assassins wanted to kill him, not her. As for the map in his pocket watch, it was an extra help that he shouldn''t put his trust on.


    That was why Theo''s heart felt a bit heavy as he looked at the dark sky with a nk look. He just didn''t know what to do in this situation.


    "First of all, I need to say��" Theo looked Ava in the eyes with a serious expression. "Sorry and thank you, Ava."


    Ava widened her eyes before a smile appeared on her face. "Kyu."


    "Actually, after understanding the paper a little bit, I don''t have many questions to ask anymore. There are only three things I want to confirm." Theo raised three fingers and pointed at his forefinger. "First, was that your real power?"


    Ava shook her head a few times.


    "It wasn''t?" Theo frowned as he became confused. "Then how could you be stronger? I mean, what kind of paper can power you up? If this kind of sorcery is known to the world, it will turn the world upside down��"


    "Kyu." Ava shook her head and thought for a moment. She pointed at the moon and her at the same time.


    "You got the power from the moon?"


    Ava nodded but had trouble exining the entire thing. She looked left and right with a panicked expression, trying to find a way to exin it.


    "Well, if it''s somethingplex, you don''t need to exin it to me for the time being. I just want to know whether it is something special that only you can use or for general purposes. Thetter is more dangerous."


    Ava pointed at herself without hesitation.


    "I see." Theo paused for a moment and asked his second question. "Second question, are you rted to the Griffith Family or something along the lines?"


    Ava shook her head and pointed at herself, then Theo, as if telling him she was here for him, not for anybody else.


    After getting the answer, Theo asked hisst question. "This is thest one. Do youe with me because you have something you want from me?"


    Ava shook her head once before nodding.


    "Yes and No?"


    Ava confirmed it soon as she waved her foot while looking away from him.


    "Hmm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and tried to decipher it. "It''s not something I need to be concerned about?"


    Ava shook her head and raised her foot, waving it upside down as if telling Theo he was close and should try again.


    "You don''t mean any harm?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded her head with a smile.


    "��" Theo looked up again, tired of this kind of thing. He let out a long sigh and said, "I don''t feel like bothering with this anymore�� Let me recover my Magic Power first before doing something else."


    Theo closed his eyes and started to recover his magic.


    Meanwhile, Ava looked at him with a sad face while looking down, recalling what happened between them in the past.

 Chapter 435 – Ava’s Past

    <h4>Chapter 435 - Ava��s Past</h4>


    Seven years ago.


    Ava was standing like a normal rabbit in a dark alley. She looked left and right to check her position and began to panic as she realized she was lost.


    She was sneakily visiting the human city with her mother to see what kind of civilization invaded their home.


    At first, she was shocked when she saw so many people walking around. If not because she stealthily hopped from one roof to another, she would have been found out.


    On the way, she somehow went in another direction, losing her mother in the process. After searching for her mother for three days, she was too tired and hungry.


    She had been searching for a way to get home and returned to her mother, only to end up in this dark alley.


    Looking to the left, she smelled food from the trash can next to her and leaped to the top, finding some leftover food that started to rot.


    Her stomach was growling, but she couldn''t endure the bad smell from it. Her stomach wanted the food, but she didn''t dare to eat.


    Before eating, she saw a blue-haired kid wearing a in white but messy shirt. Even though the sleeves were long, she managed to see the gap between sleeves, finding bruises all over his arms.


    There might be no injury on his face, but she could still see the boy''s body swaying left and right.


    He continued walking in her direction with nk eyes as if he had given up living itself.


    Even so, the man continued his way and arrived in front of a door with a poker face before finding a pure white rabbit ransacking the trash can for food.


    The boy looked at the rabbit for a moment.


    "!!!" Ava panicked as she just got spotted.


    Her mother told him that the majority of humans were bad, so she needed to hide when she encountered a human.


    Even though there was still a chance that the human was good, the story told by her mother was so scary that she ended up panicking.


    The human shocked her again when he asked with a in tone. "Are you searching for food in the trash can?"


    Before Ava could answer him, he looked at the bag in his right hand, reached a palm-sized can and opened it for her.


    He then ced it on the ground and put the bag inside his pocket as there was nothing inside anymore.


    "In this kind of age, to think we are still having trouble with food��" The kid sighed. "I have no ability to bring you to a vet, nor do I have the money to adopt you. However, at the very least, I can skip my meal tonight so you can have enough food to eat to regain your strength. May you find someone who wants to adopt you within that time��"


    After saying those words, the kid rose again and entered the building with those lifeless eyes.


    Ava stared at his back in silence as the smell of food enticed her.


    In the end, she leaped on top of the can and started eating the food inside.


    Compared to the building outside this alley, this ce was so bad like that of a shadowing from a bright light. And a kid, who was injured all over his body, had lifeless eyes and was hungry like her, gave her this meal so she could survive.


    Having lived on the other side for so long, she was familiar with the rule of the jungle. No stranger would give her food like he did, let alone when he was injured like that.


    It was such a cold world like the temperature of the food she ate right now. Despite how cold the food was, Ava was somehow filled with warmth.


    Unknowingly, tears started to fall down from her eyes as she kept munching the meat inside the can.


    People and monsters might give others something, but everything they gave came from their wealth. It was different from the boy. He gave everything he had�� Everything he had to live on.


    Despite knowing he would sleep while clutching his stomach in hunger, he still gave it to her.


    She just realized the boy might be "stronger" than anybody else outside.


    That was why Ava couldn''t help but cry while eating it. She felt like it was the best food she ever had.


    While eating, another white rabbit suddenlynded on the ground next to her, watching her daughter eating the food.


    "Kyu! (Ava!)" The slightly bigger white rabbit called her name.


    "!!!" Ava''s body shook as she raised her head, finding her mother next to her. "Kyu (Mom)."


    "Kyu (Are you okay)?" She asked. "Kyu (I''m sorry for not paying attention)."


    Ava shook her head furiously. "Kyu (It was my fault)."


    After that, Ava continued eating despite her mother''s presence.


    "Kyu?" Her mother was confused by Ava''s action.


    Ava stopped for a moment and exined what just happened. She told her that she wouldn''t waste a single piece of meat inside the can.


    Even her mother was surprised by her story. She couldn''t believe what she heard. However, Ava wasn''t someone who would lie to her mother, so she knew it was the truth. No wonder Ava wanted to finish everything.


    After eating, Ava asked, "Kyu, Kyu (Mother, can I help him in any way?)."


    The rabbit tilted her head and asked her to show him the person.


    They then climbed the building and looked through the window until they found the blue-haired kid.


    The mother was surprised when she saw the kid and told her to wait until the night.


    When the kid was sleeping, they sneaked inside his room without making a sound.


    After that, the mother hopped onto the bed and reached for his pocket watch. She opened it and took the paper inside.


    It was a map with a few region names inside it.


    Bringing it to the ground, the mother grabbed a pen on the table and covered the pen''s tip with her own blood.


    She wiped the map inside and drew seven stars with her own blood, making a rabbit symbol.


    "Kyu (Give me your blood too)."


    Hearing her mother''s request, Ava cut her own foot and gave it to her.


    After that, she sped her hand as the paper glowed. "Kyu, Kyu (This blood shall be the proof of our Ancient Pact. Star and Moon Sacrifice)."


    As soon as the light vanished, she wiped the blood on the pen and returned the paper to his pocket watch.


    "Kyu (You know him)?" Ava tilted her head in confusion.


    However, her mother only said, "Kyu, Kyu (Let''s go home first, I will tell you there)."

 Chapter 436 – Disgusting

    <h4>Chapter 436 - Disgusting</h4>


    Ava followed her back to theirnd but ended up going somewhere else not far from their house.


    They arrived in the middle of a forest where they found a small in with only one big tree around. On top of the tree stood a small treehouse.


    As if noticing their presence, a blue-haired guy opened the door and came out.


    Ava widened her eyes as his picture was inside the kid''s room. She never thought she would meet someone in that photo and also understood why her mother knew about his pocket watch, the map inside it, and was shocked when she met him for the first time.


    "May I know the reason for your visit this time?" The blue-haired guy asked politely.


    "Come down here," Ava''s mother said in a humannguage.


    Hearing her order, he jumped off the house andnded in front of her without saying anything��


    "I met your brother earlier�� No, I suppose I should say my daughter met him."


    "!!!" The blue-haired guy, Edward Griffith, took a step back while frowning. "You��"


    "I didn''t do anything to him." She thought for a moment and continued, "All I can say, he is a strong person."


    "I know, he is my younger brother after all."


    "��" To everybody''s surprise, Ava''s mother suddenly transformed into a five-foot-tall humanoid figure as she red at Edward with those bloodshot eyes.


    Before Edward could react, Ava''s mother grabbed his head and already brought him next to the tree. Without hesitation, she mmed his head into the tree.


    Bam.


    A loud noise echoed in the surroundings as Edward''s head was nted on the tree with blood flowing down his head.


    "And now that I have seen him�� I can say you are a piece of sh*t, Human." She red at him while releasing his killing intent. "The humans, who have invaded thisnd, always have some selfish desire and greed, including you. However, this is the first time I have seen a human like him��


    "Despite the bruises on his body, the hunger in his stomach, and the disappointment of this world, his kindness still remains in his heart. Yet, you are treating him like this while you are calling yourself his brother?" She stomped the ground, turning the area in a one hundred feet radius into a crater with the tree and the house fell down.


    "I am angry, Human. There is no such kindness in this harsh world and you''re ignoring that kindness to do something like this." She tightened her grip while saying, "If not for the fact he is still trying to find you, I would have killed you by now. Rather than living in the human world, I would rather adopt that human myself."


    "��" Edward didn''t say anything or scream even though she almost crushed his skull. He could only close his eyes with a sad expression. "Sadly, I''m just a coward�� In the end, I couldn''t go against my adoptive parents'' decision."


    "We always pay our debt back and even do it multiple times." She gritted her teeth and said, "And humans�� are the most disgusting beings in this world."


    "I know what I have done is unforgivable no matter the reason, I know his kindness is pure, and I know his talent is great." Edward let out a long sigh. "I know the humans are disgusting, but I also know that him living in the Griffith Family''s environment is even more uneptable.


    "If it continues like this, he wille to the Griffith Family no matter the cost. His kindness will make that decision. That''s why�� That''s why he needs to hate his family. He can''te to the Griffith Family.


    "His kindness will be used by all those bastards and the rules of that family will torture his heart. That''s why he can''t live in that family. Even if I need to die or be the most disgusting person in the world, Theo needs to hate the family so he won''t go there anymore.


    "The most extreme hate is not anger, it''s indifferent. I want him to hate the family so much that he won''t recognize us as his family anymore instead of having revenge." Edward grasped her hand with his trembling hands as his voice started shaking. "That''s why�� I can''t go against my adoptive parents'' decision."


    "There must be another way! Have you ever thought about that?"


    Edward''s eyes started sparkling as tears came out of the corner of his eyes. He asked while stuttering, "Do you think I haven''t asked that question?"


    Ava''s mother took a step back and released his head. She turned around and carried Ava in her palm. "My point still stands, Human. You all are disgusting.


    "Still, I will pay the debt to the kid. I have changed the map with my power�� The agreement will still continue, but in the future, I may send Ava to that kid, so she can repay this debt. However, this is for the child, not for you or anyone else. We are not like you, Human." Ava''s mother red at him one more time while releasing her killing intent.


    After that, she took off with Ava in her hand.


    "Kyu?" Ava tilted her head in confusion. She didn''t understand humannguage, so she didn''t know their conversation.


    "Do you want to repay his kindness?" Her mother asked with a solemn expression. "To me, it''s something small because I found you not long after that. But for you, who have lost for three days, it''s like a life-saving grace, especially with the fact it''s everything he has to live on."


    Ava nodded her head furiously and added, "Kyu (I want to learn the humannguage too)."


    "Is that so?" Her mother thought for a moment and said, "I will teach you about it, but your priority is to get stronger. If what that human said was right, his talent is so great that he will leave you in the dust sooner orter. That''s why you are going to start your training right now if you wish to repay him."


    "Kyu, Kyu (Mother, the can was so delicious! I want to eat it again, but this time, I want to eat it with him. I want to learn why he can still do something like that)." Ava looked at her with stars in her eyes.


    Her mother nodded with a smile. "Work hard then."

 Chapter 437 – Reactions

    <h4>Chapter 437 - Reactions</h4>


    Remembering the past, Ava couldn''t help but stare at Theo with a smile on her face.


    Her wish had been fulfilled as she managed to eat together with Theo and helped him. She also had grown stronger as well.


    When Theo chose to recover his Magic Power for the rest of the night, she kept paying attention to their surroundings even though she had scared away all the monsters nearby.


    Little did she know, that roar also caused another disturbance in both Eion in and Wolf City.


    Inside the biggest building in the middle of Wolf City stood tall a giant wolf with his two feet.


    The wolf was carrying a huge sword made of silver-colored metal. The sword was ten feet long and three feet wide, yet this sword looked smallpared to the wolf. The wolf reached as high as fifteen feet with a muscr humanoid body like that of a werewolf.


    Without even anyoneing into his tent, the wolf had already heard themotion outside. That was why he stabbed the sword to the ground and walked outside the building, finding many wolves waiting for him.


    Some stood on two feet, some stood on four feet, and some were sitting. They all looked at the giant wolf that came out of the building.


    As he already knew about the situation, the wolf spread its legs and clutched his hands. He then howled to the sky with a voice high enough for the entire city to hear it.


    "Aoooo!"


    Hearing his howl, the other wolves also began to do the same, increasing the volume and making the ground tremble.


    The wolves outside the city also howled as soon as they heard them.


    It continued spreading all over Sinx Forest as those who received that howl started doing the same, making Sinx Forest busy during the night.


    Meanwhile, inside the Coal Dome sat down a mummy. The mummy had red skin and was bandaged by ck-colored cloth. It covered every part of his body except his hands, feet, and head.


    His eyes were in white and his face didn''t rot like the other mummies.


    He was sitting on a golden throne surrounded by riches. There were golds, coins, jewelry, weapons, and so on.


    The mummy kept staring at a coffin ted with gold, resting on top of a red carpet.


    The lid was slightly open, revealing a purple cushion inside.


    Suddenly, another mummy came into the room. The mummy had blue-colored clothes wrapping his body. The tip of the clothes was fluttering around on his back, forming some sort of robe.


    The mummy kneeled on one knee behind the coffin and let out a noise. "Goagoa."


    The mummy sitting on the throne frowned and asked, "You have sensed another presence at the same level as mine?"


    The mummy nodded. "Goagoa (The presence was detected inside the Sinx Forest. However, it seemed to be scaring the wolves away, so we can safely assume it was a neutral party)."


    "��" The mummy furrowed his eyebrows and stood up, walking to the coffin. He opened the lid bigger and found a golden crown.


    He put on the crown as his body started emanating a reddish aura. The aura was so intense that the other mummy could only lower his head. "It''s time we stop ying on the defensive. Kill all the humans and wolves in the vicinity and leave no one alive.


    "There won''t be anyone who will stop me from conquering this area and rebuild my paradise." The mummy king raised his hand. "Locate the one that trespasses my territory."


    "Goagoa (That may be a problem)." The mummy''s body was shaken as he exined the situation. "Goagoa (After a moment, the presence has disappeared)."


    "Leaving this ce?" The mummy king frowned and waved his hand. "I don''t care. Search everything in the vicinity! I, Eith, the sessor of the great Osiris, shall obtain everything I want."


    ��


    The next day.


    Theo finally finished recovering all of his energy and let out a sigh.


    Ava noticed his movement and looked up. "Kyu!"


    "Thank you, Ava." Theo smiled and nodded his head. After a long night, he knew that without Ava, he would have been in a perilous situation.


    It was already nearly impossible to escape from that group, let alone survive the night without Magic Power.


    If not because Ava killed them and guarded him for the night, he might already die.


    He had gotten the fact straight and knew he shouldn''t put the me on Ava because she had saved his life. All he needed to know was that Ava meant no harm.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t realize that he had met Ava in the past. He was alone and had the worst life at that time.


    That was why helping Ava was just something that might always be hidden in his memory.


    Feeling refreshed, Theo opened his status while muttering, "I really do need to pay close attention to my Magic Power right now. It''s good to have strong B Rank skills, but I still need to increase my own Magic Power reserve to avoid letting this incident happen again.


    "Also, it seems I shouldn''t rely on my reputation because it may put me in danger again. In that case, I will use my Metamorphosis and Joker Identity to confuse my enemy." Theo nodded and looked at the status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 274


    EXP: 345,998/445,937


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 390, Endurance 236, Agility 250, Vitality 236, Magic Power 400


    "Yep, I need to increase my Magic Power a little bit more since I can use my Control and the others to increase my overall brute force." Theo nodded. "Still, to think I managed to level up so many times in a single day�� I guess this kind of war is benefitting me.


    "With this kind of speed, I have the confidence to reach my target one or two weeks faster than my prediction. Also, there''s no point in investigating the assassinated woman and the other two only know the red-haired version and they most likely have gone back by now." Theo smirked and rose from the ground. He changed to new clothes while saying, "Ava, this will be another great day. Let''s hunt more monsters."


    "Kyu!"

 Chapter 438 – Rampage

    <h4>Chapter 438 - Rampage</h4>


    However, he soon felt the change of Eion in and Sinx Forest.


    Not only him, but the others also began to see the great change in this conflict.


    On another side of Sinx Forest, Ellen raised her hand, forming a small crystal on top of her palm. She then waved her hand from the left as the ice ball began to burst, freezing everything in front of her, especially the brown-colored wolf that almost pounced her.


    "Ellen!" Phyrill called her name out loud while gritting his teeth.


    "I am okay here." Ellen took a few steps back and observed the enemies'' movements.


    "What''s with these monsters?" Phyrill clicked his tongue and scratched the wolf''s head with his own ws before kicking it to the side. After that, he used the other hand to catch another wolf''s head.


    The others also endured the onught, so they just tried to deal with it as soon as possible before helping others.


    Phyrill, as themander of this operation, had the responsibility to think of a way to handle this problem. However, he first questioned the situation out loud. "Why do these wolves look so angry? I don''t know why but they seem to be moving more violently.


    "What happenedst night? The previous day wasn''t like this." Phyrill looked around and found nothing other than angry wolves. He ordered, "We will kill all these monsters first before regrouping with the other groups. If the wolves were like this for the other groups too, that means something must have happenedst night.


    "We will move a bit closer, creating a formation that can withstand at least a hundred wolves. For now, Ellen will kill all the wolves starting from the left. Everyone will move ordingly."


    "Roger." All of them quickly situated themselves ording to Phyrill''smand, allowing Ellen to kill the wolves easily.


    "We may also need to report to the military about this anomaly. I''m afraid many people are dying if this is happening all around the forest right now." Phyrill gritted his teeth while parrying the wolf''s w.


    "What do you think about him? Will he be alright?" Ellen asked with a concerned expression.


    "I am not sure to be honest." Phyrill shook his head helplessly. Obviously, him in Ellen''s mouth was none other than Theo. But since this information shouldn''t be shared with the others, she just used "him".


    He thought for a moment and said, "Still, have you seen him in a troublesome situation for long?"


    "��" Ellen fell silent. Theo sometimes got into a dangerous situation, but he always came up with a new n that could release him from that situation. So, Ellen answered, "Fair enough. We need to focus on ourselves then."


    "Yeah." Phyrill smiled and started killing again.


    ��


    Meanwhile, like they thought, Theo was facing a problem. He was running away from a total of thirty wolves.


    The wolves chased him on their two feet while using their hands to support their bodies and increase their mobility.


    They were none other than the monsters Theo had been waiting for, the Atrocious Wolves.


    However, he never thought the wolves would be even fiercer than yesterday, especially because they ignored the wound on their bodies and kept charging until they died.


    This was the first time he saw monsters behaving this way.


    "Ava, do you have any idea about their behavior?" Theo asked with a serious expression. "We may be able to kill them easily if we understand their situation."


    Ava thought for a moment and tried to listen to their words. Unfortunately, the wolves didn''t talk much as they kept chasing them.


    Still, she was a bit familiar with this killing intent. They released the same aura as the monsters when her mother asked them to fight.


    Thinking about it, Ava came up with an answer. She punched a few times and did it again with the other side while making dramatic movements and expressions to enhance her acting.


    Theo understood what she was thinking and tranted it, "So, they have be a bit more aggressive and you think it''s due to the conflict between the two ces? Will a big war erupt soon?"


    Theo scratched the back of his head. "I guess this kind of knowledge would have been imparted by the school. To be honest, I don''t know what to do in this situation."


    "Kyu!" Ava raised her foot with a smile as if saying she would be with him no matter the decision.


    "Y-yeah. Thank you." Theo smiled and thought for a moment. "So, I can assume they will just charge at me until they die, right?"


    Ava nodded with a serious expression.


    "In that case��" Theo summoned his clone while summoning his Magic Bullets.


    His clone didn''t take the spear with him and just charged forward, heading straight to the wolves.


    Noticing his movements, the wolves began to jump to bite his head.


    However, Clone Theo ducked down while punching the wolves with his Cannon st, crushing two wolves'' skulls. After that, he used Telekinesis to barely kill another one before Magic Bullets flew behind him, hitting three wolves and killing two of them.


    After that, three wolves bit him on the head, the neck, and the stomach, destroying the clone.


    But Theo didn''t care and summoned another one, trying to kill them.


    "Hehe, I am not afraid of them too. I will just send my clone like a suicide warrior�� Wait a minute, can''t I make my clone carry some grenades to be a suicide bomber?" Theo just got a stroke of brilliance. "Well, it''s effective, but I will soon be condemned for it. I don''t care about my reputation, but having unnecessary enemies is not advisable in my current situation. Maybe I can do it when I reach Supreme Rank. Who knows�� For the time being, I will destroy these wolves first."


    Theo smiled as he sent another clone to hit them.


    However, Ava seemed to pick up multiple presences on the left and warned Theo. "Kyu!"


    Theo looked to the left and soon found a group of mummiesing in their direction. The moment they found Theo and the wolves, they used their yellow bandages like that of a whip, trying to grasp their necks.


    "Oh sh*t." Theo gritted his teeth and leaped in the opposite direction.

 Chapter 439 – Three Birds With One Stone

    <h4>Chapter 439 - Three Birds With One Stone</h4>


    The bandage missed him as Theo started to look around, finding thirty mummiesing to the battlefield.


    He nced to the side and saw half of the wolves were caught by those bandages. Before they could even escape, they saw the bandage started burning.


    "!!!" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and shot his Magic Bullets, destroying the bandages simultaneously.


    The wolves and mummies were shocked when they realized Theo had helped the wolves.


    However, what Theo wanted was the bnce of the battlefield. If more wolves died, he couldn''t take advantage of the situation to kill all of them and get the best of them.


    "Ava, prepare for an ambush behind the mummies, okay?" Theo asked with a low voice.


    "Kyu��" Ava nodded and leaped off, hiding behind a tree before hopping around without anyone noticing.


    Meanwhile, Theo summoned his clone and raised his spears. Without even looking at the wolves, Theo engaged two mummies as if showing the wolves that he was on their side now.


    The wolves were confused, but they had the order from their king to kill every single monster other than their kin in this forest. Hence, one of them still tried to attack Theo, fulfilling that order.


    "Oh no!" Theo widened his eyes and came to a halt. He turned around and saw the wolf while the mummy wasn''t far away either. "This is not good��"


    When the wolf was about to strike him with its ws, Clone Theo made a spin around Theo''s body and waved his spear.


    "!!!" The wolf didn''t expect an attack and realized that Theo used his own body to cover the clone''s movement.


    The wolf had no time to react to his spear, ultimately getting hit right on the head.


    The spear crushed its skull and killed the wolf in an instant while Theo smirked and said, "Not good for you."


    The two mummies quickly waved their bandages again to restrain him, but three tombstones emerged from the ground, forming a shield that caught the bandages.


    After that, Theo rained them down with his Magic Bullets, creating several holes on the mummies'' bodies with some limbs falling to the ground.


    His clone quickly made his way to the two mummies, thrusting his spear with Cannon st.


    Instead of concentrating it on one point, he spread the Cannon st tounch the two mummies to the trees behind them.


    However, an unexpected attack came from the ground. Several yellow bandages emerged from the ground and restrained Clone Theo.


    The fire started to spread and burned Clone Theo.


    "��" Theo''s expression became serious when he saw a green-colored mummy covered by a yellow bandage made his appearance. In that instant, Theo''s expression became serious as he realized this was also his target.


    Name: Ancient Fire Mummy


    Level: 320


    As soon as he appeared, Ava also came out of her hiding spot, trying to kick him on the back of his head.


    To her surprise, the Ancient Fire Mummy turned around as if he noticed her presence. The bandage formed a shield with some sort of symbol that strengthened the durability of its own shield.


    "Kyu!" Ava kicked the shield but couldn''t destroy it. In fact, the bandage felt too hard.


    The Ancient Fire Mummy pushed the bandage forward, forcing Ava to leap into the air.


    He then began to summon more bandages from the ground to catch Ava, albeit Theo had appeared next to him, swinging his spear.


    The Ancient Fire Mummy smiled as if he saw Theoing. He tilted his head to the left, avoiding Theo''s sh. At the same time, he pointed at the bandage to show Theo that he had captured Ava.


    Theo had no change of expression as Magic Bullets rained the bandage down, severing it.


    The Ancient Fire Mummy opened his mouth in surprise as he never thought Magic Bullets woulde down.


    Before he could react, Ava already freed herself from the bandage as lightning started sparking all over her body.


    She stepped on the air while Theounched her with his Telekinesis to add the velocity.


    Her speed didn''t let the Ancient Fire Mummy react and Ava''s feet hit the mummy''s nose, breaking it and even pushing it to the inside.


    The residual force blew the body down until the Ancient Fire Mummy hit the ground.


    As if not wanting to be killed just like this, the Ancient Fire Mummy summoned more bandages from the ground to catch Ava and Theo.


    However, their expressions remained the same as they simply stared at the Ancient Fire Mummy with poker faces.


    A shadow appeared in his vision before his control over his bandage was gone and his energy started leaving his body.


    It turned out the shadow was Clone Theo''s spear. He severed the Ancient Fire Mummy''s head.


    "Kyu." Ava made a smug smile as if saying, "Know your ce, Trash."


    She seemed to be quite upset getting captured earlier.


    Theo ignored her while confirming that he killed an Ancient Fire Mummy, his second mission after the Atrocious Wolf.


    He touched the mummy''s body and turned it into a card, finding one Skill Card and one Material Card.


    Rejuvenating Bandage (C)


    A fire-resistant bandage.


    Skill: Fire Therapy (C)


    Effect: A fire that can enhance one''s metabolism to speed up the healing process. The fire needs to be around the Rejuvenating Bandage to be effective.


    "��" Theo was impressed by the effect and said, "No wonder it''s quite expensive. The doctor must have the skill and only needs the bandage. Though, I''m curious how much it can heal one''s wound�� I guess let the doctor do their jobs."


    Theo shrugged and looked at the iing mummies and wolves that tried to kill him.


    Instead of having a serious expression, Theo was excited to the point he shouted, "Look at them, Ava. Two missions areing at us as if telling us to kill them. We have finished the first one, so we will just kill the wolves to finish the mission.


    "And we can still level up thanks to them. This is truly a blessing." Theoughed and pointed his spear. "Let''s kill them."

 Chapter 440 – Movement

    <h4>Chapter 440 - Movement</h4>


    Theo proceeded to kill the monsters one by one.


    Yesterday''s fight, where he handled more than fifty monsters, gave him enough data of how he should annihte them. That was why the second time didn''t take too much Magic Powerpared to the previous one.


    In fifteen minutes, all the monsters had be corpses as Theo began to gather the loot.


    Vampiric Fangs (C)


    A fang that can absorb blood.


    "This is the Vampiric Fang." Theo thought for a moment. "I don''t know about its use�� maybe I can use this fang to dry the monster''s blood faster? This way, the preparation time for our meal can be reduced?"


    "Kyu!" Ava heard his words and blinked her eyes a few times. Though, her head was only thinking about food��


    Theo shrugged and said, "Either way, we are done here. Let''s continue hunting monsters. We will reach my goal as quickly as possible."


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded with a smile.


    After that, Theo and Ava started roaming in Sinx Forest, dealing with as many wolves as possible. If he had gone ording to his n, he would have visited Eion in to kill some mummies, but Theo decided to remain in Sinx Forest for one reason.


    The wolves had better hearing, so the wolves would end uping after them first instead of him going all the way to find the wolves.


    Unknown to him, the situation had grown more dangerous day by day.


    On the corner of Eion in were several hundred mummies, gathering in a group. They all seemed to be moving in unison with a blue-bandaged mummy at the helm.


    The mummy took another look at their situation, finding more than a hundred corpses in the area.


    The majority of them were wolf corpses, but there were at least thirty human corpses mixed in them.


    They had been expanding their area to the Eion in border as many humans had decided to retreat in fear.


    On another side, the wolves were roaming around Sinx Forest, eliminating all living beings other than their kin.


    However, the wolves were incapable of doing so because the humans in their forest were far stronger than those in Eion in. Even the military focused on the Sinx Forest, not Eion in.


    And among them were Phyrill and Ellen, sitting together with all their groups.


    The middle-aged man, who had been with Phyrill the whole time, stood up to give his report. "Young Master, may I?"


    "Please." Phyrill nodded.


    The middle-aged man looked at all of them with a serious expression. "I have met with military personnel not far from here. ording to them, there has been a serious change in this ce."


    "Haha, are the wolves scared now?" One of them jokinglymented, followed byughter from his colleagues.


    The middle-aged man shook his head. "It''s something more serious. There is not a single human in Eion in anymore. The military has confirmed it."


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes and stoppedughing. They all knew the severeness of this matter with just that sentence.


    "The military has shifted their camp not far from here." The middle-aged man pointed at their right, showing the camp''s position. "Both the wolves and mummies are using all their strength to eliminate all threats in their territory and we can safely assume something big is going to happen soon.


    "That''s why the military gave us two options." He raised his forefinger and said, "First. We will retreat from this ce."


    "We can level up faster than ever because of this situation. Are you telling us not to take advantage of it? Was there any big group like us in Eion in?" one of them asked with a little bit of anger.


    "Nope."


    Phyrill closed his eyes and contemted their choice. He asked, "What is our second option?"


    "Young Master?" The middle-aged man widened his eyes before answering, "They are nning to raid Wolf City. It''s not to destroy them but to buy more time."


    "Buying time?" Phyrill clenched his fists and said, "The government hasn''t made the decision yet? I''m sure those guys from the military have reported this."


    "They have, but mobilizing a huge number of troops takes time."


    "So, what is their intention?"


    "We have no clue, but looking at their n, they are nning to abolish the power by killing both leaders one by one." The middle-aged man exined with a grim expression.


    "What?"


    "Killing them?"


    The others started to get riled up as they knew both rulers of this area were supposed to be close to Supreme Rank Expert, if not higher.


    Phyrill only closed his eyes as if he had expected this answer. He gradually opened his eyes, releasing his killing intent. "We don''t have information about their numbers and strength. It is reckless to attack them right now without proper knowledge of our enemies."


    "Then, we shouldn''t join them��" The middle-aged man nodded, having the same answer as Phyrill.


    However, Phyrill suddenly dropped a bomb that no one could believe. "No. We are going with them."


    "Eh?" All of them were bewildered by his decision because they couldn''t see any reasons to join them. "Young Master�� You��"


    "I bet you think there''s no reason to join them, right?"


    "Y-yeah. Isn''t that obvious?"


    "But my decision is�� We will join them because there''s no reason to join them." Phyrillughed as if he had gone crazy.


    "Young Master. You are not doing this because you find it funny, right?"


    "Of course not." Phyrill shook his head. "The country''s informationwork is better than ours, especially on the other side. And those who climb the rank in the military won''t be someone foolish. In other words, they may have another reason formitting this reckless action and we need to know that reason.


    "If they are ready to sacrifice many soldiers, they should have a big reason. We are joining them to know that exact reason. This is also a reckless move from myself, so I don''t mind if you decide to drop this mission." Phyrill nced at Ellen, who had nothing to do with their Hilbert Family.


    "I can go back with Alea''s familyter. I''m sure if we go with your n, the Eilric Family will meet us." Ellen shrugged. "So, until that day arrives, I will stick to this group."


    "That''s good enough, I guess." Phyrill turned to the rest of his subordinates. "What about all of you?"


    "When the future sessor of this family risks his own life to get this information, how can we, your subordinates, leave you? We have been with this family for a long time, please don''t disrespect our loyalty." The middle-aged man smiled. "We will follow you."


    The others nodded their heads without hesitation, showing their loyalty to the family. They were considered one of the elites in the family, so there was no way they would back down with only a little risk like this.

 Chapter 441 – Eilric Family

    <h4>Chapter 441 - Eilric Family</h4>


    Meanwhile, Alea had a meeting with her father.


    She opened her father''s office and saw another man giving a document to him.


    "Father," Alea called him with a smile.


    "Oh?" Her father leaned sideways and saw Alea entering the room. "Oh, do you need anything from me, dear?"


    "I would like to borrow some elites for an expedition," said Alea while raising two fingers.


    "Sure thing. I will lend them to you. How many do you need?" James asked while ncing at his assistant, "Can youpile the report there?"


    "I understand." The man nodded and stepped back, bringing all the documents��


    "I need two Supreme Rank Experts of our family."


    James widened his eyes as if he couldn''t believe what she said. Even his assistant put down his matter and eavesdropped on their conversation.


    "You are going to Sinx Forest and Eion in, no?" James tilted his head in confusion. "Why do you need two Supreme Rank Experts?"


    "On top of them, I need thirty Level 400 and twenty Level 300 Experts." Alea raised the number again to a ridiculous amount.


    "Wait a minute, tell me the reason first."


    "Actually, that''s something I would like to report, Sir." His assistant raised his hand while giving him another document.


    "Hmm?" James furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "There''s a movement from them?"


    "Yes. ording to our scouts, they couldn''t find a single human left in Eion in while the military concentrated their force in Sinx Forest."


    "Ho? For what reason?"


    "They want to attack Wolf City and we can safely assume they will get rid of the Coal Dome as well."


    "They have information about them?"


    "I don''t think so."


    "That''s reckless then." James frowned and looked at his daughter, "Do you seriously want to participate in something like this?"


    "Yes." Alea nodded. "I have two reasons. I''m sure Father knows the reason why I chose to stay here for another week, right?"


    "Of course. You thought this war wouldst for a long time."


    "Yes, but with this change, I''m afraid I was wrong. They are nning to solve this war as soon as possible. As for the reason why they change their mind, even I don''t have any idea. This is my first reason." Alea sighed. "If Father knows something, please tell me."


    "No, I don''t have any idea as well. There must be something that disrupted the bnce."


    "Yes. I''m nning to investigate it." She nodded. "While I''m at it, I''m going to help the military to deal with them. We can safely assume the leaders of these two ces are General ss Monsters like Unending Tree Spirit that I met back then. Asking them can be another alternative to investigate this matter."


    "Fair enough. Though, this is just a reckless move." James frowned.


    "Well, I have another reason��" Alea scratched the back of her head. "Though, this came from Grandfather, not me. He said the military seems to be hiding something big, so they need to take this reckless action."


    "Hiding something big." James looked down, contemting the situation. "Ho? This is interesting. On top of having General ss, their strength might have reached Supreme Rank. To kill those two, I can only consider two possibilities. First, they are eliminating the threats because they are scared. Second, they are aiming at something. Third, they are dumb."


    "Father, there''s no need for the third one."


    "That''s why I said two possibilities, honey." James shrugged as he just wanted to spite the military a little bit. "I see. How far can you see now?"


    "This is my limit. Grandfather promised me to be one of the two Supreme Rank Experts to guide me more about this. I''m sorry." Alea shook her head in disappointment.


    "No, no. You have grown enough in this short time." James smiled, seeing his daughter wasn''t that reckless and happy-go-lucky daughter anymore.


    "To be honest, I believe your grandfather is trying to get the information by moving together with the army. I said there are two possibilities, right? Your grandfather is trying to see whether it''s the second reason or not. If it''s not, then it''s the first one. We can focus on that one possibility, which makes it easier to solve. Understand?"


    "I see." Alea nodded a few times.


    "And who came up with the number distribution?" James asked.


    "Me." Alea raised her hand. "I thought two Supreme Rank Experts should be enough to let us escape if something goes wrong. 30 Level 400 Experts will provide enough firepower. As for the rest, they are there to support all of us while gaining some levels. This is a perfect ce for that, after all."


    "That''s good. At least, you have thought them carefully. Better pick talented people in this expedition because your grandfather is with you."


    "Yes. As for me, I would like to gain more experience in leading an expedition like this. And Grandfather promised to guide me more�� That''s why I hope Father agrees with this request."


    "Of course." James smiled. "When my daughter tries so hard to grow, how can I not support her? To be honest, I already have the second Supreme Rank Expert in mind."


    "Who?" Alea asked with confusion. They only had ten Supreme Rank Experts in the family, so it was hard to mobilize them. She wanted to know who would move with them.


    "Your mother. When I told her about your progress, she quickly stopped her project and flew back. She should arrive five hours from now�� It was supposed to be a surprise, but since it''s like this, we can surprise her instead." James chuckled. "That''s all. I will arrange the people you need. For now, wash yourself and change into nicer clothes. We are going to pick her up."


    "I understand. Thank you, Father." Alea nodded with a smile. She turned around and left the room excitedly.


    Meanwhile, his assistant nced at him with a surprised face. "I''m sorry for being rude, but is she really your daughter?"


    "Oi." James red at him.


    "Sorry." His assistant shrugged.


    "Though, I''m also surprised by her change. I guess I won''t need to worry about her soon." James couldn''t help but rise and start dancing to show his happiness.


    "Please maintain yourposure."


    "How can I? I have been waiting for this moment for more than ten years. How can I stop?" James ignored him and continued as the room was soon filled with a celebration mood.

 Chapter 442 – Meeting Ellen And Phyrill Again

    <h4>Chapter 442 - Meeting Ellen And Phyrill Again</h4>


    Another week had passed and Theo almost reached level 300.


    Since two days ago, he had been gradually moving to the center of Sinx Forest to find stronger monsters. However, he stumbled upon a big group that stayed one mile from the center.


    The group had around two hundred people inside, making one confused why they created such a group.


    That doubt soon changed when he saw people wearing military uniforms.


    He was standing on top of a cliff because Ava told him she heard arge group ahead, so he flew on top of it and looked at the area.


    "Hmm�� I can''t see much from here, but I can certainly see people wearing a military uniform." Theo muttered while sitting on the edge of the cliff.


    They were gathering in a small in in the middle of a forest, which might be the only ce they could gather so many people at once��


    "Ava, can you see them?" Theo asked Ava, who was sitting on hisp. "Do you know anything about them?"


    "Kyu?" Ava shook her head.


    "I wish I had binocrs here." Theo let out a long sigh. He raised his vision and looked at the horizon filled with trees. "Should we go there? A group that big is certainly suspicious."


    Ava agreed with him as she raised her foot, pointing at their left. "Kyu."


    Theo followed her vision and found a littlemotion on their left. He soon found a few people fighting the wolves.


    "You''re not telling me to save them, right?"


    Ava nodded her head without hesitation and sped her feet together while shaking them as if two people were shaking their hands.


    "Huh?" Theo thought for a moment and asked, "They are my friends?"


    "Kyu!" She nodded.


    Interested, Theo took a closer look. Luckily, they were not that far from here, so he could see them a little bit from above.


    What made him change his decision was two pink-haired people. That color was so familiar to him to the point he already knew their identities in just a nce.


    "Phyrill and Ellen." Theo narrowed his eyes. "Maybe we can ask them?"


    "Kyu." Ava nodded in agreement. That was what she wanted to do from the start.


    "Okay, let''s head there." Theo smiled and jumped off the cliff, using his Telekinesis to fly on top of them.


    On the contrary, Ellen and Phyrill hadn''t noticed his presence as they were busy dealing with the wolves.


    "Ellen!" Phyrill shouted while grabbing the wolf''s wrist and throwing it to Ellen.


    Ellen nodded and froze the wolf before shattering the ice into pieces. "There are only two more."


    Phyrill saw the rest and decided to stop since his group handled them. "That''s enough, I guess. They can deal with the rest."


    "Okay." Ellen shrugged.


    "Still, Alea hasn''te�� Maybe she won''te to this ce?" Phyrill sighed.


    "Then, I will be joining you in this attack. Unless you have some problems with me here��" Ellen nced at him, expecting his answer.


    "Of course not." Phyrill chuckled. "We have reaped so many benefits just bying to this ce. I get ten levels within two weeks. It''s good progress, especially with this number."


    "Yeah." Ellen nodded. "I have leveled up eight times."


    "Yep, that''s why if you don''t mind the danger, I won''t mind if you follow us." Phyrill smiled before he looked up as if feeling someone''s stare, finding Theo floating above them.


    Theo was using his Joker Identity, so he only waved his hand and pointed down, asking if he couldnd there.


    As soon as Phyrill gave a thumbs up, Theo descended from the sky and safelynded on the ground.


    "You are still here?" Phyrill asked with a surprised face.


    Theo nodded. "The monsters in the outskirts don''t give me a huge amount of EXP anymore."


    "I think they still give normal people enough�� You are a greedy one, aren''t you?" Phyrill teased him with a smirk and noticed that his group had finished their task. Before assigning another task, he asked Theo, "What are you doing here? If you wanted to raise your level, you wouldn''te to me."


    "Actually, I want some information, especially regarding the huge camp in that direction." Theo pointed at the camp he found earlier. "I''m sure your group has met them, right?"


    "Indeed." Phyrill nodded and nced at his group. "We are done here. I''m going to have a little chat first before continuing today''s task��"


    The group noticed Theo and remembered him, so they just went away.


    On the other hand, Ellen asked, "Do you have any n other than leveling?"


    Theo shook his head while tilting his head in confusion, not knowing why she asked that question.


    "They are from the military. My group is also there, preparing for what toe in three days," exined Phyrill, ignoring Theo''s reaction.


    "Hmm?"


    "We are aiming to attack Wolf City in three days. The purpose is to buy enough time for the military to send reinforcement and measure their strength. I don''t know if you are already aware of this, but�� All humans have been wiped out in Eion in."


    "��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. "And you''re not going to tell me they want to destroy them because some of the hunters have died, right?"


    "They would have done it a hundred years ago if they nned to do it." He shrugged. "Have you noticed the change in this forest? Apparently, something big happened, making the wolves in this forest even more ferocious. I believe the military wants to see what they can do about this."


    "I see." Theo thought for a moment, unaware that Ava was the culprit. After all, how could they know what Wolf City and Coal Dome wanted?


    Theo said, "So, you are going to destroy the city? something like hit and run?"


    "Yeah. The wolves are so much faster than us, so we are stilling up with ns." Phyrill shrugged.


    "I am staying here with them." Ellen raised her hand and came up with an idea. She asked with a smile, "Do you want toe with us?"

 Chapter 443 – Theo’s Decision

    <h4>Chapter 443 - Theo��s Decision</h4>


    "Do you want toe with us?"


    Hearing that question, Theo took a step back and looked at her weirdly. However, he soon contemted his choice and what kind of situation they would create had they attacked Wolf City.


    "Attacking the city, huh. Do you know any information about their number and strength?" Theo asked.


    "Nope. We have no idea. The city is shut tight and no one has the information about the enemy''s strength." Phyrill knew this was the biggest reason for Theo to doubt this n.


    But to his surprise, Theo nodded, "Sure. Let me join you�� That is if you don''t mind."


    "Eh?" Phyrill was taken aback by Theo''s decision. Unlike his Hilbert Family, Theo did not need to check the information regarding this reckless action. Yet, the same Theo just agreed to join.


    "What? You don''t want me? I will go by myself if you don''t want me." Theo shrugged and looked away while adding, ''I believe following them is better than going alone this time. There are two reasons.


    ''First, I can take advantage of this situation to kill more monsters, especially the stronger ones, by using the others as bait. And with such a huge number, the enemies they faced should be more than them, giving me the opportunity to kill multiple monsters.


    ''Instead of killing twenty monsters in a small group, it''s better to kill fifty out of a thousand monsters in this kind of raid. This should allow me to reach a far higher level than my original target, bing closer to what I need to find my brother.


    ''As for the second reason�� I can observe the wolves'' movements by joining this raid. After all, it''s better to witness them myself instead of being ignorant to their movement. There is a huge chance that the wolves will spread all over Sinx Forest, hunting the ignorant me. There''s no way I want to get another fifty wolves chasing me while I''m fighting another fifty��


    ''Hence, I think the safest ce in this forest is in this group. Not only does it have enough people to retreat, but it also provides enough information about the surroundings.


    ''Well, I can certainly leave Sinx Forest, but I can only barely reach my target since I need time to travel to another ce. I can''t really go to Eion ce, can''t I? It will just lower my leveling speed. This is the best option I have right now. No pain no gain.'' Theo let out a long sigh.


    Phyrill didn''t know Theo''s thoughts on this matter. However, he appreciated Theo''s presence in this group as he quickly agreed, "Of course. It''s good to have you on the team."


    "Nice. Though, I n to roam alone before the raid starts. It''s going to be three days from now, right?"


    "Yeah. But you should go to the camp first to understand the situation."


    "I guess that''s a good idea." Theo didn''t reject his invitation and said, "I shouldn''t disturb you anymore. I will go there by myself�� I think?"


    "Nah, it''s better with my group. They will know that you will be assigned to my group instead of the military or other groups. Mine is as solid as the military, but you know Ellen and me, so it''s better." Phyrill smirked.


    "You''re right." Theo pondered for a moment. "How many people have you gathered so far?"


    "There are a total of a hundred soldiers, seventy individuals from independent groups that choose to join midway and sixty people from my group."


    "It''s less than I expected." Theo shook his head. "By the way, is there a Supreme Rank Expert?"


    "We have one. He''s a new Supreme Rank Expert from the military and his job is to monitor the whole operation. That''s why we are buying time for the reinforcement and using this raid to measure the enemy''s strength."


    "We may lose many lives, you know." Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity." Phyrill smiled and sighed in session. "Though, I can''t defend them for being reckless. I just feel that they have something big going on, but I don''t know what it is yet."


    "I see." Theo didn''t really care about the military''s purposes since he would leave this country within six months, so he thought there was no need for him to know. As long as he took advantage of some opportunities and reached his goal, it should be enough. He said, "Military aside, I hope their strategy is good."


    "Hehe, our strategist here wants to tell them the war n."


    "Ehm��" Theo rolled his eyes. "Not really. I don''t have experience inmanding a battle this big. So, I will probably mess up like how I did when fighting you and Ellen in the schoolpetition."


    "I still remember that." Ellen chuckled. "I could easily suppress you back then. And to think you can do the same to me now��"


    "I don''t know if I can do that." Theo stuck his tongue out. "You are strong, Ellen."


    "You''re far stronger though. I have heard of your gant figure fighting the ground dragon." Ellen shrugged.


    "Haha��" Theo looked away. "I still need to get even stronger to fulfill my dreams and achieve my goal."


    "I guess this is our difference. You are already looking at the world while we are still looking at this small pond called Thernd." Phyrill smiled. "Though, I''m still nning to go around the globe to get stronger. The door of opportunity opened wide after we got third ce. Thernd can gradually be stronger."


    "And by that time, I won''t be here." Theo thought it was the time he left so as to not waste any more time. "Anyway, how about I go to the camp at 7 PM? This way, I won''t hinder your group and go there as your friend."


    "Yep. Let''s do it your way." Phyrill nodded and pointed at the left. "We''re going to hunt in this direction. You can go to the right, but others may use it right now."


    "I have my own spots." Theo waved his hand and turned back. "I will leave for now."


    "Okay, let''s meet again tonight." Ellen smiled. "Still, it''s surprising to see you roaming in this area alone, Theo."


    "I''m used to it." Theo shrugged and left. "Take care."

 Chapter 444 – Theo’s Progress

    <h4>Chapter 444 - Theo��s Progress</h4>


    After leaving, Theo began to search for new monsters to fight.


    With Ava listening to their surroundings, there was no way Theo would meet other people in the surrounding area, let alone when the military assembled most of them.


    At night, he visited Phyrill and discussed all the information they received from the military.


    ording to the military, the monsters nned to create a big war within a week. Hence, they nned to strike them to keep them busy in three days.


    Considering how aggressive they were, this n should be enough to give them one more week, allowing the reinforcement to take over and kill the enemies.


    Theo also introduced himself to Phyrill''s group as he nned to join their group for a while. Phyrill also told the rest not to bother him so much. Their rtionship was mostly partnership after all.


    The Hilbert Family obviously knew how people like Theo worked. By hiding his face alone, he could create a mysterious persona. Whether it was a bluff or not, they wouldn''t really look down on people they didn''t know.


    After all, the Hilbert Family had one irond rule. "Never mess with the unknown unless necessary."


    Theo also learned that the experts around them came from poor families or orphans. They were raised by the family to be experts.


    For them, the Hilbert Family had given them a life-saving grace by giving them a new life in their family and they wanted to repay the family by staying loyal to them.


    Theo didn''t say anything because there was also another term for this method. Brainwashing.


    If they just poured all the kindness of the Hilbert Family into their hearts, Phyrill''s family could make them loyal.


    This was something he was a bit sensitive about as he needed to prevent himself from bing like them when he moved to another country. After all, he wanted to live freely, not bound by ruthless rules like the Griffith Family or some sort of tradition.


    He appreciated the fact Phyrill shared it with him as he understood what kind of morale he could expect from this group.


    Phyrill also invited him to be the advisor of the group, but Theo rejected it, especially since he was a neer. His subordinates obviously wouldn''t trust him easily, resulting in a disrupted chain ofmand.


    Theo also talked with Ellen from time to time, knowing about her progress. Ellen was slightly surprised that Theo''s level almost surpassed her. Though, she was happy for Theo because this just meant Theo kept improving at speed beyond her imagination.


    After that, Theo slept in his own tent, talking with Ava.


    ��


    Three dayster.


    Theo returned to the camp that night as he heard the leader was going to coordinate the fight.


    Phyrill came to him, who was sitting alone to recover his Magic Power, asking, "Theo,e with me. There are limited people that will go there so as to make it more efficient. You''re going there with me as my assistant."


    Theo opened his eyes and nodded. "Okay, wait a minute."


    "Sure." Phyrill nodded and turned around.


    Theo, on the contrary, was thinking about the raid and Ava. ''I can''t really get Ava''s help during the raid, so Ava will be hiding in my bag for a few hours. I can''t afford to let the military know Ava is the rare Moon Rabbit, especially since she has been with me for a long time. They may do something to snatch Ava.


    ''I do feel bad I can''t bring her out, but I guess it''s better safe than sorry.'' Theo paused for a moment and opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 304


    EXP: 564,121/751,580


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 420, Endurance 256, Agility 270, Vitality 256, Magic Power 460


    He had been focusing on his Magic Power this whole time, which he didn''t regret. In fact, he enjoyed the feeling of using more skills without fear of exhaustion.


    At first, he thought some of the B Rank Skills were quite a burden for his current power and nned to leave them at C Rank for a while. However, he soon realized this was just a preparation for him to reach Supreme Rank.


    If he continued at this pace, he should be able to have all skills at B Rank even before reaching Supreme Rank. This was the foundation he made for Supreme Rank and his power would surely be far stronger than someone at the same level.


    ''Magic Power is a must, but I think I should change my Illusion Multiplier soon.'' Theo pondered for a moment. Illusion Multiplier was a good skill and very versatile, but he believed it had reached its limit.


    He thought about ranking it up, but he had been using it less and less with his current power. ''I need to have another illusion skill.''


    Theo had a few ns in his mind, but it could only be achieved after he returned home.


    After sorting out his thoughts, Theo rose from the ground and walked together with Phyrill to the gathering.


    There were a total of ten people, including them, that seemed to be leading this group.


    "He is my assistant. You don''t mind him listening to the n, right?" Phyrill introduced Theo nonchntly.


    One of the soldiers nodded and nced to the side as another soldier walked to their group. This soldier had a small buildpared to other soldiers, but his body emanated a powerful aura.


    Theo''s expression changed behind his mask as he observed the guy as if he was listening to him.


    "The reason for all of you to be here is to follow my n. We are going tounch an attack on Wolf City and create as much destruction as possible. This will buy us enough time for the reinforcement to arrive. Also, I will be handling their leader in case thetteres out of his hiding spot��" The soldier pointed to the table where the map had beenid out. "Okay, this is the n��"

 Chapter 445 – General Class Monster

    <h4>Chapter 445 - General ss Monster</h4>


    The next day.


    Phyrill led his group to their position ording to the military''s instruction.


    While walking, Phyrill asked Theo who apanied him by his side. "What do you think about this n?"


    Theo nced at him and remained silent.


    "The military is confronting the enemy head-on, stopping them from the front," Phyrill recalled the n. "Behind them are the magicians that will use their firepower to destroy the city�� Now that we are stationed on the left, we will make a clean sweep to the right, killing all the monsters in the process.


    "The same applies to those independent groups. They''reing at us. This will clean up the monsters as soon as possible. I think the strategy is worth the shot." Phyrill exined.


    "Have you been in a raid like this?" Theo asked with a calm tone.


    "Yes. It was a nest containing one thousand monsters with one Elite Rank monster in charge."


    "��" Theo became concerned when he heard about this.


    ��


    Last night.


    Theo rested in his tent like usual. However, he had something to ask Ava before falling asleep.


    "Ava," Theo called her name while lying down.


    Ava gradually sneaked out of his shirt and looked at him with her silver eyes. "Kyu?"


    "You are a General ss Monster, right?" Theo asked.


    Ava tilted her head in confusion as she didn''t understand what Theo meant by General ss Monster.


    Theo facepalmed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He exined, "There are five sses: Normal, Rare, General, King, and World ss. Normal ss is like the monster we face most of the time. Rare ss is a smarter one and can call other monsters. General ss�� It''s like the Unending Tree. She can talk and possess high intelligence like that of a human."


    Ava thought for a moment and nodded, acknowledging she was a General ss, even though she didn''t have the ability to speak yet.


    "Then, you are able to think like me, right?"


    Ava looked away as if she was embarrassed and made a smug smile, proiming she could.


    "��" Theo chuckled and asked, "Then, what will you do if you know the humans are approaching you?"


    "Kyu?!" Ava was taken aback by Theo''s question and dropped to the ground, staring at Theo for a while. She ended up contemting the question while wondering how to exin it.


    Theo thought for a moment and opened his Skylink, opening the app to draw. He drew their formation to siege the city.


    "Assuming our opponent is a General ss Monster like you, I want to know what kind of n he may have. I''m sure they can think like that of a human, so I need to watch out for any tricks."


    Ava hesitated for a few minutes before pointing at the city and the group of magicians behind the soldiers. "Kyu!"


    Theo''s expression became grim as if he had learned something dangerous.


    Touching both Wolf City and the magician group meant Ava wanted to attack the magician group first as it was the one that destroyed this city.


    This alone was enough for Theo to know the thinking capability of a General ss Monster. It was indeed terrifying.


    "This is going to be a bit dangerous��" Theo''s expression darkened as he spent the night contemting his choice.


    ��


    Recalling the information Ava gave him, Theo nced at Phyrill, asking, "How many magicians in the central group?"


    "There are around thirty. Ellen is among them since I thought it''s a safe ce and she doesn''t need to move together with us, experiencing all this danger."


    "Are you serious?" Theo clenched his fists.


    "I mean, the Supreme Rank Expert from the military is in front of her. I think no wolves will be able to approach her." Phyrill exined before noticing Theo''s reaction. "Theo?"


    "Can I ask you to get Ellen back to our group?" Theo asked.


    "What?" Phyrill couldn''t understand Theo''s idea of taking back Ellen, especially with their group preparing to nk the enemy. They needed speed, not firepower. "Ellen will be exposed to danger if she runs with us. She is a magician; her role isn''t this."


    Ellen was the most important person he wanted to keep safe after Ava. He also wanted to help Phyrill, but he had protection from his family, so he just ignored him for the time being.


    That was why he decided to put his hand on this. He looked at Phyrill and said with a grim tone. "Please bring Ellen back to this group. I hope this is just me overthinking the situation, but the situation is going to be dangerous soon, especially for the central group."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Have you fought against a General ss Monster or raided a ce with a General ss Monster in it? Or just provide me with information regarding General ss Monsters like how they behave��"


    Phyrill became serious when he heard Theo''s words and asked, "You must be overthinking the situation, right?"


    "That''s your choice. You are the boss�� As for me, I still wish to have Ellen stay with our group instead of the central group." Theo shook his head helplessly. He didn''t underestimate the military, but if Ava alone knew the importance of the central group, the wolf would probably know it too.


    At that time, the central group would be the target. That was also why he wished he was overthinking the entire thing.


    "Do you have some experience with General ss Monsters? And you''re not telling me it''s the Unending Tree, right?"


    Theo shook his head. "No, it''s not that. But you can say I know them more than you."


    Phyrill never thought that Theo would be so adamant about this and wondered whether he should grab her back or not. He tried to persuade Theo for onest time. "There are five more magicians from my family there."


    Theo shrugged. "It''s your call."


    "You''re making it hard for me, Theo." Phyrill scratched the back of his head. "Okay, okay. I will call Ellen back."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and heard themand from the scouts, asking them to stay in their position until they started the operation.


    Within that time, Phyrill brought Ellen back with him and handed her to Theo.

 Chapter 446 – The Beginning

    <h4>Chapter 446 - The Beginning</h4>


    Theo and the others had stationed themselves in their area.


    The forest was quite dense to go through, but there was a in in the middle of the forest. This in was used to build Wolf City that stood tall before their eyes.


    Theo took a quick look at the city. The wall was made of stones and wood, while he couldn''t see any watchtower or something for the wolves to guard this ce.


    He could see an open entrance from his position but nothing on the other side.


    ''Hmm, the wall isn''t that high�� Probably only thirty feet. It can be bypassed by the magicians. Though, there''s only one entrance, ording to the information. So, the wolves wille out from that ce, I think. With a city of this size, it can only fit around a thousand wolves�� So, we should be able to handle it, unless��'' Theo thought for a moment as he gradually became suspicious.


    "Isn''t this a bit too quiet for a city?" Phyrill whispered as he nced at Theo. Hearing him, Ellen also wanted to know Theo''s thoughts.


    "Yeah." Theo nodded and looked around. "I don''t like this atmosphere. The wolves I faced so far were too aggressive."


    "Maybe they were ordered by their king to do that? Meanwhile, the king hasn''t realized we will ambush him?"


    "Either way, we need to start this as soon as possible." Theo tapped Phyrill''s shoulder twice.


    "Okay. We will send the signal." Phyrill nodded and rose from the ground, finding his subordinate. He waved his hand and clutched his palm, asking him to ry the message to the soldiers so they could start.


    When the soldiers received his signal, they confirmed it with the other sideposed of independent groups. One of the chosen leaders quickly signaled them to attack.


    After getting both agreements, the Supreme Rank Expert turned serious and nodded. "Tell the magicians to follow us."


    As soon as they got the order, the military began to move forward, trying to form a shield for the magicians.


    The Supreme Rank Expert raised his hand and waved it down as the signal to attack.


    The magicians quickly used their skills, from a lightning strike to me balls. All of them had powerful firepower that was capable of creating mass destruction.


    "Lightning Zabs."


    "Swirling Tornado."


    "Ice Bolt."


    The first volley of skills flew into the air, bing the signal that this battle was about to start.


    All of them flew past the walls and dove down, hitting many buildings.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred, followed by many howls.


    "Aoo!"


    "Aoooo!"


    All wolves were rmed by this sudden attack. People could hear the rumbling sounds and themotions inside.


    The soldiers, aligned to the gate, could somehow see what was happening inside. Their expressions became serious when they saw wolves running to the entrance.


    The Supreme Rank Expert quickly raised his voice, "This is the time to show the result of your training. Show all of the people here and those wolves what it means to be the proud soldiers of Thernd. I, Ivan, will be right behind you!"


    "Uoh!" The soldiers stepped forward.


    Theo frowned when he saw these guys. On the right side, he could see the people only used swords as their main weapon. On the left side, he found spears as their main weapon.


    Only those in the middle that didn''t have so many people actually had other weapons such as ws, war hammers, and other things.


    Seeing the wolves begin crawling outside their city, the atmosphere started to change. The soldiers clenched their weapons tightly before they started roaring.


    "Uah!"


    "Uargh!"


    That shout was as if telling others, "Screw it," as they ran toward the wolves. It took courage to face so many wolves after all.


    Clink.


    ng.


    The shing sounds between the two sides echoed in everyone''s ears.


    The wolf''s fur had various colors covering their body, symbolizing their species.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw how easily the soldiers got bitten by the wolves because there was no room to move. The wolves also started dying when they lost their bnce once.


    He only had one thought in this situation.


    ''It is chaotic.''


    He had seen something like this in the expedition with Alea, but the Eilric Family and the military had done a great job maintaining their positions, giving them enough space to move.


    "No wonder we are separated. If we join them, they will have less space to work with." Theo muttered and shook his head helplessly.


    More and more wolves came out of the city, overpowering the soldiers with their sheer number.


    Seeing the situation, Ivan shouted to the magicians, "The re!"


    While using all their skills, the magicians also received res from the soldiers.


    Two of them activated the res as the signal for the right side, the independent groups.


    "It''s time for us to shine." One of them shouted while charging toward the wolves from the side. "We''re going to make a good swipe from the side!"


    "Ooh!"


    They all saw the wolves were upied by the military, so they didn''t have the time to react to their charge.


    "Kill them!"


    The group was mostly closebat fighters, so they advanced with their mobility and flexibility in handling the wolves.


    If they couldn''t kill one, they just kept going, breaking through the line filled with wolves.


    This technique had been popr since ancient times when cavalries disrupted the enemy''s formation by a quick charge from the side.


    And the effect of this strategy was apparent when the individual groups managed to break through all those wolves, killing many wolves while losing only one person.


    Phyrill''s group had been standing by this whole time and their eyes intertwined with the other group as soon as they made it out.


    Both Phyrill and the one in charge of the other group exchanged a nod.


    "It''s time for us to shine, Hilbert Family! Follow me." Phyrill shouted and pulled out his short swords. He led the entire group from the very front and transformed into his Lycanthrope form.


    His subordinates followed right behind him. Some even tried to overtake him so as to provide a cover to protect their young master.


    Meanwhile, Theo was staying beside Ellen, saying, "You don''t need to do anything for the time being. There will be a much bigger role for youter."


    "Okay." Ellen nodded. "I will just follow you."


    Theo nodded with a smile. "I guess it''s time for me to kill a few wolves."

 Chapter 447 – Emergency

    <h4>Chapter 447 - Emergency</h4>


    "Kill them!" Phyrill roared while waving his sword to a brown-colored wolf.


    Two wolves tried to bite him while protecting the brown-colored wolf, but Phyrill''s assistant appeared next to him, blocking the fangs with his long sword. "Young Master, kill that wolf."


    Phyrill nodded and leaped on top of the brown wolf, slicing its neck.


    "Got it." Phyrill nced to the front and said, "Let''s continue."


    "Yes." His assistant nodded his head and pushed the two wolves back, nning to help Phyrill again. However, Theo soon appeared in his vision, thrusting his spear to their heads.


    His eyes intertwined with Theo, and he saw there was no change in those eyes when he killed them as if this was a normal thing to do for him.


    "Thanks for the help," said Theo as hended on the ground and slowed down his pace again.


    It was clear to him Theo just took advantage of his movement to get that kill and when he took another look at him, Theo had already disappeared, killing another wolf in the process.


    In other words, they all created opportunities for Theo to kill more monsters.


    "Who is he��" He murmured and shook the thought off his mind. There was still a more important job he had to do in the middle of this chaotic area.


    He continued to follow Phyrill right behind him, preventing any wolves that wanted to attack him.


    Meanwhile, Theo returned to Ellen as he did his job, killing the wolves while protecting her.


    Ellen hadn''t done anything and just ran with the group. Even Phyrill''s subordinates were confused by Phyrill''s action in recalling Ellen. She was a burden to their group and should have contributed to this battle by staying with the other magicians.


    Unfortunately for them, Phyrill''s decision was final. They had no choice other than to follow it.


    Ellen also felt guilty for not contributing, but Theo seemed to have another n for her.


    Theo was not someone who did something meaningless. Every decision he made, no matter how ridiculous it was, came from a well-thought n.


    And he must want her to act when the timees.


    Theo, on the other hand, was too focused on killing the monsters. As expected, the first charge went smoothly.


    He killed ten wolves in session and leveled up once. Of course, those kills came from taking advantage of Phyrill''s subordinates. So as to avoid being hated, Theo only aimed at the wolves that the group decided not to kill.


    It took them three minutes to break through a hundred-foot line filled with wolves, and Theo killed half of the total of the whole groupbined.


    When they escaped from the wolf onught, some of them turned around and stopped the wolves that chased them on their tail.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill looked around and searched for his assistant. "Prepare the re. We will give the signal for the independent groups to charge once more."


    This was their n. With the soldiers confronting the wolves head-on and the magician destroying the city, Phyrill''s group and thebined independent groups were in charge of sweeping the monsters in session, thinning their number.


    It was a good n which Theo supported because it wasn''t thatplicated and pretty effective in dealing with the wolf city that only had one exit.


    Doing this several times, they would have killed one or two hundred wolves. In addition to the army''s effort, they should have killed half of the enemies within half an hour.


    If the General ss wolf appeared on the battlefield, they would quickly run back to their camp with the Supreme Rank Expert holding the rear.


    Unfortunately, they had underestimated the power of a General ss monster, especially the one with sharp ears, eyes, nose, and brain.


    Theo and Ava were the first to realize the graveness of this matter when Ava suddenly sneaked out of his shirt and jumped in front of his face.


    "Ava?" Theo was taken aback by her appearance since he couldn''t afford to have her get found out. However, Ava ignored that warning and pointed to their right with a panicked face. "Kyu!"


    "Theo?" Phyrill was the first to notice themotion with his enhanced senses and saw the white rabbit. "You are a summoner now?"


    Of course, Ava being a summoned creature was the first thing that crossed his mind. He had no time to check Ava''s status or whatsoever.


    Soon, Theo talked to his own summoned creature, which should be impossible normally. After all, summoned creatures came from a certain contract formed between the summoner and the creature itself. And most creatures were just mere Normal or Rare ss monsters, unlike Ava, who could conduct a conversation like this.


    But before he could react, he heard Theo saying, "Phyrill! We have an emergency. Have the soldiers on the right-side shift their position to our way to cover us a bit and signal the independent groups to stop the sweep."


    "What are you talking about, Theo?" Phyrill widened his eyes in surprise.


    "Just do it, goddammit!" Theo shouted, which gathered the attention of all Phyrill''s subordinates.


    "!!!" They all red at Theo, who dared to insult their Young Master.


    However, Phyrill was dumbstruck because this was the first time Theo had to swear to give hismand. For him to have such conduct, it was clear this was a far more dangerous situation.


    "The rest of you will go behind us. There will be an ambush!" Theo shouted while gritting his teeth. "Kh, so, this is what it means by fighting a General ss Monster? It''s like fighting an army leader."


    Phyrill stared at the rabbit for two more seconds before supporting Theo''s decision out loud. "All of you, listen to hismands and follow them withoutining. I will ask the militarymander to shift their soldiers. Go!"


    They were shocked by Phyrill''smand since it meant Phyrill was listening to hismand even though he was the most influential person here.


    But when they saw Phyrill setting off to the military, his assistant decided to follow his words. "All of you, follow me!"

 Chapter 448 – Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 448 - Ambush</h4>


    On the other side, one of the people from independent groupsined in a mocking tone. "What are those people from the Hilbert Family doing? They are supposed to be an elite family that acts high and mighty, right? They can''t even do this job better than us?"


    Hisint was justified because Phyrill''s group had taken more time than them. People from a huge background usually had more resources to use, so he felt unsatisfied when those people were dragging them down.


    Theint turned into aplete insult when they saw another re rising to the sky. That blue light marked the end of their battle and ordered an immediate retreat.


    "Those idiots from the Hilbert Family! They are so weak!" He just couldn''t help but insult them out loud, thinking Hilbert Family''s experts were so weak they couldn''t continue after a single charge.


    "Hahaha."


    His insult invited a series ofughter as they shared the same sentiment, albeit thatughter stopped abruptly when many wolves emerged from behind.


    The wolves moved quietly from behind and bit a few people��


    "Argh!"


    A wave of screams echoed in their ears as all of them turned around, finding wolves biting theirrades.


    "What?!"


    "Wolves!"


    "Turn around!"


    No one checked their back because they all knew the wolves would make a sound when they encountered an enemy to signal the others of their finding.


    At the same time, there was only one entrance for this wolf city, so it was impossible for the wolves toe, especially after they made sure the area in a half-mile radius was clear.


    That was why this ambush seeded.


    The wolves killed several people in an instant before letting out a loud howl. "Aoooo!"


    "Wolves!"


    "Argh. Help me!"


    "No!"


    They were overrun by many wolves soon after as the group didn''t manage to react in time. Some of them started to fight back, but the huge number of wolves made it hard for them to do so.


    "Retreat!"


    "Retreat to the center and move together with the military."


    They soon realized why Phyrill''s group didn''t give a signal to start sweeping again and why the military ordered a retreat.


    They must have known something about this ambush.


    "Run!"


    "Escape from here!"


    Some of them tried to fight the wolves to save theirrades, while some of them just abandoned the battle, running for their lives.


    "No, I don''t want to die."


    "Help me."


    The screams made the entire battlefield even more chaotic. Their only choice was to retreat to the soldiers to get some help.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill''s group dealt with the situation far better than them because of Theo''s warning and Phyrill''s assistant mobilizing the group to prepare a counterattack.


    The group received the ambush with fully coordinated attacks, killing the wolves in rapid session.


    There were a total of a hundred wolvesing after them, and as one would expect from an elite group, they suppressed the ambush not long after.


    Of course, Ellen was a huge part of this suppression. She was, in fact, the main firepower that halted many wolves by destroying a huge number of woods to clear their vision and creating several ice walls to redirect the wolves'' movement.


    While fighting, Phyrill''s assistant couldn''t help but stare at her with shame. He thought, ''Why is there an ambush? Did shee all the way here as a countermeasure of this ambush? Did the young master predict this would happen when fighting a General ss monster?''


    The answer was no, and he quickly realized the real answer and turned to Theo. He wanted to know what kind of face that mask hid and why he could predict all this. ''Who is he? Why did he know all this? If that''s the case, we should ask our magicians toe back to us�� No, will we be able to trust him earlier?


    ''Only Young Master Phyrill trusted him and took action. And with the rtionship I have seen so far, it was normal for only Ellen to be taken back to this group. It turns out I have been underestimating him this whole time�� Luckily, we haven''t messed with him, but still�� This may be the reason why there is one irond rule to follow in the Hilbert Family.''


    His assistant gulped down, finally finding the strength of the unknown. Sometimes, unknown people were weak and just put up a strong front. However, this time, he met theplete opposite as this person might be able to make their Hilbert Family in trouble.


    He took a deep breath and saw Phyrill returning to their group while bringing themand from the soldiers.


    "We''ve got the confirmation. It''s time to retreat." Phyrill announced out loud while seeing the group managed to deal with the situation perfectly. "The other group were attacked as well and started retreating. Half of them have died, while the others are not in a good situation either.


    "We need to retreat to the previous camp before heading to the east. Understood?" Phyrill suddenly smiled and added one more praise. "Still, good job, all of you, for suppressing the threat."


    They all couldn''t reply because they knew that they would experience the same oue without Theo''s warning.


    The wolves would have ambushed them without letting out a howl. Even so, they needed to go.


    "Move!"


    "Roger!" All of them retreated in unison while finding the other side turned out to be worse than they expected.


    The soldiers were also badly injured because of the ambush to the point theirmander needed to go out to suppress the ambush himself.


    Meanwhile, the magician group had also been attacked, realizing why Ellen was brought back to their group.


    Ellen, who was silent this whole time, finally approached Theo and said, "Thank you, Theo. You save me again."


    "No problem." Theo nodded and turned to Phyrill. "Recall your magicians."


    "Got it." Phyrill agreed without hesitation and raised his hand to his assistant. Thetter saw it and disappeared, heading to the magician group.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill nced at Theo while muttering inwardly, ''How much have you grown, Theo? How far do you see right now? It''s quite terrifying to be honest.''


    Unknown to him, the real savior of this ident was Ava, who had returned back inside his shirt. Even Theo thanked her after confirming the situation had been controlled.


    "Thank you, Ava."

 Chapter 449 – Despair

    <h4>Chapter 449 - Despair</h4>


    Theo and the others continued running together with all the group. At the same time, Phyrill''s subordinates somehow became a bit more fired up in fending off the monsters on their tail.


    They even volunteered to guard them, so Theo didn''t need to go all the way to do it. This was something they agreed so as to pay back their doubt from earlier. After all, Theo just saved their lives.


    Theo just let them do it as he focused on assessing their situation.


    And as he expected, the situation became even worse when a ten-foot-tall wolf came out of the entrance. It stood on its two feet while holding a huge sword.


    The wolf''s howl shook the forest.


    "!!!" Ivan, the militarymander, dropped his jaw as he saw the change in the wolves'' movements�� "This��"


    Ivan gritted his teeth while walking together with the retreating soldiers.


    The wolves that seeded in ambushing them quickly spread all over their right nk, ready to intercept the humans, resulting in the growing fear in their hearts.


    "Move, move!"


    "To the left!"


    "Run!"


    They all panicked and shifted their direction, leaning to Phyrill''s group.


    "Oi!" Phyrill gritted his teeth when they abruptly changed direction. This made Phyrill''s group have a harder time maneuvering in this jungle.


    Also, they might end up in a more dangerous situation because of the unknown terrain.


    Even themander knew what would happen with this kind of movement as soon as he saw the wolves hadn''t made their move yet.


    ''They are just trying to shift our direction?'' Ivan clenched his fists, realizing that if this continued, the group would make a 180 degrees turn, returning back to the wolf city. They would be killed if that happened.


    Having no choice, Ivan shouted, "All of you, return to the original course. All my soldiers, have you grown weak just because the enemies ambushed us?!"


    "No, Sir!" The soldiers instinctively replied out loud.


    "Good! Strike those wolves on our right. Show them what our soldiers are made of!"


    "Sir, Yes, Sir!" Many soldiers shifted their position, especially since Phyrill''s group managed to hold off their ambush.


    On the other hand, the wolf king who witnessed this had an unpleasant expression on his face. He raised his sword and put it on his mouth before returning to four feet.


    He set off at full speed, aiming to kill their leader.


    Theo also saw the iing wolf leader and pointed his Skylink to him, checking the monster''s name.


    Name: (?) Wolf King


    Level: ???


    Every a hundred thousand wolves will bear a king that controls them.


    "There''s not much information?" Theo clicked his tongue. "Sk is linked internationally, right?"


    Theo gritted his teeth and soon realized why there were many missing pieces. "No, it''s not that there''s no information. It''s just because there are too many wolf kings that appear all around the world and due to the different species, the monster detector generalizes the information��"


    "Phyrill, do you know the wolf''s species?"


    Phyrill furrowed his eyebrows and nced back.


    However, before he even replied, themander had already heard that question and answered out loud, considering the question came from Phyrill''s group that had suppressed the ambush. "No need to ask. This wolf is a Metal Wolf and since it''s a General ss Monster, its name shall be Metal Wolf King."


    He suddenly came to a halt while raising his sword. "I will handle this wolf while all of you continue."


    All the soldiers heard his words and wanted to help him, but they soon saw the giant wolf leaping toward theirmander. Beforending, the wolf shifted its body again andnded on two feet while grabbing the sword from its mouth, waving it down.


    "Enchanter!" Themander felt tremendous power from this wolf and shouted for help.


    One of the soldiers stopped and raised his hand, "Strength Enhancement."


    Themander was enveloped by a red light as he swung his sword with both hands. "Cleaving Ex."


    Bam.


    The moment the two swords met, the collision turned the ground beneath them into a crater, sending a shock wave that rmed all of them.


    "Kh." Themander clenched his swords tightly, withstanding the wolf''s attack. He muttered inwardly, ''His strength is too strong.''


    The wolf raised the sword again and swiped from the left while themander countered it with another strike.


    Unfortunately, his strength couldn''t contain the wolf''s swing, resulting in him getting blown away.


    "Commander!"


    "I am not that weak, you sh*tty brats!" Ivan gritted his teeth and raised his left hand. "Swords."


    Seven white-colored swords appeared out of nowhere and flew forward. Two swords struck the wolf king, forcing him to blow the swords away instead of hunting themander or his soldiers. The other five flew to the wolves that chased his soldiers, killing them in an instant.


    Despite this situation, themander still tried his best to help everyone. He said, "I''m not that weak for my soldiers to be concerned about me. Just do your job, I will be right behind you!"


    The soldiers'' expressions became grim when they heard those words.


    One of them couldn''t help but shout, "All you bastards. Did you hear that? Kill those wolves!"


    "Ooh!" The soldiers were fired up and started killing the wolves more ferociously.


    Seeing this, themander smiled, "As expected, you all are still like a brat to me."


    He charged at the wolf and raised his sword on top of his head. "Execution Sword."


    White energy suddenly formed a huge sword as if the small sword on his hand expanded. The sword had grown twice as big as the wolf.


    Themander swung down the sword with all his might. "I need to pay you back for the first strike."


    However, the sword on the wolf''s hand showed a change.


    On its giant de, a blue light shone, forming several unknown patterns that dded the sword.


    "What?" Themander widened his eyes in shock. "Is that an artifact?"


    Unfortunately, the battle couldn''t easily be resolved by one''s fighting spirit. The wolf shattered all their fighting intent with a single swing from the left.


    nk.


    A sound echoed in their ears as if someone had broken a window.


    And what they saw was the wolf''s sword shattering theirmander''s big sword effortlessly.


    Aside from the shock, they all found one more thing growing in their heart.


    Despair.

 Chapter 450 – Commander

    <h4>Chapter 450 - Commander</h4>


    "Kh." Ivan''s body shook as his sword returned to normal. He thought, ''The wolf level may be simr to mine, but its giant body contains more power. He also has speed just because he is a wolf. Its defense shouldn''t be that good, so I only need to hit him somewhere, but�� Can I?''


    Ivan doubted he could sneak past the wolf and hit him, especially with that kind of strength and speed.


    He decided to follow his people back while maintaining eye contact with the wolf.


    As he expected, the wolf didn''t let him go and put the sword on his mouth again, chasing his subordinates��


    When the wolf king almost arrived, he jumped again and waved his sword, nning to kill several people with one swing.


    However, Ivan reemerged in front of him, striking his sword, blowing it to the side.


    "You can''t hurt them as long as I''m here," said Ivan while smirking.


    Watching his action, his soldiers really wanted to turn around and help him even if they needed to use their lives. But Ivan was still okay, so they redirected their desire to kill all the wolves without caring for their body.


    Even with bite marks covering their bodies, they just mmed and killed the wolves.


    Ivan''s action inspired them as they all remembered that they fought for the country and its citizens.


    Even though these independent groups knew they would always be between life and death here, their jobs remained the same. They needed to protect them.


    Ivan felt assured that his soldiers could perform such a feat as he also felt fired up in fighting this wolf.


    After striking the wolf''s sword, he saw the iing attack from the other''s hand. But when he was about to parry the attack, 20 Magic Bullets fell from the sky.


    As expected from the wolf, it sensed the bullets and used another skill. Its fur turned ck as if it was dded by metal, receiving the attack with all his body.


    And to his surprise, all twenty bullets hit him without a single one missing.


    "I don''t know who it is, but thanks." Ivan smiled and leaped to the wolf, passing him while leaving a few strikes. "You cover your body with metals, but it''s not strong enough to withstand my de."


    Suddenly, a long red mark appeared on the wolf''s chest as blood began to flow out of the body.


    The soldiers cheered for that strike but soon stopped when they saw Ivan dropping to his knees.


    "Impossible." Ivan spat a mouthful of blood as he also had several red lines on his body where his blood flowed out. He barely saw it, but the wolf retracted his skill at thest moment and let go of his weapon.


    With both hands free, the wolves blocked several strikes while sending him some, resulting in his current condition.


    Bam.


    The wolf''s sword finally fell to the ground and created a loud sound, rming all of them. As a king, the wolf ignored them and picked up his sword. It spun its body and struck Ivan.


    Thetter managed to react by raising his sword, but the force blew him away.


    His body snapped several trees until he was nowhere to be seen.


    Theo''s expression turned grim when he saw this development. He wanted to help him, but sending Magic Bullets was the only thing he could do because he needed to deal with several wolves.


    It turned out more and more wolves came out of their hiding spots, chasing them. This was why Theo needed to use his Blink to protect Ellen instead of themander.


    The wolf king didn''t pay attention to Ivan and continued his pursuit, wanting to kill all of them.


    "You bastards!" Two soldiers turned back with their swords. They swung their swords at the same time to stop the wolf, but thetter released the sword''s full power, shattered their swords, and cut their bodies.


    Not wanting to be left behind, another pair of soldiers came closer to engage the wolf. "Dodge its swing and we will strike his sides."


    The two knew they couldn''t beat the wolf''s power, so they stopped right in front of the wolf and swung their swords.


    The wolf king waved his sword, but the soldiers jumped to the side, learning from the previous mistake.


    They all tried to attack the wolf king from the sides, but it turned out to be a trap. The wolf king already knew their n and dropped his sword.


    The hands moved at speed beyond their imagination like how it injured theirmander.


    The wolf king grabbed their heads and crushed their skulls.


    "Stop!" Ivan had returned and witnessed the wolf king killing his subordinates.


    When he was about to reach the wolf king, thetter threw his subordinates at him.


    "No��" Ivan caught them, but it was another trap from the wolf king.


    It already reached Ivan''s position and waved his ws.


    The ws sliced his subordinates together with his right arm while leaving a huge mark on his stomach.


    Ivan knew he might die soon if this continued, so he leaped toward the group while facing the wolf, trying to buy as much time as possible for them.


    The wolf king had predicted it and charged at him, swinging his sword from above. Ivan had no sword on his hand as it fell together with his right arm.


    "All my soldiers. What is your job?!" Ivan shouted.


    "Protect the country and its citizens!"


    "Good. Keep doing it even after you return to Ark City." Ivan smiled when he saw the wolf king swing his sword. Ivan suddenly formed another white sword on his hand. Realizing that it was useless to continue fighting, Ivan chose the path of mutual destruction, hoping that the wolf would stop after getting a heavy injury.


    "!!!" The wolf king was startled because he didn''t expect another sword and continued his swing, trying to kill Ivan as soon as possible. At the same time, he saw several Magic Bullets falling from the sky.


    Ivan, on the other hand, looked at his soldiers and said with a big smile. "I''m going to take this bastard''s hand with me."


    Both of them swung their swords and hit their target at the same time. The wolf split Ivan into two while Ivan managed to sever the wolf''s right hand.


    The Magic Bullets also fell to the wolf and caused a series of small explosions.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Still, the soldiers'' voices filled the battle. They all had the same wording from their mouth.


    "Commander!"

 Chapter 451 – Nightmare

    <h4>Chapter 451 - Nightmare</h4>


    "Commander!"


    The soldiers were screaming. Tears started to build up in the corner of their eyes.


    Seeing theirmander die like this pained their heart as he was a kind of inspirational figure.


    Theo widened his eyes, never expecting themander to die so quickly. However, he noticed one thing that might be the cause.


    Turning to Phyrill, Theo asked, "What is this artifact all about?"


    "Is this the time to ask that?" Phyrill''s eyebrows twitched as he knew the wolves would keep chasing them, so they needed to get going as soon as possible. He still answered him though. "Normally, monsters will disappear together with their weapon or equipment, right?"


    "Yes."


    "The one that doesn''t disappear is called an artifact. It''s somethinging from this world that isn''t directly attached to the monster itself. I can''t say anything more because we have more important things to do." Phyrill looked at Theo with a grim expression. "Please lead this group."


    "You are the most influential person right now, it''s your job." Theo shook his head. "For now, we need to prevent the soldiers from sacrificing their lives. Then, we will have the soldiers kill the wolves by manipting their anger. Depending on the wolf king, we may need some sacrifices."


    "Okay. I will control them." Phyrill disappeared as his voice soon resounded in everyone''s ears. "All people here, listen to me!


    "We are going to continue our escape ording to the original n and leave Sinx Forest as soon as possible. You, soldiers�� Have you forgotten Commander Ivan''sst words already? If you can''t ept it, just insult me or whatsoever for being ruthless.


    "However, we need to keep going�� We need you. Kill those wolves and survive together with us and tell the story about Commander Ivan to everyone you know, including his family. This is your new task. I''m not amander, but I know whatever we can do for him in the future requires us to survive! Understand?!"


    Phyrill''s shout shook the soldiers'' hearts. They had mixed anger and sadness in their hearts, but they certainly had the orders they needed to carry.


    "Let''s return to the base."


    "O-oh?!"


    The soldiers weren''t as fired up as before, but they all retreated together with the ground instead of fighting the wolf to death.


    "Good." Phyrill smiled and returned to Theo, heading straight to the camp.


    Little did he know, Theo wanted the wolf king to chase them, letting all his blood flow out. With that much blood loss, the wolf should be weakened where even someone like him could kill them.


    Albeit, the n failed before it even began when he saw the wolf king grab one of his own kin. He carried it in front of his mouth before opening his mouth, taking a huge bite.


    "Aooo!" The wolf screamed in pain, but the wolf king didn''t care about his suffering as he continued munching the wolf.


    Soon, a white light covered his severed hand and the blood stopped flowing. He could see the wound had yet to be healed, but he wouldn''t be weakened further from blood loss.


    "Seriously?" Theo gritted his teeth, trying to move as further as possible before the wolf king started moving again.


    "Phyrill, this situation��" Theo hit the wolf that almost bit him and asked, "Do you have any reinforcement? Looking at our situation, we may not have the option to retreat."


    "You want to fight to the death?" Phyrill asked with a serious expression.


    "I can get away, but not you." Theo shook his head, exining the real condition.


    "��" Phyrill paused for a moment. "What do you want me to do?"


    "We need to split up before��" The word stuck in his mouth when he felt the killing intent from behind. He turned around and found the wolf had started chasing them again.


    "This is not good." Theo clicked his tongue. "Anyway, the only way for us to survive is to split up. The wolf king can''t chase us like this."


    "I understand. We will split in five directions. The independent groups, the military, and my group, which will be split further into three groups with me, my assistant and you as their leaders. Can I ask you to lead my group to safety?"


    Theo hesitated for a second. He didn''t want to take care of the others to be honest and he could just fly away from this situation using his Telekinesis.


    Theo ended up agreeing to his request. "Taking into ount our rtionship, I will do it as long as they can follow mymand. However, don''t me me if we''re separated for various reasons."


    "Of course."


    "How about Ellen?"


    "With you," Phyrill answered without hesitation.


    "Okay then." Theo nodded and looked back, seeing the wolf king getting closer and closer to them.


    Unfortunately, their nightmare had just begun one step faster than Phyrill and Theo.


    The chasing wolf king suddenly stopped and growled to the sky as if it conveyed something to his subordinates.


    The wolves surprisingly followed his move and halted their steps before jumping off the ground.


    "!!!" Theo was shocked by that sudden movement and instinctively used his Awareness to the fullest, sensing something moving underground. He shouted and followed what the wolf did. "Jump!"


    That shout startled everyone, but Ellen, Phyrill, and the Hilbert Family''s people had witnessed Theo''s good judgment first hand. They didn''t want to doubt him anymore, at least in this kind of emergency.


    They all jumped at the same time as Theo.


    Sadly, the rest didn''t have a quick reaction like them.


    Multiple bandages suddenly emerged from the ground, rising to ten feet above the ground.


    All people widened their eyes in disbelief. Some of them managed to escape, while some of them got caught by the bandages.


    The wolf king turned to his right, finding the one he was looking for.


    Theo followed his line of sight and found a mummy with red skin. His bandage was ck like the Coal Dome, but it was easy to distinguish him from the rest as his body didn''t rot as much as other mummies.


    The mummy emitted his killing intent and said in a humannguage. "Foolish humans. This is time for you to pay for the sins you havemitted in front of Great God Osiris."

 Chapter 452 – Checkmate

    <h4>Chapter 452 - Checkmate</h4>


    "Foolish humans. This is time for you to pay for the sins you havemitted in front of Great God Osiris."


    "Are you kidding me?" Theo clenched his fists and whispered, "Ava, you may need to help me in this fight, I think. On my signal, okay?"


    "Kyu." Ava tapped his chest once, saying she was ready.


    Theo then turned to Phyrill and shouted, "Now!"


    Phyrill nodded with a grim face andmanded out loud, "We shall split our group into fives. Independent Groups, Soldiers, and my Hilbert family which will be split into three. There are three leaders you can follow, me, Aso, and my friend, Joker. Now!"


    The soldiers and the independent groups were baffled by this decision, but they saw Phyrill''s group began to move ording to Phyrill''s instruction.


    "Are you going to abandon us?" The independent groups shouted as they were the ones who suffered the most.


    Meanwhile, the soldiers seemed eager to do it because they could fight the wolf to theirst breath without anyone watching.


    Theo cared no more and approached Ellen, asking her to follow him.


    And a ray of hope finally shone upon them.


    When the mummy king saw the injured wolf king, he smiled and raised his hand.


    The wolf king knew the mummy king nned to kill him and the army of mummies marched toward them, catching several wolves on the right.


    "Grr." The wolf king frowned and raised his sword. He leaped on top of the mummy and mmed his sword down.


    The sword started glowing as if responding to the wolf''s action.


    However, the mummy king also had his own trump card. The golden crown on his head started shining, but all that light soon moved to lit up the small blue-colored ceramic in the crown''s eye.


    The mummy king waved his hand as ck energy flowed out of the ceramic, forming a screen that withstood the wolf king''s power.


    Bam.


    The shock wave of their sh shook the battlefield and forced the humans to make their decision. They really needed to split up when the wolf king and the mummy king fought.


    This was slightly different for Theo because he suddenly got a notification containing something he never knew.


    [Sensing a fragment containing the power of Death.]


    "What?" Theo stopped for a second and turned to the mummy while muttering, "Power of Death? Wait, since when is it reacting to the outside world?"


    The reply came right after.


    [Since when it''s not reacting?]


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the crown. "Who is reacting to the power of Death? ording to the myth, the only one who should be reacting to it would be the Goddess of Death."


    Suddenly, Theo came into a realization and drew a gasp. "Wait a minute. Did the mummy say Great God Osiris? Osiris should be God of Deceased or Lord of Underworld like her. Their power is simr�� So, does this mean their powers are attracting each other?


    "No, the most important question is�� How can the mummy know about that name? Does this ce have a connection with the Earth? No, they have a connection since the two worlds are connected, but there may be something deeper." Theo never expected this was to be the case as he instinctively took a step back.


    As if responding to him, another notification appeared.


    Trial: Grab the fragment


    Reward: Upgraded Skill Eyes


    He was speechless when he received the trial now. But he soon shook his head and bluntly rejected it. "Hell no. I''m not nning to die."


    Theo ignored the mission and turned to the people who would follow him.


    Unfortunately, that ray of hope soon disappeared when more bandages appeared on their way.


    "Bandages."


    "Dodge!"


    They all shouted, asking them to avoid the bandages from capturing them.


    Another mummy appeared in front of them. It had a blue-colored bandage that separated him from the rest.


    Bending his knees, the mummy ced his hand on the ground and the bandages that captured the humans started turning into ice, freezing the humans as well.


    "What?!" The independent groups once again couldn''t do anything when theirrades died.


    It was the first time Phyrill''s group was grateful they had that one irond rule. If not, half of them might have died at this point.


    "We''re going to the left first. It hasn''t been blocked yet." Phyrill shouted after seeing the mummies block their right and front paths. With the wolves chasing them from behind, they could only go to the left.


    "Run. Run to the left."


    "Hurry up."


    They all shouted in panic, not wanting to die. However, they soon found themselves in a situation far more dangerous than they thought when a group of humans approached them from their left.


    "There are humans?"


    "We are saved."


    "They must be reinforcement?"


    "Are they from the military?"


    All those who saw their appearances thought this was the help they needed to escape from this situation.


    Unfortunately, it was nothing but another threat that checkmated them.


    Theo could already see iting when the humans didn''t even say anything. He pointed his Skylink to these humans, only to find it picked up something.


    Name: Alpha Mutated Wolf


    Level: 350


    The leader of the Mutated Chimera Wolves.


    "It''s a group of monsters called Mutated Chimera Wolves!" Theo shouted after getting the confirmation.


    "What?!" Phyrill''s body shook as he realized they were in a bitter situation. They were chased by the wolf while getting pincered by the mummies on the right. After that, the mummies blocked their escape path right before their eyes, forcing them to move to the left, only to be disappointed when they got stopped by a pack of Chimera Wolves.


    In other words, they were basically surrounded from all directions.


    Phyrill couldn''t help but halt his footsteps while cursing, "Sh*t. This is literally a checkmate. Is this how a General ss monster operates?"


    All of them also stopped and received attacks from the mummies and the wolves, thinning their number even further.


    "Young Master!" Aso, Phyrill''s assistant, came to him. "What is your instruction?"


    Phyrill couldn''t answer as he truly couldn''t see anything that would help them escape from this situation unscathed.


    Theo, on the other hand, nced at the wolf king and the mummy king. "While those two General ss monsters are upied, we need to break through this Mutated Chimera Wolf pack. They have the lowest strength among all four sides. With their appearance, the only way to differentiate them from us, humans, is our talking ability, so keep cursing them out loud. We will know you are a human. Okay, let''s escape from this nightmare."

 Chapter 453 – Sacrifice

    <h4>Chapter 453 - Sacrifice</h4>


    They were speechless by Theo''sst sentence.


    The thought about cursing these monsters floated in their mind for a few seconds until they heard Theo shouting, "Let''s go."


    Since it seemed to be the only way to escape, Phyrill''s group charged forward, trying to break through the numerous enemies.


    Obviously, the Chimera Wolves reacted ordingly.


    With its leader in front of them, they just rammed everything they had against the humans.


    Clink.


    Bam.


    ng��


    Various noises like explosions, shing weapons and screaming filled the battlefield as Phyrill''s group became the primary target of these wolves.


    The mummies also didn''t leave them alone.


    The blue-bandaged mummy raised his hand, summoning more bandages to catch them.


    "Argh."


    "No."


    "It''s cold!"


    The bandages caught many injured people, especially from the independent groups.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as the group might not be able to withstand their onughts until the escape path was ready.


    Arriving at the same conclusion, Phyrill''s assistant, Aso, called Theo out loud. "Young Master''s friend!"


    Theo couldn''t help but nce at him.


    Aso turned out to be moving to their right, which was the mummies'' direction. With a sword in his hand, he said, "I will take care of the blue mummy. You will open an escape path."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Before he replied to him, Aso already ran straight toward the blue-bandaged mummy.


    "Your opponents are me," shouted Aso while shing a mummy into two. He red at the blue-bandaged mummy and pointed his sword at his neck. "Don''t think you can catch us here."


    The mummy seemed to be offended by Aso''s words and raised his hands, summoning more bandages.


    Aso harrumphed and swung his sword from the left, releasing a white-colored light that went through the bandages and cut them. "Light Sword."


    "Hmph. I won''t let you pass." Aso raised his sword.


    Theo took a deep breath and summoned his Magic Bullets. "Ellen. st them."


    The Magic Bullets stopped the wolves'' advance for two seconds. In the meantime, Ellen formed a small ice cube on top of the wolves.


    "Ice Field."


    The ice cube fell on the ground and exploded, spreading the cold wind and ice in a thirty feet radius and blowing away several wolves.


    "No need to kill," Theo shouted and pointed at the small circle Ellen created. "form a wall there."


    "��" Phyrill subordinates understood his instruction and quickly spread around the ice circle, stopping all wolves around it.


    "Let''s go. The escape path is almost done." Theo shouted and sent more people. "Kill thest three wolves on the way with everything you''ve got."


    "Understood." Phyrill''s subordinates instinctively acknowledged Theo''s order as if it was Phyrill''s.


    They headed straight to thest three wolves. They even let the wolves bite them first just to deliver the killing blow.


    "It''s narrow, but the escape path ispleted. Let''s go." One of them shouted.


    Listening to him, Theo and Ellen went through it while Phyrill called his assistant first. "Aso, we''re done here. Let''s go."


    "Got it." Aso turned around and leaped toward Phyrill before stumbling to the ground. "What?"


    Aso widened his eyes and looked down, finding a bandage circling his shoes.


    At the same time, the mummy struck his back with all his might.


    Bam.


    "Ah��" Aso rolled a few times on the ground and tried to get back up, only to find his knees stuck on a corpse, refusing to go up.


    His body stopped when it reached the top, facing Phyrill instead of the mummy.


    He soon felt the mummy''s presence on his back, knowing the mummy was going to kill him.


    "Ah!" Phyrill noticed his condition and nced at him. The best option he had was to go through the escape path, but Phyrill''s body turned around and instinctively ran back to Aso. He even said, "We''re going back."


    Aso looked at Phyrill with a smile, knowing that he wouldn''t be fast enough to reach him. "Young Master, it''s fine��"


    In thest moment, he couldn''t help but close his eyes, remembering the day he started serving Phyrill.


    It was fifteen years ago when the family head asked him to take care of Phyrill.


    The memory was still vivid as if it had just passed. Back then, the master said, "Aso, can you take care of Phyrill for me?"


    "Master? I�� I don''t have any talent."


    "No, I don''t need someone strong. I only want someone to be there the whole time for him. His physique is extremely weak, but he always wants to do everything like a normal child.


    "I will spend as much time with him as possible, but someone needs to be there all the time. Aso, you have that cheerful and protective aura with you and I have seen you taking care of everything in the house. That''s why I want you to take care of Phyrill for me when I''m not there.


    "Watch him until he reaches the point where his weak body won''t be a problem anymore."


    "But Master, I can''t do much for him. I can''t even protect him."


    "I will handle his protection. I just want you to be there for him."


    "��" Aso realized that the conversation would just return to this point and his master seemed to have no intention of backing down. Aso decided to ept the task. "I will do my best."


    After that, Aso experienced many things.


    In his first year, he learned Phyrill was as energetic as other people. However, he always ended up in thest ce with no one beside him due to his weak body.


    Yet, when he approached him, Phyrill continued to smile.


    In his third year, Phyrill performed something he called a miracle. Despite his weak body, Phyrill endured the training that made him pass out almost every night due to exhaustion.


    Even with all the hard medical treatments, Phyrill never gave up.


    In his fifth year, Phyrill had grown far stronger than the average kid. His perseverance paid off.


    In his tenth year, Phyrill became one of the best in the entire school and only a few people of his generation could handle him.


    And most importantly, in his fifteenth year, Phyrill, the one who had a weak body and endured so many medical treatments, stood in the biggestpetition on the and imed third ce.


    His happiness couldn''t be described anymore. At the same time, he always remembered one certain phrase Phyrill always told him.


    His baby face, his teen face, his adult face�� All of his faces shed in his mind, saying one exact phrase. "Aso, watch me."


    Yes. He had been watching his progress this whole time. Because he had been watching him all these years, he couldn''t help but feel gratified by the progress he had made.


    In hisst moment, there was one thing he wanted to say.


    With a smile on his face and the mummy''s bandage on his back, Aso put on the gentlest smile he ever made and said with tears in the corner of his eyes. "Young Master�� May fortune bless you with its presence. I''m sorry, but Aso can''t watch you grow up anymore."

 Chapter 454 – Eilric Family

    <h4>Chapter 454 - Eilric Family</h4>


    "Young Master�� May fortune bless you with its presence. Aso can''t watch you grow up anymore."


    Those words echoed in his ears as if thunder were reverberating in one''s ears. Phyrill was about to witness thest moment of one of the closest people he had in the family.


    "No, Aso!" Phyrill shouted and used all his strength to leap toward them.


    Theo reacted a little bit and decided to use his clone, sending him with his Blink skill.


    However, a wolf leaped on top of them, hitting Theo''s clone with his w.


    "Roar!"


    Theo clicked his tongue and swung his spear to this wolf while watching his clone disappear. At the same time, this meant they had no other option to save Aso��


    Aso had no regret on his face. It was calm and serene as he had watched Phyrill growing up until he was this strong.


    He couldn''t help but mutter hisst words while closing his eyes, "Master, Aso has fulfilled his job."


    "Aso!" Phyrill''s heart was shaken as tears streamed out of his eyes, watching how the mummy hit Aso''s head in order to crush his skull.


    However, onest ray of hope appeared for Phyrill.


    A huge curved de appeared on top of the mummy''s head. The de was attached to a red-colored handle that made it look like a ive.


    And that ive moved downwards, slicing the mummy into two faster than the mummy hitting Aso''s skull.


    The blue-bandaged mummy fell to the ground, revealing a blonde-haired beauty holding her ive. She appeared to be someone in her early thirties, but her face and golden colored eyes reminded others of one person. In fact, she looked like the adult version of that person.


    "Alea?" Phyrill widened his eyes as he didn''t expect someone toe to their help.


    The woman wore a ck t-shirt and jeans with a long ck robe fluttering behind her.


    Her expression remained calm when she heard Alea''s name while assessing the situation. They werepletely surrounded by mummies and wolves.


    She raised her ive before the wind began to gather around the de. It spun uncontrobly until the woman rotated the ive and hit the ground, releasing a powerful gale that blew away all the mummies in a thirty feet radius.


    The wolf king and the mummy king suddenly stopped their sh, turning around to find this beautiful blonde ring at them.


    "So, that''s where you are��" She smiled but didn''t act. Instead, she nced to the right while saying, "Old man, do you need a wheelchair? Why are you so slow?"


    "Have you thought about respecting me, brat?" An old man appeared in front of her while waving his thin sword, cutting all the zombies that almost crashed into the other humans. "How about you clean up your own problem?"


    "If I do that, the two over there are going to be lonely," she said while maintaining eye contact with the wolf king and the mummy king.


    Suddenly, another blonde appeared with a sword in both hands. Her hands and feet were covered with green light as she moved nimbly and quickly, slicing as many mummies as possible. "You are too fast, Mother."


    "It''s Mama, okay?"


    "!!!" Theo recognized two of them as the old man and the younger woman were none other than Nart Eilric and Alea Eilric. Hearing Alea calling the adult mother, it was apparent who this strong and beautiful woman was. She was the wife of James Eilric, Nadia Eilric.


    "Alea!" Ellen couldn''t help but shout her name, never expecting that Alea woulde here with this timing.


    "Ah, Ellen." Alea was surprised to see Ellen among them and soon saw a few familiar faces.


    Phyrill cared no more and jumped to Aso, hugging him.


    Meanwhile, Theo gave another instruction because they were still in the middle of the battle. "Change of n. Everyone will shift to the right and hit them with everything you''ve got."


    The Alpha Chimera Wolf aimed at him again, so Theo just gave an order and handled him.


    "Hmm��" On the other hand, Nart and Nadia noticed Theo with his mask on. In this chaotic situation, he seemed to be the calmest one and still managed to give amand. Nart obviously knew who he was while Nadia nced at Nart, "Who is that? You''re always watching those newbies, right?"


    "Heh, how about you respect me for a day and I will tell you his identity?" Nart harrumphed and teased her.


    "So, you know his identity." Nadia rolled her eyes and pointed at the two kings. "Anyway, I''m going there."


    "Yeah." Nart nodded and turned to Alea, "Ask the rest to clean this area. There are many of them, but they are quite exhausted. We should be able to turn the situation around�� Especially after we kill that injured big wolf over there."


    "Understood." Alea agreed without hesitation and watched how her mother and her grandfather disappeared.


    Right after they left, people starteding to their location, finding the battlefield.


    Alea raised her hand, "Mymand. Team A will handle the mummies, team B will handle the wolves, team C will save all the people here."


    Upon hearing hermand, Eilric Family''s elites moved in unison ording to their task.


    Meanwhile, Theo had something more important than killing the Alpha Mutated Wolf that attacked him.


    It came from the notification God of Mischief sent him.


    Trial: Kill either Underworld Mummy or Metal Wolf King


    Reward: Upgraded Skill Eyes


    "Are you kidding me?" Theo gritted his teeth while repelling the Alpha Mutated Wolf''s attack. "You''re asking me to kill a monster one rank higher and at least two hundred levels higher than me? Why don''t you just tell me to die?"


    [You didn''t ept the first deal. The second deal is usually worse than the first deal.]


    "No, I will search for another opportunity." Theo shook his head.


    However, another notification appeared right after as if convincing Theo toplete the mission.


    [Grab the fragment that contains the power of Death, and I shall assist you in taking the mummy down.]

 Chapter 455 – Snatch

    <h4>Chapter 455 - Snatch</h4>


    [Grab the fragment that contains the power of Death, and I shall assist you in taking the mummy down.]


    "This sentence�� It''s a different person. Goddess of Death?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. In terms of power, the Goddess of Death, Hel, should be stronger than Fenrir and Jormungandr. However, he was still confused about how she could help him. "You''re kidding. There''s no way you can help me."


    [Miracle does exist.]


    Theo was speechless by this sentence as he couldn''t help but say, "Hey, that''s quite persuasive."


    "Still, why do you want me to do it in the middle of this chaotic situation?"


    [It''s because you''re in the middle of it��]


    "��"


    Theo considered the pros and cons while fighting the wolf. As soon as he decided what he wanted to do, Theo turned around and ran toward Alea.


    "Huh?" Alea was obviously bewildered when Theo suddenly approached her with a wolf behind him.


    "Sorry, I really need to do something." Theo winked and disappeared, leaving the Alpha Mutated Wolf to Alea.


    "What��" Alea widened her eyes and instinctively struck the wolf with both swords, shing with his ws.


    While Theo was contemting his choices, Nadia and Nart had arrived in front of the mummy king and the wolf king.


    "I want the mummy." Nadia walked slowly with a smile. She didn''t forget to pay back his teasing earlier. "You are already old, so you can get the handicap one."


    "Do you want to get spanked?" Nart pointed at the big sword on the wolf''s hand. "That one seems to be good enough to beat you up."


    "��" Nadia rolled her eyes as both of them couldn''t help but smirk as if this was just a normal day for them.


    Suddenly, Ellen''s voice resounded in their ears. "Be careful. The big sword is an artifact. Commander Ivan, a Supreme Rank Expert, has been in by that sword."


    "An artifact huh." Nadia furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the mummy''s crown. "In that case, that one is also an artifact."


    "I can handle both of them if you''re scared." Nart harrumphed and looked at the wolf.


    "You are old�� You should rest on the side."


    "Hmph." Both of them suddenly snorted and leaped at the same time.


    The wolf king mmed his sword down to hit Nart, but thetter covered his sword with his own wind, striking the wolf''s sword with his thin sword.


    His sword was even smaller than Commander Ivan, making one doubt whether it could hold or not.


    However, when the two swords were about to sh, Nart''s wind swirled like crazy and pushed the wolf''s sword before even touching it.


    The moment the two swords hit each other, the wolf''s sword was blown away as the wolf''s body was pushed back because of the momentum.


    Sensing Nart''s n to strike him, the wolf kingunched himself backward, away from Nart.


    The wolf was shocked and looked at his sword. He was sure he had activated the power of the sword, but why could Nart overpower him��


    "So, a Supreme Rank Expert has been in by you�� Judging from your power, you are a new Supreme Rank Expert and rely on that artifact." Nart smiled and raised his sword. "Sorry, but I have reached that stage long ago."


    Meanwhile, Nadia also gathered her wind around her de and struck the mummy. Thetter formed a shield, blocking the ive.


    The wind dispersed together with the ck-colored energy.


    Nadia spun her body and sent a kick to the mummy''s head while the mummy formed a ck sword with the help of the crown.


    The wind covering her foot and the ck sword neutralized each other again as the mummy said, "You cursed woman. Don''t think you can win against me."


    "Hmm? Okay. Why should I think something that has been epted as a fact?" Nadia tilted her head in confusion while leaping on top of him. She tried to grab the mummy''s crown that seemed to be the source of his power, but the mummy had ducked down, preventing her from stealing his crown.


    "You are not qualified to possess this crown, woman. Only I, the sessor of the Great God Osiris, can wield it." The mummy harrumphed.


    Nadia squinted her eyes and said, "You said something pretty interesting there. Osiris��"


    Nadia''s expression turned grim. She covered her ive with the torrential wind again and swung it like that of a baseball.


    She nned to blow the mummy away, but the mummy had realized her n.


    He raised both hands and covered it with the ck energy. He caught the de with his bare hands, which obviously confronted the wind''s barrier.


    If not because of the ck energy, she would have obliterated his hands.


    After canceling each other, the mummy king leaped backward to gain more distance, which turned out to be his mistake.


    Suddenly, two figures appeared in front of the mummy. The first one was a masked man standing in front of him, while the other one was a red-haired maning from behind.


    Nadia slightly raised her eyebrows when he saw them but soon realized what had happened. Unlike Nadia''s calm expression, the mummy gritted his teeth and extended both hands.


    The masked man saw the iing mummy''s hands while extending his hand to the crown. This was the only time the crown didn''t have the energy to supply the mummy in order to block Nadia''s attack, so Theo believed this was the perfect time to steal it.


    To everyone''s surprise, the man let the mummy pierced his stomach while summoning the bandages to capture the red-haired man on his back.


    "Boy, don''t bite more than you can chew," said Nadia while shaking her head, looking at the man who was so daring to even challenge a mummy. Even without the artifact, the mummy had enough power to handle him.


    However, she soon took back her words when the masked man suddenly disappeared, revealing another masked man behind him. The masked man had yet to get any injuries while the mummy had both hands upied.


    The masked man spun his body and went to the side, grabbing the crown and running away.

 Chapter 456 – Underworld Dominion

    <h4>Chapter 456 - Underworld Dominion</h4>


    "Huh?" Nadia was amused when Theo stole the crown from the mummy. At the same time, she somehow felt a certain simrity in his fighting style despite having such a cover. "Moving together with a clone, using an illusion and tricks, and having a good head to execute all that��"


    Even though she was overseas, she still watched Alea''s performance in the Grand Gaia Competition. And as expected, Theo took her attention as well.


    Not many guys would appear in this ce with this kind of prowess and appearance, so she instantly recognized the guy''s identity.


    She thought inwardly, ''That boy is Theodore Griffith, huh? It''s normal for Father to know that kid since they have coborated once. Still, has he been hiding his identity this whole time? He��''


    Nadia felt something weird within Theo and it was his choice to keep his cover instead of using it to fight for his life.


    ''He seems to have a problem in the head��'' She shook her head helplessly while shouting with a poker face. "Oi, don''t steal the artifact. You can''t use it, you know�� But if you''re thinking about helping me killing this monster, then I guess��"


    Before she finished her words, Theo turned around as if he nned to face the mummy himself.


    The mummy was angered to the limit as he growled, "You are one ignorant human. You don''t know the power of Death and you shall suffer from it!"


    He raised his hand and stimted the crown once more.


    "Not good!" Realizing what happened, Nadia shouted to Theo. "Boy, drop that crown right now!"


    Unfortunately, Theo had no intention of dropping it.


    The crown released a huge amount of ck-colored energy from the ceramic, enveloping him.


    Nadia quickly formed a small wind tornado and leaped toward Theo. "I''m going to save you."


    The mummy king obviously didn''t let her. He intercepted her by creating a ck smoke that gave a sense of dread to Nadia''s heart.


    Nadia waved her ive to strike the mummy king, but thetter still managed to dodge it while moving closer to Theo.


    "You start panicking, human." The mummy king chuckled as if enjoying her desperation when she saw someone dying.


    Nadia never thought that Theo would be in this situation because of the artifact. Even so, she remained calm and said, "You will be fine, I will neutralize whatever energy it is."


    "It''s impossible. Only the dead can gain the power of Death. He shall be the deceased��"


    Both of them turned to Theo, watching how Theo would be killed by the power of Death, or that was what was supposed to happen.


    On the contrary, Theo simply stood there with the ck energy floating around him in harmony.


    "What?!" The mummy king dropped his jaw when he saw how calm the energy was.


    "What is happening?" Nadia was also shocked by this development.


    Little did they know, Theo had the protection of the Goddess of Death. There was no way he would be affected by all this.


    In fact, he had been trying to hold a conversation with her.


    After seeing how the ck energy didn''t even move, Theo stopped and asked, "I have gotten the crown. What should I do?"


    There was no answer from the Goddess while Theo wondered what would happen to him.


    Luckily, he maintained his calm until he got the answer from her.


    [Bonding with the power of Death.]


    [Bonding failed.]


    [Obedience is required.]


    [Underworld Dominion is activated.]


    "What is this?" Theo opened his eyes wide as he never thought there would be this kind of message. This was the first time Theo saw the notificationsing in session.


    Suddenly, another notification shocked him to the core.


    [Blessing Enhancement.]


    [A skill will be temporarily lent.]


    [Acquired Underworld Dominion Skill (Temporary).]


    Skill: Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (S)


    Effect: Personification of Death, the ruler of the Underworld. Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, and Unknown.


    [Absorbing the power of Death.]


    The crown suddenly released an even more intense power of Death to the surrounding. The grass started to wither, and the dry dirt solidified as if their lives were taken away by the energy.


    Not long after, cracks appeared all over the crown as thetter shattered into pieces, revealing a floating blue ceramic.


    The ceramic soon followed the fate of the crown, breaking into pieces. All the energy stored inside it burst out.


    [Absorbing the power of Death.]


    [The power is too low. Fully activation is canceled.]


    [The user is too weak. The Sealing Process starts.]


    Skill: Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (B) - Sealed Form


    Effect: Personification of Death, the ruler of the Underworld. Unknown.


    Theo obviously had no idea what was going on. However, the energy around him started to feel a bit familiar to him.


    "What is this��" Theo gulped down and raised his head, finding the shocked faces of Nadia and the mummy king.


    The mummy king shouted in anger. "Impossible. How can you control the power of Death? You bastard, who are you?!"


    Meanwhile, Nadia nced at him while taking what the mummy king said into ount. She muttered inwardly, ''People said he has a God Rank Blessing and from what the mummy said, he can control the power of Death. It must be rted to his blessing, which shoulde from God or Goddess of Death.


    ''However, which God blessed him? He has been talking about Osiris�� But is it truly him?'' Nadia gulped down.


    Unfortunately, Theo had no idea of what he was saying. It turned out the ck-colored energy had isted him from the rest.


    Theo also wanted to know because he experienced this weird phenomenon for the first time.


    [Creating a new Death Avatar.]


    [Matching the user''s personality and character.]


    [Forming the Death Avatar.]


    The ck-colored energy suddenly spun around like that of a tornado and gradually formed a figure behind Theo.


    The figure reached fifteen feet above the ground and connected to Theo''s shadow as the avatar didn''t have feet.


    The Death Avatar had a ck magician hat and a white and ck mask. The eyes behind the mask were purple. It wore a white shirt and a ck vest, covered with a long red robe.


    All the ck energy disappeared to create this avatar, who looked down on all people in this area.


    [Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (Activated)]

 Chapter 457 – Death’s Avatar

    <h4>Chapter 457 - Death��s Avatar</h4>


    [Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (Activated)]


    "!!!" The mummy king halted and drew a long gasp, staring at the Death Avatar. "How�� How is this possible? A personification of Death��"


    Even Nadia had no words for this avatar. She raised her head and looked at those purple eyes hiding beneath the mask and felt chills down her spine. "He��"


    Every single person in the surroundings was also rmed by this avatar''s sudden appearance.


    Nart instinctively took a step back when he saw the avatar and soon realized what he had done. He muttered inwardly, ''Seriously? Did I take a step back just by looking at it? Have I gone senile?''


    Alea had a bigger reaction as her hands started shaking. Strength began to leave her body as she saw the person who created such a feeling.


    Theo.


    She clutched her heart and began gasping for air.


    There was one thought fluttering in her mind.


    ''No�� No, don''t go�� I can''t reach you anymore.''


    Ellen and Phyrill had an even bigger reaction than Alea as they didn''t have the courage Alea possessed from her blessing. They had the same expressions as any other people in the area: fear and respect.


    The mummies somehow felt that power of Death and lowered their arms. If the people were not shocked by the avatar, they would see the mummies dropping to their knees.


    Meanwhile, the wolves were ring at Theo''s Death Avatar with their feet shaking and their bodies swaying left and right. It took everything for them to not run in fear.


    No one realized the fact Theo''s skill was an S Rank Skill. In other words, it was a Divine Skill. There was no way they could withstand this power even when the majority of its power had been sealed.


    Only those in the Supreme Rank managed to receive itpletely.


    Theo, on the contrary, felt nothing from this avatar, not realizing Ava was shivering in fear from this avatar alone.


    Before Theo asked any questions, he found another notification.


    [You have one shot. Put everything you get and kill the mummy. Go!]


    Seeing the message, Theo quickly raised his spear and charged toward the mummy king.


    Because of his intention, the mummy was the first to react.


    "He wants to kill me��" The mummy king gritted his teeth. He never thought Theo could manifest the power of Death to this degree. However, he also felt the power didn''te from Osiris as there was no connection between them present earlier.


    With his belief in the Great God Osiris, the mummy king became hostile to Theo. "sphemy."


    Nadia reacted a second toote as Theo had already arrived in front of the mummy king.


    Theo poured all his strength from External Flow, Materialization, Telekinesis, and Cannon st. He waved his spear down in order to smash the mummy king from top to bottom, killing him.


    On the other hand, the mummy king formed a shield made of ck-colored energy. Compared to the previous shield boosted by the crown, this shield was nothing. Even so, Theo was still two hundred levels behind the mummy, so he knew his attack wouldn''t be able to kill the mummy king.


    Before changing his stance, another notification appeared.


    [Continue.]


    Theo was startled but chose to believe this instruction. He used all his strength to hit the shield.


    The assistance from the Goddess of Death had finally arrived when the skill was utilized.


    [Death Avatar''s First Authority, Death Eyes.]


    The avatar''s left eye suddenly glowed as if a purple me burned its eye. Meanwhile, Theo experienced the same but with his right eye.


    The two synchronized as a purple-colored sh appeared for a split second before vanishing without a trace.


    But in that instant, everyone experienced the same thing.


    They were all transported to another ce.


    When they looked down, they saw them standing on top of red-colored water, which was supposed to be blood.


    When they turned around, they could only see darkness on the horizon.


    When they raised their heads, dim red light shone behind ck clouds.


    Nadia, Nart, the wolf king, and the mummy king were the first to wake up from this illusion and tried to free themselves.


    Unfortunately for the mummy king, Theo, who still maintained his sanity, had slipped past his shield and struck him in the head.


    "Ha!" Theo shouted on top of his lungs to boost his strength or spirit a little bit.


    The energy from around his spear bent the head in an instant as Theo continued doing it, crushing the head and body.


    The spear ripped it apart and the two sides that had yet to be crushed fell to the ground as Theo panted.


    "Ha�� Ha��" Theo couldn''t believe what he had just seen. There was no way he could kill the mummy king this easily. The only answer to his doubt was the avatar behind him.


    Nadia and Nart had returned and saw Theo crushing the mummy king effortlessly. To her surprise, Nadia''s body had moved several feet away from Theo despite her entering the illusion as well.


    It was the result of her training and level that made such a thing possible. Still, it didn''t diminish the shock in her heart.


    Little did they know, Theo was as confused as them. He turned around and looked at the avatar while getting several notifications.


    [Killed an Underworld Mummy.]


    [EXP+2,100,250]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    [Level Up.]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 314


    EXP: 428,998/894,421


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 430, Endurance 261, Agility 275, Vitality 261, Magic Power 470


    Free Attribute Points: 15


    Before he reacted, the Death Avatar started to disperse and disappear with some more messages.


    [Power of Death has dispersed.]


    [Absorbing the excess energy.]


    [Attribute Points+40]


    [Trial ispleted.]


    Trial: Kill either Underworld Mummy or Metal Wolf King (Completed)


    Reward: Upgraded Skill Eyes


    [Granting the Upgraded Skill Eyes.]


    [The body is too weak to handle the Death Avatar.]


    [Bacsh will ur in 3��2��1��]


    "Oh sh*t."

 Chapter 458 – Backlash

    <h4>Chapter 458 - Bacsh</h4>


    "Oh sh*t."


    In that instant, Theo''s vision turned ck as blood began to flow out of his eyes. Theo suddenly dropped to the ground while clutching his head. "Argh!"


    Theo screamed in pain as he dropped to his knees.


    "What?! What is happening?" Nadia was dumbstruck. First, Theo showed an amazing skill that could influence her. After that, he killed the mummy in an instant. However, he now dropped to the ground while wailing in pain.


    Everything didn''t make sense as she wondered whether she should help him or not, considering the skill might influence her when she touched him.


    No one noticed it, but Nadia muttered two words�� "Griffith Family��"


    Clicking her tongue, Nadia approached Theo and bent her knees, trying to check his condition while assuring her. "Hey, what happened to you? Talk to me? Don''t worry. Everything is going to be alright, okay?"


    Unfortunately, Theo heard nothing as he simply passed out.


    She instinctively pulled him into her embrace while shouting, "Healer! I need a healer right here!"


    That shout shattered the peace Theo created a while ago as all of them woke up from the illusion.


    Nart also followed soon and ordered out loud. "Healers! Hurry up!"


    Instead of helping Theo, Nart decided to kill the wolf king first as he was the immediate threat. He didn''t forget to give anothermand. "Kill your enemies first before asking anything. We are not out of danger yet."


    Theo was unaware of what happened outside.


    Inside his consciousness, he had returned to the same space as the others visited.


    There was one big difference between him and the others. When he arrived at this space, Theo''s body was soon dismembered as though this ce wanted to torture him.


    That was why Theo screamed before passing out.


    Theo just got murdered in this ce.


    After dying, Theo''s body was restored as he soon saw an emergence of a figure.


    "This is��" Theo raised his head in shock. It was his Death Avatar. "Why��"


    Unfortunately, it was just a brief meeting as the Death Avatar turned into dust and dissolved in this blood floor.


    "Wait!" Theo raised his voice. He stepped forward but soon felt something grabbing his foot.


    It pulled him down, making him realize the blood floor was like a bottomless pool.


    When he looked down, nothing could be seen even though Theo still felt something grabbing his foot.


    He held his breath and kicked his foot, only to have the pain jolt his mind as nothing was there.


    "!!!" Theo didn''t know what was happening as he was simply trying to survive. However, this invisible thing that pulled him inside was trying to drown him, and it seeded.


    Theo suffered from all this for an hour before his mind went nk.


    ��


    Outside, several hours had passed.


    After the healer took care of Theo, Nadia helped Nart kill the wolf king and the rest. There was noint anymore as Theo''s condition worried them.


    The long war took a toll on their bodies, especially those from the initial group. They decided to go back to the previous camp.


    Theo wasid down in a tent alone and asked everybody to leave because they didn''t know whether the power of Death still remained in his body or not. They told them that if they touched him, they might suffer some serious injuries or even lose their lives.


    It was a silent night as nobody had the mood for celebration. They had lost so much today.


    Meanwhile, Ava finally sneaked out of his shirt and looked at the unconscious Theo. Her ears were down and her expression was filled with sadness.


    She looked at Theo as if she wanted to cry.


    "Kyu��" Ava couldn''t help bute closer and touch his cheek even though she heard what they were saying about his body.


    On the contrary, Nadia and Nart had a private meeting.


    Nadia''s expression was serious as she red at Nart, demanding an exnation. "That boy is Theodore Griffith, right?"


    Nart closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "Yeah."


    "What is he exactly?"


    "I am as confused as you."


    "He touched the crown which turned out to contain the power of Death. I could dispel the energy from him, but controlling that power is a different case."


    "I know, I saw that." He shrugged. "Even so, I have no idea. I am sure you have watched the Grand Gaia, right?"


    Nadia nodded with a long face as she already knew what he wanted to say.


    "Everyone had suspected him of having a God Rank Blessing, but no one knew about it yet. They thought he had a blessing rted to an Illusion, but they turned out to be wrong. To think he has a blessing from a God or Goddess of Death," said Nart, misunderstanding Theo''s blessing.


    "I know. Still, is there a reason for concealing that power until now?" Nadia also misunderstood it and assessed Theo''s personality from what she had seen so far. "Look at him, if he had that kind of power all this time, why had he not used it?


    "This is foolish. I know that he doesn''t want to have many people to know him because of his identity, but this one has surpassed the line."


    "Well, his power is normal in my opinion. I mean, people can ept Necromancy as there is a rule regting that power. It would be fine if he revealed his power earlier or even in thepetition." Nart looked down and said, "Still�� Hey, he is from the Griffith Family. Maybe someone is pulling some strings? Maybe he suffered in the past that led to that personality? We don''t know."


    "��" Nadia fell silent and looked away, surprisingly epting the reason. "Fair enough. They can do anything they need to do, so I guess someone wants him to conceal that power? I mean, I was entranced by that power for a split second."


    "Yeah." Nart nodded. "To achieve such a feat when you are only a Hero Rank Expert�� I''m afraid the skill was an A Rank Skill. The suffering he received after using that power was none other than the bacsh of the skill, not rted to the power of Death."


    "Probably." Nadia agreed with him.


    Suddenly, Nadia and Nart suddenly turned around and looked at the dark space before they exchanged looks while scratching the back of their heads with awkward expressions.

 Chapter 459 – Change

    <h4>Chapter 459 - Change</h4>


    Theo''s tent.


    Theo was lying down with his eyes closed. Ava was with him this whole time, waiting for Theo to wake up.


    However, she picked up another sound as a figure stopped in front of the tent.


    "Kyu?!" Ava looked around and sneaked inside Theo''s bag while peeking through a small gap to see the person.


    The person entered with her head down.


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes when she saw Alea entering his tent. Ava had never met Alea since she didn''t participate in the previous expedition, so she was wondering what Alea nned to do to him.


    She squinted her eyes, observing her expression and action��


    Unaware of Ava''s presence, Alea bent her knees and sat next to Theo, staring at Theo''s mask.


    "��" She had heard that the story was just a thing to scare others away so as to protect his identity. However, Alea already knew his identity and gently took off his mask, finding Theo''s sleeping face.


    She gently reached Theo''s right hand and grabbed it with both hands. She closed her eyes and sighed in disappointment. "I saw yourst skill that could affect everyone. I guess you''re out of my reach now.


    "I am disappointed in myself for not realizing everything until now. I almost killed you twice�� No wonder you hate me. I can''t even fathom why you acted friendly to me all this time, unlike Laust or Sihan. I guess it''s because of my ignorance?


    "I have been living with my ignorance this whole time. People say ignorance is bliss and I can say it''s true." She opened her eyes and stared at Theo''s face for a moment before saying in a genuine but sad tone. "Theo. I''m sorry for not realizing it until now. I''m sorry for being annoying. I''m sorry for�� everything."


    "In that case�� We�� are even�� now." Theo gradually opened his mouth and tried hard to answer Alea. His consciousness was still fuzzy, but he knew who the other party was from the story itself.


    "Theo?" Alea''s body shook as she almost jumped out.


    Theo tiredly opened his eyes and continued, "We are even now. I almost died from the turtle and the bat because of you. However, you saved me from this incident and took care of the Alpha Mutated Wolf. With this, we are even."


    "They are not the same. Back then, you had no strength to fight them. Meanwhile, in this incident, I have the power." Alea shook her head and protested.


    Theo made a weird expression and said, "So, you first apologized to me. Then, I told you we''re good. And now you are telling me they are not the same? So, what do you want?"


    "Ah��" Alea flinched and tried to look away while thinking about how to answer that question.


    "See?" Theo sighed and took a deep breath. "People change. I have learned it first hand."


    Theo couldn''t help but remember Laust and himself.


    "It''s funny how fast people can change. One day, they treat you like you don''t even exist. The next day, you mean everything." Theo smiled. "I wonder if I can hate someone who once hurt me and has changed to a better man and help so many people? Will I keep clinging to my past? Or will I see my future?"


    "I know that to grow faster, I need to keep moving forward. I am not a psychopath, so yeah, I will still y my enemies but will let go of my past." Theo nced at Alea. "After doing that, my heart has been filled with peace. I can focus on my tasks better because I don''t feel unnecessary hatred anymore."


    Theo''s expression looked genuine, but it was also his way to convince himself to avoid getting disappointed by his family anymore. He would keep killing his enemies like Sihan, but he chose to let go of Laust.


    He remembered Loki''s myth. It might be due to his mischief, but he was indeed abused more than his mischief.


    "Anyway, that''s all. I won''t be someone who will say, ''But you used some curse words a few years ago and need to be held ountable,'' when you have apologized and changed for the better." Theo closed his eyes again, wanting to go back to sleep.


    Ava was watching him this whole time before she picked some sounds from the outside.


    "So, what do we have here?" Nadia nced at Nart while sitting on crossed legs not far away from Theo''s tent. "Since when?"


    Nart covered his mouth with his hand and started chuckling.


    "Old man, stopughing. I need to know the answer." Nadia rolled her eyes.


    "It''s been that way before the Grand Gaia. James knew about it since the school''spetition, I guess."


    "Why haven''t you told me?"


    "You were doing your jobs there. No need to think about this small matter." Nart shrugged. "We can only advise her. If it turned out to be good, it would be nice. If it turned out to be a flop, we could only stay by her side. After all, there''s no way we can stay with her for the rest of her life. You need to taste the good and bad things in life to grow up."


    "I somehow want to punch you, but I don''t find the reason either." Nadia let out a long sigh. "Still, he is from the Griffith Family, you know."


    "I know. However, he doesn''t seem to be fond of the Griffith Family that much."


    "Well, give me the kid''s information when we are back, okay?"


    "Sure, sure. Though, I believe this kid will be fine everywhere. There''s no need to worry about them, especially since Alea has grown up." Nart smiled. "Let the youngsters solve it themselves�� I will step up if I really need to. Trust me."


    "Fine." Nadia looked down, contemting for a moment. "By the way, who is his father? Who is his mother?"


    "I have no idea."


    "You sure? Doesn''t the Griffith Family rule require the parents to apany their child until he''s an adult?"


    "Yeah. That''s why I''m perplexed. It feels like they are trying to push him away from the Griffith Family."


    "Agreed. I mean, look at his ability, especially the one he used to kill the mummy king. I don''t think any of the Griffith Family''s younger generations are able to fight him in terms of talent. He is bound to be the family head and seeing him treated this way, they should be trying to push him away from the family. I don''t understand."


    Nart agreed with her and said, "Yeah. Normally, they want people like Theo to be their family head and if he grew up with his parents, he would have done so much more. It feels like they''re hiding him from the Griffith Family''s eyes."


    Nadia shook her head helplessly. "Either way, I don''t really want to associate myself with them."


    "You know it''s impossible, right?" Nart chuckled, showing a teasing smile on his face.


    Nadia only looked away, not wanting to be bothered with him anymore.

 Chapter 460 – Wake Up

    <h4>Chapter 460 - Wake Up</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo woke up from his rest, finding Ava sleeping next to him.


    "Hmm?" He let out a small groan while trying to check his body''s condition. He tilted his body a few times but felt nothing was wrong. "I guess my body is good."


    Ava was woken up by Theo''s sudden movement and instinctively leaped to Theo when she saw he was alright. "Kyu!"


    Theo smiled and caught Ava. "Ahaha, sorry. My body was still too sluggish yesterday. I just wanted to rest��"


    "Kyu." Ava shook her head as if telling him it was fine.


    "That''s good." Theo nodded and opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 314


    EXP: 428,998/894,421


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 430, Endurance 261, Agility 275, Vitality 261, Magic Power 470


    Free Attribute Points: 55


    "Oh?" Theo opened his eyes wide when he saw 55 Free Attribute Points and remembered that it was given after absorbing the power of Death. "That''s pretty good."


    Theo had no hesitation in allocating his Free Attribute Points.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 314


    EXP: 428,998/894,421


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Illusion Multiplier (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 440, Endurance 266, Agility 281, Vitality 266, Magic Power 500


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Yep. This is good enough." Theo nodded with a serious expression. Since he was still wearing a mask, Alea must have put it back on. He then rose from the ground and stretched his body to see whether he experienced any abnormalities.


    After that, he couldn''t help but remember the previous feeling. "Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar�� It was a Divine Skill since it was literally an S Rank Skill. The sealed version alone was that good, I couldn''t imagine what kind of power it would have when it was at its peak.


    "That might be the exnation of how the Goddess could rule the Underworld." Theo fell silent. "Still, I won''t have any problem after getting the power of Death, right?"


    Unfortunately, there was no answer from the Goddess, so Theo could only sigh. "Great. I gotta figure it out alone."


    Theo looked at Ava, "Sorry for not apanying you��"


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled as if telling him it was fine. In fact, she was still worried about him as she wondered whether Theo had recovered or not.


    "We will continue killing some monsters in order to reach as high as possible. We have around eleven days to level up. The situation must have been resolved after the two kings died. So, I am hoping to reach level 325 before returning home." Theo told Ava his n.


    "Kyu?!" Ava furrowed her eyebrows, not wanting Theo to push himself.


    "Or we can stop the hunt here." Seeing Ava''s persistence, Theo offered a second option. "We will return, and I will go to the hospital. After that, we can rest for two weeks before going on another expedition. This way, we have two months to reach level 350 and head to that ce."


    "Kyu!" Ava furiously nodded her head as Theo''s health was her priority.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and stroked her head. "Fine, fine. Let''s do it your way. Sorry for making you worry, Ava."


    "Kyu."


    "For now, I will go out to ensure that I''m alright. Sorry for hiding you here."


    "Kyu!" Ava waved her foot before returning to the top of his bag, nning to hide there after this.


    Theo was grateful for Ava''s understanding and waved his hand with a smile before leaving the tent.


    When everyone saw himing out, they all flinched as they remembered what Theo did yesterday. It struck deep inside their heart because they had never experienced something like that. Even the Supreme Rank Experts didn''t give such feelings.


    Theo was stunned for a moment while looking around, trying to find Ellen, Phyrill, or whoever he knew.


    "Ah, you are awake now." Alea was the first to be found as she walked to him with a smile on her face. It seemed her heart had settled down with their conversation yesterday.


    Theo nodded awkwardly and asked, "Where is Phyrill or Ellen?"


    "They are hunting around the area. As you can see, most of the people here��" Alea nced at them. There were many injured people or even disabled due to the mummies and wolves'' attacks. So, not many could scout around the area.


    Also, many of them seemed to be a bit hostile to him.


    Even Alea could feel it and make a weird smile. "Don''t worry about them. No one mes you for hiding your strength."


    Theo shrugged. "Well, it wasn''t my fault. My side didn''t copse, so yeah. If their side didn''t copse, we wouldn''t face this problem."


    Alea scratched the back of her head. After learning the situation, she knew Theo was right, so she couldn''t rebuke him.


    "Anyway, do you need anything? Do you feel any pain?" She asked with a concerned expression.


    "I''m good now. I should have no problem, but I''m going to check it either way." Theo shrugged.


    "I see. In that case, I should ask my mother to check your body. She is an expert in this area since her job revolves around artifacts." She shrugged.


    "Oh?" Theo nodded while wondering if she would answer his questions about artifacts. He was quite curious about it. Of course, Theo didn''t forget to ask, "By the way, do you know anything about artifacts?"


    Alea looked down, thinking. Unfortunately, she shook her head in the end. "My knowledge came from the school. Even then, there''s not much information about it. I think it''s better to ask my mother about it. I can ask her to answer your questions.


    "In fact, my mother is a bit interested in you, especially when you held the mummy''s artifact and destroyed it."


    "Ahaha, I''m not going to pay for it, right? No one''s property."


    "Of course not." She then looked to the right. "Anyway, my mother is going to be back soon. Wait here for now, I will bring you something to drink."

 Chapter 461 – Artifacts

    <h4>Chapter 461 - Artifacts</h4>


    A few minutester, Theo found a group of five returned to their camp. The one who walked at the very front was none other than Alea''s mother.


    Upon noticing Theo, she quickly reappeared in front of him with a brightened expression. She scanned Theo up and down before smiling, "How are you?"


    Theo''s body flinched as he took a step back. "I-I''m fine."


    "That''s good." She nodded and grabbed Theo''s hand. "I will check your power with my own power to see whether the power of Death is still lingering in your body or not."


    "A-ah. Okay?"


    After a minute, she closed her eyes and nodded�� "I think you won''t need to worry for the time being. I can check your body a bit more after this. How about you wait for me there?"


    Theo nced at his tent and agreed.


    He walked to his tent while Nadia took care of a few things before returning to him.


    Curious, Alea also approached them, trying to see what her mother was doing.


    Theo was sitting on the ground while crossing his legs. When Nadia came to him, he stood up, only to be stopped by Nadia.


    "It''s okay. Just sit there. It''s going to take a while." Nadia assured him and sat next to him with great interest. "I am a researcher. My focus is on Artifacts. So, I need to see if you''re still controlled or influenced by an artifact or not."


    "Controlled?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yeah." Nadia nodded. "To be honest, we have found a connection between this world and the beings of the past."


    "Hmm?" Theo thought for a moment and remembered what the Goddess of Death told him in order to convince him. "Don''t tell me you are going to say miracles, right?"


    "Ah, do you know something about it already?" Nadia widened her eyes in surprise while holding Theo''s wrist and elbow. "Did your God tell you anything?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "Miracle does exist."


    Nadia agreed with him and exined it a bit better. "Yes. Actually, our world has some sort of connection to the beings of the past, especially Gods and Goddesses. That''s why there are many religions and such. They''re a form of belief as well as that connection.


    "When the Gods and Goddesses form a bond with a human, the religion will spread. That''s how there are mythologies about them.


    "And they sometimes allow us to borrow their powers to perform something that no one can believe. We call it Miracle!"


    "I see. So, that''s how it is."


    "Yep. Of course, there are tools of the past that can even make it possible."


    "Artifacts." Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Exactly." Nadia smiled. "Artifacts hold so much power, considering they were wielded by someone great in the past. And the power of that person continued to reside inside the artifacts.


    "My real concern is that you seem to have been influenced by the power of Death. I can dispel it for you or do some treatments. I wasn''t that worried about you getting influenced by it yesterday; I just miscalcted that the mummy king turned out to be still in control of the power within that artifact.


    "Anyway, seeing you are fine after getting influenced by that power, I can assume that your blessing helped you. Your God lent you the power to perform these so-called miracles to prevent you from being consumed by that power.


    "I can check your condition right now, but I believe you need to get a thorough check once. The power of Death is not something that should be underestimated.


    "I had a case where a guy who held the power of Necromancy turned into an undead because his body was corroded by the artifact that had that power. I don''t want you to suddenly die because of that power��"


    Hearing Nadia''s concern, Theo nodded in agreement. "I n to visit the hospital for a thorough check-up. Thank you for your suggestion."


    "No, no. You misunderstand my statement." Nadia shook her head. "I am a researcher of artifacts, but I am working overseas. There is only one reason. The government doesn''t have a team of researchers in this country, so yeah, I fly all the way to Egypt."


    "So, you want me to fly there?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    "Nope. Just go to my home. I am a senior researcher. I can do it for you since I have brought a few tools to check your condition." Nadia gave a thumbs up.


    "Mom?" Alea was startled by Nadia''s invitation. She never thought her mother would invite Theo to their house.


    "What''s wrong?" Nadia tilted her head in confusion. "Do you think I''m going to steal your boyfriend?"


    "I''m not!" Alea stomped the ground and red at her. "Stop teasing me."


    "Haha." Nadiaughed and decided to continue. "Anyway, I don''t need payment. I just want to gather more data from you. That''s my only demand."


    "So, you want me to be your guinea pig?" Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Yes and no. Before performing one treatment, I am going to exin it to you. You can choose whether you want to do it or not." Nadia gave Theo an option. However, it was all the considerations for the Griffith Family, not him.


    She had treated him anyway, so if he died because of his own refusal, she and her family wouldn''t be held ountable by the Griffith Family.


    "Well, if you die, I can get other data too. Cause of death�� Ahem." Nadia looked away.


    Theo thought for a moment and wondered whether he could trust her or not. "Ma''am. You''re�� a bit too blunt, aren''t you?"


    "I am a researcher, not a doctor. I don''t give any sweet words saying you will recover when you actually can''t." Nadia shrugged.


    Theo let out a long sigh. If only either H or Loki had answered his question earlier, he wouldn''t have to go all the way to the Eilric Family to check his condition. But he had no other choice.


    After considering the pros and cons, he nodded his head. "I will be in your care."

 Chapter 462 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 462 - Return</h4>


    After getting a checkup, Theo turned the mummy king into cards and received two cards.


    Skill: Hand of Darkness (C)


    Effect: Allow the user with Dark Affinity to naturally gather the Magic Power around his body.


    Coal Bandage (B)


    Closing external wounds within seconds. Effective until it is covered with other substances.


    He didn''t really need the skill, but the Material Card seemed to be good for him. At the very least, he had something to treat him in an emergency.


    And no one dared to ask him for the reward because he killed the mummy king by himself. They only swallowed their anger and red at Theo when he did all this.


    The next process went smoothly and the group could return to Ark City within two days.


    As soon as they returned to Ark City, Nart decided to talk to him alone by pulling him over. It seemed to be serious, so Theo agreed with him and stepped over to the side.


    "Can I help you?" Theo asked with a calm expression.


    "I just want to apologize." Nart let out a long sigh as he seemed to be a bit troubled by something.


    "Apologize for what?"


    Nart nced at Nadia and tilted his head as if telling him the reason. "Do you know that my Eilric Family has something to do with your Griffith Family?"


    "This is my first time hearing it." Theo raised his eyebrows in surprise but soon frowned, feeling something wasn''t right.


    "Hmm, I can''t really say much about your family because of the rule, but you can say your Griffith Family has three vassal families. The Eilric Family is one of them."


    "Well, I don''t even know that is the case. Was it also the reason you approached me?" Theo asked.


    "Yes and no." Nart shrugged. "The first time I met you, I didn''t know about your identity. Later someone told me about your status and that was when I started to do it."


    "Hmm, okay? So, what do you want to do?" Theo let out a long sigh. "To be honest, I am too tired to even care at this point."


    "I just want to tell you that she��" Nart nced at Nadia, "She doesn''t like your family that much. I don''t know if you have felt it or not, but yeah��"


    Nart had difficulty in saying it because the matter was rted to both Theo and his daughter-inw.


    "Hmm, I don''t really care. As long as she doesn''t harm me or anything, yeah sure." Theo nodded.


    "Yeah. I think she will check you once before returning to Egypt."


    "Okay."


    "Okay, good." Nart thought for a moment. "Do you know where my mansion is? Do you want to get a ride?"


    "Nah, I''m going to go back to my house first to do a few things before going there�� Never mind, the sun is almost set. I will go there in the morning. What do you think?"


    "Sounds good to me." Nart nodded and patted his shoulder. "Alright. See you tomorrow."


    Theo then stepped back and watched Nart walking to Nadia.


    Meanwhile, Ellen and Phyrill came to him.


    Phyrill was obviously happy to know that his people were fine. He patted Theo''s shoulders and said with a smile. "No need to think about them. You''re not obligated to use your own power, especially if it endangers your life. I am just thankful that most of my men are still alive because of you. Thanks."


    "You''re wee. I''m just paying you back for the information and the opportunity." Theo shook Phyrill''s hand.


    "Thank you for saving my life this whole time." Ellen stepped forward and thanked him.


    "It''s fine. You took care of me the most when I just started. Think of it as repayment for everything you have done." Theo nodded.


    Ellen hugged him to show her thanks and whispered, "Good luck in your journey. I know that it''s going to be hard, but I believe you can do it. Keep working hard."


    "I will, thanks." Theo nodded and stepped back, watching them leave.


    Alea wanted toe, but she needed to reorganize the group and send them back home. When she had finished, Theo had already returned to his home.


    Ava quickly jumped out of the bag andnded on the floor. "Kyu!"


    "Do you want to take a bath?" Theo raised his eyebrows. "Sure. I am gonna order some food right now, so you can wash yourself first."


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava''s eyes brightened as she looked at Theo with expectations.


    "Yeah, yeah. I will order your favorite food." Theo shook his head helplessly. After seeing Ava going to the bath, Theo ordered pizzas.


    Finally, after rxing on his couch, Theo didn''t feel like doing anything and just closed his eyes, remembering the image of his Death Avatar. The scene was still fresh in his mind.


    "Underworld Dominion, Death Avatar," Theo muttered its name beforeing to a realization. "First Authority, Death Eyes, huh."


    Theo recalled when H wanted to meet him because her strength was the hardest and the longest to master, so she wanted more time.


    He couldn''t help but mutter, "So that''s how it is. Death Eyes is a skill that relies on Awareness and Control. I don''t know the details, but I am sure of it, considering I have experienced it.


    "No, I should say that I can use Death Eyes since it''s a skill. However, if I want to make it even stronger, I need to learn this trick from the Goddess like what I have done with my Materialization. In that case, does this mean I am gonna get this Underworld Dominion skill?


    "That''s right. What is the use of this upgraded version of my eyes." Theo looked down. "How do I activate or use it? And when exactly can one receive a skill? There are requirements that shouldn''t be asked, but yeah, I''m curious."


    "Well, I don''t care about the requirements for now. What I want to know is the upgraded version of my eyes. I don''t want to be reprimanded by Jormungand again." Theo shook his head helplessly. The serpent was the calmest, but somehow, his words were the hardest to take.


    "Anyway, I will try to find it during the next two weeks."

 Chapter 463 – Visiting The Eilric Family

    <h4>Chapter 463 - Visiting The Eilric Family</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo had prepared to meet Nadia in the Eilric Family. He wore a in white t-shirt covered with a jacket and jeans.


    "Ava, take care of the home, okay?"


    "Kyu!" Ava waved her hand, watching Theo''s leaving before she leaned on the couch.


    Theo, on the other hand, went out with his Metamorphosis since this form was quite easy to use to travel.


    He followed the address and ended up in a rich neighborhood. As expected, there were some guards outside the neighborhood asking his identity.


    Luckily, the guards let him in because Nart had told them about a visitor.


    Not long after, he reached the mansion.


    He didn''t bother to admire this 10,000 square feet mansion and rang their doorbell.


    Alea soon came out to meet him, which surprised him.


    "Well, to think the young miss is the one toe out." Theo nced at her with a small smirk.


    "Don''t tease me." Alea pointed at the right. "I was practicing there earlier."


    Theo nced to his left and saw a small circle of dried dirt. The circle was surrounded by grass that seemed to have been blown away by the wind continuously. At the same time, there was one line of dirt slightly entering the ground.


    It just showed how much Alea had trained around that ce.


    "Well, I am just here for the treatment." Theo shrugged.


    "Sure. Let me guide you inside. My mother has been preparing her tools." Alea smiled and extended her hand to the house, inviting him in.


    The two then started walking for a while before Alea asked, "If you don''t mind me asking, had you ever used your blessing when we were in the Grand Gaia? I am a bit curious."


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t give her an answer, so she didn''t pry about it anymore. She just wanted to know the gap between them, considering Theo didn''t seem to have used his blessing this whole time.


    She realized if she couldn''t be like Ne, the gap would just be too big before she knew it.


    Alea didn''t say anything and led Theo through the mansion until they arrived in one of the rooms of this mansion.


    Inside the room, there was a wooden chair in the middle with a small table on the side. A small box was sitting on top of the table with two bracelets on the side. Nadia had been waiting for him inside, so when he entered, Nadia said, "Come in."


    Alea stood by the door while Theo walked to Nadia with a calm expression.


    "Sit down." Nadia pointed at the chair while exining. "There are going to be ten tests in total, starting from your Magic Power to its purity. We will see if your power is contaminated by that power."


    "Got it." Theo nodded and sat down. "Do I need to do anything during the tests?"


    "Nah. You are probably going to get bored." Nadia shrugged while setting up her test.


    "Then, do you mind me asking a few questions about artifacts? I have been thinking about them recently."


    "Sure." Nadia nodded. "I will just take it as me teaching my daughter about it as well."


    "Good enough." Theo didn''t care about her attitude anymore since Nart had already warned him. And he didn''t feel like getting angry unnecessarily. "Artifacts are said to be items rted to the past, right? I mean, the one we knew from the mythology. Do you think the other side is where the Gods and Goddesses reside?"


    "You''re not holding back your question, eh?" Nadia was slightly surprised by his first question and grabbed the bracelet and exined, "It''s going to gauge the amount of your Magic Power. If there is a change, I can see itter."


    Theo raised his hand as if telling her he agreed.


    Nadia then put the bracelet on before answering his question. "There is a conspiracy theory about that, but we haven''t found any proof other than the artifacts. Of course, humans have only ventured around twenty percent to thirty percent of the world�� That''s a rough estimate, we are not that sure either since we can''t send a satellite up there.


    "Anyway, with that data, we haven''t been able to find anything rted to the Gods and Goddesses like their tomb or body. Only the artifacts and some unique structures every now and then."


    Theo recalled the time he asked Loki about his state. Loki only told him that they were not dead but not alive either. He didn''t understand that phrase, but there should be a connection between his answer and this situation.


    "What is the use of Artifacts?" Theo changed to another question to avoid telling her any information.


    "They are something that can enhance your power. As you can see from the mummy king''s crown�� He could literally power up to match my power for a while." Nadia shrugged. "However, each artifact will cost you so much. It''s not that easy to possess an artifact."


    "How much does it cost?"


    "It''s not in the market. You can only get one from a ck market, an auction, or your connection." Nadia paused for a moment. "That''s why there is no fixed price for this thing. What you used was only a small fragment, so it wouldn''t be too expensive. Probably only one or two billion Zils. That''s the rough estimate."


    "Only one or two billion?" Theo rolled his eyes as he was only a poor little boy who just rose to his position recently. "So, how many artifacts does the Eilric Family have?"


    Nadia furrowed her eyebrows when she heard that question. She soon realized Theo was just trying to test her reaction, so she looked away and fought back. "Less than your Griffith Family."


    Theo confirmed that Nadia was indeed not on good terms with the Griffith Family. However, she couldn''t do anything to him because of his current status.


    "Well, that''s not an important question." Theo shrugged. "I am more curious about the artifacts. Have you found an artifact you can''t identify?"


    "It''s not that we can''t identify. It''s just we don''t have any idea who that belongs to. All the artifacts we have found so far are rted to any famous figures, so yeah, it can prove the connection between the two worlds. But we can''t find the details about it."

 Chapter 464 – Connection

    <h4>Chapter 464 - Connection</h4>


    "So, what is the power of artifacts?" Theo asked.


    Nadia raised Theo''s hand and showed him the number on the bracelet.


    15,000.


    Theo nodded and saw Nadia grabbing the second bracelet.


    "This one is going to measure the Magic Power only. If it has the same number, it means your Magic Power is pure." Nadia put it on Theo before answering his questions. "Anyway, the power of artifacts is random, but they must be rted to their previous owner''s myth. For example, the blue ceramic you found��


    "It was a fragment of Osiris'' crown, Atef. It contained his power of Death�� We have no clue about the sword though."


    "I see. Doesn''t that mean humans can make artifacts as well?" Theo asked. "I mean, not every artifact was from Gods or Goddesses, right?"


    "You''re correct. However, only a few people can make an artifact and the resources required are a bit too extravagant. Those who can make it are literally set for life."


    "Unless he kicks the bucket," added Theo with a serious expression.


    "Yep. Fame and danger go side by side after all." Nadia nodded and said, "Anyway, those people are so important that it can literally boost some families to the peaks. Your Griffith Family has one too."


    "I am not a part of them." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, what is the requirement to make an artifact? I mean, they will contain the power depending on their owner, right?"


    "Yep. However, all the artifacts produced right now came from the help of the Elemental Stone."


    "Elemental Stone?" Theo frowned, learning the term for the first time.


    "They are those stones that you see in the Magician''s staff. Some of them are in the equipment to create a more durable armor or something. The Elemental Stone can channel your Magic Power better and enhance it a little bit. And it will match the affinity you have, thus boosting your power. That''s why it''s quite popr, even though it''s expensive."


    "Where does the stonee from?"


    "Mining of course. We are mining on the other side this whole time and finding some Elemental Stones mines. Or that''s what we call it. They just can''t put it inside the periodic table since it literally carries Magic Power. What? Do you want a new element added to the chart?"


    Theo looked away and soon saw the same number as the first bracelet.


    "Okay, there is no other energy fused with your Magic Power. Now, we are going to check whether there is something attached to your organ or not." She nodded and brought a few needles. "I''m going to poke you a little bit. You should know about acupuncture, right? It''s simr to that."


    Theo nodded and let her do it. "By the way, may I know what the Griffith Family has done to you to make you this hostile?"


    "��" Nadia''s eyebrows twitched as she stopped for a moment. "I am not gonna answer that question. However, you must be aware that I don''t really like you, right?"


    "Yeah. Because of the Griffith Family."


    "That''s all to it. However, I won''t beat you or anything. I just won''t be polite to you, I guess." Nadia shrugged.


    Suddenly, Alea seemed to remember the meeting with Agata. That memory was still clear in her head as Alea couldn''t help but ask, "Mother, is it rted to the main family?"


    Nadia straightened her back, looking very surprised. She looked at her and asked, "Where did you hear that?"


    Alea looked away as she couldn''t tell him it was Agata after all. "Someone."


    "I am telling you after this. If the Griffith Family knows I am telling him more than anything he needs to know, something bad is gonna happen. This is one of the reasons I don''t like them." Nadia shook her head helplessly.


    "I can tell them though," Theo added with a calm expression.


    "It''s not within the rules, so feel free. It''s not like they''re not aware of the fact they are hated by many, including their vassals."


    "Vassals?" Alea was shocked by that word.


    "Well, I think I can tell you something about this��" Nadia thought for a moment. "Yeah, you are supposed to call this guy, Young Master, you know.


    "All the parents from the Griffith Family will move to a certain country for their so-called tradition. There will always be their branches or their vassals in that country, so the parents can ask us to lend our strength to deal with a few things without lifting their hands.


    "They absolutely need to hide their identity since they may get assassinated if they make a big move." Nadia shrugged. "No one can help them if they are surrounded by ten or twenty Mythical Rank Experts after all.


    "Meanwhile��" Nadia turned to Theo. "You were an unidentified one, considering we only got the confirmation a few months ago. Else, Alea might need to wait for another two years to get to the school, so she could protect you or something."


    "Eh?" Alea widened her eyes, never expecting the situation to turn out to be like this. Never in her wildest dream that she would be Theo''s bodyguard or something to the point, she needed to match everything he did.


    If Theo''s parents were still with him, that might be what would have happened.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they had left him when he was still a kid.


    "It sounds like you are my ve or something." Theo nced at Nadia with a grim expression.


    "Something like that. If we don''t obey, we''ll die. So, you know why I don''t like you? You don''t want to be killed by someone''s mistake, right? I do too." Nadia shrugged.


    "No wonder." Theo nodded. "And here I am, sitting in front of you�� defenseless."


    "You''re underestimating your Pocket Watch that much. That thing is connected to your own life. So, when you die, they will know everything, including the culprit. Only after you reach 18 years old and leave the family that you are free and the family won''t be involved anymore. There are a few exceptions in history�� but I can''t speak more than this."


    "Mhm," Theo mumbled with a cold gaze.

 Chapter 465 – Mother And Daughter

    <h4>Chapter 465 - Mother And Daughter</h4>


    After another two hours, Theo finally finished all the tests. At the same time, he also understood Nadiapletely.


    Nadia was simr to him. She didn''t like the Griffith Family due to the family''s rule, especially where she might be erased in an instant if something went wrong. In addition, they were like their ves and had to do everything they were ordered.


    It was no wonder she didn''t like him. She might not feel the same when the Griffith Family didn''t acknowledge his identity or something.


    However, now that they had made their move by advising the Eilric Family, the Eilric Family were just people who were required to die if that could save Theo''s life.


    Alea was in shock the whole time, never expecting her and Theo''s rtionship to be like this since the beginning.


    She wondered if she knew Theo earlier, what kind of life she would go through��


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Nadia could only resign to her fate when Alea seemed to have fallen for Theo.


    She didn''t like the idea, but considering Theo would leave the family, her daughter wouldn''t be ced under those rules and traditions unless the Griffith Family made another exception to get Theo back.


    Luckily, Theo also seemed to have prepared his protection well, considering he would seek refuge in another country.


    If that country or influence could protect him from the Griffith Family, it meant they wouldn''t be able to get Theo back.


    Although she was still concerned about the fact that her family would be erased because of this problem, she decided to wait and see the change.


    After finishing the tests, Nadia and Alea saw him off the gate. Nadia said, "I have told you everything I can say as an Eilric Family member."


    "I know." Theo nodded with a calm expression. "And I believe I have made my decision."


    Nadia slightly bowed her head before turning around and going back to the mansion.


    Alea, on the contrary, had a weird expression on her face as she called him, "Ehm�� Young Master��"


    "Stop it." Theo shook his head. "I don''t care about that title as it will be gone in a few months anyway. Feel free to call me with that title, but that means you want me to call you ve #1."


    Alea chuckled and waved her hand. "I understand. See you soon, Theo."


    Theo started walking while waving his hand as he had a few other things to do.


    Meanwhile, Alea watched his back until she couldn''t see him anymore before going back to her house, meeting her mother.


    Nadia seemed to have been waiting for her in the previous room as she quickly said when Alea entered the room. "So, what do you want to know from me?"


    Hesitated for a few seconds, Alea took a deep breath and asked, "Is it true that our family is only a branch family?"


    "It''s true." Nadia nodded. "I am here because I love your father, not for them. In fact, I don''t like them that much. The main family is separated into three factions. The first is those who wish to attach themselves to the Griffith Family like their ves while getting some benefits every now and then.


    "Those greedy bastards are horrible. If you wish to know more, you should ask your grandfather. All I can say, I, your father, and your grandfather almost died a few times because of them and the Griffith Family.


    "As for the second faction, the minority, they want to separate themselves from the family. However, they are too scared to take any action, so they are being watched continuously.


    "You can say�� this family is the third one because we are more of a bystander who only gets some orders if there is a big matter or if a family from the Griffith Family lives in this country. I already exined it earlier. Yeah, that''s it."


    Alea looked down and contemted for a moment. "But Theo doesn''t have his family and he seems to hate them as well."


    "Yeah. I can see that." Nadia shrugged. "However, it doesn''t mean everything will be alright. First, we don''t know his parents, which is even weirder, considering they are supposed to be very strong.


    "After all, his parents must be Mythical Rank Experts to be even qualified to fight for the session process. Do you think such experts will die just like that, especially in this country? Nope.


    "Also, you need to know that the moment you enter this big family, you will be subjected to scheme after scheme. I fear you might get taken advantage of." Nadia let out a long sigh. "Anyway�� Did I hate him? The answer is, I don''t like him. That''s all."


    "��" Alea looked down, feeling the stress of her mother. "I''m sorry."


    "No, no. You''re not understanding." Nadia shook her head. "I never me you or your choice."


    Seeing Alea''s shaking hand, Nadia hugged her and continued, "You have your own choice. If you wish to go for him, my only advice is to see it through. I don''t want to die for someone else, but if it''s my family here, I will dly give up my life. That''s why you don''t need to care about my opinion or feelings. Just do whatever you think is right."


    Alea closed her eyes, understanding her mother''s pain. She had escaped from all this problem, yet, she had just fallen in love with someone from the same family who caused all this.


    This matter must have brought back the dark past her mother wanted to bury in the back of her mind.


    "It''s okay. It''s okay. You don''t need to hide your feelings from me." She sighed. "What you know is a man called Theodore Griffith, not Theodore from the Griffith Family. All I want is for you to be happy, not force my ideals because of my past. As you said earlier, he is different."


    Alea hugged her mother back and regretted the fact she never knew all this. There might be a different oue had she grown up earlier.


    "Mom, Sorry�� and�� Thank you��"


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. Everything is gonna be alright." Nadia looked at the ceiling as if she recalled the past. Despite the sadness in her eyes, she still said, "Everything is gonna be alright."

 Chapter 466 – Phone Call

    <h4>Chapter 466 - Phone Call</h4>


    In Thernd''s Airata International Airport, a middle-aged man with a white shirt and leather pants was walking through a corridor, nning to go home.


    After investigating the country enough, he had made sure nothing would go wrong even if he flew back.


    It was a quiet and refreshing morning. He was supposed to go home but decided to stop when he felt someone''s power.


    As someone who worked in espionage, it was a basic requirement to gauge one''s strength in just a nce.


    Hence, he was rmed the moment he felt this extraordinary pressure from a bald old man. The old man was barely five feet tall and had some flowery shirt as if he was on vacation. No one seemed to notice his power. However, the middle-aged man saw different things with his eyes.


    In his eyes, the old man had a strong muscr body that couldn''t be hidden by the formal white and ck suit he wore��


    Seeing his spiky red hair, he instinctively took a step back before fleeing the scene.


    He decided to turn around and left the airport while taking out his Skylink, calling someone.


    An energetic but aged voice resounded on the phone, asking, "Wassup?"


    "Old man, things are getting serious here." The middle-aged man took a deep breath and continued, "I see the Red Lion."


    "Red Lion?" The voice sounded surprised. "You mean that Red Lion?"


    "Yeah. I don''t understand what''s going on, but there is only one reason toe to this country, right?"


    "He is not a part of eight countries. Hell, he is a part of a crime syndicate."


    "Yeah. I want to ask for reinforcement." He thought for a moment before understanding the real n. "I assume he wants to wait for another two months while searching this country to see if Theo has protection or not.


    "After the family meeting, I am afraid he will kidnap him. This is just my spection, but I think this is how it will be�� Unless he''s nning to kidnap him before the meeting�� Maybe for ransom or revenge."


    "That sounds bad." The aged voice contained a trace of killing intent and continued, "I will send the reinforcement. Nah, I''m going there by myself. Dare to touch my grandson, I shall hack you into pieces."


    "You are going toe here yourself?" The middle-aged man widened his eyes. However, his call had ended, frustrating him even more.


    Meanwhile, behind the call was a man with white hair. Despite his aged face and the rod that supported his body, his eyes were still sharp and his body was still in shape.


    He was sitting next to a pond, giving some food to the fish.


    However, after this call, he let off his killing intent, rming a few people in the area.


    All of them quickly came to his courtyard while panicking.


    "Father. Is there someone offending you?"


    The old man didn''t turn back for a while before he got another call. His Skylink showed a name that he never expected to call at this point.


    Beloved Valerie.


    As soon as he saw her name, he picked up and said, "So, you have time to call your dad now?"


    "I''m sorry, Dad. We have gotten information about the Red Lion. I believe you haven''t called little Davi back, right?" The woman replied with a calm tone.


    "He has an extended vacation there. Hmph."


    "I know. I am calling you to warn you a little bit."


    "Warning? You little brat. You dare to warn your father? Don''t make me go rampage on your Griffith Family just to spank you. I am not going to give up on my grandson. If you dare to hinder me, I''m going to beat you first to save my grandson."


    "No, no. I just want to say my husband will make a move himself. ording to our information, some of the countries are nning for assassinations because they can''t afford Theo to grow. Hence, my husband wants to warn those countries that he will be protecting him until he visits the country of his choice."


    "��" The old man stopped for a moment. If he protected Theo right now, this would indeed cause another uproar to other countries because he kind of stated that Theo had chosen their country even though he hadn''t.


    It would give Theo some implications as well. At the same time, they would be able to trace back their rtionship with Theo,plicating the situation even further.


    On the other hand, if the Griffith Family protected Theo, it was normal because Theo was theirs before he turned 18 years old. Hence, Theo wouldn''t have any implication in his choice.


    He wanted to reject this offer and went by himself, but Theo''s future might also get affected at this point.


    After considering a few things, he replied, "One scratch on him, you will see how I visit your Griffith Family."


    "I know."


    "How are the elders there?"


    "We''ve suppressed them for the time being, else we won''t dare toe to Thernd. We have several ns already, so Theo''s life won''t be in danger."


    "I hope you''re true to your words."


    "The danger he has right now is not where he dies, it''s where he will get tortured or controled for the rest of his life. Even after forcing ourselves to get this position, it still didn''t guarantee his life and future�� And sadly, the threat doesn''te only from the outside but also the inside."


    "You should have sent him to me, I can protect him better than you."


    "Tell the elders of this family to let go of a boy who can master all five Aspects simultaneously in the future. Tell them not to get involved in his life and make an exception. If you can do that, we will talk. Do you think we want to get this position?"


    "Hmph. I just want to tell you one thing." The old man sighed. "The one who hurts the most is not you or your husband. It''s him."


    The old man felt frustrated and hung up before calling Davi, the Shadow Dog, back.


    "Yeah?"


    "Watch the Red Lion movement and inform that demon girl that his parents will make a move."


    "�� You serious?"


    "Yep."


    "Damn. Okay."

 Chapter 467 – Theo’s Progress

    <h4>Chapter 467 - Theo��s Progress</h4>


    Unaware of everything going behind the scenes, Theo visited a store to sell all his Material Cards before submitting his missions to the temple.


    He first submitted two out of the three missions he had prepared.


    Mission: Kill five Atrocious Wolves and get their Vampiric Fangs Cards (Repeatable).


    Level: 300


    Reward: 2,500,000 Zils


    Mission: Kill an Ancient Fire Mummy and get its rejuvenating bandage (Repeatable).


    Level: 320


    Reward: 3,500,000 Zils


    Theo managed to get 33 Vampiric Fangs Cards which he could only submit six times and sell the other three through the usual way. At the same time, he only got two Rejuvenating Bandages due to him hunting in Sinx Forest.


    He could only get these bandages from the mummies that attacked the wolves.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t get thest mission which was to kill an Alpha Mutated Chimera Wolf, because Alea was the one who took care of that monster.


    In exchange, there was another reward for defeating the Ancient Mummy, which was the mummy king. They even put a mission just for Theo to receive the reward for defeating it.


    Although it was impossible, several eyewitnesses, including Nart and Nadia, vouched for him.


    Mission: Kill an Ancient Mummy or Mummy King.


    Level: 580


    Reward: 49,000,000 Zils.


    He got a total of 71,000,000 Zils through this mission alone. However, the one that shocked him the most was the contribution points. He received 70,000 Contribution Points just from killing an Ancient Mummy.


    After reaching Supreme Rank, he might be able to reach Gold Member in the temple, allowing him to get some B Rank Skills which should give him additional help to level up his skills to A Rank.


    Name: Joker


    Level: 193


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance C, Agility B, Vitality C, Magic Power A


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: Silver


    Kill: 4436 (+)


    Zils: 71,000,000


    Contribution Points: 137,700 (137,700)


    Theo quickly asked to transfer the money, so he could buy some skills, considering he nned to change some skills in his possession.


    The transfer took a day toplete and Theo hadn''t yet to find a recement for his skills.


    While waiting, Theo practiced his Control and Metamorphosis. He realized that he should start learning Metamorphosis seriously because he could turn into an eagle to fly away from his enemy. They surely wouldn''t notice him bing an eagle.


    He could also change to a fish to escape through a river or hide inside ake. This would be very effective, considering the enemies had yet to know about his metamorphosis ability.


    When he returned, he nned to change two or three skills. They were Cannon st, Flowmotion and Illusion Multiplier.


    Still, Theo stopped with two because Cannon st was still his main offensive skill as of now. He wanted to find a stronger one, but he might need even more Magic Power to use them. Theo''s Magic Power Reserve was still rtively small, so he brushed the thought off.


    Theo wanted to reach level 400 first before changing his Cannon st to a more powerful one. This should give him a little bit more Magic Power to work with.


    There was also Three Great Defense Skill, but Theo wished to keep it and incorporated it into the shield from his Ring of Honor, allowing him to create a stronger defense. Whether he needed it or not, it would be another case.


    Unfortunately, finding a B Rank Skill was harder than he thought, especially since Thernd didn''t have that many Supreme Rank Experts and Monsters.


    Not many people wanted to sell their B Rank Skills because it was a very important skill.


    While waiting for the skills toe by, Theo used the rest of the time to search for a C Rank Skill that he could upgrade to B Rankter.


    Unfortunately, not many skills were as versatile as his Flowmotion and Illusion Multiplier. The n was to change them with the same type of skill after all, meaning Theo required a movement skill and an illusion skill to rece.


    Last but not least, Theo was trying to find out the power the upgraded eyes had. He knew it was something good, so he really wanted to know that power.


    In the end, he started specting on the power.


    Upgrading other people''s skills or seeing through all kinds of illusions. He came up with these two in the first try.


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head in confusion when Theo called her to the backyard.


    Theo smiled and exined, "I want you to help me with something, Ava."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded a few times but still didn''t know what Theo nned to do.


    "I have two objectives today. First, I want to make sure you fall into my illusion."


    "Kyu?!" Ava was taken aback because Theo wanted to make her a guinea pig.


    However, Theo quickly reworded it and exined the details. "No, no. I just want to make sure that my illusion is working. I am suspecting that my eyes can see through any illusions. If you fall into my illusion while I''m not, that means this is my power."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded in understanding and decided to cooperate with him.


    Theo quickly summoned his Clone in order to create some illusions for the real body and Ava to watch.


    Unfortunately, both Ava and Theo saw the same thing, so seeing through illusions wasn''t his new power.


    "Tsk. I thought that was it since my blessing came from that person." Theo shook his head helplessly. He pinched the bridge of his nose and proceeded with the next test. "Okay, help me with another thing. I want you to use your skills in front of me. You know about skills, right? Do you have it too?"


    Ava confirmed it and stood in front of Theo, wondering what he wanted to prove.


    Theo watched Ava carefully and activated his eyes. It was needed to see through the upgrade requirement, but it was tiring, so he never used it continuously. This was the first time he watched something for a while, so it took a toll on his eyes.


    However, when Ava released her lightning, Theo found something more interesting than upgrading people''s skills.

 Chapter 468 – Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 468 - Eyes</h4>


    Skill: Lightning Discharge (B)


    Effect: Discharging a small amount of Electricity to boost the next skill''s power by 20 percent.


    Theo widened his eyes and drew a gasp. He was taken aback by what he found.


    It was a notification filled with the same setup as the one from the Skill Card. In other words, he could see people''s skills when they used them.


    "Is this for real?" Theo muttered to himself. He simply couldn''t believe it.


    "Kyu?" Ava tilted her head in confusion, not understanding Theo''s reaction. He seemed to be shocked, but more importantly, she felt Theo was a bit too excited about this.


    Theo, on the contrary, began to think about the possibility of what this pair of eyes could do in the future. ''This is insane. I can see other people''s skills? If I have the ability to upgrade other people''s skills, I can use the money to upgrade my own skill.


    ''If I have the ability to copy skills, I will use it to my advantage. However, I think this one is beyond my imagination. Seeing someone''s ability while we''re fighting? These eyes are too powerful.


    ''I can see what kind of attack they are using and intercept their attacks ordingly. I can use my illusion, skills, or even the Five Aspects. The possibility of these eyes is just limitless. It also suits me very well.


    ''Maintaining the eyes will be a bit problematic, but I can work with it from time to time until I get used to the pain. After that, I can start fighting others to increase my reaction speeds to neutralize their skills. Ah, there are simply too many options in the future if I can master these eyes.''


    Theo clenched his fists and shouted, "Yes!"


    "Kyu?!" Ava came to him and asked him if something was wrong.


    Theo lifted Ava up, pulled her into his embrace, and stroked her cheek with his own. "Ava, you are great. Thank you."


    Ava couldn''t understand Theo''s current mental state because she didn''t do anything special. Even so, watching him this happy was enough for her to forget about it andugh together.


    "Hahaha, this is great. Although I haven''t seen the extent of this power, I can discover it bit by bit while getting used to it." Theo smirked.


    "Ava, what do you want to eat today? Let''s have a little party tonight."


    "Kyu?!" Ava''s eyes brightened as drool starteding out of the corner of her mouth. "Kyu!"


    "Haha, we are going to order whatever." Theo chuckled and said, "We will continue for a bit, okay? After that, we can prepare for it."


    "Kyu!"


    The two continued to test Theo''s upgraded eyes.


    He never used his ability to observe other people back when they returned to Ark City because his mind was filled with the battle, Death Avatar Skill and Artifacts.


    Now that he had confirmed his ability, Theo could start progressing even faster. He knew that it was hard to grasp the extent of one''s skill, especially if they used Five Aspects, but he wished to challenge as many people as possible to perfect this ability.


    Ava helped him the whole time and even fought him a couple of times. Theo was thankful that he could start making some adjustments to his eyes.


    Although he couldn''t progress that much, just getting used to seeing the notification that continuously popped out of nowhere made him happy because the eyes could detect all Ava''s skills.


    During the two weeks, Theo used his morning to increase his own Control and Awareness to prepare for the Underworld Dominion Skill, utilized the rest to fight Ava, mastering his Metamorphosis, and making some progress on his other Aspects.


    He didn''t know why, but after understanding Ava''s skills and movements, he somehow noticed the extent of her own skill and learned how she controlled her own Magic Power.


    Due to that observation, his Control progressed by leaps and bounds. He was already close to Master Level within these two weeks.


    Even his Magic Bullets could change directions around forty times. As long as he reached fifty times, he was considered as having Master Level Control.


    However, he had another worry during this training session. The worry didn''te from his training but from the offers to the other six countries.


    There was no approach or whatsoever during the past few months.


    With his birthday around the corner, he doubted the other countries nned to visit him at all, considering there was a chance that Theo was not in Thernd anymore.


    He feared he only had one choice, which was to go to Italy and meet his family from his mother''s side. Although he didn''t really mind at this point, he still wanted to have a choice to pick.


    His break was almost over, so Theo started preparing for another venture with disappointment.


    Because he nned to reach level 350, his destination would be filled with level 350 to level 400 monsters.


    He also needed to make sure the area wasn''t that far from his brother''s hideout.


    After negotiating with Ava, Theo finally got to the location of his brother''s hideout.


    The ce was indeed filled with level 400 to level 500 monsters. It was dangerous for Theo to go there, but he also promised Ava not to go there before reaching level 350.


    Finally, two weeks had passed and Theo really needed to go for another expedition to reach Level 350, which was only 36 levels away from his current state.


    Theo wished to get at least one level a day and reached his brother''s ce within one and a half months.


    With half a month to spare, he had enough time to consider his choiceter.


    Surprisingly, he received a message in his Skylink. He thought the other countries wouldn''t participate in nurturing him anymore for the slight chance he visited their country, but he was wrong.


    There was still one more person who wished to meet him. Theo walked inside and picked up his Skylink to see the sender''s name.


    Maya Hamilton.

 Chapter 469 – Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 469 - Preparation</h4>


    Theo frowned and opened the message.


    "I aming over in two days. Do you have something to do?"


    Theo squinted his eyes and looked down, contemting his choice. He was supposed to leave tomorrow, but considering this was the invitation surely rted to his future, Theo decided to ept it.


    "Yes."


    After another hour, Maya called him directly.


    "Hello."


    "Hi, how are you?"


    "Great�� So, I am assuming you call me because of the meeting, right?"


    "Yep. I need to know the ce and time."


    "You can put a��" Theo suddenly fell silent, hesitating to tell her what to do next. He had two choices: Meet her with a clone or meet her with his real body.


    After considering a few things, Theo chose the former and said, "Just put a mission in Fighter Temple for me. You can state the ce and time there and we will meet on the same day. I will notify my assistant to inform me."


    "Awesome. I have booked the ne tomorrow, so I will visit you the day after. Also, I have several things I want to discuss."


    "Okay, we can discuss after we meet." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Sure. In that case, wait for me. Bye, have a good day."


    Maya hung up while Theo put down his Skylink.


    "Ava, we''re going to postpone our expedition for one day," Theo told Ava about the meeting before sitting on the couch, trying to find a ce that fit all the criteria he had.


    "Where do you think we can go, Ava?" Theo asked Ava, who came to sit on top of his chest, staring at the map.


    Theo pointed at the map and exined, "This ce is north of Ark City and our final destination is my brother''s hideout, which lies in a small forest next to Reen Canyon.


    "Because the level of monsters in this canyon is the highest, I think we can enter the canyon from all directions. In the north, we have Sky Mountain. This ce is filled with monsters that had Ice Affinity.


    "I don''t think we can do much in a cold environment, so I want to keep it warm. Hence, we should look at the mini desert on the west of the canyon. This desert has too many scorpions hiding underneath the sand. Not only do I not like poison, but the monsters are also hard to find. I guess this is also out of option.


    "The south and the east of this canyon are grass ins. It will be too hot during the sunset, but it won''t be too much of a problem, unlike the other two.


    "What I want is a ce that can satisfy our requirements, so this is our current ce. For now, I''m going to search for the missions around that area. If you have something to say, tell me now," said Theo while opening another tab to find a mission.


    Unfortunately for him, the monsters around this ce were a bit too strong, making each mission expensive. In that situation, the demands significantly decreased, so Theo could only find three missions for both forests.


    Mission: Destroy zing Ants Nest.


    Level: 370


    Reward: 20,000,000 Zils


    Mission: Kill a T-Rex and get its fangs.


    Level: 400


    Reward: 30,000,000 Zils


    Mission: Snatch Pterodactyl''s Egg.


    Level: 390


    Reward: 35,000,000 Zils


    "What is this�� Dinosaurs?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw this mission. The reward was close to a level 580 mission which was to kill a Supreme Rank Expert. However, considering that mission was just a reward for Theo, he understood why the reward was close.


    "This government is stingy." Theo chuckled and shook his head helplessly. "Well, I can''t me them. Many have died as well, so yeah, I will not care about it.


    "Still, missions like this are fit for several people, so the reward will usually be split. But since I''m alone with my clone, I can get the full reward." Theo looked down, pondering. "I guess I should be lucky to have my clone.


    "Also, I''m not going to do thest one." Theo shook his head furiously. "Although they are monsters, I don''t like to get separated from my family. Maybe, it''s because the mission is simr to my own past, but yeah, I''m not gonna do that one. I guess it''s just the first two. What do you think, Ava?"


    Ava turned around and raised her foot, showing her approval.


    "Awesome."


    After that, Theo started searching for his skill recements.


    Now that he had reached this step, he understood the effort to search for a new one as the C Rank Skills were not that good even if he wanted to upgrade them. There was no skill fit to be used when he reached Supreme Rank.


    However, Ava''s skill inspired him a little bit as he found one interesting skill.


    Skill: Magic Augmentation (C)


    Effect: Allow the user to enhance skills and objects with extra Magic Power. This skill can only be used every three minutes.


    In that instant, he knew he should have this skill to increase his power even more. Without hesitation, Theo brought the skill and reced his Illusion Multiplier.


    He then brought several C Rank Skills with the rest of his money, allowing him to upgrade two more C Rank Skills to B Rank.


    However, he soon hesitated because if he upgraded two more skills, he would only have 3 C Rank Skills left. He would have trouble managing his Magic Power, so Theo only upgraded one C Rank Skill while saving the other Skill Cards to be used after he was ready.


    And the skill he upgraded was none other than the new skill he had.


    Skill: Magic Augmentation (B)


    Effect: Allow the user to enhance skills and objects with extra Magic Power(+) once. This skill can only be used every two minutes.


    "Well, it''s pretty good." Theo shrugged, knowing that he could use this skill to strengthen his weapons or skills. "Also, I am nning to get a new Illusion Skill, so yeah, it''s gonna be a st after this. I hope when I go to another country, they won''t be too stingy with me."


    "Anyway, with this, everything is done. I only need to meet with Maya the day after tomorrow."

 Chapter 470 – Maya Hamilton

    <h4>Chapter 470 - Maya Hamilton</h4>


    Sarah, his assistant from the Fighter Temple, notified him when she received the mission from Maya.


    Theo obviously spared no time to meet her because he wanted to deal with her as soon as possible, so he could use his time to level up.


    Still, Theo ended up in front of a sixty-story building. The building was wide, making it more majestic.


    ''She is one of the richest women in the world, I guess she will definitely stay inside the finest hotel in Thernd. Well, I think I know what kind of person I will be dealing with��'' Theo scratched the back of his head. He recalled Maya''s message.


    "The top floor�� The presidential suite�� Seriously." Theo shook his head helplessly. And as expected, the security was no joke. He needed to have a few checks before he could enter the hotel��


    To his surprise, a middle-aged woman approached him as if she knew who he was despite his mask and hat. He couldn''t use Metamorphosis or his Joker identity in this hotel after all.


    The middle-aged woman stopped before him and politely bowed her head with her hand on her chest. "She has been waiting for you, Mr. Griffith."


    "��" Theo fell silent and stared at this woman. She had long ck hair gracefully tied on the back of her neck. She wore a light blue shirt and white pants.


    "Apologies. I am Nikita, Miss Maya''s head assistant." She introduced herself and continued, "I would like to lead you to the top floor to meet her."


    Theo knew she was the real deal, so he nodded, "Okay. Please lead the way."


    "Certainly." She nodded and extended her hand, asking Theo to follow her.


    Theo took off his mask and hat while entering the elevator before reaching the top floor.


    "There are only two rooms on this floor and miss is in the right room." She came out first, exined, and pointed at the right corridor.


    The corridor alone was morous, but Theo felt nothing of all this and simply followed Maya''s assistant.


    Knock.


    "Miss, I have brought him."


    "Bring him in, Niki." Maya''s voice echoed from behind the door.


    Nikita reached the handle and opened it to Theo before adding, "It''s Nikita."


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head while making a weird expression. When he entered the room, he was greeted by arge living room.


    The other end was arge ss stretching from one corner to another. In the middle of the room were several couches that could be used to enjoy the big television in front of them. On the right side, Theo found the kitchen, while the other side had another corridor that seemed to lead to another ce.


    Maya was sitting on the couch while raising her feet on top of it, enjoying it like she was in her home even though Theo had visited her.


    "Come in,e in." Maya waved her hand while straightening her pose but still crossing her legs on the couch. She wore a in light-blue t-shirt and short pants to make it feel like home.


    "Well, we are not discussing business here, so I hope you don''t mind if I am this casual." Maya pointed at the couch. "Just sit wherever you want."


    "I am sorry, Mr. Griffith. Young Miss has the tendency of being wild. Even her friends or teammates can''t handle her��" Nikita apologized and said, "Though, I hope you don''t lower your guard too much."


    "Oi, Niki. Why did you tell him?" Mayained and sighed. However, she still continued wiping a long rifle on her embrace, taking care of it.


    "Is this how you do business?" Theo asked with a poker face and sat down on a single-person couch.


    "As I said, this is not a business." Maya shook her head. "There won''t be a negotiation or whatsoever. It''s just a discussion between friends."


    "Whose friend?" Theo turned to Nikita as if asking her about Maya''s statement.


    "��" Maya only stared at him with nk eyes. "Uah, this guy is indeed one of a kind. I still remember when he didn''t act nicely toward Agata. Normally, I would have people saying nice things to me."


    "Let me see�� They''re people who are sucking up to you, your admirers, or your subordinates." Theo shrugged.


    "Haha, I like you already." Mayaughed as if she was amused.


    "And I don''t like you already." Theo smiled. "When will you stop looking down on me?"


    "Until our status is equal," Maya answered without hesitation as if she didn''t doubt her view. "Still, you seem to have some experience in dealing with someone like me."


    "Yeah. You are simr to the person I know."


    "Alea Eilric?" Maya smirked.


    Theo didn''t answer her, but Maya still continued, "Though, I am richer, more arrogant, and more uncontroble than her."


    "You take pride in it?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Of course." Maya nodded. "What? I built my own business empire from scratch without the help of my parents. This empire allows me to be arrogant. And no one can control me because I achieve all this without any help. I don''t give a damn if people don''t like my attitude, but this is me, man."


    Theo smiled and said, "You said you will stop looking down on me when our status is equal, right?"


    "Of course. First of all, due to the contract, you can''t use your status from the Griffith Family." She shrugged. "Tell me, why should I stop looking down on you? If you don''t like me, it''s simple. Prove it to me that you''re higher than me. Either you kill me, destroy my business, or push me down. I am simply a rude and arrogant crazy rich girl. What do you want to do about it?"


    "Okay." Theo nodded and snapped his finger.


    Nikita''s body shook as she wanted to make a move as soon as Theo used her power. However, Maya stopped her with a wave of her hand while watching what Theo wanted to do.


    Suddenly, the sink in the kitchen started running and Theo gathered the water, forming a snake on top of his head. It was far more detailed than his eel, even though the size was smaller. But this was enough for Maya to recognize Theo what he wanted to show.


    "Materialization��"


    Theo waved his hand and sshed the water snake to make Maya wet.


    Maya raised her left and formed a metal shield, blocking all the water and dropping to the carpet. Sheughed while retracting her shield, saying, "Attacking someone you just met, you''re rude, aren''t you? Hahaha, I like it."


    "Not as rude as you."

 Chapter 471 – Fight

    <h4>Chapter 471 - Fight</h4>


    "Not as rude as you." Theo looked away, not really caring about Maya''s status.


    "Hahaha!" Maya onlyughed and tilted her body, looking at Nikita. "See that, Niki? This guy is great."


    "However, I need to agree." She shook her head with a calm expression.


    "��" Maya fell silent and stared at her dumbfoundedly. "You are supposed to back me up, no?"


    "When you call me Nikita."


    "Can you please do it, Niki��ta?" Maya''s tone was awkward as if she never said her name even once.


    Nikita nodded and walked to Theo. Suddenly, she dropped on one knee while putting her right hand to her chest and raising the other, saying in a dramatic tone. "Young Miss is a great person. She is a responsible person and her ability to manage businesses is top-notch. On top of that, she is very generous."


    "��" Maya facepalmed and shook her head embarrassedly. "Stop, stop. That''s enough, Niki."


    When Theo heard Nikita''s words, he couldn''t help but chuckle. And the moment Maya stopped her and called her "Niki" again, he asked, "So, can I know what you really wanted to say?"


    "Young Miss is a rude person. She doesn''t even care about other people and her mind is shrewd. On top of that, she is a spendthrift." Nikita corrected all those words in an instant and basically used the antonym for each description.


    "Thank you for the trantion." Theo nodded.


    "No problem. d to be of any help." Nikita rose from the floor and stepped back.


    "��" Maya looked at these two dumbfoundedly while pointing her finger. "Since when did you two team up?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Theo and Nikita said at the same time.


    "So, basically both of you are the same." Maya rolled her eyes.


    "Well, your character aside, what do you want to tell me?" Theo asked.


    "My character aside?" Maya''s eyebrows twitched. "Isn''t that line supposed to be "Jokes aside,   ?"


    "Ehm��" Theo looked up as if he was thinking about it before looking at her. "No."


    Maya was speechless. Theo literally didn''t hold back even just for courtesy. At the same time, it wasn''t like she could put her hand on him because he was still under the Griffith Family''s protection.


    After a while, she shook her head in defeat whileining, "I guess I will be a bigger person and let this matter go."


    Theo and Nikita shrugged their shoulders as if they knew it wasn''t true. However, they didn''t rebuke her anymore so she could continue.


    "Okay, let''s get to the topic." Maya put the gun down while raising three fingers. "There are three��" She stopped and frowned before adding the fourth finger. "I mean four things I want to say."


    Theo remained silent as his expression turned serious.


    "First, China has used its influence to make other countries stop supporting you. Our country doesn''t really care about it and has told me to assess you and your ability. Depending on your ability, we would like to invest in you."


    "Understandable." Theo looked down, knowing they couldn''t trust him yet. "How do you want to determine my ability?"


    A smirk appeared on her face as she pointed at herself. "Fight me."


    "You sure?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows before ncing at Nikita. "Not her?"


    "Why do I feel you ncing at her is telling me that I won''t be enough to be your opponent? Are you trying to look down on me?"


    "I didn''t," said Theo with a poker face.


    "You didn''t?" Maya tilted her head.


    "I didn''t say it, but you can understand it? You are smart." Theo nodded, admitting that he looked down on her.


    His statement stunned her as Nikita furrowed her eyebrows. She wasn''t offended by Theo''s statement. Instead, she was interested in it because there was deep confidence in his words.


    Maya''s lips curved before sheughed while holding her belly. "Hahaha. This is truly funny. Interesting, interesting."


    Maya straightened her back and her expression became grim. She red at Theo while licking her lips. "Since you im it that way, you should have the ability to prove it. How about a bet? You are confident in defeating me, right?"


    Theo squinted his eyes and asked, "What''s the deal?"


    "If I win, you will tell me about your status, level and skills. If I lose��" She looked Theo in the eyes as if asking him to fill the condition.


    "I happen to find a skill interesting. I want you to get it for me." Theo smiled.


    She extended her hand. "We have a deal?"


    "Deal." Theo shook her hand, nning to take advantage of this situation.


    "Niki, prepare a ce for us to fight. When do you want to fight?"


    "As soon as possible��" Theo paused for a moment and corrected his words. "After this discussion?"


    "Sure. That''s more efficient." She agreed without hesitation. "How''s that, Niki?"


    "I will find a suitable ce. Though, I believe it''s safer for you to unleash your strength on the other side. I will help you in clearing the area."


    "Got it." Maya nodded and continued, "Okay. We''ve got the deal. I hope you''re not backing away from this. I''m warning you, but Niki is a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "Meanwhile, I can''t hold you ountable if you try to break the promise." Theo shrugged.


    "I won''t. As long as you don''t ask me to grab an S Rank Skill for you, I will deliver that skill."


    "Sure. I will return to my house to retrieve my weapons first. We will meet on the other side."


    "Yep. Sounds good to me." She thought for a moment and asked, "Shall we continue?"


    Theo extended his hand as if telling her, "You''re free to continue."


    "Good. The second topic is your protection. As long as you interest me, I will guarantee your protection until you can choose your future. Of course, I don''t want to protect you for too long�� It''s not like you''re nning to stay in this country for a long time, right?"


    "Certainly." Theo nodded. "I will be away within months."


    "That''s enough for me. Let''s move to the next one, shall we?"


    "Sure."

 Chapter 472 – Weapon

    <h4>Chapter 472 - Weapon</h4>


    "Before telling you the third one, I want to ask you this question. Do you know who your parents are?"


    Theo frowned and asked back, "Do you know them?"


    "Nope. I just want to confirm it with you." She shrugged. "I know it''s personal, but taking you with me will surely shift the attention of the Griffith Family to me because of your talent�� I just fear the worst. If we can get their identity, my own informationwork should be able to prevent any war between us."


    Theo shook his head. "I don''t know my parents."


    "��" Maya looked Theo in the eyes before letting out a long sigh. "I understand. I will stop at that�� Anyway, as you already know, there will be a bigplication if any of the countries take you in. I just want to make sure there is a chance of sess by knowing more information."


    "That''s how it is." Theo raised his hands in defeat. "Either way, sending you here means your country has taken some precautions against them, right?"


    "That''s true. Anyway, I will stop at this." She pped her hand. "The fourth one is actually an introduction to my country. We have amazing weaponry, starting from my guns to shields. You can get everything here."


    "Even artifacts?" Theo asked a question that silenced Maya.


    She never thought Theo would add that one.


    "That depends on your performance." She closed her eyes and answered. "If you are qualified, you should be able to get one. No, I can guarantee you one."


    "Okay. To be honest, if you can just send me a file for that introduction, it will save us time��"


    "That''s true. Though, if youe with me, Nano Technology will be the standard." She smiled and grabbed her rifle. This two feet long rifle suddenly changed shape and turned into a blue bracelet. "This is Nano Technology. Our technology hase a long way to the point we can produce something like this�� The current limit is B Rank Weapons. Also, you won''t need to worry about other supplies and equipment. You want a grenade? I will give it to you."


    "Well, that''s certainly interesting." Theo nodded. "How much can you fit there to be honest?"


    "Depends on the weight, density, and other things." She shrugged. "My biggest one should be a rocketuncher."


    "Rocketuncher?" Theo nced to the right and found a small barrel with a handle and someplicated machinery.


    "You see it? It will be as big as an arm guard when I retract its form." She chuckled. "Though, the firepower is extremely strong."


    "Well, that sounds powerful��" Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Yep, you better watch out." She smirked and raised her finger, showing a small golden ring on her middle finger. The ring turned into a magazine and she showed him the copper bullet. "It can withstand heat up to 600 degrees and cause a small explosion. Once shot, you can think of it as a sma bullet. I couldn''t use this little toy back in thepetition due to the restriction. But I can use it freely here, so I warn you to be a bit more cautious.


    "Of course, Niki will be there to stop the match��" She smiled. "Just make sure you don''t die in our fight."


    "I won''t die." Theo shook his head.


    "Though you might want to use that Ring of Honor to block my bullets."


    "We will see. I might not need it." Theo shrugged.


    "You''re really amusing. Do you think you can win against me? I am two years older than you, you know. My level is higher than yours."


    "So, you are a Supreme Rank Expert��" Theo''s expression was distorted as he stared at him as if she was an anomaly.


    "Ehm�� No."


    "Then, it''s fine."


    She wondered if Theo''s confidence came from his Materialization or not. If he only had Materialization as his trump card, there was no way he could win.


    She had seen Theo''s performance in thepetition, so she was interested in his improvement.


    "Young Miss, I think you shouldn''t tell anything to your opponent," Nikita added with a poker face.


    "I know, I know. But this one is not my opponent." Maya used that chance to tease him back. Her smug smile was telling him, "How''s that?"


    "Suppose I am trash�� In that case, what will you do if you lose against me? What''s lower than trash?" Theo looked down, thinking about the word.


    "Your mouth is really one of a kind." Maya shook her head helplessly.


    "I take it as apliment." Theo smiled and praised her back. "I believe you are the rudest person I have met. Congrattions."


    "Anyway, the one who will be extending the opportunity is my business group. If youe here, won''t you be my subordinate? Should I order you to call me, Young Miss?"


    "Haha." Theoughed. "You''re shameless. Does getting called young from someone younger than you really feel good?"


    Nikita chuckled before returning to her poker face when Maya red at her. "Niki, why did youugh?"


    "I am just happy that there is someone who can put Young Miss in your ce." Nikita bluntly admitted it.


    "You too?" Maya sighed.


    "No, no. Your grandfather is troubled to see his granddaughter like this, especially in thest matchmaking session�� You literally made the other guy kneel while crying. So, knowing there are people who can put you in your ce means there is still a possibility of your marriage. Now, we need to find other people like him before we start another matchmaking session." Nikita turned to Theo and bowed her head. "Thank you, Mr. Griffith, for giving us enough hope."


    "Ehm, I''m not gonna do it, though."


    "I didn''t say you''re going to do it. I only said the possibility is there. Just gonna search for some people who have this kind of boldness." Nikita corrected him without a change of expression. "Of course, you''re wee to try."


    "Since when does this talk turn into this romance sh*t?" Maya''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Well, you can discuss it with her��" Theo nced at Nikita and yfully called Maya, "Young Miss. Pfft."


    After that, he quickly rose from the couch and left the room while saying, "Since you have told me all four topics, it''s time for me to go grab my weapons. See youter. Hahaha."


    "��"

 Chapter 473 – Theo Vs Maya Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 473 - Theo Vs Maya Part 1</h4>


    After Theo left, Maya and Nikita started talking about how Maya had finally met her match. She waspletely owned by Theo earlier.


    On the contrary, Theo went back to his house to pick up his spears. He wanted to finish everything today, so he fastened his pace and asked Maya to do the same.


    The two met up in Art Beats City three hourster. There wouldn''t be a single monster that could be a threat to both Maya and Theo.


    Theo only brought his spears with him. Meanwhile, he found several bracelets on Maya''s arms together, a total of twenty rings on her fingers, and some sort of metal backpack behind her.


    Although her essories were absurd, Theo knew all of those weapons were deadly.


    He nced at this blonde girl with a serious expression��


    Feeling Theo''s stare, she turned to him. "What?"


    "Nothing. Your assistant just proved her point by looking at all those essories." Theo shrugged.


    Maya obviously knew what Theo implied. He was talking about how Nikita said she was a Spendthrift.


    "I believe you didn''t have that many weapons back in thepetition."


    "It''s because of those sh*tty rules." She shrugged. "Don''t worry. These guns are for C Rank Monsters most of the time��"


    "Most of the time, huh." Theo rolled his eyes as they made their way outside Art Beats City. They headed to the south, where Maya found a in half of the Grand Gaia arena-size surrounded by trees.


    The grass on their feet was not that long, so it wouldn''t restrict their movements. The monsters had been cleared by Nikita too, so there wouldn''t be anything that distracted them.


    Theo and Maya stood in front of each other. Maya had a smile on her face while summoning the first bracelet that turned out to be a light blue pistol. One of the rings turned into a magazine for the pistol, and Maya inserted it into the gun before pulling it back.


    "I''m ready," said Maya while looking at Nikita on the side, observing their movement.


    Theo, on the contrary, raised both spears.


    "You''re not going to use your clone now?" Maya was slightly confused by Theo''s action.


    "Nope." Theo rejected her to see whether she would get angered by his action or not. He had been looking down on her this whole time, so her patience should be running out.


    But surprisingly, Maya still wore a smile on her face as if his action didn''t matter.


    Seeing such a mental fortitude, Theo took a few steps back to gain enough distance to react to her bullet speed. He had seen her bullet speed in Grand Gaia, so he got a good grasp for today''s battle.


    "No need to walk away. I have sacrificed a portion of speed in order to increase the damage." She chuckled.


    Theo remained silent, so she thought Theo was ready for this fight. She then grabbed a bullet and said, "The fight starts as soon as this bullet hits the ground."


    Theo nodded.


    After getting Nikita''s approval, Maya threw the bullet into the air.


    Theo and Maya clenched their weapons tighter as their hearts began to race, waiting for the bullet to go down.


    These five seconds felt like a few minutes.


    Clink.


    The bullet touched the ground.


    Maya hurriedly aimed at Theo and released the first three shots in session.


    Theo saw the bullets glowing after reaching a certain speed. He had seen this light blue glow back in thepetition.


    ording to the information, it was the process she needed to elerate the bullet enough to cause a reaction inside it that literally changed a normal bullet to a sma ball.


    Theo poured his Magic Power into his spear and waved it toward the first bullet.


    Bam.


    The first bullet caused a small explosion that blew his spear away.


    Theo tilted his body to the side to avoid the second bullet while piercing the third one with his other spear.


    When Theo tilted his body, he sneakily summoned his Magic Bullets.


    These bullets flew to Maya.


    Maya prepared to receive it, but the Magic Bullets surprisingly made more than ten turns in the process and seemed to n to continue for another while.


    She ended up leaping to the side to avoid these bullets, only to meet the Tracking Ability.


    Having seen enough of Theo''s Magic Bullets, Maya aimed at Theo again and shot him.


    Bang.


    Theo clicked his tongue and shed the bullet, causing another explosion. Luckily, Theo managed to grip the spear strong enough to receive the explosion force, adjusting his strength to ensure he didn''t lose his spearter.


    Still, Maya had achieved her objective. With her bullets upying Theo''s attention, the Magic Bullets wouldn''t turn anymore.


    She summoned the shield from another bracelet, the same shield she used to block the water.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred to blow her away, but Maya had leaned to the front while the spikes beneath her shoes seemed to have prated the ground to gain enough support to stop the force.


    "Interesting." Maya smirked and retracted her pistol before changing to a new one.


    "!!!" Theo was stunned and instinctively summoned three tombstones from the ground, forming a shield in front of him.


    Maya''s next weapon was a shotgun.


    Bang.


    She shot his shield, hoping to break it, but Theo''s shield turned out to be sturdy enough to withstand the full brunt of Maya''s explosion bullets.


    Maya didn''t believe Theo could withstand all the bullets, so she rapidly fired a few more times until she emptied the weapon.


    Theo clicked his tongue and received all of her attacks, waiting for an opportunity.


    The moment the clicking sound of the gun echoed in his ears, Theo knew Maya needed to reload. In that instant, he used his Blink to arrive behind her.


    Maya, who was about to reload her gun, noticed his presence and waved her shotgun, receiving Theo''s spear with the shotgun''s barrel.


    However, she was shocked when hepletely overpowered her andunched her away.


    "Kh�� What is that swing?" Maya gritted her teeth while examining her body. "My right hand feels numb. No wonder he is so confident. I need to maintain our distance."


    She used this chance to put another bullet into the shotgun and shot at Theo.


    Because he couldn''t use his Three Great Defense, he resorted to his Ring of Honor, forming a golden screen in front of her.


    However, this was his mistake because the moment the bullet hit, lightning sparked and hit his leg.


    Theo gritted his teeth and leaped away, gaining some distance from her.


    Their eyes intertwined as they thought the same thing.


    "He (She) is strong."

 Chapter 474 – Theo Vs Maya Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 474 - Theo Vs Maya Part 2</h4>


    After acknowledging each other, Theo and Maya stepped up their game.


    Maya quickly put another bullet inside her shotgun while Theo summoned his clone.


    "Here ites." Maya smiled and aimed at Theo''s clone, releasing another bullet.


    Clone Theo used his Blink to avoid it and reappeared next to Maya, waving his spear.


    Maya formed the same metal shield on her hand to block Theo''s spear, but Clone Theo ended up stomping the ground with his Cannon st, turning it into a crater.


    Bam.


    They lost their footing in an instant, but small trapezoid wings appeared on her back. The wings looked like that of an airne and came out from the small metal bag on her back��


    She activated the wings to generate enough thrust for her to stay afloat.


    However, Theo surely wouldn''t let go of this opportunity and reached Maya from the other side, waving his spear.


    Maya clicked her tongue, blocked the spear with her shield, and was blown away.


    She even crashed into the tree and snapped the trunk.


    When she thought everything was over, forty Magic Bullets wereing straight at her face.


    She opened her mouth in surprise and reached out something on her waist.


    It was a small metallic sphere. As soon as she threw it, the sphere released a white smoke that destroyed all the Magic Bullets.


    "Haha, you''re really strong. I won''t think about money anymore." Mayaughed and changed her weapon to a pistol again.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    She fired several times at Theo''s head, heart, and feet, trying to hinder him.


    Theo had seen the efficacy of these bullets, so he charged at her while using the Ring of Honor to protect him.


    The bullets caused explosions to slow him down and took away his vision, but Theo still felt Maya hadn''t moved with his Awareness.


    Unfortunately, Maya was one step ahead. The pistol''s magazines slipped, and Maya caught the magazine and released all the bullets from the inside.


    She grasped the bullets and covered her hand with lightning.


    Before Theo escaped from the smoke, she threw it to Theo, who came out with his clone.


    "It''s a trap, you know." Maya yfully licked her tongue.


    Theo saw the bullets spreading around him and each bullet seemed to have an electric flow that connected them, forming a.


    "��" Theo maintained his silence, heading straight to the.


    Boom.


    The bullets exploded while the lightning sparked.


    "Got him?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows before changing her magazine. After that, she changed her weapon to a two-foot-long blue rifle.


    Unfortunately, she didn''t have any visual of Theo because of the smokescreen.


    When the smoke disappeared, she saw a floating white spear that suddenly flew at her.


    "!!!" She leaped back while aiming at the spear before Theo entered her vision.


    It turned out Theo had stopped after taking the bullets to his head, heart, and feet. In other words, she only hit his clone and illusion in the trap she used earlier.


    "How��" Maya was speechless, wondering how Theo could know about the trap. ''I never used it in thepetition��''


    Little did she know, there was a screen in his vision this whole time, telling him about her skill.


    Skill: Lightning Net (C)


    Effect: Channeling lightning to metal objects to cause a series of lightning sparks.


    Maya hurriedly shot the spear down before raising her head, finding another wave of Magic Bullets.


    "This is annoying." Maya summoned her shield to block it before noticing something different in these Magic Bullets. She instinctively jumped to the side instead of taking the bullets head-on.


    To her surprise, the bullets made another turn to avoid her shield and then another turn to hit her body had she not escaped.


    Theo snapped his finger and the spear returned to his side by using Telekinesis.


    "You are strong, aren''t you?"


    "I still remember you were known as the chatterbox in thepetition��" Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing that Maya would continue talking even in a difficult situation.


    "Hahaha, I take it as apliment. You don''t need to be that strict in life, you know. Just enjoy it." Sheughed and aimed her rifle at Theo. "Though, I am serious in defeating you."


    She fired a few more rounds at Theo.


    Seeing all the bullets, Theo surprisingly charged toward them as if he didn''t fear the bullets.


    When the bullets were about to hit him, Theo used his Blink to appear behind her and struck her from above.


    "!!!" Maya raised her rifle and blocked his spear, but the force nted her feet in the ground while Theo refused to let her go.


    Suddenly, the bullets Theo dodged earlier turned around and flew straight at Theo�� Or rather Maya at this point.


    Maya was in deep shock and said dumbfoundedly, "Y-you know my bullets are homing bullets?"


    Theo didn''t have a change in his expression, but he already anticipated it earlier thanks to his eyes.


    Skill: Targeting (C)


    Effect: Forcing an object to fly toward the designated target and follow the target if the target is moving.


    On the contrary, Maya misunderstood his abilities and thought it must be the talent rted to a family that is closely rted to Control. She thought Theo had scanned the Magic Power in the bullets and assumed he had deemed they were homing bullets. After all, Theo''s Magic Bullets had that feature as well.


    Still, she didn''t know whether the Griffith Family could actually do something like this, elevating Theo''s talent in her eyes.


    ''He has this much talent aside from his Control?'' She screamed inwardly while her body shuddered. Because Theo pinned her down and the bullets were going to hit her, Maya used another skill to protect herself.


    Theo instantly leaped away right after the skill activated, slipping away from the danger.


    Soon, a light-blue sphere formed by lightning spark appeared and protected Maya from the bullets.


    Skill: Lightning Barrier (C)


    Effect: Creating a lightning force field that will repel anything in three feet radius.


    Theo was still impressed by Maya''s Affinities. After all, her bullets could explode while her affinity was lightning. This created an illusion that Maya had two affinities.


    On the other hand, Maya was sucking a cold breath and muttered inwardly, "He moved right after I used my skill. He really could see the flow of my Magic Power. This guy�� I want to obtain him. No, I should win to get the idea about his talent first."

 Chapter 475 – Theo Vs Maya Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 475 - Theo Vs Maya Part 3</h4>


    Maya was impressed by Theo''s talent. She never thought Theo had this kind of power, considering she never fought against Theo in thepetition.


    Ne surely wouldn''t disclose this type of information to the public since they hailed from the same family. On the other hand, Theo always participated in three vs three matches in thepetition other than that one. His opponents were too busy observing him and his teammates.


    She wondered whether Theo had nned for this as well. If he indeed had nned this far, she felt scared of getting Theo.


    This talent might be a bit too extraordinary even for her.


    Maya took a deep breath and stared at Theo.


    "Winning this battle is a must," Maya muttered while aiming her gun again��


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    She fired several times and controlled the bullets to make a few turns, trying to confuse him.


    Theo surprisingly turned around and ran from the bullets as if he knew the bullet didn''t have tracking skills.


    Little did he know, this just convinced Maya he had this kind of talent.


    Theo kept running into the woods while summoning his clone together with Magic Bullets behind the tree.


    After that, he shed another tree and used his Telekinesis tounch it to Maya.


    Maya''s bullets had already exploded, so there was nothing between her and the tree.


    Maya didn''t panic and shot the tree right in the middle. The explosion from the bullet snapped the tree trunk and a small sphere emerged from the smoke,nding on the ground not far from Theo.


    Theo widened his eyes and used his Telekinesis to throw the sphere back, but the sphere exploded right after.


    Boom.


    The explosion destroyed a few trees in the area. Luckily, Theo already took a cover behind another tree and pushed the grenade away earlier or he would have lost.


    Maya couldn''t approach Theo in this situation because she noticed the iing presence from above. When she raised her head, she found forty Magic Bullets pouring on her.


    "Tsk." She created a shield and blocked the Magic Bullets after finding Theo wouldn''t do another trick with these bullets.


    Some Magic Bullets hit the shield while some hit the ground, kicking up the dust.


    However, there was one thing that shocked her the most.


    An eagle suddenly emerged from the dust and aimed at her face, nning to rip her apart.


    Maya obviously used her rifle to block it, but the eagle''s real target was none other than the rifle. Its talons grasped the rifle and snatched it away from her.


    "What?!" Maya drew a gasp andined, "Niki. There is an eagle! The area is not safe?"


    Nikita maintained her silence because she had witnessed everything. Maya soon realized what was going on and saw the eagle flying away with her rifle.


    When the eagle had gained enough distance, the eagle turned into Theo as he used his Telekinesis to stay floating in the air.


    This was his clone that was hiding behind the tree. The past two weeks were indeed very beneficial for him, because he could use his Metamorphosis even more fluently, especially the eagle since it might be his escape path in the future.


    The moment Theo possessed the rifle, he tried to aim it at Maya, trying to replicate Maya''s grips.


    "How do I use this again?" He aimed at Maya and fired a few rounds.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Unfortunately, the bullets hit the ground near Maya and exploded without harming her. Maya only gritted her teeth because she knew Theo had no experience with guns.


    She also noticed the other Theo, who came closer to her from behind.


    The shield changed into a knife while the other held a handgun. Maya turned around and shot Theo a couple of times.


    The real Theo avoided it effortlessly and took a deep breath.


    "Magic Augmentation." Theo used his new skill for the first time as the Magic Power inside his body began to revolve like crazy. It felt like he needed to release his skill to calm his Magic down.


    Seeing Theo''s movement, Maya struck his spear before it went down, but her body suddenly felt a tremendous pressure that restricted her to the ground.


    This pressure slowed down her movement, allowing Theo to hit her knife with his Cannon st that had been boosted by Magic Augmentation.


    Obviously, Theo overpowered her until her knife hit the ground. However, Maya seemed to n to abandon her knife this whole time.


    The moment she got overpowered by him, she let go of her knife and used that chance to slip past through him, hiding between the trees.


    Clone Theo tried to shoot her again with his inurate aim.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Some bullets hit the tree, some hit the ground, some hindered her movement, while some didn''t even affect her.


    Theo knew it wasn''t the best to rely on a weapon he wasn''t good at, but all the rounds he fired earlier were nothing but a diversion.


    The real attack came from the Magic Bullets that had flown on top of her and dove down using the Tracking ability.


    Because of the dense leaves, she couldn''t find the Magic Bullet''s location, so she ended up using her Lightning Barrier again to prevent any injuries.


    I wenty Magic Bullets passed the leaves and hit her barrier in session.


    At the same time, Theo came closer to Maya, trying to hit her barrier. With his current power, he should be able to shatter the barrier.


    However, Maya didn''t have a change of expression as if she expected Theo to approach her.


    And it turned out she had nted like how Theo used the tree as her cover. She ced her bomb behind the tree and exploded it.


    "I can use the trees too." Maya smiled and pointed her hand to him. "This is my present. I hope you like it."


    Boom.


    The bomb exploded and engulfed Theo. Unfortunately, Nikita had yet to make her move because the one who chased after her was none other than Theo''s Illusion.


    "And yes, I know you can use the trees. That''s why I sent my illusion instead," said Theo with a poker face.


    However, Maya''s real aim turned out to be something different. When the smoke disappeared, she was already on one knee, holding a three-foot-long sniper rifle and aiming at Theo''s clone.


    Bam.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because his clone was shot down. ''Did she use the bomb to clear the obstacle between her and my clone to snipe him down?''

 Chapter 476 – Theo Vs Maya Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 476 - Theo Vs Maya Part 4</h4>


    "��" Theo was amazed when he realized her target turned out to be his clone.


    The spear then dropped to the ground.


    After that, Maya fired another shot, trying to hit him.


    Theo took a deep breath and used his Blink to avoid this powerful bullet. The bullet literally left a trail as it traveled.


    So, he used that time to observe the bullet instead of attacking her.


    Maya clicked her tongue, knowing Theo didn''t get baited. She then rose from the ground and changed her weapon to a handgun.


    She started shooting Theo again while hiding between the trees��


    "��" Theo knew she was trying to lure him inside the woods and it was extremely dangerous because Maya could leave behind some bombs like earlier.


    He thought for a moment and summoned a tiger next to him. This was his clone with Metamorphosis, but Theo hid the transformation process with his Illusion.


    "A tiger?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows and watched the tiger running toward her.


    She remembered Theo turning into an eagle, so she thought this must be him as well.


    Instead of aiming at Theo, she shot the tiger.


    To her surprise, the tiger leaped to the left and hid behind the tree. Suddenly, Clone Theo reached the top of the tree using his Flowmotion and leaped between branches to get closer to her.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Maya used her Targeting Skill to hit Theo, but the real Theo appeared next to him and destroyed the bullets with his spear.


    Maya''s expression turned grim as she thought, ''Did I make a mistake by using the trees as my cover? Theo now is a shapeshifter. In this case, it''s going to be even more difficult to fight him with this terrain. I need to go back to the previous open terrain, but I don''t think he will let me. My rifle is there too.''


    After considering a few things, she turned around and ran away.


    Theo was not pleased with this development either. If Maya tried to run, she could maintain her distance with the guns and bombs.


    Theo sighed while his clone returned to the tiger form, running ahead of him to check whether there were any traps or whatsoever.


    Maya didn''t need to aim at Theo anymore. She simply fired to the back while using her Targeting Skill, making the bullets turn ording to Theo''s movement.


    Tiger Theo increased his speed and leaped from one ce to another using his Flowmotion. This skill made his movement so smooth between the trees as if this was his home.


    He gradually closed their gap while Theo decided to disappear from Maya''s vision before turning into an eagle and flying above the trees.


    Maya clicked her tongue and shot Tiger Theo. At the same time, she disappeared for a split second before another explosion urred next to the tree she crossed.


    Boom.


    The explosion stopped Tiger Theo for a second while Eagle Theo maintained his course.


    "Why are you chasing a woman? I am wondering where is the hero who usually saves the damsel in distress?" She shouted while running away.


    Theo didn''t say a single thing and just maintained a safe distance.


    Suddenly, Eagle Theo noticed a small opening ahead. He climbed a little bit and found a smallke. It wasn''t that big, but it should be enough for them to end their battle.


    After all, both of them hated fighting in the woods.


    Tiger Theo used this information to lead Maya to theke.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Several more explosions resounded in the forest as Tiger Theo decided to step up his game by using his Blink to close the gap.


    "!!!" Maya halted her step for a second and changed her weapon to a shotgun. She then aimed at Tiger Theo, who was about to pounce her.


    "Are you going to push me down?" Maya smiled while pointing her shotgun at Theo''s head, saying another joke. "You need to change to your real body first since I''m not too fond of bestiality."


    Bang.


    She shot him on the head while Tiger Theo used his Telekinesis tounch him to the side.


    The bullet hit his side as flesh and blood sttered on the ground.


    Maya was startled and realized the one that chased her was the real Theo.


    Theo, on the contrary, raised his paw and used his Magic Augmentation.


    Before hitting her, he covered his paw with the Cannon st and stomped the ground, turning it into a crater.


    Because the ground shifted, the trees also didn''t have a foothold and crumbled.


    Tiger Theo returned to the human''s shape and smiled. "This is the end of our fight along with your joke."


    "No, you should admit defeat before the wound gets worse," Maya warned him while pointing her shotgun at him.


    However, an eagle dove down.


    Its talon was covered with a green-colored aura, the same as the one covering the paw earlier.


    Maya raised her shotgun to block the eagle, only to regret it right after. Even though he was an eagle, Theo used his Magic Augmentation, Cannon st, Telekinesis, External Flow, and Materialization in this attack.


    Its power was beyond her imagination.


    The moment the talon hit the shotgun, Maya was pushed down to the ground and deepened the crater.


    "Gah!" Maya spat blood while using the ground to support her hand to avoid Theo hitting her directly.


    Theo''s attack didn''t stop there. Several Magic Bullets flew past the leaves as Eagle Theo seemed to n to restrain her and caused mutual destruction.


    Realizing Theo''s n, Maya summoned the wings on her back again and generated enough thrust to slip away.


    The Magic Bullets ended up hitting Eagle Theo as thetter disappeared.


    Unfortunately for her, she fell into another illusion. Right before the bullets hit him, Eagle Theo had already used his Blink to avoid the Magic Bullets and regrouped with Tiger Theo.


    After that, the two began to chase after Maya with the same formation, leading her to the open area.


    Maya started to be desperate to leave the area and used the energy from her wings to go beyond the trees and found the sameke as Theo.


    She hurriedly escaped to theke and floated on top of theke, watching out for Theo''s sneak attack.


    On the other hand, Tiger Theo stopped next to theke while Eagle Theonded beside him. The two transformed back to their original forms, staring at Maya.

 Chapter 477 – Theo Vs Maya Part 5

    <h4>Chapter 477 - Theo Vs Maya Part 5</h4>


    "��" Maya furrowed her eyebrows while ncing over Theo''s wound. He was clearly bleeding and made her worry because Theo could copse anytime. "Are you sure you don''t want to stop? I know that you want to win, but how about we stop here?"


    "No." The Injured Theo shook his head with a serious expression. "I am good. I can still go on."


    "How about you tell me the skill you wish to buy? I can get it for you as long as you fulfill your side of the agreement." She tried to negotiate with Theo, not wanting him to get a heavy injury in this situation.


    Theo didn''t answer her anymore and charged toward her.


    Seeing the two Theosing, Maya fired her shotgun.


    The two Theos split up while avoiding the bullets, summoning their Magic Bullets.


    Maya threw another small ball that released the gas, destroying the Magic Bullets.


    However, Theo had expected it, so he waved his hand up, lifting the water.


    The water surface started to stick out until it burst open, spurting a huge amount of water.


    Maya flew back to avoid it while changing to another gun. She seemed to want to end this battle as soon as possible by bringing her rocketuncher out.


    She aimed at the top while using her skill. "Dispersion."


    The rocketuncher released a blue ball that suddenly split into twenty in all directions.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and flew away because the blue balls exploded before they even touched the water. The shock wave pushed Theo away.


    Theo was quite surprised by the power. Despite the explosion dispersed in twenty different locations, the st was quite powerful. If the Ground Dragon had met this attack with his head, he might die because the explosions would have hit the brain.


    The water sshed and made him wet. Maya even added, "If this were seawater, you would have started wailing in pain."


    "If you think you can defeat me with something like this, then you''repletely wrong." The Injured Theo shouted, showing his determination in defeating her.


    "Tsk." Maya clicked her tongue, knowing that words couldn''t convince him. She fully reloaded her shotgun while Theo was pushed back.


    After that, she flew to the Healthy Theo and fired at him.


    Bam.


    Theo flew upward to avoid the attack.


    While seeing how the bullets exploded, he made his way to Maya together with his clone.


    The two nned to attack her together.


    However, Theo showed her the full version of the one he showed her in the hotel.


    Both Theo and his clone used their Telekinesis to create an eel made of theke''s water.


    Maya sucked a cold breath. Despite not having any details on its appearance, she could see the water was spinning around.


    "Uah, those eels�� It''s going to rip my arms apart if it hits me." Maya chuckled and thought she still had the advantage.


    Suddenly, Theo moved forward while waving his spear. The eel moved together with his spears and struck Maya from two directions.


    Maya increased her altitude to avoid the eels and saw how they hit each other.


    The water burst to the top and hit her, covering her vision.


    Theo and his clone then appeared next to her and waved their spears at the same time, trying to take advantage of the situation.


    As if she had expected a move like this, Maya aimed at the spear in front of her, sting the tip from point nk range.


    Bang.


    Theo was taken aback and blown away. She purposely aimed at the spear because Theo was injured. Meanwhile, she had no hesitation in pointing her handgun at the healthy Theo.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    The bullets pierced his heart and head as Theo started to disappear, leaving only his spear to fall down.


    When the water had calmed down, only the Injured Theo and Maya left on top of the water.


    Maya still looked at Theo''s wound that started getting worse. Even Theo''s face had turned pale.


    "It''s better we stop this." Maya shook her head. "Just admit defeat. I will fulfill my side of the agreement as well. It''s not something you should risk your life for�� It''s just a skill."


    Theo panted and said, "That''s for you. I am just a poor boy. This skill is beyond my entire fortune."


    Maya squinted her eyes. "It''s okay. You''re worth it. Just take it as my goodwill to give you this skill. I hope you can put more consideration in choosing your future. How''s that?"


    Theo smirked. "To think the rude princess can showpassion�� I thought you were going to say, ''I have earned this. You said you are a poor boy? It''s just an excuse because you never tried to be extraordinary.'' Or something along the lines."


    "��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she sighed. "I am rude, yes, I admit it. But I never y with people''s lives."


    "You think?" Theo snorted and flew forward. "Then, I shall win this. I''m curious what kind of words you will use if you lose against this poor person."


    "You! You must be kidding!" Maya''s face was distorted. She raised her voice and started getting angry. "I don''t appreciate you ying with your life. Since you want to do this, I am going to finish it as soon as possible."


    Theo smiled and said, "Try it."


    Theo tried to summon his clone, but the clone disappeared right away. His face was already pale and his body seemed to be weak because of the blood loss.


    Maya didn''t know how Theo could be so stubborn.


    Theo gritted his teeth as if he was frustrated by the failure. Maya lowered her aim and fired at his legs.


    Bam.


    Theo thrust his spear and dispersed his Cannon st to destroy the bullets. The shock wave pushed Maya back, albeit it wasn''t enough to injure her.


    He then released his Magic Bullets with no turn or whatsoever as if he had started losing control over his Magic Bullets.


    "It''s enough." Maya gritted her teeth and blocked all of them with her shield.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    She contained all the explosions while gritting her teeth.


    However, everything was a trap from Theo. The moment she stopped, twenty Magic Bullets emerged from the water, surrounding her.


    "What?!"

 Chapter 478 – Theo Vs Maya Part 6

    <h4>Chapter 478 - Theo Vs Maya Part 6</h4>


    A minute ago.


    After the big ssh from two eels collision that covered Maya''s vision, both Theo and his clone chased Maya and struck their spears.


    However, that wasn''t what truly happened. Clone Theo had indeede after Maya, but the other Theo along with the falling spear was merely an illusion.


    The real Theo changed into a fish and submerged underwater, waiting for his chance.


    His Clone kept fighting her as if he didn''t care about his life and lowered Maya''s guard. He even added another illusion to show Maya he couldn''t summon his clone anymore because of his condition.


    Thatst move was made to stop Maya and catch her off guard while Fish Theo summoned his Magic Bullets.


    And this tactic was perfectly executed as Maya had no other way to escape��


    ��


    On the surface, Maya was deep in shock when twenty Magic Bullets appeared.


    "What?!"


    "Lightning Barrier." Maya summoned the barrier again, stopping all the bullets that hit him.


    As if it was hisst effort, Theo charged forward with everything he had except the Cannon st. He struck the Lightning Barrier with his spear.


    Bam.


    The sound was loud, but there seemed to be no damage. However, the next thing she realized, she had fallen under another illusion.


    It turned out Theo had cut her barrier while another Theo emerged from the water.


    Maya didn''t want to lose, so she quickly pointed her shotgun at the Injured Theo''s head while the other Theo pointed his spear at her neck.


    "Put your weapon down. I win. Now, it''s time for you to stop and heal your wound." Maya eximed in a hurry, wanting to treat Theo''s injuries.


    However, Theo imed otherwise. "I win. You lose."


    "You�� Don''t piss me off!" Maya gritted her teeth and called, "Niki!"


    Nikita appeared next to them with a poker face.


    "Help me treat his wound." Maya signaled Nikita to stop Theo and treat his wound.


    To her surprise, Nikita remained silent and didn''t do anything.


    "Why are you not moving?" Maya was frustrated because these two didn''t seem to care about the injury.


    Nikita shook her head helplessly and exined, "Young Miss�� How can I treat a perfectly healthy guy?"


    "Huh?" Maya was dumbfounded and confused, not understanding why she said that. It was clear Theo had a severe injury�� Unless��


    She came to a realization and drew a gasp, staring at the pale Theo, who suddenly recovered the redness of his face. When his lips curved, Maya couldn''t help but pull the trigger, shooting him on the head.


    Bang.


    The bullet pierced through him, instantly killing him.


    "Oi, oi. Why did you shoot?" The Theo behind her started talking nonchntly while using his Telekinesis to recover the spear.


    "You bastard! Are you ying with your life?" Maya gnashed her teeth and grasped Theo''s cor.


    Theo looked away as if he didn''t do anything wrong while Nikita brought Maya''s rifle.


    "Miss, this is your weapon."


    Maya''s body was shaking and she lowered her head, fuming in anger. After a few seconds, she pinched the bridge of her nose and grabbed the rifle, turning it back to a bracelet.


    She raised her vision and looked Theo in the eyes, asking, "Can I punch you in the face?"


    "Ehm, no."


    She released Theo and moved back a little bit. Taking a few deep breaths, Maya finally understood what had happened.


    "I let you win," Maya said.


    "Miss, you should be a bigger person and admit you have lost." Nikita corrected her words again. "Please don''t make your brain and heart smaller. It''s not good for your health."


    "What the hell? Can they even be smaller?"


    "That''s why I said it''s not good for your health." Nikita shrugged.


    "��" Maya really wanted to beat Nikita and Theo or at least punched them once. She never thought she would be owned this entire time.


    Theo and Nikita exchanged looks and nodded to each other as if they came to an understanding.


    "Anyway, I won." Theo smiled. "I will be expecting you to fulfill your side of the agreement, okay?"


    "Yeah. Well, I have assessed your ability as well, so I think I havepleted the minimum requirement." Maya was disappointed in herself.


    "So, what are we going to do now?" Theo asked.


    "First of all, I want to say something to you." Maya waved her hand as if asking him for a bit of time to calm herself down. After that, she said, "I am impressed by your power, especially since I have seen your performance in the Grand Gaia.


    "You are almost at Master Level in terms of Control even though you seemed to be a newbie during thepetition. This impressed me the most."


    "Thank you."


    Maya nodded and continued, "Then, it''s truly wonderful to see your performance and overall growth. All I can say, everything is phenomenal. I can''t really say everything because my mind is also still processing the information, but yeah, I think I have a good grasp of what I will say to my country."


    "That''s good."


    "So, tell me, what skill do you want?"


    Theo smiled and said without hesitation. "Illusion Skill, Illusion Construct."


    Maya epted it like it wasn''t a big deal, while Nikita was dumbfounded when she heard Theo''s request.


    Noticing her expression, Maya started to be suspicious. "Do you have something to say, Niki?"


    "Illusion Construct is a B Rank Skill that is said to be close to an A Rank Skill. You may need to pay a high price to get it, considering how rare it is and the number of people desiring the skill."


    "Oh. How much do I need to pay?"


    "I am not sure, but over a hundred million, I guess?"


    "Dors?"


    "Zils."


    "Okay, no problem." Maya brushed it off without batting an eye as if a hundred million wasn''t that big of a deal to her.


    "But miss, even though it''s a hundred million Zils, it''s going to cost you a lot, you know."


    "It''s fine. I can just make more money after that. Besides, knowing this guy''s ability with just a hundred million, I think it''s cheap."


    "You are the only one who thinks that way." Nikita rolled her eyes.


    "Hahahahaha!" Mayaughed it off as if it wasn''t important. "People call this squandering, but I call this investment."


    "But I call you shameless."


    "��"

 Chapter 479 – Offers

    <h4>Chapter 479 - Offers</h4>


    While searching for Illusion Skill to change his Illusion Multiplier, he came across a quite interesting skill.


    Skill: Illusion Construct (B)


    Effect: The user can change illusions into tools, objects, weapons and other items.


    He never thought he woulde across a skill like this because this kind of skill was close to that of creation. Since the skills couldn''t create living beings along with the fact everything was only an illusion and not a real thing, he understood why the skill was only a B Rank Skill.


    Even then, the skill requirement to upgrade was quite cheappared to the rest and he should have no problem in upgrading this skill to A Rank.


    If hebined this skill with his eyes, he would be able to create a realistic illusion or effect. That was why he wanted this skill to rece the Illusion Multiplier.


    However, considering he hadn''t gotten it yet, he chose to rece the Illusion Multiplier with Magic Augmentation to increase his power output. This way, he should be able to hunt faster to get enough money to get this skill��


    He just never expected that his luck would bring Maya to him, offering the agreement that he couldn''t miss.


    Theo was happy when he won against Maya because he would get this skill sooner than he thought.


    Recalling what happened, Theo couldn''t help but smile, staring at Maya who was still arguing with Nikita.


    Suddenly, Maya stopped and turned to Theo. "I guess we are done here. I will bring the skill to you. Don''t worry. I will prove Niki''s im about me being shameless wrong. After all, I can say I didn''t specify the date or something along the lines."


    "It never crossed your mind?" Theo squinted his eyes and asked, suspicious of her thought.


    Maya froze for a split second before answering, "Since the fight is over, let''s go back."


    "Ignored��"


    Maya yfully looked away while remembering another thing. "That''s right. I have one more thing to tell you."


    "Okay." Theo nodded.


    "Do you want to be mine?"


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion as if he didn''t hear it right.


    Nikita coughed and corrected her, "Young Miss, you should word it better."


    "Are you asking me to be your man or your subordinate?" Theo shook his head and answered. "Anyway, both answers are the same. Fuck off."


    Maya scratched the back of her head and didn''t correct her words. She brushed it off with augh and continued, "Ahaha. Anyway, let''s get back to the topic. I will send the skill within a week to your address. So, I need your address."


    Theo thought for a moment. His address would be found out sooner orter and it wasn''t like Maya couldn''t find it, so he thought there was no harm in giving his address.


    "Okay. I will send it to youter."


    "Good." Maya nodded and smirked. "By the way, if you are going back with me, you will be supported not only by me, but the government and Star Group. Don''t worry. You won''t get any order from them since you''re technically one of my people.


    "You will get all the equipment you want, including any kinds of training tools to increase the efficiency of your practice. Also, we have several Mythical Rank Experts who are ready to guide you and many staff that will help with the utilities and other things.


    "In other words, you don''t need to think about anything. We will take care of you as long as you keep getting stronger. And yes, there will always be an examination to make sure you are not cking. The exams will be held every three months."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and remembered Maya''s first offer when they were at the banquet. "Is that the reason you told me to do a mission with you every three months?"


    "Yep." Maya acknowledged it. "I mean, we don''t want someone to just get all the resources to bezy. I don''t mind spending money, but everything is just a form of investment. Even I spend money on these weapons so I can get stronger and level up faster."


    "That''s fair." Theo agreed with her.


    "That''s why spending hundreds of millions if not billions is not that much of a problem as long as you can prove that you''re worthy to gain that incentive." She smirked. "Normally, the exams will allow me to audit the amount of money I give you for the next three months."


    "Well, that''s the only thing I can praise you, Miss." Nikita nodded.


    "What do you mean the only thing?" She squinted her eyes andined. "Look, I have many good things you can praise. I am fair, beautiful, rich, hardworking��"


    "Okay, okay. You''re bragging again."


    "So, you agree with me?"


    Nikita didn''t answer. She pointed her finger at Theo who already looked away to admire the scenery. "He''s already bored."


    "��" Maya let out a long sigh. "Fine. Let''s go back. That''s an offer from me and I''m sure you can get more if youe with me, Theo. I hope you can consider it."


    "I understand. I will consider it." Theo nodded. "I will tell you when I am ready to go. At that time, we can finalize the contract."


    "Okay." Maya paused for a moment. "By the way, who else has approached you? Definitely not China, Egypt, and Japan."


    Theo shrugged, answering her with another question to change the topic. "Though, I want to ask you one question."


    "What is it?"


    "Do I need to fight people unnecessarily, for example�� some petty reasons such as envy or greed?"


    "You will have a house of your own, so no one will bother you unless there''s an important thing going on. Well, some will probably check you up, especially regarding your condition. If you want some advice, you can go to the office. I can see that you''re good at camouging, so I think that''s fine. As for the mission, I am in charge.


    "I can''t promise you that your life is not in trouble, but I can promise you to minimize that problem unless you seek the trouble itself."


    "Hmm��" Theo looked down, thinking about it. "Okay. That''s enough for the answer."


    "Good. Shall we go back?"


    "Sure."

 Chapter 480 – Two Choices

    <h4>Chapter 480 - Two Choices</h4>


    After that, they returned to Art Beats City and teleported to the other side.


    Theo simply went back home with a smile on his face. He didn''t care whether Nikita or someone was tailing him anymore. After all, he would give the address to Maya tonight.


    Sitting on the couch, Theo started thinking about his choices.


    "Hmm. What should I do?" Theo rested his head on the couch and looked at the ceiling�� "I have two offers right now. The first offeres from Agata and my own family. If I choose Italy, I will be around the War God Family.


    "Ugh, as much as I want to trust them, I don''t know if I can do it. It just feels weird since they may be the same as the Griffith Family. Well, they may not be the same, but there should be some simrities to a certain degree.


    "At the same time, I can''t really expect full support from them, considering my blessing doesn''te from a War like figure.


    "It''s good to know that you''re in the family, but I don''t want to think of it as the only reason to go there. As for the positive sides�� I can train my Awareness to the limit. Maybe I can work my way up, so I can have the Pope to teach me? Nah, who am I? I am not that important and it''s not like the Pope has nothing to do.


    "Still, Awareness is important because my Death Avatar will have something simr. I mean, the sealed form will be with me for long, considering it''s the only effect for a B Rank Death Avatar. However, I don''t know what kind of power is sealed in the Death Avatar skill. So, if I go with Maya, I can get all the resources that can help me improve all Five Aspects.


    "This is very good considering the God of Mischief has created a foundation for all the five Aspects.


    "There is also the fact they''re natural-born strategists. This is a kind of double edge for me. First of all, they should be able to help me in solving many problems with their brains alone. However, if they''re plotting against me, I should expect a deadly n as well. I don''t even know whether I can survive there by relying on the fact that we''re rted by blood.


    "After all, my mother eloped with my father, so it''s not an official marriage blessed by both families.


    "On the other hand, if I go with Maya, I can receive all forms of training, especially my Five Aspects. After that, I won''t need to worry about my equipment, lodging, and any other things. I can focus on my training.


    "However, what kind of life should I expect from her? When the offer seems too good to be true, I don''t know whether I can trust it or not. I also need to challenge many people to improve these eyes. I wonder which country I should choose��" Theo closed his eyes, considering the pros and cons.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Maya and Nikita had returned to their hotel.


    Maya quickly changed her clothes and leaped onto the couch,ying down with a tired expression. "That was an amazing fight. To think I would have lost against him�� Well, I didn''t bring my entire suit, railgun, and a few other toys or I would have won��"


    "Miss, you would still lose." Nikita shook her head.


    "What do you mean?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows, not liking that statement. "I mean, if this is a life and death battle, I would have ended his life with my guns."


    "That might be true, but he also needed to restrain his power during the fight." Nikita shook his head. "From what I can see, you had twenty chances to kill him."


    "I wenty chances? Sounds good to me."


    "Yeah, but he had at least sixty chances," added Nikita with a poker face.


    "Sixty?" Maya widened her eyes and rose from the couch, looking at her with a serious expression. "Do you mind exining it to me?"


    "Certainly." Nikita nodded. "First of all, his clone can be a suicide bomber."


    "��" Maya chuckled. "You truly didn''t hold back with your assessment, eh?"


    Nikita shrugged and continued, "I told you the truth. If his clone didn''t need to worry about his life, it would be easy to kill you, Miss. If hees with you, you can simply supply him with lots of weapons and his clone will be peerless."


    Maya thought for a moment. "I can see that."


    "There is also the fact he can summon his clone continuously and remotely control it. There seems to be no range restriction as well. In other words, he can be seen in two countries at the same time. Also, you can''t deny the fact that his flesh and blood looked very real. Back when I followed you, I certainly thought it was real since it stuck to my finger. Only when he retracted his clone, the blood disappeared from my hands."


    "��" Maya''s expression darkened. "I see. That''s dangerous."


    "Yeah. What if his power fell to the wrong side? For example, terrorist, assassin or mercenary group?"


    "That will be rming. Instead of fighting who can have him, we need to make sure he doesn''t go to that side." Maya agreed. Her heart filled with worry.


    "Well, there is another path for him��" Nikita stopped as she didn''t want to exin the path further.


    Even then, Maya already knew it. "Death."


    Rather than leaving him alive, killing him would certainly erase those worries. However, Maya shook her head. "Nah, he may be a double-edged sword, but as long as he can stay this way, it''s good enough for us. I mean, the benefits we can receive when he grows up are beyond our imagination."


    "That is if we can get it. I don''t know whether he is loyal or not." Nikita shook her head.


    "He had an absurd childhood�� Even then, he doesn''t seem to be broken. I mean, if you have a bad childhood, your view of the world will certainly get distorted. His actions don''t seem to be irrational for me, so I know we can negotiate with him."

 Chapter 481 – Warning

    <h4>Chapter 481 - Warning</h4>


    "Well, you can say it''s true. However, I need to warn you that he is a shapeshifter."


    Hearing Nikita''s words, Maya fell silent, knowing the danger of a shapeshifter.


    "He can turn into a tiger, an eagle, and a fish. This is a perfect skill to ambush people, giving him an extraordinary advantage as an assassin. After all, he could use his skills while doing so."


    "I know. The moment he loses it, I am afraid it''s going to be dangerous. That''s why I am nning to go back to the country to discuss it. If we acquire him, we will gain enough benefits. We just need to make himfortable there." Maya nodded in agreement��


    "How do you make himfortable? Money? I don''t think he''s that greedy. He wants money but won''t take too much risk. Woman? Do you remember what happened between him and the world''s most beautiful woman, Agata?"


    "Well, how about we create a home for him? We just need to make sure he feels at home."


    "You need to seriously consider the Griffith Family then." Nikita shook her head. She had no idea how to make sure Theo stayed in their country.


    "Let''s talk about it after we return. I''m sure if a few people think about this matter, we cane up with something. Besides, there is a time for the contract. We need to consider it thoroughly." Maya sighed. "Besides, it''s not like we can kill him��"


    "We can. As long as you send me, I will definitely kill��" Nikita stopped for a moment and raised her vision, looking through the ceiling. She seemed to sense someone on the roof.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    Someone suddenly knocked on the door, rming them.


    "Who are you?" Nikita quickly made her way in front of Maya while raising her guard. She felt tremendous pressureing from the outside.


    A woman''s voice resounded through the door, warning them. "I am here to warn you. If you want to kill my disciple, I will erase you right here and now, even if you are the Young Miss of the Star Group or the leader of the Starry Group."


    "Your disciple?" Maya frowned and remembered another rule. "The Griffith Family''s Master Competition. You''re the master who won thatpetition as Theo''s master?"


    "It seems the Young Miss knows about thepetition. I''m just warning you to avoid an unnecessary fight."


    Maya sucked a cold breath and looked around, wondering if Theo''s master had checked their room or not.


    After realizing she hadn''t done anything, Maya reassured Theo''s master. "Don''t worry. I prioritize his life as well. I''m sure you also know that we will face a troublesome situation if Theo bes a bad guy��"


    There was no answer as Maya continued, "I apologize for my subordinate''s thoughtless remarks. And I can promise you that we won''t harm him."


    "I hope so. I don''t care whether he will be those who walk in the light or control the situation in the dark. As long as he is alive, it''s good enough for me."


    "I understand. I shall be careful from now on."


    "Okay then. Just remember, no one can touch him as long as he stays in Thernd."


    "Thank you for the warning." Maya nodded. Her heart beats rapidly, not knowing the other party''s existence. She only knew the one behind the door was a Mythical Rank Expert as it was the basic requirement for the Griffith Family''s Master Competition. In addition, Nikita seemed to feel the power that might be equal, if not stronger than her.


    She knew it wasn''t the best choice to fight his master in this situation, so Maya quickly de-escted the situation.


    After getting the answer she wanted, the presence behind the door disappeared and Maya finally fell on her butt, sweating.


    "Niki, be careful of what you say." Maya took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart down.


    "I apologize." Niki gritted her teeth and bowed to Maya.


    "Either way, there is a chance he can escape, especially since his master is around. On top of that, his brain is on a different level, so I don''t think it''s wise to go with that n. If he grows up while hating us, we will face a catastrophe, understand?"


    "Yes." Nikita took a step back and nodded.


    "Anyway, I will give my report to my grandfather. You should also do the same." Maya waved her hand.


    "Understood." Nikita turned around and went to another room.


    Meanwhile, Mayaid down on the carpet while staring at the ceiling.


    "The Griffith Family�� They truly have cruel rules and traditions. Still, it''s not easy to fight them, even for my Starry Group. I really need Grandpa to step in��" Maya raised her hand and called her grandfather.


    Suddenly, a white-haired old man appeared on the screen. He had a stern face and said with a strict tone. "Do you need anything from me? Have you given up and decided to go to another matchmaking session seriously?"


    "No, no. I am just asking you to prepare arge sum of moneyter."


    "For what?"


    "Theodore Griffith."


    "��" The old man fell silent and thought for a moment. After a moment, he asked, "Is he that strong?"


    "His current self is already strong enough. I will be equal to him if I have all my toys�� Or that''s what I think. Hence, I want to call off our bet."


    "So, you lose this bet?"


    "Of course not. I''m just calling it off. I just want you to know that it''s a high-risk, high-return investment. However, if you don''t invest in him, we won''t know about the future."


    "So, he is stronger than you. I understand; I will make some preparations." The old man nodded a few times as if he understood something.


    "What do you mean he''s stronger than me? No!"


    "You always say you are stronger than others. Since you just said you will be equal to him, then it must mean he is stronger than you."


    "What do you take me for��" Maya shook her head helplessly.


    "A proud girl�� Maybe too proud."


    "Fine, I don''t care. I won''t meet anyone in the next three months." Maya pouted and ended the call.

 Chapter 482 – Fighting Multiple Monsters Alone

    <h4>Chapter 482 - Fighting Multiple Monsters Alone</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo and Ava were ready to go hunting. He also had sent his address and a message to Maya.


    The Skill Card would be hidden behind the house so no one would steal it since he wouldn''t be in the house when the skill arrived.


    Since he had gotten the confirmation from Maya, Theo returned to Ark City with Ava, heading toward the canyon.


    While eliminating the enemies, Theo was thinking about his future skills.


    He realized his strength had gotten stronger, especially with the addition of his Magic Augmentation.


    Hence, he started thinking about shifting his skills to Illusion Skills. After all, he had enough firepower with his Telekinesis, External Flow, and Materializations alone.


    The result became more apparent when he fought against monsters on the way to the zing Ant Nest.


    ��


    Four days after Theo began his journey, he was already two days away from the canyon and one day away from the zing Ant Nest.


    He nned to hunt around this area until level 350 and decided to test his current strength by fighting against several monsters at once.


    The first monster had a humanoid body with a fish head. Its skin was blue, and the monster carried a trident.


    The second monster was simr to a cheetah but with white skin. It also had two long tails that seemed to be longer than his own body.


    Thest one was a three-horned humanoid monster. The monster was twice as big as Theo and carried a metal club.


    He nned to fight these three by himself to see the gap between them. Of course, Clone Theo had checked their identities.


    Name: Sahuagin


    Level: 340-350


    Name: Heimcard


    Level: 350-360


    Name: Three-Horned Troll


    Level: 350-360


    He asked Ava to watch his fight and refused to use his Clone during the fight.


    The first to move was the Heimcard. It leaped toward Theo and pounced him.


    Theo struck its paws with his spear. Both the spear and the paws were covered in a green light, neutralizing each other.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and noticed the fish''s movement.


    Theo ducked down, avoiding the fish''s trident that almost plunged him. However, the troll already arrived next to him and smashed Theo from above.


    nk.


    The two metals collided, producing a loud friction noise. Surprisingly, Theo took the metalpletely despite the troll''s muscr body.


    After receiving their attacks, Theo used his Blink to appear behind the fastest one among them, the Heimcard.


    The moment he appeared, the Heimcard reacted by spinning its body.


    With its back on the ground, the paws reached Theo''s spear, trying to knock it away.


    However, Theo hit him again with his Telekinesis and leaped backward to regain his distance before his Magic Power started revolving inside his body.


    "Magic Augmentation."


    The Sahuagin charged at him and thrust his trident.


    Theo took a deep breath and covered his spear with his Cannon st, hitting the ground.


    The Cannon st dispersed and shattered the ground.


    All of them lost their bnce, and Theo used his Telekinesis to take advantage of the situation. He flew toward the sahuagin and struck his body.


    Thetter managed to avoid him, but Theo let go of his spear and controlled it with his Telekinesis,unching the spear to the sahuagin''s arm and slicing it.


    The three-horned troll raised its club and mmed it down.


    Theo changed to his tiger form and leaped to the side, making a loop around the crater and hitting the troll from behind.


    The troll was shocked by Theo''s attack and took a few steps. When he tried to regain his bnce, he saw the spear flying straight at his face.


    The troll quickly raised his club to block it but lost its bnce in the process. It tripped and fell on his back.


    When the troll raised his vision, it saw Theo holding his spear and piercing his throat.


    [Killed a Three-Horned Troll.]


    [EXP+35,000]


    "One down." Theo smiled and looked at the other two.


    The Heimcard had stood up while the Sahuagin red at him. After that, they charged at him from two different directions, trying to confuse Theo.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face because this just made his situation easier. He leaped toward the sahuagin.


    Thetter smacked Theo''s head with the trident, but Theo soon disappeared. It was just an illusion. The real Theo dyed his movement for one second, allowing him to slip past the sahuagin''s defense and sliced his throat.


    "Die!"


    [Killed a Sahuagin.]


    [EXP+ 20,500]


    "Nice." Theo smiled. He didn''t know why but fighting Maya gave a refreshing feeling. It might be because he never fought someone using a gun, but it certainly gave him new information about fighting.


    He could see their movement easier as if he were observing Maya''s finger on the trigger.


    After killing the sahuagin, the Heimcard leaped on top of him, trying to pounce him. However, Theo used his Blink to appear on top of the Heimcard and struck him.


    The Heimcard managed to spin its body again, but Theo didn''t mean to attack him with the spear this time. He kicked him instead, blowing the body to the ground. After that, Theo stepped on the Heimcard''s tail and stabbed his body when it was wailing in pain.


    The Heimcard touched the ground to break it, but Theo had pushed down their body with Telekinesis.


    [Killed a Heimcard.]


    [EXP+34,760]


    "Nice." Theo smiled, feeling satisfied.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 320


    EXP: 126,500/992,848


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 450, Endurance 266, Agility 281, Vitality 266, Magic Power 520


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Satisfied, Theo ced his hand on their bodies, turning them into cards. After that, Theo returned to Ava, who watched the fight with his clone. Thetter stayed there to get another view from Ava''s perspective, allowing him to review the fight together.


    Still, fighting multiple higher-level monsters without his clone helping him made him happy.


    "Yeah. It''s done." Theoughed and said, "I should be fine for now, Ava. Did you see that?"


    "Kyu!" Ava pped as if she enjoyed the fight.


    "Okay. Let''s go to the zing Ant Nest."


    "Kyu!"

 Chapter 483 – Four Mythical Rank Experts

    <h4>Chapter 483 - Four Mythical Rank Experts</h4>


    Little did he know, in Thernd, specifically in front of Ark City''s Teleportation Circle, Theo''s Master stood on top of a building, staring at the teleportation circle.


    Suddenly, a figure appeared next to her. It was the middle-aged man from the War God Family. Seeing his appearance, Theo''s Master sighed. "So, what are you nning to do? He has gone to the other side. I''m sure he will chase Theo."


    "To think he wants to make a move even before Theo reaches 18 years old�� He is trying to challenge the Griffith Family." The man shook his head. "We should continue to follow him and buy enough time for Theo to run away."


    "I guess that''s the��"


    "There''s no need to. Leave him to us." A female''s voice echoed in their ears.


    Both of them turned around and saw a couplending on top of the building.


    The woman was covered with white armor and her face was hidden underneath the white helmet, only leaving her enchanting lips to remain visible.


    However, the one that shocked them the most was the man next to her.


    His hair and eyes were blue like Theo''s. His face still looked young and more mature than Theo''s, but it didn''t change the fact he was already in his fifties.


    He wore a blue shirt and white vest coupled with long white pants. His back was covered with a white coat.


    His expression was calm, but his gaze sent chills down one''s spine.


    Theo''s Master instinctively sped her hands and took a step back, greeting him. "I see��"


    However, the man waved her hand and stopped her movement, preventing her from continuing her greeting.


    "There is no need to greet me. I am here not because of my position��" He shook his head.


    "I understand." Theo''s Master nodded and nced at the one next to her.


    However, the female in white armor already opened her mouth while waving her hand. "Little Davi, how are you?"


    The middle-aged man shrugged. "At the very least, it''s better than you, Valerie."


    "I guess?" the female made a weird smile and continued, "Anyway, we''re going to handle the Red Lion. I want to ask your help a little bit, Davi."


    "I refuse��" Davi rejected her without hesitation before sighing, "��is what I want to say, but I''m doing this for my little nephew. Also, Father wants to make sure Theo is alright, so she and I will protect Theo while you two fight the Red Lion. Father said this is final."


    "I understand." Valerie agreed.


    "Then, are you going to visit him after everything is over?" Davi asked.


    "I''m afraid we can''t. We need to wait for another two months." The female shook her head. "If not, the elders maye personally. I am afraid the one who wille is the Mind Emperor��"


    "He''s not going to brainwash, Theo, right?"


    "As he is right now, he won''t realize if he''s been brainwashed or not. That''s why we have kept him in check this whole time until Theo''s Awareness is strong enough to avoid the brainwashing."


    "How''s about the others?"


    "We have cleared all their schedules for the next three months. Theo should have gone to another country by that time, which should have better security than this country."


    "If you wished to protect him better, why didn''t you just send him to another country?"


    "That country would surely find Theo and if he grew up too much during his childhood, he would be the target of other countries. We had separated from the family back then and had no power to protect him alone, so we chose to go back to the family to gain the position to stop them."


    "You still have us!" Davi frowned.


    "Equal love. I''m sure you already know about father''s motto, right?" Valerie shook her head. "As I said, the talent would be out during his childhood, and the Griffith Family would surely make their moves together with the other countries. If they got him, Theo might have be a mindless soldier for the sake of the family.


    "I wish we could do something, but even with the War God Family, it wasn''t enough. Only if we control the enemy, which is the Griffith Family, can we stop their movementspletely. And since Theo''s talent is blooming thiste, they won''t know how talented he is�� either he is ate bloomer or a very talented one.


    "For now, his situation is okay and I hope he can stay this way until he reaches Supreme Rank. Well, I can''t exin all the Griffith Family''s affairs." Valerie stopped.


    "Whatever." Davi sighed. "What do you want me to do?"


    "I want you to lure the Red Lion. After that, you can go protect Theo while we handle him."


    "That is easy to do." Davi nodded. "I will do that. I have his general position for the time being, so okay."


    "Thank you."


    She then turned to Theo''s Master. "Sorry for asking you to wait for seven years."


    Theo''s Master waved her hand and said, "You''re the boss. I can onlyply with the boss'' order."


    "Still, thank you for teaching him various things."


    She shrugged. "I am just doing my job. Unfortunately, that boy seems to have developed a weird perspective about this world and the Griffith Family because of you two. I guess that''s intentional?"


    "Yes and no. You just need to know we want him to stay away from this family until he has enough strength."


    "Not my problem."


    "Fair enough. By the way, who hase for him?"


    She pointed at Davi. "Him and Starry Group."


    "I see. Well, I have no right to decide his future." She thought for a moment. "Either way, don''t worry about other countries. We will stop them until he has chosen. Just make sure there is no one who has Mind, Poison, or Curse Ability around this ce."


    "He should be fine if the other party is a Supreme Rank, so I will focus on the Mythical Rank Experts."


    "Okay. I will leave it to you." Valerie nodded and turned around. "Anyway, I think it''s time for us to move."


    Taking another look at the clock, Davi confirmed, and the four of them disappeared.

 Chapter 484 – Blazing Ant Nest

    <h4>Chapter 484 - zing Ant Nest</h4>


    After killing many more monsters, Theo finally arrived at the entrance of the zing Ant Nest. The nest seemed to be located under a hill filled with trees.


    Although it was hardly visible, he could see several holes on the hills with several ants crawling around those holes.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the entrance, which was a ten feet radius hole. Compared to other holes, he didn''t see any ant''s activity from this hole which shouldn''t be possible.


    The ant itself had a five feet long body and three feet in height. It could bepared to that of a human. The ant had a red color and marks all over their body and ording to the information, the ants could release fire from their bodies.


    This ant became deadly because they could literally smoke their entire nest to repel the humans. Luckily, Theo had Telekinesis that could repel the air around him to make sure he didn''t get poisoned or had enough time to escape.


    "Ava, can you hear something?" Theo asked while observing the hole.


    "Kyu!" Ava shook her head and pointed at the entrance and her ears. She then expanded her feet.


    "Ehm, I don''t understand��" Theo shook his head in confusion.


    Ava then jumped off his shoulder and shouted, "Kyu!"


    She moved one foot forward and shouted again, but in a lower voice. "Kyu!"


    She repeated it a few times, showing something to Theo.


    "Ah! Echo." Theo understood after a while. "You can''t listen very well inside the nest because of the echoes produced?"


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously.


    "I see. It''s not your fault." Theo smiled and put her on his shoulder again. "Well, I guess your hearing ability is so strong that the echo is confusing you."


    "Kyu." Ava wanted to apologize, but Theo brushed it off with augh.


    "Anyway, we should destroy this nest. ording to the information, there are around five hundred ants of that size." Theo pointed at the ants on top of the hill. "It should be able to bring me seven to ten levels. I hope I can find something better in this nest.


    "Well, we won''t fight for too long inside the hole because we need to hunt for other monsters. I don''t think we can eat ant meat. We also need to set up a camp, so yeah." Theo paused for a moment, summoned his clone, and walked forward. "Are you ready Ava?"


    "Kyu."


    They then entered the nest. The cave was made of blue-colored rocks. Still, as one would expect from an ant nest buried under a hill, the light barely reached the inside. Theo couldn''t see anything after walking thirty feet from the entrance.


    That was why Theo activated his Night Vision sses without enhancing the light of the moon. In other words, it was just an ordinary night vision, allowing him to see through this darkness.


    Ava didn''t have this problem and kept looking around.


    Upon entering, they found two paths immediately, leading to unknown ces. Theo didn''t know where to go, so he usually let Ava handle it.


    "Ava, choose," said Theo as his voice echoed through the two tunnels.


    Ava looked at both tunnels for a moment before randomly pointing at the tunnel.


    In the end, they chose the left path.


    Theo observed the wall''s condition.


    There was no crack or whatsoever and the humidity was quite low, considering the rock was dry.


    "Hmm, see anything Ava?" Theo asked while walking carefully. "The scariest thing fighting under a hill like this is getting buried alive. We can repel a few boulders, but if all those boulders hit us simultaneously, we will die."


    "Kyu." Ava pointed to the front.


    When he heard Ava''s voice, Theo stopped and raised his spear, proceeding even more carefully.


    Suddenly, he saw two pairs of eyes glowing in the dark.


    Clone Theo hurriedly charged forward while Theo summoned his Magic Bullets, shooting them. At the same time, he gave an instruction to Ava. "Immobilize the left one. You can eat him after that."


    Ava didn''t respond to him because she seemed to hate the echo and simply made her move together with the clone.


    The Magic Bullets arrived first. To his surprise, the ants released their fire. The Magic Bullets that came closer were melted in an instant.


    Theo''s expression became serious as he never thought a B Rank Skill could be melted like that. Although Magic Bullets weren''t that strongpared to other skills, it was still a B Rank Skill.


    ''Is zing Ant''s fire extraordinary?'' Theo thought as his clone tried to check the ant''s power.


    Clone Theo waved his spear to the side of the ant,bining his Cannon st and Telekinesis.


    The moment his spear hit, the Cannon st dispersed in all directions, blowing off the fire covering the ant''s body as if blowing a candle.


    After that, the Telekinesis boosted the spear,unching the ant to the other ant.


    Bam.


    The ant surprisingly remained on the ground and withstood the full amount of Theo''s brute force. Only his body swayed to the left for a second before returning to normal.


    Clone Theo took a few steps back to regain the distance, observing the ants.


    The real Theo, on the other hand, looked down, contemting something. He had seen the ant''s fire which turned out to be a skill.


    Skill: Fire Body (C)


    Effect: Innate Skill of zing Fire Ant. Covering the body with a special fire that can melt skills that touch them.


    ''The ant can melt skills?'' Theo gulped down, taken aback by the skill''s description. The thought, ''Still, there is Cannon st and Telekinesis. No, the two skills indeed disappeared upon contact, but there is a certain limit to how fast it can burn the skills. In other words, as long as I am fast and strong enough, I should be able to break the ant''s defense.''


    Theo had formted his n ording to this newfound information.


    "Ava. Speed."


    Ava narrowed her eyes and released the lightning around her body. After that, she disappeared, hitting the ant from above.


    The ant''s body dropped to the ground and Ava still maintained her Lightning.


    "As expected�� In that case, I should use a new approach��" Theo smiled, seeing the crushed ant.

 Chapter 485 – Blazing Ant General

    <h4>Chapter 485 - zing Ant General</h4>


    The ant had his head arge indentation to the inside, but it somehow survived, struggling to get up. Meanwhile, the other one was still holding on, trying to get away from its friend to attack Theo.


    Suddenly, Ava appeared and kicked the crushed ant sideways, pushing it to the other ant and preventing both of them from moving.


    Ava nced at Theo as thetter nodded and sliced the crushed ant''s head. A wave of Magic Bullets also flew past Theo, hitting the second ant.


    However, the ant ended up burning the Magic Bullet again.


    Realizing Magic Bullet wouldn''t be very effective in this nest. Theo narrowed his eyes and used Blink to appear on top of the second ant, piercing its head. ''This will be quite a challenge.''


    The ant couldn''t resist and died.


    Theo quickly turned them into cards while Ava turned around, finding another wave of antsing to them.


    Theo frowned and found five ants crawling inside the tunnel. What made Theo feel ufortable was the ants creeping on the ceiling. They just made it hard for him because Theo couldn''t reach them in an instant.


    These five ants were no different than the two they defeated, so Theo moved his clone again to handle them.


    To his surprise, the ant jumped off the ceiling and pounced his clone.


    Clone Theo looked around and used his Blink to reappear behind them before releasing his killing intent. He wanted to see how the ant reacted to this kind of attack.


    Unfortunately, only two of the ants turned around and attacked him. The other three kept charging forward.


    Ava leaped from left to right to left again, confusing them. Theo walked forward to be the bait since he would be easier to hit.


    The ants abruptly increased their speed and came to Theo in a second, trying to bite him.


    Their mouth wasrge enough to cut his neck, so Theo quickly struck the ant without anything since the enemy could burn his skills.


    This was just a normal exchange, albeit all ants had a few simr characteristics. One of them being able to lift someone heavier than them.


    Theo wasn''t heavier than them, but it also meant he was easier to lift up.


    "��" He frowned when the ant raised him with the help of his spear.


    The other two ants already crept next to him and tried to attack him.


    Letting go of his spear, Theonded on the ground, avoiding the two bites. After that, he poured his Magic Power into his fists and started using his External Flow.


    He stepped to the right and punched the ant in the face.


    Bam.


    The ant''s head swayed violently to the side as Theo''s hand seemed to be covered by a green sticky liquid. He realized he managed to break through the ant''s head with only his External Flow.


    ''I see. External Flow is enough as long as I can hit them at the right ce.'' Theo used his Telekinesis to brush away all the liquid from his hand and ducked down when he noticed the ant waving his spear with its mouth.


    The other ant also wanted to hit him, so Theo hurriedly ran toward the right ant.


    Thetter tried to bite him, but Theo effortlessly avoided it and hit the head two times, killing the ant.


    When the left ant was about to ram him, Avanded on top of the middle ant''s head and kicked it to the ground.


    The ant spurted out the spear, and Theo leaped to grab it. He struck the left ant with his spear, only to get blocked by its mouth.


    However, he never intended to hit the ant. Instead, Theo let go of his spear once more, activated his Telekinesis, and pierced the ant''s head with his fist.


    The ant let out a screeching sound as if they were crying over theirrade.


    Theo showed no mercy and continued to attack the middle ant.


    Thetter struggled, but Ava stopped him again and looked at Theo, asking him to kill the ant.


    Without hesitation, Theo executed thest ant and helped his clone right after. The ants were powerless against Theo and Ava''sbination.


    Theo then took a break for a moment while recounting what had happened. ''First of all, their bodies are weak, but their speed is quite good. Still, with how small this ce is, they will have trouble moving around.


    ''If I can get past their defense, I can kill them easily. Of course, their front feet and mouth are very tough. And Ava seems to have a natural advantage against them. Not only is she fast, but she is also small. I guess I need to rely on Ava this time.


    ''Also, I can''t use my Magic Bullet�� Probably together with Telekinesis and Cannon st. However, this is a great opportunity for me to train myself so as to avoid relying on them heavily.


    ''Anyway, I will kill all of the ants here along with their queen. Only after that, the mission is deemed to bepleted.'' Theo smiled, feeling pumped up for this.


    Theo took a rest and let Ava eat the corpses, so she could get even stronger. Meanwhile, he began to map the nest so he didn''t get trapped in this confusing maze.


    He also knew that Ava didn''t really like to get too noisy in this tunnel because it kept echoing not only on the tunnel but also on her ears. Hence, Theo refrained from talking as much as possible, only signaling what she needed to do.


    Luckily, Ava had fought together with him for a while. She had a good understanding of what Theo wanted to do and executed the n perfectly.


    After Ava had her fill, they continued their journey inside, fighting thirty more monsters in the span of three hours.


    He was inside the asional big room that the ant nest had. There were around ten ants moving around, but one ant, in particr, amused him.


    The body was twice as big as a normal ant and the head seemed to be covered by a red metal te. Theo thought it was their queen but took another look with his Skylink.


    Name: zing Ant General


    Level: 360

 Chapter 486 – Killing Blazing Ant General

    <h4>Chapter 486 - Killing zing Ant General</h4>


    ''Ten ants, huh.'' Theo hesitated for a second, not knowing whether he could deal with them together, especially with the zing Ant General there.


    Ava was standing on top of his shoulder, waiting for his instruction. She was curious whether Theo chose to fight them or not. After all, Theo couldn''t use all his power.


    It took him a few minutes to decide to go.


    "Ava, you are going to work with my clone to handle the nine normal ants. In the meantime, I will kill the general."


    Ava nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo took another peek at the room and pointed to the left. "Take the battle to the left."


    After getting an agreement from Ava, Theo summoned his clone, gave the spear, and ran forward.


    The ants were rmed when Theo entered the big room. All of them hurriedly rose from the ground as the zing Ant General moved around as if telling them something.


    Ava and Clone Theo jumped to the left, trying to catch their attention.


    To their surprise, all the ants started to follow them, leaving Theo alone.


    "That was easy." Theo blinked a few times and summoned his Magic Bullet, shooting the zing Ant General.


    The Magic Bullets hit him from above, only to melt before contact.


    Luckily, the Ant General seemed to feel that attack and turned around, staring at Theo.


    However, two other ants followed him in order to get rid of Theo.


    "I guess I''m the one buying time." Theo clicked his tongue and ran to the opposite of the room, getting as far as possible from Ava and his clone.


    All of the zing Ants had summoned their fire, protecting them from skills. Theo took this to his advantage as he jumped toward the general, wanting to take him down.


    The general ran as fast as possible, ramming his body, albeit before he could even hit Theo, his body had already disappeared.


    The Ant General was confused for a bit and saw another Theo moving to their right.


    After that, the other two ants chased after Theo.


    Theo had already prepared for this and hit the ground with his Cannon st.


    Bam.


    Theo created a small crater to avoid falling to the bottom if there was any cave below his position and avoided destroying the ceiling.


    The ants didn''t react to the ground and Theo utilized what he had made. Since he couldn''t hit the ants with his skill, he lifted the rocks he just cracked andunched them with his Telekinesis.


    The rocks flew like that of a bullet.


    The ants moved to the side to avoid it, but the general had to take the full brunt because he couldn''t move away in time.


    Bang.


    The rock hit the general''s front head, which seemed to have been fortified with some sort of metal. The rocks were the ones to shatter into pieces.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath, realizing he would need to kill the other two ants first so he could focus on the Ant General.


    Suddenly, the Ant General made a weird move by covering his head with white-colored energy and charged forward, pushing away the other two ants and making his way toward Theo.


    Theo couldn''t help but remember one protection that wasn''t a skill. He took a deep breath and summoned the shield from his Ring of Honor.


    The Ant General didn''t care about the obstacle and headbutted the shield.


    Theo was pushed several feet back, but a smile appeared on his face at the end.


    "I can do this." Theo nodded, knowing his shield could work. "Alright. Since the shield is working, the fight will be easier."


    Theo used his Blink to arrive on top of the Ant General, but thetter had a fast reaction.


    It hurriedly lowered its body and took off. Knowing he couldn''t sneak-attack the Ant General, Theo turned around and jumped toward the other two ants as soon as hended.


    With the Ant General going in the opposite direction, he had enough time to deal with the two ants.


    The two ants obviously had no intention of getting killed. They both struck Theo with their mouths, only to get stopped by Theo''s shield.


    "The Ring of Honor erects a shield that is equal to a B Rank Skill, so you guys can''t destroy this one." Theo spun his body and went past the right ant, waving his spear to sever its head.


    [Killed a zing Ant]


    [EXP+10,000]


    Theo then turned around and pursued the other ant.


    Unfortunately for Theo, the Ant General had turned around and nned to ram him.


    Theo remained in pursuit,ing closer to the ant''s butt.


    The moment the Ant General was about to arrive, Theo hid behind the ant so as to avoid the collision.


    The Ant General didn''t seem to care about the normal ants as it just rammed everything on the way, pushing the other ant to the side.


    Theo followed the other ant and barely escaped from that charge. After that, he arrived next to the injured ant and pierced its head.


    [Killed a zing Ant]


    [EXP+9,700]


    After killing the two, Theo used his Flowmotion to step on the wall and ceiling before jumping to the General''s back.


    Before thetter could do anything, Theo pierced the body.


    The Ant General let out a small sound but still had enough energy to shake his body,unching Theo to the wall.


    Bang.


    Theo crashed to the wall and hurriedly raised his vision. The Ant General was already before his eyes, and he had no time to get away.


    Instead of using his shield, Theo utilized his Blink to disappear right before the Ant General struck him.


    This charge forced the Ant General''s head to be stuck inside the wall, giving Theo an opportunity.


    Without hesitation, Theo stabbed the ant several times until he killed it.


    [Killed an Ant General]


    [EXP+20,300]


    "That''s quite good." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    He then turned to the other side, seeing his clone and Ava handling thest two ants�� He waited for them and let Ava eat the zing Ant General.

 Chapter 487 – Another Group

    <h4>Chapter 487 - Another Group</h4>


    Ava quickly devoured the ant while Theo looked around, watching out for other ants. This hunt would be much easier if everything went ording to the n.


    However, Theo finishing the mission without picking it always had one problem. What if there was another group dealing with the mission? What if he wasn''t alone this whole time? And what if he met the other group inside the nest?


    Those questions might need to be answered now because footsteps began to echo inside the tunnel.


    Even Ava stopped eating.


    Although she didn''t know how far the other party was, she got a good grasp of the situation just by watching Theo''s action.


    Theo was staring into the darkness for quite a while as if he found something. Hence, Ava quickly leaped to Theo and sneaked inside his shirt.


    Her action woke him up as he wondered what to do.


    Squinting his eyes, Theo muttered inwardly, ''What should I do? I can go deeper and deeper, but they already know my presence here. After all, some of the bodies have been devoured by Ava, so I can''t really turn them into cards and I have left many blood traces.''


    Theo had two choices: He could stay in this ce and meet the guy or he could continue until he found an intersection and disappeared.


    This could only happen because Theo didn''t take the mission himself. Hence, the mission would be for everyone to see.


    And the other group inside this tunnel must have seen the mission.


    Their interests would certainly conflict with each other, so he wondered if he could settle this problem easily.


    ''Still, I can y ignorant like I don''t know about the mission. Also, should I give them this ce? I mean, even though they have taken it, this ce is still for public use. No one can stop me from entering, especially if they don''t know my situation.


    ''There is a possibility of meing back from my mission and exploring this ce. As much as I want to escape, I don''t know how many ants will stand in my way and it will be troublesome if I get lost in the process.


    ''So, should I choose the more dangerous but hidden way or the easy but noticeable way?'' Theo contemted for a moment and sighed.


    He knew this incident was bound to happen sooner orter, so he better experienced it right now to see whether this solution was good or not, considering he might find himself in this type of situation again in the future.


    Theo turned around and touched every monster, except the Ant General because Ava had swallowed half of the Ant General.


    To his dismay, it was also the time when he heard a shouting from behind.


    "Who are you?!"


    Theo''s heart beat rapidly as he nced back, finding six peopleing out of the tunnel.


    "Why are you here?"


    "Identify yourself!"


    Two of them seemed to be on edge and pointed their weapons at him as if looking at an enemy.


    Theo calmly turned around and took another look at them. He found one guy holding a shield, one holding a spear, two holding a staff, one guy wielding two daggers, and one without anything on his hand.


    Although he didn''t know their jobs, he got a good grasp of their strength. He thought, ''A knight, fighter, magician, healer, assassin and�� an extra�� I don''t know thest one.''


    Seeing their agitated expression, Theo said with a calm tone. "I don''t need to identify myself. I came here because I saw ants crawling out of this hill."


    "��" A guy with spiky hair suddenly stepped forward while putting down his spear. "This ce is our hunt zone because there is a mission in the temple. I hope you can leave this ce."


    "This ce is not yours. Even the temple doesn''t say anything regarding a public space like this, so why should I leave?"


    The guy frowned when he heard Theo''s remark. He then noticed the corpse behind Theo and found several blood stains on the ground that clearly didn''te from the corpse behind him. And with how many ants Theo fought in this ce and along the way, Theo must be exhausted.


    Hence, the guy didn''t bother to negotiate with Theo anymore and simply raised his spear. "Because I have this. Go out or die."


    "��" Theo never thought the guy would be this foolish. Even Theo didn''t want to point his weapon to someone unknown because there was a chance the other party was stronger than him.


    If Theo actually knew the guy''s thoughts right now, he would haveughed.


    ''This guy is alone. There''s no way someone higher than level 380 wille to this ce since there''s no point ining here. And this guy has been fighting all the monsters until this point�� He must be worn out.''


    However, what Theo did know was that they never intended to negotiate with him. The guy literally threatened him, yet the rest of the group remained silent as if they agreed to him.


    Knowing he was in this type of situation, Theo sighed and said, "I will leave."


    He walked forward, heading to the group to pass them, only to find the guy ordering him. "Wait! Touch that ant first. After that, put down all your belongings."


    In this instant, Theo knew what would happen in the next one minute.


    Theo followed their instruction and walked to the Ant General, cing his hand on the corpse.


    Before he even touched it, the guy had arrived behind him, swinging his spear. It turned out the guy wanted to kill him as soon as he turned the general into cards.


    "Is it greed or something else?" Theo sighed inwardly.


    The three "What if" questions reyed in his mind. However, he finally found his answer in a situation like this.


    Right before the spear hit him, Theo disappeared, stunning everyone.


    "What?!"


    "Healer, behind you!" The guy shouted and turned back.


    Theo reappeared behind the healer while waving his spear. At the same time, he answered the question he had earlier. ''If they want to cooperate, I will dly consider. If they want me to leave, I will go if they can provide a good exnation. If they want to harm me��


    �� I will kill them.''

 Chapter 488 – Fight

    <h4>Chapter 488 - Fight</h4>


    Theo waved his spear right at the healer''s neck.


    However, as one would expect from a party that ventured in a nest that required level 370 to enter, they were better than he thought.


    The healer managed to raise his staff in time and blocked Theo''s spear. He couldn''t help but smile when he thought Theo couldn''t do anything against him.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo released all his might in this one swing since he didn''t need to hold back anymore,unching the healer to the wall like that of a bullet.


    Bam.


    The next second they realized, the healer already crashed to the wall and blood started flowing out of his mouth.


    Although their level might be lower than the level requirement since they operated in number, Theo knew that hit wouldn''t kill the healer.


    Hence, forty Magic Bullets flew past him and went straight to the healer.


    As someone whose job was to protect, the knight hurriedly made his way between the Magic Bullets and the healer.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets hit in session and pushed back the knight.


    "What''s that power?" The knight was dumbstruck when he felt the force from the Magic Bullets and soon realized he had been pushed back.


    Theo didn''t stop there. He hurriedly went for the magician who tried to summon her skill.


    "You bastard!" The guy who did all the talk earlier ran back, but his distance was still too far.


    Theo thrust his spear toward the magician, only to be stopped by the assassin. The two daggers repelled his spear to the side even though he almost tripped in the process. Just like the knight, he felt the full brunt of Theo''s strength.


    "Hit him!"


    A gust of wind formed above him and gradually descended to the ground, trying to blow him away like the healer.


    Unfortunately for them, there were forty Magic Bullets at the start, meaning a red-haired man appeared behind the magician using his Blink and hit the magician''s back with his Cannon st.


    Obviously, thest guy tried to help the magician by striking Theo, but Ava sneaked outside his shirt and appeared next to him with all the lightning she had.


    She kicked the guy on the cheek, dislocating his jaw.


    "Gah!" Thest guy stumbled and fell to the ground.


    Clone Theo smiled and changed his hand position. Instead of hitting the magician with his palm, he chose to stab her with his fingers, piercing through her skin and eventually her heart.


    The magician was dumbfounded and saw the handing out of her heart. With her focus gone, the wind above Theo also vanished.


    Theo pulled his spear and nned to stab the assassin, but the leader guy had arrived, knocking down Theo''s spear.


    "You bastard!" The guy shouted in anger.


    Theo couldn''t understand why this guy got angry, considering the one who started this fight was him. The others also didn''t stop him, so they must be in cahoot.


    The leader mmed Theo''s spear down and kicked him.


    Thetter easily used his Three Great Defense to stop that kick while the assassin took that chance to loop around him, striking Theo from behind.


    Aware of his position, Theo made another shield from his Ring of Honor and blocked the assassin''s dagger.


    "What?!" The assassin widened his eyes, never expecting to see someone wielding two skills at the same time.


    On the other side, Clone Theo and Ava worked together to suppress the remaining three.


    The healer seemed to be recovering from his wounds while the knight and the other one held their position.


    Sherry noticed the dislocated jaw, wondering how the guy managed to fight like that.


    "Why are there three people now? And a summoner on top of that?" The knight gritted his teeth.


    Clone Theo charged forward to the knight and mmed his spear down.


    The knight raised his shield and received that attack. As he expected, the ground began to crack because of Theo''s strength and gradually turned into a crater.


    Ava suddenly leaped toward the healer in order to kill him before he could recover. The guy whose jaw dislocated moved between them and received Ava''s kick with his palm.


    Unfortunately for all of them, everything was just a trap Theo devised. He wanted to divide them into two groups this whole time.


    Now that the distance between two groups reached fifty feet, the real Theo suddenly disappeared, rming the other two.


    They looked around and found Theo appearing in front of the healer who was busy healing himself.


    Without hesitation, Theo slit his throat, killing him.


    "Teleportation Ability. Be careful!" The leader guy shouted, warning them. He and the assassin tried to regroup with his team, but Theo already came closer to the knight.


    The knight ended up jumping to the side to avoid getting pincered from two sides, leaving his friend alone.


    Seeing this, both Theos coordinated with Ava and attacked the guy from three directions.


    The guy ducked down and ced his hand on the ground.


    "Guardian Wall."


    Stone walls emerged from all directions, stopping the two Theos.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo never saw these walls as a challenge. He gathered the Cannon st and thrust his spear forward. He concentrated it to one single line and pierced through the wall along with the guy''s head.


    The Cannon st continued to the other end, showing Theo''s power.


    The walls soon crumbled, revealing the guy''s condition. There was a hole simr to the ones on the walls on his forehead.


    Ava knocked the body to the ground as she and Clone Theo turned around, facing the leader and the assassin. Meanwhile, Theo moved carefully to the knight.


    The leader was gnashing his teeth because Theo was supposed to be exhausted after fighting so many monsters alone. However, he could never expect Theo to have someone and a creature to help him.


    The assassin, on the other hand, began to think about running away, knowing Theo was stronger than them.


    Still, the knight had the biggest reaction among them as he shouted in anger. "You bastard! Why did you kill them?!"


    Theo''s body shook as he halted his step, looking at the knight dumbfoundedly. He asked, "You�� seriously ask that?"

 Chapter 489 – Unexpected Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 489 - Unexpected Encounter</h4>


    "You�� seriously asked that?" Theo was lost for words, not understanding how the knight''s brain worked.


    "As long as you gave us your belongings, we would leave you alive." The knight shouted, not realizing how idiotic and shameless that statement was.


    "Huh, what?" Theo blinked his eyes a few times. He remembered how everything happened and said, "First of all, I am not rted to whatever you are doing here. And as soon as we met, you tried to steal everything from me. How am I supposed to live or go back without my gear?


    "Then, that guy over there." Theo pointed at the leader and continued, "Almost killed me when I tried to touch the ant. Now that our positions have reversed, you''re saying all these things? Now tell me, why should I spare any of you?"


    When the knight was about to reply, Theo waved his hand and shouted, "Stop. No need to exin yourself. What''s the difference between letting the other guy steal my belongings and not stopping that guy?"


    The answer was obvious and Theo didn''t bother to continue. He hurriedly made his way to the knight and struck his shield.


    "I don''t need your answer, I need your life." Theo snorted.


    The knight took a few steps back just to neutralize Theo''s strike, but thetter already moved to his right, hitting his shield once again.


    To his surprise, he struck at the very top of the shield, which was close to his neck. This strike created a centrifugal force that was about to flip him over.


    The knight gnashed his teeth, wanting to kill Theo for not even listening to his words.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo showed no mercy because the Magic Bullets followed right after.


    The Magic Bullets pinned the knight down while Theo leaped to the side, nning to help Ava.


    Ava was fighting against the assassin and their speed seemed to be simr.


    She had been hitting the des continuously, trying to send them flying.


    On the contrary, the assassin was waiting for a small misstep in Ava''s movement to turn around the situation.


    These two had been fighting like this for a while and couldn''t afford to pay attention to the knight and Theo''s conversation.


    Little did they know, the bnce was about to be broken.


    Theo made his appearance between them after pinning his enemy to the ground, giving them some time to kill the assassin.


    Understanding his intention, Ava quickly discharged all her lightning at once, cracking the floor beneath her feet.


    After that, Ava unexpectedly turned around and directed her lightning to the knight and shot it as if wanting to kill the knight.


    "What?!" The knight and assassin were dumbstruck.


    "Oi! It''s going to you!" The assassin shouted.


    The knight also saw the iing attack, rolled to grab his shield, and blocked the lightning, albeit barely.


    Meanwhile, the assassin took a step forward to hit Ava, but Theo''s spear interfered with his movement.


    "You''re not going anywhere."


    The assassin gritted his teeth and pulled back. He hurriedly thrust his dagger to Theo''s face.


    To his surprise, Theo only smiled at him.


    The shock didn''te from Theo''s smile, but rather the small figure that emerged from behind him.


    It was Ava.


    Ava turned out to fake her attack and only released half of her power to the shield guy, giving them more time. After that, she looped behind Theo and climbed his back before jumping to the assassin''s head.


    She still had half of her power left, so she poured all that power into one kick, hitting the assassin''s nose.


    "That''s not enough. I will help you." Theo wasn''t satisfied when he saw Ava couldn''t kill the guy.


    Ava was aware that one kick could only disfigure his face, so she wondered what Theo wanted to do to help her.


    A gust of wind suddenly gathered on her back and pushed her.


    Noticing this power, Ava noticed Theo wanted that kick to affect the brain, so she continued until the power ran out. She couldn''t waste Theo''s Telekinesis after all.


    As soon as the assassin dropped to the ground, Ava even used her lightning to destroy his heart and neck, killing him.


    The knight had recovered, but this wouldn''t be a problem because she would fight together with Theo.


    "Let''s go." Theomanded while marching toward the knight who just rose from the ground.


    Ava leaped left and right to confuse him, while Theo took the frontal assault, hitting his shield once again.


    "Kh!" The knight gnashed his teeth while blocking this attack.


    Unexpectedly, he managed to stop Theo''s attack despite the hurdle. What he didn''t know was the fact that this attack was just a mere illusion.


    Despair soon filled his heart when Theo disappeared, revealing another Theo standing in his original position.


    He doubted his eyes for a second while Ava nced at Theo, hoping he could finish this guy first.


    Theo agreed without hesitation and raised his hand. "Magic Bullets."


    "Again?!" The knight seemed to be traumatized by Theo''s Magic Bullets, considering he was the only one who took it this whole time.


    The Magic Bullets flew in all directions, confusing the guy this time.


    And Ava sneaked around the Magic Bullet and covered herself with a bolt of lightning, turning into a lightning ball herself.


    Although the color and appearance were different, she somehow hid between the Magic Bullets and struck the knight on the chest.


    Theo quickly retracted the Magic Bullet so as to avoid injuring Ava and watched how Ava took down her enemies.


    After that, Theo turned around, only to find his clone had created a hole on his opponent''s chest.


    "��" Theo was silent because the guy still gave him his middle-finger at the very end. He couldn''t help but shake his head, saying, "This is too much for me. Let''s go back and return tomorrow."


    "Kyu."


    "After you eat them that is."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded her head.


    ��


    After a few minutes, Theo finally came out of the cave from the previous entrance. He felt a bit exhausted at this point but still moved to another ce to get some meat for them to eatter.


    However, when he was walking around the hill, Theo found two people, standing next to each other.


    The first one was a middle-aged man. He had spiky green hair and a stern face, but when their eyes intertwined, Theo could feel his worries.


    Meanwhile, the other person was someone he was very familiar with. He couldn''t help but say, "Master��"

 Chapter 490 – Mythical Expert Fight Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 490 - Mythical Expert Fight Part 1</h4>


    A few minutes ago.


    A red-haired muscr old man was floating in the sky, looking at his surroundings.


    He raised his hand and poured white powder from his head, dispersing it to the environment. To his surprise, he found rats sneaking around him this whole time.


    "��" The red-haired man frowned and said, "So, who are you? Are you his master from the Griffith Family?"


    There was no response to the point he needed to turn around, looking down at a certain tree. "If you''re noting out, I am going to destroy this hill."


    The hill he was talking about was none other than the ant nest Theo entered.


    Realizing the situation was going to be a bit troublesome, a white-haired woman came out. She was none other than Theo''s Master.


    "You are the rumored Demonic Granny?"


    "That nickname is a mistake that I will always regret." The woman looked at him before jumping into the air and using her Control to float with her Magic Power alone.


    "Then, who is the one beside you?" The man asked while squinting his eyes. "I want the other guy toe out."


    "Man, that was hard. I tried to destroy that powder but failed." Another middle-aged man came out, surprising the red-haired man. He floated into the air and positioned himself between the man and the hill to protect the hill.


    "If I''m not wrong, you''re a dog from the War God Family. I don''t understand�� What''s your reason foring here? No, should I say you are the one who has been leading me to another ce this whole time?"


    "I failed. I guess it''s a given, considering my opponent is a Diamond Level Mercenary, Red Lion." The middle-aged man smiled. "I am the one who is perplexed because I can''t find any reason for you being here, especially since the young master doesn''t have a bounty yet."


    "No need to pry for information from me. I am here to grab the kid."


    "That can''t be done. Do you know who his parents are?"


    "Whoever they are, they aren''t that good. They can''t even take care of their own internal family problems." The man snorted.


    "��" Davi widened his eyes beforeughing hard. None of them stopped him, knowing Davi had understood the entire situation with just that sentence. Davi suddenly stopped, regaining the silence. Looking at the Red Lion, he said, "I have heard that the Red Lion is a proud man who never tells a lie�� You�� just told us something interesting."


    The red lion snorted. "Either way, you two are not enough to stop me from achieving my objective."


    "Haha, you''re really interesting�� You haven''t understood your position yet?" The middle-aged man chuckled as if he was looking at a fool.


    "Both of you can''t stop me." The red lion frowned as his hand began to melt as if turning into moltenva.


    "Unfortunately for you, you have kicked the bucket this time." Davi smirked.


    Suddenly, Davi and Theo''s master disappeared.


    The red lion calmly raised his melting hand as if blocking something. The next second, Theo''s master reappeared together with Davi.


    Lightning had covered her hands as she hit the moltenva with both palms.


    "Great Lightning Shock."


    The same applied to Davi. He covered his dagger with his Shadow, shing the hand from below.


    "Shadow sh."


    The lightning sparked and created a powerful st, knocking the person away. Davi''s Shadow sh also became bigger and bigger as it traveled. The Shadow sh even reached the ground and created a fifty feet deep and two hundred feet long mark despite him releasing the attack two hundred feet above the ground.


    Both of their attacks pushed the Red Lion one mile away from the hill.


    To check his condition, both of them hurriedly followed him.


    However, they were amazed when the Red Lion stopped with three marks on his hand.


    The two marks came from the Great Lightning Shock, while the other was a long sword mark stretching from his elbow to his middle finger.


    Blood began to flow out of the wound, but the red lion didn''t have the change of expression.


    "Is that it? I thought you could do more." The red lion shook his head in disappointment. The wound on his hand suddenly disappeared at speed visible to naked eyes. After that, the hand turned back to moltenva.


    Because of his disappointment, the Red Lion utilized all his power. The moltenva started releasing magma. Some of them dropped to the ground and melted the dirt.


    "I have let you attack me once. It''s time for you to taste my attack." The red lion looked at both of them.


    However, Davi only raised his hands and shrugged. "Come on. Don''t you understand why I even show my appearance to you?"


    "Because you suck."


    "Exactly." Davi gave a thumbs up. "That''s why I don''t want to get hit by you."


    He stopped for a moment and looked up, shouting, "Oi, he told me that someone from your Griffith Family broke the rule and aimed at your son."


    "What are you doing?" The Red Lion squinted his eyes before noticing the pressure from above.


    He instinctively looked up, finding nothing other than the fluctuation of Magic Power.


    However, that magic power soon intensified rapidly and fell on him.


    "!!!" The Red Lion instinctively raised both hands, turning them intova. "Explode!"


    The Lava burst from his hands, trying to disperse the pressure. Unfortunately for him, the pressure that had been dispersed ended up getting back to the center and pushed him down.


    Bam!


    His fall created a small crater, but the crater expanded when all the pressure hit him for the second time. It became fifteen feet deep and two hundred feet radius, blowing away all the trees in their surroundings and turning this forest into a in.


    In the sky, a blue-haired man appeared, looking down on him coldly.


    "Thank you for the information." The man nodded and nced at Davi. "Protect Theo for me. I will solve this problem."


    Davi nodded and nced at the old woman, signaling her to go back with him.


    Meanwhile, the Red Lion sucked a cold breath when he saw the man, recognizing him. "You�� You are��"

 Chapter 491 – Mythical Expert Fight Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 491 - Mythical Expert Fight Part 2</h4>


    "You�� You are�� You are Ray Griffith." The Red Lion recognized the man standing above the sky.


    The man maintained his silence, staring at this old man.


    "You are his father?" The Red Lion drew a gasp before gritting his teeth. "Don''t tell me. You''re using your own son as the bait to lure me here?"


    Ray''s eyebrows twitched when he heard that question. "Me using my son as bait, even when my own family is trying to harm him? Are you joking with me?"


    He took a deep breath and calmed his anger before continuing, "However, I really need to thank you."


    The Red Lion was bewildered by hisst statement. "Thank me?"


    "Yes. With your life, I can start making preparations to kill those who are aiming at my son. Shouldn''t I thank you?" Ray snapped his finger.


    Suddenly, the cloud above them swirled and began to disperse, creating a giant hole above the sky as if Heaven had just sent their representative.


    Next to the cloud, the Red Lion saw someone standing. Her body was covered with white armor and a pair of white wings emerged from her back.


    The wing spread, and the woman raised her hand as though calling something from the sky.


    "God Killing Spear��"


    A huge white de emerged from the cloud, followed by a pure white handle with one golden stripe circling around it.


    "Valkyrie!" The Red Lion gritted his teeth and realized Ray had been pinning him down with all this Magic Power. It created an opportunity for his wife to summon the spear that made her famous, God Killing Spear.


    "Ghhh!" The Red Lion struggled to get up as his body began to turn into moltenva. After that, he produced all the magma and shaped it into a giant body.


    It kept rising until a huge ck-colored lion rose from the ground. The lion was a hundred feet tall, towering over the trees.


    "I am not going down." The Red Lion shouted as a red light began to appear behind the ck body, heating up the body. He then let out an earth-shattering roar, transmitting the heat from his body.


    "Don''t think you can stop me, Magic Emperor, Valkyrie."


    The heat brushed the nearby trees and immediately set them aze. The Magic Power above him also dispersed a little bit, making the residual Magic Power too weak to pin him down.


    He then raised his head, looking at the God Killing Spear.


    When it was about to hit him, the Red Lion leaped to the air and bit the spear.


    As soon as hended, the shock wave blew all trees around him and shook the ground. His teeth began to melt the spear, but he also used a huge amount of Magic Power to destroy this spear.


    "I am still slightly stronger than you both!" he shouted while shattering the spear into pieces.


    "Yes. We know�� If we had enough strength, we wouldn''t have to leave our son behind and do all this sh*t." Ray arrived next to the Red Lion, looking at his giant belly. He pulled his fist and gathered a vast amount of Magic Power. "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    He hit the lion''s belly as the Magic Power dispersed to the surrounding area, creating a huge shock wave that shook the entire forest.


    Luckily, they were already far enough from the ant nest or Theo would have felt the overwhelming shock wave this punch produced. On top of that, two Mythical Experts also stood between them, repelling any attacks that would harm or affect Theo.


    "Argh!" The Red Lion screamed in pain and rolled a few times, demolishing everything on the ground.


    The attack didn''t stop there. Valerie was already standing in the air above him. She grabbed the spear with both hands. The spear''s de was pointing down as if she wanted to nt the spear to the ground.


    "Sky Spear."


    Huge white energy formed a spear without a handle and flew down.


    The Red Lion saw this and tried to get away, albeit he was toote.


    The spear hit his belly as a huge amount ofva burst out of his body like that of blood.


    "Argh!"


    Ray appeared on top of him with his foot above his head. He then struck the air down. "Magic Saint Kick Style, Ground��"


    Before he finished, the lion''s tail moved like a whip and smacked him.


    It was too fast for Ray to react and he crashed to the ground. Instead of rolling down, Ray managed to use his feet tond and dealt with the momentum alone.


    On the other hand, Valerie hurriedly used another skill to stop the Red Lion from moving.


    She raised both hands and summoned numerous spears. Each spear was thirty feet long, perfect for hunting a lion this big.


    "Spear Rain."


    The Red Lion obviously didn''t stay there and let her hit him again. He forced his body up, even if it meant the spear stuck in his belly.


    After that, the spear suddenly melted, and the two tips suddenly fell off as there was no more connection between them.


    The big wound began to recover.


    Seeing the iing spears, the Red Lion''s cheeks bloated before he spewed out a huge amount ofva into the air, melting all the spears.


    "Cherufe. Evil Creature made of rock crystals and magma��" Valerie muttered while squinting her eyes. As someone from the War God Family, she was the only one who could close the gap between them. "He also has extraordinary Endurance and Breathing��"


    She extended her hand forward as a white spear appeared. This was her own white spear. Unlike the previous spear, this one had blue and golden patterns thatplement the pure white color on the spear.


    She descended from the sky with her spear in the front.


    The Red Lion responded by sweeping his paw.


    Valerie struck the paw and withstood his power for a second before spinning her body, moving past his attack.


    She flew toward the lion''s head, nning to cut him down.


    Suddenly, the Red Lion smiled as if everything went ording to his n. He opened his mouth and turned the entire mouth to magma, so she couldn''t cut him and start melting inside.


    However, Valerie came from the War God Family. Dealing with this kind of tactic was easy. Her lips also curved as a blue-haired man appeared next to the lion''s head, kicking the head and blowing him away.


    "Magic Saint Kick Style, Inertia."


    Bam.

 Chapter 492 – Mythical Expert Fight Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 492 - Mythical Expert Fight Part 3</h4>


    "Magic Saint Kick Style, Inertia."


    Bam.


    The lion''s head abruptly turned to the left because of the force and the body followed right after, dropping to the ground and sliding for a hundred feet.


    Seeing this from afar, Davi couldn''t help but mutter, "Damn, I guess this is our biggest difference. My sister focused on her Five Aspects in her younger days, allowing her to create a foundation for herself and get stronger by the day. I shouldn''t have been sozy back in my early days��"


    Theo''s Master nced at him in silence.


    "What do you think?" Davi asked.


    She remained silent, refusing to answer.


    "I don''t know whether you like them or hate them, but I''m just enjoying myself watching this fight. It''s rare to see three powerful Mythical Rank Experts fight, you know. Anyway, I am going to patrol around the area and create a perimeter to avoid anyone getting involved in this fight. They will die soon after all. Hahaha." Daviughed and disappeared, leaving one message. "Anyway, the perimeter will be five miles in diameter."


    She still didn''t say anything, but she closed her eyes for a second and let out a long sigh.


    ��


    Meanwhile, the Red Lion hurriedly rose from the ground and gritted his teeth. He excreted moreva from his body before letting out a roar.


    The shock wave from the roar dispersed all theva in all directions, especially to Valerie and Ray''s directions.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style��" Ray extended his hand when he saw a chunk ofvaing at him. It was fifty times bigger than his body, so he thought about using it as a counter attack. Hence, he poured all the Magic Power to his hand and took a deep breath while using the External Flow. "Burst."


    The Magic Power stopped theval for a split second beforeunching it back to the lion''s body.


    At the same time, Valerie simply waved his spear downwards, cutting theva into two as they passed next to her.


    On the other hand, the environment seemed to be looking bad as fire started to spread and some trees were melted by theva.


    Avoiding Ray''s attack, the Red Lion leaped toward Valerie and tried to swallow her again.


    Ray wanted to stop him, but the tail almost smacked him, forcing Ray to stop.


    Valerie flew back while waving her spear, releasing a crescent-shaped white light.


    The lion bit the white light and melted it in an instant. After that, it continued to Valerie who was about to thrust her spear.


    Suddenly, the lion waved his paw downwards, hitting Valerie.


    "What?!" Valerie managed to react to this sudden attack.


    Even though she managed to block it with her spear, she lost her bnce and wasunched to the ground.


    Bam.


    "Kah." She coughed a few times, spitting blood. Strength seemed to be leaving her body as she let go of her spear.


    Seeing this, the Red Lionnded on the ground to hit her again.


    A smile appeared on her face as she touched her spear.


    The spear glowed as several white holes appeared in the ground. They all suddenlyunched a huge spear de attached to a chain, circling around the lion''s body.


    "This is��" The Red Lion sucked a cold breath and soon realized Valerie lured him into this situation by sacrificing herself.


    She obviously had the ability to stop his attack, but chose not to. Instead, she showed this kind of weakness so he could deliver the killing blow.


    The moment hended, she caught him with all these chains.


    "This is the end." Valerie smiled and summoned a bigger white hole.


    A huge spear, half of the size of her God Killing Spear, flew upward, piercing through his stomach.


    "Kill him!" Valerie shouted.


    "Gah!" The Red Lion hardened his stomach, but the spear managed to get through his defense and pierced through his skin. Luckily, he was still strong enough as the spear stopped in the middle of his stomach. As long as he melted the chains and jumped up, he could start recovering.


    "You can''t defeat me." The Red Lion released hisva to melt the chain.


    Unfortunately for him, Valerie had already known that her spear wouldn''t be strong enough to kill him. That was why she shouted those two words. "Sorry, those two words were not for them."


    "!!!" The Red Lion widened his eyes and realized what was going on, albeit a bit toote.


    Ray emerged on top of him and mmed his foot to his body. "Magic Saint Kick Style, Ground Splitter!"


    He hit the lion''s back and pushed him down to the ground, allowing the spear to pierce all the way through.


    "Argh!" The lion screamed in pain before looking down, shouting, "Your wife is also on the ground. I will crush her with my body!"


    However, he soon remembered that he hit Valerie strong enough to create a small crater when her body crashed.


    No, she had been baiting him to use that strike, allowing her to protect herself from his body because she had a deep enough crater to avoid getting crushed by the lion''s giant body.


    Upon that realization, the Red Lion gasped, noticing that he had been dancing on her palm this whole time.


    "War God Family!" The Red Lion gnashed his teeth, but Ray already appeared next to his body, sending a punch forward.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    The force pushed the lion''s body as the spear cut through his body, creating a deep wound that almost split his body into half.


    Ray wanted to check his wife''s condition, but Valerie already shouted while pointing at the lion, "I''m okay! Kill him first!"


    Ray gritted his teeth and appeared before the huge wound. The Magic Power spun around his hand and flew forward.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister."


    The spinning Magic Power that looked like a tornado tore the rock crystals and magma inside as if drilling a volcano.


    The tornado continued until it split the body in half, revealing the Red Lion''s real body sticking out of the rock. This was also the reason why they continuously aimed at the lion''s belly.


    "Fuck!" The Red Lion gritted his teeth and remembered Davi''s words about him kicking the bucket.


    Ray spared no effort and leaped toward him, who stuck in the ck crystal and hit his fist.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    The two fists collided but Ray''s Induction Fist quickly broke the Red Lion''s wrist and continued to hit his chest, creating a hole and destroying his heart like popping a balloon.

 Chapter 493 – Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 493 - Gifts</h4>


    "��" Ray stopped for a moment, looking at the Red Lion. He needed to make sure he didn''t regenerate anymore and waved his hand downwards, slicing his neck.


    He threw the head nearby, so he could bring it backter while reducing the body into ashes.


    After that, he turned around and reappeared next to Valerie.


    His eyes were filled with worries while scanning her injuries.


    "Don''t worry." Valerie smiled and pointed to the tube filled with green liquid. "I have used the eleration Recovery Liquid. I will be back in no time."


    Before he spoke, Ray felt two presences behind him.


    "Can you help me up?" requested Valerie while assuring him she was alright.


    Ray nodded and gently pulled her up with his hands, so Valerie could speak to them.


    After getting up, Valerie looked at Theo''s Master. "Nina."


    "Yes?" Theo''s Master bowed to her.


    "Can I ask another favor from you?"


    "May I know what it is?"


    Valerie smiled and raised her hand. There was a golden bracelet hanging around her wrist and a shining blue jewel as its eyes.


    She took off the bracelet and handed it to her. "Can you give this bracelet to him as his birthday present?"


    "��" Nina took a step back, frowning. "This�� I don''t think it''s appropriate for me to do it."


    "Ho?" Davi opened her mouth in surprise. "An artifact�� It seems to have been crafted not long ago. What''s its rank? Judging from the Magic Power around it, I guess it''s a B Rank artifact."


    Valerie poured her Magic Power into the artifact. Surprisingly, the artifact changed into a golden spear with a blue jewel on the center of the de.


    "This spear has been reinforced by Ocean Star. It should be able to strengthen his Magic Power every time he uses his skill or Control. Just tell him to avoid using it too much before bing a Supreme Rank Expert because the Ocean Star will take too much Magic Power for the current him."


    "Ocean Star��" Davi sucked a cold breath. "If I wasn''t wrong, the jewel alone cost one billion Zils. And the artifact��"


    "Ahaha, it''s nothing. We didn''t use the Griffith Family''s fortune, so you don''t need to worry about the implication." Valerie stopped pouring her Magic Power and the bracelet returned to its normal state.


    Davi looked away, muttering inwardly, ''Did they spend their entire fortune? It is maybe a B Rank Artifact, but it''s one of the best. The creator of this artifact should be the Griffith Family''s Grandmaster. And that Ocean Star is the core of a Mythical Rank Deep Shark.


    ''To put it into a B Rank Artifact, I''m afraid she is intending to avoid making an artifact too good for the current Theo, so no one covets it for the time being. And after he grows stronger, he can ask a Master Artisan to reinforce it to an A Rank Artifact. Hmm��''


    Nina hesitated for a second and asked, "Why didn''t you give him this? I''m sure he will be thrilled to get a present from his parents for the first time after so long��"


    "It''s because we haven''t met for too long that I''m sure he won''t ept a present from me." She shook her head helplessly. Valerie then nced at Ray. "Where''s the book?"


    Ray reached into his pocket and pulled out a palm-size notebook.


    Materialization Combination.


    "!!!" Davi dropped his jaw when he saw the name. "That�� Isn''t that the secret of your Control that allows you tobine multiple aspects at once? In your case, it''s Breathing, Control, and Technique�� Wait, Theo''s talent�� Don''t tell me��"


    Ray didn''t answer him and handed the book to Nina.


    "I hope you can give Theo these two as his birthday presents."


    Nina was still hesitating and asked one more question. "Still, the training guide that you gave me to train his five aspects to create a foundation for his future�� Wasn''t that a book you put together from you, her, the pope, Sir Adamax, and Sir Renji? And the Materialization book�� Are you sure you are giving him all of these right now?"


    She turned to Ray with doubts. "Master''s understanding about Control is said to be the closest to the ancestor who built the Griffith Family. And no one has learned about his Control yet, including the Griffith Family. Are you sure about this?"


    Ray nodded. "He is my son�� As long as I can provide it, I will give it to him. Unfortunately, someone from the Griffith Family also needs to learn this technique, so I want him to be the first to learn it."


    "Well, Ne will probably be the representative from the Griffith Family. Considering how soft she is to Theo, I guess that''s fine?" Valerie looked at Ray with a smile.


    Ray shook his head helplessly. "Even with all this, there''s nothing that can buy time and opportunity to meet him."


    Nina gritted her teeth and finally received the bracelet along with the book. "I understand. I will give these two to him."


    "Please don''t say it''s from us, okay? Otherwise, he won''t ept it."


    Nina couldn''t do anything andplied. She needed to take all the credits again for all the gifts Theo had received all this time. "Yes."


    "Thanks." Valerie nodded and finally looked at Davi. "Little Davi, can you tell father that I''m sorry?"


    "I think he wants to hear something else from you��" Davi rejected it in an instant and Valerie knew it. However, she shook her head and said, "Ahaha, I think it''s impossible right now. Maybe in the next decade?"


    "��" Davi rolled his eyes. "That aside, the reason you didn''t hide Theo in our War God Family was due to this, right?"


    "Yes." She admitted it without hesitation.


    "Father''s motto is equal love. Even if I ask him to keep him a secret, he will definitely train Theo per his motto, and Theo''s talent will bloom too soon. Considering your status in the Griffith Family, they will surely check our War God Family, making them know his talent.


    "And with all this going on, not only can Theo grow this fast without anyone knowing, but when Father offers him to join the War God Family, he also has no choice other than offering everything he owes for the past seventeen years due to that motto along with the additional rewards for his current achievement.


    "It''s literally forcing Father to give Theo a nk check. Is this also the reason you handled this matter personally instead of letting Father do it? You''re trying to avoid reducing the offer he will giveter? How ruthless you are��"


    "You and I grew up in the same family."


    "Yeah. I was among the middle rank while you were always in the top three." Davi sighed in defeat. "Everything turned out to be your n. I guess Father may end uping to your Griffith Family to beat you up."


    "Ahaha��" Valerie looked away.

 Chapter 494 – Clueless

    <h4>Chapter 494 - Clueless</h4>


    A few minutes ago.


    Theo came out of the hill and walked into the forest, meeting Nina and Davi.


    He dropped his jaw, never expecting to see his master here. "Master?"


    Nina looked at him and nodded. "Have you been well?"


    "Yes. What are you doing here?"


    Before she answered, a huge "boom" resounded across the forest, startling Theo.


    "What''s that?" Theo widened his eyes in shock as he had never heard something that loud.


    "Do you remember me telling you that some people will try toe after you?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Of course I do. You said there might be some experts trying to be my master. They will use all sorts of approaches to force me to be their student. They may even kill me if I refuse."


    "Yeah. Someone hase to Thernd this time." Nina pointed to the direction where the sound came. "I couldn''t handle him, so the Griffith Family sent a backup."


    "Is that so?"


    Nina secretly clenched her fists, knowing that she couldn''t say his parents came all the way here to protect him. She could only say, "Well, you don''t need to worry about it. They will be done soon. What you need to do is walk in the opposite direction. Only after a few hours should you head there, trying to see what kind of aftermath three Mythical Rank Experts can create."


    "Three Mythical Rank Experts��" Theo gasped as he was only a small Hero Rank Expert. He couldn''t imagine what kind of battle was going on there.


    Suddenly, they noticed one of them had disappeared.


    "!!!" Nina and Davi exchanged looks with shocked expressions. After that, Nina turned to him and shouted, "Run! We will hold him back!"


    "W-what?" Theo was clueless as to what was going on. However, Nina tried to push him, showing the urgency of the matter.


    "Hurry up! Run!"


    Davi had already disappeared and Nina waited until Theo started running.


    Because he didn''t know what was going on, Theo chose to believe his master since it looked like a wise choice.


    He activated his Flowmotion and ran in the opposite direction.


    Seeing Theo had gone, Nina sighed, knowing that the battle had finished. If she asked Theo to stay, he might be curious and approach them, only to find his parents. Hence, she sent him away to avoid such a problem.


    After talking with Valerie and Ray, she left behind the note, telling him it was just a false rm and they were alright. Unfortunately, they couldn''t meet him since the Griffith Family wanted them back.


    As she instructed, Theo hid somewhere for a few hours.


    He also had his dinner there and approached the supposed battlefield with Ava.


    It was a silent night without any movement in his surroundings as if all the monsters around here had been killed.


    Ava was standing on top of his shoulder and focused on her ears, trying to pick up some sort of noises around the area.


    "Ava. Do you hear anything?" asked Theo while carefully walking toward the battlefield.


    "Kyu." Ava shook her head, feeling that the Mythical Rank Experts had left this ce.


    "Maybe they have left��" Theo muttered.


    "Kyu." Ava agreed with him because she didn''t hear any other sound from the battlefield. After all, she could pinpoint the battle''s location from her hearing alone, considering she had heard it first hand.


    It took Theo thirty minutes just to travel from his hiding spot to the battlefield.


    The trees appeared to be charred and some grounds seemed to be melted.


    However, everything was worth it the moment he reached the battlefield.


    He found a huge crater on the ground, spanning over a few hundred feet.


    On his right, there was a line trail stretching around fifty feet, pushing all the trees to the north.


    The battle seemed to end quickly as he didn''t find many traces. Still, the fight was truly beyond his imagination because each attack could cause this much destruction.


    "This��" Theo took a step back as his heart skipped a beat. On one hand, he was scared about inspecting this area. On the other hand, he was curious and wanted to take a glimpse of the power of Mythical Rank Experts by taking a look around.


    "What should we do, Ava?" asked Theo.


    Ava tilted her head in confusion before lowering her head, giving the decision to him.


    After a while, Theo nodded his head. "Okay. Let''s explore this area. However, we won''t be here for too long though."


    "Kyu."


    The two then walked around and investigated the damage.


    From what he saw, he realized the biggest crater seemed to be made by a single attack. He couldn''t imagine what kind of attack could cause this much damage.


    Suddenly, Ava furrowed her eyebrows and leaped off his shoulder.


    "Ava?"


    Ava sniffed left and right as if she had found something. Picking up something, Ava jumped thirty feet to the right and stared at the charred dirt.


    She touched the dirt and raised her foot, finding a trace of ashes on the dirt.


    To his surprise, Ava put her foot in her mouth, devouring the ashes.


    "!!!" Her eyes widened as Ava kept sniffing around and searching for the ashes. "Kyu!"


    "Ava? What are you doing? No, what are you eating? Are you sure you can eat dirt? Won''t it upset your stomach?" Theo called her again and again, but she continued ignoring him as if she had found food that no one could reject.


    It took her half an hour for Ava to swallow them. And the moment she finished, Ava halted her steps, ignoring everything in her surroundings.


    "Ava?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and approached her, only to find lightning starting to spark around her.


    It expanded instantly and formed some sort of blue-colored sphere that isted Ava from the rest of the world.


    "What is happening?" Theo was confused about this abrupt change. "Ava. Talk to me!"


    "Kyu!" Ava let out a groan and maintained all the lightning around her. Nobody could reach her, even Theo.


    However, Theo wasn''t the only one who seemed to notice this incident.


    Ten miles on the north, another white rabbit turned around as if she felt something. Her eyes turned bloodshot as she jumped into the air.


    Her body transformed into a humanoid figure. Like Ava, seven stars appeared on her back, connected by a white line.


    The moment shended, she stomped the ground and headed straight to Ava as fast as possible.

 Chapter 495 – Avarice

    <h4>Chapter 495 - Avarice</h4>


    While Theo was still confused with Ava''s condition, a shadow emerged next to him.


    "!!!" Theo raised his spear and waved it to the one beside him, trying to avoid getting killed.


    However, the shadow simply ced her hand on Theo''s wrist and stopped his movement.


    "Stop. I mean no harm. Look at me first." The shadow let out a female''s voice, but when Theo looked down, he found the hand was not human''s.


    It was at that time, he understood that the one who spoke earlier was none other than a monster. And for such a monster toe, Theo gulped down and raised his vision, finding Ava in her other form.


    "Ava?" Theo drew a gasp and came to a realization. "No, you are not Ava. You are��"


    "I am her mother." The rabbit nodded her head and nced at Theo. "So, can you exin to me what''s happening to my kid?"


    Theo recognized the seven stars on her back and recognized the rabbit before him as Ava''s mother.


    "That��" Theo scratched the back of his head, wondering how to exin it. He contemted for a moment, searching for the right words. "To be honest, I have no idea as well. She suddenly sniffed out something and started cing her foot on the ground, collecting dirt or something? After that, she swallowed it and became engrossed to the point she ignored me.


    "She continued for half an hour and this happened after she stopped." Theo pointed at Ava''s current condition and the lightning barrier.


    The rabbit looked down and exined, "This is evolution. If I am not wrong, you, humans, have ssified us into a few sses. Normal, Rare, General, King, and World sses, right?"


    "Yes."


    "When I first evolved from Normal ss to Rare ss, the process was only sleeping. The next day, I realized my mind became clearer and I seemed to be able to connect the human speeches when I fought them.


    "After a long while, I somehow learned theirnguage, albeit only the basic conversation. Then, two decadester, I evolved once again to the General ss.


    "The process was simr to this. Unlike her lightning barrier, my body was illuminated by the moonlight. It took a long process, but after that day, my mind became even clearer. Well, I couldn''t tell you what kind of things I gained back then, but you get the idea." Ava''s mother sighed.


    "I have felt my power being used by my daughter less than a month ago, so I guess you have seen this form, right?"


    Theo admitted it without hesitation. He also had another concern, "Then, will Ava be like you?"


    His answer came in the form of transformation. Her body reverted to a small white rabbit and looked up to Theo, "I have the ability to transform freely. Considering everything has been very simr, I believe she will also possess this ability."


    "I see." Theo nodded mysteriously.


    "Either way, I need to bring my daughter away for a while until she finishes her evolution. It may take days or even weeks, so she will be better in my ce. I assume you can agree with me, right?" She narrowed her eyes, looking at Theo.


    "I understand." Although it was a bit sad to get separated from Ava, she would be safer to go with her mother.


    She then sniffed around and said, "I guess the thing she swallowed earlier was someone''s ashes, probably a Supreme Rank Expert�� No, to make her evolve so suddenly, it muste from a Mythical Rank Expert? I rushed to this ce after getting the information about a great fight, but I was still toote."


    "I believe it was a Mythical Rank Expert." Theo corrected her ording to the information provided by his master.


    "As expected. You should know we get stronger by eating others, right?"


    Theo connected the dots for everything and came to a realization. "Yes. I can understand everything right now. Thank you for your exnation."


    "Good. If everything went ording to the n, she would guide you to your brother, but I guess she couldn''t."


    Theo hesitated for a second. "Can I know something from you?"


    "I guess I owe you some exnation. Let''s talk for a bit. After that, I will bring her back."


    "Thank you."


    The rabbit waved her foot and asked, "What do you want to know?"


    "I guess I need to introduce myself first. I am Theodore Griffith."


    "You can call me Avarice. I am Ava''s mother as well as this Great Krosian in''s Guardian."


    "Great Krosian in''s Guardian?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. He never heard that name from the map, thinking she mighte from an area that had yet to be explored. Or Theo thought they were talking about the same ce but a different name.


    "The Great Krosian in stretches two hundred miles to our right and five hundred miles to our left."


    "!!!" Theo opened his mouth in shock and couldn''t help butment, "Doesn''t that include Ark City and Art Beats Castle?"


    "That''s what you humans call your home�� But yes." She nodded. "I am the Guardian who maintains this ce order, making sure any living creatures in this area don''t create something that can destroy this world."


    "��" Theo took a step back and looked at the rabbit. "Guardian?"


    "Yes. Conflicts are normal everywhere, so I won''t do anything to stop them. However, if humans or some other creatures try to disrupt the entire order, I may need to act as soon as I receive the message from what you call General ss Monsters andmand them to restore the orders."


    "Just like the case a hundred years ago when you humans tried to send some sort of machine to the sky. I used my power to have the moonlight melt it." The rabbit nodded.


    "The moonlight to melt it? A hundred years ago?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and came to a realization. "Satelite!"


    "So that''s the machine''s name." She nodded.


    However, Theo also caught another unique piece of information from her words and realized something big.


    The information dumbstruck him as he took a few steps back and drew a long gasp. "You canmand General ss Monsters�� You are��"


    The rabbit smiled, nodded her head, and said solemnly. "Well, I guess you people have another way to call me. If I am not wrong, my other name that is well-known to humans is�� The Queen of Monsters."


    "!!!"

 Chapter 496 – Order

    <h4>Chapter 496 - Order</h4>


    "��The Queen of Monsters."


    Theo took a step back, dropped his jaw to the ground, and froze. He often heard about the Queen of Monsters.


    After all, this Queen of Monster had been depicted as the one who governed Thernd from the other side, preventing them from making any big movement.


    It was also one of the reasons why Thernd hurriedly banned the entry to the Unending Grass Path where the Unending Tree resided after that incident, to the point they mobilized many soldiers to prevent anyone froming in.


    They knew if the Queen of Monster mobilized the monsters, Ark City and Art Beats City would be destroyed.


    They could bring outside help, but the Queen of Monster never made her appearance, so it was impossible to kill her, posing an even more dangerous threat, considering the Queen mightunch a counterattack and reach the Teleportation Circle.


    There was a famous incident in Myanmar where they pissed off a King ss Monster. The monster brought tens of thousands of monsters to wreak havoc on Earth, causing billions of damages and thousands of people losing their lives.


    They somehow sealed the information, but someone soon leaked the real information, telling them what truly happened.


    Many countries still helped them by giving some support for the disasters but also med them for their reckless behavior. At that time, the world knew it wasn''t good to piss them off, lest they tried toe to the other side.


    And now, the one that could cause such chaos stood before him. She looked like a cute and harmless rabbit, but her power and authority were terrifying.


    Avarice remained silent for a minute before adding, "I don''t know what you know about me, but I have no intention of destroying things unreasonably. As long as you people can behave in maintaining the orders, I won''t do anything."


    Theo took a deep breath, calming his heart down.


    Avarice nced at Ava and added, "Of course. I would have brought them if my daughter was harmed by them during her stay."


    "This��" Theo looked down with a troubled expression. "Ava�� I mean, your daughter��"


    "You don''t need to act politely." Avarice shook her head. "I believe you don''t remember this, but your kindness has moved Ava''s heart in the past."


    "Eh?" Theo''s body shook and recalled what happened in the past. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find anything rted to Ava in his memory.


    "As expected." Avarice closed her eyes. "That is something Ava will tell you herself. And it''s her will to help you."


    "Then, what is the rtionship between her and my brother?"


    "There''s nothing like that." Avarice shook her head. "It''s me. I met your brother twelve years ago. However, I can''t disclose the details because another King ss Monster like me may get involved."


    "Another King ss Monster?" Theo frowned. He was curious, but if it invited that much danger, he refrained himself from knowing. "I understand."


    "Good."


    "Anyway, I want to tell you that Ava won''t be able to apany you for the time being. So, if you have reached the requirement,e to the canyon. Someone will guide you to your brother from the entrance. I will also ask the guide to stand by next to the entrance."


    "I can understand that. Thank you so much for the help."


    "No need to thank me." She then pointed at Ava, "There is something you need to know. This world may not like what you think. Even a King ss monster like me is not that harmful as long as you maintain the orders within your rank and not scheme against us.


    "Still, I need to thank you for letting my daughter evolve this soon." Avarice thought for a moment and looked at Theo''s hand. "Give me your hand."


    "Ehm?" Theo was confused but still bent his knees and extended his hand to her.


    Avarice then cut her foot and let a drop of blood fall on top of his palm.


    After that, she used her other foot to tten it and said, "Moonlight Order."


    Suddenly, Theo''s vision became brighter.


    "Eh? What is this?" Theo looked around and noticed that only his position seemed to be brighter. He then looked up and rubbed his eyes as if feeling that the moon had be shinier than he thought.


    "No need to worry. I have said it earlier; we have our orders to maintain. To do that, we need to be connected to thisnd, and this is my Moonlight Order which is the proof of friendship between you and me. Take this as my gift for helping my daughter." Avarice smiled and pulled her hand, revealing a crescent moon tattoo on his palm.


    "This proof won''t have any effect, but you can use it to introduce yourself shall you face another King ss monster like me."


    "This is too precious." Theo was amused by the gift.


    However, Avarice chuckled and said, "Either way, my daughter will be another King ss Monster sooner orter. At that time, I won''t have any doubt that she will give this mark to you. I am doing all this just to protect you for a while so she can give that mark to you herself.


    "For me, I can also know whether you have died or not, so for the sake of my daughter, keep living." Avarice nodded her head.


    Theo had no words in this situation. He never thought about receiving something this big just by walking around.


    "If you wish to know about this world''s order�� Seek my presence when you reach Supreme Rank. I will give you a little hint about it."


    Theo was curious about this world because there wasn''t much information regarding the essence of this world. Even if the government had it, they would most likely hide it because the information was too important to be disclosed to the public.


    So, learning more about this world also meant he possessed the knowledge that many countries desired. He needed a certain amount of resolve to possess it.


    Theo took a deep breath and smiled. "I don''t know what kind of future I will have, but as long as you don''t renew the promise, I will certainlye."


    Avarice smiled and nced at Ava. "I guess our conversation will end here�� I need to bring my daughter back."

 Chapter 497 – Realization

    <h4>Chapter 497 - Realization</h4>


    "I guess our conversation will end here. I need to bring my daughter back."


    After saying those words, Avarice jumped into the air and transformed into her humanoid form. She walked to Ava with a serious expression. "The moment she finishes her evolution, she should be able to change into this form of her own will. However, she can''t use the power simr to the one on my back yet."


    Listening to her words, Theo noticed something and asked, "Did that powere from the next one?"


    "Yeah. It''s the next evolution which you consider a King ss Monster." She nodded and nced at Theo, "I don''t know how you do it, but I notice the connection between you and the grand order."


    Theo''s body shook as he asked while frowning, "Did you mean I have a connection to this world?"


    "I told you that my job is to protect the order, right?"


    "Yes."


    "That order has two meanings. First, it''s like what you imagine�� Some sort ofw that regtes this world. However, once you pass a certain requirement, you will be able to form a bond with the Grand Order to create your own order, like mine, the moonlight.


    "No, I have heard about your world having blessings from the people of the past, right? Why are they stronger than you?"


    Theo''s expression turned grim. "Order?"


    "That''s something you need to figure out. I can''t say more than this because of the restriction." She smiled and thought for a moment. "That''s right. I will give you one piece of advice. Have you ever set a certain rule for yourself? Something that you can''t break no matter what? What was the word again�� Principle?"


    "��" Theo tilted his head in confusion before remembering a certain person. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he gasped.


    "It seems you know about it." Avarice smiled. "My advice is to stick to those rules and don''t tell anyone about the Moonlight Order. That''s all."


    Without waiting for Theo''s reply, Avarice raised her hand. The seven stars behind her suddenly flew toward Ava''s Lightning Barrier.


    Six of the stars formed a rectangle, and thest star became a handle. When the white light connected all of them again, the seven stars turned into a door.


    She reached the handle and opened the door, creating a gap between the lightning barrier.


    Using that power, she entered the barrier without a problem and bent down her knees.


    Her expression turned gentle. A smile appeared when she stroked Ava''s head.


    "Let''s go home." Avarice carefully lifted Ava from the ground.


    After that, the seven stars flew to her back, and the door disappeared.


    Because the lightning only affected the outside, Avarice had no problem inside the barrier, and the barrier seemed to be moving with Ava as the center.


    Avarice turned to Theo for a second and nodded to him as if saying goodbye. After that, she looked to the front and leaped into the air, leaving Theo alone.


    Theo closed his eyes as he was still shaken by the revtion.


    "Order�� Set of rules." Theo gritted his teeth. The meeting between him and Loki kept reying in his mind.


    At that time, Loki asked him to obey three rules.


    Dropping on his butt, Theo looked at the night sky,ughing. "Hahaha. Is this the reason for those rules? Order, huh? There is also the requirement�� The requirement seems to be another case because they don''t rte to each other. I guess this world is more sophisticated than I originally thought��"


    He wanted to know the answer from the God of Mischief, but not a single reply arrived even after a few minutes, so he gave up.


    "I guess I should maintain those rules? I remember the God of Mischief creating a foundation for me�� Is it rted in any way?" Theo tilted his head. "Argh. I don''t know many things. However, unlike any other time, the knowledge Ick is more important and not many people know about it. I should be grateful to know it right now and start figuring it out after getting stronger."


    He remembered the promise and smiled. "Supreme Rank Expert. I will be able to know more after reaching level 500. It may take around one to two years at my pace, but it should be fine. I won''t even reach 20 years old by that time.


    "I am looking forward to the time I understand more and more of this." Theo wished to get stronger as soon as all this information raised his motivation.


    Heid down on the ground while staring at the stars. "Ava, I will visit you as soon as possible. I hope you are doing alright with your mother.


    "Still, to think Ava is the daughter of the Queen of Monsters�� I can''t imagine that. No wonder they never found the queen. Also, how did my brother meet the queen? She said it may be rted to another king, so does he have a mark or something?" Theo asked himself while looking at the white circle on his palm.


    "Anyway, I can''t get Ava''s help, so I need to be extremely careful in my mission." Theo thought for a moment. "I should finish the Ant Nest within a week and reach level 330 as soon as possible."


    His mind needed to process many things, from the battle between Mythical Rank Experts to the information Avarice told him.


    Theo ended up using the rest of the night to solve his thoughts.


    At the same time, he also faced another problem.


    This might be the first time he needed to camp alone since Ava wasn''t there to help watch over the tent anymore.


    In the end, Theo couldn''t sleep in a rxed position. He maintained his sitting posture and leaned on a tree.


    He closed his eyes while raising his guard, making sure he could react to anyone approaching him.


    Luckily, the area was rtively safe because Nina and Davi had killed most of the monsters nearby, preventing them from interrupting the battle earlier.


    ��


    The next day.


    Theo was ready to explore the cave again�� As soon as he tidied up his camp, he hurriedly entered the ant nest.

 Chapter 498 – Loss

    <h4>Chapter 498 - Loss</h4>


    The next day. Theo continued hunting the ants.


    After meeting the group, he didn''t find a single human anymore, realizing the group had indeed taken the mission.


    He felt relieved and terrible at the same time.


    Although he didn''t mind killing people, he wasn''t someone who thoughtlessly murdered others just because he wanted something. So, if he didn''t hunt in this mission, he wouldn''t have to meet them.


    However, he also felt relieved since he wasn''t required to kill other people anymore. In fact, those people might have done the same thing to many others, considering the entire group didn''t react to the leader''s decision. It showed how much they had gotten used to this type of thing.


    Theo ended up brushing the matter off with a long sigh and focused on the ants.


    This was the time Theo started feeling the loss of Ava.


    Usually, he would be able to get one or two levels a day due to Ava helping him. Despite defeating many monsters, Ava didn''t really kill them. She only killed around a fourth of the monsters she beat.


    After all, Ava and Theo had a symbiotic rtionship.


    Ava didn''t kill the monsters so that Theo could get the EXP points. On the other hand, Theo didn''t turn a fourth of the monsters he killed, so Ava could get stronger by eating them.


    Because they helped each other, the fight could finish faster and felt easier.


    When Theo fought a group of ants alone, he realized he needed to handle more than he imagined, resulting in him unnecessarily using his Magic Power.


    It certainly increased the time it took to handle the monsters. This meant Theo required more time to level up, forcing him to reschedule his n.


    Luckily, he managed to reach his target in the previous expedition faster than he imagined, allowing him to have more time to finish this task.


    In the end, Theo used twelve days to get nine levels instead of the predicted seven days. His speed decreased more than half, making the situation less optimistic.


    To bnce the loss, Theo had been looking around to find the Ant Queen and found her on the seventh day.


    Instead of killing the ant queen, he chose to defeat the rest of her army first to avoid other ants from helping the queen.


    On the twelfth day, Theo stood in the tunnel before the queen''s room. Although he couldn''t see it yet, he assumed the queen''s chamber was far bigger than the other rooms in this ant nest.


    He made sure about his strategy first and checked his body''s condition, ensuring his safety. Only after that did he finally step inside the queen''s chamber.


    Unlike any other room, Theo was amazed by the chamber.


    The room appeared to be a half-sphere. The length was around two hundred feet in radius.


    White circr eggs wereid down on the ground, attached to the wall or hung on the ceiling. It was truly a majestic scene to behold.


    ''How many are they? Four hundred?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, peeking. ''I have killed around six hundred ants in the past two weeks, so I guess it''s going to be a growing nestter. No wonder it requires nest extermination. It''s going to be a problem for many because they may die as soon as they enter this ce due to the overwhelming number.'' Theo nodded and looked at the ants inside the room.


    ''One, two, three��'' Theo counted the ants that stood by inside this chamber, protecting the queen. "Seven normal ants and one general. I wonder if I can kill them. The number is too many, especially since I need to kill the queen.''


    Theo contemted his choice and searched for the queen, finding her two minutester.


    The queen had arger body than any of them. Unlike other ants, the queen had a pair of wings that could be used to either escape or fight.


    To ensure the queen couldn''t escape, Theo searched for another exit, which luckily couldn''t be found.


    ''I can defeat the queen alone, but I''m not sure whether my strength is strong enough to defeat the others.'' Theo formted the battle n in his mind.


    Before Theo made any n, he found something shocking.


    An egg on the wall suddenly cracked, and a red ant popped the egg wall, making its first appearance to the world.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and dropped his jaw.


    Although the ant wasn''t that big, he could feel a weird sensation from the ant.


    He couldn''t help but take another look with his Skylink, checking the monster''s identity.


    Name: Baby zing Ant


    Level: ???


    A newborn ant that just hatched and had yet to reach adulthood. The baby ant should have at least Level 100 strength, and depending on the food, it could grow stronger and reach adulthood faster. (Usually became a level 340 Ant upon reaching adulthood.)


    ''Seriously?'' Theo made a weird smile because he realized something. ''If an ant hatch now, I do need to finish this quickly. After all, the other ants are going to be born after this. I need to defeat them now��''


    Theo began to figure out the n while watching the queen bringing the meat with her mouth and feeding the baby ant by transferring it to its mouth.


    The baby then started eating it like crazy.


    Seeing such a thing, Theo summoned his clone and handed his spear.


    He took a deep breath and charged forward.


    His footsteps echoed through the room, rming all other ants. However, Theo used his fastest speed to reach the two nearest ants.


    "Ha!" Both Theo and his clone used their Cannon st, Telekinesis and the others, using his strongest strike to kill the first two ants.


    The ants didn''t have the chance to turn around before its body shattered into pieces.


    "With this, there would only be one queen, five other ants, and one baby ant. My clone should be able to handle the five other ants." Theo smiled. "Alright. Time to kill clear this mission."

 Chapter 499 – Fighting Ant Queen

    <h4>Chapter 499 - Fighting Ant Queen</h4>


    Theo hurriedly made his way through the ants and arrived in front of the queen while Clone Theo followed close behind him before making aplete stop, hindering the ants that wanted to attack Theo.


    The moment he arrived in front of the queen, Theo waved his spear as if swinging a club.


    The queen opened her mouth and bit it, stopping the spear.


    Normally, the ant wouldn''t be able to hold his attack this easily, but Theo noticed the red glow around her mouth.


    The fire started to rise around her mouth, nning to burn the spear.


    Theo clicked his tongue and took a step back, pulling his spear out of the mouth.


    However, the ant queen refused to let Theo''s spear go. In fact, she even pulled him while holding the spear''s handle with her hands.


    She then released the extraordinary power of an ant and began to move back, dragging Theo and his spear together.


    "��" Theo realized the queen was stronger than he first expected.


    Not wanting to lose his spear, Theo stomped the ground with all his energy and cracked it.


    The queen was confused by Theo''s action and lowered her vision, finding Theo didn''t do much damage.


    His Magic Power then revolved in his body crazily.


    Since he couldn''t pull it back, he wanted to use the queen''s strength to beat herself.


    "Magic Augmentation."


    "Flowmotion." Theo smiled and stepped on the ground,unching himself into the air while dragging the spear up.


    Because Theo didn''t have any footing to step on, the spear ended up lining up with the queen''s head instead of her body. He then loosened his grip and allowed the queen''s strength to work its wonder.


    The spear moved to her body because of the pulling force and hit her on the head.


    Bang.


    It was a powerful hit, considering Theo added Telekinesis in his attack.


    The queen stepped back, wailing in agony.


    The other ants heard her cry and turned around, wanting to help her. However, Clone Theo used his Blink to disappear.


    The ants were confused for a second but found Theo arriving next to the baby ant and smacked his head, killing it.


    [Killed a Baby zing Ant.]


    [EXP+800]


    "The EXP aside, killing a baby really doesn''t feel good." Clone Theo muttered, asking himself, ''What if the baby was a puppy or a kitten? Wouldn''t I feel worse than this?''


    Clone Theo shook his head and said, "Sorry. I gotta do it."


    Seeing how Clone Theo killed their newborn kin, the ants rushed toward Theo in anger.


    Clone Theo could even sense their killing intent as their body was covered in fire.


    He moved away and lured the ants to the other side of the room, so Theo could fight the queen without interruptions.


    Theo, on the contrary, maintained his poker face, realizing the queen''s power. Her grips seemed to be stronger than he expected, so Theo certainly didn''t want to give this spear to her, knowing the queen might have the ability to destroy it.


    Hence, Theo aimed at the queen''s back, hitting her from the blindspot.


    As if noticing Theo''s action, the queen''s wings stretched out and pped, smacking Theo from the sides.


    Theo gritted his teeth and got hit several times. Even so, he couldn''t let go of his spear. Instead of focusing on the wings, Theo raised his foot, preparing to snap the queen in half with his Cannon st.


    Yet, the queen spun her body upside down, trying to crush Theo with her weight.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and used his Blink to avoid it.


    At the same time, Theo hit the queen''s body with his fist.


    The queen''s body shook uncontrobly and let go of Theo''s spear while flying away, avoiding Theo at all cost.


    She stayed on the ceiling, trying to see what Theo was going to do.


    On the contrary, Theo calmly grabbed his spear, confused. He didn''t know the queen had such a reaction, considering he had yet to crush her body.


    "What''s that?" Theo tilted his head.


    Before solving his questions, Theo was forced to turn around and raise his spear because the Ant General had slipped past his clone and was about to bite him.


    Theo used his Telekinesis tounch himself upward and flew toward the queen.


    This shocked both the queen and the general.


    Theo might not realize it, but the queen had been asking for help this whole time.


    And the moment the queen was hurt, the Ant General didn''t care about his body anymore and flew to the queen to protect her.


    However, Theo flew toward her and threw his spear before they could do anything.


    The queen hurriedly avoided it while Theo turned into an eagle.


    He pulled the spear nted on the ceiling with his Telekinesis and stopped the queen with his talons.


    The queen raised her hands to block Theo''s talon, but he had covered it with his Cannon st.


    The collision ended up snapping the queen''s right hand.


    "Is the Ant Queen this weak?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "I wonder what are the characteristics of an ant queen back on Earth��"


    Theo didn''t know why the queen behaved this way, but considering the queen''s job was toy eggs while the rest protected her, he thought the queen might be weaker than he thought.


    His point was proven when the ant general climbed the wall to help her.


    At the same time, the other ants started leaving Clone Theo one by one, chasing after the Eagle Theo in the air.


    "I see��" Theo squinted his eyes. "Well, killing the queen is the same as destroying the entire colony since they can''t produce offspring anymore. I guess this will make my job easier."


    Suddenly, cracking noises began to appear around the room, rming Theo.


    His eyes nced back and forth and found several eggs beginning to hatch.


    "This is not good," Theo muttered, realizing he needed to fight more than this.


    Although he was confident he could easily defeat a level 100 ant, he needed more time to handle so many of them at once, especially since there were still the stronger ants around.


    "Thirty or forty��" Theo calcted them and summoned his Magic Bullets.

 Chapter 500 – Killing The Queen

    <h4>Chapter 500 - Killing The Queen</h4>


    "I need to end this fast," Theo muttered while looking at the general and the queen.


    His clone turned into a tiger and chased after the rest of the ants. Every time he swept his ws, the ants had no way to block it because they were too focused on helping the queen.


    "Magic Bullets." Theo summoned his Magic Bullets which should be useless against the ants. However, he chose to hit the ceiling to create a smokescreen, allowing him to disappear.


    The ant queen and the general moved together so as to avoid Theo''s ambush, but they were simply not his match.


    Theo had located them with his Awareness and emerged in front of the Ant General, waving his spear from the side.


    "Cannon st."


    The energy covering his spear began to turn into another form. Instead of smashing the general head-on, Theo changed the energy into a thin extended de like the one he used to cut the Ground Dragon''s neck.


    The Ant General stopped the attack with his head, but Theo''s Cannon st was simply too powerful. It cut through his head and his body.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath and smiled.


    [Killed a zing Ant General.]


    [EXP+30,500]


    "Luckily, the general was protecting the queen, or he would have avoided it." Theo felt relieved because he knew this attack couldn''t be done quickly.


    The only time he used this attack was when the enemy couldn''t avoid it because the moment he moved too fast, the Cannon st would disperse, not giving the effect he wanted.


    "This one is good." Theo smiled and spun his spear, staring at the running Ant Queen.


    Many ants began toe out of their shells and moved around as if looking around the area.


    Some of them had even moved toward their queen to protect her.


    Seeing these ants, Theo used his Blink to appear before the queen''s eyes while waving his spear.


    As expected, the queen managed to raise her hand to block it, but Theo''s spear was far too strong for her and ended up cutting the remaining hand.


    Without anything to protect her, Theo killed the queen by thrusting his spear into her head.


    [Killed a zing Ant Queen.]


    [EXP+50,890]


    "Well, giving more EXP than the general even though the general posed more trouble." Theo made a weird smile, not knowing whether he should be happy or not.


    After killing the queen, Theo checked around the cave, trying to search for the eggs.


    He had no intention of killing these baby ants because they would soon die sooner orter. It wasn''t like they provided him so much EXP, so he avoided the unnecessary massacre.


    "Well, it''s not like they are a threat to me," Theo muttered. "Baby is still a baby. It''s not like I''m going to kill a puppy or a kitten just because they''re monsters."


    Theo let out a long sigh and took a few pictures of the nest situation along with the queen''s body as proof he had destroyed the nest.


    After getting the confirmation, Theo exited the cave without killing the baby ants.


    He stood before the hill and couldn''t find any more ants lingering around the entrances, so he thought his job had finished.


    "Yeah. I have done my job, and there is one more job I can do before reaching Level 350. It''s to kill a T-Rex and acquire its fangs. Still, the mission requires a level 400 person to do it, so I don''t know whether I can do it or not."


    However, he was interested in going to the T-Rex simply because the monsters in that area had simr levels.


    He should be able to kill them one by one while increasing his strength.


    Before leaving for the other mission, Theo decided to take a break while thinking about his experience for the past two weeks.


    He sat on top of a falling log and looked at the sky.


    "To think I would be hunting alone." Theo sighed. "It was a rough twelve days. Although I have no problem sleeping now, hunting alone indeed takes more toll. After all, the monsters around here are extremely dangerous."


    Theo opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 330


    EXP: 476,568/1,202,282


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Flowmotion (C), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 450, Endurance 276, Agility 291, Vitality 276, Magic Power 540


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm." Theo thought for a moment. "Should I upgrade something? I think I have more than enough Skill Cards to upgrade one skill�� Only those C Rank skills though.


    "Cannon st�� I have a skill in mind to rece it. Flowmotion is also scheduled to be changed to Illusion Construct after this, so no. As for my Metamorphosis, it may be a good skill, but it won''t do much to me right now. I need to go back to practice again.


    "As for the Three Great Defense, it''s quite good, but I don''t think I will do it, considering the enemy will be far more powerful and faster in the future. The only way to keep up with them is the shield from the Ring of Honor.


    "So, do I really need to upgrade my skill?" Theo couldn''t decide. The Metamorphosis was the most useful to him, but upgrading it now orter wouldn''t be that big of a deal, making him hesitate.


    After several considerations, Theo muttered, "I will do itter. Although the transformation takes slightly more Magic Power than my clone right now, it will be different when it reaches the B Rank. I will upgrade it after I go back.


    "I should focus on my Cannon st first for the time being��" Theo rested for a bit longer before making his way to the Dinosaur Mountain Range.


    It was only six hours away from his ce, so he managed to arrive before dark and set up the tent in a small in next to the mountain range.


    Despite being far away, he could still hear roars echoing through the night, showing how active they were.


    "This is thest stretch�� Level 350�� Here Ie."

 Chapter 501 – Dinosaur Mountain Range

    <h4>Chapter 501 - Dinosaur Mountain Range</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo finally saw the Dinosaur Mountain Range from up close. The Mountain Range covered various ces from the mountains, hills, valleys, and a few ins.


    It was called Dinosaur Mountain Range because the monsters or dinosaurs around the mountain became more active during the night, meaning roars from the mountain would be heard continuously.


    The mountain itself didn''t even reach one thousand feet, and Theo could find several monster nests at the peak. One of them was supposed to be rted to his mission, which he refused in the first ce.


    "No way I''m gonna steal an egg," Theo muttered and shifted his attention to the in next to him.


    The vast in was said to host more than a thousand dinosaurs, so it would be the perfect hunting spot for him, considering there was also a river not far from the in. He nned to rest around there while hunting on this in.


    Without hesitation, Theo made his way to the in, only to find a dinosaur standing in his way.


    The one that stood before him was a four-foot-tall green dinosaur. The body itself was thin, allowing a swift movement through a forest area like this.


    The dinosaur also wasn''t as long as he expected��Only six feet long.


    Its teeth seemed to be small but sharp.


    The moment their eyes intertwined, Theo knew the fight was inevitable.


    "Ra!" The dinosaur let out a small roar and charged forward, nimbly moving through the obstacles like trees, ground, and roots.


    On the other hand, Theo maintained his calm and raised his Skylink to check the dinosaur''s name. He also summoned his clone and asked him to take care of the dinosaur.


    Name: Velociraptor


    Level: 370-380


    A small but quick dinosaur. Love hunting in a small group.


    "Well��" Theo smiled when he saw this. "People thought dinosaurs had gone to extinction due to the meteor, butter they thought they had been staying in this ce. This also proves the connection between Earth and this world. Either way, they are my sources of EXP, so I don''t need to hold back."


    Theo raised his vision, staring at his clone that stopped the Velociraptor''s charge.


    He raised his spear and used his Flowmotion to go through the woods before emerging next to them.


    "Cannon��" When Theo was about to hit the dinosaur, he sensed two more presencesing from behind.


    Theo clicked his tongue and ducked down, finding two long necks that almost bit his shoulders.


    After that, Theo waved his spear from the side, knocking them by hitting their leg.


    The dinosaur seemed to have some pride as they quickly roared and leaped back to the ground.


    At the same time, the two opened their mouths. On the left side, green-colored light filled his mouth. On the right dinosaur, Theo found blue light.


    Theo instinctively used his Blink to avoid it again.


    Without any obstacle, the two released a roar to their own friend.


    The green light turned into a small horizontal tornado, while the blue light was water that gradually froze upon getting exposed to the air.


    The dinosaur that fought his clone covered his body with lightning and hit both of their attacks with his tail, repelling them off.


    "Roar!" It also sent a threat to them as if asking them to stay away.


    "Well��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "A dinosaur that can use elements. Great."


    Theo sighed, knowing the battle would be harder from this point on. However, there was one thing that made him happy.


    "Magic Bullet."


    I wenty Magic Bullets flew past the trees and hit the dinosaur on the right.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded, and the force blew the dinosaur away, hitting the other one.


    "Kroak!"


    "Kroak!"


    The dinosaur screamed in confusion. The left one med the right dinosaur for not having a distance, while the right one pointed at Theo, who was the culprit.


    "Yeah. This is it�� I love my Magic Bullets. It''s literally my main offensive ability." Theo smiled, "I won''t be hindered by firepower anymore like when I hunted those ants."


    Theo hurriedly charged toward the fallen dinosaurs before his clone noticed some movements from the one before him.


    The dinosaur turned his head to the left while opening his mouth.


    It turned out the dinosaur wanted to help its friend by stopping Theo.


    Clone Theo quickly pulled his spear back as the dinosaur became closer to him. After that, Theo raised his foot and hit the dinosaur''s bottom jaw with his knee, closing the mouth.


    "!!!" The dinosaur was speechless and surprised at the same time, ring at Theo, who interrupted him.


    "You don''t like it?" Theo smiled and summoned Magic Bullets.


    This time, he showed the dinosaur he could hurt his friends too.


    The dinosaur gritted his teeth and waved his tail, smacking all the Magic Bullets that were targeting his friends.


    "Wow." Theo was indeed surprised to see that level of intelligence from the dinosaur, but he couldn''t stop.


    The real Theo had arrived before the dinosaur and struck them with his spear.


    The dinosaur seemed to have extraordinary skin because it managed to repel his spear with its hands, not ws.


    The spear was hit from the side and missed its target.


    After that, the dinosaur leaped to him and tried to beat his neck.


    Theo sneakily moved his other hand and struck the dinosaur''s body with his Cannon st.


    The Cannon st dispersed andunched the dinosaur away with a few wounds on its body due to the energy ripping the skin apart.


    The other dinosaur didn''t take this attack kindly and moved to the side, trying to bite Theo''s leg.


    Theo used his Blink to appear on top of the dinosaur, thrusting his spear.


    Surprisingly, the dinosaur found him again, and ice spikes emerged from his skin, covering his back.


    Theo''s strike ended up hitting those spikes, and its power was distributed evenly.


    After that, the ice dinosaur whacked his tail like that of a whip, hitting Theo from the right.


    Thetter managed to stop it with his shield, but the force pushed him several feet back.


    Theonded on the ground perfectly, but the two dinosaurs also had regrouped and charged at him together.

 Chapter 502 – New Way To Kill

    <h4>Chapter 502 - New Way To Kill</h4>


    Suddenly, three tombstones emerged from the ground and released the energy that formed a shield in front of Theo.


    Theo slightly moved his shield to the right, blocking the sharp teeth from the other dinosaurs. At the same time, he waved his spear downwards and smacked the dinosaur on the head.


    Unfortunately, the one that received the smack was the ice dinosaur. That kind of attack could only stop him for a few seconds.


    Knowing he would be attacked as soon as he pushed through, the three tombstones vanished into thin air.


    The dinosaur, who was pushing it with his head, suddenly slipped to the front.


    Theo covered his foot with Cannon st and kicked his lower jaw.


    The dinosaur flew into the air while maintaining enough consciousness and reflex to hit Theo with his tail.


    "��" Theo raised his hand to block it and was jolted by the pain. This made Theo lose focus for a second, and the other dinosaur spun his body to get around his shield and smacked him on his waist.


    Luckily, Theo managed to summon the shield from his Ring of Honor at thest minute and blocked the attack.


    He then spun his body and kicked the dinosaur on the chest before thrusting his spear to the one in the air.


    The dinosaur opened its mouth and bit the spear. Even when Theo pushed his spear, it refused to move.


    Not wanting to waste this chance, Theo kicked his spear''s butt, giving an additional force for a single push.


    The dinosaur''s bite loosened for a split second as the spear entered his mouth deeper and pierced the flesh inside.


    "!!!" The dinosaur opened its mouth in shock. He tried to endure the pain, but Theo kicked it once more time until it truly pierced through his skin.


    "Kreak!" The other dinosaur screamed in sadness and attacked Theo out of anger.


    Theo stepped forward, touched the dinosaur, and used Blink to avoid the attack. At the same time, he shot twenty Magic Bullets at point nk range, killing the first dinosaur.


    After noticing their friends had died, the dinosaurs became angry. The ice dinosaur covered his entire body with ice spikes, preventing any form of damage from injuring his body. Those ice could be his weapon as well.


    On the other hand, Clone Theo found the dinosaur releasing yellow lightning from his body.


    "Want to electrocute me?" Clone Theo frowned and took a step back, trying to avoid the lightning.


    However, the lightning dinosaur turned around and ran toward Theo.


    "Blink." Clone Theo obviously stopped him in time and went between him and Theo. He stomped the ground with his Cannon st and created a small crater around them.


    Bam.


    As soon as they both lost their foothold, Clone Theo used his Telekinesis tounch the dinosaur instead of himself.


    This was the technique he learned after Ava left him. Instead of charging toward the enemy, he thought about reversing the process.


    The moment the dinosaur was one step away from him, Theo thrust his spear with all his might.


    The dinosaur obviously didn''t expect something invisible to push him to Clone Theo, especially in this situation. He simply couldn''t react.


    The only thing he could do was to protect himself by using his hands. However, Clone Theo moved one step further and kicked the dinosaur on the stomach.


    "Krek!" The dinosaur opened its mouth and spat blood. His hands also opened again, allowing Theo to pierce through his body.


    "This is the end." Clone Theo took a deep breath and looked around, making sure no other threat was present.


    On the other hand, Theo had difficulty defeating the ice dinosaur, considering the ice distributed his power evenly.


    "I can''t break through its defense. I need something better��" Theo thought for a moment and came to a realization.


    Suddenly, Theo smiled and shot multiple Magic Bullets.


    The dinosaur leaped left and right to avoid it before jumping forward to close the distance. He opened his mouth, trying to rip Theo''s arm.


    But Theo had another idea.


    His clone suddenly appeared next to him and turned into a fish.


    Unable to breathe, the fish Theo was moving around. The real Theo caught the fish and threw it to the dinosaur''s mouth, letting him eat the fish.


    As soon as his clone entered his mouth, he covered his own body with Cannon st and hit the back of his mouth, releasing all that energy.


    Boom.


    "!!!" The ice dinosaur widened his eyes in shock as his body went numb. His organs were destroyed and his blood flowed outside from all the pressure.


    After that, the dinosaur dropped to the ground and died.


    [Killed a Velociraptor.]


    [EXP+40,600]


    "Damn." Theo took a step back and made a weird smile. "I can do that?"


    Theo didn''t know what expression he should make. He didn''t understand his own feelings.


    Getting eaten was certainly something he never experienced, let alone using his own life to kill the enemy.


    "Ugh��" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and recalled what his clone saw.


    The moment he entered the mouth, his vision soon turned dark. He barely felt everything around him because of the shaking, but he just released everything and hit something with all his power.


    The n turned out to be sessful, meaning Theo found another way to kill his enemy.


    "Killing from the inside��" Theo muttered. "I can''t do it to humans since I don''t think I will survive if I turn myself into sashimi�� But I think I can do this to monsters, especially the big one who has either speed or defense. They''re hard to kill, so this is a good strategy.


    "Still��" Theo crossed his arms as his body was shaken. "The feeling of getting eaten�� It''s not a pleasant one."


    Theo took his time to calm down while turning the three dinosaurs into cards.


    After that, Theo continued his journey in the Dinosaur Mountain Range, killing hundreds if not thousands of dinosaurs to reach his goal.

 Chapter 503 – Unexpected Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 503 - Unexpected Encounter</h4>


    Two weekster.


    Theo was standing next to the river.


    He had been camping in this area for the past two weeks. Not only did the river cross three areas, but it also provided some sort of security, considering no dinosaurs came to the river.


    They all went to drink at the other end, which was theke.


    Hence, Theo managed to stay in this cefortably.


    Of course, he hunted the dinosaurs most of the time. In short of two weeks, Theo had killed almost a thousand dinosaurs in total.


    He only needed seven more levels to reach his target, making Theo fired up. However, he would never expect that his peaceful situation would be broken in an instant.


    When the sun was about to set, Theo had put down all his luggage next to the river and nned to wash his body. He put down his mask and took out a few necessities.


    When he was about to enter the river, Theo saw another figure emerging from the forest at a fast speed.


    He had purple hair resting on his shoulders. His body was muscr and his arms contained several sword wounds. But the one that shocked Theo the most was his face.


    The moment he turned around, he found his face familiar. His deep purple eyes reminded him of Laust.


    As soon as their eyes intertwined, the man recognized his face. "Theodore Griffith��"


    After getting involved with Laust for a long time, Theo had recognized all the Lange Family members. And the one before him was none other than the first son of the Lange Family, Ben Lange.


    ''Again?!'' Theo cursed his luck for having another encounter in the river like this. However, unlike the previous time, Theo didn''t have Ava that could warn him from all this.


    He, in fact, had realized Ava had helped him more than he thought.


    Ava had been notifying him of any nearby humans, allowing him to avoid all of them most of the time. She also fought together with him and gave the EXP to him. Last but not least, he had a friend to talk with, making the journey not boring.


    Now that Ava had left him, he had been on edge this whole time.


    The moment he recognized that face, Theo used his Blink to reach his bag and ran away.


    Ben Lange widened his eyes and gasped. He nced to the forest behind him for a moment and turned around, chasing after Theo.


    "What is this?" Theo gritted his teeth, cursing his bad luck. "Why did I meet him out of all the people?"


    Theo remembered the information about Ben Lange. It was said he was close to the Supreme Rank, and people thought of him as the person who would make the Lange Family rise.


    His fame managed to fight Laust''s fame evenly.


    That was why Theo knew Ben Lange wasn''t someone he could fight at this time.


    "I need to escape." Theo took a deep breath and used his Telekinesis to fly away.


    Looking at the increase of Theo''s speed, Ben''s shoes began to glow. His speed became faster as Ben continued chasing Theo.


    "Wait!" Ben Lange shouted. "I want to talk to you!"


    Theo nced back and saw Ben Lange keeping up with his speed, making his heart beat rapidly.


    There was no way Theo would believe Ben Lange wanted to talk to him instead of killing him, considering the damage he had done to the Lange Family.


    Hence, Theo maintained his speed without even ncing at him.


    Because Ava wasn''t with him, Theo didn''t know any ce to hide from Ben Lange.


    ''Where should I go?'' Theo gritted his teeth and looked around. ''Fighting him is impossible. The moment I stop, he will certainly kill me. I shouldn''t talk to him either��''


    Ben Lange furrowed his eyebrows. Even then, Ben certainly wanted to talk to Theo, so he shouted once more. "Oi, Theodore Griffith. Stop for a moment! I just want to talk to you!"


    Theo summoned his clone and sent him back.


    "Magic Bullets."


    Both of them used their Magic Bullets and released them upon Ben.


    "Tsk." Ben clicked his tongue and pulled his sword.


    The wind gathered around his sword as he waved his sword downward, releasing all the wind in a fan-shaped area.


    The wind shed with the Magic Bullets and destroyed them upon impact.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded and dispersed all the wind.


    Clone Theo made his way between them in order to stop Ben Lange.


    Even Ben stopped for a second, knowing Theo could control his clone as if it was his own body.


    "If you really want to talk, you can talk to me," said Clone Theo, buying time for the real Theo to escape.


    Ben didn''t know whether Theo could hear it or not, but he had a few things to say to Theo.


    "First of all, I believe you can hear me through your clone��" Ben took a deep breath and hurriedly said his pieces, dispelling the confusion as soon as possible. "I want to thank you for changing Laust for the better. He has been a miserable child this whole time because of our family situation. Seeing him change and have a clear goal in his mind makes me very happy.


    "That''s why I want to thank you." Ben looked Theo in the eyes with a solemn face, showing he wasn''t lying.


    Clone Theo squinted his eyes, not knowing whether this was true or not. "I didn''t help him."


    "Yeah. I know about your conflict, and I''m d that it has been resolved. However, the Lange Family�� No! My father has been investigating you this whole time.


    "After getting your identity, he seems to be nning to kill you after your birthday. That''s why I want to ask you to leave Thernd before your birthday because he may kill you! He also has your address right now, biding his time in order to capture you!"


    Theo raised his eyebrows, surprised by the revtion. He never met Ben this whole time, but Ben''s feelings for his brother seemed to be genuine.


    However, that thought immediately shattered into pieces the moment he heard another voiceing from behind.


    "Young Master Ben! Please wait for us!"


    Five people ran toward Ben before recognizing Theo.


    "Theodore Griffith!"


    "The number one in the wanted list!"


    "Young Master Ben is going to kill him!"


    Hearing those words was enough for Theo toe to a conclusion.


    He instantly released his killing intent and covered his hands with Cannon st, ring at Ben.


    "As expected, you''re going to buy time with all those bullsh*ts!" Theo shouted in anger.

 Chapter 504 – Escaping

    <h4>Chapter 504 - Escaping</h4>


    "As expected, you''re going to buy time with all those bullsh*ts!" Theo shouted in anger.


    "!!!" Ben''s expression turned dark when he realized his subordinates had ruined this meeting. However, he had said the most important things, which were the thank you and the warning.


    Knowing he couldn''t convince Theo in this situation, he decided to let Theo escape bymanding his group. "We can''t kill him unless you want to destroy the Lange Family. Capture him!"


    Theo was surprised by Ben''s order. He never thought Ben would hide the fact he was a mere clone.


    It seemed Ben indeed wanted to thank him and warn him.


    His subordinates hurriedly surrounded Theo. Magic Power started fluctuating in the area as they were prepared to use their skills to subdue Theo.


    To buy enough time, Theo decided to y along with Ben Lange and said, "Since you think you can capture me, try it!"


    Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and shot two people on his right.


    The two jumped up and avoided it while the other three moved forward.


    He soon realized that Ben''s group consisted of people who almost reached the Supreme Rank. Their speed was far faster than he originally thought but slower than themander he met back in Sinx Forest.


    Theo turned around and hit the guy behind him with his Cannon st, releasing its power.


    The enemy was better than he thought because he had enough control to disperse the Cannon st without getting affected.


    After that, his hand slipped past Theo''s defense and grabbed his wrist.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he was lifted into the air.


    The enemy threw him to the side.


    "Telekinesis." Theo stopped himself in the air andnded safely, but thest two people appeared before him, striking him on the stomach.


    Bam.


    The punches were powerful enough to generate a shock wave as Theo flew into the air, rolled a few times on the ground, and stopped.


    He coughed a few times while ring at them.


    The people that he attacked earlier finally caught up and prepared to restrain him.


    Theo struggled once more by mming his hand to the ground. His Telekinesis helped him create a crater beneath his body.


    The moment his enemies lost their bnce, Theo turned around and extended his hair to their throats.


    They avoided it again, but Theo used his Blink to appear behind them, with his hands carrying the momentum.


    In other words, both hands kept moving toward their necks.


    As one would expect from experts close to Supreme Rank, they halted their movement and poured their Magic Power into the back of their necks.


    When Theo''s fingers touched their necks, the Magic Power collided, stopping it for a second.


    They took that chance to turn around and send a counterattack by hitting Theo''s hands.


    Unfortunately, they were not lucky enough because Theo had disappeared, showing he was just a mere clone.


    "What?!" All of them dropped their jaws to the ground, including Ben.


    They soon turned to Ben, who encountered Theo first, but they soon found Ben shouting in anger.


    "He was only a clone?!" Ben clenched his fists. "Did he try to mess with me?!"


    None of them could answer since Ben acted like he also had fallen for that trick.


    Little did they know, the real Theo was already far away and had transformed into an eagle.


    "Young Master��" One of them stepped forward, looking at Ben with a serious expression.


    "What?!"


    His anger shook his body as thetter quickly asked, "Should we pursue him?"


    "Haven''t you heard about his clone being able to move far away from his body? He''s obviously not here. His clone just tried to mess me up!" Ben shouted in frustration.


    "Still, we should investigate this Dinosaur Mountain Range and the nearby area."


    "Fine!" Ben mmed his fist to the tree next to him. "I''m going to kill that bastard if I find him."


    They all couldn''t find anything wrong with Ben''s anger, thinking Ben''s reaction was genuine. The reason they had been observing his expression this whole time was due to suspicion.


    Endo Lange had asked them to monitor Ben''s actions because he suspected Ben was helping Theo secretly.


    And Theo also found this connection and chose to retreat instead of getting captured. Even though he could know how they operated and saw Endo Lange for the first time and annoyed him by showing he was only a clone.


    He was afraid Endo Lange would take a drastic measure and kill him without caring about the Griffith Family anymore.


    After all, there wasn''t a single branch of the Griffith Family standing in this country.


    He could just send an assassin and think the Griffith Family couldn''t find the trace.


    After considering a few pros and cons, Theo ultimately chose to give up this notion, knowing his time had yet toe.


    He needed to wait until he got strong enough tounch a counterattack.


    Although Ben didn''t understand Theo''s thoughts, he knew Theo wouldn''t do something meaningless. Even in thepetition, his actions always had a reason.


    So, Ben chose to trust him and yed his part. This was also the way he thanked Theo.


    While they were confused, Theo kept flying away.


    Looking back, Theo muttered inwardly, ''Seeing Ben Lange had a contradictory action with his subordinates might mean they were not on the same side. The Lange Family wants to kill me, but I know it''s Endo Lange.


    ''If that''s the case�� then, Ben Lange''s words were genuine? Does it mean the Lange Family has surrounded my home? If that''s the case, I should move away, and I don''t think Ava can stay in that house any longer.


    ''If the Lange Family found Ava, they might capture her�� In the worst case, her mother would lead many monsters to tten Thernd. That''s something I don''t want to see��''


    Theo paused for a moment. "Still, this situation sucks. Now I don''t have anywhere to go and level up. Leaving this area means I need at least a week or two to go back and forth of this area just for seven levels�� What should I do?"


    Theo thought while flying�� It took him an hour before realizing there was one option left, and he was flying straight to that ce.

 Chapter 505 – Solution

    <h4>Chapter 505 - Solution</h4>


    A few hourster.


    The moon had risen to the top of their heads, and Theo finally reached his destination with an exhausted face.


    He panted a few times and dropped to his knees, sweating profusely.


    In the middle of the journey, he had returned to normal, stopped using Telekinesis and continued the journey on foot by relying on his stamina. This allowed him to reach this ce without exhausting all his Magic Power.


    Even so, it drained his stamina, considering he rushed while carrying a big bag on his back.


    He currently stepped on an orange-colored rock. Behind him was a huge in without trees or monsters. However, when he looked to the front, he found the canyon, stretching from one corner to another.


    The canyon had deep, narrow valleys with steep sides spreading all over the ces. He also found several monsters sleeping, fighting and doing other things on top of the cliffs like him.


    Luckily, they were minding their own business, and no one had yet to find him.


    Theo simply wanted to rest after all this and nned to search for that ce, but he was soon greeted by a male''s voice.


    "Human, I don''t think this ce is for you to visit."


    He instinctively turned around and saw a ck-colored fox standing in front of him.


    "Huh?!" His heart skipped a beat as Theo grabbed his spear, pointing it at him. Theo shouted inwardly, ''Where did hee from? Was I too tired to even notice him?''


    "You don''t need to raise your guard in front of me." The fox shook his head. "You are the guest of our queen�� Though, I do think you are unqualified to go beyond this cliff."


    "!!!" Theo instantly recognized the fox''s identity the moment he mentioned his queen. "You��"


    "Yes. I am the guide the queen asked to stand by." The fox nodded. "Not many people know my presence, so unless you are a Supreme Rank Expert, you won''t realize I''m standing behind you. Still, I need to ask�� Why did youe here?"


    Theo looked at this one foot high and three feet long fox while gulping down. He took a deep breath to calm his heart down and exined, "I am a few levels short, and my enemies ambushed me in the ce a few hours from here. I don''t think I can continue leveling up there��"


    "So, you choose this ce to level up?" The ck fox squinted his eyes. "I can only ask you to leave. This ce is too much for you."


    "But��"


    The fox stopped him by saying, "I know you''re desperate, but your strength is not enough to challenge this ce. I can let you stay in my ce for tonight, but I want you to leave tomorrow ande back after you reach the requirement."


    "That''s the problem. I may die in that ce!" Theo exined in frustration.


    The ck fox shook his head. "You need to get stronger to even fight one bastard residing in this ce."


    Theo gritted his teeth, knowing the creatures in this ce were at least level 400 monsters.


    "I can fight them if it''s only one on one!" said Theo while raising his spear. "My attack managed to injure the Ground Dragon."


    The ck fox closed his eyes as if contemting Theo''s condition. "You sure you want to die here?"


    "No. I''m going to get stronger here." Theo shook his head. "It''s better than getting chased by five people who want to kill me. If I am here��"


    The fox already understood his intention. "I will need to protect you, huh."


    Theo didn''t answer him, but this was his n. Since the guide needed to stand by until he reached the requirement, Ben and his group wouldn''t reach this area.


    The Dinosaur Mountain Range was indeed a huge area, but he had made a bit ofmotion in the ce he crossed. He was afraid Ben''s group managed to track him down by using thosemotions.


    That was why he made this hard and foolish decision.


    The ck fox was wondering what he should do in this situation. He checked Theo''s expression, realizing Theo was serious.


    He also realized the only way to protect Theo was for him to hunt inside the canyon. Theo had no right to ask his help outside this ce.


    "You are foolish, human."


    "I know." Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "You are also bold and crazy." The fox looked Theo in the eyes. "Even then, I still need to ask you to leave this ce and go back to those sharp teeth bastards area."


    The area he mentioned was none other than the Dinosaur Mountain Range.


    Theo gritted his teeth, realizing his effort was futile.


    However, the fox continued, "This canyon has another name�� We call this ce the Queen''s Pce. Obviously, we won''t like to have an ''outsider'' like you ughtering others here.


    "Though, I can guide you to the other end of this canyon tomorrow, allowing you to exit this ce in the opposite direction. Even if your pursuers came, they wouldn''t have enough time to go around this area. They won''t be able to replicate what you do either since they will only find blood if they dare to do so."


    Theo opened his mouth in surprise, recalling his information regarding the area on the other end.


    Although this meant he had no time to kill the T-Rex for the mission, he should be able to reach his target within a week if he stayed there.


    After all, the enemies inside that ce were close to level 400.


    Going around this ce alone would at least take three days, let alone when they needed to spread around to search for his clue.


    They needed more than seven days to find him.


    This was far better than fighting in this ce.


    "I understand��" Theo nodded his head. "Thank you."


    "No need to thank me. I am just doing my job." The fox shook his head. "Follow me. I will give you a ce to sleep since you will need a whole day to cross this ce."


    Theo nodded with a solemn face.

 Chapter 506 – Fox Nest

    <h4>Chapter 506 - Fox Nest</h4>


    Theo followed the fox while carefully observing his surroundings. Although he had a guarantee from the queen, he didn''t know what the fox would do.


    To his surprise, the fox jumped off the cliff.


    He hesitated for a second and chose to do the same thing. He softened thending with his Telekinesis and looked around, finding a few monsters walking around the area.


    However, the fox released ck-colored smoke from his body, wrapping them.


    Even though the smoke was sparsely dispersed and Theo could still see the outside without a problem, they managed to pass the area without getting spotted.


    The fox continued running for a few minutes before stopping in front of a hill with a gentle slope.


    He raised his head, staring at a big hole in the middle of the hill.


    "That''s the ce," said the fox while running toward the hole.


    Theo followed him and entered the ck cave.


    When he was about to use his normal night vision to see in this darkness, he noticed lighting from the inside.


    The light was strong enough to brighten the surroundings, allowing him to see straws and dried branches.


    "��" Theo fell silent, wondering if this was alright. He followed a monster he never knew, making him vulnerable.


    Still, the fox was strong enough to approach him without getting noticed. If the fox decided to kill him, he could only realize after getting his neck bitten.


    ''Well, I would have died if the opposite party wasn''t someone the queen sent. I guess I will be fine for tonight.'' Theo thought while assessing his situation.


    It turned out the cave inside the cliff was bigger than he thought.


    Its shape looked like a block, but the size was twice his bedroom. There was a gap on top of them, allowing the moonlight to brighten the cave. He thought this should be enough, considering the fox was small.


    To his surprise, three smaller ck foxes suddenly ran out of the room to greet the one beside him. But they soon halted their steps when they saw Theoing with him.


    "!!!" The trio opened their mouths in surprise as their bodies shook, wondering what they needed to do.


    "Kr��" The foxes red at Theo while raising their bodies, preparing to pounce him.


    The ck fox obviously understood their concerns and replied, "Krr��"


    The three foxes stopped and looked at him before turning around and running away.


    "��" Theo was stunned, looking at the three smaller foxes. "Your children?"


    "My joy." The fox made a smug smile and continued walking, "Come in."


    Theo realized the fox was genuine. He dared to bring him into his own house to meet his children, who were weaker than Theo.


    This meant Theo could do anything to his children, making his children hostages. At the same time, this also gained Theo''s trust because he knew the fox trusted him enough to show all this.


    "Thank you��" Theo smiled.


    "No need to thank me. You''re the human the queen trusted; I know you won''t do anything." He shook his head while ncing over his right hand as if noticing the symbol on his palm.


    Theo remained silent and followed him until they reached the room.


    He soon noticed another ck foxing out. Unlike the smaller ones, this ck fox raised her head high while looking at the two.


    "Krrr!" The fox beside Theo quickly exined their situation, and she soon lowered her head as if understanding the situation.


    She returned inside to call the small foxes while the ck fox next to him pointed at the wall on their right. "Follow me."


    Theo nodded and looked around, finding the ce filled with straws as the floor. It seemed to be insted by dirt and leaves, trapping the heat inside.


    The fox suddenly stopped and sat while asking Theo to do the same.


    "The queen gave me a name in the past. You can call me Asran�� I am a Shadow Fox. They are my wife and kids. I am here to protect this region where the queen resides."


    "I am Theodore Griffith. You can call me Theo." Theo introduced himself with a solemn face.


    "I don''t think I need it, but I guess that''s fine." Asran nodded. "You will sleep here, or if it''s notfortable for you, you can go a bit outside to avoid all these sharp objects."


    "It''s fine. I have a thin mattress with me, so I don''t think I will have a problem here."


    "Okay." Asran then turned around, seeing the three small foxesing to Theo with great curiosity.


    They approached Theo with bodies leaning to the back, prepared to run away if something went wrong.


    Theo didn''t know why but he extended his hand to them without a thought.


    The foxes jumped back and looked at Theo in fear. Their bodies were shaking, but they soon realized Theo didn''t do anything.


    Seeing their father staying next to him, the three gradually approached Theo''s hand and began sniffing around.


    "They are my son and daughters. They don''t have names though, and I appreciate it if you don''t name them." Asran introduced them and warned Theo.


    "I understand." Theo nodded. Although he didn''t understand the naming rule, he didn''t pry about this information since it would be inappropriate, considering the other party was sheltering him inside his house.


    Surprisingly, after a while, the foxes started licking his hands, getting a bit more familiar with Theo.


    Seeing their reactions, Asran decided to turn around and leave. "I am going to my wife."


    "!!!" The three hesitated again when their father left them alone with Theo.


    They didn''t know their father was trying to exin everything to his wife, including Theo''s rtionship with Avarice.


    When he returned to check Theo, he saw Theo sitting in a lotus pose, recovering his Magic Power. Meanwhile, his son was sleeping on top of Theo''s head while his daughters almost fell asleep on hisps.


    "��" Asran was dumbfounded when he found this scene and couldn''t help but say, "What''s happening here?"


    His children, who were suspicious of Theo, suddenly became thisfortable in the span of minutes.

 Chapter 507 – Exploring The New Area

    <h4>Chapter 507 - Exploring The New Area</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo hurriedly packed up all his belongings because he needed to leave as soon as possible.


    Surprisingly, the three foxes looked very sad when they knew Theo was going to leave. It might be due to him getting used to having Ava around him that the foxes felt a bit safer near him, but Theo ended up leaving them.


    Even Asran was curious why his children behaved that way.


    After that, Theo and Asran made their way across the canyon. Surprisingly, Asran seemed to know the path where no monster walked around, allowing them to get past them without anyone noticing.


    Still, Theo managed to see various monsters from afar.


    There was a monster that sshed the water of a small river and created a fifty feet long trail without any water in a single attack. There was another one that caused tremor on the ground with just a single stomp. And there was even a creature that caused andslide.


    Although they didn''t ept outsiders fighting them, infighting was allowed, hence the situation.


    Theo was surprised because all those monsters were Supreme Rank Experts.


    In fact, half of the poption in this ce was a Supreme Rank Expert. They might not have the ability to think or talk like Rare ss or even General ss Monster, but they certainly had the ability to cause so much destruction.


    While walking, Asran reminded him of one thing. "If you kill the creatures around you, please don''t kill the unrted ones or those who can''t give you benefits. We never ban fighting or killing each other, but we hope that no one kills the younglings. After all, there will be a time when they grow up and rece those who have died.


    "If not, there may be a time in the future where our poption is significantly decreased. I''m sure that''s not something you want either." Asran nced at Theo.


    Theo closed his eyes and understood what he was talking about. "I have no interest in them. I have spared hundreds of ants that just hatched on my way here."


    "That''s good." Asran felt relieved.


    The two continued walking for another few hours until Theo finally reached the other end of the canyon.


    Standing on top of the edge of the cliff, Theo looked upon the vast grasnd that stretched to the horizon.


    "This ce may be more dangerous to you, but it can shelter you from your pursuers. And you won''t need to care about the monsters from this ce." Asran pointed to the bottom. "No monsters wille around this canyon, so you can set up your camp near this canyon for the night. Just make sure you don''t climb the cliff."


    "I understand. Thank you for everything." Theo nodded with a serious expression, finding several monsters roaming around the grasnd.


    "I will be waiting for you here as usual, but since I know you are not in danger by staying here, I won''t be here the entire time like yesterday. I will check on you every night��"


    "Okay." Theo smiled and waved his hand to him. "See youter."


    Before waiting for Asran''s reply, Theo jumped off the cliff and used his Telekinesis tond on the ground. He put down his luggage and picked only a few things that would help him.


    There was one reason he decided to let go of his heavy baggage. The monsters around this ce might not live in a pack, but they didn''t live that far from each other. If he couldn''t kill the monster quick enough, he surely would find another monstering at him.


    Now that he had lost the majority of the weight, Theo stretched his body and ran toward the grasnd with his clone.


    Little did he know, he still underestimated the monsters in this area.


    Theo found his first enemy in the Sumra Grass in.


    Name: Ringo


    Level: 390-400


    A high-speed beast with extraordinary mobility.


    Looking at this four-legged monster, Theo''s expression became grim. The monster was three feet tall and ten feet long. The body had ck skin coupled but covered with thorns.


    The tail was one foot long, but the tip seemed to be bulging. Coupled with the thorns that covered his body, the tail looked like a mace that was ready to rip his body apart.


    The monster stood tall like that of a tiger but didn''t seem to pull back when it was about to charge at him.


    He simply started running, increasing his speed from zero to his max limit in less than a second. And before Theo realized it, the monster was already before him.


    Theo clicked his tongue and saw its foot turning green, nning to stomp him.


    "Blink." Theo avoided it with his Blink, but the ringo simply turned around and dispelled the energy on his foot, charging at Theo.


    Clone Theo made his way between them and thrust his spear.


    As if knowing Clone Theo''s identity, the ringo halted its step.


    "What is this change of pace?" Clone Theo muttered. "This beast feels like he is manipting the momentum."


    He was a bit frustrated because his spear couldn''t reach the beast, so he ran forward with his spear in the front.


    The ringo hurriedly moved to the side and disappeared.


    Theo, who had turned around and watched the whole thing, waved his spear to the right, where the monster suddenly reappeared. "Cannon st."


    The ringo avoided it by running away from this attack, taking advantage of its speed to avoid Theo''s attacks.


    However, Clone Theo used his Blink to appear before the ringo''s eyes while waving the spear, carried by earlier momentum.


    Like the description, the ringo made another maneuver where he stumbled on the ground and slid on the grass. He lowered his head and went past Clone Theo.


    "��" Theo and his clone gritted their teeth, realizing the Ringo was different from any monsters he had fought until now.


    Meanwhile, the ck fox was still watching Theo from the top of the cliff.


    He muttered, "This is the path you have chosen�� The inhabitants of this grasnd are second only to those in this canyon�� I had told you to continue hunting in those sharp teeth bastards area, but you rejected it�� Whether you can survive or not, I will be waiting for your return."

 Chapter 508 – Difficulty

    <h4>Chapter 508 - Difficulty</h4>


    Theo recognized the monster''s mobility to be beyond what he had encountered so far. Its ever-changing pace was troublesome even for him.


    "This�� its level is only ten to twenty more than the monsters in Dinosaur Mountain Range, but they seem to be far stronger than them�� The dinosaurs couldn''t even escape my attack." Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and fired at the ringo.


    All forty Magic Bullets flew toward the ringo, surrounding him from all directions.


    The ringo simply moved forward to avoid all of them. Unfortunately for him, the Magic Bullets had tracking on them. They chased after the ringo automatically, not allowing him to escape.


    The monster simply stared at the bullets in silence while running away. He took a few turns to the left and right but soon noticed the bullets kept following him.


    Luckily, his speed seemed to be quicker than theirs, and the distance between them kept growing. If not, the Magic Bullets might hit him sooner orter.


    With the Magic Bullets in his tail, the ringo started going around the grasnd while trying to shake the Magic Bullets off.


    However, Theo and his clone came to his front, trying to stop him.


    The ringo already saw their figures from afar and turned sideways.


    Theo obviously didn''t let him and kept following his movement in order to stop him. His clone even stomped the ground with his Cannon st, forming a crater that made the ringo lose its bnce.


    To his surprise, the ringo kept running in the air, not affected by the crater at all.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes. "Does the monster step on the air as if running on the ground?"


    The ringo couldn''t understand Theo''s words and kept moving forward without getting bothered by him. Then, he rushed toward Theo as though he had a n.


    Theo thought this was his chance and raised his spear, nning to strike him. But he needed to abandon that n when Clone Theo noticed moving grasses not far from them.


    Clone Theo hurriedly made his way between them and saw another monster approaching them.


    The monster was a small white rat that seemed to be releasing white light from its body. The rat was small, so the white light didn''t shine that brightly with the grass as its cover.


    When Clone Theo was standing in front of the rat, the white light shifted from the monster''s body to the ground.


    Seeing it keep moving toward him, Theo used his Telekinesis to crush this light by pressuring it from above.


    But the light continued as if nothing happened, forcing Theo to move away.


    The real Theo also knew the iing light and leaped backward.


    To his surprise, the monster could coordinate using this method. As soon as Theo moved away, the ringo hurriedly charged toward Theo and hit him with his two feet.


    Theo raised his spear and blocked it, but the force still knocked him to the ground.


    "Kh." Gritting his teeth, Theo hurriedly rose but soon saw the iing Magic Bullets chasing the ringo. He had no choice other than toy down again until all the bullets passed him. "What?"


    Theo simply couldn''t believe what had happened.


    He found three ridiculous facts from his first two monsters.


    The ringo could utilize Theo''s own attack to hit him. It was unthinkable for other monsters. On top of that, the ringo started working together with the rat, allowing him to make a coordinated attack.


    Normally, if Theo fought against multiple monsters, unless they were from the same species, the monsters attacked him as they saw fit, not caring about the other monsters.


    However, the ringo before him certainly cared about it, and the mouse knew he would use that attack.


    "What is this?" Theo muttered in a low voice. "They can work together now?"


    He got his answer in the form of action. The mouse that aimed at Clone Theo leaped into the air and shone brightly, illuminating the field.


    Theo and his clone had no choice other than to use their Awareness while closing their eyes. However, the ringo continued without care, ramming his body to Theo.


    Luckily, Theo managed to use his Blink in time and avoided the ringo''s charge, but it was enough to tell him that the monsters could help each other.


    "Magic Augmentation." Theo nned to overpower the monster in order to defeat one of them, so he poured the Magic Power into his Telekinesis, resulting in a stronger push.


    And he used it tounch the mouse into the air, allowing Clone Theo to kill.


    Clone Theo moved forward and thrust his spear, but the mouse shone again, blinding the clone''s eyes.


    Even Theo couldn''t see, resulting in both of them closing their eyes instinctively.


    The mouse ended up turning his body and using Theo''s spear as a foothold to kick him in the face. Theo also faced an attack from the ringo by simply looping around him, letting the Magic Bullets hit him.


    Boom.


    Everything happened in an instant. Clone Theo was blown away and rolled a few times on the ground. While it was true he didn''t have any injury on his face due to him blocking the kick at thest minute, his spear was still knocked away.


    On the other hand, the real Theo managed to stop all the iing Magic Bullets.


    The ringo then turned around and stomped Clone Theo before he could recover.


    "!!!" Theo gradually opened his eyes as they were still aching due to that bright light. "Ugh. To think my clone would be my weakness at this point��"


    He never expected that the shared senses between him and his clone would be a deadly weapon that might potentially kill him in the future.


    "I guess I should say I''m lucky to find this now." Theo clicked his tongue and looked at the two monsters. "But�� Who would have thought the monsters could match each other''s movement, especially when they are of different species? Even the dinosaurs'' coordination wasn''t this good��"


    The ringo and the mouse started moving in his direction as soon as they eliminated Theo''s clone.

 Chapter 509 – Shape

    <h4>Chapter 509 - Shape</h4>


    "Seriously?" Theo couldn''t help but reconsider his choice to fight here. "Fighting against the dinosaurs was far easier than this��"


    Before they arrived, Theo summoned his clone again and sent him to the mouse.


    With the rat starting to focus on his clone again, Theo released his Magic Bullets and hit the ground.


    Boom.


    The dirt kicked up, creating a smokescreen.


    The ringo had no choice other than to enter it, but Theo never appeared in his vision.


    He knew Theo was inside the smoke, but he couldn''t find his exact location. When he thought about leaving this dangerous area with little to no visibility, a punch hit his jaw,unching him into the air.


    The punch created enough shock wave to blow the smoke away, revealing Theo''s appearance.


    It turned out, Theo tried to lower his center of gravity by lowering his height. The only way to do that was to transform to another form, the only animal he had yet to utilize this whole time, the monkey.


    The monkey had dark brown fur that could hide his body in this situation. His height was less than half of Theo''s original height, but his arms were long enough to match his human hands. This allowed Theo to get past the ringo''s defense and hit him.


    "I have finally used this monkey form," muttered Theo while raising his vision. He didn''t want the ringo to have the chance to recover. Hence, Theo returned to his human form and grabbed the spear he threw into the air earlier.


    After that, he used his Telekinesis tounch it to the ringo, piercing through his body.


    The rat seemed to be angry as it ran past Clone Theo and tried to scratch him.


    Theo smiled and turned into a fish, falling to the ground. With the small body, he avoided the mouse''s ws easily.


    As soon as he touched the ground, he pped his tail andunched him back into the air before turning to a tiger, pouncing at the rat.


    "!!!" The rat turned around and shone brightly.


    Theo clicked his tongue and looked down to avoid blinding his eyes.


    Using that chance, the rat waved his ws. Four pairs of crescent-shaped white energy flew to the air and miraculously halted beneath the ringo, turning into his foothold.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes, not believing what had just happened. "Wasn''t that attack an energy wave or something? It was supposed to graze someone��"


    Despite saying all those things, Theo saw how the rat turned them into a tform that was safe to be stepped on.


    "He could change the form of his own attack? It''s different from using In-Motion, Materialization or External Flow." Theo drew a gasp.


    Before he could observe them, Theo turned around when he saw the clone looking at two iing monsters.


    They were one-eyed humanoid monsters. They had green skin and one white horn on their head. Holding their wooden club that seemed to be a tree trunk, they ran toward Theo.


    Looking at these ten-foot-high monsters made Theo rmed because he soon realized the longer he took to kill them, the more enemies he needed to face.


    Yet, Theo''s mind was still upied with the mouse''s technique. This somehow gave enough information to decipher what happened in the past.


    "Wait a minute��" Theo sucked a cold breath. In his mind, three scenes were reying in his mind.


    The first one was the talk with Ne. Back then, Ne told him about Materialization. If it were a normal Materialization, he wouldn''t continue reying this scene in his mind.


    What Ne showed him turned out to be more sophisticated than he originally thought. Ne released her Magic Power in bulk, allowing her to create an object purely from her Magic Power.


    He might not have enough control over his External Flow back then, but he had advanced this much and almost reached Master Level Control. He certainly had the quality to form it.


    He had been too focused on his Cannon st this whole time to realize this.


    "I can concentrate my Magic Power and form something out of that. Magic Power alone may be invisible, but it can certainly be visible if I gather enough Magic Power in a certain area." Theo gritted his teeth.


    The second image in his mind was his master fighting against the Ghost Turtle that almost killed him and Alea.


    She said she used Materialization to form a small thread that connected the lightning to her spear. This meant he could shape everything from Magic Power as long as he had enough control.


    Theo instinctively raised his hand and pulled his hands closer. With only a few inches between the two hands, Theo used his External Flow to gather a high amount of Magic Power, creating a palm-size blue light ball between two hands.


    And thest image was about Fenrir. He always thought he needed powerful Control over his Magic Bullets to prate the ground. But everything turned out to be simpler than he thought.


    Fenrir covered the Magic Bullets with anotheryer. He shaped the first one to a cone shape, drilling the ground while protecting the Magic Bullets. This allowed him to send the Magic Bullets through the ground.


    Theo remembered what he told him about shapes. He recited it in a low voice. "Don''t ever get fixated again into one form. Instead of using it like the norm, it''s better if I get some understanding of all weapons��"


    After reciting it, he gritted his teeth in excitement. "Because every weapon has its own purpose!"


    "Sword is used to sh and stab while a mace is used to smash. If that''s the case��" Theo took a deep breath as he stared at his concentrated Magic Power. He used his Force Control and Materialization to turn the concentrated Magic Power into a small spear without any detail other than the de and the handle.


    This didn''t take too much of his concentration, and Theo managed to rise from the ground, turning to the first one-eyed monster that almost reached him.


    He sent the small spear to the one-eyed monster.


    Thetter smashed the ground with his club and a wall of dirt emerged from the ground, bing a shield.


    However, Theo already knew the result before the concentrated Magic Power even touched the wall. "And a spear is used to pierce!"


    The concentrated Magic Power pierced through the wall as well as the eye of the monster behind it.


    "Rugagh!"


    The one-eyed monster screamed in pain, bing the symbol of his sess.


    Suddenly, four notifications appeared at the same time as they all came from four different individuals.


    [God of Mischief is pleased with your development.]


    [Too long to realize this simple trick��]


    [Interesting.]


    [Good job.]

 Chapter 510 – Killing

    <h4>Chapter 510 - Killing</h4>


    Theo slightly raised his eyebrows when he saw those four notifications. He recognized all of them.


    The God of Mischief was as formal as ever, so there was no doubt it was him. The one that seemed to contain disappointment must be Fenrir since he always got angry at him for no apparent reason. The one who praised him sincerely was the serpent, while the one interested in him must be the Goddess of Death.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile when he realized they were still watching over him.


    Still, what confused him the most was the period of silence after the Goddess of Death used her Underworld Dominion.


    Unfortunately, Theo had no time to take care of that right now. What he needed to do was to kill the monsters around him with this newfound power.


    With excitement filling his heart, Theo raised his hands and poured a huge amount of Magic Power into the gap of his hands.


    Before the rat or the ringo could do anything, Theo formed another small spear from the Magic Power andunched it toward the other one-eyed monster.


    "Go!" Theo shouted, raising his own morale.


    Seeing his friend couldn''t block it, the one-eyed monster decided to do a different thing. He stomped the ground and formed oneyer of dirt wall, but instead of waiting for it, he chose to jump to the side, actively avoiding Theo''s spear.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo also put something special to his energy spear. Instead of letting the spear go alone, there was a train of Magic Bullets flying right behind the spear.


    Although he couldn''t replicate what Fenrir did with all twenty Magic Bullets, he was able to form one spear to send all those Magic Bullets.


    The moment the spear pierced through the wall, the Magic Bullets slipped past it. It was then the Tracking Ability of the Magic Bullets became active.


    All Magic Bullets suddenly turned to the left and followed the one-eyed monster.


    "!!!" The one-eyed monster opened his eyes wide, never expecting to find all those bullets. At the same time, he couldn''t dodge it because he just leaped to the side. The only thing he could do was to raise his club to protect his eyes.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he clutched his hand and said, "Disperse!"


    The Magic Bullets suddenly went in all directions for a few inches, avoiding the club. After that, the Tracking Ability pulled all the Magic Bullets back and hit the monster''s body in twenty different spots.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    They exploded in session as some of them even prated the one-eyed monster skin.


    "Guarah!" The one-eyed monster screamed in pain, enduring the pain that shook his entire body.


    The blind one-eyed monster heard hisrade''s roar but couldn''t locate him. Meanwhile, the ringo and the rat tried to help them by taking Theo''s attention.


    This was when Clone Theo reappeared with his spear. It turned out Clone Theo had been silent this whole time due to him slipping past all of them to pick up the spear on the ground.


    Now that the spear was in his hand, Clone Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and aimed at the rat.


    "!!!" The rat widened his eyes and waved his ws, turning his own light waves into a small tform that caught all the bullets.


    Little did he know, Clone Theo had poured the Magic Power and shot another energy spear.


    The spear couldn''t be contained by the light tform and continued to fly forward.


    The rat opened his mouth in shock as the spear pierced through his belly.


    Due to his small size, the small spear Theo created was enough to destroy the entire stomach.


    The rat spat a mouthful of blood as his body copsed to the ground.


    [Killed a Light Rat]


    [EXP+40,090]


    Theo couldn''t help but smile and chase after the ringo.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo already ran toward the blind one-eyed monster, nning to finish him off.


    The blind one-eyed monster managed to sense Theo and waved his club sideways.


    Theo leaped into the air and summoned another wave of Magic Bullets, raining the one-eyed monster down.


    Boom.


    "Guaraga!" The one-eyed monster wailed in pain and dropped to his knees. However, he still maintained enough power to make another swing and struck Theo.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to push him down, avoiding the one-eyed monster''s attack. After that, he thrust his spear to the monster''s back using his Cannon st.


    The energy dispersed and shredded the monster''s skin. The blood spurted out of the wounds and pushed the monster''s body to the ground.


    Theo used that chance to leap on top of the monster and sliced its neck.


    The head then fell off to the ground with blood flowing out of its body.


    [Killed a Green Cyclops.]


    [EXP+41,010]


    "Two down." Theo turned to the other cyclops and saw himing over.


    "Good. I don''t need to go all the way to defeat you." Theo smiled and charged toward him. "Magic Bullets."


    The cyclops'' body shook for a split second after seeing those Magic Bullets. This attack might have be a trauma in his mind, considering his body was covered with blood due to the Magic Bullets.


    Even then, the cyclops continued forward and mmed the ground.


    Another wall emerged, trying to block Theo''s attack.


    Then, the cyclops climbed the wall and leaped into the air, nning to hit Theo using his weight and power.


    Unfortunately for him, the Magic Bullets had tracking on them. They all curved upward and hit the cyclops again.


    As if sensing them, the cyclops smashed the Magic Bullets with his clubs and destroyed all of them.


    "As expected from a monster of that level." Theo smiled andunched the dead cyclops'' body along with his club using his Telekinesis.


    "!!!" The cyclops opened his mouth in surprise because he never expected Theo to be that shameless to use a dead body as his weapon.


    Even so, he hit the body and the club to the ground, albeit Theo used that chance to appear behind the cyclops, thrusting his spear. "Cannon st."


    The cyclops somehow managed to spin his body and blocked Theo''s attack with his club that seemed to be covered in green light.


    However, the force made him crash to the ground.


    Theonded on top of him while using his Telekinesis and External Flow to hit the club as hard as possible, knocking it away. Only after that did he jump to the side.


    The one-eyed monster closed his eyes because he saw multiple Magic Bulletsing to his eyes. It turned out Theo used his body to cover his mission.


    Boom.


    [Killed a Green Cyclops.]


    [EXP+40,000]


    [Killed a Ringo.]


    [EXP+43,020]


    "Oh?" Theo smiled and turned around, realizing the clone had killed the opponent.


    However, he soon heard a series of roars and found two more monsters running toward him.


    Raising his spear, Theo smirked�� "It''s time to hunt."

 Chapter 511 – Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 511 - Reunion</h4>


    After realizing the potential in his Materialization, Theo''s hunt became more effective. He didn''t even care whether the monsters attacked him together or not.


    He refined his Materialization even more and kept using it at every chance, progressing his mastery by leaps and bounds.


    The first problem with his Materialization was the excess energy. At first, he poured all the energy and formed a spear and thought it was the end.


    He soon realized that at least half of the Magic Power he released couldn''t be shaped properly.


    It was clear what he needed to do. He practiced his Control like crazy while fighting the monsters.


    The urgency of using his Magic Power forced Theo to be even more focused or he would be beaten up by the monsters.


    This training was brutal because he could die at any moment. Luckily, his clone was helping him fend the monsters most of the time, allowing him to increase his proficiency.


    But not everything went well�� even after two weeks, Theo could only solve half of the excess energy, increasing the power contained in his attack to 75 percent.


    This was enough for the time being since he also received another thing from this experience. It was his Control.


    His Control increased drastically, allowing him to reach the Master Level Control. There were only Grandmaster Level and Perfect Control next.


    However, he knew this level of Control was hard to break through, and Theo simply walked at his own pace.


    This achievement also reminded him about Hel''s words. She told him about the requirement of her technique she would teach him in the next meeting.


    Now that he had stepped on Master Level Control, Theo began to train his Awareness as suggested.


    Still, Theo was grateful for the Shadow Fox to provide him a safe shelter and this opportunity, albeit indirectly. Thetter also didn''t dare to ept his thanks because he didn''t deserve it.


    These were Theo''s achievements after all.


    Although he was supposed to stay in this ce for one week, he couldn''t help but spend half of his time practicing instead of hunting monsters, resulting in him staying twice as long.


    Even the Shadow Fox understood his situation and waited for him patiently.


    After two weeks, Theo finally returned to the canyon, carrying all his belongings.


    To his surprise, there was a white rabbit sitting next to Asran, waiting for him.


    Theo stepped on top of the cliff, looked at the white rabbit, and muttered, "Ava�� No, you are��"


    The white rabbit smiled and nodded. "It seems you have had a good time for the past two weeks."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Yes. I was lucky to have this opportunity."


    "I ordered a few Supreme Rank Monsters to chase your pursuers away a few days ago so that no one could bother you."


    "��" Theo widened his eyes and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Thank you."


    "It''s fine. I couldn''t move away from Ava this whole time, so I guess I can do that much for you."


    Theo smiled and was quite worried when she mentioned Ava. He looked around and saw no one beside them standing on the cliff.


    "Ava is still in my ce. She is sleeping right now after a long ten days of evolution. Though, I believe she''s going to wake up pretty soon." Avarice added after seeing Theo''s motion. "Whether she will continue to be your partner or not, it will be up to her."


    "I don''t know what they will think about Ava to be honest." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "In this ce, they may do something to her. But if you''re going to another ce, she should be fine." She shook her head. "Though you may want to study about your own system."


    "I understand. I will surely study them carefully before making a decision." Theo''s expression turned solemn.


    "That''s good. Although I have no way to check your level, I shall trust your words." Avarice smiled. "Now that you have reached the requirement, will you go to your brother right now? Or do you have any other ns?"


    Theo remembered Ava''s state, so he didn''t think she had told Avarice about their ns. He then answered, "I have no other n. I wish to meet my brother."


    "I shall respect your wish." Avarice then turned to the west. "Your brother is in a forest three hours away from here. I will guide you there and apany you until you finish your matter."


    "Are you sure about this?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "I am afraid this will be a long��"


    Avarice shook her head. "Do you think I haven''t met that guy? I have understood what kind of human he is, so I know this is going to end sooner than you thought."


    "Is that so?" Theo made a weird smile. He couldn''t rebuke what she said, thinking he might actually not know his brother''s true nature because everything in his life had been a lie this whole time.


    Hence, he wanted to seek the truth about all those lies now and paved his own road without relying on them. If not due to this resolution, Theo wouldn''t want to meet his brother.


    "Anyway, let''s not waste any time." Avarice turned around.


    "Yeah." Theo followed her.


    Before leaving, Avarice turned to Asran. "Protect my daughter when I am away."


    "Yes, my queen." Asran lowered his head politely.


    After that, Theo and Avarice made their way toward Edward Griffith.


    Unlike Ava, Avarice wasn''tzy and didn''t rely on him to travel. She jumped from one ce to another while slowing down, enough to make sure Theo could catch up.


    Little did she know, Theo had difficulty following her even with his Flowmotion.


    It took them three hours to finally reach a certain in hidden inside a forest.


    The in had nothing other than green grass and one giant tree. However, Theo found a treehouse built on top of the tree.


    It didn''t have many features other than the roof and wall. The size itself was only three times Theo''s rundown apartment.


    As if sensing their presence, a blue-haired man suddenly opened the door and walked outside, looking at the two of them.

 Chapter 512 – Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 512 - Discussion</h4>


    Theo raised his head, and their eyes intertwined. There was a sense of longing in his heart, but it was ovee by the disappointment that had been drastically increasing since a few months ago.


    Edward had short blue hair like Theo, but his eyes were light blue instead of ocean blue, making him slightly different from Theo.


    He wore a white t-shirt and long blue pants, but he seemed to be tidy enough for someone who lived in this ce for a long time.


    Noticing their gazes, Avarice closed her eyes and turned around. Although she chose to stay, she didn''t want to disturb them. She chose to wait for Theo in the woods.


    Like Ava, she could listen to their conversation and knew if Edward tried to do something funny to Theo. At that time, she wouldn''t hesitate to kill Edward, considering she was Theo''s ally, not Edward''s.


    After Avarice left, Edward blinked a few times and said, "We should talk inside."


    Theo remained still for a moment before using his Telekinesis to lift his body to the treehouse while Edward turned around and reached the door, opening it for him and Theo.


    He entered first to show Theo there was nothing bad inside, and Theo followed him carefully.


    Back then, Edward was his sole goal. He was his motivation to survive. It was quite ironic since he didn''t share the same feeling as his past self.


    Theo sighed inwardly and walked inside. The treehouse was quite small. On his right was a brown wooden door without any sign to show what kind of room it was.


    Next to the door were electric stoves and a few other cooking utensils. It seemed Edward managed his own electricity by getting it from Sr Energy.


    He then turned in the opposite direction and found a bed with a red quilt. It was a tidy and sturdy single-person bed. There seemed to be nothing that separated the room from the rest of the house other than the door on his right.


    Not far from the bed was a long couch and a huge table. He could see Edward''s Skylink on top of it, showing a few people''s faces. Unfortunately, he didn''t know about those people, so he made no remark.


    Last but not least, he found a series of physical training equipment, a small window with his clothes and a fridge.


    "Pardon me for this small house," Edward said while walking to the couch. He tidied up the table while getting another chair.


    He also pointed at the soft couch and offered Theo to sit. "Please."


    Theo took a deep breath since this was the first time he saw his brother after a long decade. He didn''t want to have an outburst because he needed information from him.


    After calming his heart down, Theo gradually walked to the couch while Edward brought him cold water.


    "You must be tired. Have a drink first."


    Theo looked him in the eyes and shook his head. "I''m good."


    Edward raised his eyebrows and looked away awkwardly. He scratched the back of his head and sat on the chair, saying, "Okay. That must mean you don''t want to waste your time. I understand��"


    Although disappointed, Edward knew Theo''s feeling was the result of his actions. So, he let everything go and moved on. "What do you want me to exin? I will tell you everything without a single lie mixed in it."


    "��" Theo remained silent and looked down as if contemting his question. However, there was one question he always wanted to ask this whole time. "Are you�� really my brother?"


    Edward''s body shook from his first question. He closed his eyes for a moment and answered with a calm tone. "Yes and no."


    Theo continued to stare at him, demanding an exnation.


    Edward waved his hand, assuring him he would tell him in a moment. "I have told you in the letter. My name is not Edward Griffith, but Edward Sangaria. I was adopted by our�� your parents to deal with the ones who were and are trying to conspire against you."


    "Conspire against me?" Theo squinted his eyes. "With the Griffith Family''s ability, I don''t think no one in this country has the proof that I am one of them�� In other words, I am just a random boy from a random family!"


    "You are right and wrong." Edward pointed at Theo''s chest. "Your pocket watch is releasing Magic Power the whole time. Supreme Rank Experts have no trouble in finding the fluctuation of the Magic Power."


    Theo raised his eyebrows, not realizing any of it. He took out his pocket watch to check it but still felt nothing.


    "I know your Control is good, but this is not rted to Control. It''s sense. As you may already know, when people rank up, their Five Aspects will improve. When you reach Supreme Rank Expert, your senses will be more sensitive to Magic Power. This is the first full difference from the 250 levels gap between the two ranks.


    "That''s why the Supreme Rank Experts may think about snatching your pocket watch. Normally, your parents or Griffith Family''s vassals will handle that job, but there''s no movement from both of them for a certain reason that I will exinter."


    Theo crossed his arms as his expression turned grim. "So, you protected me this whole time? Couldn''t you just exin this to me?"


    "Your parents told me not to." Edward shook his head. "They wanted me to wear that ne to attract everyone''s attention, making me the target. After that, I would pass the pocket watch to you without anyone realizing."


    "You keep ming them even though you understand they are not here, right?" Theo clenched his fists. He wanted to thank him for protecting him this whole time, but Theo knew Edward could choose a different path.


    After all, his little brother would be suffering because he chose to obey them. Theo believed even his parents wouldn''t realize if he told him secretly.


    If he didn''t trust the small Theo to keep it a secret, he could simply wait for a few more years and release the information from time to time, exining the circumstances.


    It would make the whole thing easier to swallow. However, he chose this path, and Theo needed to take all these things and endure this emotional rollercoaster.


    Theo gritted his teeth and red at Edward�� He raised his voice in disappointment, saying only one word. "Why?!"

 Chapter 513 – Edward’s Past

    <h4>Chapter 513 - Edward��s Past</h4>


    "Why?!"


    Edward fell silent and looked down. He couldn''t help but remember his past.


    I wenty-five years ago.


    A young boy was running away with a loaf of bread in his right hand. Behind him was a middle-aged man with a white t-shirt and short pants.


    He chased after him while shouting, "Wait, you thief!"


    The young boy kept running, trying to avoid getting caught. The water umted from the rain sshes every time he stepped on them.


    He rushed past a few people that walked normally on the street. However, his luck soon ran out.


    The young boy with a ragged and torn shirt fell on the ground, twisting his ankle.


    "Argh!" The young boy screamed in pain while holding his ankle. Unfortunately for him, the middle-aged man behind him had caught up and grasped his neck, saying, "Here you are, little sh*t!"


    The man saw a small and dark alley on the side and threw him into the valley.


    The boy rolled a few times with grazes all over his body. Blood was scattered all over the ground, but the middle-aged man didn''t hesitate to kick him on the stomach.


    Bam.


    "Gah!" The young boy spat a transparent liquid from his mouth and coughed a few times.


    "Little degenerate. Do you think you are the only one who needs this to eat?" The middle-aged man snorted and stomped his head.


    Bang.


    "Aaaahhh-!" The young boy was wailing as his head started bleeding. The rain poured on him and spread the blood even more.


    Seeing the amount of blood flowing to the ground, the middle-aged man hesitated for a moment. Although they lived in a slum area where not many cameras were installed, killing a kid like this would give him trouble.


    After considering a few things, the man turned around and walked away. "Hmph. Count yourself lucky today."


    The young boy''s vision was half red as the blood covered his right eye. His consciousness was fuzzy, and he was about to pass out.


    Even then, his stomach loudly growled as if there was a lion inside it. It soon became painful as he didn''t remember thest time he ate.


    He rolled his body tiredly and found a trash can.


    The boy used thest bit of his strength to drag his body to the trash can. As soon as he arrived, he reached inside and grabbed something solid.


    He found a can of meat but had been eaten. There was only so little remaining because the person didn''t eat itpletely.


    However, a few maggots were spotted, crawling around the meat. Despite seeing such a thing, the boy grabbed all that remained and swallowed it together with the maggots.


    He wanted to throw up but held it and swallowed everything, no matter how disgusting it was.


    Even then, it couldn''t quench his hunger. Instead, it added to the pain in his stomach.


    The boy clutched his stomach while gritting his teeth. His body was shaking and tears were flowing out of his eyes.


    Endure.


    Endure.


    That was the boy''s only thought until he felt the rain had stopped.


    With the sound of the rain that continued ringing on his ears, the boy realized someone was next to him.


    This was the time he first met the couple that soon became Theo''s parents.


    "Hey, boy." The woman put on a gentle smile and bent down her knees. "Do you want to follow us and be our family?"


    The boy was confused and the pain had yet to subside. He couldn''t think of anything while his body instinctively extended his hand as if trying to reach the woman.


    Unfortunately, he had no memory after that because he passed out.


    A few hourster.


    The boy woke up. Before opening his eyes and rising from his bed, he heard the conversation between the couple.


    "I am sorry, Dear. If only I can give birth to a kid��"


    "It''s fine. As long as I am with you, I am satisfied," The man replied with a gentle tone. "Hopefully, the kid agrees. His will to survive is so high in this condition, so I know he won''t leave us. The three of us can be a family."


    It seemed the couple wanted a strong child just because they were afraid the kid would die on them. That was what the boy understood after listening to their conversation.


    After that, he gradually opened his eyes and tried to rise from his bed.


    This action was noticed by the two as they turned around.


    "Ah, did we wake you up?!" The female smiled as both of them approached him.


    The boy looked around, still not understanding his situation. He tried to touch his stomach but felt no pain. He reached his head that was supposed to be bleeding but found no blood. He moved his body left and right and felt no pain.


    The boy raised his hands and saw white sleeves, making him realize he had changed into other clothes.


    Panicked, the boy lifted the white quilt and found long blue pants and moving his ankle was possible.


    "Do you feel any difort?" The female smiled and sat next to him.


    The boy didn''t know about their identities, but he understood they were his saviors after recalling the memory in his head.


    They seemed to have "fixed" him.


    However, there was one thing that couldn''t be fixed. It was his stomach.


    Growl!


    The sound surprised them as the female hurriedly reached the te of fruit on the table. She grabbed an apple and split it into eight evenly.


    "How about eating something light first?" She extended her hand, offering the boy the apple.


    Without hesitation, the boy grabbed the apple and devoured it like there''s no tomorrow. He simply believed he should eat as much as possible when he had the opportunity.


    "Slow down, slow down. The fruit won''t be going anywhere." The female smiled.


    However, the boy didn''t stop and ate everything.


    While eating, the female asked, "Do you have a name?"


    To their surprise, the boy clutched his head as if he was in pain.


    They panicked for a second and tried to stop him, but the boy suddenly muttered in a low voice. "Ed��ward�� San��garia��"


    "Edward Sangaria��" The female put on a gentle smile and asked, "This may confuse you a bit, but�� Do you want to be our son?"


    Edward didn''t know why but those words put tears in his eyes. He instinctively extended his hand, reaching the female''s hand while raising his head.


    The moment their eyes intertwined, Edward heard her saying with a huge and genuine smile, "For now, you will be our son. Your name shall be Edward Griffith�� Let''s get along from now on."

 Chapter 514 – Explanation

    <h4>Chapter 514 - Exnation</h4>


    After recounting his memory, Edward looked Theo in the eyes with a sad smile. "I''m sorry. I couldn''t disobey them."


    That statement shook Theo as he gritted his teeth. He wanted to know why he couldn''t disobey them, but words stuck in his throat.


    Theo looked down while clenching his hands. His body was shaking as he really wanted to know everything.


    "Then, you are telling me you abandoned me because of them? Will you kill me if they want me to die?!" Theo mmed the table.


    Edward shook his head. "No one in the world wants you to live more than your parents. That''s something I can confidently say after witnessing everything�� I''m sorry, I can''t say anything regarding this matter. If you wish to know about it, you should ask this question to them."


    Theo hesitated for a second and took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart down. He had been lying this whole time, so instead of pushing it and getting another lie, Theo chose to avoid asking the question.


    He was sick of lies, so he shifted the topic to his pocket watch. Showing it to Edward, Theo asked, "Then, how do you exin this to me?"


    Edward raised three fingers. "The pocket watch is an artifact. I don''t know if you have heard about it, but I will exin it to��"


    Before he finished, Theo waved his hand and said with a cold tone. "I have heard about the artifact. No need to exin the basics to me."


    Looking at Theo''s eyes, Edward nodded helplessly. "Okay. Then�� The pocket watch you have is only half of the artifact."


    "Half?"


    "Yes. Your father has the other half. At first, your parents have separated themselves from the Griffith Family. However, not long after you were born, they decided to return to the family to protect you. Only then did the Griffith Family give them the Pendant of Identification.


    "They gave the other half to me so that I could hand it to you. Well, I should exin the other thing first." He raised three fingers. "The Pendant of Identification has three uses. First, they will continuously transmit Magic Power to each other.


    "In a sense, the pocket watch will continuously suck your Magic Power. But fret not; it''s only a small amount where you won''t even notice the difference.


    "Then, your parents can channel their Magic Power into the pendant to know whether the pocket watch has changed its owner or not. ording to them, there''s a difference in the amount they feel, so they will know if it''s stolen.


    "So, your parents can know your condition all the time. That''s the first purpose. As for the second purpose, the name has said it. It''s for identification.


    "The Griffith Family always gives Pendant of Identification to their heirs like you and Ne. There are a few other heirs, so all of you have received the same pocket watch.


    "The Magic Power that has been sucked and stored inside the pocket watch will react to each other the moment it approaches another Pendant of Identification. The Griffith Family will recognize you as a temporary true heir as long as you possess this until you reach 18 years old.


    "Last but not least, you can track the other location of the other half as long as you pour your Magic Power into the pocket watch. Of course, everything I have said can only be done when you reach Supreme Rank, which allows you to feel the minuscule Magic Power fluctuation from the pocket watch."


    Theo listened to his exnation with a grim expression. He realized that his parents had been watching over him, but he couldn''t really ept the fact they never met him or anything. Even giving him a message would be fine, especially with their status.


    "They can only sense the Magic Power in this pocket watch?" Theo wanted the confirmation to know whether his parents watched him directly or indirectly.


    "Yes." Edward also knew about his doubt and stated, "Your parents don''t know what you''re currently experiencing or witnessing. They only know that you''re still alive. As for how much information they have regarding you�� Even I don''t know."


    "I understand." Theo kept his poker face. "How about the 18 years old rule?"


    "Unfortunately, I can''t say anything regarding the Griffith Family''s rules. I can only tell you anything I have experienced with both of them. If you wish to know about the Griffith Family''s rules, you should ask them."


    "��" Theo tried to see whether he was lying or not and soon found out he wasn''t. Hence, Theo brushed aside the question and shifted the topic. "But I don''t know who wille? I have heard the Griffith Family will dispatch people toe here when I reach 18 years old�� How am I supposed to ask them? Are you telling me to be a Mythical Rank Expert first?"


    "No." Edward denied it immediately. "They told me one thing. They will definitelye as soon as you reach 18 years old."


    Theo fell silent for a minute, hesitating to throw this one question. After gathering his resolve, Theo looked Edward in the eyes and asked with a calm tone. "Who are they, both their title and positions in the family?"


    Edward let out a long sigh. "Your mother''s name is Valerie Guerrero. Although she changed her name to Valerie Griffith, it didn''t change the fact she hailed from the War God Family. You could check their information yourself since their information is spread online.


    "Well, you can visit them because I believe they haven''t known about you. After all, they��" Edward paused for a moment, hesitating to tell Theo about his mother''s condition. He considered a few things and decided to continue, "They thought your mother is infertile. So, they must haven''t realized your existence, and I was told not to tell them anything. They also didn''t seem to know my existence either, but that''s not important."


    Theo didn''t react as if he had expected to find the same answer as the information he got from Agata. He simply wished to know his father.


    "As for your father�� His name is Ray Griffith. He is��"

 Chapter 515 – Theodore Griffith

    <h4>Chapter 515 - Theodore Griffith</h4>


    "As for your father�� His name is Ray Griffith. He is the current head of the Griffith Family," said Edward with full conviction.


    Theo widened his eyes and opened his mouth in shock. He had expected that his father was someone important, but not this important.


    He couldn''t help but m the table and shout, "What did you say?!"


    As much as he didn''t want to believe it, he had to believe it. However, the disappointment quickly filled his heart, wondering why his father would leave him behind when he had such a position? Especially, allowing him to experience such a childhood.


    Theo instinctively picked up his weapon while gritting his teeth.


    Edward could see his hand was shaking and continued, "I will tell you about it right now. Your father is known as the Magic Emperor. His Control is among the top 5 in the world, and if he can keep growing, top 3 is not impossible.


    "He made his name in the world and even brought Germany to the top of the Grand Gaia Competition when he was there. Despite such prestige, your father didn''t join the Griffith Family.


    "Obviously, if someone, who had this kind of talent, didn''t join the Griffith Family, it would infuriate them. The Griffith Family made an exception that forced him to join them, but after a long battle, he finally seeded in breaking free from their grasp with your mother.


    "His talent was considered to be the same as the ancestor that brought the Griffith Family to that glory, so you understand why they did all that.


    "After escaping, they adopted me and gave birth to you. You might not have the memory of it, but��"


    He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the day Theo was born.


    A few yearster after he got adopted. Edward had been staying in Thernd.


    He also learned that his mother, Valerie, had a problem conceiving a child. And it was the reason why the couple adopted him.


    During that time, his father, Ray, had been training him to be a strong boy.


    Edward practiced seriously, not wanting to experience the same thing back in the slum. He wanted to decide his own fate, so he did all his best to get stronger.


    It was a small but happy family. Everything was normal and their lives were filled with happiness.


    On top of that, a miracle happened. Despite the fact the chance was less than one percent, Valerie finally got pregnant.


    She couldn''t stop crying for a whole day. Even Ray couldn''t contain his tears.


    This was the first time the couple shed any tears, and the news also brought joy to Edward''s heart.


    He was d that the couple finally conceived a child after so many years.


    Ray became overly protective for the entire nine months, making sure nothing happened to Valerie and the child. Edward also helped him in taking care of them.


    Nine monthster.


    Valerie was lying down on the hospital''s bed and a baby''s cry filled the silent hospital''s atmosphere.


    At that time, Ray dropped to his knees and cried. He simply broke down, feeling relieved that the kid was finally born.


    Edward was there with him, patting his back. Ray had endured so long.


    Both of them spared no effort ining inside to hold the baby for the first time.


    Ray awkwardly carried Theo for the first time while Valerie chuckled tiredly. After a while, Ray finally approached him while letting Edward see the little baby. "Here, here. Look at him, Edward. This is your little brother."


    Edward''s body shook as he didn''t know what to do. He remembered Valerie extending her hand when she adopted him. His instinct replicated the scene and made his hand move to Theo.


    Instead of his hand, he approached Theo with his finger.


    Theo was slightly swaying left and right, crying. Meanwhile, Valerie called Ray, "Dear��"


    "Yeah." Ray smiled and said with pride. "His name is Theodore Griffith. He''s the pride of the family."


    At the same time Ray said Theo''s name, Theo unintentionally touched Edward''s finger and stopped crying.


    Edward froze, thinking he somehow calmed the baby. Realizing this, tears started streaming down Edward''s cheeks as he also broke down like Ray earlier.


    After that day, the family became even happier.


    Theo could talk in just nine months and showed a good understanding of everything.


    It should bring happiness to the family, but somehow he felt something was missing from the family.


    On a certain asion, he happened to overhear their conversations.


    Valerie and Ray were talking in the living room while he was supposed to take care of Theo and just left the room because he wanted to pee.


    "Dear�� What should we do?" Valerie clutched her head as if she was in pain. "Theo�� He�� I mean, I''m d that he is talented, but his talent�� It''s too much. Have you noticed the fluctuation of the Magic Power around him?"


    "I know." Ray stroked her hair to calm her down. "If this continues, Theo''s talent will soon be discovered. I am afraid his control alone is much stronger than mine. There is also the fact he can adapt to almost everything quickly, from talking to other things.


    "He could even somehow sense using to the room, though it might be his instinct. From what I can see, his talent is adaptability or learning.


    "Normally, we only master 100 percent of one aspect�� like my Control while the rest is just 50 percent. As for Theo, his control alone is like 120 percent of my talent. Then, with his talent, he may be able to increase the other four aspects to 75 percent, if not 100 percent.


    "With how fast his growth is�� I''m afraid it''s not going to be long for the family to find out. After that�� I''m afraid everyone is going to move, especially the Mind Emperor. We are almost a Mythical Rank Expert right now, but we can''t fight them. And the moment they find out, I''m afraid the Mind Emperor will brainwash Theo."


    Valerie gritted her teeth and asked tiredly, "Then what? Should we hide Theo''s talent and raise him like a normal child without any talent? Or should we beg my father to take care of Theo?"

 Chapter 516 – Conversation

    <h4>Chapter 516 - Conversation</h4>


    "Then what? Should we hide Theo''s talent and raise him like a normal child without any talent? Or should we beg my father to take care of Theo?"


    When he heard that question, Ray fell silent with a grim expression. "If only it''s that easy. We can take Theo to a private school or tell him he has no talent, but he will soon discover his talent just by searching how to get stronger on Skylink.


    "He will doubt us and start learning it in secret. And even though we''re living normally in this country, I am sure the Griffith Family keeps watching us. Suppose the Griffith Family knows about his talent secretly. In that case, I''m afraid we won''t even realize that Theo has been brainwashed or something.


    "As for your War God Family, are you sure you can stop your fath�� I mean, father-inw not to train Theo and hide him without anyone knowing? If I understand him and his equal love motto, he will make Theo grow up secretly without informing us.


    "At that time, Theo''s talent will be known to the world sooner orter. When the Griffith Family tracks him down and finds the connection with us, the two families will go to war, and Theo may die in the process. I know that you guys can deal with the problem by using your brain, popping out strategies one after another, but what if the Griffith Family prioritizes Theo over the war? They should be able to catch Theo soon."


    Hearing Ray''s words, Valerie could only gnash her teeth, understanding the Griffith Family''s ability. In terms of fighting power, the two families might be equal. But if the Griffith Family wanted to kidnap or assassinate Theo, the War God Family would absolutely fail in protecting him unless Theo had his own strength to keep him alive. "Still, there should be something we can do��"


    He took a deep breath and calmed his heart. "Yeah, I know there''s something we can do. However, you are more qualified than me ining up with that thing�� Please calm down�� I need you to think about Theo''s future.


    "What do you think is best for us? Should we hide Theo in the War God Family or should we hide his talent here? As far as I know, going to the Griffith Family voluntarily is a bad idea since they may do something to Theo without us knowing."


    Valerie fell silent for a few minutes before saying, "The best I cane up with right now is to hide Theo in Thernd and suppress his talent. In the meantime, we will let that talent bloom before he''s 18 years old and somehow make my father know about his existence.


    "At that time, Father can openly train him, and Theo should be strong enough to keep himself safe even if the two families go to war. Father will surely pour the resources for all those 18 years simultaneously, allowing him to reach Supreme Rank in the shortest amount of time.


    "Meanwhile, we control the Griffith Family, hiding Theo and getting stronger simultaneously. We need to be strong enough to oppose those elders."


    Ray shook his head. "But the Griffith Family will know about Theo''s existence sooner orter, and there is still that Pendant of Identification. If we go back to the family, I''m afraid I need to be the sessor of the family due to that old bastard. Yet, I won''t have enough power to oppose them.


    "And the fact we''re gone means Theo will have no guardian. The family won''t let that happen and send someone here."


    "We will have Ed be his guardian. This way, they have no reason to send someone. We can just im that we have been training Ed to protect Theo this whole time." Valerie bit her nails in frustration.


    "That path��" Although he couldn''t see the detail of that n, Ray somehow understood that this might be a path of ruin. However, seeing her expression, Ray knew it might be their best option. After all, even if they didn''t find Theo''s talent, they might use Theo''s life as a bargaining chip to control him.


    Valerie had understood thews and traditions of the Griffith Family, so taking that into consideration, she came up with this idea.


    "Well, we still have time. I can''t guarantee years, but months should be enough for us toe up with something better." Ray assured her.


    After hearing their conversation, Edward couldn''t help but return to the room, forgetting his need. He couldn''t help but remember the day they adopted him and when Theo was born.


    He swore in his heart no matter how ridiculous the n he heard as Theo''s guardian, he would fulfill it to the best of his ability.


    ��


    Ray opened his eyes again and looked at the result of the n�� Theo had no trust in them anymore and nned to stay away from the family.


    Yes. The family had fallen apart, but Ray and Valerie still had one more objective. It was to cut the curse of the Griffith Family from Theo onwards, meaning Theo''s children would be away from this curse and could live however they wanted.


    The two decided to bear the entire curse for Theo, even if it meant they would be the viins in Theo''s heart.


    Understanding the weight of that responsibility, he had no choice other than to ept the entire n.


    He looked Theo in the eyes and couldn''t help but smile. "Your parents�� No, please let me say this one thing. Our father and mother have sacrificed themselves for you and your talent. Please don''t waste it�� This is my only request."


    Edward lowered his head until his forehead touched the table. His only thought was, ''They may be scums in your mind, but they are the best parents you can get. The only curse here is that you are born in the wrong family��''


    Theo''s body shook when he saw Edward''s action. His expression and eyes told him that those words were what he believed.


    Unfortunately, none of them could be told to Theo as it would defeat the purpose in pushing Theo away from the Griffith Family.


    Had he chosen to go to the Griffith Family, thetter would instantly make another exception and ept him. And Theo would surely pay a great price for it.


    Unless he could defeat tens of Mythical Rank Experts simultaneously, it was impossible to defeat the Griffith Family.


    They also didn''t wish for Theo''s life to be filled with war and revenge, so they chose to sacrifice themselves and disappear from the world as viins.


    That was why Edward looked up to them so much.

 Chapter 517 – Easier

    <h4>Chapter 517 - Easier</h4>


    Still, no matter how much he looked up to them, Theo''s only memory about them was pure violence and torment. There was no justification for what they did.


    And his grandfather or Valerie''s father, the former head of the War God Family, had understood everything and said such a thing to Valerie.


    However, he also didn''t do anything because he couldn''te up with another n like that. Valerie must have been using her brain for a few months toe up with all these ideas.


    Although he practically needed to give Theo a nk check that would surely dry him up, Valerie paid him back by simply having Theo see him in bright light, unlike them, who could only be a viin.


    Theo''s good opinion alone might not be that much in his current state, but when he reached Supreme Rank Expert, if not Mythical, it could increase the family''s reputation and other businesses.


    ��


    And as expected, Theo was clenching his fists, not understanding what had happened behind the scene.


    Even though he wanted to scream right in front of his brother''s face, he seemed to understand his mother''s n. It was only a gist, but that was the only thing that kept him sane this whole time.


    Theo suddenly remembered the unanswered question Edward wanted to exinter. He asked with a shaky tone. "There is an Eilric Family in Thernd��"


    Understanding what he wished to know, Edward nodded with a serious expression. "Yes. To exin the Eilric Family, I guess I should exin it from your current master. Your master''s name is Nina Eilric and her title is Demonic Granny. She is the wife of Nart Eilric, who ister expelled to this country."


    "!!!" Theo''s body shook when he heard about her identity.


    "I won''tment about their love life, but your parents are close to her and Nart Eilric�� Though, only Nina Eilric knows about your existence.


    "In the past, Nina and Nart experienced a hardship which resulted in their daughter-inw almost getting raped and their son nearly dying. Father yed a significant role in helping her while Nina Eilric exterminated the entire enemy''s family, whether they were young, innocent, or old.


    "It was then she got her title�� And to repay her debt, she decided to obey your father''s n by waiting for a decade before bing your teacher. And that''s also when she came to visit her husband for the first time after a long decade."


    Theo rose from his seat as his breath started bing rough. "She is��"


    He fell silent and came to a realization. He soon remembered when Nina told him how much she hated the Griffith Family.


    Considering she experienced that type of thing with a problem that seemed to be rted to the Griffith Family, he could understand where the hatred came from. And if she told him she was Alea''s grandmother, there was no way he would ept her as his master.


    Hence, she chose to remain anonymous. Although there was an instance where he, Alea, and Nina met, Alea was unconscious at that time, unable to discern Nina''s real identity.


    Theo already knew his life was a lie this whole time, but this was the first time he saw the scale. It was simply beyond his imagination.


    "So, the reason the Eilric Family didn''t approach me this whole time was due to this promise?"


    "Yes. In the meantime, I dealt with other Supreme Rank Experts." He nodded.


    "You are eleven years above me��" Theo stopped, realizing it was enough time to reach Supreme Rank Expert.


    "Yes. However, it doesn''t change the fact that I have abandoned you for that long. There''s no excuse to justify such an action. That''s why I won''t call myself your brother anymore." Edward closed his eyes.


    Theo''s body was shaking as he couldn''t handle the entire truth. His feet became limp, and he dropped to his seat.


    Edward was slightly surprised when Theo''s reaction was calmer than he expected. However, he also understood what this meant. He closed his eyes and said inwardly, ''Father, Mother. We may be able to push Theo away from the Griffith Family but at the cost of him being indifferent to us.''


    "Still, Fa��Father is the current head of the family, right?!" Theo gritted his teeth and started mumbling uncontrobly. "I can understand the Eilric Family, but why? Why are the ones I wish were there the most never around? Everything�� Everything��"


    He couldn''t help but remember how he had lived for the past decade.


    "When you still lived together with me, our lives were somewhat decent. Even though we weren''t particrly wealthy and couldn''t have the luxury to be picky, we managed to maintain happiness in the family��"


    Theo was understanding and Edward kept cheering for him and that was enough.


    "I didn''t mind if we needed to live in a rundown apartment. As long as I had a home to return to, everything would have been easier.


    "There were times I hallucinated about my parents and you smiling at me when I came home, but I soon realized all of them were not real��"


    Recalling all his past, tears couldn''t help but stream down his cheeks.


    Seeing him like this, Edward clenched his fists, almost cutting his own palms with his nails. He wanted to cry as well, but the situation didn''t allow him to.


    It was hard for him not to say anything and keep showing him how bad his parents were. However, he had promised them to do this despite the unbearable urge to disclose the entire situation.


    "Why?!" Theo mmed the table and shouted with his shaking voice. "Why? Everything would have been easier�� Why?!"


    He kept shouting for a few minutes as he couldn''t ept the entire truth.


    In the end, Theo raised his hand, gesturing to him that he wanted him to stop talking. "No�� I don''t need to hear it anymore and don''t want to��"


    He took a few deep breaths while wiping his tears.


    "I want to know more about the Griffith Family. What are their traditions and rules and who are they?"


    Edward closed his eyes and shook his head. "I''m sorry. Even I don''t have the information about the Griffith Family�� At the same time, you can only learn it after reaching 18 years old, so your parents will be the one to answer that question."

 Chapter 518 – Goodbye

    <h4>Chapter 518 - Goodbye</h4>


    Hearing that response, Theo couldn''t help but m the table. "So, you''re not going to exin it to me?"


    "I have told you I don''t know. All they shared was their story, not the information regarding the Griffith Family. Besides, it is mainly for the Griffith Family''s heir, not an outsider like me." Edward shook his head with a calm expression.


    It was clear that Edward didn''t mention anything regarding the Griffith Family this whole time. Only about his parents and the Eilric Family. Although they were part of the Griffith Family, their story wasn''t rted to the core of the Griffith Family.


    "However, I have one warning to you though." Edward raised his finger.


    Theo snorted. "What?"


    "Be careful of the Mind Elder. I am not sure about his identity and appearance, but it seems he has the power to alter your memory. This is the only thing I know after I overheard their conversation in the past.


    "They seem to be wary of the Mind Elder. Even the War God Family is protecting you, the moment you get caught, your life is basically forfeited. Or even worse, you will be a mindless soldier." He shook his head. "I don''t know whether you care about your life or not, but think about your descendants as well. Your children, your grandchildren, or even great grandchildren. That''s all I can say about the Griffith Family."


    "��" Theo fell silent, especially after listening to thest message. Now that he thought about it, if he joined the Griffith Family, he would also need to leave the Griffith Family in the future due to this so-called tradition, so his children would undoubtedly experience this as well.


    Though it might be at Ne''s level, he didn''t know the rule of the Griffith Family, so he might experience something in the middle of his parents and Ne''s parents.


    And after that, his grandchildren would continue living this way while he couldn''t leave the Griffith Family since he would be a grandparent at that time.


    He also understood the graveness of entering the Griffith Family, especially with his talent. Even his father got an exception to be the head afterpletely separating himself from the family.


    And he soon realized if his father had enough strength, there might be something he could do for him.


    He didn''t know how much stronger he needed to avoid that kind of suppression.


    Still, he believed there was a better n than this. He might not know about the power of those elders from the Griffith Family, but he thought the War God Family was a better choice.


    ''Wait a minute.'' Theo stopped his thought process when the War God Family came into the picture. He soon remembered what Agata said about his grandfather''s motto.


    ''Doesn''t this mean I can get something big from all these eighteen years? There is also my achievement as the MVP of the Grand Gaia Competition. Did they want me to go to the War God Family to seek refuge with this kind of reward?


    ''In the meantime, with all the resources of the War God Family, I can increase my strength as soon as possible, like reaching Supreme Rank within two years. It sounds feasible with all those resources.


    ''Or are they power hungry people who want to rule both worlds? If the two families join hands, not many can fight them�� But if this was the case, why would my father leave the family at first and rejointer?


    ''Is he trying to stop the Griffith Family from finding me from the inside? Or is he nning to use me? Still, my bro��ther is a Supreme Rank Expert. It should be easy for him to protect me. Why did he leave me without giving me any information or message? Is there something more behind this entire lie?


    ''So, did they want me to go to the War God Family? Should I spoil their entire n by going to the US? Receiving Maya''s offer seems to be the same as the War God Family? If I can do something more for that Starry Group, I may receive something bigger from the War God Family.


    ''However, if I go to the War God Family, I can practice my Awareness as well as my strategy. After all, this will be more important to meter on.


    ''I know that both of them are good for me, but it''s something that I will decideter on. It''s not something I should decide in this ce.'' Theo looked at his brother with a grim expression as if he had made the decision.


    Edward also knew it was time to part ways.


    "Do you have anything else to say?"


    "��" Edward remained silent for a minute. "No."


    There was no word that needed to be exchanged anymore. Theo didn''t feel like listening to his story after all this.


    After seeing the equipment around here, he realized his brother had been visiting the Earth from time to time to buy all these things. Then he must know about his condition if he genuinely cared about him. Or even worse, he didn''t care about him anymore.


    Either way, since his brother never spared his time visiting him, Theo didn''t wish to see him anymore.


    "My life has been a lie this whole time." Theo''s face became solemn. "You said no one wanted me to live more than my parents. If this was what they meant by living, why didn''t they just put me in an orphanage? My childhood was filled with torture to the point I sometimes thought it was better for me to die.


    "Still, I had several wishes that kept me going, only to find out that everything was a lie. That''s why�� From now on, you''re Edward and I''m Theo. That''s all to it." Theo said their names without their family name, implying they were strangers from this point on.


    Theo lowered his head and said with a serious tone. "This is myst bow to you for protecting me from all those Supreme Rank Experts. I will consider it even for the fact you''re indifferent toward me this whole time as if you want me to die."


    Theo paused for a moment and straightened his back. He walked to the door and opened it, leaving Edward alone.


    When he was about to leave, Theo stopped and said hisst words before leaving�� "This will be thest time I call you this�� But�� Thank you, Brother�� and goodbye."

 Chapter 519 – Regret

    <h4>Chapter 519 - Regret</h4>


    Not hesitating anymore, Theo closed the door.


    Seeing Theo''s back, he soon got overwhelmed by the emotion, remembering the scene when his parents told him the n.


    ��


    17 years ago.


    "Why?!" Edward shouted and rose from the couch. He was looking at his parents, who wore the same expressions as his.


    "You want me to leave Theo? I may not be a Supreme Rank Expert right now, but I should be able to reach it sooner orter! I have learned many things from Father, so I can definitely get stronger!" Edwardined out loud.


    Ray closed his eyes. "I have exined the reason to you."


    "Suppressing his talent? We can simply live a normal life. Even if Father and Mother go to the Griffith Family, I can protect Theo just fine! I can assure you Theo won''t think about bing stronger! I will provide him security!"


    Although he had heard about it a few months ago, he never expected that the n was to harm Theo.


    Not only did they want to suppress Theo''s talent, but they also wanted Theo to suffer his childhood alone. At the same time, this would just invite bullies. They even forbade him to protect Theo openly, providing Theo some security in his life.


    "Unfortunately, it can''t be done." He shook his head. "In Thernd, you need to be at least 15 years old to get the license to go to the other side. Only at that time can you start getting stronger. During that time, Theo will definitely touch this area, and it won''t be long before his talent is recognized locally. Can you watch Theo 24/7?"


    Edward opened his mouth, having so manyints. Yet, not a single of them came out. "There�� There must be another way to solve this problem! I can understand the n to suppress Theo''s talent and give the information to the War God Family to take care of Theo afterward��


    "I perfectly understand that with this n, Theo can reach Supreme Rank within three to four years. But this is too much! Why? Why do you need to hurt him to protect him? Suppressing his talent doesn''t necessarily need to hurt him!"


    Ray let out a sigh. "It''s to make him stay away from the family. As long as he is not someone from the Griffith Family any more and I maintain my position in the Griffith Family, there won''t be a need for another exception to ept Theo and bind him with this curse anymore."


    "Even so, there''s no need to do something like this! I can tell him the information about the Griffith Family! What? You are not going to tell me this is not proper, right? I am, in the end, an outsider from the family''s perspective. It''s not going against the rule if I research everything by myself and tell him about it!" Edward kept insisting on protecting Theo.


    However, Ray continued exining everything. "And what? In the very end, it will lead Theo to the family. Whether it''s a war or his own choice, the price he will need to pay is enormous. Not only that, this curse will bind him and his descendants."


    "That doesn''t mean anything! Theo can get stronger there and take over the family, destroying it from the inside! I have learned to know something like this from Mom!" Edward denied him.


    Ray maintained his calm and said, "The moment he entered the family, Theo would lose his personality or even his emotion because he may be brainwashed by a certain elder. If the family makes another exception and invites him before adulthood, we won''t even have the power to fight them because Valerie and I haven''t reached Mythical Rank yet.


    "As much as I hate to say it, we can''t fight a few top Mythical Rank Experts from the family by ourselves. Even if I be the leader of the Griffith Family, I can only be the puppets of the elders and former leader�� Even if we pull the War God Family into this, the Griffith Family can simply buy enough time to solve the matter by sending the vassal families to intercept them. You don''t know the extent of the power of the Griffith Family.


    "That''s why you may be underestimating them right now. On the contrary, I have seen what they are capable of. If there is a peaceful solution, I really want it. Unfortunately, this is the reality. Why can the Griffith Family stay hidden for hundreds of years? If not for their strength, connection, and background, do you think they can do it?"


    Edward bit his lips. "Still�� Are you going to change Theo? Theo yed with me yesterday. Two days ago, he noticed my trouble and consoled me even though he had yet to understand it. Three days ago��"


    Edward looked down and started crying. "Theo�� Theo is a good child. Why? Why does he need to suffer? This is the child that you two have given birth to after fighting for so many years? Are you going to be this cruel to let him live like this?!"


    Valerie bit her lips and closed her eyes. Her expression was filled with regret, but even after thinking about it for a few months, this was the only solution to solve it.


    Ray rose from his seat and approached him. He patted his shoulder and said, "Just me your parents. It''s fine. We deserve it. Hate us�� Everything can be solved if you hate us."


    "There�� There must be something��" Edward bit his lips and clenched his fists. Tears flowed uncontrobly as he remembered the first touch he received from Theo in the hospital.


    "We won''t ask for your forgiveness. Just hate us�� Even if youe to me in the future to kill me, I won''t even raise my hands. Just please�� Please do this for us��" Ray tightly hugged him. "I''m sorry."


    ��


    Remembering that scene, Edward couldn''t help but drop to the ground. His hands barely supported him on the floor as he clutched his head. Tears started dripping as his body began to shake.


    "Aaah!" Edward cried�� He felt his heart was crushed by an invisible hand. He cried and shouted, "Aaahhh�� Sorry! Sorry, Theo! I''m sorry�� I couldn''t disobey them! I''m sorry�� I couldn''t be a good brother!"

 Chapter 520 – Ava

    <h4>Chapter 520 - Ava</h4>


    Aftering out, Theo found Avarice next to the woods, staring at him. He quickly leaped off the treehouse andnded next to her.


    "Are you done?"


    "Yes. Sorry for making you wait." Theo apologized with a calm tone.


    However, Avarice could hear his rough breathing and shaking voice, knowing that Theo was on the emotional roller coaster.


    "For now, I will let you meet Ava first, and you should take a rest for today. You can go back tomorrow." Avarice sighed. "If she wishes to follow you, I will bring her again to your house. If she wants to stay here, I hope you don''t ask her toe."


    "Don''t worry. I respect her decision. Besides, even if she follows me, I need to know the rules about the other country first, ensuring her security." Theo sighed.


    "Well, the only thing I can promise you is that my daughter won''t be your burden for the time being. The Mythical Rank Expert''s ashes she received was a blessing to her, so yeah." Avarice rolled her eyes. "Anyway, follow me. I shall lead you to my home."


    "Okay." Theo nodded with a serious expression as the duo headed into the canyon.


    Without Theo noticing, Avarice nced back, staring at the treehouse. Her ears could hear everything, including their conversation and Edward''s regret.


    She muttered inwardly, ''Sorry. I was wrong about you. Maybe we can share something inmon in the future as neighbors��''


    After that, they continued their journey, taking another three hours to return to the canyon.


    She led Theo inside the canyon. To his surprise, she didn''t need to hide her presence like the Shadow Fox.


    Every single monster that met her panicked and ran away as if they were scared of her. Hence, the journey inside the canyon ended in an instant.


    They arrived at the center of the canyon, which was another cliff.


    "That is my house." Avarice pointed at a hole in the cliff. It was simr to the Shadow Fox, except this one was almost vertical.


    As if understanding what he thought, Avarice added, "That sly fox tried to imitate me."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched, but he remained silent as if he epted whatever she said.


    The two entered the hill, which turned out to be brighter than he imagined. There were a few crystals attached to the wall. These crystals lit up, brightening the cave.


    "Hmm?" Theo raised his eyebrows, looking at this 100��100 feet hole hidden inside the cliff.


    Because there was no wall separating one room from another, he soon found Ava in her humanoid form.


    She was sitting peacefully with her eyes closed. There were no stars or white light behind her. Instead, lightning kept sparking all over her body as if it was going to attack whoever tried to touch her.


    "This is the power achieved from bing a General ss Monster." Avarice exined while looking at her daughter.


    "Is that so?" Theo muttered while observing Ava.


    "You should��" Before she finished, Avarice suddenly leaped into the air and turned into her human form.


    Suddenly, Ava''s body discharged the lightning that surrounded her body in all directions.


    Avarice hurriedly pped her hands together as the stars behind her shone brightly. They produced a light that formed a half-sphere, bing the barrier that protected her and Theo.


    "Awakening, huh. She is going to wake up soon��" Avarice narrowed her eyes.


    Theo squinted his eyes and looked around him. He was surprised when he saw scratches all over the room, and they were identical to the ones Ava made.


    In other words, Ava was the culprit of all these scratches.


    This piqued his interest as he couldn''t help but ask, "If you don''t mind answering, can I know what kind of impact you made back when you evolved to General ss Monster?"


    Avarice''s eyebrows twitched as she shook her head. "I think you shouldn''t know. Well, Ava and I have a simr result, so you can imagine it just by recing her lightning with moonlight."


    "Then the result will be far more horrible when you reach King ss Monster?"


    "Yeah. At that time, just bring her back here to finish the evolution process�� If you can''t, you can bring her to an open area. That''s all."


    "Noted." Theo nodded in understanding.


    After that shock, there was no more lightning around her body and Ava gradually opened her eyes.


    Her consciousness was still fuzzy, but Ava could still discern her mother and Theo.


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes in surprise. "Kyu!"


    Ava thought for a moment, recalling that a General ss Monster should be able to talk. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t do it.


    "No need to think that hard. It wille naturally after settling down with everything. You need to learn a bit as well, so it will take a bit of time. That''s why I invite him here so that he can hear your answer." Avarice exined with a calm tone.


    "!!!" Ava gasped and rose from the ground.


    "So, you want to follow him?" Avarice squinted her eyes.


    "Kyu!" Ava looked down, feeling a bit sad. On the one hand, she wished to stay with her mother here. On the other hand, adventuring together with Theo sounded exciting.


    She didn''t know what to choose.


    Knowing this, Avarice approached her and patted her head. "It''s alright. If you wish to go, I won''t lock you here. Be free and explore the world. This is going to be a dangerous journey, but I want to make sure it''s the choice you won''t regret. That''s why I want to ask you again�� Do you want toe with him?"


    Ava''s eyes zed as if she was about to cry. She hesitated for a moment before eventually nodding her head.


    "Alright. This is your choice. If you feel tired or anything, just return. I will always be waiting for you."


    "Kyu!" Ava jumped toward her mother and hugged her.


    "Haha��" Avarice chuckled and turned to Theo, "Well, it''s not like she is going with you right now, but let me say this in advance�� Please take care of my daughter well."


    "Don''t worry. Ava has been helping me the whole time, so I will do my best to protect her��" Theo smiled.

 Chapter 521 – Movements

    <h4>Chapter 521 - Movements</h4>


    "As I said, you have three big assignments. First, you are going to learn how to speak while making sure no one hears you. Second, you''re going to control your transformation. It grants you power, but it''s useless if you can''t control it. Last but not least, you are going to know about human culture. This is for you if you wish to follow him. Understand?" Avarice raised her voice.


    "Kyu!" Ava nodded furiously, knowing that it was impossible to go with Theo right now.


    Theo had stayed for a night in this ce and needed to go back, settling everything else. He also hadn''t updated his status due to many things going on.


    Before going, Avarice turned to Theo, "When Ava is ready, I will send her to your house. Don''t worry. It won''t be more than two months. I promise."


    Theo looked down, muttering inwardly, ''Hmm, I have several things I need to do at home. First, it''s to update my status in both Temples. Then, I need to train my Control, especially Materialization. I also need to prepare my Awareness for my meeting with the Goddess.


    ''I also need to take care of the contract and the others. In that case, I will leave one or two weeks after my birthday. That''s the only thing I can do right now��''


    After understanding what he needed to do, he looked at Avarice and nodded. "Yes. I don''t think I will go anywhere unless it''s something big."


    "That''s good." Avarice smiled and turned to Ava. "Say your goodbye to him."


    Ava raised her head and lowered it again with a sad expression.


    Theo bent his knees and extended his hand, "It''s okay. We will meet soon."


    "Kyu." Ava leaped forward and clung onto Theo''s chest as if she didn''t want to let go.


    Theo simply stroked her head until she finally let go.


    "Kyu!" Ava waved her hand to Theo, saying she would meet him again.


    Theo waved back while walking away with the Shadow Fox, who would lead him out of the canyon.


    ��


    While Theo headed back, there were many movements from various ces.


    In the War God Family''s mansion.


    Davi sat before the old man with white hair. He had a solemn expression while the old man calmly sipped his beer.


    "Father�� Are you sure about this?" Davi furrowed his eyebrows.


    Ignoring him for a while, he finished the beer in his hand. "Ah! As expected, I love beer!"


    "Father." Davi squinted his eyes, urging him to answer his question.


    "Hmph. That bad girl�� To think she tried to trap me with all this." The old man looked away.


    "But she gave you an offer you couldn''t reject."


    "Yeah, but this old man still has some dignity to maintain! I need to spank her the next time I see her." The old man sighed. "So, who has made a move?"


    "Only our family and that Star Group. The UK was about to go to Thernd, but they canceled it at thest minute. I guess it''s rted to the British Royal Family. Egypt, Japan, and China have chosen not to participate in this. As for India, I am not sure about them, but I don''t think they will invite him."


    Suddenly, he furrowed his eyebrows for one particr group. "You said Star Group? Not Starry Group?"


    "Yes. It seems Star Group is nning to acquire him to present it to the Starry Group."


    "Ho? This is interesting." He thought for a moment and smiled. "Fine, I change my n."


    "Eh?!" Davi tilted his head in confusion.


    "I will go there personally." A smirk appeared on his face.


    Davi simply couldn''t believe what he said. He thought Agata would be the one toe.


    "Hmph. I haven''t even known the existence of my grandson for almost eighteen years. Obviously, I want to visit him as soon as possible. With this old man here, who dares to target us?" The old manughed uncontrobly. "Besides, there is one more reason��"


    "One more reason��" Davi opened his eyes wide.


    "I bet that bad girl hasn''t predicted that I wille personally! Hahahaha!" The old man started walking away, satisfied.


    "That''s not a reason��"


    The old man raised his finger. "That bad girl is nning something big. Even I can''t see the extent of that n. However, it may shake the foundation of the entire Griffith Family��"


    "The entire Griffith Family?" Davi gasped. The Griffith Family was big. They could bepared to it, but even with the help of two other influences at the same level, they still had no confidence in destroying the Griffith Family.


    And he said Valerie nned to shake that very foundation? Davi simply couldn''t believe it.


    "Still, I don''t like the n. How dare she hide a cute and capable grandson from me?! He even suffered because of that! Hmph, I am still mad! I will outsmart her with this!" The old man pouted while walking away, leaving Davi alone.


    Davi scratched the back of his head. Even though the old man said those words, he still cared about Valerie and Theo. That was also the reason he nned toe to Thernd personally.


    "Well, I guess I will call Agata here to apany him. This way, I win thestugh." Davi chuckled. "I bet you''re not thinking about bringing her, right?"


    Davi rose from the floor before finding two pieces of paper next to where the old man sat.


    It turned out to be ne tickets. And considering there were two tickets meant he had considered bringing Agata with him.


    "��Davi''s eyebrows twitched as he muttered, "Sly old fox. You just can''t pull your punch against your child, huh. Even though he hasn''t heard the information, he has spected everything and made the n already�� No, he said he''s changing his n, but in reality, he''s just trying to make me think that way. It''s not my first time seeing it, but I guess that''s why he''s blessed by Goddess Athena."


    Davi was impressed by his father''s ability, but he still underestimated his n.


    In another ce, Maya was standing in front of her father, saying, "Dad, I would like you to go to Thernd personally."

 Chapter 522 – War Saint

    <h4>Chapter 522 - War Saint</h4>


    "Dad, I would like you to go to Thernd personally."


    Maya arrived in front of her father, mming his work table with a serious expression.


    The middle-aged man before her had short blond hair and deep blue eyes. He wore sses, a white shirt, and gray suits.


    Putting down his work, he raised his head and looked his daughter in the eyes. "Hmm? Sorry�� I just closed it. Can you repeat it?"


    "I would like you to go to Thernd personally."


    "Thernd?" The middle-aged man squinted his eyes and remembered the matter. "Ah, are you talking about Theodore Griffith?"


    "Yes." Maya nodded without hesitation. "I have personally witnessed his strength, and I believe he''s a good investment."


    "Well��" The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head as if he disagreed with her. "I don''t know about his loyalty. If he goes somewhere, I am afraid I will lose a few billion."


    "I know you''re going to say that." Maya harrumphed and touched her Skylink before a letter popped out on the screen.


    The middle-aged man closed his eyes and said with a calm tone. "You have gone to your grandpa, eh?"


    "Hmph. I know you won''t help me unless I do this." Maya looked away while pouting.


    "Who said that? I am always supportive of whatever you''re doing." The middle-aged furrowed his eyebrows. "Look, I''ve stopped working since you want to talk to me."


    "Hmph. You always said something like this without even mentioning how much we have spent time together."


    "24/7?"


    "I would be overjoyed if you could spend an hour with me every day�� But that''s not important." Maya kept pouting while demanding, "I still want you to go there. Can''t you go there personally? I believe in this investment."


    "You seem to have a strong opinion toward him. Have you fallen in love or something? If you say yes, I will go there immediately. I can''t afford to have my daughter without a man or go sideways. I need a grandchild, daughter��" The middle-aged man shook his head.


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she mmed the table in anger. "I might have lost against him, but he is merely an investment for me. There''s nothing else. If you don''t want to go, fine, I will go by myself."


    When Maya was about to turn around, the middle-aged man chuckled.


    She stopped when she heard that chuckle, finding her father''s cold face melted.


    "Sorry, sorry. I just couldn''t help but tease you while finding out how much you want him��" The middle-aged man covered his mouth and keptughing for a while.


    "Dad?!" Maya furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Nikita has sent me the report about him. He''s indeed a very talented individual�� No, I can say he''s a monster. Whatever the scenario I yed, he made me scared. And, he''s scarier than you think��" The middle-aged man paused for a moment, raising Maya''s curiosity.


    "What do you mean?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows.


    "This is why I am still your dad. You need to learn more about business�� What is the strongest weapon we have?"


    "Money," said Maya with conviction. "We can''t do a sh*t without money."


    "��" Her father stared at her dumbfoundedly for a few seconds before nonchntly saying, "Fine, fine. Let''s say you''re right. What''s the first thing you should do after having the money?"


    "What do you mean by those words? I was right!"


    "Nah, dear." The middle-aged man shook his head. "What you need to do is investigate. You can''t have money or your strongest weapon without knowing all sorts of information."


    "You just don''t want to admit I''m right, aren''t you?"


    "You are my daughter," The middle-aged man stated with a straight face. He just jokingly reminded her that father and daughter weren''t that different. Both of them were stubborn.


    "Hmph! Just say the information!" Maya red at him.


    "Fine, fine. Thanks to my ''friend,'' I have noticed a movement. Out of seven countries, Italy is the only one approaching Theo. Why?"


    "Why?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows, curious.


    "It''s simple. He is someone from the War God Family. After all, he''s the only one who can force that Old Marshal to move."


    "Old Marshal." Maya sucked a cold breath. "War Saint�� Leonardo Guerrero."


    "Yep. He''sing to Thernd."


    "But why do you say he''s from the War God Family? Isn''t he from the Griffith Family?" Maya thought for a moment.


    "It''s because you didn''t experience it back then that your knowledge is too shallow. Back then, the War God Family almost went to war against the Griffith Family because of a certain elopement involving the current Magic Saint and Valkyrie."


    "Magic Saint, Ray Griffith�� And Valkyrie, Valerie Guerrero. The reason the War Sainting over is��" Maya took a step back, realizing the importance of the matter.


    "I guess you have realized it." The man smiled and shook his head in defeat. "We have been defeated by him this time�� No, not only us but also other countries."


    Maya looked down, contemting her father''s words. "Don''t tell me. The reason you and grandpa were wasting my time with all those matchmakings��"


    "Yeah. We''re just following the rule set by that man." The man nodded. "He''s not called the War Saint for nothing. The War God Family sent Agata Mota because she''s interested in him. However, that was just a cover for their true intention.


    "They know if the War God Family moved personally, the other countries would start to get suspicious. I don''t know what it is, but the Pope''s involvement must be that old fox''s n. He was trying to make the pope the focus while giving Agata the information about the War God Family.


    "After that, China oppressed all those countries. They believed Theodore Griffith''s character and the Pope''s teaching couldn''t get along while you were simply too arrogant for Theodore Griffith. Anyway, bothbinations were not possible.


    "Now that everyone has backed down, the old man personally makes his move, ensuring Theo''s safety and everything else from all those countries. With this kind of timing, the other countries won''t have enough time to react.


    "In other words, they can''t offer Theo anything because Theo surely won''t trust them. This way, there is only us for thepetition. Even if he doesn''t get Theo, we still need to raise the offer above his War God Family�� Or you can say a bigger nk check. Even if the other countries try to participate at this time, they will need to offer a much bigger nk check than us.


    "Either way, his grandson won''t suffer from any choice he makes." The man let out a long sigh. "That damned sly old fox. He''s using my own economic warfare to his advantage."


    Maya''s body was shaken as she realized everyone was just dancing on his palm. "So, this is the War Saint��"


    "So, Daughter��" He smiled. "How about getting a husband right now?"


    "Go make another daughter and get her a husband!"

 Chapter 523 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 523 - Return</h4>


    A few dayster. Theo had finally returned to his home.


    After considering Ben Lange''s information, Theo ultimately chose to stay until his birthday, which should happen next month.


    He spared no efforts ining to the Temple to get his status updated.


    Little did he know, his master had been moving in the dark.


    She was following Theo back because his parents were still around him. While sitting a few hundred feet away from him, she noticed some movements. "Hmm, a few rats��"


    Nina counted them before she disappeared.


    Her first target was a middle-aged man standing not far from Theo''s house.


    "!!!" The middle-aged man sensed her presence, but Nina had already grasped his neck, electrocuting him.


    She had destroyed the camera around there, so no one realized when a person suddenly disappeared because Nina dragged him with speed faster than their eyes could follow.


    It took her several minutes to kill a total of ten people around Theo''s house. She took their ID Card issued by the Temple and reduced their bodies into ashes with her lightning.


    After that, she made her way to the Lange Family, bringing their cards.


    Looking at the huge mansion standing tall as if they did nothing wrong made her furious.


    "Well, Theo should be the one to handle this problem, but��" Nina stood in front of the mansion. She raised her foot while covering it with her lightning.


    Bam.


    The next instant, the foot stomped the ground and the lightning sparked.


    The area turned into a crater in an instant while the spark shattered the entire buildings, leaving only a few pirs to remain standing.


    The big mansion soon crumbled to the ground and was reduced into a pile of rubble.


    "What�� What is happening?!" A shout echoed from within, followed by a series of screams.


    They all were shocked and couldn''t understand what was happening.


    Nina just destroyed the mansion with a single stomp. However, she made sure no one died, especially the innocents. She didn''t wish to repeat the same thing she did back then after all.


    Endo Lange hurriedly came out of his mansion and saw burning grass. There shouldn''t be a spark of fire around here, yet the fresh burning smell entered his nose.


    He soon realized something was going on and found three sentences.


    "You are bound to die in a few years."


    "Escape means I will personally kill you."


    "You should just ept your deathter!"


    The tone was arrogant but delivered the message.


    Endo Lange widened his eyes in shock, wondering who had just destroyed his home. He noticed the crater, indicating something hit it. But even he, a Supreme Rank Expert, couldn''t do something like this.


    "A Mythical Rank Expert��" His body began to shake uncontrobly as he gritted his teeth. His gaze was filled with anger while shouting, "Goddammit!"


    Nina was in no mood to y with him anymore and just left the cards there without thinking whether he realized it was there or not.


    After destroying the Lange Family''s mansion, she headed back to the ce she had never stepped foot in for almost two decades.


    She was standing in front of the Eilric Family''s mansion. Now that Ray and Valerie hade to this country, she could finally see everyone again.


    "Such a nostalgic feeling��" Nina muttered in a low voice, staring at the mansion. "It''s been so long since Ist stood here."


    Suddenly, an aged voice echoed from behind. "You�� You��"


    Nina smiled and turned around, looking at him with adoration. The one who came was none other than Nart Eilric, her husband.


    "Youe back��" Nart gasped for air a few times as he couldn''t believe the person he saw.


    "It''s been seventeen years, Husband. You must have hated me now."


    Nart looked at her and subconsciously approached her. He also noticed her power and bit his lips. "You have be Theo''s master, which requires your strength to be Mythical Rank��"


    The moment Nart arrived in front of her, he hugged her tightly. "You havee back�� Now you havee back! I''m sorry that I can''t do anything for you. I''m sorry that you need to work so hard. No, what I should say right now is��


    ��wee home, love." Nart tightened his hug, expressing his longing.


    She was sad that she couldn''t meet him sooner. Even when she exined their situation, she could only send him a message, not meeting him directly.


    Now that Theo''s parents hade, she could finally see her family again.


    "I''m sorry it took me so long to return."


    "As long as youe back�� All is well. All is well." Nart denied her, expressing how he felt. He didn''t care about the time anymore. As long as she returned, it was enough.


    He also knew that Nina must have gone through a lot, considering he was stuck at Supreme Rank while she was an influential Mythical Rank Expert.


    "How are James and Nadia?"


    "They are fine. James has moved on while Nadia still holds the grudge�� Though, it''s not to that extreme. I believe they can go just fine." Nart smiled, exining it to her. "How are you?"


    "I feel great right now. Don''t worry. I have no ns to go out for the time being. I will spend all my time with all of you."


    "That''s good. That''s good."


    "How about Alea?"


    "She is doing fine. She has improved by leaps and bounds like you. Right now, she''s preparing for her graduation."


    "Why does she need to graduate?"


    "It''s just a simple favor. After that, Alea will go overseas. I don''t know about her choice though."


    "Actually, I have a connection abroad. How about I ask them to take care of Alea? I believe she can reach the Supreme Rank easily. I guess this is also the payment for my service�� Don''t worry. She won''t be anywhere near the Griffith Family and their affiliates."


    "That''s fine. That''s fine. Let''s enter first. We can talk about it inside. For now, you should have some rest first. You have worked too hard." Nart extended his hand, asking her toe in.


    Nina closed her eyes and smiled. She held his hand and walked together�� "Right�� I am finally back, Darling."

 Chapter 524 – All Parties Gathered

    <h4>Chapter 524 - All Parties Gathered</h4>


    As soon as he arrived in the Fighter Temple, a woman approached him.


    "It''s been a while," she said while gently holding her hair to prevent it from blowing away.


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I will be in your care today, Sarah."


    "Certainly." The woman smiled. "This is my job after all. Please follow me."


    "Sure." Theo followed her and went through the same processes asst time, updating his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Level: 350


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance C, Agility B, Vitality C, Magic Power A


    Health Problem: -


    Kill: -


    She was inplete shock when she saw Theo''s level. Thest time he updated his status, his level was only 193.


    That time, he was about to leave for the Grand Gaia Competition. And within six months, he managed to increase 157 levels, despite bing much harder to level up.


    As she expected, Theo was abnormal.


    However, she only offered him her best smile and handed him his ID Card back while saying, "Unfortunately, we can''t update your Attributes to a more urate one because you haven''t gotten any privileges in this name."


    Theo only smiled even though he knew she indirectly talked about his second identity. His growth was not normal after all.


    And fighting all those monsters without getting a single mission just made him suspicious. Hence, Theo must have a second identity for this.


    This belief was reinforced by the question Theo asked when he first came here.


    "I am afraid this will be thest time I meet you. So�� Thank you for helping me this whole time." Theo thanked her properly.


    Sarah also understood what he meant and smiled. "No, no. It''s my honor to help the ''Theodore Griffith.'' Not many have this opportunity. Also, I hope you will do well in the new country."


    Sarah didn''t ask where he would go or anything, respecting his privacy. Either way, she would be informed by the headquarters after Theo submitted the change.


    "Goodbye." Theo smiled and walked away with a calm expression.


    "Bye-bye." Sarah waved her hand while smiling, looking at Theo''s back until he left the building.


    After that, Theo also updated his Joker Identity and told his assistant about him leaving the country.


    He also sold everything he got from the expedition and finally returned home with nothing but his spears and empty bag.


    The moment he opened the door of his house, he found a card on his table with a note behind it. Dust covered the card as he had left a bit too long.


    Skill: Illusion Construct (B)


    Effect: The user can change illusions into tools, objects, weapons, and other items.


    "It''s finally here." Theo smiled and grabbed the note left behind.


    "This is the promise. I hope you are satisfied with the skill. You may want to see the surprise I will bring you next time."


    "Haha, this sounds like her." Theo chuckled as he could imagine Maya saying those words with her arrogant tone.


    He changed his skill without hesitation.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 350


    EXP: 128,568/1,673,340


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Cannon st (C), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (D), Magic Bullet (B), Metamorphosis (C), Telekinesis (B), Three Great Defense (C)


    Attributes: Strength 480, Endurance 286, Agility 301, Vitality 286, Magic Power 580


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Nice." Theo was satisfied with his improvement this time. "I will rest for today and start training tomorrow."


    Little did he know, Thernd''s International Airport had be a ce for the encounter between influential figures.


    There were five people standing face to face as if they were going to fight.


    On the left were Leonardo and Agata, while Maya, her father, and an old man were standing on the opposite side.


    "Ho, you still dare toe." Leonardo smirked. "To think such an important person such as yourself won''te to this small ce, eh, Bernard Hamilton?"


    Maya''s father smiled back, replying, "No, no. After getting such a lesson from the great War Saint, how can I note to thank you personally? It''s just�� I''m afraid the War Saint doesn''t bring enough money��"


    Leonardo shook his head. "I am just afraid that your bigpany is too stingy. So, Ie to make sure my grandson is treated well. If you can''t afford to do so, then you should go back so as to avoid embarrassing yourself."


    "Haha, you''re underestimating me. Money is something I don''tck."


    "Not everything can be bought with money."


    "That''s something I can agree with." Bernard smirked. "Your grandson''s information is certainly something you can''t buy with money. I have been too cold to my daughter, but I can''t bepared to your War God Family."


    Leonardo was obviously pissed off when he mentioned Valerie.


    However, Bernard daringly continued, "At the very least, I have enough money to provide anything. I can even build a huge facility on the other side just for him. Unfortunately, someone is too poor to afford such a thing. How abouting back to work again at that age?"


    "You''re good, Young Man. I can only say, the greatest n is an untold one. You won''t realize it until you already lose��" Leonardo squinted his eyes, warning him to proceed with caution because he would see something big soon from the so-called "bad parenting."


    "Ho. I am certainly looking forward to that�� Unless I don''t know whether it can entertain me."


    The two were pissed off as they suddenly shook each other''s hands with a smile on their face. Both of them thought at the same time.


    "Sly old fox!"


    "Greedy Moneybags."


    Meanwhile, Agata calmly looked at Maya. Despite hiding her true appearance, Maya could still discern her identity.


    "Nice to meet you." Maya smiled and extended her hand.


    Agata smiled back and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. It must be nice to have a rich parent, eh?"


    "How about using your beauty to seduce some old men? I am sure you can get billions in no time."


    The two tightened their grips as they knew they couldn''t get along.


    Thest person was looking away with a troubled expression since he came with Bernard and Maya as a bodyguard.

 Chapter 525 – Observation

    <h4>Chapter 525 - Observation</h4>


    Although they continuously spit on each other, Bernard and Leonardo somehow came to Theo''s house together.


    They were ring or looking away most of the time, but since their destination was the same, they used Bernard''s car to go all the way to Theo''s house.


    However, they soon got the shock of their life when they arrived.


    Leonardo was the first to recognize this power and Bernard''s bodyguard followed suit.


    "This fluctuation of Magic Power��" Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows while staring in a certain direction, which turned out to be Theo''s house.


    Bernard''s bodyguard whispered something to him as well before Bernard felt it himself.


    "Sir��" Agata tried to call Leonardo, but thetter waved his hand, asking her not to say anything. After that, he increased his pace while concealing his presence.


    "��" Agata furrowed her eyebrows when she could somehow see Leonardo but felt her eyes misleading her. "High-level Awareness��"


    Bernard also did the same and matched Leonardo''s pace. Surprisingly, Bernard managed to replicate what Leonardo did despite being a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "Eh?" Agata opened her mouth in surprise.


    "Hehe," Maya made a smug smile as she exined, "My father is a sniper and just a few levels away from Mythical Rank. That''s why he can match the War Saint''s Awareness in concealing his presence."


    Agata nced at her for a moment, maintaining her silence. After a while, she looked away, not saying anything to her.


    Maya raised her eyebrows, never expecting Agata to ignore her.


    When they arrived in front of Theo''s fence, they slightly raised their body with their Magic Power, allowing them to take a peek of the inside.


    To their surprise, Theo was meditating next to the pool.


    His blue hair was swaying left and right because of the wind. He wore a white t-shirt and pants.


    Still, the one that shocked them the most was the blue spear on top of his head.


    The spear didn''t have joints to separate the handle and the de. However, it managed to form the basic spear form.


    At the same time, unlike Theo''s small spear he used a few weeks ago, this one was a full-blown spear, meaning Theo could use it himself.


    Leonardo and Bernard dropped their jaws to the ground before exchanging looks.


    They clearly remembered Theo''s performance back in thepetition. It was truly his most powerful strength.


    At that time, Theo barely learned Force Control and he still impressed them, especially when he countered Ne''s Control. Although they knew the Telekinesis helped him, it was still amazing nheless.


    And within six months, Theo managed to reach Master Level Control with Materialization at this level. There was no way it didn''t shock them.


    Both of them remembered Theo''s father, Ray Griffith''s talent. It was said he had the highest talent of Control in the present world. That was also why the Griffith Family would do everything to make him their pawns, even if they needed to use Theo.


    But they now understood why Ray tried to hide Theo''s talent to the point he needed to suppress it. Theo''s talent far surpassed Ray''s.


    However, Leonardo soon remembered Ray once toured around the world and talked to all Masters he could find, asking them about their Five Aspects. He used the favors they owed to create a book.


    ''This child�� Is his talent surpassing that of a monster? He can wield all Five Aspects at once?'' Leonardo muttered in his heart before sucking a cold breath,ing to a realization of how dangerous Theo''s talent was. And if Valerie brought the child to him, he wouldn''t be able to stop teaching him so as to not waste his talent.


    For him, there were four ns that could hide this child. First, he would throw the child to an assassin or mercenary organization, hiding him in the cruelest ce possible. With Theo''s talent, he could grow into a monster sooner orter.


    The second n was to wreak havoc on the Griffith Family to the point he could destroy it or change its very foundation. As for the third n, he would send Theo to a superpower country and ask them to take care of the child even if they needed to use the entire military to stop the Griffith Family.


    Last but not least, he might want to throw him to the other side, making him think he had been living in that ce since he was born. Humanity only managed to explore a small portion of the other side, so he could go deeper and build some facilities before releasing Theo to this world.


    Leonardo closed his eyes and shook his child, knowing Valerie had chosen the second n. Still, he wondered why Valerie didn''t select thest n.


    He thought, ''If she didn''t have money, couldn''t she just go to this Greedy Moneybags and get a loan from him? She could betroth Theo to Maya in exchange for his talents. He can live morefortably this way. If her status wasn''t enough to meet this guy, she could rely on me�� Or does she have any other thoughts about her n?


    ''Although he couldn''t meet other people, they could still live together and when Theo is strong enough, everything will be settled. To be honest, this is the n I would most likely choose.''


    He had many thoughts in his mind, but seeing the blue spear floating above his head, Leonardo couldn''t help but get sentimental.


    No matter what, Theo was indeed Ray and Valerie''s child. His talent in Control came from Ray and his brain derived from Valerie.


    On top of that, the spear he summoned was simr to the early version of Valerie''s God Killing Spear.


    He saw Valerie''s shadow in him.


    Meanwhile, Bernard didn''t know what Leonardo was thinking. All he knew was the spear reminded him of the famous God Killing Spear.


    ''Still��'' Bernard sucked a cold breath while muttering inwardly, ''This kid can reach this level within half a year? I have seen the video of his fight, especially the one with Maya. He hasn''t reached this level yet�� To think a month or so can let him advance from Practitioner Level Control to Master Level. I have underestimated his talent.''


    Bernard and Leonardo exchanged looks as they seemed to realize their offers were still too low and retreated for a while to reconsider.

 Chapter 526 – Visit

    <h4>Chapter 526 - Visit</h4>


    A few minutester.


    Theo, who was still in deep meditation, was disturbed by the ringing doorbell.


    He gradually opened his eyes and noticed that his Skylink was getting multiple messages. He forgot that Agata and Maya were visiting today to finalize the offers.


    Rising from the ground, Theo tidied his clothes up and walked toward the door.


    As soon as he opened the door, a white-haired old man jumped forward and hugged him. "My grandson! My beloved grandson! Oh my god�� I''m sorry that I haven''t met you this whole time!"


    He screamed while tightening his hug.


    "Ehm��" Theo maintained his poker face. He had seen Leonardo''s face when searching for his mother''s information, so he knew the one hugging him was none other than the War Saint, Leonardo Guerrero, his grandfather.


    Yet, his heart was unnaturally calm, as if he had no emotion toward him. His face was filled with confusion as Theo took a step back.


    "Grand��" When he was about to call him, he didn''t know why but the words stuck in his throat. In the end, he said, "Elder��"


    The shock was reflected in Leonardo''s face as he helplessly closed his eyes, realizing that Theo must have a trauma.


    Hence, he made a hard decision and released him. Straightening his back, he looked Theo in the eyes while offering the best smile he could give. "Yeah. It''s been 18 years. To think my grandson has be this big."


    Theo looked down, feeling bad for his grandfather. After all, he knew that the man before him didn''t even know he existed this whole time.


    After taking another step back, he soon found a middle-aged man standing behind Leonardo.


    Although he didn''t know who the man was, Theo hurriedly extended his hand and asked, "Pleasee in first. We can talk inside."


    "Right! Hahahaha!" Leonardoughed awkwardly and entered the house.


    With his grandfather''s figure out of the way, he could finally see the other four people standing in front of his house.


    "It''s been a while." Agata smiled and waved her hand.


    "Look at this! I have brought you a big present." Maya, on the other hand,ughed while pointing at the middle-aged man. "He is my father, the current CEO of the Star Group!"


    Theo made an awkward smile and extended his hand to the middle-aged man. "I am sorry for not recognizing you earlier, Sir. I am Theodore Griffith. Pleasee in."


    "Uneptable. I won''t forgive you unless you marry my daughter." He jokingly mentioned it again. Bernard simply couldn''t help it, especially after seeing Theo''s talent.


    However, Theo didn''t have a change of expression and smiled at him. "That is, unfortunately, something I can''tply with."


    "Daughter, you suck." Bernard teased Maya before patting Theo''s shoulder. "I guess I can''t joke around with you."


    "I can only say there is an appropriate time and topic." Theo shook his head.


    "Bernard vs Theo. 0-1!" Leonardo shouted whileughing. He had made himselffortable on the couch.


    "Hey, old man. Should I p you with money?" Bernard''s eyebrows twitched.


    "In this cashless society?" Leonardo stuck his tongue beforeughing again.


    Bernard frowned and walked toward Leonardo, sitting next to him. He tried to get closer to Leonardo while trying to push him. "Sorry, but�� can you move a bit? It''s too small."


    "Are you trying to say my grandson is too poor to get a long couch?" Leonardo red at him.


    "I am saying you are on the way." Bernard harrumphed.


    Suddenly, another Theo walked out of the kitchen while offering orange juice to them.


    Seeing both Theos, the two couldn''t help but stop and be civil for a moment.


    Agata shook her head helplessly and said, "Don''t mind them. They have been like this from the airport��"


    "You came together?" Theo widened his eyes. It was a surprise because the two couldn''t settle down.


    He then extended his hand, gesturing for them toe inside.


    Before entering his house, Agata asked, "How are you doing these days?"


    "It''s fine. I have settled a lot of things." Theo smiled.


    She didn''t know why but Theo seemed to have changed since thest time she met. Compared to the one she saw a few months ago, the one before her looked more mature.


    She couldn''t help but wonder what had happened in the past few months. Unfortunately, it wasn''t something she could ask right now, so she smiled back. "Then, please excuse me."


    On the contrary, Maya walked nonchntly inside his house as if she already knew what to expect from this ce. Looking at her expression alone, Theo knew she hade to this ce before.


    After both of them entered, Theo nced at the old man outside.


    Thetter simply waved his hand and smiled, "No need to concern yourself with me. I am here just to protect my boss."


    "I understand. Do you need anything? Maybe a drink?"


    "I will just have a cup of water."


    "Okay. I will bring it to you." Theo nodded as he walked away, letting the door close by itself.


    Now that everyone had gathered, Theo stood in front of them while saying, "Ehm, thank you foring, considering not many havee here."


    "This is his fault!" Bernard pointed at Leonardo.


    "What do you mean? Those countries had conspired together to make my grandson suffer, so there''s no way I will let them go. I am just making them regret their choice. Hahaha." Leonardoughed again.


    Theo tilted his head in confusion before Bernard opened his mouth. "No need to think about it. All you need to know is that�� We are here to offer you something you can''t reject. Unfortunately, your grandfather seems to be a bit too poor for you. Why don''t you juste to my ce?


    "You can have anything you want, including my daughter''s hand in marriage." He looked away while coughing.


    "How about you make your daughter know something about humility first?" Leonardo frowned.


    "I do you one better. Why should you decide what my daughter needs to do?"


    "Ehm��" Theo stopped them and asked, "Why are we talking about marriage? That''s thest thing I want right now."


    Both of them stopped for a moment and pointed their hands to him while saying at the same time�� "Right."

 Chapter 527 – Leonardo’s Offers

    <h4>Chapter 527 - Leonardo��s Offers</h4>


    After settling them down, Theo finally asked, "Can we move on to the important topic?"


    "I have heard that you always want to cut to the chase from my daughter. I guess we can do it." Bernard nodded and nced at Leonardo.


    "Hmph. It seems I need to do it first." Leonardo harrumphed and raised five fingers. "My offer is simple to be honest. I won''t mention anything about family to you so that you can be at ease. As for my offer, firstly, I will give you three billion Zils a year for you to spend. This is your allowance.


    "Of course, we will allocate more money if you can keep getting stronger at your current pace. We have this smallpetition every year. Thepetition is random, so I can''t say anything regarding thepetition. Its only purpose is to assess your performance during that year.


    "Well, it''s easier to audit your family''s finances by doing this assessment every year, so yeah. That''s the first offer. Second, I will personally teach you for a year. You can literally ask me to teach you anything.


    "I can teach you about warfare, Five Aspects, anything�� I can teach you anything�� Well, not really. Out of Five Aspects, my Awareness is the strongest. After that, it''s my Control, Technique, and Endurance. I can''t teach you anything about Breathing.


    "We do have a set of Breathing Techniques, but I don''t know if it will suit you or not. So, I can''t promise you that one. That''s the second offer.


    "The third one is a Leveling Facility. We periodically clear our own Leveling Facility�� It''s twice a year to be honest, so the chance is not that many. Anyway, I will guarantee your quota every time for five years. In other words, you can get ten chances in total. It should be no problem for you to reach the Supreme Rank.


    "The fourth offer will be a private mansion. You can do anything you want in that small mansion. If you need a maid to take care of you, just inform me. It''s also equipped with several facilities to practice like this pool.


    "Last but not least, I will provide your equipment and skill. If you need anything, just call me. Depending on your request, I will bring it to you immediately. Of course, you need to do something special to get an A Rank Skill�� Though, it''s impossible for you to use those skills for the time being.


    "So I won''t give you anything if I deem you not ready to use it. Understand?" He finished his exnation and closed his eyes.


    "Is that non-negotiable?" Theo asked.


    "I can give you a bit more since I haven''t found you in these eighteen years, but I can''t do too much. In fact, this is already a treatment for a new Mythical Rank Expert��"


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression, pondering his offers. He asked, "What do you want me to do in exchange for all those resources?"


    He raised three fingers this time. "Three things. Typically, you won''t need to attend every year''s assessment because you only need to participate in it once every five years. Some attend every year, but yeah, if it''s only a few million, I don''t think you will care at that point.


    "What I want you to do is to attend thispetition twice within five years. You can do it more, but I want you to do it at least twice.


    "As for the second one, I want you to follow the family''s training rule. Every year, we have some coborations with other influences, even with the Pope or some overseas forces to clear a specific area. Of course, the site is just for the younger generations, and the level of the monsters will be around yours.


    "Or you can trade this group mission for three individual assignments. The family will also choose those missions for you. We don''t care how you finish the tasks as long as youplete them. After all, we want you to be an independent fighter and strategist.


    "Third, every two years, you will be sent overseas to gain experience. In other words, you are going to be an intern with another influence overseas. Your only mission is to solve their problem. That''s all."


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "Every other year is quite harsh, huh."


    "As expected, you realized it��" Leonardo nodded with a serious expression. "All I can say is it''s up to you how you do that. Some are doing the group mission then this intern mission. Some are doing the individual missions in the first few months while doing the intern assignment in November or December.


    "We won''t limit you, but at the same time, you need to think of a way to cope with this situation. Only after training you this way will you soon learn how to be a good strategist. Of course, most of them are because of our blood. No way others can replicate this." Leonardo made a smug smile.


    "Our blood, huh." Theo narrowed his eyes. "In that case, doesn''t it mean I will face some discrimination? Not only did I suddenly appear out of nowhere, but my blessing also didn''te from a war like figure."


    Leonardo simply smiled and looked at Theo. "How have you been living until today, Theo?"


    Theo was taken aback by the question and looked at him with confusion.


    "Although I don''t want to admit it, sometimes, there is this brute force that can shatter all kinds of strategy. If you don''t like others, make them submit. If you hate them, kill them." Leonardo raised his finger. "As long as youply with one rule, you can do anything.


    "The rule is simple. There''s no killing in front of another family member, especially in front of me. Even though we are family, jealousy and a few other things can make the rtionship sour. That''s why there is this rule.


    "As long as no one sees it, everything is eptable. Even with my motto, I can''t handle the entire family, especially their emotions. Instead of letting them suppress that and ultimately ruin the entire family, I will allow them to settle it outside the family." He sighed�� "That''s all from me."

 Chapter 528 – Bernard’s Offers

    <h4>Chapter 528 - Bernard��s Offers</h4>


    "��" Theo closed his eyes and learned the hidden meaning in his words. He let out a long sigh and asked, "You''re saying you won''t do anything about this?"


    Leonardo smiled. "I won''t do anything regarding anyone''s matter. That''s for you to solve."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. Thank you for your exnations. I will consider it."


    "Okay then." Leonardo nodded and rose from the couch. "Do you mind if I go around here? Maybe to the garden?"


    "Nope." Theo shook his head while calling his clone to ''guide'' him.


    After seeing him off, Theo turned to Bernard.


    "Oh, me? It''s my turn now, I guess." Bernard calmly put down his sses and said, "Well, my offers are simr to him. But since this is for you, I will reword it.


    "First of all, I will give you ten billion Zils per year. That money is easy for us, especially since both my Star Group and my daughter''s Starry Group are in the Weapon Industry.


    "The same as him, we will allocate more money if you can keep getting stronger. Instead of apetition, we usually have an assessment.


    "I''m sure my daughter has exined it, but yeah, you''re going on a mission every three months. Unless you are doing exceptionally well or have something important to do, you cannot skip the assessment.


    "The second one, I will provide you with all sorts of tutors. If you wish to learn a certain thing, I will provide a Mythical Expert tutor for you every three months, ording to the assessment.


    "I know that not many people can bepared to the War Saint, but I can assure you that I will train all your Five Aspects to a high level. This way, you can go all around the world to learn from various people and be even more adept.


    "As for the third one, we have more Leveling Facility than the War God Family to the point we can schedule more sessions for you. However, I need to mention that high level doesn''t mean powerful prowess. You need to bnce your Five Aspects with your level, or you can''t fight against your enemy at the same level in the future.


    "And we can also provide you with a team that can help you in the long run. Though, I can see that you''re focusing on hunting alone, so I will respect your wish and make an exception for you.


    "You are allowed to hunt alone, but thepany still needs to register your missions and such unless your training is not rted to the schedule of thepany. In other words, your own time.


    "The fourth offer will be the private mansion. It''s basically simr to what your grandfather offered. We will hire anyone you want. Though I just want to remind you not to take someone suspicious inside because reputation is kind of important to us.


    "Last but not least, I will also provide your equipment and skills. Every year, you can request Maya to bring you a particr skill below A Rank or you can consider asking her to bring you into an auction.


    "As for what you need to do to get the skill, I will let your negotiation solve that problem."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I guess the offers can still be negotiated�� But depending on my skill��"


    "Exactly." Bernard nodded.


    "Then I guess we can move to the next section."


    "Sure." Bernard thought for a moment. "I don''t have many requirements to be honest. First of all, it''s the assessment. Yeah, you need to go every three months like I have exined earlier.


    "Second, you can''t leave thepany ten years after bing a Mythical Rank Expert. In other words, even if you go all around the world, you will still be affiliated with us within those ten years.


    "In the end, this is a business for us while you are our investment. Of course, you will pay a certain penalty if you wish to break the contract. The longer you are with us, the higher the penalty is. After all, we have invested so much in you.


    "This one is something that can be negotiated." Bernard let out a long sigh.


    "That''s understandable." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He thought this would be a thirty year contract for him, so he needed to prepare for all this. Still, the offers he gave were indeed tempting even for him.


    "Last but not least, we often hold a certain event together with other influences. So, you may need to participate in that. Depending on the difficulty, you can either exchange it with more resources or your off days."


    "I understand. Competing with each other and holding a joint mission are something I can rte to, especially for a big influence." Theo smiled.


    He could understand the fact that the big influences could connect with each other through this type of coboration. Although it would be slightly annoying to him, he could make a connection in this event.


    After all, that was how he made "friends" with Maya or Agata. The Grand Gaia Competition simply gave them the ce to do it.


    "Yeah. We usually won''t be pulling you to the business world, but sometimes, you need to go for a business trip. But yeah, it''s not that often, and not many will be chosen, so you can be at ease.


    "Also, you will be under my daughter''s Starry Group since she will be the one who handles all your matters. My Star Group will simply support you from behind.


    "Of course, you can even be a CEO if you marry my daughter. She doesn''t even have any interest in men, you see�� I am just afraid the bloodline will die on her." He sighed.


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she stomped her father''s foot. "Be serious!"


    "I am serious!" Bernard raised both hands as if she wronged him. "How many guys have cried after meeting you? How about stopping being so ruthless? Arrogant is not the same as ruthless��"


    Listening to this conversation, Theo simply smiled, not saying anything.

 Chapter 529 – Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 529 - Meeting</h4>


    "First of all, I would like to thank you foring to this small ce," said Theo politely as the two seemed.


    "No problem. I can finally see my grandson with my own eyes, so I already win no matter the result." Leonardoughed nonchntly while resting his hand on Bernard''s shoulder, looking at him with a smug smile.


    Bernard looked away while hitting Leonardo''s hand, pushing it away. He then turned to Theo with a serious expression. "Anyway, I have presented you with my offers. I believe this is a suitable offer for you, so yeah, choose wisely."


    "I will. Let me think about it first before choosing it." Theo smiled.


    "Of course."


    "By the way, I have a question." Theo asked, "What is your country''s take in having a monster as a pet?"


    "A monster as a pet?" Bernard widened his eyes and thought for a moment. Theo seemed to be nning an even more ridiculous idea than he originally thought. "You mean something like a Monster Trainer?"


    Leonardo pointed at Bernard as if he agreed with him. "Every job from the temple is just a way to simplify things. For example, a magician, there are different types of magicians from their Control, Affinity, and so on, resulting in so many branches from this. I mean, there are some who are mixing monsters'' blood. We call them alchemists.


    "Simr to them, Summoner also has branches. From a normal summoner to a monster specialist, who improves the monster''s rank or power to the one you mentioned earlier, a monster trainer. They train monsters personally like that of a pet. I''m sure you know that monsters also have intelligence, right?"


    Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "So, it''s normal to have a monster by your side. Of course, you need to register them and everything they do that will endanger other people''s lives, you will be charged with the crime. It includes destroying public stuff. That''s why unless you''re confident with your monster, you can''t bring your monster outside." He exined.


    "I see." Theo nodded and looked down. "Is that applied globally?"


    "I think both of our countries have simr regtions about this one, so yeah." Bernard acknowledged it.


    "Okay. Thank you so much for the exnation."


    "No problem. If you have nothing to say, I would like to take my leave. Just contact me if you agree to my condition, and I will draft the contract for you immediately." Bernard rose from his seat and extended his hand.


    "I understand." Theo shook his hand with a smile.


    After that, Bernard and Maya left the house.


    Seeing them leaving, Leonardo decided to do the same because he had another thing to do after this.


    ��


    As soon as he came out, he looked at the sky while muttering, "I wonder where I should go this time��"


    "Hmm?" Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and looked to the east. "I see��"


    He turned around and looked at Agata, "Go back first. I need to settle a few things."


    "I understand." Agata agreed and saw him disappear.


    A few minutester.


    Leonardo was standing in the middle of nowhere. He was on the other side after getting baited to this ce by a certain couple.


    "Well, well�� Since you have invited me to this ce, why don''t youe out?" Leonardo looked forward while saying nonchntly.


    Suddenly, Ray and Valerie appeared before him.


    "So, does anyone want to exin to me how on earth the situation has gone to this state?" Leonardo squinted his eyes. Even though he wanted to be carefree like how he approached Theo, he needed to maintain his dignity in this conversation.


    "I really want to know why you chose this n? I''m sure that you two could see what kind of suffering he needs to endure before even making this n, right?" Leonardo nced at the woman. "Valerie! Answer me."


    Unfortunately, Valerie only looked down, not saying anything.


    "You could even make a n that will result in Theo living happily. Also, you coulde to me�� I can help you create a n. Ray, talk to me, will you?" Leonardo red at him.


    He met another period of silence.


    "No one wants to say anything?" Leonardo let out a long sigh. He suddenly realized another thing. "Hey, I think you''re prioritizing the wrong thing. I can understand that you want to end that curse, so Theo''s descendants won''t need to suffer the same thing.


    "Unfortunately, you can''t do a thing if Theo doesn''t even want to have a family because of his sufferings. I have seen him face to face, and all I can say is, he has trust issues, especially ones rted to the family.


    "Despite seeing his current state, none of you want to exin to me the situation?" Leonardo kept telling them off while asking the same question.


    "I am sorry, Father. We can''t say it, even if it''s you." Valerie shook her head, finally opening her mouth.


    "You can''t?" Leonardo squinted his eyes before scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, I won''t be exining how to teach your kid because it''s your way of parenting. All I can do is to act as Theo''s grandfather and won''t interfere with whatever you two or Theo will do to each other."


    He paused for a moment before a sword appeared on his hand. He stabbed the ground and ced both hands on the handle. "Still, I also have my own way of parenting. Right here, right now, I am going to teach both of you a life lesson."


    Suddenly, the Magic Power fluctuated in the area as a humanoid figure appeared behind Leonardo.


    It had a muscr body that was covered with golden armor. He wore a helmet that hid his face. However, the most noticeable thing was none other than the massive sword on his hands.


    Leonardo tapped the ground twice as a series of blue lines came out of the sword and spread in the entire area, creating 64 squares like that of a chessboard.


    In that instant, more and more humanoid figures emerged from the square.


    Ray and Valerie were trembling as this was the famous War Saint''s Grand Chest. He wasn''t known as the strongest man in Italy for nothing.


    "Now�� It''s time I teach both of you a little bit," said Leonardo as he widened his eyes, releasing an invisible pressure from his gaze.

 Chapter 530 – Theo’s View

    <h4>Chapter 530 - Theo��s View</h4>


    An hourter.


    Valerie, dded in white armor,id down on the ground with bruises and blood flowing out of her mouth. There were some parts of the body broken from the fight.


    Ray was in a worse situation than her as his right arm bent weirdly and his head was nted on the ground.


    Leonardo, who caused all this, stood as if nothing had happened. He let out a long sigh and said, "I have gotten the gist of what''s going on from your expressions and my point still stands.


    "When you meet him, I bet with my life on the line that he will break down no matter how hard he tries to hide it. What you are doing is not wrong, but what you have done to Theo is wrong.


    "He has been strong for too long�� After knowing the truth, it''s weird for the kid not to go insane or fall to the other path. In my whole life, I have been prioritizing my children as if maintaining the big War God Family.


    "There were times I admitted defeat to save my children and I believe it''s not wrong. I don''t know how you made this decision, but I am just going to tell you�� I am not on anybody''s side. I am not on Theo''s side or your side.


    "Whatever your family�� I don''t think I should use this word anymore. Whatever you two do as his parents no longer concern me. Whatever Theo wishes to do against his parents is also not my concern.


    "All I can say is, I will take care of Theo if hees to me. I may not be able to rece his eighteen years of suffering, but I can at least give him some happy memories."


    Leonardo closed his eyes and walked without looking back. "Everything has its purpose, including me beating you two up. Just like you don''t want to tell me the reason for your choice, you will also need to understand everything I have done. If you don''t like this one, then take revenge on me when you''re stronger.


    "After all, every action has a consequence. And what you have done is not an instant beating but long torture. Remember it." Leonardo sighed. "Farewell, kids."


    Leonardo disappeared as the two couldn''t move their bodies for a while, not because of their injuries, but due to his lesson.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo was standing next to the pool, thinking about his offers.


    Looking at the sky, he muttered, "The War God Family''s offers don''t give me much�� Well, I think it''s normal for Mythical Rank Experts. I mean, three billion Zils alone can give me around thirty B Rank Skills or two to three B Rank Skills per month.


    "In three years, I will be able to save up to buy an A Rank skill. However, this amount can be achieved by joining the Starry Group. On the other hand, I think I can learn so much from the War God Family. The only problem is that�� It feels like I am walking on a thread.


    "If I make a small mistake, I will drop to the bottom of the cliff because the enemies I will face are undoubtedly smarter. They may even make themselves appear dumb while doing something in my back.


    "I can somehow escape from them by getting three Individual Missions�� Hmm, this is interesting." Theo narrowed his eyes as if thinking about something.


    After a while, he said, "Well, the leveling facility is nice, but I don''t think I need it that much. First of all, I need to pair up with someone to do that, so it''s not that effective, considering I can level up much faster by going alone unless they''re helping me defeat a far stronger monster. There''s no way someone will do that; it''s not like they''re Alea or Ellen.


    "In that case, I should negotiate this one since it''s not usable for me." Theo smiled and recounted the offers. "Still, I am interested in going to another country. This way, I can learn their tradition and how they use their power. I mean, they have their own cultures, so they should have something unique.


    "I will learn from them and increase my strength. And the War God Family seems to be more flexible for something like this.


    "There''s also the fact I need to stay for another ten years after bing a Mythical Rank for the Star Group. I can understand their point since they can''t im I am their family like the War God Family, but reaching Mythical Rank alone will take a long time, and this feels like being bound to them.


    "In the meantime, every achievement I make, they''re going to take advantage of it seriously. They also said they wouldn''t throw me into their business, but the possibility is there. They may even make an advertisement with me. I can negotiate to get more money, but I also need to put this into consideration for now.


    "On the plus side, I can grow much faster in the Starry Group. I can even use all that money to go overseas to search for a unique way to utilize my own power.


    "Hmm��" Theo pondered for a moment and drew a conclusion. "So, the War God Family basically offers me an average reward with more flexibility while the Star�� or Starry Group provides me a vast amount of resources, but with a long contract and slightly annoying schedule. This is a hard choice.


    "Well, in the War God Family, I may need to face a bigger ordeal since if they be my enemy, they will be an even stronger opponent than those in the Star Group. So, both offers are equal."


    Theo began to think about his future. He realized he shouldn''t see only the benefits from joining the contract but what he truly needed.


    This thought made the offers even moreplicated, but he believed he wouldn''t regret the choice.


    After a while, Theo sighed. "Well, it''s not like I am forced to choose the contract immediately. There is still a month to wait for the contract while waiting for Ava�� I will consider it carefully."

 Chapter 531 – Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 531 - Reunion</h4>


    Knowing he didn''t need to rush to make a decision, Theo continued his training. He split his every day''s schedule into three. In the morning, he practiced his Materialization. This was the most important time of the day because it was one of Theo''s offensive abilities.


    After that, he continued in training his Awareness to the limit. He did everything ording to the Pope''s advice.


    Last but not least, he tried to improve his skills, especially his new Illusion Construct.


    These three became his daily routines.


    Thest few days felt so calm that it infuriated him, thinking it was just the calm before the storm. After all, he was going to meet with his parents in just a few weeks.


    He didn''t have the mood to level up, considering he also had increased his level too fast during a short period.


    He simply used the rest of his time to either distract him with training or calm his heart down.


    And the days continued so fast that Theo soon realized he was only a few hours away from his birthday.


    When the night before his birthday came, Theo didn''t have any preparation to wee his parents, who seemed to be nning to meet him.


    Theo just sat down on his couch, staring at the clock with nk eyes.


    The clock kept turning as there were only five minutes before midnight.


    He didn''t know why but the weather felt a bit colder than other nights, but his mind was clear.


    He simply waited for midnight toe.


    3��


    2��


    1��


    00:00


    The moment he saw the day had changed, Theo closed his eyes while clenching his hands.


    Just like how he expected, he felt a gentle breeze from his yard as two people entered his house.


    He reopened his eyes and turned to the two people in the house, finding a man and a woman walking toward him.


    Ray''s face had yet to change from thest photo he had with them. His hair still resembled his and his body had yet to change. He wore a blue shirt and long white pants, appearing to be a normal man.


    The same applied to Valerie. She had a in one-piece dress reaching her knees while trying her hair into a ponytail. Her sharp gaze was looking at him with so much emotion reflected in her eyes.


    However, Theo didn''t share the same sentiment. His eyes were cold, devoid of emotion.


    Despite the hatred and disappointment in his heart, Theo''s mind was so calm that he didn''t know why he should get angry at them. It felt like he didn''t care anymore.


    Instead of getting angry and pushing them away, he thought he could do something better in this situation.


    Staring at their appearances, Theo said with a cold tone. "I guess living has been easy for you both in the past sixteen years."


    Ray and Valerie didn''t say a single thing. They knew there was no justification for what they had done.


    "Why are you two not talking?" Theo kept running his mouth without changing his poker face. "Isn''t it the tradition of the Griffith Family to send someone to exin everything to me about their family?"


    Ray and Valerie''s bodies shook as they caught Theo''s hidden meaning. He just deemed them as someoneing from the Griffith Family, not his parents.


    Ray clenched his hands and said, "First of all, happy birthday, Theo��"


    The moment he heard those words, Theo raised his hand and his voice at the same time. "Please address me respectfully, Mr. Griffith."


    Shocks were nted on his eyes as Theo just made clear they had no rtion.


    "We''re here to talk about the Griffith Family, right?" Theo red at them. "Then, please start. I would rather sleep than watch both of you not saying anything for a few minutes."


    "��" Ray''s heart felt as if it was gripped by an invisible hand and was about to crush it. Even then, he calmed his heart down and started talking. "I understand. There are three main pieces of information regarding the Griffith Family."


    He raised his three fingers and exined them, "They are tradition, rule, and strength. I will exin it one by one.


    "There is one tradition with several conditions. The tradition is�� every childing from the main family shall leave the family until they are eighteen years old.


    "Then, there are four conditions. Everyone is in an equal position for the family head status and shall be the focus of monitoring. Second, killing any Griffith Family sessor candidate is illegal. Whoever tries to kill them shall be the target of the Griffith Family''s wrath; no exception is allowed.


    "Third, not a single mention about the Griffith Family to each candidate, including spreading hate, belief, or good image. Everything shall be left to the hand of the sessor.


    "Fourth, there won''t be any helping from the Griffith Family, especially resources. Any help needed will be judged by the branch of the Griffith Family or its vassals in that particr country.


    "These are the four primary conditions you need to follow. There are many minor conditions, and you can learn them inside the family.


    "And this is what has bound you for thest eighteen years." Ray stopped for a moment, letting Theo understand the information.


    Theo looked at him with a bored look as if he had spected it.


    Although he didn''t know every single condition, he had anticipated something like this. Ne had also given him a few pieces of information regarding these conditions from her research.


    "If you wish to participate in the realpetition of the sessor''s candidate, you are required to choose the Griffith Family for your future and you are not allowed to join another influenceter on, or the entire family will hunt you down."


    "As I said, there are a few more ''conditions,'' but you are only allowed to know it after joining the family." Ray shook his head, indirectly implying there were more severe conditions he couldn''t say from his mouth. And those who had joined the Griffith Family would surely not spread that kind of information.


    Still, Theo could only look at him while asking with a poker face. "That''s it?"

 Chapter 532 – Rules

    <h4>Chapter 532 - Rules</h4>


    "That''s it?"


    When Ray heard those words, he was bewildered, wondering what was inside Theo''s mind. However, this was also the result of his action.


    Due to the hardship he endured since his childhood, Theo was required to grow up a bit faster than many others to survive. Instead of a conversation between a father and a child, this talk had turned into a conversation between two equals.


    Ray closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart down a bit more. He should have expected this when he met Theo again, so it only took him a few seconds to return to normal.


    Ultimately, Ray nodded, "Yes. That''s all I can tell you regarding the tradition. Anything else will be for you to explore aftering to the Griffith Family."


    "Okay. Continue." Theo nodded with a calm expression. "You said something about the rules? What are the rules?"


    "There are five major rules in the family. First, you must put the Griffith Family above everything�� Above your family, your religion, your needs, whatever. The Family will always be the first in your heart.


    "Second, you''re not allowed to kill other family members. Everything will be decided by the elder council. You can only send proof about the deeds and the person will be put on trial.


    "Third rule is�� After joining the family, you are free to pick up your spouse from a specific country chosen by the Griffith Family.


    "Fourth, all family members shall be supported by the Griffith Family to the best of their abilities. Those who are strong and talented enough shall have their ce in the family.


    "Five, no information about the Griffith Family shall be spread to other people unless they''re a part of the Griffith Family."


    Theo already furrowed his eyebrows the moment he heard the first rule. He muttered inwardly, ''Put the family above everything? The second rule is understandable, but the third rule�� that must be why my�� father left the Griffith Family in the first ce.


    ''The fourth rule is a need or this entire rule section will look bad. At that time, nothing will convince them toe to the family. However, in the end, they will get daily doctrines with the first rule, making them an asset for the family. So, either way, the Griffith Family takes it all. It''s not like they can join another influence after bing the Griffith Family member.


    ''Last but not least, the fifth one�� The selection process of bing the main family member is already this harsh, so it''s hard for a spy to join.


    ''If I take the fact that most of the sessor candidates are chosen from the direct bloodline�� With the support of the Griffith Family, all those people will surely be Mythical Rank Experts. In that case, the number of Mythical Rank Experts in the family far exceeds that of a normal big influence.


    ''Those cannon fodders wille from the three vassal families. In other words, the Griffith Family is the ce for elites with their members reaching Mythical Rank or close to it at the end of their journey.


    ''There''s no wonder the three vassals agree with the family. If they can join the main family, they can be powerful experts, especially talented ones.


    ''Still, no matter the benefits, everything will result in the first rule.'' Theo suddenly came to a realization. ''Is this the reason why they are forbidden to mention anything about the Griffith Family?


    ''No matter what everyone says, the sessor candidates need to choose something like this on their eighteenth birthday. Even if they have a brain and they are still barely an adult. Their greed will be limitless.


    ''I don''t take myself as an example because of my bad childhood, but others surely have a better life than me. Their image of the Griffith Family won''t be that bad. At the same time, those people choose a big country because most of their big influences know the presence of the Griffith Family.


    ''This will make the candidates too proud of their status. If you have been fed something like that since childhood, of course, you will join the Griffith Family.


    ''Meanwhile, my childhood was a mess. There''s no way I can say the Griffith Family is good, unlike those ignorant people who will end up getting tricked into joining the family and fed those doctrines, ultimately bing the people of the Griffith Family.


    ''Is this the reason for everything? Is this the reason for my bad childhood? I can understand their aim, but I can''t understand why they proceeded to this extent. If they want to pain the Griffith Family in a bad light, there are many ways to do it.


    ''So, why?'' Theo gritted his teeth. His heart started getting restless, affected by his own thoughts. Even if he managed to stay calm this whole time, when the disappointment returned to his heart, he couldn''t help but have a heart movement.


    The disappointment woke up the rage he tried to bury for this conversation.


    Still, after growing this far, Theo managed to calm his heart down while only clenching his hands to suppress his feelings.


    He still needed to know everything that could be told before he decided everything.


    Taking a few deep breaths, Theo finally asked thest question. "And their strength?"


    "There is this thing called World Ranking. This is to rank all Mythical Rank Experts around the world based on their abilities. Our families have forty people among one thousand in that list."


    Ray indirectly implied that they were among the top influences. If he took into ount the number of Mythical Rank Experts in the world and other big influences that could rival the Griffith Family, having forty people on that list alone already showed their strength.


    With only one statement, Theo understood why the Griffith Family was terrifying. If Theo were an ignorant boy, he would join the Griffith Family because the family would help him be one of those one thousand people.


    After all, it meant they were one of the strongest people on Earth. There was no way they would let go of this opportunity.


    However, there wasn''t a single smile on Theo''s face. He simply red at Ray with so much hatred as if he was thinking about something.

 Chapter 533 – Sadness

    <h4>Chapter 533 - Sadness</h4>


    "Is that all you want to say?" Theo asked with a cold tone.


    "The Griffith Family will help you to be one of those one thousand people. Wherever you go, people will realize your identity. You will be famous worldwide."


    Theo obviously didn''t believe it. If that were the case, the Griffith Family would have let go of their title as a hidden family.


    He knew they needed to get an alias to be on that list. In other words, they would be famous with that alias instead of being from the Griffith Family.


    However, it also meant no one would know who came from the Griffith Family and who didn''t. It would be troublesome for their enemies because they might backstab you at any moment.


    ''Assassinating, espionage, and something simr��'' Theo muttered inwardly, ''No wonder they''re among the best. With this amount of power andck of information about their real identity, it''s not easy to destroy this family.


    ''Also, I heard something about this Mind Elder. Only the Griffith Family knows about his real identity, so that person can suddenlye to me and brainwash me without even my knowledge. In other words, he may be the most dangerous person in the family.''


    "That''s all I want to say. Now, I need to hear your decision." Ray looked Theo in the eyes.


    Theo closed his eyes for a few seconds before asking, "Is this something I can ask for time to think?"


    "No. We need your answer right now."


    This was thest trick they had in order to force the ignorant people to join the Griffith Family. They pressured them into epting it by not giving them time to think rationally.


    With many thoughts in their mind, they would surely ept the offer.


    Unfortunately for them, this didn''t work for Theo. He answered without hesitation. "No. I won''t join the Griffith Family."


    "��" Ray fell silent for a minute before tapping his chest twice. "The proof has been acquired. Theodore Griffith can still bear the Griffith Family name, but he won''t be one of the Griffith''s. He also won''t receive any benefits from the Griffith Family."


    Theo felt a bit relieved. There was no way the Griffith Family didn''t monitor him, so this proof made sense to him.


    Still, Theo was stunned by the next thing they said.


    "Any question?"


    Those two words pierced through his heart as he looked down while clenching his hands. His body started shaking due to one particr question in his mind.


    "Why��"


    Ray gulped down when he heard that word.


    Theo mmed the table that separated both of them while openly showing his anger. He raised his head and shouted, "Why?! Why did you do all this? I don''t need sh*ts like ''We do it for you'' or ''You don''t know what''s the best for you!'' I know everything."


    Ray and Valerie gritted their teeth. Just like Leonardo, they wanted to tell Theo everything. However, they couldn''t do it because it would defeat the purpose.


    Theo shouldn''t have the change of opinion because the Griffith Family would undoubtedly make another exception, like when Ray rejoined the family.


    Valerie steeled her resolve and said, "You don''t need to know."


    That reply broke his rationality as Theo suddenly rose from the seat while releasing his power.


    Suddenly, Valerie felt as if a truck had just hit her and blown her away to the wall. Valerie just dropped to her knees and stayed there.


    After blowing her away with his Telekinesis, Theo jumped toward his father and punched him right in the face, pushing him down to the ground.


    He sat on top of his stomach and continuously punched him. "Why?!"


    "Why did you need to do all this to me?"


    "Why don''t you exin it to me?"


    "Do you have no trust in me?"


    "I am your freaking son!"


    "I have be an adult, and I know what I can tell other people and what type of stuff I shouldn''t tell others!"


    "If you can''t even trust your son, why do you even have me in the first ce?"


    Every time he said something, he would couple it with another punch on Ray''s face.


    As if having the intention to pay for his sins, Ray didn''t even put up a guard and let Theo hit him with all his strength. Blood soon started flowing out of his mouth and nose, but Theo had no sign of stopping.


    While grabbing his cor, Theo continued to let go of all of his feelings pent up this whole time. Even then, every punch he threw felt like he was hitting a metal spike. It hurt not only his hand but his heart.


    "Hey, tell me. What''s the use of having a son like me?"


    "If you just want to torture me, you should say so."


    "There''s also my bro�� Edward Griffith�� If he''s here to watch me, is there even a need for me to know him?"


    "Why don''t you just send me to an orphanage instead of letting me live with him for seven years and just forcing me to not have the option to go to an orphanage?"


    "You two are supposed to be top talents in the entire world, right?"


    "Why are you not saying anything?"


    "He said you have been watching over me through this sh*tty pocket watch�� But do you know how many times I thought aboutmitting suicide?"


    "Do you know how unbearable it was to have a hope to reunite with your brother, only to find he''s not even your brother?"


    "Do you know how much I have suffered this whole time?"


    "Everything would have be so much better if I only had you two in my life."


    "I could endure the bullying or the fact I couldn''t eat well."


    "I just wanted someone in my life who could say everything was going to be alright."


    "I wanted someone to return to��"


    Theo kept punching Ray, whose face was already covered with blood. Still, each punch just made Theo even sadder.


    "Where were you when I needed you the most?"


    "Why did you even need to fake your own death?"


    "If you don''t tell me anything, how can I understand you?"


    "Don''t give me false hope."


    "I am sick of being lied to."


    "If you�� If you hate me that much�� Why do you even need to torture me? You don''t need to torture me��" Theo suddenly stopped while grabbing his cor. He looked down as tears were flowing down. At the very end, he raised his head, looking his father in the eyes.


    Sadness and disappointment filled Theo''s expression as he ultimately said with a shaking voice�� "No need to torture me�� Please�� Please just kill me�� Dad."

 Chapter 534 – Sorting His Thoughts

    <h4>Chapter 534 - Sorting His Thoughts</h4>


    "Please just kill me�� Dad."


    Hisst sentence hit the hardest.


    Theo told them not to consider him their son anymore because he didn''t want to know parents like them.


    Yet, he dropped a bomb by calling Ray "Dad" instead of his name like his brother. And the words that apanied it were to kill him.


    Even Ray''s body started shaking as his original intention in doing all this was to protect Theo. Valerie couldn''t contain her tears anymore as she could see Theo''s words were not out of anger. He truly meant it.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo didn''t give them more time. He punched the floor to stop his anger and closed his eyes before getting up.


    "You have done your job from the Griffith Family�� It''s time for both of you to leave." His feet became limp as he stumbled on the table and instinctively jumped up to let him fall on the couch instead of the table.


    Ray and Valerie instinctively raised their hands as if they wanted to catch him, but they knew they already had no ce in Theo''s life.


    "Leave!" Theo shouted once more while openly showing his anger.


    Ray and Valerie looked down and rose from the floor.


    Before leaving, Theo said onest piece. "From this point onward, I am an orphan. My parents�� My parents have died since I was two years old. I know nothing about both of you, and if you are in my way, I will�� kill you."


    "��" Ray and Valerie halted for a moment before walking out of the house, with Valerie helping Ray to walk.


    The moment they disappeared from the house, an unbearable sense of longing and emptiness struck his heart. Theo couldn''t help but clutch his head, wanting everything to be over.


    Despite having the strength to beat him up, Theo could see that Ray didn''t even protect himself. It was clear he was ready to die if Theo really wanted to kill him earlier.


    That was thest thing stopping him from doing anything further. All he wanted was a time to be alone, sorting his thoughts through the night while shedding tears.


    Unknowingly, he passed out due to all the shocks, leaning on the couch alone.


    He woke up at noon, staring at the ceiling with nk eyes. If he took a look at himself in the mirror, he would see a mess.


    Nevertheless, Theo''s mind had be even clearer. There was no more attachment to this so-called family.


    From today onwards, Theo was just an orphan without any acquaintance in this world. He wasn''t the son of the Griffith Family, nor was he the person of the War God Family.


    He let go of everything.


    He felt a bit bad for Leonardo, but he had no more feelings for him than being an elder.


    With all this "family" stuff out of his mind, he could somehow see the offers objectively.


    All he needed to do was to wait for Ava.


    In the meantime, he tried to practice again to distract his thoughts, but in the end, he was overwhelmed by what happened that night.


    Theo ultimately postponed all sorts of training until he cleared his mind.


    Of course, Theo spared no efforts in resolving the lingering thought by meditating.


    After a long two days, Theo had resolved most of his thoughts before he received a notification.


    Trial: Choose a country


    Reward: Meeting Hel


    "Is it really the time for something like this?" Theo muttered, confused by this timing.


    He just got over the emotional roller coaster, and the Goddess of Death had started pushing him again in this matter.


    He thought it might be rted to the requirement, but he didn''t know what she wanted.


    To his surprise, another notification appeared.


    [If you want to distract yourself and get over your feelings, you shoulde here. I will help you by giving you a ton of work.]


    "��" Theo was speechless when he read the message. Although it was true that he could distract his thoughts that way, he didn''t want to waste the chance of learning from Hel. Hence, he didn''t wish to head over there until he finished sorting out his thoughts.


    "I apologize, but I don''t wish to get distracted by this feeling when learning from you. If I go there, it will be when I''m ready to go. Sorry."


    After that apology, there was no more notification. He didn''t know whether she was disappointed or satisfied with his response, but Theo just did whatever he needed to do.


    It took him another two days to finally resolve his feelings.


    "Huft�� This is good enough." Theo took a deep breath with his eyes closed. He had been meditating in his yard while feeling the breeze to calm his mind for a while.


    "Well, I have chosen the ce I want to be, so I can immediately ask for the contract and pack up my things. Also, I will get the reward while waiting for Ava." He thought for a moment. "I guess that''s all my n. Let''s go back to the house."


    When he was about to get up, he sensed a presence standing behind him. Despite not looking at her, Theo already knew the identity of the person who visited him.


    "For what reason, you areing here?" asked Theo with a tone devoid of all emotions. He remembered she was a person rted to the Griffith Family. On top of that, she was also Alea''s grandmother. "Elder Nina."


    "��" Nina closed her eyes, understanding Theo''s state of mind. She realized how much everything affected him, so Nina answered with a serious expression. "I won''t be here for too long. I only have one purpose here."


    As if seeing his master''s conviction, Theo agreed, turned around and looked her in the eyes. "May I know what it is, Elder Nina?"


    "This may probably be thest thing I can do for you��" Nina took out a notebook and a bracelet.


    "They are��" Theo narrowed his eyes and inspected the two items.


    Nina offered her best smile even though it looked awkward. "These are your birthday presents. Happy birthday, Theo�� You''re an adult now."

 Chapter 535 – Meeting Hel

    <h4>Chapter 535 - Meeting Hel</h4>


    "Ehm��" Theo looked at her with a weird expression. He looked down for a moment, contemting his choice.


    "I have two questions that I would like you to answer."


    "Ask away." Nina nodded.


    "First question�� Is it fun for you to know my situation?" Theo asked as he couldn''t help but recall the time they spent together.


    Despite knowing the entire situation now, the memory he had together with Nina was real to him.


    After hearing Theo''s question, Nina closed her eyes and said, "When observing you, I have found your little rabbit�� If I hit her several times, what would you feel?"


    Theo let out a long sigh. The answer was obvious, but no words came out of his mouth for a while.


    "Then my second question is�� Are their words absolute to you?" Theo asked.


    Nina flinched as she never thought Theo would ask this question. "Before knowing everything, what would you do if someone saved you and your brother?"


    "I guess that''s how you want to y." Theo turned back as he finally stopped looking at her. "What are they?"


    "You can understand when you''re reading the notebook. As for the bracelet, it''s a spear that can help you channel your Magic Power better. Just don''t forget to not rely on it all the time. You will understand after experiencing it."


    "Okay." Theo nodded. "Thank you for the gifts�� And also, thank you for everything."


    He almost forgot one thing as he looked down and reached for his pocket watch. Because he was too sentimental a few days ago, he had forgotten about this, so he thought this was a chance to return it instead of handing it to the Eilric Familyter.


    Theo tossed the pocket watch to Nina. "I won''t be needing this anymore."


    Nina caught the pocket watch and turned around. "I guess this is goodbye. I wish you a better future."


    Before Nina left, Theo added, "You and Alea are different."


    Nina widened her eyes for a second before a small smile appeared on her face. She then disappeared, leaving Theo alone.


    Theo sighed, seeing his world had broken apart. He had left everything behind�� His brother, his master, his parents.


    There was some sort of relief in his eyes, thinking he had nothing that chained him down anymore.


    "From this point on, I will be living for myself and my future." Theo looked at the sky and raised his hand as if trying to reach it. "I won''t let anyone stop me."


    After calming his heart down for onest time, Theo finally stood up and waved his right hand.


    The bracelet and the notebook flew to his hands.


    "Well, I will read itter." Theo shook his head and turned to the bracelet.


    He carefully inspected it but found nothing wrong. He could even ask some experts about this bracelet whether he was being monitored or not.


    For the time being, he wore the bracelet and took the book inside.


    After that, he grabbed his Skylink and sent a confirmation, asking them for a contract. He already had made his decision.


    With this action, he hadpleted his trial.


    Trial: Choose a country (Complete)


    Reward: Meeting Hel


    The tingling sensation began to influence his head as Theo hurriedly walked to his bedroom, locked himself inside, and sat on his bed.


    "It''s time to meet her." Theo closed his eyes for a second before finding a bright light trying to enter his vision.


    Theo raised his hand and covered his eyes, trying to adjust his eyes with this brightness. However, the light soon disappeared as Theo lowered his hand, finding himself standing in the middle of a grasnd.


    This was none other than the grasnd he used to meet the others.


    Suddenly, a female''s voice echoed in his ears, saying, "You''re finally here."


    Theo turned around out of reflex and saw a woman with long ck hair. Her deep green eyes looked at him, making him feel a bit nervous.


    She wore a one-piece green dress that reached her knees and was covered with a long ck robe tied on her waist. The robe couldn''t hide her enchanting curves. Instead, it boosted her charm even more, making Theo think it was no wonder she was described as one of the most beautiful Goddesses in mythology.


    Hearing her words, Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Yes. I apologize if I took too long."


    "No need to think about it. If you think your decision is right, there''s no need to apologize." She smiled. "We are here to support you."


    "Thank you." Theo made a small smile.


    She then stopped mentioning his problem and changed the topic. "Since you are here, I am going to tell you something good, especially since you have started training your Awareness and Control to this degree."


    "I will be in your care." Theo prepared himself to listen to her lessons. He had gained so much from Fenrir, so he thought this would be the same or even better, considering she was one of the strongest Goddesses.


    "What I want to teach you is how to use your Awareness in an even better way. Since little Fen has taught you Control, I will teach you the second aspect, Awareness. This is going to be torture for you, so I want to warn you first."


    "I am ready for everything." Theo looked into her eyes. Now that he had dropped everything, his eyes only saw the future. Whether he failed or not, he would try it.


    Hel stopped for a moment before nodding her head. "Alright. I will be teaching you for four hours, but it''s going to be a hard lecture. Also, I will demonstrate everything to you until you can replicate a little bit of that strength. Though, mastering it is going to be a problem."


    Theo thought for a moment and agreed, "I will be in your care. I promise I won''t give up on mastering it since I believe it will be useful for me."


    "Alright. Let''s begin the lecture��" Hel smiled as if she felt excited about this lesson.

 Chapter 536 – Awareness

    <h4>Chapter 536 - Awareness</h4>


    "Then do you know anything about Awareness?" She first asked Theo''s understanding of the Awareness.


    Theo looked down, contemting his answer. "Awareness is rted to our senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. We can increase our vision range, be more sensitive to touch, smell, and taste, and improve our hearing.


    "After doing the basics, we can then step from inner to outer. In other words, we can see something from another perspective, feeling the touch, smelling the scent, or tasting something far away from our body. The same applies to the hearing.


    "Only after that time will we break our limit," answered Theo while recalling the stuff he learned from the book.


    "That''s good enough." Hel nodded in agreement before pointing at him. "Now that you have started training the first stage of Awareness, I am going to teach you the second step. How to channel your senses to your surroundings, including other people."


    Theo took a deep breath and asked, "Is this simr to killing intent?"


    "Yes, but no." Hel shook her head and released her killing intent.


    Theo sucked a cold breath as he felt enveloped by this killing intent as if thousands of needles were piercing his skin. His body refused to move out of fear and his heart started beating rapidly.


    Suddenly, the killing intent disappeared and Theo fell to his knees. His forehead was covered with sweat as he panted. "That is killing intent��"


    "Yes. Well, I have seen billions of deaths, so you shouldn''tpare yourself to me." She waved her hand as if telling Theo to stay focused on his own level. "However, this is also a killing intent."


    She looked Theo in the eyes as thetter was stunned for a split second.


    In that instant, his consciousness returned to the same blood sea with only darkness in his vision.


    Before he experienced death, Theo had returned to the grasnd.


    He came to a realization and stuttered, "You�� You want�� to teach me�� thetter?"


    "Correct." She smiled. "What''s the difference between the first one and the second one?"


    Theo looked down and said, "Illusion?"


    "No. You are wrong." She paused for a moment and gave a hint to Theo. "What have you practiced until now?"


    "What have I practiced?" Theo muttered before drawing a gasp. "Control?! No, to be more specific, it''s Magic Power."


    "As expected, I like your brain." She licked her lips. "That''s right. It''s Magic Power. What will happen if you gather the Magic Power?"


    "They will be visible to naked eyes."


    "Exactly." She raised her finger and formed a small blue ball. "This is Magic Power. But��"


    She pointed her finger to Theo and shot the blue light at him. However, it suddenly disappeared after flying for a few feet.


    "It''s gone, but��" She smiled and looked at Theo mysteriously.


    To his surprise, Theo felt something on his forehead. Although it meant no harm, he indeed felt something.


    "This is��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "That wasn''t Telekinesis�� Instead, it was External Flow."


    "Exactly." She smiled and released the same killing intent. "Instead of creating something powerful with your Magic Power, you should use your Magic Power like it''s a thread of hair. The movement should be quiet and undetected�� And the moment you are about to strike your prey, focus all your power in one go and��"


    Before she finished, Theo blinked his eyes and realized he had returned to the blood sea. This time, his limbs suddenly got severed along with his head.


    "Argh!" Theo screamed but soon saw his lifeless body. It was then he went back to the grasnd.


    He bent his knees and used his hand to support his body while panting. "That is��"


    "Have you understood?"


    Theo clutched his heart while sweating. Even then, he looked at Hel and nodded. "I think. It''s the opposite form of my Control. Normally, I need to gather enough Magic Power to form a weapon. However, what you did earlier��


    "It was forming a small invisible thread that approached me and struck at my consciousness�� Or maybe my mind."


    "I will give you seventy points out of a hundred, I guess." She nodded a few times as if she was satisfied with Theo''s answer. "What has truly happened is�� I ambining my Awareness and killing intent at the same time.


    "This will reinforce the killing intent you want to transmit to others. However, killing intent is not a thing because there''s simply no medium to travel. Due to this limitation, you can only feel scared like the first one.


    "To transmit this killing intent directly to your mind, I need Magic Power as the medium. In order to do that, I need a certain amount of Control to form a thread or you can say a medium and hit their brain. This will enhance the effect even more to the point you will see Death itself!"


    "Amazing." Theo gulped down. "Are you sure I can learn something like this?"


    "Of course." She smiled. "And you should know we have five senses, right?"


    Theo nodded furiously.


    "This one is just from one sense, sight. There are still touch, smell, taste, and hearing. I am going to teach you all the basics within four hours. That''s why I''m saying this is going to be tough�� Are you ready?" She smirked in excitement.


    Theo''s heart started pumping like crazy as his hand clutched his chest. Determination filled his eyes as Theo said, "Yes."


    "Good." Hel pped a few times. "Though, to speed up the process, it''s better for me to let you witness it with your two eyes. For that, I need a volunteer��"


    Suddenly, a ck hole appeared on the ground before a white wolf, who was sleepingfortably, came out of the hole as if it was lifted by the ground.


    Noticing the bright light, the wolf gritted his teeth and screamed, "Who is disturbing my sleep?"


    "It''s me." A female''s voice echoed in his ears as his body trembled.


    He turned his head and saw the female waving her hand. "I need your help. How about we fight for a round?"


    "I refu��" When he was about to reject him, the female''s smile intensified. The more he hesitated, the scarier it became�� After ten seconds, he suddenly kneeled in front of her while saying, "Please take care of me."

 Chapter 537 – Hel Vs Fenrir Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 537 - Hel Vs Fenrir Part 1</h4>


    "Good." She smiled, satisfied. "You''re going to fight me with all your power�� No, wait. Just focus on three skills he has right now. Magic Bullet, Telekinesis, and Blink. I don''t mind about other abilities.


    "As for me, I will choose three skills as well, but I will mainly focus on Awareness." She waved her hand and said, "Understood?"


    "Y-yes." Fenrir nodded furiously.


    Theo widened his eyes because he never saw the proud Fenrir be this docile.


    She turned to Theo and said, "Tell us when you want to start the fight."


    Theo''s expression became serious as he stared at both of them for a few seconds before saying, "Start!"


    Suddenly, the Magic Power fluctuated and shook the ground.


    Fenrir formed two Magic Bullets on top of his head, split them into twenty, and fired them simultaneously.


    Looking at these bullets, Hel took one step to the side and halted her step, not doing anything.


    "Eh?!" Theo widened his eyes and shouted, "There is a Tracking Ability for those bullets!"


    To his surprise, half of the Magic Bullets suddenly curved to follow her movement while the other ten remained in their tracks. But Hel''s action had another purpose.


    The moment the ten bullets curved, it collided with another bullet, creating a chain of explosions with Hel standing before them, uninjured.


    "Wha��" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground.


    "This is the first one." She started exining what had happened. "I was using my sense of smell to understand the Magic Power fluctuation. This way, I knew if there was something in the mix. After that, I located those that were not pure by tasting the Magic Power.


    "Hence, I formted their paths and let them collide with the others. Of course, even though I said smell and taste, I was smelling them through my Magic Power. You will feel a kind of chemistry between the Magic Power to recognize them.


    "The same applies to the taste. I tasted the Magic Power with my own Magic Power,paring both of them. I soon learned all that information. All I can say is, these two are useful in the battle. Understand?"


    Theo shook his head. "Actually, no."


    "Good."


    "Good?" Theo was bewildered by her reply.


    "If you could understand something like that with a single exnation, I am going to test youter. You surely don''t want to lie to me." She smirked.


    Suddenly, Fenrir appeared behind her, trying to strike her head with her paw.


    Before he could hit her, two hands appeared. One hand caught his paw while the other one grasped his neck.


    They were made of bone as the actual body soon came out.


    It was like Theo''s Death Avatar, but this one didn''t have clothes to hide his appearance. Instead, it only had a ragged cape tied to his neck. Red glowing light shone in the eye sockets, looking at Fenrir.


    The skeleton grasped Fenrir and threw him away. Hel raised her voice, "I am still exining my stuff to him!"


    Bam.


    Fenrirnded on the ground and dragged thirty feet, struggling to get up.


    "That is Underworld Dominion��" Theo looked at the skeleton behind her.


    "Yes. It''s my Death Avatar." Hel nodded.


    "It can move?"


    "Of course it can. You were just not qualified to use it yet, so you don''t know its true ability."


    Suddenly, Fenrir let out a howl while clutching his neck. The fur around his neck suddenly withered and his flesh decayed until there was nothing other than the bone connecting his head and body.


    Surprisingly, Fenrir was still alive.


    "Anyway, I will demonstrate it to you for now before exining in detail after this fight. Make sure you watch it, alright?" She smiled.


    Theo nodded furiously, making sure he didn''t miss anything.


    The Magic Power fluctuated as Fenrir summoned another wave of Magic Bullets.


    However, Theo soon widened his eyes because he saw the Magic Bullets turned into a blue-colored sword.


    Followed by a howl, twenty swords flew toward Hel.


    Even though she had felt the power from the twenty swords, Hel remained still as if she wasn''t scared of getting impaled. She simply stared at the swords that soon dispersed to all directions, stabbing the ground.


    The blue swords suddenly turned into a pir of light, shooting to the sky. Each pir of light then formed a screen that connected each other, trapping Hel inside.


    After that, the ground beneath her started to crack as even her Death Avatar lowered his head.


    Theo obviously saw all this and muttered, "I can reshape my Magic Bullets too? He reshaped it to Swords as if trying to hit her, but in reality, he dispersed it to create those pirs of light. By using his Control, he created a barrier and sessfully trapped her.


    "After that, the Telekinesis shows its power and creates a pressure far above its normal state�� After all, when I pushed someone down using my Telekinesis, the pressure that had touched the ground dispersed. To counter that, he created that cage, resulting in a stronger push. So, I can fight like this too��"


    Theo was simply speechless because he finally saw how Fenrir fought. Although he might need a Grandmaster Level Control, if not Perfect Control, to do this, just looking at this scene opened various possibilities in Theo''s mind.


    "Wait a minute�� I know I didn''t have the qualification to control the Death Avatar, but I believe it''s not the Death Avatar that touched him��" Theo drew a gasp.


    "Ho? You realized it?" Hel smiled. "That''s right. I am just using the sense of touch through my Death Avatar, controlling him as if it''s my own body. As for hearing, I am not that good, but you can think of it as listening to the Magic Power vibration. To be honest, smell, taste, and hearing are good to boost your sensitivity toward Magic Power.


    "You can gain a bit more by reaching the Supreme Rank, but I am going to create the foundation for you now." She smiled and raised her hand. "Also, you can use your sense of touch like this."


    The skeleton followed her movement and formed a translucent white half-sphere that expanded continuously, protecting both of them like a barrier.


    It kept expanding until it touched Fenrir''s barrier.


    In only a second, Fenrir''s barrier suddenly cracked as Hel''s spherical barrier shattered Fenrir''s into pieces.

 Chapter 538 – Hel Vs Fenrir Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 538 - Hel Vs Fenrir Part 2</h4>


    "It broke the barrier?" Theo felt a bit excited.


    "There are two different barriers you can create. The first one is something like what Little Fen erected earlier. He controlled his Magic Power to create barriers remotely.


    "Meanwhile, my barrier came from my Awareness, specifically my sense of touch. So, the barrier''s center was me. Anyway, including this barrier, I have shown you all the five senses." Hel finished her exnation with a smile.


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Then what''s about instinct?"


    "Instinct?" Both Hel and Fenrir stopped and nced at him, never expecting that question.


    "I mean, I feel like my instinct bes more sensitive after learning Awareness."


    "Well, it''s thebination of senses." Hel raised five fingers. "Sometimes you see, smell, touch, taste, and hear something. Combining all of them at once will result in you training your instinct. However, this one is a natural process, so I can''t give you any advice regarding this area."


    Theo fell silent for a moment before nodding his head. "I understand."


    "Though I can teach you something else regarding thebination." She suddenly raised her hand.


    Fenrir, who was still standing in front of her, trembled as he felt the powerful fluctuation from the Death Avatar.


    He leaped off the ground as the skeleton''s eyes shot a red-colored beam that cracked the ground upon impact.


    "Something like this could be done as well."


    "Aser beam?" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting they could do something like that.


    "That''s right. I wasbining my sense of touch and sight together. With the help of the Magic Power, I could create something like that."


    "Wait��" Theo clutched his head, realizing the sound didn''te from her. Instead, it was directly transmitted to his mind. "Telepathy?"


    "That''s thebination of hearing, taste, and Control." She smiled. "There are so manybinations you can explore. That''s why I said it''s going to take so long for you to master it. For now, I want you to focus one sense at a time and work your way to my level, understand?"


    "Y-yes," Theo hurriedly replied. He couldn''t help but feel excited when he saw all this. He didn''t know how many years or even decades it would take, but he believed he could do something like this.


    Suddenly, Fenrir created another surprise when he summoned two Magic Bullets. The two bullets suddenly collided with each other.


    Instead of exploding, the two bullets merged and created a bigger Magic Bullet.


    Fenrir opened his mouth and released the Magic Bullet as if he was shooting a beam from his mouth.


    "That power��" Theo clenched his fists, thinking, ''What have I done this whole time? I should be more creative from this point on.''


    What he saw was the true power of a B Rank Magic Bullet. It could even rival Ne''s Concentrated Magic Bomb.


    However, he also knew thatbining both of them would require Magic Power. So, he thought the Magic Bullet would be a normal B Rank Skill if he did this. Even then, he felt he could do many things with what he had seen here.


    As if trying to defeat her, Fenrir used his Blink and summoned his Magic Bullets, forming a huge sword on top of her, impaling her Death Avatar.


    Unfortunately for him, this was thest thing he should have done. The Death Avatar turned around and grabbed Fenrir''s body and touched the sword with the other hand.


    The sword rapidly withered and disappeared.


    "You must haven''t realized it, but if you take another look at the battle, you will realize Fenrir is not in his right mind, including this action. He intentionally approaches me, wanting to end this battle as soon as possible.


    "The only cause for him to think that way is the constant fear that keeps freezing his body and mind. In other words, my sight. This is the basic principle for the Death Eyes, so you need to learn this one first in my opinion. Let me take care of him first."


    Hel turned to Fenrir while raising his hand, transmitting her power to him.


    Fenrir''s body fur soon withered and his flesh decayed, leaving only bones. Unexpectedly, Fenrir was still alive as he opened his jaw, "Can you not do this? This is painful�� Your curse is decaying my bone, but your Death Avatar keeps rejuvenating it, so the pain continues. I''m going to be insane at this rate�� Don''t torture me."


    Hel ignored him for a second and looked at Theo, "This is what I will teach you today. I hope your talent doesn''t disappoint me."


    "I am not sure if I can meet your expectation, but I will definitely do my best."


    "There are manybinations you can try and it''s not like Awareness is limited to five senses. We still have a sense of bnce and the others. This training will open the door for you, so you don''t need to worry about anything."


    Suddenly, Fenrir opened his mouth. "Ehm�� Can you not ignore me like this? Can you stop this power? It''s eroding my bones. It''s so painful."


    Hel squinted her eyes, staring at Fenrir for a few seconds. She then looked away and agreed. "I am in a good mood today. Fine. How about you apologize to him first? You have made so many rude remarks before. It''s not good."


    "What?!" Fenrir rose from the ground and red at Theo. "This brat?"


    He seemed to have no intention to apologize to him, but Hel''s Death Avatar continuously released its power, so Fenrir would feel the torture constantly.


    With the additional re from Hel, Fenrir lowered his body and head, saying, "I apologize."


    "��" Theo was too shocked when he witnessed all this. Never in his wildest dream would he see Fenrir be this docile.


    He soon remembered what happened when Hel first made her appearance. Fenrir hid in the corner and became docile. Fenrir''s images in his mind were shattered into pieces.


    On the contrary, the Death Avatar finally let him go and vanished into thin air.


    "Can�� Can I?" Fenrir turned to Hel with a pitiful expression as if he was about to cry.


    "Go back." Hel nodded with a serious expression.


    Without hesitation, Fenrir''s bones disappeared, allowing Theo and Hel to be alone in this training.

 Chapter 539 – Learning

    <h4>Chapter 539 - Learning</h4>


    "Anyway, that''s how it is. I will be teaching the rest of the knowledge within one hour and you are free to ask me any questions." Hel extended her hand as if asking Theo toe with her.


    Theo nodded furiously. He promised to get better and learn everything from her.


    After agreeing with Hel, Theo''s training finally started. As Hel said from the start, Theo was practicing all his five senses.


    Of course, Hel''s main objective was to master the "sight" first before reaching Supreme Rank. Hence, the training became even more challenging when it came to "sight."


    He literally needed to endure Hel''s killing intent coupled with the Magic Power. Within an hour, Theo had died more than a thousand times. If they were in the real world, Theo might have actually died.


    Luckily, Theo''s determination was strong and his mind had be sharper after solving hisst doubt against his family.


    Theo followed Hel''s training without a problem. Hel also understood what kind of feeling Fenrir had when teaching him.


    Theo absorbed all the knowledge like a sponge, but it also became his weakness because he needed to be more flexible when learning.


    After the "sight," Hel taught him the touch. ording to her, the sense of touch could be expanded and formed into that of a small barrier. She called it a domain instead of a barrier.


    Within that small domain, she felt everything.


    Theo tried to manipte his Magic Power into that kind of barrier but failed to replicate what Hel did.


    However, Hel seemed to be impressed by Theo''s progression. She had already told him that it was going to be a long process, so she didn''t expect much from Theo.


    The third sense he learned was smell. To his surprise, Hel tried to make Theo act like a dog, trying to find the trace of Magic Power between the grasses. It seemed her sadistic side resurfaced as she kept teasing him.


    If they lived together long enough, he was afraid he could be like Fenrir. At the very least, he could rte to Fenrir''s suffering and swore not to pick a fight with her.


    After that, Theo tried to ''taste'' the Magic Power. Hel became even crueler as she shoved the Magic Power from her body to Theo.


    It entered his mouth and went through his belly. Theo simply didn''t understand the taste, but ording to Hel, he needed to continue with this kind of practice to make his own taste sharper.


    Last but not least, she sharpened his hearing by channeling her power into his ears and mind. The only way to do it was none other than telepathy.


    She talked a bunch of nonsense until his ears were constantly ringing.


    Of course, Theo also learned the normal way to learn all those things. She couldn''t help him when he returned after all.


    After a long four hours, Theo stood in front of her with a serious expression.


    "Thank you very much for teaching me all this." Theo lowered his head to show his gratitude.


    "No need to think about it." She smiled. "First of all, I have a few things to tell you. The most important thing is your learning ability. It''s true that you''re learning at a fast speed, but whatever you do will be rted to what you have learned�� I mean, if you learn from a certain ability, your next ability will derive from it.


    "What I want you to do is to not focus on that ability, bute up with your own way. I think you have realized this, but it''s rted to your Materialization."


    "Yes. I know. I shouldn''t focus on one shape. This one shape doesn''t mean a form; it''s something close to the way of doing things." Theo nodded.


    "I will trust you in this area. Although I am happy that you can master my technique, I want you to be special. Understood?"


    "Yes. I will do my best so as to not disappoint you."


    "Good. Moving on to the next piece of advice. Just remember that your Control is the primary source of everything. Keep progressing your Control and reach Perfect Control as soon as possible. Of course, I am not saying to forsake the others.


    "I don''t mind if you are training your Awareness, Breathing, Endurance, or Technique alongside your Control, but you should still prioritize thetter."


    "I will keep that in mind." Theo nodded.


    "The third piece of advice is about your skills. Now that you can have more offensive abilities through your control, you should rearrange your skills a bit. Though, I am sure you have this kind of vision already.


    "Don''t worry. I have some arrangements. Hopefully, I can rece a few things after settling down in the new country."


    "Good. As for thest piece of advice�� Wait, this is not really advice." She patted Theo''s shoulders and said with a smile. "Don''t forget that you''re different from others. You have four of us behind you, so you shouldn''t lose against anyone, understand?"


    Theo''s heart skipped a beat as he felt the weight of those words. If he only had one blessing, what he could learn was limited. He could only learn Control from Fenrir and a few of his skills. Or he could learn Awareness and a bit of Control from Hel.


    However, everything changed when there were four of them backing him up. He could learn almost everything and increased his variety of skills.


    If he lost despite getting all this power, he should feel ashamed.


    Theo closed his eyes for a second as his expression became grim. He said, "Yes."


    "Good!" Hel smiled.


    Theo thought that Hel was going to say goodbye, but without him realizing it, his head had been turned upside down, floating in the air.


    He even saw his headless body with all his limbs cut.


    He closed his eyes helplessly and muttered inwardly, ''No matter what, she is a sadist��''


    After his mind went nk, his consciousness traveled back to his body.


    And there was another surpriseing from him.


    There were two rabbits standing outside his house.

 Chapter 540 – Ava

    <h4>Chapter 540 - Ava</h4>


    When the two arrived in front of Theo''s house, standing while staring at the door. They felt a chilling sensation from the inside.


    A wave of killing intent then spread to the entire surroundings like when Theo learned from Fenrir back then.


    Instead of the fierceness of a God Killing Wolf, they felt overwhelming killing intent.


    Avarice couldn''t help but protect Ava while trying to suppress this killing intent.


    However, Ava calmly touched Avarice''s back.


    "!!!" Avarice trembled for an instant and turned to Ava, seeing her shaking her head. "What are you doing?"


    "I have experienced this back then. Besides, there is no human other than him in this house." Ava finally spoke the humannguage, telling her mother everything was under control.


    Avarice also knew that there was no one inside other than Theo, but she couldn''t help but worry.


    Ava jumped to the side and tried to enter the house through the back, wanting to show her mother the actual situation.


    Looking at her fearless expression, Avarice decided to follow her and saw Theo sitting on his bed.


    "He is��" Avarice muttered and stopped for a second.


    Suddenly, Theo opened his eyes as he had finished his training.


    Ava widened her eyes and jumped to the window, knocking it a few times.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    Hearing the knocks, Theo''s body shuddered, thinking the Lange Family was going to attack him. However, the moment he turned around, he saw Ava waving to him with Avarice standing next to her.


    Theo hurriedly rose from the bed and reached the window, opening them.


    Not being able to endure her excitement, Ava leaped toward him while saying, "Theo!"


    She had a high pitch voice like that of a young kid and a weird ent. However, it was enough for Theo to understand what she was talking about.


    Theo hurriedly took a step back and caught her with both hands as gently as possible.


    "It''s been a while, Ava." Theo smiled.


    Ava didn''t say anything and just tried to hug Theo while rubbing her cheek against his cheek.


    Avarice jumped to the window frame and looked at Theo. "I believe you have made your decision."


    "Yes. I have checked that it''s possible to bring Ava with me. However, I need to register her as a monster pet�� The name aside, it''s just a prevention measure. I will bear everything Ava does when she is with me."


    "Is that so?" Avarice closed her eyes and nodded. "I don''t really care about that kind of title as long as it doesn''t bully my daughter. After all, I know that you are going to take care of her. I just want you to promise something��"


    "Please say."


    "Never abandon her."


    Theo raised his eyebrows when he heard that word. It was a very specific word.


    She didn''t say, "Protect her" or "Help her in everything." Instead, she emphasized the word abandon.


    Avarice wanted to tell him that anything could kill both him and Ava. Even in the case where her daughter died, she wanted Theo to do everything he could do first before making the decision. Also, she indirectly implied that she wouldn''t do anything if her daughter tried to sacrifice herself for him.


    Her words were truly heavy but filled with trust.


    Theo knew what to do. His expression became serious and his tone was calm. He looked Avarice in the eyes and said, "I will never abandon her."


    Avarice nodded. "Okay. In that case, I will leave her to you."


    "Yes."


    "What do you n to do now?" Avarice asked.


    "I am going to pack up my belongings. I have asked the other party for the contract, so I should be moving in a few days. Would you like to stay for a while?"


    Avarice thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I''d love to."


    "That''s great." Theo smiled, wondering if Avarice liked Pizza since it was Ava''s favorite food.


    "Before that, I am going to tell you a few things." She waved her foot, stopping him from thinking about something else.


    "Please."


    "Ava is not allowed to talk in front of other people. I don''t know much about your society, but I believe it''s better not to say anything in public. It''s just to avoid unnecessary problems since only General ss like her can speak. I''m sure your society views her as an important thing."


    "I understand. As long as Ava agrees to it, I am good." Theo nodded. "If there''s really a need for a discussion, I will make sure we are alone or�� Ava will. Her ears are better than mine anyway."


    "Good. Then, move on to the second thing. I''m sure that you know about how we can get stronger by eating others, right?"


    "Yes."


    "There are several types of monsters we can''t eat even if the other party is a Mythical Rank Monster. Ava will tell you about what she can eat or not, so don''t force her to eat them."


    "Don''t worry. I will never force myself to eat sh*t, so why should I force Ava to do the same? In fact, I prefer something I like, so you don''t need to worry."


    "Onest thing, Ava can help you but don''t make her ears known easily. It''s going to invite so many problems. After all, she can be used for spying on someone''s conversation. If she has a bounty, please send her back here. Ava has agreed with this."


    "I will do my best." Theo nodded a few times.


    "That''s all I want to say. Where are you going by the way?"


    Theo smiled as he said, "I will go to��"


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Theo had arrived at his destination airport with Ava sitting on his shoulder.


    There was a golden ring on Ava''s ear, indicating that she was a monster that had an owner. She wouldn''t normally attack someone, but they still needed to be careful around her.


    Theo had also registered Ava as his "monster pet" to allow Ava to follow him in the open. As worse as it sounded, Ava didn''t care much about her title as long as she could travel with Theo.


    Of course, Theo didn''t know how smart a monster could be to be someone''s pet, so he asked Ava to look like she was intelligent enough to reply to him but wasn''t enough tomunicate with the humannguage.


    "Ava, it''s our new home."


    "Kyu!"


    He smiled because he would stay in this ce for a long time and looked forward to his future.


    The speaker resounded in the area, saying, "Thank you for arriving at Mn Malpensa Airport and wee to Italy."

 Chapter 541 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 541 - Arrival</h4>


    Theo stopped for a second and turned around, looking at his grandfather and Agata.


    Leonardo pointed to the front, saying, "Just go straight to the gate and turn left. You will find two people standing there�� Well, it''s three."


    "Is Ignazio there?" Agata asked with an innocent face, recalling how Ignazio had been asking for some information about Theo.


    "Obviously. Haha." Leonardo chuckled.


    "Hmm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "He has been interested in you after that defeat." Agata tried to exin, but Theo couldn''t help but take a step back while hugging his own body as if trying to protect his chastity. Agata hurriedly exined while raising her voice, "It''s not like that! He''s just interested in your strategy."


    "Oh." Theo nodded and dropped the pretense as if nothing had happened.


    Agata facepalmed and shook her head helplessly.


    "Haha, as expected of my grandson." Leonardo kept chuckling while walking, "Okay, okay. Let''s move on. They have been waiting for us."


    Theo and Agata nodded, following Leonardo.


    While walking, Theo nced at Leonardo and asked, "If you don''t mind, can I ask you a question?"


    "Why are you so polite to me?" Leonardo pouted and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just ask your question."


    "How do you find them? Is it your Awareness?"


    "Correct."


    "Which senses did you use?" Theo asked another question. His heart had been filled with curiosity this whole time, considering Leonardo was one of the strongest people in Italy.


    This was also one of the reasons he chose the War God Family over the Star Group. None of the experts from the Star Group was stronger than Leonardo, so he thought he should learn from him.


    He believed his choice was right, especially after learning from Hel.


    Leonardo thought for a moment and smiled, "So, you have understood some of those��"


    "A little."


    "I was finding their Magic Power. I don''t know if you are aware of it, but every person has a different fluctuation. Well, ites from their rank, level, and the amount of Magic Power inside their body.


    "Unless the other party is good at camouging, it''s easy to find a strong person around you. The ones whoe for us are my son, the current head of the War God Family, and Davi�� Well, there''s Ignazio too, so yeah.


    "What I sensed was the two Mythical Rank Experts, since there are not many people like that in the area. I am not going to tell you about which senses though." Leonardo shrugged.


    "No. That''s enough." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He looked down as if trying to understand what he had told him.


    Seeing his focused face, Agata couldn''t help but take a sneak peek.


    The group continued to walk without another discussion and reached their destination, finding a middle-aged man with a white t-shirt and jeansing toward them.


    "Father." The middle-aged man greeted Leonardo politely.


    "Marzio." Leonardo nodded.


    After greeting him, Marzio nced to the side, looking at Theo. Thetter looked back and seized the man up.


    He had long brown hair tied on his back. His eyes had no motivation or sharpness like other experts and the beard had started growing as if he forgot to shave for a few days. His clothes were not something like one should expect from the War God Family''s head.


    "Is he Theodore Griffith?" Marzio asked, confirming his identity.


    "Who else?" Leonardo shrugged and looked away.


    After getting his answer, Marzio extended his hand. "Hello, I''m Marzio Guerrero. Nice to meet you�� Ehm, how should I call you again? Nephew or Theo?"


    "I prefer thetter if you don''t mind." Theo shook his hand firmly. "It''s my pleasure."


    "I see." Marzio noddedzily.


    Little did he know, Marzio didn''t know anything about Theo''s story beforeing here due to Leonardo ying with the information. He asked that one question to determine the rtionship between Theo and his family.


    In the instant he chose thetter, he got a gist of what happened and knew how to treat Theo from now on.


    "Anyway, let''s go back to our mansion first to settle everything. Yeah, you''re going to stay there for a couple of days so that I can handle all of your stuff. After that, I will let you know about your mansion."


    "Understood." Theo nodded before noticing two more people approaching them. The first one was none other than Davi, while the other one was a young man. The young man was wearing a in orange t-shirt covered with an unbuttoned white shirt.


    He walked to Theo while waving his hand, "To think I can meet you again."


    "Yeah. It''s been a while." Theo nodded and shook his hand. "Ignazio."


    "Yep. I want to talk about a lot of things, but I guess it''s better to do itter. I am here because I am curious whether you came or not." Ignazioughed.


    "Here I am." Theo shrugged.


    "Good, good. It''s not easy to be picked up by the world''s most beautiful woman and Italy''s strongest man." Ignazio smirked, teasing Theo.


    Agata simply looked away while Leonardo said, "Ho? Do you want me to pick you up?"


    "��" Ignazio took a few steps back, waved his hands, and corrected himself. "How can I have the courage to ask Grandfather? Obviously, I am just praising Theo, nothing else."


    "You should ask�� I am too lonely now that I have retired." Leonardo harrumphed and said, "Anyway, let''s go back first."


    "Yes. This way." Marzio extended his hand, asking them to follow him.


    The group then headed to the car as Davi drove them to the War God Family''s mansion.


    The mansion stood in a spacious 500��500 feetnd, standing a little bit away from the city''s center. From the outside, the house looked stylish. It had a slope white roof and sturdy white wall. Many squared windows were present, indicating the number of rooms inside.


    The building had a rectangr shape and was surrounded by a garden.


    Theo fell silent, expecting a bigger mansion than this one.


    As if knowing Theo''s thoughts, Leonardo said, "This ce is mostly used as an office area. There are several guest rooms, but they''re not used that often. You will get another mansion. It may be smaller than this, but considering you live alone, it should be enough."

 Chapter 542 – Bernard’s Assessment

    <h4>Chapter 542 - Bernard��s Assessment</h4>


    In the Star Group, Bernard and Maya were sitting next to each other.


    They were returning to the country in a disappointed mood.


    Maya had been pouting all day as she muttered, "What was the problem with that guy? We had offered him so much, yet, he refused our offers. It was clear that our offers were better than theirs. I thought he had no good rtionship with his family? He even made us wait for too long�� I need to start auditing thepany money after this. Ugh, I want to punch that guy on the face."


    Bernard closed his eyes while smiling as if the disappointment didn''t bother him that much.


    "Father, why are you smiling?" Maya red at her.


    "So, I can''t smile?" Bernard gradually opened his eyes and nced at her.


    "No�� Not that. He just rejected our offers, you know, and it took him so long to do this."


    "Calm down, will you?"


    "How can I calm down after all these things?"


    "It''s because he rejected us that you need to calm down."


    "Huh?" Maya frowned as she took another look at her father''s face. He didn''t seem to be joking.


    "I am just warning you that he''s more dangerous than I thought��" Bernard smiled.


    "What do you mean?"


    "What is the biggest reason for him to go to the War God Family instead of us?"


    "Because they''re family?"


    "Nah. It''s because of Leonardo." He shook his head.


    "Him? Because he''s his grandfather?"


    "I have told you he doesn''t like his family. What he wants is the War Saint��" Bernard facepalmed. "Although we can provide him with experts to teach him, he''s not going to take that because even we can''t bring an expert at Leonardo''s level. They''re something that money can''t buy��"


    "But still��" When she was about to interrupt him, Bernard raised his hand, asking her to listen to him.


    "His strength aside, the one that makes Leonardo that dangerous is his brain. Not many people can y this type of strategy game with him, so what Theo wants is not the benefits he can get right now.


    "If you take a look at his deals and ns until now, he has been making short term deals. He just wants to solve a specific part. For example, the contract with the other five countries�� He just wants to protect himself from them.


    "However, it will be different if he chooses Leonardo. He must have gotten the gist of what was happening behind the scene, and all of them pointed at one man, the War Saint.


    "He has been fighting by himself until now, so he can acquire the money or benefits by himself. Hence, what he truly needs is none other than the brain that can predict his future. In other words, he wants Leonardo''s teaching about strategy.


    "When the timees, Theo will definitely leave the War God Family because he can simply say the reward he receivedes from his grandfather''s motto, not the Griffith Family. There''s no time restriction in the contract anyway, unlike us��


    "After leaving with all the knowledge imparted by one of the greatest strategists in the world, Theo may evene to us with all that knowledge. In terms of nning and negotiation, I am afraid he will be even more terrifying.


    "To put it simply, he''s nning to use the War God Family as his stepping stone before going to another part of the world�� If somehow Theo or should I say this small ''Leonardo'' chose us, what kind of offer could you give him?" He let out a long sigh. "This guy�� What happened to him these past few weeks? To think he changes this much."


    Maya dropped her jaw to the ground, not believing what she had heard. "I think you''re overestimating him��"


    "Dear, I have never once underestimated my enemies even if they''re just a mere Normal Rank Hunter, and I don''t fear to overestimate my enemies as long as it can give me security." Bernard''s face became serious. "And I am afraid�� I am still underestimating this guy. The dragon will soon soar in the sky��"


    "What do you think we should do?"


    "Offer yourself to him." Bernard smirked, teasing his daughter.


    "Father��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched as her hand was on the bracelet, ready to take out a gun.


    Bernard raised his two hands as if he surrendered while exining his words. "I mean, you can use your own reputation to create a joint operation with the War God Family to maintain a good rtionship with him.


    "Even if we can''t manipte the group mission, there is still the joint venture thates every two years. Either way, you need to maintain a good rtionship with him. We may not be able to do it with the War Saint, but if we can get him before he rises, the benefits may surpass our imagination."


    "That is something I can do, but what if he turns out not to be like you said?"


    "There are only two scenarios. First, if he turns out to be inferior to what I expect of him, just abandon him. Second, if he is that good but bears his fang against us, even if you need to spend all your money, hire all Mythical Rank Experts and hunt him down�� No matter what, we are a businessman, not his ves that will give him everything." Bernard''s face became cold.


    Even Maya couldn''t help but shiver for a few seconds before Bernard returned to normal and winked yfully.


    "Well, I just hope we don''t reach that point. For now, just maintain our rtionship with him."


    "Okay." Maya nodded a few times before recalling a particr word. "You said he''s a dragon. What about me? A phoenix?"


    "��" Bernard fell silent as if he refused to answer.


    "Father��"


    "Ehm." Bernard scratched the back of his head. "Do you want the truth?"


    "Of course. I want the truth. You need to avoid lying as much as possible in business since trust is the basics." She harrumphed.


    "I was about to call you an orc�� but I guess you are a golem, especially with your armor and weapons."


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched as a pistol appeared in her right hand. She pointed it right on Bernard''s face and red at him. "Do you want to die, Father?"


    "I just told you the truth��" Bernard looked away as if he didn''t care about the gun.

 Chapter 543 – Big Movements

    <h4>Chapter 543 - Big Movements</h4>


    Theo''s movements were important, but there were three big movements happening all around the world.


    China.


    Inside arge hall, ten people were sitting behind the round table, ring at each other.


    Suddenly, a white-haired middle-aged man mmed the table and shouted, "We''ve been had."


    "Why did all of you agree to abandon that kid? Look at him right now!" Another one rose from his seat while berating their previous choice.


    "He''s the son of Ray Griffith and Valerie Guerrero. He has that talent of Controling from his father and his brain from his mother. If we train that kid, he will be invincible."


    "That''s right."


    "We can''t do anything now because that War Saint is protecting him. Even the Star Group manages to make a good connection with him!"


    They kept shouting at each other, ming them for their own mistake.


    ��


    Japan also had a simr situation as they all seemed to be ming each other because they agreed to China''s terms, only to find out that everything had been in Leonardo''s hands instead of China''s.


    "What should we do right now?" A muscr old man asked with a serious expression, looking at all twenty people that joined the meeting. "I am afraid he will be an even stronger foe because the moment he reaches Mythical Rank Expert, he may simply send his clone to us and wreak havoc.


    "Even if we destroy his clone, he can send another one. As long as his main body is safe, I am afraid he''s like a one-man undying army."


    "There''s no proof that his clone can be that strong. Although his clone is indeed omnipotent now, he acquired the clone skill before his schoolpetition. At that time, his clone shouldn''t exceed D Rank�� Even if we stretch it, it will only be a C Rank Skill." Another man interjected, denying the possibility.


    ��


    British''s Royal Family seemed to have the same opinion.


    The prince stated, "For now, let''s stop ming each other. Instead, we should find a way to entice him back. If it''s not possible, we will kill him."


    "But�� It''s not possible to kill him right now. The War Saint will certainly not let this happen, especially since Theodore Griffith has a copy of the contract with us. The War Saint will use it to mess with our economy."


    "Then we should search for a way to entice him."


    "How?"


    "How about we increase the rank of his clone? We need to find someone who can increase a skill''s rank."


    "Is there even a person like that?"


    "It''s going to be hard, but it''s not impossible. I''m sure all of us know that in this world, there are people who can create artifacts, take a glimpse of the future, or even know one''s fate. There must be someone like that. If we can offer him the chance to upgrade his clone''s rank, we should be able to bring him to us."


    ��


    The same applied to Egypt and India. They were ming each other forplying with such a request and ended up getting punished for their action. They were finding a way to settle this problem.


    However, there was only one person who had augh among the defeated countries.


    In the white house, a middle-aged man chuckled while reading the document sent to him earlier. "Haha, this is hrious. It''s not that much, but I guess I don''t need to take care of this problem. I will let the Star Group handle it��"


    Many countries were discussing Theo''s move. However, this one was just one big movement.


    There was another significant movement that might result in a direct conflict.


    Inside a small room dded with gray-colored metal, three people were facing each other.


    "Brother Lion has died��" A middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the two old men. "I have investigated the cause. It seems that another person in the family is trying to kill a sessor. That sessor is none other than Ray Griffith and Valerie Guerrero''s son."


    "Are they not even putting our organization in their eyes?"


    "They may be strong, but we''re not afraid of them. We should start hunting those Griffiths!"


    "No. After thinking for a while, I believe this is staged." The middle-aged man shook his head.


    "Staged?"


    "Do you mean they''re trying to weaken us?"


    "Yes. They''remissioning our service and sending their own agents there. After that, they eliminate our Diamond Level Mercenary even though there''s no proof about him attacking the sessor. I am afraid they simply ambushed Brother Lion right aftering to the other side."


    "!!!" The two old men squinted their eyes, not feeling good from this plot.


    "We need to beat those guys!"


    "Dammit, do they think they can do anything?"


    "Let''s go fight them. They''re maybe one of the best hidden families, but we''re also a top mercenary group."


    "Wait!" The middle-aged man shook his head. "For now, we should weaken them by destroying all their businesses and some bases. We will limit their movement and destroy them slowly�� Of course, we need to watch out for their counterattack. Still, yes�� Let''s go to war."


    The two old men became serious as they agreed to his decision.


    Little did they know, it was indeed a scheme from the Griffith Family, but it wasn''t targeted to them. The target of this n was none other than the Griffith Family.


    Ray stood near the window while looking at the scenery outside before the door to his study room was opened.


    The one that entered the room was none other than Valerie.


    She closed the door carefully while expanding her Magic Power. Only then, she said, "They have made their move."


    "Good." Ray nodded before closing his eyes. "Now that they have taken the bait, we should start making our move soon. Let''s execute the Bull Elder now."


    "Understood." Valerie agreed without hesitation. "This should limit the movement of the Griffith Family for a bit. Let''s use that chance to shake this family."


    "Yeah." Ray turned around and walked to her. He then carefully stroked her cheek with his finger before his hand moved to her stomach. This action couldn''t help but remind him of the past.


    He closed his eyes with a pained expression�� "I am not going to let it happen again. I am going to avenge you�� Owen��"

 Chapter 544 – Finalize

    <h4>Chapter 544 - Finalize</h4>


    Inside Marzio''s study room, Theo and Leonardo sat next to each other while Marzio sat in the opposite direction, staring at the contract he received from Leonardo.


    "So, instead of getting the quota in the leveling facility, you wish to exchange it for your grandfather''s time?" Marzio asked for confirmation.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Although Marzio was the family head, he still needed to get the nod from his father. Hence, he asked, "Father, are you okay with this?"


    "Of course." Leonardo smiled. "Many need billions tomission me, but it''s different for a family member. Now that I have retired, I don''t need to put a huge price to help a family member.


    "Let''s see�� Since the leveling facility can save two-thirds of your time, I will help Theo for one and a half years."


    Leonardo smiled as he slightly increased the time they spent together.


    A few days ago.


    Theo suddenly called him through video, allowing them to have a face-to-face conversation.


    "Seeing you call me, I guess I am the winner." Leonardo smiled.


    Theo nodded and said, "However, I would like to request a change in the contract."


    "Hoh? Let me hear your opinion first."


    "I don''t need the third benefit."


    "!!!" Leonardo raised his eyebrows. "The third use is about the leveling facility. Every time you go there, you can easily increase ten to twenty levels. This will be useful for you to increase your level exponentially while using the rest of your time to do missions and training."


    "I am confident that I don''t need this benefit." Theo shook his head. "Hence, I would like to change it."


    "Hoh?" Theo''s statement piqued his interest as his expression became serious. "Tell me what you desire in exchange for the leveling facility."


    Theo pointed at him.


    In that instant, Leonardo understood Theo''s n. "I see, I see. You want to extend the training period with me."


    "Yes."


    "Do you mind telling me the reason? No, I have the gist of why you are changing it, but tell me the reason why you choose me over Bernard."


    Theo pointed at himself and said, "It''s for me and my future."


    Leonardo''s fingers flinched as he couldn''t help but close his eyes. He realized Theo might have thrown away the "family" in his mind, but it still didn''t cloud his judgment.


    Theo buried his feelings and asked to be taught by him. In other words, Theo wished to be a full-fledged strategist like him, allowing him to make a concrete n about his future.


    This way, Theo''s future would be the result of his own n, not anybody''s lie or his family''s conspiracy.


    "I see." Leonardo smiled when he heard his response. "Okay. Let''s do it your way. However, you should know that my time is expensive."


    "Yes."


    "Good. I will be handling your contract. Instead of bing a family, you will be a guest member of the War God Family. I won''t chain you down, so do what you want."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded his head, showing his gratitude.


    Recalling that scene, Leonardo couldn''t help but smile. "There are only four terms now. It''s already July, so we will only give him one personal mission this year since he will be with me most of the time.


    "Also, I hope you don''t publicize his arrival here for the time being. Give him a few months to get ustomed to our environment, including the other side. It''s going to be far harsher after all��"


    Marzio thought for a moment and nodded. "That can be done. I will draft the contract and prepare the mansion for him. Do you have any requests for your equipment?"


    "I will need two B Rank Spears. I am not very sure about my armor." Theo shook his head.


    "That''s easy. I am going to give you a set of clothes. These clothes are made of Supreme Rank Monster''s skin, so they''re stic, durable, and tough. It should be able to protect you. That''s right. How about your Skylink and other stuff? Do you want a recement?"


    "It''s fine. I prefer the old model." Theo waved his hand as it wasn''t a big deal. "That''s all, I guess."


    "Okay. I will take care of everything." Marzio nodded. "You may want to visit the city first and familiarize yourself with the city. The process will take two days."


    "Okay. Thank you very much." Theo rose from his seat and shook Marzio''s hand.


    "For now, you can go to the garden first where your little rabbit is. I am going to send a maid to bring you to your roomter."


    Theo nodded and left the room without hesitation.


    As soon as the door was closed, Marzio looked at Leonardo and said, "Father�� Why didn''t you tell me all this stuff first? I could have prepared it earlier. Also, there''s the distance between him and the family."


    "Haha, you''re going to make a fuss about it, so meh." Leonardo shrugged. "It''s fine. The child is going to be fine."


    "Alright. I''m going to trust you." Marzio nodded in agreement.


    "And don''t forget to get my room ready in his mansion. I''m going to stay there for a while."


    "Father!"


    "What?" Leonardo pouted. "I am too lonely in my own damn ce. Since I will be training that kid, might as well move in. Not many will need to see me going back and forth to his mansion anyway."


    "Ugh." Marzio scratched the back of his head. "Fine!"


    "Hahaha!" Leonardoughed.


    Meanwhile, Theo left the house and headed to the garden, finding four figures.


    Ava was sitting next to Agata, watching her performance. Agata was dancing with her pink smoke hovering around her as if it was alive. From an ordinary rose to a sharp sword, Agata managed to control her pink smoke to perfection. She seemed to have been working hard after that dragon hunt.


    Standing next to her was Ignazio, who seemed to be taking care of a woman in the wheelchair.


    She had long brown hair resting on her chest. Her deep green eyes seemed to contain great wisdom and her expression gave the feeling of gentleness.


    She had been pping while watching Agata''s performance.

 Chapter 545 – New Life

    <h4>Chapter 545 - New Life</h4>


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as this was the first time he saw someone from this family that seemed to be not an important person.


    When he was about to approach them, Ava and the woman turned their heads simultaneously as if they sensed him.


    Theo flinched.


    Ava aside, the woman shouldn''t have an extraordinary hearing to notice him. Yet, the reality often surprised him.


    After their reactions, Ignazio turned around while Agata stopped her dance, finding Theo walking toward them.


    Without anyone realizing, Ava already reached him and clung to Theo''s shirt.


    ''Since when?'' Ignazio looked down, finding no one on the grass.


    When Theo arrived, Agata approached him while saying, "How is it? Are you done?"


    "For the most part. I only need to wait now."


    "I see. Do you want me to bring you around?" Agata smiled.


    "Ehm��" Theo thought for a moment and ultimately nodded. "Okay. I will be in your care."


    "That''s good." Agata chuckled, feeling a bit happy.


    Meanwhile, Theo turned to the other female and made an awkward face.


    Before Theo said anything, the female had extended her hand and smiled, "Hello, cousin. I''m Mara. It''s an honor to meet you."


    Ignazio hurriedly added, "She is my older sister. She''s here for another business."


    "Oh." Theo shook her hand and smiled back. "I''m Theo. It''s my pleasure."


    The moment he felt her arms, Theo couldn''t help but raise his eyebrows. Her right palm was rough and bloated as if he had been swinging her weapon this whole time.


    "Sorry I can''t stand up to greet you." She apologized with a warm smile on her face.


    "It''s fine. I don''t mind." Theo waved his hand as if it wasn''t a big deal. Although she was sitting in a wheelchair, he didn''t think Mara had retired from her palm''s condition alone.


    "Anyway, since they have finished, I will go inside to get our mission." Mara nced at Ignazio as thetter pushed the wheelchair, leaving them.


    "See youter." Ignazio waved his hand and walked to the mansion.


    Meanwhile, Agata looked at Mara and sighed. She introduced Mara once again to Theo, "She was also a participant in the Grand Gaia. That time, she managed to bring her team to third ce, but she lost because her teammates were too weak at that time."


    "Mhm."


    "She was injured not long ago, and there seemed to be deformation and constant erosion on her bones. ording to the information, she wouldn''t be able to stand up for at least ten years. This is her third."


    "Well, I don''t know what to say." Theo made a weird smile.


    "Haha, I guess so." Agata chuckled, knowing about Theo''s rtionship with his family. She then said, "Then how about we go to the town?"


    "Yeah. Sure." Theo didn''t reject her while Ava stood on Theo''s shoulder. She finally had the chance to go around the town openly.


    After that, Theo, Ava, and Agata walked around the town as Agata introduced all kinds of ces to Theo.


    While walking around, Agata asked, "Do you n on going alone on every mission?"


    Theo nced at her with a weird expression.


    "I mean, you always go alone unless it''s something important." Agata looked away while adding, "Of course, if you have a n to make a small group, I would like to volunteer myself. My illusion has evolved to a deadly weapon this time, so I should be able to help you."


    Theo smiled but, unfortunately, shook his head. "Sorry. I will be heading for the mission alone. Though, I believe I can''t do it, despite them calling it a private mission."


    "Haha," Agata chuckled as she couldn''t help but admit, "Well, their mission is not simple like the Temple, since thetter mostly have gathering, subjugation or escort missions.


    "Their mission is more random like assassination, helping as a strategist, or even coboration. I mean, you people from the War God Family have made your presence known as a trained strategist. So, it''s no wonder if they''re trying tomission your family to do stuff.


    "That''s actually my n��" Agata let out a long sigh before making an awkward smile, "But don''t worry. It''s not like I am going to abuse that system. I am sure you don''t like it that way."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes and smiled, "Thank you for your consideration."


    "There''s no need to thank me. Isn''t that basic courtesy?" Agata chuckled.


    Theo shrugged.


    They then continued to walk around with Agata, ultimately spending the night at the War God Family''s office.


    Theo familiarized himself with the entire town while waiting for the contract. At the same time, he also visited the Fighter Temple to register while secretly sending his clone to do it with his Joker identity.


    After two days, he was summoned again by Marzio, whoter handed the contract. He double-checked the contract and signed it, making sure there was no time restriction in this contract.


    Although Leonardo was a bit sad to let Theo go just like that, he didn''t say anything because it was clear Theo didn''t want to have a family rtionship with them.


    On the other hand, Leonardo could also make their rtionship known so that everyone would recognize him as one of the sons of the War God Family.


    After all, he couldn''t escape from his own bloodline no matter how much he hated it.


    Theo had also seen this oue and decided to ept it. Even if he didn''t recognize them as family, that name alone increased his worth. This would be very useful in his future negotiation.


    Theo received the contract and headed to his mansion, located twenty miles away from the main office. The ce might be a bit far from the busy city, but it also meant Theo could make loud noises without concern.


    Theo''s mansion was also equipped with a pool, training facility, and the necessary items to update his status without the need to go to the temple, allowing him to stay inside the mansion for an indefinite amount of time.


    Leonardo also moved in together since he would be his teacher for one and a half years.


    Theo didn''t really mind and epted that this would be his new life in this country.

 Chapter 546 – Testing

    <h4>Chapter 546 - Testing</h4>


    Theo finally settled down in his new home. Unlike his previous house, the yard alone was ten times bigger and the pool had a simr size to the yard, making Theo even morefortable.


    With the War God Family taking care of his expenses, he didn''t need to pay for anything.


    The next day.


    Theo was standing in front of his grandfather early in the morning. He wore a white t-shirt and long white training pants, while his grandfather had a simr outfit but all white.


    "Why don''t you take a rest? You have juste to this country not long ago and it''s not like you''re not here for a vacation." Leonardo scratched the back of his head before yawning. "I''m still sleepy."


    Theo didn''t say anything and kept looking at Leonardo with a serious expression.


    Leonardo had told him he could practice together at any time, so Theo didn''t feel his request was wrong.


    Feeling Theo''s gaze, he waved his hand and said, "Okay, okay. Let''s practice. What do you want to learn?"


    "Kyu?!" Before they started, Ava suddenly appeared next to them and stared at Leonardo with a confused expression.


    "Oh! The white rabbit." Leonardo bent his knees and extended his hand. "How are you? It''s summer here, so it will be a bit hotter on."


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed in the pool''s direction as if telling him that she could simply y there.


    "The pool, huh. What a smart rabbit." Leonardo smiled and waved his hand. "Do you want to join us?"


    Ava nodded furiously, wanting to increase her strength even further.


    "Hoho��" Leonardo was amused because he knew Ava was a wild monster out there. He thought, ''The white rabbit is quite strong. Not as strong as Theo, but her strength may be equal to the current Agata. And looking at her intelligence�� is it a Rare ss Monster?''


    After thinking for a while, Leonardo asked both of them, "What do you want to learn?"


    "Kyu!" Ava punched the air a few times.


    Theo, on the other hand, answered with a calm tone. "Awareness�� No, it''s uhm��"


    "Is it about problem-solving?" Leonardo tilted his head while giving him the correct word with an unsure tone. "Well, I have a good thing about Awareness that allows you to view the battlefield to another level, but I guess you want real-life nning, right?"


    "Yes," Theo admitted it without hesitation.


    "I don''t really mind, but I need to see your martial prowess too. You may not know this, but this can be applied to your battle as well. This way, I can understand your current level." Leonardo raised a condition. "What do you think?"


    "So, I need to fight you?"


    "Exactly." Leonardo gave a thumbs up. "Of course. You need to use all your strength because I will be teaching you ording to what you show me."


    Theo looked down for a moment and agreed. "I understand. Let''s fight."


    "Good." Leonardo smiled and asked Ava, "Sorry, but can you move back a little bit?"


    "Kyu." Ava nodded and tried to go as far as possible but enough for her to watch their fight. However, she soon remembered something and went back to the mansion.


    "Such a thoughtful rabbit. Moon Rabbit was it?" Leonardo nced at Theo.


    Theo remained silent while taking a few deep breaths, thinking about his n to fight the old man.


    "Hmm, let''s see. If you can hit me once, I will reward you with something." Leonardo raised his hand and waved his fingers a few times, trying to taunt him.


    Suddenly, two spears stabbed the ground. Unlike the white and blue spears he had previously, his current spears were B Rank.


    The first one had a ck handle with a golden rose circling around the edges of the handle. The de had a simr color to the handle, but it reflected light like that of a mirror, making it gorgeous.


    On the other hand, the spear for his clone was a red-colored spear. Unlike the main spear, this one didn''t have any patterns or color changes.


    Theo grabbed the two spears and turned around, shouting with a smile. "Thank you, Ava!"


    "Kyu!" Ava waved her right foot cutely.


    "Ava was it? That girl will be popr among females." Leonardo chuckled.


    "I am not letting them touch her." Theo shrugged. "It''s going to be hectic after all."


    "Fair enough." Leonardo then raised his right hand as a four-foot-long sword appeared on his hand. He stabbed the ground as a blue light descended from the de to the ground.


    The blue light then expanded and formed from rectangr lines on the ground.


    Suddenly, a colossal figure simr to his Death Avatar appeared behind him. He had a golden crown and big sword, staring at Theo.


    After that, another two figures emerged from thin air. They had a huge shield on their hand and gently put the bottom part on the ground.


    White light appeared from the middle of the shields and the sword, forming a triangle line that connected each other. After that, the line created a barrier both to the ground and the sky.


    "This is my Chess Domain and these three boys are helping me to contain the effect of our attacks. So, no need to worry about missing your attacks because they will be contained inside this barrier. Though, we might need some gardeningter." He smiled and pointed at Theo. "How about we make a bet?"


    "A bet?"


    "Yeah. If you can hit me, I will give you something big that can increase your strength. If you can''t hit me even once, I want you to call me Grandfather once�� Just one time is enough."


    Theo frowned, feeling a bit weird. However, seeing the benefits far surpassed his feeling, he ultimately nodded his head.


    "I understand. I will do my best." Theo took a deep breath, summoned his clone, and handed the spear.


    Both of them raised their weapons in unison as Theo said, "I apologize in advance. I don''t know if I can hit you, so I am going with the intention to kill."


    "If a brat like you can easily injure me, then I am not qualified to have this title��" Leonardo smirked as his heart felt the excitement from this battle. "Come!"

 Chapter 547 – Theo Vs Leonardo Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 547 - Theo Vs Leonardo Part 1</h4>


    Theo, without hesitation, ran forward with his clone.


    Clone Theo pushed his hand forward, sending the Telekinesis to blow Leonardo away. But when the energy was about to hit him, it dispersed in all directions, leaving Leonardo unaffected.


    Theo knew it was Leonardo''s own energy that neutralized Theo''s Telekinesis. Hence, Theo and his clone split up to attack him from two directions.


    Theo thrust his spear and spread his Cannon st to trap Leonardo inside while his clone summoned his Magic Bullets to shoot him down.


    Seeing the two attacks, Leonardo made a small smile and simply took a step to his Magic Bullets.


    Theo dropped his jaw because he realized his grandfather seemed to understand that his Magic Bullets would curve right before him and hit him from all directions.


    Now that he had stepped to the side, the Magic Bullets missed and the Cannon st destroyed them, creating a powerful shock wave that neutralized the Cannon st itself.


    "It seems you have understood it." Leonardo assessed Theo''s expression and said, "I am using my Awareness. Also, if you can improve your hearing to listen to the Magic Power vibration, you should be able to sleep peacefully during the night. I myself can notice everyone within two miles with my senses."


    "You''re expecting me to do something like that right now?" Theo used his Blink to appear behind Leonardo while thrusting his spear, almost hitting him because of the carried momentum.


    To his surprise, Leonardo''s hand had already stopped his spear before he knew it.


    "��" Theo looked at the hand that grasped his spear.


    Leonardo immediately threw him to his clone, canceling the clone''s attack.


    "To be honest, I wouldn''t want to use my Blink easily, especially my real body." He looked at the real Theo while giving his advice.


    "Is it?" Theo smiled, fearlessly approaching him.


    "Yeah." Leonardo nodded and waved his hand to the side.


    Theo looked at his hand, waiting for Leonardo''s attack. However, nothing happened, making him suspect whether his action had any meaning or not.


    The moment he was about to retreat, the ground beneath his feet emerged from the ground,unching Theo into the air.


    "Misdirection?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "That''s right. Although it''s a sleight of hand, it can trick your opponent. For example, you wave your spear to the right, but it turns out you''re attacking me with your Magic Bullets from the left�� and so on." Leonardo advised Theo in his current fighting style.


    Theo took a deep breath and nodded. "Understood."


    "Also, you need to pay attention to the timing. You can dy your timing and such by controlling your Magic Power, allowing you to make a sneak attack."


    Theo''s expression became serious as his clone made another move. He ced his hand on the ground while using his Magic Augmentation.


    With the overwhelming Magic Power and Theo''s stance, it was clear that Clone Theo was about to charge at him by using the fastest change of pace.


    Meanwhile, Theo came closer to his grandfather to take advantage of that chaos.


    "Heh?" Leonardo smiled and raised his sword.


    Clone Theo suddenly covered his fists with Cannon st and hit the ground, dispersing the power in all directions and turning the garden into a small crater.


    Leonardo, who slipped due to the crater, saw the real Theoing toward him.


    Theo waved his spear down like that of a hammer to smash him into the ground, but Leonardo had predicted something like this and surprised Theo by showing his hands that held no weapon.


    "Huh?" Theo soon realized it while his clone found the sword floating above him. "Since when��"


    Before he could react, the sword flew down and hit the handle, knocking the spear to the ground by using the additional momentum.


    Without any weapons, Leonardo''s finger was already in front of his forehead and flicked him.


    Boom.


    That flick contained so much power that it sent Theo to the barrier. Luckily, Leonardo didn''t pursue him and remained in his position, allowing Theo to recover.


    It was clear that Leonardo let Theo do whatever he could before ending the fight.


    Theo hurriedly formed a spear with his Magic Power and threw it to Leonardo''s face.


    "Oh! You can use this already?" Leonardo smiled when he saw the spear before knocking it away with his sword.


    However, Theo nned to use it only for distraction because the actual attack came from the Magic Bullets.


    I wenty approached him from the side while the other twenty flew down.


    "This one is better. Can you dy their timing a little bit?" He asked while raising his sword. The Magic Power fluctuated from his sword as he swung his sword to spread the Magic Power, resulting in the Magic Bullets exploding in the air.


    "I can, but it''s not the time yet." Theo shook his head while catching his spear.


    "Oh? You used that distraction to get your spear back?" Leonardo smiled. "It''s kinda wasting your Magic Power. How about attacking me with your body while getting that spear?"


    "No, my hand-to-handbat is a bit too bad, so I don''t dare to approach you." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Good judgment." Leonardo agreed with him and said, "Though, you may want to approach me with your clone. I have sensed your Magic Power covering your spear�� To be honest, I can just step on it, and you won''t be able to get the spear back. The clone will provide the additional action."


    "I see." Theo nodded. "I should have thrown the clone spear and attacked you with my clone."


    "Y-yes. That may be a better way." Leonardo nodded while raising his sword. His Magic Power gathered around his sword again as he tapped the ground once, dispersing the Magic Power in all directions, resulting in a weak breeze.


    Theo raised his eyebrows and summoned the shield from his Ring of Honor before crashing to the barrier.


    Bam.


    "Nice reaction." Leonardo smiled.


    "Did you spread the Magic Power to hide that chunk of Magic Power?" Theo asked with one of his eyes closed, enduring the pain.


    "There are many ways to hide your Magic Power even from someone like me," Leonardo confirmed Theo''s suspicion. "This is one of the methods. I will teach you about it, so no need to rush. Let''s continue our fight."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 548 – Theo Vs Leonardo Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 548 - Theo Vs Leonardo Part 2</h4>


    Theo raised his hand, using his Telekinesis to lift up some stones from the crater, shooting them at Leonardo.


    "Ho?" Leonardo smiled and lowered his sword.


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo surprised him by raising a giant boulder from the ground. His face curled up as if he just ate a sour fruit.


    "You can do that?" Leonardo slightly raised his eyebrows, realizing that Theo''s Telekinesis might be stronger than he thought.


    Right after the boulder came to him, he sliced it before waving his sword like that of a huge, catching all the stones andunching them away.


    The moment the boulder flew past him and the stonesnded on the ground, all of them suddenly disappeared without a trace, showing Leonardo that they were nothing but an illusion.


    Leonardo soon widened his eyes when two Theos appeared next to him, plunging their spears.


    He bent down his knees and avoided the spears while both Theos kicked his legs.


    Unfortunately for them, Leonardo''s reaction speed was faster. He hurriedly caught both feet with his hands before sensing two more presencesing from behind and the front.


    "Hmm." Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and did a handstand while using Theo''s feet as the anchor.


    He kicked the two iing Theos and knocked them down. After that, he crushed both feet, resulting in two Theos suddenly vanishing into thin air.


    It turned out they were just a mere illusion.


    "That''s quite realistic. I can even touch them like that of a human instead of a lump of Magic Power." Leonardo was impressed by Theo''s illusion. He also understood that the boulder and stones derived from the same technique.


    Little did he know, they were different. The rocks came from his Illusion Construct while using his Illusion Maniption to control Leonardo''s senses, trying to make it look real. Meanwhile, his clones were made purely from Illusion Maniption.


    Leonardo didn''t care about this kind of detail as he said, "I think you need��"


    Before he could finish his words, Clone Theo used his Blink to appear in front of him and struck his sword. At the same time, a wall was erected from the ground, covering the right side of Leonardo''s vision.


    Theo took this chance to pierce through the wall, albeit his spear stopped for an unknown reason.


    When his clone lowered his vision, he saw Leonardo slightly adjusting his sword, allowing him to catch Theo''s spear with the sword''s handle.


    "The illusion is good." Leonardo smiled and spun his body, pulling Theo in before gripping his wrist.


    "Not good." Theo panicked for a second as the real Theo hurriedly struck his hand with his spear to prevent whatever Leonardo nned to do.


    On the contrary, Leonardo weed this kind of reaction and swung Theo to his clone with a single spin,unching both of them away.


    "Kh." Theo and his clone struggled to get up.


    "Your illusion is indeed excellent. To be honest, I don''t need to worry about you fighting other people at your level. I believe you can defeat them easily. What I am worried about is the fact you''re stretching your own skill��" Leonardo shook his head helplessly.


    "I have seen your videos in the Grand Gaia Competition and saw a few simr skills. Have you changed them to a newer one?" Leonardo asked.


    "I have changed them," Theo replied with a calm tone. He didn''t lie since ranking them up meant recing their rank or the card itself.


    "So, you go with a simr skill?"


    Theo let out a long sigh.


    "I see. Your fighting skill is known to many people, so I believe you should change some more. Well, I saw some changes like that boulder illusion and your enhancement power. What are you going to show me after this?" Leonardo asked.


    Theo took a deep breath as his clone turned into a tiger.


    Although it was still too weak, Theo channeled his killing intent into his Magic Power, releasing it like a thread carried by the wind and hitting Leonardo''s mind.


    It immediately brought out a natural tiger''s aura, rming Leonardo. "His shape? Is it transformation or illusion?"


    Even Leonardo had a hard time telling it because of the additional killing intent.


    Without hesitation, Clone Theo leaped toward him while trying to bite his neck.


    Leonardo extended his hand, grasping Theo''s neck, but he soon felt iing threats from the sky.


    When he was about to destroy the Magic Bullets from the sky, another wave of Magic Bullets looped around the tiger body and attacked his left side.


    This way, there were three iing attacks from different directions, forcing Leonardo to think which one he should block.


    Surprisingly, Leonardo grasped Tiger Theo''s neck and swung him to the side, using his body to receive all the Magic Bullets. Meanwhile, he waved his sword to send the Magic Power to destroy all bullets above his head.


    This was when the real Theo appeared and struck Leonardo''s waist, only to find thetter leaning his body in the opposite direction to avoid the spear.


    "Woah, it''s dangerous." Leonardo smiled, not wanting to lose.


    Clone Theo disappeared because of the Magic Bullets, but Theo already expected it and summoned another clone as the two used their Blink to surround Leonardo from two sides.


    After that, Theo summoned the shield from his Ring of Honor in another direction while sending another Magic Bullet from above and his left.


    This way, Leonardo was surrounded from all directions with the real Theo in front of him.


    Theo smiled at his grandfather as if telling him, ''You can''t use my real body to block those bullets, right?''


    ''Tsk. Clever kid.'' Leonardo also smirked, understanding Theo''s thought. And with his stance and Clone Theo''s position, he couldn''t do the same thing as earlier. So, Leonardo had no other way to escape.


    Though, Leonardo seemed to have another trump card as he opened his mouth. "Or so you think��"


    What Leonardo never expected was the sudden crack on the ground.


    "!!!" Leonardo lowered his vision and saw Avaing out of the ground while releasing her lightning. "Little rabbit?"


    "Kyu!" Ava cutely smiled as she kicked Leonardo''s stomach.

 Chapter 549 – Start

    <h4>Chapter 549 - Start</h4>


    "Kyu!" Ava made a cute smile and kicked Leonardo in the stomach.


    "Wh��" Leonardo widened his eyes and instinctively formed a shield around the spot, blocking Ava''s punch.


    That translucent golden shield immediately neutralized her lightning and repelled her brute force, knocking her away.


    "Kyu��" Ava spun a few times in the air while watching how Leonardo waved his sword to the side and escaped through that ce without using his skill.


    After destroying the Magic Bullets and leaving the encirclement, he halted his steps and raised his hand. "Hahahaha! We''re done here."


    "��" Theo fell silent and stared at him with a weird expression.


    "Ava was it?" Leonardo gave a thumbs up, "You''re good. First of all, you have the right to join this battle, considering you''re Theo''s partner. However, it seems he has no idea about this sneak attack, so I will stop our fight here because we have the winner.


    "For this fight, you''re the winner." Leonardo smirked and asked, "I have collections of blood and meat�� I think it can make you stronger, right? Do you want it?"


    "Kyu?!" Ava widened her eyes, looking at him with expectation. However, she stopped for a moment and nced at Theo.


    "Only one person could win." Leonardo stuck his tongue out, telling Theo that he wouldn''t get the prize.


    Obviously, Ava wasn''tfortable seeing Theo was thrown out of the picture just like that, so she wanted to refuse this offer.


    However, her n failed when Theo said, "What kind of blood and meat are they? If you''re talking about Hero Rank monster''s materials. I can''t help but feel you''re a bit stingy."


    "Haha. Of course, they''re Supreme Rank monsters. Unfortunately, I don''t think giving you a Mythical Rank Expert monster is appropriate currently." Leonardo shrugged.


    "Fine. I will take that." Theo nodded without hesitation, not caring about the fact he didn''t get anything from this exchange.


    Seeing his reaction, Leonardo couldn''t help but smile. Although he didn''t want to admit it, Ava seemed to be closer than his family. He was sad not to be included, but he was satisfied that Theo cared for his new family, even after getting some of the truth about the whole conspiracy.


    At the very least, Theo''s children wouldn''t need to suffer what their father had experienced.


    "Okay, okay." Leonardo chuckled. "I won''t be that stingy as well. Ava may be the winner, but since you''re her partner, I am going to give you a few tips and trickster."


    Theo nodded calmly before ncing at Ava. "No need to worry about me. You shouldn''t reject it just because I don''t get anything."


    "Kyu!" Ava''s eyes zed before she leaped to his shirt and clung to it. "Kyu, kyu!"


    Theo smiled and stroked her head a few times.


    "Anyway, I will be bringing the catalogter for her to choose from. She seems to be smart enough to know what she wants to eat or not�� To be honest, not many have a Rare ss Monster as their pet, considering they have too much pride to be tamed." Leonardo scratched the back of his head. "At the same time, your rabbit seems to be smarter than most of them."


    "Okay." Theo nodded while remembering the promise he made to Avarice. He wasn''t going to force Ava to eat something she didn''t like, so she could choose the meat and the blood.


    "As for you��" Leonardo thought for a moment and sighed. "Do you want to know the harsh truth or a good encouragement?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head helplessly. "I believe you already know my answer."


    "I guess." Leonardo let out a long sigh and said without a single lie. "You are not worthy of learning about strategy and stuff. Do you know what''s the strongest weapon in this world?"


    "Absolute Power?"


    "Nah." Leonardo raised his finger. "It''s information. Knowing whether your opponents have ten Mythical Rank Experts and a secret weapon or not will give you the necessary security to execute your n rather than knowing nothing."


    "Information." Theo looked down.


    "To be honest, your condition is too severe. First of all, you have no knowledge about this world as a whole because of your childhood. Then, you have skipped too many sses back in your school. Hence, you have no idea how to make a long-term n.


    "If you have the information, you can specte and strike your enemies in perfect timing. There is also the fact you have enough time to create several assurances to ensure your n''s sess. Hence, what you need to do right now is not about how to make a n and other stuff�� Instead, you need to start learning the state of this world.


    "What is the power from each country, what is their current problem, what''s the state of the politics there? And how much they can bring to destroy you." Leonardo smiled. "I know that learning all this information won''t be helping you in your Martial Prowess, but this is something necessary to understand which path you want to take in the future.


    "My task for you is to learn the information I give you within the next three months. I believe you will have four hours of sleep at night and three hours to train every day with my schedule. To put it simply, economy, politics, military, monster''s glossary, and other subjects�� I am going to cram all that knowledge into you within three months.


    "People said young people love to show your achievement and reveal your prowess, making this studying stuff so boring. Hence, I want to ask you this, are you ready for hell?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and knew he might not have some good breakthrough for his strength in the next few months, allowing the others to catch up to him. However, in order to secure his future, Theo said, "I am ready."


    "Good." Leonardo nodded. "Let''s see how long you can keep up with this boring stuff."


    Leonardo took out a Skylink and tossed it to him.


    "This is the material you need to cover for the next three months. I will be fighting you every week�� I mean, fighting you in the battle of politics, economy, and stuff like that. I hope you can be a worthy opponent."


    "I understand��" Theo looked at the Skylink and took a deep breath.

 Chapter 550 – Real Life Role Playing Game

    <h4>Chapter 550 - Real Life Role ying Game</h4>


    After a long two weeks, Theo was sitting in front of his grandfather with several screens between them. The biggest screen showed a huge map.


    "I gave you the homework yesterday, and now, let''s talk about this country." Leonardo pointed at the name.


    "In Indonesia, there are currently several conflicts between a few influences. However, I am choosing a specific influence for us to role-y."


    Theo became a bit serious as there were two dots on the map. "The first one is Hugan Group in Indonesia''s previous capital, Jakarta. The Hugan Group is a colossal business group with deep pockets and a stable flow of money.


    "The second one is one of the most prominent families in the current capital in Kalimantan, Tanudjaja Family. They have the help of the local government, so both of them are equal." Theo assessed both of them ording to the information he reviewed earlier.


    "That''s right. The fact they are located in two separate inds, direct conflict can be avoided��or not." Leonardo shrugged and pointed at the second one. "I will be manipting thetter while you help the Hugan Group. We are trying to eliminate each other''s influence, and we will have a turn in making our move."


    Theo extended his hand. "Okay."


    "Good. Let''s start." Leonardo nodded and raised his hand at the same time as Theo. "Rock paper scissors shoot."


    Theo yed scissors while Leonardo used paper.


    "I win." Theo then turned to the right, looking at the current number of the Hugan''s money and the personnel he could mobilize. He had a capital of thirty billion Zils and ten Mythical Rank Experts along with a total of four thousand people to use.


    Meanwhile, the opposite party only had ten billion and half of their number. From the condition alone, Theo seemed to have a massive advantage in the situation.


    "Okay, since I have the advantage of the money, I am going to assign several missions in the temple near their family with the normal amount of the reward, but your Tanudjaja Family currently needs."


    "Cutting their supply?" Leonardo smiled and nodded. "It''s a good idea, especially since they''re openly opposing each other. With their current money flow, they will be in trouble if they try to keep up with you."


    "Yes." Theo agreed with Leonardo''s assessment.


    "Then, I will do this��" Leonardo opened another screen, showing three people''s pictures. They all were the children of the family. "I will have three of them spend my money to buy the supply."


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "We have agreed. If we can see through the other party''s intention, you should tell no lies and agree to share your thoughts about your own decision. On the other hand, if you don''t know why I do that, we won''t need to share our thoughts. Random spection is not allowed."


    "Yes, but��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "You''re going to be using them as bait, right? Considering there is one child who needs to go all the way to Java to discuss business."


    Leonardo smiled and nodded. "Yes. I was trying to make you assassinate the child so I can counter-ambush you without telling the kid that this is all ording to the n."


    "In that case, I am using the time where your fighters are away to set up an ambush on the other side, eliminating all of your people. Of course, we''re using the gate in Jakarta and going all the way to Kalimantan on the other side."


    "Oops. You lower my number again." Leonardo smiled and raised his finger. "Then, I will bring the local government and military to look around for your trace. Of course, I will be telling them a lie and simply use my connections."


    "I am going to make that lie reality by creating a swarm of monsters." Theo made his next move without hesitation.


    Leonardo smiled and said to Theo, "I will be using this to influence the central government to act to suppress them."


    "It gives me enough time to go back to Jakarta while offering money to the productionpany you hire to switch sides, forcing you to have no ie."


    "In the meantime, I will send all the children to Jakarta with five Mythical Rank Experts protecting them. Then, I will bring the local government to provide me with some securities."


    "Why are you using them as bait?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    Leonardo smiled and shook his head, telling him that he guessed it wrong. Now, he had no right to ask the real intention of his move.


    Without that knowledge, Theo pointed at the family, "In that case, I will be moving five of my Mythical Rank Experts to watch them. Meanwhile, I send the rest to start pressuring the people near your Tanudjaja Family in order to prevent them from helping you."


    Leonardo nodded. "Looking at the situation, I don''t have money andck of manpower, huh��"


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Leonardo''s face and said, "The three children will go separate ways. The first child will be going to East Java, the second one will stay in Jakarta, and the third kid will visit Central Java. I will let you think about the Mythical Rank Experts��"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and realized that he might be ambushed if he attacked them. In order to make sure he didn''t fall into traps, he needed to conduct an investigation.


    "I will investigate the movement of your Mythical Rank Experts. At the same time, I will use my money to pay several Mythical Rank Experts and let you think about the numbers. Then, I will start killing a few of the Tanudjaja Family members."


    Leonardo became serious as he answered, "Your investigation is sessful. Only the one in Jakarta has one Mythical Rank Expert with him. As for you killing my people�� I will bring the local government to spread it around, making sure not a single member of my family dies again."


    "Then, I will use this chance to hit the child in Jakarta, including the Mythical Rank Experts with all my experts. Meanwhile, the rest of my troops are moving back to the other side, hiding there." Theo smiled.


    "Hoho, my situation is not good right now." Leonardo chuckled�� "It''s going to be hard for me sooner orter�� Or so you think."

 Chapter 551 – Advice

    <h4>Chapter 551 - Advice</h4>


    "I destroy your Hugan Facilities in these two areas and strike the Hugan''s stock price. Unlike my family, you need to take care of your stock price." Leonardo smiled.


    "��" Theo was amazed by the movements as he soon realized even if the Tanudjaja lost this battle, the Hugan Group couldn''t escape unscathed. At the same time, he needed to spend a tremendous amount of money to take care of the facilities. It would be even more troublesome if they spread all the information stored inside the facilities.


    "I see��" Theo looked down, falling silent for a few minutes. "You''re quite ruthless."


    "Haha." Leonardo chuckled. "Of course, I won''t be ying with my family''s lives. However, this one is another family. Depending on the situation, the family can order or the children themselves can sacrifice their lives for the entire family.


    "Though, you may want to be careful when ying around with this kind of tactic because sometimes, you will be painted as the bad guys for sending them to their deaths. And the influence thatmissioned you would be hostile by using the public''s opinion to hit you. Suing you for money or something��


    "That''s why you should be recording your daily activities, especially in an important situation. This way, you can protect yourselves from some unnecessary problems."


    "I understand." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Though, it''s really annoying, considering my five Mythical Experts won''t be able to catch the other two."


    Theo realized that Leonardo had turned the situation around with that one move.


    "I don''t have any money to spend, so my Mythical Rank Experts will soon leave me." Theo knew he needed to end this situation as soon as possible.


    However, this must be his grandfather''s trick, luring him into a trap.


    "If you''re not making a move anytime soon, I am going to make another one, you know. No enemies will wait for you to make your move." Leonardo looked at Theo''s expression with a serious expression.


    "I know." Theo waved his hand as if telling him he was going to make his move. "I will be sending five Mythical Rank Experts to regroup with the other five, stopping any movements from your Tanudjaja Family."


    "I will send all the Mythical Rank Experts and the children to attack you. At the same time, I will be paying two of yourmissioned Mythical Rank Experts to betray your Hugan Group, attacking the headquarters of the Hugan Group and killing the head."


    "The leader knew about this ambush and transferred everything to his only child, asking him to avenge him while you''re busy. The child will be selling twenty percent of his stocks for the help of another family."


    "Oh, that''s a good move." Leonardo narrowed his eyes. "But your Hugan Group has started to go down, you know."


    "The child still has fifty-five percent shares of his ownpany. So, he''s still in charge." Theo shook his head.


    "There is a potential betrayal and kicking him out of thepany." Leonardo tried Theo once again.


    "At the very least, the group has five Mythical Rank Experts that seem to have loyalty to him ording to the information. It should be enough." Theo realized he was going to lose sooner orter. So, he changed his strategy.


    "Okay then. My next move is to use the rest of the family money and bribe those officials, forcing them to move to help me while stopping another influence froming to help you." Leonardo smiled. "This way, you won''t be able to hit me unless��"


    "Yeah. I''m going to have a frontal attack." Theo nodded.


    "Obviously, it''s not going to work because four experts from the family and twomissional experts return to the family and ambush the remaining five. I also promise two more about yourpany share after killing the young master. With an insider informant, I am taking you down."


    "Still, I have five of them with me. I take down at least five of the Mythical Rank Experts and your ce." Theo shook his head.


    "Mutual destruction huh. However, most of my family members are still alive while you''re already down." Leonardo smiled. "At the same time, I can push all those betrayers out of the picture in the recovery."


    "Fair enough. I guess I have lost from that move��" Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Yes. What do you think is the biggest power in the battlefield after absolute power?"


    Theo thought for a moment and said with an unsure tone. "Sacrifice?"


    "Nah, it''s emotion." Leonardo smiled. "You need to manipte their emotions, making them move like you want them to do. Anxiety, confidence, or even fear�� You need to make them have a certain emotion, narrowing what your enemies will do."


    "I see."


    "We will hold this type of battle every week, allowing you to grow as a strategist. After learning this, I am sure you can analyze other countries by yourself and choose which ce you want to go in the future while ensuring your own safety from any scams." Leonardo smiled.


    Theo lowered his head politely. "I will be in your care, Elder."


    "Haha, no need to do that. I am just doing my job. Aside from this, I just want to warn you about something." Leonardo raised one finger.


    "What is it?"


    "There is nothing absolute in this warfare. I won''t tell you which route you should choose, but each choice will have a consequence. You need to bear that consequence and see through it."


    Theo clenched his hands as he noticed what he indirectly implied. He looked his grandfather in the eyes and said with a calm tone. "After experiencing it myself, I will certainly do that."


    "Okay. That''s good enough for me." Leonardo pped his hands. "Anyway, it''s my win. And seeing how you have progressed for the past two weeks�� I am asking you to join the familypetition in two months. I don''t know how long you will stay here, so I am asking you to fulfill your side of the agreement as soon as possible."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment because he never thought Leonardo would ask it not long after he settled down.


    "I don''t know what you''re nning, but I guess I can do that. Thispetition will give me some information about the level of the War God Family��" Theo nodded with a poker face.


    "That''s all. You can go back to learn more stuff." Leonardo waved his hand.


    Theo rose from the chair and thanked him for the lecture before going back to the mansion.

 Chapter 552 – Competition

    <h4>Chapter 552 - Competition</h4>


    When his grandfather signed him up for thepetition, he promised that this year''spetition wouldn''t change his value. After all, this was his grandfather''s selfishness.


    Theo also had no prior knowledge about thispetition, forcing him to learn everything from the start.


    On the other hand, it certainly became big news for the other participants and family members.


    Even Ignazio widened his eyes when he received the news. He was standing in his own garden together with his sister.


    "This��" Ignazio furrowed his eyebrows.


    His sister moved behind him, asking, "What happened? For you to have this kind of expression is umon."


    "I believe we shouldn''t participate in this year''spetition. Let''s just wait for another year." He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.


    "Ehm?" Mara tilted her head in confusion. "I don''t know what you''re talking about unless you tell me the reason."


    "Actually, Theo is participating in this year''spetition."


    "Hmm?" Mara furrowed her eyebrows and said, "I don''t know about his personality, but this movement�� I am afraid this is Grandfather working behind the scenes."


    "Why do you think so?"


    "Grandfather wants to introduce Theo to the rest of the family while showing his ability. Because he has started learning from Grandfather, this is the only time he can prove why he''s chosen by Grandfather. After all, there''s not that much of a difference from his previous condition when he left Thernd.


    "At the same time, he wants to tell the family that he''s going to teach this kid. Some will take this stance positively and try to improve themselves, some will hate this and direct that hatred to Theo." Mara assessed their situation.


    "Ah, there is that guy��" Ignazio nodded.


    "Yeah. Among the big three who almost reach the Supreme Rank, there are two more people other than me that grasp the top three. I am afraid they''re going to make a move soon in thepetition." Mara smiled. "This is going to be an interesting year. Of course, we should participate."


    "What?" Ignazio panicked for a second. "That guy�� I am not trying to elevate his status, but that guy is a devil in nning. If it''s in a fight, he''s a far bigger devil."


    "Well, I am curious about this guy who can make my Ignazio like this." Mara chuckled. "Besides, it''s fine if I lose since I can''t even use my legs."


    "That��" Ignazio suddenly understood why she wanted to participate. "You''re not going to let that guy win, so you can create a situation where you don''t get any punishment in your allocated resources, right?"


    Mara smiled. "What kind of person am I in your head?"


    Ignazio rolled his eyes as she was exactly what he described earlier. Behind that gentle expression was a scary woman who could destroy anyone.


    "Whatever�� Since you''re participating, I will do it as well." Ignazio resigned to his fate.


    "As expected of my Ignazio." Mara gave a thumbs up.


    "I am not doing this for you. I am only curious about his development within these six months." Ignazio looked away.


    "Right? We will leave it at that." Mara chuckled.


    As Mara said, the other two people, whopeted with her in the top three positions, received this message.


    The first one was a male in his twenties. He had spiky brown hair and sharp eyes. With only a towel on his waist, he came out of the bathroom before finding a woman with long purple hair. She wore a pink tank top and short jeans.


    "Hmm?" The man furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you doing here? Are you missing me?"


    Without a change of expression on her face, she said, "Sir Leonardo has just made a big move."


    "Grandfather?" The man thought for a moment. "It''s not normal for that old man to make a move, so every move of his is quite big�� But you don''t need to overestimate his small actions."


    "No. I am sure Master has heard about Theodore Griffith��"


    "Yeah. You told me about his arrival a few months ago." The man suddenly fell silent as he came to a realization. "He''s participating in thepetition?"


    "As expected of Master." The woman nodded.


    "What do you mean as expected? I can realize that much��" The man shook his head helplessly. "Still, if I am not wrong, Grandfather has moved into his house, teaching him. I see�� This year''spetition is going to be exciting."


    "Are you nning to participate, Master?"


    "Obviously. Is my schedule free at that time?" He suddenly felt something was wrong and changed his words. "No. Make sure my schedule is free around thepetition. I am going topete there to see whether this Theodore Griffith is worth the hassle�� His mother is my mother''s rival, so I am going to defeat him in thispetition."


    "I understand. I will make the adjustment." The woman nodded.


    After discussing it, he wrapped his hands around her waist as he smiled, "Well, since you came here��"


    The woman pushed away his hand. "Please don''t touch me��"


    Before he could react, the woman walked to the bathroom while saying, "I need to wash myself first."


    "��" The man''s eyebrows twitched before he facepalmed, not knowing what to say.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in another ce, there were two men ying chess.


    The first one was a bald man with sharp blue eyes. He looked at his opponent and said, "So, fatty. What are you doing here? It''s rare for you toe by yourself."


    "I''m not fat. I''m chubby." He shook his head. "Well, it''s��"


    Before he finished his words, the bald man already said, "If you''re talking about Theodore Griffith, I already know it."


    "I guess I shouldn''t havee��"


    "That''s right. Now that you are here, you''re going to help me with my training."


    "Ehm�� Will you let me go with this information?"


    "Hmm?" The man stopped for a moment and raised his head, looking his friend in the eyes.


    "The one who will create the challenge for thispetition is Sir Leonardo himself."


    The bald man froze for a few seconds beforeying down on the ground. "Seriously? Grandfather himself? Do you know how random Grandfather''s challenges can be?"


    "Maybe because there is a new guy, he''s going to hold back a little?"


    "Who knows��" The bald man closed his eyes. "I guess I will participate this year�� Since he''s holding thispetition, that means showing off in thispetition can pique his interest�� I am going to do that."

 Chapter 553 – Comments

    <h4>Chapter 553 - Comments</h4>


    Theo''s information had been spread all over Italy as he was going to participate in the family tournament. Many reacted to this sudden motion because they could see what kind of person their country took in.


    Obviously, they wanted to see whether Theo was worth investing in or not.


    Some actually doubted it, while others believed Theo would surpass their imagination, like when he fought in the Grand Gaia.


    Still, one thing for sure, if Theo did a good job in this familypetition, missions and cooperations would flock to the War God Family, asking Theo to do some tasks for them.


    His picture appeared on the headline, especially when people realized he was the son of the War God Family''s Valkyrie. It swept Italy by surprise.


    On the contrary, Theo was reading his assignments because he didn''te here to enjoy the awe in the people''s eyes. He chose this ce to be stronger.


    When people were wondering about Theo''s location, the aforementioned person was training in his own house, not caring about the outside world.


    He kept training with Ava and his grandfather, not epting any visitors, even if Agata came.


    The time went by, and thepetition had arrived.


    As expected, they chose to make the entirepetition live, letting many people see. After all, not only Theo but also all top three contenders would participate in a single year. The match would be bigger thanst year, so the War God Family increased the hype by broadcasting thepetition.


    Sitting in front of the camera was the War God Family''s War Saint who held thispetition, Leonardo. Next to him was a woman that made her presence known to the world bymenting on the Grand Gaia Competition, Sheira.


    Many people were watching this program, no matter if they were important people or ordinary citizens. This was just too good for them to pass, considering the War God Family taught them personally by letting them see their actions.


    "It''s been a while, everyone." Sheira waved her hand to the camera with a smile on her face. "With me here is the man I am sure you all know! That''s right. He is none other than the strongest person in Italy, the War Saint, Leonardo Guerrero."


    "Hoho, this year is going to be exciting." Leonardo chuckled while waving his hand, following Sheira''s action.


    "Sir Leonardo, I am curious what happened after thepetition�� I heard your family realized Theodore Griffith is actually the person of the War God Family." Sheira squinted his eyes.


    "He is following the custom of the Griffith Family, so I can''t say he''s a person of my family, but I can proudly say he is my grandson." Leonardo smiled, indirectly implying that they were free to poach him if they had the ability.


    This statement raised many people''s interests in an instant because they usuallymissioned the War God Family instead of poaching them, so this was one of the rare asions they could acquire someone from the War God Family.


    "Even I am excited to hear that." Sheira smiled. "However, let''s talk about what happened after thepetition. How did you feel when you found out that he''s Valkyrie''s son?"


    "Obviously, I was thrilled since I was unaware of this for so long." Leonardo chuckled. "But I prefer to remain silent for any questions regarding this matter. Instead, let''s focus on thepetition, shall we?"


    "Ah, I apologize for digging up this information. I am curious��" Sheira made an awkward smile and nodded. "Okay. Let''s move on to thepetition. May we know who will be participating?"


    Leonardo waved his hand and showed the list of the names. "There are a total of 24 people participating in thispetition. Considering this is only the main family members whose levels are below five hundred, I can say it''s been a while to have this many people in onepetition. Normally, it''s only less than half of them."


    "Is that so? Who do you think will win in thispetition?"


    "Haha, thispetition is not to rank them�� it''s to assess their ability and allocate the resources ording to their ability. So, there''s no point in talking about the winner. Their rankse from the people''s eyes, not the family''s judgment. So, I won''t say anything about rank. After all, we''re assessing all of them together, and even thest ce can increase their resources as long as their performance is good."


    "I see." Sheira nodded with a solemn expression. "Then, I shall change my question. What do you think about Theo participating in thispetition?"


    "Well, I was the one suggesting this idea to him, so I can only say I haven''t told him any hints about thispetition and he has been studying other things instead of the pastpetitions. In other words, he''s clueless about what to expect from thispetition."


    "He is at a disadvantage." Sheira thought for a moment.


    "He is indeed�� But I believe he will adjust himself soon. That''s what I believe after teaching him for three months. Of course, I am not going to show any favoritism in thispetition or the family." Leonardo smirked. "Everything shall be grasped by your own hands!"


    Sheira fell silent before asking, "That''s right. I almost forgot to ask this. Where is thepetition being held?"


    Leonardo smiled and answered her questions, just buying time until all participants were ready.


    He told Sheira that all participants were sent into Parco Regional del Matese or Matese Regional Park. It was a ce with threekes and forests without many people staying in the area. So, they could go wild with their fight.


    Early in the morning, a car picked him up with his grandfather telling him that Ava couldn''t help him during this time. Theo wanted to refuse, but Leonardo nned to broadcast thepetition, so he reluctantly agreed not to bring Ava to prevent her from being a celebrity.


    He took a peek from the window, staring at the calmke and some hills.


    Suddenly, the car stopped and the door was opened, followed by the voice of the driver�� "Sir Theodore, we''ve arrived."

 Chapter 554 – All Parties Gathered

    <h4>Chapter 554 - All Parties Gathered</h4>


    Hearing the driver''s words, Theo gently opened the car''s door and came out. Fresh air with a cool humidity from theke filled his lungs, brightening his expression in this hot summer.


    "Ehmm��" Theo stretched his hands upward while looking around, wondering what he should do next.


    As he expected, there were two people wearing a white t-shirt with the War God Family''s symbol on their right chest. The emblem was two swords crossing each other in front of a shield that had a halo.


    They had been walking to his position the moment they saw the car, so they almost arrived after he saw them.


    "Wee, Sir Theodore." The man said while lifting a blue box.


    The woman next to him hurriedly opened the box and took out a white watch, a drone, and sunsses. "These are for you. The sunsses will transmit everything you need, like your objectives, map, or condition. It also has a tracker to make sure the drone is around you. So, when you arrive at your location, please activate the drone.


    "There is an expert that will help you, so please don''t worry, the drone won''t hinder your movement or give away your location. As for the watch, it''s for something else. You will understand when thepetition has started."


    Theo nodded and grabbed the sunsses first, putting them on.


    Suddenly, several screens appeared in his vision. They showed this ce''s map and terrain, Theo''s current objective, the time limit, and the route he needed to get there.


    "Hmm, this is convenient." Theo narrowed his eyes. "As expected from a more developed country�� The technology in Thernd can''t bepared to those in this country."


    Without waiting for them to say anything, Theo put on the watch and took the drone. "Okay. Thank you."


    "You''re wee." The man nodded while the woman smiled, "Good luck."


    Theo walked a few steps and came to a halt, checking the map.


    There was a red dot with a message telling him to go there. And the tournament would start in an hour.


    He knew this ce would soon be the gathering ce of many people, so he ran toward his destination, preventing anyone from following him.


    His target location was at the slope of the hill. Although it wasn''t the best to fight, he could cool down under the tree, waiting for them to arrive.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t see what was going on because Ignazio''s ce was a bit too far from his current position.


    ��


    After him, Ignazio and Mara made their appearances. They put on everything as soon as possible before Ignazio pushed the wheelchairs to an open area.


    "Are you sure about this, Sister?" Ignazio asked with a worried expression.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine." Mara waved her hand with a smile before her wheelchairs started to float. "I have mastered Telekinesis, so my mobility is good. Although it''s quite tiring to use it continuously, I don''t n on giving my position to any other people."


    "I understand��" Ignazio sighed, knowing he couldn''t stop his sister from participating. He saw her crossing theke with her Telekinesis.


    Only after he couldn''t see her anymore did Ignazio turn around, heading to his destination.


    Surprisingly, Ignazio was on the same hill as Theo, but he was slightly below and on the other side, so Theo couldn''t see him passing.


    Another important figure soon arrived. He was none other than one of the top three below Supreme Rank, the bald guy.


    He came with his friend, the fatty.


    "Fatty, you shoulde to meter, okay?" The bald man smiled while wearing his sunsses.


    "Of course. Luk, I am your assistant, so obviously, I am going to help you." The fatty nodded with confidence.


    "Okay. I will trust you about it. I will be waiting for you�� Lio." Luka nodded and started running in a certain direction, going around theke to reach his destination.


    The fatty, Velio, smiled and waved his hand. "Yep. Just wait for me."


    Just like him, thest one to arrive was a man and a woman. The woman still had a cold face as nothing mattered to her.


    "Come on. Smile��" The man wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and ced it on her shoulder.


    "Can you stop doing this?" The woman red at him.


    "Hahaha. Fine, fine." The man raised his hand while putting on his sunsses. However, the moment he finished, he didn''t see his woman anywhere. "��"


    He was speechless for a moment and shook his head helplessly. "She keeps trying to hide her true desire�� Cute."


    After putting on everything, he finally ran toward his destination like everyone else.


    In the War God Family''s mansion, Sheira was already excited to see how thepetition would turn out.


    "Everyone is ready for thepetition. There are only five minutes left before thepetition begins." Sheira turned to Leonardo. "Do you have anything to add, Sir Leonardo?"


    "Haha, the participants already know what they need to do. All I can say is that with all the people watching thispetition, they need to perform well or they will be an embarrassment." Leonardo smiled. "I have no intention ofughing at them, and I don''t care whether they disappoint me or not. I just want them to do this seriously.


    "This is a battle they need to win no matter what. I hope that everyone, who watches this smallpetition, can pay attention to what they do. I''m sure they will be useful to you because they''re the next generation of my War God Family."


    Leonardo didn''t forget to slip in some promotions for their service, reminding them that they couldmission their people to help their problems.


    "Thank you for your words." Sheira politely nodded while waving her hand to the camera. "Everyone, this is it! The biggestpetition we have had in a while, the War God Family''s assessment. 24 talented people are standing in their positions, ready to showcase their abilities.


    "Will they be able to be the star of thispetition? Will they perform like they usually do? Let''s watch their battle!"


    After saying that, Leonardo took out a red button from his pocket and pressed it while saying, "The firstpetition, Start!"

 Chapter 555 – Six People

    <h4>Chapter 555 - Six People</h4>


    Theo, standing under the tree, looked at the time as it became zero.


    Suddenly, he found another red dot on the map, indicating the start of the tournament and a new target.


    [Objective: Head to the destination and meet the other people.]


    "!!!" Theo raised his eyebrows and opened the map, finding five blue dots. "Hmm��"


    After thinking for a while, Theo moved forward to the destination. The meeting area was in a in right at the bottom of the hill, making it easier for them to fight.


    Theo thought he would fight a battle royale the moment he arrived, but he figured out his grandfather wouldn''t be that random.


    On the way, he got another surprise when he saw Ignazio running toward the same destination.


    As if feeling his presence, Ignazio also turned his head around. Instead of running away, he approached him while waving his hand. "Oi!"


    "It''s been a while, Theo." Ignazio smiled. "As expected, you are insane for participating in this year''spetition, considering you have been here only for three months."


    Theo shrugged as if telling him he didn''t care much about thepetition. Seeing there was no fighting objective currently, he found no reason to push him away.


    ''Leaving him is a choice, but I should be using Ignazio to introduce the other four.'' Theo muttered inwardly.


    "What do you know about thispetition?" Ignazio asked.


    "Nothing," said Theo without hesitation. "That''s why I hope you can exin a few things to meter. I don''t know what to expect from apetition like this."


    "Haha. It''s okay. We just need to work hard and the War God Family will assess our ability." Ignazio agreed without hesitation.


    Before he could say anything, they had arrived at their destination, finding three people staring at them.


    "!!!" Theo and Ignazio were surprised to see these three.


    Without hesitation, Ignazio shouted their names. "Hmm? Velio, Felice, and Rardo!"


    "Ignazio, huh." Velio furrowed his eyebrows while Felice only looked at him coldly.


    Theo observed these three people. Despite having a bulging stomach, Velio''s body didn''t seem to have trouble moving because he remembered they had the same distance to gather here.


    Since he came earlier than them, his pace should be far faster. Seeing there was no sweat under this hot sun made Theo know he wasn''t an ordinary guy.


    As for Felice, he already felt the cold air around her, indicating her affinity. He looked at this purple-haired beauty because her gaze reminded him of a certain person.


    Last but not least, Rardo had a muscr body that was barely hidden underneath his clothes. His eyes matched his spiky blonde hair, releasing fighting intent.


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Theo''s face. Because he was the newbie here, he approached them, asking, "Hello, I''m Theo. I''m new here. If you don''t mind, can I ask for your names?"


    "Oh, so polite." Velio raised his eyebrows and extended his hand. "I''m Velio. Nice to meet you, Theodore or Theo."


    "Y-yes." Theo shook his hand.


    "He''s Luka''s assistant," Ignazio added with a nonchnt expression.


    "Luka?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, not knowing who this Luka was.


    "Luka is one of the top three beside my sister." Ignazio shrugged.


    "Oh?" Theo nodded with a poker face as if it didn''t really matter. He then turned to Rardo and extended his hand, "Hello."


    "Haha, Young Man. You''re good! To think you cause all this just by participating�� I guess many are curious about you." Rardoughed and shook Theo''s hand.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he felt the grip was too tight, as though the other party was trying to test him.


    Theo made a weak smile and asked, "Ehm�� Can you stop? It''s hurting me��"


    "Oh?!" Rardo hurriedly released his hand and said, "Are you sure you can even participate in thispetition? You don''t seem to be that powerful."


    "Rardo, you''re one to talk." Ignazio red at him and gave another introduction. "This is Rardo. He''s the weirdest guy in the ranking. He fell short of the top three, but he achieved that position with his fighting prowess alone. Well, you can say he''s a muscle brain."


    "Offense is the best strategy. If strategy still worked against you, it means you didn''t hit them hard enough." Rardoughed out loud.


    Theo didn''t care about his policy, so he went to thest person. "Hi."


    Felice looked at him for a few seconds then raised her head. After a while, she looked down and said, "Felice."


    "Oi, Felice. Aren''t you a bit too cold to a new guy?" Velio couldn''t help butment.


    "She''s Lorenzo''s woman," Ignazio added.


    "Right. Another top three." Velio nodded in agreement.


    "Oh?" Theo listened to their introductions.


    "Sor��ry!" Suddenly, a long, high-pitched voice echoed in their ears as a blonde girl arrived at the spot. She tied her long hair into twin tails and wore a white robe and a miniskirt during this hot summer.


    She bent her knees while cing her hands on her thighs, supporting her body as she was panting.


    "Another one who falls short from the top three��" Ignazio clicked his tongue.


    "She''s a devil! A witch! A ck mage!" Velio supported Ignazio but in a more entric way. "She acted innocent while inside, she was nothing like that!"


    "What do you mean by that?" She panted a few times, trying to deny them. "I don''t even want this position because I don''t deserve it�� However, every time I participate in thepetition, something weird urs�� I don''t know what''s going on."


    "Yeah, yeah. We will see��" Ignazio rolled his eyes, not caring about her statement.


    "I am telling the truth." She pouted.


    Theo had no knowledge about her, so he just extended his hand. "Hi, I am Theo, a new guy here."


    "Right!" She hurriedly shook his hand and said, "I''m Alice."


    Suddenly, another objective appeared on the screen, stunning all of them.


    Objective: Kick one of your teammates from the group and force them to leave thepetition or build a sand or dirt castle together. After that, move to another destination for a battle. There''s no time limit and the castle needs to be perfect if you want to participate in the second round.


    "!!!" The moment they saw their mission, all of them had the same thought in their mind.


    ''The first mission already requires us to betray someone?''

 Chapter 556 – Suspicious

    <h4>Chapter 556 - Suspicious</h4>


    The six of them looked at each other, frowning their expressions.


    ''There will be a battle after this?'' Theo muttered inwardly, ''Doesn''t this mean going there as soon as possible gives us a lot of advantage? There''s no saying we''re going to fight our own teammates��''


    ''But to reach the next destination at the fastest speed possible will require us to abandon someone.'' Ignazio thought while looking at the others, wondering who needed to be sacrificed.


    ''If I can meet Master, it will be an easy fight.'' Velio squinted his eyes.


    ''In that case, we need to finish this as soon as possible.'' Felice took a deep breath to see the problem more clearly.


    "Awa��" Alice panicked and looked at them while her body was shaking. "What should we do?"


    "We should create a castle! Peace is good." Rardoughed as if betraying one of them was not an option. "Isn''t that the right thing to do?"


    "��" They fell silent because the moment Rardo uttered those words, they knew a castle needed to be built. After all, their images would be destroyed if they chose to sacrifice someone in this situation.


    "Right!" Ignazio was the first to say. "We should build a castle! Isn''t it easy to make one? Like ying on the beach."


    Theo''s expression turned grim. ''If we build the castle first, another group will arrive before us and ce some traps around the area. We will be at a great disadvantage�� And it doesn''t state a group battle, making it even more dangerous.


    ''There is also the fact that these people can get together with their friends�� At the very least, it''s the most likely situation with Felice and Velio. It will be even more dangerous because they are the top three�� Ignazio is also the same, but unlike him, I don''t know them.''


    He took another look at the mission.


    [Objective: Kick one of your teammates from the group and force them to leave thepetition or build a sand or dirt castle together. After that, move to another destination for a battle. There''s no time limit and the castle needs to be perfect if you want to participate in the second round.]


    A wild idea came to his mind as Theo smiled. "That''s right. We should build the castle. I have never done it, but I will do my best to help everyone."


    "No worries. I also never made one." Rardo patted Theo''s shoulders andughed nonchntly.


    "How about you two?" Ignazio asked Felice and Velio with a smirk as if challenging them.


    "Of course, I will be helping you," Velio answered without hesitation. He pointed down at the ground, "We''re going to build it here, right? I don''t think I want to move far away from here��"


    Looking at the soil, Felice harrumphed. "You need me to build this castle. I can use my Ice Skill to wet the ground, making it more solid."


    "Hoho, the princess doesn''t seem to like it when dirt smears her hands." Ignazio smirked, teasing her.


    "The version of me in your mind is not my responsibility." Felice shook her head, denying Ignazio''s im and striking back.


    "As expected of the famous cold woman, your words certainly feel like dry ice." Ignazio snorted.


    "My point still stands." Felice shrugged and looked away.


    "D-don''t fight!" Alice panicked and waved her hands, asking them to stop. Her face was pale, as if she was afraid of conflict.


    Theo observed everyone''s expression until Rardo intervened by saying, "Alright. Since everyone has agreed to make the castle, let''s proceed right now. We can''t really let anyone beat us."


    Having no other option, Felice raised her hand and formed a chunk of ice on her palm, tossing it to Rardo. "Burn it."


    Rardo caught the ice and summoned a fire on his other palm. He then surrounded the ice with fire except for the bottom part, allowing the water from the melted ice to fall to the ground.


    Their n seeded as the dirt gained enough moisture to stand upright but had yet to be liquid mud. After that, Ignazio pulled his sword and stabbed the ground multiple times, creating a circle.


    Theo knew it was his time to perform, so he lifted the dirt with his Telekinesis. This chunk would be the dirt they would use to build a castle.


    Suddenly, the castle''s blueprint appeared in their vision, projected by the sunsses.


    "It seems we need to work now. "Rardo snapped his fingers to get ready.


    Felice''s hands became extremely cold as she bent her knees, touching the dirt. Even then, the dirt became cold and didn''t stick to her hand.


    Seeing Felice had started, as the second female in their group, Alice followed her and started building the castle.


    The four boys also proceeded at their own pace.


    This was the first time Theo made a castle from dirt and recalled how fun it was to create a sandcastle on the beach. Unfortunately, this was apetition; he couldn''t really have some fun.


    Luckily, it wasn''t that hard because they only needed to shape the mud ording to the blueprint and stacked them on top of each other.


    "Well, this is not fun��" Ignazio muttered while ncing at Felice. "I thought doing this together would make me happy, but I can only feel the chilling wind brushing my skin��"


    "Are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Felice red at him.


    "Instead of building a castle, you should be our cooler." Ignazio shrugged and looked away. "It''s a hot summer after all."


    Despite the constant insults between Felice and Ignazio, the group managed to create a dirt castle within ten minutes.


    They found another red mark on their map.


    "We have found it!" Rardo immediately rose and started walking without even looking at his teammates. "I am going there first."


    "��" Theo and the others realized they needed to be there to know the next mission while making sure he couldn''t ce any traps, so they followed him without hesitation.


    However, not everything went ording to the n.


    When the group was heading to their next destination, a huge explosion resounded across the area.


    Boom.


    "!!!" The group halted and turned around, feeling the shock wave brushing their skin. They also knew the ce where it exploded since it wasn''t that far away.


    "Isn''t the explosioning from where we built our castle?" Rardo asked with a dumbfounded expression.


    His doubt was answered by the notification that appeared in their vision.


    [Someone destroyed the castle. Please go back to rebuild it or sacrifice a person to proceed.]


    "��" They all shared the same thought, suspecting each other�� ''Who destroyed the castle? Everyone around me�� is suspicious.''

 Chapter 557 – Second Time

    <h4>Chapter 557 - Second Time</h4>


    After that explosion, they returned and discovered that their castle had been destroyed by the st. All they found was a small crater on the ground with all the dirt had been scattered around the area.


    "��" They all widened their eyes while Alice clutched her head. "Why is this happening? Is this a curse? Is this my curse? I am sorry."


    Alice dropped to the ground while lowering her head as if her trauma kicked in.


    Meanwhile, Theo stepped forward and patted her shoulder. "It''s alright. It shouldn''t be your curse."


    "!!!" Theo''s assurance somehow alerted three people: Ignazio, Felice, and Velio. They seemed to have their own thoughts about his sudden actions.


    And the one who first acted was none other than Velio.


    "How do you know it''s not her curse, Theo? I am not trying to suspect you, but the way you''re so calm appears to be suspicious for me." Velio pointed his finger at him.


    Without a change of expression, Theo raised his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "I just want to confirm this�� But, are you suspecting me?"


    Before Velio could reply, Ignazio''s voice echoed in their ears. "You don''t have the right to do that, Velio�� Especially since you and Felice are the main suspects."


    "Huh?" Velio turned around, ring at Ignazio. "What did you say?"


    Ignazio ignored him and bent down his knees, looking at the fan-shaped swirl of the dirt. At the same time, there was a half-circle on the ground, projecting the position of the explosion. "Take a look at the ground�� the bomb seems to being from you and Felice''s side, so one of you must be the culprit.


    "I am not trying to attack you, but I must do this because only you two can nt the bomb on this side." Ignazio red at Felice and Velio. "Are you trying to kick Theo out? The guy who knows nothing about thepetition. Fair enough�� You need a scapegoat after all."


    "What did you say?" Felice released her killing intent. "You dare suspect me?"


    "Do you think I am afraid of you?" Ignazio rose from the ground, releasing his killing intent. "I am just telling the truth."


    "You are also a suspect!"


    "No. We''re going to the west, and my position is the closest. Meanwhile, the farthest are Alice and Rardo. Rardo went first, so he''s not in suspicion, while Alice''s movement shouldn''t be able to hide under your observation. In other words, the two suspects are you and Velio. Care to exin?"


    "Ehm, I think you need to stop this�� There is also the chance that Sir Leonardo is nning to divide us like this." Theo scratched the back of his head. "The battle after this may be a group battle, so we need to get together."


    "Shut up!" Ignazio shouted back as though releasing all his anger. "You''re not out of suspicion either. Do you think I don''t know you have a Clone Skill? You can send your clone here!"


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes. "I haven''t even done anything. I can even summon my clone to prove it to you."


    "You still have the illusion ability. Do you think we will let that pass?" Ignazio red at him. "Do you think just because I know you from the Grand Gaia, I will let you do anything. I am going to crush you thoroughly."


    Ignazio''s re contained his killing intent and resolves, making Theo step back.


    "Well, I just want to tell you that Sir Leonardo may be doing this to sow distrust among us." Theo shook his head. "I can even summon my clone and let you all touch it to make sure it''s a real clone, not an illusion. That''s why I am suggesting we build this castle again. If it happens the second time, you will know it''s not me."


    Theo''s suggestion made sense as Ignazio had no words to retort his point. He took a deep breath and stepped back, ncing at Velio and Felice. "You two make sure I don''t catch you doing this��"


    "That''s right. Sir Leonardo may be the culprit. How about we make another one? We will kick someone if this happens again." Rardo finally opened his mouth, calming down the situation. "Besides, Sir Leonardo has never used the same trick twice, so I believe this is the conclusion."


    Theo and the others exchanged looks, observing each other''s expressions.


    Felice seemed to be angry at Ignazio while thetter directed his own anger to everyone else. Rardo still had a happy-go-lucky face, removing him from the suspicion. Alice was in a simr situation as she was still clutching her head, trying to gather her thoughts.


    Theo hurriedly summoned his clone and pointed it to everyone. "Here. I have him. You all can touch it whether it''s an illusion or not. I don''t like to be the suspect, so yeah��"


    Theo''s expression remained calm as he conveyed his feelings honestly to everyone.


    They couldn''t help but stop the charge against him for the time being and turned to Velio, who maintained his disturbed face.


    "So, we build another one?" Theo asked while extending his hand, asking them to start again.


    In the end, they had no choice other than to build everything from scratch to tell others they were not suspicious.


    Theo also made his clone help them, increasing their speed.


    It took them half the time they used previously because they had gotten used to building one.


    After that, everyone walked together, making sure no one tried to cheat them. Theo''s clone followed close.


    "I bet other groups have arrived at their destination." Ignazio snorted, ring at Theo, Felice, and Velio.


    However, another explosion urred in the same position as the previous one.


    Boom.


    "!!!" They all turned around and felt the same thing as they experienced earlier. In other words, the culprit was the same.


    [Someone destroyed the castle. Please go back to rebuild it or sacrifice a person to proceed.]


    Ignazio gritted his teeth and red at Felice and Velio�� "You two�� I am going to kick one of you! I should have done it earlier."

 Chapter 558 – Expulsion

    <h4>Chapter 558 - Expulsion</h4>


    "I should have kicked both of you earlier!" Ignazio gritted his teeth, ring at Felice and Velio.


    Even Rardo couldn''t say anything, realizing that Felice and Velio were indeed messing with them.


    "This is my curse�� This is my curse." Alice dropped to the ground and clutched her hands. "I am sorry, I am sorry."


    "What?!" Felice raised her eyebrows. "On what basis you''re using me of this!"


    "I believe I have told you the reason earlier!" Ignazio stepped forward as if trying to take her on. "Theo''s Clone is with us now, so only you and Velio have the ability to do it. Even if you keep lying to us, one of you needs to quit right now."


    "I haven''t done anything." Velio raised his hands as if giving up. "How do you want me to prove my innocence?"


    "There''s no way to prove it." Ignazio snorted. "You may want to discuss it with this woman who will leave this group."


    "What? Isn''t this unfair?"


    "Unfair? So, is sabotaging us fair?" Ignazio raised his voice.


    "Since you''re using me, you think I am afraid of you?" Felice released her killing intent while raising her hands on the waist as if she was going to pull her sword.


    Ignazio also put his hand on his sword, ready to fight. However, Felice''s action invited Theo and Rardo in, forcing them to step up.


    They seemed to be helping Ignazio to make sure the conversation stayed civil.


    "You don''t even have real proof to judge me. Do you think I don''t know what you want? You want to trap me with all this and force me to quit. In fact, the real culprit here is none other than you, who have been manipting people''s opinions." Felice red back, not afraid of the threat from Ignazio.


    "Ho? Then can you exin to me why I can be the culprit? Unlike you, I was the farthest from the impact. Meaning, if you wanted to ce the bomb, it could only be from your direction. I was already good enough to give you the chance to atone. Yet, you didn''t take that chance and did this." Ignazio snorted. "I thought you could be my rival, but it turned out you were nothing but a scumbag."


    Theo ced his hand on Ignazio''s shoulder and said, "Ehm, I think it''s fine to stop here. We can just go back there to rebuild the castle."


    "Are you joking with me?" Ignazio''s body shook and red back. "Just back off. As long as one of them is out, everyone can proceed to the next round. I am not going to be stuck here, going back and forth just to remake the castle again and again!"


    Theo scratched the back of his head and looked down. "Okay, okay. I''m sorry."


    Ignazio turned around and looked at Felice and Velio. "I''ll give you a chance. If either of you can tell me the culprit, he or she can continue. I am not going to let any of you go."


    Felice and Velio gritted their teeth, wondering why they were in this situation. They thought that the other party was the one doing it, but they had no proof.


    Hence, Velio hurriedly made up an argument by pointing his finger at Felice. "She must be the one doing it. If you take a closer look, she''s thest one to get up and leave. So, she must have nted something!"


    "What did you say? I didn''t do anything. Your body is huge, so you must be hiding something underneath your clothes!" Felice waved her hand.


    "Oh, I don''t mind opening my clothes to do a body check." Velio shrugged. "Ignazio, Theo, and Rardo can check if I have something like that or not. On the other hand, can you do something like that? Even if you dare, I can''t really trust you since you will be threatening Alica''s weak character to agree with you. As for the boys�� I am afraid you don''t dare to get checked by them, right?"


    Felice gritted her teeth, knowing that she had been losing in this argument.


    "We should go back to build the castle again!"


    "For what? To let you blow it up again?" Velio snorted, looking down on her.


    "I wasn''t the one who did it. So, you should��" Felice couldn''t finish her words before Ignazio said, "I think we havee to an agreement. Felice shall be expelled from this party."


    Suddenly, their sunsses received another message.


    [Expel Felice Guerrero?]


    Their watches suddenly let out a noise, alerting them.


    To their surprise, there were two choices on the watch. Yes or no. It was clear that the watch was asking their opinion regarding Felice.


    Ignazio and Velio chose "yes" without hesitation, leaving only Rardo, Theo, and Alice.


    "Wait, this is insane. Do you expect to believe everything they said?" Felice tried to stop the three by pointing at Ignazio and Velio. Unfortunately for her, she had lost her credibility in this matter.


    The moment Theo tapped "yes," the result was announced.


    [The majority of the group have decided to expel Felice Guerrero.]


    [Felice Guerrero is to wait in that position until the rescue team arrives to confirm the expulsion. The rest will go to their next destination.]


    "See? It''s this easy. We should have expelled her from the start instead of losing this amount of time. I bet the other groups have arrived and set up some traps." Ignazio snorted, ring at Felice as it was all her fault.


    "Well, I think you should stop��" Theo waved his hands down a few times. "It''s best to continue without talking about this. There is no telling whether there''s a group battle or not, so I would like to maintain our number as high as possible."


    "Well, that''s true." Ignazio nodded and sighed. "I will stop then."


    After letting out a long sigh, he walked forward to the new destination marked on the map.


    They all took another look at Felice''s aghast face before walking away.


    It took them only five minutes to reach the destination as they believed they should be able to catch up with their lost time. Unfortunately, the next objective turned out to be more devilish.


    [Objective: This is a battle royale. You are going to fight until you defeat one person in your group�� You''re free to use your full power because there is a Mythical Rank Expert nearby to prevent any excessive injury.]

 Chapter 559 – Defeat

    <h4>Chapter 559 - Defeat</h4>


    "!!!" They were stunned when they read the new objective.


    They sacrificed Felice not long ago, yet, the mission asked them to sacrifice another person. They simply had no idea how many people they needed to kick out to advance to thest round.


    "If we''re following this pattern��" Rardo gasped. "Doesn''t this mean we need to do it until only one person remains? In other words, we''re asked to eliminate our own team members to the very end?"


    "I''m sorry, I''m sorry. It''s my fault, so I need to sacrifice myself." Alice kept screaming while looking around. "What''s going to happen after this?"


    Theo remained silent, staring at the mission to see if he missed a word or something.


    After all, the one, who made the first move, wasn''t him. It was Ignazio.


    The moment he realized he could fight another person, Ignazio sneaked behind Velio and waved his sword.


    Feeling his presence, Velio hurriedly took a few steps to the right while spinning his body and forming a green screen in front of his chest.


    "You��" Velio widened his eyes and said, "As expected, you''re the one sabotaging this entirepetition."


    Ignazio ignored his words and stomped the ground, regaining his momentum. He then struck Velio, only to be blocked by the shield that moved to his stomach.


    Velio then dropped on his butt while lowering his head.


    The sword cut through the barrier but hit the air.


    After that, Velio raised his hand and a white screen appeared beneath Ignazio''s feet andunched him into the air.


    "Barri��" When he was about to summon his barrier, ten arrows approached him.


    Velio clicked his tongue and jumped into the air, avoiding all the arrows that somehow created small craters the moment they hit the ground.


    With both of them floating in the air, Ignazio continued his onught.


    "Fixed Shield." Velio formed a circr shield that stopped all Ignazio''s attacks while his body weight and strength prevented Ignazio from pushing his back. "I am not going to go down easily."


    A series of footsteps resounded in their ears as Velio lowered his head, finding ten armored people standing on the ground. The moment hended, they would stab him to death, so Velio formed another screen beneath him.


    The armored soldiers obviously struck the barrier, but Velio soon used his weight and unbreakable shield to tten the armored soldiers.


    "Ah, I''m sorry. I''m too heavy for your soldiers." Velio didn''t miss the opportunity to mock Ignazio. After all, he couldn''t help but hate Ignazio for tricking him. He red at him and said, "I see. Me, Felice and you�� All three of us are the assistants of the top threebatants.


    "You''re nning to eliminate Felice and me in order to stop us from helping them. This will get rid of the advantage they have against your crippled sister." Velio smiled. "To think it''s for this�� You got us."


    "You said crippled one more time, I will gouge your eyes."


    "Why don''t you try?" Velio smiled, not scared of Ignazio''s ability.


    Ignazio harrumphed and stepped forward, striking his shield.


    Clink.


    The shield didn''t crack this time as Velio had time to reinforce it when he waited for Ignazio to go down.


    If Felice''s Ice Ability had the power to lower one''s strength or reaction speed because of the coldness, Velio''s barrier was strong enough to protect any attacksing for his master, Luka. If they fought together, fighting Ignazio''s sister would be easy.


    Hence, Ignazio truly wanted to eliminate the helpers first, allowing his sister to close the gap from having a handicap.


    "Sword��" Ignazio''s de began to glow as he spun his body, releasing a crescent-shaped sword wave that ran through the ground.


    Velio stayed focused while raising his shield.


    "Kh. It''s powerful." Velio clenched his hands and was pushed back several feet beforeing to a stop. The Sword Wave disappeared without a trace with Ignazio approaching him.


    Suddenly, Velio looked down after sensing something. A few cracks appeared as Magic Bullets flew upward, almost hitting him.


    Velio somehow managed to step back to avoid it, but his right hand was pierced by one of the bullets.


    "Kh!" Velio clicked his tongue and tried to pull back, but he saw Ignazio moving together with the Magic Bullets.


    "I''m fucked up." Velio gulped down.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Felice was waiting for themittee to send their men and returned in disappointment.


    Bored, Felice walked around while sighing continuously. She soon stumbled upon a hole that stunned her because the hole was a bit bigger than her thumbs together.


    "Huh?" Felice narrowed her eyes. "I don''t think there''s a hole this big earlier��"


    She looked at the dirt around and confirmed that there was no such a hole other than the one she found.


    "Why is there��" Felice became suspicious before recalling the arguing scene earlier. Looking at the footprint that seemed to be covering the hole earlier, she came to a realization. "Isn''t this footprint��"


    As she realized what had been going behind the scene, on the other side, Ignazio waved his sword right at Velio''s back.


    "Khh�� I just dodged it." Velio jumped to the side, barely avoiding the sword. However, this meant his bnce was off, leaving him vulnerable. If someone attacked him, he would lose.


    Luckily, Theo, Alica, and Rardo seemed to be in their position, not having the intention of participating in this battle.


    In any case, one of them would leave this group, so they must want to conserve their energy by letting Ignazio destroy him, albeit he thought one thing wrong.


    Theo suddenly appeared in his front while thrusting his spear.


    Velio hurriedly raised both hands and formed a green screen to stop Theo''s attack. Little did he know, there was another Theo appearing above his head.


    "!!!" Velio widened his eyes and muttered, "Why did this happen to me��"


    His mind subconsciously remembered what happened in the previous mission, especially regarding Theo and Ignazio. He couldn''t help but make a weird smile. "Are you serious?"


    "It''s toote." Theo thrust his spear from above.


    *Stab!*

 Chapter 560 – Magnificent Play

    <h4>Chapter 560 - Magnificent y</h4>


    *Stab!*


    Theo''s spear was stopped by another barrier. However, the barrier didn''te from Velio because they soon heard an aged voice ringing in their ears.


    "The match is over. Velio is eliminated."


    After that, the objective changed again as they were asked to move to a different spot.


    [Objective: Head to the next destination.]


    "��" Theo fell silent andnded on the ground with a calm expression.


    Meanwhile, Velio turned to Rardo and Alice to confirm his suspicion. Theo, who was supposed to be with them, had disappeared, meaning the ones before him were none other than the real Theo and his clone.


    "You�� You two have been in cahoot this whole time��" Velio looked at Ignazio and Theo. He remembered what happened during the previous mission. "It was weird for someone new to thispetition like Theo to stand out when we just got a problem.


    "Ignazio wanted to eliminate the potential members that would be a hindrance to his sister, so�� No, Theo�� You knew what he wanted and utilized it as a negotiation piece to work together." Velio drew a gasp and stepped back. "You two were aplices all this time.


    "No�� Weren''t you two at least hostile at the start?" Velio gritted his teeth and realized another piece. "No, were you really hostile to each other?"


    He recalled their conversations. Theo first grabbed their attention by calming Alice down. When everyone tried to strike him, Ignazio put the me on both him and Felice.


    After that, Theo shifted the conversation by telling them that the person who caused all this mess was Leonardo. This made their conversation turn to Ignazio ming him for his clone skill, creating an image that Theo was innocent from that point onward.


    It allowed Theo to move freely on the second try. When the second time their castle was destroyed, Theo suggested us to return to build another castle but was shunned by Ignazio.


    In other words, Ignazio''s anger was the main factor that blinded them, making others see them as an enemy instead of a friend.


    Just recalling this scene made Velio shiver. "Thinking about it�� Though you two seemed to be considering the other as an enemy, you were covering for each other."


    Velio gritted his teeth and turned to Ignazio. "Ignazio, you did say you will crush him thoroughly�� Those words��"


    Before he finished, Ignazio stuck his tongue out and said with a big smile. "Of course, it was a lie."


    Velio clenched his hands, realizing he and Felice had been trapped this whole time. His body began trembling as he said, "Kh�� Then, for me to win, there was nothing I could do but join hands with Felice. But it turned out I threw away the only card I could y to win."


    "Pfft." Ignazio chuckled when he heard Velio''s words.


    "Wha��" Velio widened his eyes. "Did youugh at me?"


    "Of course. You don''t know how scary this man is." Ignazio pointed his thumb at Theo nonchntly and continued, "The reason you lost was not that you threw away Felice. It was due to you not keeping him in check. For example, his clone."


    "!!!" Velio''s feet went limp as he dropped to his knees. "Doesn''t that mean�� The first st was also caused by him?"


    Velio suddenly gulped down and recalled another thing. "Wait a minute. There''s a part I don''t get�� When did you join hands? No, how did you two notice that the other party asked for cooperation? I still remember that you two seemed to be moving together only a few seconds before your arrival, so there''s no way you could talk during those few seconds.


    "All the missing pieces I couldn''t understand until I lost had appeared in my mind and linked to each other. Only that one��"


    Ignazio smirked and pointed at Theo. "As I said, none of you know this guy. He''s a new guy without any information about all of you and thispetition. In other words, he''s clueless as fuck. For someone as careful as him, standing out is the dumbest thing to do.


    "Yet, the first thing he did was standing out by calming Alice down. It waspletely unnecessary as you wouldn''t want to stand out with the position he has�� After all, we were the closest people from the first st, making only the four of you the target. It was then I realized he wanted to eliminate someone."


    "What?" Velio dropped his jaw to the ground. "It still doesn''t make sense. Do you think it''s that easy to know one''s intention? Even though you had met him, there wasn''t much time to personally know him."


    "Of course. I admit that I don''t know many things about him." Ignazio smiled, confirming his suspicion.


    "Then why?"


    Ignazio raised his hand and clutched it with energy, showing his fighting intent. "But I have fought him multiple times. Every time he did something on the matches, it was for an opportunity. I realized this side of him when I watched Thernd''s battle against the UK after he copsed.


    "They became dull. In other words, all the buildups they had done in the past naturally came from him." Ignazio pointed at Theo. "It was then I realized�� This guy will never do anything meaningless. So, him standing out became a message to me, the only person who knew him."


    Velio''s face became pale. "And this battle royale became another opportunity. After eliminating Felice, all you needed to do was kick me out."


    Out of anger, Velio turned to Alice and Rardo. "You two! You should be careful! These two guys will harm you like Felice and me."


    "Oh, I think you forgot something." Ignazio stopped him. He walked to Velio and looked down on him. "I had told you that grandfather would only use his trick once, right? The first mission was to sacrifice someone or go with everyone else. The second mission was to kick someone out.


    "With these two out of the picture, there''s no scenario where another person leaves this group unless there''s outside interference, meaning another group. So, we won''t do anything to our teammates after these two missions. Understand?"


    Velio coughed a few times as he couldn''t ept the fact his words were right.


    He used both hands to support his body, but he could only lower his head while thinking.


    "I�� No, wepletely lost��"

 Chapter 561 – Comments

    <h4>Chapter 561 - Comments</h4>


    "Hahahaha!" Leonardoughed out loud when he watched the scene.


    "This��" Sheira gulped down while scratching her head. She had been bombarding Leonardo with questions and got her answer from Veilo and Ignazio''s conversation.


    It turned out everything was Theo''s n. Even she couldn''t help but feel goosebumps. "Sir Leonardo, I still don''t understand one thing. Why did he mention they need to return to the dirt castle? If they insisted on following Theo''s words, he would have been caught and expelled instead of Felice."


    Leonardo made a smug smile and opened his mouth. "You know�� I have been living with Theo for three months in order to teach him as a part of the contract. It''s gonnast for one and a half years by the way. But that''s not important.


    "What matters is that every week Theo and I have a strategy war. We simply try to defeat each other using our own strategy." Leonardo closed his eyes, remembering those days. "And do you know our record?"


    "Is it possible to disclose it to us?" Sheira asked politely.


    "It''s fine. Out of thirteen weeks, I lost twice."


    "Twice��" Sheira sucked a cold breath. If an ignorant person heard this statement, they would think Theo wasn''t a challenge. However, everything would change if they knew Leonardo''s reputation.


    "To defeat the War Saint two times out of thirteen matches�� And he''s been training with you for only three months." Sheira''s face became pale as she perfectly understood how crazy that statement was.


    "I won''t say anything about his strategies and tricks, so it''s your job to figure it out. Anyway, he''s good." Leonardoughed. "I hope he can achieve forty percent win rates after one and a half years."


    "Forty percent. That''s quite a high hurdle��" Sheira made a weird smile. Leonardo was one of the best strategists in the world. To win four out of ten fights was already an achievement that made him desired by all influences around the world. And if they nurtured his abilities even further, he might be Leonardo.


    The best part was the fact Leonardo had stated that Theo wasn''t a person of their War God Family, allowing them to invite Theo.


    "Still, you may not be able to connect the dots with this statement, but I am going to say this one thing." Leonardo mmed the table while ring at the camera. "He''s my grandson. That''s the one thing you need to remember."


    "��" Sheira tilted her head in confusion, not understanding why Leonardo said the fact.


    Little did she know, this statement made the world know that if they tried to harm him instead of inviting him, they would face Leonardo''s wrath.


    ��


    In the Apostolic Pce.


    Enrica and her master, the pope, had been watching thispetition.


    The pope had white hair and a long white robe that covered his entire body.


    He couldn''t help but chuckle when he heard Leonardo''sst statement. "Look at this guy. No wonder he came to me to get my notebook back then."


    "Ehm�� Teacher?" Enrica furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you trying��"


    "No. All I can say is that Theo and I are ipatible. So, we won''t be inviting him to this ce. However, I can still see the kindness in his eyes. His method is quite questionable, but it doesn''t mean one can''t befriend him.


    "As long as you''re careful, he''s a good friend to have. That''s all I can say for now�� He is a pitiful child." The pope shook his head helplessly. "Either way, I will see what I can do since I believe he will bring a big change to this world."


    Enrica turned to him and furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"


    "Just a little bit of oracle." The pope smiled.


    "Hmm?" Enrica tilted her head. "Well, I am just helping my friend."


    "Ah, that child." The pope nodded. "Just don''t forget that you''re helping her with her love story. Don''t destroy stuff or kill monsters unless it''s necessary."


    "Yes."


    ��


    In the Griffith Family.


    A muscr old man was watching thepetition and furrowed his eyebrows. His hair had all gone and his face was filled with wrinkles. Still, his sharp eyes could make one shiver.


    He looked at another old man beside him. Unlike him, the old man had white hair and deep blue eyes.


    "Why didn''t we know anything about this kid, n?" The muscr man''s eyes released killing intent.


    "I don''t know. I am afraid this is their work." n shook his head helplessly. "I have reviewed the proof sent by them and he seems to have developed hatred for the Griffith Family. Well, his parents have been staying here this whole time, so��"


    "Ray and Valerie?" The muscr man pinched the bridge of his nose. "I need all the information about this kid."


    "There''s not much information about him. I am suspecting that those two have been hiding this kid''s power."


    "We need to get him to our side."


    "It''s currently impossible to do that. All countries are stillughing at us for letting this kid go or you can say, due to Ray and Valerie''s actions. Also, we''re still fighting those mercenaries. With all these situations, we need to face the War God Family to grab the kid, I don''t think we will seed."


    The man fell silent for a moment. "What''s about Ne? What is she doing right now?"


    "Those two are nurturing her right now because she has the highest talent out of her peers. She may be able to reach Ray''s footsteps, but the chance is quite low." n paused for a moment and asked, "Should we have Ne approach him? I have heard the two seem to have a good rtionship.


    "If necessary, I can rece some of her memories to show extreme affections while sending some younger generations in disguise of missions. They can then kidnap him. It will be best if those two can have a kid as well. We will make sure he has absolute obedience toward the Griffith Family�� I promise I won''t make another mistake like the previous kid.


    "Well, that''s my idea. I haven''t done anything since you''re the former head of the Griffith Family, our current strongest expert. You''re in charge of this matter."


    "No. Those two have been creating all this mess while approaching some elders. I am afraid some have joined them. We will lower their guards first and do this n. After getting both of them and his kid, the Griffith Family will return to its prime." The muscr old man made an evil smirk.


    n sighed. "Well, you are the boss. I just want to warn you that my memory maniption isn''t that effective to a Supreme Rank Expert, let alone a Mythical Rank Expert�� If you want to move, you need to hurry."

 Chapter 562 – Giordo

    <h4>Chapter 562 - Giordo</h4>


    In the meantime, Ignazio took another look at Velio one more time, knowing that he had fulfilled his objective. Still, Theo just proved his words again since he had already disappeared from the group, not waiting for the conversation to finish.


    Theo just showed him that listening to their conversation was meaningless and he didn''t need to exin whether the entire n was true or not.


    Hence, he managed to arrive at his destination first.


    To his surprise, the moment he stepped on the destination, the objective changed.


    [Objective: Fight other groups to eliminate their members. The fight will continue until only twelve people are remaining.]


    The change didn''t stop there. He finally got another update to his map, showing neen dots in total. In other words, these neen people were left in thispetition.


    ''Seriously?'' Theo narrowed his eyes as he realized he was the only group that expelled someone in the first objective. The rest did it without any scene. He looked down and thought, ''Still, the fact I have eliminated both of them, I don''t think I need to worry about those two helping other groups. I only need to watch out for Ignazio.''


    He took another look at the map and noticed several dots approaching him.


    "Ignazio, Rardo, and Alice are behind me, so these three��" Theo realized he was being targeted.


    Since there was a tracker to show his position, it wasn''t a good option to use his clone to flee, so he ran to the left instead of returning to his teammates.


    This simple movement confused the three enemies into thinking Theo had set up a trap on them and his three teammates were going to help him.


    In the end, the enemies ended up moving away from him and chasing Ignazio and the others instead.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment, wondering if he should help them. However, he soon retracted his thought when another dot moved toward his position at a very fast speed.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes and turned around.


    Soon, a figure appeared. He had spiky green hair and wide blue eyes. He wore long sleeves and pants to cover almost all his skin as if he didn''t feel the heat.


    "Hah! Found the newbie! I am lucky today." The manughed out loud and raised both hands. "Name Giordo, I choose you as my ymate. I hope you can entertain me, newbie!"


    Theo had no idea what the man was talking about, but he hurriedly raised his spear.


    Giordo raised his hand as if he nned to punch Theo, but thetter was surprised when a blue light shone beneath Giordo''s sleeves.


    Suddenly, the blue light ripped the sleeves and formed a sharp de as if it was a w.


    He tried to strike Theo from two directions with this sudden sneak attack.


    "de Enhancement."


    The blue light was covered with golden light, sharpening the de even further.


    "Three Great Defense."


    Three tombstones emerged from the ground and formed a shield in front of Theo, blocking the w.


    Giordo struck Theo''s shield with both hands.


    Crack.


    "!!!" Theo soon widened his eyes because of the crack. Although it was still a C Rank Defensive Ability, this skill was considered among the top Defensive Skill, so he never expected someone was able to break it.


    He hurriedly ducked down as the two des sliced it, allowing Giordo to pass him from above.


    Theo then spun his body and kicked him as soon as hended, but another blue light shone from Giordo''s elbow, forming a blue shield right in front of his chest.


    The barrier stopped Theo''s foot.


    "Heh." Giordo smirked and used his hands to stand up before moving his foot sideways, trying to hit Theo.


    Not only that, he found another blue lighting from the foot as another de extended from his shoe.


    "There''s a de on his foot?" Theo clicked his tongue and used his spear''s handle to stop Giordo''s foot.


    "Tsk. I guess I can''t defeat you with only this." Giordo clicked his tongue and hurriedly pushed the ground,unching him into the air. After that, the blue light turned into a dagger in his right hand as he threw it. "Sonic Enhancement."


    Boom.


    The dagger created a low-pitched sound and flew to Theo like that of a bullet.


    Theo formed a shield from his Ring of Honor to block it, but to his surprise, a crack appeared as soon as the dagger hit his shield. At the same time, the force from the dagger itself was strong enough to push Theo a few feet back.


    "Oh, you can even withstand that." Giordo grinned. "You''re pretty strong despite your level."


    Giordo didn''t know Theo''s level, so he assumed Theo barely reached Hero Rank in six months, so he looked down on Theo a bit.


    To buy him enough time to observe Giordo''s attack, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and shot right at him.


    Giordo leaped backward and ced his hand on the tree. "Channeling Enhancement."


    He suddenly snapped the tree to half before positioning the fallen trunk in front of him, blocking all the Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions hit the tree, yet Theo opened his mouth in amazement when he realized his Magic Bullets couldn''t take down a single tree.


    Before he could react to this bizarre event, Giordo kicked the tree toward Theo.


    "What is his power?" Theo muttered while pulling his left hand back. He concentrated his Magic Power there, formed a blue spear, andunched it to the tree.


    The spear hit right in the middle of the trunk and snapped it into two before making its way to Giordo.


    "You can even do that? Wow." Giordo was amused by Theo''s strength and formed two more daggers on his hands, striking the spear with all his strength.


    Due to the trunk, the spear lost the majority of its power, so the daggers soon cut the spear.


    At the same time, Theo already summoned his Magic Bullets again andbined them, shooting it to Giordo.


    The Magic Bullet made a parabolic movement and almostnded on Giordo''s body. Luckily, he managed to react at the veryst second and jumped backward while covering his front with another barrier.


    Boom.

 Chapter 563 – Enchanter

    <h4>Chapter 563 - Enchanter</h4>


    "Oh. This is Giordo''s famous freestyle de and enhancement." Sheira mmed the table, bing excited about Giordo and Theo''s fight. "Giordo is known to be able to use all parts of his body as his weapons or create a de in those areas, allowing him to defeat his opponent without letting them know how to deal with him.


    "And Theo is experiencing this kind of confusion right now! He also has a problem with their level gaps, so will Theo be able to fight back?" Sheira shouted with eyes full of energy before turning to Leonardo. "Still, what do you think Theo will do to escape from this situation?"


    "Escape?" Leonardo tilted his head in confusion. "Why should he escape?"


    "Eh?" It was Sheira''s turn to be confused. She didn''t know why Leonardo asked that question when Theo was at a disadvantage. "Giordo must have reached level 400, right? Rumors said he''s even higher. And without any prior knowledge, Theo shouldn''t be able to defeat him."


    Leonardo waved his hand, stopping her and telling her that she was wrong. "No, he doesn''t need to escape from this fight. In fact, Giordo should be the one running away. Don''t you see him creating a spear out of nowhere?"


    "That is a skill, right?" Sheira was stunned by Leonardo''s statement. However, thetter remained silent with his smug smile as if implying otherwise.


    In that instant, Sheira realized what was going on and shuddered. "That''s not a skill, but Magic Power? Doesn''t that mean his level of Control�� has reached Master Level? He''s barely 18 years old and has already achieved Master Level Control?"


    Leonardo shrugged. "That''s the state he first came to this country."


    "First��" Sheira opened her mouth wide in amazement. "He has spent three months here and with the fact you''re teaching him strategy��"


    "Oh, boy. I don''t feel like moving from his house since he keeps impressing me." Leonardo chuckled.


    Sheira sucked a cold breath, knowing if what Leonardo said was true, the one who might need to run away wouldn''t be Theo, but Giordo.


    She turned around, looking at the screen again when Theo used his Magic Bullet to bomb the area.


    ��


    Boom.


    The explosionunched Giordo around, giving Theo enough time to process everything.


    He recalled the skills Giordo used earlier.


    Skill: Sonic Enhancement (C)


    Effect: Increasing an item or object''s speed by giving a boost equal to the force created from a Sonic Boom.


    Skill: de Enhancement (B)


    Effect: Sharpening or Strengthening a sharp de and extending its range depending on the amount of Magic Power poured into the weapon.


    Skill: ChannelingEnhancement (C)


    Effect: Increasing an item or object''s toughness by giving a boost equal to the Magic Power.


    Skill: Body Metabolism Improvement (C)


    Effect: Allow the user to increase the body''s performance by increasing the metabolism.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and muttered inwardly, "So, my opponent is an Enchanter. He can improve his body, weapon, and even some objects. On the other hand, his des didn''t give me any information, so it must be��"


    He took another look at Giordo''s long sleeves and pants, realizing there were some devices beneath them like his Ring of Honor and bracelet.


    "He can fight me with his body, creating a chain of attacks that leave me useless. In that case��" Theo took a deep breath, formting the n to defeat Giordo.


    He also realized that everyone in this ce was much stronger than those in Thernd. They had been fighting at a different level the whole time, so it was no wonder they could dominate the Grand Gaia Competition.


    However, Theo was someone who had ovee that gap and came third in the ranking. This kind of gap had disappeared in his eyes.


    "Now I understand why you''re strong�� I just want to ask one question. What is your rank among others?" Theo asked.


    "Tsk. You''re asking something annoying!" Giordo''s voice echoed behind the smoke.


    Theo hurriedly ducked down before a crescent-shaped golden light flew past the smoke, cutting it into two along with the trees behind him.


    The shock wave from the light also blew the smoke away, revealing Giordo''s appearance. He was floating in the air with his foot on the side as if he kicked the smoke. And the de beneath his shoe just proved that action even further.


    "I am not going to tell you." Giordo clicked his tongue and looked down on Theo.


    "Is that so? Then I won''t use my clone to fight you." Theo smirked as if he underestimated Giordo.


    For someone as strong as him, Giordo obviously didn''t like that statement. "You just barely reached the Hero Rank and you''re talking like that to me. It seems you have that pride for bing the MVP in the Grand Gaia. I have one piece of advice for you, never underestimate the people from the War God Family."


    As soon as he said that, he leaped toward Theo with a dagger in each hand. He swung the right one to Theo''s neck.


    When it was about to hit him, Theo disappeared.


    Giordo hurriedly spun his body to stab the presence behind him with his other dagger.


    Theo saw thising and kicked his hand, forcing Giordo to turn around.


    However, Theo''s attack had yet to end. Magic Bullets looped around his body and attacked Giordo from the other side.


    Thetter had no choice other than to abandon his dagger and change it into his shield, only to find something different from the bullets. He instinctively leaped to the side and saw how the Magic Bullets curved a few times to avoid his shield.


    If he didn''t escape, the bullets would have killed him.


    Not liking the attacks, Giordo swayed his body backward as if he tripped. He used that momentum to send a kick from below, trying to injure Theo, but the Magic Bullets miraculously curved one more time.


    "What? It can turn again�� You have reached Master Level Control?" Giordo gasped and formed a shield but covered all directions other than his back because he soon saw the Magic Bullets curve another time to avoid his shield.


    Luckily, with this kind of shield, it would certainly protect him and he would only end up with his back mmed to the ground. Still, he couldn''t help but say, "Motherf��"


    Boom.

 Chapter 564 – Defeating Giordo

    <h4>Chapter 564 - Defeating Giordo</h4>


    Boom.


    Giordo''s body was mmed to the ground by the sheer force of Magic Bullet''s explosion.


    Without hesitation, Theo stomped the shield while covering his foot with Cannon st, dispersing it to create a greater impact. Unfortunately, he first nned to concentrate it like a drill but stopped because the attack might kill Giordo.


    Even though there was a Mythical Rank Expert assuring the match, he didn''t know whether the Mythical Rank Expert was beside them or not, considering there were many battles going on simultaneously.


    Instead of killing him, he tried to break some bones to make Giordo admit defeat.


    Unfortunately for him, his n didn''t work as Giordo had alreadyunched himself away.


    Theo''s foot hit the ground and the Cannon st created a crater around him along with a powerful shock wave that blew the smoke away, revealing their current situation.


    Giordo managed to escape but soon stumbled to the ground, failing to flee from the crater.


    He hurriedlynded on his two feet while ring at Theo. "Seriously? You almost defeated me�� I guess I am the one who is underestimating you."


    Theo nced at him with a poker face as if he didn''t care about his words.


    To his surprise, Giordo smiled and slightly lowered his head. "For that, I apologize. I won''t underestimate you anymore�� This way, I can see the gap between us."


    "Ho?" Theo was slightly amused by Giordo''s action. He was supposed to be a few years older than him and his level was also above. With these two alone, Giordo didn''t need to apologize. Yet, thetter admitted such an embarrassing mistake to him.


    "I like fighting, but I don''t want to look down at my opponent. And it seems it was foolish of me to think you were just a newbie. I guess�� I should say as expected from Theodore Griffith." Giordo took a deep breath and calmed his heart down.


    Now that he had recognized Theo as a worthy opponent, he became even more serious.


    Albeit�� Theo actually turned around the situation by saying, "Unfortunately for you, it''s impossible to defeat me."


    "I looked down on you first, so I don''t mind you talking like that, but��" Giordo leaped forward while saying, "I will make sure you can''t say that anymore. Haha."


    Theo waved his fingers up as a stone pir emerged from the ground. The pir had no pattern on it, showing others that it was just a simple pir.


    "Earth Affinity Skill?" Giordo widened his eyes before correcting his words. "No, you should have no affinity. This must be an illusion."


    Without hesitation, Giordo raised his foot to the front while summoning the de under his shoe, trying to pierce through the illusion and hit Theo.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he saw how Giordo''s de hit the stone pir and stuck.


    Bam.


    Giordo sucked a cold breath when his prediction turned out to be wrong. "Wait, my de has enhancement�� Yet, it can''t even destroy a normal pir?"


    There were a few cracks around his foot, but the pirpletely stopped his momentum.


    Theo used this chance to loop around the pir while swinging his spear.


    Giordo clicked his tongue and raised his left hand, trying to block Theo''s spear.


    However, twenty Magic Bullets suddenly appeared from the other side, attacking Giordo from two directions.


    "You are really ruthless." Giordo smirked and stomped the pir with his other foot.


    The stomp destroyed the pir, allowing Giordo to move again.


    Theo didn''t want him to leave, so he pushed Giordo down with Telekinesis, restricting his movement.


    He might be falling down, but Giordo managed to spin his body, hitting Theo''s spear while rolling on the ground as soon as hended, avoiding the Magic Bullets by the sheer speed of his roll.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets ultimately hit the ground, but some managed to hit Giordo''s left arm. Theo confirmed it when Giordo rose again.


    Blood dyed his sleeves as Giordo couldn''t help but take a look at his arm.


    Before he stabilized his body, Theo continued his onught, forcing Giordo to leap back.


    Unfortunately, Theo''s speed was faster than him, and he soon caught up.


    Instead of giving up, Giordo stomped the ground and created a small shock wave that kicked the dust up, turning it into a smokescreen.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and raised his vision, noticing a tree in front. He instantly came to a halt.


    Giordo re-emerged from the dust cloud with two daggers on his hands, trying to make a counterattack, only to find Theo standing still.


    "Tsk, you''re a monster." Giordo smirked and continued his charge because his momentum was too fast for him to stop.


    Theo raised his finger again, summoning his stone pir to block Giordo''s charge.


    ''Is he going to use that pir to trap me again?'' Giordo stomped the ground, forcefully decreasing his momentum. "Kh!"


    His right foot began to feel numb, but he managed to lower his speed enough to change his direction, albeit he had lost this battle.


    Theo, who was supposed to be behind the pir, came out while swinging his spear, cutting through the pir and hitting Giordo''s on the stomach.


    "Ha!" Theo used all his strength tounch Giordo to the tree.


    "What? The spear went through the pir? Illusion?" Giordo spat a mouthful of blood as his body crashed to the tree thirty feet behind him. After that, he coughed a few times and assessed his body''s condition. "Three ribs are broken��"


    Theo obviously didn''t want to let go of this chance, but the moment he arrived in front of him, a notification appeared.


    "Giordo is eliminated."


    "��" Theo soon came to a halt and looked at Giordo before pulling his spear back.


    "Haha, seriously��" Giordo facepalmed and looked at Theo. "You''re not even twenty years old, but your strength is already like this. To be honest, I am d that I could have a fight with you. I have learned a lot from our fights, especially how you use your illusion andbine it with other things.


    "Although it''s a shame that I couldn''t challenge you with your clone, I am already satisfied." Giordo smiled and sighed. "My name is Giordo Guerrero, it''s my pleasure to meet you, Theodore Griffith�� And�� Wee to the War God Family."

 Chapter 565 – Leonardo’s Assessment

    <h4>Chapter 565 - Leonardo��s Assessment</h4>


    "What? What did Theo do to defeat Giordo?" Sheira gasped, staring at the screen dumbfoundedly. "He just used the same tricks twice, but�� did he cut the pir so easily? I thought his power was simr to Giordo.


    "Giordo also attacked that pir first and got stuck." Sheira frowned and turned to Leonardo, "Can we get an exnation from Sir Leonardo?"


    Leonardo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. If you review thispetition, you will figure it out anyway, so I will just exin it to you. It was an illusion."


    "Illusion��" Sheira tilted her head in confusion, not understanding the trick. "Ehm, I am sorry, but can you exin it a bit clearer?"


    "He was using the shield from the Ring of Honor to block that attack, but to make Giordo think he wasn''t doing that, Theo created the stone pir. Unfortunately for him, the real pir was only a few inches wide since it was his shield."


    "I see." Sheira looked down and said, "By using that first trick, he made Giordo avoid the second pir, allowing him to cut through the pir or we can say the illusion along with Giordo himself."


    "That''s basically it." Leonardo confirmed it while saying, "I am anticipating his growth."


    "I am now curious about his growth as well." Sheira nodded in agreement.


    "All I can say is�� He hasn''t revealed everything. I don''t know how much he''s hiding right now, but I want to warn you not to underestimate him. In terms of strategy, he''s among the top of my grandchildren. As for his strength, if they''re on the same level, Theo will certainly win against them.


    "After all, his style is so diversified that you can''t target a specific pattern. Giordo may have so many des that create numerous attack patterns, but Theo is on a different level." Leonardo chuckled, blurting about Theo to the audience.


    "Ehm, you seem to be talking about his power. I think you''re going to make things difficult for him." Sheira said in order to stop him. After all, if they knew Theo''s information, they could use it against him.


    Leonardo shrugged, refusing to reply to her argument.


    Little did she know, Leonardo chose to tell everyone about it, not because he wanted to share Theo''s secret but because he simply knew that Theo would surpass their imagination once again in thispetition.


    He just let them know to make it not as surprising as it seemed, lowering everyone''s opinion of Theo because Theo would be standing out too much after thispetition.


    Of course, Leonardo wanted him to show off, but he also ensured Theo''s security by lessening the impact on everyone''s heart.


    Thinking about it, Leonardo smiled while closing his eyes.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo only nodded his head after hearing Giordo''s words.


    "Well, I guess this is what I deserve��" Giordo smirked, not caring about Theo''s attitude. "Anyway, I am rooting for you in thispetition. I feel like it will be a st if you wreak havoc here. Haha."


    Theo shrugged and turned around, nning to leave him. After looking at the map again, Theo fell silent as the situation wasn''t that good for his team.


    "Hmm��" Looking at the six dots that had been reduced to three, he felt something was wrong. "Who are these three?"


    "Are they Rardo, Alice, and Ignazio?" Theo muttered before finding another dot that seemed to be escaping the battlefield. "This one�� I think it''s Ignazio. Should I check on them? But it''s going to be troublesometer."


    It took him a minute to decide to stay in his position, knowing that no one would bother him right now. The number of participants also helped persuade him to conserve his stamina.


    14/24


    Looking at the number, he knew there were only two more participants that needed to be eliminated.


    "I know you''re not going to fight another one." Giordo suddenly opened his mouth. "I will tell you something. Just consider it as the reward for defeating me�� Don''t stand out too much and conserve as much as Magic Power because that bastard Lorenzo is going to target you soon."


    "Hmm?" Theo halted his steps and turned around, looking at Giordo. He couldn''t believe what Giordo said, but he certainly could put it in his mind. If what he said was true, the situation might be more dangerous than he thought.


    "Is that so?" Theo let out a long sigh and nodded. "Thank you then."


    "You''re wee." Giordo smiled. "Hopefully, I have the chance to coborate with you in the future."


    Theo didn''t answer him and left as soon as he received that information.


    "Ignored, huh." Giordo pointed at Theo''s shadow and shook his head helplessly.


    Now that Theo had left, he put down his sunsses and looked at the blue sky. "Thispetition is going to be interesting soon. I should return as soon as possible and watch it live."


    It took them ten minutes to eliminate another two participants as it became the mark that the mission was over.


    [The third round is over. All participants are allowed to rest for fifteen minutes. Your trackers will also be turned off. The next game will immediately start after the countdown is over, so be careful.]


    "��" Theo was surprised to see he got a rest.


    Before he recovered his stamina, Theo headed to the east, hiding his current position so as to not get ambushed by others.


    He stood in the middle of the woods and checked his surroundings. After making sure this ce was safe, Theo sat on the ground and leaned on a tree, recounting the missions he had received.


    Those fifteen minutes felt so quick because he had already found another notification.


    [Objective: The remaining participants will be given a hundred tokens. You''re to hit someone on the back regardless of the method to receive their tokens. They can be used at the end of thepetition, allowing you to exchange them for many things. Inparison, one hundred tokens are equal to a normal B Rank Skill�� Five people who have the highest number of tokens within thirty minutes will advance to thest stage.]

 Chapter 566 – Next Battle

    <h4>Chapter 566 - Next Battle</h4>


    "A battle royale, huh." Theo scratched the back of his head as the dots appeared again on the maps. He soon realized his position wasn''t that far from them, so he thought he needed to position himself a bit better.


    However, there was soon a red circle on the map surrounding them.


    [Please don''t go outside the arena.]


    "Well, I don''t think I can avoid some fights. For now, I think I should get two guys to pass this round." Theo muttered while looking at the movement of the dots.


    However, he was bewildered when three dots were moving toward him.


    "Huh? Are theying here?" Theo frowned and thought for a moment.


    Meanwhile, Alice was running through the woods while looking back. She had been sweating this whole time as her body had several grazes.


    She was panting while observing the two guys behind her.


    The first guy was a red-haired man. His figure looked like Giordo, but he wielded a bow instead. On his right was another guy with a de in his hand.


    "Stop!" The red-haired man shouted. "You don''t belong to this ce! Give me your tokens!"


    "No," Alice shouted, refusing to drop out. She was carrying a four-foot-long sniper rifle, almost rivaling her own height. However, she had no problem in carrying it as she even pointed at them with one hand. "Scatter!"


    The white sniper rifle released a bolt of light that soon split into forty smaller lights in all directions.


    The man with a sword increased his pace, running in front of the red-haired guy. He raised his sword, pouring his Magic Power that created a green glow around his sword.


    The moment the sword moved downwards, the green light burst like a powerful wind, creating a fan-shaped gale that destroyed all the light from the sniper rifle.


    The red-haired guy simply stood behind him, running past all those attacks without making any move.


    "I am going to make you two regret this." Alice gritted her teeth.


    "How? You''re just a mere sniper. You can''t defeat both of us, especially with this distance." The red-haired guy smiled.


    Suddenly, Theo appeared in her vision as she couldn''t help but smile. "You''re�� Theo! Help me!"


    "��" Theo remained silent and stared at them in confusion.


    "They''ve been chasing me this whole time and even defeated Rardo in thest round," Alice shouted. "If you fight them alone, it''s going to be disadvantageous for you. That''s why let''s cooperate with each other and defeat them. After that, we will split the tokens and go separate ways."


    Theo looked at her until she passed him while saying in a low voice. "Okay."


    Raising his spear, Theo pointed it at the two guys. "You two shall not pass."


    The red-haired guy made the first move and released an arrow toward him.


    However, a huge shock wave suddenly hit the arrow and sted it to the ground.


    Bam.


    It turned out Alice had turned around and dropped to her knees, firing at him to cover Theo.


    "I am sorry. This is my curse that brings them here, so I will do my best to help you in this battle. I promise topensate youter." Alice apologetically said before moving to the side, trying to hide her body from their eyes. This would give her a better chance tounch a sneak attack.


    "Yado, don''t lose her." The green-haired guy shouted to his friend.


    "Okay." Yado nodded and locked on Alice, making sure she didn''t get away.


    Theo obviously went to help Alice by using his Blink to appear before Yado''s eyes, albeit the green-haired guy also moved right after he disappeared.


    Beforepleting his thrust to Yado''s heart, the green-haired guy appeared and struck his spear down. "You''re not going anywhere on my watch."


    Theo clicked his tongue and kicked him from the side, using his Telekinesis and External Flow.


    "Vans!" Yado shouted.


    "Don''t worry about me." Vans shook his head and blocked Theo''s kick with his scabbard. After that, he waved his sword downwards.


    Theo waved his left hand down, pressuring the ground until a crater appeared, lowering his ground.


    ''What? Did he use Telekinesis to lower his position to make me miss?'' Vans widened his eyes when he tried to sh Theo but couldn''t reach him.


    Using that chance, Theo spun his body and mmed Vans with his spear as if it was a war hammer.


    "Shield." Suddenly, two people''s voices echoed at the same time.


    "!!!" Theo was amused when he saw two translucent shields that stopped his spear. He destroyed the first one, but all his strength was depleted before crushing the other one.


    "Killing Wave." Vans waved his sword, releasing a crescent-shaped blue light.


    Theo managed to react to this sword wave and jumped into the air.


    Using this chance, Yado released another arrow at him.


    The arrow was covered in blue light as it left a small circr trail on the ground as it traveled.


    Unfortunately for him, another shock wave hit his arrow, deflecting it to the side.


    "Alice��" Yado gritted his teeth.


    "Okay, good work. Thanks for the cover." Theo gave a thumbs up and leaped back, regaining his distance.


    Vans stepped forward to protect Yado while thetter hurriedly released another arrow to the side.


    Surprisingly, the arrow curved to the outside and looped around Theo.


    "It''s going to hit my arm?" Theo took a glimpse of the arrow before finding Vans charging at him.


    "You''re not going anywhere!" Vans shouted and swung his sword downwards.


    Theo blocked his attack with a spear''s handle, but this attack prevented him from moving.


    "Alice!" Theo shouted for help.


    "Understood."


    Alice aimed again, but before she shot, she turned her weapon a little to the right, pointing at Theo''s back. She licked her lips and fired at him as if trying to cover him.


    "Ah!" Alice opened her mouth wide like she had just made a mistake. "No!"


    Unfortunately, Theo looked like he didn''t realize this attack before a hole appeared in his body and blood began to flow out.


    Theo looked down with a shocked face and turned around, looking at Alice. "You��"

 Chapter 567 – Overwhelming

    <h4>Chapter 567 - Overwhelming</h4>


    "Ah��" Leonardo, who had been watching Theo''s fight, couldn''t help but facepalm.


    "Theo has been shot down!" Sheira opened her mouth in surprise. "Alice turns out to be working with these two guys. Unfortunately, it seems we can''t watch Theo''s performance anymore. What do you think about Theo''s defeat, Sir Leonardo?"


    Leonardo looked down and shook his head helplessly.


    "As expected, you''re disappointed by his defeat as well. We all want to see Theo longer than this after all." Sheira sympathized with Theo and let out a long sigh.


    However, Leonardo waved his hand as if disagreeing with her statement.


    "Eh?"


    Leonardo said, "To be honest, I pity those three people��"


    "Pity the trio? The rule doesn''t state about joining hands." Sheira suddenly came to a realization and gasped. "Don''t tell me. Theo is going to have his revengeter��"


    "No, no. They simply didn''t do their homework well." Leonardo sighed. "If they investigated Theo a little bit, they might find a certain piece of information that would stop them from making this decision, albeit they now have pissed Theo off. I can assure you that they won''t have a good ending."


    "Eh? But Theo is��" Sheira furrowed her eyebrows and saw Leonardo pointing his finger at the screen. She took another glimpse and dropped her jaw in shock.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in another ce, a certain brown-colored hair girl was watching this fight while shaking her head.


    "Theo doesn''t even get affected by me. Do you think that honey trap will work on him?" Agata sighed. "This is going to be a bit brutal."


    ��


    On the battlefield, all three couldn''t help but think, "Got him."


    "You��" Theo looked at Alice with a shocked expression. He dropped to his knees while pressing his chest to stop the building. "You turn out to be a traitor."


    Alice still acted like a weak girl, sping her hands and lowering her head. "I am sorry. I never meant to do that!"


    "I am disappointed in you." Theo closed his eyes. "I would have let you go if you didn''t do anything, but I guess I need to destroy all of you here."


    "Do you think you can? You have lost since the bullet has touched your back." Vans snorted, ring down.


    Theo used both hands to support his body, preventing it from falling.


    "Yeah. And that''s why I am going to beat all your asses." A smile appeared on Theo''s face.


    Suddenly, cracks appeared as twenty Magic Bullets emerged from the ground, surrounding Alice.


    "What? These are�� Magic Bullets!" Alice widened her eyes, not understanding why Theo could still use his skill. She shouted, "You''re not supposed to be using skills anymore! You have lost!"


    Unfortunately, the Magic Bullets didn''t stop and turn a few times.


    "Protection." Alice raised her left hand to form a huge screen that received the Magic Bullets, but because she was surrounded in all directions, a few slipped past her defense and pierced her arms, sides, and stomach.


    "Gah!" Alice spat a mouthful of blood.


    When she was about to fall to the ground, another Theo appeared on her back.


    Alice still managed to take a glimpse of his appearance and asked inwardly, ''Why did Theo��''


    Before she finished her words, Theo kicked her back, blowing her to the two guys. She wanted to say something, but the shock jolted her spine and mind at the same time, stopping her from doing anything.


    Theo didn''t stop there. Another Magic Bullet flew toward Yado, whose guard was lowered after witnessing Theo kicking Alice.


    "I see you." Yado hurriedly raised his hand and put on a shield that would block this bullet. Unlike Alice, there was only one Magic Bullet hitting him, so Yado thought he could receive this one. "Hehe, I got this."


    Unfortunately for him, the Magic Bullet expanded four times its size.


    "What? It expands�� No, that thin one is only an illusion?" Yado widened his eyes as the Magic Bullet hit his shield.


    Boom.


    Yado wasunched by the full power of a B Rank Magic Bullet and rolled on the ground.


    Before he came to a stop, Clone Theo, whose chest had a hole, appeared on top of him, kicking him on the back like Alice.


    The kick blew him away in Alice''s direction. Both of them carried quite powerful momentum and collided on the stomach.


    "Gah!" The two spat blood again as they felt their organs shift a bit.


    Two spears then fell to the ground and Vans soon realized the one they fought this whole time was none other than his clone. Now that the spears had returned to the real Theo, who was standing in Alice''s previous position, the clone had lost its purpose and disappeared.


    Little did he know, Theo re-summoned his clone behind him but hid his body.


    He and his clone summoned four Magic Bullets and turned them into forty before shooting them to the sky.


    Looking at the Magic Bullets that made a parabolic movement, he muttered inwardly, ''He is trying to use the Magic Bullets to make me move toward him?''


    Without hesitation, Vans jumped forward while thinking, ''Fine by me. He won''t be able to use his Magic Bullets again if I am close to him. I only need to pass the first wave��''


    He ran as fast as possible while summoning a protective shield on top of his head.


    The Magic Bullets began to rain and hit his shield as Vans continued his way.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    He heard the series of explosions and maintained his course for two seconds before it stoppedpletely.


    "Good. I''m free now!" Vans grinned and pulled his de as it started to shine. "Sword��"


    Before he utilized his skill, his body was pushed down as he stumbled on the ground. He soon realized that five Magic Bullets pierced his body as he couldn''t help but cough blood. "A second volley? Did he make a few of those bullets reach a higher height but a shorter distance because he knew I would attack him from a distance�� He used the fact I could only use one skill at a time to defeat me��"


    He raised his vision and looked at Theo, who had already summoned his Magic Bullets and released it to deliver the killing blow.


    Another shield suddenly appeared in front of Vans as it received the Magic Bullets.


    [Alice Guerrero is eliminated.]


    [Vans Guerrero is eliminated.]


    [Yado Guerrero is eliminated.]


    Three notifications appeared while Theo was standing still with an aloof expression, looking down at all three participants.


    There was only one word in everyone''s mind.


    Overwhelming.

 Chapter 568 – Candidates

    <h4>Chapter 568 - Candidates</h4>


    "Overwhelming! Theo has shown all his power." Sheira mmed the table in excitement. "This is Theo''s power! Everyone, did you see it?"


    Sheira realized Theo was just ying with them.


    "A guy who thinks he''ll win is totally open to attack." Leonardo''s voice soon echoed to her ears.


    Sheira stopped for a moment and turned to him, understanding his words. "So, you''re saying Theo created that opportunity? Still, he acted so well that I didn''t even notice him pretending. When did he even rece his own body with his clone?"


    "I don''t know." Leonardo shrugged. "I am not on the battlefield, and there is a limit to what a drone can do. So yeah, he managed to make us think he got betrayed."


    "Is this what you mean by his anger? I don''t think those brutal moves were necessary�� I mean, why did he kick both of them so that they would collide at that speed?"


    "As I said, they should do their homework. Unfortunately, I couldn''t share this private problem with others�� I don''t mind you searching for his information, but please respect him by not sharing the information with the public. Of course, anything excessive will be a challenge to my War God Family." Leonardo chuckled, recalling Theo''s problem with his family. Everything turned out to be a lie or a scheme, and that pissed Theo off.


    "I see." Sheira nodded awkwardly. She hurriedly changed the topic. "Anyway, Theo has beaten three guys, resulting in him getting three hundred tokens. In other words, he now has four hundred tokens. With nine people remaining, four people need to win against theirpetitors except for Theo.


    "The moment they''re done, the number will go down to five immediately. In this situation, will the third round be over?" Sheira turned to Leonardo.


    "Yeah. The third round will end at that time." Leonardo nodded. "With this, Theo has four hundred tokens while the rest can get only two hundred tokens. There is also a possibility of surprises, but I think the other four will conserve their strength by defeating only one opponent in this round.


    "As I said, thispetition''s purpose is not to rank them, but to assess their ability, judgment, and strategy. The longer they arepeting, the better their assessment will be. Even if you are a coward and hide from everyone until the very end, it''s also good.


    "After all, hiding is also a weapon. I mean, there are jobs like Scout, Healer, and Illusionist. Well, Theo is built differently so let''s not count him as an Illusionist." Leonardo sighed. "Anyway, you get the idea."


    "I see." Sheira nodded in understanding. "In that case, who can stay the longest?"


    "Hmm." Leonardo looked down and said, "I don''t mean to look down on my people, but there are five exceptional people in this batch. The first will be Theo. I think I don''t need to exin my reasoning anymore, right?"


    "Yes. Theo has be the biggest dark horse for us to watch this whole time." Sheira admitted she was more excited to watch Theo''s performance than other members.


    "Then, the second one will be Lorenzo. He is the current family head''s son, so many people expect him to fight to the very end. I mean�� in terms of fighting ability alone, only Mara can challenge him, albeit thetter is in the wheelchair."


    Sheira thought for a moment and said, "I see. As expected, it will be Lorenzo. He is known as the most unique fighter in the current generation. He overcame all odds with his strength and left other things to his assistant. However, his assistant had lost in thispetition, so can he defeat all other participants?"


    "Indeed. That''s something I would like to see." Leonardo chuckled. "As for the third one, Mara is obviously the one."


    "If I am not wrong, she suffered an injury three years ago." Sheira furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Yes. The poison is not a normal one. It''s hard to make the antidote, so for now, she is still suffering in the wheelchair." He sighed. "I can only apud her willpower because she can withstand that pain for this long. I wish I could do something��"


    Sheira fell silent, not knowing what to say. However, she soon shifted the topic. "How about the fourth person?"


    "Because of Mara''s situation, I can say very sure that he has a ce in thispetition right now. He is none other than Luka."


    "Luka! Another strong name. He is also a powerful fighter. Normally, he will have Velio to be his shield, so his offensive ability can work a hundred percent because of the reliable Velio. He can''t utilize all his power as well because Theo and Ignazio have defeated Velio. Don''t tell me, the fifth person will be��" Sheira gasped, realizing the n.


    Leonardo only smiled at her as if telling her that they shared the same opinion.


    "The fifth person will be Ignazio. After removing all potential threats for his sister, he regroups with her. With Mara''s offensive skills and Ignazio''s numbers, it''s hard to defeat them." Sheira became excited about thispetition.


    While they were talking, the situation moved ording to their words. Mara and Lorenzo got more tokens, followed by Ignazio and Luka.


    There were only five people remaining, with four of them having the same amount of tokens. Unlike Theo''s circumstances, they didn''t fight after getting their tokens, preserving their strength.


    Theo had expected this predicament as he was still sitting on the ground, away from the others.


    When the number reached five, a notification appeared.


    [The third round is over. The fourth round will start in three minutes. All yers are to move to their position.]


    Theo looked at the dot that was close to the center of the arena. In that instant, he had figured out thest round''s objective.


    He let out a long sigh and moved toward his destination as soon as possible. He needed to recover his stamina as much as possible because he had used fifty percent of his Magic Power from destroying the castle to defeating the trio.


    The three minutes ended pretty soon as Theo looked at the objective with a poker face.


    [Objective: Free for all. Destroy your opponents and pige their tokens!]

 Chapter 569 – Final Battle

    <h4>Chapter 569 - Final Battle</h4>


    [Objective: Free for all. Destroy your opponents and pige their tokens!]


    Theo stood up while looking at the dots that reappeared on the map. There were five dots creating a pentagon with the same amount of distance.


    The arena was a small in near theke where they had only a few trees around.


    Whether he was fortunate or unfortunate, the dot on his right suddenly approached him. As if responding to his movement, the person on his left also came toward him, trying to surround him.


    "��" Theo fell silent and closed his eyes for a second, not nning to leave.


    The first one to arrive was a brown-haired young man.


    "I am lucky." The guy smiled when he saw Theo''s appearance. "I don''t know if you know me or not, but I will introduce myself. I am Lorenzo! Wee to the family, Theodore Griffith�� Unfortunately, this is where your journey ends."


    Lorenzo arrived in front of him while pulling his sword out. "Asura Strike."


    The de released a red-colored aura as it moved toward Theo.


    Theo raised his spear as if he was nning to confront him, but he suddenly stopped.


    "!!!" Lorenzo stopped himself for a second before realizing it was just an illusion. He hurriedly shed the illusion to destroy it and turned around as Theo appeared behind him.


    "Ha!" Lorenzo used the previous momentum to release an even stronger swing to hit Theo.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and utilized all his strength to strike the sword, but Lorenzo still easilyunched him away.


    "You''re powerful��" Lorenzo smirked before denying what he said. "But not strong enough to withstand my brute force."


    Theonded on the ground safely before he instinctively leaped into the air before turning around, finding a bald man wielding a huge axe. The handle''s length was simr to his spear, but instead of the tip of the handle, the sharp curved de was on the side.


    "Ramming Force." The bald man waved his axe from the side, releasing a powerful gale that swept the ground, trees, and all the dried leaves.


    Some of the trees copsed while the ground was left with nothing but dirt.


    "Luka." Lorenzo narrowed his eyes.


    Luka smirked and said, "You have your fun here�� You should invite me."


    Before Lorenzo did anything, twenty Magic Bullets hovered around Theo as he split them to Lorenzo and Luka.


    Seeing the iing Magic Bullets, they hurriedly retreated a few steps back before finding the bullets curved and followed them.


    "��" Luka clicked his tongue and spun his body, waving his axe to create a mighty gale that destroyed the Magic Bullets.


    At the same time, Lorenzo swung his sword to cut the air behind him. Surprisingly, the air was cut and stretched down as if a hole appeared in the middle of nowhere.


    Theo soon lost control of his Magic Bullets as they were absorbed into the ck hole.


    After that, another hole appeared and transmitted all those Magic Bullets back to Theo.


    "That is��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows while using his Telekinesis to pressure his own bullets and destroy them. Hended on the ground safely while looking at Lorenzo in amusement.


    "There it is�� Lorenzo''s Space Ability." Luka smirked in excitement. "The only reason you can be in that position is due to this ability��"


    "It''s my power, so what is your point?"


    ��


    Meanwhile, Sheira mmed the table and shouted in excitement, "There it is! Lorenzo has just used his Spatial Ability. He has one of the rarest affinities in the world, Space Affinity! With this power, he stays at the top the whole time.


    "No one has forced him to use this power in thispetition yet�� And he used it to block Theo''s attack? Is he that wary of him?" Sheira turned to Leonardo.


    "Who knows." Leonardo chuckled. "All I can say, if you observe the entire situation, you will realize Theo has taken care of three people in the previous round. That alone is enough for him to take some precaution."


    "I see. This will be an exciting mat��"


    Leonardo suddenly stopped Sheira from talking as he added, "Well, you are still forgetting two other people��"


    Sheira turned to the screen and gasped.


    ��


    Theo, Lorenzo, and Luka were standing in a straight line as their positions became perfect targets for another person.


    Suddenly, a crescent-shaped white light flew toward them, stretching over a hundred feet to the sides, cutting all the trees down.


    Theo, Lorenzo, and Luka raised their weapons to the side, blocking this white light. It didn''t carry too much force because it spread too far, but it was enough to clear all the trees from its direction.


    They all found a person floating two inches above the ground. Her feet werepletely limp as they were wobbling around depending on her movement, but it was clear that she was the one who attacked them earlier.


    The female was none other than Lorenzo''s rival, the strongest female swordsman in their generation, Mara Guerrero.


    "I hope you can forgive me for intruding on your battlefield." Mara smiled. "I may not be able to use my posture to gain my previous strength, but I can assure you that I will win thispetition."


    Before they could react, Theo raised his left hand and used his Telekinesis to the fullest. It turned out there were ten arrowsing toward him and Theo deflected it to Lorenzo.


    Seeing those arrows, Lorenzo cut the air again, creating a small gate that absorbed the arrows.


    Another gate appeared above Luka''s head as thetter took a step back and waved his axe, blowing all the arrows toward Mara.


    Suddenly, Ignazio appeared in front of Mara while cing his hand on the ground. "Heavy Infantry."


    Ten figures covered with full-body armor emerged and formed a line, blocking all the arrows.


    With the arrows falling down to the ground, the atmosphere became tense as all five top participants met each other on the battlefield.


    Those, who watched them from behind the screen, couldn''t help but suck a cold breath as they sensed the same tension as those five people.


    The final battle was about to begin.

 Chapter 570 – Running His Mouth

    <h4>Chapter 570 - Running His Mouth</h4>


    Theo took a deep breath as he knew he was in the worst position.


    Although they had yet to make their first move, Theo was in the middle, surrounded by all of them. Hence, he needed to get away from that position as soon as possible, albeit Lorenzo took the step faster.


    With his Spatial Ability, Lorenzo appeared behind Theo, swinging his sword.


    To avoid this strike, Theo used his Blink to teleport to the other side to distance himself from the others, but Lorenzo hurriedly sealed his movement by using one of his skills. "Spatial Lock."


    A thin pink sphere suddenly appeared. It had a fifty feet radius and centered at him.


    Bam.


    Theo reappeared in front of the wall and hit it as his Blink failed to go through the sphere.


    "Wha��" Theo was surprised for a split second. "It prevents me from using my Space Ability?"


    Before he could leave, Lorenzo waved his sword, releasing a pink-colored light that extended like a whip.


    Theo clicked his tongue and jumped to the side to avoid his attack.


    Luka took this chance to approach Theo and swung his axe. "Gale Storm."


    A powerful gale brushed Theo''s skin and pushed him back before turning into a tornado thatunched him into the air.


    Luka licked his lips and jumped to the sky, trying to hit him.


    When he was about to hit him, Luka changed his swing direction to the side, pounding all ten arrows aimed at him. "Ignazio!"


    On the ground, Ignazio still calmly observed the situation and ordered his archers to take him down. He seemed to be protecting Theo in this situation, but that was never his intention.


    He simply chose to stop Luka from taking Theo''s tokens and let his sister take all the glory.


    Mara, on his right, had pulled her sword out and waved it. "Three Arrow des."


    Theo saw the iing arrow-shaped lights and used his Telekinesis tounch himself another way, but the arrows turned around and continued to chase him.


    "Oh? Tracking Ability." Theo narrowed his eyes and dove down.


    Suddenly, Lorenzo appeared behind him and shed the air, creating another ck hole that absorbed Mara''s attack. After that, he re-summoned them next to him to chase Theo. If her attack hit Theo, it would be counted as his since this was the purpose.


    Luckily for Theo, Lorenzo''s ability seemed to have removed the tracking ability from Mara''s attack, so Theo took that chance to move farther away and escaped.


    "Magic Bullet." He also summoned twenty Magic Bullets and hit Lorenzo in the air.


    With him using that "hole" technique, Theo believed he couldn''t avoid this attack. Little did he know, Lorenzo had a more terrifying skill.


    He simply lifted his finger for a split second and the space distorted.


    The Magic Bullets hit that distortion like crashing to the wall and exploded.


    Boom.


    "Seriously��" Theo smiled and raised his left hand, forming a spear from Magic Power and shooting him again.


    Without any skills to defend himself, Lorenzo was forced to use his sword. His Magic Power spread from the sword de and formed a small te on top of it.


    He used that te to receive Theo''s spear.


    To his surprise, the spear shattered the te into pieces.


    Lorenzo ended up cutting the spear with his sword while feeling the residual force from the spear.


    Taking a look at his hand with a surprise, Lorenzo looked at Theo and said, "You''re strong."


    Theo didn''t wish to engage in conversation with him as he also didn''t have time for that because Luka already appeared next to him. "You''re not getting away."


    "No, both of you." Mara''s voice suddenly echoed in their ears as she somehow had arrived not far from Theo and Luka.


    Before they could strike each other, they leaped into the air as another crescent-shaped golden light flew below them, cutting all trees.


    "Oi, oi." Theo raised his left hand, asking them to stop. "You''re bullying the new guy, you know. This is not a battle royale, but four against one�� All of you are targeting me, despite knowing so much information about pastpetitions and other people''s abilities here.


    "Don''t you have any shame? A shameless cool and aloof guy, who pretends not to know his fame just to defeat me. Then there is a musclehead who keeps charging like a crazy dude. Of course, we can''t forget the guy who has hots for his sister and does all this in the name of ''justice'' without realizing his forbidden activities."


    They all frowned when they heard Theo''s words. Those words might not be true, but for Theo, it was the truth since it came from his observation.


    And without giving them a chance to say something, Theo kept running his mouth. "Regardless, how dare the proud War God Family''s members show such discourtesy toward a new guy like me? Are you out of your mind?"


    The veins on their foreheads began to bulge as they couldn''t help but think, "You''re still not done?"


    "Stop running your mouth because everything you said wasn''t true!" Luka was the first to erupt in anger as he charged toward him since he was the closest to him.


    Theo hurriedly leaped back to avoid him, but Luka caught him without a problem, albeit everything went ording to the n.


    Luka''s foot touched a thread made of Magic Power and dragged it toward himself with his speed.


    It didn''t stop there because one of its ends was connected to Theo''s Magic Bullet that had been summoned,bined into one, and hid behind the tree by his clone.


    "!!!" Luka widened his eyes and waved his axe to hit the Magic Bullet before it touched his body.


    Boom.


    He seeded, but the explosion was strong enough to blow him a hundred feet away and crashed to the ground.


    Lorenzo, Ignazio, and Mara couldn''t help but open their mouths in surprise, never expecting the battlefield had a trap.


    At the same time, another Theo appeared from behind a tree with a smile on his face. "You four surely have had your fun with my clone this whole time. Did you all just focus on the tracker in our sunsses instead of checking my real identity? This ce is surely nice."

 Chapter 571 – Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 571 - Illusion</h4>


    "What?! That is his clone?" Sheira gasped as she had the same thought as the four people. She never thought Theo was a clone because there was a tracker on the sunsses to locate his position and there was no instance of Theo giving his sunsses to his clone.


    Remembering Leonardo''s words about the limitation of a drone, she thought Theo must be using the same trick to rece his body and the clone, resulting in this situation.


    She turned to Leonardo and said, "What do you think about this development, Sir Leonardo? Did you expect Theo to use his clone again?"


    "Well, before moving on to that, we should talk about the previous scene." Leonardo smirked.


    "The previous scene?" Sheira thought for a moment and asked, "Is it about him badmouthing them?"


    "No, no. I can say that badmouthing is only a tiny part of his n since it clearly indicates one''s performance. Well, I do agree that the words are pretty mean, but you will find them on a daily basis. Besides, he''s not using any curse words, so I think it''s already good enough.


    "Then, we should talk about the possibility of him being attacked by four people." Leonardo chuckled, feeling amused by Theo''s ability.


    "That''s right!" Sheira agreed without hesitation. "Although this is a battle royale, all four of them seem to be targeting Theo. I know that he is a new guy and they want to know about his ability, but it''s kind of bullying at this point. I guess Theo is justified to say all those things to them."


    "Well, I don''t care about his words to be honest as long as he is not so excessive. What I want to say about Theo is his strength. To put it frankly, after fighting three people at once and the fact he was only a first-year student from Thernd six months ago��


    "You can safely assume his level is around 200. Within those six months, how many levels could he get without any massive support from one influence?


    "People will think Theo is barely a Hero Rank Expert, so they''re going by the book�� Eliminating the weakest first." Leonardo smiled. "And I don''t think this is wrong since it''s a proven way to defeat the enemy.


    "Also, Theo''s Magic Power should have been running low at this point, so they want to eliminate Theo and take all his tokens first. I mean, take a look at the other four.


    "Leonardo has the Space Affinity that makes him the strongest out of them. Mara is the strongest female swordsman. In terms of swordsmanship alone, I believe she is the number one in her generation. Her brother, Ignazio, has an advantage in numbers as well as Mara''s support. Last but not least, Luka. He has a good reputation and overall strength, so fighting him will be much harder than Theo.


    "Now that the picture is clear, Theo seems to be the weakest and his trick is he annoying, so if I were them, I would remove Theo first.


    "Unfortunately for them, Theo challenges them in his own field. He has that Master Level Control, his clone, traps, and unpredictability. Defeating Theo is easier said than done at this point�� I am curious how they will react to this development." Leonardo finished giving his assessment.


    "All of them have their own fighting style. As expected from the top fighters in the War God Family!" Sheira nodded in agreement. "We all are curious about the next development, so let''s continue watching thepetition."


    While they were busy talking about the battle, the battlefield was filled with silence.


    "!!!" All of them were shocked when they realized the one they had been fighting this whole time was just a mere clone.


    "Kh." Luka, who was blown away earlier, gritted his teeth and stood up, ring at Theo. "Your mouth is the same as your head. Nasty."


    "I will take that as apliment." Theo shrugged and looked at his enemies.


    "And there is no need to talk this much in a battle." Lorenzo suddenly appeared next to Theo and struck him.


    Theo stopped his sword with his spear''s handle before the real Theo raised his hands, summoning his Magic Bullets.


    "!!!" Lorenzo hurriedly took a step back to regain their distance, but Theo sent them into the air as they made a parabolic movement to hit Mara.


    Ignazio furrowed his eyebrows and knew the power of his Magic Bullets, so he hurriedly raised his hands. His armored guards stepped forward and went into formation, nning to receive all the bullets.


    However, Mara''s voice soon echoed in his ears. "No need to get worked up. Let me handle this one��"


    Ignazio''s body shook as his eyes took a nce at his sister.


    She had pulled her sword and prepared to swing it.


    A golden light began to cover her sword as it shot to the sky the moment Mara swung her sword. "Unlimited Waves."


    She waved her sword multiple times and each stroke produced a crescent-shaped sword wave that soon changed its shape to a single line like Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    She took the Magic Bullets one by one, not letting even a single one drop to her position.


    Without her realizing it, Ignazio had been staring at her with pity. He thought, ''Unlimited Waves�� it''s a B Rank Skill that allows her to continuously send Magic Power out. Normally, she will fight while standing on the ground, releasing all those attacks with a certain motion.


    ''Even when blocking, she could still send this attack to hit her enemy. This skill is the reason why she is regarded as the strongest female swordsman. Unfortunately, even with her Telekinesis, she can only use seventy percent of her original power at most��'' Ignazio let out a long sigh.


    Seeing the Magic Bullets destroyed in the air, Luka and Lorenzo tried to attack Theo.


    Theo and his clone moved separately, handling each of them alone, albeit one more unexpected thing happened.


    Clink.


    Theo''s spear and Lorenzo''s sword made a clicking sound, but when the other Theo hit Luka''s axe, no sound was produced.


    In fact, Luka cut through the spear and Theo''s body, making it disappear.


    "What? It''s an illusion?" All of them dropped their jaws to the ground, not expecting that the "real" Theo in their mind turned out to be an illusion.


    "No. He should have his clone somewhere around here��"


    Suddenly, a sly smile appeared on Theo''s face.

 Chapter 572 – Big Four

    <h4>Chapter 572 - Big Four</h4>


    Suddenly, a sly smile appeared on Theo''s face.


    "No, where is his clone? His clone should be setting up some traps around here." Lorenzo gasped and looked around before realizing. "I see. The one in front of me is the real one. After all, the rule states that we can''t take off our sunsses. The clone is not counted as a person, so your clone can''t wear it!"


    "Then, there is a clone around us and we have no idea where he is��" Luka finally understood their situation and looked around.


    "Those Magic Bullets actually came from the real Theo and his illusion just followed the motion to make it look real." Lorenzo gritted his teeth.


    Ignazio and Mara seemed to have noticed something from their expressions, albeit their reaction was one step toote.


    An eagle suddenly dove down, heading straight at Ignazio from his blind spot.


    Even Mara realized it a second toote as the eagle almost hit Ignazio. "Ig��"


    "I know that you will do this�� I expected that you''re nasty, Theo." Ignazio smirked and turned around while swinging his sword as fast as possible.


    Eagle Theo turned back to his human form and clenched his hand, covering it with green-colored energy.


    "Cannon st!" Theo sent a punch forward while twisting his arm to create spinning energy, mimicking Ne''s Twister.


    The energy from the Cannon st hit Ignazio directly as the ground beneath him shattered. However, this meant Theo needed to stop, unable to defeat him.


    This was enough for Mara to swing her sword, extending her de to cut Clone Theo''s neck.


    "Sadly, it''s not enough to defeat me." Ignazio smirked as he felt good after outsmarting Theo for the first time�� Or so he thought.


    A dyed Magic Bullets suddenly emerged from the ground and hit him from the back, resulting in a mysterious screen appearing and receiving all those bullets for him.


    "What?!" Ignazio and Mara widened their eyes in disbelief. Ignazio quickly turned around and red at Theo.


    Theo only smiled and said, "I also know the fact you know me well."


    "Sh��" Ignazio wanted to curse but soon realized Theo used his knowledge about him not doing anything meaningless to turn around the situation. He couldn''t help but close his eyes in disappointment. "I have lost��"


    [Ignazio is defeated.]


    "!!!" Luka and Lorenzo hurriedly retreated for a moment, realizing Theo''s tricks seemed to be deeper than they initially thought.


    Theo used that chance to retreat to a denser area while summoning his clone in front of everyone. He waved his hand as if challenging them. "Now, now. Let me entertain you three with all my abilities."


    ''That area�� it''s denser than here. He must haveid some traps around there likest time.'' Lorenzo didn''t dare to enter Theo''s domain because he would be walking into traps.


    Luka also decided to wait for a moment, muttering inwardly, ''His Magic Power must be quite low at this point, but there is a chance that the clone he summoned just now is another illusion as he used the tree to hide his real clone.''


    Mara bit her lips. ''At the same time, if we choose not to engage him, Theo will have more advantages as time goes on since we deplete our Magic Power while leaving him alone. It seems we really need to walk into his traps.''


    Little did they know, Theo only had a fourth of his Magic Power left and he had no n inying traps in the woods because it took a toll on his mind and Magic Power. It would just be a disadvantage for him, and it seemed the seed he nted in their mind had be useful.


    All of them were standing without moving an inch, thinking about his next move.


    "You''re a nasty guy." Lorenzo smiled as a portal appeared in front of him. Instead of absorbing one attack, he made another portal not far from Theo.


    Pink-colored energy suddenly flew out of the portal, cutting all the trees behind Theo down.


    Bam.


    The trees were falling down in session, allowing them to see what was going on behind those trees. In other words, with just this one swing, Lorenzo made Theo unable to utilize his traps again because they would find them and his clone would be spotted as well.


    "Still, it''s too early for you to win." Lorenzo shook his head helplessly. "I admire a guy like you. If we fight one on one in this terrain, even I don''t know whether I can defeat you or not."


    Theo smiled and handed the spear to his clone before moving back, allowing his clone to be on the offensive this time.


    "It''s useless to talk. Let''s end this battle quickly, shall we?" Theo said as the Magic Power fluctuation around his body increased. "Magic Augmentation."


    "!!!"


    "Wind Stomp!" Luka hit the ground with all his might and released his wind, creating a shock wave that traveled in a fan-shaped area toward Theo.


    Clone Theo moved forward and thrust his spear, releasing a simr shock wave with his Cannon st, neutralizing Luka''s attack.


    At the same time, the real Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and merged them into one. Because of his Magic Augmentation, the Magic Bullet became even more powerful.


    ''I don''t have the skill to shape my own Magic Bullet yet, but this should be enough.'' Theo thought while aiming.


    Lorenzo used that chance to approach Theo, but a clicking sound was heard when he was about to swing his sword.


    It turned out Luka hit him from the side and his strength was enough tounch him toward Mara.


    While flying, Lorenzo stomped the ground and sent himself to the sky as Mara''s Sword Wave flew past him and ended up hitting Luka''s axe.


    "Tsk." Luka wasn''t pleased by the attack because he couldn''t attack while blocking.


    At the same time, Theo sent his Magic Bullets to the flying guy, Lorenzo.


    Thetter hurriedly shed the air to absorb Theo''s attack, but he gasped when he felt the Magic Bullet was stronger than his ability. "It can''t absorb�� That must be due to his enhancement skill."


    The Magic Bullet hit Lorenzo''s gate and exploded, destroying it in the process. As for Lorenzo, he used his Teleportation to appear two inches above the ground andnd safely.


    "This situation is trickier than I expected��" Lorenzo let out a long sigh.

 Chapter 573 – Peak Fight

    <h4>Chapter 573 - Peak Fight</h4>


    "This situation is trickier than I expected."


    Luka and Lorenzo had their backs facing each other because Mara and Theo were prepared to attack them. At the same time, they couldn''t trust their back to each other, knowing that the other party would backstab them the moment they lowered their guard.


    At the same time, Lorenzo couldn''t escape because he had used his Teleportation ability earlier. He needed to wait for two minutes before using it again.


    Seeing no one making any movement, Theo started it by lifting his finger while shouting. "Rise."


    A few bars made of stone emerged from the ground, surrounding Lorenzo and Luka.


    "If I leap on top of the bars�� They will strike me down with their attacks." Luka muttered with a low voice, assessing their situation.


    "What is that? His illusion or Telekinesis?" Lorenzo clicked his tongue. He wanted to find it out, but Mara seemed to be using the confusion Theo created tounch her attack.


    Mara waved her sword and sent a Sword Wave, cutting all the bars and forcing the two to leap into the air.


    Theo had summoned his Magic Bullets and fired at them. "Magic Bullets."


    Luka swung his giant axe and destroyed the bullets with the sheer force of his wind while Lorenzo lifted his hand and shook the Magic Bullets until they exploded.


    All people thought they would be at a disadvantage, but their guess was wrong. The one who was in the dangerous situation was none other than Mara.


    After using her Sword Wave, Mara''s instinct told her to fly upward. She did that, but because her Telekinesis was slower than a stomp from the foot for the initial speed boost in a jump, Mara was one step toote as Theo''s Magic Bullets emerged from the ground.


    All those bullets flew upward and Mara managed to block or dodge most of them, but some still pierced her sides and arms.


    "Kh." Mara clicked her tongue, cursing the fact she didn''t have her feet.


    Seeing she was injured, Luka and Lorenzo found the opportunity they were waiting for.


    Without hesitation, the two guys leaped to Mara as soon as shended, trying to finish her off.


    "No, you don''t!" Mara tried to fly away, but Theo appeared behind her using his Blink. Mara hurriedly turned around and sliced him, but Theo struck her de and blew her to the ground where Luka and Lorenzo could finish her off.


    Lorenzo reached her first and waved his sword, but Mara managed to roll her body a few times to avoid his de before pushing the ground tounch herself into the air. After that, her Telekinesis took over and brought her away from him.


    Unfortunately for her, Luka had predicted her movement and arrived in front of her, swinging his axe like hitting a baseball. "Ha!"


    Luka''s loud roar raised his morale and blew her away.


    Mara ended up crashing to the ground far away from them.


    Before anyone could do anything, Clone Theo used his Blink to reach Luka while thrusting his spear.


    "What?!" Luka gasped and threw himself to the side while thinking, ''He is thrusting his spear? His Teleportation ability can carry his momentum, so he is using that to his advantage?''


    Theo missed his body but still pierced through Luka''s left arm.


    ''Why did he not use his Cannon st?'' Luka suddenly realized something big. ''If he used his Cannon st, I might be able to dodge it by using another power to counter the Cannon st''s force, but the collision between two energies would harm me as well�� Is his Magic Power that low?''


    Lorenzo even stopped for a second, doubting the same thing.


    While this thought upied their minds, the real Theo arrived in front of the injured Mara.


    "Ha." Theo used his Cannon st this time and smashed her sword as the energy dispersed, creating a crater underneath Mara.


    "You''re this strong already��" Mara smirked. "However, I have no intention to lose."


    She ced her hand on the ground as a few white holes revealed their appearances. Each hole released a white sword made of Magic Power.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to throw him to the side, barely avoiding all ten swords. However, his right thigh and left arm were grazed by the swords and blood began to flow out of the wounds.


    Mara raised her body while holding her sword with both hands. She took a deep breath to calm her heart and assessed her situation.


    Seeing the clone upying both Lorenzo and Luka, she thought, ''Theo must want to finish me himself, but I was lucky to survive the earlier attack. It seems I need to bet everything I have on the line.''


    Clone Theo threw his spear to the sky and disappeared.


    "Hmm?" Lorenzo turned around and chased after his spear. If he could get this spear, Clone Theo wouldn''t be as troublesome anymore.


    Luka had the same opinion and let him do whatever he needed to do, albeit the real Theo used his Blink to approach Luka.


    "You''re going to lose." Luka snorted, stopped Theo''s spear with his axe, and jumped backward to gain some distance from Theo.


    As if expecting something like this, Lorenzo used his Teleportation ability to return to his previous location. There was only Theo, so he swung his sword with all his might.


    "Caught you!" Lorenzo smiled and swung his sword down before Theo could protect himself with his spear.


    However, a smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face as he said, "You think?"


    Magic Bullets flew from the sides and hit Lorenzo.


    "Dyed bullets? As expected from someone who reaches Master Level Control." Lorenzo smirked and waved his sword to the side, creating a hole that absorbed all Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    Another gate appeared on top of Theo and sent all the bullets, but Theo had already jumped to the side, avoiding his own bullets.


    Lorenzo wanted to chase him, but he suddenly stumbled on the ground and looked at his right foot with blood dyeing his shoe. "Kh. I was careless. To think you would hide one bullet underground."


    Theo smiled�� "Now everyone has one or more injuries."

 Chapter 574 – End

    <h4>Chapter 574 - End</h4>


    Lorenzo instantly understood his n. He thought, ''It turns out he wants to lower all our performance by injuring us. Although he is also injured, his tricks can maintain the gap between us, so in the end, it''s the most beneficial n for him.


    ''After all, defeating us one by one is impossible for him. In that case��'' After noticing Theo''s real n, Lorenzo used his Teleportation Ability to send him to Mara, who was engaging Luka in closebat.


    Since Luka had more strength than her, he kept pushing her back while saying, "You won''t be able to win against me. As long as I keep our distance this close, you can''t establish your attacks."


    Mara sighed and waved her sword to the left, striking Luka''s axe. When she was about to parry his axe again, she felt Lorenzo''s presence behind her.


    This would be a perfect opportunity since Luka and Lorenzo attacked her at the same time, but Mara still had her pride as the number one swordsman in their generation.


    She blocked Luka''s axe, but a golden light flew out of her sword and curved to her back, hitting Lorenzo.


    As if not caring about his situation, Lorenzo received that attack with his other hand and ended up getting pierced by that attack.


    He had prepared to get this type of injury to break Theo''s n.


    "Seriously?" Mara clicked her tongue and felt a powerful Magic Power fluctuation that formed a shield on her back, stopping Lorenzo''s sword.


    She was eliminated by Lorenzo''s sacrifice.


    Without hesitation, her shadow rose from the ground and formed a humanoid figure. Before anyone could see his appearance, he had grabbed Mara and brought her away from the battlefield.


    On the other hand, Luka was shocked to see Lorenzo''s injury. "Oi, oi�� Those injuries�� I don''t think you can use your hand anymore in this battle."


    Lorenzo didn''t say anything as he nned to defeat all of them.


    However, Theo already surrounded Luka from two sides, thrusting his spear.


    "Cannon st."


    Luka gritted his teeth and leaned back to avoid the two spears, but Theo did the unthinkable. Just like Lorenzo sacrificing his left hand, the two spears collided, resulting in a powerful shock wave that would heavily injure Luka.


    The shadow had no choice other than to step in and eliminate Luka from thepetition.


    "Kh��" Theo''s right hand felt numb as he used that shock wave to regain his distance from Lorenzo.


    This way, there were only Theo and Lorenzo in thepetition.


    "Huft." Theo started panting as his face became pale. He had exhausted most of his Magic Power, and his injuries made his condition worse.


    Lorenzo was stunned by Theo''s impressive performance and couldn''t help but praise him, "You''re strong. From your strength alone, I believe your level is above 300, if not 350. And to achieve it in six months, I have nothing but praise.


    "At the same time, your Control and Tricks are too much even for me. I have no confidence in defeating you one on one if we are in this type of terrain with so many ces to hide your traps. A in field is nice to fight you since I have confidence in defeating you there.


    "Still, you''re only 18 years old while I''m 24 years old. I should be ashamed to lose against you and I don''t mind dering this to the whole world.


    "I feel like I can achieve more than this by using my time more effectively after seeing your performance." Lorenzo sighed. "Well, enough about my rambling. All I want to say is one thing�� Thank you for being here. I will use this experience to advance my skills even further."


    An excited smirk appeared on Lorenzo''s face as he began to get fired up. Even if Theo didn''t acknowledge it, he considered Theo his arch-enemy to push himself like crazy now and in the future.


    Theo felt his fighting intent and thought, ''I don''t think I canst any longer. A few more skills are the best I can do. What should I do?''


    The answer came to his mind in an instant as Clone Theo disappeared.


    Theo dropped his spear to the ground while taking a deep breath.


    "!!!" Lorenzo widened his eyes and said with a doubtful face. "You surrender?"


    "No��" Theo shook his head before his bracelet turned into a spear.


    Lorenzo couldn''t help but feel the extraordinary fluctuationing from the spear, realizing it wasn''t a normal spear. "This spear�� It''s far stronger than both your spears. You have been hiding this trump card this whole time?"


    Theo raised his spear and pointed it at Lorenzo''s neck, saying with a smile. "I have promised someone that I won''t lose anymore."


    Lorenzo felt goosebumps as heughed. "Haha. That''s it! Fine by me, I will end this in one strike."


    Theo used his Magic Augmentation to increase his power and covered his spear with Cannon st. Due to the jewel on his spear, the Cannon st became even more powerful.


    Even Lorenzo felt that this attack was Theo''s strongest skill.


    "Since I have a higher level than you, I will tell you this�� my sword can bend everything!" Lorenzo raised his sword on top of his head and jumped forward. A pink fog began to surround his sword.


    Theo also ran forward and thrust his spear.


    "Ha!" Both of them shouted to raise their morale as their weapons collided.


    A tremendous shock wave shook the area and blew everything away.


    The pink fog dispersed Theo''s Cannon st to the side, but Theo used his Telekinesis to keep them together, ultimately grazing Lorenzo''s body.


    But Lorenzo took his power to another level as his de suddenly bounced, allowing the spear to slip.


    Theo took a step forward because his spear continued its way to Leonardo''s injured arm.


    "He prepared for it?" Theo widened his eyes as the de made its way to his neck. "His sword bends the space around it tounch his sword upward while sending my spear to the already injured arm?"


    Two shields appeared to protect both of them from injuring themselves. However, the battle had yet to be over.


    I wenty Magic Bullets emerged from the ground.


    "What?" Lorenzo hurriedly opened a portal to absorb all of them, but a bigger Magic Bullet came out and hit the portal without hesitation.


    Lorenzo recognized this pattern and soon realized the one in front of him was a clone and the real Theo used his Blink to disappear earlier instead of retracting his clone.


    The big Magic Bullet destroyed his portal and the rest moved toward him.


    "There you are!" Lorenzo turned to the left and swung his sword before the Magic Bullets hit him, extending his sword with pink light to reach the exhausted Theo, who couldn''t even move his finger.


    In the end, several shields appeared to block the Magic Bullets and the pink light.


    "That''s it." A shadow appeared and dered�� "A draw."

 Chapter 575 – Satisfied

    <h4>Chapter 575 - Satisfied</h4>


    "A draw��" Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows and soon turned to the shadow. "I see�� I ept the result. Although my reaction was a bit toote, my sword would still end up in his throat. And the reason my reaction was because you failed to realize which one was his clone.


    "So, our attacks should kill both of us at the same time, resulting in a draw." Lorenzo closed his eyes and added inwardly, ''Well, I would have lost if Theo had more Magic Power. However, a draw is also good."


    Theo also epted the result because he remembered the shadow that turned out to be Davi used the screen to protect his clone''s throat. If Lorenzo slit his throat, he would have realized it was just a clone and utilized his momentum tounch thatst attack that would hit him at the same time his bullets pierced his body.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t move anymore as he was too tired after exhausting his Magic Power. Even his stamina was almost dried up because of the constant fighting in thispetition.


    Lorenzo approached Theo without hesitation and said, "I am d I can meet you today. I feel like the fire in my heart has started zing again."


    He extended his hand to Theo.


    Theo struggled to raise his hand, resulting in Lorenzo bending his knees and shaking his hand by himself before pulling Theo up while putting Theo''s hand on his shoulder, carrying him.


    They came to the open area as he raised Theo''s hand together with his, showing that they both won this match.


    ��


    Meanwhile, those who watched thepetition couldn''t help but feel astonished by Theo''s performance.


    Even Sheira mmed the table and shouted excitedly, "It''s a draw! This is Theodore Griffith''s firstpetition after three months of joining the War God Family. Just three months! And Theo is only 18 years old.


    "Despite his young age, he could contend with people like Mara and Luka. He even got a draw with Lorenzo, the current strongest of their generation. I�� I couldn''t believe this! I have no words to say��


    "He had shocked me to no end in the Grand Gaia Competition. Then, he came stronger and even more surprising in thispetition. Argh, I''m frustrated. I want to interview him as soon as possible."


    Sheira clutched her head while gritting her teeth, expressing her feelings. After a while, she turned to Leonardo and asked, "I apologize for my response, but I would like to ask for a review from Sir Leonardo. Will that be alright?"


    "Hoho." Leonardo chuckled. "What I see here is not a draw, but a win-win situation. Lorenzo seems to have acknowledged Theo''s strength and knows what he needs to do to improve. Do you know what is a must-have thing to advance yourself?"


    Sheira thought for a moment and couldn''t find the answer. "I don''t know. Level, skills, or tricks?"


    "Not at all. If you want to get stronger fast, you need to have a rival or an arch enemy. There are many examples of this, but if you think about it, the West and the East keep having trading wars, which is due to this.


    "They fear their enemy has a more advanced technology than them, so they bring out a bigger technology and vice versa. This rivalry makes you improve crazily in a short amount of time.


    "Of course, you need to find that rival yourself because it''s useless if you just make a random person or me your rival. I don''t think I will have a big growth anymore with this age of mine and you won''t know your rival''s true strength and growth if you pick randomly."


    "Rivalry!" Sheira nodded in agreement, listening to Leonardo''s words of wisdom. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. I am just enjoying thepetition." Leonardo shrugged. "Moving on to Theo, he has proved himself to the entire country. Well, I believe people from other countries are watching him right now or in the near future�� Well, he will get busy soon."


    "That is something I can foresee." Sheira could see many offersing to Theo after this performance, especially since Leonardo had told them about their rtionship.


    They would surely approach Theo to poach him and thetter would leave after he finished his special training from Leonardo himself.


    "I am blessed to have so many talented grandchildren and those who bear the same name." Leonardo smiled. "I am proud because I know that even if I enjoy the rest of my life away from the family, the War God Family will continue to progress toward a better future."


    "Ehm�� Many people wish you a long life, Sir Leonardo. Please don''t say something depressing." She scratched the back of her head while making an awkward expression.


    "Indeed." Leonardo chuckled. "Sorry, sorry. I couldn''t help it."


    "Well," She looked away and thought about another topic. "That''s right. Since the assessment has finished, what do you think about their performances? I surely can''t ask you to rank them since it''s not the purpose of thispetition, but can I know whether they have done better than their previous assessment?"


    "Hmm�� Surely, thest five have proven themselves. All I can say is that I am slightly disappointed in Felice and Velio. Unlike Ignazio, they were eliminated in the first two rounds. Well, I need to credit Theo and Ignazio for this one, but yeah, I wish they couldst a bit longer since they are Lorenzo and Luka''s assistants.


    "If they were there in thest fight, Luka and Lorenzo would be able tost longer and overpowered Mara and Theo. There are many who have improved in thispetition, but some are subpar. However, I am satisfied with the overall result since it''s better than my expectation. That''s all."


    "I see. Thank you for this greatpetition since we can learn so many things from the War God Family. I believe many will benefit from the War God Family since the video will also be uploaded on Sk." Sheira paused for a moment. "For that, do you have anyst words to the viewers?"


    Leonardo smiled yfully and raised his hand as if he was reminding a kid. "Many trees were harmed in the process�� Although Theo''s traps were partially at fault here, please don''t destroy many trees on the other side. To put it simply, don''t destroy nature too much when you''re hunting monsters on the other side unless your life is threatened, okay?"

 Chapter 576 – Lorenzo Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 576 - Lorenzo Part 1</h4>


    While Leonardo was engaging in a conversation with Sheira, Lorenzo was staring at Davi while carrying Theo on his shoulder. "I can help him go to the pickup area."


    Davi was unsure whether it was a good move to approach Theo, but thetter simply nodded his head, saying it would be alright.


    Lorenzo genuinely smiled and Davi ultimately disappeared, following them from behind.


    Lorenzo then stomped the ground and a pink fog began to rise from the ground and cover them.


    "Teleportation." Lorenzo poured more Magic Power to send them all the way to the area where the drivers dropped them off earlier. At the same time, the drones couldn''t catch up with them, so they were free to talk about anything.


    Lorenzo suddenly said, "You''re so good despite your low level. I guess this is why many experts are focusing on their Five Aspects more than their levels."


    Theo thought for a moment and shook his head. "I gave them the same amount of time."


    "Oh?" Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows. "That''s one insane leveling speed you have there. Well, I don''t really know how you level up, but you have my heartfelt admiration. It''s my first time seeing someone like you."


    Theo looked away while shrugging.


    "Well, to be honest, I just want to say I would like us to be friends. So, I want to ask your opinion."


    "Ehm." Theo looked down, thinking about it. "I don''t know if we can be friends, but you can contact me or something."


    He thought it wasn''t that big of a deal, considering he had given his number to many people.


    "That''s certainly tempting." Lorenzo nodded in agreement. "Well, we don''t bring our Skylink, so I will wait here until I get your number."


    "Okay."


    "By the way, is it fine if we talk about our battle earlier?" Lorenzo smiled and raised five fingers. "There were five big mistakes I had made in my perspective. The first one was not researching your information better. Information is the biggest weapon to defeat your opponent after all.


    "The second one was that I had fallen into your traps since the first time you showed me your ability. This was a big mistake because I should have calcted the amount of your Magic Power.


    "Third, I underestimated you despite having learned that I shouldn''t look down on someone and prepared various ns to eliminate others. I should have taken this advice from my dad more earnestly.


    "Fourth, I overestimated my own ability. Space Affinity is unique and versatile, but in terms of offensive ability, Time Affinity is more powerful despite many restrictions. I should have prepared for the worst before the battle began, so yeah, my performance was terrible.


    "Last but not least, I shouldn''t have taken your bait. In thest exchange, if I had approached you more carefully, I would have won. Of course, it won''t be a good image, but in a life and death battle, you can''t care less about it."


    "These five mistakes brought me to this result." He let out a long sigh and asked, "What do you think about these five? You can say anything about it because I''m curious about your opinions. No need to think about sweet words."


    Theo widened his eyes and realized that Lorenzo had a good observation. This might also be the first time he saw someone earnestly trying to improve other than him.


    He felt Lorenzo was like the past him in Thernd, where he didn''t care about losing to the others as long as he got something to review. That was how he got stronger in the first ce.


    Since they seemed to be simr, Theo decided not to lie. "As you said in the battle, I would have lost if we fought in a in field. To be honest, I would have teleported far away from me to gather some information and sort my thoughts. I mean, you can teleport this far, so why not?"


    "Ah!" Lorenzo gasped and covered his mouth in surprise. "Why didn''t I think of that? I should have observed your abilities first. That''s right. When you were surrounded, you chose to eliminate Ignazio in order to shift the focus to Luka and me, right?"


    Theo smiled.


    "I know it. Argh! Why didn''t I see this earlier? During that time, you observed everyone''s abilities and approached ordingly." Lorenzo sighed.


    "As for the second one, I was just using my terrain to my advantage."


    "Terrain to your advantage. That''s true. Maybe I should have brought you to a ce where there were many boulders in the area. Then I could use my Space Abilities to attack you with those boulders. This will give me more options to attack." Lorenzo nodded in agreement.


    "And I never underestimate anyone, even if my opponent were a mere Normal Rank Expert." Theo shrugged.


    "Fair enough. That was my mistake and I would like to apologize for underestimating you. It was rude." Lorenzo lowered his head, sincerely apologizing to him. This just showed that despite bearing the number one position, he didn''t feel too proud of himself. He didn''t mind taking advice from someone younger than him.


    "Also, I don''t know much about your Space Ability, so I can''t say much regarding the fourth one."


    "Do you want to talk about it?" Lorenzo smirked.


    "I would be lying if I said I don''t want to, but I am not nning to get it for free. To be honest, understanding many other powers is beneficial for us��"


    Lorenzo finished Theo''s words. "Because we know how to deal with them."


    "Yes." Theo nodded.


    "I see. That''s a unique view toward abilities. Theory alone isn''t that hard�� I guess I can do that in my free time. Thanks for the advice."


    "No problem."


    "Well, buy me a beer and we can talk about my Space Ability. As I said, I want to improve as much as possible and I know you can fulfill that desire, so I wish for a long good rtionship�� Not in a sexual way of course. And you can get any information from me like Italy''s powerhouses or other family members'' abilities.


    "From the looks of it, you''re not nning to stay for a long time, no?" He nced at him.


    "Haha." Instead of answering his question, Theo changed the topic. "Anyway, thest one was simply you had no other choice. There is a time we need to fight with our life on the line��"


    "Ah, you knew I couldn''t do something that shameless, so you chose to lock my options?" Lorenzo widened his eyes.


    "Just make your performance badass, and the people will think of you as a cool guy."


    "Is that how you retain your reputation?" Lorenzo twitched his eyebrows�� "You''re truly nasty."

 Chapter 577 – Lorenzo Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 577 - Lorenzo Part 2</h4>


    Theo only shrugged the moment he heard his statement.


    "Well, if you don''t mind, I can talk a few things about your performance." Lorenzo also immediately changed the topic, not really caring about Theo''s reputation.


    He believed Theo already knew what he was doing, so there was no need to say something useless.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure."


    "To be honest, you can correct me if I am wrong, but from my perspective, there are three things you can improve."


    "Ho?" Theo fell silent, asking him to continue.


    "The first thing you need to do is to get an assistant." He smirked. "Assistant is great because not only can they handle most of your jobs like investigation and other stuff, but they can also help you in a fight. On the other hand, you can solve their problems and be their support. This is a win-win situation.


    "Many, including me, prefer having assistants from the same family because we know their capability and there''s a low chance of them betraying the family and me. There is also no need for me to help them if outsiders bully them. The family name is enough to solve many problems.


    "And if your assistant asks you to do something for the family, it''s for the War God Family anyway, so why not? On the other hand, if your assistant is from outside the family, just reverse everything." He shrugged.


    Theo looked down and said, "I kinda agree with you. Most of the ns are made by us, and they''ll settle the things. This way, I can focus on my training. If my assistant is strong, I can also train together with them, so yeah��"


    "Yeah. You can already see the benefits. Well, I do say there are also disadvantages since you need to take care of them, but the benefits easily outweigh them." Lorenzo nodded in agreement, persuading Theo to have an assistant.


    "I will think about it first."


    "Yeah. It''s not easy to find one since you are not familiar with this family. I want to offer you one, but I believe you''re gonna reject it because she may be my spy working under you, so I won''t do something like this." Lorenzo smiled and raised two fingers. "Alright. Moving on to the second piece of advice.


    "I can see that you''re already good at manipting the battlefield. Now, what you need to do is to make a connection. As you already know, the War God Family is filled with strategists�� This also means they''re better than most people in killing you.


    "You need to have an eye outside the family, monitoring certain people. As for the inside, I don''t think anyone will side with you voluntarily. Even I would like to have a good friendship with you for benefits in the future. But yeah, it is not my main concern right now, so I just want to let you know about this.


    "I don''t feel like deceiving you when the timees, so take this as my warning for you about myself." Lorenzo chuckled. "Anyway, you need to make connections inside and outside the family. Despite bing a member of the War God Family, you are not nning to stay here, right?


    "In that case, having an outside influence can be the umbre if something happens. You can take refuge while helping them to the best of your abilities as repayment.


    "Unless you''re chased by the entire War God Family, I think it''s enough to hide in a big influence with several Mythical Rank Experts. If Father or Grandfather chases after you, there''s nothing I can do. Well, the situation is unlikely, so yeah, you don''t need to think much about it.


    "Last but not least, I want to remind you to take advantage of overseas missions. Although most of our missionse from locals, if you have an overseas mission, you should take it. You will learn so much there.


    "To be honest, I prefer changing the reward to learn something from them, like their special abilities or something. You can also bring your assistant with you to do tasks like this and double the number if they''re from the same family.


    "That''s all. I can''t say anything regarding your fighting ability because your fighting style is already above mine. I simply can''tprehend them. I can only ask you not to focus on Control alone." Lorenzo shrugged.


    "Hmm�� They are pretty useful advice. Thanks."


    "No problem. You gave me some insights as well, so we''re even." Lorenzo smiled and remembered something. "That''s right. After getting the video for thispetition, I''m nning to review it. Do you want to do it together? If not, I can contact you about my views. In exchange, you give me your opinion as well."


    "I would rather focus on my training, so I don''t think I can go out. However, using a few minutes on my break to do stuff like that is possible. Yeah, I prefer thetter." Theo replied, not rejecting his idea.


    "That''s great. Once again, I am Lorenzo Guerrero." He extended his hand.


    Now that he had recovered a bit, Theo shook his hand firmly. "I am Theodore Griffith. Nice to meet you."


    "Nice to meet you too!" Lorenzo nodded before turning his head, finding a caring toward them.


    When the car door was opened, Felice came out, only to be bewildered by Lorenzo and Theo''s actions.


    "Oh, Felice! You havee." Lorenzo was oblivious to the situation and introduced Theo. "Here, I have a new friend. He''s Theodore Griffith."


    "��" Felice''s eyebrows twitched as she said, "Master�� That guy is shrewd."


    "What is this sudden hostility?" Lorenzo tilted his head in confusion. "Ah, you were the one Theo defeated? Don''t mind. It''s better to learn from him than hold a grudge."


    Felice sighed and rolled her eyes away.


    "This is her. Normally, she is very caring and understanding, but her words are a bit sharp. She just can''t be honest." Lorenzo chuckled.


    Felice returned to the car without saying a single word before the car suddenly turned back and left.


    "Wait, what?!" Lorenzo was surprised at first and hurriedly chased the car. His head turned back as he said hisst piece to Theo. "I will send you my contact detailster! Bye, Theo!"


    Before Theo said anything, Lorenzo had already used his Teleportation Ability to send himself inside the car.

 Chapter 578 – Development

    <h4>Chapter 578 - Development</h4>


    Not long after their conversation, Theo''s driver picked him up and drove him back to the mansion, where he found the old Leonardo waiting for him.


    "Congrattions! You''ve proven your abilities to many people." Leonardoughed while spreading his hand and sitting nonchntly on the ground.


    Ava, on the other hand, hurriedly jumped to his embrace. "Kyu!"


    Theo caught her gently and smiled. "I''m back, Ava."


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava punched the air a few times, indicating that if she were there, she would beat all those guys together with him.


    "Pfft. I can see that happening." Leonardoughed, understanding the message Ava tried to convey.


    "Haha, it''s fine. This result is already stretching my limit to be honest." Theo chuckled and stroked her head.


    "Anyway, with your performance, I believe no one willin about your treatment. It''s not fair for others, but considering most of them are just me fulfilling my own motto, they have no choice but to agree." Leonardo smiled, assuring him.


    "Is that so?" Theo nodded, not caring about others'' opinions. However, if those powerful people disagreed with this decision, he would indeed face some problems.


    Although he didn''t show it outside, he felt a bit relieved.


    "By the way, your nning is already top-notch now that you have trained under me for three months. All you need is real-life experience since many things can happen on the battlefield, and most of them are different from simtions.


    "Of course, we will be sparring in a simtion game every week, but this won''t be our focus from now on. I believe you already have a future n, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Yes. I have three things I wish to get used to in the span of one month.


    As if understanding his n, Leonardo asked, "You want to take a mission next month? November, huh."


    "Yeah. Is there a problem?"


    "Not really. The War God Family willpile the request anyway, so you can simply pick them up or let the family give you one. Either way, I won''t be helping you in missions since this is your job."


    "I understand that." Theo nodded. "I will just take my time and prepare for my stay here."


    "Hmm?" Leonardo noticed the difference in Theo''s way of talking, knowing Lorenzo must have told him something.


    "Anyway, my priorities are my Control, my sight, and my taste. I want to focus on these three things."


    "I can understand the Control and your sight, but why do you choose taste?"


    "You can roughly calcte the Magic Power in your surroundings, including the enemy''s skill, right? I want that power first because my fighting style is extremely offensive. I need that power to instantly react to their power."


    "Ah, I see. It makes sense." Leonardo agreed without hesitation.


    Little did he know, Theo added inwardly, "Well, with my eyes to get the skill''s information, I can predict the power from the Magic Power. If I want to create an illusion, I can replicate it, making them think they have released their power."


    It was a fighting style with an illusion unique only to him because of his special eyes. He believed this would be the perfect style for his foundation in the future.


    "Also, I am going to get a good recement for my skill. Since I have more confidence in my Control and Awareness, I believe adding a high power skill will give me a good boost to my attack." Theo smiled.


    "At least, you have a clear vision of where you''re going. Alright. I will train you in all that stuff, so you can rest assured that you will be able to use all of them in one month." Leonardo yfully smirked. "That is if you can withstand the amount of training."


    "There is nothing I can''t withstand." Theo shook his head calmly, epting the challenge.


    "Heh."


    After that, Leonardo began to help Theo with training. He was surprised at first because Theo already had the foundation for his Awareness that seemed toe from his blessing.


    Theo didn''t tell him anything about his blessing since it was clear that being mysterious made him safer in the War God Family than confusing them with some rumors.


    Italy was also shaken by Theo''s performance because they realized Theo would keep getting stronger and wiser since Leonardo still needed to teach him for fifteen months.


    Their best chance to know him was to send their delegation to him, introducing themselves as soon as possible.


    Unfortunately, Theo had no intention of knowing them for the time being despite Lorenzo''s advice. Instead of talking with all those professional negotiators, he would rather meet their representative on a mission or something.


    Their ignorant younger generations were easier to read and he could know their intention in approaching him.


    His grandfather didn''t say anything to Theo''s choice because he had imparted the necessary knowledge to deal with his own problem.


    At the same time, he was also aware that Lorenzo and Theo had been engaging in a series of conversations after that fight. Obviously, Lorenzo''s father was the culprit.


    Lorenzo shared the information he knew about their War God Family and several families in Italy while Theo advised him in his own improvement, especially regarding his nning and observation.


    They helped each other to improve, which made their progress increase by leaps and bounds. Even Felice apologized to Theo for being rude the other day, acknowledging her mistake. Lorenzo was shocked because she never apologized to him.


    Thetter obviously just shrugged her shoulders and continued.


    Ignazio, Agata, and even Enrica, the pope''s student, contacted him to check on his condition.


    Theo didn''te out of his mansion, making him even more mysterious and elevating his status even further.


    Even Lorenzo praised him for his nastiness in maintaining his mysterious identity. There wasn''t much information that could be dug about him, so it would just incite the curiosity of many people, thus increasing his value without him even doing anything.


    Theo paid no attention to all that stuff and focused on building up his strength.


    After a long month, Theo was finally ready for his first mission.

 Chapter 579 – Mission

    <h4>Chapter 579 - Mission</h4>


    Theo was standing in the garden with all his gears. Even Ava was standing on top of Theo''s shoulder as they prepared to leave.


    Leonardo looked at him and gave a thumbs up. "Good enough. I guess you''re having a pic."


    "What pic��" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    Leonardo smirked and remembered what happened two days ago when Theo visited the family office.


    Since he came with him, the one handing him the mission was none other than the family head, Marzio.


    "These are the missions." Marzio tapped his Skylink two times and projected a blue screen, showing a list of missions. "There are a total of two hundred missions for you. You can put the filter yourself�� In fact, why don''t you just search it yourself and see which one suits you the most."


    "Oi, oi. Are you mistreating my grandson?" Leonardo jokinglyined.


    "I''m not supposed to be handling his mission, you know." Marzio shook his head helplessly.


    On the other hand, Theo had proceeded to find his mission.


    "Hmm, a mission without a time period can just go away since I can pick it up whenever I want." Theo put the first filter and threw away a hundred missions at once.


    After that, he thought for a moment and applied another filter. "I want something to increase my level since I have put down my spear for quite a while."


    There were only thirty missions remaining with only two filters. Even Theo couldn''t help but feel amazed because many gave him useless assignments.


    He also made some filters on the monster''s level, wanting to know how many people were trying to kill a level 400 monster.


    To his surprise, there were only three left.


    Mission: Kill a Dragonoid Chieftain with the Xai Group.


    Mission: Conquering a Goblin Town with the Holy Knight Order.


    Mission: Bing an Advisor for a skirmish with the Dien Company.


    "��" Theo fell silent when he saw these three missions. There was one thing that caught his attention the most. "Holy Knight Order?"


    Even Leonardo couldn''t help but raise his head. "Holy Knight Order? As in the Pope''s Holy Knight Order?"


    "I don''t know��" Theo shrugged.


    Marzio put down his work and opened the details of the mission, realizing it came from Enrica. "What is the saintess doing?"


    "There seems to be a conquest mission for a small goblin town. They have sent two Supreme Rank Holy Knights and fifty Hero Rank Holy Knights. There are a total of three thousand goblins in the area and the majority of them are Hero Rank Monsters.


    "It''s going to be a small operation filled with elites, so they need a person who is skilled in both fighting and nning. The candidates are Theo and Lorenzo. There are potentially a few General ss Monsters, so it''s gonna be a swift sweep every time until they clean them up."


    "Oh? Is there something like that going on?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows. "If Theo doesn''t go, then we need to send Lorenzo."


    "Yeah. The town seems to be surrounded by multiple viges, making it even harder to prate."


    "No wonder they want a sweep operation." Leonardo nodded in agreement.


    "I will go." Theo raised his eyes, taking the job without hesitation.


    "Eh?" Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you sure? Unlike Lorenzo, your strength is quite limited. I mean, in a sweep operation, Lorenzo''s space ability is very good because they can flee if something happens."


    "Yeah, I know. However, this mission must be written by someone else." Theo sighed.


    "Someone else? Not Enrica?"


    Theo nodded. "It must be Agata. After that visit, she knows I always rush to get some levels. That''s why the mission is a conquest instead of a single kill."


    "Oh?" Leonardo became interested in this mission and nodded. "If that''s what you think, then I have nothing to say."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded. "Well, the mission is tempting since I want to get some levels in a short time, so this operation suits me."


    "Good." Leonardo turned to Marzio. "I guess that finalizes the mission."


    "Yeah. I will be contacting the church about this mission. The rest of the information will be given to you by their knights. For now, you can regroup with them on the other side a few dayster."


    "Understood."


    "Okay. That''s all. I will contact you if something changes."


    ��


    Remembering the scene, Leonardo couldn''t help but tease him. "Pic with your little lover, huh. Enjoy your youth, young man!"


    "It''s nothing like that." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I have no spare time to deal with something like this."


    "Right." Leonardo chuckled and slipped away, not believing his words.


    Looking at him, Theo simply sighed and went to his car, so his driver could bring him to the gate.


    As soon as he entered the other side, he found more extravagant scenery than Thernd''s. The city was called Star Castle because the city was built like that of a star.


    Each joint had its own theme: amodation, trade, military, entertainment, and other facilities.


    Theo looked around with a poker face, admiring the road that stretched far to the horizon. He couldn''t even see the end of it, which was supposed to be the gate.


    Suddenly, a female''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "Theo, here!"


    The voice was so familiar that he could guess whose voice it was without even looking at her. As he expected, the moment he turned around, he found two women standing next to each other.


    The first one was a long red-haired female wearing sunsses. She carried no weapon because it wasn''t her job.


    Seeing that proactive attitude, Theo was sure of her identity. It was none other than the one who came up with the mission, Agata Mota.


    Next to her was a nun wearing a ck nun outfit. She wore her usual blindfold but was still conscious of what happened to her surroundings.


    She had no emotion when she found Theo and simply nodded her head to greet him.


    Theo shrugged and used his Blink to appear before them. "Yeah, I''m here."

 Chapter 580 – Journey

    <h4>Chapter 580 - Journey</h4>


    "So, we''re going to visit the camp," Enrica said while raising two fingers. "There are two things we need to do. Make sure we''re not exhausted or injured�� Well, I can take care of your wounds if you''re injured, but internal injuries will take too much time, so please be careful. The second thing is simply for us to arrive there on time."


    "Okay, no problem." Theo nodded without hesitation and pointed at Ava. "By the way, this little girl will be with me. Her name is Ava."


    Ava smiled cutely. "Kyu!"


    "��" Agata took a step back and looked at Theo, "Why are you bringing her? She''s too cute."


    "Kyu!" Ava punched the air a few times as if telling her that she apanied them to help Theo.


    "I don''t understand much since I can''t see her, but I am assuming a small monster or something," Enrica said politely.


    "Yes. She is a rabbit. Are you not gonna take off your blindfold even in this situation?"


    "Yeah, I am not allowed to open this unless we''re in extreme danger. Sorry if that makes you ufortable."


    "Nah, it''s fine. I just want to make sure what kind of terrain you can cross and if there is a need for my help through the journey."


    "I can manage most terrains. Unless it''s a unique terrain, I don''t think I will have a problem. Also, Agata will be helping me so that I won''t bother you that much."


    "Okay then." Theo nodded and thought for a moment. "Just confirming this one thing. We are not waiting for other people or bringing more luggage, right?"


    "Yes. It''s just us. I will be having you lead the way." Enrica handed a small watch. "This is ourpass, time limit, and a small map."


    Theo grabbed it and put on this white watch. With a single tap on the screen, the watch projected the map with a marked destination. "I see. With this, everything is set. Let''s go then."


    "There is one thing I want to warn you about." Agata stopped him. "The monsters around here may be simr to Thernd, but they have survived a harsher environment, so you can expect them to be stronger than the monsters in your mind."


    "Got it." Theo nodded. "As long as we aren''tte, we''re free to hunt some monsters, right?"


    "Yes," Enrica answered without hesitation. "Of course, if possible, we need to arrive there as fast as possible."


    "Okay. Let''s go." Theo agreed, and the group finally walked toward the southwest direction, crossed the trading area, and left the gate after getting their identification processed.


    They ran ording to thepass direction.


    After an hour, Ava suddenly picked up something and pointed in three directions. "Kyu!"


    Agata nced at Ava while Enrica fell silent, listening to their conversation.


    "I see. There are monsters in our way. If we go around them, it will take at least fifteen minutes." Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Which one is the easiest path?"


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed at the front before tapping Theo five times.


    Understanding Ava''s signal, Theo warned them. "There are five monsters in front of us, but we''re going to break through them. I will be on the vanguard."


    "Understood. I will be behind you." Enrica nodded.


    "I will support you." Agata gave a thumbs up.


    After getting their acknowledgement, Theo continued for another two minutes before he spotted five monsters roaming around a in.


    This four-legged monster had a six feet long body and a big round head. The mouth took half of the head with that oversized jaw and numerous sharp teeth inside.


    Theo summoned his clone without hesitation and handed him the spear.


    One of them spotted Theo and the others as it informed the rest of the approaching enemies. Then, the monsters turned around and prepared for a charge.


    Without hesitation, Theo raised his spear with Ava standing on his de. "Ava, get ready."


    "Kyu!"


    Theo waved his spear, throwing Ava a few feet next to the group.


    Obviously, they became distracted because Ava arrived next to them in an instant. She even released her lightning, challenging them.


    These four-legged creatures released green-colored energy and covered their heads together.


    When they were distracted, Theo and his clone had already sent the Magic Bullets to the sky.


    The monsters raised their heads and used them to cover their bodies, resulting in the Magic Bullets being blocked without doing any damage.


    However, Theo never intended to harm them with the Magic Bullets. His real aim was to cover Ava''s movement.


    The small rabbit managed to arrive next to them without a problem due to Theo''s distraction and jumped at the farthest monster, kicking him to another monster not far from him.


    "Groar?" The monster was confused as he pinned down his friend''s body.


    Before he could do anything, Theo appeared on top of them with his Blink. His spear was covered in blue fog that revolved crazily.


    While waving his spear like a hammer, he recalled the new skill that reced his Cannon st.


    Skill: Magic Power Expansion (B)


    Effect: Gather and concentrate Magic Power in one''s spot before expanding it to create an unstable flow of Magic Power. Once released, it creates a massive shock wave and Magic Power explosion.


    When he learned this technique, he realized this skill was simr to a monster''s breath. They concentrated the Magic Power in their lungs or belly before spreading it to the area. However, Theo didn''t n to use it the same way as he gathered it around his spear, letting it burst out at point-nk range for a more powerful st.


    ''Magic Power Expansion.'' Theo muttered inwardly as he hit the monster, testing its true power for the first time.


    The concentrated Magic Power burst out and destroyed the two monsters'' bellies and created a fifty feet radius crater, engulfing the other monsters as well.


    Before letting them react, Clone Theo arrived next to one of the monsters and pierced the monster''s neck, ripping it apart.


    "Groar!" He heard the other two monsters'' roars, but when he turned around, he already saw Enrica and Agata next to them.


    Enrica covered her hand with golden light as she pped the monster''s big head. Surprisingly, the green light covering the monster''s head dispersed and Enrica''s p hit the monster''s head, snapping its neck.


    Agata, on the other hand, summoned a scythe with her illusion. However, she covered her illusion with Magic Power and Awareness, specifically her sense of touch, giving the illusion the power to be a real one.


    Without hesitation, she sliced the monster''s neck and killed it.


    "I hope you don''t think we''re burdens, okay?" Agata smiled.


    Theo closed his eyes and said, "Of course not."

 Chapter 581 – Ava’s Intelligence

    <h4>Chapter 581 - Ava��s Intelligence</h4>


    "Of course not." Theo chuckled, seeing five monsters had been neutralized in an instant.


    Before they could say something, Ava came to him. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    Theo looked down, finding Ava pointing at the corpses.


    "Kyu!" Ava then raised her foot to her mouth whileining.


    "Ahaha, you want to eat the monsters��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, sorry. I used them to test my new skill."


    "Kyu, Kyu!" Ava jumped to them and pushed the corpses. After that, she jumped away and pointed at the blood. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    "The blood is special?" Theo tilted his head.


    "Kyu!" She nodded and rubbed her belly before raising both of her feet as if a human wanted to show the muscle on their arms.


    Theo waved his hand, asking her to stop. "Wait, wait. Let me process it first. The blood is special and can make you stronger? Maybe faster than back when we were in Thernd?"


    "Kyu!" She admitted it without hesitation.


    "I see. How about the meat?"


    She shook her head in disappointment. "Have you found something like this from Sir Leonardo''s inventory?"


    She shook her head and pointed at the monster, indicating the fresh blood.


    "Ah! Fresh blood." Theo finally understood. "So, the fresh blood gives you a better effect than a stored one."


    Ava raised her foot, telling him he was right.


    "Okay, okay. I will be more careful from now on."


    "Kyu!" Ava felt happy and jumped at him.


    "I guess you can eat the one that my clone defeated." Theo pointed at the intact corpse.


    Ava hesitated for a second and nced at him.


    "Don''t worry. We won''t have any trouble with money soon, so it''s fine to let you eat all the monster corpses." Theo chuckled.


    After contemting her choice, she finally came to eat the monster.


    On the other hand, Agata and Enrica were shocked to find how intelligent Ava was.


    "You can easilymunicate with her?" Enrica asked while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "I need to understand what she''s saying, so only some basic conversations." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "This is the first time I have witnessed such a thing. I wish to open my eyes to see Ava''s figure, but I can''t break my own rule." Enrica sighed. "Anyway, I don''t need the corpses, so you can let Ava eat them. I don''t really mind."


    Agata agreed with her and added, "I don''t mind as well. Although I have seen Ava previously, this is the first time I realize she is this smart."


    "Kyu." Ava pouted and red at her as if she didn''t like her statement.


    "She even understood that?" Agata''s body trembled as she apologized to Ava.


    Enrica, on the other hand, advised Theo. "I think you shouldn''t show this to the Holy Knight Order. It''s going to be a bit troublesome if many know this. I will be keeping this information a secret, but it will be bad if rumors spread."


    "Yeah. I know what to do and what I shouldn''t do." Theo nodded. "Hear that, Ava? Don''t talk when we''re hunting with those guys. Just give me some signals."


    Ava nodded without hesitation. She wondered what their reaction would be if they heard her speaking humannguage. Unfortunately, her mother told her to do what Theo said because it was for her well-being.


    She didn''t wish to be a reckless kid that felt being held back by Theo''s rules and broke them, ending up endangering everyone in the process. So, she didn''t show any objection to Theo''s decision.


    Agata observed Ava, curious about her. She didn''t know when Theo picked her up and their story.


    Theo didn''t trust people that much because of his parents, so it was weird to see him trusting his back to Ava.


    While biting the flesh, Ava''s ears picked up something. She stopped and turned her head. "Kyu!"


    Theo followed her line of sight and didn''t find anything. However, Ava already pointed at Theo with a panicked expression.


    "Oh." Theo widened his eyes and said, "Alright,dies. We need to leave right now."


    "Eh?" Agata and Enrica didn''t understand his choice. However, he didn''t convince them or exin the circumstances. He simply left them alone as if telling them to follow him without asking any questions.


    Knowing Theo wasn''t someone who did something meaningless, they exchanged looks and nodded, chasing after him.


    Surprisingly, they soon saw a cloud of dust on the horizon, rising to the sky. With the cloud rising high, they realized there would be at least fifty monsters running together.


    If they needed to fight all those monsters, they would be in deep trouble, especially if they didn''t have any preparation beforehand.


    They realized Ava had saved them this time.


    While moving, Enrica muttered inwardly, ''That rabbit�� She is even more dangerous than I initially thought. I think I can see why Theo didn''t bring her to thepetitionst month. With her ability alone, she would be able to make Theo the champion.


    ''And that reconnaissance ability makes her an even more precious resource. Her ears act like a radar. We can bring a radar with us when hunting, but some monsters can pick up the weak signal and bother us.


    ''And some monsters can even release a maic field or EMP to take down our equipment. On the contrary, she can warn us of all this without any side effects.


    ''In other words, with her intelligence, strength, and ears, she can be a weapon if she''s trained well. And she doesn''t seem to be interested in another person other than Theo��'' She turned to Theo''s back and felt a headache.


    She sighed and thought, ''At the very least, the fact he''s showing this to us means he trusts us to some extent. I guess this is a good start for Agata.''


    Agata, Theo, and Ava were oblivious to her thoughts. Even if Agata knew about her thoughts, she knew Enrica wouldn''t do something to Ava as those thoughts would remain as her assessment without any further action.


    Theo, on the other hand, had prepared some ns if she tried to target Ava. In fact, he showed Ava''s characteristics to Enrica to see how she reacted since she was one of the high-ranking people. She had the ability to make the decision on the spot.


    So, depending on her reaction, he could n more for Ava''s safety.


    In the meantime, they simply continued running toward their destination while observing each other.

 Chapter 582 – Groups

    <h4>Chapter 582 - Groups</h4>


    Theo''s group slowed down their pace since Theo was confident in covering the distance within the time. He chose to level up during the journey and Agata chose to do the same.


    Theo also tried to get information from Enrica, albeit he didn''t find much because most of the information was in the camp.


    During the first night, Theo ended up sitting down with Enrica. His face was serious as their discussion was important.


    Agata sat next to them but didn''t say anything.


    "So, you want to know about the camp information, right?" Enrica asked with a smile.


    "Yes. Although I don''t know the situation, knowing my group first will give me enough time for consideration. As for the current battlefield, I will ask the one in charge there." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Okay." She turned to Agata.


    Agata hurriedly stretched her hand, showing her Skylink. "The information is with me. Let me send it to you."


    Theo handed her his Skylink.


    Meanwhile, Enrica started exining. "We have fifty people in the camp. They consist of eight groups of six people and two supervisors."


    Theo then took his Skylink back from Agata and opened the data he received.


    "They are above level 400, so I don''t think they will hinder you that much. Also, I don''t think you can change their groupposition because we have divided them ording to their jobs."


    "Hmm?" Theo raised his eyebrows, realizing something from the information. "I see."


    Enrica didn''t see Theo''s expression, so she continued. "The first group is for scouting, so all six of them are Scouts. The second, third, fourth, and fifth groups are the vanguard. They''reposed of Knights, Fighters, and Magic Warriors.


    "The sixth groups are our main attackers since they consist of Rangers, Magicians, and Enchanters. The seventh group is to deal with the escaping monsters, so they''re assassins. Last but not least, we have a group of Healers."


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "Well, I have heard a few things about the Holy Knight Orders from Sir Leonardo, so I expect their quality to be high."


    "Don''t worry about it." Enrica nodded, assuring him.


    "Okay." Theo looked through the list and seemed to understand their formation. "By the way, can the scouts notice traps as well?"


    "Traps?" Enrica furrowed her eyebrows.


    Theo just didn''t want to get ambushed by the monsters again, like when he fought the wolves and the mummies. It would be dangerous for them, so he wanted them to make sure the environment was safe.


    "Do you think they can build traps? I mean, I know they can do some tactics, but traps��"


    "I believe they have that capability, especially if they''re led by General ss Monsters."


    "Well, I don''t have the number of their General ss Monsters, but you can expect more than one, I guess."


    "Exactly my point. It''s going to be a bit dangerous if they have traps." Theo sighed. "Ava will handle the ambush, so all I need is to make sure there''s no trap in the area."


    "You can discuss it with them, but I think they''re capable."


    Theo fell silent for a moment and asked another question. "How about the vanguard teams? Can they take on many goblins at once? Also, the Magicians may make some explosions�� So, I need to take the distance into ount, making sure our ambush is not heard by others. The healers and assassins are also troublesome��"


    "You seem to have some thoughts in your mind, so I won''t doubt your ns. As for the quality of our knights, you have no choice but to trust us." Enrica shook her head. "Besides, if necessary, we will have the two supervisors to join us."


    "How about the leader of each squad? Are they good? Can they react to any form of situation?"


    "It will depend on your ability. At the very least, each squad knows how to position themselves depending on the other group."


    "I can''t really give my orders on a chaotic battlefield. Maybe I will use the scouts to give some signals in a ce that can be easily seen by others."


    "It''s your choice." Enrica shrugged. "I will be working together with you and Agata as the ninth group."


    "Then, can you tell me the extent of your healing? Like recovering limbs?"


    "No, I don''t have that kind of ability. Even my teacher can''t recover what have lost�� If you can bring your arm in one piece, there''s a possibility of attaching it back to its original position. And it shouldn''t rot. As for me, I think I can treat burn wounds and speed up the healing process. If your bone is only snapped into two, I can, but if it''s already shattered into pieces, I can''t. That''s the extent of my healing magic."


    "That''s quite a high level already." Theo frowned. "How about your other skills?"


    "Ehm, I don''t think I will disclose this information, since not many people know about it. All I can say is that I have the confidence to defeat some monsters on my own and form some shields to protect you if necessary.


    "You can even put your all in your attacks since I can protect you. As for the rest, just ask the Enchanter to boost your attack." Enrica shook her head helplessly. "As for injury, you will be the priority, but I will keep observing the other squads."


    "Good enough. I will trust your judgment." Theo nodded. "Onest question, do you have anything to say to me regarding the mission?"


    Enrica opened her mouth in surprise, impressed by the fact Theo still asked that question. He should have had confidence in his n, but he still asked her to participate in the nning. No wonder he was the real leader in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    "No. I don''t have one. I hope you can bring the same level of strategy as the previouspetition."


    Theo shrugged and turned to Agata. "How about you?"


    She shook her head. "Just order me as you like."


    Theo nodded and said, "Okay. That''s all. You two can rest since Ava and I will be on the lookout first. We will arrive at our destination before sunset."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 583 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 583 - Arrival</h4>


    The next day, Theo and his group continued their way toward the camp. Despite hunting with Agata and Enrica, his leveling speed didn''t drop since the two could work efficiently with him.


    And he still killed the most monsters. However, they could be faster if one of them dropped out.


    Ultimately, Theo got two levels during their journey.


    As Theo said, they arrived at the camp before the sunset.


    When they arrived outside the camp, Theo stopped for a moment and looked at them. There were several tents with many people walking around. They were located in a forest, so their location wasn''t that known.


    Someone soon noticed them and saw the trio. The guy had short brown hair and wore the same uniform as everybody else. The uniformprised a red shirt, white armor, leather pants, and their weapons.


    He hurriedly approached Enrica and greeted her. "Wee. I''m d that you have arrived without any injuries."


    Enrica nodded and asked, "Where are the supervisors?"


    "I will lead you to them." The guy extended his hand, inviting her in before ncing at the two people beside her. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Theo, but that expression disappeared as soon as Agata came into his vision.


    There was no pause in his action as he continued walking, guiding them to the supervisors.


    They arrived at the farthest tent on their right as he found a table and several chairs inside. The two people, sitting in front of each other, noticed Enrica''s presence and stopped talking.


    "Excuse me. Miss Enrica has arrived," The guy announced as Enrica and the others entered the tent.


    "Oh!" The two Supreme Rank Experts rose from their seats to greet her, but Enrica waved her hand and said, "It''s fine. I want to finish the discussion first to know our situation before resting."


    The two exchanged looks and nodded.


    Theo observed these two guys with a serious expression. The first guy seemed to be in his thirties. He had a big body but was not really muscr. The second guy looked to be someone in his forties, but he appeared to be younger because of his muscr body.


    Noticing Theo''s gaze, the older guy smiled and said, "Wee. You must be Theodore Griffith. I am Loris, the current leader of this camp. The guy next to me is Filbert. I''m the Senior Supervisor while he''s my junior."


    Theo nodded. "It''s my pleasure to meet you."


    "Oh, thess is here too." Loris turned to Agata.


    "Yes. I will be helping you." Agata smiled.


    "Though I wonder why the War God Family didn''t send Lorenzo this time." The guy raised his tone while ncing at Theo.


    Filbert sighed and walked toward him while furrowing his eyebrows.


    The guy took a step back when Filbert arrived in front of him.


    Thetter calmly grabbed his hand and raised it before cing a bible in his hand. "Take this and read it outside."


    Without waiting for him to react, Filbert spun the guy and gently pushed him out of the tent. "Okay. Read for at least half an hour."


    Loris scratched the back of his head. "Well, don''t worry about his words."


    "It''s fine. I am a new guy here anyway." Theo shrugged.


    "Though he has fought Lorenzo and ended up with a draw," Enrica added.


    "Oh?" Loris and Filbert were surprised by her statement.


    "You are unaware of what happened in the past two months, so I can understand that. What I want to say is�� there is a reason why hees here."


    "Got it. Thanks for the warning." Loris nodded with a serious expression before looking at Theo, trying to de-escte the situation. "The guy has been here for two months, so I hope you can understand."


    Theo shrugged.


    "Anyway, please sit. Let''s talk about our situation here." Loris extended his hand, asking them to sit.


    Theo and the others then proceeded to sit while Filbert opened his Skylink. "First of all, before I give you any information about the settlements, I want to show you the reason we''re killing the goblins. The images I will show you are quite brutal, so please steel your heart."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Filbert then typed something in his Skylink before the Skylink projected a blue screen filled with images a few inches above the device. He then ced it on the table.


    Theo and Agata couldn''t help but widen their eyes, shocked by what they saw. Enrica was still clueless, so she asked. "What are the images?"


    Theo covered his mouth as he looked at the pictures. There were a total of four images. The first one contained a naked woman tied on an "X" shaped wooden block. Her body was covered with blood, and she seemed to have died, considering how pale her body was.


    The second picture consisted of a group of men that were hung like monster meat around them. Some of them even had their limbs torn off.


    The third picture was simr to the first one, but it was a skeleton instead of a woman. Last but not least, several humans were living inside a cage. They were all naked as they seemed to have been tortured.


    "This��" Theo narrowed his eyes, starting to feel ufortable.


    "Yeah. The fourth picture is the most recent one, so we are hoping to save them. Please take this request into ount when you formte your n." Loris nodded, exining. "As for the other three�� All I can say is we wish to bury or cremate them for a proper send-off.


    "And we would like to eliminate this problem from the roots so we won''t face something like this anymore."


    Theo looked down, contemting. After a while, he said, "To be honest, I don''t have much hope about the fourth picture. I believe they''re not near us, right?"


    "Yes. They''re in the deepest part of the goblin settlements. In other words, we may need to face one or two General ss Monsters at once."


    "In order to save them, we need to eliminate all other threats first, meaning they will be ourst priority. At that time��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and sighed.


    "We''re nning to end everything within three days if possible. We have gathered the information and tried challenging them in the past few months, so we know how to deal with them." Loris nodded.


    "When do you want to start?"


    "If possible, tomorrow morning."


    "In that case, I need your full cooperation."


    "Happy toply."

 Chapter 584 – Briefing

    <h4>Chapter 584 - Briefing</h4>


    The next day.


    They were standing in the middle of a forest, not far away from the goblin settlement.


    Loris and Theo were leading the briefing with the map between them.


    The main goblin settlement was in the middle of the map, surrounded by a hill on the north and forest on the other sides.


    "We will be attacking them from the hill," said Loris while pointing at the north of the settlement.


    "Isn''t that what they expect? General ss Monster is capable of doing some sort of strategy, so I think it''s not a good idea." One of the guys hurriedly raised his hand, asking while furrowing his eyebrows.


    The War God Family had sent Theo to help them, but it was apparent the hill would be predictable, so he didn''t understand why Loris agreed with such a n.


    "No, no. Let me exin first. We will indeed attack them from the hill, but our force will push through from the west." Loris waved his hand down.


    "Attacking from the hill, but our force will go from the west?" The Holy Knights didn''t understand and started whispering to each other.


    "This is the n proposed by Sir Theodore Griffith. You shouldn''t judge him, but I will warn you too�� The War God Family has made a huge annualpetition and he''s tied with Lorenzo for first ce. I hope that everyone can understand."


    "Lorenzo?"


    "The first expert of the current younger generation, that Lorenzo?"


    "And it''s a draw."


    They started talking as they realized the reason for Theo to be handed this mission.


    "Enough!" Loris raised his voice and started exining. "On the top of the hill, we will build a dam from the water source. We can create a bigger tunnel for that, so I expect all of you to help on the first day.


    "On the second day, we will clear the west area for us to attack the main goblin settlement along with the flood. This will allow us to rescue the hostages if there are still any.


    "On the third day, we will attack the main settlement before eliminating the south and the east. That''s what we''re going to do. Any questions?"


    Suddenly, a girl raised her hand and asked, "Aren''t our main objective rescuing the hostages?"


    "Yes and no. If rescuing the hostage means our group will be wiped out, I can''t authorize such a thing. Hence, I agree to use Sir Theo''s n not only to minimize our casualties but also increase our chance of sess.


    "The environment will be chaotic, but lives are our priority. We will help nature to recover a bit, but we will let them take their own courseter if the flood''s been dealt with."


    "I see. Environment, people, and goblins��"


    "Yes. These three are our main priorities. I expect you all to contribute in this situation, and we shall return on the seventh day." Loris nodded with a calm expression.


    "What if the n fails?" Another guy raised his hand. "Two days are enough for the goblin to notice our n."


    "That''s not going to happen. I will leave the first, sixth, and eighth groups to maintain the dam. We have two Water magicians, and they will maintain the water flow. Assassin and Reconnaissance squads will eliminate any goblins around that area."


    "I believe that our Holy Knight Order can do it�� However, in any chance we fail, we will go back to the basics. Eliminate all goblins and attack their main settlement."


    "Thank you for the answer."


    While they were engaged in conversation, Theo observed them, understanding their level. He knew that the fact they were asking questions after questions meant they knew what to do in that situation and tried to get more information from their superior.


    In other words, he didn''t need tomand through the whole ordeal since the group wouldn''t crumble even if he copsed like in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    On the contrary, they were also convinced with Theo''s n because it looked solid despite looking from any aspects. Although they didn''t admit it, they knew why the War God Family sent him.


    The discussion went for an hour before the group looped around the area, heading to the hill.


    The scouts kept guiding the entire group while looking around the goblins scattered around the area.


    Although he couldn''t see it with his own eyes, he got the report from the scouts, stating how brutal the goblins had killed their hostages.


    They even found many goblin variations in the process and the group needed to watch out for them.


    Ava maintained her silence this whole time even though thedies often secretly took a nce at her cuteness.


    Fortunately, not a single person dared toe to him because Agata stayed next to Theo.


    It took them three hours to arrive on the foot of the hills.


    There were four small viges around the hill, so they needed to take care of them first. And they were aiming at the vige on a small in.


    Before making their move, Loris came to Theo, saying, "I won''t be joining you for the time being. After all, I''m just a supervisor here and it''s a kind of training for the kids as well, so I will be leaving it to you.


    "Of course, I will step in if the situation goes wrong or if we face a General ss Monster." Loris winked.


    "I understand." Theo nodded.


    "There are a total of two hundred goblins inside and their levels are quite high. Do you have confidence inpleting the job? I believe this is your first assignment, right?"


    Theo shrugged. "I know that this is my first task and I don''t know what I should expect from you people�� But half an hour is enough, depending on your people''s performance."


    "Haha, if you''re that confident, then I have nothing to say. They may be hard to handle, but they do everything earnestly." Loris smiled. "Please take care of them."


    Theo smiled and inly said, "No�� They need to take care of themselves."

 Chapter 585 – Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 585 - Challenge</h4>


    Standing on top of the hill, Theo reassessed their situation, looking at the camp. The settlement contained many tents built of leather and wooden spikes. He could see some corpses all over the ce.


    He turned around, staring at ten people. They were Agata, Enrica, and the eight group leaders. He stated, "The scouts will set our perimeter and work together with the assassins to eliminate the deserting goblins or those who patrol around the area.


    "The second and third groups will follow me storming the front door. The fourth and fifth group are to follow right after the goblinse out. Magician Groups will hit the most popted area. Half of the healers will go to the battlefieldter, while half will maintain their position. Understood?"


    All of them nodded their heads with serious expressions. After knowing Theo''s reputation, they didn''t mind following his orders since it sounded logical as well.


    "Good." Theo then faced the camp without any walls around it. He summoned his clone and handed his spear.


    "Operation begins," said Theo as he leaped forward.


    Ava was standing on top of his shoulder while Agata, Enrica and two other groups followed him from behind.


    "Magic Bullet." Both Theos summoned their Magic Bullets andbined them into one, forming two big Magic Bullets.


    He released them to the sky as thetter made a parabolic movement.


    The goblins saw the iing Magic Bullets and shouted.


    "Kroar!"


    "Kroak!"


    Their voices echoed through the whole settlement, calling all the others out of their tents. Unfortunately, there were two unfortunate goblins because Theo used his Tracking Ability in his Magic Bullets.


    Each Magic Bullet hit a goblin and ttened them before creating a massive explosion that alerted the whole camp.


    Before they managed to make their moves, both Theos appeared next to a goblin and pierced their heads simultaneously, killing another two.


    "Come." Theo smiled and waved his hand, trying to provoke all of them. He observed this green-colored humanoid creature. Their height wasn''t less than three feet and their body didn''t seem to pack much power. They had a pair of long green ears and a big nose.


    They carried swords, spears, or even bows. Some of them even had a helmet or armor.


    In a single look, Theo knew all of them were the same goblin, so he thought there was no abnormality since the goblins took all the armor the human had.


    Clone Theo raised his foot and covered it with Magic Power Expansion. This time, he spread the energy to the entire surrounding.


    Instead of creating a crater, Theo generated a powerful shock wave that blew all the tents around him, revealing the goblins inside.


    It turned out there were at least twenty to thirty goblins on his back and sides. When they were exposed, the goblins charged forward, trying to kill Theo.


    Theo didn''t even bother to look at them as twelve people made their appearance and struck the goblins from behind.


    The goblins sensed their presence and easily stopped their des. However, the Holy Knight Order seemed to be better than them as they immediately mmed their big shields at the goblins before pushing them to the side.


    Another twelve attackers appeared. They all sliced the goblins'' necks with the opportunity created by the first twelve. Because of this ambush, the group managed to kill twelve goblins in a single move.


    Unfortunately, that tactic couldn''t be used again as the goblins hade out of their tent.


    The goblins looked at them and started covering their weapons with Magic Power. Some goblins even created a fire above their heads.


    Seeing this, the twelve knights hurriedly formed a line in front of Theo with their shields in the front, protecting anyone behind him. The fourth and fifth groups formed a second line behind them to add more power if necessary.


    "Kroar!"


    "Kroark."


    The goblins shouted as they seemed to have no patience to wait. Some even started drooling when they saw female knights or even Agata and Enrica.


    ''Their discipline is quite good.'' Theo muttered while looking at the church''s knights.


    Before the goblins attacked them, Theo and his clone lifted their hands. "Illusion Construct."


    Suddenly, ten feet walls emerged on the side of the knights, stretching over thirty feet long.


    The goblins actually gathered in the center and proceeded without touching the walls. Some even looped around the wall.


    Unfortunately for them, this was just a trick for them to gather in one position. Suddenly, two huge streams of water and a bolt of ice fell upon them, creating a small flood that soon got frozen to catch the goblins. After that, a boulder fell on top of them, crushing them. Some died and some survived, but this gave the opportunity to the knights to rearrange their positions.


    Seeing the front had been blocked, the second and third groups stepped to the side and charged at the goblins that looped around the walls.


    "Fourth and fifth group attack them from the center. The wall is just an illusion!" Theo shouted.


    Hearing his instruction, they gathered in the center before the goblins could lift the boulder. After a few seconds, they went through the walls and killed some goblins with a sneak attack.


    Still, the enemy number was almost ten times their number on the battlefield. The goblins that didn''t have the chance to attack them from head-on decided to loop around.


    "Theo!" Agata called his name. They were going to be surrounded soon, so she wanted to retreat.


    However, Theo made a different decision.


    "Hold those in the right with your illusion smoke or something. I will handle the one on the left. It''s still too early to retreat." Theo shook his head.


    "Got it." Agata hurriedly moved ording to his decision and ced her hand on the ground. A pink smoke began to rise from the ground and covered their movements. "Well, I don''t think I can fight more than ten goblins, but hindering them is feasible�� I guess."


    Ava appeared on her shoulder while raising her foot as if saying she was going to help her. "Kyu!"


    "I feel assured now." Agata smiled.


    On the other side, Theo used his Magic Augmentation and ced his hand on the ground. "Illusion Construct."


    Suddenly, many individual walls appeared. Their width was less than five feet, but with them scattered around, the goblins had no choice other than to maneuver this smallbyrinth Theo created.


    Theo raised his spear and smiled as his battle was about to begin.

 Chapter 586 – Hobgoblins

    <h4>Chapter 586 - Hobgoblins</h4>


    While the Holy Knights were fighting the goblins, Theo faced around twenty goblins that were trying to surround them.


    He used his Illusion Constructs to create several walls toplicate the terrain since the goblins were not knowledgeable enough to know it was just an illusion.


    The first thing Theo did was summon his Magic Bullets and shoot them through the walls as the first wave of his sneak attacks.


    "!!!"


    The majority of the goblins managed to react at thest second, blocking the Magic Bullets, but two of them didn''t see iting and got their bodies pierced by Theo''s bullets.


    They stumbled and fell as his clone used his Blink to appear next to them, delivering the killing blow on their heads.


    After that, the clone snapped his fingers as three tombstones emerged from the ground, creating a shield in front of him. The shield expanded and formed arge barrier that forced the goblins to loop around him.


    Unfortunately, the moment they did it, the real Theo hit them with his spears.


    Two more goblins jumped toward him and waved their weapons, trying to bash Theo''s head. However, a golden screen appeared not far from him, blocking their attacks.


    Without hesitation, Theo used that opportunity to stab the two goblins and kill them before ncing at Enrica while retreating.


    Noticing his gaze, Enrica only smiled as if telling him that she would handle his protection.


    Theo took a deep breath and nodded as he continued to hunt the goblins.


    On the other side, Agata also did her best to confuse them with her pink smoke, making the goblins hallucinate some walls that forced her to get lost inside.


    It was a sessful n as the goblin was confused. After that, she summoned a scythe and appeared next to one goblin.


    She waved that weapon to the goblin''s neck.


    Still, as one would expect from a level 380 goblin, right before the scythe sliced his neck, the goblin raised his sword and blocked it.


    "��" Agata clicked her tongue and realized her offensive ability was still less than Theo''s. Killing them wasn''t an easy job.


    That was also why Theo gave her a little helper. With the pink fog as her cover, Ava arrived beneath the goblin and kicked his stomach.


    "Kroark!" The goblin coughed blood as he leaned back due to the force. His hand loosened up, giving a big opportunity for Agata.


    "!!!" Agata couldn''t help but smile and slit the goblin''s neck, sending its head flying. She didn''t forget to say, "Thanks, Ava."


    "Kyu!" Ava was happy to help and she didn''t kill the monsters like usual, allowing Agata to gain some EXP points.


    Two more goblins came to her vision as Ava released her lightning. She transmitted the lightning on the ground and started cracking the earth.


    The lightning continued rampaging and hit the goblins like a whip. When it hit their weapon, the goblin felt a jolt to their mind, dropping their weapon out of reflex. When the lightning struck their body, it burned their skin.


    This distraction was enough for Agata to deliver the killing blow. She realized why Theo could level up quickly.


    Ava was a strong monster pet and intelligent enough to support him in this situation. Her action allowed Theo to get more kills and EXP points, especially if he added the clone as his fighting force.


    This situation was simr to three people hunting together, but only one person got the EXP points.


    ''I guess, no matter how hard I try to get better, he always surpasses me.'' Agata sighed inwardly before shaking her head with a serious expression. She thought, ''That''s not important. I have my job here�� bury all the useless thoughts for now.''


    Her eyes remained focused as she challenged some more goblins.


    With those two holding the goblins, the Holy Knights were able to do their jobs effortlessly.


    While fighting, a golden-haired man was approached by his subordinate, an earnest-looking boy.


    "Captain, fighting like this feels a bit easy." The boy stated with a doubtful expression.


    "Well, we need to thank that guy. Not only does he n everything, but he also holds back some goblins."


    "True. I guess what Sir Loris said is true�� about him fighting that Lorenzo."


    "Don''t talk too much. We have our orders, so we need to focus on defeating these goblins. Look at their positions, some goblins manage to slip past them, but it''s still at the amount we can take care of. We need to finish the ones in front of us as soon as possible before getting surrounded."


    "Still, it feels like this is going too easy��" He muttered.


    "Don''t jinx it." The man clicked his tongue before they heard a loud boom behind them.


    It was Agata rolling on the ground and struggling to get up. Soon, Theo was also pushed back to the point he arrived next to Agata.


    Unlike her, Theo maintained his stance while asking, "Are you alright?"


    "Yes." Agata struggled to get up while looking at her pink smoke being blown away by a gale.


    The moment the fog disappeared, a big green humanoid creature made its appearance. Their body features were simr to the goblin, but the height was more than three times and it had a muscr body.


    It carried a giant club and looked at Theo, Agata, and Enrica.


    The same applied to Theo''s side. The same creature hit Theo with his giant sword and pushed him back.


    The one with the club tried to charge toward them, but Ava leaped to his front and kicked him. The creature managed to block it, but Ava surprisingly pushed him back despite their difference in size.


    After that, Ava leaped back to regroup with Agata while staring at the monster.


    "Good job, Ava." Theo nodded as his clone also stopped the sword for a few seconds.


    "Two Rare ss Monsters appear! They are Hobgoblins." Theo announced out loud and raised his hand to the sky. His Illusion Construct created a tall pole with a red g on top.


    Everyone who saw the signal immediately shouted, informing those around them.


    "Retreat!"

 Chapter 587 – Fighting The Hobgoblins

    <h4>Chapter 587 - Fighting The Hobgoblins</h4>


    "Retreat!"


    The entire group started retreating in an orderly manner while the knights protected their rear. Theo and his clone also summoned their Magic Bullets and fired at the two hobgoblins to buy time.


    The hobgoblins covered their weapons with a green-colored aura and smashed the Magic Bullets with ease as though hitting flies. They didn''t even flinch when the explosion tried to blow their weapons away.


    "Oh, that''s quite dangerous," Theo muttered and looked at the groups. "Scenario B."


    "Scenario B!"


    They all shouted in session, informing all people around them.


    After getting that instruction, the group started to spread out. The twelve knights that brought the rear then split themselves into four groups and fled in different directions.


    "Kroark!" The goblins were surprised and tried to chase those in front of them. Soon, the goblin split into four. A few minutes earlier, they managed to kill fifty goblins, and it made the situation easier for the Magicians to concentrate their attacks on one spot and kill them one by one.


    Unexpectedly, the hobgoblins continued to follow Theo and Agata as if they had recognized them as their primary targets, not caring about the other goblins or humans.


    Theo couldn''t help but say, "Agata, you go help the furthest one to clear the monsters here."


    "What are you going to do?" Agata furrowed her eyebrows, feeling something wasn''t right.


    "I''m going to bring these two hobgoblins away of course." Theo nodded before ncing at Enrica. "You and Ava will go with me."


    "Roger."


    "Kyu!"


    "Are you sure about this?" Agata asked onest time with a concerned face.


    "Yes. Although I want to level up, I will try to handle these two level 430 hobgoblins first. If this strategy doesn''t work, I can polish my ns in the next camp. That''s why this is going to be important."


    She was reluctant to do it, but since Theo had a n on his mind, she agreed with a sigh. "I understand."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and shouted, "I''m going to leave this group. The rest will fight on their own. There won''t be a change of n at this point."


    They began to transmit Theo''smand and were shocked that they didn''t have a leader that controlled them. Still, as one would expect from an elite Holy Knight Order, they didn''t panic and knew what to do.


    After that, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets again and spread them to the side as he walked to the right, away from the others. The Magic Bullets flew in session, hitting the hobgoblin and taking their attention.


    Seeing Ava and Theo, who managed to block their attacks, moved to the side, the hobgoblins decided to follow them without giving any order to the normal goblins other than to not bother them.


    Theo looped around the goblin army and returned to their settlement, nning to use this small and messy in as his battlefield.


    When he arrived, he checked his surroundings to make sure no monsters were hiding. Then, he raised his spears and pointed them at the two hobgoblins.


    Enrica stood behind him and soon summoned a golden light beneath her feet. "I am going to support you, but if I find a gap to exploit, I won''t hesitate to attack."


    "Okay." Theo smiled and said to Ava. "There''s no need to get serious. You and my clone will handle the other one."


    Ava widened her eyes in surprise because she thought she could unleash her humanoid form. However, Theo must have considered sealing it the moment he brought Enrica here.


    Since Theo didn''t wish to show her power yet, Avaplied and looked at the hobgoblin with a club. "Kyu!"


    Ava leaped toward him as Clone Theo followed right behind.


    On the contrary, Theo used his Magic Augmentation instead and ced his hand on the ground. "Illusion Construct."


    Suddenly, a pir emerged from the ground. The cylindrical pir was thirty feet high and ten feet wide. Without hesitation, Theo cut the pir on the bottom and let it fall on top of the hobgoblin.


    The hobgoblin didn''t seem to fear the weight of the pir. He simply pulled back his sword and tried to contain the pir with both hands.


    "Kroar!" The hobgoblin let out a roar and received the pir. He felt its immense weight.


    Little did he know, Theo was actually using his Illusion Maniption to make him feel the pir''s weight even though it was just an illusion.


    The moment he confirmed that his illusion was effective, Theo hurriedly leaped toward the hobgoblin, taking advantage of his confusion.


    He couldn''t help but smile, looking at the juicy right leg that he could pierce to reduce his mobility. But to his surprise, the hobgoblin suddenly stared at him and kicked him on the stomach.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes and realized the hobgoblin had just tricked him into thinking he wanted to test his own strength against the pir.


    "They''re this intelligent?" Theo sucked a cold breath and raised his spear.


    Before the kick hit him, a golden shield appeared in his front, blocking the foot for a second.


    This allowed Theo to halt his movement and raise his spear. Three tombstones emerged from the ground and a blue shield appeared, stopping the kickpletely.


    However, the hobgoblin didn''t stop there. He threw the pir away, which suddenly passed his hand as if there was nothing on his hands this whole time. This pissed hobgoblin even further as he covered his sword with a green aura again.


    Pouring all his anger into one swing, the hobgoblin struck Theo''s spear from below,unching him into the air.


    Enrica clicked her tongue and raised her hand, summoning another golden light on top of the hobgoblin. "Judex."


    The golden light illuminated the hobgoblin as if there was a light from Heaven. But, instead of warm and peaceful light, Enrica''s Judex was burning his skin until the hobgoblin covered his whole body with the green aura, neutralizing her golden light.


    On the other hand, Theo crashed into a tent, tore the cloth, andnded inside the tent.


    "Kh! The hobgoblin is this smart and powerful�� I didn''t understand what they meant about stronger enemies than the one in Thernd until now because I''m far stronger, but now I know��" Theo clicked his tongue and hurriedly rose from the ground to return to his position, albeit he was shocked when he heard a clicking sound when his boot stomped the ground.


    "Eh?" Theo lowered his head and saw a rectangr-shaped metal beneath his feet.

 Chapter 588 – Finding

    <h4>Chapter 588 - Finding</h4>


    He was surprised to see the metal te that seemed to act as a carpet on this tent. This was the first time he saw something like this, thinking if this was just goblin''s customs.


    Still, he had a job to do, so he brushed the thought off and continued to fight the goblin. When he stomped the ground to leap forward, the metal echoed as though there was a gap underneath.


    "Huh?" Theo looked down with a confused look. "If it''s just a normal ground, it won''t leave the echo as the soil would distribute the sound. This made him suspicious, albeit he had no time to investigate it as Enrica''s shout resounded in his ears.


    "Theo!"


    The hobgoblin was about to hit her with his sword on top of his head, ready to swing it.


    Theo flinched for a split second and used his Blink to appear on top of his sword. He covered his spear with Magic Power Expansion and hit the de with all his strength.


    The Magic Power Expansion created an explosion and pushed the sword down, resulting in the hobgoblin tripping and falling on his butt.


    Theo used that chance to strike his muscr stomach and only managed to graze it due to the green aura. He even sent the Magic Bullets all over his body, but they caused only scratches that seemed to be nothing for the hobgoblin.


    As if not liking Theo''s attack, the hobgoblin hit him with his sword.


    Theo received it with his spear andnded on the ground a few feet away.


    "What were you doing earlier? The hobgoblin almost attacked me, you know." Enrica asked while furrowing her eyebrows. She was displeased, thinking Theo was trying to y with her life. After all, she knew the power behind those strikes wasn''t that powerful to stop him froming back up immediately.


    She had the right to be protected because her role was his support in this fight. Just like her stopping the monster fromunching another attack on Theo by taking its attention for a moment, she expected Theo to do the same instead of doing a game like this.


    Theo also understood her concern and apologized. "Sorry. It was my mistake. I promise it''s not going to happen anymore."


    Enrica finally understood why her teacher, the pope, told her that he and Theo wouldn''t bepatible. She sighed and said, "Never mind. I''m overreacting as well. For now, let''s focus on defeating these two hobgoblins, shall we?"


    "Yep." Theo nodded and used his Magic Augmentation again. With the Magic Power revolving in his body, Theo headed straight to the hobgoblin that had risen from the ground and roared.


    When he was in front of the hobgoblin, Theo hurriedly raised his left hand and summoned the tombstones. "Three Great Defense."


    The huge shield now had the boost from Theo''s Magic Augmentation to take the blow. And as expected, it stopped the sword.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as he muttered, "Let me try this to a rare ss monster like this guy."


    He looked him in the eyes as he formed an invisible thread in the air with his Magic Power, sending it to the hobgoblin''s head. He even inserted his killing intent and bloodlust, enhancing it even further.


    As soon as it reached the hobgoblin, he felt the sword loosen for a split second, allowing Theo to slip past the de.


    He arrived right on the bottom of the hobgoblin and swung his spear from below. He used his Magic Power Expansion to cover his spear, trying to cut the hobgoblin.


    Unfortunately, thetter was stronger than Theo expected as his spear could only make a shallow wound from his stomach to his chest due to the green aura dispersing the Magic Power Expansion.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and leaped back, reassessing his situation. He even used his Awareness again ording to Hel''s method to stop the hobgoblin''s movement, albeit it became less effective than the previous one.


    "As expected, it''s going to be like this." Theo stared at the hobgoblin and muttered inwardly, "My current level is enough to influence its mind but only for a split second. At the same time, it will be less and less effective as time goes on. My level is still far from the Goddess since she can make one see their own death and trap them continuously."


    However, Theo also received a notification from the aforementioned person.


    [Progress is good enough. Continue.]


    Theo widened his eyes in disbelief. The Goddess should have known about his circumstances, where he didn''t have too much time to practice before thepetition. Yet, she assured him that his progress was good enough.


    Hel, in his mind, was strict about rewards and punishments. If that person did a bad job, she would punish and lecture them. On the contrary, if that person did a good job, she had no hesitation in giving honest praises.


    And the fact that she rarely praised him made Theo smile.


    Still, Theo became even more excited as he said, "This is not enough."


    Theo took a deep breath and recalled the information about the green aura.


    Skill: Body Aura (C)


    Effect: Allowing the user to cover its body with a powerful aura. Depending on the Magic Power poured into the skill, it will be able to increase its toughness.


    Getting a n after taking another look at the skill, Theo leaped forward with his spear in front of him. The moment he arrived before the hobgoblin, he was about to get pounded by the powerful swing.


    Once again, Theo activated Hel''s Death Stare and paralyzed the hobgoblin for a split second.


    But thetter managed to handle it even faster and continued its swing without a single pause.


    A shield appeared on top of Theo''s head as it was obviously Enrica helping him. Although he was grateful for the support, he had no intention of using this shield.


    Theo simply ducked down and slipped past the hobgoblin''s defense.


    "!!!"


    He licked his lips while thinking, ''Even though it''s not that effective anymore, I can still taste its Magic Power and notice��''


    ''��the small fluctuation of the aura that covers your body, and I know the aura drops in this spot!'' Theo moved to his back smoothly and pierced the hobgoblin''s side, finally creating a deep wound.


    "Kroar!"

 Chapter 589 – Killing The Hobgoblins

    <h4>Chapter 589 - Killing The Hobgoblins</h4>


    Theo smiled when he saw his spear piercing the hobgoblin''s body. This would significantly reduce the hobgoblin''s fighting capability��or so he thought.


    Suddenly, the hobgoblin spun his upper body and punched him.


    Enrica''s shield and his Ring of Honor had blocked it, but the hobgoblin poured all the aura in his body to his hand, enhancing it to the very limit. The two shields shattered in an instant as he flew to the side.


    Enrica started sweating and hurriedly pped her hands. "Grand Cross!"


    A golden cross emerged from the ground as chains began to appear out of nowhere, tying the hobgoblin to the cross. Meanwhile, Enrica made her way to Theo to check his condition.


    "Kh." Theo clicked his tongue and checked his body. "Luckily, I managed to use my External Flow and Telekinesis to get away, or that one would be fatal. Is this truly the power of a Rare ss level 430 Hobgoblin?"


    Theo coughed a few times as Enrica enveloped his body with golden light, recovering all sorts of external injuries.


    "To be honest, I am not very sure as well. This is certainly far too big of a difference to a normal Rare ss Monster." Enrica shook her head.


    "So, it''s stronger than usual?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "Yes. I am afraid we need some adjustment to our ns if the other Rare ss Goblins are like this."


    "Whatever. I need to kill that one first." Theo sighed and poured his Magic Power into his bracelet. It soon formed a spear that perfectly matched his hand.


    Theo took a deep breath and raised his spear. "I am going to be serious for a bit."


    "Understood." Enrica stepped back, allowing Theo to move.


    Theo looked at the hobgoblin that managed to break free from the restraints and inhaled the air as much as possible.


    He approached the hobgoblin with confidence and hurriedly stepped to the left when thetter almost pounded him. After that, he thrust his spear, which was blocked by the hobgoblin''s sword. Due to the Magic Power Expansion covering his spear, Theo''s swing managed to stop the sword.


    At the same time, Magic Bullets looped around Theo''s body and hit the hobgoblin''s body. If this were a normal attack, the hobgoblin would only suffer some grazes, albeit this wasn''t.


    All the Magic Bullets hit the same spot. It was right at the spear nted on his body.


    Boom.


    The explosion shook the injury and made the wound bigger.


    "Kroar!" The hobgoblin roared and tried to push him back, but Theo used his spear as support tounch himself into the air, situating himself at the hobgoblin''s eye level.


    After that, he waved his spear from the side. Surprisingly, a curved de appeared on the side of his de and turned the spear into a scythe.


    Theo waved his spear right at his neck, forcing the hobgoblin to raise his sword to block it. Unfortunately for him, the curved de was only an illusion.


    The scythe passed through the de as Theo''s spear returned to its original form and slit its arm.


    The hobgoblin screamed in pain as it punched Theo from the other side.


    Theo used his shield to stop it and Telekinesis to fly around it. Then, he raised his hand and made another scythe with his Illusion Construct.


    He waved this scythe with his left hand and ended up getting stopped by the hobgoblin''s hand.


    Seeing the smile on the hobgoblin''s face as if he had just won, Theo smiled as the scythe disappeared, showing the goblin it was just another illusion and the fact he felt it was due to him manipting his senses.


    Theo used his Blink to appear behind him while using his Magic Augmentation to enhance his next attack. He pointed at the hobgoblin''s back and summoned his Magic Bullets,bining it to one.


    Obviously, the hobgoblin didn''t let Theo do whatever he wanted. He hurriedly spun his body to smash him, but Theo followed his movement with his Telekinesis and fired the Magic Bullet right next to his wound.


    Boom.


    The powerful explosion pushed Theo''s spear deeper and twisted it to the side, forcing the organ inside his body to move. At the same time, there was a huge burn wound on his back, and his blood began to flow like a fountain.


    "Gar!" The hobgoblin felt that onest hit as it was too painful for him to even scream.


    It finally fell on his knees, and Theo pierced his neck.


    Although the hobgoblin tried to stop Theo, it didn''t have enough strength nor speed to parry Theo''sst spear.


    "One��" Before Theo finished and the notification appeared, the hobgoblin''s head moved, mming Theo with that forehead.


    Theo wasn''t surprised this time because he never lowered his guard down before he saw a killing notification. And Enrica managed to react as well.


    She formed a shield in front of him, blocking the headbuttpletely.


    Seeing her shield didn''t shatter, she couldn''t help but sigh. "Finally, it can withstand the power��"


    [Killed a Hobgoblin.]


    [EXP+140,850]


    "Thanks, but��" Theo disappeared in the instant he saw the notification, making his way toward the second hobgoblin. Luckily, Ava and his clone managed to injure him quite badly, and they managed to avoid all the hobgoblin''s schemes because the real body experienced it first.


    Theo joined the fight for three minutes and killed him.


    [Killed a Hobgoblin.]


    [EXP+140,850]


    Seeing the notification, Theo fell on his butt while panting. He turned to Ava and asked, "Are there any more monsters hiding around here?"


    "Kyu." Ava shook her head calmly after rechecking it with her ears. She had a little bit of concern about Theo''s finding, but she didn''t mention anything.


    Hearing that answer made Theo let out a sigh of relief. "I guess our part is done."


    "Yes. Let me heal you a bit." Enrica nodded and approached him.


    Theo nodded back and allowed her whatever she needed to do. The two Hobgoblins were indeed hard to defeat.


    "Ava, gonna eat��" Before Theo finished his words, Ava already took a bite of the hobgoblin''s body before spitting it out like it was terrible.


    "Ava?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    Ava crossed her feet as if telling him that it wasn''t good.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and said, "We will regroup with the others after my wounds are healed then."


    "It''s gonna take only two minutes," Enrica added calmly.


    "You don''t want me to take a breather, don''t you?"

 Chapter 590 – Underground

    <h4>Chapter 590 - Underground</h4>


    After she finished healing him, Enrica rose from the ground and looked around, asking with a hesitant tone. "Where should we go by the way? Scenario B is spreading our force and eliminating them one by one with the help of the Magicians but in this type of terrain��"


    "No worries. That''s why Ava is with me. Besides, the general location is that way." Theo pointed at the west. "Let''s go."


    Enrica nodded and set off while Theo gradually rose from the ground.


    Instead of following her right behind, Theo asked Ava in a low voice. "By the way, are there people looking at us?"


    Ava made the connection to what he wanted to do and shook her head after checking the entire ce. She had found one Supreme Rank Expert observing them earlier, but he left after confirming that Theo and Enrica managed to deal with the hobgoblins.


    "What are you doing?" Enrica asked while turning around.


    "Sorry, sorry." Theo chuckled and followed her without hesitation.


    The trio returned to the group like how it was supposed to be, albeit there was another Theo standing in front of the tent where he found a metal te.


    Without hesitation, he walked to the previous te and looked at it.


    "Hmm, what I found earlier is��" Theo bent his knees on the te while knocking on it. "The ground should distribute the sound, but from what I have heard earlier��"


    Suddenly, he felt a simr echo when he knocked on a certain spot. It was a long one, making him think there was something underneath.


    Theo thought for a moment and used his Telekinesis to lift the metal te.


    The moment the te was thrown to the side, a six feet wide hole appeared in his vision.


    "Such a giant hole��" Theo muttered and remembered the hobgoblin''s size. "Wait a minute. Do the hobgoblins use this tunnel? Goblins seem to be too small for this. It''s still possible though."


    After that doubt appeared in his mind, Theo took a peek at the hole and saw vertical stairs. In that instant, he was convinced that the hobgoblins were the ones using it because of the distance for each step.


    "Still, this tunnel�� I think I should report it to the scouts and have them investigate it. However��" Theo thought for a moment and sighed. "Well, I need to confirm it first. If it''s something used by the goblins, I may need to adjust my n. At the same time, it will be dangerous to send the scouts here while I''m just a clone and can disappear at any time."


    He thought there wouldn''t be a problem and chose to go down by himself to check the inside.


    He jumped into the hole and used the size of the wall to free fall. It became dark soon, so Theo used his Awareness to check his surroundings, making sure he didn''t hit something. He wanted to use his night vision, but all his equipment was in his real body, so it wasn''t possible at the moment.


    After falling for around fifty feet, he sensed the floor and hurriedly used his Telekinesis tond on the ground. He could see nothing inside the tunnel at first, so he was surprised to see the light after turning around.


    Unfortunately, He could barely see the corridor with this light, let alone the ceiling or the other side of the wall. It was only enough for him to walk forward.


    He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head and marching forward. He was prepared to disappear the moment he sensed someone.


    ''Still, it''s weird to see this kind of tunnel�� I know that there''s a goblin town above, but if you think about it, I don''t know whether the goblin is capable of making something like this.'' Theo muttered inwardly while looking at his right. ''Besides, themp is not something primitive. It''s running on electricity.


    ''Are the goblins using the equipment of the humans they defeated to make all this? But how? Or it is not the goblin, but rather a human.'' Theo''s body flinched as heined. ''I don''t like where this is going��''


    Theo thought for a moment and used his Metamorphosis to be a red-haired man. This way, the goblins or the humans wouldn''t recognize his face.


    And his fear proved to be correct. After a few minutes of walking, he found the corridor expanded. The room was too spacious for nothing to be there.


    Because of this darkness, he couldn''t see a thing, but he knew there was something here. Rotten smell entered his nose, making Theo want to puke. He even stopped sharing the smell with the main body, so Theo could only see the darkness, hear the silent ce, and feel the touch. Other than that, he had no idea.


    Blinded by the darkness, Theo walked around, and something tripped him.


    "!!!" Theo almost fell down but managed to save himself with his Telekinesis. However, he soon felt the softness of the one tripping him and furrowed his eyebrows. He muttered inwardly to prevent his sound echoing in this room. ''What is this? I can''t see a damn thing. Should I bring it with my Telekinesis?''


    After some considerations, Theo decided to bring it with him using his Telekinesis to float the object. He then continued his exploration in this darkness, unable to see anything.


    This vast room continued for a while until Theo found anothermp in the distance. Without hesitation, Theo approached the light and checked its surroundings, only to find no othermps were on.


    Hence, Theo had a solution and tried to look around themp.


    ''Themp is out of the wall and doesn''t seem to be connected to something. Is it running on battery? If that''s the case, doesn''t this mean humans make this ce? And with the fact that somemps are still on, it''s been abandoned recently.'' Theo thought. ''I should use thismp to go through the huge space again to see what''s going on. And�� that''s right. I still have this object with me.''


    Theo stepped back and used his Telekinesis to bring the object he carried this whole time. He wanted to see what object tripped him, albeit he regretted it soon after.


    When themp illuminated the object, his heart felt heavy because he saw a human''s face. The right eye opened wide and stared at him, but the corpse was losing the left eye as it was reced with maggots. Dried blood was covering the human face as it was so pale that he almost thought it was a zombie.


    Theo couldn''t help but curse out loud. "Holy sh*t!"

 Chapter 591 – Promise

    <h4>Chapter 591 - Promise</h4>


    "Holy sh*t!" Theo immediately leaped back as he was scared. "What did I just see? Am I in a horror movie?"


    The human corpse was wearing a blue shirt and ck pants, covered with a long white coat.


    "Still, clothes like this�� Is this guy a scientist or something? To make ab in this ce, it''s kinda suspicious." Theo frowned and looked around, sensing no presence around him despite letting out his voice.


    His sound kept echoing, but at the very least, he knew there was nothing that would ambush him in this ce.


    Although it was gross, Theo used his Telekinesis to take themp off its hanger and tried to move it around the corpse, wondering if he could gather some information from him.


    Unfortunately, there was nothing in his clothes. Theo had even used his Telekinesis to check his body.


    ''Nothing?'' Theo frowned. ''I think I should go back to where I came from. I mean, exploring further is my main objective, but if I can gather all the lights around here to look around, I should be able to learn something here.''


    With that thought in mind, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly a few inches above the ground while carrying the corpse. The moment he returned to the first corridor, he dropped the corpse and started gathering all themps around him.


    There were a total of sevenmps. Although they were dim, it was still better than nothing, especially since they could illuminate a certain distance together.


    Now that he had prepared for the second exploration, he returned to the big room and was shocked by his discovery.


    "Seriously?" Theo gulped down. The floor seemed to be made of ceramic and the ceiling seemed to be higher than he thought.


    When he looked around, Theo found nothing, so he explored slowly until one of hismps hit something.


    Tak.


    The sound made Theo''s heart skip a beat as he turned around, seeing hismp stopped by some sort of sses.


    Theo immediately moved hismps around the sses and realized it was a cylinder with blue-colored liquid inside it. The tube had a simr size to the hole leading to this tunnel, but nothing was inside.


    He explored every inch of the tube and finally found something when he reached the top of the tube. It was an eyeball. And looking at the size, he thought it was a hobgoblin''s eyeball.


    "What is this��" Theo gulped down. "Have I found something that I shouldn''t have? But the Holy Knight Order will find this sooner orter."


    Theo looked down and started thinking. "I wonder if they abandoned this ce because they knew the Holy Knight Order would find this ce? In that case, that can exin why there''s no electricity here and only somemps are still on. They must have destroyed the data in this ce as well, but why is there a human corpse?


    "Or is the scenario like this�� The humans have made this ce to experiment on the goblins, and it''s a failure, resulting in the goblin storming out of this ce and killing the researchers? Either way, I need to find something in this ce."


    Theo was confused as he couldn''te up with something good because of theck of information. Since he had no idea what was going on, Theo decided to explore the whole ce.


    Still, there was a thought arising in his mind.


    "Wait a minute. Should I let the Holy Knight Order handle this matter? To be honest, I have already stepped past my bound." Theo looked down, wondering what he needed to do.


    Surprisingly, God of Mischief took the matter to his own hand by sending a message.


    [Remember your promise to me.]


    "��" Theo fell silent when he read the notification. "This message�� He wants me to use this ce to create chaos in Italy? But if I do this carelessly, the one who builds this ce will hunt me down. I really need to be careful."


    Theo contemted his choice and sighed. "Well, it''s true that an experimentb like this can create a big chaos in the media. And those who are rted to this experiment won''t have an easy time either. Just by giving this kind of information to an independent media alone is enough, but�� I''m not going to have my hand directly involved in this.


    "And even if the Holy Knight Order finds this, they may only cover it up to avoid their involvement. In fact, the Holy Knight Order may bury this ce to make sure this ce can''t be found. And if I ask the scouts to search this area, they will know I have been here and know what''s going on. It will just risk my life."


    Theo bit his lips as he began formting his n. "Now, what should I do��"


    While Clone Theo was upied with his approach, Theo led the group to the other viges without saying anything regarding the underground facility.


    Because his clone was investigating the facility, he also needed to fight alone without making anyone suspicious. Hence, Theo changed his n and eliminated the goblins at a slower rate. He even emphasized teamwork instead of getting more kills.


    Theo eliminated the goblins with Ava''s help and managed to increase his level three times. Obviously, Agata couldn''tprehend Theo''s change of n and became suspicious.


    Theo only shrugged his shoulders, telling her that he had realized another thing within the group and chose this way. He asked her to trust him, which she did.


    Enrica and Ava were concerned with Theo''s change as well and tried to ask him the reason, but Theo was adamant about keeping it a secret. He promised them that he wouldn''t be ying with their lives.


    Little did they know, Theo was exploring the underground facility with all his might. Unfortunately, he couldn''t continue for long since he would have spent too much Magic Power�� It would be even more suspicious, so he recalled his clone and made a different approach.

 Chapter 592 – Shocked

    <h4>Chapter 592 - Shocked</h4>


    Theo currently stood on top of a boulder, looking at the people using their weapons or power to move the dirt, branches, and a few other small stuff to make an artificial dam.


    They even reinforced it with their skills, making sure this dam could withstand a huge amount of water.


    Of course, it couldn''t bepared to the dams on Earth, but it should be enough to flood the settlement on the bottom of the hill.


    After finishing the dam, they finally rested for tomorrow since the sun was about to set.


    Theo waited for the night to arrive before he created another clone and handed him his night vision and Skylink to take some proofs from the underground facility.


    With the night vision, he also didn''t need to use themp which required his Telekinesis to bring around, so his only problem was the consumption of maintaining his clone, which wasn''t that big of a deal for the current Theo, especially when he didn''t do anything in the camp.


    Ava helped him escape this camp to make sure no one noticed him. He seeded and arrived in front of the hole again.


    Theo jumped without hesitation while putting on his night vision to see in the darkness.


    The moment he arrived at the bottom, he finally saw the real appearance of the tunnel.


    The floor was made of rock and dirt that seemed simr to the material on the walls. He didn''t care much about it because he already knew that the tunnel was for the hobgoblins, so the fifteen-foot ceiling was understandable.


    After a while, Theo returned to the previous spacious room and was stunned by what he found there.


    It turned out the room was bigger than he expected. He couldn''t even see the end of the room with his night vision. The length was more than three hundred feet, so Theo immediately ignored it for the time being and looked at the ones in his surroundings, especially whether the room had cameras or not. He found and confirmed that they were not active, so it would be fine.


    On his left were several tubes he had found earlier. Because the facility had stopped running, all the materials inside were either floating to the top or sinking to the bottom. The materials were body parts, but he also found a human body instead of a goblin body.


    There were also several desks, and he could start approaching them with his night vision. He walked to the right and stared at the desk with a few pieces of paper. He could even find a few devices rted to this facility. Unfortunately, the device waspletely locked and he had no idea how to get the data inside.


    In the end, he gathered it on the side as it might be his ''weapons''ter. After that, he turned to the papers and started reading them.


    As he expected from a research paper, he understood none of them because of many weird terms mentioned in the paper. He continued reading it without much hope, but something picked his attention.


    "The experiment is sessful. We have managed to put human gics inside a goblin''s body. There is an improvement in their intelligence level and their body seems to be bigger. There is a possibility ofbining two gics together, especially with the goblin''s body because it has the most universal gene."


    "What the heck?" Theo widened his eyes and his body started shaking. "Combining human and goblin''s genes? Was this the reason why the hobgoblin could use some tricks to trap me? Enrica also told me that the hobgoblin was far stronger than usual. But after fighting for a whole day, I didn''t see normal goblins that seemed to be stronger��"


    Theo raised his vision and looked at some papers lying around. Although he couldn''t get all the data from the device, he could still learn something with those papers, so he steeled his resolve in investigating this matter.


    To his surprise, he found even more absurd things as he made his way to the other side.


    "The goblin is determined to have the most universal gene as it can fuse with lots of different genes."


    "The sess rate ofbining a goblin and an eagle is eighty percent."


    "Every time the goblin receives another gene, they will start evolving to a hobgoblin."


    "Thebination process between a goblin and a Mera Wolf has seeded. It increases the goblin''s speed and some wolf fur seems to start growing on the goblin''s body."


    "There is a possibility of using the goblin gene to make an interspecies birth. The human may be able to get a natural night vision by mixing a cat''s gene and a human''s gene into an embryo. The goblin gene will assemble the genes and make them in harmony."


    He couldn''t help but think about the mix of a human and a cat. The picture in his mind was a female with cat ears and tail, but he soon shook that thought off as it was nothing but fantasy. He came up with another more realistic image. It was a man with a cat''s head and a human body covered with a cat''s fur. He was ugly and would be stuck with that kind of body for the rest of his life which was awful.


    However, he soon found something he couldn''t ignore.


    "We have managed tobine five genes at the same time to this goblin. He has evolved drastically from a normal goblin to a hobgoblin before bing a goblin king. It''s possible to raise a powerful army of goblin kings that are stronger than the normal goblin kings."


    "This goblin may be a special one because no other goblin has seeded, but the possibility is there. The level 400 goblin has be a level 500 hobgoblin. After that, he evolves once again to a level 600 goblin king. This may be the evolution process of a Normal ss monster to Rare ss to General ss."


    "The power of the goblin king with five genes inside his body is astonishing. He can easily fight a level 650 monster and equal to a level 700 monster. His five aspects are powerful as well. If we continue this research, there is a possibility of creating a goblin that has the power of a Mythical Rank Expert."


    When he reached this point, Theo couldn''t help but shout. "Are you freaking kidding me?"

 Chapter 593 – Trust

    <h4>Chapter 593 - Trust</h4>


    "Are you freaking kidding me?" Theo snapped. "A level 600 monster with the strength of a level 700? And he''s a General ss on top of that? If we''re fighting this creature, we will be wiped out. I don''t think Loris can handle this monster. ording to the information, Loris is only a level 634 Magic Warrior.


    "I have confidence that Loris can fight a level 700 monster, but it should be a Normal ss monster, not a General ss. Such an opponent can only be brought down by someone at the same level or a Mythical Rank Expert�� And this is my first mission."


    Theo facepalmed and shook his head helplessly. "Should I postpone the idea of going to the goblin settlement? In that case, how are they gonna react? The Holy Knight Order wants to finish the entire mission in two days, so I don''t think it''s possible to postpone the mission.


    "In that case, I should tell them about this. But this also makes me a potential target because they know I''ve been here. Well, who can I trust?" Theo clicked his tongue. "It''s not like I can suddenly abandon this mission. And if there''s a survivor, I will be fucked up."


    He seriously had no idea how to finish this mission safely.


    After a while, Theo shook his head and muttered, "I should continue searching first to get more evidence."


    As Clone Theo continued his investigation, the real Theo was sitting next to Ava, Agata, and Enrica.


    Theo sighed and nced at Agata and Enrica. "Actually, I want to ask the two of you one question. How much do you trust me in this mission?"


    Agata and Enrica were startled by his random question.


    "Ehm, what?" Agata tilted her head in confusion. "I must have heard the wrong question."


    "That''s the question. I hope I can get an answer from you two."


    Agata looked down for a moment and answered with a genuine expression. "To be honest, although I''m interested in you, I can''t say I fully trust you yet. However, if we use numbers here, I guess it''s around eighty percent."


    Enrica rubbed her cheeks gently and said, "Close to fifty percent, I guess? I don''t n to follow your decision unless I know the reason. If it''s logical, of course, I will, without hesitation."


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and said, "If I say I don''t want to continue this mission, will you go back with me?"


    "The reason?" Agata asked.


    "I can''t say."


    "No." Enrica shook her head.


    "I will��" Agata answered with a hesitant tone.


    Seeing the two had different answers, Theo realized what would happen after this.


    "Is there something troubling you, Theo? This is not like you at all." Agata was worried.


    "I just feel like all hobgoblins are stronger than usual even though the normal goblins are not. It bothers me." Theo sighed. "You should know that the main settlement should have several times the number of the viges we have visited until now, right?"


    "You''re saying there''s a chance that we may fail this mission because of this?" Enrica furrowed her eyebrows.


    "No, I think he means their strength is beyond our imagination because their strength increases ording to their number. And it''s not something we can deal with." Agata exined.


    "Yeah, that''s what I mean by failing the mission."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Unfortunately, we can''t." Enrica shook her head. "There are hostages and our priority is to save the hostages. Letting them die without even giving it a go is impossible. If you''re worried about their strength, we can make a swift sweep just to rescue hostages and leave."


    Theo clutched his head and sighed. "This is bothering me�� I am someone who always calctes the worst situation. What if they''re stronger than my imagination and we can''t escape? Lorenzo was supposed toe here if I chose the Star Group instead of the War God Family. With him, I have confidence that you all can escape. But with me here��"


    "Maybe you''re overestimating the enemies a little bit?" Agata tried to stroke his back, trying to calm him down. She was worried about Theo''s mental state as this was the first time she saw him like this. Even when he fought a level 400 Ground Dragon, Theo didn''t show any fear. And back then, he was only a level 250 fighter.


    At the same time, she felt Theo was hiding some information and he wouldn''t tell her anything about it. Just like her eighty percent trust, Theo must have some degree of trust, so she knew it was impossible to know the information.


    "How about you rest a little bit?" Agata asked. "Maybe a good night''s sleep will help you refresh your mind."


    Agata tried to help him up to bring him to his tent.


    Theo thought for a moment and shook his head. "Nah, I''m fine. I should have expected that you wouldn''t trust me that much. I feel like abandoning this mission already."


    "��" Agata closed her eyes for a moment and asked, "Before thinking about abandoning the mission, how about you tell us what you actually want to do in case we continue��"


    "I want reinforcement�� At least a few more people at Loris'' level. Until theye here, we''re just going to destroy some threats around the area. That''s all." Theo sighed.


    Agata fell silent for a moment while Enrica said, "The hostages will die at that time."


    "I respect your religion and kindness, but I have been surviving this whole time with this mindset. I don''t want to be rude, but I don''t really care about strangers'' lives that much. For me, my life is more important." Theo shook his head. "If the Holy Knight Order wants to die, I hope you don''t drag me with you."


    "That''s quite harsh��" Agata looked down and turned to Enrica. "But I think it''s worth consideration."


    Enrica couldn''t give any decision and said, "I handle the church as the whole, but in this scenario, the one who takes care of the group is Loris."


    With that answer, Theo stood up and walked to Loris, who was gathering all the captains.


    Loris noticed him and his grim expression.


    When Theo arrived, all eyes were on him�� After a moment of suspense, Theo said, "We need to talk."

 Chapter 594 – Disappointment

    <h4>Chapter 594 - Disappointment</h4>


    "We need to talk." His words silenced the entire group.


    Even Loris didn''t expect Theo toe to have a serious talk.


    "I won''t beat around the bush. I want you to inform the church to bring reinforcement. If possible, there should be a few people at your level here along with a few more squads. While we''re waiting for reinforcement, I suggest we''re clearing all the settlements except the main one."


    "Huh? Isn''t that going to make us wait for at least six days?" Loris looked down, contemting Theo''s choice.


    Suddenly, the same young man, who greeted him when he first arrived at the camp, stood up and shouted in displeasure. "We''re here to help people. Are you trying to kill those people?!"


    "I am trying to prevent an idiot like you from dying," said Theo with a calm tone.


    However, his words were clearly an insult, and the young man didn''t take it well. He rushed to Theo and grabbed his cor, screaming, "Who do you think you are? Do you think just because you are from the War God Family, you can easily insult us?"


    "This is why I''m calling you an idiot�� Why is foolishness not included in seven deadly sins��" Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "You bas��"


    He wanted to punch him, but Theo stopped him while saying, "You should know that the moment you punch me, that means you forfeit your life."


    Suddenly, he felt killing intent from his shoulder. When he turned his head, he saw Ava standing on top of his shoulder, staring at him. Her eyes were red and filled with bloodlust. The moment he did something to Theo, Ava didn''t mind destroying his neck.


    The tension rose even higher as Agata couldn''t help bute and shout, "Please stop! I think Theo''s suggestion is worth consideration. For me, it''s better for fifty people to survive and destroy all the goblin settlement than the whole group being wiped out."


    "However, there is still the fact that we can destroy them, survive, and save the hostages. Isn''t this his job?" The young man was still not convinced and denied Agata''s im.


    "He''s clearly doing his job and telling you the result." Agata shook her head.


    Before the situation escted even further, Loris stopped them. "I am thankful for your thoughts, but I can''t ept your suggestion. There is a time you need to continue even with such a harsh situation. Besides, haven''t you given the current n on how to rescue them?


    "As I already said yesterday, my priority is to rescue the hostages because this is our job. Just think about firefighters suppressing fire and rescuing trapped people in a building�� They are risking their lives because it''s necessary. Or maybe you can think of us as a soldier that needs to go to war to help people even though we know that we can die at any moment.


    "That''s why�� I am grateful for your consideration, but we still need to continue." Loris calmly exined that even though he understood the risk, he couldn''t ept Theo''s suggestion.


    Theo clicked his tongue and said, "You''re dragging me into this��"


    "I am, but it''s also your fault for epting the mission." Loris raised his hands in defeat. "Besides, you chose to take the job because you were confident, right? And due to the War God Family''s credibility and your reputation are on the line, you will need to see this through."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Just to make you aware that I won''t hesitate to abandon you all, especially because I have given you the warning."


    "I understand that. In fact, I can make you a written statement that you have done your duty and it''s my choice that screws you over. That written statement will be effective if we''re defeated." Loris offered a solution for Theo. "However, if you receive this written statement, I would like to ask for your full cooperation."


    Theo gritted his teeth, not liking this situation. He was cursing inwardly, ''I am trying to save your lives from a powerful goblin king. Should I just give them the information? No, even if I can deal with the situation now, the record will follow and my future will be in danger. On the other hand, if they''re buried here, I will be safe because they only know this is my spection after looking at all these hobgoblins.


    ''To be honest, I prefer the second one or��'' Theo suddenly came up with a brilliant idea, and he didn''t need to rely on all these people.


    After contemting a few things, Theo turned around and said, "This is your decision. I hope you don''t regret it. I will need that written statement tomorrow."


    "Okay." Loris nodded with a serious expression. "Is there any change in our n?"


    "No." The moment he answered that question, Theo returned to his position.


    Agata was worried about Theo, so she followed him and asked, "Theo�� Is there something wrong with this mission?"


    Without no one noticing, Ava was already standing on top of Theo''s shoulder, listening to Theo''s worry.


    "I am afraid there will be big trouble." Theo sighed. "To be honest, I have one piece of advice for you. Leave this ce."


    "This�� I am afraid I can''t do that. I was the one suggesting this mission to Enrica and she took care of the process and handed it to the pope. If we both left, there would be a huge consequence."


    "Why are you even doing this for me�� I mean, I can understand that, but there is a limit to doing things like this. And it''s not like our rtionship is that close." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "I have thought about it as well, especially after those words you told me in Thernd. I just want to believe that my choice is not wrong." Agata looked up with a sad smile. "With my appearance, I have experienced some bad things. And after listening to you, I feel like I have an answer.


    "I�� don''t n on bing an essory to make a man shine. Even if this is a path filled with regret, at the very least, this is the path I have chosen myself." She raised her hand and clutched it as if trying to reach the sky.


    Theo nced at her for a moment and opened his mouth. "Do you��"


    Theo paused, making Agata curious. "What is it?"


    "Nah, it''s not the time to say that." Theo shook his head. "Just want to say this one thing�� Trust me in this mission�� Please."

 Chapter 595 – Trade

    <h4>Chapter 595 - Trade</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo continuedmanding the Holy Knight Order to deal with all the settlements west to the main camp. This would be their ce to start the attack, so they made sure not a single goblin would hit them from behind.


    During the whole day, Theo never used his clone and no one knew the reason. Fortunately, the n seeded and the group took over the area in no time.


    During the night, Theo sat down, away from everyone because he didn''t like them anymore. Seeing him sitting alone, Agata approached him and asked, "Theo, what are you doing here? I know that the previous conversation ruined it a bit, but you don''t need to be this far you know."


    Theo nced at her and said, "Nah, it''s fine. I am not nning to get along with them."


    "Is that so? Do you mind if I sit here then?"


    "Actually, I have a favor." Theo''s face became serious as he looked at Agata.


    Agata slightly squinted her eyes and nodded. "Let me hear it."


    The night continued without a problem and they were preparing to hit the goblins in the main settlement. However, everything changed when the sun rose.


    A female magician hurriedly rushed to the camp while saying, "This is bad!"


    Her voice took everyone''s attention as Loris approached her and asked, "What happened?"


    "The dam�� The dam is empty!"


    "What?!" Loris took a step back in disbelief. He looked at her expression that seemed to tell no lie and said, "Are you sure?"


    "Yes. Please go to the hill right now."


    Loris brought everyone to climb the hill as they wanted to check whether what she said was true or not. And the moment they arrived, they couldn''t believe the effort of the water magician filling the dam together with the water source had disappeared. The dam was empty as if all the water had just evaporated.


    "What is happening here?" Loris screamed in despair. "Where is the water? Who did this? If we don''t have this dam, we can''t attack them."


    While Loris wasmenting, the others seemed to have another idea about the culprit.


    "You bastard!" The young man rushed toward him and grabbed his cor, ring at him. "Enough is enough! You''re just toying with everyone''s life here!"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion as if he didn''t do something. "What do you mean? Why are you using me? Why don''t you start asking your teammates questions too?"


    "It''s obvious you''re the culprit." The young man gritted his teeth.


    "You should watch out for your words." Theo squinted his eyes. "There is also a possibility of someone trying to frame me because of that discussion. Seeing your reaction, their n is certainly sessful because it''s easy to manipte an idiot like you."


    They all looked at Theo with the same doubt but were stopped by Agata.


    "You need proof before using someone. I don''t understand and wonder whether I''ve truly grown up together with the Holy Knight Order or not. What I know about the Holy Knight Order is that all of you are elites who are not easily taunted by the enemies." Agata sighed.


    "It''s obvious that he''s the culprit!"


    "Shut up!" Agata narrowed her eyes as she raised her voice. "He is with me the entire night and you''re expecting me to believe you? If you''re using him, why don''t you use me too? I am also the culprit this way."


    "N-No." The young man was stunned when he saw Agata protecting Theo.


    "As Theo said, there is a chance that someone is manipting everything in the shadow." Enrica put a stop to this conflict and turned to Loris. "How about we postpone one more day and increase the security in this area? Only after we''re about to attack them that we go down this hill and attack them?"


    Loris looked down, contemting his choices. After a while, Loris nodded. "I shall agree. The dam is our main attack, so we can''t really expect to attack them without it. Half of us may even die to rescue the hostages, so we will wait for another day."


    "Okay. I will give the arrangement to you." Enrica nodded.


    Theo snorted and grabbed the young man''s hands before pushing him back. "Fuck off!"


    "You''re hiring me as a tactician, yet, you don''t even trust me." Theo turned around and left in anger while saying sarcastically. "Thanks for the treatment."


    Theo showed his anger openly because he didn''t like to be used anymore.


    Agata looked at them for a moment before following Theo and shaking her head in disappointment.


    Seeing their reactions, Enrica facepalmed and wondered how she should deal with this. Even her best friend was disappointed in the treatment.


    "Anyway, I am here as the third supervisor and helper to make sure everything goes well. My teacher�� The pope has given me some instructions. First of all, I am going to reform the group and a few people. Then, I will handle this problem." Enrica turned to Loris. "You''re going to set the personnel to take care of the dam."


    "Understood." Loris nodded.


    Enrica then started dealing with the Holy Knight Order to the point she didn''t return for a whole day. When the night came, Enrica apologized for the sudden usation to Theo and thetter said he didn''t wish to meet other people anymore except when he needed to direct them on the battlefield, which was understandable.


    The next day came swiftly as they barely dealt with the previous mess. The group went down the hill ording to the n.


    While they were preparing to fight the main settlement, another Theo had returned to the other side, right next to the gate. He took out his Skylink and called someone.


    "Hello, Theo? It''s weird for you to call me. Do you need something?"


    "I have a favor."


    "Oh? I''m interested. Tell me."


    "I need your expertise."


    "Ah, you want me to teleport you to a ce? Sure thing! There''s no need to call it a favor. When do you need me?"


    "Now. I''m next to the gate."


    "Got it. On my way! Let''s have a drink after this."


    "Okay. Thank you so much, Lorenzo." Theo smiled.


    After that, Lorenzo hung up, and Theo called another number.


    "Why are you calling me? You''re supposed to be on a mission, right? It''s too fast for you to return�� Did something happen?"


    "Yes." Theo thought for a moment. He couldn''t really say this request tantly because the other party shouldn''t be helping him, so Theo changed his approach. "Sir Leonardo, are you interested in a trade?"

 Chapter 596 – Appearance

    <h4>Chapter 596 - Appearance</h4>


    On the other side, Loris led the group to a spot nearby the main goblin settlement.


    "This is going to be a swift operation. ording to our scouts, there are ten hostages we need to rescue. We have no confirmation about the Goblin King, but there are at least a thousand goblins inside. We will use the water as a distraction and kill them one by one and rescue the hostage. After making sure they''re okay, we will kill the goblins. Understood?" Loris briefed them for onest time.


    All eight captains nodded their heads while Theo rolled his eyes, not caring about the operation. They didn''t seem to believe him anymore, so why would he care about the briefing?


    He had decided to only respond to them when the situation needed him, which was on the battlefield.


    Loris saw the anger on the eight captains but ignored it because when he fought the Goblin King, he couldn''t take care of the squads. So, he tolerated Theo''s behavior as long as he couldmand themter.


    He had recognized Theo''s ability in the past two days after all.


    "Alright. Since we have agreed��" Loris looked at the watch on his wrist and said, "Let''s advance."


    With hismand, the group marched silently through the woods, approaching the settlement.


    As expected, the goblins didn''t erect a wall around them, making their ce easier to raid.


    Since there were so many goblins around, they had expected they wouldn''t be able to infiltrate their camp without getting found out. So, rather than giving them a chance to spot them, they just made the biggest entrance possible, trying to put the settlement into chaos.


    Loris and Filbert stood next to each other as they raised their hands simultaneously. The two guys exchanged looks and nodded.


    Soon, Loris'' sword began to glow in golden light while Filbert''s hand had a simr shine.


    "Saint Hand." Filbert''s glowing hand was projected above him and expanded to fifty times of Filbert''s big body.


    "Saint Sword." Loris also did the same and projected his sword, matching Filbert''s Saint Hand.


    Surprisingly, Filbert''s hand grabbed Loris'' Saint Sword as they marched forward.


    "Attack!"


    They ran toward the goblins whilemanding them to follow right behind.


    "Kroark!" The goblins noticed them and informed the others, though they were toote.


    The Saint Hand waved the Saint Sword horizontally, cutting everything in the front. The tent was torn and the goblins were split into two.


    "Kroark!"


    "Kroak."


    "Kroor."


    The goblins alerted the others while witnessing how a single sh could kill fifteen goblins. And another sh wasing to them.


    With another swing, they killed another twenty goblins as they continued marching inside the settlement.


    Some goblins were smart enough to duck down or jump up to avoid the shes and rush to them, but twelve knights arrived next to them and mmed their shields, stopping all of them. After that, another twelve Holy Knights appeared and cut them down.


    "Attack!"


    The goblins started noticing what was happening. The settlement soon became chaotic because they kept screaming to inform the others.


    "Kroar!"


    The goblins started charging at them, trying to kill them.


    However, the group kept pushing forward, not caring about their attacks.


    Some hobgoblins even made their way to stop the group.


    "Kroar!" The hobgoblins roared and raised their weapons.


    The Saint Sword moved again and mmed the hobgoblins. The Saint Sword was obviously stronger than their weapons as they snapped their weapons and sliced their bodies. It was aplete wreck.


    Filbert and Loris showed the group how easy they could take down the hobgoblins. Although it was due to theirbination techniques and a huge gap in their level, their action motivated the Holy Knight Order to continue raising their level.


    And they did it while pushing through the enemy''s rank, revealing what they could do as Supreme Rank Experts.


    Obviously, the Holy Knights loved the show and swore to be Supreme Rank themselves.


    Theo, on the other hand, followed them from behind closely, refraining from using his Magic Power for the time being. He only used his Magic Bullets and attacked the goblins from a distance.


    Even Agata chose to summon some throwing weapons to attack the goblins.


    Just like usual, they found several corpses around and ignored them for the time being as they set their priority to rescue the hostages. They would give them a proper burialter.


    After a minute, they reached the middle of the main camp, where they found a huge cage made of ck-colored metals.


    The bars between the cages seemed big enough for a human to slip out, but all ten humans, four males and six females, weren''t even trying to escape.


    They were naked and simply sat down while staring nkly into the space. Some had tears on the corner of their eyes, some had red, moist eyes, and some even had dark circles under their eyes.


    Their bodies were full of blood mixed with some white-colored liquid.


    "There it is!" Loris shouted loud enough for the people in the cage to hear them.


    Three of them turned their heads but didn''t say anything. They simply turned their vision back to the ground.


    "Let''s go rescue them first and leave this ce. Prepare the signal for the flood as well." Lorismanded his Holy Knights to get ready as he nned to swing the Saint Sword to cut the cage, allowing them to move in.


    The situation seemed to be under control as they advanced pretty quickly toward the cage, but everything changed when a giant sickle attached to a chain flew toward the Saint Sword.


    The sickle seemed to be poorly made, but the green-colored energy that covered it was overwhelming.


    As soon as it touched the Saint Sword, a powerful sh of energy shook the battlefield. The confrontation caused a shock wave that blew all the tents away and stopped Filbert and Loris on their track.


    They all looked at the tent where the sickle came from and noticed a powerful killing intent emanating from the tent in front of them.


    A green-colored hand suddenly reached the tent side as a ten-foot-tall shadow shed inside the dark tent.

 Chapter 597 – Trap

    <h4>Chapter 597 - Trap</h4>


    The shadow figure was gradually revealed.


    The monster itself had a simr height and body build like that of a hobgoblin. It had a pair of sharp silver eyes, looking very different from other goblins or hobgoblins.


    His body was covered with a leather vest and pants. However, unlike any hobgoblins, there was a pair of ck wings behind him along with blue fur that covered his arms and knees.


    "There it is, the Goblin King," Loris muttered as he raised his guard, preparing to do everything he needed to kill the Goblin King. "Fire!"


    Upon that shout, the lightning magician shot his lightning to the sky and let it explode, signaling to the others that stayed near the dam to destroy it.


    And it was sessful as they heard a loud explosion followed by rumbling soundsing from the hill.


    The water was pummeling all the woods on their way. It rushed down and would soon hit them.


    "Now!" Loris shouted again as he jumped toward the Goblin King and waved his sword downwards, trying to pin him down.


    The Goblin King opened his right hand as a ck-colored de made of ck me formed and hit Loris'' de.


    In the meantime, Filbert waved his hand from the other side, striking the cage from the other side with the Saint Sword. This sh managed to cut the cage.


    The Saint Hand let go of the sword and raised the top of the cage before throwing it away, allowing the hostages to escape.


    "Go!" Filbertmanded out loud as he hurriedly moved to the Goblin King, trying to stop him from doing anything to the Holy Knights.


    As expected, all of them hurriedly stormed the cage, grabbed the hostages, and leaped away.


    On the other hand, the goblins were panicking when they saw the water rushing in their direction. They all knew they might not be able to survive if they stayed here. The best they could do was to run.


    The Holy Knight Orders took advantage of this situation and regrouped with Theo and the others.


    Suddenly, a huge wall made of dirt emerged from the ground. It was so tall that they could easily see it above the trees. Surprisingly, the wall itself created a nt to the side, so the moment the water hit it, they would be redirected to the left and right, preventing any harm to the settlement.


    "What?!" All of them, including Loris, widened their eyes in shock.


    "Someone is helping the enemy to prevent that water? Is it human or a Goblin Shaman?" Loris sucked a cold breath as he finally realized that Theo''s fear had be a reality.


    The goblin seemed to have seen iting and prepared to go against them. So, the moment they attacked this settlement and failed, they would be trapped in the middle of the goblin''s settlement, surrounded by a thousand goblins.


    "This is a trap?" Loris made a shaky smile as his face became pale. "No. It''s not a trap!"


    Loris formed the Saint Sword on top of his head and waved it down, striking the Goblin King. "As long as I kill you, this trap will be useless."


    The Goblin King also expanded his sword and struck Loris'' Saint Sword, resulting in a shock wave that took everyone''s attention.


    During that time, the Goblin King also roared. "Kroark!"


    All the goblins heard his order and swarmed the Holy Knights.


    "You won''t be getting what you want!" Loris clenched his sword as hard as possible and tried to win the exchange. At the same time, he also shouted to Filbert. "Help the kids before whoever casts the dirt wall arrives!"


    Filbert nodded and raised both hands this time. His two palms were projected around him as he swept the goblins from the right side. "Go away!"


    He pushed them together beforeunching them into the air. After that, Filbert said, "Handle the other two directions."


    Seeing such a situation, Theo couldn''t help butmand the group. "We''re going to retreat. Half of the group will hold those from our left side and the rest will break through to where wee from. We''re leaving this ce."


    Theo still maintained his cool expression as he could simply escape by using his Blink and Telekinesis. However, he could only bring Ava and one more person out due to the limitation of his Blink.


    Their bodies were trembling when they heard Theo''s order. It was clear that Theo had been warning them about the potential of this situation, yet, they brushed it off, thinking Theo was overestimating the goblins.


    Now that they were in this situation, they had no one to me other than themselves. Having no solution in the crisis, they could only do what they were told with regret reflected on their faces.


    Theo ignored them and simply reassessed their current predicament. He needed to think quickly before the Goblin King killed Loris.


    Obviously, all of them still thought there was a chance amidst the chaos because they could rely on Filbert and Loris to escape.


    Unfortunately for them, their hope was shattered before their eyes when they heard a loud sound next to them.


    Bam.


    The sound turned out to be Loris crashing to the ground next to them. His left hand was severed by the Goblin King.


    "Kh!" Loris gritted his teeth and said, "That guy is a monster. His strength far surpasses a level 600 monster. He is close to a peak Supreme Rank Expert, no, he''s close to the Mythical Rank already."


    When Filbert heard that statement, he stopped for a second before raising both of his hands to catch a flying boulder that came out of nowhere.


    He was pushed back and clenched his fists, looking at the approaching goblin.


    Although this goblin wasn''t as big as the Goblin King, it wore a long robe that magicians usually used. At the same time, he raised both hands as boulders began to form on top of his palms, ready to strike Filbert again.


    The Goblin King finally opened his mouth and spoke in a humannguage. "Foolish humans. Prepare to face your retribution! This is��"


    "��Despair!"

 Chapter 598 – Despair

    <h4>Chapter 598 - Despair</h4>


    "Despair!" The moment he said this word, his shadow rose and covered his body like that of a me. His arms, legs, body, and head werepletely hidden with this ominous ck shadow. His bloodshot eyes were emanating killing intent and anger.


    Even the goblins couldn''t help but stop for a second, feeling his aura.


    "Since you''re here, you will feel what it feels like to be tortured to death." The Goblin King''s words carried so much hate. And only Theo could understand him.


    The Goblin King was a guinea pig. The experiment must have given him pain on a daily basis. Now that he had freed himself, it was his time to take revenge and let them feel the same pain as he did.


    "Go!" Theo''s Magic Bullets looped around the goblins and surrounded him from all directions, hitting his skins or even the shadow.


    Boom.


    The Holy Knights immediately shouted and started doing their jobs, fending off the goblins while killing some to make a small pathway to break through this encirclement.


    "Take your damn blindfold off right now!" Theo shouted while pointing at Enrica.


    She took it off without hesitation and opened her eyes to witness the entire situation.


    She saw the Goblin King marching toward Loris and trying to slice him, but Filbert came in his way and grabbed his de with his Saint Hands, stopping it.


    The Goblin Shaman didn''t take this lightly and summoned another boulder to hit him from the side, so his king could sh both of them.


    Enrica raised her hand and formed another shield next to Filbert, blocking the boulder.


    However, as one would expect from a Supreme Rank Monster''s attack, the shield soon cracked.


    When it was about to shatter it into pieces, Theo appeared next to the boulder and hit it with his palm. "Magic Power Expansion."


    Bam.


    The boulder flew back to the goblins and crashed some of them.


    Not only that, the situation had started to change when they heard a loudmotioning from the escape route.


    Boom.


    Water started spreading in the camp before a bolt of lightning struck it. The lightning dispersed and electrocuted the goblins.


    Unfortunately, it wasn''t strong enough to kill the goblins, or the group would have escaped. Even then, it was enough for the scouts and assassins to appear around those goblins and kill them in one hit as the goblins were too numb to even move.


    "We''re here!" They shouted while panicking, realizing the situation was worse than their imagination.


    "!!!" All of them noticed and turned around, seeing the assassins and scouts securing the escape route.


    "Although it''s narrow, work together with the assassins, magicians, and scouts to escape!" Theo shouted.


    They obviously immediately followed his instruction as it was their only chance to escape.


    Observing how Theo''s words could influence all these people, the Goblin King realized he might be themander. Out of all people, Theo was the one that needed to be killed first.


    Hence, he pulled his sword and kicked Filbert on the stomach, blowing him away. That giant body ended up hitting Loris, resulting in both of them crashing together.


    After that, the Goblin King appeared in front of him.


    Noticing that his vision turned dark due to the shadow of the Goblin King''s giant body, Theo raised his head and saw the deing to him.


    He was hit, but there was nothing there because Theo had used his Blink at thest second to appear behind the Goblin King.


    "Magic Augmentation." Theo took a deep breath, formed a spear with his Magic Power, and thrust his spear on his back, trying to injure the Goblin King.


    As one would expect from a monster that was close to Mythical Rank, Theo''s movement was simply too slow and not strong enough.


    Before the spear touched the Goblin King''s back, his body was already sliced into two from below.


    It turned out the Goblin King controlled its shadow to form a de from the ground to cut him.


    Despite dying, Theo still smiled until his body disappeared, revealing a colossal Magic Bullet behind.


    Theo didn''t use his Magic Augmentation to increase the power of his spear. Instead, he used it on his Magic Bullet and shot the Goblin King.


    Boom.


    The big Magic Bullet exploded and engulfed the Goblin King, albeit it didn''t even leave a single scratch on its body.


    Theo couldn''t help but say, "Seriously? I guess this is normal��"


    The Goblin King was pissed off and shouted, "Kill them."


    As if responding to the Goblin King''s order, the shaman raised his hand as a ck aura started hovering around his body. It rose like a pir before dispersing to the surroundings.


    "Argh!"


    "Kya!"


    "Noo!"


    A series of screams echoed in everyone''s ears. It was filled with pain, despair, and fear.


    Theo couldn''t help but look around when he noticed that all the hostages they rescued were clutching their heads on the ground as if experiencing tremendous pain.


    Tears and saliva kept flowing out as they started banging their heads to the ground and didn''t stop when they bled.


    Obviously, some of the Holy Knights were trying to calm them down and believed they needed to bring them back.


    "Grand Light!" Enrica pped her hands as a golden light enveloped all these people. However, those people didn''t calm down as if the Grand Light had no effect.


    At the same time, their bodies began to turn pale and ck spots started covering their body.


    "Not good!" Enrica seemed to have seen something she shouldn''t have and stopped the light. A golden shield appeared in her front as she shouted. "Protect yourself!"


    Some of them managed to react to her shout, but some didn''t realize what was happening. The ten hostages started decaying before their bodies exploded at the same time, engulfing some Holy Knights and the goblins.


    Those who didn''t manage to put up their guards died or were severely injured, with at least one part of their body disappearing.


    "Argh!" More screams echoed as they felt the excruciating pain due to the explosions.


    More and more people fell into despair as they realized their fate might end up like those hostages�� raped, tortured, and eventually dead.


    Agata was gritting her teeth and looked at Theo, who maintained his calm expression. In fact, Theo was the only one who didn''t stop looking for a chance to escape this whole time.


    Agata didn''t say anything since Theo told her to trust him.


    The Goblin King roared once again as he pointed at his de toward all of them. "I already said�� This is what you humans have shown me. And now, I will show you the despair!"

 Chapter 599 – Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 599 - Reinforcement</h4>


    Theo fell silent as he looked around. The situation had truly be a mess.


    Enrica couldn''t help but shout, "Theo! We need a solution."


    That shout rmed the Goblin King and Goblin Shaman as they managed to locate the real Theo in an instant.


    "Killing him will make them fall deeper into despair." The Goblin King pointed at Theo while forming another sword on his hand, preparing to kill Theo.


    Agata couldn''t help but step forward, realizing they would lose without Theo. Rather than getting tortured after they captured her, she preferred to die while protecting Theo.


    "Ha!" Loris stood up and charged at the Goblin King, waving his sword. The Saint Sword moved from the right while his real sword hit him from the left.


    The Goblin King saw this and summoned two swords, striking Loris'' swords at the same time.


    Filbert also helped him by summoning two palms from the ground, trying to punch him. But before he could touch him, the shaman hit him with the boulder.


    Bam.


    Filbert gritted his teeth and withstood its weight. He didn''t even budge despite his right arm being crushed and started bleeding on one side.


    Filbert then used that chance to punch the Goblin King and flipped him upside down.


    Loris used this chance to m his sword down and push the Goblin King to the ground, pinning him down. "Go! It''s time for you to escape."


    "Theo!" Enrica shouted at Theo again as thetter hadn''t even moved from his position.


    Suddenly, Theo ced his hand on Agata''s shoulder, surprising her. Her head turned to Theo and thetter gently pushed her to the side, making him the focus of the Goblin King again.


    He stared at Loris and the Goblin King. "I had given you my suggestions, but you brushed it off because it was your job. Well, yeah, your job was indeed to send people to death."


    Theo was reminding him of his warning even though he needed to leave right now.


    ''You''re talking about it now?'' Even Agata couldn''t help but say inwardly with an awkward face.


    Enrica had a sour face as she wanted to beat Theo up. It wasn''t the time to talk about their grudges because their lives were on the line.


    Filbert had no word to say as he just wondered why youngsters these days talked about something like this in a life and death situation. After all, the longer they waited, the more they were at a disadvantage.


    Loris shouted in frustration. "I know that already. I was wrong! Hurry up and take the Saintess and Miss Agata out of here!"


    Unfortunately, after he finished his words, the Goblin King formed a few spikes with his shadow, forcing Loris to step to the right. After that, the Goblin King hit his sword and blew him away.


    "Kh!" Loris crashed into the tent while Filbert tried to stop them.


    However, the first one to make a move was none other than the shaman. He summoned a huge boulder and released it like a bullet. Its target was none other than Theo.


    Stopping something like this might heavily injure him, but Theo stood without even putting his guard up.


    Right before the boulder hit Theo, a figure emerged in front of Theo, and the next second, the boulder split into two and passed him, Ava, and Agata.


    "Huft." The shadow let out a sigh of relief while smiling. "Seriously. You''re truly nasty. To use me to block something like this��"


    All of them were shocked when they heard that voice. It was a very familiar voice because the person was famous in Italy.


    Agata, Enrica, or even Loris widened their eyes, not believing who just appeared out of nowhere.


    "Haha, sorry, sorry. I will be buying the drinkter�� Even though I don''t drink."


    "Just y some simtion games with meter."


    "Okay�� Lorenzo." Theo smiled.


    Yes. The one who stopped the boulder was none other than the current number one of the War God Family''s younger generation, Lorenzo.


    "Where is he?" Theo asked.


    "He��" Before Lorenzo finished his words, the Goblin King formed a spear made of shadow and threw it to Lorenzo and Theo. "Shut up, outsider! Since you havee here, I will send you to hell."


    The spear flew at a faster speed than the boulder, but another shadow formed and became armor wielding a giant shield.


    The shield blocked the spear as the shock wave shook the battlefield. The sh continued for a few seconds before the spear disappeared.


    "That armor��" Enrica widened her eyes, recognizing the skill.


    Even Agata dropped her jaw in surprise as an aged voice echoed in their ears. It wasn''t loud but somehow reached everyone.


    "I don''t need you to teach my grandkids."


    They tried to look around as they wondered where the man was.


    Suddenly, their eyes were locked on a figure standing on top of the armor''s shoulder, looking down on them.


    "War Saint." Enrica frowned while clenching her fists.


    "Sir Leonardo." Agata''s heart skipped a beat. She recalled what Theo did the past few days and gulped down, thinking, ''I see. His clone never appeared this whole time because he was bringing a reinforcement.''


    Theo smiled and felt her gaze. He winked at her and said, "I already said, trust me."


    Agata couldn''t reply as her feelings were mixed up. She knew Theo decided to take the matter to his own hand because the Holy Knight Order couldn''t be trusted anymore.


    On the other hand, Leonardo opened his mouth again. "And you all from the church�� My War God Family has given you one of the best strategists in our family, yet, you don''t even trust him. Tell Fran��the pope I need an exnation and a reimbursement.


    "For now, I will take over this ce and no one other than my War God Family members can go around this ce, including the Holy Knight Order. If he doesn''t like my decision, I don''t mind fighting him." Leonardo snorted and turned to the Goblin King. "That aside, I need to kill some pests first."


    He wrapped the Goblin King in his killing intent as a white armor with a giant de on his hands appeared behind him. Leonardo said, "Now, now. You try to kill my grandchildren in front of my eyes�� ording to the rules, your punishment is�� death."

 Chapter 600 – King Slash

    <h4>Chapter 600 - King sh</h4>


    "You? Kill me? Do you think you''re qualified? See all the people around you! I will kill them first to let you know I''m the one in charge here." The Goblin King shouted.


    "Hmm?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes and looked to the right.


    All goblins had their heads flying. The same applied to those on the left.


    All the goblins nearby had died before they could even hurt the Holy Knights.


    There were a total of eight armors standing around them. They weren''t that shy because their size was simr to a human, but their strength was real.


    Those eight armorspletely obliterated the goblins without even a fight.


    "What are you talking about?" Leonardo smiled, asking yfully.


    "You bast��"The Goblin King was raging, but Leonardo didn''t let him. A pair of blue lights suddenly shone in their eyes as tworge explosions urred, killing more than a hundred goblins at once.


    When he nced to the side, he saw two armors riding a white horse. They were holding their spears and red at them, trying to scare all the goblins away.


    Onest figure that appeared was also another armor. This armor emerged next to Lorenzo and there was a curve on the chest area, indicating her position.


    The female armor pped her hands and a hundred swords appeared in the sky. She waved her hand down as all those des rained like an arrow and killed the goblins.


    "I don''t feel like using my power too much to fight against you��" Leonardo sighed and turned to the female armor. "Protect them for me."


    The female armor nodded and summoned more des, preparing to shoot them in case the goblins dared to attack Theo, Lorenzo, or Ava.


    Meanwhile, he approached the Goblin King with a calm expression. "The only reason you can witness a bit of my power is that I need to restore the ''order.'' Your existence is something out of order."


    ''Huh, order?'' Theo widened his eyes as he also heard something about the order. He was wondering whether the order was simr to the one he learned from Avarice.


    "Ha!" The Goblin King finally took this seriously as the ck wings on his back pped and spread to the limit, giving an oppressing feeling by that majestic view.


    When he looked at this situation, Lorenzo said, "Oh, grandpa is using his power for the first time. There will be a lot to learn."


    Theo nodded in agreement. He had seen the aftermath of a battle between Mythical Rank Experts, but he had never witnessed their fight. So, he made sure to capture everything this time.


    The Goblin Shaman turned out to be the first to move as he released another boulder toward Leonardo.


    "Arrah!"


    Leonardo looked at the boulder and raised his hand. A sword suddenly appeared on his hand as he waved it down, cutting the boulder into two.


    "Garrah!" The Goblin Shaman raised his left hand and the boulders split into eight before Leonardo could even cut it. Those eight pieces turned into sharp spikes and tried to pierce Leonardo.


    However, thetter still maintained his uninterested expression as he waved the sword once again. "I am toozy to deal with you."


    Theo and Lorenzo were shocked when they saw what Leonardo did with the second sh.


    The second sh cut all eight spikes into pieces as they all fell down to the ground as rubble. At the same time, the shaman also experienced the same thing as his own spikes, which were dismembered into pieces.


    His blood sshed and sttered on the ground as no one understood what had just happened.


    The Goblin King was bewildered because he didn''t understand why the Goblin Shaman died.


    ''Is this the strength of the War Saint?'' Enrica dropped her jaw as she couldn''t see how all eight spikes and the Goblin Shaman were cut into pieces.


    Agata also witnessed what happened and nced at Theo, wondering if he understood that attack. To her surprise, Theo wasn''t as shocked as Enrica. Lorenzo had a simr expression as they seemed to grasp the secret of the attack.


    Unlike them, who had the leisure to watch Leonardo''s power, the Goblin King felt terrified.


    He felt his power was already strong, but before this man, he was nothing.


    When Leonardo''s eyes locked onto his figure, he instinctively stepped back. He remembered what happened inside theboratory and didn''t want to experience it again, so he gritted his teeth and leaped forward.


    "Ha!" The Goblin King shouted and poured all his shadow in his sword, hitting Leonardo.


    Leonardo raised his sword and received the attack. It created an even more powerful shock wave because this attack was far stronger than the one he used to defeat Loris.


    On the side, Loris gritted his teeth and shouted inwardly, ''That bastard was holding back just to y with me.''


    Unfortunately, he faced the wrong opponent.


    "I have something more important to do, so��" Leonardo stomped the ground to channel the power from his lower half to his hand andunched the Goblin King to the air. "Go die."


    It was clear the power difference between the two was far too big because the Goblin King couldn''t even stop himself from flying to the sky despite pping his wings. And the worst thing for him was the fact that the most critical attack had yet to beunched.


    The armor behind Leonardo raised his sword as it began to bask in a beautiful golden light. All eyes were on the de as Leonardo leisurely waved his hand down while saying, "King sh."


    The armor waved his sword diagonally and released a massive crescent-shaped golden sword wave.


    The Goblin King raised his shadow to block this attack, but he went flying because of the forceing from the sword wave.


    Behind him was the hill, so if he crashed into the mountain, there would be something to stop him and he would soon be cut. So, the Goblin King tried hard to move away from this attack, but even with all his might, he couldn''t escape from this sword wave.


    "No!"


    The Goblin King''s shout was filled with unwillingness. Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything and crashed to the hill.


    With the hill stopping him from behind, the sword wave''s pressure was skyrocketing and snapped the shadow de the Goblin King had and eventually cut him into two.


    Albeit, as one would expect from one of the strongest people in the world and the number one man in Italy, his attack wasn''t half-assed at all. The Sword Wave continued flying and cut the top part of the hill, letting it slide down and create a massivendslide.


    Looking at his own attack, Leonardo only said with a poker face. "Know your ce, trash!"

 Chapter 601 – Another Enemy

    <h4>Chapter 601 - Another Enemy</h4>


    All of the people in the area were stunned when they witnessed the real power from the War Saint.


    Theo gulped down and thought, ''What is that? He can even cut a hill? It''s not that big, but that kind of power is still��''


    He didn''t know what to say because this was the first time he saw a Mythical Rank Expert fight. It was overwhelming.


    Theo recalled the aftermath that Nina showed him back then and realized it wasn''t as big as this one, making him wonder how strong Leonardo was.


    Lorenzo looked down, contemting the scene he saw.


    On the other hand, Agata simply stayed back behind Theo while looking at his expression to see how much he knew about all this.


    The Holy Knights and the goblins couldn''t move as they feared Leonardo''s strength.


    Little did they know, the goblins began to die at a fast rate as Leonardo killed them one by one, leaving none of them alive.


    Seeing the battlefield had be safe enough for her to not worry anymore, Enrica overcame her fear, told the other Healers to start helping the others, and weakly approached Leonardo. "Thank you for your help, Sir Leonardo."


    Leonardo nced at her with an uninterested expression. "So, what do you have to say about the fact you all brushed the advice of my War God Family''s advisor?"


    "That��" Enrica looked down, wondering how she should exin it.


    "You''re not going to say you don''t have the information about the Goblin King, right? You''re just admitting that you''re utterly useless." Leonardo looked down on her and started pressuring her.


    "There was a traitor among us." The guy who used Theo tried to exin the situation.


    However, this just pissed Leonardo even more. "Shut the fuck up! If you talk one more time, I am going to kill you. Traitor, that''s some bullsh*t you have there!"


    Theo shrugged and said, "I was the one draining the water."


    "Wha��" Enrica and all the Holy Knights were shocked while Agata remained silent, not saying anything.


    "What? You''re going to me me?" Theo squinted his eyes. "If I didn''t drain the water, we would have been captured. And who knows what our fate would be at that time.


    "And it''s not like I lied to all of you. I simply said whether you used me or not. And that''s all." Theo snorted and said sarcastically. "Isn''t that good that my strategy has now saved your lives? I already said it once, and I don''t mind saying it again�� Your job is sending people to their death!"


    Enrica couldn''t say anything as she knew what Theo said was true. They were foolish by not taking his advice. Although they didn''t know the information Theo had about the underground facility, they hadmissioned Theo''s service to lead them to victory.


    If Theo didn''t drain the water, Clone Theo might not have enough time to bring Leonardo and Lorenzo here. In fact, Theo must have offered some sort of deals to the two.


    She knew, at the very least, Leonardo wouldn''t make a move just to help a mission like this. That was why Theo must have sacrificed a lot.


    "I will repay this debt." Enrica politely nodded, knowing her mistake.


    The guy was flushed red as he endured the humiliation. He wanted to open his mouth, but Leonardo had been ring at him to the point that his head would be flying the moment his lips moved.


    Agata also connected the dots and sighed, knowing it was the right choice to trust Theo.


    "I don''t need you here anymore," Leonardo stated. "Heal those guys and get out of here. This area is under my War God Family''s jurisdiction now."


    Enrica gritted her teeth and lowered her head. "I understand."


    She left them and dragged the guy outside this ce before helping the healer.


    On the other hand, Lorenzo waved his hand to Theo before he found a little rabbit standing on Theo''s shoulder. "A rabbit?"


    Theo nodded. "Yeah. She is my partner. Her name is Ava�� Ava, say hello."


    "Kyu!" Ava cutely raised her right foot and smiled at him.


    "So cute." Lorenzo gave a thumbs up.


    "Anyway, thank you for your help this time." Theo nodded.


    "It''s fine. Five simtion games." Lorenzo smirked.


    "I know. When we''re back��"


    "Of course."


    Theo and Lorenzo shook hands.


    Leonardo only smiled when he saw Theo had at least one friend in the War God Family. He also remembered the guy and pointed his Skylink to him.


    He got the guy''s information in an instant and asked Theo, "By the way, that guy seems to be a jerk. Do you want to beat him up? I can show you how to take pro revenge."


    "Pro revenge?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    Before he replied, Leonardo''s face became serious. He looked at the sky.


    Noticing his sudden movement, Theo and Lorenzo looked up and saw the sky gradually turn ck.


    Those ck clouds started to gather on top of the hill and spun as if trying to make a tornado.


    Lightning started sparking inside the clouds as they saw a big shadow inside the cloud. However, they couldn''t determine its shape or anything. They only knew something was behind the clouds.


    "Move back behind me." Leonardo waved his hand as the female armor, the queen, reappeared and raised her hands, protecting Theo and Lorenzo.


    At the same time, Leonardo''s King rose and pointed his de to the sky.


    A sh of golden lightning illuminated the entire ck cloud before a bolt of lightning struck forth.


    Leonardo clicked his tongue and raised two fingers as his King struck the lightning bolt.


    Boom.


    The collision produced a tremendous shock wave that blew all corpses, tents, and weapons away. Even the people had a hard time maintaining their position.


    "Kh." Leonardo gritted his teeth.


    This was the first time Lorenzo saw his grandfather making this expression. He soon realized the enemy might be more powerful than him.


    "Ha!" Leonardo shouted and deflected the lightning bolt, sending it to the hill.


    The moment the lightning touched the hill, it caused a massive explosion, engulfing the entire hill and burning it.


    The hill was only five hundred feet tall and the diameter barely reached a mile, but it was still shocking when the explosion reduced the entire hill into ashes.


    A deep, high-pitched sound echoed from behind the clouds.


    "Leonardo. For what reason did youe here�� You should know this ce has vited the order!"

 Chapter 602 – World Class Monster

    <h4>Chapter 602 - World ss Monster</h4>


    "Leonardo. For what reason did youe here�� You should know this ce has vited the order!"


    All of them raised their visions as they felt fear from the bottom of their hearts. This was the first time they saw someone at this level.


    After all, no one expected that Leonardo would have a hard time blocking a single attack.


    Theo couldn''t help but think, ''I have learned the history back in Thernd�� The world couldn''t fly up the satellites because they would always get shot down.


    ''Sir Leonardo''s strength alone is already shocking�� And the one there is even stronger. And just like humans, they should have a few more guys like him.


    ''Were they the ones preventing the humans from advancing in this world? Just like Avarice said, everything was due to the order.''


    Theo closed his eyes as if he understood something.


    On the other hand, Leonardo had no time to talk with them as he couldn''t even protect himself against this monster.


    Hence, Leonardo shouted, "I am here to fix those so-called orders. Since this is the human''s fault, I will be the one fixing it. I promise you that the ones who cause all this ruckus will receive their retribution.


    "Besides, shouldn''t you thank me for knowing about the disruption so early? If not, I don''t know what will happen." Leonardo squinted his eyes.


    "It won''t happen if you, humans, don''t invade this ce."


    "You''re saying something stupid." Leonardo snorted.


    The thunder rumbled as if the monster behind the cloud nned to attack again because Leonardo had angered him.


    However, the lightning stopped before he said, "You have one year. If not, I will destroy all your cities in this area."


    "I understand. I will see it through." Leonardo nodded with a serious expression. "You can leave it to me."


    "Hmph. Remember one year." The ck cloud started to disperse as the figure disappeared. He didn''t forget to leave one message. "I leave not because I respect you�� May the moonlight bless you with its presence."


    "!!!" Leonardo widened his eyes and gasped. He looked around for a split second before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.


    The moment the ck clouds disappeared, the peace was restored as if nothing had happened.


    "Grandfather?" Lorenzo bit his lips and clenched his fists to the point his palms bled just to withstand the fear in his heart. "That��"


    Leonardo took another look at the surroundings. Since there was only Ava, Theo, and Lorenzo near him, he said, "That''s the guardian of this area. One of the World ss Monsters, known as the holder of the Lightning Authority. Unfortunately, even I only know his status, not his name."


    "World ss Monster!" Lorenzo gasped.


    "Lightning Authority?" Theo looked down, bing confused. He muttered inwardly, ''Authority? Not orders? But he mentioned moonlight earlier�� Did he know something about the mark given by Avarice?''


    Theo gulped down as he wondered whether the World ss Monster had marked him or not since he would die if that monster chased him.


    As if noticing Theo''s expression, Leonardo sighed, realizing Theo was the one the World ss Monster was talking about.


    Leonardo thought for a moment and turned to Lorenzo. "Can you go home first? Theo and I have something to do after this."


    "��" Lorenzo obviously didn''t like to be left out, but he chose to obey after seeing their expressions. He realized it wasn''t the time for him to overstep his bounds.


    He politely nodded. "I understand. I will return first."


    "Yep. Thank you." Leonardo smiled as he saw Leonardo using his Teleportation to return home.


    After Lorenzo disappeared, Leonardo asked, "I have taken a look at this area from the sky and found nothing. Now that we''re already safe, I can see there''s a gap underneath the ground�� Is this it?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "To be honest, I''m surprised that you have befriended a King ss monster." Leonardo smiled and patted his shoulders.


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, refusing to admit it.


    "It''s okay not to say anything. When you get closer to the truth of this world, you will figure out about orders and how we need to maintain that order. So, you calling me to this ce is the right situation.


    "If that monster found this ce first, Italy would lose all their cities on this side�� There''s even a possibility of a monster outbreak in Italy. That''s why the trade has been fulfilled. I will give you a rewardter. Of course, I will also teach you how to take revenge without getting involved directly. You will hear the reportter."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded.


    "Anyway, I will wait for the others to leave this ce before investigating the facility. You''re going to be my guide, right?"


    "I will do my best."


    "Though I believe you have gotten everything." He shrugged. "Don''t worry. I am not going to force you to hand it over to me. You will understand why I did this after the revenge."


    "Is that so?" Theo looked down, contemting whether he should keep the information or not.


    "Anyway, that''s all. I''m going to wait there." Leonardo pointed at the cage.


    "Yes." Theo suddenly fell silent and asked, "Sir Leonardo."


    "Hmm?"


    "Ehm��" Theo rubbed his cheek gently with his fingers. "I want to ask you something. Can my assistant know this information?"


    "Oh?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows, showing a slight excitement. Although his eyes were staring at Theo''s eyes, his Awareness was observing the girl who seemed to be the closest to Theo. "It''s your assistant. You tell her whatever you want her to know. However, her safety and problem will be your responsibility."


    Theo was stunned for a second before nodding. "I understand. Thank you."


    "No problem." Leonardo waved his hand and started walking away.


    After that, Theo turned around and walked to the group, approaching the same girl as the one in Leonardo''s mind.


    "Theo?" She was about to leave, so his visit surprised her. However, Theo''s question was a bigger shock to her.


    "Do you happen to be interested in bing my assistant, Agata?"

 Chapter 603 – Assistant?

    <h4>Chapter 603 - Assistant?</h4>


    An hourter.


    Theo, Ava, and Leonardo were standing inside the facility.


    It was so dark that they couldn''t see anything.


    However, Leonardo simply raised his right hand as a golden light shone on top of his palm. He gently raised it until the light floated near the ceiling, instantly brightening the entire facility.


    "Now, it''s good." Leonardo smiled as he looked at the tubes, corpses, body parts, tables, and other stuff scattered around the area. "Well, I kind of understand the problem now��"


    "I have gathered my stuff on the other side of the facility." Theo pointed forward.


    "Don''t worry. I''m not going to steal it." Leonardo smiled and said, "You''re reminding me over and over again�� Are you feeling sour because you just got rejected?"


    Theo nced at him and shook his head with a calm expression. "Not at all."


    An hour ago.


    "Do you happen to be interested in bing my assistant?"


    That question shocked Agata because Theo just offered what was supposed to be the best way to get closer to him.


    At the same time, Agata needed to consider the pros and cons.


    She figured out something and asked, "I think there are many rules, right?"


    Theo nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I will give you the rulester. Don''t worry. This will be an equivalent exchange. I don''t want to take advantage of your feelings just for my convenience."


    "Before that�� Can you answer this one question?"


    "Sure."


    "Why me? I have heard some rumors about assistants, but I still can''t see you having one. After all, you look like someone who can''t trust other people easily."


    Theo raised three fingers. "The first reason is your family resources. At the very least, with your family background, I don''t need to handle every single problem, making my time easier.


    "Second, you were the only one who trusted me during the whole mission. I am not saying that you need to follow all my orders because it means you will be like a robot�� I just want someone that can trust me with some exnations. Looking at your progress, I believe you have be better at analyzing things, so I think I can work together with you."


    When she heard the second reason, she couldn''t help but interject. "I couldn''t do anything though�� Believing and doing it are two different things."


    Theo smiled. "Then�� Isn''t it the same if you''re doing it forcefully even though you don''t believe me? It still means you''re a robot or something. What I want is an assistant�� Someone that I can trust and work with, not a robot."


    A smile appeared on her face as she looked down. "Sorry. What about the third one?"


    "To be honest, you''re the closest person to me in Italy. Well, in terms of rtionship, I can say that Sir Leonardo and Lorenzo are closer, but unlike them, you''re someone I can cooperate with instead of a friend that is trying to take advantage of me or something simr." Theo sighed.


    She contemted for a moment and said, "Well, I appreciate the invitation. Unfortunately, I can''t give you the answer right now�� I need time to think about it."


    "Okay. I can understand that. Besides, you need to know the rules first to avoid getting scammed by me." Theo shrugged.


    "I appreciate the thought."


    "As much as I want to go back together, I don''t think it''s possible for me." Theo nced at his grandfather.


    "Don''t worry about me. We should be able to return just fine. You should handle your problem first since it doesn''t look like a small problem."


    "Ahaha. Okay, that''s it. I will contact youter." Theo nodded and left.


    ��


    Recalling that scene, Theo said, "Not at all. It''s not a rejection."


    Leonardo rolled his eyes and said half-heartedly. "Yeah, yeah. It''s not."


    They kept walking inside the facility while investigating everything they could find.


    As expected, Theo had taken all the papers and devices with him.


    It took them fifteen minutes to reach the other side, where Leonardo found a stack of papers and a few devices.


    "Haha, you''re truly not leaving anything behind." Leonardo chuckled.


    "Although I have heard it earlier, I want to ask it again�� Are you sure you''re not confiscating this?" Theo asked politely. "I mean, the World ss Monster warned you to��"


    Before Theo finished, Leonardo stopped him with a wave of his left hand. "Don''t say something like that. To be honest, if you didn''t tell me anything about this, I wouldn''t have found this ce.


    "I already got some information about this facility, but none could lead me to this ce. Just solving this problem and taking over this ce are already a huge contribution.


    "Then, we''re talking about the additional information from the research papers and devices. It''s not fair to confiscate everything from you.


    "The most important weapon you need to have is information. That''s why I don''t confiscate them. Instead, I will give you a solution.


    "When you have a problem that you want me or the War God Family to solve, you cane to Marzio or me. We will exchange our help with that information."


    Theo fell silent, realizing why there weren''t many conflicts inside the family. However, he also caught something interesting from his words. "Didn''t you say a year��"


    "Oh boy�� Do you want to make a bet? I bet that you''re going to use all that information for something within a year." Leonardo smirked.


    "Are you nning��" Theo took a step back as if he was afraid of Leonardo.


    "Cut the act. I know you don''t fear me." Leonardo rolled his eyes. "All I want to say is, even without me doing anything, I bet you''re going to use all the information within a year. If I lose, I will give you one wish. If I win, you''re going to call me grandpa for the rest of your life. How about it?"


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched. "This sounds too good for me."


    "That''s because I know I will win." Leonardo made a smug smile.


    "No sabotage?"


    "Nope. I will even stop Marzio if he wants to grasp it forcefully."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Deal."


    "Great!" Leonardo chuckled. "The bet is set. No taking back."


    "Yes."


    Suddenly, Leonardo''s happy expression turned serious as he said, "Now�� Let''s talk about order a little bit, shall we?"

 Chapter 604 – Orders

    <h4>Chapter 604 - Orders</h4>


    "Let''s talk about orders a little bit, shall we?"


    "What are you��" Theo wanted to y ignorant a bit longer, but Leonardo had already stopped him.


    "Okay, okay. This one is a bit serious, so please listen to me first." Leonardo. "I don''t care if you''re ying ignorant or not, but I want to warn you what you may face in the future by holding the order.


    "First of all, what are orders? It''s the element that keeps the world going. Moonlight, Moon, Lightning, Wind, Fire, and so on�� These are the variables.


    "When they''re disturbed, there will be a chance of this ce copsing. I am not very sure about this myself, so I can only tell you what that World ss Monster said to me in the past.


    "He told me to make sure that the orders were maintained or a catastrophe might ur. No one can tell whether Earth will be affected or this ce. It''s random. All we know is that we are going to regret it.


    "Anyway, that''s why I want to talk about orders. I don''t care what you do with your order but maintain the bnce. The simple way to do it is by not disrupting it at all.


    "You see what''s going on here?" Leonardo pointed at theboratory.


    Theo shook his head calmly.


    "Some scientists are researching Goblin Genes. It''s a taboo topic because of one particr reason. If you add another race''s gene to your body, what do you think will happen?"


    "Isn''t it going to be��" Theo stopped as he contemted for a moment. He soon realized his answer didn''t match with what Leonardo said.


    Seeing his confused look, Leonardo continued. "It''s rted to the orders. ording to the monster, every living being is qualified to get an order, even in the past where we haven''t found this ce.


    "I don''t know if you have connected the dots, but the proofs are there. All those heroes in the past that were shown as someone stronger than a normal human�� They all had orders. Unfortunately, I don''t understand a single thing about this, so no one has more exnation about it." Leonardo sighed.


    "Is researching Order banned?"


    "Not really. You may not know about it, but everything rted to orders is banned and hidden."


    "Most who learn about the orders are Mythical Rank Experts. Some are lucky to find it sooner like you, so many Mythical Rank Experts agree to keep it a secret and not spread the information around.


    "Just like this ce, what if you find the fact that order can strengthen you? Researchers will flock to this topic and eventuallybine two orders like what they did to the goblins here.


    "I said it earlier. Every living being is qualified to get an order. If that Goblin King continued, he would have gotten the order, albeit not one. He had several genes in his body, so he could get more than one.


    "If that happened, the disruption would happen and boom��" Leonardo sighed. "It''s gonna be a headache."


    "I kinda understand that." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "To be honest, if all those World ss Monsters attack the entire world, humans will surely be extinct, so we don''t dare to provoke them too much.


    "Instead of being their enemies, we be their friends and ensure the orders from the human''s sneakiness. Just like this one��


    "That''s why you calling me here is really helpful. With this ce alone, I can stop those who are rted to this. And do some stuff here and there�� Boom." Leonardo chuckled, not continuing his exnation.


    However, Theo could understand how chaotic the situation would be.


    "Anyway, that''s all. I just want to warn you not to mess with the orders. If you encounter some reputable and strong Mythical Rank Experts who know about orders, they will surely warn you the same.


    "I mean, the World ss Monster may kill you, but that''s the least of our worries because the Earth will also face some problems.


    "At the same time, you shouldn''t let others know about your order. They can even use it to mess you up or sell your information to those who want to know the truth or get the order themselves." Leonardo raised his hands as if he could foresee troubleing.


    Theo looked down and nodded. "I understand the warning. Are you going to tell me anything about the order itself?"


    "Not really." Leonardo shrugged. "That''s your responsibility to research about it. All I need to do is to make sure you pick your own answer in the future. After all, what I know about orders may be different from what you find in the future. Everyone''s order is different after all."


    "I see." Theo crossed his arms and squinted his eyes.


    "Anyway, our conversation has made you admit that you have an order." Leonardo smirked as if he had managed to trap his own grandchild.


    Theo shrugged. "All I know is the fact you were not spouting lies. Since you were warning me seriously, it''s better to avoid any misunderstanding. So, why should I hide it anymore?"


    "Tsk. You''re not fun." Leonardo pouted yfully.


    "I just know when I should act and when I shouldn''t." Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Right? Anyway, you should watch what will be happening in a few days. You''re going to like it." Leonardo chuckled. "I''m going to teach that kid who was rude to you a lesson he would never forget."


    "I didn''t ask you though."


    "It''s fine. It looks like petty revenge, but you will realize my actionter."


    "Well, I don''t really care about it." Theo shrugged. "I am just afraid that you''re overdoing it and making the rtionship between you and the pope sour�� I don''t want to be the reason for that."


    "No worries. He can understand as long as I say I dealt with the World ss Monster for him and protected the saintess. Easy." Leonardo winked yfully.


    "Whatever."


    "Anyway, you should start packing those things." Leonardo pointed at the devices and papers. "I am going to send Marzio here after this to get all the information in this ce. Although you''re taking those things, I will bring the corpses, body parts and other stuff, okay?"


    Theo smiled�� "Okay."

 Chapter 605 – Friendly Discussion Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 605 - Friendly Discussion Part 1</h4>


    After getting what he wanted, Leonardo killed all the goblins in the surrounding area to restore the orders and decided toe back together with Theo, leaving Agata, Enrica, and the other Holy Knights behind.


    Theo didn''t say anything the whole time as he kept pondering Leonardo''s words regarding the orders. He realized that everything was rted to orders and his actions might unintentionally poke the orders.


    So, he wanted to think about what kind of action he could take in the future.


    Ava might know something from Avarice, but Theo couldn''t ask her because of Leonardo. It was clear that Leonardo also wished to know everything about orders, but he remained silent To avoid getting entangled in something unnecessary.


    There was also the fact that Ava might receive her own orderter when sheter became a King ss Monster.


    After all, Avarice had been training her this whole time which made Ava her sessor. If Ava couldn''t get the same order as Avarice, it meant more research was needed to understand the orders.


    When he thought about it, he remembered Ava spitting out the hobgoblin''s meat. Normally, Ava wouldn''t even consider eating something she didn''t like.


    Hence, the moment Ava ate the hobgoblin''s meat, she should be able to eat it. The only reason why Ava couldn''t eat it was the order.


    The hobgoblin had been injected by other races, turning their meat inedible due to the contamination. Not only Ava, but other monsters that tried to eat the hobgoblin might spit it out.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t test his theory as he was already on his way home.


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Ava was happily eating pizza in the garden while ignoring the purple-haired girl that was constantly watching her behavior and admiring her cuteness.


    Meanwhile, Theo was sitting on the grass leisurely, ying chess with Lorenzo. Thetter visited him to receive the promise.


    While ying, Lorenzo asked, "Say, how about we discuss what grandfather did a few days ago?"


    "Hmm?" Theo squinted his eyes and ced the knight on G2. "Sure."


    "Let me see�� Where should we start." Lorenzo thought for a moment. "I''m sure you know about grandfather''s summoned creatures, right?"


    "Yes. I feel like those summoned creatures are chess pieces."


    "Yes. My father told me the same. The one that was always behind him was the king. The one that protected us the whole time was the queen. There were also rooks, knights, and pawns a few days ago. I didn''t see any bishop though." Lorenzo nodded.


    "Wasn''t it just a normal summoning technique?"


    "But wasn''t it weird?" Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows. "The rumor says grandfather''s summoned creatures are a Divine Technique."


    "Hoh?" That statement piqued Theo''s interest.


    "Yeah. That Divine Technique must allow him to channel his power there�� I mean all his power. Awareness, Control, and other stuff." Lorenzo added.


    "That''s certainly interesting. The rook that stopped the Goblin King''s attack was extraordinary as well. He must have put immense Magic Power and Awareness into that shield. It was basically a fortress," said Theo with a calm expression.


    "I guess our answers are the same." Lorenzo sighed. "I feel like there''s a trick behind each of them."


    "I feel like they can''t leave the blue rectangles he always sets up before summoning them."


    "Right! I believe that''s the chessboard. Unfortunately, every time he uses it, I can''t see the edge, so I don''t know how big that chessboard is." Lorenzo sighed.


    "Can''t you roughly calcte them with just a single rectangle?" Theo asked while pointing at the empty board.


    "I can, but I feel like the chessboard is alive. In other words, Grandfather can move it ording to his will."


    "You''re not talking about making the chessboard one block long, right?"


    "Of course not. I''m saying that with grandfather''s movement, he can move the chessboard. For example, if he''s on the very edge��" Lorenzo pointed at his own king and said, "He will have a massive battlefield in front of him."


    After that, he put his king in the middle of the board. "But if he''s in the middle, he will have a perfect spot tounch an all-out attack in all directions."


    "Hey, that''s illegal." Theo pointed at the king.


    "��" Lorenzo''s eyebrows twitched as he put back the king. "I was just using it as an example."


    Theo shrugged. "Anyway, the chessboard itself is not important. What''s more important is the individual ability of each chess piece.


    "For example, the rooks can form a shield and barrier to block an attack. The knight can literally wreak havoc on the battlefield with their speed. The queen��"


    Theo suddenly fell silent as if he understood something. Even Lorenzo didn''t say anything because he had gotten the same answer as Theo.


    Both of them raised their heads and exchanged looks with surprised faces.


    "That''s it!" They shouted in unison.


    "If you take a look at the pawns, you will know they''re the lowest of the ranks like in normal chess. They can kill goblins easily because of their power difference, but they shouldn''t have any special power." Lorenzo smirked.


    "Yeah. Then, the rooks must be the defender. In a game of normal chess, the rook can only move in a single line�� Doesn''t this mean the rook can receive any attack from that one line?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "That''s right. If you want to beat grandfather''s rooks, you need to surround them with your attacks!" Lorenzo nodded furiously, agreeing to Theo''s words.


    "Then there''s the knight. The normal "L" movement the knights have manifests in the form of speed. That''s why they''re the fastest and can do some special power. Just like the barrier and shield of the rooks." Theo continued.


    "Right!" Lorenzo smirked. "The queen should reflect on chess too�� Because the queen can move in all directions, or we simply know her as the strongest and most versatile piece in chess, she can do an omnidirectional attack. That sword rain is the prime example."


    "Last but not least, his king. The king can only move one block, so the king must be stuck around him. Although it means the king can''t attack anyone far away easily, he''s also vulnerable from afar."


    "There is that Sword Wave that can cut the hill, but the chess rule still applies. So, this is grandfather''s power." Lorenzo came to a realization.


    He and Theo exchanged looks and couldn''t help but smirk at each other.


    "Heh�� Nice one."

 Chapter 606 – Friendly Discussion Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 606 - Friendly Discussion Part 2</h4>


    "Nice one."


    "Right." Theo smiled and said, "Though, something feels missing."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Remember what I said earlier? Each piece should contain something special."


    "Hmm? It''s not about their tricks and stuff?"


    "Yeah." Theo thought for a moment, albeit couldn''t find anything useful.


    Lorenzo also helped him think and came up with a ridiculous idea in mind. "What''s about his power? I mean his Five Aspects. Grandfather is a master of Control, Awareness, Breathing, and Technique.


    "What if the pawns received his Awareness, specifically his vision, to make them easier to move? The rooks receive his Sense of Touch to be that sturdy. The knights have the Breathing that makes them the fastest.


    "Then, the bishop must have his Control because they may be able to use something special. As for the queen, it must be his Technique. Last but not least, the king. Since it''s the spitting image of grandpa, I''m assuming that one receives everything."


    Theo couldn''t help but agree and denied one of his points. "I think the pawns don''t have anything special, so the rooks receive all his Awareness."


    "Ah, that can also be the situation." Lorenzo nodded in agreement. "That is more likely to happen to be honest."


    "Yeah." Theo recalled one thing. "Well, enough for this Divine Technique for now. I am more curious about that sh where he cut the stones and the Goblin Shaman into pieces."


    "That one? I have no freaking idea." Lorenzo shook his head in disappointment. "I thought about it as a skill, but I don''t think there''s a skill like that. Is it an Original Technique?"


    "Probably." Theo nodded in agreement. The only reason he supported that argument was due to the fact he didn''t see anything from that sh.


    Normally, he would see something when someone used their skill, but there wasn''t a single notification from his grandfather that day.


    Hence, Theo concluded that the sh, the King Sword, or even the chessboard were Original Techniques.


    "I guess we can''t get anything from him this time." Theo sighed.


    "Not necessarily so." Lorenzo shook his head. "Although I concluded it''s an Original Technique, I feel like it isn''t. In fact, there may be some tricks in that sh."


    "What do you mean?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "You are better at Control than me, so do you mind helping me prove my theory?" Lorenzo asked.


    "Hoh? Theo narrowed his eyes before agreeing. "What should I do?"


    "You can disperse the Magic Power freely, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, what if you disperse your power in two or three directions and let it hit three objects at the same time? Then, after that, the Magic Power disperses again. Because grandfather is using a sword, the sharp Magic Power will eventually cut the enemies.


    "On the other hand, you are using a spear, so you will most likely push or stab the objects," Lorenzo exined his theory.


    "That is an interesting theory." Theo smirked and said, "In fact, it gives me an idea."


    "Is it?"


    "Yeah. Do you want to try it?"


    "Sure. I will be your sandbag. Just give me the feedbackter."


    "Okay." Theo nodded as they both rose in unison.


    Lorenzo stood thirty feet in front of Theo while thetter summoned his clone.


    Their actions piqued both Felice and Ava''s interest as they stopped what they were doing and watched what the two nned to do.


    "For now, I am going to do it without hitting you, so you should watch how they move. After that, you should try receiving them to see their effectiveness." Theo shouted.


    "Okay." Lorenzo nodded and took a few steps back to capture the scene clearer.


    "Ready?"


    Lorenzo raised his hand and gave a thumbs up.


    After that, Theo and his clone summoned the Magic Bullets.


    There were only four Magic Bullets that could be split into ten orbined into two for the time being. And these were the usual Magic Bullets.


    Theo didn''t bother to do anything to his Magic Bullets and shot them.


    The four Magic Bullets flew forward.


    After ten feet, each Magic Bullets suddenly split into ten and continued.


    "What?!" Lorenzo dropped his jaw to the ground as he analyzed what happened. He thought, ''From four to forty immediately? He didn''t split the Magic Bullets after summoning them. Instead, he let them travel first before breaking them.


    ''For someone that receives this attack for the first time, they will be shocked beyond belief. In fact, I think I have seen this somewhere��'' Lorenzo thought for a moment. ''If I''m not wrong, the holder of Artemis'' blessing can make an arrow split in the middle of its trajectory�� Is this the principle behind it?''


    Before he finished his thought, Theo poured more Magic Power to make all his Magic Bullets self-destruct.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded in unison, creating a shock wave that woke Lorenzo from his thoughts.


    "Ah. Seriously?" Lorenzo shook his head helplessly. "That one is insane."


    "I am going to send you another one. Try to receive them," Theo shouted, asking him to get ready.


    Lorenzo hurriedly raised both hands, preparing to use his shield to block the Magic Bullets. "I''m ready!"


    "Good." Theo released all four Magic Bullets again.


    This time, the Magic Bullets curved a few times until eventually, they surrounded Lorenzo in four directions.


    At that instant, each bullet split into ten,pletely eliminating all escape routes except for the sky.


    "Oh no. I''m not going to deal with this." Lorenzo clicked his tongue and used Teleportation to send him away from that killing zone, letting all the Magic Bullets destroy each other.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    They all exploded in session as Lorenzo reappeared in front of Theo, wiping the sweat on his forehead.


    "You were joking with me, right?" Lorenzo sighed. "You surrounded me andpletely blocked my escape route. If you added your Blink and other techniques to this one, it would be hard to deal with it."


    Theo gently rubbed his cheek as he said, "To be honest, I can''t move because it takes all my concentration from me. By the time I mastered this technique and used it perfectly, I would have reached Grandmaster Level Control�� just one step away from Perfect Control."


    "That''s insane."


    "Still, I got a new idea. Thank you, Lorenzo."


    "Nah, I am also benefited from this��" Lorenzo smirked.

 Chapter 607 – Friendly Discussion Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 607 - Friendly Discussion Part 3</h4>


    "To be honest, this just gives me another idea." Theo sighed and summoned another four Magic Bullets.


    Instead of shooting it, hebined two of them to create a bigger Magic Bullet. If it hit the ground, the Magic Bullet would cause a powerful shock wave like usual.


    However, Theo split the two small Magic Bullets first into twenty bullets.


    On the other hand, Theo split the bigger Magic Bullet into five bullets. This allowed Theo to have twenty-five bullets, a number that he had never experienced before.


    "This��" Lorenzo widened his eyes in amazement. He looked around the bullets. The twenty Magic Bullets looked the same as the previous one, so he wasn''t shocked by them.


    But the five bullets were significantly bigger than those twenty, as Lorenzo couldn''t help but ask. "Are they stronger?"


    "I believe yes. Compared to the normal size, these five bullets contain four Magic Bullets each." Theo nodded. "This way, there will be a power difference between my bullets even though the size difference is not that visible like the biggest one."


    "I see what you want to do." Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows. "These five Magic Bullets packed with more power, making it different from the normal bullets. But this is what makes the entire technique great.


    "You couldbine them into the biggest one and cause powerful destruction, but itcks speed and it''s easy to find.


    "On the other hand, if you use these five bullets, you can hide them among your normal Magic Bullets. Then, your opponent will suddenly feel the difference in power between them and get taken aback by this sudden surprise. You can take advantage of it and, bam, defeat them!"


    Lorenzo was impressed by Theo''s idea and Control again.


    "Of course, I can''t use it right now. I need to practice more." Theo sighed. "So, this is just a concept."


    "Still, this technique is nasty. I can already see how you will defeat your opponents in the future." Lorenzo nodded with a distorted face. He wanted to praise Theo, but he also felt this technique was quite dangerous.


    "Well, I showed this to you as thanks for the discussion earlier. It gave birth to this approach after all." Theo smirked.


    "I have also thought about utilizing what you showed me earlier�� Look at this." Lorenzo picked up his sword next to the chess.


    He then pulled it out and raised it on top of his head.


    After taking a deep breath, his sword began to shine. He gathered his Magic Power there before waving his sword downwards, releasing the crescent-shaped sword wave forward.


    The Sword Wave suddenly split into two, albeit exploded right after.


    "Ah!" Lorenzo clicked his tongue and pped his thigh in frustration. "My control is too shallow for the time being.


    "I believe this is what grandfather used." Lorenzo sighed and exined. "Grandfather split his Sword Wave into nine. Then the nine Sword Waves turned into a few more, resulting in all stones and the Goblin Shaman being dismembered.


    "And he used his Control to create a thin Sword Wave that packed all that power, making us unable to see the Sword Wave�� Or probably it was due to the speed. Either way, that was the case.


    "As expected, it required Perfect Control at that level," Lorenzo exined what he found from Leonardo''s attack.


    "That''s kind of true." Theo nodded. "Maybe I can do it with my spear, but I need to practice more. I won''t be able to replicate it any time soon."


    "It will take me longer than you. And you are still 18 years old while I''m six years older than you��" Dejected, Lorenzo lowered his head.


    "Don''t mind. I know you can. Besides, isn''t it good that we can get something like this just by discussing what we have seen from Sir Leonardo''s attack?"


    "That''s right. I am lucky to be your friend." Lorenzo raised his fist as the two had a fist bump.


    "Still, can you imagine what will happen if Mara learns this technique?" Theo asked.


    "Ah, that''s going to be nasty. I will be chased by a hundred Sword Strikes and forced to avoid it continuously, considering Mara''s Sword Strike can be used continuously." Lorenzo nodded. "Though, as a fellow family member, I would like to help her with this.


    "However, I wasn''t the only one who figured it out, so I suggest another thing. We can trade this information with money from Mara. Basically, she buys the clue for this technique. It will benefit her and bring us money. We will split the money evenly. How''s that?"


    Theo nodded. "I don''t really mind. In fact, how about you tell Ignazio the secret of Sir Leonardo''s chess pieces. His Summoned Creatures seem to be the closest to it."


    "Ah, that''s right. We can squeeze both of them dry, but they won''tin to us because it will be significant for their future progress." Lorenzo smirked. "You''re good."


    "Not as good as you." Theo chuckled.


    "��" Felice, who was listening to their conversation, couldn''t help but look away, muttering inwardly, ''I feel like these two shouldn''t meet. Theo has influenced Master with his nastiness and Master has given Theo more weird ideas to work with��''


    "Well, I think it''s time for me to leave. I''m satisfied with the result of my visit." Lorenzo extended his hand.


    Theo shook his hand with a smile. "Yes. Me too."


    "Call me again if you need my help since I will do the same. Of course, the price is the usual stuff."


    "Okay." Theo nodded in agreement.


    Theo walked them off to the gate, where Lorenzo recalled certain information.


    "That''s right. This is just a warning, but I heard you did something nasty to Alice." Lorenzo paused for a moment. "You shouldn''t trust her that much. In fact, you should watch out for her revenge. She''s petty."


    "I understand. I will be careful. Thanks for the warning."


    "Yep."


    As they walked to the gate, they saw a brown-haired woman standing in front of his gate as she was about to ring the bell.


    It was clear who the woman was.


    Lorenzo couldn''t help but grab Felice''s wrist and use his Teleportation. He didn''t forget to say, "Oops�� I shouldn''t disturb you anymore. Bye!"

 Chapter 608 – Contract

    <h4>Chapter 608 - Contract</h4>


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head while making an awkward face. He never thought Agata woulde to visit at this time. "How are you?"


    "I''m good. I have been thinking about your proposal." Agata''s expression became serious as Theo couldn''t see whether it was good news or not.


    However, he prepared for the worst as he recalled the rules he ced on her a few days ago.


    At that time, he was sitting in front of her while giving her the written contract. "This is the contract."


    Agata raised her eyebrows and took a look with great interest. She was shocked by the content.


    Theo summarized the contract by raising five fingers. "To put it simply, I am going to require you to trust me in my n. Of course, I am obliged to give you the information and my thoughts regarding my decision if I have the time. You also can''t tell it to other people no matter if they''re your parents, best friends, or any other parties."


    "That''s eptable." Agata nodded. "I can understand that you won''t do something meaningless, so I don''t really mind. However, some of your ns y with lives, so I would like to add the fact you can''t easily y with it.


    "I mean, bing bait if necessary is okay, but if it''s not necessary, I would like you to refrain from making that decision."


    "Sure." Theo nodded with a serious expression before pointing at his middle finger. "Second, you''re going to help mepile the information that I want. This includes the information for my next mission, other people, and such.


    "If necessary, you can even use your family''s influence or your own influence to acquire this information."


    "That''s quite time-consuming, but I can agree." Agata nodded.


    "Great. The third one is you hiding your identity. In other words, you can''t tell anyone that you''re THE Agata Mota. I hope that you can use your illusion to change your appearance too."


    "Well, I am here as Agata Mota, not the most beautiful woman in Italy. Without a doubt, I will agree. Besides, I don''t want my appearance to seduce you or something. I want you to speak with your heart, not your eyes." Agata smiled.


    "Thank you." Theo smiled back.


    "Good. What''s next?"


    "The next use is about you agreeing to live in my house. I can''t promise much, but this will be easier for you to reach out to me and discuss many things. Of course, you can go back to your house, but I can only give you two days every month.


    "I also promise that I won''t do anything to you. If I do something like that, there is a use stating that." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Agata was the most beautiful woman in Italy or the world, so her reputation would take a massive hit if they knew she was living with Theo.


    There was also a concern that Theo tried to push her down by using this contract.


    However, Agata simply nodded her head. "Okay. As long as you don''t forbid me from contacting my family members, it''s good."


    "If you can refrain yourself from reporting anything that happens in the house, then okay. Of course, if you think it''s excessive, then it''s fine to do it. After all, I don''t want to confine you in this mansion."


    "Fair enough." Agata agreed.


    "Last but not least, since you''re not a part of the family, you won''t have any mission. So, we''re going to hunt and do missions together, from domestic missions to international missions. You''re going to help me with all that stuff."


    "Hoh?" Agata thought for a moment. "Suppose I agree with all these conditions, what benefit will I get?"


    "I promise you that it''s an equivalent exchange. You can also get stronger together with me, learning about tricks and stuff. And maybe�� gathering information about me for your family or something."


    "That''s all?"


    "Of course not. There are more. Although I can''t say how much you will get because I haven''t prepared all those things, I can assure you that you won''t regret the total reward."


    "Also, I will give you five hundred million Zils every year and you will have the ownership of all the monsters you killed. If I need them, I will negotiate with you." Theo extended his hand. "That''s all. What do you think?"


    "As expected�� Without knowing the reward, it''s gonna be hard for me to decide. However, I know that you won''t cheat me, so it''s tempting. Also, I want to know about the time limit of this contract."


    "Until I leave this country�� Not for missions or other simr stuff of course." Theo nodded.


    "Okay. I understand your contract. I want to add another condition. I won''t be involved if you''re nning to harm my family or the church, including my best friend."


    "No problem."


    "That''s all. Unfortunately, I can''t give you the answer right away." Agata shook her head helplessly.


    "Good enough. When you have your answer, do contact me. I expect the answer toe within a week." Theo extended his hand.


    Agata shook his hand as they went separate ways.


    Recalling how unfair that contract was, Theo thought she was about to reject it. But she wouldn''t go all the way to his house if she wanted to reject him. That was why Theo didn''t know what answer she would give him.


    The two remained silent for a while, making the situation very awkward.


    Suddenly, Agata pulled the contract from her bag and handed it to him.


    "After considering the pros and cons, I have decided to ept your invitation. But I need three days to bid goodbye to my family, move my stuff to this ce, and prepare all the necessities. Is that alright?"


    "Of course. We''re not going to do anything big for the next few days, so feel free." Theo smiled and received the contract.


    "Alright. Thanks." Agata smiled.


    When she was about to turn around, Ava leaped on top of Theo''s shoulder as she spoke in humannguage.


    "Theo. I can now speak to her like this, right?"


    "!!!"

 Chapter 609 – Reward

    <h4>Chapter 609 - Reward</h4>


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes when she heard a female voice. She thought there was another woman in the house, but she dropped her jaw the moment she saw Ava on Theo''s shoulder.


    "Nice to meet you." Ava smiled. "Since you have agreed to Theo''s offers, then there''s no need for me to hide this."


    "A��A��!" Agata couldn''t speak due to her shock. She never thought she would hear Ava speaking in humannguage.


    Saying something in her ownnguage was already incredible, but Ava took it one step further.


    Seeing Agata''s reaction, Ava couldn''t help but chuckle. "Hehe, she''s surprised. I guess it''s too shocking for me to speak yournguage. Well, it''s not your mother tongue, but you should be able to understand me, right? There should be a trantion function in your Skylink."


    "Y-yeah, but��" Agata pointed at Ava with her eyes kept ncing back and forth between her and Theo.


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Yeah. This is one of the most important pieces of information. Ava is not an Elite ss Monster. She is a General ss Monster. Her mother is a King ss Monster.


    "Ava happens to meet me in the past. And now, I''m taking care of her journey while she helps me fight."


    Ava smiled and added, "Though, I won''t speak anything when other people are nearby. Do pay that in mind."


    "I have no words to say." Agata facepalmed and shook her head helplessly.


    "Anyway, do you want to enter the house first for a quick talk? I am going to reveal what you will get for bing my assistant." Theo pointed at his house.


    After some considerations and Ava''s revtion, Agata nodded like a robot.


    "Great." Theo led her to the living room, where they couldfortably talk about the reward.


    Agata was still shocked because of Ava. She muttered inwardly, ''Ava is a General ss Monster? Even getting a Normal ss Monster to obey you is already hard, let alone the Elite ss Monster. They have too much pride to begin with.


    ''And to think Ava is a General ss Monster? In the entire world, there are less than twenty records of someone having a General ss Monster. This means Theo is now one of them.


    ''If the world knows about this information, they will be shocked. After all, there are so many benefits one can have by simply getting support from a General ss Monster.


    ''In the case of Ava, her enhanced hearing is a perfect example of a scouting device. Theo wouldn''t have the need to worry about ambushes. In fact, he can even sneak attack those ambushers.


    ''There are many things he can do by simply having Ava by his side. Seeing how good their rtionship is, I am afraid Ava would voluntarily do a job without knowing the reason.''


    At this point, Agata finally realized why he never revealed Ava this whole time.


    If Leonardo knew Ava''s real identity, it would be a huge mess. Theo might not be able to leave the War God Family because of this.


    Hence, Theo decided to avoid anyone from knowing.


    On the other hand, Agata was bound by the contract and was fundamentally different from the others. To achieve the highest performance, Theo didn''t mind revealing this information.


    She felt a bit overwhelmed and happy at the same time. After all, Theo wouldn''t reveal this truth with just the contract alone. He needed to have a certain degree of trust.


    Theo returned with a tea in his hand as he ced it in front of Agata. "Here you go."


    After that, he sat down and took out his Skylink before talking to her. He contacted one number that shocked Agata.


    "Do you need my help?"


    "Actually, I want to have another trade with you, Sir Leonardo."


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes, never expecting Theo to call Leonardo when they discussed the reward.


    Theo ignored her and continued, "I want to trade my reward from the previous incident."


    "Oh, what do you want?"


    "I want you to train Agata together with me."


    "Agata? As in Agata Mota? That beautifulss?"


    "Yes. How many months can I get from the previous incident?"


    "Before that, I want to ask two questions."


    "Sure."


    "Are you sure about giving her this reward? It''s quite a hefty reward, you know." Leonardo''s voice filled with worries. "You''re not going to say you''re in love, right?"


    "Not really. She has agreed to be my assistant, so I need to reward her properly." Theo sighed.


    "Then my second question, how long do you want me to train her?"


    "Around the same time as me? So for one year and three months?"


    "Oi, oi. It will cost you so much, you know."


    "It''s fine. I will trade the information if necessary. I am not nning to slow down my progress, so I need my assistant to be strong and can keep up with me. I can''t afford to have hergging behind, especially with her workload." Theo exined.


    "Okay. You have a total of nine devices in your possession�� With the addition of the previous incident, I will take three of those. However, I will only provide her with everything rted to power, not tactics and stuff."


    "That''s enough. Five Aspects and other stuff are enough." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "Alright. I will take the deal. She needs to stay in the mansion to make it efficient though."


    "She has agreed to it. Don''t worry."


    "Good. I am a bit busy right now, so I will talk with youter after I return."


    "Thank you." Theo then hung up and raised his head. "That''s basically the reward. I have told you that you won''t regret this deal."


    Agata couldn''t believe what he had promised her. Bing Leonardo''s student was priceless, especially for the people who were not from the War God Family.


    After all, Leonardo never taught someone outside the family. She remembered back when the pope taught her because she was with Enrica at that time. All her family members, including the Mythical Rank Experts, congratted her. They were basically saying she was extremely fortunate.


    And it was only for one asion. Theo promised her one year and three months. This was a chance that she couldn''t get twice in a lifetime.


    She couldn''t help but say, "You��"


    Theo stopped her and said, "You told me you don''t want to be an essory that makes a man shine. So, this is your reward�� I will give you the strength you need to pursue your goal. However, it will be time-consuming because you need to be my assistant�� The question is�� Are you ready to take the job?"

 Chapter 610 – Arrest

    <h4>Chapter 610 - Arrest</h4>


    "You��" Agata was stunned by Theo''s generosity. She never expected to be able to receive all this, especially with just helping him with some stuff. Others would certainly advise Theo to stop this agreement.


    However, Theo didn''t mind paying this much. After all, he hardly trusted anyone and not many believed in him either.


    Although his leveling speed would decrease a bit, Agata would be his guide on the other side. She was expected to know the area before Theo even asked her, making the hunt even safer.


    She also needed topile information when Theo asked for it, and it would undoubtedly take many hours to do that. In fact, she might need to involve her own family in the investigation.


    But her family would agree without hesitation just with the fact Agata could receive Leonarno''s teaching.


    She could also follow Theo and learn from his every decision to improve her judgment. It was so precious because Theo was acknowledged as one of the best in the younger generation.


    What made it perfect was the fact Theo might leave this country sooner orter. In other words, this contract only bound her for a few years at most.


    Meanwhile, she received the benefit that wouldst her for a lifetime. There was no way her family would reject this kind of offer, especially when they knew Theo never actually did anything vulgar to her. It was a plus to know that Theo held her in high regard.


    That was why Agata said with a serious expression. "I will finish everything in a day. I will being tomorrow morning."


    "Are you sure? You can spend more time with your family."


    "You have done so much for me, so why not? Either way, they''re going to kick me out if they know about this." Agata sighed. "Also, I won''t be your burden from anything. I know that I may make mistakes from time to time because I haven''t done anything like this, but I promise you that I will learn as fast as possible."


    "That''s good then." Theo smiled and nodded.


    After that, Agata left the house and prepared to move in while telling her family her current situation.


    Theo returned to the garden as he said to Ava. "So, what do you think of her?"


    "At the very least, she is genuine to you. I don''t really mind having her as long as you can trust her."


    "I thought you were going toin." Theo smirked.


    "If you can get a better time here, then why should Iin? It''s not like her character is bad as well, so having her will benefit you more in the long term."


    "Okay." Theo nodded as he said, "Anyway, let''s practice."


    "Yes."


    Little did he know, there was a reason for his grandfather to be busy.


    In the vi near the Adriatic Sea, a family of three lived there. The middle-aged man who seemed to be the kid''s father looked at his wife, the beautiful brown-haired woman.


    "Are you smoking again?" He asked after feeling a foul odor inside.


    "Yes. I haven''t done it in a while. I want to stop it, but thest time I had one was a week ago." She nodded.


    "Well, you''re improving. That''s good then. Maybe next time you can do it for ten days and more until you eventually stop." The middle-aged man smiled.


    "Yep."


    He then turned to the young man. "Adam, how about you? Have you done anything wrong in the church? I hope that you''re not causing trouble to the other Holy Knights��"


    "Don''t worry. I am not that foolish. I won''t trouble my colleagues." He shrugged. "But someone pissed me off recently. He was acting all mighty just because he received the saintess'' favor."


    "Oh? Does someone receive that? Who is he?" He asked.


    "He is��" Before the young man could say his name, the door was mmed open as ten people entered the house.


    "What?!" The middle-aged man rose from the chair, staring at the ones that dared to enter. "Who dares to break into my house?!"


    He was filled with anger, thinking someone had tried to rob him. However, he waspletely dumbfounded when he saw another middle-aged man wearing a ck-colored uniform.


    Thetter raised his badge and announced, "You''re under arrest."


    "You''re Gomo, Chief of Investigator Gomo?" He opened his mouth in surprise.


    "It''s my first time meeting you, Sir Gran." Before he continued, his subordinates returned while carrying a bag filled with white powder. "Sir, we have found it."


    "What are you doing?" The middle-aged man was stunned when he saw the white powder. He had no idea what it was.


    "We''ve suspected that your wife has been smuggling illegal substances."


    "My wife has weed addiction, but she''s in rehabilitation." He tried to exin but was stopped by Gomo.


    "If it''s only that, it''s good. Unfortunately, this white powder is not. This is one of the ingredients that caused the World ss Monster to be enraged on the other side a few days ago."


    "The World ss Monster?" He dropped his jaw to the ground.


    "Yes. Your son is using his own position to enable his mother to acquire this substance. He even stopped someone that wanted to prevent the cmity of the World ss Monster because of his pride. I have gotten the proof and a written statement from Sir War Saint himself. It''s better if you cooperate with us.


    "Your career is over and you are spared by serving the army for a few years because you have no idea what''s going on. Your wife and kid will face life imprisonment in Saint John Prison."


    "Saint John Prison? The most dangerous prison in Italy? Wait��"


    He stopped it again and said, "I have gotten the order from the highest rank. If you want to protect them with force, you''re going to die here because I bring two other Mythical Rank Experts with me."


    "There must be some misunderstanding. I have no idea what the white powder is."


    "You can exin yourself in court along with your wife and child. Even then, the most the court can do is life imprisonment as their action may cause billions of damage and deaths of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of civilians'' lives."


    "Do you know what will happen to them if they are imprisoned there? It''s basically sending them to be tortured for the rest of their life!" The middle-aged man tried to argue.


    However, Gomo didn''t buy it as he said coldly. "Move. I am going to apprehend the criminals!"


    The middle-aged man flinched as they looked at how Gomo approached both his wife and kid, thinking, ''Son, who did you offend?''

 Chapter 611 – Report

    <h4>Chapter 611 - Report</h4>


    The following day, Theo was sitting in front of Agata as thetter had just finished moving in.


    "How do you feel?" Theo asked while waiting for his grandfather to arrive.


    "Yeah��" Agata let out a long sigh as her expression didn''t seem to be that well. She still felt overwhelmed because of her family.


    Just by closing her eyes, she could still remember the chaotic situation inside the family. Her father threw a party because she would be receiving training from Leonardo for fifteen months.


    He believed Agata would be a different woman after this training.


    When she told him about her cohabiting with Theo, he practically didn''t care. After all, he had been following Agata''s movement and knew her feelings.


    At the same time, he was aware of how her beauty couldn''t affect him, so he believed Theo wouldn''t do anything to his daughter without her concern.


    Besides, Theo was someone who managed to fight Lorenzo equally and ended up with a draw. And the most important part was the fact that Theo only came to Italy three months ago.


    That alone was enough for him to see Theo''s potential. In terms of background and ability, Theo was among the best, and he respected his daughter. There was no way he would reject it.


    Even his wife wanted her to go there as soon as possible, and she did in the morning.


    "Do you want to rest for today?" Theo asked, concerned.


    "Nah, I''m fine." Agata shook her head helplessly. "Anyway, Sir Leonardo gave me something earlier."


    "What is it?" Theo frowned.


    "It seems to be the report of what happened yesterday." She thought for a moment and read the article. After two minutes, she summarized everything for Theo. "Hmm, do you remember the guy that provoked and used you?"


    "Ah, yes. Sir Leonardo must have done something, right?" Theo recalled how Leonardo told him about pro revenge.


    "Yeah. The police have arrested him along with his family. ording to the investigation report, the father is innocent but still needs to serve in the army for several years. And with this story, his career is over.


    "Unless he bes a fugitive, he won''t have anyone employing his service. Besides, the story will be spread all around the news, making sure everyone knows about it. So, yeah, he''s screwed.


    "The mother turns out to have weed addiction. However, she hid a white substance rted to a big drug that could make chaos in Italy. There''s no information about that drug, but the wife will be sent to Saint John Prison, the most brutal prison in Italy.


    "As for the son or the guy who provoked you�� He was using his position to enable his mother to get this drug. Hence, he''s also thrown into the Saint John Prison.


    "There''s still going to be a trial, but yeah, they might be able to escape a death sentence, but they will at least face life imprisonment in that prison."


    "Hoh?" Theo raised his eyebrows as he was pretty interested in why Leonardo called this pro revenge. He picked up a certain name and asked, "What is Saint John Prison?"


    "This is the most brutal prison in Italy. The people there havemitted the worst crime. The treatment for each criminal is quite inhuman ording to the rumor, and the criminals often fight each other and do something more.


    "I don''t feel good talking about this, but basically, the guy and his mother will lead a life worse than you can imagine to the point death sentence is better," Agata exined.


    "Is that so?" Theo narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I see. So this is what Sir Leonardo meant about pro revenge."


    "Sir Leonardo did this?" Agata widened her eyes in surprise.


    "Yes. He was using the incident to incite the police to take action�� No, maybe even higher. Then, he utilized his reputation to make the punishment worse. As for the rest, the police handled it.


    "In other words, Sir Leonardo had taken the revenge without him personally doing it. He only gave the information and stated the truth. The others did it for him."


    Agata opened her mouth in surprise. She never expected the real truth was something like this. She thought for a moment and asked, "This previous incident�� Was it rted to the goblins?"


    Theo paused for a moment and looked down while answering with a tired tone. "Yeah."


    Seeing Theo''s reaction was enough for her to know Theo had no intention of talking about it. Hence, she dropped the topic and asked, "How about our training?"


    "I am not sure. Normally, he will guide me every day for a few hours to make sure I do everything right. The rest will be personal training. It''s probably going to be the same." Theo shrugged. "Well, I am expecting you to fight in the front line too."


    "I know. I am nning to improve my Sense of Touch first to make my attack even more powerful."


    "That''s good." Theo nodded.


    "How about the missions? Do you need me to arrange your schedule in the short term?"


    "Nah, there won''t be any mission this year." Theo shook his head. "For now, I want you to focus on getting stronger. I will also ask you to have a spar with me from time to time, so I know your progress."


    "That''s fine by me. I can learn so much just by experiencing your tricks."


    "Nice." Theo then pointed at Ava. "By the way, you''re going to be stuck with me here for another two months, Ava. No hunt for the time being."


    "Kyu!" Ava smiled.


    Seeing Ava not speaking humannguage, Theo turned around and saw Leonardo nonchntly entering the mansion after his morning routine.


    The moment he saw them, he waved his hand and shouted, "Oh, kids! Time to practice."


    Theo and Agata rose from the chairs as they walked toward Leonardo.


    Before meeting him, Agata said one more thing. "Theo�� Thank you for doing all this��"


    "Nah, it''s you who created this chance. I simply grabbed that chance." Theo smiled. "Though, I am expecting you to work hard withoutining."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 612 – Agata Vs Ava

    <h4>Chapter 612 - Agata Vs Ava</h4>


    "Alright. So, what do we have here��" Leonardo scratched the back of his head as he was still working with what he could teach Agata.


    "I apologize for troubling you." Agata lowered her head as she knew she wasn''t supposed to be here to begin with.


    "Nah, it''s fine. I should be ming this guy instead." Leonardo shrugged. "Anyway, I don''t know your power, so how about you show it to me first? Theo did the same back then."


    "How?" Agata asked.


    "Hmm, fight Theo!" Leonardo pointed at Theo before regretting his decision. "Nah. Don''t fight him. He''s too much for you. Fight Ava instead!"


    "Kyu?!" Ava opened her mouth in shock.


    "Are you not confident? You can drop out if you aren''t." Leonardo smirked.


    "Kyu!" Ava red at Agata as if telling her that she wouldn''t lose.


    "Ahaha��" Agata rubbed her cheek gently, wondering what she should say in this situation.


    "Since both of you have agreed, then let''s start." Leonardo raised his hand as the two rooks appeared out of thin air. They were facing each other when they formed a shield, creating a fighting ring for them.


    It was a simple block-shaped fighting ring.


    Theo and Leonardo stepped aside, leaving Ava and Agata inside the barrier.


    "Remember, no killing blow. This is just me assessing your power." Leonardo shouted, reminding the rule. After that, he turned to Theo. "Your call."


    Theo nodded and checked their expressions, making sure they were ready. He then raised his hand. "Start!"


    Ava released her Lightning to surround her body while Agata ced her hand on the ground, emitting the pink smoke.


    "Hmm, that''s quite good." Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows. "That smoke is versatile. Don''t you think so?"


    "Yeah. That depends on the user though��" Theo agreed while looking at Agata.


    "Not going to offer your little sweetheart some advice?"


    "She''s not my sweetheart." Theo shook his head. "She is my assistant and Ava is my partner."


    "Well, whatever. We will watch this battle carefully. This is also a part of your training."


    "Okay." Theo nodded, understanding what Leonardo wanted him to do.


    Meanwhile, Ava, covered with lightning, paused for a moment, checking Agata''s position with her ears.


    After locating her, Ava leaped toward the pink smoke. As if knowing this pink smoke would give her illusions, Ava hurriedly released a bolt of lightning into the pink smoke.


    It exploded as the shock wave blew away the fog. Unfortunately for Ava, Agata managed to suppress the shock wave and stopped the movement of her fog.


    Only the center of the fog was blown away, turning it like a donut from the air.


    Ava hurriedly jumped into the air and spotted Agata.


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed her foot toward her and sent another bolt of lightning.


    "!!!" Agata raised her vision and hid inside the pink smoke, albeit it was toote as the lightning had already reached the ground in front of her.


    The lightning created a massive spark that forced Agata to take a few steps back.


    After that, a huge pink ball flew to the sky, hitting Ava.


    Unfortunately for her, Ava managed to catch that ball and threw it away. After that, Ava stepped on the air and positioned herself directly above Agata.


    She raised both feet and formed a tiny ball made of lightning. "Kyu!"


    She threw the ball down like dropping a bomb.


    Agata widened her eyes and tried to cover the entire battlefield with smoke. Unfortunately for her, this small lightning bomb was stronger than she initially expected.


    The moment itnded on the ground, the spark blew all the smoke andunched Agata to the wall.


    Bam.


    "Kh." Agata gritted her teeth as she controlled the smoke to fly.


    The smoke moved ording to her will, chasing Ava. When it was about to engulf her, the smoke formed a hand, catching her.


    Ava retracted her power and started falling, avoiding the hand. As soon as shended on the ground, Ava jumped forward to kick Agata.


    Thetter summoned two swords from her illusion smoke and blocked Ava''s attack.


    "Argh!" Agata felt Ava''s attack was far too strong for her to handle. In the end, she jumped to the side, barely dodging Ava''s kick.


    Bam.


    Ava hit the barrier and the lightning was dispersed. Still, Ava got the foothold that she used to chase after Agata.


    Not wanting to lose, Agata formed a scythe and shed the air, releasing a crescent-shaped pink smoke.


    Ava widened her eyes and jumped up.


    But Agata used that chance to follow her and turned her smoke into a humanoid form, bigger than her.


    The pink humanoid smacked Ava to the ground.


    Bam.


    It was supposed to be a heavy hit to Ava, but Agata was the one screaming. "Aaahhh!"


    The pink humanoid was destroyed and Agata was clutching her wrist. It turned out Ava let Agata hit her so that she could nt a sneak attack.


    Since Agata didn''t have anything to protect her, Agata hurriedly stood up and leaped toward her with her feet pointing at Agata.


    This was Ava''s special kick.


    "Kyu!"


    Agata gritted her teeth and formed the pink smoke to a sevenyered shield, stopping Ava''s kick.


    Unfortunately, all her shields shattered, failing to block Ava. Even Agata was forced to throw herself to the side and fell to the ground.


    Ava looked at Agata with a calm expression, wondering if she could still do more than this.


    The moment she reached the ground, Ava leaped toward her and sent another kick. "Kyu!"


    Agata couldn''t help but smile when she saw this opportunity.


    She formed the shield again, only to be blown away by Ava''s lightning.


    It was then Theo shouted, "Stop! It''s a draw!"


    The two were too engrossed with the fight as they didn''t manage to stop their attacks in time.


    Leonardo stepped in and formed a barrier to lock Ava.


    This made Ava hit the barrier and use her lightning inside.


    "Kyu?!" Ava tilted her head in confusion, not understanding why Theo stopped the match. But her doubt was answered when she lowered her vision.


    There were many pink spikesing out of the ground and were about to pierce her. It turned out Agata had been hiding the smoke underground for this one move.


    Ava''s kick would be life-threatening to Agata and vice versa�� Hence, Theo dered the match was over.

 Chapter 613 – Improvement

    <h4>Chapter 613 - Improvement</h4>


    "��" Agata and Ava looked at each other, realizing they fought too seriously.


    "Seriously, what were you two doing? Were you trying to kill each other?" Leonardo shook his head helplessly and said, "Theo, what do you think about this fight along with her power?"


    "First of all, the fight onlysted for four minutes before I needed to stop the fight. You two were fighting too seriously. You should take a bit more time to build up trick after trick, but well��" Theo let out a sigh.


    "Anyway, there are too many things to say, but I will summarize it for you two. It''s not a win if you need to sacrifice yourself. Unless this is a fight of the death where you need to defeat someone far stronger than you, there''s no need to do something like this.


    "It''s foolish.'' Theo didn''t hold back in his words, not caring about their feelings. "Also, both of you are not properly using the terrain. This is especially true for Agata.


    "Well, since I need to review your performance, I won''t hold back with what I''m going to say. First of all, you arepletely wasting the power of the pink smoke.


    "This smoke is very versatile in my opinion. After all, it can change its shape ording to your imagination. Just like that onest move, you can turn the fog into other weapons. Each weapon has its own use, so you need to understand all different types of weapons.


    "Then, your Sense of Touch is quite strong. You should use it to cover the edge of the smoke instead of controlling the smoke and maintaining its position. If you did this, the smoke would naturally bounce back to the center�� Something like self-recovery.


    "I''m sure this will make your job easier too. Also, this technique can stop Ava from getting inside the smoke. Ava will crash into an invisible barrier that''s supposed to be your pink cloud. This will make her a bit more cautious with your power.


    "You can even use this technique to erect an actual wall inside the fog. If you can turn the smoke into andscape, you can even make it look natural. This is why I said the skill is so versatile.


    "Besides, you can trick Ava into thinking she''s hitting the barrier Sir Leonardo set up earlier by using this smoke. Ugh, there are more, but I will let you discover it yourself. You think of your own attack and execute it�� Something like that.


    "That''s your performance for now. All I can say is I expect more than this from you." Theo sighed in disappointment.


    Agata looked down as if Theo''s harsh words affected her. However, since Theo had be this harsh to her, she knew that it meant Theo had taken her seriously and expected great things.


    Instead of mulling over her mistakes, she took every word into her heart, making sure she fixed her own style.


    After that, she gathered her resolve to hear Leonardo''s opinion.


    Leonardo thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, this guy has told you almost everything you need to know.


    "I will just add two things. First, do you know what is the advantage of your smoke?"


    Agata frowned and thought about it. Ultimately, she shook her head. "No, Sir."


    "This is an illusion smoke. What''s the purpose of illusion smoke? It''s to trap your opponent inside. But if you make it so obvious, no one wants to head inside other than Normal ss Monsters who act with their instinct.


    "Hence, you should get a new skill that can bebined with your smoke like Theo''s Illusion Maniption.


    "If you can change your smoke into something that resembles the real terrain in your surrounding, you can invite them in without them even realizing. You will immediately get the advantage because they won''t know whether it is true if you add the Sense of Touch to the mix.


    "The second thing is�� Your cloud acts like gas and liquid at the same time. This means you don''t need to hit the enemy with weapons. You can create snakes, thorns, spikes, and other things.


    "By using this smoke, you can create numerous things in the instant and use them to create a continuous barrage of attacks. This will make your enemy busy.


    "Of course, I think your control is not at that level, so I''m nning to improve your Control and Sense of Touch for the time being. These two will be the foundation of your fighting style from now on."


    Agata opened her mouth in surprise, realizing she could do much more with this technique. She hurriedly lowered her head and said, "I will be in your care."


    "Well, whatever. You will fight together with this guy, so I don''t think the strategy will be a problem. I will just teach you all the necessary techniques to follow his tactics and tricks."


    "Yes. I will learn from his order what I can do with my technique. I will do my best." Agata nodded furiously.


    "Good enough." Leonardo was satisfied with her answer. "Just make sure you don''t quit during this time."


    "I won''t," Agata replied without hesitation.


    "Okay. It''s going to be hard for you, but I believe you can do it." Leonardo then turned to Ava. "As for you, you''re too dependent on Theo''smand. Even though you have this much battle experience, you''re adjusting yourself to Theo.


    "Teamwork will be better if each individual can think of their own action. What you''re right now is not Theo''s partner, but his soldier. You need to think about your own n and execute it. In other words, you''re going to sh your idea with Theo''s in every fight as both of you try to match each other''s movement. I assure you that this team will get scarier." Leonardo smiled.


    "Kyu��" Ava raised her eyebrows and looked at Theo, who nodded his head, showing his approval.


    In fact, Theo never thought that way as he had beenmanding the group this whole time�� To think his action restrained Ava from doing more, he also needed to reconsider hismanding ability.

 Chapter 614 – Dark Poison Swamp

    <h4>Chapter 614 - Dark Poison Swamp</h4>


    A monthter. The temperature had dropped significantlypared tost month as they were prepared to face winter.


    "Ugh." Theo sighed while rubbing his hands to each other, trying to warm them. "It''s cold."


    "Yeah�� Wait a minute. Have you ever experienced winter?" Agata, sitting next to him, asked with a surprised face.


    "Thernd is a tropical country. There are only summer and rainy seasons throughout the year, so I have never been this cold." Theo shook his head.


    "Ah." Agata thought for a moment and nodded. "In that case, you need to have some preparation since it will be colder from this point on."


    "It''s gonna suck." Theo sighed.


    "Hmm? I heard something interesting. I actually forgot the fact that Thernd only has two seasons." Leonardo''s voice resounded from behind as Theo and Agata turned their heads around.


    "Yeah. I never fight in this season." Theo nodded and turned to Ava. "How about you, Ava?"


    Ava only pointed at her fur with a smile. "Kyu!"


    "No problem eh. I need fur like yours��" Theo sighed.


    "Well, fighting in the snow is quiteplicated too. That''s why we usually have a movement skill in our possession to make sure we can handle the thick snow."


    "Is it snowing too on the other side?"


    "Yeah. They have the same schedule as us. Some countries are different, but yeah, they still have winter." He nodded.


    "I don''t feel like going out��" Theo sighed.


    "Well, you have your Telekinesis, so you won''t have problems moving around. Still, you will face the cold wind brushing against your skin." Leonardo shrugged. "Anyway, I will be teaching you how to fight the chill before it starts snowing."


    "Great. I am looking forward to it." Theo nodded.


    "Also, you seem to have many admirers outside this country." Leonardo smirked.


    "What do you mean?"


    "There are a few influences asking for your cooperation."


    "But I am not going for an international mission."


    "No, no. I don''t mean that."


    "Eh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Is it the reverse international mission?" Agata asked with an unsure tone.


    "Exactly." Leonardo gave a thumbs up.


    "I see." Theo immediately understood after he heard the answer from Agata. "Instead of us sending our people to other countries for missions, other influences are sending their people to coborate with us. Is it something like that?"


    "Yep."


    "Hoh? I don''t know why they believe I will ept��"


    "Well, there is one mission you certainly can''t escape."


    "I can''t escape?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yeah. Have you ever heard about Dark Poison Swamp?"


    "Dark Poison Swamp?" Theo turned to Agata out of reflex as she was supposed to be the one answering that question.


    Agata nodded and exined, "Dark Poison Swamp is a ce where a King ss Monster known as the Poison King lives. So�� yeah, it''s gonna be dangerous. I want you to keep that in mind for now.


    "Every winter, the poison swamp will be frozen, so it won''t release any poison miasma. And the Poison King will enter his hibernation.


    "In this situation, it''s easy for us to cross the Dark Poison Swamp to get the Poison Fruit. This Poison Fruit allows one to remove the poison from a person''s body. In other words, it''s the most powerful antidote you can ever hold."


    Theo frowned as if noticing something wrong. "Wait a minute. Why don''t Mythical Rank Experts get this tree?"


    Leonardo waved his hand in defeat. "The poison tree is connected to the Poison King himself. So, it''s not possible for me to get one. If I wake up that Mythical Rank Beast, our battle will disrupt the environment and call upon the World ss Monster."


    "Ah. Then, there is the Supreme Rank Expert."


    "You should know that the Supreme Rank Experts are more sensitivepared to those below them, right?"


    "Yes."


    "It also applies in reverse. In other words, when you have be a Supreme Rank Expert, you will be able to locate other Supreme Rank Experts. That''s why we''re using our Awareness to hide our power normally." Leonardo exined.


    Although Theo had no knowledge about it, this was also the reason why Davi managed to locate the Red Lion while hiding himself with his own Awareness.


    "In that case, does that mean only Hero Rank Experts like us can do it?"


    "Yeah."


    "That sounds stupid."


    "I absolutely agree." Leonardo agreed without hesitation. "Unfortunately, that''s the case. If I could change that rule, I would have done it already."


    "So, you''re using youngsters like us to get these fruits?"


    "That''s basically it." Leonardo nodded. "For our War God Family, we usually help another influence we like and share the fruits. Of course, we also receive the benefits and you, who are going there, will also be paid in full.


    "Normally, each fruit can give you around a billion Zils and it will go far higher in an auction. There are only six fruits every year.


    "We will receive four and the other influence will get two. Out of those four, you get half of them. You can sell it to the family or keep it to yourself."


    "That sounds like a good deal." Theo nodded.


    "However, so as to not disturb the Poison King, we need to go in a small group. In other words, we will only go in a group of six�� twelve, including the other party." Agata added.


    "That''s right. I am nning to delegate you and Lorenzo as the leader of this operation. You can discuss with him who you want to bring. Well, to be honest, this is also the reason why we have apetition every year. The winner can create a team of their choice."


    Theo sighed. "I see. This also means we''re going topete with other influences, right?"


    "Yep. Lorenzo''s ability will be useful but be careful in using his ability around the Poison King. Basically, don''t use your power around him, steal those fruits, and escape. That''s all."


    "That''s quite dangerous." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Supposed I agree with this proposal, who is our partner?"


    Leonardo smirked as he answered yfully.


    "Russia."

 Chapter 615 – Unexpected Surprise

    <h4>Chapter 615 - Unexpected Surprise</h4>


    After receiving the news, Theo and Agata continued their training for a month as they were prepared to leave a few days after the new year.


    Agata also gathered the necessary information about this partnership while Theo had a discussion with Lorenzo.


    Theo was sitting in front of Lorenzo as they were nning to talk about the members.


    "So, what do you think about the members? As long as they''re from the family, we can ask them. Though, I won''t know whether they will ept or not." Lorenzo asked, presenting the problem.


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, I have no idea. You know more about this family, so it''s better if youe up with the proposal first."


    "Is that so?" Lorenzo thought for a moment and turned to Alice, who was sitting next to her. "Alice is one of the members of course. This is the advantage of bing the first in the yearlypetition. You can pick your partner. And while we''re at it, there''s no way I am going to leave my woman here. I''m sure you''re going to do the same, right?"


    Theo agreed. "Yeah. I will be bringing her on this mission, but she''s not my woman."


    "Great. I thought you were going to skip this, you know." Lorenzo winked his right eye, ignoring the second statement.


    "Nah, this is a big opportunity. After all, the Poison Fruit is quite useful to have." Theo shrugged.


    "Fair enough. If the enemy uses poison, we will be alright." Lorenzo nodded in agreement. "So, there are two left."


    "This is quite troubling��" Theo looked down, contemting whether he should bring more people or not.


    "What do you mean?" Lorenzo tilted his head in confusion.


    "I mean, we need to share the reward with them too, right?"


    "Oh! Even though we will only get six Poison Fruits, which ultimately end up with you and me getting one each. We can extract the fruit to make multiple serums. That''s why it''s not that big of a deal to share that. You can leave the negotiation to Felice." Lorenzo gave a thumbs up.


    "I see." Theo said, "Then, do you have any members in mind?"


    "I actually want to bring Luka with us."


    "Luka?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Yeah. Although Luka is kind of barbaric, his strength is undeniable. After all, even though the poison miasma is trapped underneath the snow and ice, monsters can still walk around there. He''s going to be useful. Also, his wind affinity is good in this situation."


    "Hmm. Then we should bring his assistant as well." Theo added.


    "Why? Mara should be the better choice here." Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows.


    Theo pointed at himself. "I am an illusionist. My assistant is an illusionist. You��"


    "I am a magic warrior. She is a magician�� In addition to Luka, who is a fighter�� I see. You need someone to focus on our defense."


    "Yeah. My rabbit can help us with firepower, so there''s no need for more."


    "Got it." Lorenzo nodded. "We can even negotiate better terms with Luka then. That''s a good idea."


    "Yep. I will leave the negotiation to you."


    "Sure thing." Lorenzo then turned to Felice. "Anyway, let''s move on to the second topic."


    "Okay. It''s about Russia''s members, right?"


    "Yeah. Russia has sent their representatives from three big influences. Czar, Alik, and Guseva." Lorenzo showed all the members to him, stunning Theo.


    "Huh?" Theo opened his eyes in shock as he never expected to find this person again. "What is she doing here?"


    "I guess it will be a reunion party for you." Lorenzo smirked.


    The name that surprised Theo was none other than his former teammate.


    Alea Eilric.


    "How��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "I am the one who needs that information. You are close to her, right?"


    "Even I am unaware of this." Theo shook his head.


    "Whatever. ording to the information, I don''t know how she gets it, but she has been epted by the empress. She ising here with the ice princess, Afanasiia. She''s probably the one leading this group.


    "She posed quite a challenge for me back in the Grand Gaia Competition��" Lorenzo smiled and sighed. "Well, she is dangerous and powerful. I want you to be careful around her.


    "Though I won''t underestimate any of the four either. From Alik, we have Sofiya and Savin. They''re top-tier Knights. They''re a powerful heir and heiress, so you can rely on them from time to time.


    "As for those from Czar�� They''re quite arrogant people. They are sort of rulers in that ce as their family has the strongest man in Russia. Though, in overall abilities, Afanasiia is better than them. So, yeah��


    "Anyway, your reputation in the War God Family is good but still less than mine. In addition to our age difference, I''m going to be the leader of this operation. I have tried to argue, but my father shut it down, so sorry, you can only be the vice leader."


    Theo shook his head. "It''s fine. I know my position well."


    "Don''t worry. You''re going to be my vice captain and all decisions will be yours to make. I am just making sure you all work your share." Lorenzo chuckled.


    "Okay. Tell that to Luka and Velio too."


    "Sure thing��" Lorenzo''s expression suddenly became serious as he looked Theo in the eyes. "Still, no matter what, I won''t let anyone look down on you. This is the least I can do."


    Theo smiled. "Thank you. I will be relying on you, Lorenzo."


    "Hahahah!" Lorenzoughed out loud as he rose from the seat. "Anyway, I will be contacting youter for the final decision. We''re leaving on 5th January."


    "Got it."


    ��


    Meanwhile, in Russia, two girls were fighting.


    The first woman was none other than Alea Eilric. She waved her swords and destroyed all the snowkes that were about to hit her with a calm look.


    Bang.


    The sh was precise and swift, cutting them perfectly in the middle.


    Suddenly, a woman''s voice resounded from the front.


    "We''ve got confirmation from the War God Family. It seems your friend ising with us."


    Alea turned around and looked at the white-haired woman. "Is that so?"


    "You''re not happy? I thought you came here because��." She stopped with a smile.


    "Well, it''s been a few months�� I haven''t produced any results yet."


    "You haven''t? You''re joking, right?"


    "Compared to him."


    "��"

 Chapter 616 – Unexpected Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 616 - Unexpected Reunion</h4>


    Another month passed by so quickly as Theo had gotten used to the cold with Leonardo''s help.


    At the same time, he also used that chance to finally upgrade his Metamorphosis and rece his Three Great Defense.


    He had one skill that stuck in his mind. He even used most of his money to get the skill from an auction. Obviously, Agata was the one who went there.


    Skill: Metamorphosis (B)


    Effect: Moderate Transformation. The user can transform into another creature ording to the detail in the user''s head. Limit: 15 Forms.


    Skill: Illusion Destruction (B)


    Effect: Allow the user to turn other skills into an illusion. Power is limited.


    Theo deemed these two skills would be useful in the next mission, so he had no hesitation in acquiring them.


    Before leaving the mansion, Theo couldn''t help but smile when he looked at his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 362


    EXP: 159,599/ 2,061,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B)


    Attributes: Strength 480, Endurance 306, Agility 301, Vitality 306, Magic Power 600


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    He turned to Agata, who had a smile on her face, ready for the mission. "Let''s go."


    "Yep."


    The car drove them right outside the teleportation gate, where Lorenzo, Felice, Luka, and Velio had been waiting for them.


    "Oh, the stars have finally arrived." Luka made a small grin.


    Theo looked at him and shook his head. "I apologize for making you wait."


    "I was joking." Luka raised his hands in defeat, never expecting Theo to still lower himself to apologize. At the very least, the previous win didn''t get into his head.


    "Anyway, I am going to teleport us to the camp right outside the Dark Poison Swamp. We''re assuming with the rate of the snow, everything will bepletely covered in a day." Lorenzo stopped them and exined.


    "Okay. Let''s go." Theo nodded.


    Since he had given the confirmation, the group entered the gate.


    As soon as they registered their identities in the city, Lorenzo used his Teleportation Skill to send them to their destination.


    They arrived in just a few hours as Lorenzo could teleport them every three minutes for a certain distance.


    Theo immediately checked their surroundings while looking at their legs buried under the snow.


    His vision was filled with trees covered in snow. Staring at them made one heart peaceful, but they couldn''t stay there for a long time.


    So, Theo said, "Lorenzo. Let''s just go by foot from now on."


    "Yeah. It''s going to take fifteen minutes from here." Lorenzo agreed while opening his Skylink to check their location. "Though, Luka can lift us all."


    "Eh?" Luka wanted toin but still did it.


    However, before they took off, they heard a female''s voiceing toward them.


    "Theo!"


    Theo turned around and saw the blue-haired girl that he hadn''t seen for a while.


    The girl was floating a few inches above the snow and leaped toward him as if trying to hug him.


    "I miss you!"


    "��" Theo closed his eyes and used his Blink to appear behind her, letting the girl dive inside the snow head first.


    "Ne Griffith��" Lorenzo frowned, never expecting the Griffith Family toe here. "Why are you here? There should be no one from the Griffith Familying to Italy."


    "Are you underestimating us?" Ne smirked before she flew to Theo. "I am here to see Theo while participating in this event."


    "I believe I have made it clear that I won''t have anything to do with the Griffith Family." Theo was displeased by this action, so he wanted to question Ne.


    "As I said, I am here just to meet you." Ne smiled. "I am wondering if you have changed your mind."


    "Huh? I don''t know what you are talking about."


    "I''m talking about my marriage proposal��"


    "Marriage��!" Luka dropped his jaw in disbelief.


    "Proposal?" Lorenzo also never heard about this, so he wanted to say something, but all the words stuck in his throat.


    Agata was the first to speak, albeit with a distorted face. "Theo�� Is the reason you never ept me because you are into incest?"


    "No."


    "Yes."


    Theo and Ne answered at the same time. Obviously, Theo said ''no'' as he immediately rified. "She''s the only one thinking this way. But still�� To think she is dering it in front of everyone. It''s embarrassing."


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. We''re seven generations apart, so it''s okay for us to marry."


    "And I already said, I won''t have anything to do with the Griffith Family. You''re already out of consideration with just the fact you''re from that family." Theo shook his head.


    "Eh? But love can ovee anything."


    "No. It can''t ovee my rationality."


    "But still�� I want to abandon my teammates here to join you guys. Do you think it''s possible?" Ne asked yfully.


    "Nope. I don''t agree." Theo shook his head.


    "Eh��" She pouted, trying to make Theo change his mind. "Come on."


    "Are you trying to anger me or something?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Of course not. I already said I will always be your family." Ne smiled.


    "Not anymore." Theo shook his head. "I don''t wish to get entangled with my past again, so piss off."


    "Okay. There''s no need to talk about the past. Let''s talk about the future." Ne didn''t give up, but Theo already red at Lorenzo, signaling him to teleport them away.


    While shaking his head helplessly, Lorenzo snapped his fingers and sent them to another ce close to the meeting point with Russia''s team.


    As soon as they got away, Lorenzo made a small smirk and teased Theo. "To think you two have that kind of rtionship��"


    Agata looked away as if showing her disappointment.


    Theo sighed and took out a small piece of paper from his pocket, tossing it to Agata. "Read this."


    "This is��" Agata read the note and was taken aback.


    "I expected it, but�� yeah." Theo sighed.


    "What is it?" Lorenzo wanted to take a peek, but Theo stated with a firm tone. "Only you can read it."


    Agata hurriedly crushed the note and handed it back to Theo. "Here. Sorry."


    Theo put it back inside his coat while Agata closed her eyes with a disturbed expression, recalling the note.


    ''I am supposed to be controlled. y along.''


    Theo couldn''t help but make an awkward smile. "I guess�� This event is going to be troublesome."

 Chapter 617 – Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 617 - Meeting</h4>


    Agata couldn''t say anything after reading that note.


    On the other hand, Theo was curious as to how far Ne was being controlled. He still remembered how Ne was so agile every time they met to the point she could sneak in a message back in the Grand Gaia Competition''s banquet.


    Seeing that she managed to do it perfectly while being controlled, Ne must still have a portion of her consciousness. So, Theo wanted to know more about the situation to see whether he really needed to kill Ne or not in a life and death situation.


    Of course, if such a thing wasn''t necessary, he would be happy to y along. After all, Ne was one of the few people that had yet to lie to him. Although her ambition was weird, he could still trust her.


    Even though he didn''t want to have anything to do with the Griffith Family, knowing Ne and getting along as an individual was more than wee.


    That was why he felt bad to see what he expected hade.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "Anyway, we shouldn''t stay here. Let''s move out."


    The group nodded their heads as Lorenzo took another look at the map and pointed at the northwest. "Anyway, it''s this direction."


    "Let''s go." Theo nced at Luka, signaling it was his time.


    "Tsk. I will help you this time." Luka pped his hands as the wind began to form around their feet, blowing all the snow away.


    Without the snow, Luka could ce his hand on the ground and use his skill. "Whirlwind. All of you better not make any unnecessary movements."


    After using this technique, the wind started to revolve underneath them and expanded into a tornado that somehow bent after a certain height, carrying them to the direction Lorenzo pointed at earlier.


    Theo utilized his Telekinesis to blow the cold air away, allowing the group to travel at a fast speed without freezing.


    It took them only a few seconds before they found an igloo in the middle of nowhere.


    However, Theo''s eyes were not locked on it first. Instead, he was staring at the Dark Poison Swamp they were going to infiltrate after this.


    He could see two-color gas permeating the air continuously, enveloping the region.


    ording to the information, the gas came out of the ground and water, making this ce uninhabitable to all creatures except for poison-based creatures.


    As if noticing Theo''s gaze, Agata said, "On a normal day, it''s far denser than that. I don''t think you can survive even if you bring all the antidotes."


    "Yeah. Luckily, the poisonous gas in this ce has color. The most dangerous one is usually odorless and colorless after all." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Agreed." Lorenzo joined their conversation and reminded them they were going to meet their partner.


    Russia''s team seemed to have felt their presence, so all of them wereing out in session.


    Luka then bent his tornado again, allowing them tond on the ground safely as the residual of the wind pushed all the snow to give them a small tform to stand on.


    "Wee, wee." A white-haired woman waved her hand with a smile. Her white eyes intertwined with Lorenzo as a smile appeared on her face. "It''s been a while, eh, Young Master Lorenzo?"


    "There''s no need for such an honorific." Lorenzo shook his head. "We''re cooperating on equal ground, so there''s no need to be polite."


    "Oh, I appreciate it." She smiled. "I will take your offer and talk casually then."


    Theo, next to him, was staring at her before noticing the blonde woman that stood behind Afanasiia.


    Thetter also noticed him and nodded. She didn''t openly show their rtionship, considering it would be rude to Afanasiia.


    Afanasiia had yet to look at Theo as she said, "Anyway, we will be relying on your Teleportation Ability in order to be the first one to grab them."


    "Sure. Though, I just want to tell you one thing. The one whoes up with the n is not me." Lorenzo smiled.


    "Oh?" She narrowed her eyes and turned to Theo, thinking he would be the best option other than Lorenzo. "Hello, my name is Afanasiia. It''s a bit hard to pronounce and long, so just call me Ana."


    "It''s my pleasure." Theo nodded his head.


    "I will be counting on you then."


    "Yes."


    Ana''s heart started racing as she never expected that Theo only answered with the shortest line possible, making the atmosphere awkward.


    So, she changed her strategy. "You were from the same team as my partner here, right? I saw you on the Grand Gaia."


    She nced at Alea as if signaling her toe out.


    Alea made an awkward smile while scratching the back of her head. She ended up waving her hand to Theo and said, "It''s been a while, Theo."


    "Indeed." Theo nodded calmly.


    "Well, I guess the reunion can be postponed. We first need to see whether he''s capable or not. After all, his track record is too shallow for us to believe in him." A guy stepped forward.


    Everyone stopped for a second and turned their heads, looking at the one who blurted out such a remark.


    It was Zhilov.


    "Ho? Did you just say that he''s ipetent?" Lorenzo frowned as he took this personally.


    "I am not." Zhilov shrugged his shoulders. "Unlike you, whose track record is long and can be trusted, we only have little to no information about him. There are only the Grand Gaia Competition and the War God Family''s yearlypetition.


    "His strategy is good, butmanding us is not that easy. We have twelve members in total and don''t have any experience in working together." Zhilov exined, trying to be as reasonable as possible.


    "Y��" Before Lorenzo said something, Theo stopped him and said, "I have no intention in making us cooperate with each other in a fight. You do you. You said I''m not trustworthy�� Such a coincidence�� I can say the same word to you."


    Zhilov''s expression turned cold as he asked while frowning. "What did you say?"


    "Do I need to repeat it? Well, I guess I should put it in a simple word. Don''t drag me down, Mr�� Ipetent."

 Chapter 618 – Small Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 618 - Small Discussion</h4>


    The tension rose as Lorenzo nced at Theo, supporting his stand.


    "You''re calling me ipetent? Do you think you''re stronger than me?" Zhilov narrowed his eyes as he stepped forward, nning to confront Theo.


    "I don''t need to say some flowery words. You''re not my boss or something. You don''t respect me and feel offended when I do the same? Do you have some screws loose in your head?" Theo wasn''t afraid of Zhilov even with his background.


    "In that case, shouldn''t we get an exnation from the leader of this group?" Lorenzo nced at Ana.


    Even Ana didn''t expect that Lorenzo would openly protect Theo. She had no idea that Lorenzo had a close rtionship with Theo.


    That was why he felt offended when Zhilov spouted all those words. He stated with a firm tone. "I don''t mind if we stop the cooperation right now. Obviously, my War God Family will take everything.


    "Don''t forget that it''s you who need us, not the other way around." Lorenzo ced his left hand on the handle and flicked his de, preparing to draw it if necessary.


    "That''s enough." Ana sighed and red at Zhilov. "If you''re nning to embarrass yourself, you can do it alone. If you are going to continue with this pointless statement, I have no choice other than to expel you.


    "What you need to face is not me or anyone in this ce, but your own family back home. You will need to exin your own stupidity."


    "What did��" Zhilov clenched his fists.


    "What? You can''t even defeat Alea�� Are you nning to challenge me?" Ana''s tone became colder and colder. "Your family has granted me the full right to expel you. If you can''t obey me, get lost."


    Zhilov gritted his teeth and turned around, snorting.


    After that, Ana raised her hand as a silver-colored staff appeared on her hand. She then waved her fingers upward as the snow was pushed away and ice blocks began to appear, gradually forming an igloo.


    "I hope this is enough for an apology."


    Lorenzo paused for a moment and nced at Theo.


    Seeing he had already stepped back, Lorenzo sheathed his sword until a clicking sound echoed in their ears.


    He stopped pursuing the matter.


    "I guess it''s time for us to discuss how we should deal with this." Ana sighed and waved her hand again, forming another igloo. "We can talk inside there. The rest can go to their respective igloo to hide from the snow."


    "Okay." Lorenzo nodded. "Theo, with me."


    "Got it." Theo then nced at Agata and said, "Take care of the rest for me."


    Agata agreed and stepped back. Ava also leaped from Theo''s shoulder to Agata''s palm as she brought her inside.


    Alea''s eyes were locked on Agata and Ava since she had never seen them back in Thernd. Ava aside, she never thought Theo would be apanied by a woman.


    From how she behaved, they didn''t seem to be in a rtionship. Even then, it was weird for Theo to take an interest in women, especially a random woman.


    Unfortunately, she couldn''t ask anything for the time being.


    "Alea." Ana raised her eyebrows as if asking her toe.


    She nodded without hesitation since this was the time she could be away from others.


    The four of them entered the third igloo with nothing in it. Theo and Lorenzo put down their bag and ced a warm mantle on the ground for them to sit.


    "Wait, you''re not going to give us something��" Ana asked with a teasing tone. "We''re just poor women who��"


    Before she finished her words, Theo had already taken out another mantle but gave it to Alea, not Ana, as he didn''t know her.


    "Thanks." Alea made a small smile and received Theo''s kindness.


    Ana nced at Lorenzo as if asking for the same treatment as Alea. However, Lorenzo stood firm and ignored her.


    "Tsk. You''re so cold to a woman." Ana clicked her tongue and sat directly on top of the ice whileining, "Whatever. It''s not like I''m affected by this."


    As if she didn''t like Lorenzo''s treatment, she couldn''t help but say, "Lorenzo, are you obsessed with me? To think you pick a woman with ice affinity as your assistant."


    "Not at all. She is different from you." Lorenzo shrugged. "You should fix your sh*tty character or you won''t have a husband."


    "Hmph. I am the one who chooses, not them." Ana waved her hand as if telling him that she didn''t care about it because she could pick whoever she liked.


    "Whatever. I don''t really care about your life. Aren''t we here to discuss the problem?"


    "Still, isn''t it more interesting to see the reunion?" She smirked and nced at Alea and Theo.


    "What''s there to discuss?" Alea shook her head. "With just a single nce, I know he''s led a good life in Italy. Besides, talking about random things in a serious situation like this will be useless, right?"


    "Agreed." Theo didn''t hesitate to admit and said, "Though, I never expected us to meet again in this situation."


    "Yeah. It just happened that way�� Thanks to you that is."


    Theo closed his eyes, connecting the dots. He soon understood that Nina was the one introducing Alea to Ana''s influence. No, his parents might be involved too.


    Either way, she didn''t seem to be controlled by the Griffith Family anymore since she was now under the empress.


    Ana and Lorenzo didn''t know what to say about their conversations. Both of them seemed close but far at the same time.


    Lorenzo sighed and said, "Anyway, we have three stages for our n. First, I am going to teleport us. I''m sure you know that this ce is surrounded by monsters, right? We will eliminate them until I can use my teleportation again.


    "We will continue doing this until we reach our first checkpoint where we can only go by foot afterward. This is going to be troublesome because we need to fight monsters on the way��


    "Usually, we will drag them outside the Poison King''s detection range before killing them, but this year, we''re going to loop around them."


    "Loop around?" Ana furrowed her eyebrows.


    "We will have Theo lead the way. His rabbit can locate the monsters in the surroundings, so we should be pretty safe�� After that, we grab the fruit and flee from the scene."

 Chapter 619 – Entering The Dark Poison Swamp

    <h4>Chapter 619 - Entering The Dark Poison Swamp</h4>


    The next day.


    All twelve people were standing not far from the Dark Poison Swamp, looking at it as they waited for the air to stoping out of the ground.


    Theo observed the terrain. Like a normal swamp, he could see small tunnels connecting the water and some snow that had been dyed green or orange.


    They had been contaminated by the poisonous substance, but luckily, there was no gas visible anymore. In other words, the snow managed to trap the gas inside.


    "We will soon go," said Lorenzo while looking at Ana''s team. He recalled the discussion yesterday and continued, "Your team will handle the monsters like us. If there''s a Supreme Rank Monster, we will cooperate with each other to defeat it.


    "If it''s not possible, we will buy time until I can teleport us again. Okay?" Lorenzo asked for their confirmation.


    "Got it." Ana agreed without hesitation.


    Seeing less and less poisonous airing out of the ground and floating not far from the ground, the group knew it was time for them to make a move.


    "Wear your mask. The mask should be able to withstand this level of poison, and by the time this mask is ineffective, the air should be good to breathe." Lorenzo announced.


    All of them immediately picked up their masks as Lorenzo snapped his fingers, using his Teleportation.


    The entire group disappeared as they were sent to a small in inside the Dark Poison Swamp.


    Theo and the others immediately looked around to see whether they had a problem or not.


    As if noticing something, Theo suddenly leaped from the ground.


    "Below the snow," Theo shouted as he saw a green-colored snake leaped into the air, trying to bite him.


    However, it was soon sliced into two by Lorenzo as Theo shouted, "More areing. They''re not strong, but they have numbers."


    "Use your Awareness to check your surroundings." Lorenzo and Ana shouted.


    Six of them then leaped out of the ground as there were more and more snakesing out.


    Ava kicked one of them while Theo pierced the oneing for Lorenzo.


    After that, Theo looked to the side, wondering about the power of the other team.


    When Ana leaped into the air, two snakes came out at the same time.


    Without hesitation, Alea used both swords to take them down, leaving herself vulnerable. Another snake came out to attack her, but a small ice bolt fell on top of the snake and formed a crystal that trapped the snake before it shattered into pieces.


    "Theo." Agata called him and asked, "Should I handle all of them? They''re not strong."


    "Got it. Just handle those around us." Theo nodded while warning all of them. "You better not move."


    Lorenzo raised his hands in defeat. "Please."


    "Then��" Agata pped her hands as pink spikes emerged from the ground with a snake on each of them. She had just killed around twenty snakes in an instant.


    Luka couldn''t help but whistle. He was surprised to see Theo''s capable assistant in action.


    As for Agata, she had a good foundation in Awareness, especially her vision, from the beginning due to her illusionist job. Her Sense of Touch improved further after getting trained by Leonardo. So, killing hidden enemies underneath the snow was just a simple task for her.


    Alea was astonished by her power. It turned out the woman was this strong. Even the current her didn''t dare to underestimate this power.


    "Oh, how I wish someone could do that too in this group��" Anamented in a joking manner.


    "Liza." Theo called Agata''s fake name andmanded, "Handle them."


    "I didn''t ask to be helped though." Ana nced at Theo, politely declining the help as she was confident in killing them. At the same time, they weren''t supposed to be helping each other because of Theo''s statement.


    However, Theo simply shrugged and said, "I don''t have time to argue with you. Ten wolves areing from the left. Lorenzo, Luka will handle them. I will deal with the monsters on the front. Ana''s team will kill the monsters from the right. You will have more workter."


    "��" Ana listened to Theo''s words, watched how Agata killed the remaining snakes, and found thirteen four-legged monsters not far from her. "That''s our enemies, I guess."


    Lorenzo and Luka brought their assistants, facing ten monsters that had a simr appearance to a deer.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Agata were watching ten gori-like creaturesing toward them. The monsters were running on two feet and had white fur, making them look like yeti, albeit they looked fat instead of muscr.


    An eagle appeared on top of Theo''s shoulder, and it soon flew to the sky. Ava jumped on top of the snow carefully, searching for a gap to attack. Meanwhile, Agata had spread her pink smoke underneath the snow, prepared to help Theo at any given moment.


    "Magic Bullets." Theo summoned two Magic Bullets and sent them toward the creatures. Suddenly, the Magic Bullets split into twenty, startling the fat yetis.


    The three in the front raised their big hands and covered them with a green-colored aura.


    They smacked the Magic Bullets and experienced the explosion.


    While they were busy with the Magic Bullets, Agata''s spikes emerged from the snow and pierced the yetis.


    "Roar." The yetis screamed in pain as they hurriedly smacked the spikes to shatter them.


    However, Theo appeared on top of them, slicing its neck. "Alright. That''s one."


    Seeing Theo''s appearance, four yetis leaped to attack him, but an eagle dove from the sky and hit the yeti on the head after covering its entire body with golden light. The head was crushed in an instant.


    At the same time, a rabbit kicked the yeti''s head and snapped its neck effortlessly.


    With only two yetis remaining, Theo used his Magic Power Expansion to cover his spear before smashing the yeti''s head.


    Thest yeti obviously didn''t like it and sent a punch at his face, but Magic Bullets looped around Theo''s body and pierced his body as if they were expecting the yeti toe.


    "Five down�� Another five to go��" Theo muttered with a poker face as the fight wasn''t even a challenge.

 Chapter 620 – Anafasiia

    <h4>Chapter 620 - Anafasiia</h4>


    "Haha. This is our power." Zhilovughed uncontrobly as he killed thest monster.


    "Zhilov. Stop embarrassing us." Ana clicked her tongue as she started getting annoyed by his constant show-off.


    "What did you say?" Zhilov obviously disagreed with her, albeit Ana couldn''t care less of his feelings and pointed at Theo and Agata.


    Theo was already standing on top of corpses with Ava on his shoulder. Agata didn''t even move from her position as they finished killing ten monsters faster than anyone else.


    "I don''t care what you think, but I need to remind you of one thing. The fact you still lose against Alea means your talent is only that far. You are far above average, but there are always geniuses that can surpass you, including me. If you keep overestimating yourself, you will get killed sooner orter.


    "Either way, I am going to report your performance to your family without giving any flowery words. What you need to worry about right now is not your own smallpetition, but how to exin the situation to your family."


    Ana''s tone was cold and devoid of emotion. Her gaze was filled with disgust.


    Zhilov froze for a few seconds as if her words struck deep into his heart.


    Meanwhile, Theo had regrouped with Agata after touching all the corpses before moving to Lorenzo, who had also finished his job.


    "Good work, Theo." Lorenzo smiled.


    "They''re weak. That''s all." Theo shook his head and pointed at the front. "The monsters will get stronger after this��"


    "Agreed." Lorenzo nodded.


    On the contrary, Luka was stunned by Lorenzo''s performance. He saw Lorenzo''s Sword Strike split into two, allowing him to kill the monsters even faster.


    ''Only a few months and he''s gotten this strong? It seems our gap has increased dramatically�� How?'' Luka gulped down as he finally felt the pressure from Lorenzo. If thetter continued his progress at this pace, no one would be able to challenge him as the sessor in the near future.


    He couldn''t help but sigh and mutter inwardly, ''I need to investigate how he can get strongerter.''


    Since all groups had killed the monsters in the area, they gathered again to wait for Lorenzo, but Ava suddenly raised her head.


    "Kyu." Ava listened to the footsteps and pointed at the northeast. "Kyu!"


    Ana and Theo were the first to react. As the one who was responsible for this direction, Ana turned around and found seven green-colored wolves marching toward them at high speed.


    "We''re dealing with this." Ana raised her hand, signaling them to get into formation.


    On the contrary, Lorenzo sighed and patted Theo''s shoulder. "You should be watching their performance. They''re not less powerful than us, especially that Anafasiia."


    "I have never watched her battle, so I don''t know. Mind telling me her power?"


    Lorenzo smiled and pointed at her. "Look at that."


    Theo nced at the Russia Team.


    Ana raised her finger as ice spikes began toe out of the snow.


    The wolves avoided it by jumping into the air, but the two Knights in their group came forward.


    "Spike Shield!" The first knight formed a giant translucent shield that pushed all the wolves together. The shield had numerous spikes that stabbed the wolves.


    And the second knight touched the shield from behind while pouring her magic power to the shield. "Enchant!"


    The shield was enveloped by a pink aura and the spikes grew evenrger as they impaled all the wolves.


    The first knight mmed his shield to the ground as the giant shield also followed that movement, trying to crush all the wolves.


    Before the shield fell to the ground, two guys, Zhilov and his friend from Czarnded on top of the shield. Zhilov clenched his hand as the wind began to gather around them, trying to squeeze them.


    When they were about to be crushed by either the shield or the wind, Alea arrived behind the wolves while swinging her swords, releasing a huge crescent-shaped sword wave that cut all of them.


    Bam.


    The shield fell to the ground and ttened all of them. In other words, they just killed seven wolves in an instant.


    "They have the right to be arrogant since they are indeed qualified to do it. In fact, they use that arrogance topete with each other in killing all the monsters. They cared nothing about teamwork as long as they could kill their opponents.


    "Even your friend, Alea, must have been influenced by them." Lorenzo smirked and asked, "Then, who do you think killed the wolves?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes as he assessed the battle once again in his head.


    "That Zhilov got one, the knight killed one, Alea took two of them, and Ana��three." Theo raised his eyebrows in amazement.


    Although it wasn''t that visible, another wave of spikes hit the wolves again before the shield fell.


    "Still�� That''s not one skill. The spike killed one of them but there was a burst of ice that froze one wolf to death. Another wolf died because of another thing�� Something like a snake but made of ice." Theo frowned, realizing Ana had released four skills in that one moment.


    "That''s right. That''s her strength. Ana can use skills in rapid session. In fact, no one in her generation can match her speed��"


    "In motion," Theo muttered.


    "In��What?" Lorenzo tilted his head in confusion as he didn''t clearly hear what Theo said.


    "It''s nothing." Theo shook his head as he said in his heart. ''Using skills in session�� I, too, have seen it and learned it from Fenrir. Though, my current skill is not as quick. Only my control is better than her.''


    "There''s one more thing you need to know. Her skills can be used continuously�� I mean, by the time she uses all her skills, she can repeat the sequence from the start. In other words, she is simr to a walking fortress," said Lorenzo before snorting. "Not that I admit she''s stronger than me��"


    "Haha." Theo chuckled as he knew there were so many talented people around his level in the world. He wanted to sh with them to get to know their skills and learn from them.


    "Though, it''s surprising that you can see all her skills in your first time."


    Theo shrugged, not saying anything regarding his special eyes.

 Chapter 621 – Theo And Agata’s Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 621 - Theo And Agata��s Coordination</h4>


    "Heh��" Theo smirked.


    When Lorenzo saw his face, he couldn''t help but think, ''This guy must be thinking how to make Ana''s ability as his own�� Not that I mind though.''


    After killing the wolves, Ava closed her eyes and remained silent on Theo''s shoulder while Ana led her group back to the others.


    Ana obviously felt Theo''s stare and felt a bit ufortable to the point she whispered to Alea. "Hey, your boyfriend is staring at me��"


    Alea shook her head as if she had already grown ustomed to it. She said, "It''s normal for him to do that. In fact, the moment he stares like that, it means he has grasped a bit of your ability and will replicate it in the future.


    "All his former teammates, including me, have experienced it. I think some participants have experienced it too, especially Ne." Alea shrugged, maintaining her calm.


    "He can do that?" Ana raised her eyebrows in amazement. "I was too upied with training, so I never read any report."


    "He''s that kind of person. If you can''t improve yourself by leaps and bounds, he''s going to lose interest in you and move on." Alea shrugged.


    "��" Ana pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "You have it rough eh."


    Alea didn''t answer her because it was also the reason why she could reach this level in a short period.


    They continued walking toward Theo and the others before waiting for another thirty seconds.


    After that, Lorenzo used his Teleportation again to send them to another ce.


    This time, Ava was alerted the moment they arrived.


    She raised her head and looked around her with a shocked face.


    "Kyu, Kyu! Kyu Kyu Kyu!" Ava pointed at their surroundings.


    Her voice obviously grasped everyone''s attention and Theo broke the horrible news.


    "We''re surrounded." Theo sighed. "Their numbers are unknown. We need to defend this position or breakthrough. Though, thetter is going to invite more and more monsters, so I prefer the first choice."


    Lorenzo and Ana said without hesitation. "Got it!"


    Theo narrowed his eyes as he kept racking his brain to think of a solution. After all, the deeper they got, the higher the level of the monsters would be. That was why this kind of strategy couldn''t work to the very end.


    After considering for a moment, Theo said, "Alright. This is my order. Ana''s Team will handle those on our back and start sweeping all the enemies in a clockwise direction. Lorenzo and Felice will hold the right, Luka and Velio will stop thoseing from the front. Agata and I will handle the one on the right.


    "This is not cooperation. It''s just a simplepetition to see whether you''re useless enough or not to do your task." Theo''s tone was cold and firm, taunting Zhilov.


    Thetter gritted his teeth but didn''t say anything because Ana kept ring at him.


    "Got it."


    More and more monsterse into their vision, from those walking on two feet to those crawling with their body.


    "Go," Theo shouted as the signal to move.


    They immediately took their positions and prepared to face the iing monsters.


    From one nce alone, they could find more than a hundred monstersing at them. If the previous ce only offered level 200-300 monsters, they could see level 400 monsters this time.


    In other words, the situation had be even more dangerous. This was also why they usually employed the War God Family to get the Poison Fruit.


    "I am going in." Theo watched the monsters charging at them. "Don''t mind me. Just kill all of them even if you need to steal those kills from me."


    "Okay." Agata nodded with a serious expression. She raised her hand as pink smoke began to float above her head.


    This pink fog turned into a giant scythe that rmed all the monsters and people.


    "!!!"


    While they were stunned by the scythe''s sudden appearance, Agata had already made her first move. She waved her hand to the side, swinging the giant scythe horizontally to cut all the monsters in front of them.


    Some of them leaped into the air while some stayed on the ground, trying to stop this giant scythe.


    Unfortunately for them, this scythe was only a distraction to kill those who were on the air.


    Without them being able to move, Agata utilized her pink smoke to create spikes to stab them.


    "Die." Agata smiled and saw how her spikes pierced many of them.


    However, this wasn''t the extent of their coordination. Magic Bullets started raining them down. Those who were too focused on Agata''s spikes ended up getting shot down and ultimately fell on the spikes.


    In the end, they killed fifteen monsters in one instant.


    "As expected from them." Lorenzo smirked as he said, "We can''t lose to them, Felice."


    "Obviously."


    Theo and Agata ignored them as Clone Theo had already made the next move. "Rise."


    White pirs emerged from the snow, scattered in this snow in, making the monsters think twice whether to destroy them or slip past them.


    Agata pped her hands and summoned the same white pirs, doubling their number. "It''s not enough."


    The two had changed the terrain to block the monsters'' visions.


    After that, Theo summoned another wave of Magic Bullets behind the pirs and didn''t shoot them yet.


    Instead, he, his clone and Ava flew toward them, intercepting the monsters.


    "Well, well. They''re going to finish the monsters without us��" Ana smirked. "That is if we''re not fast enough. I''m sure I don''t need to say what I want, right?"


    Alea and the others became serious, not wanting to lose to Theo.


    They all charged at the monsters, nning to kill them as soon as possible.


    Lorenzo and Felice coordinated with each other to block their enemies while Luka went rampage in the middle of the monsters while Velio protected him with his barrier.


    Little did they know, this fight had yet to start.


    There was a four-legged creature hiding behind all these monsters, staring at Theo''s group from a distance.

 Chapter 622 – Supreme Rank Monster

    <h4>Chapter 622 - Supreme Rank Monster</h4>


    "Swift Hind." Alea increased her speed to move around the monsters while swinging her swords.


    She cut down monsters effortlessly as if she was facing one monster at a time. Although Theo didn''t see her in action, she had definitely improved.


    At the same time, she still hadn''t used all her strength to conserve her energy for the rest of the journey. Alea also wanted to observe Theo''s assistant, which she seemed to recognize due to her power looking simr to someone she knew.


    After some quick thinking, she soon realized that the woman was none other than Agata. She had seen her pulling the same trick when she visited Thernd, so she knew her guess was correct.


    Alea couldn''t help but click her tongue, feeling a bit annoyed. Unfortunately, she couldn''t say anything about it because that would just create unnecessary conflicts.


    The only thing she could do right now was to channel her anger to her swing, killing all the monsters in the area.


    "Oh?" Ana, who was watching Alea''s performance, smiled and said, "She''s fired up. Hehe, she''s indeed interesting."


    The others also noticed that Alea had finally changed her gear. Realizing they wouldn''t be able to follow her with their current output, they chose to reveal all their strength for the sake of not getting behind.


    They quickly made their way toward Lorenzo and Felice. There was no monster that could stop their momentum, which was good because they should be able to finish all the monsters in this area in less than ten minutes.


    Unfortunately, this was only their wishful thinking.


    Theo, who was intercepting all the monsters, had be the main target.


    "Kyu!" Ava shouted, warning him of something.


    Theo nced at Ava to check her eyes to get the idea of the direction of this danger. However, the next thing he realized, a monster appeared behind him.


    "Theo!" Agata widened her eyes as she witnessed everything. The monster itself was the same as the others, but it grew into a twenty-foot-long monster.


    This four-legged monster had crystal skin like that of ice. They could see the organs inside the monster if not because the fur covered most of them.


    After growing, the monster sent its paw to Theo, trying to crush him first.


    Although he didn''t see the monster, he could sense what wasing. Hence, Theo used his Blink to avoid this attack, albeit the monster seemed to have predicted this move.


    When he appeared at his destination, the monster had already opened its mouth, pointing at him. A blue light was glowing inside its throat as it was about to let out that powerful light ball.


    Theo instantly used his Ring of Honor to summon a shield in front of him and utilized his Magic Augmentation.


    At the same time, Agata ced her hand on the snow and used all the remaining smoke to form anotheryer of shield that had been coated by her Sense of Touch.


    The monster released the ball like that of a bullet.


    Boom.


    The light ball exploded. As the others had been alerted by Ava and Agata''s shouts, they watched how the monster directly hit Theo.


    "It''s an Elite ss Monster."


    "A level 510 Supreme Rank Monster."


    The others immediately checked the monster''s identity and gasped.


    "This is not good��" Lorenzo gulped down as he looked at the white fog surrounding them.


    "Gh!" Agata gritted her teeth as that attack angered her. She formed a huge scythe and mmed the monster.


    Looking at the scythe, the monster simply jumped to the side and charged at Agata.


    At this time, Ava appeared next to the monster and kicked him. Unfortunately, the monster had realized Ava''s presence and knocked her away with its paw.


    As if using this chance, Alea made her appearance and struck the monster with her swords. The two swords released red light that seemed to be burning the ice leg, but it wasn''t that effective.


    The monster shifted its body and punched Alea, but two Theos appeared��one at the top and one at the side.


    The one on the side kicked the monster on the head while the other stomped the body to pin him down.


    "Tsk! Making me so worked up." Theo clicked his tongue as both he and his clone suffered no injury.


    He then looked at Agata and said, "You remember how to use the terrain?"


    Agata widened her eyes and soon turned serious.


    "Handle the rest of the monsters."


    "Got it." Agata was a bit disappointed that Theo chose to cooperate with Alea, but she had a job to do. She put down the grudge for a while and redirected her anger to these monsters.


    "Theo!" Lorenzo shouted.


    "There''s no change of n. Alea is enough to stop this monster." Theo stopped him from sending reinforcement.


    "Are you overestimating your ability?" Ana doubted Theo''s decision as Theo''s level shouldn''t be that high. And his opponent was a Supreme Rank Monster.


    Before she said another thing, two wolves leaped toward her, forcing her to block their fangs with her staff. After that, two snowkes appeared on top of them and burst, freezing both of them.


    "You should focus on sweeping all the monsters first." Theo shook his head and turned to Ava. "Help Liza. You don''t need to get serious for the time being."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded and leaped to Agata.


    Hearing their conversation made Lorenzough. "Hahaha. That''s good! Can I trust you with this, Theo? I will finish this shortly."


    "You have five minutes," Theo confirmed and used his Blink to avoid another paw.


    The tail rose to the top and whacked Theo, but Alea appeared next to him, blocking the tail with her swords.


    "It''s been a while since we did this. I don''t know your current skill, but I''m sure you can keep up with me, right?" Theo smirked.


    Alea finally made an excited smile, showing her suppressed emotion. "I am not who I used to be."


    "That''s reassuring." Theo closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. This time, he released a massive Magic Power through his eyes, sending it in all directions.


    This Awareness that had been imbued by killing intent wrapped the entire battlefield as all of them were aware of Theo''s presence at this point. He just replicated Goddess Hel''s Death Stare.


    Zhilov was trembling when he sensed this massive killing intent while Lorenzo smiled. "As expected of Theo��"


    Ana looked at her hand that was clearly shaking�� "I am shaking? Is this fear? It seems the War God Family has acquired a monster."

 Chapter 623 – Theo And Alea’s Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 623 - Theo And Alea��s Coordination</h4>


    When Alea felt Theo''s killing intent, she sighed, knowing her hard work was not nearly enough to maintain the gap between them.


    Theo took a deep breath as his clone made the first move. The clone used Blink to reappear beneath the monster''s belly.


    He used the Magic Augmentation to strengthen his spear and utilized the Magic Power Expansion to hit the belly.


    Boom.


    The collision caused a powerful explosion that tried to rip open the ice stomach, albeit it didn''t even leave a scratch.


    The monster then fell down and crushed Clone Theo before leaping into the air to shift his focus back on Theo, who let out that much killing intent.


    He knew Theo was the most dangerous one among them.


    Theo resummoned his clone and called upon his Magic Bullets, trying to shoot him down.


    The monster didn''t even flinch when he took all the Magic Bullets head-on. After all, it managed to take Theo''s strongest attack without a problem, there was no reason to make a fuss with mere Magic Bullets.


    The moment itnded, the monster jumped forward and mmed Theo with its paw.


    Theo barely avoided it to create a chance for Alea.


    Thetter arrived next to the creature and struck the foot again.


    "It''s too strong��" Alea frowned when she realized it would be hard for them to take on this monster.


    "You''re giving up already." Theo smiled and flew to the sky as if trying to escape from the monster.


    The monster looked up and opened its mouth to shoot him down.


    To counter his attack, Theo raised his hand as a giant ice boulder appeared out of thin air. "Take this one."


    The boulder��twice the monster''s size��fell down.


    The monster didn''t hesitate to shoot it down.


    Boom.


    The ice boulder was shattered into pieces and filled the battlefield with its pieces.


    Alea took that chance to strike the monster again.


    Clink.


    Whether the monster was looking down on her or her attack was too weak, it didn''t even bother to look at her and let her do whatever she wanted, knowing her attack wouldn''t injure him.


    On the contrary, Alea was observing Theo''s shattered boulder while attacking the monster, thinking, ''That boulder should be just an illusion, but��''


    She lowered her vision and saw how the monsters on the ground avoided the rubbles as if they were real and ended up getting killed by Agata.


    The situation was pretty much the same as the other two battlefields as they took advantage of Theo''s illusion.


    ''Despite fighting a Supreme Rank Expert, he still has time to help everyone? Seriously?'' Ana frowned, realizing why Alea said the result of her efforts couldn''t bepared to Theo. "Haha. That''s an insane field of vision you got there."


    While she was impressed by Theo, thetter continued its attack. With the monster trying to reach him with its paws, Theo used his Magic Bullets to shoot his head.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The explosion caused the cold air to evaporate, creating a fog covering the monster''s eyes.


    Alea took this chance to deliver another blow. "Twin Sword Strikes!"


    She used all her strength and pushed the creature down.


    Theo grabbed Alea''s shoulder as they should return to the ground, not wanting to let the monster regain its advantage.


    However, the monster was more powerful than they thought as it had already stood up and mmed its paw.


    Seeing the iing paw, Theo summoned the shield from the Ring of Honor below the snow andunched them away.


    "!!!" Alea muttered inwardly, ''Did he summon the shield to hit our shoes to send us away? This will give more momentum than his Telekinesis��''


    "I''m sure you are not done with only this, right?" Theo smiled. "How many chances do you need?"


    Alea couldn''t help but smile as Theo indeed understood her. She said, "Three more."


    "Got it. Do whatever you think is right. I will bring you those chances." Theo nodded.


    "Understood." Alea waved her sword and summoned nine heads. "Devouring Hydra."


    The hydras soon surrounded the monster and circled around him to crack the ice, but the monster simply released a powerful ice gale, covering the hydra around his body with a thickyer of ice.


    It then waved its tail and shattered them into pieces.


    However, Theo and his clone already arrived next to the creature and hit him on the face with Magic Power Expansion.


    Bang.


    The force knocked the head away, but the monster soon recovered.


    Luckily, Alea had delivered another attack on the foot.


    Bam.


    Finally, the monster howled like a wolf and stepped to the side as if escaping from Alea.


    Theo used this chance to create a giant scythe like Agata''s and waved it down to cut the creature.


    After Alea''s attack, the monster hesitated for a second and chose to open its mouth and bite the scythe, breaking it apart.


    Little did he know, the real attack wasn''t the scythe. It was two big Magic Bullets that hid behind it.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets hit the head and knocked it down, stopping the creature from making any sudden movement.


    "Twin Sword Strikes."


    Bang.


    Alea''s second attack somehow made the monster scared and leaped away, but a giant fire appeared in front of the monster.


    Not wanting to be caught, the monster leaped to the side, only to find a giant wall.


    Because of Theo and Alea''s continuous attacks, the monster couldn''t discern which one was an illusion and which one was real.


    Due to this development, the monster leaped in the opposite direction like Theo predicted.


    Theo was there to stop him.


    Angered, the creature covered its paw with a blue-colored aura and swept Theo, only to find the aura turned into particles and dispersed.


    Theo smiled as he finally utilized his new skill, Illusion Destruction. After that, he received the raw force from that paw with the Ring of Honor''s shield.


    The other Theo used his Blink to appear next to the creature with Alea.


    Thetter felt excited and delivered the promised third attack. "Twin Sword Strikes."


    Crack.


    Bang.


    This time, the first sound turned out to be a cracking sound, followed by a shattering sound. The creature''s front leg broke apart as the monster lost its bnce and fell down.


    Theo nced at Alea and smiled, thinking, ''She has been striking the same spot this whole time�� This can only be done because of her eyes�� She has truly gotten stronger.''

 Chapter 624 – Progress

    <h4>Chapter 624 - Progress</h4>


    Bam.


    The creature fell to the snow as it lost its support leg. Before Theo and Alea made another move, a pink smoke emerged from the snow and soon turned into a chain, binding the monster.


    After that, a colossal snowke appeared out of thin air and positioned itself right above the monster.


    The snowke exploded and formed ice that connected the monster to the snow.


    Luka was the first to arrive on top of the creature and struck its belly with his axe. The wind also covered it and dispersed, acting like a drill and pinning the body to the ground.


    The ice body was gradually chipped away and the creature wailed in pain.


    Not letting the monster stand up, Lorenzo reached the monster''s neck and released a pink light from his sword, hitting the monster like a whip.


    The light seemed to be moving and the friction also started grinding the ice.


    Zhilov finally made his appearance on top of the monster and punched downward. The wind around his fist flew and knocked the monster''s head down, making sure he couldn''t do anything more.


    Seeing the opportunity, Felice and the rest struck the head to crush it. Their efforts didn''t go to waste as the head soon cracked and the creature seemed to be trying to escape, avoiding having its brain skewered by all these attacks.


    However, before they managed to do so, two Magic Bullets flew toward them.


    "!!!" Those who saw the Magic Bullets widened their eyes and leaped away.


    Boom.


    The two Magic Bullets were formed by Theo and his clone, so the explosion was not small. The ice that covered the monster''s brain was shattered into pieces and extinguished the brain, ultimately killing the monster.


    Seeing that the monster had died, they looked at Theo, who was staring back with a cold gaze as if telling them that he and Alea were the ones that contributed the most, so they should be the ones to get this monster.


    And Theo ultimately killed it with that timing. He then walked to the monster while saying to Lorenzo, "Get ready to teleport again. We''ve wasted too much time on this."


    Theo ignored all their reactions as he touched the monster''s head, turning it into cards before using his Telekinesis to throw them to Alea.


    "Anyway, all of you should start touching the monsters that you kill if you still need them." Theo shrugged and turned to Lorenzo. "By the way, we''re changing our n."


    "Hmm?"


    "How many more times do you need to teleport us to reach our destination?"


    Lorenzo furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth. "Three."


    "Assuming we''re going to meet more Supreme Rank, we will conserve our stamina by running away if we find any monsters. We will just buy time and teleport again."


    "Okay. We will go with your n." Lorenzo nodded with a smile. "I trust your judgment. By the way, how is your Magic Power consumption?"


    "Yeah. I have used around twenty percent. That''s why I don''t think we canst until the end." Theo looked at Ana and asked, "You surely have no problem with this, right?"


    "I will follow your strategy as long as we can aplish the mission."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and smirked, taunting Zhilov. "I''m sure you don''t mind about this, right?"


    Zhilov clenched his fists, not knowing why Theo suddenly attacked him like this. He had been silent after the first conversation, so he had no idea about this.


    Ana and Lorenzo thought this was just Theo being petty, considering Zhilov was the first one to attack him personally.


    "N-no." With a heavy heart, Zhilov answered. He closed his eyes and turned his head away, not wanting to bother with Theo.


    Theo snorted and fell silent, waiting for everyone to finish their business.


    As soon as they regrouped, Lorenzo sent them closer to their destination.


    As Theo expected, they were greeted by several Supreme Rank Monsters and fought them as nned. They lured the monsters away and split them ordingly before eliminating some monsters.


    After a few minutes, they regrouped and Lorenzo used his Teleportation Skill again, escaping from the predicament.


    Theo saw more and more poison-based monsters in this area, indicating that they got closer and closer with every teleportation.


    In the next teleportation, they were surrounded by ten Supreme Rank Monsters. Ana and Theo used their In-Motion to send as many attacks as possible with Lorenzo distributing all of them evenly to those Supreme Rank Creatures.


    As soon as the white fog covered the Supreme Rank Creatures, Ava led the group away from the danger with her hearing.


    Even Ana was impressed by Ava''s ability to the point she was interested in her. After all, she would be able to know any danger looming around her if Ava stayed together with her.


    Unfortunately for her, Ava didn''t even spare a single nce at her as she didn''t have any intention of choosing anyone other than Theo.


    The process repeated one more time until they were close to their destination.


    After almost an hour of running around, they finally arrived at their destination.


    It was another white in with monsters roaming around.


    In that instant, Ava already found several Supreme Rank Monsters as she pointed her foot in all directions.


    "Well, well. There are many monsters around us, but this is the destination, right?" Theo smiled while assessing their situation.


    "Yeah. We need to kill all these monsters first before making our way to the Poison King by foot."


    "Just want to confirm this. ording to the information, the Poison King can pick up your Spatial Ability. Is that correct?"


    "Yes. Spatial ability is weird and unusual, so the Poison King knows I''m an intruder. Other affinities don''t seem to have the same problem." Lorenzo confirmed with a serious expression.


    "Either way, we will finish all these monsters, sneak around to our real target, get the fruits, and escape. That''s all. Any objections?"


    "None." Lorenzo nodded.


    "Okay." Theo pointed at the Supreme Rank Monster on their south. "We will start with that one."


    Hearing Theo''smand, the group moved in unison to kill these Supreme Rank Monsters.

 Chapter 625 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 625 - Arrival</h4>


    "Theo!" Ana shouted after seeing a six-legged creature approached him and almost mmed one of its legs.


    As if he had prepared for it, Theo used his Blink to appear on top of the monster and covered his spear with the Magic Power Expansion and struck its body.


    The monster obviously wanted to protect itself and turned around, but two giant spikes emerged from the snow and locked the head. It took the monster two seconds to break free from it, so Theo used that chance to hit the head as hard as possible.


    Bam.


    The creature dropped to the ground and Theo hurriedly leaped off the body. Soon, two big Magic Bullets hit the monster at the same spot, creating a huge crack on its skull.


    After that, a giant snowke sent its freezing cold wind into the brain, killing the monster from the inside.


    "It''s dead," Ana shouted.


    Theo nodded and turned to the right, finding many corpses, including Supreme Rank Monsters'' corpses lying on the ground. There was only one monster left which was soon killed by Lorenzo.


    They had been fighting for a whole hour to kill all the monsters and depleted so much Magic Power during the battle because their opponents were Supreme Rank Experts.


    Luckily, there wasn''t a single Mythical Rank Expert in this area since the Poison King hated them. If not, they would have been wiped out.


    After waiting for a moment, they regrouped in the middle of the corpses, looking at each other.


    Some of them were panting, while some seemed to be fine. Though, those who were close to Supreme Rank were the only ones that looked alright.


    They had fought ten Supreme Rank Monsters after all, so Theo and the others were a bit tired.


    If not because of Theo''s continuous control over the battlefield, they would have more trouble than this and might end up getting separated.


    While panting, Luka asked, "So, what''s the n for this one?"


    They immediately looked at Theo as he was the leader of this group. Although they didn''t admit it, Theo''s leadership had been ingrained inside their heart.


    Theo fell silent for a moment and turned his head. "Ava."


    Ava winked her eyes and gently hit her chest while making a smug smile. "Kyu."


    "Okay. I will be letting you lead the group after this if you''re that confident." Theo smiled. "For now, we will have five minutes rest. Recover your breath first before we continue."


    They nodded and started touching the monsters to get their Skill and Material Cards.


    While waiting, Agata came to Theo with a serious expression. "I know that you''re confident with this n, but I want to ask before this�� Do you have any backup ns?"


    Theo looked at Agata and smiled. "Don''t worry. I never underestimated my opponent, especially since we''re dealing with the Poison King. I have some escape ns ready in case we fail."


    Alea took a glimpse of Theo''s face and realized he wasn''t joking or lying. Hence, she retracted her gaze and waited patiently.


    She didn''t know why but she felt awkward after meeting him again.


    The past memories couldn''t help but resurface as she muttered inwardly, ''Back then, I was too naive to see the problem I created. And I still had the audacity to ask for his help. Even back when we were dealing with two Supreme Rank Monsters, he deliberately caused the ident so he could tell me we were even.


    ''I knew he did it because he had let go of his past. However, it was frustrating.


    ''After that, Grandmother returned home for the first time and gave me this opportunity.


    ''It was clear that Grandmother received this reward because she taught Theo. It ended up pushing me away from the Griffith Family or the Eilric Family''s control, allowing me to decide my own fate.


    ''Still, he ultimately became everything that helped my path this whole time. From my trauma to this power��


    ''If I could repeat the day I met him, I would do it better.


    ''I want to thank him.'' Alea bit her lips and sighed. ''I have trained these few months tirelessly, yet, the gap between us is practically nonexistent. He can even surpass me anytime.''


    ''In the past, I had the power and courage to do it, but I never did it. And now, I want to repay him, but I have nothing to offer him despite having the courage and nning to do it.''


    She closed her eyes in disappointment. ''I am sick of receiving everything. I also want to give something back.''


    She clenched her fists before eventually shaking her head, putting her thoughts in order again. ''Either way, let''s focus on the present problem. If we fail this, there won''t be tomorrow.''


    Ana seemed to have noticed Alea''s change of expression but didn''t say anything. She was already aware of Alea''s feelings, but there wasn''t much she could do.


    After all, even she didn''t know what Theocked anymore.


    Theo wasn''t unaware of all this as he continued organizing his n inside his head.


    After a while, the group continued their journey with Ava and Theo running at the very front. They moved between woods, looped around a certain spot, and hid when monsters came to them.


    It was hard and slow progress, but the group didn''tin, considering they didn''t wake the tree up while conserving their energy.


    They managed to slip past numerous monsters without a single conflict.


    This showed how reliable Ava was. Theo, her owner, also had his fair recognition since he managed to tame Ava.


    There were only two miles left after thest teleportation and it took them an hour to finally arrive at their true destination.


    Their destination was yet another in surrounded by a thinyer of ice covering the river that circled the area. There was only a single tree in this snowy in.


    ''So, that is the Poison Tree.'' Theo and the others widened their eyes.


    The tree had a green trunk and its branches spread to all directions, spanning over a hundred feet radius.


    The ck leaves added an eerie feeling in this snowy field, but their eyes were locked on to the six fruits hiding between the leaves.

 Chapter 626 – Failure

    <h4>Chapter 626 - Failure</h4>


    Looking at the six fruits, Theo pointed at himself then to the furthest fruit. He then pointed at five more people, assigning them to their target.


    These five people were Alea, Zhilov, Ana, Felice, and Agata. After that, he looked at the rest and pointed at his eyes before turning them to their surroundings as if telling them to watch out for their surroundings.


    They all agreed with Theo''s arrangement and moved ordingly.


    As soon as Theo waved his hand twice, the group instantly picked up their pace and rushed to the tree.


    When they arrived, they leaped to the trunk and used it as their foothold to move around the branches to get what they wanted.


    Grab.


    Grab.


    Grab.


    Grab.


    Four people managed to grab the fruits. They were Zhilov, Ana, Felice and Agata. They all looked at Theo and Alea toplete their missions before retreating, and this would be an easy job for them.


    Unfortunately, fate changed for the worse as a loud howl echoed in their ears.


    "!!!" Not only the six people on the tree, but the people on the ground also heard that sound.


    The sound was followed by a huge crack that appeared in the middle of the snow as Theo instantly stopped what he was doing and pointed at the northwest while ring at them.


    Without him saying anything, they all knew that they were in deep trouble and needed to run as soon as possible.


    All six of them immediately jumped toward the direction Theo pointed at with their fastest speed.


    Suddenly, another colossal crack appeared on the snow as a green-colored root emerged from the snow, reaching the sky.


    It then mmed the snow next to them, barely missing all six people that stole the fruits.


    They all just wanted to scream while running, but no one made a singlement as they all had one thought.


    ''Escape without making much noise!''


    Theo gulped down and kept ncing at the root behind him while shaking his head in disappointment.


    A few of them saw Theo''s expression while cursing, ''We''re in this situation, and you''re still getting disappointed for not getting the fruit?''


    They all wondered what kind of heart Theo had.


    Theo ignored them and caught up to Lorenzo, saying in a low voice. "Don''t use your Teleportation yet. The Poison King doesn''t seem to be fully awake yet, so we should continue this way until we reach a safe distance. Of course, we can utilize our power to kill the monsters that areing at us."


    Lorenzo nodded with a serious expression as roars and howls began to resound in the entire area.


    "We only got four of them, but it''s better than nothing. I don''t even know why there''s a sudden loud howl��" Theo clicked his tongue, looking very annoyed.


    Since Theo had started talking, Ana opened her mouth. "You''re still talking about the fruits? Livese first!"


    She felt frustrated because Theo didn''t seem to panic even though their lives could end at any moment.


    Before Theo could reply, a few monsters spotted them and roared, rming the others.


    "Just continue. We''re going to break through using our speed. Except for Lorenzo, no need to hold back." Theomanded.


    Luckily, Theo''s instruction seemed to be spot on, so Ana didn''tin anymore, knowing Theo still knew what their priority was.


    Another root came out of the ground and mmed them, albeit missed them again.


    The group was trembling because they knew the Poison King was about to wake uppletely.


    "Lorenzo. There''s no time. We shouldn''t waste any more time. Just use your Teleportation. Even if we need to force our way outter, it''s better than dying here." Ana shouted in anger.


    Lorenzo wanted to do the same, but Theo hadn''t given his permission. Hence, he decided to ignore her.


    But the situation soon changed when another root came out. This time, the root moved ording to their movement as if it knew their location.


    In other words, this one would certainly hit them.


    Since Lorenzo didn''t n to use his Teleportation, Ana raised her staff, nning to hit the root.


    Theo took the first move as he said, "Lorenzo!"


    "I have been waiting for this." Lorenzo smiled and snapped his finger. "Teleportation."


    Bam.


    The roots hit the snow as they had disappeared, leaving the ce.


    Theo and the others arrived at a random location since this wasn''t a part of their n.


    "Kh!" Theo gritted his teeth. "This is my failure."


    Theo didn''t care about his pride and admitted his mistakes. "Not only were my ns useless, but I couldn''t even get the fruit."


    "No, Theo. This wasn''t your fault. We would never think a monster would howl with that timing." Lorenzo stopped him while looking around.


    "Even after being so confident, this is the result. You can''t even get anything." Zhilov finally got his chance to spite.


    "Oi, Zhilov!" Ana gritted her teeth.


    "What? I didn''t say anything wrong. He continuously attacked me with all that confidence, yet, he didn''t get anything." Zhilov snorted. "He infuriated me."


    "That''s enough. I am not going to argue with you. All we need to do right now is to escape. None of us want to die here." Ana stopped him in anger. The real problem was that one howl that messed up their n after all.


    While they were arguing, monsters kepting as Alea said, "I also didn''t get one. In that case, I should bring the rear as a punishment."


    "!!!" As soon as Zhilov heard her statement, he was bewildered. If the empress knew that he was trying to put the me on the empress'' disciple despite the fact the roar was out of their control, his family would punish him.


    "No, no. I didn''t mean that." Zhilov wanted to correct his words, but Theo stopped him and said, "I couldn''t care less about your opinion. If you still want to survive, we need to go north until we leave this ce. Lorenzo will teleport us as soon as he can do it."


    "We need to act as quickly as possible so the Poison King can''t catch up with us." Lorenzo agreed without hesitation.


    Theo''s statement shifted the mood again as they had no choice other than to follow him.

 Chapter 627 – Cooperation

    <h4>Chapter 627 - Cooperation</h4>


    "Lorenzo, on your right," Theo shouted.


    Lorenzo nced to the side and ducked down, barely avoiding a green lizard''s long tongue.


    After that, a small ice ball appeared on top of the tongue and exploded, freezing it. Lorenzo spun his body and took this chance to cut the lizard''s tongue.


    "Grek." The lizard wailed in pain, but Theo already appeared on top of the lizard, crushing its head with his Magic Power Expansion.


    He then assessed all directions from the top of the lizard. There were numerous monstersing toward them as he clicked his tongue, "There is no end. It''s either we try to break through or stay here for another five minutes until Lorenzo can use his Teleportation again."


    "It''s better to stay here. There are many giant corpses around, so we should use them as a wall to direct the monsters around. Theo, your Telekinesis will be useful for this." Lorenzo shouted, offering another idea.


    When Theo was about to nod his head, a sound echoed in his ears.


    "!!!" The ground was shaking as if something big had hit the ground nearby.


    "Theo!" Lorenzo panicked as he wondered whether Theo knew what it was, considering he looked stupefied on top of the corpse.


    What Theo saw was none other than a humanoid figure. It looked like a human, but the creature didn''t have any eyes, leaving only a grey-colored skin covering its body. With how it stood tall among the trees, he was confident that the monster''s height was more than a hundred feet.


    The monster had a long arm that could hit the ground without even lowering its body.


    "What''s that ominous monster?" Theo muttered as he clenched his fists.


    "Another monster?" Lorenzo narrowed his eyes while Ana''s expression turned grim.


    ''Everything doesn''t seem right this whole time.'' Ana frowned and looked at Theo. ''At first, the progress went smoothly, and we could reach the Poison King without any problem.


    ''However, it changed for the worse when we were about to get the Poison Fruits. A monster roared and messed up our n. After that, we were chased by hundreds of monsters. If this continues, I''m afraid we will be too exhausted and hide somewhere for today.


    ''Does someone sabotage our group?'' Ana gritted her teeth. ''If that''s the case, I am going to kill that bastard. Anyway, our lives will depend on Theo''s decision. Lorenzo seems to trust him that much, so he must be hiding his trump card.


    Theo, on the contrary, frowned when he saw the monster. The creature mmed its hand a few times as if it was fighting something.


    However, the one thing that shocked him the most was none other than a blue-colored beam that hit the monster''s head.


    "!!!" In that instant, Theo understood what was going on and shouted, "Lorenzo, do you think we can teleport there?"


    "Where?" He furrowed his eyebrows.


    Since the giant couldn''t be seen on the ground level, he pointed at the hill next to the monster. "That hill."


    Lorenzo obviously wanted to reject since that hill was where the sound came from. But the words soon stuck in his throat as he realized what Theo wanted. He asked for confirmation. "You sure?"


    "As much as I hate it, this is the best way to escape this ce." Theo nodded.


    Lorenzo looked at Theo with a concerned expression. With only the sound and Theo''s suggestion, he knew that sound came from the person they met earlier.


    Ne Griffith.


    Ne must have brought her group to that area and fought the monster. If they went there and coborated with her, their group wouldn''t have this kind of problem anymore.


    After all, Ne alone could be considered three people in terms of fighting power.


    Still, Theo hated the Griffith Family to the bone, so it must take a great deal for him to decide to coborate with them.


    He didn''t know he had misunderstood Theo this whole time.


    Theo simply had something to do with the Griffith Family. Even though killing them here wouldn''t be wise as he still needed their help, Theo had another thing he wanted from the Griffith Family.


    Hence, he decided to join hands with them.


    Unaware of Theo''s objective, Lorenzo nodded. "Okay. I will teleport us there."


    Ana and the others didn''t understand what they were talking about since they didn''t know the Griffith Family had sent their younger generations to this ce. At the same time, those from the War God Family weren''t at Theo and Lorenzo''s level and couldn''t understand the n in an instant.


    They simply thought Lorenzo and Theo must havee to an agreement, and everything was going to change for the better.


    It was proven when Theo finally used his Telekinesis to rearrange the corpses, creating a smallbyrinth that confused the monsters.


    They ended up dealing with fewer monsters and had the time to breathe.


    After five minutes, Lorenzo pped his hand. "Teleportation!"


    He sent all of them to the bottom of the hill with fewer monsters to handle. This was confusing at first nce, but they soon understood the reason when they saw a huge figure looking down on the ground.


    "Ignore the monsters. We''re going to that big guy over there." Theo shouted, informing the others.


    "Huh? What? Are you insane?" Ana widened her eyes before she heard a deep voice resounding in the area.


    "You humans are always causing chaos here."


    "!!!" That statement alerted them as they soon noticed that the big guy was a General ss Monster.


    "Theo, you��" Ana wanted to release her anger but stopped when she saw Theo standing still while looking at the sky as if he was entranced.


    "Theo!" Lorenzo hit Theo''s shoulder, waking him up. He didn''t care what was in Theo''s mind in this situation since he only wanted to return safely. "Hurry!"


    "A-ah." Theo trembled for a second before shaking his head. "That''s right. General ss doesn''t matter. It doesn''t seem to be that powerful. And considering we''re already pretty far from the Poison King, the level shouldn''t be that high. We will coborate with them and escape this ce."


    "Go!" Lorenzo stopped caring and shouted as monsters began toe toward them.

 Chapter 628 – Super Team

    <h4>Chapter 628 - Super Team</h4>


    "Go."


    With that shout, the group instinctively ran forward.


    They slipped past numerous monsters and arrived next to the giant''s right foot, finding a group of six jumping into the air to avoid another p.


    "!!!"


    Everyone other than Theo and Lorenzo dropped their jaws as their eyes intertwined.


    "Ne Griffith!" Ana drew a gasp and understood why Theo wanted to direct them here.


    Theo turned to Lorenzo, signaling him to do everything for him.


    Noticing his gaze, Lorenzo misunderstood him again. He thought Theo might want to coborate, but it was still too much for him to say anything to the Griffith Family.


    Lorenzo shouted to Ne. "Oi, does your team n to go back?"


    "!!!" Ne frowned, not knowing why Theo didn''t want to talk to her.


    At the same time, the other Griffith Family Members seemed to dislike Theo as they kept ring at him.


    Still, their situation wasn''t that good either. She asked, "What are the terms?"


    "I will be carrying you guys with my Teleportation. In exchange, I''m going to ask you guys to help us fend off the monsters."


    "Not enough. One Poison Fruit!" Ne rejected it and added a condition.


    "We can''t give you the entire fruit. The most we can give is one tube of the extracted juice." He shook his head.


    "Fine." Ne didn''t hesitate to take the deal and pointed at the giant. "Kill this giant for me and give us the card. We will have a deal."


    "Got it." Lorenzo agreed and asked Theo, "So, how should we deal with this?"


    "I am going to rearrange the groups. We will split the group into four." Theo raised four fingers. "I, Lorenzo, Ana, Alea, and Ne shall be fighting the giant. The Griffith Family, Russia Team, and the War God Family will take one direction each and handle the monstersing toward us."


    Hearing thatmand, Ana said, "Zhilov. You''re in charge of the team. Don''t mess up, and I don''t want to hear any objections."


    Zhilov gritted his teeth. The only reason why Theo didn''t choose him must be because of the earlier problem. However, he had been pushed to the very edge and had no choice other than to ept this unless he wanted to fall off the ''cliff.''


    He snorted and moved to the left, leading the other three to block the monsters.


    "Liza, I leave it to you. Ava, protect her," said Theo gently with a bit of worry in his voice.


    Agata didn''t say anything regarding his choice. She simply nodded her head and stopped, handling the monstering in their direction.


    Lorenzo also asked Felice. "Help her. Luka and Velio too."


    Felice nodded and red at Luka and Velio as if ordering them to help or she would beat them up.


    Having no choice, Luka and Velio shrugged and followed the battle n.


    On the contrary, Ne''s tone was strict and full of arrogance. "Get your asses over there. If you don''t like this n, you''re free to do whatever you want. I just want to tell you that I''m not going to be responsible for your sorry lives anymore."


    No one dared to rebuke Ne, considering Ne had been the golden child in the Griffith Family. She even received personal teaching from Ray Griffith because of her talent. Despite the fact all of them were sessors, the family seemed to have agreed that Ne would be the next family head.


    Hence, they turned around and positioned themselves ordingly. Even with the unwillingness creeping inside their heart, they needed to obey her order.


    Suddenly, the giant''s hand mmed the ground again, forcing Ne to leap to the side and regroup with Theo''s group.


    Since Ne was obsessed with this monster, she should know how to handle him, so Lorenzo asked, "What do you know about this monster?"


    "It behaves like a human and attacks us with its hands and feet. It can transform the fingers into tentacles, so be careful. Other than that, the skin is freaking hard. We can only use our speed to gain an advantage over him. Just be careful if he shoots a breath, it''s going to be a poison breath. That''s all." Ne exined in a straightforward way.


    Theo understood her exnation and ordered. "Alea, your eyes will be the key. Observe his body and try to search for his weak point. Ana, you''re going to distract the enemy and hit him hard.


    "Lorenzo, you''re going with me to confuse him and attack any spots that seem to be weak spots. As for Ne, just beat the crap out of him."


    "You''re not confusing me with a barbarian, right?" Ne''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Nope. I just trust your ability, or am I wrong?" Theo looked at her with a poker face as if he had already won the argument.


    "Tsk." Ne clicked her tongue and said, "Fine by me."


    They saw the handing again and went separate ways. Theo ced his hand on Lorenzo''s shoulder and used his Blink, sending them behind the giant''s body.


    Meanwhile, Alea had already used her Swift Hind to reach the monster''s foot and struck it.


    Ana saw the fingers turning into tentacles and trying to hit both her and Ne. Hence, she snapped her fingers, and snowkes appeared in front of the tentacles.


    "Freeze."


    The snowkes burst out of ice fog, freezing the tentacles. In the end, the tentacles started retreating.


    Ana didn''t let this chance go and hit the tentacles with a wave of ice snakes. The tentacles dropped to the ground, so the giant nned to retract his hand.


    Unfortunately for him, his hand was already stuck with the snow because of another attack from Ana.


    Since Ana managed to stop him, Ne leaped into the air with a smirk. She looked at the broad chest and punched the air in front of her.


    "Fist Saint Style, Twister."


    The Magic Power flew like a drill as the pressure made a small indent to the inside, albeit it wasn''t enough to injure it.


    Even then, the power was enough to make the giant body tilt to the back.


    "Oh. I will be scared if I need to fight this kind of team��" Ana smirked as she looked at Theo, Lorenzo, Ne, and Alea.

 Chapter 629 – Extraordinary Team Fight

    <h4>Chapter 629 - Extraordinary Team Fight</h4>


    "Magic Augmentation." Magic Power began to revolve crazily inside Theo''s body as he channeled that power into his spear and struck the giant''s back.


    Bang.


    This created a counterforce from Ne''s twister and made the giant''s body unstable because of the sudden movement.


    "You humans can''t even challenge me alone! Die!" The giant spoke while raising his other hand, turning the fingers into tentacles.


    The five tentacles moved toward each person in the group to stop them.


    Theo clicked his tongue and struck the tentacle as hard as possible. Then, a Magic Bullet looped around his body and hit the tentacle, knocking it away.


    Lorenzo simply tore the air and created a portal.


    As if feeling the portal, the tentacle went around it and hit him.


    Lorenzo managed to block it with his sword, but the strength was enough to push him back, stopping him from doing anything.


    Ana faced a simr situation. Despite hitting the tentacle multiple times with her ice abilities, the tentacle didn''t seem to be frozen.


    Although she didn''t know why, she ended up leaping away to avoid the tentacle.


    Alea, on the contrary, kept matching the tentacle''s movement while striking it, testing all kinds of spots to find its weak point. She was too persistent to the point the tentacle was scared and left her.


    Last but not least, Ne used all her power to hit the tentacle.


    "Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    The moment the fist and the tentacle collided, thetter was blown to the giant''s body and whacked it like a whip.


    Unfortunately, the giant had hard skin, so it didn''t even graze him.


    "Annoying." Ne clenched her fists as she started getting sick to fight this monster.


    She had been tasked to kill this monster because the skill it possessed was very useful. The skill name was Gigantification Poison Body. In other words, not only could it make a body part bigger, but it could also release Poison.


    Still, the monster was stronger than reported, infuriating her.


    Ne agreed to work together with the others because of this one reason.


    Seeing her attack was still ineffective, she wondered whether the giant had a weakness or not.


    After some considerations, Ne raised both hands and summoned a small bomb. "Mana Concentration Bomb."


    Before shooting the bomb, Ne shaped it into a spear.


    "!!!" Theo couldn''t help but see it, realizing Ne''s Control seemed to have progressed by leaps and bounds.


    Although he had understood how to shape his Magic Bullets, he never practiced it because his direction was from Ne. Instead of using the skill, Theo preferred to use pure Magic Power.


    As if taking Ne''s challenge, Theo also formed another spear with his Magic Power and prepared to hit the giant with all his might.


    Because the two managed to push his body, they using the same technique grabbed the giant''s attention.


    Theo and Ne shot their attacks at the same time.


    The giant instinctively raised both hands and blocked them with his palms before noticing theck of power in Theo''s attack.


    Suddenly, Theo''s Magic Bullets that had been hiding behind the spear dispersed in all directions, looped around his body, and hit his head.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The series of explosions created enough white fog to cover the entire head, allowing them to see which senses the giant used to locate them since he had no eyes.


    To test it, Lorenzo and Ana approached the giant at the same time.


    Lorenzo raised his sword above his head and swung downwards, releasing a pink light that hit the head to the butt.


    On the other side, there were several snowkes and ice snakes right in front of the giant''s chest.


    They erupted in session as Ana kept observing her attacks to see whether it was effective or not.


    "Grr! You��" The giant became angry as he used all ten fingers to strike Lorenzo and Ana.


    "!!!"


    Lorenzo raised his sword and struck the tentacles but ended up getting blown away. Ana had a simr situation as she protected herself with the snowkes.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    The two crashed to the ground as they struggled to get up and escape the snow.


    As if using them as baits, Alea finally made her big appearance. She arrived at the left hand and struck the finger part that turned into a tentacle.


    "Twin Sword Strikes."


    The two swords sliced the first tentaclepletely and sent it to the ground.


    "Argh!" The giant screamed in pain as the tentacle turned back into a finger and fell to the ground.


    "How dare you?!" The giant was confused, not expecting him to be injured.


    "!!!" Everyone had seen what Alea did.


    Theo didn''t hesitate to use his Blink to arrive right on top of another finger.


    He used Magic Power Expansion and hit the finger like a drill, severing another finger from the hand.


    "Argh!" The giant kept wailing because of the pain.


    Before Theo and Alea could cut another finger, the other fingers had turned back and knocked them down, albeit they didn''t go down easily.


    Theo''s Magic Bullets remained in the air as they hit the bloody finger and spread the wound from the inside.


    Alea also learned from Theo and used the same trick as him. "Devouring Hydra."


    Nine hydra heads came out of the swords and charged toward the wound. Four hydras circled the other fingers to stop them from moving while the other four bit the wounds and pulled them to open the wound bigger.


    At that time, thest hydra rammed its head into the wound, spreading them from the inside.


    Yes. Both of them had the same idea, which was to widen the wound from the inside.


    And this triggered the giant. Thetter opened its mouth and pointed it at Alea.


    "Hmph. Saint Fist Style, Burst." Although Ne hated Alea, she still pushed Alea with her technique, making the poison breath miss its target.


    They saw the green-colored breath that soon dyed the snow green and melted it.


    However, this didn''t stop Alea from moving. Since Ne pushed her to the ground, Aleanded faster than expected, used her Swift Hind to sneak around the feet, and jumped to the finger next to the wound Theo created.


    "Twin Sword Strikes."


    "Gah."


    She cut another finger before creating a shield in front of her. It was at that time, Theo''s Magic Bullets hit the wound again, spreading it.


    Boom.


    "Perfect."

 Chapter 630 – Fall

    <h4>Chapter 630 - Fall</h4>


    "As expected from the former captain and vice-captain." Ana smirked. "They are in sync."


    Theo couldn''t care less about her opinion as he simply continued working on his n to defeat the giant.


    "Alea, search for another weak spot since even if we cut all the fingers and make the monster lose blood, it''s nowhere near enough to kill it. Lorenzo and I will take care of the fingers."


    "I believe all those fingers are weak points too." Alea pointed at the giant''s feet. "But I will search for another one other than those."


    "Got it. I will leave it to you." Theo nodded and shouted, "Lorenzo, it''s your job now."


    "Haha, I will do it then." Lorenzo agreed and leaped into the air, preparing to attack the monster''s fingers.


    "How dare you!" The monster raised both hands and used all finger tentacles to strike Lorenzo and Theo.


    At the same time, all ten toes extended and hit both Alea and Ana to stop whatever they were doing.


    When the monster was about to hit Ne, he realized Ne was nowhere to be seen.


    Suddenly, he felt someone stepping on his head as her voice echoed in his ears.


    "This is a perfect spot."


    The monster realized Ne was the one above him. He hurriedly sent a tentacle to push her away, but Ne had already made the first move.


    She concentrated the Magic Power on her fist while sucking the air as much as possible. Her expression became serious as she finally released the full power of her Saint Fist Style.


    "Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    Bam.


    The giant''s head wasunched to its chest as the tentacle stopped for a second as if they had experienced a tremendous shock.


    "Still, not going down?" Ne smirked and ced her hands on the skin. "One more time."


    "Great Magic Shock."


    Bam.


    A powerful shock wave appeared below the giant''s head as if all that power traveled through the giant''s head and had nowhere to go until it left the head. And the umtion shock wave managed to push all the snow beneath the giant.


    Theo was impressed by that power. After all, the giant itself was tall and the shock wave needed to travel a fair distance before blowing the snow away. The power that generated this much strength was surely extremely powerful.


    His shock didn''t stop there because the giant soon dropped to his knees.


    "Gah!" The giant roared in pain as his body felt numb.


    When the Griffith Family Members witnessed this, they simply turned their heads around as if they didn''t care. After all, they knew this strength was the reason why Ne became the golden child of the Griffith Family.


    "Has she be stronger than me?" Theo muttered inwardly while looking at Ne. In the end, he shook his head, "No. That power is achieved by sacrificing everything. Meanwhile, my control isplimenting my illusion and attacks, so it''s normal if the power is less than her."


    Theo knew this was the difference between him and Ne. Even so, he didn''t n on losing.


    He put his spear on his back before raising his hand, summoning his artifact.


    "Now, now. Let''s step up my game." Theo smiled.


    This spear immediately reminded Lorenzo of theirst battle in thatpetition. He remembered that Theo managed to ovee his Space Ability with this spear. Now that Theo''s power had been boosted by the jewel, he wondered what kind of power he would show him.


    Theo levitated himself on the air, staring at the giant.


    As if noticing his presence, the giant mmed him with his giant hand, but Theo used his Blink to retreat a hundred feet back. "Magic Augmentation."


    With the help of Magic Augmentation, two Magic Bullets appeared on Theo''s hand as hebined them into one before shooting the hand.


    "Go." Theo let out a small voice as he sent that Magic Bullet.


    "It''s useless. You won''t be able to injure me anymore." The giant harrumphed and raised his hand to block the Magic Bullet with his palm.


    However, this was when Theo started pulling strings. Before the Magic Bullet hit the palm, it split into four and went separate ways, avoiding the palm and heading straight to the face.


    "What?" The giant was confused for a second and realized the Magic Bullets wereing straight to the space between his mouth and nose. In other words, he wanted to send them into his nose or mouth.


    With that realization, the giant covered both of them with his hand before the Magic Bullets hit them.


    "Your n won''t work anymore." The giant snorted.


    "You''re a fool. Well, a General ss Monster is said to have the same intelligence as humans. If that''s the case, humans have fools and geniuses�� So, I am assuming you''re the former." Theo smirked, taunting him with a cheap provocation.


    And the giant''s action proved his words even further. He moved his tentacles to strike down the Magic Bullets, albeit this was the greatest mistake he could make.


    "Twin Sword Strikes."


    "Sword Light."


    Alea and Lorenzo got this perfect chance to attack since there were no tentacles left to defend them.


    They cut a total of four toes in that attack.


    "Argh!" The giant''s brain was jolted by the extreme paining from his feet. He retracted the tentacles to push them away, but this action resulted in him missing Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    "It''s useless. My skin is hard." The giant still believed the Magic Bullets wouldn''t hurt him, so he prepared to take the full brunt of that attack while using the rest of the tentacles to blow Ne away to make sure she didn''t hit him again.


    Suddenly, Theo raised his hand and said, "That''s why you''re a fool. You should look down first."


    "Huh?" The giant had no eyes, so he only felt something on his knees. He couldn''t help but check what was going on. It was then he found a huge chain binding his feet together. The two knees didn''t join together, but it should be enough to restrain him.


    "Since when��" The giant realized this was Theo''s n all along. When he raised his head to look at Theo, the Magic Bullets had arrived right in front of his forehead and exploded.


    Boom.


    The force generated from the Magic Bullets, Magic Augmentation, and extra boost from the spear created a shock wave slightly less powerful than Ne''s previous attack. Even then, it was enough to push the head.


    The giant ended up tripping with its feet going sideways, making him realize the chain was none other than an illusion.


    "This is why you''re a fool. You can''t even realize something this simple." Theo snorted�� "Fall."

 Chapter 631 – Suffer

    <h4>Chapter 631 - Suffer</h4>


    "Fall." Theo looked at how the giant tripped and fell to the bottom of the hill.


    The drop caused the ground to tremble, and the snow on top of the hill started to break. Soon, it would gather and cause an avnche.


    "Theo, are you insane?!" Lorenzo shouted while gritting his teeth.


    "Come on. Don''t be such a pussy, an avnche wouldn''t kill you guys." Theo shrugged and pointed at the giant. "Pin him down."


    "Huh?" Lorenzo looked at the giant, who was still struggling to get up. Due to its size and the loss of his fingers, the giant had a hard time supporting his body, so this was a perfect time to attack.


    Theo had calcted this and said, "Bury him."


    "!!!" Alea, Ana, Lorenzo, and Ne drew a gasp, never thinking Theo would use the natural disaster to his advantage.


    Since the War God Family was facing the hill, Theo turned to Agata and said, "It''s your time to shine."


    Agata looked at the avnche and smirked, realizing what he wanted. "I understand."


    While Agata moved toward her new position, Alea had arrived in front of the other toes and cut them down before the giant could do anything.


    The same applied to Lorenzo. Although Theo''s idea was crazy, he still agreed to it because he saw the potential of that n.


    With this, all toes had been cut and they started making their way to the fingers, nning to render the giant useless before it got swallowed by the avnche.


    "Curse you, humans!" The giant was angry, but he couldn''t get up because Ne and Ana had started making their move.


    "Ice Field."


    A massive snowke half the size of the giant body appeared on top of his stomach. It exploded and formed huge ice crystals on top of the belly.


    "Gah!" The giant felt the impact of the ice. His body felt numb and his mind was filled with the tremendous pain it inflicted.


    It didn''t stop there. Theo, standing in the sky, raised his hand and formed a giant boulder on top of him. He waved his hand and dropped the boulder on the giant''s chest.


    "Kh!" The giant raised both hands to catch the boulder, albeit the boulder ultimately passed his hands like a ghost. In other words, the boulder was just another illusion. And behind that illusion was a small girl with her fist filled with Magic Power.


    "Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist."


    Bam.


    Ne punched the giant head with all her strength. Unlike the previous punch, the shock wave had nowhere to go other than spreading to all his body, so the giant coughed and gasped for air.


    "Hehe. I''m good." Ne smiled, feeling happy that she managed to work together with Theo. She secretly took a glimpse of Theo as she thought, ''As expected. His illusion influences reality and can be used in many ways, including as a cover for me. If only he agrees to marry me and we work together, everything can be solved easily.''


    While she was distracted, the giant raised its head and opened its mouth, spitting the poison breath once again.


    "!!!" Ne hurriedly turned around and nned to punch the air to split the poison breath, but Theo had alreadynded in front of her while waving his hand.


    The poison breath disintegrated into nothingness as Theo provoked him once again. "That''s all?"


    "What did you do?" The giant was surprised that Theo managed to disintegrate his poison breath, but this was just Theo slightly manipting reality with his Illusion Destruction. He believed destroying or turning the skill into a mere illusion was more beneficial to him than having a shield, so he reced the Three Great Defense with this skill.


    Of course, the effect was simr to Lorenzo tearing the space. There was a certain limit, but with Magic Augmentation and his artifact, Theo managed to turn all the poison breath into an illusion.


    "Instead of thinking about that, why don''t you look up?" Theo smiled and used his Telekinesis to bring Ne to the air with him.


    Ana and Alea retreated not far from the giant as they made their own respective shield to disperse the avnche. Lorenzo used his Teleportation to send him into the air, watching how the avnche buried the giant.


    ''I see.'' Lorenzo squinted his eyes, fully understanding Theo''s n. ''He wants to use the snow to bury the giant. And with that big body, we can easily know his position and hit him. If this continues, this giant will only be a punching bag for us until he dies�� Now, I kinda pity him. Though, the most important part of this n is��''


    Lorenzo raised his head and looked at the War God Family''s squad.


    Velio was using his barrier to protect everyone from the snow. And as soon as the avnche passed them, Velio opened the barrier for Agata as she pped her hand.


    Numerous pink spikes emerged from the ground and pierced all the monsters in the surrounding area. Just like the snakes from earlier, some of them died with a single stab while some managed to dodge it.


    Still, Agata''s spikesunched them into the air, which made them a perfect target.


    Ava was the first to react as she crushed several monsters with her lightning, followed by Felice and Luka. With them not being able to do anything, it was the perfect chance to eliminate arge number of monsters.


    It was no wonder why Theo used the giant to create an avnche.


    After that, Lorenzo looked at the other groups. Zhilov and the others easily blocked the avnche, but they had difficulty taking advantage of this opportunity to kill some monsters. The same applied to the Griffith Family Members.


    Without Theo saying anything, Lorenzo already knew the real reason why Theo used this tactic.


    ''Hahaha, he is elevating Agata''s status or you can say his assistant''s status while making those he hates struggle. I''m d that I am not his enemy��'' Lorenzo let out a sigh of relief.

 Chapter 632 – Nella’s Purpose

    <h4>Chapter 632 - Ne��s Purpose</h4>


    "Kill him," Theo shouted as hemanded the other four.


    Seeing the opportunity, they didn''t hesitate andunched an all-out attack.


    "Great Magic Shock."


    "Ice Field."


    "Twin Sword Strike."


    "Sword Light."


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred as the giant took all the attacks with his body.


    Suddenly, a crack appeared on the giant''s body after Ne''s attack.


    "!!!" All of them looked at the crack, and they knew Ne''s attack finally went through. Everyone had the same thought at this point. ''Hit that ce!''


    The group charged forward as Ne prepared to hit it one more time.


    However, the giant suddenly spoke. "Since I''m going to die, I will be dragging all of you with me."


    "!!!"


    Suddenly, twenty tentacles burst out of the crack and struck everyone in the area.


    Since she was the closest, the tentacles managed to hit her on the stomach and face, blowing her away.


    The rest had the time to react.


    Lorenzo tore the space open to block the tentacles but still needed to deflect several tentacles. Alea deflected all the tentacles with ease due to her eyes that captured the tentacles'' every movement.


    Ana formed an ice wall while freezing the tentacles, stopping them froming, while Theo used his Blink to disappear from the battlefield.


    His figure reappeared behind Ne as he caught her to avoid getting blown farther away. It would be extremely dangerous if she got surrounded while struggling to get up after all.


    "Theo?" Ne gritted her teeth as she coughed up blood. "Kh��"


    "Are you okay?"


    "Yes. I poured all my Magic Power to protect my body so that my bones won''t break. Still, I don''t think I can continue fighting." Ne gasped for air.


    Theo raised his head and sighed, "I don''t think you need to do that."


    The three who blocked the tentacles had moved to cut down the tentacles. Along with the fact his skin was torn and blood flowed out from that spot, he believed the monster would die soon.


    "There''s another reason for meing here." Ne suddenly said as she was lying down in Theo''s embrace.


    "Poison Fruit?"


    "No. I believe my memory has been altered, but it doesn''t seem to be that bad ording to your parents. They have contained the Mind Elder''s power for the time being, so I won''t lose my mind easily.


    "Hence, Ie to you to tell you this. If that power controls my body, please don''t hesitate to kill me." Ne smiled. "I want to tell you that. After all, I can see that my memory and feeling toward you have be too strong that it''s unbearable. I''m afraid I won''t be the same me anymore."


    "You��" Theo frowned. "You came all the way here just for this?"


    "Yes. The elder still believes I am in their control and those five are here to watch whether it''s true or not. That''s why I want you to y along with me." She nced at the Griffith Family Members and noticed they were still trying their best to kill the monsters that had been buried under the avnche. They hadn''t paid any attention to her.


    "Why are you even doing all this for me?"


    She smirked yfully and said, "I will only answer that question after you agree to be my husband."


    "��" Theo sighed and raised his head, staring at the monster that soon died under Ana''s hand.


    "Anyway, there are two factions inside the Griffith Family. Your father''s faction and the elder faction. The elders have been trying to control your father because of his talent and start working to control you after getting to know your talent.


    "Hence, your father also brought a mercenary into the mix and created a veryplex situation. At the very least, you don''t need to worry about any attempts from the Griffith Family for the time being.


    "I will be able to break free from this mind control after reaching the Supreme Rank, so I will be a double-agent to help your father defeat the elders which are controlled by the former head of the Griffith Family. He''s a dangerous man at the same level as Sir Leonardo and he''s also your grandfather.


    "I will defeat the elders and take over the family. This way, you don''t need to worry about the family in the future. Even if you don''t ept me, just visit me from time to time and have a meal together as a family. That''s the only thing I desire." She smiled.


    "You��" Theo was speechless, not knowing why Ne did all this for him. This was the same as her doing the hardest work without getting any pay. Even if he asked for a reason, her answer would remain the same. He looked down and said, "Thanks. If you face a big problem, just visit me. I will do free consulting. Though, that''s just because I want to fuck the Griffith Family up."


    "Haha, that''s certainly interesting." Ne chuckled.


    Theo smiled. As expected, when the Griffith Family was involved, he couldn''t believe everything he heard, including Ne''s words. Even then, it didn''t stop him from helping Ne as long as he deemed it could mess them up. That was why he didn''t mind cooperating with Ne.


    Suddenly, Theo thought of something as he ignored the other three who walked toward them after defeating the giant. He said to Ne, "Actually, I have something I would like you to help."


    "What''s that?"


    "Do you want to have a date with me as soon as we go back?" Theo smirked.


    "Huh?" This time, the sound came from Lorenzo, Ana, and Alea.


    "Theo! How about Sister-inw?" Lorenzo was shaken as he pointed at Agata. "Are you cheating on her?"


    "What Sister-inw? How about your girlfriend here?" Ana pointed at Alea as if demanding justice. "She came all the way here just to help you, you know."


    An evil smile appeared on Ne''s face as she hugged Theo as tight as possible while saying with a seductive tone. "That''s right. We''re going to have a date after this is over."


    Because of themotion Lorenzo and Ana created, the Griffith Family Members finally looked checked on Ne again, confirming that Ne and Theo might already have be a thing, unaware of their conversation.

 Chapter 633 – End Of Mission

    <h4>Chapter 633 - End Of Mission</h4>


    After two more minutes, the group finally took down all the monsters in their surroundings.


    Ana touched the giant and turned it into cards before tossing it to Ne. After that, Lorenzo stated, "Anyway, we need to get the hell out of here. We have used too much time to kill this giant."


    Theo shrugged while stopping Ne, who was trying to kiss him because he saved her earlier. This action managed to buy the trust of the Griffith Family Members as they could finish all their missions.


    Still, Theo kept being annoying as he continuously ced them in a weird situation from time to time, infuriating them.


    Theo maintained his poker face as if he had made a correct decision while ignoring their res. He led the group out of the Dark Poison Swamp within an hour.


    As expected, as soon as they arrived at the safe location, they immediately dropped to their knees while letting out a sigh of relief.


    "We''re finally out." Lorenzo stretched his hands and fell on his butt. "I''m tired of this sh*t."


    "Well, your job isn''t over yet." Ana stopped him and pointed at the back. "Come with me for a second."


    "Ah, right." Lorenzo sighed. "Can''t we do thister?"


    "No. We''re nning to go back to Russia as soon as possible." Ana shook her head.


    "Fine." Lorenzo followed her. After getting enough distance, Lorenzo asked, "So, should we split ording to the previous agreement?"


    "Yes. ording to the previous agreement, you get four fruits while we get two. But since there are only four fruits here and five antidotes can be made from one fruit. We will get one fruit and two antidotes. I believe this is fair, right? Even though the one that caused all this wasn''t in your control, the n still did mess up."


    "Fine." Lorenzo nodded. "I don''t mind that. I will also need to give Ne one, so I guess I will end up with two fruits and two antidotes. I guess that''s fine too."


    "That''s your problem." Ana shrugged. "Anyway, that''s all we need. To be honest, Theodore Griffith is an interesting man. He''s a little scary though."


    Lorenzo made a smug smile. "Of course. He''s my good friend."


    "Not brother?"


    "Not gonna force him." Lorenzo shrugged.


    "Whatever. I don''t really care about your family." Ana sighed and continued, "You seem to have gotten stronger faster than I expected�� Next time, I won''t lose."


    "Come on, girl. It''s not like I''mpeting with you or something�� Why are you always like this? Competing with other people so easily."


    "If not, I won''t be able to get this strong." Ana waved her hand as she returned to her group, telling them that the mission was over.


    Theo, who was still stopping Ne from approaching him, got a sudden visit from Alea. He raised his head and looked her in the eyes. His tone was awkward, but he still said, "Yo. How are you these days?"


    "I am good, thanks to you." Alea nodded and scratched the back of her head. "Actually, I haven''t gotten the chance to say this��"


    Theo raised his eyebrows and used Telekinesis to send Ne away. He slightly pointed at the back, telling her they should talk over there.


    Alea agreed and followed him. When they arrived, Theo''s expression turned serious. "What is it?"


    "I am sorry for making you put up with me this whole time. I never realized it, and by the time I noticed this, it was toote. I am�� truly sorry." Alea lowered her head.


    "It''s fine. I don''t think about it anymore." Theo shook his head. "Even with all that, it doesn''t change the fact that the reason I couldpete in the Grand Gaia Competition was because of you.


    "If you didn''t force me to join you, I might get a mediocre teammate. If I didn''t get support from you, my equipment wouldn''t be that good�� My hunt and my battle would have been affected.


    "In the end, I could be where I am right now thanks to you. I hated you in the past because my already bad life became worse. In the end, you also saved me from that sh*tty life. That''s why please don''t lower your head.


    "I know that this sounds weak, but everything is already in the past. It will affect the future, but let''s not bring it up again and again. You and I have grown up, so it''s time for us to live for the future, not the past." Theo put on a gentle smile.


    "Thank you." Alea smiled, feeling relieved. "This is too much to ask, but can I start everything again with you?"


    "I guess having one more friend is nice." Theo closed his eyes.


    "Yes." Alea''s expression brightened as she answered with a big smile on her face.


    While they were talking, Agata kept ncing back and forth between them and the group.


    Felice noticed her worried expression and decided to tease her, albeit with a poker face. "Jealous?"


    "He''s not mine yet. Even if he is, I don''t want to be that overly jealous girl who keeps pestering him. We both have our own boundaries and respect that, so no. I''m not jealous." Agata shook her head.


    "But you''re still worried."


    "Yeah. Even though I''m not jealous, he''s a guy I''m pursuing. I''m worried he''s going to be taken by someone else." Agata made a wry smile. "Especially since my rival has grown up like this�� Maybe I shouldn''t let my emotions take over back in Thernd and spout all those bullsh*t that ended up making her grow up."


    "Well, no matter what, Lorenzo and I will support you. Just call us if you need anything."


    "I prefer to do it myself, but thanks." Agata nodded.


    Felice patted Agata''s shoulders a few times before walking away.


    The same applied to Ne. She was looking at Agata and Alea before realizing she had no friend to help her. She ultimately looked away and sulked.


    Meanwhile, Ava was staring at the three beauties with her innocent eyes�� No one knew what she thought about them.

 Chapter 634 – Theo’s Scheme

    <h4>Chapter 634 - Theo��s Scheme</h4>


    After returning to the city, Ana took the Poison Fruit with her and returned to Russia. Lorenzo had promised her to send the package over after they processed them.


    Agata and Ava returned to the mansion and had a rest for the day. Theo decided to bring Ne around, showing her the city while enjoying his time.


    At some point, Theo revealed his n that he had mentioned back in the Dark Poison Swamp. Ne was dumbstruck as she never expected Theo to be giving her this kind of n. However, there was no reason for her to reject his n.


    After all, Theo wanted to mess the Griffith Family up while Ne wished to weaken the elders, so Ray Griffith could fully take over the family, and she would be the sole sessor without any more threats.


    Everything went smoothly for a few days until the empress called Ana and Alea.


    In a small pavilion, Ana and Alea were sitting next to each other as they were exchanging looks. They thought the empress was angry and nned to punish them for any problem she found in the mission.


    "Cough." The empress let out a cough to grab their attention.


    Ana and Alea immediately straightened their backs and looked at the white-haired woman in front of them. Despite her age, she looked like a woman in her thirties. Her braided silver hair rested on her chest as she was looking at a piece of paper. She had been staring at this paper for a while, making them look nervous because they thought this was a report from someone else.


    The moment she opened her mouth, they felt chill down their spines.


    "As much as I want to say good job, I can''t." The empress squinted her eyes. "There are too many things that I need to address to both of you."


    "What is it, Mother?" Ana gulped down as she carefully asked.


    "Well, I shouldn''t scold both of you too much since even I wouldn''t be able to think something like this. Even if I''m there, I won''t be able to know it easily. This little bastard is like that old fox, Leonardo. Though, this one is more shrewd." The empress fell silent for a moment. "If Leonardo is a strategist that creates a path to victory, this little bastard is a man who uses chaos for his victory."


    "Are you talking about Theo, Master?" Alea asked for confirmation.


    "Who else?" The empress pinched the bridge of her nose. "After listening to your report about the mission and seeing this, I have realized a few things. First of all, he''s like an angel to his friends and a demon to his enemies. That''s for sure.


    "After all, he could create something like this on the spot��" The empress bit her lips. "He used the entire process to get your trust in his n. Then he utilized that trust to his advantage and got what he wanted. Ana, have you ever thought why Alea is getting the second farthest fruit?"


    "Eh?" Ana was taken aback by the question and looked down, contemting her answer.


    While waiting for her, she turned to Alea, "Alea. Tell me why he''s not using his clone the whole time? He can simply use his clone to get all the fruits."


    "But isn''t that because the Poison King��" Alea didn''t finish her answer as she felt something was wrong.


    Suddenly, the two dropped their jaws and realized the answer.


    "Did you forget his job?"


    "Illusionist." Alea and Ana answered at the same time as they looked down, not daring to look at the empress'' eyes.


    They both finally realized the sounds and the roots were nothing but illusions. They forgot the fact Theo was a guy known for his illusion that could alter reality. Even Alea knew that Theo could make her feel the weight of his illusion despite it wasn''t real, so why didn''t she think Theo would be able to affect her hearing too? She gulped down in panic. This was also the reason why Theo gave her that position. It was to prevent her from looking at his expression.


    "You told me that he agreed to use Teleportation after you decided to hold the rear. Well, I understand that your experiences are not on par with mine and that kind of adrenaline rush was clouding your judgment, so I won''t scold you for this. You can me the monsters for noticing you guys and shifting your thoughts, but I hope that you won''t make the same mistake."


    "Y-yes." The two girls nodded furiously.


    "Then, there''s that Griffith Family. Have Ne Griffith made contact with Theodore Griffith?"


    "Ah!" Ana facepalmed as she knew she fucked up. "I heard it from Luka. He told me that Ne jumped on him and passed on a note. Only Theo''s assistant read that note, so no one knew the content other than Ne, Theo, and his assistant, Liza, was it?"


    "��" Ana fell silent while sweating, noticing the fact that the two might have coborated before the mission even started. That was also why Theo had no hesitation in joining hands with Ne after that.


    "Anyway, I just want to tell you two of these things. I am not nning to scold you because he''s a madman. I already said, even if I was there, it wouldn''t be that easy for me to notice this." The empress sighed and continued, "What you need to do is to know how to realize this trap early? As for me��"


    The empress tossed the paper to the table, so both of them could see what she had been looking at this whole time.


    Their jaws dropped the moment they realized the paper wasn''t a report but a picture. And this wasn''t just any other picture; it was a picture of Ne and Theo.


    If that was the only case, it wouldn''t annoy her so much. What frustrated her was the two fruits they were holding in their hands. With a big smile on their face, they were clearly showing this to mock her. After all, the fruits were none other than the two Poison Fruits they failed to take.


    There were two sentences above the picture, saying, "I always make sure my n won''t fail. But well�� Allies are the best things since we can share the joy with each other."


    This only implied one thing, and the empress said, "Fuck that Zhilov�� Fuck that Griffith Family."

 Chapter 635 – Messing With Style

    <h4>Chapter 635 - Messing With Style</h4>


    "This��" Alea and Ana were stupefied, never expecting to see something like this.


    "That guy is only 18 years old, right?" The empress narrowed her eyes, staring at Alea.


    "Yes. He''s two years younger than me." Alea nodded, confirming Theo''s age.


    "And he is already at this level? Tell me what''s the real reason for him to do all this." The empress asked both of them with a serious expression.


    Ana and Alea looked down, contemting their answers.


    Ana was the first to answer. "He''s trying to show that he will make his enemies suffer and make his friends happy like you said. I have seen this during the avnche. Theo created an avnche, so his assistant could stand out from the rest and the War God Family could deal with the monsters faster. Meanwhile, the Griffith Family and our team were suffering because they had a hard time finding the monsters.


    "Now that I take another look at the situation, Theo seemed to be so friendly with Ne and harsh on the other people in her group. Isn''t this implying that he is Ne''s friend, but not the Griffith Family?


    "Still, there''s no reason why Theo decided to give Ne the Poison Fruit. This is weird." Ana pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking over.


    Alea, on the other hand, had her answer ready. "I believe Theo has two targets. They are the Zhilov and the Griffith Family. Isn''t that the reason why Master said those curse words?" Alea asked and continued with her exnation. "Anyway, if Zhilov didn''t pick a fight with him, Theo might grab the Poison Fruits for the whole group. In other words, we would still get two whole fruits in the end.


    "However, because of Zhilov, he decided to punish the entire team and pin all the me on him. In fact, if Master calls Sir Wind Emperor, the Czar won''t be quiet for a while, considering their younger generation has caused them trouble. This is going to be big because the other party is from the War God Family. Everyone knows Sir War Saint''s reputation, including the setback they will receive if they anger him.


    "And Theo will get taught by Sir War Saint for another year. This means Theo''s progress is just the start, resulting in him being more dangerous in the future."


    The empress nodded with a sigh. "Yeah. That was also the reason why you two were chosen by him to fight the giant. He didn''t want you to suffer because Ana had stopped Zhilov a couple of times while you�� Why don''t you get married already?"


    "That''s not��"


    Before Alea corrected her, the empress made an "o" with her left hand and pierced it with her other hand. "Just do this already. If you get a kid, he will settle down."


    "Master!" Alea gritted her teeth and let out a long sigh, calming her heart down. "Anyway, Zhilov and the Czar will be in the center of the attention for the time being. Depending on Master''s decision, the Czar may send their assassins to kill him or just mend the bridge to avoid more confrontations."


    "You''re still short-sighted, Alea. The Czar only has one option. It''s thetter."


    "What do you mean, Master?"


    "Do you forget the fact that little bastard can leave the War God Family as he pleases? The Star Group is ready to acquire him even if they need to pay a hefty price, and it''s not like the War God Family will have no contact with him either. In other words, if the Czar ns to have their revenge, they will be facing the Star Group and the War God Family at the same time. We can''t rule out the possibility that the Griffith Family won''t participate either.


    "There are currently two factions in there. If his father won this battle and Ne became the next ruler of the family, the Griffith Family would surely attack Czar as well. Do you think they can handle these three big influences?" The empress sighed. "This little bastard now can look at the future and doesn''t mind ying with fire because he has many fire extinguishers behind him. A freaking monster."


    Alea looked down and said, "Then, the Poison Fruit��"


    "Yes. I believe he still has the two Poison Fruits since this picture wants to redirect our anger to the Czar instead of him. And it''s not like we have many reasons to hate him because of you." The empress nodded.


    "But Mother��" Ana raised her hand. "The Czar family aside, didn''t you say the Griffith Family will suffer too? If that''s the case, isn''t it wise to give one fruit to Ne?"


    "Not really. With Ne not having the fruit means the elder faction will start pressuring her. The internal conflict will be even messier. Then, as I said earlier, Czar will try to mend the rtionship with Theo and the War God Family. To do that, they''re going to shift their anger to the Griffith Family and mess them up.


    "This way, the Griffith Family will have to deal with that mercenary group, the Czar and their own internal conflict. They will be in a chaotic situation for a while, and the one who is enjoying all this is none other than Theo. I thought he was the type of guy who only wanted short satisfaction, but I was wrong.


    "He''s not the type that you want to mess with. After all, he''s not using his own hand to ruin his enemies. He''s using chaos and other hands to get what he wants. And when these big influences are fighting, more chaos will happen because those they have been supervising this whole time will make their move too, maybe dering their independence or something like that.


    "Oh, boy�� I need to call the Wind Emperor fast." The empress sighed and pulled her Skylink out, calling the Wind Emperor. While waiting for the call to be connected, she said, "I bet this guy is enjoying his time while watching all this event unfold. Fuck that Leonardo for creating this freak."


    As she said, Theo was lying down on the grass as he was waiting for his training, chilling like he hadn''t done anything wrong.


    Suddenly, Agata walked toward him with her eyes locked on her Skylink. "Theo��"


    "Oh, is the report ready?" Theo smiled.

 Chapter 636 – Wind Emperor

    <h4>Chapter 636 - Wind Emperor</h4>


    Meanwhile, in Russia, a bald old man was sitting on his wheelchair, looking at the big mansion up ahead. He wore warm clothes and seemed to not bother with anything else.


    A middle-aged man in a ck suit was apanying him and said, "Sir, we have arrived."


    "Okay. Let''s go." The old man nodded tiredly before sighing. "Can''t I just have a peaceful retirement life?"


    The middle-aged man couldn''t answer him. He could only push the wheelchair gently, making their way to the mansion.


    The building itself was a two-story mansion. Its size was close to 70��70 feet. The old man squinted his eyes when he saw the building and said, "Our family is a ruler, but it doesn''t change the fact that we''re not the only ruler in this world. Back in my days, not a single younger generation dared to unt their pride to other kings, but the rule seems to have be loose after my retirement."


    "Sir��" The middle-aged man gulped down as he took a step back.


    "Do you think this is a normal incident? If that old hag didn''t give me this information, by the time I died, the family might also perish. And now, I might die by fixing the mess of the younger generations." The old man shook his head helplessly.


    "Sir, I will bring the young master here." The middle-aged man tried to appease the old man by dragging the culprit outside.


    However, the old man didn''t bother to wait as he raised his hand. "There''s no need. I will be dragging him here."


    The wind started to gather around him as the house suddenly burst out as if there were multiple explosions inside. Yet, unlike a normal explosion, the wind caught all the materials and raised them to the sky.


    After that, they kept dismantling the house until it copsed entirely. All the servants who were working inside were levitated in the air together with the other house materials.


    Screams began to echo in the area as they didn''t understand what was going on. However, they soonnded on the ground, not far away from the mansion with all that stuff.


    The middle-aged man took a step back and frowned. He thought, ''He used his wind to dismantle the entire house while keeping the safety of all other equipment and staff�� And this is a giant house with more than a thousand things to keep safe. No wonder he''s called the Wind Emperor. If he wanted it, he could crush the entire mansion with a single wave of his hand��''


    There was a single guy that was left behind after all this mess. He was none other than Zhilov.


    "Gr��!" Zhilov recognized the old man and wanted to call him, but words stuck in his throat with a single nce of the old man. He fell on his knees and his body went limp.


    The old man used his wind to bring him in front of him.


    "Don''t call me Grandfather anymore. I have no grandson like you." The old man snorted as he couldn''t contain his anger anymore. After that, he nced at the middle-aged man next to him and waved his hand.


    The middle-aged man suddenly dropped to his knees and spat a mouthful of blood.


    "Gah." He coughed a few times as his body went limp. He didn''t understand what happened as he realized he was already on the ground. He thought, ''What? I reached Mythical Rank Expertst year and I couldn''t even see what he did to my body?''


    "Thanks to you, this family has be theughing stock." The old man then red at the middle-aged man. "If not because of you sending this trash to Italy, I wouldn''t need to handle this.


    "With the War God Family bing his background and the Star Group looming in his shadow, we''re almost making an all-out war with them. At the same time, more influences might get involved in this situation.


    "If it''s a war that he wants, I don''t really mind giving it to him. Sadly, what he wants is this chaotic situation where he can fish in this troubled water. I''m sure that many big influences have seen what he can do�� what a mere 18 years old brat can do.


    "Normally, I would choose to eliminate the potential threat before he grows up, but this brat is already beyond the level where he can be assassinated easily. Instead of befriending a monster like him, you choose to antagonize him and direct his anger to our family.


    "This 18 years old brat uses the Czar to show his power and make us aughing stock. And what makes me mad right now is the fact that everything can be easily avoided just by not sending your sorry ass.


    "What do you think will happen if I move to kill that child? He will simply unite the War God Family and the Star Group together to fight us. That old hag will also join hands with him to take this opportunity. Even if we can survive, do you think we can still raise our heads proudly?"


    The old man''s words kept going and piercing their hearts, knowing that Theo had almost checkmated them with a single move. And they let him do so just by moving a single, useless pawn.


    "If they are the only ones moving, I can still stop them. But there is the Griffith Family�� In fact, he can even pull more influences just by selling a bit of his future to them. Tell me, what can you do if five Leonardos are surrounding us?" The wind emperor gritted his teeth. "And now because of you, I need to mess with the Griffith Family�� Just thinking about it makes me mad. I want to kill both of you right now, but killing is just a simple relief for both of you.


    "You''re hereby stripped of your positions and names and will go to the Deep Dark Room for the rest of your life. As for your crime, both of you have endangered the entire family. That''s all." The old man decided to make them suffer for the rest of their lives.


    He raised his head and sighed. "I guess this is a small price to pay to know there''s a hidden monster inside the War God Family."


    After those words, he knocked them out and brought them to where they were supposed to be without looking at their miserable expressions.

 Chapter 637 – Commotions

    <h4>Chapter 637 - Commotions</h4>


    At the same time as the Wind Emperor started moving around, many influences decided to take advantage of the situation.


    In a certain port in Russia, a group of men gathered.


    "The Wind Emperor has begun his move. We''re going to report it to the main family."


    "The Griffith Family is in trouble. But wasn''t Ray Griffith Theodore Griffith''s father?"


    "Don''t you know he hates the family?"


    "Really?"


    "If that''s the case, is the son trying to ruin the Griffith Family?"


    "I think so. However, ording to some news, his father is also doing the same to suppress the elders."


    "What?"


    "So their goals are aligned?"


    "Yeah. What should we do now? Should we change sides or just dere our independence from the Griffith Family?"


    "��"


    They all started discussing their next move and this didn''t happen only in Russia. Many influences under the Griffith Family had begun their discussions as well, considering the Griffith Family couldn''t promise their usual stability in this troubled time.


    Even Theo''s master, Nina Eilric, had received the news from her Eilric Family regarding this movement. They really wanted to know Nina''s opinion because Nina was closer to Theo and Ray than any of them.


    Unfortunately for them, Nina didn''t care about this conflict and chose to remain silent.


    Many big influences, including the Star Group, were watching this chaotic situation created by an 18 years old young man. Although they didn''t believe that he was the sole culprit of this move, they believed Theo had a fair share in creating this trouble. They were surprised that the War God Family had produced such a monster and even more shocked when they soon found out that Theo wasn''t tied by the War God Family.


    After witnessing Theo''s capability, they obviously didn''t want to miss the chance to acquire someone that might be the future Leonardo. After all, Leonardo himself managed to create several big influences with his consulting alone, so it was worth it to pay a hefty price to acquire Theo when he was young.


    Many news outlets all around the world began to give information about many big movements in the world. But they never mentioned a single word about Theo since they were paid to keep his identity a secret by their own backers. They did it to avoid letting many people know Theo''s existence so that they could get him for their own benefit.


    And this matter didn''t stop with only those influences. It affected countries, especially those who chose not to form a friendly rtionship with Theo.


    China.


    "And now you have seen what he can do, and it''s now toote to do anything. I told you back then." Cheng Han, Cheng Sui''s father, made a smug smile as he had already given up the case. His son had been asking him to convince them to take Theo in, but they didn''t ept his words.


    Ennd.


    The British Royal Family began their discussion again. The prince asked, "Is there any progress with our search?"


    "We haven''t found a single person who can upgrade a person''s skill."


    "Double the personnel right now. We can''t miss this chance again."


    Japan.


    Shibuya Mami was sitting in front of Laust Lange. She chuckled, "Look at your friend right now�� He''s the center of attention."


    "I have nothing to do with him anymore."


    "Aren''t you d that you''re not his enemy anymore?"


    "I can''t deny it. After all, with a single word from him, you all can simply throw me away." Laust shook his head.


    "That''s certainly true. You may want to pick up the pace, lest you will miss your chance to have your revenge."


    Laust fell silent, knowing that Theo might kill his father now. However, he also knew that Theo wanted to have his revenge personally, so Theo wouldn''t be using his influence to settle this matter. He sighed, "I will be going back to my training."


    "Calcting his growth, I''m afraid your father only has two years to live."


    "I will surely be a strong Supreme Rank Expert before that." Laust nodded with a serious expression as he walked away.


    While many influences and countries were discussing him, the real culprit, Theo, was sitting on his couch while taking a closer look at the news.


    "Phantasm Group has separated themselves from the Tric Group and will begin their restructuring."


    "The Wiold Company has taken a multi-million deal with the Phantasm Group."


    "The��"


    "��"


    "��"


    Theo was watching the news as Agata, who was standing next to him, said, "They should be rted to the Griffith Family."


    "Mhm." Theo nodded and asked, "What are you going to do after this?"


    "What do you mean?" Agata tilted her head in confusion.


    "It''s obvious that they''re going to target me after this. And you, my assistant, need to put your life on the line if you want to keep following me." Theo looked at Agata in the face. "That''s why this is the perfect time if you want to draw a line with me. After all, your own family may get destroyed because of my actions from this point on."


    This statement questioned whether Agata still wanted to pursue him. Theo showed her that chasing him would put her life on the line, so he gave her the option to give up right now.


    "I�� I have my own resolve. Although it''s just on the surface, my family has ''disowned'' me. Well, we are still contacting each other like usual since it''s just a pretense. However, it means I can''t use my influence to help you anymore. If you''re still fine with me bing your assistant, please don''t fire me." Agata looked Theo in the eyes, showing her resolve.


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a few seconds and sighed. "You''re a fool, aren''t you?"


    "If that''s what you think about me, then I shall ept it."


    "Ugh. I don''t feel like arguing with you." Theo waved his hand and said, "Whatever. Since you take the jobs, I''m going to be responsible for you as well. I will also try to protect you with all my resources in exchange for your trust."


    "Hehe, I hope that in the future, it can grow from exchange to unconditionally."


    "��" Theo looked away as he couldn''t say anything back.


    Suddenly, Leonardo''sughter echoed in his ears.


    "Hahaha. You two lovebirds are amusing as usual. Still, you brat�� you should say something about this if you want to make such an interesting move. To think that you are causing this ruckus with a single picture and two sentences." Leonardoughed as he continued, "The empress wanted me to deliver her message to you. She said, ''Fuck you, brat.'' Hahaha. I lost my sh*t when I heard it."


    [God of Mischief is also satisfied with your performance.]


    Theo smiled upon that message but still shook his head. "Well, the effect is beyond my imagination, but I think I will do just fine."


    "Do you want a consultation from me? I will do it for two devices you possess��" Leonardo smirked.

 Chapter 638 – Plan

    <h4>Chapter 638 - n</h4>


    "Still, it''s surprising that you can bring the fruit with you. After all, there are numerous monsters in the area; it''s hard to get past them." Leonardo smirked, looking at Theo''s face.


    Theo fell silent for a moment and recalled what happened.


    "Let''s go!" The real Theo shouted and ran together with the rest of the group. Meanwhile, Theo''s clone had used his Metamorphosis and turned into a green snake.


    He was crawling onto the tree while walking them from afar.


    ''Luckily, I have upgraded my Metamorphosis. I can do more than this��'' The clone thought while smiling inwardly. He then moved toward the other two fruits and swallowed them, making his body bulge due to the size of the fruit.


    Theo didn''t care and utilized the snake''s body feature to store both fruits before jumping into the snow.


    Because he could sever the connection of the senses between his real body and his clone, he didn''t feel anything from the snow.


    In other words, he could move normally under the snow, allowing him toe out of the forest safely.


    Of course, he didn''t want to say anything regarding his Metamorphosis. In fact, he only used Metamorphosis once in front of everyone.


    It was at the familypetition and he made it look like he was using his Illusion to make his body look like an eagle just to defeat Ignazio.


    That was the only instance.


    And the one who knew his true Metamorphosis was only Maya due to their fight in Thernd.


    He always believed Metamorphosis would be handy at some points. Like this time, no one realized it was him and he felt happy that the number of forms he could use increased.


    Recalling the scene, Theo looked away with a smile. "Well, I have my own way."


    "Fair enough. You shouldn''t tell anyone about your trump card." Leonardo nodded and shrugged. "Anyway, I won''t say what you have done is wrong as long as you think it is right. That''s just a subjective opinion after all."


    Theo nodded and said, "Though, I need to reach Supreme Rank as soon as possible."


    "Hmm, with how things are going on, you should be fine within a year. No, should I say, you will be fine as long as you''re still learning under me��" Leonardo narrowed his eyes.


    "Well, that''s simr to my prediction. That''s why I''m going to speed up my training and increase my levels." Theo thought for a moment. "I will probably take a subjugation missionter without the help."


    "Fair enough. I don''t think you want to coborate with other influences for the time being. It''s good to stay mysterious because it means your enemies will need to observe you first."


    "Yeah. If it''s alright, I want to impose an information lockdown from the War God Family." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Oh boy, that''s gonna cost you." He smirked. "Not that I mind though since you will call me Grandfather soon. Hahaha."


    "At the very least, if the War God Family is hiding my information, it can extend my time." Theo shrugged. "For now, I am working to make sure nothing goes wrong for the next twelve months."


    "Fair enough. With the help of the War God Family, it''s gonna be easy to stop all influences froming to Italy for a year." He nodded. "Let''s see. I can help with that for three devices."


    "Okay. I will take it." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "Good. Do you need anything from me?"


    "Not really. I am just worried about the next international mission. The War God Family still rules Italy, so the next two missions will surely be fine. However, it will be different if I go to another country."


    "Well, I have a suggestion for you."


    "What? Either going to Russia or the US?"


    "So, you know��" Leonardo shrugged.


    "I can see that much." Theo sighed. "I am sure that the empress is willing to take me in for the international mission. Or if I am a bit bolder, I can go to the Wind Emperor himself. With this, we can solve the grudge between us, and everybody will be happy.


    "Though, the current rtionship makes it quite dangerous for me to go there, so there is one safe haven as a backup n." Theo squinted his eyes. "Star and Starry Groups. I can simply go to the US and I''m sure they will be more than happy to wee me."


    "Indeed. It seems you have nned your schedule for a year."


    "Yeah. Just need a few more decisions depending on the situation."


    "In that case, you have two options. It''s either you go to the mission now or around November. If you go now, the tension will continue rising and something bad might happen because some will be reckless enough to attack you.


    "If you choose thetter, the situation has gotten calmer and you can limit those who are nning to fight you. However, this also means they''re more prepared than ever."


    "Yeah." Theo scratched the back of his head, knowing it was a hard decision. "Though, I prefer thetter."


    "Hmm?"


    Theo smiled. "I just need to prepare something to shift their attention."


    "Oh, boy." Leonardo chuckled. "I''m looking forward to it."


    Theo shrugged. "Anyway, I am nning to rest for three months to sharpen my current two senses. In April, I will go to the other side to increase my level to 420-450 in one go. So, I won''t being back for two to three months."


    "You''re going to waste your precious training time with me?"


    "I need to do that." Theo sighed. "First of all, Agata needs to be at least a level 450 Illusionist to keep up with everything going on."


    Agata agreed as she didn''t mind wasting the time Theo gave her to train under Leonardo.


    "That''s my schedule for now. So, I will be here until April."


    "Well, that''s interesting."


    "Yeah. I want to be as close as possible to the Supreme Rank before any influences make their move." Theo nodded and rose from the chair. "It''s time to go back to training then."


    "Okay."

 Chapter 639 – Training

    <h4>Chapter 639 - Training</h4>


    "In terms of touch, there is one main feature that you can take advantage of." Leonardo, standing in front of Agata, began his lecture.


    Agata''s expression became serious as she closed her eyes and started absorbing all the knowledge Leonardo taught.


    "First of all, Awareness itself is the personification of our senses in the real world. You have done a great job until now, so we''re moving on to the second stage.


    "After sharing your sense of touch to the Magic Power, we will have you share it with the particles.


    "For example, even though your smoke is just an illusion smoke, the smoke itself is a real thing, which should have particles other than Magic Power.


    "It''s hard to see the smoke particles, but it doesn''t mean you can''t sense it. Now, you need to distribute your Magic Power and Sense of Touch to locate these millions of particles that create your smoke.


    "After that, you can try to coat them with your Sense of Touch as well. With the particle and Magic Power coated by your Awareness, the strength of your technique will drastically improve."


    Agata frowned. Although she could understand his words, she was still confused about how to do it.


    Meanwhile, Theo interjected and asked, "Particles�� Do you mean molecules or��"


    "The other one."


    Agata opened her eyes in confusion. "What do you mean?"


    "He''s just telling you to understand the things around you. For example, if you form a figure behind you out of nothing, don''t just use an illusion; how about using wind as well? This will create twoyers for that figure.


    "And since you have that pink smoke, why don''t you just consider the pink smoke itself as particles?"


    "Ah, normally, I think of my illusion fog as Magic Power because it onlyes from my skill which requires Magic Power. However, if what you say is correct, does that mean I can treat the smoke itself as a separate entity?"


    "Something like that." Theo nced at Leonardo.


    "You''re good at simplifying my words, eh." Leonardo raised his eyebrows.


    Theo shrugged and ignored him as he continued, "Your affinity is the same as mine, right?"


    "Yeah. I don''t have an affinity." Agata confirmed it.


    "Then, this is simpler. Magic Power itself is not the real thing. So, if we use the human''s body as an example, the skin is Magic Power and the pink smoke is the organs, blood, and other stuff," Theo exined with a calm expression.


    "Ah, it''s better to use stuffed dolls then. We can use cotton, metal, or anything we like to fill the doll." Agata raised her eyes and said, "Doesn''t that mean I can make it stronger if I add materials other than my pink smoke?"


    "That''s how it is," Leonardo confirmed it with a nod. "However, this needs a high amount of control to achieve. So, let''s focus on Magic Power and Particles first."


    "Yes. I understand." Agata nodded furiously.


    "Good." Leonardo smiled and took a step back. "I believe you have a question for me."


    "Yeah. Take a look at this." Theo took a deep breath and gathered the Magic Power in front of his forehead before infusing his killing intent. After that, he directed that killing intent to Leonardo''s brain.


    "��" Leonardo felt the killing intent and scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, your technique is more profound than mine in this area, so I assume ites from your blessing. However, I can see that you''re stillcking in control and speed."


    "Yeah. I also want to increase the power for that one, but I want to have the speed first. I have a method ready, but I still want to ask for advice." Theo asked.


    "In that case, how about you use a different shape? From what I can feel, yours is like a thread or something. How about using an arrow?"


    "No. There is a reason for me making a thread."


    "You''re concentrating�� or more likepressing it to increase the power." Leonardo nodded, knowing the reason.


    "Yeah."


    "How about you increase the amount of Magic Power you use?"


    "I have used it, but it''s harder to control."


    "Then, how about I teach you a trick so you can experiment with it yourself?"


    "A trick?"


    "Yes." Leonardo closed his eyes for a few seconds and opened them again. This time, golden-colored light began to shine from his eyes before turning into a me that covered his right eye. "This is the trick."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and remembered the scene where Goddess Hel took over his body for a few seconds.


    At that time, the Death Avatar had just appeared, and Theo felt his vision turn blue. It was then he was able to see blue-colored particles in the air.


    He even saw several threads flying toward all monsters and people.


    This was the same technique that Goddess Hel used.


    "Wait a minute��" Theo looked down and remembered something. He muttered inwardly, ''Now that I think about it, if I gather the Magic Power around my eyes and maintain it, doesn''t it mean I can use them whenever I like?


    ''This will shorten the activation time for this Death Gaze. And when I get the Death Avatar, it''s going to be even more powerful.''


    [Good job for understanding it this early.]


    "��" Theo was surprised when he saw a notification before his eyes. He instantly knew it was from Hel, meaning he went in the correct direction.


    "I see. I want to learn that trick." Theo asked his grandfather.


    "It''s simple." Leonardo smiled. "You pour your Magic Power into your eyes just like when you summon a spear from Magic Power.


    "However, you''re going to assimte it with your eyes to make it act like a contact lens. To be honest, you should try to reshape your Magic Bullets first before learning this. It will make your job easierter.


    "There is also a big advantage in getting this. You will be able to see the flow of Magic Power. It''s true that you are consuming your Magic Power to do it, but it will benefit you in the long run." Leonardo smiled.


    "I see. I will work on that��" Theo nodded in agreement as he released his Magic Bullets, immediately starting his training.

 Chapter 640 – Progress

    <h4>Chapter 640 - Progress</h4>


    A monthter.


    Theo was sitting on the ground.


    I wenty Magic Bullets were floating above his head as Theo started pouring his Magic Power into them.


    The bullet on the left then turned into a small knife, followed by the one next to it. Then, more and more Magic Bullets transformed.


    Theo gradually opened his eyes after he changed all of them and looked at them.


    "So, what do you think?" Leonardo asked.


    "The process is simr to forming a spear with Magic Power, but because my Magic Bullet is a skill, it''s harder to change its shape because there''s something that is not Magic Power in it," Theo exined his feelings about the Magic Bullets.


    "Yep. For now, you shouldn''t have any trouble in shaping them, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded and raised his hand. "At the same time, I can do this too."


    The Magic Power fluctuated until it could be seen with naked eyes. This was the normal process for making a spear. However, Theo chose to form a light ball instead of a spear.


    After that, he split the light ball into ten. "Here you go."


    "Ho? You can do the reverse?"


    "Yeah. The process itself is easier than shaping the Magic Bullets. In fact, I don''t need to change it that much, unlike the spears. The only thing I need to do is to apply the Magic Bullet''s rules into this pure Magic Power and they will be the same as my Magic Bullets."


    "That''s right."


    "Also, I have thought of one more idea." Theo smiled and asked, "Do you want to test it, Sir Leonardo?"


    "Sure. Shoot me."


    "These are Magic Bullets." Theo waved his hand, releasing the twenty Magic Bullets that had changed back to a normal bullet instead of a knife.


    Leonardo gently stomped the ground as a ck shield appeared out of thin air.


    The shield received the Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Leonardo had experienced this, so he wasn''t impressed by its power at all." He nodded. "Give me the second one."


    "Okay, these are the customized Magic Bullets." Theo smiled and waved his hand, sending ten customized Magic Bullets.


    When the shield received these bullets, it started shaking as the explosions caused by these bullets wererger than the previous ones.


    "Hoh?!" Impressed by Theo''s customized Magic Bullets, Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and turned to Agata. "You should watch this too."


    "Ahaha��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "As expected, you have deciphered it."


    "Yeah. The difference is quite ring." Leonardo shrugged as if it wasn''t a big deal.


    Agata came closer as she watched the two.


    "Go make another one."


    "Here you go." Theo summoned normal and customized twenty Magic Bullets each and shot Leonardo''s shield.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Because she didn''t experience it herself, she was confused and admitted, "I''m sorry. I don''t understand. All I can see is that the other half is more powerful than the first one."


    "And why is that?"


    Agata looked down, contemting her answer. She ended up shaking her head, not knowing the reason.


    "That''s because he''s trapping the air inside andpressing it a bit to give a good boost to its power."


    "Ah!" Agata came to a realization. This was her topic this whole time. After all, she was trying to infuse some air into her illusion to make the illusion morepact. To think Theo managed to do it first.


    "There are many things I can do with this." Theo nodded and summoned ten Magic Bullets. He then moved the Magic Bullets in front of him and infused his Magic Power.


    Suddenly, a thinyer of blue-colored ss appeared, connecting each Magic Bullet and making a round screen between the bullets.


    "This is��" Agata gasped.


    "Yeah. I''m using my Control to make an artificial shield. I can make it sturdier with my Sense of Touch, but my mastery is very low since I haven''t practiced it at all, so it''s not possible for me right now. Still, the possibility is there, and it makes me happy.


    "In fact, I can even cover the original Magic Bullets with this and give them more power." He smiled. "There are many things I can do with this technique, and I''m nning to do it.


    "After all, Magic Bullets can be said to be my basic skill since it can distract, attack, or block, depending on how I n to use it. In other words, it''s the most versatile skill for me.


    "I got this idea after listening to Sir Leonardo''s exnation when he taught you." Theo smiled.


    Agata didn''t know what to say. Theo was indeed a monster. Even an exnation that shouldn''t be rted to him was used to his advantage to create a technique that suited his current need.


    "Ehm, congrattions."


    "Thanks." Theo smirked.


    ''I see. He absorbs every knowledge and doesn''t stop there. He''s using all kinds of techniques whether they''re rted or not.'' Agata thought inwardly and sighed. ''I, too, shouldn''t feel satisfied with what I have achieved. Instead, I should learn everything and upgrade my own skill to another level.''


    She had seen what Theo could do and nned to reach his level so as to avoid getting left behind.


    Suddenly, Ava leaped on Theo''sp as she raised her foot. "Kyu, Kyu!"


    Theo smiled. "What is it?"


    "Kyu!" Ava raised both feet and summoned a bolt of lightning. After that, she waved her hand left and right as the lightning began to move and bounce on the ground like it was alive.


    "Oh, your Control is good. How about the power?" Theo asked.


    Ava made a smug smile as she raised the bolt of lightning to the air and exploded.


    Boom.


    The bolt of lightning expanded and created a sphere in the air.


    Theo raised his eyebrows. "That''s impressive."


    "That''s quite good." Leonardo smirked. "Though, I believe that''s not all."


    "Kyu!" Ava smirked.


    "What do you mean?" Theo frowned.


    "Try touching the area." Leonardo pointed to the air where the explosion urred.


    Theo was confused, but he still used his Telekinesis to float in the air. When his hand entered the area, he instinctively pulled it out as his body dropped a few inches due to the shock.


    "What''s that?" Theo opened his mouth in amusement.


    "The electricity still remains in the air and if you fight in there, Ava will have a great advantage because your body will be numb. It''s not enough to kill you, but you''re bound to make a mistake there." He smiled. "If I''m not wrong, you can''t use any technologies there either."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and took out his Skylink. The signal was non-existent and the screen was blinking.


    "Well�� Impressive."

 Chapter 641 – Movements

    <h4>Chapter 641 - Movements</h4>


    Their training had just begun. Theo continued in his pursuit of the strongest killing intent like Goddess Hel.


    Of course, he didn''t abandon his Control and his other senses. However, after learning from Leonardo, more doors had been opened for him.


    Agata also poured all her time into training and bing a better assistant. She even learned how to manage the household, starting from the informationwork to businesses.


    She realized that the more knowledge she got, the more she noticed how foolish she was in the past.


    If she could travel to the past, she wanted to tell her past self to study more and learn all kinds of knowledge. Her option could increase, and she didn''t need to rely solely on power.


    Theo had shown her how he could create such a ruckus with just a single picture of him and Ne.


    It turned out Theo had analyzed the current political power in the world and calcted how it would impact them. That was why she sacrificed her sleep in order to be better.


    If someone asked her whether it was harsh or not serving Theo, she would definitely say it was difficult. Nevertheless, she never regretted serving him because she could improve drastically in a short period. It was a chance that would nevere twice.


    With all this knowledge, she felt she managed to understand Theo''s thought process a little bit better.


    At the same time, Theo had told her not to overwork herself. He could do all this because he received Leonardo''s training too. He never bothered to look at all this when he was in Thernd, thus doing a horrible job on Loki''s mission.


    On the other hand, unlike Agata''s hard-working attitude, they often found Ava sleeping more every day. Her action perplexed Theo, so he asked Ava to check her condition.


    It turned out sleeping was simr to meditation for her, allowing her to understand the concept of her own power.


    When she showed how her strength had improved leaps and bounds, Theo didn''t say another word. Instead, he bought all sorts of meats, so Ava could increase her level while practicing inside the mansion.


    In the end, Theo hired a chef to cook for Ava, giving her a better time to practice.


    While they were training peacefully, the world had a great movement.


    The former head of the Griffith Family, Theo''s grandfather, shed with the Wind Emperor.


    Their fight urred on the other side, and the result wasn''t that great because they stopped after a while to avoid sustaining any injuries.


    Still, that single fight managed to turn a mountain into ake. The information was locked by the Griffith Family, but Theo received a message from the Wind Emperor.


    He told her that there would be no grudge between the Czar and Theodore Griffith anymore. If Theo still harmed the Czar, he didn''t mind paying a visit to Theo himself.


    Theo could understand his message and respected him because the fight might notst that long, but it certainly caused another big movement.


    Because their sh was extremely dangerous, one of the Griffith Family''s vassals, the Orel Group, had separated themselves from the Griffith Family.


    They were among the most powerful families in Ukraine, so it was quite a big blow to the Griffith Family as their influence over Europe had decreased significantly.


    For the elder faction, this was an insult to their honor. For Ray''s faction, this was a necessary sacrifice to clean up the Griffith Family.


    However, this also created huge chaos inside the Griffith Family and forced Ray to go hiding despite being the current family head.


    Unlike when he had Theo, now that he had some control over the family, Ray didn''t hesitate to use the Griffith Family itself to cover his track, making it impossible to locate him. He brought his wife and Ne Griffith to hide, ensuring that the next leader of the Griffith Family wasn''t under anyone''s control.


    At the same time, the elder faction also dered their own sessor.


    When Leonardo heard about this information, he didn''t tell Theo any of his insight.


    He realized that Valerie''s n was indeed to make Theo hate them and the Griffith Family.


    She believed that Theo''s talent was enough to shake the foundation of the Griffith Family. And the reason why Ray epted the position was to make all preparations so when the time Theo struck the Griffith Family, they could amplify its effect from the inside.


    This was a horrible move to the son, so Leonardo thought he shouldn''t say anything to Theo and let him get his own thoughts regarding this move. What he learned from this was that Valerie and Ray seemed to have a massive grudge against the family that they didn''t mind destroying the entire Griffith Family.


    He didn''t understand the reason but he wasn''t going to say anything about it. All he did was continue living like usual, treating Theo as his grandson and teaching him with all the knowledge so he could do what he wanted.


    For the time being, Theo didn''t make another move even though it was a great chance to take advantage of the chaotic situation to deal more damage to the Griffith Family.


    This turned out to be the advice from Leonardo. He made sure Theo wasn''t obsessed with the Griffith Family and forgot some other influences and countries were aiming at him.


    So, him not doing anything created doubts in those people''s hearts, stopping them from doing anything.


    As Leonardo''s advice, those people waited and kept observing Theo''s next move, thinking Theo was preparing another n to deal with the Griffith Family.


    However, in reality, Theo was enjoying his life and continued getting stronger. He never bothered himself with the Griffith Family after that picture.


    Theo was just following Leonardo''s advice to do the exact opposite of what other people wanted him to do. After all, they would keep specting until they got their answer.


    This was the psychological warfare that Leonardo taught Theo as this technique allowed Leonardo to enjoy his life while making other people fear him without even doing anything.


    Theo obviously didn''t hesitate to use it to his advantage.

 Chapter 642 – Assistant Agata

    <h4>Chapter 642 - Assistant Agata</h4>


    Two monthster.


    Theo was sitting in the garden with his eyes closed. A snake was hovering on top of his head. The snake had eyes, a tongue, and even scales.


    This creature reflected Theo''s control that had improved drasticallypared to the one he made in Thernd.


    Suddenly, Agata walked toward him. "Theo."


    Hearing her voice, Theo immediately opened his eyes and put the water back on the pool as he raised his head, looking at her. "Yep?"


    "We''re ready to go."


    "Oh?" Theo nodded. "Let me check the schedule again."


    She handed him the Skylink, where they stored the map and missions.


    "We discussed this a few days ago, and now, this is the current n. Since you''re level 373 now, we''re going to the Semi Hill to kill some level 400-420 monsters.


    "I have picked some missions that won''t be picked up by other people in three months around this area as well.


    "And ording to you, we will finish all the individual missions in this trip, so these are the two individual missions."


    [Mission: Unusual Monster''s Rampage Investigation.]


    [Mission: Rioan Mountain Range Exploration.]


    "The first one is about a rampage in a certain area. The monsters in that area are around level 400, so I think it''s perfect for us to investigate and eliminate the threats.


    "As for the second one, we have discovered a new area called Rioan Mountain Range. Even though it''s called Mountain Range, the ce we''re investigating is a cave found from a crevice in a mountain.


    "Since the monsters on the surface are around level 450, the monsters inside shouldn''t be that different. No poison or such a thing has been discovered, but I will prepare three antidotes from the Poison Fruits just in case."


    Theo pondered for a moment and nodded. "Double the antidotes. The rest is good enough. We will finish the rampage mission in the first month and the investigation in the second month. The third month will be focused on our level."


    "Understood. I have considered several ces for the third month and we can choose one depending on our situation at that time." Agata assured him.


    "Good enough for me. You have improved, eh." Theo smiled.


    "Haha, this is my job, so I need to improve to keep it." Agata chuckled. "By the way, I have summarized the data of the monsters that we may need to face, including their strength and weakness. It will take you only a few seconds to understand them, so I think this will give us an easier time."


    "Really? There should be thousands, no?" Theo frowned.


    "You told me your n three months ago, so I took one to two hours before sleeping topile the information. So, yeah, I have been working from the start, so it''s not that tiring." Agata winked.


    "Haha, interesting." Theo nodded. "Thank you."


    "You''re wee."


    "By the way, how are the missions from the temples?"


    "I havepiled all of them. Actually, I have bought another set of sses. It has night improvement mode, night vision, cooking, and Skylink''s function all at once." Agata smirked.


    "Really?" Theo widened his eyes, surprised by Agata''s preparation. "Is there something like that?"


    "I used my family connection to purchase it. It''s thetest product, so my father ended up asking someone to buy it."


    "That must be expensive." Theo frowned. "How much was it? Let me transfer the money."


    "No, no. You don''t need to." Agata shook her head. "To be honest, my father didn''t even give me the receipt when I tried to send the money to him. It seemed he was delighted with my progress and didn''t mind spending his fortune to buy it.


    "He also wants to thank you for this opportunity." Agata assured him with a smile. "So, there''s no need to think about it."


    "Is that so?" Theo scratched the back of his head. He sighed, "Okay, okay. I will use that."


    "Sure. I will just connect the Skylink function to your Skylink to share the data. Is that alright?"


    "Yep." Theo asked, "So, what''s about the temples'' missions?"


    "Ah, right. With the sses, you can see the missions and the monsters to kill or the items to acquire, making it easy for you to decide. As for the missions themselves�� I have gotten all the missions that are in our path, so I''m not very sure.


    "My first estimate is around 300 million Zils for this trip. I have calcted your ability and future ns, so yeah, I think it''s pretty urate. If we add the other Material or Skill Cards, five hundred million should be easy."


    "Hoh?" Theo nodded. "Good enough. We have Ava, so it will be easier."


    "I have put her into the calction too."


    "I see." Theo contemted.


    Suddenly, Agata had a request. "Theo, do you mind considering this one thing?"


    "Hmm? What is it?"


    "I don''t need the money and the cards. I don''t need any spoils."


    Theo frowned. "This doesn''t sound right."


    "If you still want to give me a portion of the money, please use it to fund our next trip or something. Maybe we can even hire people to do stuff. Please use the money on them."


    Theo scratched the back of his head. On the one hand, he felt bad if Agata wasn''t rewarded. On the other hand, he couldn''t rebuke her after seeing how much she cared for this group.


    After a while, Theo said, "In that case, we will split the mission reward into three. We can use the money to fund us, but you still need to get the contribution point, allowing you to increase your privilege level in temples. I won''t budge with this."


    Agata smiled and nodded. "However, since you, your clone, and Ava are one team, shouldn''t we split it into four?"


    "Do I need to repeat myself?" Theo raised his voice and frowned. Agata would demand her portion to be decreased if they split evenly, so Theo calcted Ava and his clone as one, making it a three-way split.


    Hearing this, Agata finally agreed. "I understand. Let''s do it this way."


    "Alright. Let''s proceed with our schedule."


    "Yes. We have a spar after this and an examination to upgrade our temple''s ID Card. I have arranged all of them."


    "Good."

 Chapter 643 – Sparring Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 643 - Sparring Part 1</h4>


    After Ava came to him, they went to Leonardo.


    "Sir Leonardo, if you don''t mind, can you put a barrier here?" Theo asked politely.


    "Hmm?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes. "Are you going to spar?"


    "Yes. Agata and Ava will fight me." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "Oh? They both have improved so much over the past three months, and they need experiences to polish what they have acquired, which can be solved by going to the other side.


    "And you must want to check their progress first, right? Just to see them using their own technique awkwardly." Leonardo chuckled.


    "Ehm, I am in the same situation, you know." Theo pointed at himself.


    "Whatever." Leonardo shrugged and summoned two Rooks.


    When they formed a barrier, they enveloped the entire garden.


    "This should be enough for you three to fight." Leonardo nodded.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Good. Go, go! I want to see the fight." Leonardo yfully chuckled.


    "Sir Leonardo, your age��"


    "If you are always serious, you will have wrinkles soon, you know. This is the secret to maintaining your youth and long life." Leonardo made a smug smile.


    "Whatever." Theo facepalmed and turned around, facing Ava and Agata. "Alright. Today, you two are going to fight me. Show me your progress, so I know what I can expect from both of you on the other side, okay?"


    Ava raised her foot and smiled. "Kyu."


    "Understood." Agata nodded with a serious expression. She needed to make sure she didn''t mess up.


    After getting their confirmation, Theo leaped to an empty space as he raised his spear.


    "Let''s go." Theo smiled.


    Agata''s expression became grim as she immediately bent down on her knees and ced her hands on the ground.


    Suddenly, the ground trembled as two chunks of dirt came out of the ground, trying to crush him.


    Theo used his spear to stop the two chunks of dirt, relying on its toughness.


    Seeing Agata''s attack fail, Ava covered her body with lightning and leaped toward Theo.


    Ava''s blow was quite powerful even for him, so Theo didn''t take a risk and jumped upward, avoiding both Ava and Agata''s attack.


    Agata had expected it and raised her hand. "Tornado."


    Theo raised his head and saw a tornado appear on top of him.


    "Oh, wow. From dirt to wind, I feel like you have grasped the illusion technique." Theo smiled, debunking Agata''s attack.


    Even though it looked like a real deal, Theo knew it was Agata''s pink smoke. She used an illusion skill simr to Theo''s Illusion Maniption to make them look real, ording to Leonardo''s instruction.


    Theo smiled and covered his spear with Magic Power Expansion before hitting the tornado.


    Bang.


    The Magic Power Expansion generated a shock wave that blew Theo away.


    It turned out, Theo used the shock wave to avoid Ava as well since thetter went past him right after the shock wave.


    "Kyu." Ava pouted because she couldn''t hit Theo.


    "Try again, Ava." Theo smirked. "Though, you might want to use all your power immediately since the fight isn''t gonnast long."


    Since Theo wanted to test it, Ava raised the output of her lightning as it started sparking around her body.


    She pointed her foot toward him and released a bolt of lightning.


    Theonded on the ground before he looked down, finding a ring of fire that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The ring of fire surrounded him, forcing him to take this bolt of lightning head-on.


    If he were another person, they would strike the bolt of lightning. But Theo didn''t n to destroy both of them.


    He simply used his Blink to send him away.


    Without him standing in the ring of fire, the bolt of lightning exploded and the lightning spark destroyed the fire illusion.


    "Agata. I think you should use only one affinity instead of all. This way, it will be hard for someone to recognize your affinity, giving you the advantage." Theo gave a piece of advice while fighting.


    "That''s my n, but in a situation where I need to kill my enemy, I should be prepared to use all this to confuse them a bit. That''s why I''m nning to test it on you."


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded. As soon as hended on the ground, he hurriedly made his way toward Agata.


    Ava obviously didn''t allow him to approach her as she had already arrived next to Theo and nned to kick him. However, Clone Theo emerged from thin air and blocked Ava''s kick.


    After that, twenty Magic Bullets came out of the ground and flew toward her.


    Ava waved her foot and spread the lightning to destroy the bullets.


    On the other hand, Theo was approaching Agata.


    As if nning to fight him one-on-one, Agata used her illusion to wield a scythe and waved it toward him.


    Theo harrumphed and struck her scythe, stopping her swing.


    Agata smirked as the de extended to Theo''s neck.


    Thetter realized what she was up to and ducked down before leaping away. "You might want to maintain your poker face during the whole fight. People would notice that you''re up to something. Alea would have an easier time to figure it out."


    Agata didn''t say anything because there was a reason for her smile.


    Suddenly, Ava had arrived behind him and was about to kick him.


    When Theo realized it, he raised his eyebrows. "I see. You''re nning to make me suspicious and leap away this whole time. Tricky��"


    "You taught me." Agata smiled as she closed her eyes.


    Ava hit Theo''s back to end the fight, showing him that they had improved.


    To their surprise, Theo chose to throw his spear into the air before his body disappeared, leaving only Magic Bullets.


    "!!!" Ava hurriedly covered her body with lightning while Agata made a shield as the Magic Bullets hit them.


    Boom.


    Avanded on the ground as she turned around while Agata frowned, seeing Clone Theo.


    When the spearnded next to him, Clone Theo picked it up and smiled. "Well, well. It''s round two now."


    "��" Ava was speechless as she looked at Clone Theo as she didn''t keep track of Theo''s movement before the fight.


    On the other hand, Agata made a wry smile as she said, "That clone�� No, you must have changed your real body with your clone before I gave you the report earlier. You already knew about the spar and tricked me into thinking it''s your body.


    "In other words, I have been tricked even before the match started." Agata gritted her teeth before smiling. "You got me."


    "You need to learn more��" Theo shrugged while pointing the spear to them.

 Chapter 644 – Sparring Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 644 - Sparring Part 2</h4>


    "Haha, you should say I taught you everything you know, not everything I know." Leonardoughed.


    Theo nced at him and shrugged. "I didn''t teach her everything she knew."


    Before they could continue their conversation, Agata had already made her next move. She stomped the ground as the soil seemed to rise before turning into a golem.


    The golem ran forward and mmed Theo with its giant hand.


    Theo used his Magic Power Expansion and struck the golem''s hand before he felt an explosion that knocked his spear away.


    After that, he used his Telekinesis to push the golem away, resulting in Agata losing control over the smoke.


    The golem then crumbled and returned to its original form, the pink smoke.


    Since no one was stopping him anymore, he spread his hands as forty Magic Bullets appeared out of thin air.


    ''Half of them are Theo''s Magic Bullets while the others are Customized Magic Bullets.'' Agata frowned as she knew she couldn''t specte which was normal and which wasn''t.


    Agata snapped her finger as multiple walls emerged from the ground. She then covered her presence with her Awareness, trying to hide so Theo couldn''t locate her.


    At the same time, Theo wouldn''t attack her recklessly because he might get hit by Ava.


    Knowing Ava was going to ambush him, Theo shot all the walls without hesitation.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The explosions urred in session and the walls disappearedpletely.


    As soon as he located Ava and Agata, Theo sent another wave of Magic Bullets through the ground.


    "!!!" Both of them noticed the attack at the same time.


    Ava hurriedly leaped toward Theo to make him the target too if the Magic Bullets indeed chased after her.


    On the other hand, Agata used her illusion smoke to reinforce the ground.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded again when they hit Agata''s pink smoke, albeit Agata underestimated the power of the explosions.


    Due to the explosion, the dirt started to burst out of the ground. This ce wasn''t filled with rocks that strengthened the foundation underneath her, so her vision was soon covered with dirt.


    Meanwhile, Theo struck Ava with his spear.


    "Kyu!" Ava kicked the air to avoid it before leaping toward him again. "Kyu."


    Ava kicked him, only to be blocked by the spear''s handle. She soon retreated when Clone Theo reappeared.


    Unfortunately for her, it was just another illusion from Theo.


    The real clone used his Blink to arrive next to Agata, who still had her eyes covered.


    When he was about to hit her, multiple spikes came out of the ground as if they had been waiting for him.


    "Do you think I will leave myself unguarded?" Agata smiled.


    "Nah, I trust you." Clone Theo smiled and raised his hand. The air current began to swirl before forming a giant sphere above his head.


    Theo then pushed this current with his Telekinesis, trying to create a shock wave that was enough to blow her away.


    Agata''s pink smoke began to fill up the surroundings, but it was toote as the wind suddenly burst out, blowing away all the pink smoke. After that, it was reced by normal white smoke, rming Agata.


    ''This is�� Did Theo just use his Illusion Destruction on his own skill to create a smokescreen?'' She raised her eyebrows before lowering her head.


    Theo''s spear flew past her head with a shadow reflected behind the smoke.


    Without hesitation, Agata waved both hands until they crossed.


    The pink smoke she had summoned became a sharp de and cut down the shadow, only to find the shadow was just a fake.


    ''This is his Illusion Maniption? He could even create a shadow?'' Agata gulped down and used her pink smoke to push the white smoke away, allowing her to regain her vision.


    She soon realized Theo was hiding behind the white smoke that had now been reced by her illusion fog.


    "Got you." She smiled. The illusion smoke''s original purpose was to trap someone inside an illusion, so she didn''t hesitate to use it again.


    Suddenly, several Aleas came toward Theo while waving their swords to cut him down. If this was just an illusion, Agata wouldn''t be able to win. Hence, she used her Mimicry to turn herself into Alea and attack him.


    "��" Clone Theo remained still as he looked at all the approaching figures.


    Before they arrived, Theo clenched his fist and struck the ground, releasing all the Telekinesis in all directions.


    The Telekinesis blew all the pink smoke away, making Alea''s figures disappear and leaving only one Alea at the very end.


    Theo knew it was Agata, so he shot her with Magic Bullets.


    Agata clicked her tongue and raised both swords as if she nned to strike down the bullets.


    However, before the Magic Bullets hit her, Agata turned around and threw the swords at the real Theo.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as his Magic Bullets pierced thisst "Alea" that turned out to be the pink smoke.


    In other words, she just used two forms of illusion. The first one was the Aleas that were made of pure illusion, while the second one was thest Alea which was constructed by the pink smoke like how Agata made her weapons.


    This way, even if the pink smoke was blown away, this one still remained, making Theo think this was her real body with Mimicry.


    ''She must have poured so much power to prevent thest one from blowing away.'' Clone Theo thought as he lowered his vision, finding Agata, who was already making her way to Theo. The two swords and Ava were also about to hit him.


    Agata just tricked him into creating a one vs three situation.


    Looking at all these attacks, Clone Theo used his Blink to arrive on top of Agata, striking her down. "Good trick, but you still can''t escape from me."


    Agata spun her body and blocked Theo''s spear, but the force pinned her to the ground.


    Meanwhile, Ava attacked him with another kick while waiting for the two swords to arrive.


    The real Theo, who had been fighting Agata this whole time, smiled and said, "You two have improved."


    He then covered his spear with the Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion and swung his spear like a baseball bat.


    When it was on its way, the Magic Power Expansion exploded, resulting in a powerful shock wave that blew Ava and the swords away.


    Bam.

 Chapter 645 – Sparring Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 645 - Sparring Part 3</h4>


    During the shock wave, Agata raised her pink smoke to make a few spikes to push the clone away before rising from the ground.


    "You can do that?" Agata raised her hands to block the shock wave and stared at Theo in disbelief.


    "Yeah. Instead of letting the Magic Power Expansion explode upon impact, I chose to burst it out early to generate a powerful shock wave. In the future, I think it will be even stronger." Theo nodded.


    "Oh?" Agata frowned as if she had some doubts in her heart. She ultimately brushed it off and focused back on the fight. "There is something I want to tryter."


    "Fair enough." Theo agreed and waved his hand. "Okay, let''s continue."


    Ava jumped toward Theo and covered her body with lightning.


    When they were about to sh, Ava stepped on the air andunched herself back before shooting a bolt of lightning.


    Theo knew this bolt of lightning as Ava showed it two months ago. He became serious as he used his Telekinesis to create pressure that was capable of destroying the lightning.


    The lightning suddenly hit a kind of invisible barrier even though this was just Theo pushing the air with his Telekinesis as hard as he could, creating some sort of wind barrier.


    Boom.


    The lightning ended up exploding.


    Seeing that, Agata was prepared to use her pink smoke to stop Theo''s movement. However, when she looked down, she saw how water starteding out of the ground, gradually turning thend into a pond.


    "This is an illusion." Agata instantly realized this was Theo''s Illusion Maniption or Illusion Construct, so she didn''t hesitate to use her pink smoke to stomp the ground to break the illusion.


    However, when the pink smoke turned into a hammer and was about to hit the ground, the water rose and formed a snake that ripped the hammer apart before making its way toward Agata.


    "It''s not an illusion?" Agata was surprised as she certainly felt an impact on her illusion. She thought this was Theo manipting her senses, but she had practiced hard to make sure she didn''t fall for this.


    However, it seemed Theo was ahead of her as the snake had already wrapped her body.


    Agata tried to fight back by releasing all the pink smoke she had been moving underneath the ground for a surprise attack.


    But the moment they came out, Leonardo shouted, "That''s enough. You have already lost."


    "Huh?" Agata widened her eyes, not epting the result of the match. "I can still fight."


    "What do you mean you can still fight? If Theo was your enemy, you would have died." Leonardo shook his head and pointed at the water snake. "That''s not an illusion."


    "Huh?" Agata was confused by the whole situation. Even Ava stopped when she heard Agata was defeated.


    "Kyu?" Ava asked Theo what was going on.


    Theo smiled, "Well, Agata''sst trick was already good enough to be fair�� Sneaking the smoke underneath the ground was it?"


    "Sneaking the smoke��" Agata dropped her jaw when she realized what was going on. "You used my own illusion to defeat me?"


    "That''s how it is." Leonardo was the one answering her doubt. "Did you forget which senses he learned?"


    "Vision and Taste�� Wait, Taste?" Agata gulped down. "You were aware that I was moving my pink smoke tounch a sneak attack and used that idea to bring the water from the pool secretly to create the same effect?


    "Then, the pond that��" When she realized the pond was real, she looked down and realized her shoes and socks were wet.


    "Depending on someone''s control, they can easily forget to sustain the illusion. For example, if it''s an illusion, your shoes won''t be wet anymore by the time the illusion disappears. This can let you know whether you are under its influence or not.


    "On the other hand, if it''s still wet, there are two possibilities. It''s either a real thing or the illusionist is far better than you." Theo exined and nodded.


    "I see. My blunder." Agata sighed. "I''ve lost."


    "Haha, there''s no need to feel down. This guy is known as a freak for a reason." Leonardoughed out loud, satisfied with their improvements. They had shown so many things in the fight and all of them were practical in a battle.


    Theo nced at Leonardo while frowning.


    Thetter noticed and understood what he wanted to say, so he teased him. "I won''t call my grandson a freak. But since you don''t call me grandfather, it''s your fault."


    He stuck his tongue out as if he did nothing wrong.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "Anyway, the match ends here. Ava, your power is overwhelming, but you need to take care of your teammate better."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded furiously, telling him she wouldn''t repeat the same mistake.


    "Well, you always partnered up with me this whole time, so I guess you never had the need to do that." Theo scratched the back of his head and nced at Agata. "Of course, I don''t mean to tell you that you''re weak."


    "I know." Agata waved her hand to tell him it wasn''t a big deal. "It was my fault for not being able to protect myself. I was too overconfident with this new power."


    "Anyway, what''s the thing you want to test?" Theo stopped her and asked.


    "Actually, I have an idea. I want to use that Magic Power Expansion to carry my pink smoke. With that kind of shock wave, if I send my pink smoke and turn it into des, I feel like we can heavily injure our enemies." Agata exined her idea.


    "Oh, that''s a good idea. We can test it when fighting against monsters." Theo nodded.


    "Good enough." Agata nodded.


    "Alright. Good work, and you may want to change your clothes first before we continue with our schedule for the day." Theo wrapped the spar up.


    "Okay��" Agata turned around and walked inside the mansion while saying, "I will call your temple''s assistant too."

 Chapter 646 – Another Journey

    <h4>Chapter 646 - Another Journey</h4>


    The next day.


    "The spices for three months are in my bag. We only bring a few water bottles with us, and there are a few ces we can get waterter. Everything rted to necessities will be with me while you bring the tent and other stuff. Yours will be lighter, but considering I won''t move that much in a fight, it''s a given." Agata informed Theo while carrying a bag that was bigger than herself.


    "Okay." Theo nodded.


    "Why don''t you just use some vehicles there?" Leonardo asked. "I mean, there are some trucks that you can use."


    "Nah, we will be traveling at fast speed, so bringing them will just hinder us." Theo shook his head.


    "Well, it''s your choice." Leonardo shrugged.


    "Then, it''s time for us to go." Theo smiled and waved his hand to Leonardo before heading to the car that would bring them to the portal.


    Ava was already standing on Theo''s shoulder while Agata politely nodded to tell Leonardo that she was going.


    Leonardo was waving his hand until they left before sighing. "I guess it''s going to be lonely for the next three months."


    It took them thirty minutes to arrive at the gate and deal with the security staff before they finally left the city.


    Theo, wearing the new sses, muttered in a low voice. "Map."


    His sses immediately showed him the map, direction, and distance. These new sses had a Skylink feature on them, allowing him to use them like the Skylink itself.


    There were many sses like these on the market, but this productbined the night vision and other stuff together, so this one was new.


    Agata had also activated her sses and got the direction where to go.


    They exchanged looks, nodded, and started running toward their destination.


    Their mission was to investigate the so-called Myutin in. The in had the size of a small city and contained a few small hills, forests, and grasnds.


    It would be tedious to investigate this matter, so Theo didn''t bother to deal with the monsters on their way and headed straight to the Myutin in.


    But it was still impossible to pass all the monsters. Even Ava said, "We''re surrounded. Thirty monsters on our front and around twenty on each side."


    Since Agata already knew about Ava''s secret, Ava didn''t bother to say "Kyu, Kyu" anymore as she simply spoke in a way they understood her.


    This allowed the group to have an easier time formting the n.


    Still, Theo was considerate of Agata and used this opportunity to train her. "What''s our n, Agata?"


    Agata was surprised that Theo asked her opinion. After all, this was his expertise. She soon realized Theo gave her a chance to get some experience inmanding a group, and he would correct her if something was wrong with the n.


    Thinking about it, she smiled and said, "We should hit the front. The two sides are good, but we can see a small hill on the right while the left is a barren in. On the other hand, if we fight the monsters in the woods, we can utilize thisplex terrain.


    "Even if we can''t defeat all of them, we can still break through their formation," Agata suggested with confidence.


    "Very well. Let''s go with that." Theo nodded. "You''re going to be the leader from now on."


    "That''s a big task you want from me��" Agata scratched the back of her head while running forward.


    "Are you afraid?"


    "No." Agata smiled.


    It took them one minute before the monsters'' figures came into their vision. The monsters looked like deer with giant antlers. There were also spikes all over their bodies.


    The sses immediately used the Monster Detection function and grabbed the information stored inside Theo''s Skylink.


    Name: Krimlon


    Level: 410-420


    Strength: Beware of their speed and hard antlers. They can also release the spikes on their bodies to kill their enemies.


    Weakness: Soft neck and back.


    Theo smiled when he saw the Strength and Weakness of the monster. It was the information Agata hadpiled for the past three months.


    "It''s useful." Theo smiled when he assessed all the thirty Krimlons.


    "We will eliminate them from the left. I will be the bait." Agata said as her focus remained on the monsters.


    "Got it." Theo moved to the left, hiding behind trees.


    After that, Agata released her pink smokes that gradually spread to the Krimlons.


    "Grr?"


    "Raga?"


    The Krimlons noticed her and turned around. They instinctively ran toward her to eliminate the threat.


    However, Agata hurriedly snapped her fingers as the smoke released its spikes from its body. Some even curved to match the Krimlons'' movements.


    "Grr?"


    The group split into two to avoid the spikes and pincer her from two directions.


    Agata took a step back and controlled the pink smoke to move to her right before raising them high to create a wall.


    At the same time, Ava, Theo, and his clone came out from behind the tree and ambushed them.


    The Krimlons used their defensive measure by shooting their spikes at Theo and Ava, but the pink smoke rose from the ground and turned into another wall that blocked the spikes.


    Since Agata had removed her awareness from the smoke after blocking the spikes, Theo and Ava emerged from within and ambushed them.


    Theo and his clone shed the deers while Ava beat them up before sending them to Theo or Agata so they could kill them.


    It didn''t take them too long to eliminate the Krimlons. And when they were about to deal with those on the other side, Theo was impressed because he saw them having some injuries on their bodies.


    In other words, Agata had been attacking them with her smoke even though she also helped them on this side.


    Theo smiled, knowing the power Agata showed back in the Grand Gaia Competition couldn''t bepared to what she had now.


    While feeling happy with her progress, Theo killed the rest of the Krimlons in session.


    "Well, we''re done��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "It''s only three minutes��"


    "They''re around level 420, so it''s not that hard." Agata shrugged.


    "Whatever." Theo then stood next to her, raised his hand to the side, and said, "Raise your hand like this."


    Agata followed his instruction, and Theo used his Telekinesis to send the Krimlons to them so they could touch the bodies in session.


    All of them soon turned into cards in less than ten seconds.


    "This looks like a factory."


    "We don''t want to waste our time." Theo chuckled and stored all the cards in his bag. "Let''s continue."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 647 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 647 - Arrival</h4>


    Theo, Ava, and Agata continued their way to the Myutin in.


    Due to the distance, they decided to rest on a small in on a slope. Even then, it was already prettyte, considering Theo kept moving until 9 PM.


    They had a simple dinner, wiped their bodies, and slept.


    Agata finally saw how harshly Theo treated himself. She understood why Theo could progress by leaps and bounds. Normally, the group would settle down when the sun was about to set and prepare their dinner.


    But for Theo, it was a waste of time. He didn''t skip lunch, but he extended their travel time by a few hours before stopping just to have dinner and immediately sleep right after.


    When she asked Ava, thetter told her that it was the norm. After all, Theo had used too much time back on Earth to train.


    This revtion increased her respect for Theo. He had been considerate enough when he traveled with other people.


    When they traveled together with Enrica, Theo stopped before the sunset and allowed them to make use of their time to wash their bodies. He even chose a location near a river.


    On the other hand, Agata couldn''t see any water source around the area now because Theo shifted their direction a bit to reach their destination faster.


    As long as the water in their luggage wasn''t empty, he didn''t n to stop.


    The reason Theo showed her all this was because she had the same goal, which was to get stronger as fast as possible. So, Agata didn''tin about this condition.


    The next day. She kept up with him whilemanding the group every time they fought monsters.


    She soon realized the burden Theo had this whole time.


    Usually, he would make the schedule and n ahead of time, and every change woulde from him. This alone took a toll on one''s mind after several days.


    After that, they needed to fight many monsters while matching each other''s movements. They would need to know what the others nned to do and help them.


    This kind of mind game soon took a toll on Agata''s head.


    However, that wasn''t all. Agata needed toe up with a n after seeing the monsters, resulting in another burden in her mind.


    She couldn''t keep up with the order after two days as her face became pale and she had a headache.


    In the end, Theo took over the next day to let her recover.


    This action made Agata shake her head. After all, Theo needed to fight the enemies on the very front, unlike her, who could easily see the entire battlefield from behind andmand the group.


    This meant Theo needed to keep up with his broad field of vision all the time while thinking about their well-being and other stuff.


    She couldn''tprehend what Theo had gone through to have this mental fortitude.


    When she asked him about it, Theo simply said, "I got used to it."


    Theo told her that he had faced the same situation back in Thernd. He gave a few examples, like the monster''s stampede, the third school mission, and a few other asions.


    Eventually, he had no problem doing it anymore.


    Before she could take over the group again, they had arrived at their destination, the Myutin in.


    They were standing on top of the hill, looking around the area.


    In their front, they found a vast grasnd stretching to the horizon. This grasnd was pinched by two forests that seemed to have no end as well.


    When they looked at the grasnd, they found monsters fighting with each other.


    It was happening all over the grasnd, and they could safely assume the forests experienced the same thing.


    After observing the situation, Theo asked, "Okay, what should we do?"


    Theo put her back in charge.


    "It''s already 5 PM, so I think we should set down our tent here where we can observe the entire Myutin in." Agata turned to Ava. "By the way, can Ava understand theirnguage?"


    Ava shook her head. "I have no idea. Unless they''re an Elite ss Monster, I won''t have any idea what they''re saying. We also have amon tongue among us, but now that I''m in Italy, I don''t think I will understand theirmon tongue. It''s just like your humannguage."


    "I see. The best we can do is to find a General ss Monster or just search randomly to understand why the monsters are rampaging or fighting each other." Agata frowned.


    "That''s probably the best idea." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "In that case, we should cover all these hills first." Agata pointed at the hill they were standing on and the other hills on their left and right.


    "Okay. An extensive investigation will need around a day or two since we have Ava." Theo calcted the time they needed.


    "Yes. We will do this clockwise, so we will investigate that hill first." Agata pointed her finger to the left and said, "By the way, do you have any guesses on what the cause of all this?"


    "I have two, but let me hear your thoughts first."


    "I believe someone is instigating all this. It''s like they''re causing the rampage to shift someone''s attention�� But this mission can be epted by all War God Family members, so I think it''s not targeting you."


    Theo looked down, contemting his answer. "Well, I think these monsters are in mating season or something. If not, then there might be some gases leaking that makes all this monster crazy."


    "That sounds extreme."


    Theo shrugged.


    Ava suddenly raised her foot and said, "I think it''s a kind of selection process."


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned. "What do you mean?"


    "Back in my home, we often did this. We would hold apetition to make someone in charge of a certain arena. The strongest usually took over the area. Of course, everything would still be under my mother''smand."


    "��" Theo and Agata looked at her in silence before they pointed at her in unison and said, "That might be the reason."

 Chapter 648 – The Ladies

    <h4>Chapter 648 - The Ladies</h4>


    They spent the rest of the night talking about their next n. Now that Agata had decided where to start the investigation, they could focus on what they were supposed to search for.


    When the morning came, Agata, Ava, and Theo headed to the hill on their right with Theo''s Telekinesis, allowing them to reach the top of the hill in no time.


    As if they were being watched by the monsters around, ten different monsters surrounded them the moment theynded on the ground.


    "Huh?" Theo frowned, realizing something was going on.


    "It seems they are moving ording to someone''s instruction," said Ava while narrowing her eyes. "Although I don''t understand it, there seems to be a conversation in that direction."


    As soon as Ava pointed in the direction of their leader, the monsters didn''t hesitate to attack them.


    "Is that so?" Theo looked around and raised his spear.


    "Let''s clear this first. We won''t have a good time in defeating their leader if we don''t kill these monsters first." Agata added with a serious expression.


    "Okay. Let''s go." Theo nodded in agreement.


    Agata and Theo shared the same thought as they lifted their hands in unison.


    Many dirt walls emerged from the ground and turned the same hill into abyrinth with the help of the trees.


    Ava leaped off Theo''s shoulder and hid behind the dirt wall while Theo summoned his clone and headed straight to one of them as well.


    He didn''t hide like Ava. Instead, he waved his spear from the side and cut the illusion along with the monster behind it.


    Since the monster was quite powerful, he needed to attack the monster with his clone together to kill it.


    On the contrary, Agata was manipting the terrain continuously. She created a small in for the monsters to arrive, only to be ambushed with spikes and a few other weapons.


    She even had several walls just to direct them to another ce, confusing them.


    This was Agata''s Terrain Maniption Technique she learned from Theo and Leonardo. And this technique allowed Agata to buy enough time for Theo and Ava. She had indeede a long way.


    At first, her father was concerned with how she nned to get stronger. After all, there were five Mythical Rank Experts in the family, so the pressure of needing to be one was high.


    Agata even went to the church to avoid bing a tool for a political marriage. At that time, her father respected her will and supported her all the way.


    Unfortunately, the path to bing a Mythical Rank Expert was harder than expected. Her strength was powerful, but her father knew with the way she was, she wasn''t going to seed.


    Hence, he tried to seek advice to help her, but everything was useless until Agata met Theo in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    The rtionship between the daughter and the parents was good, so Agata didn''t bother to hide her interest. Her desire to get stronger became even fiercer.


    Since Theo brought a good influence to her, they didn''t bother to stop her. That was why when Agata told them about Theo giving the opportunity to her to learn from Leonardo, they were overjoyed.


    They never expected that Theo sacrificed so much for their daughter even though she was only his assistant.


    Feeling indebted, they used their family connection to buy thetest technology to help Agata and Theo on their journey.


    And this device also helped Agata greatly in manipting the terrain. The information shepiled this whole time finally benefited her too.


    She knew their strength and weakness, allowing her to give a terrain perfect for them. The moment she trapped them, she would hit them with everything she got ording to their weakness.


    That was why Agata managed to injure them while helping Theo and Ava handle the monsters in front of them. And as soon as Theo finished his job, she would regroup with him and kill the remaining monsters.


    With this strong thought in mind, Agata killed all the monsters that she would have a hard time killing previously. Her ability wasn''t to trick her enemies anymore. Instead, the moment they were tricked, their lives would be in danger.


    In two minutes, they managed to kill ten level 400 monsters.


    If her best friend, Enrica, watched her current performance, she would be shocked as she would have a hard time fighting Agata.


    Looking at the corpses, Theo used his Telekinesis again and stored the cards in his bag. After that, Ava located their leader and pointed at their location. "That way."


    Theo and Agata exchanged looks and nodded before following Ava''s direction.


    They crossed the woods and encountered some more monsters, but Ava pointed at a certain monster and said, "That''s him. He''s the onemanding them."


    Theo and Agata looked at this two-legged monster. The monster was seven-foot-tall and had giant hands that could make him a good boxer. The arms were also long as the hands almost touched the ground.


    It had a muscr figure like a human''s and bloodshot eyes like Ava''s.


    Name: Hill Rabbit


    Level: 450-460


    Strength: Strong arms and swift legs.


    Weakness: soft body.


    While they were watching, the Hill Rabbit smirked at Ava.


    "Huh?" Ava squinted her eyes and said, "This guy�� He seems to be mocking me�� Theo, if you don''t mind, can you give this to me? I need to teach him some lessons."


    "Hmm? You don''t even need to hold back since there''s no one other than us here." Theo shrugged as he thought Ava must be pissed because the other guy was also a rabbit. "Agata and I will take care of the other monsters."


    "Thanks."


    Agata didn''t know what they were talking about, but she made a weird expression when Ava leaped off his shoulder and transformed into her humanoid form.


    Her body was covered with lightning as she leaped toward the Hill Rabbit.


    The Hill Rabbit responded with the same move as they pulled their arm and struck each other''s fists.


    Bam.


    A shock wave shook the hill, showing how much power the punches had.


    However, the Hill Rabbit was soon blown away and crashed to the tree as Ava was still standing in her position, looking aloof.


    "I am still one ss above you, trash."

 Chapter 649 – Ava’s Real Strength

    <h4>Chapter 649 - Ava��s Real Strength</h4>


    "��" Theo and Agata exchanged looks before shrugging their shoulders as they started killing the monsters around.


    Meanwhile, Ava was staring at the Hill Rabbit who was struggling to get up.


    No one would ever expect that the rabbit had a humanoid from the start, and he was still called Hill Rabbit. It was true that the monster had rabbit ears and tail along with short fur like that of a rabbit''s, but the body difference was too much.


    Even Ava''s original appearance was simr to the rabbit on Earth.


    Meanwhile, Agata was quite surprised by Ava''s transformation as this was the first time she saw her in this form.


    As soon as the Hill Rabbit stood on his feet, he hurriedly leaped forward as if he wasn''t convinced with Ava''s strength.


    Normally, General ss Monster would rule over the Rare ss or Normal ss, but since Ava was an invader, no one would follow hermand.


    So, the Hill Rabbit took that to his advantage and ordered them to kill Ava.


    This was the time Theo and Agata fulfilled their roles, stopping all the iing monsters and allowing Ava to have a one-on-one fight with the rabbit. This was the first time she fought another rabbit, so Theo just wanted to watch her.


    Ava gritted her teeth and released massive killing intent from her bloodshot eyes. Since the Hill Rabbit wasing closer, Ava raised her hand and channeled all the lightning in her body to her right hand.


    The Hill Rabbit punched her in the face, but Ava managed to catch his fist.


    The lightning sparked and electrocuted the Hill Rabbit''s giant hand. The spark even spread to the surroundings, cracking the ground and shattering the trees.


    After that, Ava grabbed the hand and pulled him inside before kicking him on the stomach.


    Bam.


    The lightning sparked again, resulting in an electrical shock that generated enough power tounch the rabbit up.


    Unfortunately for the Hill Rabbit, a bolt of lightning soon struck him on the back.


    Boom.


    This was the same lightning strike that Ava showed to Theo and Agata. The explosion made the rabbit''s body numb and pushed him back to Ava.


    Ava took a step back and put her hands together with only a few inches gap between them. Then, lightning started sparking between the gap as Ava struck the Hill Rabbit when he came down.


    Bam.


    The Hill Rabbit was blown away and crashed into a tree, leaving blue light made of lightning.


    If only that was the end, the Hill Rabbit might still be able to get up. However, Ava didn''t show him any mercy and sent another bolt of lightning to him.


    It appeared right after the Hill Rabbit crashed into the tree, so it didn''t have a chance to protect itself.


    This time, the lightning sphere electrocuted the Hill Rabbit and scorched the ground and trees.


    Seeing this, Theo smiled, "Ava is angry indeed."


    Agata was speechless when she saw Ava''s performance. She soon realized even with her current strength, she couldn''t defeat Ava in this form.


    In fact, Ava''s prowess was beyond her imagination.


    ''Is she stronger than Theo in this form? No, her strength is probably equal to him.'' Agata thought and nced at Theo, ''No wonder he always tells Ava not to get serious. He knows this is bound to happen.


    ''If there are other people who witness this, they will find Ava''s real strength and the situation will be overlyplicated. Still, the fact he''s telling her to hold back means he has been in control in every situation, even in a pinch like in the Goblin Camp.''


    Agata sucked a cold breath as she swore not to make Ava angry.


    Little did she know, Ava was still holding back even with this power.


    And since she had gotten Theo''s permission, Ava wanted to crush the Hill Rabbit with all her strength.


    "Moon Constetion." Ava raised her hand and formed a blue star that soon turned into a hard metallic ball.


    "Ava, that is��" Theo nced while hitting the monster next to him.


    "I can only summon one for the time being. If I can summon all of them and imbue them with my power, I can be a King ss Monster. That''s what Mother told me." Ava exined and let the blue star hover around her.


    Suddenly, powerful lightning sparked from inside the ball as it continuously released a spherical lightning field as though the ball was expanding.


    Since it was floating not far above the ground, the lightning field touched the ground and reduced the dirt into ashes.


    The ball was making its way toward the Hill Rabbit.


    Thetter punched the ground and formed three dirt walls. Two were on the side and immediately crashed into the sphere while the other was in front of him to protect his body from the lightning.


    However, he underestimated Ava''s Moon Constetion. Different from Avarice''s Constetion, Ava''s star had overbearing lightning power.


    The lightning sphere shattered the dirt walls like nothing and hit the Hill Rabbit.


    The Hill Rabbit raised both hands to stop it with his body, but he ended up getting pushed back more than fifty feet away before getting blown away.


    When hended on the ground, both his hands had disappeared and blood flowed out of the wounds.


    The rabbit didn''t seem to be moving anymore.


    Seeing their boss had died, the monsters tried to escape, but Theo immediately killed them in session.


    ''Ava is too powerful.'' Agata thought while looking at the aftermath. ''And she is not a Supreme Rank Monster yet. Is this the true strength of a King ss Monster''s lineage? If Ava is already this strong, how powerful is her mother? And to think Theo can be her partner�� What''s going on?''


    Agata had many questions in her mind while Theo came to Ava, saying, "Shouldn''t you leave him alive? We can get information from him."


    "I was pissed. He''s a rabbit too, but his original body is already that big and powerful, while I need to be a General ss first to acquire this body. And he even dared tough at me for bing your partner." Ava snorted, feeling what she did wasn''t wrong. She was especially angry with thest reason.


    "Haha��" Theo chuckled.

 Chapter 650 – Classifications

    <h4>Chapter 650 - ssifications</h4>


    After defeating all the enemies, they regrouped in the middle to turn all the monsters into cards while Ava ate the one she killed.


    As soon as she finished, Ava returned to her tiny form andnded on top of Theo''s shoulder.


    Agata''s eyes were locked onto her as she still couldn''t believe Ava hadn''t used her true power this whole time.


    "Now, now. There''s someone curious about you, Ava." Theo smirked, teasing Agata.


    "Kyu." Ava raised her foot and smiled.


    "��" Agata shook her head. "Well, of course. But I''m not going to force an answer since I know that Ava''s information is a secret."


    "How about you exin it, Ava?" Theo asked.


    "Hmm��" Ava thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, this form requires a huge amount of Magic Power, so it''s hard for me to maintain it for a long time before reaching the Supreme Rank.


    "How should I say this�� This form is a kind of evolution where I can pour my Magic Power�� Wait, pour is not the correct word��" Ava paused for a moment. "��where I can burn my Magic Power to give me the body that can channel my power more efficiently.


    "You can say that this is my original form and the humanoid one is my battle form�� yeah, something like that."


    "I see." Agata looked down and soon nodded. "Thank you for your exnation."


    "To be honest, our ssifications are simr to yours." Ava smirked. "There are five ssifications that you know, right?"


    "Yes. They are Normal, Rare, General, King, and World ss." Agata replied.


    "That''s right. The Normal ss is just a monster that relies on their instinct to survive. I''m sure you can understand that."


    "Certainly." Agata nodded furiously.


    "Then, the next stage is for the monsters who have unlocked their intelligence for the first time. You people call this type of monster a Rare ss Monster." Ava shrugged.


    "That''s something I can understand. The ssifications are just terms to simplify the exnation."


    "Yeah. Anyway, moving on to the third ss, which is General ss. When you reach General ss, your intelligence has been developedpletely, allowing you to have a clear vision like humans.


    "We will gain the ability tomunicate and another thing from our evolution. For me, I will get the Moon Constetion as I''m a Moon Rabbit. This Moon Constetion grants me my battle form, which is the humanoid form.


    "Anyway, that''s about me. If we''re talking about General ss Monsters, I will need to mention the true power, which is called Orders.


    "Still, I want you to swear that you won''t talk, research, or mention anything about Orders unless someone tells you directly. If you can''t promise this, I can''t give you the rest of the information."


    Hearing Ava''s condition, Agata thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I swear with my name and my family that I won''t talk, research, or mention anything about Orders."


    After getting her promise, Ava turned to Theo to see whether he had a thought about this.


    As soon as Theo nodded his head, Ava continued, "Okay. Orders are natural elements of this world. My mother is Moonlight. On the contrary, I don''t have a clear picture of my order, and I''m still searching for it.


    "If there are two people getting the same order, the weaker one will lose and be stripped of their power unless they can win against the stronger one�� Basically, eliminate the other one.


    "That''s all I can say for now. Anyway, I can only be a King ss Monster when I acquire my Moon Constetionpletely and infuse my own order into it.


    "As for the World ss Monster�� My mother never went into details about them, but I remember she mentioned something about Authority. This is a step above orders. In other words, it''s a kind of major element like Fire, Water, Sea, Sky, Earth, Moon, or even Sun."


    Theo maintained his poker face as he had gotten this information from Ava. On the other hand, Agata''s expression was distorted as she never thought there was such a secret.


    "To be honest, there is one reason why I asked you to promise me to never touch Orders. The closer you are to the Orders, the more power you have to disrupt them. At that time, a few King ss Monsters will make their move. Even World ss Monsters will hunt you down.


    "This had happened in the past, like when you humans disrupted this world with all your weaponry. Satellites were disruptions too, so the World ss Monster always got involved in order to destroy them.


    "These are the only things I can tell you right now. Just know that we have our own ssification and it''s different from what you know. Actually, some governments must have known about this, but because it''s too dangerous, they shouldn''t dare to publicize this." Ava shook her head.


    "I-is that so?" Agata nodded furiously, promising never to touch this topic again. At the very least, she finally got some idea about Ava. "Thank you for telling me all this."


    "No problem. All I can say is that�� stay true to your belief." Ava smiled.


    "I will." Agata smiled and nodded once again to show that she took this seriously.


    Ava then turned to Theo. "Actually, I believe the rampage is caused by the monsters fighting�� I mean, it''s like apetition."


    "Competition?" Theo frowned.


    "Yeah. If my prediction is correct, those who fight are Rare ss Monsters. I am pretty sure there is one General ss Monster in this area, and the real reason for this disturbance must be this guy."


    "So, should we search for this General ss Monster?" Theo asked.


    "Yeah. But locating the guy is easier said than done, so I suggest another thing." Ava smiled. "Kill the other Rare ss Monsters to disrupt whatever n he has. At that time, this guy wille to us personally."


    "Fair enough. If that''s the case, we can increase our level whilepleting the mission." Theo agreed with Ava. "Okay�� Let''s do it."

 Chapter 651 – Surrounded

    <h4>Chapter 651 - Surrounded</h4>


    Aftering up with the n, Theo, Agata and Ava didn''t bother with the investigation anymore. All they did was kill all the monsters they found.


    ording to Ava, there were at least a hundred Rare ss Monsters in the area, judging from the size of the battlefield alone.


    Her judgment was based on her experience when traveling with Avarice, so Theo trusted her.


    At the same time, he was pretty happy to know there were many strong enemies as he could level up many times.


    Agata was the same. This was a perfect opportunity to try all sorts of techniques she had acquired in the past few months.


    While they were fighting those monsters, there was a monster observing them.


    Inside a dark ce where light barely illuminated the room, a female with green hair was sitting on top of a green leaf that came out of the stone wall.


    Around her were grasses that were swaying left and right as if they weremunicating with her.


    After a while, the woman narrowed her eyes. This was already the seventh day from Theo''s first arrival on the hill, so the grasses finally felt Theo''s presence aftering to the grasnd as soon as they finished killing all monsters on the hill.


    "I see. There are three rats sneaking into this garden of mine." The woman narrowed her eyes as anger soon filled her heart. "It turns out there are people who dare to interrupt my fun. Since that''s the case, I''m going to kill them."


    Before she rose from her position, she seemed to get other information. "Hmm? They''re hiding inside the forest? That''s perfect to wear them out before ambushing them."


    Meanwhile, Theo and Agata were attacking the tree that spread their roots to attack them.


    Bam.


    The trunk snapped and fell to the ground, killing the tree.


    "Ava," Theo called Ava, who seemed to have a serious expression. "What''s wrong?"


    Ava turned to Theo while frowning. She thought for a moment and shook her head. "It must be my imagination."


    "Whether it''s your imagination or not, we will be the one to decide." Theo stopped her and said, "So, just spill it."


    "Well, I thought I heard something moving underground."


    "Hmm." Theo looked around while saying, "Okay. We don''t know who our enemy is, so we need to be careful."


    "Yes. I will continue observing the noise around us."


    "We may face some difficulty soon. Don''t lower your guard." Theo turned to Agata.


    "Understood." Agata nodded with a calm expression while watching their surroundings.


    However, Ava soon shouted, "Something is truly moving. It''sing toward us at fast speed."


    "!!!" Theo and Agata exchanged looks and expanded their Awareness to the ground. They soon found several presences marching underground.


    "Oi, oi. What kind of creatures can move underground this fast and this far?" Theo made a wry smile as he leaped backward.


    Agata also matched his movement as she formed a shield with her pink smoke.


    Suddenly, ten vines burst out of the ground and hit them.


    Agata managed to block them with her shield, Theo stopped them with his spear and Telekinesis, and Ava simply leaped away, taking advantage of her tiny body to dodge these vines.


    "It seems the n is working. Whoever behind this is finally making their move." Theo smirked.


    Ava raised her head and said, "Though, we can''t lower our guard yet. There are hundreds of monstersing our way."


    "Hundreds?" Agata opened her mouth in surprise. "We can''t really fight hundreds of monsters, you know. Our group limit is forty to fifty monsters without Rare ss Monsters, that is."


    "Yeah. That''s the bad news. There seem to be multiple Rare ss Monstersing toward us." Ava frowned. "I heard several conversations around us."


    Theo fell silent while Agata wrapped the vines with her pink smoke to cut them down.


    As if they felt what Agata nned to do, the vines returned to the ground to hide.


    "The vines are this smart?" Agata clicked her tongue, realizing they were in a pinch.


    "To think the situation changes this fast��" Ava looked around.


    "I will take over themand," Theo stated with a serious expression.


    "Got it." Agata nodded.


    "Ava. Where is our escape route?"


    "The hill." Ava pointed at the hill where she didn''t find monsters as many as in other directions.


    "Good. Let''s go." Theo nodded and immediately headed straight to the hill to escape.


    Ava and Agata followed right behind him and prepared to fight.


    Suddenly, a few more vines came out of the ground and tried to stab them, but they still managed to block them and continued heading to the hill.


    While running, Ava shouted, "Look! On your right."


    Theo and Agata turned their heads around and found more than a hundred monsters marching toward them.


    Ava said they were surrounded earlier, so Agata couldn''t help but furrow her eyebrows, knowing they were in deep trouble. She hurriedly looked at Theo''s expression to see whether he had a n or not.


    Little did she know, Theo wasn''t thinking about his n to escape. Instead, his eyes were locked on a small white flower that seemed to be present on every monster.


    His eyes even gave information about the flower.


    Skill: Mind Flower (B)


    Effect: By having the flower''s root pierce the nerve of someone''s brain, the user can control the target.


    Before he could say anything, more and more vines came out of the ground and rose to the sky as if creating a wall to block their path. After that, they moved together to hit Theo and Agata.


    Agata hurriedly went between them and raised her pink smoke, coating it with her Awareness.


    The vines ended up hitting the strengthened fog.


    "This is a trap. The monster made us go to the hill because it has fewer monsters. In other words, we''re surrounded��" Theo narrowed his eyes and came to a halt, looking at the monsters that were about to attack them�� However, he surprisingly opened his mouth and added, "��or not."

 Chapter 652 – Escape

    <h4>Chapter 652 - Escape</h4>


    "��or not." The moment he said those two words, more than a hundred Magic Bullets flew to the sky and made a parabolic''s movement, raining the vines down.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Since the vines were hitting Agata''s wall, they had no chance of stopping the Magic Bullets.


    Soon, many holes appeared on their bodies as Theo and Agata nodded at each other.


    Agata changed her wall to a giant scythe while Theo leaped into the air as Agata cut all the veins.


    The veins tried to hide underground, but this was precisely Agata''s n.


    The moment they disappeared, the scythe changed back to its smoke form, resulting in no trees harmed.


    Meanwhile, Theo used his Telekinesis and levitated Agata and Ava as they made their way past the veins.


    ''Did he summon his clone to attack the vines? Since when he summoned his clone though��'' Agata nced at Theo, wondering about his battle n. Even though Theo was in control, she still wanted to know his thoughts to learn from him.


    Seeing Theo''s calm face just made her even more curious, knowing Theo seemed to be confident in leaving this ce.


    However, Agata needed to focus on the battlefield once again when they heard the roarsing from their right and front.


    The monsters on their right were about to hit them while those in front of them made their presence known to stop Theo.


    Ava leaped to Theo''s shoulder and said, "The moment we stop, we will be able to see thoseing from behind and on the left side. The right side will attack us too."


    "��" Theo maintained his silence as he kept going straight to the monsters in their front.


    "Theo, there are more than a hundred monsters there," Ava warned him.


    "I know. But who cares? They won''t be able to stop us."


    As if they understood Theo, a few of them roared, followed by all monsters.


    ''Hmm?'' Theo narrowed his eyes when he saw this reaction. He thought for a moment and used his Magic Power Expansion.


    "Get ready to match my movement," said Theo while covering his right foot with the Magic Power Expansion.


    When they were about to sh with the monsters, Theo shouted while stomping the ground. "Jump."


    Both Ava and Agata followed his instruction as they watched how Theo destroyed the ground and turned it into a huge crater that engulfed the monsters in their front and right.


    Some monsters sessfully avoided it by leaping into the air and knocking both Ava and Agata back to the ground.


    Ultimately, they decided to regroup with Theo, who was standing in the middle of the crater.


    The monsters started to gather at the end of the crater, looking at them.


    Even those from behind had caught up and blocked any escape route.


    The same applied to the left. In other words, they werepletely surrounded at this point.


    "I think there are around fifty Rare ss Monsters." Ava looked around and noticed the difference between the monsters.


    "Really?" Agata was surprised. Their number alone was more than four hundred. If they needed to fight fifty Rare ss Monsters on top of that, they wouldn''t be able to survive.


    Theo clicked his tongue for the first time and said, "So, this is not going to work huh��"


    "Eh?" Agata turned to Theo in shock. "What did you say?"


    Suddenly, ten vines emerged from the ground as a beautiful female came out together with one of them.


    She had a humanoid figure. Her green hair and eyes matched perfectly with the clothes made of leaves that barely covered her body.


    "That''s right. How dare you, humans, mess with my entertainment!" The woman red at them and released her killing intent. "Since you have ruined my fun, I am going to kill both of you."


    After that, she saw Ava and snorted. "I am going to make you fight to the death�� It''s a rare chance to control someone like me."


    "Huh?" Ava furrowed her eyebrows. She was about to transform when Theo suddenly said, "Do you think you have won?"


    Ava and Agata nced at him and wondered if he had another surprise attack or something.


    "You should know your ce, humans. You''re in the middle of my army." The female snorted.


    "Well, well�� I don''t really care about all these monsters around me. The only reason you can surround me is because I allow you to."


    "It seems that you can''t understand your ce. Then, I will start by killing you." She raised her hand to order the monsters to attack Theo.


    Little did she know, everything was ording to the scenario Theo had in mind. He looked at the female monster and received her information.


    Name: Dryad


    Level: 480-490


    Strength: Powerful illusion and vines.


    Weakness: Fire or destroy the main body.


    Theo suddenly raised his hand and formed twenty Magic Bullets, shooting her to stop her frommanding the monsters.


    A giant rhinoceros and beetle appeared in front of her as they blocked all the Magic Bullets with their bodies.


    "It''s useless. If you think you can escape from me, then you are mistaken. No one can leave this ce alive." The Dryad snorted and waved her hand down, ordering the monsters to march forward.


    Theo smirked and shouted, "Let''s go to the left."


    "Hmph. You are going to run?" The Dryad snorted. "Impossible, there are close to two hundred of us. You won''t��"


    Before she finished her words, Magic Bullets hit all of them in session.


    "Wha��" The Dryad dropped her jaw to the ground as she never expected there were Magic Bullets that would attack them.


    Some monsters died and some managed to block the attacks with their body, but the force still knocked them to the ground, pushing other monsters next to them.


    The moment they slipped, Theo smiled and extended her hand to Agata. "Let''s go."


    Agata smiled and held his hand as they ran straight to the monsters on their left that had been disrupted with Magic Bullets.


    "You''re not going away!" The Dryad summoned her vines to stop them, but right before they hit them, Theo used his Telekinesis and sent them a hundred feet away before using his Telekinesis to fly away.


    Surprisingly, Ava was also teleported even though Theo could only bring one person with him every time he used Blink.

 Chapter 653 – Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 653 - Running Away</h4>


    As soon as they reappeared behind the monsters, Theo turned around and summoned his Magic Bullets, shooting the monsters that were already down because of the previous bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions hit the monsters as Theo found himself killing a few more monsters through the notification. Obviously, he didn''t believe Rare ss Monsters would be so easy to defeat, so he assumed the ones he killed earlier were just Normal ss Monsters.


    "We''re escaping from here," said Theo while looking around a few times as if he was checking something. He never once nced at the hill after this because he didn''t want them to know he had set up a base there.


    "Where?" Agata had some suspicion as well. Theo wasn''t someone who needed to look around a few times since one time was usually enough for him. This alone made her doubt Theo and soon found out that he never nced at the hill. Hence, she asked to confirm their target.


    "Just go to the grasnd and then keep going until we cross the other forest," Theo exined his n.


    "Ehm��Understood." Agata didn''t understand the instructions as she was confused whether Theo wanted them to go back to the base or not.


    "Anyway��" Theo thought for a moment. "Eliminate all the monsters behind us."


    "Roger that." Agata nodded.


    Ava suddenly raised her head and looked to the right as if she had noticed something. However, she soon realized what had happened and turned around, looking at the monsters from Theo''s shoulder.


    She raised her feet and shot a bolt of lightning.


    Theo also nned to attack them and summoned a hundred Magic Bullets.


    Seeing the two nned to obliterate the enemies, Agata released her pink smoke and formed numerous spikes, surrounding the monsters behind them.


    Some monsters jumped up to avoid them, but Theo''s Magic Bullets soon rained them down.


    The Magic Bullets once again pinned them to the ground while Ava finally released the bolt of lightning.


    The lightning sparked and formed an electrical sphere that electrocuted everyone within. The power of the spark was also strong enough to burn their skins.


    "Grr��" The Dryad was gritting her teeth when she saw they managed to slow down the monsters. She never thought Theo would be able to escape from that encirclement.


    Her vines then emerged from the ground and flew straight to Theo and Agata, trying to strike them down.


    "Agata. It''s time to do it," shouted Theo while targeting the enemies.


    Theo used his Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion this time. With all this power, Theo struck the air with his spear, creating a powerful air current that tried to blow them away, including the vines.


    Agata had poured her pink smoke right before Theo struck the air, resulting in the air current bringing her pink smoke.


    She then changed their forms to knives and used her Awareness to strengthen them.


    The monsters couldn''t react fast enough, especially since they were under Dryad''s influence.


    The des stabbed some of them on the head or any other weak spots.


    Agata even got several notifications.


    "It works." Agata smiled and happily informed Theo.


    "Sorry, I struck the air too early. If not, you would be able to send more des." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "Well, you''re too harsh on yourself." Agata chuckled.


    While Agata was celebrating their sess, the Dryad couldn''t share the same opinion, considering she couldn''t do anything to Theo and Agata.


    ''What''s wrong with them? There were many monsters who almost caught up, but they skillfully dyed them this whole time.'' The Dryad gritted her teeth. ''Do they know our weakness?''


    The Dryad was frustrated because she couldn''t hit them even once while her army started decreasing.


    "I won''t let you get away." The Dryad raised her hand as several monsters howled to the sky. "Since you are running in the grasnd, you have no more roof to protect you."


    Cry.


    Cry.


    Several high-pitched cries resounded in the grasnd.


    Theo and Agata raised their heads and found several flying creatures hovering above them.


    "Tsk. She''s utilizing the terrain advantage to attack us from above. This way, she can decrease our speed, allowing the monsters to catch up." Agata gritted her teeth, searching for a solution in her head.


    On the contrary, Theo had already decided as he shifted his direction. "Go back to the forest."


    "Understood."


    The two changed their directions and tried to enter the woods again. Since they couldn''t go back to the previous forest, they nned to hide on the other side. The grasnd was pinched by two forests after all.


    Still, running to the forest took time, considering how vast the grasnd was. Even though there were no monsters standing in their way, it would still take them three minutes before they could catch up.


    "I''m going to deal with the flying monsters," Theo shouted. "Ava, watch my back."


    "Kyu." Ava nodded her head and asked, "Should I transform?"


    Theo paused for a moment and ultimately said, "No. There''s no need for the time being."


    "Okay." Ava then raised her feet, preparing to shoot them down.


    After that, he said, "Agata, you''re going to stop them. Can you do that?"


    "If it''s only for a few minutes, yes," Agata answered with confidence as she began releasing more pink smoke.


    As soon as he got their confirmation, Theo raised his hand to the sky before an eagle appeared out of thin air.


    "Huh?" The Dryad widened her eyes as she never expected to find another one. However, she was perplexed as the eagle seemed weird. "The Magic Power�� It''s very simr to his."


    Before she could think, Theo had already released the eagle to the sky as it pped its wings to fight all ten monsters that were going to attack them.


    Cry.


    Eagle Theo released a loud cry to grab their attention before using his Magic Power Expansion to cover his talons.


    He flew to the first bird that looked like a sparrow and raised his talons, preparing to attack it.


    Thetter also did the same, nning to defeat Theo alone.


    Their aerial battle had just begun.

 Chapter 654 – Running Away Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 654 - Running Away Part 2</h4>


    The bird plunged Theo with its talons, showing the superiority of experience.


    Theo knew he couldn''t fight against the actual bird because he hadn''t flown for so long. Still, he utilized the fact he could use skills better than them.


    With the Magic Power Expansion covering his talons, he hit the bird''s talons with more power than the bird had poured in his own talons.


    The sh ended in an instant as the bird wasunched back while Theo pped his wings a few times to stabilize his form before looking at the other birds.


    He summoned his Magic Bullets and shot them down with the Tracking Ability, forcing the birds to do an evasive maneuver.


    Theo took that chance to fly straight at the closest bird and struck it down.


    The bird managed to dodge him at first but got hit by the Magic Bullets afterward, allowing Theo to deliver another attack that turned into a killing blow.


    While he was fighting the bird, Agata kept summoning her spikes one after another to keep the monsters at bay. Some even got injured by her spikes, making the situation even better.


    However, the Dryad obviously didn''t like the situation as she raised her hands. The grasnd suddenly underwent a great change.


    The grass grew at a rapid rate and covered their vision soon.


    ''Hmph. This should be enough to defeat the previous me, but I''m different now.'' Agata snorted and released her Awareness to the surroundings.


    Theo''s Awareness could reach 250 feet from him, but Agata''s Awareness surpassed him by at least fifty percent.


    Now that she had no vision in the front, she shrunk her Awareness to a hundred feet, but put all her concentration there to make sure no one escaped.


    After finding all the monsters, Agata used the tall grass to counter attack. She created arge spear and cut everything down.


    The grass was cut in an instant and some monsters were taken by surprise. She received several notifications of her killing the monsters, so she was pretty happy with the result.


    At the same time, she used that swing to cut the grass in front too, realizing there was a limit to how far the Dryad could grow the grass with her power.


    "Ava, the limit seems to be two hundred feet from her position. Attacking them outside this range will just allow them to fully see what we''re doing and dodge it." Agata thought for a moment and added, "Do you have anything that can travel on the ground?"


    Ava frowned but still nodded her head. "I have. What do you want me to do?"


    "I''m going to use my spikes again. If possible, I want you to provide more firepower. We should be able to kill more."


    "Got it. I will match your movement."


    "Okay." Agata raised her smoke again as they started turning into spikes. She even utilized the tall grass to hide her pink smoke and pierce them.


    Ava then created a small spark that ran through the ground. The lightning was so powerful that it cracked the ground around it and burned the grass.


    It was so noticeable to the point the monsters would have avoided it before it could attack them.


    But Agata saw this as an opportunity and spread her pink smokes to left and right before raising them to act like a wall.


    The Dryad was confused and tried to break the wall, but it turned out Agata never reinforced them with her Awareness.


    The monsters that were expecting some resistance from the wall ended up slipping and falling to the ground, while those who were in the middle had no time to leave the wall.


    They wanted to dodge the lightning, but Agata''s illusion smoke stopped them.


    Ultimately, Ava''s lightning arrived and sparked in all directions. Those who were hit had a burn mark if not a hole in their bodies.


    Her lightning was simply too powerful as she sacrificed the speed to increase the power.


    "Kh." The Dryad obviously didn''t like the current development as they were about to enter the forest.


    She tried to force the birds to ignore Theo and attacked them regardless of the risk, only to find none of them were moving.


    She raised her head and saw Theo was the only one flying in the sky. Forty Magic Bullets then appeared next to him as Theo rained them down with the bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    He decreased the number of Magic Bullets, so he could concentrate some air into his Magic Power, enveloping them to create the Customized Magic Bullets.


    The moment they were hit by the Magic Bullets, the beasts started going down.


    "What?!" The Dryad gritted her teeth and summoned her vines to block all the bullets. In the end, she was the one who suffered the most as her vines had burn marks covering the vines.


    "Humans, die!" The Dryad extended the vines that were covering her body and shot it to the sky, trying to hunt Eagle Theo down.


    Eagle Theo instantly disappeared as his job had already finished.


    The forest was only two hundred feet away, so it was time he gave another direction.


    "Sorry for the wait." Theo smiled.


    "I thought you could control your clone easily." Agata mentioned hisck of response during the whole ordeal. Normally, Theo''s control over his clone was beyond perfection, so it was weird to see him do nothing other than controlling his control.


    "Don''t be like that. There was another reason why I chose to focus on the eagle." Theo smirked. "Anyway, I managed to study everything when I became an eagle�� So, yeah, I have a n to kill the Dryad."


    As if she heard Theo''s remark, the Dryad responded aloud. "Kill me? Study everything? Can you study this?"


    When he heard her questions, Theo grabbed Agata''s shoulder before turning to the forest.


    Suddenly, the trees started moving to create a barricade that would stop Theo and Agata. It was at this time Ava felt something touch her even though Theo didn''t even look at her.


    "Theo!" Agata and Ava felt the barriers from the trees and warned him, but as he said earlier, he already learned everything.


    Right before they hit the barricade formed by tree branches and roots, he stopped as if he was surprised.


    "Die!" This action made the Dryad happy and controlled the beasts to ram them into the barricade.


    However, Theo used his Blink to send them behind the barricade at thest moment, letting the monsters destroy the barricades themselves.

 Chapter 655 – Taunt

    <h4>Chapter 655 - Taunt</h4>


    The roots and branches were snapped and the barricade was torn by the monsters. Because they were controlled, they didn''t care about the pain they suffered and continued making their way toward Theo and Agata.


    "It doesn''t look like they''re going to let us escape." Agata frowned.


    "I know. Prepare to dodge." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Just like he expected, the Dryad controlled the trees to attack them.


    The trees extended their roots to stab them while the branches connected to other trees.


    The Dryad seemed to be preventing him from escaping from this forest, but he still didn''t understand why she bothered to create a above their heads. In the end, he could escape with his Blink.


    His answer soon came in the form of action. The branches that had been connected to each other started to snap and rain them down.


    These weren''t normal branches. Instead, it was sharp branches that used the force from the snap tounch itself to Theo.


    Theo frowned and immediately put up a shield by using his Ring of Honor to block them. Then, he asked, "By the way, how many monsters have we killed so far?"


    "Around a hundred have died. Another two hundred are injured. The rest have their path blocked by the monsters in front of them, so we won''t be facing them anytime soon." Agata reported with a curious expression.


    "Okay."


    "How should we escape?"


    "Why should we escape? I already said we''re going to kill that Dryad."


    "I mean, it''s impossible to handle all these monsters. Even if we use all our Magic Power, it''s not enough to kill them." Agata shook her head as she became even more curious about Theo''s n.


    "Well, I will show you how." Theo smirked and said, "Follow me."


    Suddenly, Theo shifted his direction a little bit. The monsters kept chasing him while the Dryad was staring at Theo in confusion.


    She didn''t know what kind of n Theo had, considering Theo was soon going to be cornered. She had made several barricades at the edge of her territory by using the monsters and trees, so it was impossible for Theo to escape.


    Even Agata was confused as this must be Theo''s new trick. She just followed him while fending off the enemies, keeping their distance.


    "You won''t be able to achieve whatever you''re nning to do." The Dryad started making her move again.


    The vines emerged from the ground and mmed them, but Clone Theo appeared and used his Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion to cover his hand.


    He struck the vines and used that extraordinary force from the Magic Power Expansion to rip the vines apart. He managed to do it for four vines before the rest returned back to the ground as if they were afraid to experience the same thing.


    The Dryad was clenching her hands as Clone Theo flew a few feet above the ground, so she could see him.


    "What''s wrong? You look like you''re experiencing extreme pain. Ah, is it because of your vines?" Theo grinned as he used his Telekinesis to carry the big vines with him.


    The Dryad couldn''t contain her anger and screamed. "You''re going to experience a horrible death. Mark my words! I am going to have all these beasts rip your body apart and let them eat you."


    "Oh, how about I feed them with yours first?" Theo chuckled and threw all four vines to them.


    The veins were ten feet in diameter and their length was close to thirty feet. They were pretty bigpared to the monsters, so when Theo threw them to the monsters, some of them ended up tripping, messing up with their lines.


    "There, eat them." Theoughed. "Those vines are bigger than my body, so it will surely make you guys full. s, no one wants to eat it�� Not very delicious, it seems."


    The Dryad released her killing intent as she stomped the beast she rode and leaped toward Theo.


    "Since you want to die right now, I am going to kill you myself." The leaves that covered her body grew their vines and covered her entire body with them.


    On top of her head grew a white flower like that of a helmet.


    When Agata saw the vines that acted like armor, she remembered Ava''s words as she thought, ''Is this the Dryad''s battle form?''


    While she was impressed by the battle form, Clone Theo didn''t hesitate to face the Dryad.


    The Dryad used the vines to create a drill on her hand while Theo summoned a spear with his Magic Power and struck the drill.


    The Magic Spear exploded and knocked the drill away, allowing him to get past her defense.


    He looped around her body and sent his fist to her waist, but several vines grew from her back and grabbed his body, stopping his movement.


    "��" Theo fell silent when he got caught while the Dryadnded on top of another monster while showing the real Theo her catch. "To think you''re this weak, this is what I will do when I capture you."


    Her vines snapped Clone Theo''s left arm and ripped it apart.


    "One down." The Dryad smirked as she continued to the right arm. "Two down!"


    Before she could do it for another time, Theo transformed into a monkey and kicked her in the face.


    He even used his Telekinesis to blow her away.


    Bam.


    "Gah." The Dryad flew in the air for a few seconds beforending on another monster, but Clone Theo was nowhere to be seen.


    "Right? So, you want to capture me to get yourself kicked in the face�� And it''s a kick from a monkey." Theoughed. "Hahaha, that''s hrious. This is the first time I have faced a General ss Monster with a good sense of humor."


    The Dryad was fuming with anger. She was never insulted like this before. "You bastard!"


    "Oh, not going to call me a human anymore? Such a disappointment." Theo let out a long sigh.


    Agata, who was watching their sh this whole time, looked at Theo and thought, ''This guy�� He must be enjoying it�� Now, I kinda feel bad for Dryad.''

 Chapter 656 – Controlled

    <h4>Chapter 656 - Controlled</h4>


    After angering her to the limit, Theo continued his way to the left. In fact, he had been looping around them with a huge curve to stop the monsters from catching up.


    And the only reason he taunted the Dryad was to make her focus on his taunt instead of his actual movement.


    Without them realizing, Theo had made a turn and headed back to the grasnd.


    As soon as they reached the grasnd, the Dryad stopped for a second and looked around.


    ''He got out? But the forest was supposed to be big. There''s no way he could leave this ce within a few minutes��'' The Dryad frowned and soon realized it was her territory, not others. She realized she was too upied with Theo''s taunt, not noticing Theo''s real n was to return to the grasnd.


    Still, Theo didn''t do anything in the grasnd earlier, so she thought Theo would be useless this time around.


    Now that there were no more trees, she sent more flying beasts to attack him.


    Theo shot them down with his Magic Bullets before doing something unexpected.


    Suddenly, the corpses that were scattered around the area floated in the air.


    "Wait!" Agata sucked a cold breath and finally deciphered Theo''s n. "Don''t tell me the reason why you''re asking how many monsters have died and injured was because��"


    Theo smiled as he raised his hand, gathering all the corpses on top of them.


    "Well, well." Theoughed. Even the Dryad didn''t raise the grass anymore after seeing the corpses.


    "What are you doing?" The Dryad gritted her teeth. From the unnecessary taunts to the disrespect for the deceased, Theo had done everything to anger her.


    Theo didn''t really care about their lives and corpses, so he raised them in the air and nned to drop them soon. "I am just thinking since you''re attacking me with those beasts, how about I attack you with those who have fallen? Taste your own attack or something."


    Theounched all the corpses to the monsters. The moment they hit the running monsters, thetter slipped to the ground or, even worse, died because they were injured pretty badly.


    The scene was chaotic as they had a hard time controlling their bodies due to these corpses.


    Agata furrowed her eyebrows, thinking, ''Monsters'' bodies are harder than humans. Not all of them are like that, but most�� Theo is using their bodies like using a rock�� No, with that size, they''re his boulders. Their hardness is close to the boulder, but they''re lighter, making it easy to turn them into cannonballs.


    ''With this, Theo should be able to slow them easily. And since we''re going back to where wee from, we will find more and more monsters that we can use to slow them down. This way, we should be able to kill more and turn back to utilize the same technique once again, but with more corpses.


    ''This way, Theo could preserve his current Magic Power while destroying them. If that''s the case, we can defeat the Dryad�� Can we? We have been using our Magic Power since this morning, so I''m not very sure.'' Agata thought while staring at Theo.


    She wondered if this was his real n.


    As if she had enough with Theo''s insults, the Dryad leaped forward, making her way to Theo.


    "Ava, it''s your time. It''s the first time for you to challenge your peers. Why don''t you show me your power?" Theo smiled.


    "Are we going to deal with them?" Ava frowned, thinking it was too reckless to stop now.


    However, the doubt soon got answered when she saw the corpses were making the monsters in disarray. With this, they should be able to attack the Dryad for a minute or two.


    When Ava was about to transform to her battle form, her body twitched for a split second. There wasn''t anyone touching her, so it was weird.


    Even then, Ava hurriedly jumped toward the Dryad with her humanoid form.


    Seeing Ava''s battle form, the Dryad raised her drill and sent it forward. "You are a disgrace of the wilderness."


    "Not really." Ava didn''t really care about her words as she covered her hand with lightning and struck the drill.


    The power of the lightning was burning the drill made of vines, albeit Ava was still pushed back with blood flowing on her finger.


    It seemed the drill was still able to injure her.


    The Dryad clicked her tongue and inspected her vines that couldn''t be used anymore. She then abandoned it and turned the vines into gloves.


    While they were fighting, Theo had already finished his construction.


    The structure was none other than a wall made of the monsters'' corpses, preventing them from attacking them from behind.


    At the same time, Theo headed to the left while shouting, "Agata, buy enough time for Ava."


    "Got it." Agata nodded and ran to the right before creating abyrinth to confuse the monsters.


    Meanwhile, Ava utilized her Moon Constetion and shot the blue ball.


    The Dryad formed a shield with her vines and parried the ball before deflecting it to the side.


    After that, she covered her other hand with a drill.


    Ava nned to destroy it once again, but as soon as she moved, several vines emerged from the ground and struck her at the same time.


    "!!!" Ava raised both hands and blocked the veins from hitting her body, but the vines chose to grasp her instead.


    "Lightning Discharge." Ava had seen what the Dryad did to Clone Theo, so she didn''t n to be one. She hurriedly discharged her lightning to burn the vines.


    However, this was nothing but a feint from the Dryad. Another vine came out of the ground in front of her as the Dryad emerged from that vine.


    "You!" Ava infused all her lightning to the hand and struck the vine.


    Bam.


    The lightning sparked and burned the vine, including the Dryad. However, the Dryad still managed to move and extended her hand to Ava.


    "As expected, you''re a disgrace of the wilderness��" The Dryad snorted and touched Ava''s head as a white flower bloomed on top of Ava''s head.

 Chapter 657 – Killing The Dryad

    <h4>Chapter 657 - Killing The Dryad</h4>


    The moment the flower blossomed on top of Ava''s head like any other monsters, Ava stopped for a second.


    "Now, let''s have some fun." The Dryad grinned as she pointed at Theo. "Kill him."


    Theo, who was fighting the monstersing from the left, noticed Ava''s change and saw her appearing in front of him. Her hand swept from the right, almost hitting him.


    Theo was lucky to have enough time to lean back, barely dodging her smack.


    "Ava?" Theo raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What''s wrong?"


    As he raised his head, Theo saw the white flower and eximed in shock. "That flower��"


    "As expected, you know about my illusion flower. However, there''s nothing you can do in this situation." The Dryadughed. "Now, how about you kill that freaking rabbit?"


    Theo gritted his teeth and jumped backward while using his Telekinesis to rearrange the corpses so that he could stop the monsters.


    Ava followed him and struck his chest with her lightning-covered fist.


    The punch ultimately hit the spear''s handle andunched Theo away.


    Thetter managed tond on the ground without suffering any damage, but he was already too far away from Agata.


    Knowing he couldn''t help Agata, he shouted, "Agata. Run toward me. We''re going to change our setup."


    Agata finally noticed something was going on and hurriedly came to him, albeit the Dryad appeared before her and struck her on the chest.


    Agata managed to raise both hands and stopped the fist with her arms, but she was still blown away.


    "You''re not going anywhere. After he dies, you''re next." The Dryadughed, enjoying how the two friends were fighting each other.


    "Then, I''m going to deal with you first." Agata clicked her tongue and formed spikes.


    The Dryad countered it with her own vines and shattered her pink smoke.


    At the same time, Theo was shooting his Magic Bullets at the monsters while moving the corpses simultaneously, trying to form another set of walls to stop the iing beasts.


    "You''re not going to run away? Come on, run away like you did earlier." The Dryad made a sinister smile.


    Even Agata knew the moment they ran away, Ava''s life would be in danger. So, Theo must want to rescue Ava first before leaving.


    The only way to help him was to stop the monsters and the Dryad. So, she rose a huge wall of pink smoke before creating multiple spikes toward the Dryad to kill her.


    The Dryad didn''t even need to get serious to destroy all the spikes. Her vines were enough to shatter all of her attempts to break through.


    "Kh." Agata gritted her teeth and said, "Whatever. I''m going to fight you no matter the circumstances."


    As if she had learned from before, the monsters passed through the wall of smoke and pounced on Agata.


    Thetter used her pink smoke to stab them on the head, but most of them missed their targets. Still, her n had worked as she got the time she needed to escape from their onught.


    Theo''s situation wasn''t any better. With Ava pinning him down, the monsters made their way toward him.


    The Dryad seemed to be nning to kill Ava and Theo at the same time.


    "Ava. Snap out of it!" Theo shouted in his struggle while summoning a hundred Magic Bullets, shooting all of them to the monsters on their side.


    After that, he pushed Ava with his Telekinesis and Magic Power Expansion,unching her into the air.


    "I''m going to make you snap out of the illusion." Theo jumped upward, trying to chase her before the Dryad tried to mess his mind again.


    "It''s impossible. The only way to remove that illusion is to kill me. And you won''t be able to do that because that disgrace is keeping you there." The Dryadughed, satisfied with the scene.


    Theo gritted his teeth and gathered all his power in his spear before striking the air. The power exploded in mid-swing and generated a powerful burst that blew everything in front of him away.


    "!!!" The Dryad also noticed the power and turned around, but what she didn''t expect was another figure crashing to the ground.


    "!!!"


    Bam.


    The crash sound echoed in everyone''s ears as the dust kicked up.


    The Dryad was the first to notice and realized it was Ava. She ordered her in anger, "What are you doing? I don''t care what state you''re in. You''re going to kill him. If you can''t kill him, then die!"


    Theo used his Blink to appear in front of her and hit her. "If you want to kill me, why don''t we fight one-on-one?"


    "You won''t be able to provoke me now." The Dryad snorted, not caring about Theo''s situation. "I am going to let you know the feeling of losing your own family."


    "Family? Family, you say? You''re just a mind-controlling monarch. It''s not a family." Theo snorted and pushed her back with all his strength.


    The Dryad mustered every ounce of her strength and soon noticed Ava standing up and moving toward them. With this, they should be able to defeat Theo.


    However, something unexpected happened.


    "Kill��!" The Dryad stopped abruptly as her mind was jolted by extreme pain. She lowered her head and found the rabbit''s foot piercing her chest.


    The lightning sparked and started burning the body since Ava didn''t know whether the Dryad had a heart or not.


    "Wha��." The Dryad turned around and saw Ava staring at her. She tried to use her mind to control Ava again, but nothing worked.


    Ava was standing behind her and kept spreading her lightning.


    "Why?" The Dryad let out herst word before the flower on top of Ava''s head disappeared. Suddenly, a small ant jumped off Ava''s body.


    The ant was so small and had been covered by Ava''s fur, making it impossible for her to see it.


    After that, the ant turned into a humanoid figure that turned out to be Theo.


    "That''s because of me." Theo smirked and pointed his hand to the Dryad''s head. Without letting her say another word, Theo used his Magic Power to destroy Dryad''s head.


    Bam.

 Chapter 658 – Agata’s Observation

    <h4>Chapter 658 - Agata��s Observation</h4>


    The Dryad didn''t even have the chance to react before her head was blown off.


    Without hesitation, Theo carried all the corpses, including her, and headed straight to the forest, trying to move away from the monsters.


    Before Agata could say anything, he shouted, "Put your hand up."


    Theo spared no time to touch the monsters'' corpses, cleaning the entire grasnd and forest from all bodies.


    Meanwhile, Ava had already returned to her favorite spot, Theo''s left shoulder. She waved her foot to the confused Agata and smiled as if telling her that everything was under control.


    It was at that time Agata finally realized his entire n.


    ''So, when he focused on his eagle clone, he managed to grasp all her abilities. No, should I say he obtained all the data he needed to conclude the fight?


    ''He further proved his data by using the barricade on the forest''s edge to confirm that the monsters were too simple-minded because of the control.


    ''Hence, he nned to use the corpses to trip those injured beasts, resulting in chaos even among those who were perfectly fine.


    ''After that, he created an environment where Ava could be controlled by her�� Wait a minute, did she really get controlled by the Dryad?''


    Agata looked at Ava''s assuring smile and remembered the ant and the eagle.


    ''He summoned his clone and turned the clone into an eagle right at the start as if he was summoning an eagle. This must be his Illusion to make others think he''s a summoner.


    ''However, in reality, he had been using his clone this whole time and hid him between Ava''s fur. With that size, no one would have thought it was him.


    ''Now that I think about it, Ava did teleport together with us even though Theo didn''t even touch her�� This must be the reason.


    ''Last but not least, Ava had been looking away this whole time. That must be when Theo talked to her in a very low voice. He was close to her ears and Ava''s hearing was extremely powerful; it was no surprise if only Ava could hear it.


    ''Then, Ava followed Theo''s n which was to get captured by the Dryad. No, should I say that Theo nted his own illusion on top of Ava''s head? He understood the white flower''s ability and recreated it in his n.


    ''In other words, Ava was never controlled by the Dryad in the first ce. She was just waiting for the perfect chance to eliminate the Dryad once for all.


    ''And that opportunity arrived rather quickly, ending this fight within minutes. So, this was Theo''s new tactic? He was tricking the enemy into thinking everything was going ording to her n.


    ''Still, how hard was it to know your enemy''s thoughts and execute the n perfectly with Ava''s help? How many steps ahead had he seen earlier?''


    While recounting what Theo did, Agata was staring at Ava and Theo''s faces with a serious expression.


    Theo noticed her stare and turned around, only to ignore her for a few seconds to check the condition of the monsters.


    After being freed from the control, the monsters were still confused about what had happened. However, before they could understand it, Theo and Agata had already disappeared into the woods.


    Only then did Theo turn back to Agata. "So, do I need to exin?"


    "No. I have understood what''s going on, but never in my wildest dream can I picture myself bing the one executing such a n." Agata shook her head helplessly, admitting her defeat.


    "You can sooner orter. In fact, you have been observing me this whole time andprehending my tactic by yourself. Your knowledge and experience will only grow from now on, so trust yourself." Theo had recognized Agata''s ability and endless desire to get stronger, so he knew Agata could eventually replicate what he did here.


    And hearing his praise made her smile again. She said, "Thanks. I guess we need to return to the hill after this."


    "Yeah. I''m too tired at this point. It''s better to conserve the remaining strength we have and continue tomorrow. We''re going to clean this ce up." Theo nodded.


    "Understood. At the very least, we have finished our mission. To think you chose the shortest path possible�� I thought you were going to reduce their number before killing the Dryad��" Agata shared her own thoughts about the battle.


    "That was the original n, but when you realized the illusion made the monsters retarded, it was better to end the fight right there, not allowing the Dryad to make a n of her own and reorganize her own army.


    "If that happened, we wouldn''t be able to continue staying in this ce. And the effect on the surrounding areas would be unknown." Theo exined his concern and decision.


    "I see. Thank you for your exnation." Agata nodded in agreement.


    "Good." Theo then turned to Ava and asked, "Did I hit you too hard? Are you hurt anywhere, Ava?"


    "No. The shock wave was not strong enough to even graze my skin, so I am perfectly fine. In fact, I haven''t even used fifty percent of my Magic Power this whole time." Ava made a smug smile.


    "Is that so? Should I send you back to deal with them alone?"


    "I am so tired that I can''t move anymore." Ava suddenlyid on her belly and acted as if she couldn''t move her body anymore on Theo''s shoulder.


    Agata and Theo couldn''t help but chuckle.


    "Anyway, we''re going to take our time for the next one week to make sure we have indeed dealt with the source of the problem," said Theo to Agata.


    "Okay. I will start writing a report too. Not that I can send the result back to the city, but well, it''s not like anyone dares to take credit." Agata shrugged.


    "Yeah, okay. I will leave the report to you. And since we have finished ahead of schedule, I am going to send my clone with the report back to the city while we''re heading to our next destination."


    "Got it. It''s really a convenient ability." Agata smiled.


    Theo shrugged as they returned to their camp on the hill.

 Chapter 659 – Continue

    <h4>Chapter 659 - Continue</h4>


    After returning to their camp, as Theo suggested, they were resting after a lot of work they put in to defeat the Dryad while killing more than a hundred monsters.


    The monsters had yet to realize the Dryad, their leader, had died, so they continued to fight one after another like thepetition.


    Theo and Agata were watching them under the dark sky.


    "By the way, I have a question," asked Agata while sitting next to Theo, recalling the n where Ava pretended to be controlled.


    "Sure."


    "Have you ever thought about what you are going to do when you find yourself in a situation where there''s no escape?"


    "Hmm? In the worst case scenario huh��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "I always do my best to avoid this so-called worst case scenario by creating a few backup ns.


    "But if I do indeed face that kind of situation, I only have onest thing to do." Theo raised his hand and pointed at his own heart. "Just hit them with everything I have at that time."


    "So, you''re going to drag them down?"


    "No. I am just going to make them believe that and escape by utilizing my clone." Theo shook his head.


    "I see. But I might be there or even Ava�� Never mind, I shouldn''t ask this question. It was inconsiderate of me��" Agata shook her head and let out a long sigh as if she was disappointed in herself.


    Theo raised his head and smiled, "Depending on the situation. Maybe it''s because of my upbringing that I think like this, but for now, I can''t picture myself dying for someone else."


    Agata fell silent, understanding Theo''s trust issues. She had heard about his family, so she knew Theo couldn''t bring himself to have an intimate rtionship with someone else.


    That was why he had her as his assistant, Ava as his partner, Lorenzo as his friend, and Leonardo as his elder. There was simply no family.


    "Is that so? Thank��." Before she finished, Theo added, "Of course. If there is a problem, I am going to solve them or at least take revenge for them. That''s something I should do no matter what."


    Agata nodded and smiled. "Thank you for sharing your answer."


    "No problem." Theo waved his hand and said, "I just want you to know that I will never give up."


    "That might also be the reason why you''re so valuable." Agata looked him in the eyes and continued, "I think everyone shares the same opinion as me�� When they know you a bit better, they know that you''re someone who will do everything you can until thest second. That''s why we can put our trust in you."


    Theo didn''t say anything more and Agata also stopped the conversation, not wanting to make the situation awkward.


    She then went straight to her Skylink to start making the report.


    The next day.


    They started hunting the remaining monsters one by one. Even though they had faced each other yesterday, no one realized it.


    Theo didn''t care about their reaction as he simply continued hunting them down.


    As expected, since their leader had died, the monsters began to scatter around the area as if they didn''t n to fight each other anymore.


    Although it was just spection, Theo believed the Dryad promised them a position as her trusted aid, mount, or even her spouse for interspecies sex, so the monster was fighting this fiercely.


    Now that the tournament ended after the Dryad''s death, the peace was soon restored, and the monsters lived like the usual days without making any unnecessary conflict.


    This proved that the Dryad was the sole reason for the monsters to fight each other. Hence, they concluded the investigation and wrapped the mission up after killing another five hundred monsters in the area.


    After that, Agata handed the report to Theo, and thetter headed straight to the city with his eagle form, so the monsters didn''t get suspicious and attacked him for no reason.


    Theo eventually arrived back on Earth and submitted the report to the War God Family.


    As soon as he got the confirmation from the War God Family, Clone Theo disappeared, regrouping with the main body.


    They had several Skylink for the sake of the report, so they didn''t mind leaving some behind. This was Theo''s n inpleting the mission without making the War God Family wait for his return to receive the full report.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo, Ava, and Agata made their way to their next destination, Rioan Mountain Range.


    On the way, Theo and Agata solved various missions, especially subjugation and item gathering missions. Considering they were ahead of schedule, they took their time in all these missions.


    It took them ten days to reach the mountain range even though they were supposed to arrive in six days.


    Theo and Agata immediately scouted the area, especially the mountain where the crevice appeared.


    They set up a camp not far from the crevice and started reading the current information they had.


    Agata, Ava, and Theo were sitting in front of each other as they started their discussion.


    "ording to the present situation, the crevice appeared two months ago and some monsters immediately came out of the gap. They were level 430, so we should expect monsters around that level in this ce.


    "There was a group ahead of us that checked the safety of the crevice. There seemed to be a vast dark tunnel inside the area. They didn''t venture too far, but they indeed fought several monsters at the same level.


    "Also, they didn''t find any poison gas or anything dangerous other than the monsters. They believed the tunnel would lead them to a magma chamber, but they had no definite proof."


    "Okay." Theo looked at Ava. "Your ears will be crucial in this investigation, Ava."


    "Understood." Ava nodded and asked, "Still, is there any reason why the mountain cracked in the first ce?"


    "No. We''re investigating that matter right now." She shook her head.


    "Then, just explore the cave with the night vision. If there''s an indication of danger, I will send my clone forward first."


    "Sounds like we''ve got a n��" Agata nodded in agreement.

 Chapter 660 – New Species

    <h4>Chapter 660 - New Species</h4>


    They spent the rest of the day on the surface, making sure their body recovered from fatigue.


    Theo, who had nothing to do, decided to climb the mountain to see their surroundings.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t see anything other than trees'' leaves covering the ground. It was the same in all directions, disappointing him a little bit.


    He ultimately went back to the camp and said that they wouldn''t be able to see anything from the sky if they decided to enter the forest.


    In other words, Theo wouldn''t be able to replicate what he did when he defeated the Dryad. Considering they were going to fight inside the mountain, they didn''t care much regarding this issue and continued their day.


    The night went by with howls apanying them from time to time.


    As soon as the next day arrived, Theo, Ava, and Agata headed to the crack on the mountain.


    The crack stretched only about forty feet and the gap wasn''t that big either. They could barely descend through the gap.


    "We can''t head inside and prepare for battle right away." Theo narrowed his eyes, pondering their choices.


    After a moment, he said, "I''m going to send my clone first to see whether the inside is safe or not."


    "Got it."


    Theo then summoned his clone and turned it into an ant before dropping it through the gap.


    Ant Theo immediately utilized his Telekinesis and flew through the gap. Although it was too dark to see anything, he didn''t consider this a problem.


    Ant Theo spread his Awareness while making his descent to make sure there were no tiny monsters in the gap.


    Luckily, he didn''t find a single opening or living creature until he reached the big tunnel inside the crevice.


    In one instant, Ant Theo picked up several creatures with his Awareness. It was clear that the monsters around him didn''t think much about an ant falling down, so he made a quick check of his surroundings.


    He went to the left and hit the wall after fifty feet. He went to the right and took twice as long, meaning he was in the middle of the tunnel earlier.


    The problem would be the length of the tunnel.


    "To be honest, I need to fight all these monsters first to secure thending area," Theo muttered inwardly while looking around. He didn''t bring his sses here, so he didn''t know the monsters'' strength.


    On the other hand, the real body was looking down while frowning. "Hmm��"


    "What''s wrong?"


    "There are several monsters inside. If we enter, they''re going to attack us, so I''m nning to deal with them first. For now, I have noticed that the opening is huge and confirmed that there''s a tunnel below us.


    "I don''t know the extent of the tunnel, but we should expect a long one like the report." Theo shared his experience inside.


    "For now, we have confirmed the report." She nodded. "Let''s bring down a Skylink first so you can check their name and strength."


    "Yep. Let''s do that." Theo agreed while Agata picked up a Skylink and handed it to him.


    After that, Ant Theo flew upward and retrieved the Skylink before making his way back into the tunnel.


    He checked their position with his Awareness once again and pointed the Skylink at them.


    He soon received the confirmation.


    Name: Stone Shattering Centipede


    Level: 440-450


    Name: Unidentified


    Level: ???


    Name: Unidentified


    Level: ???


    ''We have several unidentified monsters��'' Theo started contemting his choice, knowing it would be a bit hard to defeat them.


    He took a look at his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 377


    EXP: 708,599/ 2,585,249


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B)


    Attributes: Strength 495, Endurance 321, Agility 316, Vitality 321, Magic Power 615


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''Hmm�� I don''t think it''s easy to fight multiple monsters with their current level, especially in an area like this where I can''t use my tricks.'' Theo frowned, wondering what he should do.


    He raised his head and wondered if he should bring Ava and Agata down to eliminate them.


    ''Never mind. I should move around this ce first to know how many monsters are around the area and what I should expect after defeating them. If it''s clear, I can bring Ava and Agata here and eliminate all these monsters together.'' Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Now that he hade up with a n, he used his Telekinesis to levitate the Skylink an inch above the ground, carrying it with him as he moved forward.


    He had been spreading his Awareness this whole time and found a total of eighteen monsters in his direction.


    He had tried to identify them, but the majority seemed to be a new species. So, Theo just skipped them and continued his way onward.


    Meanwhile, on the surface, Theo asked Agata. "By the way, what are we supposed to do if we meet a new monster?"


    "A new monster, huh�� Normally, we will name them and give some statements regarding their strength and weakness if we find any. If possible, we can bring the corpses back with us, allowing the scientist to research them.


    "If we can do that, we will be able to get some reward, depending on their level," Agata exined.


    "Hmm, it''s quite simple, but I don''t know if we can preserve their bodies, considering we have a long investigation ahead. And it''s also hard to move them up because the gap is not big enough. The best we can do is dismember them and carry their body parts one by one."


    "Yes. Is there a new monster inside?"


    "A few of them. Out of eighteen monsters I have seen so far, eleven are unidentified. With my Awareness, I can see their body structures are different, so yeah��"


    "I see. This is going to be a big haul. As for preserving their corpses, no need to care about that. As long as we can carry them back, we can still get the reward."


    "Got it. For now, I am going to see the extent of the tunnel before we jump in. The monsters are quite powerful, so I don''t think I am strong enough to handle all of them��" Theo nodded.

 Chapter 661 – Intelligent Species?

    <h4>Chapter 661 - Intelligent Species?</h4>


    After Agata agreed, Theo continued his search in one direction. Unfortunately, he soon found a wall standing in front of him. He rubbed the surface and everything around it before confirming the wall was a dead end.


    He didn''t find any gap in the wall, so he turned around and walked to the opposite side.


    There were more monsters on the other side as he counted them while making his way to the endless darkness.


    He had walked for around five hundred feet and found more than a hundred monsters inside.


    He had lost count of how many new species lived inside the cave as he kept wondering when the tunnel would end.


    To his surprise, after a long one-hour walk, he could finally see the light shining at the end of the tunnel.


    Without hesitation, he ran toward the light, ignoring all the monsters.


    He was stunned.


    The light came from crystals nted around the wall. It was quite bright as Theo could see the tunnel ahead.


    He was stunned that the tunnel had be a massive spiral with a sidewalk attached to the wall like that of staircases. The shining blue crystals illuminated the spiral to make sure everyone could see the stairs.


    Theo moved to the edge of the spiral and looked up. He found nothing but a ceiling not far above him, so he knew nothing would hide there.


    Then, he lowered his vision and could barely see the bottom.


    The spiral was around a hundred feet high, and with the dim light from the crystals, he couldn''t see what was hiding underneath.


    ''What should I do? Should I jump or go back to bring the others here? Still��'' Theo looked at the crystals. ''Their cement is so perfect and the sidewalk feels so artificial.


    ''If I take another look at the report, I believe the first group didn''t reach this ce. So, I can safely assume they don''t know something like this exists.


    ''Else, they would have reported it to them, considering this ce looks very artificial. Someone must have built this.'' Theo thought for a moment, considering his options.


    ''I should go back and deal with the monsters first. After that, we can set up a camp here while I''m going ahead to check the route.'' Theo nodded with a serious expression, knowing what he should do.


    He turned around and walked back as quickly as possible while confirming the number of monsters they were about to kill.


    While waiting, the real Theo said, "I feel like an intelligent species is living inside this mountain."


    "Huh?" Agata frowned. "What do you mean?"


    "There''s an intelligent species inside. I can see there''s a spiral that leads us to the bottom. I don''t know what''s waiting for us there, but the cement of the shining crystals are so perfect, making it look like streetmps."


    "Hoh?" Agata frowned. "If that''s the case, it''s going to be a discovery of the century."


    "Hmm, is there any record of another species being discovered?" Theo asked with a curious expression.


    "I am not very sure. Even if they found one, they would hide this discovery. After all, the world leaders would be pressuring them to hand over this jurisdiction, so they can take advantage of them by saying they want to make contact with them.


    "So, I believe there are already a few intelligent species found around the world, but not many know about it." Agata shrugged.


    "Fair enough. Those who have lived for so long under this mountain should have been prepared too�� Yeah, I''m nning to scout with my ant form."


    "That''s probably the best. Depending on our discovery, we might need to report or hide this finding." She nodded in agreement.


    "Yeah. Anyway, we need to figure everything out first before making a decision. We will proceed with caution."


    After that, they discussed a few things regarding their finding. When Ant Theo had arrived at the bottom of the gap, he summoned his Magic Bullets while transforming back into his original form.


    The Magic Bullets flew to the other side of the tunnel, rming all the monsters around the dead end.


    "Roar."


    "Howl."


    Their loud voices echoed inside the tunnel, but the other monsters didn''t seem to react to their voices.


    "Are they deaf? I know they must be blind since there''s no light around here other than the other end�� But I wonder if they''re deaf too��" Theo frowned, realizing only monsters passed by Magic Bullets were enraged.


    They raised from the grounds and headed straight to Theo, ignoring the Magic Bullets that had disappeared before impact. He didn''t want to destroy the cave after all.


    Meanwhile, Theo, Ava, and Agata entered the gap and skillfully made their way toward the tunnel while Clone Theo was baiting the monsters to chase after him, giving them a perfect ce tond.


    Clone Theo ended up angering more than thirty monsters before he got surrounded and killed by the monsters.


    At that time, the monsters didn''t move for a minute as though they were confused about what to do after the enemy disappeared.


    Afternding, Theo and Agata activated their night vision.


    He looked around and confirmed the size of the tunnel. Meanwhile, Agata was searching for the monsters but found no one yet.


    Still, she was pretty tense when she kept hearing the noises echoing from afar. It was clear those voices came from the monsters that Theo killed.


    Without making a sound, Theo tapped Agata''s shoulder and pointed at himself.


    Agata noticed this gesture and agreed without hesitation. It seemed the monsters were stronger than they expected, so Theo wanted to be in charge of this area.


    Ava, on the other hand, had a serious expression. She followed her instinct which was to transform into her battle form, while walking to Theo to dere her decision.


    Ava just confirmed Agata''s suspicion, so she looked at Theo, anticipating his answer.


    Theo gave a thumbs up and pointed at the darkness. With only 30 feet visibility, Theo summoned his clone along with his Magic Bullets, resulting in a total of 120 bullets.


    He shot the bullets simultaneously to lighten up the tunnel while showing the position of their enemies.


    Agata and Theo raised their eyebrows when they saw the real form of the monsters.

 Chapter 662 – Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 662 - Crisis</h4>


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The light of the Magic Bullets illuminated the cave a little bit, allowing them to see the monsters clearly.


    To their surprise, the monsters had transparent bodies. They could see their organs with naked eyes.


    ''This��'' Agata narrowed her eyes. Her focus remained on something else as she raised her vision, finding a pair of antennas on each monster''s head. ''I have heard that the monsters living in the darkness have a chance to get a transparent body and a pair of antennas to move around. I guess it applies to the monsters here��''


    After knowing what they were dealing with, Theo finally opened his mouth. "Kill them one at a time while separating the monsters from the rest. There are more behind them, so even if the tunnel vibrates or the noise travels there, make sure you hold them back."


    "Got it." Agata nodded.


    From one nce, Theo could see their bodies were simr to a worm, centipede, or even a crab.


    Since they were new species, Theo didn''t care about their appearance. Instead, he focused on their abilities.


    The moment they spotted all three of them, their organs began to glow as if they were releasing energy.


    After that, a colorful aura permeated their bodies, covering them like a gentle fire.


    "Here theye!" Theo shouted as his clone turned into an ant while the real body stepped forward, using the shield from the Ring of Honor.


    Three out of twelve monsters suddenly appeared in front of the shield as they crashed into the barrier.


    After that, several other monsters began to run toward them, followed by the rest.


    However, that wasn''t the only case. Because Clone Theo had grabbed everyone''s attention, more and more monsters wereing.


    "There are around thirty monsters." Agata narrowed her eyes, feeling their presence with her Awareness.


    "Okay." Theo nodded and waved his hand.


    The shield suddenly expanded big enough to cover half the tunnel. This shield turned into a wall to redirect the monsters as they split into two directions to go around the shield.


    Agata instantly made her next move and formed another wall that covered the right side so that they could focus on the left side.


    Now that the monsters were concentrated on the left side, Ava and Clone Theo charged forward.


    Theo used his Magic Power Expansion and struck the air, creating a shock wave that blew them away.


    The tunnel was also shaking but managed to withstand Theo''s power.


    Now that the monsters were pushing each other with the wall on their back, Ava released her lightning bolt.


    The bolt hit the monster on the front and exploded, engulfing the creature and a few others. The sphere continued for a moment, continuously electrocuting the monsters.


    To their surprise, this just angered them. They started standing up to attack the group, albeit they were intercepted by Agata.


    When they were about to stand up, several spikes emerged from the ground and impaled some of them.


    Despite their levels, the monsters had tough bodies.


    "Transparent but hard��" Agata frowned, feeling that the monsters would be harder to kill than they originally thought.


    Theo had expected something like this, so Clone Theo emerged from above and struck the first monster with his Magic Power Expansion.


    The explosive power from the Magic Power Expansion finally cracked a monster''s body.


    Clone Theo used this chance to sneak a few Magic Bullets inside the monster''s body and explode them. Contrary to the hard skin, their organs were very brittle. With just a single shake from within, the organs were destroyed and the creature died.


    [Killed a Deep Cave Centipede.]


    [EXP+98,000]


    "You see that?" Theo asked Agata while letting the monster butcher his clone.


    "Yeah. I will target their organs. No matter how small the crack is, as long as we shake their organs, they will die." Agata nodded in understanding, knowing what she was supposed to do.


    Ava also wanted to try it and arrived before a monster''s body.


    Before the creature could attack her, Ava hit them from below with her palm that had been covered by lightning.


    The lightning spread around the body, including the organs, jolting the monster''s mind. But as Theo said, the organs melted in that instant.


    "It''s confirmed." Ava took a step back as Agata attacked them with more spikes.


    This time, she didn''t try to hurt all the monsters since she knew it would be useless. Instead, she focused all her spikes on one monster to crack its skin.


    Only then did she create a smaller spike to enter the monster''s body and destroy the organs.


    "Alright. The monsters seem to have fallen for our wall tricks and we can eliminate them one at a time. I will use their body to construct another wall to buy us time."


    "Got it." Agata and Ava replied at the same time.


    Agata used the wall, the floor, and the ceiling as the base of her spikes.


    On the contrary, Ava was sneaking through Agata''s smoke with Ant Theo on her back.


    Since the monsters didn''t seem to be smart enough to realize Agata''s pink wall was nothing but a normal smoke, Theo and Ava took advantage of it to attack the monsters from behind.


    Clone Theo used his Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion, Telekinesis, and Magic Bullets to kill four monsters from behind.


    Ava also struck several monsters and electrocuted their organs.


    However, everything soon changed for the worse.


    A small blue light appeared from deep inside the cave and hit Theo''s shield.


    "!!!" Theo, Ava, and Agata were shocked as they looked at the small me burning inside the darkness. It was too far from them, so they couldn''t discern the me''s identity.


    Still, the blue light managed to crack Theo''s shield.


    This one small gave birth to many cracks all over the shield before the residual power from the light exploded and shattered the shield into pieces.


    "Not good."


    With the shield gone, nothing stopped the monsters anymore from charging toward Theo and Agata.

 Chapter 663 – Defeating The Monsters

    <h4>Chapter 663 - Defeating The Monsters</h4>


    "Not good."


    With the shield shattered into pieces, there was nothing to stand between them and the monsters anymore.


    Agata and Theo had the same reaction when it snapped. They raised several pirs at random locations to confuse the monsters.


    The pirs reached the ceiling to make it look like a wall.


    Unexpectedly, the monsters didn''t seem to fall for the same trick anymore. After learning Agata''s smoke disappeared together with the shield, the monsters didn''t hesitate and rammed their heads against the wall.


    Theo''s pirs instantly disappeared as he didn''t train his Awareness for this. Agata''s pirs managed to hold for a second before snapping into two.


    Seeing the situation be chaotic, Theo took a deep breath and gathered all his killing intent into one single point before releasing it toward the monster at the very front.


    "!!!" The monster stopped for two seconds.


    Theo took that chance to hit the monster with his spear and crack the skin. After that, he sent several Magic Bullets and killed the monster from the inside.


    Two monsters managed to break Agata''s walls and ambushed him, but Ava reached him on time and turned back to her battle form after bing small to sneak around.


    She struck the monster''s belly and electrocuted the organs before blowing the body to the other attacker.


    With the force Ava''s generated, the other monster tripped and crashed to the wall, struggling to get away from the corpse.


    Theo didn''t have enough time to thank Ava because three more monsters pounced on him. Ava even had two before her.


    Suddenly, a huge block emerged from the floor and another one came out from the ceiling. The bottom one lifted the monster up and the top block stopped them from moving.


    This pair of blocks seemed to appear around them, trapping all the monsters.


    Without even looking at her, Theo knew Agata was the one summoning them.


    This was her technique where she incorporated the environment to her advantage like Theo''s advice. In this case, she used the strong stone floor to gain enough support for her own stone block to lift the monster up and used the ceiling to lock them.


    Seeing the chance appear before him, Theo smiled and struck the monster on the head, piercing through it and destroying the brain.


    After that, he moved to another monster and killed it without a problem.


    Ava also did the same, knowing she couldn''t let the monster alive and send it to Theo since they were trapped inside here and surrounded by monsters. One wrong move would lead them to death, so she chose to kill them herself.


    Little did she know, her action actually allowed Theo and Agata to bring a precious sample back to the cityter since the monsters she killed wouldn''t be a card if they touched them.


    Still, Ava somehow decided to split her focus as she kept ncing at the darkness. She seemed curious about the monster who dared to hit them from afar.


    The answer soon came in the form of action. The fire-like aura that covered the monster earlier reappeared. This time, the monster was closer to them, so they could finally see its appearance.


    Unlike other monsters, this one didn''t have transparent skin. Instead, it had a solid and hard red skin. The monster looked like a lizard crawling on the floor.


    When the lizard reached a certain position, it opened its mouth again and nned to shoot another light ball.


    This was the time Clone Theo had been waiting for. He changed back from his ant form to his human form and appeared right above the lizard.


    His Magic Augmentation had incited the Magic Power in his body and he poured all that power into his fist using the Magic Power Expansion.


    He then struck the lizard''s head from above.


    Bam.


    The lizard''s head crashed to the ground and made a small crack. The lizard seemed to lose consciousness for a second, but the head was still intact.


    It indeed had a tougher skin than others, so Theo changed his n.


    Before the lizard could recover, Theo opened its mouth and sent the Magic Bullets into his throat.


    The Magic Bullets exploded simultaneously, creating a powerful explosion inside the monster''s body.


    In that instant, Theo received a notification for killing the lizard.


    Now that the threat had been eliminated, Clone Theo changed back to his ant form to sneak around before ambushing some monsters.


    They worked together to kill all the monsters in their area, hoping that no more monsters woulde at them.


    Luckily, their hope came true as the lizard became thest monster that attacked them. Theo and the others finally killed all 35 monsters.


    "Huft��" Agata let out a long sigh a few times to get her breathing back. She looked at Theo with a tired expression, saying, "Theo. Do you think we can continue like this?"


    "I am not very sure. The air is pretty thin in this area, so it''s gonna be dangerous for sure." Theo nodded, noticing their problem.


    "Still, it''s not like we can get some oxygen tanks." Agata shrugged. "At the very least, the air cirction should be enough for a small fight."


    "Yeah. Agree with that. We should kill 20 monsters at a time before resting for ten minutes. This should be enough��" Theo nced at her.


    "I am not very sure. We should try to fight for ten minutes first and check whether our body can continue."


    "Yeah. Let''s do that." Theo then turned to Ava and asked, "How about you?"


    "Same. The air is too thin, so I need to rest. I wonder if we can get some air if wee closer to the crack." Ava pointed at the gap above them.


    "Unless you''re very close to the surface, I don''t think it will work." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "Well, I will just rest like usual then."


    "Okay. I will send my clone to scout and bring more monsterster. I will make sure to control everything."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 664 – Door

    <h4>Chapter 664 - Door</h4>


    Just like nned, Theo brought the monsters in session. Because of their positioning and safety, Theo ended up getting around ten monsters at a time before taking a rest for a while.


    In the end, it took too much time to rest, making them unable to clear the entire tunnel within a day.


    Theo didn''t mind about it as he had expected something like this from the start.


    The next day, the rest of the monsters were eliminated.


    And Theo had been standing on the edge of the tunnel, looking at the bottom shrouded by darkness.


    Agata, beside him, asked, "By the way, there is something bothering me. We have eliminated all the monsters, but with the sound the fight produced, shouldn''t the intelligent species underneath this tunnel notice us?"


    "Yeah. That''s what I''m thinking too. The noise should have echoed through the corridor and gone down this spiral." Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling a bit suspicious.


    "Then, there might be an ambush prepared for you."


    "Well, that depends�� If it''s too far, I doubt they hear it. So, we will proceed ording to the n. If there''s indeed an ambush nearby, we''re going to return to the surface and see whether we need reinforcement or not."


    "Understood." Agata nodded with a serious expression. She then turned to Ava and asked, "Do you think you can hear something from below?"


    Ava shook her head with a disappointed expression.


    After getting Ava''s confirmation, Theo summoned his clone.


    The clone leaped off the edge and transformed into an ant before using his Telekinesis to navigate in the air.


    The hole was quite deep, considering it took him five seconds tond on the bottom.


    When he arrived, he was still surprised by another corridor on his right. Unlike the tunnel on the top, this one had crystals that continuously provided the room with enough light. The size was also far smaller.


    ''Where will this ce lead me?'' Theo muttered inwardly as he started crossing the ce.


    To his surprise, there wasn''t a single monster in the area. The corridor was long as Theo couldn''t see the end of it even after walking for five minutes.


    He continued for a while and looked around, finding nothing suspicious around. Now that he was equipped with these crystals all around the cave, he could see the details on the wall, floor, and ceiling. Unfortunately, none of them looked abnormal, so he thought people only used this as a passage.


    ''Still, it doesn''te up with the crack. Why would there be a crack in that area? Is it a normal phenomenon or an artificial one? If it''s thetter, I''m afraid I am in danger right now.


    ''I haven''t found anything useful right now and my Awareness is not picking anything.'' Theo thought while looking around.


    After careful thought, he raised the power of his Telekinesis to blow the air away. He could check the gap like this if he found a certain drop of his Telekinesis.


    Even then, nothing was found. He ended up crossing the corridor for fifteen minutes before he reached the end.


    What he found shocked him. The tunnel expanded in thest few feet, giving space for a double-door.


    The door was made of metal and didn''t have any pattern or something to learn other than a hammer drawing on it.


    ''Hmm�� Is this what I think it is? I remember that back in Thernd, there was that Coal Dome that turned out to be a ce inherited from old age. It became the home for all the mummies and no one knew what was inside.


    ''There was also the fact that the wolf could build a town on their own with a General ss Monster taking themand.


    ''This ce must be built by someone, but I''m not an expert. I can''t tell whether this ce was built far in the past or recently.


    ''Looking at the door, there are some rusty spots, but I can see that the door is maintained very well. They even hide the rust marks�� If that''s the case, should I choose to leave this ce to avoid getting killed by whatever monster residing behind the doors�� or just face it?''


    Theo was pondering his choice, not knowing what he was supposed to do.


    ''Hmm��'' Theo bit his lips and asked inwardly, ''What if I push the door and they notice me? On the other hand, what if there''s nothing inside and I''m just scared over nothing?''


    He immediately checked the gap between the doors, ceiling, and sides, only to find no opening to exploit.


    In other words, he couldn''t slip through the door with his ant form, which frustrated him.


    After contemting for a moment, Ant Theo returned to his original form, nning to cross the tunnel once again to test whether there was a trap or not.


    Before going back, Theo had one more thing to do. He approached the gate not to open it but to stick his right ear on it.


    He wanted to see whether he could hear anything beyond the gate or not. Albeit, his expectation was shattered.


    There was no movement inside. Even when he ced his ear on the ground, there was no vibration that would alert him of someone''s movement.


    ''As much as I want to open this gate, I think it''s better for me to go back first to check with Agata. I don''t know whether opening the gate is the right approach or not, since there may be a need for me to retreat to get some reinforcement.


    ''In fact, it''s better to have Sir Leonardo involved with this kind of thing.'' Theo hesitated for a moment and returned to get some advice from Agata.


    To his surprise, he could walk across the tunnel without finding any traps, making him think it was safe for them to explore.


    Little did he know, their life would take an unexpected turn after this decision as many shadows began to appear in the darkness.


    The moment Theo touched the door, it already gave a signal to the inhabitants behind the door.

 Chapter 665 – Dwarves

    <h4>Chapter 665 - Dwarves</h4>


    When Clone Theo returned to the group, there was a sign of relief from Agata, knowing everything seemed to be fine.


    "So, yeah�� I found another tunnel at the bottom. The tunnel led me to a metal door. I am afraid to break it since it may lead us somewhere and awaken whatever lies behind the door.


    "For now, I don''t hear anything from behind the door, so I think we''re clear to back out. What''s the procedure again?" Theo asked.


    Agata closed her eyes for a moment before replying, "To be honest, if this is a normal situation, we will need to proceed to gain some understanding about the room behind that door.


    "However, we need to consider the fact that this tunnel looks artificial. If there''s indeed another intelligent species behind that door, I''m afraid it will be too dangerous for us, considering we don''t know anything about them.


    "Also, there is a chance of them being far stronger than us. Do you remember anything visible on that door? Like a pattern or something?" Agata asked.


    Theo raised one finger. "The door itself was a simple metal nk. However, I saw a carving of a hammer there. I didn''t find anything else."


    "A hammer�� As expected, it should be another intelligent species. We need to proceed with caution." Agata looked down, contemting their choice.


    "Still, it might be a facility from humans. I mean, I have seen an underground facility." Theo shared a bit of information regarding the illegal goblin experiment facility.


    "Still, there''s no need to make unnecessary tunnels since this ce is originally hidden. Without the crack, you can''t enter this ce." She turned around and pointed at the tunnel behind them. "In other words, they need this tunnel for whatever reason. It''s not like humans at all."


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head. He also remembered the fact that they were usingmps instead of crystals.


    After considering a few things, he asked, "Okay. Let''s assume we''re dealing with another intelligent species. What''s the procedure?"


    "We will need to inform the War God Family about our finding and negotiate the reward. But since you''re close to Sir Leonardo, you can get an even better term if you go to him." Agata offered a solution.


    "I see. That''s the safer option, I guess." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Suddenly, Ava raised her head and looked around. "Theo."


    Theo turned around and saw Ava''s confusion. "What''s wrong?"


    "I can hear many footsteps suddenly." Ava frowned and pointed in all directions. "But they''re everywhere and I can''t pinpoint their exact locations. The sounds are echoing in all directions�� The only thing I know is that they''re behind the walls."


    "Walls?" Theo frowned and asked, "Maybe what you''re listening to right now is the vibration from people outside this ce? Maybe a few people are climbing the mountain?"


    "No. I believe it''s around us. We need to get out of here." Ava shook her head.


    Since he had been teaming up with Ava this whole time, Theo agreed without hesitation, knowing their life might be in danger. "Okay. Let''s go out."


    Theo turned around as Agata followed her.


    When they were about to rush to the gap, Ava shouted. "They''reing!"


    "!!!" Agata and Theo raised their eyebrows as soon as they heard rumbling sounds from their surroundings.


    Theo looked to the right and found the wall split open like it was a door and several figures emerged from the hole.


    Agata turned to the left and saw the same opening with two figures left the hole and jumped on her.


    Ava, on the contrary, noticed more than what they were aware of. Now that she confirmed there were figures everywhere, she instantly counted them and said, "There are sixteen of them."


    Theo immediately summoned his clone, preparing to leave this ce. Unfortunately, he couldn''t really escape from this hole directly to the outside, but he nned to use his Blink to send him not far from the gap.


    The figures didn''t n to let them leave as they ambushed them.


    Theo ducked down as an axe almost sliced his neck. While trying to grab Agata''s hand, Theo tried to take a glimpse of these figures.


    The figures turned out to be humanoid monsters. They had muscr bodies, but their height was barely half of his. Their skin was slightly brown, making their skin look like dirt.


    Still, Theo immediately recognized them the moment he saw their long pointed ears. He instantly knew what kind of race they were dealing with, considering it was very popr on Earth.


    "Dwarf?"


    "!!!" Agata blocked the axe and noticed their figure too, confirming Theo''s word.


    The moment they heard Theo''s voice, they frowned and seemed to have reached a conclusion.


    They immediately swung their axes together to kill both Agata and Theo.


    However, the trio soon disappeared as soon as Theo grabbed Agata''s hand.


    "!!!" They were baffled by the sudden disappearance before turning to the dark tunnel, knowing Theo was there.


    Without hesitation, they chased after him.


    Theo and Agata exchanged looks as they seemed to havee to an agreement. While running away, Theo said, "This is�� beyond our capacity."


    "Indeed."


    The two knew they needed to escape immediately to tell Leonardo about this finding. If these dwarves they found were simr to the legend, they would be a great ally to have, considering they could make equipment for them.


    However, their luck ran short as a shadow appeared in front of them.


    Before they could do anything, a powerful impact hit their stomachs,unching them back to the dwarves they left behind.


    "Kh." Theo hurriedly used his Telekinesis to counter the force and stopped both of their bodies before reaching the dwarves behind them.


    The moment they stopped, Ava leaped forward and turned into her battle form before hitting the dwarf that sent them flying.


    The dwarf caught her lightning-covered fist easily and threw her to the wall.


    Bam.


    "Grrr��" Ava gritted her teeth, enduring the pain as she nned to create another opportunity to escape.


    But the dwarf already stated with a firm tone. "Capture them�� The Saint wants them alive."

 Chapter 666 – Captured

    <h4>Chapter 666 - Captured</h4>


    "The Saint wants them alive."


    "!!!" Theo raised his eyebrows, wondering who they called the Saint. Still, the situation wasn''t good and they needed to escape right away.


    After making aplete stop, Theo rushed to the dwarf. As long as he could somehow push him away, there was a chance to escape.


    At the same time, he also checked the dwarf''s identity, only to find it was still an unidentified creature. There seemed to be no dwarf data stored inside the Skylink, so Theo was disappointed as he didn''t know thetter''s strength.


    Even then, he needed to try to fight him. He made sure a skill exnation didn''t leave his vision as it might be the only chance he could use to surprise this dwarf.


    Before Theo reached him, several spikes emerged from the floor and the ceiling to pierce his body.


    Unexpectedly, the dwarf simply waved his hand and generated a powerful gale that shattered Agata''s spikes into pieces.


    "What? Impossible." Agata''s eyes widened in disbelief. She never expected to see someone was able to destroy her spikes this easily.


    But what destroyed her spikes turned out to be Theo''s Magic Bullets. His n in sneaking some Magic Bullets between Agata''s spikes backfired as the gale made them explode, resulting in them destroying the spikes.


    Clone Theo also came out and struck him with his fist. It had been covered with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion, so the impact was quite powerful.


    Yet, the dwarf raised his left arm and somehow blocked him without any sign of moving.


    Before he destroyed Clone Theo, the real body had arrived with his artifact. Since this was a life and death situation, he didn''t hesitate to release all the power from his artifact whilebining it with his Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    "Hmm?" The dwarf frowned and raised his axe, striking Theo''s spear.


    The axe neutralized the Magic Power Expansion and still blew the spear to the side, ultimately slicing the clone on the left.


    "That''s a good spear�� I guess I will handle you personally." The dwarf shook his head and grasped Theo''s wrist.


    Suddenly, a hundred Magic Bullets appeared out of thin air and flew straight to him.


    The dwarf pulled Theo in and raised him as his shield.


    Theo hurriedly controlled the Magic Bullets to loop around his body, but a shield appeared next to the dwarf, destroying the bullets from the left.


    After that, he struck the bullets from the right side with his axe before spinning Theo''s body.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to regain his bnce, but the dwarf already sensed his movement and mmed him to the ground.


    Then, the dwarf sat on Theo''s back while using his feet to step on Theo''s arms. After subduing Theo, he grabbed the spear and inspected it. "A quite good spear."


    "Kh." Theo summoned his Magic Bullets, but the dwarf simply swung his axe without even looking, destroying all the Magic Bullets.


    He looked to the right and saw Ava being surrounded by six dwarves. He utilized his Awareness and realized Agata was apprehended by ten dwarves. They had knocked her on the ground and restrained her body.


    Theo still required a few more seconds before he could use his Blink again, but that meant he needed to escape from this dwarf and rescue the other two.


    Yet, in the back of his head, he had been seeing himself escaping without them. If it was only him, there was a chance of escaping.


    This was the crossroad he needed to take. He soon realized making this decision was easier said than done.


    He had told Agata that he couldn''t picture himself sacrificing his life for them. Yet, when he was about to take action, there was a hesitation in his heart.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the dwarf gave him an ultimatum when he grabbed Theo''s right hand and opened his palm.


    "As expected, there is a Moonlight Order. Still, this is not the original Order�� It''s just a mark." The dwarf frowned and turned to Ava, muttering, "That girl is a Moon Rabbit. I sense the Ordering from her, but her power is not enough to manifest the power of Order.


    "In other words�� Her acquaintance�� probably." The dwarf looked at Theo and asked, "Oi, boy. What''s the rtionship between you and the Moonlight Order''s holder?"


    "!!!" Theo maintained his poker face. He could use his Blink right now and he just needed to utilize it before using his ant form to escape.


    However, the dwarf said, "No matter what, you can''t escape from me. I should introduce myself I guess�� I am the holder of Mountain Order, Elder Dwarf, Dourner. Even if you flee by leaving your friends behind, I will still be able to locate you as long as you''re around the mountain.


    "So, it''s better to drop your resistance. At the very least, the Saint doesn''t n to kill you yet because of your connection with the Moonlight Order.


    "Well, we want to kill you to be honest, since we can''t afford to have anyone discover us. So, this is just a threat. Come with us and you three will have the chance to live or escape from me right now and you three will die immediately.


    "The Saint wants you alive, but I can simply torture your two friends before your eyes. Oh, don''t try tomit suicide�� Even though the Saint said that, he still let me handle this problem, so I''m sure he can understand if I tell him you killed yourself."


    "Order��" Theo clenched his fist and hesitated. "You''re a King ss Monster."


    "I don''t know your ssification and I don''t really care much about it. But I think I am known as the Mountain King. That''s why I am curious why the Moonlight King gave this proof of recognition to you.


    "Considering the rtionship you have with that little moon rabbit, I can somehow picture it, but that doesn''t matter right now. I want your answer. Follow us or die."


    "Theo! No need to think about me! Just escape!" Agata suddenly shouted, remembering what Theo told her. If it were Theo alone, he should be able to escape.


    Even Ava shouted, "Theo! Escape!"


    Theo truly wanted to escape, but he realized the danger was currently sitting on top of him. He loosened his hands and said, "It''s impossible to run away from a King ss Monster, let alone a Mythical Rank Monster�� We will follow you."


    "Good�� In that case, you should recall your clone��" The dwarf smirked and pointed at the end on the ground, proving that escape was impossible.

 Chapter 667 – Town

    <h4>Chapter 667 - Town</h4>


    "��" Theo remained silent after agreeing to follow him. Meanwhile, Agata was surprised that Theo chose to surrender, but she brushed that thought off the moment Theo mentioned the other person''s strength.


    Theo was sure that the dwarf was a Mythical Rank Expert due to their strength disparity. If the dwarf was a Supreme Rank Expert, he could still fight him by exploiting several tricks.


    But the dwarf made him feel helpless like when he fought Leonardo in his serious state. There wasn''t even a chance to think or stabilize his body earlier.


    So, he thought it wouldn''t be wise to escape as he wasn''t confident to fight him.


    What he had in mind was one thing. He apologized. ''I am sorry for losing.''


    [They''re just dwarves. If I have my living body, I can trample them to death. Hmph.]


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched, knowing it was Fenrir who talked earlier. Soon, he received a reply from both Loki and Hel.


    [Those idiot artisans, huh�� Why don''t you wager your head with them?]


    [You didn''t lose. This is tactical surrender.]


    Theo was speechless when he saw their reply. He felt a bit bad with Hel, considering the promise he had made with her. On the other hand, he couldn''t help but reply to Loki. ''So, they can''t determine which part is my neck, which part is my head?''


    [They''re just simpleton.]


    Theo sighed inwardly as he stopped replying to Loki, not knowing what to say regarding this wager.


    To his surprise, the dwarf that was sitting on top of him suddenly said, "Still, this spear is quite good even though it''s made by an amateur. It''s deliberately toned down to match the user''s current strength. After fine-tuning, there''s also the chance of increasing its power.


    "Though, the efficiency is quite low. Ehm, I don''t really care��" The dwarf looked at Ava and Agata, who were restrained by other dwarves. "Well, since he has surrendered, you can let them go. I''m pretty sure they will follow us."


    After saying those words, the dwarf finally stood up and let Theo move.


    Theo, knowing he couldn''t escape, said, "Where are we going?"


    "You''re not scared of me?" The dwarf narrowed his eyes.


    "Either way, it''s not like you''re going to kill us immediately." Theo shook his head.


    "Hoho, then I can put in some bad words about you." The dwarf smirked with cunning eyes.


    "Please do." Theo nodded in agreement as if he truly wanted to die.


    Even Dourner, the Mountain King, slightly raised his eyebrows to check Theo''s expression.


    "Whatever. I''m too tired to argue with you." He then looked to the side and pointed at the gap. "There seems to be a crack here. Someone needs to patch it upter."


    The other dwarves nodded as they wondered what they should do after capturing all these people.


    "Anyway, it''s time to go." Dourner tossed the spear back to Theo.


    "��" Theo caught the spear with a surprised expression, not understanding why he would throw back the spear. He thought Dourner was simply that confident in catching all of them, but he felt that wasn''t the only reason.


    Before he got an answer in his mind, Dourner pushed Theo''s back as if telling him to walk.


    Theo took a deep breath and started walking while ncing at Ava and Agata to follow him. Due to Dourner''s order, the dwarves didn''t touch them and let them walk beside Theo.


    The dwarves escorted them through the tunnel and went down the stairs before arriving in front of the metal gate.


    Suddenly, Dourner stepped forward and pointed his palm at the door and opened his mouth. "Seikiha Bha."


    Golden light from his body moved toward the gate and enveloped them.


    The hammer symbol shone and the doors slid to the sides. The only reason why there was no gap or joint to exploit was due to the fact it was a sliding door instead of a normal one.


    Even Theo could see how perfect the door was patched to the walls, making one think it was just a normal door.


    As for the rolling track, he soon found them on the ceiling. This was the reason why the area around the gate expanded.


    He soon realized the gate''s mechanism and gritted his teeth, "So, touching the door will alert you."


    "You''ve got a good brain there for a human." Dourner smirked. "Though, it''s not like your movement hasn''t been monitored this whole time."


    "Monitored?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Dourner shrugged, not answering his question.


    Since he couldn''t get any more information from him, Theo narrowed his eyes as he tried to see what was inside the door.


    "��"


    Sadly, they needed to walk for a few more minutes before the tunnel expanded.


    "This is��" Theo opened his mouth in amazement. Ava, who was standing on his shoulder, looked left and right as if hearing multiple footsteps. On the other hand, Agata dropped her jaw, never expecting to find a city inside a mountain.


    Yes, it was a city. Unlike any other city, the houses and buildings were attached to the wall.


    "This is a huge hole that is transformed into a city." Theo narrowed his eyes, realizing the true identity of the city. He looked up and saw the ceiling was sealed.


    He lowered his vision and found a huge cylindrical empty space with many bridges connecting one building to the others filling up the space. If he looked down, he could see a field with a slightly reddish color as if it was burning hot.


    He nced at the house and found nothing as they were too far for him to see.


    "Well, I guess you''re the first human to see this ce. Wee to my humble town." Dourner chuckled. He didn''t seem to be concerned that much when Theo and Agata saw this.


    He especially didn''t care whether Ava was here or not. He simply treated her as if she didn''t exist.


    "Anyway, you''re going to follow me. The Saint wants to meet you and we will decide your fate afterward." Dourner said nonchntly. "All you can do is to follow me."


    Suddenly, Ava narrowed her eyes and looked at a specific house at the very bottom. She pointed at it and asked, "Are we going there?"


    "Huh?" Dourner was surprised and confused at the same time. "How do you know?"

 Chapter 668 – Meeting A Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 668 - Meeting A Dragon</h4>


    "How do you know?" Dourner raised his eyebrows, feeling suspicious.


    Instead of looking at Ava, he was staring at the house. At a nce, the house seemed to be the biggest out of them, so he wondered if Ava knew just because of this.


    However, Dourner soon said, "Never mind. Since you already know, follow us."


    Dourner led them to the bridge that seemed to be made of wooden nks like traditional stairs, but instead of a rope attaching them together, it was stone.


    The railing was also made of stone, making sure they didn''t fall. But there was one more function that Theo was about to witness.


    With Dourner at the very front, he utilized his Magic Power and activated the bridge.


    The stone bridge that was supposed to lead them to the other side began to transform into stairs leading them to the bridge underneath.


    He activated the bridge again and again, turning the bridges that varied in many levels into staircases that connected the entrance to the biggest house at the bottom.


    "This��" Agata was stunned, never expecting to see such a mechanism.


    Theo raised his head and realized something. "Although the bridges look messy, they seem to be ovepping with each other. From one side to another�� If they all have this kind of function, I believe all these twenty bridges can connect to hundreds of houses in this ce."


    "I already said it, but you have good eyes for a human��" Dourner smirked. "Hahahaha."


    Theo didn''t know what to say regarding this dwarf. He had strong power and craftsmanship, but he didn''t seem to be nning to hide his secret.


    He soon understood why the God of Mischief called the dwarves idiotic artisans.


    Some of the dwarves had noticed Theo''s presence as they kept watching from their own houses, wondering what Dourner nned to do to them. This was the first time they got visitors like this, so they were curious about these humans.


    When they arrived in front of the house, a deep, aged voice resounded, answering the question Dourner had earlier.


    "The reason she knew was our link."


    "Link?" Dourner was taken aback as he understood that perfectly. "Sir�� You''re telling me that she��"


    "Yeah. Although it''s thin right now, her power is simr to mine. So, yeah, her order is rted to either Lightning or Thunder."


    "��" Dourner looked at Ava with surprise. "Isn''t this the same as challenging you?"


    "Why should I care? I have lived in this world far too long to even care. Instead of her, you should look at the human beside her. I can''t notice it because of the Moonlight Order earlier, but he, too, has something unique. Though, it''s even weaker than the rabbit."


    "Huh?" Dourner frowned and red at Theo. He hurriedly raised Theo''s hand and covered the pattern in his palm before closing his eyes.


    "!!!" Dourner stepped back when he noticed the weak signal transmitted to his body.


    Looking at his expression, Theo frowned and asked, "Do you mean I have an Order too?"


    Before answering Theo''s question, the aged voice said, "The rest can leave this ce. I''m going to talk with these three and Dourner alone."


    Dourner turned to the other dwarves and nodded.


    After that, the dwarves moved back to the bridges and returned to their respective houses.


    As soon as they were gone, Dourner pushed the door open, revealing the house''s interior.


    Contrary to his expectation, the first sight that greeted them was arge figure sitting on the opposite side of the house.


    It was a dragon.


    The dragon had a golden scale covering his body. His long legs were lying on the ground as his eyes were staring at Theo and the others. He even had long bread, indicating his age.


    He gently closed his wings to make sure he didn''t take too much space.


    After a brief shock, the dragon smiled and opened his mouth. "Come in."


    Dourner pushed Theo and Agata''s backs before closing the door.


    It was at this time Theo could finally see the house''s interior. But to his surprise, there was nothing in this ce other than some stone chairs and pots.


    "��"


    "There''s nothing here." Dourner shrugged and walked to the dragon. He then brought a big wooden mug and poured a yellow-colored liquid from the pot. "Come here."


    Ava tapped Theo''s cheek twice and looked at him with a serious expression. Theo seemed to understand her concern as he squinted his eyes.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, are you the one��."


    Before he finished his words, the dragon already said, "There''s no need to ask. It''s me."


    "!!!" Agata gasped and took a step back as she muttered, "World ss Monster, Lightning Authority��"


    "I guess that''s what humans know about me." The dragon chuckled and said, "There''s no need to fear. I am not going to kill you today as long as you keep this ce a secret."


    "But Sir��" Dourner frowned and rose from the floor. He seemed to be against this idea.


    "Well, I am quite interested in those two��" The dragon smiled at Theo and Ava. "The girl has something that questions my Authority while the boy has an Order that I can''t even verify."


    "Even you?" Dourner was amused when the dragon couldn''t even see through Theo.


    "Yes. It seems he has been guided by someone special." The dragon closed his eyes. "Probably, the one who guides him has achieved Authority level."


    [Hmph. This guy has good eyes.]


    [That''s right. Keep praising me.]


    [He''s not talking about you two�� It''s me.]


    [Why are you three evenpeting with each other?]


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he had the same question, who seemed to being from the serpent. Still, another question shed in his mind. "So, did you all reach that level in the past? And what exactly are Order and Authority?"


    To his surprise, their answer was the same and came in unison.


    [It''s not the time for you to know.]


    [It''s not the time for you to know.]


    [It''s not the time for you to know.]


    [It''s not the time for you to know.]


    Theo was speechless and couldn''t help but add, ''Well, I think I have read other Gods and Goddesses whose Divinity is simr to you guys�� If Divinity is something simr to Order and Authority, shouldn''t you have a conflict with each other? Scared�� Nah, it should be a different timeline."


    [��]

 Chapter 669 – Drinking Contest

    <h4>Chapter 669 - Drinking Contest</h4>


    After a brief exchange with them, Theo looked at the dragon with observant eyes, trying to figure out the mystery himself.


    However, the dragon noticed his intention and said, "There''s no need for you to know about this with your current strength."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment as if he was disappointed.


    "Though, I can give you one hint. You should have your own rules, right? Just keep following that path and you can find the truth." The dragon smiled.


    "Rules��" Theo frowned, remembering the three rules Loki gave him back in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    ''Is that the reason you told me to obey the rules? You didn''t get mad at me when I broke the rule because you wanted to incorporate the rule into my life?'' Theo asked inwardly, confirming his suspicion.


    [Correct. It''s rted to this rule, but it''s a moreplex process.]


    ''So, you''re preparing me for thisplex process?''


    [Yes.]


    Theo was very curious about the real truth, but he soon realized he wouldn''t get anything from them. So, he looked at the dragon and asked, "So, is there any difference between those who possess the Order and those who don''t?"


    "Hmm��" The dragon looked Theo in the eyes and smiled. "Yes. You will realize it when you start understanding your own. Maybe if you meet me again after reaching Supreme Rank Expert, I will give you more information."


    "Sir!" Dourner raised his voice. "This is rather inappropriate. They keep disturbing the Order this whole time. If we let them acquire this knowledge, it will be extremely dangerous."


    Agata was confused as she had never heard anything about Orders. She only heard Ava mention it once and that was it.


    Theo, on the contrary, asked, "Are you sure about this? Isn''t this the one keeping the bnce of this world?"


    "Yes. Though, the moment you learn it, I can monitor you as long as you''re around. If youe to bite my hand, then I will have no choice other than to kill you myself to solve this problem. Of course, your ces and those on the other side will face the cmity too."


    "Sir, I don''t know why you favor him."


    "It''s just a whim. Many of my peers have given a bit of their understanding regarding Order and Authority to humans. And from what I can see, they''re doing it, so those people can actively protect them.


    "On the other hand, this kid will understand the Order and Authority very soon, and he will be a bit different than those humans. He will protect them passively, and that''s what I want." The dragon shook his head.


    "There is no proof!" Dourner kept denying it as he didn''t believe Theo.


    "Then, how about challenging him? If he wins, you will acknowledge him and give him some reward. If you win, I won''t give him any knowledge and expel them from here immediately. If they say anything regarding this ce, they will face my wrath. So, what do you think?"


    "Him, challenging me?" Dourner narrowed his eyes. He didn''t believe Theo could win against him. He harrumphed and said, "I am not going to bully you. If you can defeat me in something, I will agree with this."


    [What a retard.]


    [Beat him hard.]


    [All ording to the n. Beat him with your best ability.]


    [I believe in you.]


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched and said inwardly, ''You all seem to be rather energetic today.''


    However, no one replied to him after that, making an awkward internal silence. He sighed and looked at Agata and Ava.


    Agata was full of curiosity about this Order and Authority, but Theo said, "Sorry, I will try to exin it to youter."


    Ava, on the contrary, kept looking at the dragon as if she wanted something from him. The dragon also noticed it and smiled, "If your friend wins, I will give you something special."


    "!!!" Ava raised her eyebrows and nced at Theo. But she soon shook her head and said, "No. I won''t take advantage of him."


    The dragon smiled and said, "That''s precisely why."


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Are you sure you want me to choose thepetition?"


    "Of course. I don''t like bullying the weak." Dourner snorted. "I acknowledge that your eyes are quite good at understanding things, but I will beat you at your best."


    Theo suddenly smiled as he asked, "I have heard that dwarves like to drink, no?"


    "Of course." The dragon was the first to answer. "Ie here to drink. Though, I was the reason why they know you''re here. If not, they wouldn''t realize it until it''s toote.


    "I have seen you with that Leonardo, so I guess he wille to this ce and meet Dourner. If Dourner uses his everything, he should be able to defeat him, but I don''t wish for such a peaceful ce to be destroyed.


    "That''s why your presence is a blessing in disguise as they can patch up the crack�� Even I don''t know the cause, but that''s not important��


    "Now that you''re here, I''m just going to give you a present for telling us that crack." The dragon smiled.


    ''So, you''re the culprit.'' Theo''s eyebrows twitched. Still, it didn''t change the fact he could turn this incident into his own fortune if he could utilize it well.


    "I understand. Thank you for granting me this opportunity." Theo nodded.


    "Do you have any ns, Theo?" Agata asked. Ava also looked at him curiously, wondering how Theo wanted to defeat Dourner.


    After all, Dourner was not only a King ss Monster, his strength was supposed to be equal to Leonardo ording to the dragon. Hence, fighting him was something they should avoid at all costs.


    Still, there was one thing that bothered them. They didn''t understand why Theo asked about drinking.


    Little did they know, Theo had prepared them a huge surprise. He smiled and looked at Dourner with confidence.


    "I love what you said earlier�� I acknowledge that your eyes are quite good at understanding things, but I will beat you at your best�� was it? In that case, I have decided on this smallpetition."


    With a smirk on his face, he stated. "I want a drinking contest."


    [God of Mischief is pleased with your choice.]

 Chapter 670 – Let’s Drink

    <h4>Chapter 670 - Let��s Drink</h4>


    "Dr-drinking contest?!" Agata dropped her jaw to the ground. Never in her wildest dream would she drink against a dwarf, who was known to be a good drinker.


    "Pfft." The dragonughed for the first time as if he had found something amusing.


    Dourner was the leader of the dwarves, the Mountain King as well as a Mythical Rank Expert. And the person before him was a simple young man, a Hero Rank Expert, and a human.


    To think such a person would challenge him in a drinking contest, he couldn''t help but pinch his cheek. "It''s not a dream."


    "It''s not a dream." Theo shook his head. "I truly want to challenge you in a drinking contest. I will use all my power to defeat you in this drinking contest."


    "Are you joking with me?" Dourner couldn''t help but appear in front of Theo and grabbed his cor. Anger was reflected on his face as he thought this was an insult to him.


    "I have told you that I''m serious this whole time. That''s why I asked you whether you can drink or not." Theo shrugged. "If you don''t dare, you are free to surrender."


    "Good, good. This is the first time I have seen someone dare to insult me in this way. I''m going to make you regret your choice." Dourner gritted his teeth.


    Suddenly, a wine pot dropped next to them as the dragon had tossed it to them.


    "Since you''re seeking death, it''s better to die with good wine. This is the wine I brewed two hundred years ago." Dourner pointed at the wine pot before raising his hand to the left as a jar flew into his hand. He handed it to Theo and said, "This is yours."


    Theo looked at Dourner''s angry face and smiled. He calmly received the jar and asked, "So, how should we do this?"


    "It''s easy. I pour the wine and we drink at the same time. The first one to be drunk is the loser. However, no matter what state you''re in, you need to finish the filled-up jar. If not, I''m not going to forgive you." Dourner red at him.


    "Sure." Theo smiled.


    Dourner raised the wine pot with his Magic Power and poured it for both of them.


    Before they started, Agata suddenly came to him and said with a panicked expression. "Theo�� You�� You never drank any alcohol before�� Are you��!"


    She was stopped by the angry Dourner as he smirked. "Good, good. A toddler who can''t even drink dares to challenge me in a drinking contest. You can''t back down from this anymore."


    Theo nced at Agata and smiled. "Don''t worry. I will be fine. I have confidence that I won''t be drunk."


    "Since you''re that confident�� Drink!" Dourner extended his hand as if asking him to drink.


    "This is my first time, so I don''t know the rules for drinking. Maybe you have some sort of special rule? I want to defeat you at your best, so it''s better to follow your way." Theo didn''t fear Dourner''s threat as he simply couldn''t picture himself losing.


    "Hmph. Since you dare to challenge me in a drinking contest, I shall acknowledge you as a daring human. Even if you die in the process, I will remember you as a challenger." Dourner pointed at him. "You and I drink and finish at the same time."


    "You don''t need to remember me as a challenger�� I believe you''re going to remember it as something else." Theo shrugged.


    "Fine. Let''s start this." Dourner dropped to the ground and crossed his legs while raising his jar.


    "If you don''t mind, please show it to me first, so I don''t make a mistake." Theo smiled.


    Dourner immediately drank his wine after hearing those words. In just five seconds, he finished the wine. "Done."


    "So, there''s nothing special." Theo nodded and summoned his clone.


    "W-what?!" Dourner widened his eyes, not expecting Theo to summon his clone.


    Theo handed the jar to him as Clone Theo sat down like Dourner. Before anyone could react, Theo started drinking the wine and finished it in seven seconds.


    "Huft�� I can''t finish it as fast as him��" Clone Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Pfft! Hahaha!" The dragon was amused by Theo''s performance. "As expected, my eyes weren''t wrong. Hahahaha."


    "W-what are you doing?!" Dourner gritted his teeth and red at Theo.


    "What?" Theo tilted his head in confusion as though he did nothing wrong. "I drank the wine like you did. I was wrong because I couldn''t finish it as fast as you��"


    "You�� You!" Veins bulged on his forehead as he mmed the floor. "That is just a chunk of Magic Power! You let that trash drink my wine?!"


    "Hmm? I believe I did nothing wrong here. I already told you that we willpete in a drinking contest and I will defeat you with all my power." Theo pointed at his clone. "This is my power. I have severed my senses from it too, so I can drink for as long as you like."


    Dourner started coughing as talking to Theo would just increase his blood pressure. Nevertheless, his wine was already 200 years old. It took a very long time to store and maintain it. Yet, Theo just let the clone drink it.


    And he could even go forever with his clone since thetter didn''t taste anything. In other words, the more he drank, the more wine he wasted.


    The urge of punching Theo kept rising as he started clenching his fist.


    But the worst part had yet toe. It was Theo''s harassment.


    "Come on. I don''t have all the time in the world for thispetition. We need to do it fast." Theo smiled while patting his clone. "Come on."


    ''Whate on? You''re going to waste all my two hundred years of effort!'' The dwarf was fuming in anger, but he couldn''t punch Theo as it would mean breaking thepetition.


    While he was suffering from his own choice, Theo and God of Mischief certainly had their fun.


    [God of Mischief is pleased with your y of words.]


    The two guys couldn''t help but make a big smile as they thought of the same thing.


    [Idiotic Artisan.]


    ''Idiotic Artisan.''

 Chapter 671 – Reward Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 671 - Reward Part 1</h4>


    *Cough!*


    *Cough!*


    Dourner kept coughing uncontrobly. On the one hand, he didn''t want Theo to waste the wine he had spent 200 hundred years cultivating. On the other hand, he didn''t want to ept the fact he had lost to a mere kid.


    "What''s wrong?" Theo''s smile became even bigger. "You can surrender now."


    "You bastard. I''m not going down." Dourner gritted his teeth and poured the wine again.


    Clone Theo drank the wine without hesitation, finishing it not long after Dourner.


    1st Jar��


    2nd Jar��


    3rd Jar��


    By the time they got into the fourth jar, Dourner had dropped his jar and looked down with so much regret in his heart. "I''ve lost��"


    His heart was bleeding when seeing Theo wasting all that wine.


    "Hahahaha!" The dragonughed and raised his head. "It''s been a while since Ist saw something so amusing."


    "This is not aughing matter." Dourner gritted his teeth.


    "Not only did the kid beat youpletely, but it was also your best term. Why don''t you reward this kid with something more generous�� Hahaha, this guy is good."


    It was clear from his face that he didn''t want to grant Theo, the man who had wasted his wine, something extraordinary, but he knew that Theo didn''t break any rule in thepetition.


    "Kh��" Dourner looked at Theo with his eyebrows twitching. In the end, he shouted, "Just say what you want! I will grant it as long as there won''t be a connection to the outside world."


    Theo was amused by his expression as he said, "In that case��"


    He took out his artifact and presented it to him. "I would like to modify this artifact."


    "Huh?" Dourner was even more bewildered by his choice. He thought Theo wanted their best weapon or technology. Although it would be troubling for him, he had prepared his heart for it.


    To think what Theo wanted was only his weapon. Not only did he provide the weapon he wanted, which didn''t require much more additional resources for him, but the weapon of his choice was also already good enough to the point modification wouldn''t be that much of a problem.


    "You�� You''re a bad guy, but I guess you''re a good guy too��" Dourner stated in disbelief.


    "I don''t understand what you''re talking about, but I will take it as apliment."


    "Well, well�� If you only want that, I will modify your weapon myself." Dourner suddenly made an abrupt change of mood as he patted Theo''s shoulder whileughing. "What''s your request? I will modify it for you. Do you want to upgrade the weapon''s strength?"


    "That''s too, but I''m still a Hero Rank Expert. Even if I upgrade the strength of my weapon, I don''t think I can handle the power input." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "That''s true." Dourner nodded with a serious expression. "Then, what do you want?"


    "I actually want this weapon to be more versatile." Theo pointed at the spear with Fenrir''s words in mind. He didn''t want to fixate on one form, so he thought this was the best time to modify his spear.


    Fenrir told him that the dwarf could make a weapon with multiple forms, so he believed this was that exact opportunity.


    Although he got captured, he was satisfied with this kind of reward.


    "Versatile? In what way?"


    "I want to use this spear and any other weapons. In other words, I want this spear to be a sword, a bow, and other forms." Theo stated.


    "Hoh? That''s an interesting concept." Dourner looked down with his chin resting in his palm, contemting the concept.


    After a while, he said, "I think I can do it, but with my resources and skill, I can only give you five forms. For now, you have those two forms, which are the bracelet form and spear form. It''s better if you decide on the other three forms first."


    "In that case, I already have them in my mind. They''re a sword, a sniper rifle, and a shield."


    "Huh? What a unique choice you have�� And what''s this sniper rifle?"


    "It''s a modern weapon." Theo looked at Agata and asked, "Do we have any picture of it?"


    "I don''t think we have. And we don''t have any reception here, so I don''t think we can find one." She shook her head.


    "I have one." The dragon suddenly broke his silence. "But it''s in my nest and I don''t want to return there for the time being. So��"


    He suddenly utilized his lightning and burned the stone slightly, providing a drawing.


    With just one picture of the weapon, Dourner immediately understood the concept. "I see. It''s a kind of improvised crossbow. However, this one should have improved ammunition and aim. There is also the fact��"


    He suddenly fell silent and nodded. "I kind of understand. But it will require something to shoot, right?"


    "Yes." Theo raised his hand and formed his Magic Bullets beforebining them into one. After that, he changed his Magic Bullet form into a real bullet and enveloped it with his Magic Power and a bit ofpressed air.


    This was the most concentrated attack he had ever made, but it was still too much for him to release this kind of power while fighting. So, Theo thought about making a weapon that allowed him to release this power.


    "I see. So, you want something that canunch your Magic Power with minimal assistance."


    "Yes. I believe this attack is going to be powerful�� It''s gonna take time to master it, but it''s on me."


    "I can understand the concept and this thing you show me emphasizes prating power and explosive power�� probably upon impact." Dourner looked down and nodded. "Yeah. I can see what you''re aiming for.


    "As for the sword�� I don''t think it''s a problem. The problem is yourst request, the shield." He thought for a moment. "I need something strong enough to withstand the Magic Power since I can''t really give you something so thin�� It''s going to snap easily.


    "Well, I think I have a metal suit for that." Dourner ultimately confirmed. "Yeah, I think I can make it for you. Unfortunately, I can''t give you a big shield that can protect your entire body. So I will utilize that jewel to form a bigger shield. It should be more durable than the shield on your right."


    "Great." Theo smiled as he thought, ''As expected of a Dwarf�� He knows about the ring too��''

 Chapter 672 – Reward Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 672 - Reward Part 2</h4>


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "Ahaha��"


    "Whatever. I can modify it in a day since the foundation is there. Just need to add a few things and it will be done." Dourner nced at the dragon.


    "You don''t need to mind me. Since I was the one who invited them here, I wouldn''t take your time." The dragon chuckled.


    "In that case, I will be working on it immediately." Dourner nodded and turned to Theo. "Since I will customize it for you,e with me."


    "Are you sure? Won''t my presence just bother you?"


    "As long as you keep watching from the corner in silence, it''s not a problem. Besides, I need to get your opinions, considering you have all those designs in your mind. I just want to make sure it''s something that you want." Dourner shrugged.


    "I understand. In that case, I will be watching your work." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    Before he left, the dragon stopped him. "Before that, why don''t you give something to this youngdy first? She''s dragged here and has been ignored the whole time. I think she deserves something."


    Dourner made an annoyed look while his eyes wandered around the room. In the end, he walked to the opposite of the room and took out a shawl.


    The white shawl was ten feet long and one foot wide. There was no decoration on the shawl, but the material felt smooth.


    He handed it to Agata. "You are using your illusion remarkably, so I think this is good equipment for you.


    "I have used Roin Silkworm''s thread to make this and grind a Shesna''s Core into powder to coat this shawl. The surface is smooth and you can use it like clothes�� You can turn it into a corset, a cloth to tie your dress around the waist, or something else.


    "Anyway, if you utilize this shawl, you will activate the Shesna''s Core which is sensitive to Magic Power and increase the output. It should be able to help you."


    "This��" Agata scratched the back of her head, feeling embarrassed to even ept this. She never thought that just by lingering around Theo could bring her something this useful.


    Shesna was a monster not far from this ce. It was a beast close to Mythical Rank and its core was usually used to make a magician wand or something rted to Magic Power.


    However, none of them ever attempted to make a shawl with it. With this kind of equipment, the enemy wouldn''t know she had empowered her skill with Shesna''s Core, allowing her to wield an even more powerful technique.


    "Just ept it." The Elder Dwarf ced the shawl on her hand as if he didn''t care about it. He turned around while dragging Theo to his workshop. Before leaving, he left one more message. "You should wash that every now and then. The silk will absorb the water and prevent the Shesna''s Core from being washed away. That''s all."


    "��" Agata was speechless, wondering what had just happened. An hour ago, they almost died from the ambush. And now, they got something this powerful from Dourner.


    While she was still shocked by the present, Ava looked at the dragon with curious eyes. "Why did you bring us here?"


    The dragon heard her voice and smiled at her doubtful face. "Do you want to know?"


    "You sound like someone who has a scheme. I don''t want to hear it if I get into trouble because of it." Ava shook her head, honestly blurting her opinion.


    "Haha, that''s true. I guess he has influenced you to a certain degree."


    "I don''t regret it."


    "I never said it''s a bad thing." The dragon smiled. "All I can say right now is that our fate intertwined for a moment."


    "Intertwined?" Ava furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Yes. Do you know anything about Authority?"


    "It''s something better than Orders. That''s all I know." Ava shook her head.


    "Then, who is the holder of the Moonlight Order to you?"


    "My mother."


    "An honest child." The dragon stopped for a moment and said, "I want you to raise your foot."


    Ava hesitated for a second but still followed his instruction.


    After that, the dragon raised his w and touched the tip of her small hand. It was so scary, considering the w was far bigger than Ava''s body, let alone her foot.


    Though, Ava didn''t feel any pain or whatsoever. Instead, she felt her body was surrounded by warmth.


    "What is this?" Ava closed her eyes, not understanding the energy sent into her body. Without her realizing, her Moon Constetion was activated, summoning three stars in an instant.


    "I said to you that our fate intertwined for a moment. However, I don''t know whether it''s good or bad. If it''s the former, this shall be the thing that connects our fate once again. If it''s not, then you won''t meet me again." The dragon smiled.


    "Why?" Ava narrowed her eyes.


    "I once heard a legend. It was a story of moon rabbits protecting their master, the Moon Goddess. Your mother has something connected to the moon while you don''t have something like that, so that makes me a bit curious��


    "Sadly, even I don''t know the reason, and this just piques my curiosity. Hence, I gave you this to see whether our fate will be aligned again or not. Whether you have something rted to the moon or not, I will just let you experience it.


    For your information, no one has gotten the Moon Authority yet." The dragon winked his eyes.


    "��" Ava narrowed her eyes and asked, "Why did you give that information? Are you nning to make me wield the Moon Authority?"


    "Hahaha. Who knows?!" The dragon chuckled. "It''s just a whim. Whatever your future choice is, it''s yours to decide."


    Ava felt weird and looked down, contemting something.


    Agata was looking at Ava and the dragon with an embarrassed expression. She thought she was just someone who tagged along here and didn''t know what to do.


    But the dragon seemed to notice her anxiety and said, "Girl. You''re not important to me, unlike the boy and this little rabbit. However, it doesn''t mean you''re not important to others.


    "The proof that you have someone special guiding you is a blessing on its own. What you need to do right now is to understand and appreciate yourself more. Only then will the path open for you��" The dragon ended his advice with a smile.

 Chapter 673 – Reward Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 673 - Reward Part 3</h4>


    Meanwhile, Theo and Dourner immediately went to the workshop. To his surprise, the workshop was directly beneath them.


    He wondered what kind of workshop Dourner would have, but it turned out to be a normal one. There was a big anvil in the middle of the room with some tools near it.


    Before proceeding with the modification, he opened the only door inside the room. Theo took a peek at it and saw various gems, metals, and stones.


    He was surprised since he knew it must be Dourner''s personal inventory. Unfortunately, Dourner asked him to stay outside as he was going there personally.


    Since this was his ce, Theo agreed without hesitation. He waited for him in front of the door while looking around. Even though he was curious, he didn''t want to wander around and get med for it.


    After a while, Dourner returned with a few metals and stones. He asked him to stand not far from the anvil and tell him to watch.


    He opened the piping hot cover of his furnace.


    Theo dropped his jaw slightly when he saw magma flowing inside the furnace. It turned out he was using the magma to refine something.


    Dourner ced a stone tablet on top of the magma and warmed it up. After two minutes, he ced the spear on top of the stone as the spear began to be a molten metal.


    It was at that time Dourner snapped the spear into two and worked his way to stuff a few mechanisms inside the spear.


    He even turned a few stones into powders and spread them around the spear.


    Theo kept watching his work for a few hours before Dourner finished making the sword.


    The spear''s de was already quite long, so he simply extended the de inside the spear''s handle while using his skill to let the handle retract by itself after receiving Magic Power.


    This would ultimately turn the spear into a sword.


    After getting a satisfying response from Theo, Dourner began to move on to the second request, the sniper rifle.


    Because of theplex design of the request, Dourner decided to simplify it to make the transformation faster. It gave less power than Theo imagined, but Dourner lessened that effect by cing the jewel at a perfect location.


    If Theo summoned his Magic Bullet in the designated spot, the power would improve drastically. He even asked Theo to demonstrate the power of the bullet without the weapon and with the weapon.


    To his surprise, the power was twice as powerful and the speed of his Magic Bullet slightly increased.


    This would make the bullet even harder to dodge.


    And due to the simplified design, Dourner could put some lens inside the hollow spear''s handle, allowing him to get a good scope to see his enemy from afar.


    Theo could assassinate his enemy from farther away than his Magic Bullet''s range.


    Although the power input required to use the weapon increased, Theo was satisfied. The monsters might be able to dodge the bullet, but he should be able to injure them depending on how he used it.


    Still, he didn''t n to reveal this weapon yet to the public, knowing there might be someone desiring this kind of weapon. After all, Dourner himself was the one who refined this weapon. There was no way it wasn''t good.


    After getting some opinions from Theo, Dourner created severalyers of the handle to create a small shield, the size of a human head.


    It was a small shield and couldn''t do much, but Dourner incorporated the jewel into the shield.


    As long as Theo poured enough Magic Power, the shield would create a projection to its surroundings to form a bigger shield. It ultimately would be sturdier than the shield from his Ring of Honor.


    The real problem was how tobine all of these forms.


    Dourner had already designed it, so he immediately worked on it. This process was the longest as he needed to infuse some special stones as the trigger to all five forms.


    In the end, there were five thinyers at the bottom of the spear''s handle. These fiveyers connected Theo with the weapon and the jewel.


    If he infused the secondyer with his Magic Power, the bracelet would turn into a spear. Instead of transmitting his Magic Power directly to the jewel, he only needed to pour more Magic Power to that particryer to utilize the jewel.


    This increased the efficiency of the weapon drastically. The same applied to the other forms.


    Dourner might haven''t increased the weapon rank from B to A Rank, but he certainly made the best B Rank Weapon that no one could ever rival.


    Before handing the weapon to him, Dourner had one doubt in his heart. He wondered why Theo wanted a sniper rifle instead of a crossbow or a bow. He believed they would work just fine.


    Theo''s answer was rted to human culture. A bow or crossbow was great, but they needed to pull the string first before firing the arrow. However, Theo only needed to form the Magic Bullet and pull the trigger.


    It was far simpler, even though their power wasn''t that different.


    Dourner agreed with his decision and finally handed him the spear. After that, he turned the spear into a bracelet like usual.


    While they were working with the weapon, Agata and Ava weren''t idle either.


    Ava chose to ask the dragon many questions regarding Order and Authority. The dragon answered some to increase Ava''s understanding of her power.


    Agata, on the other hand, moved away from them since their conversation was too sensitive for her to be involved. Instead of worrying about Theo and Ava, Agata used this opportunity to get used to her shawl.


    She nned to hide this shawl even to her family since she couldn''t say anything regarding the dwarf. If they knew what kind of shawl their daughter got, they might even be actively involved in marrying her to Theo�� Not that she minded though.


    In the end, Agata didn''t take any rest and kept practicing while mumbling the dragon''s advice.


    It was at this time she received something from the Goddess that blessed her.


    [Goddess of Sexual Love and Beauty invites you to her abode.]

 Chapter 674 – Aphrodite

    <h4>Chapter 674 - Aphrodite</h4>


    "!!!" Agata was surprised to see her Goddess contacting her. Her head started feeling the headache and required her to ept the call as soon as possible.


    After looking for some space, she ended up leaning on the wall and sitting down while crossing her legs.


    She then closed her eyes to enter the space for their meeting.


    Unlike Theo, the space for the meeting wasn''t a field or something spacious. Instead, it was a small bedroom.


    The bedroom had one king-size bed on the opposite side. On the left side of the bed sat down a huge mirror and a wardrobe. On the right, there were a few drawers lining up with each other.


    It looked like an ordinary bedroom even for Agata. But the one that startled her the most was the woman lying down on her stomach with her head resting on her chin.


    The woman had long brown hair gracefully set on her back. Her enchanting brown eyes were staring right at Agata''s eyes.


    "It seems you have received my call��" A smile that could entrance everyone appeared on her face.


    Even Agata took a step back as she wasn''t prepared for the smile that could charm even a woman.


    "Why did you call me?" Agata clenched her hands until she felt the pain that allowed her to maintain her reason.


    "What do you think?" The woman smiled.


    "If you don''t want to talk about it, then send me back." Agata red at her, starting to get frustrated.


    "Well, well. There''s no need to be in such a rush." Her face rested on her palms as she kept smiling like it wasn''t a big deal.


    Agata gritted her teeth and stepped forward. She raised her hand as if she prepared to hurt herself to leave this ce.


    However, the woman opened her mouth, stopping her. "Fine. You''re always like this�� I just want to ask you whether you want to ept my powerpletely. With my power, getting your little sweetheart is an easy thing."


    "It''s useless. He won''t be charmed by your power and I won''t wield it as well."


    "That''s because you haven''t experienced my true power." The woman pointed at her right.


    Suddenly, Theo appeared. His eyes were filled with love and his expression was thirsty as if she wanted her love. He gently extended his hand and asked, "Please calm down. There is an exnation for this."


    This turned out to be backfired as it just infuriated Agata even more. Thetter couldn''t help but punch Theo in the face as if she didn''t care about him. "Get away!"


    Theo was blown away and disappeared.


    "You need to ept it to learn my power." The woman summoned another Theo next to her as he gently hugged her with his passionate expression. His hands gradually reached for her breast. "He''s just holding back this whole time. He''ll be madly in love with you like this�� Mhmmm��"


    Thest moan she released had destroyed Agata''s patiencepletely. She appeared right in front of the woman and hit her face.


    However, what she saw was nothing but an illusion. The woman disappeared into a cloud of smoke.


    Agata nced to the left and gritted her teeth, finding the woman standing in front of the mirror.


    "I was originally a Goddess of War�� In the ce filled with blood, I realized that I had gotten sick of it. People called you a hero if you defeated your enemies and imed you were the biggest traitor if you lost despite battling with all your might.


    "It was not rewarding at all. Instead of doing a job like this, I prefer to achieve something like this without even using my power. I conquered men and women without my strength and any bloodshed.


    "I destroyed a country without a single sword drawn. Wasn''t that wonderful? After a while, I could get everything I wanted." She nced at Agata while tying her hair into a ponytail. "What''s wrong with that? And then�� I found you�� Someone who was the same as me."


    Agata gritted her teeth and shouted, "We''re not the same!"


    "We''re the same. You have shedded blood for someone you like but don''t get anything from him. Ah, don''t mention anything about other rewards�� Even back when I won a war, I would always be rewarded with riches. It''s simply the same as your case.


    "You keep telling yourself that you can take one step at a time, but you''repletely wrong. Mark my word, your method won''t be able to achieve anything." She walked to Agata and stopped right before her, looking at her face from up close.


    "There''s nothing wrong with fighting�� I''m just telling you it''s impossible for you to achieve what you want just by fighting." She shook her head. "The only way to get what you want is to conquer.


    "Make them under your feet, wanting your everything."


    "I won''t be the same as you. I will fight my own battle." Agata gritted her teeth.


    "Oh? Then, how? Yourck of reasons only proves that your fighting spirit is too weak to even do whatever you need to do."


    She didn''t n to hear her lecture like this, so Agata hurriedly used her smoke to create a scythe.


    She swung her scythe to slice the woman''s neck.


    She managed to do it, but the floor began to distort, forming vines that wrapped her feet. Chains then began to emerge and caught her hands, preventing her from making any movement.


    After that, a pir appeared behind Agata as tentacles came out of the pir and wrapped her body, chest, thigh, and her mouth.


    "Mhmhmh!" Agata struggled to break free, but nothing worked. She even used her pink smoke only to find it disappeared instantly.


    "Look�� If I continue, your sexual desire will soon take over." The woman reappeared in front of her and ced her hand on her cheek. "I haven''t even done anything that can even kill you and you will go down soon.


    "What you didn''t ept this whole time might be the power you need to get your loved one��" She smiled. "How about you try it too?"

 Chapter 675 – Uerila Dimension

    <h4>Chapter 675 - Uer Dimension</h4>


    "There''s nothing wrong with epting this power." The woman smiled, trying to get into her head.


    "Mhmhmh!" Agata tried to break free from the restraints, but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn''t free herself.


    She started to panic, wondering what she should do. She couldn''t use her own power and her consciousness began to be cozy.


    Agata kept raising her eyebrows, but her eyelids felt so heavy that she just wanted to sleep and enjoy all this.


    "That''s right. Just fall into your desire, it''s going to be alright and you will feel happy after this."


    Right after those words, the vines, chains, and tentacles that held her body turned into spikes.


    The spikes didn''t grow toward Agata''s body. Instead, they were piercing the woman''s body.


    "!!!" The woman widened her eyes in surprise as she smiled. "Impressive."


    "Ha�� ha��" Agata panted a few times as she dropped to her knees. She still had some resistance, but she felt weak.


    ring at the woman that soon reappeared a few feet behind the one she killed, Agata stated, "I won''t ept your power, but I will study it and make it my own. As I said this whole time, I won''t be like you. I will craft my own path.


    "You used this illusion to trick me into thinking I couldn''t use my spikes even though you were using my own smoke to trap me.


    "I will use this and modify it to my own needs. Thanks to you, I know that I can modify them easily to match my surroundings." She ced her hand on the ground.


    Suddenly, the floor raised from both sides as if it was going to squeeze her to death. But before she reacted, the floor turned into multiple tentacles and grasped the woman''s body, restraining her.


    It was at that time the tentacles turned into spikes and pierced her entire body. This way, she could assure her own smoke to reach her opponent''s body before turning them into a weapon.


    However, this wasn''t the only thing she learned from her. Agata created two pirs from the ground and struck the ceiling, cracking it.


    The ceiling soon crumbled, revealing a white wall behind it. The entire room then shattered into pieces, revealing they turned out to be trapped inside an illusion room this whole time.


    It was at this time, the real body emerged from thin air. She was standing just slightly behind where Agata first arrived.


    Yes. She had been standing behind her the whole time, but Agata never realized it as she had fallen into her illusion.


    "There''s nothing wrong with embracing your sexual desire." She stated once again.


    "There''s nothing wrong with it, but that won''t be me." Agata shook her head with a serious expression.


    "You won''t get your man at this point."


    "It''s not guaranteed, but the probability is there. Even if I fail, I won''t regret it."


    "You shouldn''t do this passively. He will be snatched from you before you know it."


    "I''m not doing this passively. I am simply biding my time to take his heart. Unlike you, I won''t form my rtionship out of sexual desire. I want something thatsts forever�� even until my hair turns white and wrinkles appear on my face."


    "It''s impossible thinking. You have been cursed with your pretty face and you will be a man''s trophy in the future."


    "No! As long as I don''t give up, the chance will never be zero."


    Agata kept denying her with her own resolve, knowing this was the best for her.


    The woman smiled and looked at Agata. After a minute of hesitation, she walked toward her and hugged her.


    "You might be able to surpass me. I already told you that I once became a Goddess of War andter turned into a Goddess of Sexual Love and Beauty.


    "But I think you can surpass me�� There''s no need to choose one of them when you can be both. You shall be the strongest woman during the day and turn into a passionate one during the night.


    "There''s no need to hold yourself back. Thinking that you need to further your rtionship first before doing something�� That''s correct and wrong at the same time.


    "If you keep holding yourself back and don''t confront your own feelings, you won''t be able to get his heart. There''s a time you need to step up." She smiled and closed her eyes. "That''s why I will give you this ability.


    "Depending on how you use it, you can be what you desire at any given time. Don''t forget to thank that dwarf, as he''s the reason you can use this ability.


    "Keep confronting me if you think I am wrong, as I will continue doing so to make sure you don''t change your way.


    "Keep striving on your path and never doubt it. Only then can you see your true self. Believe in yourself as I never doubt myself�� Goodbye."


    Before Agata could say anything, the white room had copsed as Agata''s consciousness returned to her body.


    "Mhm��" She let out a seductive moan while opening her eyes. It was at that time did she see the notification from her Goddess.


    [You''ve acquired Uer Dimension.]


    Skill: Uer Dimension (A)


    Effect: Create a small dimensional illusion where the user will be in control.


    It turned out her Goddess gave her the ability to make a dimension. She even showed it to her earlier by creating that room.


    As she said, depending on how she used this Uer Dimension, she could be a war-like figure during the day and a passionate couple during the night.


    She could turn the battlefield however she wanted and make the best ce during the night.


    It was impossible for her to utilize this skill as it required too much Magic Power. However, if she used the shawl made by Dourner, she could utilize this power for a short time.


    ''I won''t regret my decision��'' Agata clenched her hand as she was more determined than ever as she closed her eyes and said, "Thank you."

 Chapter 676 – Story

    <h4>Chapter 676 - Story</h4>


    After a whole day, Theo and Dourner finally returned to the hall.


    On the side, they saw Agata, who seemed to be changing that side of the hall with her illusion. Meanwhile, the dragon had disappeared, leaving only Ava sitting on the floor. Her eyes were closed and her legs were crossed.


    She seemed to be putting all her concentration on the three lightning balls floating around her body.


    The moment Theo returned, Agata noticed him and stopped what she was doing. She hurriedly walked to Theo and Dourner with a curious expression.


    "Are you done?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    After getting his answer, Agata then turned to Dourner and lowered her head. "Thank you for this shawl."


    "Hmm?" Dourner didn''t understand her sudden change of attitude, but he still nodded. "No problem. If you want to thank anyone, you should convey your gratitude to this guy. No matter what, he''s the reason I gave you that shawl."


    "Yes." Agata knew that and nned to thank Theoter.


    "By the way, where is the Saint?" He asked.


    "He went back three hours ago," Ava answered his question as she stood up. After checking her body condition, she returned to her tiny form and said, "He left you a message."


    "What is it?"


    "It''s toe up with a story together before sending us back to the surface. He said he''ll take responsibility if this ce is discovered because of us." Ava answered.


    "I see." Dourner thought for a moment and nced at Theo. "I guess I will be talking to him."


    "Understood." Theo agreed without hesitation. He was already lucky that he didn''t die, let alone receive a big present like this. So, he didn''t mind spending more time here just to fix this trouble. "Before that, I would like to know what you have in mind."


    "Hmm." Dourner thought for a moment and said, "Did you find anything weird inside the cave? I am afraid a monster has created that crack."


    "To be honest, I am not very sure. I couldn''t even identify the monsters there." He shook his head in disappointment.


    "In that case, did you find any weird monsters there?"


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned his eyebrows, noticing the change of the question. "I am not very sure about this, but I noticed that all the monsters in that ce had transparent but tough skin, right?"


    "Yes."


    "In that case, I actually found a monster that was different from them."


    "I see. That might be the problem." He nodded. "We''re actually farming those transparent monsters. First of all, their crystal clear skin is easily recognizable, especially during the refining process for a younger generation who first picks up their hammer.


    "It''s quite durable as well, so it will make everything better. At the same time, the organ is weak, so we can kill them easily. They''re pretty delicious too, so yeah, those are the reasons.


    "Since there was a monster out of the norm, I can safely guess that creature was the culprit." He exined.


    "I see. Do you need anything from me?"


    "Hmm�� To be honest, I need to take all the corpses there, so you won''t get anything from them," said Dourner with a calm expression.


    "I can understand that. Please take them away. We have turned some of them into cards, so do you need us to return it as well?"


    "Cards, huh�� This is the connection between this world and your world. Anyway, I don''t think we need the cards. You can keep them." Dourner waved his hand.


    "I see. Thanks." Theo asked, "What''s about the hole?"


    "We will patch the hole up and put some more monsters for breeding."


    "If I can be honest, I would rather abandon that tunnelpletely."


    "Why?" Dourner tilted his head in confusion.


    "Even if we''re lying, there is a chance we will be curious again. Seeing the hole has fixed itself makes it quite suspicious. Hence, they will do something bigger next time.


    "So, I believe you should fill the entire tunnel with the rocks and I will tell them that the ce has copsed," Theo exined his side of the story.


    "I see." Dourner looked down, contemting his choice. "Filling up that hole won''t be a problem, but I guess I need to create another wall to make it look like a natural dead end, right?"


    "Yes. This way, they will be convinced. I will also tell them I have killed all the monsters and destroyed the tunnel to make sure no one is buried in the tunnel." Theo nodded.


    "Are you sure about this?"


    "��" Theo fell silent, knowing he needed to lie with this.


    But Agata suddenly raised her hand and said, "Actually, let me bear the responsibility for this one. Since you''re training me, you can just say this is my decision. With this, others should be able to rte. After all, no one knows about my decision-making ability."


    "This��" Theo couldn''t say anything to her. As much as he wanted to reject her idea, it was truly perfect in this scenario.


    There was no way they believed Theo, who managed to defeat all War God Family''s Younger Generations with his strategy, would make this decision.


    However, he didn''t like the idea of sacrificing someone else if he could still think of another solution.


    Agata noticed his feeling and smiled. "Please let me bear the responsibility. I haven''t done anything in this mission and received this shawl and another thing�� I will feel bad if I don''t take any part in this. Please, Theo."


    Theo scratched the back of his head and sighed. "I understand."


    He sounded disappointed and sad at the same time while Dourner smiled. "I guess everything works out�� Take care of that shawl."


    "I will." Agata nodded and smiled back. "We will im there was a dead end and after fighting all those monsters, we needed to close them like this. The monsters were unidentified, but you and I did not understand the procedure, so we turned all of them into cards."


    "Yeah. Let''s do that." Theo agreed with the n and asked Dourner. "What do you think?"


    "Sure�� No problem."

 Chapter 677 – Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 677 - Leaving</h4>


    "I will just destroy the tunnel and build another one in a different ce. It''s gonna be a hassle, but it''s better than humans discovering us." Dourner sighed.


    "Sorry for the trouble."


    "It''s fine." Dourner waved his hand and thought for a moment. "Is that all?"


    "Yeah. Though, you need to fill up everything, from the tunnel above, the staircases, and the tunnel below."


    "Don''t worry. I''ve got them covered."


    "In that case, that''s all. We will take care of the other side and you will handle the tunnel."


    "Alright." Dourner nodded in agreement.


    "Then, do you need anything from us other than this?"


    "Not really." Dourner paused for a moment and scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, as much as I want to invite you to this ce next time, I hope that we will never meet again.


    "After all, if I make an exception for you, there will be the second time, the third time, and so on. Without me realizing it, I might have invited humanity here.


    "That''s why I hope this will be thest time we meet. I don''t like you�� Maybe I should use dislike, but I don''t hate you that much after understanding you a bit more.


    "Even then, I can''t make an exception for you. I hope you can understand that." Dourner waved his hand.


    "Yes. Don''t worry. We won''t step in this ce again." Theo nodded with a serious expression, respecting his wish.


    "Great." Dourner then sighed. "I want to give you my Repelling Crystals, but I don''t think I can give you more than this. First of all, these crystals will bring too muchmotion as they can fool all monsters who haven''t unlocked their intelligence�� So, sorry."


    "How can we ask for more? Please don''t feel bad about it. We''ve received enough." Theo stopped him and shifted the topic. "Instead of that, we would like to work with all this as soon as possible. After all, we have a time limit for this��"


    "I don''t have a problem with that. Since I will be the one taking care of the tunnel, you don''t need to be there anymore. In fact, you can go straight home after this." Dourner shrugged. "How about I show you the exit right now?"


    "That would be great if you don''t mind." Theo nodded, not rejecting the idea.


    "Sure. Follow me." Dourner walked toward the ce where the dragon had stayed earlier. He pointed at the ceiling and said, "There will be a tunnel above the ceiling. You just need to follow the path since the tunnel is big enough for the Saint. I will just open it for you."


    Theo nodded, following Dourner, who was walking to the spot.


    After that, Dourner waved his hand and a rumbling sound began to fill their ears. The ceiling started opening.


    Theo looked up and found the blue sky. The tunnel seemed to be long, but it wouldn''t be a problem for him to cross. So, Theo looked at Agata and Ava. "I guess we''re leaving now."


    Ava stood on Theo''s shoulder while nodding her head while Agata smiled and opened her mouth. "Yep."


    "Before you leave, I have something to tell you, brat." Dourner waved his hand down, asking Theo to bend his knees, so he could whisper some words.


    Theo followed his instruction, only to find himself getting hit on the head.


    "Wha��?!" Theo was bewildered when his head got hit.


    "No question asked! I still need to hit you one more time." Dourner didn''t wait for Theo and smacked his head once again.


    Theo dropped to his knees with a perplexed expression, still not understanding the reason for these two hits.


    "The first one was for tricking your elder�� I was still mad about it. The second one was for wasting good wine."


    "Ahaha�� I''m sorry." Theo scratched the back of his head while adding inwardly, ''At least, my mouth doesn''t get sewed like a certain someone��''


    [Should I use my power to influence him? Unlike other figures, my state is a bit different.]


    In that instant, his body trembled, not daring to say another word. He felt God of Mischief indeed could do something like that and if the one who taught him all this time decided to have some revenge, he would be miserable.


    He returned his focus to Dourner and said, "I''m really sorry."


    "It''s fine." Dourner sighed and gently pushed him back as if telling him to leave since the exit had been opened.


    "In that case, it''s time for me to go." Theo nodded.


    Before he used his Telekinesis, Dourner threw a bottle of his wine. "Bring this with you."


    "This is��" Theo frowned.


    "It''s my 200 years old wine. You should taste it and realize what you have wasted when you''re at home." Dourner harrumphed.


    "But I don''t drink."


    "You can just give it as a present to someone who likes it. It will be the best present ever�� I can assure you." Dourner shrugged. "Or you can just store it until you don''t have anything to do other than sipping that wine. Just put it somewhere cold."


    Theo couldn''t help but smile. "I understand. Thank you for this gift�� Truly thank you so much."


    "Just go." Dourner snorted and looked away.


    "Thank you." Agata politely nodded while Ava waved her foot. After that, Theo utilized his Telekinesis and flew upward.


    Dourner kept looking away while using his Awareness to locate them. As soon as they left the tunnel, he closed the entrance again. "Hmph."


    It turned out the tunnel was the main vent of a volcano. However, Dourner sealed the magma chamber and turned them into workshops for dwarves. They even added some details on the mountain''s peak to make it look natural.


    This allowed him to use the main vent for a tunnel to receive the dragon without suspicion.


    The tunnel they had visited might be natural cracks from a volcano, and the dwarves just turned them into a kind of breeding farm.


    This way, they could stay underground, not bothered with other lives on the surface.


    Floating in the sky, Theo looked at their surroundings and smiled. "We''re out now. Let''s rest for today�� There were too many things going on yesterday and I''m tired."


    "Agreed��" Ava and Agata said in unison.

 Chapter 678 – Confession

    <h4>Chapter 678 - Confession</h4>


    Since he didn''t want to bother the dwarves anymore, Theo decided to move at least twenty miles away from the mountain range.


    They didn''t eat anything for a day, so they were pretty hungry and thirsty. Ava immediately hunted some monsters to make a little feast.


    Agata went to search for more water while Theo set up their tents.


    After that, they had a feast, celebrating the fact they could survive after being attacked by a Mythical Rank Expert and leave with so much stuff.


    After eating, Agata suddenly called his name. "Theo��"


    Theo turned to her as usual and asked what happened, but he soon found the hesitation in her eyes and asked, "What''s wrong?"


    Agata looked down while contemting whether it was alright to do this or not. She remembered the advice from her Goddess and clenched her fists.


    After grumbling for a few minutes, Agata finally released everything. "I have confirmed that my feelings haven''t changed. I have never said this because I''m afraid that you will hate me, but I would like to say it now, and I won''t beat around the bush anymore."


    Her face looked nervous as she clutched her chest. She said, "I love you. You said back then that I might have confused my feelings because you were the only one who treated me differently��


    "I have been thinking about it and I know that I didn''t mistake this feeling. After meeting you, I have learned that it''s fine to be an average person.


    "When they talked to me with my original appearance, they would always treat me better. And when I used this Mimicry Skill, they didn''t treat me as someone special.


    "Only you who didn''t treat me differently. I admitted that I felt something that wasn''t love when I realized this feeling, but these past few months were real.


    "I havee to realize that my feelings have grown and it''s not something shallow like afort zone." She suddenly looked down and sighed. "I know that I should choose a better date and mood to say all this��


    "After all, our lives are still in danger and our teamwork will be disrupted because of the awkwardness�� And I should have set the mood first before saying all this��


    "But I don''t regret this decision. I just want to tell you that I love you." She smiled, trying not to show her apologetic expression to guilt trip Theo. She didn''t want Theo to be under pressure because of her feelings.


    Theo was shocked, never expecting Agata to confess at this time.


    He put the best smile he could offer, looked her in the eyes, and said with a gentle tone. "I''m sorry."


    "��" When she heard those words, her heart felt tightened. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Agata ultimately looked down and said, "It''s fine. I expected this. It''s me who needs to apologize for putting you in the spot."


    Theo shook his head. "I''m sorry�� I can''t reply to your feelings yet. Even though I''m like this, I am a bit traditional.


    "I don''t want to keep ming my upbringing for my trust issue for this, but I truly can''t see myselfmitting to a rtionship yet."


    "It''s okay." Agata waved her hands hurriedly. "I know what you have experienced. I can understand that, so no need to feel bad. I just want you to know how I feel right now.


    "In the past, I was admired by many and they confessed their love to me. As innocent as I was, I often watched dramas about love confession to learn how to reject them without hurting them.


    "The popr character would always reject other people and they would keep pushing his feelings onto another person. I truly believed it was very hypocritical. So, I don''t wish to do something like that.


    "I want you to know my feelings, but I don''t want to force my feelings on you. That''s why you don''t need to answer this.


    "Instead, I want to thank you for listening to my rumbling and doing all this thing for me." She lowered her head before smiling at him. "Thank you."


    Theo scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say.


    Agata, on the other hand, rose from the ground and took their bottles and tes. "Since the river is nearby, I''m going to get some water and wash the dishes."


    Without hesitation, she immediately ran away.


    She soon disappeared into the woods, leaving Theo alone. Ava had disappeared during this time as if she understood what was going on.


    Theo took a few deep breaths to calm his heart down before looking at the sky. He muttered in his heart. "Maybe�� I should have moved on from all this��"


    Meanwhile, Agata kept washing the dishes after getting enough water from the river. After a while, Ava suddenly appeared next to her with a worried expression.


    "Ava?" Agata turned to her with a surprised expression. Soon, she forced a smile and said, "Sorry for making things awkward."


    Ava shook her head with a serious expression. "Theo might need a catalyst to solve his problem. I just want to make sure you don''t do anything foolish."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. I will just take my time to calm down while doing the dishes." She waved her hand and said, "Besides, you should be on his side, not me."


    "He will be fine." Ava denied her and said, "Mother told me that trust is built with time. If you force someone to trust you, it''s not going tost for very long."


    "Thank you." Agata smiled.


    Ava nodded her head and returned to the woods.


    Agata sighed, thinking, ''I might have done something unnecessary. Even Ava came tofort me��''


    She looked at the sky and remembered the words of her Goddess. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and muttered, "It''s fine�� Everything is going to be fine."


    Although she wasn''t unaware of it, her confession indeed changed Theo a little bit�� Whether it was for the better or worse, she would find it soon.

 Chapter 679 – Agata’s Thoughts

    <h4>Chapter 679 - Agata��s Thoughts</h4>


    After three hours, Agata finally returned to the camp. She found Theo staring into space as if he was thinking about something.


    Seeing him this way made her regret confessing her love earlier. However, it turned out she misunderstood him as Theo snapped out of his thoughts and waved his hand.


    "You haven''t slept since yesterday, so you should sleep first" Theo put on a gentle smile.


    "Ehm�� I will." She ultimately nodded, thinking a night of sleep should be able to fix the mood.


    She walked into the tent and immediatelyid down. Her mind went nk as she covered her eyes with her arm before muttering inwardly, ''Why did I say all that earlier? That Goddess must be influencing me�� Still, I should have known better.


    ''No. It''s no use thinking about this right now. What I need to do is to calm myself down and act normal.


    ''We have finished both of our missions�� If we take into ount the return trip, we should have five weeks to level up.


    ''My level is 400 right now, so 450 is an easy goal if we carefully use our time. Well, I can raise my level this fast because of Theo since we''re having four people worth of work for two people��


    ''Normally, I need to work together with six people and share the EXP with them too, resulting in lower leveling speed. That''s why this is an excellent trip.


    ''No wonder why Theo can reach this point so fast. If I didn''te with him, he would have surpassed me on this trip.


    ''Still��'' Agata stopped for a moment to recall her memories.


    It was when she first met Theo.


    Back then, when everyone was in a trance, Theo calmly replied. "We don''t mean to be rude, but that''s how it is."


    But not long after that, Theo also said, "I also feel a bit sorry."


    At that time, he seemed to understand her problem. She didn''t need someone''s sympathy, but she still thanked him. It was the first time curiosity filled her heart, wondering why Theo didn''t seem to be affected by her beauty.


    When they returned to the hotel, she searched for Theo''s information.


    While looking at the screen, she muttered, ''Hmm, he''s an orphan whose parents died in his childhood. His brother soon disappeared too, leaving him alone for a decade.


    ''He was bullied in school and didn''t seem to be fighting back. Only after getting the chance to go to thispetition did he begin to show his brilliance.


    ''In the schoolpetition, he didn''t show his strength, making him a bit mysteriouspared to the others.


    ''Some even said he used Alea to carry him through thepetition. Why does this information feel like a lie?" Agata contemted for a moment before hearing someone open her door.


    "What are you doing?" The one who came was none other than her best friend, Enrica.


    "Hmm, I''m just searching for someone''s information."


    "Is it Theodore Griffith?"


    "Yeah. He should have connections with the Griffith Family, but there''s no information about it. Even when I checked his parents, I found nothing." Agata nodded with a confused expression.


    "Why did you even investigate him?"


    "I am just curious."


    "Curious, huh." Enrica fell silent for a moment. "Even if he''s a bastard child of the Griffith Family, they would still send a Master and a connection for him to use."


    "Exactly. That''s why I''m confused. Is he some sort of secret weapon? If that''s the case, there''s no need to put him in Thernd without having any backup. There''s also no need to get bullied unnecessarily ande to thispetition." Agata exined.


    "Indeed. He seems to have endured a quite painful experience."


    "Yeah. Even then, all this doesn''t make sense."


    "What doesn''t make sense? Are you deciding this just because he doesn''t react to your appearance?" Enrica yfully smiled.


    "Hmm��" Agata mumbled, not wanting to admit it. "He''s the enemy''s brain, so I just need to get some information about him. After all, they''re a dark horse with little to no information."


    "Yeah, yeah." Enrica agreed with her half-heartedly. "No matter what, even if it''s only a nce, he will appreciate your beauty. So, him not caring about you even one bit is weird�� as if he has something that surpasses that curiosity or��


    "Do you remember back when we were in junior high school? I have heard several bullying took ce because they confessed to you. Jealousy rose or something like that. Maybe that''s why?"


    Agata raised her eyebrows as if she hade to a realization. "His information said he was bullied at school. So, this was why he didn''t do anything that would offend other people?"


    "Yep. In other words, he was scared of you instead of appreciating you." Enrica chuckled.


    "This said there were many people who bullied him��" Agata fell silent. "Somehow, I can rte to that��"


    "Yeah."


    "I guess his words were nothing but a mere courtesy. His brain might have censored my face automatically."


    "Haha, I''m not sure that''s how the brain works, but it must be something along those lines." Enrica chuckled.


    "Still�� I''m scary huh��"


    Agata finally snapped back into reality as she bit her lips, thinking, ''Is he still afraid of me? But there''s no one to bully him anymore��


    ''Or does he have something important? If we go out�� did he fear many enemies wille to him and ruin his own n?


    ''Those who are lusting after my beauty will end up bing his enemies and just by staying near him, I make him unsafe�� I know that, but I don''t know how deep his fear is and what his n is��


    ''I might have been underestimating the entire situation this whole time. In fact, if we go out, others will think I am the chain that binds Theo in Italy. That''s what other countries will think, especially after Sir Leonardo imed that Theo isn''t a member of the War God Family.


    ''There''s also the fact he has trust issues. With so many enemies and little to no allies, Theo really needs to think of his n carefully beforemitting to a rtionship.''


    The more she thought, the more awful she felt. She never thought that her own desire actually put Theo on the edge.


    Tears couldn''t help but stream out of her eyes as she gritted her teeth, ''I am stupid.''

 Chapter 680 – Route Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 680 - Route Discussion</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo opened his eyes with a tired expression. Even though he had slept for six hours, he still felt tired.


    He was thest one to sleep, so it was already morning the moment he woke up.


    "Mhm." Theo let out a moan while stretching his hands upward, trying to wake his body up.


    After a moment, he finally came out of his sleeping bag and left the tent, finding Agata cooking a soup.


    "Good morning." Agata smiled while grabbing a bowl. "You should wash your face first."


    "Y-yeah." Theo nodded. Before going, Theo scratched the back of his head and said, "Sorry, but I still can''t give you an answer."


    "I already said that you don''t need to answer it. It''s fine. I will be waiting for you until you''re ready." Agata waved her hand and assured Theo.


    Last night, she had also thought about it. Instead of putting Theo on the spot, she decided to work on his fear and trust issue first.


    She wouldn''t let time be the only one healing him from those two problems. She decided to get more involved to make sure Theo could ovee those two problems.


    This was her goal to get Theo''s heart. So, she tried to act as calm as possible like nothing happened, trying to make sure Theo didn''t put unnecessary thought during their journey.


    Hearing her answer and seeing her assuring face, Theo finally went to the river to wash his face and returned.


    Agata handed him his soup as Ava had already started eating before him. Ava simply believed that Theo wouldn''t have a problem with this, so there was no use in worrying about him.


    While eating, Theo said, "We should get the report ready."


    "Don''t worry. I am halfway done. I should be able to finish it today."


    "In that case, we will stay here for one more day. We have time to spare anyway, so it won''t be that much of a problem."


    "Yep, that will be great."


    "Hmm, I will send my clone back in that case. With that, they will need to wait until we''re back before questioning us about the report. This will allow the dwarves to solve their wall problem."


    "Yes. That''s the best option. By the way, I have a question." Agata furrowed her eyebrows and opened her Skylink. "Take a look at this."


    She sat down next to Theo while showing the map.


    "This is Destron Wilderness�� Our next destination." Theo nced at her. "So, what''s your question?"


    She tapped the zoom out button a few times, showing a map preview from their location.


    There were a few markers for their journey. This was the route they were going to take, and Theo understood those few markers as he had reviewed the n previously.


    She tapped it once more and the markers disappeared. A few small bars, filled with words, appeared on the screen.


    "These are the missions from the temple, right?"


    "Yes. Since we were ahead of schedule, I''m nning to slow down and finish all these missions. This will allow us toplete more missions than our original n.


    "Of course, there is another reason for this. I would like to scout the area around those points to search for a small nest or something. This will allow us to level up more effectively even though we''re going to be a bit more tired��" Agata exined her change of n.


    Theo frowned as if he understood what she nned to do. "I guess the dwarves have changed our course of actions��"


    "Yes. Now that I have this shawl, I can fight a stronger opponent. So, instead of concentrating on the hunt in our destination, why don''t we take our time to kill the nearby monsters?" Agata nodded, admitting that the dwarves indeed influenced them.


    "That''s a good idea." Theo agreed with her n. "Though, I will add one thing. Since we''re nning to take our time, we need a route near a water source. Hence, I''m going to fix some of the routes."


    "I see. I will take care of it."


    "Nah, it''s fine. I will do it. You should take care of the report first."


    "Ah, okay."


    "Also, there are a few things you need to know." Theo pointed at several missions. "First of all, you want to line up the monsters along the route first."


    Theo pointed at one area where there were three markers for the missions. They were scattered around the area, so Theo started linking them up from the closest location to the furthest one.


    He made sure that thetest location would link up to another mission in the next area, allowing them to create one smooth route.


    There was also a mission where they needed to choose between two sides, and Theo immediately picked something that required them to kill a lot of monsters to increase their levels.


    He modified the route a little bit and showed it to Agata.


    After five minutes, he finally said, "These are the things you need to consider when making the route. At least, this is the one working for me. After all, I''m a bit different from other groups."


    "Yes. I can understand that." She took a few mental notes, knowing what she should do when she nned their next route.


    "That''s all for today. We will stay here for another day and set off early in the morning."


    "Got it."


    Aftering to an agreement, they hurriedly finished their own work.


    While working, Theo was wondering whether he should buy a Cubicar. It would allow him to work inside the Cubicar and bring more supplies.


    Even though they had thrown away some empty spice bottles, the space was soon filled with Material and Skill Cards, so Theo was seriously considering the need for Cubicar.


    Ultimately, he rejected the idea as the route they could take using the Cubicar was vastly different. It was hard to bring them through a mountain for a shortcut even with his Telekinesis.


    It might be because of what happened yesterday, but he became more conscious of the group''s well-being.

 Chapter 681 – Agata’s New Technique

    <h4>Chapter 681 - Agata��s New Technique</h4>


    The next day, Theo received the report from Agata and immediately dispatched his clone back to Italy to submit it.


    It would take five days, so he couldn''t utilize all his power during this whole time.


    At the same time, Agata also suggested one thing.


    She thought about it after finding ten monsters. The monsters were standing on their two legs, making them look humanoid enough for them to practice as if fighting a human.


    When they were not far away from the monsters, Agata said, "What do you think about using them as our practice targets for this newfound strength? To be honest, I want to test how effective my current technique is��"


    Theo thought for a moment and turned to Ava. "What do you think, Ava?"


    "I don''t n on utilizing my Moon Constetion yet as they''re still unstable because of the sudden increase in my power." Ava shook her head.


    "Alright. You can use all those ten monsters to test." Theo agreed with Agata''s n.


    "Got it." Agata smiled as she was fired up, wondering what she could do when she changed the way she utilized her illusion smoke.


    She couldn''t use her Uer Dimension yet as she hadn''t grasped the extent of that power. It also required too much Magic Power, so it wasn''t suitable in a fight like this.


    She would only use it if necessary, such as in a life and death situation.


    Now that she had acquired Theo''s agreement, Agata took a deep breath and announced. "Alright. I''m ready."


    "Good. Should I grab their attention first?"


    "Yes, please. I haven''t mastered it yet, so it will be a bit slow."


    "Sure."


    After taking another look at them, Theo walked toward the monsters.


    "!!!" The monsters turned their heads to see Theo standing with his spear.


    Sixty Magic Bullets came out of thin air and flew toward them.


    The monsters skillfully dispersed, avoiding the Magic Bullets.


    They even had the leeway to make their way toward Theo.


    Seeing the monsters moving in different directions, Theo took a step back and raised his spear, preparing to attack them after Agata utilized her new technique.


    To his surprise, one of the monsters suddenly tripped.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he lowered his vision, finding vines on his legs.


    Unlike Agata''s previous technique, she incorporated the natural environment. In fact, the vines might have been there this whole time as she had been camouging her pink smoke into those vines.


    And the moment the monster stepped on it, she moved the vines to trip the monster.


    Thetter spared no time in spinning his body and cutting the vines that tied his legs to the ground.


    Theo took this chance to use his Blink to appear before the monster while swinging his spear.


    The monster managed to regain its bnce and stand up, so Theo nned to make a small maneuver before killing it.


    Little did he know, Agata''s role had yet to end.


    The monster suddenly dropped to his knees, allowing Theo to cut the monster''s neck.


    "!!!" Theo killed the monster without hesitation while ncing over the monster''s feet.


    The monster only cut the vine that connected its feet to the ground, not the vines that were circling around its ankles.


    Those vines turned into spikes and pierced the legs. Although there was a limit to its size, the spikes managed to incapacitate the monster.


    "Did I just kill it so effortlessly?" Theo widened his eyes in amazement. ''Unlike her previous smoke that had only one form, she incorporated the environment and tried to stick the smoke to the body. This resulted in a sneak attack��


    ''Is this the power of the shawl?'' Theo nced back at their hiding spot before sucking a cold breath. ''What actually happened when I was with Dourner?''


    Unfortunately, Theo had no time to think as the other nine monsters had turned back to attack him.


    Suddenly, the trees extended their branches to the side, making it like a spike.


    Agata didn''t hold back in this one as she used several trees to make the branchese at them from all directions.


    Some of them got impaled by the branches and stuck inside numerous branches. Some of them were fast enough to run past it while the rest leaped into the air.


    Theo hurriedly shot those who stuck and killed them before confronting the three that had arrived before him.


    He was struck by multiple punches and took a few steps back.


    It was at this moment Ava appeared on top of the floating monsters and kicked them toward those who attacked Theo.


    Some of them collided, leaving only one monster that could keep Theo in check.


    Theo smiled and covered his spear with Magic Power Expansion.


    Suddenly, vines and chains emerged from the ground and grasped the monster''s wrists and ankles, stopping him.


    Theo spun his body and dodged the monster, making his way to the fallen monsters.


    He ended up hitting two monsters and slicing them. After that, he kicked the bound monster from behind andunched him into a tree.


    He continued killing the others. Since a few seconds had passed, the monsters managed to throw a fist, but Ava struck a monster''s head, knocking it down.


    At the same time, spikes appeared from the ground and pierced two monsters and one hand.


    Theo used that chance to deliver the killing blow to the rest of the monsters.


    His job wasn''t done as there was one more monster that he kicked earlier. The monster had already recovered and appeared behind him.


    Agata''s chains immediately came out while Theo had already sent his Magic Bullets toward the monster. Both chains and Magic Bullets came out of the ground at the same time.


    The Magic Bullets ultimately killed the monster right after Agata bound the monster with her chains.


    Since the monsters had died, Theo looked at Agata with amazement. "Did you just do that? Seriously?"


    "It took a bit more concentration since I needed to program their shape every time�� I also used more Magic Power than the spikes, but yeah, I did that. What do you think?"


    "Perfect." Theo gave a thumbs up.


    Agata made a big smile while adding, "Why don''t you try your new weapon too?"

 Chapter 682 – Using A Sword

    <h4>Chapter 682 - Using A Sword</h4>


    "Why don''t you try your new weapon too?"


    "Me?" Theo pointed at himself with an amused expression.


    "Yeah. You have those weapons now, so I think you should test them right now. When we''re back, you won''t have the chance to do it anymore, considering Sir Leonardo will realize it.


    "I know that there are some who can make multiple weapons, but I don''t think you want to be observed by Sir Leonardo, right? After all, your weapons can change into five different shapes.


    "And we have promised the dwarves not to involve them in the process, so if Sir Leonardo knows about this, he will realize that the tunnel is the weirdest ce��" Agata exined her reasoning.


    "I know the reasons, but I don''t know whether I should��" Theo scratched the back of his head.


    "Or you can''t show it even to me?"


    "Nah, it''s not that." Theo waved his hand before falling into silence. He thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine, I''m going to do it."


    "Do you need my help?"


    "I am going to test the sharpness of my sword first, so I need you to capture a monster with those vines. After that, we will need a practice target, one monster and one tree to see the impact of my Magic Bullet.


    "Last but not least, we need a strong monster to attack my shield to check the durability. Although I don''t doubt Dourner''s skill, I still need to see the extent of the shield''s durability."


    Agata contemted for ten seconds before nodding in agreement. "Sure. Let''s do it one step at a time. I will try to catch a monster for you."


    "Yeah." Theo then put his spear on his back before taking out the blue artifact.


    The moment he poured his Magic Power into the bracelet, it soon changed into a spear. It might be because of Dourner, but he felt the change had be smoother.


    In one second, the spear had already appeared on his hand. After that, he poured some Magic Power into the firstyer and turned the spear into a sword.


    The de extended out as if there were already a de hiding underneath the spear''s handle this whole time, turning the 15 inches long spear''s de into five times its original length.


    Theo looked at the de with a smile, knowing there wasn''t any defect. "Yeah. I''m good. Let''s search for monsters."


    "Got it."


    The two agreed and started venturing around the forest, trying to find a single monster.


    Sadly, they found three monsters standing near each other instead.


    "Hmm��" Theo squinted his eyes. "I will try to handle them first. I know that I will be moving awkwardly because I''m not used to wielding a sword, but I want to check the extent of my performance."


    "Got it. I will join when the timing is right." Agata nodded and turned to Ava. "Should I give you the signal to help, Ava?"


    "No need. I won''t be helping you fight those three." Ava shook her head, knowing Theo wouldn''t have a problem fighting against the monsters even though he was using a sword.


    "Okay." Theo gave a thumbs up to both of them as he ran toward the monsters with a sword in his right hand.


    These four-legged monsters turned their bodies around when they sensed Theo. Because they looked like rhinoceros, they soon charged toward him, nning to impale Theo with their sharp and long horn.


    Theo used his Blink tond on top of the monster while swinging his weapon.


    The monster managed to jump a few times as if trying to shake Theo off while the other two immediately rammed their horns to the monster''s body.


    With that kind of horn, Theo needed to get off the shoulder.


    He immediately leaped off the monster.


    It was clear that he already had a target in mind when he leaped to the right.


    Now that the monster was upied with him and struck their ownrade, Theo had the chance to slice their neck.


    Because he wasn''t sure about the sword''s power, he used his Magic Power Expansion to hit the monster.


    "Ha!" Theo mmed his weapon with all his strength, slicing its neck.


    To his surprise, the sword was so sharp that it cut the monster''s neck easily and ended up hitting the ground.


    "Sh��!" Before he cursed, the ground turned into a crater as he fell for a few feet.


    Seeing their friend die in Theo''s hand, they didn''t hesitate in turning around and running to him.


    Theo still had a job to do, so he didn''t waste a single second striking their horns.


    Clink.


    He failed to cut the horn even with this sharpness and thought, ''Is the monster''s neck their weakness? But from the information, they have tough skin and a sharp horn��''


    Theo didn''t know what to do when the horn stopped his de.


    Knowing the information might be misleading, he immediately struck their horn once again, only to find it useless.


    In the end, the monsters managed to hit him back.


    Theo managed to block the monsters for a second, but their bodies weighed far more than him, so the charge contained a strong push.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. "Luckily, these guys aren''t Supreme Rank Monsters. If yes, then it will be troublesome."


    He felt his hand a bit numb, realizing the terror of the charge.


    Theo took a few steps back before facing the monsters again. The two monsters also prepared themselves, nning to kill Theo with this charge.


    They moved at the same time. Both had their weapons in front of them as they struck each other.


    "Kh." Theo closed his right eye, feeling the power from the monsters. He tried his best to push him back, but the monsters managed to keep their bnce.


    In the end, several vines came out of the ground and grasped a monster''s neck, pulling it down�� Now that he saw the opening, Theo sliced the monster''s neck carefully, killing it.

 Chapter 683 – Bullet

    <h4>Chapter 683 - Bullet</h4>


    "Hmm��" Theo mumbled as he had seen the sharpness of his sword.


    When the third monster attacked him, the vines emerged from the ground to capture it. However, the beast managed to avoid it, only to find his movement had been predicted by Theo.


    In that instant, the monster''s head was flying.


    Ava and Agata immediately came out. Agata looked at the blue sword and asked, "How do you feel?"


    "Hmm�� I don''t know." Theo scratched the back of his head. "As expected, because I haven''t grown ustomed to using a sword, I don''t know what movement I should use to ambush them.


    "Even a slight step will prove to be fatalter��" Theo frowned. "Although there''s not much to change, I really need some time to adjust my movement."


    "You can use these five weeks to get used to it. How''s that?" Agata asked.


    "Yeah. I think it''s good enough. There is also the fact that I can''t shoot." Theo sighed.


    "Well, shooting is rted to your Control, right? The bullet is made of your Magic Bullet and Control after all."


    "Indeed. I can move them ording to my will, which is good enough for the time being. As for the shield�� we can wait forter. Now that we have new power, I''m nning to challenge a Supreme Rank Monster next�� Of course, the one who just evolved.


    "Back when we joined hands with Ana and the others, we could kill several Supreme Rank Monsters, but the majority of the damage came from Lorenzo, Ana, and the others.


    "So, yeah. I want to see whether our strength is enough to kill a Supreme Rank Expert or not. Though, this is just for thest day, considering we can''t afford to get injured before that to maximize the efficiency."


    "I have no problem." Agata waved her hand with a calm expression. "Instead of focusing on that, I think we should find another monster to test your Sniper Rifle. I want to see the power."


    "I do too."


    Aftering to an agreement, they continued their journey, nning to take down a few more monsters.


    Ava pointed to several directions where only one or two monsters resided in that area.


    Since Theo nned to test his weapon, Agata was the first to make her appearance.


    The monsters skillfully attacked them, but Agata''s pink smoke was more versatile, capturing the monsters in an instant.


    "Here you go." Agata pointed at the monsters that her pink smoke had restrained.


    She had hit them hard enough to make their consciousness fuzzy, so there would be no resistance.


    Theo was thankful for her cooperation and immediately turned his sword into the sniper rifle.


    The weapon had a long barrel to increase the uracy of his bullet. But considering it was mostly made of the spear''s material, the sniper rifle also had a blue color.


    Theo took a deep breath and gained some distance from the monster before pointing at them.


    Inside the weapon, twenty Magic Bullets were formed. He could only make the smaller version immediately because the barrel was perfect for containing them.


    After that, Theo merged all those bullets into one long bullet.


    Before firing at the monster, he added air and covered the bullet with his Magic Power, trying to create an even more powerful shell.


    When he pulled the trigger, there was a lever that pushed the Magic Bullet out. Due to its material, the lever touched the Magic Bullet without exploding.


    As soon as the bullet was out, Theo regained its full control again.


    "Wha��!" Theo was surprised as his aim was slightly raised. "There''s no recoil and I have pointed it straight�� Why does the Magic Bullet keep rising?"


    He med it on his inexperience and immediately controlled his Magic Bullet. The bullet immediately shifted its aim and hit the monster on the stomach.


    Boom!


    A powerful explosion urred, producing a shock wave that cracked several trees. The monster''s stomach was obliterated in an instant with its blood scattered on his back.


    "��" Agata widened her eyes and looked at the surroundings. "There''s so much destruction. How much power did you put into your Magic Bullet?"


    "The usual amount. I justbined them together and increased its power with my control��" Theo scratched the back of his head.


    Because of the shock wave, the smoke disappeared, freeing the monster.


    As if it was scared of Theo''s firepower, the beast immediately ran away, thinking it wasn''t worth it to avenge his friend.


    "Well, this is the most powerful Magic Bullet I''ve ever seen." Theo sighed, not knowing what to say about the Magic Bullet.


    "I can''t really move because I need to concentrate, but a normal sniper doesn''t even need to move, so this is a perfect weapon for me. Also, I''m nning to do another thing��"


    Theo raised his sniper rifle and pointed it to an empty space.


    He fired one more time and released his Magic Bullet. Unlike the previous one, the Magic Bullet split into twenty before hitting a tree.


    "This�� Isn''t this the one you learned from Lorenzo?" Agata was surprised to see this again.


    "I actually thought this would be perfect for my gun." Theo shook his head. "Hence, it became one of my reasons why I chose a gun instead of a crossbow. All I need to do is control the bullets, which I can do without moving.


    "Though, it''s still too much for me��" Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Still, that''s a pretty good idea.'' Agata nodded with a serious expression. "Maybe we should continue training with this weapon?"


    "Nah. Although it was my first time handling a weapon like this, I got a good grasp of it."


    "Anyway, should we continue hitting the enemies like this?"


    "No. Let''s find a bigger one. I will mainly use my sword, so I will be counting on you most of the time. If I had my clone, you wouldn''t have a problem like this." Theo shook his head.


    "Haha. Okay, let''s continue then." Agata nodded and pointed to the next area ording to their map


    "Yep."

 Chapter 684 – Lorenzo

    <h4>Chapter 684 - Lorenzo</h4>


    After grasping a bit of understanding of his weapon, Theo and Agata continued their way to their destination. Theo kept using his sword all the time, trying to polish his movement.


    He kept tripping or acting like a robot during the journey due to the different approach a sword had.


    Normally, he would have enough range to attack the enemies from afar, resulting in him taking a smaller step. But due to the sword''s reach, he needed to take a longer one or he wouldn''t be able to hit the enemies.


    He couldn''t help but trip or swing the air every now and then. Luckily, only Agata and Ava witnessed all this incident, so the embarrassment disappeared not long after.


    Agata also kept adjusting her power that had been strengthened by the shawl. Her goal was to prevent herself from using too much power unnecessarily.


    However, it was easier said than done. She easily became too tired due to the continuous usage of Magic Power. Of course, she also used her Uer Dimension from time to time, trying to master the power of illusion.


    Because of these two, the journey became a lot slower than expected. Even Ava noticed it and asked Theo about the schedule.


    Theo only told her there was no change of schedule, considering their original n would give them two weeks to hunt in their destination. This was enough for Theo and Agata.


    Since Theo didn''t n to change his n, Ava simply followed him, taking the liberty to get stronger by eating the monsters Theo killed.


    They crossed several forests and ins to reach their destination. However, this provided them with some experience they needed for their training.


    In just a month, Agata''s level had risen to 450. It was slower than they expected, considering they had finished both missions from the War God Family so quickly, but they didn''t regret it.


    At the very least, Agata might be able to reach level 455 before going back.


    At the same time, Theo had also reached level 420. He increased his Magic Power further to the point it allowed him to stop caring about his Magic Power consumption for a while.


    After a month, they finally arrived at their destination with only one week to spare.


    They were sitting in front of a campfire while thinking together about their next hunt.


    Theo also took the liberty to check his level.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 420


    EXP: 5,048,720/ 5,656,593


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B)


    Attributes: Strength 550, Endurance 346, Agility 341, Vitality 346, Magic Power 700


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "So, what''s the n for tomorrow?" Theo asked.


    "I haven''t finished yet. There are several interesting ces, but I don''t know whether we should go there or not. There''s also the fact we need to find a Supreme Rank Monster��


    "I doubt this ce has one, so I''m searching for an alternative. After that, we need to schedule and n the return trip, making sure we''re on schedule." Agata shook her head while looking at her screen.


    "Do you need my help?" Theo asked.


    Agata fell silent for a moment and shook her head. "No. I''m good for now."


    "Still, I''m curious about what you''re nning to do after this." Agata nced at him with squinted eyes.


    "What do you mean?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "I''m talking about the international mission. Now that we havepleted the quota for the individual missions, I want to know where you''re going next."


    "Hmm�� I have two ces: Russia and the US. I still haven''t decided which one."


    "Russia?" Agata raised her eyebrows.


    Theo knew her feelings and asked with a slightly teasing smile. "Jealous?"


    "Not really. Do you want me to be jealous?" Agata shook her head. "You have your boundary, I have mine. We respect and trust each other�� That''s enough for me. Do you want me to be clingy?"


    "Nope." Theo raised his hand. "Anyway, if I go to Russia, I n to learn from the empress as the reward of the mission. If I go to America, I will have a better deal and a safer mission. So, I''m still thinking about them."


    "Fair enough. Are you nning to bring me too?"


    "Yeah. You''re my assistant, so you''re going to be beside me."


    "Hehe." Agata chuckled. "Anyway, I want��!"


    Before she finished her words, a male''s voice echoed in their ears.


    "Help!"


    Agata picked up his presence immediately and soon noticed five people were approaching.


    "There are five people��" Agata frowned and turned her head around, wondering whether it was a trap or not.


    On the other hand, Theo realized something and asked, "Don''t you think this voice sounds familiar?"


    "Hmm?" Agata doubted it for a second and recalled her memory. Suddenly, she dropped her jaw and said, "Lorenzo."


    That name was all it took for both of them to stand up and check.


    The moment they took a peek at the people, they saw five people walking toward them.


    One of them was Lorenzo, carrying Felice on his shoulder. She had several wounds on her body, but they didn''t seem to be caused by monsters. When they looked to the side, there was another injured guy, and they knew this guy well. It was Ignazio.


    Soon, Theo and Lorenzo''s eyes intertwined.


    "Lorenzo!" Theo sucked a cold breath, never expecting to see him in this state. His face was tired, but there was a sense of relief reflected on his face when he saw Theo.


    "Theo��" Lorenzo smiled and panted. "I''m d�� I''m d that I met you here."


    "What happened?" Theo checked whether they used a skill or not and confirmed this wasn''t an illusion. Never in his wildest dream did an image of this strong and influential man would be reduced to this state appear in his mind.


    Lorenzo struggled to move toward him while carrying Felice. When he was standing before him, he hugged Theo with his other hand and whispered�� "We were ambushed."

 Chapter 685 – Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 685 - Ambush</h4>


    "We were ambushed," Lorenzo said with a low voice. "One of us is dead and the others are like what you see right now. I''m going to talk to you after Felice recovers. The situation might be moreplicated than what I can see right now."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. When Lorenzo released him, he took another look at Felice''s condition and nodded. "Follow me."


    "Understood. Thank you." Lorenzo nodded with a long sigh.


    He followed Theo to the camp while bringing all these people with him.


    "Liza," Theo called Agata before looking at the others. "Take care of Ignazio and the others. I''m going to help Felice."


    "Understood." Agata, who already used her Mimicry Skill, immediately moved toward them and extended her hand, trying to redirect them somewhere.


    Meanwhile, Theo brought Felice into his tent before asking whether Lorenzo wanted to follow him or not.


    Considering he wanted to talk about something to Theo, Lorenzo agreed and took a sip of water to freshen his mind.


    Theo took out a Material Card from inside his bag before tossing it to Lorenzo. "Use this. She should be able to recover soon."


    "!!!" Lorenzo dropped his jaw while trembling, never expecting Theo to give him something like this. He raised his head with a doubtful look. "Theo�� This��"


    "It''s fine. Just use it on her." Theo shook his head.


    He hesitated and looked at the card for a few seconds.


    Coal Bandage (B)


    Closing external wounds within seconds. Effective until it is covered with other substances.


    This was the bandage Theo got from killing a General ss Monster back in Thernd. The monster was a powerful Supreme Rank Monster, so this kind of item was so precious.


    Now that Theo had learned a bit of the Order, he thought this Material Card would be rted to the mummy''s Order, making it even more precious.


    However, Theo simply gave it to Lorenzo as if it wasn''t that big of a deal.


    ''You really��'' Lorenzo gritted his teeth and looked at his woman''s condition. "Thank you!"


    Lorenzo immediately used the Material Card to get the ck-colored bandage before putting it on Felice''s wounds. When there was a wound, the bandage started absorbing the blood and closing it, making the ck color blurry. Soon, a portion of the bandage turned white and the blood started sticking on it.


    Felice''s wound had already closed by the time the part of the bandage turned into a normal one. This was the wonder of a B Rank Material he received from a monster that had started understanding its Order.


    Lorenzo was surprised and came to a realization. Theo was indeed someone who would help the people on his side. This was even more precious because Theo didn''t have many friends.


    ''I am going to pay you in the future, Brother.'' Lorenzo swore in his heart as he continued wiping the wound with the bandage.


    "You can finish this first. I''m going to check on Agata and Ignazio first." Theo waved his hand, not caring about calling Agata''s false name because Lorenzo had already known her situation.


    "Yes. Once again�� Thank you."


    "Don''t mind." Theo waved his hand before leaving the tent. He saw the people were erecting another tent to take care of Ignazio.


    After noticing him, Agata hurriedly put down Ignazio and walked to him. "Do you know anything about this?"


    "Not sure, but don''t mention anything for the time being." Theo shook his head. "Also, have Ava apany you and try to get as much information as possible from them."


    "Got it." Agata nodded and returned.


    The others began to wash his wound before dressing his wounds. Theo didn''t give him a portion of the Coal Bandage because their rtionship wasn''t as close as Lorenzo''s, so he just let Ignazio be taken care of normally.


    He was curious about the others as well because he never saw them.


    In the end, he saw Lorenzo sticking his head out of the tent. He immediately walked toward him and entered the town. "How is she?"


    Lorenzo smiled and nced at the unconscious Felice. "She will be fine. The wounds have gone. We only need to wait until she wakes up."


    Lorenzo cut the bandage where it began to change its color before handing the remaining part to Theo. "Thank you so much. I will pay this debt soon."


    "It''s fine. You have helped me in the past too." Theo waved his hand and stored the bandage inside his bag before checking Felice''s body, making sure Lorenzo didn''t hold back in healing her just because the bandage was his.


    Knowing that he had indeed closed all her wounds, Theo asked, "So, do you want to tell me what happened?"


    "Yeah, sure." Lorenzo nodded with a serious expression. "First of all, the other three are Sieg, Elsa, and Olivia. Olivia died when we were ambushed��


    "In fact, I already have some suspicion of Olivia being a spy from another family. And when we were exhausted, a group of Supreme Rank Experts ambushed us. They all tried to kill me, so I immediately used my Teleportation skill.


    "Felice and Ignazio were protecting me, so their condition was like that. I used Teleportation a few times in order to go back to Italy until we met you.


    "For now, I don''t think the enemies wille to us, but we still need to remain vignt."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "There are so many things I want to ask after listening to this nonsense, but this is the truth, right?"


    "Yes. Their target seems to be me." Lorenzo admitted without hesitation.


    "You? Seriously? Is there really someone who dares to eliminate you, the son of the current family head of the War God Family?"


    "I think. I have some suspicions, but if I die, you will most likely be asked to remain in Italy to inherit the house. Do you know what I mean?"


    "So, they want to kill you to make me the sessor?"


    "Exactly."


    "There are still Luka and Mara. If Ignazio died, Mara would be enraged."


    "I think so. That''s why I don''t think this is the work of an insider�� I need your expertise to figure this out�� I''m gonna make those bastards pay for this with their lives."

 Chapter 686 – Safulli Group

    <h4>Chapter 686 - Safulli Group</h4>


    "So, you''re saying I''m the problem?" Theo shook his head helplessly. "I still need to know the situation first."


    "Not really. They indeed wanted to kill me from the start and your appearance became the catalyst." Lorenzo shrugged.


    "I see. For now, I want to hear the story from the start. If I don''t know anything about this, I will remain silent." Theo sighed and thought for a moment. "By the way, is it alright if I ask Agata to hear this too? I''m kind of training her in this area, so�� yeah."


    "It''s fine. Felice knows about it too, so it''s okay for your assistant to learn this matter. There are already a few people who have noticed the problem, including my father after all."


    "Then, why don''t your father act?"


    "He can''t afford to make a move due to the backing. ording to him, I need to handle this problem myself as training to be a family head. After all, I can''t afford to ask for his help all the time when I seed him.


    "Also, he has made sure to cut the connection between this mastermind and their backer. In other words, he wants to train me by dealing with the mastermind.


    "To be honest, he has gotten involved enough and it''s my mistake that I''m in this situation. Although I don''t want to involve others, I am afraid you have already be a part of this, so yeah�� I would like to request your assistance."


    "Okay. I got the gist of it." Theo nodded. "Just cutting the connection between them alone is enough help from your father. You can imagine this support as the help you can get after using the War God Family when you rule over it.


    "The rest will be up to you�� And this should be the reason why the War God Family can produce talented people."


    "Yeah. I don''t want to disappoint him."


    "Well��" Theo fell silent for a moment and Agata suddenly entered the tent even though no one called her.


    It was Ava who asked her to go to Theo, so the others wouldn''t feel suspicious.


    "Okay. Please exin from the start." Theo nodded to Lorenzo.


    "Mhmm�� Let�� me�� exin��" Suddenly, Felice''s voice echoed inside the tent. It was so weak as they noticed she had just woken up.


    "Ah, we''re too loud, it seems."


    "Felice!" Lorenzo hurriedly grabbed her hand and checked her body. "Are you alright? Do you need anything? I will bring it to you immediately."


    "Idiot Master��" Felice smiled and weakly raised her hand, putting it on Lorenzo''s cheek. "I''m fine."


    "I''m d." Lorenzo felt relieved.


    "I should�� exin��"


    "No. You should have a rest. We will go somewhere else to talk about this." Lorenzo shook his head, denying her request.


    "If I�� can''t�� Let�� me listen." Felice begged him with her eyes.


    Even Lorenzo ended up gritting his teeth as his heart melted. He sighed, "I understand."


    Felice smiled and turned to Theo. "I''m sorry�� for this disy�� and thanks."


    "It''s fine." Theo waved his hand while smiling. He then turned to Lorenzo as if asking him to start.


    Lorenzo took a deep breath and started exining. "Alright. This started a year ago. I took a mission from a smallpany to levitate their position a little bit.


    "On the way, we stumbled upon a bigger problem, but I didn''t care and continued to push through that problem. Eventually, I managed to solve the issue and achieved my goal.


    "However, it turned out that the situation became even moreplex due to the enemy being the subordinate of Safulli Group."


    "Safulli Group?" Theo frowned as he had heard about this group before.


    Agata added some details for Theo. "Safulli Group is one of the top ten influences in Italy. Hmm�� How should Ipare this�� The War God Family and the Church are number one and two respectively.


    "My family is among the top ten, but we''re around rank 9 with five Mythical Rank Experts. As for Safulli Group, they''re in the top 5, rivaling the Pietro Family and Baio Underworld Group.


    "This Safulli Group ruled over Florence and they seemed to have backing from another country. I need to open the information from the War God Family to look into more details�� But well, I know them a bit because they have been trying to swallow my family."


    "Ah, right!" Lorenzo opened his eyes as if he had remembered something. "If I were not wrong, they wanted to marry you to a middle-aged man�� Who was it again?"


    "The first time was his son, but after the entire conflict escted, the father took over."


    "Yeah. Something like that. You didn''t have a good school life because of this conflict, no?"


    "That''s not important right now. For now, I will tell you about the Safulli Group." Agata shook her head. "Let me think about it first��"


    She was trying to recall her memory about this while Lorenzo added, "The conflict only stopped after the pope made his move, right?"


    "Are you trying to poke my problem right now?" Agata narrowed her eyes with a cold gaze.


    Even Felice, who was still lying down, pinched Lorenzo''s thigh as hard as possible.


    "Ah!" Lorenzo looked down while closing his right eye as if he was enduring the pain. "Sorry, sorry. It was inconsiderate of me."


    "I apologize," Felice wanted to get up, but Lorenzo immediately stopped her and lowered his head to sincerely apologize to Agata.


    "As long as you know." Agata shrugged. "Anyway, the Safulli Group is a powerful group. Their influence is notparable to the War God Family, but if we''re talking about Lorenzo, whose influence is smaller than the War God Family, he will have a hard time.


    "After all, his father limits his influence to train his problem-solving skills. I believe that he''s going to make a move if necessary."


    "That''s what I would like to avoid. I can''t rely on my father all the time. What if he retired? If I became too dependent, I would ruin the familyter." Lorenzo shook his head.


    Suddenly, Theo coughed to grab their attention before saying, "So, this Safulli Group�� Is it fine if we destroy them? They have no backing anymore, so all I need to know is the extent of the conflict before seeing whether I should personally make a move or not."

 Chapter 687 – Situation

    <h4>Chapter 687 - Situation</h4>


    When they heard Theo''s words, Lorenzo thought for a moment and said, "That depends on you. Let me see whether you''re directly involved or not ording to the information we have��


    "First of all, they want to kill me for three reasons. First, they''re trying to weaken them. If Grandfather and Father make their move personally, those influences behind them have a great reason to act and enter Italy.


    "Second, they know that my father wants to train me this way. This has be a perfect opportunity to kill me. Well, I can''t me my father since if I die in this hurdle, I will be an embarrassment and not suitable for the leader role.


    "Third, they want to swallow the other groups, trying to make a singlerge group that can contend with the War God Family and the Church. Obviously, they''re a coward since they''re waiting for Grandfather to pass away beforeunching this mission.


    "Hence, I was asked to deal with them personally and the time limit was until Grandfather was too weak to do anything.


    "As for your involvement�� I believe there are two possibilities. First, they''re thinking about utilizing our sessor problem to create trouble in the War God Family. Well, they must not be aware of our rtionship, so I don''t care about this.


    "Second, their backing seems to want you to remain in Italy. I mean, if you''re leaving the family, with Grandfather''s channel, you should be able to enter another country without anyone knowing.


    "If you can grow while hiding your identity, it will be hard. So, they might want to push you into that position so they know you''re here. I am not very sure about this, but I think they will approach you soon."


    Before Lorenzo continued, Agata added, "There seems to be a personal mission involving the Safulli Group. They request your assistance or something, so I believe it''s rted to that."


    "What''s the mission?"


    "That''s��" Agata lowered her head, not knowing what to say.


    "You don''t want to say it?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. He immediately opened his Skylink and checked the log before finding the mission.


    Mission: Assistance for acquiring anotherpany.


    Sender: Safulli Group.


    "Hmm? What''s thispany?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I believe it''s her family''spany." Felice suddenly opened her mouth, answering Theo''s doubt.


    "Hmm?" Theo squinted his eyes.


    "The biggest Mota Family''s business, Pata Corporation. If they gain thispany, they will be able to swallow the Mota Family sooner orter."


    Theo nced at Agata and asked, "Is it true?"


    Agata bit her lips and answered with a low voice. "I''m not very sure. But it''s true that the conflict between my family and the Safoulli Group has begun again."


    "Ho, that''s interesting. Why didn''t you tell me?"


    Agata hesitated for a second. "That''s�� I don''t want to bother you with this problem. After all, the enemy is the Safulli Group. Father also wants me to focus on studying under you, saying he will handle this matter.


    "Above all, you have given too much. I��" Before Agata continued, Theo raised his voice. "So much bullsh*t. Agata, look at me."


    Agata flinched and didn''tply.


    "Look at my eyes! If you don''t do it, I''ll assume that you have been lying to me this whole time." Theo squinted his eyes.


    Although reluctant, Agata raised her head, looking at him with fear reflected in her eyes.


    "I have told you that I would be responsible for you if you agreed to be my assistant. If I don''t even know that you''re in trouble, how can I help?


    "This excuse is sh*tty in my opinion. Are you nning to let your family get destroyed and cry for a month before you can exin this to me?


    "You don''t trust me that much, I guess."


    "That''s wrong!" Agata gritted her teeth, denying his im.


    "I dare to mess with the Griffith Family and the Czar. So, you are worried about me over this Safulli Group?"


    Agata looked down and kept apologizing. "Sorry�� I''m sorry."


    Theo''s emotion became a bitplex as he ended up cing his hand on her head. "I respect your boundary and you respect mine, but it doesn''t mean that you need to keep everything to yourself.


    "Especially if it''s going to break this rtionship apart. You should know my past, so you should know better than I don''t like this.


    "I would rather struggle than live in a lie created by someone''s pain." Theo sighed. "I choose this ce because it''s where I can get strong enough to make sure my life won''t be this way anymore.


    "Even the strongest king will die in one way or another. If a person''s mind is not enough to develop a solution, get another person.


    "If you keep burdening yourself like this, the next thing I realize, I might need to see you leaving without even a single clue. I am not nning to lecture you�� I just want you to trust me. Have you forgotten what you said to me a month ago?"


    Agata trembled.


    "Just leave this to me." Theo sighed and looked at Lorenzo. "I need Safulli Group''s information, including their strength and weakness, allies and enemies."


    "I havepiled some of them." Felice raised her hand.


    "Okay. If you don''t mind, send it to meter."


    "I can do it now. Just need to send it to your Skylink directly."


    "Sure. Just rest first to restore some of your strength before doing all this." Theo thought for a moment and looked at Lorenzo. "There seem to be a few more points that can show me how involved I am, right?"


    "Yes." Lorenzo nodded with a serious expression.


    "In that case, I will stop my hunt right now and immediately go straight home. If you don''t mind, I want you to y along with me first."


    "Sure. Everything you want me to do."


    Agata never thought that Theo would stop the hunt and immediately returned�� She never expected this situation to mess Theo''s schedule up, even though Theo didn''t like to have anyone disturb his schedule.


    She started thinking, what if she had told him about this matter beforeing to this side?


    Before she continued regretting her action, Theo ced his hand on top of her head again and gently patted it a few times. "Well, if you trust me, I need your help to get me someone''s number."


    Agata gulped down and raised her head. She didn''t want to disappoint him anymore, so she asked with a hoarse tone. "Who?"


    "Your father."

 Chapter 688 – Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 688 - Discussion</h4>


    "Huh?" Agata, Felice, and Lorenzo dropped their jaws to the ground, not believing what they had just heard.


    "Her father? What do you want? Do you want to propose to her? If that''s the case, no one dares to mess with her family. After all, you might mess them up like what you did to the Czar and the Griffith Family." Lorenzomented in shock, wondering whether he should help him with the wedding.


    "Shut up a little bit." Theo red at Lorenzo. "Or should I consider putting you as coteral damage?"


    "I-I apologize." Lorenzo immediately shut his mouth while straightening his back, not daring to oppose him.


    "I had heard something about the Safulli Group myself when I learned the condition of this world from politics to economics with Sir Leonardo, so yeah�� I have some ideas. For now, I want his number and the information about the Safulli Group. I need to double-check them." Theo sighed.


    "I�� I can help. My family has been dealing with them, so I believe my family has more information than the War God Family." Agata nodded her head.


    "Okay." Theo thought for a moment. "For now, I will review the information in this tent. With how you''re acting, you are suspecting the connection with those two women, right?"


    "Yes. Olivia might not be the only one, so I whispered the information to you earlier." Lorenzo nodded and looked at Felice. "Where is the Skylink? I will transfer it."


    "No, it''s my job." Felice shook her head before trying to get up with that weak body.


    Lorenzo wanted to stop her, but Felice insisted. In the end, he helped her up and brought everything to her.


    After that, Felice asked for Theo''s Skylink and transferred the data directly.


    Theo didn''t hesitate to open the information and started reading. "You sure don''t mind me reading here, right?"


    "Yes. As long as me lying down here doesn''t bother you." Felice nodded. "Although I''m weak right now, I should be able to recover within an hour or so."


    Lorenzo also nodded, confirming Felice''s opinion.


    Theo then skimmed some information for a few minutes before Agata said, "Theo�� I''m sorry."


    Theo nced at her and sighed. "It''s fine. Making mistakes is fine as long as you don''t repeat it. That''s how you know someone after all."


    "��" Agata somehow didn''t have the courage to look at him, especially after those words. Those words meant Theo had epted her feelings. Although he didn''t confirm their rtionship, it still meant that Theo was preparing to move on from his past and continue to that stage.


    This was a huge leap for Theo, who never thought about rtionships. He became even more conscious like she desired.


    While Agata reflected on her mistake, Theo frowned and asked, "Hmm�� Now that I have browsed their information, they seem to be a respectable influence. Other than Agata''s family, they don''t make many enemies."


    "Yes. Among the top ten influences, they openly wage war only with the Mota Family and the War God Family. But since the War God Family is stopped by their backer, the Mota Family needs to take care of them alone." Lorenzo confirmed his statement.


    "I see�� What will happen if they manage to swallow that business? What was the name again?"


    "Pata Corporation. If they manage to swallow this corporation and eventually acquire the Mota Family. They will probably make Agata marry whoever is in charge to ckmail the Mota Family to cooperate with them.


    "This way, they will have enough strength to swallow a few other top ten influences. In other words, absorbing the Mota Family will result in them checkmating all forces other than the War God Family and the Church.


    "Italy will soon experience turbulence�� So, I''m afraid the role of the Mota Family is big in this situation." Lorenzo exined.


    "Why don''t those groups ally themselves to cripple the Safulli Group?" Theo asked.


    Agata was the one who answered the question. "My family has been talking about it, but their demands are ridiculous and we can''t afford it. In the end, they leave us behind to fend for the Safulli Group alone.


    "If we can''t defend ourselves, they will attack Safulli Group together. If we can defend ourselves, they will attack us and swallow us. So, yeah, we''re at the edge right now." Agata exined with a troubled expression.


    "Hmm, that''s interesting. The situation is dire enough for your family��" Theo nced at Agata.


    Agata looked away.


    "Alright, alright. I will stop picking on you." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, I can see the situation right now. This situation feels like the calm before the storm."


    "Yeah, I agree."


    Theo thought for a moment. "Well, I have an idea, but before that, let me see what you have in mind."


    Theo''s nce startled her. Agata took a deep breath before exining, "My father can hold them back for at least three years. By the time I finish my study under Sir Leonardo, I might be able to help him.


    "It will be even better if we can find another alternative. So, my original n was to go overseas to receive their support�� They should be able to trust me a bit because I have learned from Sir Leonardo.


    "Yeah, I was nning to ask for leave for a few months to handle the situation after finishing my training," Agata exined her previous n.


    "That takes too long." Theo sighed in disappointment. "I will rate it 3 out of 10. First of all, like how you can search for an alternative, they can do whatever they want during that period.


    "By the time you get one, their n is already solid as a rock. So, what you need is a factor of surprise.


    "Second, I will obviously not let you act whatever you want. I may even pick another ally that can force your Father to surrender earlier.


    "Third, you underestimate the influence who dares to pick a fight against the War God Family. They''re either too confident with their backer or crazy, assuming they''re not dumb��" Theo exined his take on Agata''s n. "If it were me, I would have ended it within a month, but I need to ask you what oue you want in this battle? Do you want to destroy them?"

 Chapter 689 – Plan Started

    <h4>Chapter 689 - n Started</h4>


    When Theo presented that question, Agata widened her eyes. It seemed she still underestimated Theo despite being with him for so long.


    Normally, in a dire situation like this, they didn''t have that many choices. However, the fact that Theo could still give her options to choose meant he could do whatever he wanted with the Safulli Group.


    Agata scratched the back of her head and sighed. "My family doesn''t aim high. As long as the family can prosper, we use the rest to make our lives better. That''s why my father doesn''t marry me off.


    "As long as my family doesn''t get bullied anymore, I am already satisfied." Agata gave him a genuine answer. She didn''t desire much like her upbringing, so this was her answer.


    Theo, on the other hand, took her answer too literally.


    "I see. You don''t want your family to get bullied anymore. Okay, it means I should eliminate them." Theo nodded. "Well, I am already involved enough, so I think this is the best option."


    "In that case, I need your help." Theo nced at Lorenzo and Felice.


    "I understand. I will do everything I can toplete the task." Lorenzo answered without hesitation.


    "Calm down. I just want you to dy your stay for as long as you can. Just tell the others that the situation is stabilized, but they should stay there for a bit more." Theo exined.


    "I see. How long do you need?"


    "Three weeks at the very least." Theo raised three fingers. "After all, it will take me five days to return to Italy."


    "I understand. It should be possible. I will just trap them into believing that Felice''s condition has stabilized and we need to wait for a few days until she wakes up. There''s also the case for Ignazio.


    "After that, I will make them suspect each other and wait for a bit more. This way, we will return in three weeks." Lorenzo exined his n on how to get them to wait.


    "Yeah, I don''t have a problem with it." Theo waved his hand. After that, he turned to Agata and asked, "I have something to tell you. Let''s talk outside."


    He extended his hand, preparing his Blink. She hesitated a bit but still grabbed his hand.


    The two then disappeared from the tent.


    "To be honest, your family will suffer a little bit because of this n." Theo sighed.


    "That''s�� our fault. I should have told you from the beginning instead of keeping it to myself."


    "Well, I will try to do my best to lessen the damage, so yeah, I need your father''s confirmation about this."


    "I understand. As soon as we return, I will contact him." She nodded.


    "No. Just give me his number and I will call him directly."


    "Is it something I shouldn''t know?"


    "It is something only your father should know." Theo yed with his words, implying that this was a secret not only to her but to anyone except her father.


    "I understand. I will inform him that you''re going to contact himter then."


    "Yep." Theo nodded. "Alright. Let''s start my n then."


    The moment they started their n, no one was aware of what had happened.


    The next day, Theo simply vanished from the camp, leaving Lorenzo''s group behind. All his luggage other than his tent disappeared overnight.


    Lorenzo came out of the tent in bewilderment, realizing that Theo had disappeared.


    He went to another tent to check on Ignazio while searching for the two girls. Since their target was him, Ignazio didn''t have any injuries. In fact, the two girls had bandaged all his wounds and left him alone.


    The two girls returned with serious expressions.


    "Sir." They greeted Lorenzo while observing the camp.


    "Felice is safe and thank you for taking care of Ignazio." Lorenzo smiled.


    "It''s our job. Of course, we will take care of him. In fact, we''re the one who needs to thank Sir. If not for your Teleportation, we would have died."


    Lorenzo waved his hand and asked, "Where''s Theo? I haven''t seen him."


    "We haven''t seen him either."


    Lorenzo frowned and muttered, "Did he leave? Was he afraid that the assassins might find us?"


    He nced at the two women with judging eyes as if showing his doubt to his own teammate.


    It was clear that Olivia was the one who brought the assassins yesterday. Aside from Ignazio, who was lying in his tent alone and Lorenzo''s personal assistant, they were the most suspicious people.


    They immediately denied his usation. "How can we?"


    "It must be Olivia."


    Lorenzo squinted his eyes and said, "I know that Theo helped me just because we''re from the same family and I can''t me him for leaving. After all, we were attacked by Supreme Rank Experts.


    "I have told him that if the assassins ambushed us again, it would be between you two. I''m sure that the War God Family will take drastic action." Lorenzo''s tone was harsh as he meant to pressure both of them.


    "I know that Sir is suspicious, but we would never do something like that."


    "We have nothing to do with the assassins."


    The two pleaded while Lorenzo harrumphed.


    "For now, their condition has been stabilized. I will wait for them to wake up first before returning to Italy. Luckily, we have Teleported a few times and they shouldn''t know our location. Even if they search for us, they will need a long time due to the big radius of their search area." Lorenzo turned around with a grim expression. "You two shouldn''t have a problem with this, right?"


    "Y-yes." The two girls furiously nodded, not having any other choice.


    The day continued with tension in the air. On the other hand, Theo, Agata, and Ava had made their way home.


    It took them five days to reach Italy and the first thing he did when he returned home was to contact Agata''s father.


    He was sitting with his Skylink in front of him, waiting for the connection to go through.


    The beeping sound echoed in his ears as a middle-aged man appeared on the screen.


    "Good day to you, Sir."

 Chapter 690 – Boris

    <h4>Chapter 690 - Boris</h4>


    "Good day to you, Sir." Theo smiled, looking at this brown-haired middle-aged man. His face still looked like he was in his early thirties with no wrinkles yet.


    He didn''t grow a beard just to make him look a bit younger. His gaze was gentle, like a loving father, but Theo knew those eyes were currently judging him.


    "Yes. This must be our first meeting, right?"


    "Indeed." Theo nodded with a smile. "I am thankful for your help in getting those sses."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. My daughter is in your care, so as her father, I should provide her and her teacher, you, with everything you need. This is all I can do to support her." He paused for a moment. "I have heard from my daughter that you want to talk about something important to me."


    "Yes. You should be the only one to know because it''s going to be an important part. After listening to the situation, I have decided to help your family in eliminating the Safulli Group." Theo smiled.


    The man widened his eyes as he never expected Theo to get involved in this matter. He scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression. "This�� Did Agata tell you?"


    "Nope. I learned it identally." Theo openly showed his displeasure.


    "I apologize. If you want to me someone, I will take responsibility for her actions. After all, I was the one who asked her to keep this a secret.


    "Although I believed in your power, I didn''t want you to get entangled in this matter. You could do it with the Czar and the Griffith Family, but you should get more enemies because of this. You''re currently safe right now, but if you show your brilliance again, you''re going to make more enemies.


    "That''s why I don''t want to have my daughter''s benefactor and the one she loves to receive this bacsh because of this problem. If that offends you in any way, I would like to apologize."


    Theo shook his head and said, "Enemies, huh�� That''s indeed something I am always afraid of. After all, I won''t know they''re my enemies until they openly show their aggression.


    "However, I am here to train to make sure that doesn''t happen. That''s why I am not scared of making enemies anymore. I just don''t like something that I have built so far to be destroyed without me knowing the reason."


    "I see." Agata''s father, Boris, nodded with a serious expression. "I can understand that. At the very least, I am thankful that you are taking my daughter seriously."


    Theo shrugged. "Anyway, let''s move on to the important topic, shall we?"


    "Sure if that''s what you want." Boris smiled and asked, "What do you want me to know?"


    "First of all, your Pata Corporation is going to undergo a great change with my n." Theo smiled, stating the most crucial part.


    "You truly don''t like to beat around the bush, aren''t you?"


    Theo didn''t say anything, implying that they should continue to talk about this.


    Knowing his intention, Boris stated without hesitation. "I don''t mind."


    "Hmm?" Even Theo was surprised. Pata Corporation was supposed to be the backbone of the Mota Family''s finance, so it was quite surprising to see Boris agree to this easily. "Are you sure?"


    "As you might already know, thispany is my biggest strength. However, this is also the best ce to attack us."


    "Do you mean��" Theo squinted his eyes, suspecting the worse.


    "Yes. Thepany has so many spies inside it. If you''re going to wreak havoc in mypany, I can use that opportunity to restructure thepany from scratchester.


    "So, yeah. I will be able to eliminate all those spies. The more dangerous the situation is, the easier it is to locate all the spies. You don''t need to hold back if you want to do it. All I request is just to make sure that thepany doesn''t go bankrupt."


    "No. I don''t wish for something like that. I have promised that I will be responsible for her and her family, so I don''t wish to harm your family. However, it doesn''t change the fact that yourpany will y a huge role in my n."


    "Can I know your n? Maybe I can prepare for it?"


    "Unfortunately, I can''t tell you right now. All I can say is that�� I will give yourpany back as long as you trust me."


    "Of course. My daughter has nothing but praises when she''s talking about you. I have no doubt about your intention and ability now that you have decided to help my family." Boris nodded without hesitation.


    "That''s good then. I have one thing I want you to do."


    "I understand. Please tell me."


    "Oppose me with everything you got." Theo smiled.


    "Oppose you?" Boris squinted his eyes and looked down, not understanding his n. "I''m sorry, I don''t understand."


    "I can only tell you that. I want you to oppose me and you should be the only one to know I''m on your side this whole time. Even Agata doesn''t know about this and will surely question meter. Well, as long as she knows this is my n, she will agree to it." Theo shrugged.


    "Hmm. Although I don''t know what you''re nning to do, I know that you''re going to hit mypany. So, I will fulfill my role as the CEO of thatpany to resist you."


    "Good. I can promise you that everything will be resolved within��" Theo paused for a moment, calcting the time he needed. "One to two weeks."


    "I understand. I like to see what kind of monster the famous War Saint has created." He smiled. "I wish you luck�� Maybe we can have a small chatter."


    "In yourpany." Theo smirked and hung up the call.


    ��


    Two dayster.


    Theo was standing in front of a building with Ava on his shoulder.


    "I will rely on you a lot, Ava." Theo smiled.


    "Kyu." Ava raised her foot with a smile.


    Theo entered the building as a middle-aged man suddenly walked to him after noticing him.


    "I''m honored to greet you here, Young Sir. My name is Fanelli, and I will be guiding you to the boss. But before that�� Wee to the Safulli Group�� We''re pleased to know that you''re going to help us."

 Chapter 691 – Misunderstanding

    <h4>Chapter 691 - Misunderstanding</h4>


    "Drop the pleasantries and lead the way." Theo nced at the guy with a cold expression.


    "I understand." The guy didn''t show any displeasure and guided him to the top floor where they could meet with the Safulli Group''s president.


    It didn''t take too long for Theo to sense this overbearing pressure. Just like other Mythical Rank Experts, he felt the intense Magic Power emanating from inside the room.


    He looked at the door with a grim expression.


    The guy knocked on the door twice and said, "Sir, Theodore Griffith has arrived."


    "Come in."


    He then opened the door for Theo, revealing the man behind the Safulli Group.


    Theo''s expression remained unchanged as if he didn''t fear the Mythical Rank Expert before him. Instead, he was observing everything, from his spiky blonde hair to his skinny body.


    The man hurriedly rose from his seat and spread his hand, saying with a smile. "Theodore Griffith. I am happy to finally meet you face to face!"


    Theo nodded and entered the room before saying, "It''s indeed our first meeting."


    After he entered, the guy closed the door, leaving them inside the room.


    Since that was the case, Theo didn''t beat around the bush and asked, "Let me confirm this. You want me to bring you the Pata Corporation, right?"


    "Hoh? I like to cut to the chase too." He smiled and pointed at the two couches on the corner of his office. He sat on one of them while saying, "Of course. We''re going to talk about it right now."


    Theo fell silent for a moment before sitting in front of him, staring right at his brown eyes.


    As soon as Theo sat down, he said, "Yes. I want to acquire the Pata Corporation. But before that, I want to ask you��"


    His tone became cold as his expression turned grim. He asked Theo, "Why did you choose to ept my request? A man like you should know what I truly want, right?"


    Despite the pressure, Theo maintained his calm and said, "Then, do you know what I want?"


    The guy raised his eyebrows, not expecting to get a question from him. He thought for a moment and shook his head. "For someone like you, I don''t dare to guess your desire."


    "I have two things, and I will just give you the clues. Why did Sir Leonardo announce that I am a free man? And why did I dare to mess with the Czar?" Theo smirked.


    The guy instantly got his answer. He closed his eyes and looked at Theo again, knowing that the man before him was a real deal.


    "Because of my aggression to the War God Family, especially the conflict between Lorenzo and me, you want my support in seeding the War God Family. At the same time, if everything fails, as long as I can swallow all influences after acquiring the Pata Corporation, you will have a safe cushion to fall on.


    "And there is also the fact that I have my own backer. In other words, you want to increase your options, allowing you to control every situation." The man narrowed his eyes. He felt a goosebump when he realized all that.


    It turned out Theo had been working on his n since the start. If something came into his way again, he could use all these cards to y with them.


    "As expected from the man that the War Saint respected." The man smirked while thinking, ''Now, now�� I have been fighting against the War God Family, although I know how their system works and still manage to give a mission to him��


    ''I am still suspicious of his motive. Is that all he wants? What if the War God Family sent him here to destroy me?''


    "Mister Carmelo��" Theo called his name and said, "I actually have one more thing I want to express."


    "Hoh? What is it?"


    "I am just a young man who doesn''t have any influence and is sheltered by the War God Family�� I am unqualified to have the most beautiful woman in the world��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "!!!" Carmelo widened his eyes and thought, ''Most beautiful woman�� Isn''t that Agata Mota? Did they tell him that he''s unqualified? Now that I think about it, Agata Mota mysteriously disappeared as soon as he came to Italy.


    ''I heard that she had shown some interest in him, but her disappearance�� No, the Mota Family must have hidden her so that they couldn''t be together. However, everything changed when he showed his brilliance.


    ''I also heard that Agata Mota had been expelled by the family and disappeared from the public eye. If that''s the case, she must be hiding inside the church where her best friend is.


    ''So, he''s doing this because he wants to show the Mota Family that he is qualified, and by how he messed with the Czar, he wants to bring the Mota Family to his feet, showing them that they''re the ones who are unqualified, not him.


    ''I see. So, there''s also a personal grudge��'' For the first time, Carmelo thought Theo came here might not be rted to the War God Family.


    Little did he know, he just misunderstood him. As soon as Theo saw his appearance, he got the feeling that Carmelo was the thinker type.


    So he thought this was a perfect opportunity to cast a misdirection.


    Because of his rule, he couldn''t lie to Carmelo, limiting his choices. After some quick thinking, Theo decided to use those two sentences that came from his own perception to deceive him like how he tricked the dwarf.


    He was indeed a young man without any backers. After some time, he would leave the War God Family and search for his own influence to rely on. If he had the War God Family behind him, no one would reject his love. He indeed had his brain, so what he needed was the backing.


    And because Theo said that he wanted the Safulli Group and the one behind them to be his backing, this made him think about all that stuff, falling into a deeper misunderstanding.


    The best part was that Theo didn''t even tell him a single lie.

 Chapter 692 – Took The Bait

    <h4>Chapter 692 - Took The Bait</h4>


    Theo smiled and leaned back on his cough before stating, "I will bring down the Pata Corporation within two weeks. However, you''re not going to touch the Mota Family for another two weeks after that."


    "Huh?" Carmelo narrowed his eyes, not understanding Theo''s statement. Theo felt like he wanted to destroy the Mota Family and protect them at the same time. This was very contradictory.


    But Theo added, "Living in fear and regret is the best way to torture someone else, right?"


    Carmelo widened his eyes as he never expected Theo to say something like that. He thought Theo was a good person. But with this statement, Theo reminded him of the Griffith Family''s cruelness.


    ''As expected from the Griffith Family, no matter what, the blood still runs through their veins��'' Carmelo thought.


    "That''s something I can guarantee, but��" Carmelo nced at him with a suspicious gaze.


    Theo calmly said, "We can even make a written contract with this. In exchange for my condition and the reward, I will bring down the Pata Corporation and will do nothing rted to you after those two weeks."


    Carmelo narrowed his eyes and took out his Skylink. "As expected, I need proof first."


    "Sure. Call thewyer here and we will proceed with the contract. Of course, I need your help if I want to take down the Pata Corporation."


    "That''s understandable. If you need resources from me, I will help you as much as I can. In case you fail, you''re going to reimburse me at least fifty percent of those resources."


    "Sounds like a deal." Theo smiled.


    After a call, thewyer entered the room and they finalized the contract. It was a pretty simple contract like Theo stated, and both parties signed it without hesitation.


    In that instant, Carmelo smiled and extended his hand. "Happy cooperation."


    Theo shook his hand as he said, "Now that we have settled the contract, I need you to make a move immediately."


    "Hoh?" Carmelo narrowed his eyes and asked, "What do you want me to do?"


    "We will weaken them first. If you use your power to create conflict among themselves, it will be hard to do so. But it''s different for me. If you tell them that I''m going to mess with them if they don''t back down, it will surely be effective, right?"


    "!!!" Carmelo widened his eyes as a huge grin appeared on his face. "Hahahahaha! I like that method."


    Carmelo obviously understood what the enemies would experience if he used Theo''s reputation.


    Although it was kind of good in front of the public, Theo was nothing but a devil for those who dug his information deeper.


    ''In front of the public, he''s a hero outshining many others. They don''t know that he has been messing with the Czar and the Griffith Family. Only those who have a deep enough informationwork know this information.


    ''Obviously, those people know what this means�� If Theo decides to y with them, they''re going to face the same problem as the Czar. Even the Griffith Family has been shaken to the point they lose one of their vassals.


    ''To think everything is resolved with just a single piece of information�� And obviously, he''s using that contract to make them believe that he''s nning to take down the Pata Corporation.


    ''In other words, everything he has done until this point is to create an ultimatum to the Pata Corporation.''


    "Well, that''s all." Theo smiled while stroking Ava''s head on hisp. "I believe you know what to do��"


    "Of course. I will make sure to weaken them as much as possible."


    "Good." Theo thought for a moment and said, "I will be back in four days. By that time, those who still stay will surelyst until the end. In contrast, those who are scared will back down.


    "It will be the time I make a move depending on their actions. If you have something to say, send someone to my hotel. If there''s nothing wrong, I will remain there."


    "I understand. It''s truly an honor to meet the infamous Theodore Griffith." Carmelo paused for a moment before his eyes became cold. "Though�� I would like to ask what your view is regarding Lorenzo?"


    Theo looked at him with an uninterested question. "Such a dumb question�� He''s obviously an opponent that I need to defeat. I am a free man who can choose any influence, including the War God Family.


    "For me, the War God Family is just a stepping stone. If I can''t even handle this stuff, I will be nothing in front of the world." Theo snorted, shifting the focus from Lorenzo to the War God Family.


    For Carmelo, however, this was more important than Lorenzo. After all, their backer indeed wanted to fight against the War God Family.


    If they could take care of Lorenzo and make Theo mess with the War God Family, the moment Theo left them in the future, they would be able to attack the War God Family with confidence. There was no way Theo would sacrifice himself for the War God Family.


    ''Still, he''s dangerous to be kept alive. I will take advantage of his presence to mess with the War God Family, and when the chance arrives, I will eliminate him.'' Carmelo smiled inwardly, thinking, ''You''re going to y ording to my n.''


    Theo, on the other hand, didn''t hesitate to rise from his seat and walked away. "I believe this is enough, right?"


    "Of course. Let me ask someone to drive you to your hotel."


    "There''s no need. I don''t like someone near me if they don''t have any business with me." Theo mmed the door and walked away.


    Carmelo smiled as he returned to his seat while muttering in a low voice. "Good, good. Everything is ording to the n."


    Little did he know, Ava''s intelligence wasn''t like a normal pet. The reason why he left the room after inciting his greed was to make Carmelo drop his guard.


    And that was sessful as Ava tapped Theo''s check twice as the signal that Carmelo had taken the bait.


    It was at this moment that Theo smiled, albeit inwardly.

 Chapter 693 – Chaotic Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 693 - Chaotic Meeting</h4>


    Just like how they predicted, a few hourster after the agreement, the Pata Corporation immediately held a board meeting.


    Boris was sitting before all his shareholders with a grim expression.


    "What is the meaning of this? What the heck did you do to incur the wrath of that maniac, Theodore Griffith?!" One of them suddenly stood up while mming the table in anger.


    "I don''t even know." Boris widened his eyes in shock. "I also just got informed about this."


    "I didn''t do anything to him�� Maybe it was all of you who did something to him and my Pata Corporation needed to take the hit." Boris attacked back while gritting his teeth, showing his anger.


    However, one of them suddenly shouted and said, "It''s because of you, Boris! Why did you even hide Agata from him?! It''s her good fortune that a big figure like him has taken an interest in your daughter.


    "If not because of you being very adamant in not marrying off your daughter, this won''t happen."


    Another person also rose andined, "I have been given an ultimatum because of you. They''re going to destroy everything if I don''t back away. I don''t care about the contract anymore. I will give you ten Billion Zils for breaching the contract. As long as mypany can survive, I can get those ten Billion Zils again!"


    Without hesitation, that man turned around and walked away.


    "What the heck are you doing?" Boris shouted as his forehead was covered with sweat. He tried to stop him from leaving the door by locking the door with his Magic Power.


    But the man felt offended and shouted, "Boris! I know that you are a Mythical Rank Expert, but you won''t be able to keep me here even if you kill me.


    "You''re going to pay a huge price if you dare to kill me because you will lose all the trust of other shareholders."


    Boris didn''t take it as he said, "You''re lying. There''s still no proof that Theodore Griffith joined them."


    The man snorted and opened his Skylink. He showed the contract between Theo and Carmelo. "This is enough proof."


    The contract stated two things.


    First, Theo would help the Safulli Group acquire the Pata Corporation by "all means."


    Second, the Safulli Group would leave the Mota Family alone for two weeks after the acquisition and allowed him to do everything he wanted. In exchange, he wouldn''t touch the Safulli Group and the Pata Corporation afterward.


    The signature of Theo and Boris, along with the picture of them together, already proved that the document was authentic.


    Boris'' body trembled as he closed his eyes for a moment before retracting his Magic Power.


    With this proof, if he killed that man, other shareholders would also leave the group whether they were allies or enemies. If he forced them to stay and agreed with him, they could just fake it until they could fight back.


    So, the most reasonable approach would be letting him leave.


    "Kh��" Another man was biting his lips as he remembered how Carmelo personally threatened him. If he didn''t leave Pata Corporation, he would destroy his entire family, including his life.


    Now that they had Theo, who could even do that much damage to the Czar, Carmelo''s words weren''t an empty threat anymore.


    He gritted his teeth and sighed, "I am sorry. I will let you buy my price for a low price but�� I need to leave the Pata Corporation."


    Another person walked out of the room with his head down.


    Boris was panting as if he was trying to calm his raging heart down.


    "Instead of escaping, we should fight back. No matter what, it''s not easy for the Safulli Group to destroy us. As long as I can ask for help, I should be able to handle this." Boris tried to calm the situation down.


    But Theo''s reputation seemed to be working a bit stronger as another guy stood up. "I will also leave thepany too. I have a few other projects, so I can''t afford to lose everything.


    "I''m sure that you, as the CEO of thispany, know what it means to have Theodore Griffith in your back. They will also target yourpany along with those who you work with." The guy let out a long sigh and left.


    "Are you seriously scared of a kid?" Boris mmed the table and raised his voice. "No matter what, he''s still an 18 years old kid! Aren''t you overestimating him a little bit?


    "We can still work this out as long as we unite. I should be able to ask the pope for another help. With this, we should be able to stop even that Theodore Griffith.


    "If we copse just by hearing his name, this just portrays how weak we are! This is going to affect your business too." Boris exined, raising their morale.


    He somehow managed to stop others from leaving. However, it still hurt to see three out of 14 board members leave right after hearing Theo''s name.


    "This is a serious problem and I will make sure we can push through this." Boris gritted his teeth and continued. "Just give me two days. My daughter should be able to handle this."


    "Why don''t you just marry her off to Theodore Griffith? This problem will be solved and everyone will be happy."


    "What did you say? Why don''t you just send your daughters, granddaughters, or even your wife to be his sex ves?" Boris shouted back.


    The man didn''t like it and stood up, entering a staring battle with Boris. Ultimately, he backed away and left while saying, "You have two days. If there''s no hope, I''m leaving. I don''t want mypany to be affected by this."


    "Kh." Boris pinched the bridge of his nose. To think that the meeting became heated with just a single mention about Theo''s participation. "If you don''t have a solution, you''re dismissed."


    With those words, a few of them immediately rose from their seats and left the room as they wanted to go back to their ownpany and prepared for the worst, leaving Boris to fend for himself alone.


    However, it turned out four men still remained in the room, looking at Boris.

 Chapter 694 – Three Groups

    <h4>Chapter 694 - Three Groups</h4>


    The four men, who remained behind, looked at Boris with serious expressions. Boris noticed their presence and looked at them. "Why are you four still here? I have said that the meeting is over."


    One of them hurriedly replied, "Please don''t say something like that. I have been with thepany since your father''s era. No matter what, I won''t abandon thispany."


    "That''s right. It''s not that easy to destroy the bond we have formed between us." Another guy nodded furiously.


    "Thispany has nurtured me since I was young. My life and death will be together with thepany."


    Boris widened his eyes and smiled. "You guys��"


    When they were about to engage in a conversation, thest guy snorted beforeughing. "Hahaha�� That''s impossible. You all have chosen death."


    All of them turned around, looking at this middle-aged man.


    "What did you say?" The oldest one red at him and stepped forward.


    "I already told you that you wouldn''t be able to gain anything. You have been checkmated the moment Theodore Griffith sides with us." The guy harrumphed. His tone was filled with confidence.


    "You��" Boris narrowed his eyes and realized who the guy was. "Tell that bastard that he wouldn''t be able to acquire thispany even with Theodore Griffith''s help. If you don''t leave now, I will beat you up."


    "Come! Beat me up!" The guy wasn''t afraid of Boris as he pointed at the small camera on the corner of his pocket. "Sir Carmelo has been watching you this whole time. And you three�� Prepare to receive the retribution from opposing the Safulli Group."


    Boris gritted his teeth and raised his hand, channeling his Magic Power to hit the guy''s stomach, blowing him away.


    "Gah!" The guy rolled a few times on the ground and raised his head as soon as he recovered. There was only hatred remaining in his expression.


    Boris snorted and said, "Whatever you do, mypany won''t copse. You should prepare yourself because I''m not going to remain silent."


    The guy snorted before hearing something from his Skylink. He ultimately stomped the ground and left the room.


    On the other hand, Boris looked at the three with a smile. Inwardly, he felt very sad when he realized there were only three loyal partners in thispany.


    He gritted his teeth and said, "Don''t worry. I''m going to protect you with all my might."


    "I need to call someone first��" Boris sighed and walked away, calling Agata.


    "Hello, Dad? Do you need anything from me?" Agata''s voice resounded from the Skylink, piquing the three guys'' interest.


    "Yeah. I need your help again��" Boris pinched the bridge of his nose and said with a troubled tone.


    Even Agata fell silent for a moment and asked, "Okay, what happened?"


    "Actually, Theodore Griffith has joined hands with the Safulli Group."


    "What?! Theo has joined hands with them? Why did I not know any of this?"


    "I am not very sure. That''s why I want to ask for your help. Can you ask the pope for another favor? I don''t mind paying the price as long as I can contend with the Safulli Group." Boris exined his n with a calm tone.


    "This�� I am not very sure whether I can meet the pope or not. What''s the time limit?"


    "We only have two days before thepany receives a massive hit."


    "Two days?" Agata''s shocked voice echoed, making everyone doubt whether thepany could survive or not.


    "Yes. I''m afraid Theodore Griffith won''t make us rest in the next few days. As long as we can get the pope''s help within two days, I have confidence in defending thepany."


    "Two days are too short. I don''t even know whether I can meet him or not, let alone asking for a favor��"


    "Please�� We truly have no way out." Boris pleaded.


    "I�� I will try." Agata''s voice was weak as if she had given up. She immediately hung up the call.


    When the three guys heard their conversation, a doubt arose in their hearts.


    The oldest guy patted Boris'' shoulder and smiled. "Don''t worry. I will be here for you. Even if everything fails, if you need a ce to seek refuge, you cane to my ce."


    "Thank you." Boris smiled and gently hugged him, showing his appreciation.


    "It''s fine. I have been here since you were still learning from your father�� I can''t help but consider you as my own son. So, no need to hold back and rely on me." The old guy smiled and continued. "Anyway, I will return first. Seeing that bastard there, I''m sure that the Safulli Group will target me next, so I will put up a countermeasure first."


    "Yes." Boris nodded with a serious expression.


    The other two also approached Boris and assured him that he would stand beside him to solve this problem.


    After thanking them, Boris sat down on his seat alone.


    "Uuh��" Boris facepalmed, not having the energy to handle this. Although Theo had told him to prepare for something like this, it still hurt to know that hispany could easily be shaken like this.


    ''As expected, those who left first seemed to be somehow loyal to me, but because of the pressure from the Safulli Group, they decided to leave. For now, I will put them in the second group.


    ''As for those who left thest, I could consider them as the first group. I should be able to trust them, but I need to make sure none of them is affiliated with the Safulli Group.


    ''Last but not least, the third group�� They''re the most dangerous. After everything is over, I won''t do any business with them anymore.


    ''Either way, the first phase is nowpleted. It''s going to be a hellish two weeks, but this is what I need to ensure the family''s safety��


    ''s, I really want to know that guy''s n�� Why did he choose to mess with thispany?'' Boris looked down as he spent his time contemting the reason but to no avail.


    He came up with several things, but the end results weren''t that good, so he didn''t know what Theo was thinking.

 Chapter 695 – Mysterious Box

    <h4>Chapter 695 - Mysterious Box</h4>


    While they were having so much to talk about, the panicked Agata was sitting in Theo''s garden. And the worst part was the fact she was sitting in front of the famous War Saint, Leonardo.


    "Hoh, that''s an interesting thing to hear." Leonardo squinted his eyes when he heard the call. And seeing Agata''s face was enough to know what happened.


    "Interesting?" Agata frowned. "What do you mean? He told me that he wanted to bring the Safulli Group down and my Pata Corporation would be a big part of his n.


    "However, I couldn''t understand why he decided to join hands with the Safulli Group. Why did he make the enemy stronger?" Agata looked down and muttered, "At the same time, thepany is also experiencing turmoil right now.


    "He told me that he''s going to save thepany, but if it''s destroyed, then how can it be saved?"


    Agata waspletely perplexed, not understanding Theo''s n.


    Leonardo noticed the box next to her and asked, "What''s that box for?"


    "Oh, this?" Agata handed it to Leonardo and said, "This is for you. He told me that I should give this to you today. I don''t know what''s inside."


    "I see. Let me take a look." Leonardo reached for the box and slightly opened the lid before his face turned serious.


    "Sir Leonardo?" Agata didn''t know why Leonardo suddenly fell silent even though it was just a box. She wanted to think there was something that could charm Leonardo inside, but he was still the strongest man in Italy; she didn''t believe Theo had something like that.


    So, she was wondering what the content of the box was.


    Leonardo reached for the paper on top of the thing inside and read it carefully.


    It only took him thirty seconds to read the message, but the letter managed to stun Leonardo for five minutes.


    Suddenly, as if the gears had started clicking with each other, Leonardoughed uncontrobly. "Hahahahahaha!"


    "Sir?" Agata couldn''t understand Leonardo''s reaction.


    Instead of giving the paper for her to learn, Leonardo simply put it back into the box and keptughing. "This brat�� Hahaha! He''s like a demon. Oh boy, he''s going to have a hard time in the future, but then again, I''m afraid he''s going to be a demon lord��"


    "Sir?" Agata called him again, trying to get his attention.


    Leonardo simply waved his hand and said, "Well, did he contact someone in your family? In this situation�� Maybe your father?"


    "Yes. He contacted my father and told me that no one except my father should know about this." Agata confirmed his suspicion without hesitation.


    "Oh, boy. I can only say that he is the bad guy now. If you truly don''t do anything, he will surely destroy your Pata Corporation into pieces." Leonardo chuckled. "Not that I care much about the state of the world, but yeah, your father wants you to do something, right?


    "You should fulfill it. In fact, why don''t you just go to your father and help him? He''s not going to survive if he fights Theo alone."


    "Huh?" Agata was bewildered by his statement.


    "I am not lying. It''s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. All I can say is that�� You will be enemies from now on. Don''t ever think about being friends." Leonardo smirked.


    "What?"


    "I already told you everything you need to know. The rest will be up to you. Also, your Pata Corporation is nothing but a stepping stone. That''s all." Leonardo smiled and waved his hand. "Bye bye. See youter in two weeks."


    Agata obviously couldn''t believe what she just heard. However, if what Leonardo said was true, it meant herpany was indeed in danger.


    She immediately took out her Skylink and called her father. "Dad!"


    "How is it? Have you gone to the Church yet?"


    "No, not yet!"


    "Oh God�� Please go there right now."


    "Is this something really serious?"


    "Yeah. I will try to maintain thepany, but it''s going to be troublesome in the next few days. So, I hope that you can make your way to the Church." He paused for a moment. "Anyway, I need to handle many things. We can talkter�� Bye."


    For the first time, Agata panicked as the person she loved truly wanted to destroy her familypany.


    She was wondering whether Theo had betrayed her or not, but she still remembered that Theo told her to believe in him.


    "Kh." Agata hurriedly rose from the ground and left the mansion. "What the heck is happening here��"


    She truly didn''t know anything about this, hoping that Theo, indeed, had some ns.


    Meanwhile, Leonardo was watching her leave with a smile on his face.


    "For the first time in my life, I have seen someone like this. I taught him how to be a strategist, but I never knew that he wasn''t suited to be one." Leonardo shook his head helplessly.


    He took out his Skylink and called someone. "Yeah, it''s me. I want you toe to Theo''s mansion now. Yeah, NOW!"


    Five minutester.


    The head of the War God Family, Marzio Guerrero, came before him.


    "Father, do you need anything from me?"


    Leonardo pointed at the box and said, "Take a look at that box and you will know."


    Marzio frowned and looked at the white box. He approached it and opened the lid.


    Just like Leonardo, Marzio was stunned for twice as long. After understanding the content, he looked at Leonardo with a shocked face. "Father�� Is this from Theo?"


    "Yeah."


    "��" Marzio was taken aback.


    "You should thank your son. This is a perfect example of ''task failed sessfully.'' Hahaha." He smirked.


    "He indeed failed the challenge I had prepared for him, but due to that, the entire situation would be overturned soon��" Marzio nodded with a serious face.


    Leonardo smirked and clutched his hands. "Marzio! This is the time we strike back. Don''t pull your punch."


    "I won''t." Marzio furiously nodded and said, "I will make sure to see this through."


    "Good. Take that box and do whatever you need to do."


    After another nod, Marzio took that box and disappeared.

 Chapter 696 – Help

    <h4>Chapter 696 - Help</h4>


    Agata rushed to the Church as she needed to meet the pope within two days.


    It took her a whole day to reach the Church, and she was exhausted beyond belief.


    "Huft�� Huft��" Agata panted a few times when she reached the Church before calling her best friend.


    "Hello?"


    "Enrica, I''m outside," said Agata with a tired voice.


    "Outside, eh? What?" Enrica was obviously not prepared for this kind of statement. The moment she checked, she truly saw Agata standing outside.


    Without hesitation, she immediately came to her and asked, "Why did youe here? I thought you were supposed�� Never mind, let me heal you first so your stamina can recover."


    "There''s no time�� I want to ask for your favor�� Can you help me again? I want to ask the pope to help my parents again." Agata was desperate as if she believed what her father told her.


    She had been thinking about Theo''s n, but none of them actually led to a happy ending. Herpany would always go bankrupt because of this, so she truly panicked, thinking Theo might identally hit them too hard.


    Enrica''s face turned pale as she asked, "What did you say? You want my teacher''s help?"


    "Yes. I truly need it. If not, thepany will go under."


    "That''s��" Enrica looked down with a disappointed face.


    "Don''t tell me��"


    "Yes." Enrica nodded. "My teacher is not here. He''s doing something in another ce�� I think you have seen the news too?"


    Agata dropped to her knees as she fell into despair. "No way. Did he miscalcte everything? There''s no way he does something like this��"


    "By the way, where is Theo? I''m sure he''s reliable enough to save yourpany, right?" Enrica asked.


    "That''s��" Agata looked down, not having that answer.


    Feeling the anxiety in her heart, Enrica said, "Let me call my teacher first. Maybe it''s still possible."


    She tried to call the pope and surprisingly managed to connect. "Teacher?"


    "Yeah? What happened? It''s rare for you to call me." The pope''s voice was gentle and soothing.


    "Actually, Agata is with me right now and she wants your help. Herpany might go down if not."


    "Hmm?" The pope fell silent for a moment and said, "Is Theo the culprit?"


    "Eh? But Theo is supposed to be��" Enrica stopped and took off her blindfold to see Agata with her eyes before realizing that Agata didn''t fake it. "That�� might be the case."


    "It seems to be so. Do you remember what I told you about him?"


    "We''re ipatible."


    "Yes. What I mean by ipatible is the fact that we shouldn''t get involved with each other. So, I''m afraid I can''t do anything."


    "But if it''s Teacher, I know you can do something about this."


    "No. I don''t need to be involved in this matter. You might not be able to see it, but I can see the kindness in his heart�� That''s why you should trust him more. Alright, that''s all I can say. I need to take care of other things."


    "But Teacher��!" She soon realized the pope had hung up. "��"


    There was no word exchanged for another minute as Agata unexpectedly calmed down after hearing the pope''s words.


    "He��" She suddenly remembered a scene that happened not long ago. At that time, he asked her to give him all information regarding the Safulli Group and Pata Corporation, including everyone involved.


    She indeed gave him the information, including the Church as Theo mentioned that she was also involved in the conflict.


    "Trust��" Agata gulped down as her heart calmed down a bit. "Things might not be like how I see it right now��"


    "What''s that?" Enrica couldn''t hear her mumbling and put back her Skylink.


    "I am sorry�� The real help that I truly need turns out to be his words��" Agata drew a gasp and looked at Enrica. "I need to go to another ce. Sorry and thank you! Let us meet againter because I''m going to be busy in the next two weeks."


    "Wha��!" Enrica saw Agata leaving again. She couldn''t even process what was happening as everything ended in an instant.


    She muttered her teacher''s words. "We''re ipatible�� If my life is going to be like this the whole time, I truly can''t stand it. Indeed, we''re truly ipatible."


    "Dad!" Agata, on the other hand, ran back to the station while calling her father.


    "Yeah? Have you reached the Church?"


    "Yes. Unfortunately, I couldn''t see him nor get his help."


    "Hmm?" Boris fell silent and asked with a serious tone. "Why do you sound so calm?"


    "There might be some catches in this situation. I am nning to sneak back home."


    "In that case, you should go to thepany. It''s better if you go back with me, so no one will be suspicious. I will drop the key near the car, so use it to sneak inside and wait for me."


    "Got it." Agata hurriedly went back to meet her family.


    It took her six hours, but she managed to sneak inside her father''s car before calling him.


    Knowing that his daughter was hiding in the backseat, he asked, "So, have you realized something?"


    "Only two�� He must have predicted that I wouldn''t be able to get the pope''s help and I almost forgot that he didn''t like to owe someone a favor. So, I believe the situation is still salvageable. What did Theo say to you?"


    "It''s not something you should know." Boris refused to answer. If Theo indeed had a grand n, he thought he shouldn''t tell Agata about this and ended up disrupting his n.


    "Anyway, the problem won''t disappear even if you believe in him. So, I''m going to ask my connections to see whether they can help or not.


    "You too�� I think it''s not safe to go outside during this chaotic situation. It''s not like you''re going to meet Theo in the next two weeks, so I think you should hide inside the house ande up with a n or two."


    "I understand." Agata furiously nodded.


    "Good." Boris was also curious about Theo''s n, but he chose to follow his instruction while driving.


    Little did they know, they would get another surprise when they reached home.

 Chapter 697 – Explaining The Situation

    <h4>Chapter 697 - Exining The Situation</h4>


    As soon as they came home, a female in herte twenties approached the car.


    Boris immediately came out of the car and spread his arms. "I''m back."


    She smiled and hugged him. "Wee back. You must have worked hard. But it''s surprising to see you return this early�� We just had our lunch a moment ago."


    "Yeah. Something happens, so��" Boris opened the car''s door as Agata came out.


    "What? Agata?" Thedy was shocked because she knew that Agata was supposed to be learning in Theo''s house with Leonardo. So, the first thought that came into her mind was a vacation. "Did you get days off?"


    "Ehm��" Agata looked down, not knowing what to say.


    She started suspecting something was not right. She looked at Boris and asked, "What do you mean by this?"


    Boris scratched the back of his head and said, "I told you to invite the others to have dinner with us, right?"


    "Yeah. Some of them havee and we''re waiting for the rest." She nodded before frowning. "You''re nning to announce something bad?"


    Boris sighed and nodded, confirming her suspicion. "Anyway, I need all the Mythical Rank Experts in our family to assemble."


    "They''re already here. I am going to call those three��" She immediately left and asked, "In your study, right?"


    "Yeah."


    After seeing his wife rushing back into the house, Boris looked at Agata and said, "Either way, it''s been a while since you go home�� Although I want you to talk with the others, I need you in my study. So, yeah, follow me."


    "I know. Everything can be pushed back." Agata agreed without hesitation.


    They immediately headed back to Boris'' study room to talk with all Mythical Rank Experts.


    Some of the family members saw Agataing back, so they thought she got some time off and decided to return here. And the reason they were called was to celebrate this asion. However, Agata and Boris ignored them and hurriedly made their way upstairs.


    As soon as they reached Boris'' study room, Boris sat down on his usual chair and leaned back with a long face. "Ugh�� This is a headache. To think thepany is this easy to be broken. It''s hurt to know that yourpany that has been running for four decades can easily be shaken with just a single mention of someone''s name."


    "I can''t say anything." Agata sighed and said, "Though, Sir Leonardo gave me a few words�� I will tell you when everyone has gathered here."


    "Okay."


    Not long after she said that, four people entered, including Boris'' wife.


    After all, she was also one of the five Mythical Rank Experts that the family had.


    The other three experts were Agata''s aunt, uncle, and her grandfather''s student.


    "I am d that you all havee." Boris'' expression became grim when they saw all these faces.


    "Let''s cut to the chase. I have heard that Theodore Griffith hase to attack us. What do you mean by this? I heard that Agata��!" When the guy was about to explode, another guy stopped him.


    This calm-looking guy was her grandfather''s student, Stefano. "Please calm down first. There must be a reason for this, so we shall wait for the exnation from the family head."


    Her uncle, Efrem, agreed with his statement and patted her aunt, Ghita, on the back, asking her to calm down.


    "Let''s talk first before showing anger. We need to make a quick decision with a cool head in order to stop the damage. Okay?"


    Hearing those words stopped Ghita from talking as thetter took a deep breath to calm her heart down. "Sorry. I just don''t like this unexpected betrayal."


    Stefano made sure that Ghita didn''t burst out anymore before turning to Boris, asking, "So, Family Head, do you have anything to say for us?"


    "Let me summarize what happens to you. Theodore Griffith has joined hands with the Safulli Group. I have seen the contract stating he''s going to bring us down. It''s pretty real because the moment he fails, he will be crippled.


    "Hence, I think he''s indeed trying to smash thepany. I have been solidifying our defense and making sure our otherpanies don''t get the same fate.


    "For now, we really need to defend thepany with all our lives, so I have made a small n. First of all, I want you three to defend three of my biggest investors. They''re going to be our allies for the time being.


    "My wife will remain in this house to guard it against any danger. The only thing I can say is, I have made various preparations to stop everything. If my n works, within two weeks, I can control the situation.


    "If it doesn''t, thepany will indeed fall within two weeks. That''s all I have to say right now." Boris raised his hand and gave the time for them to speak.


    "Hmm? Only three?" Efrem squinted his eyes. "Why?"


    "It''s time for us to clean thepany as well. I am going to restructure thepany, so this is the first step to do it."


    "That''s not the time for this though."


    "I know. I mainly prepare for two things: saving thepany and the things I will do after that. If I don''t prepare for this, I''m afraid the others will attack us when ourpany is not stable."


    "That''s reasonable. Those people want us to fight the Safulli Group and take advantage of this muddy water. And now, if we copse and the Safulli Group swallow us, they won''t dare to make a move because Theo is there." Boris sighed.


    "Right�� I want to beat them!" Ghita nodded in agreement. "However, if you indeed have a n, then all I can do is to follow it. Even if you exin all your ns to me, I won''t understand a bit. So, this simple thing suits me more."


    "Thank you." Boris smiled and turned to Agata. "Before we continue, I want you to hear Agata."

 Chapter 698 – Interpretation

    <h4>Chapter 698 - Interpretation</h4>


    They were indeed curious about what Agata had to say. No matter what, Agata''s rtionship with Theo was good. They wondered if she did something that pissed Theo off.


    "I am not very sure about what he is nning to do right now because he doesn''t tell me anything. However, I do have four things that I want to tell you." Agata''s expression became serious.


    "Back when he heard about the family''s situation, he asked me what I wanted to do with the Safulli Group." Agata paused, creating suspense in the air.


    Ghita didn''t have patience, so she asked, "So, what did you tell him? You''re not going to say that it''s better for ourpany to be destroyed, right?"


    "Of course not. I told him that we''ll be fine as long as we''re not bullied anymore." She shook her head.


    "��" Stefano''s eyebrows twitched as he asked, "I know that it means you want him to protect thepany theoretically speaking�� but I believe it has another meaning that ispletely the opposite of what you want��


    "If thepany is gone, doesn''t this mean we won''t be bullied anymore?" Stefano asked with a troubled expression, wondering if this was the truth.


    "It shouldn''t be the case. Are you talking about the family or thepany?" Her mother, Rina, asked.


    "Family."


    "In that case, it shouldn''t be that way. Although destroying the family means there won''t be anything to be bullied anymore, Theo shouldn''t be someone like that unless you have pissed him off��" Rina squinted her eyes.


    "Our rtionship is good. I have made several mistakes, but our rtionship keeps progressing in a good direction." Agata shook her head.


    "For now, let''s stop at that. Continue to the next point." Boris stopped them and asked Agata.


    "Okay. Aside from the fact that he asked me that question��" Agata said, "He didn''t tell me anything and just left me a box for Sir Leonardo."


    "Huh? For what? What''s the content of that box?" Boris frowned.


    "I don''t know. I was not allowed to see it, and when Sir Leonardo opened it, he was stunned for a few minutes beforeughing uncontrobly. It was then he gave me a few pieces of advice.


    "First of all, he asked me whether he contacted someone from here. I told him it was my father and that was the breaking point. He told me that everything is going to be alright."


    When she mentioned it, everyone stared at Boris, wondering what they were talking about.


    "I can''t tell you anything�� At the same time, it''s not like he''s giving me his n." Boris raised his shoulders before taking out his Skylink, showing the call that onlysted for a minute. "Here is the call. Itsted for a minute�� Do you think he could exin hisplex n in a minute? And also, I am forbidden to tell the content to anyone."


    "This�� Can''t you just say it? I don''t know whether we should feel assured or not with this��"


    "That''s right. Why does he be our enemy if he wants to help us? If the contract is real, then we will be destroyed."


    "I am not sure." Boris shook his head helplessly.


    "Can you call him?" Stefano asked Agata.


    "No. I can''t reach him." Agata shook her head in disappointment. "However, Sir Leonardo told me that he is now the bad guy. If we don''t do anything, he will surely destroy thepany into pieces.


    "And I should follow my father''s orders to preserve thepany because he won''t survive if he fights Theo alone."


    "Oh, Sir Leonardo told you that? I don''t know whether I should feel happy or sad. On the one hand, he praised my soon to be son-inw. On the other hand, my pride hurts." Boris scratched the back of his head.


    Rina suddenly appeared behind him and pinched his ears. "Can you be more serious? The son-inw thing is just your imagination. Nothing is set for now, especially with this situation."


    "Sowwy��" Boris apologized as he tried to push her hands. After that, he said, "Anyway, I have made a few calls to contain the damage. And the most important thing will be those three investors. The Safulli Group might want to attack them first."


    "Don''t worry. Leave them to us." Efrem waved his hand, assuring him.


    "Then, Sir Leonardo also said, Theo and I will be enemies from now on. Don''t ever think about being friends�� and that Pata Corporation is nothing but a stepping stone." Agata suddenly fell silent as if she understood something.


    "Dear?" Rina and Boris furrowed their eyebrows.


    "I think we indeed need to be Theo''s enemies." Agata looked at them with a serious expression. "What he wants is to create amotion within our family and use the rtionship between him and me to amplify that effect.


    "However, we can''t afford to tell them that everything is going to be alright. Instead, we''re going to treat them like we know nothing about this and keep fighting him.


    "He must have predicted that Dad will send our experts to help others. In other words, we need to make everyone think that we''re facing Theo as the enemy. Theo might be able to get the Safulli Group''s trust because of this.


    "And the reason why Sir Leonardo told me this must be because he believes I will decipher his words and tell you this.


    "I am afraid we have been yed by Theo this whole time and these are the clues that he leaves behind for me, who has been learning from him the longest.


    "He knows that I will y ordingly. This is actually the third point I want to say today. Theo has predicted that I will go to the Church for help and they will reject me.


    "I am afraid if we don''t treat him as enemies, the n will copse and ourpany will indeed be destroyed into pieces." Agata looked at Boris and said, "Dad�� I think we need to make a countermeasure right now."


    Boris had a defeated expression on the outside but a smile on the inside�� ''This guy is indeed scary.''

 Chapter 699 – Bad News

    <h4>Chapter 699 - Bad News</h4>


    ''This guy is indeed scary.'' Boris thought as he remembered when Theo told him that he needed to resist him with everything he got. ''He must know that Agata would decipher this message.


    ''Basically, he made Agata tell this instruction to everyone while I need to keep mine a secret even though it''s the same as what he said. This way, everyone still thinks I have a trump card when I actually don''t��


    ''If everything is ording to his n, I don''t know what to call him. A genius, a freak, a monster? Nah, those titles are bad. I will just call him son-inw.'' Boris wasughing inside, wondering what he should do to slightly push the two together. He needed to make sure Agata could get him before any girls stole his heart.


    Luckily, Theo wasn''t someone who judged women by their looks. Agata would win nheless, but he might have a weird preference.


    So, since he preferred to build a rtionship instead of falling in love, Agata had the biggest progress out of otherpetitors.


    This thought alone made him smile as he became more and more shameless to acknowledge Theo as his son-inw, even if it meant only he knew about it.


    After calming his heart down and making sure he didn''t give away any information, Boris asked, "So, what''s thest thing you want to say?"


    Agata stopped for a moment and clutched her heart. "I trust Theo. Back in the goblin camp mission, trusting him was the best choice of my life because it literally changed my life, allowing me to get all this.


    "After being with him for months, I know that he won''t harm me. He''s the best guy that I can hope for�� So, I believe that no matter how dark our situation is, he will save us." Agata showed them a genuine expression.


    With just a single nce, they knew Agata truly meant those words.


    "��" Boris fell silent and nodded. "Okay. I, too, shall trust himpletely this time."


    "Thanks." Agata scratched the back of her head and looked down. Even though it was such a warm word, she truly couldn''t bring herself to be happy.


    "What happened? Why do you have such a long face?"


    "Actually, because I trust him that I know he''s going to hit thepany hard and that he will fulfill the contract." Agata made a troubled expression, not knowing what to say to her family that the man she loved indeed nned to bring them down.


    "Well, he must not mean to destroy ourpanypletely. That''s why Sir Leonardo said that we need to resist him with all we got." Stefano nodded. "Hence, I will follow the instructions of the family head for our glory."


    "Okay. I will leave my investors to you three and this family to you, Rina." Boris nodded. "I will take care of thepany."


    "Understood." Efrem, Ghita, and Stefano nodded in unison while Rina said, "It''s been a while since I wielded my weapon��"


    "Ahaha��" Boris gently rubbed his cheek with his finger before his Skylink vibrated.


    The call took everyone''s attention as they stayed for a bit longer to hear the content.


    Boris also knew about it and epted the call, putting it on the speaker. "Yeah, what is it?"


    "Sir, we have a problem. Our stock is plummeting!"


    "What?" Boris widened his eyes and shouted. "What''s happening?"


    "Look at the news! What do we need to do?"


    Rina took out her Skylink and opened the news before finding a video about them.


    "The statement that shocks all of us. The Mashon Company has decided to pull back from the mega project that the Pata Corporation has. This will bring a great impact to bothpanies and the anger from all the investors in this project."


    They even had the CEO of the Mashon Company to speak. "I would like to apologize to the public, but the Pata Corporation has betrayed our trust. After many considerations, with a heavy heart, I need to pull back from this investment."


    "After being struck by the news from the Mashon Company, the Trion Company is also dering to pull back from the cooperation between them and the Pata Corporation."


    "There is also��"


    "This is from��"


    Many news suddenly appeared, making the stock market fall in turmoil as the people lost their trust in Pata Corporation. The investors didn''t hesitate to pull back and chose to cut their loss with this.


    "Sir, we have seen a huge turmoil in the stock exchange. There are people buying the stocks inrge numbers!" Boris'' assistant shouted in panic.


    "Use all the funds we have to buy our own stock too. Don''t let the price drop any further!" Boris immediately shouted back as his face became pale.


    They never thought that the attack woulde so suddenly.


    "I will try to get more money to stay afloat!" Boris gritted his teeth and hung up before looking at the five people before him. "I need you three to head to our investors right now. The Safulli Group�� Or Theo won''t wait for us to regain our ground."


    "Y-yes." Efrem, Ghita, and Stefano immediately left the room.


    Boris then looked at Rina. "I need you to handle the situation in the family. Outside is dangerous right now, especially since the media will target us. I will go back to thepany to deal with this."


    "Y-yes." Rina nodded furiously.


    Boris didn''t hesitate to revolve his Magic Power and headed back to thepany with his power while thinking, ''Is this Theo''s n? Or is this the Safulli Group''s n? They''re nning to use public opinion to bring down ourpany.


    ''I am afraid some of them have chosen to join their side, so they might be able to get enough shares to kick me out of thepany. This is not good. I need to deal with this, and I''m going to need a huge amount of money.


    ''Where can I find this amount of money? Kh, This is truly not good�� What should I do?'' Boris gritted his teeth.

 Chapter 700 – Over

    <h4>Chapter 700 - Over</h4>


    The news was unstoppable. They were spreading like wildfire.


    "Sorry, Boris. I can''t do this."


    Boris, who had been calling all the people he knew, gritted his teeth.


    "Useless bastards." Boris mmed his desk while gritting his teeth.


    "Sir." His assistant entered the room with a serious expression. "We have suppressed the news to a certain extent, but the news has spread to everywhere. It''s hard to track down all of them at once��"


    "I know. We can''t really do this��" Boris looked down, contemting his choice.


    "But the worst part is�� five of our shareholders have sold their shares to the Safulli Group. Along with those in public, the Safulli Group has acquired around 20 percent of the total share."


    "This is not good��" Boris gritted his teeth and thought, ''I have 35 percent shares with me, but if they''re aiming at my position, they''re going to approach more shareholders.


    ''If they can surpass me, thepany will be theirs�� For now, I have three loyal supporters. If I have their help, I will have 43 percent. And with the 4 percent that I somehow acquire while increasing the price, I have 47 percent.


    ''But the real problem is we don''t have more money. I can''t purchase more shares than this or thepany will copse. Meanwhile, the Safulli Group will continue acquiring my shareholders, including those in public markets.


    ''This is not good��'' Boris pinched the bridge of his nose and asked, "What''s the situation?"


    "I am afraid they''re going to continue buying all our shares and eventually get thepany under their control." The assistant frowned. "The trades still continue and the news doesn''t have any sign of stopping.


    "If this continues, I''m afraid sooner orter we will be out of business." The assistant exined with a serious expression.


    "Kh. I will try to call a few more people. Monitor every single progress and report it to me."


    "I understand." The assistant hurriedly left and continued his work.


    "It''s just two days after he''s gone and the situation has be like this��" Boris muttered with a stressed voice. He truly didn''t know what Theo was nning to do at this point. However, he could already see the end of his reign in thispany.


    "Resist him with all his might, huh�� That''s easier said than done when you''re using the Safulli Group''s influence to do this." Boris shook his head, trying to reconsider the situation to find a way out.


    The time went by and Boris still hadn''t gotten any solution that could stop the entire situation. The stock kept going down, making him go crazy.


    The media was staying in front of hispany the whole time as they were nning to get a good scoop.


    Sadly for them, Boris didn''t n to go out. He hid in thepany since going out would just cause another weird news to be spread.


    Still, due to the constant influx of pressure, the employees began to be stressed by the situation.


    Some of them even gave their notice, preparing to leave thepany. This was enhanced with bad rumors about thepany that was obviously spread by the spies from the Safulli Group.


    And many other influences who nted their own spies here also increased the intensity of the rumors, creating unrest inside thepany.


    This was Theo''s next move. He had instructed them to make a disturbance to force the employees to leave thepany.


    If thepany had a massive turnover rate, their workflow would gradually be disrupted and failures would start appearing from all over thepany.


    Boris never expected Theo to be this vicious, especially when he saw the Safulli Group had acquired 25 percent of their shares. If this continued, they would be able to get thepany within another ten days, just like how Theo predicted that two weeks were all he needed to settle everything.


    Boris thought this was it, but Theo surpassed his imagination.


    His mercilessness knew no bounds because, on the sixth day, he asked the Safulli Group to create trouble from within.


    In other words, the spies they had nted inside thepany made thepany look bad in public by showing the oppression, the treatment, and other stuff.


    The citizens didn''t know the fact that the boss who oppressed them was the spy and the one whoined was also one. In other words, they were in cahoots just to make thepany look bad.


    The news about those investors that pulled out their investment was brought back to light.


    This created one big question in everyone''s mind.


    ''Why?''


    The public wanted to know why the investors actually left thepany even if it meant they lost money.


    With the limited information, they started connecting the dots between the investors and thepany''s problems.


    It was at that instant, the news blew up.


    Eight days barely passed and the situation was close to the worst. The Safulli Group managed to acquire 35 percent of their assets, rapidly increasing due to the public''s misunderstandings.


    At this time, police even came to investigate thepany because the citizens were protesting against thepany and even boycotting them.


    This led to a sharp fall for Boris as all his shareholders, except the loyal three, had left him to join the Safulli Group.


    It took only another two days for the Safulli Group to acquire another 10 percent.


    There were only 2 percent gaps left between their shares and Boris'' shares.


    If Boris didn''t do anything, thepany would be taken over by the Safulli Group.


    This just created a euphoria for the citizens because the Safulli Group looked clean on the outside, like how Theo got the report about them not having many enemies or bad rumors.


    Finally, on the eleventh day, everything was over.


    Boris, who was still sitting in his office, got a sudden visitor. It wasn''t even a polite visitor as the guy kicked the door open with a smug face.


    Boris gritted his teeth and red at the man. "Carmelo!"


    That was right. The visitor was none other than Carmelo. On the eleventh day, he managed to acquire all the shares he needed to take over thepany.


    And the one who provided thest share was none other than the old man who once assured him that he wouldn''t leave.


    "You!" Boris widened his eyes in despair.


    "If only you were more brilliant than your father�� It''s a pity��" The old man looked away.


    "Oh, Boris�� How about greeting the new owner of thepany?" Carmelo smirked.


    At the same time, Boris'' Skylink vibrated, indicating that someone had called him. And the name of the caller was none other than his own family.


    Efrem.


    "Sorry, Boris. Everything is over�� I couldn''t prevent the old man from betraying you."

 Chapter 701 – Call

    <h4>Chapter 701 - Call</h4>


    "It''s over, Boris." Carmelo''s smile became even bigger when he heard that call. He said with a sad expression. "Oh, Theodore Griffith intentionally came to your front door and you decided not to ept him.


    "Instead, you threw him out�� If it were me, I would have epted him with an open arm. If he wanted my daughter, I would cut down everyone who refused." Carmelo smirked. "He''s a genius. Just take a look at your situation.


    "I haven''t been able to take yourpany despite my preparations. And everything is solved within eleven days.


    "This is the man you have thrown away." Carmelo snorted and looked down on him. "Unlike you, I know when to take the opportunity. So�� Enjoy your time."


    Carmelo walked toward Boris and mmed the table. "I give you one more chance. Since Theodore Griffith wants you to suffer for another two weeks, you can bring your entire family in front of me. I might be able to save you. Understood?"


    Boris looked down while gritting his teeth. He clenched his hands and put pressure on the table until it started to crack.


    His Magic Power began to leak, creating pressure in the room.


    However, Carmelo also released his own power, not afraid of him. "Ah, I forgot to tell you one thing. At the shareholder meeting, we have dismissed you from this position and I shall be the new leader. So, scram."


    Boris rose from his seat and red at him. His boundless anger was reflected in his eyes, but Boris decided to swallow his pride and walked to the door.


    Before leaving, he took another look at the old man who betrayed him. "Both of you are going to regret this."


    "It''s you who will regret this." Carmelo snorted, knowing that Theo hadn''t finished ying with them yet.


    Boris dejectedly left thepany, wondering if this was all Theo''s n.


    Still, he never expected that Theo indeed crushed theirpany this easily.


    He opened his Skylink and called Agata.


    "Dad!"


    "Sorry, Dear. I couldn''tplete the task Theo had given me. This is a failure." Boris gritted his teeth. "I will be going home now."


    Without anyone knowing, Boris used his power to go back to his house, recalling all the Mythical Rank Experts he had dispatched.


    When he returned and met with the other Mythical Rank Experts, he lowered his head and said, "I''m sorry. It''s my fault that this happens��"


    "Don''t tell me��" Stefano''s face became pale.


    "Yes. The Safulli Group has more shares than me now and has be the leader of thepany now." Boris nodded with regret.


    "I''m sorry, I couldn''t stop that old man��" Efrem gritted his teeth and apologized.


    "No need. The old man must have nned to leave me from the beginning. In other words, there are only two loyal investors in the first ce. Now that I have lost my power, they''re going to suffer too." Boris let out a long sigh.


    When everyone looked down, Agata suddenly received a call.


    "Eh?" Agata widened her eyes in shock, never expecting to see the guy that caused all this to call her. "Theo?"


    That name immediately grabbed everyone''s attention.


    "What? Did that bastard still call you? The audacity of that bastard!" Ghita gritted her teeth.


    "Well, are you together with the others right now?"


    "Y-yes," Agata answered. "Theo�� Did��!"


    Before she continued, Theo said, "Put me in speaker."


    Although Agata didn''t know why Theo wanted to talk with the others, she still let him talk.


    "You bastard. Have you gone insane? Now that we have lost thepany, what are you going to do? I''m going to rip you apart!" Ghita couldn''t contain her anger.


    "Hahaha. What are you talking about? I told you that everything will be resolved in two weeks, right?"


    "And do you think we could survive that long?"


    "Of course not. I think you have missed one point. I''m sure Agata has told you about the message from Sir Leonardo, right? What''s Pata Corporation to me?"


    "A stepping stone��" Agata looked down and murmured in a low voice.


    "Exactly. Haha."


    "Can you stopughing?" Boris asked politely. "I still don''t understand what you''re nning to do, especially when you said that word to me."


    "Oh, I think you can share it with others now."


    "It''s exactly the same as what you expect my daughter to tell the others. I have fought you with all I''ve got!" Boris bit his lips.


    "Yeah. The only reason I told you only that was because I knew that you would be defeated."


    "What?" Boris rose from his seat.


    "What do you expect? You''re fighting me, fully knowing that thepany that will attack you is none other than a cleanpany without any problem. There''s no way you can win since you can''t exploit their bad images. Basically, acquiring yourpany is nothing but assured. And unlike you, they don''t have many enemies."


    "Are you mocking us?" Ghita shouted and stepped forward, wanting to crush the Skylink.


    "Nope. I just want to tell you that do you want to be like them? Apany without many enemies? In fact, your reputation is going to surpass them."


    "What do you mean?" Boris frowned.


    "Well, before that, I want you to send three Mythical Rank Experts to kill Carmelo in his office in the Safulli Group. I will take care of the rest�� So, who''s up to turn the situation around?"


    "What do you mean? Now that we''re in this situation, we can''t really go out right now."


    "Do I need to be blunt when telling you my n?" Theo let out a long sigh. "If they looked like a hero without enemies in public''s eyes, I just needed to create the enemies and make him the public enemies.


    "And now, you shall be the heroes and y these viins. So, yeah. It''s time to eliminate Carmelo along with his Safulli Group. That''s all I can say�� The rest will be exined in the news, bye."


    Theo didn''t hesitate to hang up as the room fell silent.


    Boris nced over to his wife as if signaling her to open the news.


    She nodded and took out her Skylink before they all dropped their jaws to the ground.

 Chapter 702 – Real Plan

    <h4>Chapter 702 - Real n</h4>


    "The Safulli Group turns out not to be as we expected them to be. We have acquired the document about illegal and inhumane experiments rted to the Safulli Group."


    "This document has been published by the War God Family along with the pictures and videos on that ce."


    "Unfortunately, we need to censor all this thing, but we truly can see that the entire facility is inhumane."


    "The documents have been signed by none other than the leader of the Safulli Group, Carmelo."


    "ording to the information, he tried to shut the Pata Corporation up because they wanted to show their wrongdoings to the public for justice."


    "So, the Safulli Group sabotaged them and made them look bad in front of the public."


    "This was the reason for the fall of the Pata Corporation. It turns out we had been lied to by the Safulli Group."


    "And the reason why they could do something this inhumane was because they have someone that supported them this whole time. Their supporter is none other than France Leading Company, Barbe Group."


    No matter how many times they changed the channels, everything was showing the news about the Safulli Group.


    One of the top ten influences in Italy, Ongaro Company, even sent their representative and dered. "Such inhumane experiments need to be dealt with immediately. If the police need our support, we have prepared to send our people to help them. Even if we are apany, we still have the strength to help justice."


    Another top ten influence also stated, "To think the Pata Corporation has been suppressed for doing the good thing�� I can''t help but show my sympathy to them. Boris is the true owner of the Pata Corporation. I will do my best to help him in the future."


    All top ten influences were saying all the bad things about Carmelo and the Safulli Group.


    To their surprise, even the Pietro Family and Baio Underworld Group helped restore Boris'' name.


    But most importantly, the Church also got involved.


    This time, it was Enrica who got interviewed.


    "Yes. Back then, I witnessed the real sh between Sir Leonardo and the World ss Monster. If Theo didn''t help us by bringing Sir Leonardo to that ce, I am afraid we would have died.


    "Not only that, the World ss Monster even stated that he would bring many King ss Monsters and destroy Italy. In other words, without Theo''s help, we might experience the Saffagis Night once again�� The night where the monsters destroyed and turned the entire capital city into a wastnd, resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties.


    "And I am sad that I never realized that my best friend, Agata Mota, whose family led the Pata Corporation, had been fighting alone all this time. I am a failure as her best friend and I would like to show some support to her right now."


    They interviewed the Holy Knights that were on the same mission and got surprised because one of them stated, "Yeah. I was there and saw the sh between Sir Lorenzo and the World ss Monster.


    "It was amazing beyond belief. Suddenly, a huge dark cloud appeared on a sunny day and thunder began to reverberate in our ears.


    "I couldn''t see the figure behind the cloud, but I heard the deep voice behind it. It was the same as what the Saintess said. He would havee to us with a huge army.


    "At that time, a bolt of lightning struck forth and Sir Leonardo repelled it for us. And when it hit one of the hills, the entire hill was blown into smithereens. I have no words to exin my feelings back then and I can''t imagine what will happen if that monsteres to Italy."


    It was at this instant Agata couldn''t help butugh, realizing Theo''s n. "Hahahaha��"


    They all were bewildered and couldn''t speak.


    Agata said, "Back then, the top influences didn''t want to join hands with us to fight the Safulli Group because they didn''t have the reason.


    "Now that the Safulli Group had acquired the Pata Corporation with Theo''s help, indicating that their power was stronger than ever, even if they joined hands, they would surely stand no chance in fighting back.


    "So, with this, the Safulli Group had truly pointed their swords at all top influences'' necks except the War God Family and the Church, giving them a reason to coborate no matter the cost.


    "I believe Theo had even cooperated with either the Baio Underworld Group or Pietro Family. And I believed he forced them to coborate because if they were not, they would be judged as evil in the public''s eyes.


    "And now I could see the reason why Theo decided to bring Sir Leonardo to the goblin camp. He had foreseen this entire situation since back then.


    "The only reason he didn''t do anything until now was that he didn''t have any reason to attack them. It changed when the Safulli Group almost killed Lorenzo�� I also might be one of the reasons��


    "However, this is what he meant by telling us that thepany is just a stepping stone. What he wanted was to create a chaotic situation that forced all of these top influences to panic and band together because of this news. At the same time, he attacked the Barbe Group because they had a feud with the War God Family.


    "And as for why Sir Leonardo was stunned, he realized this was Theo''s n all along. He agreed to cooperate without hesitation because they truly wanted to fight back against the Barbe Group.


    "One more thing�� They chose to make a move at this time because��" Agata stopped and pointed at the news, interviewing Theo.


    "Hmm? What? The reason why I didn''t do anything until now? Why did you think I helped the Safulli Group? I just wanted to enter theirpany.


    "You want to me me? If I didn''t do all this, would you believe that the documents were real?


    "I don''t want Italy to be a wastnd, so I have no choice other than to do this. If you still want to scrutinize me, then I have no words to say."


    They all saw the normal response from Theo, who acted as a hero in front of the public, but controlled everyone from the darkness.

 Chapter 703: Turning Around the Situation

    <h4>Chapter 703: Turning Around the Situation</h4>


    The entire country was turned upside down with this news.


    As for Theo, no one knew of his position because the one who did the interview was none other than his clone.


    That was why this infuriated Carmelo so much.


    ��Carmelo, what the heck did you do to provoke that devil? Look at what you have done? We were implicated because of you!��


    ��I don��t know. Everything moved smoothly this whole time���� Carmelo gritted his teeth before he remembered what Boris told him before leaving thepany.


    ��You will regret this.��


    ��Wait a minute�� Don��t tell me�� Boris has been involved in his n this whole time?�� Carmelo widened his eyes.


    ��Boss, what should we do?�� His assistant came to him in panic. ��The police have surrounded this ce. The military has been mobilized as well. Our stock is also plummeting. We need you back in the main office to control everything.��


    ��Kh!�� Carmelo gritted his teeth. Theo chose this timing because he had gone all the way here to show off in front of Boris.


    And without him in the main office, the police wouldn��t hesitate in storming inside hispany and seizing everything. In other words, there was no chance of him controlling thepany anymore, and eventually, he needed to let everything go.


    Yes, thepany would be torn down within hours. It was even faster than how they dealt with Boris.


    ��You stall them. I��m going back to thepany. I can��t have the police find those things.�� Carmelo bit his lips and moved without hesitation. He didn��t have time to think about his choice.


    While he was moving, Carmelo had be the most wanted criminal in Italy, and all his Mythical Rank Experts had been surrounded because they had the ability to wreak havoc in Italy.


    If they didn��t get captured like what they had done to the Holy Knight��s father, there might be mass murders from these desperate Mythical Rank Experts.


    The police and military had moved all their avable Mythical Rank Experts and surrounded at least four out of fourteen Mythical Rank Experts from the Safulli Group.


    Due to the fact they wanted to contain the damage to the surroundings, they decided to coborate with other influences in apprehending the criminal.


    Among the top ten influences, Baio Underworld Group used their force to surround two Mythical Rank Experts. The Pietro Family also did the same while the War God Family and the Church helped by trapping another four Mythical Rank Experts.


    The remaining four of the top tried to track down Carmelo and thest Mythical Rank Experts.


    As Agata said, Theo had indeed cooperated with another influence. It was none other than the Baio Underworld Group.


    The leader of the group was a ck-haired middle-aged man. He was looking at the people who had gathered to surround Mythical Rank Experts.


    Suddenly, an old man came to him and asked, ��Sir, we are ready.��


    The leader closed his eyes and nodded, recalling the meeting he had with Theodore Griffith.


    Back then, he was staring at Theo��s clone with a serious expression.


    Theo simply stated. ��I will give you a way out. After looking at the document, I know that you aren��t involved that deeply in the goblin gene experiment. So, I will ask Sir Leonardo to cover your trace in that experiment.��


    ��Hmm? Do you think you can threaten us?��


    ��Yes, I do. Do you want to have a more miserable state than the Czar? Feel free to try? My n has been in the final stage. Whether you want to ept my deal or not, it��s up to you. Even if you don��t, I��m sure the Pietro Family will agree even if they��re not involved in this.��


    The leader gritted his teeth and red at him. ��What do you want from me?��


    ��The Safulli Group can be divided into two for both you and the Pietro Family. Their branches can be split for the other top ten influences. With this kind of reward, I��m sure you won��t have a problem with me asking you to get all the shares of the Pata Corporation for me, right?�� Theo smiled.


    ������ The leader raised his eyebrows. He never thought that not only did Theo give him an escape route, but he also provided him with enough reward. ��You�� There��s no reason for you to approach me with only this kind of benefit.��


    ��So, you want to decline my offer?��


    ��No, of course not. I promise you that if you did all this for us, I would do my best to fulfill the conditions you have set.��


    ��That��s good.�� Theo rose from his seat. ��As for my reason�� They almost killed the person whom I could call Brother����


    Clone Theo disappeared, leaving the leader speechless.


    Remembering this scene, he opened his eyes again and stated, ��Investigate Theodore Griffith thoroughly along with other War God Family��s members. Who among them is the closest to him�� Also, it��s time for us to capture at least two Mythical Rank Experts.��


    The leader sighed, realizing that those who befriended Theo would receive a great benefit and those who opposed him would face cmity. In that case, he had no reason to antagonize this devil. He continued, ��Also, one more thing�� Tell all our people. Whoever dares to provoke that devil, I will personally kill them.��


    ��Move out.��


    Other influences had also dispatched their strongest members to capture the Mythical Rank Experts from the Safulli Group.


    However, they didn��t know that Carmelo still moved ording to Theo��s n.


    The police had indeed surrounded the Safulli Group, but because of the timing, they had been gathering outside, leaving only a few people in the building.


    Carmelo immediately sneaked inside thepany and moved straight to his secret office hidden underneath the building to gather a few things before the police could find them.


    Little did he know, Ava had located this ce a long time ago. Unlike the underground facility that was buried far underground, this one was directly below the building, so she managed to locate this ce easily.


    And when Carmelo opened the door leading to his secret office, he found Theo apanied by Efrem, Ghita, and Stefano as he ordered them to make their way to his location.


    Carmelo was dumbstruck when he saw Theo sitting in front of him.


    On the other hand, Theo simply said, ��Well, elders�� I��m sure that you are pissed off with that guy over there. He��s yours.��


    Theo suddenly disappeared as it was just his clone, leaving those four Mythical Rank Experts to sh.


    Boom.

 Chapter 704: You’re Welcome

    <h4>Chapter 704: You��re Wee</h4>


    The next two days became chaotic because of the acquisition process of the Safulli Group. The investigation also took ce.


    The news didn��t stop showing the Safulli Group as the public scrutinized them. Meanwhile, the opinion about the Pata Corporation and Mota Familypletely changed.


    They even glorified them like a hero who dared to fight injustice.


    Finally, Boris left his house and headed straight to Theo��s mansion with Agata, not knowing what to do next because they still didn��t find Theo��s real body.


    Both of them stood in front of Leonardo, who was apanied by Marzio.


    ��Sir.�� Agata and Boris politely greeted Leonardo and Marzio.


    ��Hahaha, do you like the show?�� Leonardoughed.


    ��That���� They exchanged looks as Agata said, ��I didn��t know what had happened. Everything went so fast.��


    ��Indeed. If that guy didn��t tell me anything, I would have missed the greatest opportunity to fight back. Haha.�� Leonardo couldn��t stop grinning for the past few days because Theo had indeed created a good disturbance this time.


    ��Seeing him like this, I have confirmed that he��s not a strategist.�� Leonardo let out a long sigh. ��A strategist is someone who formtes a n to victory. However, Theo is nothing like that.


    ��Just like the case with the Czar, he doesn��t care about winning�� Both you and the Czar have been ying in his hand this whole time because what he wants is just to make everything interesting�� in a bad way. In other words, he brings chaos here and there.


    ��Your Pata Corporation is only one of the causes�� My War God Family too. We��re simply the pieces he needs to y this game. And the one who did everything is not him, but everyone else.


    ��Like the Czar and the Griffith Family. He didn��t care if he identally helped his parents or not, he just wanted to mess with the Griffith Family. That was it.


    ��Ugh, I shouldn��t have told him how to get revenge without even doing anything.�� Leonardo shook his head helplessly.


    ��Then, does that mean you hate him now?�� Agata frowned.


    ��Nope. Not at all. I believe he always divided every piece into three categories. The first would be the good side, which was your Mota Family and my War God Family. The neutral parties, which were the citizens and those top influences. Andstly, the enemy, the Safulli Group.


    ��And I know that if you can develop a rtionship with him, he sees you not as someone from the Mota Family or the Pata Company�� Instead, he sees you as who you truly are.


    ��That��s why I want to say this young girl. If you choose to stay with him, your life will be filled with stuff like this. At the same time, I believe you will be his priority, so yeah�� If you think you can��t handle this all the time, it��s better if you back off right now before you get hurt.�� Leonardo smiled.


    Agata shook her head without hesitation and stated. ��This is the reason why I have been studying under him. In the future, I hope that he can share his burden with me. If his work needs to be done in a week. I want both of us to work together and finish it in a few days.


    ��The rest will be a peaceful day where we can enjoy our time together. I don��t know if this is a good answer or not, but I wish for your blessing.��


    Leonardo closed his eyes for a second and handed her the paper from Theo.


    Agata gasped when she saw the content.


    [You should know how to use this and strike at them at the right time. Match my timing and you will get it done.]


    [But since I have spent everything while doing you a favor, can I call off our bet? Grandfather?]


    ��The bet is for him to call me Grandfather if he spends all the information he has.�� Leonardo sighed.


    Agata closed her eyes and clenched her fists. Theo should hate to call Leonardo ��Grandfather�� because of what happened to him back in Thernd. Yet, this also showed Theo indeed prioritized her like Leonardo said. He didn��t mind doing something he hated as long as he got everything right.


    At the same time, this was also the challenge she needed to ovee to fulfill her wish. If she couldn��t even know what Theo wanted to do within the first sentence, she didn��t have the right to stay beside him because she would only be his burden.


    ��For now, I won��t give you my blessing because I won��t be a matchmaker for my darling grandson. Instead, if you twoe to me together in the future, I won��t hesitate to give you my blessing.�� Leonardo put on a gentle smile. ��And I want to ask you one thing. Have you ever regretted the fact that you know my grandson?��


    ��No, never,�� Agata answered without hesitation. Tears started forming in the corner of her eyes as she wished she could be more honest with him.


    ��Is that so?�� Leonardo smiled and turned to Boris. ��Well, I shouldn��t continue this discussion further because it��s your time to move now.


    ��Out of 14 Mythical Rank Experts, ten of them died because they resisted the arrest while another two of them were crippled. As for the rest, they have been sent into the Saint John Prison and will rot there.


    ��I think he��s waiting for you, but the ce�� Maybe you��re the only one who knows it.�� Leonardo smiled and said, ��I think you shouldn��t make him wait too long.��


    Boris sucked a cold breath as he remembered when he said he wished to talk to him after all this. Theo told him that they could meet in hispany.


    In that instant, Boris said, ��I�� I need to go.��


    He bid his goodbye to Leonardo and Marzio as he hurriedly made his way to hispany.


    Without hesitation, he ran toward his office and opened the door, finding Theo sitting on his chair while closing his eyes and stroking Ava��s head.


    Theo smiled when he saw him. His expression was serene and aloof as he said with a confident tone.


    ��You��re wee.��

 Chapter 705: Boris and Theo

    <h4>Chapter 705: Boris and Theo</h4>


    ��You��re wee.�� Theo smiled.


    ��Is this all your n?�� Boris was dumbfounded, not expecting that a young man who wasn��t even 20 years old could do something like this.


    At the same time, he knew that he shouldn��t underestimate Theo just because of his age. The Czar, the Griffith Family, and the Safulli Group had experienced what it meant to look down on him.


    He carefully walked toward Theo and asked, ��Is this your real body?��


    ��Who knows.�� Theo smiled, not answering his question.


    Boris frowned and shook his head. ��Yeah. This is your real body.��


    ��Since you could tell, why did you ask?��


    ��There is always a need for verbal confirmation, you know. Besides, I think you��re underestimating Supreme Rank and Mythical Rank Experts. When you reach this level, your perception of Magic Power will be skyrocketing, and you can tell if this is an illusion or not.


    ��Unless you have a good mastery of your own illusion, it��s hard to trick them. That��s why illusionists only have two paths when they reach this stage�� They be either too good or too bad.�� Boris shook his head.


    ��Well, I know that to a certain extent. But I think you��re missing the point of what we need to talk about here.�� Theo shook his head, shifting the topic again.


    ��Right.�� Boris let out a long sigh. ��I have never thought that you managed to do all this.��


    Theo fell silent for a moment and stated, ��The transfer process will be tomorrow, the 14th day. With this incident, I can transfer all the shares I��ve got to you����


    ��There��s no need to do that. You can have thepany, you know.�� Boris made a sly smile.


    ��If you��re thinking about that, then you misunderstand me. I don��t want to possess something that can easily crumble and be my weakness.�� Theo shook his head, rejecting his offer.


    ��Still, there��s no way I can let you finish all this with just the money you receive from the Safulli Group��smission.�� Boris waved his hand, not letting him brush this matter off because he felt like ripping off Theo��s achievement.


    ��I am going to list your achievements that shouldn��t be brushed away. First, you defeated our enemy, the Safulli Group. Second, assuming that you��re going to return all the shares they possess, I will have around 92% of the total shares, giving me the sole possession of thepany.


    ��Obviously, I am preparing to fix this matter and return the public share to 20% again like how thepany usually works. Still, it doesn��t change the fact that thepany will get a massive influx of money that can be used for restoration and further expansion.


    ��Third, there is still money from the investors who breach the contract by pulling away. The amount is quiterge.


    ��Fourth, now that the Pata Corporation isbeled as a hero that saves Italy from getting attacked by monsters, we can easily search for more investors this way, allowing us to expand massively. In fact, I believe we can reach the scale of the top 5, easily recing the Safulli Group.


    ��Fifth, the fact that you��re helping me means other enemies will have to think twice before attacking me. To be honest, they��re afraid of you and the public opinion. So, they must be nning to approach me with some sort of reward just to form a good rtionship. Again, this will only benefit me.


    ��Sixth, restoring might not be easy, but I can now start thepany all over again, making sure that I bring loyal supporters like two of my shareholders.


    ��Seventh, the fact that you appear in the media means you��re directing the anger from the enemies that I might face to yourself.


    ��Eight, I just want to thank you for helping my daughter.�� Boris lowered his head and bowed to him. ��I would like to thank you for all this. And I don��t want you to leave with only the money from the Safulli Group. Please let me repay you in any kind.��


    Theo smiled and asked, ��Then, how are you nning to do that? First of all, even though you will get so much money, it��s not like you can spend everything immediately. After that, your family strength is not as strong as the Safulli Group.


    ��Even if you grow rapidly, your family will be too brittle to withstand the other forces.��


    Boris made a defeated smile and said, ��I guess you have predicted all of them. Yeah, I don��t know how I should do it. I can just give you all the money, but I think you don��t need them that much, especially in your current development.��


    ��Yeah. I need money, but not that much.��


    ��That��s why I��m nning to give you half of the money, which should amount to 30 billion or something.��


    ��Well, that��s not too bad. The Star Group wants to hire me for that amount for three years�� not counting other benefits.�� Theo smirked.


    ��Ahaha, don��tpare ourpany to theirs. We may be among the top in Italy, but they��re among the top in the whole World.�� He sighed. ��Anyway, I would like to give you 30 Billion Zils for all this.


    ��At the same time, if you happen to need our power, we will dly help you. I mean, you dare to offend all these big groups for us, so I won��t be afraid if you ask me to fight that Star Group.�� Boris smiled. ��Though, I can only promise that I, alone, will help you since I don��t know others�� opinions.��


    ��Well, it��s not like I��m nning to make enemies randomly. Besides, this incident allows me to form some sort of protection for myself, making sure that no one ever bothers me as long as I stay here. Also, this bes proof that what I have done to the Czar is real, and they will hesitate to attack me in the future.�� Theo smiled.


    For him, this incident was to warn other top influences that if they dared to plot against him, they would face the same fate as the Safulli Group.


    After all, the Safulli Group was equal to the Pietro Family and Baio Underworld Group, whose influences were only second to the Church and the War God Family.


    This also showed that other influences couldn��t attack him while he was in the War God Family because the moment he joined hands with the War God Family, the cards he could y increased tremendously.


    Just imagining fighting him and Leonardo simultaneously was already a headache, let alone together with the number of resources that the War God Family possessed.


    And this was something that couldn��t be bought with money.

 Chapter 706: Boris and Theo Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 706: Boris and Theo Part 2</h4>


    ��I know that this is not enough to repay you for what you have done, but I truly have no way to repay you anymore.�� He sighed. ��Even if I want to say that you don��t need to pay my daughter anything for bing your assistant, it��s not like this is enough to repay you.


    ��Also, I think you don��t like me proposing that idea, so it��s a no.�� Boris scratched the back of his head. ��So, how should I repay this debt?��


    Theo smiled and said, ��Then, I have one request.��


    ��Oh? Please say it. If it��s something that I can do, I will do my best toplete it.�� Boris nodded in agreement. ��Of course, I will give you my blessing if you want to marry my daughter. Well, it��s just me supporting my daughter��s feelings, so yeah.��


    ��Let��s drop the second half of your statement.��


    ��Does that make you ufortable?�� Boris raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes. It��s true that I will do my best to resolve it, but I don��t like to have someone pushing it forcefully.�� Theo shook his head.


    ��Okay. I apologize if that made you ufortable. I��m sorry.��


    ��Nah, it��s fine.�� Theo sighed. ��Anyway, my request is simple. I want you to make sure that the employees are not bing jobless. As much as I love to see how these big influences are in disarray, I don��t want to involve innocent people. You can use my money for this.��


    ��That��s an easy task. You don��t need to spend your own money on this. I will handle it.��


    ��I want to do it not only for the Pata Corporation��s employees but also the Safulli Group,�� Theo added with a serious expression.


    Even Boris was slightly surprised by his request. At the same time, he felt gratified that Theo wasn��t some sort of sociopath.


    ��As you know, for innocent employees like them, there will be some sort of bias if they search for another job just because the Safulli Group did something like this. I mean, somepanies won��t care about this, but some will surely dislike them for no reason.��


    ��Don��t worry.�� Boris couldn��t help but make a big smile. ��I promise you that I will take care of them. I just feel d that you��re actually thinking about them. What was it again? I feel like you��re a human too.��


    ��So, you think I wasn��t.��


    ��To be honest, yes. I even thought you were a monster in human clothing. After all, your achievements were beyond my imagination.


    ��Of course, if we��re talking about history here, there were many people of the same caliber as you, who climbed thedder of the society and became a great person. But they were rare toe by. And there are not many of them in the present.��


    ��Hoh? It seems you know some of them.�� Theo squinted his eyes.


    ��I think you have seen a few of them. First of all, it��s that Maya Hamilton. She has be one of the youngest billionaires without the help of her grandfather. If you challenge her in business, I don��t know what will happen. And she did it while having enough time to pursue her strength, surpassing what her father and grandfather could do.


    ��There are a few more, and they excel in many types. There is a man who masters politics and secretly controls a country in the shadows. There is a woman who can wield Time Element and be the first expert in her generation.


    ��And if we��re thinking of how many of them are concealing themselves, I can��t imagine their number.�� Boris shrugged. ��Just like you who excel in this type of thing, they��re the same.��


    ��That��s interesting. I want to learn from them.�� Theo smirked.


    ��Hahaha. Actually, I think you can learn from Maya Hamilton, right? I mean about business����


    ��Fair enough, but I feel like I will be entangled by something annoying. Just take a look at her arrogance���� Theo sighed.


    ��But doesn��t that make you feel safe? At least, she��s not the type who will plot behind your back that easily.�� Boris chuckled.


    Theo shrugged. ��Anyway, that��s all I want to say. I��m sure that you will get busy starting tomorrow.��


    ��Indeed. I don��t think I will have too much time to spend with my family for the next few months to take care of all this.�� Boris sighed and continued, ��Well, I��m sorry for all your effort, but I am not nning to expand my business to the very limit.


    ��I just want something big enough to shelter my family. I think Agata has told you about this too, right?�� Boris smiled. ��For me, business is a good thing as long as I have enough time for my family.��


    ��I can respect that.�� Theo nodded in agreement. ��Alright. I think it��s time for me to leave.��


    Before he could rise from his seat, Boris asked, ��Actually, this is quite a sensitive topic, but I want to ask, what do you think of my daughter?��


    Theo fell silent for a while before saying, ��Someone who is understandable and never gives up on improving herself, and�� someone who I can trust.��


    After saying those words, Theo used his Blink to leave thepany.


    On the other hand, Boris also closed his eyes. Thosest few words made him happy as a big smile appeared on his face.


    ��Someone who you can trust your back huh���� Boris muttered and looked at the ceiling. ��That��s something easy to say for other people. But it��s not that easy for someone who experiences that kind of past like you����


    He walked to the empty seat and sat on it, remembering the scene when Carmelo invaded this office.


    ��As much as I hate to say it, that old man is right. I was not as sharp as my old man, but it��s fine�� My daughter has far surpassed my old man and me.�� Boris smiled. ��She doesn��t need anything right now��


    ��So, what I need to do is to make sure I don��t face another problem that will just burden her.�� Boris imagined his daughter��s face and said, ��Go forth and do whatever you want. I won��t chain you down here, my princess.��

 Chapter 707: Aftermath

    <h4>Chapter 707: Aftermath</h4>


    The next day.


    Everything had be calmer after knowing that the Safulli Group had beenpletely stopped. Their Mythical Rank Experts wouldn��t be able to terrorize the citizens, making them feel relieved.


    It was at this time that the influences started taking over the Safulli Group��s Businesses. Even though they were taking advantage of the situation, this was better than the Safulli Group.


    After all, the Safulli Group had indeedmitted the biggest crime they could ever imagine that had the potential to affect the entire country.


    As for the Pata Corporation, Boris immediately started his restoration process and recalled their past employees that quit because they couldn��t handle the pressure from the media.


    As Theo said, they were just innocent people who got involved in this feud, so the least Boris could do was to make sure they had a job to feed their family. And if they wanted to rejoin the Pata Corporation, Boris allowed them since the Pata Corporation��s reputation had be far better in the public��s eyes.


    Still, even though those innocent people could restore their previous life, there were still some who didn��t get any mercy from Boris.


    And it was especially true for the old man that betrayed him at thest minute.


    The old man stormed Boris�� office with a smile on his face.


    ��Oh, Boris. I am d that you managed to take care of this situation. I am here to resolve the misunderstandings between us. I actually thought that you����


    While the old man exined himself, Boris was thinking, ��How shameless can you be to do something like this? Maybe his shamelessness surpasses Theo��s great mind. Still����


    Without hesitation, Boris said with a serious face. ��You were right. I am not as sharp as my father, so there��s no reason for you to follow me anymore. I don��t want to tarnish my father��s reputation in front of you.��


    The old man trembled for a split second and still maintained his smile. ��No, no. That��s just a misunderstanding. I��!��


    Before he could finish, Boris already let out a long sigh. ��Old man, I don��t know that you��re this shameless. Well, since that��s the case, I will try to say this as bluntly as possible, so there won��t be any misunderstanding between us anymore.��


    He raised his middle finger and shouted, ��Fuck off!��


    Those two words stunned the old man as he was bewildered that Boris didn��t care about talking politely anymore. He wanted to step forward, but Boris released his power, pressuring him.


    ��I told you to fuck off! I��m sure that you are not senile enough not to hear me, right? Or do you need me to make you not able to hear again?�� Boris red at him as he pushed the old man back with his Magic Power before eventually, the security came to escort the old man out.


    After that, his assistant came to him with the two loyal investors that never betrayed him.


    ��Thank you for you two. If not because of you supporting me to the very end, I wouldn��t be able to win.�� Boris smiled.


    ��President, if you knew that Theo was supporting you, you should tell us. We wouldn��t have to panic.�� One of them scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression.


    ��Well, I didn��t want the enemy to know it.�� Boris shrugged. ��Thepany will be undergoing a massive restructuring, so I would like to ask for your help.��


    ��Don��t worry, President. We will help you as much as possible.�� The two nodded in agreement.


    ��By the way, what should we do with our former investors?�� His assistant asked.


    ��I will send you a few names that are considered to be innocent here. As for the rest���� He raised his middle finger again. ��Just tell them to fuck off. Can��t I just record a video of me pointing my middle finger and tell them to fuck off? That will be satisfying.��


    ��President, it��s better if you watch your image. Now that our reputation is better than ever, you need to make sure you don��t ruin it.�� The assistant stated with a serious expression.


    ��Hahaha. I know, I know. Just let me do whatever I want for today. It��s been a stressful two weeks.��


    ��Indeed.��


    ��


    While they were talking to each other, Theo had returned to his mansion and met his grandfather and Agata.


    ��Well, well�� What do we have here? The hero has returned, eh?�� Leonardo smirked, teasing him.


    ��What Hero? I didn��t do much. They were the ones who made everything this big.�� Theo shrugged.


    ��Indeed. Maybe I shouldn��t teach you how to do something like this����


    ��Ahaha, please don��t say that. I am here to learn everything from you.�� Theo shook his head.


    ��Yeah, yeah. You will be dangerous enough sooner orter to the point they see you not as a powerful expert but as a shrewd mastermind.�� Leonardo sighed. ��Anyway, I will fend off all the outside attacks as long as you��re in Italy.��


    ��Thank you.�� Theo smiled. ��Still, the most dangerous one is not me. It��s you.��


    ��Hehe, you realized it?��


    ��It took a while, but it seemed you had predicted that I would hear the situation about Lorenzo and the Safulli Group in one way or another. In fact, you must already have some suspicions that the culprit of that Goblin Gene Experiment was the Safulli Group.


    ��Wasn��t that why you told the World ss Monster that you were going to resolve this problem within a year? You predicted that I would make my move���� Theo sighed.


    ��Hahaha, I taught you everything you know, not everything I know.�� Leonardo yfully stuck his tongue out. ��Though, I admit that I didn��t expect the situation to resolve this way. I should have realized that you wouldn��t settle everything in the shadows.


    ��I��m sure that the Czar will feel d that they didn��t mess with you for a big time. From what I heard, he didn��t harm you in any kind, so yeah�� If that guy tried to kill you, I��m sure that they��re going to get wrecked. Haha.��


    ��Who knows.�� Theo shrugged and scratched the back of his head. ��Also, about our bet����


    ��I will call it off but in one condition.��


    ��What is it?��


    ��Call me Grandfather once. I demand this aspensation.�� Leonardo smirked.


    ������ Theo closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. ��Okay, Grandfather.��


    ��Hmm, not sincere enough, but since I forced you, I will ept it for now.�� Leonardo patted his head and yed with his hair a bit as he made a big smile. ��I will be waiting for the day you call me Grandfather from the bottom of your heart. Hahaha!��


    Theo looked down as a small smile appeared on his face.

 Chapter 708: Meetings

    <h4>Chapter 708: Meetings</h4>


    On the top floor of Star Group.


    Bernard was looking at the report about Theodore Griffith.


    ��Look at this guy���� Bernard smiled while resting his cheek on his hand.


    Suddenly, the door was pushed open as Maya entered the room.


    ��Why didn��t you knock first?�� Bernard raised his eyebrows.


    ��You were the one who asked me toe in with short notice.�� Maya pouted, ring at Bernard. ��So, what did you call me here, Father?��


    ��Do you know what happened to that guy?��


    ��Theodore Griffith? Yes, my informationwork is still not as good as yours, but I still get the gist of what happened.�� Maya nodded. ��I guess he can y in economics as well. Though, his n was based on that so-called experiment. If he didn��t have that, his entire n would copse. I couldn��t consider this as a business strategy.��


    ��Though, it��s normal for us to ckmail people if necessary.��


    ��You surely don��t want to say that in front of others, Dad.��


    ��There is only you here.�� Bernard chuckled.


    ��Well, that��s true.�� Maya sighed and said, ��He should have milked the Safulli Group first by threatening them. Looking at the report, I think he��s giving some portions to other influences, so yeah, he doesn��t get much of it. If it were me, I could easily raise at least a hundred billion from this y alone.


    ��Though, I think the maximum number he got from here is around 60-70 Billion Zils. It��s good, but not that good.�� Maya exined with a calm expression.


    ��As expected of my daughter, you know this well. Though, I think the Pata Corporation is the one who got it.�� Bernard smiled.


    ��Agata Mota? Did she manage to seduce him?�� Maya furrowed her eyebrows.


    ��No. I don��t think so. I haven��t received any reports regarding their rtionship�� But at the same time, they might be hiding it because of Theo��s reputation.�� Bernard shrugged and put down the report. ��Why don��t you just grab him for me? It��s hard to get someone like this.��


    ��What are you talking about?��


    ��You know what I��m talking about. I��m searching for your husband! This is not an easy matter for me because you always turn down everyone and make them cry.�� Bernard sighed. ��Seeing his potential, I can assure you that he will be your greatest strength sooner orter.


    ��I mean, he can use his clone to manage twopanies at once,unching an attack that no one has ever seen before. With your ability in managing businesses, you should have some trusted people to help him, right?


    ��When that happens, your group can easily surpass thispany within ten years. See what I��m talking about?�� Bernard smiled.


    ��Do you want a hole in your head?�� Maya squinted her eyes.


    ��Of course not.��


    ��I don��t want to share my man with another woman.�� Maya harrumphed.


    ��Your standard is already far too high, dear. And people like this usually already have a woman on their side. Besides, who cares about that�� We can suppress the media about your rtionship, so polygamy is possible. If not, I don��t think I can see my grandson soon.�� Bernard yfully teased her again.


    ��Why are you talking about this every single time you call me here?��


    ��Because that��s the biggest issue.�� He shrugged. ��Doing business is always talking about the future, so although you��re still young, I��m worried about your future.


    ��Anyway, I will share my informationter. You should study about him a bit and if possible���� He smirked. ��Snatch him for me.��


    ��No.�� Maya gritted her teeth.


    ��Fine, fine. I am done teasing you today.�� Bernard chuckled. ��Anyway, just make sure you tempt him to go here on the next international mission. We can offer him something to make him stay here in the future.��


    ��And what kind of mission will be able to entice him?��


    ��I��m sure you already know that.��


    ��Hmph.�� Maya turned around and walked away.


    ��Don��t forget that the family dinner is the day after tomorrow.�� Bernard shouted yfully, ��And don��t forget to close the door.��


    Maya��s eyebrows twitched and she mmed the door.


    ��


    Meanwhile, out of the people who discussed Theo, there was one of the biggest meetings in Russia.


    In the Empress�� pce, the Wind Emperor was sitting face to face with the Empress.


    She smiled and said, ��Don��t you feel good after knowing that you escaped the previous problem easily?��


    The Wind Emperor still had a long face and sighed. ��That��s true, but do you think it��s easy for me to ept the loss of two family members? Even if I��m merciless, I still have a heart.��


    The Empress chuckled. ��Haha, I can��t imagine what I would do if Alea or Ana was the one who did something like that.��


    ��Hmph. So, why did you call me here? I��m sure you��re not nning to talk about this the entire time, right?��


    ��I do.�� The Empress nodded with a serious expression.


    The Wind Emperor��s eyebrows twitched.


    ��Of course, I��m joking.�� The Empress smirked.


    ��You still haven��t changed.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head helplessly. ��So, let��s cut to the chase.��


    ��You, too, haven��t changed. Always want to get it done straight away.�� The Empress chuckled. ��But fine�� I don��t think I have too much time today. I actually want to invite Theodore Griffith to this ce.��


    ��Hmm?�� He narrowed his eyes and said, ��So, you want me to sign something to make sure I don��t be a threat to his life?��


    ��Yep. This can be the opportunity for you to meet him face to face.��


    ��How about them?�� The Wind Emperor narrowed his eyes.


    ��They will turn blind eyes this time.��


    ��Do you think they will hold their promise? Those corrupt businessmen���� He snorted. ��I��m not doing this. I don��t see the merit other than meeting him face to face.��


    ��Really? Do you think so?�� The Empress smirked.


    ��Hmph. There��s no need to persuade me.�� The Wind Emperor turned around and pushed his own wheelchair, returning to the car that had been waiting for him outside the Empress Pce.


    Inside the car, he was looking outside the window and saw the Empress��sst smirk when she was seeing him off.


    ��Tsk. I fell for her trap.�� The Wind Emperor clicked his tongue. ��Prepare the jet for me.��


    The driver frowned and asked, ��To where, Sir?��


    ��Italy, of course. Let��s meet this little bastard instead of inviting him here.��

 Chapter 709: Shocking News

    <h4>Chapter 709: Shocking News</h4>


    In France, specifically in the Barbe Group, they were holding a high-level meeting.


    ��What should we do about this? Our stock has taken a great hit and our reputation has fallen to rock bottom. If we continue like this, we will be destroyed sooner orter.�� Someone rose from his seat and mmed the table,ining.


    ��Luckily, there is not much evidence about us, making it easy for us to redirect the attention from us to the Safulli Group. But still, many people have lost their trust in us.�� Another person assessed the situation before sighing.


    ��I thought we already asked the Safulli Group to burn all information about them����


    ��All their members seemed to have died because of the Goblin King��s rampage. After that, the Vatican saw that first and made a move, preventing anyone from sneaking in.


    ��All the people they brought should have been eliminated by the Goblin King and our men could erase the trace after that if not because of Theodore Griffith, who appeared and brought Leonardo, fending off the World ss Monster.


    ��If not because of his interference, Leonardo wouldn��t know that ce and gain all this. And we still didn��t know why he didn��t make a move until now.�� He frowned.


    ��Enough!�� A middle-aged guy mmed the table as he red at them. ��We don��t need to discuss something that has happened. What we need to think right now is how to eliminate that bastard, Theodore Griffith!��


    ��It��s hard to do that, especially under Leonardo��s watch. I don��t know whether the pope will get involved or not.�� Another guy raised his concern.


    ��I don��t care. He needs to die after causing all this.��


    ��How about assassinating him when he was doing the away mission? If we can��t infiltrate Italy, we should strike him in another country. No matter what, he will surely go there.��


    ��We need to increase our surveince and make sure we get his next n. We will hit him there.��


    ��There should be at least a month before he goes to the international mission. Prepare everything! We only have one chance.��


    ��Understood.��


    They started preparing the n to kill Theo. He was already that dangerous.


    And this kind of movement didn��t stop only here.


    In China, they were also talking about Theo.


    ��What are you doing? What should we do now?��


    ��We don��t know. How about someone go and apologize to him?��


    ��Do you think it��s that easy? If he doesn��t care about it, not only would it be an embarrassment, but other countries will alsough at us.��


    The conversation became pretty heated because they had finally confirmed Theo��s talent. His Martial Prowess was indeed good and among the best, but that alone wasn��t enough because there were still other geniuses that could match him.


    However, when theybined Theo��s Martial Prowess and his other talents, it had surpassed something they couldn��t ignore anymore.


    ��Should we just kill him? That Barbe Group should be nning to do it, so why don��t we support them?��


    ��We can��t really show it on the surface because Leonardo will surely find out about this.��


    ��Well, why don��t we just stop here? For me, I think it��s best to leave him alone. There��s no point in lighting up the previous me again. After a while, we can simply mend our rtionship.��


    When these words entered their ears, the opinions split and the conversation continued.


    Meanwhile, in Ennd, the prince asked, ��So, any progress with our search?��


    ��We have found someone who can see slight future and someone who can see someone��s strength based on their Magic Power, but that��s all about it. We haven��t found anyone who can upgrade one��s skill.��


    ��You all are freaking useless.��


    However, while they were discussing how to deal with Theo, they received grave news that entirely changed their perspective toward this matter.


    ��It��s not good! There is a movement from Russia.��


    ��Huh? What? They��re not really rted to this incident, right?��


    ��No! This�� This���� The one who informed the urgent news panicked as he never thought there would be this kind of movement.


    ��Just out with it, will you?��


    ��The Wind Emperor has gone to Italy!��


    ��!!!��


    The news shook the world leaders as they had heard about the small conflict between Theo and the Wind Emperor.


    They were wondering about the Wind Emperor��s move.


    Someone said the Wind Emperor came there to settle the entire problem with him because he didn��t want to let Theo grow anymore.


    Another one said the Wind Emperor wanted to apologize and make sure the rtionship between him and Theo was alright.


    Another one said the Wind Emperor nned to cause a ruckus by himself because of what Theo had done in the past as a form of revenge.


    Still, the one that was shocked the most was none other than the War God Family.


    Davi, who was keeping surveince in the airport, was the first one to meet him.


    He looked at the so-called Wind Emperor, who was sitting in his wheelchair.


    ��For what reason did the Wind Emperore here?�� Davi asked with a serious expression, preparing to use his power if necessary.


    The Wind Emperor smiled and pointed at his back. ��Can��t you see that there��s no one behind me to even push my wheelchair? I��m not here to do what you fear, young man.��


    ��Even so, you still should give us a formal letter because your presence alone is dangerous.�� Davi squinted his eyes.


    ��If I went through the formal channel, those countries wouldn��t be panicking right now. Doesn��t your Theodore Griffith love to create a chaotic situation like this?�� The Wind Emperor put on a gentle smile.


    ��Theo?�� Davi widened his eyes. ��Is your purpose foring here����


    The Wind Emperor didn��t answer, but it was already clear that was the answer.


    ��I need to make a call first.��


    ��Sure.��


    Davi hurriedly called Leonardo for his advice. After a minute, he said, ��You can meet him, but you��re not allowed to be alone with him. And we also need to put strict surveince on you.��


    ��Haha, you��re too scared of an old man who doesn��t even have enough strength to walk.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled and pointed at his back. ��Well, I don��t have someone to push my wheelchair.��


    Davi took a few deep breaths and finally moved toward him, escorting him to Theo��s mansion.

 Chapter 710: The Wind Emperor

    <h4>Chapter 710: The Wind Emperor</h4>


    In Theo��s mansion.


    Theo was sitting in the garden with Leonardo standing in front of him.


    ��So, what do you think about meeting him?�� Leonardo smirked, asking.


    ��There��s nothing wrong with that.�� Theo shook his head. ��I am afraid the situation is going to beplicated soon. Besides, I need to think of a way to finish my international assignment.��


    ��Haha, I bet there is already a bounty on your head.�� Leonardo chuckled.


    ��Is that supposed to be funny?�� Theo��s eyebrows twitched before looking at Agata, asking the same question.


    ��It��s not funny, but that��s not what he means.�� Agata shook her head helplessly.


    ��That��s right.�� Leonardo raised his finger, pointing at his head. ��I had one in the past. What was myst bounty again? Something around 200 Billion Zils? Yeah, it��s something like that I guess.


    ��The one that put this kind of bounty was a group of powerfulpanies. They put all their money into this just to kill me.


    ��In the end, I killed the people who were after me and forced them to retract the bounty by destroying the force of all people involved, including the killers.


    ��They were too scared of me now to the point they would hide if I set my eyes on them.


    ��I guess this is something you should strive for�� No one knows about this, but you will find many people��s bounties, especially those who are important or strong.


    ��One of the former top five experts in the world once had a bounty on her head. And she destroyed everything with her prowess and had her bounty removed because she would aggressively pursue those who dared to put the bounty.


    ��Although she died because of her injuries, there was no more bounty in her head at that time and she passed away in her house.


    ��Meanwhile, I caused a quite big disruption that forced them to do so.


    ��What I want to say is, there are multiple ways to make them retract your bounty. What you should do first is to increase your bounty as much as possible before pressuring the whole world to make sure no one puts a bounty on your head again.�� Leonardo smirked.


    ��Well, that��s not going to happen in the next ten years.�� Theo shrugged. ��Besides, you��re missing the point here.��


    ��Ah, about that old man? He��s strong.��


    ��Stronger than you?��


    ��What do you think?�� Leonardo smirked.


    Theo shrugged and said, ��I don��t know your full strength, so I can��t say. Besides, ranking is not that urate in a battle.��


    ��That��s true. Why don��t you ask him?�� Leonardo pointed at the gate that suddenly opened.


    Davi was pushing a wheelchair for an old man. Despite appearing to be weak, Ava jumped on Theo��s shoulder as if she could feel the power of the old man and tried to protect him.


    ��Haha, you should know my answer.�� The old man chuckled.


    ��Yeah, because you��re shameless.�� Leonardo rolled his eyes.


    The old man ignored Leonardo��s remark as he focused only on one person. It was Theo.


    Their eyes intertwined as Theo felt an overbearing pressure emanating from his eyes.


    The pressure increased drastically when killing intent started mixing with the air.


    ��What is this?�� Agata took a step back as she couldn��t help but smell something. ��This is blood?��


    Theo gritted his teeth and saw Leonardo remain still. He took a deep breath and released his killing intent as well.


    But instead of spreading it like the Wind Emperor, he focused it on one spot until it reached the Wind Emperor.


    ������ The Wind Emperor could feel it, but it was too weak for him to be affected. Even so, he couldn��t help but smile and say, ��No wonder why I suffered in your hand. Interesting.��


    The killing intent instantly disappeared as if nothing happened. The blood smell also vanished from the air.


    ��So, your hobby is bullying a kid now?�� Leonardo narrowed his eyes.


    ��Haha, I imprisoned my grandson not long ago, what do you think?�� The Wind Emperor nced at Leonardo. Although he didn��t express it, Leonardo knew he didn��t like it.


    So, he looked away while saying, ��It��s just a battle between youngsters.��


    ��Indeed. I am ashamed that my youngsters can��t even bepared to your young generations.�� The Wind Emperor sighed and continued, ��Though, the worst part is that he didn��t have any training before he was in high school. This kind of progress, even I envy it.��


    ��You��re already that old.�� Leonardo stuck his tongue.


    ��Indeed. That��s why I don��t like moving around anymore. So, to prevent me from moving around, how about youe with me to Russia? You won��t go hungry and have many mistresses.�� The Wind Emperor smiled, ncing at Theo.


    ��I think you asked the wrong question.�� Leonardo smirked.


    ��I know. I am just asking�� Though, I��m pretty serious about that. Even if you want both the Empress�� daughter and disciple at the same time, I can make that happen.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled.


    ��I��m thankful for the offer, but I respectfully decline.�� Theo shook his head politely. ��My objective is not a romantic rtionship for the time being.��


    ��Really?�� The Wind Emperor nced at Agata. ��So, Mimicry Skill? Now that I have confirmed it. Let me guess. Agata Mota?��


    Agata, although shocked, didn��t react. She simply said, ��I am honored if the Wind Emperor thinks of me as the revered Agata Mota. Unfortunately, I need to disappoint Sir Wind Emperor.��


    ��Haha, whatever. I don��t really care about this.�� The Wind Emperor looked at Theo. ��You��re strong, shrewd, and unruly. Though, there is one thing youck right now.��


    ��Something Ick?��


    ��Yeah. Because of your age and time of training, you haven��t polished all your techniques. If youe to Russia, you might be able to learn something like this.�� The Wind Emperor lifted his right hand.


    ������ Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and summoned his sword, preparing to make his move.


    Theo, on the other hand, didn��t even move, knowing that he couldn��t do anything to the Wind Emperor if even Leonardo couldn��t stop him.


    Suddenly, the Wind Emperor pushed his hand forward as the wind started moving violently.

 Chapter 711: Not Enough

    <h4>Chapter 711: Not Enough</h4>


    The wind swirled violently as it began to gather around Theo.


    Theo flinched and looked at the wind, thinking, ��This is�� Yes, this must be the same thing as the one that guy used. Who was it again? Never mind. That��s not important.��


    He took a deep breath and nced at Leonardo, who hadn��t made a single move. In that instant, he thought, ��If Sir Leonardo doesn��t move, in that case����


    He noticed that the Wind Emperor didn��t have the intention to kill him and simply wanted to show this.


    ��This must also be in-motion. And the way he moves the wind ording to his movement�� Wait a minute. Hands, feet, or even my body�� Can��t I use the entire thing to do this in-motion thing?


    ��Why did I never think about this�� In-motion is not something I use to attack or defend. Instead, it��s something that I should incorporate into my daily life. In other words, everything.��


    Theo came to a realization as he looked at the Wind Emperor. He took a deep breath and raised his hand, punching the air in front of him.


    Soon, the wind that was swirling around him was disrupted as if there was another gust pushing them outward in one spot.


    This disruption caused all of them to copse and move in all directions, trying to blow away the people around them.


    When the Wind Emperor saw what Theo did, he smiled and closed his eyes. ��No wonder why you��re having so much fun teaching this kid.��


    Since the wind had dispersed, Leonardo lowered his sword and said, ��Hmph. As long as I��m with my family, I am always happy. I don��t y favorites.��


    ��Whatever.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head helplessly before staring at Theo with a serious exnation. ��Kid, do you want to be my student? I will teach you everything I know.��


    ��!!!�� Leonardo raised his eyebrows, ncing at the Wind Emperor. He thought, ��That old bastard. Is he nning to make Theo inherit his power? One of the top ten experts in the world wants to do that?��


    Theo gulped down but still shook his head. ��I��m thankful for the invitation. Unfortunately, I can only decline this offer.��


    ��If someone heard you reject the offer to be my disciple, they would make a big thing about it, and eventually, people will call you crazy.�� The Wind Emperor narrowed his eyes.


    Theo remained silent, not replying to his statement. This was enough for an answer.


    Of course, Agata was thinking the same thing. ��Top ten experts in the world. In terms of strength, although Sir Leonardo is not among them, it��s because the measurementes from power alone, not strategy and tactics.


    ��But it can also be said, only those who possess absolute power can be one of the top ten experts in the world.


    ��I heard that the Wind Emperor once destroyed a huge hill with a single punch. And a man like him wants Theo to be his disciple. The best part is that he will inherit everything from the Wind Emperor.


    ��And yet, Theo rejected it. I believe he knows the Wind Emperor��s power and reputation�� He��s not a fool to reject this kind of offer without reasons, right?�� Agata nced at Theo, wondering what was in his head.


    The Wind Emperor started releasing his killing intent as the blood smell began to permeate the air again.


    His tone became extremely cold as he asked Theo. ��I believe you have a reason that satisfies me, right? You��re not going to tell me that you have another master from the Griffith Family and won��t ept another one, right? If that��s your excuse, I am not going to hold back anymore.��


    Theo felt the killing intent from the Wind Emperor, but after experiencing the training from Goddess Hel, he felt this killing intent wascking.


    ��The killing intent from the Goddess and the in-motion from Fenrir. I realize that I haven��t been able to identify the true gem in front of my eyes this whole time.�� Theo closed his eyes, knowing that he hadn��t evenprehended the real lesson from Fenrir and Hel.


    He took a deep breath and said, ��Thanks to you, I have been able to realize my ipetence for not having the ability to discern the true power. However, if we��re talking about bing my teacher, I��m afraid that I need to say this one thing.��


    ��And that is���� The Wind Emperor squinted his eyes.


    Theo didn��t fear the Wind Emperor��s gaze and stated, ��You are not worthy.��


    The Wind Emperor released an even stronger pressure as he was angered by his statement. There was no one in this world who would dare to say that he was unworthy to be their teacher.


    Yet, Theo dared to say such a thing. He asked, ��Then, do you think the teacher from the Griffith Family is worthy of being your teacher?��


    Theo shook his head. ��We don��t have a rtionship anymore. I have severed the rtionship between the Griffith Family and mepletely.��


    The Wind Emperor suddenly fell silent and looked at Theo for a moment. He knew that if he continued releasing this amount of power, Leonardo was going to make his move.


    So, he finally retracted his power and killing intent. He said, ��Your words�� can��t be taken lightly, you know.��


    Theo smiled and nodded. ��But I didn��t lie to you. I admit that you��re strong, but your power won��t allow me to achieve my objective.��


    ��Won��t allow you to achieve your objective? You sure understand that I��m one of the top ten experts in the world, right?��


    ��Yes. I am aware.��


    ��And do you think my power is not enough?��


    Theo shook his head helplessly.


    ��Ha���� The Wind Emperor��s body started shaking.


    Even Leonardo thought the Wind Emperor felt his pride crushed, so he immediately stepped forward, shielding Theo with the sword in his hand.


    However, the Wind Emperor raised his head and startedughing. ��Hahahaha!��


    ��Eh?�� Leonardo, Davi, and Agata were dumbfounded, not expecting that the Wind Emperor was just trying to contain hisugh this whole time.


    ��Haha! Interesting, very interesting.�� The Wind Emperor smirked and said, ��I��m not enough, huh.��

 Chapter 712: Mutual Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 712: Mutual Agreement</h4>


    He fell silent for a moment and smiled. ��I guess I��m indeed not enough.��


    Davi and Agata dropped their jaws to the ground, not believing what they just heard. The Wind Emperor actually agreed that he wasn��t enough? If people heard this, they wouldn��t believe it either.


    However, what they didn��t know was the fact he had perceived enough from Theo��s killing intent.


    When he recalled the sensation, he felt Theo might have died a few times because he felt ��Death�� was approaching him.


    And unlike him, Theo��s killing intent would be even more powerful and refined sooner orter without any guidance.


    If he could do it to multiple people at once, that would be even scarier.


    So, he thought Theo had received something from God or Goddess of Death.


    ��Is his blessing rted to death? There are many conspiracies regarding this Death power and no wonder he��s hiding his true blessing. And I indeed won��t have the qualifications to teach him this�� In fact, he might be aiming for that old hag, the one who received Thanatos�� blessing.�� He closed his eyes for a moment. ��This is an interesting piece of information.��


    Theo and The Wind Emperor were still staring at each other in silence.


    Eventually, the Wind Emperor said, ��Interesting indeed.��


    ��Even then, I would like to thank you for showing me such a thing. Though, I��m sure that you didn��t intend to do it.�� Theo shook his head and sincerely thanked him.


    ��What if I im I intended to do it?�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��Then you can think that way while I think my way.�� Theo smiled.


    ��Are you not afraid of death?��


    ��Who is not afraid of death?�� Theo shook his head while smiling. ��You��re crazy if you��re not afraid of death.��


    ��Haha, indeed.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled and sighed. ��Even if they said they aren��t afraid of death, their heart and body would be honest in the face of it. Even if they had prepared for it, there was still the feeling of unwillingness or other things that can be perceived as afraid of death����


    Theo remained silent, wondering what the Wind Emperor truly wanted to say.


    After a moment, the Wind Emperor said, ��I have decided. I know that you don��t likeing to my country and settling down there. But I��m sure you��re alright with me asking you toe for the International Mission, right? I can promise you that I won��t touch you.��


    Theo scratched the back of his head with a troubled expression.


    ��What? You have rejected my offer to be my disciple, and now you want to decline my invitation?�� The Wind Emperor narrowed his eyes.


    ��Actually, I have another n.�� Theo scratched the back of his head.


    ��Hmm?�� The Wind Emperor suddenly noticed Theo��splexion and asked, ��What��s the n?��


    Theo looked to the others before carefully walking to him.


    Leonardo didn��t like this kind of action and tried to stop him, but Theo seemed to havee to an agreement with the Wind Emperor. In the end, he let him go while preparing to draw his sword.


    Theo walked to him and whispered a few things.


    The Wind Emperor��s eyes brightened as he thought for a moment. ��In that case, I have one condition as well.��


    ��Please tell me.�� Theo nodded.


    ��This is between me and you, not anyone else.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    Theo looked down for a moment, contemting his decision. He ultimately nodded his head. ��Deal.��


    ��Good. Since you agree, I won��t be stingy���� He pointed at his back and said, ��Push me to the pool in this house.��


    Surprisingly, Theo moved ording to his instruction and immediately took over Davi��s job immediately.


    ��No one is allowed to watch.�� The Wind Emperor waved his hand as if telling them to leave.


    Theo smiled and nodded to Leonardo.


    Leonardo hesitated for a moment before choosing to believe him.


    In the end, Theo and the Wind Emperor moved to the pool alone.


    Suddenly, the Wind Emperor raised his hand and formed a wind tornado before reshaping it to a cone shape.


    ��Haha, it��s time for me to kill you, Brat!�� The Wind Emperor raised his hand as the wind suddenly locked Theo in the air and carried him to his hand until his neck was in the Wind Emperor��s hand. ��I only need to kill you right now and everything will be over.��


    Theo remained silent. He didn��t even let out his emotion as if he had epted his fate.


    Seeing there was no reaction from Theo, the Wind Emperor put him down and sighed. ��You��re not fun. So, how can you tell?��


    ��I am simply confident that my words are enough to stop you.�� Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    ��Tsk. Smart-ass.�� The Wind Emperor let out a long sigh. ��You��re going to die sooner orter if you��re ying that way.��


    ��I know. I did this because I knew you��re different.��


    ��I��m different?�� The Wind Emperor raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes. I got the report about your activities as well. Your grandson and his father were locked up, the mansion was destroyed, and nothing remained in that ce���� Theo stated the report of what happened not long ago. However, he also added, ��But you didn��t do anything to the maids.


    ��There were various reasons why you should kill them, like silencing them or hiding the information of what happened there. That��s why I know that you��re someone just.��


    ��You��re overestimating me.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head and said, ��Anyway, I am truly intrigued by what you said earlier.��


    ��I didn��t lie to you.�� Theo raised his hands as if he had given up.


    ��I know, you idiot.�� The Wind Emperor smacked his head and said, ��There��s a reason why I am called the Wind Emperor. No one can lie before me.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Unlike those lie detectors, my wind is more urate. Your breathing will produce wind and I know if you��re lying or not from that wind alone.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head. ��I won��t speak about the details����


    He then raised his hand and said, ��Help me get up.��


    Theo hurriedly took his hand and carefully raised him up.


    ��I can��t use this thing anymore because it��s already hard for me to walk, so I will just show this to you.�� The Wind Emperor looked at the pool and said, ��This is the technique that I used to climb up the rank.


    ��From normal soldier to an elite soldier�� a captain�� amander�� a king�� andstly, an emperor.�� The Wind Emperor looked forward and smiled, showing confidence in his technique. ��I call this technique, Ascension Step.��

 Chapter 713: Ascension Step

    <h4>Chapter 713: Ascension Step</h4>


    ��Ascension Step.��


    The name was quite surprising, but considering it came from the culmination of the Wind Emperor��s experience, the name felt deep in his heart.


    ��I will try to hold back so as not to destroy the pool���� The Wind Emperor took a deep breath and said, ��There are a total of ten steps in my Ascension Step.��


    ��The first step���� The Wind Emperor took the first step while holding Theo��s hand as his support.


    When he took the step, the wind started to swirl around him, raising the air to the top of his head.


    After that, he took the second step and the wind turned into a small shock wave.


    This wasn��t shocking and the third step was simr to the previous two. The shock wave only had a drastic increase in its power.


    But everything changed when the Wind Emperor took the fourth step.


    Boom!


    An explosion urred, startling Theo for a second. He turned to the pool and saw the rippling water.


    He didn��t stop there. He took another step, and another explosion urred as if something big had just fallen into the pool.


    The Ascension Step wasn��t something that could be stopped, so the Wind Emperor took another step, showing its real power.


    Bam.


    This time, the water even jumped into the air. And the Wind Emperor even told him that he had held back enough to make sure he didn��t destroy the pool.


    If he released all his power, Theo couldn��t imagine what would happen.


    ��Seventh step.�� The Wind Emperor clenched Theo��s hand and took another step.


    This time, the wind changed. Right after it hit the water andunched the water into the air, there was another one that came right after, sending the pressure to the surroundings, sshing all the water.


    The Wind Emperor had already protected himself with the wind, so he didn��t get wet. He then continued to the eighth step.


    Boom.


    The water, this time, burst out in all directions. The impact was too much for the pool to keep the water inside.


    However, the Wind Emperor hadn��t finished the entire ten steps. He took another one and the ninth step literally lifted up the remaining water from the pool before the tenth step hit it to the point the water exploded.


    The water moved at high speed to the point Theo felt the impact from the water itself, let alone the explosion.


    After finishing the ten steps, the Wind Emperor took a few deep breaths before walking back to his wheelchair.


    Theo, of course, supported him all the way.


    As soon as he sat down, the Wind Emperor asked, ��So, what do you think about my Ascension Step?��


    ��It��s powerful. I think it can be used in a versatile way. Hmm�� For example, you probably incorporated this technique together with your footwork.�� Theo exined what he got from observing him.


    ��That��s true. However, the key to making these steps powerful is����


    ��The first three steps,�� Theo added.


    ��Yes. The first three steps generate the air and lift it upward. After that, weunch this powerful air current with all those steps. And from the fourth step to the tenth step, it��s a kind ofyered attack. It��s a build-up thing.�� The Wind Emperor nodded.


    ��I see.�� Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    ��I won��t be stingy since you have promised me all those things. So, this is just a little gift for you.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ������ Theo frowned and asked, ��Do you think I can learn it?��


    ��Who knows. It will depend on your ability. However, I will guide you with your form, strength, and other stuff required for three hours. How much you can do in the future will depend on your talent.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ��Yes, but there is one difference between us. I am using my Telekinesis while you��re using your wind.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I��m controlling the wind while you��re pushing it. You surely have the ability to adjust it with trials and errors. And this technique will be more powerful if Your Control bes even stronger.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��I know���� Theo looked down, contemting for a moment.


    ��Unlike you, I don��t think I willst for another decade. That��s why it��s important to have someone inherit your techniques. This is the technique I have created in the past and its rank�� Probably still considered as an Original Technique, but it��s close to Divine Technique.�� The Wind Emperor smiled. ��Though, not many know this technique because it��s been a few decades since I��m using this wheelchair.��


    ��You are not my disciple and I won��t burden you with such. Just credit me in the future if you teach it to another person like your children or disciples. At least, my name won��t disappear that way.��


    Theo looked at him for a moment and ultimately nodded. ��Yes, I understand.��


    ��Good. Let��s not waste more time.�� The Wind Emperor pointed at his front. ��Stand there and repeat it.��


    ��Yes.�� Theo immediately took a step forward and nothing happened.


    ��The first step is a light step. Push the air below your feet to the surroundings. After that, form an invisible barrier to direct the air upward.��


    Theo nodded and took another step. This time, he used his Telekinesis ording to his instruction.


    There was a leak from the barrier he used to send the air upward, but he did many things right.


    ��Try again! You have five minutes to do the first step right!�� The Wind Emperor stated.


    ��Yes.�� Theo tried it again, fixing his form.


    After that, the Wind Emperor continued fixing Theo��s form and power distribution. For the first time in his life, he saw someone who could learn this fast.


    It turned out he had underestimated Theo��s talent this whole time. His n was crazy and his Martial Talent was top-notch. He truly desired Theo��s talent, but he didn��t mention it anymore as he continued instructing him.


    Since it took too long, Leonardo decided to take a peek and noticed the wind barrier that hid any movement inside the barrier. But since he had confirmed that Theo was still inside and moving, he returned, not disturbing their discussion.

 Chapter 714: Reason

    <h4>Chapter 714: Reason</h4>


    Three hourster.


    The Wind Emperor smiled and said, ��I guess it��s done. I don��t know what you can do in the future, but yeah, you��re good.


    ��Anyway, were you disappointed when I attacked the Griffith Family and stopped after fighting for a while?�� The Wind Emperor nced at Theo��s face, trying to perceive his emotion.


    Theo, on the other hand, stated with a poker face. ��Nothing. I felt nothing.��


    ��Heh?�� The Wind Emperor smirked and closed his eyes. ��Well, there was another reason for that. We didn��t fight each other to the fullest because the moment we were injured, other experts would attack us, especially those among the top.


    ��That��s why we didn��t usually attack each other. Just imagine if I was heavily injured, another top expert would have attacked me and my family. With their power, they could even destroy my family.


    ��This is just a small piece of advice for you. When you be stronger, you will realize your responsibility increasing. It will increase along with the reasons for you not to fight.


    ��That��s why not many people are actually hunting on the other side anymore, aiming for level 1,000. If they want to get stronger, they obviously need to fight strong creatures. And there will be a potential injury.


    ��If this is known to others, your life and family will be in danger. This is also a great method to prevent the others from advancing to level 1,000.


    ��However, there are also people who don��t care much about their lives and keep fighting on the other side to reach that point.


    ��Obviously, the top experts won��t let him be and reach level 1,000. After all, their lives will be in danger as well.


    ��That��s why the British Family has been searching for someone who can rank up your ability, especially your clone. If you be a peerless expert, you can simply send your clone to level up while hiding.


    ��This will create an opportunity for you to reach the stage no one has ever achieved before.


    ��I��m telling you that your clone is dangerous, and it puts you in danger. Be careful with that.�� The Wind Emperor ended his advice with a smile.


    Little did he know, the one who could rank up one��s ability was none other than Theo, the man in front of him. If he was aware of this fact, no one knew what he might do.


    ��Thank you for telling me everything.�� Theo sincerely thanked him. Although their rtionship was a bit windy before, Theo respected the old man for his wisdom, heart, and experiences.


    ��No need to do that. I��m just giving you a gift.�� The old man smiled and pointed at the garden. ��It��s better if we go back.��


    ��I understand.�� Theo nodded with a smile and pushed him back to the garden.


    Leonardo finally felt relieved when he saw Theo. At the same time, he was wondering what they were talking about because even Ava didn��t hear their conversation due to the Wind Emperor using a small wind barrier that prevented the sound from traveling outside.


    Ava looked at the old man for a moment before closing her eyes.


    ��You have a good grandson.�� The Wind Emperor nced at Leonardo, breaking the silence.


    ��Hmph. I have many good grandchildren.�� Leonardo snorted as he kept maintaining his motto. Although he admitted that Theo seemed to be above the rest, he wouldn��t do more than he had agreed.


    ��Whatever.�� The Wind Emperor smiled. ��Anyway, I��m done here. I will just move around for a day or two beforeing back. You surely don��t mind that, right?��


    ��As long as you don��t cause trouble.�� Leonardo nced at Davi.


    ��Haha, the more I retire, the more they supervise me like I��m nning to do something.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled.


    ��That��s because you��re too strong. How about you abandon your power? You won��t be supervised anymore.�� Leonardo snorted.


    ��Haha, that��s impossible. I still want to die inside my house. The first enemy that I need to face when that happens is none other than my own family.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged. ��Anyway, I had funing here. Meeting this little devil over here is worth the trip. With this, I have beaten that old hag.��


    Leonardo didn��t reply while ncing at Theo.


    However, the Wind Emperor continued, ��Bring me out and drive me around.��


    It was obviously an order for Davi. Thetter looked at Leonardo first to ask for his permission.


    As soon as Leonardo nodded his head, Davi immediately reced Theo.


    ��Alright, it��s time for me to go���� The Wind Emperor waved his hand down as if asking Theo toe to him.


    Theo carefully walked to him and bent his knees.


    Suddenly, the Wind Emperor ced his hand on Theo��s head and smiled. ��You will do good, kid. I wish you��re still alive for at least another decade�� I can��t afford to have you break your promise after all.��


    Theo chuckled and said, ��I wish you a long life too.��


    ��Haha.�� The Wind Emperorughed and turned the wheelchairs around before asking Davi to bring him out of the mansion.


    Before leaving, he didn��t forget to add, ��I know my body more than anyone else.��


    Theo fell silent for a moment until the Wind Emperor walked inside the car and left the vicinity.


    After that, Theo turned to the others, not knowing what to say. ��So, I guess everything is good.��


    ��What did you say to that old man?�� Leonardo was curious.


    ��Nothing. It��s just a small matter.�� Theo shook his head.


    ��Well, it��s fine if you don��t want to say it.�� Leonardo shrugged.


    ��Thanks.�� Theo then looked at Agata and Ava with a smile on his face. ��If you don��t step up your game, I will be leaving you two behind, you know.��


    Agata and Ava squinted their eyes as they felt this wasn��t an empty threat.


    To prove what he said, he didn��t show the Ascension Step. Instead, it was the technique that he picked up after watching how the Wind Emperor controlled his power.


    He got inspired by Fenrir, who seemed to have done it all the time.


    He raised his hand as the air started moving violently.


    ��!!!��

 Chapter 715: Provocation

    <h4>Chapter 715: Provocation</h4>


    ��This is���� Agata widened her eyes, realizing this was the technique that the Wind Emperor showed earlier to lock Theo in.


    However, the wind didn��t stay around them. Instead, the wind moved toward them as if trying to crush them.


    Agata hurriedly used her strength to resist this attack but soon found that the power was quite strong to the point she needed her smoke to release her free.


    Ava also did the same with her lightning, looking at Theo with a calm expression.


    Theo smiled and said, ��Right. Now that I think about it, I have seen two things that can bebined. In the Grand Gaia Competition, I have seen Ne releasing her Magic Power to do those techniques from the Griffith Family.


    ��This has a simr characteristic with my Telekinesis. Then, the Wind Emperor showed me that the technique could be used in my every movement, including my daily life. So, Ie up with this����


    Theo punched forward and the Telekinesis pushed the air forward. Although they didn��t get hit by this pressure, Agata felt this technique would make them feel as if they were hit by a powerful wall.


    But this wasn��t all. Theo raised his right foot and kicked the air, resulting in the air moving ording to his movement.


    In other words, his kick was improved by the power of the Telekinesis and this type of movement was simr to the Wind Emperor.


    ��I tried tobine both of my Magic Power, Control, Movement, and Telekinesis at the same time to create this continuous technique. There won��t be any restriction in using this because even if I need to use a skill, it��s only Telekinesis.


    ��It��s true that the power won��t be as powerful as the Griffith Family or the Wind Emperor��s technique, but this is more versatile because I could incorporate it into my footwork, battle techniques, and other stuff.


    ��I could say that this is the next level of what I have done until now.�� Theo smiled. He knew that he had been using this with his Telekinesis. But he had been focusing too much on a monotonous action like punching or hitting with his spear.


    After meeting the Wind Emperor, he realized that Fenrir used Telekinesis with his entire body, such as his ws, paws, or tail.


    Even normal movements from Fenrir would be able to kill him.


    He also recalled the fight between Fenrir and Hel, realizing that their battle was indeed amazing but what they had done was actually even more impressive.


    Their movement was refined. They made it look easy and not too shy, but the difference in power was there.


    That was why he knew this was the thing he had missed from their fight.


    And if he could master the Ascension Step together with this technique, his fighting style would be even more wless.


    Leonardo, on the other hand, misunderstood Theo��s intention, thinking he showed this thing because the Wind Emperor taught him earlier inside the barrier.


    He simply felt happy as long as Theo improved further.


    ��Well, that��s it.�� Theo smirked as if challenging them.


    ������ Agata pouted and looked away. ��I have something to do.��


    ��Don��t forget that we will have an international mission three months from now,�� Theo shouted, seeing Agata��s back.


    Agata didn��t stop as she simply thought she needed to work even harder. Luckily, she didn��t need to learn many basic things from Theo anymore like the past few months, allowing her to have more time to train.


    On the contrary, Ava was staring at Theo with a smile on her face. She came to him and patted his foot.


    ��Kyu!�� Ava smiled.


    ��What��s wrong, Ava?�� Theo asked.


    ��Kyu.�� Ava pointed at the pool that was now empty because of what they had done earlier. ��Kyu!��


    ��You want to use the pool?��


    Ava nodded a few times.


    ��Well, you need to wait. The water should be refilled within two hours.��


    ��Kyu.�� Ava nodded again before moving toward the pool, leaving Theo and Leonardo alone.


    Their eyes soon intertwined as Leonardo sighed. ��I guess you��re going to surpass me sooner orter. Besides, I will stop teaching you soon�� To be honest, there��s nothing I can teach you anymore.��


    ��Ahaha, there are still a few things. I will stop my Vision and Taste training for a moment and establish the basics for my Touch, Smell, and Hearing. Also, if possible, I��m nning to reach Grandmaster Level Control before the international mission.��


    ��That��s a big goal you have there.��


    ��Yeah.�� Theo nodded, knowing that was the case. He thought about it, but he realized that the thing he showed earlier required at least Grandmaster Level Control if he wanted to use it continuously.


    He thought he currently had a limit for that kind of control.


    Although it was easier to use because his body was moving along, he didn��t know whether he could do it more than ten times in session. Hence, he set a requirement for this technique, which was to reach Grandmaster Level Control.


    Leonardo thought for a moment and said, ��You have been building your foundation until now, so I think it��s just the finishing process. The three senses should be finished soon. As for your Control, I don��t know much about this. I will only give you some pieces of advice.


    ��As for Agata, I think it��s good to provoke her like that because she has been on an emotional roller coaster in the past few days because of what you have done to the Safulli Group and the Pata Corporation.


    ��Since she will be left behind if you give her time off, I agree with you to give her challenges so that she can focus on that instead of her feelings. Three months should be enough to calm her down.


    ��On the contrary, I don��t know much about Ava. So, I can��t really give her any advice.�� Leonardo shook his head in disappointment.


    ��It��s fine. I will take care of Ava. Sir Leonardo can focus on my or Agata��s training.��


    ��Fair enough.��

 Chapter 716: Maya

    <h4>Chapter 716: Maya</h4>


    The following month came with a great surprise.


    The people instantly understood why the Wind Emperor actually visited Italy.


    The reason was shown when the Wind Emperor ordered his people not to mess with Theo anymore. At the same time, they needed to prepare for his presence two months from now.


    Even though he had retired, he decided to go public once more, showing his appreciation for Theo��s talent.


    When he was asked the reason to do all this even though he had suffered in his hand, the Wind Emperor simply stated, ��No life is taken in the misunderstanding. As someone who has lived this long, I truly believe we are wise enough to respect the younger generation. After all, they will be our sessor in the future.��


    This statement shook the entire world. After all, one of the top ten experts in the world actually recognized Theo��s talentpletely.


    Leonardo alone was already big trouble to deal with, so if the Wind Emperor really tried to back him up again, Theo might have enough power to destroy the Griffith Family in the future. And his reach might not be limited to that family.


    Hence, the world started to panic, not knowing what would happen in the future. They were busy discussing their n in approaching Theo.


    And as Leonardo said, someone also put a bounty on Theo��s head.


    Though, not only were the countries panicking, his allies were also doubting him at the moment.


    After a long one month, Theo finally decided to settle one of them.


    Theo was sitting inside his mansion while looking at the screen. The call went through as a woman��s face appeared on the screen.


    ��Well, it��s been a while.�� Theo smiled. ��Maya.��


    ��Indeed.�� Maya let out a long sigh. ��You should know why I��ve been calling you, right?��


    ��Of course. You probably want to ask me about the international mission.�� Theo shrugged.


    ��Ugh.�� Maya pinched the bridge of her nose, stressed by Theo��s calmness. ��Because of the Wind Emperor��s statement, the country has been thrown into chaos. Unlike otherpanies, we��re the closest one to you, so they��re questioning us right now.


    ��After all, the Wind Emperor might snatch you from us and bring you to ourpetitor. When that happens, the situation will be extremelyplicated. There are even discussions about whether you should be killed or not.��


    ��Hoh? Is it alright to let me know this?�� Theo smirked.


    ��It��s better than you finding itter.�� Maya shrugged. ��Either way, my Starry Group is interested in sending you an International Mission. If you visit us, there will be many benefits you can get from this alone.


    ��As for the mission, it��s about a hunt for numerous monsters. You can either choose an artificial nest or another ce with a huge number of monsters.


    ��ording to our information, you have gotten far stronger after going to the other side for three months. So, we��re going to assume that you can be a Supreme Rank Expert if youe to us in this mission.


    ��And they��re requesting us to send our experts as well, but considering your personality and actions, I have persuaded them to limit that number to one. In other words, it will be me who will apany you on this hunt. Not another soul will be involved.


    ��Well, I can be reced easily by other talented people, but no one is closer to you other than me, so I don��t think this decision will be changed.


    ��Of course, leveling to 500 is easier said than done. The mission itself will require at least a few months, so yeah.


    ��We will provide the equipment and all the things you need during the mission and make sure you canplete the mission easily.


    ��As for the reward���� Maya paused for a moment. ��I will just send the contract to youter. Basically, the reward is you can wish for anything that I can fulfill.


    ��I hate to say this, but my father forced me to say this�� Yeah, you can ask me to be your wife.�� Maya shrugged and brushed it off by saying, ��Anyway, other than that, there are mary rewards and other stuff like teaching you stuff or whatever.��


    Maya ended her exnation with a long sigh.


    Theo put on a smile and said, ��Is that so? The Wind Emperor actually wanted to teach me some stuff personally as a reward though.��


    ������ Maya fell silent, understanding the weight of his words. She covered her eyes while putting on a troubled expression. ��You��re truly ruthless, aren��t you?��


    ��I don��t know what you��re talking about.�� Theo smiled.


    ��How about you list everything you can get from him? We will offer you a better term than him.�� Maya sighed.


    ��It��s nothing. I am simply someone who wants to learn as much as possible.�� Theo shook his head. ��Why do you think I can improve so much in such a short period?��


    ��Right?�� Maya rolled her eyes. ��What do you want to learn? We will be listening.��


    ��Hmm, I am not sure about that question. But I am focusing on four things right now. They are Control, Touch, Hearing, and Smell.��


    ��I will need to discuss it with others first. I can��t give you any promise.�� Maya sighed.


    ��Ah, right. I saw the Wind Emperor using his power in front of me�� He was so cool and his power was just a bit different from my Telekinesis���� Theo mentioned it with a yful expression.


    ��Can I call you Bastard?�� Maya obviously knew the reason why Theo mentioned thest one. With just that single statement, he wanted to make sure Maya negotiated with others to raise the reward as high as possible or he would choose the Wind Emperor.


    ��What do you think?�� Theo simply smiled.


    Maya rolled her eyes. ��Anyway, send me your request for a reward. I will try to negotiate with you. Still, I don��t have a guarantee whether it will be enough for you or not. So, don��t me me for that����


    ��I know. At the end of the day, I��m the one who will choose.�� Theo smirked.


    ��Yeah, I know.�� Maya shook her head helplessly. ��Why do I feel like I have been less arrogant in front of you? I guess because before, you were only a helpless youth trying to get a connection.��


    Theo didn��t answer her question as he simply waved his hand, hanging up the call. ��Bye.��

 Chapter 717: Plan

    <h4>Chapter 717: n</h4>


    While many were talking about Theo��s next move to Russia, Agata finally had the courage to confront him about this international mission.


    ��Hmm?�� Theo frowned and looked at her serious face. ��Is there something wrong?��


    ��Actually, I have been thinking for a while about the next international mission.�� Agata raised three fingers. ��First of all, if I go with you, I will probably spend around two to three months outside.


    ��This means we have reached the time limit of Sir Leonardo��s teaching, which should end on 1st January.��


    ��So, you want to focus on training here?�� Theo put on a gentle smile. After all, he didn��t me her or force her to go with him on this international mission.


    However, Agata shook her head and said, ��On the contrary, I think this is the best opportunity I have.��


    ��Ho?�� Theo paused for a moment. ��Why do you think so?��


    ��First of all, Sir Leonardo can be called for consultation during this period. This will grant us a safe cushion to fall. Second, there are huge opportunities for me if I join this international mission. So, there��s no reason for me not to join.��


    ��Is that so?��


    Agata nodded and continued, ��And this is the second thing I would like to say. From the looks of it, you have two options in your choice right now. The first will be America. There, we will be granted a safe haven, and Maya will probably be the only one apanying us.


    ��Well, that��s ording to the contract you have given me, so yeah, America will be the stable option with great opportunity. But if we��re talking about reward, the Wind Emperor seems to be more attractive to you because of your Telekinesis.


    ��However, this is a risky move because many are targeting you there. Hence, the former will give you a safe passage with good opportunities, while thetter is a bumpy road with tremendous rewards.


    ��I am not aware of what you��re nning, but I have decided to follow you wherever you want to go.�� Agata smiled.


    ��There must be a reason, right?�� Theo asked with a calm voice.


    ��This is just my personal feeling. If you go to Russia, there��s an opportunity to meet Alea. Although, I don��t like to prevent you from meeting anyone you want. I still feel a bit jealous, so I just want to be there for you.


    ��On the contrary, I don��t really trust the Star Group. With how they��re forcing Maya to do all this, they might be plotting something. So, I will be there to make sure nothing happens.�� She looked at Theo with a serious face, expressing her feelings.


    She didn��t want to be left behind, but at the same time, she didn��t want to be too clingy, so she tried to consult him first.


    Theo never forbade her from doing anything she wanted except for the rule they had agreed upon, so she also wanted to respect his choice.


    Theo smiled and nodded. ��I can understand that.��


    ��Then, myst point is���� Agata paused for a moment. ��I actually think the US is a better option. For now, we don��t have much information regarding the information of your enemies.


    ��If they send Mythical Rank Experts to kill you, I am afraid it��s impossible to escape.�� She was worried that the enemies came without caring about their n. Dealing with this type of enemy was the hardest because they only thought about their objective, not their lives.


    ��Well, you could actually do something different like going to another country that they least expected or negotiate with the War God Family to cancel the international mission for you.


    ��But I don��t think this is what you will do, considering your past actions. So, yeah, you will still go to another country, but I don��t know if it��s the US or Russia.�� Agata raised her doubt.


    ��I give you a B for this I guess.�� Theo smiled. ��Interesting point of view and analysis. What you said is correct and your concern should be addressed well. And you have taken my past actions into ount before making your decision.


    ��Also, thank you for being honest with me. Unfortunately, I can��t reply to your feelings yet. Even so, if you wish for it, I will surely bring you anywhere with me�� as my assistant.��


    Agata smiled and remained silent, listening to what he wanted to say.


    ��Still, there is one thing you miss from here.�� Theo raised his finger. ��And that is�� something you have seen.��


    ��Something I have seen?�� Agata looked down and recalled what had happened in the past few months. However, the most noticeable thing involving the grand n was none other than the words he whispered to the Wind Emperor.


    However, no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn��t predict the content. She wondered what kind of words Theo said topletely turn the friction between them into a good bond.


    ��I still don��t know what kind of words you said to the Wind Emperor.�� Agata shook her head. ��This is the only missing piece I know.��


    ��Yep. That��s the thing.�� Theo smiled. ��That��s why I gave you a B for your analysis. I know that you already knew about the missing piece but couldn��t decipher it yet.��


    ��Yeah. I asked Sir Leonardo about it, but he told me he has no idea as well.�� She let out a long sigh, disappointed by her inability to think about it.


    ��I will give you a clue. Since there is one more month before the scheduled international mission, I will give you time to think about my move.�� Theo smirked.


    ��What��s the clue?�� Agata furrowed her eyebrows, feeling curious.


    ��The clue is�� What was thest thing the Wind Emperor said?�� He smiled.


    ��Thest thing he said?�� She looked down and recalled her memory. ��Something like he wishes you��re still alive for at least another decade because he doesn��t want you to break your promise?��


    ��Yep. That��s the clue.�� Theo smiled. ��You will need to understand those words.��


    ��I understand. I will try to think about this.��

 Chapter 718: Killing Theo

    <h4>Chapter 718: Killing Theo</h4>


    The following month proceeded like usual. Those who aimed for Theo��s life had finished all their preparations and moved toward Russia.


    The Wind Emperor hade to the public again, showing himself. He just wanted to warn whoever aimed at Theo��s life would need to face him first.


    Obviously, not many people dared to fight this old monster, considering his power had been recorded in many people��s minds.


    Some of them actually backed down, especially after Russia had reinforced their border, supporting the Wind Emperor.


    Russia.


    Inside a building, there was a group of people facing each other. They hade to this ce for one thing.


    ��We need to kill Theodore Griffith regardless of the cost.�� One of them started while mming the table.


    ��We know that already. However, it��s not that easy to assassinate him. The Wind Emperor has been inside his mansion all the time, but I believe he��s plotting something.�� Another one added in agreement.


    ��That��s right. The Wind Emperor actually visited the Empress before he went to Italy. There must be something going on here.��


    ��Is the Empress actually the one who has been plotting this?��


    ��We can��t afford to fight those two monsters head-on.��


    ��But why does the Empress����


    ��Obviously, it��s for her students. ording to my information, Alea Eilric is one of Theodore��s former teammates who have hots on him. I believe she��s trying to set both of them up.��


    ��We have confirmed that this is a coboration between the Wind Emperor and the Empress. And we have agreed that we will divide our people into three groups.��


    ��That��s right. I��m in the first group. I will try to redirect the Wind Emperor��s attention, making sure he wouldn��t help Theodore Griffith escape. After that, we will simply pull back.��


    ��Then, the second group will grab the Empress�� attention. Make sure she doesn��t have the time to help Theodore Griffith as well. ording to our information, Theodore Griffith won��t being with helpers, so as long as we can divert these two monsters, we will be able to take his life.��


    ��The third group will kill him, but be careful because this might be one of his deceptions. So, watch out for more Mythical Rank Experts hiding behind him.��


    ��How about other people��s lives? Alea Eilric might be involved in this matter. We certainly don��t want a direct sh with the Empress and add more enemies.��


    ��True. I am afraid the Czar will also bring out their younger generations.��


    ��If both of them get angry, even if we manage to assassinate Theodore Griffith, our situation wouldn��t improve.��


    ��We won��t kill them. The limit of what we can do is�� knock them unconscious and send them back. We can��t harm them for now to avoid making the Wind Emperor and the Empress our enemies.��


    ��That��s right. Mypany has been in a mess, so their statement alone is enough to destroy mypany.��


    ��That��s all. We have three missions in this ce. First, we��re going to assassinate Theodore Griffith. Second, kidnap whoeveres with him, including his assistant. So, if the first mission is hard to do, we have someone that can make hime out.


    ��Third, we��ll avoid any direct confrontation with the Czar and the Pce. We��ll just kill Theodore Griffith and immediately flee this ce, okay?��


    ��But where do we attack him?��


    ��That��s right. There are three main gates where he can go to the other side. Each of them is heavily guarded.��


    ��We have stationed a few people on the other side already. So, there��s no need for you to make a fuss about them. If Theodore Griffith appears there, they will notify us and attack him. If it��s not enough, we will make our move and deal with him ourselves.


    ��That��s the main n. However, we have no guarantee that Theodore Griffith will go there. So, we have three main targets this time.


    ��First, it��s the Wind Emperor��s mansion. We know that it will be hard to deal with the Wind Emperor, but at the same time, they won��t realize we will attack him there. First, we��re going to have Theodore move to a random ce in the mansion.


    ��Because Supreme Rank Experts and Mythical Rank Experts are so easy to differentiate, we will use fifteen elite assassins. They will certainly do their job even if they need to die. At the same time, their strength is only Hero Rank, close to the Supreme Rank.


    ��They need to end the entire thing within one to two minutes before the Wind Emperor notices something is going on.


    ��The second location will be the road between the Empress Pce and the Wind Emperor��s Mansion. We will set up an ambush there and create chaos as much as possible before ultimately killing him. Of course, if it��s possible, we prefer to do it silently. We can��t afford to piss the country off after all.


    ��The third location will be any random ce he visits. We will have several agents to keep monitoring his situation and location. As soon as we find a perfect spot to kill him, we will send him there.��


    ��That��s a good idea. However, it��s going to be hard because we need to rely on those assassins in the first ce.��


    ��Either way, these are our only options in the current situation. We can��t let Theodore Griffith grow anymore because he will be a threat to us.��


    ��That��s right.��


    They finally agreed on something as they nodded their heads.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in Theo��s mansion, Agata had finally confronted him again.


    Their departure was in two days, so this was the perfect time to test the answer she had gotten from him.


    ��So, do you have an answer?�� Theo smirked.


    ��Yes. Although I don��t want to believe it, I think I have the answer.��


    ��How do you feel about the answer?��


    ��I���� Agata looked down. ��I just want to be sure. Are you sure about this?��


    ��Yeah.�� Theo smiled, confirming her worry without hesitation.


    ��I don��t know what to say anymore. To think you would ask the Wind Emperor for all this���� Agata let out a long sigh.


    ��Haha���� Theo chuckled. ��Are you ready to go there then?��

 Chapter 719: Russia

    <h4>Chapter 719: Russia</h4>


    ��Wee to Domodedovo.��


    Theo was walking inside the airport apanied by a woman on his side.


    He soon stopped when he saw four people in front of him. The first was none other than the Wind Emperor, smiling at him.


    The one who was pushing his wheelchair was a middle-aged man. He had white hair and wore sunsses.


    Still, the one that slightly surprised him was the two people next to him. The first one was a male in his early twenties. He had a scar running from his right cheek to his right eyebrows, increasing the intensity of his stare.


    Yet, he didn��t seem to be a talkative person, especially when he realized the man was trying to observe him first instead of showing his arrogance.


    On his left was a girl. She appeared to be a lot younger than the man. She had long white hair tied into a ponytail.


    Unlike the young man, the girl seemed to be hiding her intention by putting on that poker face.


    Still, he understood why the Wind Emperor actually brought them here. He narrowed his eyes for a moment before smiling. ��Thank you foring all the way here, Sir Wind Emperor.��


    The Wind Emperor smiled and waved his hand, treating it as not a big deal. He was already satisfied when he noticed Theo��s change of expression. This way, he didn��t need to say anything about his intention.


    ��This is the acting head of the Czar.�� The Wind Emperor pointed at the man before introducing the other two. ��The young man there is three years older than you and he��s the current most promising guy in the family. As for thisss, she��s an interesting kid. Come on, introduce yourself.��


    ��Nice to meet you, I��m Yermyev. I wee you and I hope you have an enjoyable stay here.�� The middle-aged man politely nodded his head, introducing himself to Theo.


    Although no one said it, there was a sense of jealousy in his eyes. After all, the Wind Emperor never acknowledged his talent despite bing the leader. On the other hand, Theo was so young and had been acknowledged worldwide.


    At the same time, his eyes contained no hostility, knowing that he couldn��t rece the Wind Emperor if he passed away. So, it was better not to make Theo his enemy.


    The other two had been informed by the Wind Emperor as well. They didn��t dare to do the same thing as Zhilov or else they would get strict punishment.


    The young man ced his hand on his chest as he bowed like a gentleman. ��I��m honored to meet you. I am Lyovkin. If you find it hard to call my name, just call me Lov. And wee to Russia.��


    After that, the youngdy immediately lifted her skirt a bit and introduced herself. ��I��m Levina. It��s my pleasure to meet the man who is acknowledged worldwide. You��re my idol.��


    Theo smiled and nodded. ��Hello, I��m Theodore. Just call me Theo.��


    Agata also stepped forward and politely introduced herself. ��I��m Liza, Theo��s assistant.��


    ������ Yermyev raised his eyebrows, stunned for a few seconds. However, his expression soon returned to normal.


    The Wind Emperor smiled and added, ��He��s this guy��s son while the girl is his niece. Lyovkin is good at Wind Maniption�� Well, he��s better than the rest. As for Levina, she��s a bit unique because her power doesn��te from her body but her weapon.


    ��Anyway, I will exin what you are going to do for the next three months in the car.�� The Wind Emperor nced at Yermyev.


    ��Please follow me.��


    He guided them to the car before helping the Wind Emperor up. After that, he went to the driver��s seat.


    Theo was quite surprised to see the head of the Czar drive him, but considering the Wind Emperor was one of the passengers, it was usible.


    As soon as they entered, Levina gathered her courage and asked, ��I��m sorry for being rude, but I have seen your records of your power. If it��s possible, can you have a spar with me?��


    Theo raised his eyebrows. The Wind Emperor seemed to want to reprimand her, but Theo simply smiled. ��Sure. Sir Emperor said you��re unique, so I��m curious about your power.��


    ��Are you sure?�� The Wind Emperor nced at him.


    ��Yes. This may be an International Mission, but this is also my personal training. So, I��m nning to fight as much as possible.��


    ��In that case, do you want to join the friendlypetition with the Empress�� Pce?��


    ��What��s that?��


    ��It��s just a friendly spar. We send three of our prominent youths and have them spar. That��s all.��


    ��Ehm, I think that��s rather inappropriate. After all, I��m not from the Czar.��


    ��That��s fine. After what you have done to Zhilov, we have lost one of our fighters, you see.�� The Wind Emperor smirked, pressuring him to enter.


    Theo thought for a moment. He nned to learn as much as possible, so the sparring was actually a good opportunity. After all, he still had his eyes that could see through the skills.


    If he could experience what it felt like fighting them, he would surely find something good during the match.


    At the same time, the Empress must send her best people, so this would be the best opportunity for him.


    ��Well, I need to ask for other permissions first. No matter what, I��m still an outsider.��


    ��Actually, these two are the other participants.��


    ��I want to see it,�� Levina answered without hesitation.


    ��In that case, I would like to ask for a spar with you first. Although I have seen your records, I want to experience your power first hand. Of course, if you reject it, I won��tin.�� Lyovkin replied with a calm expression.


    ��Sure thing.��


    ��Good. You can spar tomorrow since the event is in two days.�� The Wind Emperor looked at the two kids and said, ��Don��t embarrass our name, okay?��


    ��Yes, Grandfather!�� They immediately replied in unison.


    ��Well, since this is a special asion, I guess you can stay at my house.�� The Wind Emperor nced at Theo. ��You don��t mind, right?��


    ��Of course.�� Theo smiled.

 Chapter 720: Emperor? Normal Person?

    <h4>Chapter 720: Emperor? Normal Person?</h4>


    They went back to the Wind Emperor��s mansion. The mansion wasn��t that big considering the Wind Emperor��s prestige. However, it indeed looked beautiful andfortable to live in.


    The house was slightlyrger than his own mansion, but instead of a pool, there was a huge garden filled with flowers and nts.


    Theo took another look at the surroundings and asked, ��There are not many people staying here.��


    ��Is there anyone who dares to sneak up on me?�� The Wind Emperor shrugged.


    ��Well���� Theo fell silent and simply stared at theyout of the mansion. He had learned everything from Leonardo, including theyout for protection. So, he could see some gaps to be exploited.


    If their target was the Wind Emperor, no one obviously had the power to sneak up on him.


    But if their target was him, it would be a different matter.


    ��I think you��re overestimating them. Even with me sleeping, I have never let go of my Awareness. I will be able to sense their Magic Power as soon as theye to this ce.�� The Wind Emperor assured Theo.


    Theo looked at him for a moment before sighing. ��Well, that��s true.��


    ��Anyway, the sun is about to set, so I will ask the maids to prepare for dinner. Do you have anything you don��t like?�� The Wind Emperor asked.


    ��Human meat,�� Theo replied with a joking tone.


    ��You brat, you think you are good enough to joke with me?�� The Wind Emperor squinted his eyes.


    ��In that case, can I assume that the Wind Emperor doesn��t like to smile?�� Theo smiled.


    Meanwhile, Levina and Lyovkin were gulping down, never expecting Theo to be this casual with the Wind Emperor.


    However, the Wind Emperor simply chuckled, startling them. ��That��s true. Smiling is the secret of a long life�� Or that��s what people said. I guess Leonardo has so much fun when teaching you. Just look at these two brats. They can��t joke around.��


    Levina and Lyovkin looked down. They were simply too scared to joke with him because one wrong word would mean they had offended him.


    ��This is why you are different.�� The Wind Emperor smiled and circted the wind inside the car to gently brush Levina and Lyovkin��s skin. ��For me, there are five sses among the people.


    ��Normal people, elite soldiers,manders, kings, and emperors. Normal people are like house servants or ordinary citizens. As a ruler, we obviously need to treat our subjects with respect, so they respect us back. Hence, I created a rule to not injure them and get offended for petty reasons.


    ��As for the people from the Czar, I consider them as elite soldiers because they have decided to pick up their weapons to fight in the front line. When you pick up a weapon, you need to y your enemies without mercy, thinking you won��t be able to go back to see your loved ones if you don��t. This is what I expect from them.


    ��Then, for those who can understand their weakness and strength as well as knowing their responsibility, I consider them asmanders. You should know how to differentiate your enemies, allies, equals, or bystanders at this stage.


    ��Kings are for those who excel in one thing. For example, this guy. He has done things he excels at and shown his brilliance to many people in the world. Only when you��re recognized by people will you be treated as a king. The current head is a king too.


    ��On the other hand, Emperors are on a whole different level. It��s only attained by people who have sought the truth and put away all the things they have. When you reach this level, you won��t care about anything because you already have your set of rules that you will follow to the very end. That��s why those top ten experts or their equals are quite unique on their own.


    ��You need to work harder, eh, Mr. Driver?�� The Wind Emperor nced at Yermyev, the current head of the Czar.


    Yermyev couldn��t help but smile. He realized that his father had actually recognized him this whole time. But he simply hadn��t shown enough to be seen as an equal.


    And for Theo, who actually made the Wind Emperor open up, he felt grateful. He answered with a genuine tone. ��Yes. I won��t disappoint you.��


    ��Good.�� The Wind Emperor then looked at Levina and Lyovkin. ��Do you understand now?��


    They both lowered their heads and answered in unison. ��Yes, we understand. We will take this to our hearts.��


    ��Good.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    They had thought that the Wind Emperor was a cold and ruthless person. Yet, the image in their head didn��t seem to match his current behavior.


    They soon realized that the Wind Emperor must have been acting this whole time because of his own set of rules. In other words, they were the ones who never dared to approach him.


    It was them who misunderstood him and thought of him as a ruthless ruler.


    Meanwhile, the real truth was�� he was simply a lonely man who had been standing tall above the Czar to make sure that no one could look down on them. He never showed any weakness to make sure no one took advantage of them.


    Even with the rules in his mind, the feeling of loneliness must have hurt him deeply.


    It was shown when he first visited Theo. There was a younger generation that had been recognized by him and wasn��t afraid of him.


    They saw each other as equal, pushing away that loneliness. That was why the Wind Emperor had been smiling so much recently.


    And they just realized all this because Theo happened to visit them. If not, this secret wouldn��t be revealed until the Wind Emperor passed away.


    Lyovkin couldn��t help but drop to his knees in front of his grandfather. ��Grandfather! I am sorry.��


    Levina also followed his lead, doing the same thing. ��Levina also wants to apologize to Grandfather!��


    ��Haha.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled as he looked at Theo. ��What should I do with this? They are apologizing out of nowhere and without context.��


    ��Though you seem to be enjoying it, Sir.�� Theo smiled while closing his eyes.


    The Wind Emperor only chuckled and patted their heads.

 Chapter 721: Assassins?

    <h4>Chapter 721: Assassins?</h4>


    As soon as they arrived in front of the mansion, Theo came out together with everyone else. The Wind Emperor immediately excused himself, leaving the servants to lead Theo, Agata, Lyovkin, and Levina to their respective rooms.


    Theo simply put his luggage and went back to his training.


    ��I guess tonight is when the party starts���� Theo muttered.


    Without hesitation, he immediately went to the bathroom and gathered a huge ball of water, bringing it back to his bedroom.


    He used his Telekinesis and Magic Power to reshape the water into a dragon.


    Now that he had a clear image of a dragon in his head, he could reconstruct the World ss Monster.


    It was standing behind him for an hour before he got a call for dinner. He attended the dinner with the Wind Emperor and his two grandchildren.


    It was just a simple dinner as Theo immediately returned to his room after he finished.


    However, there was one thing he needed to do during the night. As soon as he returned to the room, he brought another ball of water and headed to the garden.


    He felt the cold breeze outside and walked to a deserted spot where he could train his power.


    What Theo did was simply move the water ording to his movement while he used his Telekinesis to reshape it a few times. This was the training method for Theo to increase his Endurance and Control.


    Surprisingly, Lyovkin and Levina seemed to have noticed him.


    It was Levina who first came out because she visited his room, wanting to talk with him. Just as she said earlier, Theo was her idol.


    Because there was no answer from Theo, she searched for him and found him in the garden.


    Little did she know, Lyovkin actually did the same.


    When she was peeking at Theo from afar, she was ambushed by him.


    ��What are you doing here?�� Levina widened her eyes, staring at Lyovkin.


    ��I have the same reason as you.�� Lyovkin looked away embarrassedly. He thought there were many things he could learn from Theo, so he came all the way here to meet him.


    ��It��s not your turn yet. Grandfather seems to want me to seduce him too!�� Levina pouted.


    ��You���� Lyovkin looked at her from top to bottom with a weird expression.


    ��What? I��m as pretty as his assistant. And I��m still 17 years old!��


    ��Isn��t that basically illegal?��


    ��I��m just building the foundation right now. Within one year, there won��t be anything else on the way.��


    ��One year is enough for him to get married, you know.��


    ��That��s why I��m trying to prevent that! So, you go away! I have something important to do!�� Levina red at him.


    However, their conversation actually made them forget that Theo could hear them. He said with a calm tone with a voice loud enough for them to hear. ��So, when are you nning toe out?��


    ��!!!�� Levina and Lyovkin were rmed as the former immediately waved her hand to tell him to go away.


    But Theo added, ��You two.��


    ������ The two fell silent beforeing out.


    ��So, what are you two doing here?�� Theo asked them without even looking at them as if he was offended by their action.


    ��I just want to talk to you, Idol!�� Levina smiled sweetly, answering his question with the line she had prepared this whole time.


    Lyovkin thought of something and said, ��I want to thank you for making us realize that we have been unfilial to Grandfather this whole time.��


    ������ Theo sighed and scratched the back of his head. He turned around and looked at them. ��Actually, you can do that tomorrow. We have scheduled a spar, right? You can do that at that time.��


    ��But if I said this in front of Grandfather, I would be too embarrassed.�� Lyovkin smiled embarrassedly.


    ��I�� I am your biggest fan. I can��t wait for tomorrow.��


    Theo fell silent and said, ��Anyway, you should go away from here. There��s going to be a party soon.��


    ��A party?�� Levina and Lyovkin tilted their heads in confusion.


    But, before Theo could exin what he meant, both he and Lyovkin suddenly looked to the fence, finding fifteen peopleing toward them.


    Lyovkin couldn��t help but move toward Theo, trying to protect him. ��You need to escape from here. I��m going to buy you time!��


    Theo didn��t heed his words as he simply shot the water dragon at them.


    The assassins didn��t even bother to cover their faces as they were going to die after this mission.


    The moment they saw the dragon, four of them stepped forward and shed the dragon into pieces.


    Bam.


    The water burst out, making all the people in the garden wet.


    ��Don��t let him use anything that can release a loud sound. We need to kill him in the first attack! And ignore the other two.�� One of the assassins stated their order.


    They didn��t reply to him, but all of them knew that they only had one chance.


    After observing Theo this whole time, they realized Theo had been expecting them from the start. They thought about retreating, but they knew Theo and the Wind Emperor had expected them toe. So, even if they returned, they would be killed by their own masters.


    In that case, it would be better to die afterpleting the mission.


    All fifteen of them were moving toward Theo as they raised their weapons.


    ��I will buy time for you! Please escape.�� Levina had also arrived in front of Theo, trying to fend the assassins off.


    But before they arrived, Theo said onest thing. ��Tsk. You two are fools. There��s no way you can do anything to those assassins.��


    When Levina and Lyovkin heard that, they wanted to refute him. They just couldn��t believe Theo said such a thing when they were risking their lives to buy time for him.


    However, that thought disappeared when the assassins were only a few feet away from them.


    Levina and Lyovkin had prepared to attack them before a gush of wind suddenly brushed their skin and restrained all the assassins in the air.


    ��!!!�� All of them except Theo were shocked by what happened as Theo said, ��Tsk. If you can��t face them, you just need to call someone who can.��


    In the air, the Wind Emperor was standing tall as he said in a cold tone. ��I haven��t fallen asleep yet and you dare to cause a mess here����

 Chapter 722: Sparring Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 722: Sparring Part 1</h4>


    ��I haven��t fallen asleep yet and you dare to cause a mess here����


    All of them were stunned when they saw the Wind Emperor standing in the air. They never thought he had been waiting all this time.


    The Wind Emperor simply waved his hand to the side as the violent wind started shaking the assassins�� bodies before bursting them from the inside.


    The assassins literally exploded, leaving only blood, some flesh that hadn��t been torn apart, and their ripped clothes.


    However, the Wind Emperor used his wind to create a small barrier in the air, preventing anything from smearing his mansion.


    After that, he descended to the ground and floated several inches above the soil since he couldn��t use his legs.


    ��Grandfather!�� Levina and Lyovkin immediately greeted him.


    Meanwhile, Theo yfully said, ��You don��t need to kill them all.��


    ��What? You want to get their information? That��s impossible. Those guys are not even hiding their faces, so it��s obvious there are no records in their bodies. And there��s no way your enemies are sending people who will talk. If the assassins are that foolish, the employers are not going to tell them anything too.


    ��In other words, it��s useless to keep them alive.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head helplessly.


    ��That��s true, but I thought about using them as a warning. But I guess that��s not important. I will just adjust my n a bit.�� Theo sighed.


    ��That��s because you leave everything to me. Why don��t you take care of them?��


    ��Well, they seem to be elite assassins and if I fight them, I won��t escape unscathed, let alone when I can��t even use all my power.�� Theo shook his head. ��I still want to test my power against talented people, you see.��


    ��That��s your problem.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged. ��Anyway, I will take care of this.��


    ��Thank you.�� Theo nodded while smiling.


    Before leaving with a ball of blood in the air, the Wind Emperor said, ��You two. Don��t bother the guest for today. He must be tired aftering all the way here.��


    Lyovkin and Levina rubbed their cheeks with their fingers. They turned to Theo and apologized for disturbing him before returning to the mansion.


    Meanwhile, Theo stood still for a moment while closing his eyes. ��Well, I guess there are a few things to do for the next two days.��


    Theo sighed and finally returned to the room. Surprisingly, he didn��t bother to train again as he simply went to bed to rest.


    The next day.


    Theo and the others went to the garden as they were nning to have a spar.


    ��Liza is not feeling well. I hope you don��t mind her staying in the room today.�� Theo smiled, exining her condition. ��To be honest, she has been asking me not to make a trip here, so yeah, she doesn��t want toe out.��


    The Wind Emperor remained silent while Levina and Lyovkin had a thought on their own.


    ��Doesn��t this mean I can do anything I want?�� Levina thought as she smiled inwardly.


    ��Hmm, I don��t know if this is good or not, but I can see how a man called Theodore Griffith acts without the help of his assistant. In other words, everything he does is purelying from his own thoughts.�� Lyovkin closed his eyes before nodding his head.


    After a while, the Wind Emperor finally introduced them again. ��Lyovkin has good control over the wind. So, you shouldn��t underestimate him. Although he��s not as good as Zhilov, he��s not that far. Though, I believe you are stronger than him.��


    ��Looking forward to fighting with you.�� Theo nodded to Lyovkin.


    ��Likewise.��


    ��As for this girl�� How about you show him your weapon?��


    She epted themand and called her weapons. It turned out her weapon was the huge robotic hands that his pastpetitor used. However, Levina also had a pair of boots that matched the hands, allowing her to release an even more powerful attack.


    ��I see. So that��s why you said her poweres from her weapon.�� Theo nodded in understanding.


    ��Yeah. She��s going to participate in the Grand Gaia Competition next year as a second year. So, why don��t you test whether she��s good enough or not topete in that tournament? After all, you were the previous MVP.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��I understand.��


    ��Please take care of me.�� Levina smiled. ��I don��t know if I should request this, but I would like to fight you with your full power.��


    ��For some circumstances, that��s not possible.�� Theo shook his head helplessly. ��But you don��t need to hold back because you won��t be able to touch me even with my current strength.��


    ������ Levina fell silent. She wanted to refute him, saying she might be stronger than she expected, but she thought Theo might have that kind of power.


    Hence, she only fell silent and epted his words. ��I understand. I��m looking forward to our fight.��


    ��Yeah.��


    ��Anyway, you��re free to use everything in your possession to defeat this guy.�� The Wind Emperor pointed at the garden. ��This will be the area of battle. No need to think about me when you attack your opponent because I don��t care much about the garden. It can be rebuilt again anyway.


    ��So, yeah, make sure you don��t hold back and end up disappointing me. I will stop the fight when it gets dangerous.�� The Wind Emperor thought for a moment and stated, ��Theodore Griffith is a monster. That��s something I can confidently say.


    ��If you underestimate him, you��re going to pay for it dearly. After the fight, I will try to exin everything you need to improve. That��s all. Do you have anything you want to say?��


    Lyovkin and Levina shook their heads at the same time while Theo took a step back, entering the arena.


    ��Alright. Who will fight him first?��


    Lyovkin and Levina exchanged looks before thetter raised her hand. ��I��m weaker than him, so his fight will probablyst longer. Hence, I will fight him first. Besides, we need to assume that we know nothing about our opponents in the Grand Gaia Competition even though we have some data about them.��


    ��Okay. Go!��


    Levina nodded to the Wind Emperor before walking toward Theo.


    ��Please take care of me.��


    Theo nodded with a smile.


    ��Match Start!��

 Chapter 723: Sparring Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 723: Sparring Part 2</h4>


    ��Match starts!��


    The moment they heard the Wind Emperor��s voice, Levina immediately charged forward. She excelled in meleebat, so she thought she needed to get close to her enemies all the time.


    Theo, on the other hand, raised his spear and pointed it at her with a smile on his face.


    ��Here Ie!�� Levina shouted as she threw a punch.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the spinning wind around her robotic hand. It felt like she was using it as a drill.


    In the end, Theo took the attack head-on with his spear alone.


    ������ Theo was surprised with the power as it managed to push his spear back. Although she didn��t break through his defense, her power managed to surpass his expectations.


    ��Hmm? That circr wind�� acts like a drill to increase the pration force. At the same time, the weight behind the robotic hand elevates this punch to another level. We should have around three hundred levels gap, so this is quite surprising.�� Theo thought for a moment.


    ��Ha!�� Levina shouted, trying to push him again.


    ��Your strength is good, but you��recking the flexibility to do stuff. If your opponent doesn��t care about your strength���� Theo said as he repelled her hand to the side, letting it slide on his spear.


    This made Levina take a step forward, entering Theo��s defense. After that, he hit her stomach with his knee before using Telekinesis to send her back. ��You will be hit like this.��


    ��Gah.�� Levina widened her eyes andnded on the ground a few feet away before coughing a few times.


    ��Sorry, but if you choose to fight me, I won��t hesitate to beat you.�� Theo shrugged.


    Levina took a deep breath as she smiled. ��No. This is what I want����


    She charged toward Theo again with another fist.


    ��Your strength is good, but by no means it��s the strongest.�� Theo smiled and raised his left hand forward.


    His Telekinesis and Magic Power began to flow, creating a more powerful gale than the wind circting in her hand.


    However, the force turned out to be enough to blow her away.


    ��Kh���� Levina gritted her teeth.


    ��What you��re doing is only using your wind power. You need to incorporate Magic Power and Control as well. I have even toned it down to the level that Ne used during the fight.�� Theo narrowed his eyes.


    ������ Levina obviously knew Ne. She was one of the strongest contenders in the Grand Gaia Competition. Although her achievement was overshadowed by Theo, her strength alone was probably the strongest among the younger generations.


    So, experiencing it firsthand couldn��t help but make Levina excited.


    ��I see. I need to get stronger.�� Levina smiled as she walked toward him with both hands this time.


    Surprisingly, when she put the circting wind on both hands side by side, the wind assimted and created a powerful tornado.


    The tornado flew forward, nning to engulf Theo.


    Theo simply looked at it for a moment before using his Magic Power Expansion. He swung his spear like a bat and released the extraordinary power of Magic Power Expansion.


    The shock wave produced by it was enormous, destroying Levina��s attack in an instant.


    She even flew away. If the Wind Emperor didn��t use his wind to catch her, she would have been thrown away outside the fence.


    ��Not holding back against my granddaughter?�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ��You should remember what Ne used in the fight against me, right?��


    ��B Rank Skill.�� Levina was the first to answer. She looked at Theo with a determined gaze. ��I��m sorry for showing you such a disy. But if it��s possible, can I continue the fight?��


    ��Sure thing.�� Theo nodded with a smile.


    ��Thank you very much.�� Levina thanked him as she charged again. This time, she waved both hands from the side.


    The wind began to violently move toward Theo, trying to squeeze him to death.


    Theo looked at this and said, ��This one is a good thing to hinder your opponent�� Though, it��s still not enough.��


    After that, he waved his hand to the side, creating another gale to disrupt the one on his right.


    With this kind of opening, he didn��t hesitate to leave the ce.


    It was at this time Levina used all her power to increase her speed,unching her to Theo��s side, kicking him from behind.


    Theo suddenly turned around and kicked her foot, bringing it down to the ground. After that, he punched her chest and blew her away.


    Bam.


    Levina flew into the air for a few seconds before rolling on the ground.


    ��Kh.�� Levina gritted her teeth and looked up. ��That��s����


    ��That��s how your opponent will react if you make such an obvious move. It��s easy to see that you��re nning to make me move with that kind of power. So, your opponent won��t hesitate to move to one side and strike you.�� Theo smiled.


    ��But is that how people from thepetition will react?�� Levina frowned.


    ��Yes. That��s why you need to be one step ahead of them. You can use wind from all over your body, right?�� Theo smiled.


    ��Yes.�� Levina furiously nodded as she stood up.


    ��Then, instead of using both hands, why don��t you make it more obvious by using only your left hand or right hand?��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Here�� I will show you.�� Theo started running toward her.


    Levina immediately raised both hands, trying to cancel this attack with her power.


    Theo waved his left hand as his Telekinesis started pushing the wind to her from the left.


    Seeing this attack, Levina realized she needed to go to the other side to avoid using all her power to block this one. Hence, she jumped to the side, escaping from the wind.


    Just like her, Theo also appeared from behind to attack her.


    Knowing that, Levina immediately turned around to strike him. However, she suddenly felt pressureing down and pinning her to the ground, resulting in ate reaction.


    This gave Theo the opportunity to hit her as she also got hit by the violent wind from earlier.


    ��Gah!�� Levina spun uncontrobly in the air before falling to the ground.


    There was only one question in her mind. Why was there a powerful push from above when she clearly felt Theo��s Telekinesis in his kick?

 Chapter 724: Sparring Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 724: Sparring Part 3</h4>


    ��Did you know what happened earlier?�� Theo smiled.


    Levina couldn��t answer him as she had no idea. Everything looked the same except the first move.


    It was at this time Lyovkin couldn��t help but drop his jaw in shock. ��No way.��


    Levina turned to Lyovkin with a dumbfounded expression.


    ��He actually used the first move to force you to go to the designated location. And before he ambushed you from behind, while running�� he kicked the air to his back and created a violent gale and dropped it right on you with perfect timing, thus hindering you from moving.


    ��Although Supreme Rank Experts could feel that power, the participants in thepetition wouldn��t be able to feel that one. That��s why you couldn��t move.��


    Levina was dumbstruck as she realized why Theo asked her whether she could use her wind from all over her body.


    ��After this attack, you can actually do what you did earlier�� the one that trapped me from two sides. This way, your opponent would think there might be another ambush from above.


    ��And when you actually did the one-sided attack, they might even force their way through that powerful gale to do something unthinkable. But this is just a stupid move because you could move to that spot in an instant.


    ��This applied if you trapped them from two sides as well. And if you actually used the corner to trap them, they only had one possible move.�� Theo smirked.


    ��It��s to confront me head-on!�� Levina sucked a cold breath.


    ��Exactly. You can show them your powerful hand-to-handbat andunch them back here. Now that they have no guard, they will soon admit defeat.��


    Levina��s body trembled. To think there would be so many things that could be done with a single move. And the only requirement for her to do that was to make them think something like this by doing Theo��s trick.


    ��Trapping someone is a normal tactic. But if you make them overthink everything, you can actually control them to do whatever you want them to do,�� Theo added.


    ��There we go, the devil bastard.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled. ��To put it simply, what you did earlier was already great at your level. But it was merely to ��corner�� your opponent. What he did was ��controlling�� you to your defeat. This is the difference between check and checkmate.��


    Levina was dumbstruck as she realized she had been too narrow-minded in how she used her power.


    ��Th-thank you very much.�� Levina hurriedly thanked Theo for the lesson.


    ��It��s fine.�� Theo waved his hand down, treating it as not a big deal.


    Lyovkin simply couldn��t believe that Theo could do so many tricks with only a single move. And if theybined one move with another, the effect would be amplified.


    Levina knew it too. That was why she could see so many things that needed improvement.


    If before her ��Idol�� stuff was a bit forced by her family circumstances, after getting this advice, she truly became his fan.


    ��Alright. Let��s stop the spar with this.��


    There was a sense of regret on Levina��s face when she heard these words. Yet, she couldn��t show it because she had received so much from him.


    That advice alone could be applied anywhere as long as she was creative enough to think of it.


    ��I understand. Once again, thank you so much.�� Levina epted it and thanked him for giving such a lesson.


    She returned to her grandfather to receive his lecture.


    ��I guess I don��t need to say many things as he has covered most of them for me. What you have to do right now is to know your strengths and exploit them to the very limit.


    ��As he said, what you have right now is already good enough. But if you want to be one of the top of the younger generations in thatpetition, you need to utilize something like this.


    ��You still have more than a year to do this�� Prove that you are stronger than anyone else.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ��Yes, Grandfather. I won��t disappoint you.�� She nodded with a serious expression.


    ��Good. Just watch the next battle.�� The Wind Emperor then nced at Lyovkin, signaling him to go.


    He nodded and walked to Theo.


    ��Please take care of me.��


    ��Likewise.�� Theo nodded.


    ��Start!�� The Wind Emperor announced.


    Lyovkin didn��t hesitate to use all his power, not wanting to underestimate Theo. He created five tornadoes at the same time, trying to engulf Theo from all sides.


    Theo nced to the right and lifted his finger.


    A huge wall suddenly emerged from the ground, covering him from the right tornado.


    The Wind Emperor suddenly frowned when he saw this wall but didn��t say anything.


    Meanwhile, Theo used his Magic Power Expansion and created a powerful shockwave to the left.


    The two tornadoes from the left were destroyed and one tornado hit the wall on his right, leaving only two tornadoes behind.


    Theo didn��t have any problem avoiding these two tornadoes.


    At the same time, Lyovkin couldn��t help but step back as though he felt something.


    ��What��s that?�� Lyovkin widened his eyes in surprise. ��Something ising, but I don��t know what it is����


    Suddenly, he looked at the ground and jumped upward.


    At that time, twenty Magic Bullets came out from the ground.


    He tried to fly away to avoid them, but Theo activated their Tracking Ability, not letting him go.


    Lyovkin ended up creating a burst of wind that was strong enough to disrupt the Magic Bullet.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded in session, allowing Lyovkin to regain his ground.


    After that, he flew toward Theo while waving his hand a few times.


    The wind started moving in a random direction and soon trapped Theo in a wind sphere that violently moved in a random direction.


    Knocking them alone wouldn��t be enough to destroy this technique.


    Soon, Theo��s figure appeared outside the wind sphere.


    Lyovkin had been waiting for Theo to use his Blink and took this opportunity to hit him.


    Theo didn��t even react as he soon disappeared upon impact.


    After that, two Magic Bullet flew into the air from the opposite side and split themselves into twenty before hitting Lyovkin.


    ��What?!��

 Chapter 725: Sparring Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 725: Sparring Part 4</h4>


    ��What?�� Lyovkin widened his eyes, never expecting that Theo��s Control had reached this level.


    He gritted his teeth and waved his hands, trying to create another violent gale to destroy all the Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets were getting destroyed one by one as he somehow managed to knock all of them off.


    However, Theo had already made his next move.


    When Lyovkin was about to return his focus to Theo, he saw a boulder the size of his body flying toward him and hit him head-on.


    ��Gah!�� Lyovkin felt the pain from the impact.


    Even though he had enveloped his body with wind, the rock still carried a powerful momentum.


    But that wasn��t all. Theo had no intention of letting him recover as he was already above his head.


    ��His teleportation skill?�� Lyovkin widened his eyes and raised both arms, blocking his spear.


    The gale was powerful enough to repel the spear, but Theo��s Telekinesis still pushed him to the ground.


    Bam.


    Lyovkin wasn��t out of danger yet. As soon as he was on the ground, he rolled to the side as Theonded on his previous spot as though he wanted to stomp him.


    After that, Lyovkin finally gained some time to reorganize his thoughts.


    While watching them, the Wind Emperor asked, ��So, what do you think? Do you think you want to fight him with his full strength?��


    Levina looked down, feeling embarrassed from what she said earlier. She realized the gap between them was too big.


    If Theo truly fought her seriously, she would have lost from the very first move when Theo��s Magic Bullets came out of the ground.


    Meanwhile, Lyovkin waved his hands a few times, creating a violent wind that rose into the air.


    Due to the constant push from below, Theo couldn��t help but float.


    Theo and Lyovkin immediately used their own power to fly in the air.


    Lyovkin immediately raised his hand. As he was frustrated, he couldn��t help but shout his skill name. ��Wind Dragon!��


    Theo smiled and said, ��This is what I got from thest fight.��


    He raised his spear on top of his head as his Telekinesis began to spin the air current just like when Levina threw her punch.


    He didn��t use a simple push anymore since he had gotten something more useful. With this kind of torrential push, the power would be even more concentrated, resulting in a stronger push.


    Even so, Lyovkin challenged him with the wind that had turned into a dragon��s head. Inside of that head consisted of wind in multiple directions, so if he got swallowed, he would be torn into pieces.


    Though, Theo simply hit the dragon��s head and used the torrential push to disrupt the wind��s direction and ultimately knocked the head down to the ground.


    The dragon��s head hit the ground and created a powerful shock wave that shook the garden, but it didn��t affect the two fighters in the air.


    They then flew toward each other for another sh.


    Seeing this kind of movement, Levina couldn��t help but gasp. ��Isn��t that my����


    ��Yes. For him, everything is training. No matter if his opponent is weak or strong, as long as he sees something unique, he wants to incorporate it into his own repertoire. That��s why Theodore Griffith can be this strong in a short period. However, that also requires a lot of talent.


    ��Don��t try to imitate him as you will be injured. But I do rmend that you respect your enemies whether they��re strong or not. After all, they might have something worth learning. Whether you can seed in doing it or not, that��s a different matter. That��s what I mean by not imitating him.��


    ��I understand. I won��t be reckless.�� Levina nodded furiously, knowing there were so many things she could learn just by watching Theo.


    Just like her, Lyovkin was shocked as he never expected that the previous fight would make him stronger.


    ��Kh.�� Lyovkin raised his hand and formed a giant palm above Theo��s head.


    Theo raised his head and covered his spear with the Magic Power Expansion, piercing the palm.


    But the power from the palm was stronger than expected as it knocked Theo to the ground.


    Bam.


    Theo crashed to the ground as the dust rose into the air, covering him.


    Lyovkin was nning to attack him relentlessly to pay the previousbo he received, but a spear suddenly flew toward him.


    ��He threw his spear?!�� Lyovkin was shocked and hurriedly avoided it. He never thought Theo would throw his weapon away. But when he made eye contact with the spear when it passed him, he realized the spear contained a powerful Magic Power. In that instant, he realized it was actually his Magic Bullet that had been shaped into a spear with his Control and Illusion. ��Sh��!��


    Boom.


    The spear exploded andunched him away. Lyovkin noticed that Theo actually faked his fall because he wanted to lower his guard.


    And he took this opportunity to use his Blink to appear behind Lyovkin and attack him.


    Lyovkin smirked as he used his wind to spin his body and utilized his foot to create a powerful gale that struck his spear.


    ��Don��t underestimate me!��


    Theo widened his eyes in shock as he fought against the powerful wind, albeit Lyovkin released all his power in that attack, knocking his spear away.


    ��I got him!�� Lyovkin thought, believing this was the chance to win against Theo.


    However, Theo simply smiled as he raised his left hand.


    Before Lyovkin could reach him, the Telekinesis had made an impact, stopping him as if he hit a wall.


    Then, Theo spun his body and kicked him from above. The pressure smashed his body and knocked him to the ground.


    Lyovkin obviously wanted to roll to the side, but Theo actually pushed his palm toward him, releasing the technique he hadprehended when the Wind Emperor visited him a few months ago.


    Bam.


    The pressure locked Lyovkin in that state as Theonded on top of him. He shaped his Magic Power into a spear and pointed it at Lyovkin��s neck.


    ��This is the end.��

 Chapter 726: Sparring Part 5

    <h4>Chapter 726: Sparring Part 5</h4>


    Theo pulled his spear and stepped to the side, allowing Lyovkin to stand up.


    Meanwhile, the Wind Emperor was shaking his head, not knowing what to say.


    Even without him telling the reason, he already realized why Theo could defeat him this easily.


    ��I let my guard down just because I thought I gained the upper hand. I shouldn��t have reacted like that���� He gritted his teeth, disappointed in himself.


    He mmed his head to the ground as hard as he could until the soil cracked.


    Bam.


    Theo nced at him while the Wind Emperor squinted his eyes.


    ��I apologize for showing you this embarrassment.�� Lyovkin gritted his teeth, apologizing to Theo and the Wind Emperor at the same time.


    Theo nced at the Wind Emperor��s stern face before shrugging his shoulders. ��I couldn��t care less about it, but the fight couldst longer����


    Lyovkin clenched his fists, giving no excuse for his own blunder.


    Theo then stared at the Wind Emperor and said, ��I��m sorry, but I need to retire early.��


    ��Go.�� The Wind Emperor nodded.


    After Theo returned to the mansion, the Wind Emperor finally looked at Lyovkin. ��Do you know your mistake?��


    ��Yes. I have made the mistake that you have told me to avoid.�� Lyovkin was kneeling on the ground with his head facing down. He didn��t dare to even look at his grandfather��s face.


    ��You were not underestimating him.�� The Wind Emperor shook his head helplessly. ��Is this because I had been spoiling Zhilov that a small achievement could make you so happy to the point you lowered your guard?��


    Lyovkin remained silent. It was clear that his body was trembling.


    ��Listen to me. It��s fine to be happy when you achieve something, but no matter it��s a big or small achievement, you shouldn��t let your guard down, especially when the enemy is right in front of you.


    ��Sometimes, the enemies let you win first before defeating you like this. That was why when all of you asked for my advice, I always told you to practice your poker face.


    ��This way, your enemy couldn��t grasp your emotion that allowed them to deduct your next decision.


    ��Of course, you can freely express your emotion in battle, but this can only be done if you establish yourself as Theodore Griffith.


    ��After all, no one is going to believe what he��s nning to do. The smile can be a bluff or the indication that you have fallen into his trap. The more you think, the deeper you fall.


    ��But we are different. We��re the Czar, the ��King�� family. We are rulers! There are only two emotions that we can express in the battle.


    ��The first will be the poker face and the other one is cold and aloof. The first one will work all the time, while the second one is just to show or bluff your enemies that you have a trump card. Isn��t being arrogant easy for all of you?�� The Wind Emperor took a deep breath, stopping for a moment.


    ��Whatever, I��m giving you one more chance. Tomorrow, if you dare to show me the same mistake, you should be prepared for what happens.��


    Lyovkin��s body was shaking, but he realized he had a second chance. He replied out loud. ��Yes, I won��t disappoint you.��


    ��You better be.�� The Wind Emperor pushed his own wheelchair to the mansion, leaving the two siblings alone.


    He was heading to meet Theo. Thetter was waiting for him right behind the entrance doors.


    ��That��s how they��re���� The Wind Emperor sighed.


    ��I know why you��re showing them to me.�� Theo paused for a moment. ��Well, I think I have gotten many things from this visit. And there��s still tomorrow.��


    ��Don��t worry. I will fulfill my own part.�� The Wind Emperor sighed.


    ��We have agreed about this.�� Theo shrugged. ��Anyway, there��s something I would like to ask you.��


    ��What is it?��


    ��I would like to fight the Empress.��


    The Wind Emperor fell silent. He looked down, contemting his words. ��For what reason?��


    ��I told you. I��m nning to improve myself.�� Theo exined. ��I will use this opportunity to gain as much as possible before improving all my techniques.��


    ��So, you want to see how the Empress fights?��


    ��Yes. I feel like I can learn so many things from her.�� Theo nodded.


    ��You wouldn��tst long even if she limited her power.��


    ��I know. A few moves are fine.��


    ��In that case, I can help you with that.�� The Wind Emperor agreed. However, he raised his finger. ��On one condition.��


    ��What is it?��


    ��I want the record of your battles as teaching materials to the Czar��s younger generations.��


    ��Record of my battles����


    ��Yeah. I have recorded the previous battles secretly and n to tell you after this. If you don��t agree, I will simply delete it. Luckily, there��s this agreement�� As for your battle with the Empress Pce, it would be shown to many people, so there��s no point in asking for that.


    ��How about it? You have one small request, I have one too.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. ��Fine by me. It��s not like I��m nning to use the same fighting style over and over again. I don��t want someone to get used to my fighting style, lest they know how to counter it.��


    ��Haha, certainly. Though, it will be hard to constantly change your fighting style.��


    ��I��ll take care of that myself.��


    ��Alright. We have a deal.�� The Wind Emperor smiled. ��Still, a splendid battle you had there�� Creating an illusion and hiding your Magic Bullet and Magic Power inside them�� Even those giant rocks that tried to crush him got enhanced by your Telekinesis looked real. You could easily use trees or water in the future andbine it with your power. And your enemy wouldn��t know whether it was real or not.��


    ��Hah.�� Theo shrugged.


    The Wind Emperor shrugged. ��Anyway, you should replenish your Magic Power. Tomorrow will be a st.��


    ��Indeed.��


    After talking with the Wind Emperor, Theo locked himself inside his own room, preparing for the sparring event.

 Chapter 727: Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 727: Meeting</h4>


    The next day.


    They headed straight to the Empress Pce.


    Because of the formality, he needed to meet the Empress for this kind of sparring to show their sincerity.


    Normally, the current head of the Czar would be the one apanying them, but they had a guest, Theo, so the Wind Emperor personally handled this matter.


    On the way, Lyovkin and Levina were not aware of what was going on outside. Only Theo and the Wind Emperor knew that they were in a dire situation.


    He kept secretly releasing his power to rm the people outside.


    After that, he looked at Theo with a nod, signaling him that he sensed them.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded back, knowing what he could do in this situation.


    Meanwhile, the people outside who were tailing them were sweating profusely.


    One of them said, ��The Wind Emperor is inside the car.��


    ��Should we attack?�� Another one asked while looking at the car.


    All of them were Mythical Rank Experts as they prepared to fight multiple Mythical Rank Experts from Russia in order to kill Theo.


    ��Wait for a bit. ording to the schedule, they��re going to return as soon as the sparring is done. Let the Empress Pce exhaust them a bit. After all, Theodore Griffith has a spatial skill.��


    ��So, we��re going to attack them on the way home?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��I believe the Wind Emperor has sensed us too.��


    ��That doesn��t matter. Although he��s strong, he��s already that old. It��s impossible for him to protect Theo alone.��


    ��Understood. What��s the n then?��


    ��Team A will cause amotion in ce A, grab the police attention, and hinder them there. Team B will hold back the Wind Emperor along with the experts from the Czar if there��s any. Team C will kill Theodore Griffith and any hidden experts. As soon as we kill him, we will retreat.��


    ��Roger.��


    The attack n came to a halt for the time being, allowing Theo to arrive in the Empress Pce safely.


    When he looked through the window, he was amazed by the Empress Pce.


    ��Although I have heard about this, the pce is truly a freaking castle���� Theo shook his head helplessly.


    The castle was made of gray-colored bricks to appear ancient, increasing the artistic value. Unfortunately, the castle��s outer wall wasn��t actually brick walls or he would have seen watchtowers on the corners.


    The castle was protected by metallic fences that seemed to have been reinforced by powerful material.


    And in front of the entrance, four people were standing, awaiting their arrival.


    It was the Empress, Ana, Alea, and another talented person from her pce.


    She had long ck hair tied into a ponytail. Her age didn��t seem to be that much younger than Alea.


    Considering this was the first time he saw the Empress, Theo squinted his eyes, observing her appearance.


    Despite being so old, she still looked like a middle-aged woman that was currently transitioning to the elderly��s appearance.


    Her white hair rested on her back as she stared at the car with her sharp light blue eyes.


    The first one toe out was Lyovkin, preparing the wheelchair for the Wind Emperor.


    After that, the Wind Emperor came out with the help of his wind and Levina.


    As they were about to push the wheelchair to greet the Empress, thest guy from the Czar shocked all of them.


    It was Theo.


    ��!!!�� The Empress frowned, not thinking that the Wind Emperor would actually bring Theodore Griffith to this spar. This event was a tradition where they sent their most talented younger generations topete with each other. It wasn��t the time for an outsider like him to participate.


    And since the Wind Emperor dared to break that tradition, the Empress needed to proceed with extra caution.


    Meanwhile, Ana and Alea were staring at Theo, realizing they wouldpete with him. Even they didn��t have the confidence to beat Theo in a fight because Theo��s battlefield maniption was top-notch.


    Theo simply walked behind Levina and Lyovkin with a calm expression, not caring about their opinion.


    ��Well, it��s been a while.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ��I��m speechless. To think that you��re going to bring an outsider here���� The Empress narrowed her eyes.


    ��Don��t say such a thing. We will only have friendly matches today. Besides, this guy needs to take responsibility for kicking out one of the participants.�� The Wind Emperor suddenly smirked. ��Besides, isn��t it beneficial for you to see him with your own eyes?��


    There was talk of a joint operation between her and the Wind Emperor to allow their younger generation to form a party to explore the other world. This was proposed so that Alea and Ana had the chance to go with Theo.


    Hence, seeing his ability firsthand woulde in handy because she would know Theo��s real strength as Ana or Alea should be able to draw all his potential in a fight.


    The Empress fell silent for a moment before shaking her head. ��Fine by me.��


    ��Hehe.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled. ��Of course, in order to repay you for allowing this to happen, let��s change the rule for thepetition.��


    ��Hoh? What do you want to suggest?��


    ��We will send our participants and let them fight until one of them is defeated.��


    ��Just like the usual rule.�� The Empress nodded in agreement.


    ��This is the twist. The winner will continue fighting until he or she is defeated.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��!!!�� The Empress was amused. She thought, ��This old demon. Is he plotting something? I am confident that my people can defeat both Levina and Lyovkin, resulting in Theo fighting multiple times. This way, I can truly draw out all his potential.��


    ��What are you nning���� The Empress asked with a cold expression.


    ��Nothing. I just want to give the young man a chance. I want you to fight him since I don��t think your people are enough for him.�� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ������ The Empress�� expression darkened. ��That��s a big word for you to say. Fine by me, if your side wins, I will face Theodore Griffith himself to show the gap between us. If you lose, he will need to join my Pce on a mission.��


    The Wind Emperor nced at Theo, whoter nodded.


    ��Sure thing.��

 Chapter 728: Levina vs Yuri

    <h4>Chapter 728: Levina vs Yuri</h4>


    The Empress led them to a huge field located behind the castle. There were several people who had been waiting for them, wanting to witness the battles.


    Still, they were dumbstruck when they saw Theodore Griffith among the three participants.


    They all immediately misunderstood what happened, thinking the Czar managed to acquire Theo as one of them. In other words, there might be a marriage or something along the lines.


    The Wind Emperor didn��t even bother to rify their doubt as he simply moved toward the designated area where he could watch the battle.


    Theo and the others stayed next to their respective leaders as the Empress asked, ��So, shall we start?��


    ��Of course.�� The Wind Emperor smiled and looked at Levina. ��Go.��


    Levinaplied and walked to the field.


    The Empress also sent a participant. It was the third female. ��Yuri, you go.��


    ��Understood, Master.�� Yuri politely nodded and approached Levina.


    Levina simply nodded her head as she knew Yuri was someone far stronger than her. Although her strength wasn��t as strong as Lyovkin, she was still not someone she could handle.


    So, Levina had been trying toe up with a way to defeat her. At the very least, she needed to make Yuri use all her strength so as to not embarrass the Czar.


    With the experience from yesterday��s sparring, she summoned her robotic hands and feet.


    Since Levina didn��t say anything, Yuri remained silent and raised her bow.


    ��You first,�� Yuri said with confidence, knowing that Levina couldn��t beat her.


    ��Tsk.�� Levina clicked her tongue as she rushed forward. On the way, she raised her hand and covered it with a powerful gale.


    Yuri pulled her bow and released an arrow. The arrow was made of Magic Power, so when Levina smashed it with her robotic hand, it caused a small explosion, knocking the hand away.


    Bam.


    Levina��s body shifted to the front and was about to trip. However, Levina managed to regain her control after using her wind power.


    Yuri took this chance to send another arrow to Levina, nning to exploit the gap in her defense to defeat her.


    Levina also utilized the momentum on her hand to spin her body around, kicking the air in front of her.


    The arrow was pushed back by this wind to the point it started flying back to Yuri.


    Yuri effortlessly avoided it by taking a step to the right and pulled another arrow.


    Levina didn��t want to let her set the pace of the battle, so she waved both hands up and down. The wind started moving upside down violently, trying to capture the arrow again.


    Seeing this, Yuri chose to go to another ce to release her arrow.


    But this was predicted by Levina as she followed her movement, looping around her.


    Yuri didn��t hesitate to release an arrow at her.


    Surprisingly, Levina chose to grab the arrow with her robotic hand. Her body was spinning when absorbing the momentum.


    This was a perfect time to attack Levina, but Yuri didn��t do anything as if she was trying to give Levina a chance.


    However, the real truth was different.


    When spinning, Levina had been sending powerful wind in all directions, controlling them, so it brushed Yuri��s skin. This way, she would start wondering if this was a trap or not.


    Seeing the hesitation in Yuri��s action, Levina smirked. Shended on the ground and raised both hands.


    Suddenly, the wind lifted Yuri up.


    ������ Yuri frowned but still maintained her calm. She raised her bow to attack her from the air. This time, she released three arrows in rapid session, trying to attack Levina from three different directions.


    Levina looked at the iing arrows and used the time the arrows needed to go down to move forward, nning to hide underneath Yuri.


    The arrows ended up missing and Yuri needed to slightly shift her body so that she could find Levina. After that, she needed to take a hard shot due to the unstable body when floating.


    Her arrow began to glow in green light as she nned to hit Levina this time.


    ��!!!�� Yuri smiled inwardly as this was the time she had been waiting for. To fill the power into the arrow required time, so she used this time to punch the ground, cracking the soil.


    After that, she raised both hands, creating a big tornado that carried all the dirt and stones into the air. There was even a small boulder among them.


    Everything went up, trying to engulf Yuri.


    ��I thought the Czar only used their extraordinary strength to fight, not trick like this���� Yuri thought, knowing that if the tornado swallowed her, she would be in trouble, considering the stones and dirt would hit her directly.


    Hence, she formed another type of arrow and shot it to the ground, far from Levina.


    There was a chain made of Magic Power attached to the arrow, so Yuri simply pulled the chain to get out of the wind that continued pushing her upward.


    Now that she was free, she nned tond safely and attacked Levina in rapid session.


    However, Levina prevented her by charging forward, trying to keep her busy in closebat.


    Yuri had confidence in hitting Levina before she reached her, so she immediately pulled three arrows in the air, preparing to release them the moment shended on the ground.


    But everything didn��t go ording to the image in her mind.


    The moment her feet touched the ground, she suddenly felt a powerful push to the ground, trying to restrict her movement.


    ��No!�� Yuri was the first to let out a sound as she used all her power to move through the constant pressure and release the arrows.


    Levina gritted her teeth and punched the arrows. She was angry because there were only two feet remaining before she could hit her.


    She released the torrential fist, but the arrow was far stronger than her because it contained all of Yuri��s strength.


    Levina ended up spinning in the air. She tried to stabilize her body, but Yuri had already released another arrow.


    And that was the end of the battle as the Wind Emperor released his wind to stop the arrow while the Empress stated, ��That��s enough.��

 Chapter 729: Lyovkin vs Yuri

    <h4>Chapter 729: Lyovkin vs Yuri</h4>


    ��Kh.�� Despite winning, Yuri was biting her lips. If not because of the sudden pressure from above, she wouldn��t need to release all her power.


    In other words, Levina managed to force her to use all her power despite having a massive gap between them.


    Levina returned to the Wind Emperor with her head hanging low. ��I��m sorry, Grandfather. I couldn��t do much.��


    ��It��s fine.�� The Wind Emperor was satisfied with her performance, knowing that this gap wasn��t that easy to ovee. So, she knew that Levina had outperformed any of her previous achievements. ��You lost the battle but won the war. Well done.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Levina then returned to her position as the Wind Emperor signaled Lyovkin to move.


    Meanwhile, Theo, beside her, opened his mouth. ��Replicating the thing I showed you yesterday, eh?��


    ��Ehm, sorry if that makes you ufortable.�� Levina apologized politely.


    ��You have the foundation to do it, and what you need right now is to get used to it, learning the timing. After all, your basic strength will improve too, so I know that you can do much more in one year. You will only get stronger from now on, I guarantee it.�� Theo made a gentle smile.


    Levina couldn��t help but smile. Just like Agata, it was hard for her to contain her emotion. She even needed to look away to avoid showing her embarrassed face.


    ��Thank you very much.�� Levina didn��t forget to thank him.


    Theo took another nce at her before watching the battle.


    In the arena, Lyovkin was staring at Yuri before extending his hand, saying the same words as she said earlier. ��You first.��


    This just showed that he was looking down on her like what she did to Levina.


    ������ Yuri frowned, not feeling good with his attitude. She thought that other than Zhilov, no one could defeat her. So, she pulled her bow, releasing her first arrow.


    The arrow traveled faster than when she faced Levina, showing that she had been holding back this whole time.


    But Lyovkin didn��t find this challenging. He simply raised his hand and clutched it.


    The wind moved violently and crushed the arrow, snapping it into two. After that, he pulled his arm and formed a powerful spiral wind.


    ��Great Twister.�� He muttered in a low voice as he punched forward.


    The torrential wind flew forward, trying to engulf her.


    Yuri wasn��t afraid of this power. She simply pulled her bow as her arrow began to shine.


    The arrow moved straight into the center of the twister, releasing golden pollen behind it.


    Surprisingly, the moment it entered the twister, the pollen began to spread into the air as the wind suddenly dispersed for no reason.


    ������ Lyovkin maintained his poker face as he charged forward, trying to close their distance.


    Yuri raised her bow and shot the sky.


    Suddenly, the arrow turned into a giant golden-colored ball, floating in the air.


    She then raised two fingers and waved them down.


    Five pointed lights struck forth from the golden-colored ball, leaving a golden trail behind them. These five pointed bolts of lights flew in different directions to surround Lyovkin.


    This attack reminded him of how he attacked Theo with five tornadoes. After getting the exnation of what really happened, he was shocked. He never expected Theo��s wall was just an illusion that had been coated by his shield, making him think it was real.


    At the same time, it made him realize that he could do something simr.


    So, when he faced this technique, he raised his hands and waved it down at the same time, controlling the air current to knock the arrow off.


    But he only knocked three of them as the other two still continued forward.


    Yuri smirked when she saw this, knowing his strength was still not enough to defeat her.


    With these two arrows, Lyovkin didn��t have a choice other than to move to the right, avoiding the arrows.


    Yuri had pulled her bow, aiming at him. She had been waiting for him to make this kind of move where he would have a hard time blocking it.


    Sadly for her, this was just a trapid by Lyovkin.


    Instead of copying what Theo did by blocking the arrow, he made it look like he didn��t have enough power to knock them down.


    This way, his next path was determined and Yuri would surely take that chance to shoot him.


    Little did she know, it also meant this was the only time she lowered her guard down and focused on attacking him.


    And Lyovkin had prepared for it. The moment he stepped to the right, his foot also moved together with him, kicking the air.


    This generated a powerful wind that hit Yuri from the opposite direction or her now blind spot.


    Bam!


    Yuri widened her eyes when she felt something big hit her hand, knocking her bow away.


    ��What��s that?�� Yuri widened her eyes and saw her bow in the corner of her eyes. ��What just happened?��


    While she was confused, Lyovkin took this chance to move forward, trying to close their distance.


    He sessfully arrived in front of her and sent a punch forward.


    Yuri tried to use her arrow to stab him, but it was toote.


    Lyovkin��s fist already reached her left cheek,unching her into the air.


    ��Ghh���� Yuri gritted her teeth after getting punched in the face.


    On the contrary to Yuri��s confusion, all the people watching the fight had their mouths open.


    The Wind Emperor smirked as he knew that Lyovkin had changed after the spar with Theo.


    On the other hand, the Empress sucked a cold breath as she muttered inwardly, ��Impossible. I have read their information. Both Levina and Lyovkin��s movements should be straightforward. But����


    She realized that Levina and Lyovkin showed something that no one ever expected them to use.


    The moment she looked to the side and saw the grin on the Wind Emperor��s face, her eyes immediately went straight to Theo, realizing he was the culprit. And Theo just arrived two days ago.


    ��What did he do to transform these two arrogant children into sly fighters? These children�� might be able to surpass Zhilov.��

 Chapter 730: Lyovkin’s Improvement

    <h4>Chapter 730: Lyovkin��s Improvement</h4>


    Yuri struggled to stabilize her body and turned her bracelet into another bow while Lyovkin was waving his hands a few times.


    He surrounded Yuri with the wind that moved in all directions, trying to crush her.


    Yuri didn��t want it and immediately waved down her hand again.


    The light ball that was still floating in the sky released another wave of light to shoot him down.


    Since Yuri was trapped inside his wind, he simply moved forward to avoid all of them.


    However, Yuri��s real intention wasn��t to hit him. Instead, she just wanted him to focus on those arrows for a moment.


    In that time, she had released three more arrows to create a big hole in the wind sphere, disrupting the wind.


    After that, she released another arrow, shooting Lyovkin down.


    Lyovkin clutched his hand to snap the arrow into two, but Yuri smiled.


    The moment the arrow felt the crushing wind, it split into ten, confusing Lyovkin.


    He waved his hand to the side and released his five tornadoes to catch all of them. The tornadoes managed to disperse all the arrows�� energy and continued making their way toward Yuri.


    Thetter raised her left hand as a golden light shone brightly, illuminating the entire arena.


    The tornadoes were basking in this light and started to disappear as if they melted for no reason.


    Normally, he would use this chance to send another attack, but he chose something different this time.


    ������ Lyovkin frowned before shaking his head in disappointment. He stepped back to distance himself from her as if giving her time to recover.


    ��What? Is he giving me time? What is he nning? Is it because he thinks I��m not worthy of his time?�� Yuri widened her eyes in shock, having many questions in her mind.


    In the end, she felt insulted when she saw no change in his expression.


    ��You think I��m weaker than you? Only that Zhilov can defeat me, not you!�� Yuri gritted her teeth and pointed her bow at him. Suddenly, golden light appeared, extending her own bow to the point the bow was close to her own height.


    With the string longer and the bow was stronger, Yuri nned to end this with a single shot.


    But this was the time where Lyovkin showed an unexpected move. Just like the previous action where he knocked Yuri��s bow, he actually made Yuri feel insulted by not attacking her.


    This way, he could force Yuri to show her strongest strength that might require some time to be released.


    And this was the perfect chance to attack her.


    Right after shended and upgraded her bow, he punched forward.


    The wind started to form a dragon, moving toward her.


    ��What?!�� Yuri widened her eyes, realizing his intention. This move was her strongest skill and because of that, she usually used it when she had enough time to release it. And as an archer, it was normal for her to have someone to protect her, allowing her to do something like this.


    But she was fighting alone this time, and even though Lyovkin retreated, the distance between them wasn��t that huge. His attack��s speed was enough to reach her in an instant.


    And this was the moment he had created.


    ��I won��t make it���� Yuri thought as she became desperate.


    Suddenly, a torrential wind pushed her from her left, right, and back, locking her in a position where she needed to take on this wind dragon with only her physical body.


    Still, Yuri didn��t give up as there was one more ce to escape. She jumped upward, avoiding everything. She even took this chance to aim her bow at Lyovkin, albeit he was nowhere to be seen.


    The next thing she realized, a hand grasped the back of her head as they both fell to the ground. The hand pushed her head forward, trying to crush it to the ground.


    Bam.


    The dust kicked up and covered their vision, making them oblivious to what was going on.


    But when it was cleared, they saw both of them floating two inches above the ground.


    The Wind Emperor had used his power to stop them as it would be just an unnecessary injury. The Empress would feel displeased as well.


    ��That��s enough, Lyovkin.�� The Wind Emperor stated and nced at the Empress as if telling her to call her back.


    ��Yuri, return,�� said the Empress while pinching the bridge of her nose. She had confirmed that Lyovkin and Levina had changed due to Theo��s influence. And this change was far too good to the point she couldn��t ignore it anymore.


    She couldn��t help but want Theo even more. So, she stated, ��Alea, you go. No need to hold back����


    ��Understood.�� Alea nodded with a serious expression, walking to the arena.


    Meanwhile, Yuri walked back with regret in her eyes.


    ��Yuri�� You don��t have much experience in a fight, so this is bound to happen sooner orter.�� The Empress said with a gentle tone. ��Hence, I will be changing your schedule from my training to outside missions.��


    ��Master?�� Yuri widened her eyes in shock.


    The Empress nced to the side and closed her eyes with a smile. ��If I don��t do this, you��re going to be left behind. The brats from the Czar have transformed to a sly king and queen.��


    ��You should have used the word ��wise�� instead of ��sly.�� Hahahaha.�� The Wind Emperor heard her andughed. He was happy with their improvement after sparring with Theo.


    ��Hmph!�� The Empress snorted and whispered to Ana. ��That guy over there is a monster.��


    ��Don��t worry, I know it.�� Ana nodded with a serious expression.


    ��No, no. You still underestimated him. I might even go to the arena at this rate���� The Empress sighed. ��Because of thest mission, you have stuck at your current level just to increase your repertoire�� That��s why you don��t know how monstrous he is����


    Ana frowned, not knowing why she mentioned that. It was clear that she had be far stronger than she used to be. Yet, she actually med her for choosing to increase her overall strength first instead of bing a Supreme Rank Expert. She couldn��t believe it.


    She nced at Theo��s calm face with a frown.

 Chapter 731: Lyovkin vs Alea

    <h4>Chapter 731: Lyovkin vs Alea</h4>


    In the arena, Alea and Lyovkin were staring at each other.


    Lyovkin couldn��t help but feel excited as he could have the chance to surpass Zhilov. It was said that he couldn��t defeat Alea, so this was a chance for him to show off.


    Even so, he knew that his power had yet to reach Alea. Hence, he lowered his expectations a bit and chose to weaken her as much as possible.


    ��Nice to meet you.�� Alea made a gentle smile as she pulled both of her swords.


    Lyovkin was surprised that Alea chose to start the conversation. But it would be rude not to greet her back, so he said, ��It��s my pleasure to meet you. I will do my best in this fight.��


    Alea nodded as her swords began to be covered with red me.


    Lyovkin also covered both arms with a spiral wind.


    They suddenly released all their Magic Power to create a powerful pressure on each other. But it soon disappeared, indicating the start of the battle.


    They moved forward at the same time.


    Alea swung her swords while Lyovkin released his torrential wind to blow her swords away.


    Unfortunately for him, Alea��s strength was far stronger than him.


    The me suddenly disappeared as if the wind managed to blow it off, but a red light soon reced it. This red light flew forward after her swing, cutting the spiral wind into four, dispersing it to all directions.


    Without any wind separating them, the path to Lyovkin opened up.


    ��Swift Hind,�� Alea muttered in a low voice as her feet began to glow. Her speed drastically increased as she covered the distance between them in an instant.


    Lyovkin had prepared for this and pushed his hand forward to blow her away with his wind, but Alea had read this from far away and spun her body, passing him.


    And as soon as she reached his back, she swung her swords.


    ��!!!�� Lyovkin was startled for a split second and barely reacted to her speed. He used his wind to push him forward, increasing his speed as well as avoiding her swing.


    After that, he kicked the air to loop above his head, pressuring Alea from above.


    ��Shattering Lion Roar!�� Alea let out a loud roar, generating a sound wave to counter the wind above her. After that, she chased Lyovkin.


    Thetter spun his body and waved his hand to the side.


    The wind followed his movement and pushed Alea to the right.


    However, nine hydra��s heads appeared from her swords, forming a wall on her side, blocking the wind froming at her.


    Some of the heads moved forward, trying to devour Lyovkin.


    Hence, Lyovkin immediately summoned five tornadoes.


    The heads shed with the tornadoes as they neutralized each other.


    Seeing his attack fail, Lyovkin waved both hands to the inside.


    This time, the wind surrounded Alea from two sides. Without being able to use her Devouring Hydra anymore, she should be locked in one ce.


    But Alea simply formed a powerful shield to her right as she pushed back the wind current before swinging her swords, releasing a cross crescent-shaped red light.


    Lyovkin punched forward and released another wind dragon that engulfed her attack.


    ������ Alea squinted her eyes and raised her left sword. She made a simple swing and cut the dragon into two.


    ��Huh?�� Lyovkin was confused, never expecting that his wind could be cut with a normal swing.


    Even so, he needed to defeat her. He brushed that thought for a moment and waved his hand from the sides, controlling the wind to hit her from both sides to squeeze her.


    Alea stabbed the ground and four explosions urred at the same time, blocking the wind from four directions.


    After that, she raised her hands andunched ten bolts of fire into the air. they made a parabolic movement and fell right around Lyovkin.


    She then ced her hand on the ground as the ground around Lyovkin became redder as if it was going to melt.


    Even Lyovkin felt something was wrong with this situation. He immediately leaped back, escaping from this ce.


    But the bolts that hit the ground from earlier exploded simultaneously. The rising fire swallowed him.


    Alea didn��t stop there. The red ground caused another explosion, amplifying the fire from earlier.


    Boom.


    ��Gah.�� Lyovkin wasunched into the air. He didn��t suffer any burns, but it was apparent that he took a beating. Even though he had covered his body with his wind at thest second, the force from the explosion was still enough to injure him.


    Alea took this chance to catch up and swung her de, delivering the killing blow.


    However, this was what Lyovkin had been waiting for. The suffering reflected on his face was just a bluff.


    The moment Alea caught up with him, he used his wind to stop his momentum. With this, Alea passed him, giving him a perfect chance to attack her.


    This was how Theo defeated himst time, and he nned to take advantage of it.


    ��I��m going to win.�� Lyovkin gritted his teeth as he waved his hands, sending the wind to knock her down.


    Unfortunately for him, Alea was his opponent. This kind of trick would work with other people, but not her.


    When he was pushing his hand forward, the Empress already stated, ��That��s enough. Alea wins.��


    ��Eh?�� Lyovkin was obvious about the situation, but the answer came soon. Alea��s sword actually shed before his eyes, showing that he would have been cut if the Empress didn��t protect him.


    ��What just happened���� Lyovkin was dumbfounded as he dropped to the ground.


    Ignoring Lyovkin, Alea pointed her sword at Theo before making a big, energetic smile as she always did when she was with Theo.


    Theo couldn��t help but smile as he closed his eyes for a second.


    ��We had been teammates in the past and fought together. We had been enemies and fought each other. But I guess we had never crossed our des in a one-on-one���� He opened his eyes and waved his spear down, walking to the arena. ��This time, it��s only you and me. Let��s find who��s stronger.��

 Chapter 732: Theo vs Alea

    <h4>Chapter 732: Theo vs Alea</h4>


    ��We��ve never done something like this, right?�� Alea asked with a gentle smile.


    ��Indeed.�� Theo agreed and observed her.


    ��I hope that you don��t hold back.�� Alea raised both swords.


    ��Who knows. Maybe you should try your best to draw all my power?�� Theo smirked.


    Alea took a deep breath. Although she didn��t admit it, she knew Theo��s strength might surpass her imagination.


    Hence, she nned to go all out in the instant they started.


    Theo began the fight by summoning twenty Magic Bullets.


    The moment she saw the Magic Bullets, she rushed forward, trying to close the gap between them.


    However, Theo had enough time to shoot his Magic Bullets, stopping her.


    Alea frowned when she realized the gap wasn��t enough for her to slip through them. Hence, she stepped to the side and tried to loop around him.


    Theo��s calm expression remained unchanged as the Magic Bullets followed right behind her.


    Alea raised her right sword and nned to cut them down, but she suddenly jumped upward.


    ��!!!��


    Alea was taken aback as soon as another wave of Magic Bullets came out of the ground.


    ��He��s hiding his real Magic Bullets behind him and releasing them to the ground while those on the surface are just a distraction���� Alea sucked a cold breath. This was just the start of the battle and Theo had already yed the mind game.


    She pointed her sword to the front and formed a red shield before her, blocking all the forty Magic Bullets.


    But Theo didn��t stop there. Alea needed to turn around to deal with another thirty Magic Bullets.


    ��Tsk.�� Alea clicked her tongue, spun her body, and waved her sword, creating a me pir to burn the Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded in session while Theo took this chance to teleport to Alea.


    He had used his Magic Augmentation to boost his Magic Power Expansion and covered his spear.


    Alea had a hard time dealing with the number of the Magic Bullets and still needed to handle Theo, who came with his strongest power. She didn��t have a chance to even use her skill to block this attack.


    Ultimately, Theo struck her hard enough to the point he pushed her swords to her chest before blowing her away.


    Bam.


    Alea crashed to the ground, but this wasn��t the end of Theo��s attack. There was another wave of Magic Bullets that he had been preparing this whole time.


    It was the Magic Bullets that had been covered with more Magic Power and win, creating stronger Magic Bullets.


    All those twenty bullets flew to the ground, causing a big explosion.


    However, Alea managed to get away from it, albeit barely. Luckily, she blocked Theo��s spear with the body of her sword, not the edge, or she would have been cut because of her own des and had no way to dodge the bullets.


    As soon as she gained some distance, she spun her body and waved her right sword upward, creating a long crescent-shaped red light that cut everything in sixty feet.


    Theo didn��t even put his spear as he snapped his finger and disintegrated the light with his Illusion Construct.


    ��Hmm.�� Theo frowned and remembered the skills Alea used.


    Skill: Fortitude Shield (C)


    Effect: Allow the user to naturally draw the body��s energy to release a stronger strength.


    Skill: Moon me Wave (B)


    Effect: Allow the user to release a ming crescent-shaped wave that��s capable of cutting many things and burning the rest.


    At the same time, Alea also remembered the skill Theo had used during their joint mission. She wondered how much stronger he had be.


    After releasing the Moon me Wave with her right sword, she cut the air with her left sword, startling Theo.


    ��!!!�� He couldn��t help but fly away, knowing that it was dangerous for him to be there. He had seen this attack when she fought Lyovkin, so he knew what to do.


    Skill: Stealth Magic Sword (B)


    Effect: Release a thin Sword Wave at the same size as a string.


    The moment she finished releasing those two attacks, Theo lifted his finger as the ground underneath Alea emerged from the ground, turning into a pir.


    He had learned the basics of Sense of Touch in thest three months, so lifting Alea wasn��t that big of a problem.


    However, Alea seemed to have noticed what he was doing and immediately waved her sword down, cutting the pir into two.


    Theo had predicted this and sent his Magic Bullets through the ground to hit her.


    ��Did he want me to cut the pir, so he could shoot me down?�� Alea frowned, realizing that she was still moving in Theo��s hand. She needed to do something special to break free from Theo��s control.


    She formed a shield to block the Magic Bullets, but the two half-pirs suddenly moved toward each other, crushing her.


    ��!!!�� Alea widened her eyes and blocked them with her swords.


    She soon noticed something was wrong. Even though she was blocking the pirs with her swords, she could swing her des to the inside.


    This meant Theo used something else other than his Sense of Touch.


    Although she didn��t know what it was, she hurriedly freed herself by releasing more Magic Power before spinning her body, striking the Magic Bullets that came at her. She couldn��t afford to be hit by them after all.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets exploded in rapid session.


    ��This is great.�� Alea smiled, knowing that this was a fight where none of them held back. Still, she didn��t want to lose to Theo.


    She raised her hands and released a wave of fire bolts. This was the same technique that took down Lyovkin, so she wanted to see how effective it was against Theo.


    Unexpectedly, Theo also summoned his own Magic Bullets and shot all the mes, trying to stop the firebolts from exploding on the ground.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    She and Theo looked at each other, thinking the same thing.


    ��He��s (She��s) good.�� Alea and Theo smiled at the same time.


    ��Even so, I won��t lose to you.�� Alea leaped into the air, trying to fight him above the ground.

 Chapter 733: Fenrir’s Barrier

    <h4>Chapter 733: Fenrir��s Barrier</h4>


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and waved down his hand.


    Suddenly, a powerful pressure hit her from above, knocking her back to the ground. After that, Theo flew toward her, taking advantage of her unstable form.


    But this was a mistake. As soon as he reached her, Alea parried his spear with her left sword and took a deep breath.


    ��Shattering Roar.�� She roared, creating a powerful sound wave that blew Theo away.


    Thetter recovered in an instant by utilizing his Telekinesis and used his Blink to appear behind her.


    That was when nine hydra��s heads surrounded him as three of them moved to devour him.


    Theo nced at them while furrowing his eyebrows. It seemed he had no choice other than to show his power in this match.


    He spun his body and kicked the air with his Telekinesis, resulting in a powerful push from the side that knocked the right head to the other two.


    The three heads fell together, stunning everyone.


    ��That is���� The Empress widened her eyes and nced at the Wind Emperor, thinking, ��Although he��s using his Telekinesis instead of Wind Element, this kind of power is simr to him.��


    The Wind Emperor smiled and said, ��Lyovkin, Levina. Watch him carefully. This is how you should use your power.��


    That statement startled Lyovkin and Levina, but they had seen that Theo��s Telekinesis was at a very high level, so they might indeed be able to learn something from him.


    In the arena, Alea moved all the remaining six heads to squeeze him to death, but Theo skillfully knocked them down with his Telekinesis alone.


    Alea wasn��t idle during this time either. She sneaked up on him and swung her swords at his back.


    Theo blocked her sword with his spear and tried to push her with all his strength, but to no avail.


    Seeing there was no advantage in continuing this, they leaped back at the same time.


    ��!!!�� The two realized they thought the same thing. So, Alea hurriedly charged forward, trying to close the gap again.


    Theo suddenly smiled and kicked up.


    ��Telekinesis again?�� Alea frowned and prepared to getunched into the sky.


    However, she didn��t expect that the Telekinesis was concentrated on one spot, which was on her right hand.


    That was right. Theo��s Control was enough to pinpoint the force from his Telekinesis. This was the reason why he asked Leonardo to train him so that he could reach Grandmaster Level Control before the international mission.


    ��What?!�� Alea was taken aback and couldn��t hold her sword as the force was too powerful.


    She saw the sword flying away while Theo prepared to take on her in this situation.


    Without her second sword, Alea came to a halt and leaped away. She didn��t have enough confidence in taking Theo with only one sword, so she wanted to get her sword back.


    To buy time, Alea set an explosive underneath the ground.


    Theo lowered his head and found the red ground. Unlike Lyovkin, he had enough time to step back and let the ground explode.


    Boom.


    The fire red up to the sky, showing the terrible ze that almost took down Lyovkin earlier.


    However, Theo actually used this chance to show something even more shocking.


    He lifted his hand, utilizing his Telekinesis. He created a continuous force from the Telekinesis, spinning the air current. It then fused with the zing fire, turning it into a fire tornado.


    Unlike Lyovkin, he had enough control to do something beyond this. He smirked and used the one thing that he had practiced the most.


    The me tornado turned into a giant fireball. But it didn��t stop there. The fireball gradually took another form.


    ��This is���� The Empress couldn��t help but rise from her seat, staring at the zing me in the air. ��Impossible. He has reached Grandmaster Level Control?��


    ��!!!�� Ana, Lyovkin, and Levina were startled by the statement while the Wind Emperor calmly closed his eyes, knowing Theo had more things in his sleeve. He wanted to see what kind of expression they would maketer.


    While they were taken aback, Alea didn��t have the luxury to understand what was going on. She simply retrieved her sword and turned around, only to find a giant me dragon above Theo��s head.


    This was simply the dragon he had practiced for years. Instead of water, he used Alea��s me and the air as these two were the only things avable for him.


    ��Try to take this down.�� Theo smiled and waved his hand down.


    Alea bit her lips and raised her sword. She released another Sword Wave to cut the dragon down.


    To her surprise, her cut went through easily, splitting the dragon into four as the me was bursting in all directions.


    ��What?!�� Alea widened her eyes.


    Little did she know, there was something hidden behind the dragon.


    I wenty Magic Bullets that had been reshaped into rods flew past the me and nted themselves into the ground.


    After that, they formed a connection with each other in the form of a thin light-blue screen.


    The me inside the barrier was forced inside, causing more harm to anyone inside.


    And there was only Alea inside this barrier.


    Theo smiled as he thought of this because of Fenrir. The barrier was just a simple form of Sense of Touch and Telekinesis. But because he used Telekinesis to reinforce the barrier, he couldn��t use it to pressure Alea from the top like Fenrir did.


    Hence, he used Alea��s me as a recement, turning the barrier into an oven that would burn Alea.


    In the instant Alea stopped moving, the me froze before the ice shattered into pieces as if nothing had happened.


    ��The winner has been determined. Theodore Griffith is the winner.�� The Empress sighed, realizing that Theo had finally be stronger than Alea.


    ��He actually waited for me to use my own fire, so he could defeat me?�� Alea clenched her swords and realized she didn��t have enough time to escape. Although there was a regret reflected on her face, she needed to ept the fact.


    Alea let out a long sigh and said while walking away, ��I guess this is my fate.��


    Theo looked at her and said, ��Alea�� It was a great fight. Thank you.��


    Alea couldn��t show her face to him as she simply waved her hand to acknowledge his words while walking away.


    The Empress nced at Ana. ��It��s your turn.��

 Chapter 734: Ascension Step

    <h4>Chapter 734: Ascension Step</h4>


    Ana walked to the arena while looking at Theo with a serious expression. ��I��m speechless. To think I need to fight someone who has reached Grandmaster Level Control, I don��t know what to say.��


    ��Haha.�� Theo chuckled and said, ��I just tried hard.��


    ��If trying hard was enough for me to reach Grandmaster Level Control at this age, I would have done it long ago.�� Ana sighed. ��Though, I don��t know whether I can be happy if I defeat you in your current condition.��


    ��Hoh? You talk like you��re going to win.�� Theo smiled. ��Are you sure you can defeat me?��


    ��Who knows. However, it��s true that my chances are higher now.�� Ana shook her head helplessly. ��If you want to rest first, you can do that. Fifteen should be enough, right?��


    ��There��s no need to rest.�� Theo shook his head and waved his finger, taunting her. ��Just fight me and get beaten.��


    Ana��s expression turned serious as she tapped the ground twice with her staff. ��Fine. Let��s see whether you can win or not in that state.��


    Suddenly, the soil began to freeze as the temperature dropped significantly. This should make Theo feel a bit colder, restraining his ability even further.


    In exchange, Theo used his Magic Augmentation, summoned his Magic Bullet, andbined them with the air, creating a powerful huge Magic Bullet.


    He then reshaped the Magic Bullet into a spear and spun it in the air a few times before pulling his hand back.


    The moment he pushed his hand forward, the spear flew at an incredible speed, reaching Ana in just one second.


    Ana formed an ice crystal in front of her along with several ice walls that emerged from the ground within that one second.


    This was the level of her in-motion, so summoning them in rapid session was an easy thing to do.


    Theo��s spear first hit the ice walls, shattering them one by one. However, the walls also managed to absorb a portion of the spear��s power, weakening it.


    When the spear reached the ice crystal and touched it, it burst and froze the spear in an instant.


    After that, Ana grabbed the frozen spear-shaped Magic Bullet and threw it back at him.


    ��Taste your own attack!��


    Theo simply used his Magic Power Expansion in his spear and swung his spear forward, generating a shock wave that was enough to snap the spear into three.


    After that, Theo used his Telekinesis to push the wind forward, trying to buy time for him to move.


    Ana didn��t let him do whatever he wanted. She ced her hand to the ground as multiple ice spikes emerged from the ground. The spikes were thin, but numerous, trapping Theo inside.


    Theo punched forward, destroying the spikes in front of him.


    ng.


    The ice shattered into pieces, but Ana waved her hand and grew the broken ice again, sealing Theo inside.


    After that, she raised her hand and formed another ice crystal above the ice cage.


    ��Ice Rain.�� Ana waved her staff down as the ice crystal released blue light that seemed to be able to freeze anything it touched.


    Knowing there was no chance to escape, Theo used his Blink to teleport out of the cage.


    However, Ana had summoned two blue lights that appeared out of nowhere the moment he came out.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to push the two light balls away, but it was toote. The blue lights exploded simultaneously.


    Theo ended up taking a leap back with his left hand in front of him. There were even some ice crystals appearing on his skin.


    ��Kh���� Theonded ten feet away from her while gritting his teeth.


    Ana showed a calm expression as if telling him to give up. She said, ��You haven��t used your clone this whole time�� I think it��s time for you to use it.��


    However, Theo took a deep breath and said, ��Yeah. You��re strong. I admit that. But it will be unfair to you if I use my clone.��


    Ana squinted her eyes, treating Theo��s words as an insult. After all, Clone was just a part of his skill, so it was normal for him to use it in battle.


    ��Hah, I guess this is it.�� Theo let out a long sigh.


    Ana frowned, wondering if Theo was nning to give up.


    Suddenly, Theo raised his foot four inches above the soil before stepping on the ground while releasing his Telekinesis.


    The air moved upward, umting not far above his head.


    ������ Ana frowned, wondering why Theo unnecessarily used his power when he was just stepping normally. It was just a waste of Magic Power unless he nned to scare her with just this.


    ��What are you doing?�� Ana opened her mouth, asking warily.


    However, Theo ignored her and took the second step, sending the wind into the air again.


    Since Theo didn��t stop, she immediately raised her staff and nned to attack him.


    It was at this time Theo concentrated all his killing intent into a small thread and sent it directly to Ana��s brain.


    ��!!!�� Ana abruptly trembled as he looked at Theo as if there was a huge masked figure staring at her. It felt like the masked figure attached strings to her body that prevented her from moving.


    Still, as one would expect from the Empress�� family, Ana hurriedly shouted to regain her body back. She was stopped for one second, but that was enough for Theo to take another step.


    ��Frost Nova!�� Ana summoned ice spikes in a fan-shaped area, spreading toward Theo.


    But it was at this time, Theo finally showed his might.


    Ascension Step, 4th step.


    The wind rushed into the air and carried the massive wind stored above their heads. The wind made a parabolic movement and hit the ice spikes in the center, creating a powerful shock wave that shattered all the ice crystals.


    Cling.


    The sound of her ice breaking echoed in her ears as Ana stared in disbelief.


    Theo smirked as he stated with a cold tone. ��Worrying about me is thest thing you need to do. Let��s see�� Can you still say that you have the confidence to beat me in this condition?��


    The shock shook the entire arena.


    ��This is���� The Empress dropped her jaw to the ground and stood up while shouting, ��Old bastard! You�� You taught him your Ascension Step?!��


    A sly grin appeared on the Wind Emperor��s face.

 Chapter 735: Easy Win

    <h4>Chapter 735: Easy Win</h4>


    Ascension Step. For most people, they didn��t know what this meant as it had been decades since thest time it appeared in the world.


    However, the Empress knew precisely what kind of ability this Ascension Step was. Normally, footwork helped stabilize posture for every kind of action that a person would take.


    But the Ascension Step was different. It could incorporate other footwork while releasing a tremendous power that contained normal ability. Thus, this was the first Divine Technique that the Wind Emperor had made in his life.


    It brought him to the realm of the top one hundred experts in the world. Andbined with other techniques he had, he finally reached the top ten.


    This technique was also the reason why he couldn��t walk anymore. His enemies couldn��t afford to fight him while he was able to use this technique, so they sacrificed their lives in order to cripple his legs.


    That was why teaching this technique to Theo meant he had received the Wind Emperor��s Legacy. The only ability that he had never taught to anyone.


    ��I��m just an old man at his death door.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled. ��There��s no need to cling to the past anymore. At the very least, there is one younger generation that I can truly admire����


    ������ The Empress was shocked.


    However, she wasn��t the only one troubled with Theo learning the Ascension Step, Ana too.


    She raised her staff to summon her ice, but Theo took the fifth step, hammering the entire ground with the Ascension Step.


    Bam.


    The ice shattered and the soil cracked, reflecting the might of Theo��s ability.


    ��I don��t have much Magic Power anymore�� As expected, using the Ascension Step when I��m still a Hero Rank is too much.�� Theo thought as he looked at his foot. He gritted his teeth and stomped the ground.


    6th Step.


    The torrential wind rushed to the ground.


    Ana had summoned a shield on top of her head while releasing another attack to defeat Theo.


    As he had finished the sixth step, he immediately used his Blink to get away from the impact.


    Bam.


    This time, the wind actually dropped right on top of Ana.


    The ice that protected her broke in an instant, exposing her to this powerful wind.


    Facing such pressure, Ana ended up dropping to her knees. Even her hands needed to support her body fighting this extraordinary pressure.


    Theo panted and came to a halt. Without wasting a single second, Theo summoned his Magic Bullet and shot Ana.


    Ana directed her Magic Power to surround herself with an ice wall, not letting Theo win.


    Unfortunately for her, the Magic Bullets came from above, taking advantage of the pressure. Even Ana knew that she couldn��t summon anything above her head, so she tried to make the wall higher, only to find that the pressure got even stronger because it was trapped inside.


    ��What kind of technique is this�� To think I can��t even fight against it.�� Ana gritted her teeth and noticed the iing Magic Bullets.


    In the end, the Empress showed up, neutralizing the pressure, destroying the wall, and stopping the Magic Bullets.


    ��That��s enough.�� The Empress sighed. She thought the fight couldst longer if Theo didn��t show this powerful Divine Ability. Although he only managed to get to the sixth step instead of the tenth step, it wasn��t called a Divine Ability for nothing.


    Ana had no excuse. Even though she had some confidence, it was shattered in the face of the Ascension Step.


    Unaware it was a Divine Ability, she simply thought the Ascension Step was an A Rank Skill.


    ��I��m sorry.�� Ana lowered her head, not having the courage to look at the Empress.


    ��That��s enough. You lost, but it was because of the old bastard over there.�� The Empress stopped her.


    ��What do you mean? It��s his ability.�� The Wind Emperor chuckled, enjoying this scene. He was satisfied with Theo��s performance. Although there were a few things he needed to say regarding the Ascension Step, he believed Theo could fix it himself in the future.


    ��Hmph.�� The Empress snorted and looked at Theo. ��To think you would have a Divine Ability in your repertoire.��


    ��Divine Ability?�� Ana drew a gasp. ��The one stemmed from one of the Five Aspects? The ability that surpasses the Original Technique, the Divine Ability?��


    ��Although you used around thirty percent of your Magic Power with only six steps, the power is already beyond anyone��s imagination. Yes, you might not want to use it in a battle easily, but this technique can indeed be your trump card.�� The Empress squinted his eyes.


    ��All I can say regarding this matter is�� You son of a bitch. Since when did you n all this?��


    ��Is that alright for you to use profanity easily?�� Theo scratched the back of his head.


    The Empress never really cared about her image. That was why she always called the Wind Emperor ��Old Bastard.��


    ��What? You want toin? I execute anyone who dares to say anything about my actions and words. If they don��t like it, they can fuck off.�� The Empress red at Theo. ��It seems you have prepared to never return from here, eh�� Since when did you think about this? Answer this and I will kill you in three moves.��


    Theo fell silent for a moment and smiled. ��When I first met Sir Wind Emperor.��


    ������ The Empress frowned and nced at the Wind Emperor.


    Thetter was raising two fingers like the peace sign as if he had just won.


    ��Sly Old Bastard.�� The Empress clicked her tongue. She realized that her scheme in bringing Theo to the Empress Pce and forcing the Wind Emperor to go to Italy was a mistake.


    The Wind Emperor actually used her scheme to facilitate the meeting between them.


    ��Fine by me.�� The Empress harrumphed and asked, ��Anything you want to say?��


    ��No.�� Theo shook his head and leaped back before raising his spear. ��I��m ready.��


    Even in this exhausted state, Theo��s mind was still focused, trying to learn anything from the Empress.


    ��Alright. Here I go�� Die, you brat.�� The Empress snorted.

 Chapter 736: Three Moves

    <h4>Chapter 736: Three Moves</h4>


    The Empress suddenly appeared in front of Theo.


    Obviously, with her speed, Theo couldn��t follow her movement. The next thing he realized, she was already before him.


    Theo gritted his teeth and waved his spear to cut her down.


    However, the Empress jumped upward andnded on top of his spear. She looked down on Theo and said, ��First of all, the Ascension Step is not an easy ability to master. When you reach the Supreme Rank, you should focus on incorporating the Ascension Step into your own footwork first.


    ��Take a look at me. If I step on your spear while using the Ascension Step�� What do you think will happen?��


    ��I know. It will knock my spear down and the rest of the wind will pressure me from above, resulting in a two-directional attack.�� Theo tried to lift his spear.


    ��Also, since you have learned the Ascension Step, you need to watch out for your enemies because they will be targeting your legs. This is how dangerous a Divine Ability is. So, make sure you keep this in mind.��


    ��I understand. I won��t be using it in front of other people anymore�� I mean, they won��t be alive to tell the tale.��


    ��My point exactly�� And this is the first move.�� The Empress sighed and said, ��The second move����


    Theo pushed her upward tounch her into the air, but his body suddenly stuck, not able to move anymore.


    ��Eh?�� Theo widened his eyes, wondering why he couldn��t move.


    ��You have been using something simr to me. Launching your ability in session while incorporating them into your movement�� I certainly know what��s in your mind. However, there is one thing that you forget about this ability. What do you think is the end goal of this ability?�� The Empressnded on the ground and looked Theo in the eyes.


    ��!!!�� Theo widened his eyes, realizing the answer.


    The Empress smiled. ��It��s to make the enemy not realize that the attack is already in motion. In other words, the goal of having this type of ability is tounch an attack without the enemy��s awareness.


    ��And to do that�� you need to mix your own talking skill and whatever it is to cause a distraction to your enemy. At the same time, you also need a certain degree of control to make it possible.


    ��But still�� The biggest factor is none other than Breathing. There are different types of Breathing. For example, assassins usually have a Breathing technique that can��t be traced and doesn��t release any sound even when you��re panting.


    ��If you incorporate it with your own ability, it can mask your technique, making people focus on your action instead of the movement of Magic Power. Just like this�� without you realizing it, your entire body has been frozen.�� The Empress exined.


    The Wind Emperor obviously knew about this too. After all, the only reason he could knock down Zhilov��s father, a Mythical Rank Expert, was due to his Breathing. Without him even realizing it, the Wind Emperor had brought him down.


    ��I can see that you��re focusing on Control and Awareness. With your talent, you shouldn��t have a problem in mastering Breathing, so I think this should be your current target.�� The Empress said with a calm expression. ��After all, it can also improve the overall illusion.


    ��When you reach the Supreme Rank, your ability in sensing Magic Power will improve by leaps and bounds. It will allow you to sense the Magic Power in your body and see whether your opponent is real or not.


    ��That��s why many illusionists often change their jobs after bing a Supreme Rank. They simply can��t find something special that makes their illusion effective against their opponents.


    ��Hence, those who continue after that point will either be too good or too bad. Those, who couldn��t even incorporate their illusion, will be trash among illusionists, while those, who can, will be someone special.


    ��If you want to be a good illusionist, I suggest you master Awareness, Control, and Breathing. Your Awareness allows you to understand your own illusion better and let you know what should be improved to fool your enemy.


    ��Your Control gives you the opportunity to do anything you want with your illusion as it can basically be anything.


    ��Lastly, by mastering your Breathing, you can mask the illusion, making your enemy wonder whether the opponent they face now is an illusion or a real person. These three are the most important things as an illusionist.��


    Theo was staring at the Empress intensely as he understood what she was teaching. She told him so many things about the illusion, allowing him to make an even better illusion.


    So, he thought he would improve the rest of his senses first before training his Breathing.


    ��Do you understand, Brat?�� The Empress snorted.


    Theo wanted to reply but to no avail. He lowered his eyes and found his body being covered with frostbite.


    ��As for thest move���� The Empress raised his hand and said, ��You just need to beat the sh*t of your enemy. In other words, absolute power.��


    ��Now that you have shown what your clone is capable of, they will take you more seriously. You have gone past the level where you can leisurely learn many things. Soon, those who don��t want an enemy like you will chase you down just for the sake of eliminating you.


    ��I��m sure you have been building your connection with this thought in mind, right? In that case, you should continue doing so. With this�� I havepleted my promise.�� The Empress touched Theo��s forehead with her finger.


    In that instant, the ice spread all over his body and trapped him inside. Then, they shattered into pieces as if she had just killed Theo.


    However, the ice and Theo��s body gradually disappeared, showing that the one they had faced this whole time was a mere clone.


    ��This is why I hate and love a smart man. They��re making me sick.�� The Empress shook her head helplessly before looking at the Wind Emperor. ��Old Bastard. Let��s talk.��

 Chapter 737: Lecture

    <h4>Chapter 737: Lecture</h4>


    ��Old Bastard. Let��s talk.��


    The Wind Emperor smiled and nodded. ��Sure.��


    ��Alea, Ana, Yuri, follow me. The rest will take care of the garden.�� The Empress stated as she went to the mansion.


    The Wind Emperor signaled Levina and Lyovkin to follow him.


    Theyplied as they walked right behind him.


    While pushing the wheelchair, Lyovkin thought, ��So, Theo has only been a clone until now. Doesn��t this mean all of us were defeated by a clone? What if Theo was here and fought all of us together with his clone����


    He sucked a cold breath as he could imagine Theo bullying them.


    ��As expected of my idol. He��s going to be my only idol from now on.�� Levina smiled inwardly, aspiring to be someone like Theo.


    Meanwhile, the Empress�� side wasn��t that happy when they realized Theo was a clone. This was clearly an insult to tell them that they were not strong enough to even defeat his clone.


    Ana clenched her fists and muttered inwardly, ��That Theo�� He��s already this strong with only his clone�� What if he��s actually using that Ascension Step while his clone attacks me? It��s a sure win. No wonder it��s called a trump card.��


    Alea only looked down with a frown, not thinking anything.


    Yuri, on the other hand, bit her lips, remembering this humiliation.


    While leading them inside, the Empress nced at Alea and said with a cold tone. ��Alea. What��s the deal with your lousy performance?��


    ��Eh?�� Alea was surprised, thinking she had fought to the best of her ability.


    Seeing the confusion on her face, the Empress said, ��I��m not talking about your fighting ability. I��m talking about all other things. Why did you not say anything when you lost? Were you sad because he defeated you? Was that why you didn��t even look at him in the face?��


    ��That��s���� Alea opened her mouth but no words came out. She couldn��t exin herself.


    ��What? Don��t make sh*tty excuses by telling me that you were trying to look more mature.�� The Empress snorted, ring at her.


    She didn��t mind bashing her disciple in front of everyone, let alone the Wind Emperor. After all, she knew the Wind Emperor had told Levina to seduce him or something.


    So, she didn��t hold back even when they were walking in the hall.


    ��What? Did you think by bing more calm and silent, you have be more mature? Did you confuse battle state and everyday state? Huh? Your grandmother told me that you had been sheltered this whole time and tried to grow up. But if this was what you meant by growing up, I��m going to beat the sh*t out of you right now.�� The Empress said with a menacing tone.


    ��I�� I don��t know.�� Alea shook her head helplessly. ��I felt like I lost something after he defeated me. I thought I had prepared for this, but����


    ��That��s bullsh*t.�� The Empress snorted. ��Just tell me that you are jealous of that so-called world��s most beautiful woman! Just tell me that you want to be like her, calm and collected.��


    Alea looked down, having no words to refute her.


    ��What you did earlier is nothing but utter bullsh*t. Why the heck did you even want to be someone else?�� The Empress shook her head. ��If you want to be calm and collected, just go to a shop or something and be a receptionist.


    ��I��m not degrading them. I��m telling you that even they can be calm and collected when dealing with customers. However, when you actually be a customer of the shop, you will instantly forget that there��s a receptionist like that. After all, you have seen this type of person everywhere.


    ��Imagine you go to that brat Theo as a calm and collected person. There��s no way you��re going to make an impression. He knows you for who you are�� not who you��re trying to be.


    ��If you continue like this, you��re just going to be a ��Woman A�� in his mind, not Alea Eilric.


    ��I��m not telling you that you can��t be a calm person. I��m telling you to bring your personality more. Weren��t you always the energetic and positive girl this whole time? I bet that he��s thinking of you as that kind of person.


    ��That��s your unique impression. If it was the past you, you would have epted the defeat with a smile on your face. You admitted that he had gotten stronger than you and told him that you wouldn��t lose in the future.


    ��You would have talked to him more instead of feeling dejected or whatsoever. On the other hand, what you did today was tell him that you were not yourself anymore. Don��t confuse this sentence with you were not who you used to be.


    ��There is absolutely a character development in thetter. Meanwhile, what you did right now is a character change.


    ��You even made that guy console you by telling you it was a great fight. If I were Agata Mota, I would have pped you in the face.


    ��I��m telling you this because you said you like him. You told me that you wanted to grow up. Mature is not about bing calm andposed. It��s about your thoughts.


    ��You start thinking about how others feel and their well-being. Have you forgotten when Agata Mota said you��re not worthy of him? That��s because she can understand him and his struggle.


    ��What you did earlier is not that. Instead, you actually wanted to show him that you were not the Alea Eilric he knew. You were someone else, so he didn��t need to contact you anymore.�� The Empress shook her head helplessly. ��Seriously, what should I do to you����


    Listening to her words, Alea clenched her fists until her palms started bleeding. She realized that she had made a huge mistake.


    ��I�� What should I do���� Alea asked with a hoarse tone.


    ��That��s not something I can answer. If it��s the past you, what will you do?�� The Empress asked back.


    Alea looked at her as her body started shaking. She gritted her teeth and said, ��I�� Please��.��


    Before she finished her words, the Empress said, ��Go. Just do what you need to do.��


    Alea immediately turned around and started running as she knew what she was supposed to do.


    She hurriedly returned to her room and grabbed her Skylink.


    However, before she could even contact him, she was the first one to receive a call, albeit it wasn��t from Theo.


    [God of Fortitude wants to meet you.]

 Chapter 738: The Promise

    <h4>Chapter 738: The Promise</h4>


    After Alea left them, the Empress brought them to a room where they could talk face to face without fearing anyone hearing them.


    She sat down in front of the Wind Emperor with Ana and Yuri standing behind her. Levina and Lyovkin also did the same, following the Wind Emperor��s action.


    ��So, what do you want to talk about?�� The Wind Emperor smirked. ��You should already know that he was a clone right after you saw him, right?��


    ��Yes. That is obviously true. If he learns Breathing, he should be able to confuse his enemies, making his clone look perfectly like his real body.��


    ��Indeed. That guy is progressing at a terrifying rate. I wonder what his talent is���� The Wind Emperor looked up with a smile.


    ��I think you already have that answer yourself���� The Empress snorted.


    The two looked at each other as they opened their mouths at the same time, revealing their answers. ��The Talent of Learning.��


    They both said the same thing, confirming their suspicion.


    The Empress let out a long sigh. ��I had investigated him. He didn��t seem to be someone special in the past. Because of his family condition, he couldn��t do many things. So, I��m assuming that his transformation started at the schoolpetition.


    ��That was probably when he first received his blessing. Now that he had a perfect time and opportunity to grow, he showed his brilliance, learning one thing after another.


    ��I think that was how his mind worked�� I mean, if you didn��t have anyone you could trust, you surely wanted to build up your connections. During that time, you needed to have a safe ce to hide yourself, which was thepetition.


    ��After that, he used the Grand Gaia to raise his worth even further to pique many people��s interests.


    ��He would surely choose the US if Leonardo wasn��t his grandfather. So, he took this opportunity to learn from Leonardo, especially his strategic thinking.


    ��This was his true growth, allowing him to do whatever he wanted. And I think this was the perfect move he could make.�� The Empress ended her exnation with a sigh.


    Levina, Lyovkin, Ana, and Yuri were startled when they heard the Empress�� deduction. When they thought about it, Theo had indeed created an opportunity for himself. It gave them a shiver.


    ��Yes. I guess we have simr deductions. Though, I will add, his talent for learning is scary. If he can grow at this rate continuously, he might be able to be a Mythical Rank Expert within ten years and this is me underestimating him.�� The Wind Emperor nodded.


    The Empress�� expression gradually became serious as she asked, ��So, what��s the reason for you to do all this for him?��


    The Wind Emperor smiled. ��He��s a scary child indeed����


    He closed his eyes, remembering what Theo told him.


    ��Sir Wind Emperor, I have a proposal. I��m going to Russia with you, but not for the sake of the International Mission. If you help me this time, I will owe you a great favor.��


    These were the words he whispered to the Wind Emperor. It wasn��t that detailed, but the meaning was clear.


    The Wind Emperor had clearly stated that he didn��t have much time to live, so Theo took advantage of this situation.


    ��I will owe you a great favor.�� These words were enough to show that Theo prepared to be his safe cushion.


    When he died, Theo was ready to pay what he owed to the Wind Emperor in order to make the Czar survive.


    After all, when he died, the Czar would receive a big hit and the enemies that had been eyeing them would definitely make a move.


    They were scared because the Wind Emperor was still alive. But it was different if he passed away. There would be no expert as strong as him protecting the family.


    The Czar might even face their extinction.


    However, it would be different if Theo helped them.


    Theo could only offer himself like this because he had shown him what he was capable of. By ying the Czar, the Griffith Family, the Safulli Group and the Barbe Group on his hand, it was clear that Theo would continue to show his brilliance in the next ten years.


    Hence, the Czar might not suffer any bacsh from his death or even be stronger because of Theo backing them.


    Thus what he truly said in those few words was, ��Be my ally until you die and I will be your family��s safe cushion when you die.��


    That was a big proposal, considering the Wind Emperor was one of the strongest people in the world and his family had vast control over Russia.


    So, when he heard those words from Theo, he put a condition that this offer was only between them. If Theo promised another influence something like this, they might use it against the Czar. Thus, the Wind Emperor agreed.


    What he needed to do was to be Theo��s ally. And these were reflected in his recent actions. To reap the greatest reward, he also needed to make sure Theo was still alive during that time. And bing his ally was the best option to do that.


    This was also why he brought Levina, Lyovkin and even his father. This was to tell Theo that they were the future of the Czar.


    Even if he couldn��t preserve the Czar due to the endless onught of the enemies, these three people needed to survive because the burden of rebuilding the Czar would be ced on their shoulders.


    Theo obviously showed that he knew his intention by teaching Levina and Lyovkin a bit, offering them some pieces of advice to the best of his ability.


    Remembering these scenes, the Wind Emperor smiled and said, ��That kid is truly something else�� Do you think you can convince me, a top ten expert, to be your ally for the rest of my life with a few words?��


    The Empress widened her eyes in shock before looking down, contemting his words.


    Although she couldn��t decipher his words, she knew that it was impossible for her to convince the Wind Emperor to do something like that.


    ��He did that?�� The Empress asked again for confirmation as she still couldn��t believe it.


    ��Yes.��

 Chapter 739: Gossip

    <h4>Chapter 739: Gossip</h4>


    ��So, you have be his ally����


    The Empress frowned after confirming this was the case. Meanwhile, Ana and Yuri were shocked when they heard Theo had the ability to convince the Wind Emperor to be his ally. With this, Theo had three allies: the War God Family, the Starry Group, and the Czar. Coupled with Theo��s brilliance, he would surely be a big powerhouse in the future. The Empress facepalmed for a moment before leaning to the chair.


    ��This is insane���� The Empress felt defeated when she realized she had still underestimated Theo. He nced up and looked at Ana. ��Why don��t you help Alea seduce him right now? No, should I just send you both there? If he picks one of you, this pce will be good for another two hundred years����


    ��Ahaha, do you think he will even consider me?�� Ana chuckled.


    The Empress shrugged and said to the Wind Emperor, ��I guess you now can die peacefully.��


    ��That depends on his performance, but yeah, I can sleep now without thinking too much.�� The Wind Emperor smiled.


    ��I just want a body that allows me to move for the remaining of my life. I don��t like to be lying down for a few years before I��m dead.��


    ��Haha. With your wind, that��s an easy thing to do.�� The Empress chuckled.


    ��Just in case, I have told you not to offend Theodore Griffith, right?�� The Wind Emperor nced at Lyovkin and Levina.


    ��Don��t worry, Grandfather. We know that and have made sure that all the people from the family know this.��


    Lyovkin hurriedly assured him. ��Good then.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged.


    ��So, where is he now?�� The Empress asked.


    ��Well, I think you can already guess���� The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��The Starry Group eh�� That Business Genius? Maya Hamilton. I guess she is truly a business genius when she doesn��t even care about the stance of other countries in not approaching Theo.�� The Empress shook her head helplessly.


    ��Indeed. I heard that even her father was against it at first until he knew that Theodore Griffith is the grandson of the War Saint.��


    ��Well, Maya is known to be arrogant and doesn��t want to listen to something she doesn��t like. I guess there��s a reason for that.�� The Empress shrugged.


    ��Indeed.��


    ��But if it��s like this, doesn��t this mean the Griffith Family have thrown away the chance? Theo might even surpass his father, who��s said to have the same talent as their ancestor, the top five experts in the past.��


    ��That��s what I thought too, but now it��s different. I realized that his parents might want a situation like this to happen.��


    ��Ho? Why do you say so?��


    ��I mean, first of all, there is the man known to be one of the best illusionists who can even manipte one��s memory. Just by showing his talent, he might make Theo his soldier at that moment.��


    ��But they��re a strong couple, you know.��


    ��But when they conceived Theo, Ray Griffith just became a Mythical Rank Expert and Valerie was close to Mythical Rank. At the same time, they were fugitives. They didn��t have any power and influence to resist the Griffith Family, considering Ray��s Father, the previous lord of the Griffith Family, was at Leonardo��s level.


    ��If you take a look at what they��re doing now, you will realize that they��re going to the Griffith Family to forge their own influence. Isn��t that the reason why they��re hiding with Ne Griffith by using all their power and influence? They now have this kind of power.


    ��They have be stronger now and their influence has gotten deep after ying inside the Griffith Family for almost two decades.��


    ��Yeah. I mean, they can simply forge another rtionship with his future in the line. I mean, if I can see Theo��s talent for a while, I don��t even mind betrothing Ana to him.�� The Empress nced at Ana with a smile.


    ��Have you heard about that rumor?�� The Wind Emperor shook his head.


    ��Rumor?��


    ��About Theo having a big brother.��


    ��The adopted child?��


    ��No, no. The one before that.�� The Empress fell silent for a moment and frowned. ��That��s just a baseless rumor. I think that rumor was before Ray and Valerie married. Didn��t they release that rumor for Leonardo to agree to their rtionship?��


    ��Well, who knows. It might be true.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged. ��If you think that was the case and the Griffith Family had control of him, I guess that��s another reason for them to seek revenge.��


    ��Leonardo surely wouldn��t appreciate that. If it was him, he would let go of revenge and just focus on his family.��


    ��Well, they are not him.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged. ��Whatever. It��s just a rumor. I��m not going to talk about something irrelevant.�� The Empress shrugged. ��Anyway, what are you nning to do now that you have Theodore Griffith? There are many people aiming for his life, you know.��


    ��At least, I have directed them to this ce, so I guess that kid won��t have a problem in the next few months. As for what I��m nning to do�� I��m not doing anything. After all, I��m not going to babysit him all the time. He also knows that because the moment his value drops, I��m going to leave him.�� The Wind Emperor shrugged.


    ��That��s true.�� The Empress thought for a moment and nced at Ana. ��Anyway, I��m going to have you be a Supreme Rank Expert first. I want you to prepare for a big fight.��


    ��A big fight?�� Ana frowned. ��What big fight? Is it going to involve Theo?��


    ��Obviously. I��m just creating an opportunity for you and Alea. I don��t know whether you like him or not, but there��s a time you need to do what you do.�� She then pointed at Levina and Lyovkin. ��Luckily, these two kids are not strong enough. So, this is the only opportunity.��


    ��Hmm? A big fight?�� The Wind Emperor frowned and said, ��You��re not going to go there, aren��t you?��


    ��Hmm. This is the only thing I know.�� The Empress shrugged. ��Go where?�� Ana tilted her head in confusion. ��There is only one predictable ce that he will visit in the near future.�� The Empress sighed andzily said, ��His hometown, Thernd.��

 Chapter 740 – God Of Fortitude

    <h4>Chapter 740 - God Of Fortitude</h4>


    While they were talking, Alea was sitting on her bed, closing her eyes.


    She soon arrived on top of a cliff, surrounded by forest. There was only one direction to face and she found a beautiful sunset if she stood at the end of a cliff.


    However, there was a man standing on the edge as if he had been waiting for her.


    The man was six-foot-tall. He had long blonde hair like her that was tied on the back. He wore a sleeveless white robe, revealing his muscr arms.


    He was facing the sunset as if overwatching the valley below him.


    She carefully walked closer and found a magnificent city in the valley below them.


    It was at this time the man turned around, revealing his handsome face and zing red eyes. However, the man made a smile filled with energy. Just looking at the smile could make one energized.


    "You have finallye."


    "Yes." Alea nodded and greeted him. "It''s been a while, Sir Heracles."


    "Indeed. I almost couldn''t recognize you." God of Fortitude, Heracles, smiled. "I guess this is what you want to achieve��"


    Alea''s body shook as she immediately corrected herself. She immediately walked to him and raised her hand.


    Heracles smiled and shook her hand like a brother.


    This time, the greeting came with so much energy as Alea smiled, "It''s been a while, Sir Heracles."


    "Oh! It''s been a while, Alea." Heracles smirked. "I guess you have understood why I call you here."


    "Yes. I have made a big blunder." Alea nodded.


    "Well, I guess she has told you most of the things I want to say." Heracles chuckled and turned around. "There are only two things I want to add."


    "There are not many who will talk about this, but the previous guy who received my blessing was a unique man." Heracles fell silent for a moment and looked at the sunset. "He was a good guy deep down there, but his perspective was different. What do you think Fortitude is?"


    "Courage in pain or adversity," Alea answered without hesitation.


    "Yes. That was what I thought too until that man came." Heracles looked down and said, "Do you know what that guy said when I asked him this question?"


    Alea shook her head.


    "He told me that Fortitude is the ability to be shameless." Heracles chuckled. "When I first heard that, Iughed. However, I couldn''t refute his exnation.


    "When he stood up for bullying, he told me he was shameless enough to express his dissatisfaction. After all, he might be scrutinized for such a thing. And that was why he called himself shameless.


    "He didn''t listen to others'' advice and kept doing whatever he wanted, thinking he was the justice. Of course, he didn''t do anything that would actually make me angry. He was a good man.


    "He said, ''You call this courage, but for me, I''m someone without shame, so I don''t need to think about others'' opinions.'' When I heard that, I was stunned.


    "He then gave me another example when he tried to protect someone from people stronger than him. He didn''t have the power to oppose them, but he was shameless enough to think he had the ability to fight them.


    "I called that courage, but he called it shameless. We never saw eye to eye ever since we argued like that. However, we knew that we were right. We had our own path and we both thought our way was correct.


    "For him, he was shameless enough to refute me, thinking that he was in the right. For me, he was courageous enough to utter his own opinion.


    "Hence, I believe Fortitude is still courage�� the courage to forge your own path, the courage to have your own opinion, the courage to do anything you want. In other words, It''s Freedom." Heracles smiled, recalling the scene with him.


    "Freedom," Alea muttered in a low voice before looking down, contemting his words.


    "You are free to cry if you''re sad because you''re brave enough to not care about others telling you that you''re a crybaby if you shed tears. You''re free tough at a foolish but strong man just because you''re shameless enough to look down on him. That''s what I want to say. Freedom." Heracles looked at Alea with a smile.


    Alea clenched her fists and realized that she had lost her own courage. "What have I done�� I sumbed to my fear because I didn''t want him to look at me badly. I forgot that I��!"


    Before she continued her outburst, Heracles smiled and patted her head. "It''s fine, child. It''s fine to lose yourself. However, I believe that you have the courage to admit your mistake and face it. My role is just to facilitate you to achieve that."


    "I��" Alea closed her eyes and bit her lips.


    "As for the second thing that I want to say�� Well, I think you already know it. I want you to show me what Fortitude is. This time, it''s not the answer from me, that guy or anyone else in the world. I want an answer that is unique only to you.


    "You maye at the same answer as mine, you may not. However, don''t be afraid and express it in your daily life. That, too, is a courageous act."


    "I''m sorry. I''m sorry." Alea kept apologizing after she realized how deep her mistake was.


    "I''m not the one who needs that apology. You should tell the one who needs it the most." Heracles smiled and patted her head.


    Alea''s expression melted. After a moment, it turned serious as she took a step back as she looked Heracles in the eyes. "Yes, Sir. I know."


    "That''s good. Show me your answer, child. I will be watching over you." Heracles smiled and patted her head as Alea''s consciousness returned to her body.


    Alea gradually opened her eyes as she seemed to have gained enlightenment on what she should do from now on.


    And as he said earlier, he facilitated her to do whatever she wanted as the notification appeared.


    [God of Fortitude blesses you with its power.]


    Skill: Heart of Fortitude (A)


    Effect: Enhancing the will and courage in your heart to release thest strength hidden in your body�� Increasing your performance by at least twenty percent for five minutes.

 Chapter 741 – Missing

    <h4>Chapter 741 - Missing</h4>


    After talking for a while, the Wind Emperor went back to his car as this event hade to a hold.


    In the car, Levina couldn''t help but ask, "Grandfather. There''s something bugging me. Is the reason why you never talked about the missions to Sir Theo because��"


    She paused for a moment. The Wind Emperor already knew the context and nodded. "There''s no reason to talk about something that''s never gonna happen. Though, it would be better if you got this kind of thought before you learned everything. But at least, you realized it, so I will give you a passing mark for this one."


    "I''m sorry. I will do better next time." Levina apologized immediately.


    Meanwhile, a Mythical Rank Expert, who was standing not far from the car, furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Hmm? There''s no Theodore Griffith��" The guy said to the radio, "I don''t see the sign of Theodore Griffith."


    "What? That''s not possible unless he''s trying to escape from us. We have surrounded the perimeter, so it''s impossible to pass us."


    "Is he staying inside the Empress Pce then?"


    "There''s a possibility. However, we need to check whether he''s using an illusion or not. There''s a chance he sneaks into the car with that illusion."


    "What kind of illusion is so powerful that it can escape my eyes?"


    "That guy''s brain is something else. He might find a way."


    "We will have some people to investigate the Empress Pce then?"


    "Yes. We will send a few people there. Theodore Griffith knows Alea Eilric, so there''s a chance of him staying inside. Also, he needs to finish his International Mission anyway, which is rted to killing monsters on the other side. So, he needs to go out sooner orter."


    "Roger that. I''m going to stay here to maintain the close look of the Empress Pce. Even if he somehow sneaks outside, I should be able to find him. Even if he abandons the International Mission, he still needs to return to Italy."


    "We have checked. It''s true that Theodore Griffith has left his mansion. There''s only Leonardo inside."


    "How about the airport?"


    "Leonardo had set up some surveince, but we had confirmed that he went to Russia."


    "In that case, we can safely assume that he''s in Russia. For now, we will maintain a closer look at the Empress Pce and the Czar."


    "Yes."


    They continued their investigations for a while, unaware that the one they found here was only a clone.


    Still, as one would expect from an influence at the same level as the War God Family, they managed to locate Theodore Griffith not long after the Wind Emperor left the Empress Pce.


    "Mission failed. Return to France now."


    "Huh?" The man frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"


    "Our spy has seen Maya Hamilton meeting Theodore Griffith in the airport."


    "What did you say? You said Theodore Griffith went to Russia earlier."


    "We don''t know either. But Theodore Griffith has indeed gone to the US."


    "What? You do realize that the oneing here has defeated Alea Eilric and Afanasiia, right? His power is immeasurable."


    "But Theodore Griffith in the US is apanied by his pet and assistant."


    "He''s also apanied by his assistanting here��" Suddenly, he fell silent as he came to a realization. Even though Theo came here with his assistant, thetter was nowhere to be seen.


    He thought she was staying inside the Wind Emperor''s mansion, but the fact that Theo''s pet actually followed him to the US meant that was the real one.


    In other words, the assistant that he brought here was�� The guy immediately gritted his teeth. "Sh*t. I''ll go check on his assistant in the Wind Emperor''s mansion."


    He immediately disappeared and went straight to the Wind Emperor''s mansion, trying to see whether the assistant was still there or not.


    Even without going there, he only needed to spread his Awareness from a distance and count the number of people in the mansion.


    He soon realized there were two people missing. In other words, his assistant was also an illusion that Theo had created.


    The Wind Emperor had yed a big part in this matter too as he didn''t let anyone actually see Theo and his assistant''s appearance. This way, he could mask their Magic Power with his own Magic Power, preventing them from recognizing them as a lump of Magic Power.


    That was one of the reasons why the Wind Emperor continued releasing his Magic Power. Not only could he sense the people watching him, but he could also camouge Theo.


    And the guy who confirmed that Theo had defeated Alea and Ana never saw him directly because he didn''t dare to move closer since the Wind Emperor and the Empress could easily find him out.


    Hence, he was surveying them with only his ears, listening to the conversations.


    At the same time, the Wind Emperor had actually released his barrier, so no sound came out of the arena.


    Since the Empress never talked explicitly about what she shouldn''t say, he could only listen to the disciples of the Empress Pce talking about how Theo defeated Ana and Alea.


    When he returned to the Empress Pce to check his doubt, he soon found out that the disciple was talking about him being a clone.


    In other words, everything was for naught.


    Meanwhile, Theo, Agata, and Ava had arrived in the US.


    Maya, apanied by her assistant and two more Mythical Rank Experts, came to greet him.


    "Yo! Who do we have here��" She smirked. "Have you had your fun in Russia?"


    "What fun? It''s hard to keep all the information a secret." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "That''s true. Anyway, wee. Let''s return to my ce first since this is an agreement between you and me, not you and the Starry Group. My Father�� I mean, the CEO of the Star Group would also like to meet you." Maya then looked at Ava and Agata. "Wee to you two. I hope that you enjoy your stay here."


    "Thanks." Agata nodded politely.


    "Kyu." Ava raised her foot with a smile.


    "Alright. Let''s go��" Maya turned around as she led them back.

 Chapter 742 – Mission

    <h4>Chapter 742 - Mission</h4>


    In the car, Theo asked, "So, I''m assuming that you already have a n, right?"


    "My n might not be as good as yours, but it''s still good." Maya harrumphed and tossed a Skylink to him.


    Agata moved closer to Theo as she wanted to see the n too.


    "We have three destinations because of your extraordinary requests. ording to the data you gave me, I have separated the mission into three parts. The first ce will be the Arkahan Volcano.


    "The volcano often erupts, but this makes the soil fertile. So, the monsters like this ce. I am sure that you can at least reach level 460 in this ce.


    "Of course, I am nning to get something from there too. Seeing that you have Clone and Teleportation abilities, I''m nning to use that to make you dive into the volcano to get a certain nt in the crack near the magma.


    "I have a cooling suit for you to stay there for one minute. So, I want you to grab the flower and leave.


    "As for the second part, there is a big structure in the Moniac in. We call this Moniac Dungeon because it contains so many monsters inside. It''s like a natural nest, but its size is enormous and spread underground.


    "So, we''re going to venture there and search around. It has been ssified as public property, so anyone can go there. Of course, there won''t be anyone else besides us in the group.


    "Our goal is to visit this ce and find any kinds of treasures hidden inside. Well, the Dungeon is known with another title after all. Treasure Dungeon. The items themselves are not that good, so Supreme Rank and Mythical Rank Experts aren''t that interested.


    "However, for a weaponpany like mine, it''s a good opportunity to learn the weapon from this ce.


    "Of course, there are many monsters in this ce as well, so you shouldn''t worry about not being able to level up.


    "As for thest destination, we call this Demise Forest. There are demon-like creatures surrounding this forest. On the outer area, the demons are barely Supreme Rank Monsters, so it shouldn''t be a problem with our levels at that time.


    "We''re not aware of this ce''s secret as a few Mythical Rank Experts often visit this ce to find something good. However, not many things can be found, so we should just focus on the killing until you be a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "That''s the n. Although it''s true that I''m nning to support you with this mission, we also need to get something worth the effort, okay? You''re not expecting me to work with you for free, right?" Maya squinted his eyes.


    "Well, you''re the employer." Theo shrugged. "I don''t see any problem with the mission. I will use you to be a Supreme Rank Expert, you will use me to get something. That''s just business."


    "Of course. I''m nning to reach Supreme Rank Expert in this mission too, so I will be relying on you to protect me during that time," said Maya before adding inwardly, ''Well, there''s a suspicion that your blessing is rted to Death, so this Demise Forest should be able to test whether you actually have this blessing or not.''


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "When do we leave?"


    "We have made some preparations, but we need to make a final check and some finishing. So, in two to three days."


    "Are we going to use a Cubicar?" Theo asked.


    "Yes. I know that you like speed, but it''s better to have Cubicar because we''re nning to visit so many ces for various reasons. And it''s good to sleep inside a Cubicar. Besides, a toilet is a must! Even if it''s you, I''m not going to hold back on this one." Maya red at him.


    "Well, whatever." Theo sighed. "As long as I can finish my goal here, it''s good."


    "Anyway, you should know mypany, right? The Cubicar made by mypany is faster. We even have modified it with shield material�� I mean, the same material as your Ring of Honor. So, if we use the defensive mode, I can create various shields around the Cubicar.


    "Supreme Rank Monsters will have it hard if they want to break this one. Of course, since we''ll enter a dungeon for the second destination, we will hide it somewhere around there. Luckily, there''s a facility of the Star Group in that area, so we can use that ce to park the car.


    "All in all, I have nned everything. So, you should read the entire n to the very details. If you have any suggestions, I''m all ears.


    "Also, if you can, don''t disturb me too much during the preparation. I need to take care of the work for the next three months." She sighed.


    "I can understand that." Theo nodded.


    "Alright. Let''s move on to thest part, the reward. The base reward will be one billion Zils and one A Rank Skill of your choice. And you can ask me for something else." Maya exined.


    "Hmm, sounds good to me. Your Father didn''t coerce you anymore?" Theo smirked.


    "Are you teasing me or actually liking it?" Maya squinted his eyes.


    "I was kidding." Theo sighed. It was clear that she was stressed from her expression alone. He didn''t know whether it was caused by his parents, him, or work, but he knew he shouldn''t tease her anymore.


    "Anyway, what do you want for thest reward? We have several Mythical Rank Experts to tutor you if you want."


    "Actually, I am nning to experience something special." Theo smirked.


    "Let me guess, Simtion Room?" Maya nonchntly guessed.


    Theo admitted it without hesitation.


    "Right. The new technology�� Simtion Room. This room can replicate a certain environment to allow you to train in a more ridiculous way. Well, the training speed will be increased exponentially too."


    "For both of us." Theo pointed at Agata.


    "I know. However, you need to talk with my father about this room. We''ve got a few rooms, but the original creator of this room is the Star Group, not the Starry Group."


    "I understand. I will talk to him then��" Theo nodded.

 Chapter 743 – Simulation Room

    <h4>Chapter 743 - Simtion Room</h4>


    After their arrival at Maya''s house, there was a middle-aged man standing before them. He was none other than Maya''s father, Bernard Hamilton.


    "Wee to my humble abode." Bernard smiled and looked at Theo and the others. "It''s truly shocking to see Theodore Griffith standing side by side with the most beautiful woman, Agata Mota."


    "��" Theo and Agata didn''t have a change of expression when they heard it.


    "Whatever. It''s not like I''m going to expose you or anything." Bernard shrugged. "Anyway, let''s talk inside. My wife decided to cook for today''s dinner, so you should have dinner first. The servants will bring your luggage to your own room."


    "Then, we will take your offer." Theo nodded in agreement.


    He and Agata then walked together with Maya, following Bernard to the dining room.


    It was very quiet to the point Bernard couldn''t stand it.


    He even turned around and jokingly said, "Come on. Why are you so stiff? Is it because of me that you can''t talk with your peers?"


    "It''s because you''re pushing all the matter to me." Maya red at him. "I need to settle all the work in mypany within two days. I think you have heard that or should I make an additional hole near your ears so you can listen to my words?"


    "Oh,e on. The ''hole'' joke is already overused." Bernard waved his hand nonchntly.


    "Then, can I assume you prefer to experience a serious one? Maybe, I should have cut you off from my life for a year or so."


    "Alright. This is my first time hearing the ''hole'' joke. Don''t make a hole near my ears please."


    "��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she chose to not reply to him.


    On the other hand, Theo asked, "There is one thing that I want to ask you��"


    "Hmm? Sure, ask away?" Bernard''s face became serious.


    Somehow Maya was surprised by his reaction. If it was the normal him, Bernard would ask jokingly, ''Her hand in marriage?''


    Theo wouldn''t react to that kind of joke and simply continued the conversation. But it was still surprising that Bernard didn''t even react like he was supposed to.


    "Is it possible to meet��" Theo abruptly stopped and shook his head. "Sorry. Never mind."


    "Oh, you want to talk with my father? Well, it''s normal to be curious with my father because he''s known to be an entric guy, especially in thepany." Bernard shook his head. "Sadly, you can''t. Ever since he''s retired, he has been living in seclusion.


    "What I mean by seclusion is that�� he''s living on the other side, making a small tree house or something. And he often moves ces when he doesn''t like the area anymore.


    "So, even for me, it''s nearly impossible to meet him. For an outsider, he will find you, not the other way around.


    "It''s true that I can help you meet him, but you need to pay a hefty price. And it''s impossible for this International Mission to pay for that." Bernard declined with an exnation.


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding. "Treat it as if I never ask anything then."


    "Alright. Anyway, let''s eat." They reached the dining room as Bernard pushed open the doors, revealing a long dining table that was able to hold at least thirty people.


    There was various food on the table as a blonde-haired woman came in from another door bringing a hot pot. She had long blonde hair with the same hairstyle as Maya.


    It was clear who she was with the apron she wore alone.


    "Ah, wee, wee." She made a gentle smile as she put down the pot on the table. "I just finished everything. Let me bring everything out first. Please sit down."


    She hurriedly returned to the kitchen and brought a few more tes.


    Meanwhile, Bernard showed them their seats.


    Before her mother returned, Maya moved closer to Bernard and whispered, ''Why did you be serious earlier? And also, he''s nning to have that Simtion Room for two.''


    ''Come on. You should know that he hates that kind of joke. There''s no way I''m going to do that. I have a conscience.'' Bernard replied before showing a smug smile.


    "��" Maya was staring at him in shock as if she didn''t know Bernard anymore.


    "Why are you looking at me like I''m a fool?" Bernard rolled his eyes. He ended up turning to Theo and said, "Anyway, do you want to train in the Simtion Room?"


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Anything that can make me stronger faster."


    "Well, we created this Simtion Room three years ago. And there were so many tests that needed to be done, so we didn''t have time to mass-produce them.


    "For now, we only have a total of 50 Simtion Rooms divided into three categories: Awareness, Breathing and Control, and Technique.


    "These three are different. The Awareness Simtion Room will be a simtion of battle. It''s like many monsters will sneak around you to kill you. This will improve your reaction speed. And depending on your focus, you will be able to improve your Awareness.


    "Then, Breathing and Control�� In this room, we manage to stimte the Magic Power and make you visualize that with naked eyes. This way, you will understand a bit more about Magic Power. Though, there are still many errors in this one because it''s hard to visualize the Magic Power through the machine.


    "Last but not least, the Technique�� This is just a simtion battle where you can use techniques. The room will be able to replicate your movements, allowing you to watch the rey in real time to see what kind of improvement is needed.


    "Of course, if you''re going to enter one of these rooms, you need to give your consent that we will get the record of your training for more data to improve the Simtion Room. If you think this is alright, which room do you want to use?"


    "Awareness," Theo answered without hesitation. This answer also reflected his consent.


    He then nced at Agata.


    "I will use Breathing and Control."


    "Well, since you''re fine to be recorded, I will allow you to use it. However, each training session won''t be more than eight hours each day for safety purposes. And how long you can use these rooms will depend on your contribution. Maya will assess you in this regard. Sounds good to you?"


    "Yes. I agree." Theo nodded after thinking for a moment.


    "Great�� We have a deal."

 Chapter 744 – Theo’s Plan

    <h4>Chapter 744 - Theo��s n</h4>


    After that small discussion, they proceeded to eat. It was a simple and warm dinner as no one talked about business afterward.


    In the end, the maids guided Theo and Agata to their rooms. For safety purposes, he asked for Agata''s room to be next to him.


    This would allow him to move immediately as soon as Ava heard something suspicious.


    During that time, he justid down on his bed and put off the reviewing process tomorrow.


    When he was there, Ava was jumping around the room.


    "What are you doing, Ava?" Theo asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    Ava stopped for a moment and opened her mouth. "I''m just checking if there''s a camera or not. From the looks of it, there''s no microphone that transmits our voice, but I''m not very sure about the camera. I should act normal while talking to you."


    "Hmm��" Theo fell silent for a moment. Ava seemed to be working hard on her own part, so he couldn''t help but smile. "Thanks. Since you talk to me, that means our voice is not transmitted anywhere, right?"


    "Yes. Even if there''s a headset, I should be able to hear them as long as they''re in this house." Ava nodded.


    "Well, this is the price you need to pay. The more dangerous you are, the more surveince they will put on you. Though, I am still wondering whether he''s cing a camera in this ce." Theo shrugged.


    "We can''t let our guard down."


    "I''m not, Ava. Sometimes, you just need to talk casually to see other reactions." Theo sighed.


    "Then, it''s fine." Ava nodded and looked at Theo. "Actually I have a question."


    "What is it?"


    "Are you not afraid that those people wille after you? They should have realized that we''re going here, right?"


    "Yes and no. If they still have their rational mind, they won''te to this ce."


    "Why?"


    "First of all, the country will be taking a closer look when there''s a huge influx of Mythical Rank Experts, especially if theye from the same influence.


    "So, if they want to enter this ce, they need to do it one at a time. This way, they will need a few months to do so. That''s also why I didn''t go with the Wind Emperor immediately and built up everything within three months.


    "This way, they needed to retreat one at a time too, so it will take twice the time if they want to chase us to this ce. By that time, we would have gone back to Italy."


    "I see." Ava nodded in understanding. "What if they lose their rationality? What will they do?"


    "They''re going to retreat together even if it means antagonizing with Russia as a whole. After all, this is an act of aggression. Russia will prosecute their countries for doing so and thetter will abandon them.


    "With the country abandoning you, you won''t have any more standing in that particr country.


    "After that, they will surelye to me without thinking since they have nothing to lose. The US will also put some traps for some counterattacks, considering I''m in this country.


    "For a big country like this, it''s easy for them to find the reason for their act of aggression.


    "On the one hand, those people have be rogues since their influence is not recognized anymore. On the other hand, we are in the hands of one of the biggestpanies in the US.


    "It''s easy for the US to pick a side even without any bribe. Besides, if I die, Sir Leonardo will make a fuss about it and the US will take a huge blow for this blunder. So, there''s no way it''s gonna happen."


    After listening to his exnation, Ava let out a sigh of relief. "So, we''ll be fine when we''re in the US��"


    "Essentially. Well, there''s a scenario where they go to this ce through the other side, but it will take time for them to reach this ce from Russia. If theye while conserving their energy, they will be toote. If they rush to this ce, they will be too exhausted to even fight and end up getting butchered by the country''s defense force."


    "Are you nning to hop to this country after this? I mean, the training session should have ended, right? There''s nothing that holds you back from moving anymore." Ava asked.


    "That''s the n. But I''m going to confuse them once more." Theo thought for a moment. "Do you remember what story I used to defeat the Safulli Group?"


    Ava recalled it and opened her mouth. "Boris hid Agata from you, so you were trying to strike them."


    "Yeah. Although I sound like a bad guy, if I stay in Italy for a moment, they will think Boris doesn''t hide Agata anymore and give his blessing to our rtionship.


    "This way, many will think Agata has sessfully seduced me and chained me down in Italy. So, I won''t be leaving for another country as they''re not necessary anymore. In other words, I''m tied down to the War God Family now."


    "I see. So, the moment they aim at you in Italy, you''re going to leave for another country. Are you going to let them attack you first to make it look more real?"


    "Yes. At that time, I will flee to the US and ept Maya''s offer. With this, they will be confused even more as I might just fool them again and actually go to Russia.


    "And with all the expenses to do all these failed expeditions, they won''t have enough to chase me again to the US or Russia. In other words, they will give up on this mission." Theo finished the exnation with a smile. "This is also the reason why I visited Russia first. It''s to camouge my real intention, confusing them between these two countries."


    "I see. Will Agata follow you here?"


    "I''m not very sure. She''d love to follow me, but she has her family there. At the same time, the contract will only bind me, not her, so if shees with me, she will be bound by a contract too. Contracting the most beautiful womanes with a huge price, you know.


    "So, Agata needs to think this carefully, and I believe she''s put some thoughts�� I will just wait for her response at that time."

 Chapter 745 – Cubicar

    <h4>Chapter 745 - Cubicar</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo heard someone knocking on the door.


    He opened the door with Ava on his shoulder, finding Agata and a maid waiting outside.


    "Sir Theodore, Madam Ste wishes to meet you in the garden. I''ve been informed that it''s about the Cubicar," The maid politely said.


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. Lead the way."


    "This way." She led Theo and Agata to the garden.


    Despite having a huge mansion to live in, there weren''t many people inside taking care of it.


    Theo simply looked around to find something interesting inside the mansion, only to find nothing in it.


    Eventually, they reached the garden where he found a long twenty feet Cubicar in front of them.


    The blonde-haired woman was staring at the Cubicar for a moment until Theo and Agata arrived.


    "Good morning." She waved her hand with a smile on her face.


    "Good morning." Theo and Agata politely replied.


    "I''m calling you here so that you can check this out." She pointed at the Cubicar.


    "It''s quite long��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yes. However, it''s a very useful one." She opened the door for them and came inside. "Come in."


    Theo and Agata exchanged looks and entered the Cubicar.


    Right next to the door, he found a small room. It wasn''t that big, but he clearly knew what it was.


    When she saw Theo staring at the room, she smirked. "That little girl can''t stand to camp outside. She always said, ''I''m earning money to make my life not miserable. If I can''t even use the money I made for whatever I want, then there''s no point.''


    "And she always wanted to have a toilet. She didn''t mind washing her body and clothes outside as long as she had a toilet inside."


    "Well, I can understand that." Theo nodded in understanding. His gaze then moved to the opposite side.


    At the end of the Cubicar, he found a bunk bed for two people.


    "Since one of you will always need to either drive the Cubicar or in the lookout during the night, we only prepare a single bunk bed."


    Next to the bed was a big wardrobe, but he found no handle on it, making him perplexed. He pointed at the wardrobe and asked, "Is that using a ma?"


    "Ah, that one. It''s not a wardrobe. It''s the storage for Maya''s full body armor. I''ll show it to youter." She pointed at the wardrobe next to it. "Well, the one next to it is the wardrobe. I mean, you don''t mind sharing a wardrobe, right? You''re already an adult and shouldn''t take advantage of other people''s underwear, right?"


    "Who do you think I am?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Haha." She chuckled. Even with Agata beside him, he never did anything, so she was just teasing him. "Anyway, moving on."


    She pointed at another wardrobe but made of metal instead of wood like the one for clothes. "This one is��"


    She walked there and opened it to show Theo and Agata what was inside.


    Theo had expected it, but he was still shocked when he saw all kinds of bullets and magazines inside.


    "Maya''s ammunition. Well, there are two types of magazines here. It''s raw magazines and magic magazines. Thetter can be turned into another bracelet or a ring."


    "Well, there are too many of them. Is she not going to hold back a bit?"


    "Do you think this is enough? She is also making her own bullet during thebat. She''s a person who never thinks it''s enough. Hmm�� The cost of all these ammunitions alone�� probably around a hundred million or more? Well, she''s also wearing all sorts of bracelets outside the ones here.


    "There is also her body armor. So, the total cost of her ammunition alone is around two hundred million Zils. For one expedition, that is. Then, the armor�� It costs around seven billion or something. That''s only for a Supreme Rank Armor.


    "This Cubicar is around six billion because of the expensive cost for shield materials to protect the Cubicar.


    "You should know that the majority of people could only go to the other side after they''re 17 years old, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Before that, she made herpany and told me that she''s going to make money to create something like this so she won''t suffer when going to the other side.


    "Of course, the people around her called her arrogant, but she simply brushed it off, telling them it was all her efforts and if they didn''t like her, they could cry to their daddy for something like this. Iughed when I heard that." She chuckled.


    Theo fell silent. He knew that even though she was arrogant, everything she had came from her own effort. So, she truly had the right to unt her wealth.


    "Well, is there any reason for you to tell me something this personal?" Theo nced at Ste while furrowing his eyebrows.


    Ste made a sweet smile as she asked back, "What do you think?"


    Theo let out a long sigh while scratching the back of his head. "I''m not this kind of person, you know."


    "I know." Ste nodded in agreement. "But you know�� Maya''s talent in businesses and fighting far surpasses her father and grandfather. So, I have no doubt that she will be a powerful Mythical Rank Expert in the future while creating a business empire.


    "That''s why I''m troubled with how high her standard is. Hence, Bernard and I have agreed. We don''t mind having another daughter-inw as long as it means she won''t be alone in the future." Ste gave a thumbs up.


    Theo rolled his eyes and said, "I respectfully decline. Too busy to do that."


    "Haha. Well, I just told you. What you will do is not in my control." Ste waved her hand and pointed at thest two things inside. "Anyway, this is the water tank. It''s separated into two, for drinking and the toilet. Just don''t forget to refill the water once in a while and Maya will do the rest.


    "Thest one is the driver seat along with a small radar system to check your surroundings along with a ce for storage. It''s a bit cramped, but I think it''s stillfortable."


    "Yeah. It will take time to get used to this, but I guess it will be morefortable than sleeping outside." Theo nodded.


    "So, do you want to see her armor?"

 Chapter 746 – Stella

    <h4>Chapter 746 - Ste</h4>


    They went outside the Cubicar, where Ste opened the big storage for Maya''s armor.


    The armor consisted of boots that reached as far as one''s thigh. The boots seemed to contain many things as they looked so thick and heavy. Theo could even find a few holes where bullets could be released.


    The hands were simr. It reached the upper arms but wasn''t connected to the shoulders. The hand was a bit thinner than the boots, and there were no robotic fingers, meaning Maya would directly touch her own weapon.


    As for the headgear, it wasn''t a helmet. It was a circle with sses in front of it. From one nce, this one should be attached to the head that allowed Maya to see the data through the sses.


    There was one lumbar support, connecting all these pieces, but it was only from the back. There was nothing on the front side.


    "This is her armor. Well, this is in the sleep mode. If it''s in the fight mode, all these thick parts are going to retract inside. It''s nanotechnology like the one we use in the weapon.


    "Well, we can''t really keep them inside for too long because the material inside ispressed to the very limit. So, this is just to give some air and keep them cool."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "This thing couldn''t be used in the Grand Gaia, which is a shame."


    "Haha, she would dominate the entirepetition."


    "Well, this is also her ability, considering she earns this herself." Ste shrugged.


    "I''m a bit curious. This should be heavy, right? And why can''t you make them connected to each other like full body armor."


    "Nope. Maya had tested it herself. It put too much restriction on the movement. In the past, when we first discovered the other side, humanity lost due to their inability to keep up with the monsters'' speed as their reaction time was not enough.


    "We could obliterate them with nuclear power, but it would devastate the entire ce. A country once used a nuclear weapon and got the attention of three World ss Monsters that sent it back to this side. But this is not relevant.


    "Anyway, what we needed to cope with that situation was a tool that could move swiftly while having enough firepower to suppress the enemy. So, Maya made this.


    "Instead of the connection, she bears the weight of her equipment herself and uses her own limbs to be that very connection. It''s hard to move at first, but once you get used to it, you should be able to fight with it.


    "She has taken out all the unnecessary parts and turned it like this. Well, it''s not like she''s going to use this thing easily because the Magic Power and ammunition consumption are quite high.


    "The only time she uses this armor will probably be when she''s fighting with her life on the line," Ste exined with a nonchnt expression.


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding. "I''ve learned a lot. Thank you."


    "By the way, can you drive the Cubicar?"


    "No," Theo answered without hesitation and nced at Agata.


    "I do. I learned it when I was with the Church," Agata answered with a calm expression.


    "Since there are still two days before you go, do you want me to teach you how to drive this thing?"


    "Is there any license to drive it?"


    "On the road? Yes. On the other side, who is going to maintain that rule anyway." She shrugged.


    "I see. In that case, please." Theo agreed. "I mean, my clone can drive the Cubicarter, so that''s a good way to rest."


    "Hmm�� That''s a good idea." Ste thought for a moment. "Alright. Let''s teach you how to drive this Cubicar. After that, I''m going to pack up Maya''s stuff here and prepare other stuff."


    "You''re the one doing the preparation?" Theo widened his eyes, surprised.


    "Yes. Who will do it if it''s not me?" Ste tilted her head in confusion. "Well, there''s a servant, but I don''t trust them that much since there is a lot of expensive stuff here.


    "Bernard is in hispany while Maya is finishing all the jobs for the next three months. She''s too busy to do stuff like this. So, I''m the only one who can do it."


    "Well, I''m surprised. Aren''t you a Mythical Rank Expert? And it doesn''t seem like Sir Bernard or Maya has time at home." Theo exined his doubt.


    "Oh. That''s easy. I''m not managing the business, so I can do some chores. Other than that, I use that time to train myself. So, I''m also busy.


    "As for the time we spend together�� You can say we have our own household rules that force us to be together, whether to eat, rx, or whatever. That is enough to maintain the household.


    "It''s not like I''m going to leave Bernard just for the sake of alimony. So, yeah�� This way, we''re running the family. I can say we''re quite harmonious. Though, I can simply crash to theirpany if they can''t even spend time with family until they''re stressed enough to go home.


    "It''s not like they have the power to fight me since I''m stronger." Ste smirked. She didn''t mind exining this to Theo for two reasons. She had indirectly said earlier that Theo was one of the candidates for Maya''s husband, though it was only a one-sided argument.


    As for the other reason, she pitied his family situation a bit. So, she just wanted to tell him that not all families were bad. It depended on who maintained it.


    "I see. Please teach me how to drive a Cubicar." Theo bowed his head slightly.


    "Sure." Ste smiled.


    After that, they went back to the Cubicar as Ste started teaching him how to drive. At the same time, Agata observed them, making sure she knew the function.


    Two days went by so quickly.


    Finally, the day of the departure had arrived.


    Theo and Agata were standing next to Maya, whose face looked tired after all that work.


    Ste and Bernard spent some time until they left the mansion.

 Chapter 747 – Journey

    <h4>Chapter 747 - Journey</h4>


    Maya was driving the Cubicar on the street, heading to the nearest teleportation site.


    On the way, Theo took another look at her face and said, "You should take some rest after we''re on the other side."


    "Then, who''s going to drive?" Maya frowned and asked back.


    "I just learned it yesterday. In t terrain, I shouldn''t have a problem. There''s also my Telekinesis." Theo then pointed at Agata. "She can drive too."


    "Yeah. I learned it when I was with the church." Agata nodded with a calm expression.


    It was clear that Theo and Agata didn''t have much experience driving the Cubicar. But at the same time, she couldn''t really drive with this stress and sleepiness.


    She pondered for a moment and said, "I will take up on your offer then. If something happens, just wake me upter."


    "Sure."


    After that, Maya continued driving. Since she was a bit sleepy, she chose to engage in a conversation to brush away her sleepiness.


    "By the way, it was hard to get your visa, you know. They were afraid that you were going to do something big. At the same time, they didn''t believe me because of the Wind Emperor''s visit," said Maya with a poker face as if she didn''t mean it.


    "I know." Theo nodded in understanding. There was no way Theo didn''t know his own worth after what he had done so far.


    "Well, that''s good. So, do you have any change of n after seeing my n?" She asked.


    Theo nced at Agata.


    "There''s one question and one thing that I want to add." Agata raised her hand.


    "Sure. Tell me."


    "How many attacks can this Cubicar take?"


    "Hmm. I''m not very sure." She thought for a moment. "The longer sides have three shields and the short sides have one shield. Each shield can be repaired automatically within an hour.


    "But if pushes to shove��" She grabbed a small cable and pulled it, revealing a bracelet they could wear. "We can inject our Magic Power into this and repair it manually. It requires a substantial amount of Magic Power, but it shouldn''t be a problem for a few times."


    "Then, how about going to a more dangerous road like having more monsters? If we carefully choose the terrain, the clone can drive the Cubicar while we''re leveling up." Agata asked.


    "That''s also an option. But I don''t know your exact strength and fighting style, so it''s hard for me to consider that unless you request it." Maya shook her head. "Also, even if we stop the Cubicar and hide it somewhere, there''s a potential of them being stolen or getting attacked.


    "I don''t know if you are aware of this, but there are mercenaries who like to rob us when we''re driving this. Of course, they''re just rogue viins who like to get something without effort.


    "If this Cubicar gets stolen or attacked, it won''t end that easily like a tent. So, there should be one of us looking over the Cubicar, and the rest shouldn''t go too far.


    "Hence, if Theo will go all the way to send his clone to protect it, then sure, I can change the course to a more dangerous one." Maya nced at Theo instead of Agata.


    However, Agata continued, "In that case, I already have a n. Of course, I''ve adjusted it with the Cubicar''s condition."


    "Hmm��" Maya still didn''t believe in Agata. Instead of blindly trusting her words, Maya looked at Theo and asked, "What''s your thought?"


    "She has learned from Sir Leonardo and me for a year," Theo stated.


    With this kind of information, Maya turned to Agata, "Alright. Let me get some sleep first, and I will update the course with Cubicar''s data. There shouldn''t be any problem in maintaining the original course for a few hours, right?"


    "Yes." Agata nodded. She wasn''t offended when Maya doubted her. In fact, she treated it as a learning experience.


    Not many people would believe her words easily, considering there was Theo beside her. At the same time, Theo must have experienced something like this in Thernd, she thought.


    Alea and the others were more credible than Theo as they had shown their talents since the very start, while Theo was a dark horse without any information that could back up his talent. That was why Theo set up his identity like this.


    They soon arrived at the Teleportation Circle as Maya immediately rose from her seat, allowing Theo to drive the Cubicar to check his driving skill.


    His first task was to bring them to the west gate, where they would be checked before leaving like any other city.


    As soon as they arrived there, Maya presented the document along with their ID Cards.


    When the guard saw Maya, Theo, and Agata''s names in one group, his eyes immediately looked at the Cubicar before rushing to finish the registration.


    Little did she know, there was a group of people who were staring at Maya''splexion and thought the guard actually panicked because Maya was in a bad mood because of her condition.


    However, they didn''t make a move first and allowed Maya to get out.


    After checking Theo''s driving skills for a few more minutes, she finally thought it was fine to leave everything to them.


    "Anyway, let me take a nap first. It should be enough to refresh my mind." She sighed and walked to the bed.


    "Onest thing." Theo turned to her, who was taking off her shoes.


    "What is it?"


    "Do you want to be woken up if we''re attacked?"


    "I think I shouldn''t ask this, but who will attack us again? Monsters?"


    Agata pointed at the back with a nonchnt face. "Six Hero Rank Experts."


    She had the strongest Awareness in terms of detection range, so her direction was pretty urate.


    "For fuck sake. Did they not see the logo of my Starry Group outside? They should have seen me at the gate if they''re aiming at us this early." Maya clicked her tongue.


    "I think because they saw you having that kind of face that they''re trying to attack you." Theo shrugged.


    "Tsk. I will abstain then. You''re free to kill them if they attack us." Maya sighed. "I don''t think I will be able to make a rational judgment with this condition, so it''s better if I sleep."


    "Alright��" Theo nodded.

 Chapter 748 – Agata’s Power

    <h4>Chapter 748 - Agata��s Power</h4>


    As soon as Maya fell asleep, Theo looked at Agata and asked, "Who wants to handle them? I don''t think they''re that strong, but we need to be careful."


    "I''ll go." Agata nodded. "I would like to test my strength first. After all, this is the first time I fight another person. A bit tired of fighting monsters, you see."


    Theo chuckled and nodded. "Alright. I will be watching from afar while my clone drives this Cubicar. We are in the tnd right now, so it''s going to be hard for you."


    "Don''t worry. I''m not that easy to defeat."


    "Anyway, wait for a few more minutes, so there is a bit of distance to the city," Theo added.


    Agata nodded and waited for five minutes. After that, she waved her hand and opened the door as she jumped off the Cubicar.


    Theo also came out and watched over her on top of the Cubicar, giving the control to his clone.


    Before they made contact, Agata had already released her pink smoke.


    They were perplexed when they saw a pink-haired girl in their way.


    Agata observed them and noticed that they consisted of two fighters, one knight, one healer, one summoner, and one ranger. She stated, "For what reason do you follow us?"


    "What do you mean? We just happen to have the same direction. But since you''reing out, are you nning to entertain us?" One of them said with vulgar eyes, seizing Agata from top to bottom.


    Even though she had been using her Mimicry this whole time, she was still beautiful.


    "Cut the bullsh*t." Agata snorted and nced at them. "If you''re not going to leave, then you can be buried here forever."


    "Heh, I like a strong-headed woman. I love to break them." The knight smirked and stepped forward. He immediately rushed toward Agata while shouting, "You''re just a Hero Rank Expert like us. You''ll regret attacking us."


    "Regret?" Agata lifted her hand as the grass in the surroundings rose from the ground as if they experienced a super growth. They moved toward the knight and circled around his hands, feet, and body, restraining him.


    Suddenly, the two fighters appeared next to him and cut the grass easily, freeing the knight. They then made their way toward Agata.


    The summoner immediately called three creatures to cover them. They were a wolf, a bird, and a stone golem.


    The archer also released two arrows to suppress her.


    Agata looked at the arrows and lifted her hand. She summoned two trees and let the arrows hit them instead.


    "Be careful. She can control nts." The knight shouted.


    The trees that Agata made suddenly released their roots from the ground.


    They were like a whip that shattered the ground and acted like a whip, pping the bird down.


    "Go!"


    The bird became the sacrifice to stop Agata from using her technique to attack them. And the two fighters immediately arrived in front of the trees and cut them down.


    After that, the knight finally reached Agata with a grin. "Beauty. I''m here."


    He mmed his shield on Agata''s body, thinking she would start bing weak after that painful hit.


    However, no one realized that everything she had done until now was none other than a diversion. She simply wanted them to look away from her, even for a second.


    And the moment the shield hit her, Agata''s body broke apart, turning into a cloud of smoke that was soon dispersed by a small gale from the swinging shield.


    "What?!" The knight, who realized Agata was nothing but an illusion, was in deep shock as he tried to find Agata''s whereabouts.


    It was at this time, Agata appeared. Her appearance stunned them because she was standing behind their healer with her scythe moving down to cut him.


    "Ar��!" The knight wanted to call hisrade''s name, but he was already split by Agata.


    "What happened?"


    "Since when did she arrive there?"


    There was confusion among them as they never realized Agata had moved from her position.


    "Andre!" The fighter called the summoner''s name, trying to make him aware that Agata was aiming at him.


    The ranger was the first to react and turned around, drawing his bow. He tried to shoot Agata down.


    Agata, running toward the summoner, noticed his presence and leaped into the air, avoiding the arrows.


    However, this move allowed the wolf and golem to reach her position.


    "You should put a leash on your dog." Agata shook her head and formed a small tform with her pink smoke. She stepped on it to avoid the dog as the fur expanded like the grass from earlier, turning it into a cor.


    "It''s not a dog. It''s a wolf!" The summoner gritted his teeth, getting angry because she didn''t identify his summoned creature correctly.


    "I don''t care." Agata snapped her fingers, and the cor tightened to the point the wolf''s neck was crushed, killing it.


    "What?! How dare you kill my wolf! When I capture you, I''ll make you pay for it!" The summoner gritted his teeth.


    However, the cor expanded and formed a connection to Agata''s hand as if it was attached to a rope. Agata then waved her hand and flung it toward the summoner.


    "Then take him."


    "No!" The summoner caught the wolf, whose head almost flew into the air.


    But Agata''s power didn''t stop there. The cor now expanded to another form. And that form was none other than a spike that pierced the summoner''s neck.


    "At least, you can meet your maker with your dog." Agata snorted andnded on the ground with a cool and aloof expression, ignoring the crumbling stone golem.


    She looked at them, showing that she could easily kill the two of them. "What''s wrong? Where is your pride again?"


    "You bitch!" The knight gritted his teeth and turned back.


    Agata didn''t even bother with his anger as she raised her hand and clutched it.


    The moment the knight moved through the gap between the trees, the trunks they cut earlier immediately expanded to the side, knocking him down.


    "Gah!"


    Seeing the knight was still alive, one of the fighters immediately helped him while the other tried to gather her attention.


    The ranger also released another arrow to help the knight.


    Agata only smiled as she had finished warming up.

 Chapter 749 – Agata’s Progress

    <h4>Chapter 749 - Agata��s Progress</h4>


    Seeing the fighter rushing, Agata raised her left hand, forming a tree to the left to block the view of the archer.


    She had been ying with her this whole time, so the archer didn''t care about his condition anymore.


    He pulled his bow with his arrow glowing brightly and shot at the tree.


    The arrow ruptured the tree and the arrow made its way toward Agata.


    Surprised by the power of the arrow, Agata formed a scythe on her hand and struck the arrow directly, trying to stop it.


    Meanwhile, the fighters had closed their distance and reached Agata.


    "Screw this." The fighter gritted his teeth as he only wanted to kill Agata because of what she had done to two of his friends.


    He nned to split her in half using this chance.


    Agata widened her eyes as if she was shocked seeing her body cut in half.


    The fighter made a smile as he had avenged his two friends, but everything soon changed when Agata''s body turned into pink smoke like earlier.


    "What?!" The fighter''s face went pale as he realized what had happened this whole time. He immediately turned around and saw Agata on top of the fighter and the knight, cutting them with her scythe.


    "No! The girl is only an illusion." The fighter shouted albeit the only one who could react was the ranger.


    And seeing all hisrades die, fear had been creeping in his heart. He turned around and ran as fast as possible.


    "No. I don''t want to die!" The ranger ran away.


    Agata looked at her with a calm expression while the fighter gritted his teeth, cursing his teammate, who couldn''t even help in this situation.


    But the shock had yet to end.


    When the ranger ran, he suddenly hit something like that of ss and bounced back, falling on his butt.


    "What��" He raised his vision and saw a crack in the air.


    Although he didn''t want to admit it, his heart knew it was a kind of illusion. Not thinking of any consequence, the archer hit the crack as hard as possible.


    ng.


    The sound of ss shattering filled his ears as a box that lookedpletely like the outside soon crumbled, revealing the real world.


    Unfortunately for him, a wave of grass grew and pierced his heart.


    Due to him striking the air, he couldn''t block this sharp grass that was enhanced by Agata''s Sense of Touch.


    "Gah." The archer spat a mouthful of blood with unwillingness reflected on his eyes. "No��"


    His sound became weaker and weaker before he eventually dropped to the ground, dying.


    Meanwhile, the fighter found Agata''s real body. He was terrified because he saw Agata sitting on top of a chair made of her pink smoke, watching them like they were in the movie.


    "Ha�� Ha�� Ha��" The fighter broke in that instant as he dropped to his knees and started letting out a hollowugh.


    It was at this time, Theo''s Magic Bullets fell on top of him, creating numerous holes in his body.


    As for the trees, grasses, and other illusions that Agata used�� they were gone together with her Uer Dimension.


    Theo, who had been watching her this whole time, couldn''t help but facepalm, recalling the exnation of her skill.


    Skill: Uer Dimension (A)


    Effect: Create a small dimensional illusion where the user will be in control.


    ''They were not aware they were inside a dimension this whole time. Well, I guess I should say as one would expect from an A Rank Skill. The power was extraordinary.


    ''Although I believed a Supreme Rank Expert would have realized they were inside this dimension, if Agata practiced more of her breathing, she would be able to camouge this dimension, treating it like a real one.


    ''I felt like I could do much more with this kind of dimensional skill. But well, she used only the nts and trees to make them think she was a nt user, directing them not to think about the possibility that this was just an illusion.


    ''By using this misdirection, she could kill three of them by appearing right behind them. Of course, they could destroy the dimension if they attacked outside, but Agata managed to make them focus on her.


    ''With that kind of distance and skill, she could shrink the battlefield, stopping them from spreading out. This way, her trap waspleted.


    ''Well, if I fought her, I would have used my clone and spread it to the sides or the sky. It should shatter her power. At the same time, the illusion wouldn''t work on me since I could see the skill''s exnation.


    ''Still, what a scary woman she has be�� I don''t feel like offending her anymore�� No, no. I shouldn''t make her angry.'' Theo sighed while scratching the back of his head. "I should take pride in raising her to this level, I guess?"


    Ava, who was sitting next to him, raised her foot as if she agreed with Theo. "Kyu!"


    After confirming they were dead, Agata immediately headed back to the Cubicar that had slowed down because of the fight.


    She saw Theo sitting on the roof of the Cubicar while watching her fighting skill.


    "What do you think?" Agata asked.


    "Superb." Theo gave a thumbs up. "To think you have be this strong."


    "Well, I didn''t have many cards in a nd like this. Also, I used too much Magic Power utilizing this technique�� If only we were fighting inside the forest, I could deal with them quicker."


    "No, no. That was enough."


    "I should do more, or you will leave me behind." Agata sighed. "I have seen the video on the Sk of you defeating Alea and Ana in session. And it was only with a clone. I bet you could destroy me the same way."


    "Well��" Theo looked away. He couldn''t lie, so he needed to say ''Yes,'' at the same time, if he didn''t say anything, she would take his silence as ''Yes.''


    Theo ended up smiling and said, "Anyway, let''s return to the Cubicar�� We need to speed up."

 Chapter 750 – Adjusting The Course

    <h4>Chapter 750 - Adjusting The Course</h4>


    They went back inside the Cubicar. Agata sighed, "I''m still not good. The enemies were not that strong. Their strength was probably close to level 400 but hadn''t surpassed that level, yet it took so much Magic Power to deal with them. If they were close to level 500, I would be in trouble."


    "You said that knowing full well how hard it was to fight multiple people at once, right?"


    "��" Agata fell silent. It was clear she knew about it, but she didn''t admit it because of the feeling of wanting to be stronger.


    Theo said, "Even I would have trouble defeating a group of six with the same strength unless I have my clone and Ava here. After all, I need to maintain my view in all directions while maintaining the pace of each person."


    Agata only looked down while Theo continued driving for another two hours before they reached a small forest.


    Agata took over and used the path rmended by the radar in the Cubicar.


    They had also taken care of the monsters nearby. Theo, his clone, Agata, and Ava were taking turns in eliminating them, making sure no monster was close enough to attack the Cubicar.


    Agata and Theo also maintained their Awareness because they couldn''t rely on the radar inside the Cubicar all the time.


    After a long six hours, Maya finally woke up from her sleep.


    "Mhm." She let out a moan while stretching her hands upward.


    Theo and Agata ignored her for a moment as Maya rose from the bed as if no one was there.


    Maya nced at them and asked with sleepy eyes. "Hmm, How long did I sleep?"


    "Around six hours," answered Theo while staring at the road.


    "I see. I guess that''s fine." Maya stretched her body to warm it up before taking her time to fix her hair. She asked, "Did anything happen when I was sleeping?"


    "Only those six guys. The rest were just normal monsters trying to attack us." This time, Theo nced at her face, noticing herplexion had gotten better.


    "I see. Thanks." Maya nodded and walked to the driver''s seat before tapping the screen a few times. There, she managed to check the map. "By the way, this is not a GPS. It''s just the system calcting our travel ording to the pre-installed map."


    "We know."


    "Should I take over?"


    "Nah, you should have a drink first and update our course." Theo shook his head as Agata had given her a cup of water.


    "Thanks." Maya took the cup while looking at the device installed inside the Cubicar.


    There were two screens near them. The first screen was the one next to the driver''s seat that showed the movement of monsters. It was their radar and map.


    The second screen was the one that maintained everything inside the room, from lightning to temperature.


    So, Maya typed a few things to show the map to them. After that, she asked, "Which path do you want to go?"


    Agata took another look at the map before pointing to the route she had prepared.


    "I''m nning to use this route. There are numerous monsters in this area, and from the information, this ce is filled with level 470-480 monsters."


    "But you should consider this Cubicar. I''m afraid the monsters will attack the Cubicar instead of us. And when that happens, we''ve failed the mission." Maya shook her head.


    "Yes. That''s why I''m nning to go through here." She pointed at a certain part and said, "The other side is a cliff. So, we don''t need to worry about that side and focus on our front, behind, and right."


    "Hmm." Maya frowned. "The terrain is a bit too hard. It''s true that there''s a path in this area, but it''s too narrow. My Cubicar won''t be able to cross that path. I mean, there''s no path at the bottom of the cliff, so we need to go up a bit.


    "This way, not many monsters can climb to our Cubicar that easily. However, that path is too narrow." Maya frowned. "Well, I think I can use the turbo mode, but only I can control the Cubicar. So, the rest of you need to protect the Cubicar. But��"


    "Is there a problem?"


    "I can''t hunt any monsters. In other words, my level will be stuck." She sighed. "Come on. I''m here to work with you guys, not to be your servants."


    "In that case, when we reach Arkahan Volcano, we can prioritize you for a day or two. We''re using that route for only a few hours. Although there are many monsters, it can''t bepared to the Arkahan Volcano." Theo suddenly opened his mouth.


    His statement was enough to make Maya agree. "Alright. In that case, the path will be like this."


    She adjusted the course and said, "To be honest, there are not many ces you can take advantage of, so I guess we will only use this cliff on the second day. We will arrive on the third night, so we will start hunting around the Arkahan Volcano on the fourth day.


    "Arkahan Volcano is the home for tens of thousands of monsters. There are constant conflicts in this area, so no need to hold back when fighting in this area." Maya exined while opening the map of Arkahan Volcano.


    "We wille from the west of the volcano and make our way toward the south. Because we need to clean the monsters up, I believe we need around a week just to move around.


    "And the Cubicar wouldn''t move that much during this time. So, we can focus on our hunt. When we reach the southern area, we will hide the Cubicar somewhere and head to the Arkahan Volcano to get our objective.


    "After that, we will make our way to the east and leave this area. How''s that?" Maya asked.


    "Hmm��" Agata frowned andmented, "The next destination is northeast Arkahan Volcano. I guess leaving from the east is good."


    "Great. Do you have any opinion?" Maya asked Theo''s opinion.


    "I only have one thing to say. If you see the chance to kill a monster, you''ll end it in an instant. If you don''t see a chance, then don''t shoot. Make sure you know our location and movement too." Theo looked back. "Don''t slow us down."


    "Heh��" Maya smirked, feeling challenged.

 Chapter 751 – Turbo Mode

    <h4>Chapter 751 - Turbo Mode</h4>


    A few hourster.


    It was the first night they ever camped on the other side with a Cubicar. Theo had indeed used the Cubicar back in Thernd when following Alea in a dragon subjugation.


    However, it was with so many people, making him a bit ufortable.


    This was the first time it felt like a pic. They had a soft bed they could use in the Cubicar and didn''t need to look after many people.


    Theo just enjoyed the moment, thinking this would probably continue if he chose to join the Starry Group after dealing with all the matters left in Italy.


    The next day.


    They finally arrived at the cliff that split the forest into two.


    The cliff stretched over twenty miles, so it was a good wall to use if they didn''t want to be surrounded from all directions by monsters.


    On the foot of the cliff, Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Hmm. How do you lift this Cubicar up there?"


    Theo could see the small path on the cliff where many people used to avoid the monsters. Normally, they would climb the cliff by hand, but they had a Cubicar this time, so a convenient way wouldn''t be able to solve their problem.


    "Tell Agata to hold on," Maya said. She never held back in calling Theo''s assistant Agata, and Theo also never bothered to hide it again. Even Agata didn''t use her Mimicry Skill to cover her appearance.


    If Maya chose to exploit this opportunity, it just meant Theo wouldn''t go to the Starry Groupter. So, Theo had managed to silent her.


    After listening to what she said, Clone Theo, who was standing on top of the Cubicar, ryed the message.


    As soon as Theo gave an ''OK'' sign, Maya immediately tapped the screen a few times.


    "Turbo Mode on," Maya warned him as the screen began to change to the Cubicar''s image. She tapped the two front wheels as well as two back wheels.


    The Cubicar gradually rose to the sky.


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned, wondering what happened.


    "There are additional turbines below the Cubicar. Turbo Mode allows me to ess them�� Well, to put it simply, this Cubicar will be a helicopter for a period of time. Of course, it consumes more power than necessary, so we can''t go like this for so long.


    "Since the sun is up, we can go for three hours. That''s with all the functions on. Since I''m not fighting, I will take care of our defense here and slow down the journey to five hours. Also, you don''t mind if I watch you from the camera and the window, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded.


    "Great. In that case, you can go outside and start fighting all those monsters as soon as I reach the path." Maya waved her hand as if telling him to go.


    "Alright." Theo walked toward the door and opened it before using his Telekinesis to reach the top of the Cubicar.


    "How is it?" Agata asked.


    "It''s good. We can start." Theo gave a thumbs up as he began to look around the forest. He could spot some monsters, but most were hidden underneath the leaves.


    "Alright. Do you want to do it or should I?"


    "I will do it."


    Theo and his clone stood next to each other as they summoned the Magic Bullets with the skill as well as his Control.


    Now that he had reached Grandmaster Level Control, he could make more Magic Bullets. The real body alone ended up forming a total of a hundred Magic Bullets.


    With the addition of another one hundred Magic Bullets from his clone, Theo was ready to rain the forest with his Magic Bullets.


    "I''m going to kill a few monsters. Get ready for an attack."


    "Roger." Agata also released her pink smoke, preparing to unleash a shield if a monster prepared to attack them.


    Before she could do that, the Cubicar had finally reached the path next to the cliff.


    They heard Mayaughing before shouting, "Shield on!"


    Suddenly, the Cubicar side''s wall began to glow before forming three huge yellow-colored shields whose sole purpose was to protect the Cubicar from any attack.


    "Well��" Agata raised her eyebrows and felt she didn''t need to do anything.


    "Alright. Ava and Agata will follow me to the ground while my clone will keep standing by here." Theomanded.


    "Understood."


    "Kyu."


    Theo then released all his Magic Bullets to the forest.


    The sight of it was magnificent. When Agata looked outside, the sky turned blue for a few seconds because Magic Bullet''s trail covered her vision.


    She whistled, impressed.


    When the bullets fell to the ground, it caused multiple explosions that rmed all sorts of monsters near them.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Because Theo concentrated his bullets on five monsters, who were never expecting an attack from above, they died without being able to protect themselves.


    But the forest soon filled with roars as if they had finally considered Theo''s presence as an enemy in this ce.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Maya let out a hollowugh as she noticed the roars didn''te only from the side. There were other monstersing from the front and behind.


    "Well, it''s going to be a hard fight. I wonder if you can truly do it�� There should be hundreds of monsters there. Show me your power." Maya smirked.


    Ava pointed at their front first before turning to the left and right. She turned around to see the cliff wall but ended up shaking her head as if knowing the monsters behind the cliff wouldn''t bother to show up.


    "Alright. We''ll deal with the monsters ording to Ava''s instruction." Theo smiled.


    "There''s no need to hold back."


    "Understood."


    "Kyu."


    The trio finally jumped off the cliff as their Awareness and ears picked up several monsters running toward them.


    Theo softened their fall with his Telekinesis as Agata bent her knees down in the air. The moment theynded on the ground, her smoke spread through the ground and turned into big spikes that pierced the monsters from below.


    "Let''s go."

 Chapter 752 – Almost Perfect Coordination

    <h4>Chapter 752 - Almost Perfect Coordination</h4>


    Some monsters somehow dodged Agata''s spikes and slipped past through her defense.


    Theo and Ava immediately stepped forward to shield her. In fact, this was the first time they fought together since thest training, so Theo wanted to use this asion to push Agata to the limit.


    Ava raised her foot and pointed at one of the monsters.


    "Kyu!"


    A bolt of lightning flew out of her foot and flew straight to the monster in front of her.


    The monster saw the iing attack and leaped to the side to avoid it, but the lightning surprisingly followed it.


    The monster ended up running away with the lightning on his tail.


    On the other hand, Theo used his Blink to appear on top of a monster. As if predicting Theo''s movement, the monster simply leaped to the side.


    Theo didn''t stop. He continued punching the air below him even though there was no monster anymore.


    As one would expect from Theo, the punch contained Telekinesis that pushed the air next to him down, knocking the monster down.


    However, the monster didn''t even have the chance to fall to the ground as Agata''s spike came out of the ground and pierced its body, killing it.


    ''Well, that was fast.'' Theo was quite surprised when he saw Agata moving faster than his prediction. In fact, the movement looked smooth as there was no dy in their reaction time.


    ''Good job.'' Theo thought as three monsters ran and leaped from behind, pouncing him.


    Several branches came out of the trunks next to them and pierced their bodies. Due to them focusing on Theo, they couldn''t even avoid it.


    Theo immediately turned around while swinging his spear, shing all the monsters'' heads.


    After that, he looked at Agata, whose back was exposed to another monster.


    It was at this time, Magic Bullets came out of the ground and pierced the monster.


    As if she had been waiting for it, Ava also kicked another monster between Theo and Agata.


    This way, Agata had a clear sight of the two monsters as she pulled her hand back while summoning a huge scythe on her hand.


    She made a full swing from the back to the front, cutting the two monsters in session.


    ''Ava aside, Agata has improved tremendously after getting that shawl from the dwarf�� It seems to be helping her control her own power, which is good.'' Theo smiled, realizing that the group''s coordination was close to perfection.


    However, there was another problem.


    His clone, who had been standing on top of the Cubicar, noticed a few lights shining behind the trees.


    They were monsters charging their power, preparing to shoot the Cubicar down.


    Although he didn''t doubt the shield, Theo didn''t hesitate to move between them, not wanting to waste the Cubicar''s energy.


    He used his Magic Augmentation while floating in the air with his Magic Bullets.


    The moment those monsters released their power, Theo also sent his Magic Bullets to meet them.


    He even controlled them perfectly to hit right at the attacks to prevent anything from hitting them.


    Maya looked through the window and thought, ''Well, I have heard of this, but it seems he''s really reached Grandmaster Level Control.''


    She thought for a moment and wondered whether she could keep up with Theo or not.


    While she was thinking, Theo and Agata had created another disruption in the area.


    Theo raised multiple pirs inside the forest with his Illusion Construct and Sense of Touch while Agata circled the pirs with her pink smoke.


    When the pirs rose to the highest limit, Agata''s pink smoke turned into thorns that somehow expanded and extended to the ground, impaling various monsters in the forest.


    Half of them managed to avoid it, but they were soon shot down by Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    As if she didn''t want to lose against them, Ava released her lightning, channeling it to Theo''s pirs.


    The electricity soon sensed each other and tried to make a connection between the pirs, electrocuting every single monster that went past them.


    Her attack caused a disruption in their body''s function, allowing Theo and Agata to have an easier time killing them with their power.


    Surprisingly, there was nog between their movements, and they could kill a hundred monsters within ten minutes. And these monsters weren''t that weak either.


    Maya looked at the road while shaking her head helplessly. ''Seriously. How long have they fought together? They seem to have fought together for at least ten years since their movement is so fluid.


    ''They must trust each other. Now that I think about it, Theo told me that I need to kill whenever I can while watching others'' locations. This should prevent friendly fire while giving me the opportunity to kill monsters.


    ''I see. It seems I don''t need to care about stealing the kill. As long as we can kill them, we shouldn''t let them live for another second. This is Theo''s strategy in hunting these monsters.


    ''Considering normal monsters didn''t have enough intelligence to act reasonably, they could be killed quickly. Although I have some doubts, I think we can easily be a Supreme Rank Expert if this continues.''


    Maya had been assessing them this whole time, trying to learn about their coordination. After all, she was the only outsider in this mission.


    Although she couldn''t see them inside the forest most of the time, it was enough for her to listen to the sounds they produced because she could imagine their movement.


    After that, Maya gradually moved the Cubicar forward at a low speed, so they could continue fighting in the forest without getting left behind.


    As Maya said earlier, they met around seven hundred monsters within five hours because the monster poption rapidly declined, making it hard for them to find more monsters.


    However, during this period, Theo and Agata managed to raise four levels.


    They were tired after the fight, so Maya put the Cubicar down the cliff and asked Clone Theo to drive before volunteering to defend the Cubicar on the roof.


    They continued their journey to the Arkahan Volcano, anticipating the time they could fight together.

 Chapter 753 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 753 - Arrival</h4>


    When they arrived at Arkahan Volcano, it was already night, so they decided to wait until morning before hunting the monsters.


    As if she was concerned with the party''s strength, Maya said, "By the way, I need to warn you something. The monsters around the volcano are a bit different than usual. Have you ever fought around the volcano?"


    "No." Theo and Agata shook their heads in unison. "We''ve got the information about them, but let me hear your concern."


    "There are three types of monsters dominating the volcano. The first will be a fire-based monster. Even so, not many monsters like the fire, so they usually try to extinguish it the moment the trees catch fire.


    "However, in the morning, you will see so many burned trees even if it''s only a part of them."


    "That''s understandable." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I mean, if you think about a volcano, it will be the magma. So, it''ll directly be linked to the fire-based monsters."


    "Yep. The second will be earth-based monsters. The soil around here is fertile, so it''sfortable for them. From what I know, there are many monsters hiding underground. So, if a battle breaks out, there''s a possibility of them ambushing you from the ground."


    "Okay. We will take precautions." Agata was the first to answer. Considering she had the widest detection range, she believed she was responsible for this task.


    "Alright. I''ll leave it to you. However, there''s a possibility that they''ll surround us." Theo raised another concern.


    "Yeah. That''s the problem. When there are so many monstersing out of the ground, they''re going to surround us. It will be hard to break through them." Maya nodded in agreement.


    "I guess we''ll use the element of surprise to disrupt their ranks and search for an advantageous ce to face them." Theo nced at Agata. "Get ready to force them out of the ground."


    "Understood. The usual thing?"


    "Yes."


    "Well, how reliable you two��" Maya smirked.


    "How about you?" Theo teased back.


    Maya flinched and immediately replied, "Of course, I''m reliable. I have enough firepower to handle them with my armor. But I think I will refrain myself from using it for the time being. So, I will just throw everything I have at them. In fact, I''ve prepared something just for this mission."


    "Okay. I''m looking forward to it." Theo nodded and asked, "What''s the third one?"


    "They''re flying monsters. There are so many bird-type monsters around here, so we need to be careful of an attack from above us. We also need to protect the Cubicar, so our movement is restricted." Maya exined.


    "My clone will take care of the Cubicar. You also need to teach me how to summon those shields."


    "Should I teach you after this?"


    "That''ll be good."


    "Still, how do you n to kill those flying beasts? I mean, I can shoot them down, but they''re numerous and flying at fast speed."


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment. "I will take care of them. I''ve told you this but just shoot whatever you can shoot."


    "Alright." Maya nodded with a smile, anticipating what Theo nned to do.


    "That''s all. We''ll be careful on the first day to get used to the environment before we kill all of them." Theo announced. "Ava will take care of the unexpected situation, okay?"


    Maya, Agata, and Ava nodded their heads, understanding their role.


    After the discussion, Maya started teaching him how to activate the shield. Agata also watched them while Ava was on the lookout.


    As soon as they finished, they took turns to sleep.


    When the morning arrived, Theo and the others finally moved toward the foot of the Arkahan Volcano, their first ce to hunt monsters.


    Theo took another look at this three thousand-foot-tall volcano and could hear so many sounds rumbling around the area, indicating the number of fighting in this volcano. He also saw the numerous charred branches and other marks rted to battles.


    The monsters in this area seemed to be aggressive, so they needed to react to every possibility.


    After summoning his clone, Theo and the others finally moved away from the Cubicar.


    "We''ll first set up a perimeter, approximately three hundred feet away. So, let''s clear the monsters in clockwise order." Theomanded with a calm expression.


    "Understood."


    As soon as they learned the task, they headed straight to the south of the Cubicar, finding ten monsters on the surface. However, Agata could feel the ground vibrating, so she knew there were more monsters hiding underneath them.


    When they were about to begin, Agata bent her knees and ced her hand to the ground, channeling her pink smoke.


    The smoke would turn into a spike and kill them underground, but as if they could sense the vibration the cloud made when moving, they suddenly came out.


    "��" Theo frowned and saw the additional four monsters. There was no doubt that other monsters woulde at them the moment they heard an explosion in their area, so they needed to deal with these monsters as soon as possible.


    Without getting any instruction, Ava leaped off Theo''s shoulder and headed straight to the monsters before them.


    ''His pet?'' Maya frowned. Although Ava didn''t say a single word, it was clear that Ava was quite smart. Jumping in like that meant she nned to deal with those monsters first to gain their attention.


    In that instant, Maya immediately took out her rifle and pointed it at the monsters.


    As expected, the monsters rushed to Ava.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Maya began to shoot the monsters from the left.


    The monster sensed her bulletsing and leaped into the air. Meanwhile, the beast next to it simply waved its tail and formed a shield that blocked all the shots.


    Theo used his Blink to appear on top of the jumping monster and pierced his head, knocking him down to the beast that blocked Maya''s bullet.


    The moment they crashed into each other, the shield disappeared, resulting in Maya''s bullets piercing his body.


    Maya didn''t notice it, but Agata had disappeared from her side too. It turned out she teleported together with Theo.


    The pink smoke was floating in the air as it released many spikes to impale the monsters, indicating the battle had begun.

 Chapter 754 – Maya’s Strength

    <h4>Chapter 754 - Maya��s Strength</h4>


    Now that they had located Theo and Agata''s position, the monsters managed to avoid the spikes at the veryst second.


    As a result, they were in a vulnerable state as they didn''t have time to react to Maya and Ava''s attack.


    Ava smacked a few monsters in Maya''s way, allowing her to kill them easily.


    After that, Theo rained all the monsters with his Magic Bullets that turned out to be hiding inside Agata''s pink smoke.


    When they took another look at it, no monster actually got hurt. Not even a single graze on their body, meaning Agata only used her illusion to camouge the bullet�� she didn''t even cover it with her Sense of Touch.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Some monsters had a harder body and received the attack with their bodies while the rest were pushed back.


    There was blood dripping to the ground, so it was clear the Magic Bullets wounded a few monsters.


    "Well��" Theo narrowed his eyes and saw the monsters were actually covered in me. He thought, ''Normal Monsters won''t easily use their abilities if they have any. That''s why it''s easier to kill them. Maybe they''ve been fighting in this ce for so long that they start using their ability without the slightest hesitation?''


    Theo''s doubt was pretty urate. To avoid dying in thisnd, they needed to react instantly, so it was normal for them to utilize their ability the moment they noticed the enemies.


    This was also what happened to the monsters back in Thernd, specifically where Ava and Avarice lived.


    Even though they were living there, they didn''t even restrict the monsters fighting against each other. Avarice simply believed that the one who came on top would be the greatest and she could simply make them her subordinate like the Shadow Fox.


    The moment Theo saw the fire covering their body, he pushed his hand forward, utilizing his Telekinesis to pressure them while blowing their fire away.


    It was at this time, the earth-based monster showed their mighty prowess. They raised the ground to challenge the pressure.


    Some of them even jumped up to knock Theo down.


    Theo, having no way to handle all those attacks, grabbed Agata''s hand and used his Telekinesis to fly away.


    At the same time, Maya increased her firepower by using her sniper rifle, blowing all the monsters that nned to attack them.


    As soon as theynded on the ground, she changed the bullets to the ones that emphasized pration power instead of knocking power before firing at one of the monsters who was falling to the ground.


    Bam.


    The bullet pierced its head and killed it without any fight.


    Meanwhile, Theo used his Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion, finding one monster had covered his fist with rock as if nning to challenge Theo.


    Thetter epted it and covered his fist with Magic Power Expansion.


    Their punches collided with each other as the Magic Power Expansion burst out, releasing a massive shock wave that shook the area.


    The ten-foot-tall monster that challenged him soon lost its bnce due to the shock wave and was blown away, knocking another monster on its path.


    Before Maya killed them, another monster fell on top of them, stopping their movement. It was Ava''s work.


    ''Really?'' Maya thought, impressed by the job Ava had done this whole time. She thought Theo had truly instilled his strategy to his pet to the point she could match their movement, making the hunt far easier.


    She also realized that Ava rarely killed the monsters, allowing Theo and Agata to receive the EXP. The only thing Ava did was eat some monsters.


    This was the recipe of Theo''s fast hunting, she thought. However, when they fought together like this, Maya couldn''t help but smile. "Good job."


    She started shooting the falling monsters, killing them in rapid session.


    Unfortunately, they had no time to rx.


    When they turned around, they saw four monsters rushing toward them, nning to intercept them.


    Theo waved his right hand and formed threads big enough for the monsters to see it.


    Since they still needed to defeat Theo and Agata, the monsters split into two groups. There were two monsters leaping through the gap between the threads, albeit they got pierced by Agata''s pink smoke right after. They didn''t realize Theo''s threads were nothing but an illusion that forced them to leap like that, preventing them from blocking any attack afterward.


    This left two monsters who chose to loop around the area to attack Maya.


    "I''m fine," Maya shouted when she saw the monsters pouncing her.


    The sniper rifle was gone, reced by a shotgun. She ducked down and avoided the first monster.


    The moment the monster was on top of her, she released the first shot,unching the monster up in the air with blood and flesh sttered in the air.


    The monster also crashed to the other one, resulting in him failing to hit Maya.


    And the moment the monsternded and turned around, Agata had pointed her pistol at him, shooting the head a few times.


    Unfortunately, this wasn''t the end of the onught.


    Three birds dove from the sky to attack them.


    "Sheesh, I''m so popr." Maya smirked and changed her weapon to a shotgun again.


    When she was about to aim at the iing flying beasts, Ava leaped into the air and appeared on top of the first bird with lightning covering her body.


    She mmed the first bird into the ground before jumping to another one to hit it, ultimately striking all three birds.


    Maya was thankful to Ava and immediately ended the three birds'' lives before she heard Agata shouting, "Maya, Dodge!"


    Maya immediately sensed something moving underground at a fast speed.


    She clicked her tongue and threw herself to the left. In that instant, a huge brown-colored worm emerged from the ground, rising into the sky.


    Still, as one would expect from a weapon expert, when she jumped away, she left behind a little present for the worm.


    It made Maya take another leap to distance herself as the worm suddenly exploded from the inside.


    Boom.


    "I''m truly popr." Maya grinned, watching how her grenade took down the monster�� At the same time, she had shown Agata and Theo that she wasn''t a dead weight.

 Chapter 755 – Fighting A Group Of Rare Class Monsters

    <h4>Chapter 755 - Fighting A Group Of Rare ss Monsters</h4>


    Theo saw her performance and was quite surprised. However, it meant they didn''t need to worry about her too much because she could take care of herself.


    He immediately killed another two monsters. There were only three monsters remaining.


    With this, they should be able to kill them within one minute.


    However, the situation changed when Theo raised his head as if sensing something.


    Instead of following what Theo did, Agata looked down.


    "We''re surrounded," Agata shouted.


    Theo raised his hand and summoned a huge pir.


    Maya looked up and found around twenty birds looping around the pir.


    At the same time, she jumped forward as another worm actually came out of the ground, almost swallowing her.


    Maya left another grenade inside the worm''s body and killed another one.


    However, the explosion immediately grabbed everyone''s attention.


    "Oh, I''m too popr." Maya gulped down as she looked around to find her escape route.


    She soon found Theo lifting his finger as if asking her toe to him.


    Surprisingly, Ava already jumped toward him, showing Maya they needed to regroup.


    Without hesitation, Maya rushed to Theo, where many worms and birds stood in her way.


    Maya frowned for a moment, but she chose to believe in Theo this time, knowing that Theo''s strategy shouldn''t fail.


    As she predicted, Theo indeed had a n.


    The moment they were about to sh, a hundred Magic Bullets fell down and hit all the worms and the birds, stopping them from reaching Maya.


    Maya smirked and sneaked past them before changing her weapon to a grenadeuncher.


    The moment she turned around, she fired several times to destroy them.


    The worms somehow covered their skin with rocks before getting in the way, preventing Maya''s explosive bullets from reaching a single monster other than them.


    "Tsk." Maya clicked her tongue and leaped backward, regrouping with Theo. "What should we do, Theo?"


    "There are 40 monsters around us. 33 are in front of us, the rest areing to us from the west." Agata informed him with a calm expression.


    "This is the forest you need. Support us with your smoke. Ava, hit them with all you got. Maya will go with me tounch a surprise attack against those seven monsters. Hold all these monsters for three minutes, okay?"


    "Roger."


    "Understood."


    "Kyu."


    The moment the monsters started moving again after Maya''s bombardment stopped, Agata released all her pink smoke, enveloping the area with this smoke.


    This made the monsters have no idea where to find Agata.


    They could only rely on their sensory organ or smell. But this was where Agata started showing what she could do in this situation.


    When the birds flew on top of them to see what happened, the monsters that they almost killed earlier died in an instant.


    Even the worms suddenly stopped as if they were caught by something, resulting in trees falling on top of them.


    Using this chaotic situation, Theo ced his hand on Maya''s shoulder and used his Blink to send them right in front of the seven monsters.


    Surprisingly, all seven monsters were different from each other. They were a monkey, a tiger, a snake, a worm, a rat, a falcon, and a mantis.


    "Geh?" Maya''s face went pale as she realized there was only one possibility why all these different animals gathered. They were smart enough to join hands, meaning every single of them was at least an Rare ss Monster.


    The monsters halted their movements when they saw Theo and Agata. They weren''t like the other monsters who acted based on their instinct.


    They were wary of these strangers and immediately realized they were the culprits of this chaos.


    "It seems our luck is bad." Maya made a helpless smile.


    "No." This is good enough." Theo utilized his Magic Augmentation before using his Magic Power Expansion, covering his spear. He walked forward as if challenging the monsters.


    Maya frowned and realized that Theo wanted to grab their attention, so she changed her weapon to a rifle.


    Theo raised his left hand and clutched it as multiple vines came out of the ground to grasp them.


    All the seven monsters avoided it perfectly as the mantis used its scythe to cut all of them down, releasing crescent-shaped green-colored energy toward Theo and Maya.


    Theo struck this energy with his Magic Power Expansion, bursting the energy that destroyed that power and sending a massive shock wave to blow them away.


    The tiger stepped forward and let out a roar, stopping the shock wave with his sound wave.


    Meanwhile, the monkey, the worm, and the rat looped around to attack Theo and Maya.


    The falcon pped its wings a few times and sent a mighty gale that pushed them back.


    The snake then spat out a venomous liquid from its mouth to Maya.


    Maya leaped back and raised her aim, shooting the falcon.


    Thetter flew around to avoid it.


    The monkey then appeared next to Maya, preparing to punch her. However, Theo kicked the air and utilized his Telekinesis tounch the monkey away.


    To stop Theo, the worm and the rat moved from two different directions.


    Theo snorted and sent his Magic Bullet into the ground before turning around to strike the rat with his spear.


    The rat used its sharp nails to stop Theo''s spear.


    The worm was supposed to attack Theo, but it ended up rolling to the side as Magic Bullet came out of the ground.


    They had Tracking Ability, so the bullets curved, not letting the worm go. It was at this time the tiger appeared, using its shock wave to destroy the Magic Bullet.


    Theo raised his left hand to punch the tiger with his Telekinesis, but he hurriedly retracted it as a sharp scythe almost cut his hand.


    This was what Theo meant by having trouble when facing multiple enemies at his levels. They simply could attack him in session to stop him from attacking them. The enemies would then corner him and eventually defeat him.


    Theo''s expression remained calm for the time being as he was searching for a way to deal with these monsters.


    ''No, this is fine. I can see my limit like this.'' Theo smiled as he stomped the ground with his Telekinesis and Magic Power, causing a powerful shock wave in all directions, blowing everyone away, including Maya. He looked at all of them as if saying to them, "Come."


    Maya only stared at him, thinking, ''Is there a reason for you to push me too?''

 Chapter 756 – Hard Fight

    <h4>Chapter 756 - Hard Fight</h4>


    Theo instantly became the center of attention as all seven monsters were staring at him as if they were going to pounce him.


    Maya furrowed her eyebrows and changed her weapon to pistols in both hands.


    Suddenly, the monkey leaped toward Theo while covering his fist with yellow-colored me.


    Maya, who was next to the monkey, immediately fired at him.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    The monkey noticed her movement and leaped around to avoid the bullets.


    After that, the snake spat another venomous liquid from its mouth.


    Maya turned back the pistol on her left hand into a bracelet before creating a green translucent screen on her left, catching the venom.


    Although it managed to stop the venom, the shield instantly melted due to the poison.


    It was at this time the monkey moved toward the venom before using it as a cover for him to get closer to Maya.


    Maya remained calm and turned a bracelet into a shield, blocking the monkey''s fist.


    She then aimed her gun at the monkey again and shot him a few times.


    While she was upied by the two monsters, Theo was surrounded by the other five.


    The tiger jumped forward, pouncing him.


    He immediately threw a fist at him, stopping the tiger with his Telekinesis. After that, he ducked down as the mantis appeared behind him and swung its scythe.


    The rat hid behind the mantis'' body and leaped off when they arrived behind him, trying to kill Theo in this chance.


    Theo frowned and used his Blink to appear on top of the mantis'' back with Magic Power Expansion covering his fist.


    Sadly, before he could hit the mantis, the falcon dove down and intercepted him.


    Theo abruptly stopped and turned his body around as though he had been waiting for the falcon. In fact, this might be his n.


    The falcon flinched and nned to fly up again while the worm appeared behind him. The worm had a circr mouth on the tip with so many sharp teeth surrounding it, so he would be shredded the moment the worm swallowed him.


    Having no chance to hit the falcon, Theo used his Telekinesis to jump upward to follow the bird, but the tiger climbed the worm''s body and jumped up, pouncing him.


    Theo ended up using the Magic Power Expansion in his fist to strike the tiger''s paw.


    The energy burst out, ripping the skin on the tiger''s paw before knocking him down.


    Bam.


    The tiger crashed to the ground with blooding out of his right paw.


    On the contrary, Theo had no time to focus on the tiger''s condition as he immediately waved his spear to the back as a clicking sound echoed in his ears.


    It was the sh between the spear and mantis'' scythe. And because of Theo''s position, the mantis had the upper hand and grasped the spear, pushing it down.


    Theo was dragged by his spear into the air. He managed tond on the ground safely with his Telekinesis, but the situation remained the same.


    Knowing the situation had be a bit dangerous, Theo put back his spear before summoning the blue spear.


    In that instant, multiple vines came out of the ground and tried to circle them. This time, Theo scattered the vines, so the mantis had no target to lock on.


    The vines moved like a whip and smacked the monsters.


    All five monsters knocked all the vines down without so much effort. However, the real reason for Theo to summon the vines was just to distract them.


    After dealing with the vines, they found Theo with a hundred Magic Bullets hovering around him.


    He released all of them at once, trying to kill at least one monster.


    The worm pped its body and shook the ground as a yellow-colored barrier appeared, hiding all the monsters inside. The barrier was a half-sphere, so Theo had no chance of attacking them.


    Theo nned to attack them on the surface, so he hadn''t covered them with his Magic Power to prate the ground.


    In the end, the Magic Bullets crashed into the barrier and caused several explosions.


    As soon as they took care of the Magic Bullets, the tiger and the rat rushed to Theo''s position, surrounding him from two different directions.


    Theo wanted to use his Ascension Step, but he remembered the warning from the Empress. Although he knew Maya would keep the secret, it wasn''t the time to use it yet as the situation was still under control.


    While Theo kept the monsters busy, Maya had grown frustrated with the continuous attacks from the monsters.


    ''My position is on the back usually and now I need to handle these two monsters.'' Maya looked around and saw Theo was surrounded by more monsters. ''Yeah. Not going to happen. I won''t be able to deal with all of them, not without my armor.''


    She kept dodging the monsters'' attacks while thinking, ''Why Theo hasn''t made a move yet? His clone should be able to help us with his Magic Bullets. But then again, Agata and Ava are surrounded by more monsters.


    ''I guess he will prioritize them. In this kind of situation, the only reason the monsters are not dead yet must be because he hasn''t used his trump card yet. There''s only that blue spear, but that''s not enough. Don''t tell me. Is he nning to force me to use mine first?''


    After realizing what Theo wanted, Maya shot the monkey and snake a few times, which they avoided with ease.


    Using that chance, Maya finally decided to go along with his n.


    "Theo. I need a favor from you." Maya shouted from the other side.


    "What? You can''t even handle those two and want me to help you?" Theo shouted back without even looking at her.


    "Shut up! I just want to ask you whether you can send me the armor. Although I can kill these guys sooner orter. It''s better to end this as soon as possible. Don''t you want to see my full strength, considering you don''t even bother to use your trump card?"


    "On it."

 Chapter 757 – Armor

    <h4>Chapter 757 - Armor</h4>


    "On it." Theo smirked before leaping back due to the tiger''s roar. He then kicked the air, continuing to find a way to defeat these five monsters.


    However, he never got serious in this fight, forcing Maya to release her trump card. Maya knew that when he challenged all these monsters was. In fact, the battle was just an invitation for her.


    In just a few seconds, the armor suddenlynded in the middle of them, rming Maya and the others.


    Without hesitation, Maya rushed to the armor while saying, "Give me ten seconds. Should be easy for you, right?"


    Clone Theo smiled andnded in front of the armor, looking at the snake and monkey that chased after her.


    "Consider it done." Theo smiled as Magic Bullets rained in their area, hitting both the snake and the monkey.


    Theo then pushed his palm forward but this time while spinning his hand, creating torrential energy that was stronger than his normal push.


    The monkey was blown away while the snake still somehow moved forward to challenge this pressure.


    In the meantime, Maya jumped into her armor, sneaking both hands and feet into the armor before putting the head part. In that instant, the armor started glowing, recognizing Maya''s identity.


    [Wee, Owner.]


    Maya smiled and ran toward the snake.


    "Just leave this to me. Go back and defend the Cubicar." Maya shouted and jumped with the help of a booster behind the armor.


    Theo immediately stopped pressuring the snake and left the battlefield.


    As soon as there was no pressure, the snake spat another venom toward Maya.


    Maya released a shield before her while using the booster to move to the side. She only wanted to slip past the venom after all.


    The shield might melt because of the poison, but Maya somehow reached the snake and struck its head with her robotic hand.


    Bam.


    The weight from the robotic hand increased her punch intensity by several folds, knocking down the snake''s head to the ground.


    The snake body immediately moved to squeeze here and the monkey also came to attack him.


    Without giving them a chance, Maya spun her body and struck the monkey with the robotic hand.


    The monkey had covered his hand with his power, but when it shed with Maya''s armor, he ended up getting blown away.


    "Haha, want to defeat me with strength?" Mayaughed as her fingers were soon covered with the robotic hand.


    Theo didn''t see these robotic fingers earlier because it was inside. At the same time, it also meant that Maya nned to use the weapon from the armor.


    As one would expect, a huge barrel came out of the hand with the trigger resting right in front of her finger.


    She aimed at the monkey and released a few golden-colored balls that were as big as the monkey''s head.


    With him getting blown away, he had no chance to defend this. So, he moved his tail, circled it around a tree trunk, and used it to swing to the right, avoiding the bullet.


    After that, he used that momentum to throw himself at Maya, albeit he found Maya pointing her gun at the snake she knocked down earlier.


    A smile appeared on her face as she shot down the snake a few times, creating holes in the snake''s head.


    The monkey was shocked and angry to see a human killing one of itsrades.


    However, Maya simply leaped backward and used her booster to send herself to Theo.


    The moment she arrived, Maya shot the tiger.


    The worm immediately appeared between them to shield the tiger.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The worm''s barrier seemed to be stronger than her bullets as there wasn''t a single scratch on the barrier afterward.


    The monkey took this chance to catch up with her and strike her from the back. Little did he know, now that Maya had taken the attention of both the tiger and the worm, Theo could spare his attention to this monkey.


    Suddenly, a torrential gale pushed him down, restraining his movement.


    The falcon tried to free him with his wings, but Maya immediately shot it, preventing the falcon from helping the monkey.


    Numerous Magic Bullets suddenly fell from the sky and pierced the monkey in session. The monkey''s body was destroyed by the Magic Bullets to the point it was unrecognizable.


    After that, Maya pointed her palm toward the mantis, who tried tounch another sneak attack. It would be a problem if the mantis cut the armor down.


    From her palm, she released multiple metal bullets instead of the ones made of Magic Power.


    However, the mantis'' speed allowed him to avoid all these bullets easily, making his way toward Maya.


    It was at this time Theo appeared using his Blink and struck him with his spear.


    Although the mantis managed to block the spear with his scythe, Theo used his Magic Power Expansion in his spear, so the power burst out of the skill blew him away.


    The rat and the tiger hurriedly suppressed Theo from the side while the falcon and the worm stopped Maya from shooting the mantis.


    Maya smiled as she turned around and aimed at the falcon instead.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Maya shot the falcon multiple times, but thetter skillfully dodged it. In the meantime, the worm was about to reach her position.


    Suddenly, green light shone from behind them as twenty bullets pierced the worm''s body.


    For the worm who expected an attack from the front, it obviously created a barrier only at the front side, knowing that it could make the barrier stronger since he concentrated his power on it.


    However, there was one purpose of Maya shooting the mantis with real bullets.


    Theo nced to the side and realized that the bullets she shot earlier weren''t the real bullets. Instead, they were just shells for the real ones.


    The moment they touched the surface, whether it was ground or trunk, they immediately changed their forms, allowing them to release another bullet that would fly again ording to Maya''smand.


    And this was the perfect time for her to attack the worm.


    ''Well, that''s unexpected��'' Theo thought, knowing Maya might be stronger than he originally expected.

 Chapter 758 – Finishing

    <h4>Chapter 758 - Finishing</h4>


    With only four monsters remaining, Theo and Maya could finally focus on killing the monsters.


    Theo didn''t hesitate to approach the mantis with his spear. The rat also approached Theo from the side, trying to stop him from attacking the mantis.


    Theo suddenly came to a halt and waved his spear down, utilizing his Telekinesis to push the rat to the ground like the monkey.


    The rat gritted its teeth and struggled to raise its ws.


    Taking this chance, Theo aimed at the rat first before he jumped into the air as the mantis swung its left scythe.


    In the air, the mantis waved its other scythe, nning to take him down.


    Due to this, the Telekinesis also dispersed into the area, allowing the rat to help the mantis take down Theo.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo used his Blink again to arrive at the martis'' back. Before Theo would have stopped by either the tiger or the worm, but this time, there was no monster that could block him anymore.


    Theo smiled and struck the mantis'' back with his Magic Power Expansion, snapping the thin body.


    After that, he sliced the head to kill it.


    As soon as he saw the kill notification, he summoned Magic Bullets and used his Tracking Ability to shoot down the rat.


    The rat waved its ws and released multiple crescent-shaped energy waves, destroying many Magic Bullets.


    Theo took this chance to approach the rat while ncing at Maya''s condition that seemed to require her another minute to kill one of the monsters.


    Hence, Theo formed a spear with his Magic Power beforeunching it to the tiger.


    The tiger was taken aback and reacted at thest minute, using its paw to stop it. But Theo''s spear was stronger than expected as it obliterated the paw, making the tiger lose its bnce when it stood on the ground.


    Maya shot the tiger, whose reaction speed wasn''t as good as before due to losing one foot.


    In the end, the tiger couldn''t do anything until it was shot multiple times by Maya.


    On the other hand, Theo had delivered the killing blow against the rat since it didn''t have any friends that could stop Theo anymore.


    After that, he helped Maya kill thest falcon by pinning the bird down with his Telekinesis.


    As soon as they finished the falcon off, Theo immediately went back to Agata to help them like the original n. However, there were only a few monsters remaining and Theo chose to just watch the battle, knowing Agata would finish them soon.


    "Hah. We''re finally done." Theo smiled and turned the blue spear back into the bracelet before grabbing his normal spear back.


    "Yeah. Though, could you not do that?"


    "What?"


    "You were holding back this whole time. I''d seen your power when you fought Afanaasia and Alea, so you couldn''t fool me." Maya squinted her eyes.


    "I was just fulfilling my agreement." Theo yfully stuck his tongue out.


    "Fulfilling your agreement?" Maya felt something was wrong and remembered what Theo said on the second day. "Wait a minute. You said you''re prioritizing me when we reach the Arkahan Volcano for a day or two. Don''t tell me��"


    Theo smirked. "How many monsters did you kill? Four. How about me? Three. You''re wee."


    "��" Maya facepalmed before shaking her head helplessly. "Normally, I would be the one ying with words, but it seems I''m not the only one who can do that."


    Theo shrugged while looking away.


    "Is that the reason why you''re not using your full power?"


    "What do you want me to say honestly? Oh, Her Highness Maya has dered to��." Theo said in a dramatic way as if Maya was a queen that ordered him to do something.


    "Stop it." Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she sighed. "Now, I understand why I feel like I''ve be less arrogant in front of you. It''s because you''re a shameless prick."


    "What do you mean? I''m just responding to you." Theo smiled as if he had done nothing wrong.


    "Now that you have the status topete with me, you''re not holding back anymore our meeting in Thernd."


    Theo abruptly stopped as he said, "Alright. Joke aside, they''re done."


    Agata had finished killing thest monster and noticed Theo and Maya joking around. She walked to them and said to Theo, "It''s the first time I see your yful side."


    Theo shrugged with a nonchnt face, pointing his finger at Maya. "If not, she would start unting whatever she has."


    "Wait! That''s not a joke?" Maya dropped her jaw, not believing what she had just heard.


    "What do you think?" Theo made a smug smile.


    "I somehow want to hit you right now. Now, I kinda understand why your enemies want to kill you. I''m not your enemy, yet, frustration is pilling up inside of me right now. I''m sure that you treat your enemies worse than this." Maya shook her head helplessly.


    "Oh. I thought I could see another side of you." Agata''s face was filled with disappointment when she realized Theo was just acting to handle Maya.


    "I''m just your typical serious guy." Theo pointed at himself.


    "Heh?" Maya rolled her eyes and decided to fight back by saying, "It must be boring with this serious guy all the time, right, Agata?"


    "Not at all." Agata chuckled.


    "��" Maya fell silent, feeling bullied by Theo and Agata.


    Even Ava leaped on top of her shoulder before patting her cheek.


    When she looked at Ava, thetter raised both feet and sighed as if telling her not to mind it because it would happen all the time.


    "Anyway, I''m going back to get my bullets."


    "Oh, you don''t need to." Theo waved his hand as multiple bodies and bullets flew to their side.


    He put down all the modified bullets in front of Maya while touching the monster corpses. Agata touched the monsters she killed.


    Maya hesitated for a moment but finally let out a sigh of defeat. "I guess if he''s serious, you will feel secure and taken care of."


    She also touched the corpses and turned all the monsters into cards as Theo ced them on top of his head.


    Maya grabbed all the customized bullets and followed him back to the Cubicar.

 Chapter 759 – Moving To The South

    <h4>Chapter 759 - Moving To The South</h4>


    After returning to the Cubicar, they decided to take a rest first, talking about their strategy.


    They had understood that normal strategy wouldn''t work in this ce due to the high number of Rare ss Monsters. If they were to be surrounded by Rare ss Monsters along with all the monsters under them, they would be in trouble.


    Luckily, there was no General ss Monster in this ce thatmanded all of them or the situation would be much worse.


    It was clear that none of them had used all their strength, even Maya. She hadn''t used all the functions avable on her armor, so all of them knew they could still go farther.


    Hence, they divided their roles in terms of emergency.


    As one would expect, Maya would be in charge of a massive horde if something like that happened, considering they were inside a densely popted area.


    Ava would take care of any enemies that would attack them. In other words, their guardian deity.


    On the contrary, Agata''s role was to form an illusion that could change the entire terrain itself. It would be hard, but Agata believed she was capable of doing that to a certain extent.


    Theo''s role was theirmander. This was an absolute position for Theo, and he had no way to escape from it.


    After agreeing to their own role, the group continued their way to the south of the mountain, killing hundreds if not thousands of monsters every single day.


    Maya had learned that their leveling speed was at an unprecedented level. And there were three factors contributing to it.


    The first was none other than Ava. Ava rarely killed a monster, and the EXP woulde to either Theo or Agata. Because she followed him, Maya also received this kind of benefit.


    Considering Ava was Theo''s pet, if Theo didn''t bring Agata or Maya here, his pace would be even faster.


    The second factor was his clone. The clone was the second Theo, meaning he and Theo alone were able to do a two-person job easily. And with their coordination, they could even surpass it.


    This was a big factor and Maya also anticipated what kind of future his clone would bring. There was a rumor of Theo''s clone being restricted by its rank.


    Considering Theo had been using this skill when he was in the schoolpetition, people were specting that his clone''s rank was from D to B Rank.


    Even if they thought it was a B Rank Skill, Theo would start getting into trouble when he became a Mythical Rank Expert. After all, the clone wouldn''t be able to exert the same amount of power from a Mythical Rank Expert.


    This news alone would be enough to lower Theo''s value significantly. That was why the British Royal Family was trying hard to find someone who could rank up his skill. They should be able to control Theo with this benefit in their hand.


    Last but not least, the factor that raised the pace of their leveling speed was Theo himself. His brain, strength, and talent were more than enough to surpass any kind of difficulty.


    No, Maya believed it was because of Theo having these skills that the leveling speed could increase to this extent. If it was someone else who used Theo''s power, she doubted they could replicate what Theo did.


    With Theo, Agata, Maya, and Ava in one group, it felt like they were more superior to the usual group of six.


    These were the three reasons Maya believed to be Theo''s secret. As an assistant, Agata simply received this benefit. In fact, without Theo, Agata wouldn''t be able to grow this fast.


    Although she didn''t want to admit it, Agata had surpassed Alea, her rival from Thernd. If she was the one fighting Ana in Russia, no one could predict who would win.


    This fact simply elevated Theo''s power to another level. After all, Ava was his. If Theo used his clone and Ava when fighting Ana, thetter wouldn''tst long.


    After knowing this information, it was easier for Maya to cooperate with Theo, knowing what to expect from each of them.


    They continued hunting the monsters.


    By the time they reached their destination in the south area, Theo had reached level 435. On the other hand, Agata and Maya only had a difference of a few levels as Agata was a level 453 illusionist, while Maya was three levels lower than her.


    Unfortunately, they couldn''t immediately head straight to the volcano. They took a few days to kill all the monsters in the surrounding area to hide their Cubicar.


    After that, they paved their way to the mountain, taking another five days due to theplexity of the mission.


    Finally, the night before they went to the mountain, Maya gathered them to discuss their n to get the mission.


    "So, tomorrow, we''re going to go to the volcano. What''s the n?" Maya nced at Agata since Theo always allowed Agata to make the n first. "For your information, I need to be there because I can operate the cooling suit and help you put it on."


    Agata closed her eyes for a moment and said, "As much as I want to apany Theo to the volcano, I believe I should remain in this ce to protect the Cubicar. Also, Ava will be with me because if something happens, she can deliver the message to you two.


    "Hence, Maya and Theo will go to the volcano alone toplete the mission. Theo has his clone, so it shouldn''t be a problem for you two to kill the remaining monsters standing in your way." Agata looked at Theo as if telling him she had finished her exnation.


    "Well, that''s the n." Theo looked at Maya, "I will be in your care. Give me the knowledge about the nt you want me to retrieve, the cooling suit''s information, and the suit itself."


    "Well, I will tell you about the ntter. As for the cooling suit�� I think you have seen it inside the wardrobe. It can release ice power that can cool you down for a minute against the extreme heat from the magma. If it''s not possible, then we can consider this mission a failure."


    "Due to the technical issue," Theo added, not wanting to be the reason they failed.


    "��" Maya rolled her eyes and confirmed�� "Due to the technical issue."

 Chapter 760 – Cultured People

    <h4>Chapter 760 - Cultured People</h4>


    When the morning arrived, Theo and Maya immediately set off to the mountain.


    Theo brought the cooling suit. The suit itself had blue color without any patterns as it was useless since its purpose was to withstand the heat from the magma.


    Since they had thinned down the number of monsters in the area, there were not many monsters standing in their way.


    They took them down easily under the cover of the chaotic battles that were happening all around them.


    It didn''t take too long for them to reach their destination. It was right on top of the mountain as they were only a few feet away from the slope that led to the volcano.


    Thisposite volcano had a long cylindrical conduit. The magma level was quite low as they could see at least a few hundred feet away inside the main vent.


    Still, the superheated magma released its heat and steam that flowed to the outside in the form of smoke, so entering this ce would feel quite hot.


    "ording to our information, there is a red-colored flower inside. I don''t know if you have heard about this, but you can actually absorb some items'' energy, resulting in you getting more attribute points.


    "Of course, this will need to be suitable for you first. And it''s even better if this item contains so much energy.


    "From what we know, this red flower contains so much energy that you can absorb it as long as you have Fire Affinity.


    "Hmm, I don''t know if you have heard from your God, but apparently, they can also help you in absorbing the energy."


    ''Is that true?'' Theo asked inwardly, hoping someone would answer it.


    Surprisingly, the God of Mischief decided to answer him.


    [Yes. How do the monsters in this world evolve? It''s true that they''re eating meat�� But what does the meat contain?]


    ''Energy��'' Theo''s expression became serious.


    [Reach level 501 and be a Supreme Rank Expert. Someone will exin it to you.]


    ''That''s good. Thank you.'' Theo smiled.


    However, there was no more reply from them, so Theo looked at Maya. "By the way, where is it located?"


    "Approximately five hundred feet inside."


    "Below the magma?"


    "Just a bit under it." Maya showed him an image of the volcano''s part. "There are various branches from the main vent. The nt is supposed to be inside the first branch.


    "Hence, I''m asking you to push the magma around with your Telekinesis and enter this vent to acquire it.


    "Although the magma is hot enough to melt your Magic Bullet or any other skills, Telekinesis can still be used, right?"


    Theo frowned and nodded. "Yes. That''s true. So, I just need to enter the vent and grab the nt, correct?"


    "Yes."


    "How far do I need to go in the main vent? Remember, the time limit is sixty seconds." Theo sighed.


    "It''s not that far. We have found a fluctuation of Magic Power seventy feet inside that vent."


    Theo looked down, calcting the time needed. "Yes. I shouldn''t have a problem if it''s only that far.


    "That''s good. What do you need?" Maya asked.


    "Nothing. If there''s no danger other than the magma, then we should be fine." Theo nodded.


    "Do you think there is a monster inside?"


    "Who knows? Is there any monster who can live inside the magma?"


    "There are a few, but they are rare."


    "That''s all, I guess." Theo nodded. "Let''s finish this as soon as possible. I want to hunt more monsters."


    "Understood." Maya immediately picked up the clothes and handed them to him.


    Theo summoned his clone and had him take the full body suit that seemed to have been dded with a thin metal te.


    Maya bent her knees down and helped Theo put it on. Suddenly, she stopped for a moment, thinking a weird thing.


    "Hmm?" Theo didn''t understand why she stopped and he was even confused why Maya was staring at his crotch. "What are you doing?"


    "I''m just thinking. How real is your clone? I mean, if it''s like your real body, doesn''t that mean you can do a threesome?" Maya asked with an innocent face as if it was the only thing she thought.


    "It''s so random. Are you by any chance sexually frustrated because your family has been pushing you to marry someone?"


    "No. I''m just curious." Maya couldn''t help but think about what her father said to her back then about sharing a man. At the same time, if the real body and the clone were the same, there would be another thing to consider.


    "��" Theo was speechless, looking at her. He immediately put the suit on before taking a step back to distance himself from her.


    Seeing Theo''s reaction, Maya chuckled. "Anyway, that was just pure curiosity. No need to think much about it."


    Surprisingly, she wasn''t the only one mentioning this. The God of Mischief even added.


    [This girl is very good. Aside from the clone, if you increase the rank of your Metamorphosis, you will be able to transform ording to gender. If you reach S Rank Metamorphosis, the transformation will reach the gic level. In other words, you could give birth as a female or whatever. You can also impregnate your wife with another form.]


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he couldn''t help butment. "Don''t tell me that''s how your children were born?"


    Instead of answering him, the God of Mischief added another point.


    [For your information, having sex as a female is better than when you''re a male. However, I still like being a male because it''s better overall for various reasons.]


    ''Thank you for your useless information. I won''t be like you. Heck. I''m fine to be a human and I won''t do something like that.''


    [There''s no limit in the past. You can do whatever.]


    ''This is not about limits. It''s about my own morality.'' Theo sighed inwardly, wondering why the God of Mischief even needed to say something like this.


    He shook his head and hurriedly finished putting the suit on.


    After that, Clone Theo walked toward the edge, preparing to fall down.


    "Anyway, enough with the useless talk. It''s better toplete my job first��" Clone Theo sighed before jumping into the main vent.

 Chapter 761 – Stealing A Flower

    <h4>Chapter 761 - Stealing A Flower</h4>


    "Cooling on." Maya immediately activated the suit when she saw Clone Theo jumping into the main vent.


    Theo also severed all the senses, not wanting to feel the extraordinary heat.


    The only reason he epted the cooling suit was to make sure his clone could withstand the heat of the magma and didn''t get burned. If his body was that strong, he wouldn''t need to rely on the suit.


    As soon as Maya activated the cooling inside the suit, he saw the metal te begin to be surrounded by ice. This ice wasn''t the product of normal physics. Instead, it was simr to the shield from his Ring of Honor.


    So, the ice endurance was far better than the normal ice that would be evaporated upon having a close contact with the magma.


    Theo then used his Telekinesis to speed up, not wasting a single second because he didn''t know when the suit would be reduced into ashes.


    Seeing the glowing magma, Theo clicked his tongue and raised his hand before pushing it forward.


    His Telekinesis pushed the air around the magma inside.


    He even lifted up some magma to find the branch.


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned when he sensed something inside the magma. It wasn''t the nt because the presence came from far deeper into the main vent.


    The presence was quite strong to the point Theo''s heart started beating rapidly. He realized that this monster would be troublesome because it could mess up with his mission.


    And that particr monster sensed him the moment he reached the magma and swam upward as if nning to meet him.


    ''Not good.'' Theo frowned and used his Telekinesis in all directions, creating a small sphere that pushed all the magma away.


    However, he could see that the superheated magma began burning the ice inside his cooling suit.


    So, he immediately went deeper while searching the branch.


    Luck finally came to him as he saw the small opening. The opening was filled with magma and the tunnel was quite big.


    He flew into the tunnel without hesitation and increased his speed as he didn''t have much time left.


    There was also an unknown presence that wasing toward him.


    Maya said the distance was less than a hundred feet, so he had confidence in using his Blink to arrive at the main vent with a single skill.


    "Come on��" Theo looked around as he started to panic, not finding anything at the seventy feet mark.


    Even so, he continued forward because in the worst case scenario, only the cooling suit would be destroyed.


    Before he could find it, he sensed the presence entering the tunnel.


    "Sh*t." Theo gritted his teeth and looked at his suit that had started burning.


    He floated forward before ultimately turning around and using his Telekinesis to push something behind him.


    To his surprise, he saw the figure hidden inside the magma.


    He saw a coarse ck rock shaping into a skull. Unlike the human skull, this one had sharp teeth and two long horns on top of its head. There was nothing inside the skull, but he could see concentrated magma that shone brighter than the one surrounding it, making it look like the skull had eyes.


    Another ck stone appeared and formed like that of a hand. The glowing magma attached every piece of stone, so Theo could see the connection between the hand and the head.


    The monster also pushed his hand forward, controlling the magma.


    The Telekinesis and magma tried to push each other as the skull''s mouth suddenly moved up and down, releasing a deep voice.


    "Human. How dare you enter my home!"


    The monster released more strength as this was his volcano, where all the magma he needed was avable everywhere.


    Theo had no choice other than to get pushed back. However, it seemed his luck hadn''t abandoned him yet.


    When he floated back, a red-colored flower entered the sphere he created with his Telekinesis.


    The flower had scarlet petals, covering a small blood-red bead.


    Theo and the monster saw the flower at the same time.


    The monster instantly recognized Theo''s reason foring into this ce while Theo had no hesitation and used his Magic Power to form sharp energy and cut the stem.


    After that, he grabbed the flower, making his hand burn in an instant.


    "Bye." Theo smiled and used his Blink to send himself to the main vent with the flower.


    His right hand melted, so he didn''t have any choice other than to use his Telekinesis to carry the flower.


    After that, he flew upward, trying to get away from this ce as soon as possible.


    On the surface, Theo shouted, "Not good. We need to get away from here. I''ve found the flower, but there is a powerful Supreme Rank Monster chasing after me. It''s also a General ss Monster!"


    "!!!" Maya widened her eyes.


    However, before she could react, Theo immediately held her up as if carrying a princess. The moment the clone came out, he used his Telekinesis to levitate the flower near him. It was still extremely hot, so he didn''t dare to touch it.


    Then, Theo immediately flew toward the south as they couldn''t afford to run like when they climbed this volcano.


    Theo said, "Ava, tell Agata to start the Cubicar. As soon as we reach your position, we will escape to the east. Hurry up. There''s no time!"


    With Ava''s hearing range, she should be able to hear Theo''s words and inform Agata. But Theo''s fear finally came out of the volcano.


    The magma ignited a fire around it and formed a fire tornado above the volcano.


    When Maya saw the volcano, she dropped her jaw to the ground as ck-colored rocks starteding out of the magma and me, forming a kind of skeleton for an upper body. The skull had expanded into a gigantic 30��30 rectangr skull.


    The horns rose into the sky, increasing the intensity of the magma monster.


    Two extremely long hands were formed as the monster let out a roar.


    "Human! How dare you steal a flower from my garden!"

 Chapter 762 – Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 762 - Running Away</h4>


    "Human! How dare you steal a flower from my garden!" The monster spoke as Maya gasped.


    "What is that?" Maya''s face became pale. There was always one thing they needed to fear when they explored a new area. It was the unknown.


    Name: ???


    Level: ???


    No Description


    There wasn''t a single piece of information about this monster even though the data in the Sk was updated by people around the world. In other words, this monster was world-first. The monster could be weak or they could be far stronger than they could imagine, so Maya''s reaction was normal.


    Theo didn''t even bother to turn around as he continued carrying her back to the Cubicar.


    He said, "I''m the one who wants to ask you. This is your turf, so you should know."


    "There''s no information. We''re the first one to find this monster." Maya gulped down.


    Theo mentioned earlier the monster was still a Supreme Rank Monster, so she felt relieved a little bit.


    At the very least, it wasn''t a Mythical Rank Monster. If that was the case, they would die no matter what.


    As long as the monster was a Supreme Rank Expert, they should be able tobine their power to confront him until they had enough time to escape.


    "Anyway, we need to leave this ce immediately. It''s a shame that I can''t level up in this ce anymore, but that''s not important. If we can''t survive, there''s no more leveling up��" Theo clicked his tongue.


    She circled her hands around her neck as if she was trying to hug him, but Theo suddenly felt a hard rod touching his back. It was clear that she was taking out her gun, aiming at something behind them.


    "There you are! Kill them!" The monster looked at Theo.


    In that instant, there was a great movement inside the forest as if they were acknowledging his order. It was clear that this monster was the leader of this ce.


    "Sorry for the recoil�� I''m going to shoot down every single flying monster thates at us," said Maya while looking at the sky.


    Theo also summoned his clone to hold any monster that nned to attack them.


    "Ava, signal Agata to start the turbo mode. We need to get away as soon as possible." Theo shouted, noticing many monsters that wereing at them.


    "The situation is not good��" Theo gritted his teeth and nced at the flower. "We need a bucket of water to decrease the nt''s temperature while getting chased by thousands of monsters and the big one over there."


    Some monsters stood in their way and leaped toward him, trying to bring him down as ordered. Theo skillfully used his Telekinesis to fly around, avoiding them. At the same time, he also shot them down with his Magic Bullets.


    After that, Maya asked him, "Is this truly because of the flower?"


    "Yes."


    As expected from Theo and Maya, despite getting surrounded by numerous monsters, they still had some spare time to talk.


    At the very least, these monsters weren''t Rare ss monsters like the seven monsters that surrounded them on the first day.


    Since Theo was using the full speed of Telekinesis, they reached the Cubicar within five minutes. Surprisingly, the giant monster didn''t attack them this whole time.


    He only ordered the monsters to attack them instead of attacking them himself. It was clear that the magma monster was far stronger than any of them, so it was quite a surprise that the monster didn''t attack them with that giant body.


    The moment they saw their Cubicar, Theonded on the roof and put Maya down.


    "Grab your armor. We''re going to break through to the east. Use every single bullet you have." Theo ordered while turning around, finding numerous monsters.


    He and his clone immediately turned around, saw all the monsters, and released his Magic Bullets to slow the monsters down.


    "Turbo Mode!" Agata immediately activated the Turbo Mode ording to Maya''s teaching and levitated themselves above the trees. This way, there was nothing on their way other than the monsters.


    Agata also activated all the shields that the Cubicar possessed, including the one at the bottom.


    To Theo''s surprise, he found the reason why the monsters didn''t attack them.


    "We''ve been had!" Theo''s face became grim as he looked at the magma monster.


    Thetter began raising his hand and moved them to the side.


    There was a fifty feet gap between the two hands as if he was carrying something.


    Suddenly, the magma flowed out of the volcano and flowed upward, forming a huge ball.


    When Maya finished putting her suit on, she returned back to the roof and saw the giant ball.


    "Is that a ball of magma? Will he throw that at us?" Maya gulped down. "The shield can block a Supreme Monster''s attack, but it won''t be able to contain something that melts it."


    "Oi, get a grip!" Theo gritted his teeth.


    "Now I can see all of you, humans!" The monster chuckled as he had been waiting for this.


    The only reason why Theo could arrive at the Cubicar without receiving a single attack was to make him reach this ce, so he could wipe them out in one single attack.


    Ava came out of the Cubicar to bring the bucket of water and see what was going on before finding a huge figure in the middle.


    "Maya, go to the front and kill all monsters that approach us. Ava, take care of the sides and back. Don''t let them destroy the Cubicar. I will buy us time from this monster." Theo''s expression became grim, wondering whether they could escape from this ce or not. At the same time, he put the flower inside the water to cool it down.


    "You''re dead, humans!" The monster raised the ball of magma before throwing it at them.


    Theo and the others knew that the moment they received this attack, they would be destroyed.


    So, Theo and his clone flew forward, trying to destroy it.


    Both of them grabbed their spears and covered them with Magic Power Expansion that had been strengthened by Magic Augmentation.


    They crossed their spears together before waving them forward.


    The Magic Power Expansion burst out, releasing a powerful shock wave and flying toward the ball of magma.


    It soon shed with the ball of magma from the monster as their sh somehow painted the world in red and blue.


    Bam.


    The magma shone brightly and dispersed in all directions while Theo''s Telekinesis prevented it from harming anyone, including the Cubicar.

 Chapter 763 – Fighting The Magma Monster

    <h4>Chapter 763 - Fighting The Magma Monster</h4>


    Theo''s Telekinesis and Magic Power Expansion burst out, sending a powerful shock wave.


    Upon contact, the torrential shock wave dispersed the magma ball to the surrounding area.


    The effect was enormous.


    The trees started burning due to the superheatedva. Some monsters also failed to dodge thisva and their body started to melt upon touch.


    The burning smell soon filled the air. The burningva also brightened the area.


    Seeing such a scene, a small frown appeared on Theo''s face. No one knew what he was thinking, but it was clear that he nned to oppose the Supreme Rank Monster to the very end.


    On the other hand, the magma monster never expected Theo to have the power to disperse his power.


    "It seems that you humans are somewhat capable. However, it''s useless. You''re still too weak to even face me, let alone stealing something from my garden. Die!" He raised his hands and formed a fire tornado that made a parabolic movement and hit them.


    Theo clicked his tongue and wondered how he should deal with this. He returned to the Cubicar with his clone handing back the spear.


    After that, the clone flew forward and used the Magic Augmentation to increase the power output of his skill.


    With the surge of power, Clone Theo used his Telekinesis to disperse all the fire tornado. Sadly, it wasn''t enough.


    The fire tornado engulfed Clone Theo with enough power to spare.


    The magma monster chuckled, feeling happy that his clone had finally died. But that happiness was cut short when his fire tornado turned into a wave of butterflies that soon disappeared.


    "!!!" The magma monster fell silent and saw the burning Clone Theo.


    His skin was already charred ck and his clothes were destroyed. However, before the clone disappeared, Theo managed to use it to stop the fire tornado by changing it into an illusion.


    Before the magma monster could react, Theo immediately raised his right foot a few inches above the Cubicar''s roof.


    The moment he stepped forward, a burst of wind flew in all directions, rming Ava and Maya.


    ''Isn''t this the one he used in the fight against Ana?'' Maya thought while ncing at him, albeit she didn''t have time for this and hurriedly returned her focus on the monsters that wereing at them.


    On the other hand, Ava stared at Theo, knowing thetter had no strength to oppose the demon.


    She leaped to Theo''s shoulder with a worried face


    Theo nced at her while taking another step. "It''s alright. I can handle him for the time being. Soon, Rare ss Monsters woulde at us. I want you to stop them. If it''s truly hard to maintain the safety of the Cubicar, you''re free to use your Battle Form."


    Ava nodded furiously and leaped off his shoulder.


    On the other hand, the magma demon started taking Theo seriously. Even though he was far stronger than Theo, he was restricted by the volcano. So, he couldn''t reallye out to kill him.


    And the only way to strike at Theo was using his abilities and sending them toward Theo. However, he realized that Theo had enough strength to receive his attack a few times and seemed to n to escape from this ce alive.


    Obviously, he didn''t want to let Theo go, so he immediately released all his strength and raised both hands on top of his head, forming a giant magma ball, bigger than the previous one.


    He nned to drop this on top of Theo''s Cubicar.


    However, his n was cut short when Theo took the fourth step.


    ''Ascension Step.'' Theo muttered inwardly as he sent the extraordinary wind torrent up high to the sky.


    The wind looped and fell on top of the magma monster, resulting in all that pressure hitting the giant magma ball directly.


    "What?" The magma monster looked up, realizing that it would be more troublesome if he didn''t stop Theo first.


    Theo took the fifth step and released a powerful burst of wind that struck the middle of the magma ball, trying to push it to the bottom so the magma monster would be hit by his own attack.


    His teammate, Maya finally felt the suppression that Theo gave when he fought Ana. She realized that she had no confidence taking this massive pressure head-on.


    ''So, this is the technique to defeat her��'' Maya muttered inwardly with a shocked face. ''So, this is his trump card.''


    Unaware of her thought, Theo saw the magma monster still holding the magma ball.


    ''This is not good. The magma ball will be too unstable�� I need to throw it to them right now. However, this is still not its full power��'' The magma monster decided his action the instant he saw Theo raising his foot.


    Even though it wasn''t his full power, the magma ball should have a considerable amount of power to destroy Theo.


    But as he expected, the moment Theo took the sixth step, his target changed from the magma monster to the magma ball.


    The wind pressure knocked down the magma ball to the ground, resulting in a huge ssh ofva that burned all the living beings around the area.


    Some monsters managed to escape by using their shields and got away, but half of the monsters that were going to chase after them were killed by thisva ball.


    And the path to reach him decreased by one since Theo had sealed that area. Although they kept moving, the monsters would need to go around theva in order to reach him.


    The magma monster realized this was Theo''s n all this time. So, he didn''t n to let Theo be in charge of this battle anymore.


    He raised both hands and prepared for another attack.


    However, a tiger suddenly leaped into the sky as if trying to reach him.


    "What?!" The monster was surprised as he had ordered the tiger to chase after Theo.


    Soon the tiger returned to its original form, which was Clone Theo, and used the Blink to appear right before the monster''s eyes.


    "Surprise!" Clone Theo smirked and covered his fist with Magic Power Expansion and reinforced it with Magic Augmentation. He then punched the monster''s skull, ten feet away from him, generating the shock wave with the help of his Telekinesis right at the skull''s cheek.


    Bam.


    The skull was blown into the side and the body tilted.

 Chapter 764 – Battle Form

    <h4>Chapter 764 - Battle Form</h4>


    Bam.


    Theo''s strike was witnessed by all the monsters and humans in this ce. They were shocked that someone actually struck the magma monster, the ruler of this ce.


    The monsters were angry when they saw the figure in the air and immediately moved toward him, trying to kill Theo with their own hands.


    However, there were actually a few monsters that continued their way toward the Cubicar.


    Maya immediately found them because they made their presence known.


    Unlike other monsters that acted with instinct, these monsters had enough intelligence to confirm that the one they saw in the air was nothing but a clone that had been fighting the magma monster. So, the best course of action for them was to deal with the main body.


    For that, they needed to destroy the Cubicar first.


    Ava frowned and saw these eight Rare ss monsters.


    Without hesitation, Ava leaped forward while covering her body with lightning. She then pointed her foot toward them.


    "Kyu!"


    A bolt of lightning flew forward.


    A monster came to the front and raised its arm, creating a giant barrier for the rest of the monsters. This monster seemed to be sacrificing itself so the rest could attack the Cubicar.


    However, Ava''s lightning wasn''t that easy to deal with. The moment the lightning hit the shield, it sparked into the surroundings, electrocuting the monster behind that shield.


    Maya immediately shot the monster''s head, killing it. After that, she observed the lightning sphere Ava created that somehow slowed down the monsters.


    Her sniper rifle suddenly turned back to a bracelet. After that, a small shaft came out of the robotic hands and showed several holes in them.


    Six small missiles came out, flying toward the monsters.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The monsters had no ability to defend themselves because of the constant shock from Ava''s power.


    There were only two monsters that could escape from that shock as they were not as arrogant as the other monsters who thought they could handle the electrical shock.


    Sadly, Ava had arrived in front of one of them and struck its head, blowing it away to the other monster.


    The moment they crashed, Maya hit their head once to make sure they killed it.


    While they were having an easier time because of Theo, Clone Theo certainly didn''t experience the same condition.


    He was standing in mid-air, seeing how the magma monster returned to its original position while shouting, "Human!"


    Theo was already tired of hearing ''human''ing from his mouth, so he didn''t react to his voice. Instead of waiting, he had summoned his Magic Bullets and shot the skull.


    Surprisingly, none of the Magic Bullets hit him as they melted due to the extreme heat.


    Theo had expected this, but the heat was far stronger than his imagination.


    ''All skills that will directly touch him are useless. Unlike the magma ball, the temperature of this monster was far higher as he was connected directly to the magma inside the volcano,'' thought Theo while searching for a way to hit him again.


    Unfortunately for him, the magma monster never let it happen anymore and formed a fire tornado right in front of him.


    It engulfed Theo without giving him an opportunity to move away.


    "Seriously��" Theo muttered in a low voice, looking at his clone that disappeared in the instant the tornado swallowed him. "I can''t handle that monster directly because he''s far stronger around the volcano.


    "Everything will melt before I even touch him. On the other hand, I can handle any attack he sends to me, so I will stick to the original n." Theo took a deep breath, preparing to handle more attacksing in their way.


    And since his clone disappeared, the monsters immediately turned around and aimed for their Cubicar again.


    Theo''s expression became serious as he knew that the magma monster would be more serious.


    The magma monster''s anger rose to its peak. That single punch infuriated him as he never expected that a weak person like Theo could hit him.


    "Fine. I''m going to seriously kill you now, humans. I hope that you don''t die that easily because I won''t be able to enjoy your agony." The magma demonughed.


    Suddenly, ck rocks came out of the magma as they flew toward the monster''s back.


    They were forming a long line of ck rock that was attached by the magma. And the worst part was the fact there were around six of them created by the magma monster.


    As soon as they finished, those long shafts of magma and crystal rock attached themselves to the monster''s back.


    Then, the magma monster raised his left hand as another wave of ck rock appeared, forming a curved shaft.


    Theo was confused at first, but when the magma suddenly appeared in both ends, connecting the shaft two tips like that of a string, he realized that the monster was creating a bow.


    ''Holy sh*t!'' Theo widened his eyes, not being able to believe what he had just seen. This might be the monster''s battle form, he thought.


    The battle form that was only a General ss Monster or above could have.


    The magma monster didn''t stop there. He pointed the bow at Theo, preparing to shoot them.


    The monster''s right hand pulled back and grabbed the long shaft made of rock and magma, pulling it forward.


    ''Wait a minute. That''s not a rod but an arrow?'' Theo clenched his fists and raised both hands, trying to find a way to stop this kind of attack.


    The magma monster pulled the bow and aimed at Theo along with the Cubicar behind him.


    Maya felt something was wrong and turned around, only to find that giant monster aiming its bow toward them. In that instant, her face went pale.


    She had seen the monster''s power when Theo deflected all of them and she knew Theo barely did that. With the monster releasing this concentrated power at the speed of an arrow, the destruction would be enormous. She thought, ''No, no�� You''re joking.''


    Theo gulped down as he didn''t know whether he could even stop an attack like this. "You serious?"

 Chapter 765 – God Killing Spear?

    <h4>Chapter 765 - God Killing Spear?</h4>


    "Theo! What is that?!" Maya shouted, panicking that her Cubicar would be destroyed.


    Ava leaped to Theo''s shoulder and prepared to deal with it.


    Meanwhile, Theo''s mind somehow became even cooler when he was facing this situation.


    It felt like his thought process went smoothly and quickly.


    Three seconds felt like thirty seconds for him to think.


    ''Should I use my Magic Power Expansion? No. That won''t be able to deflect it because of the ck rock. Unlike the magma, they''re hard to deflect with that kind of speed.


    ''Then should I make a shield? It should be a sturdy shield. The dwarf''s shield should be able to withstand that kind of impact�� However, the force from the rocks will break my bone and the magma will be hot enough to burn me.


    ''I can''t touch that attack no matter what. At the same time, I can''t really avoid it even if I want to. The Cubicar is at stake. Moving them with Telekinesis is also useless because the monster can aim at it, knowing I will protect it no matter what.


    ''So, I need to block it no matter how hard it is. But how? I can''t make something small to disperse it because the rock won''t be dispersed. I need something strong enough to shatter those rocks.''


    Theo was perplexed as he couldn''t think of something to block this kind of attack. He wanted to ask Ava and Maya to concentrate their power, but at the same time, it might harm them in the process.


    Suddenly, an idea came into his mind.


    What he needed was a powerful attack that could contain the arrow. And he mustn''t touch the arrow, so there was one image in his mind that could withstand this attack.


    He sucked a cold breath and bit his lips. Out of the techniques he could probably use, it turned out he needed the power that made his mother famous.


    Back when he was searching for his parents'' clues, he stumbled upon a technique that made his mother famous.


    It was the God Killing Spear. The spear was filled with a huge amount of Magic Power.


    And because of the size of the spear, it wasn''t easy for the magma to melt everything down. At the same time, the pointed tip and the spear''s handle were able to shatter the rock crystal.


    It was a perfect technique to stop this arrow. However, he felt ufortable using her technique.


    There might be a way if Ava used her battle form, but it was too soon. He wanted to hide it from Maya for a little longer.


    He also didn''t know whether Maya had something strong enough to deal with this kind of arrow. So, he gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn''t do anything to stop it other than embracing something he hated.


    "FUUUCCCKKK!" Theo shouted, startling everyone, including Ava.


    The magma monster thought Theo had given up after noticing he couldn''t stop his attack.


    However, Theo didn''t wait any longer. He used his Magic Augmentation to invoke his Magic Power.


    With this strong power, he created Magic Bullets that merged into one, shaping into a bigger form.


    In that instant, he formed a spear as the foundation of this attack. Then, he used his Magic Power to provide a cover for the spear, trap andpress the air, and increase the size of his spear.


    The magma monster was stunned when he saw a huge spear on top of Theo''s head. The spear size was the same as his arrow, but the length was a bit shorter than his.


    Theo created this spear with as much as Magic Power he could exert along with all his control. In other words, if someone suddenly attacked Theo, he had no way to stop it.


    When Maya saw this spear, she couldn''t help but recall the information about Theo, specifically his mother. She muttered in a low voice, "God Killing Spear��"


    Theo waved his hand as if throwing the spear.


    Seeing the spear flying toward him, the magma monster immediately released his arrow at the spear.


    He felt the spear might have the capability of hurting him, so it was better to take it down first.


    The spear and arrow flew toward each other.


    Their sh was extraordinary.


    On the lower side, the sky felt like they were colored by the color of Theo''s spear, which was blue. On the upper side, the atmosphere was filled with heat.


    When they witnessed this sh, it felt like the air had split into two.


    Even Maya gasped, never expecting to see something this powerful.


    ''God Killing Spear is a Divine Ability created by the Valkyrie. Its power is extraordinary�� Although Theo is replicating it, and there''s no way it''s at the level of Divine Ability, this power is still��'' Maya gulped down.


    She knew that Theo had put everything he had in this spear.


    The magma started melting the spear tip and continued to move to the inside. But the spear didn''t go down without a fight.


    It shattered the rocks and dispersing the magma to the surroundings, preventing it from hitting the Cubicar.


    Because of the vtility of the magma and the Magic Power, the spear and arrow looked like they were consuming each other.


    Suddenly, Theo fell on his knees and started clutching his chest, gasping for air. He truly had put everything into this to the point he couldn''t even release his clone because he couldn''t spare a bit of his attention to his clone.


    The magma monster was shocked that Theo could exert power beyond his imagination.


    Unfortunately for Theo, no matter how hard he tried, the gap between the magma monster and him was simply too far.


    The magma arrow swallowed the spear and still retained twenty percent of its length.


    Theo gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn''t win despite all that.


    Maya hurriedly turned around and joined her robotic hands together. They then fused and formed a big giant hole in the middle.


    "sma Cannon! Fire!" Maya shot a blue-colored light toward the remaining arrow, dispersing the remaining magma.


    And she still had some power left to hit the magma monster.


    Thetter simply pped it with its hand as the remaining from the sma Cannon couldn''t bepared to Theo''s spear.

 Chapter 766 – Ava Steps Up

    <h4>Chapter 766 - Ava Steps Up</h4>


    The magma monster was shocked to see someone as powerful as Theo. He could clearly sense the Magic Power he possessed, so it was weird for Theo to release this kind of might.


    Maya nced at him. Although Theo still had his Magic, the earlier took a toll on his mind.


    Even so, he rose back up and red at the magma monster, nning to continue their battle. But to everyone''s surprise, the magma monster stopped, staring at Theo''s determined eyes.


    This period of silence confused Ava and Maya, wondering whether the magma monster nned to attack again or not.


    However, their worst fear came three minutes after that silence.


    The magma monster raised his bow again and pointed his arrow at them. "I know that you can use it again. This time, let''s see whoes out on top."


    "!!!" Maya raised her eyebrows, taken aback by the sudden change of temperament from the monster. If it was the normal him, the monster would certainlye for Theo''s life without hesitation. Yet, the monster seemed to seek a battle between them.


    Theo gritted his teeth and used his Magic Augmentation again before creating the giant Magic Bullet, shaping it into a spear.


    He did all the previous steps like earlier, but this time, Theo felt his mind a bit refreshed.


    It might be because this was the second time he used this, so he got used to it a little bit, but Theo decided not to use anything more for this spear.


    They both pointed their weapons toward each other and released them at the same time. There was a reason why Theo didn''t use everything in his possession.


    Right before they shot, Theo used his Vision to send his killing intent to the monster.


    The monster was surprised because he didn''t expect him to sense his own death at thest second.


    Luckily for him, he released the arrow at the right trajectory or else, he would miss while allowing Theo''s spear to reach him.


    The same thing happened. Theo''s spear lost against the arrow. But unlike the previous time, Maya didn''t have anything to shoot down this arrow anymore.


    Theo immediately sent his clone forward and used Magic Augmentation and Magic power Expansion to knock the remaining arrow to the ground.


    As a result, the clone was reduced to ashes because of the extreme heat.


    "��" The magma monster became even more silent. No one knew why his temperament suddenly changed after fighting Theo''s spear.


    Theo was searching for a reason why the magma monster suddenly became like this. If he was enraged, he should show it to him. Changing his approach like this made Theo feel something was going on.


    His doubt was soon answered in the worst way possible.


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    The volcano suddenly started rumbling.


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes and looked around, wondering what was happening.


    "Kyu!" Ava pointed at the volcano while trembling.


    The volcano abruptly erupted and spewed out all the materials inside.


    "Hahahaha!" The magma monster finallyughed as he couldn''t contain it anymore.


    He was indeed surprised by Theo''s power, so he realized it was hard to kill Theo with ordinary means. Hence, he stopped for a moment and acted like he respected Theo.


    In the meantime, he was gathering the power inside the volcano to send it outside.


    As soon as the materials from the volcano came out, the magma monster raised both hands and formed another arrow. Unlike the previous arrow, the rockpletely filled up the arrow and the magma glued them together from the outside as if bing the casing for the arrow.


    "I''ve been waiting for this." The magma smirked and raised his bow again to shoot Theo again. And due to arge amount of magma and ck rock, there was no way Theo''s spear was enough to handle his arrow, let alone with Theo in this condition. "You''re good, human. I admit that. However, you''re going to be buried here."


    Theo bit his lips and nced. "Do you have something that can destroy such power?"


    "I only have the sma Cannon, but I need to reload it." Maya shook her head. Her heart was beating like crazy, wondering why a ce without a single Supreme Monster actually had a monster this powerful hiding inside the volcano.


    As much as she wanted to me the mission, she realized no one could be med for this.


    There was regret reflected in her eyes as she stated, "We''ll abandon the Cubicar. This way, we should be able to escape."


    Theo widened his eyes as he realized there was no other way. If they didn''t have Cubicar, they should be able to leave this ce safely as it was hard for the magma monster to aim at them.


    Ava leaped to Theo''s shoulder as if making her presence known.


    "Ava?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "I can stop the arrow once. However, that''s my limit. If you can''t get a solution by that time, then we''re out of option," said Ava while looking at the magma monster. It seemed he was pouring as much as Magic Power he could put inside the arrow, so they still had some time.


    "You can talk?" Maya widened her eyes, never expecting Ava to have this kind of secret.


    Ava ignored her reaction and leaped off Theo''s shoulder, transforming to her battle form.


    "!!!" The magma monster widened his eyes when he saw another monster like him who had acquired their battle form.


    "Moon Constetion." Ava raised her hands and summoned five lightning balls. However, unlike the previous time she summoned them, these lightning balls seemed to have several patterns on them.


    "Hahaha! So, there is another one like me! However, you''re still too weak!" The magma monsterughed, stopped what he was doing, and began pulling the bow.


    "Roar!" Ava let out an earth-shattering roar that resounded across the entire forest. As one would expect from a General ss monster, the monsters lower than them immediately came to a halt as if theyplied with Ava''s order.


    "I''ll be your opponent from this point on, Magma Bastard." Ava red at him with her bloodshot eyes.


    Even though Ava had promised to take on this power, Theo still gritted his teeth as he couldn''t find another way to block an arrow like this for the second time.


    ''What should we do? Should webine all our power to attack the arrow?'' Theo took a deep breath.


    Suddenly, an unexpected helper came out.


    [It''s my turn!]

 Chapter 767 – Struggle

    <h4>Chapter 767 - Struggle</h4>


    [It''s my turn!]


    ''Eh?'' Theo widened his eyes, shocked. Because there were only a few words, he didn''t know who sent this message.


    [Still, this is why you''re too pathetic. Have you forgotten what I said about your illusion back then? How much have you wielded your illusion power?]


    When he read those words, he came to realize that the one talking right now was none other than the God of Mischief.


    Theo immediately recalled the time when he first copsed and needed to be sent to the hospital. There, he met the God of Mischief who was using Alea''s body, telling him that he was utilizing only five percent of his Illusion Maniption''s power.


    [Well, you''ve worked hard, so I will say it again. You have wielded 25 percent of its power now. However, you suck.]


    Theo gritted his teeth. ''You haven''t taught me anything about Illusion. All I have learned from you is about Reality and Illusion.''


    [I''ve told you everything. You''re the one who doesn''t understand it.]


    ''Huh?'' Theo was confused.


    [I guess I will repeat it for you since I''m nice. And I''ll make it quick because you don''t have much time left.]


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched, but he didn''t refute him.


    [I have given you a task to understand how to make an illusion a reality. Depending on your target, you will also need to cast the illusion to yourself.]


    [You need to keep improving your mastery and use your brain to ovee the so-called absolute power. Tell them that tricks can defeat absolute power as well.]


    ''I know that you want me to defeat that guy with illusion, but it''s not possible. He''s a Supreme Rank Monster and his perception of Magic Power is far too powerful. Illusion won''t work!'' Theo gritted his teeth.


    [I''ll give you a hint. The so-called Supreme Rank Expert can only see the fluctuation of Magic Power. They''re not able to identify that power like the eyes you possess now. Tell me, if you attack someone, do you think about yourself or think about your opponent?]


    ''My opponent of course. I''m going to defeat or kill my opponent after all.''


    [Then why haven''t you done something like that with your illusion?]


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and sucked a cold breath. His body trembled as Theo had just gotten enlightenment.


    While he was in deep thought, Ava had raised all her stars and created a pentagram.


    The patterns were glowing and the stars were releasing lightning. All five of them were connected and formed a bolt of lightning in the middle.


    "Hmm?!" The magma monster frowned when he felt the power from the lightning. "Do you think you can defeat my arrow with that kind of power? The spear he created was stronger than yours!"


    Ava didn''t say anything and shot the lightning.


    The magma monster also released his arrow after having inserted 95 percent of his power into this one arrow.


    The arrow flew straight at Ava''s bolt of lightning. The moment they shed, a powerful shock wave shook the entire region.


    The magma arrow was trying to melt the lightning while thetter tried to shatter all the rock within the arrow while dispersing the magma.


    As the monster said, Ava''s lightning was weaker than Theo''s spear. After destroying fifty percent of the arrow, the lightning waspletely evaporated.


    "Ava!" Maya raised her weapon, preparing to shoot the arrow to buy Ava some time.


    However, Ava had yet to give up. She raised all the lightning stars and formed a shield.


    Those five lightning balls couldn''t be melted by the intense heat and were strong enough to shatter the rocks.


    Still, the rock''s momentum kept pushing her back. Even her stars started cracking.


    "You''re still not strong enough!" The magma monsterughed.


    *ng!*


    The first star finally broke apart as Ava closed her right eye, feeling the pain. These stars were like her body parts, so getting them broken sent an extreme pain into her mind.


    "Kh." Ava gritted her teeth and continued holding the arrow back.


    Then, the second star shattered into pieces, followed by the third, the fourth, and the fifth stars.


    "No!" Ava shouted as she hadn''t stopped the entire arrow.


    Maya hurriedly moved toward Ava to protect her. However, Theo suddenly grabbed her hand, stopping her.


    He summoned his clone and jumped forward.


    "I''m not going down!" Ava shouted. Blood starteding out of her mouth as if she had received some injuries. She released all her lightning from her body and formed another bolt of lightning.


    The bolt of lightning flew forward and struck the remaining arrow.


    Boom.


    An explosion urred the instant the two shed, but luckily, that explosion was enough to disperse the remaining rocks and magma from the surroundings.


    The explosion produced a powerful shock wave that blew Ava away.


    "Kh!" Ava felt awful because he couldn''t win against a single arrow from another General ss Monster. She was aware that her power wasn''t enough to close the gap between them. When the future looked bleak, someone stopped her with a touch on her back.


    "!!!" Ava gritted her teeth and turned around, finding Theo floating behind her.


    "I''ll take care of this." Theo smiled.


    "Haha. You finallye out. Still, do you think you can handle my power? It''s useless. You won''t be able to escape this ce alive!" The magma monster shouted.


    "Shut up." Theo red at him, sending a massive killing intent with his Vision.


    The magma monster was startled as though he felt the change in Theo.


    "It seems I''ve fallen too low. To think a mere Supreme Rank Monster dares to look down on me." Theo smiled. His eye color changed from blue to white. They even started glowing as though Theo was possessed by someone.


    "Hmm?" The magma monster was perplexed by this sudden change. Just in case, he took out the arrow on his back.


    Theo threw his spear away before taking out the blue artifact.


    "I admit you''re strong, but it doesn''t mean you have the ability to kill me. I praise you for making mee to the surface." Theo grinned as he raised his finger�� "Come."

 Chapter 768 – Creating Reality?

    <h4>Chapter 768 - Creating Reality?</h4>


    "Who are you?!" The magma monster widened his eyes. He could see the fluctuation in Theo''s Magic Power, making him believe Theo was possessed by someone.


    "Who I am is not important. All you need to know is that I''ll kick your ass." Theo smiled and flew forward.


    The magma monster hurriedly took the arrow on his back, not bothering to channel more of his power into it anymore. After all, he felt Theo was somewhat different, so he wanted to check the level of power first.


    Seeing that arrow, the possessed Theo raised his spear as if nning to meet the arrow head-on.


    He utilized his Magic Power Expansion and channeled it into his blue spear.


    "You''re arrogant. Who do you think you are!" The magma monster shouted and released the arrow.


    Theo smiled and used his Blink to teleport to the side, avoiding the arrow.


    Because the Cubicar continued moving, the arrow missed the Cubicar. Theo had even positioned himself a bit to the left, so the arrow had a higher chance of missing the Cubicar.


    Without giving him an opportunity, Theo reached the magma monster.


    He looked at the monster with his glowing white eyes, saying, "It seems that you have taken a liking in using your bow. How about I destroy it for you?!"


    Theo waved his spear to the side and sent a powerful shock wave toward the bow.


    "!!!" The magma monster was bewildered. Theo wasn''t this bold previously, so he thought he still had the upper hand.


    Just like before, he tried to burn Theo with his fire tornado.


    He raised his hand to call his fire tornado from the fire below, but Theo didn''t give him that chance.


    "Yeah, yeah. I know your hand." Theo smiled and waved his spear once again.


    This was the time something no one could ever expect happened.


    Bam.


    The hand was suddenly split right at the shoulder.


    "What?!" The monster was shocked to see Theo wielding this much power.


    Theo raised his hand and controlled the hand with his Telekinesis, so it kept floating right next to his body. "Hmm. Your hand is now useless."


    Because of the loss of the feeling of his hand, the magma bow disappeared as there was no more Magic Power running into it.


    "You�� Who are you?" The monster was taken aback because Theo wasn''t supposed to have this power. Even with a split personality, it shouldn''t be at this level.


    "What''s wrong? You were so proud earlier, so I thought you were good. But I seemed to have misjudged you." Theo snorted and raised his spear.


    He then waved it down and cut the magma body from the right shoulder to the fire tornado that became the monster''s bottom half.


    "What?!" Maya dropped her jaw to the ground. Even Agata couldn''tprehend what had happened. "How does he be so strong? The way he talks has changed too! Is this Theo''s second personality? Or is this the power of his God? Does his God possess him to fight this monster?"


    Agata also had the same question. Even though she couldn''t hear them, she knew Theo wasn''t supposed to have this kind of power.


    "So, this is Theo''s blessing. Can you even control my body?" Agata muttered in a low voice, asking Aphrodite about this.


    [No. That boy turns out to be more amazing than I imagine. He is turning his illusion into a reality�� No, should I say he''s creating his own reality?]


    "What do you mean by��" Agata shivered. "��he''s creating his own reality?"


    [Your illusion level is too low for this. All I can say, this is the peak power of an illusion. The skill I gave you previously has this potential, but I don''t know if you can reach this level.]


    Agata was shocked as she had never thought an illusion could do something like this.


    Ava shared the same confusion. She had witnessed Theo''s growth this whole time. If the spear he created in order to stop the arrow was something within her imagination, this power far surpassed anything she had imagined.


    Theo wasn''t supposed to be able to wield this level of power. At the very least, not yet.


    But there was no doubt in Theo''s voice as if he actually had hidden this kind of power. And everything was due to his second personality.


    Meanwhile, Theo smirked and asked, "You acted like someone important even though I wanted to spare you. But since you didn''t give me an escape route, you left me no choice other than to use this power. Embarrassing."


    "What are you talking about?!"


    On the other hand, the magma monster was confused about what was happening. His hand was severed and his body was cut.


    He couldn''t feel anything from them anymore because of it.


    Suddenly, Theo stopped for a moment and looked at the magma monster. "How do you like it? How about you beg for your life now?"


    "You won''t be able to defeat me without paying any price. I''ll drag you down with me!" The monster gritted his teeth as his body started glowing.


    In that instant, Theo turned around and threw his spear as hard as he could to the one on top of the Cubicar.


    "What?!" The magma monster was perplexed by his action.


    And his answer came right after as Theo raised his middle finger and stuck out his tongue. "Bye, motherfucker."


    In that instant, Theo disappeared. If this was all, then it wouldn''t be that surprising.


    What stunned the magma monster was how he suddenly felt his hand and body again as if the previous feeling never existed.


    In other words, what he felt earlier was just an illusion. And Theo had bought enough time for the Cubicar to gain enough distance from the volcano.


    As for how Theo could trick him, the magma monster would never know. After all, even Theo''s friends had no knowledge about this. But there was one thing he certainly knew, Theo had fooled him.


    "HUUUMMMAAANN!"

 Chapter 769 – Finish

    <h4>Chapter 769 - Finish</h4>


    No matter how angry the monster had be, everything was toote. No monsters would be able to catch up with them, and with this kind of distance, Theo could add his Telekinesis in order to move the Cubicar faster to avoid the arrow.


    So, nothing could be done. The magma monster was forced to swallow his anger.


    Theo''s condition wasn''t that good either. As soon as they avoided the worst, he fell on his butt and let out a long sigh. "I was too weak."


    ''Too weak?'' Maya''s eyebrows twitched as sheined inwardly, ''If you''re too weak, I''m trash. Not only can your Illusion fool a Supreme Rank Expert, but your rabbit is also a General ss Monster. If anyone knows about this, I''m afraid it''s going to be hard for you to continue your daily life.''


    Theo looked at Maya and said precisely what she was thinking. "I''m sure you know what to do, right?"


    "Don''t worry. I won''t tell anyone. Besides, If I tell someone about this, I''m afraid you''re going to aim at my business." Maya rolled her eyes.


    Before she continued, Theo turned around and checked Ava''s condition. "Ava. How is your body?"


    Ava shook her head. "I don''t think I''ll be able to help you for the time being. I''m going to repair my broken stars first with my Order. Since it''s not that powerful yet, the repair will only take approximately a month. Within that time, I will only spend my time recovering, eating, and sleeping."


    "I understand. Take your time." Theo nodded and stroked her head. "Sorry for making you do all this."


    "It''s fine." Ava waved her foot. "It seems you''ve got something good during that fight."


    "Well��" Theo looked away before sighing. There seemed to be a disappointment in his eyes.


    Maya was listening attentively, curious about Theo''s new power. It looked so powerful after all.


    "You don''t need to say anything since we have different abilities, unlike you and Agata. It''s not like I need to exin my ability to you. Still, I assume your new ability can help you more?"


    "Yes," Theo answered without hesitation.


    "That''s enough for me. We''ll adjust our sequence of actionster." Ava smiled.


    "Of course." Theo extended his hand as Ava touched his fist with her foot like a fistbump.


    After that, she looked down and said, "I''m going to rest first."


    "Yep. Take your time."


    Then, Ava leaped to the door and opened it herself, leaving Theo and Maya alone.


    Since the monsters had moved toward the volcano, there weren''t any monsters in the area, allowing them to have a rxed time.


    Theo took a deep breath and nced at Maya. "It seems you have many things to say."


    "Ahaha." Maya scratched the back of her head. "To be honest, I am shocked that Ava turns out to be a General ss Monster. Do you know what this means? You''re among the top Summoners in the entire world.


    "There are less than twenty people in the entire world who have a General ss Monster under them. And among them, only two people manage to surpass that level and get a King ss Monster.


    "They''re an expert of their own because the General ss monster and King ss Monster could rule an entire area, forcing the monsters to stop. Fighting them on the other side means you need to fight their whole army."


    Listening to her exnation made him a bit ufortable. Although he had thought about it, he never wanted to go that way. After all, Ava was his partner, not his tool. Unless necessary, there wouldn''t be something like that.


    His expression became cold and stopped Maya.


    Maya immediately raised both hands as if she had surrendered and wouldn''t continue talking about it.


    "Anyway, Ava''s information is ssified."


    "Don''t worry. Only me who has that information. So, if it somehow spreads, it''s my fault." Maya shrugged.


    "Well, you''ll know about it sooner orter. So, yeah." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Hmm?" Maya raised her eyebrows. From his words alone, it was clear that Theo nned to join her Starry Group after everything was over. She couldn''t help but smile. "I''ll be waiting for you then."


    "Heh, there may be some good options for meter." Theo smirked, teasing her.


    "Come on. My Starry Group is the best. I can tell you everything good about mypany."


    "Alright, alright. Stop it. I''ll take a look at itter. Besides, I do think that your Starry Group alone won''t be able to pay my sry." Theo smirked.


    "Don''t worry. My father can." She stuck her tongue out.


    "Anyway, I''m a bit tired. Can I ask you to guard the Cubicar for an hour or two? I need to refresh my mind."


    "Sure. Ask Agata to prepare herself too. I''ve used most of my bullets to deal with the horde earlier, so I need to refill it. Also, it''s time for us to go down." She nodded while pointing to the ground, indicating that they needed to deactivate the Turbo Mode.


    "Okay." Theo then entered the Cubicar, leaving her alone on the roof. The huge spear and illusion truly took a toll on his mind, so he didn''t feel like fighting anymore.


    When he entered the room, he saw Ava sleeping on the top bed and Agata staring at him as though she had expected him toe in sooner orter.


    "How are you doing?" Theo smiled.


    "I felt awful," Agata answered without hesitation. "I couldn''t help with anything during the fight."


    "Well, I wanted the clone to drive, but you were already in that position, so it was better not to change until we were safe."


    "I know that."


    "Anyway, let my clone drive the Cubicar."


    "You should sit down first and take some rest. You''re in no condition to drive, especially in this terrain. Let me take care of it for the time being." Agata thought for a moment and asked, "And�� if you don''t mind, can you tell me what happened earlier?"


    "Earlier?" Theo frowned, wondering whether it was alright or not. "I don''t mean to be rude, but your skill is not at this level yet. It''s better to focus on improving it first."


    "I know. I won''t use this power for the time being. I just want to listen�� Maybe I can get some inspiration from this? Who knows." Agata paused for a moment�� "But if you think it''s not good, then I won''t ask you anymore."

 Chapter 770 – Four Factors

    <h4>Chapter 770 - Four Factors</h4>


    After thinking for a moment, Theo decided to share his experience with her. Her improvement should also increase the chance of surviving in the wilderness, so there was no reason to keep something like this away from her.


    She might even do something stupid just to satisfy her curiosity, so Theo believed talking to her would be the best approach. And unlike anyone else, Agata was still learning from him, so there was no problem teaching her.


    "Well, did you see what I did?" Theo asked.


    "More or less."


    "In that case, let me hear your thoughts first."


    "First of all, you chose to attack the magma demon right after Ava blocked his arrow. This way, he had no time to draw another arrow�� the powerful one. In the end, he used the normal arrow and shot you.


    "You used Blink to pass through while using his clone to push this Cubicar away with Telekinesis.


    "Then, you utilized your illusion�� Illusion Maniption�� I''m not very sure about this one. Anyway, you somehow cut him with this Illusion Maniption and made the monster believe it.


    "I learned that you were actually making your own reality. However, I couldn''t understand the concept."


    Theo looked down, contemting for a moment. "Alright. You''re correct with the timing stuff. As for the illusion, yes, I''m using my Illusion Maniption.


    "Supreme Rank Monsters can see and sense our Magic Power, right?"


    "Yes. That''s what confused me. I don''t know how you could make him believe something like that."


    "There is a catch here." Theo raised his finger and waved it down.


    Suddenly, Agata''s hand was separated from her body and stayed afloat next to it.


    "Aaahhh!" Agata screamed in pain as her face became pale. She thought this was an illusion, but the pain and the loss of control of her entire hand felt real.


    "Alright. I''m sorry." Theo waved his hand, canceling his illusion. "To be honest, it''s better for you to feel it yourself."


    "Ha�� Ha��" Her panting voice started to echo inside the Cubicar.


    "You should feel the pain and lose control of your hand, right?" Theo asked for confirmation.


    "Y-yes. But can you warn me a bit?"


    "As I said, I''m sorry. It''s better this way." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Your brain didn''t prepare for it, so the reaction and feel looked more realistic."


    Agata took a deep breath to calm her down and said, "I still don''t understand."


    "If you were a Supreme Rank Expert, you would be able to sense your Magic Power and realize it was just an illusion. However, it was different if I set everything as reality.


    "First of all, I cast an illusion into your head, making you think this was the reality. How? By destroying your most brittle part�� For the magma monster, his bow.


    "However, that alone was an illusion. I made his brain think I''d cut his bow by sending a wave of Magic Power to the bow. And you should have sensed that pain, right? This was the second trick. You needed something to manipte their senses, whether it was real or not.


    "After that, I kept sending more Magic Power into those parts like the monster''s arm and body. The reason why I kept them looking afloat next to you was to make them think I cut it while maintaining that chunk of Magic Power.


    "Removing his hand would mean erasing that chunk of Magic Power, resulting in him realizing something was wrong and my entire illusion getting disrupted. In this case, I didn''t need to erase that Magic Power, which was good for me.


    "Anyway, there are four major points you need to know to create this. They are Magic Power, Senses, and your opponent''s brain."


    Agata frowned and said, "That''s three. What''s the fourth?"


    Theo smiled, recalling what the God of Mischief told him earlier.


    [Depending on your target, you will also need to cast the illusion to yourself.]


    Because the magma monster had witnessed all his power, it was necessary to act like he was someone else. So, he cast that illusion into himself, thinking he was someone else.


    "Your brain." Theo smirked. "If you didn''t believe it was real, then it wouldn''t be real."


    "Ehm��" Agata tilted her head in confusion.


    "I''m not very sure about this, but I''ll keep these four in my mind." Agata nodded with a serious expression. "Magic Power, Senses, and their brains."


    She looked down and sighed, knowing that everything would change the moment she reached Supreme Rank Monsters.


    In fact, if the six people she defeated right after leaving the gate were Supreme Rank Experts, she wouldn''t be able to do anything other than relying on her pink smoke to create a weapon.


    "Well, take your time. First, improve your Control, Awareness, and Illusion Ability."


    "I understand. I''ll work on them." She nodded with a serious expression, determined to be far stronger in the illusion section.


    "Alright. That''s all I can say." Theo waved his hand and summoned his clone. "Let me take over. We should leave the forest area soon, right?"


    "Yes. Approximately in three minutes." Agata confirmed. "It was truly a hectic day. Not only did we need to stop our hunt in this area, but we almost died because of this unknown variable."


    "Ahaha, do you hate it and want to me someone?" Theo made a gentle smile.


    "Not really. They''re an unknown factor for a reason. Instead of getting angry at someone, it''s better to think about our next course. For now, Maya should have leveled up a few times. Her level might even surpass me because of the number of monsters she killed during the escape.


    "So, I believe both of us can reach Supreme Rank in the next destination if we take a detour. Should we take one?"


    Theo thought for a moment. "I''ll talk with Maya about this."


    "Alright."


    Theo then rxed next to the bed while closing his eyes. Although he had told her the factors to create something like that, his skill was still the biggest factor in turning the illusion into reality.


    And he was going to review his own performance, making sure he would do everything right next time.

 Chapter 771 – Reflecting

    <h4>Chapter 771 - Reflecting</h4>


    While waiting for Agata to drive them to the nd where he could take over, Theo was sitting next to the bed while closing his eyes.


    He had a few things he didn''t share with Agata.


    ''I should have done it better. If not because of my Grandmaster Level Control, I wouldn''t be able to create this powerful illusion. After all, I needed to assimte my own Magic Power into the illusion.


    ''If I didn''t do something like this, Supreme Rank Experts would realize they were inside my illusion, and everything would be far harder at this point.


    ''Well, I believe my training with Goddess Hel contributed to my current level. Without her killing me, I wouldn''t know the pain of severed arms, dying, and other scenarios.


    ''Still, do I really need to thank someone for torturing me? It''s true that this thing helps me, but it''s painful.'' Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. Mixed emotions filled his heart.


    In the end, he thanked Hel for torturing him. After all, there would be too much loss he needed to suffer if he never experienced it.


    The magma monster or Agata wouldn''t feel the loss of their arms, resulting in them breaking the illusion in a matter of seconds.


    ''Magic Power and Senses, huh. This is what I told Agata earlier�� Control and Awareness. These two things need to be improved tremendously.


    ''I also need to add Breathing Technique. I think this is why the Empress told me that if I want to be good at illusion, I need to improve my Breathing Aspect immediately. By releasing that amount of Magic Power through breathing, I could control and assimte them to my illusion.


    ''This way, even Supreme Rank Experts won''t be able to see it. I don''t know about Mythical Rank Experts though. Maybe I should ask Sir Leonardo about thister.


    ''Also, I can see the skills description. This ability allows me to understand how skills work. So, I can predict what will happen if a simr skill is used.


    ''So, yeah, I don''t think many people can utilize the illusion like me. I''m not very sure though.''


    Theo paused for a moment. ''I guess this is clear. I have three objectives: Control, Awareness, and Breathing. Only then can I master my illusion.''


    Theo let out a sigh, seeing that his day would be upied with training again.


    After thinking for a while, Theo remembered. He had met them six times. The first one would be his meeting with the serpent, telling him about his ability to upgrade skills while giving him the Blink Skill.


    The second one was when he got a skill from Fenrir, Telekinesis. Fenrir didn''t talk too much at that time since the serpent was the one telling him a few things.


    As for the third time, the God of Mischief actually invited himself and met him when he was hospitalized. There, he learned about illusion even though he couldn''t understand the true meaning of his words.


    After a long fight in the grandpetition, he finally met Fenrir again and received his guidance about Control. The more he progressed, the more he learned that Fenrir taught him more than he imagined.


    As for the fifth one, he received his Metamorphosis and became a Hero Rank Expert. There were a few guidances that he hadn''t deciphered yet.


    Last but not least, it was the special meeting with Goddess Hel where he learned many things about Awareness.


    When he recalled these few events, Theo came to a realization as he asked himself, ''Wait a minute. I think I should try to remember Fenrir''s guidance again. I''m too fixated on one form��


    ''That''s what I''ve been trying to change this whole time. For that, I''ve created various forms like a spear, thread, and other stuff. Now that I think about it, I haven''t used Magic Bullet as my illusion.


    ''I''ve put the Magic Bullet inside my illusion to camouge them, but I''ve never used them in a way where my opponent is wary of my Magic Bullets because it might be a mere illusion. I should incorporate this as well.


    ''It seems I can learn more from his teaching. Let''s continue��'' Theo paused for a moment and searched for what he could find more from Fenrir''s lesson.


    ''Well, I guess I''vepleted the task to use the in-motion�� He also told me that I''ve been using my Telekinesis together with the External Flow in a very straightforward way, copying Ne''s technique.


    ''And he taught me to do the same with all kinds of movements. The Wind Emperor allowed me to realize that. So, it''s good for now.


    ''Then, he talked about Blink�� I''ve used the Blink''s momentum all this time, but I think I can do more now that I''ve learned about illusion. Maybe I can step up my game with this, but we''ll see. I''m going to try these techniques during this trip.''


    He continued recalling his memory with Fenrir and Hel, realizing that there was so much stuff to learn.


    However, what he truly learned from them were two things. First, they taught him with the highest standard, and it was up to him whether he could learn everything or not.


    Second, they were pretty unique individuals.


    Fenrir was like a nagging older brother who keptining even though he cared for him.


    Jormungand was like a gentle uncle who always gave him motivation and lessons in order for him to improve. He used soft words, but he was surely someone who Theo didn''t want to anger.


    Hel was simr to an older sister. She taught him everything, but for a price. She was unique because she was the only one merciless enough to kill him in the most brutal way. Even Fenrir only killed him in an instant while Hel tortured him.


    As for Loki, Theo looked up to him like a father figure. His speech was unique, but he certainly had deep wisdom he always shared with him.


    All in all, he was truly blessed to have four great existences train him.

 Chapter 772 – New Power

    <h4>Chapter 772 - New Power</h4>


    After thinking about his lesson, Maya finally returned to the Cubicar.


    "We''re finally done." She let out a long sigh while putting off her armor. Without hesitation, she opened their storage and started refilling the weapons.


    Meanwhile, Theo said, "Anyway, we''re nning to slow down our pace and kill more enemies in our route. What do you think?"


    The n was clearly the only option to make up for the loss due to the magma monster. There wasn''t a single objectioning from Maya''s mouth.


    Instead, she asked, "Where is the flower?"


    Theo pointed at the corner. "It has cooled down."


    "That''s good. I don''t know how good the effect is before checking it in theb, but considering the difficulty in getting it�� Probably around one billion. Not very sure about that." Maya paused for a moment. "As for the route, I''ll just follow your n."


    Theo nodded and thought, "Well, because of this change, I''m afraid you and Agata will be around twenty levels short of the Supreme Rank."


    "It''s fine. The second destination is enough for me." She waved her hand like it wasn''t that big of a deal. Considering they still had the third destination, it was easy for her to ept this. "How about you?"


    "I might not be able to reach Supreme Rank Expert in the second destination. So, the third destination, I guess." Theo shrugged.


    "Alright. We''ll do it your way. As long as we all can reach Supreme Rank Experts, there won''t be any problem, right?"


    "Yeah."


    "That''s good then. Do you have anything to say to me about that magma monster?"


    "No. You obviously don''t know anything about it. Either way, I''m not going to put any me on you for that one." Theo raised both hands as if telling her that everything was alright.


    "Heh. If you work with a team, the team''s scout is in charge of assessing this kind of information. Normally, they''ll be med for this kind of mistake. And since I''m the one who invited you, I should be able to provide more information. For that, I apologize," said Maya with a serious expression.


    Maya seemed to take everything seriously, especially since Theo wasn''t someone under her. So, this was considered a grave mistake even if Theo didn''t say anything.


    If it wasn''t Theo, they would have demanded some ridiculous things forpensation.


    Hence, even if Theo forgave her, Maya nned topensate for this incident.


    As for whatpensation should be given, she would think of it after they returned.


    After agreeing to the n, Theo continued their way while slowing down their pace.


    There was another reason why Theo wanted to slow down. Ava needed time to recover, so it would be better if she recovered on the way.


    Unfortunately, even with all his ns, he couldn''t slow it down for more than two weeks. So, from the original three-day trip to the second destination, it became 17 days.


    After getting a good rest inside, Theo came out to take over, finally fighting without Ava on his side for the first time. At the same time, this was the opportunity to test his new ability against normal monsters, especially in a long and hard fight.


    There should be a vast difference between a one-on-one fight and one against many. Hence, Theo nned to use this opportunity to consolidate his skills.


    He soon found several monstersing toward them and immediately summoned his artifact because the gem on the spear allowed him to gain more control over his Magic Power. He didn''t have enough confidence to use his normal spear yet.


    Hended in front of the monsters with a serious expression, staring at the five monsters.


    "Well, you''re going to be my test subject." Theo smiled. This time, he had left his clone behind to focus on ying with these monsters.


    The monsters also didn''t hold back. They charged at him from different directions, trying to divide his attention.


    Theo smirked and lifted his left hand.


    Suddenly, sharp spikes came out of the ground.


    Not wanting to have their stomach pierced, all five of them leaped into the air.


    Theo then waved his spear, cutting all of their heads. Blood sttered like how they were supposed to be.


    The monsters were shocked because they never expected Theo could kill them in one instant.


    As if they didn''t wish to die, they gritted their teeth and opened their mouths.


    It was at this time the illusions were broken.


    "Tsk. It''s tough to use it against multiple people. I need to focus on many things." Theo clicked his tongue.


    If it was only one target, he had the confidence in replicating what he did to the magma monster. However, with more monsters, many details would need to be added to make the illusion look real.


    It was hard even for him to utilize it against multiple people. And once someone broke the illusion, it would make other monsters realize too.


    Seeing all his illusions disappear made him displeased as he used Blink to appear not far away from them.


    The monsters immediately chased after him, but Theo waved his hand, cutting a monster''s legs from afar.


    The monster lost control of its legs and stumbled to the ground.


    It was at this time the Magic Bullets rained him down and ultimately killed the monster. This was the first sess of his illusion.


    ''Heh. I''ve lost my limbs several times, so I know the emptiness you''ll feel when one of your limbs is gone. It''s normal to stumble.'' Theo thought with an evil smile on his face.


    The remaining four monsters didn''t even look back as they were thinking about avenging the one that died instead of mourning for him.


    Theo then looked at their surroundings and leaped back before snapping his fingers.


    Suddenly, two trees on his left and right were cut and started to fall down.


    The monsters panicked and immediately increased their speed to push through.


    Little did they know, the falling trees were nothing but an illusion. Theo smiled and muttered, "Alright�� Time to take them down."

 Chapter 773 – Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 773 - Illusion</h4>


    Suddenly, the tree disappeared, revealing that it was nothing but an illusion, startling the monsters.


    "!!!" The monsters suddenly slowed down to match the environment. However, Theo was already right in front of them.


    The monsters ultimately choose to focus on him, nning to kill him first before understanding what had happened.


    Theo clicked his tongue and summoned a blue shield.


    Two monsters pounced on him while destroying the blue shield.


    Unexpectedly, the moment they were about to strike the blue shield, it shattered into pieces like that of ss.


    "!!!" The monsters widened their eyes not because of why it shattered but due to the fact that these shattered pieces were floating in the air.


    This was actually not a ss or a shield. These shattered pieces were none other than Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    This was Theo''s strategy in order to trick the monsters.


    And he truly had done a brilliant job because the two monsters that attacked the blue shield were now surrounded by the shards, which turned out to be the smaller Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets hit their bodies, ultimately killing them.


    On the other hand, Theo had moved back, escaping from them. The blue shield was the answer he found when he recalled Fenrir''s teaching.


    He turned the Magic Bullets into a shield, tricking the opponent into thinking the shield would be able to block them. And when they actually aimed at his shield, they would be surrounded by Magic Bullets, and it was enough to kill them.


    Looking at the dying monsters, a smile appeared on his face.


    As if they were angered by the deaths, the remaining two monsters showed their aggression without any thought about another trap lying in ambush.


    Theo simply used his Illusion Construct to create multiple pirs on their path.


    The monsters avoided all of them instantly, showing their proficiency in going around the forest.


    Unfortunately for them, the pirs weren''t meant to slow them down. It was to hide another wave of Magic Bullets.


    Theo had sent another twenty Magic Bullets into the ground, and they came out right beneath those pirs. This way, the monsters didn''t realize there were multiple Magic Bullets waiting for them.


    And by the time they sensed them, it was already toote. The Magic Bullets had pierced their bodies, killing them.


    "Well, that''s it," Theo muttered in a low voice while looking at the monsters. "I don''t have any problem tricking Hero Rank Monsters. But a Supreme Rank Monster is harder to trick, let alone fighting multiple of them.


    "So, I need to get used to creating the illusion to the point I can handle multiple targets at once. My Control is enough to achieve this level. I only need to beat all this stuff into my body so thetter can produce it at the instinctual level." Theo assessed his own performance.


    Despite how easy it was to kill monsters higher level than him, he wasn''t satisfied.


    He took a deep breath and used his Telekinesis to send all the monsters to him before turning them into a card. After that, he returned to the Cubicar.


    Because they had slowed down their pace, Theo had more chances to fight monsters, allowing his understanding of illusion to grow by leaps and bounds.


    It continued for more than two weeks because they had finally reached their destination.


    Their second destination was the Moniac Dungeon in Moniac in, but because of the Cubicar, they needed to adjust their destination a bit.


    Maya had told them there was a facility that the Star Group built previously, so they headed to this ce to park their Cubicar.


    The facility was simr to that of a warehouse. The building stretched for over three hundred feet long.


    And due to the danger of being spotted by flying beasts easily, they only made a one-story building on the surface and hid everything else underground.


    Theo looked at this building and found a small door along with a huge garage door to the side.


    A middle-aged man opened the door with a serious expression, noticing the symbol on the Cubicar.


    "!!!" The middle-aged man stopped them to confirm their identity.


    Suddenly, Maya walked out of the Cubicar.


    "Hello. I''d informed you one month ago about my arrival. I believe the messenger should havee here, right?" Maya smiled, exining their situation.


    "Yes." The middle-aged man hurriedly replied. "I see. You were behind schedule, so I was confused earlier. I apologize."


    "Never mind that. Can you open the door for me? I''m going to park here." She waved her hand with a smile.


    "Certainly." The man nodded and returned to the inside. Soon, the huge garage door was opened, revealing what was inside.


    Theo, who was watching this from above the Cubicar, was surprised to know this ce wasn''t an artificial nest.


    He indeed found a path to go down, but that wasn''t filled with monsters. He also found a few Cubicar parked inside.


    "What are you doing? Come down here." Maya called him while asking Agata to park the Cubicar into one of the parking spots.


    Since they had arrived, Theo jumped off the Cubicar and asked, "What is this facility?"


    "Hmm�� This facility is simr to a rest area or a checkpoint." Maya answered while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "A checkpoint!" Theo soon understood what the purpose of this facility was.


    "Yeah. It''s like what you think. We have a few features here. There''s a training area, a recovery area, a dining area, and so on.


    "You can say this is like a hotel on the other side. Of course, the people from the Star Group can use this facility without paying anything. They can use this ce to restock their food and water and recover their injuries before going to another ce.


    "That''s why this is a huge benefit for any people who join the Star Group. If you''re not a member of the Star Group, you need to pay a huge price and inform this ce three months before your arrival��" She smiled before tempting him again. "So, how is it? It''s a very useful facility, right? It makes you want to join my Starry Group and affiliate yourself with the Star Group, right?"

 Chapter 774 – Hotel

    <h4>Chapter 774 - Hotel</h4>


    Hearing that question, Theo only shrugged his shoulders. "Other big groups should have something like this too."


    "Hmph. There aren''t many facilities like this on the other side. After all, we''re a weaponpany, so something like this is a must. We can offer weapons and bullets too." She harrumphed, not letting Theo look down on her facility.


    "Yeah, it''s great." Theo sighed.


    "Anyway, let''s bring Ava and Agata down. I''ll show you around. I think Ava will have a good time recovering in this ce," said Maya.


    "There are two weeks left for her recovery." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "If there is a room for us to stay, then Ava can stay there."


    "Don''t worry. This facility can hold about 300 people. So, there are many spots. Don''t worry about the food as well because we''re restocking them periodically." Maya exined. "That''s why there are workers in this ce."


    "Yeah, I can see that." Theo nodded as they walked toward the Cubicar to get Ava and Agata out.


    Ava hopped on Theo''s shoulder while Agata walked beside them. The middle-aged man from earlier came to them and greeted Maya. "Wee to the Star Hotel."


    "Thank you." Maya waved her hand with a smile. "We''re going down right now. Is everything prepared?"


    "Yes. Lady Maya can talk with the receptionist inside."


    "Great."


    Maya then led them underground while the middle-aged man stared at Theo''s back. Obviously, Maya had stated a VIP would being along with her, so he predicted it was Theo.


    After all, Theo was somewhat popr, while Agata had used her Mimicry to make sure no one recognized her.


    When they came in, Maya immediately went to the receptionist to get the key to their room.


    It seemed the room was divided per group instead of per person.


    Either way, there wasn''t that much of a problem with them sleeping together, so Maya led them straight to their room.


    As expected from a ''hotel'' on the other side, the moment they entered the room, they were greeted by a small living room with only a sofa and a huge table for them to have a meeting.


    There were multiple doors that led either to the bedrooms or bathrooms, considering they could order all the food they wanted here.


    "Treat it as your home. The rooms aren''t that big, but there are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and one living room in this ce. What can you expect from apact facility like this?


    "Anyway, all the rooms are like this, so even if my fatheres here, he will stay in this room too. But what makes it better is the dining area! There are chefs in charge of making our food.


    "There is also a recovery center. It''s at the hospital level�� They even have recovery pods. So, this ce is heavenly for those who are roaming around the area.


    "Also, there are at least two Mythical Rank Experts protecting this building, so we''re safe whether from monsters or humans," Maya exined.


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Can you send the food here? I mean, when Ava wants to eat, it''s not like she can go to the dining area, right?"


    "Yeah, sure. Since you''re with me, they will give you special treatment." Maya nodded. "Other than the food, what do you need?"


    This time, Maya asked Ava directly since she knew Ava could talk.


    "I only need food."


    "But you''re injured, right? Do you want to use the recovery pod?"


    "No. This injury can''t be healed by that stuff." She shook her head.


    "I see. So, just the food? The same schedule?"


    "Yes. That''ll be a great help."


    "It''s fine." She thought for a moment. "I''ll just inform them that a pet is sick and needs food at certain times. They will just put the food here, and you''ll take care of the rest."


    "Yes." Ava nodded.


    "Okay." She turned to Theo. "By the way, we''re not going to dive into the dungeon all the time, right? I mean, we surely go back here from time to time, right?"


    Theo sighed, knowing that she was nning to utilize thefortable bed and bathroom in this ce as much as possible. "Well, depending on the situation, we''ll only stay there two to three days at a time. But if the situation is a bit dangerous, it''ll be longer. However, it won''t exceed a week. How''s that?"


    "It''s bearable��" Maya pouted but didn''t reject the idea. It was hard for them toe and go as they pleased inside the dungeon, so she knew they needed to camp there at one point.


    But since it wouldn''t be that long, she could endure it.


    "There are multiple clothes for men and women inside the wardrobe. Just check the size, and you''re good to go. Or you can bring the clothes from our Cubicar to this ce too. Don''t forget to wash them too."


    Agata and Theo exchanged looks and couldn''t contain their smiles. Maya was too excited about this facility because it was indeed a luxury in a dangerous ce like this.


    "So, how many ''hotels'' do the Star Group have?"


    "You should know that there are three gates in the United States, right?"


    "Yes."


    "There are two facilities for each gate. My father''s ambition is to create another two for each gate to cover the east, north, west, and south of the cities.


    "Well, my Starry Group has two, but they''re not on these gates because my Starry Group is a ''BIT'' smaller than the Star Group."


    "Yeah, yeah. Thank you for the information." Theo nodded with a nonchnt expression. "If I join the Starry Group, will I receive this kind of benefit too from the Star Group''s hotel?"


    "Of course. We''re sharing our facilities. It makes the expansions easier. Also, if you fight in this ce, you''re forbidden to enter a facility like this for at least a year, even if you''re a shareholder in thepany. Only my family can beat people here." Maya smirked.


    Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Anyway, let me give you a tour." Maya smiled�� "We can sleep here tonight and go to the dungeon tomorrow."

 Chapter 775 – Moniac Dungeon

    <h4>Chapter 775 - Moniac Dungeon</h4>


    After the tour, they finally finished their matters and immediately had some sleep, preparing to hunt more monsters inside the Moniac Dungeon.


    The next day.


    They headed straight to the Moniac Dungeon on foot. On the way, Agata briefed him about the dungeon''s information.


    "The dungeon is huge and filled with traps. There are monsters everywhere, considering the dungeon is stretched to the underground. ording to some information, there''s a chance that this dungeon is connected to an underground nest. And this nest is connected to somewhere else." Agata exined with a serious expression while looking at the report.


    "Hmm? Is that the reason why there are so many monsters inside the dungeon?" Theo asked.


    "It seems to be that way." Maya nodded. "Unfortunately, no matter how hard they search, no one can find the connections."


    "They can''t? I mean, they should have brought some technology just to check whether there''s an underground cave or path, right?"


    "Yes. Even so, it''s impossible to find it." Maya paused for a moment. "But that ce has a powerful energy signature inside. This is why they''re allowing the public to excavate this ce.


    "The government wants them to find this energy signature. They believe this energy signature is the greatest treasure hidden inside the ce."


    "Hmm? Why don''t they send their own elites? I''m sure their elites are far better than normal people like us."


    "They had sent their elites in the past. However, there was nothing to be found." Agata was the one who answered while looking through the record. "So, the government told the public they were free to go there.


    "It was at this time the monsters began to appear. The previous empty dungeon was soon filled with monsters and killed all those people. The government sealed that ce again, but the monsters soon disappeared as if knowing they were in danger.


    "They had sent multiple Mythical Rank Experts, but eventually they gave up because they only found there was massive energy inside the dungeon but unable to locate it.


    "To be honest, it was better to destroy the entire dungeon, but the government chose not to destroy any structure in this ce, so there could be more research about it. And it might even be a tourist spot in the future�� Something like a museum or a national park.


    "Hence, the government opened the area for the public. Not only could it allow the people to gain opportunity and some levels, but they also made themselves look generous by granting them the right to use this dungeon. And this is the current situation of the dungeon.


    "Obviously, there are thousands of monsters inside the dungeon that seem to appear from nowhere endlessly.


    "There are a few soldiers who are keeping their eyes while waiting for a great change, but there is no progress. So, they currently treat it as a leveling dungeon." Agata exined ording to the record.


    "Well, you''ve prepared." Maya widened her eyes and made a weird smile, not knowing whether to be happy or not.


    "It''s my job," Agata replied with a serious expression.


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "So, that''s the reason for that conspiracy theory that leads to an underground nest."


    "Yes. But then again, the monsters are undead like zombies, skeletons, and other stuff. The real answer might be different."


    "I see." Theo nodded and asked, "What if we find something good?"


    "It''s yours," Maya answered without hesitation.


    After a while, they finally came out of the forest.


    "Well, that''s the ce." Maya pointed at the structure in front of them as they had finally arrived.


    The structure was located in the middle of the in, surrounded by trees. So, it was easy for them to locate it the moment they came out of the woods.


    The structure itself had ck color as it was made of dark bricks, making it look eerie from the outside.


    This rectangr building wasn''t that eye-catching from the outside and there was only one floor on the surface.


    Theo frowned as he could see several people waiting outside. There was a small post outside the dungeon and a few people were lining up in front of that post.


    "What''s that?"


    "The government post. We need to register there first because they need to record who dies and who doesn''t. After all, the fatality rate of this ce is around 20 percent. And almost all of their corpses can''t be recovered�� They might have turned into undead probably."


    "That''s quite high. One out of five people dies��" Theo frowned.


    "Scared?" Maya smirked.


    "Nah. I just want to make sure that you''re not afraid of ghosts." Theo shrugged.


    "Heh."


    They went to the post to register.


    "That��"


    "Isn''t that Maya Hamilton? The young billionaire��"


    "Next to her should be Theodore Griffith."


    Obviously, their appearances immediately startled the people here, never expecting them to see someone that famous here.


    Neither Maya nor Theo could be easily seen in public, so it was normal for them to make this kind of scene. If only they knew that Agata was the assistant that followed them, they would have created a bigger scene.


    While Maya was signing them up, Theo found something strange. "Hmm?"


    He looked at the people in front of them and realized all the seven people who were inside the post were Supreme Rank Monsters.


    ''Well, this ce is filled with monsters near the Supreme Rank�� And in fact, there must be many Supreme Rank Monsters hiding, so it''s normal for them to station high-level Supreme Rank Experts here," Theo thought while observing them.


    Meanwhile, they seemed to be observing them as well and asked Maya, "Are you sure you want to go with this group? There are many Supreme Rank Monsters inside. Although their levels are not that high, they''re still Supreme Rank Monsters."


    "That''s precisely the reason. We''reing here to be one as well." Maya smirked and signed the paper before handing it back to him. After that, she grabbed Agata and Theo''s hands and pulled them in.


    Right after he entered the ce, Theo found something even more interesting.


    [There is an Order underground. I don''t know which one, but it''s either of these three. Death, Curse, Soul�� Be careful.]

 Chapter 776 – Skeletons

    <h4>Chapter 776 - Skeletons</h4>


    [There is an Order underground. I don''t know which one, but it''s either of these three. Death, Curse, Soul. Be careful.]


    ''Hmm?'' Theo''s interest rose to the peak and asked inwardly, ''An Order? Is it something simr to the crown from the mummy back then?''


    [Yes. This ce has been infused by its power. Considering there''s undead here, it''ll be either of those three Orders. Unfortunately, the source is quite far, so it''s impossible for me to recognize it.]


    ''I see. Resurrect the deceased, the curse of immortality, and call the souls that should have perished. Those three mean the Order of Death, Curse, and Soul, right?''


    [It''s moreplicated, but I guess you''re ten percent correct.]


    ''How does the Order work? In fact, what is the Order?''


    [I''ll answer the first question when you reach the Supreme Rank. As for the second question, it''ll be on hold.]


    ''Well��'' Theo took a deep breath and realized he might need to do something special in this ce. And it might also answer Maya''s doubt about him having the blessing from the Goddess of Death.


    Theo''s slight change of expression as Agata asked with a concerned face. "What''s wrong, Theo?"


    "Nothing." Theo smiled and waved his hand, trying to assure her that nothing had happened.


    On the other hand, Maya furrowed her eyebrows as her doubt became even stronger. She suspected that Theo had found something about this ruin because it was simr to his power.


    Since Theo had finished his talk with Hel, he finally took his time to look at his surroundings.


    Because the ce didn''t have any lighting, they needed to use a night vision to go around this ce. But considering they were already powerful experts, even if they were broke, they still should have enough to buy night vision.


    Hence, the government didn''t bother to set up a light in this ce, making it look as natural as possible.


    The inside looked like a path, fifteen feet wide and twenty feet high. The ck-colored brick was used for the interior, making it look darker than it should be.


    When he looked at this, Theo asked, "By the way, you said there are traps, right?"


    "Yes." Maya nodded.


    Theo thought for a moment and summoned his clone. He asked the clone to walk fifteen feet in front of them, so if there was a trap, the clone would simply disappear.


    "I was about to suggest that." Maya smirked.


    "Well, let''s go. We can''t waste any more time." Theo nodded.


    Suddenly, a ck-colored hole appeared not far from them. From there, a few skeletal hands came out.


    "What''s that?" Theo frowned while summoning his Magic Bullets.


    "That''s the undead summoning," Maya warned them, summoned a shotgun, and aimed at them.


    "I want to ask you first, so this doesn''t happen again�� Should we attack them before theye out? Will it do something bad if we disturb the summoning?" Theo asked.


    "No. We can disrupt them, but I guess this is already toote." Maya''s expression became serious as seven skeletons came out.


    Three skeletons were holding a big blue shield and a longsword. Two skeletons had a bow on their hands with a quiver filled with arrows. As for thest two skeletons, they were wearing dark robes.


    Name: Skeletal Warrior


    Level: 490 -495


    Beware of its speed and sword arts.


    Name: Skeletal Archer


    Level: 470-480


    Beware of its agility and uracy.


    Name: Skeletal Mage


    Level: 480-485


    Beware of its spells.


    Because of the situation, Clone Theo hurriedly ran forward while shooting the Magic Bullets.


    One of the skeletal warriors mmed his shield to the ground, and a ck-colored screen appeared, absorbing the Magic Bullets.


    After that, the other two skeletal knights moved out of the screen while swinging their des toward Theo.


    Theo frowned and waved his spear, trying to strike both swords. To his surprise, the Skeletal Warriors took a step on the ground and increased their speed for a split second.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes and got blown away due to his shock.


    After that, he tossed the spear back to the original as an arrow pierced his head.


    "They''re using something weird."


    "ording to the information, they are adepts in martial arts and formations." Maya replied. "So, they''re close to Rare ss Monsters."


    "You should have told me that first." Theo summoned his clone again and grabbed the spear.


    This time, he and his clone advanced together.


    Agata spread her pink smoke and formed spikes from all over the ce. Some were evening from the ceiling.


    The warriors tried to use their shield to block this again, but the Skeletal Mage seemed to have a different n.


    Both of them raised their hands and shot a small ck me toward the smoke. The moment they touched it, the small ck me red up and burned the smoke at a rapid rate.


    After that, the archers released another shot at Theo''s head.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Both arrows were shot by Maya as she had changed to pistols and charged forward, trying to help Theo.


    The Skeletal Warriors also moved forward, waving their swords against Theo.


    Suddenly, the real Theo disappeared, leaving his clone alone to deal with these Skeletal Warriors. He struck their swords in session, stopping them.


    On the other hand, Theo had reappeared behind the Skeletal Mages, nning to sneak attack them. But it seemed his luck wasn''t that good because when hended on the ground and prepared to hit the Skeletal Mages from their backs.


    The tile on the floor moved a few inches downwards.


    "Oh, crap!" In that instant, Theo realized he had stepped on a trap and immediately looked around, trying to find what it was.


    Several tiles from the floor, ceiling, and walls were opened and released a few waves of arrows.


    Theo''s Telekinesis immediately worked on its magic, deflecting the arrows.


    "They''re just normal arrows��" Theo frowned, realizing that the arrows looked so worn out to the points he found several damaged arrow tips.


    But these arrows were just a distraction. Due to that trap, the Skeletal Mages had the chance to react.


    Theo raised his vision and saw a huge ck me falling on top of him.


    "Oh, sh*t."

 Chapter 777 – Dungeon Dive

    <h4>Chapter 777 - Dungeon Dive</h4>


    Boom.


    "Theo!" Maya shouted, panicking. After all, the moment he was hit by the me ball, the clone disappeared. At the same time, the spear in Theo''s hand indicated him to be the real one. So, she was worried that Theo actually got injured.


    Unfortunately for her, she was wasting her time. Another Theo suddenly appeared right in front of the Skeletal Warriors.


    "!!!" The Skeletal Warriors were startled as they never saw thising.


    Theo waved his spear and cut the bottom part of the shields, including the Skeletal Warriors'' feet.


    In that instant, the Skeletal Warriors stumbled forward, and their heads hit the ground.


    Theo took this chance to kill all three warriors in an instant.


    The Skeletal Archers and Mages were confused, not understanding why Theo was still alive. The power of that ck me should be enough to kill Theo, yet, thetter was still alive.


    They immediately aimed at the one they could see.


    The arrows were covered with ck me, containing a power that couldn''t bepared to a normal arrow.


    But Theo''s onught had yet to stop. From behind, the Skeletal Mages and Skeletal Archers dropped to the ground. The moment they looked down, their feet were gone.


    Agata immediately killed them by destroying their necks with her spikes while Maya sted their skull with explosive bullets.


    "Well, do you guys miss me?" Theo suddenly appeared behind them with a smile on his face.


    "Huh? What?" Maya turned around and stared in disbelief. "How did you appear behind us?"


    Theo stuck his tongue out and yfully said, "How do you think?"


    Maya was taken aback and turned to Agata, who had a tired expression.


    "You get used to it." Agata shrugged. "To be honest, he''s very good at a small ce like this. I mean, it''s easy for him to make a chance to disappear. Can''t you see how easy it is for me to fill this ce with my smoke? That''s how it is for him to disappear.


    "If you want to defeat Theo, bring him to a nd. If you can''t, then you''ll probably be defeated by a sneak attack."


    Maya couldn''t help but recall how she was defeated when she fought him in Thernd. It was true that Theo changed the scenery to ake where he couldunch a sneak attack.


    "It seems I still need to work on my observation. To think I can''t even see thising��" Maya shook her head in disappointment.


    "Anyway, there are around thirty floors in this area. We should go deeper if we want to find something." Agata ignored Maya''s reaction and said to Theo.


    "Okay. Let''s reach the 15th floor today." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "We have a map." Agata nodded.


    "Don''t worry. I see it too." Theo used the sses Agata bought, so it was easy for him to navigate while allowing his clone to make way, checking any kinds of traps.


    The trio then continued their ways, climbing down the stairs as they made their way to the deeper level.


    Theo had seen multiple traps on the way, making him realize it was hard to survive in this ce alone unless he had some experience.


    The traps didn''te out simply because they pressed a tile. Some traps were activated only by passing them.


    When that happened, they didn''t realize that some traps had started working.


    The traps came in various ways too. There was a trap that summoned fifty skeletons surrounding them from both sides, which was avoided with the help of Theo''s Blinks.


    Another trap came in the form of a splitting ground filled with spikes.


    After a few hours, Theo and the others decided to move toward one of the treasure rooms so they could understand what they were searching for.


    Maya led them to a secret room. The room had nothing inside other than a bigger space than the tunnel.


    There was even a chance of the Skeletal Monsters to appear in this room, so they might be able to use it to rest, but they still needed to be wary as everything could happen inside.


    Still, Theo understood that the situation would be extremely dangerous soon. After all, if they wanted to find a secret room, they needed to check on the tile.


    This action allowed them to identally activate a trap. There were even some records that people were stabbed to death because they mistook a trap for a treasure room.


    Some spikes would alsoe out from that exact tile, so Theo could only let his clone do all the jobs while they were walking around behind the clone.


    The journey was a bit slow, and since this was the first time they entered this dungeon, Theo preferred to experience the entire dungeon first before searching for a treasure room.


    With Maya''s agreement, they continued and made their way toward their destination.


    Unfortunately, they didn''t find anything other than some monsters that gave them a level or two.


    The next day, they continued to the bottomyer.


    Theo wished to look around the lowest part, so they headed to the lowest floor. Unfortunately, there was nothing different. The floor looked exactly the same as any other floor, and they ultimately went back to the surface.


    They needed to make a n on what area they nned to search and returned the other day.


    This was how they investigated a dungeon. It was a repetitive and tedious process, but they needed to do this in order to find something good.


    Luckily, there were endless monsters appearing here and there, so they took it as a constion prize in case they didn''t find anything.


    And as one would expect from a group that only wanted to go to the bottomyer to check things up and return to the surface afterward, they didn''t find a single thing from inside.


    Theo and the others agreed to rest on the facility before nning how they wished to explore it in their next dive.


    Little did they know, this trip would have an impact on their life.


    ******


    What will they find?


    A. Soul Staff


    B. Cursed Weapon


    C. Panty of Death


    D. (Add your answer)

 Chapter 778 – Plan

    <h4>Chapter 778 - n</h4>


    Inside their room in the Star Group''s Hotel, all of them were sitting behind the table, staring at the map of thebyrinth. It was none other than the Moniac Dungeon''s 3D map. The ce consisted of thirty floors, so it was easy for them to look at them.


    "I think the higher floors have been emptied since they''re more suited for weak�� Ahem, for low level groups." Maya stated with a poker face.


    Agata rolled her eyes while Theo asked, "Are you possessed?"


    "What do you mean?" Maya tilted her head in confusion.


    "If it''s the normal you, you won''t hesitate to call them weak."


    "How rude. Besides, it''s their fault for not having enough skill to go deeper." She shrugged.


    "Anyway, I know what you want. For now, let''s search from floor 21st onwards. How''s that?"


    "Agreed." Maya nodded without hesitation.


    "Well, with our speed, I think we can look around three floors within two days. The remaining one day will be used to go up and down this ce." Agata added, giving her assessment.


    "I don''t really mind. We''re supposed to stay here for a month, so we''ll take care of the 21st to 29th floor for the first nine days and clear the 30th floor next. After those 12 days, Ava should have recovered. So, we''ll go back to the 30th floor to hunt the monsters there with Ava." Theo exined his n.


    "I have no objection." Maya nodded.


    "How''s your level anyway?" Theo asked.


    "I should be able to reach the Supreme Rank in 10-14 days," answered Maya while checking her status.


    "A few dayster than her." Agata pointed at Maya, saying that her level wasn''t that much below her.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Ava. How are you?"


    Suddenly, Ava came out of the room as if answering his call. She jumped on top of the table and said, "Well, I''m just one step away from it. But due to my condition, I can''t really rank up. I''m nning to hunt other monsters in the areater. And boom, be one."


    "How about I tell someone to hunt a few monsters every day?" Theo asked. "Maybe my clone can hunt some monsters for you."


    "That''ll be a great help." Ava nodded with a serious expression. "I''m just one step away, so a day hunt should be enough. And it''s not like I can eat undead."


    "That''s true." Theo recalled that Ava refused to eat zombie meat back in Thernd, let alone a skeleton.


    "But without your clone, we''ll be in deep trouble handling those traps." Maya raised a problem.


    Theo shook his head. "From what I see, if we simply go downstairs, there are multiple traps. But it seems the traps themselves are in the same ce. I have remembered their positions.


    "So, while we''re going down, I''m going to help Ava. Then, after she''s finished transforming into a Supreme Rank Monster, she can go back here to recover. As for the clone, I just need to resummon it."


    "Hmm�� That''s quite useful." Maya nodded, assessing Theo''s clone capability.


    "Well, that''s it. What do you think?" Theo asked.


    "If that''s the case, I don''t have a problem." Maya then turned to Agata, wondering if she had any objection.


    Agata shook her head.


    "Alright. That''s all. It''s time to take a bath." Maya smirked and rose from the floor. "Oh, wait. Does anyone want to use it first��"


    "You can use it." Agata smiled.


    Theo only waved his hand while looking at the map, trying to pinpoint the trap.


    As soon as she received the confirmation, Maya headed to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Ava came to him and asked, "Are you sure the traps are in the same position?"


    "Yes. The structure itself is not changing. And the traps must be refilled by the skeletons. Though, I won''t deny there might be some traps we missed because the others passed the area, and we passed it before the skeletons could refill the traps." Theo shook his head.


    "In that case, you should just let me go alone. Although I''m in a weakened state, I''m strong enough to handle those monsters."


    "I''m just worried that someone is aiming for you. Although you''re registered as my pet, someone can kidnap you if they think you''re running away from your owner." Theo sighed.


    "Well��" Ava couldn''t say anything.


    "So, don''t worry about it. We''ll take care of the situation without a problem. You should focus on getting stronger and recovering your power."


    "I understand." Ava nodded furiously.


    "Anyway, you should rest again. I''m going to bring you very early tomorrow."


    "How about tonight?" Ava asked.


    "That might be a better option. But let me rest for a few hours." Theo thought for a moment. "If you want, you can wake me up in three hours. Gotta have a quick nap."


    "Got it." Ava went back to the bedroom.


    "Do you need my help?" Agata asked.


    "Nah, it''s fine. It''ll be a quick session with Ava." Theo shook his head.


    "Then, you can take some rest inside the dungeon. I''ll exin to Maya that we both are going on the lookout for the first day."


    "I won''t decline." Theo nodded.


    After that, Theo went back to his bedroom and simply changed his clothes before taking a nap.


    Meanwhile, Agata went to inform Maya about the circumstances and agreed since they were safer that way.


    She then made some preparation, so Theo could immediately go when he woke up.


    They were working at their own task to make everything convenient.


    After a good nap, Theo was woken up by Agata while Ava came out of her bedroom at the same time as Theo.


    "Alright. I''m going with Ava. You guys should have some good sleep. Let me restter." Theo waved his hand.


    "You can take a day off though." Maya smirked.


    "I''m notzy like you." Theo shrugged and immediately left the room with Ava on his shoulders.


    "Wait, I''m notzy."


    *ck!*


    Theo didn''t even bother to listen to her as he closed the door. "Alright. It''s been a while since there are only both of us, Ava."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 779 – Mysterious Shadow

    <h4>Chapter 779 - Mysterious Shadow</h4>


    As soon as they left the facility, Theo stretched his hands while walking toward the north.


    His clone appeared next to him and said, "You''re going with me. My clone will kill some more monsters while we''re at it."


    "Got it." Ava had prepared herself for this feast.


    Aftering to an agreement, Theo then marched toward the woods.


    The first few monsters they found were a group of horses. These ck horses weren''t that visible during the night, so it was hard to see them even with the sses.


    Theo looked at them with a serious expression before waving his spear toward their legs.


    Suddenly, the horses saw their feet were missing due to Theo''s attack. They stumbled to the front but somehow managed to touch the ground.


    "?!" The horses were stunned because they could still move even though their legs were gone. In that instant, the illusion was broken.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue while raising his spear, covering it with his Magic Power Expansion.


    Seeing this, the ck horses gathered in the center, forming a single line with the front horse lowering its head.


    Their heads started to glow and the air around them changed its movement as if creating a small torrent that protected them inside.


    Theo waved his left hand upward and the ground suddenly rose, throwing the bnce of the horses.


    Even so, the one in the front hurriedly put its head forward, trying to maintain the energy.


    Theo took this chance to wave his spear down as if nning to attack them. But nothing happened since Theo didn''t release the Magic Power Expansion. Instead, he was using his Telekinesis to push the air above the horses down, pinning them to the ground.


    "Neigh!"


    The horses were confused and ended up bending their knees. Theo didn''t let this chance go.


    He appeared right above the horse on the back using his Blink and struck its body.


    The spear cut the horse''s body and the shock wave that his Magic Power Expansion produced blew its body away.


    The other horses also got the sudden boost of speed due to this shock wave, something they never expected. They ended up falling down and getting pierced by his Magic Bullets that came out of the ground.


    There were only two horses left after that one strike. And Ava had disappeared from Theo''s shoulder.


    When the horses turned around and were about to charge forward, Ava kicked one of the horses and sted it toward the other one.


    Theo took this chance to deliver the killing blow.


    "Nice." Theo smiled and signaled Ava to eat. But before he could look around, Theo stopped and looked at the sky while summoning his Magic Bullets. He sent the Magic Bullets to the sky to help his clone.


    This hunt continued for around six hours until Ava felt full after eating a mountain of meat.


    "Ava?" Theo frowned.


    Before she even finished the meat, Ava had already stopped and closed her eyes.


    Seeing this kind of change, Theo thought it was time for Ava to evolve. So, he summoned his clone again and looked around, making sure no one disturbed her.


    Nothing happened in the first two hours. Even so, Theo patiently waited and protected her.


    After the long wait, Ava''s body started convulsing. Lightning began sparking all around her and sted away the meat and bone around her, startling Theo.


    Theo turned around and saw Ava floating two feet above the ground, protected by a translucent light-blue sphere that emitted lightning spark every second.


    The lightning struck the trees, the ground, and even Theo to the point he needed to use his blue artifact to shield himself from these lightning strikes.


    The real Theo protected his clone with the shield but made him look over the shield to check Ava''s condition.


    "Hmm�� Does transformation to Supreme Rank release this kind of energy?" Theo frowned. "If that''s the case, won''t it mean this stuff is happening all around the world every few minutes? I mean, with such a high poption, I''m sure that many beasts are bing a Supreme Rank Monster every hour.


    "Besides, there are other ranks as well. So��" Theo raised his vision and realized the area around this ce brightened because of the lightning.


    Without hesitation, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly above the woods and check his surroundings. After that, he used his Illusion Maniption to darken the area again, camouging Ava''s transformation.


    However, he was startled when a ck sphere suddenly appeared around them and closed the entire area, trapping Ava and Theo inside this ck sphere.


    "What is this?" Theo looked around while having his clone use its Blink to check the situation outside. At the same time, he prepared his Magic Bullets, trying to block them.


    In Clone Theo''s eyes, he saw a giant shadow dome that enclosed the entire space, making him realize they were trapped by someone.


    In that instant, Theo turned around and looked at Ava, nning to retrieve her and escape from this ce.


    But it was toote. Between his glowing Magic Bullets, there was a humanoid shadow. The shadow had blood-red eyes and its entire body was covered with ck me. However, Theo could still see a few unique features that humans were not supposed to have.


    It was a pair of long pointed ears and three long tails.


    The shadow looked at Theo.


    Theo wanted to attack this mysterious shadow, but something sharp touched his neck, stopping him from his track.


    In that instant, another figure appeared. It was a long robe but without a face even though it looked like someone was wearing it. The robe was floating in the air and wielding a huge scythe with his shadow hand.


    Theo felt one movement would result in his death, even if it was his Blink.


    Suddenly, a sound was ringing directly into his head. ''No need to resist. The reason why I haven''t killed you is that you seem to be protecting this child�� Answer me, what''s the rtionship between you and this child? If you''re lying, I''m going to slice your neck right away.''

 Chapter 780 – Order

    <h4>Chapter 780 - Order</h4>


    He hesitated for a moment before answering honestly. It wasn''t like he could lie anyway.


    "I''m her guardian."


    ''Guardian?'' The shadow squinted its eyes before looking at Theo''s hand and asked, ''What''s the connection with the Moonlight Order then?''


    "The holder is her mother."


    ''Is��'' The shadow fell silent for a moment before asking another question. ''This is thest question. Do you know what this kid is doing?''


    "She''s evolving to reach Supreme Rank. That''s all."


    ''What your eyes can see is something like that. However, what she is doing right now is more than that. She''s releasing a massive amount of Lightning Order into the air. If I''m not here to enclose this space, this Lightning Order will bring a huge amount of creatures here.


    ''Not only from your side but also from this side as well. They''re going to kill her. Luckily, I''m near and prevent it from happening.'' The shadow then turned to Ava. ''Still, she''s not supposed to have this level of Order.''


    "What do you mean?" Theo asked carefully.


    Hearing that question made the shadow turn back to him. After a momentary silence, the shadow behind him disappeared.


    ''Before I answer your question, I''ll need a confirmation.'' The shadownded on the ground and asked, ''O'' Child of Lightning. Who is he to you?''


    Ava struggled to open her mouth due to the pain she endured. However, she still said one word.


    "Part��ner��"


    This answer was enough for the shadow to ask Theo toe down.


    Knowing that the other party was far stronger than him, Theo followed his instruction while staring at him.


    ''Seeing that the kid''s mother is entrusting its child to you, I won''t say anything about this. However, you need to answer a few questions of mine.'' The shadow looked at him with a serious expression and stated with its telepathy.


    "I''m not confident to share something like that with an unknown person." Theo shook his head. "You can just kill me."


    The shadow squinted its eyes as if feeling offended by him. After a while, the shadow said, ''Shadow Order.''


    "The King ss Monster in this area?" Theo frowned.


    ''Your people called me that.''


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "I''ll answer to the best of my ability."


    ''Why is the child releasing this amount of Order from her body?''


    "Ehm�� I don''t understand what you''re talking about? Is Order can be quantified?" Theo frowned.


    The shadow looked at him for a moment and realized that Theo didn''t understand about Order.


    ''Order is your identity or your very existence because you form your Order based on yourself. And your body will release this Order naturally.


    ''The Order will contaminate your Magic Power ande out. During the evolution process, the amount is multiplied. However, I''ve never seen someone releasing this amount in the evolution process to what you people say Supreme Rank.


    ''This should be one level above. Her Order is almostplete. And something like this only happens farter normally. So, I''m assuming there''s someone helping her.


    ''Her mother doesn''t seem to be having an Authority, so it''s not her. Outside Intervention�� This is the only exnation.''


    Theo fell silent, knowing it was the dragon''s doing. After all, the dragon had Lightning Authority.


    "��" Theo didn''t answer him, knowing that the dragon was more powerful than the shadow.


    Thetter seemed to have confirmed the existence of an Authority Level figure, so it dropped the topic. "Alright. I''ve gotten what I need. I''ll be staying here until she finishes her transformation."


    Not having the ability to decline, Theo stayed silent.


    "Still�� There''s something weird with this kid''s power. Her power is in disarray. Some of them seem to have been repaired, but not all." The shadow narrowed its eyes, observing Ava''s body.


    "She''s injured," Theo answered.


    "��"


    Since there was no response from the shadow, he finally took this chance to ask God of Mischief, ''What is Order to be honest? I''m pretty curious.''


    [How about asking that shadow?]


    ''I''m going to be killed.'' Theo replied immediately.


    [Who knows?]


    Seeing that kind of answer, Theo couldn''t help but open his mouth, asking respectfully. "If I may know, what is Order? You''ve said that Order is based on ourselves. And that we''re releasing it naturally."


    The shadow stared at his eyes for a moment before answering his question. ''I will only answer one question.''


    The shadow then formed three shadow balls. ''They represent the body, the Order, and Magic Power respectively.


    ''The Order is the connection of this ce and the body. In other words, a bridge. Naturally, when there''s a bridge, there''ll be something passing over it.


    ''And that is Magic Power inside your body. This Magic Power is contaminated by the Order, and because of that, it grabs one of its characteristics which is toe out to the world.


    ''So, the now polluted Magic Power ising out. And this kind of power naturally attracts others because it contains so much energy. This is also why those who have gained Order and Authority are respected.


    ''Still, there''s a kind of gate that allows us to control how much Order leaving our body at a certain rate. The more you understand the Order, the bigger the bridge, the more Magic Poweres out of your body.


    ''And when you''re in this evolution process, that gate is broken. So, that energy leaves your body at full force, attracting the monsters in this area. That''s why not many dares to cultivate Order before they are strong enough.


    ''This is to prevent from being killed at your most vulnerable state. This is why I''m wondering if the kid is fearless or there''s outside intervention. It seems to be thetter from your reaction, so it means someone is putting a high hope on this kid, and it''s not my ce to stop it.''


    "I see." Theo couldn''t help but bow to the shadow. "Thank you for helping us."


    "I''m just doing it for the kid, not you. If you were a normal human, I would have killed you. But it seems you''re trustworthy enough for someone with Moonlight Order to entrust her insignia."


    The God of Mischief even added.


    [See? Just ask�� It''s easy.]

 Chapter 781 – Armor?

    <h4>Chapter 781 - Armor?</h4>


    [See? Just ask. It''s easy.]


    ''You can say that because the shadow doesn''t kill me right now. If he intended to kill me, I wouldn''t even hear you saying those words.'' Theoined.


    [I know them more than you.]


    ''That makes sense. How about telling me more about them?''


    After getting that question, there was no response from him, leaving Theo disappointed.


    Theo then watched Ava with a serious expression and asked carefully, "Is it fine for us to be here? I have been here all the time, but it doesn''t seem like I want the energy she''s releasing right now��"


    ''You have a different path. Seeing your rtionship with this kid, I have no doubt that you''re going to acquire an Order sooner orter. You''ll understand it at that time.'' The shadow shook its head.


    "��" Theo wanted to ask more, but he was afraid of pissing this shadow off, considering he was a stranger. So, he decided to stop talking, waiting for Ava to finish.


    But this time, it wasn''t him who opened his mouth. It was the shadow.


    He looked at him and muttered, ''You''re�� here means�� you''re challenging that person''s house, huh.''


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes.


    ''You will die if you want to challenge her right now. It''s true that you can put up a great fight, but your power is not enough.''


    "What do you mean? Are you talking about the Moniac Dungeon�� I mean, the buried ce is not far from here?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    ''I know more than what you think, Human. Including the facility you''ve built in this ce. Do you think I will let anyone build something in my territory without my permission?'' The shadow squinted his eyes.


    "No, no. I don''t mean that."


    ''Anyway, I''ve told you. If you keep going around that ce, you''re going to die sooner orter. But if you''re still hard-headed and want to challenge her, go to the entrance and say, Eilhis Mertorie Qu M.''


    "Ehm, what?" Theo tilted his head in confusion as he couldn''t trante thest four words.


    But the one that answered his question was Hel instead of the shadow.


    [That''s my armor��]


    ''Huh, what?'' Theo''s body trembled.


    [Go get that armor right now. I''ll help you turn that Death Energy into a normal one and�� What is it again? Ah, status points. I will convert it to those.]


    [Oh, that armor?]


    The God of Mischief suddenly entered the conversation.


    [Yes. The armor I have for the sake of convenience, not protection. Well, I''m strong, so I don''t need to get more protection. The armor can absorb the Order released by your body and can turn into any kind of outfit.]


    [Including a dress or any sexy underwear. Hurry up and get it. This armor will make your Metamorphosis even more convenient.]


    The God of Mischief didn''t seem to have given up on the idea of turning Theo into a woman.


    [Anyway, it might not benefit you right now, but it''ll surely help you in the future. Just trust me and get that armor.]


    Theo didn''t know what to say, never expecting to hear this kind of equipment.


    ''Anyway, I''ve told you about it. Whether you die or not, that''s not my problem. That hag is trying to control an Order that is not hers, so I think it''s a good idea to kill her by using you. This can be an ordeal for that child.'' The shadow looked at Ava.


    "��" Theo didn''t know what he should do with this information. On the one hand, an artifact left by ancient history was precious. On the other hand, he wondered what kind of attention he would bring to cause this kind of uproar.


    Looking at Theo''s face, the shadow didn''t continue. It simply watched until Ava was done.


    It took her another hour before the lightning abruptly disappeared, leaving Ava floating in the air.


    "My job has finished. There is a reason why we value those who understand Orders�� Just know that they possess an Order for a reason." The shadow suddenly disappeared as the dome also shattered into pieces like that of ss.


    "Theo." Ava leaped toward him and clung to his shirt. "That was scary."


    "The shadow?"


    "Yes."


    "I thought you knew there wouldn''t be any fight or something."


    "No. My mother only told me not to fight other King ss figures unless necessary. They''re friendly until proven otherwise. That''s all."


    "��" Theo facepalmed and asked, "By the way, is it true that your Order is almostplete?"


    "Yes. I believe I''ve told you about my Moon Constetion, right?"


    "Now that I think about it, you said you''ll be a King ss Monster if you can create all seven stars."


    "Yes. I''ve created five of them, so it''s almostplete."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "You''re not going to tell me anything about Order?"


    "I''ve told you everything I know. No one has ever exined anything about Order to me other than my mother. Even my mother told me that the Order wille to me naturally, so I don''t need to worry about it."


    "Well��" Theo shrugged. "Anyway, I''m d that everything went well."


    "Yes." She looked at where the shadow disappeared and said, "Thank you."


    Theo didn''t know whether the monster was still there or not, but he still thanked the shadow for protecting him and Ava. "Thank you."


    After that, he turned around and said, "Anyway, let''s go back. It''s already 9 am. I''m afraid those girls are going to get angry because I haven''t gone back."


    "Hehe. You were scared that if you watched me with your clone, the shadow would kill you."


    "And you were the one clinging to me because you were scared."


    "Pfft." Ava and Theo ended upughing. They returned to the facility, finding Agata and Maya standing outside.


    "You''re 4 hourste." Maya pouted,ining.


    "Sorry, too many things happened." Theo sighed, feeling a bit tired due to the shadow''s appearance. "I''m going to take Ava back to the room first."


    "Just the clone will do," Ava added.


    Theo nodded and summoned his clone. Meanwhile, he picked up the luggage that Maya and Agata had brought with them.


    After that, they ran toward the dungeon.

 Chapter 782 – Goddess Hel’s Lesson

    <h4>Chapter 782 - Goddess Hel��s Lesson</h4>


    While going down the dungeon, Theo was wondering whether to break the news or not. After all, there would be a massive treasure on the 30th floor.


    ''Should I find that entrance and say those four words? What was it again? Eilhis Mertorie Qu M��'' He frowned. ''What does that mean anyway? Is it the armor''s name?''


    [It means Eternal Death Armor. It seems that person is using my armor to use the Death Order to maintain this ce.]


    ''How does that work anyway?'' Theo asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    [She must be using the Death Order to recall the souls trapped in this ce. I managed those souls previously and because of my absence, those souls were trapped. Hmm, I can''t tell you much right now.]


    ''Is it a simr case with the Order? If I know about it right now, it will bring danger to me. Isn''t that why you haven''t told me anything about Order?''


    [That''s one of the reasons. As for the other reason, we simply want you to grow up on your own. I mean, do you want to be spoon-fed by us all the time?]


    [We won''t be with you all the time. And if you can''t do anything without us, then you''ll never be a strong person�� Anyway, look at what you have done this whole time.]


    [When you had nothing, you made connections here and there to protect yourselves. Then, when you had no power, you trained like crazy. When you knew nothing, you learned from the best.]


    [We are just your means, not the one who will give you everything. If you wish to know, you should ask those who are alive. That Dragon promised you to share some knowledge about Orders. You should ask him.]


    [What I want to tell you is�� You need to create the opportunity by yourself and for yourself, even if it means risking your life.]


    [That''s why you just needed to ask that shadow to learn more. If you were afraid of them and eventually trapped yourself in the cage known as fear, you wouldn''t be able to do anything in the future.]


    [People often call someone who seeks knowledge a madman because they don''t care about their lives just for the sake of satisfying their curiosity. However, when you take another look at it, they are brave people who care nothing about others as long as they get their answer.]


    [A portion of them will die, but a portion of them will bring a true breakthrough to the world. For me, this is what I call a Genius. These geniuses are pursuing something unknown while those, who can''t even pursue anything,in and insult them. For me, they''re just trash and there''s no need for me to care.]


    [All I want to say is, you can be afraid, you can be careful�� But never stops just because of them. If you don''t take a risk to venture into an unknown ce, how can you know the answer?]


    Theo fell silent, looking down. His feelings were in a mess because of what she said. His hands started trembling due to the disappointment.


    ''I see. It seems I have been too paranoid this whole time.'' Theo clenched his fists. ''I won''t be like that anymore. Of course, I''m not going to be reckless either.


    ''I challenged the Griffith Family, Barbe Group, or the Czar because I knew about them. Meanwhile, I feared the unknown even though there might be many opportunities hidden in the unknown.''


    Theo took a deep breath and settled down his heart. Although he couldn''t sort out his feelings, it was enough for now.


    [Alright. I''m d that you''re a smart kid. As a reward, I''ll tell you about those four words. You can''t open the entrance just simply because you''re saying those four words. Instead, you should imbue Magic Power into those four words.]


    ''Imbue?'' Theo thought for a moment before getting an idea of what she was talking about. ''I can put my killing intent in Magic Power. This is the principle of the Vision. So, what I need to do right now is to imbue my Magic Power into my voice.''


    [Yes. That''s the concept. Just don''t forget about those four words.]


    ''I understand.''


    [Good. I''ll tell you the words for the armorter.]


    ''Yes. I''ll do my best so as to not disappoint you.''


    Finally, Hel stopped responding. Still, this was the first time he talked with her this long, especially since they were not meeting each other.


    The others never talked to him this long unless they could invite him into his own consciousness.


    ''Still, 30th floor huh�� The shadow told me that I could put a great fight against the one down there. That means I have some chance against her with Agata, Maya and Ava. In that case, I should wait until Ava recovers her strength.


    ''That''s right. Maya and Agata are going to reach Supreme Rank soon. I should wait for them to reach this step since our enemies are Supreme Rank Experts. And when we reach the 30th floor, I''ll break the news to them.'' Theo calcted the timing and concluded his n was perfect.


    Hence, they began their hunts to reach level 500. Without making it suspicious, Theo searched for the trap half-heartedly, so their progress could be even faster.


    They searched the 21st floor to the 29th floor thoroughly, making sure they didn''t miss a thing. But because Theo focused on killing monsters instead of finding treasures, they didn''t find a single thing.


    When they gathered for onest time before going back to prepare for their venture to the 30th floor, Maya showed a disappointed expression.


    "We''re not going to get anything at this point. Maybe we should just focus on killing monsters." She let out a long sigh.


    "That''s true." Agata nodded in agreement. "What''s your level now?"


    "Me? I''m level 500 already. I still need to fill the remaining EXP though, before I can be Supreme Rank."


    "I''m still three levels away." Agata shook her head while looking down.


    "How about it, Theo? Should we still go to the 30th floor or should we just hunt the monsters?" Maya asked with a serious expression.


    Theo raised his head and scratched the back of his head. "We��"

 Chapter 783 – Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 783 - Preparation</h4>


    "We�� should go down. Isn''t that our objective to begin with?" Theo smiled.


    "Yeah, I know that. But should we use our precious time to level up instead of searching for nothing?" Maya shook her head. "This is just wasting our time."


    "Ehm, I don''t think so." Theo shook his head with a serious expression. "For me, I simply want to finish my job. I''m someone with integrity, you see."


    "��" Maya rolled her eyes. "I believe you just want to waste your time."


    "Really? That should be thest thing in your mind. Have you ever seen me wasting my time? In fact, if I had wasted my time, I wondered how I could reach this spot in a short period��"


    "Fine, fine. Mr. Smartass." She sighed. "Anyway, I''m going to be a Supreme Rank tomorrow. Let''s go back to the surface, shall we?"


    "I don''t have any objections." Agata nodded in agreement.


    "Well�� Sure." Theo shrugged.


    It didn''t take too long for them to reach the surface and head back to the facility.


    As soon as they returned, they were greeted by Ava.


    "Wee back."


    "Ava. Shouldn''t you be resting?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "No. I have fully recovered. It seems the previous evolution has sped up my recovery," Ava answered with a smile.


    "I see. That''s great." Theo felt relieved and said, "So, you''re good to go with us tomorrow?"


    "Yes." Ava nodded. "I truly want to fight that person��"


    She punched the air a few times, feeling fired up because she also heard the conversation that Theo had with the shadow. She learned that there was a powerful existence underneath the 30th floor, so she had been preparing herself.


    "You couldn''t fight that creature alone, but it would be different with me. I have reached the Supreme Rank. Our chance will be better. Isn''t that the reason why you have been holding back in the past week?" Ava asked.


    "Ehm, what is this all about?" Maya and Agata were perplexed by their conversation.


    Theo scratched the back of his head while making a weird smile.


    "Oh, you haven''t told them yet? I thought since it''s something that is bound to happen, you have told them." Ava blinked her eyes a few times before apologizing. "Sorry."


    "It''s fine. I''m nning to tell them soon anyway." Theo sighed.


    "What are you talking about?" Maya and Agata asked, staring at him. They never thought Theo was hiding something about the Moniac Dungeon from them.


    "My n is to have Maya and Agata be Supreme Rank Experts first. This way, our chances will be higher." Theo exined.


    "I see. No wonder." Ava nodded in understanding.


    Theo sighed and took off his shoes before sitting on the floor. "Anyway, sit down first."


    Maya looked at Agata and asked, "You know anything about this?"


    "No." Agata shook her head.


    They immediately took out their shoes and sat down, waiting for Theo''s exnation.


    It was then that Theo started exining about the 30th floor.


    They never expected to find such a secret on the 30th floor.


    "Well, since you''re telling this to us, that means the Moniac Dungeon will cease to exist, right?" She asked with a serious expression.


    "Probably, yes." Theo nodded. The creature maintained the dungeon with Hel''s Armor that seemed to have absorbed her Death Order, so it was clear that the moment he got Hel''s Armor, the undead wouldn''t appear anymore.


    Still, one question remained in his head. Why does Hel''s armor actually exist in this ce? Theo started to believe some conspiracy theories that this ce was Gods and Goddesses'' resting ce.


    After all, they could receive a strong connection to legendary figures or myths from the past after they discovered this ce.


    At the same time, some items had been identified to have a strong connection with the figures on Earth.


    So, he couldn''t help but believe that this world was actually an alternate Earth. Sadly, no one wanted to answer his question.


    Maya and Agata were not aware of this, so Maya asked, "Anyway, it seems you are hiding something from us. You mentioned there''s an item containing the power of Death. So, I''m assuming that you''re nning to take it for yourself."


    "Naturally." Theo didn''t even bother to y dumb since they would see him wearing that armor anyway.


    "So, your blessinges from a God or Goddess rted to Death." Maya narrowed her eyes.


    Theo''s answer came in the form of a smile. He neither denied nor admitted it, so this wasn''t considered lying.


    It was true that Hel was rted to this, but the one who gave him the blessing was someone else.


    "Ugh. You''re pissing me off. When you''re already caught red-handed, you''re still trying to deny it." Maya clicked her tongue while adding, ''At least, one of my objectives has beenpleted. Theo''s blessing is indeed rted to Death.


    ''If this news is spread, they''ll be trying to find Theo a suitable item to power him up. In fact, there might be a huge movement from that person. In this case, I should start searching for an item to power him up alone�� This should be enough to entice him.


    ''Hehe. It''s time for me to beat my father. He won''t be able to know about Theo''s blessing until everything is toote.'' Maya smirked and said, "Alright, fine. You can get that thing. In fact, we won''t know anything if you simply hide it from us ande to this ce alone."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded with a smile while thinking, ''What should I do? She misunderstands my blessing. Well, even if she''s discovered by others, I can use that knowledge to trick my enemies into thinking I have Hel''s blessing instead of Loki. That''s good, I guess. It''s not my fault that she misunderstands this.''


    "Anyway, I''ll be finding the entrance while you two focus on hunting the monsters and try to reach Supreme Rank as soon as possible. After that, we''ll fight the one hiding inside the dungeon. Is that alright?"


    "I have no objection." Maya nodded with a smug smile.


    Agata also nodded but didn''t say anything as if something was inside her head.

 Chapter 784 – Doubt

    <h4>Chapter 784 - Doubt</h4>


    While they were searching around, Theo was using his Telekinesis to look around, trying to push all the tiles while hoping something clicked.


    This made him vulnerable, so he was walking behind Agata and Maya.


    Only an hour after they began their search, Maya had already informed them about her ranking up. "Well, my EXP will be full of less than ten monsters."


    "Got it. We''ll have some rest after ten monsters." Agata acknowledged her condition.


    "How about you?" Theo looked at Agata.


    "Gonna be another two to three days with this pace."


    "In that case, let''s focus on Maya first. The faster she bes a Supreme Rank Expert, the better." Theo nodded before ncing at Ava. "Anyway, do you find anything, Ava?"


    "I can hear the wind blowing, but I don''t know where ites from. The sound is echoing in this small tunnel, so I can''t pinpoint its location." Ava shook her head in disappointment.


    "That''s enough. The entrance is indeed on the 30th floor. All we need to do is to walk around."


    After that, the group continued onward until they eventually reached one point where Maya needed to sit down to answer the call of the one who gave her the blessing.


    When Maya sat down, she went inside her consciousness and entered a white room with multiple practice targets standing a bit farther from her.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Multiple gunshots resounded across the entire ce, and all of them hit either the chest or the head. It was the work of a middle-aged man.


    He had short ck hair and sharp ck eyes. When their eyes intertwined, Maya could feel goosebumps as if she just got shot.


    "It''s been a while, child." The middle-aged man nodded with a calm expression.


    "Yes."


    "I call you here for one purpose." The middle-aged man let out a long sigh. "It''s time for me to go. From this point on, I don''t have anything to teach you."


    "��" Maya didn''t say a single thing. She was already aware that this was going to happen sooner orter. She still remembered the blessing she received was just a B Grade Blessing.


    "I''m sorry, but I don''t think I can help you more than this." The middle-aged man looked down. He himself was sad that his power wasn''t enough.


    "It''s fine. Your power has yed a big part in improving my talent. If not because of you, I won''t be able topete with others. That''s why from this point on, I''ll pave my own way." She looked at him with a serious expression. "Please don''t worry about me. I''ll be fine, and thank you very much for guiding me this whole time."


    "Although it''s true that I can''t help you more than this��" The middle-aged man waved his hand and created a chair for him to sit. He sat down and leaned back while moving his wooden rocking chair. "I think I can give you onest lesson."


    Maya nodded and listened to him attentively.


    "Do you know why I can''t help you after this?"


    Maya fell silent. Although she wanted to say because he was a B Rank Blessing, it was impossible for her to say something like that. After all, his real question was more profound than it appeared.


    "I have heard about your ssifications. There are seven, right? How about you recite it for me?"


    Maya hesitated for a moment. "Normal, Elite, Champion, Hero, Supreme, Mythical, and God."


    The man smiled and looked to the ceiling. "Champion, Hero, Supreme, and Mythical."


    He only mentioned four rankings. "Champion is for those who have attained the peak of human power. In your ssifications, they''re the best of the athletes. Only some of them can actually surpass their limit. That''s what the Hero Rank is��


    "To be honest, I''m supposed to be at this level. After all, when you reach the next rank, you''re a kind of God''s Apostle. You can perform various miracles and other stuff. That''s not what I can do.


    "Let alone, Mythical Rank which is known to be some sort of saint like the closest person to God.


    "I''m here to teach you about the difference in rank and what you can do to surpass it. Right before I died, I remembered performing one miracle." He smiled. "And this one miracle was the one that helped me achieve this rank."


    "��" Maya widened her eyes but started doubting what he was going to say.


    "This miracle was known as Order. At that time, I questioned myself. Why, despite their supreme power, did the Gods and Goddesses live like that of a human��" The man smiled when he asked that question.


    "��" Maya''s body trembled as she finally opened her mouth. "You''re not talking that Gods and Goddesses were actually humans, right?"


    "That''s my spection. However, I haven''t gotten the answer yet." The man shook his head in disappointment. "Do you want to hear my spection?"


    Maya thought for a moment and eventually nodded her head.


    "I do believe they were humans. But there was a connection between them and this very, allowing them to perform various miracles."


    "A connection?" Maya widened her eyes.


    "Yes. If the wants you to be in charge of the ntation, it will give you the power."


    Maya gulped down and asked, "What do you mean by giving you the power?"


    "That''s the thing I want to tell you." He smiled. "To connect something, you need a bridge to transfer the power from this very to your body. And that bridge is what we called Order."


    "Order�� I believe I''ve heard of this term multiple times."


    "Yeah. Though, even I can''t say I have understood what the Order is." He shook his head. "So, there''s a chance that what I know is actually wrong. Still, do you want to know about it?"


    Maya thought for a moment and ultimately nodded. "Yes."


    "Unfortunately, I don''t know how to attain Order." He sighed. "I just did the thing I loved until I died, and one day, not long before I died, I could feel the connection."


    "��" Maya frowned. "So, I need to be near death first?"


    "Of course not. No one could be called Gods and Goddesses if that was the case, right? What I want you to know is�� the secret to bing peerless is the Order. As for what it is, I''m sure that some people on Earth have known about this. You better ask them instead of me because they can provide a better answer than me. Remember, Order." The man smiled. "I hope that you can achieve this. Sorry that I can''t help you more."


    Before Maya could say anything, the middle-aged man had sent her back to the real world.

 Chapter 785 – Movement

    <h4>Chapter 785 - Movement</h4>


    Maya took a deep breath and opened her eyes, knowing the clue on how to get far stronger. She looked at Theo and said, "Now I can finally understand what you''re talking about��"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion, wondering if something had hit her head.


    "I''m talking about Orders."


    Theo had mentioned Order a few times. When she asked about it, he always refused to exin it to her. With the information from the middle-aged man, it was enough for her to see what was going on.


    "I want to buy information about Orders. Will you sell it?" Maya asked with a serious expression. This information was very secretive, so she wanted to see the level of secrecy of this Order.


    And Theo''s answer was enough.


    "There are a few things that money can''t buy." Theo shook his head.


    "As expected��" She smiled, not feeling dejected because she didn''t get the answer. Instead, she understood that the only way to get this kind of information would be asking her father or grandfather.


    After contemting for a moment, she said, "Anyway, I have reached Supreme Rank. Should we focus on Agata right now?"


    "Agreed. This way, she can probably reach the Supreme Rank by tomorrow. Maybe we can challenge that ce before going back."


    "But wouldn''t it mean we won''t have the chance to use this ce anymore? I mean, there are still you who haven''t reached the Supreme Rank."


    "We still have the third destination. I''m still thirty levels away from Supreme Rank anyway, so there''s no need to rush." Theo shook his head nonchntly as if this problem wasn''t that important.


    "Well, since you''re the one who said it, I''ll follow it then." Maya shrugged.


    "Let''s continue then."


    The group then continued moving around on the 30th floor while Theo looked at every single corner, trying to find a single opening that might lead them to the entrance.


    After another few hours, Ava suddenly leaped off his shoulder andnded on the ground.


    She frowned and stuck her ears on the ground.


    "I can feel an empty space beneath the ground. There seem to be some movements, but because the tunnel is small, it''s hard to understand what it is. But I assure you that someone is there." Ava exined.


    "Is that so?" Theo frowned and said, "I guess this is the entrance."


    Looking at the floor that wasn''t any different than the rest, Theo could understand why no one had discovered it yet.


    "Still, can''t we just break the floor?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "They have tried it, but the skeletons end up repairing it. And when they do, all monsters in this ce will go toward your position," Maya replied, warning him not to do something like that.


    "Hmm��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows before bending his knees. He wanted to test whether the password and this ce were right or wrong.


    But when he was about to open his mouth, another warning came from Hel.


    [Don''t try it. Whoever is hiding inside will surely find it out. If she carries the armor away, the loss will be too much for you.]


    "��" Theo stopped right after, saying, "Alright. We should assume this ce is the entrance. For now, we should kill other monsters as much as possible, trying to bring Agata to Supreme Rank."


    Agata and Maya thought Theo had found something, so they believed this was the entrance and immediately turned around. "Alright."


    The two seemed to be eager to fight a powerful Supreme Rank Monster.


    "Still, what kind of monster hides there?" Maya asked.


    "I''m not sure. It seems I can put up a great fight alone. So, with you, Agata, and Ava with me, we should be able to fight against it." Theo answered with a serious expression.


    "I see. It shouldn''t be more powerful than the magma monster we fought in the Arkahan Volcano then."


    "Probably. But we can''t underestimate the monster that can maintain this ce. I mean, can you believe that this monster can hide from Mythical Rank Experts in the past? Also, this monster should be old." Theo exined.


    "Indeed. Should we send your clone first to check?"


    "Nah, it''s fine." Theo shook his head.


    "Understood."


    Aftering to an agreement and marking the area on their map, they immediately moved around the 29th and 30th floors, making sure they didn''t waste too much time moving around instead of killing monsters.


    As they had calcted, Agata reached Supreme Rank the next day. They were sitting on the ground, protecting her, who was called by her Goddess.


    Unbeknownst to them, there was a big movement in Italy.


    Leonardo, who was sitting in Theo''s mansion, suddenly received a visitor.


    The visitor was none other than Davi.


    "Father."


    "Eh? What are you doing here?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows.


    "I''m here just to bring someone to you."


    "Bring someone to me?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes. It was true he had sensed a Mythical Rank Expert outside the mansion, but this expert was too weak to even be his guest. So, he was wondering who could make Davi bring them here.


    Suddenly, the Mythical Rank Expert moved toward Leonardo in a sh, revealing a woman figure hidden beneath the white armor.


    "��" Leonardo fell silent as his expression darkened. "I was thinking who would even bother to visit me�� But I never thought that it would be you, Valerie."


    That was right. The visitor was none other than Theo''s mother, Valerie Guerrero.


    "What do you want from me? Are you going to take Theo now? I need to remind you that he''s in my protection." Leonardo red at her. "Even if it''s your request, I won''t let that child go."


    "I am here not to bring Theo. It''s to ask for your help."


    "Heh. My help? Why didn''t you ask it back then?"


    "It''s because right now, Eric Griffith ising to this ce."


    Leonardo''s expression became grim as he recognized that name. "You serious?"


    "I''m not joking. Ray holds back his father to stay in the Griffith Family and sends me to this ce to stop him." She sighed. "The Mind Elder has started moving, Father. I would like to request your help to stop him. His target this time is none other than��"


    Leonardo clenched his fists and gritted his teeth�� "Theo."

 Chapter 786 – Help

    <h4>Chapter 786 - Help</h4>


    "Theo." The moment that name was mentioned, the atmosphere became heavy.


    "And do you think I will help you?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes. "No matter what you do, you''ll always be the evil parents in his mind."


    Valerie bit her lips but didn''t refute him a single time. She was perfectly aware of the situation she had created.


    Leonardo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled. There were many things he wanted to say to this daughter of his, but he didn''t feel like asking them.


    Only one question that actually came out of his mouth. "Is your revenge worth it?"


    "You know?"


    "No." Leonardo shook his head. "I don''t know why you seek to fight the Griffith Family. But I still know there''s no exnation other than revenge. Is it worth it for you to abandon your kid like that?


    "It''s for the kid�� Don''t give me that. I know that phrase is nothing but a tool to lie to yourself, to your kid, and to me, your father." Leonardo sighed.


    Valerie didn''t say a single thing.


    Leonardo waved his hand as if telling her to go. "I know what to do. Just go do whatever you need to do."


    "Thank you, Father." Valerie bowed her head and disappeared.


    Davi paused for a moment and asked, "Is Eric Griffith really going toe?"


    "Most likely. The Barbe Group will certainly take advantage of this." He sighed.


    "But Father, I know you can defeat him," said Davi with a frown.


    "I can, but the damage he can do is far worse than the majority of Mythical Rank Experts. You should have known about the Crysist Night, right?"


    "Yes." Davi nodded with a serious expression. "Eric Savant, for the first time, brainwashed a hundred people and wiped the memories of a thousand people to cause huge chaos in a city. That''s when the Griffith Family took him under their care and married one of their daughters to him."


    "That''s a terrible night." Leonardo closed his eyes. "Can you ever imagine the pain of killing your own family member?"


    "I��" Davi looked down, couldn''t answer his question. It was obvious that the family Leonardo was talking about was not a distant rtive. It was a close one that they met every day and loved very much.


    Leonardo sighed. "Exactly. That''s why we need to prevent whatever he''s going to do�� As for where he wille from��"


    "I believe it''s from the other side."


    "Yeah." Leonardo scratched the back of his head. "Now, I''m thinking on how to deal with him and the Barbe Group. Thetter has been preparing to kill Theo with everything they got. However, they have no chance this whole time.


    "So, I believe they''re going to restrain our forces, allowing Eric to cause a rampage. We can''t even split our force like this."


    "Do you think we can get other influences to participate?"


    "I am not very sure. Looking at the circumstances, I don''t think Theo''s future will matter that much. Although they want to be his friend, if there''s a chance to kill him, they won''t hesitate to take it.


    "After all, a future threat will be gone this way. And they can simply put the me on the Barbe Group or the Griffith Family. Either way, they win, we lose." Leonardo shook his head. "Even if our War God Family stops them all, there will be no one taking care of Theo."


    "Then, what should we do?" Davi asked.


    "We only need one more ally, and Valerie will take care of it."


    "She?"


    "Yeah." Leonardo rose from his chair and stretched his hands. "Hmm�� It''s been a while since we''re in a situation like this. I guess I will y a bit."


    "Though, I want to confirm one thing. The care you have for Theo will end when hees back, right?"


    "I know what you''re thinking. I''m still putting on my equal love." Leonardo smiled. "At the end of the day, I didn''t do anything for a few months when that brat went to another side. We can think of this as a form ofpensation."


    "I understand."


    "It''s been a few decades since I''m like this��" He started walking while saying, "Apany me to the headquarters. Gonna do it myself this time."


    "Yes, Father." Davi followed him, wondering what the old man had in mind.


    Meanwhile, Valerie had begun pulling her string. She was standing in front of the man who was recognized by the whole world as the pope.


    "For what purpose do you visit me, child?" The pope still smiled while asking Enrica to stay close to him.


    Enrica was staring at her, thinking, ''She is Theo''s mother��''


    Valerie took off her ne and said, "I want you to protect Theo."


    "Are you sure? I still don''t understand why you''re doing all this right now even though your child needed it the most in the past."


    Valerie refused to say anything. But the pope seemed to be able to see everything despite closing his eyes.


    "Child. Hatred has clouded your heart and judgment." The pope shook his head before sighing.


    Valerie didn''t say a single thing, so the pope could only take the ne from her and say, "Alright. My student also owes him, so I''ll protect him. I guess my friend, Leonardo, knows everything?"


    Valerie nodded.


    "Alright. I''ll talk to him about the nter. Though, it''s not my forte to be scheming like this."


    "Thank you very much." Valerie bowed her head again and walked away.


    "I just want to ask this one question. Have you ever thought about mending your rtionship with your kid and asking for his forgiveness?" The pope''s tone was calm and soothing. He always believed that forgiveness was always a necessary thing to have in one''s heart.


    However, Valerie only said while walking away, "Thank you. Please take care of Theo."


    "��" The pope looked at her back with a heavy heart before giving the ne to Enrica. "This is yours now."


    "What is this ne?" Enrica tilted her head in confusion, took the ne, and observed it closely.


    "That was the previous saintess'' most precious ne."


    Enrica became silent, staring at the green-colored pendant on the ne.

 Chapter 787 – Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 787 - Ambush</h4>


    "So, I guess we''re ready." Maya smirked while rising from the floor. Agata had be a Supreme Rank Expert, and they had enough rest to fully recover their stamina.


    "Indeed." Theo nodded with a serious expression. But before he went to the entrance, he asked Agata, "How do you feel?"


    "Hmm��" Agata didn''t answer him immediately. She still looked around before nodding her head. "Yeah. I should be fine."


    "Good."


    After confirming Agata''s condition, Theo finally stepped near the entrance, bent his knees, and ced his hand on the ground.


    He took a deep breath while concentrating. Although he had practiced it a few times in another ce, this was the first time he did it for real. And there was no guarantee that this ce was the entrance, so he needed some time to prepare himself.


    With the Magic Power concentrated in his throat, he began reciting the word one by one.


    "Eilhis�� Mertorie�� Qu�� M��"


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    The floor started to shake, indicating the movement underground. It was clear what was going to happen, so he immediately summoned his clone, preparing for everything.


    Suddenly, the floor started shining, creating a small rectangle on the ground that somehow engulfed all of them.


    ''Sh*t, we''re directly on top of the entrance.'' Theo clicked his tongue before his body started to fall down.


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes as the floor suddenly disappeared.


    They were falling into a deep hole without any light. Even though they had used their night vision, they still couldn''t see the bottom.


    In the end, Theo used his Telekinesis to make them stay afloat. After that, he put his finger in front of his lips, asking them to not release a single sound.


    Agata, Maya, and Ava acknowledged his signal with a nod while preparing to fight the unknown.


    After that, Theo gradually lowered them down carefully because they didn''t know the extent of this ce.


    After a long three minutes, they finally reached the ground. Maya raised her fingers and made a sign.


    6


    1


    0


    It was clear that she was talking about the depth of the tunnel. It seemed they had fallen for 610 feet ording to her device.


    Because of how small this ce was, Maya didn''t dare to bring her armor, knowing that her firepower might create more trouble for themselves instead of helping them. So, Maya would only be the support this time around.


    At the very least, they seemed to be able to escape as long as they followed this hole.


    After reaching the ground, they looked around, trying to find anyone that was going to ambush them. But surprisingly, there was no movement.


    Ava leaped to his shoulder and pointed in the only direction avable since the rest was a dead end.


    Theo summoned his clone and let him check first while they stayed behind for a sneak attack.


    Clone Theo ran forward while checking the traps. He soon found a light at the end of this tunnel.


    When he took a peek, he saw a hall with at least 100��100 feet in size and a tall 30 feet ceiling.


    Inside, he saw various equipment from swords to bows. However, he couldn''t help but frown, considering the equipment had been eroded by time.


    Still, when he saw the center of the room, he saw a giant pot. The liquid inside the cauldron seemed to be releasing green light.


    Behind this giant cauldron was an olddy, staring at her own creation. Her skin looked like an elderly human, including the color. Yet, her nose was 5 inches long, making it impossible for her to be a human.


    Her body was covered with a long ck robe, but Theo could still see her aged and rotten arms.


    Though, what piqued his interest was a ck box on top of her head. The ck box had the size of a human head. It was floating and spinning a few inches above her head.


    [That''s my Armor. In Dex M. Say those three words after grabbing the box, and you''ll be the new owner of the Death Armor.]


    ''Got it.'' Theo replied with a serious expression. He wondered what kind of liquid she was making. At the same time, he didn''t know whether he should be wary of it or not.


    There were a fewnterns hung on the ceiling, allowing him to see the entire room. However, he needed to make sure there was no hidden room that would endanger the group too.


    ''Still, will I be fine touching something that possesses your power?'' Theo asked.


    [Yes, as long as you say those three words within five seconds. If not, the part that touches the armor will start rotting and eventually spread to your entire body. She can''t use that power because she doesn''t know these three words, so the armor still doesn''t recognize anyone as its owner.]


    ''Then, how about the password for the entrance?''


    [It''s a spell to seal the armor. And it''s literally written on the box if you take a closer look. That woman seems to be using it for her own advantage.]


    ''I see.'' Theo''s expression turned serious as he summoned Magic Bullets. ''For now, I need to destroy the pot first.''


    But as soon as there was a fluctuation of Magic Power, the elderly woman stopped for a moment and raised her head. "Who''s there?"


    In an instant, she realized that the one hiding in the darkness was her enemy since the only one who would visit her was none other than the one who possessed the Shadow Order. And thetter wouldn''t need to sneak around like this.


    She immediately raised her hand and an old broom flew to her hand.


    Since she had spotted him, Theo released all his Magic Bullets.


    "!!!"


    The Magic Bullets flew in a few directions, but all of them eventually moved toward her ck pot. Hence, she raised her left hand and formed a huge ck circle that blocked all the bullets.


    After that, Clone Theo made his appearance and covered his hand with golden-colored energy.


    He waved his hand downwards as if hacking the air.


    Suddenly, the circle was cut in half, including her ck pot. The green-colored liquid flowed out of the pot, filling the room.


    "No!" The old woman gritted her teeth and red at Clone Theo.

 Chapter 788 – 10 Minutes

    <h4>Chapter 788 - 10 Minutes</h4>


    "No." The old woman raised her hand as though wanting to cover the pot with her own hands.


    But she soon realized it was nothing but an illusion. When the green liquid touched her hand, it disappeared.


    She immediately turned to Theo, who used his Blink to appear right in front of her. His foot was already in front of her head.


    Bam.


    The kick sted her to the wall, followed by a hundred Magic Bullets.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The Magic Bullets caused numerous explosions. This should be enough to kill a normal Hero Rank Monster, but the one in front of him was a powerful Supreme Rank Expert.


    Clone Theo jumped into the air while raising both hands, trying to protect himself from something.


    Suddenly, several ck whips emerged from the ground and pierced him.


    If not because of his quick response, he would have died with his heart pierced. Luckily, not only was it Clone Theo, but he managed to move his body with Telekinesis, resulting in only his left arm getting stabbed.


    Theo wanted to go away, but the whips circled around his hand, refusing to let go.


    Theo cut his own hand without hesitation before flying toward the ck box that still hadn''t changed position.


    Unfortunately for him, his n failed because the broom came his way.


    Clone Theo tried to loop around it, but the broom somehow followed him while waving its body, creating a gale that ended up pushing him back.


    With enough time, the witch had recovered and flew toward him beforeing to a halt and pointing her palm to the side.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    A series of gunshots echoed inside the room as the bullets hit the ck circle that protected the old woman.


    "Damn, she looks like a witch. No, what''s the cooler term again? Baba Yaga?" Mayamented with a smile. "Still, where''s the pot she used to carry her around?"


    Suddenly, she found a ck pot in the middle of the room. "There it is��"


    The elderly witch immediately raised her right hand before bending her knees and cing her other hand on the ground.


    "Haisya."


    A pair of ck holes appeared on the ceiling and the ground at the same time. Numerous sharp spikes came out as though they were teeth.


    When the teeth were about to bite Maya, pink smoke started to surround her and created a kind of a wall that stopped all the teeth.


    "Nice." Maya smiled and continued firing at the witch.


    The ck circle still contained all the bullets as the witch turned around, looking at Theo.


    The broom suddenly spun and created a tornado that pushed Theo''s back.


    Theonded ten feet away while staring at the broom.


    "Come on. You can''t even fight the broom?" Maya smiled.


    Since she managed to hold them back, the witch grasped its broom again and red at them.


    "It seems that you have found the entrance. How do you open it? There should be no one who knows about it." The witch gritted her teeth, never expecting to be in this situation.


    "Why should we tell you?" Theo smirked and raised the arm he cut earlier before another one came out of his body.


    "Yikes. That cane out too?" Maya looked at Theo''s trick in disgust.


    "Are you not tired from talking too much?"


    "Of course not. After all, I don''tment on everything." Maya smirked.


    "!!!" The witch suddenly turned around and saw another Theo appearing in front of the ck box.


    He grasped it and said the three magic words. "In Dex M."


    Before the box recognized him, his hand felt like burning just by touching the box. He knew this wasn''t a me. Instead, it was corrosion.


    The moment the words reached the box, the pain subsided.


    [Now, channel your Magic Power to the box and imagine the clothes that you want.]


    Theo followed her instruction and channeled his Magic Power before the ck box sshed like a liquid.


    It attached itself to Theo''s hand before turning into a in ck cloth that wrapped his hand.


    "!!!" The witch, Maya, and Agata were shocked by what they saw.


    "How?" The witch widened her eyes. She had been trying to control the box this whole time but never seeded. However, that wasn''t important anymore.


    Dark-colored smoke started gushing out of her body as she let out a big grin. "Since you have shown me how to use it, I''ll kill you and get it for myself."


    Meanwhile, Maya''s expression became serious as she thought, ''As expected, Theo has something to do with that ck box. Is it rted to the one giving him the blessing?''


    Theo looked at the witch and smiled, "Really? Do you think you can kill me?"


    The witch raised her hand and formed a ball of dark clouds.


    [As expected of my armor, even though the energy has been depleted after thousands of years, it can still give you something good. Give me ten minutes. I''m going to separate the Death Order from the Magic Power.]


    ''Understood. Thank you.'' Theo became serious as he formed numerous Magic Bullets, nning to counter the witch''s dark cloud.


    But before the dark witch could throw that, her ck circle was shattered into pieces.


    "?!" The witch turned around and saw a humanoid rabbit staring at her with that pair of bloodshot eyes.


    There were five lightning balls circling on her back, and her fist had been covered by lightning.


    The witch raised her right arm, and Ava punched her right elbow,unching her away.


    The witch rolled a few times on the ground before eventually crashing to the wall. Though, Ava wasn''t in a good situation either.


    The ball of ck cloud she made earlier still floated in its original location. And because Avanded next to it after punching her, the dark cloud was next to her body.


    She immediately let out her lightning to cover her body, but the ck cloud suddenly expanded like an explosion, sting her to the wall.


    Bam.


    The ck witch took a deep breath and looked at them�� "I''m going to kill all of you."

 Chapter 789 – A Barrack

    <h4>Chapter 789 - A Barrack</h4>


    "I''m going to kill all of you."


    "Say that when you have the power to do so." Theo smirked. Since the witch didn''t have the control over the Death Armor anymore, she couldn''t use it to enhance the power of the undead. So, the undead wouldn''t be that formidable even if she summoned them.


    "You think you won''t need to fight powerful undead just because you''ve taken that armor�� Is that what you''re thinking?" The witch smirked and pped her hands. "As expected, you''re not a necromancer. So, you don''t know what exactly this ce is��"


    "Rise."


    "!!!" Agata, Maya, Theo, and Ava immediately regrouped in one ce as they felt something was wrong.


    Two skeletons suddenly came out of the ground. Their entrance looked like any other Skeletal monsters they had fought this whole time. But, instead of white, the color of their bones was purple.


    The skeleton that appeared on the witch''s right had armor that protected his body and legs. The armor was yellow but soon turned in purple, matching the color of the bones.


    The skeleton''s body was simr to Theo from height to wingspan. And unlike Theo, the skeleton was wielding a one-edged long purple sword.


    On the other hand, the one on her left had simr armor but a different weapon. The skeleton didn''t use a sword. It used a spear.


    Both of them looked at Theo and the others while emanating their killing intent.


    "This is not good, Theo. Looking at those spear skelly and sword skelly, I''m afraid they''re powerful warriors." Maya''s expression turned grim.


    "You don''t know a thing��" The witch smiled. "You are not even aware that the ce you''re standing on right now was a barrack. And because you''re not a necromancer, there''s no way for you to stop them."


    "Barrack��" Agata muttered and looked at them. There was only one pair that would be in charge of protecting the witch. It was a pair of the captain and its vice.


    Theo resummoned his clone and took a deep breath. "Alright. Ava takes care of the sword skelly; I''ll handle the spear skelly. Maya will support us and Agata will beat the witch."


    "Got it." All of them answered in unison while Mayamented, "So, you agree with the nickname I put on those skeletons?"


    Theo rolled his eyes and immediately charged forward, not bothering to give any reply.


    The spear skeleton moved forward and thrust his spear forward.


    Theo struck the tip of his spear before sliding down the de, trying to knock the spear down.


    Just like the other skeletons, the spear skeleton still remembered the Martial Art it learned in the past.


    Seeing Theo''s movement, the skeleton stomped the ground and stopped Theo''s spear from moving.


    "��" Theo had expected this. In fact, he wanted to see what kind of spear technique the skeleton had.


    The moment he was stopped, the clone appeared next to him, preparing to thrust his spear to the skeleton''s head.


    The spear skeleton slightly twisted his wrist to gain a slight distance between their spears before he waved it horizontally, striking Theo and Clone Theo''s spears in session.


    After that, a huge golden dragon came out of the tip of the spear and moved to swallow the clone. The eastern dragon looked like an extension of the spear''s tip.


    This extension turned around and opened its mouth.


    Theo saw this giant dragon''s head while his clone hurriedly jumped to the side.


    The dragon didn''t stop there. It continued to chase Clone Theo that happened to move to the real body.


    Pissed, Theo''s real body waved his spear to the side and manipted the air with his Telekinesis, sting the dragon to the side.


    "Let''s see what you got." Theo smirked before running forward together with his clone. The spear skeleton also did the same.


    Meanwhile, the sword skeleton didn''t have an equal enemy. Ava kept sending him the five lightning balls in session.


    With how hard the lightning balls were, the skeletons couldn''t cut them. He only deflected them this whole time while trying to find a gap in Ava''s defense.


    Not wanting to lose, Ava disappeared, using her fastest speed to arrive in front of the skeleton.


    She covered her right hand with lightning and struck the skeleton.


    Thetter managed to block it andnded several feet away. On the other hand, Ava looked at her own skin and realized there was a droplet of blooding out of a small wound on her fist.


    "��" She fell silent before looking at the skeleton who had raised his stance again.


    While they were stalling the skeletons, Maya and Agata had been working together to bring down the witch.


    Maya kept shooting her with the rifle while Agata raised vines from underneath the ground.


    The vines circled around the witch''s ankles, but when she was about to burst the illusion vine to injure the old woman''s leg, the witch had understood her n and countered it.


    A burst of Magic Power dispersed the pink smoke. The witch then drew another circle in the air with her index finger.


    A ck-colored ring appeared around Agata and Maya and started to shrink to capture them or even cut them.


    Maya changed her weapon to grenadeunchers and bombarded the ring until it was destroyed.


    However, this was just a distraction. The witch''s real intention was not them.


    "I''ll show you what I can do��" The witch controlled her ck pot as thetter began to fly toward her. "Luckily, I''ve been brewing poison this whole time. Let me see how you handle this poison��"


    "You seriously tell that to us?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "I''m just letting you poor soul, who will die soon, know what killed you." The witch harrumphed and snapped her finger to control the green liquid inside the pot.


    But she was surprised that no liquid came out.


    When she slightly tweaked the pot, she realized the pot was empty. At that moment, the witch turned around and saw a hole on the ground.


    Theo immediately used his Telekinesis to crush the floor and fill the hole with debris.


    "Oops. You talked too much, so I took my time to drain the pot." Theo smirked as he had used his Telekinesis to make a hole underneath the pot�� "I guess you didn''t feel that."

 Chapter 790 – Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 790 - Reinforcement</h4>


    The witch gritted her teeth and waved her hand, pushing the pot toward Theo.


    Theo used his Magic Bullets to st it open, but the witch was more prepared now. She had covered the pot with her own ck cloud, deflecting all the bullets to the sides.


    "Seriously��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Telekinesis to throw the pot away.


    However, this created a gap in his defense. The spear skeleton struck Clone Theo''s spear and pushed it to the left before spinning his body to get past Clone Theo.


    Clone Theo didn''t let him approach the real body easily, so he immediately kicked up, trying to strike the spear skeleton''s skull.


    Before he could hit him, Ava''s voice echoed in his ears. "Theo! Watch out!"


    Theo nced to his left and found crescent-shaped energy that ran through the ground and ultimately cut his leg.


    "As expected from the captain and vice-captain." Clone Theo muttered before using his blink to appear on top of the spear skeleton, throwing a powerful fist from above.


    The spear skeleton spun his body again and sliced Clone Theo''s neck before raising his arm.


    Theo used that chance to pierce the skeleton''s skull, but the skeleton managed to deflect the spear by using its finger.


    Without hesitation, Theo summoned his clone again and attacked him with his fist.


    The Telekinesis pushed the skeleton back, allowing the clone to get the spear that was floating in the air.


    Still, the skeleton was better than he expected. When his spear was moved away, the tip of his spear still reached Theo''s spear andunched it to the ceiling.


    Theo threw his spear to the clone while summoning his blue spear. His Telekinesis was reaching for the spear on top of his head, trying to pull it out.


    But before he charged forward, he summoned his Magic Bullets and threw everything at him.


    The Spear Skeleton raised the spear and spun it while thrusting forward.


    The spin formed a torrential gale that carried his golden-colored energy, destroying all the Magic Bullets like a drill.


    Theo struck the spear with his blue artifact, stopping it.


    After that, Clone Theo looped around and ambushed him from behind.


    The skeleton knew the predicament, so he continued pushing forward to overpower Theo. And when Clone Theo was about to stab him, he moved his body slightly and let the spear slip around his ribs.


    Clone Theo was forced to stop its movement because his spear almost reached Theo''s chest.


    The skeleton then kicked Theo on the stomach, which obviously was blocked by the spear''s handle. However, his real intention was simply to kill Clone Theo on his back.


    With the spear stuck on his ribs, the skeleton simply waved his hand, and the clone died.


    After that, the skeleton pulled out the spear and threw it to Ava.


    "Tsk." Theo raised his hand and used his Telekinesis to stop the spear from hitting Ava.


    Although he didn''t manage topletely stop it, he somehow slowed it down enough for Ava to react to this spear.


    Thetter kicked the spear back to Theo, which was caught by the freshly summoned clone.


    "Since you want to throw the weapon so much��" Theo smiled and used his Telekinesis to lift all the weapons in this room.


    ng.


    Clink.


    ng.


    The clicking sound between the weapons echoed in their ears as the skeletons and the witch was rmed by the existence.


    This was different from the witch since she needed to use her ck cloud to control the pot. As for Theo, the Telekinesis was enough to be his weapon thrower.


    Heunched all those weapons toward the sword skeleton to bring him down.


    The spear skeleton charged forward to stop Theo, but Clone Theo appeared from behind and struck his spear.


    The witch had no choice other than to take care of these weapons. She formed another ck circle that caught all the weapons.


    But Agata didn''t let her do whatever she wanted anymore. With a scythe in her hand, she cut the ck circle apart, allowing the weapons to go through.


    The witch summoned multiple whips to catch as many weapons as possible.


    Maya smirked and shot all those whips.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Bang.


    Each shot took down a whip and Maya couldn''t help butugh. "Haha, I''m good."


    But the dispersed smoke actually formed a huge tform that ended up stomping all the weapons.


    "Oh�� I take that back." Maya looked away.


    "You surely enjoy yourself, huh." Agata''s eyebrows twitched as she approached the witch with her pink smoke.


    The witch released her ck cloud and pushed it forward to stop Agata.


    Both pink smoke and ck clouds shed with each other and didn''t seem to be able to prate each other.


    Seeing this, Agata raised her hands to form vines from underground to restrain the witch. But thetter had the same thought.


    With ck and pink vinesing out of the ground, both the witch and Agata were forced to leap back to gain some distance.


    When Maya was about to shoot her, loud crackling noises rang from the tunnel.


    "?!" Ava was the first to notice and said, "I don''t know how many, but I think there are monstersing from the tunnel."


    Maya turned to the witch and realized she didn''t have any advantage even though she had some strength to spare because she was calling her other skeletons.


    Without hesitation, Maya moved to the tunnel while shouting, "I''m going to hold them back. I don''t know how long, so you should hurry."


    Theo''s expression became serious as he realized if those skeletons came into this ce, they might die.


    Hence, he needed to injure these two skeletons that helped the witch first. Since the weapons were free to move, they continued to fly toward the sword skeleton.


    Agata prevented the witch from stopping them again, so the sword skeleton had no choice other than to take it down.


    The sword skeleton raised his sword and waved it in a circr motion, creating a tornado of energy that knocked all the weapons away.


    Ava took this chance to hit him with all her power.


    The skeleton somehow avoided it, but Ava still managed to move her fist and aim at his arm.


    *Spark!*


    The electricity was discharged from her fist and obliterated the arm instantly, throwing the sword into the air.


    The skeleton hurriedly picked it with his other hand and waved it to Ava to force her to leap back.

 Chapter 791 – Path To The True Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 791 - Path To The True Illusion</h4>


    The condition was quite dangerous for Theo as their side didn''t have much time before the skeletons swarmed them.


    Even though they were not powered up by the Death Armor anymore, their number was still numerous. As expected from a witch.


    Theo took a deep breath while staring at the spear skeleton before him. He knew he should finish this fight as soon as possible, but he couldn''t use his trump card, the Ascension Step, because of the ceiling.


    His heart was beating rapidly even though his mind was calm, searching for the n to deal with the skeleton as soon as possible.


    Suddenly, an idea shed in his mind.


    ''I guess this is the only way��'' Theo took a deep breath and prepared his heart and mind.


    Suddenly, the Magic Power in the area fluctuated strongly, rming everyone as the wind brushed their skin.


    "?!" Agata and the witch were the closest to him other than the spear skeleton, so they could feel the tremendous powering from Theo.


    "Time is up." Theo smirked.


    A ck-colored aura suddenly emerged from his body. "So, this is Death��"


    The witch widened her eyes, immediately assuming that Theo hadprehended the power of Death because he managed to get the Death Armor.


    "This is truly great��" Theo lifted his hand and said the same word as what the witch uttered earlier. "Rise."


    Suddenly, multiple ck holes appeared, followed by skeletons'' arms. The skeletons dragged their bodies out of the holes.


    "I wenty Skeletons?" The witch widened her eyes. "How did you do it? There should be no soul in this room other than those two��"


    "Old woman. You''ve never understood anything about Death." Theo chuckled and waved his hand to the side. In that instant, a blue-colored de appeared on the skeletons'' hands.


    The witch shivered as she looked at the cloth on his arm. "You�� You haveprehended that power�� That must be it��"


    "Let me show you what Death is��" Theo released his killing intent and sent it straight to the witch.


    The moment she felt the killing intent, her heart stopped for a split second before the world in her eyes changed.


    The floor turned into a pool of blood.


    "Eh?" The witch widened her eyes, shocked by what she saw. All the pirs inside the room were gone, and there was only darkness on the horizon instead of walls.


    The ceiling disappeared. There was only a blood-red sky.


    The chilling wind brushed her body, making her body shiver.


    "Where is this?" She looked around, not understanding what was happening. "Is this Death?"


    "It''s just the edge of it." Theo''s voice echoed in her ears.


    She tried to look at Theo and found him standing not far from her.


    "Even though I don''t have full control over it yet�� But it''s truly a magnificent power��" Theo smiled and lifted his finger. "Since I can do something like this."


    The witch didn''t know what happened, but the next thing she realized, an excruciating pain jolted her mind as though her body was cut.


    "Argh!" The witch dropped to her knees and clutched her chest. "What is this?"


    The witch gritted her teeth. She felt her heart was grabbed by something.


    "This�� This is the power of Death?" The witch sucked a cold breath, never expecting the power to be this great.


    Meanwhile, Agata was dumbstruck, not understanding what they were actually doing.


    In her eyes, there was nothing changed. The room hadn''t changed and the skeletons were nowhere to be seen. Theo suddenly acted like he was possessed by something, and he had been doing it like he was an evil lord or something.


    On the other hand, the witch seemed to be affected by his words.


    ''Theo�� Is he getting that kind of syndrome? Why does he suddenly act like that?'' Agata''s eyebrows twitched as she looked at the witch, not doing anything. ''Still, I think this is an illusion. What kind of illusion does he perform right now?''


    She looked to the sides and noticed that the skeletons were still moving. Ava and Clone Theo were still fighting them like nothing happened.


    ''Can Theo produce something like this with his illusion? I know that his illusion level is far too good, but I don''t think it has reached this level.'' Agata thought.


    However, Theo indeed manipted the entire ce.


    He first used the skeletons and acted like an evil guy to make the witch believe he had understood a bit of the Death Order.


    Then, he used his overwhelming killing intent that had been strengthened by his Awareness. As soon as the killing intent hit her, Theo transformed the world she saw with an illusion.


    The ce was none other than the realm where he was getting butchered by Hel''s killing intent. He had been killed so many times that he could remember every sensation he felt and every detail he saw.


    That was right. The one who yed a big role in creating this illusion was none other than Hel. If she didn''t kill him continuously, he wouldn''t be able to replicate this ce.


    As for the skill he used to create this realm�� it was Illusion Maniption. He manipted what the witch saw and also used this Illusion Maniption to give the sensation of how it felt to be crushed. After all, he had experienced it all.


    In other words, Theo had been utilizing what he had this whole time. Instead of being stuck on what he usually used, he became a bit more creative in using them. And he believed this was the God of Mischief''s deed as he reminded him that he hadn''t used the Illusion Maniption to the fullest.


    Of course, the Illusion Maniption wasn''t that omnipotence. Their environment was an enclosed space, making it easier for Theo to create all this.


    If they were fighting in an open space, Theo couldn''t create this ce at all, considering his Illusion Maniption couldn''t bepared to Agata''s Uer Dimension.


    Without a doubt, Theo''s path to bing an illusionist had been opened�� And this was his first step to reach the true illusion.

 Chapter 792 – Killing The Witch

    <h4>Chapter 792 - Killing The Witch</h4>


    Meanwhile, the witch was still trapped inside the illusion that only she could see.


    Theo smirked and raised his hand before clutching it. "Right. How about if I crush your arm?"


    "Aaarrrggghhh!" the witch screamed in pain. It was too much for the witch to maintain her sanity.


    As expected from someone who was still inexperienced in this type of illusion, He still couldn''t maintain the witch''s state of mind.


    Due to the power he had shown to her, the witch now had an unbearable desire to possess this power.


    "That�� power�� is mine!" The witch shouted while jumping toward Theo, not caring about the price she had to pay as long as she could get it from him.


    But in that instant, the illusion shattered like sses, revealing that everything around them was still working like normal. It was only her who got affected by the illusion.


    Theo smiled at her shocked face. He used that chance to pierce her head with his spear.


    The witch somehow reached the tip of his spear and spun her body, barely avoiding it.


    Theo didn''t expect to kill her with this one chance, so he kicked her away.


    When flying, Agata''s smoke surrounded the witch and turned into spikes from all directions.


    The witch tried to move around, but her arms, legs, and body were stabbed by the spikes. She couldn''t escape from all of them.


    "Gah!"


    Theo smiled and forced the skeletons he summoned earlier to let go of their swords.


    The swords then flew toward the witch and pierced her body before she could call her broom or pot.


    "No!" The witch shouted with blood dripping all over her body. It turned out, the swords that the skeletons held this whole time were Theo''s Magic Bullets.


    Since the witch could only see Magic Power, she believed the skeletons and the swords indeed came from necromancy instead of illusion.


    Theo smiled when he saw the killing notification. In that instant, the skeletons began to fall down.


    The crackling sound was filling their ears, indicating the number of the skeletons. And their bodies soon disappeared without a trace.


    "It''s done." Theo sighed before getting another announcement.


    [Purification isplete.]


    [You''ve acquired 162 Free Attribute Points.]


    ''You''rete.'' Theo scratched the back of his head but didn''t forget to thank her. ''Still, it''s a great help. Thank you very much.''


    [I did it as fast as possible. It''s not that much though.]


    ''Not that much huh�� 162 Points�� That''s basically 30 levels'' worth of points. I guess this is how a Mythical Rank Expert increases the gap among them. They gather as many artifacts as they can to gain more attribute points.


    ''For example, if I can get a total of 1500 points right now, I''ll have the power of a Mythical Rank Expert�� I mean, only the attributes, not the actual strength and skill. I see. So, this is the gap that I need to surmount sooner orter.


    ''I thought the flower that I risked my life to get was expensive for a single flower. But if they can umte it like this, I can understand why they''re so expensive. And the demand will still be high even with that price.''


    Theo''s expression became serious, knowing what he should do.


    [Yeah. But make sure to get something with an Order in them. They have more energy than the rest. If we make aparison, that flower will probably give around 30 points and it''s freshly harvested while my Death Armor has been deteriorating for the past few thousand years.]


    ''Yeah, but your armor is made by dwarves, and it''s your armor.''


    [True, especially the second one.]


    ''��'' Theo shook his head helplessly and saw Ava and Agataing to him.


    Before that, he checked his status first, wondering which ones he should addter.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 470


    EXP: 159,599/ 2,061,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B)


    Attributes: Strength 600, Endurance 396, Agility 391, Vitality 396, Magic Power 750


    Free Attribute Points: 162


    ''I''ll decide when we''re back.'' Theo sighed and looked at Agata, "We''re done here. I bet the skeletons are gone too."


    "Yeah." Agata nodded. "So, what did you do earlier? Was it your illusion?"


    "Yeah. Illusion Maniption�� Just say that I created a pseudo realm for that witch by using this room. I couldn''t replicate what you did with your skill, but I could at least use it as a reference. Thank you for showing me your skill." Theo smirked.


    Although Theo was teaching her most of the time, he also learned from anyone, including her. As long as the skill was something he could replicate and use, he would probably do it.


    That was why he went overseas and epted the spar with the Wind Emperor''s grandchildren along with Ana and Alea. He intended to learn from them.


    "I see. I''m d that my skill can help you." She smiled, understanding what Theo had done earlier.


    Suddenly, the loud one was back after seeing the numerous skeletons crumbling to the ground.


    "Theo, we have a problem. We need to leave this ce as soon as possible. I''m sure all the skeletons are dying because we''ve killed the witch, so we need to get away right now, or we''ll be targeted by many." Maya returned to the room, panicked.


    Theo and Agata stared at her with a poker face as though this didn''t matter that much.


    Theo even waved his hand and said, "Yeah, yeah. Calm down. We can''t really hide it anyway."


    "Huh?" Maya frowned. If Theo wanted it, he should be able to act like they didn''t do anything to this ce.


    However, Theo simply pointed at the weapons he threw at the sword skeleton earlier. "We got those. You still need to pay me for finding this room and those weapons."


    Maya turned around and looked at the numerous weapons.


    "Oh�� Oooh��" Maya looked down as though she realized there were too many weapons to hide from other people�� And there was still the payment. "Can I pay in installment?"

 Chapter 793 – Help

    <h4>Chapter 793 - Help</h4>


    "Alright. Jokes aside." Theo brushed her question off and said, "We still need to go to the surface. For now, I don''t want to make a problem with the government, so just y dumb with those who are going down right now.


    "After that, we''ll im the possessions of these weapons."


    "Understood." Agata and Maya nodded in agreement.


    It was clear that they couldn''t hide the weapons, and Maya obviously didn''t want to let them go since this was her loot.


    So, Theo didn''t n on teleporting them one by one, considering they needed to register themselves whening out.


    Before leaving, Theo touched the witch and stored the card, nning to look at itter after they returned to the hotel.


    Then, they started climbing before Theo abruptly stopped at the floor 20th and hid the weapons away.


    This action stunned Maya as she had no idea what she was nning to do.


    But for someone who had learned from Theo, Agata immediately moved toward the stairs leading to the 19th floor.


    Two guys in military uniform came down with a serious expression. "What''s going on?"


    "People?"


    "Yes. We were hunting on the 26th floor earlier before the skeletons suddenly went down. We were afraid of getting ughtered by so many skeletons, so we waited for a while before climbing carefully." Agata immediately said the exnation she had thought of earlier.


    It was a lie but a pretty reasonable one, especially since the skeletons were indeed going down.


    "We''ve confirmed that the skeletons have died, so you can climb up and give your statement to the ones outside." One of the soldiers replied with a calm expression as though he wanted to make Agata rx.


    As for the other soldier, he had confirmed with the others that the skeletons were indeed going down. They moved weirdly, so Agata''s statement wasn''t that suspicious.


    "Alright, Miss. We''re going down to check what is happening. You should go up." The two soldiers immediately rushed to the 30th floor to figure out what had happened.


    Meanwhile, Theo gave a thumbs up and used his Telekinesis to carry all the weapons with him.


    "Anyway, do you have anything that I can use to meet a Mythical Rank Expert in your hotel?" Theo asked.


    "Hmm? For what reason?"


    "Our escort of course. Just a precaution."


    Maya thought for a moment and said, "The gatekeeper should have seen your face. If youe to him and talk about it, I''m sure he''ll lead you to the Mythical Rank Expert."


    "You sure about this? I don''t like to get into any trouble."


    "Yeah. Don''t worry about it. They''re paid to do this, so��" Maya shrugged.


    Although a bit hesitant, Theo summoned his clone, nning to speed up.


    ''Wait a minute. Couldn''t I just use Blink to travel in this structure?'' Theo frowned. He never used Blink this whole time because he preferred to kill the monstersing to their way to increase their levels while deepening his understanding of traps.


    If not, he would have gone down with Blink when Ava was staying inside the hotel.


    Now that the situation had changed, he needed to go up as soon as possible. Clone Theo immediately used his Blink to climb the entire structure.


    Although he could only reach floor 6th, it was 15 minutes faster than the real body and the others.


    And Clone Theo didn''t hesitate to climb the rest of the floor before using his Blink again to teleport himself outside the dungeon.


    He sneakily headed to the hotel as the soldiers were busy dealing with people''s statements regarding the anomaly.


    The only reason why Theo wanted an escort was to prevent any form of incident.


    Although not many wanted to make a move against Maya, if the reward was high enough, they might do it.


    Hence, it would be better to have a Mythical Rank Expert as an escort as the strongest person among them was merely a Supreme Rank Expert.


    It didn''t take too long for Theo to reach the hotel, considering he was using all his power to boost his speed with Telekinesis.


    As soon as he reached there, he opened the hotel''s door and rushed to the gate office, knocking on the door.


    The middle-aged man that previously greeted them when they first came here opened the door and asked, "Yes. Mr. Theodore Griffith, correct? How can I help you?"


    "I need to meet the Mythical Rank Experts in charge of this ce. Can you help me meet them?" Theo asked politely, but his talking speed was quick, showing that he didn''t have much time.


    "I believe you are hunting with the youngdy��"


    "That''s why I need them. Maya also told me that you would be able to bring me to them." Theo nodded, not exining anything.


    Seeing Theo''s expression and tone, he finally nodded. "I understand. I''ll only bring you to them. Whether they agree or not, it''ll be your problem."


    "Good."


    "Follow me." The middle-aged man led Theo to the lowest floor. On that floor, there were only three doors. One was leading to the elevator, and the other two were leading to the Mythical Rank Expert''s office respectively.


    "There are two. Who do you want to meet?"


    "Anyone is fine," Theo replied without hesitation. At this point, there was no need to choose as he only wanted a Mythical Rank Expert.


    As if he heard themotion outside, one of the doors suddenly opened.


    "What is this? Is there a visitor today?" A man came out. Although he looked young, he was clearly in histe twenties. At the same time, he had slowed down his aging, so his actual age might have surpassed 60.


    When he saw Theo''s face, the man raised his eyebrows while fixing his ck hair. "Theodore Griffith. No, you''re only a clone."


    "I need you." Theo nodded, not greeting him.


    "You need me?" The man frowned.


    "Yeah. Maya and I havepletely excavated the Moniac Dungeon. I want you to escort us from that ce." Theo exined as simply as possible.


    In that instant, the man understood what was going on. "Ah, you bring so much treasure. Indeed, dangerous�� Give me one�� no, two minutes. I''m going to change my outfit a bit."


    "In that case, I''ll return to my real body."


    "Sure. I''ll reach that ce within ten minutes��" The man nodded as he immediately turned back, nning to change his t-shirt and short pants to a better one.

 Chapter 794 – Explanation

    <h4>Chapter 794 - Exnation</h4>


    Afterpleting his task, Theo said, "Alright. He''s already on the way here. Let''s go out and just exin to them what happened underground."


    "Do I need to avoid saying anything?" Maya asked, making sure that she didn''t say anything that would hurt their reputation.


    Theo only pointed at his Death Armor. "Only this. The rest is good."


    "Okay."


    Maya wasn''t aware of the Death Order that had enhanced the ability of the skeletons, nor was she present when Theo acted like he hadprehended the Death Order.


    So, he thought it would be fine to not exin many things to Maya.


    As for Agata, she knew what to say without even him telling her, so he didn''t need to check on her.


    "Alright. Let''s go then." Theo waved his hand and walked toward the exit.


    As soon as they left the dungeon, everyone''s gaze was shifted to them, not because it was a party of Theo and Maya, but because of the numerous weapons floating behind them.


    It was clear that they were the ones carrying all these weapons. And some of them were rusty enough to tell them that this was from the dungeon.


    "Is that��"


    "Were they the ones who caused everything?"


    "So, did they somehow beat the dungeon?"


    "But how? The 30th floor should be the lowest level. Our group had gone there, but nothing was wrong. We couldn''t even find anything."


    "Then they might have found a secret room that ended up to be the biggest secret vault."


    "Yeah. I bet they were the cause. But what happened was still unclear."


    There were gazes of envy, gazes of admiration, and even an empty gaze. People had various feelings when they saw another group getting something big.


    Listening to the whispers among them was enough for Maya to know that some of them might be following them when they left. She understood why Theo wanted a Mythical Rank Expert as their escort.


    If they had an escort like that, even if they were simply curious and didn''t n something bad, they would drop the idea since the Mythical Rank Expert would sense them.


    Still, this didn''t stop the soldiers from approaching them. Three soldiers were standing before them, one staring at them while the other two were looking at the numerous weapons.


    As one would expect from Maya, she made a smug smile and asked, "So, what''s your question?"


    Her arrogant face was displeasing for the soldiers, but they didn''t dare to show it openly, considering the other party had the power to find something no one had ever discovered before.


    "We would like to ask about what happened inside the dungeon," One of them asked politely.


    "It''s simple. We found a secret room and opened it. The trace was still there on the 30th floor. We fought a witch that controlled everything and defeated her. That was when the skeletons died," Maya exined without hesitation.


    "Witch? What kind of witch?"


    "I''m not very sure, but the description was simr to that of Baba Yaga. An old witch with a long nose and rotten arms. She had a ck metal pot and a broom and had the power to summon the undead.


    "I believe the skeletons were responding to her call earlier and rushed toward the secret vault since we needed to take care of numerous skeletons together."


    The soldier nodded and noted it down before asking another question. "Then do you have the corpse of that witch?"


    "No. We turned her into cards. Our positions were separated since I was the one in charge of stopping the skeletons while they were killing the witch." Maya pointed at Theo and Agata. "They must have thought the skeletons were still there and turned that witch into cards before helping me. You can''t me them for that."


    "Y-yeah." The soldier didn''t say anything. After all, the situation was dire. The witch should be extremely powerful, and every second was precious. So, they needed to do whatever they were supposed to do without hesitation. "In that case, how strong was the witch?"


    "Hmm." Maya turned around, looking at Agata and Theo for the answer.


    "Quite strong." Agata was the first to answer.


    "Quite strong��" The soldier murmured while looking at them unscathed. Normally, in a fight like this, they would get injured or something. Even if they closed their wounds, the mark on their clothes would remain.


    "That''s right. The skeletons alone had reached Supreme Rank for some�� Meanwhile, one of you was still a Hero Rank Expert. It''s hard to believe that the witch couldn''t do anything to you guys since the witch needed to be at least level 600 or 650." Another person from the crowd shouted, trying to deny their im.


    "And is there a reason why we can''t defeat her?" Maya red at the guy while narrowing her eyes. "Don''t treat us the same as you, trash."


    "What did you say?!" The guy stepped forward, not liking Maya''s statement a bit.


    "You''re trash. That''s simple." Maya yawned, looking down on him.


    "You bitch." The guy walked toward her before a soldier stopped him, not wanting the guy to disturb the peace.


    "I already told you. If you were not trash, you would have participated in the Grand Gaia Competition. And did you think a nobody could ever get the Ring of Honor in thatpetition?" Maya smiled. "I''m simply stating a fact."


    "Enough." The soldier came between them and raised his hands, stopping the fight. "We''re in charge here."


    "Cool�� now, I don''t feel like answering your question because of this fool." Maya snorted.


    "What did you say, bitch?! Come here! I''ll beat your ass!"


    "Sorry, but I can''t let that one go." Suddenly, a man''s voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    Everyone got a shiver because there was another man wearing a ck-colored formal suit appearing right in front of the soldiers.


    "That''s interesting." The man smiled and said, "It seems that someone wants to make trouble with the person I work for��"


    Suddenly, the man released all his Magic Power, turning it into pressure. The pressure cracked the ground fifty feet away and forced all other people to kneel.


    Bam.


    The loud cracking ground resounded in the area as people started to pant from the pressure.


    "My youngdy has been cooperating with the soldiers this whole time, but there is mister nobody who thinks he has the right to speak. I wonder what I should do with you��"

 Chapter 795 – Going Back

    <h4>Chapter 795 - Going Back</h4>


    "Ha�� Ha��"


    "I can''t breathe."


    "Help."


    Other people were raising their hands while gasping for air. Even the soldiers had a hard time containing this powerful pressure.


    "Are you going�� tomit murder?" The soldier who interviewed them this whole time gritted his teeth and asked.


    "Of course not." In the instant the man replied to his question, the pressure vanished.


    Everyone could breathe normally again, but they were still panting on the ground.


    "I am simply wondering why the army is letting this man continue with his useless ranting even though it''s not his ce to talk. Even mydy has been cooperating with you guys. If I want to take her away, do you think you''ll be able to stop me? Law? There''s no such aw in this ce." The man harrumphed, looking down on the soldiers.


    "I��" The soldier clenched his fists and knew that there was no way to win with this argument. He stated while waving his hand. "Escort that man and his group from here."


    Hearing their supervisor''smand, the soldiers hurriedly moved to drag the troublemakers away. Their hearts felt heavy since Maya was using her influence to pressure them, but there was nothing they could do.


    Maya''s expression had be cold as she gazed at the supervisor. "So, what do you want to ask?"


    "I��" The supervisor was sweating, wondering if he needed to continue with this anymore. Even though they were from the military, this ce was simr to international water. If they wanted to kill people, no one could be med.


    Even so, he still had one job to do. He steeled his heart and asked, "Did you get any information from the witch?"


    "Nothing. She was a General ss Monster, and this ce was a barrack. The skeletons we had seen this whole time were former soldiers and what we found was most likely a storage room." Maya talked fast, and her exnation was concise as if telling them that she didn''t n to talk to the very details anymore.


    The supervisor swallowed his pride and eventually smiled, "Is there any other treasure in this ce?"


    "Who knows? We collect what we''ve found. That''s all. Obviously, you''re not going to be so shameless to add a rule that forces me to hand over my loot, right?" Maya narrowed her eyes. Her tone was cold.


    "How did you find the secret room?"


    "Airflow."


    "We''ve checked the lowest floor, but there''s nothing like that."


    "Humans? Hmph." Maya pointed at Ava, who was sitting on Theo''s shoulder.


    Thetter waved her foot with a smile. "Kyu."


    "��" Their attention finally went to Ava. They realized that there was a cute rabbit standing on Theo''s shoulder, and she seemed to be intelligent enough to understand what they were saying.


    It was clear she was a Rare ss Monster. It turned out Theo had the ability to tame a Supreme Rank Monster like Ava, no wonder he was fine.


    As much as they wanted to admire Ava''s cuteness, they couldn''t do it because of one person.


    "Then�� we''re done here." The supervisor finally let them go as he couldn''t withstand the pressureing from the Mythical Rank Expert''s re.


    "Good. Let''s go." Maya nodded and turned around, asking Theo and the others to follow her back to the hotel.


    They then left the dungeon with all those weapons as no one dared to think about snatching them from Maya''s group since they couldn''t even do anything when the Mythical Rank Expert released his power.


    Whening back, the man looked at the weapons and said, "Still�� It''s really true. There are so many weapons there."


    "Hmm�� Is there any group nning to return to the other side?" Maya asked.


    "There are two groups. ording to their appointment, they''ll be checking out tomorrow. I believe they''re going back, but Miss might need to confirm it with them."


    "I need someone to call the recovery team to bring all these weapons back." Maya pointed at the weapons.


    "You''re not going to bring them back with you? Is it about your personal safety? We should be able to send a few Supreme Rank Experts to escort you."


    "No. I still have another destination." Maya shook her head.


    The man nced at Theo and knew it was with him.


    "A contract."


    "I understand." The man nodded and stopped staring, knowing that it was inevitable. "Alright. I''ll ask them about this."


    "Sure. Thank you." She nodded with a smile. "Anyway, I''m going to have some rest for a day or two here before going to my next destination."


    "Don''t worry, Miss. No one can bully us." The man assured her with a smile.


    "Good. I''ll leave it to you."


    While they were busy talking, Theo was arranging his status with the attribute points he received earlier.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Hero


    Level: 470


    EXP: 4,657,599/ 7,061,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Bullet (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B)


    Attributes: Strength 630, Endurance 426, Agility 423, Vitality 426, Magic Power 790


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    He felt happy with his status. Even though his level had yet to reach Supreme Rank, his status had surpassed it. He only needed to wait a bit for the power-up that came in the Supreme Rank, and his understanding would increase by leaps and bounds.


    At that time, he would focus all his attention on strengthening all his skills and preparing for A Rank Skill.


    ''This progress is good. Well, I need to strengthen my Awareness first, and there''s also the need for me to improve my illusion.'' Theo''s expression became serious, knowing what kind of things he needed to improve within the next few months.


    ''Still, the Starry Group might indeed be a good option to be my next destination. I''ve finished learning from Sir Leonardo too, so I guess I''ll focus on improving my power for a few months beforeing to this ce?''


    Theo assessed his situation and started formting his n, unaware that the Mind Elder was waiting for him in Italy.

 Chapter 796 – Progress

    <h4>Chapter 796 - Progress</h4>


    After returning to the hotel, they truly took a rest. Maya was enjoying her time in all facilities built inside this hotel while Theo and Agata spent their time together in the room, ying a mind game.


    In the middle of their game, Agata couldn''t help but ask, "Theo�� Do you think I should join you to go to the Starry Group in the near future?"


    Theo looked into her eyes and smiled. "That''s up to you. I can''t really force you to go with me. ording to our contract, you would only be my assistant as long as I''m in Italy. So, when I leave, you won''t be bound to me anymore."


    "You''re always like that." Agata sighed as her expression became serious. "I want to know whether you want me to go with you or not��"


    Theo fell silent and looked down, not knowing what to say.


    Agata didn''t back down. She kept staring at him without flinching. It had already been more than a year since she had apanied him. Although Theo had recognized her feelings only a few months ago, she wished to know whether there was a chance or not.


    "To be honest, I do enjoy yourpany." Theo sighed and answered honestly. "If I truly can bring someone with me, I''ll choose you, so you can stay with me. I don''t deny that your help has had a significant impact on my life, and without you, I won''t be able to advance this fast.


    "I can say without a doubt that you''re someone that I canpletely trust my back to." Theo scratched the back of his head while looking left and right, feeling a bit embarrassed saying all that stuff.


    "However, I can''t truly force you toe with me. You have a family in Italy. You have everything there, a caring family, a fortune, a power to decide your own fate.


    "Meanwhile, bringing you with me means you''ll be bound to the Starry Group for at least a decade. If it''s only a year or two, I won''t hesitate to ask you to go with me.


    "But we''re talking about more than ten years. Binding your life like this�� I''m afraid I don''t dare to do it as of now.


    "That''s why I can''t say anything regarding your decision. Mymitment is not there yet." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I''m sorry if my answer is not satisfactory."


    Agata smiled while listening to her answer. There wasn''t a trace of disappointment on her face. Her smile was too bright.


    "I''m d." Agata opened her mouth, saying these words that stunned Theo.


    "Eh? You''re d?" Theo was bewildered.


    "That means you''re considering my feelings and future. And you''re seeking a serious rtionship, unlike others who want to try first and break upter when they get bored." Agata made a cheeky grin and exined, "In the past, you would certainly change the topic to avoid answering my question because you didn''t have any of thatmitment.


    "But now, I guess I''ve made some progress. You said you would bring me if it''s only one or two years instead of rejecting that idea. Doesn''t that mean it''s a progress?


    "I have a caring family, so I don''t know how hurt it is to have your family pushing you to the brink. I don''t know how it feels, but I have certainly imagined such a situation.


    "What if my family didn''t care about me, and they chose to treat me as a political tool to increase their power? What if no one stood up for me, and I ended up bing someone''s essory?


    "When I thought about it, I could imagine your pain. So, I won''t push you for an answer. I''m just d that you still give me a chance. You didn''tpletely shut that door�� Hehe." Agata couldn''t contain her smile.


    Theo was stunned at her reaction and answer. There were mixed feelings in his heart as he couldn''t help but look away.


    "Thank you."


    "I''ll give you my answer when that timees. Just don''t suddenly disappear on me, okay?" Agata said.


    "Yeah, absolutely." Theo smiled back.


    Listening to their conversation from the room, Ava was lying down on her bed and staring at the ceiling.


    ''Hmm, caring huh��'' Ava closed her eyes, recalling the first time she met Theo. She thought, ''Well, no one knows Theo''s kindness more than me. Now that I think about it�� How many people have Theo killed? I still remember the guy that I met on Thernd�� the one that baited him to theke.


    ''Then, it was during the Dragon Extermination that Theo killed multiple enemies, including Sihan�� or that was what Theo told me. Then, has he actually killed someone in Italy?


    ''Although there are many people dying around him, I don''t think he has killed anyone�� All those people died in the hands of the people around him, not himself.'' Ava suddenly realized the truth.


    Theo''s kindness seemed to remain despite his behaviors. He didn''t kill indiscriminately. He only killed when there was no other choice.


    As for other people''s deaths, he only caused their own downfalls, not their death. They could still get back up as long as they didn''t surpass the limit of Theo''s tolerance, but it didn''t change the fact that he was still directly involved with their deaths.


    ''I guess that''s how it is for him. As long as there''s no necessity, Theo never wants to kill other people. Well, that''s causing some controversies, but I think Theo has always been conscious about this.


    ''As of now, I think the one he wants to kill is that Lange Family�� What was his name again? Ben Lange? Anyway, I think it''s only him. How about his parents?'' She thought for a moment and got confused by herself.


    ''Never mind, I think he''s not nning to kill his parents. He might cause some trouble with their family to share some pain that he has endured, but I don''t think he''s gonna kill them.


    ''Well, that''s fine for me. At the very least, he''s not a psycho that will kill anyone just because they exist. I hope Theo never changes��


    ''And Agata seems to be able to understand Theo and respect him. If she bes the one he ends up with, Theo''ll certainly prioritize her more than anyone else. There''s also Alea and his cousin, Ne.


    ''Ne doesn''t meet him too much while Alea has undergone many changes since she first met him�� Hmm, I don''t know who to choose�� At the very least, I know that Theo''s shoulder is mine. If they dare to get that, I''m going to disapprove of their rtionship. Hmph��'' Ava harrumphed before deciding to sleep.

 Chapter 797 – Reaching The Demise Forest

    <h4>Chapter 797 - Reaching The Demise Forest</h4>


    Two dayster.


    Theo and his group had entered the Cubicar as Maya drove it outside the hotel.


    "Alright. To our next destination, the Demise Forest." Maya smiled, feeling refreshed after having fun inside the hotel.


    Theo immediately came out and sat down on top of the Cubicar.


    Unlike the previous journey, they didn''t slow down on this trip to kill monsters. So, it took them five days to reach the Demise Forest.


    With this, their entire journey hadsted a month and a half. If they focused on Theo in thest destination, he would be able to reach Supreme Rank Experts in two to three weeks.


    After reaching the area, all of them came out to see the unique features of the Death Forest.


    The trees only had trunks and branches but no leaves. At the same time, the trees themselves looked healthy instead of dying.


    The withered leaves fell to the ground and covered the ground. Some were carried away by the rain and wind.


    The trees themselves looked big and majestic. But even with 100 feet tall trees, it didn''t feel dense.


    They only felt the eerie aura that the trees were emanating.


    ''Hmm? What''s this?'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''Although I have read the description, looking at it with my own eyes certainly gives a different vibe.''


    "Ragahar!"


    "Rawrr!"


    "Oarrr!"


    Huge roars resounded across the forest, followed by a series of explosions. It was clear that a big fight was going on inside the forest.


    "Hmm, we need to be careful. I don''t know why but I got goosebumps earlier." Agata frowned while looking around, not finding a single monster.


    ''Is there any Death Order here? There''s no way it can happen naturally, right?''


    [No. There''s no Death Order.]


    ''I see.'' Theo frowned and approached the tree before saying, "It''s alive indeed. But is it spring already?"


    "No." Maya shook her head.


    "In that case, what is happening to these trees?" Theo asked.


    "Mhmm��" Maya paused for a moment. "There''s nothing wrong with the trees. Even after the scientists take a look at them, they have confirmed that the trees are alive. So, we still don''t know the reason why all the leaves in this ce fall to the ground."


    "I see." Theo frowned and asked, "Then, is there any information regarding this ce? Like some sort of treasure?"


    "Not yet. Many Mythical Rank Experts often explore this area, but no one has ever found anything, including the General ss Monster that is in charge of this area. So, this forest is called the Demise Forest because the trees are dead or pronounced dead as long as they are here.


    "As for the monsters, they''re demon-like creatures�� The ones you often see in a movie or story. Many are saying that the demons are the ones responsible for making the trees like this because they absorb the trees'' energy, forcing them to let go of their leaves to stay alive.


    "Anyway, I don''t think we need to focus on another mission. I mean, there''s no agreement we need to fulfill in this ce, right, Maya?" Agata smirked.


    "Yeah." Maya nodded. "Thisst destination is simply the safe cushion if all of us can''t reach Supreme Rank before this. And since you''re the only one left, we can focus on you."


    "Nah, it''s fine. Let''s have the same pace like we usually have." Theo smiled and waved his hand.


    "Are you sure? If we concentrate on you, we can make you a Supreme Rank Expert within 14 days, considering the monsters in this ce are mostly new Supreme Rank Monsters. We can only stay in the outer area of course."


    Theo nodded, confirming his words. "I''m serious. Or do you think you can catch up with me if we have the same level?"


    "��" Agata and Maya fell silent, knowing how hard it was to defeat Theo even if they had reached Supreme Rank. If they had the same level, they wouldn''t be Theo''s opponent anymore.


    So, the two exchanged looks and nodded in unison.


    "Alright. Since you insist, I''m going to y with that." Maya agreed with the arrangement. This way, she should be able to reach at least level 535 beforeing back home.


    Agata also thought the same and said, "In that case, we should sweep the outer area first. As for the Cubicar, how about we move it outside the forest?"


    "For what?" Maya tilted her head in confusion.


    "Although the forest is opened up like this and there''s no way for a monster to sneak attack us, I think we should do it my way since we aren''t nning to go deep inside the forest."


    "Hmm��" Maya looked down, contemting.


    Meanwhile, Theo shook his head. "Sorry. This time I need to disagree. It''s true we''re not nning to go that deep, but that doesn''t change the fact it''s easy for Mythical Rank Experts to spot this Cubicar.


    "Although it won''t help that much even if we bring the Cubicar with us, it''s better than nothing. Also, we''ll be around the Cubicar, so Maya or my reputation can save this Cubicar from getting stolen."


    After listening to Theo''s reason, Agata finally agreed and changed her n. "Alright. In that case, the dried leaves will be blown away as well, like a blower."


    "Don''t worry about that. My Cubicar has wheels too." Maya replied with a yful wink.


    "Eh?"


    "We''re using turbines or mas nowadays to avoid having a wheel on our vehicles. But at the end of the day, it''s better to have some spares." She chuckled. "Anyway, I''ll modify it a bit for you. It won''t take long�� Probably around thirty minutes."


    "Oh? In that case, let''s do that. The sound of cracking leaves will also attract the monsters, but explosions are bigger. So, whatever." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s good. Let me modify it first." Maya waved her hand and opened a secret bag inside the car to pull up six wheels.


    After that, she started working with her tools�� This might be the first time he saw Maya working.

 Chapter 798 – Vision

    <h4>Chapter 798 - Vision</h4>


    Meanwhile, inside a white room, four beings were facing each other.


    The serpent wasing from out of nowhere with its body connected to another ce by a bluish portal.


    Next to him was a wolf standing proudly before all of them. He looked at them with his ferocious gaze but always turned his head around whenever the woman in front of him stared into his eyes.


    The woman was simply standing still with a smile on her face. But the wolf could sense the mockeries behind that gaze.


    Meanwhile, the man, who gathered all of them in this ce, remained silent for a long time.


    After another few minutes, he asked the woman, "How do you feel right now?"


    "I''m alright, Dear Father." She smiled sweetly before saying, "The Death Order should give a considerable amount of power, right?"


    "Yeah." He nodded. "Though, it won''tst for too long."


    "Before that, I want to ask you�� Who is going to teach him next? Lil Fen and I have taught him, so I don''t think we will need to appear again. Is it going to be your turn next?"


    The God of Mischief, Loki, shook his head. Even though it was obvious he needed to be the oneing out next since Theo''s progress was leaning to illusion, he refused toe out.


    "Why is that? Or are you just messing with the little guy?"


    "No. I''m thinking about skipping the level." Loki shook his head.


    "Skipping the level?" Hel frowned before realizing what he wanted. "Ah, are you nning to teach a special Breathing Technique that can incorporate the Order?"


    "Yeah. He''ll search for a Breathing Technique in his own world, so��" Loki stopped and turned to the serpent. "You''re next. Teach him to strengthen his body."


    "I understand."


    "Still, if you''re looking at this far, are you confident he can get an Order?"


    "You''re still underestimating him." Loki smiled. "I was the one who found him. There''s no way he''s an ordinary guy. Do you know the reason why I waste all that power to call all of you here?"


    "No." She shook her head and thought for a moment. "You''re not nning to tell us that you''re just going to trick the kid, right?"


    "Of course not. When I do something like that, I''m usually bored. Right now, I''m not." He shook his head. "And I have my limitations�� Other than teasing and joking, have I ever pulled something funny that makes you three mad?"


    Hel looked down before shaking her head. Fenrir and Jormugand also shared the same opinion.


    "Either way, I''m here to tell you that the tribtion ising." He narrowed his eyes before creating a wooden chair behind him. He sat down and looked at the ceiling. "The end is the beginning. The beginning is the end. A never-ending cycle."


    Hel squinted her eyes and muttered, "The ending of an era is the beginning of another era�� Are you telling us��"


    "I have thought that it''s inevitable." Loki closed his eyes with a serious expression as though he was contemting aplicated problem.


    Even Hel stoppedmenting and chose to listen to whatever he said. Fenrir and Jormugand slightly moved their heads forward, making sure they didn''t miss a single word.


    Suddenly, Loki opened his mouth again. "And I still think that is inevitable."


    Their eyebrows twitched as they realized he tricked them. They thought he was nning to say it wasn''t inevitable.


    "Are you joking with us right now?" Hel asked while trying to contain her anger.


    "Alright, alright. It''s that this cycle is inevitable. However, I don''t say that it needs to happen now." He smiled.


    "What do you mean?" Hel frowned. "I''m not following your words."


    "I say it''s possible to halt its progress. The end is inevitable, but it doesn''t mean that it wille at that moment. We simply need someone that can prolong the era until they reach a period where they can avoid the end."


    "The kid?"


    "Probably." Loki shrugged his shoulders as though he didn''t have any belief in Theo.


    "But he''s very outstanding. Even when we were alive, not many people were like him."


    "Who knows." Loki let out a long sigh. "Have you ever thought of these questions�� Would a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? Would a man be called a bad guy when he joined the enemy side to protect the people on his side?"


    If Theo was here, he would recognize these two questions. After all, he received these two questions when he first met the serpent.


    "Why are you asking those two questions?" Hel frowned.


    "I don''t know. It''s just a hunch�� Depending on the answer he finds, he might be able to prolong an era. Not that I have high expectations though��" He raised his hand as if grasping the sky. "Cruel winters and moral chaos�� The sky will vanish, the sun and moon will face each other, Heaven and Hell will copse, and the earth will sink into the sea. Afterward, the earth will rise again, and the mother of all will once again create another era."


    "Father��" Hel stepped forward, looking at his troubled expression.


    "It''s fine." He smiled. "For now, give the kid your Underworld Dominion and open another power with the remaining energy. Also, teach him a bit about Order�� As for the way to grasp an Order, it''s better to give that exnation to the living.


    "It''s not the era we live in, so the Order might be different. Either way, we can''t really intervene that much. We can only give some support here and there. That''s all.


    "Remember. Don''t interfere too much as it''ll bring the end much faster than the prediction. Still, what a bad ce to live in��


    "Is this ce a real world? Is this ce an illusion world? I sometimes wonder if there''s a being that actually watches us, like how the kid watches a movie. From one generation to another, from one ce to another, from one realm to another, from one dimension to another��


    "Many seek the truth, yet, no one has ever found it�� What is the price to learn the truth? Or everything is truly a lie�� and what is the cost of lies?" Loki smiled as the white room suddenly cracked and shattered into pieces, revealing endless darkness that engulfed them.

 Chapter 799 – Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 799 - Opportunity</h4>


    Three weekster.


    Theo, Agata, Ava, and Maya were standing on the edge of the cliff. As expected from the Demise Forest, even the trees near the cliff or on the ground below had no leaves.


    He was standing there because they needed to discuss a few things.


    "Anyway, there''s a huge crater not far from here. ording to some informants, the crater itself has been filled with leaves.


    "However, this crater seems to be hiding a nest. The monsters inside that nest are like an imp. They have pale gray skin and a pair of little horns. Their height was half of ours, and they have a pair of wings.


    "We need to be careful of their speed, but overall they''re weak. Other than that�� Maybe their number and their nest entrances."


    "Entrances?" Agata noticed something and frowned.


    "Yeah. Their entrances arepletely filling that huge crater. No one has ever counted thoroughly, but there seems to be around a hundred holes in and around that crater. So, I''m assuming their number is a few thousand." Maya exined.


    "How many levels do you need?" Agata asked Theo.


    "Hmm, since the trees are not dense, we can find monsters easily. And now, I''m at level 496. Just four more levels to go." Theo answered.


    "Do you think thousands of monsters in this ce can make you reach Supreme Rank?" Maya asked.


    "I''m not confident, but we can only try." Theo shrugged. "By the way, there''s something I want to ask, should we fight them inside or outside their nest?"


    "I prefer it outside. I''m going to use my armor this time and execute those thate out." Maya smirked, knowing this was also a big stage for her to shine. After all, her armor''s firepower was superior in dealing with a lot of flying monsters.


    "In that case, let''s do it your way. Their levels should be around 490-500, right?"


    "Yeah. But some of them have surpassed the Supreme Rank."


    "Okay, good. Let''s hunt then." Theo nodded with a serious expression before turning around, looking at the forest beneath him. "Where''s the crater''s location?"


    "That way�� around 5 miles from here." She pointed at the west.


    "Good. Let''s go then." Theo smiled and used his Telekinesis to fly toward the crater while Agata drove the Cubicar. Ava was standing on his shoulder while Maya wore her armor.


    After a while, they found a vast area where no trees could grow. Because the area was covered with dried leaves, they couldn''t see anything. Though, it was clear that the crater they were looking for was hidden underneath thatyer of leaves.


    Before doing anything, hended on the ground to regroup with the others.


    "Yeah. That massivend is just in front of us. Still, this ce makes it hard for us to hide if something goes wrong." Theo sighed. "I bet you also enjoy shooting on top of a cliff, right?"


    "Yeah. My vision is clear there." Maya nodded.


    "Anyway, let''s not waste our time. For the first attack, we''ll send our best attacks to some of the holes, hoping to kill as many as possible. I bet they''re going to overwhelm us with their numbers, so we''ll attack them while moving away."


    "Got it." Maya nodded.


    "In that case, I''ll take care of the Cubicar then." Agata raised her hand.


    "Eh?" Maya turned around while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "Unlike you, I don''t have any powerful abilities to hunt flying monsters. So, just spare more monsters after this." Agata waved her hand and returned to the Cubicar.


    Theo and Maya exchanged looks before eventually nodding at each other. After that, they turned around, nning to head to the crater to bombard some holes as a greeting.


    But everything didn''t seem to be ording to their n. When Theo was about to summon his Magic Bullets, the ground started shaking.


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    "Huh?!" Maya fell to the ground, experiencing stress from her machine. "What is this?"


    "I don''t know. I haven''t done anything." Theo shook his head while frowning. He also started looking around and muttered, "I wonder if this is an earthquake��"


    "No. The detector in my suit hasn''t said anything." Maya shook her head.


    Before they could talk any further, a series of roars resounded across the entirend.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    "I guess it''s an earthquake��" Maya clicked her tongue. "But the roar shoulde before the impact��"


    Suddenly, they heard various criesing from the sky, rming them.


    "Theo��" Maya raised her head to the sky as the color gradually left her face.


    "What?" Theo turned to her before following her line of sight. In the sky, he saw the monsters that Maya had just described a while ago.


    And those monsters kepting out of the holes, filling the sky.


    "Have you done anything?"


    "No." Theo gulped down. There were around a thousand monstersing out of the ground, covering the sunlight from reaching their ce.


    Maya soon found something and said, "Wait a minute. They''re looking down, which should be their nest. They don''t even bother to look around."


    "Then, are you telling me that they''re looking at something more important?" Theo frowned.


    "Probably. I don''t know anything."


    The monsters kepting out of the ground and remained in their ce, staring at their nest.


    One thousand��


    Two thousand��


    ��


    ��


    The number continued rising as though they had an endless amount of monsters inside the ce.


    "Are we going to fight with that number head-on?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "I don''t think so. Should we retreat? This might be thest chance to retreat." Maya observed them a bit more. "Before they notice us��"


    Theo thought for a moment before stating, "No. I think this is an opportunity for us. If I say I want to take advantage of this chance, are you scared?"


    "Heh��" She narrowed her eyes, feeling challenged.


    Suddenly, the ground cracked before a huge burst urred underground. All the rocks and leaves were thrown into the air before a giant white snake emerged from the ground.


    The huge snake had a diameter of 30 feet, and no one could see its length as its body was still hiding underneath the ground.


    "There it is�� the answer." Maya panicked for a moment to the point she couldn''t help but say�� And of course, Theo corrected her, "Our opportunity."

 Chapter 800 – Seventh Step

    <h4>Chapter 800 - Seventh Step</h4>


    "Our opportunity." Theo smirked and summoned his clone. After that, a total of 250 Magic Bullets appeared around him.


    He didn''t expect to kill many monsters, but he surely could kill one or two with this many bullets.


    Maya also prepared to shoot them down. Her armor formed a long shaft that seemed to be the barrel of her gun. This was the third time he saw her armor, so he didn''t know the extent of her armor other than the sma gun.


    Before shooting, he observed the monsters a bit longer. He realized that despite feeling the fluctuation from them, the monsters didn''t care about it.


    They only wanted to kill the snake.


    On the other hand, the snake kept swallowing as many monsters as possible while enduring the attacks from the little monsters.


    "Hmm�� Isn''t the snake strange?" Maya frowned.


    "Yeah. Its skin is too hard. Instead of attacking that snake, we should focus on helping the snake��" Theo smirked.


    "Ah, fishing in troubled water." Maya grinned, understanding what he nned to do.


    Ava, on his shoulder, kept staring at the monsters and ultimately opened her mouth. "Theo. They seem dumb."


    "Did you discover something?"


    "Probably. They are disorganized and attack the snake randomly."


    "In that case��" Theo waved his hand forward, sending all the Magic Bullets he created.


    Maya fired all the bullets stored inside her armor to kill as many monsters as possible.


    All those bullets finally grabbed the attention of the little monsters as they turned around, staring at Theo and Maya.


    They swiftly avoided the bullets, but Theo''s Control was better than them. After missing their targets, the Magic Bullets curved and attempted to hit them again from behind.


    The monsters were taken aback but still turned around and protected themselves from the Magic Bullets.


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    "Well, three monsters��" Theo narrowed his eyes, staring at those 300 hundred monsters that were aiming at him.


    Seeing the curving bullets, Maya couldn''t help but feel challenged. Since she firedter than Theo, her bullets only arrived by now.


    After protecting themselves from Theo''s Magic Bullets, the demonic imps had prepared for another attack. They avoided thempletely while turning around to see whether the bullets could curve or not.


    Maya''s bullets couldn''t turn around, but it didn''t mean the bullets were normal. The moment the bullets entered the middle of their group, it caused a series of explosions.


    Each explosion engulfed dozens of demonic imps.


    "You really love explosions, eh."


    "Hollywood does too. Fire and Explosion." Maya grinned.


    "Alright. Time for me to go." Theo used his Telekinesis to fly toward the demonic imps as he nned to challenge them in the air.


    Ava leaped off his shoulders before jumping around in the air as she had always done this whole time.


    Seeing the iing two people and one rabbit, the imps spread out to surround them. It was clear they were nning to overwhelm Theo and Ava with their number.


    Seeing this, Theo raised his hand and used his Illusion Construct to create a giant boulder in the sky.


    The boulder fell on top of them, forcing the monsters to move away from that ce.


    Theo took advantage of this and moved toward the boulders.


    "?!" The demonic imps were confused about his action and thought Theo was a fool.


    There was no way he would be alive when a boulder of this size smashed him.


    Yet, when everyone thought the boulder hit his head and smashed his body, another 250 Magic Bullets came out of the boulder, hitting the surrounding imps.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    This time, Theo killed a few times more than his previous attempt.


    The imps were bewildered by this phenomenon. Their answer came right after the boulder passed Theo.


    It turned out everything was an illusion, and they were tricked into thinking Theo was nning to kill himself.


    "Kor."


    "Rrr."


    The imps shouted before flying toward him.


    It was at this moment Ava turned into her battle form and summoned her Moon Constetion.


    "Aaahhh!" Ava let out a roar, showing her supremacy as a General ss Monster.


    The imps were taken aback by the roar and came to a halt. However, this was their biggest mistake as Theo used that chance to send another volley of Magic Bullets toward them. Even Ava used her lightning balls to strike them down.


    Maya didn''t let this chance go as she killed a few more imps.


    Seeing that Ava was taking advantage of her authority to kill them, the imps were angered and lost respect for her.


    "Rrr."


    Once the shout echoed in the area, the imps went rampage and chased Theo and Ava.


    Theo smiled as he was just nning to buy some time.


    His clone had been preparing himself tounch another powerful attack.


    When the imps were about to reach him, they sensed a powerful pressureing from above. Right after raising their heads, they were suddenly pushed down.


    That was right. It was Clone Theo''s work. He had been preparing his Ascension Step this whole time and waited until the imps gathered in one ce.


    Another wave of pressure smashed the imps from above.


    Since he nned to kill them, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets. He turned them into twenty long sticks that surrounded the imps this time.


    Then, a translucent blue-colored barrier appeared, connecting all the sticks into one huge prism.


    This was Fenrir''s barrier and he nned to take advantage of it in order to increase the intensity of the Ascension Step.


    The imps were struggling. Some of them nned to strike the barrier to leave this ce, but Clone Theo had released the sixth step.


    With the amplification of the barrier, its might increased tremendously, knocking most of the imps to the ground.


    Clone Theo took a deep breath as it was hard to use the Ascension Step Sixth Step. However, he raised his foot once more and stepped forward, releasing the seventh step.


    Bam.


    The ground cracked upon that single step as the wind pressure looped into the air and entered Theo''s barrier, crushing all the imps inside.


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    [You''ve killed a Demonic Imp.]


    ��


    ��

 Chapter 801 – One Level Away

    <h4>Chapter 801 - One Level Away</h4>


    Maya widened her eyes and nced at Clone Theo that suddenly dropped to the ground.


    This was the technique Theo used to defeat Ana in Russia. And he even amplified that power with the barrier and took one more step.


    The power from this ability seemed to be beyond her imagination.


    ''My father doesn''t know anything about this ability, but looking at its power, I''m afraid this is an Original Technique. Has he learned anything about this aspect? I think he only learns Control and Awareness this whole time��


    ''Then, does this mean this ability is rted to someone else?'' Maya frowned, wondering who would give this powerful ability to him.


    It was normal to think that Leonardo imparted this technique, but Leonardo didn''t have a single ability rted to wind. So, it shouldn''t be him.


    ''Who is it? Is there anyone who uses wind in the War God Family? The one who has the capability to create something this powerful�� or is it��'' She recalled there was one powerful wind user who visited Theo. ''The Wind Emperor?''


    She sucked a cold breath upon the realization. ''Impossible. It''s already ridiculous enough to think that the Wind Emperor wants to cooperate with Theo to trick the Barbe Group. So, it''s impossible for him to teach this�� At the same time, the meeting between the Wind Emperor and Theo neversted long. Or is his talent actually so terrifying that he can learn something this powerful within hours?''


    She gulped down.


    ''Now that I think about it, what is his talent? He''s, without a doubt, a genius born from Valerie Guerrero and Ray Griffith. Valerie herself is considered a top 3 among her generations in the War God Family. As for Ray Griffith, his talent is supposed to be simr to his ancestor.


    ''But how about Theo? He has indeed shown that his brain surpasses that of the Valkyrie and his Control is above the Magic Emperor. But his talent should lie somewhere�� I think I need to make another arrangement.


    ''With a Blessing rted to Death, my imagination can evene up with something like calling the soul of the deceased to train him. Ah, I truly need to observe his talent after this is over. Maybe, I need to reevaluate him.


    ''Or has my father seen something like this and it bes the reason why he''s trying to marry me off? Whatever. Even if that doesn''t happen, I can''t be his enemy��'' Maya had a conflict in her mind and relied on the assistance of her armor to shoot down some imps that were still flying in the air.


    Theo wasn''t aware of her thoughts this whole time. His focus remained on the number of imps he had killed.


    With the Ascension Step alone, he managed to kill more than a hundred imps. Of course, the consumption of a Divine Ability was enormous. If he continued doing this, he would be exhausted after four to five times using the ability, and that was him utilizing only the seventh step.


    "No wonder many tried to cripple the Wind Emperor''s legs�� This Divine Ability is too scary. I guess it can be said to be close to S Rank Ability." Theo smiled, getting fired up.


    After killing the remaining imps, Theo turned around and watched how the snake was covered in blood.


    The imps managed to injure the snake, but thetter had already swallowed more than a thousand of them.


    It was clear that the snake nned to devour all of the imps.


    "I''ve leveled up once. I need another 500 imps to get another level." Theo took a deep breath as he marched forward to the swarm of imps.


    Theo resummoned his clone by his side and handed him the spear while taking out his blue spear.


    After that, both of them used their Magic Augmentation and covered their spears with Magic Power Expansions.


    They crossed their spear together before waving it forward,unching a powerful shock wave.


    The shock wave blew away the imps and struck the snake.


    The snake was blown to the side but managed to hold on. Meanwhile, some of the imps got crushed by this powerful shock wave.


    Seeing Theo in the air, another one hundred imps detached themselves from the group to stop Theo.


    It was at this time Ava finally revealed her prowess. She had been hiding on top of them this whole time, pouring all her power into the five lightning stars.


    "Moon Lightning." Ava spread the five balls apart, creating a pentagram.


    This pentagram was two hundred feet in diameter. And a bolt of lightning flew out of each lightning star. The bolt of lightning hit the imps and electrocuted them.


    "Kill them," said Ava to Theo.


    The imps couldn''t move after being electrocuted, so this was their best chance to kill them.


    Theo and Clone Theo smiled and charged forward, killing the imps with their spears one by one.


    Still, the number of the imps was more than what Ava could handle. In the end, Maya fired multiple shots in order to assist him.


    This was Theo''s stage. Since he needed to kill as many monsters as possible, she didn''t want to bother him that much.


    Theo smiled and killed the remaining imps. After that, he repeated the process a few times and leveled up one more time.


    It continued for one hour until only a few hundred imps remained. On the other hand, the snake seemed to have been fatally injured. Its body was covered with wounds and it had stopped spitting venoms.


    So, Theo took advantage of it and pierced the giant snake''s head with his ''God Killing Spear'' before eliminating the rest of the imps. There wasn''t even a need for Agata to leave this ce and protect the Cubicar as the snake had gathered the attention of the imps this whole time.


    This was what Theo meant by the opportunity. If there was no giant snake, the battle wouldn''t be this easy.


    And Theo wouldn''t have gotten three levels in just one hour. It was indeed a blessing.


    With only one level to go, Theo had prepared himself to rank up and receive Hel''s Death Avatar Skill.

 Chapter 802 – Mysterious Monster

    <h4>Chapter 802 - Mysterious Monster</h4>


    After killing so many imps, Theo used his Telekinesis to gather all of them in one ce before touching them, turning every single body into cards.


    Then, he moved toward the snake and touched its head. After turning them into cards, Agata drove to him, Avanded on the ground, and Maya ran to him.


    "It seems that we''re done here." Maya nodded and turned to Theo. "How is it?"


    "Well, the snake killed two thousand imps alone. That should be enough to level up, but I guess I can''tin since the snake indeed brought so many benefits." Theo shrugged.


    "Then, we should move to another ce?"


    "Yeah. If we hunt normally, I''ll only need a day to rank up." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Still, what''s the reason for the snake to suddenly appear?" Maya frowned while looking around, seeing a huge crater that led to the imp nest.


    "Maybe there''s something inside," Agata answered while ncing at the hole. "Should we check?"


    "Then, someone should stay here to watch over the Cubicar." Maya nodded in agreement.


    Theo, Agata, and Ava were staring at her without hesitation as though she was the only person fit to do this stuff.


    "Eh? Me? Wait, wait. I also want to enter the hole." Maya waved her hand and looked at Theo, who was in charge of their strategy in this situation.


    "Well, you''re not that good in an enclosed environment, especially in small tunnels."


    "I can shine in this ce. I told you earlier that I didn''t have any powerful abilities to shoot down flying beasts�� So, I''m going to enter this time. Also, you can''t use your armor inside, so why bother?"


    "I''m good everywhere, and I''ll always be on Theo''s shoulder." Ava looked away as she simply wanted to stay with Theo and look around instead of staying in one ce.


    "��" Maya felt as though three des just pierced her heart. All their statements were true, and there was no way to rebuke them, especially Ava, since she never wanted to stay apart with Theo.


    Maya pouted and looked down with a sad expression. "I guess I''ll stay."


    Even though she wanted to explore the nest, she could only let it go.


    "Then��" Theo smiled and jumped backward, entering the destroyed nest. Ava and Agata followed him right after, leaving Maya behind.


    As soon as he couldn''t see Maya anymore, Theo spun his body and observed the ruined ce.


    He noticed several tunnels like an ant nest. Each tunnel was ten feet in diameter and seemed to create aplicated pattern.


    However, Agata noticed something and pointed at the very bottom. "Theo. Is that the boss room?"


    "Boss room�� Why do you even use that term?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Just an easy term. I mean, it looks like a big hall that seems to be important for the imps." Agata shrugged.


    Theo looked at the bottom and found a huge space filled with rocks. It looked like any other tunnel, but the space was more than ten times that of other tunnels. He frowned and said, "Or it might only be a caving."


    "Nah, I don''t think so. We betternd there, and since we have this 100 feet wide hole, we should have enough light. Need to thank the snake for this." She smiled.


    "Hmm��" Theo nced to the side, found a huge tunnel next to it, and said, "I guess that was where the snake came from."


    "Probably."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression before using his Telekinesis to lower their speed andnd on the huge tunnel.


    Theo took out his spear while Agata formed her scythe.


    When Ava entered the cave, she squinted her eyes and turned to the right, finding a dark tunnel that was still intact.


    "I think something is going on there. I am listening to something�� I don''t know what that is."


    Agata turned around and pointed her scythe to the front, preparing for any monster that came out of the tunnel. "There seems to be a survivor. Well, not that I mind since if there are enough survivors, the imps can repopte this ce and won''t go extinct. What should we do, Theo?"


    "Well, it''s fine to leave some survivors behind. Even though they are monsters and give us EXP when killed, annihting them is a different case. In a thousand or two thousand years�� No one can reach level 500 anymore�� probably." Theo nodded. "We''ve killed thousands, so we''ll just investigate, protect ourselves, and leave."


    "Got it."


    "Anyway, Ava."


    "Yeah?"


    "I want you to watch out for that tunnel. That''s the only entrance here other than the big hole behind us."


    "Sure." Ava leaped toward the tunnel and stood there.


    Theo then turned to Agata and said, "You and I will look around this room to find something unique. If there''s nothing here, we''ll go explore the tunnel."


    "Understood." Agata agreed without hesitation.


    After that, they turned around and looked at this big tunnel. Unfortunately, even after scanning the whole area, they didn''t find a single thing other than the footsteps on the ground.


    It was clear that multiple imps were staying in this ce previously, but it didn''t seem to be something special.


    "I guess this ce is like a bedroom or something��" Agata regrouped with Theo and shared her opinion.


    Their peace was suddenly disturbed.


    "Aaaaa��" A scream echoed inside the tunnel. The high-pitched voice felt simr to that of a crying baby, yet, the sound kepting toward them.


    Theo and Agata immediately turned around and raised their weapons. A monster that could say something even if it wasn''t a proper word was dangerous. So, they needed to prepare for everything.


    Suddenly, a ck shadowy figure entered their visions, followed by multiple imps that seemed to be chasing that figure.


    But to their surprise, the figure was only one foot tall. It had a figure simr to that of a human kid, but its body was covered with ck-colored clothes.


    Even his head was covered with a ck helmet, hiding his face.


    "Ueee��" The shadowy figure screamed once again when it saw Theo and Agata as though it was asking for help.


    "��"

 Chapter 803 – Talking To The Mysterious Monster

    <h4>Chapter 803 - Talking To The Mysterious Monster</h4>


    ''Eh?'' Theo and Agata widened their eyes, not believing what they just saw.


    Name: ???


    Level: ???


    No description.


    Both of them realized that this monster was a new monster that had yet to be discovered. They didn''t understand a single thing about this monster.


    They could be a strong Mythical Rank Monster or a weak Elite Rank Monster. No one understood it unless they fought against that monster and roughly calcted their levels.


    This was why if others provided information regarding new monsters, they would be rewarded. This information alone would save so many lives after all.


    Now that they didn''t understand a single thing about this mysterious monster, all they could see was the fact that the imps chased him down.


    Thetter couldn''t even fight back, indicating the monster''s strength.


    "What should we do?" Theo asked.


    "Help the imp first. This new one seems to be intelligent, so we can deal with itter." Agata answered. "If it''s dangerous, we can kill a monster that''s weaker than the imp."


    "Got it." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    Since they knew what to do, they headed straight to the imps. Agatanded behind the shadow monster while Theo used his Telekinesis to push all the imps away, refraining himself from killing the monsters.


    "By the way, I just thought about it�� There should be no reason for a giant snake like that toe out to fight the imps. And there is this weird monster that appears out of nowhere��" Agata muttered before enveloping the guy with her smoke.


    The guy struggled for a second and realized it couldn''t break free. It raised its head and saw Agata''s face before lowering its head and found Ava standing not far from her.


    "Adaa!" The mysterious monster waved its hand to Ava as though it recognized her to be different from the imps.


    "Who are you? A brat?" Ava narrowed her eyes, ring at the monster.


    "Aa��da��" The mysterious monster shivered and looked down, scared of Ava''s gaze.


    "You know something, Ava?" Agata asked.


    "Not really. All I know is that he doesn''t seem to be that powerful, and he''s simr to that of a Rare ss Monster. He''s like me when I first learned how to speak, so I''m not very sure about this guy''s origin. But it''s clear that he seems to have a parent."


    Hearing Ava''s statement, Agata turned to the little monster and asked, "Can I ask you about what happened?"


    "Adaa!" The little monster nodded furiously.


    "Yeah. I could understand Theo''s words and respond to him in a certain way. He''s truly a Rare ss Monster." Ava confirmed the monster''s intelligence level before asking the monster. "Are you our enemy?"


    The little monster shook his head.


    "Then, what are you doing here? This shouldn''t be a ce to wander around��" Ava squinted her eyes.


    The little monster stopped for a moment and pointed at the smoke. "Adaa."


    "It seems he wants to show a bit of body movement to exin what happens. Something I used in the past or when I tried not to speak."


    After some consideration, Agata nodded and waved her hands. Suddenly, the pink smoke disappeared, and the mysterious monsternded on the ground.


    "Adaa!" The little monster ran to the side before returning to his ce and pointing in Theo''s direction, specifically the imps.


    "Hmm��" Ava fell silent and asked for confirmation. "Are you running away from those guys?"


    "Ada." The little monster nodded.


    "You still haven''t answered why you''re here in the first ce."


    The monster started shaking his waist before running around.


    "ying outside?"


    He nodded again.


    "Let me confirm this�� So, you were ying around and somehow stumbled into this ce�� Then, you were attacked by the imps�� I mean, those guys?"


    "Adaa." He furiously nodded his head, acknowledging Agata''s statement.


    "I give up��" Agata facepalmed and muttered, "This guy caused all that stuff just because he was ying around��"


    Ava thought for a moment and asked, "Are you rted to the snake?"


    "Adaaa." He nodded before summoning a shield and a sword made of shadow. "Adaa!"


    Agata took a step back while Ava released her lightning, preparing forbat.


    "Aadaaa��" The guy froze, not knowing what to do if they wanted to eliminate him. He then dropped his sword before pointing at his shield and the ceiling. "Adaa!"


    "The snake is your protector or something?" Theo''s voice suddenly echoed in their ears as he had returned after pushing back the imps far enough.


    The guy turned around and nodded. "Adaa!"


    "But he died, and you would have died too if we didn''t help," said Theo with a serious expression while adding inwardly, ''Thought, I delivered thest blow to that snake.''


    "Aa��" The guy looked down as thoughmenting the snake''s death. After a while, he looked up and waved his hand. "Ada!"


    "What do you want to say?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Adaa��" He pointed at the tunnel before spreading his hands. "Ada��"


    "There''s something big that way?"


    He nodded his head before waving his hand as though he wanted to show them something.


    "Are you trying to lead us to danger?" Theo asked again, confirming their current situation.


    "Adaa��" The guy shook his head.


    Theo then turned to Ava, wondering what she thought about this. After all, Ava used to be like him, so she might know whether he was lying or telling the truth.


    "It''s fine. In front of me, he doesn''t dare to lie." Ava answered with a calm expression. "It seems he wants to show you something in order to express his gratitude for saving him."


    "Ada!" The little guy raised both hands as if feeling overjoyed because Ava backed him up. He even waved his hands to Ava to show his thanks.


    There was still hesitation in Theo''s eyes, but since they were nning to look around this ce, he reluctantly agreed. "Alright. Lead us to whatever you want to show us."


    "Adaa!" The guy became energetic and started walking into the darkness.


    Theo and Agata exchanged looks while Ava leaped onto Theo''s shoulder, following the little guy.

 Chapter 804 – Black Knight

    <h4>Chapter 804 - ck Knight</h4>


    They walked for a few minutes, crossing multiple tunnels.


    Theo kept pushing back all the imps they encountered with Ava on his shoulder.


    Since there was no more danger with Theo around, the guy continued leading them for another fifteen minutes before they saw a light inside the tunnel.


    They were never climbing up, so it was weird to see a light in this dark ce, but Theo and Agata followed him while Ava kept listening to the sound, making sure there was no one hiding in that ce.


    If there was a trap, Theo had prepared to use his Blink. Even his clone had turned into an ant and stayed on Agata''s shoulder.


    They approached the light carefully before they were close enough to discern what kind of light they saw this whole time.


    "A glowing crystal��" Theo and Agata frowned and said at the same time.


    When they came out of the tunnel, they realized it was a huge room with blue-colored crystals. The mineral seemed to be releasing a blue glow, brightening the room.


    "What is this��" Theo widened his eyes and looked around.


    Everywhere he saw, he could see the crystals. The room itself was more than a thousand square feet and might be more since he couldn''t see the end of the room due to the crystals blocking his vision.


    "This is��" Theo sucked a cold breath when the sses showed the information about this crystal.


    Name: Blue Star Crystal.


    Grade: D


    Description: Very explosive. Mostly used for bullets and explosives. Need to be mixed with other materials.


    ''Blue Star Crystal?'' Theo frowned and started wandering around. "Is this ce safe, little guy?"


    "Ada." He nodded.


    "Damn, these are all explosive materials." Theo took a deep breath.


    "Yeah. Once explode, we''re dead." Agata pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling troubled. "Serious business��"


    "Yeah. This is dangerous."


    "No, no. Maya."


    "Ah�� Serious business." Theo nodded. "Is it something like a mine? But this ce doesn''t seem to be that big."


    "Who knows. We don''t know anything about this, but it should be useful for Maya." Agata shrugged.


    "Fair enough." Theo then stopped and turned to the little guy. He bent his knees and said with a smile. "Thank you, little guy."


    The little monster also bowed politely as if thanking Theo for saving his life.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and raised his hand.


    Surprisingly, the little monster recognized such a gesture and ced his little hand on Theo''s palm.


    "Now that I think about it, have you seen a human before? You look so familiar with us."


    "Ada!" The little guy nodded, confirming Theo''s suspicion. However, he pointed at himself before spreading his hand and pointing at Theo. Then, he crossed his arm and covered his face.


    "You''re shy?"


    He shook his head.


    "Hmm�� You can''t talk to them?"


    "Ada." He acknowledged it.


    "Why? Wait, you made a gesture that the big you�� Maybe your brother or parents�� Did they forbid you to talk with us?"


    "Adaa." He nodded and formed a sword again before pointing it at him.


    "Because we''re meant to fight?"


    After acknowledging Theo''s question, he then pointed at Theo and himself before pping his hand above his head, reminding him they had made a high five.


    "So, you and I are friends?" Theo smiled.


    "Ada��"


    "Is that so? Then, I''m honored." Theo smiled as he remembered how he acted with Ava in the past. He had a hard timeprehending Ava''s gesture, but he still somehow understood it not long after. It was quite rxing to know there was such a connection between them.


    "Ada."


    "Ahaha��" Theo chuckled while Agata looked at him, wondering if this was the way to know monsters like Ava and the little guy.


    Suddenly, they felt a powerful Magic Power fluctuationing from above the ground. The Magic Power was so strong that the ground started shaking.


    As a Supreme Rank Expert, Agata felt this fluctuation and said, "Not good. Something powerful is above there. I''m afraid Maya��"


    They looked at each other and nodded. "We need to go there."


    "Adaaa!" The little guy immediately leaped toward Theo''s clothes and clung to him as if asking Theo not to abandon him in this ce.


    Theo took a deep breath and nodded as he immediately rushed back ording to their previous route. They were using Theo''s Telekinesis to fly so that they could arrive as soon as possible.


    "Ada!"


    Boom!


    Boom!


    Boom!


    A series of explosions urred in the area before a loud, deep voice resounded across the region.


    "Where is my kid?!"


    Maya coughed blood as she stumbled to the ground. Her barrier was cracked and her power was exhausted.


    "Human, where is my kid?"


    Standing two hundred feet away from her was a man with a ck horse. The man was covered with a ck robe with only his glove sticking out of the robe, wielding a giant ck sword. His head was covered with a helmet, increasing the ferocity of his appearance.


    The horse was covered with ck me and had bloodshot eyes, staring at Maya. Their heightbined reached 100 feet. The trees were useless as they couldn''t hide anything.


    "I don''t fucking know. I haven''t even seen a monster like you!" Maya clicked her teeth. She wanted to escape, but the monster was too strong. At the same time, Theo and Agata were still inside the nest.


    "The snake must have made the hole since I assigned him to protect my son. And you''re here, human. The corpse is not there, it''s clear that you''re the killer."


    ''That snake?'' Maya gritted her teeth, never thinking that the snake was actually the servant of this ck night. She thought the snake was just a monster who only wanted to fight the imps. ''Why do I feel that trouble is alwaysing at me when I''m with Theo?''


    The moment she thought it, Theo and Agata came out of the hole and floated in the air, seeing the ck knight monster.


    And the small version of that ck knight was clinging to Theo''s arm.


    "Eh?" Maya widened her eyes as she couldn''t believe what she had just seen.


    The small guy recognized the ck knight and raised his hand. "Adaa!"

 Chapter 805 – Peaceful Exchange

    <h4>Chapter 805 - Peaceful Exchange</h4>


    "Adaa!" The little guy raised his hand and waved it, greeting the knight in the distance.


    "You human bastards. I''m not going to let you go after you capture my kid!" The ck knight released all his strength and raised his hand.


    Suddenly, the ck me red on the sword.


    As if realizing that his father was about to kill Theo, the little guy hurriedly clung to Theo''s hand with both feet. Meanwhile, his hands were above his head, and he waved them as if he nned to stop his father.


    "!!!" Obviously, with his kid on the way, the ck knight couldn''t do a single thing. If he attacked Theo, such powerful energy would harm his kid as well.


    It was at this time Ava leaped forward while transforming to her battle form.


    "Such an unreasonable guy�� Even after we saved your kid, you wanted to kill us." Ava red at him with her bloodshot eyes. "Come on then. Kill us if you can. You can''t kill all of us with a single sh. Whoever survives will torture and kill your kid before your eyes."


    The ck knight shivered when he saw Ava and listened to her words.


    He hesitated for a moment and saw his son, who was still clinging to Theo. It was clear that his son had no intention of moving away.


    After realizing the situation didn''t look like what he thought, the ck knight waved his sword down and released the umted energy inside the sword.


    The ck-colored me ran through the ground and created a wall of ck me that stretched for over a quarter-mile and was three hundred feet tall.


    However, this enormous ck me didn''t go in Theo''s direction. It was to the side, so they were safe.


    The ck knight finally let go of his weapon and calmed down.


    "So, you saved my son��" The ck knight remained vignt as there was a chance of them lying to him.


    "Your kid was ying around inside the nest below here and almost got killed by the imps," Ava exined in a simple way.


    "Hmm? Then, how do you exin about the snake?"


    "I killed it. Though, I only delivered thest blow. The snake fought against thousands of imps and managed to kill around two thousand of them," Theo replied with a calm expression, not scared of him.


    "Hmm��" The ck knight turned to his child and asked, "Is that true?"


    "Ada." He nodded a few times.


    "��" The ck knight fell silent for a moment before his horse disappeared. Landing on the ground, the guy said, "I understand the situation now. If that''s the situation, I would like to apologize for what I have done."


    "Ada." Suddenly, the little guy leaped off and walked toward Maya, pointing at her. "Ada!"


    "��" The ck knight paused, understanding that his son wanted to settle the problem with Maya.


    After some consideration, the ck knight asked, "How do you n to settle it?"


    "Ada." The little guy moved toward the hole and pointed down. "Adaa!"


    "There is a Blue Star Crystal room below. I don''t know what to say since I''m not an expert�� maybe a mine or a vein?" Theo exined what they found.


    "What?" The one who was shocked the most was Maya. She turned to Theo, staring in disbelief.


    Seeing Maya''s reaction was enough for the ck knight to decide. "I give you the right to mine that ce. However, I need to give you a few conditions.


    "First, no more than five people can mine in that ce at a time. Second, the imps can''t go extinct. Third, this is thepensation for the damage and the reward for saving my son. Fourth, the time limit is one year.


    "If you break one of these rules, I will personallye to this ce and eliminate all humans from this ce. Are you satisfied?" The ck knight asked his son.


    "Adaa!" The little guy nodded.


    "Come here then. We go back." The ck knight waved his hand, calling him back.


    "Adaa." The little guy hurriedly ran toward him, but with his size and strength, it took a while for him to reach his father.


    In the meantime, the ck knight turned to Theo and the others. "It seems you have met an Order Holder since you have that symbol somewhere in your body. How many have you met and who are they?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "I don''t think that''s appropriate to say that, right?"


    "Just tell them that the Dark Order is asking that question." The ck knight shook his head.


    Theo nced at Ava to ask her opinion.


    As soon as thetter nodded, Theo answered, "Moonlight Order, Mountain Order, Shadow Order, Lightning Authority, and you, Dark Order."


    "Authority?" The dark knight frowned.


    "Yeah. I was with them." Theo pointed at Ava and Agata.


    "I see." The ck knight fell silent. Before the little guy reached him, he tossed a ck light to Theo.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and grabbed that light before seeing a ck-colored me symbol on his left palm. With this, he had two marksing from King ss Monsters.


    "When you sessfully cultivate your own order,e to my ce. I don''t mind having an exchange with you. Just ask any General ss Monster in the Underworld Territory, and they''ll lead you to my ce. Take it aspensation for almost killing you along with the fact that my son takes a liking on you."


    "��" Theo frowned, looking at both palms. He even wondered whether his body would be filled with tattoos if every single King ss Monster gave him a mark.


    Meanwhile, the little guy reached the ck knight and hugged his leg.


    The ck knight raised him and summoned the horse again.


    Before going, the ck knight asked onest question. "What''s your name?"


    "Theodore Griffith."


    "Vofhnier." As soon as he said his name, the ck knight kicked the horse as they moved away from this ce.


    "��" Theo let out a long sigh as they had finished the problem.


    "Shadow Order?" Agata turned to him, realizing that she had never met this one.


    "Blue Star Crystal?" Maya also looked at him for a different purpose.

 Chapter 806 – Blue Star Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 806 - Blue Star Crystal</h4>


    Agata realized Theo might find someone with an order back in Thernd other than Ava''s mother, so she immediately stepped back. There was no need to pry that information.


    Meanwhile, Maya was so focused on the Blue Star Crystal that she didn''t care about her injury anymore.


    "Theo, what do you mean by Blue Star Crystal?"


    "We found a ce like that underground. The little guy actually found them and led us to it. From what we could see, we can stack all those crystals and create four Cubicar worth��" She pointed at the Cubicar behind them.


    "!!!" Maya widened her eyes and gulped down. "Where?"


    "Down there." Agata shrugged.


    "Down�� there��" Maya took a peek of the hole and fell silent. She couldn''t help but say, "I don''t know why but when I''m with you, it seems that my fate is miserable�� I mean, the hidden monster of the Arkahan Volcano. Then, there was also the witch. Last but not least, we found a King ss Monster.


    "On the other hand, I could say that they weren''t that bad. Our original mission was to acquire the flower, and the hidden monster was the risk. Then, the witch was something like a bonus since the weapons were numerous.


    "Then, there''s the Blue Star Crystal�� I guess I should say that when I''m with you, it''ll always be a high-risk, high-return situation." She looked at Theo. "Well, you have a clone, your brain, and Ava. These three big points are what differentiate you from normal people�� I guess this kind of result should be expected."


    "��" Theo remained silent, not bothering to even reply to her useless remark. He simply summoned his clone and jumped to the hole. "Drop your armor and follow me."


    Ava and Agata followed him while Maya nced at Clone Theo, who seemed to be guarding the Cubicar. After making sure that no monster was around, she put down her armor and leaped to the bottom.


    Theo caught her with his Telekinesis.


    After that, he led Maya toward the previous room.


    On the way, Agata couldn''t help but ask, "By the way, what is this Blue Star Crystal?"


    "We usually grind that crystal as a recement of either gunpowder or Diaroite, which is the advanced version of the crystal. The Blue Star Crystal is another level of Diaroite.


    "For example, most of the bullets I have use Diaroite. Only a small portion of them use Blue Star Crystal, as they are pretty rare.


    "At the same time, extracting such a thing is hard because not only do we need to be wary about monsters, we also need to look for them.


    "The worst part is�� The King ss Monster cane to that ce and eliminate every single one of you. And there''s even a chance of a World ss Monster getting involved.


    "Hence, we usually seek Diaroite or Blue Star Crystal first before investigating the whole region. We need to either discuss this matter with the King ss Monster or kill them directly.


    "Still, it''s hard for us to kill King ss Monsters�� Not only do they control all the monsters in that region, but they are also pretty hard to find to begin with.


    "That''s why even though these two minerals are pretty useful, the supply is simplycking in the market.


    "Normally, we seek some recement from fire type monsters. They can be bred, but in the end, it''s pretty hard to get a huge amount.


    "That''s why bullets that we usually use are pretty expensive. That''s also why guns are not that popr right now. They are too expensive. Meanwhile, if you use other weapons, you can just train your body and get stronger�� Not that big of a deal."


    Theo listened to her exnation and nodded in understanding. "As expected of the CEO of the Starry Group."


    "Heh." She made a grin, staring at his face. "Impressed? Want to join?"


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and said, "Anyway, I wonder how much will you pay for this finding?"


    "But I was supposed to find it if I were going down."


    "That''s pretty hard. Since the little guy was the one who found it."


    "��" Maya fell silent, understanding what Theo said.


    "Also, without me, the Dark Order wouldn''t give it to you." Theo smirked.


    "Well��" Maya certainly couldn''t retort this one. After all, it was clear that the ck knight did everything because of Theo. His son contributed to it, but the Dark Order seemed to give Theo something special.


    So, Theo was the one who contributed to this one.


    "Let me calcte everything first. The danger of the Arkhana Volcano has increased the value of the flower, so your contribution is also pretty high for that one. Then, the witch and the weapons in that ce along with the information about the ce��


    "I need to add the Blue Star Crystal worth��" Maya scratched the back of her head, feeling troubled. "Let me calcte everything first."


    "Sure thing." Theo nodded.


    Little did she know, what she was about to find would soon shock her again.


    "By the way, how do you even turn the Blue Crystal into gunpowder?"


    "We grind it. I have the equipment of course."


    Suddenly, Maya saw a light at the end of the tunnel and opened her mouth. "That��"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded.


    Without hesitation, she sped up as she couldn''t wait to see the ce.


    When she reached there, Maya dropped her jaw in disbelief.


    As soon as Theo, Agata, and Ava caught up, they tried to shake Maya''s body to wake her up.


    But the first thing she did after waking up was to take a walk around the room with a serious expression as though she was calcting the mineral.


    Theo and the others remained silent and let her do whatever she needed to do for the time being.


    It didn''t take too long for her toe back. And her first action stunned all of them.


    "You''re my lucky star!" Maya leaped toward Theo and circled her hand around his neck�� Her momentum pushed him down as they both fell to the ground. "You''re truly my lucky star, Theo!"

 Chapter 807 – Ava The Matchmaker

    <h4>Chapter 807 - Ava The Matchmaker</h4>


    Bam.


    Theo fell to the ground but managed to stop himself with Telekinesis, making sure that his head didn''t hit the rock.


    "Oi, oi. You''re too happy." Theo was stupefied, never seeing Maya this happy.


    Without hesitation, she gave a peck on Theo''s cheek before saying, "Of course, I''m happy. You don''t know what this room means to me."


    "Alright, alright. Let''s talk about that." Theo sighed and nced at Agata to see her reaction.


    Agata shrugged her shoulders. Her expression told him she didn''t mind it since Maya only expressed her happiness. She had told Theo that she didn''t want to be overly jealous, so her course of action was to step back and wait for them to finish.


    Theo made a wry smile and said, "Alright. Get off me and exin."


    Maya didn''t listen to him for a few seconds as she was too happy at the moment. After taking a few deep breaths, she finally let him go and stood up.


    Theo rose from the ground and asked, "So, what''s wrong with this ce?"


    "This is quite arge vein we have there. And usually, this is the entire mine. There won''t be any Blue Star Crystal at least�� in a 10 miles radius." She pointed at the crystal. "If I can mine all this, I can make all my bullets fueled by this crystal instead of gunpowder or Diaroite.


    "And they can allow me to reach Mythical Rank without a problem. Well, I''m prodigal, so it''s quite absurd to use me as an example.


    "Let''s use another example. If we have a normal person who uses the bullets sparsely, we can let two thousand people use them for ten years. Because of the power contained in the Blue Star Crystal, we don''t need much for each bullet, so that''s the rough calction.


    "If that''s not simple enough, then�� this stuff is equal to 4-6 Billion worth of raw material. There''s also the fact that we''ve been given permission from the King ss Monster, which means even the General ss Monster won''t even bother to look at this ce.


    "As long as we abide by the rule, I doubt that the miners will experience any problem. So, this also means there''s no need forpensation��No extra cost for this. I believe you understand how much this is worth, right?" She smiled.


    "Well." Theo nodded with a serious expression, understanding why she had such a reaction.


    Maya let out a long sigh, remembering what she said earlier about Theo being the high-risk, high-return opportunity. "Making the rough calction alone with everything we have found�� We''ve got around 10 billion worth of items.


    "And that''s not calcting yourpensation and reward from the ck Knight and the cloth��" She nced at the cloth wrapped on Theo''s lower arm.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled. "Then, I guess this trip is worth it?"


    "Yeah. If a two or three-month trip can give this kind of result, I can''t imagine your future potential�� When you are a Supreme Rank Expert�� And what if you are a Mythical Rank Expert?" She shook her head in defeat.


    "Haha." Theo looked away. "I guess it won''t be a problem if Agata and I use the simtion room, right?"


    "Obviously. You can even rent it one year long and still have enough money to spare��"


    "We don''t need that long." Theo shrugged. "Probably one month is enough since we still need to go back to Italy."


    "Right, you still need to return. So, have you chosen the influence you''ll visit after leaving Italy next time?" She smirked. "I''m prepared to hire you again. Or I''ll give you a contract far better than what my old man offered you in Thernd."


    "We can talk about thatter. For now, I have another n." He shook his head.


    "Really? What should I offer you to make you stay here? Maybe I should offer myself? How about that? You can get me and thepany." She smirked before hiding behind Theo, looking at Agata. "Oops��"


    "Stop joking." Theo let out a long sigh. "Why does everyone somehow want to marry me? Has no one ever thought about the problem that I bring? Even if it''s a joke�� You, the WInd Emperor''s granddaughter, and that Empress��"


    "You should ask yourself. Can you handle the problem that you bring?" She smirked. "You have the brain, and with our influences, it''s easy for you to solve that problem. And there''s also the fact that you''re a very kind and loyal person, so getting you is worth more than that.


    "And now you''re asking why others want to marry you�� Where are those brain cells of yours? Can''t you understand this?"


    "I can understand that, but that doesn''t change my character." Theo sighed. "I would rather die alone than be chained down forcefully."


    Suddenly, Ava leaped to Maya''s shoulder and touched her cheek.


    "Hmm?" Maya turned to her and looked at Ava in confusion.


    "Can''t be forceful. You''re always thinking about benefits, not feelings." She pushed her head, resulting in Maya taking a few steps to the side. "Not good enough. Alea still thinks about his well-being, Ne is trying to make up for all those years, and Agata is very considerate. So, you are not good."


    "Since when you became my matchmaker, Ava?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "I''m just telling the truth." Ava shook her head.


    "And Since when did Ne be a candidate?" Maya asked as she had the same expression as Theo.


    "Seven generations apart," Ava answered without hesitation before ncing at Agata. "She did it. I just happened to stumble upon this information."


    "Oh!" Maya nodded.


    "Wha��!" Agata stepped back, stunned. "I-I was just investigating the Griffith Family. I didn''t search for that specific information!"


    The atmosphere became awkward as Theo couldn''t help but say, "Seriously, guys�� Let''s stop that, okay?"


    "Fine." Ava leaped to Theo''s shoulder again. "I''m just that good at information gathering."


    Theo ignored her words and looked at the ceiling. "Alright. It''s time for me to reach Supreme Rank Expert�� Time to hunt again before making our way to the hotel since it''s better to inform some of your Mythical Rank Experts to protect this ce."

 Chapter 808 – Death Avatar

    <h4>Chapter 808 - Death Avatar</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo was sitting inside the Cubicar with his eyes closed. He had reached level 500 and got called by Hel. And due to them not being in a dungeon, Theo stayed inside the Cubicar since they could carry him anywhere without a problem while giving more protection with the help of the Cubicar''s barriers.


    Meanwhile, Agata, Ava, and Maya stood outside, protecting the Cubicar.


    "There is no monster within three hundred feet. And since we''re surrounded by the trees, there should be no monstering at us." Maya stated while ncing at the radar.


    "Got it. Just get prepared��" Agata nodded with a serious expression.


    "I wonder if Theo will get that power again��" Ava looked up, recalling the power Theo used in order to kill a Supreme Rank Monster when he was still a weak Hero Rank Expert.


    "What power?"


    "I''m not very sure. That power is simply far too good��" Ava shook her head. "Well, probably. I''m going to see whether it''s that power again or not."


    "In any case, our task is the same. Protect Theo until he''s done."


    "Yeah."


    While they were guarding the Cubicar, Theo''s consciousness had arrived in the valley where he usually met the others.


    This time, only Hel was standing before him. There was no sight of Fenrir, Jormungand, or even Loki.


    Theo looked around while raising his hands, checking his body condition. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with his body, he asked, "Ehm�� Are you here alone?"


    "Yep," Hel answered Theo coolly before raising four fingers. "I''m going to exin four things to you. And if you have any questions, just ask me after the exnation, okay?"


    "Got it." Theo acknowledged her instruction.


    "First of all, I''m going to give you my Underworld Dominion Skill to you in the form of Death Avatar. The people in your world called this a Skill Verse. So, I''m pretty sure it will be good for you.


    "Also, you should know the potential of this skill, right?" Hel smirked, feeling proud of her own power.


    "Yes. It''s an S Rank Skill�� Or it can be said to be a Divine Skill."


    "Good. I won''t be exining how to use it. You just need to know that I''ll be watching you. If the result is not satisfactory, I''ll send you back in the torture chamber."


    "Ehm, sure. Bring me back there." Theo somehow wanted to be killed again since that experience indeed brought so many benefits.


    "Kid, are you��" Hel coughed once while staring at Theo with a weird smile.


    "I''m not a masochist. I''m just seeking that power��" Theo shook his head.


    "Anyway, you don''t need to ask me if you want to experience Death again. Your Death Avatar has the ability to do that, and you can only invoke that power when you''re at the most vulnerable moment. In other words, at your sleep. You''ll dream of getting butchered, and I believe that''s the perfect time for you to learn more about Death."


    "Understood."


    "Also, I''m going to open the second skill of the Death Avatar, called Underworld Body. Thanks to the power of the Death Armor, I have enough power to open that skill. However, the rest will be up to you."


    "Thank you very much." Theo politely bowed his head.


    "That''s the first thing�� Well, when you wake up, you''ll see the skill. I''m not going to show it here. Just remember this one. My Underworld Dominion is the epitome of Awareness."


    "I can somehow understand that. The Death Eyes skill alone shows the connection between the skill and Vision. I assume each of your skills is connected to a certain sense. Am I wrong?"


    "No, you''re not wrong. Since you already know, I don''t have to exin it to you, let alone worry about your poor skill." Hel shrugged.


    "Now that I think about it, you said that you can use your power to unlock the skill�� How is that connected? I mean, what''s the connection between ranking up a skill and Skill Cards." Theo asked, realizing he never thought about the principle of ranking up skill this whole time.


    He had been taking this ability for granted.


    "I''ll answer thatter."


    "Got it. We should move on to the second thing then." Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "Alright. What skill will you remove to get my Underworld Dominion Skill?"


    "What skill��" Theo frowned and looked down. "The skills I received from my blessing are Blink, Clone, Metamorphosis, and Telekinesis. All of them are very useful to me, so I''m not nning to change them.


    "And Illusion Maniption is my current strongest strength in a way, along with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    "This leaves Illusion Construct, Illusion Destruction, and Magic Bullet. I think I can somehow rece the Illusion Construct since I can replicate this skill with Illusion Maniption and Sense of Touch and Vision.


    "As for Illusion Destruction, I still have some use for this skillter. And Magic Bullets are basically the skill that I have used the most since it''s the most versatile skill to me." Theo exined his analysis with a serious expression.


    "Then, it''s the Illusion Construct." Hel nodded with a serious expression. "Hence, this is the second thing I want to say to you. Get ready to abandon the Magic Bullet skill."


    "Eh?" Theo was taken aback by her suggestion.


    "Instead of using Magic Bullet skill, you should use your Control." She raised her hand and formed a sword before turning it into a shield. "I''m sure you know about this, but your Magic Power and Control alone can create more Magic Bullets than your skill, right?"


    "Yeah. But I still need the Magic Bullet for some moves like that God Killing Spear."


    "That''s it." She smiled. "You''re too reliant on a weak skill. Instead of that, you should learn something like this."


    She raised her hand and formed a big spear on top of her head, replicating Theo''s God Killing Spear. "You should just make that one purely with your own Magic Power�� No need for Magic Bullet. Also, make sure you can form multiple weapons or structures with your own Magic Power."


    "But Magic Bullet strengthens the God Killing Spear��" Theo shook his head, denying her idea.


    "Yeah, but you now have Death Avatar." She shrugged.


    "Death Avatar��" Theo frowned beforeing to a realization. There was one figureing into his mind.


    It was Leonardo. If he imagined his Death Avatar to be the same as Leonardo''s King, he could make Death Avatar wield something.


    "I see. So that''s how it is��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment, falling into deep thought.

 Chapter 809 – Men, World, Order

    <h4>Chapter 809 - Men, World, Order</h4>


    After a while, Theo finally raised his head and opened his eyes. "Magic Bullet prevents me from using another skill since, unlike normal bullets, I don''t shoot those Magic Bullets simply because it''s the core of the God Killing Spear.


    "However, if I sacrifice the Magic Bullets, I can use Death Avatar. It''s true that the God Killing Spear won''t be as powerful as before, but I can add versatility and momentum into it. I can throw that spear or have the Death Avatar wield it."


    Hel smiled. "That''s basically how it is. Your Control will continuously grow, and making other forms will improve your Control too. So, I want you to be ready to remove your Magic Bullet."


    "Understood." Theo agreed with her advice since it was understandable. "Now that I think about it, my Magic Bullet might be more suitable to be removed than the Illusion Construct. Even though my Illusion Construct can be reced by Illusion Maniption, thetter can only affect a target. I need to release more power to affect multiple targets. Meanwhile, Illusion Construct will appear in everyone''s eyes without the need to influence them."


    "Your choice. Moving on to the third piece of advice��" Hel raised three fingers. "I''m going to exin something about Order to you."


    "Yes. This is what I''ve been waiting for." Theo smiled.


    "No need to be that excited." Hel released her power and formed three ck figures on her palm. The figures were none other than a doll, a bridge, and a ball. "These three represent people, Order, and the world."


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he listened attentively, not wanting to leave a single detail.


    "The world releases its power in the form of Order. It gives birth to everything you need such as life, death, soul, nts, soil, and so on.


    "However, the world can''t create all this stuff on their own. They are only the source, not the means. What should they do in order to create a world suitable for living?" Hel asked.


    Theo pointed at the doll. "Us."


    "Yes. They''re using us to create a suitable ce. Unlike other people, their job is the hardest and bound by many rules. However, they still receive the recognition worthy of their job�� We call them God or Goddess of Creation. The mother or father of all. They''re the primordial being, the beginning of an era."


    Suddenly, the doll and the ball stuck to the bridge as Hel exined, "After the world is created, there will be people in charge of maintaining the bnce of the world, so they don''t copse.


    "They are those who hold Authority. As expected, no matter how powerful they are, they won''t be able to handle the Creator''s burden. So, they require more people to maintain it�� The degraded version of Authority�� We call them Order.


    "Still, no matter what we call them, they''re still a bridge that connects us to the world itself.


    "When you possess an Order or Authority, that means the world has entrusted you with the task to maintain the bnce of this world, making sure it''s not destroyed.


    "Just like in the goblin incident, you need to do what your grandfather did too if you have an Order in the future. Of course, the world doesn''t assign you a task without giving a proper reward.


    "The energy from the world is flowing through the bridge, and in this bridge, they''re being contaminated with your Order, making your own Magic Power associated with the Order.


    "Even though I said it was contaminated, there''s nothing but benefits�� For example, I have Death Authority and my Magic Power turns into Death Magic Power. It reinforces my power by several folds.


    "It''s better for you to experience the difference in power between the normal Magic Power and ''Order'' Magic Power. Also, you''re able to alter your Order�� Hmm, how should I say this�� You have the ability to alter thew of this world yourself.


    "I''m sure that the Earth has been experiencing it this whole time�� What I''m talking about is any urrence that can''t be exined with science."


    Theo widened his eyes in shock. He never thought of receiving this kind of revtion from Hel.


    Although the information was limited, it certainly could lead to a new research theme.


    Seeing his expression, Hel added, "I think you''ve known this, but I''ll remind you again. Even though you know about this thing, you shouldn''t tell other people unless they''re someone you can trust.


    "As for the reasons��" She formed multiple bridges and dolls that were connected to the ball. "You''re not the only one receiving the Order. There are others. If many people know about Orders and Authorities, there''s a chance that it will destroy the bnce in all those bridges.


    "Depending on the severity of this matter, the earth might be shaken, or a huge rock can be thrown to the bridges and as a result��" She replicated what she said and made several bridges destroyed. "The Order is broken. When this happens, a huge impact will be seen in the world."


    "I see." Theo nodded furiously. "I swear that I won''t tell anyone about this."


    "Good."


    "I guess I won''t get anything if I ask you how to get an Order, right?"


    "Of course. Ask that dragon." She smiled.


    "I understand. I''ll learn it step by step. At the very least, you never stop me from learning it myself and don''t really shroud yourself, which can kinda frustrate others with it." Theo shrugged.


    "Telling you is fine, but I want you to learn from as many people as possible, to be honest. Different people will have different perspectives. The more information you have, the more unique your answer will be. That''s why I don''t wish to tell you everything because your answer might be different from what I get."


    Theo agreed with that statement. "This is why the true leader will be thest person to open a mouth in a discussion. After all, his words can influence other people, and their answers might revolve around him. I know that��"


    "As long as you know." She smiled. "I''ll tell you what I can say, but please don''t get mad if I can''t disclose certain information."


    "Yes, I perfectly understand. Thank you very much." Theo bowed again, knowing that she was acting for his good.


    "Alright. Let''s move on to thest one�� It''s about your next training."


    "Oh? Am I gonna get training about Breathing this time? I have been using my Illusion most of the time right now, so I think this is the perfect time to ride it and perfect my Illusion Ability." Theo''s expression brightened as he was excited to get a unique Breathing Technique.


    However, Hel actually dropped a bomb that destroyed his hope.


    "No. The next training will be about Endurance and Lil snake will be the one teaching you. You need to find a Breathing Technique on your own."


    "Eh?"

 Chapter 810 – Death Avatar Reappeared

    <h4>Chapter 810 - Death Avatar Reappeared</h4>


    "Eh?" Theo dropped his jaw, not believing what he heard.


    "It''s true." She made a wry smile and exined, "This is not a test. The Breathing Technique is too unique for you right now. After you get your own Order, you finally fulfill the requirement to learn this technique."


    "Order?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "Yes. You need an Order first before learning about this Breathing Technique. Without it, the ability won''t be as effective and might even ruin the foundation for your Order."


    "I see." Theo looked down. Although he was a bit sad, if what she described was true, he could understand it. "Now that I think about it, I''ve learned that Orderes naturally and how do you get chosen by a certain Order?"


    "Ask the dragon."


    "So, it''s rted to that." Theo nodded. "In that case, how about my eyes?"


    "Right, we should move on to your questions." She nodded and said, "He''s using his Authority to trick the system. I told you earlier that we can alter the world''s Order to a certain degree, right?"


    "Yes. So, this is not supposed to happen?"


    "Yeah. He''s using his own Authority to alter thew for you. This is also the reason why some people have abnormal abilities.


    "For example, someone can see a glimpse of the future since birth or even that Alea�� It''s granted by people like us. I don''t know if you have realized this, but those people from the past were like that too." She smiled.


    "Ah!" Theo widened his eyes. "Do you mean that they were real?"


    "Yeah. However, the Earth and this realm hadn''t been connected yet, so you didn''t know someone had blessed you with its power. And the connection wasn''t that good either. Like what the people always told you in the past�� God will be watching over you�� That is true."


    "Hmm, I have another question. In that case, where are you this whole time? You''re in Heaven or something?" Theo frowned.


    "Sorry, I can''t answer that right now. He''s going to exin it to you�� probably."


    "I see." Theo sighed, feeling a bit discouraged. However, he understood their situation and asked, "I have two other questions. You all appeared intermittently�� Is it because you need a certain opportunity or a kind of power to connect with me?"


    "Something like that. We need a certain amount of energy to do that. As for what kind of energy that is and how to acquire this energy�� The answer will be revealed in the future. The more you know about this, the lower your chance to acquire this energy. That''s the corrtion, so I hope that you can avoid thinking about this."


    "It''s gonna benefit me, so I won''t." Theo agreed without hesitation. "For now."


    "Yeah. You''ll know about it sooner orter. It''s only been a few years since you started getting stronger. So, take your time."


    "Understood." Theo raised his finger. "Then thest question. Why are you helping me�� Why are you together like this? I believe others don''t have like Four Authority Level figures to be their backers."


    "I can''t answer the former. As for thetter, it''s due to his power, the Illusion Authority. To be honest, we''ve been wracking our brains to make sure that the skill we give won''t influence your Order.


    "This is the second reason why I''m sealing my Skill Verse. Not only did your body not have the power to contain it, but the full power of my Underworld Dominion would be influencing your Order. We want you to get an Order unique to your own."


    "I can understand that." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Blink, Clone, Metamorphosis, and Telekinesis�� All of them don''t have any rtion with Order. And you need to seal your Underworld Dominion because you believe that when it''s unsealed, I''ll already have my own Order, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Understood." Theo thought for a moment and raised his hands. "I have many more questions, but they''re not that important. I can search for the answer on my own. This ce is made by that ''power'', right?"


    "Yeah."


    "I won''t waste too much time then." Theo nodded with a serious expression before bowing his head. "Once again, thank you very much for telling me all this."


    "It''s fine. This time, I''ll let you leave in peace." She smirked while cing her hand on Theo''s head. "See youter, kid. Make me proud."


    "I will do my best." Theo smiled and closed his eyes, returning to reality.


    It might be because of Hel''s influence, but his Underworld Dominion was activated without hismand.


    ck-colored energy suddenly came out of his body, rose into the air, and passed through the Cubicar''s roof. As soon as it was released outside, the energy started spinning.


    "!!!" Agata, Ava, and Maya were rmed by the sudden change.


    Seeing the ck tornado, Maya immediately left the Cubicar to avoid any kind of danger from Theo.


    When she was out, she turned around and saw Agata and Ava leaping off the Cubicar, afraid of the ck tornado.


    They all saw the tornado gradually changing its form, turning into a giant figure.


    "That''s�� That''s his power from back then," Ava kept repeating her words in shock, recalling how terrified she was when the figure released its power.


    They looked at this figure that only had an upper body. The fifteen-foot tall stood on top of the Cubicar as its lower body became translucent and entered the Cubicar, attached to Theo.


    This was Theo''s Death Avatar. Ava perfectly remembered its ck magician hat, a white and ck mask, white shirt and ck vest, and its long red robe.


    A purple me suddenly appeared on the Death Avatar''s left eye. In that instant, Ava''s fur rose as her body trembled in fear.


    Agata and Maya sucked a cold breath while clenching their fists. The chill air somehow brushed their skins, making them shudder.


    ''Death��'' Maya gulped down, recalling her suspicion of Theo''s Blessing.


    The appearance of the Death Avatar was followed by a series of roarsing from the monsters nearby.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    Roar.


    A purple light shed for a second before a shock wave shook the area and traveled in all directions as this was the way of the Death Avatar showing its might.


    Inside, Theo gradually opened his eyes as his right eye was covered with dark purple me.

 Chapter 811 – Death Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 811 - Death Eyes</h4>


    Roar!


    Roar!


    Roar!


    A series of roars echoed across the forest as they wereing toward Agata and the others.


    "Hmm��" Agata turned around, realizing the monsters had surrounded them. "Maya, activate the Cubicar''s shields. We''ll take care of these monsters until Theoes out."


    Maya nodded and entered the Cubicar to turn on the shields. Because the monsters were already close by, she didn''t spare any second to check on Theo.


    As soon as she came out, she wore her armor and focused on a particr direction.


    Ava also did the same, creating a triangle.


    Little did they know, Theo was already awake at this time.


    Even though he couldn''t see the situation outside, his Awareness already told him enough about the situation.


    Theo didn''t bother to take a look at the outside, knowing he still had some time.


    There was one thing he absolutely needed to do before fighting those monsters.


    [Level +1]


    [Free Attributes Points +50]


    [You''ve acquired the Underworld Dominion Skill.]


    [The Underworld Dominion Skill is activated.]


    [The Death Avatar has been created.]


    Skill: Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (B)


    Effect: Personification of Death, the ruler of the Underworld. There are four Authorities contained within the Death Avatar. Death Eyes, Underworld Body, Unknown, Unknown.


    Name: First Authority - Death Eyes


    Description: Enhancing one''s perception and radiate death, terror, hopelessness, and even despair onto others.


    Name: Second Authority - Underworld Body


    Description: Enhancing one''s body to prevent all kinds of afflictions such as curses, poisons, diseases, illness.


    ''Oh, wow?'' Theo widened his eyes when he read the second authority''s description. ''All kinds of afflictions? Well, physical and magical power can still harm me, but if someone curses me or even poisons me�� It won''t work. Damn, this is so overpowered.


    ''Then again, Helheim is supposed to be the realm for the deceased, right? She had a rotten body�� I had seen that before. I guess that rotten body is the one giving me this power. In other words, it''s like an antivirus that prevents any type of afflictions that can create that kind of body. Whether it''s a curse, poison, blindness, and other stuff��


    ''Having that type of body is painful, so I kinda understand why there''s a power like this. No wonder Death Avatar is a Divine Ability. Now, I''m wondering what the third and fourth authorities are�� I guess I can only see them after ranking up the skill to A or even S Rank.


    ''Nevertheless, I''m satisfied with my current skills. Seeing that this is rted to the body, maybe I can use my Sense of Touch to amplify this power.


    ''That''s right. She once formed a barrier with her Sense of Touch when fighting Fenrir�� What if I channel this Underworld Body to that barrier? Won''t it be like a domain?'' Theo thought wandered around, thinking about all possibilities.


    He was excited as this might be the strongest skill he had ever received.


    ''Death Eyes and Underworld Body, huh��'' Theo closed his eyes for a moment and nodded with a serious expression. After that, he assigned his attribute points.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 501


    EXP: 4,657,599/ 7,061,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Construct (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (B), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Telekinesis (B), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(B)


    Attributes: Strength 650, Endurance 466, Agility 463, Vitality 466, Magic Power 850


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''It''s sad, but I think this is the time to let go of the Magic Bullets. I can still rank it up, but the Magic Bullets requires three times the amount of ranking up the Underworld Dominion. And looking at the price of an A Rank Skill alone�� It already takes around a few billion to rank up the Underworld Dominion.


    ''So, this might be the right choice��'' Theo let out a long sigh. ''Well, I don''t have a supply problem with Supreme Rank Skills since I have many of them after killing many Supreme Rank Monsters�� mostly the Rare ss ones.


    ''Nevertheless, I still need the A Rank Skills, and it''s impossible for me to kill them unless I''m close to Mythical Rank or around level 700�� My only option is to buy it, but the A Rank Skill is rare, and only appears in an auction most of the time. I guess this is the only option.''


    Theo took another look at the upgrade requirement for the Underworld Dominion.


    Skill: Underworld Dominion - Death Avatar (B)


    Upgrade: 2 Rank A Skills and 30 Rank B Skills.


    ''Well, I can''t reallyin since I can get far more powerful as long as I have money. I guess there''s really a gold mine in front of me.'' Theo thought of Maya.


    After a while, he shook his head, brushing the thought off. Then, he spread his Awareness around and realized more than 50 monsters were attacking them.


    "I guess it''s time to test this skill." Theo smiled as half his vision turned purple. The dark purple me appeared in his right eye. He muttered in a low voice, "Death Eyes."


    ��


    Meanwhile, Agata raised her foot outside and stomped the ground. "Ha!"


    That stomp cracked the ground before various vines emerged from the ground, catching the monsters'' feet.


    "I''m not going to let you reach this ce." Agata snorted and formed her spear, preparing to cut them down.


    On the other hand, Maya had been shooting all the monsters that dared toe at them. Because of the Blue Star Crystal Mine, she didn''t care about her bullets anymore.


    Ava also released all her power, wanting to kill every monster before another action from the Death Avatar.


    "Shaaa!" Suddenly, a huge roar resounded across the forest.


    Agata and the others turned around as they knew the one that let out that sound earlier was Theo''s Death Avatar.


    The purple light shed for an instant, creating a shock wave that stunned everyone.


    The monsters came to a halt as they were shivering in fear.


    Ava was already clutching her ears, not wanting to experience the same thing again.


    "This is��" Agata raised her shaking right hand while Maya clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "I''m actually afraid?"


    The entire battlefield reached a stalemate in one instant.

 Chapter 812 – Theo’s Prowess

    <h4>Chapter 812 - Theo��s Prowess</h4>


    Maya''s heart beat rapidly as she felt cold wind brushing her skin. She looked around and realized that the monsters were frozen.


    This might be the best opportunity to eliminate them. But before she could do anything, there was a big movement from the Death Avatar.


    The Death Avatar raised its right hand as a huge blue-colored spear appeared on top of its palm. This spear was made of Magic Power and allowed the Death Avatar to use it.


    The Death Avatar turned to the left and threw the spear as hard as possible.


    The moment the spear touched a monster, it shredded the body into pieces. And the Magic Spear finally exploded.


    Boom.


    A blue-colored light shed in their eyes as a huge explosion engulfed twenty monsters at once.


    Due to the momentum, the explosion was more enormous, making it extremely fatal.


    Out of those twenty monsters, half of them died and six of them were heavily injured. Only four monsters that were on the edge of the explosions were still alive with minor injuries.


    "Seriously? Isn''t he too overpowered after a single rank up to Supreme Rank?" Maya drew a long gasp, taken aback by this sudden power-up.


    The Death Avatar was simply too scary.


    Unfortunately, the moment the Death Avatar killed those monsters, the remaining monsters realized their fate would be decided by themselves, not the Death Avatar.


    Since thetter was nning to kill them, they chose to fight their fear and charge forward, trying to take down the Death Avatar.


    Numerous Magic Bullets appeared out of thin air and hovered around the Death Avatar.


    When a monster came near the Death Avatar, the Magic Bullets flew toward the monster and overwhelmed it. Of course, these bullets didn''te from Theo''s Magic Bullet Skill. Instead, it was created from Theo''s Magic Power and Control.


    Even though he didn''t possess the skill anymore, he still had enough ability to summon all these bullets.


    "Seriously?" Maya aimed at the monsters before her, trying to stop them from approaching the Death Avatar.


    Suddenly, Theo appeared a few feet in front of her.


    "Theo?" Maya widened her eyes before noticing a big difference in this Theo. There was no Death Avatar behind him, so it was clear that this Theo was a clone.


    Clone Theo looked at the monsters with a poker face before waving his hand horizontally.


    The monsters suddenly dropped to the ground as they saw their legs getting separated from their bodies.


    This illusion was soon broken as the monsters struggled to get up. The monsters were confused because they could still move their feet even though they were already far away from them.


    In the end, some of them managed to stand up without feet. Seeing this urrence broke the illusion as the feet returned to their bodies as though they never lost them in the first ce.


    Unfortunately for them, it was toote. Magic Bullets rained them down and killed all the monsters.


    "Wow��" Maya apuded the performance. The only reason why she stopped getting surprised was because she needed to re-evaluate Theo''s worth.


    This Death Avatar alone seemed to have increased his worth drastically.


    She thought, ''Supreme Rank, huh. What if he reaches the Mythical Rank? I''m afraid unless I''m expanding my business, I can''t hold him down in my Starry Group. Still, this shows how much potential he has�� He has a bright future in front of him, so I need to consider this too.


    ''If he feels displeased with the condition, he might leave mypany without saying anything. As for the contract, I believe he will find a way to break that contract.


    ''Also, it seems that he doesn''t like to be chained down�� It''s best to lower that contract from ten years to five years for the time being. Instead of being chained down by the contract, I need to bind him with benefits and other stuff. This is what I should think about.


    ''This guy really makes me rethink my decision�� Business, huh. His existence alone is the business.'' Maya started thinking about the future, knowing that one wrong move would result in Theo leaving herpany.


    The War God Family didn''t have any binding power to stop Theo from leaving them, so it was clear that unless there was a huge bond between Theo and the influence, Theo wouldn''t hesitate to leave.


    Hence, this was necessary to be considered.


    After getting all the monsters in her direction killed, she didn''t join the fight immediately. Instead, she observed Theo''s Death Avatar and its ability, wanting to make sure the extent of this power.


    To her surprise, the monsters didn''t even stand a chance as Theo killed the remaining monsters within five minutes.


    As soon as they finished dealing with the monsters, Maya immediately walked to the Cubicar while saying to Agata, "Can you check our surroundings? I need to talk with Theo."


    "Sure thing." Agata nodded in agreement while Ava said, "There''s no one close enough to attack us, so we are safe right now."


    "Oh, that''s great." Agata acknowledged the information. "Still, what a shocking ability�� Even I was trembling in fear when the purple light shed."


    "Back in Thernd, it was even scarier." Ava shook her head.


    "Really?"


    "Yeah. Even Alea''s mother and grandfather were stunned back then. I was literally tortured with a single nce��" Ava let out a long sigh. "I guess that was because he just absorbed the energy from the mummy''s crown. Nevertheless, it showed the potential of this ability��"


    "Fair enough." Agata nodded with a grim expression and watched how the Death Avatar turned into a ck tornado and vanished into thin air.


    While they were talking, Maya reached the door handle and opened it, finding Theo standing right in front of the entrance as though he had been waiting for her to open that door.


    "Well��" Theo smiled and asked, "How was it?"


    "That was superb. I was speechless." Maya let out a long sigh. "You truly know how to increase your own value�� Anyway, I want to talk about something."


    "Sure. Let''s take a rest here." Theo nodded.


    "Rest?"

 Chapter 813 – Difference

    <h4>Chapter 813 - Difference</h4>


    "Rest?" Maya was startled by this one word. Her expression changed drastically, staring at Theo in horror.


    "Well, first of all, I''m sure that you didn''t feel much from it, right?" Theo shrugged.


    "Y-yeah. It gave me chills, but that was it. If I wasn''t shocked by the sudden appearance of that big guy, I wouldn''t stop moving." She nodded furiously.


    "It also took a toll in my mind to use this power on multiple enemies." Theo sighed and started calcting the power in his mind. "I guess it won''t be that effective against numerous enemies�� At least, not now."


    "Are you sure about saying all this to me? After all, this will decrease your value." Maya frowned.


    "So, you don''t want to get me at a lower price?" Theo smirked.


    "Of course I want it!" Maya immediately corrected herself. "Still, talking about your limitations and weaknesses doesn''t sound like you."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled. "I''m afraid that you''re going to use me and my skills in the future. So, I don''t want to get into trouble for failing to meet that expectation. For now, you are the only one who knows about it. Make sure you don''t talk about it to someone else, including your father."


    "I can do that." Maya nodded in understanding. It seemed that Theo nned to hide this power a little bit to have a powerful impact on his enemies. This kind of surprise attack would allow him to kill his enemies, thus bing his trump card.


    At the same time, she indeed had some ns in using this skill to hunt. It would be great if Theo could do something like that multiple times a day.


    Their leveling speed would increase drastically.


    In the end, he would be forced to give away this secret sooner orter.


    On the other hand, if he had told her this secret from the beginning, he wouldn''t get an unnecessary burden from her high expectation for this skill.


    It was clear that this was a possibility when Theo added ''for now'' in his sentence. Even though the secret decreased his value, these two words became a buffer that prevented it from decreasing too much.


    And this was the desired result.


    Maya thought for a moment and said, "In that case, let''s not talk about your new skill. Instead, let''s talk about your advancement."


    "Sure." Theo nodded and took a seat on the Cubicar''s floor. "What do you want to say?"


    "First of all, congrattions for reaching the Supreme Rank." Maya made a sweet smile.


    "Thanks."


    "Secondly, with you ranking up to Supreme Rank, I''m sure that you can see something that you couldn''t see before, right?"


    Theo fell silent for a moment.


    Although the environment didn''t look that different, he could see a bluish lighting from each object if he focused on one thing.


    "Magic Power, huh." Theo instantly recognized this blue light since he had been working with it this whole time.


    While maintaining his focus, he turned to Agata and Maya, finding the same blue light protecting their body.


    "This is��" Theo frowned.


    "Supreme Rank Expert is releasing this kind of power all the time. Hence, it''s easy to differentiate them from others. As for Mythical Rank, their power has be too concentrated to the point they release a golden light.


    "If you use any concealment skill or ability, you can hide this kind of power, allowing you to escape from prying eyes as long as your skill is better than them.


    "This is why spies need to be good. Also, most Mythical Rank Experts seem to have some sort of mastery in order to conceal their light, so it''s pretty hard for you to find them.


    "Of course, you can still use your other senses. You can try sensing the Magic Power in the area�� How about you try it? And focus that sense on me." Maya yfully gave Theo a challenge.


    Theo closed his eyes and started sensing the power in the surroundings like how he located monsters around him.


    To his surprise, he could feel the richness of Magic Power in the area. And it seemed to be concentrated in four spots. These four spots were themselves.


    "I see."


    "It seems you can feel it already. This is what differentiates Supreme Rank Experts from those below them. How about your Five Aspects?" Maya asked.


    Agata and Ava listened to them from afar, knowing that this information was crucial.


    "It''s good�� I mean, you should have seen the improvement." Theo pointed up, reminding her about the Death Avatar.


    It wasn''t the Death Avatar or Death Eyes. Instead, he was talking about how smooth and quick he formed the Magic Bullets and the magic spear.


    This was enough for Maya to know there was a massive improvement in his Five Aspects.


    "That''s enough for now." She nodded with a serious expression. "You''re going to train your Awarenesster, so I guess this is fine."


    "Yeah. You can peep at me all you want at that time. Legally��"


    "Why did you make it sound lewd? Am I a pervert in your mind?" Maya squinted her eyes.


    "Who was the one asking a question about my clone?" Theo made a cheeky smile, reminding her of one particr question she asked about his clone in Arkahan Volcano.


    "��" Maya obviously remembered the question. She ultimately let out a long sigh. "Are you holding a grudge?"


    ''Yeah. There is a particr man that can''t keep quiet about Metamorphosis and interspecies breeding because of that question��'' He thought. However, he obviously couldn''t say it because the conversation would turn in a weird direction.


    He chuckled and said, "Haha, okay, let''s stop. I won''t talk about it again."


    "Thanks." Maya nodded, satisfied. "Anyway, you need to get used to your current condition first."


    "That''s what I''m nning to do. Reaching the Supreme Rank seems to bring more benefits than I''d expected."


    "So, are we going to return right now or go hunt some more monsters?"


    "Let''s go back to the hotel, so you can inform them about this ce and immediately seal this area to prevent anyone from sneaking in. After that, let''s go back. I''m nning to learn Awareness and Breathing Technique to consolidate my power."


    "Okay. That''s what I like to do too��" Maya smiled.

 Chapter 814 – A Surprise From Maya

    <h4>Chapter 814 - A Surprise From Maya</h4>


    As soon as they finished their task, the group returned to the hotel as soon as possible. Theo and Agata were waiting for Maya to finish her business since they were nning to return to Earth not long after.


    Suddenly, two people came out of the hotel. Theo recognized one of them since he was the Mythical Rank Expert that helped him before. So, it was clear that the two people earlier were the Mythical Rank Experts tasked to protect this ce.


    Not long after, Maya returned to them before letting out a sigh of relief.


    "It''s done." Maya sighed.


    "Really?"


    "Yep. One of them will protect the mine while the other will inform my father."


    "You''re not going to get everything?" Theo asked.


    "No. I''ll take only 80 percent of it. Even then, it''s enough to reach Mythical Rank Expert without worrying about my bullet not having Blue Star Crystal anymore." She shrugged. "To be fair, my father is going to do all the process while I reap all the processed material. Thanks to you�� convincing the King ss Monster."


    She suddenly lowered her head for a split second to the point it felt like it never happened.


    However, both Agata and Theo had witnessed what happened. Maya''s action was simply too shocking to the point even Theo dropped his jaw.


    ''What?'' Theo blinked his eyes a few times, staring in disbelief. ''Even though itsted only for 0.0001 seconds, did Maya actually bow her head to thank me?''


    ''That prideful Maya?'' Agata felt goosebumps. After traveling for two months together, she understood how arrogant Maya was. There was no way for Maya to lower her head.


    "I''m grateful for your help." Maya made a sweet smile, trying to brush away what she had done earlier.


    "Is there any camera here? CCTV?" Theo looked around before his eyes glued to the office next to the entrance. "I''m going there first."


    Maya ced her hands on Theo''s shoulders as her expression darkened. "There won''t be any trace remaining! Should I alter your memory too? Maybe with a bullet."


    "Haha, I was joking." Theo chuckled as he couldn''t help but do it after seeing Maya lower her head.


    "And I''m not!" Maya snorted, released him, and walked toward the room for a minute beforeing back. "Heh, deleted."


    Agata covered her mouth while chuckling.


    "Even you?" Maya''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Sorry, I couldn''t help it. I guess when you''re that prideful, lowering your head truly gives the image of you being grateful."


    Agata''s words weren''t just empty teasing. She had seen it from Theo. After being with Theo for so long, she never knew whether Theo had a n or not without him admitting it directly.


    She always believed that Theo had a n in his mind. Even if he said he didn''t have one, she wouldn''t believe him.


    This was one of what Theo''s former master taught him. When the people around him knew his personality, it was easy to make them doubt whether his reaction was genuine or not.


    At the same time, when they did, the impact was truly powerful, like how Maya lowered her head.


    "Anyway, let''s rest here for today. We can go back tomorrow."


    "Okay."


    Theo and the group got a room and took some rest inside.


    How they spent their time was vastly different. Theo took this time to calcte his next move along with his future improvement.


    His n was to enter the simtion room as soon as they returned and only for one month before returning to Italy, so he needed to spend his time carefully.


    Of course, he could spend a bit more time in this ce, but there was something he needed to do in Italy. The War God Family also needed some time to process his leave, so it was better to do it as soon as possible.


    As for his Awareness, with the help of his Death Avatar, his Vision reached another peak. At the same time, his Death Avatar also practically begged him to master the Sense of Touch to form a domain.


    These two training alone would require a long time, but Theo nned to finish them within months.


    If this was someone else, they wouldn''t dare to im to be able to practice at such speed. Even Agata''s Awareness had started losing to Theo.


    This was also the reason why people''s levels were lower than Theo''s despite being older.


    They spent their time improving their Five Aspects instead of leveling. But Theo could learn all this stuff faster than anyone. Even his leveling speed was far quicker due to his clone and Ava.


    This was his talent of learning that his parents tried to seal by creating an environment that wasn''t beneficial to him.


    Not only the Griffith Family but there would be other influences that nned to attack him in order to remove a future threat. His parents couldn''t stop them two decades ago as they were still too weak.


    Theo could understand a bit of their action, but he also arrived at the same conclusion as Leonardo.


    His parents did this wasn''t to protect him. Instead, it was because they desired something, and that was revenge.


    At this point, he didn''t care about his parents anymore. He just wished to never meet them anymore and let them do whatever they wanted as if he didn''t exist.


    In his room, Theo was sitting on his bed with a long face. He had been thinking about this for a long time.


    ''Selfish, huh��'' Theo squinted his eyes. ''Since they are selfish, there''s no reason for me to not be selfish as well, right? But with this�� I guess my big br�� Edward Griffith got caught up in this situation unwillingly.''


    Theo scratched the back of his head. Despite having such a situation, he couldn''t help but remember his own past where he needed to sleep while clenching his stomach to forget about his hunger, where he needed to endure all the bullying in the past, and where he almost died because he simply had no money.


    "Why am I thinking about this again?" Theo sighed. Every time he learned about his own talent, he was reminded of his family�� "Whatever. No one knows about the future, including me��"

 Chapter 815 – Understanding

    <h4>Chapter 815 - Understanding</h4>


    After reminiscing about his past, Theoid down on the bed. Before sleeping, he summoned his Death Avatar.


    Because of the room size, the Death Avatar needed to crawl and even upied the living room and other bedrooms next to him, making sure he wasn''t disturbing other people in the hotel.


    Theo then used his Death Avatar to cast Death Eyes to himself before letting go of his consciousness, drifting into his dream.


    Suddenly, he entered the realm where Hel tortured him.


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned when feeling the chilling wind that came out of nowhere. He looked at the blood sea underneath him and raised his foot, finding that the blood didn''t stick on his shoe.


    He immediately imagined the blood smearing the shoe, and thetter immediately turned red.


    "Oh?" Theo nodded, satisfied. "I think this is the first time I''ve observed this ce peacefully."


    Theo looked around and found no one near him.


    "I''ve learned about killing intent, but I don''t know anything about Death itself. What I''ve been influencing my enemy this whole time is none other than killing intent. That ferocious intent is notparable to what she showed me.


    "In fact, this realm was only a replica of her own. Then again�� If I learn about Death, will I be influenced by its power? I mean, my Order might be rted to it, right? Although it''s powerful, I don''t think I can disy the real might of Death.


    "After all, my specialty belongs elsewhere. It feels like I''m not myself��" Theo fell silent beforeing to a realization from hisst sentence. "I''m not myself��


    "Now that I think about it, Death Authority and Illusion Authority�� Aren''t they basically describing themselves?


    "There was also Moon Rabbit getting the Moonlight Order. I met with the Shadow Order too, and that guy was covered with ck-colored me like that of a burning shadow. As for the mountain king�� He was a dwarf, so it''s kinda rted one way or another.


    "Last but not least, there was the Darkness Order who was shrouded by something ck or dark. Is the reason why Order will naturallye to oneself because it''s basically describing our existence?


    "Wait a minute. Does the world actually choose us because that''s our existence? In that case, the Order is rted to my very existence. What word can describe me? Who am I? What is my power?


    "Maybe if I can answer all these questions, I can get my own Order? But then again, how do I get the Order? Ava told me that it woulde to me naturally, but Avarice shouldn''t be someone that irresponsible. She must have done something to Ava so that she could receive her own Order.


    "In other words, my guess is right, but it''s notpleted. There is a missing part and that missing part�� I can only get it from the dragon." Theo fell silent for a moment and remembered the three conditions the God of Mischief had ced on him in the past.


    "I need to follow several conditions. First, I need to know why I''m doing this along with the other party''s purpose. I need this to manipte the conversation.


    "Second, I need to be known by many, so they can understand I''m that kind of person. On the outside, I have been a bright and righteous person. However, behind the scenes, I''m doing everything with schemes, making those who try to investigate my background fear me.


    "Third, don''t lie when I''m trying to annoy the opposite party. These three are the conditions I need to follow.


    "Now that I think about it, why does he want me to follow these three rules? Those four never give me something without any purpose, so there should be a reason why there''s a need for these three rules.


    "Now that I think about it, I don''t deny that to manipte the conversation, I need to know my purpose and their purpose. This is just a simple business negotiation. And after that, I can quickly turn the conversation in my favor.


    "As for the second one, why is there a need to build my own reputation? Now that I think about it, my words won''t hold so much weight without my reputation. That was the reason I could stir up some trouble in Italy just by joining the Safulli Group.


    "And the third one�� lie huh�� I don''t know about this one. Not being able to lie seems to be a bit excessive, especially in trickery. It''s true that manipting your word is a feasible option, but that''s not entirely the case.


    "Am I missing something? It seems I really need to talk about it with the dragon." Theo''s expression became serious. "Maybe I should go to the dwarf mountain again after returning to Italy."


    He suddenly fell silent as though pondering his option. After five minutes, he finally shook his head and said, "I need to practice right now. I can think of thister, but I''m d that I''m a bit closer to the truth��"


    Theo smiled before raising his hand. His head imagined his hand being cut, and the next thing he realized, his hand was already flying to the air as the pain started to spread in his head.


    "Argh!" Theo let out a scream for a second before gritting his teeth, enduring the pain. "This is not enough��"


    He looked at the blood flowing out of his arm and imagined cutting his elbow. In that instant, his entire lower arm was gone.


    "Argh!" He continued to scream but didn''t bother to stop.


    "Argh!"


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "No!"


    No matter how prepared he was, the pain he experienced was beyond his wildest imagination. Even then, he never had the thought to stop.


    Eventually, he realized that he could revive himself infinitely in this ce, and the blood pool that filled this ce was the real blood.


    The blood of Hel when she tortured herself in this ce to learn about Death itself. It took millions if not billions of deaths to fill this ce with all this blood.


    This was Hel''s determination when she trained herself�� This was�� the reason why Hel could rule over the underworld.

 Chapter 816 – Auction

    <h4>Chapter 816 - Auction</h4>


    The next morning, Theo woke up and walked to the living room to meet with Ava, Agata, and Maya, preparing to leave.


    However, there was no color in his face as though he was extremely sick.


    Agata was the first one to meet him as her face became pale when she saw Theo''s face.


    "T-Theo? What''s wrong with you?!" Agata hurriedly approached him and ced her hand on his forehead, checking his body temperature. "Are you sick? Anyone tried to harm youst night?"


    "Ehm��" Theo showed a gentle smile before saying, "I''m fine. I trained too hardst night��"


    "Training?" Agata frowned. She had been with Theo for more than a year, but there was never a situation where Theo showed this kind of face. So, she wondered what kind of training could leave this level of side effect.


    "By the way, can I request something?"


    "What is it? Do you want a warm soup?"


    "No. I don''t feel like seeing tomatoes or anything that looks like red sauce��" Theo shook his head. After torturing himself and dying many times, Theo didn''t feel like seeing something like this for the time being.


    "Is that so?" Agata thought for a moment before nodding her head. Although many recipes contained something like red sauce or tomato, she had no problem making something different for him.


    "Thanks." Theo smiled.


    "No problem. But are you sure you''re fine?"


    "Yeah. I''ll be fine in an hour or so." Theo assured her again. This was the first time he showed such a weakness, so he could understand her worry.


    "Well, since you say so��"


    Ava and Maya soon found him in this state and panicked as well. Luckily, Agata de-escted the situation or they would have made a ruckus.


    After Theo recovered, they finally made their way home.


    It took them a few days to reach the city, and most monsters died under Agata''s hand since she didn''t kill any of the imps in Demise Forest.


    This allowed her to reach level 540 before returning to Earth, only two levels behind Maya.


    As soon as they saw the bright city, Theo finally lowered his guard and sat down on the floor, saying, "We''re back. Quite a hard journey this time��"


    "Indeed. The hardest one so far?" Agata agreed and nced at Theo.


    "How about the previous one?" Theo asked about theparison of this mission with the one where they met the Mountain King and the Lightning Authority.


    "Well, this one is harder." Agata nodded.


    "I guess��" Theo chuckled. "There are many times that we almost died��"


    "True." Agata agreed without hesitation, remembering the hidden monster in Arkahan Volcano along with the King ss Monster. "Though, the trip is quite bountiful."


    "Yeah. But the one that reaps the most benefit is��" Theo nced at Maya, who was driving the Cubicar.


    "It''s me." Mayaughed out loud, shamelessly admitting the fact. "No matter what, this is business. Of course, I need to take benefits�� as much as possible."


    "Yeah, yeah. I know that you''re good at business." Theo shrugged.


    "Continue to praise me." Maya smiled from ear to ear.


    "One line is one million Zils."


    "Eh?"


    The groupughed before Maya raised her Skylink, calling her father. "Yeah, I''m back."


    Suddenly, her expression turned serious as though she had heard something important from her father.


    "Hmm�� Okay, I''ll ry it to him." Maya nodded and asked Theo. "Theo, we''re going back to my family house."


    "That''s the n, right?"


    "Yeah. But it seems my father wants to discuss the reward. Considering I''ve given a brief exnation to the one sending the message about the Blue Star Crystal Mine�� I guess he wants to discuss it with you personally."


    "I don''t really mind. I''m only nning to train inside the simtion room for a month before returning to Italy."


    "You hear that, Dad?" Maya raised her voice before putting the call on speaker so that they could hear it. "Theo can hear you now."


    "Okay!" Bernard paused for a moment. "Do you have any n in spending the reward money, Theo?"


    "What do you mean, Sir?" Theo frowned.


    "I want to know whether you have any n in spending the money�� I mean, even after reducing the reward for the simtion room, we''ll still give you around three to five billion Zils. That''s just a rough calction."


    "But that''s not your matter, no?" Theo thought Bernard shouldn''t teach him how to spend his money, considering he was an outsider.


    "No, no. You''re not understanding."


    "What do you mean?"


    "I''m thinking about inviting you to an auction�� Well, I''ll just let my daughter do it."


    "Auction?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "Now that I think about it��" Maya recalled something. "The Temple seems to be holding an auction in a few weeks�� I don''t remember the exact date since we were supposed to return a monthter."


    "Yeah. Since youe back sooner than expected, this ideaes to my mind."


    "You can use Maya''s reputation to participate in that auction. There should be one or two artifacts auctioned there, including A Rank Skills and any other rare items."


    "Hoh?"


    A Rank Skill immediately piqued Theo''s interest. However, he also knew that Bernard was trying to prevent the money from circting outside the country.


    It might not being back to his hand, but it certainly wouldn''t go to Italy or any other country. Of course, this kind of money was rather small, but it was enough to create a small-scalepany.


    So, Bernard nned to use this chance to make Theo return the money in one way or another.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that A Rank Skills managed to convince him.


    "Ahaha, it seems I need to ept this invitation." Theo chuckled.


    "You sure?" Maya widened her eyes, never expecting Theo to agree.


    "Yeah, why not. But I want to add a condition." Theo smirked.


    "What is it?" Bernard asked.


    "Since I''m following Maya there, she will bid for me."


    "��" Bernard fell silent for a minute before saying, "That can be done. I''m sure my daughter has no problem with it."


    "Yeah. Spending money is my forte. Though, it''ll be your money." Maya looked at Theo. "I''m also good at giving loans."


    "Haha, we''ll see." Theo chuckled.


    "It''s a deal then. Come back here, and we''ll discuss the rest."


    "Okay."

 Chapter 817 – Best Ava

    <h4>Chapter 817 - Best Ava</h4>


    As soon as they returned home, Maya''s mother, Ste, greeted them with a smile.


    "Wee back, sweethearts." She waved her hand. "I''m sure that you''re tired after a long journey. Come in."


    She opened the door and extended her hand.


    "Mom." Maya took some time to hug her first before entering the house.


    "Your dad is going to be home in a few hours. For now, take a bath and get some rest." Ste patted Maya''s head.


    "Yup."


    "By the way, it seems that your father has something important to say."


    "I know. It should be about the auction and Theo''s reward. After all, we''ve found the flower along with the hidden monster in the Arkahan Volcano. Then, the treasure room in the Moniac Dungeon�� Last but not least, one-year permission to extract the Blue Star Crystal Mine from a King ss Monster." Maya exined their achievements in this trip as simply as possible.


    "Wow. You did that much? I''m proud of you." Ste chuckled. There was pride reflected in her eyes.


    When he saw something like this, he couldn''t help but feel jealous. Despite having money, status, and power, the family was still in deep harmony. Even the War God Family wasn''t as close as them since most affection came from Leonardo''s equal love motto.


    Seeing his expression darken, Ava sighed before turning around, wondering how she could help her. It was then Agata came into her vision.


    She released a bit of Magic Power to her face, startling Agata.


    When she turned around, she saw Theo''s disappointed face and Ava''s eyes that were practically glued to him even though her face was looking in her direction.


    It was clear that Ava wanted her to cheer Theo up, but she didn''t know what to do.


    There was a hesitation in Agata''s eyes for a moment before she decided to do something. Her hand sneakily moved toward Theo''s hand and eventually held his hand.


    "?!" Theo widened his eyes, feeling the warmth of Agata''s hand. His head turned around, and he saw Agata smiling at him as if telling him, "Good work."


    Although it looked like Agata was taking advantage of the situation, Theo didn''t brush her hand away. He just let her do whatever she wanted since he didn''t hate it either.


    Meanwhile, Ste was sweating inwardly. At her level, their actions didn''t escape her eyes.


    Seeing such a development, she started thinking, ''I wonder if I being here hinders the progress? Or should I teach this prideful tomboy how to act a bit more feminine? No, no. I think the key is the rabbit.


    ''I bet that the rabbit only wants its owner to feel better, and this kind of result is something beyond her prediction. But��


    ''Ugh. The only three who are seriously aiming at this boy are the Empress, the Mota Family and my family�� There are many who want to be his friend like that Wind Emperor�� Oh, sweetheart, it seems the first bed is upied already.''


    Ste could only sigh inwardly, seeing how Mayapletely forgot about Theo now that they were already home.


    They headed straight to their rooms as Ste immediately left them.


    Theo sat down on the chair and removed all his equipment. Ava then stood in front of him and asked innocently. "Theo�� Are you jealous? Do you want to have a family?"


    Theo suddenly halted all his action and turned his vision to Ava. "What are you talking about?"


    "You looked sad and disappointed when you saw Maya and her mother. Since I couldn''t talk at that time, I asked Agata tofort you." Ava sighed.


    "Well, If I said I''m not, I would be lying." Theo made a gentle smile. Aftering to the War God Family and learning from Leonardo, he had learned that his previous insight was not entirely true.


    In the past, he thought that achieving what the God of Mischief wanted would lead him to the path of ruin. So, he didn''t wish to get anyone involved too deeply with him.


    But the more he learned from Leonardo, the more he understood that what could be done might be vastly different than what he expected.


    The God of Mischief tasked Theo to mess up this world with his wisdom. But he certainly didn''t mean to reset the entire or anything.


    He just wanted mischief all over the world, like how he had been known in the myth. His view was too distorted at that time after the small betrayal.


    He soon realized that messing up the world could also be done another way. Instead of acting alone, he could simply create a powerful influence and use it as his front to mess up the world.


    This would be the better approach. He didn''t wish to be someone with no power to the point they needed to abandon their child to do whatever they wanted.


    So, he opened up a bit because he had seen a better scenario. Though, Leonardo undoubtedly yed a significant role in this transformation as a grandfather.


    The older he became, the more knowledge he had. His heart also became more mature. It made him realize that his previous view was too extreme and irrational.


    Remembering this thought, Theo couldn''t help but smile at Ava. "I''m thankful to you, Ava. You''ve been taking care of me this whole time."


    "No, no. I am just repaying you."


    "For the food?"


    "More than that. This strength, this opportunity�� Everything!"


    "We''re equal. You''ve helped me to gain many opportunities and increase my levels too." Theo shook his head with a smile. "I think it''s good to have an influence in the future�� A ce that I can call home."


    "Really?" Ava''s expression brightened.


    "Yes. Let me get a bit stronger. I''ll try to set up the foundation of my home in the future. At that time, you don''t need to hide the fact that you''re a General ss Monster. I''m always grateful that you''re the one with me." Theo smiled and extended his hand.


    Ava jumped to his palm and smiled�� "Me too."

 Chapter 818 – Discussion

    <h4>Chapter 818 - Discussion</h4>


    When the night arrived, they were led to the dining room by the maids.


    He found Agata, Maya, Ste, and even Bernard already waiting for him.


    "Ehm�� Am Ite?"


    "Nope. The main star should be thest person to arrive." Maya answered with a cheeky grin.


    Bernard pointed at the empty seat. "Well, please sit down."


    Theo nodded and ced Ava on the table.


    "Anyway, let''s eat first. I''m going to say somethingter."


    They agreed and finished their food within fifteen minutes.


    As soon as everyone put down their tablewares, Bernard finally opened his mouth. "Well, I''ve heard about your journey from Maya, and it seems to be a very bountiful trip. For that, I need to thank you."


    "I was only doing my job." Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    "No need to be polite. You deserve it. If only other Supreme Rank Experts are half as good as you, I''ll be satisfied. A group of Supreme Rank can only bring back less than a tenth of what you can bring, you know." Bernard sighed.


    "That''s because the ns were working in our favor, and we were pretty lucky."


    "Humbling yourself too much sounds more like sarcasm, you know."


    "I''m merely stating the fact." Theo shrugged.


    "Whatever. I''m not here to talk about that. Let''s move on to the reward. I can agree to lend you two simtion rooms. As we''ve agreed previously, it''ll be eight hours a day for thirty days."


    "Yes," Theo confirmed the previous deal.


    "Still, after a rough calction, the flower will be auctioned this time�� The price can range from 800 million to 1.5 billion. Of course, we''ll increase it a bit for you because of the hidden danger caused by ourck of information.


    "As for the Moniac Dungeon�� The weapons are too rusty to be used. Although they''re not that good, they can still be reforged. The quality of the material alone is around C to B Rank. There is even one A Rank Weapon. So, it''ll give you around two billion.


    "Last but not least, the Blue Star Crystal Mine. To be fair, the Blue Star Crystal Mine alone is not that big of a deal. Even if we can''t mine some of them, the moment it''s discovered by the General ss or even King ss Monster, the entire operation would be doomed.


    "However, the fact that you obtained the recognition of the Darkness Order�� We''ll price this around 6 billion.


    "We''ll need to cut all this with the tax along with the cost of the simtion rooms. Before giving you the rough number, I believe you intend to get all the skill cards while we get all the material cards, correct?"


    Theo confirmed it without hesitation. "Yes."


    "In that case, you also need to pay tax for that. So, with the rough calction, we''ll still give you around 3 billion Zils in cash. Though, this is still a rough calction. The real number is in the process. Just wait until your training is done. We''ll give you the actual number.


    "Why I''m saying this to you is that�� Since you''re going to participate in the auction, you should know about your limit."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "I understand. Roughly 3 billion Zils, is it?"


    "Yeah. Of course, we don''t mind paying extra if you still need more money." He smiled.


    "I see. I''m good with that term." Theo agreed after some thoughts.


    "Good. Then, let''s move on to the auction. Maya will bid for you in this auction, but I believe it''s better for you to go there in disguise, and Miss Agata can''t go with you.


    "There''s a reason for that here. This type of auction is often filled with youngsters all around the country. Their families often use this type of event to judge their own second generations. How calm they can be, how far they will go, and so on.


    "Hence, I''m only sending Maya there along with some guards. Since it''s the Temple, the protection is guaranteed by the UN, so I don''t need to worry that much.


    "All in all, this is the condition for the auction. After hearing this, do you still want to go? I''m sure you can take a look at thosepetitors in your generation." He smirked.


    Theo nced at Agata, who nodded her head. In the end, he asked, "Are you sure you want me to look around? Maybe someone has the ability to grab my attention? What if I go with them instead of you?"


    Bernard smirked, not scared of Theo''s threat. He stated with confidence, "Boy. Just know this. In terms of might and assets value, my Star and Maya''s Starry Groups indeed have some challengers. But if we''re talking about cash flow, we''re the best. What? Do you want to be paid with stock instead of cash?


    "Do you think it''s that easy to give you shares? No. That''s why good cash flow allows you to do so many things."


    "Well��" Theo looked away as he couldn''t refute it.


    "Also, there''s one more thing you need to know."


    "What is it?" Theo raised his eyebrows, wondering if he wanted to brag about something else. However, his answer was certainly beyond his imagination.


    He stated as though it was apliment. "There''s no one as arrogant and as prodigal as my daughter! Those second generations can''t hold a candle against my sweetheart!"


    "!!" Maya couldn''t help but summon her pistol. She rose from her seat and pointed at her father. "What the fuck?"


    Bernard still maintained his poker face as he added, "So, you are not?"


    "How dare youpare me to those trash. They can only use their family money, not make it themselves! I feel insulted if youpare me with them!"


    "See?" Bernard smiled. "With my tomboy daughter, no one can bully you there. I just hope my daughter won''t bully them too much."


    "That�� I can see." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "What?" Maya widened her eyes and turned around, staring at Theo in disbelief.


    Theo looked away, not saying anything.


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched. It was clear that she was pissed, but she had no words to retort and ended up sitting down.


    "Anyway, that''s the condition."


    "Okay. It''s fine."


    "Then, to thest topic." Bernard raised one finger�� "The Griffith Family has entered Italy."

 Chapter 819 – Marriage

    <h4>Chapter 819 - Marriage</h4>


    "The Griffith Family has entered Italy."


    "!!!" All the people in the room couldn''t contain their shock when they heard this news.


    Theo''s expression darkened as he asked for confirmation. "What did you say?"


    "The Griffith Family has entered Italy. For now, there is the confirmation of Eric Griffith making his move."


    "Eric Griffith?" Theo was still unaware of this name because it was hard for them to find the real name as they were concealed.


    "You don''t know anything about him?" It was Bernard''s turn to be surprised. He thought since Theo had been dealing with the Griffith Family, he would know this name. After some consideration, he said, "Eric Griffith is famous enough to receive a title�� And his title is Mind Elder."


    "!!!" Theo opened his mouth in surprise.


    "Oh, it seems that you are aware of his title but not his name." Bernard nodded in understanding. "Anyway, the Griffith Family is entering Italy. Eric Griffith has made himself known, but I believe many hidden experts are hiding behind him. And I believe their target is none other than��"


    "Me." Theo finished his sentence without hesitation. He frowned and doubted something. "How do you know something like this?"


    "Information is number one for me. You can''t do something unless you have enough information. I''m sure you know this as well."


    "Well�� Yeah."


    "That''s how it is. Anyway, take this information as a bonus reward." He smirked. "I believe the Barbe Group will join this situation. Their task will be��"


    "It''s already clear enough. To suppress the War God Family directly. Because they have lost their footing in France, they can do something like this without thinking about the consequences." Theo sighed. "This way, the War God Family shouldn''t be able to spare any men to stop the Griffith Family from killing me."


    "I believe so. At the same time, the War God Family seems to be nning to stop Eric Griffith�� Since you''re here to be a Supreme Rank Expert, I believe this is thest chance Eric Griffith has in order to manipte your memory.


    "If he fails, he''s going to do everything to eliminate you." He turned to Agata. "Even the Mota Family can''t help the War God Family this time."


    "��" Agata remained silent. But inside, she was worried, calcting whether what Bernard said was true or not.


    Theo, on the other hand, had seen the possibility and what Bernard wanted to convey. "So, you are suggesting��"


    "Yes. I believe that you have known about this as well��" He nodded with a smile. "I can give you two options."


    "Although I feel like I know what you want to say, I''ll still listen to what you have to say."


    "First option is to stay here with Maya''s Starry Group. This way, Eric Griffith''s n won''t work, and the Barbe Group will lose many things. It should be enough to cripple them and give you momentary peace. I can offer you a good contract because I want to buy your future." Bernard exined the first option.


    Theo nodded. "Yeah, I know that��"


    Seeing Theo''s calm expression, Bernard raised his finger and pointed it at Maya. "Second option. Marry my daughter."


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes in disbelief. The color on her face gradually disappeared as she wondered whether Theo would ept this or not, considering this was a very beneficial deal for him.


    People rejected a certain proposal because it was too risky. However, it also meant another thing. The reward wasn''t big enough to move their heart. If the reward was enough, they would surely have a change of heart.


    "I don''t mind you having another wife just in case. But the limit is two. I mean, your clone is surely good enough for this. Sometimes, I even wonder if your clone can make another clone�� Well, enough with this dirty talk��" Bernard paused for a moment before continuing, "If you marry my daughter, I would have enough reason to help you.


    "I promise that with my Star Group and Maya''s Starry Group, we can deal with the Griffith Family and the Barbe Group. After all, the War God Family will have enough opportunity to kill the Mind Elder.


    "After that, we could simply take this chance to eliminate the Griffith Family. It''s hard to make the Griffith Family disappear from this world because their influence runs very deep, but we can cripple them until you''re strong enough to the point they don''t dare to mess with you again!" Bernard smiled. "Besides, if you marry Maya, you''ll get the Star Group and Starry Group at the same time.


    "At that time, your influence will spread around the world. No one can deal with you anymore."


    Bernard''s offer was seriously tempting. Even Agata had a hard time rejecting it.


    She started panicking as she believed Theo would agree with this deal.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and smiled. "Your offer is truly tempting��"


    "Even I have a hard time rejecting this." Theo smirked. "Is this a political marriage?"


    "Just ask my daughter." Bernard pointed at Maya. Thetter looked away and said, "Well, I don''tpletely agree with this marriage, but I am also not opposing this idea."


    Agata clenched her fists. She wanted to stop this conversation, but she had no right to hold Theo back. There was a thought in her mind saying, ''The second wife, huh�� Can I truly share a man with someone else? Even if I can''t, what about Ne and Alea?''


    And surprisingly, this joke also made Theo feel bad.


    He stated, "You seem to be amodating me so much, Sir Bernard�� Two wives, eh?"


    "There''s nothing wrong with that since you have the capability. And their nationality is different too, so it won''t be that much of a problem for each country." Bernard shrugged.


    Theo sighed. "I can''t even imagine myself sharing a woman, and do you expect me to make them share?"


    Bernard''s expression became serious. "Well, that''s even better for me."


    Theo rose from his seat and made an evil smirk. "Great, great. I think you''re underestimating me too much, Sir Bernard. Influence? I can create that one. Money? It''s easy for me to make money. And��


    "Do you think there are only two options in this situation?" Theo raised his hand and clutched it. "What makes you think there''s no third option? I will go back and beat them hard."


    "You can''t cripple them without my help. No, can you even escape alive in this situation?"


    Theo extended his hand and said, "I do agree with the first sentence�� As for the second one�� That''s why I said you''re underestimating me too much. The real question is�� why can''t I?"

 Chapter 820 – Overestimating

    <h4>Chapter 820 - Overestimating</h4>


    The next morning.


    Maya dropped her jaw when she saw Theo standing before her. Even Agata was impressed by his appearance.


    Because of the event, Theo was required to disguise himself as someone else. And since they were going to an auction, Theo chose to be a bodyguard.


    He wore a in white shirt with a long ck tie. Instead of a suit, he used a long ck robe.


    Since this was a different event, he had used his Metamorphosis to be a red-haired man, giving a more mature type than his usual appearance.


    "Hmm�� Quite good. I love it." Maya smiled and nced at Agata. "What do you think?"


    "It''s good." Agata agreed without hesitation while Ava, on her arm, raised her foot as if having the same opinion.


    "Yep, it''s good." Ste''s voice echoed in their ears as she walked toward them. "Are you both ready?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "There will be one Mythical Rank Expert and two Supreme Rank Experts with you in different cars." Ste smiled and pped her hands. "In any case, have fun."


    "Alright. See you, Mom." Maya waved her hand as she walked toward the car.


    Theo also waved his hand to Agata and Ava, following her.


    Agata and the others were watching the car until it couldn''t be seen anymore before Ste bid her goodbye.


    When walking, Ste remembered thest conversation they had.


    "The real question is�� why can''t I?" After that question, Theo finally went back to his room to rest.


    After everyone left the room, Ste frowned and looked at Bernard, who still remained as if apanying her here.


    "He has such confidence�� But this situation is a bit trickier than his previous situations. I''m afraid the Griffith Family is not that easy to deal with. And with the Barbe Group in the mix, I don''t know if he can do it��" Ste let out a long sigh, concerned about Theo''s well-being.


    Herment was ignored by Bernard. She felt a bit weird and found Bernard''s grim expression.


    "Is there anything wrong?" Ste frowned, trying to figure out what he was thinking.


    "I think I have been underestimating him this whole time." Bernard covered his eyes with his hand.


    It was clear that Bernard realized something important rted to Theo.


    Curious, she asked, "What do you mean? Care to exin?"


    "I don''t know how far he has nned it, but he might have some sort of secret organization."


    "Eh? Is there any information about it?"


    "No. I mean, just take another look at what he has been doing this whole time. I think he''s nning to build his own influence�� It won''t be a big one, but it''ll be a kind of an elite force."


    "I can''t see that happening, to be honest." Ste shook her head in confusion. There was no way Theo could make something like this. And creating an influence from scratch would take a huge amount of time and money, so Theo shouldn''t be building something like that.


    "Why do you think the agreement is that all the skill cards will be his and all material cards will be ours?"


    "I don''t know�� Maybe just an equal exchange? The number of skill cards is less than material cards, but their value is higher. So, he just doesn''t want to take care of so many cards. And the potential of people buying skills is higher." She answered.


    "Then, what''s about his enormous amount of money? He shouldn''t be using that much money at once. Where does the money go? ording to the information, he often buys arge number of skill cards." Bernard added another question that somehow struck deep in She''s mind.


    She didn''t answer immediately. Instead, she looked down and contemted Theo''s role carefully.


    Soon, her mouth was opened, her heart beat rapidly, and her face was aghast. "Influence?"


    "Yeah. That''s what I think. He can make money easily with his power or his reputation. If he became a consultant, he would be rich. His brain alone is among the top in the War God Family�� not just their younger generations.


    "Then, he often buys spells in Thernd. So, he should be using it for something�� But what is the thing that consumes so many skill cards?" Bernard sucked a cold breath, seeing the intensity of Theo''s n.


    "It''s to train people with these skill cards. He''s also enticing others with powerful skills. With so many skill cards, they will surely take the bait." Ste realized Theo had been building his own influence this whole time.


    "Remember what he said earlier? Influence? I can create that one. Money? It''s easy for me to make money."


    "Yeah. Does that mean he''s created his own influence?"


    "Probably. There are three basic things your influence needs to have. The first is money. The second is skill cards. The third is weapons. These are the basics to make others join you. The rest like management, business and so on are just something that can be decidedter on."


    "Money is not a problem for him. He can easily create a small-scalepany with what he has right now. Skill cards�� He''s been getting them this whole time, so he should have at least thousands of skill cards. Then, that leaves�� weapon. Don''t tell me��" Ste widened her eyes and stared at Albert.


    "Yeah. As for weapons, we can supply that. It seems he''s trying to bring us in as a partner. I don''t think he wants an investor��" Bernard sighed. "And the best partner he can get��"


    "Maya, huh." Ste nodded in agreement. "Well, isn''t that great?"


    "Yeah. Even without marriage, as long as they''re friends, I''m satisfied." Bernard shrugged. "He''s a pretty risky investment, but if the Wind Emperor dares to do it, why can''t I?"


    Little did they know, they had been overestimating him this whole time. The money was used to buy spells, and he hadn''t be someone else''s consultant this entire time. As for the skills, he simply stored them, so he had enough resources to rank up his skill.


    Even influence was something that he recently came up with for Ava. Without him realizing it, his reputation had elevated his own worth�� And Ava wasughing with Theo when she told him about Bernard and Ste''s conversation.

 Chapter 821 – Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 821 - Arrival</h4>


    After two hours of driving, they had finally arrived at the temple.


    To his surprise, the temple seemed to be bustling with people. Although they weren''t aware of the event, they still recognized famous people.


    Maya''s car was third on the line, so Theo took this chance to look at the people outside.


    "Hey�� Isn''t that��" One of them pointed at a young man that was surrounded by three people in a suit and apanied by a beautiful woman.


    "I think I''ve heard about them. The woman is an artist called Melissa. Her strength reached the Supreme Rank a few years ago."


    "But you should take a look at the man�� If I''m not wrong, the man is supposed to be famous too for being rich. I believe he''s been featured in a magazine�� I forgot his name."


    "Isn''t he supposed to be the 13th rank in the Asda''s Younger Generation List? His father has a bigpany in Nevada, while his talent is quite powerful too. His name�� If I''m not wrong, he''s called Robert Batres."


    "Eh?"


    The people suddenly fell silent when they saw the next person that came out. He had long blonde hair tied on his back. His sharp blue eyes made his face look cold and aloof.


    The one that apanied him was a female of the same age. She had long ck hair and wore a one-piece white dress to apany the man''s ck suit.


    "Is there an event here?"


    "That guy should be the 5th on the list. He doesn''t have any background, but his natural talent has brought the US to the final of the Grand Gaia Competition seven years ago."


    "That''s right. He''s the role model that shows that you can still be famous as long as you''re good enough."


    "After thatpetition, I heard he''s brought to Astarst Corporation to be the groom of their young miss."


    "But their young miss is also good. She is number 7th on the list. Her talent might be lower than him, but her family wealth manages to allow her to reach that point. Ah, I want money."


    "What you need is a sugar daddy, probably��"


    The two entered the venue without saying a single thing.


    Meanwhile, Theo narrowed his eyes as Maya said, "Hmm�� Winston and Lexie?"


    "You know them?"


    "Yeah, Winston is quite good. He''s a powerful young generation. He reached Supreme Rank three years ago. I think he''s focusing on his Aspects right now instead of his level. Do you want to challenge him?"


    "I''m not going to pick a fight here." Theo shook his head. "How about the woman?"


    "Lexie Marsh. Her parents are rich�� Well, I can''t really call her a spoiled brat since she has made a bit of effort to achieve her current position." Maya shrugged.


    "By the way, what is your ce?"


    "3rd."


    "Oh? There are two more people above you?"


    "They''re simply older than me. If we''re at the same age, I can beat them."


    "Really?"


    "Not really."


    "Oh?" Theo frowned. "Why?"


    "The 1st rank is a guy with Space Affinity like Lorenzo. But Lorenzo is more focused on strategy�� Unlike this guy who likes to fight. His sword is rather amazing."


    "How about the second one?"


    "The 2nd rank is a female with Sedna''s blessing."


    "Sedna? Who is that?"


    "Native North American Mythology, Sedna. If I remember correctly, it should be from Inuit Mythology. She is known as the Sea Goddess."


    "Heh?" Theo smirked. "Interesting. We can''t really remember all the deities'' names, especially the native ones, since there are too many of them. However, they are, by no means, weaker than famous ones.


    "Each deity has their own power or else they won''t be called deities. That''s why it''s quite interesting to see them like this. I want to fight them, but not this time, I guess."


    "That''s a unique view you have there." Maya raised her eyebrows. "So, the reason you want to travel around the world is to acquire as much experience as you can?"


    "Yeah. Different culture, different fighting style�� I want to learn from all of them." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "But then again, many are aiming at your lives."


    "Yeah. That''s why I can''t really go that often. It''s a shame, but I can work at itter." Theo shrugged.


    "Anyway, it''s time for us toe out. Don''t say anything." Maya smiled.


    "Okay." Theo nodded and immediately opened the door, holding it until Maya came out.


    Her bodyguards also followed around her. There was a reason why Bernard sent two Supreme Rank Experts as her bodyguards. It was to hide Theo''s presence from the crowd.


    When they came out, the onlookers noticed them and shifted their attention.


    "Oh! This time, it''s Maya Hamilton!"


    "3rd on the list. She''s a capable woman who creates a multi-billionpany before the age of twenty without the help of her father. After that, herpany increases in value when she finally starts working with her father.


    "At the same time, she was the one who brought our country to the first spot in the Grand Gaia Competition."


    "But that was because Theodore Griffith lost in the semifinal, and the UK team was heavily injured in their fight against Thernd."


    "That''s true, but it doesn''t change the fact we''re number one now."


    "Seeing her here means one thing. This event should be rted to money."


    "That''s right. She''s rich and beautiful. She''s a perfect woman!"


    "Don''t ever think about it. I still remember some people taking advantage of her in a broadcast and ending up getting butchered. I mean, shepletely wrecked that guy."


    "She''s also very arrogant. It pisses me off."


    "But she has the right to be arrogant as she''s the only one among the younger generation list to create a multi-billionpany by herself. Others are relying on their families."


    "Right."


    There was hatred and admiration at the same time. Maya simply ignored them and walked inside, making her way to the auction hall.


    Theo chuckled inwardly, never expecting to hear all that from the spectators.


    Without even saying anything, she knew Theo was going to tease her with all these.

 Chapter 822 – Lexie

    <h4>Chapter 822 - Lexie</h4>


    As soon as they entered, they were led to the 30th floor, where the auction would be held.


    A receptionist came to them and extended her hand to the left, leading her to her seat.


    The auction hall itself had two floors. Those with money or special status seemed to be directed to the second hall for a better view, while others remained on the first floor.


    The hall wasn''t that big since they could only handle a thousand people, including the bodyguards.


    When they reached the hall, the people''s eyes were glued to them as Maya should have the biggest wallet among them.


    Maya took the seat while Theo and the other bodyguards stood behind her.


    The one sitting next to her was a blue-haired woman. Her face looked more mature than Maya''s, and she wore a simple white shirt and long ck pants.


    The moment Maya took her seat, she immediately tilted her body to the right and waved her hand. "Isn''t this Maya? It''s been a while."


    "I don''t know who you are." Maya snorted, refusing to look at her.


    "Oh,e on. There''s no need to act like that�� It''s not like I''m nning to do anything." She chuckled.


    Maya''s eyebrows twitched.


    "If you don''t talk to me, what should I do with you��" She yfully licked her lips as though she had a n to mess with Maya.


    "What do you want, Lexie?" Maya clenched her fists.


    "I just want to greet you. What''s wrong with that?"


    "Then is there a reason why you''re staring at my chest this whole time?" Maya rolled her eyes.


    "Hehe, you always push away men, so I believe you''re into women. How about I be your girlfriend?"


    "Old hag."


    "Come on. Only eight years different."


    "Still old. Assuming we''re living the same age, then you''ll die eight years before me. Besides, I''m not into women."


    "Even though you keep rejecting men?"


    "They''re simply too unworthy." She snorted.


    "Sadly, Winston is a battle maniac or else he would have courted you." Lexie chuckled.


    "Boring." She shrugged.


    Theo was confused with their conversation. This was the first time Maya looked so disgusted.


    Noticing Theo''s expression, the Mythical Rank Expert leaned to him and whispered. "Miss Lexie has been trying to court Miss Maya this whole time. She''s a lesbian."


    With that one sentence, everything became clear. Theo nodded with a serious expression and thought, ''No wonder.''


    He had no prejudice towards people like her, so he didn''t say anything or let out any feeling, whether it was disgust or excitement.


    As if she noticed the bodyguards'' movement, Lexie turned to Theo and the Mythical Rank Expert. "Oh, what is this? A new bodyguard? He''s quite handsome��"


    "Fuck off." Maya snorted. "Just go flirt with other girls."


    "What is this? You seem to be a bit protective of this guy�� Or the others too? Oh, maybe you''re sexually frustrated and make all these guys your��." Before she finished, she stopped because Maya was ring at her with killing intent.


    "You should stop right now."


    "Fine." She raised her hands before trying her luck again with Theo. "Maybe this bodyguard is talented? That''s why you''re this protective?"


    "You can''t afford him." Maya snorted.


    Because she had been challenging Maya''s limit, the situation became tense pretty soon, with them stopping to talk.


    After a momentary silence, Maya suddenly raised her hand and summoned her pistol. At the same time, Lexie ced her hand above Maya''s pistol and pushed it down, directing it to the ground.


    "Fuck off." Maya''s expression darkened.


    Theo suddenly came to her and whispered something.


    Maya thought and epted Theo''s suggestion.


    Theo then lifted his finger, and a wall suddenly emerged from the floor, separating Maya and Lexie.


    The usage of power wasn''t forbidden as long as it didn''t harm anyone, so this was the solution Theo came up with. At the same time, he made sure to make it look like he had an Earth Affinity instead of Illusion.


    Since Maya was at the edge of the second floor, this wall was enough to regain their peace.


    "Annoying." Maya sighed while calming her heart down. She looked at Theo and said, "Thanks."


    "You''re wee." Theo nodded before receiving the item catalog for this auction.


    There were many powerful equipment and skill ranks. Even Maya used this chance to sell the flower they retrieved from the Arkahan Volcano.


    Still, the one that piqued his interest was not artifact, nt, or other items. He simply wanted to get all 5 A Rank Cards. Unfortunately, it was impossible for him to get it because he had no money.


    Even though Maya wouldn''t mind lending him some money to buy all of them, one A Rank Skill Card alone usually reached one billion Zils. So, he needed to borrow a quite big sum.


    With the current situation in Italy, he didn''t like to owe money for the time being. Still, it didn''t change the fact that he needed to get them because he could at least rank up one skill to A Rank.


    ''If I wanted to rank up one skill, the skill should use a small amount of Magic Power, or I would have a problem like Agata''s dimensional skill. In that case, it''s either Blink, Clone, or Telekinesis�� But the most useful to me right now is either Clone and Telekinesis. They need 4 and 3 A Rank Skill Cards respectively along with dozens of B Rank Skills��''


    Theo fell silent for a moment before whispering to Maya.


    "Can you bid three A Rank Skills for me? Since it usually goes above one billion for each card, I would like to ask you to pay for the rest. Well, I still have a few hundred million in my ount, but��"


    Maya widened her eyes and said, "I can buy all of them."


    "Nah, there''s no need." Theo shook his head. "Just buy the cheapest one, and I''ll be grateful."


    "Okay. That''s not a problem." Maya agreed without hesitation.


    "Alright. Thanks��" Theo stepped back and started looking around to see other people.

 Chapter 823 – Auction

    <h4>Chapter 823 - Auction</h4>


    After another fifteen minutes, a middle-aged man walked to the stage apanied by a beautifuldy. The man had short white hair and sharp, aged eyes.


    Suddenly, the entire hall became silent as they all had recognized his presence.


    "I would like to ask for all of your attention so that the auction can start." The man said with a deep voice.


    No one opened their mouths and the middle-aged man immediately started the auction. "And now, the annual auction of the Temple has begun. 165 items would be auctioned in this event.


    "For the first item, we have a bright red gem from Three-Eyed Lion. It''s perfect to be the eye of staff, especially for those who have Fire Affinity. The starting price is 50 million Zils, and any bid can''t be lower than a hundred thousand."


    Each person received a stick with a number on top of it, so the moment he finished his words, some of them immediately raised their sticks.


    "50.1 million."


    "50.2 million."


    The bid continued to rise. Theo was staring at the hall as this was the first time he had participated in an auction. He wasn''t that aware of the procedure.


    But still, having the first item to be fifty million Zils shocked him. It was truly a huge amount for an auction.


    Seeing Theo''s expression, the Mythical Rank Expert beside him exined, "There are three types of auction that the temple usually holds: open auction, member auction, and grand auction.


    "This one is an open auction. Basically, they let others buy tickets to participate in this auction. That''s why many young lords are participating in this auction since money can easily solve it.


    "As for the second one�� The member auction is exclusively held for Gold and Diamond Tier Experts. The setup is quite simr. Gold Tier Experts will be below and Diamond Tier Experts will be on the second floor.


    "Unlike the first one, this auction is auctioning Material Cards, Equipment, or Skill Cards most of the time.


    "Last but not least, the Grand Auction. This auction usuallyes every five years. Obviously, the item that is auctioned in this event will be powerful. There is even an item that can give you around 80 to 100 Free Attribute Points in thest event. It''s sold for a whopping 26 Billion Zils.


    "People always prepare for this auction because this is the biggest auction that is hard toe by."


    Theo nodded in understanding. "I see. No wonder."


    "Also, this type of event is usually fast-paced, especially the first 50 items since they''re among the worst. See�� It''s already the third item. And it''s not even a minute." He pointed at the front.


    "Hmm��" Theo frowned. "Not many fights?"


    "Yeah. At the same time, not many people are interested in them. If there are enough people interested in the item, the price will naturally go up and the bid willst a bit longer.


    "Usually, thest few items are among the best and they''re basically the eye-candy of the people here.


    "The situation will be chaotic as they''re trying to use their own influence to stop others from bidding.


    "There are many oues for that. First, you can be hunted down by a colossal group. Second, your own influence might be destroyed because of them. Third, the other party might force you to fork out all your money, preparing for the next battle."


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "In that case, can''t we use the money to strike someone?"


    "Obviously." Maya was the one who answered this question. "As I said earlier, cash flow is a pretty big deal for apany. If they don''t have a good cash flow, they''re bound to have some problems within thepany."


    "You can somehow weaken them and strike them with your own influence."


    "Yeah. That''s why they send their younger generation to participate in this auction, and most of them are apanied by an elder from their family orpany. This is to see whether they''re rash enough to bid high prices or not. A pretty convenient way to judge their ability." Maya smirked.


    "I can see that."


    "Though, to be honest, this is also an event to get lower tax." Maya sighed.


    "Tax, huh�� Now that I think about it, you''re supposed to give me that much. Even though I exchange it for another reward, the cut is too big."


    "Tax, dude. You''re rich, so you get taxed. The same applies to thepany. As I said earlier, the cash flow�� Because the temple is releasing arge number of special items, the people whopete here will prepare a significant amount of money.


    "The government uses this event to get taxes from thepany. On the other hand, thepany will also prepare to buy a few useful things to lower their tax.


    "To be fair, if you''re rich, just make apany and hire a good ountant to lower the tax for you. That''s better." Maya exined with a poker face as though she had dealt with this stuff many times.


    "Well��" Theo looked away and asked, "That means the contract��"


    "Obviously, before taxes." She smirked. "I believe you''re taxed there, right?"


    "Yeah, but the number is lower than this country."


    "I can''t deny that. Though, this ce has a bigger yground."


    "Mhm." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Is there anything you like to say regarding the auction?"


    "Not really."


    "Then, do you have a target?" Theo narrowed his eyes, remembering the thing they talked about earlier.


    "I have many people courting me. Some of them are friends, some of them are enemies."


    "Wait a minute�� Your policy, don''t tell me��" Theo came to a realization.


    Maya didn''t say a single thing. She only winked her right eye as the answer.


    Theo admitted defeat in this one. It turned out the reason why Maya always told others that those who could ''push'' her down would be the person she married was to make enemies.


    She beat these enemies and absorbed theirpanies, creating a bigger empire called the Starry Group.


    In other words, she only wanted to justify her action to absorb otherpanies. And she believed she had enough power to defeat them. This was why the Starry Group could grow rapidly.


    "Devil." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "you''re thest person I want to hear that from��" She stuck her tongue out.

 Chapter 824 – Brazen

    <h4>Chapter 824 - Brazen</h4>


    "200 million going twice��"


    "200 million going thrice��"


    "Sold."


    The auction continued at a fast rate. Within an hour, they managed to sell more than 100 items.


    Even with this kind of price tag, there were still not manypetitors. Most of the stuff they had auctioned were Material Cards.


    Theo maintained his silence after a while, watching the movement from the people around them.


    So, Theo waited a bit more until item 148th.


    "We''ve arrived at thest stage. From now on, there is a qualitative leap in the item''s grade, and I''m sure that all of you havee here to buy these things."


    Everyone, who was bored of the auction, had a change of expression. They had finally arrived at this stage.


    Maya smirked. "It''s time."


    "Miss seems to be nning to beat some asses." The Mythical Rank Expert smiled, noticing the difference in Maya''s face.


    "Mhm? What''s she going to do?"


    "Who knows. It depends on the situation." The Mythical Rank Expert shook his head. "I''ve been apanying Miss Maya for auctions, so I believe she''s aiming for someone else. All I need to do is to act ordingly."


    "Hoh? This auction seems to be getting interesting soon." Theo smiled, watching what they were nning to do.


    "The first item will be this!" The man showed the image of a Skill Card.


    "It turns out to be an A Rank Skill Card��" Theo widened her eyes as his expression became serious. This was what he was waiting for, so he obviously wished to get this card.


    "Skyfire Skill is an A Rank Skill. The starting price is 100 million, and every bid can''t be lower than one million!"


    Suddenly, Maya shouted without hesitation, making every single person hear her words.


    "200 million!"


    "!!!" All of them were bewildered, their bodies were shaken, and their eyes turned to the second floor.


    Mayapletely obliterated this round with an increase of one hundred times the minimum bid.


    "That''s Maya Hamilton��"


    "She often beats people up with her own bid."


    "Is she nning to wreak havoc in this ce again?"


    "She has been quiet this whole time, but it seems she trulyes here for some items."


    Suddenly, the middle-aged man announced. "201 million."


    The bidder was a young man in the center of the second floor.


    "I''m not afraid of your provocation." The man snorted.


    "Hoh?" Maya smirked and raised it again. "Don''t be such a pussy. Increasing only one million at a time? If you want to save money, how about leaving this hall right now?"


    "300 million!"


    "301 million!"


    "400 million!"


    "401 million." The man shook his head. "Your cheap provocation won''t work on me. If you have the money, feel free to spend it all you want."


    "500 million!" Maya snorted. "That''s what I''m nning to do."


    "501 million."


    "Since cheap provocation doesn''t work, then let''s speed up this auction!" Mayaughed and dered out loud. "1.1 billion."


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes, never expecting to see Maya bidding such a specific number.


    "If you''re nning to bid like that, why don''t you just go to a normal shop?"


    "Shut up. I spend my money how I want! Besides, I don''t break any rules. Don''te up with such a sorry excuse. You''re embarrassing yourself." Maya snorted.


    The man fell silent and stopped bidding.


    "1.1 billion going once."


    "Going twice."


    "Going thrice."


    "Sold!"


    The Mythical Rank Expert beside Theo smirked and informed him. "That specific number is to make the other party think this is her limit. Even if he purposely raises the bid, he''ll unnecessarily win the bid. The price is about right, and it serves its purpose well. And Miss Maya''s reputation is already the worst, so this is the move that only she can do."


    Theo listened to him while watching the auction.


    The middle-aged man revealed the second skill card.


    "This is Phoenix Fire Skill, an A Rank Skill. The starting price is 100 million and every bid can''t be lower than 1 million."


    Without hesitation, Maya raised the bid to an insane level. "One billion!"


    "!!!"


    "Maya Hamilton!" The man shouted her name. The anger was reflected on his face. Even other people were annoyed that someone destroyed the auction''s peace.


    "Shut up, talk with money. Are you going to raise the bid? Are you not? If you''re not, fuck off!" Maya harrumphed and looked at the middle-aged man who was also ring at her. "What? Want to kick me out? I am helping you, so you don''t talk too much. Your throat�� is it sour?"


    The middle-aged man clenched his fists and refrained himself from saying anything. Just like she said, if they had the money, they could simply bid again, restoring the auction atmosphere to normal.


    But in order to do that, they needed to have the money first. And just like she said, the auction became extremely fast.


    At the same time, doing this would also result in Maya spending an unnecessary amount of money since she purposely bid it to a very high level from the start.


    And surprisingly, someone picked the fight. She raised the bid again. "1.01 billion."


    "1.1 billion." Maya shrugged, not caring about this one hundred million.


    "1.11 billion."


    "1.2 billion." Maya gritted her teeth.


    "1.21 billion."


    Suddenly, the Mythical Rank Expert walked to her and whispered something.


    Maya suddenly gritted her teeth as her anger filled her heart. It was clear for anyone to see her emotion.


    "1.22 billion!" Maya surprisingly bid only a bit more.


    "!!!" Everyone widened their eyes, thinking this was Maya''s limit.


    "Congrattions!" The woman smiled and stopped bidding, letting Maya take the win since she paid one hundred million more than the previous one. This was enough for her.


    "Sold!"


    "The third skill is the Golden Beetle King Guard Skill. The starting price is 100 million, and every bid can''t be lower than one million."


    Maya raised her stick and opened her mouth. However, she didn''t speak for a few seconds as though she had an internal conflict.


    "500 million."


    In the end, she only increased it to this level.


    "501 million."


    "550 million."


    "551 million."


    Obviously, with such a situation, many people started to pick on her, showing her that this auction wasn''t her ce to run rampant.


    Little did they know, they had gradually fallen to Maya''s scheme.

 Chapter 825 – Scheme

    <h4>Chapter 825 - Scheme</h4>


    "1.25 billion going thrice��"


    "Sold."


    Maya fell silent after this.


    Lexie couldn''t help but take a peek and say cheekily. "Do you need more money, my honey?"


    "Shut up!" Maya snorted. She snorted and saw the next skill card.


    She raised her hand again, but this time, she couldn''t say a single thing. There was only one course of action after that.


    Maya sat down and looked down, not fighting for this skill anymore.


    "110 million."


    "111 million."


    The auction continued just like that. Meanwhile, many people looked at Maya while furrowing their eyebrows. It wasn''t Maya''s style to y like this.


    She was indeed arrogant, and raising the bid to that kind of level at once was certainly something she would do. But Maya had no reason to bid for these skills, let alone admit defeat for money reasons.


    To their surprise, Maya suddenly turned around and looked at her bodyguard, which was Theo.


    She pped her hand and talked with him for a bit before returning to her seat.


    ''She''s impressing her own bodyguard?''


    ''A new bodyguard?''


    ''Is he her lover?''


    Many people were bewildered when they saw this happening. They never expected that Maya would act irrationally because of a certain bodyguard.


    There was only one exnation. The bodyguard was a fake identity so that no one could trace him. The real identity of that bodyguard was none other than her lover. This exined a lot about her actions.


    ''So, she has a boyfriend already��''


    ''I need to check that guy''s identity.''


    ''He should be someone that can push Maya down. Does that mean�� his strength?''


    ''He should be someone her age and has fire affinity, considering she''s bought two fire element skills and one defensive skill for him.''


    ''Then��''


    Everyone had an evil smile on their face, nning to destroy Maya in this auction by using this weakness.


    And the ''weapon'' that everyone had anticipated finally came. This item was the only thing that could destroy Maya, and they had no n to go easy on her.


    "This is the Flowing Magma Flower. It has the potential to raise one''s attribute by 10 to 20 points. The starting price is 300 million, and every bid can''t be lower than 10 million."


    ''Here it is!'' Everyone thought.


    Without hesitation, Maya rose from her seat and raised the bid again. "1 billion."


    The moment she uttered that bid, all of them realized this was indeed the chance. What they had thought this whole time was true, so their evil mind started working.


    "1.1 billion." A man stood up and raised the price.


    "You''re going for this?" Maya narrowed her eyes before raising the price again. "1.5 billion."


    "I''m not afraid of you. 1.6 billion."


    "2 billion!" Maya snorted.


    The Mythical Rank Expert immediately came to her and whispered to her ears.


    However, Maya pushed him away while shouting. "This is my money. I choose how I spend it!"


    The atmosphere became heavy, but they knew this was the chance to beat Maya.


    "2.1 billion."


    Maya gritted her teeth and raised it again. "2.5 billion."


    "2.6 billion. I''m not afraid of you." The man smiled and extended his hand.


    "You don''t even have Fire Affinity. Why are you bidding this flower?" Maya screamed.


    "I''m here for my younger sister. Like you said earlier, money talks."


    "You bastard!" Maya clenched her fists. "2.8 billion!"


    "2.9 billion." The man continued. Suddenly, the elder behind him whispered, "I believe we shouldn''t raise the bid any further. She might be trapping us."


    "Do you think you have that kind of money?" Maya was ring at him.


    "The master is not saying anything about this. Why are you so riled up like this? If you don''t have money, why don''t you scram from here?"


    "You��" Maya''s face was distorted. She raised her hands along with the stick as if she wanted to smash it to the ground.


    She looked down, so no one could see her face. But it was clear that Maya was angry that the man was getting in her way to impress her ''boyfriend.''


    This would put a strain on not only their rtionship but also their wallet.


    However, Maya simply pped her hand and raised her head. There wasn''t any anger on her face anymore.


    Instead, she put on a big happy smile while saying, "Thank you for your patronage."


    "!!!" All the spectators widened their eyes in shock.


    Even the one that antagonized Maya dropped his jaw and the bidding stick, not believing what he just heard.


    "What?!"


    "2.9 billion going once."


    "2.9 billion going twice."


    "2.9 billion going thrice."


    "Sold."


    "What?!" The man looked at the middle-aged man, baffled by the situation. Suddenly, he turned around and looked at Maya. "You�� You tricked me? This flower was yours. You tricked me into paying twice the price of this flower!"


    His face was aghast. This money wasn''t easy to get. It would put them into trouble for sure. He might even need to face severe punishment from his parents. He wanted to cry but had no tears.


    "What are you talking about?" Maya shrugged and looked away.


    In that instant, the hall became silent. Those who thought about beating her sucked a cold breath as colors started to disappear from their faces.


    They suddenly noticed the reason why Maya specifically bid two fire element skills. It was to make them think that she wanted something that had fire affinity.


    And since the flower was her, she knew this would be the best bid, considering the money would go to her.


    As for the skills, she indeed overpaid them for about 400 million in total. But she received more than 1.4 billion from tricking them.


    Theo and the Mythical Rank Expert were just the means to fool them. The Mythical Rank Expert yed a big role as someone that tried to stop her so that her action would look even more impactful.


    Meanwhile, Theo was there to be the mysterious person with a great identity. It was obvious they thought Theo was his boyfriend.


    With the addition of the sudden increase of bid that shifted their attention from her real intention to her arrogance, Maya created this kind of situation.


    Of course, Maya didn''t n for Theo to pay for the excessive amount and since his desire helped her in getting all this money, there was no need for Theo to pay the excessive amount.


    Maya, once again, almost made another guy cry.

 Chapter 826 – End Of The Auction

    <h4>Chapter 826 - End Of The Auction</h4>


    "Haha." Mayaughed while looking down on others.


    The people were terrified at this point, realizing Maya might have grown even more devilish.


    Because of this ident, no one dared to bid against Maya anymore. And she even retrieved two items with the lowest price since many stopped bidding to avoid getting fooled by Maya again.


    While the auction continued for thest few items, the Mythical Rank Expert came to her and asked, "Miss. What should we do with that guy?"


    "That guy?" Maya thought for a moment and said, "Tell his parents about this incident. Also, call Sarah�� Thepany is bound to experience some problems with the money he spent here.


    "It''s not enough for us to absorb thepany, but it should be enough to make a bit of profit. So, let''s go with pattern D for the time being. I''ll take care of the restter."


    "Understood." The Mythical Rank Expert stepped aside and called Sarah, the maid Maya had previously brought to Thernd.


    While waiting, Maya looked at Theo with a cheeky smile.


    "Congrattions." Theo sighed. He couldn''t help but admit he was not Maya''s match when it''s rted to money. Even though she said a bit of profit, this one move should be enough to get a significant amount of share of thatpany.


    In other words, Maya has actually turned the situation where she needs to buy him three skills into a chance to profit at least ten billion Zils.


    He realized why Maya was considered one of the geniuses in the business world.


    "I guess you have the right to be arrogant." Theo chuckled.


    "Hoh? That''s apliment��" She widened her eyes, never expecting to hear those words from Theo. "Well, we can chatter in the car."


    "Sure." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    The auction wrapped soon with thest item to be the modified Cubicar that seemed to be from the Star Group. The end price for this Cubicar was 7 billion.


    "The open auction this year has officially ended. Thank you foring."


    Maya looked at the Supreme Rank Expert bodyguard and said, "Settle the bill for me."


    "Understood." The Supreme Rank Expert nodded and immediately walked away.


    Meanwhile, the one next to her, Lexie, couldn''t contain herself anymore. She hurriedly came to her and said, "Maya. You literally destroyed that guy. As expected of my woman."


    "Shut up. I''m straight." Maya snorted. "If you are trying to block my path, then don''t me me for destroying you."


    "Do you think you can?" Lexie smirked. "I know that you have be a Supreme Rank Expert, but I think you''re underestimating me a bit."


    "You can try." Maya didn''t back down for a challenge.


    "Hmm��" Lexie''s expression turned serious before sighing. "I''ll let you go today since there seems to be something interesting going on here��"


    Suddenly, her head turned around to Theo, and she winked yfully. "Bye, little guy."


    She seemed to suspect Theo''s identity and chose to back down.


    On the other hand, Theo looked away, not caring about her actions. He couldn''t help but say, "So, there''s someone that can annoy you like that."


    "Don''t talk about it." Maya clenched her fists as her face was distorted.


    "Fine, fine." Theo shrugged.


    "Let''s go back to the car first. I will need to tell you something."


    "Sure."


    As soon as Theo agreed, they walked back to the car with the bodyguards. Just like earlier, Maya was in one car with Theo while the other bodyguards stayed in the other car.


    After the car started moving, Maya began to exin her situation. "Alright. ording to my father, I should send you to the Star Group Training Facility today. It seems Agata has gone there."


    "Really?"


    "Yeah. Since the auction doesn''tst that long, we can drop by. Should I personally give you a tour? Thanks to you, I can get ten billion within a few hours. Hehe." Maya chuckled.


    "You sure?"


    "Yep. I am looking forward to youing to the US and joining mypany. I wonder what kind of battlefield I can experience when you support me."


    "I''m not going to help your business, though."


    "What if I add some incentive?"


    "That can be discussedter." Theo nodded with a calm expression. This was simply a consultation, and the War God Family had always been open for consultation. "Still, do you trust me? Learning about your business structure means I can strike your back, you know."


    "If you fight me in business, I don''t really mind since I have my own confidence in dealing with you. But if you trick me in anything else, I''ll probably be dead." Maya shrugged.


    "So honest."


    "I don''t lie to my business partner. It''s true that I don''t give everything out, but I won''t be lying. After all, everything is built on trust." Maya smiled, acting as if it wasn''t a big deal. "Though, there''s something that I need to say�� If you choose to betray me, I don''t mind bing your enemy. Whatever you''re going to do, I''ll stop it. Unless you kill me�� No, even if you kill me, I''ll be sure to be your nightmare. I''m a vengeful person, you know."


    "Haha." Theoughed. "That''s the first time I heard that. Even in Italy, they just want to work together with me��"


    "They don''t dare doesn''t mean I''m scared too. Though, I prefer not to be your enemy�� I wonder if that is possible."


    "To be honest, I don''t really want to be your enemy unless necessary. If you''re kind to me, I''ll do the same."


    "Hehe. Now that I think about it, this is the first time we have a chat other than business or idle talks."


    "How about the expedition?"


    "That one is considered idle talk. We''re talking about a serious matter here�� about you bing my enemy or my friend." Maya shrugged.


    "That''s true I guess."


    "By the way, are you going to the USter? I don''t think you''ve made any preparations to go to another country��"


    "Or I might make you think like that and pull another scheme��"


    "Whatever. If you''reing, just inform me two weeks prior. I need to prepare the contract and other stuff, you see."


    "Sure thing."

 Chapter 827 – Training Center

    <h4>Chapter 827 - Training Center</h4>


    Meanwhile, in another car, Lexie was frowning when she saw the report made by a middle-aged woman next to her.


    "How is it?" The middle-aged woman asked.


    "Hmm�� that bodyguard is certainly not a normal one. I''m assuming he''s faking his identity since there''s no record about him." Lexie nodded. "And from Maya''s actions, I can see that they have a pretty good rtionship."


    "Does Miss Maya really get a man?" The woman looked down, contemting the report.


    "Has she met someone important?"


    "She was hunting on the other side for two months."


    "Two months? That''s too long."


    "Yes. From what I heard, there were only three people in her group. Miss Maya, another woman, and�� Theodore Griffith."


    "What?!" Lexie widened her eyes, shocked by thest name. "Who?"


    "Theodore Griffith."


    "The Theodore Griffith?"


    "Yes. From what I found, Theodore Griffith going to Russia was just a facade created by the Wind Emperor. The one that truly went there was a clone. There was no trace left behind by him. And the only one that could do this was his clone."


    "I heard that he beat both Alea and Afanasiia. Are you telling me it''s only his clone?"


    "Yes. After all, it was at that time Miss Maya met Theodore Griffith in the airport."


    "Where did you get the information?"


    "I bought it from the beggars."


    "��" Lexie fell silent for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You''re kidding me. That bodyguard is Theodore Griffith��"


    "I believe so."


    "Looking at their rtionship, is Theodore Griffithing to the US next? The War God Family couldn''t hold him down, no? I believe Agata Mota has rejected him or something."


    "I believe so. There might be a union between Miss Maya and him, but nothing can be confirmed for now. However, the only thing I know is�� among other people in the US, she''s the closest one to him."


    "Hmm��" Lexie frowned. "Although I don''t know about his power, it''s certain that he has reached Supreme Rank. Leveling is fair because everyone has the same requirement to level up. This way, even an average person can be a peerless expert in the future.


    "However, Theodore Griffith is different. Although it''s true that he''s dangerous, he doesn''t have the War God Family protecting him anymore. We don''t really need to be afraid of him."


    "But what if hees to the Starry Group or even the Star Group?"


    "��" Lexie couldn''t answer that question. "We can''t really let Maya take everything. It''s true that he''s not strong right now, but his future is too bright."


    "Are we going to invest in him?"


    "We can''t. Do you think it''s easy for us to rope him?"


    "Then what should we do?"


    "I don''t know. This is already beyond my power�� Though, I believe that Winston would like to fight him. That guy''s brain is filled with fight and only recognizes someone strong. Share this news with him and his family. They might even extend their hand to bring Theo to their side like making Winston his brother or something."


    "Apologize, but Mr. Winston doesn''t have a smart brain. Acquiring Theo means getting a brain he needs��" The woman frowned, doubting Lexie''s intention.


    "Then, do you want to see Maya and Theo together? Manypanies will copse at this rate. He can be with others but shouldn''t be with Maya. It will be a problem if Maya''s Starry Group reaches the same level as Star Group. Anyway, The rest will be decided by my parents."


    "Understood."


    "Still, Theodore Griffith, huh�� I''m afraid if hees to the US, the list will be changed."


    ��


    While they were chatting, Theo and Maya had arrived at the nearest Star Group Training Center.


    The building was a tall 50 stories building.


    As soon as they came inside, there was nothing but a grand hall and a few people working inside.


    Maya walked to the receptionist and asked, "I should have an appointment here. Is there any empty room?"


    The receptionist recognized Maya and immediately answered, "Yes. It''s been prepared, Miss. Would you like to have Grandmaster Lent to help you?"


    "How about Ag�� I mean, Liza? She should havee here, right?"


    "Ah, yes. She came here one hour ago with Madam Ste. They were on the 37th floor with Master Pion."


    "Then, how about the 36th or 38th floor? Are they empty?"


    "The 38th floor is empty. Should I call Master Greg?"


    "Alright. We''ll use that room." Maya nodded. "Before that, I''m going to visit my mother first."


    "Understood. The room should be ready within thirty minutes."


    "Okay." Maya waved her hand to Theo, asking him to follow her. They walked to the elevator and went up.


    On the way, Theo asked, "By the way, what is this training center?"


    "The 1st floor is for the receptionist and other staff. Up to the 20th floor, it''s for gyms. The 21st to 30th floors are for sparring. This one is for physical sparring, so the ce has been reinforced by multiple strengthening materials that can release a shield like your Ring of Honor. It should be safe for Supreme Rank Experts or below.


    "The 31st to 40th floors are for the new simtion rooms. There are many scientists and experts to look after you on these floors�� Basically, it''s a dream of those who join the Starry or Star Groups.


    "The 41st to 45th floors are for virtual rooms. It''s for sparring but in the digital world. To be honest, it''s not that good. As for thest five floors, they are office floors�� The ones that maintain this ce.


    "To be fair, Star Group and Starry Group have given the best treatment to their experts from mesh to training area�� There are, in fact, five training centers across the country.


    "This is big eye candy for those who want to get stronger. When you reach Mythical Rank Experts, you''ll get a big house to a mansion depending on your aptitude and ess to the hotel on the other side. There are many more benefits, but you should know about the term for the Mythical Rank Expert, right?"


    "Yeah. Ten years��" Theo nodded.


    "Yep. Within those ten years, they should know whether they want to be with this group or not. If they leave, they also need to pay a huge amount for the training resources we have spent on them."


    "Hmm�� I guess the treatment ispetitive and lucrative at the same time." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Hehe, you want to join now? It''s not toote to sign the contract."


    "Let me think, okay? Repeating that offer has be a bit annoying��" Theo sighed.


    "Okay, okay. I apologize. I won''t say anything about it anymore."


    "Thanks."

 Chapter 828 – Training Room

    <h4>Chapter 828 - Training Room</h4>


    They reached floor 37th soon and found Ste staring at a big screen.


    It turned out to be the room where Agata trained herself. The room alone took half of the floor while the rest was used for other offices to monitor the simtion room.


    As soon as they entered, Ste immediately recognized them and widened her eyes. "Ah, you''ve arrived."


    "Mom." Maya nodded with a smile before ncing at the screen. "She''s been doing it for a while?"


    "Indeed."


    "What''s the level?"


    "This room is for Control and Breathing, so we mostly supply the Magic Power�� It''s medium right now."


    Theo looked at the screen of Agata moving around as though she was dancing. However, he could see that Agata was following the movement of Magic Power toprehend it.


    "Unlike this one, the room for Awareness is filled with Magic Power and random objects or enemies. It''s going to be dangerous. Although it''s only an illusion, it''ll still transmit a certain amount of pain. Are you prepared for that?"


    "Pain huh��" Theo chuckled. "I''m not afraid of pain."


    "So manly." Ste whistled yfully. "Though, you shouldn''t underestimate the pain. As she said earlier, there will be enemies or objects trying to kill you. This is to increase your instinct along with the senses.


    "For example, you can use your vision to increase your reaction speed, your touch to destroy the illusion, your taste to predict the appearance of your enemies, your smell to follow the movement of the Magic Power, and your hearing to locate your enemies.


    "In other words, this room is forcing you to utilize all your senses, and due to the huge amount of Magic Power inside, you canprehend your Awareness faster.


    "But if the objects or enemies hit you, the pain will be transmitted to your brain. This will allow us to measure your current performance as well." Ste exined.


    "I understand." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Also, I can''t use my power, right?"


    "Yeah. I don''t want this ce to be destroyed." Ste confirmed it.


    "Good enough for me. As long as I can get stronger��"


    "In that case, follow me. We can wait upstairs." Maya suggested before asking, "What are you going to do, Mom?"


    "I''ll be with her this time." Ste pointed at Agata. "We''ll visit you after the girl finishes her training."


    "Alright. We''re upstairs." Maya acknowledged her words and asked Theo to follow her.


    Since there was nothing to do, Theo followed her and waited right in front of his room.


    Before entering, Theo changed his clothes into tight leather clothes that seemed to have been modified to work together with the simtion room.


    After that, a middle-aged man greeted them. He had long white hair and aged eyes even though he wasn''t supposed to be that old yet.


    "Hello, Miss Maya. And I believe this is Theodore Griffith, right?"


    "Yeah." Maya nodded. "Can you give us a rundown for this?"


    "Understood." The middle-aged man pointed at the room. "We have four settings here. The density of Magic Power, the difficulty, the pain level, and the terrain. No need to think about thest one.


    "Anyway, we have ten levels for each setting. The higher the level, the denser the Magic Power, the faster and the more enemies or objects that will appear, and the more pain you would feel.


    "If the Magic Power is too dense, you will be ufortable. The same applies to the difficulty and the pain level. So, I suggest you start first from level 1 and go all the way to level 10 since we don''t have any prior data about you. How about it?"


    "You''re the expert. I''ll leave it to you." Theo agreed without hesitation. After all, he didn''t know much about this thing.


    "Alright. All you need to do inside this room is to not move away from the center while dodging everything thates at you. Of course, you need to polish your own Awareness while doing so."


    "Understood. Is there anything else?"


    "Nope. We''ll just discuss it with you if somethinges up. If you have any weird feelings or experience something unusual, do call us too. It''s for the improvement of this room. We can hear your voice, so no need to hesitate."


    "Got it."


    "Alright. Please enter the room. It''s already active, but we need to wait for another three minutes."


    "Okay." Theo turned to Maya and nodded his head.


    Maya waved her hand with a smile. "I''ll be watching you from here, Mr. Genius."


    Theo entered the room, inspected the interior, and realized it was just a in white room.


    Still, he could feel the dense Magic Power brushing his skin. It was even thicker than the area around the cities on the other side.


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes and stood in the middle of the room.


    "First, we''re going to change the terrain." Greg''s voice echoed inside the room before the white room turned into a desert with no end.


    He knew this was just an illusion like his own illusion, so there was no reaction from here. He only made sure that he was standing on top of a smooth circr rock that seemed to be the ''circle'' he was talking about.


    "Alright. Everything has been standing by in level 1. We''ll start in two minutes. How do you feel right now? Is the Magic Power too dense?"


    "No, it''s fine," Theo assured him while closing his eyes for a moment.


    "Okay. You''re free to destroy anything thates at you. But don''t use your power since we don''t want you to destroy this ce."


    "Got it." Theo took a deep breath and prepared his mind.


    While Theo prepared his heart, Greg looked at Maya.


    "How far do you think he will stop?"


    "I''m not sure. Since he''s a Supreme Rank Expert, it should be around level 4-8, maybe level 5. Thest two levels are built for Mythical Rank Expert after all."


    "Sounds about right." Maya nodded. "Though, I believe his score will be pretty high."


    "Oh, Miss Maya has such a high opinion about him."


    "He''s stronger than me even without his clone."


    "I see. It''ll be interesting data then."


    "Start it."


    "Understood." Greg acknowledged her order and informed Theo, "We will start in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1�� Go!"

 Chapter 829 – Training

    <h4>Chapter 829 - Training</h4>


    "Go!"


    Theo''s expression became serious as soon as he heard that word. He spread his Awareness around and took a look at his surroundings.


    Suddenly, a bow appeared out of thin air and released an arrow within two seconds. The arrow flew toward his head at an average speed.


    But with Theo''s current strength, he effortlessly avoided the arrow.


    After that, two more bows appeared on his back and his right at the same time.


    Utilizing his Sense of Touch, he spun his body while waving his hand, knocking both arrows with his fists.


    "��" Theo frowned when he felt a sensation when touching the arrow. The pain felt as though he was pierced by that arrow instead of knocking it away.


    "The arrow felt weird."


    As soon as he said those words, Master Greg immediately replied. "Ah, that, we are still working on it. Although the pain is not at the level of getting pierced, it still feels like it''s going through your hand. Though, the arrow illusion has gone ording to the system. We''ve created a system that calctes your movement and angle to predict the movement of the real arrow."


    "I see." Theo nodded.


    "Alright. Shall we continue? Is there any problem? If not, we can start level 2."


    "I don''t have any problem." Theo acknowledged his condition and became focused again. "By the way, can I destroy the bow?"


    "Not in particr. In the future, we would like to make it in this situation. In fact, this concept has been taken by virtual reality�� It''s just we want you to train with your real body with this simtion room since a few things can''t be digitized. Hopefully, we can create a fully functional virtual system with this in the future."


    Theo nodded while listening to him. "Alright. Let''s start."


    "Okay."


    As soon as Greg raised the difficulty level, three bows appeared in three different directions. They released their arrows in rapid session.


    Theo took a step to the right and avoided all those arrows. However, he soon found a snake leaping out of the sand, trying to bite him.


    But Theo''s hand actually went to the back instead. It turned out another snake wasing from behind and was much closer because he had moved to the right earlier.


    Theo grabbed the snake''s head and smashed the other snake with a simple swing, throwing both snakes in the same direction.


    After that, he saw the bows releasing their arrows again, so Theo ducked down, avoiding them.


    This kind of movement would certainly make an Elite Rank Expert have some sort of trouble, especially if they needed to continue for a few hours.


    But as a Supreme Rank Expert, he would be embarrassed if he got troubled with something like this.


    "Still, I can feel the snakes��" Theo recalled the feeling when he was squeezing the snake''s body.


    "It''s the illusion."


    "Understood. Let''s continue."


    "Okay, raising it to level 3."


    Theo nodded and looked to the front, finding three bows and four snakes ready to strike him. With his Awareness, he could sense a few other presences as well.


    A few snakes leaped first, trying to bite him. With a calm face, Theo took two steps to the left and waved his right hand, blowing thest snake.


    After that, he tilted his body to the front and avoided two arrows before leaping two feet above the ground since a few arrows also attacked his feet.


    Seeing the arrows nted on the ground, Theo stomped them without hesitation. Then, he spun his body and took two steps to the right, returning to his original position.


    He kept dodging the arrows and snakes effortlessly. But since this was a champion level rank, it was to be expected.


    Theo also passed level 4 created for Hero Rank Expert.


    Now that his body had gotten used to the illusion, he began to react faster.


    There wasn''t a change of expression in Theo''s face this whole time, even though he had felt pain from the arrows when brushing them. It invited Greg''s praise since not many could withstand this pain, especially someone who knew nothing about this beforehand.


    Theo didn''t answer him. He simply continued dodging or deflecting anythinging to him.


    After five minutes, Greg finally raised it to the next level.


    "From now on, it''s going to be level 5, which is built for Supreme Rank Expert. There are a total of 4 levels and if I see you''re in danger, I''ll stop at that level. Okay?"


    "Got it." Theo nodded while scanning the sand. "By the way, you''re not going to change the terrain?"


    "Changing the terrain means a different attack pattern and a smaller circle. I''m going to adjust your level first before changing it."


    "Oh." Theo agreed with his exnation and fell silent.


    This time, there were a total of twenty bows and fifty snakes that were going to attack him in session. He needed to avoid all of them.


    As soon as it started, twenty arrows flew forward, and another ten flew to the sky. With an attack like this, Theo had no way to calcte everything.


    Theo took a deep breath and let his instinct take care of this while his brain continued looking for the arrows with the help of the Awareness.


    Theo stepped forward, spun, raised the left foot, and even slid to the right to avoid the arrows.


    His movement was smooth and precise.


    The more arrowsing to him, the sharper his movement.


    Greg was impressed by his movement, while Maya thought this was to be expected. She simply wanted to see how long Theo couldst in this ce.


    Theo continued moving with small steps to avoid all the arrows and snakes for one minute before a bow capable of releasing two arrows simultaneously appeared.


    The arrow was so close that Theo could deflect both of them in a single attack, but when all the bows released two arrows at one time, something was bound to be wrong.


    As expected, after another few shots, there was an arrow that actually traveled right behind the first arrow, so when Theo blew away the first one, the other arrow was stilling at him.


    ''Ah?'' Theo widened his eyes and realized there was one arrow getting through his defense and flying straight to his chest.


    *Thud!*

 Chapter 830 – Prediction

    <h4>Chapter 830 - Prediction</h4>


    *Thud!*


    Theo raised his eyebrows when the arrow prated his chest. There was an intense spike of pain jolting his body and mind. Yet, his expression didn''t change afterward as though he did not need to endure it.


    Greg was taken aback by Theo''sck of expression. He nced at Maya whose reaction was pretty simr to him.


    "Miss, are you not aware of this? Although the pain level is still at level 4, it''s pretty painful, you know."


    "I don''t know. Even if it''s me, I would have let out a small shrill because of the surprise." Maya frowned.


    "What was your tolerance level, Miss?"


    "I could only endure level 6."


    "In that case, should we increase the pain level to that level since he can endure this one easily? The pain is a kind of pressure that forces him to avoid the arrow, thus elerating his growth, so it should give him some effect��"


    "Hmm." Maya pondered for a moment and shook her head. "No. The current progress is fine. We can gradually raise the pain levelter."


    "Okay." Greg nodded. "Still, he''s handling quite well for someone who never tries this one. He''s been hit once, but he can avoid the rest. We can increase it to level 6 soon."


    "Well, it''s not like you need to avoid all of them perfectly. Getting hit once every twenty objects should be enough for you to raise the level." Maya agreed with his decision. "Ask him then."


    While they were discussing Theo''s performance, the person in question was thinking, ''The arrows and snakes are emitting Magic Power because it''s just an illusion. But�� Have I followed her teaching so much that I forget what''s the next stage of Awareness?''


    If Control had three stages: Soft Control, Force Control, and Perfect Control, Awareness also had three stages. They were Vision Enhancement, Prediction Eyes, and Future Vision.


    Even though the names were rted to eyes, they were the result of five senses.


    While avoiding all these arrows and snakes, he somehow came to a realization.


    ''Hmm�� Vision Enhancement is a simple power-up of the senses. I''ve been doing it with Vision, Taste, and Hearing. What I need to increase right now are Smell and Touch.


    ''But it doesn''t mean I can''t break through to Prediction Eyes. Enrica seems to be able to predict others'' movements. How?''


    Theo''s expression turned grim.


    "We''re going to raise the level again. Are you ready?"


    Greg''s voice suddenly resounded in the room, but there was no response from Theo as though he waspletely entranced in avoiding all these snakes and arrows.


    Theo had finally entered this level of focus again. In Thernd, he always came up with a good solution from how to deal with Alea, control the entire team, and so on.


    A smirk couldn''t help but appear on Theo''s face. Yet, the person himself didn''t realize the change of expression.


    ''My vision�� allows me to look at my surroundings from a third person perspective.'' Theo delved deeper into his consciousness and started changing his perspective. This was a skill that Theo had possessed since he always used it to sense the monsters in his surroundings.


    ''Good. Now that I can see all of them�� I should move to my hearing.'' Theo took a deep breath and concentrated his senses on his hearing. Although it was small, he could pick up the sound of their movements.


    ''With both Vision and Hearing, I can react the moment theye out�� Then, I should continue in my Taste�� The taste of Magic Power.''


    Theo stuck out his tongue. Although it was faint, there was an energy fluctuation in the room when the bow or the snake appeared.


    He knew that they would appear but had no way to track them because of the overwhelming Magic Power in the area.


    In order to do that, there was one sense he needed to enhance.


    ''I see. Although I can''t do much with this one, I''ve done the basics. Smelling the Magic Power shouldn''t be a problem.'' Theo calmly breathed in and sensed the movement of the Magic Power that flowed to his left.


    He checked with his Taste again and located the bow''s position. He confirmed it with his Vision and predicted it started drawing the arrow with his Hearing.


    ''Lastly, it''s the Touch��'' Theo clenched his fist and struck the arrow at perfect timing. Yet, when his brain was jolted by the pain, Theo felt something was wrong. ''What is this�� There should be something else.''


    ''Touch��'' Theo remembered when Hel showed her domain that was created by her Sense of Touch. ''Wait a minute. I shouldn''t be able to use a domain right now.


    ''If that''s the case, something smaller than a domain�� Can''t I just use it to envelop my body like how I cover the illusion to trick my enemies?'' Theo frowned and started wrecking his brain. Suddenly, a thought came into his mind as Theo couldn''t help but smile. ''Ah, I see. That''s the case.


    ''Awareness is a cycle. First, I need to take a breath to understand the flow of the Magic Power with my Smell. Then, I confirm its existence with my Taste and locate it. Third, I use my Vision to confirm its location and action.


    ''Fourth, I will use my Hearing to predict when it moves andes to me. Only then do I use my Touch to deliver thest blow. Using all five senses��


    ''To move one step ahead��'' Theo suddenly spun his body and waved his hand upward. Unlike his previous action, this time, only his nail actually hit the arrow tip. With just a slight push, the arrow gently jumped into the air and fell to his other hand.


    "What?!" Maya drew a gasp and took a step back, looking at Theo in horror.


    Greg widened his eyes and nced at Maya. "Miss�� Has your friend achieved the Prediction Level?"


    Theo wasn''t aware of their shocks. He simply felt happy that he had found something to improve on.


    "Haha. This is interesting!"

 Chapter 831 – Shock

    <h4>Chapter 831 - Shock</h4>


    A few hourster.


    Ste and Agata walked to the 38th floor to visit Theo.


    Unexpectedly, they found two standing statues whose eyes werepletely glued to the screen even though they should have felt their presence.


    "Hello��" Ste waved her hand and received no reaction. In the end, she walked next to Maya and shook her shoulder. "Maya. Are you ignoring me?"


    "Mom?" Maya''s body trembled for a moment as if she was surprised by Ste''s sudden appearance. "You''re done? So fast? Where is Agata?"


    "So fast? It''s already been 3.5 hours, you know." Ste frowned and pointed at Agata. "As for Agata, she''s right there."


    "Ah, oh?" Maya had no words to say and started looking down, sorting her thoughts.


    "What''s going on?" Ste frowned while Agata was concerned with Theo''s well-being. "Is there something wrong with the room? Is Theo fine?"


    Maya immediately grabbed Greg''s sleeve and pulled it to wake him up.


    "Eh, ah?" Greg had the same reaction as Maya before greeting Ste. "Madam�� I''m sorry for such a disy."


    "It seems like something has happened. What''s wrong?" Ste nced at Theo avoiding numerous objectsing his way. Even the terrain had changed to the grasnd with tall grass covering everything from his sight.


    "Ehm�� How do I say this? If you''re worried about his safety, there''s no need to. He''spletely fine."


    "Then, what''s wrong? No, I should change my question. What is the level now?"


    "Ehm��" Greg scratched the back of his head, having difficulty in answering her. He gritted his teeth and showed the real setting. "Level 7 in Magic Power, Level 8 in Difficulty, Level 10 in Pain, and Level 5 in Terrain."


    "What?" Ste dropped her jaw in disbelief. "What did you say? There''s even level 10 in pain? Are you going to kill him? Level 7 Magic Power is for those above level 700, no? Also, Level 8 in Difficulty? Isn''t that the highest level for a Supreme Rank? The terrain is already level 5? The pattern is so weird��"


    "Y-yeah." Greg let out a long sigh. "Even though the pain is at the maximum level, he hasn''t screamed this whole time. And he''s personally confirmed that the pain is at a tolerable level."


    "Huh?" Ste obviously didn''t buy it, but Greg didn''t say a single lie.


    Theo had gotten used to this level of pain after a bit of training with his Death Avatar. The pain he experienced there was unimaginable, so his body was already numb to this level of pain.


    "Is the pain level broken? That kind of pain should be simr to the real one, right? Don''t tell me he can dodge all objects?"


    "No. For the time being, his dodge rate is at 90%."


    "One out of ten��" Ste frowned. "And it''s level 8 in Difficulty and level 10 in Pain?"


    "Yes. How can he do that? You should know that Level 8 in Difficulty requires��" Ste suddenly fell silent and looked at Maya. "You didn''t say anything about this."


    "Would you believe me that he reached Prediction Eyes Level within thirty minutes upon entering?" Maya said with a wry smile, feeling dejected.


    "So, he''s already close to that?"


    "I don''t think so. He didn''t show anything like that during our trip." Maya shook her head and nced at Agata. "Do you know anything?"


    "No."


    "ording to our data, he can only use Vision, Hearing, and Taste. To achieve Prediction Eyes, you need to advance the Smell and Touch too��" Ste looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Yeah. From what I saw earlier, I realized he wasn''t that good with those two. Even when he reached Prediction Eyes, his action was a bit sluggish. However, he was improving at such a rapid rate that I didn''t realize three hours had passed." Maya let out a long sigh.


    "And you should know that he should have gotten close to a thousand hits during this session. With level 10 in pain alone�� he should have experienced it 300 times." Greg added.


    "Seriously?"


    "Yeah. And ording to the analysis using his movement speed, dexterity, and Magic Power tolerance, I believe that his status is like this." Greg showed Theo''s status.


    Strength A


    Endurance (Mind) SSS


    Agility B


    Vitality B


    Magic Power SS


    "This is our official rating ssification, right?" Ste frowned.


    "Yes. I predicted his strength ording to Miss Maya''s exnation. But for Endurance�� his mind alone can withstand cruel torture. As for his Agility and Vitality, he''s already pretty tired, and his speed is quite good, but not that good. Last but not least, his Magic Power should be the highest status among all of them.


    "At the very least, I''m sure that his Magic Power is a few hundred points above other status." Greg exined with a troubled expression. "He''s built differently. I wonder who his master is��"


    "Seriously?" Ste looked like a broken record as she kept repeating the same word. She simply couldn''t believe what she heard.


    "ording to my spection, he''s adjusted his own Prediction Eyes during this time, and I believe he has received a few problems to solve when he returns. Although right now his Prediction Eyes is at the foundation level, he should be able to stabilize his foundation sooner orter and use this in a normal fight."


    "He''s going to train here for a month."


    "What? Madam, you''re not serious, right? If it''s true, his foundation will be solid when he finishes his training. Though, I don''t really mind since we''ll acquire unique data from him."


    "I''m serious."


    While they were talking, Agata looked at the screen and couldn''t help but clutch her chest as her heart wrenched in pain. ''Is this how Alea feels when Theo gradually bes further and further away�� Can I really stand by his side?''


    Maya nced at her before closing her eyes as though she understood what she felt right now.


    She said, "He''s built differently. Instead of pondering the reason why he is like this, we should focus on adapting to his ability."


    "Right! I''ll make sure to study the data well." Greg nodded with a serious expression.


    "Dear. You''re not��"


    Maya shook her head. "I can''t beat him in this, but it doesn''t mean I''m going to let him take my crown in the business world."


    Her words somehow struck deep in Agata''s heart as she couldn''t help but think, ''That''s right�� I don''t need to chase after him�� I should be the number one in a certain area that I excel the most�� When that happens, I can stand beside him.''

 Chapter 832 – Finished

    <h4>Chapter 832 - Finished</h4>


    "Alright. You''re done. Thank you." Greg shut the room down, telling Theo that his five hours were already up.


    Theo came to a stop while panting. This was the first time he moved continuously under the onught of many objects for five hours.


    "It''s good practice." Theo let out a long breath.


    "What good? You''re basically an abnormal guy." Maya stormed inside the room,ining.


    "Abnormal?" Theo tilted his head back, taken aback by her words. "That''s the first time someone called me that."


    "Obviously. You''re talented indeed, but that''s only in here. If you fight me in the business world, I''m not going to lose." Maya looked away before throwing the towel.


    Theo caught it and wiped his sweat while saying, "Anyway, thank you. This room indeed gave me insight."


    "That insight came from you. The room was the catalyst." She shrugged. "If you didn''t have any talent, it would be hard toprehend anything inside the room."


    "Who knows��" Theo shook his head, thinking if they worked hard enough, they should be able to do it.


    "Anyway, there''s something I need to confirm first. Since when did you reach the Prediction Level? I mean, Prediction Eyes." She asked.


    "Earlier. And is there a reason for me to answer this question in detail?"


    "Not really. You are free to refuse to say anything. Though, it will be appreciated if you can give a bit of information."


    Theo thought for a moment. Because he was going to train here for a month, he thought this much should be fine. "I have been focusing on a different direction this whole time, and earlier, I just went back to the original course."


    "Hmm��" Maya nodded with a serious expression and asked, "Alright then. How about your condition? Do you feel any nausea?"


    "Not really. It''spletely fine." Theo shook his head with an innocent face.


    "No weird feeling?"


    "Other than I''m tired, I don''t think so."


    "Okay. You''re good then. Let''se out." Maya stepped outside together with Theo, meeting with Ste and Agata.


    "You''re good." Ste smiled while pping her hands.


    "Thank you, Madam." Theo nodded politely before turning to Greg. "Thank you for helping me."


    "Just doing my job. I should be the one thanking you for this kind of data. You''re one of a kind, so we might be able to remodel it a bit to set the maximum limit�� With all the data on the lower end, we will be able to create the fluctuation of Magic Power from��"


    "Ehm, English?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Improvement in minimum and maximum limit for Supreme Rank Expert."


    "I see. It''s truly a unique idea." Theo smiled. "Normally, we will improve faster during a life and death battle since if you don''t improve, there''s a chance of you dying. Meanwhile, this one is the degraded version. Instead of losing your life, you''re simply going to experience so much pain."


    "Exactly. Though, this is just the beginning." He smiled.


    Agata suddenly sneaked around them and appeared to Theo''s right, handing a cup of water.


    Theo took it with a smile before asking a question. "By the way, I heard you have improved your virtual system�� Something like using a pre-recorded video to teach someone by entering virtual reality."


    "Yeah, what of it?" Maya was the one who answered this question as it was already beyond Greg''s jurisdiction.


    "Nothing." Theo hesitated for a moment and shook his head. There was an ideaing into his mind about using illusion to help someone practice. He also thought of another thing. ''Wait a minute�� Can''t I use the concept of this simtion room in my training with Death Avatar? This time, I''ll truly try to escape death instead of pain. At the same time, I can experience what kind of pain I''ll receive when under the influence of adrenaline along with various positions.''


    On the other hand, Maya squinted her eyes, feeling curious about what he was about to say. But since thetter chose to remain silent, she dropped the idea.


    "Anyway, I''m sure you''ve realized what should be improved, right?" Maya asked.


    "Yep. Smell and Touch." Theo nodded.


    "I don''t need to apany you every day then." Maya was finally free toplete the job in herpany. "I''ll probably be busy starting tomorrow or the day after��"


    "Ahaha, so hardworking." Theo chuckled.


    "In that case, I''ll watch over you both for one month." Ste''s expression brightened. "This way, there won''t be any problem in entering the room any time you want."


    It was a good idea since Ste''s presence alone would push away all the unnecessary problems. However, Theo and Agata knew she wanted to monitor their growth.


    ''Well, even without her, they can understand my level�� It''s not that big of a deal, I guess.'' Theo thought and said with a smile. "I will be in your care."


    "Yes." She chuckled.


    Agata also agreed since she could do that much for the one helping her with the simtion room.


    "You should take a bath first, and we''ll go back." Maya pointed to the door on their right. "That''s the shower room."


    "Okay." Theo immediately headed to the shower room, leaving everyone behind.


    "Then, it''s time for me to start working with the data." Greg also ran away, leaving the three women behind.


    "You sure need to work pretty hard, eh��" Maya made a small smirk, teasing Agata. "Although your level can keep up with him, your Five Aspects can''t."


    "I''m perfectly aware of that." Agata sighed. "But it doesn''t matter anymore."


    "Heh. You might not be able to follow him anymore, you know. When that happens, there might be another womaning to him."


    "Like you?" Agata squinted her eyes.


    "I don''t mind the idea, but he doesn''t seem to like it, so��" She shrugged her head and offered another suggestion. "Instead ofmenting over that fact, I should ask you this. Do you have any ns toe to the US with him? I''m prepared to handle the contract and can do my best to help you be together."


    "��" Agata fell silent for a moment and shook her head. "Sorry, I''m not prepared to answer that question."


    "Just take your time and tell meter."

 Chapter 833 – Return

    <h4>Chapter 833 - Return</h4>


    After Theo finished washing his body, the group finally returned to the mansion.


    Theo spent the remaining 29 days focusing on his Smell and Touch with the help of the simtion room.


    Still, the simtion training onlysted for five hours. Hence, Theo spent the remaining days training either his other senses or his Control.


    He didn''t even go out of the mansion other than to the training center.


    Surprisingly, there were a bunch of visitors from other influences, but Theo chose to remain silent in the mansion because of what happened in Italy.


    Although he wanted to trick the Griffith Family into thinking he brought reinforcement from the US, he would just threaten them too much. Seeing this kind of reinforcement would surely force them to retreat.


    Theo believed this was the perfect time to eliminate the Mind Elder since he was extremely dangerous. At the same time, his power also influenced Ne''s mind. He thought it was better to kill him by using this chance, so Ne didn''t need to be tormented again.


    She was the first person to show such a sincere feeling among the Griffith Family Members, so there was no reason for Theo not to help them. He also didn''t like this Mind Elder since the elder might be the biggest reason why his parents abandoned him.


    During his stay, he simply nned the situation carefully, making sure he didn''t die due to the sneak attack.


    Meanwhile, Agata also utilized the simtion room to increase her strength as much as possible. She was also seeking a way to be the number one that could allow her to stand next to Theo.


    On the other hand, Maya spent most of her time dealing with herpany. Due to the long absence, there were many things to be dealt with, including that one mess she created during the auction.


    Hence, Theo and Agata didn''t see Maya that much for the rest of their time in the country.


    Unlike Maya, Ste had been the one apanying them the entire time. She took care of them like they were her children.


    At the same time, Ste also reported to Bernard about Theo, Ava, and Agata''s progress every day.


    They were shocked at how fast Theo improved during the past month. It was to the point they needed to keep his data a secret to only a few trusted subordinates.


    Even Hel was impressed by Theo''s progress, let alone them. And by using this data, they concluded that Theo had never touched anything other than a normal study before getting into the school a few years ago.


    In other words, all his achievements came from the effort he started a few years ago.


    Upon realizing this, Bernard and Ste couldn''t contain their shock, realizing how strong Theo''s talent was.


    If he wasn''t suppressed by his environment, he would have shone brightly. It might even be too bright and make other neutral parties involved in his assassination.


    After learning this secret, they made sure no one knew about it, including Maya, unless she sessfully roped Theo in.


    One month had passed.


    Bernard, Ste, and Maya were sending off Theo''s group personally.


    Theo shook Bernard''s hand with a smile. "Thank you for your help in the past few months, Sir."


    "No, no. I should be the one thanking you. Not only did you help my daughter, but you also provided such unique data. I won''t hesitate in using it." Bernard nodded and smiled back.


    "Let''s meet again in the future." Maya waved her hand to Agata.


    "Sure." Agata nodded with a serious expression. "I''ve learned a lot from you."


    "Don''t say that�� Don''t act like this guy." Maya pointed at Theo. "The moment he said that, I always saw him replicating what I did."


    "Haha." Both Agata and Ste chuckled while Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Anyway, you''re free to visit us," Ste added.


    "Yes, Ma''am."


    "In that case, I shouldn''t keep you any longer." Ste took a step back, letting them go.


    "I only have one thing to add." Bernard stepped forward and looked at Theo, Ava, and Agata. "If you need anything, just call me. I''m sure you know how I y, right?"


    Bernard was implying that if the situation in Italy couldn''t be controlled anymore, Theo was free to call him for reinforcement. Of course, there was a price to pay for asking this type of reinforcement.


    And calling him would lead to a negotiation. So, it was clear that Bernard was nning to get involved as long as Theo called him.


    "Thank you, Sir." Theo smiled.


    "What thank you? I was implying if you want to get another international mission from here, you only need to call me. There''s nothing behind it." Bernard looked away, ying dumb.


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled and nodded. "Anyway, it''s time for us to go. Once again, thank you and bye-bye."


    "Bye." Maya and Ste waved their hands while Bernard crossed his arms and nodded with a gentle face.


    Theo, Agata, and Ava finally went inside, preparing to board their ne.


    Little did they know, there was a middle-aged man sitting on a bench not far away from them. He had short ck hair and wore a in white shirt and jeans. There was nothing wrong with his appearance, making him less suspicious.


    He took out the Skylink and called Lorenzo''s father, Marzio. "Sir. Theodore Griffith has returned."


    "Okay. You are to return to Italy right now."


    "Yes, Sir."


    In Italy, Marzio was visiting Theo''s mansion since Leonardo still lived there.


    He looked at him with a severe expression. "Father. Theo has boarded the ne."


    Sitting on the grass, Leonardo sipped his herbal tea before saying, "I guess it''s time for me to make my move."


    "Father. You haven''t given me any instructions about your n. What will happen if our strategies sh?"


    "It won''t." He shook his head. "Only I and Theo can know this n. Besides, thatd should have made another n too. So, I''m going to refine it a bit further."


    "Understood. In that case, I shall excuse myself." Marzio nodded and turned around, nning to leave.


    When he was about to take a step forward, Leonardo added one more thing he needed to remember. "Marzio�� Make no mistake. I couldn''t care less about the Barbe Group. I only want Eric Griffith to die."


    Marzio''s expression turned grim, and he replied�� "Yes, Father."

 Chapter 834 – Plan

    <h4>Chapter 834 - n</h4>


    When Theo returned with Ava and Agata, Leonardo appeared in front of the gate, stopping them.


    "Brat. Do you like your honeymoon?" Leonardo smirked.


    "H-honeymoon?" Agata widened her eyes. She thought Leonardo had actually approved their rtionship even though Theo hadn''t acknowledged it yet.


    Before Theo could say anything, Leonardo circled his hand on Theo''s shoulder and dragged him somewhere. "Haha. Let''s talk about your experience�� How was your first night? Can I expect a baby next year?"


    "What?" Agata dropped her jaw to the ground before looking down with her face flushed red. She dragged Ava back to the mansion as though she was embarrassed.


    Ava tilted her head in confusion, never expecting to see Agata with a flustered expression.


    The moment they entered the mansion, Agata''s expressionpletely changed to a serious one.


    "Kyu?" Ava let out a sound, not understanding the sudden transformation.


    "It''s obvious that Sir Leonardo is nning to talk with Theo alone, so I should y along." Agata sighed. On the one hand, she hoped to be a part of it. On the other hand, she felt a bit motivated because that meant the power she had right now wasn''t enough.


    The only thing that made her happy was the fact that she knew when to act and when not to act.


    "We don''t have much time left, Ava." Agata sighed.


    "Kyu." Ava nodded in understanding.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Leonardo were sitting on the balcony face to face.


    The moment they sat down, Leonardo''s face turned serious. "I would like to hear your n�� truthfully."


    "Why did you act like that if you were going to stop right here?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "No special meaning. I just want to try it once when my grandson and granddaughter-inw return home. Come on. There''s no need to make that kind of face�� There''s not much time left, so I can''t act like this anymore. This is just the selfishness of your grandfather."


    "Well, whatever." Theo rolled his eyes. "So, what do you want to know?"


    "I want to listen to your n truthfully."


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Why don''t you show me your n first?"


    "You first. I''ll tell you something unexpected after this." Leonardo cheekily smiled as though everything was under his control.


    Theo never said no to a bonus reward, so he said, "My n is simple. Separate the Griffith Family and the Barbe Group. Then, go to the US from the other side."


    "Huh? Go to the US from the other side? It''s a very long and dangerous journey. Even the Griffith Family and the Barbe Group chose the gate from Bulgaria toe to Italy as they''re the closest on the other side." Leonardo frowned.


    "I have my own means." Theo shook his head calmly. "I believe they will send some Mythical Rank Experts to my way, so I''m going to bring my own reinforcement to deal with them."


    "Really?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes, not believing what Theo said. "Reinforcement from the Star Group?"


    "No." Theo shook his head. "You just need to believe in me."


    "Is that so?" Leonardo thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, my n is simr to yours. Separate them and bring you to a neighboring country�� the opposite direction of Bulgaria and used either ne or Mythical Rank Expert to send you back to the US or any country you want."


    "How do you separate them?"


    "I''m mobilizing the entire War God Family. I have two objectives here. First, your safety. Second, kill Eric Griffith."


    "Hmm��" Theo frowned.


    "I''m going to kill Eric Griffith myself."


    "Is the War God Family enough to separate them? Or are you confident that I can run away from multiple Mythical Rank Experts?"


    "Nope. As a Mythical Rank Expert myself, I''m perfectly aware of the gap between the Mythical Rank and the Supreme Rank. No matter how big of a genius you are, it''s impossible to surmount that gap."


    "Well, if it''s only one or two, I have some confidence by using my clone." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s why I will send the pope to your way. He will protect you to the best of his ability."


    "Huh? The pope?" Theo was bewildered by his statement. "Isn''t this a bit excessive, Sir Leonardo? The pope? I believe this is already beyond your equal love motto. There''s no reason for you to ask for the pope''s help."


    "Yeah, but the one who asked for that help wasn''t me." Leonardo shook his head.


    "Not you? Then who?"


    "It''s Valerie, your mother."


    The moment he uttered the word, the atmosphere became heavy and tranquil. Leonardo''s expression was filled with sadness, love, and pity.


    On the other hand, there were disappointment, bewilderment, and sadness on Theo''s face.


    "Is she��"


    "Yeah. She personally came to Italy to inform me about Eric Griffith''s movement and asked the pope for help. And in my opinion, there''s a high chance that Eric Griffith was one of the biggest reasons why your parents abandoned you."


    "Not out of fear but out of anger��" Theo added, correcting him. He had already suspected this too.


    "Both." Leonardo shook his head. "That''s why I''m going to personally kill Eric Griffith to understand the situation�� What has transpired decades ago��"


    Theo fell silent as his face became grim.


    "I am sorry, Theo." Leonardo looked at Theo with a gentle smile. "No matter what your parents do. They''re still my kids. I need to prioritize you both, not only yourself."


    This was a hard decision for Leonardo because of his motto. At the same time, Theo could understand it and let out a long sigh. "I know. There''s no need to apologize to me."


    "Do you wish to meet your mother?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head. "I''m sorry, Sir. I don''t think I have the heart to do it."


    "I see. I''m not going to force you or anything. So, this will be your choice. If you wish not to see them again for the rest of your life, I''m not going to persuade you even if they request it."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a heavy heart.


    Leonardo ced his hand on Theo''s head before pulling him to his embrace.

 Chapter 835 – Contemplation

    <h4>Chapter 835 - Contemtion</h4>


    "The time will be in three months. I know that you are going to leave this ce after that, so�� spend your time wisely and prepare to move." Leonardo rose from his seat and stared at the blue sky. "For now, there''s no need to fear you being spied on. I''ll take care of it."


    "Don''t worry. I know what to do." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Alright. See youter." Leonardo waved his hand and disappeared, returning to the headquarters.


    Without Leonardo, the garden became tranquil and felt empty. Usually, Leonardo would be here doing everything he liked, from drinking tea to ying chess by himself.


    Theo closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.


    He sat there and looked at the sky, remembering what he said earlier.


    ''Sir Leonardo will take care of the Griffith Family and the Barbe Group. However, only the pope will protect me from the church''s side. As long as the Griffith Family or the Barbe Group doesn''t heavily injure or kill the pope, the Vatican City won''t pursue it.


    ''Assuming that the Barbe Group brings every single Mythical Rank Expert along with a few hundred Supreme Rank Experts�� The Military will surely move to prevent at least the Supreme Rank Experts. After all, they shouldn''t be trampled down when there is an invasion.


    ''Even so, the Barbe Group and the War God Family should have the same amount of Mythical Rank Experts. If they''re stopping each other�� The Griffith Family will have enough people to get me.


    ''And it seems that most of their forces are stopped in their own headquarters, so only five to ten Mythical Rank Experts should being to Italy.


    ''ording to Sir Leonardo, the Pope wouldn''t have the problem in handling four of them if it''s only a defensive battle. In other words, I need to make sure the rest won''t help.


    ''Sir Leonardo had made several ns to slow them down, but I need to add something topletely stop them.


    ''At the same time, the War God Family will be in chaos�� There might be a chance that they''re targeting the War God Family instead of me. So, the fighters won''t hesitate to protect the family instead of me.


    ''In that case, how to stop them��'' Theo fell silent for a moment and continued, ''Well, I can send my reinforcement, but I don''t think I can leave this mansion for the next three months, or the bait will fail.''


    Theo fell silent for a moment and thought for a moment. ''If it''s a Supreme Rank Expert, I have some confidence in dealing with them. But we''re talking about Mythical Rank Experts here�� They''re far stronger than me. Even with Agata and Ava, it''s impossible to handle them.


    ''Should I adjust my n a bit?'' Theo thought for a moment before smiling. ''Ah, I can do it that way. Sir Leonardo''s n is alreadypleted, but as expected�� The variable is too big. At the very least, this n has stopped the Griffith Family''s vassals from participating, which is already good.


    ''Was this my parents'' thoughts when they abandoned me? They shouldn''t be as powerful as they are now�� But it should be fine if they actually used the War God Family and maybe�� tied a knot with marriage. This should be a solution. Or was this not enough?''


    Theo clutched his head while gritting his teeth. In the end, he shook his head, letting his anger go. ''I need to focus on the current problem first. It''s how to deal with the Griffith Family. I don''t like the idea of them using me for revenge, but the Griffith Family indeed wants to kill me��


    ''What if I tweak Sir Leonardo''s n a little bit?'' Theo decided to spend the rest of the day pondering over the n.


    When he returned to the mansion at night, Agata had been waiting for him right behind the door.


    Theo tilted his head in confusion. "What are you doing here?"


    "I have something to tell you."


    Seeing Agata''s serious expression, Theo furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "What is it?"


    "Maya had asked me toe with you."


    "And your reply?"


    "I haven''t given it yet." Agata shook her head. "Actually, I want to put it in the part of the contract as well�� If I can use this contract to help you, I don''t really mind."


    Theo''s expression became grim as he walked to her front, only a few inches away from her. "There is something I''d like to ask. Lately, I''vee to notice that you''ve been doing everything for me. Even sacrificing your future�� Is it worth it? Why would you sacrifice for someone that might never repay your feelings?"


    Agata put on a gentle smile. "That''s not it."


    "Then can you exin it to me?"


    "I''m just afraid that I''ll soon be useless to you�� Your talent is too strong for me to keep up. No matter what you say, I know that I won''t be able to be as strong as you�� In fact, I might be your burden sooner orter.


    "That''s why I want to do everything I can when I''m still capable of helping�� Because I know you''ll do everything for me in the future." Agata stared at his eyes. "I''ll try my best to be someone that you can rely on, but the probability is too low, so this is the only thing I can do."


    "Is it worth sacrificing your future for someone who hasn''t dedicated his life for you?"


    Agata fell silent, refusing to answer this question.


    Looking at her face, Theo let out a long sigh. "I won''t let you do such a thing. In any case, I''lle up with a solution sooner orter. Trust me."


    Agata bit her lips. "Then, there is still my family. We all owe you, so it''s time to use it."


    "I appreciate it, but I''m afraid the Griffith Family will shift their anger to your family. And I''m still not strong enough to handle it."


    "I''m prepared for it. I''m sure they know about this too."


    "I will do my best to take care of it so that your family doesn''t need to get involved in this colossal fight��" Theo shook his head and walked back to his room. But before he left, he added, "You have no control of me, I have no control of you. I''m free to do anything I want�� You''re the same."


    Agata turned around when she heard those words. Theo implied that he had no right to stop her�� But as she had been taught this whole time, she needed to be careful before making a decision.

 Chapter 836 – Dourner

    <h4>Chapter 836 - Dourner</h4>


    One and a half monthster.


    Theo was standing in front of a mountain. He once visited this mountain and received so many things. This time, there was one more business that would change his fate.


    He took a deep breath before shouting on top of his lungs. "Mountain King. Theodore Griffith hase to visit. I don''t have a way to find the Lightning Authority, so I''d like to seek your guidance."


    After that shout, Theo fell silent and stopped doing anything, waiting for the dwarf that once helped him.


    Surprisingly, there was no responseing from the inside in the next thirty minutes.


    By this time, many people would have given up or shouted once more. However, Theo believed his shout was already heard by the Mountain King or at least by other dwarves that protected the mountain.


    Another hour passed, and a voice finally came to his ears. "What are you doing, Brat? I have told you that I don''t want to have any business with you again."


    The sound came from the left as Theo''s body instinctively turned around, following this voice. He found the Mountain King, Dourner.


    "I know." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "But you should remember about the promise with the Lightning Authority, right? I have no way to contact him, so I don''t know how to meet him."


    "Are you here to seek guidance about the Order? Looking at your strength, it''s true that you have be far stronger��" Dourner frowned.


    "That''s one of the reasons," Theo admitted without hesitation.


    "One of the reasons? What are you trying to do?" Dourner narrowed his eyes, ring at him.


    "Actually, I''m at my wits'' end." Theo let out a long sigh. "I don''t even have the power to protect myself."


    "If you''re seeking my protection, dream on. I''ll tell you again and again that I''m not going to interfere with business with humans."


    "Of course. I won''t." Theo assured him with a smile. "I truly would like to ask him about Order and a few other things. Just toe here, I have to sneak out or I would have died."


    Theo indeed used his Metamorphosis toe to this ce or he would have been discovered by people from the Barbe Group or the Griffith Family. And this was probably the only time he coulde here.


    Dourner knew Theo''s situation seemed to be bad. But he still maintained his principle in not interfering with the world, especially humans.


    "So, you only want to meet him?"


    "Yes. I know that it''s impossible to ask for your help, and I personally don''t want to rely on you after all the things you''ve given to me." Theo nodded, acknowledging his intention.


    "That''s why you sent your clone here?"


    "Yeah."


    Dourner fell silent for a moment and thought for a moment. He took another look at Theo''s hands and asked, "Who is that other one? Darkness? Shadow? Or��"


    "It''s Dark Order."


    "Hmm��" Dourner pondered over his matter and pointed at the east. "I think you don''t have much time. He alwayses here every two years on the same date, but you don''t have time�� I will only give you the direction.


    "From this ce, approximately 400 miles in this direction�� You will find a mountain with its peak far above the clouds. If you want to find him, climb that mountain and say, ''I havee to seek guidance.''


    "He will appear before you. However, I need to warn you that this is a very dangerous journey. Climbing that mountain isn''t easy because there''s a severe thunderstorm there. It''s from his power, and if you reach that peak, he should be aware of your presence.


    "If you truly want to find him, this is the only way. Other than that, you will need to wait in this ce for a long time."


    Theo''s expression became grim. "I understand. Thank you for telling me this information. I''m going to find him."


    "Well��" He paused for a moment before raising his hand. "Give me your hand."


    Theo extended his hand.


    Dourner grabbed it and created a triangle on the back of his palm. "If you encounter another king like me, tell them that I''m the one sending you there to meet him."


    "I understand. Thank you so much for helping me."


    "I''m not helping you. I''m merely fulfilling my end of the agreement. Since you received that promise in my ce, it''s my job to give you this information. Also, even though this symbol can stop them from interfering with your business, I believe you still need to fight your way out to that ce. After all, they won''t tell the monsters to do anything."


    "I''ll do my best."


    "In that case, I wish you luck." Dourner sighed. "I truly don''t wish to see you again, kid."


    "Ahaha, I apologize if I disturb you. I promise that it won''t happen again��"


    "Next time youe here, you are going to break your own rule and start drinking with me."


    "Ehm, is that an invitation?"


    "No. Once you pass out, you''re dead. My wine is far more powerful than your imagination after all." Dourner snorted. "By the way, how is the wine I gave you previously?"


    "I haven''t drunk it yet nor given it to someone else. Since I''m nning to move to another country, I would like to present it to someone as thanks for helping me." Theo answered truthfully.


    "Well, it''s up to you." Dourner shrugged. "Anyway, I have fulfilled my agreement. It''s all yours now. Whether you can do it or not, it''s not my problem�� Though, I don''t believe you can finish this journey, especially with only your clone.


    "After all, the ones you will meet in this journey are far stronger." Dourner sighed and patted Theo''s shoulder. "Goodbye, kid."


    "Thank you very much, Mountain King." Theo lowered his head, politely thanking him.


    Dourner then disappeared, returning to his secret city. Meanwhile, Clone Theo looked in the direction that seemed to be beyond what Italy had explored and gulped down.


    "I should go��" Clone Theo used his Telekinesis, following the direction.

 Chapter 837 – Tough Journey

    <h4>Chapter 837 - Tough Journey</h4>


    Theo knew that the monsters he needed to face on the way were above Supreme Rank. And there was no one who could say about what he would face in this area, considering this ce had yet to be explored because of the danger.


    Still, Theo wasn''t afraid because he ventured into this unknown zone with his ant form. If he used his clone, he might be able to reach this ce within a day. But since he needed to prioritize his safety, ant form was better even though it might need 3-5 days.


    The first day of the journey wasn''t that big of a deal. Theo could even take proper rest and didn''t waste too much energy since no monsters wereing at him.


    But everything soon changed on the second day.


    When he was traveling through a savanna, Theo stopped and looked down. "This presence��"


    "!!!" Theo jumped into the air and used his Telekinesis to fly his little body before finding a huge brown worming out of the ground, almost swallowing him.


    The worm didn''t have a face. All it had was a huge mouth filled with numerous teeth that could rip apart anything that entered it.


    Its length was over 30 feet, making it impossible for Theo to escape even with his Telekinesis. After all, his travel speed decreased drastically with this small form.


    Theo turned back into his human form and created a hundred Magic Bullets with his Magic Power, and shot the worm from all directions.


    The worm suddenly turned red and withstood all the Magic Bullets without a single scratch.


    "Ugh�� I don''t have my weapon with me." Theo clicked his tongue and remembered one thing that stopped the humans from venturing into this area. "Now that I think about it, monsters above the Supreme Rank have a higher percentage to be more intelligent.


    "Seeing how this worm attacks me without any prior knowledge�� It means the worm is smart enough to recognize my Metamorphosis. In other words, my journey this time will be filled with numerous Rare ss Monsters��" Theo muttered and gulped down.


    "I need to end this fight as soon as possible." Theo took a deep breath and waved his hand.


    Suddenly, the worm was split into two with his Illusion.


    Instead of wailing in pain, the worm started moving to the left.


    "?!" Theo was surprised by the worm''s reaction. "Does it feel any pain?"


    Since the illusion was broken due to that sudden movement, the worm could move tounch an attack to Theo''s rear.


    But Theo wasn''t someone that could be brought down with such a simple movement. His Awareness predicted the worm''s movement as he turned his body right after the worm moved.


    His fist was already covered with blue light as Theo struck the worm right behind its sharp mouth.


    Bam.


    The worm was knocked away and rolled a few times on the ground before Theo used his Blink to appear in front of him and send Magic Bullets through his mouth, exploding the worm from within.


    [Killed a Grass Worm.]


    [EXP+326,400]


    "To think Prediction Eyes make the whole thing easier�� I should have learned this sooner." Theo sighed and just left the worm''s corpse there as he didn''t have any storage to store the cards.


    But when he was about to continue his journey, he was found by another group of monsters.


    The monsters had smooth gray skin and stood with four feet. They didn''t have eyes like the worm, but they seemed to be able to sense him.


    This time, Theo immediately fled the scene as fighting multiple monsters would tire him too much than a single worm.


    But these four monsters weren''t that easy to shake. Their speed was a bit faster than Theo, gradually catching up.


    Since he couldn''t outrun them, Theo turned into an ant to fool them.


    His n didn''t work as the monsters continued marching forward. For hisst resort, he turned into an eagle and soared to the sky. There shouldn''t be any problem since the monsters couldn''t fly.


    But not long after, a bird wasing at him.


    This yellow-colored bird was twice his size and intercepted him in the air with its talons.


    Theo covered his talons with Magic Power Expansion while the bird also covered its talons with green light.


    When the two shed, there was a huge shock wave that shook the area, blowing each other away.


    The four monsters on the ground opened their mouths and released a beam of red light at him.


    Theo spun his body, barely avoided the beams, andnded on the ground.


    "This journey might be far harder than I expected��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Illusion Construct to form a spear before enhancing it with his Sense of Touch, turning this illusion into a real spear.


    Although it wouldn''t be as good as his normal weapons, it was enough to handle these monsters.


    Since Theo had fallen to the ground, the four monsters charged forward, trying to prevent Theo from leaving.


    The bird also prepared to dive down, hitting Theo in case he wanted to go to the sky again.


    ''Should I travel underground? There''s still a worm like that��'' Theo thought while waving his spear to the first monster that almost pounced him.


    The monster used its foot and knocked the spear away. The other three leaped at him.


    Theo''s spear suddenly disappeared and turned into two swords with his Illusion Construct.


    The monster saw the changing shape, but it was toote.


    Theo shed his body with the sword, killing the monster.


    After that, he turned back into an ant to avoid the monsters'' feet. Then, he turned into a tiger and struck a monster''s head with his paw covered in Magic Power Expansion.


    *Roar!*


    Theo let out a roar before turning back into a human form and raising his left hand as the other one released another beam of light.


    The beam turned into a cloud of smoke with Theo''s Illusion Destruction.


    Seeing such a situation, the bird flew down and helped the monsters.


    But Theo had formed another spear and thrown it to the monster''s head, killing the third one.


    And when the bird arrived at him, Theo used his Blink to appear above thest monster and sliced its neck.


    The bird wasn''t in a good situation either. Before Theo disappeared, he left behind numerous Magic Bullets that struck the bird as soon as it entered the smoke.


    Boom.


    Theo let out a breath of relief and delivered the killing blow to this heavily injured bird.


    "This journey might indeed be a bit too difficult. Can I actually finish it?"

 Chapter 838 – Lightning Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 838 - Lightning Mountain</h4>


    "Ha�� Ha��" Theo panted while looking back, finding multiple monsters that chased after him.


    His body might not be covered in wounds, but he certainly felt a bit tired from the constant attack of the monsters.


    No matter how hard he tried to hide from them, the monsters found him. He had even scouted the area around and tried to avoid them. Yet, they discovered him in one way or another.


    Luckily, only ten percent of the encounters would lead to a fight. Or he would have died on the second day.


    There were four monsters that were chasing him. Two of them were running on four feet while the other two were jumping around the tree.


    The monsters didn''t have any fur, making them look different from most monsters he had encountered.


    But their sensitivity to Magic Power seemed to have increased due to that smooth skin.


    This was the reason why Theo had been fighting so many monsters on the second day and wanted to find a ce where he could rest to recover his Magic Power and stamina.


    While going through the woods, Theo set up two big Magic Bullets behind the trees and attached them with a string so that the monsters would trip and get destroyed by the st.


    But when they almost reached the hidden trap, they all leaped at the same time, avoiding the string made of Magic Power.


    Since Theo had fought them for a while, he already knew this wasn''t going to work. So, he set up another trick.


    When they jumped into the air, multiple Magic Bullets rained them down, pinning the monsters to the ground.


    The first monster raised its hand and formed a translucent shield on top of their heads, but Theo skillfully twisted the Magic Bullets'' paths to loop around the shield and struck them.


    The two monsters that ran with four feet protected the other two monsters with their bodies.


    However, two of the Magic Bullets actually followed a different path. Instead of going for the monsters, they pierced the hidden traps and exploded.


    Boom.


    The explosions knocked the monsters away as Theo used his Blink to appear behind them.


    He struck one of the monsters with a sword covered by Magic Power Expansion and burst its body. Then, he used his Magic Augmentation to agitate the Magic Power in his body.


    With this Magic Power, he summoned his Death Avatar.


    The huge Death Avatar raised both hands and pped the monsters, pinning them down on the ground.


    Taking this chance, Theo severed their heads with a sword, finally killing all four of them.


    After that, he dropped to his knees and started panting. "Ha�� Ha�� This is hard. It''s been three days since I started my journey. And I need to expend so much Magic Power in thest few hours. They truly don''t let me recover."


    Theo gritted his teeth and looked forward. "Still, I can''t give up. I haven''t met any King ss Monsters, so hopefully, I won''t be meeting them any time soon."


    Theo took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart down. Before continuing, he sat down, deciding to rest in this ce.


    But after five minutes of silence, he heard a sounding toward him.


    *Roar!*


    The roar was so loud that it rmed him along with the monsters in his surroundings.


    "Again?" Theo gritted his teeth and rose from the ground, continuing his journey.


    He kept using his Awareness to avoid all these monsters, but he was truly surrounded. He took the path where he needed to fight only two monsters to break through them.


    This kind of situation continued for another five hours until Theo left the forest and entered a valley.


    It seemed the forest had so many monsters whose sensitivity was above the rest since Theo managed to get around three hours to rest in this valley.


    He spent that time recovering his stamina and Magic Power before leaving the area with his ant form again due to several monsters finding him.


    After another day, Theo finally arrived at his destination, the mountain where he could meet the Lightning Authority.


    On the bottom of the mountain was a vast in with nothing but short grass. There was no monster lurking around, making this rocky mountain scarier.


    After all, the cloud around the mountain was ck, and thunder kept reverberating in his ears. The bluish-white light shed every few seconds.


    Seeing the peak was beyond the cloud, Theo could feel an intense, eerie feeling creeping inside his heart.


    "What is this mountain��" Theo gulped down, looking at this rocky mountain. With just a single nce, Theo could see the only way to climb this mountain was to leap from one rock to another or fly.


    He didn''t know why, but he felt the lightning strike forth when he climbed the mountain.


    "Even though the thunder keeps shaking this area, no lightninges down from the cloud. I feel like the one who creates this thunderstorm is him�� and this is the challenge that the Mountain King mentioned�� Severe thunderstorm, huh." Theo muttered in a low voice while preparing his heart.


    But when his heart was about to calm down, it skipped a beat when he heard a man''s voice from behind.


    "That''s right. If you want to meet with his excellency, the only way is toplete the seven challenges."


    "Who?!" Theo turned around and widened his eyes, finding a human figure.


    But unlike the human, this person had sharp-pointed eyes and big ears. He wore a in white shirt and ripped jeans.


    His pinkish skin excluded a faint green aura.


    Theo gulped down and looked at this person, asking, "Who are you? Do you know the Mountain King?"


    "Of course. I''m the Guardian of this Lightning Mountain. Since you''re seeking his excellency''s guidance, I need toe and give you some information on how to do it." The man smiled. "Still, to think a human can gain recognition from three Kings�� Even I''m surprised."


    "You are not going to kill me?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "No." He looked at his clothes. "Normally, I would kill every human thates close to this ce, but you''re different from them since the Mountain King sends you here."


    "He has promised to teach me about Orders��" Theo said carefully.


    "I understand. In that case, let''s change ces, shall we? I will show you the entrance��" He smiled.

 Chapter 839 – Seven Challenges

    <h4>Chapter 839 - Seven Challenges</h4>


    They moved in a different direction from the mountain. This time, Theo could see seven huge tforms on top of the rocky ground, heading straight to the thunder cloud.


    "His excellency allows anyone to seek his guidance as long as they can finish the seven challenges. Of course, these challenges will be toned down ording to your current power.


    "As you might know, we can gain power after eating. You, humans, consider it as levels. So, the challenges will correspond to your level.


    "If you try to go to the top of the mountain without following the rule, you won''t be able to meet him and might even die in the process due to those lightning strikes.


    "As for how toplete these challenges�� You need absolute power. It doesn''t matter what kind of power you have, as long as you have something that allows you to surpass the limit of normal.


    "For example, if you are at a certain level, your experience, skills, tools, and even outside help can take down someone above your level. This is the requirement to meet him. He just wants to make sure that someone who seeks his guidance is someone talented enough, so he doesn''t need to do it again and again, or else, every guidance won''t be a waste."


    Theo nodded in understanding. "I see. There are seven huge tforms above those rocks. I believe they represent each test, right?"


    "Yes. I will exin the seven tests for you." He smiled. "The tests are split into four sections. The first two tforms will test your judgment and speed.


    "In order words, you need to avoid all the lightning strikesing toward you while you are on the tform. As long as the lightning doesn''t touch your body, it''s alright. For the first tform, you are required to avoid fifty lightning strikes, while the second tform needs a hundred lightning strikes.


    "After passing that test, you''re free to climb to the next tform, and the lightning won''t attack you anymore.


    "As for the third and fourth tforms, you are required to receive the lightning with your body. The lightning won''t give you any injuries, but it will surely leave you in so much pain. If you pass out, there''s a chance you will die. But since your body seems to be made of Magic Power�� I assume this is not your real body. The worst that will happen to you is probably getting destroyed when you pass out.


    "The requirements are also the same as the previous ones. They need fifty and one hundred lightning strikes respectively. This is to test your mental fortitude and see how strong you wish for his guidance.


    "Moving on to the next sequence. This section will test your strength. Unlike the previous two sections, each tform only requires you to take on three lightning strikes. However, each lightning strike will be stronger than the others.


    "You need to be very careful about this because your body might truly be destroyed in the fifth and sixth tforms.


    "Last but not least, it''s thest tform. There is only one thing you need to do�� Use everything you get and pass through the cloud. This is thebination of your will, speed, and strength.


    "With your strength, you will open a path for you to go through. With your speed, you will pass through this tunnel of clouds�� And obviously, the lightning around you will electrocute you like the second section. You will pass out and fail if you can''t hold on. So, your willpower is needed here.


    "As long as you can pass the mountain, you will be able to meet his excellency. Each King in this territory has their own lines�� I believe the Mountain King has told you his lines, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "You shout that word, and his excellency will know who sent you and know your purpose."


    "I see. I will do my best."


    "Sure thing. Anyway, you''re tired aftering here from the Mountain King''s area, so you should rest first. There won''t be anyone bothering you during this time�� Hmm�� half a day should be enough for you, right?"


    "Yes." Theo confirmed it, surprised that the King ss Monster in front of him could gauge his strength.


    "In that case��" He turned around and pointed at the small cave at the bottom of the rocky mountain. "Go rest there. Even if there are other species, you won''t be attacked if you rest there."


    "I understand. Thank you for the exnation."


    "It''s fine. This is my job." He shook his head. "I will meet you again when you are about to take the test."


    After acknowledging his words, Theo walked to the cave.


    The cave was fifteen feet tall and twenty feet wide. When stepping into the cave, he immediately found the other end, so it wasn''t that deep.


    ''Still, to think that the monsters are more civilized than I thought��'' Theo thought while recalling the King ss Monster and this test. ''Nah, I should be thanking Avarice for granting me her seal. If not, other King ss Monsters would have attacked me, and I wouldn''t have had an opportunity to meet them.


    ''That guy mentioned earlier that the only reason he didn''t attack me immediately was because of the seals. The Dark Order wouldn''t give me anything if I didn''t have Moonlight Order�� I guess I need to thank Ava for all this since she''s the reason her mother gave the seal.


    ''Anyway, I should focus on the test instead of this. If I can''t pass this test, the situation will be moreplicated.'' Theo closed his eyes and rested his body, recovering his stamina and Magic Power.


    Since his safety was guaranteed, he ended up getting a good sleep.


    After a long nine hours, he woke up and prepared himself for the challenge.


    When the twelve hours limit was up, he walked to the bottom of the first tform and looked up, knowing this was going to be a huge challenge for him.


    The monster that guided him previously also came and mentioned onest thing. "Alright. You may start anytime. The lightning will strike forth as soon as you step on the tform."


    Theo nodded and leaped toward the tform.

 Chapter 840 – Challenging The Lightning Mountain (1)

    <h4>Chapter 840 - Challenging The Lightning Mountain (1)</h4>


    As soon as Theonded on the first tform, he raised his head and saw the light behind the dark cloud sh.


    A lightning bolt struck forth. Unlike normal lightning, the speed had been toned down to the level Theo could endure. Since he was at the lowest tform, it took the lightning three seconds to arrive at the tform, considering it needed to travel a mile first before reaching the first tform.


    On the way, Theo could see multiple lightning strikesing down in rapid session.


    Theo took a deep breath as he had already made a n to deal with the lightning strikes.


    He activated his Awareness to the limit and predicted the lightning movement.


    Theo took tworge steps to the left to avoid this lightning, but to his surprise, the lightning slightly curved as if following his movement.


    But due to the speed and distance, the lightning only deviated one foot from its original direction.


    At the same time, Theo could see other bolts of lightning changing their directions.


    ''So they follow me huh�� It''s gonna be a bitplicated.'' Theo''s heart started beating rapidly while his head remained calm, looking at the lightning.


    Theo stepped to the left and right to avoid the next two lightning and waved his hand to deal with the fourth lightning strike.


    He still remembered one move that Nina, his former Master, showed in Thernd. When fighting the ghost turtle, Nina clearly controlled the lightning. And it was through Materialization.


    Although he had been using Materialization to create his Magic Bullets and other objects, he truly needed to go back to the basics.


    With a single wave of his hand, he released a bit of Magic Power and attached the tip of the lightning strike with a string made of Magic Power.


    Then, he swung his hand to the side, forcing the lightning to curve ording to his will.


    "Hoh?" The King ss Monster raised his eyebrows when he saw this. "He can use something like this to divert the lightning? As long as he doesn''t destroy the lightning, it doesn''t break the rule. I guess he''s prepared to go through these ordeals. I should observe him a bit more."


    Theo looked around and stepped leaped to the right. He somehow felt grateful to Maya as the tform in this ce was two times bigger than the circle in the simtion room.


    Since he had endured all those hurdles, Theo felt this lightning force was cute.


    Ten lightning strikes��


    I wenty lightning strikes��


    Theo kept moving ahead of time and dodging all the lightning strikes effortlessly as though he was dancing on the tform.


    It was as if he had gotten used to this kind of attack.


    Even the King ss Monster was surprised by his calmness. "How? This is not a small feat. He should be able to predict the lightning movements�� But still, with so many lightning strikesing in rapid session, it''s not that easy to do it.


    "The lightning strikes also curve a bit to throw off your movement. Has he practiced something like this? No, has the Mountain King actually trained this guy?"


    The King ss Monster suspected the Mountain King of taking Theo as his disciple. Little did he know, it was impossible, especially when Theo refused to drink with him, let alone after he wasted his wine by making his clone drink it.


    He was simply unaware that Theo had practiced in the simtion room which was simr to this ce. At the same time, Theo had even gotten used to an even more absurd situation in the simtion room. There was no way he would be beaten by all these lightning strikes.


    While he was in shock, Theo had finished the challenge on the first tform as the lightning stoppeding.


    "What?!" The King ss Monster dropped his jaw. Theo''s strength was supposed to be low, considering the lightning still needed three seconds to reach the tform. Yet, the result was overwhelming.


    Theo wasn''t aware of his reaction as he immediately leaped to the second tform, which was three hundred feet higher than the first tform.


    This time, the lightning strikes came in a group of three.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes and leaped to the right to avoid all these lightning strikes. But the right lightning still had enough time to reach him, so Theo hit the lightning with his spear.


    He didn''t put much power into it so as to not destroy the lightning. Instead, he used it to deflect the lightning.


    Because of the numerous lightning that came at him in rapid session, Theo used both of his hands continuously.


    His left hand was used to attach the lightning and throw them away while his right hand waved the spear to deflect them. Theo then used his body to dodge the lightning one by one, making the situation simr to the first tform.


    "This kid is indeed talented enough in his speed and control over Magic Power. I rarely find someone handling the lightning like him�� Most of them are simply going to leap around the tform while the kid is barely moving from the center. He''s simply abnormal in this regard.


    "Still, it''s only the first section. I wonder how his willpower is. Can he endure the extreme pain of the lightning? If he passes out, it''s all over." The King ss Monster narrowed his eyes as Theo continued to avoid the lightning for another two minutes.


    After that, the lightning had stopped as the sign of Theo finishing the second trial.


    "He''s about to go to the third tform."


    Theo was unaware of the expectation that the King ss Monster put on him. He was simply staring at the third tform, ready to challenge the next one.


    Before going to the third tform, he suddenly remembered one thing and had a question in his mind. "That''s right. My clone doesn''t experience any pain if I don''t share my senses�� I wonder if this is legal or not. After all, the dragon knows about my clone as well as the sharing senses from my drinking battle with the Mountain King. Maybe I should ask��"


    Theo went to the end of the tform and shouted�� "Excuse me. I have a question!"

 Chapter 841 – Challenging The Lightning Mountain (2)

    <h4>Chapter 841 - Challenging The Lightning Mountain (2)</h4>


    "Excuse me. I have a question!"


    "Question?" The King ss Monster frowned and asked back. "What question? I hope this is not you trying to slow down the test to recover your power."


    "No, no. This is a genuine one." Theo waved his hand. "Actually, this body can easily block all senses so that I won''t feel any kind of pain. Even he already knows this. I am wondering if I can block my senses again or not."


    The King ss Monster widened his eyes, thinking Theo wasn''t supposed to ask this. After all, if he was quiet about this, the test would still continue with himpleting the third and fourth tforms without letting a single sound.


    "Why do you ask this?"


    "This is a test, so I wonder if I should cheat the test or not. As I said earlier, he already knows about this." Theo chuckled.


    The King ss Monster thought for a moment and said, "I''ve never seen a case like this, so even I don''t have that answer. But since his excellency already knows about your situation, I believe it''s alright for you to do whatever you want. Though, I personally wish to see you going through it like any other challengers."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression. It took him a moment to decide to share all the senses.


    He did all this not to impress the Lightning Authority or the King ss Monster. Instead, he shared his senses because he wanted to know the feeling of being electrocuted.


    Unlike any other lightning, this one only transmitted pain. Hence, this was the safest method to know the pain produced by lightning. If he could reproduce this, his pain collection would increase, allowing him to create a new type of illusion.


    After getting his answer, he leaped to the third stage.


    "Since you''re honest with me, I''ll give you tips. Go to the center of the tform and sit down if you want to be struck in one ce or lie down if you want to be struck in every part of your body. People have different preferences."


    "Thank you." Theo smiled andnded on the middle of the tform. Since the lightning came out right after he stepped on the tform, he immediatelyid down without hesitation, looking at the lightning that was going to strike him.


    "Well�� This is certainly scary." Theo muttered. No matter how fearless he was, looking at the lightning that was about to hit you was certainly scary.


    In the end, he nned to pass this stage with his eyes closed.


    It was at this time the first lightning bolt arrived and struck his chest.


    *Zab!*


    Unlike the first two tforms, the lightning was meant to be unavoidable, so there was no need for it to be slowed down. The lightning came in a single sh before a huge thunderous rumble shook the rocky mountain.


    "Dar!"


    Theo widened his eyes in shock when he experienced this with his clone.


    The excruciating pain in the form of intense burning and piercing sensation spread from his chest to his entire body.


    Although the pain would lead anyone to scream, Theo only gritted his teeth and endured the pain without letting a single sound.


    No matter how painful it was, he felt it couldn''t bepared to the death he had experienced this whole time.


    ''I shall use this sensation as my training�� Burning and piercing sensation.'' Theo remembered this pain in his head before getting struck on his right hand.


    He experienced the same pain, but because there was no organ on the right arm, the pain was less painful than the one that struck his chest.


    ''Still, there''s no lightning smell�� I believe there is such a thing when you''re going to be struck by natural lightning. If I can''t experience it here, never mind then.


    ''This pain alone is enough for the aftermath. As long as I can endure this, I should have gathered enough data for my Illusion Maniption.''


    While enduring the paining from the lightning strikes, Theo contemted what he would do with the data.


    In just one minute, he had been struck by lightning fifteen times. Yet, there wasn''t a single sounding out of his mouth.


    Feeling weird about this urrence, the King ss Monster frowned and looked at the third tform. Since Theo was lying down, there was no way for him to check Theo''s expression from the bottom.


    ''Is he actually blocking his senses? Well, it''s not forbidden��'' The King ss Monster contemted for a moment before he disappeared.


    He jumped from one rock to another, climbing the mountain. As soon as he reached near the third tform, he found Theo clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, enduring the pain.


    ''I guess I''m wrong.'' As soon as he saw Theo''s expression, the monster jumped off the cliff while thinking, ''He''s enduring the pain, so it means he doesn''t block the pain. In that case, this human is terrifying.


    ''To think he can endure such pain when he''s this young�� From his facial features as well as his strength alone, I know that this guy is very young.


    ''If that''s the case, the human''s mental fortitude is far higher than I expected��'' The monster looked down, remembering the scene where he killed other humans that approached this area.


    The image of them shrieking and screaming in pain with tears on their cheeks was still fresh in his mind.


    So, he knew that Theo actually withstood all that pain with his willpower alone.


    ''He is not like other humans�� I guess there''s a reason why he''s recognized by three Kings. Not only his speed but his mental fortitude is also at a scary level. Judging from his control alone, his strength should be quite high as well.


    ''I see. This human might be able toplete all these challenges, but I don''t know how good the rest of his performance is��'' The King ss Monster smiled as he felt a bit excited to see what kind of sight Theo would show.


    ''I''m looking forward to the rest of the challenges.''

 Chapter 842 – Challenging The Lightning Mountain (3)

    <h4>Chapter 842 - Challenging The Lightning Mountain (3)</h4>


    With such a mental fortitude, Theo finished the third challenge without letting out a single sound. He then marched to the fourth one, where the lightning struck forth in a group. In other words, the pain he experienced would be a few times higher than the previous one.


    But it also meant Theo didn''t need to endure the pain for a long period of time since the lightning that struck him soon reached the one hundred mark.


    During this time, Theo effortlessly endured the lightning strike as though he had gotten used to it on the third tform.


    Although he was still gritting his teeth, his expression was more rxed on this fourth challenge.


    When he finished the fourth one, Theo stood up and checked his body''s condition.


    "Hmm. My body is numb because of the lightning. However, I think it''s tolerable and won''t affect my performance for now. I should continue to the fifth stage right now." Theo muttered while staring at the fifth tform.


    "Strength, eh. This is rather different because I need to exert all my strength��" Theo thought for a moment and gulped down.


    To his surprise, right before he leaped to the fifth tform, the King ss Monster visited him.


    "Hey, human. If you canplete the fifth and sixth challenges with flying colors, I want you to listen to me for a bit." The King ss Monster smirked as though he was anticipating him to do it.


    "Is that so?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Well, I have no reason to refuse."


    "Great. Don''t disappoint me." The King ss Monster leaped back to the ground, observing Theo''s performance.


    As soon as he reached the fifth tform, the thunder cloud shone brightly.


    A huge bolt of lightning formed below the cloud before the lightning from inside hit it.


    It turned out the lightning ball was used to expand the lightning and increase its power.


    "Oh?" Theo squinted his eyes, summoned all his Magic Bullets, and shot the lightning down.


    Unlike the previous two sections, the lightning in the third section was extremely slow as though it sacrificed its speed to increase the power.


    This allowed Theo to wear the lightning down first before destroying it.


    The Magic Bullets hit the lightning from all directions, but the heat of the lightning destroyed most of the Magic Bullets, leaving only a few to test the water.


    To his surprise, the lightning didn''t seem to be affected by a mere thirty Magic Bullets, so Theo had no choice other than destroying it with all his power.


    With the spear he created by using the Illusion Construct, he leaped into the air, preparing to destroy it in midair. This way, even if he failed and pushed back to the tform, he still had onest chance to destroy this lightning.


    ''Since I need to handle six lightning strikes along with that thundercloud, it''s not wise to use all my Magic Power. I should deal with each lightning with the least amount of power��'' Theo took a deep breath and released his Magic Power to the spear before reinforcing it with the Telekinesis.


    The moment he reached the lightning, he thrust the spear upward and pierced the lightning.


    The sh between him and the lightning resulted in a shock wave followed by a huge thunderous p.


    Theo''s Magic Power and Telekinesis split the lightning into all directions and kept going.


    But as expected from fighting in the air, he had no footing to hold his body. Even with the Telekinesis supporting his body, he was pushed back by the lightning.


    As if he had expected this kind of result, Theo smirked and ced his hand forward, pouring more Magic Power into it.


    Illusion Destruction!


    With the use of this skill, the lightning soon turned into an illusion in the form of ashes. The lightning bolt rapidly lost its power, and Theo soon regained the ground to the point his Telekinesis could maintain the altitude.


    "Boom!"


    A loud shock wave shook the rocky mountain as the lightning vanished into thin air.


    Theonded on the ground with a smile on his face. "First one is done. Still, to think it''s stronger than I expected��"


    Little did he know, even the King ss Monster was shocked by Theo''s disy of power.


    ''What? This level of power shouldn''t be possible�� The lightning speed on the first two tforms has shown me his current power. So, this lightning is far too strong.'' The King ss Monster widened his eyes in shock.


    When he was about to warn him, a voice rang directly in his head.


    ''There''s no need to panic. This kid can handle it.''


    ''Your Excellency?'' The King ss Monster recognized this voice as it belonged to none other than the Lightning Authority.


    ''I can feel my power being depleted from this trial, so I came to take a look since it has a rather interesting result. To think he''s the oneing here��''


    ''Do you know him, Your Excellency? If I remember correctly, he said you promise to teach him Orders.''


    ''Yes. Still, to think that this kid challenges this ce with only his clone, even I''m surprised. If he brings the artifact Dourner gave him along with his real body, the test will be much easier than this.''


    ''Is he that strong?''


    ''He is unique, and I have a feeling that an Authority Level figure is teaching him all this. Probably a relic of the past.''


    ''What?'' The King ss Monster gasped, taken aback by this sudden revtion. ''What should I do then? I was about to exchange something with him��''


    ''It''s fine. You can do that. You know the rules.''


    ''I understand.''


    ''Anyway, I''m going to tweak the test a bit to see the limit of his power. Don''t tell him about it.''


    ''I''ve received yourmand.'' The King ss Monster turned serious as he watched how Theo challenged the second lightning strike.


    Seeing the blue lightninging down, Theo raised his spear and covered it with Magic Power Expansion. He didn''t forget to increase its strength by using his Magic Augmentation.


    He leaped from the ground and thrust his spear upward.


    "Ha!" Theo shouted and pierced the lightning.

 Chapter 843 – Challenging The Lightning Mountain (4)

    <h4>Chapter 843 - Challenging The Lightning Mountain (4)</h4>


    Theo gritted his teeth, feeling the restriction from the lightning. However, he could see that his spear dispersed the lightning rapidly.


    As long as he could endure this, he shouldn''t have any problem destroying this lightning strike.


    However, he was soon pushed to the ground by the lightning momentum and relied on the tform to give him the necessary support to stop this lightning.


    Little by little, the lightning dispersed to the surroundings until eventually, the lightningpletely disappeared.


    "Ha��" Theo let out a sigh of relief.


    It wasn''t the time for him to lower his guard yet. The moment he finished, he summoned his Death Avatar.


    The huge figureing out of Theo''s shadow immediately caught the attention of the King ss Monster along with the dragon.


    ''That��'' The King ss Monster frowned and muttered inwardly, ''That figure has rich energy, more than anything he has shown this whole time. Is he getting serious now?''


    As soon as he thought about it, the third lightning struck forth.


    Theo used his Magic Power Expansion to cover the Death Avatar''s hands.


    When the lightning was about to fall on him, Theo sent a fist upward. Unlike the normal fist, this punch contained his Magic Power as well as his Telekinesis, creating torrential energy that struck the lightning.


    This was the same as Ne''s Saint Fist Style, Twister. The lightning was literally stopped right above the Death Avatar, trying to neutralize the power of this punch.


    However, Theo''s Death Avatar immediately raised its hands and grabbed the lightning.


    The Magic Power Expansion shed with the lightning power, but the Death Avatar''s hands seemed to be able to crush the lightning.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    A series of explosions urred due to the sudden burst of lightning caused by the Death Avatar.


    Theo gritted his teeth and started wondering if this was enough since the Death Avatar had lost a portion of its hands together with a few fingers.


    Since he didn''t want to let the lightning destroy the Death Avatar, Theo leaped into the air and struck the spear with all his might while using his Illusion Destruction to deplete the power.


    With the power from Theo''s spear wearing the lightning''s strength down, the Illusion Destruction sessfully turned the rest of the lightning into ashes.


    The lightning disappeared, and no lightning strike came down again.


    "Haha�� That''s quite hard." Theo took a few deep breaths, never expecting to fight such a power. "I''m afraid I won''t be able to deal with the next tform if this continues��"


    Theo''s expression became serious as he couldn''t find any other way except his trump card.


    He retracted his Death Avatar first and calmed his heart down before leaping to the sixth tform.


    As soon as he reached the tform, Theo resummoned his Death Avatar.


    Instead of covering his Death Avatar''s hands with Magic Power Expansion, Theo formed a huge spear with his Illusion Construct and allowed the Death Avatar to wield it.


    Only after that did he use his Magic Power Expansion and cover the spear held by the Death Avatar.


    Theo smiled, feeling satisfied with the power. With this, he should have no problem in challenging the lightning strike.


    However, his confidence shattered when he saw golden-colored lightninging down.


    "What is happening?" Theo gulped down as he could sense the amount of Magic Power contained in that spear.


    He almost forgot the fact that each section had two parts. The first part always released one lightning, while the second part attacked him with three of them together.


    In other words, the lightning he faced right now contained three times the amount of what he faced in the fifth tform.


    Seeing such a might, Theo gritted his teeth and pierced the lightning with his giant spear.


    "I''m not that weak." Theo poured more Magic Power into his Death Avatar and tried to hold the avatar as long as possible. After all, the moment his avatar disappeared, the lightning would hit and destroy him.


    While the avatar held back the lightning, Theo punched the lightning again with his Telekinesis, trying to take away a portion of the power.


    The shsted for three minutes and ended with an explosion.


    "What?" Theo was shocked by this sudden explosion and tried to block it, but the explosion ended up destroying the spear and the entire right arm of the Death Avatar.


    With such injury, Theo chose to retract the Death Avatar. Although he could easily summon the Death Avatar again, summoning the avatar required more Magic Power than maintaining it. That was why he didn''t wish to keep resummoning the avatar.


    Since he had no way to handle the other two lightning strikes without the avatar, Theo had no choice other than to resummon it.


    At the same time, he also created another spear thrice bigger than the previous spear.


    God Killing Spear!


    This was the spear that could withstand the might of that powerful arrow from the magma monster. Although the power was less than the previous version due to theck of Magic Bullet Skill, the momentum created by the Death Avatar should be enough to drastically increase its power.


    The Death Avatar grabbed the God Killing Spear and pulled his arm back, preparing tounch it the moment the lightning came out.


    Meanwhile, the King ss Monster opened his mouth in surprise. ''Seriously? How many trump cards does he have? No wonder his excellency thinks highly of this human. He is indeed built differently. With his main body and artifact, this kind of lightning wouldn''t pose much trouble for him.


    ''Although I still doubt that the main body can replicate this kind of power��'' The King ss Monster observed the avatar and felt something wrong with it. Although it was faint, the Death Avatar seemed to be attached to the main body instead of the clone.


    In other words, Theo should only be able to use one Death Avatar at a time. ''This kind of power shoulde for a price. And it seems to have the power of Order. Although his clone is good, it shouldn''t have the power to wield Order�� At least, not at the level of the main body.''


    He looked at the second lightning strikeing forward. "Here ites��"

 Chapter 844 – Trade

    <h4>Chapter 844 - Trade</h4>


    Theo looked at the second lightning strike and immediately waved his hand.


    As if responding to his action, the Death Avatar threw the spear as hard as possible.


    The throw even created a small shock wave.


    With the spear''s speed, the lightning didn''t even have the chance to travel half of the distance as it was already struck by the spear.


    The sh between the lightning and the God Killing Spear shook the entire mountain. The shock wave traveled far away.


    The spear and the lightning seemed to be neutralizing each other''s power at the same rate.


    If this continued, the lightning might win the exchange, but it wouldn''t have enough power to harm Theo anymore.


    Having enough confidence in his own spear, Theo raised his foot and stepped on the ground.


    The Telekinesis pushed the air upward, umting it on top of Theo''s head. This Ascension Step wasn''t meant to destroy the current lightning. It was the preparation for thest lightning because he knew this would be the hardest one.


    He wanted to give his Divine Technique a chance to fight against the lightning.


    The moment Theo took the third step, the spear finally disappeared, leaving only weak lightning. The Death Avatar caught the lightning and destroyed it to give a path for the Ascension Step.


    As expected, the lightning immediately came out as though it was nning to take revenge on the previous sh.


    Theo snorted and took the fourth step.


    Ascension Step, 4th Step.


    The torrential wind flew upward like that of a wind cannon.


    As soon as they made contact, the lightning dispersed the wind in all directions, but the wind was more resilient.


    It stopped the lightning from advancing for a few seconds. Within these few seconds, Theo had taken the fifth step.


    Another wave of wind pushed the lightning back, shocking the King ss Monster who witnessed this battle.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t have the time to react because Theo had sent the sixth step, reinforcing the wind torrent above him.


    With such a strong wind, the lightning was gradually pushed back, and its electricity was carried by the dispersed wind.


    Although this meant Theo had an advantage against thisst lightning, he wouldn''t underestimate the lightning. He took another step topletely destroy it.


    Ascension Step, 7th Step.


    The power of the wind boosted the torrential wind and destroyed the lightning even faster as though there was a sharp spear dispersing the lightning.


    Theo started panting as he still needed to look out for the consumption of his Magic Power. After all, there was still onest challenge, and he had used his Death Avatar a few times along with this Ascension Step.


    With such pressure from the wind, the lightning returned to the thunder cloud and exploded, dispersing the cloud in all directions.


    The remaining power contained in the wind was supposed to open a path on the cloud, but the cloud refused to move as if adhering to the rule of the seventh tform.


    "��" The King ss Monster was speechless. Not only did Theo pass with flying colors, but the Lightning Authority had increased the difficulty of thest few challenges. Yet, Theo didn''t even need his main body to fight the lightning strikes.


    From the look of it, Theo should have no problem fighting against someone a hundred levels above him.


    However, the monster still had a doubt and finally climbed the mountain to meet him.


    "You are truly remarkable. This is the first time I see the lightning getting pushed back to the cloud." The monster chuckled. "I want to propose a trade with you."


    "A trade?"


    "With the Lightning Authority''s order, we''re required to have an equal trade that needs to be agreed by both parties without any use of coercion. So, I want to propose a deal.


    "What I want is the secret to deal with the third and fourth tforms. Looking at your performance earlier, I knew that you experienced all that pain. It made me wonder what kind of training have you gone through to possess such tolerance against pain.


    "If you agree to show me, I will teach you one of my techniques. Of course, I won''t teach you until you understand it. I will only show you how it''s done and the concept behind it. Whether you can replicate it or not depends on your talent."


    The King ss Monster then turned around and punched forward. Suddenly, a thunderp urred and created a powerful shock wave that traveled forward ording to the direction of his punch.


    The shock wave was powerful enough that Theo could feel a strong push despite it not heading in his direction.


    "This is what I''m nning to show you." The King ss Monster stated with a smile.


    Theo thought for a moment. Since he was nning to leave the country, he might not meet this King ss Monster anymore. He thought it would be fine to show him a bit of his secret.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar and said, "This is how I do it�� Don''t resist, okay?"


    Theo sent his Killing Intent to the monster''s head.


    ''Hmm, my mind is protected by my power, so it''s not easy to prate it. But this is him showing how it''s done, I should lower my guard.'' The King ss Monster thought and closed his eyes, allowing Theo to influence his mind.


    Suddenly, his consciousness traveled to Theo''s blood realm.


    "This is��" The monster felt a chill all over his body before a sharp pain jolted his mind. He looked down and saw his hand falling to the ground. "Kh��"


    The monster instinctively raised his guard again and stopped this power from influencing his mind. As a result, he returned to the real world and looked at Theo with a shocked face.


    "I see. So, that''s your power�� It seems that you can die thousands of times. I can''t even imagine the pain you''ve suffered to train your mind." The King ss Monster gritted his teeth, trying to calm his heart down.


    After that, he said, "Anyway, what I showed you earlier is how to produce a thunderp that can generate force to give a boost of your punch�� since you used a few punches during the challenges.


    "You can control your Magic Power to create two waves on your lower arm. When the waves shed with each other, they would explode and produce that thunderous sound. All you need to do is release another wave of Magic Power to push the force generated from that thunderp forward.


    "That''s all. With this, the trade is nowpleted�� You may continue with the seventh trial."

 Chapter 845 – Reaching The Peak

    <h4>Chapter 845 - Reaching The Peak</h4>


    Theo thought this punch was something useful, so he recorded everything in his mind, nning to replicate it as soon as he returned.


    After that, Theo leaped to the seventh tform.


    The seventh tform allowed him to prepare his strongest move. Hence, Theo took his time to calm his mind.


    He had thought about how to open a path, so all he needed to do was y ording to the script in his head.


    The situation was calm for several minutes until Theo released his Death Avatar again.


    Before equipping his Death Avatar with any weapon, Theo started using his Ascension Step.


    The wind gathered right beneath the cloud, and the moment he utilized the fourth step, the wind pushed the cloud inside as if drilling a hole in the cloud.


    5th Step.


    6th Step.


    7th Step.


    Theo didn''t waste any time using all the steps he had mastered, especially when he witnessed the cloud gradually recover.


    Unlike the previous tform, Theo had prepared onest push necessary to open his path.


    After all, when he looked upward, he found out that the cloud was so thick that despite creating a hole 300 feet long wasn''t enough for him to see the sky.


    Hence, Theo raised his foot one more time and released the one he had ever used.


    Ascension Step, 8th Step.


    The burst of wind flew upward and dispersed all the ck clouds to the surroundings. The power from the 8th step boosted all the previous steps and drilled more than 200 feet long alone by itself.


    Still, despite using such power, Theo had yet to prate the cloud. At the same time, the cloud closed itself at a rapid rate. He only had one chance, and there wasn''t much time left.


    Without hesitation, Theo formed a huge ball made of Magic Power on top of the Death Avatar''s palms. It was pure Magic Power that had been enhanced by his Magic Augmentation.


    "Ha�� ha��" Theo clutched his heart, feeling a bit sick because he used most of his remaining Magic Power in this attack.


    Before the cloud closed, he used his Telekinesis to fly upward, nning to go through even if it meant he would be in the middle of the cloud with no visibility.


    The huge tunnel he had created with the Ascension Step had helped him dispersing all the lightning.


    Still, the surrounding lightning seemed to be connected to each other and formed a small maic field that pulled Theo down.


    Theo gritted his teeth and resisted this power even if it meant his speed decreased significantly. At the same time, his Death Avatar tossed the ball of Magic Power to the end of the tunnel.


    "Go!" Theo shouted, pinning hisst hope.


    Unfortunately, due to the strong pulling force, the light ball couldn''t reach the end and had to stop 50 feet below it.


    Seeing there was no other way, Theo detonated the ball.


    "Boom!"


    The Magic Power burst out of the light ball and generated a shock wave that pushed all the clouds away, creating a massive spherical hole inside the cloud.


    But what made Theo happy was the dark sky on top of the cloud. He found the exit.


    Theo used all his remaining strength to force his way up while resisting all the paining from the lightning. He even retracted his Death Avatar in order to conserve some power to go through this cloud.


    "Kh��" Theo gritted his teeth as his Magic Power was almost empty. "Can I do it?"


    A doubt arose in his heart, but Theo had sworn to meet the dragon, so he persisted and used the remaining Magic Power to create onest boost needed tounch him into the sky.


    "Gooo!" Theo shouted, psyching up for this trial. He also saw that the tunnel was about to close, so he used thatst boost now.


    The boost threw him out of the tunnel, leaving him with nothing. He didn''t even have any Magic Power to stabilize his posture.


    While blown away, Theo saw the pointed peak below him, but with the momentum he had right now, it was impossible for him to reach that peak. He might even go back to the cloud at this rate.


    ''Is my effort going to be useless?'' Theo thought while looking at the cloud. He looked at the sky and saw a ck cloud forming and expanding as though it was alive.


    In that instant, he came to a realization and shouted on top of his lungs. "I''vee to seek guidance."


    The cloud above him let out a thunderous sound as a light suddenly shed behind it, revealing a giant shadow on top of the cloud.


    The giant dragon gradually descended to the pointed mountain top while replying to Theo. He extended his tail and caught Theo gently. "Congrattions for finishing my trials, child."


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and started panting on top of his tail. He looked at the dragon and asked, "Since when��"


    "It seems that my little trick has been discovered." The dragon chuckled.


    "I''ve noticed that the difficulty from the fifth tform onward has risen drastically. Although I don''t have any proof earlier, seeing you here is enough for me to realize��" Theo gritted his teeth.


    "Haha, I apologize. I couldn''t contain myself from testing your limit. It''s rare to see someone as strong as you." The dragon smiled and looked Theo in the eyes. "Of course, since it''s like this, I will give you something for this incident. I''m sure that youe here not only for the Orders, right?"


    Theo fell silent. Although he hated to admit it, the dragon''s wisdom was truly one of a kind.


    "Yes."


    "Then, let''s hear it. I will listen to your request first before teaching you about Orders. However, there is one thing I need to ask�� Why haven''t you used your Illusion? Are you afraid that your illusion can''t affect the cloud?"


    "Huh, what are you saying? Illusion will only trick your senses." Theo frowned.


    "Haha." The dragon chuckled. "You will understand it eventually, child�� Anyway, let''s move on to your request first."

 Chapter 846 – Lacking

    <h4>Chapter 846 - Lacking</h4>


    "Let''s move on to your first request."


    The moment Theo heard it, his expression became grim as he fearlessly stated, "I would like to ask for your cooperation."


    "My cooperation?"


    "Yes. I want to go somewhere else, but my ability is limited."


    The dragon fell silent for a moment and understood the meaning. "Do you want to go to another dimensional gap?"


    "Dimensional gap? Is that the name for the teleportation circle?"


    "Yes. For what reason do you wish to go to another dimensional gap through this ce?" The dragon asked. It was clear that Theo wasn''t supposed to travel through this ce, so the dragon couldn''t help but suspect that he wanted to do something big. He didn''t want to meddle too much with human business.


    "I��" Theo hesitated for a moment and said, "Tactical retreat."


    "I see. Fleeing from your country." The dragon looked at the surroundings first before saying, "I suppose you want me to carry you to another ce. Is it possible to know the name of that ce?"


    "I don''t know the actual name to be honest."


    "Just tell me the name of the country. I know about their dimensional gaps."


    "The United States."


    "Oh��" The dragon closed his eyes, falling into deep thought. "I can agree to it but with two conditions."


    "Two conditions?"


    "Yes. First, only you and the rabbit child can ride on my back. Second, you need to prove you are worthy of my help. I know Leonardo as well as his power. If you say that you don''t even have the ability to resist, the enemies should be either stronger or more in quantity.


    "I assume it''s thetter. In other words, there will be multiple people that will chase after you, presumably Mythical Rank Experts. So, I want you to prove to me that you can get away from them. Only then will I help you."


    Theo opened his mouth in surprise. "That��"


    Even the first condition alone was already hard to meet. After all, this meant he needed to leave Agata behind.


    Agata had been doing her best for him, yet, he couldn''t do anything back.


    "Child. I need to tell you one thing. If you don''t like the condition you get now, you need strength. Without it, you won''t be able to do anything.


    "If you are strong enough, you can make me cooperate with you easily or even force me to be your mount. However, you don''t have that strength. Even with me altering the trials, this is the limit of my cooperation.


    "It''s true that you''re smart enough to fool multiple enemies, but without possessing any strength, you will always be looked down upon.


    "For me, there are five important things to have: Abilities, Connections, Experience, Tools, and Wits. You have Experience, Tools, and Wits right now. If you have enough connections, you will surely be able to handle anything you have�� Even threatening me with a few Leonardo. As for your abilities�� It''s good for someone at your level, but not enough.


    "That''s why I still don''t see you as a strong man in my eyes. You are stillcking two of them." The dragon shook his head. "Those two conditions�� Whether you want to ept it or not, it''s up to you."


    Theo looked down as his heart couldn''t choose this.


    "I know that you are not ready to answer this question. Hence, tell me the time and the promised ce. I will be there to witness your resolve and see whether you are qualified or not."


    Gritting his teeth, he said, "40 days, in the Dark Poison Swamp."


    He knew that he couldn''t rely on the Wind Emperor in this matter, especially when he had been scrutinized for helping him not long ago. So, the dragon was the only one he could ask for help.


    The only thing he needed to think about now was how to break the news to Agata.


    The dragon was right. Without external help, he wouldn''t be able to handle even one Mythical Rank Expert. Even though there was an option in relying on others, the favor he owed them would be too big, and it would haunt him in the near future.


    And there wouldn''t be a need for external help if he was actually stronger. Theo learned his current weakness from reality.


    At the same time, he knew that the dragon would intrude on others'' territories. If it was only a King ss Monster, the dragon shouldn''t be afraid. However, it would be a different case if the other party was a World ss Monster.


    That was why the dragon had also sacrificed so much. Although it was easy for him to bring one more person, no one could say otherwise since he could retract that offer altogether.


    Just like he said, if he could beat the dragon, it was possible to make the dragon his mouth and transport all of them.


    Clenching his hands, Theo looked at the dragon. "In 40 days. I will show you my answer."


    The dragon nodded with a calm expression. "That shall be the agreement between us."


    Theo closed his eyes and let out a sigh, disappointed with the result. But this was the only thing he could do in order to deal with the Barbe Group and the Griffith Family without selling his future to anyone else.


    "Thank you for making me realize how worthless I am." Theo red at the dragon. There was anger reflected in his eyes, but it wasn''t directed to the dragon. He was angry at himself for not being able to get a better result.


    "I didn''t do anything. I simply stated my own conditions." The dragon shook his head. "Without strength, your life will only be controlled by others. The people around you will be at the mercy of your enemies."


    Theo closed his eyes and calmed his heart down.


    Seeing Theo''s expression, the dragon smiled and said, "Alright. Now that we are done with the agreement. Let''s continue with the guidance. You are here to know how to get an Order, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, let me tell you."

 Chapter 847 – Recognition

    <h4>Chapter 847 - Recognition</h4>


    "To be fair, you can get your Order anytime you want."


    Theo widened in shock, not understanding what he said. "What do you mean?"


    "Someone has set up the foundation for you. And all you need to do is to find a way to connect to the world itself."


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. He remembered the God of Mischief setting up a foundation based on Five Aspects.


    This might have been the so-called foundation. Theo looked at him and asked, "Is the foundation rted to Five Aspects?"


    "No."


    "Eh?"


    "The foundation is rted to your very own existence. How do you live and what do you expect to be in the future��" The dragon paused for a moment. "Have you ever set a rule for yourself on how to act?"


    "On how to act��" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground and remembered the three rules. "Wait a minute��"


    "It seems you have received your answer."


    "Is that how to get an order? It''s not rted to any sort of power?" Theo was taken aback by the revtion. The rules were supposed to make deception even more real, not rted to Orders.


    "You''re underestimating it, Child. For example, can you imagine someone who lives hating the tree and destroying them for as long as he remembers to get a Tree or nt Order?" The dragon shook his head gently, exining with an example.


    "No." The answer was clear. There wasn''t even a need to think about it.


    "That''s right. You are the living example of your own Order. The Order will reflect your very existence. This is why Order usuallyes when you are a Supreme Rank, if not a Mythical Rank Expert. At that time, you have lived enough with your rule and have a set of rules for yourself."


    Theo''s body was shaking as he never expected that the truth had been so close to him this whole time. "Deception�� No, Illusion. Am I going to inherit that?"


    "No one knows. Even with a rule you set in your life, there''s no guarantee that you will receive that one particr Order. Just like me, Heat, and Fire Orders�� What do you think you need to do in order to get those three Orders? The conditions must be simr, but why are there three Orders?"


    Theo remembered what the dragon said earlier. "Future?"


    "Exactly. Now that you have recognized your value, what will you do with it? Are you going to break the rule? Are you going to adjust it a bit to match what you like? Everything is up to you. If you are expected to live ording to that rule for the rest of your life, can you do it?"


    Theo looked down for a moment before realizing something. "Does that mean I can actually twist the rules in order to match my own personality? What do I like and what do I want to be in the future?"


    "That''s right. When you hold the Order, you are expected to act that way. If you can''t bear it and break your own rule, the Order will be taken back by this world."


    The God of Mischief once warned him about the no lie rule. He didn''t expect him to live without lying the moment he set that rule. Instead, he expected Theo to gradually get used to this kind of situation.


    Theo somehow received his answer. "So, this is��"


    "The more you define your existence, the stronger your Order is. There is also another factor that you need to think about��"


    "What is that?"


    "The faith. How do people define you? It''s true that your way of life is the biggest factor, but the world needs to judge you whether you are qualified to wield that Order or not. And the people''s opinions are the statement to support that existence.


    "Your rabbit friend is simr. Someone has set up the foundation, and all that person needs to do is to make her expecting the Order soon."


    ''The rule that is set up by the God of Mischief is how to annoy other people�� But in those three rules, he has given me the basic needs for the Order. First, it''s to annoy other people, meaning he wants me to build people''s faith in what kind of person I am.


    ''Second, the never lie condition, which is something I shouldn''t break. Then, there are two others.'' Theo thought and smiled. "I see. The foundation, huh."


    "Yes. After you expect this, the world will contact you and give you the Order. As for what kind of Order you will receive�� You are the one who knows it."


    "The world will contact me? Now that I think about it, you have been talking as if this world and the Earth are the same." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Have I told you it''s not?"


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes. "This world is also Earth? But isn''t Earth supposed to be��"


    The dragon smiled and shook his head. "That''s not something you should know for the time being. When you cultivate your Order to Authority, you will know the truth of this world."


    Theo sucked a cold breath. Although he was indeed curious about it, having Authority seemed to bind one person. There was no need to rush to learn the truth.


    Suddenly, Theo came to a realization and said, "No one can tell whether the world you have been living in is an illusion or not. You only know and believe that this world is real. And you or even this might be just an illusion of mine. Even Order and Authority might just be the image nted in our minds��"


    Theo fell silent for a moment before shouting, "Seek the truth of this world, huh�� No, I shall be��!"


    Before he finished his words, a golden light descended from the sky, dispersing all the clouds.


    The golden light gave a warm feeling, but the sheer pressure from looking at it alone made one think how insignificant they were in front of this light.


    This star-shaped light gradually descended to Theo.


    Before Theo could react, the light enveloped his body.


    "This is��" Theo''s consciousness became fuzzy. His body refused to move. Despite trying hard to be awake, Theo''s eyes soon closed as he fell unconscious.


    The King ss Monster on the bottom of the mountain saw this phenomenon since the sky had be clear. He muttered with a low voice. "So, another king has been born."


    Avarice, who was sitting in her home, looked at the sky and smiled. "I see. It seems that Ava doesn''t choose the wrong person. Take care of my daughter."


    The Dark Knight that Theo met in the US looked at his son and said, "I''m looking forward to our spar."


    Dourner, who was enjoying his wine, was taken aback by the feeling he received from his mark. "So fast? Hmph�� When he dares to meet me again, I will prepare a trick to make you drink my wine."

 Chapter 848 – Unknown Order

    <h4>Chapter 848 - Unknown Order</h4>


    Those who realized it weren''t just the people who had given their marks to Theo. Even Agata and Ava witnessed it.


    Theo''s body was suddenly enveloped in golden light when he was training in the garden.


    "Theo?" Agata was horrified, thinking this was an attack from someone. She looked around, trying to find the culprit. "Theo! What is happening?"


    When she was about to call Leonardo about this sudden attack, Ava came out and was stunned by Theo''s appearance. The golden light gradually vanished and turned into a symbol on his chest.


    "This is��" Ava hurriedly went to Theo and pulled his shirt, following the direction of the light.


    "Ava?" Agata was still panicking because she didn''t know anything about this.


    However, Ava showed Theo''s bare chest where there was a small golden circle on his chest.


    "Ava? Do you know anything about this?"


    "I can guess." Ava gulped down. "I am afraid Theo has just received his Order. As for what Order it is, I don''t know."


    "Order?" Agata widened his eyes.


    "Yes. We should go back to the room andy Theo down on his bed. He should be fine after a while."


    Since Ava knew about this and it was rted to Order, she chose to believe in her and brought Theo to his bed.


    On the other hand, the Clone Theo, who had received the same benefit, remained unconscious after the golden light disappeared.


    The dragon closed his eyes, knowing that the world had recognized Theo''s existence. "To think that he received it at this moment�� I thought he needed another two years in order to understand itpletely.


    "Still, I don''t know how specific his rule is. Unlike my lightning that is derived from my own rule and element, his Order is a bit vague. No, should I say that his power and rule are a bit vague? This kid might not even realize what kind of Order he has just received. But it''s not my problem anymore." The dragon gently grabbed Theo and descended to the bottom of the mountain.


    Seeing the dragon, the King ss Monster kneeled on one knee, "Your Excellency."


    "Let''s wait until this child wakes up. I still have a few things to say to him."


    "Understood."


    "Still, I think you have received something good from him��" The dragon smiled.


    "Well, it was me who wasted that chance�� His ridiculous method of training could indeed train his mind, but if he''s not careful of it, his mind can be destroyed, or he can be broken."


    "Is that so?"


    "Well, it''s still beneficial for me to tamper my mind."


    "Alright then." The dragon nodded and moved Theo to the cave.


    It took a few hours before Theo woke up.


    ��


    "Eh?" Theo opened his eyes while clutching his head. "What happened to me?"


    He saw the familiar cave ceiling and immediately rose from the ground, finding the dragon sitting outside the cave.


    "It seems that you have woken up. Do you see anything in your dream?"


    "Dream? What dream?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "I see. That means you don''t have any clue." The dragon sighed. "Do you know what your Order is?"


    "Order?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"


    "Now I understand the situation." The dragon sighed. "You need to know that the golden light earlier was the world bestowing you an Order. However, you had no prior knowledge about your Order. You didn''t even get a clue when you were unconscious."


    "What do you mean?"


    "To put it simply, you have received an unknown Order that suits you. It''s just you need to discover what that Order is."


    "��" Theo fell silent when he heard his exnation.


    "I can only tell you four things. First, the Order will live within you and transform your Magic Power ording to it. If it''s only Pure Magic Power, you should be able to see a blue lighting out of your body as a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "But now that you have an Order, I believe what other people see will be a golden light. For those who have understood Order, you''ll be a prime target because you are still too weak. Hence, when youplete the agreement between us and go to another country, I will tell you how to hide your own Order.


    "For now, the rate of exchanging your current Magic Power is too low. That means people will only see the blue light on you for a while. There''s no need to worry about what you do in the next few months.


    "Aside from teaching you how to hide your order��" The dragon used its tail to raise Theo''s hand and touched the mark left behind the Mountain King. The moment the nail made contact with the mark, thetter vanished. "With this, the Mountain King has fulfilled his promise.


    "Third, you need to know that you''re expected to live with a certain rule because the moment you change, it will be the time your Order is removed. Of course, you can alter a bit of your rule as long as it''s still relevant.


    "Fourth, remember to cultivate the Order because it can help you in the future. When you master your own Order and develop it to Authority, you will be a peerless expert. As for how to cultivate it, I''ll teach you on the way. Is there anything you wish to say?"


    Theo looked down for a moment and raised one finger. "There is only one thing to ask. Can I change the term of our agreement with my Order?"


    "No." The dragon rejected it without hesitation.


    "I see." Theo sighed. "I guess you will be teaching me how to use my Order too."


    "Yes. I will answer your questions during the trip."


    "I understand." Theo nodded. "The first thing I need to do must be to figure out what my Order is."


    "Yeah. Unless you can say it with confidence that is your own Order."


    Theo sighed in disappointment as he couldn''t do it. Still, he had received something good from this meeting alone. "Alright then. It''s time for me to leave."


    "Sure."


    "Thank you for your help, Lightning Authority and��" Theo nced at the King ss Monster with hesitation.


    "I have a Thunder Order." The King ss Monster smiled. "It''s nice to meet you, new king."


    "Thank you for the help, Lightning Authority and Thunder King."

 Chapter 849 – Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 849 - Preparation</h4>


    The real Theo had been sitting on his bed, thinking about the information he had received earlier. Still, no matter how hard he thought about it, he still had no idea about his Order.


    In addition, there was a problem with Agata as he didn''t know how to break the news to her. On the one hand, he truly felt a bit morefortable and secure and certainly loved to ask her to follow him. On the other hand, there was no way Agata could follow him.


    If she wished to follow him, she needed to go to the US as Agata Mota, not his assistant. After all, she only needed to stop her Mimicry and return to her original appearance to avoid people targeting her.


    Then, the people would recognize her as Agata Mota instead of Theo''s assistant. That would be a problem when she visited the US due to her poprity. People soon knew the link between them.


    Not only would he face problems from Agata''s admirers, but Agata''s family would also face attacks from his enemies.


    Just like the dragon said earlier, he had no power to stop them. Once he sold his future to the Star Group for the sake of help, there would be another two or even more offers. At that time, his future wasn''t his anymore.


    Even agreeing to the Wind Emperor alone was already a big part of his future, considering he needed to help the Czar from being destroyed by their countless enemies.


    Seeing this, Theo didn''t know whether he wanted Agata to go with him or not.


    "There are still forty days left." Theo narrowed his eyes. "And I also need to take care of Ava''s appearanceter. Luckily, not many know Ava, or it will be troublesome."


    After a while, Theo stood up and left the room, finding Agata and Ava sparring outside.


    The moment Theo reached the garden, both of them stopped and turned to him.


    "Theo. Have you��" Ava immediately leaped to him with a smile on her face.


    Theo gently caught her and admitted it. "Yes. But it''s still vague for me. I don''t know what my Order is."


    "Is that so? In that case, you should investigate your own Order."


    "Yeah. I will try."


    "Well, you should be excreting this power now and then after the full assimtion. So, we should wait until your Magic Power changes its color�� I can''t say anything regarding it since I haven''t even forged aplete Order." Ava sighed. "Just a bit more."


    Agata looked at Theo and asked, "How is it?"


    "Yep. Everything works out. It''s just��" Theo scratched the back of his head and looked down.


    "What''s wrong?"


    "Hmm. Actually, I don''t think you can follow me to the US." Theo decided to be honest with her�� not that he could lie anyway.


    "I can''t go with you?"


    "Yes. The dragon only agrees to bring Ava and me through there."


    Agata fell into deep thought. Theo''s n was to reach the US and inform Maya about their arrival with a new identity which was the red-haired man. This way, he could make the enemies think he didn''t survive and put down their weapons for a while.


    During that time, they would be far stronger and possibly reach Mythical Rank before revealing their identities again. They also needed to build their connections, so the moment the truth was revealed, it was the time for a counterattack. They''d eliminate every enemy they had one by one.


    Hearing Theo''s exnation made Agata realize that it wasn''t the dragon''s problem but him. If Theo wanted it, she could still go with him through other ways.


    So, she asked, "Have you got your answer?"


    "Not yet." Theo shook his head. "I''m sorry."


    Agata sighed. "Alright then. What are you nning to do right now?"


    "There''s no change in n for the time being. I''ll sort everything out within forty days. And we will hit them hard and erase our existence from here."


    "Okay then." Agata acknowledged the n. "Just tell me if there''s any change."


    "Sure."


    ��


    35 days had passed. This was the day when everything would be resolved.


    Leonardo was looking at a paper on his hand with a serious expression.


    Suddenly, Marzio entered the room and said, "Father. It''s time for us to go."


    "Mhm."


    Hearing the half-hearted response, Marzio asked again, "Is there anything important in that letter?"


    "No." Leonardo shook his head and flipped the paper again before sealing it inside an envelope. "Give this to the pope. My farewell gift to Theo."


    "��" Marzio fell silent for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I''ll give it to him."


    "How about Eric Griffith?"


    "They''ve caught the wind of our movement and prepared to intercept our forces."


    "Okay. Let me send a message to Theo before we start." Leonardo nodded with a serious expression.


    Marzio acknowledged it and immediately left the room.


    He looked at the wine bottle before him together with Theo''s message.


    ''This is a special wine from me, Grandfather. I guarantee you that this will be the best wine you ever have.''


    Leonardo sighed and rose from his seat. "I''ll pave the road for you, brat."


    ��


    In Theo''s mansion.


    Theo had packed up everything he needed for a long journey. He had gathered Ava and Agata in the garden, waiting for the signal to start.


    The message they had been waiting for had arrived, and Theo immediately checked the message.


    "It''s time. Also, I will give you reinforcement." When Theo read this message, he felt someone''s presence in front of the gate.


    The person entered the gate nonchntly and headed straight to the garden where they gathered.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting to see him as the reinforcement.


    "Lorenzo?" Agata looked at him with a surprised face.


    "Haha. I''vee. Back then, you saved me and even dealt with the Safulli Group for me. This time, it''s my turn to help my brother." Lorenzo smirked�� "My ability might not be as good as you, but I certainly can carry you to your destination."

 Chapter 850 – Eve Of Chaos

    <h4>Chapter 850 - Eve Of Chaos</h4>


    "It''s time. The target has gone to the other side." A middle-aged man walked into the room, informing an old man sitting in the corner of the room.


    After hearing those words, the old man fixed his white hair so that it wouldn''t block his vision. "Everything is going ording to the n. I''ll be here to bait Leonardo while you bring the rest to chase after Theodore Griffith."


    "There is a possibility of the pope moving. What should we do?"


    "It''s fine. As long as you don''t injure the pope, the four Great Holy Knights won''t make their move. Killing him should be possible. Everyone can escape unscathed, but Theodore Griffith must fall."


    "But we have another problem. Because of Leonardo''s n, I''m afraid the Barbe Group will bepletely suppressed in this battle. When that happens, I''m afraid the Mythical Rank Experts from the War God Family will aid him."


    "There''s no need for you to worry about that. I''ve made several arrangements. No matter how big Leonardo''s n is, he can''t control everything." He shook his head with a cold gaze.


    "Understood. I shall bring the Mythical Rank Experts to hunt Theo down." The middle-aged man nodded and disappeared, leaving the old man alone.


    The old man looked at the ceiling with a pair of blue eyes as an evil smile appeared on his face. "Oh, Valerie. No matter how hard you try, you and Ray won''t be able to change his fate. Since the Griffith Family can''t have Theodore Griffith, there''s no need to keep him alive."


    ��


    In another ce, the pope was sitting on a chair, looking at the bustling city. Four people suddenly entered the room and bowed their heads.


    "You all havee." The pope made a gentle smile and nodded. "How is the situation going on?"


    "Theodore Griffith, his pet, Agata Mota, and Lorenzo havee to the other side. Their pursuers will soone." One of them answered with a calm tone.


    "If I may ask, our job here is to protect you, right? There is no agreement about us helping Theodore Griffith and fending them off?" Another one looked at the pope, asking a particr question.


    "That''s right. I''m the one who has promised Valerie that I''ll protect Theodore Griffith to the best of my ability, not four of you." The pope acknowledged the order as he wouldn''t be responsible for killing the enemies or ordering the four Great Holy Knights to eliminate the enemies. After all, the four Great Holy Knights only had one job, which was to protect the pope.


    "We understood." Four of them answered at the same time.


    The pope then rose from his chair and smiled. "Alright. It''s time for me to bring Theodore Griffith to his desired destination."


    ��


    Just like the church and the Griffith Family, the Barbe Group had also prepared for their movements.


    "He has moved!" One of them shouted, informing the others.


    "Although it''s a shame that we can''t kill Theodore Griffith ourselves, at the very least, that guy will die horribly. Let''s go then."


    "ording to our agreement with the Griffith Family, the Griffith Family will help us stop five to ten Mythical Rank Experts from the War God Family. We should be able to contain the rest of the Mythical Rank Experts and allow all Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family to chase Theodore Griffith with this."


    "Huh? All of them? How can they stop some Mythical Rank Experts from the War God Family?"


    "They are the Griffith Family. I believe they have a way."


    "That''s�� true."


    "��"


    The room fell silent for a moment before one of them shouted, "Alright. Let''s go and beat the War God Family''s bastards. Our original aim was the War God Family after all, so even if you die, make sure to drag their people with you."


    All of them stood in unison as though they had received the order.


    ��


    In the Mota Family, Boris looked at his wife and the other three Mythical Rank Experts. "Theo doesn''t want us to participate in this matter, but we do it because we want it. Let''s repay our son-inw."


    "Dear. He''s not our son-inw yet. So, the reason should be for taking care of our daughter, Agata."


    "But Agata is not our daughter. I''ll consider this as repayment for letting us kill that Carmelo, the leader of the Safulli Group." Ghita, Agata''s aunt, snorted.


    "Though, it''s better to say the entire Safulli Group instead of the leader alone." Agata''s uncle, Efrem, corrected Ghita.


    "Well, he has done so much for the Mota Family, including the Pata Corporation. Let''s just say all of them." Stefano, the disciple of the previous family head, corrected them with a smile.


    All of them nodded in agreement and rose from their seats as Boris said, "Although we can''t directly intervene with the Griffith Family, the least we can do is to deal with some Mythical Rank Experts from the Barbe Group. We will help the War God Family suppress them."


    "Understood."


    ��


    In the War God Family headquarters, there were some younger generations such as Luka, Ignazio, and Mara. All of them were talking with some Mythical Rank Experts as they prepared to move ording to the n.


    "All units have been standing by and preparing to move," said Mara while looking at her Skylink, waiting for the message to start their operation.


    Suddenly, Alice entered the room while bringing a box filled with water bottles. "Hello, everyone. Does anyone want a drink? You''re going to fight many Mythical Rank Experts, so it''ll probably be exhaustingter."


    "Oh, thank you!" An old man nodded and took the water bottle, taking a sip.


    "There is enough for everyone." Alice smiled and distributed it to all the people in the room.


    "By the way, when are we going to move? It should be around the time, right?" An old man asked Mara.


    "Yeah. If everything is ording to the schedule, we should start in a few minutes."


    "Got it. We need to be prepared because we can beat some Safulli''s asses."


    "I believe that is not possible." Alice suddenly smiled and took everyone''s attention�� "You can''t do anything."

 Chapter 851 – Dead

    <h4>Chapter 851 - Dead</h4>


    "You can''t do anything."


    "Huh?" Everyone in the room was stunned when they heard Alice saying those words. It was clear that the War God Family had a big advantage in this matter. They were supposed to annihte the Barbe Group in this war.


    Yet, Alice denied that idea firmly.


    "Alice. I know that you don''t like Theo after he beat you up, but you shouldn''t say something like that." Mara squinted her eyes as she had confirmed that Alice never actually harmed Theo this whole time. So, she thought Alice had dropped this matter.


    "Listen here. You are still young. I will exin to you how to��!" A middle-aged man rose from his seat while trying to fix Alice''s brain. But the moment he stepped forward, he fell on his knees and coughed blood.


    "Huh?" The people were bewildered as they watched how a Mythical Rank Expert fell to the ground for no reason.


    But before they could react, some of them spat some blood.


    *Cough!*


    *Cough!*


    *Cough!*


    "What is happening?" One of them shouted while looking around, finding 7 out of 10 Mythical Rank Experts in this room had coughed out blood.


    Still, as expected of the War God Family, one of them instantly recognized the problem and shouted, "It''s poison! The water is poisoned."


    "!!!"


    "Hahaha. All of you are useless now. How can you even protect yourself in this situation?" Aliceughed crazily before taking out a knife. "Theo must die! He needs to pay for what he has done to me."


    "Theo?!"


    "No. Don''t be misled!" The sharp-minded Mythical Rank Expert waved his hand and released his Magic Power, knocking Alice to the wall. "No matter their grievances, she''s not someone who can get this type of poison. Odorless and colorless poison that can paralyze a Mythical Rank Expert�� It must be the poison from the Poison Saint."


    "Top ten experts, Poison Saint. Impossible. How could she get something like this?"


    When she heard that question, Aliceughed even louder. "Hahahaha. How, you say?"


    She raised her knife and shed her right elbow, severing it. They were shocked when they saw Alice trying to mutte herself.


    "What did you do?!" The Mythical Rank Expert immediately applied more pressure on Alice to stop her from moving.


    However, blood started flowing out of Alice''s mouth as she said, "Hahahahaha. Theo must die!"


    Those were herst words before her head leaned sideways and her eyes became lifeless.


    Seeing such an incident, the Mythical Rank Expert stopped the pressure and realized Alice had died. "This is��"


    While looking at Alice''s corpse, Ignazio shouted, "How cruel! Who did this? Even though Alice was a petty person, she would never do something like this!"


    "No!" One of the Mythical Rank Experts had a pale face as tears were streaming down his face. "Alice! Why?!"


    The man tried to extend his hand and grab Alice, but he coughed up blood and stumbled to the ground.


    The sharp-minded Mythical Rank Expert said with a grim expression. "I''m afraid this is the work of Eric Griffith. The poison itself�� I''m afraid only the Poison Saint can produce something like this. It''s already hard enough to poison a Mythical Rank Expert with their abundant Magic Power and good Physical Ability. And the poison can even paralyze them to this point��"


    Hearing it, Mara supported the argument. "I''m afraid that is true. He must know about the rtionship between Theo and Alice. However, Alice wasn''t someone who could do something like this, let alone take her own life. And the Poison Saint never has any grievance with Theo or the War God Family. In other words��"


    The sharp-minded expert clenched his hands, continuing Mara''s words. "Eric Griffith had nted the hatred in her mind and manipted her memory. Alice had been manipted this whole time�� If that was the case, how much of our n had been leaking this whole time?"


    The first one to be suspected was the Mythical Rank Expert, who mourned for Alice the most. He was his uncle, so obviously, he was the closest person to Alice.


    "Ghehna, I know that you''re mourning for your niece, but we still need to ask you. How much information have you given to Alice?"


    The person in question looked down while gritting his teeth. He couldn''t stop the tears in his eyes. "Everything��"


    Everyone''s face became pale. Although Leonardo never gave them the full details of the mission to prevent information leakage, every Mythical Rank Expert had received a substantial amount of information.


    Letting all this information slip to the enemy would surely be a massive blow.


    The sharp-minded expert immediately looked at the ceiling. "I''m afraid�� The Barbe Group will attack this ce, especially with 7 of us being poisoned."


    "I''ll be reporting our situation to the headquarter." Mara worked fast and immediately opened the Skylink to inform Marzio of this situation.


    On the other hand, Ghehna released all his Magic Power and mmed his fists to the ground, cracking the entire room. "FUUCKKK! ERIC GRIFFITH. I WANT YOU DEAD!"


    ��


    Meanwhile, Marzio, who received the report, sucked a cold breath. He just sent the message earlier where everyone was busy with Alice''s problem, and a few minutester, he got Mara''s message telling him about the attack.


    "Father. Alice died. The cause should be Eric Griffith. Before dying, she poisoned seven Mythical Rank Experts."


    Sadness filled Leonardo''s eyes as he said with a tired tone. "This is why I don''t like war. I might be known as a War Saint who can bring numerous victories. However, it''s truly painful to hear someone in your family die��"


    Marzio also understood his feeling, but they had their priority. "What should we do, Father?"


    "Send 2 Mythical Rank Experts to their position because they might be attacked by the Barbe Group. Losing those seven will be too big of a blow to my War God Family. Shift to n B. Make sure everyone maintains distance from the Mythical Rank Experts from the Barbe Group. They''re nning to annihte us without thinking of any consequences." Leonardo''s expression became serious. "How is our trap going?"


    "Everything is going ording to the n."


    "Alright. Let''s hurry up. Valerie might have started fighting that mind bastard!" Leonardo''s eyes became extremely cold as his killing intent soared through the roof, wanting to kill Eric Griffith.


    "Understood��" Marzio followed his instruction and controlled the cement of their experts as they continued running through the highway to reach their destination as fast as possible.

 Chapter 852 – Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 852 - Running Away</h4>


    On another side, Theo and his group headed straight to the Dark Poison Swamp. As expected, it would take them a while before reaching their destination.


    And during that time, they would be attacked by experts from the Griffith Family.


    Before anything happened, Lorenzo took this chance to ask Theo. "By the way, are you gone for good? Not gonnae back for a drink?"


    Theo''s expression was serene, making Lorenzo hesitate in pursuing the answer. "Well, you don''t need to answer that question if you don''t want to. I just want you to know that even if we''re not going to meet again, I''ll be your brother."


    Theo finally opened his mouth. "I''m going back to Italy after a while�� But I don''t know how long I will stay in the US this time."


    "Fair enough. When that timees, do visit me. Let''s drink."


    Theo chuckled. "Before talking about this, I want to tell you something."


    While Theo whispered a few words to Lorenzo, Ava looked around and picked up movements from all directions. She tapped Theo''s shoulder and let out a cry. "Kyuuu!"


    "It seems they have caught up." Agata frowned with a grim expression. "The teleportation didn''t bring us that much time, huh."


    "It''s enough." Theo returned his focus to the matter at hand and summoned his clone to check their movement.


    The clone flew in the sky with the Telekinesis, looking at the surroundings. Before he could even do anything, two figures emerged from the trees. They both had dark blue hair like him, so it was clear where they came from.


    Theo pointed his palm at them, but the two already shed him into four before any Magic Power could be poured.


    The pursuers never intended to talk or at least to a mere clone.


    The real Theo suddenly stopped when he realized they had been surrounded.


    "It seems that you''ve caught up." Theo looked around and found five people with blue hair like him.


    All these people didn''t say a single thing as there was nothing to talk about. The only reason they hadn''t attacked this whole time was due to another presenceing from their rear.


    As if they felt the dangering from this presence, the furthest two people immediately leaped forward, trying to attack Theo.


    Unfortunately for them, a golden ray shone upon Albert, creating ayer of a golden quilt that protected Theo and the others.


    An old man with a blindfold and priest suit appeared on top of them as he stated, "My friends. I''ve promised to protect him. Please don''t make it harder for me to fulfill my promise."


    The old man gradually descended from above as the golden light enveloped his body. He wore a small smile as if everything had been ying in his hand.


    One of the experts from the Griffith Family shouted, "Pope Franz. Please don''t make it hard for us. This is an internal fight of the Griffith Family. We''ve never picked a fight with the Vatican. Are you nning to stop us from solving a family problem?"


    "You said this is your internal fight�� But why does the internal fight involve me?" Pope Franz smiled. "I have nothing against your Griffith Family, but I have promised Valerie that Theodore Griffith will be safe with me."


    "In that case, we will have no choice other than fight." The man gritted his teeth while ring at Pope Franz.


    "Even though I don''t wish to fight. As long as you pull back, there''s no need to fight."


    "As long as you back off, there''s no need to fight." The man snorted, hitting the pope back with his own words.


    "But there should be the four Great Knights in our surroundings." One of the Mythical Rank Experts shouted, informing the presence hidden around them. It was clear that these four people were the pope''s Great Holy Knights.


    "There''s no need to bother with them. ording to Sir Eric, They won''t move as long as we don''t hurt the pope. Just break through his shield and eliminate that devil child. We''ll immediately pull back after that."


    When they heard those words, the pope smiled and said, "There is no one who will be killed on my watch even if you are my enemies."


    Since the sh wasn''t unavoidable, they released their Magic Power, preparing to destroy the barrier the pope had erected.


    But before they could attack them, Lorenzo snapped his fingers. "Teleportation."


    Lorenzo teleported everyone as far as possible.


    Theo used his Telekinesis again to fly toward the Dark Poison Swamp as he nced at the old man in a priest robe. "Thank you for protecting us."


    "I''m just fulfilling the promise. It''s hard for me to do much because there will be a big implication if I use too much of my power." The pope shook his head. "Besides, Enrica owed you on the goblin extermination mission. I shall guarantee that you can reach your destination. Though, I need to apologize for not killing them because I don''t wish to break my vow to God."


    Theo fell silent and nodded before he nced to the pope''s back, finding a pair of golden wings that allowed him to fly together with them.


    "I understand and respect your belief."


    "Thanks." The pope smiled and said, "They should catch up in two minutes."


    Theo narrowed his eyes, surprised by how urate his words were. No matter what everyone said, the pope had the honor of the number one expert who utilized Vision. His Vision could cover a vast area.


    Just like his prediction, the five Mythical Rank Experts caught up with them in two minutes.


    Two of them waved their swords and released crescent-shaped lights.


    The pope lowered two fingers while moving away together with Theo and the others.


    Suddenly, a ray of golden light shone upon these crescent-shaped lights. To anyone''s surprise, the golden light suppressed these two crescent-shaped energies until they disappeared.


    Seeing their attacks fail, the other three pulled their fists back before punching forward at the same time.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    Three torrential Magic Power made their way toward the pope, nning to destroy the goldenyer that protected his and others'' bodies.


    The pope raised his hand, but nothing happened, and the torrential Magic Power hit the barrier, causing a massive shock wave.


    Boom.

 Chapter 853 – No Help?

    <h4>Chapter 853 - No Help?</h4>


    Boom.


    The explosion produced a cloud of smoke that covered the pope and the others. However, the wind blew them away soon, revealing another goldenyer of protection that blocked their attacks.


    Even though they were fighting, Pope Franz still led the group away, bringing them to their destination.


    Theo nced at them from time to time to check their strength and power. However, he never thought about interfering in this fight.


    After all, the pope was still protecting them.


    Though, it didn''t mean Theo had no n in turning the situation around.


    He was simply waiting for the right time as he nned to kill all four of them.


    Two of them brandished their swords once again and released two streams of light. With just a single nce, all of them could feel their sharpness.


    The pope''s bracelet turned into a long white staff with a yellow-colored gem on the tip of it.


    A beam of light flew out of the gem and split into two, hitting each stream of light.


    At the same time, the other three experts took advantage of this tounch an attack on Theo''s position.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    The torrential Magic Power looped around and was about to hit them from the front.


    The pope extended his other hand, and four translucent rectangles appeared. The three of them stopped the attacks while the other stayed behind the other three.


    Surprisingly, one of them shattered the yellow screen and hit thest rectangle. With just this exchange alone, the pope could see that one of them was stronger than the rest.


    And it was the one who had done the talking this whole time. In other words, he needed to be careful against the leader.


    Theo and Agata had understood what the pope did as well. They locked the middle-aged man, making sure they targeted him first if anything happened.


    Lorenzo, on the other hand, focused on his skill. As soon as the Teleportation Skill could be used again, he would send them away from this onught. Within that time, the pope should get some breathing time too.


    ''If only the four Great Holy Knights can help us�� It won''t be a problem to stop all these people.'' Lorenzo thought before letting out a sigh.


    It was truly a shame. After all, the four Great Holy Knights and the pope could easily suppress these five experts. At that time, their group could go to the Dark Poison Swamp without any incident.


    Little did he know, Theo had been nning to force those four Great Holy Knights into the battle.


    After a while, Lorenzo used his Teleportation Skill and sent them away, giving them another two minutes.


    During that time, Lorenzo called the pope. "Your Holiness."


    "Is something wrong, child?" Pope Franz gave a gentle smile as his head faced Lorenzo. Even though his eyes were covered with a blindfold, Lorenzo could still feel the soothing gaze from him.


    "Actually, I don''t understand why the four Great Holy Knights don''t join in this mission. After all, if you wish for Theo to be safe, you only need them to stop those five experts. With their strength, stopping them is just a simple matter."


    Agata nced at Lorenzo while Theo kept looking to the front.


    "If you owe someone and promise to help them, will you mobilize your War God Family or yourself alone?" Pope Franz answered his doubt with another question.


    "��" Lorenzo fell silent for a moment before asking. "Do you mean implication?"


    "Yes."


    "If you move alone, that means even if you are holding the seat of a leader, the responsibility is only on you. If you mobilize the others, that means your Vatican is protecting this person. And you need to prepare your influence to handle this matter�� And this is especially important for the church because it''ll affect people''s opinions about the neutral church." Lorenzo narrowed his eyes.


    "That''s correct." Pope Franz acknowledged it and added, "Though, it doesn''t mean I''m not serious on this trip. I''ve promised to protect Theo, so until he reaches his destination, I''m going to protect him to the best of my ability. As for the rest of you, I''m repaying my little student''s debts."


    "I understand. Thank you for your exnation." Lorenzo nodded and realized he couldn''t find any fault in Pope Franz''s action.


    Of course, acting like this alone was enough to make people judge him. And his influence would still take the brunt. But with how clear he stated that he only wanted to protect Theo to his destination, he should be able to minimize the damage done to the church.


    He raised his head and frowned. "They''reing again."


    "We''re not going to let you escape!" The middle-aged leader shouted before raising his hand.


    The Magic Power gathered and formed a huge long de. The length alone reached 200 feet, allowing the man to reach the pope''s defense from his current position.


    Before shing the pope''s barrier, he said, "We still have time in order to kill this guy. For now, we''ll exhaust the pope''s Magic Power until we can prate his shield. Remember, don''t injure him."


    "Got it." The four experts nodded in unison.


    The two swordsmen covered their swords with Magic Power and extended their swords like the middle-aged guy.


    Meanwhile, the other two experts from the Griffith Family pped their hands before opening them again.


    A bluish light began to appear in the gap between their hands as they poured as much as Magic Power they could.


    Two blue beams were released from two different directions while the other three waved their swords from above.


    Seeing the iing attacks, the pope released his skills again.


    Two rays of light illuminated the iing beams and suppressed them until they vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, the pope formed a translucent palm.


    The palm caught all these des and shattered them.


    While looking at the progress, Theo asked, "How long can you hold them like this?"


    The pope turned his head to Theo and replied, "If it''s like this, one day�� Probably. They are not aiming at my life, so it''s quite easy. Even if they aim at you, they can''t really go all out because they know what identally injuring me means."


    "I see��" Theo narrowed his eyes, forming his n in his head.

 Chapter 854 – Owen’s Identity

    <h4>Chapter 854 - Owen��s Identity</h4>


    Meanwhile, in an abandoned building where the Griffith Family stayed in the past two months, the Mind Elder sat down on a single chair with a grim expression. "She hase��"


    Just a few seconds after he said those words, a female in white armor appeared before him.


    Valerie still used her usual armor that covered everything except her mouth.


    "You''re not going tounch a sneak attack?" Eric opened his eyes and looked at Valerie solemnly.


    "It''s impossible for me to ambush you." Valerie shook her head. Despite the hatred she showed this whole time, she was rtively calm when answering him.


    "Buying time for your reinforcement? Not that I mind." Eric smiled because he knew the only reason why Valerie bothered to talk to him was to wait until Leonardo came.


    Still, there was no way Eric nned to wait for that long. His lips curved as his words began to shift. "To think youpletely suppressed your own child''s talent. You truly fooled us. Not only did we believe that your son was useless, but you also forced us to retract any kind of surveince on him because he was simply trash and not worth our time��


    "He would have be a good soldier of the Griffith Family if he was raised properly from the start."


    "The moment he brought to the family would be the moment he died!" Valerie gritted his teeth.


    "Killed him? No way. I would only manipte his mind to be the perfect soldier and leader of the Griffith Family. He didn''t need any attachment to any other family members. He only needed to believe that the Griffith Family was the number one and everything else was unnecessary.


    "With his talent, I do not doubt that Theodore Griffith could elevate the Griffith Family''s status to a new peak, even surpassing that of the ancestor."


    "That''s what I mean by killing him. He''s nothing but a robot that will be controlled by you!" Valerie clenched her fists as anger started filling her heart.


    "You''re an outsider, so you don''t know anything about the true heart of the Griffith Family. If you truly care about the family, you will do anything to protect it." Eric shook his head. "But well, by fooling us, I guess you have truly learned from thest time. Who was his name again? Owen?"


    A white-colored spear madepletely of Magic Power appeared on her hand as she pointed it at Eric. "You don''t deserve to call his name."


    "What are you saying? You were the one who killed your own son!" Eric smirked.


    While gritting her teeth, Valerie leaped forward and waved her spear down.


    Eric formed a long de on top of him and blocked the spear effortlessly.


    Clink.


    Even though they didn''t use their power yet, a shock wave was produced upon contact, blowing away all the dust in the area.


    "You''re angry because it''s true!" Eric snorted.


    "No. You were the one who killed my son." Valerie used all her strength to push him back. However, Eric Griffith still had enough power to contain her strength.


    "I only manipted his mind right before he was born. You were actually the one who didn''t want such a child."


    The memory that happened thirty years ago was still fresh in her mind. This memory had haunted her for thirty years.


    At that time, her pregnancy was already over eight months. There were only two weeks left before the baby was born.


    But at that time, Eric Griffith stormed their house even though Ray had chosen to stay away from the Griffith Family. Eric suppressed both of them.


    Ray''s strength was barely a Mythical Rank Expert, while Valerie was still a Supreme Rank Expert, so they stood no chance against Eric Griffith.


    Back then, Eric Griffith used his power and turned the soon-to-be-born baby into his puppet.


    Her face of horror was still nted directly in Ray''s mind, and her feeling was still stuck in her heart.


    If she gave birth to her son, Owen would be the puppet of the Griffith Family. Yet, she didn''t have the heart to do abortion as well.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Owen actually died inside her belly because he couldn''t withstand the immense power from the Memory Maniption.


    At the same time, if Valerie went back with Eric to the Griffith Family, she could still save Owen, albeit her son would be aplete puppet.


    After that miscarriage, she developed a huge trauma in her heart, and her reproductive organ was damaged as well.


    As if trying to heal herself, she adopted Edward as her and Ray''s son. Obviously, Edward was never ced highly in the Griffith Family''s eyes because he was just a random person picked from the street. That was why he had been safe this whole time.


    But twenty years ago, Edward''spany had gradually healed her mind and heart as she decided to heal her body and get another son, which was Theo.


    Because of Owen''s case, Eric chose to watch over him first because he couldn''t afford to have Theo die like Owen.


    It was then Valerie and Ray realized Theo''s talent. If Eric knew this, he wouldn''t hesitate to attack them again. Bringing more Mythical Rank Experts if necessary.


    At the same time, if they fled from Thernd or got some help, it would mean Theo was something special, resulting in Ericing at them before they could do anything.


    For the sake of protecting Theo as well as avenging her first son, Valerie and Ray decided toe up with this n.


    As long as the Griffith Family lost interest in Theo, the kid should be able to live without any worry in the future when he had grown up.


    Recalling all this memory increased the hatred in Valerie''s heart as she finally released her Magic Power. "And everything happened because of your Griffith Family''s prophecy!"


    "I thought Owen was that child. To think the real one is this Theo�� I have truly mistaken. I should have known you''re that stubborn. But I will still say this�� You were the one who killed your son, and you will soon be the reason why your sons die!" Ericughed uncontrobly.


    "You won''t get Theo!"


    "I said sons!" Eric smirked. "Do you think I don''t send anyone to your other son, Edward? I''m going to mutte him right before your eyes!"

 Chapter 855 – Eric’s Power

    <h4>Chapter 855 - Eric��s Power</h4>


    In Thernd.


    Edward was staying in his treehouse peacefully until a presence approached his house.


    "!!!" Without hesitation, Edward turned around and leaped out of the house.


    However, it was toote as an old woman stopped him. After that, another woman appeared before him. She had a blue-haired person like Theo, giving him enough information about their identities.


    "Griffith Family, huh. Are you going to kill me?" Edward smirked and opened his hands, attaching the strings to his own neck, preparing to kill himself.


    But before he could do it, the young woman immediately stopped him by saying, "Please don''t. We''re here under themand of your father and mother. The pope is protecting Theo, but they are also targeting you. So, we''re here to help you get away from them."


    "��" Edward hesitated for a moment and frowned. "Who are you?"


    "Ne Griffith. Cousin Theo''s number one fan and the person who will be his wife!" Ne winked her right eye.


    "Theo''s former master assigned by Madam Valerie and Sir Ray, Nina Eilric. I am a demon."


    He had heard about Ne, but he thought she was a fake. Hearing Nina''s identity was already enough for him because Nina had given him the password that Edward needed. This password had been instructed by Valerie and Ray to allow him to identify whether the person before him was an enemy or not.


    "I understand. Do you have anywhere to go? Or do you want to follow me to my other hideout?"


    "Do you have any other ce? We''re nning to go a bit farther from here."


    "Then how about their of a King ss Monster?"


    "King ss Monster?"


    "Yes. Her daughter is with Theo, so we should be able to hide there." Edward nodded, exining the situation.


    Ne thought for a moment and agreed. "Sure. Let''s go to the King ss Monster''sir. Even though this ce is slightly below average, the Griffith Family surely won''t think about the possibility of us hiding in a King ss Monster''s nest."


    "Let''s go then."


    Edward guided them to Avarice''s ce as Ne told him about the n they had in mind.


    ��


    Meanwhile, after hearing what Eric said, Valerie harrumphed. "Do you think you''re the only one who can think something like that?"


    "As expected��" Eric narrowed his eyes. "You were the only one who could produce the child of prophecy. With Ray''s talent that was close to the ancestor himself and your talent in the mind game, that kid would surely be the brightest one.


    "No�� Should I say that Owen was the child of the prophecy while Theo is the one that will surpass him?" Eric grinned as though he had something big.


    "Enough!" Valerie shouted and leaped back. She snapped her fingers.


    Suddenly, three white lights took the shape of a ball and started shining. Each white light shot out a spear that bounced a few times on the ground before reaching Eric.


    Eric waved his hand effortlessly.


    The three spears suddenly shattered into pieces like sses.


    After that, a shadow emerged from the side and leaped toward Valerie, attacking her with a sword.


    When Valerie was about to y him, the shadow formed a human head. The head looked like a baby but with slightly denser blue hair. The baby''s eyes were nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were only maggots crawling out of his eyes. The mouth was filled with blood as well.


    He looked at Valerie and said, "Mother. You''re going to kill me again?"


    Valerie gritted her teeth and sliced the shadow into two.


    "I know they''re fake. You won''t be able to fool me again. I have enough resolve to cut you down." Valerie pped her hand as her body was enveloped by white light.


    Before she could do anything, Eric raised his hand.


    Suddenly, the building transformed. The pirs supporting the building crumbled into pieces and disappeared into thin air. All the walls except the outer wall also fell to the ground.


    The ceiling copsed, giving more space for their fight.


    And the floor they stepped on was half destroyed, leaving only a huge tform that stood on top of two pirs.


    A whole abandoned building turned into a massive cube with nothing except the tform where they stood.


    This was Eric''s illusion power. Hepletely turned the entire building into another form. It was scary, especially if they took a look at the thing beneath this one tform. There was nothing but endless darkness. Once they fell to this hole, they would never be able toe back.


    Valerie had experienced this power once, so she didn''t hesitate to p her hands three times.


    The light that enveloped her body dispersed in all directions and looped around to hit Eric.


    Eric snapped his finger, and the reality they saw crumbled into pieces. They were then teleported into another space where there was nothing but darkness.


    Valerie couldn''t see a single thing and had lost her control over the light she released earlier.


    Eric''s voice soon echoed in her mind. "You''re not my match. Since youe here to die, I''ll kill you in the worst way possible and present it to Ray. I wonder if I should force you to be a bitch used by everyone first�� I''m sure Ray will break this time. Hahaha!"


    "You''re sick!" Valerie gritted her teeth and focused on her Awareness. She then ced her hand on the ground to summon her spears that could break the space she currently saw.


    However, the moment she ced her hand on the ground, the floor crumbled, and her body started falling.


    Valerie looked around but still couldn''t find anything. Suddenly, she waved the spear on her hand to the right and knocked off two unknown things that almost hit her.


    But right after touching the unknown stuff, her feet touched the ground, making her confused.


    A baby''s voice started echoing inside the darkness.


    "Mom. Why did you kill me?"


    "Even if I needed to be a soldier, I still wanted to live."


    "Why did you refuse to go back to the Griffith Family?"


    "Why did you choose to threaten Uncle Eric with your life back then?"


    "If not because of you, I could still live."


    "Mommm�� I hate you."

 Chapter 856 – Doubt

    <h4>Chapter 856 - Doubt</h4>


    Hearing all those noises disgusted Valerie. Shepletely knew that what Eric was trying to portray was her son, Owen. But it was useless as she hade to terms with her feelings.


    Suddenly, she felt a presenceing from behind. Without hesitation, she swung her spear and shed this iing presence.


    *Crack!*


    A crumbling concrete echoed in her ears as she turned around and saw the concrete pir, cracked in half.


    ''Concrete? No, normal concrete can''t stop my spear��'' Valerie''s expression turned grim. As she expected, the presence she felt earlier was Eric and the reason why she couldn''t destroy a single concrete pir was due to his reinforcement.


    The moment her spear stuck on the concrete pir, Eric emerged from behind the concrete and waved his hand.


    Valerie raised her left hand and left foot as she took the full brunt of Eric''s Magic Saint Fist Style, Burst.


    Her body was blown away, crashing to several pirs of concrete. But the moment she hit thest one, she felt the realm Eric created crack.


    Eric might hit her too hard as her body seemed to have just crushed the outer wall, allowing her to see the abandoned building from the outside. She even watched how the rubbles from the shattered pirs fell to the ground.


    With just a look at her back, she saw many buildings like the one she saw earlier before confronting Eric.


    This meant she had escaped Eric''s illusion.


    She took this chance to step on the building behind her to gain some footing to strike Eric back, but the moment her feet touched the building''s wall, it copsed.


    ''The wall is so brittle? No, this must be Eric''s illusion.'' Valerie gritted her teeth as she started losing her mind. She didn''t know which one was actually the reality and which one was the illusion.


    Clicking her tongue, she waved her spear and released a beam of light toward the ceiling, trying to destroy everything in the process. She hoped the realm that Eric created would crumble into pieces the moment she hit the edge of it.


    As if answering her prayer, the beam of light hit the dome-shaped ceiling.


    The light released all its energy to shatter this invisible ceiling while thetter tried to stop this attack.


    Unfortunately, Eric Griffith appeared right next to the beam and disintegrated it. After that, he looked down, staring at Valerie. "You''re nothing but an ant to me."


    "Is that so?" Valerie smirked as she waved her hand down.


    The ceiling suddenly shattered into pieces as a giant white-colored spear emerged from the outside.


    "God Killing Spear?!" Eric raised his head and extended his left hand forward, releasing all the energy to push back this God Killing Spear.


    This was the perfect chance to kill Eric Griffith, so Valerie immediately jumped up and reached him. Without hesitation, she thrust her spear from below, forcing Eric to stop both her attack and the God Killing Spear.


    Eric extended his other hand toward Valerie and released the ''Burst'' to push her back, but Valerie''s spear pierced through this pressure and reached him.


    The spear stabbed Eric in the knee and forced thetter to move back.


    Valerie didn''t hold back anymore. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She poured more Magic Power into her God Killing Spear.


    "What? You''re going to explode it?" Eric widened his eyes, staring at her in shock. However, there was nothing he could do.


    The God Killing Spear exploded and engulfed both of them while shattering the realm he created to trap her.


    The pieces fell like sses, beautiful but dangerous.


    Unfortunately, Eric Griffith wasn''t someone this easy to defeat either. The moment she crashed to the ground due to the st from the explosion, the floor shattered into pieces as the building turned into another realm that was enveloped by darkness. Unlike the previous one, this realm made her sense Eric from all directions. She perfectly knew they were fake, but she couldn''t ignore that one of them might be the real one.


    She sped her hand as white light shone beneath her feet. Then, the moment she swung her spear, the white light expanded in all directions, illuminating the darkness.


    The light seemed to be able to locate the real Eric, so Valerie immediately thrust her spear toward him, shooting a beam of light.


    The beam destroyed a few concrete pirs before reaching Eric, but thetter disintegrated it easily. Not done with her attack, Valerie snapped her fingers and summoned three white lights from earlier.


    The lights released three spears. Unlike the previous attack, the spears didn''t bounce on the ground. Instead, it followed the beam''s trajectory, preventing them from striking another thing in the area.


    Even Eric needed to avoid them this time. He jumped to the right and waved his hands.


    Valerie felt a few iing objects. She took a deep breath and summoned another spear on her left hand.


    She waved downward, spun her body, thrust her left spear forward, and made a round kick, knocking half of the iing objects.


    After that, she jumped one foot above the ground as two sharp objects almost cut her knees. Then, both her spears went sideways and blew away thest two objects.


    Without a doubt, she had been handling Eric pretty well. However, there was a feeling that everything she did was nothing but fake. This was Eric Griffith''s illusion power and the reason why he had been one of the strongest people in the Griffith Family.


    His power could make someone doubt reality as they couldn''t differentiate the illusion and reality anymore.


    "Hu��" Valerie let out a breath as she calmed her mind down. Without Ray supporting her, she knew her winning chance was very slim. So, she didn''t expect to defeat him.


    That was why she finally asked for her parent''s help in order to exact her revenge.


    ''There''s no need to panic. I should be able to handle this for a bit more��'' Valerie took a deep breath as she began to scan the area, preparing tounch another attack against Eric Griffith.

 Chapter 857 – Too Strong

    <h4>Chapter 857 - Too Strong</h4>


    "You''re not going to win. Even now, you are barely stopping me from defeating you." Eric''s voice echoed inside the building.


    "Do you think?"


    "Hmph. Don''t be toocent. Leonardo won''t be able to arrive in time." Eric snorted.


    "Then, let me see." Valerie harrumphed and stomped the ground as hard as possible.


    The ground shook a little, but it didn''t break as Eric had reinforced them. Even if they broke, Valerie might still think it didn''t.


    Seeing Valerie''s attempt at destroying the floor, Eric used it as his next attack pattern.


    Ten small hands emerged from the ground and caught Valerie''s feet as another deformed baby''s face came out.


    Valerie gritted her teeth and used all her strength to kick the baby''s head, resulting in her breaking free from the tiny hands as well.


    After that, a pair of white wings appeared on her back, making her look like a real valkyrie. She flew upward to confuse Eric, but thetter simply replicated Valerie''s God Killing Spear.


    The God Killing Spear contained all Valerie''s strength, so even though this one was just a replica, its strength wasn''t ordinary.


    "You are just a fake." Valerie gritted her teeth. Instead of calling her God Killing Spear from the sky, she called it from the ground.


    The emerging spear struck this fake spear and shattered it after a two seconds sh. After that, Valerie raised her hands. Her Magic Powerpressed the God Killing Spear into a single normal spear that she could use with one hand.


    But she had no intention of using this kind of spear because she needed to continuouslypress it, resulting in a huge amount of Magic Power being drained every second.


    Instead of wasting her Magic Power, Valerie used this chance to locate Eric''s position and threw her spear in his direction.


    As though she had aimed perfectly at the enemy, there was a shadow that stopped the God Killing Spear with the sheer amount of his Magic Power. It was clear this was Eric Griffith.


    The God Killing Spear then exploded and engulfed Eric Griffith. The power of illusion suddenly vanished as she finally saw the ruined building again.


    Since she had done enough, she nned to tear down this ce and buy enough time for Leonardo.


    To do that, she needed to destroy it with a single st of the God Killing Spear from above. She leaped to the ceiling and went through the ceiling, creating a small hole in the roof.


    But right after she passed the ceiling and came out of the building, she detected a presence behind her. It was none other than Eric Griffith.


    He grabbed Valerie''s wings and stopped her. But to add more damage to her, Eric ripped those two wings apart.


    "Argh!" Valerie screamed in pain as though the wings were truly grown out of her back.


    Without giving her a chance, Eric sped his hands together and smashed Valerie''s chest te.


    *Crack!*


    "Gah." Valerie coughed and spat out the acid from her stomach as her body crashed to the ground.


    After that, Eric spread his hands as the ceilings and pirs began to crumble, falling on top of Valerie to bury her alive.


    Boom.


    Bam.


    Boom.


    The rubble hit each other and snapped into pieces, but the weight was still enough to pressure her.


    Not wanting to be defeated by this, a white light appeared and pushed all the rubbles away, revealing Valerie, who had fallen to her knees.


    "Kh��" Valerie gritted her teeth as she stood up after getting buried under the concrete. The weight alone wasn''t that much of a problem, but the concrete had been reinforced by Eric, so it was hurt more than she originally expected.


    Blood flowed out of her mouth. Even though her armor protected her whole body and prevented any pration, getting hit by a blunt object was still painful.


    Now that the situation wasn''t in her favor anymore, Valerie took a good look at what she had been doing until now and analyzed it, hoping to see Eric''s weakness.


    Right before Ericunched another attack, Valerie tried to run in a single direction to escape from his illusion realm. Yet, no matter how far she ran, the illusion felt like it never ended.


    It might be the illusion that tricked her and made her actually go back and forth while thinking she ran in the same direction, or the illusion might have been following her, preventing her from waking up from this illusion.


    Since it was useless, she then ced her hand on the ground as the light on her hand started to spread. Her wings reappeared as she prepared to break free from this illusion.


    Unfortunately for her, four Erics suddenly appeared in front of her as they all punched forward at the same time.


    Valerie covered her mouth with both arms, stopping the pressure from hitting her mouth. Normally, she would use this one gap on the mouth to bait her enemy into attacking this one particr spot where she could encounter them with a deadly attack.


    Sadly, Eric Griffith was too strong for her, stopping her from doing so.


    She crashed to the wall as various swords appeared and stabbed her wings, pinning her to the wall.


    "This is our difference in strength." Eric made his appearance again, looking at Valerie with a calm expression as though this wasn''t even a hard fight for him. "You can''t do anything. No matter how hard you struggle, you won''t be able to go against me.


    "Now that you have actually tried to destroy the Griffith Family, I shall administer the punishment." Eric smirked as heughed crazily. "After those cheap men break your spirit, I would turn you into a puppet that would break Ray apart."


    Both Valerie''s hands were wrapped in light as she nned to struggle until thest second.


    But before she could do that, the illusion was cut at the top as the rest of the dome-shaped illusion crumbled like sses.


    Leonardo was standing on top of the ceiling, looking down the hole that directly connected to their level. This was the hole that Valerie had created previously.


    "It''s time for you to die." Leonardo squinted his eyes as a huge armored knight emerged from his feet, staring at Eric.


    The peak fight had finally arrived.

 Chapter 858 – Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 858 - Illusion</h4>


    Eric Griffith raised his head and looked at Leonardo with a frown.


    "Leonardo��" Eric''s expression turned serious as Leonardo was a serious threat to his life. "Since you''re going to kill me, let''s see whether you can kill me or not."


    He pped his hands as several spikes came out of the ground, piercing Valerie.


    Valerie''s armor stopped the spikes effortlessly, but the crack on the chest te became a bit bigger due to one spike hitting on the exact spot.


    After that, Valerie shed all the spikes with her spear before releasing a beam of light toward Eric to hold him back.


    Eric extended his hand forward and stopped the beam of light with his Magic Power.


    However, this attack was meant to cover Leonardo''s attack. Two knights on top of the horses appeared out of thin air and charged forward, thrusting their spear toward Eric''s head.


    Unlike Valerie, who only relied on herself, Eric''s illusion wouldn''t work against Leonardo''s chess pieces. After all, the pieces had no personality or consciousness as they all were being controlled directly by Leonardo.


    Even Eric needed to leap into the air to avoid them.


    Suddenly, two torrential lights fell on top of him.


    "!!!" Eric used his Magic Power to cover the back of his body, preventing the torrential light from touching him directly.


    During the fall, Eric could see two armor holding staves. They were none other than Leonardo''s bishops.


    However, Leonardo''s attack didn''t stop here. Eight human-size armor charged forward and encircled Eric before two giant size armor put their shields down.


    A barrier was soon erected, trapping Eric inside. The pawns attacked him together from different directions, forcing Eric to use his Magic Saint Fist Style - Burst.


    With two of his palms facing two pawns, the Magic Power released by his Control blew the pawns away.


    The two pawns hit the shield with their back, and the armor fell to the ground, unable to move.


    The gap left by the two pawns became his exit.


    Without hesitation, Eric leaped forward and escaped the pawns'' encirclement. He then poured his power into the barrier, disintegrating them.


    This time, a female armor appeared right in front of him. The armor covered its hand with white light and pped Eric.


    Eric used both hands and the ground to withstand the might of Leonardo''s queen. But this queen never meant to be the one to deliver the killing blow.


    Since Eric had been stopped, Leonardo finally had the chance to kill him. He stood on the ceiling with the King armor, who had pointed his sword to the queen''s hand, nning to pierce the queen''s hand to kill Eric.


    "Die." Leonardo waved his hand down as the King armor thrust his sword down, releasing a beam of light as though the sword was extended.


    The light pierced through the queen''s hand and hit Eric. Though, Eric had chosen to throw himself to the side to avoid this beam of light even if it meant to be crushed by the huge hand.


    "Bam."


    "You''re going to die today." Leonardo snorted, looking at Eric coldly.


    "Haha, Leonardo. Do you think this can kill me?" Ericughed uncontrobly as he crushed the giant hand with his Magic Power.


    Even Leonardo was forced to move his queen back unless he wanted it to get crushed by Eric''s power.


    Leonardonded on the ground near Valerie as if he was prepared to attack Eric together with her.


    Eric harrumphed and said, "Even if you are together, you won''t be able to kill me today."


    "We will see." Valeire snorted, having confidence in Leonardo''s strength.


    Leonardo smirked as he prepared to charge forward.


    As if feeling something weird with Leonardo''s sudden appearance, Valerie had a ridiculous thought in her mind.


    ''Wait. Father shouldn''t be this weak! His Grand Chess should be even more aggressive�� If it was Father, he should be trying to kick me away from this battle because of my injury. Why does it feel as if Father is trying to buy some time��'' Valerie suddenly came to a realization as her body shuddered in fear. She felt the presence behind her, rming her body as she instinctively threw herself to the side.


    *Stab!*


    Unfortunately, it was toote. A de pierced the side of her ribs, missing the heart because of thest movement Valerie took.


    "Gah." She spat a mouthful of blood and nced back.


    Her doubt was confirmed when Leonardo disappeared into thin air, proving that he was just a mere illusion. The de that stuck on her body also vanished, leaving a hole on the side of her chest.


    This just meant that Leonardo was fake this whole time. The only reason why Eric made an illusion of Leonardo and fought him for a while was to lower Valerie''s guard.


    She had never expected that Eric Griffith could create an illusion of Leonardo''s power. Still, the most surprising thing was the fact that he could make as if his illusion broke apart even though it didn''t.


    People would drop their guard when they knew someone who took care of them showed up and fought for them.


    Valerie dropped to her knees and coughed a few times before ring at Eric. "Kh��"


    "This is our difference, Valerie. I already told you that no matter how much you struggle, you won''t be able to destroy the Griffith Family." Eric snorted and looked down on her.


    Valerie felt unwilling, but Eric indeed defeated her without a single injury on his body. In other words, Eric''s strength was far beyond her.


    "You better kill me or you will regret it." Valerie clenched the spear on her head, ready to swing it the moment Eric moved.


    Eric also knew Valerie was faking her weak appearance to pull him in andunch a sneak attack. So, he didn''t charge at her. Instead, he took this chance to mock her.


    "If only you wait for another two decades. That kid might be able to destroy the Griffith Family." Eric narrowed his eyes.


    Valerie gritted her teeth, not saying anything about Theo.


    "Whatever. I know that it''s too dangerous to leave you alive, so I''m going to kill you here by any means possible��" Eric sped his hand as his illusion realm started revolving around. He looked at Valerie once again before saying coldly, "Die��"

 Chapter 859 – Grave Situation

    <h4>Chapter 859 - Grave Situation</h4>


    On the other side, Theo wasn''t in a good situation either. Even though the pope had ensured them that he could stop these five Mythical Rank Experts for a day, his Magic Power had been drained as well.


    The more Magic Power he consumed, the weaker he became. So, after twelve hours of defending Theo and the rest. He started having a rough breath even though he still managed to stop their attacks.


    Still, Theo was concerned because his reaction times gradually became slower, making him believe that the pope could only handle them for another few hours instead of the promised twelve hours.


    In the middle, Theo asked, "Are you alright? "


    "Yeah. I''m fine. There shouldn''t be a problem." The pope smiled, assuring him.


    Despite his words, Theo couldn''t calm his mind down. He didn''t know the extent of the pope''s ability, so he was a bit worried.


    Even the experts from the Griffith Family shouted, "You''re getting tired this soon?"


    It was clear that they were trying to incite Pope Franz''s pride to make him show an opening.


    But Pope Franz only chuckled and said, "Child. Instead of mocking someone, how about you praise them? You shouldn''t say, ''You''re getting tired this soon?''


    "Instead, you should say, ''you are great for holding out for so long.'' This encourages that person to do better."


    This time, it was the pope''s turn to lecture him. As expected of the pope, even his taunt was a good lecture.


    Somehow, the one who mocked him earlier snarled, "Shut up. I''m not here for your lecture."


    "Is that so? How about you be a bit more patient and hear me out a bit?" The pope smiled.


    "��" The Griffith Family Experts were speechless on how the pope talked. The more they rebuked him, the dumber they looked.


    They realized that mocking the pope was a dumb thing because they would be the ones who got riled up in the end.


    After understanding what he wanted to do, those five experts became silent. They simply focused on wearing him down.


    The pope had no problem ying with them. He intercepted all their attacks like he had been doing the whole time.


    Lorenzo had also teleported them more than a hundred times. With the addition of the distance covered by flying, they hadpleted around forty percent of their journey. If everything continued ording to Theo''s n, they should be able to reach their destination without a single scratch on their body.


    While the pope shed with the five experts, Theo turned to Lorenzo to check his condition. "Are you alright?"


    "Yeah. I''m good. I should be the one asking. You have used your Telekinesis this whole time�� And it''s not only for yourself but for all of us. I''m afraid you have used a considerable amount of Magic Power." Lorenzo frowned, observing Theo''s expression.


    "It''s fine. My Magic Power should be more than you. And Telekinesis doesn''t really require that much Magic Power since it''s only for flying. It''s not like you''re that heavy either to force me to increase the amount of power consumed��"


    "Well, if you say so."


    "Before that, I want to confirm two things." Lorenzo looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "What is it?"


    "This is thest chance, so I want to ask you. Do you hate the War God Family?"


    Theo was taken aback by this question. But he still answered to the best of his ability. "Not at all. In fact, I wish I grew up here instead of Thernd."


    Lorenzo felt a bit relieved before asking the second question. "Do you think I can be your brother?"


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment and smiled. "Yes."


    "Hahahaha!" Lorenzoughed out loud when he had gotten the confirmation. This was thest chance he could ask this, so he ignored all the danger they were in and asked these two questions.


    "I am feeling great. No matter what, I''m not going to let my brother die!" Lorenzo finally dropped his worry as he watched how the pope moved again. He had been trying to learn the pope''s strength as well as the enemies'' power.


    Even though they were not directly rted to him, their experience and skills were still beneficial to him. If he could grasp something from their fights, it would be a good lesson.


    The sh continued for another few hours. However, the conclusion came suddenly.


    After a long 15 hours, the pope finally showed his first sign of weakness.


    His barrier suddenly cracked.


    "!!!" His forehead wrinkled as the pope took a deep breath, trying to assess his power again.


    On the other hand, the Griffith Family Experts were overjoyed. This was the chance they had been waiting for.


    As long as they could destroy the pope''s barrier, they could somehow kill Theo along with his assistant and Lorenzo in a single strike. Even if the pope intervened, he couldn''t stop all five of them anymore.


    "Hahaha!"


    "This is the time. Attack him! Make sure you don''t injure him!"


    Their attention went straight to the crack on his barrier.


    Three Mythical Rank Experts released their Magic Saint Fist Style - Twister toward the crack while the other two extended their swords, preparing to sh it.


    Four rectangr shields appeared in front of the pope as he used the first two to withstand the iing des.


    Meanwhile, the other two were stopping the three torrential Magic Powering from three different directions.


    Normally, he wouldn''t have a problem stopping them because the barrier could take one of these attacks. However, it was a different case if there was a crack on the barrier. The moment the Magic Power hit this brittle spot, the barrier would shatter, and Theo and the others would be exposed to danger.


    "��" The pope''s expression turned grim as he raised his left hand, trying to reach his blindfold.


    However, before he could take off his blindfold, the Magic Power had struck the remaining two shields as well as the barrier.


    *Cling!*


    The barrier fell apart like sses as the goldenyer that had been protecting Theo and the others this whole time crumbled.


    "!!!"


    "Hahaha. This is it!"


    "Aim for that demon bastard! All of them can escape unscathed, but Theodore Griffith must be buried here."

 Chapter 860 – Sacrifice?

    <h4>Chapter 860 - Sacrifice?</h4>


    "Aim for his life."


    Now that the barrier had been broken, all Experts from the Griffith Family had one job to do. They needed to kill Theo without injuring the pope when the barrier was still down.


    Right before they released their power, Theo summoned his clone, sending it to their leader.


    "Hmph. Useless struggle!" The leader snorted while focusing on Clone Theo. "I''ll handle the clone."


    As soon as he said those words, he redirected his attack toward Clone Theo.


    This situation made Theo happy as he rushed toward the leader with his fastest speed. After that, he waved his hand and cut the leader''s feet while using his Illusion Maniption to control the pain he felt.


    "!!!" The leader''s body was shaken by the pain, but he didn''t let out a single scream.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting someone to withstand this attack. There were only two options left. Either he used another type of illusion or he charged at him.


    In an instant, Theo came to a conclusion and increased his speed, trying to close the gap between them.


    The man was ready to use his skill to obliterate the clone.


    Clone Theo raised his hand, utilized his Illusion Construct, and formed a big white cloud that covered their visions.


    "Smoke Screen? You won''t be able to do anything." The Mythical Rank Expert could still sense Theo''s Magic Power, so it was impossible for him to get away from this attack.


    The leaderunched his attack forward, trying to destroy Clone Theo.


    But when the attack was about to hit the clone, another two figures appeared right in the attack path.


    "?!" The leader was bewildered when he felt these two presences. After all, they were not supposed to be there.


    His doubt was answered soon when another four figures appeared next to him. The first one stopped his attack while the other three waved their des at his throat to kill him.


    The leader couldn''t understand what had happened earlier. He simply ducked down to avoid all these des. But these new people were far too good as each de could still reach the body.


    The three des cut the leader''s right arm, made a huge wound on the side of the stomach, and severed his right knee.


    "!!!" The leader widened his eyes, never expecting to be in this situation in an instant.


    Without them realizing, the two presences inside the smoke soon disappeared again, forcing the other three to go back.


    Seeing the iing attack from the Mythical Rank Experts, the new people that just came out earlier immediately protected the pope with their strength.


    "��" The leader gritted his teeth while wondering what had just happened.


    Theo, on the other hand, clicked his tongue when he saw the leader was still alive. It was clear that his target was to eliminate all these experts. But the leader seemed to be stronger than he expected.


    "What just happened?"


    "Leader?"


    The Griffith Family''s experts were covered with sweats, wondering what they should do now that they had known about such a thing.


    The leader gritted his teeth and realized what had actually happened in the span of a few seconds.


    ''Impossible.'' The leader gritted his teeth and leaped back, trying to get some distance from Theo and the pope. He thought, ''His clone was a fake to make me attack him. At that moment, the clone used the smokescreen to confuse everyone, but��


    ''He actually brought the pope right in front of the attack. With the mission of the four Great Holy Knights, they wouldn''t have any choice other than to kill me.


    ''That kid immediately sent the pope back to Agata and the others before the rest attacked them. This resulted in the four Great Holy Knightsing back and protecting them.


    ''In other words, the shield breaking was the opportunity he needed this whole time. He chose me because I was the strongest one. Removing me would allow the pope to have an easier time.''


    The leader finally understood Theo''s train of thought. However, he believed that he and the other experts from the Griffith Family were strong enough to stop this n.


    Theo''s original n was to eliminate all of them, but the result was pretty disappointing, with only the leader being crippled.


    "Still��" The leader gritted his teeth. Although he could withstand the pain, he couldn''t do anything without an arm and a leg, let alone when the blood flowed out too much.


    Even if he could survive, he wouldn''t be able to fight anymore unless the pope agreed to heal him, which was close to impossible.


    "Kill him!" The leader shouted out loud, giving the rest of hisst order before falling to the ground, nning to kill himself with the fall. After all, if he survived with this kind of injury, he would be a problem that the family needed to take care.


    On the other hand, if he died in the line of duty, there was still insurance money and the reward for doing the mission.


    At the same time, he also made sure that the other four knew what to do.


    "!!!" Those experts clenched their fists and epted the order without hesitation. They were even more determined to defeat Theo.


    At the same time, the four Great Holy Knights confronted Theo head-on.


    "Oi, you brat. I don''t care who you are and what you n to do, but what you did earlier was dangerous. You had endangered the life of the pope." One of the Holy Knights said while ring at Theo.


    "They were the ones who attacked the pope."


    "I don''t care about all your words. All I know is if you did something like that again, I would kill you no matter what my superiors say." The Holy Knight harrumphed, not buying any of Theo''s words.


    "Unlike others, I don''t fear you. You might be scary to others, but all I know is that the moment you try to harm the pope directly or indirectly, even if I need to die, you will need to suffer too��" The Holy Knight stated onest thing before moving away.

 Chapter 861 – Lecture

    <h4>Chapter 861 - Lecture</h4>


    "��" Theo fell silent when he heard those words. He nced at the pope to see his opinion about this matter.


    But before they made eye contact, another Holy Knight stated, "He could avoid it, but he still agreed to protect you. I just want you to remember not to bite the hand that feeds you."


    "We won''t kill anyone here no matter what. So, it''s useless to kill with a borrowed knife. If you do something like that again, we won''t hesitate to kill you." Thest Holy Knight snorted.


    All four Great Holy Knights were displeased with Theo''s action. In fact, Enrica felt the same when they did a mission together. That was why Enrica kept mentioning not making a n to y with their lives.


    That was just a tiny piece of advice to remind Theo that he shouldn''t turn his allies into enemies.


    Theo sighed and nodded. "Alright. I won''t do something like that again."


    Theo didn''t say a single word of me because he knew the pope had worked hard enough to keep them safe.


    Seeing the situation had calmed down, the four Great Holy Knights descended and hid their presence again.


    Meanwhile, Theo and the rest started flying away. Their action also forced the Griffith Family Experts to continue their journey.


    Lorenzo teleported them to give the team some time to sort everything that happened earlier. Even he couldn''t justify what Theo did earlier.


    It was true that Theo''s n was brilliant and had the chance to eliminate all the experts that were chasing after them. However, sacrificing the pope might be thest thing he wanted to do, especially when thetter had been protecting them for fifteen hours straight and would continue to do it for another half a day.


    So, Lorenzo didn''t say anything regarding this matter, giving an opportunity for Theo and the pope to talk.


    Theo''s expression turned grim while the pope finally opened his eyes, showing his ck eyes. But unlike normal eyes, there seemed to be a golden light in the middle of his eyes.


    This golden light was the result of his own training, so no one could replicate this golden light.


    Looking at Theo, the pope put on a gentle smile and said, "I know that you didn''t mean any harm. Even though you used me like that�� The reason why I didn''t push you away or something was due to your intention.


    "When you utilized your Blink together, you had calcted everything. The Blink would take me there while the clone would bring me back.


    "And with the four Great Holy Knights, I wouldn''t be injured in this ce. That was why even though you did all that, you never nned to let me get injured."


    The pope still showed his kindness and wisdom even though Theo endangered his life no matter what kind of n he had in mind.


    He continued, "It''s true that if you want to survive, you need to do everything necessary. But there is always a limit��


    "I don''t mean to be rude, but what will you do if you have an enemy and you want to deceive him. For example, Agata is currently your wife, who you love so much. And the only way to trick him is to have Agata seduce him.


    "He will taint her because this is the only way. Will you be able to ask Agata to do it? I don''t think so. Sometimes, it doesn''t matter whether you''re safe or not��


    "After all, safe doesn''t mean to be alive alone. You need to think about their mental state, feelings, and so on.


    "Even if you can save someone, what will you do if the person in question actually wants to die? You''ll persuade them, sure. But thates from you thinking about their mental state, feelings, and situation. You need to make everything right if you want to save him.


    "That''s why you shouldn''t y with life too much because it will bite you in the future. I have told Enrica that we are not meant to be together as allies or friends because you and I are too different. So, I can only give you this piece of advice." The pope ended his lecture with another smile.


    Although Theo wasn''t wrong, he simply wanted Theo to be a better person. Someone''s character, action, thought could be easily influenced by the people around them. And Theo''s case was simr. So, he just wanted Theo to sort this out to avoid future problems.


    Theo suddenly fell silent before he lowered his head. "I apologize�� I didn''t think it through."


    "It''s fine. You''re a smart kid, so you should know about this too. But I guess, sometimes, there''s a need for it to be put in words." The pope smiled and nced at Agata.


    "��" Agata''s expression turned grim as she understood what the pope meant.


    Theo nodded. "Yes. Thank you very much."


    "Good. A good child will get a present." The pope suddenly took out a small envelope and handed it to him. "Leonardo wants you to receive this letter. It seems to be hisst gift for you."


    Theo looked at the envelope with interest and received it with both hands. "Thank you."


    "You''re wee." The pope nodded with a smile. "He told me that you can open it when you think you''re safe."


    "Yes. I will keep that in mind."


    Suddenly, they heard shoutsing from afar.


    "There they are!"


    "The barrier is still down."


    "Pope Franz should be waiting for the skill."


    "Attack Theo before this happens."


    With the experts from the Griffith Familying toward them, the pope finally became serious as he looked at all of them with his eyes.


    "Let me take care of this." The pope smiled. "I will show you that I can fulfill my promise."


    Suddenly, the Magic Power fluctuated in the area as a huge ck-colored eye appeared on top of the pope.


    The light in the middle of the eye soon shone brightly and enveloped them in this golden light.


    "God''s Eye."

 Chapter 862 – Star

    <h4>Chapter 862 - Star</h4>


    "God''s Eye. "


    A huge eye on the pope''s back widened and released a purple sh forward.


    "!!!" The four experts came to a halt when the purple light passed them.


    "What is this? I can''t move." One of the experts gritted his teeth and looked at his body. Despite using all his power, he somehow couldn''t move his body.


    "This should be the famous Eye Ability the pope has. The Divine Technique unique to those from the Vatican. This is the reason why they usually don''t take off their blindfold." One of them recognized the pope''s ability and informed the others.


    Unfortunately, it was toote. They had been trapped by this eye.


    "Hurry up and break free from this technique."


    "Use all your Magic Power!"


    The experts from the Griffith Family started to panic as they would be vulnerable to any attacks from Mythical Rank Experts.


    This was also the reason why whenever the pope went outside, he would be protected by the four Great Holy Knights.


    Pope Franz never killed anyone because his ability was focused on defensive skill, restraining ability, and inhuman Future Eyes that could predict the enemies'' movements. He had been using the defensive skills and future eyes to protect Theo this whole time.


    If not, he wouldn''t be able to stop all these Mythical Rank Experts for so long. Now that Theo had received his words a bit, he thought there was no need to hold back anymore and restricted all these Mythical Rank Experts.


    Normally, the pope would give them a second chance and let them go back as long as they didn''t attack him again. Or if they still attacked him even after all this, the four Great Holy Knights would finish them off when the pope took away their ability to move.


    However, since the pope''s mission was only to bring Theo to his destination safely, he simply flew away as soon as he used that skill.


    Theo also left the scene. But after a while, he took a look at his back, wondering if he should kill them or not.


    ''No. Even if they''re restricted, I won''t be able to kill them. Their Magic Power alone is enough to disperse my attacks." Theo let out a long sigh. After all, the pope wouldn''t kill any of them.


    In the end, he chose to let it go and focus on his goal.


    Even though Theo was shaking his head in disappointment, the pope still smiled, knowing that Theo was someone that could be taught.


    ''He''s indeed a good child.'' Pope Franz thought while closing his eyes again.


    ��


    Italy.


    The building that was used as the battlefield for Valerie and Eric had been ruined.


    However, Valerie dropped to her knees as she kept panting, not being able to hold out against Eric. Her wound contributed greatly to this, so she knew she was going to die here.


    Eric, on the other hand, hadn''t suffered any injuries. Valerie had indeed forced him to use half of his Magic Power from those illusions, but it wasn''t enough.


    "This is the end. I should apud you for holding this long. However, I won''t let you buy more time." Eric extended his hand and moved forward, trying to blow Valerie''s head away with all the Magic Power he had to kill her.


    However, when his hand was about to hit her, another hand emerged from the side. The hand was covered in golden me and released an even more powerful Magic Power that blew all the magic power away.


    The shock wave from the sh between the Magic Power shook the area and blew away all the rubbles and even the cloud of dust scattered around.


    "!!!" Both Valerie and Eric widened their eyes, never expecting to see the man here.


    "Marzio!"


    "Big Brother."


    Marzio''s expression was grim as his rage leaked out of his eyes. If a gaze could kill, Eric would have died hundreds of times already.


    "That''s enough. I''m not going to let you harm my sister again." Marzio said with a trace of killing intent.


    The pressureing from the sh of their Magic Power became even stronger and even shattered some rubbles in the area.


    Suddenly, Eric leaped back as though he had lost in the confrontation. However, the real reason he retreated was that he didn''t understand how Marzio could slip through his illusion.


    After all, he should have been able to sense him when he entered the illusion.


    The moment hended 30 feet away from Marzio, Eric raised his hands and clutched them, activating the illusion again.


    The building was about to be restored as the rubbles began to fly back to their original ce.


    Marzio raised his forefinger as a golden light shone on the tip of his finger.


    "O'' Star, guide me." Marzio waved his hand and released five star-shaped lights that flew in all directions as though they were random.


    However, Eric understood what Marzio nned to do. He even shouted, "No!"


    Eric created a few more pirs to stop Marzio''s lights but to no avail. The stars somehow flew around like they were living creatures.


    All of them avoided all the obstructions on their path.


    As soon as they reached their destination, the stars expanded and shone brightly.


    Somehow all the illusions started to melt as though they were in front of the real stars.


    "You�� How do you know?!" Eric gritted his teeth, never expecting Marzio to find his weakness.


    "Everything is the star''s guidance." Marzio waved down his forefinger as the sixth star fell down, cracking the illusion realm from the outside.


    When it shattered the illusion realm, the star shone again, melting the remaining barrier until they were nowhere to be seen.


    "��" Eric realized Marzio had been prepared for this one attack. So, he knew he should be retreating right now.


    But Marzio stated with a calm tone, "You have harmed my sister and now you want to go�� The stars have guided me�� And they said it''s checkmate."


    The moment Marzio said those words, Eric''s body trembled as he raised his head, finding an old man apanied by two armors.


    A huge white-colored circle appeared, forming a pentagram within the light circle�� Leonardo gradually opened his eyes as everything was ready.

 Chapter 863 – Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 863 - Reinforcement</h4>


    Leonardo gradually opened his eyes, showing a sharp gaze that never appeared when he taught Theo.


    Suddenly, eight armor appeared. These were Leonardo''s pawns.


    All of them raised their swords at the same time and released their Magic Power, channeling them to Leonardo.


    At the same time, a huge dome-shaped barrier emerged from the ground, trapping everyone inside.


    Without hesitation, Marzio grabbed Valerie''s waist and leaped out of the barrier before it was toote.


    When they left, Eric immediately jumped toward Leonardo, not giving him any chance to use this attack.


    Unfortunately for him, two spinning white beams fell right on top of him, pushing him back to the ground.


    Eric waved his hand and disintegrated these two attacks with ease. However, he could find two bishops appearing next to Leonardo.


    After that, two armor with giant shields jumped toward Leonardo to lend him their strength.


    "No. I''m not going to let you!" Eric gritted his teeth as the ground started bulging out. A huge humanoid figure suddenly took shape and waved its hands toward Leonardo to stop whatever Leonardo nned to do.


    Unfortunately for him, the two huge hands that were about to p Leonardo to death were severed and flew into the air.


    "!!!" Eric widened his eyes and saw two knights standing in the air with their horses.


    All Leonardo''s chess pieces had finally appeared as they lent their power to Leonardo.


    Thetter pped his hand as the white light started shining brightly.


    "What is this? No. I should escape." Eric clicked his tongue and leaped toward the barrier, trying to disintegrate it. However, the more he tried to destroy the shield, the faster the recovery rate of the barriers, making it impossible to escape.


    "Do you think I''m going to give you the chance to escape? Even if the Griffith Family can escape, you''re the only one who can''t be left alive." Leonardo stated as he released all his strength. "Grand Chess."


    The white light became even brighter to the point no one could stand the light and closed their eyes. As for those who were still inside the barrier, Leonardo and Eric were basked in this kind of white light.


    The white light looked like an explosion. However, the barrier that the rooks made held everything down, making sure nothing escaped.


    All the things inside the barrier were reduced into nothing in an instant. Even the concrete or the road couldn''t escape from this light, let alone Eric.


    When the light disappeared, there was a huge sphere of nothingness. Everything waspletely gone. Not even a dust remained.


    The light engulfed everything inside as though it was a living being. The barrier ultimately melted because of the white light''s power.


    "Is this it?" Valerie''s body shook as she saw no signs of Eric Griffith''s survival.


    The answer came in the form of action. Marzio waved his hand and shot a golden beam. "Star Guidance."


    The star-shaped light flew to the left as though it was locked to someone.


    Without sparing a single word, Leonardo followed the star. He increased his speed, finding Eric running away with his back facing the enemy.


    Half of his clothes had been destroyed and his body had be red as though he had been heated up inside a microwave.


    When he realized Leonardo''s n, he knew he should leave this country because the War God Family was stronger than he expected.


    Eric wanted to use his illusion to trick Leonardo, but he noticed the golden light on Leonardo''s shoulder that kept moving together with him.


    "Kh." He gritted his teeth, knowing that the star would be able to locate him even if he used an illusion. It was the gap between them.


    Although he wouldn''t necessarily lose against the current leader of the War God Family, Marzio, he couldn''t do anything if Leonardo aimed at his life too.


    ''Since when the War God Family bes this strong in individualbat?'' Eric gritted his thought, thinking he would be in too much danger if he stayed there. ''The Barbe Group�� Are they going to fulfill their promises?"


    Eric clenched his hands while thinking it was impossible to escape. Still, as one would expect from the Griffith Family, he didn''t give up.


    Eric raised both hands and formed a huge tornado, close to the natural disaster. The twister reached Leonardo to stop him down.


    However, Leonardo''s King raised his sword and waved it diagonally, releasing a white-colored light from his sword.


    The light cut the tornado, and the remaining shock wave blew the tornado''s eye away, resulting in the entire tornado disappearing.


    After that, Leonardo emerged from within and continued his chase. The n was going smoothly and Eric should go down soon if not because of the appearance of five Mythical Rank Experts.


    These five Mythical Rank Experts brandished their weapons toward Leonardo. One of them was also a summoner, so he summoned a golem and a bird surrounded by lightning to confront Leonardo.


    Leonardo leaped two feet above the air when another Mythical Rank Expert appeared from thin air, almost cutting his feet.


    After that, the two summoned creatures charged at him. Luckily, the eight pawns came and surrounded them, not giving these creatures any chance to attack Leonardo.


    Two Mythical Rank Experts stood in his way. The first expert leaped toward Leonardo''s King and struck forth. Leonardo''s King stopped his de with his own sword.


    At the same time, the other expert hit Leonardo with his spear, trying to halt his steps.


    Another Mythical Rank Expert released an arrow that excreted an extraordinary pressure to the point it chipped away a part of the road.


    Leonardo''s Bishops appeared. One of them created a white circle that blocked the arrow while the other one released a beam tounch a counterattack, forcing the archer to step back.


    And thest Mythical Rank Experts released red-colored fireballs that split into many to confuse Leonardo.


    Two Rooks appeared with their shields and formed a barrier, blocking all the iing attacks.


    Leonardo didn''t even flinch when he avoided all these Mythical Rank Experts and continued to chase Eric�� "No one can stop me from killing you today."

 Chapter 864 – Star Divination

    <h4>Chapter 864 - Star Divination</h4>


    Even with six Mythical Rank Experts ambushing him, Leonardo didn''t flinch. He continued moving forward while avoiding all of them.


    "Father. Chase after him. I''m going to handle all these six!" Marzio shouted as his fingers glowed again.


    The reply came in the form of action as Leonardo nodded his head while leaping forward, never bothering to look at Marzio.


    The six Mythical Rank Experts obviously would want to kill Leonardo with their strategy, but Marzio''s golden lights almost hit them from their heads, forcing them to avoid it.


    With Leonardo''s speed, one or two seconds gap were more than enough to stop them from catching up to him.


    Still, the assassins tried to chase after Leonardo because he was the fastest one. As long as he could hinder Leonardo for a few seconds, the rest should be able to catch up.


    Unfortunately for them, a middle-aged man appeared in front of the assassin and struck his chest, blowing him away.


    Bam.


    Soon, four other people appeared on the battlefield. They were none other than Boris and the rest of the Mota Family. He had brought the group to help the War God Family. After all, it would be bad if Theo''s family died because of these people.


    They didn''t want to go against the Griffith Family, so these six Mythical Rank Experts would be good targets for them.


    "Boris?" Marzio widened his eyes in surprise. "You''reing? Theo should have told you not to participate in this fight."


    "To avoid the Griffith Family, that is�� But we''re dealing with people from the Barbe Group now, so this is just my revenge. Besides, the Griffith Family won''t know about it if we kill all of them." Boris shook his head and red at these Mythical Rank Experts, preparing to attack the moment their bodies moved.


    "You serious��" Marzio frowned, feeling a bit skeptical about their participation.


    "Please don''t talk about this anymore. Theo has done so much for us, it''s time for us to pay him back. Even if he never wants something back, we still want to help him." Boris smiled as he started releasing his Magic Power, preparing to fight those six Mythical Rank Experts.


    "Do you think you can fight against us? You only have five��!"


    Before he finished his words, Marzio stated coldly, "Do you think I''m useless? Valerie, help me to deal with them. I''ll take care of the rest."


    "Understood." Valerie nodded and stepped forward, regrouping with Boris and the others.


    Meanwhile, Marzio raised both hands in front of his chest. The palms were facing upward as though he was waiting for something to descend on his hands.


    But instead of descending, a circr board appeared right above his palms.


    "Star Navigation," Marzio muttered in a low voice as he waved his fingers a few times, releasing multiple golden beams that flew toward Boris and the others. "Follow the stars, and I shall guide you to victory."


    Although this was the first time they witnessed Marzio''s skill, they were already aware of his prowess from the information about him.


    There was one reason why Leonardo actually ced him in this position. Marzio''s fighting prowess might be quite good, but it wasn''t at Leonardo''s level, so if thetter died, the War God Family would be weakened.


    However, it was different if Marzio became the family head. After all, Marzio''s strength was his unbeatable super prediction through Star Gazing Skill where he calcted the opponents'' movements.


    With this power, he could control his people to fight an even more effective battle, resulting in them defeating a stronger opponent.


    And Marzio nned to use the ability that earned him the family head position to the fullest in this fight.


    The moment the stars that guided Boris and the others moved, they followed right into it, wondering what Marzio had in mind.


    But to their surprise, Marzio seemed to want them to regroup with him.


    ''Huh?'' Boris widened his eyes, not expecting to get recalled by Marzio. ''What is he nning?''


    Although Boris didn''t understand why Marzio forced him to return, he still followed the star movement. To his surprise, the summoner had called another monster to deal with Marzio, who couldn''t do much while performing this divinity.


    Marzio''s Star Gazing Skill calcted the perfect route, perfect path, and even the perfect future. So, when Boris followed his instruction, he somehow ended up right behind him without him noticing.


    Bam.


    When the summoner felt Boris'' presence, thetter was already right behind him, punching his stomach as hard as he could.


    The summoner flew away and smashed a few trees beforending on the ground with half of his ribs broken.


    "Hoh?" Boris widened his eyes and understood how Marzio''s ability worked. It literally traced a perfect trace, allowing him to get the best course of action.


    Suddenly, the knight brandished his spear, trying to stab him. However, Valerie appeared, striking the spear down.


    After that, Valerie raised her hand and summoned three bouncing spears to the left where no one was supposed to appear.


    But everything went ording to Marzio as two people moved in that direction. Though, Valerie only needed to release her strength to stop them.


    The first guy struck all three spears with his sword, but the momentum contained in Valerie''s spears was greater than he expected, resulting in him getting blown away by the shock wave.


    Still, Marzio hadn''t stopped there. Another middle-aged man appeared behind them and struck their backs. "Die, kids."


    "!!!" The two Mythical Rank Experts were shocked to see the man behind them. "What happened?"


    Obviously, they were clueless because everything was still under control. The two Mythical Rank Experts spat out blood and flew in another direction.


    Marzio hurriedly sent the other three to stop the rest of the enemies, creating a favorable situation in just a moment.


    "We need to kill Marzio first. If not, we''ll lose sooner orter." One of them shouted as he knew the only reason why Valerie and the others could fight this far was because of themander, Marzio.


    Since they were aiming for his life, Marzio didn''t hesitate to state, "Since you want my life,e and take it�� Let''s see whether you''re stronger or I''m stronger."

 Chapter 865 – Marzio’s Real Power

    <h4>Chapter 865 - Marzio��s Real Power</h4>


    "Attack him!" One of the Barbe Group''s people shouted. Marzio shouldn''t be able to fight when he used this technique, so they nned to slip through Boris and the others and kill him.


    Marzio simply smiled and looked at them with contempt. He never thought that all these six Mythical Rank Experts would choose to fight. After all, their target was supposed to be Leonardo instead of him.


    If they actually sacrificed their lives in order to catch up to Leonardo, even he wouldn''t be able to stop them.


    However, it was different now that they focused on him instead.


    He waved his hands and released several golden lights that guided Boris and the others.


    The summoner ordered the creatures to ram their bodies to anything that stood in their way, opening the path to Marzio.


    However, the one that stood in their way was Valerie. With a single snap of her fingers, the monsters were dying under the three white spears.


    "What?!" The summoner widened his eyes. He and Valerie were both Mythical Rank Experts, yet, a single attack from Valerie could obliterate his summoned creatures.


    If the summoned creatures didn''t do anything, he would understand. But they had covered their bodies with a barrier formed from their Magic Power that had been transmitted from himself. A single attack should only injure them.


    On the other hand, Boris was admiring Valerie''s prowess, thinking, ''So, that''s Theo''s mother. Well, Ipeted with her in the past�� I could understand the summoner''s shock. Still, her strength has far surpassed me now. What is her current level? 800?''


    Boris hadplicated feelings toward her. On the one hand, Valerie was Theo''s mother. Although he had some information about their rtionship, he didn''t have the full story that allowed him to judge what she did. As someone whopeted with her, he truly wished Valerie had reasons why she did all that to Theo.


    On the other hand, Valerie wasn''t supposed to be someone like this. He could still vaguely remember everything about her. She might never show her face, but she was once a kind person who loved to help people, especially her family.


    That was why he couldn''t really believe it when Valerie threw Theo away.


    ''Whatever. I should focus on the fight. I''ll just let Agata and Theo do their own thing.'' Boris shook his head and leaped to the side, trying to strike the knight that nned to attack Valerie.


    He plunged his ck fist that seemed to have been covered by ck steel.


    The swordsman struck the fist with his de as their sh produced a shock wave that shook the area.


    Using this chance, the assassin appeared behind Boris and waved his daggers to his neck.


    As if they had predicted his appearance, Agata''s aunt and uncle appeared behind him.


    The assassin immediately changed his target the moment he sensed their presence. The first de stopped the uncle''s de, while the second one was to hit him from the side. As for the aunt, he never had the need to pay attention to it. After all, the archer had released his arrow to stop her, and the spear guy knocked her away.


    "��" The assassin fell silent while furrowing his eyebrows. He felt something was wrong in this development. ''Why do I feel like there''s something going on here? But what is it?''


    The archer noticed the assassin''s change of expression and simply nodded his head, trying to assure him.


    Boris'' wife had been waiting for this as she looped around and approached him from behind.


    Her right hand was covered with green-colored me.


    "!!!" The assassin widened his eyes and thought, ''Is their target our archer this whole time? Without the support from the back, these people will have a huge advantage. If that''s the case, we can''t let them take the initiative.''


    When Boris'' wife struck the archer, a transparent shield suddenly blocked her. The me red up to engulf him, but the barrier held on, covering the archer from this green-colored me.


    ''Good.'' The assassin smirked as he thought, ''With this, their attack pattern should be disturbed. As soon as that happens, I''m going to take advantage of the situation and eliminate one of them.''


    The assassin believed this was going to be their chance to turn the situation around. But his face soon changed to grim when the mage''s shadow rose, turning into a human form.


    "No!" The assassin widened his eyes and wanted to help him, but Valerie appeared in front of him and struck his daggers, pinning him to the ground.


    Meanwhile, the mage had anticipated this attack because he would be the most vulnerable person in the group when protecting others. Hence, he had prepared a barrier to stop anyone from attacking him.


    "I know you''re there��" The mage smiled while looking at thest Mythical Rank Expert from the Mota Family.


    Thetter waved his hand toward his neck. Then, a sharp de made of shadow extended from his hand, looping around the magician''s body to kill him from behind.


    But the barrier covered all over him, so when the shadow de struck, it was stopped by the barrier.


    However, he didn''t give up. The man extended another shadow de from the top to kill him from another spot but to no avail.


    "You can''t kill me." The magician snorted.


    "I know, but she can."


    Suddenly, the magician felt an enormous amount of Magic Powering from the ground.


    "!!!" He felt it toote and realized the shadow had been blocking his senses this whole time. When he wanted to leave, the curving shadow des locked him in one ce. It was at this moment that he knew everything was just a build-up to kill him. "You��!"


    A huge white spear suddenly emerged from the ground, shattering the barrier and splitting him into half in an instant.


    "God Killing Spear!" The assassin dropped his jaw. "Did he die just like that? He was supposed to be stronger!"


    ''Wait a minute. Have we ever used any big move this whole time?'' The assassin turned to Marzio in shock. ''No. We haven''t used any sort of moves because there''s no need for that earlier. But Buro still died without using a single move.''


    As if realizing what had happened, the assassin''s body shook. ''Is this Marzio''s power? ording to our information, Marzio is adept at controlling the flow of the battle, giving perfect instruction to his teammates.


    ''However, we''ve underestimated him this whole time. His control is not limited to his teammates but also his enemies. By controlling the flow of the battle, Marzio prevented us from using any big moves, and he will lead his team to the victory with the least Magic Power consumption.'' The assassin gulped down as he looked at Marzio.


    Marzio''s calm expression and narrowed eyes finally changed as though he had sensed the change in this battle.

 Chapter 866 – Brother

    <h4>Chapter 866 - Brother</h4>


    "Impossible," said the assassin. His face was filled with terror as he''d never seen something like this.


    Hisrades were killed one by one without him being able to do anything. A big move certainly required time to set up, but he should be able to use it once or twice.


    Yet, every time he poured that amount of Magic Power to escape from this predicament, he would be stopped by someone. And to make the matter worse, all hisrades experienced the same situation. No one was able to use something big to disrupt the flow of the battle.


    And they ended up getting killed one by one after Boris and the others had more time to deal with them because of the loss of the mage.


    The assassin gritted his teeth. He expected that if they wished to kill Boris and the others, it wouldn''t be that big of a problem. After all, they came here with the intention to die.


    Even if they needed to die, they would drag others with them. Unfortunately for them, Marzio''s Star Divination was too good.


    He prevented everything from happening while guiding his teammates to a perfect victory. There was no wound on their bodies, and the Magic Power hadn''t depleted much. Only Valerie was panting when the fight was over, but that was because of the previous fight against Eric.


    When everything was over, Valerie gritted her teeth and turned around, looking at her brother, who she hadn''t met for a long time.


    "Brother." Valerie''s tone was filled with sadness and longing. However, she didn''t know whether she had the right to call Marzio her brother again.


    Suddenly, Marzio shed for a second as his body suddenly appeared right before her. His hand reached her helmet as he said, "I never me you. Grandfather must have been ming himself too.


    "If we agreed to your marriage and supported you with all we got, you might be able to stay leisurely in the War God Family, not experiencing a harsh thing in another country.


    "Theo might be able to lead a better life. If you want to me someone, me Father and me. We were at fault." Marzio shook his head and put on a gentle smile. It was the first time he met her again after decades, so Marzio felt nostalgic.


    "No." Valerie shook her head. "I was the one who wanted to leave the family and live with Ray in another ce. I shouldn''t be so stubborn."


    "Talking like this won''t go anywhere. So, there''s only one thing to do��" Marzio suddenly hugged her while closing his eyes. A tear was formed on the corner of his eyes as he smiled. "Still, I''m d that I can see you again."


    "Brother��" Valerie bit her lips, feeling regretful. Even though Leonardo beat her and Ray in Thernd or Marzio lectured her, no one med her for what happened.


    The feeling of helplessness struck her heart as Valerie couldn''t help but shed a tear. "Sorry."


    "Don''t say sorry to Father or me. Someone deserves that more than anyone else." Marzio shook his head and took a step back. He looked at the sky and sighed. "That child has fought so much during the past two decades."


    "I�� I don''t deserve to meet him anymore."


    "Valerie. You were once a kind girl. It was Eric Griffith who made you like this. I would never me you�� I just hate the fact that I can''t kill that Eric Griffith with my own hand." Marzio sighed in disappointment. "Well, we''ll take care of Theo from now on, so you can do whatever you want��"


    "��" Valerie clenched her hands and looked down. "I��"


    "There''s nothing for you to say." Marzio recalled Theo''s face in his mind and said, "Theo has gotten stronger, and I believe no one can stop him right now, even the Griffith Family. He can take care of himself. Father has a hidden purpose in teaching Theo all his knowledge.


    "He simply wants Theo to learn the warmth of a family. He doesn''t want Theo to walk at the same path as yours. Father always wants Theo to just let it go instead of revenge. After all, revenge is a bloody path. There are so many sacrifices in this path��" Marzio let out a long sigh, feeling sad with how Valerie got obssesed by revenge.


    But for a kind girl to change into a vengeful one, the trauma Eric inflicted must be that great.


    "I will say this on behalf of father and anyone in the family." Marzio ced his hand on top of her helmet as if patting her head. "The War God Family will always be your home. It will never change."


    "Thank you." Valerie closed her eyes, feeling overwhelmed by emotion.


    "Anyway, you should treat your injury first. After that, you should go and help us taking down a few experts from the Barbe Group." Marzio finally changed the topic as he couldn''t bear this heavy atmosphere anymore.


    "I understand." Valerie nodded before reaching into her neck. Right underneath her armor, there was a small hidden camera that she had this whole time. "Brother. Can I trouble you to give this to Theo?"


    "This is?"


    "The memory card has the record of my thought as well as the real footage of what happened during my fight against Eric. With this data, Theo should be able to improve his illusion even further."


    "Are you sure you want him to be someone simr to Eric?"


    "He won''t. There''s something different in him."


    "Why don''t you just give it to him? If I''m not wrong, you have used all your favor to set up a perfect training for Theo''s Five Aspects�� Then, Ray''s unique Materialization as well as his artifact. I believe all those alone are enough to empty your wallet."


    "Mary thing is the least thing of our worry. It will still never rece the scar on his heart. We''re prepared not to be forgiven, but at the very least, we still want the kid to be strong to the point he doesn''t need to sacrifice anything for his ambition. If my life can be exchanged for a stronger power for him, I would dlyy my life down." She handed the camera to Marzio. "Please. Give this to him. I know he won''t receive anything from me��"


    Ray looked into her determined eyes before nodding his head with a serious expression. "Okay�� I''ll send it to himter."

 Chapter 867 – Plan D

    <h4>Chapter 867 - n D</h4>


    "Okay. I''ll send it to himter. Though, it''s hard since he''s nning to go hiding. Even I don''t have any information about it." Marzio shrugged. "Why don''t you use the Griffith Family''swork to find out his next identity and send it to meter?"


    "If I use it, those people will know Theo''s identity. For now, I''m not going to do anything other than buy time. Theo should be strong enough in a few years, and the Griffith Family won''t be able to do anything to him anymore. He''ll be safe from this family."


    "Well��" Marzio rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I''ll find him and give the videoter. Hopefully, he doesn''t throw away his Skylink since that''s the only way to find himter. Whatever. I''ll do my best."


    Valerie chuckled when Marzioined and answered it himself.


    "You dare tough at your brother? Should I beat you up on behalf of Father?" Marzio red at him.


    "No, no. I''ll just focus on recovering my power." Valerie immediately stepped away.


    When she was about to start recovering her power, Leonardo suddenly appeared on the scene.


    "!!!" All of them turned their heads around and saw Leonardoing with a hand and a foot.


    He dropped them to the ground with an angry face.


    "Father?" Marzio widened his eyes. "You��"


    Marzio didn''t continue as he could see the reason for his anger.


    "That bastard still had something in his sleeve. He sacrificed his hand and foot to escape from me." Leonardo exined in a simple way.


    "But this kind of wound should give us time," Marzio added while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "That''s true. Eric might need a prosthetic leg and arm after this, but it shouldn''t be as powerful as his original limbs. Also, getting used to them alone will require a long time, especially since you''re a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "So, with these two alone�� We should be able to get around�� 5 years?" Leonardo frowned, calcting the situation ahead.


    "5 years? I think you''re stretching it too much."


    "No. We will take this situation to hit the Griffith Family. The Barbe Group is our reason for joining this fight." Leonardo shook his head, mentioning their counterattack as if he had nned this the whole time.


    "Fighting the Griffith Family? If that''s the case, it''s going to be catastrophic�� No, wait. The Griffith Family only has two vessel families left. Ray is close to the Eilric Family, so there''s a chance they will leave as well.


    "This leaves the Griffith Family with only one vassal family left. With the help of the mercenary that was aiming for them as well as Eric''s condition. I think we can prolong this situation for five years��" Marzio exined his thought as he realized Leonardo didn''te up with a random number.


    "That''s correct. We can''t eradicate the whole family since I perfectly know what it means to corner a tiger�� If they fight to the death, our loss will be too great. So, I just want to weaken them down gradually." Leonardo sighed and looked at Valerie. "It seems you have considered this too."


    Valerie nodded weakly, not denying that assumption.


    "Hmph. Just do your own thing. Even my bones are already old, I still can do a few things. I''m still your father no matter what. It''s my duty to be relied on by the kids." Leonardo looked at Valerie with sadness.


    Valerie could only look down, not daring to talk about anything, especially about her activities rted to Theo.


    On the other hand, Boris gulped down, thinking, ''What the heck with this situation? War God Family''s problem, I guess? There''s nothing I can do here, and my little princess hasn''t be Theo''s girlfriend yet, so I really need to stay away from this conversation.''


    Leonardo turned to Boris and said, "Thank you for the help."


    "Please don''t mind it. We wanted to repay Theo." Boris hurriedly replied, not daring to receive the thanks. After all, they didn''t do anything other than follow Marzio''s instructions.


    "Anyway, let''s finish the Barbe Group right now. With the difference in our number, we should be able to eliminate all of them at once." Leonardo nodded and returned to Marzio. "How''s the preparation?"


    "Everything is good. As expected, they''re aiming for mutual destruction, but our group has prepared for it.


    "Good. Let''s move on to n D, shall we?" Leonardo smirked.


    "n D?" Boris widened his eyes, not understanding the meaning of his n. After all, he joined this battle so suddenly.


    "Yeah. n A is to Annihte the enemy with our strength alone. Like those who are strong shall handle the weaker ones and defeat them before moving to help others.


    "n B is ''Be like a bitch'', Attack them without caring about your safety. This will give us severe casualties, so it''s dropped. There''s no need for mutual destruction.


    "n C is to ''Cut'' which means we''re hunting their leaders first, such as Eric Griffith. After that, we help the others.


    "As for n D�� it''s ''being a dick.'' Basically, we antagonize them and trap them by using barrier cars. Then, we eliminate them one by one. I can''t tell you much about the detail, but you surely understand the gist of it, right?"


    "Yes." Boris nodded furiously. It was clear that Leonardo wanted them to stick together and eliminate the enemies one by one to increase the speed of killing a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Alright. Let''s go then." Leonardo didn''t hesitate to set off after that exnation. He was eager to eliminate all his enemies.


    ��


    On the other side.


    "Bam!"


    Eric''s shoulder was mmed to the tree as thetter clutched his right shoulder. Even though Leonardo had gotten his arm and leg, Eric still had both arms and legs.


    However, those were only illusions.


    "Ha��" Eric panted as sweat covered his body. He was enduring so much pain from these wounds.


    "To think everything is controlled by that bastard��"


    "Leonardo!" Eric gritted his teeth and shouted on top of his lungs. "I''m going to kill you!"

 Chapter 868 – Reaching The Dark Poison Swamp

    <h4>Chapter 868 - Reaching The Dark Poison Swamp</h4>


    "Let''s go. The pope has started getting exhausted again." One of the experts from the Griffith Family shouted, observing the pope''s face.


    It was clear that the pope had been struggling to use his skills because he had exerted most of his Magic Power in thest 22 hours.


    His face had be a bit pale and his body was covered with sweat. The pope could fall down sooner orter, so the experts from the Griffith Family had been waiting for this chance.


    Theo paused for a moment and looked at the pope''s face. "Are you alright?"


    "Don''t worry about me. I should be able to send you to your destination. However, I don''t know why you''re going to the Dark Poison Swamp�� Even my power is not enough to survive there." The pope furrowed his eyebrows.


    He was the world''s first Healer who was adept in Healing Skills, Defensive Abilities and Predicting the Future. But even with such power, it wasn''t enough.


    The Dark Poison Swamp wasn''t a trifling matter. One hour inside could drain ten percent of his Magic Power because he would need to use his Defensive Abilities to withstand the poison''s corrosion and heal himself from any poison.


    If Theo went there, especially together with Agata and Ava, he wouldn''tst even an hour. That was why the pope worried about Theo''s well-being instead of his tiredness.


    "I have my own way. You don''t need to worry. As long as I can reach the destination, I can leave this ce." Theo shook his head.


    "They''re going to watch over the Dark Poison Swamp to prevent you from escaping." The pope raised his doubt again. He simply couldn''t believe what Theo said. Although he knew Theo''s prowess was extraordinary, he never saw Theo using poison.


    "As I said, I have my own way. You might get your answer when we arrive there�� That is if we can reach that ce." Theo looked at him, questioning the pope''s ability.


    "Okay then." The pope nodded and pped his hand as another golden eye appeared behind him.


    The golden eye released a bright golden light that extinguished everything that contained Magic Power in their surroundings.


    After that, Lorenzo teleported them again before asking, "Still, how do they find us? I have been teleporting right and left to confuse them�� But somehow, they''re right behind us."


    Theo was also curious, but he never had extensive research about the Griffith Family because his informationwork had yet to reach that level.


    However, the pope had the answer and shared it with them. "The Griffith Family has a kind of tracking method. Even I don''t know the details as only high-level people in the family can learn this one.


    "ording to the information, their tracking method can reach as far as 50 miles. That''s why people always say, ''You can''t escape from the Griffith Family.''


    "Their method is simply too weird. Unless you''re using something that canpletely change yourself or get out of that range, you won''t be able to escape."


    "Hmm��" Theo''s eyes squinted as though he had something in mind.


    Theo was wondering whether his Metamorphosis was enough to escape from this ce, but he also remembered that the God of Mischief told him that the skill could even manipte his gics when it reached the highest rank. So, he believed Metamorphosis could make him apletely different person.


    While he was thinking, the chase continued for another few hours.


    ,,,


    One and a half hourster.


    "The pope doesn''t have any strength left. We''ll be able to kill Theo soon!" The Griffith Family Expert shouted with a big smile on his face. After a long pursuit, he finally had a glimpse of sess.


    However, he and hisrades noticed another thing. Behind Theo''s group was a ce famous for its poison mist that could kill even the strongest person on the, the Dark Poison Swamp.


    Unlike the first time Theo came here, there was no snow preventing the poison from getting out of the ground. Instead, it was filled with ck-colored grasses, dried trees as well as green water ponds that were scattered everywhere.


    Once they entered, they would be subjected to numerous poisons that would eat them away until nothing remained.


    Still, the one that scared everyone the most was the ck-colored mist that was rising from the ground to one hundred feet above the trees, making it look like a barrier that isted this ce from the outside world.


    "What? This ce�� Why do theye here?" The expert asked the question aloud.


    The question was soon answered in the form of action. Theo took out three syringes from his back and handed one to Agata.


    "That liquid��" Everyone immediately recognized it. After all, this medicine was famous for being able to expel thousands of poisons. The War God Family had been monopolizing these resources for decades and used them to make connections with other countries.


    "The juice extracted from the Poison Fruit!"


    "Still, the poison mist is too strong. Even with that medicine, his body will still be eroded by the corrosion! No matter what, Theodore Griffith won''t be able tost long inside."


    "He''s foolish. I thought he was confident in escaping, but it seems he has no other way��"


    The experts from the Griffith Family were mocking his decision to go to this ce. They didn''t underestimate Theo. They did believe that Theo had some solution for this ce. However, even the strongest person in the world wouldn''t enter this ce when the mist was there. There was no way Theo could survive in this ce.


    Theo didn''t answer them as they flew to the Dark Poison Swamp as close as possible.


    Finally, the moment they reached the Dark Poison Swamp, the pope took a deep breath and said, "I''ve fulfilled my promise."


    "Bro, where do you want me to send you?" Lorenzo asked Theo while ncing at the poison mist that surrounded this ce.


    "The farther, the better." Theo pointed at the Dark Poison Swamp.


    "Sure thing." Before Lorenzo snapped his fingers to send him away, he smiled, "Next time, buy me a drink."


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Definitely. Next time!"


    "See you��" With a heavy heart, Lorenzo snapped his finger, teleporting Theo, Ava, and Agata to the air above the Dark Poison Swamp.

 Chapter 869 – Inside The Dark Poison Swamp

    <h4>Chapter 869 - Inside The Dark Poison Swamp</h4>


    Theo closed his eyes for a second, recalling his brother''s face for a moment. Even though he hadn''t admitted it yet, he considered Lorenzo and Leonardo as his true family like Ne.


    Now that they had to be separated, the feeling of sadness finally struck his heart.


    Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to think about it, Theo still needed to handle what was about toe.


    The Dark Avatar emerged on his back as Theo pped his hand, releasing a transparent barrier that enveloped all of them.


    Although the barrier wasn''t that big, it still allowed them to move more than ten steps in all directions.


    The barrier only had one purpose.


    The moment they entered the poison mist, the barrier isted them from this ck-colored mist.


    This was the second ability of the Death Avatar. And Theo used it together with his Sense of Touch, allowing him to create a small domain that stopped the poison from entering.


    "How is the consumption?" Agata asked with a serious face.


    "I can maintain it without a problem. It''s just�� I don''t think I can fight while utilizing this ability. Or else, I would expend too much Magic Power." Theo sighed. "So, I need to rely on you and Ava to handle all the monsters."


    Ava turned into her battle form as she looked around, "Well, the monster here is not as strong as the ones we''ve fought this whole time. There should be only a few Supreme Rank Monsters wille out, so it won''t be a problem."


    "That''s true. Still, it''s better for us not to move around too much. This ce is still the territory of a King ss Monster after all." Agata agreed with Ava''s opinion and added.


    "Indeed. Anyway, let''s go find a ce to hide first." Theo nodded to them and started investigating their surroundings.


    As expected, the monsters in this ce had noticed their presence.


    A few bugs and snakes hade out of their hiding ce, preparing to attack them.


    "Here theye." Theo''s expression turned serious. "Don''t worry about the poison. Nothing can enter here."


    "Then, let''s move in this direction. I only hear a few movements ahead." Ava pointed at their back while listening to the sound in her ears.


    "Got it." Agata waved both hands as pink smoke started surrounding them. The smoke was circling around and positioned itself right at the edge of Theo''s barrier. "I''ll protect all of you. Ava will be the main attacker."


    "Let''s go." Theo smiled and began running. His pace wasn''t that fast because he needed to make sure that the two were still in the circle.


    There was also a chance that an ambush stopped their movement, so he wanted to move at the pace he could react to any situation.


    The speed was slow, and the monsters caught up to them.


    Ava pointed her palms toward two snakes and shot out bolts of lightning.


    The snakes'' reaction speed couldn''t be underestimated either. Even though they weren''t a Supreme Rank Monster, they could still follow Ava''s attack like how Theo and the others could do it when they were still a Hero Rank Expert.


    The snakes jumped into the air and spat out purple-colored venom.


    Sadly for them, the venom wouldn''t work. The moment they reached the barrier, Agata''s smoke had formed a shield to block them. At the same time, Theo''s domain caught this venom.


    The venom stopped as if it couldn''t pass through this invisible barrier. However, the Magic Power and the momentum still slipped past the domain and hit Agata''s shield.


    Fortunately, the shield was strong enough, and there was no dent or scratch left behind.


    "It seems I can only stop the poison, not the Magic Power itself." Theo narrowed his eyes, observing what happened to it.


    Suddenly, a ridiculous thought appeared in his mind as he said, "Agata, can you catch one of them and bring them inside?"


    "Huh? What the hell are you thinking?" Agata was bewildered at first before she understood what he wanted to do. "Wait a minute. Are you trying to expel the poison in their body?"


    "You know me well." Theo smiled.


    "��" Agata was speechless. There was no way that Theo could do something like that. After all, the poison was a part of their body. Still, she didn''t hesitate to control her pink smoke.


    The smoke swirled around the snake and turned solid, locking the body. After that, Agata pulled the snake inside with all her might, stopping any kind of struggle from the snakes.


    While Agata did her job, Ava was shooting down all those monsters with her lightning. She didn''t care about spending her Magic Power as they needed to get to a safe ce as soon as possible.


    When the snake reached the domain, the monster surprisingly entered without a problem.


    There was no change on its body, which only meant one thing. Theo''s power couldn''t separate the poison from a living being. After all, it was a part of their existence.


    "Tsk. This means I can''tpletely make any poison experts obey me. However, I can make their power useless and defeat them." Theo sighed.


    "If you control many poison experts, you''re going to be judged by society, you know. After all, they can kill without anyone realizing."


    "Yeah. Many poison experts will also use my banner to do something bad too." Theo nodded in agreement. "I''m not that crazy."


    Since the experiment had finished, Agata turned the smoke into des and sliced the snake. After that, she started killing all the monsters that came toward them.


    "When will he arrive?"


    "Four days from now," Theo answered. "Our food should suffice, right?"


    "Yeah. Ava needs to be on a diet though."


    "What?" Ava widened her eyes in shock.


    "Just be content since I will make your favorite food�� even though it won''t be a big portion." Agata rolled her eyes.


    "That will kill me. It''s like you''re torturing me." Ava pouted.


    "We''ve agreed with this." Agata looked away.


    "Well��" Ava sighed in defeat. "Anyway, there shouldn''t be anything to do as soon as we find a safe ce. So, I guess I don''t need to eat much."


    "Glutton."


    "It''s a part of training."

 Chapter 870 – Trouble Inside The Cave

    <h4>Chapter 870 - Trouble Inside The Cave</h4>


    Outside the Dark Poison Swamp, Lorenzo was gritting his teeth, watching how his brother left.


    His heart was filled with remorse as even he doubted Theo would survive inside the Dark Poison Swamp.


    Still, this was Theo''s n. No matter how weird it was, Theo should have made some preparations beforehand. All he could do was to pray that Theo could indeed survive.


    ''Goodbye, brother. I hope to see you again in the future.'' Lorenzo muttered inwardly before turning to the pope.


    "It''s normal to worry. However, you need to stay strong. This is not the end�� I don''t know why but my eyes are tingling. I feel like we''re going to meet him again in the near future." The pope smiled and muttered in a low voice, so the Griffith Family Experts didn''t hear them.


    On the other hand, one of the experts asked his colleagues. "How is it?"


    "Yeah, I still sense him. He''s inside the Dark Poison Swamp, moving. His movement is not that fast, so I think the poison is stronger than his n." His friend confirmed it, unaware that Theo simply ran slower because he wanted to ensure everyone''s safety.


    "That''s great. No matter how strange that kid is, he won''t be able to survive inside the Dark Poison Swamp. We''ll monitor this area for a few days, making sure he dies. If it''s not enough,we''ll enter this ce in the winter and confirm his death."


    "Got it."


    While they were discussing, the pope then flew away with Lorenzo in his hand.


    Those four experts immediately furrowed their eyebrows, feeling a bit displeased that the people that hindered them this whole time wanted to leave just like that.


    "Stop!" One of them couldn''t contain their anger and shouted.


    "What?" The pope furrowed his eyebrows while putting on his blindfold again. "I want to take this child home with me. He''s not your target, so I can, right?"


    "You stopped us from killing that bastard, and now you want to leave? That Lorenzo helped him. We have no problem letting you leave, but he needs to die."


    "That''s something I can''t agree with." The pope raised his hand as four figures appeared next to him in an instant. He asked once again but with a stricter tone. "Or would you want to fight us?"


    Those Mythical Rank Experts could only swallow their hatred when they saw all the four Great Holy Knights who were still in good shape. If they fought the Great Holy Knights in their current state, they would surely die without aplishing anything.


    One of them finally raised his hands and said, "I apologize for my friend''s remark. It''s been a stressful day, so I hope that the pope can forgive him."


    The pope smiled and flew away, saying, "God forgives. I will do the same."


    Those four experts could only watch the pope bring Lorenzo away while being escorted by the four Great Holy Knights.


    Since they couldn''t do anything, one of them said, "Anyway, our main objective is Theodore Griffith. Let''s spread out and make sure he doesn''t leave this ce."


    They nodded and surrounded the Dark Poison Swamp while spreading their ability, locating Theo inside the swamp.


    ��


    "There is no ending to this!" Meanwhile, Agatained while solidifying her smoke and turning it into a shield, blocking a huge bull''s horn.


    "I won''tin, but I understand her feeling." Ava nodded with a grim expression.


    They were inside a cave, surrounded by numerous monsters. At first, they found this cave by ident.


    There were numerous monstersing out of the cave earlier, so they waited until all of them left and entered. However, they didn''t expect that the cave stretched far inside, and there were still so many monsters hiding inside.


    In the end, the monsters called those who were inside.


    The action repeated and caused a chain reaction from the monsters that somehow brought out the monsters inside the cave.


    In just a few minutes, Agata and Ava had killed a hundred monsters, who were one step away from Supreme Rank.


    The cave was pretty long, and before they knew it, the monsters from the outside also returned, locking them inside.


    Since they had gone too deep, Theo chose to go deeper, hoping they would reach the end soon, and formed a small fortress for them to live in for a few days. This was necessary if they wanted to fake their death as well.


    While killing the monsters, Agata asked, "Should we just go back?"


    "I can feel the end." Ava pointed forward. "It shouldn''t be that far from here. We just need to persist a bit more and kill around 500 more monsters."


    "That''s easy for you to say. Even if we''re Supreme Rank Experts, Theo can''t do anything and our movements are limited." Agata rolled her eyes.


    "That''s true, but you can focus on the defense. I''ll be the one exerting my Magic Power to kill them." Ava shrugged. "Anyway, just keep moving. This darkness has blinded some monsters, so it''s easier to kill them."


    "That''s true, I guess." Agata agreed and continued to advance.


    The group then moved bit by bit, fending off so many monsters. If Agata hadn''t trained herself in the Simtion Room back in the US, they would be in trouble. She now could control her pink smoke perfectly now, so there wasn''t a single monster that slipped past her pink smoke.


    But this situation didn''tst long.


    Suddenly, the ground started shaking as though there was something moving underneath their feet.


    "Well, I think this is a monsterir��" Theo''s expression turned serious as he felt the movement underground.


    "Yeah." Agata put on a troubled face as she also sensed it.


    "I did hear it, but I never thought that guy wasing here." Ava let out a long sigh.


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    The ground started shaking. Some areas even began to crack.


    Boom.


    Suddenly, the floor was ripped apart as a giant ck snake emerged from the ground, staring at them while sticking out its long and slender tongue.


    "Shaa!"

 Chapter 871 – Death Avatar Imitation?

    <h4>Chapter 871 - Death Avatar Imitation?</h4>


    "Shaa!" The snake recognized Theo and his group as the enemies, and there was only one fate for his enemies. Death.


    Feeling the killing intent emanated from the snake''s eyes, Agata immediately expanded her pink smoke. Her hand rose before a pink light shed on the tip of her finger.


    "The enemy is a Supreme Rank Monster," Theo mentioned the monster''s power while checking the enemy''s Magic Power. Since its body was covered by the bluish light, the monster should be a powerful Supreme Rank Monster. So, he didn''t want to underestimate him.


    Agata shared the sentiment and took the initiative to attack. The pink smoke soared into the air and formed a humanoid figure.


    Surprisingly, the humanoid figure resembled that of a woman''s body. Its hairstyle even matched Agata''s real appearance.


    But Agata didn''t stop there. The pink humanoid body soon gained its color. The hair and eyes turned brown, the beautiful smooth skin covered all her body, and her perfect body emanated a charm that was hard to resist even for Theo.


    Still, the one that would give fear in one''s heart was the giant scythe held on her hand.


    This Agata was the exact copy of Agata''s actual appearance but three times her size. She stood on the ground and raised her scythe, prepared to attack the snake at any moment''s notice.


    "This is��" Theo raised his eyebrows. Looking at this figure couldn''t help but make him want to tease Agata. "Are you going to seduce people with this?"


    "No way. The only one I want to seduce is you." Agata harrumphed while controlling her giant body. "I was inspired by your Death Avatar and thought it would be good to create a big version of mine to handle someone bigger. At the same time, I could create a smaller one and control it to imitate my movement. Watching its movement will allow me to understand the w of my own abilities. Though, I never expected that I could use this to fight remotely."


    Agata smirked as she thought about getting this power after training in the Simtion Room.


    Since she couldn''tst for more than the allocated time, she could create this avatar to review her performance.


    After a while, she realized she could create herself to fool someone. Although the strength couldn''t achieve the level of Theo''s Clone, she still felt satisfied because there were many ways to exploit this ability.


    "Is that so? Why don''t you show it to me?" Theo smiled while looking at the big Agata.


    Suddenly, the snake leaped toward Agata, trying to bite this huge chunk of cloud.


    The cloud Agata hurriedly waved its scythe to cut the snake''s head, but thetter noticed its intention and ducked.


    The head still moved forward and nned to bite Agata''s legs to destroy the cloud.


    Giant Agata kicked the head, blowing the snake away.


    At the same time, the snake somehow destroyed the right leg with its long, slender tongue.


    Agata thought nothing of this kind of attack as the leg turned back to its original form.


    The cloud of pink smoke suddenly flew toward the snake and changed its shape into that of a needle.


    This giant needle pierced the snake''s skin.


    *Zab!*


    Blood sshed from the snake''s jaw, but sadly, the snake''s skin was stronger than expected. It managed to stop the pink needle, allowing the head to shake it away.


    "My Control is not at your level, so I can''t really do something special with this huge version of me. However, the size alone is enough for the time being." Agata informed Theo about her power while demonstrating it.


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I believe you can do much more in the future."


    "Just for your information��" Agata looked at her bigger version, especially her mini skirt and the panty sh that would appear every now and then. "I''m just using this appearance because there''s only you here.


    "If there were other people, I would have created something like my current appearance with armor or something. It''s just that this version is easier to manage because it resembles my own appearance." Agata exined with a stern tone, not wanting Theo to misunderstand.


    "Ahaha, I trust you," Theo replied with a chuckle. "Anyway, you should be careful when using this. I mean, the bigger this one is, the more dangerous it is. You might be able to blow out a mountain with a single kick."


    "No can do. The pink smoke has its limit. I can''t expand it to that level."


    "Is that so?" Theo smiled and thought he could do something about it if that skill was his. However, this idea also raised another thought in his mind. ''Now that I think about it, can I upgrade other people''s skills? Well, it''s going to be very dangerous to me if others know about this power since you can easily get an S Rank Skill without actually possessing it. Many will hunt me down for this ability.''


    While he was in deep thought, Agata continued fighting the giant snake. With Ava holding the rest of the monsters back, Agata had some leeway in killing this snake.


    Giant Agata smacked the monsters a few times. And since it was made of cloud, Agata easily restored the leg that had been severed by the snake.


    As if realizing it had been yed by Agata, the snake leaped to the chest to create a huge hole that could stop Agata from recovering.


    However, this was the most foolish action he could take.


    The moment the snake''s head prated her chest, the upper body turned into a pink smoke and enveloped the snake''s body.


    After that, Agata waved her fingers down as the scythe followed her instruction and beheaded the snake.


    With the rest of its body still stuck inside the ground, the snake couldn''t avoid the scythe and died.


    Seeing how Agata easily killed a Supreme Rank Monster brought a smile to Theo''s face as he thought, ''Even without her Uer Dimension, she could easily take down a Supreme Rank Monster now�� It''s good�� Really, really good.''

 Chapter 872 – Theo’s Real Plan

    <h4>Chapter 872 - Theo��s Real n</h4>


    The moment the snake died, the monsters were enraged as though they had just lost their minds. They threw themselves toward Agata and Ava without caring about their bodies.


    Agata finally used her Uer Dimension and repelled all of them without letting a single one reach them.


    Their fightsted for two hours, but after that, the monster corpses were enough to block any monsters that were trying to fight them. Although the cave was filled with blood scent, this ce was enough to be their hiding ce for a few days.


    They only needed to arrange the corpses to get enough airflow as well as move them farther from their position so as to not influence them with the scent.


    Theo set up a camp and stopped moving as soon as they finished.


    ��


    His action was noticed by the Griffith Family''s Experts.


    "!!!" Since they had been monitoring Theo, they knew that he didn''t move much in the past few hours. Now that he stopped moving, if he continued this for a period of time, they believed Theo had died because of the poison.


    "Did he��"


    "We need to confirm it."


    "Still, do you think anyone can withstand the powerful poison of the Dark Poison Swamp?"


    "But that brat should have some ns. We need to wait here for a few days."


    "Why a few days? A few hours are enough to confirm his death."


    "Have you forgotten that he has gone to this ce once? There''s a possibility of him getting some sort of loophole that allows him to stay here for refuge. No matter what, he has Ray''s Control Talent and Valerie''s Brain; we can''t underestimate him."


    "That''s true�� Well, from his luggage alone, I think the food canst for a week. And another week for him to be truly dead because of the thirst�� Considering he can drink his own urine? Whatever."


    "In that case, we will wait here for two weeks. If he still doesn''t move, that means he''s dead. We''ll send others to grab his corpseter."


    "Yeah. That''s the n. For now, we need to find a way to stop the War God Family from helping him."


    "One of us should go back to report then. The rest of us will stay here to make sure no one helps him."


    "Sure."


    Aftering to an agreement, one of them finally left to report the situation, hoping the family could send reinforcement to stop Theo from leaving.


    Obviously, Valerie, Leonardo, and the rest of the War God Family also heard this news.


    "What?!" Leonardo frowned while rising from his seat. His heart was shaken by the news Lorenzo had just conveyed. He looked at Lorenzo in disbelief and asked for confirmation. "Are you sure Theo entered the Dark Poison Swamp? Lorenzo, don''t joke with me. Are you trying to make me get a heart attack?"


    "No, Grandfather. How can I joke with my brother''s life?" Lorenzo shook his head with a sad face.


    "No one can withstand the poison from the Poison Swamp. Even many Poison Experts are trying to get some benefits from the poison mist�� It''s clear that the poison mist is powerful beyond belief." Marzio fell silent and looked down.


    "He told me he wanted to use the Dark Poison Swamp to escape from the Griffith Family, but he never said anything about him entering the Dark Poison Swamp. I thought he was going around it or tricked them into entering the swamp." Leonardo''s body trembled as his face became pale.


    "Why�� Why don''t we believe in Theo? I believe he has some sort of arrangement. He''s not someone that will die by something like this�� No, should I say he''s not someone foolish enough to die in the dumbest way possible?" Lorenzo tilted his head in confusion.


    "In that case, what is he nning?" Marzio frowned.


    "Father. From thest expression he''d shown me, I believe Theo wants to make everyone believe he has died there." Lorenzo exined the feeling in his heart.


    "Hmm?" Marzio''s expression turned grim. "As in dying and getting a new identity to live in another ce? If Theo can indeed survive inside that poison swamp, then�� he''s nning to hide his identity when he''s in the US?"


    "I guess?"


    "Father, what do you think?" Marzio turned to Leonardo.


    "If that''s his real aim, then there''s only one thing to do. Recall all our force and march toward the Dark Poison Swamp." Leonardo shared his thoughts. Although his heart was filled with worries, he almost forgot how many surprises Theo had shown this whole time.


    "Why?" Lorenzo became confused.


    "It''s to make the Griffith Family believe this is not our n, but Theo''s decision alone. In other words, we want them to see that we''re desperate to get him back because we know he won''t survive there. The Griffith Family will surely stop us with all they got. Not only could we weaken the Griffith Family even further, but we can also eliminate the Barbe Grouppletely." Marzio exined the detailed exnation to his son.


    "The best wine, huh��" Leonardo remembered the wine he''d got from Theo. He hadn''t tasted it yet, but Theo dared to say it was the best wine.


    Without knowing the wine was two hundred years old and was made by the dwarves, that wine only had one meaning.


    "Back in the ancient time, people would drink wine after a big battle, and it''s said the wine would be especially delicious after a big conquest. He gave me the best wine�� Meaning he gave me this full victory and the wine for victory as thest gift. Haha, what kind of grandson do I actually have��" Leonardo facepalmed, realizing he had lost in the battle of prediction. "I guess I''ve lost in today''s battle�� Damn brat, my record is now 300 wins, 208 losses, and 33 draws."


    Marzio was speechless when he heard the battle record. He realized he still underestimated Theo. With enough experience, Theo could surpass Leonardo in a mind battle.


    "Father. I will gather our forces."


    "Yeah. Tell the Mota Family about the situation as well and calm them down."


    "Understood."

 Chapter 873 – The Truth

    <h4>Chapter 873 - The Truth</h4>


    In the cave, Agata realized Theo had been staring at a letter for so long, making her a bit worried. The size of the paper was enough for her to know that he could read the entire message in just two minutes. Yet, it took him so long to look away.


    "What''s wrong?" Agata tilted her head while approaching him. Although she wanted to look at his expression, she stopped not far behind him so as to not identally nce at Theo''s letter.


    Theo turned his head for a second and said with a wry smile. "It''s okay. I need some time alone."


    "Okay." Agata nodded and stepped back.


    "Thanks." Theo let out a long sigh, never expecting to be influenced by a single letter. He decided to read it again to make sure he didn''t miss a single word.


    ''Theo, everything I wrote in this letter is true. It''s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. And also, this letter is not my way to ask for your forgiveness�� It''s just I believe you deserve to know the truth.''


    ''First of all, you actually had an older brother, a blood-rted older brother, called Owen. A few weeks before I gave birth to him, the Mind Elder came to visit us and ced a seal in your brother''s mind so that when I gave birth to him, your elder brother would be a soldier of the Griffith Family, who wouldn''t care about feelings and bonds as long as it benefited the family.''


    ''If I went to the Griffith Family at that time, your brother could be saved, but I couldn''t bring myself to get treated. So, in the end, Owen died before he coulde to this world.''


    ''After that, I had some problems conceiving a child because of the trauma, and we decided to adopt Edward. A few yearster, I decided to start a new life and gave birth to you.''


    ''Because the Mind Elder was afraid that you would be dead if he manipted your brain again, he didn''t do anything when you were still an embryo. Instead, he nned to wait for you.''


    ''However, we knew that the talent you''d shown not long after your birth would certainly shake the entire family. Hence, Ray and I decided to suppress your talent by letting you suffer this whole time. We didn''t have any excuse, and if you wanted to kill us, we wouldn''t fight back. Just�� don''t me Edward. He had only been adamant in following our decision. We forced him to do all the things.''


    ''The Griffith Family would suspect us if you showed any talents and brought you back to the family. And we didn''t and still don''t want you to be controlled by this family.''


    ''You were a smart child, and I knew you would know the truth sooner orter. With your heart, I believed you would help us. And that was what we feared. The Griffith Family might notice it, and the Mind Elder would visit you personally.''


    ''Even if we brought you to another ce, they would track us down before we could do anything else.''


    ''As for the reason�� There is only one reason. Aftering to the Griffith Family and learning the family''s secret, we found a certain prophecy from the Griffith Family''s ancestor.''


    ''He said, "I wille back after seven generations." That was his only message. However, the Griffith Family seemed to believe this message as prophecy.''


    ''The ancestor was someone close to a God Level figure. ording to the record, his level was 996, and�� I don''t know if you have heard about this or not, but he had a power that connected him to the world itself. People even called him God of Magic because they believed he would break past that barrier.''


    ''Unfortunately, he passed away and left this message behind. As someone who was close to that level, people believed that he had a glimpse of the world''s truth and his word was simr to that of prophecy. In other words, he would reallye back after seven generations.''


    ''Ray had been the brightest and the most talented person in the Griffith Family, and with me, they believed we were the couple that would give birth to the family ancestor reincarnation.''


    ''But Ray''s father was someone whose greed far surpassed anyone in this world. Instead of respecting the ancestor, he wanted to control the ancestor himself. That was why he sent the Mind Elder to manipte Owen''s mind.''


    ''So as to not make them think you were the reincarnation, we suppressed your talent with everything possible. And I admitted that along the way, our n deviated from pushing you away from the family to developing hatred to the family.''


    ''For that, we don''t have any excuses. When everything is over, we''ll visit you again. You''re free to kill us at that time because we know you should have surpassed us. If reincarnation does exist, I hope that you don''t need to endure such a childhood again.''


    ''You don''t need to worry about the Griffith Family again. For the past two decades, we''ve been gathering some connections to finally stop the Griffith Family. I''ll do my best to prevent any threat from the weakened Griffith Family.''


    ''Stay safe. I believe that in the future, you can break thest limit of the Mythical Rank and reach the God Rank. You''ll be the one to decide your own life. Goodbye, Theo. No matter what you choose, you will always be our pride.''


    Theo''s expression became even darker. His body was trembling, and he couldn''t help but gnash his teeth.


    Ultimately, he crushed the letter in his hand. His face was filled withplicated emotions that no one could see what he felt and thought right now.


    There was hatred, anger, disappointment, pity, and so on. People said you would change because of your environment. His parents became like this because of the Griffith Family. And he also changed because of his parents.


    These mixed feelings were rampaging in his heart that he didn''t know what to think anymore�� As for what he would do from now on, no one could predict it.

 Chapter 874 – Confession

    <h4>Chapter 874 - Confession</h4>


    After calming his mind down, Theo rose from the ground with a grim expression, turning to Agata.


    His gaze felt as though he had something important to announce, and there was only onest thing that needed to be said in their situation. Agata had been waiting for Theo to bring up this topic, but when she saw his face, she couldn''t help but feel scared.


    "Theo��" Agata called her name as her face became serious. "I''m ready to hear your answer."


    Theo stood right in front of her and looked into her eyes. There was sadness and unwillingness deep in his heart, but Theo still revealed his decision. "I''m sorry, I can''t bring you to the US. And I hope you don''t go there."


    Agata closed her eyes. Disappointment filled her heart because she always wished for him to bring her there. Even if they couldn''t go together, she wanted him to say he needed her.


    Unfortunately, that was only her wishful thinking. Theo had decided. Even though Theo would never stop her if she wished to pursue him to the US on her own, she would be a huge variable in Theo''s n.


    "Can you tell me the reason? Or is it because of the letter you''re holding right now?" Agata lowered her gaze, staring at the letter in Theo''s hand.


    To her surprise, Theo gently ced his hand on her cheek and raised her head. When their eyes intertwined, he shook his head. "No. The letter indeed helps me finalize my decision, but the real reason why I can''t bring you there is that I want to create an influence."


    "I can help you manage the influence. After all, I''m your assistant. Just like taking care of you, there shouldn''t be a problem in controlling an influence. I only need to manage my time." Agata replied, showing her unwillingness to let him go.


    Theo put on a gentle smile and said, "This is why I can''t bring you. You always prioritize me more than yourself."


    "What''s wrong with that?" Agata bit her lips andined. "Your words earlier feel like you''re rejecting someone because she''s too good for you. If she''s good, why would you reject her?"


    "You misunderstand me." Theo shook his head calmly. Suddenly, Theo did something that never appeared even in Agata''s wildest dream.


    His hands reached for her hands and gently held them. The warmth of his hands started to get transferred to her own as she finally realized how big his hands were.


    "What are you doing?" Agata''s body trembled. She wanted to take a step back to regain some distance, but her body refused to move. Deep in her heart, she also didn''t wish to let go of these hands.


    "The letter is indeed a great help to finalize my decision�� However, it''s not the decision whether to bring you or not. Instead, it helps me to confront myself." Theo smiled.


    "You are skeptical about men because you have been living under their lustful desire. I am always in denial because I have been living under someone''s plot�� The letter makes me realize that the environment is the one that makes us like this.


    "So, from now on, I wish to be the one who will decide my own future and who I am. Not the environment or the people around me�� I wish to live for my own sake this time.


    "And the first thought in my mind is you." Theo gently raised Agata''s hands and smiled. "I''ve realized that when I make a decision, I think of you.


    "I will admit it right now. I enjoy yourpany. You respect me and think of me. There''s a sense of longing when I imagine myself living in the US alone.


    "Even though I''m aware of this right now, I''m not a romantic person and might disappoint you. But if you don''t mind my ws�� Will you be my girlfriend?"


    "Wh�� what did you say?" Agata muttered in a low voice. She was staring at Theo in disbelief.


    After all the time they spent together, she had prepared to persist for another few years. But it turned out the chance was right before her eyes.


    "You�� You are not joking?" Agata always wanted to hear these words from Theo, yet, when the opportunity arrived, the word ''Yes'' stuck on her throat.


    Theo looked left and right with a wry smile. He felt embarrassed because he once lost the feeling of caring or loving someone dear to him after realizing the truth of his family situation.


    Nevertheless, he didn''t wish to run away from this matter anymore. He took a deep breath as his calm expression returned.


    "Yes. A bit embarrassing for me to say this, but I feel ufortable with the thought of me going to the US alone. I hope you''re there with me�� I love you, Agata. Will you be my girlfriend?" Theo finally confessed his feeling with an awkward smile as this was the first time he had done something like this.


    Her body shook when she heard it again. It felt surreal as this was the one thing she had been waiting for.


    Theo had made it clear of his feelings. If they didn''t know Theo''s personality, they would think Theo''s confession was actually because of the asion.


    With him leaving to the US alone, their rtionship would soon crumble. But the Theo she had been watching this whole time wasn''t that kind of person. Even if they were separated, Theo wouldn''t hesitate to contact her.


    And she felt like there was a change in Theo''s demeanor. Theo''s calm and indifferent aura that had been shrouding him turned into a gentle and mature aura. Just a single look could make her feel it was fine to trust and rely on him.


    ''Is this the true him? Not someone created to oppose the Griffith Family or the person that sumbed to the situation�� The real Theo that had been buried because of his circumstances? Am I�� the first person to see the real Theo?'' Agata''s heart started beating rapidly.


    A big smile appeared on her face as tears couldn''t help bute out of the corner of her eyes. She was just too happy. There was one answer that she had prepared this entire time.


    "Yes."

 Chapter 875 – Resolve

    <h4>Chapter 875 - Resolve</h4>


    Theo also felt the surge of happiness in his heart.


    Seeing her smile also put a smile on his face. Their eyes soon intertwined with each other.


    There were no words exchanged between them, but their heads gradually came closer.


    They kissed.


    At that moment, Theo felt like he had forgotten everything. This was the first time he took a step forward for himself, not influenced by everything. He wanted this not for revenge, hatred, or pity. He did it because he simply wanted it.


    He felt the burden in his heart disappear for a moment.


    For Agata, she dared not to think about anything else as she had been waiting for this one moment.


    She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth andfort from his arms, wrapping around her waists. It felt heavenly that she wished to stop the time for eternity.


    Theo was passionate, and his feelings were clearly transmitted to her. It wasn''t because he was forced to make this confession. It was that he had put down the burden that had been stopping him this whole time.


    This kiss was something that she would never forget.


    Two minutes passed without them realizing it.


    Even without a single word, they somehow felt each other''s intention and opened their eyes at the same time.


    They stopped and pulled away, smiling.


    Agata took the initiative to open her mouth. "I think I understand you now�� Whether it''s because of my blessing or something else, I know your feelings.


    "I, too, am a person who has been influenced by my living conditions. People always think of me as an essory to make them shine, and I believe it''s true until I meet you.


    "In your eyes, there was nothing more important than your own goal. And my presence to you was just a ma of problems in the past.


    "Finding your brother once became your everything. Then, your parents, the truth, and the War God Family. However, all of them were rted to your situation.


    "Your brother went missing in the past, so finding him became your everything. Then, after learning about your parents, you sought them to make it clear. After learning the truth, you came to the War God Family.


    "Everything was rted to your parents. But this time is different�� I could feel that you were not forced by the circumstances when you confessed to me. Instead, I felt that you had stopped thinking about your parents and our situation. You just said whatever you felt for the first time.


    "I guess I''m grateful to have this blessing too�� I don''t know why but I''m sure what I said is true." Agata made a wry smile. She remembered that Aphrodite often became cupid. Even though she did it on a whim most of the time, she should have some sort of understanding of others'' feelings. And that understanding told her that Theo''s confession was genuine.


    She never thought she needed it, but she was grateful to Aphrodite when she felt it.


    After hearing her words, Theo''s smile gradually disappeared. Even though he had confessed to her, the issue still remained. Even if he didn''t wish to be separated from her, he needed to.


    Agata ced her hand on his cheek tofort him. "You always think ahead, and I know that you consider my well-being too.


    "I already told you in the past, I would respect your decision and wouldn''t be someone clingy.


    "Even if I couldn''t go with you, we could still talk to each other through Skylink. I know that contacting you too much might result in the Griffith Family tracking our conversation, but once a week should be fine, right?


    "I admit I was scared of not going with you. Even though no one said this, I think we all know that the reason why I could enter your heart was because I lived with you for the past two years.


    "Alea couldn''t do it because she was in Russia. Ne could win if not because she lived in the Griffith Family�� After all, it was true that your rtionship with Ne became good after meeting for several days. If she wasn''t your cousin, the result might be different.


    "However, that fear was no more. It disappeared not because you confessed to me. Instead, I, too, wished to be someone like you.


    "For the first time in my life, I thought to myself, ''I want to stop caring about my environment too. I don''t want others'' opinions about me to influence me.''


    "I should be true to myself. This is what I want to say from the bottom of my heart�� I shouldn''t fear you''ll be taken away from me anymore.


    "If you leave me, I will take you back and remind you why I can enter your heart in the first ce. If you cheat on me, I''m going to beat that woman up.


    "I rejected my blessing because I thought it degraded me as a woman. But not anymore�� Aphrodite lost her desire as a Goddess of War because she believed everything could be solved with sexual desire.


    "However, I will confront her again and tell her that it''s not true. Instead of picking one of them, I will choose both of them this time. To the world, I shall be the strongest woman who will fight anyone in the world. To you, I will be the perfect woman that makes you unable to think of another woman.


    "Mark my words, when you return from the US, I will be the only one for you." Agata showed her resolve as she finally confronted her own fear.


    This might also be the first step she took for herself�� Not because Theo was special or the pressure of people''s gazes. She simply had fallen in love with the man before her.


    Theo couldn''t contain his smile as he looked into her eyes. "You got one thing wrong. You don''t need to fear because I''ll be loyal to you."


    "Hehe." Agata chuckled.


    Their faces gradually came closer.


    They closed their eyes and had another kiss.

 Chapter 876 – Identity

    <h4>Chapter 876 - Identity</h4>


    After a while, Theo and Agata finally sat down on the corner, leaning to each other while holding hands.


    Ava was on Theo''sp as she looked at Theo and Agata.


    "I guess you have chosen��"


    "Chosen is not the correct word, Ava." Theo shook his head.


    "I''m just a rabbit; I don''t understand. All I know is that you''ve chosen her as your partner. That''s all." Ava tilted her head in confusion before turning to Agata. "Anyway, I don''t think much about your rtionship, but I need to mention one thing. I don''t care which shoulder you pick to lean on, just make sure one of them is mine." Ava pouted.


    Agata was startled by her words but ended up chuckling. "Don''t worry, Ava. I''m not going to take Theo away from you."


    "You better not." Ava nodded, satisfied.


    Agata couldn''t contain her smile when she saw the adorable Ava. Obviously, she didn''t see Ava as a love rival, and she respected Ava as the first person among them to know Theo.


    Since she already got the answer, Ava closed her eyes and stopped bothering them.


    Then, Theo exined, "It''s not that I don''t want to bring you with me, what I''m nning to do��!"


    Before he finished his words, Agata said, "I understand. You don''t need to worry about me. I know that you''re doing this because you have to�� My presence there might dy your n even further."


    "Wait for me�� 5 years�� No, I promise I will go back to Italy after 3 years. At that time, I should be strong enough to announce our rtionship and let the world know that you''re my woman."


    "Thank you. I believe in you." Agata smiled, knowing full well that her presence there might result in Theo''s n getting extended from 3 years to 10 years. Instead of getting clingy and refusing to let go, she chose to believe and wait for him.


    "Although the contract with the Star Group or the Starry Group is absolute, I''m sure they won''t stop me from meeting you. So, you don''t need to mind." Theo smiled, assuring her.


    "Don''t worry. I have my hands full too. While you''re there, I''m not going to stop here. It''s true that I can''tpete with your leveling speed or progress, but what I have learned from you and Sir Leonardo is enough for me to minimize our gap.


    "In the meantime, I''ll learn how to manage an influence from my dad, so when the timees, I can help you handle this influence. Also, I will change my fighting style too, since I''ve decided to ept both War and Lust Power.


    "Even if I''m not as strong as you, you might not be able to win against me." Agata chuckled.


    "Is that so? I''m looking forward to it." Theo smiled, feeling blessed to have such a woman.


    "Still, I do have a few questions."


    "Sure, ask away."


    "What''s your identity there? Although it''s easy to make a fake identity, your performance will surely be noticed by many people. I''m afraid they will know that your identity is fake. Sooner orter, they will find your real identity. On the other hand, I can enjoy my life here because I simply need to revert back to my original identity since everyone thinks I''m hiding from you, and now that you''re gone, I appear again."


    "Oh, you don''t need to worry about that." Theo chuckled and presented her his ID Card.


    Instead of Theodore Griffith, it was ''Joker.'' The identity he created in Thernd.


    "Unlike an ID Card, the Temple Card doesn''t have a record of where it was issued. They only know that the Temple is the one giving this identity. And with Maya''s help, this identity should have some depths.


    "At the very least, this is better than a fake identity that makes people think you appear out of thin air. People can still see my records and believe that I reach here without cheating.


    "I created this ID Card due to my naivety and never thought I would need it now. I guess I''m lucky."


    "How about your weapon? People know your spear!"


    "Did you forget what I got from the dwarves?" Theo smiled and turned the ring into a blue sword. "I can use this. It''s true that my mastery is shallow, but I focus more on Control and Awareness."


    "That''s true, but your fighting style is known by many."


    "Not necessarily by many. After all, they only know about my Control. Only a few know about my Death Avatar. As for the clone, I have Metamorphosis, so they won''t know it''s my clone.


    "The same applies to my other skills. I can use them a bit differently from normal, so they won''t doubt my identity." Theo had already prepared an answer for this.


    Even Agata had noints about his arrangement. "I see. To think you have another identity�� I guess that''s the reason why you''ve been splitting your achievements. This ''Joker'' is already close to Gold Privilege in the Temple, so you''re already quite important to them."


    "Yes. I can make my Joker look like a solo hunter who has been roaming alone this whole time. And because of Maya''s kindness, I havee to work for her. Of course, it also means I can''t get the full contract.


    "I will try to negotiate to the best of my ability since I doubt they will treat me badly even if I hide my real identity. Only a few penalties and deductions to the terms, I guess." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s true. Though, your value has already risen so much. Even with penalties and deductions, the least you can get is the first contract that Sir Bernard offered."


    "Yeah. Well, we can see how it goester. I''ll contact you when I get there."


    "Sure." Agata nodded with a smile. "Anyway, if you need me to do anything, just call me. I''ll be ready to help."


    "Yeah, thank you."


    "Though, I''m still wondering whether you will go to Thernd or not. After all, you still have a grudge with the Lange Family, right?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. "I''m sure Laust will be there as well when I go back to Thernd. I''ll let him kill his own father since it''s his wish."


    "You don''t hate him anymore?"


    "I don''t like him, but I don''t consider him as an enemy anymore." Theo shook his head.


    "Mhm��" Agata only smiled as she thought Theo had matured a bit.

 Chapter 877 – Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 877 - Reinforcement</h4>


    A few dayster.


    The expert from the Griffith Family gathered again, discussing Theo''s movement inside the Dark Poison Swamp.


    "He hasn''t stopped moving yet." One of them said with a grim expression.


    "Yeah. Does he have a way to stop this poison mist? Is he a Poison Expert?"


    "I don''t think so. ording to the information, Theodore Griffith is rted to a figure with Death power, so there''s no way he can withstand this kind of poison mist."


    "Then, it must be his assistant."


    When they mentioned Agata, they furrowed their eyebrows at the same time, thinking the same thing.


    "A Supreme Rank Expert that can stop the Poison Mist�� It''s either a unique skill, or her ability is already far above Mythical Rank Experts in terms of poison. If such a person is allowed to grow beside Theo, I''m afraid��"


    Without him finishing the words, they all knew what would happen. Poison experts weren''t well-received by society because they had the ability to kill someone without them noticing.


    If Agata had such skills, sooner orter, they might die because of her poison. And it wasn''t something that the Griffith Family wanted to see.


    "No matter what happens, both Theodore Griffith and his assistant, Liza Therel, need to die."


    They hade to an agreement and knew their jobs.


    "This exins why the War God Family has been trying to break through our encirclement for the past few days. They know Theo is alive."


    "Their n must be to fool us into thinking Theo has died. If we actually left this ce after a few hours, they would have achieved their objective." The expert nodded with a serious expression, satisfied with the fact that they chose the right move a few days ago.


    "The War God Family still can''t break through our people. Without the pope''s help, the War God Family can''t do anything. In that case, let''s wait for another few days."


    They nodded at each other, acknowledging the n.


    Little did they know, their harbinger of death hade.


    Suddenly, the sky turned dark, and thunder started filling the area.


    "Hmm? Why does the sky��" One of the experts raised his head and said with a frown. He noticed that the dark cloud only covered the Dark Poison Swamp. In fact, they could still see the blue sky on the horizon, so this only meant one thing.


    "An artificial cloud?" They looked up and immediately tried to see what was happening. Normally, they would leave this ce and investigate itter, but because Theo was inside the swamp, they had no choice other than to stay.


    "I shall check what happens." One of the experts nodded and waved both hands as torrential winds started to envelop his body. This should be enough to withstand the thunder cloud


    As soon as he finished his preparation, he leaped upward and flew toward the dark cloud.


    The cloud responded to the man''s action by shing its lightning. The sh of yellow lightning made the guy close his eyes for a split second.


    And a bolt of lightning was formed in that split second.


    "Huh, that is��" The guy''s body trembled. The bolt of lightning was releasing a huge amount of energy. Even he wouldn''t escape unscathed if he received this bolt of lightning because he believed this wasn''t natural lightning.


    Suddenly, a metal smell permeated the air. It was enough for him to realize what was going to happen.


    Without hesitation, the guy threw himself to the side before a yellow light shed. The bolt of lightning then struck forth, barely missing the guy.


    *Bam!*


    The lightning hit a tree and split it into two.


    "That was natural lightning�� No, it wasn''t supposed to be natural lightning. It was sacrificing its power to get some speed, so��" The guy''s face became serious as he sped up, trying to see who was behind the cloud.


    Unfortunately for him, he would never be able to see the figure on top of the cloud because the bolt of lightning came down again.


    Unlike the previous lightning strike, this bolt of lightning moved slower as its body was slightly bigger.


    Knowing it was more powerful than the previous strike, the guy leaped to the right to avoid the lightning. He had some leisure time for this one because it sacrificed some speed to get some power.


    But he should have turned around and escaped.


    Getting closer to this lightning wasn''t the best thing to do.


    When the lightning was about to pass him, it curved and looped around his body before reaching him from behind.


    "What?!" The guy widened his eyes in disbelief and immediately flew to the side to avoid this lightning.


    Sadly, it was toote. The lightning was already this close to him. Even if he stopped underestimating the lightning, it was useless.


    The lightning suddenly had another turn, adjusting its course.


    "Sh*t." The guy gritted his teeth and saw the iing lightning. He hurriedly covered his whole body with the torrential wind to soften the impact.


    The lightning reached him and exploded.


    "Boom!"


    The explosion created a ball of light that expanded for at least one hundred feet radius.


    "Aaahhhh!" The guy screamed in pain as not only did he get electrocuted by the lightning, but he was also vaporized by the heat.


    "What?!" The other three experts, who were tasked to stand by around the Dark Poison Swamp, were shaken by this sight.


    "He died? Just like that?"


    They couldn''t believe a Mythical Rank Expert could die after just a single lightning strike. Even Leonardo wouldn''t be able to kill them like this.


    "That lightning is not normal. Are they waiting for this lightning the entire time?" The experts never expected that they had been yed by Theo.


    To their surprise, someone actually answered their doubts.


    "You''re right." A male''s voice echoed in their ears as all of them turned around and found a man with long pointed ears.


    This mysterious man raised his hand and pped one of the experts. "So, die��"


    Their surprise had yet to end because the p was only strong enough to shake their head a bit. Even the hand was still stuck to the cheek as though it was still trying to push the head to the other side.


    The guy, who got pped, smirked and thought this person was weak, ignoring the pointed ears that clearly told him he wasn''t a human.


    Seeing that smirk only pissed him even more. The Magic Power around his arms started to sh with each other before flowing to his hand and ultimately to the head, leaving several thunderps.


    Once the Magic Power reached its target, the head exploded like a balloon as the blood sttered to the side.


    "You thought I was weak?"

 Chapter 878 – Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 878 - Meeting</h4>


    "You thought I was weak?"


    "!!!" The remaining two people who were still alive widened their eyes in shock. Everything ended all of a sudden.


    Even though they were already a Mythical Rank Expert, they realized there was another existence that could kill them easily. It was none other than a King ss Monster.


    "You�� Why would Theodore Griffith know a King ss Monster?" One of them asked while leaping back to gain some distance.


    "You don''t need to know the reason." The Thunder King harrumphed and disappeared before a thunderp shook the area.


    Both Mythical Rank Experts could barely follow his movement as they hurriedly turned their bodies around. The Thunder King appeared where they had expected, but he was too fast.


    He extended his hands, trying to grasp their shoulders. However, the two experts managed to reach those two hands first and stopped them from attacking them.


    When they were about to draw their weapons, the Thunder King released his attack again. The thunderous sound produced a shock wave and made their hands start shaking.


    The two experts had dded their hands with Magic Power, so the effect wasn''t as strong as the guy whose head exploded.


    Since they couldn''t fight against this power, they released their hands and leaped back to regain some distance.


    In the face of death, they forgot there was another monster that attacked them. The lightning struck forth and turned into a dragon head with its mouth wide open.


    The two experts raised their hands and released their Magic Power to deflect a portion of the lightning but to no avail.


    The dispersed lightning was sucked back to its body.


    "NO!" The Mythical Rank Experts shouted in fear as they had realized that the lightning was actually stronger than the King ss Monster.


    "World ss Monster��"


    At thest moment, they realized the real identity of the lightning cloud. Unfortunately, it was toote for them. The dragon''s head had swallowed them and fell to the ground, causing a huge explosion.


    The shock wave from the lightning pushed away from the poison mist, and the lightning residue reduced the poison mist into nothing upon contact.


    Four Mythical Rank Experts who were invincible for Theo died so easily. This was the real strength of a King ss and a World ss Monster.


    Even Leonardo had difficulty deflecting the dragon''s lightning, let alone these people who weren''t as strong as Leonardo.


    Since the threat had been eliminated, the Thunder King looked up and jumped to the cloud, leaving another thunderp.


    "Your Excellency. May I know the reason for you killing them? I''m sure that there was no n like that��"


    The dark cloud soon dispersed, revealing the dragon''s body. He looked at the Thunder King and smiled, "I''ve changed my mind. It''s better to eliminate these guys. As for the reason�� Let''s say I desire something from them."


    "��" The Thunder King frowned, not knowing what kind of item Theo possessed that could pique the Lightning Authority''s interest.


    While they were chatting, another figure approached them. The man had long green hair and long pointed ears.


    His long robe made of leaves kept releasing a ck-colored gas, looking simr to that of the poison mist.


    He stopped a bit farther from the dragon before bowing his head. "May I have the pleasure to know the reason for Your Excellency''s visit?"


    "I''m searching for a King, a human, and a Half-King." The dragon answered with a smile.


    "Eh?" The green-haired man was taken aback by what he said. "There is a King inside my territory? Or is it me?"


    "There''s another one. His is still unknown, but I have several guesses. For now, I want you to call them here because they''ve been hiding inside the swamp."


    "I apologize, Your Excellency. I''ve been sleeping this whole time, so I don''t know where to find them."


    "Don''t worry about that. This one King hasn''t learned how to hide his power. If you go around for a bit, you should find him. After you find them, bring them to me without any harm."


    The man nodded with a serious expression. "I understand. I will do my best."


    After that, the green-haired man disappeared.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo, Ava, and Agata had been waiting for their time to arrive. Since this was the promised day, they had been waiting for the sound of thunder in the sky. That was a signal that could be heard deep inside the cave.


    And their answer soon came into their ears.


    "Boom!"


    Thunder started roaring one after another, so Theo immediately rose from his position. "That��"


    "Yeah. There''s no rain, so it should be him." Agata confirmed.


    "It''s in the sky indeed." Ava agreed while checking everything with her ears.


    "Since they''ve arrived, it''s time for us to go." Theo smiled and started moving toward the exit.


    Of course, since there was no use for the corpses to block the entrance anymore, Theo turned the majority of them into cards, leaving only monsters that were killed by Ava behind.


    Surprisingly, the moment they stepped out of the cave, they found a green-haired man appearing out of thin air.


    "So, this is where you are. A King, a Half-King, and a human�� Indeed." The green-haired man nodded with a serious expression, assessing their identity.


    He simply didn''t think Theo was a human anymore because of the Order. And Ava only needed one more Star to condense her Order, so she was considered one step away from bing a King.


    "You are��" Theo frowned and stepped forward.


    "I am known as the Poison King�� Now that I feel your aura, I believe you have plucked my fruit��" The Poison King frowned.


    "Eh?" Theo''s body shook as he realized thetter''s identity. "You''re the Poison Tree located in the middle of this swamp?"


    The Poison King nodded, confirming his identity.


    Theo and Agata sucked a cold breath as they realized the reason why the fruit could actually expel thousands of poisons. It was literally the fruit grown from the Poison King himself. In other words, a part of his body.


    "I apologize." Theo hurriedly apologized since he didn''t know about it.


    However, the Poison King simply waved his hand while observing the barrier that could repel his poison. "There''s no need to apologize. Even if you don''t harvest the fruit, it will fall to the ground sooner orter and be eaten by others that pass by�� Anyway, I''m here to bring you to His Excellency, the Lightning Authority."

 Chapter 879 – Separation

    <h4>Chapter 879 - Separation</h4>


    Theo and his group finally left the Dark Poison Swamp, meeting both Lightning Authority and Thunder King.


    Since this was the first time Agata and Ava met the Thunder King, their eyes were locked on him, wondering who he was.


    "I''ve brought them. Do you need anything else, Your Excellency?" The green-haired man bowed his head, waiting for the next instruction.


    "It''s fine. You can go back. Sorry for disturbing you, and thank you for bringing them to me."


    The green-haired man nodded and disappeared while saying, "In that case, please excuse me."


    Theo nced at the Poison King for a moment before his head turned to the dragon.


    "I''m ready."


    "Good." The dragon nodded with a smile.


    When they were going to this ce, Theo found a few newly made craters around the area. It was clear there was a huge fight earlier.


    And he could see what had transpired. Some people from the Griffith Family seemed to be waiting for them and ended up fighting against the dragon.


    "Thank you for your help." Theo thanked him as this was the least he could do.


    "No problem. Have you gotten your answer yet?"


    "Yes. I will go alone." Theo nodded and turned to Agata. "She''ll return to Italy."


    "Alright." The dragon smiled and said to the Thunder King. "Bring her to Italy. Make sure no harmes to her."


    "Understood." The Thunder King acknowledged the order without hesitation.


    "Eh? Isn''t this��" Theo frowned before realizing why the dragon did this. "You are��"


    "Let''s talk on the way."


    Theo let out a sigh and walked to Agata first. "It''s time for me to go."


    "Don''t worry. I''ll be fine." Agata waved her hand.


    Theo put on a sad smile and nodded.


    Agata gave a peck on his lips before stepping back while waving her hand. "See you in a few years."


    Theo felt blessed to have a woman so understanding. He waved his hand for a while before turning back to the dragon.


    "Hop on my back."


    Theo and Ava jumped to his back as the dragon started pping his wings. With a little boost from the jump, the dragon soared to the sky.


    Agata watched them until their figure couldn''t be seen anymore.


    Theo also did the same before he heard the dragon talk.


    "I''m going to speed up a bit. I believe we can reach there within seven days."


    "Thank you for your help." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "However, I believe you have something you want to ask from me."


    "Not from you, from the little girl on yourp." The dragon replied with an unexpected response.


    "Huh?" Theo''s expression darkened. "I know that she''s going to condense the same Lightning Order as yours�� Even though I''m grateful for your help, if you wish to harm her, I won''t hesitate to attack you."


    "You misunderstand me. Back then, I said that I have lived for too long."


    "Mhm?" Theo was confused by this statement. But when he looked at Ava and recalled what happened in the dwarf''s home, he realized what he wanted to stay. "You''re not going to��"


    "This is an opportunity for her. Little girl, do you wish to be my student?"


    "Eh?" Ava tilted her head in confusion, not understanding where this topic came from. "What do you mean? For people with the same Orders, the other party''s existence is like a pest."


    "I don''t know when I''m going to die, but I believe I don''t have much time left. I want you to be my student and seed me." The dragon exined with a bit more detail for Ava.


    "What?!" Ava''s body trembled as she couldn''t contain her shock. "Why do you want me to be your student? That guy from before was much better than me!"


    "I am Lightning, and he is Thunder. We are different. I can give you a few reasons why I want to have you as my student, but the most important reason is him."


    "Theo?" Ava didn''t understand why he mentioned Theo.


    "Haha, it''s not the time for you to know it yet. But if you agree to be my student, you''ll know everything."


    "Does that mean I''m going to be separated from Theo?" Ava frowned.


    "Yes. Or else, how am I going to teach you?"


    Ava bit her lips and raised her voice. "You have separated Theo from Agata. And now you''re going to separate me from Theo! Do you think I will ept it? Why are you so cruel to Theo?"


    "I''m not cruel." The dragon smirked. "Just imagine. When you reach your destination, people will recognize you. No matter how hard you hide it, they will know it sooner orter.


    "I believe that he has some sort of power to camouge his appearance�� However, you don''t have that kind of ability. As a result, his identity will be exposed sooner orter�� because of you. The same applies to thess who is left behind.


    "Do you think I don''t know the fact you''re going to hide your identity in your destination? If you continue to apany him, you''re going to be his burden sooner orter.


    "So, I want you to be my student. Not only can I get a sessor, but you can also get stronger and acquire the ability to help him more in the future. Don''t forget! He already has his Order while you haven''t!"


    Ava''s body shuddered as she red at the dragon. As much as she hated it, she couldn''t find a single word to refute him.


    The dragon was correct. Although not many people knew her, the Griffith Family should find their identity sooner orter. She would be a big clue in finding Theo.


    The dragon could predict what would happen in the future, and his action was rted to what Theo nned to do. Though, he couldn''t deny the fact how he presented it was bad.


    "But�� Theo will be alone." Ava looked down before turning to Theo with a sad expression.


    Theo had a gist of it when the dragon gave the requirement to him. So, he had prepared for this.


    He said with a sad expression. "You should choose Ava. There''s no need to think about me. I''ll be alone for a bit�� just like my old self. Nothing changes."


    "But that''s sad!" Ava shook her head, unwilling to be separated as well.


    "Unlike the past, I have enough confidence to get more people around me now." Theo shook his head. "Besides, Maya might be there to help me��"


    Seeing how hard Theo tried tofort her, she gritted her teeth for a moment before shouting, "Fine. But I have one condition!"

 Chapter 880 – Conditions

    <h4>Chapter 880 - Conditions</h4>


    "Fine. But I have one condition!"


    When someone presented a condition to the Lightning Authority, they would be killed not by the Lightning Authority himself but all the King ss Monsters under him.


    After all, his words were absolute in their eyes, and he was loved by his people.


    However, Ava''s condition wasn''t that excessive, considering thetter wanted her to be his student.


    This ''student'' status required a huge resolve.


    Once she became his student, it was clear that she would seed his Authority. In other words, Ava could no longer follow Theo and needed to stay in this ce for the rest of her life. She would even have a hard time just visiting him or her mother.


    That was why giving a few conditions was normal for Ava. She knew what was toe, so she wanted to make use of it.


    The Lightning Authority obviously understood her and smiled, not offended by asking these conditions. "Sure. Tell me."


    "First. I won''t be tied to this ce unless I''ve got the Authority."


    "That''s the n." The Lightning Authority agreed without hesitation. The moment she attained the Authority, he would most likely be dead. Before that, he would still have time to control this area.


    "Second, after getting my Order, I''m going to do whatever I want."


    "It''s something that can be discussed. I know that you''ll go to this guy after getting your Order. However, there''s a set of training that follows. As long as you finish this set of training, I don''t mind you leaving to experience the world."


    Ava furrowed her eyebrows and fell into deep thought. "You''re not going to trap me with a hundred years of training, right?"


    "No. From my perspective, you can finish the training in 5-10 years. However, you have been influenced by this guy, so I think you can do it faster. The sooner you can finish the training, the faster you can leave. At the very least, I can still hold out for two or three decades."


    Ava thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine. I agree. Third Condition, I want permission to bring my mother here."


    "When you reach the Authority Level, you can do that with a single word from you. Thunder King will also help you in governing this area."


    "Fourth and myst condition�� You''re going to help Theo in the future."


    "You should know what kind of price I need to pay if I help him, right? This is not simply bringing you to another ce. Helping him means I need to break a bit of my rule."


    "I know. Just one time is fine."


    "Well, you have your own rule, so when you reach the Authority Level, you don''t even need my help as everything is in yourmand��"


    "I still need this one! I want you to help Theo even once! This is myst and most important condition. You need to agree to this one�� After all, bing your student is a lifelong resolve."


    The dragon thought for a moment and finally agreed. "Fine. I shall help him once in the future no matter the condition."


    Ava closed her eyes for a moment and felt relieved.


    On the other hand, Theo heard Ava mentioning lifelong resolve. His heart skipped a beat as he might have underestimated this situation. "Wait a minute. What do you mean by lifelong resolve?"


    "When she gets my Authority, she''s bound to thisnd and can''t leave anymore. That''s the price of bing my student." The dragon exined with a calm expression.


    "What?!" Theo stood up as if he couldn''t ept this condition.


    However, Ava hurriedly said, "Theo. This is what I''ve agreed to! You told me to choose it myself."


    "But that''s because I think bing his student is��"


    Before he finished, Ava shook her head and said, "Do you think I haven''t considered it? Even though I don''t want to admit it, the Earth you live in is not my home. This ce is my home. Both sides are Earth, but I feel at ease here.


    "Besides, the monsters here have a longer lifespan than that of a human. When you pass away, I''ll be alone too. That''s why I need to start building my own home in this ce. And bing his student is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.


    "Also, staying here will allow me to get absolute power. In this world where the strong prey upon the weak, I need this power. In the future, I can help you too with this strength."


    Theo''s heart was shaken by her words. On the one hand, what she said would happen sooner orter. On the other hand, he felt his words became a catalyst that forced her to take action today.


    Theo bit his lips and finally sat down.


    Ava then turned to the dragon''s head and said, "Is it possible for me to get my Order before we''re separated?"


    "For what reason?"


    "I want to give him my Life Seal."


    "You serious?"


    "Yes."


    Hearing their conversation, Theo couldn''t help but interject. "Life Seal?"


    "When you get your Order, there are four seals that can be manifested from your Order. They are Life Seal, Friend Seal, Covenant Seal, and Death Seal.


    "Death Seal is a mark that can be ced on others you deem as your enemies. You can feel your enemy''s location if they''re within your territory."


    "Territory? I know the term territory, but I think it only applies here, right?"


    "No. When you get the Order, you have the ability to ce your Covenant Seal in a certain ce. The energy in that ce will gradually develop ording to your own Order. Remember the Dark Poison Swamp?"


    "Ah!" Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Even if you return to the other side, you can ce this seal to mark your territory. When someone with a Death Seal enters your territory, you will feel something. I believe Leonardo has also got his territory�� Or those who you suspect to have Orders��"


    Theo''s eyes widened as though he was enlightened�� "The entire city�� Now that I think about it, the War God Family headquarters feels a bit�� I heard that Eric Griffith avoided confronting Grandfather in his own city and chose to hide somewhere in the n. Is this the reason?"

 Chapter 881 – Seals

    <h4>Chapter 881 - Seals</h4>


    "Correct." The dragon confirmed his doubt. "The smaller your territory, the stronger the power that will influence your territory as the energy is not as dispersed. The example is the Poison King. He''s concentrating his own power in that particr area, preventing others froming."


    "I can see that." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Anyway, you should understand the Covenant and Death Seals, right?"


    "There''s only one question. Is the Death Seal only applicable to your territory? What if you haven''t got your territory yet?"


    "As long as you are near that person, you''ll be able to induce it. Those who possess your Friend Seal will be able to feel it as well."


    "I see." Theo then looked at his two hands, showing him the marks. "Are these Friend Seals?"


    "Indeed. The Friend Seal can be used to mark others to show that he''s your ally and hope that no one attacks you, especially King Level people. After all, killing these people is simr to offending you. That''s why we usually treat others who have marks kindly.


    "For example, if I kill you, the Death Seal will be activated and notify those who have ced those Friend Seals. To be fair, those people should feel something when you get your own Order."


    "Really?"


    "Yes. Anyway, this is our privilege as the bearer of Order. This world gives this as the repayment for our services in maintaining Order. I will exin to you what it means to maintain Orderter."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression before recalling what happened in the mountain. "Didn''t you erase a Friend Seal? Does this mean I can erase someone''s seal too?"


    "When you get the Authority, you can erase the seals of all the Kings in your territory."


    "I see. So, this is only special to you and other King ss Monsters in your territory."


    "Yes."


    "Then, how about the Life Seal?"


    "It''s the exact opposite of the Death Seal. If the Death Seal can be ced on many, the Life Seal can only mark one person. If the Death Seal is the symbol of hatred, the Life Seal is the sign of trust.


    "You normally bestow the Life Seal to your closest person because the world will allow you to contact that person through the seal.


    "For me, I give my Life Seal to the Thunder King. With this seal, I''ve given him the authority to govern the territory for a bit of time. This is the reason why I can bring you out here."


    Theo''s expression turned grim when he got the answer. He never expected Ava to want to give him such a precious thing.


    He looked at Ava and said, "Ava. This is��"


    Just like before, Ava had already decided. "If we can''t meet, we can contact each other through seal. I can feel if you''re in danger. You will know if I''m in danger. We both can help each other."


    "Then, I can use my Life Seal on you. The effect is the same. And I already have my Order."


    "It''s different. No matter what, I''m going to live in this ce for the rest of my life. On the other hand, you''re not. You''ll visit this ce and return to the other side.


    "So, I think you can give your Life Seal to your wife, so she can handle your matter when you visit me." Ava smiled, exining her future n. She didn''t stay with Theo for nothing.


    "You can also use it on your other half."


    "Not really. ording to my mother, she came from a far deeper region that no humans had ever visited. That was where my father''s home and where other Moon Rabbits lived. I have no n to go there, so I''ll remain like this for the rest of my life. Living in my domain is not a problem." Ava exined. "And if I can have you visit me from time to time, I see that as a win."


    "You��" Theo gritted his teeth as he felt he owed her so much. "I don''t agree with this. There''s a chance that I never mark my own territory, so I can just live in your ce for a long time."


    Suddenly, the dragon opened his mouth. "That''s the reason why I told you about this after you are separated from that human girl. Life Seal is the most important seal that can be ced only once in your life. I want you to think this through for a few years before giving your Life Seal."


    "But��" Ava pouted and red at the dragon.


    "You''re my student, so listen to me. Life Seal is important, so I want you to wait for a few years before giving it to him. Anyway, contacting him during your training will make you disturbed, so it''s better without it for the time being. If you still haven''t changed your feelings a few yearster after finishing your training, I won''t say a thing if you still decide to give him your Life Seal."


    "��" Ava pouted and looked away.


    His advice was reasonable. Ava''s action earlier was very rash, so the dragon wanted to stop her from doing something she might regret. It was the same thing in Agata''s case. If Theo didn''t give her the Life Seal, it would be awkward. But if he gave the Life Seal to Agata, there was a chance it would be a mistake he regretted in the future. So, waiting for them to be separated was a good move from the dragon.


    Still, Theo felt happy with Ava''s thoughts alone. Without hesitation, she offered her Life Seal to him. That was enough for Theo to know what position he had in her heart.


    "Thank you, Ava." Theo ced his hand on Ava''s head while smiling. "The thought alone is enough. Let''s wait for another few years, okay?"


    Theo''s answer softened Ava''s heart a bit. She let out a long sigh and nodded. "Fine. I''ll wait."


    "Thank you." Theo smiled and said, "Anyway, I will mark you with my Friend Seal. That should be fine, right?"


    "Yes. Friend Seal is fine. I''ll teach you how to mark others after this. Do you have any other questions about Seals?" The dragon said, feeling a bit relieved that they stopped acting rashly.


    "One more question. Life Seal is the only seal that can be used once in a lifetime, right? What''s about Covenant? Isn''t Territory your home?"


    "You can seize other territories or upy a neutral territory. This usually happens when there''s no Authority Level figure supervising the area. When you''re on the other side, you''ll find more about it. And I''ll teach you everything about Order after this."


    "I see. Still, therger your territory is, the weaker your Seal is��" said Theo while looking down, falling into deep thought.


    "That''s correct�� Since you have no other questions, let''s continue."

 Chapter 882 – Truth

    <h4>Chapter 882 - Truth</h4>


    "Move your Magic Power into the mark on your body," said the dragon while ncing at Theo.


    Theo was sitting in a lotus pose while closing his eyes. As soon as he heard the instruction, he directed the Magic Power in his body toward the mark on his skin.


    The moment the Magic Power rushed inside the mark, there was a slight resistance jolting his mind, giving him a stingy sensation on the mark.


    *Cough!*


    *Cough!*


    "What is this��" Theo coughed a few times and started panting.


    "To use your Order, you need to convert all Magic Power in your body into the one influenced by your Order first. I told you that your Magic Power would gradually change color, right?"


    "Yes."


    "That''s the difference between a normal person and a King. When they sense this power, they usually stop attacking you if it''s within your territory."


    "But you said I''ll be like this for another few months."


    "That''s the natural process. What I''m doing is speeding up the process."


    "Then, won''t the others find me?" Theo frowned.


    "Of course, we can hide it. When you convert everything, you can stimte your mark to camouge it with normal Magic Power. How do I say this�� it''s a kind of twoyers of Magic Power.


    "The inner one is your power while the outer one is the Magic Power from the air that sticks to your power to hide your real power."


    "Mhm," Theo mumbled in agreement. "I see. In that case, I should convert them first."


    "Yes. Continue it like this, and I believe you can convert everything before reaching our destination."


    "I understand."


    "While you''re converting them, I''ll continue to talk about Order, so listen well."


    "Before that, do you mind if I ask you another question?" Theo stopped him as he recalled the letter he got from the pope.


    "Sure. Ask me anything. I''ll answer if I can."


    "Can you reincarnate?"


    "��" The dragon fell silent, never expecting to get this kind of question from Theo. "Reincarnation, huh. That''s something I don''t know."


    "But you''re simr to God Level beings, no?"


    "How should I exin this�� Let''spare your ranking and those in the past. Tell me your seven ssifications."


    "Normal, Elite, Champion, Hero, Supreme, Mythical, and God Rank," Theo answered without hesitation.


    "After learning for a few hundred years, I''ve learned there were also seven ssifications in the past. Common, Nobility, Legendary, Saint, Apostle, Lesser Deity, and Supreme God."


    "Common is simr to that of normal people. Nobility are those who govern themoners. Legendary is someone who achieves the limit of their physical body. Saints are those who have surpassed their limit.


    "As for the Apostles, they are those who have attained the peak of their power and learned the truth of the world. Lesser Deity is the one who controls the world''s power, while the Supreme God is the one revered by Lesser Deities. Maybe you can look into the past and divide it yourself." The dragon exined as simply as possible.


    Theo looked down and fell into deep thought, contemting his words.


    "Then, if I use the term from the other side�� Common is that of normal people. Nobility is a kind of Athlete. As for Legendary�� I feel like they''re the famous people in the past like War Generals or the people who are considered to be the best of their own field or simply the GOAT.


    "Then, Saint is for people who are believed to have surpassed human''s boundary like a great scientist, shaman, or whatever. Isaac Newton, Sun Tzu, or Robin Hood. Apostle is the one who surpasses them, like King Artur, Merlin, Yeti, or Pegasus.


    "ording to your words, I believe Apostles are those who have learned about Orders and receive them.


    "For those who haveplete control of their Order and have their own territories, they''re known as Lesser Deity.


    "Now that I think about it, there were many local Gods. They''re considered Gods and Goddesses, but their way of living is simr to that of a normal human. They''re not omnipotent, and their territories are mostly a tribe or a city. I can only think this way after learning about Covenant Seal.


    "Last but not least, Supreme Gods. I believe they''ve reached Authority Level and learned the truth of the world." Theo looked at the dragon and realized he should have known whether it was possible or not to reincarnate. But because of some restrictions, he couldn''t answer him.


    That was also the reason why the Griffith Family''s ancestor said it in a roundabout way.


    "I see. That''s a foolish question, I guess." Theo sighed.


    "Thank you for your understanding." The dragon smiled at Theo''s intelligence. He never had the need to exin too much.


    But to Theo''s surprise, someone answered him.


    [You can''t reincarnate. But that doesn''t mean your life is extinguished. Why do you think there are people who bless you?]


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as his body trembled when he heard the answer. The God of Mischief was obviously the one who said it.


    ''Instead of reincarnating, your life goes to a ce where you can watch over people?''


    [Yes. The more powerful you''re, the more privilege you get. Just don''t tell anyone about this or the world will send its mighty force to destroy the remnant of my soul.]


    ''I see. In that case, the reason why the Griffith Family''s ancestor told them that he''lle after seven generations��'' Theo''s expression turned grim.


    [With those words, the family will strive to be better, so the ancestor can get the best vessel to receive his power.]


    ''Are you sure it''s alright for me to learn this?''


    [The only reason I told you this is because that old fart dared to fight me.]


    ''Hmm? You fought before?''


    [For the right to bless you with our power. And it''s better to get mine since you can get something from three other people. As for him, I sent a few others to suppress him. Hmph, he''s not at my level yet.]


    Theo blinked a few times as he never thought the answer came in the weirdest way possible. He thought he needed another few years to learn the truth, not because the God of Mischief felt sour because the ancestor was interested in him.


    ''So, if you''re not here for me, he will be my blessing��''


    [Yes. Unfortunately, this is the extent I can tell you. You''ll naturally learn it when you reach Authority Level, so I hope you can continue to strive to be as strong as possible.]


    ''Then why do you want me to cause mischief around the world? Won''t it hinder my progress?''


    [It''s for a great reason, but I can''t tell you yet.]


    ''Hmm�� Okay. Can you tell me when you n to reveal all this stuff?''


    [Sure. It''s a motivation for you anyway. When you get your Authority, I can tell you everything you want to ask.]


    ''I see�� I will do my best then.''

 Chapter 883 – Clash Between Two Authorities

    <h4>Chapter 883 - sh Between Two Authorities</h4>


    Theo was sitting peacefully on top of the dragon''s back before his hand suddenly rose from hisp.


    A blue-colored Magic Power flowed out of his fingers and formed a ball. It had the appearance of a Magic Bullet, but instead of a glowing light blue color, this Magic Bullet had a dark blue color.


    This color change came from the Order Theo possessed. In fact, if a Supreme Rank Expert or above looked at him right now, they would find him being covered by dark blue Magic Power instead of the usual light color.


    Theo maintained the Magic Bullet for a moment before opening his eyes with a frown. "Hmm��"


    "How is it?" Ava asked while staring at this Magic Bullet, feeling nothing from it.


    "I don''t know. I can''t do anything about it." Theo shook his head in disappointment. "I have been trying to figure out my Order but can''t seem to find a single clue."


    "How many Orders have you tried?"


    "Hmm. I have been trying two Orders. Illusion and Phantasm. But no matter how I twist them, I can''t get it working."


    "Finding your real Order is not an easy task. Just keep doing it, and once you get a clue, everything will be easier," said the dragon while flying across the ocean.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "We will arrive in a few hours. I can already see thend from here." The dragon mentioned while looking to the front.


    His words piqued Theo''s interest as he finally stood up and looked around, finding them surrounded by water.


    The sunlight made the ocean glisten. But still, an ocean wasmon knowledge on the other side, so there wasn''t any surprise in Theo''s eyes.


    He only had an admiration as he muttered, "This is the first time I see an ocean in this world."


    Ava fell silent as she had been moving around on top of the dragon''s body to admire the ocean for a while.


    Luckily, the dragon had enveloped them with his Magic Power so that they wouldn''t get blown away by the wind pressure.


    After a while, Theo turned to thend on the horizon, which was still a mere small rock in their eyes.


    But with the dragon''s flying speed, they should be able to reach that ce within an hour.


    Everything had been a smooth trip as they never encountered anyone, and they thought they could continue such a journey for the remaining few hours.


    Sadly, their n would never work.


    After another 55 minutes, they had finallye close to thend. Normally, the dragon would continue flying as if nothing mattered. Yet, the moment he looked at thend, he gradually decreased his speed.


    "Mhm?" Ava furrowed her eyebrows and looked around. "The speed decreases? Is there a problem?"


    "Hang on to me. We have apany." The dragon''s expression turned serious.


    Theo and Ava exchanged looks and nods as they immediately sat down while holding on to his scale.


    To their surprise, a huge axe suddenly split the cloud as though splitting the sky, spinning while descending to the water.


    The moment it touched the seawater, the ocean froze, creating an ice tform that extended for a couple of miles.


    Even the dragon needed to stop his movement as he witnessed how a two hundred feet tall giant ran toward them.


    The giant had pale blue skin and a pair of horns that came out of his ears. His body was covered with thin white fur.


    Every step he took shook the ground and caused a powerful shock wave to the surrounding.


    The giant raised his hand as a snowke, the size of his head, appeared on top of his palm.


    As if responding to the snowke''s appearance, the dragon opened its mouth and started charging electricity in his throat.


    The snowkes released a burst of ice forward as the temperature in their surroundings dropped significantly.


    At the same time, the dragon released a breath of lightning.


    Even though they had been covered by the dragon''s Magic Power, Theo and Ava still felt the tingling sensation all over their bodies like they were electrocuted with a small current.


    This lightning breath struck forth and shed with the extreme frost from the giant.


    Theo and Ava sucked a cold breath to their exchange.


    The world felt like it had been split into two. On the one side, it was filled with gold color as the lightning illuminated the sky, the water, and the air. On the other side, the water, the sand, and the trees behind them froze. The temperature dropped drastically and the sky turned dark blue.


    "Arkesham. How dare you invade my territory!" The giant roared as the snowke from earlier rose to the top of his head, shining.


    "Ie here in peace, Kurgarm." The dragon replied with a calm expression.


    "Peace? You don''t even inform me of your arrival, and you say youe in peace?!" The giant, Kurgarm, didn''t believe the dragon. He leaped to the air and pulled his right hand before throwing a fist.


    Arkesham extended his right hand and caught Kurgarm''s fist with his dragon ws.


    Arkesham''s ws released powerful electricity that spread to the surroundings and even tore down the ice beneath them. On the other hand, Kurgarm''s fist contained the frost energy that immediately froze the shattered ice pieces underneath his feet.


    Feeling the dragon''s power, the giant raised his other hand as his axe suddenly returned to his hand.


    He then waved his hand to slice the dragon''s wing, but Arkesham took the opportunity to shake his body and send his tail to wrap Kurgarm''s wrist, stopping him.


    Because of their extraordinary strength, the world was still split into two different colors. However, there was a difference this time.


    Due to the dragon''s tilting his body, the giant could see two figures standing on Arkesham''s back.


    He widened his eyes, never expecting to see two ''ants'' dared to ride the wise dragon.


    "Ie here in peace."


    "For those two?"


    "I''m merely helping my student''s best friend."


    "A King? What kind of King?" Kurgarm immediately recognized Theo''s power and frowned.


    "Unknown King."

 Chapter 884 – Maya’s Grandparents

    <h4>Chapter 884 - Maya��s Grandparents</h4>


    Theo was dumbfounded after witnessing their battle. Each of their strikes could kill him.


    There was a reason why the giant considered them ''ants.'' He had the strength to do so.


    ''So, this is the power of Authority Level Figure��'' Theo''s heart beat rapidly. On the one hand, he felt helpless in front of such power. On the other hand, motivation to get this kind of power surged in his heart.


    If he had this kind of power, he didn''t need to be afraid of the Griffith Family or anyone else in the world.


    While he was astounded, the giant finally stopped using his power and released the dragon''s ws. Thetter did the same by letting his wrist go.


    "Do you believe me?"


    "Tell me what you want."


    "I simply want to bring this little friend near one of the human''s cities."


    "You''re not going to do anything?"


    "Yes. That''s the agreement." Arkesham nodded lightly.


    "��" Kurgarm fell silent for a minute before agreeing with the dragon. "Fine. I shall allow it. I believe hees here to stay, right?"


    "Indeed."


    "I only have one rule. I don''t care who you kill as long as they''re not the Kings of mynd. If you kill one of them, I won''t hesitate to hunt you down."


    "He has some rtionship with one of your Kings though." Arkesham added with a smile.


    "Ho?" Kurgarm frowned and observed Theo a bit more before recognizing one power in his hand. "Dark King. I see. My point still stands."


    "Don''t worry. I have taught him a bit about it." Arkesham assured him.


    "If you don''t mind, why don''t you give me directions to the nearest human''s city? This is your territory after all." Arkesham smiled and added one more word, "Or��"


    Kurgarm turned around and shouted, "Come out, you ants."


    There was a silence for a few seconds, making Kurgarm''s expression darken. However, before he shouted for the second time, two humans came out of their hiding spots. Both of them were covered with body armor that allowed them to fly.


    They were a pair of old couples. The female elder released a bit of her power to protect them from the dragon and the giant''s pressure while the old man greeted them. "Greetings to Frost Giant Lord and Lord Dragon. We apologize if we have made a mistake, but we happened to be here because we were fishing nearby."


    "I don''t care about your excuse. Since you have seen us, you shouldn''t remain alive." Kurgarm started emanating his killing intent.


    The dragon didn''t say anything as he thought the same. They didn''t want to meddle too much with human affairs, so they rarely showed themselves to the humans. This wasn''t an exception.


    However, the old couple suddenly recognized the human on the dragon''s back and thought this was theirst rope to hang on.


    "Theodore Griffith?" The old man shouted his name in shock.


    Kurgarm frowned and asked, "Do you know him?"


    "Yes. We''re from the Star Group. I''m Hendry Hamilton, the previous owner of the Star Group, Maya Hamilton''s Grandfather. We''ve received the news that Theodore Griffith is nning toe to us around this time, but we don''t know anything about the details."


    "!!!" Theo was surprised to find Maya''s grandparents here because he had prepared to sneak in and enter illegally.


    Kurgarm, on the other hand, still felt displeased about the two knowing his existence.


    "Do you know them?" Kurgarm asked Theo with a serious expression.


    "This is my first time seeing them, but I''ve seen their pictures."


    "So, their identity is real." Arkesham nodded, satisfied. "How about I leave you with them? Looking at your tone and expression, it''s clear you''re going with them after arriving there. So, why not now?"


    "I''m fine with your arrangement." Theo agreed since this might be the chance for him to make this couple owe him by saving their lives.


    Arkesham contemted for a moment before suggesting, "How should we settle this? I don''t mind handing him to them so that they can bring him to the human''s city."


    "We can swear not to reveal anything about all of you." Hendry persuaded them.


    Kurgarm finally agreed after some struggles. "Fine. However, if my information is spread around on the other side, be prepared as I shall lead my army there. And you�� Who was your name again? Theodore Griffith? You need to assist me in killing your own kin if the information spreads."


    Theo''s expression turned grim as he thought for a moment before nodding his head. "I shall be the first to inform you if they''re the culprits."


    Theo emphasized thest condition because he wanted to make sure they were the culprits. If someone spread the information about the frost giant, he wouldn''t want to help that much.


    The dragon smiled as he''d got used to Theo ying with words. Even the Mountain King had suffered from this.


    Kurgarm also caught Theo''s condition and nodded. "Fine. You can go with them."


    Suddenly, Ava turned into her battle form and said to the old couple. "I don''t trust both of you, but I have no choice. If he dies before reaching the city, I swear, in the future, I''ll hold both of you ountable."


    Kurgarm didn''t say anything because Ava was Arkesham''s student.


    "Don''t worry. We know what to do." Hendry assured her with a smile. "I promise we won''t treat him badly when he officially reaches the US too."


    "You better be." Ava harrumphed and leaped to Theo. She added those words because she worried the old couple would kill Theo in the way as they were only Maya''s grandparents instead of Maya or Bernard themselves.


    However, Hendry obviously took these words into his heart. After all, they never expected a human to be friendly with one World ss Monster. It was something they had never seen before.


    After giving her warning, Ava looked at Theo with a sad expression, knowing this was the time to say a proper goodbye.


    Theo was also reluctant to be separated by Ava, but this was something that needed to be done.


    They both looked at each other with unwillingness and sadness.

 Chapter 885 – Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 885 - Agreement</h4>


    "See you in a few years," said Ava while looking at Theo. She had told him everything during their trip, so there wasn''t anything that needed to be said.


    Theo smiled and gently patted her head while cing his Friend Seal on her. "I''m looking forward to our next meeting."


    "Mhm. I''ll be stronger than you at that time."


    "Haha, we don''t know that." Theo chuckled and finally turned around, leaping from the dragon''s back. "See you in a few years, Ava."


    Ava waved her hand and watched him float to the old couple.


    On the other hand, Theo didn''t forget to hide his Dark Blue Magic Power with the normal Magic Power so that no one knew he had an Order.


    "Since everything is settled, it''s time for me to return." The dragon smiled and turned around, flying back.


    Kurgarm also had the same idea and walked away without saying anything, leaving Theo with the old couple alone.


    Since Hendry and his wife didn''te immediately, they were not aware of Theo''s King Identity. They simply treated him as someone who had a rtionship with World ss Monsters and a very intelligent rabbit.


    Theo looked at the old couple and nodded his head to greet them. "Hello, my name is Theodore Griffith."


    "I''m Hendry, and this is my wife, Vanessa. Don''t worry. We won''t say a single thing about what happened today, even if Bernard or Maya ask about it. The destruction caused by a World ss Monster isn''t something that we want to see anyway." Hendry exined.


    "Thank you."


    "So, what are you nning to do right now? No one told us anything about your arrival."


    "My original n was to sneak in and call Sir Bernard or Maya to deal with the rest."


    "I see. In that case, I can help you with that." Hendry pointed at his wife. "She''ll inform Bernard and Maya about your arrival, and I''ll bring you inside. How''s that?"


    "Actually, now that I have met both of you, I havee up with another n."


    "Ho?" Hendry narrowed his eyes, curious about Theo''s ability. "What is it?"


    "I want to ask you toe up with a backstory for me."


    "That''s an easy task. We will also register you in another Temple."


    "There''s no need for that." Theo shook his head and handed him his ID Card.


    Name: Joker


    Level: 521


    Attributes: Strength A, Endurance B, Agility B, Vitality B, Magic Power A


    Health Problem: -


    Privilege: Silver


    Kill: 79,430 (+)


    Zils: 0


    Contribution Points: 446,300 (446,300)


    "I made this card in Thernd, so the record should be good enough."


    "I see. In that case, we can inform others that you are the person we found while we''re retired on the other side. And we bring you to the Star Group because of your talent. You''re alone anyway, so you agree with us. This should be the simple version, and it''s quite believable since people know we''re truly retired on this side."


    "That''s good." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "What else do you need?"


    "If possible, don''t tell Sir Bernard and Maya about this. And I''d like to join the Star Group."


    "So, you want to rise from the bottom?" Hendry furrowed his eyebrows before realizing Theo''s other intention. "Ah, hiding in the bottom while receiving abundant resources."


    "Yes. I''m not nning to use this face since people believe I''m dead." Theo confirmed his guess.


    "No wonder. We can arrange that, but it''s impossible not to tell Bernard about this. After all, it''s a big matter for the Star Group. He, the CEO, should know something."


    "Well, if it''s only him��"


    "Anyway, Bernard will also y an act for this. We''ll just have him tell others that you''re someone we find, not him. It should be enough to dispel others'' doubts."


    "Yeah. That''s fine."


    "Do you need anything else? I believe it''s better to change your fighting style since millions of people have watched your video."


    "Don''t worry." Theo turned his ring into a de instead of a spear.


    "You''re prepared, aren''t you?" Hendry chuckled.


    "If possible, I want to act alone without being chained by a group," Theo added another condition.


    "Act alone? That''s quite hard since most of our people are in a group. At the very least, they''re in pairs."


    Theo thought for a moment and summoned his clone before changing his appearance. He turned into a red-haired guy. "This should be enough, right?"


    "I see. With your real appearance getting hidden underneath your mask, your clone bes a red-haired guy�� That should be enough. We can cover that up. Do you want that guy to be in the Star Group or not?"


    "Can I choose thetter?"


    "Yeah. Just outside help. It''s an easy thing to cover."


    "That one please."


    "Sure. Anything else?"


    "Myst request is to lower the amount of time I need to serve the Star Group."


    Hendry''s expression turned serious as their ten years Mythical Rank agreement was a must. He scratched the back of his head and said, "It''s the hardest thing to do because no one has been given such an exemption before.


    "But since you saved us earlier, we could make the contract a secret and lower it to�� probably five years. That''s the limit I can do."


    "That should be fine." Theo agreed with him. Five years of service after bing a Mythical Rank Expert was something he could endure.


    "Good." Hendry sighed. "Still, because of the scenario you choose, I need you to follow me to the Star Group to undergo the normal test. This is to record your performance and show the reason why I give you an exemption. If possible, I want you to release all your power during the test.


    "The bigger the impression, the better. Even though I know you want to hide your strength, this is something I can''t give up.


    "The Star Group has several spies mixed in, so if they find you during the inspection or audit, they might signal their own influences about your existence. At that time, we don''t even know when they start moving.


    "So, we want them to notice you from the beginning. Because of this, they will only watch over you instead of doing something in the darkness."


    "That should be fine."


    "Is your Joker identity well known in Thernd?"


    "Not really. I think only my teammates as well as the Temple Staff know this identity."


    "Okay. That''s enough. We can discuss the rest after settling your matter�� Let''s go to the city."

 Chapter 886 – Contract

    <h4>Chapter 886 - Contract</h4>


    Star Group.


    "Seriously?" Bernard''s voice, which was filled with doubt and trouble, echoed inside the room. He looked at the couple sitting on the sofa before turning to Theo across from him.


    Aftering to an agreement, Theo was guided by the couple to enter the US. Luckily, there was no need for a security check when they entered because Hendry seemed to know the people in charge there.


    As soon as they returned to the other side, they walked down the street and entered a house that seemed to be their property until Bernard sent their people to pick them up.


    It took an hour for Theo to finally meet Bernard again.


    Obviously, he was dumbfounded because never in his wildest imagination would Theo appear with his parents. It was impossible in his opinion because Theo wasn''t supposed to have enough strength to go from Italy to America through the other side.


    "Yeah. Do you have Theo''s contract?"


    "I do, but that''s��"


    "Just give it to me. I''m going to change it a bit." Hendry demanded the contract with a stern tone.


    Seeing his father so adamant about this, he could only send the contract to him.


    "Wait a minute," said Hendry while looking through the contract and recing some uses. He noticed a use and asked, "So, you''ve prepared for this use��"


    "Which one?"


    "Him acting alone."


    "Ah, yes." Bernard nodded in agreement. "That was what I promised him when I first offered the contract."


    "It''s good then."


    After a while, Hendry made the summary for the contract.


    "This is the summary of the contract. You can check the full contract after agreeing to these." Hendry then handed him the Skylink so that Theo could read it.


    He made it pretty simple so that Theo could understand everything in a single nce.


    1. Theodore Griffith shall exchange 20% of everything he got from the other side with Star Points.


    2. Theodore Griffith will be working for the Star Group five years after reaching the Mythical Rank. If he breaks this use, he will need to pay the Star Group 100 Billion Zils, 5 A Rank Cards, and 10 A Rank Material Cards.


    3. Theodore Griffith is required to ept one local mission and one international mission every year as well as one main event every three years.


    4. Theodore Griffith''s sry shall be set at 10,000,000,000 Zils every year.


    5. Theodore Griffith is entitled to use any Leveling Facility for one week every year.


    6. Theodore Griffith is allowed to use all Star Group''s facilities ording to their respective requirements.


    7. Star Group will provide all the tutors Theodore Griffith requests in Five Aspect Training.


    8. Star Group will provide a Private Mansion equipped with training facilities and utilities.


    9. Star Group will provide basic Equipment and Skills under A Rank.


    Theo read them carefully before asking, "What is Star Point?"


    Hendry nced at Bernard, asking him to exin it.


    Bernard sighed and opened his mouth. "Star Point is our currency in managing our experts. You can exchange Skill Cards, Material Cards, and other items for Star Point.


    "This point can be used to exchange for days off, a weapon made by us, or even the training facility that you used a few months ago. You can exchange anything that the Star Group can provide. I''ll give you the listter."


    "I see. This 20%�� can I choose which item I want to exchange?"


    "Yes. It''s up to you. However, there will be a person assigned to check everything you got from the other side and measure it with points. So, I hope you don''t cheat us by hiding some important cards. Don''t worry. We''ll also give you a fair rate. And I think it''s already generous since normal people will need to hand over a portion of their loot to us."


    "I guess this Star Point is used to develop the Star Group without the use of money."


    "Indeed."


    "Well, I can agree to that." Theo nodded and looked at the second use. He thought the penalty would be harsher if he broke the contract, considering they had shortened the agreement. However, saving the couple seemed to have impacted this use greatly.


    As for the third use, he didn''t care much about it because the War God Family was stricter than the Star Group.


    He had no problem with the sry. Surprisingly, the leveling facility was quite tempting for him because he had no Ava to support him. This made his leveling speed decrease by more than 30 percent.


    So, he had noment for the leveling facility. Though, he believed he had no need for a tutor in Five Aspects since he had the best teachers (his blessings).


    "Facilities�� Are the ''Hotels'' included?" Theo asked.


    "Obviously. Though, you still need to make a reservation a few weeks prior. After all, we can only send people to deliver a message once in a while."


    "I understand." Theo nodded in understanding. "How about the basic equipment and skills? I don''t think I need them�� The same can be applied to the tutors��"


    "That''s kinda true with how you are now." Bernard thought for a moment and asked, "I can exchange them with another thing. Do you have anything to add?"


    "Before that, I want to ask a few questions."


    "Sure."


    "This is only for me. How about the other experts from the Star Group?"


    Bernard''s expression turned serious as he understood the real meaning of Theo''s words. "First of all, you''re required to help each other when you meet other people from the Star Group or the Starry Group. They have a badge on them, which I''ll also give youter.


    "But in the case of life and death, you''re allowed to act based on your own thoughts. You can abandon them, kill them, or whatever. After all, we can''t expect you to protect someone who is chased by a group of assassins, especially if the assassins are stronger than you. We don''t want you to die.


    "Of course, this only applies when you''re on the other side. In this ce, it''s pretty much safe. If there''s a conflict, please resolve it peacefully in the public eyes�� No one cares about anything you do in the shadow as long as no one knows it."

 Chapter 887 – Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 887 - Negotiation</h4>


    Bernard simply gave him a pass to kill the people from the Star Group. Even Theo didn''t expect this.


    "Of course. If you can settle everything peacefully, it''s better. However, I can''t ask you to keep sparing the other party''s life until they kill you. At the very least, I have always told Maya to not offend anyone from bothpanies, so it won''t be my daughter that needs to be killed. I can''t ensure your safety though."


    Theo contemted for a moment and asked another question. "So, can I expect their help too?"


    "Yeah. The condition is basically the same. If your opponent is too strong, they can abandon you too."


    "How about people from other influences?"


    "If they''re friends, just act friendly. If they''re enemies, beat them up."


    Theo fell silent for a moment.


    "Anything else?"


    "Can I leave the country while working for the Star Group?"


    "Of course. As long as you havepleted the local mission and international mission as well as the event during that year, you''re free to do anything. Just don''t forget toe back every December to go through the assessment again for your next year''s sry and other stuff."


    "How about if I misuse the Star Group''s reputation?"


    "If you''re going on a mission, whether it''s a local or international, the Star Group shall back you up no matter the enemies. If you''re acting alone, we won''t give you any support. So, if you misuse them to act like a bastard, you should prepare to be evaluated as such by thepany. It''ll affect your assessment, or in a severe case, you''ll be expelled from the Star Group with some penalties."


    "Understandable." Theo nodded. He needed to ask these questions because he had no assistant anymore. Agata could answer everything he asked or get the answer if she didn''t know.


    "It''s hard to not have an assistant, huh."


    Bernard made a wry smile. "We can give you some servants to take care of your house, but not that kind of assistant. Though, you can make some people from the Star Group your subordinates. It''s the basic boss and workers rtionship."


    "I see. Do you mind if I wear a mask?"


    "Nope." Bernard shook his head while staring at the masked Theo. He had worn the mask since the beginning, so he knew Theo was hiding his identity.


    He already took a glimpse of the edited contracts, so he knew some parts had been toned down to match Theo''s needs.


    "Alright. I can agree with this." Theo nodded. "Well, I''ll take the tutor. I''m not nning to have them, but having the privilege to ask them is good too. Who knows if I''ll meet a bottleneck. As for the equipment, can I change for something better?"


    "What kind of thing do you want?"


    "I''m not sure. How about Star Points?"


    "Well, if you want better equipment, I can show you the armory. There are armor like Maya''s or some leather ones that are strong enough to stop any prations. They cost a lot of Star Points though, since they''re made of cutting edge materials."


    "In that case, just give me Star Points."


    "Okay. Star Point is set at the same price as Zil, so I''ll give you 100 million Star Points. This is just the basic equipment and skill."


    "For real? If I''m not wrong, 10 Zil is 1 USD, no? You give me 10 million USD?"


    "Just use ''dor'' or other casual terms, we know what you''re referring to."


    "Sorry, a habit from overseas."


    "Yeah. I need to remind you of one thing. These kinds of benefits are equal to the Mythical Rank Expert''s contract. So, 10 million is a bit on the low side. Of course, you can''t exchange Zils to Star Points and vice versa."


    Theo let out a breath and nodded in agreement. "Okay."


    "Anything else?"


    "No. I think this is enough. I just hope you can hide my arrival here from Maya."


    "For what?" Bernard frowned.


    "I''ll tell you thatter." Hendry was the one answering his question.


    Seeing his father''s serious face, Bernard could specte what he meant and nodded. "Alright. In that case, I need to prepare your mansion as soon as possible. Well, the mansion is quite big, so you can do many things inside."


    "It''s not a rundown mansion, right?" Hendry narrowed his eyes.


    "Of course not. How dare I give something like that? I already have the ce, but I need to clean it up once more before he can use it."


    "In that case, I''ll bring Theo for the assessment. He needs to make a big entrance to justify this kind of contract after all." Hendry smirked.


    "I understand. I''ll prepare his mansion, so he can go there after he''s done."


    Hendry then handed the contract to his wife and said, "Can you work with Bernard to finalize the contract?"


    "Sure." She epted it with a smile. "Have fun."


    "Hahaha." Hendryughed while leading Theo outside the room.


    As soon as they left, Bernard asked, "How do you meet Theo?"


    Vanessa remained silent for a minute, recalling the fight between two World ss Monsters. At that time, even though she protected Hendry, she felt they could be crushed by those two without a fight.


    Ultimately, she answered, "Don''t ask anything and investigate this matter. I haven''t seen anyone as scary as him."


    "You serious? Theodore Griffith?"


    "Yes. Whatever you need to do, just make sure he survives, or the Star Group will be destroyed."


    "That dangerous?" Bernard gasped as he couldn''t think of anything Theo had that could threaten the Star Group. But Vanessa never lied to him, at least in this matter, so he knew something big was going on when they met.


    "Isn''t Maya still single?"


    Bernard knew what she wanted and said, "Maya agreed with it, but Theo rejected the idea."


    "I see. How about their rtionship?"


    "I think they can be considered good friends? Theo has a good impression of Maya."


    "Then, don''t do anything. Just make sure Maya has a good rtionship with him."


    "You''re making this difficult, Mother. Normally, we eliminate any future threat, but you''re saying he can only be alive. I don''t really mind having a strong ally, but is he that��"


    "Don''t talk anymore." Vanessa let out a long sigh. "It''s Hendry''s decision."


    Bernard scratched the back of his head and understood the severeness of this matter. "I understand�� I''ll do my best."

 Chapter 888 – Assessment

    <h4>Chapter 888 - Assessment</h4>


    "Ah, Sir!" A middle-aged man suddenly approached Theo and Hendry who were walking toward the assessment facilities.


    "Hmm? You are?"


    "It''s my pleasure to meet you, Sir Hendry. My name is Jacob Butsler, the head of the human resource in thispany."


    "Is that so? I''m about to go down to the HR department."


    Jacob widened his eyes, never expecting to have the former CEO visit him. He immediately sped his hands and asked politely, "May I know the reason for your visit?"


    "I want to have this guy assessed." Hendry pointed at Theo. "Of course, registering him too."


    "Ah! If it''s Sir Hendry''s rmendation, we can skip everything and admit him." Jacob smiled, trying to please Hendry.


    However, Hendry felt displeased and snorted. "So, is this how you treat other people who have connections too?"


    Jacob''s body trembled as he shook his head furiously. "Of course not. Even the sons and daughters of our board directors are required to go through the proper assessment. It''s just�� Sir Hendry''s eyes leave me in awe. So, I believe he has good abilities if Sir Hendry personally brings him."


    "There''s no need for rules if we''re not going to follow it. Since you''re here, lead me to the assessment facility."


    "Understood." Jacob''s back was covered with cold sweat as he thought he had just escaped a narrow death.


    They reached the assessment facilities in just a few minutes.


    Theo could see many people showing their power in front of people in white coats.


    Hendry then looked at Theo and extended his hand. "Your Temple Card."


    Theo immediately handed him the Joker Card and saw Hendry giving the card to Jacob.


    "This is his identity. He''s shy, so don''t ask any questions."


    "Certainly. Since Sir Hendry has personally guaranteed his identity, there''s no need for a background check anymore." Jacob nodded. "Let me register him first. It''ll only take three minutes."


    "Sure. Go ahead." Hendry nodded and led Theo deeper into the facilities. "There are basically five tests here. They are Background Test, Physical Ability Test, Five Aspects Test, Skill Test, and Fighting Test.


    "The first one is to make sure of your background as well as your blessing. After all, we would like to prioritize someone with proper background and God Level Blessing�� though, they are rare.


    "The second one couldn''t be more obvious. As for the Five Aspects Test, it''s to determine your understanding and other stuff. Just do it without holding back.


    "The Skill Test is to allow you to use anything you like�� if you have a special ability you want to show. Last but not least, the fighting test. You''ll fight someone from this facility to showcase your ability."


    Theo nodded. "I guess I can do all of them."


    "Well, show me how big of a genius you are." Hendry smiled. "Remember, the bigger the impression, the better. I can do some stuff on the back after all."


    "Okay." Theo agreed.


    Not long after he finished the exnation, Jacob returned while handing back the card. "It''s all done. Before the test, the grade is from F to S. For now, your background has been graded as S."


    Hendry agreed with this assessment. Theo''s talent was one of a kind, his blessing was rumored to be God Level too, his connection to the World ss Monsters was good, and his name could shake someone''s heart. If he was ranked lower than S, he would go rampage.


    Since Hendry had agreed, Jacob asked, "Then, shall we move to the second test?"


    "Guide him. I''m going to watch from the side." Hendry gently pushed Theo''s back, giving him to Jacob.


    "This way." Jacob immediately extended his hand and asked Theo to follow him to the first facility.


    The room had weights, a treadmill, and other stuff for proper physical tests. However, they had been altered slightly to match Theo''s level.


    Jacob then ced a few tracking devices to monitor his heart rate and other measurements.


    "We will start with weights, then running, before testing your Magic Power. We can use the data provided by the Temple, but our measurement is a bit different from theirs." Jacob exined.


    "Sure." Theo nodded.


    While they were starting, their presence had been noticed by a few staff and examinees who were waiting for their turns.


    "Hey, isn''t that��"


    "Yeah. That is Jacob, the department head��"


    "He is personally doing the test? Who is that kid?"


    "Instead of that kid, you should take a look at the old man who is watching that kid."


    "He looks familiar."


    "What familiar? He''s the former CEO, Hendry Hamilton."


    "The former 4th Richest Man in the US�� 7th in the world."


    "Yeah. I heard he has retired."


    "He''s the one bringing this kid? Who the heck is that kid?"


    "This is quite interesting. We should watch it too."


    "What is his level though?"


    "The monitor said 521."


    Theo''s existence piqued their interest as he was rted to Hendry personally. They were curious about what kind of person Hendry brought.


    Some of them walked closer while not daring to stand next to Hendry. They all watched Theo from behind the ss.


    Since Hendry had already told him about making a big entrance, Theo had expected them toe here.


    He ignored all of them and proceeded with the test.


    The weight seemed to be attached to a string. ording to Jacob, the string would measure the weight he could lift, so he could use all his strength without skills or Magic Power.


    He took a deep breath and grabbed the bar, lifting it up.


    The screen above his head soon turned on and showed Theo''s strength.


    100 lbs.


    200 lbs.


    ��


    ��


    The number continued increasing as Theo started pouring more strength.


    "Since he is level 521, his strength should be around 1000 lbs. That should give him a B." One of them said while looking at Theo''s skinny body.


    However, Theo had poured so many points into his strength. He lifted the weight with all his strength and exceeded their expectations.


    1397 lbs.

 Chapter 889 – Assessment (2)

    <h4>Chapter 889 - Assessment (2)</h4>


    1397 lbs.


    The number was apparent for everyone, exceeding everyone''s expectations.


    "What?!"


    "He has that much power?"


    "He must have poured a lot of points to his Strength. So�� he''s hiding that much power within that small body."


    Many peoplemented in shock. Some of them had muscr bodies, so they knew Theo wouldn''t achieve such a result unless he assigned a lot of points to his status.


    Instead of showing his muscle, Theo chose to hide it to trick his opponent, or so they thought.


    Theo ignored their reactions and continued with grip strength, feet, and other stuff to measure his physical strength.


    The number was indeed shocking because Jacob even announced, "Your Strength is ssified as A+."


    "Mhm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what ''+'' meant. After all, the Temple didn''t have them.


    "Our is just a detailed version of the Temple. Unlike them, we don''t manage hundreds of millions of experts. So, this detailed version can be implemented." Jacob exined. "If you''re done, let''s proceed to the other test."


    Theo nodded and followed him.


    The next test was a Magic Power measurement. The machine was a simple crystal ball that could take on Theo''s Magic Power and transfer it to a robot frog underneath. There was a track for the frog to leap.


    "Just pour everything in one go. It''s going to end in an instant."


    Theo acknowledged the instruction and released all his Magic Power at once.


    The frog then leaped directly to the edge of the wall before jumping a few times on that spot.


    "!!!" This result shocked everyone as they had known what the result meant.


    "Impossible."


    "His Magic Power is even stronger than his strength?"


    "The training has been set to level 521, right? Or is this set lower?"


    Jacob noticed Theo''s clueless face and exined, "The edge of the wall means your Magic Power is ssified as S Rank. And your frog''s leaped a few times, so your Magic Power is above it�� with quite arge margin. Unfortunately, we can only give you ''S+'' for this one."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. His blessing was a God Level Blessing, so every time he ranked up, he would get more points from normal people. At the same time, he had the death armor that gave him so many points before.


    If hepared his status with normal people, he was almost equal to a level 600 expert. This kind of result was to be expected.


    "Mhm." Hendry nodded, satisfied.


    While they were shocked, Jacob had led Theo to the treadmill and put on a few pieces of equipment to measure his heart rate and so on.


    "Just run for five minutes with your fastest speed."


    "Got it." Theo nodded and did what he was supposed to do.


    Unfortunately, the result wasn''t as shocking as the rest. This relieved everyone''s heart as they thought Theo wasn''t as monstrous as they thought.


    But everything changed when they got the result of the Physical Test.


    Strength: A+


    Endurance: B-


    Agility: B-


    Vitality: B-


    Magic Power: S+


    "What?!"


    "One S and one A Rank status. There''s no C either. It''s impossible!"


    "There should be at least one C Rank, especially with that kind of result for his Strength and Magic Power."


    "How does he allocate his status?"


    Everyone was confused because they couldn''t see Theo''s depth. They realized why Hendry, the former CEO, brought him to the Star Group. Theo was truly abnormal.


    After finishing the test, Jacob led him to another room. He couldn''t contain his curiosity on the way and asked Hendry, "Sir. Is it alright for us to show this result to others? I''m afraid people can learn more about him from this result alone. Won''t it be disadvantageous for him?"


    Hendry smiled and said, "You underestimate the kid. If he was so weak that a mere test like this can define him, then there''s no way I''d bring him."


    "��" Jacob was speechless by the sheer confidence Hendry had in Theo.


    At the same time, Hendry didn''t say a single lie. Theo''s true strength came from his illusion ability. They had no way to measure Theo''s illusion ability, so even if the opponent knew about his status, they would be taken aback by Theo''s illusionter.


    Theo agreed to this because he also had confidence in his ability.


    They arrived in a in white room with only a few pieces of equipment lying on the ground.


    "Please wear these sses and take this gun. The first test will be your Awareness. You will feel the fluctuation of Magic Power from time to time. You shoot those spots. The sses will show your trajectory."


    "Okay." Theo nodded with a calm expression, thinking he would need to go through this set of tests every year.


    "There will be one hundred spots. If you''re ready, give me a thumb up, and I''ll start the machine." Jacob exined and left the room, preparing to activate it.


    As soon as Theo raised his thumb, he turned on the machine.


    A few Magic Power fluctuations appeared in the area. The first three spots were easy to find because the fluctuation was quite strong. But the fourth spot wascking in that area.


    Still, for someone, who had acquired Prediction Eyes, this test was an easy test.


    "How many spots can he find? He''s already a Supreme Rank, so every test of Five Aspects requires an advance sess on each Aspect." One of them said while observing Theo''s movement.


    However, he was soon stupefied by what he witnessed.


    From his movement alone, Theo was indeed an amateur in using the gun. He took a bit to aim properly. But as soon as he got used to it, he started shooting before the fluctuation appeared as though he already knew it would appear there.


    Even other spectators dropped their jaws to the ground.


    "He��"


    "This kind of performance��"


    All of them shared the same thought as they said inwardly, "S Score!"


    It took Theo five minutes to get the result of his test as the score was presented on the screen outside the room.


    100/100


    He spotted every Magic Power fluctuation and his reaction was so quick, leaving nothing to be desired.


    Even Jacob only had one score for him.


    S+

 Chapter 890 – Too Good

    <h4>Chapter 890 - Too Good</h4>


    *Hiss!*


    They all sucked a cold breath, seeing Theo''s result. There weren''t many people who could get all 100 spots correctly. After all, they were bound to miss some with weak fluctuation.


    However, Theo''s result indicated how strong his senses were.


    "This guy is good."


    "What is his real identity?"


    "Why haven''t we heard anything about him?"


    "This kind of performance can make him famous."


    "Has he been fighting alone this whole time?"


    "Is this his secret? Fighting alone means you need to do everything yourself."


    "I think? This exins why he''s so good at everything."


    "It''s just Awareness. There are still four other Aspects."


    "Look, Jacob has entered again to begin the second test."


    They suddenly fell silent and waited for Jacob to start the test. Even though it was only a minute, the wait was killing them.


    Jacob, on the other hand, walked to him, smiled, and said, "The second test will be your Control and Technique. Do you have anything you want to show me? Like how good you are at manipting Magic Power?"


    "You mean like this?" Theo released his Magic Power from the bottom of his right foot.


    The Magic Power gradually rose and formed an easter dragon that circled around them. The head stopped on top of Theo''s shoulder, staring at Jacob.


    Jacob''s body trembled. If this was a life and death fight, he would have died in Theo''s hand.


    ''I can''t even react to this?'' Jacob then looked at the dragon''s details and became even more shocked. ''He can create a dragon this perfect within a second? And the Magic Power is quite violent, meaning if he throws the Magic Power at me, there''s a chance I''ll die if I don''t respond correctly.''


    Jacob made a wry smile and said apologetically, "It''s done�� Can you retract this dragon for me?"


    With a nod from Theo, the dragon vanished into thin air as if it was never there to begin with.


    After that, Jacob handed him a few small devices and put them on Theo''s hands and legs. "It''ll give you some pain to check your Endurance, mind and body. While receiving this, try to sort out your breathing."


    "Got it."


    "You can sit down and rx your body."


    Theo followed his instruction and sat down in a lotus pose.


    "Okay, I''ll start." Jacob nodded and turned on the device.


    The stabbing and burning sensation immediately filled his brain. Luckily, he had gotten used to this feeling, so there was no reactioning from him.


    Although no one could see his face because of the mask, Jacob could see his heart rate. There was a sharp increase when he started, but the heart gradually calmed down.


    The pain gradually increased, so calming down meant Theo wasn''t affected by this kind of pain.


    Unfortunately for him, even though his mind was strong, his body was more honest. The skin started to redden. It was at this time Jacob stopped the test. If Theo practiced his Body Endurance, this process would take more time after all.


    "Okay. We''re done with this session. This is your result."


    Awareness: S+


    Breathing: D-


    Control: S+


    Technique: A


    Endurance: B+


    "Why is Technique A?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. He never practiced Technique, so he didn''t understand.


    "I don''t need to say anything about Awareness and Control. I can also see that your Breathing is a normal one without any fluctuation of Magic Power. As for your Endurance, it''s as such because of your strong mind.


    "As for the technique, I can see that you haven''t learned this aspect. But with your control and other Aspects, you''ve got a quite good foundation for it. Once you''re admitted here, you should be able to find some tutors to teach you about this."


    "Is that so?" Theo frowned and ultimately nodded. "I understand."


    When they turned around, they could see the shock on everyone''s face. But what made him surprised was how Hendry also had the same face as the others.


    It was clear Hendry still underestimated him. He told Theo not to hold back because he had imagined him scoring a pretty good result in the assessment. But he never thought the score would be this good. If only he knew about Theo''s Order.


    "You''re already done with this test. There will only be two more tests."


    "I guess I need to go through this every year."


    "Yes and no. Yes, you indeed need to go through this. However, when you reach the Mythical Rank, you can skip the Background Test, Skill Test and Fighting Test because there''s no need to determine them anymore. If you''re still a Supreme Rank, Background Test is not needed anymore since it''s been registered."


    "I see. Can I skip a few tests as well?"


    "Yeah, but your score will be bad."


    "Okay." Theo thought he couldn''t do it because he had promised Hendry to do it seriously.


    He nned to show a bit of his Illusion for the Skill Test where only one person could see it. This should be enough to get an S Score.


    However, everything changed the moment he stepped outside the room. Hendry immediately approached him and grabbed his shoulder.


    "You��"


    Theo was confused by his action, but soon Hendry came closer and whispered, "I never thought you''re this good. How about hiding some of your power?"


    "That''s not what you said earlier."


    "Come on. This old man was wrong." Hendry''s eyebrows twitched. If he knew Theo was this good, he would have made some preparations beforehand. He thought, ''This inhuman monster. With this kind of ability, I''m afraid hispetitors are the people one generation above him.


    ''He will just embarrass all those people from his generation. Luckily, my granddaughter is not his enemy�� Otherwise, I can''t imagine what kind of humiliation she will get.''


    "Fine." Theo nodded, acknowledging his request.


    Jacob didn''t listen to him as he prepared the next room.


    The moment Theo entered the room, he exined, "In this test, you''re allowed to use every skill you have in order to impress me."


    Hendry''s words were still stuck in his mind, so there was only one answer Theo could provide in this test.


    "I have nothing to show you."


    "��"

 Chapter 891 – Monster

    <h4>Chapter 891 - Monster</h4>


    "I have nothing to show you." When Theo uttered those words, the entire facility turned silent, not believing what he just said.


    "What?!"


    "Did he refuse to show anything?"


    "Does he not have anything noteworthy?"


    "Impossible. With such good Control and Awareness, he should have some skills that incorporate them."


    "That''s right. At the very least, he should get B+ even if he just shows a trashy skill."


    "For real?"


    "Fuck this guy."


    "Show us something!"


    Their voices erupted as they were disappointed by Theo''s decision.


    Theo maintained his calm and asked, "Is it not possible to skip the test?"


    Jacob made a wry smile and let out a long sigh. "No. It is possible. But you need to know that the result of this test will be F. Are you alright with that?"


    "How''s the scoring system anyway?"


    "There are five sections. Each section will score differently. As long as you pass a certain amount of points, you''re epted into the Star Group."


    "What is my score right now?"


    "I need to calcte it first, but in a nce, I believe you have passed the required amount to pass the test," Jacob exined. "I mean, your Awareness, Control, Strength, and Magic Power, as well as Background, are enough to pass the entire test. They''re pretty insane in my opinion."


    "I see." Theo nodded a few times and fell silent.


    On the other hand, Jacob remembered the time Hendry whispered something to Theo. He didn''t eavesdrop earlier because he wasn''t qualified to do so, but with what Theo did earlier, there was one thought that appeared in his mind.


    With a wry smile on his face, he asked, "You''re not going to skip thest test as well, right?"


    A smile appeared behind the mask, but no one could see it. Theo said with a light and cheerful tone. "Of course. I want to skip it."


    When they heard Theo''s answers, the entire facility blew up in anger.


    "What the fuck?"


    "Did he just say he wants to skip it?"


    "How dare he?!"


    "We''re here watching you, and you dare to give up."


    Their outrage was understandable, considering Theo had shown something too good in the first three tests. So, their expectation of Theo was very high.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo had no intention to show it to them, fully knowing that the assessment would affect his future.


    And if Theo actually continued at his pace, there might be a chance that Theo got an overall score of ''S+''.


    This was what they wanted to see.


    Meanwhile, Jacob''s face was pale as he didn''t know what to say to Theo. He nced to the right and found Hendry as shocked as everyone else.


    ''Will I get demoted from my position because of this?'' Jacob wanted to cry but had no tears. Theo was simply a bully. He raised everyone''s expectation to the sky only to drop it to the bottom of the ocean.


    "You should think about it a bit more. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you continue with this, you might get a huge contract."


    "No, I''m good." Theo waved his hand, rejecting his offer. "Since I''ve already passed, I want to skip the Skill Test and Fighting Test."


    "��" Jacob bit his lips before making another wry smile, epting Theo''s request. "I understand. I will show you the result then."


    After a few seconds, he gave the Skylink to him to show him the result.


    Background Test (Overall: S+): Blessing S - Special Note: Hendry Hamilton personally brought him to the group.


    Physical Abilities (Overall: S-): Strength A+, Endurance B-, Agility B-, Vitality B-, Magic Power S+.


    Five Aspects Test (Overall: S): Awareness S+, Breathing D-, Control: S+, Technique: A, Endurance B+.


    Skill Test (Overall: F): No skill


    Fighting Test (Overall: F): No fight


    Overall Score: B


    "This is your score. I can give you another chance to retake the fourth and fifth tests. With this kind of evaluation, as long as you can get a good score for both tests, your overall score can be an S.


    "I don''t know if you are aware of the importance of this S Score�� but there are only three people that have this kind of score in thepany. They''re enjoying a huge benefit for achieving this kind of score.


    "As long as you improve a bit, I can guarantee you to be the most talented person in the Star Group. That''s why�� you should reconsider your decision."


    "No. It''s fine." Theo shrugged while adding inwardly, ''I already agreed with the contract anyway. If they change it, I''ll just leave.''


    Jacob gritted his teeth and looked at Hendry to ask for his opinion.


    "Kh." Hendry clutched his chest while ring at Theo. He thought, ''This boy is fucking joking with me. Just because I told him not to show everything, he skipped thest two tests.


    ''We already came to an agreement with his contract anyway, so there won''t be any change. No, if I change anything because of what he''s done here, he''ll simply leave this Star Group and join another influence.


    ''And because he''s shown a result that surpasses everyone''s expectation, he can skip thest two tests in the pretense of hiding his real martial prowess.


    ''Some people will think he doesn''t have martial prowess that matches his specs, but it''s bullsh*t. Most of them will believe he''s hiding his true power. This way, no one knows the extent of his power.


    ''They''ll certainly be more careful around him. This action alone protects him for a while. The spies hiding inside thepany will also think twice because the information they send will end up being their spection. No one knows about his real power.


    ''Those influences won''t invite him until they have enough information about him. However, their interest will be piqued because he''s the boy I brought in.


    ''At the same time, I can''t reallyin because I was the one who told him to hide his power.


    ''In other words, just by skipping thest two tests, he has fulfilled four main purposes: protecting his secret,pleting my tasks, making others doubt his real strength, and lowering people''s opinion about him.


    ''This kid is a freaking monster��'' Hendry was utterly shocked by Theo''s talent.

 Chapter 892 – Super Clothes

    <h4>Chapter 892 - Super Clothes</h4>


    With this kind of move, Hendry had no choice but to ept his loss. He nodded to Jacob and asked him to finalize the score.


    He and Theo walked toward the exit, where an angry mass red at Theo as though they wanted to hang him to death.


    Theo maintained his silence and walked to Hendry first as no one would dare to move closer to the former CEO.


    "I want to beat you up right now." Hendry gritted his teeth and sighed. "I regretted telling you that one particr instruction."


    Theo shrugged. "I did everything ording to your wish."


    "Shut up." Hendry clicked his tongue and said, "So, what do you want now?"


    "I''m actually intrigued about your armory."


    "You don''t have any shortage of weapons, aren''t you? Also, there''s no way you are interested in robotic armor."


    "Not that one."


    "I guess the leather armor��" He thought for a moment and agreed with him. "Fine. Follow me. I''ll show you that armor. Not that you can exchange it."


    Hendry gave the people a cold gaze and stunned them. After that, he walked toward the exit while saying, "Jacob. Handle the rest."


    "I understand��" Jacob let out a long sigh and immediately sneaked away, not wanting to deal with the angry crowd.


    "Sh*t. They all escaped!"


    "What could you do even if they didn''t escape?"


    "That Joker must have no real martial prowess to back his skill up."


    "You must have brain damage if you believe so. There''s no way someone with that kind of skill has no real prowess? He must be hiding his power."


    "Indeed. But he''s still a fool for not taking the chance to raise his overall score. His contract mustn''t be that good."


    "D Rank is the bare minimum to be epted, so B Score is average."


    "Still, he won''t be able to stay hiding for so long."


    The talk about Theo continued as they were specting about Theo''s identity.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Hendry headed straight to their storage. Theo wanted to see the collections, so Hendry chose this storage to impress him.


    As soon as they came, they were greeted by a Mythical Rank Expert, who was in charge of protecting this storage room.


    "Sir Hendry." The middle-aged man nodded to him and shook his hand.


    "Oh? If I''m not wrong, you''re Michael."


    "I''m honored to be remembered by Sir Hendry. After all, your graciousness was the only reason I could join thispany in the first ce."


    "Haha. Not a big deal." Hendry chuckled. "Anyway, can you bring me a whole set of A Rank Armor?"


    "Leather or Machine?"


    "Leather."


    "Favorite color?"


    "Or just bring us to see the collections?"


    "I understand. Please follow me. The collection is in the C Section." The middle-aged man extended his hand and led them to the area while ncing at Theo a few times, wondering what kind of person Hendry brought this time.


    The storage was filled with various items. From robotic armor to normal weapons. It even took a few floors to store them, and that wasn''t enough since their warehouse was somewhere else.


    As soon as they arrived, the middle-aged man brought out a set of clothes. They were a t-shirt, a long robe that reached one''s foot, ck pants, and a pair of shoes.


    However, each piece seemed to be thicker than normal clothes. Theo also tried to touch it and lifted it up, only to find the weight he never expected from clothes.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes and pressed the clothes.


    Seeing Theo''s reaction, the middle-aged man immediately exined, "The robe has threeyers. The inner and outeryers are the same material you find in any clothing. As for the middleyer, we use Two Headed Python''s skin.


    "We havepressed three scales of this Mythical Rank Beast, so there won''t be any pration." The middle-aged man thought for a moment. Since Hendry was the one bringing this kid, he wanted to show off a bit. "Try to hit it with your weapon."


    He lifted the robe up and faced Theo, asking him to attack the robe.


    Theo turned to Hendry for permission first. As soon as he got a nod from him, he took out a sword and shed the robe.


    To his surprise, only the outeryer was sliced. He couldn''t do anything to the secondyer. "This is��"


    "As you can see, there''s no pration. It can block any attacks from Supreme Rank Experts. With this armor, you have nothing to worry about." The man smiled with confidence.


    "Hoh?" This robe piqued his interest as this was the first time he saw something like this.


    "Unfortunately, there are a few ws for this set. First, its thickness and weight. Second, even though there won''t be any pration, getting hit by a weapon is very painful. Your bone might get broken. As for full protection all the way to the head�� You can just move your hands and protect your head or neck with the sleeves."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "I guess this is suitable for��"


    "Yes. I think you have noticed it. This kind of equipment is very suitable for people who have practiced their Endurance. Their bodies will be stronger than normal, so getting hit by a blunt weapon won''t be as hurt. And without any pration, they''re basically invincible.


    "Also��" He touched the button on the robe that was supposed to be a decoration. As soon as he poured some Magic Power, a thinyer of green shield appeared. "All these buttons are equipped with a defense mechanism."


    "I see. With this kind of armor, you''re basically a walking tank." Theo understood why they banned some equipment back in the Grand Gaia Competition. If the US Team brought something like this, they could win easily.


    "Yes. As long as you can deal with the w, this set of clothes will be your guardian angel."


    ''I''m going to learn Endurance with Jormungand, right?'' Theo thought this was a chance for him. "If I want to buy this��"


    "This one is 2.4 billion Star Points."


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding while adding inwardly, ''That''s perfect�� While I practice the Endurance, I can get some points to exchange for these clothes.''

 Chapter 893 – Signing

    <h4>Chapter 893 - Signing</h4>


    Theo had finally gotten another objective in this ce. This set of clothes would certainly assist him in the future.


    However, there was one question he needed to ask. "Is it only effective against Supreme Rank Experts? How about Mythical Rank Experts?"


    "That''s already at Artifact Level. Not something normal clothes like this can withstand." He shook his head.


    Theo thought for a moment. His weapon was an artifact, so it was clear that the clothes were strong enough to handle him.


    So, he believed the only reason why it couldn''t block Mythical Rank Experts'' attacks was due to their overwhelming strength. They would simply be crushed by that power.


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "We have more stuff like this. After you officially join the Star Group, you''ll be notified about the catalog," added Hendry while observing Theo''s reaction. His interest was clear, so he thought this was something that could be used to pull him in.


    "I understand. Is there anything I can buy with the points I have right now?"


    "For someone like you? I don''t think there is�� You''re not searching for garbage, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. ''This country is known for their technology and overall Five Aspects. Although they don''t have something that stands out like Italy''s Awareness Level, which is considered one of the top ranks in the world, their overall teachings in Five Aspects are better. I guess I''ll use this opportunity to consolidate my strength as well as get everything I can like these clothes.''


    Theo reinforced his n again and said, "I understand. I''ll just look at the catalogter and proceed with some missions."


    "We also have numerous missions like the temples."


    "Yeah. Nevertheless, nothing will change. I''ll still work alone." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Whatever." Hendry shrugged. "Since you''re done, do you want to go back to sign the contract?"


    "Yeah. I want to finish everything as soon as possible."


    Hendry acknowledged his words and thanked the middle-aged man. "Alright. It''s time for us to leave. Thank you for showing us all this stuff."


    "No, no. It''s my pleasure." The middle-aged man smiled while wondering who the man Hendry had brought with him. For someone like Hendry to be that friendly to him, Theo was surely not an ordinary man.


    Hendry and Theo then left the storage room and headed back to meet Bernard.


    After getting his contract, he checked everything first before signing it. He didn''t want to be trapped because of his carelessness after all.


    Luckily, Bernard also didn''t put anything suspicious inside the contract. Only some normal additions like a non-disclosure agreement and so on.


    "Wee to the Star Group." Bernard smiled and extended his hand.


    "Thank you." Theo shook his hand and said, "I don''t need to do anything for the time being, right?"


    "Yes. You can take your time."


    "How is the mission assigned?"


    "You can pick it yourself. We have two different missions here: Company Mission and Personal Mission. Company Mission is rted to everything thepany produces, from items to Skill Cards. As for Personal Mission, they''re a special mission that we deem special enough to get involved ourselves. The normal mission in your contract refers to thetter."


    "So, there will be a catalog for this kind of mission too?"


    "Yeah. There will be a special Skylink handed to you. Because your contract is at the level of a Mythical Rank Expert, thepany can contact you directly with that Skylink, and you can personally see the missions and all other stuff."


    "Okay. I''ll just experiment with everythingter." Theo nodded.


    "I''ll call the chauffeur to bring you to your mansion right now. Because of your current strength, we can only get you a 10,000 square feet one. It''s not that bigpared to other mansions, but it should be enough for you."


    "I live alone anyway. Is there anything I need to be careful of?"


    "I don''t think so. I''ll finish everything within seven workdays�� Just make sure you pay taxes. It''s quite high here."


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment and sighed.


    "I''m not joking. With thepany obligation as well as your personal taxes, you will only get around fifty percent of what you find on the other side." Bernard exined with a chuckle.


    "I know, I know." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, I''ll just ask someone to do thatter."


    "Thepany can lend you people who can take care of this problem."


    "Then, thank you."


    "You can contact us through the Skylink. Don''t worry. We''ll do our best to make you pay less." Bernard winked his right eye yfully. Luckily, there were only both of them, Vanessa and Hendry, inside the room, or they would make a weird face hearing Bernard''s statement.


    "Whatever. I''ll just learn everything from now on." Theo sighed.


    "Sure. Also, even though I won''t tell Maya about your appearance, she''s bound to know it sooner orter."


    "I want a few months at the very least."


    "That''s easy."


    "Thanks." Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Onest question. How''s the situation around? I mean, after my ''death''?"


    "I''ll send the news to your Skylinkter. Anything else?"


    "No."


    "Alright then." Bernard patted his shoulders a few times and let him go.


    Hendry then guided him to the exit as he personally saw him off.


    Before leaving, Hendry whispered one piece of important information. He said, "Never take off your mask unless you''re in your mansion or in the wild. The beggars will find you��"


    "Beggars?"


    "One of the biggest underworld gangs that control the informationwork all over the US�� You won''t be able to differentiate them from a real beggar. Once they see you, your information will surely be leaked somewhere."


    "I see." Theo nodded. "Thank you for the warning."


    "Alright. See you." He waved his hand with a smile as the car started moving.


    On the way home, Theo purchased some clothes from different stores since he didn''t bring much because of the journey.


    And when he finally reached the mansion, he put down all his luggage andid down on his bed, exhausted. His mask turned into a red cloth that circled around his hand. Hel''s Death Armor was truly convenient.


    "Three years�� I need to reach Mythical Rank within three years. I can''t forget my Five Aspects as well. And the most important thing is�� I need to start my influence''s foundation�� In three years, I won''t be scared anymore," said Theo while closing his eyes.

 Chapter 894 – Funeral

    <h4>Chapter 894 - Funeral</h4>


    Italy.


    The War God Family held a funeral for those who had fallen during thest battle.


    Leonardo was standing with his ck suit in front of everyone. And because of the rtionship between the church and the War God Family, the pope sent his archbishop to lead the funeral.


    Suddenly, a woman with brown hair stormed the funeral ceremony with an aghast face. The majority of the people didn''t recognize her face, but those who grew up with her in the past knew her identity.


    "No. This is impossible!" The woman shouted. Her tears were streaming down and her tone was full of disbelief. "He''s not dead!"


    Everyone immediately knew who she was talking about.


    Because of Leonardo''s n, they managed to minimize their casualties. The War God Family had hunted down 12 desperate Mythical Rank Experts from the Barbe Group with only three casualties.


    They were one Mythical Rank Expert, Alice, and Theo, along with his assistant and Ava, who weren''t part of the family. Theo was the only male among them, so ''he'' in her mouth was none other than her son, Theo.


    Leonardo gritted his teeth and turned around. He stood right before her while ring down.


    "Enough!" Anger was reflected in his tone and face.


    "F-father?"


    "This is what you want, right? You want your son to be away from the Griffith Family. With this, the Griffith Family won''t be able to touch your son anymore." Leonardo shouted.


    The woman, Valerie, looked at Leonardo in horror. "He��!"


    Before she could continue, the archbishop walked toward her and said with an apologetic tone. "I''m sorry for your loss, Madam. Pope Franz wants to apologize too�� because he could only see your son entering the Dark Poison Swamp."


    "He promised me to protect him!" Valerie shouted. When she was about to grasp the archbishop''s robe, Leonardo''s hand sneaked in and pped her face.


    The force wasn''t weak either, as Valerie was blown a few hundred feet away.


    After that p, Leonardo stated in anger. "Stop her. I don''t want her to ruin this funeral."


    Seeing the anger in Leonardo''s face, five Mythical Rank Experts immediately disappeared from the area.


    Leonardo then looked at the tombstone.


    Rest in Peace


    Theodore Griffith


    2710 - 2729


    People thought he was mourning, but Leonardo''s real thought couldn''t be more different, ''Since you called me Grandfather, I can only send you off like this. Don''t worry about it. Your secret is safe. Only me and Marzio know about your n. I wish you luck out there, Theo, my dear grandchild.''


    After a desperate attempt to rescue Theo, it was normal for him to be saddened by his death. However, no one knew the real cause of Theo''s death. Only those who had deep connections and a good informationwork would know about the reason for his death.


    ��


    Wind Emperor''s Mansion.


    "Grandfather. Theo��" Lyovkin visited the Wind Emperor with a sad look. Levina also apanied him, saying, "He''s passed away."


    "Yeah, I know." The Wind Emperor nodded and waved his hand. "Just leave me alone."


    Levina and Lyovkin exchanged looks. The Wind Emperor refused to even look at them, so they couldn''t see his face. However, his action alone was enough to know how hurt he was.


    Ultimately, they decided to go back and left their grandfather alone in the mansion.


    Little did they know, the Wind Emperor was actually holding hisughter this whole time. He looked at the Skylink that showed him the news about Theo andughed.


    "Haha. This guy never ceases to impress me." The Wind Emperor grinned. "Unless you bring me his corpse, there''s no way I''m gonna believe it. NO! Even if you bring me his corpse, there''s a chance that''s a fake.


    "The War God Family fought against the Barbe Group and the Griffith Family to rescue him but were unable to. That''s big bullsh*t over there." The Wind Emperor shook his head. "Still, the Dark Poison Swamp, huh��


    "The ce that even the strongest person doesn''t dare to enter�� It seems he has a big means to actually go to that ce. There''s no way the pope failed to protect him. Even the archbishop said the pope could only see him entering the swamp, not him failing to protect him.


    "In other words, Theo still has some ns. Now I need to know where he goes�� Will he go to the US like his original n or stay low to build up his strength in another country? Hmm, even I don''t dare to predict his thoughts. Well, you have a decade, brat."


    Little did he know, one of the reasons why Theo didn''t want to be chained that long by the Star Group was due to him. He needed to have his freedom if he wanted to fulfill his promise in the future.


    ��


    Empress''s Pce


    "It seems you have heard about it��" said the empress while staring at Ana and Alea, who sat across from her. Their heads were down, showing how painful Theo''s death was to them.


    "Having a huge talent is an opportunity as well as your nightmare at the same time. Many people will aim for your life unless you have a good background. That''s why most of the talented experts join as an influence. It''s to protect themselves.


    "I don''t say it''s necessary because there are a few who act alone but can reach the top too�� However, in Theo''s case, he yed with fire�� France''s former biggestpany, the Barbe Group, a giant hidden family, the Griffith Family��


    "These two can be said to upy a part of the world if theybine�� And it''s just to kill a single boy.


    "In the end, he''s forced to hide in the Dark Poison Swamp, which has no way to escape even for the strongest poison expert.


    "And now he''s dead, there will be a huge movement around the world. Pity�� Such a pity.


    "He was one of the biggest geniuses I''ve ever seen, yet, this genius couldn''tst long." The empress looked at Alea with a serious face and asked, "So, what are you going to do? Avenge him? Forget him?"

 Chapter 895 – Believe

    <h4>Chapter 895 - Believe</h4>


    "Avenge him? Forget him?"


    When the question was out, Alea was stumped. No matter what, as her master, the empress needed to ask this question to her.


    If she chose revenge, she could force Alea to learn anything. In the future, the feeling might diminish anyway. On the other hand, if she chose to forget about him, Alea could spend all her time focusing on her training.


    Either way, both worked for the empress. This was why her answer was necessary.


    "Can''t you ask this questionter?" Ana furrowed her eyebrows. She could understand Alea''s feeling as Theo was just buried today in Italy, and Alea couldn''t go there to visit him.


    The empress shook her head. "That''s something you need to answer now. Your future depends on the choice you make today."


    "But you can ask her a few dayster when everything has settled down." Ana still fought back, arguing about her timing.


    Suddenly, Alea''s hand reached her shoulder, stopping her.


    "Alea? You don''t need to answer it immediately. Let''s go back to your room first and calm down, okay?" Ana was concerned with Alea, so she wanted to bring her away.


    However, Alea shook her head and turned to the empress with a serious expression. She appeared to have gathered her resolve as she stated, "Neither!"


    Her answer startled both the empress and Ana.


    "Neither?!"


    Alea smiled. "If it''s anyone else, I might choose either of those two. But Theo is a different case. I might be naive and innocent�� but I am confident I know Theo more than both of you.


    "In every n, Theo has never given any thought about his luck. He doesn''t rely on it. If he chooses to die, you''ll need to prepare for his revival. That''s why I choose to believe him and practice more. My n hasn''t changed. I''m still going to prepare to go to Thernd to help him in his revenge."


    This answer was full of conviction and even stunned the empress.


    "Alea." The empress facepalmed. "This is why I hate love sh*t. They can turn a person into an idiot."


    "Does Teacher forget about Agata? If she''s still alive, Theo must be too."


    "The one entering the Dark Poison Swamp might be an illusion of her. The real Agata was in her home during the whole ordeal. Enough, Alea. I know you don''t like to see the man you chased dying, but you need to ept reality. Don''t be an idiot who is consumed by your grief."


    "You may call me an idiot right now, but in the future? Who knows." Alea made a gentle smile before clutching her chest. Her face became serious as she said, "Teacher. I don''t wish to rebuke you, but I won''t stop believing in him. No matter what, I''m going to fight until the very end."


    The pain in her heart was painful. It was caused by none other than Agata. Even at thest moment, Agata could stay together with Theo. She couldn''t help but feel envious and regret not taking her chance in the past.


    This time, she wanted to fix her past mistakes and fight to the very end. As long as there was no confirmation from Agata, she would continue to fight.


    ��


    The news shocked not only them but also the people around the world.


    The people in Thernd were grieving over the fact the big genius hailed from their country would die not long after he reached the Supreme Rank.


    Even the president gave his condolences to the War God Family.


    There were two people meeting each other when they heard this news. They were his former teammates, Ellen and Phyrill.


    "Phyrill�� Did you hear?" Ellen asked with a tired face. There was a bag under her eyes, and her face was slightly pale, showing how much the news affected her.


    Phyrill had a hard time settling his heart too, because this was Theo they were talking about. No one had ever scared him except Theo. And to think that person died.


    "Yes." Phyrill nodded with a sad face. "Sihan died because of the conflict with Theo. Alea has gone to Russia while Laust is training in Japan. Now that Theo has died, there are only four of us here. It''s getting lonely."


    Ellen closed her eyes and remained silent. She also didn''t like the fact their group had been torn apart.


    "I''m also nning to go overseas."


    "Eh? You too?" Ellen was horrified, never expecting to be the only person who remained in Thernd.


    "Yeah." Phyrill fell silent for a moment before taking a deep breath. He looked into her eyes and asked, "I''m going to Egypt�� Ellen. I''d like you toe with me."


    Ellen''s body trembled as she never saw this invitationing. She could only stare at Phyrill without giving her answer.


    ��


    Lange Family''s Mansion.


    "Haha. That bastard has died! Revenge? Bullsh*t. He can''t do anything to me now!" Laust''s father, Ben Lange,ughed hysterically. "That bastard deserves it."


    Their situation had gotten worse after Laust went to Japan and his eldest son abandoned him. The grudge had been filling his heart.


    The news sounded so sweet in his ears that he couldn''t stopughing.


    "Hahahaha!"


    ��


    Ray''s Hidden Headquarters.


    Valerie had gone back home after being sent away by Leonardo.


    "I��" Valerie bit her lips with tears streaming down her face. "Theo�� Theo shouldn''t have died��"


    Ray only hugged her and said, "Don''t worry. Theo is a strong kid. He might still be alive somewhere. We should believe in him��"


    While they wereforting each other, Ne overheard them and clenched her hands to the point her palms started bleeding.


    ''Why? Why do you believe he has died? Can''t you be like Uncle Ray and trust his ability more? Do you have that little trust in him?'' Ne''s breath started bing heavy. She left them alone while swearing in her heart. ''My cousin�� You say my cousin, no, you say Theo''s talent surpasses both of you.


    ''As his mother, you should believe him more�� Unless his corpse is right before my eyes, I won''t believe it. He must be still alive somewhere!''

 Chapter 896 – Reactions

    <h4>Chapter 896 - Reactions</h4>


    Obviously, his existence had struck deep in many people''s hearts, especially those who worked in the dark.


    ��


    Japan.


    Laust was called by Shibuya Mami, who once led the Japanese team in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    "What do you think about this news?" Mami asked.


    "I don''t know." Laust shook his head. "Either way, my n hasn''t changed. I''m going back to Thernd to settle everything with my father sooner orter."


    "I just want your thoughts about this news. Do you believe he''s dead?"


    "On the one hand, we''re talking about the Dark Poison Swamp. No one has ever challenged that ce ande back. On the other hand, he is Theo." Laust sighed.


    "So, 50-50?" Mami frowned. "Still, his blessing is rumored to be rted to Death. Is he going to resurrect himself sooner orter?"


    "I don''t know. When I was his teammate, I obeyed hismands because that was the right thing to do. Now that I''m not in his control, I can''t believe in him anymore."


    "So, you''re saying he''s dead?"


    "No. I don''t believe everything about him. His death might be a fake�� and the rumor of his blessing might not be the truth either."


    "!!!" When Mami heard it, she widened her eyes before her face soon turned grim. "So, you''re saying there''s a possibility of him having another blessing��"


    "Who knows." Laust shook his head and gradually walked away. Before leaving the room, he said onest piece. "All I know is that he only shows you whatever he wants you to believe. It might not necessarily be the truth."


    *Kacha!*


    Laust closed the door, leaving Mami alone to think. In the end, she called someone with a serious expression. "Hello��"


    ��


    The United Kingdom.


    "What? He''s dead?"


    "Prince. What should we do? We have poured so much money in searching for someone who can rank up a skill. And he''s dead now��"


    "That''s right. We''ve wasted too many resources for a dead man. How can we ept this?"


    "Just be grateful that we didn''t spend much more�� After all, there would be more resources wasted if we invited him."


    "Anyway, the brat died. We need someone to take the me for this and start changing our focus."


    "Still, such a waste."


    "That''s right. We can nurture so many people with this amount of money."


    "Theodore Griffith. Even if he''s dead, he''s still causing a headache."


    ��


    China.


    "Haha. He''s dead. And we haven''t even made our move. As expected of the Griffith Family, if they want someone to die, they certainly won''t live."


    All of them were staring at the man who always opposed their n in eliminating Theo, Cheng Zhao, the former captain of the national team Cheng Sui''s father.


    He contemted for a moment before saying, "Why do I feel like he''s not dead?"


    "It''s obvious he''s forced to go inside the Dark Poison Swamp. With this, he won''t survive."


    "That''s right."


    Cheng Zhao shook his head and said, "There is a big difference in him jumping into the Dark Poison Swamp and being forced to enter that damned swamp."


    "It''s impossible. Even the pope admitted he couldn''t protect him."


    "He didn''t say he failed. He only said he could only watch everything happening."


    "That''s basically the same. You don''t need to y with words, Cheng Zhao. Since you have opposed us this whole time, you should give us some exnations!"


    Cheng Zhao red at them and pinched the bridge of his nose before shaking his head helplessly.


    ��


    Mota Family.


    After attending the funeral, Boris and his wife returned to their mansion with tired faces.


    They were greeted by the heavy atmosphere as the other three Mythical Rank Experts approached them.


    "Agata still locks herself inside her room. Theo�� Is he really dead?" Agata''s uncle asked with a worried expression.


    Boris let out a long sigh and said, "You already heard it from her�� To think Theo would knock our daughter out to save her and choose to sacrifice his own life�� To think he would use his illusion to protect our daughter�� If I could do more for him, I would have done it."


    No one could reply to him. The blow Theo left in their heart was too heavy.


    "Even though I didn''t like that brat''s disposition, I never wanted him to die��" Agata''s aunt sighed and walked away.


    Seeing her actions made them more depressed. Boris even said, "Anyway, all of you can return for the time being. I''ll try to talk with Agata."


    As soon as they left, Boris walked to Agata''s room and knocked on the door a few times. "Agata. This is Dad. Can you open the door?"


    There was no response from Agata, making him worried. He reached the doorknob and knocked a few more times but to no avail.


    His hand was a bit itchy and he ended up pushing the doorknob. To his surprise, the door opened.


    "Eh?! It''s not locked." Boris widened his eyes in surprise.


    Although hesitant, Boris still entered the room, finding a tidy but dark room. It was as if no one was living here.


    However, he soon found his daughter sitting on top of her bed, meditating.


    "Close the door, Dad. Let''s talk." Agata''s voice was serene and calm.


    Boris shivered when he heard her voice, thinking Agata had be in denial because of Theo''s death.


    But the moment he closed the door, Agata said, "I''m fine and can''t be any better. I''d be lying if I say I''m not sad, but I choose to believe him.


    "I hope you can support me with everything in the next three years�� I want to learn how to manage a business from you."


    "Agata?" Boris was shaken by her words. "I know you''re still sad. Well, I''m happy that you want to learn the family business, but how about taking a few days to calm down first before making your decision?"


    "What are you talking about?" Agata gradually opened her eyes, staring into his eyes.


    "Eh?" Boris was bewildered by her reaction and felt something was wrong.


    "My boyfriend is trying to build up his own influence over there. In the next three years, I want to learn everything, especially how to manage an influence. This is my resolve."


    "Boyfriend? Is?" Boris dropped his jaw.


    "Don''t tell anyone about this as it''ll defeat the purpose. I''m just a girl with a broken heart who tries to do everything to forget this sadness."


    Boris didn''t listen to what she said as there was one word that stuck deep in his mind. "What did you say again? Boyfriend? You��"


    A smile appeared on Agata''s face. "Can you help me, Dad?"

 Chapter 897 – Next Step

    <h4>Chapter 897 - Next Step</h4>


    Starry Group.


    Maya was on the call with a troubled face.


    "Dad! Did you hear that? What''s the heck with that news? Theo is dead?" Maya said those words with a disgusted expression. "You''ve seen him yourself�� Do you think that devil could die?"


    "I couldn''t find any news about his whereabouts. I''m still searching for his news, especially around the War God Family."


    "But Agata is still alive. Didn''t she enter the forest?"


    "ording to my source, Agata was knocked out by Theo and the assistant that entered with him was just an illusion. I''m not sure about the rabbit though."


    "So, you think he''s dead?"


    "I can''t be sure. For now, I''m going to investigate this matter. If he''s still alive, he''ll be famous. After all, no one has ever solved the poison mist in Dark Poison Swamp."


    "World first, eh?"


    "Yeah. I''ll tell you when I get some leads."


    "Okay. I will also dispatch some people to Italy to know what''s going on."


    "Just don''t antagonize the War God Family. That Leonardo might do something unpredictable."


    "I know, I know. Bye, Dad."


    "Bye. Love you."


    "Love ya." She hung up with a serious expression before muttering, "He still hasn''t got any clue? Is Theo truly dead? That''s unlikely. Whatever. Search for his news first."


    She had no idea that her father hid Theo''s news from her.


    ��


    Theo''s Mansion.


    Theo, who had woken up from his quick nap, was sitting in his garden while staring at the news sent by Bernard.


    "The result is as expected. Some people still believe in me, and there are people who immediately lose interest in me. The truth will nevere to light as it will be a blow to the country as well as many influences." Theo smirked when he read all the news.


    "Still, the news he acquired�� It''s quiteplete. They even have various countries'' responses as well as their true actions."


    The quality and the quantity of the news truly impressed him. Agata was not at this level even with the help of the War God Family.


    "I guess this is the strength of the Star Group." Theo smiled before finding something that piqued his interest. "Hmm. What''s this?"


    "The Barbe Group was the culprit of this disturbance? Where''s the Griffith Family? They should have been mentioned too, no?"


    The news silenced Theo as he realized what kind of influence the Griffith Family was.


    "No wonder. Despite knowing how involved they are, the Griffith Family is nowhere to be found. Even other countries don''t really want to mention the Griffith Family. This shows how powerful the Griffith Family truly is.


    "One of the biggest influences in the world, huh." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Now that I think about it, it''s impossible for me to shake the Griffith Family if my parents didn''t actually take revenge against them.


    "In other words, the reason why one of their vassals separated themselves from the Griffith Family�� And why did the Wind Emperor challenge the former head of the Griffith Family��"


    There was only one answer to his spection. If his parents didn''t weaken the Griffith Family from the inside, he wouldn''t see anything happening in the Griffith Family no matter what he did.


    "I see." Theo''s expression turned grim. "Without them, I wouldn''t be able to attack them. All those important people from all around the world wouldn''t ce any importance on me.


    "Without realizing it, I''d used their effort to make a name of myself. That was basically the reason why the Wind Emperor helped me in the past." Theo closed his eyes for a moment. "They used me for revenge, I used them for myself."


    "��"


    After a few minutes, Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled. "Now that I am hiding my real identity, how much do my words actually matter?"


    "I see. Time to build some reputation first before asking people to join. I wonder who I can invite��" Theo smirked, feeling a bit fired up. "I wonder how I can build up my reputation in this new country."


    ��


    One of the Star Group''s Mansions.


    A man and a woman met face to face.


    The man had a calm and collected expression, showing no sign of weakness. Even his aura was so fierce that his gaze could make one shiver.


    Meanwhile, the woman smiled coquettishly while saying, "What do you think about this, Mark? A newbie, who could get an S evaluation, chose to throw it away. He''s challenging you, you know."


    "It''s just your imagination." The guy shook his head. "He just didn''t want to show his strength."


    "Do you really think that way? If he wanted to hide his power, he should have hidden it from the beginning and only showed a portion of it in thest few tests. This way, he could have hidden it better." The woman taunted him a bit more.


    Mark fell silent as though he actually thought the same thing.


    "He was brought by that Hendry�� Even you didn''t have this kind of privilege. He must think he''s special."


    "There''s no need for your cheap provocation. You just want to use me to learn about his power. If he''s stronger, you won''t hesitate toe to him." Mark harrumphed.


    "I just want to help you. I won''t let him mess with your reputation as the only Supreme Rank who got the S evaluation. The other two are old Mythical Rank guys."


    "Just leave." Mark snorted. "I don''t need you to tell me what to do�� All I want is to get stronger."


    "What are you talking about? I know you''re worried that you''re not the favorite anymore."


    "Fine. I''m going to challenge him. But this is not because I''m concerned or provoked by your cheap words�� I simply want to see this guy''s strength as one of my peers." Mark clicked his tongue and rose from his chair.


    "As expected of my guy." The woman smiled.


    Little did the woman know, Mark was actually smiling inside as he thought, ''I can''t deal with this woman alone. But if this guy is as strong as the rumor, he might be able to help me. I want her to disappear.''


    Just like how she was unaware of Mark''s current thoughts, Mark was oblivious to what kind of fate he met when he went to Theo.

 Chapter 898 – Shameless

    <h4>Chapter 898 - Shameless</h4>


    Theo was sitting in his garden when the Star Group''s Skylink rang, notifying him about a sudden challenge.


    The message said, "I am Mark Kalikdez, one of the three people evaluated as S Rank Talent. I want to challenge you in a duel."


    "��" Theo was stupefied by the message. He truly never expected the opportunity toe to him right after he wished for it.


    One of the ways to increase his reputation in Theo''s head was defeating someone famous. He even needed to beat them thoroughly to show his might.


    To think the opportunity walked right to his front gate by itself.


    "Welp, I never got a challenge like this in Italy because my reputation and standing were quite high, so no one bothered to do it. Now that I have nothing with me, I guess I need to do it." Theo thought for a moment as a sly smile appeared on his face.


    Theo didn''t ept the challenge immediately. Instead, he wanted to take advantage of this situation to get something more.


    "I don''t see a reason for me to ept it."


    Mark furrowed his eyebrows and thought his identity alone was enough. It seemed that Joker was a cool-headed person. "It''s because personally challenging you is an honor that not many can receive."


    "I don''t need that kind of honor. If you''re that cheap, then go screw around somewhere else."


    Mark''s eyebrows started twitching. "What do you want?"


    Theo pondered for a moment, finding what he needed currently. After a moment, he replied, "Star Points. Since you are the one who wants to challenge me, you need to pay for my time. It is pretty expensive. Ten million for one challenge."


    Mark dropped his jaw to the ground. The Star Points had a simr value to Zils, so the amount Theo asked was equal to one million dors for a fight.


    "Why don''t you just rob banks?"


    "Why don''t you just retract your challenge? You''re wasting my time."


    "��" Mark gritted his teeth, never expecting to see someone this shameless. However, for his goal, he needed to ept this condition. "Fine. Ten million Star Points."


    "Good. That''s just the price to fight me. I don''t ept a challenge for nothing. You need to add a bet."


    Mark coughed a few times and looked at the Skylink in disbelief.


    "Fuck you. Do you think you''re great? I can crush you with one hand."


    "So?"


    "��"


    "What a waste of talent. You have that talent, but youck the boldness�� I see. You are just a coward who can only stand on the rear while enjoying the benefit from your talent."


    Mark almost threw the Skylink to the ground. He never thought Theo was this shameless.


    "Since you''re that poor, I guess I need to tone down my bet. If I lose, I''ll give you one A Rank Skill Card."


    "A Rank?" Mark was stunned this time. He precisely knew the importance of an A Rank Card. One card was equal to more than one billion Zils, so the bet was quite big. At the same time, not many people wanted to sell their A Rank Card, so the value increased a bit more.


    Mark never expected Theo to have such a thing. However, his evil mind started working as a smirk appeared on his face.


    "Since you want to rob me, don''t me me for robbing you back." Mark grinned and replied to Theo. "I have information about an artifact on the other side."


    Theo was stunned this time. He looked at the Skylink with a serious face. "Interesting. An artifact�� although unidentified, will still sell for at least a few billion Zils. And depending on its power, I can absorb the remnant energy to increase my status too."


    "That''s a good thing to bet," Theo replied.


    "But you''re so poor that I don''t think you have something to match this kind of information." Mark chose to strike him with this kind of bet since it was clearly him having more value.


    "Three A Rank Skill Cards." Theo stated while adding inwardly, ''I haven''t upgraded my skill with these A Rank Cards yet because I don''t want to rush it, considering each skill upgrade will require a few billion Zils. But I guess I can still use them to bet.''


    On the other hand, Mark was stunned when Theo dered to have three A Rank Skill Cards. He thought Hendry actually gave it to Theo personally because he liked the kid.


    After a moment, he said, "Fine, I will agree to this bet."


    "Do you think that''s all? You need to promise not to think about the artifact anymore after giving me the information. If you lie to me, I''ll me everything on you. If you plot against me or the artifact, I''ll me everything on you."


    "Our pieces are equal. Don''t push too much!"


    "Yeah? You forget about the difference in our level. I''m level 521, while you are supposed to reach level 600 recently. You''re just bullying me." Theo smirked, nning to take advantage of this person as much as possible.


    Mark gritted his teeth and realized this man was a devil. He started to regret inviting him for a duel. But since everything had happened, if he backed down now, he would be seen as a coward.


    "Fine. I promise."


    "Good. Let''s talk about the ce and time."


    "So, where are you? Are you in Star Field, Star Garden, or Star Home?"


    "What''s that?"


    "You''re not in the Supreme Rank Area? They''re homeplexes for the Star Group''s members."


    "Nope."


    "Don''t tell me you live in Starry Sky? The neighborhood for Mythical Rank or Extremely Talented Supreme Rank?"


    Theo didn''t reply as he never expected Mark knew where he lived. He was aware that he was inside aplex of wealthy people since he could see mansions around him.


    He thought this was just a mansion that the Star Group identally bought. To think the entireplex was developed to host the Star Group''s members.


    Because there was no reply for a minute, Mark assumed he was correct and continued, "That''s great since I''m there too. There is one field for a little spar in the middle of theplex. We can hold the challenge there. As for the timing, I can do it at 8 PM."


    Theo hesitated for a moment before agreeing�� "Fine."

 Chapter 899 – Ehectahl

    <h4>Chapter 899 - Ehectahl</h4>


    As soon as he finalized the challenge, Theo smirked and muttered, "I guess this is the first step. It''s not like I need to go on a mission currently. Better to use that time to get an artifact to increase my power."


    After saying those words, Theo fell silent, thinking, ''Still, my opponent is almost one hundred levels above me. He''s also deemed to be an S Rank Talent, so he must be above normal people. If I fight him with my spear, I have some confidence in defeating him, but I''m using a sword right now.''


    Theo took a deep breath and shook his head. ''No. I need this kind of pressure.''


    He recalled all the times when he was forced to ''evolve'' under big pressure, like when he faced the magma monster in the Arkahan Volcano.


    Since he had agreed to this fight, he returned to the mansion to prepare himself for this fight.


    ��


    Star Battlefield.


    This small field in the middle of theplex had been used for any kind of sparring among the people who lived in this area.


    Because this ce was filled with important people of the Star Group, they created this ce with just in hardened sand. After all, the destruction caused by those people would be massive, so they used this to reduce the maintenance cost.


    A few hours passed in the blink of an eye.


    Theo and Mark stood in the middle of this 5000 square feet field, staring at each other. The field was protected by a barrier that stopped some shock waves and attacks from hitting the buildings around. If a Mythical Rank Expert didn''t seriously attack this barrier, it could still block anything.


    Mark saw Theo''s concealing his face as well as his hair, making him more mysterious. He felt a bit displeased not to know his opponent''s face, but that didn''t matter in front of the big bet they had.


    Theo, on the other hand, looked at this ck-haired man with interest. There were many expectations ced on Mark, and the reasons were clear. Unlike other people, Theo could feel the fierceness behind his gaze.


    "So, you''re Joker." Mark opened his mouth. "What are you? An edgy kid? Hiding your face doesn''t make you cooler."


    "Giving advice to someone doesn''t make you wiser." Theo shook his head, snorting.


    Mark''s eyebrows twitched and confirmed Theo was the person he chatted with earlier. He truly had a foul mouth.


    After a momentary silence, both Mark and Theo suddenly released their Magic Power to the surroundings, preparing to fight.


    The fluctuation of the Magic Power didn''t escape the sense of the Mythical Rank Experts who lived in this area.


    Two of them suddenly came out of their houses to witness what had happened.


    "Oh? You''re here, Kain." A middle-aged woman waved her hand with a smile, walking toward a man that appeared to be around her age. They both were standing on top of the roof of the man''s house, so they didn''t bother anyone.


    "I''m just curious since the Magic Power fluctuation is weak." Kain nodded with a calm face. "But I guess this is to be expected from two Supreme Rank Experts. But I''m surprised that you''re quite interested in this battle, Emma."


    "You know my son, right?"


    "Yeah."


    "He took the admission test of the Star Group two days ago."


    "Did he get epted?"


    "Yeah."


    "Congrattions."


    "Thanks, but that''s not important. I heard from him that someone exceptional hade. He was supposed to receive S Rank Evaluation, but because he skipped thest two tests, he only got B Rank."


    "!!!" Kain widened his eyes and looked at Theo. "Him?"


    "Yeah. His level is supposed to be 521 though."


    "Isn''t this bullying?" Kain frowned. "Should we stop them?"


    "Let''s just watch them for a bit. I''m a bit curious what kind of stuff he can show us. After all, there''s no information about him." Emma shrugged.


    "Still, his opponent is Mark."


    "Ehecatl, huh." Emma squinted her eyes. "Aztec Mythology, God of Wind, Ehecatl."


    "And with that level gap, I don''t think this will be a decent fight." Kain nodded, having no trust in Theo.


    "Whatever. We can stop the match if it''s a bit dangerous. For now, let''s just watch the two youngsters fight it out."


    Kain fell silent and eventually agreed to her decision.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo and Mark had been releasing their power for a minute. Mark thought Theo would be a little scared if he showed him some of his power, but there was no movement from him this entire time.


    "Let''s see whether you can still have that calmness after I beat you up." Mark suddenly disappeared, leaving a small shock wave from the wind.


    Theo''s expression turned serious as he ducked down.


    Mark suddenly reappeared above him, waving his hand. If he didn''t lower his body, his neck would have gotten chopped.


    Theo also noticed the ck gloves Mark used. There were multiple sharp objects around the gloves, so the moment those gloves touched him, he might get sliced.


    Theo''s blue ring turned into a sword as he spun his body and shed upward, trying to cut Mark.


    *Cling!*


    A clicking sound echoed as Mark''s right hand blocked the sword. As Theo expected, the gloves were not just an essory.


    When their weapons shed, Mark released his wind to push his body down, resulting in him pinning Theo to the ground.


    But Theo wasn''t a pushover. His Telekinesis rose from the ground and pushed the wind back.


    As soon as the Telekinesis neutralized his wind, Mark felt something was wrong and immediately used the force from Theo''s sword tounch him away, regaining some distance.


    "Didn''t you say you can crush me with one hand? Why are you running away then? I''m here." Theo chuckled.


    "Your mouth is truly dirty!" Mark was genuinely pissed this time. He lowered his body a bit and pushed his right hand forward.


    Suddenly, the air around his hand flew forward. The hardened sand cracked, and some particles were kicked up into the air.


    But Theo''s main concern was the powerful air pressureing toward him.


    "Boom!"


    ********


    What will Mark beter?


    A) A Friend


    B) A ve


    C) An Enemy


    D) (Add answer)

 Chapter 900 – The World’s Strongest Ant

    <h4>Chapter 900 - The World��s Strongest Ant</h4>


    "Boom!"


    The air pressure hit Theo directly, kicking up all the sand in his surroundings. However, they soon fell and settled down, revealing Theo''s situation.


    "Huh?" Mark widened his eyes, surprised to see there was no injury in Theo''s body. In fact, Theo didn''t seem to bother to move.


    Theo smiled and said, "You''re literally bullying me. A level 600 expert is getting worked up to beat a newbie. Such a disappointment."


    Mark gritted his teeth and shouted back, "In a life and death battle, no one sees your level."


    Without hesitation, Mark flew forward, trying to grab him first to check his power. Unlike his wind power, Theo''s element had yet to be determined.


    Theo smiled and raised his sword. His Magic Power fluctuated as he used the Magic Augmentation.


    The moment Mark arrived in front of him, he shed downwards, striking his glove.


    Mark nned to use his right hand to withstand this sh while utilizing the other hand to grasp him, but he underestimated Theo''s ability.


    The moment the sword struck his glove, Theo''s Magic Power Expansion and Magic Augmentation released its true might, producing a shock wave that cracked the ground open.


    Mark gritted his teeth while feeling the power of the shock wave. It wasn''t something that he couldn''t deal with. However, he looked down on Theo earlier, never expecting something this powerfuling from him.


    He ultimately fell to the ground with his feet gradually getting buried under the sand.


    The stake of the battle was too big, so he immediately tried to find a way to escape from this situation.


    With a single wave of his hand, the wind picked up the sand and carried it to Theo''s mask to blind him.


    Theo released his Telekinesis to disperse them.


    ''This is my first time using a sword technique��'' Theo thought, recalled what he envisioned back in Italy, and smiled.


    This sword technique was something he devised together with Lorenzo. It was for Maya originally, but because he was using a sword right now, he thought this duel would be the perfect time to unleash it.


    His sword suddenly slid away and moved to the ground. But before it touched the ground, a blue light covered the sword and flew forward, looping around Theo''s body and hitting Mark from above.


    "!!!" Mark widened his eyes in shock and summoned a torrential wind to the top of his head, stopping this blue light from cutting him.


    Theo''s counterattack didn''t stop there. The moment he was upied with that one light, he leaped back to gain some distance and shed his sword forward.


    The de released another light.


    Mark pushed his left hand forward and formed another wind barrier, but this was the time the blue light split into eight, going in all directions. The eight smaller lights curved and reached Mark''s back, stunning not only Mark but also the two Mythical Rank Experts on the roof.


    "What?!" Mark immediately released all his wind to his surroundings to stop all these lights.


    Due to the sharpness of Theo''s attack, the wind could only block them for one second before crumbling. Still, it was enough for Mark to leap away, avoiding the attack.


    He didn''t lower his guard anymore. His eyes were glued to Theo, preparing for any surprise attack from him.


    Meanwhile, Emma crossed her arms and asked, "Did you see that?"


    "Yeah. That kind of Control�� I''m afraid his Control has already reached Master if not Grandmaster Level."


    "For real?" Emma raised her eyebrows, a bit doubting Kain''s assessment.


    "That''s not all. Haven''t you realized how he has been controlling the flow of the match this whole time?" Kain''s expression turned grim as he realized something even bigger than Theo''s Control.


    "You don''t mean��" Emma fell silent, and her eyes turned back to Theo.


    "His Awareness might have reached Prediction Eyes Level." Kain nodded. "From the looks of it, he''s not that old yet. Do you know his age? Maybe your son has any idea?"


    "No. I have no idea."


    "I don''t know why but his voice is a bit on the younger side�� He might be younger than Mark. No wonder Sir Hendry brought him to thepany personally." Kain smiled, praising Hendry in his heart.


    "Watching this battle tonight is worth it, I guess." Emma smirked, bing a bit interested in Theo.


    On the other hand, Theo continued his onught. Since Mark had his turn earlier, this was the time for him to attack.


    Theo disappeared from his sight. But without the help of the wind, Theo''s speed was slower than Mark''s.


    Before he even reached him, Mark had already spun his body and pushed his hand forward, releasing all the wind stored around his right hand.


    When Theo reemerged, the wind struck him and burst out.


    "Boom!"


    The dust and the sand were kicked up and covered Theo''s body.


    Before the dust came down, Theo emerged from the cloud of dust while waving his hand.


    "What? Why are you fine after taking a direct hit from my Air st?" Mark gasped and extended his hands forward to grab Theo''s sword.


    Little did he know, Theo utilized his Illusion Destruction to neutralize both Air sts. Instead of disintegrating the wind power like he normally did, he chose to take another step forward by making a realistic illusion of what would happen if the wind hit him, which was the explosion.


    Obviously, no one could replicate such a thing. Only Theo could do it due to his special eyes.


    Skill: Air st (B)


    Effect: The user can release air/wind over a specific target area causing great damage and delivering great shock waves of pure force.


    Theo was truly thankful for his special eyes because he knew what the opponents could do. At the same time, he was a bit concerned because Mark had only released three different skills this whole time while he used four. This showed Mark''s true power.


    Nevertheless, the winner would take it all. Theo didn''t n to waste too much time fighting him.


    "!!!" Mark felt somethinging out of the ground and approaching his back. The energy fluctuation was there, but he didn''t know why he felt the one that approached him was smaller than his finger.


    Even though he couldn''t understand what was going on, Mark still released his wind to blow this little thing away.


    Unexpectedly, this action invited a chuckle from Theo as he said, "You sure you want to take that on?"


    "What are��!" His body soon trembled as his body was blown to the wall as if a truck had just hit him from behind.


    Before crashing to the barrier, he managed to nce back to see what was going on and gulped down when he saw a small ant falling on top of Theo''s finger.


    This was the world''s strongest ant.

 Chapter 901 – Theo Vs Mark

    <h4>Chapter 901 - Theo Vs Mark</h4>


    "What?!" Emma dropped her jaw to the ground. Theo turned out to be a summoner and his summoned creature was an ant. Not only was it hard to be found, but it also had extraordinary power.


    "We can easily sense its Magic Power, but that size really makes one doubt its presence." Kain nodded in agreement, observing Theo''s ant.


    Soon, Theo dropped the ant to the ground and rushed forward, not letting Mark have any time to recover.


    Seeing the iing Theo, the wind pushed Mark''s body to the side, barely avoiding Theo''s sword.


    After that, Mark kicked Theo from the side, only to be blocked by his de. Since his attack wasn''t effective against him, Mark leaped away to gain some distance.


    His eyes locked Theo to make sure he didn''t chase after him again. As soon as he got the chance, he took a deep breath and changed the n in his mind.


    ''He''s far more monstrous than anyone I''ve ever seen. I need to use all my power if I want to win against him.'' Mark thought and started jumping a few inches above the ground.


    ''His movements start to change.'' Theo noticed that Mark nned to do something different. He put his sword forward and calmed his heart down.


    Suddenly, he sensed multiple Magic Power fluctuations appearing around him. And everything was caused by the small jumps Mark did.


    If he let Mark build everything up, he would be in a disadvantageous situation soon. Hence, Theo covered his sword with his Magic Power. Instead of skills or something simr, Theo utilized his pure power.


    ''This is how you create a sword wave, I guess��'' Theo thought while waving his sword down. The de released the blue Magic Power forward.


    Instead of Magic Bullets, Theo chose to create a crescent-shaped sword wave. It was simr to his previous strike but with a different shape.


    A smile appeared on Mark''s face the moment he saw the sword wave. When it was about to reach him, he disappeared, leaving the sword wave to hit empty air.


    "!!!" Theo sucked a cold breath as his eyes barely followed his movement. Mark turned out to be increasing his speed even further.


    However, Theo still had his Prediction Eyes. His Awareness saw everything from the third person''s perspective. It was as if he was looking at the battle from the sky.


    As soon as he located Mark, the sword wave split into two and went to both sides. The right one curved and flew straight to Mark while the other one looped around, barely avoiding the barrier.


    "W��!" Mark widened his eyes and saw the iing sword waves. "How can he control his Magic Power like that?"


    The two iing sword waves forced him to take another leap to the side to buy some time. After that, he waved both hands forward.


    The wind around him started to swirl violently. But the air current gradually gathered in front of him, protecting Mark from the iing sword waves.


    Theo''s sword waves flew toward him and surrounded him from the two sides. However, when they were about to reach him, Mark did the unthinkable.


    Instead of protecting himself, he released that violent air current toward Theo.


    "!!!" Thetter widened his eyes and saw Mark keeping up with the air current, hiding behind it.


    Theo controlled his sword waves to make another curve and chase after Mark.


    At the same time, he gathered his Magic Power in his left hand and pulled it back. Then, he took a deep breath and punched forward.


    The Magic Power shed around his arm, and another wave of Magic Power flushed everything forward, leaving and carrying the powerful sound wave.


    *Pak!*


    The thunderp echoed in everyone''s ears as a powerful shock wave struck Mark''s violent wind.


    "What?!" Mark dropped his jaw to the ground when he saw the shock wave neutralizing his wind. This was a B Rank Skill called Violent Gale, yet, it couldn''t do anything in front of Theo''s shock wave. How could he not be shocked?


    Little did he know, this technique was the ability Theo learned from the Thunder King, the Thunderp Fist. There was no way an ability from a King ss Monster was trash.


    Theo didn''t stop there. He even utilized his Telekinesis to disperse the wind even faster. Instead of standing still, he leaped forward and waved his sword while covering his sword with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    "Ha!" Mark let out a roar and pushed both hands forward, reaching Theo''s sword. Because of Theo''s two skills, Mark''s hands couldn''t handle the de. But if he retreated right now, he would be injured by the sword waves.


    Not being able to take this situation smoothly, Mark stopped holding back and shouted while releasing a powerful wind from his body.


    "Wind Armor!"


    The violent wind wrapped his entire body, leaving only his eyes exposed.


    Theo''s de was struck by the violent current and made Theo feel as if his de was hit multiple times from all directions. If this continued, he might even lose his sword.


    At the same time, the sword waves snapped into a few pieces before getting engulfed by the wind.


    "��" Theo frowned and leaped back to get some time to think about his next moves.


    Not letting Theo get the time he needed, Mark chased Theo while pushing his hand forward.


    Surprisingly, the wind was transferred together with that motion and formed a huge tornado that expanded horizontally, trying to swallow Theo.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and realized why Mark was ssified as S Rank Talent.


    Skill: Wind Armor (A)


    Effect: The user can release air/wind to wrap the body. The wind armor will be the focus of the control over the violent wind.


    Theo lifted his finger, and the ground rose. They formed a slope in front of Theo, directing the wind tornado upward.


    After that, a monkey appeared behind Mark with a big smile on his face. From others'' perspectives, this monkey was Theo''s summoned creature. However, the truth was Ant Theo changed its form into a monkey with the Metamorphosis.


    The monkey waved his hand downward while utilizing the Telekinesis to pin Mark to the ground.


    Mark hurriedly nced back and sensed the Magic Powering to crush him.


    "Bam!"

 Chapter 902 – Soul?

    <h4>Chapter 902 - Soul?</h4>


    "Bam!"


    The Telekinesis hit him and the ground, pushing the hardened sand downward. However, the ground beneath Mark was the only one not affected by this power. In fact, Mark didn''t even feel the Telekinesis because of the Wind Armor.


    He red at the monkey and jumped up, targeting the monkey first. As long as he killed the monkey, Theo wouldn''t be able to ambush him anymore.


    "You think that armor can protect you?!" Theo''s voice echoed as his figure appeared behind him.


    "I have been waiting for you!" Mark suddenly spun his body and smiled. He waved his hand forward.


    A huge tiger''s head was formed instead of a tornado.


    It turned out Mark''s real target was Theo this whole time.


    ''Not good. Do I need to reveal my Blink?'' Theo widened his eyes before clenching his left hand. ''Can the Thunderp Fist neutralize this tiger? Wait a minute��''


    Theo raised his sword and covered it with his Magic Power. Just like his Thunderp Fist, the moment he thrust his sword, the Magic Power shed with each other and caused a thunderp.


    The shock wave produced from it was different from his fist. Because of the sharp, pointed tip, the shock wave gathered at one point and struck the tiger''s mouth.


    The shock wave distorted the tiger''s head before eventually dispersing it to all sides.


    The remaining gale was deflected by his Telekinesis, allowing Theo to push forward and reach Mark.


    Both he and the monkey raised their left palm and pushed him with Telekinesis from above.


    "Bam!"


    Mark crashed to the ground, albeit with no wound, as Theo''s strength couldn''t prate that wind armor.


    When he was about to stand up, eight pirs emerged from the ground, surrounding him.


    "!!!" Mark looked left and right and noticed the transparent screen that connected all these eight pirs.


    And because the pirs were a hundred feet tall, it felt like he was trapped inside a cylinder.


    "Is this your trump card? Hahaha!" Markughed and pped his hands.


    Five huge tornadoes came out of the ground and gradually made their way toward the pirs.


    Theo and the monkey waved their hands again, utilizing the Telekinesis to push downwards. "Let''s see whether you die by your own wind or break the barrier first."


    "I said, this is not all my power." Mark clutched his right hand, and the tornadoes suddenly tilted to the sides and struck the barrier.


    The violent tornadoes shattered the barrier in an instant and dispersed the Telekinesis.


    Theo clicked his tongue and flew away.


    However, the tornadoes tilted in his direction, surrounding him from everywhere.


    The monkey grabbed Theo''s arm and tossed him with all his strength, allowing Theo to barely escape as the tornado engulfed him.


    The surviving Theonded on the ground safely and took a deep breath.


    "This is getting annoying," Theo muttered in a low voice before observing Mark. ''His Magic Power won''tst long after using that wind armor. Still, he''s a level 600 expert. He should have enough Magic Power to defeat me before the wind armor drains all his Magic Power up.''


    As expected from a level 521 challenging an extremely talented level 600 expert, especially since he needed to hide a portion of his strength that could be said to be the essence of his previous fighting style, Theo couldn''t find a way to win easily.


    "Just ept your loss!" Mark smirked and moved all the tornadoes to attack Theo.


    "You leave me no choice," said Theo as he released all his killing intent and sent it to Mark.


    Mark sucked a cold breath when he felt the killing intent. Pain spread all over his body the moment he felt Theo''s killing intent. At the same time, his body tensed up. Theo felt like a ferocious beast that was ready to prey on him.


    Even so, he didn''t want to lose. The tornadoes continued on their way and approached Theo to defeat him first before he couldn''t endure the pain anymore.


    But Theo showed a power beyond his imagination.


    When the tornadoes hit Theo, they were sliced by his sword and disappeared. In other words, a single sh from Theo neutralized all the tornadoes.


    "Impossible!" Mark shouted.


    Theo looked down on him while saying coldly, "I''m done holding back. You''ll regret angering me."


    "Hmph! Don''t act toocent. You can''t defeat me." Mark shouted. "As long as I have my wind armor, you can''t do anything to me!"


    "Really?" Theo snorted and pped his hand.


    Suddenly, a huge avatar with a ck and white mask emerged from Theo''s shadow.


    The ones who were shocked the most were actually Emma and Kain. They all dropped their jaws and said at the same time. "What''s that?"


    The moment the Death Avatar appeared, they could feel chills down their spines. But with how Theo acted this whole time, the Death Avatar looked like a summoned creature instead of Theo''s avatar.


    "I can''t prate your armor? I didn''t n to call this, but you forced me."


    "Hmph. Even with that creature, you won''t be able to defeat my armor! Without destroying my armor, you can''t injure me."


    "Really? How about your soul?" Theo chuckled and raised his hand.


    Suddenly, a translucent body appeared. It was blue in color, and its appearance was simr to Mark''s. In fact, he looked like an exact copy of the original body.


    "My soul?" Mark widened his eyes when he saw the translucent body. Theo had truly acted so well that Mark had no choice other than to believe it was his soul. Just like how Theo could create a perfect dragon with his pure Magic Power, he could create a cheap human imitation.


    Then, Theo raised his sword. Surprisingly, the Death Avatar followed his movement, and a blue-colored sword made of Magic Power appeared out of thin air.


    "Let''s see whether I can kill you or not." Theoughed and waved his sword down.


    The Death Avatar followed his exact movement and chopped Mark''s right hand.


    All of a sudden, Mark dropped to the ground while clutching his right hand, screaming. "Aaaaahhhhh!"


    Everyone was bewildered by the sudden scream, but Mark could clearly feel the pain in the cut area.


    Someone like him obviously had experienced what it felt like to be pierced or shed by a sharp de. And with Theo''s Illusion Maniption, the pain became more real, making him believe Theo had really ripped his soul apart.


    "Aaaahhhh!"

 Chapter 903 – Troublemaker

    <h4>Chapter 903 - Troublemaker</h4>


    *Hiss!* Kain and Emma gulped down. Cold sweat covered their backs as they couldn''t believe what they saw.


    "Is that��" Emma narrowed her eyes, wondering if that was a real soul.


    "Is this the reason why Sir Hendry brought him here?" Kain looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Soul. That is one powerful ability. If he can actually fight and capture someone''s soul, he''s bound to be powerful in the future." Emma muttered in a low voice, never thinking she would see something like this in a battle between the Supreme Rank Experts. "Should we stop him now? It''s getting dangerous."


    While Kain and Emma wondered what they should do, Theo kept looking down on Mark and said coldly, "Is that not enough? Then, let''s go with your other hand."


    He waved his sword again, and the Death Avatar followed his movement, cutting Mark''s left hand.


    In that instant, the pain spread again. Mark couldn''t endure the pain as he screamed, "Aaaaahhhhh!"


    While raising his left hand, Theo asked, "Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be burned by a me from hell?"


    A purple me suddenly appeared on the Death Avatar''s hand and gradually approached Mark.


    "D-don''t��" Mark widened his eyes and wanted to stop him. The right side of his body gradually felt warm, meaning Theo indeed wanted to burn him.


    As if feeling it had be more dangerous, Emma and Kain finallynded on the ground and said, "I think that''s the end, young man. This is just a spar."


    Theo turned his head around and shook his head. "For you, it''s just a spar. For me, it''s a battle that I can''t afford to lose."


    "You have won already. Why are you like this?" Emma made a wry smile, not understanding Theo''s brain.


    "We bet before the fight." Theo shrugged. "He''s a level 600 expert, and I''m almost 100 levels lower than him. He''s bullying me."


    ''Fuck bullying. You''re the one bullying him.'' Emma''s eyebrows twitched, wanting to snarl.


    Kain, on the other hand, kept his calm and said, "We both are from the Star Group. Don''t you think it''s best to keep everything civil?"


    "You think?" Theo released his killing intent while stating, "I just joined two days ago, and he already came to challenge me. With such a thing going on, do you think I will have a good life here? He was asking for trouble, so I only did everything necessary."


    Emma and Kain fell silent and looked at Mark, who was still crawling on the ground, unaware that everything was just a mere illusion.


    "This��" Emma scratched the back of his head and said, "We can forcefully stop you though."


    "Then, do you want to do it? Let''s see who is faster?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Boy. Don''t be that hard-headed. You don''t want to challenge a Mythical Rank Expert, you know." Emma sighed.


    "Mythical Rank Experts who want my life already reach two digits. One more is not a problem for me," said Theo with confidence.


    Even Emma was bewildered as Theo''s words didn''t feel like he was joking.


    "What do you want then?" Kain asked with a serious expression.


    "I have three conditions. First, he needs to fulfill his bet without using any tricks whatsoever. Second, he can''t plot against me. Third, I''ll keep that thing." Theo pointed at the soul above him.


    The third condition was frowned upon. Even the two Mythical Rank Experts didn''t know how to deal with this situation.


    Kain suddenly dispelled the barrier and checked on Mark first while Emma called someone. "I should give this matter to someone more important, I guess."


    "Hello? For you to call me thiste, is there something wrong?"


    "Yeah. There is a small conflict in the Star Battlefield, and I think you might want to deal with this, Sir Bernard."


    "A small conflict? Who fought who?"


    "From what I know, Mark challenged Joker. And now, his soul was confiscated by Joker."


    "WHAT?!" Bernard was shocked and said, "Put me in the video. Let me see what''s going on there!"


    Emma immediately pointed her Skylink to Theo and Mark, showing the result of their battle.


    Because Emma mentioned ''soul,'' Bernard''s eyes were locked to Theo''s Death Avatar that held a translucent body.


    He facepalmed and asked, "What the heck is going on?"


    Theo pointed at Mark and said nonchntly. "He challenged me and agreed to bet. If I let him go, wouldn''t my life be in danger? What if he plotted against me in the future?"


    Bernard''s face became distorted as he wanted to smack Theo''s head as hard as possible. He never thought Theo would create this chaos not long after he was admitted.


    Inside, he was screaming, ''Fuck plotted. Fuck challenged you! What kind of bullsh*t was that?! You must be the one plotting against him! With a brain like yours, do you think I will believe you?''


    However, he couldn''t say any of that. No one knew Theo''s capability. In others'' perspectives, Theo was supposed to be bullied. If he didn''t have this ability, he would be the one beaten like that.


    Bernard suddenly felt a headache and started regretting his decision. After hiding his real identity, he never thought Theo would act like this and realized Theo appeared like a good boy because that was his public image. Now that he didn''t need to care about his public image, he could be a bastard.


    "What do you want?" Bernard gritted his teeth.


    Theo stated his terms, and as expected, Bernard frowned when he heard the third term.


    "Can you change the third one?"


    "It''s for safety measures."


    "Can''t you do it for me?" Bernard asked again.


    "As I told you, he could plot against me after this duel." Theo pointed at Mark. "I couldn''t hold back because he almost defeated me, so this is the result. Not my fault. Come on. If I was the one in his position, I would lose a few billion."


    Bernard pinched the bridge of his nose and asked, "Please. It''s me who is asking you. If he truly plots against you, I will deal with it personally."


    "You can also betray me together with him." Theo shrugged.


    Bernard''s patience started running out. "That''s enough. Remember, this is not your turf anymore."


    "So, you''re threatening me now?"


    "Just treat it as me owing you a favor, okay?" Bernard clenched his fists, remembering how Hendry warned him that Theo couldn''t die in this ce or their Star Group would be destroyed. "I don''t want to have any conflict with you�� Don''t make it hard for me."


    "Fine, fine. As long as you can promise me he won''t do something like this anymore and plot against me, I can agree with you." Theo shrugged.


    "Okay. Thanks." Bernard let out a long sigh, feeling frustrated�� Little did he know, Theo acted like that for another reason.

 Chapter 904 – Shifting The Blame

    <h4>Chapter 904 - Shifting The me</h4>


    "Okay, thanks." After dealing with Theo, Bernard continued to the other party. "Take me to Mark."


    Emma followed his instruction and walked toward Mark. Theo moved toward Mark.


    As the Death Avatar waved its hand, the soul gradually returned to Mark''s head, removing all pain as though it wasn''t real to begin with.


    Little did he know, Theo simply stopped using his Illusion Maniption, resulting in the pain disappearing.


    However, what Mark knew was that his soul had returned.


    Since the soul hade back to his body, Theo expected Mark to get angry, but surprisingly, Mark didn''t say a single thing. He only looked at him for a moment before turning to Bernard.


    "Mark. Why did you challenge him? You should know your action almost killed you. But before you tell me anything, I need to remind you again.


    "Because of what you did earlier, I need to put you under surveince. If you have any thought about getting revenge, it will be me who will face you."


    Mark closed his eyes, epted his punishment, and nodded his head. "I understand, Sir Bernard."


    "Also, you have bet something, no? Give it to him."


    "That''s a bit inconvenient." Mark scratched the back of his head.


    "Are you treating my words as a joke now?"


    "No, no. What I bet is a piece of information. If I tell him right now, everyone can hear it." Mark nced at Theo and continued, "I believe he can agree with this."


    Bernard fell silent for a moment before adding a condition. "Okay, but if you try anything funny, there won''t be a second chance. It also means I can''t really trust you."


    Mark nodded a few times. If he tricked Theo this time, it also meant Mark wasn''t someone that could be trusted. There was no way thepany wanted someone like that.


    "I promise that I willpile and send the information an hour after I return."


    "Fine." Bernard checked Theo''s expression first and ultimately agreed with his n. "Is there anything you like to add?"


    Mark shook his head with a long face.


    "You''re not supposed to be someone like this. Who on earth forced you to challenge him? If it were the normal you, you would just stay silent and continue working hard." Bernard narrowed his eyes.


    Mark looked down, reluctant to disclose it.


    "Mark!" Bernard raised his voice, realizing someone was behind it.


    Mark sighed and said, "It''s Arianna."


    "Arianna?" Bernard recalled that name a bit and asked for confirmation. "Anderson''s daughter? If I''m not wrong, she''s pretty close to you. This is why I have been telling you to stop caring about women for the time being and practice. In the future, you can get whoever you desire."


    "I know, but it''s not that I want to get close to her." Mark shook his head with a sad expression.


    "What do you mean? Bernard narrowed his eyes with a slightly annoyed face.


    "The truth is Arianna has been trying to control me. If I didn''t follow her words, I would be suppressed by her father."


    "You''ve been evaluated as an S Rank Talent. You can just report it to thepany."


    "I tried." Mark gritted his teeth. "But the moment I tried, her father received thatint, and everything turned south after that. There was another instance where I tried to meet you in person but got intercepted again. Then, I wanted to get help from someone from here, but it turned out he was someone close to them."


    Bernard frowned and muttered, "Anderson is a board director and his little brother controls the Skylink Network in thepany�� I see."


    Bernard''s eyes became cold. Emma and Kain could also see the anger on his face.


    "To think that a mere board director dares to control mypany," Bernard said with a cold tone. "Because of him, I almost lost two extremely talented Supreme Rank Experts."


    He suddenly realized why Theo acted like a bastard earlier.


    It turned out Theo had noticed all this. From the way Mark talked and chatted with him, it was pretty clear that Mark was a calm and collected person.


    Yet, such a person actually recklessly challenged him and fulfilled all his demands, which only meant one thing. Mark was forced by someone else.


    Although Theo admitted he did it to garner some reputation, he also didn''t want to create too much chaos in thispany since he would be under their care for the next few years.


    He was unaware of Mark''s n, but he also wanted to make this duel to punish the force behind Mark that turned out to be Mark''s enemy.


    By creating this kind of conflict, he could force Bernard to act and get a favor at the same time. The artifact information was indeed helpful, but his true aim was Bernard''s favor.


    That was also why Bernard became frustrated when talking to him. Someone with that level of authority couldn''t owe someone easily lest they would be taken advantage ofter.


    This made Bernard angry.


    "Go back to your home. You''re not allowed toe out of your mansion for the next three months." Bernard gave him the punishment.


    "Yes." Mark nodded with a serious expression.


    "Emma and Kain will go to thepany tomorrow."


    "Understood, Sir." Both of them nodded in unison, knowing Bernard nned to use them to testify for him.


    "As for you��" Bernard looked at Theo for a moment. He didn''t know why he wanted to smack this guy''s head. There was one thoughting into his mind. ''Now I know why people don''t like to be his enemies. If he''s not someone from mypany, I would have killed him before he could grow, no matter the consequences.


    ''Unfortunately, there''s no record about today''s battle because of the rule. And as for his true intention in epting this duel��'' As soon as Bernard got the answer, his expression became grim, and he said, "This battle is enough. Don''t make any more mess. I don''t have time to clean up the mess every time."


    "I know, I know." Theo shrugged.


    "For injuring your ownrade, you''re toplete a local or international mission. You can choose the mission in your Skylink."


    "Fine." Theo smirked behind his mask. The reason why Bernard gave him this punishment was to show he was impartial as well as keep Theo away from what was about toe. The moment he made a move against Anderson, Theo would be the main target as he was the reason why Bernard aimed at him.


    Sending him away on a mission would save his life while giving him the opportunity to get stronger�� That was the only thing he could do as the CEO of the Star Group.

 Chapter 905 – Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 905 - Illusion</h4>


    The problem was settled not long after, and Theo finally went back to his mansion, waiting for the information regarding the artifact.


    He was quite curious as to what kind of artifact he could find with this information.


    As promised, Mark gave the information before the one hour was up.


    Theo thought, ''Is this information true? With how I beat him earlier, he should have some sort of grudges, right? Will he give the correct information? I know Sir Bernard demanded him to be honest, but��''


    Ultimately, Theo scratched the back of his head and said, "Anyway, I can check it with my cler. This is a big advantage that I have after all."


    After deciding to find the artifact first, Theo started thinking about the three A Rank Cards. After a few months, he had narrowed it down to three skills. They were the Clone, Illusion Maniption, and Telekinesis.


    At first, he thought about ranking up the Death Avatar, but the avatar was strong enough for the time being. He didn''t need to rush to upgrade this one.


    Instead, he should focus on something that he used all the time first.


    "My clone has been with me this whole time, and it''s my biggest strength. However, I can''t use my clone all the time because I need to use Metamorphosis to make him look like a summoned creature. Well, if people know it''s a clone, they will associate it with me sooner orter��


    "On the other hand, Illusion Maniption has be even stronger the more I use it. I havee to realize this Illusion Maniption is more versatile and dangerous than I imagined. Just like the soul imitation earlier�� It''s really useful against humans since I can fool people around. But the main problem is that�� this skill is not that very effective against monsters.


    "Last but not least, Telekinesis. This skill is versatile, and I use it a lot. In fact, this is the most bnced technique among all my skills.


    "The choices are these three. I can''t rank them up easily because the cost is a few billion Zils for one chance." Theo let out a long sigh, wondering which one to choose.


    Suddenly, Theo received a call, not from thepany''s Skylink, but his personal Skylink.


    "Hmm? Agata?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and epted the call.


    "Theo. How are you?"


    "I''m good." Theo smiled and said, "How is the situation over there? Is there any problem?"


    "Don''t worry. I''ve settled most of the problems. I think I will finish everything within a few days."


    "I guess we both are busy." Theo chuckled.


    "Indeed. Sadly, I can only call you for five minutes every week."


    "Well, I also need to go to the other side tomorrow."


    "Is that so?"


    "Unfortunately, yes. So, I can''t really contact you for the time being."


    "It''s fine." Agata paused for a moment, saddened by that news. However, she concealed her feelings and continued to talk. "Well, I can use that time to go to the other side as well. Luckily, we both are good at time management."


    "Yeah. I haven''t made my n yet, but it should be for one to two months. I''ll send you the scheduleter."


    "Okay." She hesitated for a second and asked, "Have you heard about it?"


    "About what?"


    "Your mother."


    "Visiting my grave?"


    "Yes. She seems to have returned to the Griffith Family though."


    "Well, I don''t really want to talk about this topic."


    "Sorry. Let''s change the topic then. Since you''re making your influence there, I''m learning how to manage it here."


    "Ahaha, thank you as always."


    "It''s fine. I like doing it. To be honest, my progress always increases by leaps and bounds when I do your tasks. I consider it training."


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Is there anything you want?"


    "Your grandfather wants me to send something to you."


    "What''s that?"


    "I don''t know. You can check it yourselfter." Agata sent the video his mother captured when fighting against the Mind Elder.


    "Okay. Thank you."


    "I don''t think I want anything myself. Just be safe out there."


    "You too."


    "I just want to hear your voice tonight, so I think I will continue working. See you in a few months."


    "See you." Theo smiled and hung up the call. After that, he immediately opened the file Agata sent earlier and watched it.


    He soon was stunned by what was recorded in this video.


    As much as he wanted to release his anger toward the Mind Elder in this video, his illusion was indeed top-notch. Ultimately, he let go of his hatred first and watched the video until the end.


    This kind of illusion broke the image Theo had in his head. It was true that he had used something simr when he fought against the Dark Witch in the Moniac Dungeon, but the Mind Elder manipted everything to the point he wasn''t sure whether he was in an illusion or reality.


    *Hiss!* Theo sucked a cold breath, and his body was shaking. "Is this really an illusion?"


    "The illusion incorporates reality very well from the environment to the feeling. And that baby�� Is that Owen, who was supposed to be my big brother?" Theo frowned. "His identity aside, his appearance here was just to throw off the feeling. It''s not realistic at all, but it certainly can shake the heart."


    Theo observed the illusion carefully and somehow gained an insight. "I see. What I did was the bare minimum. What he did was something more. I will learn from this video and surpass him."


    Theo clenched his fists as this video just reinforced his belief in what skill to improve. "It turns out I can use it like this. Illusion can do everything for me. In that case��"


    Theo took out 3 A Rank Skill Cards and 24 B Rank Skill Cards before utilizing his power to upgrade his Illusion Maniption.


    Skill: Illusion Maniption (A)


    Effect: Manipte people''s perception to make them get all senses to what the user wants�� The user can also manipte and affect a certain portion of reality.

 Chapter 906 – Being Alone Again

    <h4>Chapter 906 - Being Alone Again</h4>


    "Hmm? It now affects all senses and the area of effect is bigger. I guess I can do much more with this." Theo squinted his eyes, contemting what he could do with this skill. "I guess I have more options right now. I also need to procure more A Rank Skills to upgrade my other skills."


    Before trying his new skill, Theo opened the information about the artifact.


    "The artifact is located in the depths of Great Arsin Forest. I identally met the monster that is using a pale white shield. However, that shield is releasing a darkish yellow Magic Power instead of blue Magic Power."


    "The monster is a Supreme Rank, but what makes it hard to get this shield is the minions. There are around a thousand monsters surrounding this guy.


    "As for the monster, it''s simr to a gremlin but with a bigger body and green color. That''s all I know.


    "When I saw this, I was nning to create a team to retrieve the artifact for myself, but it''s all yours now if you can take it, that is. If you wait for too long, there might be more people that find it, and it won''t be my problem anymore.


    "As for the specific location, if you go to the small temple in the middle of the Great Arsin Forest, you will find some sort of ancient words. At the very least, the God who gives me his blessing doesn''t know anything about that word. Go straight to the west from that temple for approximately twenty miles. That''s all I know."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and opened the map, searching for this Great Arsin Forest.


    As soon as he found it, he looked for information about it.


    Name: Great Arsin Forest


    Level: 500-700


    Description: It''s filled with ferocious beasts. Be extremely careful when entering. There are a few poisonous monsters.


    "Poisonous monsters huh. I guess this is one of the reasons why not many peoplee to this ce." Theo muttered with a frown. "Well, poison won''t work against me, so it''s an opportunity for me. I will buy some stuff for this trip and head straight to this ce.


    "As for the local mission, I can get�� Is there a mission around this area?" Theo frowned and checked the local missions in thepany''s Skylink.


    After a while, he found something close.


    Mission: Flying Frog Expedition


    Description: There are a total of 800 Flying Frogs (Level 575-650) scattered in the in. All personnel will need to help to capture them alive.


    Reward: 1,500,000 Star Points for each frog and 1 Contribution Points (50 Points to be considered for finishing a local task).


    Theo thought this was the same as the mission from the temple, but he soon understood why it was called a local mission that was supposed to be taken once a year.


    The area that the mission covered was simr to a city. In other words, the mission would take a long time to finish.


    "800 frogs with one frog is priced at 1.5 million�� That''s equal to 1.2 billion in total. As expected from a big corporation, the scale of the mission is so big." Theo shook his head helplessly, impressed by the amount of money used around.


    "Anyway, I think this mission is good enough. Normally, Ava would find the monsters with her ears�� but now that she''s not with me, I wonder how fast I can finish this mission." Theo frowned. "And it''s not like I''ll be the only onepleting this mission. I can go find the artifact first, but I can''t waste too much time, or else the mission will be taken away.


    "As for that one contribution point�� I need to get at least fifty frogs, huh." Theo''s expression became serious. "Yeah. Let''s do it this way. There are many monsters around that area, so I''ll use this chance to level up a bit.


    "Since I''m alone now and my leveling speed is greatly reduced, I guess I should expect to level up to level 550 for a two-month expedition, only around thirty levels.


    "It''s not much, but that should be good enough for other people. I have a few things to try as well, so time to polish them.


    "As for the mission, it was posted yesterday, so I guess no one has taken the mission yet. If I rush to reach the Great Arsin Forest, I should have around two to three days to get the artifact.


    "The rest will be spent to hunt these flying frogs. It shouldn''t be a problem.


    "I have some basic directions ready, so I''ll finalize the route while going there." Theo kept muttering everything he needed to do. It was truly meticulous since Agata was the one who did most of those things for thest two years.


    Nevertheless, Theo hade up with the basic n and started his preparation. Agata didn''t prepare anything for him anymore, so he needed to do all the basic stuff by himself.


    After getting all the information, he prepared his bag and equipment. Because he was in disguise, he didn''t have a weapon anymore because he left everything in Italy.


    In the end, he only used the blue artifact as his weapon and nned to buy a spare for his cler.


    Theo then used a few hours to use his Illusion Maniption, checking the extent of his ability. Because he just saw it, he couldn''t replicate what the Mind Elder did. Though, making a realm for one person like what he used against the witch in the Moniac Dungeon wasn''t that hard anymore.


    After getting a two hours nap, he went to the store to buy a simple weapon and all other stuff for survival like a tent and spices.


    Luckily, the portal was the closest portal to his ce, so there was no need to travel to another state.


    Theo smiled and entered the portal as his body got enveloped by the light.


    When he looked at the town on the other side, Theo felt a bit nostalgic as he muttered while taking a step forward. "I guess I''m back to my old self�� Journeying alone."

 Chapter 907 – Ardous Journey

    <h4>Chapter 907 - Ardous Journey</h4>


    Because he was alone now, Theo rushed toward the Great Arsin Forest. He only needed to consider his stamina instead of everyone''s stamina, speed, and other stuff. Hence, he managed to reach the Great Arsin Forest in four days from the expected six days.


    The mission he got from the Star Group would require him to travel for another three days in the same direction, which was one of the reasons why he chose this mission instead of any other.


    The Great Arsin Forest was iparably vast. It was hard to find a temple that was shorter than the trees in the area. On the contrary, the people who entered were greeted by numerous monsters.


    Some monsters were poisonous that forced the people to dodge. Some monsters who nimbly moved around the trees restrained their movements.


    "This is truly a dense forest��" Theo muttered while having difficulty in seeing the gaps between the trees. Behind him were five monsters at Supreme Rank Monster. One of them even opened its wisdom and became a Rare ss Monster.


    "Roar!" The monster gave an instruction out loud. The two fastest monsters sped up and caught up to Theo, surrounding him left and right.


    The excitement rushed in. Theo turned his ring into a blue sword. Because he was going to use this sword for a few years, he took this chance to increase his sword mastery.


    The bluish light covering his sword flew to the right with a single wave of the sword, hitting the monster on his right.


    "Karcha!" The monster seemed to be talking in itsnguage while waving his hand, forming the same crescent-shaped light as Theo''s.


    The two lights shed and produced a shock wave that shook the nearby area.


    "Roar."


    "Roar."


    "Roar!"


    The intense roars filled the silent forest as pairs of blood-red eyes lit up in their surroundings.


    "So, that''s how it is." Theo''s expression became grim.


    The monsters would call upon other monsters if he didn''t solve them immediately. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, their sh indeed brought upon all these monsters.


    Still, Supreme Rank Monsters were much harder to deal with because of their ability to sense the Magic Power. The moment he made a move, they would counter it.


    Usually, his teammates would create an opportunity and he would deliver thest blow and vice versa. But without anyone to help him, Theo needed to be more creative.


    His clone made his appearance and headed straight to the monster on the left, stopping its attack and allowing the real Theo to focus on the other monster.


    His sword started charging the Magic Power.


    When he was about to sh upward, three monsters from behind him released their breaths to kill him. Even the monster in front of him stopped, knowing the n.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo had seen thising long ago. The clone used his Blink to send him and the clone to the breath, frying the monster alive.


    Clone Theo then delivered the killing blow before disappearing due to the scorching fire.


    When Theo saw the shock in the monster''s eyes that soon turned into anger, he released the Magic Power in his sword.


    Instead of a crescent sword wave, he sent forth a beam of light.


    Right before hitting the monster, the light split into eight and surrounded him from all directions.


    "!!!" The monster panicked and couldn''t avoid these attacks.


    The eight lights mercilessly pierced through the monster''s body and even turned around and created another hole, ultimately killing the monster.


    With two monsters dying in his hand, the other eight monsters couldn''t contain their anger anymore. They used all their powers to catch up with Theo while attacking him from afar.


    Instead of attacking back like he usually did, Theo chose to defend.


    The blue sword changed its form to a small shield in a second. The small shield released a blue translucent screen around the metal, expanding the area of protection.


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    Naturally, the shield made by a dwarf was among the best. Even after several attacks that resulted in explosions hitting the shield, it had no scratch on its surface.


    At the same time, Theo used the explosions to boost his speed as he jumped into the air and utilized that force to send him flying.


    Without using his Telekinesis, Theo turned around and extended his hand. The shield changed its form again into that of a sniper rifle.


    Although Theo''s aim was great, what he wanted from this sniper rifle was the concentrated Magic Power.


    His Magic Bullets might be able to urately hit their targets, but the sniper rifle could concentrate the Magic Power into the muzzle before releasing all of them in one go. That beam of Magic Power would have a powerful st as well as pration.


    While he was levitating in the air, he pulled the trigger, releasing the first shot.


    "Roar!"


    "Roar!"


    The leader gave another instruction, and all the monsters that chased after him spread around to avoid his attack.


    As if he had predicted their movements, the beam of Magic Power split again into eight, each following a monster.


    The leader panicked for a second and tried to stop this attack, but right before the Magic Power struck the monster''s skin, they curved and changed their targets.


    Surprisingly, the bullet aimed only at one monster, the leader himself.


    Because he thought the bullets would hit his subordinate, he didn''t see thising. All the other seven beams pierced through his body before exploding.


    "Boom!"


    The explosion called upon the monsters in the surroundings. Even Theo didn''t dare to challenge all these monsters alone because Rare ss Monsters would appear more frequently within Supreme Rank Monsters. If he was surrounded by a hundred monsters with at least ten Rare ss Monsters, he would be dead.


    So, the moment he killed the Rare ss Monster, Theo checked his surroundings and barely saw the iing monsters in the gaps between trees.


    "Well, time to get away," said Theo as he started flying with his Telekinesis and left the remaining seven monsters in the dust.

 Chapter 908 – Scale

    <h4>Chapter 908 - Scale</h4>


    *Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    Panting, Theo leaned his back on the tree while checking his surroundings. The monsters had been chasing him for a few hours, tiring him.


    He had killed many monsters on the way, but it was truly hard to fight against many Supreme Rank Monsters, with many Rare ss Monsters at the helm. Their wisdom gradually created a situation where they could force him to hide.


    "It''s really hard. Just like when I hunted together with Maya and Agata�� Getting surrounded by multiple Rare ss Monsters is something that I don''t want." Theo muttered in a low voice.


    Just the thought alone made Theo sigh.


    "No wonder why there are not many people who can be a Mythical Rank Expert, let alone God Rank Expert. Not only do you need to handle these intelligent and powerful monsters, but you will also be the target of countries. No one can afford to have a God Rank Expert as their enemy after all."


    Now that he had be a Supreme Rank Expert and fought in an area surrounded by Supreme Rank Monsters, he finally realized the actual difficulty of leveling up.


    "Whatever. What I need to do hasn''t changed." Theo took a deep breath and started moving again.


    His aim in this journey hadn''t changed. Theo followed the direction Mark gave while hiding from monsters most of the time.


    After another few hours, he stopped in his tracks and didn''t move forward anymore. In front of him stood a small temple. The surrounding air gave off a feeling of gloom and chills.


    ''The aura has changed, and it feels so weird��'' Theo frowned. All trees in one hundred feet radius had been cut down, resulting in fog mysteriously shrouding the temple. It added the eeriness of this ce.


    He also saw various ancient patterns engraved on aged, pale white stones.


    Curious, Theo approached this small temple carefully while scanning the Magic Power around here, making sure nothing released a Magic Power whose color was different from normal.


    As soon as he reached the stone with ancient patterns, Theo frowned and asked inwardly, ''Did any of you know about this pattern?''


    Obviously, this should be left behind by ancient civilization. The ones who could recognize such a thing were the Gods and Goddess behind him.


    Unfortunately, there was no response from them.


    A bit disappointed, Theo sighed and muttered, "I guess I should rely on myself this time."


    The temple had a small room inside, hosting a small stone table attached to the ground. There were more ancient patterns inside, but Theo truly had no idea because it looked like words instead of drawings.


    Since nothing could be found in the temple, he sat down on the floor to take some rest.


    "It''s truly exhausting to reach here. I also need to walk for another few hours from here to find the snake scale. Maybe I should sleep here tonight since there''s no monster in the surrounding area?"


    After sending his clone to scout the area, he was sure he could sleep here. As long as he was aware of his surroundings, sleeping here shouldn''t harm him. The Death Avatar had even checked whether the area was filled by poison or not.


    To his surprise, before he slept, someone finally responded.


    [Sleep here.]


    "Huh? Who''s that?" Theo muttered inwardly as his drowsiness vanished because of the sudden message.


    The way he talked didn''t seem to be the God of Mischief or Goddess of Death, so there were only two people left in his mind. Since Fenrir would choose a harsh word when talking to him, Jormungand was the only one remaining.


    "Why?!" Theo asked again but got no response.


    Although he was a bit hesitant because there was no exnation, those four had been very supportive to him, so he could believe them.


    Since the serpent wanted him to sleep, he calmed his heart a bit and closed his eyes.


    His consciousness wandered around before a white light blinded him.


    "Ugh!" Theo gritted his teeth while covering his eyes. As soon as the light vanished, he realized his consciousness had been transferred somewhere.


    It was a familiarke where he stood on top of a giant lily pad with fog shrouding him.


    "This is��" Theo checked the environment and immediately opened his eyes wide when a huge rumbling sound echoed in the area, followed by the appearance of a giant serpent.


    In that instant, he realized the reason why the serpent wanted him to sleep there.


    "That is your shrine?" Theo took a step back and sucked a cold breath. The revtion was too shocking.


    Contrary to his expectation, the serpent answered, "No."


    "Huh? If not, why��"


    Before he finished, the serpent continued, "But I feel a bit of my power left in this ce."


    "Is it something rted to you?"


    "Yes. I''m assuming the artifact you are searching for is rted to me."


    "But I don''t think you had anything with you in the past�� Other than your body��" Theo got his answer. "Your scale?"


    "Yes. It''s considered a shield, so I guess it''s one of my scales. Though, with my body, there should be many scales scattered around�� If the power still remains even until now, I can only think of one scale. The one between my eyes." The serpent lowered his head and made the particr scale ckened.


    "Now that I think about it, I found the Death Armor in the Moniac Dungeon and your scale in this forest. Are the portals in the US actually connected to the ce where the Norse Mythology took ce?"


    "No one can answer that question." The serpent closed his eyes. "If you can explore more about this ce, then you might be able to find the answer in the future. But that''s not important right now."


    "Right. What do you want me to do now?"


    "I want you to get that scale. In exchange, I will offer you two options. I will absorb the remnant power and use that energy to give you one skill as well as some instructions, or you will absorb that remnant power to get some points along with the instructions."


    Theo was shaken by that question. It wasn''t an easy choice because this was the first time someone offered him a skill when he didn''t rank up.


    Before he answered, Theo asked one crucial question. "Which one can prepare me to learn from you?"


    It was clear Theo was talking about the Endurance Lesson that the God of Mischief had promised a few months ago. The snake was also happy that Theo wasn''t rash. After all, he was the calmest one among the four of them.


    "The first one. My skill will be of great use for that training."


    "I understand. I''ll choose that reward." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Now that you''ve chosen your destiny, it''s time for you to return��" The snake released Theo''s consciousness and sent him back to reality.

 Chapter 909 – For Real?

    <h4>Chapter 909 - For Real?</h4>


    "Now that you''ve chosen your destiny, it''s time for you to return." The snake released Theo''s consciousness and sent him back to reality.


    Theo opened his eyes only to find a mission right before his eyes.


    Mission: Get the scale.


    Reward: Supernatural Snake Body Skill and Guidance.


    With the excitement rising in his heart, Theo headed to the location where Mark spotted the artifact.


    He even used his clone to scout from the sky since the enemies were numerous, ording to the information. It would be easy to spot them.


    To his shock, there was a big settlement ahead. Even the beasts around this ce had been thinned down. The clone felt as if they had been hunted down like an animal to feed the poption.


    ''Is it my target?'' Theo muttered inwardly while having his clone, who had changed into an eagle form, take a look.


    The result came abruptly. Ten white beams emerged from the forest and flew toward his clone.


    ''An ambush?'' The clone thought while using his Blink to escape from the white beams. He couldn''t go down before grasping the enemy''s situation.


    The moment he lowered his vision, multiple green monsters were spotted. Their appearances matched the description Mark gave.


    However, Clone Theo continued his journey and poured more power into his Telekinesis, increasing his speed. With that kind of speed, he would reach the settlement in just a few seconds.


    As if treating Theo''s invasion as a threat to their lives, multiple lights shone brightly. Using the trees as a cover, those glowing lights released multi-colored beams and surrounded Clone Theo from all sides.


    Not wanting to lose, a hundred Magic Bullets appeared around Clone Theo''s body. He shot down all those lights urately, not letting any attacks reach him.


    Yet, the lights were stronger than he expected. None of the Magic Bullets actually took down the lights.


    ''Seriously?'' Clone Theo frowned and slowed down his speed to avoid the attacks, leaving only the lights from the back to be worried about.


    With a single wave of his hand, those lights finally disintegrated into nothing by Theo''s Illusion Destruction.


    "Roar!"


    Right then, a huge roar erupted, rming all the monsters in the area. Although all of them were from the same species, Clone Theo could vaguely see their numbers.


    ''500�� 700�� 1,000�� No, approximately 1,500��'' Theo roughly calcted their numbers from the sky and flew up to avoid any attacks.


    Among them were many Rare ss Monsters, and they immediately saw through his intention. Instead of attacking him individually, the monsters formed a group of ten and formed a bigger stream of light.


    Not only was it stronger, but the light had a longer reach.


    Theo clicked his tongue and started flying around like a normal bird, avoiding all these attacks skillfully. He even made their beams collide with each other.


    In the meantime, he observed the movements on the ground, searching for the item he wanted.


    Although he couldn''t see clearly because of the trees, there was one ce where he saw energy with a color different from the Magic Power.


    "That one!" Theo found his target and dove down.


    As if feeling the iing Theo, the green monster hiding inside a tent made of monster''s skin came out and looked up. The shield was right in his hand.


    Clone Theo covered his talons with Magic Power Expansion and hit the green monster, albeit blocked by the shield.


    To his surprise, his talons snapped after colliding with the shield. The monster might be pushed back by the sheer power, but the shield indeed broke his talons.


    "��" Clone Theo gritted his teeth, thinking, ''So, this is the scale''s power�� Now that I think about it, the God of Mischief should have the Illusion Order, while Hel had the Death Order. What about Fenrir and Jormungand?''


    He almost forgot the thing before him was the strongest scale the serpent had�� the scale from an Authority Level figure. Even if the energy had dissipated, it was still not something he could destroy.


    With that thought in mind, Theo charged forward with more green monsters approaching him from behind.


    Theo''s aim had changed. Instead of killing this green monster, he was going to snatch the shield with his Blink.


    Unfortunately for him, the moment he came closer to that shield, multiple Magic Power fluctuated, disturbing his senses.


    "!!!" Theo stopped in his tracks and raised his head, finding a rain of colored beams. He almost died because of these lights.


    Soon, numerous presences reached his position from behind and waved their hands that were covered in green me.


    A huge wall emerged from the ground. Normally, Theo would use the wall from Illusion Construct to block the attacks, but knowing the strength of these green monsters, it wouldn''t be that effective. Hence, he changed his strategy and summoned the ground beneath their feet,unching those monsters upward.


    After that, the standing wall could buy him a few seconds.


    Without hesitation, Clone Theo summoned his Death Avatar.


    Death Eyes.


    Both their eyes shone as Theo sent the killing intent to the surroundings, including the monster that held the shield.


    The monster''s body trembled for a moment, giving Theo an opportunity to snatch the shield.


    The Death Avatar immediately extended its hand and smashed the monster to the ground while Clone Theo flew forward and grabbed the shield.


    Seeing this movement put a smile on the monster''s face. He suddenly let out a human voice, saying, "Or so you thought."


    "!!!" The fact he could talk was too shocking. It only meant one thing, the monster before him was a General ss Monster instead of a Rare ss Monster, making it even harder to snatch the shield.


    Theo maintained his focus on the shield and tried to grab it.


    However, the monster spun his body and put his asses forward.


    *Thud!*


    A huge fart sound echoed in Theo''s ears as he immediately cut down his senses to avoid smelling that fart.


    But the instant he got distracted, the monster kicked the ground strong enough to make a small spark.


    The tiny spark set his fart aze, swallowing Clone Theo.


    "For real?!"

 Chapter 910 – Found A Way

    <h4>Chapter 910 - Found A Way</h4>


    "For real?!"


    Theo immediately used his Telekinesis to blow away the me, but that was just a cover for the real attack from this monster.


    The monster covered his ws and spun his body, creating a torrential force that was enough to boost his attack.


    The Death Avatar mmed both hands down to stop the monster''s movement, but the shield once again blocked the attacks. Its weight was still enough to crack the ground, but the monster remained unharmed.


    And with this small exchange, Theo had wasted all the time he had bought earlier.


    "Bam!"


    The wall crumbled and swarmed by the green monsters. Some of them had even gone around to surround him. They all had one same thought, ''Rescue the leader!''


    Seeing this progress, Theo only had one final attempt.


    He released all his energy and used his Illusion Maniption to transmit the pain to the leader''s body.


    "Krak?!" The monster widened his eyes. The immeasurable pain jolted his mind. He felt as if his body was ripped apart by something.


    Out of instinct, the leader released all his Magic Power to the surroundings, followed by a small shock wave.


    To his surprise, the pain disappeared as though it was just an illusion. It was clear the shock wave did nothing, so the Magic Power was the real cause of why the pain vanished.


    "��" With his illusion broken, Theo was at his wits'' end. In his desperation, he extended his hand to the shield. As long as he could touch it, his Blink could bring him away with the shield.


    Unfortunately, the fastest green monster had arrived next to him, cutting his hand. After that, a few others appeared around him and mutted him into pieces.


    The clone disappeared.


    "Tsk." After failing to get the shield, Theo clicked his tongue and mmed the tree behind him. "The illusion is broken�� How?"


    Although he wanted to get angry because of his failure, he had a more important job. It was to understand his illusion a bit more.


    "By the looks of it, the moment that monster released his Magic Power, the illusion was broken." Theo contemted, falling into deep thought. This was the first time someone broke his illusion with brute force after all.


    After a long fifteen minutes, Theo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I see. It seems the problem lies in the Magic Power. Normally, people will sumb to the pain, but that monsters didn''t.


    "Instead, he released all his Magic Power in his body to fight back. Even though that was an illusion, I still needed to use my Magic Power to manipte their senses. So, if the Magic Power in their body burst out, my own Magic Power would be pushed away, making me lose control over the illusion.


    "To counter that, I need something like Breathing. The Breathing Technique should be good at controlling my Magic Power supply as well as stability. So, that''s why Breathing is important to an illusionist."


    Theo got his answer and knew what he needed to do after returning to the US after the mission.


    However, the problem still remained.


    "I need to get the shield. Because of today''s attempt, those monsters will surely be more vignt."


    If it was a normal situation, Theo wouldn''t hesitate to weaken their number. Not only would he get the EXP from killing them, but he would also get the scale.


    However, time wasn''t his friend this time. If he waited for too long, the scale might be taken away by others.


    After all, no one could resist the temptation of an artifact.


    "What should I do?" Theo tried to see the possibility of him ambushing the leader.


    But all his thoughts disappeared when he heard a loud explosioning from the north.


    "Boom!"


    "What?!" Theo frowned and looked in the explosion''s direction. "There shouldn''t be a fight around here since those green monsters have killed other monsters. Is it an intruder? Mark?"


    Without hesitation, Clone Theo appeared out of thin air and soared to the sky in his eagle form.


    His heart fluttered, thinking of the possibility of what was truly happening. "Did that Mark send people to acquire the snake scale?"


    Another explosion urred, indicating the battle head.


    Since he had gotten the location, Theo turned into an ant to scout ahead, wondering who would cause such a ruckus.


    ��


    "Kill it, Bro!" A middle-aged man shouted to a muscr man next to him after stopping the monster before him.


    The muscr man swiftly approached them and sliced the monster''s neck.


    There were multiple monstersing from another direction, but they were frozen by multiple ice spikesing out of the ground.


    More and more people started gathering around them and taking care of the remaining monsters.


    Unlike Theo, their group numbered more than sixty people.


    "Bro. I told you I saw a monstering to this ce�� I''m afraid the monster wanted a piece of the artifact as well." The middle-aged man stated with a frown.


    "Do you think it''s that easy to get through these monsters?" The muscr man snorted.


    "But it went through. I''m afraid the monsters in the surrounding areas also know about the artifact''s existence. It''s better if we take it for ourselves instead of letting other monsters take it away." The middle-aged man shrugged. "I''m pretty sure there will be more monstersing to this area since the previous monster should just be a scout."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Do you think why I want our Death Arrow Gang to gather here? We''re talking about a few billions, you know."


    "Then, what is your n?"


    "We will do the usual. Thin up their number and break through their formation before snatching the artifact."


    "You said there will be more monsters here soon."


    "If the monsters cause some disturbance, we can use them to sneak inside their ce. With our number, we should be able to get through."


    "Fine. Since it''s an artifact we''re talking about, I agree."


    When Theo heard their conversation, he thought, ''It''s not Mark? Then, can I safely assume they just stumbled upon this chance?''


    An idea came to his mind as the real Theo said, "I''m sorry, but that scale is mine."

 Chapter 911 – Tricked

    <h4>Chapter 911 - Tricked</h4>


    "Raaahh!"


    A huge roar erupted, followed by an explosion that sted all the trees in a hundred feet radius.


    On the right stood tall two tigers with cold res. On the opposite side was a group of green monsters.


    Out of these twenty green monsters hid three Rare ss Monsters that controlled all these monsters.


    The tiger simply red at those three before opening its mouth.


    A powerful shock wave was released together with its roar, blowing away all the iing monsters.


    The green monsters released their Magic Power around their ws and charged forward, not scared of that roar.


    Another tiger came into the battlefield and covered its right paw with a blue Magic Power. As soon as it pounced on the ground, the soil cracked, and some stones emerged from the ground.


    Some hit the green monsters, while some only became an obstacle. However, it was enough for the tiger.


    Both tigers leaped left and right and intercepted the monsters that soon slipped past the obstacles they created.


    Their paws were covered with Magic Power, and before they even hit the green monsters, there was a sound of a thunderp shaking the forest.


    Ultimately, the green monsters had their heads crushed from the overwhelming pressure from their paws.


    Even the Rare ss Monsters became vignt and charged together with the remaining monsters, wanting to stop the tigers from doing anything they wanted.


    These two tigers leaped back and opened their mouths once again.


    Their roars made the ground tremble, and with the addition of the shock wave from their mouth, the ground that was used as obstacles shattered into pieces.


    The green monsters pulled back and realized they needed more people to handle the two tigers.


    Even the three Rare ss Monsters nodded at each other and shouted out loud. "Karara!"


    The tigers stopped in their tracks as if noticing something different.


    Even without sensing the magic power fluctuation, the tigers could see a great disturbanceing from behind these monsters. Those three seemed to have called upon their people.


    If the reinforcement surrounded them, it would be a bit troublesome.


    The tigers opened their mouths, showing their sharp teeth.


    Blue-colored balls��smaller than a human palm��appeared around the two tigers. Their number was more than 250.


    Those 250 light balls flew forward. Each monster needed to fend 15 balls.


    Surprisingly, this was where the three Rare ss Monsters showed their might.


    They jumped forward and pped their hands in unison. The ground trembled as a giant wall emerged from the ground, blocking these 250 balls.


    Unfortunately for them, these light balls were made of Magic Power, so controlling them was easy.


    The moment the wall was erected, all the balls changed their directions. They looped around and surrounded the monsters from all directions.


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    Each ball caused a small explosion that knocked the monsters away. Even if they didn''t manage to hit them, they still distracted them.


    With this rain of Magic Power, the green monsters couldn''t attack the tigers anymore, giving a huge opportunity for the tigers.


    They approached the green monsters, especially the Rare ss Monsters, with blue light covering their paws.


    They struck their hands and killed them in an instant. Since only one Rare ss Monster remained, it was easy to kill the rest of the green monsters�� or so the tigers thought.


    More and more monsters reached their battlefield and gradually filled this area. Even the two tigers couldn''t see themselves defeating a hundred Supreme Rank Monsters easily.


    At the same time, they couldn''t leave this ce as their main goal was to distract the monsters.


    "Roar."


    "Roar."


    Another wave of roar erupted, rming the green monsters. They all red at the tigers that wanted to challenge them.


    To respond to the tigers'' invitations, thest Rare ss Monster as well as the new ones that had just arrived, joined hands and ordered the Normal ss Monsters to attack the tigers.


    "Roar!"


    The tigers were not afraid and charged forward.


    ��


    Death Arrow Gang.


    As soon as they heard the explosions, the middle-aged man raised his head and turned around, looking in a certain direction.


    "That must be the opening we need." Without a shred of doubt, he stated and asked, "Bro. I''m going over there to confirm this matter. Have the scouts check the movements of the green monsters. As soon as we find a gap to exploit, we will sneak in and snatch that artifact."


    The muscr man was still unsure, but there was nothing he could say regarding the n. For him, this n was already perfect.


    By using the monsters to distract those green monsters, they would be able to minimize the casualty while reaping the greatest benefit.


    After a few seconds, he nodded, giving the confirmation. "Alright. Get back here as soon as possible."


    "Understood." The middle-aged man nodded to this muscr brother and vanished into thin air.


    He went straight to the battle between the two tigers and the green monsters.


    ��


    Five minutester.


    The middle-aged man had arrived and hid behind a huge tree. He even climbed the tree to get a better view.


    He found numerous green monsters that gradually filled the area, circling the tigers. However, what shocked him the most were the two tigers that had yet to be injured despite fighting all these monsters.


    It was clear the tigers were stronger than his imagination. So, it meant those two could distract the green monsters a bit longer.


    ''Looking at this progress, I believe the tiger can do it for another 30 minutes, if not an hour.'' He thought while furrowing his eyebrows. After watching their battle for another one minute to confirm his hypothesis, the middle-aged man turned around and returned to the group to rely on the message.


    Little did he know, the tiger noticed his presence. If it was a normal tiger, it would chase after him�� But instead of attacking this scout, the tiger simply smiled as though everything had gone ording to the n.

 Chapter 912 – Bye!

    <h4>Chapter 912 - Bye!</h4>


    "Go!"


    "Keep moving forward. Don''t need to care about these monsters."


    "Fire."


    The shouts kept resounding in the forest as sixty people stormed inside the numerous monsters. They attacked all monsters in their way and fended off those on the sides or the back.


    Their situation had reached the point of no return. If they failed to do their mission, they would be in a dangerous situation.


    The green monsters recognized their objective and immediately swarmed them, not letting them break through.


    On the other hand, their leader hade out of his tent and looked in a certain direction as though he had expected themotion.


    "Karaar!" He instructed the green monsters in his surroundings to go forward, stopping the intruders.


    Because of Theo''s attack yesterday, he had been vignt, preparing himself for this ambush.


    "Greedy humans." The leader snorted, looking down on them. There was no way a group of sixty people would be able to reach him. Unless they were a Mythical Rank Expert, he had enough confidence to fend them off.


    At the same time, he also brought the artifact with him because there was a chance they became invisible to get the shield.


    "This shield is indeed too powerful. Many want this shield because of its capability. Just you wait. I''ll use this shield to protect myself and get stronger. When I''m strong enough, I''ll be the ruler of the woods." The leader muttered while ring at the iing humans.


    They were still far away from him. Even if they continued at their speed, they required at least five minutes.


    Within that time, he could do anything he wanted.


    Little did he know, the real threat was not that group but Theo.


    After tricking the ground with his tiger form, Theo escaped from the green monsters and changed into his eagle form.


    When the monsters shifted their direction to this group, Theo soared into the sky and flew from the direction where there were fewer monsters.


    As expected, even though most of them had gone to stop those sixty people, the remaining monsters still managed to notice his presence.


    With that group taking one thousand monsters, Theo could see only a hundred monsters remained to guard his direction since the rest needed to spread around to protect the leader.


    Those one hundred monsters created ten groups and shot him down with their beams.


    Compared to yesterday''s numerous beams, Theo easily avoided all these attacks and headed straight to the leaders.


    "!!!" The leader seemed to notice the iing eagle as well. He turned around and raised his vision.


    Panicked, the leader pointed at the eagle and shouted. "Kararara!"


    Some of the green monsters responded to his call and found Theo. However, it was toote.


    Theo hadnded on the ground, thirty feet away from the leader.


    The same trick wouldn''t work twice. With this thought in mind, Theo summoned his clone and leaped forward.


    Clone Theo raised the ground with his Illusion Construct to cover this area while the real Theo summoned his Death Avatar, sending the killing intent to stop the green monsters from participating in the fight.


    The leader obviously wanted to dispel Theo''s attack, but Clone Theo made the first move by using his Blink to reach the leader.


    He then used his Telekinesis to stop the leader''s movement and formed numerous Magic Bullets before sending it to all directions to buy some time.


    Looking at the tall wall, the muscr man who seemed to be the leader of the Death Arrow Gang roared, "What the fuck is that? Someone is going to snatch the shield from us! Move!"


    The anger and frustration struck his heart as his eyes turned bloodshot. He released all his power and struck the monsters before him, releasing a powerful blue light that killed multiple monsters at once.


    "Don''t you dare to steal what is mine!" The muscr man shouted, dering his possession.


    Theo ignored his words and focused on the shield.


    Since there was a wall preventing them from looking inside, Theo released his spear and shot his Magic Bullets to the leader.


    The leader merely put his shield to the front and received all the Magic Bullets in rapid session.


    "��" Theo was impressed by the hardness of the shield, but that wasn''t important. He immediately picked up his pace as he couldn''t afford to fail anymore.


    The leader tried to turn around and fart again, but Theo created a spear with his Illusion Construct and threw it right at the asshole.


    Scared, the leader jumped forward, barely avoiding the spear. He red at Theo, realizing how evil this human was. To think he would aim for his butt��


    Theo didn''t care about his opinion. There was only the shield in his eyes.


    The moment his clone reached the leader, he grabbed the shield and pulled it away.


    The monster tightened his grip, refusing to let these humans get the shield.


    At the same time, the green monsters had destroyed their walls as thetter crumbled into the ground.


    The Death Avatar disappeared since it would be his identityter. At the same time, Clone Theo let the leader go before creating a spear with his Illusion Construct and going straight to the iing monsters, buying some time for the real Theo.


    Luckily, their distance remained only three feet. Theo took this chance to use his Metamorphosis, changing his body into that of an ant.


    The leader was startled by Theo''s transformation, but he could see his ant form. Since his goal was the shield, the leader chose to spin his body around, so Theo grabbed his body instead of the shield.


    However, this was the worst action he could take as right before he spun his body, Clone Theo waved his spear and cut the leader''s feet from afar.


    "!!!" The leader widened his eyes in shock, remembering the previous trick. He could use his Magic Power to break this illusion.


    Due to his experience, the green monster somehow stopped the illusion from taking ce as he remained standing still.


    "Kara!" He roared, showing his determination.


    Unfortunately for him, the moment he stood still, Theo had achieved his objective. His ant form hadnded on the shield, and there was only one thing to do.


    Theo turned into an eagle form, grabbed his blue artifact, and used Blink to send him 100 feet into the air before saying peacefully, "Bye."

 Chapter 913 – Escape

    <h4>Chapter 913 - Escape</h4>


    "That''s mine!" An angry roar erupted from the leader of the Death Arrow Gang. In his perspective, this eagle was a monster that wanted to snatch his artifact.


    Little did he know, the eagle was actually a human, and his group had been thoroughly used to create this chance.


    Theo ignored him and clenched the grip of his talons. He flew forward, trying to escape from this ce.


    "Kararara!" The leader of the green monsters shouted while pointing at Theo, wanting all of them to chase after him.


    The muscr man also had the same thought and said, "Archers, Mages! Take him down!"


    Although he felt a bit bad for the humans, Theo''s intention remained unchanged. In this world, there was now. If he didn''t use them, he would be used by that group.


    After seeing the iing attacks from the green monsters and the humans, another eagle soared to the sky.


    It situated itself between Theo and the iing attacks, prepared to protect Theo even if it needed toy down his life.


    Even the muscr man from the Death Arrow Gang was startled. Snatching a shield from a General ss Monster wasn''t an easy task. So, this eagle wasn''t normal, and killing it might be a challenge.


    The eagle used the Illusion Construct to form a translucent giant body.


    The translucent body flew forward and received the attacks from the humans. The body felt as though a real body, so when the attacks hit it, they exploded.


    Meanwhile, Theo had gotten used to dodging the green monsters.


    Instead of protecting himself from all these beams, he avoided them in session.


    Even the other eagle stayed behind to intercept the leader, stopping him from giving any other instruction.


    The eagle used his Blink to appear in front of the General ss Monster and used his Magic Power Expansion as well as Magic Augmentation to strike the monster who had lost his shield.


    The green monster also attacked him with all his might, but when their ws shed, a huge crack appeared on the ground, turning the soil beneath the monster into a crater.


    It showed the difference in their power.


    With this kind of direct threat to their king, the green monsters around him stopped in their tracks and changed their targets.


    The shield was irrelevant to thempared to their leader.


    Since they were about to swarm him, Eagle Theo used his Blink to appear not far from the human group.


    *Cry!* He let out a cry like an eagle and formed 125 Magic Bullets, raining them down with all these bullets.


    Two magicians stepped forward and formed a shield to block the iing bullets, but when they saw the Magic Bullets looped around to avoid the shield, they expanded their shield to a dome.


    It managed to protect them, but they couldn''t attack the eagle anymore, making their leader angry.


    "What are you doing?! Attack the eagle! There''s no need to be afraid of those puny balls!" The muscr man shouted, ordering his people.


    Like the magician who handled the barrier, he couldn''t ept what the leader said. "Can''t you see how the eagle overpowered the Greenlin Leader? It''s clear that the monster is stronger. If we underestimated this eagle, we would pay the price."


    They were frustrated as well, but no one had ever seen an eagle like this in the Great Arsin Forest.


    An unknown monster was the source of danger as they might exceed their imagination and kill them in a surprise.


    Even the leader knew about this. He was just extremely frustrated seeing the artifact was taken away. No matter what, one artifact could be sold for a few billion. This kind of money was hard toe by.


    On the contrary, Theo observed the dome and used this to his advantage. Because the green monsters around them still attacked the barrier, he utilized this chance to kill those monsters with all his Magic Bullets.


    [Killed a Greenlin.]


    [Killed a Greenlin.]


    [Killed a Greenlin.]


    ��


    ��


    His action confused the people from the Death Arrow Gang. Even the middle-aged man, who seemed to be the advisor of the group, couldn''t help but say, "Why did the eagle kill these monsters? Is he trying to help us? Or is it pitying us after using us?"


    No one could answer the question as the eagle said nothing to them.


    They were unaware Theo was simply using them to create an opportunity for him to kill the monsters.


    Theo continued his onught in the bird form while distracting a portion of the green monsters. He hoped the real Theo could escape soon.


    *Cry!* After letting out another cry, the eagle flew forward and opened its mouth. Suddenly, a huge boulder appeared out of thin air as the eagle dropped them on top of the monsters who were about to attack the Death Arrow Gang.


    "Bam!"


    The huge boulder became the target of the attacks, so it burst into hundreds of pieces.


    After that, the monsters rained him down with all the beams, making sure he couldn''t run away anymore. Since the situation had be like this, Theo chose to get shot down by all these beams and fell to the ground before exploding.


    "Boom!"


    The explosion made both the monsters and the humans tremble. They never thought the eagle would still try to take them down when it was dying.


    The eagle was also stronger than the Greenlin Leader. Meaning the one that could order such an eagle to use this merciless move was none other than a King ss Monster.


    The humans sucked a cold breath when they came to a realization. This opponent wasn''t something they could handle.


    "Bro. I think it''s time to leave or we will suffer great casualties. The Greenlins will unleash their wrath to us, so before that happens��" The middle-aged man suggested.


    The muscr man gritted his teeth. Although he wanted to take down the eagle, he realized he might die before sessfully doing so. Ultimately, he agreed to the decision, letting the eagle go.


    Just like he said, the Greenlin Leader med the human for creating the chance for the eagles to steal his artifact. He ordered for a chase but to no avail.


    Meanwhile, Theo had flown somewhere safe and finally turned back into his human form, reaping the greatest reward.

 Chapter 914 – S Rank Skill

    <h4>Chapter 914 - S Rank Skill</h4>


    Dropping the snake scale, Theo sat down in front of it and asked with a serious expression. "What should I do now?"


    [Just touch the scale. I''ll do the rest.]


    Theo nodded and reached for the scale, observing what happened to the Magic Power in the scale.


    To his surprise, the Magic Power gradually leaked out of the scale into the air at a rapid rate.


    He was curious about their existence. They could connect to this world through them, making Theo think the Gods and Goddess remained inside him.


    It turned out he was wrong.


    They were not inside his body but somewhere else. He was convinced there was a realm that actually contained their souls like they said.


    The pain gradually entered his mind, indicating the call from the serpent.


    This might be the first time he received something from the serpent, even though this was the fourth time he encountered the snake.


    Theo gritted his teeth and asked, "Are you sure this will be alright? From what I know, you can store the energy, right? I can go to a safer ce for this."


    [Don''t worry. It won''t take long. Even if there''s something happening outside, I''ll take care of it.]


    "Hmm? Can you take over my body?"


    [No.]


    "Then��"


    [But with this energy, I can release a bit of my power to envelop you. With the aura of Authority Level figure, no beasts woulde to you. If humanse, I can use the aura to order the monsters around to repel them.]


    "I see. Does that mean I can also use my Order to order the monsters around too?"


    [Not yet. I''ll tell you a bit after youe here.]


    "Okay." Theo took a deep breath and closed his eyes, entering his consciousness.


    The ce gradually turned into the familiarke that was shrouded by fog and filled with lily pads.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The serpent''s head gradually emerged from the water, staring at Theo. "Wee."


    "Un." Theo nodded politely. His face was filled with curiosity as it was clear there were many questions he had in mind.


    "We don''t have much time, so I''ll settle everything within twenty minutes. If you want to ask questions, make sure it''s important enough for you."


    "Understood."


    "Continuing with the previous exnation�� If you have an Order, you''re equivalent to�� Let me see what kind of words from your world fit the exnation." The serpent paused for a few seconds before continuing, "It''s nobility. You are a nobility when you have an Order. When you have an Authority, you''re basically a ruler.


    "If you use your Order in another noble''s territory, do you think they will respect you? Sure, if you are higher rank than him. But there''s no rank among Orders. So, if you use your Order, they might be hostile."


    "I see." Theo looked down, pondering what he said. "It''s different for Authority. You are basically a kind of a King. No matter whosend it is, you''re more important. That is unless you meet another Authority directly."


    "Yes. That''s the simple exnation."


    "I understand now." Theo nodded. He was still unaware that Fenrir''s aura once came out of his body and scared Ava. That happened in Thernd, where he was still clueless.


    "Anyway, let''s make this short. I''m going to teach you this skill."


    Skill: Supernatural Snake Body (S)


    Effect: The user will receive extreme regeneration and hardness.


    "For real?" Theo widened his eyes and dropped his jaw to the ground. The skill rank was too shocking.


    There was even a doubt rising in his heart.


    Theo raised his head and said, "Back in Thernd, I couldn''t even use the Death Avatar properly. The one I used was the sealed form, not the real one, which was supposed to be an S Rank Skill�� Also, the pain I experienced back then even made me fall unconscious.


    "And this one is an S Rank Skill too�� It''s not like I''m not happy with an S Rank Skill, but won''t it be useless if I can''t even use it properly? I might even die from using it." Theo presented his doubt to the serpent. Even in front of an overwhelming skill, his mind remained rational.


    He would rather get an A Rank Skill that he could use than an S Rank Skill that he couldn''t use in the next few years.


    "My body skill is different," said the serpent with a calm tone.


    "Different?"


    "Yes. The others put a toll on your body while mine trains your body."


    "Eh?" Theo tilted his confusion.


    "When you use the Death Avatar, your body excretes some Magic Power to the outside. Meanwhile, this skill forces you to take in some pressure and Magic Power to your body."


    "I still don''t understand."


    "How do I say it�� Let''s use your level as an example. Other skills start from level 500, for example. Meanwhile, mine starts from level 0."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and fell into deep thought. After three minutes, he got his answer and asked for confirmation. "So, I need to absorb Magic Power and Pressure to get stronger?"


    "Yes. This is a kind of growth skill. Why could I be so big in the past?"


    "!!!" Theo was dumbfounded. "So, when you were thrown into the sea, you used this skill to train yourself by absorbing the Magic Power and taking the Pressure?"


    "Something along those lines." The serpent acknowledged it without hesitation. "That''s why even if you use this S Rank Skill, you won''t be able to manifest the snake skin. You need to keep training it by taking the pressure and Magic Power. The power of this skill will gradually increase."


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding. "But won''t my body expand because of this? I don''t think I want to be a human whose head reaches the atmosphere."


    "This is the reason why I was supposed to teach you thest. It''s to let your body get stronger first so that it has arger capacity to take in all the Magic Power and pressure. This way, you won''t expand."


    "But no matter what, I still have my limit. What if�� maybe twenty years from now, I finally reach that limit, will I expand?"


    "Have you forgotten about your Order?"


    Theo opened his eyes in realization. "Covenant Seal!"


    "That''s right. By pouring the excess energy into your territory, you can prevent your body from expanding like mine��" The snake nodded with a smile, happy with Theo''s intelligence.

 Chapter 915 – Learning Growth Skill

    <h4>Chapter 915 - Learning Growth Skill</h4>


    "Then, the guidance you''re talking about is how to train this skill?" Theo asked.


    "Yes." He acknowledged it without hesitation.


    "But I don''t think I can survive underwater. It''s not like I can breathe underwater." Theo shook his head with a serious expression. "I mean, I can change into a fish, but will that even work?"


    "You have one big advantage that you can utilize to train your physique without training like me. You don''t need to throw yourself into the sea."


    "Then, how?"


    "It will depend on your skill."


    When he heard that answer, Theo fell into deep thought. It could be said those words enlightened him.


    "I see. I am the only person in the world who has gained the backing of four Authority Level figures. Is that what you''re implying?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. If I was your only guide, I could only teach you Endurance as well as a few body skills. But it''s different since we four are behind you. Others can fill the things Ick." The serpent admitted it without hesitation and continued, "Take a look at your Blink and Telekinesis. They''re the basis for Control.


    "There is Clone which helps you to this day. The Death Avatar is rted to your Awareness. This will give you all the options you want. Of course, there is one big requirement to receive our help. You need to be extremely talented, especially in all directions.


    "We don''t want to create a master of none. We want you to be the master of all. There are so many talents in the world: Talent for Sword, Talent for Spear, Talent for Magic, or even Talent for Cooking. But none of them suits us.


    "Only your Talent for Learning is the perfect match for us. Without this level of talent, your lifespan won''t be enough to learn everything. That''s also why we dare to stop your Ancestor from giving you his blessing.


    "Your Talent helps you learn at least ten times faster than a talented person�� Remember, a talented person, not a normal person. It''s true that you will be useless without anyone helping you learn stuff, but there are so many people who can give you some insight now.


    "We ce our hope on you and give you the necessary power to connect all our power. Father gave you his trick and illusion along with the Clone and Metamorphosis.


    "Sister gave you Death Avatar and Awareness. Brother taught you Control, Telekinesis, and Blink. And I�� will teach you my Body Skill and Endurance.


    "How to train it without throwing you into the sea? Simple. As I said earlier, you need Magic Power and Pressure to train this body skill. As long as you fulfill these two conditions, you''re good to go.


    "Before exining further, I need to tell you about my Body Skill first. This skill has growth regeneration. I think your evolution theory is good to be an illustration of my power.


    "A giraffe has a long neck because they need to reach for the leaves on a tall tree. They need to keep raising their heads even if it hurts to reach those leaves or they die.


    "This is what you''re going to do. You will use the pressure to break your body apart, and the regeneration will help you heal that body and strengthen it. Your body will gradually be stronger this way." The serpent finished his long exnation and took a small break while giving Theo some time to think.


    As expected, Theo immediately raised a question. "If that''s all, won''t the humans already learn this and be stronger in general?"


    "What theyck is the Magic Power."


    "But this ce was discovered a few hundred years ago."


    "I''m not talking about that Magic Power. It''s my unique cirction of Magic Power." The snake exined. "I''m sure that if you learn Endurance from other humans, you will learn to circte your Magic Power while training your body to the extreme. It''ll gradually increase your body''s strength."


    "That''s kinda true��"


    "Yes. I''ll teach you how to create a hard snake skin that could literally protect your body. I think I should tell you this. My Authority is Hardness! Without a divine weapon, it''s hard to even injure me."


    Theo gulped down as his heart became excited. "I''m curious; how about Fenrir?"


    "He has Beast Authority. He''s basically the ruler of the beasts. Though, you have seen how he behaves�� Despite bing their leader, he always acts alone. That''s why he''s a loner even until now."


    "Ahaha�� I have a feeling you two will fight if he hears you."


    "You understand him well. He pushed all those beasts away because of his personality."


    "I have learned." Theo chuckled.


    "Anyway, let''s move on to how you should train."


    Theo nodded and calmed down, listening to him attentively.


    "First. You can use your Telekinesis to create the pressure."


    "As expected." Theo agreed with him as this was also his n if the serpent didn''t tell him anything. Telekinesis was perfect for generating pressure after all.


    "Then, use your Clone and Illusion to create a small cylinder that can increase the pressure."


    "Right. I have been using this to generate more pressure to pin my enemy to the ground."


    "Indeed. Then, you can use the Death Avatar to reinforce the barrier from your Illusion."


    "With my Sense of Touch, right?"


    "Yes. Start from a low level first because you need to strengthen your skin, bones, and organs gradually."


    "Noted." Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Can I use something else to improve the effectiveness?"


    "Yes. You can release more Magic Power alongside your Telekinesis, use your Ascension Step, or utilize your Thunderp Fist. As long as it generates more pressure for you, it''s good." The serpentid down all Theo''s ns as though he could read his mind.


    "Still, I need to keep using the Supernatural Snake Body Skill, right?"


    "Indeed. Don''t worry about the Magic Power consumption. It''ll gradually increase too. The harder your skin is, the more Magic Power you will use. Your skin will gradually harden, and you will also acquire natural regeneration."


    "Understood. If I only learn from you, I might indeed need to throw myself into the sea."


    "Yes. With the others'' help, you can do it anywhere you like."


    "Thank you so much." Theo lowered his head, thanking him for teaching him this skill. To think he could even use the skill as the basis of his Endurance.


    "That''s all I want to say. I only need three minutes to teach you how to circte your Magic Power, so we still have five minutes. What do you want to ask?"


    Theo looked down and contemted for a moment.


    An idea appeared in his mind as he raised his hand�� "Actually, I have one question."

 Chapter 916 – Current Strength

    <h4>Chapter 916 - Current Strength</h4>


    "How do you create an artifact?" asked Theo with a serious expression. This had been in his mind for a while.


    On the one hand, he knew the artifact seemed to be attached to their owner for a long time. In fact, they could be considered the symbol of that person in the past. On the other hand, Theo wondered whether there was a special requirement he needed to note or not.


    The serpent thought for a moment, contemting if he could answer this question or not.


    The suspense made Theo''s heart racing as he couldn''t contain his curiosity.


    Fortunately, the serpent agreed to answer as he opened his mouth. "We don''t have much time, so I''ll give you a simple exnation.


    "Your current weapon is ssified as an artifact. Why? Because the material used to create that weapon can store your Order. If you continue using that weapon for decades, you will notice that the weapon can channel your energy better�� In fact, only you can wield that weapon at that point.


    "Why? Because it has absorbed your Magic Power that has been influenced by the Order. Suppose someone without or with an Order different from yours uses that weapon. In that case, the Order inside your weapon will sh with them, making it unusable.


    "This is what it means to be an artifact. I don''t know if you have noticed it or not, but when we get an artifact, we can absorb the Order that we used to have�� and transfer the pure energy into your body, turning it into status points. That''s all I can say."


    Theo looked down, pondering the words over and over again in his mind.


    "I see. The rank doesn''t matter, huh. Shouldn''t that mean I need to get a Divine Weapon first before using it for a long time?"


    "Not necessarily so. Divine Weapons are rare. In our era, only those artisans could create Divine Weapons. The materials and techniques�� I am afraid no one can create it anymore. Even the Mountain King can''t. Also, you still have a few forms for your current weapon, you can still use it even if you find a Divine Weapon, right?"


    "Certainly." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Anyway, that''s all. Let''s proceed with your training. Sit down. I''ll tell you how to circte your Magic Power to strengthen your body."


    Without hesitation, Theo sat down in a lotus pose and closed his eyes, focusing on his Magic Power.


    After seeing his focused face, the serpent started his lecture, guiding Theo to move his Magic Power from one position to another for three minutes.


    It was pretty simple for Theo to remember. However, circting the Magic Power was indeed a bit hard that he needed a couple of trials to seed.


    In the end, the serpent brought him back to reality and allowed him to try outside.


    Clone Theo appeared right after Theo''s consciousness returned, guarding Theo''s real body.


    It took him an hour before Theo managed to make aplete cirction.


    "Hmm," Theo mumbled, feeling nothing from the cirction. He gradually opened his eyes and checked his body. "There''s no change in my body. I guess I can only feel the effect after training for a long time because I might not feel the difference every single day."


    "Still��" Theo narrowed his eyes and checked his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 526


    EXP: 2,314,599/ 7,761,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (A), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (B), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(B)


    Attributes: Strength 675, Endurance 491, Agility 488, Vitality 491, Magic Power 875


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Still, I wonder what people will think if they see my current skills as well as status." Theo smiled. "There is one A Rank Skill and one S Rank Skill. If I have enough money, I can also upgrade the rest to A Rank.


    "For now, I think I don''t need Illusion Construct anymore since I can use my Illusion Maniption to rece it most of the time. Though, I need to release my Awareness to make it touchable. Nothing changes, I guess." Theo nodded, satisfied with the current development.


    After assessing his body''s condition, including his status, he lowered his vision and looked at the snake scale.


    "Just like the crown, it''s reduced to nothing��" Theo muttered, finding nothing on the ground where the snake scale was. Only two leather straps, which obviously were attached by the Greenlin Leader, remained.


    "Considering the passing time, the only reason why it can survive until now was due to the Order coating it. Now that the Order had disappeared and I''d absorbed the remnant energy, nothing stopped it from crumbling anymore." Theo observed what happened to the shield. "But what''s about the Death Armor? I guess there''s something special with this Death Armor�� Whatever. I can''t reallye up with an exnation right now."


    Although it was a shame that he couldn''t use the scale as his shield, he indeed had reaped a huge reward from this scale.


    After sorting his thoughts, he stood up and muttered, "I should have one or two days to spare�� Should I start practicing the Supernatural Snake Body? Or should I focus on my mission first before training this body and Endurance?"


    On the one hand, he might be stronger when hunting those monsters. On the other hand, he could focus on hunting first and return to a safe environment to train his body.


    "Well, I should go to a safe environment first before training my body. I don''t want to be arrogant, but I think I''m strong enough against those frogs now." Theo made his decision and immediately rushed to the Dexie in.


    Like the previous trip, Theo was extremely careful not to be surrounded by monsters when facing multiple Rare ss Monsters.


    Finally, after a long journey, he finally reached his destination. It was a savanna with some hills scattered around the area.


    "Time to hunt��" Theo smirked while looking around, trying to find the camp in charge of this mission.

 Chapter 917 – Firing Anderson

    <h4>Chapter 917 - Firing Anderson</h4>


    Star Group.


    "We need to remove Anderson from his position," stated Bernard in front of his shareholders. His tone was stern and his face was serious. His words brooked no argument.


    "Huh? Anderson is one of our directors, no?" A middle-aged guy frowned and asked, wondering if Bernard was serious or not.


    "Yes." Bernard nodded without hesitation.


    His confirmation stunned the people in the room. They didn''t know what had happened to him. After all, Bernard wasn''t someone who would make this bold move out of nowhere.


    "Before that, may I ask for the reason?" Another person raised his voice.


    Bernard simply stated, "Because of him misusing his authority, two S Rank Talents in thispany almost killed each other. I''m sure you know what will happen next, right?"


    "Two S Rank Talents?" Everyone started shaking as they never thought something that big had happened. "Silvia and Patrick?"


    When he mentioned two S Rank Talents that were equal, they obviously thought the two Mythical Rank Experts since the other S Rank Talent was still a Supreme Rank Expert. However, Bernard shook his head and said, "Mark and a new guy."


    "A new guy? I don''t think we''ve got any report regarding a new S Rank Talent." The middle-aged man raised his doubt. With such a big asion, they would surely receive the news. So, this sudden appearance of S Rank Talent confused them.


    "I''m sure you''re already aware that my fat�� I mean, the previous CEO brought someone to this ce, no?" Bernard asked.


    "Yes. We''re aware of him. The mysterious guy called Joker." They all nodded in agreement until one of them shouted, "Wait. He is an S Rank Talent? ording to the report, he''s only a B Rank."


    Another shareholder waved his hand and added, "You should read the small note below his assessment. It''s said he abandoned thest two tests."


    "Yes. I''m sure the first three tests are enough to tell you his potential, right?" Bernard nodded, asking for confirmation.


    They all exchanged looks and nodded to each other. "Indeed."


    "Still, we don''t know about his battle power."


    "Though, with that kind of potential, his martial prowess should be quite powerful as well."


    "The previous CEO told him to hold back so as to not stunned the people around there. If it''s too big, I''m afraid otherpanies wille to snatch him for us." Bernard sighed. "As for his battle prowess, him defeating Mark should be enough to tell you what will happen if he takes thest test, no? As for the fourth test�� I can''t say much, but all you need to know is that his skills overpowered Mark in that battle. In fact, Mark was not his match."


    "What?!" Some dropped their jaws while some rose from their seats. They all had their own way of showing their shock.


    They were aware of what kind of person Mark was. In terms of his talent, Mark could be considered the greatest among the younger generations.


    Although his talent couldn''t bepared to Maya''s overall talent, he could still overpower her in a battle for now. That was how strong he was.


    Yet, this person lost miserably against a level 521 Expert? They simply couldn''t believe it.


    "Please. Don''t make such a joke. You think we''ll believe someone can defeat Mark with a 100 level gap?" One of them said with a frown.


    "Come in!" Bernard shouted to the door, calling Emma and Kain.


    Both of them entered the room and nodded to them.


    "I''m sure you know about them. They''re our Mythical Rank Experts, Emma and Kain. They were the witness of that battle. Instead of me tricking you, I think you should hear what they have to say."


    The room became silent as they agreed. It was better to have Mythical Rank Experts telling them what transpired in the battle.


    "In terms of status, I don''t think this Joker lost too much against Mark. As for his battle strength, we clearly saw how Joker pushed Mark back. In fact, I believe they''re pretty equal in this area. At thest moment, Joker stopped holding back and used one skill, which I couldn''t say�� It''s just�� This skill alone was enough for Joker to defeat Mark." Emma exined what she felt back then.


    Meanwhile, Kain exined how the fight went from the very start without mentioning Theo''s Death Avatar or Soul to avoid leaking this important information.


    After listening to both of them, they all sucked a cold breath. Some of them still doubted such a thing happened, but Kain continued answering their questions to the point they had no choice but to agree that Joker defeated Mark in such a way.


    "A Rank Skill? Mark should have one A Rank Skill, no? To think his A Rank Skill can''t fight against Joker''s Skill�� Is it an S Rank Skill?"


    "There''s a possibility. Or a very powerful A Rank Skill, close to S Rank Skill."


    "In that case, no wonder Mark lost against him. To think there''s still such a scary man."


    "No, no. We need to thank the former CEO for this."


    "That''s right. This is truly important."


    "If what they said about the battle was true, then Joker might ace the admission test. With that skill alone, you could get an S+�� And the fact he could defeat Mark also gave him an S+ evaluation. In fact, Joker is above Mark if we evaluate him properly. S+ Talent�� No, I''m afraid he''s above it. But there''s no ssification to define him right now."


    "That shows how big his talent is. No wonder the former CEO tried to hide his power. If that''s the case, we need to proceed carefully."


    "Bang!"


    Bernard mmed the table to gain everyone''s attention again and said, "I''ll tell you again. Anderson abused his authority to suppress Mark, resulting in his daughter forcing Mark to fight Joker. If I didn''t solve this problem, Joker might leave thispany, and Mark would be dissatisfied. If the public knows about this, our stability will be shaken as well. People will think we are foolish.


    "So, I will give you my proposal. We''ll kick Anderson out of thispany and give severe punishment to his daughter to tell her not to y with fire. We''ll also demote Anderson''s brother because he helped Anderson�� If you don''t agree with this decision, raise your hand!" Bernard stated with a serious expression.

 Chapter 918 – Flying Frog

    <h4>Chapter 918 - Flying Frog</h4>


    Before hunting, Theo looked around to find the camp. It took him a few minutes to reach that ce because of his Telekinesis.


    On top of a hill stood a long tent with a few people guarding outside. Theo found five experts around the tent in a nce, and there should be another few people inside.


    Theonded on the hill without hesitation while taking out a gold star badge.


    As soon as they saw the badge, they lowered their weapons and allowed Theo tond near them.


    Although they couldn''t identify the person because of the mask, they still trusted him a bit.


    Still, one of them asked for confirmation. "Are you here for the flying frogs?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "Certainly. If you don''t mind, can you scan your badge inside? There''s a chip that tells your information. This is only to prove your identity."


    "Will it work? I''m new to thepany. Sir Bernard told me I could use this letter to prove my identity. After all, your information hasn''t been updated yet." Theo took out a letter with Bernard''s sign on him.


    Although they were a bit cautious because there would be no data about this masked man, the procedure forced them to ept Theo.


    "Understood. Please go inside the tent. There is someone who can prove that letter and your identity. We also need to register your identity for the time being."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and entered the tent, finding three people standing next to each other.


    The moment they noticed his presence, the trio stopped and turned to him.


    "Hello. My name is Joker, a new guy in the Star Group. Sir Bernard told me I could use the letter to prove my identity." Theo showed the letter.


    One of them stepped forward and received the letter.


    When he read the letter, his face gradually became pale to the point he lowered his head and said, "Please wait a moment. I''ll take care of this."


    "Hmm?"


    "What''s wrong?"


    The other two were confused by his actions, but the man ignored them and said to Theo. "You can sit there while I take care of this. I guarantee it won''t be long."


    Theo didn''t know what was inside the letter, so he simply walked to the chair and sat down, waiting for them to process the registration.


    Curious, the other two came closer to the guy and wanted to see who on earth this masked man was.


    However, their faces became pale when they saw his evaluation stated on the paper.


    They immediately realized why he became so respectful all of a sudden. Theo''s real ranking was S Rank, so his status was simr to a VIP.


    The workers from the Star Group were required to treat him with respect because if Theo left the group because of them, their fate would be over in that instant.


    While the guy inputted Theo''s data into the Skylink, the other two approached Theo. One of them offered Theo some drinks while the other gave him some exnation regarding the mission.


    "Let me exin a bit about the mission this time. The mission is to get the Flying Frogs back here so that we can harvest the organs and stuff.


    "If possible, we want you to leave them alive. Of course, when you reach this ce, we don''t mind you taking the kill. We won''t steal it."


    Theo frowned and asked, "What if I can''t bring the frog alive?"


    "In that case, pleasee back here before five hours. The organs will start going back after five hours."


    "I see." Theo nodded.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, do you have a way to carry the frog? I mean, if you kill the frog, you can''t touch it, or the frog will turn into cards."


    "I have a way to carry it without touching the frog. You don''t need to worry about that." Theo waved his hand and asked, "Is there any bonus point when you capture the frog alive?"


    "No. As long as we can harvest their organs and some other stuff, it doesn''t matter whether the frog is alive or not. If you still want to capture it alive, you can hit the back of its head as hard as you can. It should be able to knock the frog out without killing it."


    "Okay then. Onest question. If I finish my 50 kills, what will I get for my 51st kill?"


    "In that case, you can still get the same reward, the Star Points and the contribution points. Since you don''t need to care about the contribution points, we will exchange them for 500,000 Star Points each. So, each frog will give you 2,000,000 Star Points."


    "That''s quite good." Theo felt satisfied and realized the other guy had finished entering his data.


    He returned with the letter as well as Theo''s badge, handing it back to Theo. "I havepleted the registration. I''ll update the number after you return here to bring back the frogs."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and walked away. Before exiting the tent, he asked, "Do I need to know anything? I am new in the Star Group, so��"


    They exchanged looks for a moment before one of them stepped forward, exining, "There are two. First, you can return here to get some food and water. Or if you don''t mind sharing a ce to sleep, you can use one of the mattresses here.


    "If you find another group or identally hunt the same frog, the reward will go to you if you can prove that the frog is yours�� So, we suggest activating your camera all the time."


    Theo took their suggestion seriously and activated the camera of his Skylink before asking onest question. "How many people have reached this ce?"


    "There are two groups as of now. I think the number will increase againter."


    "I see. I''ll start hunting then." Theo waved his hand and exited the tent. Without hesitation, he flew away, searching for a flying frog.


    But to his surprise, the flying frog couldn''t be any more obvious.


    Not long after he flew to the north, there was a frog, ten times bigger than him, flying in the sky. The wingspan was quiterge as well, so it was easy to find them.


    "Seriously��" Theo couldn''t help but chuckle when he saw this frog''s chubby appearance, thinking it was cute.

 Chapter 919 – Fighting A Flying Frog

    <h4>Chapter 919 - Fighting A Flying Frog</h4>


    Even though the appearance was cute, this chubby frog had a powerful poison inside his belly that could be released at any moment. Hence, he couldn''t underestimate it.


    He raised the sword in his right hand and covered it with Magic Power.


    The flying frog''s cheek also bloated as if it was prepared to spit out something.


    The moment Theo had a slight movement, the flying frog released its slimy tongue.


    Theo used his Ring of Honor to create a shield that could withstand the frog''s tongue.


    "Bam!"


    The sh produced a weak shock wave, and the tongue somehow cracked the shield.


    "��" Theo squinted his eyes, knowing he had underestimated this frog. This monster might have a powerful strength behind his poison.


    And from how he acted, the frog didn''t seem to be a Normal ss Monster. Instead, the frog should have some intelligence in his brain.


    Even for Theo, fighting such a monster would be a hard task, especially since there was at least a fifty level gap between them.


    After blocking the frog''s tongue, Theo moved to the side and shed his sword.


    The Magic Power in his sword flew forward and split into four to surround the flying frog. But this time, Theo had prepared an even more advanced technique.


    After using a sword for some time, Theo had grown ustomed to wielding one. So, he had a recement for his Magic Bullets.


    As soon as the first sword light left his sword, he gathered the Magic Power into his sword again before shing his sword forward, releasing the second light.


    In the end, Theo released ten of them in session and split each light into four.


    The frog needed to avoid all these forty lights. They might not be as strong as Theo''s usual sword light, but the number easily overpowered Theo''s previous technique.


    Knowing it would be bad if he got hit by all these sword lights, the flying frog stopped in his tracks and gathered the poison in his mouth.


    Right before the sword lights reached him, he spat the poison in all directions.


    The poison created a kind of a without any hole and caught the majority of Theo''s sword lights. Upon contact, the extraordinary poison melted the sword lights until nothing remained.


    As for the rest, the frog simply created a barrier to protect himself.


    "Boom."


    "Boom."


    "Boom."


    The sword lights hit him in session, but the shield survived without even a scratch.


    "Really?" Theo''s expression became serious as he followed his attack with another. This time, Theo came closer to the frog and swung his sword, sending a crescent-shaped energy wave forward.


    This sharp energy had the power to cut the frog in half, but thetter simply leaped to the side as though it could stand in the air.


    With that initial bonus speed as well as the help of the wings, the frog felt like he had disappeared for a second.


    "��" Theo frowned and summoned his clone.


    Although he wanted to fight the frog with the human form, Theo couldn''t easily show the clone. So, Clone Theo used the Metamorphosis and turned into an eagle.


    Eagle Theo soared to the sky while the frog raised his head, seeing this eagle as his prey.


    "Where do you think you''re looking at?" Theo sent himself to the top of the frog''s head with his Blink and covered his sword with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    "!!!" The frog was surprised and instinctively erected a spherical barrier to block the sword, albeit Theo''s sword was too strong.


    His Magic Power Expansion cracked the barrier, and with the help of the additional boost from the Magic Augmentation, the sword shattered the barrier into pieces.


    When it was about to slice the frog, thetter formed another barrier. It was small and brittle, but the frog erected this one simply to stop the sword for a second.


    Using that gap, the frog gathered the momentum he needed andunched himself to the ground.


    "Bam!"


    The frog crashed to the ground and immediately stood up without an injury.


    "Tsk. It can do that too��" Theo narrowed his eyes. The frog''s intelligence might not be as low as he thought.


    Not wanting to give a chance to the frog, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets and rained him down with all these attacks.


    The frog widened its eyes and opened its mouth, shocked. A small spherical barrier appeared, barely protecting the frog.


    "��" The frog didn''t know what to do right now. He tried to check his surroundings, but nothing could be used to escape from this ce.


    Theo seemed to be far stronger than him to the point he couldn''t even fight back this whole time.


    "Time to step up my game." Theo took a deep breath as his expression turned serious. He wanted to end this fight in this exchange, so he poured a lot of Magic Power into his sword.


    The frog also felt the fluctuation and started to be wary of Theo''s sword.


    The moment Theo flew forward, the frog extended the tongue to strike him.


    Because of the speed, Theo received the tongue with his sword, albeit the strength was a bit more powerful than his grip, and the tongue knocked the sword away and hit Theo in the stomach.


    The frog thought this was a chance to deliver the killing blow, but Theo''s body suddenly disappeared, showing he wasn''t real.


    As for the real him, it was the eagle. When he summoned the eagle, it was actually his real body. Theo just showed the illusion that he summoned an eagle while switching ces with his clone.


    Theo returned to his original appearance behind the frog and sliced him from the top. Even his sword was extended by the Magic Power to remove the frog''s head.


    He wanted to slice the frog into two, but he realized he shouldn''t do that since the Star Group wanted to harvest the frog. Hence, he only cut the head to kill it.


    "Tsk. To think a frog gave me all this trouble��" Theo shook his head helplessly, never expecting the frog to be this strong even though he only fought one of them.

 Chapter 920 – Help?

    <h4>Chapter 920 - Help?</h4>


    Since he had yet to fly far away, he decided to return to get his first kill count while confirming if he could kill them in such a way.


    However, Theo finally realized how he had been spoiled by his situation this whole time. When he was in Italy, the War God Family guaranteed his status.


    Even his n worked wonders to the point he never met any relevant people. After all, the mission was simr to a personal mission that only he epted.


    Different from the War God Family, the Star Group''s mission was more like a joint mission that could be finished together.


    Hence, it was no wonder if Theo met someone when hunting.


    "Help!"


    A male''s voice sounded across the in where he was at. The man might think there would be groups nearby since this ce was close to the camp.


    But there was only Theo who heard him.


    Theo stopped in his tracks and looked at the man from afar. Although he couldn''t see the man''s appearance, Theo could see two Flying Frogs chasing after him.


    If it were only two, there was no way a Supreme Rank Expert couldn''t handle them. But this time, the two frogs got help from three leopards and one yellow bird.


    When he came a bit closer, Theo could see his tired expression, indicating he had run for quite a while.


    Last but not least, he saw the Star Badge hanging on his chest, indicating his identity.


    He couldn''t help but remember what Bernard said regarding the Star Group''s people.


    "If it''s within your ability, you should help the people from the Star Group."


    "To think I need to handle something like this." Theo scratched the back of his head. "In the War God Family, I didn''t really meet anyone�� And they were also quite smart on their own, so the situation never reached this step. Whatever. I should help him first."


    This action reminded him of when he helped his former ssmate in Thernd. At that time, the person he helped had no hesitation sacrificing him. Although that became his turning point, he still felt awful when helping strangers.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and flew forward. Back then, he was a young man with no power. It would be different this time.


    Theo waved his swords a few times, sending forty beams to stop these monsters.


    When they saw these lights, the bird pped its wings and created a torrential gale that deflected some rays. The flying frogs also flew forward and formed a barrier, blocking the rest.


    Knowing the situation would worsen if Theo helped this guy, the leopards increased their speed and pounced on the guy.


    Theo used his Thunderp Fist, but on his legs. The burst of Magic Power gave him a boost in speed, allowing him to reach the leopards in an instant.


    He struck the leopards with his sword but failed to hit any as they leaped into the air.


    Theo ended up crashing to the ground and hurriedly jumped to regroup with this guy.


    Noticing Theo''s appearance, the guy shouted, "Thank you. But we''re in a dire situation. Can you help me stop them? I will go back to the camp to get some help from the agents there! My group was ambushed by numerous monsters and is now trapped in that ce. So, I can''t afford to waste time. I appreciate the help, but I''m sorry, I need to leave them to you."


    "��" Theo was speechless when he saw the guy increase his speed. "Isn''t this the same situation as back then�� The only difference is that the guy still has some knack to exin the situation."


    Theo let out a long sigh with his eyes focusing on the monsters. "Whatever. I''m going to take these two Flying Frogs as my payment."


    When he couldn''t see the guy anymore, Theo summoned his clone and sent him straight to the bird and the flying frogs. Meanwhile, he stayed on the ground to deal with the leopards.


    As if getting angered by Theo''s action, the leopards pounced on him with their ws covered in ck me.


    Theo used his Blink to send himself to their backs while avoiding the ws. After that, he used his Telekinesis and Thunderp Fist when shing his sword forward.


    The shock wave produced by that sh knocked the leopards to the ground.


    Even though it was painful, the leopards immediately rose from the ground. They turned their bodies around, knowing Theo would kill them if they showed a single opening.


    Theo raised his left hand and called the Death Avatar. At the same time, a few trees rapidly grew around him, creating a small forest in this grass in.


    The leopards were confused with the sudden terrain change and charged forward while avoiding the trees.


    His n to split them worked and Theo marched forward, taking full advantage of the situation.


    Magic Bullets flew toward the left and the middle leopards while his real body ran to the right leopard.


    He swung his sword, which was bitten by the leopard. Theo couldn''t pull or push the sword, so he slid it to the side without being able to injure the leopard.


    As soon as the sword was free, the blue light appeared and flew out of the sword, looping around his body and hitting the leopard from the other side.


    "Raawr!" The leopard reacted toote, and his neck was sliced by this sword light.


    [Killed a Graviepard.]


    "Weird name," Theo muttered before heading to the other two leopards, killing them in session.


    Even Clone Theo had taken down the two flying frogs. And with the help of the real Theo, he killed the yellow bird within half a minute.


    Since he only wanted the flying frogs, he turned all the monsters into cards while gathering the flying frogs in one ce before carrying it with his Telekinesis.


    Suddenly, a group of four appeared in front of him, shocked by what they saw. One of them was the employee that gave him the mission information, so he recognized Theo in an instant.


    "Sir Joker." He politely bowed to him, observed the corpses, and said, "Can you help us to rescue a group three miles from here?"

 Chapter 921 – Rescue

    <h4>Chapter 921 - Rescue</h4>


    "Can you help us rescue a group three miles from here?" The man asked. He had received the information about Theo stopping seven Supreme Rank Monsters here alone.


    So, seeing Theo eliminating all those seven monsters in the few minutes they needed to reach here made him decide to ask for help.


    He truly believed Theo was an S Rank Talent.


    "There are a few monsters here." Theo pointed at the three Flying Frogs. "I need to bring them back to the camp."


    Without hesitation, the man stated, "Don''t worry about them. If we can go back before they go bad, we''ll help you carry all of them. In fact, if you wish for us to take care of it so that you can go somewhere else, we''ll dly do it. If we take too long, I''ll still acknowledge the kill counts with my authority."


    "Okay then."


    "Also, there are multiple Flying Frogs there. If you can hunt them, we''ll add them as well. Our priority is their lives after all."


    Having no reason to refuse, Theo agreed for the sake of flying frogs. "Good."


    "Let''s go. We''ll have Ben to guide us there."


    Aftering to an agreement, Ben, who escaped earlier, guided them to his team. Because they used their fastest speed, the group reached the ce within minutes.


    Unfortunately, their situation wasn''t that good. Two people had passed out, and one of them had his left hand gone.


    As for the remaining two, they were in an exhausted state.


    There were also numerous corpses in the area, showing how desperate the group was in killing those monsters.


    With just a nce, Theo found more than two hundred monsters remained. It was a huge number. At the very least, his group would have difficulty dealing with all these monsters.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and checked the situation, wondering what the guy next to him had in mind.


    "We don''t need to kill them. As long as we can rescue those people, we''ll immediately leave." The staff said with a serious expression, assessing the situation.


    Theo felt a bit dissatisfied, but the number was just too overwhelming. Even he needed to let go of his original n in killing the flying frogs.


    "We''ll protect them." The guy turned to Ben and said, "You take your group away."


    "Got it."


    "Sir Joker can�� support us from the back."


    "Fine." Theo nodded. "You don''t mind if I kill them, no?"


    "Yes."


    As soon as they agreed with their roles, the four staff immediately ran to the group, protecting them from all these monsters.


    There was a sense of relief in their faces when they saw the people from the Star Group.


    "Hey. Please take them away first." The leader of the group asked the staff while pointing at the two unconscious people.


    Without hesitation, Ben appeared next to them and carried both of his unconscious teammates. "I''ll help them, Est."


    The leader nodded with a serious expression. "I''ll leave them to you."


    "Good. Let''s fight against these monsters to buy some time." The staff nodded while ring at the monsters.


    Before they made their moves, a tiger suddenly leaped on top of their heads, pouncing a four-legged monster in front of them.


    "A tiger?"


    "A monster?"


    "No. This movement�� A Summoned Creature?!"


    They were shocked for a split second before turning their heads around, finding Theo still remained in his original position. It was clear the tiger was his summoned creature.


    The staff who knew Theo''s real rank smiled and gave the instruction. "Attack."


    "Oh." The group acknowledged the order and charged forward together with Tiger Theo.


    The battle was overwhelming. Because of their numbers, the group needed to keep moving to avoid getting surrounded. Still, their individual strength was above the monsters, so they managed to kill a few monsters within a few minutes.


    Seeing how good the staff were, Theo used his Blink to join the fight.


    He appeared next to a monster on the side and kicked him with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion,unching the monster to another monster several feet away.


    After that, a rain of Magic Bullets hit the two monsters, killing them mercilessly.


    "!!!" The staff noticed what happened, never expecting Theo to kill two monsters in an instant.


    When they took a nce at him, Theo had already severed another monster''s head.


    ''Such a strong guy,'' they thought.


    Theo ignored them as his n was to create a big disturbance so that the monsters could move away from the flying frogs that were hiding behind them.


    "By the way, why are there so many monsters?" Theo shouted while fighting another monster.


    The staff almost forgot about it because they were desperately running away from these monsters. They thought they could ask after getting into a safe area, but with Theo''s overwhelming power, the situation wasn''t that dire anymore.


    The leader hesitated for a moment before blurting the real reason. "A General ss Monster�� We were not aware that the monster we fought was actually a General ss Monster, the Flying Frog King."


    "Flying Frog King?!" Theo and the staff were stunned.


    "He called the monsters under hismand to this area to eliminate us."


    "Where''s that monster?" Theo asked again.


    The leader took a moment to answer because the value of a Flying Frog King was tens of millions of Star Points.


    "It''s not like you can kill them. It''s better to say it," one of the staff said.


    The leader knew about it, but he was still bitter because the reward was simply too great. Ultimately, he revealed the information because Theo and the staff had saved their lives. "Two miles from this ce. There''s a smallke�� The Flying Frog King is hiding underneath thatke."


    Theo smiled when he heard about the Flying Frog King, nning to kill that monster after saving these people. At the very least, he didn''te here for nothing.


    "In that case��" Theo smirked as he didn''t n to hold back anymore�� He raised his hands as more than a hundred Magic Bullets emerged from the ground, ambushing the monsters.

 Chapter 922 – Destroying The Group

    <h4>Chapter 922 - Destroying The Group</h4>


    "!!!" All of them were startled by the sudden emergence of hundreds of pirs of light. They never thought Theo was capable of using this level of Control.


    Unfortunately, the Magic Bullet''s power was considered weak against Supreme Rank Monsters.


    Most of the monsters avoided the Magic Bullets easily, while some got hit and injured. However, some monsters took the Magic Bullets head-on without getting a scratch on its body.


    However, Theo''s first objective waspleted. By using an ability to harm all monsters, Theo could roughly measure each individual''s strength, allowing him to understand which ones he could focus on first.


    "You all don''t need to worry about me," said Theo before leaping forward, trying to face all these Supreme Rank Monsters.


    Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar.


    A huge figure emerged from Theo''s shadow and spread its hands to the sides. An immeasurable pressure erupted as a purple me covered both Theo and the Death Avatar''s eyes.


    Death Eyes.


    The Death Eyes enhanced Theo''s Awareness as he sent his killing intent to all the monsters, stunning them for a split second.


    Even the Star Group people were shocked when they clearly saw how the monsters felt like they froze for a split second.


    And that split second was all Theo needed to kill several of them.


    Clone Theo, who had been in the middle of their group, waved his paw upward while using the Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion, Telekinesis, and Thunderp Fist.


    Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion were Theo''s first ways to produce a shock wave. He first used it when he fought against Agata and Ava in Italy.


    Telekinesis was simply a way to push, which boosted the shock wave and directed them in one way so that they wouldn''t disperse.


    Last but not least, Thunder King''s Thunderp Fist. It was truly a magnificent ability since it wasn''t counted as a skill. Hence, he could use this ability any time he liked.


    This powerful shock wave struck everything in one line, ripping or crushing the monsters engulfed by the shock wave.


    In one attack, Theo managed to kill at least seven monsters and injured five of them. Obviously, he couldn''t do it too much as the Magic Power consumption was quite big even for him.


    "No wonder he''s an S Rank Talent." The staff squinted his eyes, observing Theo''s performance. He was convinced by Theo''s ability.


    With the strength Theo had shown earlier, he gained some confidence in pushing the monsters back. "If there''s a chance, we should back him up and kill all the monsters here."


    "!!!" The rest were stunned by his words, but his decision was understandable when they looked at Theo''s back.


    As one would expect from Theo, a small smile appeared on his face. After getting good at manipting people''s opinions, he already knew what they nned to do.


    Hence, the only thing he should do at this moment was to create an even bigger distraction.


    When he was about to get surrounded, Theo disappeared from their vision.


    "Eh? He''s gone?"


    "Where?"


    Everyone looked around and couldn''t find him. However, his presence soon emerged behind them, and his voice resounded.


    "Give me 30 seconds. That should be easy for all of you, right?"


    Even while he was instructing them, Theo already took his first step, sending a burst of air into the sky.


    Ascension Step, 1st Step.


    The people were stunned for a moment, but a sliver of killing intent from Tiger Theo was enough to wake them up.


    "Y-yes!" The staff were the first to react as they marched forward while taking a nce at Theo behind them. They never thought their bodies would instinctively move with a single instruction from him.


    The same applied to the rescued group. Although tiredness filled their bodies, the thought of defeating these monsters alone managed to make them fired up.


    "Leave it to us!"


    They spread around and stopped all the iing monsters. Due to Theo going too deep earlier, there was a distance between them and the monsters, giving Theo more time.


    Right after their first sh, Theo''s pressure had finally arrived.


    The air torrent from above struck the monster group, pushing them to the ground.


    Not liking this pressure, the flying monsters flew together and released their own power. Whether it was their ability or Magic Power, they unleashed it all to counter the pressure.


    Seeing his 4th Step didn''t do much, Theo released the next step, the 5th step.


    The additional pressure boosted the air torrent. Even some flying monsters suddenly dropped one or two feet when they flew, showing the power of the force.


    Still, they were strong enough to contain the rest of the pressure, so Theo took it one step further.


    Ascension Step, 6th Step.


    Theo finally released the step he usually used without spending too much Magic Power at his level.


    The wind fell down from the sky and pushed all the flying monsters downwards.


    Feeling the pressure, the flying monsters immediately flew upward, trying to fight the pressure. Unfortunately for them, another wave of pressure soon struck them.


    Ascension Step, 7th Step.


    The overwhelming pressure fell on top of them.


    The flying monsters couldn''t contain the pressure and began to fall to the ground. There were not many flying monsters, so Theo''s strength alone, coupled with a Divine Ability, was enough to strike them down.


    With the flying monsters crashing to the ground, their power that kept the ground beasts undisturbed disappeared, resulting in that pressure to hit them head-on.


    Unfortunately, none of the ground monsters had prepared for this pressure, so there was no one who could react to this attack.


    When the pressure fell on top of them, the ground started to crack as a small crater gradually formed. The flying monsters were pinned down to the ground while most of the ground monsters fell on their knees.


    "Pressure from above?"


    "It can even crack the ground and pin those monsters to the ground?"


    "Can pressure be this powerful?"


    "He''s a monster."


    The people had their minds running wild. However, the shock didn''t stop there as Theo unleashed the Ascension Step that almost cleared the test from Lightning Authority.


    Ascension Step, 8th Step.

 Chapter 923 – Overwhelming Victory

    <h4>Chapter 923 - Overwhelming Victory</h4>


    Ascension Step, 8th Step.


    The moment the pressure hit the ground, the crater expanded. It was even as far as two hundred feet in diameter.


    Every monster was already stuck to the ground, unable to rise anymore.


    As expected from a Divine Technique, the power was beyond anyone''s expectation. Though, Theo wasn''t in good condition either. If he used this ability with more than half of his Magic Power in the past, he managed to use it with only a third of Magic Power today.


    Even so, that kind of number wasn''t low either. In addition to all the skills he had used until now, the Magic Power in his body remained only forty percent. He needed to take some time to recover his Magic Power before challenging the Flying Frog King.


    Still, the power of Theo''s strongest ability was too powerful.


    Some of the monsters, especially the flying monsters with soft bones, were crushed by the pressure and died. Some monsters with a powerful defense simply stood on their knees while ring at Theo as though they had yet to give up under this pressure. The rest had at least a broken bone in their body.


    Theo shouted, "Kill them from afar unless you want to die."


    "!!!" The people from the Star Group could see what happened to the monsters, so no one dared to step forward.


    They followed Theo''s instruction and released their attacks from a distance, trying to kill the monsters that couldn''t fight back anymore.


    Even Clone Theo released a roar as well as a beam out of his mouth to kill multiple monsters at once.


    However, the pressure was indeed too strong. Their attacks immediately curved to the ground when they entered the pressure field, and they ended up attacking upward so it could create a parabolic movement and eventually hit the targets.


    And because of the Magic Power consumption, Theo could only stop them for a few seconds before the pressure vanished.


    Luckily, Theo managed to kill 27 Supreme Rank Monsters and 13 monsters earlier while the rest killed twenty of them, leaving only sixty more monsters that were still alive. Though, most of them were injured in one way or another.


    To kill 40 Supreme Rank Monsters didn''t require that much Magic Power if Theo fought normally, but because he needed to take more than one hundred monsters simultaneously, his Magic Power consumption skyrocketed.


    ''It''s quite hard.'' Theo sighed while assessing their situation. Since the monsters had started getting up, Theo shouted, "Only half of them remain, with most of them suffering some injuries�� There''s no need to hold back anymore."


    All of them exchanged looks, agreeing to what Theo said. They only had one thought in their mind.


    "Kill them!"


    Without hesitation, they moved forward and started fighting the monsters.


    Theo also took this chance to kill another thirty monsters since he knew which ones should be targeted first.


    In the end, Theo killed a total of seventy monsters while the rest took down more than fifty monsters.


    There was only twenty percent Magic Power left in Theo''s body. Even he was quite exhausted after this fight.


    Seeing all the corpses on the ground made everyone gulp down. This was the first time they saw so many Supreme Rank Corpses in one ce.


    Theo hurriedly stepped forward and red at all these people, saying, "I will take all the Flying Frogs. Any objections?"


    Theo''s tone brooked no argument. As a staff of the Star Group, they needed to quickly make their decision. And with Theo''s power, there was no need to consider it.


    "That''s fair. In fact, you can take half of our kills too. After all, we couldn''t do anything without your power," said the staff with a serious expression. These corpses were tempting as they should have no problem getting a few million even with what they killed. However, it wasn''t enough to make them fight an S Rank Talent.


    Theo squinted his eyes and looked at the group who suffered the most before saying, "I only need the Flying Frogs and the monsters I killed earlier. That''s all. You can donate the rest to that guy who has lost one arm."


    "!!!" They widened their eyes and turned to that person, never expecting Theo to be this generous.


    If it was another person, they would just ept it.


    The one-armed guy dropped his weapon and couldn''t help but lower his head. "Thank you so much."


    With only one hand, he would lead a hard life in the future. The money from these monsters would certainly help him in a big way. That was why he was so grateful to Theo.


    "Also, I need to make sure you delete any records about this fight." Theo squinted his eyes, giving them a cold gaze.


    Theo had no poprity in the Star Group, even though his strength was this shocking. There was only one possibility. Theo intentionally hid his strength this whole time. Of course, he wanted them to delete any records about the fight.


    They exchanged looks, and the guy, who already knew Theo''s real assessment, nodded his head. "I''d like to ask all of you as well. Please delete the record."


    Little did they know, all their decisions were affected by the power Theo showed earlier. Although it was risky to use his Ascension Step since it was the Wind Emperor''s Divine Technique, it had been decades since the Wind Emperor used it. So, not many people knew about it.


    Obviously, he also had prepared for the rumor about his strength to spread. In fact, he wanted them to spread his power from mouth to mouth.


    This way, the spies in thepany would also know a bit more about him.


    The only reason Theo did all this was due to Mark''s incident.


    If he didn''t show them anything, he was afraid there would be another ''Mark'' who challenged him just to see his real power. To avoid them, he simply needed to show them a bit of his power from time to time.


    After confirming they had deleted the videos, Theo turned all the monsters except the Flying Frogs into cards.


    "With these 8 Flying Frogs, your total kill is 11. We shouldn''t have a problem taking all these 8 frogs back to the camp�� Consider it as thanks for helping us kill these monsters," said the staff while ncing at the group.


    "Okay. I''ll leave them to you. I''ll head back to update my kill count after dealing with the Flying Frog King��" Theo nodded his head and walked away.

 Chapter 924 – Underwater Fight

    <h4>Chapter 924 - Underwater Fight</h4>


    *Pant!*


    Theo took a deep breath, sorting his breath out. He used too much Magic Power earlier that he needed to consider how many skills he could use to go to theke.


    Since it would be a problem fighting the Flying Frog King with this condition, he hid in a tree near theke, trying to recover his Magic Power.


    It took hours to recover most of his Magic Power because he also needed to deal with multiple monsters that found his position.


    By the time hepletely recovered his power, the sunset hade.


    "It''s going to be dark soon�� It''s better if I go to a safer ce to sleep. So, I should finish the monster as soon as possible. Well, the question is, how strong is the Flying Frog King? Judging from the flying frogs'' levels, I think around level 650."


    Theo checked his status again.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 531


    EXP: 1,745,799/ 8,111,287


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (B), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (A), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (B), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(B)


    Attributes: Strength 675, Endurance 491, Agility 488, Vitality 491, Magic Power 900


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and muttered, "Can I kill a monster more than 100 levels above me with the ability tomand the monsters around him? If I have Ava with me, I won''t be that afraid since not only can she stop the normal monsters, but she can also help me fight.


    "Agata is not here to support me either." Theo looked down with a serious expression. "Still, the frog is known to be poisonous and has some strength like the normal flying frog�� I might need to use my spear and the real clone to fight this monster. Luckily, I can stop his poison with my Death Avatar''s second authority, Underworld Body. If not, I won''t stand a chance at all."


    Theo fell silent for another fifteen minutes,ing up with a n that could kill the Flying Frog King. At the same time, he also sent his clone to scout the area around, thinning the number of monsters around the area while making sure no humans were near this ce.


    After getting his n, Theo leaped off the tree and headed straight to theke. Since he needed to go underwater, he took off his clothes while using his Death Armor to cover his body for the moment.


    Then, Theo jumped into the water while changing his form to a fish. The only time he used this form was when Maya fought him in Thernd, so it was kind of nostalgic.


    As soon as he entered the water, he expanded his Awareness, searching for the Flying Frog King. Surprisingly, there were no monsters in this water even though the smallke was quite spacious.


    ''Has the flying frog king killed them?'' Theo thought while looking around, only to find nothing.


    He went deeper and deeper while using his Magic Power to create a blue light around him to brighten theke.


    When he reached the depth of 150 feet, Theo found a huge boulder that stood in the middle of theke.


    ''That''s suspicious.'' Theo narrowed his eyes and approached it carefully, noticing the boulder was releasing Magic Power. It only meant two things: it was either a monster or an artifact.


    As soon as Theo came close enough, the boulder trembled once before a red tongue came out of the boulder, circling him.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and realized he had been enveloped by the tongue. Without wasting even a single second, the tongue brought him into the frog''s slimy yet warm mouth. The smell was terrible, and the slimy liquid was disgusting.


    ''Am I going to get digested?'' Theo muttered in his mind and utilized his Blink to escape from the frog''s mouth. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.


    ''I don''t want to experience that anymore.''


    As if realizing Theo had disappeared in his mouth, the rock trembled again as a pair of eyes showed their appearance, looking at the fish a few feet away from him.


    The legs pped once and shook off all the dirt on it, resulting in cracking the rest of the soil.


    The frog swayed his body left and right, peeling off the dirt he used as camouge.


    ''For real? The Flying Frog not only can fly, but it can also live underwater while using camouge?'' Theo was stunned as he had never seen a frog like this.


    Unfortunately, he had no time to observe the frog as thetter leaped forward.


    Although the frog''s speed wasn''t that fast, Theo''s swimming skill wasn''t that good when he was in his fish form. He still needed to utilize his Telekinesis to help him move.


    And the usage of this skill couldn''t escape from the flying frog king''s eyes. "Hmm? A fish that can''t even move fast? Who are you?!"


    The frog said it in a humannguage and noticed the slight change in Theo''s expression. Without hesitation, the frog dered. "So, you''re a human. How dare a human disturb me! No. You''re here to hunt my brethren and me�� I don''t know how you can be a fish, but you need to die."


    The frog spat out poison and spread it on the water, trying to kill Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, the Death Avatar came out and protected Theo from the poison.


    After that, Theo turned back into his human form, created a spear with his Magic Power, and threw it at the frog.


    Because of the water pressure and resistance, the spear ended up falling to the ground with its speed reduced.


    Since his attack failed, Theo summoned his Magic Bullets before a shield from his Ring of Honor appeared to his right.


    Another tongue hit him from the right and shattered the shield, but luckily, Theo managed to use the tongue''s momentum to send him away��


    Theo thought, ''Fighting underwater, huh�� This is the first time I''ve done this. Although the opponent is quite dangerous, I might as well try it while I can�� It should be easy to bring the frog to the surface anyway.''

 Chapter 925 – Stop Holding Back

    <h4>Chapter 925 - Stop Holding Back</h4>


    "Flying and swimming frog��" Theo muttered while using his Telekinesis to move around underwater before turning back into the fish form since he couldn''t breathe with his human form.


    As soon as he turned back, he swam forward to challenge this frog again.


    "It seems that you can breathe underwater." The frog squinted his eyes, realizing it was impossible to drown Theo. However, his power was reduced to half when he was underwater because of his form.


    Using this to his advantage, the frog sent out his tongue again.


    Theo turned his blue ring into a shield and received the attack. Although it wouldn''t injure him, the force was enough to blow him away.


    The Death Avatar then emerged from his back, and purple me covered both their eyes, sending a powerful killing intent.


    "!!!" The frog widened his eyes. He felt as if he was in front of a giant that could squeeze him to death when he wanted it.


    However, as a Supreme Rank Monster that had defeated countless beasts, his ferocity was enough to handle this killing intent.


    His cheeks even bloated again, preparing for the second attack. The moment he opened that mouth, the pressure built up inside was released, creating a water tornado.


    When it was about to touch Fish Theo, the tornado vanished as if it was never there to begin with.


    Theo just utilized his Illusion Destruction and took this chance to approach the frog.


    The frog narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Death Avatar on Theo''s back. He still remembered that this avatar could repel his poison, so releasing the poison again might be useless. Since that was the case, there was no need for him to waste his Magic Power on it.


    Instead, he poured that Magic Power into his body, summoning numerous shields that scattered around his body. With Theo''s swimming skills, it would be hard for him to slip past these after all.


    Unfortunately for him, these scattered fields were Theo''s biggest opportunity.


    Numerous Magic Bullets flew toward the shields and skillfully moved around the shields, avoiding all of them.


    "What?!" The frog was stunned when he saw the Magic Bullets almost reach him. He immediately channeled his Magic Power into his shield so that he could patch the hole by creating another screen in the gaps.


    "Boom."


    "Boom."


    "Boom."


    The Magic Bullets ended up hitting the shields, creating a series of explosions. Little did the frog know, this was within Theo''s expectation. In fact, he had been waiting for this.


    The explosions created numerous bubbles that covered his vision, so the frog shouldn''t be able to see anything within these few seconds.


    A huge spear formed above Theo''s head as he shot them with all he got.


    His monster''s sense was tingling because of the Magic Power fluctuation, and he immediately swam to the side before realizing it was the best decision he had made.


    Theo''s spear hit the corner of his shield and shattered that area, so if he continued to stay there, the spear would have created a huge hole in his body.


    ''He has this kind of powerful attack? Even my shield, which not many can break, actually shatters?'' The frog thought with a serious expression. He realized the man who wanted to kill him seemed to be stronger than the average expert.


    On the other hand, Theo frowned and felt weird about this fight. ''This is a battle against a Level 650 monster�� How does it seem to be that easy? Is the frog nning something big? Or have I overestimated his level? Maybe he''s only a level 600 monster?


    ''Now that I think about it, why does it feel like the monsters only have several skills? Humans can use ten skills while the monsters don''t seem to have many skills�� Most of the Supreme Rank Monsters I have encountered only released two to three skills at most.''


    A big doubt arose in his heart. If the humans could have ten skills along with the techniques they invented or acquired like his Magic Bullets, Ascension Step, or even Thunderp Fist, the monsters should have more.


    ''Never mind. I shouldn''t think much about this for now�� I need to focus on the fight.'' Theo shook his head and punched forward while spinning his arm.


    With the help of the Telekinesis and Thunderp Fist, his arm created the same tornado as the frog earlier.


    However, Theo''s Control was stronger than the frog. Before reaching its target, the tornado split into two and looped around the frog, surrounding him from two different directions.


    The frog now realized he was in a perilous situation. On the one hand, his barrier was enough to stop the tornado. On the other hand, Theo would take advantage of the water bubbles tounch another sneak attack.


    Since the situation was like this, the frog chose to swim forward, approaching Theo. He even spat another poison ball that gradually spread around the water, making it cloudy.


    The Death Avatar used its second authority to protect Theo from the poison, but the enhanced sense indicated another presenceing.


    It was clear the frog was about to use the same trick as earlier, so Theo put up his shield to the side, preparing to block it.


    However, the frog took this one step further. Instead of a water tornado or his tongue, the one that appeared right next to Theo was himself.


    "Wh��!" Theo widened his eyes and blocked the frog''s giant body with his shield.


    Sadly, it only stopped his body, not his webbed hands.


    Since Theo didn''t want to be pped to death like a mosquito, he used his Thunderp Fist to stop the second hand. As for the other hand, it managed to strike Theo and knock him away.


    The p was so hard that Theo ended up crashing to theke''s wall, and his transformation was undone.


    "Gah." Theo spat out air and saw the froging to him.


    As soon as the frog reached his position, Theo used his Blink to teleport himself to the frog''s back while shing his sword.


    Unfortunately, the water resistance was so strong that the frog managed to spin his body around first and smacked him again.


    This was when Theo realized the only reason he could fight the frog evenly was due to the frog trying to figure out his power and attacking him from a distance�� Now that the frog had finished warming up, he fought against Theo with his body that could ignore the water resistance, instantly gaining a huge advantage.

 Chapter 926 – Turning The Situation Around

    <h4>Chapter 926 - Turning The Situation Around</h4>


    By getting beaten up by the frog, Theo learned three big lessons. First, he needed to improve his swimming skill. Second, the way to ignore the water resistance would be the first thing to be figured out. Third, it was pretty hard to manipte the water, especially when he was quite deep due to the pressure fighting back his Control.


    Now that he hadpleted his objective to learn about underwater fights, Theo nned to bring the frog to the surface.


    "Gah!" Theo''s transformation was undone again after he crashed into the wall.


    Before the frog reached him, Theo used his Metamorphosis again to turn back to his fish form. However, only his right hand transformed into a pectoral fin. The rest of the body remained in the human form.


    Seeing Theo''s failure, the frog''s expression brightened as heughed. "Hahaha. You can''t transform again. It''s time to drown you!"


    Theo could only hold out his breath for four minutes, so he needed to return to the surface within that time.


    He used his Telekinesis to push his body upward as hard as possible without hesitation. Even his legs released the shock wave from the Thunderp Fist to gain some speed boosts for a while.


    Sadly, no matter how hard he tried, his speed couldn''t beat the one who lived underwater.


    The frog suddenly appeared before him, stopping Theo from reaching the surface.


    "Where do you think you are going? Go back to the bottom!" The frog smiled and punched Theo''s body.


    Out of desperation, Theo used his Blink to teleport as far as possible and continued swimming. Due to the extraordinary depth thiske had, he was still underwater.


    "Kh. NO. I can still make it!" The frog turned around and chased after him.


    When Theo was about to reach the surface, the frog managed to grab his legs and stop him.


    Theo used his Thunderp Fist to break free from his grip, but the frog took that chance to loop around, positioning himself between Theo and the surface.


    Although the surface was only twenty feet away, it was impossible to reach it as long as the frog stood in his way. And the frog needed to knock him down before he could use his Blink again.


    "!!!" Suddenly, the frog widened his eyes when he saw Theo''s face.


    In this perilous situation, Theo was supposed to have a frown on his face. Yet, what he saw on him was a big smile as though everything went ording to the n.


    It turned out Theo had already pulled his fist back and poured his Magic Power into his fist.


    The moment the frog was on top of him, he punched forward, releasing a massive tornado that engulfed the frog.


    This tornado contained his Control, Telekinesis, Magic Power Expansion, Magic Augmentation, and Thunderp Fist. These fivebined together and lifted the massive frog to the surface.


    "This was your n all along?! Bastard!" The frog realized he was tricked.


    The moment his body flew into the surface, there was another Theo waiting for him.


    "He teleported again?" The frog widened his eyes and checked his senses, finding two Theos. "No. He is��"


    Before he could finish his thought, Clone Theo punched the frog with the Thunderp Fist.


    "Bang!"


    A thunderp resounded on top of theke as the shock waveunched the frog to the corner of theke.


    It was then the real Theo came out of the water and chased after the frog with his clone.


    "That one is not a real human body!" The frog recognized the clone by the structure of the Magic Power and immediately shot it down with his tongue.


    However, this was the surface. Theo wasn''t restricted by the water anymore.


    His clone used his Blink to reach the frog in an instant. Since the tongue needed time to return, this should be the chance to cut this long tongue.


    He summoned a spear with his Magic Power and waved it down.


    *Cling!*


    The frog released all his Magic Power into summoning his shield, blocking the spear.


    "Kh." The frog hurriedly rolled his tongue while looking at the real Theo, who almost reached him.


    With the Death Avatar on his back, Theo used his Telekinesis to pin the frog to the ground.


    "Boom!"


    Suddenly, there was a huge burst from theke as if something had just exploded.


    "Haha. Remember. We''re still near theke." The frogughed.


    "Yeah. Indeed��" Theo''s voice resounded in his ears as the water curved around and formed a huge water snake. "Do you think you''re the only one who can do it?"


    "What?!" The frog couldn''t believe what he saw. Not only was Theo not injured, but he also used the water to form his own attack.


    "The water pressure stopped me earlier, but there''s no need to hold back anymore." Theo snorted and waved his hand, sending the water snake forward.


    The frog rose from the ground and pulled his right hand to smack the water snake.


    But when he was about to move his hand, a stabbing pain jolted his mind as he lost the connection between him and his hand.


    "Eh?!" The frog widened his eyes and turned his head to the right, finding Clone Theo cutting his hand from afar. "Since when�� Arghhh!"


    The frog screamed out of pain and forgot the fact a water snake wasing.


    That water current directly hit his body andunched the frog into the air, destroying multiple trees before a huge boulder stopped him.


    "Bam!"


    The forest was filled withmotions from both monsters and falling trees.


    Theo and his clone chased after the frog, not wanting to give the frog enough time to escape. After all, the frog had one big advantage as a General ss Monster, albeit he was faster.


    "Poka!" The frog let out a roar because he remembered how Theo cut his right hand. He couldn''t afford to fight him alone anymore, unaware that his right hand had already returned and everything was just an illusion.


    This might be the first time Theo''s excessive damage put him in a bad situation.

 Chapter 927 – Grim Reaper

    <h4>Chapter 927 - Grim Reaper</h4>


    After that shout, the frog soon realized the pain in his arm had disappeared. Even his head couldn''t help but turn around, finding his right arm to recover mysteriously.


    "!!!" The frog''s eyes widened in shock. ''I''ve been tricked?''


    His body was shaking. Although his arms were still intact, that water snake dealt more damage than he originally thought.


    The overwhelming pain on his arm was indeed gone, but the mild stabbing pain spread around his body.


    He rose from the ground and red at Theo while trying to move his body.


    On the contrary, Theo and his clone raised their spears at the same time.


    Theo''s Death Avatar spread his arms as two blue swords appeared.


    Before the frog could jump away, Theo had reached his position and thrust his spear.


    The frog used his giant hands to wrap Theo''s spear, holding it back. Suddenly, he let go of his spear and ducked down, slipping past the frog''s defense.


    "Ugh!" The frog''s expression darkened as he couldn''t stop Theo anymore.


    Luckily, the two fastest monsters had reached his position and prepared to attack Theo, who wanted to harm a General ss Monster.


    Clone Theo wielded his spear and struck both monsters, preventing them from joining the battle.


    "You''re not going anywhere." Clone Theo snorted.


    Now that the monsters had started moving, Theo''s only chance to deal with the frog king was before they came here.


    ''I''m not strong enough to kill a General ss Monster while dealing with hundreds of Supreme Rank Monsters��'' Theo muttered in his mind and sent his palm forward.


    "Bang!"


    The Thunderp Fist produced a loud sound, and the shock wave knocked the frog away, giving him some more distance.


    "Gueh." The frog spat some blood, but this was the situation he wanted. With this distance, he should be able to maintain it for thirty seconds. He swore to turn around the situation when the monsters under hismand arrived.


    However, Theo wasn''t idle either.


    "What''s that?!" The frog suddenly saw a blue light on the hand Theo used to strike him.


    "What do you think?" Theo smirked while staring at his chubby belly.


    The frog looked down and saw a blue-colored mark on his stomach.


    Without giving him any chance to react, Theo made a pulling motion as a translucent frog came out of his body.


    "Wh-what''s that?!" The frog was bewildered by his imitation.


    "The answer is obvious�� Now that the requirement ispleted. It''s time for the ritual." Theo smirked and snapped his finger.


    Suddenly, the entire forest disappeared, reced by the chilling darkness. The soil transformed into the blood that stuck to his feet.


    No matter how far he saw, the frog could only see endless darkness and gloominess. Though, the one that grabbed his attention was the huge cross that chained his imitation.


    He didn''t know why but he felt something was clutching his chest. It had the same position as the chains that bound his so-called soul.


    "It''s time for you to die." Theo smirked as the Death Avatar cut both hands.


    "Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!" The frog screamed in pain when his soul lost its hands.


    "You thought that was an illusion?" Theo made an evil smirk.


    ''That'' in Theo''s mouth referred to the time his clone cut his hand. It was normal for him to think that memory was just an illusion. After all, everything returned to normal as soon as he got away.


    But he started doubting himself again when Theo invited him into this world.


    Sadly for Theo, he was restricted by his own rule, where he couldn''t lie. Or else, he would continue with ''No. It''s your soul.''


    Even when Theo fought Mark, he rarely mentioned soul. He only pointed at the soul when exining to Bernard.


    That was why he always felt his trick neverpleted. But�� he couldn''t cry over spilled milk.


    Since he already had an Order, he shouldn''t break his rule until he truly knew what his Order was. After all, the situation would be extremely tricky if he suddenly lost his Order.


    With this limitation, Theo managed to trick the frog into thinking what he had was an Order.


    And obviously, most of it was due to this illusion realm. The blood scent, the chilliness of the gentle gale, and the eeriness of the darkness forced the frog to ept.


    "Release me!" The frog shouted as the pain stopped him from moving. No matter how experienced he was with pain, it was beyond his imagination.


    Only Theo, who had been tortured in this ce for months, could withstand pain at this level.


    Theo ignored him and waved his hand as the Death Avatar cut his legs.


    "Aaahhhh! Bastard!" The frog continued screaming. Due to the pain, his consciousness gradually became fuzzy.


    For him who intermittently went into a deep slumber, thirty seconds should feel like a breeze. However, this constant pain made thest thirty seconds of his life felt like forever.


    ''Hurry up. I want to get away.'' The frog gritted his teeth and tried to release his Magic Power but to no avail.


    On the contrary, the Magic Power suddenly erupted from his soul.


    That instance made himpletely believe that was his soul. He was unaware that his body truly excreted Magic Power.


    Theo simply removed the feeling of releasing his Magic Power. With Theo''s Control, it was easy for him to know what kind of feeling he would have.


    "Now�� it''s time for you to die��" Theo smirked as the Death Avatar finally stabbed the soul on the stomach.


    "Gah." The frog felt it again, unaware his real body actually got the same stab in reality, but from Theo''s spear created from Magic Power.


    With another stab, the frog lost control over his body, which was when Theo delivered the killing blow.


    Theo shed the frog''s head as Clone Theo did the same.


    At thest moment, the frog finally felt the faint presence that came toward him. Unfortunately, it was toote.


    Even turning his head couldn''t help him as the de had already cut his head.


    [Killed a Flying Frog King.]


    As soon as he received the acknowledgment, the illusion disappeared, revealing the real situation outside where more and more monsters had arrived.


    "Well�� my job is over now." Theo looked at the monsters that encircled him�� "It''s time to escape."

 Chapter 928 – Finish Hunting

    <h4>Chapter 928 - Finish Hunting</h4>


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    A series of explosions urred. More and more monsters joined hands to attack one person who had caused all this.


    It was Theo.


    After defeating the flying frog king, he was besieged by the monsters because the flying frog king was simr to their ruler. It was normal for them to avenge their leader.


    The escape was supposed to be easy, but he had one major problem. He couldn''t use his Blink because the corpse of this General ss monster would be left behind.


    He needed to touch the corpse if he wanted to bring it with him. However, the moment he touched the corpse, it would turn into cards.


    Having no other choice, Theo kept using his Telekinesis around to shake them off.


    Still, their number truly made it hard for him to escape.


    "Annoying." Theo clicked his tongue while ncing at the monsters on his back. Some monsters had also sped up and approached him from the sides.


    Theo summoned his clone. Instead of fighting back, he created another corpse of the flying frog king to fool them.


    After that, they went separate ways, splitting the monsters into two. He did it again and again until the number of monsters was enough for his clone to handle.


    Still, the process took an hour toplete, exhausting Theo, who had just fought against the flying frog king.


    Instead of taking a good rest after escaping from the monsters'' chase, Theo immediately headed straight to the camp.


    ��


    "Has hee back?"


    "It''s been a few hours since he''s gone to confront the flying frog king."


    The employees were talking about Theo as they had received the report from their colleague. They were shocked at first when they heard about Theo''s power. But their opinion soon changed.


    An S Rank Talent of their Star Group was expected to have that kind of prowess, or else other influences would look down on them.


    Their worries soon disappeared when Theo suddenly entered the tent.


    "!!!" Their eyes locked on Theo immediately as they instinctively straightened their back.


    "Where should I put the corpse?" asked Theo while looking around, finding no ce where they stacked the corpses. He had contributed a few flying frogs, so their corpses should be lying somewhere.


    Since he couldn''t find anything, the storage must be elsewhere.


    "You can ce it right there. We will take care of it." The guy smiled and exined. "Flying Frog King is precious because all their organs have a stronger efficacy. And this one is not only a Flying Frog King, but a General ss Monster.


    "To be honest, this frog alone is already worth more than a hundred million Star Points." He exined.


    "So, my mission here is done?" Theo asked.


    "Yes."


    Theo thought for a moment. On the one hand, it was a good thing to finish his job early. On the other hand, he shouldn''t return now since Bernard hadn''t solved the problem yet. There would be a chance of him being targeted.


    After some consideration, Theo asked, "Now that I''ve finished my mission, is there a problem if I continue hunting the flying frogs?"


    "There shouldn''t be any problem. Although it''s a good thing to leave some monsters for the others, no one can prevent you from hunting them." He exined. "I think I also know the reason why you want to continue killing the flying frogs.


    "Unlike other monsters in this area, the flying frogs have a special value, so it''s the best way to gather the Star Points."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded with a calm expression while adding inwardly, ''Saying that is not wrong, but, I simply want to stay here until Bernard settles everything on the other side.''


    "Well, you can do whatever you like. It''s just�� Sometimes, people like to mess with your reputation if they see you like this. For now, no one knows that you have finished your missions, so it won''t be happening soon. But��" He paused while scratching the back of his head.


    "Reputation, huh. I don''t really care about them messing up my reputation." Theo shrugged, thinking it would just be another way to promote himself.


    "I understand."


    "So, I''ll leave this to you." Theo put down the corpse on the ground. "How should I prove that I havepleted my mission?"


    "We just need your badge. We can easily ess your information from that badge since it''s custom-made. We''ll simply put the record there."


    "But I still want to hunt more flying frogs?"


    "That''s fine too. We can update it from time to time until you''re done. We usually stay for another few days after you all finish hunting the monsters�� So, you can go to us from time to time."


    "I see." Theo nodded. "What''s the use of this camp anyway? This is my first time going on a mission, so I''m not very sure."


    "The Star Group makes this camp for three purposes. Firstly, it''s a kind of station where all agents can gather if something happens. Secondly, you''re free to use the facility here to take some rest. There are beds, supplies, and stuff�� We don''t have anything fancy, but it''s enough for survival. Last but not least, a small reinforcement like a rescue mission you had earlier."


    "Oh." Theo nodded in understanding. The reason was pretty reasonable. "I''m going to take a rest here for a while."


    "Understood. You can use the supply there." He nodded and pointed at the beds and other stuff on the edge of the camp.


    Since he had finished his job, Theo nned to hunt more monsters for another few weeks.


    This hunt would give him more levels to catch up with Mark. With that kind of power, he should have no problem overpowering Mark next time.


    At the very least, he wanted to reach level 550 from this hunt. And due to him hunting alone now, he could only reach his target after hunting for 45 days. It was quite long, but at least, it was worth it because he could easily gain almost a billion from this hunt alone.


    As soon as he reached level 550, he gained the proof forpleting the mission and finally returned to the other side.

 Chapter 929 – Beggar Network

    <h4>Chapter 929 - Beggar Network</h4>


    When Theo returned to the other side, he felt as if he was being watched.


    ''Hmm��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and looked around, not finding anyone that looked at him.


    He never felt this feeling when he was in Italy.


    Even after looking around, the feeling didn''t stop.


    ''What is this?'' Theo became a bit worried and stepped into a crowded area, thinking whoever did this wouldn''t do anything in front of so many people at the very least. As long as he was aware of his surroundings, no one should be able tounch a sneak attack.


    As soon as he reached the desired area, Theo called Bernard''s private number.


    "You havee back? What is it?"


    "Yes. I feel like I''m being watched��" Theo blurted his feelings without hesitation. He wanted to rm the people who watched him, but thetter seemed to be greater than he originally thought.


    The feeling didn''t vanish. Instead, it intensified as if telling him, ''I''m here, watching you.''


    "Do you remember what happened a few months ago?"


    "You mean my fight?"


    "Yeah. Anyway, many people are trying to figure out your identity right now. They are even using the beggars��"


    "Beggars��" Theo muttered in a low voice while looking around. He realized there were at least four people begging for money. Although there was no Magic Powering out of their bodies, Theo could feel there was something special about them.


    "If you can feel them, it means they''re letting you see them. If they''re hiding from you, you won''t be able to differentiate them."


    "For real?" Theo narrowed his eyes, never expecting to find something like this in the US.


    "Yeah. Just do whatever you want as long as you don''t use anything that will give your information. The first rule of the beggars is that they won''t harm anyone. All they want to do is information."


    "You know them?"


    "I think I have told you that the beggars hold the biggest informationwork in the US, no?"


    "I think I''ve heard of it��"


    "Anyway, unlike the military or big influences'' informationwork, the beggar''swork is unique. They''re leaning toward using people instead of technology�� Well, they still use technology, but yeah�� you know what I mean. Their informationwork might not spread to other countries, but they have a solidwork here."


    "So, can I just ignore this feeling? Will they continue following me?"


    "If you return to your home, they won''t be able to sneak in. That''s why I''m creating a neighborhood for my people."


    "I see. Who wants to know me?"


    "Well, this is not a secret, so I guess I can tell you now." Bernard paused for a moment and said, "There are many parties interested in you because you''re an S Rank Talent who is stronger than Mark. But no one has made a big move for the time being�� They''re biding their time until the beggars confirm your identity."


    "For what?"


    "Have you heard about Asda''s Younger Generation List?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. He wanted to say, ''Maya mentioned it somewhere,'' but the beggar would know he had some connections with Maya. It would be easier for them to figure out his identity.


    "In that case, it''s easier for me to exin. Mark is ranked 6th on that list. Since you can overpower him, you might make it to that list."


    "Do you think I would care about this list?"


    "Nope. But it doesn''t change the fact that someone will put your name on that list. I''m afraid�� the one who is using the beggars right now is��"


    "The one responsible for that list." Theo''s expression turned serious. "Can''t you stop him?"


    "I wanted to do that, but I would be scrutinized. As you know, they have their own pride to get into that list, and the organizer is also a neutral party. If I stop them, those prideful pieces of sh*t will cry to their parents."


    "I see. Your Star Group won''t be in a good position as well."


    "Correct."


    "I can only endure it then��" Theo sighed before asking, "So, can I safely assume you''re the cause of all this?"


    "Me? It''s you. If you didn''t brutally beat him, you wouldn''t get any attention��"


    "Then, isn''t it Mark''s fault? It seems I need to beat him up again��" Theo snorted.


    "Come on. I already yed into your hands back then�� Can''t you stop this already?"


    "I''m just joking�� Though, I have a request."


    "Hmm? A request�� Personal or business?"


    "Personal."


    "Do you want to meet now? I should have some free time three hours from now. While waiting, you can use thepany staff to exchange your loot with Star Points."


    "Good enough." Theo nodded.


    "I''ll call someone to pick you up. Wait there."


    "By the way, what will happen if I enter this Asda List?"


    "I think you already know what will happen�� You will be famous. For now, it''s going to be easy to protect you since the Star Group is behind you. But I''m sure people will challenge you if there''s an opportunity."


    "Such as��" Theo narrowed his eyes, knowing troubles woulde his way soon.


    "Many things. I''ll let you know about it when you get here."


    "That many?"


    "No. But they''re too special to inform you through the call."


    "I see." Theo thought for a moment. Although he was quite curious about the people in the Asda List, he remembered Maya was 3rd on that list because of her huge potential.


    If he and Maya met, it would be easy for her to recognize his skill. After all, he had seen him fight for months when they hunted together.


    "Anyway, everything will be an opportunity for you. So, I don''t think you will refuse even if I don''t give you a mission." Bernard sighed. "Do you have anything you want to ask? I want to finish my work."


    "Onest thing. Am I required to ept the fight for the sake of the Star Group?"


    "Not really. The Star Group is colossal. No need to prove that. But if you don''t ept the fight, people will think you''re easy to bully�� They might send people to challenge you or harass you. I know you won''t care, but it''s kinda annoying. Personally, you''re free to beat them up like Mark�� Just don''t cripple them or kill them. It''ll be hard for me to protect youter."


    "Some broken bones are enough to scare most people, right?"


    "Half dead. Give them a trauma�� Hahaha."

 Chapter 930 – Joint Missions

    <h4>Chapter 930 - Joint Missions</h4>


    Star Group.


    "I''ve made the list for you. You can choose which one to exchange, and we''ll separate them."


    Now that Theo had reached the Star Group, he immediately exchanged all the loot he had got from the other side. Of course, Theo had prepared an answer for this.


    "I don''t mind exchanging everything except the Skill Cards."


    "Ah." The employee nodded, realizing Theo had no problems with money. Normally, they would only exchange forty percent of their loots because they needed money to take care of their basic needs as well as other stuff unrted to their profession. "I understand. I shall remove them and transfer the Star Points immediately."


    "Alright. Thank you." Theo nodded and sat down in the lobby, waiting for him to finish.


    While waiting, he closed his eyes for a moment so that the wait wouldn''t be that boring.


    After a while, the employee returned and handed him his badge. "You have killed 141 flying frogs, which gives you 257 million Star Points. In addition, your contribution in killing the flying frog king is 200 million Star Points.


    "As for the Materials Cards you have with you, they are worth 390 million Star Points. In total, you get 847 million Star Points."


    "Less than a billion, huh��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. If he exchanged his skills as well, he would reach the one billion mark, but the Skill Cards were important for his growth since upgrading his skill took priority.


    In fact, he had gathered so many Skill Cards that he might be able to sell all of them for around two billion.


    "Alright. Thank you." Theo nodded and put his Star Badge back, waiting for the appointment.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Bernard''s voice suddenly echoed in his ears.


    "Not even a billion? You are worse than I thought."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    It was clear Bernard was trying to tease him because he held a grudge. Since he was in front of the employee, Theo couldn''t talk back, or more rumors about him would appear.


    Theo restrained himself and politely greeted him. "It''s been a while since west met, Mr. Bernard."


    Bernard paused for a moment and looked into his eyes before clicking his tongue. "Let''s talk in my office."


    "Understood."


    The two exchanged a nod and walked to Bernard''s office.


    The moment he entered his office, Bernard sat down on his chair and wore a nonchnt expression. "This sucks��"


    "What?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "The beggars�� I just got a call from their boss to tell him your identity. Those who watched you earlier must have reported our call to their boss."


    "So, you gave him my information?"


    "Obviously not. They can search all they want; I don''t really care. It''s just�� you''ll be in this situation for another month."


    "That won''t be a problem since I''m not nning to leave the mansion." Theo shook his head.


    "Yeah, I know. But the fact they''re trying to end the investigation as soon as possible by contacting me means you''re their priority right now. They might be able to find something big��"


    "As long as it''s not something rted to my real identity."


    "Don''t worry. No one knows about that other than us." Bernard sighed. "Anyway, the special asions I told you about earlier are about joint missions."


    "Joint missions?"


    "Yeah. You should still remember about the time you group up with the Russia Team to go inside the Dark Poison Swamp, right?"


    "Indeed. Isn''t this considered a mission from the Star Group?"


    "It''s not��" Bernard shook his head. "��for one big reason. Because this time, the Star Group can''t monopolize that area like the War God Family. Instead, it will be free for all. Anyone who has strength can enter�� And I believe thousands of people will participate in this."


    "That many?"


    "Yep. I will give you an example of a ce like this. In the south, you will find a sea. If you go a bit further, you will find an ind that wille out of the sea every five years."


    "For real?"


    "It''s abination of magical stuff the other side has and seismic activities. Either way, this ind is so huge that even thousands of people won''t make it crowded."


    "But why should I go there?"


    "Because that ind is rumored to be Antis."


    "The legendary Antis?"


    "Yeah. There are many mysterious items on that ind you might probably want to get��"


    "Hmm? Something like artifacts?"


    "Herbs, artifacts�� Anything to increase your attribute points."


    "But won''t it be monopolized by Mythical Rank Experts?" Theo asked, feeling something was wrong.


    "If only it''s that easy�� You literally need to cross the sea, you know."


    "Yeah. Mythical Rank Experts shouldn''t have any problems."


    "No. Mythical Rank Experts are excreting more Magic Power than Supreme Rank Experts�� It''s so intense that it disturbs the living creatures in the sea. Every time a Mythical Rank Expert flies across the sea, they will be attacked by many Mythical Rank Monsters and�� you know."


    Theo narrowed his eyes. "Then, is it fine for Supreme Rank Experts? We''re weaker than them."


    "Yes and no. You can cross it, but it''s not that safe either. You might get attacked�� but the chance is less than Mythical Rank Experts. Those Mythical Rank Monsters are living in the deep area, so with the Magic Power you naturally release, it won''t reach that level."


    "Only Supreme Rank Monsters or below who live near the surface, huh�� It''s dangerous but feasible." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yeah. But the stuff you can find on that ind is good�� High reward and high return stuff like that�� Also, thend around us is a bit special. In the north, there''s a ce with a tree that shoots up to the sky. People call it the World Tree. It''s protected by multiple King ss Monsters. So�� yeah, it''s an opportunity that you don''t want to miss."


    "Fair enough. If you eat all the things you found there, you are not obligated to share it with outsiders when you return."


    "Yep. Just increase your power as much as possible in that ce. Well, the ind will appear in two years�� There is another ce that will be unsealed in a few months. I''m afraid you are going to��"


    "I see. I understand that. Just give me the information, and I will see whether I want to participate or not."


    "Sure enough." Bernard nodded in agreement before asking, "Anyway, what do you want to ask me?"


    When he heard that question, Theo suddenly fell silent, hesitating.

 Chapter 931 – Facing The Past

    <h4>Chapter 931 - Facing The Past</h4>


    Theo remained silent for a moment. Clearly, this matter troubled him as he was still hesitating to say it.


    Since this was Theo''s personal request, Bernard sighed and waved his hand. "If you still want to think about it, we can call it off for now. Just tell me when you''re ready."


    Theo looked at Bernard''s face and shook his head helplessly. "No. It''s not that��"


    "Then what?"


    "I have been thinking about this��" Theo looked down. "I think it''s time for me to learn the information about my parents��"


    "Huh?" Bernard widened his eyes in shock. He never thought those words woulde from his mouth. "So, you''ve decided to forgive them? You''re not going to use the Griffith Family''swork to leave mypany, right?"


    "No." Theo denied it with a firm tone. "I have no intention to do that. Forgiving them is a separate matter�� I don''t even know what was going on, so how could you expect me to think about it?"


    "But that thought is in your mind, no?"


    "Not really." Theo let out a long sigh.


    Agata had gathered the information about his past and epted him. This was why she could wait for so long until he had the courage to step forward for himself.


    So, he thought he might also need to face his past instead of running away from it. Forgiving them or not, it was never in his mind. All he wanted was to know about the past.


    "So��" Bernard narrowed his eyes. Although he didn''t want to involve himself with someone''s past, this one was important because the information might influence Theo''s action.


    However, Theo assured him, "I only want closure. On the one hand, I can''t deny that they were doing it to protect me in the past. On the other hand, I feel like their n has changed to their personal revenge along the way.


    "That''s why knowing the past will allow me to understand the situation better. Now that the Griffith Family is on to me, it''s better to know the whole situation than run away from it.


    "This is for me�� to walk forward not for others, but for myself." Theo made a gentle smile.


    Bernard looked at him with a troubled face. Theo''s hardship had made him a bit more mature. However, it also put Theo walking around in someone''s palm.


    That was why, despite his mature personality, Theo feltckluster. In the past, he wanted to find his brother, and it became his greatest motivation.


    But the moment he learned the bitter truth, Theo felt empty. All he wanted was to get stronger just because he wanted it.


    This time was different. He could see Theo''s desire reflected on his face.


    Bernard scratched the back of his head, feeling troubled. If he agreed with his request, Theo could feel indebted to him. But�� he might not be the right person to do it.


    He leaned back on his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. "As much as I want to do it, I think you should ask Leonardo. I wanted to take advantage of that situation, but looking at your face made me lose my motivation."


    Theo disagreed with him once again. "No. It''s true that I''m going to ask Grandfather about this, but I also wish for you to make a move as well. This shouldn''t be that hard for you��"


    "Hmm? Why me?" Bernard tilted his head in confusion. "I can''t understand this. If I investigate your past, they will suspect me of sheltering you. And I need at least more time to make it not suspicious."


    "Why do you think I asked you right now instead of a few months ago, right after you owed me?"


    "Huh? Are you picking a fight with me?"


    "I don''t have any intention to do it." Theo raised his two fingers. "Two months�� It''s been two months since people knew I had died."


    "Yeah, what of it?" Bernard still didn''t understand what he meant by mentioning the time of his death.


    "Time for investigation." A smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face as he stated with confidence.


    "Investigation��" Bernard fell into deep thoughts, connecting the dots between Theo''s words. Suddenly, his eyes widened as though he had understood the meaning behind his words. "You want me to im I have some clues about you�� and it''s leading me to the Griffith Family."


    "Yes. With my mysterious death, it''s easy for the investigation tost for months. So, you just need to im that you have investigated it."


    "And the result is the Griffith Family managed to capture you and hide you in their headquarters. They can''t prove that you''re not there anyway, so it should be easy for me to pressure them because there was a cooperation between you and me in the past."


    "Yep."


    "Haha. That''s indeed a good n. But this also means I''m standing out. Won''t the people suspect you?"


    "This is just a misdirection." Theo shook his head.


    "Wait a minute��" Bernard facepalmed and understood the reason Theo suggested this. "Joker''s appearance is suspicious because he made his appearance not long after your death. And instead of making others suspect you, you want me to direct their attention to the Griffith Family. Because of their glorious reputation as a hidden family, it''s easy to hide someone like you! In other words, you''re using their own reputation to hurt them!"


    Bernard sucked a cold breath when he discovered the entire truth. He never thought Theo would be at this level. In the past, his identity alone managed to shake people''s hearts. Now that he had started moving forward for himself, he began using his opponent''s reputation to shake their own foundation.


    Theo nodded, confirming his answer. However, he raised one more finger and said, "I know investigating them won''t be hard for you, but I''m sure your Star Group will face some problems in the future. That''s why you''re free to reveal our conversation in your mansion��"


    "Our conversation?" Bernard widened his eyes. His expression brightened. "About how I wanted to betroth Maya to you?"


    "Yes. I know that I rejected you, but announcing that piece of conversation means as long as you don''t betray me or plot against me, I''ll always be your friend��" Theo smiled.

 Chapter 932 – Training

    <h4>Chapter 932 - Training</h4>


    Theo''s Mansion.


    Aftering to an agreement with Bernard, Theo returned to his mansion to rest before he started training.


    The past two months raised his expectation for his new skill, considering it was his first bonafide S Rank Skill.


    As soon as he recovered from his fatigue, Theo went to the garden and sat on the floor in a lotus pose.


    Meanwhile, his clone turned into a red-haired man, so whoever identally saw him wouldn''t see Theo''s real appearance.


    Clone Theo went to his side and formed a barrier around him to gather the pressure from above.


    After inspecting the barrier for onest time, the real Theo closed his eyes and utilized his Supernatural Snake Body.


    Soon, white-colored scales appeared all over his body. Although it didn''tpletely cover his entire body, he could see the scales covering all important parts such as limbs, body, neck, and even head.


    Before the clone released his Telekinesis, Theo remembered a small piece of advice from the Thunder King.


    "Although it was for the lightning, what he said was correct, to be honest��" Theo muttered and gradually lied down on his back. "If I lie down like this, the pressure will hit all over my body. It feels like sunbathing. I only need to flip my bodyter."


    Theo chuckled for a moment before Clone Theo, who was standing by next to the barrier, started releasing the Telekinesis.


    Since he didn''t know the power of the Supernatural Snake Body, the pressure wasn''t that powerful at the start.


    The Telekinesis hit his body and pushed his body downwards, making both sides of his body receive equivalent force.


    Theo could feel the power, but as expected from a Supreme Rank Expert, this level of Telekinesis wasn''t enough to hurt him.


    After he was sure nothing went wrong, Clone Theo poured more Magic Power into the Telekinesis, increasing the output.


    The wind that gradually came down hit Theo''s body before dispersing to the side. And due to the barrier, they all bounced off and eventually moved upward.


    The Telekinesis then pushed the next wave of the wind to hit the remnant wind, causing all of them to hit Theo''s body, pressuring him.


    This was the reason why the pressure gradually increased.


    Still, the more he built up, the harder it was to use the Telekinesis due to the constant increase of pressure.


    Even so, Clone Theo continued without fear and poured all the Magic Power he could use into his hand.


    "Mhm. That''s quite strong." Theo squinted his eyes and observed his body, wondering if something had changed.


    Unfortunately, there was no change in his appearance. The scales were still in their position, not breaking, multiplying, or disappearing.


    This put Theo''s heart in peace as Clone Theo maintained the pressure.


    Although he didn''t feel anything in his body breaking, he felt this pressure was enough for the current stage of the Supernatural Snake Body. After all, even the snake would die if he immediately went to the bottom of the ocean.


    And with him not expecting to feel something different in a short amount of time, Theo continued without saying anything.


    After a period of time, he increased the training difficulty by adding his Ascension Step and Thunderp Fist. He even used his Death Avatar to squeeze him between two hands.


    Due to the limit of his Magic Power as well as his time, Theo only trained like this for eight hours every day. Aside from four hours of sleep, he spent the rest practicing his Control and Awareness.


    He wanted to learn about Breathing, but he thought about achieving some sesses in his Endurance first before thinking about Breathing. After all, he wouldn''t be able to focus on all the tasks he received.


    While training, Theo also called Agata as promised. They only had a few minutes every week so as to avoid any suspicion or tracking. It was sad, but they both were independent and trusted each other.


    Every time they talked to each other, they focused on knowing each other as a person, resulting in their rtionship gradually bing more intimate.


    Of course, he didn''t forget to ask about his past through her.


    Theo''s action might surprise her, but she was very supportive of the idea. Even his grandfather epted his request and promised to gather information from Valerie''s childhood to how they met.


    Still, they needed to act carefully when investigating the rumor about the Griffith Family to avoid suspicion. It took Leonardo two months to prepare everything and send it to Theo.


    Meanwhile, Bernard had some difficulty in getting the information.


    He managed to shift people''s attention from Joker to the Griffith Family, but thetter was adamant in denying it.


    Of course, they couldn''t prove anything. If they said Theo had died, they wouldn''t believe it because Bernard was manipting his own informationwork to say Theo was hidden in their family.


    If they wanted to show Theo, Bernard would demand to meet Theo in person.


    No matter what kind of scenario they threw at Bernard, the suspicion would remain. In fact, Bernard had a good time trolling them.


    Still, there was one statement that shocked many people.


    The reason Bernard boldly demanded Theo from the Griffith Family was due to him betrothing his own daughter to Theo.


    With such a rtionship, his anger was justified.


    Theo had exined the situation to Agata, and thetter understood since she was in the room when that discussion happened.


    As long as Bernard didn''t say Theo epted the engagement, she wouldn''t bother toin.


    ��


    Three months passed in the blink of an eye.


    With the deadline for the international mission and the special ce approaching, Theo sat down in his study room for the first time.


    He wanted to deal with all the administrative problems in this one sitting, from his past to the details about the international mission.


    Theo smiled and stretched his body, looking at the Skylink containing all he needed�� "Let''s go."

 Chapter 933 – Past

    <h4>Chapter 933 - Past</h4>


    "Hmm��" Theo mumbled while reading the document Leonardo had prepared. It recorded his mother''s development.


    His mother was a bright and kind person in the past who couldn''t stop helping people in need as long as the matter wasn''t rted to the War God Family.


    She was an extremely talented person. In terms of prowess, she was among the top three among the entire n. But her brain was also in the top three. Unlike Marzio''s good tactical ability butck of martial prowess, her talent allowed her to be a solid expert of the War God Family.


    In fact, Marzio always believed she would be the sessor of the War God Family, albeit everything changed when she was 18 years old.


    She met Ray during the Grand Gaia Competition. Although Ray overpowered her with his Control, the battle resulted in a draw because of her strategy.


    After thatpetition, Ray and Valerie met on a few asions, such as international missions. Their rtionship also grew every time they met.


    With Valerie making the strategy and Ray executing it, they became an unmatched duo among their peers.


    People thought they were a perfect couple, and everyone expected them to get married.


    Unfortunately, there were many objections from both families. The War God Family wanted Valerie to inherit the house, so they needed to have Ray marry into their household.


    It was not a problem at first because Ray had decided not to join the Griffith Family after bing 18 years old. But everything changed when he got closer to Valerie.


    When there was talk about their marriage, the Griffith Family immediately made a huge exception and forced Ray back to the Griffith Family regardless of the rule or his objections.


    The moment Theo read this part, he could finally understand why the Griffith Family made that exception. After all, they had been expecting Ray and Valerie to give birth to their ancestor''s reincarnation.


    To fulfill their ambition, Ray and Valerie needed to stay in the Griffith Family.


    And this made Leonardo angry and stopped the talk about their marriage.


    Unwilling toply, Valerie tried all her best to trick her grandfather so that she could go to Ray. On the contrary, the Griffith Family forced Ray to marry the Mind Elder''s daughter to tie him down, not caring whether he would have another woman or not.


    Ray took this opportunity to lower their guard and used the Mind Elder''s daughter to escape from the Griffith Family.


    And as soon as they reunited, the couple decided to elope.


    Both families were infuriated. The War God Family demanded Ray go back to them with Valerie while the Griffith Family chased both of them openly since it was their specialty.


    After a few years of running away, Ray and Valerie managed to gain some stability and chose to get married.


    And this was the start of the tragedy where Owen died.


    It turned out when Ray ''epted'' the marriage with the Mind Elder''s daughter to lower their guard, the woman was actually the Mind Elder''s puppet. When Ray''s guard was down, she used a secret skill to track Ray.


    When everything settled down and Ray lowered his guard, the Mind Elder used that secret skill to locate them and deal with Owen. They simply used Ray''s n against him.


    As for the rest of the story, he had heard about it.


    Theo never thought his parents had such a tragic past as well.


    He had a terrible childhood because of his parents, but Leonardo didn''t interfere with his love story. It seemed the reason Leonardo didn''t interfere with his love story was that he didn''t want to repeat the same mistake that killed his grandson.


    That might also be why he tried to support both the parents and the son despite what Valerie did. He felt guilty about what he had done in the past.


    Contrary to Theo, Ray had a good childhood because his parents were there for him. But the prophecy screwed up his love story with Valerie, resulting in thisplicated situation.


    If there were no prophecy about the ancestor''s reincarnation, this wouldn''t happen. Ray would marry into the War God Family, and their family could live happily in Italy.


    When Theo read it, he pinched the bridge of his nose, not knowing what to feel.


    "To think the root of the problem was the prophecy of the Griffith Family''s ancestor�� It screwed my parents; then my parents screwed me over."


    Theo looked at thest few paragraphs of the report. It seemed to be a note from Leonardo about his thoughts in the entire situation.


    "When they had you, they were in Thernd, living a quiet life. It wasn''t supposed to be a problem because the Griffith Family believed Owen was the child of prophecy. Even if you were born, the Griffith Family wouldn''te to you anymore. That''s why the Griffith Family didn''te to them right after you were born."


    "However, it turned out you were the child of prophecy. After learning about your extraordinary talents, they realized the Griffith Family woulde once again."


    "At the same time, if they wanted to leave Thernd with you to seek refuge, the Griffith Family would realize they were trying to hide you. Even before reaching this ce, they might have taken you away."


    "Both of them were still too weak to even fight the Griffith Family. So, they decided to suppress your talent by throwing one ordeal after another. They wanted the Griffith Family to think you have no talent."


    "In the meantime, they started weakening the Griffith Family from the inside so that when your talent began to bloom, they couldn''t send their agents to kidnap you. Those few months you had in your school, they created it by weakening the Griffith Family."


    "And after showing your talent in the Grand Gaia Competition, they could stop the Griffith Family because of your attachment to your brother. Seeing this, they thought you still had some love toward your parents and that you would return to the Griffith Family when they visited you on your birthday."


    "That was when your adopted brother told you the harsh truth to push you away from the Griffith Family."


    "When you reached the War God Family, Valerie used my motto to protect you for a few years until your strength was strong enough to create an even bigger connection that could stop the Griffith Family."


    "I couldn''t deny that they used you for their revenge, but I needed to admit they indeed protected you from the Griffith Family. At the very least, this is my analysis about Valerie''s entire n, and I believe I''m 80-90% correct."


    "Everything was my fault. If I were not adamant about having Ray marry into the household, you would experience a good childhood�� You can me me for what happened to you."


    Reading this put Theo on an emotional roller coaster�� He leaned back on his chair and covered his eyes, saying with a tired tone. "What am I supposed to feel?"

 Chapter 934 – Unending Ice And Snow Region

    <h4>Chapter 934 - Unending Ice And Snow Region</h4>


    When he read this report, Theo was still unaware that everything he received came from his parents, from the basic training of Five Aspects that gave him the best foundation to his artifact.


    The basic training came from his parents, who used their connections to learn from many masters who specialized in their own Aspects, creating that perfect basic Five Aspects Foundation.


    The Materialization Skill Book came from Ray''s own understanding of Control. Even though his power wasn''t as strong as Leonardo''s, he was once known as the greatest genius in Control. He poured all that knowledge into that small notebook. If Theo didn''t destroy the book after learning it, there would be a bloodbath just to get it.


    Last but not least, the blue artifact. Valerie asked Nina to give it to Theo so that thetter didn''t know his parents had given him all this stuff. And it also pushed him away from the Griffith Family.


    There was also an arrangement for Leonardo, but in the end, he also achieved it from the talent he''d shown in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    Unfortunately, Theo was unaware of all this.


    All he could do right now was to lean back on his chair and sort of his feelings.


    "At least, I know what had happened in the past. I don''t have time to think about this for the time being since it''s not like I''m nning to blow out my cover right now." Theo shook his head with a serious expression.


    After calming his heart down, he continued to the next problem regarding the special region.


    "This is Bernard. I want to invite you to join the group to explore an icy special region. Of course, you''re free to act alone, but I hope that you can enter together."


    Theo narrowed his eyes when he read this message. Before agreeing or rejecting him, he looked at the information of the region.


    "This region is called the Unending Ice and Snow Region," Theo muttered and continued.


    The Unending Ice and Snow Region seemed to be a ce filled with snow and icy rivers. It was also covered by a frozen mist that would give aplicated problem if it entered your lungs.


    The icy mist could easily kill a Mythical Rank Expert after getting exposed to it for a certain period.


    However, the frozen mist would melt and turn into a normal mist every ten years. This process wouldst for a few days.


    This region would give people special opportunities because there were numerous treasures inside, including those that could increase one''s status points.


    Though, there were numerous hidden dangers that might kill them when they entered this ce.


    "Hmm�� Basically, this ce is a high risk high return region. If I can take advantage of it, I can increase my status points. However, the fatality rate for this ce is about�� ten percent, meaning one out of ten people would end up dying.


    "As for the monsters that resided in this ce�� they are undead?" Theo widened his eyes in bewilderment. "No. The extreme temperature of this ce is the reason why there are only undead living in this ce. No living beings can actually withstand the extreme temperature.


    "And every ten years, the ce will warm up and melt that icy mist, returning it to the normal state.


    "Even so, the report said the mist is so thick that I can only look a few feet in front of me. Going with a group is rmended because they can cover all directions. Awareness doesn''t seem to be working.


    "And the only way to exit the mist is through the GPS that records our track. As long as we can follow the same route, we can leave.


    "There are also hills, valleys, and mountains in this area. But more importantly, no one has ever seen the edge of this ce.


    "First of all, this ce is at the edge of what the humans have explored. Although the mist stretches over thirty miles long, it''s impossible to go around it because there are numerous King ss Monsters around that area.


    "So, those who want to sneak around to enter the mist from another entrance will be killed by those monsters.


    "This ce is so mysterious that they believe it is a territory of a powerful monster which might be a World ss Monster.


    "But it''s been 47 years of its discovery. No one has ever found that kind of monster. But there was also a possibility that those who had seen the monsters couldn''t return.


    "Either way, as long as the people don''t go too deep, they can return. There are numerous treasures in the area. The herbs that survive are able to increase someone''s attribute points. But most of them arepatible with those with Water Affinity.


    "I can go there to get all these items and exchange them for money, Star Points, or another treasure that can increase my status points." Theo narrowed his eyes. "So, this ce is basically a treasure stove."


    Theo''s expression became serious as he read the rest of the information.


    To be honest, he would be lying if he wasn''t tempted by this information. After all, it would be easy for him to get billions if he entered.


    But because he couldn''t go too deep, he didn''t believe it would be more than ten billion, which was his yearly sry.


    However, if there was a group of people entering, especially for a big group like the Star Group, thepany should be able to profit hundreds of billions at once.


    Theo pondered for a moment and epted the invitation.


    Soon, a video of Bernard appeared on the screen.


    "I know you''re going to ept it. Anyway, there won''t be any Mythical Rank Expertsing because they will release too much disturbance and make the mission fail.


    "Some Mythical Rank Experts will escort you and stop at a certain distance. As for the meeting point, let''s meet at the Star Group�� six days from now�� We''ll prepare the escort party and transportation."

 Chapter 935 – Patrick

    <h4>Chapter 935 - Patrick</h4>


    Six dayster.


    Theo came out of his mansion after getting notified that the car that would bring him to the Star Group had arrived.


    However, the moment he entered the car, at least six people were already there.


    He recognized three of them. They were none other than Mark, Kain, and Emma.


    "��" Theo blinked his eyes a few times. The car was long, and the seats faced each other as if trying to make the atmosphere cozy and friendly. But Theo saw that the only empty seat was the one next to Mark.


    "Come in." Kain smiled and asked Theo to sit down.


    Emma made a wry smile while Mark slightly moved his position to the side as if he was scared of Theo.


    "So, he''s the fourth S Rank Talent." One of the Mythical Rank Experts said while observing Theo. Everything about him was white to the point it was easy for Theo to know he had albinism. "I can''t see your face nor your hair. Even your aura is weak�� You are suspicious."


    "Patrick. Don''t say something like that." Emma tried to lessen the situation again since Bernard had asked them to do so. After that, she turned to Theo and exined, "This is Patrick, one of the S Rank Talent in thepany. He''s the leader of the three of us who will escort you to the special region."


    Theo nodded and finally sat down while saying, "Sir Bernard and Sir Hendry don''t have a problem with me. If you have a problem, why don''t we talk about it?"


    Patrick furrowed his eyebrows as if feeling challenged by Theo''s words. The tension rose as Emma and Kain prepared to de-escte the situation. After all, they didn''t want Mark''s incident to repeat.


    To their surprise, Patrick chuckled and said, "Haha. I don''t have any problem with you, especially since Sir Hendry personally brought you to thepany. I just want to see what kind of person you are�� I guess Mark''s defeat was justified."


    "Ehm, why do you bring me into this conversation?" Mark timidly asked, afraid of trouble. He wasn''t a timid guy previously, but what Theo did inflicted good damage to his heart. At the very least, he didn''t want to have anything to do with Theo.


    Patrick pointed at Mark while saying jokingly, "Do you know that his rank has gone down? He''s now 7th in Asda''s Younger Generation List. The number 6th is yours now. But because no one can figure out your real fighting prowess, they can''t make you higher."


    Theo shook his head. "I don''t really care about the ranking."


    "Right�� Seeing your personality and how indifferent you were when replying to me�� I can already see that a mere ranking won''t bother you. Still, I can''t say the same to other people." Patrick smiled, implying something.


    "Are you afraid that others will challenge me in this special region?"


    "That''s why Sir Bernard personally asked me to escort this time participants, you know." Patrickughed. The previous tension felt like it never existed. In fact, when Patrick started chatting, there was only a cheerful and lively atmosphere.


    "I don''t really care about their challenge. As long as they don''t stand in my way, I won''t beat them." Theo shook his head.


    "Unfortunately, all I can do is to send all of you three miles away from the special region because we can''t really disturb the monsters inside, lest theye out while bringing a King ss Monster if not World ss. Anyway, as long as you''re near me, there won''t be any challengers."


    "Well, I''ll just hide inside the crowd this time." Theo shook his head.


    "Yep, that''s an option as well. Though, you can beat them inside the mist. It''s not like anyone can witness the battle�� Just make sure you strip their clothes and remove all recordings."


    Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Anyway, we''ll have four small airnes with fifty people each. We''re moving fast so that the King ss Monsters don''t attack us." Patrick thought for a moment. "As for the special region, I participated in that once.


    "Thepany will lend you warm clothester�� it''s going to be freezing, you know. The snow is not that thick, but you will certainly have some problems moving around.


    "Don''t jump too high because the ice that has melted away is trapped in the air. If you jump too high, your lungs will catch that ice.


    "As for the monsters, they''re quite strong. At the very edge, you will find level 500 monsters. The deeper you go, the stronger the monster is.


    "Also, there''s another threat other than the monster. The reason why you''re forbidden to venture too deep is that the mist can give you hallucinations. The deeper you enter, the stronger the illusion is.


    "That''s why there''s a chance if you enter too deep, you won''t be able to find the exit. These are the few pieces of advice I can give you and Mark.


    "Remember your limit, and don''t be swayed by your greed."


    When Patrick mentioned his name, Mark immediately straightened his back and said, "Thank you."


    "You''re wee."


    On the contrary, Theo didn''t thank him immediately. Instead, he looked down and pondered Patrick''s words. "Hallucination��"


    Patrick squinted his eyes and realized Theo seemed calmer than he thought. "Yeah. I mean, when you are freezing and have zero visibility, your mind will gradually be crazy�� The deeper you are, the stronger the effect."


    "Well, I''ll be careful." Theo nodded. "Thanks."


    "No problem. That''s all I can say since I only participated once when I was still a Supreme Rank Expert." Patrick shrugged. "I hope that both of you can survive and get stronger. Get all the items you can find."


    Theo and Mark nodded as Patrick started talking about his experience there.


    The time passed in the blink of an eye.


    They had arrived at the Star Group, where two hundred experts had been waiting for them.


    It was also the time Bernard came out to see them off personally�� After all, this was a big expedition.

 Chapter 936 – Appearance

    <h4>Chapter 936 - Appearance</h4>


    Unending Ice and Snow Region.


    The south area of this special region was a in covered with thick fog. This grayish fog prevented anyone from seeing through them.


    It also rose to the sky, hiding all the valleys and hills inside.


    Still, the chilling air spread to the outside, lowering the temperature of the surroundings, making the edge of this region an inhabitable zone.


    Due to the special asion, thousands of people were standing at the border of this special region.


    And there was a small group using a series of advanced technologies to measure the coldness since they needed to make sure this area was safe to enter.


    To know the update of the situation, the people hadn''t dispersed to the surrounding areas since they were still waiting for them to confirm the situation.


    That was also why at least a thousand people remained in this area with most of them being scouts or those who wanted to enjoy whatever happened in this area.


    "Hey�� Isn''t that��" One of them whispered while ncing at a pair.


    "Yes. They should be the number 5th and 7th on Asda''s Younger Generation List: Heinz and Marie. To think they would wait here."


    It turned out most of the famous people came to visit this ce as if they wanted to greet each other just by showing their faces here.


    The pair even showed such intention as they made their way to a young man in the distance. The man had ck hair and fierce blue eyes. With just a single nce, it was easy to recognize this man as he let out an aura that incited one''s fighting spirit.


    If they looked at him for a period of time, the need to challenge this man would rise in their hearts.


    As soon as the pair arrived, the female politely greeted him. "To think you are here, Winston."


    "Winston�� Ranked 1st in the list." The bystander sucked a cold breath when he heard that name.


    Their conversation surely piqued everyone''s interest as they all walked closer, trying to eavesdrop on their talks.


    Despite everyone''s change of attitude, Winston remained undisturbed as he asked with a cold tone. "What do you want, Marie?"


    "Shouldn''t I be the one to ask that? Knowing your personality, you surely won''te to this ce and simply let your subordinate wait here and update you about the situation." Marie shrugged. "So, what are you doing here?"


    Winston squinted his eyes. Before he answered, there was aughing from another direction.


    "I think you already have your answer. Isn''t it obvious?" Another woman approached them while chuckling.


    Marie turned to her while clicking her tongue. "Lexie��"


    That was right. The person that came earlier was none other than the woman Theo met in the auction, ranked 2nd in the list, Lexie.


    "Isn''t it because��" Lexie smirked and turned her head to another woman. "Maya. Why don''t you talk about him?"


    Maya, who stood in the distance, gritted her teeth.


    As someone who wanted to be the strongest, Winston''s intention ining here was obvious. And Lexie asking Maya simply reinforced everyone''s belief.


    "I don''t know what you are talking about." Maya snorted.


    "Come on. You know we are talking about the new number 6th on the list, Joker. It''s your father''spany, so you should know something about him. You must have asked your father, right?" Lexie smirked.


    Maya red at her before looking away. "I don''t know what you are talking about."


    "Oh, you''re going to y that way�� Are you lonely after Theo dies? Your Father wanted to betroth you to him after all." Lexie smirked and approached her. "Do you want me tofort you?"


    Maya suddenly took out her pistol and aimed it at her, but Lexie arrived in front of her and grabbed her wrist, lowering it so that the pistol was pointed at the ground.


    "Don''t be so fierce." Lexie smiled. "I know you are upset. You have put that huge requirement on people who want to be your man�� And now the perfect candidate is gone. There''s no need to cry over the spilled milk."


    "If you continue to provoke me, I don''t mind fighting you." Maya started releasing her killing intent.


    "Ooh�� Scary." Lexie let go of her hand and raised both hands as if she surrendered. However, her eyes maintained their sharpness as she said, "Still, it doesn''t change the fact the reason Winstones here is to know more about this Joker. Why don''t you give some information about him so that we won''t be curious anymore?"


    Maya harrumphed and looked away, ignoring her words. How could she say something about Joker when she didn''t get any information from her father.


    All the information she had about Joker was simr to everyone else. So, there was no way she could say anything even if she wanted to.


    And this was also why many famous people actually gathered in this area. They all wanted to find out about Joker.


    As soon as the Star Group came, they woulde to them to personally see this Joker.


    However, their chatters suddenly stopped as half of the people in this area felt a huge group of people approaching from the west.


    "Hmm?!" Lexie turned around and looked at the forest behind them.


    A few people suddenly entered her vision. Their number kept increasing.


    Each person had a fierce gaze and a serious face. Their calmness made them look cold and aloof, asserting an aura of dominance.


    "That��"


    "Yeah, that group is��"


    All the eyes were locked on them, especially the star badges on their chests.


    "They are the Star Group!"


    "Why do all of them suddenly look imposing?"


    "Are they picking a fight?"


    Just looking at these two hundred people made them feel goosebumps. However, all of them were desperately looking for one person among the crowd.


    And they soon found him walking next to Mark.


    Joker''s name resounded in their mind all of a sudden as Mark walked forward while making a sly smirk, saying, "I''m sorry, everyone. We came from the west side, but they have been upied by many influences�� We can''t help but cross this area to find our own spot�� It''s certainly not to scare any of you."


    Even though Mark''s words were humble, his tone and expression said otherwise�� They incited the people''s hearts as if showing his arrogance.

 Chapter 937 – Overpowered

    <h4>Chapter 937 - Overpowered</h4>


    "Is that Joker?"


    "The one rumored to have defeated Mark?"


    "Defeated him? You mean overpowered him?"


    "Ssshhh. Don''t say that out loud."


    Their eyes were locked on Theo as they wanted to see what kind of man this masked person was. Unfortunately, they couldn''t find anything as the Star Group kept advancing, not caring about the people here.


    "Do you mind if Ie with you?" Maya suddenly appeared in front of Mark while ncing at Theo.


    "Miss��" Mark scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to answer. On the one hand, he couldn''t refuse her since Maya was Bernard''s only daughter. On the other hand, Theo''s cold gaze frightened him.


    "Please don''t joke around, Miss Maya. My life is on the line, you know." Mark rejected her with an apologetic tone. Bernard had already told them not to mess with Joker. So, if Maya came together with them, the worst case scenario might happen. After all, he already knew Maya''s personality. There was no way a peaceful conversation could be held between Joker and Maya.


    Theo ignored her presence and continued walking as if nothing mattered.


    But most of the people from the Star Group stopped because they needed to give Maya some respect. Since she had a business here, it wouldn''t be good if they ignored them.


    Everyone was curious about what would happen between Maya and Theo as the atmosphere became tense.


    To their surprise, the one that broke that tension was actually Winston, ranked 1st on the list.


    He also ignored the others and stood in Theo''s way, showing his fighting intent as if challenging Theo.


    And that action was enough to stop Theo in his tracks.


    Winston said with a calm tone, "Nice to meet you. My name is Winston. I''m curious about your strength. If you don''t mind, how about we have a spar here while waiting for the ice mist to melt?"


    "��" Theo paused for a moment as if he was scared by Winston.


    "You don''t need to be afraid. I''m not here to humiliate you. I respect the strong, so I want to see if I should give you some respect or not."


    After those words, Theo finally spoke, "Respect, eh��"


    Winston nodded and said, "Let''s fight. If you canst for five minutes against me, I shall recognize you."


    "Instead of recognizing me�� I think you should ask this to yourself first. Are you��" Theo ced his hand on Winston''s shoulder and patted it a few times like a friend. However, in the third pat, Theo put more strength and pushed Winston down to the point he fell to his knees. The atmosphere became cold and serene as no one had ever expected this situation to appear. Even Winston widened his eyes in shock, not knowing what happened as the next thing he realized, he was already on his knees. Theo gave him onest word while walking away, "��worthy?"


    *Hiss!* All the people, who witnessed the entire thing, sucked a cold breath. In fact, the chill from the ice mist felt as if it was increasing.


    "!!!" Maya, Lexie, and all those who made it to the list dropped their jaws, staring at Winston on his knees.


    They were aware of what kind of existence Winston was. He was the most talented person among the younger generation. And people expected great things from him.


    Yet, despite having such an overwhelming talent and strength, Winston couldn''t even fight back.


    ''What��'' Winston''s mind was in a mess. He was trying to figure out what had happened. He looked down on his thighs and thought, ''What happened? I lost the sensation of my feet for a split second�� and the next thing I realized, I already fell to the ground.''


    Lexie was shaken by this sight. She thought, ''What was going on? Winston couldn''t even react to his action? Is he stronger than Winston?''


    ''But his level��'' Marie bit her lips while clenching her fists. ''The level is fake? But the level registered in the Star Group is the same as the one registered in the Temple. Has he be that strong with only such a level?''


    ''Is this the reason why Father hides everything about him?'' Maya frowned, never expecting her grandfather to find such a person. However, she felt something was wrong, especially about the way Joker spoke.


    Even though he could hide his tone and voice, it was impossible for him to camouge his ent. Maya looked down, pondering. ''That ent�� Why does it sound familiar?''


    Maya''s mind started recollecting every person she had met, and there was only one person having that kind of ent. It was an ent very unique in the US because the person who had such an ent wouldn''t be that strong. She looked at his back while thinking, ''He was registered as Level 521�� That level is the answer. Is that truly you�� Theo?''


    Maya''s heart skipped a beat when she realized Joker''s real identity. It was a person who should have died in the Dark Poison Swamp.


    While they had their own thoughts, Winston''s body grew restless as he couldn''t figure out what had happened.


    His Magic Power began emanating from his body.


    Theo''s words stuck in his mind. It was the first time someone said those words to him after all.


    ''Are you worthy?''


    There were only three words, but the meaning was clear. Theo looked down on him because they were not equal. And he even showed everyone here that no one could oppose him.


    ''This is getting more and more interesting.'' An evil smile appeared on Lexie''s face as she could foresee how the list might change with just this one single exchange. Although they couldn''t witness Theo''s real prowess, it was enough for them to know how dangerous Theo was.


    As if he couldn''t ept Theo''s words, Winston suddenly rose from the ground and turned around with his body leaning to the front as if nning to leap forward.


    "!!!" When they saw Winston''s motion, two people appeared before and behind him.


    The one in front was none other than Mark, who had released his wind, preparing to stop him while the one on the back pointed her gun at his head.


    Both of them said the same thing.


    "What are you going to do?"

 Chapter 938 – Entering The Mist

    <h4>Chapter 938 - Entering The Mist</h4>


    "What are you going to do?"


    Theo was still someone from the Star Group. There was no way they would let Winston harm Theo recklessly.


    Though, for Mark, it was more for his personal safety since no one could tell what would happen to him if Theo was pissed. He might even steal his soul and torture him again.


    "You better stop, Winston. I don''t mind fighting against you if you still want a spar." Mark said with a cold face while adding inwardly, ''Dude. Just give up, please. My life is on the line.''


    Of course, there was no way he could say that.


    On the other hand, Maya was already aware of Joker''s real identity. There was no way she would let Winston do whatever he wanted.


    ''He hasn''t died! I know it. He even joins the Star Group�� Why didn''t hee to me?'' Maya thought while maintaining her poker face.


    "What is this? Don''t you want to know more about Joker? Just let them fight, Maya." Lexie smirked, trying to incite the chaos. She was curious about the person that could force Winston to kneel.


    "Sure, I want to know him. But this is the business between the Star Group and the Starry Group. An outsider like you has no right to interfere." Maya snorted, not giving away even a single clue about Theo''s identity.


    Winston gritted his teeth and clenched his hands. Mark and Maya were in the right position to harm him.


    Ultimately, he could only let go of this matter and closed his eyes.


    "If I were you, I wouldn''t do anything to him. Just take my advice, dude. It''s from someone who has fought him." Mark let out a long sigh while retracting his wind.


    Maya wanted to warn him as well since Theo might cause a ruckus to his family, but that would give away too much of his identity. In the end, she said, "He''s an S Rank Talent of the Star Group. You surely know what that means��"


    Maya put down her gun and walked away, following Theo. "Now that I have seen what I wanted to see, it''s time for me to go back to my group."


    Mark nced at her and finally let the matter go. Winston was surely not stupid enough to ignore that warning.


    The tension in the air started loosening as everyone was shocked by what they had witnessed.


    No matter how the battle between both of them went, Winston was at fault here because he was the one who stood in Theo''s way. It was clear Theo never intended to fight someone. So, if Winston still attacked him, they would be able to see how petty he was. And the family behind him would be affected as well since Winston was considered an extremely talented person.


    After arriving at an empty spot, Theo finally sat down to the ground. He asked, "Anyway, is this spot good enough for everyone?"


    The people from the Star Group couldn''t answer him immediately as they were still sorting their thoughts. They never expected that their S Rank Talent could do all that.


    Ultimately, they exchanged looks, wondering if someone had an objection. After all, they didn''t dare to voice any disapproval alone.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, no one raised their opinion as though they settled with this choice.


    "I''m someone from the Star Group. As long as no one provokes me, I won''t give you any problems. And�� this is just a simple argument, if you don''t like it, we can find another spot. Or would you prefer to wait for Mark to make that decision?" Theo sighed, thinking he might have overdone it.


    At first, he only wanted to increase his reputation by making Winston fall to the ground. But since Winston personally came to him, he couldn''t help but use his Illusion to make Winston lose the feeling of his feet so that it was easier for him to make him kneel.


    And this action backfired as the people of the Star Group were too scared to even speak to him.


    Theo shrugged and said, "Anyway, feel free to do anything until we can enter."


    Since there was no point in talking to them, he sat down on the ground and leaned back on the tree, waiting for the time to enter. A few of them had stayed behind to watch out for the coldness, so they could go as soon as they returned to this spot.


    Meanwhile, Mark had returned as Theo asked him whether he wanted to move to another spot before receiving the same answer as the others.


    He sighed and stayed silent in the corner.


    Maya also passed him with a cheeky grin as if she already knew his identity.


    Theo had predicted she had already found out his real identity since there was no other person except for him from Thernd, who would be strong enough to be considered an S Rank Talent of the Star group.


    Luckily, the only thing she did was greet him as if she didn''t know him and return to her own team.


    Theo felt relieved since Maya didn''t seek problems and continued waiting.


    Two hourster.


    "The coldness has dropped to the eptable level. It''s said tost for 186 hours this time." A member of the Star Group informed the entire group.


    Since the confirmation was there, Theo immediately rose from his spot and entered the mist, not wanting to get another weird stare from those people.


    However, the moment he entered, he received something he never expected.


    [In the beginning, there was only coldness. A high-pitched voice resounded from the center of the coldness, ''brave warriors will be trapped inside the unending coldness, but the weak will find the true path between the cold.'']


    [The living can see the path to go back, but the dead can find the path to go forward. Go up and you shall gain everything. Go down and you shall receive judgment. Just as cold arose out of the ground, and all terrible things, all beings searched for the warm and glowingnd, only to melt and drip when the breath of heat met the rime.]


    [What can be seen never exists, but what can''t be seen has existed since the beginning�� Don''t be misled, for all things are inverted.]

 Chapter 939 – Riddle

    <h4>Chapter 939 - Riddle</h4>


    "Hmm?!" Theo widened his eyes when he received this message from someone. After all, among those four people behind him, one of them seemed to know something about this ce.


    ''Who knows about this ce?'' Theo tried to ask, gathering more information. The message was more of a riddle instead of a speech, so he didn''t know who was the one saying it.


    Unfortunately for him, no more message appeared before his eyes, making him curious about the meaning of the message.


    ''By giving that message, do you want me to go deeper?'' Theo changed his question because his original n was to look around this ce to find some good items.


    As expected, he received a reply.


    [Yes.]


    [Yes.]


    [Yes.]


    [Yes.]


    But it turned out all of them answered his questions, confusing him even more. If one of them answered, he believed this ce was connected to one of them. In that case, he could specte the real name of this ce.


    But with them answering at the same time, Theo couldn''t be sure anymore. There was a chance that this ce was connected to all of them instead of just one.


    There weren''t many pieces of information regarding these people''s lives when they were together since the myth was more focused on the time when the serpent had been thrown into the sea, the wolf had been tamed, and the Goddess had been exiled.


    That was why Theo didn''t know the name of this ce.


    ''Ugh.'' Theo scratched the back of his head and remained in his position.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the Star Group members had entered the mist. Those who were close to him managed to find him, but because no one dared to approach him, they simply looped around him and started searching.


    After five minutes, Theo still stood in his original position, not finding anything in his mind.


    ''Ugh. I don''t know anything.'' Theo let out a long sigh. ''It seems they want me to go to a deeper area which is extremely dangerous. And the only way to reach that area safely is�� the riddle.''


    With that in mind, Theo repeated it while trying to understand the hidden meaning.


    ''In the beginning, there was only coldness�� What the heck? Are they talking about space? Before the was born, there was only a vacuum space without heat��'' Theo facepalmed as he couldn''t believe this was the real reason.


    ''Brave warriors will be trapped inside the unending coldness, but the weak will find the true path between the cold.'' Theo fell silent, feeling the hidden meaning behind these words. ''Brave warriors�� What is a brave warrior? Does this mean I shouldn''t fight? Instead, I should be a weak person that can''t fight? Or is it telling me to go in peace? Like saying, ''Ie in peace, people!'' while raising a white g?''


    Theo was confused and started looking at the next one.


    ''The living can see the path to go back, but the dead can find the path to go forward.'' When he reached this sentence, he couldn''t help but curse, ''What do you mean the dead? Are you telling me to die?''


    It was impossible for them to ask him to die since they defeated his ancestor just to get the chance to bless him. So, dying was thest thing they wanted from Theo.


    ''Wait a minute. This ce is filled with undead because only a corpse can withstand the coldness of this ce. Should I find a corpse to lead me inside?'' Theo narrowed his eyes and shook his head, proceeding with the next one first.


    ''Go up and you shall gain everything. Go down and you shall receive judgment. This is clearly implying that going up will give you the best reward, but the next line doesn''t match up�� In fact, it''s telling me to go down.'' Theo frowned.


    ''Just as cold arose out of the ground, and all terrible things, all beings searched for the warm and glowingnd, only to melt and drip when the breath of heat met the rime. It''s basically telling me that the coldnesses from the ground�� And all terrible things? It must be rted to the judgment.


    ''And if I go to the warm and glowingnd, I will die. This ce must be so hot that my body can''t withstand it. And since it''s the opposite of the ground, it must be rted to the ''go up and you shall gain everything.''


    ''In other words, if I seek this warm and glowingnd, I''ll die because of my greed�� my greed to attain everything. Instead, the path I should find is the way to go down. This judgment must be something like a challenge.


    ''And the clue for this challenge is thest two sentences. What can be seen never exists, but what can''t be seen has existed since the beginning.


    ''I was told that the mist could create an illusion because the coldness is messing with our brain, but I don''t think this mist is scientific at all. Instead, the mist is actually a magical fog that can create illusions.


    ''The things that I can see are just an illusion. It perfectly matches with the line ''what can be seen never exists.''


    ''In other words, I should be careful of what can''t be seen. Instead of my eyes, I should use my Awareness to fight against these creatures. But Awareness is not that effective here��'' Theo felt confused with the riddle. As much as he wanted to proceed forward, he felt a bit afraid because of these lines.


    Ultimately, he recited thest line in his mind. ''Don''t be misled, for all things are inverted. What does this mean?


    ''Wait a minute, the living can see the path to go back while the dead can go forward�� Isn''t it already in reverse? Then, go up and you will die because of your greed, while going down will give you punishment. Last but not least, what can be seen never exists, but what can''t be seen has existed since the beginning�� All of them are kinda in reverse.


    ''In other words, instead of acting like the living, I should act like the dead. Instead of going up, I should go down. And instead of fearing the appearance of enemies, I should focus on those who are invisible.''


    Theo felt like he got some understanding about the riddle and his first thought was, ''In that case, I should find the undead first.''


    ******


    What is this ce? (It existed in the myth.)

 Chapter 940 – Zombie

    <h4>Chapter 940 - Zombie</h4>


    After deciding what to do, Theo finally looked up, observing his surroundings. Although he had noticed this, the fog was truly thick.


    Just a few feet around him already made his vision blurry. And with his clone testing the actual range, he knew the vision range was around fifteen feet.


    "It should be enough for me to react to anything, but it''s surely annoying to not be able to see those around me. Luckily, my clone is not affected by this. I can evenunch a sneak attack by using my clone." Theo came up with a great idea and smiled.


    Then, he spread his Awareness to be his second ''eye,'' but as he expected, the mist stopped him from spreading his Awareness. Even the snow underneath his feet prevented it from entering the ground.


    "This will be quite hard," Theo muttered while scratching the back of his head.


    As soon as he had an idea of what happened, he finally walked forward, crossing this snowy in.


    Because there were many people entering at once, Theo only found numerous footsteps on the ground, nothing else.


    However, it didn''t stop him from advancing for a few hundred feet, wondering if he could find something.


    He also maintained his Awareness because he was afraid something that couldn''t be seen attacked him. Luckily, he didn''t meet them for the time being.


    After Theo walked for a quarter-mile, a roar resounded across the area, moving closer to Theo.


    Theo clenched the sword in his hand and prepared his Magic Bullets. Although he could roughly guess where he came from, the mist was so thick that it wasn''t a good idea to attack them blindly. There was a chance it would hit friendlies after all.


    As soon as the monster''s shadow appeared in the fog, Theo charged forward without hesitation, waving his sword.


    But he was stunned by the monster''s appearance. The monster looked like a human but with pale skin. His body was covered with blood and his eyes were gone, making the blood continuously flow through the eyes.


    There were many holes on its body and even half of his ribs were exposed. Maggots also crawled around his body.


    This monster let out an eerie feeling that could make people shudder.


    He didn''t know if it was due to its sudden appearance like that in a horror movie or his disgust for this grotesque appearance, but he certainly felt ufortable when the monster came at him.


    "Is this a zombie?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched. "It''s more disturbing than bugs�� I don''t know why."


    Theo clicked his tongue and shed the zombie''s hand, nning to cut it in a single sh.


    However, the zombie raised both hands. The left hand caught Theo''s sword while the other approached Theo''s neck.


    Clink.


    A clicking sound between metals echoed in his ears as Theo widened his eyes, thinking, ''What? The skin is like metal�� and it''s strong enough to withstand my weapon?''


    Theo hurriedly leaped back as he realized the monster was stronger than he expected, avoiding the other hand.


    After that, he punched forward, sending his Telekinesis to push the zombie away.


    To his surprise, the zombie raised both hands and withstood the pressure without getting pushed back.


    ''This is the first time I see a monster this strong�� Now that I think about it, the zombie might be level 600 or above. I shouldn''t underestimate it.'' Theo took a deep breath and became even more serious.


    He waved his sword and shot out a single beam of light that split into five rays, looping around the zombie.


    The zombie stopped for a moment and his head turned around as if following the movement of the lights.


    Theo took this chance to hit the zombie from behind before the rest followed from different directions. Sadly, the zombie skillfully hit the beams in rapid session as if he could see the beams.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    Boom.


    The zombie knocked all the beams down and let them explode before turning back to Theo, smiling. The smile was so creepy that Theo felt goosebumps.


    After handling the attack, the zombie marched forward and spread his hands to grab Theo.


    But thetter skillfully used his Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion to strike the zombie''s hand, nning to destroy it.


    Bam.


    The zombie caught the sword again, but this time, the pressure from the sword was enough to knock the zombie away.


    Itnded a few feet from him.


    "��" Theo lowered his vision and saw the zombie''s right hand bending in a weird way. "I guess his wrist can''t take that. But the skin is surely strong enough to withstand the sharpness of my weapon. In that case, I should smash its body�� Maybe I should try smashing the head?"


    Theo observed the zombie''s movement, never expecting the zombie on the edge of the area was this strong. There were many peopleing into this area, so if all the zombies were this strong, he didn''t believe the fatality rate was only ten percent.


    Hence, he believed this zombie was just an anomaly, and he was simply unlucky enough to encounter it. And the Skylink couldn''t discern its true identity, so he didn''t know the level of this monster.


    "Whatever�� I just need to kill it." Theo smirked and waved his sword a few times, releasing seven lights in rapid session. Each light then split into five.


    The zombie stopped for a moment as if feeling the numerous lights. The zombie turned its head again to all the lights.


    ''Hmm? The zombie doesn''t have eyes, right? And without eyes, it should be sensing the Magic Power�� Why does it need to look around?'' Theo muttered inwardly, not understanding the zombie''s weird behavior.


    And he was stunned once again when the zombie suddenly leaped around and dodged all the iing lights as if he knew the lights wereing.


    Even when Theo bent the attacks once more to match the zombie''s movement, thetter could easily follow them and avoid each light.


    ''For real? How about this?'' Theo waved his finger, and all the lights curved around, surrounding the zombie in all directions.


    The zombie fell silent for a moment before it suddenly leaped into the air. Its hands caught several lights and destroyed it. Even when the attacks exploded, the zombie suffered no damage.


    After that, he disappeared inside the mist as if he had never existed.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes because he couldn''t feel its presence anymore when he lost sight of the zombie.


    But everything soon changed when he felt something staring at him from behind.

 Chapter 941 – Isaac Walton

    <h4>Chapter 941 - Isaac Walton</h4>


    "!!!" Theo''s body shivered as he turned around, swinging his sword.


    Despite wearing special clothes that could warm him, he felt chills down his spine because he found the disgusting zombie''s face behind him.


    The zombie took Theo''s sword head-on, not afraid of the sharpness. At the same time, he grasped Theo''s neck to kill him. Clone Theo suddenly appeared and struck the hand, knocking it down before touching the neck.


    After that, the clone hit the zombie on the face and blew him away, giving Theo some time to think.


    ''What''s wrong with this zombie? It doesn''t seem to be a Mythical Rank Expert since I would have already died if that was the case.'' Theo gulped down while looking around, not knowing what to do. ''I should consider it as a level 700 zombie then. Well, this is not something that I can fight at the moment, especially in this environment.''


    Theo gritted his teeth and wondered if he should escape. On the one hand, he didn''t necessarily need to handle this zombie. On the other hand, the moment he ran away, it might be considered losing against this enemy, which would disappoint Hel.


    ''Let''s try it again. If I can''t really beat him, it''s better to run. I''m here for the treasure, not the zombie.'' Theo took a deep breath, cooling his head down.


    The moment the zombie approached him from another ce, Theo waved his sword to the zombie''s head, trying to crush it.


    Even his clone created a giant club out of Magic Power to make this motion.


    As soon as the real Theo received the zombie''s attack, the clone moved closer and struck the zombie''s head with all his might.


    But to his surprise, the zombie felt as if nothing had happened. In fact, there wasn''t even a small dent on its head.


    "Seriously? If I can''t prate the skin, I won''t be able to defeat him." Theo clicked his tongue and wondered how to defeat the zombie.


    Suddenly, a thought arose in his head. It was a unique idea that only applied to the zombie. "That''s right. There are multiple holes in the zombie''s body, including the exposed ribs. I should aim for those spots."


    Thinking this might be a chance, Clone Theo formed a spear and stabbed the holes on the zombie''s body.


    As expected, the zombie suddenly moved its body when the holes were about to be stabbed. The real Theo used his Telekinesis to stop him in one ce.


    "Don''t go. You better stay here and die." He smirked and pressed the zombie with all his strength.


    Contrary to his expectation of a high-level zombie, it didn''t exert a powerful strength. In fact, he could overpower the zombie pretty easily.


    ''Hmm. His strength is bad, but the skin is hard. I see�� So, that''s how you defeat the undead here.'' Theo smirked, finally understanding the situation.


    Since he had found his answer, Theo spared no effort in attacking the holes. He even used his Magic Bullets just for the sake of hitting the spots.


    Sensing the Magic Power around him, the zombie leaped back for the first time.


    Unfortunately for him, Clone Theo used his Blink and locked the zombie''s arms. He was prepared to die together with the zombie.


    Without hesitation, Theo shot the zombie with all his Magic Bullets, ultimately piercing his clone as well. But it was enough because Theo received a notification.


    [Killed a 1,000 Years Old Zombie.]


    [EXP+1,000,880]


    ''What the heck?'' Theo widened his eyes, never expecting to see the zombie''s age. ''1,000 years old zombie? Are there younger and older zombies? Let me guess, the youngest will be the weakest.''


    Theo spected about the zombie''s strength, feeling something was wrong. However, he didn''t have the time to check it because when he touched the zombie''s body to turn it into cards, numerous sounds echoed in his ears.


    "Nooo! Help me!"


    A male''s scream resounded across the world, rming Theo.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes and looked into the fog while preparing to use his Blink. He realized the man was less than thirty feet away from him ording to the sound, so he needed to act now.


    But before he could do anything, he suddenly realized something big.


    ''Wait a minute. I can''t use my Blink here. The zombie might surround me, and the Blink will create a gap in the location tracker�� In other words, I might confuse myself when I go backter. And it''s thest thing I want because losing in this mist will surely kill me.''


    Theo gritted his teeth when he saw the man enter his vision, followed by seven zombies.


    "Help!" The man screamed again before finding Theo standing in front of him. In an instant, he recognized Theo and shouted, "Ah. You''re Joker! Bro! Help me please! I''m ranked 10th on the list, but I''m a support�� I can''t fight these zombies. I''ll tell you a piece of important information I''ve got if you help me!"


    ''Important information?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling quite tempted. Instead of helping him, he ran away together with him to negotiate the terms. "What kind of information? How do I know the information is right?"


    "You don''t know my blessing?" The man widened his eyes, never expecting to find someone who didn''t know his blessing. After all, his blessing had truly advanced humanity.


    Theo tilted his head in confusion, showing his ignorance.


    "I''m Isaac Walton! My blessinges from the great Isaac Newton! I have a skill called Analyze. With that skill, I''ve learned something important that you might want to know!" Isaac finally introduced himself.


    "Isaac Newton? That Isaac Newton?"


    "Is there another Isaac Newton in history?!" Isaac gritted his teeth.


    Although he was surprised by the blessing, Theo needed to calm his heart down because they were still chased by the zombies.


    "Fine. I''ll help you, but you need to help me fight these zombies too." Theo surprisingly agreed to help him.


    Even Isaac couldn''t believe it for a moment before smirking. "Okay. I''m a support, so I should help you."


    Both of them suddenly stopped and turned around, preparing to fight these zombies.

 Chapter 942 – Isaac Newton

    <h4>Chapter 942 - Isaac Newton</h4>


    "Show me your strength," said Theo as he moved forward, trying to take all the seven zombies. Theo even specifically released the previous seven lights from his sword to stop all of them.


    "We need to kill the zombies, but their skin is too hard," Isaac shouted while assessing the situation. "I don''t know how, but there should be a weakness."


    "I know that already." Theo snorted as he split all the seven lights to aim for the holes on the zombies'' bodies.


    As expected, the zombies felt threatened and leaped away to avoid all these attacks. However, Theo used his Control to chase after them.


    "I''m going to stop one of them. Kill that zombie." Isaac informed Theo again while waving his right hand. "Gravity!"


    Suddenly, one of the zombies fell down to the ground.


    Without hesitation, Theo leaped to the zombie and saw the ground start cracking, indicating the amount of pressure that hit the zombie.


    Unlike his Ascension Step, this skill gave a constant pressure that could prevent someone from moving for a long time.


    "That''s my gravity field. Don''t enter it since the gravity might be too strong for you." Isaac warned him while observing the other zombies who had disappeared into the mist again. Even Theo''s attacks had fallen to the ground to avoid friendly fires.


    Since his life might be in danger, Isaac ran to Theo and stayed close while watching the surroundings.


    On the contrary, Theo calmly entered the gravity field and finally felt the constant pressure for the first time.


    It felt as if his body had ten times his original weight. His legs needed to fight hard just to withstand the weight of his body.


    Without hesitation, Theo used his Supernatural Snake Body, wondering if this could strengthen the scales too. In the meantime, Theo took this chance to stab the zombie a few times, wondering how many times it took for him to defeat the zombie.


    To his surprise, three times were enough to kill the zombies, so he believed the holes were simr to that of vital spots.


    "What? You killed it so easily?" Isaac was shocked both by how indifferent Theo was to his gravity field and his kill.


    "It''s not that strong." Theo shook his head, disappointed because he found the zombie was far weaker than the one he had fought.


    [Killed a 100 Years Old Zombie.]


    [EXP+100,600]


    It seemed the zombie''s name changed every ten times of their previous age. So, Theo didn''t bother with them anymore.


    As expected, the other six zombies emerged from the fog from all directions, making it hard for Theo to block all of them.


    "Bro! Just charge through one of them. I''ll support you!" Isaac informed him again while looking around, preparing to dodge.


    Wanting to see more about Isaac''s power, Theo nodded and moved forward. His sword struck the zombie''s hand.


    But to his surprise, ayer of golden light suddenly enveloped him, and he couldn''t stop his body from moving forward to the point his body mmed the zombie to the ground.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes and asked while looking forward. "What is this?"


    "Newton''s 1st Law of Motion! Basically, if you''re moving, you will keep moving at the same speed. Unless you are strong enough to overpower someone, no one can stop it." Isaac smirked.


    "That''s a pretty useful technique. Why are you in 10th ce? Should be higher if I say." Theo asked with a frown. If he had this power, he would use it as an offensive ability instead of a support skill.


    "Well, I''m just a support." Isaac chuckled. As soon as they came out of the encirclement, he retracted his ability and said, "There are six zombies behind us. Receive their attacks only�� There''s no need to attack them. If possible, try to direct them to the sides."


    Theo nodded and looped around, receiving the zombie''s attack with his sword.


    Blue light now enveloped his body, so when he received the attack, a mysterious force came out of his body and pushed the zombie to the side.


    ''So, that''s why he wants me to direct the zombies to the sides.'' Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "This is Newton''s 3rd Law of Motion. To put it simply, Action=Reaction. If you receive the attack, they will also get the force of their own attack. That''s why I want you to receive the attack instead of attacking them. I''m afraid you will get hurt." Isaac smiled. "And now, it''s time to attack. I''ll boost your speed."


    Theo nodded and stabbed one of the zombies with his sword. As Isaac said earlier, his speed increased several times.


    ''No. It''s not speed�� It''s more like eleration.'' Theo widened his eyes and said with a calm tone. "The secondw of motion?"


    "Yep. Newton''s 2nd Law of Motion." Isaac acknowledged it without hesitation while seeing how the zombie died after just several stabs. He thought, ''How does this man defeat them? I''ve heard they are extremely dangerous because their skin is too hard�� But every time this man attacked them, the zombies would avoid it��''


    Theo and Isaac were analyzing each other, trying to pry their secret.


    The moment the five zombies turned around, Isaac pinned one of them to the ground and asked Theo to kill it.


    Without hesitation, Theo sent several lights and pierced all holes inside the zombies, killing them.


    It was when Isaac realized the zombie''s weakness. And because the zombies came at them, Isaac hurriedly used another skill.


    This time, it felt as if the light pierced through the mist and illuminated them. If the attacks were normal people, they would see Isaac and Theo disappearing into thin air.


    However, the zombies had no eyes. Instead of searching for both of them, they charged forward and attacked them.


    "What?! I bent the light earlier to create an optical illusion�� But it''s not working." Isaac widened his eyes, not knowing why his skill didn''t work.


    On the other hand, Theo grasped his wrist and ducked down, dragging him down to the ground before spinning his body.


    His sword struck their feet and tripped them, giving Theo a chance to exploit.


    Magic Bullets emerged out of the ground and pierced all the zombies. Now that they were in falling motion, the zombies had no way to stop the bullets.


    [Killed a 100 Years Old Zombie.]


    [Killed a 100 Years Old Zombie.]


    [Killed a 100 Years Old Zombie.]


    [Killed a 100 Years Old Zombie.]

 Chapter 943 – Analyze

    <h4>Chapter 943 - Analyze</h4>


    ''He killed these zombies so easily?'' Isaac was stunned with Theo''s efficiency in killing these zombies. Although he expected the people ranked above him could take care of them too, Theo made it look too easy.


    "What?" Theo turned to him while turning the monsters into cards.


    However, Isaac noticed something different from the corpses.


    "Mhm? Today is my bad luck?" Theo muttered and looked at the empty air since none of the zombies dropped a card.


    This was what Isaac noticed too. He said, "Isn''t this ce weird? Many people have told me how weird it is, but now that I''m experiencing it first hand, it''s beyond my imagination."


    "Well, they''re certainly weird." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "They seem to be able to find us inside the mist."


    "Right? They don''t have eyes, and the mist should have blocked their Awareness. Yet, the zombies can actually find us from afar? This is really weird." Isaac nodded in agreement. "Before that, it seems their weakness is the holes in their bodies��"


    "You don''t know about it?"


    "I''m not very sure. There are multiple versions of reports�� At the same time, I don''t have any backers that will give me information like you do." Isaac shook his head with a long sigh. "That''s why I''m here alone, despite being a support."


    Theo looked at this man who was a few years older than him, observing him. "Is that so?"


    "Yep." Isaac confirmed it with a nod. "Anyway, I have several theories. If possible, I also want to ask you a few things."


    "Depends on your questions. You still need to pay me for helping you earlier." Theo shrugged.


    "Of course." Isaac yfully winked his right eye and said, "Alright. Where should I start this?"


    "The promised information."


    "Okay. I will talk about it first." Isaac pointed at their surroundings and said, "Don''t you think the mist is pretty weird. The cold is one thing, but I believe the mist is holding some sort of a secret."


    "What kind of secret?"


    "I''m not very sure. But I think we can get a big clue if we interact with the mist."


    "Interact with the mist? Are you joking with me?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched. He thought Isaac saw him as a fool.


    "No, no. There must be something within the mist. I believe this is how the zombies are moving inside the mist."


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"


    "How do I exin this�� Should I give you the number to show the difference?" He thought for a moment and pointed at where they came. "If the entrance Magic Power level is 100, then this ce''s Magic Power level is 120."


    "Density?"


    "Yep. That''s it." Isaac nodded with a serious expression. "Unfortunately, the Five Aspects that I mastered is Technique�� If only I practiced Awareness or Breathing, I would be able to feel the difference."


    Theo fell silent and ended up closing his eyes, focusing all his senses on the surroundings.


    To his surprise, he could feel the Magic Power movement that flowed around in the mist.


    There were a few paths around them, with the first path being the one where the 1000 Years Old Zombie came from. He then rechecked a few spots to prove his theory and found some movementsing from where Isaac came from.


    "��" In that instant, Theo''s expression became grim.


    "It looks like you found something? Are you training your Awareness or Breathing?" Isaac''s expression brightened as if he''d just got his answer.


    "Why should I tell you?" Theo looked away, not caring about his questions.


    "Come on. I have the skill to Analyze. Let''s do it this way�� If you provide me with information, I''ll give you my analysis. In fact, I wish we could cooperate." Isaac smirked and exined his n. "If I can sessfully understand how the mist works�� I believe I can locate the locations of artifacts, herbs, and other stuff. This way, we can split it evenly. How''s that?"


    "Ho?" Theo narrowed his eyes. The cooperation didn''t seem bad. After all, if everything was going ording to what Isaac said, they could easily find more resources. Even if they split evenly, the amount he would get still surpassed his effort.


    "What if you are wrong?" Theo asked.


    "I''m not very sure. How about I assist you for the next seven days?"


    "Do you think I''m someone who needs support?"


    "No." Isaac made a wry smile and answered. Still, he might need Theo''s cooperation to deal with the mist, so he tried to persuade him. "How''s about this? If I decipher it, we split the loot evenly. If I can''t decipher it, I''ll help you with something in the future. As I said, I have an Analyze Skill��"


    "You''re suspicious." Theo shook his head. "Looking at how you''re prepared to lose so much, it makes you look desperate."


    "Again��" Isaac let out a long sigh. "I''m truly not good at this. People always tried to persuade me with their political speech and agreement. Others also want to take advantage of my ability�� That''s why I don''t want to join someone''s influence."


    "So, you''re going to use a sympathy card now?" Theo squinted his eyes.


    "What? I''m telling the truth. Well, if we can''te to an agreement, I''ll leave after I fulfill my side of the deal. I''ll search for someone else to cooperate with."


    Theo smiled before his eyes turned bloodshot.


    "What are you doing?" Isaac''s body trembled as he instinctively took a step back. "Although no one will know if you kill me, you should know there are many experts around here."


    "Tell me why."


    "Why?"


    "Yeah. Tell me why you choose to approach me."


    "Because we''re fated! I just happened to run��" Isaac couldn''t help but stop when he saw Theo''s eyes emanating his killing intent as if telling him, ''If he still spouted nonsense, he would crush him.''


    ''Did he notice?'' Isaac gulped down and immediately corrected himself so as to not make it suspicious. "I wanted to go with Winston, but you showed your strength earlier�� so I couldn''t help but choose you instead of him."


    Little did he know, Theo had already figured out his n the moment they met each other. After all, Isaac used one skill the moment they came into contact.


    Skill: Analyze (A)


    Effect: The user can analyze an object''s characteristics, such as Magic Power, Attribute Points, and Level.

 Chapter 944 – Great Minds Think Alike

    <h4>Chapter 944 - Great Minds Think Alike</h4>


    Theo believed the only reason for a person who was asking for help using this kind of skill was because he had nned all of it.


    In other words, he already marked Theo from the beginning. Although he didn''t know how he could find him inside the mist, he felt it was rted to another skill of his.


    Hence, Theo had all the right to suspect him. He believed Isaac had seen something like this.


    Level: 552


    Attributes: Strength 700, Endurance 501, Agility 503, Vitality 501, Magic Power 925


    Along with the Magic Power flow in his body. After all, he suspected this Analyze Skill to be able to look through his constitution, which was rted to his attributes, level, and Magic Power, matching with the skill''s description.


    Theo squinted his eyes and said, "I don''t like people who lie to me."


    This warning was important because Theo was a man who never lied. That was why he wanted to make everything clear with him first.


    After getting the answer, he contemted for a moment.


    Isaac scratched the back of his head, realizing Theo might have understood his intention here from the start.


    ''He''s very dangerous. Truly dangerous.'' Isaac thought before making a wry smile. He asked, "So, do you have any intention of working together with me?"


    Although Isaac had hidden his intention first, Theo didn''t have any reason to reject him. After all, the reward was too tempting.


    "I can agree to cooperate with you, but I have one condition. We need a contract to bind this agreement. I''m sure you don''t have a problem with this, right?" Theo asked with a stern tone, reminding him about his hidden intention earlier.


    On the other hand, Isaac didn''t see anything wrong with the cooperation and contract. He even took out his Skylink and showed it to him. "I have already made the contract, to be honest. I just need to change it to your name."


    "Give it to me." Theo nodded and checked the contract, realizing it was just a simple one that mainly focused on their split. However, he found something wascking. "How about the conclusion we got? Who has the right to the information?"


    "Right. How about both of us have the right to it? I''ll sell the information, and we''ll split the money evenly too?"


    "Good enough." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    Isaac then added the use for the information.


    After confirming there was no loophole to exploit, Theo finally agreed and signed the contract.


    Isaac did the same and made a copy of the contract so that they couldn''t escape their responsibility.


    Though, Theo didn''t mind showing him ''hell'' if Isaac dared to scam him.


    "Alright. Now that we''ve agreed to cooperate. I need the information about what you sensed earlier." As soon as the contract was signed, Isaac immediately continued the discussion.


    Theo sighed and raised his finger, pouring his Magic Power and creating multiple lines on top of his palm. After that, two small spheres appeared in the middle of the palm, signifying their position.


    ''As expected, the information didn''t lie. His Control and Awareness are at a high level.'' Isaac furrowed his eyebrows and drew a conclusion when he saw the lines.


    "I see this. The lines are the flow of Magic Power. I have confirmed that the lines seem to be a track for the zombies to move since I was attacked ording to that line as well," Theo exined a bit more.


    "I see�� It looks like a current that carries the Magic Power, huh."


    "I think. Though, I can''t confirm whether the current is one way or two ways."


    "Understandable. Finding these lines alone is enough." Isaac looked down and contemted. "In that case, the zombies are most likely moving ording to the track. If we can avoid these tracks, I think it''s possible to get by without seeing any zombies."


    "I think? If you don''t concentrate all your senses on the environment, I don''t think you will be able to find these lines. In fact, I need to spread my Awareness ording to these lines to spread it further."


    "So, if you don''t use these lines, your Awareness will have a very limited range?"


    "Basically."


    "I see. What''s wrong with these lines��" He narrowed his eyes and contemted for a moment. "At the very least, we won''t be attacked as long as we avoid these lines. Do you think it''s possible to slip past all these lines?"


    "Yeah. I think they have some sort of gaps�� For the time being, I can see that it''s a kind of maze�� I just don''t know when we will meet a dead end."


    "When that happens, there will be a fierce sh."


    "Yeah. Also, the reason why the zombies can sense us is due to the Magic Power in our body, which is very different."


    "!!!" Isaac gasped and found his answer. "So that''s how it is�� The mist contains a certain amount of Magic Power, and these lines have a bit more of Magic Power. You said you could sense the surroundings better if you utilized these lines�� What if we find a chunk of Magic Power?"


    Theo understood his train of thought and replied, "If it''s not moving, it will be either an artifact, a herb, or anything that can increase our attribute points."


    "That''s right. And because the zombies harm everyone that has a different Magic Power density, those stuff will be out of those lines. In other words, they will be free for us to take�� I believe the zombies have thrown them away and forgotten about it."


    "Right? The denser the Magic Power in that particr area, the bigger the reward is." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Indeed. We can simply discuss how to get thereter."


    "Yeah. Of course, we can''t really go too deep since the monsters will be stronger the deeper we go."


    "Okay. We can discuss how far we will go and create a search area."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "Anyway, it''s time to move first. Since I''m going to focus on finding the Magic Flow, I need you to be in front."


    "Don''t worry. In case I''m wrong, I should be able to stop a few zombies for a few seconds." Isaac grinned. "Money, money, money."


    Theo thought for a moment and smirked. He could simply use his Clone to guide Isaac around while he went deeper to understand more about the riddles. Unfortunately, he couldn''t tell him about the riddle since this was a task from the people behind him.


    After deciding what to do, Theo said, "Anyway, let''s move."

 Chapter 945 – Playing With Words

    <h4>Chapter 945 - ying With Words</h4>


    "Here." Theo pointed at his left while approaching something that was emanating Magic Power.


    They gradually walked closer until a broken sword entered their vision.


    Theo could see a purple-colored Magic Power covering the sword. Knowing it was a sword with an Order attached to it, this item should be able to give them some attribute points as long as it matched.


    "This sword is good." Isaac examined the sword carefully before pulling it out of the ground. "It has a Purple Magic Color�� What kind of affinity do you need to absorb this power?"


    Theo made a wry smile behind his mind, thinking, ''It''s not affinity. It''s Order. If you don''t have someone to absorb the Order for you, you won''t be able to increase your status.''


    Obviously, he wouldn''t share this secret with anyone because the information was a huge secret.


    Seeing the sword in his hand, Theo couldn''t help but take another nce at the items on his back. This sword was the third artifact they had found. And because of Isaac''s analysis and Theo''s sensitivity, they could find all these without finding another danger.


    It was truly such a blessing to the point they thought it was possible to empty this ce.


    "We''re going to be rich." Isaac smirked. "I have a feeling we can easily get fifty billion in this ce."


    "No. Let''s stop at ten billion each." Theo shook his head.


    "Eh? Why? Shouldn''t we take this opportunity to gain as much as possible? It''s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Isaac was confused by Theo''s statement. After all, ten years from now, they might have reached Mythical Rank. When that happened, they couldn''t enter this ce anymore.


    On the contrary, Theo had a different view and exined it to Isaac. "If we bring too much, we''ll be suspicious to the point more problems wille just to know about the information.


    "After all, if the two of us are all it takes to get 50 billion, what if they send hundreds of people? And not only them, but other influences as well?"


    When Isaac heard this statement, his face became pale, imagining the worst oue. "Not only will this ce be emptied, but we also will be killed to prevent the information from going around, especially by those who want to monopolize it."


    "That''s right." Theo nodded. "On the other hand, if we bring only twenty billion, we can say we''ve gained some insight, and the information we have is not entirely right��"


    "So, do we need to lie about the information? Didn''t you say you hate liars?"


    "No, not lying. We just give them iplete information about this secret�� These 20 billion will also give them enough proof to know that our information is somewhat correct."


    "But how about those who want to monopolize the information?"


    Theo smirked and said, "That''s impossible. We only need to give them 20 percent of the information while putting the requirement as a service to make them believe. Monopolizing the information? Some information is already there. Silencing us? We don''t even give them the whole secret.


    "Have you forgotten about your skill? We''ll use that Analyze as the cover. They''ll think that you have the chance to discover the secret of this ce. That''s why they won''t kill you�� Instead, they''ll allow you to continue your research while monitoring you.


    "Ten yearster, when this ce is going to open again, they''ll be more desperate for more information. We will give them a bit more information. Let''s say�� raise it to 30 percent of the information. Then, we have a few more decades to y."


    When he heard Theo''s n, Isaac sucked a cold breath, shocked by how far Theo had seen ahead. "So, that''s how it is��"


    Isaac''s reaction was enough to prove that he wasn''t great in political and maniption negotiation.


    Theo felt he could take advantage of this, but whatever he said right now would backfire. Hence, he decided to wait until everything was over.


    "Well, that''s the n. What do you think? We should be able to get more than fifty billion from the information alone�� since we''ll be selling information to many influences. They''ll keep each other in check while monitoring us."


    "But is it alright for them to monitor us?"


    "Yeah. It''s fine. Don''t you remember I''m a part of the Star Group? My identity alone is enough to make them doubt�� And with how mysterious I am, they''ll think I''m the key to your Analyze Skill. That way, they''ll be more focused on me."


    "I think so. But that will just put your life in danger."


    "I will have you share some of the burdens by selling the information. I''ll tell you about how much you can share with others�� Just make sure you don''t tell anyone no matter how close you are to them."


    Isaac thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "I don''t really mind. I''m an orphan�� In other words, a loner. I don''t have anyone to share it with."


    "Sorry�� But, it''s good enough." Theo smiled behind his mask. Little did Isaac know, he was already tricked by Theo''s words.


    He told him that people would focus on him more than Isaac, but no matter what, Isaac should have some fair share of trouble.


    For a loner like him, Isaac shouldn''t have enough strength to fend them off. Hence, he woulde to him again to seek guidance.


    At that time, he could use this opportunity to recruit Isaac to the influence he would soon build. Although he didn''t admit it, Theo knew how useful Isaac''s ability was.


    And Isaac already knew his absurd attribute points. The only way to protect Theo''s safety was to make Isaac his ally.


    Unlike the God of Mischief, who used his words to trick others into creating mischiefs, he utilized this talent to empower himself. This was a big investment for the future. And more importantly, there wasn''t a single lie in his words.


    Now that he had gotten what he wanted, Theo continued their search for items. "Let''s continue."


    "Sure!"

 Chapter 946 – Limit?

    <h4>Chapter 946 - Limit?</h4>


    Magic Bullets flew around the mist and hit the zombies from all directions. Theo even targeted their holes specifically so that the zombies stopped and covered them.


    "Gravity," Isaac shouted, warning Theo about his skill.


    Theo nodded and took this opportunity to kill all the zombies.


    *Sigh!* Isaac let out a long sigh while wiping his sweat. "This has gotten a bit harder. I don''t think we can stay too long in this area."


    "Just a bit more." Theo shook his head. Although he felt a bit tired to break through several lines, which hosted multiple 1000 Years Old Zombies, he needed to do it.


    Behind these few tracks were a chunk of Magic Power that Theo felt contained multiple artifacts.


    "How many more?"


    "Two." Theo turned around and said, "Should we use the artifacts first?"


    The agreement stated that if they found artifacts that matched their power, they would be able to use them before leaving this ce. And the remaining artifacts would be sold, and the money would be split evenly.


    They had found twenty artifacts as of now. They nned to end the search after finding thirty artifacts and absorbing their power. In case the remaining artifacts were worth less than twenty million, they would search for another few.


    Hence, they were quite restricted by the contract.


    Theo agreed to it because he never thought of finding a huge chunk of Magic Power that contained multiple artifacts.


    "How is it? If we use some artifacts and increase our attribute points, killing 1000 Years Old Zombies won''t be a problem anymore." Theo persuaded him. These words wouldn''t be effective if he asked it without finding this treasure stove.


    But because of the temptation of multiple artifacts, Isaac pondered this matter seriously.


    "Are you sure about your finding?"


    "Have I lied to you since the beginning?" Theo shrugged. "We have spent two days just to find all these artifacts�� I''m a bit exhausted at this point, and I''m nning to go somewhere else."


    "To somewhere else? You''re not nning to take more artifacts, right? You should remember that you''re going to hand over the artifact for me to sell if you search for more artifacts by yourself."


    "If I found the artifacts that I couldn''t use with that information, that is." Theo added with a calm tone and said, "No. There''s something else I need to do in this ce. And I can''t tell you anything about it."


    "I should keep the artifacts for now. Won''t you agree?"


    "Fine by me. You''re going to sell it anyway�� Just don''t forget I don''t mind fighting you if you scam me." Theo shrugged.


    Isaac thought for a moment and said, "Fine. Let''s use the artifacts first. It''s not like we''ll take it out of these ces."


    Theo nodded and extended his hands. "You can go first."


    Theo was a bit courteous this time since there were four people behind him: Illusion, Death, Hard, and Beast. He had more opportunities to take advantage of the artifacts.


    Since Theo had offered him to go first, Isaac looked at the artifacts they''d got.


    "Hmm��" Isaac looked around and grabbed a robe with blue Magic Power. Within a few seconds, the robe withered and fell to the ground in the form of ashes.


    After that, Isaac turned to him and said, "You are next."


    Theo nodded and immediately grabbed an armor, muttering inwardly, ''Please.''


    [Heh. You''re useless without me.]


    The Order disappeared, the Magic Power moved directly to Theo, and the notification appeared.


    [You''ve acquired 28 Attribute Points.]


    ''Thank you,'' said Theo to Fenrir as the armor from earlier had a powerful beast bone in it.


    Theo then turned to Isaac, "You can grab another one."


    Isaac nodded and started choosing another artifact that could be absorbed again. They both continued for a moment.


    Ultimately, Isaac absorbed three artifacts, and Theo got six artifacts. Even Isaac was shocked when he saw Theo''spatibility with the artifacts.


    "You''re so good." Isaac narrowed his eyes. "What kind of blessing do you have to be able to absorb so many colors of Magic Power?"


    "Why should I tell you?" Theo shrugged.


    Isaac narrowed his eyes and thought, ''Is it possible for someone to receive more than one blessing? I think there was one case in the past about someone who received a blessing from a twin. But I''m not very sure about it�� Anyway, I should keep this a secret for the time being because he can kill me anytime.''


    Theo nced at him and shook his head. He had held back when absorbing the artifacts. Or else, he would take more.


    Still, those six artifacts gave him a total of 102 attribute points, which was equal to twenty levels. With Theo''s current status point, his attribute points had surpassed that of a level 600 experts who never increased their attribute points like this.


    After getting enough points, Theo took a few deep breaths and said, "Alright. It''s time for us to kill some 1000 Years Old Zombies."


    "Yep." Isaac nodded.


    Unexpectedly, a few hands emerged from the ground.


    "!!!" Both Theo and Isaac widened their eyes, trying to gain some distance from the hands.


    Yet, the moment theynded on the ground, a few more hands appeared and grabbed their feet.


    "What?!" Theo and Isaac exchanged looks, knowing what to do. They needed to get away as soon as possible before understanding the situation.


    But these pale hands multiplied and expanded to the top, circling their arms, body, and legs.


    "What is this?!" Isaac panicked, never expecting to see so many long hands. He utilized two of his skills to deflect the hands, but nothing changed. "Wait a minute�� What''s wrong with these hands? What''s happening?! Joker!"


    Theo also didn''t know what was happening. He tried to use his weapon to destroy these hands but to no avail. The handspletely stopped all sorts of movements from his body and gradually made their way toward his head.


    "No!" Isaac screamed as the hands started covering his head.


    ''What''s the deal with these hands? I couldn''t do anything to them?'' Theo gritted his teeth and couldn''t help but remember a certain phrase.


    ''Brave warriors will be trapped inside the unending coldness, but the weak will find the true path between the cold.''


    "Kh�� Don''t tell me there''s a limit to killing the zombies?" said Theo before the hands covered his eyes.

 Chapter 947 – Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 947 - Illusion</h4>


    As soon as the hands covered his eyes, Theo''s vision darkened.


    He could still feel the touch of the hands and his breath, meaning he should be able to live for a bit longer.


    ''I need to get away immediately.'' Theo clicked his tongue and released his Magic Power to knock away the hands but to no avail. Thetter seemed to be able to absorb the Magic Power, stopping Theo from breaking free.


    While he was thinking about a way to escape, his consciousness was suddenly transferred somewhere.


    The darkness in his vision was reced by a wooden board.


    In that instant, Theo looked around and found he was inside a room with a pregnant female sleeping on the bed.


    ''This is a bedroom?'' Theo frowned while staring at this brown-haired woman. Her face looked familiar to him, but he couldn''t recall who she was.


    Suddenly, the woman let out a small groan while opening her eyes.


    "Mhm." She stretched her body a bit.


    Before she fully woke up, a man entered the bedroom as if hearing her voice. He gently opened the door and approached her with a smile on his face.


    "Did you have a good nap?"


    "Mhm, yeah." She smiled.


    When Theo saw the man, he couldn''t help but widen his eyes. Although he looked far younger, his appearance resembled Ray Griffith, his father. In other words, the woman on the bed was his mother, Valerie.


    "Are you hungry? I brought water with me." Ray showed the cup he brought to the room and said, "Do you need anything?"


    "You''re such a worrywart." She chuckled and said, "You know what�� I just dreamed something weird."


    "Weird?"


    "Yeah. It''s a bit vague in my mind, but I feel like the kid is telling me his name."


    "That must be a good dream." Ray epted it as a dream since it showed how much Valerie cared about their present child. "What is his name?"


    "He said he''s called Owen." Valerie extended her hand and ced it on Ray''s cheek. "Since we haven''te up with a good name, why don''t we name him Owen?"


    "Come on. That was just a dream. We need to think about it more carefully."


    "Hehe, you''re right. Two months left until this child finallyes to this world."


    "Yes. Just take care of yourself. If you need anything, I can bring it for you."


    "Alright, alright. I know that you''re such a doting father�� But if I still need to do something to keep my body fit."


    "Right." Ray nodded in agreement.


    Their expressions were so gentle, and the happiness on their faces brightened the atmosphere in the room. However, Theo could feel a stabbing pain in his heart.


    Even though he knew this was just an illusion, he actually wanted to know what happened to the point he questioned himself whether to break free from the illusion or not.


    "��" Theo gritted his teeth and decided to break free from this illusion. "The truth can be found as long as I''m alive. If I die here, I won''t be able to do anything."


    Although reluctant, Theo tried to release his Magic Power. Knowing that illusion required Magic Power to directly touch him, as long as his Magic Power could neutralize that spot, he should be able to wake up.


    The effect was soon apparent as the room crumbled like sses. Theo prepared himself to return to reality, but it turned out to be a failure.


    Instead of reality, the scenery changed. The bedroom was reced into a living room with Ray and Valerie leaning to each other.


    However, this peaceful time changed when Ray suddenly rose from the couch with a grim face.


    "Ray?" Valerie tilted her head in confusion. "What''s wrong?"


    Ray didn''t answer her as he continued looking around, feeling something was wrong.


    Before he could react, the entire house suddenly disintegrated into ashes.


    "!!!" Valerie also rose from the couch and found that they were in the middle of darkness with no edge. She looked down and realized she was floating.


    "This power��" Ray muttered and raised both hands. "There is only one person who can do all this."


    "And that is me." A deep, aged voice resounded across the room as an old man appeared in the room.


    "Eric Griffith." Ray gnashed his teeth as he couldn''t contain his anger against the man who tried to marry his daughter to him without his consent.


    "You should have been together with Elisa, Ray." Eric smirked. "If you''re with Elisa, we don''t mind you having her as your second wife. It''s a win for you."


    "Bullsh*t. I love only one woman. It''s her. I chose not to join the Griffith Family on my 18th birthday, yet you didn''t honor the rule."


    "Hmph. The only thing you need to know is that your life is in the Griffith Family''s hands, including the baby in her womb." Eric stepped forward.


    "Back off. If you take another step, I won''t hesitate to attack you."


    Hearing that warning only made Eric excited as he asked, "Attack me, huh�� A new Mythical Rank Expert and a pregnant Supreme Rank Expert�� Do you think both of you can even touch me?"


    Without hesitation, Eric raised his hand and manipted his illusion.


    Ray stepped forward and punched him.


    The Magic Power in his fist burst and created a shock wave that should be enough to push him away.


    However, Eric suddenly disappeared from his vision.


    "What? Where is he?!" Ray widened his eyes in shock and turned around, finding Eric reappearing right in front of Valerie. His hand even touched Valerie''s stomach.


    "So, this is your son�� What is his name again�� Well, how about I ask him directly?" The moment he said those words, Valerie felt excruciating pain in her stomach.


    "Argh! Don''t touch me." Valerie pushed Eric away and clutched her stomach. But the next thing she realized, the baby''s weight in her womb disappeared as the pain gradually moved lower.


    Blood started dripping into the darkness, and a baby fell to the ground.


    Bang.


    "Oeee, oeee!" The baby cried.


    Valerie and Ray''s faces became extremely pale when they saw the baby. Owen already resembled a normal baby, but because he was still eight months old, his body was still smaller. Even the umbilical cord was still attached to him.


    "Why don''t we ask this little guy himself?" Eric smirked and lowered his knees so that he could touch Owen. "What is your name, little guy?"


    The baby continued crying while Valerie and Ray released their power and attacked Eric. "You bastard!"


    But before they could touch him, the baby exploded from the inside, and its blood sttered everywhere, from their clothes to their faces.


    At this time, an evil smile that showed his excitement appeared on Eric''s face as he yfully said, "Oops!"

 Chapter 948 – Mental Breakdown

    <h4>Chapter 948 - Mental Breakdown</h4>


    "Oops!"


    Valerie dropped her jaw to the ground. Her face lost all colors, and the disgust crept into her heart.


    She fell to her knees with tears all over her cheeks. Seeing the baby she cared for eight months died inflicted a big scar on her heart.


    "Ueee!" Valerie couldn''t help but throw up when she saw a small hand lying next to her.


    Ray had the same expression as her. Still, he was stronger. Because of his ability as a Mythical Rank Expert, he noticed that the baby contained Magic Power.


    In that instant, he arrived in front of Valerie and kicked Eric away before shouting, "Valerie, stop! It''s not our child. It''s just an illusion."


    Even though he said those words, his face was extremely pale. After all, no parents could stand watching their unborn child die like that.


    "Of course, I''m not going to kill him." Eric made an evilugh as if he enjoyed their reactions. "Anyway, I have touched your stomach and poured my power into your body. When you give birth to that child, I can control him at will."


    "You''re insane! I''m already not part of the Griffith Family!" Ray roared. He wanted to kick him right now, but Valerie''s condition was more important to him.


    "Insane? No, I''m simply loyal to the Griffith Family. Anyway, I leave some Magic Power behind. Only I can stop it from spreading�� If you don''te to the Griffith Family so that I can remove the trace of my Magic Power, your child will die in your womb.


    "If you try to get someone to remove it somewhere else, the baby will die because my Magic Power is unique. No matter what you do�� it is useless. There won''t be any solution unless youe to the Griffith Family.


    "And if youe to the Griffith Family, I''ll make sure to take care of little Owen�� I am�� simr to that of his grandfather, after all. I''ll take good care of him." Ericughed uncontrobly before his body disappeared and the illusion vanished, revealing they were still in the living room and there was no blood spilled.


    Still, Eric''s warning was clear. "Give birth to a soldier of the Griffith Family or your kid will die."


    Although her pregnancy was still normal, Valerie remained on the ground while covering her belly with her shaking hands. She even lowered her whole body so that no one could touch her stomach, specifically the kid in her womb.


    Her entire body was shaking, and she couldn''t stop crying while muttering, "Owen�� Owen�� Owen��"


    "Valerie! Are you alright?!" Ray dropped to his knees to check her body and found the trace of Eric''s Magic Power. He tried to feel that Magic Power and received a strong resistance, knowing it would be the way for Eric to kill Owen.


    Even Ray couldn''t contain his tears anymore after realizing what had happened.


    "Owen��"


    "Owen��"


    "Owen��"


    That night, Owen''s name kept repeating for a few hours until Valerie passed out.


    Theo, who witnessed the entire scene, had a grim expression on his face. Even though he didn''t like his parents, there was no way his heart didn''t move when he saw what had happened.


    "Is this�� really an illusion?" Theo''s voice became shaky, trying to hold back his tears. Everything felt so real that Theo couldn''t differentiate the reality and illusion anymore.


    After Valerie passed out, Ray carried her to the bedroom to let her rest. That night, he could only hold her hands while praying everything was just a dream.


    Sadly, it was actually the start of their nightmare.


    When Valerie woke up in the morning and found Ray sleeping on the floor while holding her hand, the memory ofst night returned to her mind.


    Her face was distorted as she looked around in horror.


    As soon as she understood what happened, she looked down on her belly and tried to feel it herself, noticing the trace of Magic Power.


    That realization shocked her heart again as she couldn''t help but cry again.


    With her brain, she knew there were only two options they had left. Firstly, they could go to the Griffith Family and get treated. But Owen would most likely be a mindless soldier.


    When that thought appeared in her mind, a blue-haired kid appeared in front of her while holding a knife, stabbing her in the chest.


    It was just an illusion in her mind, but the pain and feeling were so real. She could even hear his voice.


    "Mother. Thank you for giving birth to me. But your death is necessary for the Griffith Family." The five years old Owen even smiled as if he was happy after killing his mother.


    "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Valerie screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to shake the illusion.


    At that time, the second option arose in her mind. The result was obvious. She failed to give birth to Owen.


    The baby''s brutal death that Eric showed her yesterday shed in her mind.


    "NNNNNOOOOO!!!" She was scratching her head. Her hair soon became messy, and her expression darkened.


    Ray woke up from her screams and knew it wasn''t a dream. He held back his tears and hugged his beloved wife.


    "It''s okay�� it''s okay�� I will find a way." Ray told her with his trembling voice. Even his body was shaking.


    The only reason why he hadn''t cried yet was due to the fact that Valerie and Owen were still alive. If he lost both mother and child, he couldn''t imagine what he would do next.


    "It''s fine�� It''s fine, honey. Please calm down��" Ray''s head was close to her head so that Valerie couldn''t hurt herself. In the end, her hands grabbed his arm so strong that her nails made him bleed.


    When she saw the blood, Valerie couldn''t contain herself anymore and passed out.


    "It''s alright, honey. I''ll find a way." Ray continued to hug her until he finally realized Valerie had fallen unconscious.


    He put her gently to the bed and walked outside. "I''ll get some water for you��"


    ''I can''t�� I can''t cry�� No one can support this family anymore if I break down now.'' Ray gritted his teeth, but tears couldn''t help but fall down.


    His feet felt weak, and he finally fell to his knees, clutching his head.


    He cried.

 Chapter 949 – That Was Real?

    <h4>Chapter 949 - That Was Real?</h4>


    "��" Theo was speechless. If this wasn''t an illusion, he would have felt the same. After all, it was truly too much.


    He couldn''t imagine what kind of thing he would do if his wife experienced this.


    ''This illusion is too good for evoking my emotion�� The mist and the hands��'' Theo gritted his teeth. ''How do I even use an illusion that can pry the target''s memory?''


    It was clear that no one had witnessed the scene where Eric infiltrated their words. So, this illusion must be something created based on his memory.


    ''I shouldn''t be stuck in this ce. I need to break free from the illusion and continue my journey.'' Theo shook his head while calming his heart down. Even though it was just an illusion, the scene indeed shook his heart.


    But to his surprise, the moment he released his Magic Power, he received a notification.


    [Even I have my limits.]


    [I''m not that ruthless.]


    [As much as I hate people, I won''t torture them like that.]


    [Even I''m not that evil.]


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock, never expecting to see the notifications. "This illusion is insane that it even knows my secret��"


    The secret he was talking about obviously referred to the four God Level figures behind him.


    However, one of them replied to his words.


    [There was someone who actually witnessed such a thing. If everything is aligned, this might not be an illusion. In fact, this can be someone''s memory. And this is the only ce where such a memory can be transmitted to you.]


    "Huh?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "This is obviously an illusion. To think they even mimic the God of Mischief talking style."


    Obviously, there was no way Theo could believe what he saw right now due to him falling into the illusion.


    But the moment he said those words, the entire room crumbled again. In the pitch darkness, a middle-aged figure appeared.


    He had blue hair like Theo, and his face was simr to Ray''s. However, he couldn''t call him Ray because they felt different.


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, "I''ve been waiting for 31 years�� I''m truly d to see my younger brother in this ce�� All my effort has paid off."


    "Huh? Younger brother?" Theo squinted his eyes. The only person that would call him that was Edward, but because of their rtionship, Edward wouldn''t call him ''Younger Brother'' anymore. In other words, the person before him was none other than the firstborn.


    Before Theo reacted by calling him an illusion, the man continued with a smile, "You don''t need to believe it if you don''t want to. I just want to tell you that this is my memory��


    "It''s impossible for you to know what happened that night, but it''s not impossible for me. My name is Owen Griffith; I''m your brother."


    Theo remained silent and started releasing his Magic Power to break free from this illusion.


    Owen already knew his intention and simply stated, "Anyway, the reason why I can appear before you is because I have seen the future and want to change it. Everything I showed you earlier truly happened in the past.


    "And it''s normally impossible for people to show something like this since I was supposed to be a fetus at that time�� However, I managed to use a unique power on Earth and connect to someone��


    "He called himself Chronos, the God of Time. Because of my Time Element, we got connected, and I managed to see the future. The meeting happened when that person injected his power into me. I wasn''t sure about the details, but I knew you woulde to this ce today."


    "Impossible." Theo harrumphed. "You''re not my brother. He''s already dead. Do you thinking up with that information will make me believe in an illusion?"


    "Illusion, huh." Owen smiled and said, "As I said earlier, you don''t need to believe me. However, this ce indeed gave me the opportunity to meet my younger brother.


    "Sadly, I''m just a soul. I used this ce to freeze my soul so that I didn''t reincarnate yet. Anyway, I have told you everything. It''s up to you whether you''ll believe it or not." Owen smiled and snapped his fingers.


    The illusion gradually copsed and sent Theo back to reality.


    "Hah!" Theo let out a shout suddenly and moved his body left and right, finding the hands still covered him.


    But unlike the previous time, the hands felt so soft that Theo easily ripped them apart.


    "Eh?" Theo looked around and released all his Magic Power to escape the illusion, but nothing changed. Even Isaac was still on his side, trapped inside the illusion.


    ''I''m already in reality? Wait a minute�� Is this even a reality?'' On the one hand, he wanted to believe he had reached reality. On the other hand, he felt this reality was created by another illusion in his head. After all, he had seen something like this in the fight between his mother and Eric Griffith.


    [This is reality. Do you think I, who had the Illusion Authority, couldn''t differentiate reality and illusion?]


    ''That''s not what I mean�� isn''t it impossible for a baby to have a functioning brain to the point it created all that stuff? I just couldn''t believe it.'' Theo shook his head and spoke in his mind.


    [You haven''t figured out this ce yet?]


    ''What do you mean? Isn''t this ce��'' Theo suddenly fell silent when he was about to answer.


    In fact, if the God of Mischief didn''t lie to him and everything he saw was the truth, one ce came into his mind. Theo muttered what he had heard earlier.


    ''There was someone who actually witnessed such a thing. If everything is aligned, this might not be an illusion but someone''s memory. And this is the only ce where such a memory can be transmitted to you.


    ''A ce that can host a soul�� Is this Helheim?'' Theo sucked a cold breath before shaking his head. ''No. This is not Helheim. This ce is the homnd of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice�� Niflheim.


    ''And what he said earlier about going deeper�� He was supposed to die because of dishonorable death�� There''s only one ce where such a soul will go in Norse Mythology�� It''s said to be inside Niflheim, where the Goddess of Death Hel resided�� Helheim.''

 Chapter 950 Convincing Isaac

    <h4>Chapter 950 Convincing Isaac</h4>


    ''In the beginning, there was only coldness. This matches the description of Niflheim to be the first world. And if I go up, I''ll die because of the heat�� Does that mean I can''t go up because it''s the path to Muspelheim? And I need to go down to Helheim?'' Theo narrowed his eyes.


    ''So, it''s now confirmed that this ce is where the Norse Mythology took ce?'' Theo finally came to a realization. ''Most mythologies actually came from the other side? What mythology took ce on Thernd''s other side? Italy''s other side?''


    The world hadn''t known the rtion between mythologies and this world simply because they couldn''t find concrete proof. And the only reason Theo was aware of such a thing was due to the illusion he saw earlier.


    The man imed to be Owen, his brother. He thought that was an illusion, but because of this realization, he thought it was possible.


    ''That man was actually my brother, Owen? And everything I saw earlier was real? That was the thing my parents experienced in the past?'' Theo widened his eyes, understanding why his parents could do such a thing in Thernd. They had been broken by what Eric did.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. Although the feeling and sensation had disappeared, preventing tears froming out, Theo''s heart still beat rapidly.


    This revtion was simply too shocking. There wereplicated emotions rushing into him, wondering what had gone wrong this whole time.


    ''So, my brother had a time element. The rarest element on Earth that is said to be far rarer than the space element and only one person out of one billion can have it. And it''s also the element of the current strongest expert on Earth. How did he receive the blessing from Chronos?


    ''But if everything was true, after dying, he should havee to this ce and used the ice to freeze his own soul from going to Helheim. And the only reason he waited here was to meet me, who woulde to this ce 31 years after his death.


    ''Assuming there are many ces where souls go when they die, and Helheim is just one of them�� My brother actually chose this ce because he could trap himself in Niflheim.


    ''Now that he had fulfilled his wish, he went to Helheim�� Was this the entire process? How did he control the illusion? How did he stop me from breaking free from the illusion?'' Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    However, his thoughts abruptly stopped when he looked at the trapped Isaac.


    ''Whatever. I can think of thister. I should finish my matter here first�� Distraction will only slow me down in this ce or even influence my emotion. I should consider them an illusion for the time being.'' Theo shook his head and immediately went to help Isaac.


    To his surprise, the hands had be weakened. It didn''t take too much effort to free Isaac from the hands.


    "I love you!" Isaac suddenly grabbed his hands and proceeded to kiss him, but Theo ended up kicking him on the stomach with an annoyed expression.


    "What the heck��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Why was there a truck when I was about to kiss my wife?" Isaac shouted while looking around, only to find Theo with a darkened expression.


    "It seems you had a good dream." Theo''s eyes were emanating killing intent, bing the wake up call for Isaac.


    "Ah! It was an illusion." Isaac widened his eyes in shock.


    Theo wanted to say something, but he honestly preferred to stay quiet for the time being, lest he said something useless with his restless heart.


    He pointed at their back and said, "You stay there, and I''ll break through thest two lines. I''ll throw everything to you. Take it and leave this ce immediately."


    "What? You''re nning to handle so many 1000 Years Old Zombies at once?"


    "You don''t need to care about me. I have learned that we shouldn''t be too greedy at this point�� The next time we''re trapped inside the illusion, we might not be able to go back."


    "��" Isaac narrowed his eyes. "Do you know something that I don''t?"


    "Yes. But it''s not something I can share with you. All you need to know is that after tossing all the artifacts, I''m going to find another way to escape their chase. We''ll meet again outside."


    "Since when did you decide all this? We still have days to gather some artifacts�� There''s a possibility that the artifacts we''re aiming for are enough to reach our target."


    "Then, you will die." Theo sighed and pointed at the ground. "Why do you think the hands captured us and trapped us inside an illusion?"


    "!!!" Isaac sucked a cold breath as if realizing what had happened. He thought for a moment and understood Theo''s meaning.


    Although reluctant, if what in his mind was the cause, he would need to go back immediately.


    "Fine. I''m not going to be greedy." Isaac nodded. "I''ll go with your n."


    "Good."


    After Isaac took a few steps back and positioned himself far enough from the zombies, Theo disappeared into the mist.


    In Isaac''s mind, Theo was nning to risk his life to wrap up everything. But the reality couldn''t be any more different.


    Theo simply used his Blink to enter this ce and found five treasures. Two of them were rusty weapons, another two were herbs, and thest one was a shield.


    Without hesitation, Theo threw everything in his direction.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    Bam.


    The weaponsnded on the snow in rapid session as Isaac immediately approached them to check their conditions. He soon heard Theo saying, "I''m leaving now!"


    "Y��" Isaac wanted to reply, but hearing his rushed tone, he knew the zombies must be chasing Theo. Not wanting to waste Theo''s sacrifice, he remained silent and gathered all the artifacts they got.


    After that, he turned around and ran away ording to the tracker. He thought, ''It seems you''re someone I can trust�� Don''t worry. I won''t cheat you."


    Little did he know, Theo was sitting on the ground leisurely while waiting for his Blink to be usable again. Then, he returned to his original position and continued his journey.

 Chapter 951 Am I Still Alive?

    <h4>Chapter 951 Am I Still Alive?</h4>


    "Now that I''m free, what should I do now?" Theo muttered while pondering how to solve the riddle. Now that he knew this ce''s name, he could better decipher the riddle.


    It was obvious that Hel wanted him to go to Helheim since she once resided in that ce. However, he wondered what kind of benefit could he receive as soon as he reached there.


    If it made him get trapped for ten years here, it wouldn''t be worth the hassle. Hence, he needed to consider it thoroughly.


    "Why do you want me to go to Helheim?" Theo asked with a grim expression. "It''s the ce for the dead�� If I''m not wrong, I should go down and to the north ording to the myth�� Wait a minute, That''s why you said ''go down and you shall receive judgment��''


    "That should be the entrance to Helheim, and the judgment will be at the entrance. What was it called again? The bridge that separates the living from the dead. What are you nning? Do you want me to die?"


    He didn''t know what kind of ce Helheim was, but the myth was clear enough to tell him it wasn''t a ce he should go. And if he didn''t remember it wrong, someone needed to ride for days to reach that area while he was traveling by foot.


    It was the same as asking him to be trapped inside. That was why Theo became hesitant.


    Although he never doubted those four people, he simply couldn''tply with this request.


    As if understanding his worry and the fact Theo wouldn''t go unless she exined, Hel finally spoke.


    [It''s to revive a part of you.]


    "Revive me?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. That statement had so many meanings, but there was one thing he couldn''t ept. "Are you telling me I''m dead?"


    [Is this world an illusion or reality? Have you got your answer yet?]


    "Illusion or Reality?" Theo squinted his eyes, not understanding her question. Of course, this question had been bothering him ever since the God of Mischief asked it during the Grand Gaia Competition.


    He had been questioning whether this world was a reality or not. Still, it didn''t have any rtion to his life and death.


    [God of Mischief is interested in you and wants you to be its emissary. Do you ept?]


    When Theo saw this notification, he instantly remembered what happened in the past.


    At that time, an elite monster was chasing after him. He had been hit once and was on the verge of death.


    While leaning on the tree, he showed all his regret. That was the time the God of Mischief finally called upon him.


    With his fuzzy consciousness, he instinctively answered him, ''Yes.''


    "What do you want to say?" Theo gritted his teeth, confused with this entire conversation.


    [God of Mischief has granted you the representative position. Congrattions, you now have be The Trickster. Mess up this world with your wisdom.]


    He obviously remembered this one as it was the recognition from Loki. But the next one shocked him.


    [Because you are in the face of death, God of Mischief has given you one skill and a chance.]


    [Clone (F)]


    [Full Recovery.]


    "!!!" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground. His body was shaking. The question reminded by Hel appeared in his mind again.


    ''Is this world an illusion or reality?'' Theo sucked a cold breath. "Is this life an illusion created when I was dying?"


    Theo couldn''t help but remember what happened that day.


    His eyes became blurry and everything felt as if they were glitching. The blood on his eyes covered his vision once again as the rock turtle came to life.


    It was charging at him while emitting his killing intent. Theo''s body went limp to the point he couldn''t even move his finger.


    And unlikest time, there was no message from the God of Mischief. No other hope came to him�� No, they had abandoned him.


    Theo didn''t receive any warm energy that healed his body to avoid this attack. This time, no one stopped the turtle as it rammed Theo with its hard head.


    "Bam!"


    "Kh!" A sharp pain struck his mind. Unlike any other pain, he didn''t know why but it was unbearable. He couldn''t help but scream, "AAAAHHHH!"


    Theo dropped to his knees while clutching his head. If all the people who had witnessed Theo''s pain tolerance saw this side of him, they would be panic-stricken since the pain must be inhumane.


    "AAARRGGGHH!" Theo gnashed his teeth while enduring the pain. He even tried to open his eyes in the midst of the situation.


    Yet, the only thing he found was a broken panel of notification. That blue colored panel that connected him to the four Gods behind him.


    Unlike the normal panel, this one was broken. Many small pieces had vanished.


    But the one that shocked him the most was what was inside the panel. And it was the first time he finally doubted himself.


    Skill: Clone (S)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself and give apletely new life.


    The description was simple and the rank could be seen perfectly. It was truly a Divine Skill that wouldn''t lose against the Supernatural Snake Body or the S Rank Version of the Death Avatar.


    However, the description literally told him that the clone was actually apletely new life born from himself. The only reason why the God of Mischief gave him the Clone Skill�� And the reason why the Clone Skill he received was an F Rank instead of S Rank��


    He never thought about it, but this skill reminded him that no matter how close he was to die, the God of Mischief never gave the ''Full Recovery'' anymore. After all, if he wanted energy, he had been giving him the artifacts and other stuff.


    Hence, there was only one answer.


    "I was supposed to die, and the God of Mischief traded my life with��" Theo''s legs gave up and his eyes were filled with horror. Theo fell to his knees and muttered a few words before falling to the snow. "Am I�� still alive?"

 Chapter 952 Complicated Stuff

    <h4>Chapter 952 Complicated Stuff</h4>


    As soon as he fell to the ground, Theo''s consciousness traveled to another ce. This time, it wasn''t an illusion.


    "Mhm?" Theo gradually opened his eyes and found himself standing in the middle of an empty white room. "Where is this?"


    A deep, gentle voice resounded across the room, saying, "I think it''s time to talk about it."


    Theo was familiar with this voice as he turned around, finding another Theo standing behind him. Even though the body was Theo''s, his voice was simr to that of the God of Mischief.


    "Am I still alive?" Theo asked the most important question right off the bat.


    The God of Mischief smiled and pointed at himself. "This is your body, your main body."


    "I have seen the skill''s description. Are you telling me that I''m a clone this whole time? Does that mean I''m not real? Is that why you asked that question?"


    "You''re misunderstanding a few things. Why do you think the skill name is a clone instead of something else?" Loki calmed him down with a single wave of his hand and exined.


    "Clone�� Exact copy." Theo looked down for a moment, falling into deep thought.


    "We don''t have much time here, so I''ll just exin it to you. It''s quiteplicated, so I don''t know if I can truly convey what I want to say or not. Anyway, You are already aware of the body and soul, right?"


    "Now that I think about it, the soul truly exists��" Theo nodded, remembering the illusion of his brother.


    "The Clone Skill copied not only the body but the soul."


    "So, my soul is a copy of the original?"


    "Yes. That Full Recovery thing is none other than the process of copying your body and soul. Because of your injury, it''s impossible for you to survive more than five minutes at that time��


    "Hence, I decided to use the Clone Skill to produce another Theodore Griffith. And that is you."


    "Does that mean we''re here to revive the original?" Theo asked. He didn''t know how to feel, considering he had been living in this body for so long. On the one hand, he wanted the original to be revived since he was just a mere clone no matter the condition. On the other hand, he didn''t want to lose against the original. Everything he had experienced in the past few years was real.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the God of Mischief gave him an answer different than expected.


    "Nope. Unlike your brother''s soul, who is already aware of the soul part because of his connection to another great being�� Your soul has already entered the reincarnation." Loki shook his head. "After all, your death back then was due to betrayal."


    "But you said I need to go there to revive a part of me."


    "Yes. A part of you�� In other words, the main body, not the soul. You''re going to have two main bodies and one soul," said Loki with a serene expression as if everything had been in his calction.


    "Two main bodies?" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground. Although he still didn''t understand what he was talking about, he felt as if he had gained something.


    "I should exin it from the start." Loki sighed and pointed at himself. "This is your main body. Understand?"


    "Yes."


    "Because you died at that time, the Clone Skill copied your body and soul, and that is you."


    "Yes."


    "How about the main body?"


    "Died, and the soul has already gone to the reincarnation stuff."


    "What''s about the main body?"


    Theo pointed at the body that Loki possessed.


    "That''s right. This main body is now just a dead body without a soul. And what''s the fate of a dead body?"


    "Decayed and��" Theo suddenly fell silent, receiving his answer.


    Loki suddenly snapped his finger and turned the main body into a skeleton with some decayed bones as if telling him this was the main body''s condition. Seeing his expression was enough for Loki. He then said, "We''re going there to revive your main body and split your soul so that the clone can be the exact same as your body."


    "But doesn''t that mean I will disappear?"


    "No, no." Loki shook his head. "The Clone Skill right now is using your Magic Power to produce your body and soul. Because your main soul has gone to the reincarnation path and your main body has be like this, the Clone Skill you use will copy this empty skeleton�� So, in order to be the exact copy, you need Magic Power to recreate the body."


    "Yes."


    "But if you revive your main body, it''ll be different."


    "Like what? I can summon another clone? That means there will be three Theos?"


    "No." Loki shook his head again, denying his abrupt imagination. "Your Clone won''t be just a lump of meat made by Magic Power�� Instead, it will be a true body."


    "I''m sorry, I still don''t understand."


    "To put it simply, if you use the Clone Skill, the clone will have the ability of the true body. First, no one will recognize it''s a clone because you''re exerting the same power as your main body." Loki smirked, raising one finger.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. "Doesn''t that mean the Magic Power that the clone is exerting right now will bepletely calm�� No, should I say I won''t even need to use my Magic Power to maintain my clone?"


    "Exactly. It behaves like your body right now since it''s not created from your Magic Power, but it''s copying your Main Body."


    "Your words are quiteplicated, but if I put it simply, it''s the same as having two bodies, right?"


    "That''s what I told you at the start." Loki sighed. "Anyway, this means Your Clone can do the same thing as your real body, except for the clone skill."


    "Except for the clone skill��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Can it use my Order or Death Avatar?"


    "That''s right." Loki nodded with a serious expression. "Let''s call your main body "Body A" and your clone body "Body B".


    "You''re upying Body B right now. If you use Clone, you''re creating an exact copy of the decaying Body A. And because of the condition, Body A is no more. That''s why the clone right now is just made by Magic Power.


    "It will be different if your Body A is revived and you use it as your main body. The Clone Skill will create an exact copy of your main body. Now that Body A is in theplete form, your clone will now have the same ability as your Body A, except for the Clone Skill.


    "In other words, Body B, the one you used right now, will be retracted to Body A, so that when you use your Clone Skill, Body B will be the exact copy of Body A which has the same power as the current Body B.


    "So, after reviving your soul, I''m going to move your soul to Body A�� To put it simply, you will be able to use all of your current power, from Skills to Order, with your Clone Skill. You just need to know that if you still can''t understand."

 Chapter 953 Continue

    <h4>Chapter 953 Continue</h4>


    Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. Their conversation was soplicated that he didn''t understand some parts. However, he did know that the Clone would be stronger because his current body would be the clone.


    "Does that mean my clone can''t die?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    "Nope. You can use your clone like how you do it the entire time. The body won''t decay or die anymore because the clone is copied from your main body, which will be fixed soon."


    "Ah, I see. This time, I''ll clone the real stuff!"


    "Yep."


    Everything turned out to be this way.


    First of all, because the main soul had gone to the reincarnation path, his current soul became the main soul.


    A dead body would decay sooner orter, so his Clone Skill replicates his body out of nothing. That was why the clone couldn''t use Order or Death Avatar. It would be different if the main body were revived. The Clone Skill would replicate his body out of the main body instead of nothing.


    The exnation was tooplicated, but he thought this was because he was just a mere clone. He feared that he would vanish or something and refused to ept the exnation.


    Now that he had felt relieved, he believed going to Helheim was a must.


    "The real Theo has died and I''m just a mere clone. However, am I still alive? The answer is obvious. I''m still alive because I, a mere clone, have be the real Theo," He muttered before letting out a sigh of relief.


    "Anyway, you should go now since it''s going to take a long time to reach there."


    "But this ce will be closed within seven days. It''s impossible for me to go back if I go."


    Loki shook his head to assure him. "If you go down before the time limit, you won''t die from the cold. And to go back, you simply need to take a torch to warm yourself. If I''m not wrong, you should be able to finish all this within three weeks."


    "Three weeks��" Theo scratched the back of his head.


    "Just use your clone to inform them and go back home. After that, you can return here. It might take a bit longer, but they won''t realize you''re still here. As soon as you finish everything, you can go back alone."


    Theo made a wry smile. He thought the same thing, but as one would expect from the God of Mischief, he could get that kind of idea without even the need to think. No wonder he was known as the God of Mischief.


    "I understand." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Good. It''s time for me to leave now." Loki patted Theo''s shoulders a few times. "I''m giving my power to you�� There''s no real or fake. Both of you are real in my eyes. As I said back then, Illusion or Reality? That depends on your choice. If you keep thinking you''re just an illusion, you will be an illusion."


    Theo felt heavy in the heart. He closed his eyes for a second and the God of Mischief had disappeared and his consciousness returned to reality.


    "Mhm��" Theo let out a groan, feeling this cold ce. He gradually opened his eyes and rose from the ground.


    There was aplicated feeling in his heart. Although some of them had been sorted by the previous conversation, it wasn''t easy for Theo to get rid of the feeling of being a fake.


    Even so, it didn''t stop him from going forward.


    "From my brother to my own identity�� I have gained so much from this ce. In fact, the artifacts can''t bepared to all this."


    Theo looked ahead and muttered, "Still, I can''t miss the fact I need to go back so that no one thinks I know something about this ce. If they know this is Niflheim, my life will be in danger.


    "In that case, I need to go back and settle everything." After deciding what to do, Theo summoned his clone and sent him to the outside.


    Still, he didn''t know how to go to Helheim. The myth told him to go down and to the north, but he hadn''t found a clue how to go down.


    "But since it''s Helheim, only the dead can find the path to go forward�� Well, my main body is already dead�� So, how should I find it?" Theo fell into deep thought, remembering the riddle he got.


    "Now that I think about it, the dead can actually find us because of the Magic Power. What if I close my eyes and continue forward? This way, I can focus my senses on the Magic Power. This ce should be like a maze, if I can find the right path, I should be able to reach Helheim.


    "That was what she meant about the dead can find the path to go forward? Is it because they have no eyes and rely on their senses? As for brave warriors and the weak�� it means I shouldn''t go to the ce where the zombies are�� Instead, I should be the weak and avoid all that stuff. That''s the right path.


    "And I need to make sure I don''t go up and find myself in Muspelheim since I''ll die." Theo thought for a moment and smiled. "That''s right. Let''s go then."


    Theo felt as if he had deciphered the riddle, so he immediately focused on his senses and walked forward. Since the zombies always stayed in their paths, he wouldn''t need to worry about going back.


    The real Theo had a smooth journey, but the same couldn''t be said to his clone.


    When he was on his way toward the exit, he identally bumped into another person who was fighting a zombie.


    Even Theo couldn''t help but kill the zombie because that other person was someone he was familiar with.


    Without hesitation, that person immediately jumped to him, hugged him, and said in joy, "I knew it�� I knew it�� I knew you didn''t die, Theo."


    That was right. She was Maya.

 Chapter 954 Change of Plan

    <h4>Chapter 954 Change of n</h4>


    "I knew you are still alive, Theo!" Maya showed the happiness she couldn''t show earlier. Theo was one of her rare friends after all. He was not her subordinate or business partner.


    Theo fell silent for a moment, wondering if he should y along or not. Ultimately, there was no need to hide it anymore since thetter already knew about his identity.


    "Yeah. Just don''t be too loud since I don''t want anyone to hear it."


    "Okay, okay." Maya chuckled and took a step back. "To think you woulde to my father instead of me�� I don''t know if I should feel hurt or not."


    "You should have figured out the reason, no?"


    "Yeah. It would be extremely suspicious if I gained someone like you not long after your death. On the other hand, the Star Group has been a bigpany for decades. It''s normal for them to find someone like you."


    "That''s all." Theo shrugged.


    "Still, how are you doing?"


    "I''m good. Other than the fact that I need to do everything by myself, nothing changes."


    "Fair enough."


    "Anyway, I''m leaving." Theo sighed and looked in the exit''s direction.


    "So soon?" Maya raised her eyebrows, not believing what he said. "You can find so many things in this ce��"


    "How many zombies have you killed?" Theo asked while shaking his head.


    "Zombies? I''m not sure. More than twenty, but less than thirty�� I don''t know the exact number."


    "In that case, you can fight more and find some stuff." Theo sighed.


    "Eh?" Maya tilted her head in confusion. "Why? Is there something wrong with the zombies? Should I not kill them?"


    "Hmm, I can''t say anything to you because of the contract. However, you can just continue finding some stuff here." Theo shrugged.


    "Eh? What kind of contract do you have? There should be no contract like that with the Star Group�� Has another influence approached you?" Maya squinted her eyes.


    "Not apany." Theo shook his head. "Anyway, you can continue. I need to go back right now."


    Maya fell silent for a moment and asked, "Still, is there a need to rush? Why don''t we talk a bit here?"


    "No. I truly need to go right now."


    Maya looked at him for a moment before sighing. "Well, I guess I can''t keep you here. Anyway, I''m just d that you''re alive. Visit me when the time is right�� It''s not like you''re going to invite me or talk to me for no reason."


    Since there was no way to stop Theo here, Maya chose to stop, lest she annoyed him. After all, she had learned Theo''s character after his visitst time.


    "Well, I think I can say this�� I''m d to see you and I hope there will be an opportunity for us to coborate again." Theo patted Maya''s shoulder while walking away.


    A big smile appeared on Maya''s face as she remembered her father mentioning his intention to marry Maya to Theo when fighting against the Griffith Family. It turned out Theo was the one suggesting it.


    "Yeah. See youter."


    ��


    Theo made his way toward the rendezvous point and found a tent standing in the middle of nowhere. It was clear whose tent it was.


    Since he would be extremely suspicious if he came out with all this stuff two days after entering this ce, he decided to camp in this ce for the time being.


    "Isaac!" Theo called his name out loud.


    Isaac immediately came out after hearing Theo''s voice and looked at him with a weird expression. "Why are you here?"


    "Change of n." Theo sighed. "I need your help."


    "My help? For what? I''m camping here ording to our agreement, so I don''t see any reason going out right now." Isaac squinted his eyes, feeling suspicious about Theo''s movement.


    "I need you to go back one day prior with me. But because this is my personal matter, I am ready to give up ten percent of my share. So, you get 60 percent." Theo sighed and continued, "The artifacts should be worth around 25 billion, so another ten percent is equal to 2.5 billion. I''m sure this is enough for that."


    "Still, why do we need to go back one day prior? If it means I''m going to be in trouble, I don''t think ten percent is worth it."


    "No. It won''t get you in trouble." Theo shook his head and started exining. "For now, hear my n first. The reason why I want both of us to return one day prior is to change our sales technique.


    "Since you don''t have an influence, it''ll be bad if others see your loot. It''s better to hide it first, no?"


    "Yeah. But I can simply go back with you since I''m sure there should be some empty seats�� As much as I try not to say this, I don''t think everyone will be able toe back."


    "Indeed. That''s also the reason behind my proposal. I want to negotiate with the people of mypany to hide you. And the price for it�� Well, I think they will be prioritized and get a discount. Of course, they''ll be advertising this kind of information in return." Theo nodded.


    "So, you want me to give up a bit so that they can be the shield?"


    "Yeah. And I''ll be their main target. Of course, you''ll still be the one selling the information." Theo nodded.


    "Still, it''s not enough for me to prioritize them. I can simply leave one or two hours faster than anyone and escape alone, you know."


    "In that case, there''s no need for us to cooperate anymore." Theo sighed.


    "Cooperate? Are you going to terminate the contract? Just so you know that you need to reimburse me if you n to terminate the contract."


    "No." Theo raised one finger. "One year."


    Isaac furrowed his eyebrows, thinking about the time Theo mentioned. "Antis?"


    The answer came in the form of a smile. It was clear Theo had another n for their cooperation about Antis. After all, they were going to appear soon.


    If he gave up this time and chose to increase his worth with the Antis, the money he could get might be more than twice. After all, his reputation would be solid after gathering the secret about two special regions.


    "So, I should stand back now and see the bigger picture?"


    "Yes. What do you think?" Theo asked with a smile behind his mask, tricking him into agreeing to his condition. After all, he couldn''t guarantee they would get something in Antis. He just wanted Isaac to believe there was something good there.


    Isaac looked down, pondering his offer.

 Chapter 955 Giving Up

    <h4>Chapter 955 Giving Up</h4>


    "We''re done here," said Theo with a serious expression. Before him was Emma and Kain as they were the ones who approached him as soon as Theo brought Isaac to where the Mythical Rank Experts stayed.


    "We?" Emma tilted her head, looking at Isaac''s face as if he was a suspicious person. Although he knew Isaac because he was on Asda''s List, she didn''t know why Isaac came here with Theo.


    "Why do youe back here one day earlier? And is there any reason for you to bring this little friend?" Kain asked with a serious expression.


    Theo smiled and nced at Isaac. "Show them."


    Isaac nodded and opened his huge bag, showing all the items they''d got.


    "!!!" Even as a Mythical Rank Expert, Emma and Kain couldn''t contain their surprise when they saw all these items.


    "So many?!"


    "How many are there?"


    A smirk appeared behind his mask. Theo took advantage of their shock to convince them. "There was a cooperation between Isaac and me for these artifacts�� I think we''ve got some clues about this special region."


    "Really? Is this the reason why you can bring so many artifacts?" Kain widened his eyes before thinking, ''Normally, the people will bring one or two items from this ce. They can gather one or two billion from this special region alone.


    ''That''s why the Star Group sent two hundred people. Even if all of them couldn''t return, these people could still bring at least two hundred billion worth of items in total.


    ''If Joker could find all these items with Isaac, they might truly know some secrets about this special region. In fact, they should have already absorbed some items. That''s why their loot should be worth more than thirty billion.


    ''This is great news for thepany. If we can learn more about the special region, thepany might be able to make twice this year''s number easily.''


    Kain believed this was the case because they returned one day earlier. If they returned together with the others, they would believe Theo and Isaac were desperately looking for those items.


    Knowing Theo was a special talent, Kain thought this might be worth the shot. He asked, "What do you want?"


    Theo smirked and said, "I want you to hide these items for the time being. We will just take half of them back to show others��"


    "So, you want to conceal the truth?"


    "I''m going to negotiate with Sir Bernard personally."


    "Fair enough. If thepany can learn a bit more, we can triple our profits easily." He nodded in understanding. "What do you want me to do?"


    "Nothing. I just want us to return as soon as possible while we brag about our findings over there."


    "Seriously? Aren''t you going to prioritize thepany? If you''re going to advertise yourself over there, won''t thepany lose so much with this��" Kain raised his eyebrows.


    "I don''t have a contract stating I need to hand everything over to thepany." Theo shook his head calmly.


    "How about this? Why don''t you hide everything, and thepany will help you with the advertisement?"


    "So, thepany wants to take all of our achievements?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "��" Kain scratched the back of his head, trying to exin. "No, no. Listen to me first."


    "I''m just following the contract. I might not be able to leave the Star Group, but thepany can''t restrict my action." Theo turned around and handed half of the artifacts. "Anyway, we have recorded everything. Unless you kill us, thepany will know about you stealing our property."


    "There''s no way I will do something like that!" Kain sighed, feeling frustrated. Although this was his second time negotiating with Theo, he still couldn''t contain himself.


    Theo was simply too much. Even Bernard had a hard time talking with Theo.


    ''Whatever. I''ll just let the CEO deal with him.'' He waved his hand and raised his voice with an annoyed face. "Go, go! I don''t care about it anymore!"


    ''He gave up��'' Emma thought while observing their conversation. Compared to her, Kain was better at negotiating, so he was supposed to be able to handle someone from thepany. However, with this action alone, it was clear Kain had given up negotiating with Theo and pushed all the future negotiations to Bernard.


    At the same time, Theo didn''t care about the negotiation anymore. He started dragging Isaac away from this ce and returned to the entrance of the special region, waiting for the others toe out.


    ��


    The following day, experts from various influences started to leave the special region. The people from the Star Group also began to emerge from the mist, finding Theo and Isaac sitting next to each other while enjoying their time.


    "To think you need to wait for all of them�� It''s not easy to be in apany, eh?" Isaac teased. "This is why I prefer to be alone."


    "It''s just a matter of time. One day is not a big deal." Theo shook his head calmly, iming he didn''t mind waiting for his group.


    Still, they managed to see Theo''s loot together with Isaac. Seeing those items alone was enough to make them drool. However, they couldn''t show such an expression because Theo might make trouble for them.


    Little did they know, Theo''s target wasn''t them. Instead, it was the people who took this chance to use the Star Group''s exit to monitor their loot. These people would deliberatelye out of this exit so that they could gather more information about how other groups were doing.


    The Starry Group and the Star Group did the same. Even Maya personally came to check Theo''s loot.


    ''Impossible. I saw him leaving a few days ago�� And he and Isaac still found items worth more than ten billion? No. Theo won''t brag something this low unless he has something to hide�� Don''t tell me�� He knows the secret of the special region and earns more than this?''


    This thought shocked Maya as everything turned out to be more extraordinary. She was unaware that Theo already knew Maya woulde here to check on him.


    It was the biggest opportunity for him to catch Maya and increase the price of his information.


    And because of his mask, no one saw the sly smile he had.

 Chapter 956 Another Scam

    <h4>Chapter 956 Another Scam</h4>


    "Mark has four items with him while Joker has grouped up with Isaac and brought out a total of nine items."


    A guy was reporting what he found from the Star Group''s area. Before him stood a man that Theo trashed a few days ago, Winston.


    After experiencing that humiliation, he focused all his attention on Theo''s group. His expression became cold when he heard this report.


    "Nine items? Together?" Winston squinted his eyes and looked at the six items he brought by himself. If Theo and Isaac split everything, Theo would end up with four or five items. This showed he was superior.


    As if taking advantage of Winston''s state of mind, Lexie came with a smile, saying, "What do you think about this, Winston? It seems he''s using some weird techniques to humiliate you earlier�� Isn''t it time for you to show who the boss is?"


    Winston always focused on his Martial Prowess since that was the only thing in his mind. He defeated other people with his brute force and proved he was the strongest among them.


    But because of the strength Theo showed a few days ago, he realized there was another kind of strength. It was also the reason why he couldn''t do anything against Theo.


    He had underestimated Theo previously, so he should know about Theo''s strength first before confronting him again.


    Even though he was a fool that people could easily take advantage of, Winston still had his own pride. There was no way he would go against his own rules.


    Winston''s hand suddenly rose as if he wanted to dere his win against Theo, but everything turned out to be different. His hand reached Lexie''s shoulder as he red at her, saying with killing intent. "I don''t care shit about your opinion. I always defeat my opponent head-on. No matter how useful your scheme is, I''ll crush my enemy with my strength."


    Lexie''s expression was distorted when she felt Winston''s strong grip. It started hurting her shoulder.


    Suddenly, both Lexie and Winston vanished into thin air.


    The Teleportation Skill could easily cover the distance between his group and the Star Group, so Winston took this time to visit Theo.


    "!!!" Maya and Mark were the first to react as they were familiar with Winston''s power.


    Isaac also rose from the ground while raising both hands, preparing to fight. Only Theo still calmly sat down on the ground.


    "Joker!" Winston shouted and dered. "I challenge you to a duel. One month from now in the Grand za''s Martial Art Summit! It''s the meeting for all people on Asda''s Younger Generation List. If you''re a man, ept my challenge!"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion. "How is being a man rted to epting your challenge?"


    "As expected, you''re just a pussy who is scared of challenges. No wonder you''re just trash. Since you don''t dare to ept my challenge, I''m entitled to call you ''trash'' from now on!"


    "Oh. I don''t care about that. If you call me trash, I''ll simply call you someone who kneels before trash. What''s that? Trash Worshiper?" Theoughed, not caring about his challenge.


    Mark looked away as he remembered how Theo''s provocation scammed him. In the end, Theo almost killed him and even got a favor from Bernard.


    As for Winston, he obviously couldn''t contain his anger when someone, who didn''t have the courage to ept his challenge, looked down on him.


    He roared in anger while throwing Lexie. "Do you think you''re better than me? Look at her. She wanted to use me to fight you by simply showing my loot! I''m a man, unlike you. I challenge you from head-on. You''re just too scared like a woman."


    "Winston. You��!" Lexie was shocked that everything turned this way. Normally, she could influence Winston.


    "Shut up. If you don''t like it, call your parents. Do you think my family is afraid of your parents?" Winston snorted before ring at Theo. "And you�� You''re just too weak!"


    "Hahahaha!" Mayaughed out loud, looking at the humiliated Lexie and the angry Winston. If they knew Theo had gathered all these within two days, Winston would be humiliated again.


    At the same time, it was worth seeing Lexie, the woman who always annoyed her, get beaten up by Winston. She walked to Theo while saying, "You sure you want to challenge him?"


    "Maya��" Winston gritted his teeth. "You should just focus on bing a businesswoman. There''s no need for you to fight here."


    "I can do anything I want�� And I can''t really ept what you said earlier�� He''s a woman just because he doesn''t ept your challenge? Do you think us, women, that weak?" Maya smirked. "Challenge you head-on? Fine by me if you mean head-on as the thing you excel at!


    "In that case, I don''t mind fighting with your family''s business." Maya lifted her finger. "Come on. You can beat me in martial prowess, but I can make your whole life miserable by destroying your source of ie."


    Winston gritted his teeth and shouted, "As expected of a coward, you can only hide behind a woman!"


    "Like I said, do you think us, women, that weak?!" Maya raised her pistol and shot him without hesitation, releasing a small bullet with her Magic Power.


    Winston snapped his finger, and the bullet teleported to the back of Theo''s head.


    Theo felt the presence of the bullet and said with a stern tone. "Scram!"


    The bullet suddenly split into several bullets and looped around him. They headed straight to Winston, forcing him to take a step back to avoid them.


    "!!!" Everyone in the area was shocked by what they had seen. It was clear that the bullet came from Maya, yet Theo seemed to be able to control the bullet. They were wondering what kind of power Theo had to control this kind of bullet.


    Little did they know, Theo disintegrated the bullet with his Illusion Destruction First before using his own Magic Bullet to attack Winston.


    However, Winston didn''t know anything about this as everything looked smooth.


    While looking down on Winston, Theo said, "I don''t care about your challenge because it''s not worth my time. If I ept all the challenges just because of cheap provocation, won''t I die from overworking?


    "Even Mark paid a few billion for my time and gamble stake. If you can''t even afford to fork something like that, you''re simply not worth my time."


    When Mark heard his words, he couldn''t help but look away while thinking, ''Ah, yes. His multi-billion Zils scam��''

 Chapter 957 Bridge Keeper

    <h4>Chapter 957 Bridge Keeper</h4>


    A few dayster.


    Theo had finally reached his home. Because he needed to take care of the matter about his main body, Theo put a notice that any information would be traded after one month.


    Isaac was convinced that the price would increase in one month, so he stayed quiet for a while.


    Meanwhile, Bernard had agreed to talk about it in a month since it was the agreement between him and Isaac.


    After settling everything, Clone Theo vanished into thin air.


    "This is the time��" Theo muttered with a serious expression. After going to the center of this ce, he found thendscape gradually tilted downwards.


    Since it matched the riddle, he continued forward while assessing his surroundings.


    Even though he had prepared for this, he needed to enter a ce called Hel. There was no way he wasn''t afraid, especially since his main body had died.


    As he traversed further, the scenery gradually changed. The mist became thinner, allowing him to see through the fog.


    However, this thin mist made the ce eerier as Theo could see a few dead trees, ck fences, and some small hills in the distance.


    Some strange noises started entering his ears, saying, "What are you doing here?"


    "Why do you kill me?"


    "I don''t want to die."


    "Don''t torture me."


    "Aaahhh!"


    There were despair, regret, and madness. Even Theo didn''t know where they came from because he found nothing no matter how hard he looked around.


    Theo narrowed his eyes because the screams started to disturb his heart. They all didn''t want to die, but they ended up enduring all this.


    "Did my main soul endure all this too?" Theo muttered while trying to calm his heart down.


    Theo looked up and realized the sky was red even though it wasn''t supposed to be like this. He thought this blood-red sky was produced because of the mist reflecting the light.


    But he was no scientist. Even if he investigated it, he had no idea what truly happened to the sky.


    All he could do was keep walking forward, ignoring all the noises from his surroundings.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath and wondered, "Or is this just an illusion?"


    Since the mist could make him hallucinate, he thought these voices were an illusion. Still, there was only one job to do in here.


    Theo stopped thinking for a moment and continued. He didn''t know why after entering this ce, his mind and heart got distracted easily.


    "I need to focus��" Theo shook his head with a serious expression. He then continued observing the environment.


    After walking for a day, the mist became even clearer to the point Theo could see anything within a quarter-mile radius. The blood-red sky became even brighter, making it hard for anyone to know the time.


    The snow underneath his feet gradually disappeared, reced by soft, wet soil. Theo knew what made it wet, but he would rather think something else instead of imagining what kind of fluid did the ground absorb.


    To his surprise, the Magic Power became denser, the closer he got to the bridge.


    After running for one day, Theo finally found his destination.


    He found anothernd across the river, but it was clear he couldn''t cross it through the water or air, especially with a giant bridge standing between the twonds.


    Theo lowered his vision and saw the red river flowing from the upstream, carrying many souls. He raised his head and found numerous lines of Magic Power, bing the ceiling to prevent any souls from escaping.


    Thend was shrouded by mist, so he couldn''t see through it. However, he knew it was his destination.


    Some blue-colored souls started crossing the bridge with lifeless eyes. As soon as they stepped on the bridge, thetter glowed in gold.


    ''Thatched with glittering gold��'' Theo muttered, knowing it matched the description of the bridge.


    Without hesitation, he approached the bridge, preparing to enter Helheim.


    Suddenly, a huge ck hole appeared on the bridge as a ck-robed female emerged from within.


    The female had pale blue skin with half of her face starting to rot. She raised both hands while looking at Theo with her gray eyes.


    Theo felt chills down his spine when their eyes intertwined. He couldn''t feel any energy from those eyes as if the female before him had already died a long time ago.


    He also covered his body with Magic Power, preparing to fight if necessary.


    ''Wait a minute�� I think I have heard about this. There''s a guardian in front of the bridge. Is it her?'' The thought appeared in Theo''s mind, making him hesitate to advance.


    As if reading his mind, the female asked, "Who are you? For what reason the living wants to cross this bridge? This is the ce that separates the dead from the living."


    Her voice was cold and emitted some killing intent as if she wanted to kill Theo so that he could cross this ce.


    Theo remembered the myth once again before stating with a grim expression. "My name is Theodore Griffith. I only have one purpose�� I wish to reincarnate my dead body. As soon as I finish my matter, I will return."


    To his surprise, the female started releasing all her gray-colored Magic Power while shouting in anger. "Bold courage. How dare you lie to me?"


    "Lie? What?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. He had stopped lying a few years ago. To think the female would say it was a lie, he couldn''t ept it. "I''m not lying. I truly want to reincarnate my dead body."


    The female became even angrier as she stated. "It''s possible to reincarnate your body, but what can I do with your current body? You''ve lied to me. You are not Theodore Griffith. You are not dead either!"


    "What? I''m��!" Theo was bewildered by her statement, but when he was about to repeat it, he felt an enormous presence behind him.


    He turned around and found no giant creature. Instead, there were numerous ck hands gradually emerging from the ground, trying to hold him. Even his feet couldn''t move because two pairs of hands had caught him like earlier.


    He remembered what happened the moment he entered the illusion. If he hallucinated again, he might not be able to return.


    Sadly for him, everything was toote. The hands had already reached him and prevented him from moving as they gradually made their way toward his head.


    While the hands climbed his body, Theo gritted his teeth and saw the female opening her mouth, stating the so-called truth. "You''re Theodore Griffith''s Clone, and your purpose is to reincarnate your original''s body."


    Anger rose in his heart as it was clear that she would ept it if he actually answered her with that. However, he also had his own pride. He didn''t want to be a mere clone�� He wanted to be the original Theo Griffith.


    "Nooo!" Theo shouted as the hands started to cover his head again.

 Chapter 958 Theodore Griffith

    <h4>Chapter 958 Theodore Griffith</h4>


    "Oh, shit!"


    Theo gritted his teeth before he heard someone''s voice echoing in his ears. "Why do I need to die?"


    "Why are you still alive?"


    "This is not fair. You''re just a mere clone. You don''t deserve to live."


    "I''m the original, so I should be alive right now."


    Those words shook Theo''s heart as his body trembled before realizing the scenery had changed.


    Instead of the bridge, Theo found himself in front of a ck fence that bound his soul�� his original soul.


    His body was in tatters and covered with bruises. His left leg and arm were amputated and the left side of his body had started to rot with some maggots chewing on his ribs.


    The soul red at Theo and snarled, "Why do I need to endure all this? I still have my own goal! Where is my brother?"


    Theo''s expression turned grim. He couldn''t help but remember the injury he suffered that day.


    The turtle struck his left side, so his left arm and leg might be crushed from that attack. At the same time, his ribs were broken, but he didn''t see the full condition. So, he thought it must be worse back then.


    "I was forced to watch all this!" Soul Theo gritted his teeth, showing a screen of everything happening in the real world. How Theo could be MVP of the Grand Gaia Competition�� How he could be the person standing before him��


    Theo didn''t know why but his heart became calmer the more he talked. It was as if the soul in front of him was releasing all his pent-up emotion.


    "You are just a clone of mine�� Why do you need to take everything from me? This is mine." Soul Theo red at Theo, feeling jealous of Theo''s current achievement.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, taking the full brunt of Soul Theo''s insults.


    Soul Theo continued spouting everything in his mind.


    ''If I was in his position, would I do the same?'' Theo thought while his expression darkened. He couldn''t help but imagine himself watching all his efforts, achievements, journey, and even his girlfriend while being unable to do anything. No, while being tortured in this ce.


    ''Haha�� I''m pathetic��'' Tears couldn''t help but flow out of the corner of his eyes. Obviously, he couldn''t describe the feeling if he was the one experiencing all this. It wasn''t an easy journey, but it was very fulfilling.


    "I now have a grandfather who loves me, a girlfriend who supports me, and a few friends I can trust. I would be jealous of myself��" Theo smiled and looked at Soul Theo.


    Soul Theo stopped for a second, bewildered by his statement. He thought this was an insult to him, but Theo immediately continued.


    "I know that my soul has gone to the reincarnation path. However, I''ll treat you like my original soul for the time being." A sad smile appeared on Theo''s face.


    "��" Soul Theo was confused by his words, not knowing what Theo wanted to say.


    "I might be a mere clone, but what I have experienced in thest three years are real. On the other hand, my original body has endured his gruesome childhood.


    "It''s precisely because I am your clone that I respect you for enduring such a thing. What if I die in the future and my clone needs to take over my name and body? What if fate oppresses both of us once?


    "Even I can''t imagine what kind of hatred I will harbor to this world. But in the end�� you''re still the same person as you used to be��


    "At the end of your time, you cursed humanity. They are truly idiotic, greedy, prideful, resentful, depraved, and so on.


    "But we are also human. No matter how hard I try to do things right, some people will still call me an idiot, believing their thoughts are right. People will call me greedy just because I have more than them.


    "They''ll call me prideful even though I''m just showing my strong side. And look at you, you''re resentful of your own clone�� I might be the same if I were in your shoes. Depraved? Sooner orter, since I can''t stop thinking about her��


    "Still, everything is different now. I''ve matured and seen more about the world. I even know why our parents did all that stuff to you�� no, to us!


    "Do you want to take over my body? Do you want to exchange our ces?" Theo smiled and clutched his chest, showing his determination. "That is something I can''t give up. If my clone tries to take over me in the future, I''ll show him who the boss is. Thanks to you, I have learned something�� I''m selfish, so I want to take everything.


    "What can be seen never exists, but what can''t be seen has existed since the beginning. I can see you�� You''re just a mere illusion. But we''re fated to meet here. Fate is something that can''t be seen but has existed since the beginning.


    "Even then, I''ll show you that I won''t be defeated anymore. I won''t end up like my original soul. I won''t let fate mislead me anymore�� No, I won''t let it control me."


    "If you think about it, doesn''t this riddle mean Illusion or reality? It''s just�� which one can be seen and which one can''t be seen?" Theo remembered what he said in the lightning mountain right before he received his Order. "That''s right. No one can tell whether the world I have been living in is an illusion or not. Even that bridge keeper can''t!


    "I only know and believe that this world is real. And you or even this might be just an illusion of mine. Even Order and Authority might just be the image nted in our minds��


    "In that case, there''s only one answer. I shall now be the one in control. Who cares if it''s an illusion or not�� This world is an illusion of mine? No! If I say this world is real, this world shall be real! If I say I''m Theodore Griffith, I shall be the real Theodore Griffith! From this point onward, I, Theodore Griffith, shall tell no lie because everything I said shall be a reality!"


    The golden circle on Theo''s chest suddenly vibrated and glowed, neutralizing all the hands that covered his body, including the illusion.


    The scenery had returned to the bridge with the bridge keeper standing in front of him.


    However, Theo hadn''t realized the change because he had something to dere to the entire world.


    With eyes filled with conviction and a voice full of belief and fate, he dered out loud. "I''m THEODORE GRIFFITH. I''m here to revive myself!"

 Chapter 959 Reality

    <h4>Chapter 959 Reality</h4>


    "I''m THEODORE GRIFFITH. I''m here to revive myself!"


    His shout resounded across the bridge as the hands vanished into thin air. And because he released all his emotion without constraint and his Order was activated, there was a wave of Magic Power that shook the area.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The bridge keeper could feel Theo''s Order and bowed her head while putting her hand on the chest. "Certainly. I have confirmed your identity and purpose."


    Theo still ignored her as his focus shifted to his chest.


    "This is��" Theo muttered in a low voice while pressing his chest before he couldn''t contain his curiosity anymore and lifted up his shirt, finding the previous circle glowing in blue. "So, this is my Order."


    [This is surprising. I never expected you would find out your Order right now. However, your Order is as expected�� Reality Order.]


    "Yeah. I felt it too��" Theo nodded in understanding. He also had figured out his Order. The string in his heart that had been guing him ever since he learned about his clone had disappeared. There was only a pleasant and relieving feeling remaining.


    "Reality, huh��" Theo took a deep breath.


    [It''s the opposite of my Illusion Order, but I can say it''s rted. In the past, my Illusion Order had five basic stages: Self-Illusion, Magic Illusion, Reality vs Illusion, Altering Illusion, and Illusion Realm.]


    [Self-Illusion is like what you did earlier. Simply to say, recognizing yourself as a part of the illusion. Since you''re reality, you simply recognize yourself as the reality. After that, the power of Order will gradually flow in your body.]


    [In my case, I can use Magic Illusion. It''s like the normal illusion you always use. Creating something with an illusion and stuff.]


    [Then, Reality vs Illusion Stage allows me to turn reality into an illusion with limited power. Do you remember what your elder did? The one who used Illusion? It''s something like that. I''m afraid he also has an Illusion Order and his achievement is at this level�� Though, he''s already old and can''t progress much further.]


    [After that, it''s Altering Illusion. If that guy reached this level, I''m afraid your grandfather couldn''t defeat him easily.]


    [Last but not least, Illusion Realm�� The reality would be wrapped by his illusion for a certain range. To put it simply, the Dark Poison Swamp you know is something like this.]


    ''For real? It''s surprising to know that my grandfather couldn''t defeat him?''


    [I''m not sure. Your grandfather should have one of these four: War, King, General, or Commander Order. Seeing his power and how adept he was at using formation and stuff, he should have either King or General at the same level as that guy.]


    ''Fair enough.'' Theo replied in his mind, understanding more about the battle. ''Still, does this mean all top 100 people around the world have Orders? 100 people among billions of people�� I guess that''s understandable since there are many King ss and World ss Monsters on the other side.''


    [Enough with them. For you, I think your stages are simr to mine. Something like Self-Reality, Magical Reality, Illusion vs Reality, Altering Reality, and Special Realm.]


    ''Recognition of myself, turning my Magic Power into a real object, turning an illusion into a reality, Altering the Reality itself and a special realm, huh.'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''But looking at this, Reality Order is pretty much simr to creation, huh?''


    [Yes and no. A Creator is a great being that can hold thirteen big Orders to create this world. Your Reality Order is one of them. Instead of Fire Order or Ice Order, Element Order is one of the big Orders. There is also Life Order and Death Order.]


    ''So, my Order is important?''


    [That reflects your talent.]


    The God of Mischief never held back when praising him because he had seen all the stuff Theo did. Even after getting recognized for his talent, Theo never becamecent. So, he believed there was no need to choose his words carefully.


    ''I see. Still, there are Big and Small Orders? Does this mean the path of advancement is important?'' Theo asked.


    [Not really. As long as you have enough mastery and are creative enough in using it, you can defeat those Big Order users. Don''t restrict yourself and look down on others.]


    ''I see. Then, is there any advantage about Big Order?''


    [It''s not my ce to exin it. Now that you have activated your Order, you should be able to connect with the world and learn more about your Order. It should be able to tell you what to do next. Anyway, the world will tell you more about it when the time is right.]


    ''Okay then.'' Theo nodded with a serious expression. ''I will take one step at a time. At the very least, it''s satisfying to know my Order. I can grow faster after this.''


    [For now, there''s one thing you need to do.]


    ''Yes.''


    The bridge keeper didn''t say anything when Theo abruptly stopped talking for a few minutes. In fact, she maintained her distance from him while waiting for Theo to finish his business. This was him activating his Order after all. There was no way she would disturb him.


    After taking a deep breath, Theo shifted his focus back to the matter at hand. He looked at the bridge keeper and asked, "Can I cross the bridge now?"


    "Of course. You have dered your own judgment, so you are free to cross the bridge. When you reach the Land of Death, you will need to go to the deepest part and reach the Death Throne.


    "Because no one sits on the throne right now, you only need to convey your wish in the throne''s presence and your wish shall be granted." The bridge keeper exined with a calm tone.


    "Judgment��" Theo almost forgot about the riddle. ''To think this was the judgment.''


    But since he was in a hurry, Theo immediately walked forward with a determined face, wanting to finish his business as soon as possible before thinking about anything else.


    When he passed her, the bridge keeper smiled and said, "Congrattions, O'' Reality King."


    Theo raised his eyebrows in shock as soon as he heard it. Although it was judgment, he had benefited from it.


    With a smile on his face, Theo said, "Thanks."

 Chapter 960 Revival

    <h4>Chapter 960 Revival</h4>


    Theo crossed the bridge carefully, preparing himself to react to any kind of situation. After all, this ce was Helheim. He couldn''t be careless in this ce or he might identally go to the reincarnation path, or so he thought.


    While walking on the bridge, he found several souls with lifeless eyes. It seemed their memory had been wiped out before going to reincarnation.


    ''Now that I think about it, there are a few verses of the afterlife�� They are reincarnation, Heaven or Hell, return to the ground, or nothingness. Either way, I don''t think any of those will allow you to keep your memory.'' Theo muttered, thinking about the fact no one had ever proved themselves to have died.


    ''Still, there is a path to revive yourself�� Doesn''t this mean there''s a possibility toe back to life?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering how powerful the Death Authority was.


    Unfortunately, when he asked this question, Hel didn''t say a single thing as if she needed to hide this fact.


    "Whatever. I know that the stronger I get, the more knowledgeable I be�� There''s no need to rush." Theo muttered and continued his way toward the end.


    After half an hour, he arrived at the end of the bridge.


    He thought this ce would have a castle since the bridge keeper told him to go to the throne. However, he turned out to be wrong.


    The moment he arrived, he saw a huge cliff with numerous souls climbing it. There seemed to be a few paths, from the steep and narrow path to the gentle and wide path.


    On top of the cliff stood tall a huge throne. It was so tall that Theo could see it from the ground.


    "It seems that is my destination." Theo narrowed his eyes while wondering which path he should take.


    "Why is there a living personing to this ce?" A deep voice echoed in his ears, carrying boundless killing intent. Even Theo could see his own death when he sensed this killing intent.


    Without hesitation, Theo turned around and found a ck-colored snake. Its length was more than a hundred feet, stunning Theo for a split second.


    ''I almost mistook him��'' Theo remembered the serpent in his consciousness and shook his head, preparing his answer to this snake.


    In the myth, there was supposed to be a beast that protected this ce, but since thousands of years had passed, he thought this snake was the beast''s recement.


    Hence, he answered him without hesitation. "I am Theodore Griffith. I wish to revive my body and return to the world of the living."


    "Revive your body?" The snake squinted his eyes as if trying to see through him. He also noticed the smell of death, so he thought Theo wasn''t lying.


    "Yes." Theo nodded and pointed at the paths. "And I heard from the bridge keeper that I need to go to the throne and tell my reason."


    "��" The snake fell silent for a moment before looking at the throne. "You''re free to go. Take the most gentle path."


    Theo raised his eyebrows, never expecting to get the easiest path to cross.


    "The privilege of a King." The snake snorted. "Normally, you will need to cross the most dangerous path because you have tricked, killed, and made people''s lives miserable�� But a part of you is still alive. With the privilege of being a King, you are to ascend to the hill of reincarnation through the gentlest slope."


    Hearing the exnation made him wonder many things, but the snake looked away as if telling him he had no time to talk to him, turning him down.


    In the end, Theo nodded, walked toward the hill and picked the gentlest slope ording to the snake. It might take a bit longer, but there was no danger.


    After a long two hours, he finally reached the top of the hill, finding this tall throne. He couldn''t see it earlier, but the throne was emitting ck light. Yet, this ck light could somehow brighten the throne, making it look more majestic.


    ''What kind of throne is this?'' Theo muttered, hoping Hel could tell him something. Unfortunately, she refused to tell him anything, so he figured it out by himself.


    When the soul approached the throne, they fell to their knees as if paying respect to the king of death. After that, they looped around the throne ten times before their soul vanished into thin air.


    Since he didn''t want to disturb the process, Theo waited for another two souls to finish their reincarnation before kneeling in front of the throne.


    He lowered his head and closed his eyes, conveying his feelings and wishes to the throne.


    "I wish to revive my body and transfer my soul to that body."


    Theo kept wishing for the throne a few times before the Magic Power in the area fluctuated, forming a single line around the throne.


    Instead of a circle, it was a rectangle.


    It seemed the throne wanted him to do the same thing as the soul. Hence, he rose from the ground and started following its request.


    To his surprise, the more he walked, the weaker the Magic Power fluctuation got.


    But his attention soon shifted to his body because the change started after crossing it once.


    The skin on his finger started to get peeled, revealing his flesh. The excruciating pain also followed right after, jolting his mind.


    Still,pared to what he had gone through this whole time, the pain was still bearable. He continued without letting out a single scream.


    The more he walked, the more skin tore. When there was no more skin to be peeled, it was the turn for his flesh to be stripped. The blood also followed his flesh and disappeared into thin air.


    Theo wanted to stop because he thought this was a scam, but the Goddess of Death should be aware of what was happening. Since she didn''t say anything, this must be a necessary process.


    The pain soon disappeared when only his skeleton was left. However, Theo didn''t hesitate to continue walking forward.


    As expected, the bones gradually disappeared from him until nothing remained.


    To his surprise, his body became the blue-colored soul simr to everyone else here. He didn''t dare to stop, so he observed the change of his body while walking.


    When he thought the soul would vanish too, Theo found a skull began to be created, followed by the rest of the skeleton. After that, organs and flesh gradually returned to his body before being wrapped by warm skin.


    The Magic Power fluctuation disappeared as soon as his body returned to normal. At the same time, he also understood what had happened.


    ''Reviving my body and moving my soul into this body. I see�� It disintegrated my Clone Body and recreated the Main Body with my soul in it��''

 Chapter 961 Hell Snake

    <h4>Chapter 961 Hell Snake</h4>


    He could only feel the change in his body for a few seconds before the throne released an enormous Magic Power into the air to kick him out.


    "!!!" Theo was shocked at first, but his heart calmed down when the souls entered his vision. He thought, ''I see. I have been there for too long.''


    ''Still, does the throne have a consciousness of its own? Or is it programmed by the previous God of Death?'' While flying, Theo observed the throne but to no avail. There was nothing that could be found.


    Giving up, hended on the ground smoothly with the help of his Telekinesis and went back to the snake since he had finished the problem.


    Theo gracefully nodded his head, showing his thanks.


    The snake narrowed his eyes for a moment and said, "I don''t smell any more death from you. It seems you have sessfully revived your body. Anyway, I''ve heard that you''re going to return."


    "Yes." Theo admitted it without hesitation and added, "That''s why I need the torch that can protect me from the cold."


    "It''s a shame, but we don''t have any more torches like that. There''s no torch produced after the Goddess of Death died." The snake shook his head with an ashamed face.


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched but he still remembered what he said previously. "You have the torch."


    It was the snake''s turn to be shocked, looking at Theo''s expression, which seemed to believe the torch was indeed there.


    In Theo''s mind, he simply stated something that he wanted to be the reality. In the snake''s mind, he thought Theo already knew something about this ce.


    "I was kidding. The torch is here." The snake returned to his own ce and brought a small stick in his hand. Even though it was small, that was justpared to the snake. Its real size was seven feet long.


    Before giving him the stick, the snake lit it up with the help of ck-colored fire on the side.


    "This can burn for fifteen days. When you get out, cut the stick and make sure the fire vanishes. After that, throw back the stick inside the snowy field."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and felt a powerful Magic Power fluctuationing from the fire. It seemed the fire was special. Although he didn''t feel the warmth of the me, he could feel the torch forming a transparent sphere around him.


    "I am the guardian of this ce. My Order is Hellfire and I''m known as Hell Snake. I greet the possessor of the Reality Order, O'' Reality King." The snake humbly lowered his head.


    Theo was confused by the snake for a second. At first, he dared to even joke around with him. And now, he bowed to him politely.


    "What are you up to?" Theo narrowed his eyes, trying to pry for more information.


    "I just wish to know whether you have a connection��" The snake suddenly fell silent because he saw the unbelievable.


    Theo''s Death Avatar emerged from behind him, giving him the feeling of death. This avatar was enough for him to prove his identity. As if not liking his previous joke, Theo teased him back, "What? Are you going to say you''re going to bring me back to the world of the living?"


    His words woke the snake up as he immediately replied, "Yes."


    "��" Theo widened his eyes in shock. If there was another person''s help, he should be able to return much faster. Unfortunately for him, the snake continued, "��is what I wanted to say, but the dead can''t go to the world of the living. I can only bring you back to the entrance of this ce."


    There was no reason to refuse, but Theo still shook his head, rejecting him. He even started walking to the bridge. "I was kidding. No need to bring me there. I can walk by myself."


    "Is that so? I was also joking. I need to stand here after all��" The snake chuckled.


    "Hmm��" Theo mumbled before ncing to the side. "Then, why are you following me?"


    Despite what he said, the snake still followed beside him as if he wanted to see Theo off personally.


    However, the snake yed dumb by saying, "What are you talking about? I need to talk with the bridge keeper��"


    "Is that so?" Theo walked faster. And as expected, the snake followed his pace, making sure he was at his side. Theo''s eyebrows twitched, and he said, "So, why are you increasing your speed?"


    "I can''t wait to meet her." The snake kept ying dumb, albeit it was a bad move.


    Theo stopped at that moment and said yfully, "Is that so? You can go first."


    The snake stopped abruptly and realized Theo''s n.


    "You said you can''t wait to meet her. Go on." Theo shrugged.


    "I remember that we won''t be separated for hundreds if not thousands of years, so there''s no need to rush."


    "You know you''re being shameless, right?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I don''t know what you are talking about."


    Theo snorted and jumped to the snake''s back. "Then, let''s go. If you want to bring me there just say it. There''s no need to hide your intention."


    "As I said, I don''t know what you''re talking about. But because the Reality King wants it, I will reluctantly send you to the entrance." The snake looked forward, refusing to see Theo in the eyes.


    "��" Theo was speechless as he remembered another myth. It was said that the gatekeeper was a dog as well as Hel''s friend. When he imagined this snake as a dog, he could see the wagging tail easily.


    Unfortunately, the one before him was a snake. He could y dumb all he wanted.


    ''Well, I originally nned to have my clone carry me there while I tried to connect to the world to learn more about my Order�� Either way, I need to go back.'' Theo sighed, not knowing what to say to this snake who happily moved forward.

 Chapter 962 Satisfied

    <h4>Chapter 962 Satisfied</h4>


    "Well, what is this��" Theo muttered, looking at his clone standing in front of him.


    After bidding his goodbye to the snake, Theo moved away for a bit to check his new clone. As expected, he felt the difference.


    First, he lifted his shirt and checked the Order before trying to activate it. Just like what the God of Mischief said, he could certainly feel the connection between him, the world, and the Order.


    Hence, he continued to the Death Avatar, finding both of them to be able to use the Death Avatar at the same time.


    "I couldn''t use Death Avatar simultaneously, but it seems the clone has improved. Now that I think about it, is there any change in the Clone Skill?" Theo narrowed his eyes and checked his status.


    Skill: Clone (A)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself. Blood, bones, and organs will be replicated until the clone is retracted.


    "For real?" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground, never expecting to see such an improvement. "Its rank can increase by just reviving my main body? Wait, it was an S Rank before�� I should have expected something like this.


    "But still�� Replicating blood, bones, and organs�� Doesn''t this mean it''s close to a living person already? The enemy can kill me and think it''s the real me because I will bleed and die until I retract my clone�� It will make my death even more real."


    He couldn''t believe what he had seen. There were simply too many things he wanted to try with this clone.


    "Still, was the Clone Skill sealed before? That''s why it can increase its rank by itself? How about other Gods and Goddesses? Can they do the same? Or is this special to me?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Unfortunately, the answer never came to him no matter how hard he questioned the God of Mischief. He could only give up.


    In the end, he continued walking ording to the tracker, tracing back his previous path.


    The cold tried to freeze him, but they ended up getting burned by the ck-colored me. The torch protected Theo without fail. Despite having a strong, chilling wind blowing against it, the me never swayed or shrank.


    Even Theo wondered what kind of me this was. It was simply too strong.


    A few dayster.


    Theo stood on the edge of Niflheim. Just a few more steps were all it took for him toe out of this ce.


    Of course, since he still had some time left, he grabbed a few more artifacts as long as he wasn''t required to fight. Even though he had the help of the torch, he didn''t n to fight in this ce. After all, one mistake would cost him his life.


    Still, Theo could gain an additional 20 levels worth of artifacts. In other words, 100 attribute points.


    He assigned all of them and checked his status one more time before leaving this ce.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 557


    EXP: 1,450,999/ 8,971,317


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (A), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (A), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (B), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (B), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(B)


    Attributes: Strength 700, Endurance 575, Agility 567, Vitality 565, Magic Power 950


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm�� It''s quite good." Theo smiled. "My status points are equal to an average level 650 expert who hasn''t consumed anything to increase their attribute points.


    "And I need to defeat that Winston, who is known to be level 687. And he should have gotten some additional points. I need to assume his total status is equal to a level 725 Expert.


    "To think I need to consider this�� Before, I never knew anything about this because everything in my mind was rted to either skills or Five Aspects. I guess Grandfather was nning to tell me after I became Supreme Rank." Theo muttered, thinking about his chance of winning.


    At the same time, he tried to remember what he got in this realm. "Still, I got four important things in this ce. First will be the artifacts and herbs, which will be equal to money.


    "Secondly, I got information about this ce along with the memory of my brother�� Even though I pitied them, I still couldn''t bring myself to forgive them. It was to help me, but it didn''t change the fact they tortured me. I don''t want to be together with them, but I won''t let the Griffith Family off either. They need to pay the price for breaking my family apart.


    "Thirdly, I recognized myself and officially became the Reality King. Now that I think about it, there should be something special about the 13 Big Orders. The God of Mischief told me it was because of my talent��


    "Wait a minute. Death Order is one of them, right? Is this why the Goddess of Death looked so fierce?" Theo remembered how Hel scared both Fenrir and Jormungand. He thought there was a rtion to that, but he didn''t pry deeper as he believed getting the information from the world itself would be more beneficial to him.


    "Last but not least, I''ve revived my main body. I can use my Order and Death Avatar, making my clone close to a perfect human. I can even use the blood and organs��" Theo muttered with an evil smirk.


    "Although I am not nning to use my clone skill to fool my enemy for the time being, it''s enough to know I have a cushion to fall." Theo felt satisfied with all his hauls from this ce.


    Since he had finished all the things he wanted to do inside this ce, Theo finally took a step forward, leaving this snowy field.


    However, there was a big surprise waiting for him on the other side.


    As soon as he came out of the mist, a familiar person came into his vision, sitting on the ground as if she had been waiting for him.


    As if feeling his presence, the woman opened her eyes and looked at him. A smirk appeared on her face as she said, "Yo, Theo."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he greeted him back, realizing her n. "It''s nice to meet you, Maya."

 Chapter 963 Maya

    <h4>Chapter 963 Maya</h4>


    "It''s nice to meet you, Maya."


    Maya smirked and said, "You didn''t seem to expect me to meet you here."


    Theo let out a long sigh and scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say. Now that Maya stood in front of him, he could imagine what kind of things happened.


    "I guess I should ask you�� How are you here?"


    "Come on. I believe you already know how my brain works. I simply outyed you on this one."


    "Let me guess. After getting the information about the transaction, you chose to go to my residence maybe�� a week or two weeks after that? And because I wasn''t in the house, you realized I''m still here."


    Maya nodded with a smile. "You know me well. You are not someone who will back down from a challenge, especially after your multi-billion Zils scam. So, I know that the time limit is one month. I only need to wait here for a month to find you and confirm my suspicion.


    "As expected, you know something about this ce, which makes your information extremely useful."


    Theo sighed and said, "Even though you know it, you can actually wait on the other side."


    "Isn''t this what you want, Theo? With me personally rifying the information, the price will rise even more." Maya smirked. "As I said earlier, I wouldn''t be able to defeat you in terms of strategy. But it''s different if I can smell money. This is my game."


    This was Maya''s deration as a business genius. She simply told him that he wasn''t the only genius that could y this strategic battle. There were many more geniuses around the world.


    "You leave me no choice." Theo shook his head in disappointment and snapped the stick into two. The top part was just an inch from the fire, so it immediately dropped to the ground.


    After that, he tossed the location tracker and let the fire reduce it into ashes.


    "What?" Maya widened her eyes, never expecting to see Theo burning the location tracker. If she had that tracker, everything would be worth it.


    At the same time, she never saw Theo using a ck-colored me, which meant it wasn''t his power.


    "Wait, stop!" Last but not least, Maya witnessed Theo throwing the stick into the mist with all his strength so that no one could recover it.


    Theo looked at her and shrugged. "So, what do you want?"


    "Ugh��" Maya gritted her teeth before falling to her knees, feeling defeated. "I was thinking how much I should give you just for those items�� I have my own confidence in persuading you, but it seems you never thought about giving them away�� my miscalction."


    "They are not for sale. And it''s not like I''m nning to give you the full information." Theo shrugged.


    "How much?" Maya asked with a frustrated expression.


    "Twenty percent."


    Theo simply wanted to give them enough information about the Magic Power and the zombies, which should be enough to find a few more treasures inside. However, the data wouldn''t include the riddle, the treasures'' exact locations, and even the name of this ce.


    He didn''t want Helheim to be disturbed after all.


    "You are so honest��" Maya narrowed her eyes. "Don''t you think twenty percent is too low? We''re friends, right? Or did my action annoy you?"


    "A part of that�� but I guess it''s just me trying to get back at you for outsmarting me." Theo looked away and added, "Though, your action truly made everything a bit more convenient to me. I didn''t need to hold back when stating the price anymore."


    "��" Maya was speechless. It was clear Theo nned to suck her dry. She couldn''t help but say, "Can''t I just pay you with my body?"


    "No. If you say something like that again, I''ll increase the price by twenty percent."


    "Ugh." Maya looked down, sounding so pitiful. She realized her n backfired. "After hunting with you and Agata for a few months�� I realized that I was always in deep trouble. From the hidden monster in the Arkahan Volcano to that ck knight��


    "Even then, a part of me believed that you were super lucky. Even though the risk was so great, the return was equal. That was why the moment I found you inside the mist and learned about your battle with Winston, I knew you were up to something.


    "Hence, I checked your residence to prove my theory. As soon as I heard you were not in your home, I immediately came here to wait for you."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "It seems I have given too much information, eh?"


    "No one other than me should notice these clues�� After all, it was just me believing you''re different." She sighed. "If they hadn''t lived with you, they wouldn''t catch a single clue."


    "That''s also because I have underestimated a true genius." Theo shook his head, feeling disappointed in himself.


    "Anyway, that''s all there is to it. Well, it''s not like I''m nning to be your enemy, especially when you look so protective about this ce." Maya paused for a moment as her expression turned grim. "Should I investigate this ce more or should I just be a fool who only wants money?"


    This question was a test from Maya to Theo. She wanted to know Theo''s true desire and understand the importance of this ce.


    And Theo simply stated, "I have no control over you. You can do anything in this ce, but just know that no one can guarantee your life. Even if you send your subordinates��"


    "I see." Although the result was lower than her expectation, she believed this was an important note for the future. "So, how much should I pay for the information? Is there a way for me to get a discount?"


    "I can give you a discount�� I think twenty billion Zils for the information is enough." Theo raised his finger and pointed at the mist. "After all, you have seen meing out of the mist."


    "I feel like that kind of price is not only for those two facts, right?"


    "It''s also for your life." Theo shrugged.


    "Are you going to kill me?"


    "No way. How can I kill my friend? Do you think I''m that ruthless?"


    "Ehm�� no��"


    "Though I wonder what will happen if I throw you inside and trap you for another ten years. This doesn''t count murder, right?" Theo looked away yfully.


    "��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched, knowing Theo''s hidden meaning. "You''re threatening your friend for money. I''m sad."


    "There''s no way I''m going to do that. But it''s true that you don''t want to tell your friends all your secrets."


    "I feel like my brain cells will die the more I talk to you. So, what are the conditions?"


    "It''s simple." A sly smile appeared on Theo''s face.

 Chapter 964 Grand Plaza’s Martial Art Summit

    <h4>Chapter 964 Grand za''s Martial Art Summit</h4>


    After returning to the other side and taking some rest, Theo finally went to the Star Group to discuss some matters with Bernard personally. This was one of the benefits that an S Rank Talent received.


    It was also the reason why Bernard and Mark seemed to be very friendly.


    Surprisingly, Mark also came with him because this matter involved both of them.


    "I believe you already know the reason I call you here?" Bernard asked.


    "Yes." Mark nodded with a grim expression. "Grand za''s Martial Art Summit. The event is held once a year to make the top 100 people in the Asda''s Younger Generation List meet each other."


    Theo maintained his silence before squinting his eyes, reminding Bernard of something.


    "I know, I know. You don''t mind if we settle the billter, right? The price can be the same as Maya''s. And you don''t need to exchange twenty percent of the loots for the rest of the year. How''s that?"


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded, knowing Bernard had already made his decision before calling them here. He just wanted to get confirmation from him, which shouldn''t be much of a problem.


    "Anyway, I won''t do much regarding this event. You can do anything you want�� Just know that if you choose to fight, you''re responsible for your own injury. Whether it''s fortunate or unfortunate, there''s a rule stating ''we can''t give an eversting injury like cutting one''s limb or killing them.'' If not, I would have made them know it''s better to stay away from mypany." Bernard let out a sigh.


    When they heard this rule, Mark nced to the side, wondering if trauma could be considered an eversting injury.


    "I''m not interested in this event personally." Theo sighed.


    "Even though you challenged Winston?"


    "That''s the only reason why I chose to participate." Theo shrugged.


    Bernard pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling trouble wasing. In fact, he felt he had been frowning more often after Theo came here.


    "Anyway, the Star Group will be behind you. If you can snatch that top position, I will do my best to protect you." Bernard exined.


    Theo nodded as if agreeing with his opinion. For Theo, taking the first spot was just a matter of time.


    He had some ns when challenging him and Order wasn''t included. Now that he had awakened his Order, he nned to test it for a bit.


    Since there weren''t many people who had Orders in this world, he believed there wouldn''t be anyone recognizing his Order. After all, cameras couldn''t capture the color of Magic Power like Supreme Rank Experts or above.


    "By the way, is trauma considered a longsting injury?" Theo asked.


    "Not really. It can be healed in a matter of time as long as they have a strong heart. If they don''t, why should they continue living this way? They can just be ordinary people." Bernard shrugged.


    "Understood." Theo nodded. There was a smile behind his mask, but no one saw his expression. "Also, will there be any strong experts supervising the sparring?"


    "The ce is on the White Mountain, Idaho. It won''t be too close to the town, since the fight between Supreme Rank Experts is quite big. At the same time, it''s easy to restore this area, so this ce is often used to hold this event.


    "Of course, because it''s a bit far from the towns, there is a need for an expert to protect these young people. No one wants them to be the target of terrorists, you see��


    "Hence, the agreement is that they will provide five Mythical Rank Experts, who will act neutral the whole time. And each influence can bring one Mythical Rank Expert for extra protection. If we take advantage of this situation, we will be exempted from future events, so no one dares to act rashly.


    "Also, the expert''s level can''t exceed 800, so there won''t be anyone extremely powerful. You don''t need to worry much. Even if we''re attacked, we still have enough people to overwhelm the terrorist.


    "The event itself has been going on for decades and it''s pretty safe." Bernard exined while adding, ''Well, if the terrorist knows Theodore Griffith will participate, they wille there no matter what. Luckily, this guy is hiding his identity.''


    Mark thought for a moment and asked, "So, who will apany us?"


    "Patrick," Bernard answered without hesitation. "As for the Starry Group, it will be my wife. With two Mythical Rank Experts, the five of you will surely be safe."


    "Five?" Theo only knew two of them and asked, "Who are the rest?"


    "They are ranked 37th and 75th respectively: Emily and Tasha. Emily is from the Star Group and Tasha is from the Starry Group."


    "So, do we need to take care of them?"


    "Come on. They''re like a family." Bernard waved his hand with a nonchnt expression.


    "Alright. We''ll do our best to protect them when necessary." Mark was the one who assured Bernard, fully knowing Theo''s character.


    "Well, that''s the least I can do." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Anyway, what will we do in the event?"


    "Banquet, sparring, exchanging, and talking. You can get some food to eat and dance with other people at the banquet. You can hit people in the sparring session. You can strike a deal or cooperation during the exchanging part. Or you can just get a room and do your business for the night."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched when he heard thest one. "One-night stand?"


    ''Now that I think about it, Thernd is in Western Asia�� A different culture.'' Bernard thought and exined himself. "Well, just think of it that way. Drinking alcohol and stuff happens for young people."


    Theo nodded with a calm expression, not thinking about it.


    "That''s all. You will go to Idaho three days from now, and the event will be held for two days. If you have any questions, just ask Patrick. He''d participated in that event three times when he was a Supreme Rank Expert."


    "Got it." Mark politely thanked Bernard for the exnation and rose from his seat.


    Bernard waved his hand to Mark while saying to Theo. "We''ll deal with the contract now."

 Chapter 965 Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 965 Arrival</h4>


    A few dayster.


    *Huft!* Theo let out a deep breath after meditating for two hours. He had refreshed his mind and understood a bit about his Order. "I guess it''s usable in a fight. After learning more about it inside Niflheim, I have thought about using it this way. Although my control over my Order is pretty weak right now, I should be able to influence a part of Magic Power."


    The power in Theo''s mouth was the stage after his realization. Now that he had officially walked on the path of a King, he wanted to use his Order on every asion to help him improve it. Of course, he would need to be aware of his surroundings, lest people found out about his Order.


    "Anyway, I will just make sure there''s no Order holder in the event. ording to the Lightning Authority, humans don''t have anyone to teach them Orders, so their knowledge is kinda limited. In that case, I should be able to see through them pretty easily.


    "Either way, the level limit is 800. There shouldn''t be any top 100 experts among them, so this one should be pretty safe." Theo muttered, confirming his decision again.


    Now that he had settled his heart, Theo took a shower before going to the Star Group, where he would meet Mark and the others.


    Emily was a female Assassin. She had a sharp gaze and collected expression as if she was always aware of her surroundings. She carried two daggers in a bag and seemed to be able to take them out in an instant.


    On the other hand, Tasha was an Enchanter. She had a nonchnt attitude to the point approaching Theo and Mark like nobody business. Still, the moment she received their reactions, Tasha changed her attitude fast, matching both of them and making her look good in their eyes.


    After a simple introduction, they went to Idaho, where the event took ce. And ording to them, this ce was simr to that of a giant hotel.


    People thought getting invited to this event was an honor because there could only be a hundred people attending it every year. Though, Theo couldn''t care less about it as his main priority was making money.


    After reaching the airport, they immediately went to the event''s ce by car.


    As one would expect from a huge establishment, the hotel was visible from far away. It had more than a hundred floors.


    Still, Theo''s attention focused on the massive dome standing tall on the side of the hotel.


    Maya saw Theo staring into the distance and took this chance to exin the ce for him. "The hotel is pretty good. They block all reservations other than from the top 100 during this period, so there won''t be so many people here. Around three hundred people, I guess? Including the hotel staff.


    "As for the dome next to it�� It''s a special arena that we use to fight against each other. The ce is spacious, so we can go wild."


    Theo nodded a few times while refusing to say anything. He didn''t know why but Maya''s mother, Ste, had been staring at him since they were at the airport.


    When they arrived, Ste was the first toe out, meeting the staff that organized this event. She smiled and said, "3rd, 6th, 7th, 37th, and 75th."


    "Certainly." The staff nodded and confirmed their number. After double-checking their faces, the staff member extended his hand. "Please."


    "Thank you." Ste then led the group inside before saying, "Anyway, I''m going to get the keys first. You guys can look around."


    "Understood." Tasha was the most energetic one among them, so she immediately took off somewhere as if she already had something in her mind.


    On the other hand, Mark walked to Patrick since he didn''t really have any friends.


    Maya came to Theo and asked, "Now that I think about it, you haven''t gone to this ce, right? Do you want me to show you around?"


    Theo hesitated for a moment, but he soon realized there were five pairs of eyes staring at him. They all came from different directions, so Theo confirmed them one by one, realizing all of them were just Supreme Rank Experts. In other words, they should be the people from the list.


    "You should look around. I mean, you look so unfriendly�� It''s like you are isting yourself. It''s better to wear a smile and make some connections here and there." Maya persuaded Theo to take a look at the people on the Asda List.


    However, before he could answer her, he heard someone''s voice.


    "Oh! Joker. I have been waiting for you!"


    "��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched as she recognized this voice. She turned around and looked at the man wearing sses. "What are you doing, Isaac?"


    That was right. He was Isaac Walton, Theo''s business partner.


    "He was the one telling me his ETA." Isaac shrugged and pointed at Theo. "So, how should we sell what we have?"


    "Heh?" Maya chuckled, interested in this business.


    "Got forty billion from the Star and Starry Groups," Theo replied with a proud tone. "Anyway, just bring the artifactster."


    "Okay. By the way, have you checked the pool on the rooftop? It uses warm water, you know. I was about to go there if not because of your message." Isaac made a cheeky smile and asked, "Do you want to go there?"


    Theo thought for a moment and nced at Maya. "She was about to show me around."


    For unknown reasons, Maya had a smug smile as if she had won against Isaac.


    "But you should be able to see the environment from the rooftop. You should check there first and find a ce you want to go next."


    "Pretty reasonable." Theo nodded in agreement and looked at Maya as if asking to apany him to the rooftop.


    Maya''s expression looked so annoyed, but she ended up agreeing to the request. "Yeah, sure. Let''s go to the rooftop. I can show you some spots you want to checkter."


    It was Isaac''s turn to make a victory smile. However, his smile was suspicious as though there was a hidden intention of him going to the pool.

 Chapter 966 Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 966 Trouble</h4>


    As soon as they reached the rooftop, They were greeted by the green scenery stretching from one side.


    Isaac made a yful smile as he said, "Joker. How about trying the water or lying somewhere?"


    Maya raised her eyebrows as if she understood the real reason why Isaac wanted to bring him here. It seemed Isaac wanted to get some clues about Joker''s identity.


    Theo had been using a mask and hiding his hair, so there wasn''t a single thing they could find about him other than his build and blue eyes.


    Hence, Isaac nned to use this opportunity to find something about Theo.


    "��" Theo rolled his eyes before looking around, finding a few people in this ce. They were either sitting leisurely on the chairs or warming their bodies inside the pool.


    Those who heard Isaac calling Joker''s name immediately turned their heads around, finding something interesting.


    Obviously, they wanted to know something about this mysterious man who suddenly appeared on the list. The Asda Younger Generation List was a pride of the younger generations, so it was rare for someone to hide from them.


    Of course, there were some people suddenly rising through the rank simply because they never cared about this list.


    Ignoring their gazes, Theo nonchntly walked toward the edge, trying to see the environment.


    "Ignored��" Isaac muttered with a long face, realizing his n didn''t work. His eyes immediately shifted to those who were around the pool, especially the women. "I guess he''s not interested in those good bodies. Tsk."


    ''Even the most beautiful woman in the world has a hard time seducing him, to think you try to take advantage of him with these women.'' Mayaughed inwardly before teasing Isaac. "Heh, perverted scientist."


    "What pervert? I''m a cultured scientist." Isaac snorted.


    "Whatever." Maya shrugged and walked to Theo. "Well, do you find something interesting?"


    "Yeah. This ce is good for training. The terrain will give me a new experience in training my Five Aspects." Theo nodded while observing the terrain, finding a woman climbing the mountain. The woman stepped around the rocks and trees and skillfully controlled her speed and power to make her every movement smooth.


    When she saw the woman''s figure, she immediately recognized her and revealed the woman''s identity. "Ranked 4th on the list, the strongest assassin in our generation, Pa. Her speed is her weapon�� well, she''s the fastest among us, so yeah��"


    "No. Just look at those steps." Theo shook his head, telling her the real reason he was interested in her. "When she was about to leap to the left, her footwork allowed her to change direction at thest second, making it hard for us to predict her movement. If her reflex was honed to the extreme, she could be untouchable. Quite interesting footwork."


    "You always thought about getting stronger, eh? How about taking a few days off? You should enjoy your youth, you know. It onlyes once." Maya smirked.


    "Mhm. It''s fine. I have no time to waste." Theo shook his head, remembering Agata. He had a promise to fulfill. The sooner hepleted it, the faster he could enjoy those peaceful days. Hence, it was better to sacrifice his time for a bit.


    "Well, that sounds like you." Maya shrugged before sensing two peopleing out of the pool, walking toward them. She turned around while furrowing her eyebrows.


    They had muscr bodies, and because they had juste out of the water, they only wore trunks, revealing their splendid abs.


    Their intention was clear enough. Maya took a step forward as if protecting Theo.


    "To think I would meet the mysterious Joker here." The man on the left spoke.


    ''Again�� This never happened when I was known as Theodore Griffith. Hiding your identity sucks.'' Theo sighed inwardly and turned around, observing these two men. "Who are you?"


    Maya stepped back and introduced them. "The left one is Tyler Moore, ranked 5th on the list. The right one is Jefferson Hunt, former 7th on the list. His rank went down after your appearance. Anyway, both of theme from the military."


    "Mhm." Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering if he had some grudges about this.


    "I don''t think your skill is good enough to be ranked 6th on the list." Jefferson stepped forward, unting his big body by looking down on Theo.


    Theo still maintained his calm attitude and silence. Even Isaac sneaked around to watch this interesting scene.


    "You better stop, Jefferson." Maya''s tone became extremely cold.


    "I want to challenge you." Jefferson red at him to the point he released his killing intent.


    "You should defeat Winston first before fighting me." Theo shook his head in disappointment as he ignored both of them and walked past them.


    Theo''s words basically showed how much he looked down on them. They heard it as if defeating Winston was nothing but assured.


    "You! You are just a weakling who became a Supreme Rank Expert not long ago! You dare to look down on us?" Jefferson gritted his teeth and stood in front of Theo, stopping him.


    "��" Theo sighed and said, "I don''t care about what you say. Everything will be clear after my fight against Winston. There''s no need for me to deal with you."


    Veins bulged on Jefferson''s head as if he had enough with Theo''s words.


    "I already told Winston this. If you want to challenge me, you should prepare to buy my time for a few billion. And there will still be a bet in our fight. If you can''t do that, then don''t waste my time." Theo snorted and walked around him.


    That was it. Jefferson had enough. Without hesitation, he turned around and grabbed Theo''s shoulder. "Where do you think you''re going?"


    "You should let go," Theo stated with a cold tone.


    "You won''t be able to go anywhere before epting my challenge."


    "I said�� let go." Theo was pissed, wondering if everyone in this country was so bold. For the first time, he raised his head and red at Jefferson. His eyes became bloodshot.


    This was thest thing Jefferson wanted. After all, Theo gathered his killing intent and sent everything to his brain without holding back.


    With the help of his Awareness, the killing intent soared to the point Tyler and Maya could smell blood permeating in the air.


    Death Eyes.

 Chapter 967 Overpowered

    <h4>Chapter 967 Overpowered</h4>


    "!!!" In that moment, Jefferson widened his eyes when he saw what happened before him. Theo felt as if he had transformed into a being that didn''t exist on Earth.


    His bloodshot eyes kept emanating his killing intent to the point he could smell blood lingering in the air. His shadow gradually emerged from the ground and extended his hands to him, inviting him to the afterlife.


    ''What is this?'' Jefferson''s body trembled. He wanted to move his feet to step back, but the energy left his body.


    His feet went. In fact, he could barely stand right now.


    The more he looked into Theo''s eyes, the weaker he felt.


    ''Why can''t I move my body?'' Jefferson could only think in his mind. Yet, a stabbing pain soon jolted his brain.


    "Ar��!" Jefferson tried to scream but heard no sound. He soon realized he couldn''t even produce a single sound.


    His eyes turned to his right arm, which was ripped apart by the mysterious being from Theo''s shadow.


    ''I''m going to die!'' The moment that thought appeared in his mind, he shouted on top of his lungs. "Aaaarrgghh!"


    His left hand was clutching his right shoulder while he was wailing in pain on the ground. Tears were already falling on his cheek and his eyes looked so empty.


    Everything returned to normal, but Jefferson couldn''t do anything other than roll around in the ground.


    While looking at his reaction, Theo snorted coldly and walked away. "You couldn''t even withstand my killing intent�� Yet, you dare challenge me. Know your ce."


    "!!!" Every single person who witnessed this scene dropped their jaws to the ground. They couldn''t believe what had just happened.


    ''Jefferson is crying like a baby?''


    ''Jefferson has endured the most brutal training in the military, yet he is down with just killing intent?'' Another person thought as he also felt Theo''s killing intent.


    Theo also didn''t move, so they couldn''t tell what had happened. Still, one thing was clear. Theo defeated Jefferson with just his killing intent.


    If this was a life and death battle, Jefferson couldn''t even do anything.


    ''What happened? The Magic Power fluctuated a bit, but it shouldn''t be something like this. A skill wouldn''t be this powerful with that amount of Magic Power. In other words, Theo simply used a bit of his Magic Power to transmit that killing intent and defeat Jefferson.'' Maya thought in shock, trying to analyze Theo''s power. ''I haven''t seen him fight for a few months, and he has be this powerful?''


    Maya sucked a cold breath while trying to move her body to follow Theo since they were from the same side. Little did she know, the fluctuation she felt earlier was Theo using his Illusion to cut off Jefferson''s hearing and give him pain.


    Isaac stepped back when he saw Theoing back. He looked at Jefferson''s condition and remembered what happened in front of the ice mist. ''Killing intent? Is his killing intent that great? That''s right. Winston also suffered at that time�� Was that also his killing intent?''


    There were many questions in his mind, but Isaac knew one thing for certain. ''Let''s not provoke this guy in the future. I have gotten enough benefit from our deal anyway.''


    On the contrary, Tyler immediately dropped to his knees and checked Jefferson''s situation, trying to calm him down.


    "Jefferson! Jefferson! Can you hear me?" Tyler stopped Jefferson from moving while trying to wake him up.


    Jefferson managed to stop and snap back to reality in a few seconds, but the memory of what happened earlier was stuck in his mind.


    Even if he wanted to say something, he couldn''t. His lips were shaking and his body was trembling.


    Tyler gritted his teeth and shouted, "Joker! Don''t you think this is too much?!"


    Theo stopped for a moment and turned around, replying with a yful tone. "What do you mean? I am just a weak person who reached the Supreme Rank not long ago. What can I do to the great Jefferson?"


    The sarcasm and insults were clear in his words. No one could refute what he said because these words were what Jefferson said.


    Maya stepped forward and said, "Tyler. You should take him back right now. Don''t forget that it was you guys who approached us. If you want to use rules or morals, you should be prepared to face the consequences."


    "Maya! Do you think yourpany can withstand the government?"


    "Of course not, but I need to ask you one question. Will the government�� I mean, the military, choose you or me?" Maya smirked, indirectly implying she had some people in the government too.


    She wanted to see whose people were stronger in politics.


    Even Tyler understood what would happen. There was nothing he could do other than swallow this insult.


    "I just want to remind you. It''s better to forget about revenge if you still love your life and family. That''s all." Maya waved her hand while smiling as she followed Theo inside. After all, she had agreed to bring him around.


    Meanwhile, the onlookers truly gained something good from this exchange alone. Theo''s strength was clear to everyone else.


    Even though he didn''t look like using a skill, Theo could easily defeat Jefferson. This information alone was worth the hassle.


    And there was no way this kind of scene wouldn''t spread among the people in this ce.


    As Maya said earlier, it was useless to justify their actions with morals or rules. The rules stated that they couldn''t use their power because it would destroy the property.


    However, Theo simply used his Magic Power to send his killing intent. Looking at this matter, it was clear Theo chose to release his killing intent because he wanted to follow the rule. In fact, he wouldn''t do anything if thetter didn''t provoke him and force him to stay.


    If Jefferson tried to use morals, he would be frowned upon because he was the culprit of this whole incident. Unless he wanted to destroy himself, Jefferson should do nothing here.


    That was why Maya warned him not to take revenge. No one could predict what would happen if Theo was angered.


    The Safulli Group was destroyed by him when he wasn''t even a Supreme Rank Expert. So, what could a normal family like him do to stop Theo?


    Still, Theo''s figure was nted deep in their heart.

 Chapter 968 Assessments

    <h4>Chapter 968 Assessments</h4>


    After dealing with the trouble, Theo and Maya walked around the area since Theo was curious about the terrain.


    "The air is fresh and cool. It''s so refreshing." Maya stretched her body with Theo since they prepared to climb this small rocky hill. "To think I would climb this hill first before checking my room��"


    "If you want to, you can simply leave me here." Theo shrugged.


    "Come on. You should know that you are hot news for everyone. Who knows how many problems wille to you if I let you go alone." Maya shrugged. "And it''s not like Mark can be reliable in this situation. It''s better to go with me."


    "Still��"


    "Don''t worry. I''m pretty easy going. I am pretty friendly to others unless they mess with me. It won''t be strange for us to go together." Maya smirked.


    "Okay. Then, I hope you can match my speed." Theo looked at the rocky hill and smiled.


    "What are you nning to do?"


    "I want to try something I can''t do in the mansion. Using my Telekinesis to change my direction or something like that." Theo took his first leap andnded on the tip of a rock.


    After that, he turned to the left and jumped. However, his Telekinesis tried to push him to the right. Due to the collision between two forces, Theo ended up going forward.


    "What the�� That''s awkward." Theo muttered while checking the force he applied to his Telekinesis.


    Maya suddenlynded next to him while saying, "You shouldn''t do that. You might sprain your ankle. Besides, Pa''s footwork is different from yours."


    "What is the difference?"


    "Her footwork is utilizing the force of her sole. In other words, her fingers, heels, and other parts need to be nimble enough to move and apply enough force. That''s why her movement can be unpredictable.


    "Also, her footwork doesn''t stop there. She doesn''t produce any sounds when walking, so it''s hard for you to sense her.


    "Her family is known to be a family of assassins after all." Maya exined while shrugging.


    "You never wanted to learn something like that?" Theo asked.


    "You should already know that families will try to kill you to stop their special techniques from being spread, right? Do you want a family of assassins to target you?"


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded. "But it''s not like we''re getting the information from her. I''m simply trying to create my own footwork."


    "If that reasoning is enough to stop a war, this world will be peaceful."


    "Haha. I was kidding." Theo chuckled and raised his vision. "What I actually want to do is��"


    A light appeared in the tip of his fingers as Theo released them forward. The light split and flew for a bit beforending on a few rocks.


    "Can you see that?"


    "See what?" Maya tilted her head in confusion. All she could see was Theo marking the stones with his Magic Power.


    "The distance between each stone." Theo gave another hint.


    "What do you mean?" Maya still didn''t understand Theo''s words. "There''s nothing wrong with the distance. They''re only a few feet away from each other and��"


    Suddenly, she fell silent as if finding something weird in the distance. "Wait a minute. You marked twenty of them. The distance is slightly longer at the tenth and twentieth steps."


    "I think you know what I mean." Theo smirked as he said, "This is what I actually want."


    "Did you remember the steps Pa took when she was training here?" Maya dropped her jaw to the ground. "Now that I think about it, you didn''t immediately turn around when Jefferson and Tyler approached us. Was it because you were trying to remember her steps?"


    "Exactly." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "From my understanding, small steps will allow you to get unpredictable footwork. After all, each step can be used to change your direction.


    "So, it''s weird to see her taking a bigger step every ten steps. I''m assuming the steps are taking a great toll on her body and mind because it''s relying on Breathing. She''s an assassin, right? She should be good at Awareness to conceal her presence.


    "Just taking a look at these facts, you know that she hasn''t perfected her footwork yet. If she can''t even do something perfectly in a calm situation, there are opportunities to attack her. As long as you can see through those few bigger steps, you can hit her." Theo smiled.


    Maya fell silent for a moment before suspecting Theo''s intention. "So, do you want to challenge her or something? To think you would analyze her movement��"


    "Instead of movement, I''m pretty interested in her Five Aspects, specifically her Breathing. If I''m not wrong, breathing patterns will change depending on their usage�� Releasing your Magic Power, strengthening your power, or even assimting your Magic Power.


    "What I''mcking right now is Breathing. So, I want to see what kind of Breathing technique suits me. Remember my sloppy jump earlier? If I have a small explosive burst in my jump, I might be able to control the distance of my steps." Theo smirked. "This is what I want to know�� What kind of Breathing Technique suits me the most, and can Ibine my Breathing with my Awareness, Control, and Endurance?"


    "��" Maya was speechless after listening to him. She soon realized why Agata actually improved so much just by following him.


    If she could hear his thoughts and lecture all the time, she believed her progress wouldn''t lose against Agata''s. And thetter even had the privilege to exchange thoughts with him so that they could resolve some of her problems in Martial Arts together.


    "Wait a minute�� What did you say earlier? Awareness, Control, and Endurance? You have trained your Endurance too? And I heard the foundation of your Technique is great. Are you telling me you can master all five aspects? Are you insane?"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Well. That just happens."


    "Can I get some of your talents?"


    "But you already have your business talent. Even I need to admit defeat��" Theo shrugged.


    "Still, you can kill me easily in the future." Maya rolled her eyes.


    "I thought we were friends��" Theo looked away, reminding Maya about their engagement talk.


    "Hahaha." Maya made a wry smile. Now that he mentioned it, she truly had nothing to say. "I can ask Father about Breathing Techniques. Both of ourpanies should have a total of 7 Breathing Techniques; you can see which one suits you the most."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded in agreement, feeling satisfied with how his words could make Maya give the Breathing Techniques.


    "Though, do you mind if I teach this to Mark? Who knows he can defeat Pa with this information? Taking the 1st, 4th, and 5th spots are quite good for ourpanies." Maya had a sly smile on her face while raising her fist.


    Theo smiled and did a fist bump while saying, "As you like."

 Chapter 969 Betting Scam

    <h4>Chapter 969 Betting Scam</h4>


    *Ding!*


    *Dong!*


    The melody of the piano resounded across the room, greeting all the participants that hade for the banquet.


    One by one, the people from the younger generation list entered the room. They all had proud expressions on their faces, showing how hard it was for them to get this position.


    Winston and Lexie entered together. Even though there was friction between them in front of the special region, Lexie could only swallow her anger because her family had ordered her to marry Winston no matter what conflicts they had.


    They wore the best suit and dress since tonight was a banquet so that they could meet each other to have a warm talk.


    Even Winston, a battle maniac, would need to wear a suit as he didn''t want to be a joke in front of so many people.


    Still, looking at Winston couldn''t help but remind them what happened in the special region.


    "Hey. Do you think there will be a sh between Joker and Winston?"


    "Right! I am wondering the same thing."


    "I heard Joker ced a huge fee just to fight him. He''s too arrogant even though he''s only ranked 6th without proof of his power."


    "But he made Winston kneel easily."


    "Your information is not up to date. Just earlier, Joker defeated Jefferson with his killing intent alone. I could only feel a small fluctuation of Magic Power, so it certainly wasn''t a powerful skill. It should be the Magic Power to send killing intent."


    "Something like that happened? Where? When?"


    "Earlier on the rooftop."


    "I don''t think Mark could do the same. So, his position is justified if he could do something like that."


    "The Starry Group has Maya, and now the Star Group has acquired Joker. Is this the golden age of bothpanies?"


    They kept discussing Theo and Winston, curious about the oue of their battle.


    Unfortunately for them, one of the main reasons for their discussion had yet toe to the ballroom, making them lose their patience. Except for the Star Group and the Starry Group, all the top 100 experts had arrived, so they were quite annoyed when they couldn''t find them.


    Just as they were about to ask the organizer about those five people, Mark, apanied by Emily and Tasha, entered the ballroom with a smile on their faces.


    "That''s��"


    "They''ve finallye."


    All the eyes were on them.


    Even Mark felt goosebumps for a split second before experiencing what it meant to be in the limelight.


    ''So, this was why Joker wanted us to bete. He already showed a bit of his power during the day�� I guess this is something that needs to be done." Mark entered with a smile.


    However, the attention soon left him because thest pair of this banquet had arrived.


    Maya was wearing a blue dress thatplimented her blue eyes, but Theo''s attire was nothing but extraordinary.


    He didn''t even wear a shirt to make him look like he was in a formal event. Instead, he just wore a simple sweater and hid his face with a mask. At the same time, no one could see his blue hair because he used the hood to cover it.


    With his hands inside the pockets, he entered the hall nonchntly.


    "That is�� Joker?"


    "He''s not even wearing a shirt."


    "Did he think this ce is his backyard?"


    Obviously, his attire was scorned by the people since he was the only person who didn''t wear formal clothes. However, Theo couldn''t care less about their thoughts.


    After all, there was no need to deal with them when he had his hands full with some matters for this banquet.


    As he expected, the moment he entered the hall, someone suddenly stopped him by standing in front of him.


    "What are you doing, Winston?" Maya was the first to step forward and question the person before them.


    "There''s no need for you to be so defensive. If you want to be something like that, why don''t you just lock him inside the basement?" Winston snorted and turned to Theo. "I have a business with this guy."


    "I already told you my condition. If you wish to challenge me, you need to pay that price." Theo shook his head gently, a bit disappointed with Winston''s brain.


    "I have prepared the money and our wager." Winston dered with a calm expression, not being provoked again. He closed his eyes for a moment and remembered the condition Theo stated that day.


    "Your level is far above mine, so you need to pay two billion Zils just to fight me. Or you can bear the shame of bullying someone 150 levels below you. Then, you need to prepare as many A Rank Skill Cards as the items I got from this region. ording to the agreement, forty percent of them are mine." Theo pointed at the artifacts presented there.


    After remembering the wage, Winston said, "I have brought two billion Zils and five A Rank Skill Cards. Since normally the artifact price is higher than an A Rank Skill Card, I add one more card, so you don''t think I''m petty."


    Winston was confident that he would win this match, so he asked for his parents'' permission to take out these Skill Cards. Little did he know, he still underestimated Theo.


    There was one big catch in his words that could turn around the situation.


    Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "What? Are you trying to run away? If you''re a man, you should ept my challenge." Winston raised his voice.


    "You haven''t even gotten enough Skill Cards to bet with me." Theo snorted.


    "I have brought five Skill Cards ording to the agreement. You said you only got forty percent, so even if I rounded it up, I only needed to present four A Rank Skill Cards. It''s due to my generosity that you could have the chance to get five A Rank Skill Cards. Don''t push your luck." Winston''s voice became even bigger as his anger was clear for everyone. Theo was truly shameless if he actually walked away from this challenge since he had already stated the condition.


    Unexpectedly, Theo simply asked, "Yeah. Since it''s forty percent, I should get 7.2 items. I am a very generous person, so I can give you a discount. You only need to bet seven A Rank Skill Cards, and I''ll ept the challenge."


    "Seven? Do you have a brain? It should be 3.6 artifacts!"


    "Who said I only have those?" Theo tilted his head in confusion before taking out his Skylink, showing a video that he had taken previously. The original purpose of this video was to protect himself from Kain''s greed, but this seemed to be the only opportunity to use it.


    It was the video about him showing a total of eighteen items from the special region and taking half of them back to brag.


    In that instant, the room became silent as they simply couldn''t believe what they had seen. There were too many things that shocked them, but it was clear that Theo had indeed gotten eighteen items.


    "Wha��! You said the same number as the artifacts you got there!" Winston denied it with all his might.


    Theo shook his head and corrected him. "The same number as the items I got from the special region, not the items that I showed you back then. I need to ask the same question�� Do you have a brain?


    "You always said if I''m a man, I should   �� Now I need to say the same thing. If you are a man, do you think it''s wise for you to make an excuse now? If you are so poor, why don''t you cry and go back to your parents?"

 Chapter 970 A Manipulator and a Businesswoman

    <h4>Chapter 970 A Maniptor and a Businesswoman</h4>


    *Hiss!*


    Theo''s words struck deep in everyone''s heart. After all, they couldn''t find any words to refute him.


    ''Poor? You''re seriously saying that?''


    ''It''s clear that you''re hiding the real number.''


    ''Another humiliation.''


    Winston''s face was distorted as he had a hard time holding back his anger. He still had one line to turn the situation around. And Lexie was the first to point it out since she needed to support Winston.


    "That''s not the real footage. How can I believe it''s yours? You can simply take people''s items and im it''s yours for now. After all, no one can check such a matter in a short amount of time."


    "Short amount of time? You have a whole month to check it. The special region ended a month ago, you know." Theo shrugged. "To think you''re too foolish to not even think of the possibility of meing back with more artifacts. If I''m an enemy that aims for your life, you would have died under my n."


    Suddenly, Theo turned to Isaac while asking, "Right?"


    Isaac made a wry smile and opened his Skylink, showing a picture to everyone in this room. "I have taken the picture ording to your instruction. These are the eighteen items with me. They are in my room right now, so I can take them out if you want."


    Isaac even came closer to Theo topare with the video Theo showed. As expected, the items were the same.


    On the one hand, they wanted to think Theo and Isaac gathered all these artifacts. On the other hand, they couldn''t believe the proof either.


    After all, it was easy to fabricate some proof within one month.


    "Even so, you''re simply trapping us. If you want to escape from this challenge, just say so!" Lexie gritted her teeth, trying to fight back. "People will know that you''re shameless enough to do something like this just because you know you can''t win."


    "Really? I guess people will also know that you''re poor enough to not be able to fulfill your side of the agreement." Theo rolled his eyes, disappointed by their reaction. He even looked down on them while saying with a sarcastic tone. "I guess I need to lower myself to your level. Fine. I''ll just bet four items for those five A Rank Skill Cards.


    "I''m truly generous�� Unlike a certain someone who acts like a rich man but can''t even afford two more A Rank Skill Cards."


    Winston gnashed his teeth as he prepared to confront Theo head-on.


    Meanwhile, the onlookers were curious about this conflict since they could see both of their personalities.


    Jefferson was clenching his hands tight as he had the same expression as Winston. There was no way he could forgive Theo for the humiliation he received earlier.


    On the other hand, Tyler couldn''t help but shake his head. He finally realized the reason behind Maya''s warning. Theo was simply too much.


    Other experts were also observing Theo from afar, making sure they knew this man called Joker.


    Theo turned around and started walking away in disappointment. "I guess I should go around to see whether this banquet is worth my time or not. This is why I don''t like entering the Asda Younger Generation List�� They''re just too proud even though they can''t do anything."


    Maya chuckled and apanied him. "I''ll tell Grandfather about it."


    "Whatever." Theo shrugged and looked away when Maya mentioned Hendry. It was clear that there was a special rtionship between Theo and Hendry. In fact, Theo might continue being unknown if Hendry didn''t find him.


    "As you said, there are people hiding their own ranks because it''s not worth their time. We should focus on improving our strength and build up some wealth." Maya nodded in understanding.


    "Right? Isn''t it better to stay hidden?" Theo smirked as he continued walking away.


    However, they stopped in their tracks when a shout resounded across the room.


    "FINE! Seven A Rank Skill Cards! I will prepare it tomorrow morning before our fight!"


    Theo and others turned their heads around, looking at the humiliated Winston.


    "Heh?" Theo smiled while narrowing his eyes.


    "You should be prepared to lose all those items tomorrow. I won''t let you lose that easily." Winston roared and finally walked to the exit as if everything in his mind was only the battle and humiliation.


    Lexie opened her mouth in shock. On the one hand, she wanted to persuade Winston to stay since this banquet was the biggest opportunity to interact with other top experts. On the other hand, she couldn''t leave Winston''s side since Winston might be nning something foolish.


    Ultimately, Lexie followed Winston with a face full of regret.


    When he saw them leaving, Theo smirked and teased Maya. "See? I''m waiting to hear those two words."


    "Haha." Maya obviously knew what he wanted. With Winston and Lexie leaving the banquet, she was the top expert among all these people. At the same time, this also stopped those two from gaining more connection, which meant she could fully take advantage of this to gain some cooperation.


    She couldn''t contain her smile, saying. "Thank you."


    "You''re wee." Theo then changed direction while replying, "Now it''s time for me to waste my time around here. You should go."


    "Yep." Maya waved her hand and started visiting the people, de-escting the situation and discussing some important matters.


    And because they had witnessed what happened earlier, they hesitated ining to Theo. Instead, they went to Maya to inquire more about the man called Joker.


    This might be what Bernard had seen before he came up with the engagement talk. If they could join hands, they would be able to rule the market in the future.


    While they were talking, Theo could see Isaac making his move. Because of the scar Theo left in his heart, Isaac took this chance to challenge Jefferson, nning to steal his rank by defeating him.


    At the same time, Mark also challenged Pa because of Theo''s information. It gave him some courage to step up and try to get the position.

 Chapter 971 The Start of the Battle

    <h4>Chapter 971 The Start of the Battle</h4>


    The next morning.


    Theo was preparing himself for the fight between him and Winston. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.


    "Joker. It''s me, Maya."


    Theo frowned, wondering what Maya was up to. Even he didn''t expect Maya toe to visit him.


    Since he had finished changing, he opened the door and came out. "Do you need something from me?"


    "Nah. This is your big day, so I don''t want you to bete. Provoking is fine, but you shouldn''t bete in a fight like this."


    "Yeah. I was about to leave." Theo nodded.


    "Great. Let''s go. I need to tell you something too."


    "Hoh?"


    "Winston''s space power is different from Lorenzo''s. If Lorenzo is Teleportation, Winston is Space Control."


    "I have seen the video. Though, I don''t think the video captured everything."


    "Yes. Winston has three famous abilities. The first will be his Space Bending Fist. As the name implies, the space around his fist will bend. You should be careful."


    "I saw that in the video. It should be able to neutralize my attack." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Secondly, he has a kind of storage with his element. There are so many items he''s hiding there. If you see a portal, you need to be careful."


    "Got it. I''ll prepare to deal with the most random stuff. At the very least, he''s not going to teleport a sex toy, no?"


    "That''s�� an insane idea but very effective. You can anger your opponent easily. Just imagine if someone teleports shit to your face."


    "Right?!" Theo chuckled.


    "Last but not least, it''s his Space Distortion. He is invincible because no one can touch him due to the space surrounding him. Just like his Space Bending Fist, this space distortion is a kind of barrier that protects his body. You should find some gaps in his movement and hit him before he can form this invisible barrier."


    "Well, I have prepared some stuff, but I don''t know which one will be effective. I''ll try everything in the battle."


    "Yeah. Winston also won''t underestimate you anymore, so I don''t think you can catch him off guard like that time in the special region."


    "Don''t worry. Anyway, how is��" Theo paused, wondering if it was the right time to ask this.


    As if knowing what he wanted to say, Maya answered him. "You gave me a discount for the information and the opportunity to strike deals with others�� Of course, I have advertised your information.


    "Although it''s impossible to get so many people, I managed to convince eleven people. With each of them giving you five to ten billion depending on the amount of information, you should be able to get around 80 billion from them. I have directed them to Isaac."


    "Nice." Theo smiled. This was Theo''s condition when giving her a discount. She would persuade others to sell his information to give people a sense of relief. And with this trust, these eleven people would give a free advertisement. By the time he gained further information about Antis, he could easily gain one hundred billion.


    Theo smiled and continued to talk about some stuff with Maya.


    It took them fifteen minutes to reach the arena. Because it was going to be used, the dome was opened so everyone could see the fights.


    When they reached the arena, they found a girl posing cutely while saying, "Wassup guys! We''re back in my vlog. Today, we''re going to witness the battle between Joker and Winston. I''m sure you guys know Winston, the current number one on the Asda Younger Generation List, right?


    "That''s right. He''s the most talented space ability user in our generation. His opponent is the rising star, Joker. He''s so mysterious and scary at the same time that Myan-Myan can''t even see through him.


    "Before we continue, please don''t forget to subscribe! Myan-Myan is about to reach ten million subscribers, so please give your support, okay?! This fight will be exclusive on the Myan-Myan Skytube Channel!"


    "��" Theo raised his eyebrows since this was the first time he encountered a streamer.


    "Ranked 24th on the list, Myra An. If she focuses on her development instead of her Skytube, she should be able to get a higher rank��" Maya introduced her. "The banquet is off limits, but I guess she can stream the fight."


    Whether it was her instinct or her hearing, Myra immediately picked up Maya''s small voice.


    "Ah! It''s Joker and Maya Hamilton!" Without hesitation, she approached Joker while asking with a bright smile. "Excuse me, Joker. May I ask you some questions? Do you think you can win against Winston today?"


    Theo sighed and walked away. Of course, to increase his reputation a bit more, he didn''t forget to say, "Just watch the battle, and you will understand why I epted his challenge."


    He just left Maya to take care of Myra. Maya made a wry smile and exined, "My grandfather has retired and doesn''t appear in public anymore. Yet, hees out again just to bring Joker. I believe this action reflects Joker''s confidence."


    Ultimately, Myra interviewed Maya since Joker had disappeared.


    In fact, he had already reached the stage. Since his match was the first one, Theo found Winston standing on the stage.


    The arena itself had an uneven terrain with some rocks standing on their way to simte the realndscape. The size was a quarter-mile radius so that the fighters wouldn''t feel restricted.


    Theo raised his head, finding all the spectators a hundred feet above the ground so that they could follow their movement. Even the Mythical Rank Experts from each influence watched this battle.


    He soon saw Ste and Patrick watching him with Mark and the others.


    ''Well, they are exaggerating this battle.'' Theo shook his head helplessly because there were three Mythical Rank Experts in the arena. It was clear they were the referee who would stop the match if it got dangerous.


    Winston pointed at Theo and shouted, "I''m going to make you pay back all the humiliation I have received."


    "Don''t worry. You''re going to get more. Mr. 150 Levels above me." Theo smirked.


    "Enough. There''s no need for chit-chat. If you want to fight, then fight." One of the referees stopped them while taking out the bets. There were seven items and seven A Rank Skill Cards floating around him. He stated, "This is the bet. If Winston wins, he will get these seven items. If Joker wins, he will get these Skill Cards plus two billion Zils participation fee."


    After announcing their bet, he took out a coin. "The moment the coin touches the ground, the match starts!"


    Theo and Winston nodded as the referee tossed the coin into the air.


    Theo took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, calming his heart down. Winston started revolving the Magic Power in his body while ring at Theo, waiting for the coin to reach the ground.


    *Clink!*


    Suddenly, a clicking sound echoed in the arena, signifying the start of the battle. And in that instant, the two figures disappeared.


    "Boom!"

 Chapter 972 Theo vs Winston (1)

    <h4>Chapter 972 Theo vs Winston (1)</h4>


    "Boom!"


    Theo and Winston reappeared in the middle of the arena. The collision between their fists created a small shock wave that shook the arena.


    "��" Winston furrowed his eyebrows when he felt Theo''s strength. Even though his level was far lower than him, his strength seemed to be not that weak. In fact, he couldn''t push him back.


    He tried to lean forward to get more power, but Theo didn''t even flinch. Their fists were still trying to push each other.


    Since he had confirmed Theo''s brute strength, Winston stopped holding back. Pink light covered his right hand as he punched Theo in the face.


    It was clear this was his Space Bending Fist, so Theo never had the intention to take it head-on. Without hesitation, he opened his fist and grabbed Winston''s left wrist, pulling him in.


    Not only did Theo hide behind Winston''s body, but he also took this opportunity to summon a sword on his left hand to cut him.


    Winston''s aim immediately changed. His Space Bending Fist moved down and struck the de made of Magic Power.


    In that instant, the de suddenly curved in a weird way. The bent made the de loop around, creating half a sphere.


    ''I wonder what will happen if a real sword hits that fist?'' Theo thought while leaping away. Now that they each failed to attack the other party, they should regain some distance and get more serious.


    "I won''t underestimate you anymore. That''s why all your tricks won''t be of any use today." Winston shouted while waving both his hands.


    Theo widened his eyes when he felt the Magic Power fluctuating.


    ''Left and right?'' It was weird to sense this fluctuation since he couldn''t see anything forming around him. If it was wind or pressure, he could still sense them. But this was space.


    There was nothing to be sensed other than the fluctuation. Only when it was close enough that Theo could feel the sucking force that would squeeze him to death.


    Theo waved both hands to the sides and pushed the air with his Telekinesis. He wanted to see what would happen to the air and the pressure.


    To his surprise, the air turned into a torrent as if there was an invisible whirlpool on both sides. The pressure, on the other hand, managed to stop this space distortion for a while.


    ''Hmm��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and leaped back to escape from this power, witnessing the sh between Winston''s attacks.


    This time, there was a slight distortion in the air.


    ''So, that''s space huh�� His style is indeed very different from Lorenzo.'' Theo muttered inwardly while trying to find the way to win. He also read information about that skill.


    Skill: Spatial Merge (A)


    Effect: Creating two Spatial Distortions andbining them into one to create an even more powerful distortion.


    The instant Theo leaped back, Winston pushed both hands forward,unching the spatial distortion to him.


    Theo saw a massive stone spike next to him and cut it with his sword. After that, he kicked the stone to see what would happen to the real thing.


    As he expected, the rock bent a bit before the space force shattered it into pieces.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes before ncing to the side as Winston teleported himself while preparing to punch him in the face.


    Skill: Space Bending Fist (B)


    Effect: Concentrating a Spatial Distortion around the hand to make an unstoppable fist.


    ''What an exnation��'' Theo thought as he leaped to the side with the help of his Telekinesis.


    *Fwoosh!* Winston missed and immediately chased after him.


    However, Theo waved his hand and punched the air as the Magic Power fluctuated around his arm, creating a thunderp.


    Thunderp Fist!


    *Pak!*


    The shock wave flew forward, shing with Winston''s Space Bending Fist.


    As expected, the shock wave curved around his fist as they couldn''t handle the distortion, but the remaining shock wave still hit Winston''s body, pushing him back.


    "Kh." Winston stopped in his tracks while gritting his teeth. He never thought Theo could stop him this way.


    As he was about to chase after him again, he found Theo summoning his blue de. Thetter even had a form as if he was about to draw a sword.


    The moment he waved that sword, a beam of light flew forward.


    Winston raised his hand and prepared to deflect this attack, but right before the light hit him, it split into fives, looping around his arm and flying straight to his body.


    In that instant, the pink energy in his fist disappeared as Winston changed his skill.


    An invisible barrier was erected and made the five lights move away.


    Winston never expected Theo to use something like that. At the same time, he should have thought about it because Theo''s Control was extraordinary.


    On the other hand, Theo could see this new skill which was a bit overpowered in his opinion.


    Skill: Distortion Barrier (A)


    Effect: Create a dome shape barrier made by Spatial Distortion. It will deflect anythinging into the user''s way.


    ''For real��'' Theo made an awkward smile as this might be the strongest barrier he had ever seen. ''Though the ground is an option. The description only said a dome, not a sphere. In that case, let''s be aggressive, shall we?''


    Even though he found a chance tounch a sneak attack, Theo chose to use it right away.


    "!!!" Winston widened his eyes and felt numerous Magic Power fluctuations from the ground. He retracted the barrier and teleported himself out of this ce without hesitation before finding multiple lightsing out of the ground. If he still stayed there, he would have been hit by several of them.


    Winston started getting frustrated as Theo seemed to be able to find his weakness from one attack to another.


    Little did he know, the only reason why Theo showed all these mistakes was because of Winston''s brain. In this kind of battle, Winston shouldn''t be able to think about anything, let alone the solution to his weakness. Hence, he made Winston aware of his weaknesses so that he would think twice before attacking Theo.


    This would give Theo some chances to defeat him.


    While they were fighting, the people who watched their battle started judging him.


    "Despite having numerous chances, Winston couldn''te closer to Joker."


    "That''s right. I thought Winston underestimated him in the special region�� I guess this Joker has some skills."


    "If he can continue this way, Winston will face some problems soon."


    "That''s right. We don''t know who will win this time."

 Chapter 973 Theo vs Winston (2)

    <h4>Chapter 973 Theo vs Winston (2)</h4>


    "You bastard. All you do is running." Winston gritted his teeth while trying to find a way to stop Theo.


    On the contrary, Theo kept maintaining his distance from Winston. With the sword in his right hand, he nned to get some chances for a counterattack.


    The moment Winston leaped forward, Theo shed his sword diagonally, shooting a light beam.


    The beam split into five and looped around his body, hitting Winston from the back. Unfortunately, the lights shattered when they collided with the Distortion Barrier.


    "It''s useless!" Winston shouted and focused on Theo. However, more light beams flew toward him in session. Each of them split into five and hit a different part of the barrier.


    Theo wanted to see whether the barrier had more weaknesses or not. If the barrier only appeared where Winston wanted it, he would need to pour Magic Power into it to create aplete sphere. Hence, it would drain his Magic Power faster.


    These tens of sword lights flew around Winston and continued hitting him.


    Winston stopped in his tracks because there might be another attack from underground. Hence, it wouldn''t be wise to move toward Theo in the current situation.


    The moment he could use his teleportation again, Winston disappeared, leaving all those sword lights behind.


    Theo covered his sword with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion before turning around with his sword cutting the air.


    Suddenly, Winston reappeared behind Theo and summoned his Distortion Barrier again.


    The sh between spatial distortion and Theo''s sword created a massive shock wave due to the explosion of the Magic Power Expansion and Magic Augmentation.


    Still, the Distortion Barrier managed to neutralize the impacting from those two skills and contained Theo''s blue sword.


    ''Hmm... Sucking force?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling his sword getting absorbed inside. Since it would be bad if he lost this sword, Theo leaped away to regain some distance while thinking, ''He can''t destroy my sword. No, should I say his spatial distortion is not enough to destroy my sword?


    ''I clearly saw him shattering the rock, so it''s possible to break a mere sword. In that case, the power from the spatial distortion is not enough to destroy a Rank A Artifact. That''s good news. I wonder at what level can his spatial distortion break?''


    Theo had some ns in his mind. But when he was about to execute the first one, Winston stopped him with numerous items.


    A pink circle appeared thirty feet above Theo''s head, creating a ck-colored hole. Numerous items, from weapons to misceneous items like chains, soon came out, raining him down.


    Skill: Space Storage (B)


    Effect: A special space that can store any dead objects. The limit is 100,000 cubic feet.


    ''For real? What kind of storage is this?'' Theo narrowed his eyes and leaped backward to avoid these items. ''It is sorge that I believe a house wille downter.''


    Seeing Theo running away again, Winston didn''t n to give Theo some time to think about his next action.


    He immediately summoned multiple holes and rained Theo with many things, including boulders.


    Theo took a deep breath and looked forward. It might be hard for him to avoid all these, but it would be a different case if his attacks were the ones to fly.


    After figuring out the gap between the items, Theo waved his sword a few times, sending his sword lights forth.


    The sword lights bent a few times as Theo controlled it with his Magic Power.


    "What?!" Winston widened his eyes in shock, finding all the lights dodging the items casually.


    Those sword lights even slipped past through thest item and made their way toward Winston.


    It was at this time Winston used his fifth skill.


    The circles above Theo''s head disappeared but were soon reced by another circle in front of Winston. At the same time, a few more portals appeared next to Theo.


    The moment the sword lights entered the portals, they re-emerged from the portals next to Theo.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and leaped away. Luckily, he could read the description of his skill or else it would be dangerous.


    Skill: Connection Portal (B)


    Effect: Creating an entrance to teleport everything inside to the exit.


    ''What''s wrong with these half-baked exnations��'' Theo muttered,pletely unfazed by all these skills. Of course, even he had some difficulties dealing with Winston''s space element. But it didn''t stop him from enjoying the fight.


    This was a big opportunity to learn more about the space element after all.


    Since the exit portals were close to him, he sent a few sword lights inside so that they could travel through the gate.


    Unfortunately for him, the portals crumbled right after the sword lights entered as if telling him they were a one-way portal.


    ''This is quite annoying.'' Theo took a deep breath and raised his left hand. Suddenly, a monkey, half Theo''s height, appeared next to him.


    "What? You are a summoner?" Winston was startled by this revtion. No one had ever suspected the man called Joker to be a summoner, especially after everything he had shown this whole time.


    Theo didn''t bother to reply to him. Instead, he extended his de and forced the monkey to stand on top of his sword.


    "Kiki!" The monkey smiled and followed his instruction.


    "Go!" Theo then used all his strength tounch the monkey.


    The swing even created a small shock wave as the monkey looked like he disappeared for a split second.


    "Kiki��" The monkey smiled and covered his right fist with Magic Power, striking Winston.


    Thetter used his Space Bending Fist and punched the monkey''s fist, not scared by the monkey''s momentum and strength.


    "Boom!"


    Their shsted for a second before the Space Bending Fist deflected the monkey to the side. However, it only neutralized the Magic Power in his fist, not hurting the monkey.


    With this sight alone, it was enough for Theo to know that unless the Space Bending Fist directly hit them, it shouldn''t be that powerful.


    "Kii��" The monkeynded on the ground and leaped back to Winston.


    "It''s useless!" Winston used the Space Bending Fist and nned to destroy the monkey again.


    Unexpectedly, a sword suddenly flew between the monkey and him.


    "!!!" Winston widened his eyes in shock. "A sword��"


    With a big smile on his face, the monkey grabbed the sword and waved it forward, changing from his fist to a sword to attack him.

 Chapter 974 Theo vs Winston (3)

    <h4>Chapter 974 Theo vs Winston (3)</h4>


    One swing was all Theo needed to take down Winston. But as expected from the current number one expert among the younger generation, he managed to react to this sudden change.


    *ng!*


    The de shattered into pieces and turned back into Magic Power after Winston created the Distortion Barrier.


    Still, the winner in this sh was none other than Theo.


    "Hey��"


    "Yeah. That''s��"


    "The one who bleeds first is��"


    "Winston!"


    "But Joker is supposed to be 150 levels lower than Winston, right?"


    "Is he that monstrous?"


    The spectators were dumbstruck. Although Theo''s ability was quite high, they never expected to see Winston''s cheek bleed. And that injury came from a monkey.


    After delivering that strike, the monkey leaped back to regain his distance beforeughing at Winston.


    The fight had been equal this whole time. Both of them had used five of their skills. But as one would expect from Winston, Theo had a hard time keeping up with his status.


    If not because of Winston''s overwhelming status point, that de might have shed his hand. That was why Theo could only shake his head in disappointment.


    ''Still, I have used five skills. And it''s not like I can use my Blink since it is rare to see someone using a skill like this.'' Theo muttered inwardly, trying to figure out his next attack pattern.


    Winston opened another portal above him, preparing to throw more and more stuff.


    However, the portal also gave Theo some inspiration. He suddenly raised his left hand while utilizing his Telekinesis, lifting a hundred items from the ground.


    "!!!" Winston hurriedly closed the earlier portal and opened another one before him, catching all these items.


    "It''s not going to work." Winston squinted his eyes, wondering what Theo wanted.


    Suddenly, their trajectories curved. The items looped around the portal and tried to strike him from all directions.


    Even Winston would have a hard time capturing all of them. As he had confirmed earlier, Winston wouldn''t be able to destroy something with great durability.


    So, Theo nned to use this chance to test which items would break and which items could withstand the spatial distortion. This way, he would figure out Winston''s power and get an easier time fighting him.


    Winston clicked his tongue because there was no way he could destroy all those items. As soon as they came closer, he teleported a few feet away before controlling the gate to capture all those items.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo never had the intention to let him go. Winston had thrown numerous items to him, so it would only be right if he returned them to him.


    Even Theo couldn''t help but say, "Come on. These are your items. You should clean it up! There''s no maid that will take care of these items, you know."


    Winston gritted his teeth and started going around to take these items since Theo nned to use them. His Distortion Barrier might get destroyed if all these items hit it. Hence, it was better to take them back first.


    On the wall, Lexie frowned while assessing the current situation. "Even Winston''s power is not effective against him? Space Bending Fist, Distortion Barrier, Spatial Merge, Space Storage, and Connection Portal�� How can Joker know their weaknesses? No, what kind of power Joker has to be able to counter all these attacks?


    "From what I can see, he has used several skills as well. The first will be that explosive Magic Power. Then, the summoning technique. Without that monkey, Winston wouldn''t be injured. At the same time, the monkey seems to be able to work together with Joker perfectly, forcing Winston to take all these attacks.


    "Last but not least, that Control�� I don''t think he can control Magic Power to that degree�� There must be a skill that controls those items.


    "Is Joker faking his level? There''s no way this is the case. After all, the Star Group won''t hide this information. In other words, Joker''s ability has far surpassed everyone on the list. No wonder he''s not interested in the list.


    "If there is a new number one after this fight�� What will my family do? Will they break the engagement and force me to get this guy?" Lexie frowned before letting out a long sigh. Due to her family circumstances, she couldn''t even get a girlfriend like she wished.


    Meanwhile, Winston still had a hard time capturing all these items because they felt like living items. Theo managed to control them perfectly to the point they could be used to hide the monkey so that thetter couldunch a sneak attack.


    Right now, Winston was the one getting chased around.


    ''To think my Space Storage will be my own enemy.'' Winston was searching for a n to stop all these items. Luckily, his teleportation could be used again, and most of the items had gathered in one ce.


    Without hesitation, he teleported to a particr spot and created the biggest portal he could.


    "Hah!" Winston roared to pump up more spirit as he captured all the items in front of him.


    However, the remaining items suddenly turned around and hit the portal''s edge.


    *Crack!*


    *ng!*


    The portal''s edge snapped and the portal itself crumbled into the ground.


    Theo stopped using his Telekinesis at that time and said, "I see. Your portal can''t take any pressure on the edge. And it seems the previous size is your limit."


    "So what? Do you think you can defeat me? I have captured back most of my items. Those that still remain won''t be able to do anything to me now."


    "No, no. You misunderstood me. I simply thought defeating you seems to be easier than I expected." Theo smiled and waved his hand, calling the monkey back. "I just need something bigger than your portal!"


    Before Winston could use a skill to intervene, Theounched the monkey to the sky while raising his left hand. "Monkey. It''s time!"


    "Kikii!" The monkey smirked and raised both hands, following Theo''s movement.


    "What are they doing?"


    "Who knows."


    "Winston is going to attack them, I guess."


    The people were confused by Theo''s action. It was easy for Winston to take this opportunity to hit Theo and the monkey.


    However, their thoughts suddenly vanished as the next scene stunned all of them. The cloud suddenly split, forming a huge hole.


    From that hole fell down a huge boulder covered with fire. It fell down at constant speed as if roaring toward the people on the ground.


    Mark clutched both hands, hugging him as his body started shaking. Maya had a huge grin on her face from her excitement. She never thought Theo could do something like this.


    Winston''s expression turned grim as he gritted his teeth. "Meteorite?"

 Chapter 975 Theo vs Winston (4)

    <h4>Chapter 975 Theo vs Winston (4)</h4>


    "Meteorite?"


    "This guy!" Ste sucked a cold breath as she never expected that her father-inw would bring someone like this to thepany.


    "I guess it''s the right way for me to apany him to this event." Patrick''s expression turned grim, looking at the meteorite. He felt trouble would soone because of this one skill.


    "Impossible." Lexie clenched her fists. She didn''t see any picture of Winston losing earlier, but this skill proved that such a case might happen soon.


    ''Haha. As expected of Theo�� Now that I think about it, Valkyrie''s God Killing Spear�� If I''m not wrong, the spear split the sky too. I guess blood is still thicker than water.'' Maya thought, getting excited.


    "Come on. How about using that portal again?" Theoughed out loud as he had already gained some distance from Winston.


    Winston clicked his tongue and used his teleportation to get away, but the monkey suddenly leaped in the air and punched the meteorite, knocking it toward Winston.


    Little did he know, it was impossible for Theo to create a meteorite�� like a real meteorite. That was why the meteorite fell at the same velocity instead of elerating due to the gravity.


    The meteorite was nothing but an illusion. He poured a big amount of Magic Power and used the illusion to shock them.


    At the same time, this was the opportunity to use his Order in a fight. By using the Reality Order, he turned a portion of that meteorite into reality.


    That was why the me looked intense and the rock was solid.


    Winston raised his left hand and formed a pink light on top of his palm.


    "Space de," Winston shouted, letting all his emotions go. He didn''t want to lose against Theo.


    The light flew forward and formed a crescent-shaped wave, striking the meteorite. In that instant, the pink light expanded as big as the meteorite and cut it into two.


    "Bam!"


    The meteorite flew to the sides, forcing the referees to appear and form a barrier to knock the meteorite back to the arena.


    "Boom!"


    The fall produced a powerful shock wave, but there was one thing that made everyone shocked.


    The referees were the first to notice it as they all looked at their hands, feeling the impact of the meteorite was weak.


    And when they lowered their vision, there was only dust scattered in the air along with the shattered meteorites. Meanwhile, the ground was still intact as if there was no powerful force that turned the arena into a crater.


    Winston and all the people in the area opened their mouths in shock, realizing what had happened.


    Only Theo couldugh in this situation as he said, "Hahahaha! There''s no way my Magic Power and Control can bring the true meteorite. Still, nice reaction."


    He even gave a thumbs up to Winston, clearly mocking him.


    Winston realized Theo just trolled him. In fact, Theo was never serious this whole time. He had been assessing him.


    "JOKER!" His anger erupted as Winston couldn''t contain himself anymore. Leaping forward, Winston protected his body with the Distortion Barrier as if nning to ram Theo with this barrier.


    Even Theo became serious, thinking this was the point he should find something that could defeat him.


    The monkey approached him first with his hand covered by Magic Power.


    "Kikii!" The monkey smirked and nned to destroy the barrier with his own fist.


    However, the moment he punched forward, the monkey didn''t feel any restriction. His body spun in the air before realizing Winston retracted the barrier.


    With this kind of movement, the monkey couldn''t avoid any attack from Winston. Thetter took this chance to kick the monkey as hard as he could.


    "Ki��!" The monkey spat some blood and was blown away.


    Theo squinted his eyes as he suddenly thought about something.


    "I see. So, that''s how it is��" Theo had a n in his mind. He charged forward while waving his sword, trying to destroy the barrier with this blue artifact.


    Since the same n wouldn''t work twice, Winston received Theo''s de with the barrier.


    *Cling!*


    The clicking sound echoed in the arena, but Theo''s sword couldn''t prate the barrier. Instead, the sucking force started pulling the sword in.


    "I''ll win." Winston dered once again. Without his sword, Theo shouldn''t be able to do anything. All he needed to do was to pull this sword in.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as his left hand let the sword go and touched the barrier directly.


    Illusion Destruction.


    "!!!" Winston suddenly lost his connection with the barrier.


    It only indicated one thing. The barrier had disappeared.


    ''It works.'' Theo thought as he took a step forward and spun his body, kicking Winston on the stomach.


    *Pak!*


    A thunderp resounded in the arena as the kick blew Winston a hundred feet away.


    *Boom!*


    Winstonnded and rolled a few times on the ground before stopping. Knowing Theo would take this chance to attack him, he immediately rose from the ground while coughing blood. *Cough!*


    Unexpectedly, Theo remained in his position as though he had no n to attack him. Instead of chasing after him, he pulled the sword that fell to the ground.


    "I see. Now I understand how your barrier works��" Theo nodded a few times.


    Winston wiped the blood on his lips and shouted, "Even though you can neutralize my barrier, you won''t be able to do it continuously. After all, your skill can''t be used all the time. It''s different for my barrier!"


    He poured more and more Magic Power into his barrier and reactivated the Distortion Barrier skill, protecting himself from any attacks.


    After all, he noticed the monkey had disappeared.


    "No, no. I should reword it. I now understand how your space element works." Theo shook his head while raising his de on top of his head. He even held it with both hands. "You believe that your barrier is the strongest because it can dispel everything��"


    "So what?! It''s true." Winston snorted.


    "Kikii!" Suddenly, the monkey''s voice echoed in his ears as he appeared next to Winston.


    "You said it''s true, huh�� How can you be so confident when it''s not true in my eyes." Theo shook his head in disappointment.


    "Unlike you, your monkey can''t destroy my barrier," Winston replied in anger. "I''ll show you how strong my barrier truly is. I believe my barrier can stop all your monkey''s attacks."


    "Yeah. And I believe�� my sword can cut your space element," stated Theo with a cold tone. At the same time, he poured his Order into his de and finally utilized the second stage of his Order, altering the Magic Power. He believed with all his heart that his sword could cut the barrier. In that instant, Theo swung his sword without using any Magic Power.


    Suddenly, a sword mark appeared on the invisible barrier. There was no one who could see it, but Winston could feel the hole in his barrier.


    "What? You��!" Winston turned his head around, shocked by what Theo did. He almost forgot the monkey was right in front of him.


    The moment the hole appeared, the barrier soon vanished, leaving Winston unprotected.


    Before Winston could use another skill or even turn around, the monkey made a big smile and punched him on the cheek with everything he got.

 Chapter 976 Theo vs Winston (5)

    <h4>Chapter 976 Theo vs Winston (5)</h4>


    "!!!" Theo had been dropping bombs in this fight. From a meteorite to nullification skill, they never ceased to amuse them.


    And this nullification skill was by far the most shocking thing they had seen this whole time. Unlike Theo''s previous nullification skill, which was the Illusion Destruction, Theo''s Order could be used remotely.


    Theo changed the flow of Magic Power that caused the spatial distortion, neutralizing it. After all, in Theo''s reality, this Magic Power could be cut.


    If Winston had defensive equipment that made him like a turtle, Theo obviously wouldn''t be able to do such a thing. At the very least, he couldn''t affect reality yet. Even the next stage of his Order was to make an illusion a reality. Different from the one that Theo used to reinforce the meteorite, Theo could create a more realistic meteorite from weight to its intensity at this level.


    Still, this also showed how powerful thirteen big Orders were.


    "What can he do next?"


    "Excuse me. Can you call my father right now? I want to tell him very important news."


    "That''s right. As soon as possible."


    They could be shocked by the battle, but it didn''t stop them from contacting the people behind them. The number one person might change today.


    And someone 150 levels below Winston would take the throne, which made him even more monstrous.


    "Luckily, Father-inw brought him to thepany. Or else, I don''t know what kind of nightmare we will be facing right now." Ste smirked before turning to Maya. "How''s about that one, Maya? He can rece Theo."


    "It''s impossible." Maya shook her head helplessly. In Ste''s head, she thought Maya had tried to do it, but thetter didn''t ept her. That was why Maya had been close to him this whole time. However, the real reason why Maya rejected the idea was that Joker was Theo. She thought, ''So, you want to rece Theo with Theo?''


    "Well, good luck." Ste let out a long sigh and patted her shoulder, thinking her daughter would take her time to conquer Joker''s heart.


    On the other side, there was another movement.


    "Miss Lexie." A middle-aged man walked to Lexie with a serious expression. "I''m afraid it will affect him in a bad way if Winston loses. This will surely haunt him even in his dream."


    "So, what are you nning to do?" Lexie furrowed her eyebrows.


    "We need to stop this battle as soon as possible."


    "That is if you can��" An aged voice resounded in their ears as a middle-aged man, who looked like he was in his fifties, approached them. He smiled at them and said, "If you want to meddle in, I don''t mind stopping both of you here."


    "!!!" Lexie and the middle-aged man widened their eyes and turned around, recognizing this man. He was one of the five Mythical Rank Experts hired by the organizer. It turned out there were more hidden protectors ensuring the event went smoothly.


    And he was the fourth protector that was hiding in the crowd, knowing something like this might happen.


    "If you intervene, you''re going to be penalized and expelled from here. If you''re prepared for the consequences, you can try�� Not that I''m going to let you do whatever you want." The old man smiled before vanishing into thin air, leaving a message. "As long as you don''t do anything, I won''t make my move. But please follow the rule. We just want a fair battle after all."


    "��" Lexie and the middle-aged man''s expressions darkened, never expecting someone to be waiting by their side this whole time.


    Meanwhile, Theo took a deep breath as he couldn''t move from his ce. In fact, the usage of Order truly put a strain on his mind.


    ''My Magic Power is not the problem, but I felt something was sucked out of my body when I used the Order. I wonder what that is��'' Theo thought while trying to figure out his problem. ''Well, I only activated my Order not long ago. I guess I need to cultivate it first�� Gotta experiment moreter.''


    "Kh." Winston gritted his teeth, trying to rise from the ground. He felt his jaw crack a bit because the monkey hit it too hard. And he wasn''t expecting an attack like that too, so it was normal for him to be injured like this.


    "He can neutralize my power? What is his true power?" Winston muttered in a low voice while gritting his teeth. "What went wrong? I didn''t underestimate him this whole time. Yet, my current condition is not that good."


    There was a conflict in Winston''s heart. On one hand, his pride couldn''t take this beating. On the other hand, he didn''t have any n that could allow him to take on Theo, especially that neutralization skill.


    It was clear Theo could use it continuously like his barrier, so it would be impossible for him to rely on the Distortion Barrier anymore.


    While ring at Theo, Winston started moving closer, trying to figure out his next n.


    However, the monkey was the first to attack.


    Winston gritted his teeth and instinctively used his Distortion Barrier. However, the memory of Theo cutting his barrier shed in his mind, forcing Winston to retract his own barrier.


    Instead of stopping the monkey, he simply leaped back as though he was afraid of this monkey.


    "Kiki!" The monkey wasughing at him, getting confident after that one punch. Little did Winston know the monkey was none other than Theo''s clone that used Metamorphosis. And because Theo had revived his body, the Magic Power in the monkey''s body had be calmer, making him look like a perfect monster from the other side.


    "To think even his monkey dared tough at me." Winston gritted his teeth and gathered his space element into his fist.


    The monkey also approached him with its fist, nning to defeat Winston''s space element.


    The moment their fists were about to collide, Theo raised his hand again, pouring his Magic Power into his Order.


    "!!!" Winston widened his eyes when he felt his Magic Power shaking, neutralizing his space distortion again. "What?!"


    With just a single nce, Winston already knew it was Theo''s work. However, he didn''t have time to think about it.


    After all, their fists had collided. The Magic Power in the monkey''s fist overwhelmed Winston in an instant.


    Even though Winston tried his best to withstand this power, without Magic Power, he couldn''t do anything.


    The monkey pushed forward to the point he blew away Winston''s arm before kicking him on the stomach,unching him to the wall.


    "Kiki!"

 Chapter 977 Theo vs Winston (6)

    <h4>Chapter 977 Theo vs Winston (6)</h4>


    Bam!


    Winston coughed out more blood from his mouth, gradually feeling what the impact did to his body. If this situation continued, he would lose to Theo in a few more hits.


    Hence, there was a need for a change.


    Winston formed the biggest portal to his storage, cing it above Theo. And as Theo predicted, a building emerged from the hole.


    The building seemed to be a tall tower made of concrete. But unlike a normal square tower, this one had a pointed roof, making it a perfect building to be used as an arrow.


    Even Theo would have some problem in stopping this attack.


    ''For real�� How long is this building? More than a hundred feet.'' Theo squinted his eyes, wondering what he should do against such a building.


    His Magic Power gathered in his sword as Theo waved his sword upward, sending forth a crescent-shaped sword wave.


    At the same time, he also used his Telekinesis to slow down its speed. He wanted to use his Telekinesis to carry this one, but as expected, the weight was too much for his Telekinesis to handle.


    Hence, he nned to destroy it.


    The sword wave shed with the building''s roof. Due to its extraordinary Magic Power, the sword wave soon cut through the roof, shing the building apart.


    Still, the tower was too tall. Even his sword wave lost all its energy after cutting half the tower.


    And with this, Theo might get crushed by this building.


    Since the situation had reached this point, there was no need for him to hide it anymore. A massive figure emerged from Theo''s shadow, sending a powerful Magic Power to the surroundings.


    This figure then raised both hands and slipped his fingers through the gap the sword wave created as if nning to rip the entire building apart.


    If this was the Death Avatar''s effort alone, there was no way the building would be destroyed. Theo poured more Magic Power so that they could sh with each other around the finger.


    This was Theo''s Thunderp Fist. And he used that shock wave to help the Death Avatar rip the building apart.


    The Death Avatar''s eyes started glowing before a purple me covered its left eye. Theo''s right eye had the same fire, showing the connection between them.


    At the same time, the monkey returned to Theo''s position and punched the giant tower with the Magic Power Expansion and Magic Augmentation, knocking the upper half of the tower to the ground.


    Using this chance, the Death Avatar split the building into two while stopping any rubbles that was going to hit Theo.


    "What?!" Winston was dumbfounded. There was no one who had ever destroyed this tower. They would either die or avoid it. But Winston managed to get the time where Theo couldn''t dodge this.


    Hence, there was only one future for Theo�� or at least he thought. He never thought Theo could destroy a huge building apart.


    "That one is good, but I''ve gotten sick fighting with you. It''s time for me to end this." Theo walked together with the monkey, who was still full of energy.


    Winston gritted his teeth and waved both hands, creating two distortions in Theo''s sides. Unfortunately for him, this attack wouldn''t be effective anymore because Theo cut the spatial distortion before they even moved.


    "Kh." Winston leaped back, trying to gain more time to think about his next move. Soon, he figured out something that could buy some time.


    "Your power can''t affect a real thing. If not, you can cut that tower." Winston smirked, looking so proud about his finding. "In other words, as long as there is a physical body, you can''t do anything."


    "��" Theo maintained his silence, not revealing any reaction or thoughts.


    "Because my power is Space Element, they don''t manifest physically. They are there because of Magic Power. The same applies to the Time Element�� That''s why your power is only effective against me. It''s not me who is weak.


    "If you fight a fire element user, or any other element users, you won''t be able to defeat them." Winston presented the ws in Theo''s ability, specifically his Order.


    As he said earlier, Theo indeed couldn''t do anything against those people. After all, his current limit for the Order was Magic Power.


    Although he could alter a certain degree of their power like what he did to the meteorite, it wouldn''t be as effective as Winston''s space element.


    Still, it was just a matter of time. He just needed to continue working hard, and that kind of power could be attained sooner orter.


    "Now you''re in denial." Theo shook his head in disappointment. "You just think you''re strong�� That''s what you believe. And you deny everything that says otherwise. Such a pathetic man to be the current number one expert on the younger generation list."


    "I guess it''s time to finish this battle." Theo let out a long sigh before the purple me red up.


    Death Eyes.


    Theo sent all his killing intent to Winston while running forward.


    Winston widened his eyes because Theo suddenly felt as if he had be a ferocious beast. In fact, he saw something even bigger. The Death Avatar darkened, looking like a demon that prepared to receive his soul.


    In a panic, he teleported to the other side of the arena where Theo came from. Little did he know, the only reason his instinct chose this ce was because of the monkey waiting for him. If he teleported somewhere behind him, the monkey would be able to attack him.


    And this was what Theo had been waiting for. The moment Winston disappeared, his clone witnessed his body reappearing behind the original.


    Hence, there was only one thing Theo should do. He turned around and leaped to Winston as fast as he could before thetter could do anything.


    Theo smirked and waved his sword to defeat Winston.


    As expected from the current number one, even in denial, he still managed to pull a sword out of his storage.


    Cling!


    The two swords shed as Winston said, "Since I know I can beat you with a physical object, I only need to use this sword to cut you down."


    "Really?" Theo smirked and raised his left hand, grabbing Winston''s wrist.


    "!!!" Winston tried to shake away his hand but to no avail. He raised his head and saw the Death Avatar forming a sword for him to use.


    "You should take him head-on then."

 Chapter 978 Theo vs Winston (7)

    <h4>Chapter 978 Theo vs Winston (7)</h4>


    "!!!" Winston was shocked once again when the Death Avatar turned out to be able to use a weapon. After all, he had prepared to stop the Death Avatar''s hands if they came after him. He just never expected them to go with a weapon.


    He used all his power to escape from Theo to the point he roared as loud as possible to gain just a bit more strength. Seeing his desperate face, Theo finally let him go, throwing off his bnce.


    Clink!


    The clicking sound, followed by a massive shock wave, shook the arena, cracking the ground and showing the power behind this swing.


    "Kh." Winston gritted his teeth as he almost fell to his knees.


    Theo wanted to extract his ''soul'' and give him a good trauma so that no one thought about killing him, but he thought beating him was enough. It wasn''t because of mercy.


    If even Winston dared to pick a fight so easily in this country, he was afraid that the people, who woulde after him next, would be much stronger.


    Having this kind of trump card should be necessary.


    That was why he thought showing it in this fight was simply not worth the trouble.


    His body also felt a bit weak after using his Order. Although the Magic Power was enough to fight for another hour, his body couldn''t keep up anymore.


    Hence, it would be better to finish Winston in this chance.


    With Winston pinned to the ground by the Death Avatar, Theo leaped forward while swinging his sword, sending all the sword lights he could.


    These sword lights surrounded Winston from all directions. There was no way Winston could escape from this, especially after his teleportation long ago.


    Out of desperation, Winston tried to use his Distortion Barrier again. Yet, Theo cut it down in an instant, allowing the sword lights to slip past his defense and hit him.


    Suddenly, three figures appeared between them. Two of them stopped Theo''s attack while checking Winston''s condition while thest one stood before Theo, dering, "The battle ends here. Joker wins."


    Theo blinked a few times in confusion. The appearance of these three didn''t shock him. He was simply surprised to see no reaction from Winston.


    His rash and hot-headed behavior were nted in his mind, so Winston was supposed to get angry here. Yet, there was no sounding from him.


    Theo leaned to the side, finding Winston lying on the ground.


    "What the heck? I don''t think I have injured him that much." Theo scratched the back of his head.


    "Probably he''s too shocked because of his loss. After all, he couldn''t do anything to you." The elder in front of him replied with a troubled tone. "This is the first defeat he suffers after bing the top expert on the list. So, I guess the pride has gone to his head or something."


    "For real? You can pass out from something like that?" Theo was confused for a moment, unaware that he was different from anyone else because he had endured that kind of hardship when he was young. His mentality was already far too strong.


    "You can pass out from shock after hearing someone you love dies, you know."


    "��" Theo fell silent and looked away, not having a word to rebuke that statement.


    The elder smiled and raised seven Skill Cards, dering the result. "ording to the bet, you can get these seven A Rank Skill Cards."


    After that, the elder also handed him the seven items along with the promised two billion. "These are yours too."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and respectfully received it. He thought, ''Such a shame, if only I have more A Rank Skill Cards�� I can upgrade two skills to A Rank. I guess I''ll need to choose which skill I''ll upgrade after this.''


    After receiving his reward, he immediately walked out of the arena while taking a few deep breaths. He also didn''t forget to take ast look at Winston while having a bad taste in his mouth. There was no satisfaction in defeating Winston even after that exciting battle.


    Unlike his dissatisfaction, the crowd was excited by what they had seen.


    "This is it!"


    "The power difference is clear. Joker has the ability to fight someone far stronger than him because his ability is that powerful."


    "Yeah. He is like Maya who can reach 3rd rank with her current level."


    "But that''s because of her unique armor. If not because of that armor, she won''t be able to enter the top ten."


    "That''s right. Joker relies on his raw power to defeat Winston. This number one spot won''t change for a few years at the very least. After all, it will be a while for Joker to be a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "Still, what is his age? How about his appearance? Maybe he''s an old guy�� He might be using all those years to train his Five Aspects instead of leveling up."


    "No matter how old he is, there''s no way he''s above 35 years old. Even with the dyed aging, past that age, your voice will be a bit deeper and your skin will be rougher."


    "Fair enough. His hands look smooth like a youngster."


    "Yeah. There are more and more things we will see in the near future."


    All of them started talking about Theo and thinking about the future cooperation with the Star Group. It was clear that the Star Group wouldn''t let this young man go. Hence, they needed to do their best to forge cooperation.


    While they were discussing Theo, Maya whispered to her mother. "I''m going to check on him."


    "Don''t worry. I''ll not let a single person disturb you." Ste winked her right eye, happy to see Maya taking the initiative.


    ''I think she misunderstands something�� Well, whatever. It''s going to return to normal soon if she knows about Joker''s real identity.'' Maya ignored her mother''s reaction and simply sneaked away, trying to check on Theo.


    However, the moment she reached him, Theo was already sitting on the ground with his back leaning against the wall. He looked so defenseless.


    "Tired?" Maya smiled and squatted next to him.


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I used too much power earlier."


    "Really? Still, your power is beyond my imagination. I admit defeat."


    "Haha��"


    "So, are you gonna go back now? Not gonna see Mark''s fight?"


    "If I remain mysterious, I should be able to stop those people froming to me for a while. It should give me some time to do an international mission since they wille to you first to gain some information about me.


    "That''s why I will stay in my room until this event ends. Just let me rest for a bit more," Theo answered.


    "Okay."


    *********


    Author''s Note: 1000th chapter''s celebratory art (sketch) on thement section.

 Chapter 979 Blessed

    <h4>Chapter 979 Blessed</h4>


    After that fight, the situation became extremely chaotic. They had so many things about Theo to report.


    His rise was too quick, and his power remained unknown despite being recorded. After all, no one could figure out his abilities.


    "We have witnessed an exciting fight today. With such power, the list is going to be changed soon. Joker will, without a doubt, rece Winston as the number one expert. Myan-Myan needs to find him to interview him." Myra An said in front of her camera, preparing to chase after Theo.


    Unfortunately for her and all the people that wanted to meet Theo, thetter had disappeared without a trace.


    Despite knowing Theo was hiding in his room, no one dared to open his door forcefully as it could be considered an act of aggression.


    However, the great change didn''t happen only to him and Winston. Like all the previous events, many people took someone''s rank to prove they were worthy of that new rank.


    And the second biggest leap was none other than Mark. After getting some clues about Pa''s weaknesses, Mark managed to defeat her, resulting in him taking her position.


    This way, the event ended with the Star Group and the Starry Group taking the 1st, 4th, and 5th spots simultaneously.


    Seeing this rank alone already showed the pride and power of the twopanies. If they knew Mark''s sess came from Theo, thetter wouldn''t have a peaceful time for the next few months.


    So, Theo just let Mark get all the credits for this.


    For the first time in his life, he was grateful for challenging Theo and falling to his billion Zils scams. He finally got something to be proud of. Now that he also didn''t have the annoying woman that would constantly bother him anymore, it was the time for him to practice even harder.


    After the fighting event, they held another banquet that night for the celebration of their new ranks. However, some people were missing.


    Theo, Winston, Lexie, and Pa didn''t attend the banquet for their own purposes. As for Maya, she was in the limelight because many people wanted to know about Theo.


    While they were having their fun, Theo got a call from Agata.


    Since the line was secured, he epted the call as Agata soon appeared on his screen.


    Agata waved her hands with a smile on her face. "Congrattions."


    "You know about it?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise.


    "No. You never pick a fight you can''t win, so I know that you''ll win even before the battle." Agata made a cheeky grin, showing her confidence in Theo.


    "Really?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Yep." Agata nodded with a smug smile. "Anyway, how''s the event? I don''t think it''s going to be that boring."


    "Well, it''s not like I''m going to talk with them��" Theo sighed.


    "Fair enough. Though, I''m sure you''re going to be famous soon. I have checked the video, and it''s going to be popr as soon as the local news features it."


    "Whatever. My intention remains the same."


    "I know. But making an influence is harder than you think, especially since I know you only want a small number of elites. If it''s just like apany, I can help you with that��"


    "Don''t worry. I already have my first target."


    "Really? Who is he?"


    "Isaac Walton."


    "I see." Agata thought for a moment and asked, "Can he actually follow you easily? I mean your strength improves so quickly that if you take on someone weaker, they won''t be able to work for you in the future. You know what I mean?"


    Agata reminded him about his progress. After all, she was one of the people that couldn''t catch up to him.


    "Isaac''s abilities are unique, so he belongs to another case. But, yeah. I''m going to find some Mythical Rank Experts, but most of them have joined an organization."


    "How about searching for one overseas?"


    "That''s what I''m nning to do in my uing International Mission." Theo nodded. He felt like Agata managed toe up with solutions even quicker than when she was with him.


    "By the way, I heard the Starry Group has gotten new deals with apany in Australia. What is their name again��" She tried to recall the name but to no avail. "Anyway, you might want to go to Australia."


    "Hoh?" Theo was amused. He hadn''t even nned for his next trip, but Agata seemed to have chosen something interesting. "Australia. It''s a great country with a vast amount of uncharted areas."


    "Yeah. There are many hidden experts there. From what I know, thatpany nned to develop the area around their gate and some other deals��" Agata opened her Skylink and searched for the map. "Ara Gate, in the northern territory. There''s someone living in a ce not far away from that teleportation gate�� I will send the informationter, but he''s known as an entric assassin.


    "ording to my information, his only daughter is inflicted by a curse, and he can''t move from that town to take care of her. If you can help his daughter, maybe you can get him. I can assure you that this man is a special assassin."


    "For real? Where do you even get this kind of information?" Theo facepalmed, feeling defeated. He never thought Agata would be able to gain all this information.


    "Hehe. Now that I''ve been managing thepany, I understand how to gather information and connections. In your case, I simply search for either the Star Group or the Starry Group. Everything is then connected." Agata smirked. "I already told you that I''ll be able to help you even if I''m weaker than you. How''s that? You must fall head over heels for me again."


    "Yeah, yeah. You''re great."


    "Hehe. I''ll send you the rest of the information. I believe your Death Avatar can dispel the curse, so I''ll be waiting for your sess."


    "Yep. I''ll do my best." Theo nodded. "Thank you."


    "You''re very wee. Anyway, I think it''s time for me to hang up. I need to handle some stuff right now."


    "Okay. Love you, take care of yourself, will you?" Theo smiled and nodded.


    "Don''t worry. Bye. Love you." Agata waved her hands before hanging up.


    Theo could only sit down while shaking his head helplessly, feeling blessed.

 Chapter 980 Raid Mission

    <h4>Chapter 980 Raid Mission</h4>


    A few dayster.


    Theo was sitting in front of the Star Group''s CEO, Bernard. After the event ended, Theo immediately went back with the others, not caring about others'' curiosity.


    Now that he had returned, he immediately talked with Bernard to discuss his international mission.


    "Instead of doing the mission with the Star Group, I would like to go with the Starry Group," stated Theo with a calm expression. "I have told Maya about this and gotten the ''OK'' from her."


    Bernard waved his hands as he had already heard the matter during yesterday''s dinner.


    "I don''t have a problem with it. But I need to remind you that you''re going with their agents. Unlike the mission from the War God Family, this mission requires a huge amount of workforce. If I''m not wrong, there will be a total of fifty people going on this mission." Bernard nodded while opening the mission detail.


    Mission: ck Stone Cave Raid


    Description: There''s an indication of a terrorist organization inside the cave that is filled with monsters. All agents are required to kill all monsters and terrorists inside the cave.


    "Are you sure about this?" Bernard asked with a serious expression. "The Lowe Organization has been chosen by the government to handle this case and the military is going to stand by around the cave.


    "The enemies have at least three Mythical Rank Experts, so we will supply two Mythical Rank Experts ourselves, and Lowe Organization will bring three to prepare for the worst. The military will also bring their experts to ensure the mission goes smoothly.


    "And in this situation, you won''t be in charge of the group. In other words, you''re going to follow the leader chosen by the Lowe Organization. I''m sure this will be extremely dangerous since Maya won''t be with you."


    Theo had heard the details from Maya, so he had thought about it carefully. And since he had another motive, he didn''t want to miss this opportunity.


    "Yeah. I don''t really mind. With my current reputation, my words should have some power even if I''m not from the Starry Group," Theo exined.


    "Indeed. If you don''t mind those conditions, I won''t stop you. You will gather in the Starry Group two days from now and meet the one in charge there."


    "Alright. Thanks."


    "Now that we''re done discussing your mission, I need to mention a few things about your actions in the event." Bernard shifted the topic as his expression darkened soon.


    "Is there something wrong?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Not really. As I said previously, beating them is a must. So, I really support what you did to Winston�� I had a goodugh when I saw the news." Bernard chuckled.


    "So, why do you have a long face?"


    "Too many people are visiting me to inquire about your information. Although I can simply direct them to my father, who must be enjoying his life on the other side, it won''t be effective for long."


    "That''s what I thought. I mean, one of the reasons I chose toplete my international mission is for this."


    Bernard fell silent when he heard his idea. "I see. In that case, as soon as you go back from the mission, hide inside your mansion for a few months."


    "Why? I have been nning to do it for a month or two, but��"


    "People''s opinions are too strong currently. Because you''re scary, they''re ganging up on me. That''s why the beggars will move sooner orter�� Simply because we''re too strong��" Bernard let out a long sigh, indirectly implying the trouble that came after their 1st, 4th, and 5th spots on the list.


    "I see. If you''re too strong, people, who have an inferiorityplex, will band together. Suffering from sess." Theo nodded in understanding.


    "I like the way you put it. Though, I won''t call them like that. They''re just a bunch of cowards."


    "I understand. I don''t think I''m nning to go out anytime soon." Theo nodded in agreement while adding inwardly, ''I will just practice my Order and Five Aspects in the meantime.''


    "Alright. If the rumor starts subsiding, you should be fine to go out again. It shouldn''t take more than four months from now."


    "February, huh."


    "Yeah."


    "It''s alright for me. It will impact my levels a bit, but I have some preparations ready." Theo agreed after contemting for a minute.


    "Good. I''m done with my matters. Do you have any requests?"


    "Actually, yes. Do you mind getting me some healing liquid? What''s the best one? I think the green liquid?"


    "Ah, Enhanced Metabolism Medicine. They''re quite expensive��" Bernard thought for a moment. "And they are quite hard to find too. At most, I can get you two of them�� You can pay me 15 billion Zils for those two."


    "I don''t mind."


    "Of course you don''t mind. You have those seven items and A Rank Skill Cards along with 60 billion Zils for the information��"


    "Haha." Theo chuckled. "Anyway, can you find more A Rank Skill Cards for me?"


    "For what?"


    "I''m sure you know my ambition." Theo gave him a misleading hint since there was no way he could say the truth.


    "They usually appear in an auction because it''s hard to get Skill Cards, especially from a Mythical Rank Monster. Even if I''m searching for them actively, I barely get less than ten. And their prices will skyrocket�� Even if you use your remaining money�� After reducing it with tax, I don''t think you can get more than fifteen A Rank Cards."


    "I see��" Theo paused for a moment. There were three skills he wanted to rank up immediately. They were Telekinesis, Metamorphosis, and Death Avatar. He still had seven Skill Cards from Winston, so he shouldn''t need too many Cards for now. And to avoid Winston''s suspicion, Theo stated, "I only need ten more for the time being."


    "Ten, huh��" Bernard muttered in a low voice, calcting the possibility. "Yeah. It shouldn''t be much of a problem. Just know that it''s going to be a hassle for me since I need to use my connections."


    "Just cut to the chase." Theo rolled his eyes, knowing Bernard was using this opportunity to get what he wanted from him.


    "I want you to group up with Maya and Mark when visiting Antis."


    "No problem as long as I can bring Isaac."


    "Deal."

 Chapter 981 Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A)

    <h4>Chapter 981 Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A)</h4>


    After going back, he finally reviewed all the information about the mission as well as his target.


    He even received a picture and some personal details about this assassin called Felix Holt.


    This middle-aged man had short ck hair and a collected gaze. He was 74 years old. Considering the human''s average lifespan was 140 years old, he was still considered a middle-aged man.


    No one knew about his level, but they expected his level to be between 780 and 820. His element was light, making him known as an entric assassin. Instead of using the darkness to his cover, he could use the sunlight to blind the enemy before killing them.


    After doing so many businesses as an assassin, a few people had their revenge on him, resulting in his wife getting murdered and his 15 years old daughter receiving a powerful curse.


    Because of unknown reasons, he couldn''t leave his daughter''s side for a long time. In the end, he asked for help from so many people.


    Yet, even after two years of trying and his daughter had be 17 years old, he still couldn''t find someone that was able to help him. Numerous doctors, dark magicians, and poison masters had tried to solve this problem, but none of them had the ability to do so.


    The curse was supposed to be from a level 850 Shaman that was hired by the enemy. Later, there was a big battle between Felix and that shaman, which ended in Felix''s victory. Unfortunately for him, there was no solution for that curse.


    It was said his daughter would die in three years. After reaching thest year, Felix got more desperate and promised everything as long as he could see his daughter safe and sound.


    Unfortunately, the curse was most likely unresolvable unless there was a powerful expert like those among top 100 experts in the world. But Felix''s strength and fame weren''t enough to invite them.


    Hence, this was the perfect opportunity to get him.


    "From where did Agata dig all this up?" Theo shook his head helplessly. The background story alone was enough to make him understand how to convince Felix.


    "His ability is quite interesting. He''s using sunlight to blind the enemy before assassinating them��" Theo thought for a moment.


    "I currently have no n to use him since I''m going to stay at home for a few months after the trip. And it''s not like I''m nning to assassinate someone right now, so I guess I''ll be considering him as my trump card for the time being."


    After thinking for some time, Theo asked, "By the way, can Death Avatar expel a curse? I know that it can make my body immune to curse, poison, and other stuff, but can this skill expel them? If they can''t, I don''t think I can recruit this guy."


    [Even if it can''t, you just need to alter it.]


    "I have the same thought to be honest. At first, I thought about using my Reality Order to turn this curse into something expeble before using my Death Avatar�� But I don''t have in-depth knowledge about curses. Do curses have a physical body?"


    Unfortunately for him, there was no more answering from them. He could only try it by himself.


    "Whatever. It''s not like I''ll harm them even if I use my power." Theo shook his head helplessly, predicting what would happen in their talk.


    Since he had finished reading Felix''s information, he moved on to the mission, which didn''t take too long.


    After reviewing all the information he had, Theo finally chose the first skill to be upgraded.


    "Telekinesis is good for my overall ability. And Metamorphosis is quite good for now since my condition is not that bad for me to desperately rely on this skill to get by." Theo smiled and pointed at his one skill. "As expected, I should choose this one."


    Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (B)


    "It''s a powerful ability, so I know it will be dope." Theo smiled and brought out four A Rank Skill Cards along with fifty B Rank Skill Cards.


    He poured his power into the cards and upgraded the skill as he used to do.


    Suddenly, Theo felt Magic Power revolving in his body for one minute. This was the first time he experienced it.


    "What''s this feeling? Is this the reason why the Goddess of Death sealed its power?" Theo muttered before finding the description getting upgraded.


    Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A)


    Skill: Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A)


    Effect: Personification of Death, the ruler of the Underworld. There are four Authorities contained within the Death Avatar. Death Eyes, Underworld Body, Death Domain, Unknown.


    Name: First Authority - Death Eyes


    Description: Enhancing one''s perception and radiate death, terror, hopelessness, and even despair onto others.


    Name: Second Authority - Underworld Body


    Description: Enhancing one''s body to prevent all kinds of afflictions such as curses, poisons, diseases, illness.


    Name: Third Authority - Death Domain


    Description: Creating an icy domain to suppress the soul''s abilities.


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "What are these soul abilities?"


    [That''s what you call Awareness.]


    "That''s called Soul Abilities?" Theo widened his eyes. "Now that I think about it, Five Aspects should represent everything about a body. Breathing is a kind of getting fuel that can keep the body going.


    "Control is the connection between the body and its power source�� or you can say the way to use the fuel. Technique is the real application for all that, while Endurance is the defense system of the body.


    "I see�� So that''s why Awareness is called Soul Abilities. It''s simply because Awareness is connected to the soul!" Theo finally understood the meaning of Five Aspects and why they were so important in his career path. It was basically the way to utilize his entire existence. "No wonder��"


    Without hesitation, Theo poured his Magic Power and used this third authority.


    Death Domain.


    A mist started appearing out of nowhere, cooling down the temperature. In fact, he could feel the chilliness of Helheim.


    "Not only is the temperature going down, but I can smell blood and some rotten bodies," Theo muttered and continued to examine the skill. "The mist is not as thick as Niflheim but not as thin as Helheim. And if I use my Awareness��"


    Theo expanded his Awareness but felt it had some isting effect like the mist in Niflheim, even though the power was weaker than that ce.


    Without hesitation, Theo immediately sent his clone to check the border of the domain and found it bigger than he thought.


    "150 feet in radius�� That''s quite ridiculous." Theo smiled. "Still, the Magic Power I need to supply this skill is enormous. So I won''t be able to use this power for too long�� Still, this kind of power that can suppress Awareness�� is so overpowered. I canbine this power with my own Illusion, making it hard for them to destroy the illusion." Theo smirked.


    Feeling happy with this skill, Theo began examining the full abilities of this power.

 Chapter 982 Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 982 Meeting</h4>


    "Mhm." Theo let out a small moan while stretching his hands.


    "Joker. I hope you don''t do something that will worsen the situation�� I''m talking about your provocation." A middle-aged man warned him with a serious expression.


    He was the current leader of the expedition, a Mythical Rank Expert from the Starry Group called Brad.


    "Unless they provoke me, I''m not going to say anything." Theo shrugged, nonchntly brushing the matter off.


    "Even if they provoke you, let me handle that problem." Brad sighed.


    "Fine. At the very least, you still have the name of ourpanies on your back. You surely won''t lower yourself to them, right?"


    "Don''t worry about that. Miss has told me regarding this matter too. The Starry Group might be close to Lowe Generation in terms of ranking, but we still have the Star Group. I won''t let them do whatever they want." Brad nodded with a serious expression.


    "Okay then." Theo agreed with the situation and continued walking toward the airport''s exit with the rest of the group.


    Instead of taking some rest, the group immediately headed to the Lowe Organization after dropping their luggage in the hotel.


    The Lowe Group seemed to havee to greet them as well, especially since they showed up with a hundred people and three Mythical Rank Experts.


    Brad stepped forward and extended his hand to another Mythical Rank Expert who was in charge of the operation.


    "Wee to Australia. I hope that your journey was pleasant." The old man smiled.


    Theo squinted his eyes when he saw this old man. His height was shortpared to the others, and most of his white hair had fallen off.


    ''Even though the old man is using a stick to walk, he''s releasing an incredible aura that makes me want to fight him.'' Theo muttered inwardly. ''He''s like an upgraded version of Winston.''


    The old man suddenly widened his eyes and turned his head around, staring at Theo. "Hoh? There''s a person from anotherpany? I thought we cooperated with the Starry Group, not the Star Group."


    Brad took a glimpse of Theo to make sure he didn''t do anything before replying to him. "What''s the difference between a father and a daughter? In the end, they''re still a family."


    "��" The old man was amused by Brad''s response. It was clear that he was implying not to mess with Theo as their ''family'' would protect each other. Ultimately, a smile appeared on the old man''s face. "Is that so? Then I guess there''s no problem here."


    "Thank you." Brad nodded.


    "I''m sure you already know my name, but I''ll introduce myself again. My name is Jordan Fisher. Standing with me here are our extraordinary Supreme Rank Experts. I hope that you can take care of us."


    "Please don''t overestimate us. We''re here just to help the Lowe Organization. Pleasemand us as you see fit."


    "Haha." The old man chuckled.


    However, Brad''s expression soon turned grim as he said, "Still��"


    "Hmm?" The old man raised his head again and stared at him, finding something different from him.


    "I bring our CEO''s words with me�� ''I go all the way to have my father send his finest expert. If this operation fails, then the problem must lie on your side. Tell your leader that I need to listen to his exnation at that time,'' she said." Brad smirked.


    Jordan''s eyebrows twitched for a split second. As expected of the arrogant princess, her words were worthy of her reputation.


    Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t do anything other than lowering his head to her words since he wasn''t the leader. "Since Miss Maya has so much confidence in this young elite, I will do my best to lead us to victory then."


    "��" Theo was speechless this whole time. It seemed that bothpanies had their own pride and they tried to make themselves feel superior by looking down on the other.


    Though, it wasn''t his problem. As long as he managed to finish the mission without a problem, he wouldn''t care about this talk.


    ''I guess my reputation is not strong enoughpared to the name of Theodore Griffith. I guess destroying the Safulli Group and messing with the Griffith Family had a huge impact on my name��'' Theo thought.


    "Pleasee in. I''m going to exin the n to all of you." Jordan smiled and extended his hand, asking them toe inside.


    "Sure."


    Brad then led the others to the inside. As expected from a big organization, their building was massive. They even had an auditorium that upied the whole floor for a big meeting like this.


    Unlike apany, an organization like them didn''t need so many office areas. Hence, they could shape their own building however they liked.


    After settling down in the auditorium, Jordan waved his hand, asking a Supreme Rank Expert to give the presentation.


    With so much confidence in himself, the man started speaking while showing a picture of the cave.


    "The cave upies the whole ck Stone Mountain. ording to our information, this ce looks like a limestone cave, so we will often see numerous huge caves inside.


    "While it''s upied by the monsters, there is a terrorist organization inside, and we have confirmed their identity.


    "They''re called MAR Terrorist Organization. They are a small organization with only 70-80 Supreme Rank Experts and 3 Mythical Rank Experts. We''re expecting our agents to cooperate with another person to deal with them.


    "Because we can''t really make all the pairs, we have prepared twenty names who will fight the enemy alone if necessary." The man immediately showed the name list.


    As one would expect, even though the Starry Group came with only half of their experts, the organization still wrote ten names, stating that they were equal.


    However, there was something wrong with the list.


    "��" Even the Supreme Rank Experts from the Starry Group furrowed their eyebrows.


    After all, among those ten names, Theo''s name, who was supposed to be the most qualified person in the group, was missing.


    "Huh?!"

 Chapter 983 Theo’s Worries

    <h4>Chapter 983 Theo''s Worries</h4>


    "Huh?" Brad was annoyed as he asked with a strict tone. "Why is Joker''s name not there? Are you implying that the number one in the Asda List is not worthy of fighting by himself?"


    "How can that be?" Jordan immediately replied and looked at the presenter. "This is the previous list�� It seems we haven''t changed anything on the list. Hey, hurry up and put Joker''s name there."


    "Y-yes!" The man nodded his head furiously, fearing for his life.


    However, Theo suddenly patted Brad''s shoulder while stating, "It''s fine. My name doesn''t need to be there. I will just search for a pair here."


    "!!!" Brad, who was sitting next to him, opened his mouth dumbfoundedly. After watching the battle, it was clear that Theo was good at provoking others. Yet, thetter wasn''t offended when they looked down on him.


    He couldn''tprehend Theo''s brain.


    "I''m grateful for Mr. Jordan''s concern, but as expected, I should give others a chance to shine." Theo waved his hand nonchntly, not caring about this problem.


    Brad and Jordan were unaware that this raid reminded him of his experience with the dwarves. Back then, he was ambushed so cleanly that he had no chance to fight back.


    Since they were dealing with humans and monsters, he thought they should have installed some traps inside.


    Instead of taking the front, he should stay behind with the others. Although he wasn''t a part of the Starry Group, Maya had granted him this chance. The least he could do was to minimize their casualties.


    At the same time, fighting with someone would speed up the fight, so he didn''t think about putting his name there.


    "��" Jordan squinted his eyes, feeling Theo was slightly different from the rumor.


    And since Theo had admitted he didn''t want the spot, he immediately stopped the young man from fixing the name list. "You don''t need to do that anymore since Joker doesn''t want it. Just continue with the presentation."


    "Y-yes." The man nodded a few times before going back to his previous position, continuing his exnation.


    While listening to him, Theo looked around and found some smug smiles from the Lowe Organization''s experts as though they were looking down on him.


    ''Does it feel good to look down on someone who literally has be the number one expert on that list?'' Theo was confused for a moment before shifting his mind to somewhere else.


    Although this wasn''t his first time participating in arge mission like this, listening to a presentation of a big mission was a new experience for him. ''I guess this is why I just want a small group of elites for my influence.''


    After another two hours, the meeting finally ended.


    Jordan took the stage and announced. "The operation will start in two days. We can go to the cave together the following morning. Since there''s no more questions, let''s end this meeting so that everyone can have some rest."


    Since there was nothing that needed to be said, the group left the auditorium.


    Brad immediately pulled him to the side while grabbing his shoulders. "What were you doing earlier? I was��!"


    "Ahaha��" Theo tilted his head to the side, ignoring Brad''s words while saying to their members. "Anyway, do any of you guys want to pair up with me? This time, I prefer a healer."


    "Don''t ignore me��" Brad started getting annoyed. He expected Theo would annoy people, but he thought it would be the Lowe Organization, not him.


    "Ah, there are two of you. Just use rock paper scissors to decide it." Theo continued.


    "Oi!" Brad tightened his grip.


    Theo let out a long sigh and patted Brad''s arm while saying, "I might be a bit paranoid, but just trust me on this. I won''t do something meaningless."


    "Do you suspect anything?"


    "The worst case scenario." Theo smiled. "Anyway, I''m just going to prepare for the worst�� I have no guarantee it will happen, but I''ll be your safety. Even if the meaning was different, you called me a family, right?"


    While saying those words, Theo put down Brad''s hands and started walking to the group.


    Obviously, everyone heard him.


    A smile couldn''t help but appear on their faces. They thought Theo was a scary man because of his overbearing reputation. However, it seemed he was a pretty chill guy, especially to his people.


    Even Brad had no words to reply. He cursed inwardly, ''Shit. Someone far younger than me just gave me a freaking lecture.''


    When he reached the group, a girl approached him carefully. She politely greeted him. "I''m Melinda, a Level 567 Healer. Nice to meet you."


    "Yeah. I''m looking forward to our cooperation." Theo nodded and continued to talk with her.


    Like all the things he had done every time he got a new teammate, Theo started talking about her abilities and what he could expect from her. On the other hand, Theo simply showed her the video of his fight against Winston to prove his strength.


    Once the people saw Theo talking normally for a few minutes with Melinda, the image of Theo''s overbearingness gradually cracked in their minds.


    They thought Theo kept his attitude so that no one could take advantage of him, especially his enemies. Meanwhile, they, his allies, could enjoy such treatment from him.


    After a while, they arrived at the hotel and immediately split up. Obviously, Theo went straight to his room because he had another thing to do in this ce.


    No one had realized it yet, but there was another Theo standing in front of the hotel. Unlike his masked appearance, this Theo had long red hair.


    Theo''s appearance was never seen before, so there was no way anyone could recognize him.


    This was his clone that he nned to use to recruit this entric assassin.


    ''Well, it''s not like I can use my clone during the fight. I''ll just take care of all my businesses at the same time.'' Theo thought and started heading straight to the location.

 Chapter 984 The Eccentric Assassin

    <h4>Chapter 984 The entric Assassin</h4>


    "Hmm�� Is this the town?" Theo muttered with a serious face while looking at the map. "He should be in this ce�� Yra, a small town in the southern region of the Northern Territory."


    Since he had arrived, he immediately came inside the town. As one would expect from a tourist, he was clueless about where to go.


    He just asked a few random people about the address he received from Agata. However, all the people who responded to his questions gave him a weird look, even though they still answered his question.


    ''Weird. Is there something wrong with this assassin? Whatever. This is my clone anyway. Even if I die, he won''t be able to do anything to me.'' Theo sighed and walked ording to the people''s directions, finding a small house on the opposite side of the city.


    "��" Theo was taken aback when he looked at the building.


    The house barely reached a thousand square feet. A size that didn''t fit a Mythical Rank Expert''s prestige and wealth. Still, the ce was neat and looked new.


    ''Is this the wrong address?'' Theo scratched the back of his head while looking at the note Agata left behind. He confirmed the brick wall again along with the huge metal gate that prevented anyone from looking inside the mansion.


    Suddenly, someone opened the gate as though they sensed him. It was alreadyte at night, so it was quite a surprise to see someone opening the gate for him.


    "Who is it?" A young man took a peek outside and found Theo standing in front of the gate.


    "I came here to meet the entric assassin," Theo replied with a calm expression.


    "��" The young man narrowed his eyes as his upper body seemed to be moving. It must be a signal to the people behind him.


    As a renowned assassin, he should fear people taking revenge on his already weak daughter. So, Theo could understand his feelings a bit.


    "What is your intention toe here? Who are you? If youe here to harm��!"


    Before he finished his sentence, Theo raised both hands as a sign of surrendering to him. He stated, "I''m here to try healing his daughter."


    "Huh? Our masters have visited numerous Mythical Rank Experts, and none of them couldn''t heal her. Meanwhile, you, a mere Supreme Rank Expert, bragged that you can heal her?" The guy gritted his teeth, looking at Theo with hostility.


    When he was about to attack Theo, a tired voice resounded from the inside. "Enough."


    A ck-haired man walked to the gate and fully opened it, showing his appearance along with those who hid behind the gate and the wall. It turned out there were a total of five people prepared to take him down.


    "��" Theo was surprised. Despite the guy standing in front of him, he could barely sense his presence as well as hear his footsteps.


    With the raging Magic Powering out of his body, he knew this man was none other than the entric assassin.


    Still, it might be due to the stress, but his appearance looked tired and tattered.


    "Master!"


    The assassin narrowed his eyes, observing Theo''s appearance. As expected, he couldn''t identify the young man before him.


    "Since I can''t move, I have taken a few disciples while staying here��" The assassin said with a calm tone, introducing those five people. "And I''m sure they have told you that numerous Mythical Rank Experts couldn''t save my daughter��"


    Theo smiled and raised two fingers. "There are two types of people who will have confidence in treating your daughter. The first type is those who have enough experience and skills in their field."


    Theo''s statement silenced all of them as they were curious about what the second type was.


    "And for the second type?" The assassin immediately cut to the chase, not wanting to be bothered by this person anymore if he was just going to con him.


    However, Theo''s answer moved his heart.


    "The second type is those who have��" Theo paused for a moment, creating suspense. When they started losing their patience, he continued, "��special abilities."


    "!!!" Felix was the first to understand his words. His expression turned grim, thinking, ''Who is he? Does he have a special ability? What if he''s my enemy that wants to kidnap my daughter?''


    Seeing the hesitation in Felix''s face was enough for Theo to say, "You''re an assassin, so you must be good at surveince. Just check whether Ie here alone or not�� Do you think I, a mere Supreme Rank Expert, can fight you by myself?"


    His words made sense. Even Felix was convinced, but for his daughter, he would be the most careful person in the world.


    "All of you, check the town," Felix ordered all his disciples to scout the town, not only to check Theo''s credibility but also to give them some time alone.


    "Are you a curse master, a poison master, or a doctor?"


    "None of them. I''m just a simple fighter."


    "Are you joking with me right now?" Felix started releasing his killing intent, annoyed with Theo''s reply.


    "Nope. I don''t know if you have heard about me or not, but my name is Joker��"


    "Joker? Which Joker?"


    "There is only one Joker." Theo smiled.


    "America?"


    Theo nodded.


    "If you want to impersonate someone, you should choose the target more carefully."


    "If I show you my skill, is that enough?" Theo smiled and waved his hand, summoning his Death Avatar. Of course, the only reason he showed him here was that there was no one outside right now. He even put an illusion so that no one saw it.


    "!!!" Felix was shocked to see the same figure that appeared in that video. Although someone could replicate this power, they couldn''t replicate the intensity emanating from the avatar.


    After one second, Theo retracted the Death Avatar and said, "I''m just going to try my luck here�� If you think I scam you, you can chop my head right away. It''s not like I have the ability to escape from you."


    "There''s logic in what you say." Felix pondered for a moment before turning around, walking back to the house. "Come inside."

 Chapter 985 Treatment

    <h4>Chapter 985 Treatment</h4>


    "Come inside."


    Theo felt relieved as he had already passed the first stage. Now he only needed to check whether his ability could remove the curse or not.


    The house wasn''t that big, so they reached the room easily. In the bed was a woman who had disorderly breathing.


    No, Theo even wondered if this person could be called a human anymore. Even he never saw someone reduced to this state.


    The woman had long ck hair like Felix, but she looked so thin that Theo wondered when was thest time she ate.


    Her bones almost looked like they were attached directly to the skin.


    As if feeling an unknown presenceing into her room, she weakly opened her eyes, looking at the young man.


    When she saw such a young man, she wondered if her father had given up to even let someone like him treat her. On the other hand, she actually wanted her father to give up on her.


    He had sacrificed so much in the past two years just to take care of her. But, as much as she wanted to give up on living, she couldn''t bear to leave her father behind. After all, her father was still searching for someone that could cure her.


    As long as he hadn''t given up, she would also fight to the very end.


    "��" Theo maintained his silence for a moment before ncing at Felix. "Come on. If you look at me as if you want to murder me, I can''t even do anything."


    Felix gritted his teeth and looked away, still doubting that the young man had some idea how to deal with this curse.


    After getting some time from him, Theo immediately focused his senses on the woman''s body, finding a blue-colored Magic Powering out of her stomach.


    Although he wanted to think it wasn''t the curse, the young woman didn''t release Magic Power naturally, so it was clear that she wasn''t a Supreme Rank Expert.


    That was why the only possible answer for the Magic Powering out of her stomach was the curse. Luckily, the Magic Power had its normal color, showing that it wasn''t reinforced by an Order.


    "How did she get cursed? Is it direct contact? Or��" Theo asked.


    "Remotely. That shaman nted his power in her heart from afar by using some sort of traditional curse."


    "nted remotely, huh��" Theo muttered and looked at the ck lines that spread over her arms and necks like tree roots. "Those ck lines��"


    "It spread due to the curse."


    Theo contemted before saying, "To be honest, there''s a possibility of me cutting the curse. If you have watched my video, I''m sure you are aware of my ability, right?"


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes for a moment, recalling the fight. Even Winston said something about his power being able to cut anything that didn''t have a physical form. There was hope that appeared in his heart. "Can you do it?"


    "Yes. I haven''t tried fighting against a Mythical Rank Expert''s power, so I need to test a few things and ask you a few questions."


    Felix gritted his teeth when he heard Theo wanting to test a few things. After all, his daughter wasn''t an experimental subject.


    "It''s your choice." Theo shrugged. "If you don''t want to do it, then I have no choice other than to give up."


    After thinking for a while, Felix asked another question. "How confident are you?"


    "I''m not sure. This is the first time I use my ability to heal someone, let alone fight against a Mythical Rank Expert''s curse." Theo told the condition honestly because he didn''t want to get into more trouble after this.


    "Fa��ther��" The woman opened her mouth, calling her father. She was so weak that her voice was shaking. Still, when one looked into her eyes, they could feel the sheer of her determination, indicating her answer.


    No matter the result, she wanted to fight to the very end.


    Even the people before Theo needed to do some experiments to understand herplete condition. There was no way someone as young as him could do everything without preparation.


    He looked at her daughter. Her voice couldn''t help but echo in his ears�� it was as if she was telling him, ''Whether I die or recover, Father won''t be chained down by me anymore.''


    Felix looked down while crossing his arms, falling into deep thought. It took him ten minutes before he opened his mouth. "Fine."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression, knowing how hard it was for him to give that answer.


    "First, I want to ask a few questions." Theo raised his finger. "How long has she gotten this curse?"


    "2 years, 1 month, and 3 days."


    "Does the energy from the curse in her stomach grow weaker or stronger?"


    "Static."


    "What kind of treatment did she receive?"


    "Various from taking medicine, operation, to healing abilities."


    "The curse is simply far too strong, huh��" Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Any difort when getting the treatment?"


    "Yes. But now that her body has be fully numb. She didn''t experience any pain or even touch during thest three treatments." Now that Felix had agreed, he started cooperating with Theo by answering all his questions to the best of his ability.


    "Is it because of those ck lines?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Possibly. Thest person also gave the same conclusion. However, there was no concrete evidence."


    Theo looked down, contemting a few things. ''I want to use my Death Avatar to push all the curse out of her body with the help of my sense of Touch, but I don''t know if it''s going to work.''


    "I''m going to try something, and I have no idea what will happen. Are you alright with that? It''s just a simple skill that can push away all poison and curse from my body�� I''m going to use my Sense of Touch to try extending that power to her body." Theo exined with a calm expression.


    Felix wanted to chop Theo when he heard the first question, but the thought vanished after listening to his exnation. A few people in the past had used such a skill, and none of them worked, so there shouldn''t be much of a problem with his daughter''s body.


    "Go on." Felix agreed, not knowing whether to be happy or sad that he already knew the oue.


    Theo nodded while raising his hand, summoning his Death Avatar.

 Chapter 986 Hope

    <h4>Chapter 986 Hope</h4>


    "!!!" Felix was stunned, thinking, ''Isn''t that a fighting avatar? Not something to treat the sick?''


    Without waiting for Felix, Theo immediately used his Sense of Touch to form a sphere around his body. After that, he gradually expanded this barrier toward the woman.


    As soon as the barrier touched her elbow, the part closest to Theo, she opened her mouth, wanting to scream as if she was in pain. However, there was no sounding from her mouth as she was too weak to even let out that kind of high sound.


    In that instant, Theo retracted his barrier and said, "Are you sure you want to kill me? Didn''t you say your daughter''s body has grown numb that she won''t feel pain anymore? Doesn''t her reacting to my power mean there''s hope?"


    "!!!" Felix had already pulled his sword and was about to slice him. However, listening to Theo''s words made him realize what he did was an absolute mistake.


    It was clear that there was hope for treatment. If Theo actually backed down because of this action, his daughter might not be able to recover anymore.


    Theo looked like a ray of hope that shone in his darkest hours.


    Felix couldn''t help but fall to his knees while dropping his swords. He even mmed his head to the ground while his tears flowed out. "Please�� Please treat my daughter."


    "��" Theo never thought Felix would do something like this, but it also showed how much his daughter meant to him. After pausing for a moment, Theo said, "I''ve told you Ie here to heal your daughter�� Besides, look at this��"


    Felix raised his head and looked at Theo''s hand, showing the tip of the ck lineing out of her skin. It was true that her skin was bleeding, but it was clear Theo managed to peel the ck line. No one had ever managed to do something like this.


    Theo said, "For now, this is an effective treatment simply because these ck lines are on her skin. I don''t know if I can treat the curse that is nted on her stomach. Hence, we will need a few things before I continue the treatment.


    "Firstly, I need an agreement from you and your daughter for this painful treatment. Secondly, we might need many blood bags to keep refilling her blood. Thirdly, we need some supplements and food to make her body a bit stronger�� I mean, the more ck lines I remove, the stronger her body will be�� We need her body to recover naturally. Last but not least, I need a healer that can close these wounds�� and this healer can''t say anything about my power. Do you think you can get all these?"


    Felix considered Theo''s words carefully. His request made sense from his point of view. However, there was a problem.


    "I don''t think I can find a healer that won''t say anything about your power and identity��" Felix gritted his teeth. "Please give me time, I will bring someone like that��"


    Before Theo replied to him, the woman opened her mouth, saying one word. "Me�� di�� cine��"


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes and turned to his daughter. She was staring at her wound and said, ''Medicine.''


    As her father, he perfectly understood what she wanted. Instead of a healer that would trouble her benefactor, she chose to rely on medicine to close her wound. A superficial wound like this shouldn''t be a problem for the current medicine level, but it surely would make the treatment process even more painful.


    At the same time, just by saying this one word, she had given Theo her consent to the first term.


    "I understand��" Felix made a hard decision. But since his daughter wanted this way, he had no choice other than to support her decision. "Please give me two hours�� I''ll purchase everything."


    "You are the one going?"


    "Yes. I am faster." Felix nodded.


    "Well��" Theo obviously couldn''t reject him because it would be better if he could finish the treatment as soon as possible. Still, there was one thing he needed to say. "Before you go, I want you to know that I don''t know whether this curse has a physical body or not. After all, it''s producing these ck lines."


    "Even if it''s only the ck lines, it''s alright. My daughter was fine for a month after receiving this curse. And when someone cut her stomach, there was nothing to be seen. Even the ck lines will evaporate soon, so nothing can be examined in theb." Felix shook his head, giving more information.


    "I see. Is there any record of the previous treatment? I think I can read them while you''re going?"


    "I will get them for you." Felix immediately disappeared and returned three minutester. Although he wasn''t panting, it was clear that he was rushing to get all these papers. "These are the documents of the previous treatment. However, some of them didn''t write anything, so I wrote those myself."


    "That''s fine." Theo nodded and grabbed one of them while ncing at the ck line he cut earlier. As Felix said, it had begun to evaporate. Although the speed wasn''t visible to naked eyes, he could see the missing 0.1 inch tip.


    "Please wait for a moment. I''ll tell my disciples not to bother you as well." Felix became extremely polite to Theo before going to purchase everything he requested.


    Looking at him, Theo couldn''t help but shake his head. If the Griffith Family didn''t mess with his family, would his parents do the same?


    Theo let out a long sigh and said, "You have a great father."


    When the woman heard it, she couldn''t help but recall the memories of the past two years.


    The first few months were hard because her father tried to call everyone that could treat her. She experienced so much pain at that time, but her father always stroked her hair every night while telling her, "It''s going to be fine. Even if I need to beg all around the world, I''m going to cure you."


    After many failed attempts, her father''s appearance became messy and his face filled with stress. Yet, his smile always appeared when he told her everything was going to be alright.


    One year passed, and the ck lines began to cover her body, resulting in her body convulsing randomly. It was painful to the point her father didn''t dare to leave her side anymore.


    She always saw her father sleeping next to her. In fact, her father had been sleeping in a sitting position for more than a year.


    Her heart was always quenched with pain every time she saw him like that. He took a few disciples in to take care of her and himself. If not because of his disciples cooking for him, he would have skipped many meals.


    She always felt she had be her father''s burden. As long as she disappeared, her father would only mourn her for some time before moving on.


    Yet, all the memories in the past two years kept flooding her mind. His trembling body, his wishes, his helplessness�� It made her want to live just to repay her father.


    That was why Theo''s words truly struck deep in her heart. She couldn''t help but close her eyes as tears fell off the corner of her eyes.

 Chapter 987 Last Step

    <h4>Chapter 987 Last Step</h4>


    "I have brought them!" Felix finally returned with a few bags. They were blood bags, food, and some vitamins.


    "By the way, I have no idea how to measure those vitamins and food since I''m not a doctor," Theo said another thing while reading the reports.


    "At the very least, the blood bags will be useful." Felix even brought a freezer to the room to store the blood bags.


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "By the way, you know how to use the blood bags?"


    "If it''s the blood bags, I know. I have been injured so many times, and because I''m an assassin, I need to treat my injuries myself most of the time." Felix admitted it without hesitation.


    "Then, go on. I''ll start after you have prepared everything."


    "Understood." Felix immediately moved around to start with the treatment. In fact, this might be the first time Felix''s face was filled with energy and hope.


    Theo just ignored him and continued reading the report since there were three reports remaining.


    A few minutester.


    Theo stood in front of Felix and his daughter and summoned his Death Avatar, starting the treatment.


    He gradually expanded his Sense of Touch because he wanted to treat one part at a time.


    As expected, the girl immediately experienced so much pain the moment Theo''s power touched her body. The ck line in her right arm starteding off.


    They had told her that if she couldn''t take the pain anymore, she needed to shake her head and rest for a bit before continuing the treatment.


    So, Theo mercilessly used his power to expel all these ck lines from her skin. She opened her jaw but let out no sound.


    He wondered what kind of pain she endured right now, considering he had experienced some tortures.


    Felix looked at the entire process with a pained expression, but seeing those ck linesing off made him steel his resolve again.


    Surprisingly, his daughter''s endurance was so good that she managed to endure the entire arm before taking a break.


    Blood covered her entire right hand and the sheet, so Theo used his Telekinesis to lift her up while Felix changed the sheet to a newer one.


    The color started to return to her hand, giving Felix more hope. Although her daughter was too exhausted to even move her finger, she could indeed feel her hand again.


    Still, it felt like dying over and over again because the blood kept pouring in and out at the same time. Theo didn''t know whether it was alright or not for her body, but Felix told him that he once endured something like continuous bleeding and managed to survive this way.


    After getting a nod from his daughter, Theo continued the treatment to her right hand and both feet before having a long break.


    He was given a room that he could use to recover his Magic Power while Felix never left his daughter''s side.


    While resting, Theo started collecting some information about this experience. "Well, it''s going in my favor right now, which is good. But I don''t know about the source. Is it really just Magic Power or��"


    If there was a physical body, moving it inside the body would be extremely dangerous. After all, her organs would be damaged.


    "Should I just use my Order first to check whether it has a physical body or not? My Order can''t affect something that has a physical body yet, so it won''t do anything if it fails��" Theo pondered the course of her treatment.


    *Bang!*


    Suddenly, Felix mmed the door and rushed into the room. "Millie�� Millie can�� she can move her finger!"


    Theo raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Is that so? Congrattions."


    Felix clenched his fists and lowered his head. "Thank you�� thank you�� thank you so much."


    "I haven''t finished, so don''t be like a broken radio yet." Theo smiled. Seeing Felix''s face and action made his heart warm as if there was an unfamiliar feeling filling his heart.


    "Y-yes!" Felix nodded furiously.


    "Shall we continue the treatment then? It''s only going to be her body and the core, so I won''t spend too much of my Magic Power�� She should be able to endure the pain too."


    "Please."


    Theo stood up and asked Felix to lead the way.


    "How are you feeling?" Theo asked with a smile after arriving at the room. Her face and all limbs had regained their color, clearly showing that the treatment was sessful.


    Although she couldn''t reply to him, she could move her finger to show him that she was ready to continue.


    "Alright." Theo nodded and summoned his Death Avatar again.


    Millie''s body began to tense up, enduring the pain.


    One by one, the ck lines on her body were removed. Of course, to know the extent of the ck lines, he needed to remove her clothes until she waspletely naked to make sure nothing escaped his eyes.


    Felix was a bit skeptical about this, considering Theo was also a young man. However, his focus was on the treatment, so he couldn''t help but trust Theo in this matter.


    The treatment took one more hour until nothing remained in her skin. Even after flipping her body over and having Felix check all over her body, there was truly no more ck line sticking to the skin.


    "Hu��" Theo let out a sigh of relief while wiping the sweat on his forehead. He truly needed to control his power because he was afraid of moving the source. "We''re done. Just the core left."


    "I understand. Do you have any confidence in removing the core?" Felix asked.


    "I''m not sure. I need to change my approach to check it."


    "Please." Felix trusted Theo this time since he was the only person that could reach this far. After that, he turned to Millie and said, "Let me put some clothes on you first."


    "Wait a minute." Theo stopped him while looking at her stomach. "Let me try this first. It''s easier this way��"


    Felix hesitated for a moment before nodding his head.


    Theo then raised his right palm and formed a knife with his Magic Power before closing his eyes. He poured some Magic Power to his Order while thinking, ''The curse is just a lump of Magic Power. It''s something I can cut and expel from the body like how the Magic Power shall leave a normal person''s body��''


    The moment he opened his eyes, his sharp gaze locked on the Magic Power in her stomach as he waved his hand, using his Order to cut the curse left behind a Mythical Rank Expert.


    *Zab!*

 Chapter 988 Glad

    <h4>Chapter 988 d</h4>


    *Cut!*


    The swing of the knife was so loud in Felix''s ears that he couldn''t help but close his eyes, praying that everything would be alright.


    Suddenly, Theo widened his eyes in shock, finding something incredible. As he expected, the Magic Power actually fluctuated for a second.


    "It moved but��" He muttered while recalling the scene from earlier. "I''m not strong enough�� No, should I say, my power can affect it, but it needs several times to solve this curse? After I cut them down, I will expel the Magic Power from her body��"


    When Felix heard Theo''s words, he opened his eyes and turned to him. "Did you say you can expel the curse?"


    "Yes. I tried to shake the curse''s foundation earlier�� And as you said previously, the curse didn''t have any physical body. In other words, I could remove it, but��" Theo looked at her with a pained expression. "It''s not going to be easy."


    Felix lowered his head again. "Please. Please save my daughter! I don''t mind how long�� I don''t mind bing your ve�� As long as you can save her, I''m willing to do anything."


    "You''re exaggerating." Theo waved his hand. "A Supreme Rank Expert can''t withstand the power of a Mythical Rank Expert. However, if it''s only a single skill, a Supreme Rank Expert should be able to neutralize their attack after using several skills.


    "In her case, I think I need a few hours to a whole day topletely cut the curse. After all, the curse seems to be attached to her organ�� I''m not sure where it''s attached though��"


    "Is that so?" Felix raised his head, realizing Theo wasn''t someone that took advantage of him. If he wanted to take advantage of this situation, Theo would have told him it was impossible for the current him to expel the curse instead of giving him this kind of answer.


    With his daughter as the hostage, Theo could be his master. That was why Felix saw this young man in a new light.


    "By the way, how did the curse enter her body?" Theo asked.


    "Back then, a ck light appeared in the sky and fell to my daughter. I tried to block it, but that ck light passed through my arm and entered my daughter''s stomach."


    "I see. In that case, removing the Magic Power should have the same process. We won''t need to cut her stomach open." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, you can put on her clothes, and if possible, let me handle this by myself�� I''m not reallyfortable using this power while getting your re��"


    "!!!" Felix thought Theo didn''t really want to show his trump card. He would be lying if he said he wanted to go out, but for the treatment, there were no other ways.


    "��" Felix pondered for a moment before feeling his daughter''s touch. She was tapping his hand as if begging him to do whatever Theo wanted.


    After a long sigh, he put on her clothes and left the room. "Please take care of my daughter."


    "Leave it to me." Theo nodded with a smile, assuring him that she would be alright.


    Felix then exited the room and closed the door tightly. As soon as he left the room, his heart felt empty.


    He still worried about his daughter, but there was a sense of relief in his heart.


    "I see. Millie is going to be alright��" Felix muttered. The pressure he shouldered this whole time felt as if they disappeared into thin air.


    His feet also became weak to the point he fell to his knees. There was no need to act strong anymore because everything was going to be alright.


    When he closed his eyes, he couldn''t help but recall the memory he had with his wife.


    At that time, his wife had just given birth to Millie. With her tired face, she smiled at him and said, "Look at her, dear. She''s going to be a strong child."


    The scene was soon reced by another memory. Millie was five years old, and their family led a happy life.


    However, his wife asked him, "When are you going to stop working as an assassin, dear? Maybe you should just get another job? There should be manypanies that want to recruit you as their agent, right?"


    "Hahaha. It''s fine. I''m going to do this for another one or two decades. The pay is good, so working this way will give me a huge amount of money. After retiring, I promise I''ll always be by your side. Can you trust me?"


    "Of course, I can trust you."


    It was such a loving memory that could melt anyone''s heart. Yet, this memory soon shattered three years ago.


    It was raining that night. When he came back home, he shouted like usual, "I''m home!"


    Normally, his wife and his daughter would greet him with a smile on their faces. But that night, it wasplete silence.


    In that instant, a bad premonition appeared in his heart as he immediately checked the entire house, finding his daughter and his wife lying on the floor.


    His wife covered their daughter with her body as though protecting her from all the attacks. Her blood-red back was still fresh in his mind.


    "Honey." Felix immediately dropped to the ground and called them. "Honey, honey! What happened? We need to treat you immediately. I''ll bring you to the hospital."


    She was still breathing and their daughter was just unconscious, but this just broke his heart even more.


    The smile was still on her face when she raised her head, looking at him. She said with a gentle tone, "Dear. I managed to protect our kid. I will support all your decisions like I always do, but please�� no matter what, protect our child."


    Those words turned out to be thest. She never med him for this attack when it was clear his enemies did it. Instead, she kept smiling and supporting him to her veryst breath.


    Recalling this memory put tears in his eyes.


    Felix clutched his head while remembering his wife. "I''m d�� I''m d�� Our child can still recover��"

 Chapter 989 Oath

    <h4>Chapter 989 Oath</h4>


    After seven hours of work, Theo opened the door with a smile on his face. "Congrattions."


    That one word was enough for Felix as he immediately stood up, looking at Theo in disbelief.


    Theo patted his shoulder, saying, "As long as you don''t put too much force, you can hug her or anything. Just be careful because she''s still too weak, okay? I''m going to recover some of my Magic Power in the previous room��"


    After saying those words, Theo walked away, leaving the father and child some time alone.


    He had gained so much knowledge and experience when he was treating her.


    "Hmm, poison has a physical body, so I don''t think I can cut it with my Order. However, the Death Avatar should be enough to handle that�� But unlike a curse, I don''t know what poison is��


    "If it''s just a harmful substance, my body has many of them. Yet, it''s not expelled�� So, there must be a clear distinction between a harmful substance and a poison. I need to be careful about this, and I might need to learn more about poison to determine them.


    "On the other hand, a curse is different. It''s only a lump of Magic Power that is attached to one''s body�� It doesn''t mix with other cells like poison. I can cut them easily and expel the Magic Power with my Death Avatar." Theo looked down, contemting his finding.


    He even took some notes in his Skylink about the entire process. However, there was one thing that piqued his interest.


    Even the Order couldn''t defeat the curse in an instant. So, it was quite surprising that a mere A Rank Skill could expel the curse easily.


    "It seems I am still underestimating the Death Avatar�� Though, I also need to mention that my Order is still in the baby period. Its power is still weak." Theo smiled, satisfied with the data.


    He continued to recount all his experiences while trying to get some answers from the Goddess of Death. She was better at using the skill after all.


    Unfortunately for him, thetter didn''t speak a single time.


    In the end, someone knocked on the door first before he finished writing the summary of this treatment.


    *Knock!*


    *Knock!*


    Without even giving him his name, Felix opened the door and entered the room with a serene expression. He felt as if he had gathered his resolve and nned to confront Theo this time.


    "��" Theo maintained his silence and looked at him, allowing him to start.


    "Thank you very much for saving my daughter. I can''t thank you enough."


    "It''s fine. It''s already my job to save your daughter, but�� I am, by no means, a saint." Theo''s tone became grim, pointing to the main problem of their conversation.


    "Yes. I''m prepared." Felix nodded his head once. "I''ll follow you."


    "Alone?"


    "I don''t want to see my daughter suffer anymore. I need to leave her so that no one will target her anymore. Besides, my disciples will protect her."


    Theo shook his head, denying his im. "It''s true that I want you. However, your n is too dumb. First of all, have you said this to your daughter? Does she want you to leave? After sacrificing so much for her, can you bear to not see her anymore? Do you think your daughter will be safe even if you follow me alone? Don''t be an idiot."


    Felix closed his eyes, having no words to rebuke Theo.


    "Instead, let me give you another proposal." Theo pointed at him. "You and your daughter will follow me. Come to the US and live with me."


    "Eh?" Felix widened his eyes in shock.


    "I don''t know if you have known this, but�� as an S Rank Talent, the Star Group gave me a mansion. That mansion is protected and all the mansions nearby are granted to other S Rank Talents or Mythical Rank Experts. In other words, no one will be foolish enough to trespass that area.


    "Even if you follow me, your daughter should be safe. Compared to your disciples, it can give your daughter better protection.


    "At the same time, if your old enemies want to kill you again, they need to think about the Star Group and me first since you''re rted to me now. They also need to visit America.


    "That''s why I will give you a few months. Let your daughter recover first and prepare a green card. You and your daughter will live with me from now on�� You have seen my face anyway, so I don''t really care about you living with me�� Just don''t say anything about my identity.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t bring your disciples with me. I can trust you to keep my information, and your daughter won''t be leaving the mansion anytime soon�� but your disciples are different��" Theo sighed. "Anyway, that''s my proposal. What do you think?"


    Felix''s mouth was wide open, showing his shock tantly. As Theo said, his daughter would be safe, and he could see his daughter anytime. As for his disciples, even without his protection, their skills were enough to make a living in this country.


    That was why Theo''s proposal was the best to the point he couldn''t resist the temptation. Still, the proposal was too good to be true.


    He couldn''t help but doubt if Theo was such a person. Hence, he asked another question to confirm his suspicion. "Why do you want me? Why do you treat me this good?"


    Theo looked at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. "I want someone I can trust�� someone who can keep up with me�� I have many Supreme Rank friends�� but none of them can keep up with my progress. So, I want a Mythical Rank Expert that I can trust. Seeing your love for your daughter is enough for me.


    "If you ept me as your Master, I promise you that I will protect you when the timees. In exchange, please trust me and help me with all your power. This is my promise��" Theo smiled, looking at him with a serene expression.


    Felix wanted to say something, but no words came out. It was such an awkward and arrogant reason, but he could sense the genuine feeling from Theo. He wanted someone he could trust, and the proposal just proved his words.


    "I''m an assassin��" Felix lowered his head.


    "I know."


    "I only know how to kill." Felix took out his sword and put it down on the floor. "If you don''t mind a person who only knows one thing, then�� I, Felix Holt, solemnly swear in myte wife''s name. I will follow you for the rest of my life."


    "My enemies are strong."


    Felix closed his eyes for a moment as an image of his daughter shed in his mind. It was the first smile she showed after she recovered. "I have promised myte wife that I''ll protect my daughter even if I need to die. She is more important than my life�� And you saved her when I couldn''t see any more hope.


    "That''s why I, Felix Holt, don''t have any more fear. If the enemy is stronger than me, I will be even stronger and kill them. If you end up dying in the process, I will dly kill myself to go to Hell and kill the King of the Underworld so that I can bring you back to life."


    He lowered his head and stated, "I am extremely grateful that you saved my daughter."

 Chapter 990 Entering

    <h4>Chapter 990 Entering</h4>


    When he heard the oath, he couldn''t help but smile. It was such a heavy oath.


    If it was any other person, Theo might doubt this oath because an empty word was hard to believe. However, the things he saw in this house never lied. How he cared for his daughter�� How his daughter loved him�� How they wanted to support each other��


    Theo knew that this oath came from the bottom of Felix''s heart.


    He rose from his seat and walked to him, patting Felix''s shoulder. "I''m counting on you."


    "Yes." Felix smiled. Giving the rest of his life to another person was a hard choice, yet the smile couldn''t disappear from his face when he did it. As he thought earlier, Theo didn''t want to take advantage of his weakness by holding his daughter hostage. Instead, he wanted to give him everything so that he could trust his Master.


    There was something in Theo''s expression that told him he understood his feelings and epted everything. He didn''t know that Theo had no parent figure in his childhood like Millie. Instead of understanding, Theo was longing for such affection.


    That was why Theo wanted him.


    After leaving his number and some details, Theo finally left the house.


    Little did he know, Felix''s disciples came to Felix as though they had heard everything.


    "You guys��" Felix now felt bad for not being able to take care of them anymore.


    "Master." One of them stepped forward with a smile on his face. "Please don''t mind us. We''re an orphan you took in. If not for Master, we would have died a long time ago."


    "That''s right." Another one came to him and nodded in agreement. "That''s why Master doesn''t need to think about us. You have treated us like your own son and trained us so that no one can bully us anymore."


    "We won''t be your burden anymore. So, you don''t need to hesitate."


    "We will work hard so that we can be a Mythical Rank Expert like you in the future."


    "At that time, please let us repay you, Master."


    Felix widened his eyes as his body trembled, never expecting such words from his disciples. "You guys��"


    He couldn''t help but hug all of them, letting out all his emotions. "Sorry�� and thank you��"


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo had arrived at the military camp where they were supposed to gather for the international mission.


    While walking around, Theo smiled after seeing his clone''s vision.


    ''A good guy, indeed.'' Theo nced to the side while thinking, ''I''m looking forward to our next meeting, Felix Holt and Millie Holt��''


    "Is there something wrong?" Melinda, his partner for this operation, asked while tilting her head in confusion.


    "Nah, it''s fine. Is everything ready?"


    "Most preparation has beenpleted. We should be going after another two hours." Melinda answered.


    "I see." Theo nodded and looked around. There were a total of 250 Supreme Rank Experts and 7 Mythical Rank Experts for this mission. Their number far surpassed the terrorists because the Lowe Organization, the military, and the Starry Group wanted to minimize their casualties.


    If they could overwhelm them, it would be better.


    Still, the groups that would enter the cave were only the Starry Group and the Lowe Organization, while the military needed to stand by outside. Their main objective was to capture any terrorist that tried to escape.


    However, Theo couldn''t help but feel uneasy when looking at the terrain.


    The cave itself was under a small hill. Even if they destroyed the roof, the agents should have enough strength to stop the copsing roof.


    Yet, Theo felt like he could do something more if he was the enemy. And he was still thinking about it.


    While waiting for the operation, Brad visited Theo, asking, "Are you nervous?"


    Surprisingly, Theo nodded his head. "Yeah."


    "For real?" Brad looked at him as if he saw a ghost. "Are you sure you are Joker? You''re not someone who is impersonating him, right?"


    "It''s just�� I feel like they''re going to use the terrain around us, and I don''t know what they will do." Theo let out a long sigh.


    If Theodore Griffith were the one who said these words, Brad would carefully consider it. However, Joker never had a reputation of being good at politics or strategy, so Brad only shrugged it off, saying, "Haha. It must be because you''re too nervous. You said it yourself that you always think about the worst case scenario�� That fear is the one guing you right now. Just rx, and that fear will be gone soon."


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched whileining in his heart. ''Oi. I was telling you that something is going to happen, and you just brushed it like that?''


    Theo ended up shaking his head. "Since we have time, I need to go to the toilet."


    "Go on." Brad shrugged, leaving his side.


    As soon as no one saw him, Theo used his clone to scout the area. He even stole someone''s spare military clothes to mix in.


    After that, the real Theo assembled with the rest to get thest briefing before entering the cave.


    "Alright. We''ll let the Lowe Organizatione in first because the cave size can only hold three people at once. We believe the terrorists will ambush us in those few big caves inside this hill.


    "Because it''s hard for so many people to fight inside the cave due to the size, we will only fill those big caves with twenty people each. I have told you about the arrangement earlier, so just follow the n.


    "Onest thing you need to note is to remember the people on your left and right, and trust these people. Even if someone ims to be from the Lowe Organization, don''t believe them. The terrorists might impersonate them.


    "Make sure to confirm their identity first with the codes I told you. Understood?" Brad asked all the people from the Starry Group.


    "Yes." The Starry Group agents answered him in unison.


    "Good. If you don''t have any questions, let''s line up." Brad smiled and started walking to the Lowe Organization, waiting for them to enter.

 Chapter 991 Assassination

    <h4>Chapter 991 Assassination</h4>


    ''Hmm. There is only blood sttered around��'' Theo muttered inwardly while looking around the cave with his night vision. It was clear that the Lowe Organization had dealt with all the monsters by themselves.


    He was well aware that a big operation meant the people would have an easier time because they shared the job.


    However, they soon reached the first cave inside this hill. Unlike this fifteen feet wide tunnel, this cave was so big that it could allow many Supreme Rank Experts to fight.


    More importantly, there was no pir needed to support the roof. Everything waspact enough that even if they hit it, the roof wouldn''t copse. It should be a perfect ce to ambush them, but they only found some corpses and a few people from the Lowe Organization.


    It turned out the Lowe Organization had cleared this cave fifteen minutes ago. They killed five Supreme Rank Experts in this ce with only one person dying from their side.


    "��" Theo fell silent, wondering if the situation was this easy. He looked around and found there was no opening on the wall. It would be a perfect ce tounch a sneak attack when remembering the dwarf''s case.


    Although he wanted to stop and check this ce, he couldn''t do that because the group would need to follow his action.


    Ultimately, they continued walking inside and found another group of the Lowe Organization standing by.


    "This is going to be an easy mission, I think."


    "Yeah. The Lowe Organization is sweeping through this cave. And because they''re advancing first, they might be able to handle all the enemies without us."


    "Then, why don''t we just go back?"


    "Right? We can just take it easy outside."


    The people from the Starry Group started a discussion among themselves, gradually lowering their guard.


    "What do you think?" Even Melinda came closer and asked with an innocent face, wanting to hear the thought of the number one expert on the list.


    "I''m worried about their stamina. The first cave only has four people to watch over them, while the second cave has seven. The deeper they enter, the more people will need to retire." Theo shook his head while maintaining his vignce. Of course, Theo said in a very low voice so that no one heard his thought, lest they thought many things about him. He just didn''t want more trouble.


    "I see." Melinda nodded furiously. After talking to Theo for a while, she seemed to have gotten used to Theo''s behavior. Unlike the rumor and his previous actions, Theo wasn''t someone hateful. In fact, he had been sharing some of his wisdom with her.


    "See that?" Theo pointed forward as they entered the third cave. As he said earlier, there were a total of ten people that waited in this ce.


    And they still fought against the monsters most of the time instead of the terrorist. It was clear that thetter nned to use attrition warfare.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes while looking down as though he had got some inspiration. Without hesitation, he walked faster and caught up with the Mythical Rank Expert that led their small group, Brad.


    "Do you need something from me?" Brad narrowed his eyes. He had been tasked to protect Theo, so he was assigned to this group that consisted of eight pairs.


    "I feel like we''ve been moving too smoothly," Theo mentioned while looking back.


    "What do you mean? Are you getting paranoid again?"


    "Who knows. It''s just�� there''s no means ofmunication, so we don''t know what happens to the front group or those who have been left behind. And we''re thest group to enter��" Theo squinted his eyes, indirectly implying his suspicion.


    "As I said earlier, you might want to take it easy first. This mission is easy because our number is far superior to them." Brad smirked.


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head, wondering what he should do to make Brad understand. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do as the group advanced further, finding more and more people from the Lowe Organization to get some rest.


    The group had yet to know that something was happening behind the scene.


    While the advance party took care of the monsters as well as some terrorists, there was a movement in the first cave that they passed.


    "Hey. Have you finished recovering your Magic Power? We should get going soon��"


    "Right! We need to catch up to the front group. We need to show the Starry Group, especially that bastard Joker, who''s the boss here. We don''t need them."


    "You just don''t like that Joker, don''t you?"


    "Aren''t you the same? He''s hogging all the attention just because he defeated that Winston. If not because Winston was unaware of his ability, there was no way Joker could win."


    The four of them talked about Theo while recovering their Magic Power. It was just a simple talk while waiting. They wouldn''t go all the way to annoy Theo since the Lowe Organization wouldn''t protect them if they incurred Theo''s wrath.


    "Still, the scene where that Joker didn''t get into the name list was too satisfying."


    "Right? I almostughed. It turned out he has no backbone."


    "He''s just a freaking beta. Hahahaha."


    "He should have gone back to America and be the king there. He can''t do shit here."


    "Let''s go back. We should be able to pass him and sneer��!" Before he finished his words, the guy''s eyes opened wide as if seeing a ghost.


    The group turned around to see what he had seen but to no avail. There was nothing in that direction, so they thought this guy was messing with them.


    But soon, the man''s body fell to the ground with two short knives piercing both his head and throat.


    "!!!" Because there was no sunlight inside the cave, they had a limited range of vision even with their night vision. Still, they were shocked when they saw two knives killing theirrade without making a single sound.


    All three of them immediately rose from the ground to prepare to fight, but a few shadows shed in their vision before sending their heads flying.


    "Spot A, cleared." One of the shadows said while ncing at his surroundings. "Team B is in position. Team C is going to start soon, and Team D is on their way. It''s time for us to pay the price of messing with us."

 Chapter 992 Another Trickster?

    <h4>Chapter 992 Another Trickster?</h4>


    "Seal the entrance," said one of the terrorists while putting down a few bags on the ground. At the same time, he also put on a gas mask with him. "Call the rest of the team B."


    "Understood." One of them nodded and disappeared while the other started burning those few bags, resulting in a huge cloud of smoke that rapidly expanded to the entire room before spreading toward the tunnel and the next cave.


    At the same time, more than thirty people gathered in this ce, one of them being a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Everything is going ording to the n. We will follow the smoke." The terrorist reported to the Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Good. It''s time to exterminate these people." The Mythical Rank Expert nodded with a serious expression before disappearing, "Let''s go. Follow me."


    All the people immediately disappeared, following the Mythical Rank Expert.


    They were not the only group moving around in this cave. There was another group of people waiting around the entrance.


    "Everything is going ording to the n." A soldier entered a tent filled with several people. They all had exerted a powerful Magic Power from their body.


    "Good. Make sure the soldiers watch the cave. We can''t let those terrorists escape."


    "Yes, Sir." The soldier gave a salute before returning to his duty. But as soon as he left the tent, numerous roars resounded across the entire region.


    "!!!" All the people inside the tent opened their eyes wide and immediately left the tent to check what was going on.


    "What is this?" One of the Mythical Rank Experts from the military panicked while looking around, finding the roarsing from all directions. "We should have eliminated most of the monsters in this ce, right?"


    "Of course. It''s to prevent the terrorists from using them." Another one nodded in agreement, replying with a horrified face.


    "But these voices�� it seems more than five hundred monsters areing at us�� And this number is the minimum. I''m afraid the real number is far bigger than this."


    "What''s about the people inside the hill?"


    "We need to rescue them. Two of you will enter the cave and catch up to the advanced party. We expected a trap, but not at this scale."


    Two soldiers immediately followed the order and leaped to the entrance, but the ground suddenly started trembling.


    *Boom!*


    A huge explosion followed right after as two giant holes appeared from the ground. Many people came out, ambushing the two soldiers.


    "Impossible. They were supposed to have no holes in this area. There''s no way they can dig this kind of hole easily. Then��" Themander''s mouth widened as he recognized one of the people that came out of the ground. "You�� You are the Ground Snake!"


    "Code Name: Ground Snake. ss A Criminal that is said to murder a thousand people by swallowing them into the ground." One of them muttered the details of the name before gulping down.


    "How?! You''re not supposed to be here!"


    "Heh�� I''m just following someone''s order." He snorted while raising his head, finding a huge falcon flying in the sky. If one took a closer look, they would find someone standing on top of his body.


    "That man��" Themander recognized him again as he was from the same group as the man called Ground Snake. "You are Ama Bamapana, the holder of the blessing of the Trickster God from Northern Australia, Bamapana."


    "But he''s supposed to be from another organization from the western region�� Why would hee here?"


    Even themander had no answer, wondering what was happening.


    Surprisingly, the man, known as Ama Bamapana, smirked and shouted, "All of you are going to die here! You ask why Ie here? You want to hunt my younger sister and think I won''te here?"


    "Younger sister?" Themander was bewildered because he had run a background check on the terrorist group they were fighting right now.


    "Big Brother!" Suddenly, one of the terrorists that came out of the ground shouted while waving her hand. She put on a bright smile and crossed her arms, raising her breast as if seducing someone.


    "I''m going to love you tonight, baby." Ama licked his lips before raising both hands. "Now, it''s time for all the monsters I have brought here to kill all of you."


    With a single kick to the falcon''s head, thetter let out a huge cry, resulting in another series of roars from the monsters. It was clear that the falcon''s identity was a General ss Monster that Ama subdued to bring all the monsters.


    When seeing something like this, the other Mythical Rank Expert from the military said, understanding what was going on. "We''ve been had. I still remember there is no girl like her in MAR Terrorist Organization��


    "Bamapana is a trickster god who causes discord. He is obscene and profane and oncemitted incest, thus breaking a strict taboo. It''s clear that he''s only using this for the entire facade.


    "He''s using our operation this time to eliminate us and create a huge discord among the Lowe Organization and the Starry Group. And us, the military, will be implicated in this." The Mythical Rank Expert gave his assessment with a pale face.


    It turned out the trap wasn''tid by the terrorist organization they were about to wipe out. It was from Ama.


    "Trickster god��" Themander gritted his teeth, realizing they were in the worst case scenario. If they retreated from him, the Lowe Organization and the Starry Group would bepletely annihted.


    On the other hand, they might be wiped out by these terrorists.


    As amander, he had a vast amount of experience. Even in the worst case scenario, he still found something they could take advantage of.


    Ama''s sister was just a Supreme Rank Expert. Knowing what kind of person Ama was, he should stop all these schemes as long as they held his sister hostage.


    Without hesitation, themander shouted while pointing at Ama''s sister, "Capture her!"


    The other Mythical Rank Expert was the first to move, albeit he was stopped by the Ground Snake. "Do you think it''s going to be that easy?"


    "Your opponent is me!" Ama shouted while ordering the falcon to dive down as he nned to defeat themander himself.


    Little did they know, there was another ray of hope that no one had discovered yet. He had long ck hair and wore the same military clothes, observing the entire situation while muttering inwardly, ''Trickster, huh��''

 Chapter 993 Manipulation

    <h4>Chapter 993 Maniption</h4>


    Inside the cave, Theo clicked his tongue and turned around, not caring about what others thought.


    "Joker?!" Melinda was confused by this action. Her voice broke the silence as all of them turned to her before their gaze shifted to Theo.


    Even Brad raised his voice. "Joker. Where are you going?"


    "Saving your sorry ass." Theo snorted while raising his sword, swinging it around.


    "What did you say?" Brad was bewildered by his words. After tolerating him this whole time, Brad thought this was it and shouted, "Joker. Do you know what you are doing? Are you going to keep annoying us?"


    Theo ignored him and shed a few rocks before moving them to the tunnel that led deeper underground. He was trying to block the route they were going.


    Even the others frowned upon his action.


    Brad immediately came to him and grabbed his cor. "I have enough. I''m the leader here. You need to follow my order."


    "Unfortunately, your order is just going to kill me." Theo snorted and pped his hands. "I don''t have time to deal with you. If you just want to go, you can do it. I''m going to stay here."


    "What did you say?"


    "Can''t you even figure it out? This is a trap." Theo started releasing his killing intent. His words had been ignored this whole time, so he had umted enough stress. "Just freaking go. And you will kneel before meter."


    "You��" Veins appeared on his forehead. Brad really wanted to beat this Joker.


    "The military is holding the enemies right now. If you just want to waste my time and get us killed here, leave!" Theo shouted. He couldn''t afford to waste more time on him because a single mistake might take his life here.


    He never thought there would be another group that came after them.


    "Enemies? Military?" Melinda was the first one to speak. Whenever they talked, Theo always mentioned his uneasiness in this entire operation.


    However, he couldn''t do anything because he had no proof. Even Brad had been ignoring his warning this whole time.


    She thought if she broke the ice and let Theo exin everything, some of them would understand his worry.


    "Joker. Do you know something that we don''t?" Melinda asked.


    "I already told you. The enemies are ambushing the military and will soone after us. It''s you who are stopping me from doing everything necessary." Theo snorted and brushed Brad''s hands as he continued moving all the stones to the tunnel.


    "What? There is no information like that." Brad shouted in anger.


    "Numerous people��" Before Theo finished his sentence, a huge explosive sound shook the hill.


    "!!!" All the people immediately looked around. But no matter how hard they tried to locate the source of the sound, they could only pinpoint it to the tunnel they had just crossed. In other words, the enemies were already on their backs.


    This one explosion was enough to prove what Theo said because there should be no more fight appearing behind them.


    Theo didn''t bother with their reaction as he ced the stones near the entrance while making a hard enough sound to wake all these people up.


    "Ah!"


    "There are enemies from behind."


    "What''s that explosion?"


    "Does this mean what Joker said was true?"


    The people were panicking. Theo said the military would be destroyed sooner orter, so they thought the enemy force might be far stronger than them.


    Their only thought was to run to a deeper area as their instinct told them to regroup with the rest.


    However, Melinda shouted, "Stop! Are you all going to run to a deeper area? Didn''t Joker tell you that he''s going to stay here? Are you going to sacrifice him? And even if you go deeper, the enemies will be able to surround us, or even worse, flood this entire cave. There''s no escape route."


    Theo looked at Melinda in silence. He thought of her as a normal person that would react the same way as the others.


    Still, Theo''s words about having Brad kneeling to him had be the turning point for her.


    While the others were stunned, Melinda immediately grabbed a block and stacked it on top of the stones Theo had carried. "I am just a useless healer, so I can''t help you much. But it''s better than nothing."


    "��" Theo had been trying to seal the tunnel this whole time while listening to their reaction. It was a surprise that there was someone that chose to trust his words.


    "You better go." Theo shook his head with a serene tone as if he had given up on his life. Suddenly, he ced two fingers on his forehead while working in silence.


    "What are you doing?"


    "My monkey told me�� The enemies are two Mythical Rank Experts with a few elites. Those two are known as Ama Bamapana and Ground Snake. The former has subdued a General ss Monster and ordered it to gather the monsters in the entire region.


    "That explosion earlier was enough for me to know the people behind us were getting butchered left and right. That''s why I will seal this entrance and prepare an ambush to create some opportunities.


    "You should join with the rest since it''s going to be safer. And tell them that this entire n was devised by Ama Bamapana to create friction between the Lowe Organization and the Starry Group while dragging the military. After all, the Starry Group will think the Lowe Organization is a spy by doing this.


    "Even one of us is enough. As long as someone can tell the real plot, the Starry Group and the Star Group should be able to handle the entire case. And I hope it''s you because you''re the only one who believes me��" Theo exined what his clone had seen with a serene tone.


    "You��" Melinda was shocked while continuing her job. She didn''t have the intention to leave Theo''s side. "You said you want to create a chance. If that can give us an opportunity to leave this ce, I''ll help. We first need to cover the entrance, right?"


    The others suddenly walked back and helped bring the stones for them. Some of them even asked how to help him by using their Earth Element.


    If even their healer had this kind of resolve, they would be too ashamed to meet other people if they ran away today. Some of them, who couldn''t even gather enough resolve, also got pulled in.


    Theo maintained his silence, but behind his mask was a huge smile.


    Sacrificing himself? There was no way Theo would do that. He was just trying to gain the sympathy of these people and turned them into his ves for this operation since he couldn''t escape alone.


    Explosion? It was just him manipting their sense with his Illusion Maniption to make them believe. He was unaware there was a group of assassinsing toward him.


    As he said a few days ago, he would prepare for the worst, which meant he had been changing Melinda''s train of thought for thest two days.


    Since Brad was a loss case, he used Melinda to be his partner to convince the mass. This was the only way for him to persuade them since he didn''t have any teammates that would trust him no matter what.


    It was true that this was the worst case scenario since they had no escape route after the enemies sealed their exits. But, instead of giving up, Theo was nning to challenge this man who was blessed by a local Trickster God.

 Chapter 994 Kneeling

    <h4>Chapter 994 Kneeling</h4>


    "What are you nning to do?" Brad suddenly came to him while furrowing his eyebrows.


    They had managed to erect the wall here, so it should be able to stop them for a moment. At the very least, it would give a message that they already knew about their scheme. If they didn''t proceed carefully, they would fall into an ambush.


    Theo stopped for a moment and looked at Brad coldly. "And do you think you''re worthy of knowing about that?"


    The tension raised again as Brad and Theo stared at each other. It was clear they had been going at each other this whole time.


    In fact, they would be able to do something if not because Brad took Theo''s words lightly.


    However, they couldn''t say anything or me Brad because they had the same opinion as Brad at first. There was no way they would believe Theo''s words when the mission was going smoothly.


    But they still needed Brad to survive in this ce. If there was another conflict, they were afraid the situation would be even worse.


    As if trying to de-escte the situation, one of them stepped forward and said with a wry smile. "Ehm, I think it''s better to put your grudge away. No matter what, we need to survive from this ce."


    Theo maintained his silence for a moment while ring at Brad as if he didn''t want to forgive him.


    Brad gritted his teeth. If he killed Theo here, he would be deemed as the greatest criminal of the Starry Group and the Star Group. Even the military might be moved when he returned to the US.


    After all, Theo was their first expert on the Asda''s List, who beat Winston not long ago. And his level was below 600, showing his true potential. There was no way they wanted to kill Theo because it would be a huge blow to the younger generation.


    At the same time, if he didn''t get rid of Theo, thetter would simply tell everything about what he did. As the leader chosen by Maya, he would need to take full responsibility.


    If he had followed what Theo said earlier, they wouldn''t be in this situation. In fact, they might be able to join hands with the Lowe Organization and the military to handle this matter.


    In other words, everything was his fault. The moment he returned to the US, his career would be over. Even though he was a Mythical Rank Expert, no one would take him in again because they were afraid Brad would make the same mistake, resulting in the loss of many lives.


    That was why there was one thing that Brad could do to save himself along with the rest of the group. And Theo had told him what it was earlier.


    After getting Theo''s stare for a moment, Brad gradually lowered his body and fell to his knees. His forehead touched the ground as he said, "Please, help the group."


    "!!!" All the people in the tunnel dropped their jaws to the ground when they saw Brad kneeling before him.


    Melinda sucked a cold breath as she remembered what Theo said about Brad kneeling.


    To save his life, career, and the people he led, Brad could only kneel to Theo despite being far stronger than him.


    They finally understood Theo had predicted this situation.


    Theo remained silent for a few seconds, raising the tension even more.


    Even the people started thinking about releasing Brad from this embarrassment as soon as possible.


    ''Oi, oi. Are you kidding me?''


    ''Just help Brad up as soon as possible.''


    ''He''s still a Mythical Rank Expert.''


    They were afraid Brad would do something stupid because of his anger. And when they were about to snap, Theo finally opened his mouth.


    "I need something to convince the rest of the people before gathering the whole group. After that, we will drill this hill with our power before ambushing the terrorists outside.


    "Just like what you did earlier, I''m sure the other Mythical Rank Experts, whether from the Starry Group or the Lowe Organization, won''t believe this situation even if you personally exin it to them.


    "So, what I mean by creating an opportunity is to kill some people from outside. They wille pretty soon, so we will use this wall to trick them into thinking we know about their n and have them retreat.


    "At that time, we will break through this thin wall and ambush them. We will use their lives to convince those people and rally our force.


    "I believe they''re going toe sooner orter, so I want all of you to prepare yourself to ambush them.


    "Since you want to help now, you need to work harder than anyone else. Also, I need several people to block the entrance as soon as we emerge from this tunnel. This way, the terrorist can''t escape and inform their ally outside. It will give us some time to create another exit.


    "Aftering out of the hill, we will ambush them together with the Lowe Organization. ording to my monkey, the military can hold out for one more hour. Hence, we need to move fast and save the army.


    "This way, the Starry Group will be the biggest contributor in this operation. And we can put the me on the military and the Lowe Organization. Not only will we win the war, but we can also gain more prestige for the Starry Group.


    "No matter what, I have promised Sir Bernard to take care of the Starry Group. If you understand my n, I need five people to block the other tunnel." Theo turned to the other Supreme Rank Experts.


    When they heard Theo''s n, they were shocked because it turned out Theo never nned to run away even in this difficult situation. Instead, he actually wanted to fish in this troubled water.


    Melinda scratched the back of her head while thinking, ''If we''re not in this situation, I think I can fight together with this amazing man��''


    Meanwhile, ten people suddenly raised their hands and said in unison. "We''re going to block the exits."


    "Huh��" Those ten people never expected there were so many volunteers, despite knowing it was the most dangerous role.


    "Settle it by yourself. You have one minute. Remember, I only want five people," said Theo before turning to Brad. "If you understand, then get up. Five Mythical Rank Experts are better than four."

 Chapter 995 Ambushing the Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 995 Ambushing the Ambush</h4>


    "We have killed 37 members from the Lowe Organization. If we continue, we should be able to find some people from the Starry Group soon." The assassin that brought the group to kill the people inside the cave reported to his direct superior, a Mythical Rank Expert from the MAR Organization.


    There was only one Mythical Rank Expert in the end of the cave because the other one was needed to kill these people.


    Now that they had brought down so many people from the Lowe Organization, they prepared themselves to fight against the Starry Group. It was truly sad to sacrifice two-third of their people just to defeat these two big groups. But everything would be worth it if they could annihte them.


    The Mythical Rank Expert nodded after hearing the report. "How''s the poisonous gas?"


    "Everything is ready. We will let them spread for another minute. It should start spreading in the next room."


    "Good. Let''s go slowly." He nodded and led the group to the next room. This time, they only had two casualties, so they still had 24 people in this group.


    As long as these people could eliminate the people from the two groups, they should have aplished their mission.


    However, everything wasn''t going ording to their n. The moment they reached the next room, they found the tunnel had been buried by many rocks.


    "!!!" The assassins opened their eyes wide.


    "Have they found out about us?"


    "Impossible. ording to their pace, they should be far deeper��"


    "That''s right. We didn''t let out any loud sound either so they shouldn''t have heard anything."


    "Still, what should we do?"


    "What if they are aware of our presence? They must have prepared some ambush�� seeing the sloppy blockade, they should have prepared some ambushes in the next cave. After all, it''s hard to calcte the distance of the tunnel."


    "That''s right. The moment we reach the end of the tunnel, they''re going to hit us with all their strength."


    "It''s going to be a disaster."


    The assassins became hesitant, knowing full well that if they weren''t careful, they would lose their lives.


    "Alright. We need volunteers to dig up the tunnels. We will check their n�� If we can''t do anything, we will report to those on the surface." The Mythical Rank Expert made a decision.


    It was reasonable, so they looked at each other and picked two people in an instant.


    When they were about to reach the buried entrance, a bright light suddenly shed through the gaps between rocks.


    "Not good!" The Mythical Rank Expert shouted in panic. "Ru��"


    Unfortunately, he was toote. The light turned into an explosion and sted the entire blockade.


    Theo and Brad were the first toe out as they shed the nearest assassins.


    "Smoke? Poison?" Theo widened his eyes and summoned his Death Avatar before expanding a barrier with his Underworld Body Skill.


    The entire smoke was pushed back from to the point not a single poisonous substance came into the barrier.


    "Use your mask!" Brad ordered when he saw the assassins wearing the same gas masks.


    "Go!" Theo shouted.


    The rest of the Supreme Rank Experts emerged from the tunnels and charged forward with five of them sneaking around to reach the exit before the terrorists could react.


    Without hesitation, Brad hit the Mythical Rank Expert since he was the only person capable of doing so.


    He knocked him to the farthest wall so that no one would be injured when he fought against him.


    In the meantime, the cave was soon filled with people from two sides, shing with each other.


    Because their number was lower than them, the Starry Group was required to fight against multiple assassins at once.


    And Theo took this role since he was considered the strongest among them." Theo raised his sword and released a sword wave forward to gain their attention.


    "What?!"


    The terrorists were shocked by this ambush and barely reacted to the iing enemies.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo was their opponent. With his sword wave taking their attention, Theo used this opportunity to reach one of them, shing his sword.


    The terrorist raised his shield to block him, but Theo skillfully used his Death Avatar to smash the shield and throw it away.


    Theo then killed him with a single swing, not letting him do anything.


    As if they knew how strong Theo was, two assassins leaped toward him, brandishing their spears.


    Theo''s Death Avatar grabbed their spears and tried to throw them away. But since they were refused to do so, the avatar mmed them to the ground.


    Only because it would crush them that they let go of their spears beforeing at Theo with their fists.


    Theo turned his sword back to his ring before taking their punches head-on. However, Theo used his Telekinesis, Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion and Thunderp Fist in his punches.


    The moment they collided, Theo''s fists let out a burst of Magic Power and sted them away.


    *Bam!* One of them wasunched to the wall while the other only stepped back once, showing he was stronger than the other guy.


    Since that was the case, Theo took out his sword again and came at him. It turned out Theo''s opponent was the direct subordinate of the Mythical Rank Terrorist, so he possessed a challenge.


    As if getting prepared for this kind of situation, the terrorist had another spear and struck Theo''s sword continuously.


    *Cling!*


    *Cling!*


    *Cling!*


    The shessted for ten seconds and none of them could find any opportunity to exploit. Hence, Theo chose to step up by creating an illusion of a personing toward them.


    He came from the side and prepared to help him. Without hesitation, he swung his sword to Theo''s neck, forcing Theo to leap back.


    But when he was about to thank him, this person waved his sword toward him, almost killing him. Even he needed to duck down to avoid this attack before cutting the man''s feet, which turned out to be an illusion. The entire man disappeared into thin air.


    "!!!" The assassin widened his eyes. Because of the night vision, his eyes couldn''t easily pick up the enemy''s Magic Power, so it was hard to know whether the man was an illusion or not. And Theo took advantage of it to lower his guard.


    Now that he was down to the ground, Theo appeared in front of him and shed his sword downwards, pinning the terrorist to the ground.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 996 Taking Advantage of Other’s Tricks

    <h4>Chapter 996 Taking Advantage of Other''s Tricks</h4>


    *Bam!*


    Theo managed to pin down their leader, but before he killed him, the person he sent away earlier came back, brandishing his spear.


    Theo''s Death Avatar tried to stop him this time, but thetter skillfully turned around and avoided all the hands before arriving behind him.


    Without wasting a single second, the guy pierced Theo''s heart while throwing another spear at their leader.


    Theo snorted and turned around. His right hand struck the spearing at his heart while his left hand grabbed the spear.


    He was a spear user. Hence, the moment he held that spear, his killing intent started emanating from his eyes.


    The slumbering lord had woken up again.


    He thrust the spear forward, trying to kill the annoying guy first. But as one would expect from another Supreme Rank Expert, he mmed his spear on Theo''s, trying to knock an amateur back.


    Contrary to his expectation, Theo poured the Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion into the spear''s handle before using the burst to knock the spear away.


    "What?!" The guy was shocked by this ability, albeit it was toote to react.


    The moment Theo knocked the spear away, he poured more Magic Power into the spear. Because the spear had a long handle, he managed to create four shes of Magic Power, resulting in four thunderps instead of the usual two when he used his arms or legs.


    Those four thunderps were washed away by Theo''s Magic Power. Due to that long shaft, the spear turned into a canon that used a shock wave tounch the enemy away.


    *Bang!*


    "Gah!" The guy spurted a mouthful of blood as the shock wave was too much for him to handle. But this was the end of him.


    Theo threw the spear and pierced the guy''s brain, killing him. Meanwhile, his Death Avatar still pushed back this Supreme Rank leader.


    Now that no one could stop him anymore, Theo turned around and waved his sword, sending a sword wave forward.


    The leader clicked his tongue and jumped to the side. He raised both hands and released powerful electricity toward Theo.


    And due to the cave''s limited space, a stray fireball came from his right.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Illusion Destruction to disintegrate the lightning while cutting the fireball with another sword wave.


    After that, Theo chased after the guy while ncing at the exits, finding seven terrorists fighting against five Starry Group experts.


    ''I don''t have time to y with him. At the same time, my current Control doesn''t allow me to pinpoint my killing intent�� In other words, I can''t use Death Eyes in this ce��'' Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering what he should do to settle this problem.


    As if reading Theo''s n, the guy immediately headed straight to the exit, nning to slip past them. As long as someone could tell what happened here, the Starry Group and the Lowe Organization shouldn''t be able to do anything.


    With a single nce, Theo observed everyone''s gaze before he used his illusion to create smoke to cover his body. He then used his Blink to appear before the leader.


    "Where do you think you''re going?" Theo''s sword was swinging toward the guy''s neck while using the Blink Skill, so the moment Theo appeared, thetter almost cut his neck.


    The guy barely dodged it by leaning to the side. To open his path, the guy shouted, "Sir! Blow me up! We need to sacrifice everything to inform those on the surface!"


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he immediately felt extraordinary pressureing from the side.


    He suddenly saw the Mythical Rank Expert waving his hand, releasing a powerful fire beam straight to Theo. Although Brad took advantage of it and cut his hand, Theo couldn''t avoid this attack.


    Since his opponent was the one suggesting it, he should have some confidence in getting out alive.


    "This is getting annoying," Theo muttered as his sword turned into a spear before the Magic Power expanded it to protect Theo''s whole body.


    "What?" The terrorist widened his eyes and thought, ''It wasn''t a sword?''


    Theo used his Order to manipte the Magic Power before using his shield to take on an attack from a Mythical Rank Expert.


    Surprisingly, the fire beam hit the shield and didn''t split in all directions like how the me should be.


    Theo smiled and tilted his shield a bit, deflecting the me to their leader.


    "!!!" The guy opened his mouth because he expected the fire to burst out. If he only needed to withstand the me''s heat and the burning effect, he should be able to stay alive. However, what he needed to face was none other than the full attack of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    He couldn''t even react to the me due to the shock as thetter hit him in the stomach.


    Instead of bursting, the fire beam continued to push him to the wall until the pressure umted to the point the Order couldn''t withstand it anymore.


    *Boom!*


    The fire beam exploded, engulfing the guy.


    ''That''s going to be dangerous if I don''t have an Order�� If only I have reached the third stage of my Order, I should be able to disintegrate it. Whatever.'' Theo squinted his eyes before turning his head to the exit. He needed to help those five people before it was toote.


    Since Brad managed to cut the Mythical Rank Expert''s hand, he should be able to defeat him soon. After that, the bnce of power would lean in their favor as they annihted the rest of the group.


    Seeing this opportunity, Theo helped the rest. And unknowingly, Theo only killed two people by himself while seven others died because of the help of others'' power.


    While looking at the situation, Theo let out a sigh before thinking, ''Alright. Everything is ready�� This time, I should be able to convince those people so that we can work together to defeat the terrorists.


    ''Since those terrorists managed to trick me�� I mean us, I should take this opportunity to turn around the situation and get more benefits��'' Theo smirked. ''Thank you, Ama whatever.''

 Chapter 997 Catching Up

    <h4>Chapter 997 Catching Up</h4>


    "We''re done here." Melinda came to Theo, informing him that they had eliminated all the enemies and got all the things needed to convince the rest of the group.


    "Good. Let''s go. We don''t have much time left." Theo nodded with a serious expression and asked, "How''s about our casualties?"


    "Two died and seven were heavily injured. The rest can still move."


    "We will leave some of them behind. The rest will go with us to a deep area." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Tell that to Brad."


    "Got it." Melinda understood and immediately left him.


    Meanwhile, Theo took another look at the group''s condition before formting some ns in his mind. As expected, it would be hard to fight against so many monsters at once due to that General ss Monster.


    After that, they immediately set off to the deeper area, catching up with the rest of the Starry Group.


    Once they saw the members of the Starry Group, they knew they were near. However, they couldn''t stop yet because they needed to meet the other Mythical Rank Experts to get the upper hand.


    It took them ten minutes at full speed to finally reach the rest of the Starry Group.


    Obviously, their action confused everyone because they carried a few heads and corpses, making those who saw them wonder what had happened on the back.


    As soon as Brad saw the other Mythical Rank Expert, he shouted, "We need to talk."


    The 110 years old man turned around while furrowing his eyebrows. "Brad? What are you doing here? Your time hasn''te yet."


    "Talk less and follow me. I need you to believe me right now and catch up with the rest of the people from the Lowe Organization. I will exin everything on the way, but if you are still confused, just look at those��" Brad pointed at the heads and bodies they carried.


    "!!!" The old man widened his eyes as he recognized one of them. He was the Mythical Rank Expert they were supposed to kill. "Did you get ambushed?"


    Since Brad didn''t pay attention to him, the old man used his fastest speed to catch up to Brad while asking, "Can you exin what''s going on?"


    "We were ambushed, the army was attacked�� Hence, we need to do something to turn the situation around�� ording to our spection, the enemies have at least five Mythical Rank Experts in total. That''s why we need to hurry or we can''t turn around the situation." Brad exined while squinting his eyes. "Besides, there are questions that the Lowe Organization needs to answer."


    "What do you want me to do with the rest of the members?"


    "I want you to lead half of the Supreme Rank Experts to the surface. Use your gas masks too, since they are using poisonous gas."


    "I understand. What''s about the timing? What are you going to do?"


    "We are going to dig a hole andunch a surprise attack to decrease our casualties. As for the timing, you should attack them thirty minutes from now and not tell them about our ns�� We need to make the enemies think you have no more reinforcement to lower the enemies'' guards. Of course, I won''t let you suffer for too long since we can''t afford to lose many agents. Ten minutes�� Just wait for ten minutes."


    "��" The old man thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay. Leave it to me. I should be able to rally around forty people��"


    "That''s good enough."


    "Are you going to meet the advanced party?"


    "Yeah."


    "Good luck." The old man nodded after confirming his intention. Then, he stopped in his tracks, turning around.


    Meanwhile, Brad, Theo, and the others continued to meet the rest of the Mythical Rank Experts from the Lowe Organization.


    But as Theo expected, the advanced party was fighting against the MAR Organization. It was obvious that the Mythical Rank Expert from their side came here to buy more time.


    However, the moment Brad appeared, he immediately overwhelmed the enemy with the sheer number since Brad brought the other Mythical Rank Experts from the Lowe Organization when reinforcing the advanced party.


    The enemies couldn''t withstand their power at all to the point the battle was settled within five minutes.


    "What are you doing here, Brad? It''s good that your n worked, but your actions could endanger our lives." The old man that led the Lowe Organizationined while raising his tone.


    "Cut the bullshit. The reason I did all this was��" Brad waved his hand and threw the corpses to the ground.


    "Wait�� That''s��" They recognized the Mythical Rank Expert from the MAR Organization. So, it was clear they were ambushed from behind.


    "This is a trap devised by the MAR Organization and another one�� I''m asking you because you''re more knowledgeable about the local situation. Do you happen to know a man called Ama Bamapana and Ground Snake?"


    "What?!" The old man opened his eyes wide, never expecting to hear those names from Brad. "S Rank Criminal Ama Bamapana and A Rank Criminal Ground Snake. They''re from a terrorist group hiding in Western Australia�� How do you know their names?"


    "They devised this n to eliminate all of us and create a huge discord between the three of us��" Brad exined what Theo told him. Even though Theo didn''t want to admit it, Brad''s words were more trustable than his, so it was best for him to handle the negotiation.


    "Seriously? If they eliminated us here��" The old man suddenly fell silent before his face turned pale as he was able to imagine the future scene. After getting silent for a minute, the old man opened his mouth. "It must be Ama Bamapana''s scheme. His blessinges from a Trickster God. No one cane up with something like this other than him.


    "As for their organization, they''re called Red Mouse. Ama Bamapana is their strategist. If we can kill him, we can cripple the Red Mouse and eliminate their remaining members." The old man exined.


    "Great. Now that I have confirmed their identities, I need you to follow my n. This is your fault for getting tricked by them after all�� For now, I will exin the situation first." Brad started telling the information that Theo had told him previously to convince the rest of them while taking the leadership of this operation to amass the achievement.

 Chapter 998 Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 998 Reinforcement</h4>


    On the surface, the army had been ughtered left and right by the monsters. Even though Ama didn''t bring too many experts from his side, it was enough as long as he mobilized the monsters in this area.


    The military had been reduced to half of their numbers, while the rest also had some injuries. But the worst part was the fact that they couldn''t inform the people inside the cave to help them.


    They were wondering what those people were doing because killing two Mythical Rank Experts shouldn''t be a problem for a group consisting of five Mythical Rank Experts.


    "Just give up. Your only fate is to die." Amaughed while standing on top of the falcon. He could look down on all of them because he would be the biggest winner in this situation. He shouted in excitement. "Kill them."


    "!!!" Themander gritted his teeth, knowing it was hard for them to escape from this ce alive.


    "What should we do? Should we abandon the people inside? No matter what, they have five Mythical Rank Experts." The other Mythical Rank Expert from the army approached him while ring at the man known as Ground Snake.


    "We are soldiers. There''s no way we''re going to retreat when the civilians are still there fighting�� Even if we need to die, we will be at the very front to protect the civilians." Themander rejected the idea without much thought, knowing full well if they escaped, they could save the remaining soldiers.


    But the terrorist might take advantage of this to bury the people from the Lowe Organization and the Starry Group on this hill. That was why retreating wasn''t an option.


    "I understand. Then, let''s fight until the very end."


    After that discussion, they released all their strength to at least bring a few people with them.


    "Useless struggle." Ama snorted.


    "It''s not useless, you fucking terrorist." Another voice resounded across the area as an old man emerged from the cave, leading forty people outside. "Help the army!"


    "!!!" Ama turned around and recognized the man. "Tsk. Useless. I know those people from MAR can''t even be trusted with a simple idea."


    However, themander was bewildered by this sight. The Mythical Rank Expert that brought thest group was supposed to be Brad, not him. "What happened to Brad?"


    The old man sighed and shook his head. "He needs to convince those from the Lowe Organization. This is why I don''t like having a joint mission."


    "��" Themander''s face turned grim as he shouted, "Either way, we have three Mythical Rank Experts while they have two. As long as we can grab that woman, we will be able to turn the situation around."


    "In that case, let me capture her." The old man nodded, nning to lead the charge to capture Ama''s sister.


    "3 vs 2? Are you kidding? I already know those people are useless. That''s why��" Ama raised his hand and shouted, "Come out!"


    Three people suddenly appeared among them while releasing their Magic Power, putting massive pressure on the military and the Starry Group.


    "!!!" The old man widened his eyes, knowing those three were Mythical Rank Experts.


    "What? B Rank Criminal Garu, Another B Rank Criminal Z, and an A Rank Criminal, the vice leader of Red Mouse, Reaper Snake." Themander gritted his teeth. "You brought all of them here?"


    "Hahahaha." Ama had a longugh, satisfied with this development. "You heard that! We need to eliminate these three Mythical Rank Experts before the other four Mythical Rank Expertse�� At that time, they won''t be able to fight against our five Mythical Rank Experts! I thought about using you guyster to ambush their main force, but the n has changed!


    "I thought they were more clever than that, so I prepared to ambush them, but it seemed I had overestimated the Starry Group. You all didn''t have a brain�� To think you would show yourself alone instead of gathering all the other experts first."


    "What?"


    "There are three more Mythical Rank Experts?"


    "Doesn''t this mean we''re getting screwed?"


    "Are those people trying to run away instead of helping us this whole time?"


    The people from the Starry Group furrowed their eyebrows. Looking at how Joker actually came with them to drill a hole in the hill made it look like they were going to escape instead of fighting against these terrorists.


    That was why they felt betrayed.


    Ama was enjoying their expressions as he shouted, "Fall to despair and die with regret!"


    His shout andugh filled the entire battlefield, scaring the people. He was already convinced that he would win against them.


    The old man clicked his tongue and released all his power. "No matter what. Don''t lose faith�� The Starry Group holds everyone dear."


    He jumped before pping his hand, creating a water sphere between his hands. "Sacred Water!"


    The water fell like rain, hitting the soldiers. In that instant, their open wound was closing at a speed visible to naked eyes.


    "He is a healer. Kill him first!" Ama shouted. "His strength should be lower than your average fighter."


    The three Mythical Rank Experts nodded and leaped toward the old man, preparing to eliminate him first.


    However, themander and hisrade arrived next to him, each stopping a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Thank you for healing us. We can take care of two of them at once, but I''m afraid you need to fight one of them." Themander nodded while releasing all his strength. "Hahaha! Not everything is going ording to your n, Amatard!"


    The old man acknowledged themander''s words before raising both arms, blocking a punch from a middle-aged man called Reaper Snake.


    But instead of a fist, the Reaper Snake opened his fingers, imitating a snake. When it hit the old man''s arms, the fingers prated the skin like a snake biting that arm.


    "Tsk." The old man leaped back while covering the wound with his water to heal them. He looked at this middle-aged man and said, "To think I would be hurt by someone far younger than me��"


    "Our talent is different." The Reaper Snake snorted.


    "Be careful. His blessinges from nji from Aboriginal Mythology. His fingers can even prate a shield, so if you''re not careful, he''s going to make a hole in your body." Themander shouted, warning the old man about his opponent.


    The old man smiled as he covered his arms with water. "Now, let''s see whether my healing power is stronger or you are faster��"

 Chapter 999 Checkmate

    <h4>Chapter 999 Checkmate</h4>


    "��" The Reaper Snake squinted his eyes while looking for another opportunity.


    The Supreme Rank Experts that this old guy brought with him had started fighting back to help the soldiers from the beasts'' onught. So, he thought he should target them first to break the entire formation.


    But Ama was the strategist of their Red Mouse. He should wait for his instruction first since Ama might have another n to deal with them.


    Hence, he charged forward and attacked the old man again.


    The old man smirked and stated, "You''re rushing this battle. You''re going to be screwed in ten minutes."


    The Reaper Snake''s expression turned grim, realizing they were nning to attack them in ten minutes. He couldn''t help but shout, "Ama. They''re going toe out in ten minutes�� No, because we have wasted a few minutes, it''s going to be around 7 minutes."


    "Got it." Ama smirked and raised his left hand. "In that case, let''s y with this��"


    Suddenly, a small firework appeared on his hand as he shot it into the sky.


    *Boom!*


    The fireworks shone brightly in the sky, but everyone knew it was a signal.


    Even an idiot knew Ama was signaling the people in this area to do something. And because he shot it to the sky to reach an even farther distance, there should be another group of elites that woulde to them.


    "��" The old man maintained his calm and shouted, "Don''t worry. Everything is going to be settled in the next ten minutes. We will stop them here."


    The Reaper Snake couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows, thinking, ''Why is this guy so foolish to give us such important information? If we know about their ambush, they won''t be able to�� Did they have another n?''


    His eyes nced left and right and found their expressions to be in despair.


    "Can we even hold out for another few minutes?"


    "How many people will being?"


    "How many people will die because of these few minutes?"


    "Can''t they hurry up?"


    The people from the Starry Group started losing hope because a signal like this might bring another Mythical Rank Expert or a group of Supreme Rank Experts. Even taking all these monsters and terrorists was all they could do; it was impossible to hold out if more people came.


    Little did they know, Ama wasughing inwardly since the signal was fake. There was no reinforcementing. He just wanted to shatter their confidence and feed them more despair.


    As expected from someone blessed by a Trickster God.


    Since he had confirmed the enemies'' condition, the Reaper Snake nned to give thest blow to devastate them by creating holes after holes in the old man''s body until he died. "In that case, I will kill you first."


    Thetter used his water to heal the wounds, but the Reaper Snake was stronger, as one would expect from a vice leader of a big terrorist group.


    "Kh��" After one minute, the old man had started panting, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the blood loss.


    "My Martial Arts are better than you, so you won''t be able to stop me from wounding you. Just give up, it''s useless��" The Reaper Snake snorted and charged forward, nning to finish him in five minutes.


    However, another surprise suddenly shook the battlefield.


    "I''m finally out!" His tone was cheerful, and his mask stopped anyone from seeing his face. However, everyone recognized this person.


    "Joker��"


    That was right; the person that came out of the cave was none other than Joker.


    Theo chuckled and waved his hands. "Ah, sorry. Those people are going to take longer�� I came out because I''m bored."


    "What?!"


    The entire battlefield was confused by Theo''s statement. It was clear that Theo alone wouldn''t be able to change the situation. In fact, if they captured Joker, they should be able to eliminate the rest of the Starry Group since Joker was a famous person in the US.


    Yet, thetter actually chuckled and said, "Why are you guys struggling like this? We''ve checkmated them."


    The people''s eyebrows twitched as though they heard the most ridiculous thing ever. It was clear that they were in a difficult situation because of these five Mythical Rank Experts, yet he had the audacity to state they had checkmated them.


    Ama was the first person tough. "Hahaha. You''re hrious as your reputation suggests, Joker! Since that''s the case, I won''t be killing you�� How about joining us instead? You can be my right hand man."


    "Hoh? If I agree, I won''t be killed?" Theo replied excitedly as if he wanted to switch sides to save himself.


    "Of course. You look like an amusing person, so I think it''s better if you follow me."


    "You must be the guy who orchestrated the entire thing." Theo nodded in agreement as though praising him.


    "Oi, Joker. Are you going to betray us?" The old man shouted in anger, never expecting there would be this unexpected betrayal.


    "Ohe on. Don''t do me dirty�� Betraying you? Do you think we''re from the same side? I''m from the Star Group and you''re from the Starry Group. Although ourpanies are rted, I am, by no means, yours." Theoughed. "If you all die here, no one will know what happened."


    "Hahaha. You''re truly amusing!" Amaughed, bing even more interested in Theo.


    "You bastard! What the hell are you saying? Take it back right now!" The old man gritted his teeth, never expecting to hear Theo spouting nonsense.


    "In that case, show your sincerity. I''m sure your strength is enough to kill these Supreme Rank Experts, right?" Ama smirked, trying to make Theopletely betray them because it would give another wave of despair to their hearts.


    "Indeed. Let''s kill these Supreme Rank Experts." Theo nodded in agreement as he looked around, choosing his targets.


    "You bastard! Don''t you dare to do it! I''m warning you!" The old man raised his voice even more so that it started cracking.


    Theo ignored his words and leaped toward a sh between two Supreme Rank Experts.


    "Haha, he''s going to help me." The terroristughed, staring at the soldier in front of him. He even exerted all his strength so that Theo could kill the soldier effortlessly. "Since you''re a new member, this is a gift for you."


    "What a generous person." Theo alsoughed as ifpletely blending with them. "In that case, let me take this free kill."


    Ama was still smiling while enjoying this farce, but he suddenly came to a realization of what Theo said. As expected from a trickster, he managed to realize Theo''s real intention sooner than anyone else.


    ''No. What did he say again? Checkmated? It''s not even five minutes and he''s already out without anyone apanying him�� No. This guy''s appearance must be the signal to��'' Ama was dumbstruck by the realization and shouted, "Wait. Dodge!"


    "Huh?" The terrorist was confused, but he was toote to react. Theo''s sword suddenly stopped right behind the soldier''s neck as it released a beam of sword light that looped around the neck and pierced the terrorist''s head.


    "What has just happened��" Every single person on the battlefield was confused.


    "This is truly a free kill�� What a generous person to offer his own life." Theo smirked and looked at Ama as though he had just won. "What an interesting person you are, Mr. Terrorist."


    When he understood Theo''s n, he started fuming in anger.


    As a trickster, he was usually the person that manipted the others. Yet, he just got yed by a youngster like him. It was too embarrassing.


    "You��!" He wanted to order the others to attack Theo, but a familiar woman''s voice overwhelmed all sorts of noises in the area.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "Sister!" Ama turned his head and saw his sister getting pinned down by a monkey. Thetter even ced his hand on her neck, preparing to crush it.


    "Don''t move, or she will die�� Luckily, you''re using the monsters around here to attack the military, or else I can''t infiltrate your rank." Theo smirked while giving the monkey a thumbs up, which got the same reply, annoying Ama even further.


    "You��!" Before he finished his words again, four shadows appeared next to Ama. They were none other than the remaining Mythical Rank Experts in this operation.


    In other words, the situation had been turned around by the moment Theo appeared.


    Theo simply pointed his finger at him while saying happily, "I have told you�� checkmate!"

 Chapter 1000 Way to Win

    <h4>Chapter 1000 Way to Win</h4>


    "��checkmate." Theo smiled.


    Ama gritted his teeth and turned around, preparing to throw himself.


    However, Brad and the other three Mythical Rank Experts definitely did their best to use this one chance to kill Ama.


    They all concentrated their power on Ama.


    Within a split second, five lights shone brightly in the sky: red, blue, green, ck, and yellow. With Ama''s darkness affinity, he created his own shadow while spreading it toward the other four, trying to block their attacks.


    However, Brad''s yellow lightning disintegrated the shadow, giving the opportunity for the other three to eliminate him.


    The leader of the Lowe Organization was the first one to attack him with his ice skill, freezing Ama''s right arm.


    As for the other two, they aimed for Ama''s heart and the other arm with their fire and wind skills.


    Still, Ama still managed to kick one of them in the stomach, resulting in him avoiding the worst scenario. Now that the one aiming at his heart was blown away, Ama jumped to the side while dodging thest Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Aaarrrggghhh!" Ama screamed in pain. Even though he managed to dodge thest guy from severing his other arm, the guy managed to ce that fire right on his stomach, spreading it until the me enveloped the entire body.


    Ama put down the me as soon as possible, but the me was so strong that half of his body was burned.


    The ice also melted but still brought the arm down.


    As expected from a Mythical Rank Expert like him, he managed to get away from this perfect ambush.


    However, he also lost his dominant arm and his body was half-burned. Even if he could get away, his fighting prowess would be limited in the future.


    Still, because he was known as a strategist who always created tricks after tricks to mess with the government, they knew the one person who wasn''t allowed to escape alive was him.


    Theo smirked when he saw this because his n had yet to end. Now that Ama had fallen from the falcon, Monkey Theo crushed the woman''s heart, killing Ama''s sister.


    "Aaahhh!" Herst voice resounded across the entire field, grabbing many people''s attention.


    But before anyone could react, Theo pointed his finger at the falcon while shouting, "The falcon over there. I''m sure you know what to do."


    Theo released his killing intent to make sure he grabbed the falcon''s attention.


    Theo''s intention was clear. Since the falcon wasn''t controlled by Ama anymore, he expected him to control the remaining monsters to kill the terrorists before retreating.


    And he even emphasized it by saying, "Pay up and you can leave this ce alive."


    The falcon didn''t have any hesitation when he let out a single cry, controlling the remaining monsters in the area.


    "What?!"


    "NO!"


    "Why is��"


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    All monsters in the area suddenly stopped attacking the army and its allies and turned around to kill the Supreme Rank Terrorists. It was at this time that the remaining Supreme Rank Experts from the Starry Group and the Lowe Organization appeared and ambushed the remaining enemies.


    This was Theo''s n of victory by turning around the situation with the least amount of casualties. The terrorists would be overwhelmed by their number.


    Of course, there were still five Mythical Rank Experts remaining. Since he wanted aplete victory, Theo pointed at those four in the sky as if telling them, ''It''s your turn.''


    Brad nodded and split up. Two of them chased after Ama and killed him, while the other two helped their Mythical Rank Experts and eliminated the rest of the Mythical Rank Terrorists.


    Meanwhile, Theo, who had been controlling the entire situation from the beginning, stood next to the entrance while sitting on the ground as if there was nothing he needed to do anymore.


    ''The Supreme Rank Terrorists will be eliminated soon after getting surrounded by 150 Supreme Rank Experts as well as hundreds of Supreme Rank Monsters�� As for the Mythical Rank Experts��'' Theo thought while narrowing his eyes.


    Even he had no confidence in killing the remaining Mythical Rank Experts.


    And as expected from the vice leader of the Red Mouse, he immediately shouted, "Retreat. We need to survive no matter what sacrifice needs to be made."


    They immediately scattered around while getting chased by the rest of the Mythical Rank Experts. Obviously, Brad also told them not to be around a Mythical Rank Expert because they might end up dying from a stray attack.


    With this, some of the Mythical Rank Terrorists should die while some would be heavily injured. This should be enough for a big achievement.


    This�� was Theo''s way of victory. He controlled these people while doing nothing other than observing the change on the battlefield.


    While killing Ama, Brad nced at Theo, finally realizing how scary Theo was. He still remembered watching how Theo provoked and scammed Winston. And what he did right now was simr.


    ''He controls the entire battlefield with just two tricks. Firstly, because he feared the enemies would use the terrain to kill them, he called the monkey and hid it in this area. That was when Ama came out while controlling the monsters��


    ''Without him realizing, Joker had put a spy in his army of monsters. All he needed to do was create a situation to capture Ama''s sister, who was also his woman.


    ''By doing that, he could create a one-second disruption for us to reach him�� Still, it''s scary�� Because he''s at the veryst line, he won''t need to fight many times. Instead of calling his monkey to help him fight, he uses his monkey to scout the area. This is what he means by preparing for the worst.


    ''And secondly, he didn''t tell a single lie in his sentence�� He just never said itpletely�� His words made Ama take a conclusion of his own instead of Joker''s promise. And because his words contained no lie, it was more believable.


    "With this victory, Joker and the Starry Group will greatly benefit from the government and the Lowe Organization. And the fact he came up with this kind of scheme on a fly makes it even scarier.


    ''To put it simply, he used Ama''s perfect scheme to get benefits for himself and the Starry Group while making sure not many people from our side die�� He''s a monster��


    ''Who the heck is he?''


    *******


    Author''s Note: 1000 Chapters Celebratory Art is on thement section.

 Chapter 1001 Information Broker?

    <h4>Chapter 1001 Information Broker?</h4>


    "We''re done here," Brad stated with a serious expression while checking his surroundings before giving the result to Theo. "We have killed all the terrorists except for two Mythical Rank Experts known as Ground Snake and Reaper Snake.


    "However, we have injured them enough so that they can''t even fight against us anymore. As for our casualties, four Supreme Rank Experts die, and two need to retire from their careers. Graham''s healing skills can handle the rest.


    "Is there anything you want me to do?" Brad asked.


    "Keep controlling the mass and don''t mention anything about me. There are a few people who know that I''m the one in charge here, but it''s better not to spread it to the entire group soon."


    "Why? You''re not going to take the credit for this one?"


    "There are only three people who need to know about this. Sir Bernard, Maya, and me. The rest are irrelevant." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, you should do your job instead of talking to me. And without you doing anything, Maya will surely get everything under control since it''s easy to ckmail them."


    "Regarding the miss��" Brad scratched the back of his head while looking at Theo with a wry smile.


    He still remembered how he kneeled to Theo. It was embarrassing, but everything was worth it if he didn''t lose his career over this. There was also the fact that Theo allowed him to take control of the situation, increasing his credit.


    If Theo forgot about all this matter, he swore he wouldn''t go against Theo anymore. After all, even the cunning Ama had fallen in his hand. There was no way a guy like him could withstand Theo''s wrath, especially with how close he was with Bernard and Maya.


    Brad then nodded to him before going to the rest of the group, talking to each individual because many things happened during this mission.


    On the contrary, Theo let out a long sigh while thinking, ''I guess he hasn''t figured out my identity. To be honest, if there are many people who know about this and the rumor starts to spread, I''m going to be in trouble.


    ''There are many people who will suspect me alive. I can use my current clone to do this, but it''s better not to use my trump card so soon.'' Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing his mistake.


    He was so excited fighting against another trickster that he didn''t hold back at all. At the same time, they would have more casualties if he held back, so Theo thought he was lucky in this mission.


    ''I should have been more careful�� There are still more than two years before I can go back to Italy.'' Theo sighed while thinking, ''I wonder what kind of mission I will have next year? I don''t think I''m going to participate in the banquet anymore, so I will have time to raise my level and practice.


    ''Also, Felix wille next year. I don''t have any job for him right now, but I guess I can have him train his daughter for the time being while giving me some techniques as an assassin.''


    Theo started pondering his next move after he returned to the US.


    While thinking, the rest packed up their belongings and equipment. And as promised, they didn''t touch a single monster.


    The General ss Falcon also forbade anyone from attacking the three organizations, allowing them to leave this ce easily.


    The falcon even thanked them because he managed to escape from Ama''s control.


    After clearing up the area, they finally made their way back to the other side.


    Obviously, Brad sent a report to Maya about the sudden attack and Theo''s involvement. Theo already stated he didn''t mind if Maya knew about his achievement, so Brad didn''t hold back in the report.


    He told everything from the very start. There was an opportunity for him to take credit, but if Theo actually reported his behavior to Bernard, the matter would be moreplicated.


    As one would expect from Maya, she took the opportunity without hesitation after reading the report.


    Maya promised to talk to him about this matter when he returned to America, so Theo didn''t bother her anymore.


    Surprisingly, instead of Maya, there was someone that messaged him. It was from an unknown number, but when he took a look at the message, he understood who he was.


    ''Master. I want to inform you that my daughter has a sign of improvement, so your treatment was truly sessful. As you said, I''m going to prepare to move to your mansion as soon as I have handled the situation here.''


    ''And I would like to apologize for investigating your background�� From that, I have grasped a bit of your n.


    ''From what I have found so far, including what you said to me, I believe you want a trusted subordinate who hasn''t joined any organizations yet. Their background must be clean, and they will need to offer their full loyalty to you.


    ''If that''s the case, I have a person in mind. I worked with him a few times, and in my opinion, he''s a unique person.


    ''He''s an information broker that has been running his business for a while. However, he never asked for money. Every time I went to him, he always asked me to show my strength as if he was obsessed with it.


    ''I am not very sure myself, but I believe he has something he wants�� I n to visit him before going to you because I think I can convince him with Master''s unique ability. What do you think, Master?''


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw this message. Although he understood Felix''s personality, he still couldn''tpletely believe him for a matter like this yet.


    ''Well, this is useful information, but I don''t know about this guy yet. Maybe I should ask him about this guy''s full information and ask Agata to investigate him. If it matches, maybe I should go to this guy myself��'' Theo thought before replying to his message. ''Information broker, eh��''


    "You don''t need to. When the time is right, I will visit him personally. For now, you can go straight to my ce, and we can talk about this matter face to face after you''ve arrived.


    "And even though I''m your boss, you don''t need to call me ''Master,'' just ''Joker.'' I will also call you Felix to make it easier for us tomunicate.'' Theo muttered while typing the same words that he spoke. "Send."

 Chapter 1002 Reward

    <h4>Chapter 1002 Reward</h4>


    "Hahaha. You''re truly great!" Maya''sugh echoed inside the room.


    Theo, who was opening the door to Bernard''s office, paused for a moment and looked around to find Bernard.


    Aftering back from the other side, the Lowe Organization and the military kept apologizing to them because they would have been exterminated due to theirck of information.


    The two of them couldn''t even do anything if the Starry Group didn''t turn the situation around. That was why none of the people who participated in that war could raise their heads high like how they looked down on Theo.


    The Lowe Organization suffered more than half of its number, and the military sustained simr damage. Only the Starry Group managed to escape with only a few people dying.


    Obviously, the people from the Starry Group looked at them with contempt and returned to America with that pride.


    Now that they had returned, Theo went straight to the Star Group office to finalize the agreement of his stay for the next few months.


    And to think Maya would be joining them, Theo was startled by her loud voice.


    "I''m satisfied with your performance in this mission. I was skeptical at first since there should be no reason to send you there, but I guess that was a good decision." Bernard turned his chair around and chuckled. "Good job."


    "Any bonus for me?" Theo smirked.


    "Before that, let me give you these first." Maya handed him a few books and exined, "These are the breathing techniques of ourpanies. You can see which one suits you the most."


    "Oh." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Though, I wonder what kind of bonus you''re nning to give me�� I have saved your people. Even you won''t escape unscathed if you lose all those people, especially with the additional conflict that will happen with these two organizations."


    "Indeed. I don''t want to admit it, but fighting against the Lowe Organization and the government is not a wise thing to do. And now, youe back with a big bonus for me. I can take advantage of the situation to squeeze them dry." Maya nodded in understanding.


    "For that, how about I give you a set of the armor you wanted back then? I heard it from my father." Bernard asked, interjecting their conversation.


    "Ah." Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I guess I can ept it. Two billion Zils worth of equipment�� Well, I don''t mind it being a bonus."


    "Of course, I''m not going to treat you badly since I can get more than ten times that amount. At least ten percent of it belongs to you�� So, if you have any requests, you can just tell me," said Maya while wondering what kind of item Theo wanted. She thought about getting more A Rank Cards, but Theo hadn''t mentioned anything about it recently, so she hadn''t bought them yet.


    "In that case, I have two demands. Firstly, I want your cooperation. I will tell you the detailster. As for the second matter�� Can you use the rest of the money to get some information about a certain person?" Theo asked, thinking this was a good time to check the guy Felix mentioned.


    Agata and Felix would give him some information, but he wouldn''t reject more information. After all, he needed to make sure they could be trusted.


    "Ho? Who''s that guy?" Maya squinted her eyes before ncing at her father, who was more adept in information gathering.


    "He''s an information broker as well." Theo shrugged, fully aware his request didn''t make sense.


    "The information about an information broker��" Maya asked her father, "I think it''s hard for me since my informationwork isn''t as powerful as my father��"


    "Sure. I don''t really mind." Bernard nodded, epting the request. "That kind of money can give you all his information unless he''s an important person. I''ll just allocate the amount to my people."


    "Okay." Theo was satisfied with the arrangement.


    "Now that I have thought about it, didn''t you want to go to Australia to find out their fighting style? Why did youe back with the rest of the group?"


    "Don''t worry about that. I already got what I wanted." Theo waved his hand nonchntly.


    "What you wanted��" Bernard squinted his eyes and took a random guess. "Your own group?"


    Theo smiled. "As expected from Sir Bernard."


    "Looking at your appetite, a small Supreme Rank Expert surely couldn''t pique your interest. In that case, your real reason to go to Australia was to recruit a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "Is that a problem?"


    "Not really. You are affiliated with thispany, but we won''t restrict your action. Of course, if you have two jobs, you need to prioritize thepany."


    "Yes. I don''t really mind that. Also, I want them to stay with me in that mansion. Is it possible for you to arrange it?"


    "I can help you with the green card. As for the mansion, you can invite anyone you like, even some girls from the street. As long as you are affiliated with us, that mansion is yours."


    "Okay. Thank you for the help."


    "No problem. I should be the one thanking you."


    "Eh? Maya aside, why do you need to thank me?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Well, as a father, I need to take care of my darling daughter, including herpany. But�� we made a bet when you were in Australia. Since she has lost, hehe��" Bernard chuckled while ncing at Maya with a sly face.


    It was clear from his face that he already had a n for the bet.


    "Ahaha, I''m not going to meddle in your family business." Theo took a step back and said, "If we''re done here, I should return to my mansion as soon as possible. I can''t afford to have anyone following me after all."


    "Okay. I will send everything to your mansionter. As for the stay, you can chill in your mansion until March."


    "Got it." After saying goodbye to them, Theo left the room, heading straight to his mansion.


    And as expected, he could feel some gaze on him even though he was inside the car. But luckily, nothing happened until he reached his mansion.

 Chapter 1003 Learning about Breathing

    <h4>Chapter 1003 Learning about Breathing</h4>


    As soon as he reached the mansion, Theo headed to his room. In the next four months, he had decided to focus on three things.


    The first would be his Supernatural Snake Body and Endurance. This would be an important card to y because he would get the special armor of the Star Group. If his physical body couldn''t keep up with the armor''s durability, he would be in a serious problem.


    The second was his Breathing. He had gathered a few Breathing Techniques from Maya, so he wanted to read them while lying down on his bed. The trip this time was pretty exhausting after all.


    Thest thing he wanted to focus on was his Order. Although he managed to alter a bit of the Magic Power, he was still far too weak.


    These three would be his main focus, considering his Awareness and Control had been increasing at a good pace.


    "Hmm, my Control is close to the peak�� But there seems to be thest hurdle that I need to pass. There is one big difference between Grandmaster Level Force Control and Perfect Control.


    "At Perfect Control, you can simply move Magic Power like a part of your body. I have been using my Magic Power like ying a controller, but I don''t know how to proceed to thest step.


    "I can simply get some tutors to give me guidance on my Control, but�� I think I want tobine my Control with my Order first.


    "Now that I think about it, the Five Aspects can bebined with Order. Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance�� I have seen these five fused with Order.


    "Instead of focusing on reaching Perfect Control, I should get used to my Order first," Theo muttered while looking at the book''s description.


    He was about to learn more about these breathing techniques.


    Geyser Breathing Technique.


    ''There are three main points to choosing a breathing technique. They are Magic Power Cirction, Magic Power Release, and Magic Power Vessel.''


    ''Magic Power Cirction refers to its continual flow around the body. The flow can be different depending on the technique. They can flow from the head to the feet before going outside your body or vice versa. Depending on the cirction, you can make a part of your body a dominant force.''


    ''Magic Power Release means the rate of Magic Powering from your body. It can be mild, it can be nonexistent, or it can erupt to give birth to explosive power. If you wish to strengthen your body, you need to maintain that Magic Power inside your body. This type is usually famous among people who choose Endurance as their main aspect.''


    ''Magic Power Vessel means the amount of energy you can control with the Breathing Technique. This one relies heavily on the other two features because you need to have a big vessel if you want explosive power. On the other hand, if you want a quick cirction, you definitely want to have a smaller vessel.''


    ''This Geyser Breathing Technique is an eruption technique. These are the statistics of this Breathing Technique out of ten.''


    ''Magic Power Cirction - 3''


    ''Magic Power Release - 9''


    ''Magic Power Vessel - 7''


    ''Its Magic Power Cirction is weak, but the path ends in the hand, so this Breathing Technique is perfect for a melee user because it can give an explosive power when fighting.''


    ''This Breathing Technique has a long interval, so its recharge speed is quite low, meaning you won''t be able to use the release too often. However, each time you release your Magic Power, the explosive power is bigger than your average technique. That kind of power requires sacrificing the amount of Magic Power that can be recharged at a time.''


    ''As for the Magic Power Vessel, because the recharge speed is low and the Magic Power Cirction is quite weak, the Breathing Technique can get a bigger power vessel, giving a bigger eruption.''


    After reading this introduction, Theo squinted his eyes and muttered, "Well, three important details, and each of them has its own use and characteristics.


    "For Magic Power Cirction, it seems the cirction pattern, cirction rate, and cirction stability are important. The cirction pattern determines the main point of the breathing technique, while thest two are basically the opposite of each other. The faster the rate, the more unstable it is��


    "Meanwhile, the release has power, interval, and recharge speed. The bigger the power, the longer the interval and vice versa.


    "Last but not least, the vessel�� is the bnce between the cirction and the release. I can understand this one." Theo nodded with a serious expression before imagining his current power. "I am a fighter but also an illusionist.


    "As a fighter, I need an eruption power like this one. However, as an illusionist, I require mild and stable cirction since I want my illusion to be stable and unnoticeable. That''s why I don''t know which one to choose."


    Theo thought for a moment before asking, "If you don''t mind me asking, could you tell me what kind of breathing technique you will teach me in the future? And is it possible for me to get a different type of breathing technique right now?"


    [It''s a breathing technique of an illusionist. You already have understood the concept, so I won''t exin the technique. As for your other question, it''s possible. However, the breathing technique will change your breathing pattern, so it will be hard to change it.]


    "So, you suggest taking a breathing technique that fits an illusionist?" Theo asked.


    [It''s your choice. Besides, it will be easy for you to learn something new.]


    "But changing one habit is hard, especially if it''s breathing that is likee and go��" Theo let out a long sigh, albeit he didn''t get any more answers since they had talked about the most important stuff.


    Theo thought for a moment and decided to read the other breathing techniques first before picking a breathing technique.

 Chapter 1004 Silent Forest Breathing

    <h4>Chapter 1004 Silent Forest Breathing</h4>


    "Hmm, as expected, I have two choices right now. The Geyser Breathing Technique suits me as a fighter because I can use that eruption of power as the boost for my Thunderp Fist or Magic Augmentation.


    "Meanwhile, I can use Silent Forest Breathing Technique as an illusionist. It has a good cirction and mild Magic Power release, giving stability that makes an illusion hard to break.


    "This is a hard choice. On one hand, I can get another technique in the future, so I can use something that suits my current style for at least the next two years�� On the other hand, the other technique gives me stability to the point I don''t need to change my breathing too much when I learn his Breathing Technique.


    "Though I am also wondering why they''re naming it like this instead of apletely new name? Whatever. That''s not important." Theo muttered while thinking hard, pondering over his choice.


    "I''m going to match my own Order, I guess. My main power in the future will be my Order, so I think this one is better." Theo sighed, choosing the Silent Forest Breathing Technique.


    Theo had already realized that the Five Aspects were connected to each other. So, this Breathing Technique alsoplimented him on a few points. The first would be his overall stability which the technique directly offered.


    Meanwhile, his Endurance also received a stable Magic Power from this technique, allowing him to constantly protect his own body with the Magic Power. The defense wouldn''t be strong, but if he added the new equipment, his defense wouldn''t be a problem anymore.


    However, he also lost the opportunity to use the burst of Magic Power to amplify his Death Eyes, sending a more powerful killing intent to shake the enemy''s heart.


    "Well, every choice has its own advantages and disadvantages. I only need to live with it." Theo shrugged before realizing something. "Now that I think about it, I don''t have this kind of problem with the Control.


    "I feel like the knowledge about Control suits me perfectly�� And I heard that it actually came from my father��" Theo squinted his eyes. There was aplex emotion in his heart.


    "I shouldn''t think much about it��" He shook his head and got some rest before continuing his training.


    The air gradually turned chilly as they approached Christmas.


    However, it didn''t bother Theo as he kept practicing every day. He didn''t care whether it was snowing or not.


    The time flew by in the blink of an eye.


    Theo finally adjusted his breathing ording to the Silent Forest Breathing Technique.


    Just like any other aspects, Breathing also had three stages. They were Burst, Innate Regeneration, and Unlimited Regeneration.


    After adjusting to the current breathing technique, Theo managed to release the pent-up Magic Power inside his body. This step was called Burst.


    But as one would expect from a technique that suited an illusionist, the eruption was weak. It didn''t bring as much advantage as Theo thought.


    The next step would be Innate Regeneration. There was one big step that he needed to take before reaching this step.


    It was to mix between the magic power from his body and the environment.


    By using the breathing technique, he should be able to turn a portion of the Magic Power into his own, regenerating the Magic Power he spent. Hence, it was named Innate Regeneration.


    When he could raise the efficiency to 100%, he would reach the peak of Innate Regeneration. At that time, he could gradually assimte the Magic Power in his body and the one in the environment.


    Hence, it would be the same as him using the Magic Power from the air, which was limitless. At that time, he would reach the Unlimited Generation.


    These were the three stages of Breathing. Even Theo couldn''t imagine what kind of impact this level would bring to his illusion.


    Unfortunately for him, he had yet to reach Innate Regeneration. Changing his breathing patterns was pretty tricky. It took him two months to make this Silent Forest Breathing Technique his way of breathing.


    ��


    Australia.


    Felix and Millie were standing in front of the house they had used for a long time. There was a sense of nostalgia since this house had so many memories.


    Unlike the previous weak Millie, the color on her skin had returned and she also had gained most of her weight back.


    In fact, she had grown into a beautiful youngdy. Her eyes had traces of kindness because she had suffered and experienced so much in the past two years.


    "February�� We have made Joker wait for three months." Millie smiled while ncing at her father. After talking a bit more with Joker, they decided to address each other casually. She was kind of anticipating living together with her savior and finally putting rest on her father''s worry.


    "It''s going to be apletely different country." Felix nodded while looking at her with worry, wondering if she could adapt to that ce.


    "Don''t worry, Father. This time I will be safe. You don''t need to worry about me." Millie smiled. "I have endured those, so I don''t think I will need to be scared of other things."


    "Right?" Felix made a wry smile before patting her head.


    The five disciples came out of the house to see them off. Even though they had prepared for this day, it was quite hard for them to ept it as well.


    However, every single one of them stood in front of the gate with tears flowing down their cheeks.


    "Master. Please enjoy your new home."


    "Make sure you eat well."


    "We won''t forget about your teaching."


    "That''s right. We won''t ever forget about the care you have given us."


    "This debt will be repaid in the future."


    "Then��" The five of them suddenly lowered their heads in unison while saying, "Thank you for everything you have done for us."


    "You guys��" Felix''s expression had mellowed a lot to the point he shared more smiles with them. He patted their heads for a while before holding Millie''s hand as they finally walked away. "Goodbye and�� take care."

 Chapter 1005 Their Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 1005 Their Arrival</h4>


    "Hello? Sir Joker, I have received two guests iming to be your acquaintance."


    "A middle-aged man and a youngdy?"


    "Yes."


    "They are my guests. Can I trouble you to escort them here?"


    "Understood. I will escort them to your mansion right now."


    "Thank you." Theo hung up the call from the security at the gate of their housingplex.


    He had been anticipating their arrival, so he was quite curious about what kind of transformation the two had.


    Meanwhile, Felix and Millie were escorted by security in a car.


    "Woah, there are so many huge houses. Each of them has a vast garden too��" Millie looked through the windows, admiring the houses in this area.


    "You will be able to get a mansion like this if you keep getting stronger." Felix smiled and patted her head. As a Mythical Rank Expert, it was normal for him to live in this kind of house.


    However, he was just a simple man. Even when he lived with his wife, he didn''t squander their money with this kind of house so that they could enjoy their livester.


    So, he had expected Millie''s reaction and was cool with it.


    They reached Theo''s mansion not long after with Theo standing in the garden as he had been practicing, ignoring the snow that covered his garden.


    "This is��" Millie looked at the gate in awe.


    As if feeling their presence, Theo used his Telekinesis to open the gate as he stopped his practice and went to meet them.


    "You''vee." Theo nodded, greeting them.


    "I apologize for making you wait for too long." Felix apologized before stating, "But yes, I havee with Millie. Thank you for receiving us."


    "I apologize for not greeting you back then," Millie spoke politely, trying to do all the things she couldn''t do previously. "My name is Millie Holt. I''d like to thank you for treating my curse. I won''t ever forget your kindness."


    Theo smiled and nodded. "It''s been three months, and you seem to have grown healthier."


    "Of course. I ate as much as possible to gain all the weight I had lost. My father also helped me with the nutrition and exercise." Millie nodded with a smile before pumping her fists as if she was even ready for a fight.


    "Millie. Don''t be rude." Felix reprimanded her since Theo was still her savior.


    "Hahaha!" Theo chuckled. "I don''t mind. Talking politely is tiring, so just be at ease when you''re with me."


    Felix scratched the back of his head while Millie continued smiling, realizing Theo was truly not like how the rumor described him.


    "Come in. Let''s talk inside." Theo waved his hand and invited them in before closing the gate with his Telekinesis.


    When she saw the empty mansion, she asked with an innocent face. "Is there no one else in this ce?"


    "Millie��" Felix narrowed his eyes.


    "No. Because of personal reasons, I don''t like to have people around in my house. Though, I do let the staffe in to clean the house once a week." Theo answered her with a calm expression.


    "I see. I can do some cleaning and other household chores. Bing a freeloader in this house doesn''t sit right for me." Millie offered her own service since Theo originally wanted only her father, not her.


    Theo waved his hand, rejecting the idea. "It''s fine. Let the staff do their jobs. As for you, take your time to get stronger as soon as possible. That way, you can make your father feel relieved. That''s the most useful job for you right now."


    "I see." Millie looked down, contemting her choices.


    Meanwhile, Felix asked, "Do you have any job for me?"


    "Not at the moment. In fact, you can just focus on training her while adapting to the new environment. I''m going to ask for your help in the near future, but you can just enjoy your life and take care of your daughter for now."


    "I understand." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    "Though, I might require your assistance in teaching me many things about Australia, especially any unique fighting style from there."


    "That is fine with me, but are you alright with only that?"


    "Yeah. You have been taking care of your daughter for years, so it''s best for you to get back in shape for now. When I do need your assistance, I will ask you."


    Felix agreed without hesitation. There was no problem with Theo''s request. However, he also needed to state a few things. "In the past, I always chose my targets�� I wouldn''t target any innocent people even though I got many requests like eliminating an elderly to get their inheritance, killing a talented rising star to avoid future problems, or crippling people.


    "I have sworn my loyalty to you, so you can order me anything." Felix lowered his head. Although he was a bit ufortable about that request, he wanted to fulfill his promise.


    "I know you only killed people that deserved to die. I''d investigated you after all. Yet, despite knowing that fact, I still came to you." Theo nced at him. "I prepared for that stuff a long time ago, Felix. So, you don''t need to mind. I don''t do this type of thing easily."


    "I see." Felix smiled, feeling relieved.


    "Now that I think about it, I haven''t asked about your level yet. I also don''t know what to expect from your power."


    "Ah, that��" Felix paused for a moment. "My level is 815. I''ve mastered Awareness and Breathing. With my light affinity, I can distort a bit of light to hinder my opponent''s vision. I can also increase my speed under the sunlight. That''s why I don''t do my job during the night that often."


    "Are you okay with your father doing this kind of job?" Theo then turned to Millie.


    "Yes. My father has a clear line, so I can''t really say anything. This is the same situation as a mother selling her body to get money for her kid�� There''s no way I can hate my father. Of course, if my father killed innocent people like elders or kids, even I don''t know what to say."


    "I see. How about you tell me your power and level too?" Theo asked.


    "My level is 30 since I haven''t done anything in the past two years, where it''s usually the start of leveling up. I haven''t learned anything about my Five Aspects, but I do have something that might be useful for you."


    "Hoh? What''s that?"


    "I have a blessing from a man called Albert Gonzalez. He was known as a notorious hacker. I have been working with this kind of stuff since I was 7, so yeah��" Millie gently rubbed her cheek, feeling embarrassed. "I can do some stuff to get some information."

 Chapter 1006 Double-Edged Sword

    <h4>Chapter 1006 Double-Edged Sword</h4>


    "A hacker?" Theo widened his eyes as this one job piqued his interest.


    "Yes." Millie nodded her head, showing him that she wouldn''t freeload in this house.


    "She learned it from my wife." Felix finally opened his mouth while sighing.


    "Now that I think about it��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. Felix was an assassin. Marrying someone in his line of work was quite normal, so he shouldn''t be surprised if Felix married a fellow assassin, an information broker, or even a hacker.


    And it seemed Millie had been taught by his wife and had some talents in it. He took out his Skylink and found the name of Albert Gonzalez. He was truly a notorious hacker, and his position was among the top.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "I see. That''s kinda intriguing."


    "Yes. I believe I can help you with some information gathering and other stuff." Millie nodded. "I''m not as good as an information broker, but I can hack some low-security websites to gain some information. Also, my skill is not there yet, but I can make a secure connection so that you can call anyone for a long time without getting tapped."


    "I see. A good potential indeed." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "But my father was against it this whole time because it''s very dangerous. If I actually continued my career, I should be able to know the curse ising��" She sighed.


    "This is dangerous. Do you know that it''s easy for you to get tracked and attacked by them? I have been working in this field for a long time, so I know how bad it can be." Felix scratched the back of his head, reprimanding her.


    Theo understood his worry, so he said, "Anyway, whatever job you want, I won''t really restrict you. But you should know this one�� Without power, you''re nothing."


    Millie fell silent and looked down with a sad expression.


    Theo smiled and patted her shoulder, continuing, "That''s why for now, you should get stronger first to the point your father doesn''t need to worry about you anymore. At that time, no one can stop you from doing anything you want."


    Theo didn''t stop her from having that kind of job. However, he also needed to take care of her like his father''s wish.


    Hence, he dyed that process for a bit while adding the security for herself. This should be enough for her father''s approval.


    "Mhm." Millie timidly nodded her head. She realized she hadn''t thought that far and immediately looked at her father. "Sorry, Father. Please teach me how to be stronger."


    When he saw her acting like this, he couldn''t help but nod his head. "I understand."


    Theo smiled and waved his hand. "Your room is on the next floor. I have prepared two rooms next to each other."


    "Thank you." Felix smiled. Once again, he felt grateful for Theo''s kindness. It seemed he didn''t follow the wrong man.


    Theo led them to their own room and left them alone.


    Now that he had gained his firstrade, he nned to move to the next one.


    As expected from a person who dealt with information, it was hard to find information about him. Even Agata only sent him a few pieces of information, confirming what Felix mentioned to him.


    Meanwhile, Bernard sent moreplete information, revealing when he started to change. It was said the information broker changed the moment he met the top expert in Australia.


    That man ranked among the top 100 experts in the world, called Thomas Thompson. He was a powerful man with a fire affinity. It was said that his me could burn everything.


    With that just one case, Theo immediately understood what that man sought from Thomas.


    "Order��The power that''s beyond everyone''s imagination." Theo narrowed his eyes while scratching the back of his head. "Still, is it fine for me to disclose that kind of information? I have promised to stay quiet about the Orders because it''s a huge secret.


    "Even the report stated he was disappointed because Thomas kept rejecting their meeting afterward. Thomas seemed to have kept the secret by maintaining the distance between them.


    "The only reason he asked people to show their power was the different colors of Magic Power. My Magic Power has a golden color�� But I have learned a technique to hide it.


    "Unless I''m intentionally revealing it, no one will realize this color��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "But the fact he kept asking others to show their powers is bothering me. There are two possible reasons.


    "First, Thomas has weak control over the technique to hide his power, resulting in him finding the true color of the Magic Power. However, there is also a possibility of him having no technique to hide it.


    "As for the second reason�� He might purposely leak it while releasing his power, leading to the obsession. Either way, this is a double-edged sword for me. Although it''s true that I want someone loyal to me, if they''re going to put me in danger, I need to carefully consider it.


    "After all, one wrong move might lead the King ss Monsters as well as World ss Monsters hunting me down." Theo sighed and looked at the symbols on his hands. "These symbols won''t be enough to protect me."


    Theo was wondering what he should choose. In the end, he believed it was not easy for him to uncover the Order, so he decided to wait for the time being.


    It was rare for someone to have an Order in this world, so there was a low chance for those people toe to the guy just to show their Order.


    "Yeah. I shouldn''t act recklessly even though I''m desperate to have more people." Theo scratched the back of his head. "I should focus on getting Isaac first. He should be in trouble right now because of the information�� As for his breaking point, it should be on the trip to Antis�� I''m looking forward to it."

 Chapter 1007 According to the Plan

    <h4>Chapter 1007 ording to the n</h4>


    As Theo predicted, Isaac definitely didn''t have a good time. His Skylink had been filled with messages from many people. Most of them were unknown to the point he thought they were just an AI programmed to mess with him.


    "Kh." Isaac gritted his teeth. Even though he had been ignoring these messages, the situation became worse because he didn''t respond.


    His house would be struck by eggs, but there was no one that could be found outside. Even the police couldn''t help him.


    While clutching his head, he stared at the massive words painted on his wall overnight.


    "Give the full information!"


    People had been terrorizing him with all these threats. Even when he used his money to hire some experts, they would leave and return the money to him. Some even left with the money, clearly robbing him.


    "What is happening to me�� Joker announced the information and guaranteed my safety. But this�� I can''t live with this." Isaac stared at the words in horror. "What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment? I already told them that I would give more information after some research.


    "Weren''t they supposed to aim for Joker instead of me? Joker''s words had been spot on this whole time, but��" Isaac gritted his teeth, not understanding what happened to him.


    Little did he know, Theo''s words might indeed be true, but from Theo''s perspective. Theo indeed became the target of many, but because of the Star Group as well as the safety of his housingplex, none of them dared to terrorize him.


    They could only do it through Sk, which Theopletely ignored.


    This became the reason for them shifting their anger to Isaac. Unfortunately, Isaac couldn''t understand Theo''s words perfectly and see through his n.


    He had yet to realize that making a deal with Theo was the same as making a deal with a devil. Maya and other people in the past had been very careful but still got taken advantage of, let alone Isaac.


    In his mind, Theo still kept his part of the agreement, which was the truth. Hence, he also wanted to fulfill his own side of the contract.


    However, even hiding inside his home, he still had a hard time doing it.


    "Is this the world of the rich?"


    "Can I even do this?"


    "Won''t it be better if I just give up the information?"


    "But at that time, Joker will be the one to hunt me. We also have an agreement to go to Antis together."


    "And Joker also hadn''t gone out for months. ording to him, the Star Group''s CEO banned him from leaving his mansion for four months because of what happened."


    "His situation should be worse, but he has a backer that would protect him."


    "Do I need to join the Star Group first to get their protection?"


    Isaac was trying toe up with a n, but nothing came to his mind. He didn''t even know what he should do at this point.


    He always had bad dreams when he slept. And it had been three days since hest slept.


    "What do I need to do now? Should I contact the Star Group right now? But��" Isaac gritted his teeth and looked around, finding his Skylink lying on the ground.


    Out of nowhere, Joker''s mask appeared in Isaac''s mind as if reminding him there was another person that he could rely on.


    Working with Joker should have more freedom than working from the Star Group or any otherpanies. At the same time, he would also get a massive benefit since he didn''t need to hand a portion of his belongings to thepany.


    "Should I ask Joker for help?" Isaac narrowed his eyes while scratching his head. He was too stressed by the terror to the point that his fingers instinctively called his number.


    Soon, Theo picked up the call, and his voice echoed like a ray of light shining upon the darkness. "Hello?"


    "Hello, Joker. I need your help."


    "Huh? Is something wrong?"


    Isaac was too desperate to exin as he immediately shouted, "Just take me away from here. Do you want to work with me again? Let me sleep in your mansion. I will help you with something."


    "Come on. Calm yourself down first." Theo replied with a soothing tone, trying to push away Isaac''s worry. "I have made sure that your life won''t be in danger. So, calm down and start telling me what happened."


    "Actually��" Isaac hesitated for a moment before exining his situation.


    After a while, the mood became down again as Theo let out a long sigh. "I see."


    "Can I stay in your mansion?"


    "Sorry, but I don''t think I can help you with this. You and I are just business partners, nothing more. Although I want to help you, it''s impossible for you to stay here with me. After all, you''re a third party."


    "Come on. I''m sure you can do it. Someone at your level should have some authority to bring another person to your mansion."


    "I mean, even other Mythical Rank Experts here are hosting their own family, not a stranger. Nheless, this area is only for those from the Star Group."


    "Please. Can you do something for me? I will be extremely grateful."


    "I truly have no means in our current rtionship. I can''t afford to invite someone like you here."


    "Current rtionship?" Suddenly, Isaac picked up something important that he could take advantage of, unaware that it was exactly the trap Theo hadid down for him. "What should I do to live there? I am sure you have a way."


    "Well, I have two people living with me. They''re from Australia. Though, they''re more like a family to me since the older one is kinda my direct subordinate who can help me with stuff, while the younger one is his daughter. But still, we''re business partners. I don''t want to take away the equal part in our rtionship��" Theo sighed.


    "I don''t mind. How about I be your subordinate? It''s not like I will suffer more than working for the Star Group or otherpanies." Isaac smiled as this oue was what he had hoped for.


    "Are you serious? As my subordinate, you should help me without fear. Although splitting everything we get is not a problem, you need to know that it''s going to be dangerous with me."


    "What''s the power of your subordinate?"


    "He''s a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "How about the split?"


    "Simr to our previous cooperation. Any further split will be negotiated. Though, you need to follow my arrangement for the rest of the stuff."


    ''Perfect!'' Isaac thought as his expression brightened. He paused for a moment as though he was pondering his choice. This would give Theo an impression that he had thought about it clearly, improving the weight of his statement. "I don''t mind working for you."


    "Are you serious? You should think about it more."


    "This is a big investment. I''m sure you are going to be far stronger in the future. So, my life should be safe when working for you."


    "This is a lifetime promise, you know. If you betray me or leave me, I''m going to hunt you down."


    "��" Isaac suddenly fell silent.


    Theo took this time to add, "Besides, I can''t leave my mansion for another two weeks. You should think about this carefully in the next two weeks. If you still haven''t changed your mind, I will immediately go to your ce to pick you up the moment I am allowed to leave. How''s that?"


    Isaac thought for a moment before agreeing.


    Theo then hung up as he smiled and returned to his practice.


    Since he was training in the garden with Felix and Millie, Theo immediately stated with confidence. "I will need your help soon, Felix."


    "I''m ready."

 Chapter 1008 Millie’s Idea

    <h4>Chapter 1008 Millie''s Idea</h4>


    A few weekster.


    March had finally arrived. It was the time Theo had been waiting for.


    Without hesitation, Theo called Bernard and asked, "You don''t mind if I go out now, right?"


    "Of course. The situation has be calmer. Although we needed to reveal a bit of your information to appease the mass, it wouldn''t be disadvantageous for you. In fact, we didn''t even reveal much because we had a long time to distribute it."


    "Is there anything I need to be careful of?"


    "Not at the moment. The beggars might be on you, but your identity won''t be as important as when it started."


    "Fair enough. Well, no one is nning to assassinate me, right?"


    "I don''t know. You might want to bring that Mythical Rank Expert with you."


    "That''s the n." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Still, to think you would leave your mansion right after the ban is lifted. Are you nning for something big again?"


    "I''m just picking up someone since I''m nning to leave to the other side soon to get some levels. I want to be at least level 600 before going to Antis, you know." Theoined about not being able to level up during the past four months. It was too long for him.


    "I know, I know. If that''s the case, you can go out. I''m just afraid that something will happen to you on the other side."


    "I will take care of myself there." Theo nodded. "Besides, I should have taken a mission from you soon�� The local one."


    "Just go to thepany. I have a special request for you."


    "That''s interesting. I''m looking forward to it then. Is there anything else I need to know?"


    "Not at the moment. I will inform you as soon as somethinges up. Your identity is quite sensitive after all."


    "Okay." Theo then hung up as he wore a long-sleeved blue shirt and long ck pants. This was the armor that Bernard sent not long ago. It was even apanied by a long jacket that reached his knees for extra protection.


    Although they were quite heavy, Theo had been adjusting himself with this equipment so that it wouldn''t hinder his movement anymore.


    Even Felix helped him to check how much the equipment could handle since he didn''t want to trust it so much that he would suddenly lose his arm.


    Of course, a hood had been added to the jacket because Theo needed it to protect his hair color. Although he could confuse them with his Metamorphosis, he didn''t want to expose this one yet.


    After preparing himself like always, Theo then met with Felix in the garden, preparing to go to pick up Isaac.


    "Are you sure about this?" Theo asked.


    "As long as he doesn''t have any perverted intentions towards my daughter, I don''t really care." Felix shrugged.


    "Maybe we should get a female expert next." Theo thought for a moment.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, how many people do you want to have?"


    "I''m not sure. It''s just going to be a small group of elites�� so, between 10 to 15."


    "Will all of them be Mythical Rank Experts?"


    "At least 10 of them must be Mythical Rank Experts," Theo exined.


    "I see. That size alone is enough to make a hugepany since not many organizations have that many Mythical Rank Experts." Felix nodded, giving his opinion seriously. "Though, a bigpany like the Star Group has at least 30 Mythical Rank Experts��"


    "Yeah. But I''m going to bring you from all over the world. So, I guess it''s fine?" Theo shrugged, remembering that the War God Family also had more than 20 Mythical Rank Experts.


    "But it won''t be easy to find people like them. There are only tens of thousands of Mythical Rank Experts around the world. In other words, only 1 out of 500,000 people can be a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "And what you want is an expert like me��" Felix scratched the back of his head.


    "If I be a normal person, they might leave me when a big problemes." Theo sighed. "That''s why I want someone unique because they''re weird enough to follow me to the very end."


    "That is indeed�� true��" Felix had no words to rebuke him. He was aware that he wasn''t a normal person because he definitely agreed with what Theo said.


    "Anyway, the person you introduced�� I''ll consider it for now."


    "I understand." Felix nodded in agreement.


    "Anyway, it''s time for us to pick up Isaac. I want you to stay hidden for the time being and eliminate anyone that wants to harm me."


    "Am I not going to walk beside you?" Felix tilted his head in confusion. If he stood next to him, people would be inclined toe near him after all.


    "What are you saying? You are an assassin, you know. Why would an assassin show himself so early?" Theo sighed.


    "Ah��" Felix scratched the back of his head as he couldn''t refute him. He also caught the hidden meaning in Theo''s words.


    "Well, that''s your next job, I guess�� Find me someone that can be my bodyguard."


    "I understand. I will try to find someone like him."


    "If that''s what you want, I think I can help." Millie, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth.


    "Huh?" Theo and Felix were bewildered by Millie''s involvement since they were talking about Mythical Rank Experts. She shouldn''t have entered this kind of world yet.


    "I don''t know anyone, but I think I can sneak into apany''swork to get some information about Mythical Rank Experts. The information about their own agents should be protected closely, but the information about other Mythical Rank Experts should be different.


    "Though, they should only contain names, age, and other general information. If I get the rightpany, I should be able to gain many names for Mythical Rank Experts without being noticed.


    "This way, I can give you some names as the candidates which you will pick and investigateter on. I''m sure this will give you a better way to find a person." Millie exined her n. "Though, I need some equipment to do something like this."


    Theo and Felix were dumbfounded, never expecting Millie to have such a solution. They exchanged looks with shocked faces before Theo turned to Millie and said, "Say no more. I''ll give you the money, and you can buy anything you need."

 Chapter 1009 Formation

    <h4>Chapter 1009 Formation</h4>


    His original intentioning to Australia was to recruit Felix. Never in his wildest dream that he would get someone with a blessing from a notorious hacker.


    It showed the potential hidden in her body. That was why Theo decided to invest in Millie''s ability, but he also made sure that she trained her body so that she wouldn''t be too weak, keeping his promise to Felix.


    Now that he had left Millie with some money to buy the top equipment for her talent, he finally left the house with Felix.


    Theo took the car to meet Isaac while Felix followed him on foot.


    Felix knew one of the reasons why Theo wanted him to stay hidden was due to the ambush. From Isaac''s condition, it was clear that some experts were hiding to harass him.


    Hence, Felix needed to hide and eliminate those hidden dangers first.


    In other words, Theo was actually using his life as bait.


    Having such a daring boss truly made Felix get excited. Usually, the people he assassinated in the past would send numerous subordinates to stop him from assassinating them.


    They could only stay back because they didn''t have the boldness to stand up. In the end, he managed to assassinate them after killing his subordinates.


    Different from them, Theo even came to him by himself, fully aware that he could die in his hand. Yet, Theo ignored that kind of threat and continued healing his daughter.


    Although he wanted to call him reckless, he managed to do whatever he wanted as though there was already a calction behind the scenes. So, he thought Theo could be this bold because he already knew what to expect.


    There was no way a person like him would fall easily. Hence, he chose to follow his everymand, knowing Theo must have considered it carefully.


    All he needed to do was to think about the reason behind his order.


    This was the example. Because of the numerous hidden dangers, he needed to go to the site as soon as possible and eliminate them before Theo arrived.


    Hence, he used his fastest speed and his power to make himself hard to spot with this sunlight.


    Yet, not everything went smoothly.


    ''What is this��'' Felix narrowed his eyes, feeling the gaze from the people around him. No one should realize his position, yet he could feel he was being watched.


    Previously, Theo had mentioned something about the beggars, who seemed to be everywhere and had a strange technique to observe them. He even confirmed that it wasn''t a skill from the other side.


    ''So, this is what he meant by being observed. As expected, he is being monitored.'' Felix narrowed his eyes. ''If it''s not a skill, then it should be something like an Original Technique. Is it an Original Technique that can be easily learned by the masses?


    ''In that case, we should assume there are thousands of people using this original technique, creating awork to observe their target. With that number, you can easily cover an entire city��''


    As expected from the man who was in the simr line of work, Felix understood how the beggars worked in an instant.


    ''Still, they''reckingpared to Mythical Rank Experts�� At most, they are Supreme Rank Experts. From this kind of presence, I felt 45 percent of the gazes shoulde from Champion Rank Experts, 35 percent should be Hero Rank Experts, and the rest are either Supreme Rank Experts or newbies like Elite or Normal Rank.''


    Felix thought for a moment and changed his approach, using his power to blend himself in.


    "!!!" Even the beggars who were using their techniques to monitor him were shocked when Felix suddenly disappeared.


    Still, they had gained quite good data from Joker. They ended up reporting to their boss about their finding.


    ''Joker has gained an unknown Mythical Rank Expert''s protection.''


    While they were reporting their finding, Felix suddenly called Theo and informed him what he did earlier.


    "I see. So, that''s the case��" Theo muttered in a low voice, looking down as though something was in his mind.


    "Do you know anything about it?" Felix asked.


    Theo maintained his silence, recalling the time he spent with his grandfather.


    "A formation?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "That''s right." Leonardo nodded with a smile and drew a circle on the ground. "You should know some ancient formation, right? We form a few lines of soldiers to receive an enemy because it has the most stable form. If we take it on with another formation, they might copse."


    "Yeah, I know. But doesn''t a formation need many people? Unlike a simple formation like the triangle or rectangr formation for a small group of six like the usual hunter group, this type of formation is hard to monitor." Theo exined his knowledge about this topic.


    "Do you know why I always asked you for a match in chess or real life simtion?"


    "Isn''t it to train my tactics?"


    "Yes. But that''s not all. When you are fighting against me, you will think a few steps ahead, right? No. Instead of ''think,'' I should use ''imagine,'' for this context."


    "Imagine��" Theo narrowed his eyes beforeing to a realization. "Are you telling me��"


    "Yeah. I am training your imagination. It''s hard even for amander who has fought a hundred battles to understand the formation, the battlefield, and their movements. So, I train your imagination so that you can grasp the gist of the situation even without looking at the battlefield or getting the report."


    Leonardo then drew an arrow piercing the circle before closing the circle again and said, "So, when there''s a disruption, you can react instantly and deal with the problem. And boom, you trap your enemy.


    "And this is only one formation�� What if you create the formation like a hexagon instead of a circle? Then, you add another one connected to it�� After that, we add a few more and form a line of hexagonal formation."


    "It''s a chain." Theo answered with an amused expression.


    "Yes. What if I stack a few more chains on top of it?"


    "It''s going to be a."


    "Exactly."


    "But won''t the formation be extremely weak because of theck ofmand? It''s hard tomand something like this. You need a huge amount of manpower."


    "Not necessarily so." He pointed at the edge that connected four hexagons at once. "Just this point is enough."


    "Only one person is needed to supervise them. If we use this, we can lower their number by at least ten times��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Exactly. It''s hard to escape from a trap like this, but if you know the pattern, you should be able to escape from it." Leonardo exined.


    Leonardo''s words put a smile on his face. He never thought it was possible to arrange such a huge formation, but now that he understood how it worked, Theo could see how to bypass this formation.


    ''Grandfather is truly the top strategist. Maybe, he has been holding back when fighting against me this whole time��'' Theo thought with a smirk before saying, "Felix. I need you to do something for me first. There''s something I want to try."

 Chapter 1010 Felix’s Thought

    <h4>Chapter 1010 Felix''s Thought</h4>


    "What is this?"


    "Eh?"


    Two beggars met each other on the street as they exchanged looks. They were confused by what they experienced.


    "Why are you here?"


    "I should be the one to ask that. This is my territory."


    "This is also my territory."


    Not long after, another three beggars appeared, finding these two beggars confronting each other.


    "Eh?!"


    "You��"


    They truly had no idea what was going on. They were following Felix this whole time, and somehow they reached this ce with a clueless expression.


    "What is going on?"


    While they were shaking their heads, Felix watched their actions while reporting to Theo.


    "It is as you said. I am looking at five beggars right now." Felix informed him while observing their movement. He never thought the situation would be like this.


    "As expected." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Do you know anything about this? Are we going to destroy theirwork?" Felix asked. If the disruption became bigger, the beggars would find out someone was manipting them. So, he wanted to know Theo''s intention first.


    "Nah, it''s fine." Theo never had a n in antagonizing the beggars. But knowing that he could take advantage of theirwork was enough for a trump card. He might need their help in the future.


    "Do you know how they work? This is baffling to me even though my job is simr to theirs. Although I can simply disappear by using my power, I won''t be able to do the same thing as you."


    "Do you want to know about it?"


    "It''s true that I''m curious, but I believe this is a secret, right?"


    "Nah, it''s general knowledge. If you want, I can tell you after we return to the mansion." Theo smiled.


    "I understand. I shall continue straight to our destination then."


    "Got it. I''m counting on you."


    After the brief exchange, Felix continued his way toward Isaac''s house.


    His house was two hours away from his mansion, but it was for a car. As for Felix, whose speed was faster than a car and his flexibility could go through many ces, he reached Isaac''s house within fifteen minutes.


    The instant he reached the area, he already found two people loitering around the house a few times as though they were not nning to leave. It was clear that they were tasked to monitor the area.


    Luckily, they seemed to be Supreme Rank Experts. Although they hid their presence, they couldn''t escape Felix''s eyes.


    ''Hmm, Joker wants me to eliminate them. But should I kill them? Should I keep them alive? Normally, I will let them live because they are just following their jobs. But if I think this from Isaac or Joker''s perspective, some of them deserve to die.


    ''After all, they''re the ones harassing Isaac this whole time. If Millie were experiencing this kind of harassment, I would have killed them.


    ''Still, I don''t know the situation in this country. Although I have learned some of them, I don''t know if Joker wants me to kill them or not. After all, killing these people will result in rming the people behind them.


    ''If they aim for Joker because of my action, I''m afraid it''s going to trouble him. And it will indirectly impact Millie.'' Felix scratched the back of his head, pondering over his decisions. After some thought, he took out his Skylink and called Theo to get his instruction since Theo seemed to be able to see far ahead of him.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo didn''t pick up his call despite trying a few times.


    ''Huh? He didn''t pick up my call? Is he getting attacked by someone right now?'' Felix narrowed his eyes and turned around. ''Should I go back to check his condition? But if I go back, I might pass him before I know it.


    ''There should be no one foolish enough to attack him in broad daylight, especially with the Star Group''s protection. On the other hand, it will be inconvenient if he arrives before I take them out��''


    Felix was on his wits'' end, not knowing what to do.


    On one hand, he wanted to check Theo''s condition because he was worried about him. On the other hand, he wanted to trust Theo and killed these people so that Theo could arrive safely.


    ''I should trust him a bit more. He''s someone who dared toe to my ce with his neck on the line. In that case, I should handle these people first and ask his opinionter.'' Felix took a deep breath as he finally started working again after two years.


    ��


    In the street, the Supreme Rank Expert released a bit of his Magic Power before throwing an egg at the house.


    ''This sucks. How long do I need to keep doing this? The client wants me to harass that guy until he gives up, but it''s been months.'' The Supreme Rank Expert sighed while walking forward as if he didn''t do anything wrong.


    Suddenly, the sunlight shone brighter to the point that it blinded his eyes for a split second.


    ''Ugh. Stupid sun.'' He thought while covering his eyes with his hand. But the moment the hand created a shadow for his eyes, it soon became dark as though something blocked the sunlight.


    "!!!" In that instant, he raised his other hand to attack the person on top of him, but to no avail. The shadow soon disappeared together with his consciousness.


    "Ugh." Thest thing he remembered was a strong hit on his stomach before his mind went nk.


    He fell down but was caught by a middle-aged man''s arm before they disappeared from the vicinity.


    *Bam!*


    Felix dropped the guy to the ground and looked at the mountain of bodies. There were at least ten people in the surrounding area.


    "This should be thest one," Felix muttered in a low voice. "I don''t bring my equipment to keep them unconscious for hours, so I need to stay here for another hour until Joker arrives. If Joker hasn''t arrived at that time, I will drop the mission and try to trace his location."


    Felix nodded with a serious expression while looking at these eleven bodies.

 Chapter 1011 A Test

    <h4>Chapter 1011 A Test</h4>


    An hourter.


    The car had finally arrived as Theo came out with the driver opening his door. Since he was going to bring Isaac''s luggage inside the car, of course, the driver needed to go out.


    Meanwhile, Theo raised his head and waved his hand, calling Felix.


    In that instant, Felix appeared and nodded his head.


    "How is it?"


    "There are 11 people. I have thrown them somewhere else, but since I don''t know what I should do, I just make them sleep for now," Felix exined what he did earlier. "I don''t want to bring trouble to you."


    "You pass." Theo patted his shoulder as though he had expected this oue.


    "Huh?" Felix was confused by Theo''s words before realizing the entire setup was a test from him. "So, the reason you didn''t pick up my call��"


    "Sorry, I had to do it." Theo apologized properly and exined why he did it. "I want arade, not a ve or a robot. I want people who can think by themselves while still following my order.


    "We are humans, so of course, we have desires. What if there''s a guy who annihted your entire family in the past standing in front of you? What if I told you not to do anything?


    "I''m sure you don''t like it, and I will also have bad taste in my mouth. That''s why instead of you following my order like a robot, I want you to think about my order yourself and follow it."


    "I see." Felix let out a sigh of relief. He just realized he had underestimated the man before him. Although Theo was young, he had considered everything from his heart and satisfaction.


    It was fine for him to express the idea in his mind because his boss would consider it seriously.


    Theo patted his shoulder a few times and walked away. "Anyway, I''m going to get Isaac out of the house. You can go back with me in the car."


    "Okay." Felix acknowledged his words and stood next to the car while watching the surroundings, making sure there were no more hidden threats. But before Theo left, he asked onest question. "What should I do to them?"


    "What will you do if the one in this house is Millie? That''s the rtionship I wish to have in my group." Theo waved his hand as he continued forward.


    It seemed Theo had totally predicted this oue from the start.


    ''What kind of monster do I follow?'' Felix shook his head helplessly and disappeared, nning to kill those eleven people and destroy any evidence.


    Meanwhile, Theo knocked on the door a few times before shouting, "Isaac. I''m here!"


    As if he had been preparing everything when Theo was talking to Felix, Isaac immediately opened the door with all his baggage. "I''m ready."


    *Pant!*


    *Pant!*


    Isaac seemed to have lost more than twenty pounds. His face looked pale, and a huge ck bag was visible under his eyes.


    It was clear what kind of excitement he had the moment he heard Theo''s voice.


    "Are you alright?" Theo asked with a worried tone.


    "This is the best time in my life. Let''s go." Isaac replied as if he wanted to leave the house so much.


    "Is that so?" Theo chuckled and pointed at the car outside. "Let''s go then."


    "Mhm." He furiously nodded and carried all his luggage by himself despite the driver offering his help. It seemed Isaac didn''t want to waste any more seconds in this ce.


    After getting all his luggage to the car, he finally entered the car with Theo and Felix before leaving this ce.


    He didn''t pay attention to Felix earlier, but when he entered the car and felt safe enough, he finally looked around, finding this middle-aged man.


    In that instant, the mood turned awkward as he scratched the back of his head while introducing himself. "Hello, Sir. My name is Isaac Walton."


    Felix nodded with a grim face, observing Isaac''s condition. "Felix Holt."


    "Ehm�� Did I make a mistake? I''m sorry if that''s the case. Please let me go for now." Isaac felt a bit intimidated by Felix''s calm face.


    Felix always put on this kind of face for the past two years, so Isaacpletely misunderstood him. He thought Felix was observing him while trying to disagree with Theo''s decision in bringing him over.


    Amused by Isaac''s reaction, Theo couldn''t help but tease him. "He told me that there wouldn''t be any problem as long as you''re not looking at his daughter with any vulgar intention."


    "W-what?!" Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground, taken aback.


    "Well, I can guarantee your life." Theo waved his hand nonchntly to calm him down but still added, "Though, I can''t guarantee your little brother''s life."


    "Huh? Little brother? I''m an orphan and the sole kid in the family�� I don''t have little��" He suddenly stopped as he finally understood what Theo truly meant. Isaac''s face became pale as he immediately used both hands to cover his crotch while stating, "Don''t worry, Sir. My blessinges from Isaac Newton. I love knowledge more than women! I''d rather marry a book than a woman!"


    Theo couldn''t help butugh. "Hahaha, you''re great!"


    Even Felix shook his head helplessly, disappointed with this man.


    "Wait, you��" Isaac pointed at Theo. "You lied to me."


    "No way. I told you in the past. I never lied to you." Theo replied with a yful tone. "Anyway, you should get some sleep first. I know you''re exhausted."


    Isaac wanted to say another thing but had no reason to refuse his offer. He was truly exhausted after experiencing all the harassment.


    "I�� I guess I will get some rest." Isaac looked away and fell silent.


    In just a single blink of an eye, Isaac fell asleep.


    ''So fast�� I guess it was too much for him,'' Theo thought while looking at Felix, asking, "Did he disappoint you, Felix?"


    "A bit. I still don''t understand why you want him."


    "His situation is simr to your daughter."


    "Hmm? The sickness�� No." Felix furrowed his eyebrows, noticing what Theo truly wanted from Isaac. It was his unique ability.

 Chapter 1012 Special Request

    <h4>Chapter 1012 Special Request</h4>


    "I will bring him inside." Felix left the car while carrying Isaac. Since Theo had an appointment with Bernard, he could only drop them off in front of their mansion.


    "Okay. I''ll leave him to you." Theo waved his hand while closing the door.


    "Are you sure it''s alright to go without me?"


    "Have you be paranoid?" Theo chuckled and asked the driver to bring him to the Star Group. "I will talk about the beggars after I go back. Take care."


    Felix nodded and brought Isaac inside, watching Theo''s car leaving the mansion.


    It didn''t take too long for Theo to meet Bernard since he had already made an appointment with him.


    "So, what kind of special request do you want to ask me?" Theo asked while taking a seat in the office.


    "Aside from your normal mission, I need you to help me investigate something." Bernard''s expression was grim. It was clear how significant this matter was when the casual Bernard became this serious.


    "Hoh? Let me hear what you have to say first." Theo also turned serious and listened to his story.


    "Two months ago. The Star Group has discovered an unknown base that is still under construction. Even after gathering some information, we still don''t know how such a base can appear��"


    "What do you mean?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I mean, it''s not like your hotel is known to others, right?"


    "No. That''s not what I mean." Bernard shook his head before opening his Skylink, showing the image of the base. The base itself was buried underground.


    From the seismic survey, they easily found the size of the building. It turned out to be a small base that was simr to a mansion that he had.


    For a person''s house, it should be considered big. But for a base, this small underground building was not enough.


    "What do you want to say?" Theo was still confused by the images, not knowing why Bernard showed these pictures to him.


    "I''m talking about how there is no information about the materials to build that base. Even after using my connections, I found nothing." Bernard sighed.


    "Are you assuming another country is constructing this base? In that case, leave me out of this. I''m working for you, not for the country." Theo shrugged.


    "I have informed them about this. And there are two parliament members stopping me." Bernard sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The first one is affiliated to the Guardian."


    "Guardian?" Theo tilted his head, not knowing this name.


    "It''s normal that you don''t know about it. The Guardian is an organization that is backing the MelloJello Company."


    "You mean thepany that is said to be higher than you in position��"


    "Yeah. In terms of wealth, thatpany is higher than me by one rank." Bernard nodded.


    "So? I don''t see any reasons for me to get involved." Theo shook his head, nning to reject him.


    "Listen to me first." Bernard stopped him from talking and continued with his exnation. "The second member is affiliated with General Aspens, the one who has the highest rank of the army."


    Theo squinted his eyes. It was clear that he didn''t want to deal with the army or the country. However, he kept his silence until Bernard finished his exnation since this matter seemed to be more serious than he expected.


    "That General alone is not that of a problem. The president should be able to take care of him, but that person has a connection to a mercenary group. That mercenary group is said to be one of the strongest in the world.


    "I am assuming they''re acting like this without the president''s knowledge. Well, I have some backdoor connection to the president and pressed him about this matter, but it''s much moreplicated than it seems��


    "We sent five Mythical Rank Experts to investigate this matter, but none of them came back."


    Theo''s expression darkened. "Hoh? You serious?"


    "Yeah. I''m assuming they''ve been killed by the enemies. As for the base construction�� I''m afraid they''re using the excess materials from other projects. At the same time, they''re bringing other materials separately so that no one knows about them.


    "With just these two points, we believe there are a few more organizations in cahoots. Without being able to trust anyone, the president asked me personally to investigate this matter while he grabbed their attention so that I could move easily.


    "I have consulted my father and believed I should participate in this matter. This is a big gamble. If I lose, those people will band together and target me. If I win, I will be able to gain theplete support of the government."


    "As much as I want to help you, you should know that I won''t have any connection with the army, let alone the government. I''m here to hide, not make bigger trouble than the one in Italy." Theo shook his head, rejecting his idea.


    "I know I''m asking too much." Bernard took a deep breath while sping his hands, feeling troubled. "There''s one more reason why winning this battle is a must."


    "What is that?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Because if we lose, one hundred million people will die. And that''s just a conservative estimate," Bernard stated with a grim face.


    "A hundred��" Even Theo couldn''t contain his shock. He dropped his jaw and stared at Bernard as if looking at a psychopath. "What kind of danger can annihte a hundred million people?"


    "There is one." Bernard paused and gulped down before stating one word. "Stampede."


    "Stampede��" Theo muttered in a low voice before realizing the very reason why he asked him instead of anyone else. He stood up and shouted, "Are they insane?"


    Even Bernard couldn''t say anything.


    He was also speechless when his father and the president actually had the same conclusion.


    "Yes. I''m afraid they''re making a base that contains either nuclear, ultrasonic bullet, or sma cannon at the highest capacity. What they want is a powerful st that can set aze even the strongest winter��


    "In other words, their target is none other than the ruler of the Depth Frost Region, the Frost Giant. They''re nning to be the first to kill a World ss Monster."

 Chapter 1013 Benefits and Risks

    <h4>Chapter 1013 Benefits and Risks</h4>


    "In other words, their target is none other than the ruler of the Depth Frost Region, the Frost Giant."


    Theo gritted his teeth, knowing the severeness of this matter.


    "Are they so confident they can defeat him? Do you know what will happen if he dies? There''s going to be another monster like the frost giant�� No, there might be multiple of theming out to destroy this country."


    "My father and the president believe they have two top 10 experts participating in this. Together with many Mythical Rank Experts as well as the hidden weapon, they''re nning to be the first person to y a World ss Monster."


    "Are they fucking serious? For what reason are they doing it here? They can do it in another country, not that I say they should do it."


    "It''s obvious. They want to im it. If they''re doing it in another country, they can''t im this achievement." Bernard shook his head helplessly.


    "As I said earlier�� Are they fools?" Theo mmed the table while having a headache in dealing with this matter.


    "They believe once they kill a World ss Monster, they can do the same with the help of these weapons. And because of theck of World ss Monster, it''s easy to rally the masses to control the entire region under the frost giant�� And when that happens, there are many opportunities like mines and other resources.


    "To be honest, it''s a huge achievement. At the same time, there is a chance for us to send a satellite to learn more about the other side.


    "There are numerous advantages if the n seeds. But if it''s not, numerous people will die�� And this country might not be enough to withstand their anger�� There''s a possibility of other countries getting invaded.


    "My father told me that he didn''t want to participate in this bloody matter at first. But it was because he had seen what the frost giant was capable of that he wanted to be involved in this.


    "ording to him, the frost giant should have no problem freezing those bullets. His power is beyond anyone''s imagination, including those people. A sma cannon? They''re going to be frozen before hitting the frost giant. Nuclear missiles? They won''t even be able to activate.


    "He wanted to persuade the others, but if the other party caught wind about this matter, they would hasten their progress and do some reckless things that might even be worse than their current n.


    "The stake is too much�� Can you even imagine what kind of scene you will see when a hundred million people die?" Bernard clutched his head. "Even I don''t know what I should do�� Tell me, Theo. What should I do to stop this?


    "If you don''t know, let me meet your grandfather. This is far beyond that matter�� the goblin research facility." Bernard gritted his teeth.


    Theo remembered that the dragon almost attacked Italy because of the research that didn''t go ording to Order. If they attacked the frost giant with this and failed to kill him, thetter would obviouslye directly to this country. When that happened, the casualties would certainly like what he said.


    "Why do I need to get pulled into something like this? You should know that I''m going to be targeted by those people if I help you, right?" Theo sighed. "Top 10 experts�� Even I don''t have any confidence that I can escape from Sir Wind Emperor�� Let alone the others who have healthier bodies.


    "What about you? Your Star Group can be destroyed by them, and Maya will also die. Are you trying to be a hero or something?"


    "I am not that kind of man. It''s true that I sympathize with the lives of a hundred million people. Still, the situation will be more severe than that�� There''s a possibility of a war between this side and the other side. When that happens, I don''t think we have any power to stop them.


    "In the end, humanity will go extinct�� It doesn''t matter whether they can win or not. If they lose, many people will die. If they win, the war might happen, and everyone will die.


    "The only way to save ourselves is to stop whatever they''re doing. I''m just saving my life along with a hundred million people��" Bernard sighed. "I am not a hero�� I just do what I need to do as a human. That''s why I would like to request your help in this matter."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why me? If you want a tactic to win against those people, it''s better to bring my grandfather instead. He should be able to give you a more concrete n."


    "I know. But you have something your grandfather doesn''t have." Bernard nodded and raised one finger.


    "And that is��"


    "Connection," Bernard answered without hesitation, looking at him with a serious expression.


    "��" Theo understood what Bernard wanted from him this time. It was his connection to World ss Monsters.


    Hendry should have told Bernard about him reaching this ce with the help of a World ss Monster. And since the frost giant had recognized Theo, he should be able to meet him and ask for his cooperation.


    At the same time, the frost giant wouldn''t be able to kill him because Theo could just send his clone to settle this matter.


    If theyid down their weapons and ns, the situation shouldn''t escte to the point of no return. And with this proof, they could capture many people involved in this matter.


    There would be a great shock to the country, but only those people would die, not those hundreds of millions of people.


    Theo scratched the back of his head and said, "Even if you said that, the frost giant would just turn me down while saying, ''You humans created this mess, so you should take care of it yourself. I will bring my army to annihte you if you fail to do so.'' Or something like that."


    "That''s why I am asking you." Bernard looked at Theo with a grim expression as though he believed Theo could do something about the negotiation.


    Theo closed his eyes and leaned back, looking at the ceiling with a troubled expression.

 Chapter 1014 Mission

    <h4>Chapter 1014 Mission</h4>


    "You should know that there are four major things that will happen to me, right? First of all, you don''t have any backing other than the president. I''m not saying that the president is useless, but bigpanies like you can easily start a weird rumor or problem, right? What if many of thembined, especially those top 10 experts?


    "The president might still be in power, but you will soon be the scapegoat. At that time, you are useless to me. Why do I need to honor the contract when that happens?


    "And soon, everything is going to be useless, and my true identity might get exposed. Do you think you can take responsibility for it?" Theo sighed, still staring at the ceiling. "And what if I can do it? Will the others know about this? No. The president will likely take advantage of this achievement to run for the second time. It''s a job without benefits.


    "What? Are you going to tell me it''s for those one hundred million people? I am just a selfish person�� Even I have an extreme view toward them that I don''t think my sacrifice is worth it. So, what are you going to say about this?"


    Bernard had expected this question. In fact, this was the first problem he encountered when epting the request. He stated, "If we win, the Star Group can easily expand since the government will help us behind the scenes. At that time, we''re bound to be stronger than ever.


    "I promise that I will be your strongest ally. Even if the problem you face in the future might destroy my Star Group, I will help you that one time no matter what. Also, I will help all the small troubles you have without the need to pay me anything." Bernard raised two fingers. "If we lose, there are only two things I will do. I promise to bring your secret to my grave, and I will send Maya to you.


    "With the copse of the Star Group, Maya can''t fend for herself alone. So, it''s better if she''s with you. A part of the reason is to protect her�� but I''m sure you won''t reject her, right? She''s more useful if you keep her at your side. I''ll talk to Maya personally about this and ask you to be your subordinate for survival."


    "You seriously gonna put your only daughter on the stake?"


    "If we lose, it''s gonna be a game over anyway. It''s better if she stays alive." Bernard shook his head. "There are many reasons why living with you is better than dying�� I don''t think I need to say the reasons, right?"


    Theo fell silent for a moment before stating the second matter. "Secondly, I might lose the trust of the World ss Monster, resulting in me bing the greatest criminal over there. I don''t think the frost giant is a chill guy like the World ss Monster that helped me��"


    "I will be your shield. If necessary, I will break the contract between us and send you to another country. I will owe you greatly."


    "Thirdly, the other party might have found out about me and targeted me. When that happens, I''m afraid I will die. There''s no way I can escape from the top 10 experts.


    "To put it simply, this matter is far bigger than what I''m capable of. One wrong move will result in my death. And there''s also a chance that I will be the traitor of humanity."


    "The Star Group promises to clear your name even if it''s thest thing we do."


    "How can I believe you? I am simply a nameless person without any backers. If I be useless, you can simply get rid of me. The Griffith Family will do anything to kill me." Theo narrowed his eyes, releasing his killing intent. "Why don''t I just kill you here and present your head to them? With my current power, I think I can kill you."


    "That is certainly the case. Contract means nothing to you, but at the same time, I don''t have any means to convince you. If I can marry Maya to you, I will do that. Unfortunately, you''re not that type of person. That''s why I have nothing to say about this�� I just want to ask you to trust me." Bernard paused for a few seconds before adding, "Though, I don''t have any confidence I can win against THE Theodore Griffith in the battle of wits."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes again, contemting his words. It was truly a hard decision since the matter would involve his future and life.


    After a few minutes, Theo told him about thest matter. "Last but not least, this is our fault. Humanity should fix their own problems. At the same time, I''m just a mere Supreme Rank Expert. I can''t do anything on my own."


    "We''ll do our part of investigations, but because we don''t want to rm the other side until we''re confident enough to get rid of them in one single swoop, we can''t make any big moves yet.


    "However, if we can destroy this base, those people wille out themselves. We will capture them and gain more information about their movement.


    "When that happens, we can do much more. It''s going to be a battle of politics, but the president has prepared some stuff to capture all of them.


    "He''s fully aware that if this scandal is exposed, the people will lose their trust in the country. That''s why the president and the Star Group have contacted a few helpers if you need them�� From outside the country. They have been waiting on the other side as ourst card if all the methods fail.


    "There are at least twenty Mythical Rank Experts if you need it. You can use them as you see fit."


    "Shit. What did I do to deserve this?" Theo cursed whilementing his fate. As if pouring salt over his wound, the God of Mischief added a few things.


    [Cruel winters and moral chaos�� The sky will vanish. The sun and moon will face each other. Heaven and Hell will copse, and the earth will sink into the sea. That shall be the end of an era and a new beginning.]


    [The beginning is the end; the end is the beginning. It''s a never-ending cycle. The tribtion ising. Someone asked, ''Will a human be called ruthless if he kills fifty people to save a million lives? Will a man be a bad guy when he joins the enemy to protect the people on his side?'']


    [The end is inevitable, yet one''s hand can extend the lifespan of an era. What is the end? What is the beginning? If the vicious cycle never ends, will it be worth living in this world? Or everything that happens is just a dream that can be reconstructed again and again?]


    [What is actually the truth? What is the price to learn the truth? Many had sought the truth, yet, no one had ever found it. Then, does everything turn out to be a single lie created by the world itself? And�� will ''the end'' be the cost of this lie?]


    Mission: Interfere with the problem.


    Description: Stop the potential war between two sides.


    Reward: Knowledge about Heaven, Hell, and Spatial Rift.


    ******


    (Refers to ch.798)

 Chapter 1015 Agreed

    <h4>Chapter 1015 Agreed</h4>


    ''Heaven, Hell, and Spatial Rift?'' Theo thought while closing his eyes so that Bernard didn''t feel suspicious. ''I don''t see any reason why I need to know about these three�� However, I''m certainly curious about the previous riddle.


    ''Cruel winters and moral chaos�� Is this what will happen at the end of time? It''s clearly stated that the end is inevitable, so no matter how hard one avoids it, the end will surelye.


    ''But people can extend the lifespan of an era�� Does this mean if I interfere with this matter, the end won''te anytime soon?''


    The riddle was obviously indicating doomsday. Yet, Theo felt that wasn''t all.


    ''Now that I think about it, he brought his army to end an era. After that time, all Gods and Goddesses were exterminated by the fire demon��'' Theo narrowed his eyes, catching a few meanings from this mission. ''Does this mean he knows something about it? Do you want me to destroy the Earth? I promised you I would create mischief all around the world, not massacre.''


    [You will understand it afterpleting this task.]


    ''Huh?'' Theo was still confused, but it seemed Heaven and Hell were connected to the beginning and the end.


    He had a few reasons to reject the mission, but humanity would surely destroy itself sooner orter. ''In that case, I need to save it for now�� At least, for myself.'' Theo thought.


    After a few minutes, Theo finally opened his mouth, saying, "To be honest, I don''t see how I can convince the frost giant��"


    "Is it truly impossible?" Bernard squinted his eyes. Theo was the only person who had a friendly rtionship with a World ss Monster and the recognition from the frost giant, so he was the perfect person to do this. If even Theo couldn''t do it, he could only prepare for the worst.


    Theo let out a long sigh and stated with a troubled tone. "Fine. I will do it."


    Bernard''s expression brightened. Theo wasn''t someone who epted a mission without confidence, so the moment Theo agreed, he should have some assurances on how toplete the mission. That was why this brought joy to Bernard''s heart. "Really?"


    "On three conditions." Theo raised three fingers.


    "Let''s hear it." Bernard nodded without hesitation. He had expected this response, so he would certainly support him to the best of his ability.


    "First. I need two months before I act. You should be able to dy them for two months, right?"


    "The construction is not finished, and the president will do his best as bait. So, yes�� we should be able to dy them for a couple of months." Bernard nodded before asking, "Why do you want to dy this matter for two months?"


    "I need to level up." Theo sighed. "I need to be at least level 600 beforepleting anything."


    "That''s reasonable. Okay then. What about the other two conditions?"


    "As for the second condition, you need to tell Maya today about the current situation and that I will send my clone to work in herpany."


    "Huh?" Bernard was bewildered by this absurd condition. He could understand the first condition, but the second one confused him.


    "Come on. I''m trying to examine my future subordinate." Theo chuckled, nonchntly brushing the matter off. It was clear that he had another ulterior motive.


    However, Bernard chose not to pry his ulterior motive. Nheless, Maya would be with him in case he failed, so it was quite reasonable to check Maya''s capability beforehand.


    But there was one thing that made Bernard hesitant. He looked into Theo''s eyes and asked, "Doesn''t this mean you''re going to expose yourself? Even though I know you''re going to use a skill that changes your appearance, everyone will think you''re Theodore Griffith."


    "I just want you to promise me that and don''t ask anything else. I have my own discretion." Theo refused to exin the reason. However, he thought this would be the perfect time to set another n in motion.


    Even if he seeded in defeating them, the desperate enemies would surely aim for their lives. So, Theo wanted to confuse the enemies before doing anything. Or at least that was what Bernard thought.


    As for the real reason behind this condition, only Theo knew about it.


    "I understand. Since you have told me about it, I can tell Maya. I''m sure that my daughter knows which one is more important." Bernard agreed again before closing his mouth, waiting for Theo to say thest condition.


    "Last but not least, I want you to bring me another five A Rank Skills."


    "Five more A Rank Skills?" Bernard looked down, contemting. He remembered Theo taking in a father and his daughter along with Isaac. So, he thought the A Rank Skills were for them.


    Without hesitation, he agreed to it and even added, "Do you have any request about the specific skill? Like elements and such��"


    Theo shrugged. "No. As long as it''s an A Rank Skill Card, I have no qualms. Bring those five A Rank Skill Cards within two days since I''m going to leave three dayster."


    "There shouldn''t be any problem with it." Bernard nodded. He had promised Theo to help with any small matters. Even though he might need to forcefully buy the skills at a higher price, it wasn''t something he needed to care about.


    "We have a deal. Although a contract is useless at this level of agreement�� I guess I still need one."


    "I''ll send the contract to you tomorrow."


    "In that case, we have a deal." Theo extended his hand.


    Bernard shook his hand with a grim expression. He couldn''t expect that he needed to rely on a young kid for a matter like this. His heart was filled with shame.


    But he truly had no other candidates that could do a job like this better than Theo. He could only feel guilty and fulfill the agreements.


    "Still, to think the mighty Star Group''s CEO is relying on a kid��" Theo smirked, taking this opportunity to tease Bernard.


    Surprisingly, Bernard didn''t have any change of expression as he prepared to take any kind of insult.


    "��" Even Theo was speechless and had no mood to tease him again. He turned around and walked toward the door while saying, "Two monthster. The base will be destroyed. Station someone 100 miles to the south. I will meet him so that he can check the result�� Remember, I want a trusted person from the Star Group�� I don''t trust that president no matter how good he appears."


    Bernard closed his eyes with a smile. "Yes. I swear in my name."

 Chapter 1016 Cooperation

    <h4>Chapter 1016 Cooperation</h4>


    The next day.


    A red-haired man stood in front of the Starry Group with a nonchnt expression. He had prepared everything for today.


    As soon as he entered the lobby, he went to the receptionist and handed her a letter.


    The receptionist soon panicked and called their CEO as Maya personally greeted this red-haired man in front of many people. The people who watched their interaction couldn''t believe Maya could be so kind and friendly.


    Not long after, Maya brought the red-haired man to her own office.


    However, her attitudepletely changed when she shut her office door. She immediately leaned on her chair with an annoyed expression. "Seriously�� Are you going to show yourself in the open now? I thought you wanted to hide here. That was why you chose the Star Group instead of my Starry Group.


    "And now�� you''re here to work for me. I can''t even understand your own thoughts�� It reeks of schemes instead of money." Maya let out a long sigh,ining to Theo.


    That was right, the red-haired man was none other than Theo. He came here to set his n in motion.


    "If even you can''t understand my intention, then there''s no one who can." Theo shook his head, iming with confidence.


    "Still, what''s wrong with you? Do you know that mypany will be targeted if the Griffith Family knows about this?" Maya scratched the back of her head, feeling a headache thinking about the future.


    "If you have aint, you can address it to your father." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s true. I wasn''t satisfied when Iined to himst night."


    "Though you should be aware of the situation, right?"


    "The World ss Monster, huh. Why do they even want to break the current bnce�� So foolish." Maya rolled her eyes, feeling frustrated with this matter. "What I want is stability instead of fishing in troubled water�� I am the CEO of a weaponpany, so obviously, I supply weapons.


    "But my weapons are for the normal citizens, not the military. I don''t want to get too entangled in politics, you know."


    Theo paused for a moment and asked, "So, why did you agree?"


    "I have no choice. There''s something that you need to know before this cooperation. You will be my personal bodyguard. Your job is to follow me around. Although it''s true that you''re going to meet many people and it''s kind of troublesome, I''m sure you can learn how I do business."


    "Even if I learn from you, I don''t think I will be able to surpass you."


    "In business? I still have my confidence in beating you, but if you use other ns, I''m going to die. Seriously." Maya waved her hand nonchntly as if she had given up the fight before it happened.


    "Anyway, I''ll do whatever you want as long as you''re not deliberately creating trouble for me."


    "Okay. There won''t be any big moves in the next six to nine months. At the very least, there''s no big expansion going on, so your identity won''t be exposed easily."


    "Thanks."


    "No problem." Maya then tossed a Skylink and said, "That device stores a few important matters, including what you should expect from thispany. You should familiarize yourself with thepany."


    "Got it. Is there any office that I can use?"


    "You''re my bodyguard, so just stay in this room. Unless you''re nning to do some naughty stuff��" Maya smirked.


    "I won''t. Don''t worry."


    "Tsk." Maya clicked her tongue, unsatisfied with his emotionless response. "Though, I''m wondering why you use that clone toe here instead of using it to practice?"


    "Even though I can use a clone, it doesn''t mean my practice speed bes two times faster. There are a few other restrictions."


    "But you''re going to hunt on the other side, right?"


    "Yeah. I am nning to do the mission first and level up to 600 in the next two months. After settling this matter, I''m going to spend another month reaching as far as I can before meeting you at the coast�� Antis is going to emerge soon." Theo shrugged.


    "So, you want to use this clone as a timer?"


    "Not really. I''m going to use this clone to confront the World ss Monster�� There''s no way I''m going to put my real body before him�� I''m not nning to die." Theo sighed.


    "For real? Can you exin how it feels to meet a World ss Monsterter? I am curious since I''ve never seen one."


    "Nope." Theo stuck his tongue out.


    "Ohe on�� I am still searching for any information about Orders. I should be able to know more about them, right?"


    "Just do your research. I''m not going to help you with this." Theo refused yfully.


    "Fine then. I am not going to bother you anymore. Sit there and read the report." Maya pointed at the couch in her room.


    "Okay." Theo followed her words and fell silent.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo had gathered all the A Rank Skill Cards and B Rank Skill Cards to upgrade his skills.


    He had gathered all these A Rank Skill Cards specifically since he wanted to upgrade three B Rank Skills before this mission.


    Since his clone would stay with Maya for a while, he could only rely on himself during this time. Hence, it was better to get stronger.


    "Still��" Theo muttered in a low voice, staring at all the Skill Cards. "Upgrading three B Rank Skills requires more than 20 billion Zils�� Even for me, it''s quite hard to get this much money in a short period of time. And upgrading one A Rank Skill Card to S Rank Skill Card requires at least a few hundred billion Zils�� I guess I can only do it when I can kill Mythical Rank Monsters."


    Theo had a headache when thinking about the future. However, he was still grateful since he was luckier than any other person in the world since he could turn all ten skills into S Rank.


    As for today, the three skills that he wanted to upgrade were Blink, Metamorphosis, and Telekinesis.


    Without hesitation, he poured his Magic Power and used his eyes to upgrade these three skills.

 Chapter 1017 Upgraded Skills

    <h4>Chapter 1017 Upgraded Skills</h4>


    Skill: Blink (A)


    Effect: A Skill that allows the user to teleport to 100 feet (MAX) from them. The user can carry everyone who touches the user''s body.


    Skill: Metamorphosis (A)


    Effect: Super Transformation. The user can transform into another creature ording to the detail in the user''s head. It won''t be restricted to the size anymore, and the user can gain the senses of the particr creature as long as the details are in the user''s head. Limit: 15 forms.


    Skill: Telekinesis (A)


    Effect: Advanced Level of Telekinesis. Able to liftrge-size objects and control them with Magic Power. The user can also utilize Telekinesis to orbit the user.


    Theo was surprised by these three improvements. As one would expect from A Rank Skills. They had be overpowered. And more importantly, he was satisfied with knowing he could still upgrade them one more time.


    ''Still, the weakness of my Blink has finally disappeared. I can bring anyone with this skill this time, giving me more room to maneuver.


    ''Although it looks like there''s not much change to the blink since it has reached the maximum distance of what a Blink skill can do�� I like this upgrade more. After all, I can bring Ava and any other people around with me away.''


    Theo remembered a few asions where he was restricted by the number of people he could bring with his Blink, resulting in a life and death situation.


    Now that the weakness had disappeared, his fighting style would improve tremendously. In fact, he could be even more reckless after this.


    ''Meanwhile, the Metamorphosis skill has be goddamn powerful.'' Theo smirked, having many ns for this skill. Previously, Theo could transform into something smaller than him but would have a hard time turning into a bigger creature.


    He concluded that the reason for this was the size. If he became smaller, he didn''t need to exert as much as Magic Power because the body that he needed to maintain was small.


    On the other hand, a big body would need a massive amount of Magic Power to operate.


    The thought of bing a dragon or a giant had crossed his mind in the past. However, he couldn''t do it simply because the body was too big.


    He still had a dragon form, but the body was simr to that of a human. So, even if he utilized his power, he would look like a baby dragon instead of a real dragon.


    Hence, the fact that he wasn''t restricted anymore put a smile on his face. Although he might still need to expend a massive amount of Magic Power, it wouldn''t be as bad as the previous rank.


    ''I want to try the transformation, but I guess I can''t. I will wait until I reach the other side and kill the monsters easily�� I mean, I can stomp them with a giant body.


    ''Though, Supreme Rank Monsters and Mythical Rank Monsters should be fast enough to escape from my attack. After all, I''m afraid my body will move slower when I turn big.


    ''Still, I even get the senses of the creatures�� If I be a dog or a bat, I can locate my enemy easily. If I''m not wrong, the God of Mischief told me that the Metamorphosis would be able to copy the gics of the creature to the point I could give birth to other species�� Not that I will do it.


    ''Still, the limit doesn''t increase anymore. It seems the skill is not as omnipotent as it seems�� Well, it''s already overpowered enough. And I still have four forms that I can use.


    ''Obviously, I am going to use three of them for creatures with big bodies. As for thest spot, it''s going to be myst trump card.'' Theo smiled. Although he wasn''t fully satisfied with the upgrade, he certainly felt happy with this improvement.


    Last but not least, Theo was surprised by his Telekinesis.


    ''I am able to liftrge-size objects now. I believe controlling the huge building that Winston threw at me previously won''t be a problem anymore.


    ''It''s going to be helpful. And with the current rank, the pulling and pushing force has been increased again. This way, I should have no problem strengthening my Supernatural Snake Body.


    ''I am one step closer to my goal for this S Rank Skill. Though, I''m wondering what does thest sentence mean�� Utilizing my Telekinesis to orbit me?'' Theo narrowed his eyes. Although the knowledge was already in his head, he didn''t know the extent of this power.


    Since he was going to leave soon, Theo went to the garden and used Telekinesis again.


    Firstly, he checked the pulling and pushing force, which had grown significantly stronger.


    After feeling satisfied with the improvement, he moved on to the new ability.


    He used his Telekinesis to gather around him before trying to make the force orbiting him.


    Suddenly, the air was swirling with his body as the center. It was so strong that the ground was eroded by the sheer pressure.


    Theo was shocked, but he still had one more job to do. The pressure from the Telekinesis expanded and pushed everything away, making sure that Theo was isted as though he was standing in a tornado''s eye.


    ''This is��'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''I can clearly feel the pressure of my Telekinesis. And with this kind of force�� I should be able to wield more weapons�� In other words, Unarmed Weapons Wielding.


    ''Before, I couldn''t get a good grasp of the pressure of the Telekinesis, so the only thing I could use remotely was a gun. But the moment something hit it, the weapons would be blown away.


    ''Meanwhile, with the current rank of the Telekinesis, I can wield them like I''m using my hands�� Of course, it''s not as strong as my hands, but it won''t beunched away easily.


    ''At the same time, this swirling pressure�� If I have enough control, I should be able to create a pressure tornado without me being the center of it.


    ''There is so much stuff I can try right now. I guess I will use the next two months to focus on mastering these three skills.'' Theo smirked, looking forward to his trip this time. ''I''m fired up now.''

 Chapter 1018 3rd and 7th

    <h4>Chapter 1018 3rd and 7th</h4>


    The next day.


    Theo stood in front of the mansion while distributing everyone''s tasks. He would go for a long time, so he needed to properly take care of this matter.


    "Isaac. Your job is to prepare any materials regarding Antis. I have sent you the location where we will meet in three months."


    "Yep. I''ll take care of it. You want me to tell Mark and Maya too, right?"


    "Yeah. I have promised to go with them, so I''m gonna fulfill it." Theo shrugged.


    "Don''t worry. I will take care of everything. Now that there are no more threats going on, I can focus on this matter." Isaac nodded with a smile, puffing his chest. His tired face had disappeared.


    Although the trauma was still in his heart, he already acted like normal.


    "Okay." Theo then turned to Millie. "As for you, keep getting stronger for now. Also, I want you to prepare a few names to investigate. What I want is a shield user, a magician, and an enchanter. Search for these three, okay?"


    "Yes. I will do my best. Although my skill can only get their general information, I can provide a few names that suit your description." Millie nodded furiously. "I''ll be useful to repay my savior."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled before finally turning his head to Felix. "There is something I want you to do."


    "What is that?"


    "Write me a book about the uniqueness of Australia. I want to learn more about them."


    "Is that all?" Felix tilted his head in confusion. He thought the matter would be serious. Although he wasn''t good at writing a book, making a note here and there should be easy for him.


    "Yeah. That''s all I want to say." Theo waved his hand to them before leaving the mansion. "Alright. See you guys in three months."


    His personal driver immediately started the car and headed straight to the portal.


    Although the special request could be considered a mission, Theo decided to get another mission from the Star Group as well as signing up for the Star Group''s hotel.


    After all, this would be a long journey that was going to be quite exhausting.


    The moment he arrived at the other side, Theo immediately left the city and headed northeast. His mission from the Star Group involved a lot of killing, so he was quite excited to increase his strength even more.


    He only had two years left before he needed to go back to Italy, fulfilling the promise he had with Agata.


    So, he needed to get the remaining 200 levels in two years, which was quite hard. And his clone couldn''t help him for the time being, making it even harder.


    Hence, the mission Theo picked this time was the extermination of a General ss Monster that was said to be terrorizing the hotel.


    Mission: Troll Extermination


    Description: The General ss Troll has been expanding his domain. It will reach the hotel''s area within a year, so participants are required to kill it.


    Reward: 250,000,000 Zils and 1,250,000,000 Star Points.


    The troll itself had yet to reach the Mythical Rank Expert, so this should be the perfect enemy for the current him.


    ��


    Little did he know, Bernard faced another problem on the other side.


    He was currently sitting in his office like the usual day, but everything changed when he received a call.


    The ringing sound echoed in his ears, and Bernard picked the Skylink nonchntly, only to furrow his eyebrows when he saw the name.


    He immediately picked up the call and asked, "Hello. It''s my honor to receive a call from you, Mr. President. May I know how I can help you?"


    "Oh, boy�� You don''t know how happy I was when I rode a Mythical Rank Monster. No one knew my happiness."


    "��" Bernard fell silent for a moment. These two were their codes to talk about the World ss Monster. And thest sentence basically told him that the line was secure. "Joker has gone to the other side."


    "I''m sorry, Bernard. There''s something you need to know regarding this matter. It seems we have underestimated them��"


    "What do you mean?"


    "I have just received news about the two top 10 experts that would participate in this hunt."


    "And who are they?"


    "Ranked 3rd, Death Reaper, and ranked 7th, Fist Saint."


    "The psychopath and the martial brain�� I should have known they''re the ones participating." Bernard gritted his teeth. "I know that old hag is crazy, but not to this extent. If their n seeds, the old hag can harvest the death of the frost giant. If they fail, the old hag can harvest the souls of millions of people."


    "Yes. That''s what I think too�� I''m tracking her position right now. At the very least, she still remains in North Britain. But Anwar has left Egypt."


    "What? Are you serious?"


    "This is the reason why I call you."


    "Anwar Hadad. He rose through ranks with his metal affinity and became the strongest man on Earth at the age of 100�� His Endurance is so powerful that no one can prate his defense. And he always seeks strong opponents��


    "Twenty years ago, he challenged the former 7th rank and defeated him without a single injury," Bernard recalled the information about him while sighing. "Where is he now?"


    "I''m not sure. He might have arrived in this country, but who knows�� My men are searching for him right now."


    "Do you know what it means to arrive in this country?"


    "Of course. Their n might have finished because Anwar has a short temper. We need to speed up things."


    "Impossible. I don''t have any means to call Joker."


    "We need to make a sacrifice."


    Bernard fell silent for a moment while gritting his teeth. "Are you asking me to send more of my people to their death?"


    "There''s no other way. I will also send a few people from my side to assist you. I want you to dy their n as long as possible."


    Bernard was gnashing his teeth. He had sacrificed so much for this problem.


    "Time God has agreed to help me kill at least one of them. As long as we win, we can eliminate them."


    "What? Ranked 1st�� Time God��" Bernard widened his eyes in shock, never expecting the president to be able to get his help.


    "The power bnce is going to shift soon. If you help me, I promise I will pay you back in the future. Please don''t let a blood river flow on American soil."

 Chapter 1019 Size Does Matter

    <h4>Chapter 1019 Size Does Matter</h4>


    A few dayster.


    Theo arrived at the hotel, the ce he was supposed to protect. Since it was the Star Group hotel, the entrance was basically the same.


    He stood in front of the camera while presenting the Star Badge, signifying he was a person from the same side.


    Suddenly, a middle-aged man came out and asked, "Do you have an appointment?"


    "I have, but it''s going to be in two months. I''m here to participate in the subjugation." Theo shook his head, exining the real reason he came here.


    "I see." The middle-aged man then opened his Skylink and asked, "Your name and proof of you epting the mission."


    "Joker." Theo replied while giving him the proof.


    After confirming Joker''s identity, he nodded and pointed at the west. "Six miles from here, you will enter his area. We don''t know where he is hiding, but the guess is the deepest region. I''m going to give you the detailed map."


    Theo thanked him while handing the Skylink before asking, "How many people havee here?"


    "There were already 39 people before you. There should be moreing soon. Just to let you know that no Mythical Rank Experts wille out to help you."


    "I know that." Theo nodded while receiving the map. "Okay. That''s all I want to know. Thank you."


    The middle-aged man nodded his head and returned inside, not waiting for Theo to leave.


    Theo then leaped away ording to the guy''s instruction while looking at the map.


    The region seemed to be dominated by savanna, making it hard for him to silently kill a monster.


    "Hmm�� In front of me is a region filled with Supreme Rank Monsters. It''s going to be dangerous, especially since I don''t have a clone supporting me. However, with Order and these A Rank Skills, I should be able to kill the troll by myself.


    "The problem is my leveling speed. I''m fully aware of how hard it is to level up now that I''m alone�� One level every two days? In that case, I will only get 30 levels in two months." Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering how he should do this.


    In the end, Theo shook his head and immediately headed to the savanna, not bothering with the thought. He wanted to try his current skill first to check his leveling speed.


    As soon as he reached the savanna, a few monsters entered his vision. The monsters looked like wolves but without fur. Their height was three times Theo''s height and their eyes seemed to be looking around as though they noticed his presence.


    The wolf had a blue and red tail with a yellow stripe on its body, making it look unique.


    From these seven wolves, he found out that all of them were Rare ss Monsters who had opened their wisdom.


    It would make the situation even harsher.


    ''Can I fight against seven Rare ss Monsters by myself?'' Theo squinted his eyes while looking around, making sure there was no monster hiding nearby.


    Surprisingly, the wolves suddenly turned their heads and looked at the tree where Theo hid.


    "Aooo!" One of them let out a howl before all seven of them charged forward.


    ''What? They can find me? I don''t make a noise and�� Wait a minute. Are they picking up my Awareness? Can they sense my Awareness? I did expand it, but�� is that even possible?'' Theo was shocked for a moment before he leaped away.


    The first wolf smashed the tree with its paw, allowing the others to find Theo.


    "Screw it. Come here." Theo clicked his tongue and summoned his Death Avatar since it was the only one that couldpare to their size.


    Purple mes suddenly covered their eyes as Theo utilized the Death Eyes.


    A small shock wave shook the area as the killing intent struck the wolves'' minds.


    They froze for a second, allowing Theo to take out his de and send a sword wave.


    But before the sword wave hit one of them, they recovered. The target smacked the sword wave, obliterating it.


    ''That''s too quick.'' Theo looked to the right and left, surrounded by a pair of wolves from the two sides. This way, he only had one direction to go.


    Still, Theo wasn''t scared.


    He used his Blink to teleport himself to the right side. Instead of getting surrounded, Theo took this opportunity to fight two of them without any interruption. With their speed and distance, the other five wolves shouldn''t be able to help the pair on the right side.


    "!!!" The wolves were taken aback but immediately chased after Theo, trying to help the pair.


    Meanwhile, thetter turned around and swiped their paw, trying to smack Theo to death.


    *Bang!*


    A thunderp echoed as the shock wave from Theo''s punch blew away the paw. After that, he raised his sword and released a sword wave.


    The other wolf created a barrier from the Magic Power to protect him, but Theo''s Control split the sword wave into fives and spread it to all directions, grazing the wolf in a few spots.


    "Tsk. It''s bigger than I thought��" Theo muttered before using his Telekinesis to fly to the side.


    The three wolves from the middle had arrived and almost killed him with their ws. However, Theo skillfully avoided them and even counterattacked.


    Metamorphosis.


    Suddenly, Theo''s body was enveloped by a green light as it gradually expanded. The height reached 50 feet.


    And because the blue artifact couldn''t keep up with the transformation, the small sword dropped to the ground. Only the Death Armor expanded itself and turned into his clothes. It was truly convenient.


    After that, Theo formed a blue sword from Magic Power while looking down on the wolves since he was bigger now.


    He covered the sword with Magic Augmentation and smacked the two wolves.


    The two wolves were daring enough to stop his sword with their ws, but because of the difference in stature as well as the amount of Magic Power in the Magic Augmentation, the sword overwhelmed them, cutting both of their bodies.


    ''Your size can indeed make you stronger��'' Theo muttered inwardly.

 Chapter 1020 Progress

    <h4>Chapter 1020 Progress</h4>


    "Size does matter." Theo smirked and looked down on the wolves. When he was about to swing his sword, he saw the wolves disperse, surrounding him from all directions. They were aiming for his big feet since they would be easy to bite.


    In that instant, Theo stopped using his Metamorphosis and turned back to his small size, making the wolves hit each other.


    After that, Theo used his Telekinesis to grab the sword he had let go of earlier and waved it, releasing several sword lights.


    The lights split and rained them down.


    One of the wolves let out a howl while the others formed a barrier to protect him. The sound wave destroyed all the sword lights in one direction, allowing the wolves to escape from it.


    However, Theo didn''t want to let this chance go. The moment they turned around to make a run, the Blink Skill teleported him to the top of the wolf.


    Because the wolf was thest guy from the group, no one could help him since turning around meant the sword lights would kill them.


    The target decided to stop and turn around, sweeping Theo with his paw.


    Theo blocked the paw normally but ended up getting blown away.


    Noticing the amount of power put in that hit, Theo controlled the remaining sword lights to move toward this wolf, executing it.


    "There are only four left." Theo raised his vision, ring at the wolves, who got angrier as time passed. Still, he looked at his hands and muttered, "The swipe is quite powerful. If not because of my Supernatural Snake Body, my hands will be numb for a while."


    While Theo was assessing his condition, the wolves decided to charge forward, trying to pounce on him.


    However, Theo summoned his Death Avatar again and grabbed two wolves.


    With this, Theo only needed to deal with the other two wolves. There was no need to fear anymore.


    Theo tossed his sword into the air and raised both hands, touching their paws. Before the impact was transmitted from the wolves'' paws to his hands, Theo used his Blink, carrying both of the wolves to the top of the other two wolves.


    The Death Avatar also disappeared, letting go of the two wolves.


    Unfortunately for them, with two wolves'' pawsing directly to them, they had no way to escape.


    Theo used his Metamorphosis to be an ant, letting their paws hit their own friends.


    *Bam!*


    The smack was so strong that the two wolves banged their heads to the ground, creating a small crack on the ground.


    At the same time, the sword that he tossed earlier had fallen right on top of him. Theo hurriedly returned to his human form and sliced the two wolves on the ground, killing them.


    As for the other two that he teleported with Blink, the Death Avatar smacked them this time, allowing Theo to kill them in a few seconds.


    [Killed a Three-Colored Wolf.]


    [EXP+400,100]


    Theo nced at the notification before letting out a sigh.


    "Well, it only took four minutes to finish�� It''s quite fast, considering I''m alone." Theo sighed out of relief. "I might be able to reach level 600 before the time is up. Though, it''s going to be painful.


    "First of all, the only reason I could end the fight fast was due to the Blink, Telekinesis, and Metamorphosis Skills. The Blink created an opportunity, the Telekinesis controlled the situation, and the Metamorphosis overpowered them.


    "Still, the Magic Power consumption is so big. I won''t be able to maintain that giant body for more than 45 minutes. It looks like I canst for a long time, but I still need to fight against hundreds of monsters afterward to increase my level. There''s no way this is enough.


    "Even though it''s powerful, I need to let go of my body armor and weapon since they can''t expand. I will just destroy them with my size�� Though, my Clone should be able to ignore the weakness. It''s just my clone is working on another stuff right now.


    "Anyway��" Theo fell silent while looking at the corpses around him. "It''s possible to level up fast, but I need to exhaust my Magic Power many times. I need to be more reckless and use everything to kill the enemies as soon as possible. After that, I will recover the Magic Power.


    "This method will be the same as me dying over and over again. But I think this is worth the try. I should be thankful that I learned a breathing technique in the past few months. It will help me recover my Magic Power since I should be approaching the Innate Regeneration Phase soon."


    "And when I can use my clone again�� I can''t imagine the possibility of leveling even faster. If only Ava and Agata were here�� no one would believe my leveling speed." Theo smirked.


    After confirming his pattern of victory, Theo used his Telekinesis to gather the corpses and turn them into cards.


    He then continued forward, killing as many monsters as possible. He focused on killing the monsters in the surrounding area first because he knew no one would aim at the leader anytime soon.


    There was no way the troll would have no bodyguard to protect him. So, they needed to thin the number first.


    Hence, Theo didn''t need to rush when making his way toward the deepest region.


    His level gradually increased due to his effort, but his mental health deteriorated soon. Because of the constant exhaustion, Theo''s mind was tired.


    This was different from getting tortured by his own Death Avatar. This hunt exhausted both body and mind at the same time.


    His face gradually became pale, and a ck bag soon appeared under his eyes. But despite his condition, he still pushed forward, knowing he could recover from this situation after resting in the Star Group''s hotel.


    As long as he maintained good enough conditions for his fight against the troll, he should have no problem in this mission.


    Or so he thought as he finally met the first problem after hunting in this savanna for 50 days.

 Chapter 1021 Artificial?

    <h4>Chapter 1021 Artificial?</h4>


    While he was fighting against six monsters, thetter suddenly turned around, looking at the distance.


    Even Theo followed their line of sight, finding a cloud of dusting toward them.


    "Huh?" There was supposed to be no trouble in this ce, considering he had scouted the area before fighting against these monsters.


    Even if they called for help, the reinforcement woulde from a different direction. Hence, it was clear that they came here because of another disruption.


    "It''s artificial��" Theo muttered while pondering his choice. "From the direction alone, it''s clear that the monsterse from the deeper region�� No, I was supposed to go there to reach the deepest region where the troll lives."


    "!!!" Suddenly, Theo came to a realization and turned around, preparing to leave. "They are chasing humans, which most likely are the people from the Star Group.


    There was a dilemma in his heart. On one hand, he needed to help them as a person from the Star Group. On the other hand, he wasn''t in the condition to help them, especially since he nned to fight against the troll soon.


    Unfortunately, his thought was cut short as the monsters surrounded him, preventing him from running away. With the help of their people, they should be able to kill Theo.


    Theo just used his Blink, so it was impossible for him to escape for the time being. And the time he took to wait for the Blink Skill was enough for the cloud of dusting to him.


    "Help!" A female''s voice resounded across the savanna as though she had found Theo.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and nced at them, finding six people, which was normal for a group. But more importantly, the number of the monsters that chased after them was more than fifty. It was impossible for Theo to take on these many Supreme Rank Monsters.


    "It''s Joker!"


    "Joker!"


    "Please help us!"


    They started shouting when they confirmed the guy was none other than the current strongest Supreme Rank Expert, Joker.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo used his Blink to send himself away.


    "What?!"


    "He''s running away?"


    "You''re the strongest Supreme Rank Expert in the US."


    "Why are you running?"


    "Please help us."


    "Don''t be shameless. Are you a man?"


    They shouted in anger when Theo didn''t answer their plea to help. Even Theo couldn''t understand their thought, considering a help like this could be turned down depending on the situation.


    There was no way Theo wanted to fight those monsters. In fact, there was a chance they would be leaving him behind the moment he helped them.


    This was different than the previous time when the staff from the Star Group was directly involved in the rescue.


    Still, due to the distance of the Blink Skill, Theo couldn''t go too far. They spotted Theo''s figure not far in the distance and immediately pointed their hand.


    "There he is."


    "Chase him."


    "We can involve him as long as we catch up to him."


    Theo couldn''t hear what they were saying, but he might directly kill them instead of helping them if he heard it. They were simply too shameless.


    ''Seeing there''s someone with light clothes�� I''m pretty sure he''s a scout of the team. What kind of team will bring these many monsters with a scout like that?'' Theo shook his head, disappointed.


    He kept running on the savanna, wondering where he should go to shake them off.


    "I don''t want to die."


    "No."


    "Please help me."


    Their group started to fall into despair because Theo kept showing his back to them, not nning to give any sort of help.


    They continued running in Theo''s direction at their fastest speed but had no chance to catch up. This would gradually break their spirit.


    ''I should be able to leave them in the dust pretty soon.'' Theo thought while ncing to the back.


    But Magic Power fluctuated from the ground as the soil crumbled and turned into a sinkhole, swallowing Theo.


    "What?!" Theo was shocked by the sudden appearance of the sinkhole, knowing that it wasn''t a normal sinkhole. "What is happening?"


    He couldn''t see the bottom, so he concluded the sinkhole was pretty deep. Instead of going down, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly up, leaving this hole.


    Yet, before he could even reach the surface, the ground started shaking before two creatures emerged from the walls.


    The creatures were small like a pot. They had six long tentacles that could wrap their preypletely.


    These two creatures came out from the opposite directions and spread their tentacles to surround Theo.


    He had so many thoughts in his mind, but this wasn''t the time to contemte. So, Theo waved his de and struck the tentacles on his front, trying to cut them with the help of Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    But the moment he hit the tentacle, a clicking sound echoed in his ears as if he had just struck a metal.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes and used his Telekinesis to roll in the air, hitting all the tentacles. Yet, the result was the same.


    The tentacles were too hard to cut, and because of these two tries, Theo thought it would be impossible for him to break out.


    He also couldn''t fly away. Instead, the tentacles would most likely drag him to the bottom of the hole.


    Theo clicked his tongue and punched to the side, trying to knock the pot away. The shock wave from the Thunderp Fist pushed the pot slightly, but it simply hit the wall and bounced back.


    The cage didn''t get disturbed at all.


    While being dragged, he could finally use the Blink Skill again. Without hesitation, Theo used the skill to send him back to the surface.


    But because he was dragged pretty long, he still needed to cover thest fifty feet with his Telekinesis.


    As if reading what he could do, the ground began to reconstruct itself, trying to close the entrance.


    Without hesitation, Theo used his Death Avatar and struck the exit with that giant hand and the help of the Thunderp Fist.


    Bam.


    The ground burst into the air as Theo emerged from the hole.


    When he turned around and saw the horror on those six people''s faces, he understood what was going on.


    "It''s a trap."

 Chapter 1022 Troll

    <h4>Chapter 1022 Troll</h4>


    An hour ago.


    These six people were sitting on the ground, looking at the green-colored monster��three times their size��in horror.


    They were trembling in fear, and their brain felt like it was frozen.


    The green monster released his killing intent and red at them while munching what looked like a human''s hand.


    "Well, well, what do we have here? It turns out there are more rats sneaking around." The green monster harrumphed and ripped the hand apart with his sharp teeth.


    "Hiii�� I don''t want to die." The female magician clutched her head. Her body kept shaking.


    "You don''t want to die? Fine, I will give you a chance to live." The green monster smirked and mmed the ground with his wooden club, cracking it to show his strength.


    When she heard those words, she stopped and raised her head in shock.


    "You only need to do one thing. I have three hunting grounds. Whenever you find someone in my hunting ground, you''re going to drag them to one of my traps. As long as you kill twenty of your people, I will let you go." The monster smirked evilly.


    "What?"


    "You want us to kill our ownrades?"


    The green monster sat down in front of them while grabbing a human body.


    "What? You don''t want to?" He raised his voice before biting the human''s body, ripping it in half. He was munching the body as loud as possible, and his saliva continuously spurted out of his mouth, telling these six that this would be their fate if they refused.


    The magician was the first to crawl and agree. "I will do it. Let me do it. I don''t want to die."


    "Good. That''s one��" The monster smirked before ncing to the side.


    The others also followed his line of sight, receiving the murderous gazesing from the monsters around him. If there was no monster like this, they would be daring enough to fight against these trolls.


    Two of them panicked and finally gave in.


    "I will do it too."


    "Let me go."


    However, the leader of this group was courageous. Even though he would die, there was no way he could betray the Star Group. No, he could betray the Star Group, but it was impossible to betray his own kin to help the monsters from this side.


    He stood while ring at the monster, "I won''t do it. Kill me."


    The green monster smirked and grabbed the female magician, putting her in front of his mouth. "Then, I will just eat her."


    "No!" The magician screamed as loud as possible, refusing to die like this.


    "Just to let you know that if one of you refuses, all of you will be my snack." The monster smiled evilly while wiping the drool on his face, showing how tasty they were in his perspective.


    "What?" The leader widened his eyes, shocked by the statement.


    He turned around and saw the other two kneeling and holding his legs.


    "No."


    "Please just help him. We don''t want to die."


    "You guys��" The leader looked at them in horror before ncing at the remaining two who had yet to give their answers. But their pale faces had already given enough clues for him. "You��"


    Even though he didn''t want to do it, the troll would kill them the moment he refused. He never thought that his friends would give up on everything to save themselves.


    His heart fell into despair as he was forced to decide whether he wanted to help them to stay alive or die together.


    His expression darkened. He clenched his fists and shouted, "Fine. I will do it."


    The green monster was smiling this whole time before he extended his hand like a gentleman, pointing at the exit. "There you go. You can leave through that tunnel. The monsters will be chasing you, so you all just need to find a way to kill them."


    He even put down the magician gently so as to show his sincerity.


    The magician was the first to run away, ignoring everything else.


    "Oh? Someone is already running? If you don''t follow her soon, I will kill all of you." The monster stated again, reminding them that they needed to start moving.


    The other five couldn''t help but follow her, knowing this was the group decision.


    As soon as they exited, the green monster fell to his butt whileughing uncontrobly. He even rolled around on the ground while saying, "Ah, I love humans. Hahahaha!"


    "They''re foolish creatures that can easily betray their own people in the face of death. I love the looks on their faces when they fall into despair."


    "More importantly, they''re the one that will help me kill those who want to kill me."


    "Hahahahaha!" The monster keptughing for a few minutes before ending it with a statement. "No one can stop me. No matter how hard they''re trying to kill me, they will only fall into my traps."


    Meanwhile, those six people were running away from the cave with the monsters chasing after them.


    They had been running for a while, eliminating another group in the process. They couldn''t say anything because they were desperate to survive.


    When they thought it was possible to work together to handle the monsters, the sinkhole appeared and engulfed all the other group''s members, scaring them.


    These six turned into a robot manipted by the monsters in the end.


    And Theo was their current target.


    Of course, the horror on their faces when Theo ran away and managed to escape the sinkhole was enough to let him know there was a hidden scheme in this ce.


    Theo gritted his teeth while looking at these six people. "Who are you? Who wants to kill me?"


    Obviously, Theo didn''t know that this was the work of monsters. He thought this scheme was nted by someone that wanted to kill him.


    But the moment the monsters were about to reach him, Theo turned around and ran again as though he suddenly cowered against these monsters.


    And these six people became even more desperate because if they failed to kill Theo, they might die after this.

 Chapter 1023 Killing

    <h4>Chapter 1023 Killing</h4>


    Seeing their reaction to his action, Theo concluded that there might be something in this savanna, considering he had almost reached the rocky area that made it hard for the sinkhole to appear and trap him.


    Hence, he nned to use this rocky area to turn around the situation.


    Those six people along with the monsters behind them had a hard time leaping through one stone after another.


    Meanwhile, Theo utilized his Telekinesis to fly two feet above the air while turning his body around.


    His sword suddenly changed into a sniper rifle, the fourth form of his blue artifact.


    Then, he aimed it toward the people while pouring his Magic Power into the weapon, shooting a beam of light.


    "What?" The knight immediately put his shield forward and formed a massive barrier that covered his entire group. This also meant that he was protecting the monsters from Theo''s attack.


    That was why before the bullet hit the translucent barrier, it split into ten, going in all directions.


    They looped around the barrier and shot down the monsters who thought they wouldn''t be harmed because of the barrier.


    And Theo took this gap to kill five of them.


    "!!!" The knight raised his eyebrows before ncing to the back, realizing some monsters had died. Now that they had also left the hunting ground, there was a chance they could escape with the help of Theo.


    But for now, he maintained his barrier so that Theo could lower their number.


    If there were only thirty monsters left, they should be able to kill them and escape together with Theo.


    He didn''t want the monsters to suspect them and kill them because of this, so he maintained his silence while marching forward, ying by Theo''s rule.


    Theo kept shooting around, overwhelming the monsters with his continuous shot. He even used his Telekinesis to push them back, trying to hold their position.


    In fifteen minutes, Theo finally killed twenty monsters.


    ''This is it!'' The knight thought as he turned around, smashing his barrier to the monsters while shouting. "There are only thirty monsters left, and we have left the hunting grounds. We need to kill them right now!"


    It seemed there were two other people who had caught Theo''s n. They were those who only showed their pale faces instead of answering the leader.


    With these three, they should be able to kill the remaining monsters.


    However, the moment the barrier was on the other side, Theo''s bullets split into two and pierced through their heads, leaving only the knight alive.


    "What?!" The knight was bewildered by Theo''s action, not knowing why he killed both of them. He turned his head around, ring at Theo, only to find a thick mist spreading from Theo''s position. ''Mist?''


    The three who had been running this whole time entered the mist before screams echoed inside as though they were butchered inside the mist.


    This was the Third Authority of Death Avatar, Death Domain. He created the mist to block their Awareness while using his Illusion to block their sight, creating a perfect domain to execute them.


    After that, Theo emerged from the mist with a sword and a spear in his hand. He didn''t n to hold back anymore.


    ''A sword and a spear?'' The knight tried to turn around to stop Theo, but thetter disappeared with his Blink Skill, emerging in the middle of enemies.


    Theo waved his right hand, shooting the sword light to kill two monsters. At the same time, he thrust his spear forward and utilized the Thunderp Fist to create a powerful shock wave that ripped apart the monsters'' bodies.


    After that, the Death Avatar mmed both hands, killing another two monsters before releasing the Death Eyes, stunning them for a second.


    Theo took this opportunity to kill a few more monsters with his weapons. However, he soon changed his blue artifact into a shield and received a powerful blow from one of the monsters.


    But due to that blow, the monster had no power to stop the Death Avatar from piercing his heart.


    Using this confusion to his advantage, Theo used his Metamorphosis and transformed into a giant human, stomping the monsters.


    After that, he turned back into his ant form and ambushed a few others. In this just one exchange, Theo managed to kill fifteen monsters.


    This was the fastest record so far, but Theo could only do it with the help of these six people.


    At the same time, he also learned from the monsters'' reactions that they had some sort of orders from someone. And the only person that could rule them like this was none other than the General ss Monster that controlled this area, the troll.


    Hence, he needed to leave a few humans alive to get more information about them.


    Now that only 15 monsters remained, Theo used the knight as a shield and shot them a few more times. Their number soon dropped to ten, and Theo easily killed the rest of the monsters.


    "He did it? He actually killed fifty monsters by himself. What kind of ridiculous fighting style was that? He could teleport? He could also turn into a giant human? And more importantly, is that his weapon�� since when did he use multiple weapons like that?" The knight wanted to get angry because Theo killed hisrades, but all the things Theo showed earlier were simply too much for his brain to handle.


    He could only watch Theo in shock, wondering what had just happened.


    Unfortunately for him, the next thing he realized, a powerful punchnded on his stomach.


    "Gah?!" He finally woke up and saw Theo''s appearing before him, blowing him away. He ended up crashing into a giant boulder and passed out due to the power behind that fist.


    Theo let out a long breath before furrowing his eyebrows. "So, what''s wrong with these people? Why are they siding with the monsters they''re supposed to kill? I''m not against that idea since I have Ava and a few connections on this side, but isn''t the troll our target?"


    Theo was confused by their action, so he captured a few of them alive to interrogate them. Even the people that entered his mist, only one of them died. The rest was knocked out by the pain he transferred through illusions.

 Chapter 1024 Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 1024 Interrogation</h4>


    *Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    The knight was panting as he gradually opened his eyes. The blurry vision made him want to go back to sleep as if the torture he had earlier was just a dream.


    But Theo''s voice soon entered his ears, waking him up.


    "Since you have woken up, it''s time for you to start talking."


    The knight was shocked but had no energy to show it in his expression. Instead, he raised his head weakly, looking at Theo with his blurry vision. "Joker�� My friends��"


    His head swayed left and right as though he was searching for his five friends, but Theo simply stated, "Give me the information I want, and I will answer your question."


    The knight wanted to remember what happened, but constant pain in his legs and arms prevented him from thinking.


    "Why did you want to kill me? Who ordered you?"


    "Where is this?" The knight answered his question with another question.


    After seeing their reaction, he knew that the monsters were the culprit, so he answered, "This ce is outside what you call hunting grounds. Answer my question, who ordered you?"


    "I need to see my friends first." Even though his head couldn''t focus, he certainly remembered his friends.


    Annoyed by his reaction, Theo used his Illusion Maniption to make him hear a woman''s scream.


    "Aaaaahhhh! I don''t want to die."


    "��?" The knight turned to the left and said, "No. Don''t do anything to my friends."


    "Answer my question."


    "I��" The knight hesitated as he never expected that Joker would be this cruel. At the same time, he thought he deserved this treatment for killing many people from the Star Group.


    To stop Theo from hurting his teammates, he immediately answered, "The troll�� The troll ordered us. We were supposed to kill him, but twenty Rare ss Monsters ambushed us in his cave."


    ''Twenty Rare ss Monsters? Considering the troll is a General ss Monster, he should have chosen the best Rare ss Monsters to protect him.'' Theo narrowed his eyes and uttered another question. "Where is he? And what did he do to you?"


    "He�� You can go to his ce through the hole on the ground. You have seen them�� There are ten holes scattered around the savanna, and my team went through one of them before getting ambushed.


    "They captured us and brought us to his cave. The troll ate humans, so we were ordered to bring in people to feed him in exchange for survival.


    "I just wanted to save my friends��" The knight gradually gathered his focus. He felt that someone intentionally made his vision blurry.


    And when he regained a bit of his mind, he raised his head, finding he was surrounded by mist. It turned out the blurry vision was due to the mist.


    "Does his ce have traps? What is his strength? How about those Rare ss Monsters?" Theo continued without caring about his situation.


    "The ce doesn''t have traps, but they seem to be aware of our arrival. The troll didn''t show us his strength, but the Rare ss��" He suddenly fell silent as he finally regained his clear mind.


    The knight raised his head and squinted his eyes before finding a shadow behind the mist. "Joker�� You killed my friends!"


    He wanted to leap right now but to no avail. When he lowered his vision, he found himself tied into a boulder and his feet had been impaled to the ground by two swords.


    In that instant, the situation was clear in his head. Theo never meant to save them.


    The mist gradually became clear, revealing Theo''s appearance. He looked down on him while saying, "You''re not expecting me to save you, right? After all, you almost killed me by siding with the troll."


    "I�� No, that''s not important. I heard my friend��" He turned around and saw no one. He tried to stand up even though he was tied to a giant boulder without hesitation.


    "Since you have no more use for me, then��" Theo waved his sword before the knight could do anything, sending his head flying. "Don''t think about getting out here alive."


    If they didn''t try to trap him, he might save them as what he was supposed to do as a member of the Star Group. However, there were two more people he interrogated earlier. They told him that there were multiple people from the Star Group who had died under their schemes.


    Even though it was for survival, he thought there was no need for them to be alive anymore.


    This scene just reminded him of when he almost died back in Thernd.


    Of course, the other two had died as well. There was no trace of sympathy when he killed them because they were crazier than the knight. In fact, he was disgusted by their characters.


    After getting the information, Theo formed Magic Bullets and shot the corpse until only the blood remained. With the amount of blood and bodies scattered around the area, people would only think this was the blood of monsters instead of a human.


    So, no one would suspect him about the disappearance of these people.


    "ording to them, the troll seemed to be able to use schemes. His base was underground and because the hunting grounds were scattered around the area, the base should be in the center�� The problem is the depth.


    "Other than that, the twenty Rare ss Monsters are quite concerning. They can capture many people from the Star Group, so it''s clear they are on the stronger side. I might not be able to win against them by myself.


    "Do I need to search for another group and ask them to fight together? It''s going to be easier for me, but how do I even find them?


    "The time limit is almost up and I need to get going soon, so I want to end this mission as soon as possible.


    "Hence, the only way to do it is to kill the troll myself. But there are those problems��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    He was formting n after n to see which one might work with the troll''s intelligence.


    After an hour, Theo suddenly muttered, "It seems I need my clone."

 Chapter 1025 Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 1025 Running Away</h4>


    "This is it��" Theo looked down, finding the hole that almost swallowed him earlier.


    He had made the necessary preparation for this hunt, so he leaped into the hole without fear.


    As expected, there was no pot-like monster appearing, allowing him to reach the bottom without any dangers.


    In that instant, he used his Night Vision and looked at the tunnel leading to the troll''s home.


    Since he was facing a guy on his own turf, Theo became extremely careful. He looked around and examined this ce.


    The tunnel itself wasn''t that big, barely holding ten people like him. Based on the troll''s description, it was certainly not at the size where the troll couldfortably fight.


    Hence, Theo took this to his advantage and started advancing forward while preparing for an ambush.


    He even extended his Awareness to make sure nothing escaped his senses.


    Five minutes passed, but nothing happened. There was only silence inside the cave.


    Even his footsteps echoed louder than anything else. He knew that it was impossible for him to set up an ambush, considering the other party wouldn''t have any problem picking up his footsteps.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how far this tunnel would go. However, he kept walking forward as though he wasn''t afraid of anything.


    After half an hour, he thought he had covered one mile of distance. It should be enough for the hole to lead him to the deepest region on the surface.


    Hence, he should be meeting the troll sooner orter.


    ''Still, like the information, there is no trap. In fact, it''s pretty stressful if I need to watch the traps this whole time.'' Theo muttered inwardly, examining his situation again.


    But before he reached the troll''s home, footsteps started echoing in the cave.


    Even without his Awareness, he knew these footsteps came from the monsters.


    ''ording to the information, there will only be six monstersing at me. The other three will ambush me through a hole somewhere, and the others will attack me from the opposite directions, making it impossible for me to escape.


    ''I see. I understand what''s going on.'' Theo thought with a smile. The information from those six people was indeed useful. And because no one had yet seeded in escaping from this encirclement, there was no information leak, resulting in the troll reusing this strategy again and again.


    And this was the chance Theo had been waiting for. For his first move, Theo stopped in his tracks and waited.


    Yes, he waited in the middle of the tunnel as though he had given up on this mission.


    The monsters entered his vision a few secondster as they marched at their fastest speed to take him by surprise.


    Normally, the group would have created a defensive position and received them, but Theo did something different.


    He turned around and started running to the outside, confusing the Rare ss Monsters.


    "!!!" They exchanged looks for an instant as if asking what they were supposed to do when the situation wasn''t like the troll described.


    As expected from a Rare ss Monster, even though they had some intelligence, it wasn''t enough to think about what they would do when everything went wrong.


    They ended up following their basic instinct, which was to chase after Theo.


    ''As expected, these Rare ss Monsters only have the brain of a toddler. They look tougher than usual, but they will rely on their instinct in the end.'' Theo thought while shooting Magic Bullets at them to maintain his distance.


    Since there was no trap, he ran without the slightest doubt, heading straight to the exit.


    "This is impossible. I am not prepared to fight all these monsters at once." Theo shouted while tossing his Skylink and sword, running for his life.


    Seeing how desperate he was made the monsters get excited. After all, they wouldn''t have any trouble bringing Theo back to this hole.


    "Don''t chase after me. Go away!" Theo kept running. His expression brightened when he saw the dead-end since all he needed to do was climb this wall.


    He jumped from one ce to another with the monsters following his movement as though they were used to it.


    However, that wasn''t important. As soon as Theo came out, he found a few more monsters waiting for him on the surface. He hurriedly used his Blink Skill to send himself away.


    *Roar?!*


    There was confusion in that roar as this was the first time they saw a human leaving the tunnel. Six monsters would be something they should be able to handle, so it wasn''t supposed to go this way.


    And their confusion raised again when they saw the monstersing out of the hole, chasing after Theo. They even ordered those on the surface to go along because they needed to bring Theo back to the troll.


    Even the monsters that had been hiding inside the wall suddenly came out of the ground and chased after him.


    "I won''t die here," Theo shouted, trying to gather their attention. Even those who were still confused immediately turned around and ran after him.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    Since they were not in the cave anymore, the monsters freely roared tomunicate with each other.


    Meanwhile, Theo was smiling inwardly, thinking, ''You must want me, right? Yep, yep. I know it well. If it were another group, after taking on those six monsters in the cave, you would ambush them from behind.


    ''It would cause chaos among them and force them to split their force. At the same time, the exit would have been closed by that time.


    ''After that, you will only need a killing blow which must be the monster thates out of the wall. Yep, yep. I know that''s what you''re going to do thanks to the information.'' Theo chuckled inwardly as he continued running, trying to bring these monsters as far as possible.


    Little did he know, there was another Theo standing on the edge, staring at the hole.


    "As I said, I am not prepared to fight all the monsters�� I am here just to fight the troll." Theo shook his head in disappointment as he jumped to the bottom.

 Chapter 1026 Fighting The Troll

    <h4>Chapter 1026 Fighting The Troll</h4>


    When he reached the bottom, he didn''tnd on the ground. Instead, he used his Telekinesis to float a few inches above the ground so as to not make any sounds.


    This way, no one should notice his arrival.


    Without hesitation, Theo immediately headed back to retrieve his Skylink and sword before heading straight to the troll''s home.


    As expected, his previous location wasn''t that far from the troll''s home since he arrived only one minute.


    The tunnel expanded like the limestone cave he saw in Australia. And in the middle of the room stood tall a huge throne that was nted directly to the ground as if the troll had sculpted a giant boulder into a throne.


    Next to the throne were ck-colored cages with numerous corpses inside. Of course, the corpsesprised only humans, which slightly disgusted him.


    He thought the troll would eat other monsters, but it seemed he was wrong.


    On the opposite of the cage, there was a wall of blood. The wall was so red that the blood smell was so strong.


    As if not expecting Theo''s arrival, the troll widened his eyes and rose from his seat, ring at him. Without hesitation, he leaped to grab his forty-foot-long wooden club.


    There was no need for words to be exchanged. Theo immediately used his Blink to reach the club and kicked the troll''s hand with the help of his Thunderp Fist.


    *Bang!*


    The shock wave knocked the hand away. As long as the troll didn''t have his weapon, he would be at a massive advantage, especially since the troll was alone here.


    The troll had the same thought, so he wanted to grab his weapon no matter what. He sent his other hand to grab it, using the opportunity created by Theo''s momentum.


    However, Theo utilized his Telekinesis to fly in front of the troll and struck the troll''s hand with his sword.


    Surprisingly, ck-colored me enveloped his wrist, blocking the sword. But as one would expect from Theo, he didn''t give up.


    Another burst of shock wave blew the hand away. This way, the troll was wide open.


    Without hesitation, Theo waved his sword and sent crescent-shaped sword energy to cut his neck.


    But right before it hit, the ck me appeared again and absorbed the attack. After that, the troll raised his knee,unching Theo to the ceiling.


    *Bam!*


    Theo crashed to the ceiling and watched how the troll grabbed his weapon.


    ''As expected from a monster close to the Mythical Rank, I don''t think I have an advantage in this fight.'' Theo clicked his tongue and started falling down, using the Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion to hit the troll.


    Thetter raised his club before covering it with the ck me, absorbing the Magic Power again.


    ''What kind of power he has��'' Theo narrowed his eyes beforeunching himself away with the support of the wooden club.


    "Impossible. How can you escape?" The troll red at him, releasing his killing intent. This was the first time that his n didn''t work. He couldn''t help but remember what happened a few minutes ago.


    ��


    *Roar!*


    A monster let out a small roar as though telling him, ''Someone ising. Shall we capture him again?''


    This monster had been standing next to him this whole time since he was the onemanding the other beasts in this cave.


    "How many are they?"


    The monster fell silent for a moment before raising one finger.


    "So, this is going to be a quick capture. Even though there''s only one person, don''t underestimate the human. That person must have some confidence in challenging me since hees alone." The troll exined and ordered the monsters to go after Theo.


    Little did he know, what he said about not underestimating them was true. And the result was Theo arrived here without any ident.


    As the troll said, Theo had the confidence to challenge him when he came here alone.


    In fact, he had been able to read humans pretty well. He was simply unaware that Theo had the information about him and knew how he worked.


    ��


    The troll squinted his eyes while pointing his palm toward Theo. ck colored energy soon gathered on top of his palm as the troll demanded the answer. "How do youe here without being chased by my minions?"


    Theo maintained his silence and charged forward, refusing to answer his question. Since the troll was adept in strategy, he thought not saying anything would be enough to handle the troll.


    After all, unlike the humans, the troll seemed to have a different perspective about humans.


    ''Still, are the General ss Monsters and above this smart? Mythical Rank Monsters have even more intelligent monsters. If they''re all this smart, it''s understandable why humans can''t easily produce level 1,000 experts.''


    Theo thought while shing his sword downwards, releasing the sword energy again.


    "It''s useless. You won''t be able to go against my power." The troll snorted and prepared to absorb the sword energy again.


    However, the sword wave soon split into seven and looped around the bat.


    Even if it was the troll, he would need to leap away to avoid it. However, Theo was mistaken this time.


    The ck-colored energy soon wrapped the troll''s body and absorbed everything. In fact, the energy was covering his whole body, leaving only a slight gap in his eyes.


    No matter how hard he attacked him, the troll could simply make a simple movement so that his power could absorb them.


    In other words, before Theo could figure out his power, there was no way he couldnd a hit on him.


    However, the troll suddenly spoke while looking down on him.


    "Hahaha. It''s useless. Struggle with all your might, but you won''t be able to prate this armor. After all, you humans don''t know anything about our true strength. You don''t know anything about Order.


    "I will show you the power that makes a race like us rule the world instead of you�� Even if you can trick my minions, you still can''t defeat me as this is Order!" The troll shouted as a powerful shock wave shook the cave.

 Chapter 1027 Learning The Troll’s Order

    <h4>Chapter 1027 Learning The Troll''s Order</h4>


    "This is Order!" The troll shouted. His ck armor soon discharged a powerful Magic Power. And surprisingly, half of the Magic Power seemed to have changed color.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and maintained his silence. Inside, he was questioning the troll''s power. ''That is Order for sure. Does this mean he''s a King ss Monster as well? But his strength is only the Supreme Rank�� Wait, Avarice also has Supreme Rank strength��


    ''Seeing how only half of the Magic Power has turned ck, he has the Order but hasn''t fully integrated it yet. Just like me back then�� In fact, I don''t think he can utilize his Order that much.


    ''I see. He is the perfect enemy for me to see how far my Order can go.'' Theo took a deep breath and said, trying to startle the troll. "It seems that this is the reason why you start expanding your domain."


    "It seems even for a human; you''re pretty smart." The troll smirked and raised his ck bat.


    The moment he mmed the ground, the ck-colored energy spread to the surrounding, turning the entire ce toplete darkness.


    ''He''s enveloping this room with that darkness power? His strength is simr to the Dark King��'' Theo thought while maintaining his Awareness to make sure the troll couldn''t sneak attack.


    Suddenly, he raised his sword with both hands before a clicking sound was heard.


    "It seems you can see me in this darkness�� No, should I say you can sense me?" The troll startedughing as his sound started echoing inside the cave.


    Theo took a deep breath and closed his eyes this time, focusing on his senses. After that, he leaped toward the left before the bat struck the ground, turning the floor into a crater.


    Using this chance, Theo spun his body and waved his swords a few times, sending the sword energy multiple times.


    The sword energy split and flew around the cave as though trying to brighten this room. Unfortunately, the energy didn''t light up anything.


    "There''s no use. You will be trapped in this endless darkness this whole time." The troll chuckled and continued hitting him.


    However, Theo managed to avoid or parry all his attacks for the time being. Although he wanted to use his Order right away, he believed he should wait for a bit more.


    ''I should understand how his Order works first. I''m not going to waste the chance to learn more about other Orders.'' Theo thought while releasing his Death Avatar.


    This time, the Death Avatar turned around and grabbed the iing bats.


    "It''s no use." The troll snorted and released his Magic Power, utilizing this darkness to swallow the Death Avatar''s hands.


    Surprisingly, the hands were gone in just one second, resulting in the bating toward Theo.


    Thetter used his Blink to escape before summoning numerous Magic Bullets and shooting at the troll from all directions.


    "I already told you that your efforts are futile. Your only fate is to die." The troll roared and marched forward, ignoring all the Magic Bullets.


    Theo''s Control might be good enough to aim at the small gap for his eyes, but he certainly couldn''t do anything in this darkness.


    The only thing he could do was to sense his body and attack. That was all.


    Seeing how the troll easily defeated his attack, Theo changed his strategy. Instead of attacking the troll, he shot his Magic Bullets to the back, specifically to the walls.


    There were supposed to be ten tunnels in his surroundings, so a chance shoulde.


    A smile appeared on the troll''s face as he pped his hand once, absorbing all the Magic Bullets.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows while leaping around, avoiding all the troll''s attacks.


    In just one minute, they had shed one hundred rounds as the troll started something new every time to see what kind of attack would hit Theo.


    On the other hand, Theo still maintained his calm and parried the bat again and again.


    He had tried many things. The Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion were absorbed by the darkness. Even the Telekinesis became a hollow shell when it hit the troll.


    Even his Magic Bullet, Sword Energy, and Thunderp Fist were devoured by the troll so easily.


    However, he noticed that the troll expended a huge amount of energy to utilize this power. His breathing became rougher as time passed.


    Theo couldn''t help but say, "What''s wrong? Do you need some time to rest? It''s useless, but it seems your stamina isn''t that good. How about your night''s stamina? Or maybe it''s a troll''s asthma?"


    Theo didn''t hold back when he mocked the troll.


    As expected, the troll bit the provocation as he released even stronger energy from his body.


    "Don''t underestimate me. I will be the ruler of this in, and no one can stop me." The troll roared as he leaped toward Theo.


    Unlike the previous attack, the troll suddenly raised his left hand. The Magic Power fluctuated weirdly.


    Even though Theo couldn''t see this power, he could feel the shape and the amount of Magic Power.


    So, the moment he sensed that enormous Magic Power, Theo leaped back to gain some distance.


    "You''re the one asking for it, human." The troll waved his hand, throwing the ball-shaped energy toward Theo.


    However, the throw actually missed as the ballnded a few feet in front of him.


    When Theo was about to think he just missed, the Magic Power fluctuated again. Multiple spikes emerged from the ball as. Some even hit Theo''s suit, blowing him to the wall.


    Luckily, the Supernatural Snake Body and the special suit managed to withstand its power.


    ''I''m not lucky�� As expected, his strength��'' Theo thought before saying, "I see. Your power can only swallow Magic Power. Your power will be severely weakened if it hits a real thing."


    "And?" The troll snorted as he shot another ball toward him, who was pinned on the wall. "As long as it pierces the unprotected parts of your body, you will die. Struggle, human!"


    Theo let out a long sigh before his spear turned back into a sword.


    Finally, Theo revolved his Order before shing downwards.


    Suddenly, the iing ck ball split into two and disappeared.


    "Struggle? That''s what I was supposed to say." Theo smiled.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1028 Order vs Order

    <h4>Chapter 1028 Order vs Order</h4>


    "!!!" The troll widened his eyes when he saw his own ck ball getting cut by Theo''s sword.


    If it was directly, he would believe the sword cut it. But Theo did it at a distance.


    "I have learned a lot from you." Theo smirked and raised his left hand.


    Suddenly, the darkness that enveloped the entire cave disintegrated as though a random force dispelled it.


    The light gradually returned to the cave, allowing Theo to see again. He was certainly delighted when he saw the dumbfounded expression on the troll''s face.


    "You��" The troll was speechless. He didn''t know what actually happened. "What did you do?"


    Theo looked at the troll and smirked. "What do you think? Why don''t you find it out?"


    "Human!" The troll roared and formed multiple ck balls in his surroundings,unching them forward.


    Theo snorted and shed the air again, resulting in all these ck balls being cut like tofu.


    There was no reaction from Theo as though cutting this power was normal for him.


    "Why? I have used my Order to swallow all the Magic Power��" The troll''s eyes widened, staring at Theo in fear.


    He truly couldn''t understand Theo. Even this whole time, Theo acted as if he wasn''t in a bad situation.


    The proof was the constant mockeries he threw as if trying to anger him.


    "No, wait. You provoked me to see more of my power." The troll came to a realization.


    Theo''s real intention was finally revealed.


    Yet, Theo simply uttered one word as his response. "So?"


    "So?!" The troll gritted his teeth and ran forward, brandishing his bat to Theo.


    Theo pointed his left hand to the bat.


    As soon as he clutched his hand, the darkness that enveloped the bat started to shake before it gradually disappeared.


    Theo took this opportunity to cover his sword with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.


    "Not good!" The troll widened his eyes, noticing the Magic Power fluctuation in Theo''s sword.


    The moment their weapons shed, the power from the Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion exploded, blowing the bat away.


    "Kh." The troll gritted his teeth, trying to withstand the force, not letting his bat go.


    However, Theo took this opportunity to close in.


    He jumped to the troll''s body as his sword struck him a few times.


    "Noooooo!" The troll screamed in pain as he shook his body tounch him away.


    There were several cuts on his armor. And Theo''s sword seemed to have prated his skin.


    Still, as expected from a thick armor and skin, Theo could only deliver superficial wounds like this. The troll might not be affected by this kind of wound too.


    "How do you cut my power?" The troll gnashed his teeth and waved his club to make Theo leap away. He needed time to think about what had happened.


    ''I think I can understand one of the advantages of having the thirteen big Orders��'' Theo thought while narrowing his eyes, observing the power from the troll''s power. ''Although the troll''s Order hasn''t fully manifested, he can still bring out its power.


    ''But it seems that the thirteen big Orders have priority over other Orders. If not, the power from my Order will sh with him. And I won''t be able to cut down his darkness power.


    ''Of course, I think it can be this effective due to his Order being iplete.'' Theo examined the current situation. ''If we have the same condition, I can cut the armor down, but I need to attack the same spot multiple times. And he won''t be able to stop my attack�� Those kinds of priorities.''


    Theo''s expression became serious as he nned to try to utilize his own Orderpletely this time.


    As if having the same thought as Theo, the troll suddenly sucked a cold breath as he said with a shocked face. "Don''t tell me�� You�� You also have an Order!"


    Theo didn''t answer him since there was no need for words to be exchanged anymore. Since the situation had be like this, it would be his Order vs the troll''s Order. Or so what he thought.


    With a fearless charge, Theo approached the troll and released several sword energy, trying to take advantage of the troll''s confusion.


    However, thetter took a step back and poured his Order into his bat again, stopping Theo from doing whatever he wanted.


    Theo raised his hand to shake the power of Order again, but the troll somehow maintained the Order.


    *Clink!*


    ''I guess it won''t be that easy.'' Theo narrowed his eyes and saw his sword cutting half of the energy that covered his bat. ''It seems the troll is recklessly using his Order and Magic Power to withstand my power.''


    "I don''t have enmity with you. Why does someone who possesses a Holdere here?!" The troll gritted his teeth and pushed forward, trying to pin Theo to the ground.


    Meanwhile, Theo used his Blink Skill to appear on top of the troll.


    The troll immediately took a step back to avoid him. However, his giant body was an easy target for Theo.


    He cut down the armor with all his strength, including the Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion, and Thunderp Fist.


    Still, as expected from another Order, even though Theo''s Reality Order had a massive advantage, the Order still managed to absorb a portion of his Magic Power.


    However, the remaining force was enough to cut the body, creating a giant wound on the troll''s chest.


    "Aaarrrgghh!" The troll screamed in pain as he raised his left hand. His shadow suddenly expanded and turned into spikes.


    Some of them went straight to Theo, blowing him away.


    While panting, the troll red at him, asking, "What Order do you have?!"


    "You''re really talkative this whole time. Do you think anyone has time to entertain you?" Theo snorted as he prepared to defeat the troll.


    But everything didn''t go as smoothly as he thought.


    When Theo was about to charge forward, a monster suddenly entered the tunnel and roared.


    *Roar!*


    The monster looked like a fox. Its body size was simr to that of a troll but with white skin.


    The golden tail suddenly rose as electricity started sparking.


    "Hahaha! Do you think you have lured all of them out?!" The troll suddenly smiled when he saw this monster as though there was still a way to win.

 Chapter 1029 Another Perception of Reality

    <h4>Chapter 1029 Another Perception of Reality</h4>


    "Do you think you have a way to win?" The trollughed uncontrobly as he immediately leaped toward the monster as if trying to regroup with him instead of fighting together.


    "A mount?!" In that instant, Theo recognized his n and the monster''s identity.


    The Blink Skill sent him between them as Theo struck the troll to stop him.


    The troll smirked and exerted all his power. This way, Theo wouldn''t be able to do anything other than stop him.


    And the monster approached him and opened his mouth, trying to bite him.


    "This is the end. I recognize your power, but this is the time for you to die." The troll smirked and pushed Theo to the monster''s mouth.


    A smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face as he replied with confidence. "Is that so?"


    Another Theo suddenly appeared behind him and summoned the Death Avatar.


    The giant hands grabbed the monster''s jaws and tried to rip them apart.


    "What?!" The troll panicked when he saw another human appearing. But with how simr their clothes were, he thought the man was a copy of the human before him.


    Still, there was one thing that made him doubt his guess. It was the Magic Power from the guy''s body.


    Unlike a skill or something simr, the man had a calm and stable Magic Power covering his body as if he was a perfect human.


    But when he saw the Death Avatar that came out of his body, he suddenly felt the man might be Theo''s twin or something.


    And that guess also gave another problem as hepletely didn''t expect there was another human hiding nearby.


    Although Theo could use his own Death Avatar to stop the mount, he thought this was the time to end this fight.


    He had learned a lot from the troll. Since he had no other things to check, Theo decided to end this fight here.


    The clone threw the monster''s body to the side after failing to rip him apart. After that, both he and the Death Avatar formed a sword, taking the monster on.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo also summoned his Death Avatar and did the same. "I should be the one asking you�� Do you think you can win against me?"


    This was the first time the troll couldn''t say anything, even if it was just a shocked reaction.


    His mind was going around like crazy, thinking many things. From Theo''s Order to Clone Theo, there was nothing he could decipher.


    On the other hand, he had been showing off this whole time, not knowing he was actually the prey.


    When he realized all of it, his face became pale as he released all his power in one go.


    Even Theo was pushed back with the sheer amount of power as he observed this powerful energy. He felt like the troll had a breathing technique that allowed him to release this amount of Magic Power all of a sudden.


    Unlike his stable and mild Magic Power, he couldn''t replicate what he did.


    Focusing on the Magic Power, Theo calmed his heart down and tried to find a way to defeat the troll within a few minutes.


    After all, the monsters that chased after him might have realized that they were purposely led away by Theo and immediately turned back to rescue the troll.


    So, he thought he only had 3-5 minutes to defeat the troll.


    Without hesitation, Theo leaped forward, challenging this crazy amount of Magic Power.


    "Grand Darkness!" The troll shouted and mmed the ground with his club. The Magic Power and his Order spread to all directions, swallowing everything.


    ''As expected, the next stage after getting the recognition of your Order is the same for all Orders. They manipte the Magic Power ording to their own Order.'' Theo thought and examined more about this attack while flying away to avoid this attack. ''The same applies to his Order. He''s coating the Magic Power with his Order, making the Magic Power dark and can swallow other Magic Power.


    ''What about me?'' Theo started questioning his own Order while thinking about what he could do with his Magic Power. ''I can distort the reality of the Magic Power�� Its function is limited right now, but��''


    Theo suddenly thought about something and started flying forward.


    "That''s right." A smile suddenly appeared on his face as he realized something. "I couldn''t do this to the curse because the caster was far stronger, but you are still within my level�� I will let you witness something good."


    As soon as he finished uttering those words, Theo approached the troll''s attack, challenging the iing ck Magic Power. Even though the power would be reduced when hitting Theo''s equipment, the troll released an enormous amount of Magic Power, so even Theo would be hurt if he got hit by this attack.


    Yet, Theo actually charged forward without the slightest fear.


    "Die!" The troll shouted, hoping that his darkness attack could heavily injure Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, the reality was often disappointing.


    Theo, who was about to hit the darkness attack, smiled and thought, ''Ah, yes. It seems I can do it. Instead of altering the Magic Power to something that I can cut or disintegrate, I should alter its attribute.


    ''Normally, I would need to alter its characteristics first before removing the remaining power. Both require the use of my Order. But if I change it to a pure Magic Power without any element, it will turn the same as the Magic Power in the air. And removing it will only require me my own Magic Power instead of Order. It will be quicker and doesn''t use my Order too much.


    "As for the force��" Theo waved his hand and utilized his Telekinesis, dispersing all the Magic Power to all directions.


    "What?!" The troll was shocked because he managed to witness what happened right at thest moment. "The darkness suddenly turned back into normal Magic��"


    Before he finished, his body instinctively leaped to the side, avoiding Theo.


    However, Theo''s speed was fast enough to use this opportunity, cutting his arm.


    Even the ck armor suddenly turned back into a normal Magic Power. But because of theck of momentum, the Magic Power simply felt like it didn''t exist.


    Theo''s sword could easily cut them down together with the arm.


    "Thanks to you, I truly learned a lot." Theo smirked as he spun his body and flew to the side, preparing to cut the troll with his sword. "Your Order hasn''t fully manifested yet. That''s the reason why you couldn''t defeat me."

 Chapter 1030 All Elements Reality?

    <h4>Chapter 1030 All Elements Reality?</h4>


    Theo swiftly sliced the troll''s neck, killing him. The troll''s face was still shocked and confused as he couldn''t decipher Theo''sst message to him.


    "It seems I have been too��" Theo wanted to reflect on his action before he turned around, finding the beasting toward him. It seemed the monster was ignoring his clone because his master died, nning to avenge him.


    However, the monster couldn''t reach Theo as Clone Theonded on top of his head, grabbed his neck with the Death Avatar, and cut its body.


    "��" Theo was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "It seems I have been too focused on disintegrating the Magic Power��


    "Instead of that, I should alter it in a more effective way. When I see it like this, my path bes clearer all of a sudden." Theo took a deep breath. "No wonder Order is something that symbolizes the king��


    "It has the ability beyond what a normal person can do. I still believe the top one hundred people in the world have Order.


    "And I wonder if there is a Reality Order user in this world or on Earth." Theo suddenly fell silent when he thought of another Reality Order. "Wait a minute�� What if there is someone with a Reality Order? And What if that person has an affinity?


    "Element, huh�� I tried altering the Magic Power, specifically its affinity earlier, and it worked like magic. Instead of disintegrating or cutting the Magic Power, I can actually turn them into something neutral like my own Magic Power.


    "But now that I think about it, if I can alter the Magic Power''s affinity, can I actually do that in reverse? In other words, giving the Magic Power an affinity��"


    Theo''s expression turned grim as his curiosity got the better of him.


    Without hesitation, his clone raised his hand and poured his Magic Power into the air. Meanwhile, Theo tried to imagine the fire like how he usually altered the Magic Power.


    As he expected earlier, there was a small spark in the Magic Power, albeit it was only for a split second before disappearing.


    "Hah!" Theo started panting as he felt a massive headache. The Order Mark on his chest was burning like crazy. "What''s that? I certainly saw the spark, but all of a sudden, there was a sharp pain in my chest. I don''t really mind pain, but this one feels different.


    "It seems I can do the same thing in reverse. With this power, I can actually wield all elements since I am altering the reality itself. No wonder it is one of the thirteen Big Orders.


    "Of course, this ability doesn''t allow me to wield the element like using a skill, but if I use the Materialization from the notebook��"


    Theo''s expression suddenly became silent when he remembered the notebook. Although he had some thoughts about this, this discussion actually made him realize another thing.


    "Wait a minute. Order, the basic foundation of Five Aspects, this artifact, and��" Theo remembered everything that his previous teacher, Nina Eilric, gave or taught him.


    He suddenly realized that every technique was so versatile that ten people might have ten different approaches.


    "No�� Now that I have reached this point, I can clearly see that Nina is not capable of this feat. In other words��" Theo sucked a cold breath. "Everything that I have right now is actually a gift from my parents?"


    Nina once taught him all the basics about the Five Aspects. These basics came from all renowned masters all around the world. And it was his parents who used the favors they owed them to create this perfect foundation.


    Then, Nina gave him the Materialization notebook. It was not possible for Nina to have this kind of Materialization since it was too unique.


    After thinking about all elements, Theo realized he could actually control all elements with Materialization. As long as he has those elements around him, he can use them to his advantage.


    And there was only one person that had such a talent to produce such ability.


    "The Materialization muste from the man known to have the greatest talent in Control�� In other words, the creator of this technique is my father��" Theo muttered with a grim expression.


    "It was a B Rank Artifact before, and I''d reinforced it to A Rank Artifact, but the only one who had this much money was��" Theo facepalmed as he soon realized everything he had actuallye from his parents.


    Soon, aplex feeling stuck deep in his heart. If he ignored all the hardship, he would think his parents had given him everything he needed to be strong.


    And the only reason why he thought like this was none other than Owen. He had seen what actually transpired in the past.


    Even he didn''t know what he would do if he was in that situation. He might even go insane because of the grief and trauma.


    For the first time in his life, he actually doubted himself whether it was alright to continue hating his parents.


    "The circumstances, huh��" Theo narrowed his eyes before shaking his head. "No. I shouldn''t think about this right now. It is not important. What I need right now is how to wield the Order.


    "I know that my Order allows me to wield all elements, but it seems I amcking many things.


    "First of all, I don''t have an affinity, allowing me to wield Magic Power easily. However, it also means I don''t understand the characteristics of other elements, like what are they? How can I use them? What is their secret? Unless I can answer this, I might not be able to give Magic Power an affinity. I can only do the reverse since I''m familiar with normal Magic Power��


    "I guess I need to fight with many people to do this. I will learn, experience, and absorb their knowledge and make it my own." Theo clutched his hand and said, "And if I can achieve this, I might be��"


    Before he finished, he suddenly heard roars echoing through the tunnel.


    His clone had disappeared, and Theo only nced for a second before he gathered the proof of his subjugation and left through another tunnel. "It seems I have been thinking for too long��"

 Chapter 1031 His Progress So Far

    <h4>Chapter 1031 His Progress So Far</h4>


    "Here you go." Theo showed the proof to the staff from the Star Group. Due to the location of this mission, the staff used the hotel as the camp.


    "Mhm." The staff acknowledged his achievement and immediately updated the status of the mission while sending an agent back to inform thepany that the mission had beenpleted.


    "Still, there are many corpses in that cave like what you can see in this image." Theo pointed at one of the pictures and said, "I believe they''re our agents�� You might need to confirm their status. I don''t know how many have died, but my guess is above twenty."


    "Twenty?" The staff was taken aback by the number. He had prepared for some deaths, but not this many.


    "Yes. The General ss Monster is powerful and very cunning this time."


    "I see. Anything else to report?"


    "Not really. There are around twenty monsters hiding inside that cave, so I think you will find those monsters if you go there. That''s all." Theo finished his report, not telling anything about the Order. After all, it was supposed to be a secret.


    "Okay. I just checked here. It seems you have registered to check in tomorrow�� Since there is a vacancy, I can help you check in today. Will that be alright?"


    "Yes. That will help." Theo nodded.


    "Then, please follow him." The staff then pointed at the guy next to him who would help him with the process.


    He led Theo around to deal with the necessary process before handing him to the hotel''s staff.


    Not long after, Theo finally reached his room, feeling exhausted.


    Before he slept, Theo checked his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 597


    EXP: 2,314,599/ 7,761,887


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (B), Clone (A), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (A), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A)


    Attributes: Strength 725, Endurance 600, Agility 592, Vitality 595, Magic Power 1050


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "It''s quite good right now. I really need a massive amount of Magic Power to maintain all my skills." Theo was satisfied with the improvement he had made over the month.


    Although he didn''t manage to reach his target, level 600, he wasn''t disappointed because he learned more about Orders.


    "After this, I need to learn more about Magic Power, specifically affinities. I forgot about this, but how am I supposed to handle the Space and Time Elements?


    "They''re rare�� extremely rare. I think I can ask about Space Element from Lorenzo, and I have experienced Winston''s Space Element as well, so yeah, I think I can get a good grasp of it?


    "Still, it''s not the time for me to talk with Lorenzo. I guess Space Element can wait for another two years when I return to Italy. That means I can focus on the other elements: Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Wind, nt, Lightning, Light, and Darkness.


    "Now that I think about it, I haven''t met someone with nt Element�� Are they rare? Nevertheless, it can''t bepared to Time Element.


    "It is said that there is only one person among one billion people who are born with the Time Element. And not many of them can actually survive since they will be hunted. My brother was also unfortunate.


    "In fact, there are two people who are famous for having a Time Element. One of them is actually in this country�� Ranked 1st in the world, the Time God." Theo narrowed his eyes before sighing. "Yeah. It''s impossible to meet him."


    Theo instantly gave up meeting the Time God even though he was in this country. He was so powerful and important that not many people could easily meet him, let alone a small person like him.


    Even though he was famous, he wasn''t at the level of meeting this person.


    "Well, just focus on those elements first before thinking about Space and Time. The average lifespan of a human is 140 years, so I think I have made good progress even though I''m only 20 years old.


    "My level is close to 600. And my Five Aspects are quite good. I have learned Breathing and almost achieved the Innate Regeneration. I have learned Endurance, but it''s not at the level of Regeneration�� At least, it won''t allow me to regenerate any superficial wounds yet.


    "Although I don''t have much knowledge about Technique, my Control is close to Perfect Control, which is considered the top in the world. Last but not least, my Awareness. It has reached Prediction Eyes.


    "I think Ne has a simr level of Control, but that''s because she''s focusing on Control and ignoring anything else. Her level should be below me as well.


    "But even with this progress, I can''t ck off��" Theo closed his eyes, remembering his promise to Agata.


    There was actually one more reason why he suddenly corrected himself that day. Instead of five years, he promised to return as a Mythical Rank Expert in three years.


    It was to give him enough motivation and pressure to keep pushing himself. If he didn''t have this kind of pressure, he might enjoy his time here.


    So, this kind of pace was perfect for him. Even though he truly wanted to rest, he needed to keep pushing forward.


    Theo raised his hand and clutched it as if trying to grab the sky. "Yeah. This is fine. I will focus on Breathing and Endurance for the time being. As for Technique, I will start learning it after I gain Perfect Control.


    "That''s my current n, I guess�� Though, I can''t do much if the frost giant aims for my life after this��" He intended to joke around to lighten the mood, but when he remembered the trouble that woulde from this, he couldn''t help but sigh with a long face. "Maybe I shouldn''t have epted that.


    "I mean, even I don''t have any information about the frost giant, including where he lives. My original n is to visit the Dark King��" Theo raised his head, staring at the mark that he left behind. "I hope he can help me."

 Chapter 1032 Finding the Dark King

    <h4>Chapter 1032 Finding the Dark King</h4>


    After getting a proper rest for two days, Theo finally felt rejuvenated. It was truly a torture to be dying over and over again.


    As soon as he finished his preparation, Theo left the hotel and went straight toward the Dark King. He chose this mission because the ce was not that far from the Dark King''s region.


    Although there was another hotel near that ce, he had visited it with Maya in the past. It was the hotel near the Moniac in.


    Hence, he tried to use this opportunity to gain another experience.


    After a day, Theo summoned his clone and started marching toward two different locations.


    The real Theo headed straight to the Dark King, while the clone wanted to make sure of the base''s location. Even if he ended up getting killed by the guards, it shouldn''t be a problem.


    After all, he was using another face for his clone. And with his current clone ability, no one would know he was a clone. As long as he could die andst for a while, he should be able to perfectly fake his death before mysteriously vanishing into thin air.


    The journey only took three days for Theo to reach the Dark King''s region, specifically the Demise Forest. He once met the Dark King in this forest while rescuing his son.


    ording to the Dark King, the General ss Monster would lead him to his ce as long as he showed the mark.


    So, the only problem was how to see the General ss Monster and show the mark without getting into any trouble with other monsters.


    First, he went straight to the hole where the mine he found before was located. This was a benchmark for him since he knew there should be no monsters in this region due to his agreement with the Dark King.


    Although he wanted to meet the workers inside to ask them about the region, he couldn''t show himself because it would mean he knew about this super secret.


    And considering the hole had been closed by another power, he knew no one was supposed to find this.


    Hence, he remembered where the Dark King went back then.


    "He was going to the east from here, so I guess that''s closer to his home. Although I don''t know how long I need to run, I should be able to find a General ss Monster in this ce."


    Theo traveled ording to his memory while shouting, "Is there any General ss Monster here? Anyone with intelligence?"


    He was trying to gain their attention. Although he ended up getting chased by so many monsters, this method should be effective, considering the area that a General ss Monster governed wasn''t as big as a King ss Monster.


    However, his n actually worked when he saw another wave of monstersing from another direction.


    That kind of shout meant a challenge to a General ss Monster, so sending these monsters would be the opening act for that challenge.


    But for Theo, this was the show he needed to find the General ss Monster.


    He leaped toward the iing monsters and flew in that direction, avoiding all the monsters from the air.


    After that, Theo shouted at the top of his lungs. "I am the Dark King''s friend. Are you nning to kill me?"


    No one other than the General ss Monster knew about the Dark King. After all, the Dark King rarely made his appearance.


    This gave Theo''s words more credibility.


    As if responding to that sentence, the monsters suddenly stopped moving like someonemanded them to stop.


    Suddenly, one of the dead trees in the area turned around, revealing a pair of eyes and a mouth.


    When Theo saw this action, he immediatelynded and said, "I need to meet the Dark King. Can you lead me to him?"


    "I can, but you need to show me the proof of friendship." The tree answered before his body started emanating killing intent. "But if you can''t show the proof, I will take it that you are a liar and do everything to kill you."


    Theo raised his hand without hesitation, showing the mark that the Dark King gave to him.


    Only the General ss Monsters knew what kind of mark the Dark King gave, so the dead tree instantly recognized it.


    "That''s certainly the mark." The tree acknowledged the mark before giving another question. "For what purpose do you want to meet him? I can arrange a monster to inform him about your presence."


    "I can''t say anything." Theo shook his head.


    "This is important because the Dark King doesn''t like to be bothered by anyone. If you only want to waste his time, I won''t allow it." The tree added, acting arrogant because Theo was a Supreme Rank Expert like him.


    However, Theo had no time for this. His Magic Power began revolving in his body violently before going to the mark of his Order, emanating a unique pressure.


    Theo''s killing intent swept the area, shocking the dead tree as well as the monsters.


    The monsters wanted to jump and kill Theo as soon as possible, while the tree recognized the unique aura of a king.


    Theo''s words proved it even further as he stated coldly, "Don''t waste my time, you fucking dead tree. Are you blind enough to believe you can stop me?"


    The dead tree panicked for a second as his branches started growing, forming an arrow shape that pointed at an area.


    At the same time, the monsters scattered as no one was supposed to know the Dark King''s ce, leaving them alone.


    "I apologize, O'' King, from a farawaynd. As much as I want to lead you, I am but a tree. I have no ability to bring you there. However, I can give you his location." The tree nced to the side, following the arrow. "Run in this direction for three hours, and you will find a hill.


    "Go to the other side of the hill, and you will see a tree bigger than any others. He is too a being like me. If you state your purpose, he will show you the entrance to meet our king."

 Chapter 1033 Request

    <h4>Chapter 1033 Request</h4>


    "I''m truly disappointed that you came to meet me before our promised battle." The Dark King looked at him, sitting on a giant horse.


    Meanwhile, Theo was sitting on the ground while looking at him with a serious expression, not having the words to rebuke him. If not because of this problem, he wouldn''t visit him at all.


    "Ada!" The Dark King''s son raised his hands in joy while falling to Theo''sp. He looked up and expressed something. Although Theo didn''t understand his words, he could feel the joy behind his words. "Ada!"


    Ignoring his words, the Dark King continued, "I gave you that mark because I recognized your power and connection. I never met someone who befriended multiple kings before, so I wanted to see the future you have."


    "Ada, Ada!" The little guy turned around and gently shook Theo''s clothes, trying to get his attention. After all, Theo had been staring at the Dark King with a serious face this whole time.


    "I know that you have be a king, and I think you''re going to challenge me a few yearster, considering I need to wait for you to reach my level first. But��" The Dark King paused for a moment as veins started bulging on his forehead.


    "Adada! Ada!" The little guy continued pestering Theo by shaking his hands, desperately asking for attention.


    "It seems that you''re the one breaking the promise first. That''s why I am��" Before he finished his words, he couldn''t help but raise his voice. "Syklokza! Where is your manner? I am talking to him right now!"


    "Ada��" The little guy panicked before looking down with a sad expression. He tried to hide behind Theo while looking at his dad with a pitiful gaze. "Ada��"


    "Keuk!" Even the Dark King couldn''t say anything when he met this gaze. "Fine. I will hear you out if you y with Syklokzater!"


    "Ada!" The little guy''s expression immediately brightened as he instantly turned to Theo.


    Even Theo did the same with a smile on his head. Both of them raised their hands and had a high-five.


    "Ada!"


    "You bastard. You are using my son!" The Dark King gnashed his teeth.


    "I haven''t even opened my mouth this whole time��" Theo shook his head helplessly. After he followed the tree''s pointer, he entered this cave, only to be invited to talk with the Dark King. And after that, the Dark King was the oneining this whole time, so Theo truly didn''t speak anything.


    It was the little guy that wanted his attention for no reason.


    Even the Dark King couldn''t refute his im.


    Theo then turned to Syklokza and said with a smile. "Can you leave us for a bit? It won''t take too long. I promise I will go with youter."


    "Ada!" The little guy nodded furiously before walking away enthusiastically.


    When he left, the Dark King''s expression turned serious again as he asked, "So, for what reason do you visit me today?"


    "It''s rted to the Frost Authority��" Theo also had the same expression and presented the problem without beating around the bush.


    "Frost Authority��" The Dark King narrowed his eyes.


    "Well, I don''t know his Authority; it''s either ice or frost, I think?"


    "No, you''re not wrong. But enough with Authority, we call someone like this as Saint, so call him Frost Saint."


    "In that case��" Theo paused for a moment and said, "I want to ask for Frost Saint''s help."


    "What did you say?!" The Dark King rose from his seat with a shocked expression. Although he had taken off his helmet, his face was stillpletely ck, as if it was covered by some sort of power. Theo could only see his facial features which were simr to that of a human.


    "There is a group of people aiming for his life by creating a hidden base that might contain various weapons. And those weapons are something that is out of Order. Hence, I want to ask for his help to destroy that base, so that no war between two sides shall happen." Theo exined the problem before the Dark King said anything, making sure he understood the severeness of this matter.


    "So, it''s you guys who want to challenge our saint. It''s your problem, so you should be the one taking the responsibility." The Dark King snarled in anger.


    "I know. But we have no means to prevent it��" Theo shook his head helplessly. "If we make a slight opening, they might hasten their n and result in disaster. Either way, there will be a war between the two sides.


    "When that happens�� at least hundreds of millions of people will die. That''s what I want to prevent�� Also, I am a king like you, so I have the responsibility to protect the Order here."


    Theo''s words were genuine. Just like his grandfather, Leonardo, he also had the responsibility to maintain Order in this ce. Unfortunately, he was so weak that he needed people''s help.


    "I don''t know how strong they are, but two top 10 experts on the other side wille here to kill him with the help of that base and whatever weapon they store inside. I think you can consider the top 10 experts as an Authority Level Figure��" Theo exined the reason why he needed help was the focal point to maintaining that bnce.


    Even the Dark King fell silent when he heard about this.


    Although he didn''t know how strong the people from Earth, it was still possible that at least ten among billions of people on Earth to be an Authority Level Figure, so Theo''s words might not bepletely an overstatement.


    When that kind of figure was in the mix, he understood why Theo couldn''t do anything.


    Theo continued with his exnation. "Imagine if there are two saints from here aiming for your saint''s life�� Can you do something? On the other hand, if you help us, we can start apprehending the culprits, making sure this situation won''t happen again.


    "If we destroy the base, we can investigate many things and learn the truth of this matter. It will be easy to do the rest to prevent anything simr.


    "That''s why I want to ask you, Dark King, to facilitate the meeting between me and the Frost Saint so that I can bring this news to him." Theo finally put down his request with a serene expression as if he had prepared to die just to ask for help.


    Even the Dark King put on a grim expression, contemting Theo''s words carefully.

 Chapter 1034 The Dark King’s Family

    <h4>Chapter 1034 The Dark King''s Family</h4>


    "Do you know what will happen if you meet the Frost Saint? You will die because you can''t even fix your own problem. We''re talking about humans here, who are known to almost destroy themselves so many times."


    "��" Theo remained silent, not rebuking his words. Even he knew that humans would certainly destroy themselves sooner orter.


    "What''s the point of going there?" The Dark King continued asking Theo questions because he simply couldn''t understand Theo''s mind. "Even if you stop this, there might still be a chance for war to happen. When that happens, I won''t hesitate to kill the humans."


    "I know." Theo nodded. "But I believe I can prevent this war from happening as long as I can talk with him. No, should I say I am already desperate enough to do anything to prevent this war��"


    The Dark King frowned and stopped talking again. It wasn''t impossible for him to bring Theo there, but he didn''t like the idea because Theo might die in this situation.


    "Have you confirmed what''s inside the base?"


    "Five Mythical Rank Experts investigated that base, but no one returned."


    The Dark King thought for a moment before offering another solution. "I have a suggestion that you might want to hear. How about investigating that ce first to confirm the severity of this matter? If it turns out to be a flop, we can simply destroy that base easily. If it turns out to be true, I will bring you to the Frost Saint."


    "��" Theo looked down, contemting his choices. However, one problem remained. "Still, I don''t know how to investigate that ce�� Even five Mythical Rank Experts were not enough."


    Suddenly, the Dark King had a smug on his face. "Fortunately, there is someone perfect for this job."


    "Who is that?"


    "The Shadow King�� Though, there is a big problem with this��" The Dark King looked away, feeling troubled with asking a favor from him. "You are the only one who can do this."


    "Why is that? What''s the problem?"


    "Because she is my wife."


    "��" Theo dropped his jaw to the ground. Because he met the Dark King privately, he had let go of his mask, so the Dark King could recognize his face. Hence, his shocked expression was clear for him to see.


    Although Theo could somehow understand the union between them, he simply couldn''t imagine how they reproduced. The Dark King had a humongous body, while the Shadow King had a small body�� If she were the same person that protected him and Ava back then.


    "Don''t mind the small details. Anyway, I can bring you to her. Since the people you sent there died, there should be a few experts hiding there. The Shadow King can leap from one shadow to another without anyone noticing, so it should be easy for her to infiltrate the base. If we can confirm what''s happening inside, we should know what to do next."


    After learning a bit more about the Shadow King, Theo could finally see some light in this matter.


    If he could recover some proof from this ce, it would be possible for them to trace those who participated in this farce.


    Theo nodded without hesitation. "I understand. I will do my best to convince her."


    "I don''t think there''s a need for you to convince her. You just need to bring Syk back with you and tell her what happens. I will wait from a distance."


    "Why do you sound like you''re scared of her?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "You don''t need to know." The Dark King raised his voice before calling, "Syk, do you want to meet Mommy?"


    "Mommy?" Theo''s eyebrows were twitching. He couldn''t understand the words swing. From the Shadow King, Syk, to Mommy. Sometimes they were formal, the other times they were intimate, now they were ''very'' intimate.


    "Ada?!" As soon as he heard that word, Syk immediately returned to the room with a joyful expression. "Ada, Ada?!"


    "That''s right. You want to see her, right? He wants to meet Mommy too, so I want to bring both of you together. What do you think?"


    "Ada, Ada!" Syk immediately grabbed Theo''s hands and started dancing to express his joy.


    "So, he wants you to ask Mommy for help. Do you think you can do it?"


    "Ada!" Syk puffed his chest proudly as if telling him, "Consider it done."


    "The trip requires three days, so you can y with him for three days. How about it?!"


    "Ada!" Syk became even happier as he leaped out of joy.


    "Daddy is good, right?!"


    "Ad��Ada?" Suddenly, the celebration stopped as he looked at his father weirdly, questioning whether he was still right in his mind or not. "Ada?"


    "Can you say a good word to Mommy?"


    "Ada��" Syk hesitated and looked down as if thinking something.


    "Come on. Daddy has brought someone to y with you and will bring you home to meet Mommy. Can you help Daddy a bit?"


    "Ada?" Syk contemted for a moment before eventually nodding his head, epting the condition. "Ada!"


    "Good. Let''s go now!" As soon as he received the confirmation, the Dark King immediately grabbed both Syk and Theo as if he didn''t have fear anymore.


    In fact, he looked even more energetic than when he was talking about battle.


    "��" Theo couldn''t understand what was going on with this family. He even wondered who was actually the head of this family.


    When they came out, the Dark King shouted. "Seelzik!"


    "Ngiiiih!" A horse''s cry echoed from the distance as a huge horse gradually came to him.


    "He is Seelzik, my horse. You have met him too."


    "Seelzik. Syklokza." Theo nodded, making sure he remembered their names.


    "They mean Eternal Darkness and Dark Emperor in yournguage."


    "Good names." Theo nodded in agreement,pletely unfazed when Syk suddenly climbed his body and asked Theo to carry him.


    "��" The Dark King even wondered how Theo could resist Syk''s cuteness. Even he couldn''t contain himself when Syk actually showed such an expression.


    However, there was no way he could say anything about it since he had his own pride too.


    After Seelzik arrived, the Dark King grabbed both of them and hopped onto him.


    Seelzik was prepared to start running, but the Dark King said, "Alright, Seelzik. Take me home."


    "Ngeiikh?" The horse abruptly stopped and looked at his master with a shocked expression, wondering if his owner was in the right mind.


    Even Theo was stunned by this reaction, thinking, ''Truly�� What''s wrong with this family?''

 Chapter 1035 Weird Family

    <h4>Chapter 1035 Weird Family</h4>


    "Ada!" Syk was running around on top of the horse while the Dark King watched him intensely. He was afraid Syk might slip or anything even though the horse had a big bodypared to Syk.


    Theo also helped him while flying around the horse with his Telekinesis. It seemed Syk had an important ce in the family''s decision since their parents loved to spoil him, so he needed to make Syk as happy as possible.


    After a whole day, Syk gradually became bored because nothing interesting happened.


    So, Theo poured all his energy to think about how to entertain Syk to butter him up. Never in his wildest dream that taking care of a child would be the greatest challenge to get a King ss Monster''s help.


    The idea soon shed in his mind as Theo summoned his clone, calling, "Syk. Look at this. I have something I want to show you."


    "Ada?!" Syk looked at Theo with great expectation. His gaze soon followed Theo''s clone.


    He always wanted to fly, but because they could only go at this speed due to the help of the Dark King, he couldn''t let Syk fly around.


    Though, Theo soon pulled something that could melt Syk''s heart.


    Suddenly, the clone''s body transformed with the Metamorphosis Skill. He couldn''t use this form earlier, but since he had upgraded this skill, he could finally use it.


    "Tada." Theo smiled and presented him with a dragon.


    That was right. Theo transformed into a western dragon. It had red scales, and its body was as big as the Dark King and his mouthbined.


    Even the Dark King was surprised by this sudden transformation. "A dragon?"


    "Ada! Ada!" Syk happily leaped around as if asking Theo to bring him to fly.


    "No can do. If you go around, others might find you and attack you. Daddy doesn''t want to see you in danger." The Dark King refused to allow him to go with Theo.


    "Ada��" Syk looked down again, feeling sad. The Dark King always refused everything that made him happy.


    "No. I won''t give my consent for this one. But if we have arrived and you get Mommy''s consent, I will let you do whatever you want."


    "Ada?!" Syk suddenly regained his joyful expression and finally agreed with the Dark King.


    Although it became a bit boring, the journey continued without a problem, considering the Dark King had been releasing his power to make sure no monsters came to attack them.


    However, everything changed when they reached a ce called the Dark Rift. Theo didn''t know they had reached the Shadow King''s territory until a faint presence fluctuated in the area.


    "So�� After four years, you finallye back�� I thought you had forgotten your home already." The Shadow King''s feminine voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    The horse abruptly stopped as that voice made him shiver. Syk was raising both hands as if he missed this voice and wanted to hug her. The Dark King was stunned for a moment before he gulped down.


    A shadow soon emerged from the ground as a female wrapped by shadow leaped into the air.


    "Ada!" Syk leaped into the shadow''s embrace and hugged her.


    "Oh, you have grown this big. Mommy is proud." The shadow smiled while gently rubbing their cheeks together.


    "Ada, Ada!" Syk pointed at the Dark King and told her something.


    But those words actually made the atmosphere colder as the shadow turned her head, ring at the Dark King. "Four years ago, you left the house without my knowledge, taking Syk to train. And now, you still have the audacity to make him ask me to forgive you?"


    "Wife�� I can exin this��" The Dark King wanted to exin, but numerous ck whips emerged from the ground, wrapping his neck. "I just want to make Syk strong en��Aaaahhh!"


    "Get off your horse now!" The shadow shouted while pulling her other hand. In that instant, the whips tightened and pulled the Dark King to the ground. It even started pulling him around and smashing him to the ground.


    "Do you think you''re a good father? What is the result of your selfishness? You only left a message telling me that you wanted to train Syk for a few years? You couldn''t do it because I was in the house?


    "You bastard, I will kill you right here, right now. If not because I loved you, I would have killed you numerous times. If not because you were an overprotective father, I would have stomped you to death. If not because you were a good husband most of the time, I would have destroyed this marriage.


    "And you finally came back after all these years! How dare you ask Syk to convince me to forgive you?! I will beat you right now!"


    She was releasing the pent-up emotion that had been building up in her heart before ring at the horse. "And you, Seelzik. You ran away because your master told you so?!"


    "Ngiek?" Seelzik couldn''t answer anything. He could only lower his head, form a thread that attached his neck to a small tree, and sat down, trying to tell her, ''I will be a good boy here.''


    Meanwhile, Theo had jumped off after the Dark King was pulled to the ground. He never thought that there was such a backstory in this family. Although he didn''t know what truly had transpired in the past, it seemed that the wife actually loved and hated him at the same time. It was truly a unique family in his opinion.


    And his gaze actually grabbed the wife''s attention


    "What? What are you looking at? Do you have anything to say? This is our household''s problem, not yours!" The Shadow King red at Theo while releasing his killing intent. She was too pissed with the Dark King that she wanted no one to interfere with this matter.


    Contrary to her expectation, Theo actually raised both hands and waved them as if trying to calm her down.


    The Dark King was surprised to see Theo being supportive. He thought he had invited a disaster, but it seemed this friend was truly a good one for him.


    However, Theo''s answer nextpletely shattered that image.


    "No, Ma''am. Calm down. I just want to tell you that I don''t think you beat him hard enough."


    "Squzek (You traitor)!" The Dark King shouted before his face became pale, leaving his life to fate as the Shadow King continued beating him.

 Chapter 1036 Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 1036 Agreement</h4>


    "So, that''s how it is." The Shadow King nodded her head in understanding. After listening to Theo''s exnation, she could understand why the Dark King returned to this ce. It was to ask for her help.


    "Yes. I would ask for the Frost Saint''s help, but he asked me to go to you first."


    "I can see how my power will work. Considering how he acts, I''m sure he has told you to fix your own mess, right?"


    "I know. However, I''m just a weak human. Even with everything I have, it''s impossible for me to do this alone." Theo shook his head while sighing. "Well, this war also benefits me, which can lead me to increase my levels exponentially, but I am not nning a massacre, you know."


    "It''s not impossible for me to help you check that base." The Shadow King was surprisingly easy to negotiatepared to the Dark King, who alwaysined.


    "What is the condition?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    "When you reach the Mythical Rank, you will go to this ce again and help me."


    "If it''s possible, can I know what kind of help you need?"


    "Aren''t you desperate to ask for my help? Shouldn''t you agree to this condition?"


    Theo shook his head. "Although I''m desperate, I''m not going to enter something I don''t know. In the worst-case scenario, I can simply leave the country. It''s not a big deal."


    The Shadow King fell silent, unaware that Theo actually wanted to ask for help no matter what. After all, he had epted the mission from the God of Mischief.


    The information might not be rted to his power or anything, but it would allow him to understand more about this world. Hence, he thought he shouldplete it.


    Of course, since there was no penalty or risk from failing the mission, he didn''t n topletely throw away his future for this.


    That was why he asked for the request first instead of agreeing immediately.


    "It''s not something you can''t do." The Shadow King raised her hand and pointed at the south. "In the south, I found a weird statue that seemed to ward off other races. I tried to push many races inside, but no one seemed to be able to enter.


    "Because it was releasing a weird Magic Power, I assumed that statue had that kind of power. And only humans seemed to be able to enter.


    "But when I pushed them inside, their bodies shattered due to the intense amount of Magic Power inside. So, I wanted you to get inside and check the statue for me. ording to my spection, a Mythical Rank human should be able to withstand the energy.


    "If you promise to help me with the investigation, I will help you investigate that base. And if it''s something dangerous, I will personally lead you to the Frost Saint. How''s that?" The Shadow King presented the condition.


    If she asked another human to do this, they would tantly refuse, knowing they might die from this investigation since it was only her spection.


    However, Theo''s action couldn''t be more different. Without even the slightest hesitation, Theo epted the request. "Yes. I will do it."


    "Eh?" Even the Shadow King couldn''t understand why Theo actually agreed so easily after giving her a hard time earlier. She tried to pry for more information by adding, "We once met, right? Back then, I had just returned after investigating that area. It was dangerous, you know."


    "I know. But I will do it�� I promise." Theo smiled, not scared by the potential to be killed.


    "Aren''t you supposed to be afraid of dying?" The Shadow King couldn''t understand Theo anymore.


    "Of course, I''m afraid of dying. Who doesn''t?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "You should show your clone first." The Dark King suddenly opened his mouth.


    Theo thought for a moment before using his clone. It was a perfect clone that resembled the original. Unlike Theo''s previous clone, the body was made from the original''s body instead of Magic Power.


    In other words, Theo''s Clone was none other than Theo himself. This way, even if he entered with the clone, there was no need to be afraid of dying. And since the clone was considered a normal human, he should have no trouble getting closer to the statue.


    In that instant, every question was answered in her mind. She finally understood why Theo epted so easily. It turned out he had a unique ability perfect for this kind of investigation.


    However, another thought also appeared in her mind as she couldn''t help but ask, "Don''t tell me you''re going to meet the Frost Saint with your clone?"


    "I told you, I''m afraid of dying." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Of course, my clone will be the one meeting him."


    The Shadow King finally realized what Theo could do with this kind of power. She sighed helplessly and said, "Whatever. I just want you to know that you will be miserable if the Frost Saint knows about it."


    "At least I won''t be dying." Theo shook his head, showing which one was more important to him.


    "Fine. We will go to that ce tomorrow. You show me the ce, and I will infiltrate it." The Shadow King then turned around, looking at the Dark King, who was still tied to the ground with her power. "You will watch over Syk. If you leave me again, I will dissolve our rtionship."


    "Don''t worry. I promise you that I will stay here." The Dark King nodded furiously. "Besides, Syk has be far stronger."


    "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."


    "I''m telling the truth. Syk! How about you show that move to Mommy?"


    "Ada?!" Syk hesitated for a moment before walking toward the tree. Suddenly, he raised his hand, forming a small de that suited his petite body. "Ada!"


    Syk shed horizontally, hitting the tree in front of him. But instead of the tree getting cut, he cut all the trees behind it, creating a fan-shaped in with a 100 feet radius.


    "Ada!" Syk puffed his chest as if he was proud of what he did.


    "��" The Shadow King was silent, having no words to say.


    On the contrary, Theo was shocked to see this technique and couldn''t help but walk to the Dark King, saying, "What''s that technique? What''s the principle of that technique? Can you teach it to me?"

 Chapter 1037 Fist Saint

    <h4>Chapter 1037 Fist Saint</h4>


    "Since we have a deal, I promise that I will help you with the investigation of that statue." Theo nodded with a serious expression, finally getting the Shadow King''s help.


    "Good. You can rest here today, and we will go on a trip tomorrow." The Shadow King suddenly thought of another useful thing. "Can youmunicate with your clone remotely?"


    "Yes, I can," Theo admitted without hesitation. Giving this secret to the monster was safer than to humans after all. At least, they wouldn''t stab him in the back so suddenly.


    "You can have your clone stay here, so even if I''m not here, I can talk with Syk." The Shadow King harrumphed. "As for when we go to the Frost Saint, I don''t care if you go with the clone�� I want your real body to apany me in this investigation."


    "I understand. Though, I can''t help you with anything."


    "Don''t worry. You just need to wait in the distance. I will do the rest."


    "Okay. That''s not a problem for me." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "That''s all. This ce won''t have anyone roaming around, so it should be safe. Unfortunately, I can''t bring you to our home."


    "Yes. That''s fine with me." Theo epted it. Although it was unfair, there was no way he would allow a stranger toe to his house too.


    "Then, I will meet you tomorrow." The Shadow King nodded and carried Syk in her embrace as she went back to their home.


    The Shadow King immediately followed her while Seelzik, the horse, ended up sitting next to him as though he was trying to apany him because of pity.


    Little did they know, the investigation this time might be far more dangerous than anyone could think.


    ��


    Unknown Base.


    "So, this is the ce." A bald man suddenly appeared on top of a metal gate that was nted on the ground. He looked down before ncing to the side, finding ten people hiding behind the trees.


    "There''s no need to hide. I am here to look around the facility. You should have no problem with it, right?" The bald man smirked as his gaze returned to the metal gate. He shouted, "Open the gate!"


    The gate gradually opened as if responding to his order, revealing theyout inside.


    In the center of the hole, there was a small cube attached to the floor. However, the thing that made the cube special was the giant cylinder attached to it, making it look like a barrel.


    "Oh. It''s almost done." The bald man smiled before turning to all the people who were working on it. "How are you guys? I hope that you work tirelessly!"


    He looked like a friendly man, but no one actually recognized the person before them. They thought this middle-aged man was a supervisor that just came to check their progress.


    However, everything soon changed when another middle-aged man came to greet him while having troubled looks. "Well, well�� Isn''t this Sir Fist Saint? May I know how I can help you?"


    "You are?" The bald man squinted his eyes, not knowing this guy''s name.


    "You can call me Hegen. I am the supervisor in this ce." He smiled, introducing himself politely.


    Still, the people were shocked when Hegen became polite and even lowered his head to this guy. And when they finally processed what Hegen called him, they gasped and gulped down with a troubled expression.


    They never expected this cheerful bald man was actually one of the top ten experts in the world, the Fist Saint.


    "I just want to see the progress. I heard that this ce has been bothered a lot." The Fist Saint nodded with his head, greeting him back.


    "That''s��" The supervisor didn''t know what to say. On one hand, he wanted to deny it to prove that he was a good supervisor. On the other hand, if he lied and got caught, the Fist Saint would be displeased, and no one would know what was going to happen to him.


    In the end, his answer was in the middle. "Yes. However, we managed to eliminate all of thempletely. It''s nothing for Sir to worry about. For now, no one knows about the content of the secret base."


    "I see. It seems that the old fox managed to fool everyone. I''m looking forward to the day it can start working." The bald man smirked before clutching his fists. "I really want to kill a goddamn World ss Monster. They''ve ruled this world for too long, and it''s time for the humans to be the apex predator again!"


    "Yes, yes." The supervisor gave him a half-baked answer as he thought inwardly, ''You just want to fight that World ss Monster aren''t you?''


    Obviously, he couldn''t say that aloud or the Fist Saint would kill him.


    "So, how is the progress?" The Fist Saint asked.


    "We havepleted the cannon, so we are just fine-tuning it. ording to our spection, we should be able to finish the cannon in 1-2 months."


    "That''s quite long, huh."


    "Of course. This is very important, so we can''t afford to make any mistakes. I hope that Sir Fist Saint can forgive us for doing such slow work." The supervisor scratched the back of his head, apologizing.


    "Fine then. I guess I can''t do anything about it. I have been told specifically not to fight any King ss Monster around here too because the frost giant will know about it." The bald man fell silent, thinking about what he wanted to do.


    After two minutes, he finally opened his mouth again. "Do you have any room here?"


    "Yes, we certainly have." The supervisor nodded furiously. Even though there was none, he could always clear up some ces to please the Fist Saint.


    "Good. I will stay here for a few days. You will be my guide and exin to me how it works and the progress. I want to see what kind of cannon you build right now." The bald man decided without hesitation.


    Although he wanted to cry, the supervisor could only agree since the Fist Saint was one of the biggest contributors to this project. They wouldn''t start this project without his agreement because the Death Reaper couldn''t do it alone.


    "Hahahaha!" After a longugh, he finally jumped into the base.

 Chapter 1038 Found Out

    <h4>Chapter 1038 Found Out</h4>


    "It will only take two hours from here." Theo said while checking the maps in his Skylink. "Now that I think about this, I haven''t asked this question yet�� Where does the Frost Saint live?


    "Considering they''re aiming for the Frost Saint, won''t they make a base close to it." Theo squinted his eyes and nced to the side, "Do they know about the Frost Saint''s whereabouts?"


    The Shadow King hesitated for a moment since it was better for Theo not to find out about it.


    "If this job requires me to bring you to the Frost Saint, I will answer that question." The Shadow King shook her head.


    This might be the first time he had a closer look at the Shadow King. Her body features truly looked like a human, but it was covered by a pitch ck shadow so that others could only see her lines.


    She looked simr to Syk, so Theo thought Syk took after his mother instead of his father�� Though, he still couldn''t imagine how the big Dark King and the small Shadow King could reproduce.


    "How is Syk? Is he still sleeping? Is that guy doing something to him?"


    "Don''t worry. Syk is still sleeping. As for the Dark King��" Theo paused for a moment as his clone searched around, finding the Dark King standing on top of the cliff. "He was standing on top of the cliff."


    "Good. Gently rub his cheek for me." The Shadow Kingmanded with a serious tone.


    Even Theo could only chuckle as he followed the order. Syk was taking a nap on Theo''sp after all.


    In those two hours, the Shadow King kept making requests to Theo, spoiling Syk all the time. He somehow thought that there might be a reason why the Dark King actually kidnapped their kid.


    If Syk continued living in such a spoiled way, he might be a good-for-nothing. Though, he couldn''t say much since he wasn''t in the position to interfere with their family.


    As soon as they were about to reach the base, the Shadow King finally stopped and pointed at the ground. "You stay here. I will check the facility by myself."


    "I understand." Theo agreed without hesitation as he stayed here.


    On the other hand, the Shadow King soon disappeared, heading straight to the base with all her strength.


    As expected from the Shadow King, the moment she arrived, she could feel the people hiding around this ce.


    ''Hmm�� Ten, no�� There are even more people around here.'' The Shadow King thought while hiding inside the shadow of a tree. ''There are a total of 16 people standing by here. Although they have no Order, they are quite strong. No wonder 5 people that the humans sent couldn''t go back.''


    She then gradually approached the base by jumping from shadow to shadow. Whether it was a tree, a grass, or a bush, she could hide within them. This was why she was the perfect person to investigate this base.


    The moment she reached the nearest tree from the base, she even used her Order to move through the shadow.


    There was nothing between the tree and the base, so it wasn''t possible to use that shadow to reach the base. But the Shadow King went one step beyond and used the shadow of the soil, slipping through the shadow that appeared in the dirt''s pore.


    With this, nothing could stop her from entering the base.


    Inside, she could clearly see a giant weapon being built. Although she didn''t know what that was, she could simply find it through Theoter.


    For now, she remembered everything about the details before leaping into someone''s shadow.


    And whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the shadow she entered was none other than the supervisor''s shadow.


    "Sir. We have the data ready. After another check, we should be able to run the simtion." One of the scientists came to him while giving him a paper.


    "Good. Continue with your work." The supervisor nodded while reading the paper.


    ''Someone has been building this facility without our knowledge?'' The Shadow King was quite surprised by what she found.


    Although she was a King ss Monster, it didn''t mean she was omnipresent. Even the Lightning Authority didn''t know there was an experimentb in hisnd if not because of the disruption of the goblin as well as Leonardo.


    However, everything changed soon when someone came, informing the supervisor. "Sir. You are called to the main room."


    "Main room��" The supervisor''s face turned pale before letting out a long sigh. That was the room that the Fist Saint had been using, and it was quite tiring to apany the Fist Saint since he was too dumb to even understand his exnation.


    At the same time, he couldn''t refuse this request, resulting in him walking to the main room with a long face.


    ''Should I focus on this facility first, or should I stick with this man? The person in the main room seems to be important enough because he can call this person who seems to be the boss of these people. The boss of the boss��'' The Shadow King thought for a moment before deciding to go with the supervisor first. ''I can easily explore the rest of the facilityter. For now, let''s see the leader of this facility.''


    However, she soon regretted this decision when the supervisor finally reached the room.


    Even before entering, she could feel an amazing Order being hidden inside the room. She didn''t feel it earlier because thetter had been suppressing it, but now that she was closer, she could clearly sense the Order emanating from this room.


    She never thought that someone at this level would be hiding in this facility. Unfortunately for her, before she could leap away, the door had opened, revealing a bald man inside.


    He was sitting leisurely until the supervisor greeted him.


    "Hello, Sir. How can I help you?"


    The Fist Saint soon put on a smile as he said, "Oh, you''vee. I want��"


    Before he finished his words, the Fist Saint suddenly stopped and frowned.


    "Hmm?!" The bald man raised his eyebrows and turned around, looking at the supervisor next to him.


    "Sir?!" The supervisor was bewildered by his action, wondering what he did wrong to get this kind of gaze from the Fist Saint.


    Surprisingly, the bald man approached him while examining his body with a grim expression as though he had found something.


    "Is there anything wrong, Sir? Have I made any mistakes?" The supervisor gulped down.


    The Shadow King was sweating profusely while maintaining her calmness so as to not release a single fluctuation.


    ''This man is strong. He should have at least an Order, and his achievement is exceptionally high too. I''m afraid I won''t be his opponent��'' The Shadow King thought and recalled the man in their home. If it was the Dark King, he might be able to fight this man.


    Luckily, the bald man stepped back and said nonchntly, "No, it''s nothing. I thought there was something wrong with you, but I was wrong."


    "I see. I apologize for the inconvenience. What should I do to fix it?" The supervisor didn''t even understand what he was talking about, but he also didn''t want to get into trouble, so it would be better to ask him as soon as possible.


    "Nothing." The Fist Saint waved his hand and returned to his seat.


    "I understand. In that case, I shall go back." The supervisor nodded and took a step back, nning to leave this room as soon as possible.


    Even the Shadow King felt relieved when the Fist Saint stepped back. After the supervisor returned, it would be the time she left his shadow since she couldn''t afford to get found out by him.


    However, when the supervisor was about to pass the door, the Fist Saint suddenly pointed his palm toward him. The fist tattoo on his right arm suddenly glowed as he said, "Strengthen!"


    The supervisor was confused and turned around, wondering what the Fist Saint said.


    "Sir?!" He asked while tilting his head in confusion.


    However, a big smile soon appeared on the Fist Saint''s face as he looked down, precisely at the supervisor''s shadow.


    Following his line of sight, the supervisor dropped his jaw to the ground as he found something unscientific in his eyes.


    His shadow looked so different that it didn''t resemble him at all. In fact, he could clearly see the curved lines beneath his chest.


    "Well, well, well��" The Fist Saint rose from the seat as he stared at the shadow. "To think there is a rat sneaking here."

 Chapter 1039 Fist Saint’s Strength

    <h4>Chapter 1039 Fist Saint''s Strength</h4>


    "Boom!"


    The huge gate was blown into pieces. The Shadow King had been leaping around the debris using her shadow power, but she could still see the Fist Sainting toward her.


    She never thought there would be someone at this level hiding inside the base. If she knew about him, she wouldn''t approach this ce at all.


    Suddenly, the Fist Saint appeared in the air. His fist was already at the back of his body, charging energy for an all-out blow.


    "To think there is a King ss Monstering here��" The Fist Saint smirked as he punched forward while saying, "Although I have been told not to mess with a King ss Monster, I believe I need to kill you."


    Somehow, the Fist Saint''s hand was emanating a terrifying aura that even the Shadow King couldn''t help but gasp.


    Her shadow turned into something like a fire. After that, it began to swirl around her hands and formed a vortex, receiving the punch.


    *Bam!*


    The Fist Saint hit right in the middle of the vortex, feeling the resistance. Normally, a Mythical Rank Expert would beunched away, but what happened next truly shocked her.


    The fist actually continued to push forward as if there was nothing to stop it until it reached her hands.


    "Kh!" The Shadow Queen gritted her teeth and controlled the shadow of the debris, wrapping her body and pulling her back before the punch did any damage.


    However, the Fist Saint was stronger than she expected. The fist generated a powerful air pressure from its momentum, directly hitting the Shadow King.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Shended on the ground, crashed into a few trees, and stopped two hundred feet away from their position.


    "Gah." The Shadow Queen spat a mouthful of ck blood. "This is�� I am afraid even he is not that strong��"


    He, in her mouth, was none other than the Dark King.


    Even she started doubting what she should do. The enemy''s speed and power were truly unmatched. There was no way she could escape from this ce.


    Little did she know, Theo had noticed themotion. When she saw the amount of ruckus caused by them, his clone immediately informed the Dark King.


    Although he couldn''t tell what was wrong, he let the Dark King know there was a big fight going on.


    In that instant, the Dark King rushed toward this ce at his fastest speed, leaving Syk to Clone Theo.


    "Is there something wrong?" Theo narrowed his eyes while pondering what was happening. "Does she get discovered? But who can actually discover her? She is a King ss Monster. Her Order is perfect for espionage. So��"


    Theo couldn''t understand anything. There was supposed to be no problem in his mind, but soon another piece of information appeared in his mind.


    A few weeks ago, Bernard contacted his clone, who was still working for Maya. He was just updating the information he had, so Theo could think of something else if something big happened.


    Although this information wasn''t that important, it turned out to be his biggest nightmare here.


    "Don''t tell me�� The Fist Saint is rumored to have disappeared from his ce, and everyone is desperately searching for him. ording to thest information, he came through the gate, which meant he was on this side��


    "And the only one who could actually find the Shadow King should be him." Theo gasped when he realized the Fist Saint actually came to this ce. This kind of revtionpletely blew his mind. "Why? How? When?"


    There were so many questions in his mind, but more importantly, the situation had just turned into the worst-case scenario.


    While Theo was thinking, the Shadow King and the Fist Saint were still engaged in a fight.


    As soon as she reached the ground, the Shadow King raised her hand, raising all the shadows from the nearby trees.


    Those shadows turned into whips that wrapped all over the Fist Saint''s body. This was the technique that she used when punishing the Dark King.


    However, the Fist Saint was stronger than the Dark King. When he felt the pulling force applied to the whips, he smiled and broke free. "This won''t work against me! Hahahaha!"


    The Shadow King narrowed her eyes and waved her left hand. Another shadow formed and emerged from the ground in the form of a scythe, cutting the Fist Saint''s neck.


    *ng!*


    ''What?!'' The Shadow King widened her eyes in shock, finding her scythe shattered like that of sses.


    "Oh. That''s quite painful." The Fist Saint started rolling around his head to warm up while snapping his fingers. "It''s been a while since I have killed a King ss Monster. I wonder if you''re stronger than him."


    The Shadow King gritted her teeth, wondering what she should do. On one hand, she wanted to escape even if it meant leaving Theo behind since thetter should know about the condition and retreat as well. On the other hand, she couldn''t find any way to distract the Fist Saint and buy that much time.


    "My skin is the hardest in the world. I wonder if you and your shadow can make me bleed." The Fist Saint smirked and leaped forward, nning to punch her again.


    The Shadow Queen immediately submerged into the shadow and leaped around to flee.


    However, the Fist Saint simply struck the ground with all his strength.


    "Grand Canyon!"


    *Boom!*


    That one fist cracked the ground in all directions and turned it into a massive crater. The crater was 400 feet in radius, destroying all the trees in the area.


    And due to this fist, the Shadow King needed to leap back into the air because the shadows became unstable.


    As soon as she came out, the Fist Saint leaped toward her.


    The Shadow King ced her hand on the ground and controlled all the shadows around her. "One thousand shadows."


    All the shadows turned into ayer of a barrier as she stacked all that up into one thousandyers. Its purpose was to soften or even block the fist.


    However, this wasn''t enough.


    "Haha. Interesting!" The Fist Saintughed again and smashed the barriers with all his strength.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1040 Unbeatable

    <h4>Chapter 1040 Unbeatable</h4>


    *Bam!*


    More than half of the barriers immediately shattered into pieces. However, the Fist Saint''s force was still unstoppable. It continued pushing forward, breaking more and more barriers.


    But as one would expect from one of the strongest people in the world, he even used the shattered shadows to his advantage.


    "Strengthen!" The tattoo glowed once again, releasing his power.


    Suddenly, the shattered shadows felt like sharp ss. With the additional wind pressure from the fist, these shattered sses turned into deadly weapons.


    Half of them hit the barriers, increasing the rate of pration. Half of them scattered around the area, piercing trees, grasses, or even ground.


    But before he broke the barriers, he abruptly stopped with an annoyed expression.


    Even the Shadow King, who was on the defensive, was confused by his action. After all, their surroundings had been filled with humans, especially Mythical Rank Humans.


    He shouted in anger. "Go away. I will be the one taking care of her. I don''t like how you''re annoying me with your presence. Those who refuse will be killed by this fist."


    In that instant, the presence disappeared. In other words, a single order from him was enough to stop the n.


    If they could subdue him, the n to attack the frost giant would end up as a failure. Still, no one could think of how to defeat a guy like him.


    Even the Shadow King was stuck in her position while looking for a way to escape.


    "Sorry about that. Even if I want to kill you, I will make sure that this is a one vs one battle." The Fist Saint surprisingly apologized to the Shadow King as if he had done something wrong.


    However, thetter couldn''t care less about it. All she wanted was to escape from this ce.


    Since the Fist Saint didn''t want to use the people, the Shadow King wouldn''t hesitate to use them.


    "Raaah!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, informing all the monsters nearby of this distress signal.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    Soon, the forest was filled with roars as the monsters began toe to this ce.


    "What?!" The Fist Saint couldn''t believe what he saw. To think the Shadow King ignored his apology and used it against him. "You�� are going to have a brutal death."


    The Shadow King maintained her silence even though she was still surprised. As long as she had enough monsters stopping the Fist Saint, she should be able to find some gaps to exploit.


    Her priority was to escape right now.


    Without hesitation, she waved her left hand and controlled the shadow again. This time, she controlled the Fist Saint''s shadow.


    "Strengthen." The Fist Saint immediately used his Order to strengthen his own shadow, making it hard for the shadow to move.


    As expected, they should fight Order with Order.


    "Even with other monsters, you won''t be able to defeat me." The Fist Saint smirked. "No, should I say you can''t escape from me?"


    Hisst sentence made it look like the situation was already hopeless and that she needed to give up.


    However, the Shadow King called the shadows again, forming a thousand whips that surrounded him from all directions.


    This time, she didn''t wrap him because thetter would just break free again. Hence, the Shadow King surrounded him with sharp-pointed shadows, nning to kill him.


    When he saw this, the Fist Saint smirked and lowered his body, grabbing the dust on the ground.


    As soon as the shadows came to attack him, he spread the dust all around him before utilizing his Order. "Strengthen."


    *ng!*


    *ng!*


    *ng!*


    As soon as the shadow touched the sand, they shattered into pieces as though they had hit a hard metal.


    ''What? Did he enchant all those particles to protect himself?'' The Shadow King narrowed her eyes, realizing her opponent might not be a King anymore. "You�� have an Authority."


    "You finally spoke." The Fist Saint looked excited when the shadow spoke. He couldn''t care less if the Shadow King found out about his secret since she would die in this ce.


    His nonchnt attitude just pissed the Shadow King even more. As Theo said earlier, there were Authority Level Figures that participated in this war. They truly wanted to bring down the Frost Saint.


    "Foolish humans. You won''t be able to fight against him!" The Shadow King snorted, trying to buy some time so that the monsters could aid her.


    "That''s not up to you. Whether we can kill him or not, you won''t be able to witness that day. After all, your only fate is to die here." The Fist Saint snorted before grabbing a few small rocks on the ground. "Are you talking about the monsters that nned toe here?"


    He nced to the sides before throwing all those rocks.


    "Strengthen."


    The moment he utilized the Order, he turned the rocks into a cannonball.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The rocks caused an explosion that kicked all the dust in the air, creating a few craters with monster corpses inside them.


    "Supreme Rank Monsters or below won''t be able to fight me. Even if Mythical Rank Monsterse, they won''t be able to handle my strength just like you.


    The Fist Saint simply told the truth. It was the fact that he could suppress the Shadow King, let alone all those monsters. Even if those Mythical Rank humans didn''t interfere, the Fist Saint would still have no problem killing her.


    With just a single re, the Shadow King truly had no hope of escaping. But with how Theo acted, the Dark King should already be on the way with his fastest speed.


    As long as she managed to gain enough time, she should be able to escape with the Dark King''s help.


    After all, in terms of raw power, the Dark King was far stronger than her.


    As for how she could hold on, she could only fight it out while preparing to sacrifice something.


    The real battle between the Shadow King and the Fist Saint was about to begin.

 Chapter 1041 Appearance

    <h4>Chapter 1041 Appearance</h4>


    "Hurry up! We might not have enough time." The Dark King shouted, asking Seelzik to run even faster. They had been crossing numerous terrains since the Dark King was worried about his wife.


    However, Seelzik already did his best. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t increase his speed further than this.


    Even the Dark King already knew that.


    All sorts of emotion had been creeping around his heart, afraid his wife would die when she fought against an Authority Level Figure.


    Although his power wasn''t enough to handle that kind of person, he should be able to stop him for a while, allowing his wife to escape.


    Yet, even with their speed, he still had five minutes left before reaching that ce.


    As for the Shadow King, her situation couldn''t be worse.


    *Bam!*


    She wasunched to the ground, skipped a few times, and crashed into a boulder.


    "Gah!" She spat a mouthful of blood as her right arm was broken. If this continued, she would die soon.


    And the Fist Saint had reached her, standing in front of her as though he nned to end her life right now.


    "Kh." The Shadow King gritted her teeth, ring at the Fist Saint and wondering when everything went wrong.


    ��


    A few minutes earlier.


    "Die!" The Shadow King shouted, releasing numerous whips from the ground, trying to pierce the Fist Saint''s body.


    The whips even stuck to each other, creating a drill that should be enough to deal with the Fist Saint''s body.


    Unfortunately for her, the gap between a King and a Saint was too big. Even after coating the whip with her Order, it broke upon contact with the Fist''s Saint skin.


    "It''s useless. No matter what you do, it''s impossible to hurt me?" The Fist Saint snorted as he spun his body, hitting a monster''s head with his fist and making it explode from the sheer force alone. "What? You want to hurt me through some soft spots like eyes, neck, or other regions?"


    He smirked, having enough confidence that no one could prate his defense. At the very least, a King ss Monster wouldn''t be able to hurt him.


    The only reason why he hadn''t killed her yet was due to the monsters. They sacrificed themselves to block him, hoping the Shadow King could leave this ce with their help.


    However, the Fist Saint''s advance was swift, allowing him to catch up to her no matter how hard she escaped. Even if she entered the shadow, he was able to corner her and force her to go out by strengthening her Order.


    Even Theo, who could only watch the battle from afar while hiding behind the tree, was stunned.


    ''What kind of Order is that?'' Theo squinted his eyes. ''He can turn everything into a weapon by using that Order. Whether it''s sand or his fist, they''re strong enough to repel everything.


    ''If I make a prediction, the Dark King should still need at least more than ten minutes even if he goes at full speed.


    ''At the same time, if I join the fight, it might worsen the situation. How do I know there is such a man hiding inside that base?''


    Theo bit his lips while mming the trunk. On one hand, he wanted to escape from this ce. On the other hand, he couldn''t afford to leave, considering he was the one bringing the Shadow King into this mess.


    No matter what, he should save the Shadow King from the Fist Saint. But the big question was ''how?''


    He never saw a Saint utilizing their Authority to the absolute limit. Even if he tricked him, the absolute power could easily crush it.


    ''Think. Theodore Griffith, think! You need to find a way to help the Shadow King.'' Theo gritted his teeth, making his brain work even faster.


    He even made a hundred simtions within three minutes, but none worked. The Fist Saint obliterated everything.


    The situation became even worse as the Shadow King started losing her advantage. There were already two hundred monsters dying in his hand, so their number was thin enough for the Fist Saint to go through that gap and reach the Shadow King.


    And the conclusion came all of a sudden.


    "Got you!" The Fist Saint smirked and grabbed the Shadow King''s arm, finally catching her.


    "Kh!" She tried to manipte her own body with the shadow, but the Fist Saint used his ''Strengthen'' to stop the movement of the shadow.


    He raised her body and gathered energy in his fist, punching her.


    The Shadow King used her other arm to stop it and ended up getting it broken.


    "Gah!" She screamed while gettingunched away by the sheer force behind that punch, crashing to a giant boulder. "Uh��"


    She felt her consciousness disappear for a split second after that punch, never thinking she would be in this situation.


    If her opponent was only an Order Level Figure, she should be able to buy some time. But the Fist Saint was truly one of the people that had Authority. It was impossible for her to fight against him.


    The Fist Saint walked to her front, looking down on her. "This is it. Even though you''re a King ss, you are weak. I guess you are better at espionage instead of fighting�� You almost fooled me after all. You can take that praise with you when you die!"


    He raised his hand, preparing to deliver the killing blow.


    However, he soon stopped in his tracks before raising his head, feeling something.


    "As expected of the Fist Saint, even a King ss Monster couldn''t injure you." A young man with blond hair appeared out of nowhere. He had a cheerful smile on his face.


    It somehow stopped the Fist Saint as he was shocked to find another human here. He thought the presence he sensed earlier came from a monster, but it turned out to be a human.


    And that person actually appeared before him with the strength of a Supreme Rank. It was nothing but an insult to him, considering the Mythical Rank should be the lowest power to evene to talk to him.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the man, Theo, thought the same thing. ''Shit. What the heck I am doing here�� I''m fucked up.''

 Chapter 1042 Buying Time

    <h4>Chapter 1042 Buying Time</h4>


    "As expected of the Fist Saint, even a King ss Monster couldn''t injure you." Theo, with his disguise, finally met the Fist Saint. His smile was big enough to show that he wasn''t pressured at all, even though he was in front of an Authority Level Figure.


    Even the Fist Saint stopped for a moment, squinting his eyes. There was curiosity mixed with annoyance in his eyes.


    There was no information about this guy. And with the addition of what he said earlier, he was somehow convinced that Theo came together with the King ss Monster.


    "Who are you?" The Fist Saint asked while bing cautious soon. "Are you the one bringing this King ss Monster to me?"


    "Correct." Theo smiled, admitting it without hesitation.


    The Shadow King remained silent, even though she was confused by Theo''s action. She thought Theo had known the Fist Saint was hiding inside the base this whole time, but considering how he got her husband''s trust, he wouldn''t be so despicable.


    After all, there was no way that his husband couldn''t see one''s true nature. Hence, she believed this was just Theo spouting nonsense to save her.


    Yes, he was risking his life to save her.


    "Remove your disguise." The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes, sensing the Magic Power that enveloped his body. If it was just a natural release, the flow wouldn''te out at that rate.


    So, he instantly knew the man before him was using his disguise. He wanted to know who this person was.


    Theo smiled and shook his head helplessly. "Unfortunately, it''s something that I can''t do."


    "Then, you can only die." The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes, releasing his killing intent. Different from other people, the Fist Saint had been fighting for a long time to reach this position.


    His killing intent was so intense that a normal Supreme Rank Expert would have pissed their pants already.


    Even other geniuses like Winston and the others couldn''t do anything other than resist killing intent from affecting them.


    However, Theo was built differently. The moment he felt this killing intent, he sent another wave of killing intent toward the Fist Saint''s head.


    Unlike the Fist King that gave an explosion kind of burst, Theo''s killing intent was simr to that of a needle that directly hit his brain.


    "!!!" In that instant, the Fist Saint''s body trembled for a split second before astonishment filled his face. It was clear that Theo finally piqued his interest.


    ''This killing intent��'' The Fist Saint frowned, thinking, ''Hundreds�� No, thousands�� This is not the killing intent you can get from killing monsters. They have wild characteristics like watching prey. But This killing intentes from killing humans�� thousands of humans.


    ''This guy�� How many men has he killed?'' The Fist Saint never thought he would meet a mass murderer, unaware that those thousands of humans were none other than Theo himself. Although he could feel the killing intent from the beasts, he still felt the intense murder within it. That was why he was quite shocked when he felt Theo''s killing intent.


    "Hahaha. As expected of a man who wants to fight the World ss Monster��" Theo chuckled and narrowed his eyes as if examining him. "Of course, you need an Authority to fight him."


    Once again, the Fist Saint was stunned by the young man''s statement. Order and Authority were hidden truths that not many people knew. Even back in their world, less than a thousand people were aware of this power. And less than ten percent of them managed to acquire it.


    Hence, Theo knowing Order and Authoritypletely stunned him, wanting to know his real identity.


    ''A Supreme Rank Expert who knows about Order and Authority? Who is he?'' The Fist Saint started doubting whether he should kill this human or not. After all, someone who knew this information should be very important. No one would bother to send him since his future would be limitless.


    Even he acquired his Order when he was 67 years old and reached Authority Level at 87. On the contrary, the young man before him didn''t seem to be that old. Probably 30 to 40 years old.


    If this kind of person already knew about the Order and Authority existence, he could acquire it not long after. At that time, he would be the youngest person to get an Order, allowing him to be a young Authority in the near future.


    That was why he wanted to know about this young man''s identity. He should have a teacher among the top 100 experts in the world. Or��


    Suddenly, a crazy thought appeared in his mind. There was one more possibility that allowed Theo to acquire this knowledge. It was to receive it from the monsters on this side.


    Seeing how close he was with the Shadow King to even save her by risking his life, it was clear that Theo had a deep rtionship with her.


    ''Is he like me? Was he thrown into the wild since young and ended up learning from the monsters? I can see the connection between them.'' The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes as though he had gained his conclusion.


    However, there was another conflict in his heart. It was how Theo called him out for nning to kill the frost giant. This was a top secret mission, and only a few people knew about this.


    And Theo didn''t seem to be against that idea even though he had been raised by a monster. It even made him doubt his current conclusion.


    Even after racking his small brain, he never found any clue about Theo''s real identity.


    "Who are you? Do you know that your words are enough for me to kill you?" The Fist Saint threatened him again, trying to pry for more information.


    However, Theo simply said, "You can try to kill me. It''s just��"


    "Just what? Do you think I don''t dare? I couldn''t care less about your life." The Fist Saint snorted and acted arrogantly. He wanted to see Theo''s flustered expression because he could start getting clues after that.


    "It''s just you need to prepare yourself to be hunted too."


    "Hunted? Me? I am the Fist Saint. No one can hunt me down! Even you or this King ss Monster can''t defeat me." The Fist Saint snorted, raising his hand as though he wanted to kill the King ss Monster to show the example.


    However, Theo pointed at the back while smiling. "I know, but he can��"


    The Fist Saint was startled for a second and raised his head to find no one behind him. He thought Theo was bluffing, but when he was about to say something, a ck dot appeared on the horizon.


    It became bigger and bigger until eventually, he could finally see a ck knight riding a horse.


    He had been raising his sword and immediately shed forward the moment he saw the target.


    "Axel Eusta."

 Chapter 1043 Dark King’s Weird Power

    <h4>Chapter 1043 Dark King''s Weird Power</h4>


    "Axel Eusta."


    "!!!" The Fist Saint suddenly raised his hand while both Theo and the Shadow King leaped to the left.


    A huge ck me rose to the sky like a massive wall, but everyone knew this was the sword strike from the Dark King.


    "Haaa!" The Fist Saint gritted his teeth and received this sword attack with his palm. His skin was strong enough to withstand the power, but suddenly, something weird happened to his hand. "What''s that?!"


    The ck energy soon spread around his hand and gradually moved toward his right arm, nning to cover his whole body.


    In that instant, the Fist Saint leaped to the side and let that power continue. He almost fell to his knees but managed to support himself up.


    At the same time, he looked at his hand as the ck energy still spread around, turning his skin ck. "Strengthen."


    Without hesitation, he utilized his Authority to stop the spread of this power and tried to expel it.


    However, Theo had disappeared while the Shadow King waved her hand.


    Soon, the shadow underneath him emerged from the ground. Since it was his shadow, its form resembled him.


    And this shadow grabbed the Fist Saint''s arms, trying to stop him from moving.


    "Annoying!" The Fist Saint gnashed his teeth and released his Magic Power, blowing the shadow away. But because it was his shadow, it wouldn''t leave his side and keep trying to distract him.


    He turned around and leaped toward the Shadow King, but a huge sword suddenly fell from above.


    The Fist Saint clicked his tongue and raised his fist, punching the sword. Without anyone using it, the sword should only rely on its heaviness to hit him.


    This kind of power shouldn''t be powerful enough to prate his skin.


    Hence, it was normal for him to hit the sword, albeit he forgot that the fist he used was the one covered in ck.


    When he struck the sword, it prated his hand.


    "!!!" As soon as he felt a slight pain, his fist immediately retreated as he jumped back, trying to understand what was happening.


    "What?!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes and saw his fist bleeding. He never thought there would be someone that could injure him. It was even more amazing with the fact that his opponent was only a King ss Monster.


    "What is this power?" The Fist Saint muttered, trying to expel it from his body. However, he had no chance because the Dark King had finally arrived, regrouping with the Shadow King.


    When he saw his wife''s broken arm, the Dark King released a powerful killing intent as he shouted in anger. "Human bastard! I will kill you!"


    The Shadow King, on the other hand, maintained her calm and updated the situation. "He is one of them. He has an Authority, but I don''t know what it is."


    The Dark King gritted his teeth and immediately charged forward as if ignoring his wife''s words.


    "I am the one who will kill you!" The Fist Saint gritted his teeth before punching the air, creating a powerful air torrent, hitting both the Dark King and the horse.


    However, the Dark King easily cut the pressure down before leaping off Selzik. Due to the nature of the enemy, it wouldn''t be wise to keep mounting Seelzik, so he gave another order to Seelzik. "Protect her."


    "Ngiih��" Seelzik acknowledged his order and immediately retreated.


    As for the Dark King, he stabbed the Fist Saint with everything he had.


    However, the Fist Saint easily struck his de, repelling him. Still, there was another dark spot appearing in his fist, making him realize that touching the Dark King would be dangerous.


    "��" The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes, never thinking he would be in this predicament against a King ss Monster. He was unaware that among King ss Monsters under the Frost Saint, the Dark King was considered among the top three.


    So, it was normal for him to be able to fight to some extent against the Fist Saint. If he wasn''t careful, he could even defeat him.


    The Dark King waved his sword again and struck the ground, missing the Fist Saint, who was forced to avoid this attack.


    Not wanting to let him go, the Dark King released his Order.


    Suddenly, the ground turned ck, spreading instantly to create a massive ck hole on the ground.


    Seeing this power, the Fist Saint clicked his tongue and pointed at the ck hole. "Strengthen."


    His target wasn''t the ck ground. Instead, it was the air on top of it, allowing him to step on that air.


    This was the power of his Order.


    But the moment the ck hole appeared, the Shadow King also made her move, considering this was an opportunity to capture the target.


    Since the Fist Saint was wary of the Dark King''s power, the Shadow King waved his hand, controlling the shadows around the ck holes and raising them.


    Those numerous shadows rose a few hundred feet above the ground and connected to each other at the top.


    These shadows became a bar to turn the ck hole on the ground into a cage. At the same time, the Dark King also pointed his palm toward these shadows, channeling his power to the bars.


    This way, the Fist Saint would think twice before hitting the cage.


    In fact, this should be enough to capture someone if they were not that strong.


    However, the Fist Saint was an Authority Level Figure. There was no way they thought this was enough to capture him.


    As they predicted, the Fist Saint jumped into the air and struck the air, creating a massive pressure to knock down the bars.


    The Dark King and Shadow King had prepared for this and reinforced them enough so they wouldn''t break. However, the Fist Saint went one step further by pointing his palm toward the shock wave and enhancing it.


    "Strengthen."


    The shock wave became solid and crushed the bars, allowing the Fist Saint to escape.


    When hended on the ground, the Fist Saint suddenlyughed out loud. "Hahaha. This is good. It''s been eight years since thest time I bled! I never thought that human bastard was trying to buy time��"

 Chapter 1044 I Got You

    <h4>Chapter 1044 I Got You</h4>


    The Fist Saint had realized the moment Theo appeared, he already knew he would be safe.


    There was no way the Fist Saint would attack Theo because he needed to make the connection between him and the King ss Monster. Just making him think that way was enough to buy a few minutes.


    In other words, he had been preparing to call the reinforcement when he came out.


    Although he didn''t know how he could do it, the Fist Saint knew their n would be extremely dangerous the moment this was exposed to the monsters.


    Now that the Dark King had appeared, Theo could finally get some air, wondering what he should do next. Even with the Dark King, he didn''t believe they could defeat the Fist Saint.


    So, he needed either the quality or the quantity. If he went for thetter, he would need to meet a few other King ss Monsters. If it was the former, he would need someone strong enough to fight against an Authority Level Figure.


    Without anyone realizing, Theo had appeared next to Seelzik.


    "Ngiiih!" Seelzik let out a loud cry before he suddenly ran toward the west as if trying to escape.


    "Huh?!" The Fist Saint and the Dark King were confused for a moment. It was normal for the Fist Saint to not understand Seelzik''s behavior, but even the Dark King didn''t know why Seelzik actually ran away even though he had told him to protect his wife.


    However, there was someone standing on his back as if he had said something to Seelzik to gain his cooperation.


    ''Theodore Griffith��'' The Dark King narrowed his eyes before realizing something, saying inwardly. ''Wait, that direction��''


    As if understanding Theo''s n, the Dark King furrowed his eyebrows and raised his sword, nning to defeat the Fist Saint.


    "Ezenweils." The Dark King waved his sword two times, forming a huge "+" symbol in the air. Still, his swing had yet to finish. The moment the third sh hit the symbol, the entire ground exploded.


    *Boom!*


    ck colored me red out of the ck hole and engulfed everything inside, turning their color to ck.


    Even the Fist Saint was inside this ck dome, which should be enough to cover him with his power.


    When everything settled down, there was a ck sphere in the air. It soon crumbled to the ground, revealing the Fist Saint.


    At thest second, the Fist Saint reinforced the air in his surroundings, turning them into a solid mass. This way, the Dark Order wouldn''t be able to touch him.


    After that, he leaped into the air and punched the Dark King.


    "Haha. You have a unique power. I want to see whether you can actually hurt me more than this!" The Fist Saintughed and struck the Dark King''s sword.


    The Dark King gritted his teeth when he felt the force behind it. He even tried to spread his power to his hand before realizing something.


    ''Wait�� That''s��'' When he took a closer look at the contact, he realized the Fist Saint didn''t actually hit his sword. Instead, he reinforced the air around his hand, turning them into an invisible glove. This way, his power couldn''t affect him.


    "As expected, you can only use your power upon contact. As long as I don''t touch it, you won''t be able to defeat me." The Fist Saint smirked.


    The Shadow King supported him from behind. With a single wave of her hand, the shadows spread to the sword.


    The ck sword the Dark King used actually camouged the shadow, allowing them to reach the Fist Saint all of a sudden.


    These shadow whips surrounded the Fist Saint, wrapping his body and pulling him to the sword so as to make him touch the sword.


    However, the Shadow King''s power was severely weaker than the Dark King even if their raw strength was not that different due to their Order Mastery.


    The moment those shadows wrapped him, he reinforced the shadow and made them turn solid. After that, he crushed them like bread crumbs before leaping back.


    Standing in the air, the Fist Saint punched forward, creating a massive shock wave that pushed the Dark King back.


    Not letting him go, the Shadow King tried to bind him again.


    "You''re annoying. Your raw power might be simr to that guy, but your Order is still too low to join this fight." The Fist Saint leaped toward the Dark King again while pulling his fist, nning to hit the sword again. "Don''t disturb our fight!"


    The Dark King gnashed his teeth and shed downwards. "Bastard human. Dare disrespect my wife! Die!"


    As soon as the Dark King said ''wife,'' a smile appeared on the Fist Saint''s face. He suddenly reinforced the air around him and stepped on that air, changing his direction.


    In that instant, he arrived in front of the Shadow King instead of the Dark King.


    "What?!" The Dark King nced to the side and used all his strength to change the direction of his sword.


    "So, you''re his wife. I will kill her first then! If you''re angry, you will release all your power after all." The Fist Saint smirked. He always loved to fight against strong opponents, so if he could make the Dark King stronger, he would do it�� or so they thought.


    "No, you won''t!"


    When the Dark King struck his sword to protect his wife, the smile on the Fist Saint''s face became bigger as he leaped on top of his sword.


    "I got you!" Without hesitation, he ran on top of his sword, making sure he didn''t touch the sword long enough for the Dark Power to influence him.


    "Not good." The Dark King stepped back and waved his sword, but the Fist Saint had already jumped to the front of his face.


    "Let''s see whether you can withstand the fist of the strongest man on Earth!" The Fist Saint smirked and punched the Dark King''s helmet.


    He was expecting the helmet to get crushed like a can, but it turned out the helmet was weaker than he expected.


    The moment that fist connected to the helmet, thetter popped out like a balloon. Yes. The helmet and the entire head actually exploded.


    *Bang!*

 Chapter 1045 Dark King’s True Body

    <h4>Chapter 1045 Dark King''s True Body</h4>


    *Bang!*


    The head exploded together with the helmet.


    "What?!" The one who was stunned first was actually the Fist Saint. The Dark King was supposed to be stronger than this, but a punch on the head was all it took to defeat him.


    ''Did I overestimate him? His Order was stronger because everything went to his attack power instead of defense�� That was why I could defeat him easily��'' The Fist Saint thought while furrowing his eyebrows.


    On one hand, defeating a King ss Monster was a joyful matter even for him. On the other hand, the fight was simply a disappointment.


    "To think you''re that weak��" The Fist Saint shook his head helplessly. He turned around and saw the Shadow King having a calm expression.


    In that instant, the Fist Saint lowered his head and saw the armor spreading the Dark Power until it reached his left foot.


    "No. He hasn''t died!" The Fist Saint leaped into the air and stood there, staring at them with a frown. He never thought there was someone who didn''t die after his head exploded.


    However, the armor soon turned into a liquid and gradually formed a sphere in the air. The sphere waspletely ck, reflecting no light.


    "What is��" Before he finished, the Fist Saint leaped to the left and saw the shadowsing after him. As soon as he got to a safe distance, he used his power to strengthen the shadows, freezing them.


    After that, his focus returned to the shadow that started releasing a massive amount of energy.


    Still, what he saw next actually made him understand what was going on. "So, that''s how it is��"


    The sphere gradually melted again and formed a sword from that concentrated ck energy, revealing the Dark King''s true appearance.


    "To think your true form is that small�� It turned out your huge body was created by your Magic Power�� It was so dark that I couldn''t differentiate between the armor and the Magic Power��" The Fist Saint smirked, realizing he had been fooled this whole time.


    The Dark King''s true appearance was simr to that of Syk. If he and Syk actually stood next to each other, they would have a hard time finding who the father was.


    The only way to differentiate them was their aura and behavior.


    The Dark King grabbed his sword while sighing. "To think there is a time for me to use this form again�� As expected from an Authority Level Figure."


    If Theo was actually here, he would have gotten the answer to the question he had this whole time. Unfortunately, Theo had left the battlefield for who knew what he was nning to do.


    Meanwhile, the Dark King red at the Fist Saint while raising his sword before saying to his wife. "I''ll fight alone."


    The Shadow King fell silent for a moment before leaping back as if she knew his strength.


    "Hahaha. Do you think you can fight me alone?! I will show you the difference in our power." The Fist Saintughed, getting excited. He never expected there was a King ss Monster that wanted to challenge an Authority Level Figure by himself.


    He was unaware that the Dark King also loved to fight and he had fought against the Frost Saint a few times. And as a wife, the Shadow King always apanied him. That was why she even dared to bring Theo to the Frost Saint by herself. Their family was quite close to the Frost Saint.


    "You don''t know how much��" The Dark King took a deep breath. Before finishing his words, his figure disappeared.


    "Huh?!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes. The Dark King was too fast to the point he thought the Dark King teleported.


    *ng!*


    *Boom!*


    A clicking sound echoed in the area before a shock wave burst.


    "Keuk!" The Fist Saint gritted his teeth as the shock wave actually hit the back of his knee, forcing him to fall to one knee. "What?!"


    The Fist Saint turned his head around, finding the Dark King on his back. He had felt his presence, so he used his Order to strengthen the air behind him to avoid getting cut by the Dark King.


    The air managed to stop the de, but this technique was the one that Syk showed yesterday.


    The tree that Syk attacked didn''t copse, but the shock wave actually traveled past the tree and sted everything behind it.


    In this case, the shock wave traveled past the reinforced air and struck the back of the Fist Saint''s knee, forcing him to fall on one knee.


    Even the Fist Saint was stunned because he never expected this kind of power. If it was someone else, they might actually be hurt from this attack alone. If not because of his extraordinary defense, his bone might crack from the shock wave alone.


    After dropping to his knees, the Fist Saint spun his body and waved his hand, trying to hit the Dark King.


    However, the Dark King had disappeared again.


    "His speed�� No. That''s not speed!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes and turned around, kicking the air.


    And the next thing he saw was the Dark King appearing out of thin air, gettingunched away from that kick.


    As expected from a top expert, he managed to understand the principle of the Dark King''s speed after just one exchange.


    The Dark Kingnded on the ground a few feet away as his boots started spreading the dark power again, turning the ground ck.


    As if not nning to wait for the Dark King, the Fist Saint leaped forward before the Dark King disappeared again.


    However, the Dark King never had the intention to disappear this time.


    Instead, he raised his sword and shed downwards.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes before the shock wave blew him away again. "That weird sh again��"


    The Fist Saint gritted his teeth. Instead of using the reinforced air, the Dark King seemed to be able to sh the normal air to use it to send the pressure. This made his attack even trickier.


    The Dark King took another deep breath as his focus became even deeper. He looked at the Fist Saint as he disappeared into the air.


    "You don''t know how many times I fought against a Saint like you." The Dark King suddenly appeared behind the Fist Saint, preparing another sh.

 Chapter 1046 Serve You Right

    <h4>Chapter 1046 Serve You Right</h4>


    "I have learned this trick already." The Fist Saint roared as he mmed his hand to the back while reinforcing his whole body to withstand the shock wave.


    However, the Dark King only smiled and struck his fist.


    *Boom!*


    The sword hit the air near his fist again, unable to influence it with the dark power. But the shock wave still struck his fist, pushing the Fist Saint a few feet away.


    "Mielvea." The Dark King muttered in a low voice.


    "Huh?!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes and looked down as several ck energy appeared, cutting his body. Once again, his extraordinary defense protected him from these attacks.


    But the Fist Saint realized the attack still affected him by creating those ck scars on his body.


    "��" The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes. The Dark King''s power was simply too weird.


    At the same time, the Dark King wasmenting the fact he couldn''t fight him during the night when his power was at its peak.


    "Tsk." The Dark King clicked his tongue and leaped back a few times.


    The moment he saw the Dark King''s action, the Fist Saint hurriedly followed him as if understanding something.


    He punched the air and sent a massive shock wave to blow him away.


    "Hah��" The Dark King tried to gather his breath and shed the torrential air, but it was toote. A portion of the air stillunched him back.


    This became the sign of a counterattack. The Fist Saint smirked and said, "I see. Your power is weird because you have a unique breathing pace. Now that your breath has been used up, you need a bit of time to gather it again."


    Without hesitation, the Fist Saint appeared in front of the Dark King, punching him. "There''s no way I''m gonna let you."


    The Dark King gritted his teeth and used his sword to block him but to no avail. The strength was simply too much, even for both hands.


    *Bam!*


    The Dark King crashed into a huge tree as he immediately threw himself to the side, finding the Fist Sainting toward him and smashing the tree.


    The tree fell down, but the Fist Saint didn''t want to waste it. He smacked the tree, throwing it toward the Dark King.


    The Dark King shed downwards, but the tree couldn''t be cut down. In fact, it felt like the tree had be a metal as the clicking sound echoed when they shed.


    "Gah!" The Dark King was mmed to the ground by the tree and hurriedly rolled a few times to avoid the Fist Saint, who almost stomped him.


    After that, he continued to move around while waving his sword.


    In just one minute, they had exchanged a hundred strikes while moving around.


    Even the Dark King started looking exhausted because he couldn''t catch a breath this whole time.


    ''So, this is one of the strongest people from the human side��'' The Dark King thought while trying to buy some time. ''Although Theo has told me that this person doesn''t have a good brain, he''s a genuinely talented fighter. I don''t know if he has realized it or not, but it seems that his Martial Talent is so strong that he can decipher my power in just one exchange.


    ''And ording to Theo, there should be ten people like them. They''re known as geniuses of their own ss because they''re far too strong. That''s why they have an Authority. There are others who have Orders too��''


    The Dark King finally recognized the Fist Saint''s talent. Even Bernard had the same opinion.


    The Fist Saint might not be good at strategy and other stuff to the point he was known as a Martial Idiot. However, his talent in Martial Art was so strong that he could be one of the top ten experts in the world.


    That was why fighting him was a headache.


    "Good, good, good! You are strong. If not because of your weakness, you can actually fight me on par. No, if you also have an Authority, no one will know who will win!" The Fist Saint smiled excitedly. He had never expected a King ss Monster to make him this excited after acquiring the Authority.


    Meanwhile, the Dark King remained silent while carefully receiving each blow, not wanting to be hit by one of those punches.


    ''I don''t know what Theo is nning to do, but Seelzik won''t abandon his post if it''s not more important�� In other words, he is doing something to turn around the situation. It''s a shame, but I will focus on buying time instead of defeating him.'' The Dark King thought.


    Although he couldn''t trust Theopletely, he believed in his horse, the partner who had apanied him for so many decades.


    As if knowing the Dark King was nning something, the Fist Saint smirked and jumped sideways to surprise him.


    "!!!" The Dark King immediately turned around, not understanding what he was nning to do.


    The moment the Fist King suddenly changed his direction and went straight toward him, the Dark King was forced to take a step back to stabilize his posture.


    This was the time the Fist King made his move.


    "Huh?!" The Dark King widened his eyes because the air actually stopped him like that of a wall, preventing him from moving back.


    "I got you again!" The Fist Saint smiled and struck forth.


    The Dark King used his sword to block it, but the Fist Saint''s strength was too much for him to handle.


    The sword ended up hitting his body as the remaining force pushed him back to the point the reinforced air broke apart.


    "Geuh��" The Dark King gritted his teeth, pushed back 50 feet away.


    "Hahahaha! Entertain me more, Monster!" The Fist Saint jumped forth.


    Facing this fist, the Dark King should be moving back to regain some distance, but as soon as he noticed the air wall on his back, the Dark King smiled.


    A few swords appeared from the ck ground. The swords struck the air from behind with the same technique as he used, resulting in a massive shock wave.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes as his body took the full brunt of all those shock waves.


    "Gah!" He spat the acid from his stomach as he wasunched a few hundred feet away.


    "Serve you right, Bastard." The Dark King smirked.

 Chapter 1047 Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 1047 Reinforcement</h4>


    "Serve you right, Bastard!" The Dark King smiled.


    However, his action actually allowed the Fist Saint to make his move as well. He reinforced all the des, making the sword pierce through his own air wall.


    "Gah!" The Dark King spat a mouthful of ck blood as he nced to his back, finding his own des piercing his body.


    "Not only did you make my hand bleed, but you also broke one of my ribs. I acknowledge your strength, Monster!" The Fist Saint leaped back in an instant.


    "!!!" The Dark King widened his eyes, realizing everything was ording to the Fist Saint''s n.


    He struck the Fist Saint with his sword, but the conclusion came in a sudden.


    *ng!*


    The sword actually snapped into two as the Fist Saint''s punch finally connected, hitting the Dark King on the head.


    The punchunched the Dark King a quarter-mile away from his position, crashing into numerous trees and boulders on the way.


    "Ha��" The Fist Saint took a deep breath as he used all his strength in that one punch. If the timing was not right, the situation would be dangerous for him. "This King ss Monster�� is already close to Authority Level�� It seems I have underestimated him."


    The Fist Saint squinted his eyes to see the Dark King''s condition.


    He saw him coughing blood but still having enough strength to stand up.


    "Haaaa!" The Dark King roared and stood up. That punch almost dislocated his jaw, but he still managed to cover it with all his power at thest second.


    The Dark King panted a few times while his focus became even deeper as he pointed his broken sword toward the Fist Saint. The sword recovered from the Dark Power while his gaze sent chills down his spine.


    Even the Fist Saint''s body trembled a bit. He couldn''t help but smile, saying, "You''re strong."


    The Fist Saint and the Dark King jumped toward each other at the same time, nning to sh again.


    The Dark Energy started swirling around the Dark King''s hand while the Fist Saint continued using his power like the prior.


    "Ha!" The Dark King roared and shed downwards. Even if he couldn''t cut the reinforced air on his hand, the amount of power he put in his sword should be enough tounch him back.


    Unfortunately for him, the Fist Saint was still a genius beyond his imagination. There was a Magic Power fluctuation around his sword as the Dark King''s sh became even faster.


    *ng!*


    "Keuk!" Even though he should be happy to be even faster, the Dark King could only curse when it came to him at this time.


    "You��" The Dark King realized that the Fist Saint actually enhanced his ability, especially his speed. This way, he swung too fast to even let the energy explode at the right time, resulting in the energy bursting on the ground instead of the Fist Saint''s body.


    *Bam!*


    The ground turned into a crater.


    "You enhanced my ability to make me miss��" The Dark King raised his sword again to block instead of attack.


    The Fist Saint smirked as he already understood the Dark King''s sh. He finally got this advantage and nned to take this chance.


    All his energy went straight to his fist as he used his skill, enhancing his fist even further.


    "Grand�� m��" The Fist Saint struck the sword, breaking it again.


    If the Dark King allowed this hit tond on his body, he would be heavily injured, if not dying. Hence, he raised his left hand desperately, using it to deflect all this force.


    "Haaaa!" He even roared to gather thest bit of strength.


    ''He can still react?'' The veins on the Fist Saint''s head bulged as he never thought the Dark King to be this strong.


    Still, all the energy in his fist struck the Dark King''s hand, breaking the bones in his body.


    "Gah!" The Dark King screamed in pain but still endured it, trying to push the fist in another direction. "Haaaaaa!"


    Finally, the Dark King went sideways, and the force inside the fist turned into a shock wave, obliterating anything within 300 feet.


    The Dark King didn''t care about this and immediately struck the Fist Saint''s body with his sword, knocking him away.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    After the remaining shock waves hit the area, the Fist Saintnded on the ground. His eyes intertwined with the Dark King''s as the battle reached its final stage.


    With the Dark King losing one of his arms in this battle, he wasn''t in the state of fighting anymore. So, a few more minutes would be the longest it took for the Fist Saint to kill the Dark King.


    Yet, the one that made the first move was none other than the Dark King. Though, his actionpletely stunned the Fist Saint.


    "As much as I want to continue this fight, I believe this is where I stop��" The Dark King suddenly waved his sword, returning it to its original form, a ck bead.


    "Huh?!" The Fist Saint was confused for a moment but still leaped forward, trying to punch him. "I won''t fall for any of your tricks!"


    He thought this was just a trick from the Dark King to hide his injury. However, when he was about to strike him, something soon blocked the sky, covering them in its shadow.


    The Fist Saint raised his head and saw a giant club falling from the air.


    "No!" The Fist Saint gritted his teeth and struck the club. Since he was fighting the Dark King a while ago, he was still wearing that air glove to avoid his dark power.


    However, the moment this invisible air touched the bat, a blue light suddenly shone from the bat, freezing the entire area.


    The freezing power spread from the bat to the Fist Saint''s body.


    "It''s frozen?" The Fist Saint sucked a cold breath when he saw his reinforced air freeze. And that freezing power continued to his body and enveloped him in ice, turning him into an ice sculpture together with the ground around him. "The Frost Giant��"


    The Dark King smiled and nced back, seeing a huge figure running toward them. He said with a cool tone. "I have warmed him up for you, Frost Saint."

 Chapter 1048 Start of the Fight

    <h4>Chapter 1048 Start of the Fight</h4>


    The Dark King immediately leaped back to regroup with the Frost Saint.


    Their eyes intertwined. Even though the Frost Saint had a serious face, he made a gentle nod and said with a heavy tone. "En. Sorry for this, but I truly need to take care of him right now. I will make it upter."


    "Hehe. Just a single spar is enough for me since I don''t think I can win against him anyway."


    "Yeah." The Frost Saint examined his injury before proceeding to walk forward while saying, "After your injury recovers, that is."


    The Dark King closed his eyes with a smile on his face. He politely bowed his head while putting his hand on his chest.


    After letting him pass, the Dark King nced at his horse Seelzik, especially the one on top of him, Theo. He finally understood Theo''s real intention for bringing Seelzik away.


    As his partner, Seelzik often brought him to the Frost Saint for a battle, so he was aware of the Frost Saint''s whereabouts.


    Seelzik then calcted the time for them to go there. If it took too long, the battle would have been concluded, so he made sure the Frost Saint was close. If this condition wasn''t fulfilled, the next n would be to gather multiple King ss Monsters from the surrounding area.


    That was why Seelzik agreed to bring Theo to the Frost Saint, which happened to be not far from them.


    Without hesitation, he leaped back to the horse while locating his wife. However, it seemed his wife had left this area, which was good since he didn''t need to be afraid of the potential danger.


    "It''s surprising that you could actually convince him toe here." The Dark King smirked.


    "Seelzik contributed greatly." Theo shrugged. "Besides, I never thought there would be someone at his level hiding inside that base."


    "Never mind that. All I want to say is��" The Dark King turned back to the Frost Saint and said, "Watch the battle. It will surely improve your perspective about Orders."


    Theo nodded with a grim expression, nning to do it even without him telling him.


    After that, the Frost Saint approached the Fist Saint and said, "I know that I can''t freeze you that easily. It''s time for you to break that ice."


    As soon as he said that, the ice suddenly cracked and shattered like sses.


    "As expected from the Frost Saint, your freezing power is too strong." The Fist Saint smirked. However, there was a tinge of fear apanying that smirk. It was clear that they could feel the difference between their power.


    Now that the Dark King had exhausted him a bit, the Fist Saint had been nning to escape.


    The Frost Saint grabbed his club and released a massive killing intent.


    Suddenly, the clouds in the sky gradually moved toward them. The snow started pouring down, decreasing the temperature in this area.


    Even Theo was surprised by this power. He raised his head and looked at the snow, thinking, ''Hmm? The cloud�� I can feel immense power from the cloud. Is that an artificial cloud?''


    As if understanding his question, the Dark King smiled and said, "You''re wrong. That''s a real cloud, but with the help of territory."


    "Territory? And how do you know the question in my head?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "The Frost Saint is using his Magic Power to gather that cloud in one ce and mark it with the Covenant Seal, turning that cloud into a way to create a domain of his own. It''s easy for you to remove the Covenant Seal anyway, and you can make any ce your territory. Though, there are a few requirements that need to be made�� Even he doesn''t tell me anything about it." The Dark King exined.


    "Covenant Seal��" Theo muttered in a low voice. "In other words, the cloud is like a mobile domain to increase his power."


    "Yeah." The Dark King then pointed at the ck ground. "Look at that ck ground over there?"


    "Yes."


    After getting the confirmation, the Dark King waved his hand. The ck ground soon returned to its original color. "That''s my domain."


    If Theo watched the battle this whole time, he would realize that the teleportation ability that the Dark King utilized this whole time was rted to his domain.


    However, this alone was enough for Theo to understand a few things.


    "I tried to replicate his power, but I still couldn''t use it at his level." The Dark King sighed, feeling a bit dejected.


    "Mhm." Theo nodded with a serious expression and started observing again.


    While they were talking, the Frost Saint red at the Fist Saint. "It seems you want to kill me that much. If that''s the case, you have your chance now. I''m here. Kill me!"


    The Fist Saint''s expression darkened. If he could defeat the Frost Saint alone, there was no need for them to create that weapon and join hands with another Authority Level Figure.


    So, when he heard those words, the Fist Saint denied it immediately. "How can I? Even with my strength, I can''t defeat a real World ss Monster��"


    "But you��" The Frost Saint squinted his eyes, clearly seeing the immense fighting intent emanating from the Fist Saint''s body. He had fought the Dark King many times to know that this person was raring to fight.


    Without hesitation, he raised his club and formed a massive ice boulder that was as big as his upper body, making it fall down. "��should have hidden that fighting intent while saying those words!"


    The Fist Saint smiled and lowered his body, grabbing a small rock on the ground.


    After coating that small rock with his Authority, he threw it upward.


    This small rock and massive boulder looked like an ant nning to fight against an elephant.


    Yet, the moment they collided, many cracks appeared on the massive boulders as they broke apart in all directions.


    "!!!" The Dark King and Theo widened their eyes, shocked. They never expected such a small boulder could actually destroy an ice sphere that looked like a meteor.


    The Fist Saint smiled and said with a grim tone. "Even though I don''t have enough strength to defeat you, it doesn''t mean I can''t do anything."

 Chapter 1049 Focused

    <h4>Chapter 1049 Focused</h4>


    "It doesn''t mean I can''t do anything." The Fist Saint harrumphed after destroying that massive ice boulder.


    However, the moment those ice crystals fell to the ground, they excluded a powerful freezing power that covered the ground around them with ice. And with all those pieces scattered in all directions, the ice field covered the same amount of space as the cloud in the sky.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint thought this attack was just warming up, but it seemed he needed to reconsider the Frost Saint''s intention.


    He tried to jump into the air to avoid the ice and stood on top of the air, but the freezing power was so strong that it froze the reinforced air not long after.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint leaped into the air once again, and the process repeated, forcing him to continuously leap around if he didn''t want to be frozen.


    When he was upied by the freezing power, the Frost Saint waved his club toward him.


    "You can''t beat me with physical power!" The Fist Saint roared as he punched toward the club with all his strength, releasing a powerful shock wave.


    However, the next thing he realized, even the shock wave was frozen.


    Now that it had a solid surface, the club hit the ice,unching it toward the Fist Saint.


    The Fist Saintnded another punch to the ice, breaking them apart. Instead of letting them fall to the ground, he pointed his palm toward the scattered ice, throwing them back toward the Frost Saint.


    A massive ice wall rose from the ground at a fast speed, receiving the iing objects. However, even the ice had been strengthened by the Fist Saint, resulting in those objects shattering the ice wall.


    The moment the ice wall fell apart, the Fist Saint and the Frost Saint pointed their palms toward each other.


    The former released pressure from his fist while thetter froze it. Their sh resulted in a huge chunk of ice in the air.


    "I will enhance everything to resist your freezing power, you bastard!" The Fist Saint roared as he continued to pour his Magic Power, continuously cracking the ice.


    However, the Frost Saint did a simr thing. Instead of reinforcing the air, he froze the Fist Saint''s power.


    If thetter kept breaking the ice apart, the Frost Saint froze it again and again, resulting in the ice continuously growing in size.


    "There is nothing I can''t freeze." The Frost Saint snorted and continued pouring his power.


    "Haaaa!" The Fist Saint didn''t want to lose. He poured all the Magic Power he had, but his control over his Authority was still not as good as the Frost Saint.


    In the end, the Fist Saint gritted his teeth and leaped back, allowing the massive ice boulder to fall to the ground.


    At the same time, the Frost Saint smacked the boulder with his club as if ying baseball,unching it toward the Fist Saint.


    The Fist Saint punched the boulder with all his strength just for a split second, shattering the ice boulder. Unfortunately for him, even for a split second, there was some ice stuck on his hand.


    The ice was extremely cold to the point he felt it was burning.


    "I could actually feel the pain from this ice��" The Fist Saint muttered while looking at the ice. As expected from the Frost Saint, he could even freeze his unbreakable body.


    If he continued this way, he would be frozen sooner orter.


    On the side, the Dark King watched the battle intensely while exining to Theo, trying to make him understand. "That''s the Frost Saint''s power�� He can literally freeze everything. Even my Dark Power can be frozen��"


    This was the same power he utilized. It was how his dark power could coat everything that touched it. However, the Frost Giant took that power to another level.


    "He''s truly amazing." The Dark King scratched the back of his head and nced to the side after getting no response from Theo. "Oi? Are you listening?"


    He tried to call Theo but soon noticed his serious face. Theo was so serious that he wasn''t aware of what was happening in the surroundings.


    Unknown to the Dark King, Theo had finally reached this state again as he focused all his attention on the fight.


    Even Theo subconsciously raised his palm.


    "??" The Dark King was confused for a moment before he was shocked by what he saw next.


    Suddenly, a me appeared on top of Theo''s palm. If that was a normal me, he would think Theo had fire affinity.


    But next to the me was water. These two opposite affinities shouldn''t be able to go side by side, but the water suddenly froze not because of the Frost Saint but because of Theo''s Order.


    After that, the ice gradually became blurry and transformed into dirt. As for the fire, it enveloped the dirt for a moment before turning into lightning, sparking on the dirt''s surface.


    Yet, everything soon disappeared when the wind vanquished it. Even the dirt crumbled and vanished into thin air.


    ''What is he doing?'' The Dark King''s body shivered when he saw that power. He thought, ''Can he manipte all elements? Is his Order rted to elements? No. I don''t think so. Then, he must be enlightened after watching this fight.


    ''Still, what is his state right now? He''s so focused as if he''s isting himself in his own world, understanding the Order at a fast pace.''


    The Dark King couldn''t believe what he saw since Theo''s power was surreal. Even Theo didn''t realize he managed to do something without getting proper knowledge about affinities.


    Silently and gently, the Dark King stepped back and started watching the surroundings, allowing Theo toprehend more about his power.


    He thought, ''I will protect you right now since this chance is important for you. Our sparring�� mighte sooner than I expected. It seems I didn''t choose the wrong person to give my Friend Seal.''


    Just like Theo continued understanding the power called Order, the Fist Saint and the Frost Saint also carried on their fight.

 Chapter 1050 Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 1050 Running Away</h4>


    "Freeze." The Frost Saint pointed his palm at the Fist Saint, using his Order to freeze the surrounding air around the Fist Saint.


    At the same time, the Fist Saint created a massive shock wave from the Magic Power, shattering the ice sphere.


    Still, the ice somehow froze the Magic Power as well. Just like the Dark King said, the Frost Giant could freeze everything, whether it was air, poison, or even Magic Power.


    This was the power of the World ss Monster.


    "��" The Fist Saint narrowed his eyes and started panting. He was trying hard to find a gap to escape. But his condition had be weakened, especially due to the domain the Frost Saint erected.


    ''I truly need to escape right now or I might die here. The n will end in failure because of the frost giant, but��'' The Fist Saint nced at Theo, who was watching the fight intensely.


    ''That human. Who is he? I''m afraid he''s someone manipting the entire battle this whole time. If not because of him, there won''t be two King ss Monsters as well as one World ss Monster fighting me. And the base won''t be discovered by them as well��


    ''Who on earth sent him here? Seeing his power and knowledge, I should be able to narrow down the people by much. But still�� It seems there will be another hidden dragon in the world.


    ''If he chooses to spread his wings on the other side, no one can stop him.'' The Fist Saint thought. ''I will remember his face and investigate him. But still, I wonder what the monsters will do after this? Knowing the Frost Giant''s temper, he should lead the monsters to Earth, creating a massive war between the two sides.


    ''But if he doesn''t do it, then�� it must be because of that guy.'' The Fist Saint smirked, realizing that the world would get interesting soon.


    The Frost Saint noticed the slight change in the Fist Saint''s expression as he immediately waved his club. "You shouldn''t look away in our fight!"


    *Bam!*


    Surprisingly, the Fist Saint leaped in the air, changing his direction in a split second as if he had predicted this woulde.


    After that, he punched forth, sending another shock wave. However, there was a difference between this shock wave and the ones he had sent previously.


    "Tiger Echo Fist!"


    The shock wave turned into a tiger''s head and let out a roar.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint was taken aback, realizing he had fallen into his trap.


    Still, the Frost Saint''s strength was beyond his imagination. The domain he had been using this whole time finally showed its might.


    The snow, filled with concentrated energy, fell on top of the tiger''s head and froze it.


    "��" The Fist Saint widened his eyes before raising his head, finding the cloud to have more energy than the first time it came. In other words, the Frost Saint was fighting him not only to keep him from escaping or hurting his people but also to build up his domain this whole time.


    ''Seriously?'' The Fist Saint made a wry smile, understanding how far behind he waspared to the Frost Saint. ''The temperature has be extremely cold too. If the situation bes even harsher, my ability will be lowered significantly, allowing him to kill me easily.


    ''And I don''t think I can escape from here without sacrificing something��'' The Fist Saint took a deep breath, trying to formte the n for his escape.


    The air became even colder as the temperature started freezing even Magic Power. Even Theo could see it with his own eyes, the ice particles that scattered in the air as if it was trying to brighten the entire battlefield.


    It was beautiful but deadly.


    When the Dark King saw this battle, he couldn''t help but scratch the back of his head. Every time their fight reached this point, the Dark King felt his body freeze and would have a hard time using his Magic Power.


    If not because of the Authority, the Fist Saint should experience the same thing. That was why he wondered whether the Frost Saint could finish the Fist Saint here or not.


    But unbeknownst to all of them, there was another disruption that appeared on the battlefield.


    *Boom!*


    Suddenly, a huge explosion urred not far from the battlefield. The Frost Saint nced to the side while furrowing his eyebrows.


    ''That direction��'' The Fist Saint squinted his eyes before leaping away. His speed was so fast that he was already far away in an instant.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint hurriedly threw his club, not nning to let him go.


    If the Fist Saint turned back to receive this club or even changed direction to avoid it, the Frost Saint would be able to catch up to him. Hence, he gritted his teeth and covered all his body with his remaining strength, receiving the club with his body directly.


    "Gah!" He screamed in pain but continued running without looking back, even with a block of massive ice blooming on his back.


    "��" The Frost Saint frowned and turned to the side instead of chasing the Fist Saint, finding the Shadow King returning to his side with multiple heads as well as a ck box. "I apologize for disturbing your fight."


    "No. He was nning to escape this whole time, so it doesn''t matter." The Frost Saint replied. "But with that injury, he shouldn''t be able to do anything for two years since it shouldn''t be that easy to remove my power from his body."


    "I understand. In that case��" The Shadow King dropped everything and presented them to the Frost Saint. "I have destroyed their facilities and stored everything dangerous that can disrupt the Order and will dispose of itter. And with me here are 18 Mythical Rank Experts, 79 other people along with what I believe their technology and proof�� Which should be suitable for��"


    She nced toward Theo, indicating she had aplished her task in giving him the proof he needed to handle this matter.


    "As expected of my wife." The Dark King gave a thumbs up and put on a smile.

 Chapter 1051 Illusion World

    <h4>Chapter 1051 Illusion World</h4>


    "Now that the situation has been handled, there is one more problem that needs to be solved." The Frost Giant narrowed his eyes as he dropped to his butt, crossing his feet.


    He created a powerful shock wave when he was just trying to sit.


    ''Truly a big guy.'' Theo thought as his expression became grim.


    "I havee here because this runt is fighting against an Authority Figure like myself." The Frost Giant nced at the Dark King for a moment before turning back to Theo. "I have destroyed that base, and for what reason should I hold myself back from moving all the monsters and killing all the humans on the other side?


    "Depending on your answer��" The Frost Giant nced at the Shadow King this time, indirectly implying the heads as well as information that the Shadow King had gathered. "��I will choose whether I will stop here and give you all that stuff or eliminate you here as well as the humans on the other side."


    The Frost Saint started emanating a massive killing intent, pressuring Theo to answer.


    Theo knew if he answered it wrong, his head would be flying. And because he agreed that his original body woulde together with the Shadow King, he didn''t have the assurance of his clone, so if the Frost Saint nned to kill him, he wouldn''t be able to save his life.


    As if making the matter worse, the notification finally shed in his eyes.


    Mission: Interfere with the problem. (Completed)


    Description: Stop the potential war between two sides.


    Reward: Knowledge about Heaven, Hell, and Spatial Rift.


    Theo widened his eyes and dropped his jaw. The pain that called him back to meet with the God of Mischief was unbearable as if telling him he needed to go there immediately.


    "Wait��" Theo clutched his head as he started closing his eyes. This pain was different from any pain he had ever received. It felt like his soul was being dragged somewhere else.


    "Don''t do that, Theodore Griffith. It''s better to��" The Dark King wanted to tell Theo that it was useless to act that way just to buy time.


    However, the Frost Giant actually furrowed his eyebrows and waved his hand, asking the Dark King to stop.


    "Mhm?" The Dark King widened his eyes and looked at him with a confused expression before bing even more confused when he saw those observant eyes.


    As someone who had the Authority, he certainly could feel and see what others couldn''t see.


    As for what he could see, no one knew it other than him.


    Meanwhile, Theo''s consciousness was brought forcefully to the field that they usually used to host their meeting. This time, the ones that met him were all those four together.


    The God of Mischief was sitting on a chair in the middle while the Goddess of Death gently ced her hand on the chair, looking at Theo. On the other hand, Fenririd down as if he was sleeping while Jormungand circled the entire area.


    "I was about to die��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "Why did you call me right now? I am afraid the Frost Saint has already killed me��"


    "No." The God of Mischief shook his head. "I forcefully dragged you here because your answer might change after what I was about to say."


    "Change?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "You should know how I created that much destruction, resetting the entire civilization, right?"


    "Ragnarok?"


    There was only this one word that appeared in his mind, considering this was the biggest event and the most memorable one in his myth. However, he didn''t know why Loki actually mentioned this matter.


    "Yes. That''s what theter generations called it." Loki smiled, confirming his guess.


    "The reward is the knowledge about Heaven, Hell, and Spatial Rift, right? Why did you mention this?" Theo asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "Just shut up and listen." Suddenly, Fenrir opened his eyes and mouth, snarling.


    "Mhm?" Hel walked toward Fenrir and asked with a smile. "Do you want another beating?"


    "��" Fenrir immediately closed his eyes and mouth again, pretending to sleep.


    "Thanks." Loki nodded and continued. "Because they''re rted."


    "Rted? Huh? What''s about Valha and Helheim?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Are we going to talk about them?"


    "No. The meaning of nine worlds haspletely changed. What I want to tell you is Heaven, Hell, and Spatial Rift ording to what you know."


    "Those who did bad things would go to Hell and those who did good things would go to Heaven. Something like that?" Theo asked again, not understanding anything.


    Loki paused for a moment and shook his head, starting to talk in a deep tone. "In the past, I always thought there was someone actually watching us like how we''re watching a movie. Those who were adept in science called them someone from a higher dimension. They could prove their existence, but no one has seen them yet.


    "Remember the words I told you when I gave you the mission? The beginning and the end is a never-ending cycle. We all could live for so long, and for some reason, something always happened.


    "What you called Mythologies�� Just imagine, how could such a being actually die? How about dinosaurs? I said it again. Something always happened, resetting the world to zero.


    "Whether it was from a meteor, a chain volcanic eruption, or any other way, there was always a way to end such a thing. After that, the new living beings started to appear and create another civilization. Don''t you think this is a bit crazy�� I mean, coincidence? How many times are you going to reset civilizations?"


    Theo thought for a moment, somehow understanding the reasoning behind his words.


    "That''s why I asked for others to help me create what you called Heaven and Hell."


    "Huh?!" Theo widened his eyes and asked, "You created Heaven and Hell? How is that even possible? You had an Illusion Authority�� Don''t tell me the ce that we live in was your illusion all along?!"

 Chapter 1052 The Mischief

    <h4>Chapter 1052 The Mischief</h4>


    "What do you think?" Loki smiled mysteriously, making Theo unable to understand whether this person was joking or not.


    Knowing Loki''s reputation, he was afraid that Loki was misleading him with his y of words.


    "Hahahaha!" Loki couldn''t contain hisugh anymore.


    "Huh? You teased me?" Theo''s body trembled. He soon realized Loki didn''t tell the truth, albeit the next sentencepletely blew his mind away.


    "To put it simply, Heaven is actually the ce you live in, Earth. And the ce you called the other side is Hell."


    "Huh, what?! Heaven is Earth while this ce is Hell?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "As I said, don''t mix in with the current perception of Heaven and Hell. Instead, you should look at the ancient description." Loki smirked.


    "The description��"


    "It is said that Heaven is a ce with fresh air, bright sky, and all other good stuff. On the other hand, Hell is a ce filled with fire and torture."


    "Yes. I''m not that well-versed in religious stuff like that, but I think that description can generalize it a bit. Not that I want to talk about it that much." Theo nodded, agreeing to what he said.


    "Then, how about this so-called Ragnarok? After everything ended, what happened?"


    "After Surtur appeared, the world was enveloped by fire�� And in the end, no one could live there anymore. Some living beings, including the ones that were hidden inside the world tree, repopted the world��" Theo suddenly looked down, falling into deep thought.


    He somehow understood a bit of what Loki was trying to say.


    After a long minute, Theo widened his eyes and muttered, "The world destroyed by Surtur is called Hell because it represents the fire and torture due to those who die from that fire. Meanwhile, the one that represents the future and its living�� the world that we currently live in, Earth."


    "That''s right. Those two are Heaven and Hell." Loki closed his eyes with a smile on his face.


    "But��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "What''s about the Spatial Rift? No, how about the other ces? Not only from your myth but also from others."


    "And do you think where she was the whole time?" Loki pointed at Hel this time. "In the original record, was there any description of what big thing she did on that day?"


    "Ehm��" Theo looked down, recalling the record instead of any modern perception or adaptation before answering, "No."


    "I was the one working the most." Hel let out a long sigh and asked, "Do you remember the throne I left behind?"


    "Yes. The one that could automatically reincarnate the living?"


    "I created that system during that time, reincarnating those people." Hel shrugged and looked away.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. However, there was one loophole that he couldn''t help but ask, "Still, let''s say I believed you created Heaven and Hell together with other Gods. What is the position of Heaven and Hell? Up and down? Side by side. But I thought this is round��"


    "As I said earlier, I asked for others'' help, including the holder of Reality Authority, Space Authority, and Time Authority."


    "Reality, Space, and Time��" Theo muttered these three words before understanding what he was nning to do. "Don''t tell me. Heaven and Hell are actually the same world but from a different reality."


    Loki answered that question with a smile as he continued, "And what separated them?"


    "Reality�� Dimension�� NO! Spatial Rift!" Theo finally mentioned the third term they were going to talk about. "So, Heaven is Earth. This ce is Hell. The ones that separated them but made them work side by side were the Authorities�� especially Reality, Space, and Time!"


    Lok raised his hand and confirmed his guess. "The beings that lived in this world could be stronger easily because they were in contact with our power�� But of course, for a period of time, no one could live because of that fire. After the fire subsided, the living beings started to repopte this side again.


    "They could be this strong because they made contact with the previous power. That''s why they''re more adept than humanity in using this power.


    "As for humanity, they enjoyed life with nothing because the power had been sealed on this side. But of course, everybody wanted to be immortalized. So, we handed a few records about us, allowing them to understand what transpired in the past.


    "Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the two worlds came in contact again."


    Theo sucked a cold breath as he couldn''t take this revtion. "A few hundred years ago when humanity seemed to have found a pandora box�� At that time, a thousand teleportation portals appeared, connecting the two sides. And that was when humanity started to gain this power�� Now it makes sense��


    "In other words, the Spatial Rift is the Teleportation Circles�� The one that maintained the connection between the two worlds. It was closed until humanity opened that ''pandora box.'' And tu��" Theo stopped for a second as he bit his lips. His mind revolved so fast that his mouth couldn''t follow.


    "Yes. That''s one of the purposes of the Spatial Rift. However, there is one more purpose that you''re already aware of."


    "The ce where the soul resides!" Theo answered without hesitation. After all, this was the only exnation for the blessing.


    "That''s right."


    "But why did you create the current Earth? I mean, you can just wait for the fire to subside��"


    "I already told you earlier. The end and the beginning is a vicious cycle that can''t be broken."


    "��" Theo suddenly fell silent for a moment, remembering what Loki was called again. "God of Mischief�� You are��"


    "Hahahaha! Those Gods and Goddesses already bore me!" Lokiughed uncontrobly as he stated with a huge grin on his face.


    "So, you created this system to stop that cycle just because you wanted to��" Theo suddenly stopped when he saw Loki shaking his head.


    After that, thetter raised his finger before saying, "No. My target is above."


    "Above?" Theo was confused for a second. However, Loki mentioned something about a being from a higher dimension that seemed to be controlling this world, creating that never ending cycle as if trying to reset the world. When that thought appeared in his mind, Theo''s face became pale as he looked at Loki, whose face was filled with a huge grin.


    Loki suddenly raised from his seat and clutched his hands excitedly. "That''s right. There is an even higher being that can y with me. In that case, it will be wrong for me to leave them alone!"

 Chapter 1053 Joker

    <h4>Chapter 1053 Joker</h4>


    "It will be wrong to leave them alone."


    If it were anyone else, they would say the opposite. After all, there was no need for them to mess with someone that could literally kill them in a way that no one could exin.


    However, the man in front of him was the guy who wasn''t afraid to mess with other Gods and Goddesses even if he needed to put his life on the line.


    In fact, Loki might have been too good this whole time that he almost forgot his real intention. Loki earnestly helped and trained him, so he thought he was a good guy that sincerely thought of him.


    However, these words actually reminded him of the promise they had.


    "The reason why you want me to cause ruckus all around the world��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Oh, that? It''s only one of the reasons. But I have a few other reasons�� It''s not the time to tell you that." Loki smirked.


    Theo couldn''t help but feel overwhelmed in front of this man. This whole time, Theo had been ying the people like a game of chess, controlling them with his tricks, so they went ording to his n.


    However, the man before him was a few steps above him. Instead of people, he was ying with the world and even the being that watched over the world.


    Even if there was no proof that such a being existed, the man believed that was the case and nned to mess with them.


    How long would it take for him to make contact with them? This felt like a never ending journey because there was a chance that the being from a higher dimension would nevere. This could keep him upied for a long time.


    ''So, this is the God of Mischief, Loki.'' Theo thought, feeling the massive darkness that could y with anyone''s life. Even he might just be a pawn in the chess he yed.


    However, Loki soon calmed down as he returned to his collected state, exining a few things to Theo. "The souls will go to the Spatial Rift to watch over both words, especially the humans.


    "In the past, the amount of power would leak from time to time. That''s why you know the witches, and other prominent figures like King Arthur or Merlin.


    "In this Spatial Rift, the soul won''t dissipate, allowing them to live for eternity until they choose otherwise. For what reason? It''s simple�� If I can stay alive for a long time and continue observing this vicious cycle, I can graduallyprehend those beings."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "If that''s the case, you should just let the war happen. This way, the end wille."


    "No." Loki shook his head. "I already told you that I''m nning to break that vicious cycle to mess with them. So, the first thing I need to do is prolong that cycle.


    "This way, they will start making their moves, allowing me to observe every situation. I will gather more data after all.


    "Just like the guy that thought about defeating the Frost Saint�� Do you think that''sing from his own thoughts? Or is it because of outside interference? Even I don''t know.


    "That''s why I''m going to prevent this cycle for as long as I can to make them impatient. The more I do it, the more reckless they will be or so I thought."


    Theo could understand a bit of his reasoning, but he also found a w in his argument. "Your current action�� exining all this to me might have been seen by ''them'' as well. So, is there any point? In fact, they might be aware of your thinking too��"


    "So?" Loki tilted his head in confusion.


    "Eh?" Theo became confused this time. It was clear that if they already knew his intention, there was no way they would do it. After all, it would just make them fall into Loki''s trap.


    However, Loki''s thoughts couldn''t be any more different. "Isn''t that good?"


    "Huh?"


    "If they know about my intention, they will hold themselves back from interfering in this world, right?" Loki smirked.


    "Yes."


    "In that case, I want to see how long they will ignore it. I already said earlier that the vicious cycle couldn''t be broken. They will eventually reset civilizations again. All I need to do is wait."


    "Won''t the world erase you?"


    "Are you joking with me?" Loki chuckled and pointed at Theo''s eyes. "I have understood the world''s system and broken a part of it. Do you think I will be that foolish to break the rule that will destroy me? And if they forcefully erase me, it''s my win since I have proved they exist."


    "��" Theo fell silent. Loki had a clear judgment on what he could do or say. That was why he created this grand n.


    "Do you think I can give you those eyes if I don''t break the system? People have special abilities from time to time like your friend, Alea, or other people who can see something different from what normal people see like the future, destiny, and so on." Loki pointed at his eyes. "Your eyese from the world''s system. And I do admit I have been trying to manipte you to get the Reality Order this whole time. That''s why I added that onest rule�� never lie."


    "Never lie? Manipte me��" Theo narrowed his eyes. That statement gave him mixed feelings. After escaping from his parents'' grand n, it seemed he was still stuck in God of Mischief''s n.


    "Do you think that eyes can only upgrade your skills?" Loki smirked.


    "What do you mean?" Theo widened his eyes.


    "You don''t think the current eyes are the final version, right?"


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened, answering the question. He was already aware of that possibility a long time ago.


    Loki then walked toward Theo and moved his head closer to the point their eyes were only a few inches away.


    He was staring so intensely that Theo felt Loki was looking at something deeper inside him.


    "When your body and soul are ready, I will give you another opportunity to upgrade those eyes." Loki smiled and stepped back.


    Theo gulped down, trying to calm his heart down. He still needed time to process all that information. It was too much even for him.


    And there was one thing that stuck deep in his heart. It was about maniption. His goal was to escape the Griffith Family and his parents'' schemes this whole time to get his freedom, so he didn''t want to be trapped by the God of Mischief in the end.


    Ultimately, Theo asked one question. "In the chess you y�� What is my status?"


    Status. Theo wanted to confirm this one thing. If he was just a mere pawn, there was no need for him to be serious about this whole scheme since his action would do a little harm to the entire n.


    However, the God of Mischief''s smile became even bigger.


    "You don''t like to be manipted? That''s your role, Theodore Griffith."


    "My role?" Theo squinted his eyes, confused.


    "That''s right. If you don''t like to be manipted by others, just break away from their n and scam them back. Like what you did to your parents�� Just break away from my scheme with your strength. Eventually, you will reach the same position as mine�� In the end, we''re still getting manipted by ''them.'' You don''t like it too, right? Then, break away from their n and beat them up! After all, you are my��" The God of Mischief raised his hand before snapping his fingers as Theo''s consciousness gradually became nk, returning to reality. However, he also gave onest message, telling Theo his identity. "��Joker."

 Chapter 1054 Theo’s Conclusion

    <h4>Chapter 1054 Theo''s Conclusion</h4>


    Theo''s consciousness gradually returned to reality. He opened his eyes, finding the Shadow King tending the Dark King''s injury.


    To his surprise, the Frost Saint actually waited for him to finish, sitting in his position this whole time.


    When he noticed Theo''s change of expression, the Frost Saint opened his mouth again, asking with a deep voice. "Who sent you here?"


    The question had changed from the reason to stop him from attacking the human side to the person that orchestrated the entire thing.


    It was clear if Theo didn''t talk with the God of Mischief previously, the answer would be the humans, specifically Bernard.


    But when he received this question, the answer had changed. Even the Frost Saint arrived at the same conclusion after seeing the interference that just happened. There was no way Theo would answer ''human'' again.


    Before answering his question, Theo took a deep breath as it was a lot to take in. His mind was currently in a mess.


    However, one thing was clear. Theo was free to break away from any shackles that chained him. Even the God of Mischief had told him it was his role. He didn''t need to follow someone if he didn''t like it.


    Hence, Theo''s mind felt refreshed a bit. He gradually raised his head, looking at the Frost Saint with a serene expression.


    The Shadow King and the Dark King stopped for a moment and nced at Theo, who looked different.


    Still, the suspense was killing them. They wanted to tell Theo, ''Hurry up and tell us,'' but it was better to stay silent since the Frost Saint knew more about this matter.


    After one minute, Theo finally opened his mouth, answering his question. "A bored madman."


    A bored madman. It was a perfect description of Loki and what he was about to do.


    "��" The Frost Saint squinted his eyes when he heard this answer. As much as he wanted to know about the other person''s identity, he would probably have no clue about his origin even if Theo revealed his name.


    Hence, Theo''s answer was the perfect reply to his question, making him understand the situation.


    Before he reacted, Theo added, "Frost Saint. I know that I''m asking too much, but I would like to ask you to not attack the human side."


    "Mhm?" The Frost Saint was confused for a second. He was nning to do that because of his answer, but he remained silent, listening to what Theo had to say.


    "I haven''t checked them��" Theo pointed at the proof the Shadow King had gathered and continued. "��but I know it should be enough to stop their n from attacking you. Depending on how much it works, they should be enough to handle the people responsible for this, excluding the top ten experts like the Fist Saint, the man you fought earlier."


    "It doesn''t change the fact that you''re the one provoking me." The Frost Saint shook his head, trying to y ''hard to get.''


    "I know. That''s why I''d like to promise you that this won''t happen again."


    "And how can you do it? I need to remind you that you are just a weak human. If not because of me, their n would have seeded."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, falling into deep thought. Loki had told him to do whatever he wanted, even if it meant breaking his n.


    Hence, Theo had a different answer than the one he had prepared beforehand. Instead of promise or anything, there was one conclusion that appeared in his mind after learning about the truth.


    "I, Theodore Griffith, promise you��" Theo paused for a moment, thinking, ''That''s right. To break his n, I would need to do the exact opposite of what he wants to do.'' As soon as that thought appeared, Theo''s expression became serene and serious like he had made an important decision in his life. He said, "I will lead the monsters to fight humanity myself."


    ''If he wants to prevent it, I shall invite that higher being myself.'' Theo thought.


    If Loki wanted to prolong the Earth so that the higher being could start manipting things in the shadow, he was nning to destroy it the moment the higher being tried to do the same. He would even assist them in doing so.


    He would be their trusted person and destroy those higher beings at the right time, beating both Loki''s and their ns simultaneously. This was the conclusion he came up with. Of course, not right now due to theck of his power.


    Even if this thought was read by those higher beings, Theo wasn''t afraid because they would either fall into Loki''s hand or his n. Either result was fine because it would mean Loki''s wish had been granted, and Theo''s n worked.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo had slightly be the same madman in his mouth.


    Although the Frost Saint didn''t know about this thought, he certainly understood one thing. Theo was serious about this.


    If he truly brought the monsters to the other side, he would be humanity''s greatest enemy. He should have a life on the other side, so he wouldn''t want to give up that easily. Yet, his answer was the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.


    It waspletely mind blowing even for the Frost Saint.


    However, Theo had been influenced by that very madman. His words had a double meaning. Even if he led the monsters to this ce, he might do it because he nned to eliminate them on the other side. Or if he didn''t lead any attack, Theo''s bluff might be the one that protected humanity.


    That was why even the Frost Saint wondered when a guy like him was born. At the same time, he understood why the Lightning Saint was interested in him, bringing him all the way here by himself.


    The Frost Saint fell silent for a moment before standing up, nning to leave. "I don''t need your promise."


    He turned around and started walking away. However, he also left one more message. "Remember this, Theodore Griffith. Even without you, if I deem humanity to threaten my life, I won''t hesitate to attack them. But this time�� I will let them go because of you."

 Chapter 1055 Invisible Vortex

    <h4>Chapter 1055 Invisible Vortex</h4>


    After the Frost Saint left, the Dark King came to Theo. He couldn''t help but ask excitedly. "Hey. What''s that? Can you manipte all elements? But aren''t you supposed to have no affinity? Or have you fooled me this whole time?"


    "Don''t be rude." The Shadow King immediately pulled him back while furrowing her eyebrows. "It''s clear that it''s rted to his Order. Do you know that the Order''s power is a heavily guarded secret?"


    Theo was surprised for a moment, reminding him of himself. He did the same thing when he saw Syk releasing that kind of sh.


    After thinking for a moment, Theo said, "I can tell you a bit about it, but you also need to tell me about that sh."


    The excitement on the Dark King''s face was reced by seriousness. Just like Theo, this one was his secret since it was one of his main abilities to defeat an enemy.


    If Theo knew about this ability, his future spar with him would be greatly disadvantageous. Hence, it wasn''t an easy decision for the Dark King.


    Still, before the Shadow King interrupted their conversation, the Dark King surprisingly agreed. "Fine. Tell me about that power, and I will tell you about my power."


    "We have a deal." Theo smirked as he raised his palm. "I will be first then."


    The Dark King nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo then pointed at the ground next to him and said, "How about spreading your power to that ground?"


    The Dark King didn''t know what he wanted, but he stillplied, spreading his power to the ground and turning them ck.


    After that, Theo poured his Order and Magic Power, releasing them toward the ck ground.


    Suddenly, the ck ground disappeared as if it had been purified.


    "!!!" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock. "What? You can even remove my Covenant Seal? No, wait. I still feel the connection between the seal and the ground."


    "I am simply removing your power, not the seal or anything else." Theo smiled.


    "My power��" The Dark King squinted his eyes before muttering a specific power. "My element."


    "That is correct." Theo nodded in agreement before raising his hand. "There is a fluctuation of Magic Power on my hand."


    "Yes."


    "A neutral one, the one without any affinity," Theo added.


    "Indeed." The Dark King confirmed it.


    "But it turns out the Magic Power without affinity doesn''t exist on my palm. The one that exists turns out to be Magic Power with fire affinity."


    The moment Theo said those words, a me sparked on top of his palm. However, this fire was still in the very first stage, so it was small, weak, and felt nothing. If Theo understood more about fire, he could reinforce its power.


    And this ability also allowed him to understand more things about his Order, specifically the next stage for his Reality Order. It was turning an illusion into reality.


    If he could master this ability, Theo would take one big step on this stage because all the elements that he created with illusion would be a reality.


    Even the Dark King could feel the current power in this ability. So, he thought for a moment and said, "It''s a dangerous ability indeed."


    "Right?" Theo smiled.


    "What you did to the ground was simply the reverse ability."


    "Yes." Theo nodded, confirming his doubt without giving more knowledge about the Reality Order.


    "I see." The Dark King thought for a moment and raised his hand. "It''s time for me then. My technique relies on a specific way to control the Magic Power movement."


    "Mhm?" Theo narrowed his eyes. Since his Control was the best among his Five Aspects, Theo became even more excited about this technique.


    "Yes. I have fought many humans too. From our fights, I learned that you could actually create anything with your Magic Power."


    "Create anything with my Magic Power?" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. He had done this the whole time, so he was wondering what hecked to execute such an ability.


    The Dark King didn''t wait for too long before the Shadow King interrupted their conversation, saying, "It''s the same thing as the killing intent you sent toward that human. You directly sent that power to your enemy''s mind, right?"


    "My killing intent?" Theo examined his ability again and asked, "I don''t understand, sorry."


    "Show me your killing intent then." The Dark King thought about using the killing intent to exin it better since Theo was already familiar with it.


    Theo did what he was told, shocking the Dark King with his immense killing intent.


    However, the Dark King remained calm and assessed Theo''s power.


    "Ah, I see. Yes, it''s simr." The Dark King confirmed what the Shadow King said. "To put it simply, I am controlling the Magic Power around my sword, including the one in the environment."


    "The one in the environment?" Theo was surprised for a second before asking, "Wait a minute. Are you talking about how I manipte the Magic Power small enough to prate everything?"


    "No. It''s more like the color of the Magic Power."


    "What do you mean?"


    "You should be able to see the color of Magic Power that envelops this world, right?"


    "Yes. They''re blue." Theo confirmed his statement.


    "Of course, it will be hard for us to see every single flow of Magic Power. That''s why we usually filter them so that we don''t see it�� only from the living beings around us."


    "Certainly."


    "Then, by using that invisibility, I create an invisible sword made of Magic Power. If that guy actually looked at the flow of Magic Power carefully, he would be able to understand my power."


    "Wait a minute��" Theo narrowed his eyes as though he had grasped the technique. "You are telling me that using your Control, you can manipte the Magic Power in your surroundings, creating an invisible weapon. But because you don''t concentrate enough power, the weapon won''t manifest. Hence, the result is that powerful shock wave."


    The Dark King nodded. "Something like that. For example, if you hit that tree over there and control the Magic Power around your sword, especially the one behind that tree, andunch it, you can easily get past the tree and hit everything behind it.


    "Now imagine, if your opponent blocks your sword with their own weapon and you use this technique, it won''t cut them, but the impact will be strong enough to startle or even hurt them. Depending on how good you are at controlling your Magic Power, you can basically slip past any defense.


    "This is my technique. I call it, Heisk, Invisible Vortex."

 Chapter 1056 Perfect Control

    <h4>Chapter 1056 Perfect Control</h4>


    "Invisible Vortex��" Theo muttered the name slowly as if trying to absorb all the knowledge he had just learned earlier. "I see. So, that''s how it is�� This is a Perfect Control!"


    Theo suddenly walked toward a tree next to him.


    "Perfect Control?" The Dark King tilted his head, not understanding what he was talking about.


    Theo ignored his reaction for a moment and pointed his palm toward the tree. He closed his eyes and concentrated the Magic Power around his hand.


    After that, his palm came closer to the trunk until they touched. The Magic Power gradually moved behind the tree, creating a ball of Magic Power.


    Theo slightly furrowed his eyebrows because he didn''t know how much Magic Power he could put without letting it manifest.


    If the Magic Power was too concentrated, the ball would appear in everyone''s eyes in the form of a blue light ball like what he always did this whole time.


    He neededplete control and trials and errors to find this limit. At the same time, he also needed to do it in a fight, or this technique couldn''t be used at all.


    But since he was in apletely calm environment, Theo decided to gather his power to a certain amount before making it explode.


    The shock wave shook the area, especially the Dark King and the Shadow King. They both gasped, not believing what they had seen.


    Even though Theo was good, they never expected him to be this talented.


    "This is��" The Dark King scratched the back of his head, starting to regret telling Theo his power. "Maybe I shouldn''t have told him this technique."


    While the Dark Kingmented his choice, Theo wasughing. "Hahahaha! So that''s how it is. I have been wondering what Perfect Control is to me�� it turns out to be this way.


    "This is thebination of Force Control, Soft Control as well as Materialization. The Soft Control allows me to release my Magic Power to influence the Magic Power in my surroundings.


    "Materialization has one purpose. It''s to create a shape of Magic Power. The rest relies on my Force Control.


    "The Force Control is divided into four, and I''m at the Grandmaster Level. However, the ssification of Force Control strictly involves how many times you can move the Magic Power.


    "Hence��" Theo pointed his palm again. This time, he created an invisible string and attached it to a tree. After that, he pulled it until the string snapped, creating a small shock wave that still managed to take down the tree.


    "This is it. The Soft Control allows me to connect with the Magic Power. Materialization is the technique needed to form that string. And finally, because I can control my Magic Bullets to even turn around a hundred times, I canpletely control the string''s movement�� from making it circle the tree, wrap it up, and snap it�� This is what it means to have Perfect Control over the Magic Power.


    "What if I form a spear instead? How about a sword, a shield or even a hand? Everything will have a different purpose. This is why Nina created an invisible string to control the lightning at that time��" Theo remembered his former teacher, Nina Eilric.


    Back then, Nina called for a bolt of lightning and attached it to her spear with something invisible, destroying all the ghosts around her.


    This was what Theo meant for Perfect Control, thebination of the three that allowed him topletely control the Magic Power whether in his body or outside his body.


    At the same time, if he used his Magic Power to form an armor that protected him, coupled with the current equipment and Supernatural Snake Body, he could reduce the damage his body received.


    Although Theo needed to train his control again, this Perfect Control was basically an invisible weapon that he could use all the time. As soon as he mastered it, Theo would be one of the top experts in the Country.


    After all, those who had achieved thest stage in Five Aspects were powerful experts. No matter where they went, they would be respected.


    And seeing how powerful the Perfect Control was, Theo could certainly understand the reason.


    While Theo was reviewing the knowledge excitedly, the Dark King actually experienced the same thing.


    "Shape, Control, Purpose��" He muttered these three words. This whole time, he had been fixated on one shape, giving that burst of Magic Power.


    He never thought about using another shape to be stronger. Suddenly, he raised his hand and saw the white clouds on top of his head.


    Closing his eyes, the image of the Frost Saint gathering the clouds appeared in his mind. Using the same imagination, he formed a few invisible strings and attached them to the clouds, pulling them together gently.


    The Shadow King looked up and saw the cloud gathering like what the Frost Saint did.


    "!!!" She never thought that listening to Theo alone was enough for the Dark King to get stronger. It was truly a joyous moment, albeit his transformation didn''t stop there.


    "What if I form multiple swords?" The Dark King muttered and turned to the side, seeing all those trees. With a single wave of his hand, a few invisible swords appeared, shing a tree into six.


    Of course, he only formed five swords and cut it. Because it was still a shock wave instead of a real sword, the tree broke apart into five instead of getting shed.


    Even then, it had already served its purpose as the answer to the Dark King''s question.


    That was right. He finally understood that the Magic Power could be used this way, allowing him to take another step to catch up to the Frost Saint.


    Suddenly, both Theo and the Dark King looked at each other. It felt like they gained a tacit understanding when their eyes intertwined.


    Without saying anything, the two guys walked closer until they were one step away from each other.


    A smile appeared on their faces at the same time as both of them sped each other''s hand like brothers.


    "My friend, Theo! Do you want toe to my house right now?"

 Chapter 1057 Queen of Destiny

    <h4>Chapter 1057 Queen of Destiny</h4>


    "My friend, Theo! Do you want toe to my house right now?"


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head, looking down as if he had some trouble.


    "If you can''t, then it''s fine. I won''t force you to stay�� Anyway, I just want to say I am extremely grateful for that insight, allowing me to advance even further." The Dark King shrugged.


    "No. I mean, I have another destination to visit in three weeks�� The trip will take around a week, so I think I can stay two more weeks here to polish my Control." Theo exined.


    "Oh? Another destination? Where is that? I am from here, so I might know about that ce even though you and I know it by a different name. Just give me the description."


    Theo hesitated for a moment. If he said the location, there would be a chance for the monsters toe because of someone''s order. However, the Dark King was an upright person, so he decided to share the location. "It''s the sunken ind."


    "Sunken ind��" The Dark King thought for a moment before remembering a certain ce. "Ah. Is that the ind that resurfaces every few years? I don''t know much about the details, but I once visited that ce."


    "I think we''re talking about the same ind." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "In that case, you should pay a visit to the governor of that ind. Do you know that the ind resurfaces every few years because it needs blood?"


    "Blood?" Theo raised his eyebrows, never expecting to hear such a horrifying word.


    "Yeah. Every time that ind resurfaces, it allows everyone to enter the ind by giving numerous herbs that have been cultivated under the sea. It offers such a thing because they want blood, the blood from thend inhabitants.


    "That blood will be used to maintain a kind of barrier. Though, I''m not very sure about the condition either. In any case, the ind owner won''t do anything to you since blood is bound to be spilled on that ind."


    "Certainly." Theo nodded in agreement. He could see that way because the ind was dangerous.


    "Still, you should pay a visit to the governor."


    "I am not very sure about that governor. Is he friendly?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "I''m not nning to fight someone too powerful��"


    "She is known as the Queen of Destiny. She has a Destiny Order. If you visit her, you can actually get free divination from her. As for a fight, she is the one who doesn''t want to fight." The Dark King thought for a moment. "As long as youe to her ce and cut your hands, offering some blood while saying ''I''vee to visit the Fate Queen,'' you should be able to enter."


    "Mhm? I don''t think I will go, considering I have promised to move around the ind with three other people." Theo shook his head, ultimately rejecting the idea.


    "I think it''s fine. You should know that the sea creatures will attack you when you visit that ind, especially if you''re a Mythical Rank Expert, right?"


    "Yes."


    "That''s for a reason. She doesn''t want to be visited by a nobody. Hence, she is holing herself there, waiting for a King or a Queen to visit. Yes. She is waiting for someone like you."


    "Still, won''t it be a problem if my friends bring more people to excavate that ce just to meet her?"


    "I already told you the blood is for a barrier, right?"


    Theo nodded.


    "No matter how hard they''re trying to drag her out, she won''te out. Only because you are there can you visit her. Unless they bring another Order holder, then you can''t visit her."


    "I''m just afraid she''s getting angered." Theo sighed.


    "It''s fine, I think. Just warn your friends a bit more and tell them you won''t take any responsibility for anything that happens if they don''t heed your warning."


    Theo thought for a moment and muttered. "Still, a divination, huh��"


    "That''s right. I don''t like such a thing since my path is a journey�� I don''t want anyone spoiling my journey, so I refused at that time." The Dark King shrugged. "If you decide to visit her, it will be better for you to ask her for a divination, considering you''re going to face some problems soon."


    "Problems��" Theo fell silent as he remembered the Fist Saint. Problems were bound toe because the Fist Saint wouldn''t leave him alone. At the same time, there was also a threat from the Griffith Family.


    Knowing a bit about the future would certainly give him some assurance in striving forward.


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I wonder if it''s alright to openly show my identity as a king."


    "The humans don''t have in-depth knowledge about it��" The Dark King agreed on something before saying, "I think it''s fine. I mean, your friends�� Are they strong?"


    "Pretty strong, but I don''t think any of them will be able to gain Order any time soon. I don''t know anything about their future though."


    "In that case, you should visit her. She won''t give any information about Order, but if there are some clues about it, your friends might be stronger too�� That is if you trust your friends."


    Theo thought for a moment, thinking about Maya, Mark, and Isaac.


    "Well, I''ll consider it a bit, or I can simply go there myself." Theo shrugged.


    "You have a clone that looks like your real body, after all. I know that it''s something close to your original body, but I don''t know if your clone has a destiny or not, considering it''s a part of your body."


    "Yeah. I will try to check it first. If it works, I won''t need to bring my friends there. Although they will be useful if they be stronger, I don''t think I can take advantage of them at that time."


    "It''s up to you. So, are you going toe with me or not?"


    Theo shrugged. "Sure. I will stay for two weeks before heading to my destination. I need to consolidate my power after all."

 Chapter 1058 Two Weeks

    <h4>Chapter 1058 Two Weeks</h4>


    Aftering to the Dark King''s house, Theo continued his training. He had received three big things that needed his attention, so this training session would be even longer.


    The first one would be his Order. He managed to learn more about his Order, especially regarding the ability to remove and add the element to the Magic Power. If he tried to undo the previous curse in Millie''s body, he would be able to finish it within three hours.


    The second thing he learned during this trip was the knowledge that the God of Mischief shared with him. Knowing his goal was enough to make Theo work even harder, considering there were many more ns he needed to make in order to do what he truly wanted.


    Last but not least, his Perfect Control. Although he finally stepped onto this stage, he still needed to practice until he could master Perfect Control.


    After some careful consideration, Theo chose to focus on his Perfect Control first since the Order wouldn''t be that useful unless he was alone. And if his weird ability was for everyone to see, the Fist Saint would recognize him sooner orter since it was clear such ability only existed for an Order holder.


    Hence, he focused on his Control for the next two weeks.


    Of course, the Dark King also trained together with him, realizing they could exchange some knowledge with each other while they practiced.


    The Dark King had experience, while Theo had a unique perspective, allowing them to be better far faster than when they were alone.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t master the Perfect Control within a short time before he needed to leave.


    During the past two weeks, Theo had done several things. The first would be sending his clone to the agent Bernard stationed, who turned out to be Patrick.


    After receiving the proof and other statements, Patrick immediately returned to the other side, nning to inform Bernard about the finding.


    At the same time, he also learned the Queen of Destiny''s location from the Dark King, allowing him to find her at ater date.


    Considering he was nning to challenge the God of Mischief as well as the being on the higher dimension, he truly needed something like this.


    If his destiny was erased or altered, he believed the higher dimension truly existed and had been manipting this world. So, he wondered what kind of future he would have.


    After finishing all his tasks, Theo stood in front of the Dark King, the Shadow King, and Syk.


    "Thank you for taking care of me in the past two weeks." Theo smiled, politely thanking them. He truly gained so many things just by living with them.


    "It''s fine. I''m pretty satisfied with my development as well." The Dark King nodded and waved his hand. "Do you want Seelzik to bring you there? With his speed, you should arrive at your destination within two days."


    "It''s fine. I''m nning to raise my strength during the trip, so I will take my time." Theo rejected the offer.


    "Is that so?" The Dark King nodded before extending his hand. "Then, the next thing we met��"


    "Yes." Theo shook his hand andpleted the sentence. "��will be the time for our fight."


    "Don''te again with this kind of problem��"


    "I''ll do my best." Theo chuckled.


    "Ada!" Syk approached Theo and hugged his waist since he was that short. He looked at Theo, reluctant to let him go. "Ada!"


    Syk was one of the biggest reasons why he got the Dark King''s cooperation. Of course, he had some attachments to Syk since he also looked like a younger brother to him.


    "I will visit you again soon." Theo smiled and patted Syk''s shoulders.


    "Ada��" Syk looked down as if he was about to cry.


    Even Theo didn''t know what to say at this point.


    The Shadow King finally grabbed him and carried Syk in her hand before asking Theo, "Where is the rabbit that apanied you back then?"


    "She is training under the Lightning Saint."


    "Really?"


    "Hoh?!"


    The Shadow King was surprised, while the Dark King was amused, certainly thinking what kind of fight they could have.


    "Well, I am going to visit her sooner orter." Theo waved his hand and finally stepped back, preparing to go. If he continued to chat with them, it would make it harder for him to leave.


    "Alright. Take care, will you?!" The Dark King nodded with a smile.


    "You too." Theo waved his hand and leaped to the south, heading to his destination.


    He didn''t know why but the journey felt a bit smoother. Unlike his previous state, Theo had reached level 600 and his Control had reached the Perfect Control Stage. These two facts alone were enough for Theo to handle the monsters morefortably, even if his opponents were Rare ss Monsters.


    They werepletely shocked when Theo could prate their defense and blow them away even though they hadpletely blocked it.


    The Dark King''s main offensive ability was truly overpowered.


    With this ability, the original techniques that Theo had learned became three: Ascension Step, Thunderp Fist, and Invisible Vortex.


    All three of them had their own purpose. The Ascension Step''s main purpose was to suppress someone''s movement by pouring down that massive pressure. On the other hand, the Thunderp Fist was an ability to boost one''s strength. Last but not least, the Invisible Vortex would be Theo''s trump card that could knock down an opponent to gain some advantages in the fight.


    He used all three of them in the journey to Antis.


    After a long week, Theo finally arrived at the promised shore where he was supposed to meet with the rest of his group.


    He moved around the ce, finding many boats on the shore since many challengers nned to take advantage of this event to be stronger or richer.


    Although it was hard to find them, Theo managed to find Maya, Mark, and Isaac standing next to each other as if waiting for him to arrive.


    As if feeling his gaze, all of them turned around. Their eyes intertwined, making Theo feel a bit nostalgic.


    It was truly a dangerous journey this time, especially with the Frost Saint and the Fist Saint in the mix. He almost died on this trip. Just thinking he couldn''t meet anyone else anymore made him feel a bit empty.


    So, when he saw them, he couldn''t help but smile, realizing he was lucky enough to ovee all those tribtions.

 Chapter 1059 Sharknado

    <h4>Chapter 1059 Sharknado</h4>


    "Joker!" Isaac waved his hand with a smile on his face. There was no more trace of trauma in his face after living in Theo''s mansion for a few months.


    Meanwhile, Mark only nodded to him. He still acted politely because he didn''t want to antagonize Theo anymore.


    "Yeah. How are you?" Theo greeted him back before turning to Maya, having so many things to say, especiallyints.


    "We''re good. Though, you look like you have seen better days." Maya smiled, nning to tease him.


    "Thanks to your father, that is. Can you send a middle finger to your father for me?"


    "Middle finger?" Maya widened her eyes, surprised by Theo''s reaction. With how he was still here, the problem should have been solved.


    Theo gently pulled her and whispered right to her ears. "I would have died handling both the frost giant and the Fist Saint��"


    "!!!" Maya wanted to shout in shock but managed to stop herself. She never expected to hear ''Fist Saint'' from Theo, as most people already knew about his identity.


    Ranked 7th in the world, the world''s strongest man, the Fist Saint. As coteral for the agreement, she obviously got some information from her father and knew the Fist Saint''s involvement.


    If the Fist Saint truly came to that ce, it was a miracle Theo could survive. She couldn''t even imagine what kind of problem Theo faced at that time.


    "I can only say problems are going toe soon." Theo sighed.


    "��" Maya fell silent for a moment before shaking her head helplessly. "I think one middle finger is not enough."


    "Anyway, when are we going to the ind?" Theo asked, brushing that matter off.


    "Someone is calcting the appearance of the ind, so we only need to wait for their signal," Maya exined.


    "That''s right. I will analyze the ind as soon as we arrive there." Isaac puffed his chest proudly as this was the thing he excelled at.


    "Anyway, let''s confirm our position first. Since there are four of us, Maya will be our main firepower from behind." Theo nced at Maya.


    "No problem." Maya epted the position without hesitation before pointing at Mark. "He is good at hand-to-handbat because of his overwhelming wind ability. So, you should send him to the front."


    "What do you think, Mark?" Theo asked for Mark''s confirmation. As soon as he got a nod from Mark, Theo moved to Isaac, asking, "Have you finished my assignment?"


    "Yes. I can do some support and attack the enemies from time to time. So, I will be in the middle."


    "Good. Mark and I will be at the front. Do we have any restrictions for this trip?"


    "Don''t attack people from the same side unless they deserve it. Don''t provoke others since we don''t want more problems. Other than that, you can get everything you want." Maya answered his question.


    "Got it."


    As soon as Theo nodded his head, someone actually came to them, shouting, "It''s out! It''s out!"


    "!!!" All the people who heard it immediately jumped to their boats. Due to the number of people as well as the safety, they needed to disperse themselves, making them require required more boats. This way, they could minimize their casualties.


    However, it also downgraded the boats since the loss would be enormous if many of them got destroyed or lost.


    Even Maya''s boat was the same. Other than some defensive materials, the boat was simr to everyone else.


    The moment she heard that shout, Maya said, "The ind is out. We should go there immediately."


    "Okay. Let''s go then." Theo turned to Mark. "Can you speed up the boat with your wind?"


    "I can, but it will be extremely dangerous in the front."


    "It''s fine. Arriving even a few minutes faster is a good advantage. As for the monsters, I''m nning to kill them, so why not?" Theo shrugged.


    "I understand." Mark agreed with Theo''s arrangement.


    Maya started the boat while Mark used his wind to create another boost for their speed.


    But as soon as they left the shore, they saw multiple boats doing the same, especially that one boat that appeared in the middle of the ocean.


    "It seems that many people have the same ns." Isaac smirked and pointed at the furthest boat. "Look at that one. That should be Winston''s Space Ability�� He''s nning to send them forward."


    "Let''s go!" Maya smirked. Since their boat was small, it wouldn''t take too much strength for Mark to push it, so the moment they went deep enough, Maya gave the signal. "Mark."


    Mark nodded and immediately released his strength.


    In that instant, the boat''s speed increased by three times, immediately catching up with those in the front.


    Of course, their approaches soon became the center of attention because the top Supreme Rank Experts on the list actually led this charge, increasing their chance to reach the ind.


    "Look!"


    "There are many peopleing to the front."


    "The one with a star on the boat must be from the Star Group!"


    "Joker?!"


    "But look at that, there is one that appears out of thin air. That must be Winston!"


    "No, you should look at the others too."


    "That one with our national g must be from the military. Tyler Moore and Jefferson Hunt must be there."


    "There are many top Supreme Rank Expertsing to the front. It must be due to the rivalry between Joker and Winston that they don''t want to lose each other."


    "No, no. Even if they''reing to the front, the sea monsters are not that easy to handle. From the onesing to the surface to the ones that hide underwater, they''re going to create trouble soon!"


    As if responding to his words, a huge bubble suddenly emerged from the sea. A rotating wind gradually descended to the sea. The moment it touched the bubble, a huge water spout formed.


    This water spout was located in front of Winston''s boat as the pioneer.


    However, the one thing that shocked everyone was a giant shark moving around on the water spout as if ying inside.


    Isaac, who saw it, couldn''t help but point at it with an excited face. "Sharknado! Damn. The first thing that came out was Sharknado!"

 Chapter 1060 Shameless

    <h4>Chapter 1060 Shameless</h4>


    "Sharknado. Look! That''s a Sharknado!" Isaac excitedly pointed at the water spout while trying to show it to Theo, Mark, and Maya.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo maintained his calm while Mark was too focused on his task. On the other hand, Maya shook her head helplessly. "That''s just a water spout and a shark. Nothing more�� And look at the size of that shark�� Its size is ten times bigger than our boat."


    "But��" Isaac scratched the back of his head, not knowing why they didn''t feel excited when seeing such a thing. After all, this was one of his greatest fantasies.


    However, he soon stopped running his mouth when Winston nced at their boat.


    With a single snap of his fingers, the huge shark disappeared into thin air, leaving the water spout behind.


    Lexie raised her hand and controlled the water, dispersing it so that their boat could move on.


    However, Theo soon faced another danger as Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground, finding the giant shark appearing in their front.


    The shark might not be on top of them, but with their current speed, the shark would certainly fall on top of them.


    Even Maya clicked her tongue and said, "Hold on. We''re going to loop around it!"


    "No. Keep going." Theo hurriedly stopped her as his expression turned cold.


    Meanwhile, Isaac shouted at the top of his lungs,ining. "Winston! Why did you send the shark to us?! We all had agreed that all of the participants would form an alliance to cross the sea!"


    "I''m just sending it to a more capable person. I don''t know whether my power will work on the shark or not, so I let the number one person kill the shark." Winston shook his head calmly. After experiencing a defeat, Winston seemed to harbor some grudges against Theo.


    Even Theo could feel it the moment he sent this shark to his front.


    "Fuck you!" Isaac shouted while ncing at Theo. "What should we do?"


    "Just continue," Theo stated with a cold tone as the Death Avatar rose from his back. Even though the shark was big, its strength wasn''t as powerful.


    So, the Death Avatar raised both hands and formed a huge bat. Both hands pulled back as if it was ying baseball.


    Theo calcted Winston''s motion and struck the shark like a baseball.


    The shark made a parabolic motion in the air but soon fell toward Winston''s boat.


    Theo didn''t forget to say, "Oops. It seems I was too confident with my strength. I couldn''t crush the shark''s body with a single swing."


    "��" Isaac suddenly fell silent, almost forgetting that Theo''s mouth was more horrible than Winston''s.


    "Tsk." Lexie clicked her tongue and raised both hands. Together with the hands, the water also rose, creating a giant water wall that caught the shark. "Too heavy��"


    Unfortunately for her, Theo''s shamelessness was far beyond her imagination. Even Winston somehow moved toward her, waving his sword.


    *Cling!*


    "Wha��" Lexie widened her eyes in surprise before she gulped down when there was a blue light piercing the shark, almost hitting her if not because Winston stopped it.


    Lexie couldn''t see it, but everyone in the surroundings could see a huge spear made of Magic Power piercing through the shark''s body.


    After blowing away the shark, the Death Avatar turned the bat into a spear and threw it since Theo had told them earlier that he was nning to kill as many monsters as possible. The shark was not an exception.


    "You bastard. Throwing it back is fine, but is the spear��!" Lexie shouted back, trying toin, but she forgot that Theo wasn''t the only one shameless in their group.


    Before she finished her words, a missile struck the shark and exploded.


    *Boom!*


    The st dispersed the body, including the blood, to the surroundings. Now that Winston had participated in the defense, he couldn''t see the iing missile, resulting in them getting covered by the fish blood.


    And if not because of their boat being tougher than a normal boat, the scattered flesh would have created a few holes.


    "MAYA!" Lexie was truly angered because she was covered with blood. Obviously, her body also had a foul odor due to that fish.


    "What? I was trying to make sure the shark died. The sea is dangerous, so it''s better to do this." Maya smirked, giving her alibi.


    Lexie couldn''t say anything about her shamelessness because the one that did it first was them.


    Meanwhile, those, who watched the entire scene, couldn''t help but think, ''Can we even reach the ind when six out of the top ten experts on the list fight?''


    They could only shake their head helplessly, praying that these people could stop fighting during the trip. They couldn''t care less about them fighting on the ind.


    "Should weunch a counterattack?" Maya asked Theo while smiling, feeling satisfied with thest one.


    "��" Theo paused for a moment and looked at the front as if thinking about something.


    "Joker?" Maya became suspicious and called his name.


    Before saying anything, Theo raised his right hand. Suddenly, numerous blue swords made by Magic Power appeared around him.


    The number of the swords was thirty.


    After reaching the Perfect Control, Theo could form a sword easily since he only needed to pour more Magic Power than the ones from the Dark King''s techniques.


    "!!!" Maya and Isaac were stupefied as they hadn''t felt or seen anything.


    However, Theo had already sent his swords forward, flying a few feet above the sea. At the same time, Theo took out his blue sword and channeled his Magic Power, preparing to send a sword strike.


    Suddenly, twenty small fishes flew into the air like a flying fish, trying to bite the swords, specifically the Magic Power.


    "What? There are fishes in front of us?" Isaac widened his eyes and gasped.


    Theo remained calm as he waved his sword, releasing a sword wave that soon split into a few, cutting down all the fishes that came out of the water.


    Instead of lowering his guard, Theo ordered. "Isaac. Reinforce the boat with the motionw�� ehm, the one with constant velocity. It''s not over yet."


    "Not over��" Isaac''s face became pale.

 Chapter 1061 "Boat Can’t Fly!"

    <h4>Chapter 1061 "Boat Can''t Fly!"</h4>


    Scared of the possibility, Isaac immediately reinforced the boat.


    As Theo said earlier, the sea rose as a huge bubble appeared in front of them. This was a simr bubble as the water spout earlier, but the water spout would form right when they crossed the bubble with this distance.


    This was what Theo had seen this whole time. After seeing the flux of Magic Power, Theo found numerous Magic Power fluctuations appearing beneath the ocean. It was clear that they were going toe at them.


    That was why he sent all those swords as baits, trying to see who woulde out of the water and who would attack them from below.


    When he saw this giant bubble, Theo smirked and asked, "Maya, can this boat withstand that one?"


    "A few times!"


    "Make it work." Theo then turned to Isaac. "Prepare for gravity skill. Put it to four of us, not the boat."


    "Eh?" All the colors left Isaac''s face as he started regrettinging to the sea now.


    However, Theo reminded him again how excited he was when he saw the Sharknado. "You want to y? I''ll let you y!"


    "Joker�� Boat can''t fly��" Isaac understood Theo''s n as he shouted.


    Unfortunately, it was toote. The boat had reached the air bubble that was going to burst soon.


    With the help of Maya as well as his Perfect Control that put extra armor beneath the boat, it crossed over the giant bubble at the perfect timing as the water spout was formed.


    In that instant, the boat soared into the sky as Isaac sped his hands, maintaining his gravity skill and motionw skill while praying that nothing happened to the boat.


    "Boat can''t fly!" Isaac shouted at the top of his lungs.


    Despite Isaac''s wish, the boat had taken off to the sky.


    With the help of Mark''s wind skill, the boat flew in the sky for a while, crossing everything underneath.


    Theo''s Telekinesis maintained the direction while Isaac''s abilities stabilized the boat and stuck them to the boat.


    Even Isaac couldn''t help but open his eyes when he was already in the air, seeing scenery that he had never seen before.


    Looking at the sea from fifty feet above it and finding the shocked expressions of everyone else on the bottom somehow put a smile on his face.


    "This is��" Isaac was stunned, admiring this one scene.


    Still, the boat couldn''t fly forever. After a while, the boat gradually descended to the water, but Theo''s Telekinesis helped the smoothnding, allowing them to continue moving forward the moment theynded on the water.


    "Goddamn." One of the people that followed Theo from behindmented in shock. He had no words to say as the scene was truly ridiculous and extremely fun at the same time.


    "That looks fun!"


    "Why don''t we try it?"


    "Should I throw you to the sea for suggesting it? Our boat won''t be able to withstand such a thing."


    "But that still looks fun."


    "But they have gone too far from us. Won''t we be in danger now?"


    "��"


    There were many reactions, from worry to excitement. However, one thing was clear. What Theo and his group did truly struck deep in their hearts.


    Even Isaac, who still had a dumbfounded face, looked at Theo while waving his hand as if creating a parabolic motion that the boat made earlier. "Can we�� fly again?"


    That question couldn''t help but crack a smile on Mark''s face.


    "Pfft!" Mayaughed out loud. "Hahaha. Not scared anymore, Isaac?"


    "Ehm, you should discuss it with me first�� I thought I was going to die." Isaac let out a long sigh.


    "Anyway, I will take care of everything thates our way. Since we''re going at this speed, the monsters will need to pick the right timing if they want to hit us, or they will need toe out of the sea and stand directly in front of us.


    "So, Isaac will handle the support, whether it''s us or the boat. Mark will maintain our speed while Maya keeps working on the defense mechanism."


    "Is that why you want this speed?" Isaac asked, surprised that the reason why Theo wanted to continue at this speed was to force the monsters to behave in the way they could predict. It would make defending the boat easier.


    Of course, such a tactic could only be used because they had Mark with them. But still, no one could be as insane as Theo when executing it.


    Theo had faced both the Frost Saint and Fist Saint and started preparing to handle the higher being. So, Theo truly had no fear left when executing his n unless that n had a high risk.


    Though, Isaac didn''t know what Theo had faced this whole time.


    "Still, I need to warn you that the materials can only be used seven more times. We also need to consider our return trip." Maya stoppedughing and mentioned one of the problems. "We can''t do that all the time."


    "I know. How about the distance?"


    "We have only covered a tenth of the distance��"


    "I see. I will be more careful then." Theo nodded, taking Maya''s advice. Even though they were on the sea and at risk of getting attacked by the sea monsters, they wouldn''t meet them all the time.


    So, Theo used this time to check everything they had.


    "Still, no one should be able to catch up to us. Even Winston and his teleportation skill can''t do it because of the risk. After all, even he will face some problems if a Mythical Rank Monster appears, so it''s better to stay with the rest of the group even if he takes the lead."


    "Are you telling us that we will face a Mythical Rank Monster?" Isaac made a wry smile, thinking this was the time he died. Although Theo was strong, his strength wouldn''t be enough to go against a Mythical Rank Expert.


    Theo only gave a calm gaze as his answer, making Isaac worry again.

 Chapter 1062 Whale

    <h4>Chapter 1062 Whale</h4>


    After half an hour, Theo and the group managed to cover almost 70 percent of the distance. However, the threats also increased, considering they needed to face all these threats alone.


    For Theo, these monsters were EXP for him. He took advantage of the situation to level up twice during the trip, considering he was the one killing all the monsters.


    Though, the same couldn''t be said for the others. Mark had been maintaining his power output the whole time, so he had exhausted a portion of his Magic Power.


    Maya was working with their boat as well, maintaining the power output as well as the defense mechanism.


    Meanwhile, Isaac was the one that had the most reaction. The group had some fun just watching his response.


    "Joker. The boat can only handle it six more times." Maya reported.


    "Understood." Theo nodded with a serious tone as he continued looking forward. Now that they had reached the deep sea, the monsters had be far stronger than those near the shore.


    One of them managed to hit the boat because they attacked in a huge group.


    Still, the closer they were to the ind, the more dangerous the threat. Even Theo understood this after listening to the Dark King''s story.


    He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the time he practiced together with the Dark King.


    "That ind, huh�� Getting to that ind is a chore. A few decades ago, I went there with the help of an eagle that carried me over the ocean.


    "ording to the eagle, he couldn''t fly too high because it would be targeted by many flying monsters, and he couldn''t fly too low due to the threats from the water.


    "That was why he increased and decreased his altitude from time to time, allowing us to pass most of the trouble.


    "However, the closer you are to the ind, the more dangerous it is. Even the Queen of Destiny told me that four Mythical Rank creatures watched over the ind.


    "The east is protected by a shark that constantly releases its bloodlust. An enormous whale protects the north. There is a giant octopus in the west and a dolphin in the south.


    "From where you''re going, I think you''re going to enter that ind through the west entrance since you told me an octopus would usually appear around the entrance. That octopus would decimate you with all his strength, and only a portion of you can go through.


    "So, my suggestion is, you should go through the north entrance and face the whale. Even the eagle said the same thing, telling me that this was the easiest entrance.


    "The whale will let you enter the ind as long as you withstand a single attack from him. I know that your current strength can''t go against the whale, so I suggest attempting the easiest attack the whale can give.


    "It''s the burst of water thates out from him. If you fly from above, the burst of water is just an attack with high pressure. As long as you can neutralize that pressure, you will be fine."


    "So, the monster was just a gatekeeper or something, testing the one that wanted to get to the ind?" Theo frowned after listening to his exnation.


    "Yes. Remember about the blood?"


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding.


    Recalling this scene, Theo suddenly said, "Maya. Change our course."


    "Huh?" Maya tilted her head in confusion. They were about to reach the ind, so it didn''t make sense if Theo wanted to change the course.


    But Theo insisted, "Go left and loop around the ind. We will proceed from there."


    "Why?" Maya didn''t understand Theo''s order. After all, this order would waste so much time. They might even waste all the time they had gotten in the first ce. Even Mark and Isaac frowned.


    "Just do it if you don''t want to die. Do you think I ordered all of you to go at full speed for no reason?" Theo sighed.


    Maya fell silent for a moment before epting themand, changing the course. "Do you know something we don''t?"


    "Yes. I will exin it after we reach the ind." Theo waved his hand. He was truly blessed by the information he got from the Dark King.


    "Still, I''m afraid that we need to fight the octopus�� It always stops us whenever the indes out of the water. How are we going to fight against that raging octopus, Joker?" Isaac asked.


    Theo ignored Isaac''s words and said to Mark. "On my signal, I want you to shoot the most powerful wind you got. Maya will maintain the defense while Isaac uses all your support abilities."


    Mark nodded to Theo''s order while Maya asked another question. "How confident are you in reaching the ind alone? You should know there will be a Mythical Rank Monster stopping us��"


    "If I say a hundred percent, will you trust me and not panic no matter how ridiculous it''ll get?" Theo asked with a smile.


    "Ehm�� You''re not the type of a person who will lie to me�� I guess?" Maya made a wry smile.


    However, no matter how Theo''s assurance worked, the scene they saw stillpletely blew their minds.


    After looping around the ind for another ten minutes, Theo and the others finally saw the ind on the horizon.


    It would only take them two more minutes until they reached the ind.


    But another huge bubble appeared. The size of this one was on a scale no one had ever seen before.


    With a length of a thousand feet, the bubblepletely covered the ind.


    The water gradually flowed down, revealing a dark blue skin as well as an eye on the right side.


    The shape was revealed, showing the appearance of a whale that had just emerged from the sea.


    "What is this��" The color had disappeared from Isaac''s face as he dropped to his butt.


    "A whale! A Mythical Rank Whale." Even Maya panicked, thinking they didn''t have any information about this monster. It would make the situation more dangerous.


    Mark gulped down while closing his eyes. This journey might be hisst.


    Yet, despite the others falling into despair, a confident smile appeared on Theo as he raised his hand, lifting the water with his Telekinesis.


    "It''s time for the challenge."

 Chapter 1063 Neutralizing the Whale’s Power

    <h4>Chapter 1063 Neutralizing the Whale''s Power</h4>


    "It''s time for the challenge."


    "Challenge?!" Maya furrowed her eyebrows while looking at the whole before her vision was covered with the rising seawater.


    It wasn''t the sea. It was the water in front of them, creating aunchpad that could send them to the air with the help of Mark''s ability.


    "Mark, Isaac!" Theo shouted their names, informing them they needed to reinforce the boat immediately.


    Without hesitation, Isaac utilized his skill, reinforcing the boat as well as the people on it. Mark also maintained his wind ability.


    Just by looking at the angle, he knew Theo wanted to pass the whale from above. So, he poured more strength tounch them into the sky.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The boat once again soared to the sky.


    "Kh��" Isaac gritted his teeth, wondering if this was the right thing to do. After all, the one in front of them was none other than a Mythical Rank Monster. Even if theybined their strength, they couldn''t defeat it.


    Like they feared, they saw the whale letting out a loud sound.


    *Cry!*


    The whale''s voice shook the sea as if it could even release a shock wave, resulting in the raging water.


    Just looking at it was enough to scare Isaac.


    However, Theo maintained his calm and stood near the edge.


    "Maya, Mark!"


    Remembering Theo''s order, Maya immediately activated the defense mechanism that was only one button away from starting. Mark retracted the wind he used to fly and gathered all of it in his hands, preparing to shoot it as soon as he saw Theo''s signal.


    Suddenly, the Magic Power fluctuated from below as if the whale was angry. The hole on top of the whale that was usually used to spurt out water started contracting.


    "Joker! It''s going to shoot us with the water. The boat can''t handle a Mythical Rank Monster''s attack!"


    "Don''t worry. It won''t hit us!" Theo smirked as he leaped off the boat, nning to challenge the whale himself.


    "What? Did he escape?" Isaac widened his eyes in shock before he heard Theo''s voice.


    "Mark! Shoot it!"


    "!!!" Mark heard the signal and immediately released all the wind he had stored downwards. In that instant, he suddenly understood why Theo wanted him to store that Magic Power. He knew the whale would react this way.


    At the same time as the wind flew forward, the whale also released a high pressure water. The water was so strong that it could rip a human''s body apart.


    Even Theo would at least be heavily injured if he received this attack.


    However, Mark''s wind passed Theo and shed with the water first.


    The wind excluded a green light as if they were shining. From that light, Theo could see another energy moving inside the wind.


    ''A concentrated energy inside the wind? The second eruption?'' Theo widened his eyes as he couldn''t help but smile, thinking, ''It seems Mark has be stronger.''


    The wind that dispersed the water for two seconds suddenly broke apart, causing a huge shock wave that pushed the water back a bit. When it broke apart, the inner gale erupted, pushing back the water.


    "Good, good, good." Theo smirked as he raised both hands, gathering his Magic Power on his arms.


    Theo had prepared using his Thunderp Fist and Invisible Vortex this time after rejecting the idea of using the Ascension Step, which could give birth to extreme pressure.


    *Cry!*


    The whale let out another cry as he poured more Magic Power into the hole, producing more water than what he stored inside his body.


    When he saw this, Theo couldn''t help but smirk, as he had been waiting for this water toe out.


    Theo poured his Magic Power into his Order and utilized it, removing the water element.


    ''In my reality, the water never exists.'' Theo thought as he removed the water affinity, resulting in the burst of water disappearing, leaving only the pressure.


    "What? It disappeared?! No, the Magic Power is still there��" Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground, staring at their sh. Since he had reinforced the boat, all he needed to do was maintain it.


    Hence, he had some time to look at their sh since he would also know if Theo failed to withstand the Mythical Rank Monster''s attack.


    However, never in his wildest dream could he imagine the water disappearing.


    "What did he do?!" Isaac sucked a cold breath. He knew Theo must do something, considering his Magic Power fluctuated for a second. It was even easier for him to see it due to his Analyze Skill.


    Theo was unaware of Isaac''s thoughts as hepletely focused on the whale.


    As soon as Mark''s wind was neutralized, he punched forward, releasing all the Magic Power he had gathered.


    *Bang!*


    A thunderp shook the area as it reinforced Theo''s shock wave, giving birth to a shock wave at the same level as Mark''s, who mastered Wind Element.


    However, Theo had one more trump card. He had gathered multiple invisible balls with his Perfect Control and shot them forward.


    "Those are�� a ball? Invisible? I have never seen this." Isaac also saw the Magic Power fluctuation. He never thought Theo could create something at this level since he could easily sneak-attack a person if they weren''t good at Awareness.


    The balls exploded when they touched the shock wave, neutralizing the pressure for two seconds.


    Still, as one would expect from a Mythical Rank Monster, the whale''s strength looked bottomless. Without showing any sign of exhaustion, the whale kept maintaining the pressure, burning away Theo''s Magic Power at a high pace.


    Knowing what the whale did, Theo finally let go of his Control and used Telekinesis to fly away as though he had been blown away by the whale. Even the water starteding out again.


    "Did he lose?! Joker!" Isaac called Joker a few times, trying to save him.


    However, Maya stopped him while saying, "No need to get that worked up. We have passed the whale, so there''s no more reason for Joker to continue trying."


    "Passed the whale��" Isaac looked down again, realizing they had passed the whale''s body and started falling. "That makes sense��"


    "��" Maya shook her head helplessly as Isaac expressed his reaction too much.

 Chapter 1064 Explanation

    <h4>Chapter 1064 Exnation</h4>


    "We''ve passed the test, Whale." Theo smirked as he gradually flew to the ind, staring at the whale''s eyes.


    "��" The whale was silent for a moment before submerging back into the water mysteriously.


    "That''s it?" Isaac blinked his eyes a few times as the boat hadnded on the ground. "Wait a minute. Doesn''t the octopus attack you relentlessly even if we manage to pass him? The whale is different?"


    "You''re so busy with your reaction, eh." Maya smirked before ncing to the side. "Though, that question�� I believe Joker needs to exin it. Right, Mr. Who knows everything?"


    "The nickname sucks." Theo shook his head helplessly as hended in front of them.


    "Why do you know a whale wille out? Why do you know that it will only attack us once? Why do you know it will attack us with that water? Why��Gueh!" Isaac kept asking Theo to the point thetter couldn''t handle more questions.


    In the end, Theo hit his head with the sword''s body to stop him from talking.


    "Well, I''m not pressing for the answer, but you have promised to tell us about this, Joker." Maya also felt curious but didn''t show it on her face. She maintained her gant and calm face, asking Theo to exin.


    "I got the information about the ind from someone. That''s all." Theo shrugged.


    "Information? Even the Star Group didn''t know anything about this. Are you sure there''s someone selling this kind of information? If that''s the case, I certainly want to meet that information broker." Maya smiled, not believing Theo.


    Theo shook his head and said, "There are four Mythical Rank Monsters guarding the ind. If you want to reach this ind, you need to go through their challenge. The octopus''s challenge is a bloodbath�� You simply need to avoid him to reach the ind while the whale''s challenge is the easiest; to withstand one of his attacks until you reach the ind."


    "Four Mythical Rank Monsters? Challenge?" Isaac widened his eyes and looked at the whale''s previous location. "Then, the hardship that everyone faced this whole time��"


    "Yes. It was only a test from those monsters. That''s the rule of this ind. I can''t say much about it, but that''s one of the things I can say." Theo shrugged. He wasn''t nning to tell everything about the ind''s entrance since Maya or Mark could take advantage of this.


    "You should have told us about it. I can even contact the agents from the Starry and Star Groups, preventing them from losing their lives needlessly." Maya scratched the back of her head, feeling bad for the lives that were lost due to the octopus.


    "I''m afraid you shouldn''t tell them about this or take advantage of this information in the future."


    "Huh?" Maya narrowed her eyes, feeling unpleasant to know that Theo wanted them to die when they could avoid it.


    "I''m just telling you that this is the ind''s true nature. It''s not a treasure trove�� It''s like a man-eating nt that lures you with sweet treasures before swallowing you." Theo exined in a roundabout way.


    "Swallowing us?" Isaac stepped back, horrified. "Should we leave the ind now?"


    "It''s fine. I believe we are strong enough to handle the monsters on this ind. The danger is only at the entrance." Theo shook his head and looked at their front, which turned out to be a forest. The ground was still wet due to the inding out less than an hour earlier.


    "Still, from where did you get this information?"


    "Noment." Theo shook his head. Although he didn''t mind telling Maya about the Dark King since she had met them, it wouldn''t be wise to say it in front of Isaac and Mark.


    After all, this was the first time Theo hunted together with Maya. If he said they had met the guy together, it would mean there was a prior rtionship between him and Maya.


    Theo didn''t want to give any clue, so he refrained himself from answering that question.


    "So, what can you tell us about this ind?"


    "Nothing much other than it being a treasure trove." Theo shrugged, not revealing about the Queen of Destiny yet since he wanted to see whether he shoulde together with them or not.


    "Nothing?" Maya squinted her eyes, knowing Theo must have some other secrets. This was the same case as what happened to that frozen mist, Theo seemed to know everything as if he had all the knowledge about them.


    Although she knew how Theo nned his trip, there was nothing that allowed him to know the information about a special region like this.


    Instead of focusing on Maya''s curiosity, Theo turned to Isaac. "You should start working, Isaac."


    "Ah, right. I should analyze the ind, especially the Magic Power density all around the ind. Although what I can do is limited right now, I should be able to find some clues. Do you mind lifting me up above the trees so that I can see the entire area easily?" Isaac agreed and prepared to work.


    Theo raised his hand, using his Telekinesis to raise Isaac''s body. After that, he looked at Isaac. "How about you? How is your Magic Power?"


    "Only fifty percent left. I need around thirty minutes to regain enough to fight for a few hours." Mark reported with a calm expression, not saying anything this whole time.


    "I see. We should get some rest first." Theo nodded.


    "Still, Joker. Why do you use this entrance instead of going together? We can save some people from the Star and Starry Group if we go together." Maya asked.


    "I wanted to do it at first, but��" Theo lowered his head before letting out a long sigh.


    "But��" Maya squinted her eyes.


    "The current situation will put the Star and Starry Group in danger. So, I''m trying to make them think we''re strong enough to pass the octopus ourselves, which should be impossible."


    "The current situation��" Maya fell silent and remembered the Fist Saint''s matter. If the Fist Saint informed the people behind him, he would suspect the president and find the Star Group''s involvement in this matter.


    That was why they would be their target sooner orter. Hence, Theo wanted to spread the knowledge that they could fight against a Mythical Rank Expert by themselves, making the enemy think twice before targeting them. After all, one of them was Bernard''s only child while the other one was the current most talented person the Star Group had.


    "Appear weak when you are strong, strong when you are weak," Maya muttered in a low voice before sucking a cold breath. It turned out that Theo did all this to protect them.


    After continuously hiding from many people, Theo had grown ustomed to doing something like this. The whale''s challenge was far easier, but the people only knew they came here through the octopus, allowing them to appear strong.


    Upon that realization, Maya couldn''t help but look at Theo, thinking, "How far ahead this man sees?"

 Chapter 1065 Winston’s Change

    <h4>Chapter 1065 Winston''s Change</h4>


    Meanwhile, the rest of the groups had made their final approach to the ind.


    They hadn''t dispersed yet because of the fishes'' movement. They seemed to swarm around the edge, preventing any boats from distancing themselves.


    This resulted in 1500 boats approaching the ind from the same direction.


    "Hmm�� Where are Joker and the others? Have they reached the ind?"


    "Is it even possible?"


    "Did they defeat the octopus? The octopus should be appearing soon�� if it didn''t appear, that meant Joker had killed the octopus. If not, then they might have either died or passed."


    The people were confused, wondering where Joker''s ship was. On the one hand, Joker''s reputation was so mysterious that anything might be possible if it was him. On the other hand, they didn''t believe Joker had enough strength to defeat the octopus.


    Even Winston furrowed his eyebrows and looked around.


    "I don''t see them anywhere. Have they reached the ind? Looking at how confident they''re, they must have some way to slip past the octopus." Lexie looked down, falling into deep thought. "But how�� It''s impossible to go around the ind since the octopus will be able to find you.


    "There are a few records of the people going around, but they either died or were ambushed by the octopus.


    "So, I don''t know how Joker could slip past the octopus�� Is he that strong to be able to pass the octopus? Or has he died from overconfidence? The threat from the sea is so big that not many people dare to tread lightly, so��" Lexie approached Winston and whispered her doubt.


    Winston maintained his silence for a moment as he looked at the ind, trying to find any hints about Theo. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t find anything.


    "Anyway, we''re approaching the ind soon. What should we do? Should we teleport to the ind when the octopus appears?" Lexie asked, changing the topic. Since they were going to fight the octopus, it was obvious that they needed to carefully consider their options.


    Teleporting to the ind would be the safest choice, but Winston was acting weird.


    He kept staring at the ind as if he was in deep thought.


    After a while, he finally opened his mouth. "Say�� Why does that guy''s reputation keep soaring? I know he defeated me, but why did I end up being the bad guy? We fought fair and square in that arena�� Not only that, but he also got so much money and resources."


    Winston closed his eyes, remembering what happened a few months ago.


    Just for their duel, he had sacrificed seven A Rank Skill Cards as well as two billion Zils. He thought he could win, but in the end, he lost everything. His rank, followers, people''s trust�� Everything waspletely destroyed in one single defeat.


    He couldn''t understand how that was even possible.


    Lexie was surprised that Winston asked this question. She considered the answer carefully before giving it to him. "He''s good at manipting people''s opinions. Your level was far above him, making the people lose trust in you. After all, they would think you bullied the weak and even tried to extort him by using that bait.


    "Even if he was the one proposing the bet, only a few people witnessed it. Even if those people helped you, they couldn''t withstand the ''truth'' that millions of people worldwide were spreading.


    "To put it simply, he showed his true nature to only the people present. And the rest�� he put up a facade that could gain people''s trust.


    "The people wanted to see the birth of a hero, winning against oppression. That''s why the people around the world will support him first by taking advantage of the fact that you were the one challenging him. Though, he also needed considerable strength to pull it off, or he couldn''t even defeat you. That was the most important reason." Lexie sighed, exining the reason.


    "People''s opinions�� Hero��" Winston muttered these words as his expression turned grim.


    "Winston?" Lexie started doubting whether Winston was in the right mind or not since he wasn''t in his usual self.


    Before the defeat, Winston would surely teleport himself from here, not caring about other people''s lives. After all, his sole thought was to get stronger.


    But due to Theo beating him, Winston somehow cared more about his surroundings even though he had nomon sense because of his upbringing. Still, it didn''t change the fact that Winston had changed.


    Suddenly, the water began to rise as the waves started raging. A huge creature gradually came out of the water, revealing its appearance.


    It was a giant octopus. With three hundred feet tall, the octopus looked like a scary creature. At the same time, the tentacles alone were five times their boats. A single sweep was all it needed to bring them down.


    "That''s the octopus?!"


    "The Mythical Rank Octopus? Even though our boat is quick, there''s no way we can take that on."


    "Evasive maneuver!"


    "Let''s loop around the octopus. At least far enough from its reach!"


    The people started to panic as they changed their course, scattering around.


    However, Winston''s boat still moved forward at a constant speed as if trying to challenge the octopus. Yet, no one thought Winston would dare to challenge the octopus, considering he had the teleportation ability. If they followed Winston and he disappeared, they would die in vain.


    That was why no one hesitated to go around instead of following Winston.


    Seeing their reaction, Winston squinted his eyes even more.


    "Winston. We need to teleport right now!" Lexie warned him again as the octopus had appeared. They would be the first target if they continued this way.


    But the words that came out of Winston''s mouth truly shocked her.


    "Lexie. If I trust my back to you, can you make me that ''hero'' in everyone''s mind?" Winston asked.


    "Huh, hero?" Lexie dropped her jaw to the ground. She never expected Winston to be thinking about being a hero at his age.


    However, Winston couldn''t care less about her reaction. He reached out the microphone on the boat and turned the highest volume. "I might not be reliable, but those who want to reach the ind can follow me to reach the ind as fast as possible. Whether you want to follow me or not, it''s up to your choice."


    Winston''s words were awkward because he wasn''t Theo, who could form a good sentence that could move people''s hearts. But the meaning of his words was clear.


    ''Follow me, and you will reach the ind.''


    The people were confused for a second, but Winston suddenly leaped forward, trying to face the Mythical Rank Octopus alone. His back kept telling them, "Follow me!"


    "That is Winston��"


    They were shocked when Winston stepped forward as if trying to fight against the octopus.


    The octopus looked down on him as it mmed two tentacles to hit Winston.


    "No!" Lexie shouted as she prepared to back Winston up with her water ability.


    But Winston simply snapped his finger, using his teleportation ability. Instead of himself, the target was none other than the octopus.


    That was right. He used all his strength to teleport the octopus.


    ''I will do it. I will be the hero in everyone''s mind. If Joker can do it, I will do it too�� This time, I won''t lose!''

 Chapter 1066 Queen of Destiny

    <h4>Chapter 1066 Queen of Destiny</h4>


    Unaware of Winston''s change, Theo continued with his exnation until Isaded on the ground, finishing his observation.


    "I can''t really find anything abnormal. Only a few fluctuations here and there, but I can''t see their patterns at all. Unlike the zombiesst year, this ind seems to have no special stuff whatsoever." Isaac thought for a moment, turning to Theo.


    Since Theo had figured out something before, he might be able to do it again.


    "Is there any fluctuation standing out?"


    "No. The fluctuation is not great. It might be because we''re at the edge. Well, this ce has the size of a state; I think we should go to the center first before finding anything."


    "Is that so?" Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Any special stuff in Antis'' stories?"


    "Not that I can think of."


    "In that case, let''s go to the center of the ind first before heading to our west. After gathering a few special herbs, we will return." Theo exined.


    "Okay. The ind doesn''t have a Mythical Rank Monster anyway, so I think we''re good to go." Isaac nodded his head, recalling that after passing the Mythical Rank Monster that guarded the ind, nothing weird happened on the ind.


    There were numerous Supreme Rank Monsters, but that was all.


    Since there was no objection from the rest, Maya immediately headed to their boat and typed a few things before the boat turned into a giant cube the size of a person''s body.


    "Mhm?!" Theo was surprised because he didn''t expect the boat could be turned into a cube.


    Maya noticed his murmur and exined, "We need to do this because there''s a chance that people will steal it. I mean, there are numerous peopleing to the ind; it won''t be weird if someone steals your boat."


    "That makes sense. Should I carry it?"


    "No. It''s fine. You and Mark can carry our stuff while I handle this cube. Isaac will bring all our loot. That''s the arrangement."


    "Okay. Let''s go then." Theo nodded.


    Before leaving, Theo rose to the air and scanned the area.


    Near the beach was a forest. He didn''t know the nt''s name, but it seemed to be something that lived around the beach and could withstand a lot of water.


    On the horizon, he could see a mist building up to the sky. It only took him a second to find out that it was a volcano due to the bright red light glowing in the sky.


    Surprisingly, he could also find a giant cliff next to the volcano. Although it was a bit blurry due to the mist, the giant cliff seemed to be a part of the volcano that had separated itself.


    Hence, he thought about going to this hill first before checking the volcano to see the ind.


    When hended on the ground, Theo said, "Isaac. Is there any fluctuation around the cliff?"


    "Yes. It''s not that big, but it''s there. I''m assuming numerous monsters are living in that ce. Though, more monsters are living around the volcano."


    "Mhm. Let''s go to the cliff first." Theo nodded.


    Aftering to an agreement, they finally took off, heading straight to the cliff with Theo in the lead. Isaac and Maya followed right behind him while Mark took the back position, making sure no one ambushed them from behind since Maya and Isaac were vulnerable to such an attack.


    The temperature gradually cooled down due to them climbing the foot of the volcano. It seemed the entrance they took was the easiest but the most worthless of all.


    After all, they couldn''t find any special fluctuations that came from a powerful herb. Isaac''s Analyze Skill couldn''t pick up anything.


    Theo was unaware this time that the person he wanted to meet had actually foreseen his arrival.


    In a dark and wet cave, a female''s voice echoed. "The destiny is shaking, and the whale is informing me that a group of people ising to the ind through him. There is no way humans know about me�� Who are they, and who is the one telling stuff about me?"


    The female''s white eyes started glowing. There seemed to be a small crystal in her eyes that was capable of seeing through everything.


    She fell silent for a moment as her gaze became empty as though she was not in her mind.


    After a while, she blinked a few times and smiled. "I see. To think that knight wanna-be boy has turned into a good king.


    "And also�� it seems that there''s someone exceptional about this guy he sent�� Reality King, is it? A possessor of one of the thirteen Big Orders like me.


    "It seems we''re destined to meet, Reality King." The female suddenly fell silent as if seeing another destiny. "This is��"


    She couldn''t help but shiver. Her Eyes of Destiny could see through numerous possibilities that would happen in the future as long as she could see the person. And since Theo wasn''t here, she was reading her own future.


    She started manipting that future and asked Theo a few things. That was where she got all the information about Theo and the Dark King.


    However, every single time she granted Theo''s wish and read his future, she would always cough up blood. It was clear she was heavily injured due to the reading.


    Unfortunately for her, she couldn''t see anything about the future she saw because Theo hadn''t arrived.


    "What kind of human is he? Even as a possessor of one of the thirteen Big Orders, I wouldn''t be injured when reading their destiny�� What if I don''t read his destiny at all?"


    The Queen of Destiny murmured while calcting her future.


    However, she was shocked by what she found.


    "Huh�� I''ve seen numerous futures, but there isn''t a single future of me not seeing his destiny? It seems that my curiosity has gotten the better of me��" The Queen of Destiny smirked. "I see. That''s my destiny�� An unchangeable destiny�� To think I can find the third person who can cause such a thing�� In that case, let''s make some changes."


    She paused for a moment before smiling. "I''m looking forward to our meeting, Reality King."

 Chapter 1067 Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 1067 Invitation</h4>


    "So, this is the cliff. It''s pretty high." Isaac looked around while examining the density of Magic Power.


    Theo also observed their location. Now that they had reached the cliff, he could see the other side of the volcano.


    It might be due to the volcano, but they seemed to be surrounded by forest.


    There was nothing they could find other than the forest.


    "I guess the soil has been absorbing the numerous organic materials from the volcano." Maya pouted as she couldn''t find something good.


    Mark closed his eyes, feeling the wind in their surroundings. After that day, he could sense the wind clearer. He utilized this ability to hide a wind inside a wind, which Theo had seen previously.


    However, both Mark and Isaac suddenly noticed something.


    "There''s a huge eruption of Magic Power."


    "The wind is disrupted!"


    They said at the same time, startling Theo and Maya. Even both of them exchanged looks with weird expressions.


    But they seemed to be able to understand each other and pointed their fingers in the same direction.


    "You felt that too?" Isaac was surprised, not knowing Mark to have that kind of ability.


    "I just felt the wind flow was disrupted. Nothing else."


    "The wind flow��" Isaac narrowed his eyes, falling into deep thought. He seemed to be deciphering all the clues to understand what was happening.


    And it only took him a whole minute to reach a conclusion. "Is the wind flowing upward?"


    "How do you know?" Mark was shocked since there were numerous ways to disrupt the wind flow. Yet, Isaac could get the correct way as if he could see it too. It seemed Isaac''s reputation was well-deserved, he thought.


    In that instant, Isaac turned to Theo and said with a grim expression. "I believe a crevice has opened up. As for why such a thing appeared�� I have a few reasons, but I can''t say anything without any details. If we can pinpoint the reason, we might find some clues about the ind."


    "Alright. You lead the way, and we will investigate that crevice." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "Got it! This way�� around 3 miles from here." Isaac pointed to the left and immediately leaped to lead the way.


    Theo and the others immediately followed him as Theo summoned his clone that turned into a monkey upon getting summoned.


    This monkey was well-known, so there was no need to hide him anymore. Without hesitation, Theo said, "The investigation shall be carried by my monkey since we don''t know anything about the crevice�� That is if the monkey is big enough to fit��"


    Remembering the crevice he found in Italy, he couldn''t help but think that the crevice should be big enough for them to slip through. At the same time, he truly had no good memory about the crevice, considering he almost died due to that crevice being the trap set by the dwarves.


    "Joker. Even if it''s a crevice, do you think it will be that big? At most, only a small creature can enter�� Probably, if we have a small drone or robot, we can investigate it, but I don''t bring any." Maya chuckled, thinking Theo was just considering that kind of scenario.


    However, her expression changed right after they arrived at the crevice.


    The gap was around three-foot-wide. It should be enough for a human to descend easily.


    "Why does this crevice have to be this big?" Maya made a wry smile. "It is as if it''s trying to invite us in."


    Theo ignored her reaction as he tried to look at the gap while asking, "What do you think, Isaac?"


    "The windes from the pressure that has been stored underneath the ground. Considering it''s still blowing, the pressure inside should be quite high. However, it shouldn''t be powerful enough to crush our bodies.


    "As for the Magic Power, there''s a constant Magic Power. But�� I am not very sure about this�� Although it was so small that I almost couldn''t see it, I certainly saw a white-colored Magic Power. Huh?


    "My Analyze Skill can see through Magic Power''s density�� Yet, there is something weird about this Magic Power. Why is the color different from the rest?" Isaac furrowed his eyebrows. He couldn''t understand the current phenomenon. This was the first time he saw this.


    "White-colored Magic Power?" Maya and Mark widened their eyes, shocked. Magic Color should have a blue color, yet, Isaac told them there was one with a different color, it reeked traps.


    Theo was the only one who understood the meaning of the different colors.


    ''The white Magic Power�� Is the Queen of Destiny inviting me in? Is it her way to invite me?'' Theo couldn''t help but ask these questions.


    He wondered what kind of destiny she could see, but it seemed her power allowed her to predict his arrival.


    ''It seems she knows about my arrival. However, I was supposed to go through another entrance�� Did she read the future and try to change it?'' Theo thought, wondering what the consequence of changing the future was.


    "Joker? Do you know something? You don''t have any reaction as if you know what''s going on." Isaac frowned, feeling something weird.


    "Well, just in case, my monkey will check the inside first to make sure everything is safe."


    "You definitely know something. How about exining it to us?"


    "It''s not something you should know yet." Theo shook his head. "People will kill you if they know about it."


    Suddenly, another wave of wind came out of the gap, blowing everything away. But they found a palm-size rock flying into the air.


    "Wait. That rock. It is emitting a white Magic Power!" Isaac noticed the powering out of the rock.


    And the rock miraculously fell on top of Theo''s palm.


    There was a small carving on the stone''s surface. There were three words written on the surface.


    "Joker?" Isaac was curious about the stone as he wanted to snatch it and examine the Magic Power.


    However, Theo couldn''t help but crush the stone with his hand and remove the Order with his own while cursing. "Ah, fuck!"


    Never in his wildest dream would he think the Queen of Destiny would invite him in this fancy way as those three words were, "Tunnel, Come, Friends."

 Chapter 1068 Learning

    <h4>Chapter 1068 Learning</h4>


    "Ah, fuck!"


    When Isaac heard those words from Theo''s mouth, he raised his voice,ining. "Ah, fuck?! I was supposed to say that. Why did you freaking break that stone? Do you know we never saw a stone that could exclude such Magic Power?!


    "Just taking it alone with us is worth it. We don''t even need to find anything else!" Isaac grabbed Theo''s cor as he was angry that he couldn''t research such a thing.


    His reaction was normal since even if they had absolute power, the Magic Power wouldn''t change its color unless the user had an Order.


    However, it wasn''t the time for these three to know about the Order yet.


    "Whatever. Your answer�� might be inside." Theo pushed his hands away, dropped his luggage, and leaped into the crevice carefully.


    "What? Joker! Don''t you dare run away!" Isaac gritted his teeth. Even if Theo was his boss, this kind of precious stone was enough to make him hate Theo. It was a dream for him to research everything unique in this world.


    Even Maya and Mark couldn''t say anything as they were also curious about the stone. This white Magic Power was something that broke all their knowledge after all.


    While going through the gap, Theo added. "That stone is rare and not rare at the same time. I told you earlier�� Just follow me, and you might get the answer. If you''re standing there, there''s nothing you can do."


    "You bastard!!!" Isaac was still angry but didn''t stop following him. "Wait for me!"


    Mark and Maya exchanged looks. As soon as Maya nodded her head, both of them also entered the gap, following Theo.


    The tunnel wasn''t big, only capable of hosting two people at a time.


    Without hesitation, Theo ran forward, taking the lead so that everyone followed him. He knew what was at the end of the tunnel after all.


    ''Still, this is the smoothest situation I have experienced so far.'' Theo thought, recalling everything that had happened previously.


    All of them had some sort of mishaps, so he wondered why there was nothing like that ever since he came to this ind.


    From how smooth his entrance through the whale was to meeting the Queen of Destiny right off the bat, he couldn''t find a single weird thing happening around him. It was as if someone had calcted his course of action this whole time.


    ''Smooth progress, Queen of Destiny��'' Theo muttered these words in his mind before finally understanding what it meant to have the Destiny Order.


    If he could see the future, he would truly move it in the way it was convenient to him. In other words, the Queen of Destiny had been manipting his course of action this whole time.


    ''Tsk.'' Theo clicked his tongue as his expression turned grim. It was truly unpleasant to be yed by others. In fact, that was the reason why he learned everything�� It was to escape someone''s palm and be the mastermind instead.


    But as one would expect from Theo, instead ofining, he chose to learn from this experience.


    ''I think there are a few people that can see the future�� The first one I have encountered is the Queen of Destiny. As for the others that I know�� The strongest is the Time God, the current number one expert in the world. I believe he has the ability to see the future and the past.


    ''If I fight someone who can see something like that, how should I defeat them? After all, if they know about the future, the present, and the past while having the ability to alter the time, it''s impossible for me to fight them.''


    Theo kept thinking about the possibility that might never happen. Theo was a genius, but his talent was Learning.


    If Maya could do a business like no others or if Ne could wield Magic Power without anyone teaching her, Theo would bepletely useless without anyone powerful around him.


    After all, he learned everything from those strong people. Even his tricks came from his grandfather. He learned from him and developed the trick with what he had. This was the secret of his strength.


    And now, Theo met someone that waspletely beyond his imagination. Instead ofining about how she managed to y him, Theo chose to learn from this situation so that in the future, he would be the one in control when they met again.


    ''If I am the God of Mischief, how will I defeat someone who can see the future?'' Theo muttered inwardly as his expression became calmer and calmer as time passed. Luckily, he was running in the front, so no one knew about his change of expression�� Not that they could easily pick it up either.


    ''My role, huh�� My role is to learn from all people like the Queen of Destiny, the God of Mischief, or even the being in the higher dimension�� After learning enough, I will break from their palm and turn the situation around.''


    He finally understood the reason why the God of Mischief called him Joker. He was the wild card that no one could predict. Hence, he needed to learn every possibility when he had time so that no one could y him anymore in the future.


    ''I see. So, that''s how it is��'' A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he suddenly stopped on his track after seeing a dead-end.


    "What? Dead end? We haven''t found any stones with a white Magic Power, and we''ve already reached the end of this tunnel?" Isaac wanted toin again to Theo, but thetter suddenly took out his de and cut his palm, letting the blood drop.


    "Cut your palm and pour the blood to the ground. Hurry up."


    Theo lent his de so that everyone could cut their hands.


    "Huh? Why should��" Isaac was extremely dissatisfied, but when Theo handed him the sword with a cold gaze, he fell silent and followed his instruction.


    As soon as they finished dropping some blood to the ground, Theo turned around, looking at the end. "I''vee to visit the Fate Queen."


    "Fate Queen?!" All three of them were speechless as they didn''t understand why Theo said those words.


    The answer soon came in the form of crumbling rocks. That was right. The stone that was supposed to stop them from advancing copsed, revealingplete darkness inside.


    Soon, a shadow moved around in the darkness as a pair of white eyes appeared in the darkness, followed by a feminine voice.


    "It''s the Queen of Destiny."

 Chapter 1069 A Deal

    <h4>Chapter 1069 A Deal</h4>


    "Queen of Destiny?" Isaac widened his eyes in shock, not knowing there was someone hiding inside this ce.


    The shadow moved around a bit as a white-colored Magic Power started leaking out of her body, revealing the true shape of the shadow.


    It turned out she was at least ten-foot-tall. Instead of a full human body, only her upper half was human; the bottom half was that of a fish.


    "Half-human, half-fish�� Mermaid!" Isaac sucked a cold breath while Maya and Mark prepared to fight.


    On the one hand, the person before them was a monster. On the other hand, Theo seemed to know this person since he went all the way here to meet her.


    "What should I call you?" The Queen of Destiny smiled, looking at Theo.


    "Don''t you already know it?" Theo smirked. After thinking a few times, he realized there was one thing he could do to measure her ability. And this question was the way.


    Understanding Theo''s real intention, the Queen of Destiny smirked and decided to tease him, "Mhm. Let''s see�� I am wondering what I should call you�� I can call you with your nickname, title, or real name. Which one do you want?"


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he realized she had understood him better than he thought.


    Obviously, no one had ever heard Theo''s title or real name. Even Maya only knew his real name, not his title.


    After all, they hadn''t been exposed to the Order, so no one knew he was known as Reality King.


    The Queen of Destiny had looked through multiple possibilities and found out more about him. So, she put that knowledge in use and invited him here.


    "Just call me, Joker." Theo clicked his tongue.


    "Certainly." The Queen of Destiny smiled and finally pped her hand. Her white-colored Magic Power spread all over the room as blue light gradually shone from all corners, brightening the room, revealing her true appearance.


    As Isaac expected earlier, she was a mermaid. She had long silver hair and a white fish''s tail.


    Still, everyone could clearly see the white Magic Power emanating from his body.


    "Are you sure it''s wise for you to do something like that?" Theo scratched the back of his head before sighing.


    "I have judged that it''s fine." The Queen of Destiny narrowed her eyes.


    "��" Theo paused for a moment before shaking his head.


    "Still, to think the knight wanna-be sent you here, I feel like I have grown older."


    "I believe you know the reason why I came here, right? If not, you wouldn''t create that crevice so that we could enter�� Still, I can''t really say anything with the fancy way you invite us in." Theo sighed.


    "Despite being one yourself, you''re too caring about other opinions. If they want to know, so be it. There''s no need for you to exin."


    "I don''t n to show any weakness. Human society is moreplicated than you think." Theo shook his head and said, "Anyway, may I know why you decided to invite all of us?"


    He nned toe by himself, yet, the Queen of Destiny judged that it was necessary to bring his friends along. She even exposed a different color of Magic Power.


    There must be something that she wanted. And Theo nned to listen to what she had to say first.


    "It''s nothing much." The Queen of Destiny shook her head and pointed at the others. "I just believe that they''re necessary."


    "Necessary?"


    "Yes. Do you wish to change your destiny?" The Queen of Destiny smirked.


    "Is there a price to pay?"


    "Nothing. It just means you choose another future. That''s all." The Queen of Destiny pointed at Mark. "If not because of him, you will expose your real identity eleven hours from now."


    "Huh?!" Theo turned to Mark while thetter pointed at himself with a dumbfounded expression, not understanding why she mentioned him. Although he was curious about Theo''s real identity, there must be a good reason for Theo to hide that identity.


    If he learned about this and had a conflict with Theo, his life would be in danger.


    "Yes." The mermaid pointed her finger at Maya this time. "Your destiny is tied tightly with her for a while."


    "Your words�� can cause a misunderstanding, you know." Theo''s expression became colder. That statement truly could make one think Theo would end up with Maya instead of Agata. Even though it was just the future, he had no thought about betraying his girlfriend.


    So, Theo was a bit angry that she mentioned it like that.


    The mermaid ignored his words and pointed at Isaac. "You should follow him to his next destination because you will y a huge role. You might get the answer you are searching for too��"


    "Answer��" Isaac murmured while furrowing his eyebrows. Even though he was shocked, her statement truly made him think something else.


    "What are you trying to do, Queen of Destiny?" Theo squinted his eyes.


    "I want to give you a proposal. In exchange for reading your and your friends'' destiny, I wish you could defeat someone."


    "Who is that someone?" Theo didn''t ept immediately, fearing that the person he needed to kill was someone too strong.


    As if she knew what Theo thought, she said, "The ind will sink to the bottom of the ocean in 27 hours. It''s not the time for us to sink again, so I want you to stop the cause."


    "The cause? But you said ''someone''? If that person is that strong, I won''t be able to defeat him."


    "You can defeat him. He might be a Mythical Rank Monster, but he is a new Mythical Rank Monster."


    "A new Mythical Rank Monster?!" Not only Theo but the others were also shocked.


    "Yes. 24 hours from now. There will be a monster breaking through to Mythical Rank. At that time, he will be at his weakest. If you can defeat him within fifteen minutes, he shouldn''t have adapted to his new strength yet.


    "That monster is the reason why the ind will sink much faster than it''s supposed to." The mermaid exined with a nonchnt expression.


    "Why don''t you kill the monster personally? With your strength or even the four Mythical Rank Monsters guarding this ind, it should be a piece of cake."


    "We have our own rules." She shook her head. "So, what do you think? Will you agree to my request?"


    Theo thought for a moment and nced at his group.


    "I don''t really mind. I don''t bring my full armor, but I should be able to provide some covers." Maya looked at Mark. "You should want to know about your future a bit, right?"


    Mark nodded in agreement and turned to Isaac, who was still confused and angry because Theo crushed the rock.


    However, the first thing that Mark did after realizing the stone came from the mermaid before him, Isaac faced Theo and slightly lowered his head. "I''m sorry. I was needlessly angry at you�� I should have known that curiosity kills the cat.


    "I''m afraid this is something rted to my own life. So, I apologize for getting mad at you when you''re trying to protect me. That''s why I will fully support your decision this time as an apology."


    Isaac apologized to Theo after realizing why Theo crushed the rock. Just by listening to the Queen of Destiny, he knew she was someone far more special than any other monster. So, this secret must be something that needed to be hidden.


    The Queen of Destiny smiled and pped her hands. "Since you have agreed, thene in. I will read your destiny inside."

 Chapter 1070 A Test

    As soon as they entered the room, they found nothing inside other than a t stone and a pearl in front of the mermaid. There was nothing they could see inside the cave.


    Meanwhile, Isaac, Maya, and Mark were admiring the cave as though they were amazed by her living ce. After all, the person in front of them was a special monster that no one had ever seen before.


    "I believe this is our first meeting. Once again, let me introduce myself. I am what you humans call a King ss Monster. I\''m known as the Queen of Destiny�� Fate Queen is simply some sort of a password. I hope that you won\''t lead any other humans to this ce unless they\''re like the gentleman before you." The Queen of Destiny politely introduced herself and pointed at Theo as if he was someone special.


    "King ss Monster?!" Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground. Maya had cold sweat on her back while Mark furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if they had the chance to escape.


    Everyone had heard enough of what a King ss was capable of. If one or two of them attacked the city, it could bring down their base.


    That was why they thought the King ss Monster was a dangerous monster. However, it seemed their perception of the King ss Monster had been wrong.


    Because of their intelligence, it was normal for them to think more about their actions and other things. Hence, there would be aggressive and passive King ss Monsters.


    And the one before them was a passive monster who had kindness. She even looked easy to talk to.


    Theo was the only one among them that knew this fact a long time ago, considering the first encounter with the King ss Monster was with Ava\''s mother, Avarice.


    "Is it unbelievable that there is a monster like me?" The Queen of Destiny smiled.


    Taken aback, Isaac hurriedly exined. "No, no, no. There\''s nothing wrong. It\''s just we have realized how shallow our thoughts were."


    The trio became restless as they wondered how they should behave to a King ss Monster.


    However, the Queen of Destiny corrected Isaac again by pointing at Theo. "To be honest, I would have killed you if you didn\''te with him."


    "Joker?" They looked at Theo with a curious gaze. Maya remembered the first time she encountered the Dark King.


    At that time, the King ss Monster became friendly as soon as he saw Theo. It seemed Theo had been hiding something important this whole time. And this might be the reason why he could be stronger this quickly.


    As for Mark and Isaac, they simply didn\''t know what to say. So, they chose to remain silent since Theo was the one in charge here.


    Finding a King ss Monster alone was enough for them.


    While they were fidgeting, Theo kept staring at the mermaid as though he wanted to say something.<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    "I have asked you many things, so there\''s no need for us to have this little talk." The mermaid waved her hands as she truly had talked about many things in the future she saw with her ability. "Though, I will allow each of you to ask me one thing. I will do my best to answer it."


    �Ѧ���d�� n?��?| ��om "You should know what they\''re going to ask, right?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "What do you think?" The mermaid smiled. "Looking at the future is boring since you already know what to expect. I wonder if they can break from their own future��"


    "Break our own future?" The trio exchanged looks as their faces became pale. It sounded so ominous as if breaking their future meant they would die.


    The mermaid waved her hands, forming a white line in the air. This white line was formed by Magic Power like Theo usually did. However, she infused her Order in it, turning the Magic Power into white.


    Then, she tapped one of the tips and poured more into it, resulting in the tip spreading into numerous branches.


    "Every living being in this world has this string of fate." The mermaid pointed at the single line section before moving to the branches. "And every decision you make will give birth to a numerous future."


    "That decision is this joint over here. This is what I call a variable. This variable is from everywhere. It can be from yourself or someone else. For example, if you choose to stop breathing and die, you get that future. If someone suddenlyes and assassinates you, you will have another future.


    "If someonees after you and another person arrives to save you, there will be another future. And that future will give birth to more possibilities and so on. This is what it means that your future is limitless.


    "What I have done this whole time is calcting the future. For example, I know all of your names. Maya, Mark, and Isaac, right?


    "That\''s because in the future I\''d seen, you\''d introduced yourself. That\''s why there\''s no need for me to ask your name anymore. It\''s boring and convenient at the same time.


    "That\''s why I\''m going to test you right now whether you can reach the future I haven\''t seen or not. This is what I mean by breaking the future��


    "After all, your destiny has been decided the moment you were born. It\''s just the variable that can break it to give birth to another unknown future. That\''s why I want to ask the three of you��


    "Think about one question that you want to ask the most while putting this one requirement�� What kind of question that you want to ask but something that I would never see iting?" The Queen of Destiny smirked and said, "You have one minute to think about this question and exin to me why you ask that question.


    "If the question reaches my standard, I will read your future as the reward. How about it?" The Queen of Destiny finished her exnation with an invitation.


    And it was obvious from their faces that they were ready for this challenge.

 Chapter 1071 Questions and Answers

    <h4>Chapter 1071 Questions and Answers</h4>


    "Time is up. Alright. Let''s hear the first question�� From you." The mermaid pointed at Mark.


    Mark was startled and hurriedly gave the question that he had thought earlier.


    "Will I die from old age?" Mark''s question was what a human could think of. However, there was a different reason why Mark asked this question.


    "Why do you ask this question?"


    Mark thought for a moment and exined the reasons he chose this question. "I believe that you''re seeing something not far in the future. And after I learned that I yed a big role in what was going to happen, I believed it''s better to see whether you can see me dying in that time or far in the future."


    "Mhm." The mermaid queen carefully considered Mark''s question and nodded. "Passable. So, I will give the answer to your question. To put it simply, I can see you dying on multiple asions. However, there are possibilities that you are going to die of old age too.


    "As a reward, I will give this one piece of advice for you. There are two times you need to make a big choice in your life. The first one is going toe soon.


    "At that time, if you choose the one with a huge risk, you have a high possibility of dying. But if you can ovee all the trials, you shall be rewarded with something that you can''t think of.


    "On the other hand, if you choose the safe path, you won''t face trials like the former and your future achievement will be good as well�� However, you will face the second big decision in your life.


    "So, the one you will choose will depend on whether you are someone who takes a risk or prefers stability. That''s all." She finished the divination with a smile.


    "Big decision��" Mark looked down for a moment before closing his eyes. After a few seconds, he nodded his head a few times. "Thank you so much."


    "Then, how about you?!" As soon as she was done, she turned to Isaac. "What is your question?"


    Since he was the second, Isaac had more time to think about it. Hence, he immediately asked the question that he picked in his mind.


    "I want to ask�� Can Joker release the same Magic Power as you?!" Isaac''s question was rted to his curiosity. He remembered Theo saying that the white rock was rare and not rare at the same time. That was why Theo must know about the rock''s power, and there was even a possibility of him having the same thing.


    Just like Mark, the mermaid asked, "Why do you ask that question?"


    "You should be able to see my future, right? In that case, I thought, what kind of question would I ask you? I thought about numerous questions, from the mostmon ones to the weirdest ones.


    "Hence, I thought about it in another way. Instead of following what you wanted me to do, I should do the exact opposite, asking something that I want to know the most."


    "But it means you ask the mostmon question right now. Do you think you can pass the test with that thought?" The mermaid shook her head.


    "I do!" Isaac answered without hesitation. "My mostmon question shouldn''t be in the future you''ve seen because the future me�� No, should I say the past me now? Anyway, the past me would have asked weird questions instead of themon one."


    The mermaid smiled and said, "I am afraid I will give you a lower point than your friend. That''s why instead of an answer, I will give a clue�� Well, that''s what I told you earlier. Just follow him to his next destination and you will find the answer.


    "As for the reward, I will tone it down too. Your thirst is too great. I won''t deny that having that thirst will give you a big room for improvement, but it will also lead you to your destruction.


    "Instead of seeing far ahead, why don''t you stop and start looking around you for a bit?"


    Unlike Mark''s divination, this one was ambiguous and confusing. However, Isaac could understand a bit about this so-called ''thirst.''


    Continuing, the mermaid asked Maya, thest person in the group. "How about you? What''s the question you have for me?"


    Just like the other two, Maya had her own way of answering this question. And that was to not answer her at all.


    She maintained her silence and kept looking at the mermaid with a smile.


    The mermaid seemed to understand her train of thought and asked again, "Why? You should be curious about so many things, right? I know you are."


    Maya closed her eyes while smiling. As she said, she might be the one who wanted to know the most. After all, she was a leader as well as a businesswoman. Information and knowledge had saved her many times.


    At the same time, Maya remembered what the person who gave the blessing said to her. It was clear that what Theo had was rted to Order. And there was one way to prove it; she simply needed to ask that question to the mermaid.


    However, Maya suppressed all desires in her heart and maintained her silence, not asking anything. This was her decision.


    "Well, I guess I will give you a point slightly better than Mark. Since you didn''t ask me any questions, I will give you more thorough divination."


    She paused for a moment as though she was calcting another future. Her gaze became sharp for a minute before she said with a grim tone, "Your life will be filled with ups and downs.


    "There is one cmity in front of you right now. If you don''t have anywhere to go, you should head to the east by foot as it will be a pir of hope in that cmity.


    "After seeing the first light in the cmity, you''re bound to make a huge decision that will decide your future. However, no matter your decision, your life will continuously face ups and downs.


    "What you need to face tomorrow is a belief. That belief can be in the form of anything. Trust that no matter how grim it is."


    *Sigh!* This time, she took a deep breath after giving the divination as though she used more power for her divination.


    "Thank you very much." Maya thought the divination alone was enough to be the beacon of hope, considering it would be her trump card.


    Finally, she had finished seeing their futures. Only Theo remained as an excited smile appeared on her face.


    "No matter how hard I preach destiny, looking at your destiny is something that is meant to happen. Instead of fighting over destiny, I will just read it right here, right now. I wonder what kind of destiny you have." She smirked.


    ******


    Author''s Note: What kind of future she will see in Theo?

 Chapter 1072

    "You don\''t want me to ask a question?" Theo asked.


    "I know that you\''re going to answer with your power. After all, that\''s the only way to achieve what I truly want." The Queen of Destiny shrugged. She perfectly knew that Theo would use his Reality Order to alter reality itself.


    "It\''s just your power hasn\''t reached the level that I desire. So, I\''m not going to ask you anything," she added. Unfortunately, Theo\''s Order had yet to reach the stage where it was possible for him to do so. Hence, it was useless to ask that question right now.


    Though, the others had a different reaction when they heard her.


    "Power?" They wondered what kind of power they were talking about. In fact, they seemed to be talking about the same power this whole time.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment before saying, "Alright. Let\''s continue then."


    "Sure." The Queen of Destiny extended her hand, reaching the pearl on the stone table. This was the first time she actually used the pearl.


    "This is a pearl from a thousand years old m. It has been with me for a long time��" She smiled, showing this muddy white pearl.


    When she poured her power into the pearl, a small symbol appeared inside the crystal. The symbol was several spiral lines that looked like DNA but were moreplicated.


    Theo recognized this symbol. It was the Covenant Seal. Instead of using it to make territory, the Queen of Destiny seemed to be gathering all that energy from the Covenant Seal inside the ball, reinforcing her ability to a great degree.


    The pearl gradually turned bright and enveloped by the white Magic Power. The Queen of Destiny closed her eyes and focused all her attention on her ability.


    However, her mouth soon opened as if she was shocked by the images appearing in her mind.


    "Mhm? Is it bad?" Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling something ominous would happen due to the excessive reaction from the Queen of Destiny.


    However, the Queen of Destiny didn\''t answer him. No, she couldn\''t answer him because all the images grabbed all her attention.


    After a while, the Queen of Destiny sucked a cold breath with a pale face.


    "Am I going to be killed? For you to show such a thing��" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "After seeing such a thing, I don\''t know what to say�� In fact, I truly want to expose all your identities right now. It\''s just unbelievable."


    "What do you mean?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "How about telling me from the start? I can\''t understand you."


    "For you, the difference is between Heaven and Hell. And the gap between them is so narrow that you can fall into any of them with just a single variable.


    "For example, you can be the savior who saves a billion people. But one variable can easily make you the murderer of a hundred million people. That\''s how narrow it is.


    "I\''m sorry, but who are you really?" The Queen of Destiny opened her eyes wide as she looked at Theo. Her eyes were still glowing because her power was still active. She asked once again, "Have you provoked someone you can\''t afford to offend?"<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head and thought of a man. It was the Fist Saint. He believed the Fist Saint was the one who she was talking about. "I think I have�� For now, there\''s no telling in the future."


    "��" The Queen of Destiny\''s face became pale. "So, you\''re aware of it."


    "Yeah. Why?"


    "Cruel winter and moral chaos." The Queen of Destiny stated this one sentence that Theo had heard.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and gasped. That sentence described the end that the God of Mischief was talking about. It seemed the real enemy was the end of time. He had misunderstood it previously.


    "Cruel winter and moral chaos? What\''s that?" Maya asked while furrowing her eyebrows. The sentence gave an ominous feeling.


    But before the others asked him, the Queen of Destiny bowed her head and ced her hand on her chest as if thanking him. "I pay respect to the beacon of light and dark."


    p����d��`no��?1`��o�� "Beacon of light and dark?" Theo became more confused, not knowing what she had seen with her power.


    "I��Gah!" The Queen of Destiny suddenly spat a mouthful of blood to the ground. Her face became pale as she used both hands to support her body.


    Theo rose from the ground and tried to help her, but the Queen of Destiny raised her hand as if telling him she was alright. "I\''m fine. As you saw earlier, I couldn\''t disclose anything. I almost broke a rule��"


    It seemed the rule in her mouth was rted to Order. There was something that couldn\''t be said, or the world would erase her. Even the God of Mischief told him that he couldn\''t tell much because the world might erase her. So, Theo knew the severity of this divination.


    "Somehow, I want to apologize. If not because of me, you wouldn\''t��"


    The Queen of Destiny shook her head. "No. It\''s been destined and can\''t be changed no matter the variable. I have prepared myself for this.


    "Even so, I can say these two things. To aplish your current mission, you should immediately go to the east of your house. After two months, you should go to the west and southeast��


    "Secondly, please stay sane no matter what. You\''re a kind person. And I will believe it��" The Queen of Destiny smiled and raised her finger.


    Suddenly, the blood that they dropped at the entrance came out of the ground and turned into a small sphere.


    She then poured her power into it, turning the blood into a lump of energy. After that, she ced it in front of Theo\''s chest.


    "I shall aid you with this. It should be able to fill up the necessary energy for you to have a breakthrough. It may take a long time for you to master it, but it should be able to open that possibility."


    The energy gradually reached Theo\''s chest, specifically the Order symbol beneath her clothes.


    In other words, what she was saying was the necessary energy for breaking through to the third stage of his Reality Order, the Reality vs Illusion.

 Chapter 1073 Divination

    <h4>Chapter 1073 Divination</h4>


    Order. Theo felt that the Order symbol in his body was like a bottomless pit. Every day, a portion of his energy actually entered the pit, filling it.


    This allowed him to utilize the Order. The more understanding he had about his Order, the faster he could fill this bottomless pit.


    That was why the Dragon always told him to understand his Order. It was because the energy that entered the pit would soon be enough for him to reach the next stage.


    Obviously, the Lightning Authority had a far faster rate to fill that bottomless pit. After all, to reach an Authority Level Figure, his understanding of Order would have to be beyond anyone''s imagination.


    When the mermaid poured that energy into his Order symbol, he realized it could enter the pit. In other words, the mermaid actually had the ability to fill that bottomless pit, allowing him to use some of that energy to fasten his progress in learning about Reality and Illusion.


    As she said, it would be hard for him to understand Reality vs Illusion because it took him almost a year just to understand the second stage.


    However, due to this supply of energy, he could at least shorten the time to half if not faster.


    And he also received the answer as to why this ind wanted blood. It wasn''t the ind, it was the mermaid before him.


    She used that blood to supply her power, allowing her to continuously see the future.


    Theo wasn''t someone ungrateful too. He lowered his head and even his body. "Thank you. I don''t know how to repay you for this."


    "There''s no need for you to repay me because it should be me who needs to thank you. I just wish that you could keep fighting." The Queen of Destiny shook her head.


    No one knew what kind of image she actually saw to the point her attitude changed like this.


    "No wonder I couldn''t escape from this��" The Queen of Destiny shook her head in defeat. After seeing a bit of Theo''s future, there was no way she wouldn''t be tempted to search for more.


    And that was when she actually fell, making it impossible for her to escape from this.


    "I apologize. I have said everything that needs to be said. If you don''t mind, please leave this ce as soon as possible��"


    Theo could see that the Queen of Destiny was heavily injured just by looking at his future.


    With a heavy heart, Theo nodded andplied with her request. Before leaving, he once again thanked her.


    "Thank you and goodbye. If fate reunites us, let''s have a talk at that time." Theo then turned around and left.


    The others were still too shocked by what happened. They were trying to understand why the Queen of Destiny actually got such injuries.


    All they knew was that Theo''s future was the one causing that injury. And Theo might be the center of the storm that might take ce in the future world.


    They had a few choices. They could leave and have nothing to do with him anymore. This way, they would be clueless about what would happen in the future. Although it would mean their life would be more peaceful because of that ignorance, they might not know what had killed them at that time.


    On the other hand, they could stick to Theo and learn more about it. Even though there would be ups and downs, they would be in the front seat to witness everything that would happen. If they couldn''t keep up with him, they would also die.


    Lastly, they could keep in contact with Theo but maintain their distance so that they wouldn''t be pulled in. However, Theo wouldn''t want to have this kind of rtionship.


    That was why they might need to make their decision as soon as possible.


    ''Am I actually qualified to stand next to him? I was easily angered by what he did when he actually tried to protect me�� He''s my boss too and the one who saved my life��'' Isaac narrowed his eyes, looking at Theo''s back.


    ''Mhm. Is this the choice she was talking about? No. It''s different. I don''t know how to say it, but I know this is not it.'' Mark thought while closing his eyes.


    ''There is something Theo possesses that can actually cause such a thing�� This actually makes me remember about Order�� The qualification for a blessing to reach the next stage. Is it rted to Order? It seems that having an Order means you be special, but with a huge price to pay.'' Maya examined the situation carefully.


    As soon as they left the crevice, the Queen of Destiny dropped to the ground, pping her body as if a fish needed water.


    "Kh��" The Queen of Destiny let out a groan, trying to suppress the pain. She never thought such a man existed.


    "The end of the beginning, the beginning of the end." The Queen of Destiny muttered. The version was a bit different than what the God of Mischief said.


    After all, this was what the future Theo said in her mind instead of ''The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end.''


    As soon as the pain subsided, she gradually rose from the ground while cing her hand on her left eye. The eye gradually lost its color as the mermaid saw her vision bing blurry.


    Soon, the vision on her left eye became aplete white before turning ck.


    *Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    "To think��" The mermaid gritted her teeth. Despite her anger, there was no trace of regret on her face. Instead, a smile soon appeared on her face. "��I would lose an eye after seeing a human''s future. Though, he indeed has the most interesting possibilities. What kind of a man can have this kind of future��"


    She remembered the scene she saw earlier and finally uttered the words that couldn''t be uttered because others would hear it.


    "I wonder if he can prevent it�� The start of the cruel winter and moral chaos�� the copse of the Spatial Rift."

 Chapter 1074 Rough Time

    <h4>Chapter 1074 Rough Time</h4>


    After leaving the crevice, Theo finally took a deep breath and asked, "So, what should we do now?"


    "ording to her, we''ll be attacked around midnight. And we need to return to this ce in 24 hours because of the threat that will sink this ind." Maya thought for a moment, assessing their current situation.


    "That''s right. Since we know we will be attacked, we should prepare some traps." Isaac nodded in agreement before turning to Mark. "What kind of ability have you prepared to save us, Mark?"


    "Ehm��" Mark scratched the back of his head. Now that they had gotten the prediction, they could prepare everything.


    And since the mermaid didn''t say anything about the ce, they surely could pick any random ce.


    "Now that I think about it, the enemy this time seems to have something that can track us. Do you have anything that can be tracked?" Theo asked all of them.


    "I don''t think so. It might be a unique ability." Maya shook her head, thinking there was nothing like that in her belongings.


    "I only prepared some clothes. You can check if you want." Mark shook his head. Because of the divination, he seemed a bit more open than before.


    "I''m not going to betray you, you know." Isaac shrugged as there was no way he would betray him since he was staying in Theo''s mansion.


    Even if he did something, Felix would have found out since he was protecting both Theo and Millie from everyone.


    "So, let''s assume that the enemy has a special ability that can track us. It''s impossible for us to know that ability, so we should prepare something." Theo thought for a moment and said, "Well, let''s go around this ce first and search for a perfect ce to counterattack. And we need to make sure that none of them can escape��"


    "That''s true. Then, we should make a ce where there is only one exit." Maya nodded in agreement.


    However, Theo corrected her immediately. "Two."


    "Huh? Why? There''s no way we can stop all of them with two exits."


    "If we don''t have two, the enemy won''t attack us. She said earlier there are numerous possibilities and the only thing that is meant to happen is reading my future. So, there must be a possibility of them not attacking us.


    "Hence, we should provide them with enough chances to ambush us or they won''t take the bait. After that, we will take them down." Theo exined.


    "But it''s hard for us to protect two exits�� I mean, it means we will split into three groups: the bait and the two ambushers. Isaac and I don''t have the ability to protect ourselves in case we''re attacked by many people." Maya exined with a doubtful expression.


    "I know. That''s why Mark will remain beside you. As for the two exits, my monkey and I will take care of it." Theo exined. He thought the reason why he would expose his ability was due to the enemy cornering them to such an extent that he couldn''t help but use either his Blink or Clone, which was his signature move.


    Hence, he tried to use his monkey from the start so that no one exposed him.


    "That''s understandable." Maya nodded in agreement. She knew the monkey was Theo''s clone, so even if he needed to hide that identity by using the monkey''s figure, its ability was close to Theo.


    So, there was no need to worry about Theo and his clone. The only problem would be whether Mark could hold the enemy down or not, considering the enemy this time might have a big number to force Theo to expose his identity.


    ''Hmm. I think we haven''t gotten the answer to this question. Who is their target?" Isaac raised another question.


    "You can think about itter�� I mean, you can simply ask them about this question." Maya shrugged and nced at Theo. Even Mark thought the same, thinking Theo could pull their souls and torture them in a way they wouldn''t die. No one could withstand that kind of pain, so he thought everything could be solved by Theo''s way of torture.


    Mark added, "Well, I believe searching for such a perfect ce to counterattack is the most important task right now since it''s not easy to find that kind of ce. How about we search for it first and start thinking about itter?"


    "No, no. What I want to say is�� If we know their target, the bait will be more effective." Isaac added, revealing another solution.


    "Mhm? That makes sense." Maya somehow agreed. If Theo turned out to be the target, the assassins would juste to him instead of them.


    "I am staying in my mansion most of the time and haven''t provoked anyone�� Well, if you consider me defeating Pa in the previouspetition was a provocation, I guess that means Pa sent these people." Mark pointed at himself with a wry smile. "Apologize."


    "Ehm, I was threatened to a great extent a few months ago. Only when I moved to Joker''s house did I manage to escape from those threats�� I guess they wanted the information in my head��" Isaac also gave another possibility before lowering his head. "I''m sorry, I guess."


    "Well, the people in the business world want my life because of the Starry Group. There''s a possibility they''reing for me too, since there are no Mythical Rank Experts around me." Maya scratched the back of her head with a tired smile.


    Theo pointed at his mask and asked, "Why do you think I bother hiding my face?"


    "��"


    There was a long silence after they exined the possibility of this incident. It turned out all of them had a big issue in their lives that made people wish them to die.


    And in the end, no one knew who the target was because each of the problems seemed to have enough possibility for this assassination.


    Ultimately, all of them let out a long sigh at the same time and said the same thing.


    "We all have a rough time, huh��"

 Chapter 1075 Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 1075 Ambush</h4>


    After knowing that they couldn''t predict who the target was, they decided to go around to pick a ce to ambush the assassins.


    Since it was still close to the mountain, they moved a bit toward the center so that it looked like they were aiming for the central region.


    There, they found two giant cliffs standing next to each other. The arrangement made it so there were only three entrances.


    The assassins would most likely choose to attack them from the top of the cliff while surrounding them from the two sides. However, this was what Theo picked to counter their ambush.


    He offered some ns while not forcing them to follow them since they didn''t know the enemy''s number as well as their strength.


    Still, Isaac''s eyes and calction speed should be enough to determine their levels. After all, Isaac''s Analyze Skill could see their status points. Since he was used to calcting the points, it wouldn''t be that hard for him to determine their strength.


    Mark and Maya prepared their firepower, especially Maya, because she didn''t bring her armor. Or it would be easy for her to overwhelm them with all those weapons.


    Theo stood a bit far from the ce while leaving his ant form with them, allowing Theo to understand the current situation from afar.


    While waiting, Theo fell into deep thought. ''What kind of future did she see? To think she would say such a thing and even give me this kind of gift��''


    Theo closed his eyes and raised his right hand. A spark of fire soon appeared, brightening the area.


    The fire might not be big, but it was stable. Due to the energy supplied into his Order, he could manifest this power easily.


    And he could proceed to the next stage, Reality vs Illusion.


    He could turn the illusion into a reality. However, he wondered what kind of power could this stage use.


    The scene where the Mind Elder ambushed his parents shed in his mind. The Mind Elder seemed to be using his Illusion Abilities to create a realm that he could manipte at will.


    And after a few decades, he came back again and provided some good data that his mother took in their fight.


    "Mhm��" Theo narrowed his eyes as if thinking about something unique. The way the Mind Elder manipted his illusion piqued his interest.


    Now that he had an Order and a great amount of energy to waste, he thought he could fight differently from normal.


    ''Should I?'' Theo carefully thought since he didn''t want to leave the enemies alive. Their survival would bring too much uncertainty to his n.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the group stayed in the middle of the gap.


    "Where''s Joker?" Maya asked while drinking aftering back to regroup with them.


    "He''s getting some firewood that way." Mark pointed at the left side. "We''re lucky to have this cliff since it should shield us from the monsters."


    "Don''t lower your guard. We don''t know what will happen during this trip, especially since this ce is called a special region. It''s going to be extremely dangerous." Maya shook her head, denying his statement.


    "Come on. We should enjoy ourselves for today since we won''t have this kind of ce anymore in the next few days." Isaac also had a rxed mood. He didn''t want to waste this chance to rx.


    While they were lowering, another person was watching them while hiding his presence.


    After confirming what he wanted, the guy returned to the camp above the cliff.


    "We have the visual," The guy said with a nod. "They''re rxing inside the cliff, thinking there''s no monster."


    "Even if there''s no monster, there''s still us." Another guy walked toward them while wearing a ck mask that covered his entire face and hair.


    "There''s no way they know about our existence. Anyway, what''s about Joker?" The guy asked.


    "He seems to have gone out for a while. He should be back soon, so we should finish this job as quickly as possible. No matter what, all four of them are top 10 experts in the Asda Younger Generation List and Joker is the current number one expert�� If he joins the fight, at least half of us will die even if we manage to finish our assignment." Another person came out.


    To ambush them, they brought thirty Supreme Rank Experts. After all, Joker alone should be able to handle at least seven of them all by himself. Adding the others into their party along with how narrow the gap between the cliffs, they might be able to hold out for a while even with this number, so they needed to finish the mission before Joker returned.


    With ten people ambushing from each side, the enemy would have a problem defending themselves.


    One of them reported while putting on his mask. "Team B and C are ready to go. As soon as we give the signal, we can attack them."


    "Five of us will go down while the rest will remain on standby. No matter what, we should be prepared for an unknown variable. At least five of us will buy some time if Joker returns." The guy stated while putting on his mask too. "Give the signal."


    He nodded and raised his right hand so that the two guys stationed at the cliff''s edges could see them.


    In that instant, they raised both hands to tell the ambushers from the two sides to make their appearance.


    The moment they received the signal, twenty people emerged from the forest surrounding the cliff.


    "Attack them."


    As expected from an elite group of assassins, even though the jobs they registered at the temple weren''t an Assassin, they moved stealthy and swiftly, approaching their target without anyone noticing.


    Suddenly, Mark rose from his seat and looked around, realizing the change in the flow of wind. "They''reing."


    "!!!" Mark and Isaac immediately looked at each other and rose from the ground, facing the opposite directions.


    Without hesitation, Maya raised her weapon and shot it upward.


    "Bam!"


    This gunshot alone should be enough to inform Theo, or so what the assassins thought. Little did they know Theo was already aware of it and simply retracted his ant clone.


    As if realizing Maya''s intention, the group from above also came out, leaping off the cliff.


    "There are those from above too!" Mark shouted.

 Chapter 1076 Mark’s Trump Card

    <h4>Chapter 1076 Mark''s Trump Card</h4>


    "Humans?! They''re assassins!" Mark shouted, recognizing them loudly to inform the rest even though they already knew their identities.


    "I have informed Joker with that gunshot earlier. He should know that we''re ambushed and rushing back right now," said Maya while looking at one side, finding ten people. "I will take care of our left. They''re at a distance�� This narrow space should be enough for me to overwhelm them with my firepower for a while. You take care of the rest."


    "Understood." Mark nodded with a serious expression. He directed his attention to the group above them first since they would arrive before those from the side.


    Without hesitation, Mark raised his hands and formed a glowing green sphere, shooting it upward.


    The five assassins from above also used their own skills to counter-attack. Five lights appeared from their hands as they shot out their own spells, aiming for the green sphere.


    These five skills should be enough to neutralize Mark''s power, but Mark had grown far stronger than before.


    The moment they neutralized the wind sphere, the huge shock wave that had been stored inside the wind erupted.


    *Boom!*


    It caused a huge roar to the sky as the shock wave pushed all those five people back to the top.


    "What is that?!" The assassins were shocked as they punctured the cliff with their weapons and grabbed it to cling on the wall, looking at Mark.


    It seemed they had underestimated Mark''s ability.


    However, as an elite that had worked in this industry, none of them was scared. They exchanged looks briefly before nodding their heads.


    In that instant, their movement patterns changed. Instead of directlying toward them, they jumped around the cliff wall to confuse Mark.


    Unfortunately for them, Isaac released his ability, aiming at all those five.


    "Gravity. Drop�� my apples." Isaac smirked, considering those five people his apples.


    "!!!" All five assassins suddenly felt a powerful pressureing from above, pushing them to the ground. Because they were still airborne, they had nothing to stop the fall.


    And Mark used this to his advantage.


    With a wave of both hands, he used the wind to gather all these five people to one spot.


    "Wind��No, I can''t." One of the assassins that had the same affinity tried to affect Mark''s wind, but it was simply too powerful. Even though they both were Supreme Rank Experts, one was a top 10 expert while the other was too old to even make a name for himself. It was clear there was a huge gap between their strength.


    Due to the failure in disrupting Mark''s power, the wind carried them away as Mark tossed them toward the other side so that Maya could focus on buying time from those ten people while he and Isaac took care of the rest.


    They only needed to wait for Theo to appear before eliminating them, so they had some assurance in their mind.


    "Isaac. Prepare to support both of us," said Mark as the wind gradually covered his body. This was the wind armor that he always wore when fighting seriously.


    With a single wave of his hand, a powerful horizontal tornado came out of his fingers and expanded until it was the same size as the gap.


    Three of the assassins raised their des and used their skills to cut through the tornado.


    But the tornado soon got enveloped by another light. The moment their des reached the tornado, those three were pushed back as if they got hit by a giant truck.


    Even the other two leaped back despite having prepared to attack as soon as the tornado disappeared.


    This was Isaac''s ability, the motionw. By using it on the tornado, thetter would continue to move forward without any deceleration. As long as Mark could maintain its form, the motionw would be able to give enough power to push them back.


    "We need to wait for the rest," one of them said while pushing forward to buy some time. They only had one or two minutes before Theo appeared. Even with the group buying some time from Theo, they needed to finish this operation within five minutes.


    And half a minute had passed.


    A few secondster, the rest of the assassins had reached the edges of the gap.


    Suddenly, three huge circles appeared on top of their heads. These three were the abilities of magicians.


    Without hesitation, Mark raised his hand and sent another tornado to push all of them away. However, the assassins took this opportunity to cut through the tornado on the ground since Mark couldn''t maintain it properly when splitting his focus.


    Isaac nced to the back and realized Maya used all her firepower to suppress those ten. He believed she could hold those ten for two more minutes before they reached their position. Within that time, Theo should have appeared and messed with their formation.


    In other words, the side that he was supposed to focus on was Mark''s side. As long as they could take down a few of them, their jobs would be easier.


    Hence, Isaac said, "I have finished calcting their status. Their levels are approximately 600-700. ording to the distribution, three magicians, two knights, fighters and enchanters, four assassins, and two healers.


    "Maya. Your side is the same. But they have two for each job�� knight, fighter, magician, healer, and assassin. Be careful."


    "Got it." Both of them nodded their heads.


    Knowing the job distribution alone could take a huge portion of their burden, considering they knew how to suppress each job. Isaac truly did a good job as the team''s support.


    After knowing the party''s distribution, Mark suddenly waved his hands to the opposite sides, scratching the wall for no reason.


    "In that case, I don''t need to hold back anymore." Mark stomped the ground with his right foot and pulled his left hand, lowering his body. After that, the wind gradually grabbed all those rubbles that were scattered around, forming a huge dragon head next to him.


    In other words, Mark used his wind to carry those stones and create this shape, allowing him to add more power to his wind.


    If he could carry wood splinters as a sharp object to harm his enemy or if he could carry the sand when he fought Theo for the first time to blind him, he should be able to fight better.


    This was Mark''s secret weapon that he had prepared this whole time.


    "I have all the resources around me. It''s a waste not to use them." Mark couldn''t help but smirk as he finally let out this move in the open for the first time.

 Chapter 1077 A Punch on The Face Put an Assassin on His Place

    <h4>Chapter 1077 A Punch on The Face Put an Assassin on His ce</h4>


    "Damn�� That''s so cool." Isaac looked at the stone dragon that was made of numerous pebbles. It seemed Mark had been practicing his control this whole time as the wind ability he used required good control.


    Theo must have inspired him to train his Control over any other Five Aspects.


    "Motion Law��" Isaac smirked and yed a bit with some stones. "I reinforced some random stones among those�� it should be strong and random enough to hit them."


    Mark nodded with a smile as he pushed forward, shooting that great gale and stones toward the assassins.


    "Not good!" The three magicians came forward and set a huge wall to block it.


    The wind and stones struck their walls, but some stones that Isaac reinforced pierced through their walls and hit five of them. And two of them were hit in the vital area.


    "Gah!" They dropped to the ground while spurting a lot of blood.


    "Damn. I want that kind of overpowered ability too." Isaac smiled.


    "I want your unique ability," Mark replied as he was also envious of Isaac''s unique ability. Just like Theo, he could think of many ways to use it as an offensive ability.


    "Alright. I should stop hiding my trump card too." Isaac smirked as he suddenly took out two gloves reinforced with some metals. This was also the equipment from the Star Group that Theo bought from them.


    ''A glove?'' Mark was distracted for a split second due to the surprise of Isaac''s trump card.


    "!!!" And one assassin realized that gap as he erupted his me on his boots,unching himself past Mark.


    "Shit!" Mark gritted his teeth and saw the assassin passing him. "Isaac!"


    Isaac saw the assassin that suddenly changed his attack pattern with his me, allowing him to move unpredictably. As a support, Isaac shouldn''t be able to follow this swift and unpredictable movement.


    However, what Isaac did was smile.


    This scene reminded him of the training he had endured for thest few months.


    At that time, he was sitting on the ground after exhausting all his Magic Power. He panted while asking, "I can''t do this anymore. This is too harsh for me�� I just want money to lead avish life. Mr. Felix�� Come on, Joker is not here. Can you cut some ck?"


    Felix looked at him with his stone face as he rejected the idea without hesitation. "No. I have promised him to train you so that your body can handle the enemy."


    "But I''m just a support. My ability relies on my unique skills. My position is on the back, so the enemies won''te at me."


    "It''s clear that you''re going to be the weakness of the party and will be targeted no matter where you go. Yet, you still dare to im that you don''t want to train your body?"


    "I��" Isaac truly had no words to refute him.


    "Training Martial Arts will take a long time for you. So, I''m not teaching you anything�� I just want to polish your instinct and eyes so that you can follow your enemy''s movement. Using that unique ability of yours and that glove, it should be enough to upy them for some time or evennd a blow�� That''s why I don''t ask much. Don''tin and keep training�� Don''t disappoint him." Felix stated with a great conviction.


    After his daughter was cursed, his world lost its color, turning into a ck and white world. And Theo dared to risk his life and turned it back to the colorful world he saw before.


    He would do anything to repay him. And there was no way he would hold back in fulfilling his task.


    "So,e!" He stated, raising his killing intent as if forcing Isaac to go at him again.


    Isaac was stunned at that time, not because of his power or killing intent, but his feeling toward Theo. It somehow gave him some energy to continue.


    Remembering that scene truly put a smile on his face.


    "Die!" The assassin finally reached him while enveloping his de with me, using enough hit to melt and sh the enemy at the same time. One sh should be enough to incapacitate Isaac and he wouldn''t waste this chance.


    "Mr. Felix is far faster than you!" However, Isaac shouted as he managed to follow the assassin''s movement and punched his de. The metal in the glove struck the de. Normally, Isaac would feel hurt, but he had applied the second motionw to his punch, allowing him to increase his speed as well as power.


    ''I can''t overpower him? No, he''s�� overpowering me?'' The assassin widened his eyes as his de was gradually pushed back until it touched his body.


    At that moment, the glove slipped past the de as the punch struck the assassin''s face, cracking his skull and blowing him away.


    "Hahaha. Get rekt!" Isaacughed before realizing something. Because he slipped past the de, the me reached his clothes and started burning his sleeve. "Ah, hot, hot, hot!"


    He immediately pped the fire a few times until it was gone.


    "��" Mark fell silent as he was also embarrassed. Although Isaac''s ability was unique and cool, his personality made him like a joke. Still, it didn''t change the fact that Isaac was one of the top ten experts.


    "Still, good job." Mark smirked.


    "I love that you''re talking more, Mark. You always shut your mouth when Joker is around. I know that you have some friction with him, but he won''t pick you for that petty reason. Just rx a bit." Isaac smiled while raising both hands, preparing to fight more.


    "��" Mark was startled by his statement before a smile appeared on his face. "I will try."


    As they had a good time with their little chat, the battlefield was shaken once again.


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    *Boom!*


    Suddenly, a huge blue light shone from above. It was only for a split second, but the rock above the cliff suddenly slid down. Each cliff was destroyed at the same time, and the cut was so clean that it slid down simultaneously, resulting in both sides hitting each other and stopping.


    The rocks became a roof on top of their heads. It expanded for at least a hundred feet, preventing anyone from escaping from above.


    "!!!" Both the assassins and Theo''s group were shocked by this sudden movement. However, that shock turned into relief for Theo''s group when a monkey descended from the cliff with a sword in his hand.


    "Kiki!"

 Chapter 1078 Combat

    <h4>Chapter 1078 Combat</h4>


    A moment ago, the gunshot broke the peace of the silent night. Theo, who had been waiting for the ambush, immediately opened his eyes and picked up his sword.


    His Clone appeared next to him and turned into a monkey since they were going to help them.


    While waiting, he had many thoughts that he wanted to try in this assassination.


    ording to Maya, the enemies might have a unique ability that could locate them. So, the fact that they didn''t attack him meant their target was one of those trio.


    Hence, he managed to narrow the choice a bit.


    Since he nned to know more about this assassination, Theo immediately picked up his pace and headed straight to the cliff, considering he stationed himself a bit far from the ce to avoid getting discovered by the assassins.


    Instead of attacking them from behind, Theo flew on top of the cliff to check the situation and found five people hiding on top of the cliff.


    Their eyes soon intertwined as Theo immediately rushed toward them.


    "Here hees! Stop Joker and his monkey for at least two minutes!" One of them stood up while pulling his sword.


    The rest also did the same as they moved forward, trying to stop him.


    However, the monkey suddenly leaped to the cliff next to them.


    "Huh?"


    "Spread out. We need to stop the monkey as well."


    In the end, two of them leaped to the other cliff while Theo took care of three assassins. This number was low enough even for Theo, so there should be no problem in finishing the battle quickly.


    He formed a sword and tossed it to the monkey as if giving him the weapon to fight those two assassins.


    However, right before they shed, both the monkey and Theo leaped to each other''s cliff, exchanging their positions.


    "What?!" The assassins were stunned as one of them immediately responded by shouting. "Exchange!"


    The moment they leaped toward each other, Theo smirked. Both he and the monkey waved their swords at the same time.


    "Not good!" All five of them raised their weapons to stop the attack, but this attack was directed to the edge of the cliff.


    The Sword Energy that came out of the weapons cut through the rocks so clean that they slid down together.


    Due to the size, depth, and timing, the sliding rocks hit each other, turning into a roof that covered the gap beneath them. At the very least, they wouldn''t attack the rocks above them since they didn''t know who would ambush them after doing that.


    After that, Theo summoned his Death Avatar and waved its giant hand, hitting the two assassins that chased after the monkey.


    "Kh!" The assassins held their des and blocked the Death Avatar''s palm. In the meantime, the three assassins came closer to Theo, nning to kill Theo.


    One of them, who had beenmanding the group this whole time, moved forward while hiding the other two fellows behind him so that they couldunch a sneak attack.


    He waved his sword downwards, nning to pin Theo down on the ground.


    Theo, on the contrary, smiled when he saw this de. He took a deep breath while swinging his sword, striking the assassin''s de.


    *ng!*


    The moment they heard the clicking sound, the two assassins split into two directions, trying to defeat Theo from both sides.


    Unfortunately for them, a powerful shock wave suddenly struck their abdomens.


    "Gah!" Both of them spat acid from their stomachs as they were blown away.


    "What?!" The leader widened his eyes and nced back, wondering what had happened. There was nothing between them and Theo, yet thetter could blow them away. "You��"


    "Five people�� It seems that I''ve been underestimated." Theo smirked as he released all his Magic Power.


    The two guys, who were hit by the Death Avatar, had recovered and approached Theo.


    Their weapons were glowing red and blue light. The red light was set aze while the other one covered the sword with ice. With these two conflicting elements, Theo would have a problem defending them.


    But that was the case if Theo didn''t have his Order. The moment he saw those elements, the Order was activated.


    Their fire and ice suddenly disappeared without a trace.


    "What?!" The two assassins were confused because they couldn''t feel their elements. Unfortunately for them, they couldn''t get to examine the phenomenon because the Death Avatar had formed another sword and shed horizontally, striking both of them.


    They blocked it with their weapons, but the strength was enough to blow them away.


    After that, Theo summoned thirty swords from his Magic Power, sending all of them forward.


    The assassin with ice affinity immediately pped his hands and formed a huge ice wall between them, stopping some of the swords. But half of them managed to go around the wall and reach them.


    The fire assassin formed a fire tornado that engulfed all the swords in one go while asking the ice assassins to set up another wall so they could kill the momentum.


    At the same time, the other group raised their hands, pointing at the captain that still stopped Theo''s de.


    Suddenly, their captain was enveloped by a white light.


    Theo flinched, feeling his opponent''s strength be even stronger.


    ''I''m getting pushed back?'' Theo thought while furrowing his eyebrows. Before he started applying more strength, the assassin raised his sword, forcing Theo to continue his swing.


    After that, the assassin struck the de again, resulting in a more powerful momentum being added to the sh.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he raised his other hand to hold the de, taking the sword with all his strength.


    *Boom!*


    The ground cracked as Theo felt he was catching a truck that fell on top of him.


    Taking this perfect opportunity, the two assassins he blew away earlier with the Invisible Vortex had returned and finally surrounded him from two sides.


    ''This time��''


    ''We''re going to kill you��''


    Both assassins thought they could use this chance to kill Theo. However, a sharp pain suddenly struck their brain when nothing happened.


    They couldn''t help but scream in pain. "Gah!"


    Theo smiled as the Death Avatar raised both palms, pushing them downwards to smack them to death.


    "Not good!"

 Chapter 1079 Slip Up

    <h4>Chapter 1079 Slip Up</h4>


    "Not good!"


    Both assassins enveloped their bodies with Magic Power. And in that instant, the pain disappeared.


    The moment they realized no pain remained in their body, they threw themselves to the side, barely avoiding the Death Avatar''s palms.


    "That''s an illusion!"


    "What? This man has strong abilities, yet he''s also hiding the power of illusion?"


    The two assassins, who recognized Theo''s illusion abilities, were shocked by this revtion.


    "Who has such a strong ability while still having such a trump card?" The leader was shocked by their statements and looked at Theo. The moment he widened his mouth upon realizing Joker''s true identity, two hundred Magic Bullets appeared on top of them. "You�� You��"


    Before he could say anything, Theo disappeared by using his Blink.


    He reappeared behind him while shing his sword.


    The man somehow reacted to it and spun his body while putting his sword in front of him.


    But the moment Theo struck his sword, the shock wave that came from Theo''s Perfect Control struck his chest,unching him to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!" The man spat a mouthful of blood as he recognized this teleportation ability and the numerous Magic Bullets that appeared.


    Unfortunately for him, there was nothing he could do when fifty Magic Bullets suddenly rained him down, obliterating his head and chest.


    As for the rest of the assassins, they felt the same. They thought they knew this guy, but they were not as smart as their captain. Even though the figure was in the back of their minds, they couldn''t recall the image of that person. There was a reason why he was chosen as the captain.


    Since Theo had shown such a thing, he didn''t n to hold back anymore.


    Without hesitation, the Death Avatar raised both hands and enveloped the top of the cliff with mist. This was Theo''s Death Domain.


    The mist felt chill, but its original purpose was to create a small domain that could blind them, especially their Awareness.


    After that, those numerous bullets flew toward them, turning this mist into an execution ground.


    Still, as one would expect from elite assassins, their reflex somehow kept up with the Magic Bullets as they were using their own power to neutralize the Magic Bullets.


    Unbeknownst to them, the real reason Theo utilized this mist was to cover his body as he made his way toward one of them.


    The same as the leader, Theo struck him from above while knocking his chest with the Invisible Vortex. After that, the Magic Bullets delivered the killing blows.


    "Wait. I know his real identity!" One of the assassins figured out Theo''s real identity, which was a great shock to him. However, due to that shout, he became Theo''s next target, resulting in him dying before he could say anything.


    In the end, no one knew about Theo''s again as thetter approached thest two assassins.


    Surprisingly, the monkey that had jumped down suddenly returned to the top of the cliff and matched his move perfectly with Theo, killing both of them at the same time.


    After that, the two split into two directions, jumping to the cliff behind the assassins. This was their n this whole time after all.


    "What?" The assassins were shocked when they saw both Joker and the monkeying down from the two sides, surrounding them from all directions.


    However, the most shocking thing they heard was that the people from above seemed to have recognized Joker''s true identity. This made them curious, albeit they were in the face of great danger.


    There was no opportunity to learn Theo''s real identity in this situation. With Theo killing those five, the situation became 5 vs 21, with another four dying under the hand of Isaac and Mark.


    In other words, they didn''t have enough personnel to kill their target. They were forced to make a decision whether they wanted to fight it out or escape.


    Theo didn''t wait for them to make the decision. He came forward from Maya''s side and waved his de.


    One of the assassins tried to block Theo''s sword, but the Invisible Vortex hit his stomach andunched him to his teammates, resulting in both of them tripping to the ground.


    Seeing that chance, Maya rained them down with her bullets, killing them.


    Without hesitation, Theo ran toward the numerous bullets that Maya released. As long as he protected his face, his Supernatural Snake Body as well as the protective suits from the Star Group, should be enough to withstand the remaining bullets.


    This was the reason why Theo chose to go down from Maya''s side.


    Without hesitation, he came toward each of the enemies and in them one after another.


    At the same time, the monkey did the same. Using the Invisible Vortex, the monkey easily struck them one by one.


    Due to the gap and their confusion, they had a hard time stopping even one attack from the monkey.


    Suddenly, someone''s voice resounded across the gap. "Retreat!"


    Since the people above the cliff had died and they were getting in one by one, their only option was to retreat.


    However, another person shouted at the top of his lungs. "Wait. We haven''t killed Maya!"


    "Idiot. Don''t say it out loud!" Obviously, as elite assassins, they weren''t supposed to say anything about their origin, employer, or target.


    And all the assassins knew this.


    That was why there was someone shouting back.


    "Don''t fucking answer!" It contained so much frustration because that voice came from Maya and Theo''s side. They witnessed it themselves that Theo was the one actually saying those words.


    But because they were from the other side, they didn''t know about it. Their only thought was that an idiot in their team blurted out their target.


    This was Theo''s way of determining their target as well as the level of the assassins. He realized this group would kill themselves rather than get captured and interrogated. Hence, he wanted something to make them slip up and blurt out their secret.


    And this was enough for Theo. After all, the assassins seemed to be able to neutralize his illusion easily just by revolving their Magic Power. If he tortured them with his illusion, they would realize it was an illusion, resulting in his identity being exposed even to his allies.


    Hence, he thought this information was enough as he nned to eliminate the rest of the assassins right now.


    ''Since I have gotten enough information, it''s time��'' Theo narrowed his eyes as his expression darkened.

 Chapter 1080 Weird

    <h4>Chapter 1080 Weird</h4>


    Before they could move, Theo and the monkey took down a few more people. Eventually, they were truly scared to the point they leaped to the wall, trying to escape from the top.


    However, Isaac used his Gravity Skill and sealed their movements, pulling them back down. After that, Theo eliminated every single one of them without hesitation.


    Theo might rarely kill people, but it didn''t mean he wasn''t able to kill them. He simply had no need to eliminate them since others would take care of them.


    Now that everyone wanted to keep them alive for him to use his Illusion Skill, he decided not to waste his time and kill them.


    "Wait, Joker!" Isaac shouted, trying to stop Theo from killing thest few assassins. With their current strength and number, they should be able to suppress these few assassins.


    But Theo had no sign of stopping and eliminated all assassins.


    "What did you do��" Maya widened her eyes. Since the assassin admitted they wereing for her, Maya thought about finding the person behind them.


    And with all of them dying, there was no way to find that truth.


    "You�� Didn''t you n to get some information from them?" Maya asked with a dumbfounded expression. She waspletely speechless that Theo actually didn''t fulfill his agreement.


    This was the first time Theo acted like this.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment, looking at Maya mysteriously. There was no change of expression on his face, but it was clear that Theo was different from the usual him.


    Then, they started remembering the shout on top of the cliff, iming Theo''s real identity. In the end, they didn''t manage to tell others about Theo''s real identity.


    "You��" Isaac was speechless, trying to get some words out of his mouth. However, what Theo did was simply shocking. He thought, ''Why did Joker kill them so easily? They still had some uses, so it was better to spare some of them�� Even if they were elites, they shouldn''t be able to withstand his ability.''


    ''Wait a minute. He''s not someone who does something meaningless. Does he know something that we don''t? Or is it because of his identity? Or is there something wrong with the assassins?'' Mark had many questions in his mind as the atmosphere became heavy again. He was about to open up to Theo ording to Isaac''s request, yet he couldn''t do it due to this suspicion.


    Meanwhile, Maya furrowed her eyebrows. As someone who knew about Joker''s real identity, Maya was a bit skeptical when she heard that shout.


    Since the assassin said that, Theo should have used his trademark ability. However, she couldn''t understand the reason why Theo revealed those skills, considering Theo should be strong enough to fight the assassins even without those.


    ''Is there something wrong with him?'' Maya pondered, waiting for Theo to give the reason for his action.


    Theo fell silent for a moment. It was true that he nned to torture them with his Illusion Maniption. Although he was aware that the pain in his Illusion Maniption could be expelled by the Magic Power, he could simply use the image of the soul to fool them, just like how he usually operated.


    Yet, Theo chose to back down from the agreement and changed his n.


    There was one reason for this action. It was due to how fast the assassins reacted to his illusion.


    He thought the moment he pulled their soul out, the assassins would envelop their body with Magic Power and the illusion would break.


    And the moment everyone realized it was just an illusion, his identity would be clear sooner orter.


    But then, he could simply bring them somewhere else to interrogate them. Since he didn''t want to reveal his identity, no one would ask anything if he decided to drag them somewhere else to get the information.


    That was why Theo''s current action was weird in their eyes.


    He might get the target out of their mouth, but it didn''t mean anything since all the assassins were dead.


    Theo somehow became distant as he maintained his mysterious aura.


    Even the others wanted to say something but ended up keeping their mouth shut when they saw his eyes.


    Meanwhile, Theo was thinking about the reason as well in his head. ''Why, huh? My original n was to use my Order, Illusion, and mask to gain some information from them by making them believe I was one of them.


    ''But I ended up scrapping that n because it would mean I showed my Illusion Abilities to the others. No, that wasn''t it�� Why didn''t I think this through? I should have known that I would show my ability after thinking about the n�� Yet, why did I even n something like that?''


    Theo was also stunned by his decision and thought today. On his normal days, Theo was a careful person and his mind always tried to make the best n possible.


    Yet, there was something wrong with him today.


    ''Why? This is not like me. I don''t even have the answer to their question��'' Theo was racking his brain just to get some words out to convince them, albeit he was struggling to find one.


    ''This is the first time I did something like this�� Why did I evene up with a foolish n and execute it when I should have thrown it and used another n��.'' Theo gulped down as this might be the first time he would have no exnation for his action.


    After all, Theo''s rule for the Reality Order was to never lie. If he ended up lying to his friends here meant he broke that rule. When that happened, no one could tell what the result would be.


    The world could take away his Order, the rtionship between him and his Order might weaken, or nothing might happen at all.


    That was why Theo was thinking about how to solve this situation.


    As if trying to answer his doubt, the God of Mischief suddenly connected to him to get his attention and solve his problem.


    [It seems you need another clue about Order, especially the Destiny Order and Reality Order.]

 Chapter 1081 Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 1081 Meeting</h4>


    [It seems you need another clue about Order, especially the Destiny Order and Reality Order.]


    ''Huh?'' Theo widened his eyes, not expecting to see the God of Mischiefing to him.


    [Just put your hand on your chest and leave for some time.]


    "��" Theo was surprised when he saw the reason. He was acting weird this whole time, and the God of Mischief seemed to be nning to shift all their attention to his chest.


    Suddenly, an idea came to his mind. He realized what he wanted. To think that the God of Mischief already had a way to escape this whole time.


    Without hesitation, Theo pressed his chest, especially his Order''s Symbol. After that, he looked at them while saying, "Sorry. I need some time alone."


    There was no need for Theo to wait for their response because this was the right way. He then turned around and left without giving them any exnation.


    This way, Theo didn''t need to lie or anything. He simply shifted the problem.


    When they saw Theo leaving them, they were stunned and looked at each other with dumbfounded faces.


    "What is he doing?"


    "Why did he kill all these people?"


    "But wait, he pressed his chest like he was in pain."


    They were confused, wondering whether there was a problem in Theo''s chest or not. Soon, they remembered the conversation they had a few hours ago with that mermaid.


    That spot was precisely the area where the mermaid sent her energy to Theo.


    "Don''t tell me�� Was Joker getting manipted by the mermaid?" Isaac gasped as he started to get worried.


    "Now that I think about it, he''s truly different from the usual Joker. He feels cold and ruthless." Mark thought for a moment. "I mean, I can feel the difference between that one and his usual scam�� He''s more like a scammer instead of a murderer."


    Maya, on the other hand, maintained her silence as she looked down, falling into deep thought. She knew Theo personally. After following his news for a while, she knew that Theo rarely killed his opponents.


    It wasn''t that he didn''t want to kill, they simply died under someone''s hands usually. But the one she saw earlier was the ruthless Theo that killed his enemies for no reason.


    Although they wereing to kill them, the normal Theo would surely try to gain everything first from them instead of instantly killing them.


    And with the way he left, she realized something was wrong. And just like Mark and Isaac suspected, she believed the Queen of Destiny was the one behind Theo''s change.


    Little did they know that the God of Mischief managed to fool them by asking Theo to put his hand on the chest. He didn''t even lie or anything.


    "Anyway, I want to apologize for endangering your lives." Maya apologized because the assassins targeted her instead of anyone else. However, there was one more pressing matter. "We should clean this up first before waiting for Joker. If he doesn''te back in a while, we need to look for him since he might be in danger or something��"


    "That''s true��" Isaac and Mark agreed with her and started working.


    Meanwhile, Theo had gotten some distance from them. He then sent his clone to scout the area, protecting the real body.


    "This ce should be fine."


    [Go to a safer ce first.]


    "��" Theo was confused for a second before noticing the original intention. It seemed the God of Mischief wanted to meet him in his consciousness.


    Hence, Theo searched for a small area without any monsters around. After that, he sat down on the ground and closed his eyes. "I''m ready."


    His heart became calm as his consciousness gradually faded away.


    The moment Theo opened his eyes, he soon noticed he was in the middle of a in white room. The room had no edge, but that wasn''t important.


    After all, there were three figures standing in front of him. They were Loki, Hel, and Fenrir.


    The God of Mischief looked at Theo with a calm expression. With a wave of his hand, a small chair appeared as he took a seat.


    "Is there something wrong with me? Even I don''t think I''m myself right now��" Theo asked since he was still clueless about his current state.


    "I was nning to teach you this after you master the third stage and approach the fourth stage of your Order, but it seems that I need to move up my schedule." The God of Mischief sighed.


    "Order? As expected, is it rted to my Order?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as he felt something bad would happen if he didn''t take care of this matter.


    "You know what, your Reality Order has started manifesting itself, absorbing all the reality that was supposed to happen. And now, those Theos are influencing your brain, temperament, and heart. That''s why you feel like you''re not yourself." The God of Mischief exined calmly.


    "What?! My Reality Order? Is the Order a double-edged sword?"


    "Yes, exactly." The God of Mischief nodded a few times.


    However, Fenrir couldn''t contain hisugh as his high-pitchedughter broke the serious atmosphere.


    "Hahaha. You''reme, human. Since when did you be an idiot?! I thought your head was your main point!" Fenrir snorted, satisfied with the previous reaction.


    "��" Theo was stunned and widened his eyes, realizing he had been tricked.


    However, the Goddess of Death ced her hand on Loki''s shoulder and said, "You should exin it more clearly."


    "Well, he needs a lesson this time to not ept someone''s gift without knowing anything about it. I think he has be full of himself because of the sudden power up�� using that Order to remove elements��" The God of Mischief let out a long sigh, disappointed in Theo''s current state.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment and asked carefully. "Does that mean the cause of my current state has something to do with the Queen of Destiny? No, specifically the Destiny Order?


    "If I didn''t receive that energy, would I be fine right now? But the Lightning Authority once told me that it was alright to absorb energy?"

 Chapter 1082 Synergy

    <h4>Chapter 1082 Synergy</h4>


    The one who answered was Hel. She stepped forward and said, "Yes. It''s alright to absorb energy. However, you need to differentiate the energy. I''m pretty sure that you already know there is a different kind of energy, right?


    "The first being the pure Magic Power. Then, there is Order''s Unique Energy. If we are continuing with the others, we can include the affinities and Covenant Seal. They''re different types of energy too."


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "The cause of your current behavior is the synergy between different kinds of energy."


    "Synergy��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. "Like a symbiotic rtionship?"


    Hel nodded and continued, "Simr to that. To put it simply, there are four types of synergy. Harmony, Neutral, Segregated, and Ipatible.


    "Harmony is where two Orders can work mutually, and their rtionship is so close that they''re usually paired up with one another. The best example of this is when the people called Space-Time instead of Space and Time. I''m sure the scientists make both Space and Time rted��


    "As for Neutral Synergy, the two Orders can work with each other, but there are strict rules or side effects when working on it. For example��!" Before she finished her words, the God of Mischief grabbed Hel''s hand and stopped her.


    When their eyes intertwined, Hel realized what he wanted and nodded her head. "In that case, it''s better to show you first."


    Theo''s attention soon shifted to the God of Mischief.


    The God of Mischief then turned to Fenrir and poured his energy into him.


    Fenrir also did the same before a translucent beast appeared behind them. The beast looked like Fenrir, but it was excluding a fierce power from its body.


    The beast approached Theo''s carefully while showing such an intense gaze as if he wanted to prey upon him.


    "This is��" Theo felt the beast gradually be bigger and bigger as if he overwhelmed him with his aura alone. However, deep in his heart, he realized it wasn''t the beast growing in size, it was him bing smaller.


    When one felt intense pressure, usually from killing intent or ferocious gaze like this, they would feel smallpared to the beast and be frozen in fear.


    Before he could say anything, a freezing hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder, making his body tremble.


    The touch was so cold that he almost mistook it for ice. When he turned around to see who had touched him, a sharp object suddenly appeared, touching his neck directly as if wanting to cut him.


    "!!!"


    The atmosphere became cold. The hair on his hand rose as another presence came to life.


    The figure was more than fifteen feet tall, holding a scythe and cing it on Theo''s neck. The feeling was slightly different from Hel''s killing intent because this one was directly influencing his heart, making his life sh before his eyes.


    "This��" Theo couldn''t help but release his Magic Power, trying to make them back down. But the moment his Magic Power touched them, they disappeared without a trace.


    Even the feeling vanished as if nothing had happened, showing that it was just an illusion.


    However, the intense gaze from the beast that excluded such pressure and the feeling of death that made him see his memories shocked him to the core.


    Theo looked at the God of Mischief and said, "That is�� Neutral Synergy."


    "I was simply using the synergy between my Illusion Order and his Beast Order together with her Death Order." The God of Mischief closed his eyes with a smile, finishing his presentation.


    Hel was the one continuing the exnation. "Anyway, that''s the Neutral Synergy. Depending on how you use it, the power can be as strong as the Harmony, but it has a side effect. The illusion can''t be maintained for long because it uses a huge amount of energy. Although he could do it easily, it was in the past. Your energy wasn''t enough to use such a technique continuously.


    "You can even think of Fire and Ice for this Synergy�� They''re the opposite of each other, but they can somehow work hand in hand if you use them correctly.


    "Third, the Segregated is simply like oil and water. They''re two opposite Orders that don''t have any Synergy at all�� There is someone missing, right? That''s the reason."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression, knowing she was mentioning Jormungand. Since his Order couldn''t have any Synergy with them, there was no need to summon him here.


    "Last but not least, Ipatible! This is the worst Synergy because you will just make a conflict with each other. This Synergy is simr to Fire and Water. Different from Fire and Ice, this Synergy is only trying to destroy each other. Fire wants to evaporate the water while the water wants to put out the fire.


    "Do you understand the difference between Synergies now?"


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Though, I have one question. If I assume my current behavior is due to the Synergy, does that mean the Queen of Destiny was the cause?"


    "Let me answer it with another question. What kind of Synergy do you think you have with the Destiny Order?"


    Theo thought for a moment. "Neutral?"


    "Exactly. She didn''t mean harm to you because she thought you could handle the side effects�� To be honest, if you manage to master the third stage, you should be able to take care of the side effects.


    "After all, you have understood the difference between Illusion and Reality. Then, how is it rted to the Destiny Order?


    "You''d heard her exnation. Destiny Order allowed her to catch a glimpse of the numerous possibilities.


    "If you just asked for the divination, it wouldn''t have any side effects. It became a different case when she poured the energy into your Order.


    "It caused a Synergy without you knowing it, causing both the Reality Order and Destiny Order to ovep.


    "The Destiny Order showed those possibilities while your Reality Order turned those possibilities into reality. However, you are living in this reality right now. That''s why all those possibilities areing to reality in the form of you.


    "In other words, you are like this because you are currently merged with all the Theos in those numerous possibilities."

 Chapter 1083 Answer

    <h4>Chapter 1083 Answer</h4>


    "What? I merged with all of them?!" Theo widened his eyes in shock.


    This time, the God of Mischief broke his silence and asked Theo. "Why did you kill them? Why did you agree to interrogate them? Why did you want to try to trick them? Why did you shout ''Maya'' instead of someone else at that time? Why did you reveal your Illusion Ability? And why did youe up with the n of ambushing them?"


    The God of Mischief raised his hands, showing eight separated illusions that looked like a movie.


    In the first one, Theo killed the assassins like he did, but some escaped because he didn''t take advantage of the surprise element to eliminate all of them. After all, he thought about capturing them.


    The second one showed Theo interrogating them in front of everyone. Soon, his abilities were exposed, resulting in both Isaac and Mark finding out Theo''s real identity.


    The third illusion was Theo tricking them by putting on that mask. After getting the information, Theo suddenly turned back into his normal form, which revealed his illusion ability to everyone else.


    Theo called Isaac and Mark''s names on the fourth and fifth ones. While the sixth one showed how Theo underestimated his enemies and still hid that illusion power, resulting in him being severely injured.


    The seventh illusion was when Theo used another strategy different from the ambush, while thest one was where Theo didn''t even know they were getting ambushed.


    Seeing these illusions made him realize what the God of Mischief tried to convey. Theo gasped as he said, "So, in those possibilities�� No, in those realities, I have done all that. Now that we''rebined, my body and feelings are mixed up while doing what I believe is the best?"


    "Yes. You have done all that in those realities, but the current you are different. In this reality, you hadn''t done anything, but your body and mind remembered that you did all that, resulting in your instinct to choose the best option. That''s why you killed those assassins while using all that n." The God of Mischief nodded while exining the reason.


    It turned out Theo had failed numerous times in those realities. That was why his body chose to kill the assassins in a way he could eliminate all of them. It wasn''t the best option, but it was truly one with the least risk.


    Theo fell silent for a moment, absorbing this knowledge. "Synergy�� The Destiny Order showed the possibilities and my Reality Order turned them into reality�� I see."


    The God of Mischief sighed. "I was nning to teach you when you mastered Reality vs Illusion since you should be aware of multiple realities at that time�� But now that you''re already aware of it, I need to exin it to you so that you don''t lose yourself in those numerous realities."


    "Then, why didn''t you warn me about this? I wouldn''t take the energy if it could cause such a thing?" Theo asked.


    The God of Mischief tilted his head in confusion before looking at Theo as if he was a fool. "Why should I? The energy will be beneficial for you, so there''s no reason for you to reject it."


    "But�� now that I have been influenced by those possibilities, my judgment ability will��"


    "That''s your problem. The only thing you can do is to sort that thought out of your head, learning all those possibilities before denying them because there is only one reality. I can''t do anything to help you other than give you some knowledge about them. The only one who can solve your Order is yourself." The God of Mischief shrugged his shoulders as though he didn''t care about the problem Theo had.


    Instead of reacting to his words, Theo looked down and fell into deep thought. After a while, there was a question in his head. "Now that I think about it, you don''t seem to enjoy talking about Order�� You didn''t talk this whole time��"


    "That''s my reason." The God of Mischief pointed his finger at Theo. "You�� You need to learn the Order yourself. Do you know why I haven''t talked so much about Order despite knowing many things about it as an Authority? How about them? They were also Authorities in the past."


    Theo shook his head. "I don''t know."


    "I simply want you to learn about your own Order. The way you use it, the way you learn it, the way you explore the possibilities, I want all of them to be original!" The God of Mischief sighed and asked, "What did you do when you learned about those Five Stages? The Magic Power Stage to Reality Realm Stage? You followed my words, right?


    "What if I told you another way to understand the Order? You would certainly use it. That is why what you''re going to have in the future wille from me. In other words, it won''t be your Order, it''s mine with you being my puppet. Do you understand that, Theodore Griffith?


    "Have you ever thought that despite not lying, I have taught you something wrong? You haven''t, right?" The God of Mischief couldn''t help but rise in anger. He walked toward Theo and grabbed his shoulders.


    For the first time in his life, Theo saw angering from his gaze.


    The God of Mischief was truly angry this time.


    "Remember this. I''m not your teacher nor your parents. I want to support you because I want to but never rely on me�� never be dependent. If you don''t know something, ask me. I will answer if I can do it. If I don''t want to answer, I will remain silent. Why?


    "It''s simple. Just like how pressing your chest could make them arrive at a conclusion that something has happened to you, I want you to get your own answer. That answer might be wrong, might be more sophisticated than mine, or can even prove me wrong. That''s the reason I don''t talk much about Order and simply ask others to give the answer like that dragon." The God of Mischief pressed Theo''s chest with his finger a few times.


    "You are not my puppet. You are not a clone. You are my Joker, the one that no one can predict. You are Theodore Griffith. I want you to remain the original Theodore Griffith.


    "You said you want to be freed from all the schemes that affect your life. Then, do it! Search for your answer; use that rationality of yours to get that answer. You have the Reality Order, so what is the Reality in your eyes? Is it something taught by others? Is it something guided by others? Or is it something you created by yourself? Prove it to me that you are nothing but Theodore Griffith!"

 Chapter 1084 Rules

    <h4>Chapter 1084 Rules</h4>


    *Sigh!*


    Theo let out a long sigh after returning to reality. He simply had too much to take, considering there were numerous feelings mixed in his heart.


    There was no way to describe them.


    "Sorting out my thoughts, huh��" Theo muttered and took a look at the time. It seemed he had gone for a while. To avoid making everyone worry, he ended up going back with this feeling.


    At the very least, he had understood what was happening to him. If he remembered his usual actions and ways of talking, there should be no problem for the time being. The rest could be sorted during the night.


    When he reached the gap again, he found Maya and the others looking at him with worried faces. It seemed they truly believed something had happened to him due to that mermaid.


    And there wouldn''t be that much of a problem in handling the situation.


    "Joker. Are you alright?" Maya asked with a soothing tone, trying to calm Theo down.


    "Yeah. Sorry." Theo scratched the back of his head and sighed. "I ended up killing the assassins."


    "No, no. That''s fine." Maya waved her hands while shaking her head, trying to reassure him. After all, this might be a burden in Theo''s mind when that power influenced him. "At the very least, I know that they''re aiming for my life."


    "Is that so?" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "How about getting some rest first? You must be tired, right?" Maya gently pushed him toward the tent they had fixed after getting blown away in the battle.


    "Really? Shouldn''t I be on the lookout right now?" Theo asked. Since he had agreed to do it, he should do it since he had broken the previous agreement.


    "It''s fine. We will take care of the protection tonight. For now, you should recover first." Maya smiled. She had talked about it with Isaac and Mark.


    Since Theo was acting weird, they let him rest for today. Maya was also aware of Theo''s previous mission. Taking on the Fist Saint and Frost Giant would surely be an arduous task even for Theo, so she knew how hard Theo had worked this whole time.


    Even if she needed to take care of his job alone, she didn''t mind.


    Luckily, Isaac and Mark were rather cooperative and chose to have a three-person rotation.


    "You didn''t ask about his condition?" Isaac asked with a low voice that only Maya and Mark could hear. "I used my skill earlier and it seemed there''s no Magic Fluctuationing from the chest�� Though, I don''t think I saw one before Joker left��"


    "Even if we ask about his condition, there''s nothing we can do. Remember, it''s a unique case since only Joker knows about it. Unless he''s requesting something like water and other stuff, it''s better to leave him alone." Maya replied with the same volume, not wanting Theo to hear them.


    Mark could agree to both as he simply looked at the tent in silence.


    ''What kind of experience has he gone through beforeing to the Star Group? Now that I think about it, he''s an abnormal guy who can fight someone a hundred levels above him.


    ''And on this ind, he showed us that he has some connections to the monsters, especially the unique ones with their minds opened up.


    ''It is enough to know that Joker is hiding something. Who is he?'' Mark thought while narrowing his eyebrows.


    Meanwhile, Theo was closing his eyes in a sitting position inside the tent. He wasn''t sleeping; he was thinking.


    There was a lot of information in his head, especially about the assassination attempt earlier. The more he thought about it, the more possibilities he could see.


    ''Numerous possibilities�� I see. These are the ones influencing my body and mind��'' Theo narrowed his eyes before pinching the bridge of his nose. ''And even without the Queen of Destiny and her Destiny Order, the realities should still exist�� It''s just this is the reality I''m aware of.


    ''In other words, those realities have their own timeline. The realities in the past wouldn''t affect the current me because those realities have disappeared. The present realities have the power to influence me because that''s what I feel�� And the future realities will affect my state of mind.


    ''So, the present and the future are the problems. They''re the ones trying to take over my mind. If I am not aware of this, I might turn into a cold-blooded person for no apparent reason.


    ''The Queen of Destiny also said that I can easily fall into good or bad just by one factor�� With that kind of narrow gap, I can understand the severity of ying with realities.


    ''Without me knowing, I might lose myself because of their influences�� That''s why I need to do three things.


    ''First. It''s to sort everything out of my mind. Maybe, I should start writing a diary from now, so that when I lose myself, I can return back by remembering those actions��


    ''Secondly, I should continuously be aware of numerous realities to keep my mind in check. I don''t wish for this to happen again.


    ''Last but not least, I should set up a few rules about using my Reality Order. As much as I don''t want to say it, Order is a kind of double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can make me extremely powerful�� For example, I can calcte numerous realities to train myself. On the other hand, if I do it too much, I will lose myself in the process.


    ''That''s why I need a few rules for myself. Just like the God of Mischief said, I need to get an answer myself�� Since he was the one imposing the rule, I shall make a new rule for myself.


    ''First of all, those three rules he imposed on me must be rted to Reality Order. Those three rules�� I need to know about my and their purpose, I also need to be known by many, and I can''t lie. Those are the three rules.


    ''Reality�� If I don''t know myself or them, I wouldn''t be able to affect their reality. Instead of that, the first rule shall be to know them personally. Whether it''s their element, identity, or background, I should carefully research their information if I have time to n. If not, I will use my power in the way I see fit.


    ''As for the second rule, the original purpose is to let them know what kind of person I am�� That''s why I won''t change it.


    ''However, I do have an urge to change the third rule�� It''s truly hard to never lie. At the same time, I''m not ready yet to change this kind of rule because of how important it is to my Reality Order.


    ''In that case, I will change the first rule and leave the other two alone for now. After everything is ready, I will change them to fit me perfectly.'' Theo narrowed his eyes before taking a deep breath, never thinking he would think hard just for a few rules.


    However, his job hadn''t finished. His mind returned to its focus.


    ''Now, it''s time to set my own personal rules so that I don''t lose myself in those realities��''

 Chapter 1085 Mark

    <h4>Chapter 1085 Mark</h4>


    The next morning.


    Theo opened his eyes before taking a few deep breaths. He didn''t sleepst night because he was sorting everything rted to Reality Order. Even then, there wasn''t enough time to finish all the matters.


    Still, he managed to grasp a few important things, including his previous action.


    "My body is tired, but my mind feels refreshed after doing this." Theo took another few deep breaths as he finally rose from the ground,ing out of his tent.


    Surprisingly, he only saw Mark outside while the others were not in their tent.


    He looked at Mark and asked, "Where are the others?"


    "They''re gathering some supplies for today. After all, we''re going to have a brutal fight today��" Mark answered, remembering the promise to take care of the Mythical Rank Monster. However, Theo''s condition was worrying since it might be rted to the mermaid.


    He felt a bit inclined to kill that monster since it was the mermaid''s request. Hence, he gave a clue of his unwillingness by saying, "Though, there''s no need to fulfill that promise."


    A smile appeared behind that mask as Theo knew he was ming the mermaid.


    "It''s fine. She doesn''t mean any harm." Theo waved his hand and sighed. "I''m the one too weak."


    "You''re too weak?" Mark''s eyebrows couldn''t help but twitch. If it was someone else, he would believe it. However, Theo was thest person on this ind who could say he was too weak.


    "Anyway, it''s rare to see you talking this much, especially after our battle that day." Theo thought Mark hated him to the bone. Although he had done a few things for him, the torture was truly inhuman.


    "I am��" Mark looked down, wondering how to exin it. He had agreed to Isaac to open up to Theo. And looking at Theo''s conditionst night truly made a change in his heart.


    He realized Theo had been carrying something more important than he thought. It just made his efforts look useless.


    "It''s fine. To be honest, I personally like to have some time to talk it out." Theo waved his hand and said, "I never hold back when speaking, so you should treat me the same. I''m prepared for the same treatment."


    Mark looked at Theo, hesitating to say anything. On the one hand, he was still scared that Theo took some action because of this petty grudge. On the other hand, there were many words he had buried deep in his heart.


    After a while, Mark finally opened his mouth. "To be honest, it''s my fault. I know that you are a pretty chill guy to your friends orpanions, even if the rtionship is weak. Even to a stranger, you''re pretty easygoing.


    "It''s just�� I don''t know what you''re thinking. I don''t know you at all�� There is like a mysterious mist shrouding your body, preventing anyone from knowing you.


    "I''m afraid that my small action can actually turn you into my enemy. When that happens, I have nothing to save myself. Even Sir Bernard will take your side this time.


    "That''s why instead of saying some random things, I should stay quiet, follow your instructions, and reap the benefits." Mark finally exined the feeling he had held back this entire time.


    "I see." Theo closed his eyes for a moment and finally said, "I apologize. I don''t personally mind if you''re talking about bad things in front of me. I have grown ustomed to it�� Though, I personally like that if you don''t like something, you talk it out with me personally instead of on my back.


    "I am not really a petty person." Theo chuckled and remembered how many people he had forgiven or forgotten. If he was a petty person, he woulde to those who once bullied him in Thernd.


    Instead, he chose to stop his revenge after showing how good his life had be in the Grand Gaia Competition. After all, the best revenge was to let other people know he was doing fine.


    Mark took a while to understand Theo''s words and nodded his head. "In that case, if you don''t mind, I will start to be more open to you right now. It might be a bit awkward, but at least, I wish to mend this rtionship."


    Theo nodded in approval as he extended his hand. "Once again, nice to meet you, Mark. I''m Joker."


    "I see. We never even did something like this��" Mark made a wry smile because he realized his trauma had been stopping him from doing all this basic stuff. He shook Theo''s hand without hesitation. "Yeah. It''s my pleasure to know you, Joker. My name is Mark Banner."


    Although he couldn''t see it, Mark knew Theo was smiling. It turned out his vision was too cloudy to even see something this simple.


    "Well, I should take this chance to ask. What kind of person do you think I am? A scary one?" Theo asked. Since he had made those rulesst night, he thought about having a reality check.


    Usually, he always acted ording to his own n. But he never once asked someone what kind of person he was.


    Even Mark was surprised by this question. He thought for a moment and said honestly, "I don''t want to be rude, but if I can say anything right now. I think I will describe you in three words. Overwhelming, Scheming, and Scary.


    "Scheming and Scary are rted since it makes me skeptical about your words, wondering if you''re trying to trick me or something. That''s why it''s scary to talk with you.


    "As for Overwhelming�� I don''t only mean your strength but also your personality and style. When one looks at you and your sess, it makes me wonder if I can do the same. And if one looks at your battle, admiration can''t help but appear in their heart��"


    Theo nodded in understanding. "I see. So, that''s how I looked from your perspective."


    It was a bit different from what he thought. If it was three words, he described himself with Scheming, Easy Going, and Powerful. It seemed he could learn more when he talked with other people.

 Chapter 1086 Black Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 1086 ck Dragon</h4>


    Not long after, Maya and Isaac returned to the camp and found Theo and Mark chatting with a light atmosphere.


    Isaac couldn''t help but remember the promise he had with Mark. It truly put a smile on his face.


    Theo took this chance to properly apologize for killing the assassins. Without even giving his reason, the others epted his apology since they believed the mermaid was the problem.


    Theo didn''t bother to exin it thoroughly because they were aware of Order but didn''t have extensive knowledge about it yet. In the end, he only asked not to say anything about it.


    The situation was resolved soon, and Mark also became more open to everyone else. Even though they couldn''t get more information from the assassins, their group still managed to get some benefits.


    No oneined about it afterward.


    After settling everything, Theo finally opened the discussion on how to take down a Mythical Rank Monster.


    Because everyone was aware of a Mythical Rank Monster''s strength, they didn''t dare to underestimate it.


    Theo proposed to throw away today''s hunt and just rested their body, making sure their stamina and Magic Power were full before the fight. After all, the battle would be gruesome or so they thought.


    After a few hours, they packed up their belongings and gathered.


    "Alright. Since everyone is ready, let''s go back to the volcano. The ind will sink if we don''t stop that monster anyway, so let''s finish this as soon as possible before searching for herbs." Theo stated as he rose from the ground.


    "That''s right. We didn''t have time to search for herbs yesterday, and we need to conserve stamina to fight against a Mythical Rank Expert today." Isaac sighed. "We haven''t gotten any money."


    "Shut up. We''ve received something more beneficial than money." Maya rolled her eyes, reminding Isaac about the divination.


    "Well, no one''s gonna thank us for this, but we''re needed to save the day. Either way, we can''t get more stuff if we don''t stop the monster today, so let''s try to break a record or something like four Supreme Rank Experts challenging a Mythical Rank Expert." Mark also rose from the ground.


    "Should we record the battle and post it on Sk? Many people will watch it for sure." Isaac smiled.


    "No. We will lose money that way." Maya shook her head, rejecting the idea. "I don''t like exining it to you right now. Let''s just go now."


    After giving each other a nod, those four disappeared from the gap, making their way toward the forest.


    The trip only took an hour since they weren''t that far from the volcano. After that, they dropped their belongings and simply waited for the monster''s appearance.


    Ten minutes��


    Thirty minutes��


    Sixty minutes��


    The monster had yet to appear, making Theo and the others think about the possibility of the monster appearing without any sign.


    They decided to patrol the area and create as much noise if they found the monster so that the others could know. But when they were about to set off, a huge roar resounded across the forest.


    *Roar!*


    It was so loud that it shook the ground for a moment and sted a shock wave.


    The moment they heard that roar, Theo and the others widened their eyes and exchanged looks, knowing their prey had appeared.


    There was no other monster that could produce such an effect other than the Mythical Rank Monster after all.


    "It''sing from the opposite direction of the mountain. We need to go around right now." Mark raised his head, feeling the flow of the wind. "No. Let me carry you guys to the top of the volcano and fight him right away."


    Without hesitation, Mark released his wind and enveloped all of them, bringing them to the air. He then flew toward the volcano to take a shortcut. It would also make finding the monster easier if they took a look from the top of the volcano.


    As long as they managed their distance from the volcanic ashes, it shouldn''t be a problem.


    However, the closer they were to the volcano''s mouth, the greater the shaking became. There seemed to be a big monster on the other side of the volcano.


    Their doubt was immediately answered the moment they reached the top.


    There was a monster they''d never seen before. Even the Skylink didn''t give any information about this monster.


    The monster had a hard ck skin that looked like it came from volcanic rock. Its height was more than a hundred feet. Its ws alone were big enough to rip a skyscraper apart.


    However, the ones that made the monster look menacing were its sharp gaze and a pair of ck wings.


    The sharp gaze was emanating boundless killing intent as if it was nning to rip apart everything that stood in his way.


    The ck wings were covered by fire, making them realize the reason why the monster wasing to the volcano.


    Yet, the monster dropped another surprise. The moment it found them flying on top of the volcano, the head suddenly split into four as if matching their number.


    Theo widened his eyes in shock as he clearly saw what had happened.


    Skill: Multiply (A)


    Description: Generate a part of the user''s body. Limit: 10


    Obviously, the reaction from Theo''s group was diverse.


    "The appearance looks like a ck dragon, but a bit smaller andcks impact on its appearance." Mark narrowed his eyes.


    "That''s so gross��" Isaac looked at the dragon heads that were ced awkwardly and tried to look away while saying, "Though, I believe the monster is trying to enter the volcano to make this ind unstable�� That''s why it will sink to the bottom of the ocean sooner. We might need to prevent it from entering the volcano."


    "Is he trying to match our numbers? If that''s the case, we''re going to have some trouble handling them." Maya frowned.


    "There''s a possibility that it can generate more, so be careful and don''t get trapped by its movement," said Theo, giving a bit of clue about the skill''s description.

 Chapter 1087 Fighting the Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 1087 Fighting the Dragon</h4>


    "Let''s go." Theomenced the n as Mark lowered them to the ground.


    He and Theo immediately rushed forward, trying to stop the dragon. Meanwhile, Isaac positioned himself between them and Maya, making sure his skill could reach all of them.


    As for Maya, she was preparing her sniper to get some hit on the monster''s soft spot.


    *Roar!* The dragon let out a huge roar. It was so loud that the ground was trembling for a split second.


    "It seems to be a Rare ss Monster since it doesn''t have enough intelligence to speak," Mark reported after hearing that roar.


    "I know. In that case, let''s go with pattern A. Find its weak spot." Theo agreed with him as he started observing the dragon.


    "Roger that."


    As soon as they came to an agreement, Theo and Mark went separate ways.


    Theo approached the dragon from the right while Mark came from the opposite direction.


    The dragon was already aware of their presence, but with them leaving their spot, no one protected Isaac and Maya.


    Hence, the dragon gathered his Magic Power into his mouth and let out a fire breath.


    The bright red me let out an intense heat that turned the soil ck from contact.


    However, Theo lifted his finger, pouring his Magic Power into his Order and utilizing it to remove the fire property from that breath.


    The me soon disappeared into thin air as Isaac only felt a bit of the heat as well as the shock wave from the Magic Power.


    "That''s so cool. Your power is truly convenient." Isaac was staring at Theo in admiration. He remembered what Theo did to stop the whale''s attack.


    So, he thought their chance against the Dragon just went up.


    Theo and Mark soon arrived next to the dragon.


    Theo waved his sword while pouring his Magic Power to utilize his Thunderp Fist, striking his zing wing.


    Mark also aimed the same but in the opposite direction with his wind-covered fist.


    Thunderp Fist.


    Gale Fist.


    *Bam!*


    Their attacks hit the dragon''s wings. However, their opponent was a Mythical Rank Monster.


    When the Thunderp Fist released its shock wave, a small explosion urred on the wing, creating a st with enough power to neutralize the shock wave.


    The same applied to the opposite direction. The wind that covered Mark''s Fist was blown away, resulting in his hand meeting that ck wing.


    "Ouch!" Mark clicked his tongue and leaped away, realizing the ck-colored wings turned out to be scorched wings. It was so hot that if his body wasn''t covered by Magic Power, there would already be a burn mark already.


    "The skin is so hot like ming charcoal. However, it''s also very solid like volcanic rock. Be careful!" Mark shouted to Theo, informing him that the dragon wouldn''t be that easy to defeat.


    "Isaac. Don''t casually use your support skill as it might also harm us if we touch the dragon''s skin." Theo nodded and informed Isaac.


    "Got it. In that case��" Isaac waved his hand down. "Gravity."


    *Roar!* The dragon raised its head and opened its mouth as if feeling the Magic Power that pushed him downwards.


    After that, the dragon released more Magic Power to fight Isaac''s Gravity Skill before rushing toward him.


    Suddenly, it closed its eyes and stopped before a clicking sound echoed.


    A sniper bullet hit the eyelid and exploded.


    *Boom!*


    The bullet came from Maya as she was observing what happened to that eyelid. The explosion was quite powerful this time, but everything was clear one secondter.


    "There''s not even a scratch?" Maya made a wry smile as she took out the magazine and changed it with another one. "Careful. I''m using aser this time to prate its skin. If you can stop this monster for a few seconds."


    "Easier said than done." Mark pped his hands as a burst of wind flew upward. The wind was concentrated enough to form a dragon''s head simr to the dragon''s.


    Annoyed, one of the dragon''s heads turned around and breathed out fire, burning the wind instead of making it stronger. In other words, the heat alone was enough to burn the Magic Power.


    Since Mark had failed, Theo approached the dragon from the opposite direction.


    As if knowing the difference between Theo and Mark''s strength, the other three dragon heads turned to Theo.


    The dragon still remembered how Theo neutralized his power, so it used something different.


    Instead of a fire breath, the dragon concentrated that energy into a single small sphere.


    ''I can''t use my Order directly on his throat��'' Theo narrowed his eyes before leaping away to gain some distance. Of course, he was going between the dragon and Isaac, so it didn''t attack Isaac or Maya with that powerful attack.


    Still, Theo wasn''t the type who would go down without a fight. He clenched his fist and gathered his Magic Power around that fist, creating a small Magic Sphere invisible to everyone.


    Invisible Vortex.


    Theo punched the air. That motion sent the invisible Magic Sphere into the dragon''s head, hitting the head on the left that was keeping Mark away.


    "Hit the heads!" Theo shouted.


    "!!!" Mark was surprised to see the breath disappear and soon realized the reason. He came closer to the dragon without hesitation and waved his right hand, creating a horizontal tornado that struck the three dragon''s heads.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The wind current was so strong that the dragon''s body was slightly tilted to the side. However, it couldn''t stop the dragon''s attack.


    Even though the body was leaning sideways, the dragon still opened its mouth and released three small red spheres. They flew like a bullet.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The three spheres exploded, missing their target due to the unstable body. Still, the explosions were strong enough to scare Isaac.


    ''It missed me, but damn, that was close.'' Isaac felt relieved before raising his right hand. "eleration Buff, Joker!"


    Theo nodded and waved his sword, striking one of the heads that had just released the attack.


    At the same time, he could see the Magic Power surrounding his sword as well as the name of the skill.


    Skill: Law of Mass and eleration (B)


    Description: Controlling the amount of Net Force. (The time rate of change of the momentum of a body is equal in both magnitude and direction to the force imposed on it.)


    Theo took a nce at it first before swinging his sword with all his strength since Isaac would amplify the force he generated.


    *ng!*

 Chapter 1088 Ten-Winged Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 1088 Ten-Winged Dragon</h4>


    *ng!*


    "It''s too damn hard." Theo clicked his tongue. He also applied the Invisible Vortex in his attack so that the shock wave hit the dragon''s body.


    However, the hardness of this body seemed to be distributed easily. The shock wave ended up doing nothing and getting reflected to the ground.


    Instead of pushing back the dragon, the shock wave created a small crack on the mountain''s surface. Luckily, it wasn''t strong enough because no one knew if there was a magma beneath it or not.


    Even Isaac couldn''t help but say, "Don''t do too much damage, Joker. Although the mountain should have a thick skin on the surface, there might be a small crack that will bring out the magma. I''m afraid the dragon can be stronger with magma, so don''t hit the ground."


    "I''m trying." Theo gritted his teeth and jumped away before the other heads attacked him.


    As expected, fighting against a Mythical Rank Creature wasn''t easy.


    However, the head that he struck earlier had recovered and let out a breath toward him.


    Without hesitation, Theo used his Order to remove the me again. Since the breath didn''t have that speed, he could still keep up with his Order. The ones like bullets were still too fast for him to handle.


    Since their attack was too weak, Theo summoned his Death Avatar as well as the monkey to get some more firepower.


    He lent the monkey a sword made of Magic Power and formed another one for the Death Avatar.


    Although the Avatar wasn''t as big as the dragon, it should be able to give some damage with its power.


    The Death Avatar struck the dragon''s heads with its sword, but the heat from the skin soon melted the Magic Power. Even so, the heads seemed to feel the impact of their sh, meaning it was strong enough to deal some damage inside.


    After that, Theonded on the ground while staring at all the ck skin. He took a deep breath and waved his sword a few times, sending numerous sword waves.


    The sword strikes split a few times and hit the dragon in many spots as Theo tried to figure out which one was a weak point. The obvious w would be the eyelids and its eyes, but he could stop the dragon or not.


    "Iing!" Maya shouted.


    Theo nced to the back and found a missileing toward the dragon''s head and immediately leaped back to gain some distance. After that, the missile hit the dragon''s head and caused a huge explosion.


    The ck smoke covered the dragon''s head, but the moment he felt the Magic Power fluctuation, Mark used his wind to sweep away the smoke, revealing the dragon charging more attacks.


    "This is not good. I will take it. Joker, you should find another spot to attack after that!" Mark shouted and rushed to Theo''s position.


    Theo agreed and immediately leaped to the side with the monkey, trying to find another spot that could potentially harm the dragon.


    ''The front is sturdy, the back is filled with scales�� The sides? Wings? Which one should I aim for this time?'' Theo thought.


    Meanwhile, Mark raised both hands, forming a screen filled with torrential wind.


    As soon as the four dragon heads released all the small red spheres, it struck the wind screen.


    The me and momentum should be enough to prate the wind shield, but Mark had another card to y within this shield. After learning about the second eruption, he stored that power inside the wind shield.


    Hence, the moment the fire sphere ripped the firstyer, the concentrated wind inside erupted. The shock wave was so strong that itunched the red balls to the sky before exploding.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The dragons were surprised that a mere Supreme Rank human could stop him, but before he could rush to kill Mark, Theo had arrived next to the dragon''s wings.


    Instead of the skins, he tried to hit the wings this time, nning to rip them apart.


    "I''m here, you dumbass dragon." Theo smiled as he concentrated his power on his sword while forming a few other swords around him, shooting them to one spot.


    *Boom!*


    Each sword contained the same characteristic as the Magic Bullets, so once they hit, they exploded. The power of this concentrated force was different from any attacks Theo had used.


    *Roar!*


    The result was apparent from that scream. It looked like the dragon was in pain.


    It turned out the sword that Death Avatar struck managed to pierce through the ck skin. However, it was the most stic part of the wings, so it was the softest part. Ripping it apart with all that effort showed how hard it was to take down this dragon.


    "Seriously. All that just for this?" Theo made a wry smile as the Death Avatar started moving the sword around, trying to widen that hole.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon continued screaming before two heads disappeared, leaving only two heads behind.


    "It''s working!" Isaac smirked, finally seeing some light to defeat this dragon.


    At the same time, Maya threw a few bombs toward the wings to help Theo. "Use those!"


    Theo saw the grenades and used his Telekinesis while masking them as his own Control. He put the grenades on top of the wound before leaping away.


    *Roar!*


    Finally, after all that effort, the heads finally disappeared, leaving only the original behind.


    "Use that wound to cause more damage!" Isaac shouted, cheering for Theo.


    However, what the dragon did next stunned him.


    "For real?!" Isaac widened his eyes.


    Four pairs of wings suddenly appeared out of nowhere along with two more heads.


    This was the description Theo saw earlier. The dragon had fully utilized this power by bringing out eight wings and two heads which was the limit.


    *Roar!* This time, the roar was different. Instead of pain, the dragon let out his anger in the air while stretching his wings. The wings blew away everything around it when it was opened fully and the roar made the dragon look even more majestic.


    "We need to deal with a ten-winged and three-headed dragon? Seriously?" Maya made a wry smile while gulping down.


    However, their condition just became worse when the dragon pped all its wings, preparing to fly.


    In that instant, Theo''s expression darkened as he shouted. "No. Use all your abilities to prevent the dragon from flying. The moment it soars to the sky, we will lose!"

 Chapter 1089 God Killing Sword

    <h4>Chapter 1089 God Killing Sword</h4>


    As soon as he shouted, the Death Avatar grabbed two of the heads as Theo used all his strength to pin the dragon to the ground. "Mark. Make him kneel and stop those wings! I will remove the heat for you!"


    The answer came in the form of action. Mark hurriedly leaped on top of the dragon as he covered his body with the wind.


    "Law of Inertia! Gravity!" Isaac lifted both hands, using two skills in rapid session. The Law of Inertia was supporting Mark while the Gravity pinned the dragon to the ground.


    As for Mark, he could see the Death Avatar''s hands start melting. It was clear that the heat was still covering the dragon''s body.


    However, he chose to trust Theo this time. Without hesitation, he struck the body with all his strength.


    Theo matched his movement and removed the heat with his Order for a few seconds since it took a lot of energy to do it on this scale.


    "Ha!" Mark shouted, raising his strength a bit more while controlling the wind properly. This punch created a giant tornado on top of the dragon that looked like it was trying to drill the scale.


    "Second burst!" Mark released the second burst inside his attack.


    *Bam!*


    The st produced a shock wave that somehow cracked the dragon''s scale.


    *Roar!* The dragon screamed in pain as its knees fell to the ground.


    "��" Theo was quite surprised when he saw this strength. He realized Mark had grown by leaps and bounds with this one ability. The second eruption seemed to be something that opened the gate of a genius among geniuses for Mark.


    At the same time, Theo could see his weakness through Mark''s power.


    ''I�� I don''t think I have that kind of powerful ability. The strongest ability that can create that powerful shock wave is Ascension Step. Even Thunderp Fist or Invisible Vortex is not as strong as the Ascension Step even if Ibine them with Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion.''


    This scene couldn''t help but make Theo remember the aftermath of a battle between three Mythical Rank Experts that Nina told him in Thernd.


    There was a huge crater and long trail that could easily destroy a hill back then.


    Although his grandfather didn''t show anything fancy, he also had a powerful ability that could destroy a small mountain since his King''s sword cut a hill easily.


    ''Maybe I have been thinking something wrong this time�� I have always thought it''s unnecessary since I can always find a weak spot on a creature. And if it''s a human, I only need to aim for their exposed skin since one swing of a sword can end their life.


    ''I have never considered the possibility that I will find someone unbreakable. That''s right. What if the enemy is the Fist Saint, and I can''t remove his unbreakable property? I need an attack powerful enough to kill him.


    ''Somethingrge or a concentrated attack that can destroy everything��'' Theo thought when he saw the dragon dropping to the ground.


    However, due to him thinking for too long, the dragon somehow returned to its original state and tried to fly again.


    "Joker! Don''t get distracted!" Mark shouted as he felt the intense heat from the skin again, forcing him to leap away.


    The dragon took that opportunity to spread his wings and p them a few times to fly. Mark maintained his position on top of the dragon, preparing to strike again even if it meant having a burn mark on his hand. A burn mark could be easily healed with the current technology anyway, so he prepared for some injuries this time.


    He gathered all his wind on top of him, forgetting the distracted Theo.


    Even Maya was aiming her rocketuncher at this dragon, nning to st it back to the ground.


    ''Is the side effect influencing him again?'' Isaac furrowed his eyebrows before gritting his teeth. He never thought that Theo would be in this state again. This was a battle they couldn''t lose, so the situation became dire soon. "Mark. I will use all my power on you!"


    "Got it!" Mark took a deep breath, gathering his resolve.


    However, Theo''s voice suddenly resounded on top of the mountain. "No! Put everything you have on me!"


    "!!!" His shout startled everyone as their eyes were focused on him.


    Theo pped his hands and poured all his strength. Surprisingly, the Death Avatar did the same thing.


    ''I should use something different�� Something big and hard to knock the dragon out�� Tsk. The only thing I know is my mother''s technique��'' Theo clicked his tongue and decided to use it for this attack. He simply didn''t have time to create a unique attack.


    At the same time, he changed the shape since it would be too suspicious if he used the same thing as the God Killing Spear.


    His Awareness connected him with the Magic Power in the sky while his Control concentrated that Magic Power in the sky.


    Instead of summoning the weapon on top of the cloud like the God Killing Spear, he formed a huge sword a few hundred feet in the air.


    If not because of the help of his Death Avatar, Theo couldn''t summon a sword from this far.


    ''That sword��'' Mark widened his eyes and realized Theo was nning to kill the dragon with it.


    As if thinking the same, the dragon gathered all his energy in his mouth, trying to eliminate Theo before he could strike him.


    "No!" Mark shouted as he flew toward the dragon''s heads and released all his wind to redirect the dragon''s attack. The wind erupted once again, but the pping wing also neutralized a portion of his attack.


    "Haaaaa!" Mark let out a roar as he pushed the dragon''s attack to the side, missing Theo and the rest of the group.


    Theo''s forehead was covered with sweat as this was the first time he made something like this.


    This attack was far more powerful than the God Killing Spear imitation that he used all this time. The Magic Power was concentrated on the tip of the sword, making the sword look like it could prate everything.


    If not because of his Perfect Control, such a stable and sharp sword couldn''t be formed. Even so, it took so much toll on his mind.


    *Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    A magnificent blue sword with an appearance resembling his blue artifact waspletely summoned.


    "I don''t have a name and might not use it again, but try this one, Dragon." Theo panted while waving his hand, moving the sword.

 Chapter 1090 Hard Decision

    <h4>Chapter 1090 Hard Decision</h4>


    "I don''t have a name and might not use it again, but try this one, Dragon." Theo panted while waving his hand, moving the sword.


    ''How in the world��'' Isaac widened his eyes when he saw the flow of the Magic Power. His Skill allowed him to see where the Magic Power concentrated. However, he never expected Theo could gather that amount of Magic Power remotely, especially around the tip.


    Although Theo used a few seconds to gather all that Magic Power, it wasn''t at the level of a Supreme Rank Expert.


    ''I have never seen someone gathering this much energy in one single point. It feels like I''m looking at a super Mythical Rank veteran. No, wait. There is one possibility�� But are you serious? A Supreme Rank Expert could achieve this feat?'' Isaac sucked a cold breath.


    Meanwhile, Maya was worried about another thing. Theo''s attack was extremely powerful, but this kind of attack could only be effective against someone that couldn''t move. At the same time, this attack resembled the God Killing Spear.


    Although his mother usually gathered the cloud to hide the creation of the God Killing Spear, it was still simr to what Theo used earlier.


    ''No. Mark and Isaac will think of it as the personification of Theo''s sword instead of anything. It should be fine for the time being, I guess.'' Maya thought before looking down, finding Mark struggling.


    "Help me pin this dragon down! We need to buy some time so that the sword can pierce through the dragon!" Mark shouted while gathering all his power around his fists. It seemed injury was unavoidable this time.


    Without hesitation, Mark hit the dragon''s body with all that wind.


    The wind created a massive tornado as if trying to drill the body. However, Mark spread his power so that every part of the dragon was pushed down to the ground.


    Although its prating power wasn''t strong enough, the gale managed to make the dragon stop its movement as the ground beneath it started to crack.


    "Haaa!" Mark raised his fighting spirit with a shout, doing his best to connect Theo''s attack.


    At the same time, Maya threw several grenades at the monster''s knees.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The extra explosions weakened his knees, causing him to fall to the ground.


    On the other hand, Isaac used all his skills to enhance Theo''s sword in the sky.


    However, Mark seemed to have miscalcted his power.


    The ground that cracked actually led to a small secondary vent that was near the surface.


    And because of that crack, the magma suddenly burst out of the gap.


    "!!!" Mark widened his eyes in shock as he saw theva flowing toward the dragon.


    Seeing the dragon aiming for the same thing, Mark directed a portion of his wind toward theva, redirecting it to the side.


    But the dragon noticed the pressure decrease and immediately rose from the ground.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon pped its wings once again and neutralized a portion of Mark''s power before head-butting Mark with its head.


    "Fuck!" Mark cursed as he raised both arms to protect him.


    *Bam!*


    In an instant, Mark crashed to the ground. He was gnashing his teeth as he felt the paining from his right arm.


    "Kh��" Mark nced at the arm that had turned red. He managed to cover it with his wind, so it didn''t get a direct impact, but the intense heat still almost burned it into crisp.


    And the worst had yet toe. Now that Mark was blown away, no one stopped the dragon anymore.


    The dragon would never let go of this opportunity. It dipped its feet in theva before starting to shine.


    The dragon''s power gradually recovered, and if it continued, its original power would start rising, turning the dragon into a full-fledged Mythical Rank Monster.


    After getting theva, the dragon turned its head around and pped his wings again before gathering all of them on top of him, trying to block the sword with all his wings.


    "Die!" Theo shouted as the sword had finally reached the dragon. It was two secondste, but he had some confidence in this sword.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon let out another scream as the swords cracked the wings.


    "It''s working!" Mark smirked, feeling his effort was paid off. His only hope was to have the dragon die from this almighty sword.


    Unfortunately for them, the dragon''s wings were tougher than they thought. The pressure from the sword pushed the dragon to the ground, resulting in the crack bing even bigger. The magma flowing to the dragon''s feet became even more intense, resulting in the dragon''s energy being replenished at a fast rate.


    "Not good! This way, the dragon can restore all his energy in thirty seconds. We need to move him away!" Isaac shouted.


    "!!!" Even Theo gritted his teeth this time. On the one hand, he was sure that the sword would pierce the dragon in his current condition. On the other hand, the dragon might be able to withstand it until it recovers all its power. His sword couldn''t harm the dragon anymore at that time.


    Even though Theo had worked that hard to summon a sword like this, he was forced to make a hard decision.


    This needed to be done if they still wanted to win.


    "Mark! Come here and hit the dragon''s belly. I''ll match your movement!" Theo shouted. It was such a waste of Magic Power to abandon the sword, but it was needed for the victory.


    Without hesitation, Mark followed Theo''s instruction and approached the dragon. At the same time, the monkey also moved together with him, gathering his Magic Power in his fists.


    Even the Death Avatar made the same motion. With this, four people would use all their power to attack the dragon. Surely, it would be enough to knock the dragon away.


    Wind st.


    Mark created the second eruption in both hands and struck the dragon''s belly. The monkey came from the left and used its Telekinesis, Thunderp Fist, and Magic Power Expansion to strike the same spot. Theo took the right side while the Death Avatar aimed at the top part.


    "Haaa!" Mark shouted, releasing the second eruption.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1091 Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 1091 Illusion</h4>


    *Bam!*


    At the same time as that st, Maya also sent another grenade. Instead of the dragon''s belly, Maya turned out to be targeting Theo''s sword.


    The amount of explosion caused that powerful sword to tilt to the side, resulting in it sliding on all the right wings.


    As expected, Mark and Theo managed to grab the dragon''s attentionpletely. The dragon didn''t even realize the sword had changed its path.


    *Roar!*


    It ended up screaming in pain before gettingunched to the foot of the volcano with its right wings bleeding.


    "!!!" Theo and Mark were surprised that the dragon was injured and realized his sword actually dealt that kind of damage. At the very least, the sword didn''t bepletely useless.


    Before hitting the ground, Theo retracted all his Magic Power from that sword, making it vanish into thin air to avoid widening the gap.


    After that, Theo leaped toward the dragon before it could fly away. Seeing his action, Mark followed him right behind.


    "How is your Magic Power?" Theo asked.


    "I have used half of my Magic Power, and it''s barely scratching the dragon��" Mark answered while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "I will get the dragon''s attention. You use all your power to break apart the right wings topletely stop him from flying." Theomanded while giving a thumbs up to the people behind him. After all, it was Maya and Isaac who made his attack cause some damage to the dragon.


    Maya aside, Isaac properly reced some abilities to match Maya''s movement, allowing that kind of attack to reach the dragon.


    Mark had experienced this when he only maintained his wind while Isaac''s ability dealt with all the damage. That happened earlier as well.


    Seeing the thumbs up couldn''t help but put a smile on their faces. Isaac and Maya exchanged nods before following them and positioning themselves.


    Meanwhile, Theo finally reached the dragon.


    While remembering the sword earlier, Theo poured all that Magic Power into the Death Avatar, covering its hands with an immense Magic Power and creating sharp gloves that looked like ws.


    After that, Theo utilized his Death Domain. The mist was thick enough to hide Mark while the dragon waspletely lit up because of that me, making it an easy target to find in the middle of the mist.


    The Death Avatar pushed forward, grabbing the dragon.


    However, the dragon also expected this attack and rose from the ground, grabbing both Death Avatar''s hands.


    Due to the difference in their strength, the dragon immediately applied some pressure, making the Death Avatar lean back. Luckily, Death Avatar was like a shadow manifestation from Theo. It had no concrete feet that made him stick to the ground.


    Although Theo also felt the push, he somehow maintained his bnce, stopping the dragon from overwhelming him.


    Theo took a deep breath to calm down his heart, trying to maintain this bnce for a minute or two so that Mark could destroy the right wings.


    At the same time, Isaac also applied his ability, which was the third motionw, giving Theo the ability to convert some of the force from the dragon.


    Although it wasn''t as powerful as thew itself, like the first and secondws that could only alter a portion of it, this support ability was still too good in Theo''s eyes.


    With that ability, Theo managed to stop the dragonpletely.


    This opportunity couldn''t be missed. Mark followed his order and appeared behind the dragon, but more importantly, Maya had aimed her sniper at the eyelid.


    ''Thank you for that fire that gives your position away��'' Maya smirked and fired one round after another, trying to break apart the eyelid.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Using this chance, Mark released all his strength on the wounds, drilling and ripping apart the wounds to widen them.


    *Roar!* The dragon screamed in pain while trying to shake his body to stop Mark, but Mark used his wind to match the body''s movement and stick to the wings, continuously ripping it apart one after another.


    On the contrary, Theo still maintained his position and grasped the dragon''s ws. If this continued, the bleeding would weaken the dragon''s power. At that time, more options would be avable.


    However, the three dragon''s heads started gathering all their power to kill Theo.


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened as he knew he didn''t have any chance to withstand this power.


    Still, he had another trump card. With the dragon focusing on him and the Death Avatar, it meant the dragon forgot there was another person in their group.


    That was right. It was the monkey.


    There was another reason why Theo released this mist. It was to stop Maya and Isaac from looking inside the mist to avoid their suspicion.


    And with Mark focusing on the wings, he could finally utilize a bit of power that he had sealed when he hid his identity.


    When the monkey leaped toward the dragon''s head, the left head turned around, opening its mouth to shoot the monkey.


    However, the monkey waved its hand in a cutting motion, and suddenly, the dragon was startled.


    The vision on the left head turned upside down. It was rotating in the air to the point it could see its own body.


    It was confusing for a moment, but soon he saw the monkey hitting an empty air from the side.


    *Bam!*


    In that instant, the vision returned to normal but with its cheek getting mmed by the monkey.


    The punch contained the Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion, Telekinesis, Thunderp Fist, and Perfect Control.


    These five abilitiesbined together, creating the strongest fist that Theo could make right now.


    The dragon let out a cry as the punch was strong enough to make the left''s head lose its consciousness for a split second.


    Within that time, the head turned to the other two heads. And because its mouth was still opened, the loss of consciousness resulted in the burst of the power inside its mouth.


    The fire sphere came out and hit the center head.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1092 Overpowered Skill

    <h4>Chapter 1092 Overpowered Skill</h4>


    *Boom!*


    The huge explosion blew all the mist away, but more importantly, it was strong enough to destroy the center''s dragon head.


    When everything was revealed, they saw the middle head that was supposed to be the original explode, leaving only the bleeding part.


    However, it seemed Theo still underestimated the dragon as the skill had the ability to confuse even him.


    ''I haven''t killed it? It''s not the real head?'' Theo narrowed his eyes and asked out loud. "Isaac. Is the dragon''s head not real?"


    "I can''t differentiate which one is real due to the Magic Power''s amount being the same," Isaac replied while furrowing his eyebrows.


    ''How''s that even possible? This skill is not like my clone that can camouge its Magic Power�� What kind of skill is this?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering if a Mythical Rank Expert could easily confuse a Supreme Rank Expert''s observation.


    He didn''t know whether the skill or the Mythical Rank was supposed to be the cause of this confusion.


    In the end, he checked the skill and saw a different description.


    Skill: Multiply (A)


    Description: Generate a part of the user''s body. Limit: 9


    "��" Theo widened his eyes, shocked. This kind of skill was truly priceless. In fact, it shouldn''t be an A Rank Skill.


    ''This skill is a freaking S Rank Skill. With this kind of skill, I can simply generate my own life, giving me an extra ten lives!'' Theo didn''t expect such a powerful ability. In fact, he was tempted to take this skill.


    When the limit had reached zero, he could simply search for another skill or upgrade the rank to S Rank Skill.


    ''Should I take it? How about Isaac, Maya, and Mark? They''re helping me right now, and it''s a fact that I can''t take this beast alone,'' Theo muttered inwardly before shaking his head. ''There''s a possibility this skill won''te out of his corpse, so I will talk about itter. Though, I can see the skill''s weakness.


    ''It doesn''t seem to be able to duplicate the organs, considering the dragon only uses it on the outer parts of the body like the head or wings. In other words, I can''t use it to duplicate my heart or any other organs in case they''re pierced by a de.


    ''Well, that might be the only reason why the skill is only an A Rank Skill instead of an S Rank.'' Theo thought. He had some time because the dragon had a fuzzy mind after getting one of his heads to explode.


    But this was enough time for Mark to deal enough damage to incapacitate the remaining right wings. The result was also shown in the skill''s description.


    Skill: Multiply (A)


    Description: Generate a part of the user''s body. Limit: 5


    *Roar!* The dragon let out another scream as itpletely couldn''t endure the pain of having its wings getting ripped apart. Although they were still attached to his body, he couldn''t use them anymore.


    With only two heads, the dragon red at Theo, who was the cause of this. It released its breath that didn''t need to charge like the concentrated fire.


    But because of the distance, Theo was startled and leaped back to gain some distance, using those several feet to activate his Order, removing the fire.


    However, the dragon took this chance to use its left wings to hit Mark.


    *Bam!*


    Mark wasunched a hundred feet away, crashing into a giant tree.


    Fortunately, Mark managed to cover himself with wind, minimizing the damage to his body. At the same time, he managed to rip apart all the right wings, making them unusable. Even the dragons wouldn''t be able to fly anymore.


    However, Mark became speechless when four of the right wings suddenly disappeared since it was made by a skill. It was reced by two left wings that were still unharmed.


    Although it made the dragon have three left wings and two right wings, it was enough to fly.


    "Holy shit." Mark sucked a cold breath as he panicked. He couldn''t allow the dragon to fly.


    Obviously, Theo, who ordered such a thing, was the first one to act.


    He might leap away earlier, the Death Avatar grabbed his body and threw him to the dragon, allowing him to reach the dragon in an instant. And since the Death Avatar acted like his shadow, the Death Avatar could follow Theo''s movement no matter how weird it was.


    Without hesitation, the Death Avatar grabbed the remaining heads and pulled the dragon''s body to the ground, preventing it from flying.


    At the same time, the monkey leaped toward the dragon''s right eye as it waved to Maya, asking her to aim for this eye.


    Isaac also raised both hands, preparing to give some support to the monkey.


    The monkey then struck the eye.


    As expected, the dragon could see it and immediately closed his eyes. After that, Maya shot the eye continuously while the monkey leaped to the other eye and pierced it.


    The other eye had the same reaction as the eyelid protected the eyepletely. But this was what Theo wanted.


    Now that the dragon couldn''t see anymore, he used his Death Domain to block all his Awareness and Sense.


    After that, the monkey waved his hand to Mark as a signal for help.


    It seemed Mark understood what the monkey wanted to do. Without hesitation, he leaped to the dragon''s back, matching the monkey''s movement.


    ''I only have twenty percent of my Magic Power. I can only make three more big moves, with this being the first move. How should we kill this dragon? Even Joker should have used most of his Magic Power, especially on that giant sword�� Wait a minute�� the monkey and Maya are sealing the dragon''s eyes, and I can''t really sense anything inside this mist�� Don''t tell me he is nning��''


    Mark was thinking while gathering his power on top of the dragon. Before he struck the dragon, he raised his head and saw another sword being made.


    When he saw that sword, the answer came to his mind. ''He is nning to kill the dragon with this onest strike.''

 Chapter 1093 Killing the Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 1093 Killing the Dragon</h4>


    ''He is nning to kill the dragon with this onest strike.'' The moment he learned Theo''s real n, Mark knew what he was supposed to do. ''In that case, I will use my remaining Magic Power to hold the dragon down.''


    He shot his first attack and spread it on top of the dragon''s body, creating a shock wave that pushed the dragon to the ground.


    After that, Mark waved both hands toward the dragon''s body. However, the wind that followed Mark''s movement surprisingly looped around the body and hit the dragon''s knees, trying to knock it down.


    As for thest one, he saved this one shot in case the dragon nned to attack him or a need for him to stop the dragon came.


    Meanwhile, Theo had finally finished gathering the required Magic Power. Now that he had experienced creating the sword once, the process became smoother. Theo could even maintain his Underworld Domain while summoning the sword.


    Although he still couldn''t summon the sword within a second, he was satisfied with the current result.


    ''My Magic Power is almost empty. I can''t miss this.'' Theo thought while taking a deep breath to calm his mind. After that, he waved down his hand, finally pushing the sword downwards.


    The immense Magic Power created a continuous gale. Even the dragon would have felt the Magic Power''s fluctuation if not because of the fog from the Death Domain.


    Still, as one would expect from a Mythical Rank Monster, the moment the powerful gale reached the mist, the dragon immediately sensed the disruption and raised his head. He wanted to open his eyes, but Maya and Theo had been attacking his eyelids this whole time.


    If he opened his eyes, they might blind him with their attacks. In the end, the dragon lowered his head and brought out his wings instead.


    The wings pped a few times before gathering in the middle of his back, pointing at the sword.


    This was the same defensive move that the dragon utilized earlier. If not because of the magma, Theo could defeat the dragon.


    ''Die.'' Theo''s expression became cold as he pushed the sword as hard as he could with his Control.


    The moment the sword hit the dragon, an explosion urred.


    *Boom!* The explosion was supposed to blow the sword away since it was the same technique that the dragon used to block Theo and Mark''s first attacks.


    However, the shock wave from the explosion turned out to be blowing the mist away


    "!!!" The dragon was startled when he finally felt the immense Magic Power on top of him. Although he couldn''t open his eyes, he knew the Magic Power was simr to the one that Theo sent earlier.


    Unfortunately for him, he was toote. Since there were only five wings left, the defensive power couldn''t bepared to the previous condition.


    *Roar!* The dragon let out a roar and tried to move his body, but the wind had knocked his knees, preventing him from escaping.


    "You''re not going anywhere!" Mark finally released thest bit of his Magic Power and enveloped the dragon''s knees with a torrential wind, stopping it from leaving the ground. This time, he didn''t care about the sword breaking the ground apart. After all, they had knocked the dragon away from the volcano.


    *Roar!* The dragon was struggling to stop the sword as its wings started breaking apart. The strongest parts of his wings that got the thickest scale and bones were cracking.


    The dragon wanted to throw its own body to the side, but Mark stopped him from making any movement.


    Even both of the hands were pinned to the ground as Mark desperately stopped the dragon.


    "Die!" Finally, Theo shouted at the top of his lungs as he knew onest push was all it needed to kill the dragon.


    In that instant, the sword became even stronger and shattered the scales as well as the dragon''s bone, making its way toward the scale beneath it.


    With the sword''s weight, power, and momentum, the body''s scale couldn''tst long before the sword pierced through the body.


    *Roar!* The dragon was screaming in pain as the sword finally stabbed his body. Its mouth opened, spurting a fountain of blood.


    The pressure from the sword cracked the ground around them, but Theo stopped it at thest second, not nning to create a crater that might lead to magmaing out of the ground.


    The dragon shook its body left and right, showing hisst struggle. However, it was futile. Theo''s sword was nted on the ground, stopping him from moving away.


    Eventually, the blood loss gradually affected the dragon as it suddenly dropped to the ground lifelessly.


    *Bam!*


    The huge body was mmed to the ground as Theo and the others opened their eyes wide, wondering if they''d done it.


    They soon looked at Theo to ask for his confirmation since he was supposed to get the kill notification.


    But when Mark turned to Theo, the dragon made onest struggle by waving its right hand toward Mark.


    "!!!"


    "It''s still alive after all that?!" Mark widened his eyes in shock as he raised both hands to protect his body. However, he cursed inwardly, ''Kh. I don''t have any more Magic Power. If it hits me, I might be severely injured.''


    "Kiki!" Suddenly, a burst of high-pitchedughter echoed in his ears. He didn''t know why but this voice could calm his heart down. In fact, he thought this was the first time he was d to hear thisughter.


    The monkey jumped to the front, raising both hands to protect Mark. Unlike the original Theo, the clone didn''t utilize many big moves, so the Magic Power that the skill copied earlier still remained on its body.


    At the same time, a bracelet flew from the side as the monkey grabbed it, turning the bracelet into a shield and using it to receive the sharp dragon''s w.


    *ng!*


    The sh between the shield and the dragon''s w caused a huge sound. Due to not having a ground to stand, the monkey lost this battle, but the monkey''s purpose remained the same.


    He grabbed Mark while getting blown away, bringing Mark far enough so that the dragon couldn''t do anything to him.


    The dragon raised its eyelids for thest time and saw Theo, the monkey, and Mark before closing his eyes again.


    [Killed a Volcano Dragon.]


    [EXP+18,800,355]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 607


    EXP: 2,314,599/ 9,156,822


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Illusion Destruction (B), Illusion Maniption (A), Magic Augmentation (B), Magic Power Expansion (B), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A)


    Attributes: Strength 750, Endurance 625, Agility 617, Vitality 615, Magic Power 1000


    Free Attribute Points: 0

 Chapter 1094 Question

    <h4>Chapter 1094 Question</h4>


    *Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    Mark panted heavily, feeling d he could see another day. Even with the equipment from the Star Group, it was still impossible to escape unscathed from that m without any Magic Power.


    Luckily, the monkey saved him at thest second as if he had been waiting for that moment.


    Exhausted, he dropped on his butt and started regting his breathing. "I''m tired�� I don''t have any Magic Power left."


    Theo let out a sigh of relief since he managed to kill a Mythical Rank Monster with this group. He nced to the side and thought, ''Mark''s level should be around 650. I guess that''s the reason why we were struggling.


    ''If his level was simr to Winston''s, which was close to 700, we should be able to win morefortably. However, this doesn''t change the fact that I''m still too weak.


    ''Although I''ve gotten used to this fighting style, my movement is still limited since I can''t show the full might of my clone, Illusion, Metamorphosis, and Ascension Step. Though, I don''t think I could defeat the dragon if I was alone.


    ''I guess that''s another reason for this struggle. I should have expected thising sooner orter. It seems that my techniquecks power. I can use Thunderp Fist and Invisible Vortex, but these two are not powerful enough.


    ''The only thing that could harm the dragon was that sword�� It seems I need a technique that can crush my enemy with sheer power alone. In that case, it should be the time I change my Magic Augmentation and Magic Power Expansion Skills.


    ''Although they''re rather convenient, the requirement to rank them up is much higher than the rest.''


    Theo thought while looking at the two skills.


    Skill: Magic Augmentation (B)


    Upgrade Requirement: 10 A Rank Skills and 120 B Rank Skills


    Skill: Magic Power Expansion (B)


    Upgrade Requirement: 7 A Rank Skills and 200 B Rank Skills.


    ''The cost is easily two to three times the rest of my skill. I have been observing it this whole time, but the skill also has potential or talent like a human. The higher the potential, the easier it is to rank up. And these two skills are close to their limit. It''s possible to reach S Rank, but it will cost me an arm and a leg.


    ''I should change them to something more powerful, one that can release a huge amount of Power. As for concentrating them or gathering them, my Perfect Control can do the trick.


    ''As for the rest of my skill, Illusion Destruction should be changed soon because of the Order. My Reality Order can simply disintegrate my enemy''s abilities easily, so I don''t need it anymore.


    ''In that case, after going home, I should start searching for a skill that matches the requirement. I don''t care about getting a B Rank Skill since I can upgrade them. Of course, the potential of those skills must be superb��


    ''Though, this is also another reason why I don''t want to search for anything lower than B Rank Skills. Their potential is hard to see because it requires me some rank-ups just to see their true worth. It will be too much of a waste even though I can afford it.''


    Theo thought for a moment and finally made a decision in his heart.


    Suddenly, Isaac approached him and said excitedly, "Joker. What was that sword? It was so powerful! How could you gather that amount of Magic Power remotely and even concentrate them in one spot?"


    Theo tilted his head in confusion since he didn''t expect such excitement from him. He shrugged, brushing his question off.


    However, Isaac added, bringing a confusion in Theo''s head. "Are you going to make it your Original Technique?"


    "Huh?!" Theo was surprised when Isaac mentioned Original Technique, considering he hadn''t learned anything about Technique.


    "Ah? Do you not know anything about Technique? This should be basic knowledge��" Isaac frowned.


    "What are you talking about? I haven''t learned anything about Technique." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "One of the Five Aspects, Technique. Just like its name, Original Technique means a unique technique that you create.


    "That''s the basics. And suppose you want to turn it into a full-fledged Original Technique. In that case, there will be a need for research such as the Magic Power Consumption, how to make it more efficient and powerful? The potential of this technique and so on.


    "That''s why I wonder if you''re nning to make this your Original Technique. The de is powerful enough and all you need is topletely understand the technique." Isaac exined in the most simple way to avoid unnecessary questions.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about to be honest. As I said earlier, I haven''t learned anything about Technique. Besides, I''m still upied with the other Aspects�� I''m not nning to focus on anything else for now. That''s why I don''t think I will use that technique again since it takes too long for me to summon it and requires a huge amount of Magic Power." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Is that so? That''s a shame�� I thought you might want to modify that technique. Instead of a big sword like that, you could shrink it a bit so that you could wield it as a second sword��


    "I mean, the sword with the size of your body floating around you. This way, you can wield one sword and control the flying sword, giving you a big advantage in overwhelming your opponent.


    "And if the opponent is massive, you can expand that sword and shoot them. I couldn''t help but think like this because I remember what you did earlier�� I mean, where you released numerous swords�� Instead of spreading your Magic Power like that, it''s better to concentrate it to one point and turn it into absolute power.


    "That''s why it''s a shame that you don''t have any n on learning about Technique since I can see you''re he talented on it. Though a part of me is just trying to get back at you for forcing me to learn more ways how to use my power." Isaac stuck his tongue out.


    "��" Theo was stunned, surprised by the detailed description from Isaac.

 Chapter 1095 Insight

    <h4>Chapter 1095 Insight</h4>


    Theo was stunned, surprised by the detailed description from Isaac.


    ''Original Technique��'' Theo muttered inwardly. He looked down, realizing he might have underestimated Technique. No matter what, Technique was one of the five Aspects.


    Even the Ascension Step was in this category.


    "Still, I don''t think your decision is wrong either�� I mean, the thing about you not nning to learn Technique for the time being.


    "No matter how well I exin it, Technique requires good basic abilities. If you focus on the other Aspects first, you can get a good foundation for Technique. For example, you canbine Control and Breathing with Technique, giving a more unique way to use the idea I stated earlier.


    "The geniuses among geniuses could master four Aspects at the same time. My idol is one of them. He''s ranked 4th in the world. People call him Sword Saint.


    "Hebines Awareness, Breathing, Control, and Technique simultaneously to give birth to one of the strongest abilities in the world, God Sword. It''s said that no one can stop his swing because that sword strike can literally cut everything, including time.


    "That''s proven when he had a little fight with the Time God a decade ago. I also believed that those at the top could master at least three Aspects.


    "Average genius should have no problem mastering two Aspects while the low end can master one of them. But untalented people can''t even achieve thest stage of one Aspect��


    "Anyway, that''s not important. What I want to say is, you don''t need to hurry in learning about Aspects.


    "Do you know why Winston is not hunting monsters as much as he wants even though he has the will and time to do it? That''s because when you''re at Mythical Rank, the fight will revolve around the Five Aspects as well as artifacts or herbs.


    "After all, the difference between status points is not that big unless you have many herbs. At the same time, if you can''t even control your power, you won''t be able to beat an opponent at the same level.


    "That''s why most people are focusing on their Five Aspects after reaching Supreme Rank. Now that their eyes have be sensitive enough to see the flow of Magic Power, it''s the perfect time to focus on your Five Aspects.


    "Although this information is not released to most people, I''m sure you can see this obvious stuff if you have some brain cells.


    "The average genius usually reaches Supreme Rank at 20 to 25 years old when most of the countries only allow those at 15-18 years old to start hunting. However, they reach Mythical Rank Expert at 50-100 years old. Can you see this?


    "If they just focus on leveling up, they can easily reach Mythical Rank Expert at 35 years old. But when that happens, their foundation won''t be stable, and if someone at the same leveles at them, they will definitely lose since they haven''t mastered the Five Aspects. The same applies to the monsters since they''re also getting stronger due to the Five Aspectsing to y.


    "That''s why those who don''t have good talent will be stuck on Supreme Rank Experts most of the time since they need to risk their lives to reach Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Hence, the number of Mythical Rank Experts is around ten thousand�� It''s a small numberpared to billions of lives on this.


    "I have agreed to follow you, so this is the best advice that I can give you at the moment. At the very least, I don''t want you to be stuck as a weak fighter in the future. Or�� I might need to serve another person."


    Theo was silent the entire time, listening to Isaac''s words. Although he was already aware of most of the knowledge, Isaac indeed had a unique point of view.


    His words gave him some insight.


    Obviously, he had been raising his levels as fast as possible without neglecting his Five Aspects. On the one hand, he would be looked down upon because he became an unorthodox person that reached Mythical Rank Expert at such a young age. People would think he didn''t focus on his Five Aspects.


    On the other hand, he had promised Agata that he would return in three years as a Mythical Rank Expert.


    That was why he had been training nonstop.


    He had mastered Control and achieved the second stage for Awareness. His Endurance was half-step to the second stage, while his Breathing barely reached the first stage right now.


    He wondered if he should at least master three aspects when he was still a Supreme Rank Expert and focus on the rest after reaching the Mythical Rank.


    However, he had no answer in his heart.


    After listening to Isaac, he realized he should properly consider this matter. Although it might potentially break his promise to Agata, Theo needed to choose a bright future or a life of misery.


    ''I guess myck of knowledge is still holding me back. I have learned as much as possible from Grandfather, but it seems I have been overconfident. I should have epted the tutor from the Star Group because I can understand more about this situation and n my future better�� Under their guide, I should be able to reach it faster. But��''


    Theo fell silent and remembered what the God of Mischief said.


    ''That means I won''t find something original like the Invisible Vortex as the foundation of my Perfect Control. It''s through the unique encounter that I can maintain my uniqueness��


    ''No, wait. There''s another solution for this. It''s to watch the battle between experts. I don''t need to watch those in Supreme Rank and focus on those Mythical Rank Experts. With some basic knowledge, I will get an answer thates directly from myself�� This is why people said watching others fight could be counted as experience as well.''


    "Hehe��" Theo''s expression turned serious as he let out a hollowugh.


    "Joker?" Isaac tilted his head in confusion.


    "Isaac. What you said earlier�� Is it something from your head? Or have you heard someone saying that?"


    "I thought that, of course. I''m smart." Isaac pouted, annoyed that Theo doubted his ability.


    However, Theo then pointed his finger at Isaac and said, "I have a perfect role for you."


    "My role?"


    "Yeah. You said you''re good at analyzing things. In that case, use all your ability to keep analyzing me and my power. And I shall keep you entertained by showing you something more unique." Theo smirked as this role was not solely for Isaac. It was also a challenge to himself so that he could keep evolving and getting stronger.

 Chapter 1096 Split?

    <h4>Chapter 1096 Split?</h4>


    "Heh?" Isaac smirked, hearing Theo''s suggestion. "That''s interesting. Do you know how thirsty I am for knowledge?"


    "Yeah. I don''t really mind." Theo shrugged. "In fact, you might not understand anything and already see something new��"


    "Haha. I''m in. This is truly interesting because you''re giving me the ''go'' signal to observe you and your power. I''m curious about the different colors in Magic Power."


    "Whether I have it or not, I won''t spoil anything. All I give you is permission to observe me. That''s all."


    "It''s fine. That alone is enough. Even without you showing anything, I''m rather curious about your current strength, especially your identity." Isaac nodded with a smile. "If you don''t mind me searching for that answer, then I can keep myself busy for a while."


    "Though, there are two conditions." Theo raised two fingers.


    "Oh? Let''s hear it."


    "First, you''re to report your findings every month. Second, you can''t betray me. Break one of these, and I''ll hold you ountable."


    "The first one is fine for me since you''ve given me the permission. Maybe I can also find something new from your expression, word, or reaction. As for the second thing, I have acknowledged you as my boss. There''s no need for that threat anymore." He shrugged, not caring about wrestling his life.


    "That''s good then." Theo nodded with a calm expression. However, he was smiling inwardly.


    He had nned to make some diaries so that he didn''t drown in the numerous realities, so having Isaac observe him would be useful. To put it simply, Isaac became a living diary.


    His insight and observation would make him check the current situation and whether he had changed or not.


    In addition, if hepared it to his own diary, the uracy would increase exponentially. This was why Theo decided to do it.


    "I don''t need to say this, but I need to remind you. There''s no need for you to observe me when I''m going on a mission. Just focus on building your strength and understanding. I often leave for a few months after all."


    "That''s true. Don''t worry about it. If you keep giving me new things, I need time to get my research done�� Though, I truly hope that you are not getting boring soon." Isaac smiled.


    "Heh. You might get tired researching it or even die from overworking." Theo waved his hand, nonchntly brushing Isaac''s threat.


    "Anyway, we''ve killed the dragon. I think we should talk about the current situation." Isaac rose from the ground and looked at Maya, who was helping Mark walk. They were walking toward them as soon as Isaac finished his conversation with Theo.


    Although she didn''t know Theo that much, Maya was still aware of the slight change in his expression. She picked up the feeling she almost forgot when she hunted with Theo and Agata.


    From time to time, Theo seemed to be someone else, and the next thing she knew he had gained some enlightenment. Normally, it would be about training. However, if she actually came from Thernd, she would know that wasn''t the case.


    This was what happened to Theo''s previousrades. He was the one suggesting the distorted rtionship that could actually make the group progress by leaps and bounds.


    In other words, Theo must have calcted everything in his mind and confidently proceeded with the suggestion, knowing it would be the most beneficial rtionship they had.


    "How is your body?" Isaac asked Mark, who had exhausted all his Magic Power.


    "There are some injuries, but I should recover in one or two days. As for the burning mark, I will wrap it for now and have the Star Group treat me after wee back." Mark exined with a smile.


    "Magic Power?"


    "Some recovery and a good night''s sleep will do the trick. I should be able to continue tomorrow."


    "That''s good then. I have decided to spend the entire day hunting the monster. Now that we have killed it, we should return to the gap and get some rest. Tomorrow, we will start gathering some resources to increase our strength," said Theo while ncing at Maya. "How is your ammunition?"


    "To be honest, I''m going to be useless soon. Because of the dragon and the assassins, I have used around 80 percent of my total ammunition. If we are going to continue hunting them, even if I use them sparingly, I can onlyst for around three days. The ind is predicted to stay on the surface for 11 days, so I will be useless for thest few days." Maya sighed. "I should have modified the boat more and brought my armor here��"


    "Nah, it''s fine. You can use them sparingly. Don''t forget that we''re here to get some resources, not kill the monsters. Besides, if you don''t have ammunition, it means more chances for me to kill the monsters." Theo shrugged, not caring about Maya''s situation since it was also convenient for him.


    "Okay. In that case, I will be this group''s bag. At the very least, I am still strong enough to carry some items." Maya nodded.


    "Oi, oi. How can you even treat yourself as a bag? You should treat yourself better, Maya." Isaac waved his hands a few times, trying to calm Maya down.


    "Isaac. Don''t forget that before I''m a woman, I am an expert from the Starry Group. My life is equal to yours, so I should work as hard as the others. Besides,pared to my work in thepany, this much is nothing. Don''t underestimate me so much." Maya snorted, feeling a bit offended.


    "Ah, okay. I apologize then." Isaac looked away, feeling awkward.


    "Anyway, I think it''s time to see our loot. How do you want to split this? Since this is the first Mythical Rank Monster that we encounter, you should decide whether you want to harvest this monster or turn it into cards." Theo shifted their attention to the dragon.


    Maya thought for a moment and shook her head. "You did the most, so you should decide. In fact, you should take everything�� After all, without you, we wouldn''t be able to defeat the monster, and the ind would sink soon."


    "That''s true. Even if we helped you, without your power, we couldn''t defeat the dragon at all." Isaac nodded in agreement. "I''m already satisfied with just knowing the different Magic Power to be honest�� I don''t really need any more rewards."


    Mark nodded in agreement, sharing the same intention. "There was also the divination. So, I think you should take everything, Joker."


    Theo sighed and finally touched the corpse, turning it into cards. "In that case, I won''t be polite."

 Chapter 1097 The Island’s Key

    <h4>Chapter 1097 The Ind''s Key</h4>


    Without hesitation, Theo ced his hand on the dragon''s body, turning the dragon into four cards, two Skill Cards and two Material Cards.


    Skill: Multiply (A)


    Description: Generate a part of the user''s body. Limit: 10


    Skill: Body Explosion (B)


    Description: Generate an explosion that harms everything around the body instead of the body.


    Name: Volcano Dragon''s Eye (B)


    Description: The eye of the Volcano Dragon. Due to the dragon''s living around the volcano, the Dragon Eye has absorbed a portion of the Volcanic Materials. If it''s put in the water, it can give a rejuvenating effect from wound recovery to slow aging.


    Name: Volcano Dragon''s Heart (A)


    Description: An organ where the Volcano Dragon gathered its power. It contains a huge amount of fire energy.


    "Hoh?!" Theo widened his eyes, astonished with these four items. "Are you sure you don''t want this? I''ve gotten four. So, I think it''s better for all of us to get one each."


    "That''s��" The three of them were indeed tempted when they saw how good the Cards from the dragon were. However, they had a principle. Since they had given him the right to the corpse, there was no way they would retract their decision.


    Maya smiled and waved her hand. "Nah, it''s fine. Though, if you want to sell it, I don''t mind buying it from you."


    "That''s right. I don''t need it." Mark nodded with a calm expression. None of them were actually tempting for him, except for the Multiply Skill Card. However, Theo and other people would certainly pick this skill, so it was better to give up.


    As for Isaac, he was simplyughing. "I would be tempted if you didn''t say all that earlier. You''re the boss; it''s yours."


    Theo smiled at their decision but still asked one more time to confirm it. "Are you sure? If you ignore the fact it''s an eye, the material will be useful for you, Maya. I know that you''re tempted. Also, if you have this Multiply Skill, you can shoot multiple bullets at once."


    "Don''t tempt me unless you''re nning to sell them." Maya harrumphed before thinking, ''Besides, there is someone more suited than me to receive that card.''


    Theo didn''t know that Maya knew what he was nning to do. That was right. Theo was nning to send the Dragon Eye to Agata. It was such a shame that he couldn''t meet her, so at the very least, he should give this one to her.


    As for Multiply Skill, Theo simply wasn''t as interested as the first time now that he knew the skill''s weakness. Since it could only multiply his outer body parts, it was useless to take it since he could simply use his Illusion to do the trick.


    Hence, Theo decided to keep the Skill Card for the time being. As for Body Explosion, it was a skill with Fire Affinity. None of them could use this skill. Hence, Theo was nning to store the card somewhere else as a resource to upgrade his skill to A Rank.


    Unlike this skill, the Multiply Skill felt a bit too much for him to use the skill to upgrade his skill''s rank.


    That left the Dragon Heart. It was a precious material, considering it contained powerful fire energy.


    In the end, he stored all these cards in his personal bags, making sure he took these cards back.


    Then, Theo said, "Okay. We should have saved the ind, right? I don''t think I need to say it, but there''s no need to tell anyone about this secret. I mean, the dragon was rted to the sinking ind, right? In that case��"


    Theo paused for a moment. However, all of them understood the meaning behind his words as their heads turned to the volcano.


    "Are you telling me the volcano is the secret of this ind?" Isaac widened his eyes in shock and stared at the volcano. He had watched it on the Sk how an ind was formed by a volcano.


    An underwater volcano would eject numerous materials and continuously grow the ind, but that wasn''t possible for this ind because it had been submerging and resurfacing a couple of times.


    Hence, this theory couldn''t be used to exin what was going on with this ind.


    "No, no. The submerging part is about a barrier." Theo shook his head and exined. "There is a barrier protecting the entire ind. I don''t know the usage of the barrier�� It can be a barrier to make the ind submerge or it can be a barrier that reflects the light, making everyone think the ind submerged."


    "Mhm. That''s kinda true. There are various theories that I can put in, but I think there are two theories that can match the situation. The first one is that the ind sinks back to the ocean with that barrier, protecting the vegetation. But in that case, it needs sunlight to maintain the lives on this ind, or the vegetation would have died after a few years.


    "As for the second theory, the barrier is providing an illusion that fools us. But this theory has a fatal w�� Someone has oncee back here to search for the ind, but the ind feels like it''s disappeared. Illusion won''t be able to do it." Isaac narrowed his eyes, contemting the real theory without w.


    "However, you are missing one point, Isaac." Theo smiled and pointed to the ground.


    "What do you mean?" Isaac looked down to the ground, confused. He thought Theo was talking about the submerging case, but he soon realized Theo was pointing elsewhere.


    He remembered the master of this ind was staying underground near the volcano. In other words, she might be able to do something mysterious to this ind due to that weird Magic Power.


    And the only reason why the dragon could actually sink the ind must be because the volcano was the key she needed to make the ind disappear.


    "So, that''s how it is�� The secret lies in the volcano! If the humans research the volcano, they can understand how the ind can appear and disappear periodically." Isaac gasped as he stated, "If the method is known, the human might be able to create a base under the sea whether it''s on this side or on Earth. Even though I''m a scientist that wants to pursue the truth, I think I will die if I continue this research�� Obviously, humans also shouldn''t know this reason."

 Chapter 1098 Going Back

    <h4>Chapter 1098 Going Back</h4>


    Isaac was a pursuer of the truth. He wanted to learn more about the truth of this world as a scientist. After all, if not because of this thirst, Isaac Newton wouldn''t even bless him with his knowledge and power.


    However, he had somemon sense. With just a single look, if he researched this matter further, he would face a problem bigger than anything he''d ever seen in his entire life.


    And this magical technology could even be used as a military base by many countries. The result would be obvious. He would be the target of many countries. Even if he offered his loyalty to another country, that country might kill him to stop Isaac from spreading anything to another country.


    Hence, no matter how hard he tried, the end result would be the same. Dead.


    "��" Isaac''s expression darkened as he contemted whether he should pick the mission or not. He needed to choose whether to follow his identity as a scientist or a normal human being.


    Meanwhile, Mark was shocked by how Theo could actually point everything out. Isaac was a resourceful guy.


    If Theo didn''t have a good argument, he would call his statement bullshit. Yet, Isaac could only look down, falling into deep thought. It was clear that Theo''s statement contained some sort of truth in it.


    He wondered what kind of knowledge Theo had in his mind. Not only was Theo stronger than him, but he also had a deep knowledge of this world.


    ''To think I''ve still underestimated him this whole time. He''s not a monster; he''s far scarier than a monster�� A devil in human clothing.'' Mark turned serious, realizing he shouldn''t hear any of this. However, he understood why Theo disclosed this information to them.


    This served as a warning since they should be able to point it out sooner orter with all these obvious clues. That was why he wanted to prevent them from giving any information about this ind.


    On the contrary, Maya was reminded of the scene where she met Theo in the previous special region.


    Theo was carrying a torch at that time. The me was so mysterious that it could shield him from the extreme cold that could even freeze a Mythical Rank Expert.


    From that scene alone, she realized Theo was more knowledgeable than anyone else here. The reason why he could know the secret must be rted to the so-called Order.


    ''That dark knight who once gave something to him�� The Queen of Destiny, the special regions��'' Maya thought before a smile appeared on her face.


    She knew this warning was directed to both her and Isaac. As the CEO of a weaponpany, she could easily turn the idea into reality.


    When that happened, the status of her Starry Group would soar through the sky.


    As a genius in the business world, Maya could clearly see her group surpassing any other group. However, that greed could easily swallow her with just a single mistake.


    More importantly, Theo would also lose his trust in her because of that greed.


    ''To put it simply, he wants me to choose either my greed or my humanity. Such a scary man.'' Maya shook her head helplessly and wondered how Agata could even get his heart.


    "Well, that''s all I can say." Theo raised his hands. Even he didn''t know anything about the secret. Everything was only his spection with some curiosity behind it.


    However, he didn''t lie since he only stated his spection. It was them who misunderstood him.


    He picked this word y from the God of Mischief. With that exnation, he managed to warn them, give some truth that he came up with, and stop them from getting killed.


    "Don''t worry. I''m not nning to research the secret�� Knowing it alone is enough. Although the secret of this ind is tempting, I think you''re more interesting. After all, I''m pretty sure that the ind''s secret is rted to that weird Magic Power. It''s better to follow you instead of anything else." Isaac waved his hand, brushing this matter off.


    "That''s right. You have been tempting me this whole time�� I wonder if you''re getting interested in my beauty and body that you''re trying to scam me to sell my own body?" Maya smirked, taking this opportunity to tease him instead.


    Theo only looked at her for a moment before turning away in disgust.


    "Am I that disgusting? Come on. It''s just a joke." Maya pouted. "Temperament aside, I think my body is as good as a model. My face is beautiful too."


    "So, you know you have the worst temper��" Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground, never thinking Maya would say such a thing.


    "��" Maya''s eyebrows twitched. However, she couldn''t refute it. "At least, I''m honest."


    "All your statements are true, but when everyone looks at your temper after knowing you, they will go limp even with that body." Isaac smirked.


    "Do you want to put a ring on your mouth? I can give you a free service��" Maya smiled as she took out a pistol. Since they were talking about Maya''s temper, it was clear that Maya would certainly shoot his tongue or mouth to create a hole for a ring. But no one would want to experience such a thing.


    At that instant, Isaac looked down, not daring to open his mouth again.


    "We''ve wasted too much time here. We better go back and have some rest." Theo shook his head helplessly, ending this conversation.


    "Right. Let''s go back!" Isaac hurriedly responded, trying to hide behind Theo. Maya could only re at him as they decided to return to their previous camp after getting their luggage back.


    The next day, Theo led his group to search for herbs that could increase their status points. Obviously, Isaac''s skill was useful in identifying their power, making the exploration more efficient.


    Unfortunately for them, they had wasted two days here. The groups that had reached the ind managed to sweep most of the herbs, leaving only a few for them. Even the volcano was discovered by them not long after.


    In the end, Theo didn''t have much harvest on this ind. Though, the greatest thing he found on this ind was the divination and the dragon. No oneined since they were satisfied with that alone.


    Finally, after nine days, Theo''s group returned to the shore, joining with the rest of the people.

 Chapter 1099 Fight Back

    <h4>Chapter 1099 Fight Back</h4>


    As expected, now that the time hade close to the end, the shore started getting crowded with people.


    "How many herbs do you get from this ind?"


    "I''m not very sure. I think my group can get around a few billion just from this. It''s truly a blessing."


    "Hmph. Your group seems to be not that good."


    The people were talking to each other. As much as they wanted to steal from others, they would be the public enemy if they did it. Hence, they could only brag or stay silent while waiting for the rest.


    The entiremunity had agreed to return together due to the danger from the sea. Although they wouldn''t meet the octopus again, the sea monsters wouldn''t leave them alone.


    Suddenly, a group of people appeared in the middle of them. Seeing their entrance alone was enough to know the identity of this group.


    This group consisted of six people. And each of them was more famous than the other. After all, five out of these six people were among the top ten experts on the list.


    "Look at them!"


    "What? Since when did they team up?"


    "Howe this is the first time I''ve heard about them being good friends?"


    "I thought they hated each other."


    "Call itpetitive."


    "Five top ten experts in the list��"


    That was right. The group consisted of Winston, Lexie, Pa, and the military brothers. They seemed to have teamed up when exploring this ind.


    Obviously, Winston''s change would be one of the reasons for this team to possibly happen. Lexie also made a huge contribution to the creation of the team.


    Their loot was inside two giant backpacks. As soon as they arrived on the beach, Lexie looked at the others and politely said, "Thank you for your cooperation. We''ll take everything back first and split it evenly. We should be able to get ten billion Zils each."


    "Alright. You''re better than us in this, so I''ll leave it to you." Pa nodded and nned to step away to return to her previous group.


    However, she stopped in her tracks when she felt a powerful presenceing to the shore, followed by cheerful yet familiarughter.


    "Hahaha. We''ve finallye out! The seawater has risen quite high. In less than two hours, the ind should be sinking."


    Everyone turned around, finding the other famous group that could rival Winston''s group.


    And the loud man was none other than Isaac.


    Their eyes soon intertwined with Winston''s group as Isaac''s smile became even bigger.


    "Oh! It''s Winston and the others. How are you folks?!" Isaac casually greeted him, but the cheerful tone was the opposite of their rtionship, making the greeting look like a mockery.


    Winston''s eyes were focused on Theo as he had always seen this man every time he practiced.


    "Well, Isaac. I thought you''d died after going alone previously. It''s truly surprising that you coulde out unscathed against that octopus." Lexie narrowed her eyes, pressing the matter. "It seems you have a way to escape from the octopus safely. If you actually gave that secret to others, hundreds of people didn''t need to die."


    When they heard Lexie''s words, the people around them started whispering among themselves.


    They still remembered how Winston actually fought the octopus bravely. Although he couldn''t even deal any damage to the octopus, he helped as many people as possible to reach the ind by stalling the octopus. That was one of the biggest reasons why Pa and the military brothers decided to join Winston during this mission.


    "That''s right. If we actually knew that, we didn''t need to fight that octopus. Our brothers and sisters didn''t need to die."


    "The reason they went first was because they knew how to sneak in. It''s not fair. No one deserves to die."


    "That''s right. They''re not humans. To think they would hide it even though we have agreed with the alliance."


    With just one sentence, Lexie managed to turn everyone''s opinion against Theo''s group. Of course, the big part came from Winston''s actions. Since she had this kind of resources, she was nning to fulfill Winston''s condition.


    By manipting their opinions against Theo''s group, she could make Winston a simr ''hero'' as Theo.


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened as he realized what she was nning to do.


    "Hmph! You''re going to use the good person card?" Isaac snorted, looking down on everyone. He was really pissed when recalling the promise. Theo didn''t want anyone to know they had saved the ind from sinking. So, he couldn''t fight back against this argument.


    And even if he said it, not many would believe it.


    The crowds'' voices gradually increased, mocking Theo''s group for their selfishness.


    Isaac gritted his teeth and nced at Theo as if asking him to step up to handle them. After all, Theo usually had a way to do it.


    "Haha!" Mayaughed before ncing at Winston. "This is truly hrious."


    "Maya!" Lexie red at her while saying, "You should know that we''re talking about people''s lives�� hundred of lives."


    Theo suddenly raised his hand, stopping all of them from talking. After that, he walked toward Winston slowly, creating suspense.


    Every step he took felt heavy, and the atmosphere became even more serene. When he finally reached Winston, everyone was wondering what he was going to say.


    Would Theo give the answer? If that happened, it could be counted as a small victory. If Theo threatened Winston, he would look like an oppressor.


    Lexie simply couldn''t see any way to go against this argument since everyone would look down on Theo whatever he said.


    However, Theo''s statement blew their minds as he shook his head helplessly, disappointed in Winston.


    "You want the secret, Winston?" Theo asked with a calm tone.


    Winston furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how he should answer this. He had entrusted Lexie with this task, so he wanted to ask Lexie''s opinion before giving the answer.


    As if understanding her role, Lexie already replied. "Of course. This involves hundreds of people''s lives. And if we talk about the future, there will be many more lives that can be saved."


    Theo nced at Lexie before sighing. "Sure. Let''s fight right now. If you can stop my attack, I will tell you about it. Since you want to be a hero, you should be prepared to fight for the masses, right? What is your name again? Flexi?"

 Chapter 1100 Slam

    <h4>Chapter 1100 m</h4>


    "What is your name again? Flexi?" Theo red at her. "How is it? You have been the one talking this whole time. Your rank is supposed to be third, right? Do you dare to stop my attack, Flexi?"


    "It''s Lexie!" Lexie gritted her teeth, annoyed by Theo''s cheap provocation. However, Theo had told her to stop only one attack.


    As a rank third, she should be able to withstand one attack.


    The fight between Theo and Winston was still clear in his mind, and there were only a few months between the fight and this one. So, if she used that memory to deal with Theo''s attack, she should be able to win and have Theo tell them everything.


    "If you want a fight, then I can be your opponent!" Winston stepped forward, trying to stop him.


    However, Theo only gave a cold gaze as he stated, "I don''t like talking with a robot. Instead of you, why don''t we have this woman stop me? It''s only one attack. Even Maya told me something good�� Before a woman, she''s an expert from the Starry Group. Look at her luggage; it''s not less than any of us.


    "Or are you going to say that I''m a man who likes to bully a woman, admitting that you don''t see yourself equal to men when it''s only in your convenience, Flexi?"


    Theo''s words silenced the crowd as they never expected Theo would be this aggressive. At the same time, they couldn''t refute Theo''s words.


    Nevertheless, Lexie was the former second rank before Theo destroyed the ranking.


    "I will only use my hand in this attack, not my weapon. How''s that?!" Theo smiled as he stepped back, getting some distance to provoke her again. "I have sacrificed many things to reach this ind. Since you''re a good person that wants to fight for many people, you should ept this small fight? Isn''t it fair to sacrifice a bit for them? Or are you just nning to manipte them?"


    Theo didn''t even bother to hide his contempt, looking down on Winston and Lexie as if they were not worth his time.


    "Lexie��" Winston nced at Lexie, wanting to take over this matter.


    However, Lexie knew that if Winston was the one fighting him, everything would be different. Theo had given so many handicaps just to give this opportunity to the former second rank. If she refused, she would be admitting that she just wanted to manipte the mass and exploit them.


    Even the others furrowed their eyebrows. They wanted to know Lexie''s decision.


    In the end, Lexie shook herself to Winston and said, "I will do it myself. Nevertheless, my strength was only second to yours before he came. Handling one of his attacks should be easy."


    Winston sighed and stepped back, knowing it was the time to rely on her. He had truly changed from a lone wolf to someone who could rely on others.


    Lexie also took a few steps back and waved her hands, creating numerous water spikes to surround her. If Theo attacked, she would stop him with this.


    Theo then took out a material card from his bag and said, "I will attack you as soon as the card touches the sand. Since you have shown your courage, I will still tell the others about the secret."


    Theo looked generous right now. If they knew Theo''s secret, they could contribute even more to the society since they could im it was theirs the moment they reached home. This was what Joker hadn''t thought.


    Little did he know, Theo had calcted everything. The moment he tossed the card, Theo released his Magic Power, enveloping his fist with the Magic Augmentation, Magic Power Expansion, and Thunderp Fist.


    It was a simple attack that everyone had seen. So, everyone thought Lexie should be able to withstand this attack.


    The moment the card reached the ground, Theo leaped forward, confronting Lexie with his fist.


    On the contrary, Lexie shot all the water spikes to stop Theo. After that, she raised both hands, preparing to use another skill to stop Theo.


    However, Theo didn''t even bother dodging these water spikes.


    ''Those water spikes are as sharp as a sword. Even if you use Star Group''s equipment, you will still feel the pain.'' Winston narrowed his eyes, thinking.


    Pa was staring at Theo mysteriously. She had been wondering about the real identity of this man. Theo was the biggest rising star they had ever seen, yet no one seemed to know about him. It was as if he appeared out of nowhere.


    There was even a time her family believed Theo came from a hidden family with both influences and power backing them. That was why Theo could be this strong.


    Even the military brothers were wondering how Theo would attack Lexie. In their eyes, Theo seemed to be nning to give away that secret. The only reason why he wanted to attack Lexie was that thetter pissed him off.


    Yet, what wasing was something they had never seen before. It was truly ridiculous to the point no one could believe it was possible.


    When the water spikes were about to reach Theo, Lexie smiled and thought, ''He''s not going to avoid it? I will win then��''


    That confident smile was immediately shattered when the water spikes suddenly disappeared without a trace.


    "What?!" Lexie dropped her jaw to the ground. The others were the same. They didn''t know why the water had disappeared.


    "!!!"


    Only Theo''s group was smiling, knowing what kind of ability it was.


    Theo ignored all their reactions as he continued moving forward.


    "No!" Lexie shouted as she forcefully utilized another skill to create numerous water barriers to slow Theo down to give her some time to leap away.


    Yet, the water disappeared again without Theo even touching it. Theo slipped past all that Magic Power and finally reached Lexie.


    "N��!" Lexie panicked for a second before Theo grabbed her face. After that, Theo mmed her head to the ground as the three abilities Theo had used on his fist burst out, creating a huge explosion right on Lexie''s face.

 Chapter 1101 Outburst

    <h4>Chapter 1101 Outburst</h4>


    *Boom!*


    The explosion shocked everyone, especially Winston. Lexie was his partner, so the first thing he did was leap toward Theo. He was scared Theo had just killed Lexie in this attack.


    But soon, all the sand and dust were blown away by the Magic Power, revealing Theo and Lexie.


    Theo''s hand still grabbed Lexie''s head. But the moment he saw Winstoning, Theo stood up, revealing Lexie''s condition.


    "You��" Lexie widened her eyes, realizing what had happened. Theo''s Magic Power was enveloping her head, protecting her from that st. She didn''t notice that even the st was created by Theo''s Perfect Control just to add a more dramatic effect.


    The moment Lexie''s voice reached his ears, Winston froze and looked at her again, realizing she was alright. With such a powerful attack, Lexie was supposed to have blood flowing out of her mouth, nose, or eyes. Yet, she looked perfectly fine.


    "I have told you the secret," Theo stated coldly as he turned around, leaving the battle.


    "What secret?" Lexie was startled, looking at Theo in disbelief.


    "Don''t you want a way to enter the ind safely? I have demonstrated it�� You can''t even understand that?" Theo shook his head in disappointment. "This is the difference between us."


    "Strength��" Pa narrowed her eyes, voicing her opinion about the answer. In other words, the secret to passing the octopus was strength. Theo managed to stop the octopus without anyone''s help because he was simply too strong.


    Then, she remembered how the water had disappeared. This scene reminded her about the sh Theo used to cut Winston''s Space Barrier.


    No one at the same level had ever managed to do it, yet Theo could easily cut it even from a distance. Just by changing the use of his power, Theo turned the cut into a dispel ability. If Winston had an invincible barrier, Theo had an absolute dispel ability. This was his true strength.


    "I already told you a few months ago. The only reason why I never bothered with the ranking was that you are not worth my time. The time you spend to reach that ranking and maintain it�� I use it to get stronger. That''s why once I defeat you, you won''t be able to win against me anymore. Unlike you, I couldn''t care less about the ranking." Theo snorted and walked back to the group.


    No one could refute Theo after the show of his strength. They realized Theo might have been holding back even in his fight against Winston.


    If that was the case, they wondered at what level Theo''s true power was.


    "If you had this much strength, why didn''t you go together and protect the people?!" Winston gritted his teeth as he couldn''t endure this humiliation. But as expected of Winston, he didn''t think carefully about the words he said.


    Theo simply turned around and said, "How about you reveal your family secret as well as the money they have embezzled�� With all your wealth, you can help many people�� With your family secret, many people can train in a better way. Yet, why haven''t your family used them for the people?"


    "I��" The words stuck in his mouth.


    "You want me to reveal my secret and use that power to protect everyone. Yet, you and your family don''t want to reveal your secret and use all your wealth to help everyone�� Are you going to call me selfish after this?


    "Yes. I''m a selfish person. Even you and everyone else are selfish. What? Are you going to say that you are just ordinary people and your wealth can''t bepared to rich people? Then how about me? Compared to those Mythical Rank Experts, I''m also an ordinary person.


    "You all are Supreme Rank Experts�� You''re already above ordinary people, so don''t give me that bullshit.


    "You don''t have any right to ask anything from me. Winston and Lexie, to think you two have the audacity to ask me about that secret�� What was the reason for me to go ahead?


    "You attacked me out of nowhere with such a ridiculous excuse. Are you telling me to save the people who didn''t even bother to save me or the people who attacked me? How about I kill your entire family and ask you to protect me?" Theo snorted as he returned to his group.


    The only reason why he didn''t harm Lexie was simply to prove to them that everything Lexie and Winston said was wrong.


    "Winston, Lexie. Don''t test my patience. If you still want to provoke me after this, I will make sure that you''re going to regret it for the rest of your life."


    This was the ultimatum. He wanted to kill Lexie and Winston, who kept bothering him. He thought he could still scam Winston to get some more benefits, but his change made him realize it was better to do this instead�� Not like he could kill Winston and Lexie in front of everyone else anyway.


    He couldn''t care less about people''s opinions. So, when he met with his group, he said, "Let''s go to the side and wait until it''s the time to leave."


    "Okay." Mark nodded and looked at them. He truly wanted to tell them that without Theo, they couldn''t even enjoy those benefits since the ind would have sunk on the second day.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t want to let them know about it, even if it meant he would be scorned for it.


    Mark saw Theo in a new light. He remembered everything Theo did. He often went missing. Suppose Theo was actually working in the dark to maintain the stability of their lives. In that case, he couldn''t imagine how heavy the burden was ced on Theo''s shoulder.


    Even he would have long exhausted all his energy. This thought truly made him respect Theo from the bottom of his heart.


    ''It''s truly frustrating.'' Mark let out a long sigh, knowing he could never defeat Theo.


    "Are you sure about showing that ability? Although you did it during the banquet, it was in another form." Isaac asked.


    "It''s fine," Theo assured him. "Do you think why I let you run your mouth first? I used that time to check the people around us, making sure none of them were recording something�� At the very least, their Skylinks were nowhere in the position to record."


    "You had time for that?" Isaac was dumbfounded when he heard Theo''s exnation, never expecting Theo had seen this far ahead.


    "Ahaha. We can even go back alone after that outburst, you know." Maya smirked.


    "It''s fine. We will take our timeing back since I''m tired after a long four months on this side." Theo suddenly hastened his pace as he sighed, saying with a long face. "It''s truly exhausting."


    Maya felt the loneliness and hardship he endured on his back as she couldn''t help but close her eyes, ashamed. "Yeah. Let''s have some rest."

 Chapter 1102 Situation

    <h4>Chapter 1102 Situation</h4>


    After a few hours, the ground started trembling as they heard a loud ''boom'' from the ind. ording to the information, there was another hidden monster that caused the ind to sink.


    And the effect was tremendous. After that loud explosion, the crack soon reached the shore as if they were going to fall.


    Theo and the others immediately headed to the boat because the seawater began seeping, flooding thend.


    Since the return trip was also dangerous, not many dared to stay on the ind any longer. And even those who dared preferred to return together to conserve their strength.


    After all, they had tried to find any clues about the ind for a few decades and still found nothing. So, most of them had given up.


    Only Theo''s group could actually know the secret about this ind. However, none of them was nning to say anything about this information.


    While watching the ind sinking, the boats gradually returned toward thend. The return trip might have no Mythical Rank Expert that nned to kill them, but more monsters seemed to being to the ind, creating numerous obstacles for them.


    Theo thought this phenomenon was rted to the blood the ind gathered for the Queen of Destiny. However, he didn''t want to pry any further since this ind was far different from Helheim.


    In the end, they reached the ind on the other side safely. Although their loot wasn''t as much as Winston''s party, it was still above average.


    Surprisingly, Patrick, one of the S Rank Talent from the Star Group, stood there as if he had been waiting for them.


    When he saw their boat, Patrick immediately approached them with a smile since he knew Theo''s contribution to the previous mission.


    He came to this ce without hesitation when Bernard asked him to pick them up.


    "Hello, hello!" Patrick waved his hand with a smile.


    "Patrick? What are you doing here?" Maya was confused by Patrick''s appearance since they could easilye back with the others from the Star Group and Starry Group.


    However, Patrick''s answer blew their mind, making them realize the situation had be unpredictable.


    "There''s a huge movement from the Fist Saint. I''ll tell you about the situation on the way, but I want to let you know Sir Bernard asked me to escort four of you back. Also, he wants to talk to Joker after this." Patrick answered while showing a video of Bernard.


    "Maya�� You know what, your mother''s food was freaking disgusting. Anyway, I have sent you Patrick. I want you to follow him because my hands are tied. I''ll exin the situationter, so all of you are to go back to your own house for a while. I''ll call you to thepany in a day or two."


    The moment she heard the first sentence, she knew it was her father. After all, they had always set up a code for secret talk, fully knowing there was a chance that the other could use editing software or voice changer to imitate them. And that sentence was the code.


    "Okay. Let''s go back." Maya convinced Theo and the others with a single nod, telling them that it was her father.


    "Good." Patrick nodded and immediately turned around, leading them back without waiting for the others.


    Maya and Mark gave a signal to the one taking care of the Star and Starry Groups to let them know they were leaving.


    After that, they picked up their pace and followed Patrick.


    They ran for a few minutes without a single word. After assuming no one was following them, Patrick opened his mouth.


    "The Fist Saint has returned to Egypt and seems to be hiding there. ording to the information, he has sent two powerful Mythical Rank Experts to the US. The first one is his first disciple, ranked 91th in the world, Hatem Rahal, along with his assistant, Mohab.


    "It seems he has caught wind about the president and the Star Group''s involvement. So, he''s trying to find their connection to confirm it. As soon as he proves it, I''m afraid both of them are going to make their move.


    "However, that''s not important right now. The president is currently confronting many people. It turns out the entire situation is worse than he thought. Even the Time God has started moving.


    "Hence, he wants all of you to remain in your home if you don''t need to do anything big. If you want to go out, you should bring a Mythical Rank Expert to apany you.


    "You should know a movement from a single top ten expert alone can cause a huge reaction. And right now, there are three of them going around because of this problem.


    "Due to the Fist Saint, the situation bes even moreplicated. We''re trying to find his goal for now��" Patrick exined the situation before looking at Mark. "You should stay in your mansion for the time being. I don''t think there are many who wants to follow you out."


    "I know. Sir Bernard has hinted to me a few times in the past three weeks." Mark nodded.


    "And since Joker is responsible for this little guy, I assume you''re not going anywhere after this, right?" Patrick asked. Theo had just finished a long mission, so he was supposed to have some rest first.


    However, Theo shook his head and remembered what the Queen of Destiny said.


    "No. I''m nning to head elsewhere not long after I return. Only after that will I stay for one or two months in my mansion."


    "What?!" Patrick was bewildered by Theo''s choice.


    However, the others knew this was what the Queen of Destiny was talking about, so none of them said anything.


    "Anyway, you don''t need to care about me. I will have a Mythical Rank Expert to protect me on the way." Theo waved his hand nonchntly. Since he had Felix, a Mythical Rank Assassin, he should be quite safe. However, he remembered he needed to bring Isaac with him.


    So, he needed to confirm the other party''s information first before going there.


    "Well, whatever. I''ve reminded you, so I''m not going to be responsible for your choice." Patrick sighed and gave up on convincing Theo.


    Theo nodded, wondering what kind of person he could get this time.

 Chapter 1103 A Pianist and A Painter

    <h4>Chapter 1103 A Pianist and A Painter</h4>


    After returning to Earth, Patrick escorted them back to the livingplex where Theo, Isaac, and Mark returned to their home respectively.


    While going back to their home, Isaac asked, "Are you going to meet this person right away, Joker?"


    "Of course not. I need to ask Millie about the information and investigate his background. Only after that will I leave my mansion. Still�� East of the mansion, huh��" Theo looked at the mansion while opening the gate with his Telekinesis.


    There was no way the Queen of Destiny was talking about this livingplex. So, the east might mean either state or another country altogether.


    Hence, Theo wanted to check the map and confirm the identity with Millie. Since he desired someone unique, the future must have shown someone with that description, or he wouldn''t be interested.


    That was why he wondered who the person he would meet this time.


    They entered the mansion, finding Felix appear in front of them.


    "Felix? How were the past four months? Is there something that I need to know?" Theo asked.


    "No. Nothing happened." Felix shook his head. "I''m just d that you have returned safely."


    "Ehm, yes." Theo nodded with a smile. "Thank you. Although I want to have some time to rest, I think I need Millie right now. Where is she?"


    "She just finished her training fifteen minutes ago. So, she should be either in the bathroom or her room."


    "Okay. I''ll search for her. Isaac can get some rest first since we will depart in two or three days."


    "Am I included?" Felix tilted his head in confusion.


    "Yeah. I need your help this time to escort me to our next friend."


    "I see. I understand."


    "In that case, let''s get back to the mansion first."


    The three then entered the mansion as Theo headed straight to the bathroom designated for Millie before going to her room.


    Knock.


    Knock.


    "Millie. Are you there?"


    As soon as she heard Theo''s voice, Millie opened the door and only showed her head. Her hair was still wet. It was clear she had just finished taking a bath.


    "Ah. I''m sorry. Let me wear some clothes and dry my hair first." Millie apologized and immediately closed the door after getting a nod from Theo.


    Theo could hear Millie making a bit of ruckus inside since she somehow came back after five minutes.


    She then opened the door, allowing Theo to enter. "Come in. Do you need anything from me?"


    "Yeah. I need your help to find a person."


    "Oh! I have gotten the basic information of all Mythical Rank Experts in the world. Well, only basic information like names, ages, and such that you can find all over the Sk. I only have gotten more in-depth information from 5 percent of those people. Around 700 people." Millie scratched the back of her head, feeling ashamed that she couldn''t do it faster.


    "That''s pretty good, considering you need to be careful and you don''t have much time." Theo nodded. "What kind of information do you get from them?"


    "Well, instead of thepany, I''m entering the people''s personal information, so the information is not that detailed either. However, I can find their affiliation, Skylink''s number, and basic information. I don''t have anything that you can use to ckmail them."


    "That''s enough." Theo smiled. "Thank you for your hard work."


    "It''s fine. I also want to contribute." Millie was smiling from ear to ear. "Anyway, you shoulde in. I can find the person for you. I have sorted most of them neatly, so we should be able to find the name easily."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and entered the room as Millie led him to theputer.


    "You should have a seat��" Millie turned around, realizing there was no seat other than herputer seat in the room. When she was about to offer her own chair, Theo refused her and asked her to not mind him.


    In the end, Millie started opening her data and asked, "By the way, is there a ce that you want to find? I have sorted all of them into their respective countries, nationalities, and the cities they''re living in. Though, it''s quite hard to find mercenaries'' information since most of them either don''t have their identity or use another name. So, I only mark their organization. Unlike smallpanies, they might hack me back, so I don''t want to take the risk."


    "It''s fine. How about finding me a person in the east direction from this mansion. It might be near us, in another state, or even across the sea. That''s the only clue I have." Theo stated the condition.


    "Mhmmm��" Instead of the data, Millie opened the map first. "East�� Then, it''s definitely not in this state. ording to the data, there are no Mythical Rank Experts that fit your criteria since all of them have their own affiliations. So, it must be in the state next to us�� Arkansas, Tennessee, or North Carolina. I don''t know if I pronounce it right, but whatever."


    She didn''t wait for Theo as she started opening the information she got in those three states.


    "There are 58 Mythical Rank Experts in those three states. I''ll mark those with affiliations with red��" Millie started working while reading the information a bit. After a few minutes, she finally finished marking all of them. "The green ones are free to approach. There are�� 6 people. Only 10 percent. They''re pretty rare."


    Millie then opened each of their information and showed it to Theo. All of them had a different structure in their information since Millie was stealing the data instead of creating one by herself. So, the temte was still the same.


    Even so, Millie had truly shown how easy it was for her to find a person. Although the information was so basic that it could be found from a simple search on Sk, Theo would never know about their name or location without Millie''s help.


    "Mhm. There are two interesting people among them that might fit your criteria. The first one is called Christoper Grant, a pianist, and Jeffrey Watkins, a painter."

 Chapter 1104 Countries

    <h4>Chapter 1104 Countries</h4>


    "The first one is called Christoper Grant, a pianist, and Jeffrey Watkins, a painter." Millie looked at Theo and said, "Their jobs are Enchanter and Illusionist respectively. I believe what you want are these two since the other four are your typical Knight, Fighter, and Magicians��


    "I''m sorry, but I only have their Skylink number and photo. I''ll add some information from Sk too."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at these two people before shaking his head helplessly.


    "Ehm�� Are they not to your liking? I''m sorry. Let me find the others from across the sea then." Millie scratched the back of her head, thinking Theo was disappointed in her.


    "Can you copy their information to my Skylink?" Theo shook his head again. "You can continue the search too. At least, I want to make sure of the choices first before making a decision. You''re truly a great help, Millie. Thank you."


    "Is that so?" Millie smiled when hearing the praise. She didn''t know Theo was impressed that Millie could easily find a person''s name since he couldn''t do anything like this.


    At the same time, Theo even thought about whether he should bring the information that Felix mentioned to her. With the help of this guy, Millie should be able to work even more efficiently. In the future, without Agata confirming their background, Millie and this guy should be able to get everything.


    "I will print it instead of sending it to you. It''s a hassle, but at least your Skylink won''t be scanned if someone attacks me back and steals some of my data. I''ve used a secured line, so don''t worry about connecting to the Sk." Millie waved her hand, assuring Theo before continuing her work.


    After a while, she handed him a paper containing the information about these two. Theo then took a picture and sent it to Agata while informing her that he had returned.


    Theo took a while in his Skylink since he needed to give a proper message to Agata. Even though the link was secured, if there was a continuous message to her, there was a chance it would be found. Or that was what his grandfather said. Because the War God Family was a big family, Theo knew they had their own experts in this area, so he just trusted his grandfather''s words.


    Seeing Theo getting upied with his Skylink, Millie said, "You''ve juste back from your mission. How about taking a long bath to rx your body first? It''s going to take a while since there is a lot of information that I need to process. It will take a few hours so��."


    Theo widened his eyes and looked into Millie''s eyes. He made a wry smile and nodded. "Yeah. I think I''ll do that. Thank you for the help, Millie."


    "It''s fine. I''m d to be of any help�� After all, you have saved my life." Millie chuckled.


    "You don''t need to keep mentioning me saving your life. I want people that I canpletely trust like a family�� In a family, you don''t need to say thanks, sorry, or mention any help. It''s natural for you to forgive them or thank them without saying anything." Theo chuckled as he wanted the exact opposite of what his parents provided him.


    "But you still thanked me." Millie pouted.


    "Right? My bad." Theo smiled and raised his fist, asking for a fist bump. "No need to mention it anymore, and I''ll also do the same."


    "Yes." Millie had a big smile on her face as she bumped her fist with Theo''s.


    After that, Theo left the room and took a bath.


    While rxing his body in a hot tub, Theo let out a long sigh and looked at the ceiling. "There are so many things to do. To be honest, I don''t want to leave the country at the moment because of the unknown danger I''ll face. But there is still an International Mission.


    "It''s clear that I need to take it. Well, two monthster, I need to go to the west and southeast�� Looking at this fact alone, I might need to leave the country to�� what''s the country again? Japan? Yeah. Either Japan or Korea. Now that I think about it, Laust is training in Japan.


    "Well, he''s not my enemy anymore. I guess it''s not that bad to know how he''s doing�� even though I can''t meet him due to my identity. After that, I should head southeast�� What are the countries around that area?" Theo narrowed his eyes and grabbed the Skylink.


    "Wait a minute. Southeast? There''s only water in that direction from Japan. Is it implying that I need to go deeper? Maybe like China or Mongolia? If it''s Mongolia, Japan and Korea are in its southeast direction. If it''s China, it should be the Philippines or Indonesia.


    "I still have two months anyway; I can figure out the real ceter. Now that I think about it, where does that information broker live? What is his name again? No, Felix hasn''t mentioned his name.


    "I should ask Felix after this and start making my n. I want fifteen people, with at least ten of them being Mythical Rank Experts.


    "I will have four people soon with the addition of these three people�� I need six more. As for the other five, I think I can count Agata, Isaac, and Millie. Already half of them.


    "It''s progressing pretty smoothly. I still have around 21 months to go back to Italy�� I guess I can manage it somehow."


    Theo narrowed his eyes before putting his Skylink on the side with his Telekinesis. After that, hepletely stopped thinking about it as he closed his eyes, enjoying the warm water.


    "Still, with the threat from the Fist Saint, I need to be extra careful. Griffith Family, Fist Saint�� Ah, I almost forgot this one fact�� The former head of the Griffith Family, my grandfather, is the current 9th expert in the world, the world''s strongest Magic Warrior�� Well, his name is Haiskal Hetson, and it''s obviously a fake name�� His name should be whatevershit Griffith.


    "The situation is going to be more hectic from now on."


    ******


    Who should be the next member?


    A. The Pianist


    B. The Painter


    C. (Add your unique answer here.)

 Chapter 1105 Finding

    <h4>Chapter 1105 Finding</h4>


    After taking a bath and a two-hours nap, Theo finally returned to Millie''s room, finding no paper on the table.


    "I have found two more people in 20 people. But I don''t think they''re more unique than the first two." Millie exined while showing their information. "They are a Ranger and a Healer. The first one is known to have the ability to shoot numerous rounds because of his Control that allows him to wield multiple guns at once.


    "The second one is a Fighter-Healer. His Healing Ability is more suited to his body, so he uses that ability to fight in the front line��. Mhm, like an undead who will keeping at you unless you destroy their head." Millie exined.


    "I see. They''re unique too�� For now, I''ll get all their data first and confirm their intention to see whether they want to join me or not." Theo nodded. He had no prejudice about their uniqueness. As long as they looked unique, he would try to find them.


    "In that case��" Millie immediately printed the document, and Theo sent the data to Agata next.


    "Okay. We''re done." Theo nodded and turned around, nning to leave the room.


    However, Millie suddenly grabbed Theo''s sleeve as if asking him to not leave.


    Theo turned around, confused. "Yeah?"


    "Actually, I have something to tell you. For now, I have been training my body with my father as well as some Martial Arts. I''m nning to do some leveling soon, so��"


    "Do you want me to apany you?"


    "No, no. I don''t want to disturb you. I just want your permission. My father will go with me as well." Millie shook her head. "My father wants to confirm my potential in fighting. As for my main focus, it will be this��"


    Millie pointed at the Sk and continued. "That''s why I need to leave the mansion. My father wants me to ask you."


    Theo looked down, contemting. On the one hand, he didn''t mind Millie going out since he didn''t want to lock her here. On the other hand, the situation wasn''t that good.


    Although no one knew much about Millie and Felix, he didn''t want to get into unnecessary problems.


    After thinking for a while, Theo said, "Two monthster, I''m nning to go on an International Mission. In other words, I''ll be away for a while. You can use that time and go with your father.


    "And since I''m going to remain in this house for two months, I''ll also help with your training. How''s that?"


    Millie nodded without hesitation. "Okay!"


    "Good."


    "But you mentioned you''re leaving for a mission�� Are you going to get more people?"


    "Yeah," Theo admitted. "I''m going to need your help. The search this time is going to be harder."


    "Don''t worry. If it''s only their normal information, I can do it." Millie pumped her fists, feeling excited. "Leave it to me."


    "Haha��" Theo smiled and patted her shoulder before turning around. "Okay. I should be going."


    "Yep. Make sure you get some rest too."


    Theo waved his hand as a reply and left the room.


    Since it was still 3 pm, Theo headed to the garden first and found Isaac and Felix talking.


    Felix was holding a notebook containing the task Theo asked for previously.


    When he saw Theo, Felix immediately greeted him while handing him the book. "This is the knowledge about Australia''s style of Five Aspects as well as their unique martial arts.


    "To be honest, the Five Aspects are already a general knowledge. However, Australia is a country known for its unique Endurance. You should know that most of our people live on the coastline, right?


    "That''s because of the unsuitable atmosphere in the middle of Australia. Only those near the gates are bustling with people.


    "However, that kind of environment is suited to train your Endurance. From the temperature to the poison��


    "That''s why Endurance in Australia is leaning toward Heat and Cold. Using the heat to burn your body and using the cold to freeze your body�� That''s why the strongest man in Australia is known as me Lord. He''s a man who can turn his body into Fire�� not many can even touch him." Felix exined.


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He wondered if his Order could remove the fire element. Still, even if he removed the Order, the me Lord should be able to counter it by producing more power from his Order.


    It would be a battle of Endurance since they couldn''t neutralize or produce fire for eternity.


    However, Theo remembered that Jormungand was thrown to the sea. The seafloor was cold since the sunlight couldn''t enter.


    ''Can I use the temperature Endurance training to make my Supernatural Snake Body stronger?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, curious. Since the serpent didn''t answer him, Theo could only find the answer himself.


    "For now, I''ll take this book. I''m curious what kind of training you did there. Thanks." Theo grabbed the book and turned to Isaac. "By the way, since you can see the Magic Power even better than me, I have a task for you."


    "A task?"


    "Yeah. I want you to observe people''s affinity. The Magic Power in their element and other stuff like that."


    "Ah, is it knowledge to improve your ability to erase their power?" Isaac asked, remembering that Theo could remove someone''s affinity easily.


    "Something like that," Theo confirmed, but the real truth was that the knowledge was more useful to the creation of that element instead of removing them. Though, he didn''t lie since knowing more about elements would improve his understanding of Order.


    "I can do that. In fact, that''s what I''ve been doing this whole time. I am nning to find an equation that can describe the element��" Isaac smirked. "I have several notebooks about them, so I can show them to youter."


    "That''s great. I''ll finish this one first."


    "By the way, who is the next person?" Felix opened his mouth, curious about his nextrade. After all, he needed to see their loyalty and the potential harm they would cause to his daughter.


    "I''m not very sure. I am checking their background and other stuff right now�� I''m waiting for the result."


    "Okay. We''re still going in 2 to 3 days, correct?"


    "Yep. Look forward to it." Theo waved his hand and walked away.

 Chapter 1106 Calling Agata

    <h4>Chapter 1106 Calling Agata</h4>


    After three days, Theo finally received the result of the investigation from Agata as she seemed to use this opportunity to talk to Theo.


    Theo was sitting in his bedroom, epting the call with a smile.


    "It''s been a while since west talked, Theo." Agata smiled while waving her hand. Four months truly made her miss Theo.


    Even Theo had the same feeling. He said with a nod. "Yeah. I miss you."


    "I miss you too. Well, we only have a short session, so I won''t waste too much time. I''ve gotten the package." Agata showed a small brown envelope Theo sent.


    "I know it''ste and I couldn''t celebrate it with you, but happy birthday, Agata." Theo smiled.


    "Thank you. Though, the best gift you can give me is to return safely. That''s enough." Agata smirked before pointing at the envelope. "Can I open this?"


    "Yes."


    From the shape alone, she knew it was either a Skill Card or Material Card. However, she didn''t know what kind of card Theo thought would be important and precious as a gift.


    The answer soon came. A shocked expression was nted on her face the moment she saw the description.


    "Is this for real?" She widened her eyes.


    "Yeah. I got it after killing a Mythical Rank Monster�� Do you like it?!"


    "Of course, I do. But this is a problem��" Agata looked down, contemting whether to use it or not.


    "A problem?"


    "Yes. What will I do if I be more beautiful? My father told me that there are many people wishing for marriage because we haven''t publicized our rtionship�� I don''t like talking about this, but I just want to let you know so that you won''t feel jealous. Trust me."


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled. "Of course, I trust you. You never told me anything about not having any rtionship with other women because you know that I''m yours and won''t cheat on you. The best I can do is give you the same trust. Though, if the situation has be hard to handle, you can tell me about it. I don''t mind ying with them��"


    "Are you going to reveal your identity?"


    "No. But I don''t mind sending several Mythical Rank Experts to handle them." Theo smirked.


    "Haha. That sounds like you." Agata chuckled and continued. "Since we''re talking about Mythical Rank Experts, then I will brief you about my findings too.


    "To be honest, the one that suits you the most is either the pianist or the painter. The pianist has a unique support ability. By creating a piano from Magic Power, he can y a song that can enhance your ability, skills, and other stuff.


    "As for the painter, he can turn whatever he paints into a reality. He can draw a sword, a human�� anything other than elements.


    "It seems he''s restrained by his affinity since he has nt Affinity. That''s why his painting mostly consists of nts andndscapes."


    Theo listened to Agata''s exnation before asking, "Who is the one giving them their blessing?"


    "I''m not very sure about the second one, but the first one has Dinu Lipatti, a Romanian pianist whose soundworld has a wide range of dynamics, colors, and textures. That wide range allows him to influence a different type of enhancement in your body.


    "As for the second one, I''m not pretty sure because he has two types of painting styles. And both of them have reached a high level to the point people are specting that he has either JMW Turner or Paul Cezanne. They both can be considered one of the best painters of all time."


    "Can I even recruit them though? That''s the most important question."


    "Of course, you can. Christoper Grant is sort of a mercenary. He has been helping people one after another. However, no one has ever managed to tempt him enough to recruit himpletely. It''s said that Christoper Grant has a dream.


    "He wants to y an original music piece that can make normal people understand his soundworld�� I mean, if someone like you goes to a musical performance, I don''t think you will understand which one is better, right? You will judge them from your preference simply because you don''t have extensive knowledge."


    "That''s true."


    "A true musician has their own soundworld. If you know more about music, you will understand the different levels of each musician. Christoper Grant wants something like that, which I think suits your illusion ability perfectly." She exined.


    "Mhm��" Theo was indeed tempted by this guy since Reality Order would be a perfect addition to him. However, he needed to learn more about the painter before making a decision.


    That was why he maintained his silence until Agata moved on to the next person.


    "As for Jeffrey Watkins�� He''s a weird man. Whenever he goes, he has his own drawing book, which he can turn into a reality to fight for him.


    "But unlike Christoper, he is a lone wolf. He is always aloof and cold. Although he still epts the people who want to recruit him, he always rejects them as if he is enjoying the fact that he can reject them.


    "However, the weird thing is, he always tells them that they won''t be able to fulfill his dream. He''s, too, a man who is chasing his dream. As for his dream, he never tells anyone about it, but there were two asions that he had a long talk with his recruiters.


    "It was when two illusionists who were stronger than him came together with the scouts. So, he''s also a candidate. I know you can have a good talk with him." Agata exined.


    "Woah. You put too much trust in me. I''m just a Supreme Rank Expert, you know." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Ahaha, so what? Should I say that you can''t approach him because I don''t trust your ability is stronger than theirs? I know you, Theo. If you think you can, you can. That''s why I don''t need to stop you. Just go for it if you think you can." Agata gave a thumbs up.


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Okay. I''m going to look for them and try both of them to see whether they''re perfect for me or not."


    "Good. Since there are only ten seconds left, I will tell you one thing." Agata grabbed the skill card again. "I''m going to take a bath with this from now on. You can''t me me if you are captivated in the future."


    "Ahaha. I''m looking forward to it." Theo chuckled.


    "Okay, time to go. Love you, bye bye."


    "Love you too."

 Chapter 1107 Jeffrey

    <h4>Chapter 1107 Jeffrey</h4>


    After getting their information, Theo finally came out of his bedroom, finding Isaac and Felix waiting for him in the garden.


    Agata didn''t know that there were other criteria that helped Theo choose his candidate. That was the clue that the Queen of Destiny told him.


    ording to her, Isaac would y a huge role in this recruitment. So, Theo would wait for Isaac''s reaction and role before recruiting them.


    "So, have you found our target?" Isaac asked with an excited smile, wondering who would be the next person.


    "Yeah. We''ve two targets. They''re in two different states, so I think we should rely on our feet to reach them to get there faster and safer."


    "Who are they?"


    "Christopher Grant, a Pianist, and Jeffrey Watkins, a Painter. Jeffrey is in Arkansas, so we will go there first."


    "Okay." Felix was the one who answered him since he had finally known their targets.


    "A painter and a pianist�� The choices are so unique." Isaac was puzzled before realizing Theo''s intention. "Wait a minute. Sir Felix is an assassin that usually takes his target in broad daylight because of his ability. Millie is a hacker. I am a scientist�� Are you going to get all the unique people to our team?"


    "That''s my n," Theo admitted without hesitation. "There is a reason for that�� With people this unique, you all will have different tempers, abilities, and skills. It allows me to learn from all of you. Of course, you need to be strong."


    "I see. Interesting." Isaac nodded in understanding.


    "Okay. Let''s go, shall we?"


    "Wait a minute." Felix raised his hand, stopping Theo before pointing his finger at his back.


    "What''s wrong? Oh, Millie." Theo found Millieing out with a small bag.


    "It''s not much, but I''ve prepared your lunch and dinner since you''re going to get backte today. The lunch jar has good instion, so the food should still be warm when you eat it. Not sure about the dinner though. At least, it''s better than searching for something to eat since Brother told me that the situation is not that peaceful right now." Millie smiled while ncing at Theo.


    Felix grabbed the bag and patted Millie''s head. "We''re going."


    "Yes. Please be careful." Millie politely bowed, seeing them off.


    After that, all of them disappeared from the mansion as they used their fastest speed to Arkansas. Of course, this kind of speed wasn''t allowed in the city, so Theo immediately led them to a road where it wasn''t crowded with people because it wouldn''t bother them.


    The first target was the painter. Theo personally didn''t know what to think about this painter. Unlike the pianist, Theo knew what he should do when trying to recruit him. But this painter was an enigma.


    He epted the meeting with the recruiter, but he never epted their offer. That was why he didn''t have high hopes for him.


    On the way, he called the number that people usually used to recruit him, of course, provided by Agata.


    If they drove with the current technology, it would only take around three hours to reach the painter. However, the car was a bit inflexible and could be tracked, considering it would be the Star Group''s property, whose current standing was shaken.


    That was why he chose a safer option even though the time would be longer.


    In the end, they ate their lunch first before arriving in front of the painter''s house.


    Even though it was considered the painter''s house, it was more like his gallery. The house wasn''t a mansion or a normal house, but a giant hall that contained all his artworks.


    When they arrived, Isaac widened his eyes and said, "Joker. Can you see it? The building is��"


    "I can''t see it, but I can feel it." Theo narrowed his eyes. "The building is enveloped by Magic Power. Has he painted the entire building?"


    "Most likely. Or covering the building with his artworks instead of an art gallery��" Isaac nodded.


    Felix was holding his sword because he felt a threat from the building. Although his senses weren''t as good as Isaac or Theo''s, his instinct told him that this building was strange.


    As if knowing their arrival, a woman, who looked like she was in her thirties, came out to the gate and politely greeted them.


    "Wee to Jeff''s Galery. Are you going to visit the gallery or Mr. Jeff?"


    "I have made an appointment earlier," Theo stated.


    "May I know your name?"


    "The appointment is under Joker''s name."


    The woman checked her Skylink and nodded her head. "Certainly. I''ve confirmed your identity. Three people under Joker''s name. Please follow me."


    She politely pointed her hand at the building, guiding them inside.


    As soon as they entered the building, Isaac was stunned by the sight of a painting that covered the entire building.


    "This is�� How can someone paint something this big?" Isaac was shivering because he could feel the Magic Power contained in the paint. There were several drawings on the wall, from nts tondscapes. If it was used properly, this drawing could trap them inside an illusion.


    Even Felix became more careful, protecting Theo and Isaac.


    The woman noticed Felix''s hand grabbing the sword but ignored it, considering those who met Jeff always did the same thing. In fact, those who could sense the painting were extraordinary people that Jeff personally wanted to meet.


    However, Jeff himself was a powerful painter. Unless they brought multiple Mythical Rank Experts, no one should be able to kill Jeff. That was why the woman didn''t bother to confiscate their weapons.


    The woman brought them to a room on the second floor. ording to her, this room was Jeff''s personal workshop.


    "Mr. Jeff. I''ve brought your guests."


    "The door is open." A man''s voice echoed from the inside, allowing them to enter.


    When the woman opened the door, there was a man whose eyes were glued to a canvas. His hand was skillfully giving every stroke to the art.


    On the other side of the room was a huge ss used to brighten the room as the primary light source, making the scene even more majestic.


    The man''s voice broke this tranquil atmosphere as he took a peek at his guests.


    "Oh, my. Ain''tcha Joker?"


    Theo could see the man''s appearance clearly. He looked like a different person from the photo he had.


    The man had brown skin, but the light blue shirt and white paint gave a different charm to his appearance. He looked neat and respectful, but his casual tone made him look easy to talk to.


    "Come in,e in! It''s truly a surprise to see the strongest man in the Asda List, you know."


    ''Ehm. Cold and aloof?'' Theo thought with a wry smile.

 Chapter 1108 Test

    <h4>Chapter 1108 Test</h4>


    ''Cold and aloof?'' Theo thought with a wry smile.


    Little did he know, the woman that brought them to this ce was the first examiner. If Theo could understand more about the painting and the one behind it, Jeffrey would openly show his interest.


    On the contrary, most of the people here couldn''t even understand the power behind that art. That was why they met the cold Jeffrey.


    The woman was simply giving him the code. If the people understood, she would say, ''I''ve brought your guests.'' But if the recruiters didn''t understand the art, she would say, ''The guests have arrived.''


    Of course, Theo wasn''t aware of this simple test. But Theo certainly understood why there were times the recruiters would talk for a long time. Their powerful illusionist should have understood the power behind the art, making Jeffrey treat them nicely.


    "Then, please excuse me." The woman politely bowed her head to them before closing the door.


    "Thank you." Jeffrey waved his hand to the woman who always helped him. After that, he rose from his seat and said, "Pleasee in. You''reing here to talk about recruitment, right? I personally don''t mind working for anyone as long as it benefits me."


    "Something like money? But this ce is huge, so you should have no trouble with money." Isaac looked around, finding the Magic Power around them.


    "It seems that you can see it too." Jeffrey smiled at Isaac and said, "I''m wondering what kind of stuff can you see despite being a Supreme Rank Expert. Now that I think about it, there are two Supreme Rank Experts and one Mythical Rank Expert, yet, the ones that could see through my illusion power are the Supreme Rank Experts�� You are truly abnormal."


    "To be honest, I don''t really like talking with people who can''t even understand my art. So, I apologize in advance that I need��" Jeffrey grabbed his brush with white paint on its tip. He then made a few strokes to create a sketch of a tiger.


    As soon as he finished, the palm-sized sketch expanded into a one-meter-tall white tiger. Of course, the tiger wascking in detail because he only used the sketch, but it still let out a roar and leaped toward Felix. "��to test you."


    "��" Felix furrowed his eyebrows and finally grabbed his sword''s handle. Just by taking out the sword a little bit, the sunlight suddenly brightened the area, blinding everyone.


    ''Light?'' Jeffrey squinted his eyes to withstand the light. At the same time, his hand was also moving, drawing something in the air.


    The lightsted for two seconds before itpletely vanished as if nothing had happened.


    "This is�� interesting." Jeffrey smirked.


    "!!!" Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground as he saw the tiger getting cut into two when the light was blinding them. And the next thing he realized, Felix had already reached Jeffrey on the other side, cing his sword on Jeffrey''s neck to threaten him.


    However, the reason why Jeffrey wasn''t afraid of someone visiting him was due to his extraordinary ability.


    Within that split second, Jeffrey created a shield made of nts that swirled to each other, making it hard to cut. Even Felix''s sword could only cut through half of them.


    "Scary." Jeffrey smiled and continued, "Alright. I apologize for offending you again. Although you can''t understand my ability, it seems that your strength is unique like mine."


    Theo maintained his silence this whole time before shaking his head helplessly. He snapped his fingers while utilizing his Order.


    "!!!" Jeffrey widened his eyes when he realized his illusion was shaken by that snap. He tried to maintain it, but after one second, the illusion disappeared.


    Felix''s sword would continue its way toward his neck, so Jeffrey had no choice other than to use all the paintings that covered this entire ce.


    Numerous vines emerged from the floor, the wall, and the ceiling. These vines surrounded Theo, Isaac, and Felix while stopping Felix''s sword.


    "Dayum, bro." Jeffrey was in utter shock. This was the first time a Supreme Rank Expert could actually influence his illusion. On top of that, Theo did it with a single snap of his fingers. "What did you do?"


    "This is��." Isaac looked around, not afraid of the vines. Although their lives could be taken away at this instant, Isaac knew Theo did it for a reason. He must have calcted what the other person wished to do and used that power.


    "Can we make up now? I was truly trying to test you. If that somehow offended you, I apologize�� Come on, man. Chill." Jeffrey made a wry smile.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, staring at Jeffrey for a few seconds before nodding to Felix.


    After receiving Theo''s order, Felix finally pulled his sword back and returned to Theo''s side.


    Jeffrey also did the same. He retracted his illusion as those vines began to retreat to the wall.


    "Damn. This entire hall is like a domain." Isaac smiled, looking around at the painting. He didn''t seem to be bothered by the tension in the air.


    His action made Jeffrey scratch the back of his head, not knowing what to say about Isaac''s behavior.


    "Holy shit. What did you do earlier? I tried my best to maintain my power, but I couldn''t do it. I could still feel the Magic Power, but I had no control over that ability anymore." Jeffrey asked, curious about what Theo did earlier.


    ''I''ve never thought it would take that long to dispel that illusion. It seems that his mastery of illusion has reached a high level�� I don''t know the full extent of his power, but he''s worthy of holding an Order. That is if he has the knowledge.'' Theo thought, assessing Jeffrey''s ability. ''The higher their mastery, the harder it is for my Order to dispel it. That''s why I know he''s good.''


    "You still felt the Magic Power? Now that I think about it, the Magic Power still remains in the air. Only the element that was removed." Isaac murmured while looking down, falling into deep thought. "Element�� Affinity��"


    "You can see Magic Power easily, boy? No, a normal Supreme Rank Expert can do something like that. Then, your eyes might be more special�� To what extent can you see Magic Power?" Jeffrey asked Isaac, who ignored him because he was in deep thought.


    Theo was the first one to break this tense atmosphere as he stated, "I see. So, that''s how it is. You''re interesting�� To be honest, I don''t have high expectationsing here, but I guess you pique my interest. Do you want toe with me?"

 Chapter 1109 Golden Magic Power

    <h4>Chapter 1109 Golden Magic Power</h4>


    "Do you want toe with me?"


    When he heard those words, Jeffrey furrowed his eyebrows. "You haven''t even answered my question. You expect me to just follow you?"


    "You were the one making the first move." Theo snorted.


    "That''s��" Jeffrey had no words to refute it since he was curious. In the end, he drew three chairs in the air and put them in front of him as he dragged his own chair so that they could talk morefortably. "How about taking a seat first? Let''s solve the misunderstanding between us before proceeding with the discussion."


    Without hesitation, Theo took the seat. His face was filled with confidence as if Jeffrey joining him was nothing but assured.


    After seeing Theo''s action, both Isaac and Felix decided to take the seat.


    "Alright. I apologize for my rudeness before. I have been apologizing this whole time��" Jeffrey let out a long sigh.


    "Felix." Theo nced at Felix as if asking him to answer that apology.


    "Since you have decided, there''s no need to talk about this anymore." Felix finally lowered his sword as a sign of peace.


    "That''s great." Jeffrey pped his hands with a smile. "So, can you answer my question? I mean, you''re trying to recruit me, right? Shouldn''t I know more about my boss?"


    "I don''t like how that''s going. I prefer arade instead of a subordinate." Theo raised his finger. "We will answer each other''s questions alternately to make us equal."


    "Hoh��" Jeffrey narrowed his eyes and said, "Okay. You are interesting. So, I will take the loss and answer your question first."


    Theo didn''t beat around the bush. He asked the most important question. "Is it possible to recruit you?"


    "I don''t work for anyone right now. However, I''m open to that idea as long as they can give me the benefits that I want." Jeffrey answered the question honestly before asking Theo. "What did you do to my illusion? You removed it so easily."


    "I simply erased the element. So, your power is nothing but an empty shell. But as expected, you have a good mastery of your own illusion�� It took me a moment to erase it." Theo shrugged.


    "��" All of them turned to Theo, surprised by how easy it was to make Theo talk. At the same time, Isaac remembered what Theo did during his fight against Winston. Theo used his power to cut through Winston''s space barrier.


    It seemed Theo had the ability to manipte the elements.


    "It''s my turn to ask the question." Theo waved his hand, regaining control of the conversation. "What should I do to recruit you? Exin it in detail."


    Jeffrey thought for a moment and pointed at the wall. "Look at my painting�� I can bring them to live with my power. It''s a funny power that I like so much because they are the ones taking away my loneliness.


    "However, my power is limited due to my nt affinity. I scorned this affinity in the past because I was restrained to only one affinity�� If I didn''t have an affinity, my world would have be even more vorful.


    "But after a long time, I hade to terms with it. So, I developed my art in that direction. It felt restricted, but I didn''t care since I could get stronger with my ability too.


    "Even so, I still felt dissatisfied with my current result. If someone could make me perfect�� If they were a man, I wouldn''t mind following him; if they were a woman, I wouldn''t mind marrying her."


    Jeffrey drew a small robot in the air and used his illusion power to bring it to life. After that, the robot walked toward his desk in the corner of the room and brought back a drawing book.


    He then showed it to Theo. "I was once a man filled with passion. I drew many things, from swords to magic�� It''s because I love fairy tales. I always dreamed of being able to create a world of a fairy tale with this power.


    "Unfortunately, the older I''ve got, the more I realize how impossible it is�� I simply don''t have that power. If you can fulfill this dream of mine, I won''t hesitate to follow you. I already have everything, from money to women�� I only want this dream to be fulfilled, and death won''t be a problem." Jeffrey smiled before asking his next question. "So, I think you can already guess my next question�� Can you fulfill this dream of mine?"


    Theo remained silent for a minute.


    Even Jeffrey closed his eyes, preparing himself to get disappointed. Even the two big illusionists that came to him in the past couldn''t fulfill this dream, leaving him disappointed.


    So, he couldn''t expect a Supreme Rank Expert to do it.


    However, Theo''s answer came in the form of action.


    The Magic Power fluctuated on top of his palm, grabbing everyone''s attention. Suddenly, a fire sparked.


    The fire was small, but it transmitted heat like a real fire usually did.


    Isaac was so shocked that he stumbled to the ground. "This�� This is�� What did you do? How can this be? You should have no affinity, Joker! How can you produce a fire? This is not an ordinary fire.


    "It''s not an illusion�� After all, the Magic Power contains affinity. Don''t tell me? You not only can remove an affinity but can also attach it to the Magic Power?" Isaac sucked a cold breath, not believing what had happened.


    Even Jeffrey could see that this fire wasn''t something like an illusion. He himself had tried it many times in the past, so he certainly could differentiate illusion and reality.


    "Don''t tell me�� You have a freaking fire affinity this whole time?" Isaac asked.


    Suddenly, the fire gradually became cold, turning into ice. Then, the ice became a rock. Theo didn''t stop there.


    The lightning sparked, covering the stone.


    At this time, Theo rose from his seat and released the Magic Power influenced by his Order. Yes, Theo finally revealed his golden-colored Magic Power.


    All of the eyes in this room were wide open as they couldn''t believe what they had seen.


    Just like the Queen of Destiny said, Isaac got his answer if he followed him this time. He dropped to his knees as if witnessing a miracle. No wonder Theo told him the white Magic Power was rare and not rare at the same time. Theo had it too.


    Theo stepped forward, reaching Jeffrey. He extended his hand and said, "This is my answer. Come with me. Paint me a world, and I will turn that world into a reality, Jeffrey Watkins."

 Chapter 1110 Reality vs Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 1110 Reality vs Illusion</h4>


    "Come with me. Paint me a world and I will turn that world into a reality, Jeffrey Watkins." Theo stated with a serious tone.


    There was another reason why Theo used this power in front of everyone.


    For Jeffrey, Theo believed he was the perfect person to help him in building his territory. As someone who possessed an Order, Theo could use his Covenant Seal to mark his territory, filling it with his power.


    That was why Theo desired Jeffrey''s painting ability as well as his power. He wanted Jeffrey to create a small world for his territory. That would be the base of the organization he was trying to create.


    On the other hand, Theo managed to satisfy Isaac with this show. He already told Isaac that he would allow Isaac to observe him and research his power. In exchange, Isaac would give him the progress of his research.


    This was Theo''s way to progress his power. Sometimes, learning from others'' perspectives would be useful, much less from Isaac, who gave him so much insight every time they discussed an important topic.


    That was why Theo showed this power to him. He wanted Isaac to know that the person he served was not a random guy who acted confident. He was truly a guy who had the power to act like that.


    Last but not least, Theo wished to reveal the power that helped his daughter. Felix never knew why Theo could treat his daughter. Showing this power was simr to telling Felix that he didn''t choose the wrong person to serve. Even the Dark King wasn''t against the idea of revealing this power to his closest people, breaking the final straw in Theo''s heart.


    All of them were shocked by this Golden Magic Power. No one was supposed to have this kind of Magic Power since they all knew the color of the normal Magic Power.


    It meant Theo had another power that was different from the norm. And he was nning to use this power to soar to the sky.


    Everyone had witnessed how good the power was when Theo defeated Winston. It was an impossible fight, yet Theo turned the situation around after using this power.


    Unknowingly, tears starteding out of Jeffrey''s eyes.


    "Exquisite." Jeffrey subconsciously murmured as he also dropped to his knees. "I�� I want to ask everyone to vacate this room."


    His words broke the silence inside the room. But with how Jeffrey kneeled in front of Theo, it was clear what he was nning to do.


    Felix knew that this person would be his nextrade. It seemed he had underestimated Theo this whole time. The person he had sworn to protect was far stronger than he originally thought.


    He was aware of Theo''s n. And it seemed that n would bepleted sooner orter.


    ''I see. It seems that I didn''t choose the wrong person.'' Felix subconsciously smiled and turned around, finding the shocked Isaac. He seemed to be unable to wake up because of how big the revtion was.


    Although Felix was also shaken by this phenomenon, he still had his priority straight. Even if his body was staggering, Felix still carried Isaac to leave the room as soon as he got a nod from Theo.


    *Click!*


    The door was shut, leaving only Theo and Jeffrey inside.


    Jeffrey desperately turned page after page to find a certain drawing.


    After a while, he finally found the drawing. It was just a simple metal sword. The sword had a golden handle and a long, thin de.


    There were two words to describe it: beautiful and elegant. This was the sword he drew a few decades ago. It only had a purpose.


    Jeffrey ripped apart the page and used his illusion power to manifest the sword. However, because of his affinity, the sword had a soft and mushy feeling like holding a vine.


    "This is a ceremonial sword�� I drew it precisely 40 years, 11 months, and 12 days ago. I have told you that I love fairy tales. So, please use this sword like a knighthood ceremony. You can simply ce it on my shoulder and say, ''I ept your oath.'' That''s all." Jeffrey presented the sword to Theo with both hands while lowering his head.


    Theo grabbed the handle carefully as he enveloped this sword with his power.


    Closing his eyes, Theo concentrated his power on his Order, trying hard to influence the sword. He wanted to make this sword a reality. From the shape to the material used�� he desired the perfect sword.


    ''Wait a minute, material?'' Theo was dumbfounded for a second before realizing the meaning behind the third stage, the Reality vs Illusion. ''Don''t tell me��''


    Theo used his Order to bring an element. It was metal.


    ''God of Mischief told me that the third stage of Illusion Order is the exact opposite of my Order. The Mind Elder had achieved this stage, and if I could say the Illusion vs Reality is supposed to be something that can create a perfect illusion because it''s based on reality, just like how the Mind Elder created an illusion of my grandfather��


    ''In other words, what I need to do is the exact opposite. I am simply going to make the same thing a reality�� Using the metal element to form a de��'' Theo poured his Order and created an iron ingot. ''Then change the shape of this iron to a de��''


    While he was thinking, the metal gradually changed its shape, following his instruction. Gold ingot soon appeared and formed a handle to suit the sword.


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he said inwardly, ''This is�� my Reality vs Illusion.''


    His Materialization always created a snake in such detail, so recreating the shape of the sword was an easy task for Theo.


    After a whole five minutes, the sword was finally formed. This time, the sword had the firmness of iron.


    Jeffrey was stunned, witnessing the process. Although he knew that the sword would disappear as soon as Theo retracted his Magic Power, it was still something beyond his imagination.


    ''Creation? No�� This is a different power, but I know this is the power that can turn my dream into a reality��'' Jeffrey saw Theo opening his eyes and immediately said, "I, Jeffrey Watkins, solemnly swear.


    "I will use this power to follow Joker. If he wants a weapon, I shall draw it. If he wants a house, I will paint it. If he wants a world, I shall design it. Even if I need to use my life as an exchange, there won''t be any hesitation from my heart."


    After saying those words, he felt the sword on top of his shoulder. It was different from the soft sword that he had created earlier. It felt like a genuine sword.


    Soon, Theo''s words echoed, answering his oath.


    "I ept your oath."

 Chapter 1111 Hint

    <h4>Chapter 1111 Hint</h4>


    "I ept your oath."


    Theo finally finished recruiting Jeffrey. However, both of them turned silent, with no one nning to move.


    They stayed quiet for two minutes before Jeffrey stuttered, "I-I''m sorry�� for making you fulfill my childhood dream."


    "Can we stay quiet for a bit more? It would feel good when you''re a kid, but a young man is doing it with a middle-aged man right now, and we''re not actors�� I''m almost dying from cringes��" Theo looked away as he wanted to bite his tongue.


    The atmosphere became awkward for a bit longer until Theo finally put the sword away. After stopping pouring his Magic Power, the sword gradually disappeared, proving Theo''s theory.


    This was the difference between his Reality Order and Creation Order. His Reality Order could bring something to reality, but it would onlyst until the supply, which in this case, the Magic Power, ran out. On the contrary, the Creation Order would create something without this weakness.


    That was why the Creator God was an omnipotent existence who needed to wield all thirteen big Orders to create this world. Even he couldn''t see how much power the Creator God had to do something like that.


    Since Theo had retracted the sword, Jeffrey rose from the floor and asked, "By the way, how should I call you? It''s true that you consider me as arade instead of your follower or subordinate, but we have a huge difference in age. Well, I don''t really mind being called simr to that assassin earlier."


    "Yeah. I personally don''t mind about our age. I''ll just call you with your name, and you will do the same. That is if you are fine with it."


    "That''s perfectly fine. Just call me Jeff to simplify my name, and I''ll call you Joker."


    "OK." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Then, Joker. I have a few things to ask. Should I move my base right now? I know that you''re living in the Star Group''s living quarters, but I don''t think it''s appropriate for me to move in with you. Do you have a base or something?"


    "No. You can stay here if you like. For now, I''m not nning to make a big movement, so you can continue your daily life like normal."


    "I see." Jeff nodded and contemted for a moment. "In that case, you said you want me to paint a world. What do you mean by that? And it seems that this ''world'' is rted to that Golden Magic Power. To be honest, I don''t know my role here."


    "I''m nning to make a base sooner orter. I don''t know when and where right now because I''m still searching for people. I want you to paint something like that�� like scenery or something. What kind of building will look good? I don''t care about the building''s design since it''s the architect''s job. I just want the outer appearance.


    "This power of mine allows me to create a territory, so it''s easy to build it from scratch. And I''m still too weak, so I can''t do much right now. In fact, you have the potential to gain a simr power of mine." Theo hinted about the Order.


    ording to his observation, Jeff''s mastery was even higher than Felix''s. Although Felix would be stronger in one on one fights, it was due to Felix''s nature being an assassin.


    So, hinting to him about Order would probably do something good in the future. The group would be much more powerful if there was another person having an Order in his group.


    Theo hesitated at first, but the Dark King seemed to pay no mind about showing this power. It might be due to him being a monster, but he might have overestimated the Order.


    "A simr power?" Jeff widened his eyes in surprise before getting confused. That Golden Magic Power was out of the norm. Nothing in his mind could figure out this power. Yet, Theo hinted that he had the potential to gain this extraordinary power.


    "Well, I''ll just give you a hint. I won''t exin it to you in detail until you achieve it." Theo contemted for a moment and found the simple hint that could make Jeff gain an Order. "You have two art styles, right?"


    "Yes," Jeff admitted without hesitation.


    "Have you ever felt one of them being a burden?"


    "��" Jeff looked down as if he couldn''t answer him. However, this was enough for Theo to know the answer.


    "Be true to yourself even to the end of time. That''s the hint." Theo patted his shoulders before turning around, nning to leave. Since he had given him a hint, the rest would be up to him.


    Jeff could throw away one of them or do nothing. Even Theo didn''t know which answer would allow Jeff to attain his Order since the only person who knew Jeff the best was himself.


    Jeff looked down before grabbing Theo''s hand. He then took out a business card containing his number. "This is my personal number. The people who know this number can be counted with fingers. If you have any requests, you can call this number. I''ll also mark your number."


    "OK, thanks." Theo took the card and said, "I am sure you know about this, but don''t tell anyone about my power."


    "I understand." Jeff nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s good. Well, it''s time for me to leave." Theo waved his hand and walked toward the door. On the way, he was thinking about the pianist. ''Wait a minute. The Queen of Destiny indirectly implied that I would only get one person during this trip. Since I''ve gotten Jeff, does it mean it''s impossible for me to get the pianist? Having an Enchanter can boost the overall stability of my team��


    ''Just like the assassination or the dragon, the Queen of Destiny can predict something correctly, which means her power is genuine. In that case, does it mean I have no possibility to get this pianist guy?''


    Theo looked down, starting to feel disappointed. However, he remembered what God of Mischief said about him breaking everyone''s expectations.


    ''Right? Screw that. If the future wants me to die, I''m going to rece that reality. If the future wants me to only get Jeff, screw the future! I choose both!'' Theo smirked as he left the room with an excited smile.

 Chapter 1112 Unique Person

    <h4>Chapter 1112 Unique Person</h4>


    As soon as Theo came out of the room, he saw Isaac staring at him as if a dog waiting for his food. There was even a drool on the corner of his lips.


    "That pow��Gah!" Isaac jumped at Theo, wanting to ask about the Golden Magic Power. But thetter ended up smacking his head, stopping his excitement.


    "I already told you on the Ind. I''m not going to answer any of your questions. Observe me as you like, but you won''t get any answers from me." Theo reminded him coldly, killing Isaac''s excitement.


    "Ugh��" Isaac lowered his head. He couldn''t refute it. The excitement and temptation were so great that he forgot about this promise.


    "You''re curious about it too?" Theo turned his head to Felix.


    "Is it something I''m supposed to learn?"


    "It can make you stronger, but it''s not something you need in your life." Theo shook his head. The only reason he rejected that idea was due to the Order''s information itself.


    He believed that the top 100 experts in the world had an Order. Even if he needed to stretch it, he believed not more than two hundred people in the world had Order.


    That was why he didn''t require his people to learn Order, like Jeff for example. He left the decision in Jeff''s hand.


    "Well, if you want to know more, you can ask this guy and learn from what he observes." Theo shook his head. "I won''t personally teach anyone about this power because it''s a double-edged sword."


    "I understand." Felix nodded with a calm expression. Even Theo didn''t know what he was thinking about Order.


    "By the way, since we''ve recruited Jeffrey Watkins, should we go back to the mansion or head to the pianist?" Isaac asked.


    "Let''s meet with the pianist. I''ve no idea about piano, but at least I want to meet this person." Theo shrugged. "Oh, right. I almost forgot about this. The information that you want me to meet. What is his name again? And where is he?"


    "That guy?" Felix was surprised by this question since he thought Theo had given up on this guy. He thought for a moment and said, "His name is Kasym Azimov from Kyrgyzstan."


    ''Kyrgyzstan?'' Theo widened his eyes. ''To think I would go to a neighboring country of my hometown�� Because Thernd is small, people often go to Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan to be stronger. And they''re usually offered a better term there. That''s why there are no Mythical Rank Experts in Thernd.


    ''But I guess it''s time to go there myself to meet this guy. Though, this is not the time. In two months, I''m going to take an International Mission either to Mongolia or China before going to another country�� That''s why I don''t think I can meet this guy anytime soon.''


    "Okay. That''s good to know." Theo nodded and brushed the matter off. "Anyway, we should go toward our next destination right now. We need to go back before midnight."


    "Let''s go then." Felix was raring to go while Isaac was still in the middle of his thoughts.


    Suddenly, Jeff opened the door and took a peek outside. "Are you going to meet another person?"


    "Yes," Theo admitted without hesitation. It was indirectly implying Jeff wasn''t the sole reason he came here, but Jeff seemed to pay no mind about it. Instead, he asked, "Who is he?"


    "Do you know a pianist called Christopher Grant?"


    "That guy? We once cob��" Jeff paused for a moment before returning to his room. "Wait a minute."


    "��" Theo was confused by Jeff''s action. He was thinking about what kind of coboration they had in the past.


    His imagination ran wild as an image of Christoper ying the piano appeared in his mind. In that scene, Jeff tried to produce Christoper''s soundworld. However, Jeff himself didn''t know much about music, so the soundworld was unsatisfactory.


    ''Ehm, can I even do this?'' Theo suddenly noticed the possibility of him failing to recruit Christoper was rather high. ''It seems that the Queen of Destiny has seen me failing instead of not trying�� Whatever. Since I know I''m going to fail, I''ll do something that I shouldn''t do this time. I''m going to use the future to reverse this statement.''


    After a while, Jeff came out and handed him a brown envelope. "If you''re going to meet him, you should bring this. Let him open this envelope, and the talk should be smoother."


    Theo nodded and received the envelope, not knowing the content of the envelope.


    "Before you go, can you give me some of your future ns? Like how many people are you going to recruit?"


    "Mhm. I personally want fifteen people. It''s just a small group of elites�� Of course, I''m going to search for the members all around the world since it''s rather hard to find a unique person like you all."


    "That''s kinda true. In that case, if you''re going to go to France, I''ve someone to rmend. An oddball, but she''s a rather interesting woman."


    "Hoh?" Theo narrowed his eyes, interested in this woman. Just like Felix and the information broker, it seemed unique people were attracted to each other.


    "Yeah. Her name is Marte Noir. She''s a unique individual who loves eating monsters."


    "Eh?" Theo made a weird smile. "Well, I''ll think about it."


    A grotesque image couldn''t help but appear in his mind. Although monster''s meat was quite good if they knew how to process it, not many people would go all the way to love it. It was simply due to the circumstances.


    "Anyway, when you''re going there, do let me know. I can even help you to set up a meeting with her. I''m sure that you know my Skylink number, right? She''s one of the people who knows that number." Jeff smiled.


    "Is that so? Well, I''ll keep that in mind. Even Felix''s suggestion has been put off this whole time, so it''s going to take a bit longer before I decide that."


    "It''s fine if you''re not interested. Just take your time since I don''t want you to regret your choice." Jeff nodded.


    "Okay. In that case, it''s time for me to go."


    "I''ll see you off."


    Jeff personally guided them to the exit and saw them off.


    When Theo and the others had gone, the woman at the gate approached him.


    "Mr. Jeff."


    "There''s no need to be polite anymore. Thank you for your help this whole time. No need to do it anymore." Jeff smiled.


    "Are you sure about this, big bro?"


    "Yeah. Let''s have a party tonight."

 Chapter 1113 The Possibility of Breaking the Possibility

    <h4>Chapter 1113 The Possibility of Breaking the Possibility</h4>


    On the way, Theo was silent, thinking about the future possibilities.


    ''The Queen of Destiny should have known that I''ll be visiting the pianist. Yet, she still said I could only get one person, Jeff.


    ''In that case, what will I do to persuade this pianist?'' Theo narrowed his eyes. This time, he couldn''t use his Reality Order to answer the question. Unlike the Queen of Destiny''s test, he couldn''t change his destiny or reality as of now.


    The only thing he could do was alter that possibility when the Queen of Destiny used her power.


    ''Heh�� She didn''t need to test me? She was a freaking liar. She knew I would be tested in this way, so there was no need to test me again.


    ''She knew the future. Now that I think about it, what kind of answer could break the destiny?'' Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Now that he had gotten this question into his reality, there was no other way to answer this question. Every possibility had been calcted.


    ''Should I use this letter? No, that''s the basic answer. Should I stop right now and return? It just proves that I can''t recruit this guy. Should I send Isaac and Felix alone? The Queen of Destiny should have seen this possibility too. What about Millie? Can I ask her to hack the guy''s stuff? No, this is the same��''


    Theo was asking himself, wondering how to answer that question. Just like the Queen of Destiny said, the only way he could do this was to use his Order to influence reality. However, she knew his ability was nowhere at the level of manipting reality. Hence, Theo shouldn''t be able to get the answer.


    ''I can''t find a single solution? What is the one that can break the destiny?'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''Now that I think about it, how do I even escape from those numerous possibilities? Everything I do should have been calcted.


    ''What if I''m the God of Mischief? Can I actually escape from destiny?'' Theo didn''t have the answer. It was impossible for Theo to break free from the numerous possibilities.


    ''I can only answer this question without using my Reality Order�� Is that even possible?'' Theo gritted his teeth, having no answer.


    As if wanting to add more choices to his repertoire, Theo looked at the brown envelope, nning to open it.


    "Ahaha, I''m pathetic. Now that I''m in the same position as you guys, I can''t answer that question." Theo chuckled while pinching the bridge of his nose. He was truly hopeless.


    "Joker?" Isaac was confused by Theo''s words, while Felix didn''t bother to check Theo''s condition.


    "What kind of question will you ask the one who sees the numerous possibilities?" Theo uttered the question, jogging Isaac''s memory.


    "!!!" Isaac widened his eyes, remembering the question. He soon understood why Theo felt hopeless.


    It turned out the Queen of Destiny had predicted this possibility.


    "How about giving up?" Isaac scratched the back of his head. If recruiting him was impossible, there was no need to get him.


    "If that is you, what will your question be, Felix?" Theo asked.


    "Out of nowhere��" Felix scratched the back of his head and started thinking. "How about using the fact that I know the future to break free from it?"


    "And what if the moment you know your future, a new possibility of it being the base is created? And what if that possibility is not only one but infinite?" Theo asked again as he already had that answer this whole time.


    Now that Theo had changed his question, Felix fell silent, having no answer to give. He realized if his awareness about the future had been calcted as well, then there was no way he could escape from those possibilities.


    Even Isaac understood since this question broke his answer. No wonder the Queen of Destiny marked him the lowest. It turned out he didn''t realize he hadn''t escaped or tried to escape from the future.


    "Well, since we''re not fated, why don''t we go back? There''s no need to do something useless, right?" Isaac asked, persuading Theo that there was no need toe to Christoper. Even with the envelope, Christoper wouldn''t join them.


    "No. The possibility only bes zero when you give up. I don''t want to give up." Theo shook his head. "Even if the odds are one in a million, I will find that one possibility."


    Theo looked determined to get this guy, breaking the future.


    "Are you a sore loser?" Isaac made a wry smile, not knowing whether to praise him or question him.


    "I don''t care what you call me." Theo shook his head as he still searched for the possibility that shouldn''t have existed.


    "Are you going to do something even more absurd right now? Like creating a new future? What if the possibility of you creating a new future has been calcted? Doesn''t that mean you''re still inside those numerous possibilities?" Isaac asked.


    His meaning was clear. Isaac was questioning the extent of Theo''s power. If Theo had the power to break free from the numerous possibilities, what if the possibility of him doing it existed? In the end, Theo was still trapped in those numerous possibilities.


    To put it simply, there was no answer toplete the Queen of Destiny''s test.


    "I see. No matter how hard you try to break free from that possibility, you trying to break free alone is already within that possibility. In other words, this is a test that will only end in failure because the future of youpleting the test is already within the possibility." Felix looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened as no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible. However, there was one reason why Theo hadn''t given up.


    At that time, the Queen of Destiny told him that he wasn''t strong enough to give her the answer she wanted. It meant there was an answer. Yet, him giving that answer should be within the possibility. Two sentences conflicted with each other, but it was impossible to break free from them.


    ''Is there truly no other way?'' Theo gritted his teeth.


    *****


    How can Theo break the possibility of him breaking the possibility?


    A) It''s impossible because it''s still within the possibility.


    B) Give up.


    C) Add your answer...

 Chapter 1114 I Am Angry

    <h4>Chapter 1114 I Am Angry</h4>


    ''Is there truly no other way?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, trying his hardest to find a way.


    "It''s impossible, Joker. There''s a theory about it. I don''t remember the name of the theory, but it says that it''s impossible to escape from fate because what you would have done have been done by the other you in those possibilities." Isaac shook his head.


    "��" Theo looked at him before closing his eyes.


    "There is already so much research about it." Isaac sighed. "I know that you don''t want to lose, but there''s something impossible in this world."


    "��" Theo let out a sigh as if nning to give up. However, he soon remembered one more thing. It was his Order.


    His Order didn''t have the ability to manipte that possibility. Even if he got stronger, he might still not find a way to do it.


    However, Theo found somethingpletely unique.


    ''Wait a minute. The Queen of Destiny�� she�� Can she understand the destiny after getting an Order? Even the Creator God needs thirteen Big Orders to create this world.


    ''The God of Mischief told me that there''s a higher being that controls this entire universe. For them, we''re like a character in a movie. If I ignore the fact that their action might also be rted to destiny, it still means that I can manipte the destiny of this universe, not the destiny of the higher dimension.


    ''In other words, if the being from the higher dimension wants something, they can simply change it to the thing they like.


    ''This way, the fate of this universe will change simply because of outside interference, the one that isn''t controlled by the fate of this universe but theirs.


    ''The Queen of Destiny wants me to break free from this universe''s destiny, so if I get their help, they can easily free me from it.


    ''The proof of their existence is there, but no one has seen or witnessed their appearance. So, I don''t know if it''s possible.


    ''So, it''s impossible to ask for their help, which leads to another failure. However, there is one other way that can intervene with fate.''


    Theo''s expression became serious as he finally asked Loki. ''If you don''t mind answering this question, what is this world�� no, who is this world?''


    Theo used who instead of what because he considered the world a living being.


    The only reason he thought this way was due to the existence of Order and Authority. Even the God of Mischief said he had seen the world''s rule as well as the system to create this realm.


    In that case, the world should have its own consciousness, enough to use ''who''.


    ''The world can grant you an Order and Authority if it deems you suitable. It can also take it away. In other words, the world itself has Orders and Authorities to be granted to others�� No, should I say the world is the original owner of the Orders and Authorities?


    ''As an original owner of Destiny Order and Authority, doesn''t that mean the world can see and manipte fate better than the Queen of Destiny? If that''s the case, the world itself has a destiny that can''t be seen by the Queen of Destiny. After all, the one who can see the world''s destiny is those from the higher dimension.


    ''If I have the world''s assistance, the possibility that shouldn''t exist will appear. And this should be enough to overwrite the current destiny.'' Theo muttered inwardly, giving his answer.


    To his surprise, the God of Mischief spoke.


    [Thus, the first step of you breaking free from the fate that controls your entire life. However, you''re simply too weak to even see the hidden truth of this world. The way you''re now, you can''t twist fate. It''s impossible for you to get him.]


    ''So, are you telling me to give up? No, you told me to make my own decision. This is my decision. I''m not going to give up.'' Theo clicked his tongue.


    [I know you''re going to say that. Do you remember the Synergy that I told you back then?]


    ''Yes. When the Queen of Destiny poured the energy into my Order, the Synergy unconsciously happened.''


    [It''s a lie.]


    Theo widened his eyes and abruptly stopped in his tracks. If not because of his sturdy foundation, he would slip to the ground.


    "What?!" Theo shouted in shock.


    [It''s impossible for the Synergy to happen unless both parties agree to it. Just imagine if that happens without your knowledge, the world would be in chaos. When I messed with others, I could simply use the Synergy between us to wreak havoc. I could simply fight my brother and create a ce filled with lightning and thunder�� Yet, why didn''t it happen?]


    [It''s simple. Synergy can only be done when two parties are using that power for the same goal. The same applied to the creation of this realm. Without getting the consent of other Authorities, do you think my power alone was enough to create this realm?]


    [No. I used the energy in your Order to manipte the things she saw with my illusion. In other words, a part of what she saw was just an illusion�� Those were the possibilities I created with my illusion.]


    ''This��'' Theo was stunned, never expecting that the God of Mischief would lie to him. He never lied to him this whole time, so he didn''t know why the God of Mischief would actually do this to him.


    However, his question was soon answered, albeit it wasn''t something Theo liked.


    [Do you remember what I saidst time? I wanted to teach you a lesson about taking someone''s gift without knowing anything about it.]


    Theo remembered the scene where the God of Mischief yed him. But before he had any time to respond, the God of Mischief had continued.


    [What if your kid epted a gift from a stranger? The gift is a bomb. For the kid, who has no knowledge about bombs, it would look like a present. But for the parents, the bomb is the thing that will kill the entire family. That''s why you told the kid not to ept things from strangers. The kid is like you��You''re too full of yourself just because you have a sudden power up.]


    [I am angry, Theodore Griffith.]

 Chapter 1115 Questioned

    <h4>Chapter 1115 Questioned</h4>


    Theo was stupefied when he saw thest message. The God of Mischief had once told him that he suppressed the Griffith Family''s Ancestor so that he couldn''t bless him.


    The God of Mischief had also done all sorts of preparation to fight against the end of time. Theo was his biggest card in tackling the end of time as well as the higher being.


    Yet, Theo epted a foreign power that could potentially harm him. The Queen of Destiny wasn''t even his friend or ally, but Theo still allowed her to give something that he didn''t understand perfectly. It might be a beneficial gift for him, but it could also be a time bomb.


    That was why the God of Mischief''s anger was justified.


    Even Theo could see the true anger in him. Despite having no voice or image, he felt chills down his spine to the point his body shuddered.


    He clutched his fists so hard that they almost bled. There was a desire to call the God of Mischief out for not teaching him, but thetter had exined the reason why he refrained himself from teaching anything about Orders.


    When he thought about it, he finally understood the real meaning behind his words.


    ''I see. I was a goddamn fool.'' Theo gritted his teeth. ''Have I ever questioned all the things other people taught me? How about I question the basics of the Five Aspects that Nina taught me? How about the Materialization power that came from my father?


    ''What if they were wrong? That knowledge, they think it''s the right knowledge�� At least for them. But who knows the actual truth? What if the world judges it''s not the correct form? What if an Authorityes and tells me, ''It''s wrong?''


    ''The answer is subjective. If it''s right for them, it might be wrong for me. It''s alright to receive some knowledge, but never think it''s right�� It will only be right if I deem them to be correct.


    ''In the end, I should sort everything thates to me, whether it''s knowledge, technique, or power. I shouldn''t ept everything and just do it.


    ''I will learn them, examine them, and judge them. It''s impossible for a normal person to do it, but I''m good at learning. It will take slightly longer, but it will be something unique to only me.''


    Theo''s expression became calm. When he raised his head, he saw Isaac and Felix standing a bit far away from him, talking to each other. It seemed Isaac was telling Felix about what happened on the ind.


    He thought Theo was like this because he lost control over his power.


    After a while, Theo took a few deep breaths to calm his heart. Now that he finally understood that the possibility still existed, he knew he should visit the pianist.


    At the same time, he still couldn''t see how far ahead the God of Mischief could see.


    The God of Mischief knew the Queen of Destiny''s character and used that illusion to make her believe this was a test for that answer. She never realized she was trapped inside an illusion.


    At the same time, he knew Theo would arrive at the same conclusion because he simply thought too much. That was why both of them werepletely tricked by this man, Loki.


    ''Now that I think about it, he''s truly a scary man��'' Theo''s lips curved as his heart started getting excited. ''The God of Mischief is sticking to me, so he knows what I do and think�� Those people in the higher dimension also stick like this, knowing everything we do and think.


    ''This is the preparation and trial that the God of Mischief has given to me.'' Theo clenched his fists and smiled. ''Fine by me. I''m going to defeat you first. If I can''t even defeat the God of Mischief, there''s no way for me to contend with those from the higher dimension.''


    Theo felt the challenge and understood what he needed to do.


    "Fu��" Theo let out a deep sigh before walking toward Isaac and Felix. "Let''s go to the pianist."


    Isaac wanted to check his condition, but Theo''s expression was so serious that it stopped the words froming out of his mouth.


    ''What is happening to him again? I have never understood his changes. Is this rted to the Queen of Destiny? But I still didn''t see any fluctuation�� I don''t know what I should do��'' Isaac thought, wondering if Theo would be a cold-blooded leader like many leaders in this world.


    Still, Isaac hoped nothing would change in the future. The current him was perfect to be a leader. He was merciless to the enemy and warm to his friends.


    Theo wasn''t nning to be cold. He just had a lot of thoughts to sort.


    However, none of them knew what Theo thought because Theo rarely revealed anything about him.


    In the end, the group reached the next state without a single word being spoken.


    After a few hours, they found a huge mansion far away from any house. Unlike Jeff, Christopher wasn''t someone who had so much time to paint the entire building.


    Instead, Christopher used all that time to practice his skill.


    From the outside, the harmonious melody was ringing in their ears.


    "This is��" Isaac narrowed his eyes, looking at the Magic Power inside the building. "Every time it beats, the Magic Power fluctuates? Does he use his power when ying his piano? This energy�� somehow calms my mind."


    Isaac examined the Magic Power fluctuations while Felix raised his sword, feeling shaken by this melody.


    A butler soon came out of the mansion and politely greeted them.


    "Joker, correct? My master has been waiting for you. It''s just��" He nced at Felix as well as Theo''s bracelet and said, "I would like it if you could leave all your weapons here."


    Theo remained quiet and took off his bracelet, handing it to the butler. Since his boss had done it, Felix also gave his sword.


    After the butler made sure there were no hidden weapons, they finally entered the building.


    But the moment the door of the mansion was opened, intense energy rushed out of the mansion and tried to push them back.

 Chapter 1116 Threat

    <h4>Chapter 1116 Threat</h4>


    *Fwoosh!*


    The energy rushed out of the door and struck them.


    Felix immediately stepped forward, trying to protect Theo.


    "I''m tired and don''t want to deal with this. Since the owner doesn''t wee us, let''s go back." Theo narrowed his eyes and turned around as if he didn''t care about it anymore.


    "Huh?" Isaac widened his eyes, not understanding why Theo actually wanted to return now. Theo had gone all the way here, so it would be a waste not to talk with this person. "Joker��"


    Theo, of course, had no intention to leave empty-handed. After turning around, he took out the brown envelope from Jeff and opened it himself instead of showing this to Christopher.


    "Jeff told me to give this to you, but since the negotiation has failed before it even starts�� It means I don''t need Jeff''s permission to open it. You two are the witness that I have tried my best to deliver the message." Theo didn''t hesitate to rip apart the envelope, taking out the paper that could smoothen their talks.


    Curious, Isaac also took a peek at the content before rubbing his eyes many times and falling to the ground. "Nooo!! My eyes need bleach!"


    The content was obvious. It was a naked middle-aged man in the middle of changing. No wonder Jeff could coborate with this guy; he basically threatened him.


    Suddenly, a blond man came out of the house. It was clear that he was shaken from the picture as if he could hear Theo''s words this whole time.


    "Y-young man. How about staying for a while? If I somehow offended you, I''d like to apologize." The middle-aged man stuttered, trying to bring Theo back.


    He didn''t know how Theo could get that since Jeff was the only person who had it due to him identally finding his past. Jeff had promised not to give this to anyone after their coboration, and he did fulfill the promise for more than ten years.


    Yet, Jeff actually handed this picture to this young man. It was clear that their rtionship was unusual.


    "There is nothing to talk about. You used all that energy to push us away, and now you want us toe in? Don''t be ridiculous. Since you''ve turned us away, there''s no need to talk anymore." Theo clicked his tongue and said, "Felix. Grab my bracelet and your weapon. We''ll go back."


    "W-wait! Let''s talk about this. There is a misunderstanding. I was practicing earlier. As you can see, I''m an Enchanter. My main ability is support, so Ick attacking ability. I''m just practicing so that no one can harm me even if I have no protector." The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head, trying hard to persuade Theo to stay.


    ''Jeff�� No, Jerk! You bastard. Why are you screwing me over? You''ve promised me to keep it a secret after you extorted me in the past with it�� I know that you''re not going to erase it, but to think you would go all the way to hand it to someone else.''


    While he was cursing Jeff, the middle-aged man also realized that Jeff was trying to fulfill his part of the agreement.


    Jeff didn''t show it to anyone. He told Theo to show this to Jeff so that the talk could proceed easily. If he didn''t use that technique earlier, Theo wouldn''t be pissed and have seen this.


    As long as Christopher received and saw this threat from Jeff alone, no one would know the content of the envelope. Everyone could simply think it was a letter of introduction.


    ''Fuck. I''m screwed.'' It was at this moment that he knew he fucked up, and what made it worse was the fact that everything was his fault.


    If this picture reached the Sk, he would lose his job as a pianist because no one would bother to watch him anymore. The most he could do was to find some money by killing the monsters. And only desperate parties would want him.


    Due to the number of Mythical Rank Experts, it was rare to find a group consisting of Mythical Rank Experts. That was why his career would be over if this photo spread.


    And Jeff might even take advantage of this situation to make it worse.


    While Christophermented his fate, Theo noticed Loki''s power. It seemed Loki indeed manipted the possibilities she saw.


    ''Illusion, huh�� It seems that Loki can affect not only one''s mind but one''s power. Even the future possibilities can be faked by his Illusion Authority. This is his way of fighting against someone who sees the future�� He''s faking the future itself. I see��


    ''What if he fights against the Time God? Will he fake the time? Or will he fake himself being affected by time? There is so much more to learn from illusion alone. I''m still at the start of this path, and this time, I''m going to learn it by myself.''


    Theo could finally see that Order was more omnipotent than he thought. Just like the Frost Saint using his Frost Authority to freeze basically everything. He''s nning to learn more about his Reality Order.


    After finishing his thought, Theo continued to walk to the gate as if rejecting Christopher''s offer.


    "W-wait! Let''s talk about this." Christopher gritted his teeth while ring at Felix. If not for Felix, he would have strangled Theo to death since he was only a Supreme Rank Expert.


    However, Felix had stationed himself between them so that no one could harm Theo and Isaac.


    Hence, the only way to solve this situation was to talk it out with Theo, albeit thetter didn''t seem to have the intention to negotiate.


    In the end, Christopher lowered his head and shouted. "I was wrong. How about we talk inside? I''ll owe you a favor if you can forgive me and solve this situation together."


    The favor from a Mythical Rank Expert was huge. Even if they couldn''t recruit Christopher, having this favor alone was a good achievement.


    Little did everyone know, this ''favor'' was actually the same as Christopher signing his own death certificate.


    The corner of Theo''s lips curved as he turned around as if nothing had happened. He even had a cheerful tone when saying, "Let''s talk then. I have thought about the favor."


    ''Ah��'' Christopher dropped his jaw as his face became pale. ''Did I just fuck myself up even more?''

 Chapter 1117 Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 1117 Challenge</h4>


    Inside the meeting room, the atmosphere became tense and quiet when Theo and Christopher took their seats.


    Behind Christopher was his butler, while Theo was apanied by Isaac and Felix. Because Christopher showed his hostility earlier, Theo managed to receive his bracelet back along with Felix''s sword.


    So, even if the other party wanted to make a move, Felix would be able to fend him off.


    Now that the two men had taken their seats, it soon became a staring contest as Christopher tried to look better because of what happened earlier. Since Theo had gotten some advantage, he should at least present himself in a better way so that the Supreme Rank Expert before him didn''t look down on him.


    "I know that you''re going to recruit me. I already have told everyone that the requirement to recruit me is to create the soundworld that I want." Christopher narrowed his eyes. "Even if you get some help from him, you can''t still fulfill my requirement. After all, Jeff couldn''t reproduce the soundworld that I want because of hisck of knowledge.


    "You are the same. You don''t understand music. That''s why you can''t recruit me, and that favor is useless if you want to use it to recruit me."


    Christopher had made his stance clear from the very first time. He was already using the sound wave to push them away earlier, so Christopher would be a bit more biased toward Theo.


    Before stating his request, Theo asked with a calm tone. "So, why did you push us away even after epting my request to meet?"


    "��" Christopher hesitated for a moment and kept staring at Theo''s eyes. Theo didn''t even blink, exerting all the pressure to gain his answer.


    In the end, Christopher closed his eyes and raised two fingers. "Two reasons. First, you don''t know anything about music. You aren''t capable of fulfilling my wish. Second, you''re just a mere Supreme Rank Expert. In this present day, you should know that strength and background are the deciding factors.


    "Most of the time, the battle has been decided before it even starts. There''s no need to evene up with a strategy because you''re going to lose against a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "I won''t even consider working for a weak person like you. Even if you use your connection to gain a Mythical Rank Expert to follow you, it''s impossible. After all, you will end up being a burden to the team. The man I work for shall always be at the very front because I''m an Enchanter. If I can''t even use my ability to support the leader, it''s better to forget about it." Christopher stated two reasons that he personally believed.


    Despite getting mocked by Christopher, Theo had no change in expression. He still looked at Christopher without flinching.


    "So, you''re telling me that I''m weak?" Theo narrowed his eyes, asking. He was the number one expert on the Asda Younger Generation List. There was no way such a person was weak.


    "I know about your reputation. It''s amazing that you can defeat Winston, but in the end, your level is still too low. If youe back after you reach Mythical Rank, I won''t say something like this. As long as you can fulfill my dream, I won''t hesitate to follow you." Christopher shook his head helplessly.


    He exined in a roundabout way. After all, no one could say Theo was weak or else they would indirectly imply that all people in the Asda Younger Generation List were weak.


    Obviously,pared to Mythical Rank Experts, those people might not be able to do anything.


    However, they were still a younger generation. Even Christopher couldn''t reach this position when he was a Supreme Rank Expert. By the time his strength was enough, he was already too old to join the list.


    That was why no one dared to say they were weak.


    Still, Theo was talking with a Mythical Rank Expert. Since he had gone all the way to recruit him, he was Theodore Griffith, not the number one person on the list. He couldn''t rely on his background to pressure him.


    "The Star Group is good, but their CEO isn''t even a Mythical Rank Expert�� Even the former CEO isn''t a Mythical Rank Expert because they''re too focused on making money. What I want is strength�� For me, if violence is not an answer, then you haven''t used enough violence.


    "There are two ways to recruit me. First, be stronger than me and fulfill my dream. Or�� You can be far too strong that I can''t not ept your invitation. For example, those among the top one hundred experts in the world."


    Theo smiled. "Even with my current strength, I can mess with your entire life."


    "��" Christopher clicked his tongue and red at him. "Are you ckmailing me? My career may end in this country, but I can simply go to a small country that doesn''t have a single Mythical Rank and be a boss there. My life can still be better."


    "I''m not talking about your photo." Theo shook his head.


    "Then, what? The Star Group? I know that the Star Group is strong. As a talented man from the Star Group, your words sure have some effect on their CEO. And with the Star Group''s influence, it''s pretty easy for you to screw me over. However, that''s not enough. I can still at least live a pretty good life out there." Christopher snorted, looking down on Theo.


    "No. There''s no need to use my influence. My power alone can screw you over." Theo shook his head, disappointed in Christopher.


    "Huh?!" Christopher gritted his teeth, annoyed by Theo''s overconfidence.


    "Let''s have a bet instead. And I have told you that I''m going to use that favor right now��" Theo smirked and pointed his finger at him. "Let''s do it. We''re going to have a duel. I''m going to beat you hard enough that you are going to ept me. Since I want to beat you until you can''t go back up, let''s do it this way��"


    Theo''s fingers were moving up and down as if typing something. However, Christopher knew what he was implying.


    "You bas��" He wanted to curse but refrained himself. After all, Theo wanted to fight him in his own game.


    "That''s right. Let''s trade the condition to recruit you. We''re going to have a duel with a piano. You and me. If you lose, you''re going to work for me." Theo smirked.

 Chapter 1118 Family

    <h4>Chapter 1118 Family</h4>


    "If you lose, you''re going to work for me." Theo smirked.


    "You!" Christopher truly wanted to beat him to death, but Felix was ring at him, preparing to make any move if Christopher had a sign of moving.


    "Isaac. Sorry for this, but I need you to leave this room." Theo nced at Isaac.


    "Eh? But you said I can observe you." Isaac''s expression was distorted, annoyed by Theo''s order. However, he soon fell silent as he remembered what the Queen of Destiny said.


    ''Your thirst is too great. I won''t deny that having that thirst will give you a big room for improvement, but it will also lead you to your destruction. Instead of seeing far ahead, why don''t you stop and start looking around you for a bit?''


    He took a deep breath to calm his heart and finally looked at both Theo and Felix, realizing Felix had been ring at him.


    He had been trained by Felix this whole time, so Felix''s trust in Theo was already nted in his mind.


    Theo was a man who never did something meaningless. So, him kicking Isaac from this room must be for a reason.


    Well, Isaac would probably guess his real identity with what he was going to show. That was why he wanted Isaac to leave this room.


    Isaac soon realized that Theo was his boss and the rest of the group were his subordinates. They were friendly to each other, but no one could deny that Theo was the very foundation of this group.


    If Theo suddenly disappeared, the group could easily crumble. The rtionship between each other was simply not that great.


    When he saw that cold gaze from Felix, Isaac clenched his fists and turned around, leaving without saying a single thing.


    But when he left the room, he didn''t immediately walk away. Instead, he leaned on the door with his expression darkened.


    ''I see. Looking around, huh�� I''vee to realize that without Joker, the group may fight with each other. We simply don''t have much trust in each other. It seems that my thirst has blinded me from this��


    ''What Joker wants is a family�� a family that he can trust. That has been achieved. However, what he creates won''tst long. As smart as he is, he should have realized this. In that case, is he aiming for something? Is he indirectly telling us that we should go on our way if he dies or disappears?''


    Isaac didn''t know that Theo''s life was hanging on a threat. The Griffith Family wanted him dead, many countries were also aiming for his life, and the worst part was the higher being. If someone much stronger than a creator wanted to erase Theo from existence, no one could do anything.


    Hence, Theo wanted them to be able to move on if he somehow died in the process. That was why Theo never cared about the rtionship between each person as long as he was close to him.


    Even though Isaac didn''t know this, he was aware of Theo''s intention.


    ''I don''t like it. You want a family that you can trust your back to, but we''re acting like a family only to you, not each other. This is not what a family is�� Are your views about family distorted? No, I don''t care about it.


    ''What I care about is�� I don''t mind if I have this thirst. Since I''m going to observe you, I''m going to continue researching you. Even if you disappear, I''m going to research the continuation of your tale and make you the biggest research of my life�� That''s right. My goal is to create a research paper that can be your biography.


    ''Even if you''re not in front of me, I''m going to research the future generation. I know you''re going to have a kid in the future. I''ll continue watching over the entire family you''ve created for my own goal.


    ''That''s why I''m going to fix this rtionship between each family member. For that, I''m going to be closer to Felix, Millie, and Jeff�� Just you wait, Joker. My thirst is not something you can handle.'' Isaac gritted his teeth as he walked away with a determined face.


    Theo wasn''t aware of Isaac''s change as he maintained his silence after giving his challenge.


    "So, what will you do, Christopher Grant? The duel is simple. You y with your best, and the two people behind us will judge who the winner is."


    "Are you brat going to challenge me with the piano? You, who doesn''t even know anything about music?" Christopher clenched his fists. His heart was full of anger because Theo''s challenge was the same as looking down on him.


    He was a professional pianist that had made his name all around the world. Yet, Theo thought he could defeat him? There was no way his pride could take it.


    "What''s wrong? You''re not going to ept the challenge?" Theo smirked.


    "Fine by me." The blood rushed to his head to the point Christopher didn''t think much about Theo''s challenge anymore. He wanted to p this kid to death with that arrogance of his. "If you lose, you''re going to promise me to never tell a single soul about that picture and never use it in real-life to threaten me. At the same time, you''re going to kneel and apologize to me for looking down on music."


    "You�� You owe us a favor, and yet you dare to present two conditions��" Felix gritted his teeth, wanting to sh this man.


    However, Theo raised his hand, stopping Felix from making more remarks. He said, "Sure. Since I''ve changed the condition to recruit you, I don''t mind doing it if I lose. However, you owe me a favor, and I''m a newbie�� I''m going to set the challenge.


    "The challenge is simple. We both are going to use the piano that we can create from Magic Power. I know that you have the ability to create a piano so that you can y it to boost one''s power. We''re going to use that kind of piano. Of course, I will also create my own piano.


    "However, using our Magic Power in this kind of challenge will be dangerous since both of us can harm each other. That''s why I have a condition. During our match, we can''t harm each other.


    "The match is simple. The people behind us will determine whose y is better. We will y one song. The song doesn''t need to be long, so just two minutes should be enough for us to present our song or half of the song, right?" Theo smirked, presenting the condition.


    "Fine by me!" Christopher was already filled with hatred that he never considered why Theo presented all those conditions.


    Unbeknownst to him, a big smile appeared behind that mask as everything had gone ording to his n.

 Chapter 1119 Competition

    <h4>Chapter 1119 Competition</h4>


    After epting that challenge, they removed the table between them so that the two couldfortably use their power.


    Even Christopher didn''t need the chair he used to sit as a pianist because the one who challenged him was none other than an amateur who didn''t know anything about music.


    "Since we''ve agreed to the terms, let''s draft a contract as well as a video about our performance," Theo smirked and typed a few things. Because he wasn''t that good aboutw and contract, Theo just stated some most important things, such as the agreement and the condition.


    Felix and the butler put their Skylinks on the side, recording the whole situation. In this way, both of them had proof.


    As soon as everything had been set in ce, Theo said, "Since I''m just an amateur, I''ll start first. I will show my skill in front of an expert."


    Theo''s words were filled with challenge and provocation. Christopher only snorted to reply to his statement, allowing Theo to start. His attitude was so confident that it was as if he was saying, "I want to see what kind of music you can y."


    Christopher was mocking Theo this whole time. Obviously, even Felix didn''t understand why Theo wanted to challenge him like this. But if they were talking about Theo, thetter wouldn''t challenge something he didn''t have the confidence to win.


    Just like him risking his life to save his daughter, Felix knew there was a hidden meaning behind those conditions, or else Theo wouldn''t challenge him in the first ce.


    He noticed how the entire conversation had been in Theo''s favor this whole time.


    Unfortunately, Felix didn''t have time to think about it as he was focused on Christopher and the butler, preventing them from doing anything funny.


    Theo smiled and raised his hands.


    Suddenly, a piano appeared before all of them. The strings, the keys, everything. The piano itself was perfect.


    "Heh. At least you can make a piano." Christopher sneered at him, looking at the illusion that Theo used. His anger was so much that he didn''t realize Theo was using something extraordinary. Illusion would be the key to Theo''s identity, yet he didn''t even realize it.


    Unfortunately, the calmest person among them, the butler, couldn''t differentiate between the illusion and the real deal because of Theo''s Reality Order. Just like the meteor Theo used during his fight against Winston, the piano looked real in front of a Supreme Rank Expert like him. Only Isaac could see through this, but he had already left the room.


    So, the only person in the room that noticed Theo''s illusion was Felix.


    ''Illusion�� Now that I think about it, he used an illusion to cover his face back then. Can he actually use an illusion to that level?'' Felix narrowed his eyes before brushing that thought off. ''It doesn''t matter to me. He saves Millie, that''s all.''


    He would be lying if he wasn''t curious about Theo''s identity, but he couldn''t care less now. Even if he thought about it, he wouldn''t be able to know Theo''s real identity since he had been too focused on Millie and never looked at the news that much unless something big happened.


    Everything soon changed when Theo pressed the first key.


    *Deng!*


    The first key was on the right side of the piano, so the sound was supposed to create a high-pitched melody. Yet, the sound the piano produced was the opposite of what it was supposed to do.


    "!!!" Christopher became more annoyed because Theo couldn''t even produce the right sound. No matter how good the piano''s outer appearance was, what made it a piano was the sound. He never thought that Theo would go so low in this challenge. "You bastard!"


    Theo didn''t say anything about his performance or his curse. He continued ying like it was no one business. As long as the two minutes hadn''t finished, Theo would y no matter how bad the melody was.


    As expected, even Felix was disturbed by the sound to the point he had a weird facial expression. If the pianist yed those ssic pieces like Chopin or Sonata, he wouldn''t be able to tell the difference since, in his amateur eyes, if the melody was good, he thought it was good no matter how lowly the creator was.


    However, even with his amateur eyes, he couldn''t find a single good thing from this melody. It was so disturbing that he wanted to stop Theo.


    Still, Theo told them that they were going to y for two minutes. He could only endure these gruesome two minutes.


    While enduring the pain in his ears, Felix red at both Christopher and the butler to stop them.


    Christopher was ready to erupt his anger while the butler often listened to his master''s y, so it was clear how annoyed they were when Theo yed the piano. It was simr to a kid who just beat random keys and called it a song.


    *Deng!*


    "Two minutes are up. I''ve done my best," said Theo with a cheerful tone as if he had just yed at a grand concert.


    "You bastard. What you did is disrespectful to the music industry!" Christopher roared. He couldn''t contain himself anymore.


    Yet, Theo simply replied with a calm tone. "I''ve done my best. What? You want to attack me?"


    "Master. Harming him means it''s your loss." The butler grabbed Christopher''s shoulders and stopped him.


    Christopher''s body trembled when the butler mentioned him losing. He suddenly stopped his outburst and fell into deep thought.


    ''Wait a minute. Is this his n the entire time? He wants me to attack him so that I have no choice but to agree to be his subordinate.''


    The moment he realized this situation, his heart was shaken. To think he would be yed that far by this brat, he felt ashamed.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and looked away.


    That action felt like answering Christopher''s doubt. Theo even went all the way to re at the butler as if he was angry at him for breaking his n. And because Theo didn''t mention anything about outside help, he couldn''t stop him from helping Christopher realize this scheme.


    Even Felix lost all hope when Theo openly admitted it. He thought Theo would lose this time.


    "Thank you, Hab. Without you, I would have lost." Christopher smiled and thanked his butler.


    "No problem. This is my job as your assistant, Master." The butler made a smug smile as if he had just yed a big role in his master''s victory.


    After hearing those words, Christopher took a few deep breaths to calm his mind. Surprisingly, it worked like magic as there was no trace of anger on his face anymore.


    The situation became tranquil as his expression became serene. When Christopher raised his hands, the keys of the piano appeared in front of him. Even without the body, they would produce the same sound as the real piano.


    "Here I go��" He said as he pressed the first key.


    Unfortunately for him, the moment he pressed the first key, the piano suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving not a single tune.


    "Huh?" Christopher widened his eyes as he searched for his piano. He could still sense the Magic Power, but the piano was gone.


    In that instant, he looked at Theo with a dumbfounded face. "You��"


    "What''s wrong? You still have one minute and fifty-five seconds left," said Theo with a smile.

 Chapter 1120 Three Years

    <h4>Chapter 1120 Three Years</h4>


    The moment Theo said those words, Christopher couldn''t contain his anger. He shouted, "You bastard. You''re using your power to sabotage me!"


    "I have stated the rule. We will y one song, and the people behind us will judge who is better. Because it''s dangerous to use our power, we can''t cause any harm to the other party. That''s all. You have signed the agreement, and I haven''t done anything to cause you any harm." Theo shrugged as he exined his reasoning nonchntly.


    "You��" Christopher gritted his teeth. "Hab, ki��"


    When Christopher was about to say, ''Kill him,'' he stopped. There were four people in this room, two Mythical Rank Experts and two Supreme Rank Experts.


    It was clear that both Theo and Felix were stronger in their respective ranks. Theo had even shown the power that could neutralize his power. It was clear that even if he tried to support his butler with the support skills, Theo would neutralize them.


    Felix would kill him, and Theo would easily defeat his butler. That was why giving that remark, even if he was blinded by rage, was not something he should do.


    Luckily, the calmness he had earlier managed to stop his outburst at thest second.


    Christopher gritted his teeth. This was Theo''s way of making him admit defeat.


    Without hesitation, Christopher raised his hands again, trying to summon the piano. But before he could do anything, Theo had erased the piano into nothingness. But the most annoying thing Theo did was announce the time every time he removed his power.


    "One minute and thirty seconds left."


    Christopher couldn''t give up that easily since he needed to follow Theo''s order if he lost. Yet, he was helpless because the piano would be gone every time he summoned it.


    "Five��"


    "Four��"


    Eventually, Theo started the countdown with a calm tone as he didn''t have any challenge when fighting against Christopher.


    What Theo wanted to show Christopher was the power that could render him useless.


    "Kh��" Christopher gnashed his teeth. His forehead was covered with sweat, but he couldn''t do anything other than wait for his loss.


    "Three��"


    "Two��"


    "One��"


    "Zero��"


    Theo finished his countdown, closing thepetition. "It seems that I''ve won. Our battle was a piano battle, and you couldn''t even produce a single sound. No matter how bad my skill was, it would mean nothing if you couldn''t even press those keys."


    "You bastard. You set me up!" Christopher rose from his seat while releasing his killing intent.


    Felix instantly took out his sword as he prepared to take his life. However, Theo raised his hand first, stopping him.


    He leaned back on his chair while saying, "Set you up? You''re the one who told me all those things. First, I need to have a power far stronger than you. I did show you�� Even if my level is too low right now, my power is enough to render you useless. I already told you that without even using any help from my connections, I could defeat you just fine.


    "Second, I didn''t set you up. You were the one who couldn''t even see through the conditions. Instead of checking the conditions, you actually looked at me with contempt and anger. You never saw me as a strong contender. That''s why you lose now."


    Theo followed the rules they had agreed upon. Christopher had no right to tell him anything.


    "What? This is just like taxes. You can do anything to lower your taxes by exploiting loopholes. I''m doing the same. What? Are you telling me that you never deduct your own taxes?" Theo chuckled.


    "If I could y, there was no way I would lose!" Christopher still didn''t want to lose.


    However, Theo shrugged and rolled his eyes. "I''ve already exined the reason. Just admit it. Even Jeff was more respectable than you."


    "You��!" Christopher wanted to refute him, but it was hard to find any words to respond to Theo''s words. After all, Theo wasn''t wrong.


    Although his action wasn''t chivalrous, he abided by the rules and did everything he could to win. That was why Theo started first. He simply didn''t want Christopher to think of a way to sabotage him. And him continuously provoking Christopher was his way of directing Christopher''s attention.


    Just like he predicted, Christopher would be too focused on the provocation and forget about the real deception.


    "ording to the agreement, you''re going to be my subordinate." Theo shrugged. "I wanted to show you that even if you ran away, your life would be over. After all, I could simply erase your power�� No one would ept you that way, and with this agreement, you would be the public enemy."


    Christopher clicked his tongue as he had no words to refute him. He wanted to deny the agreement, but Theo had saved the written agreement while Felix had secured the recording proof.


    There was no escape anymore.


    "��"


    Felix looked at Theo with a worried expression. Theo never recruited someone with this kind of treatment. Theo saved his life while Jeff was impressed by Theo''s unique ability. They both were sincere to Theo because he had earned their respect.


    Different from them, Christopher was thoroughly angry at Theo. He was afraid that Christopher would be a double-edged sword that would betray him in the future.


    Obviously, Theo already knew about this problem. From the start, Christopher had shown his dissatisfaction in getting recruited. Theo already knew that it was close to impossible to recruit Christopher today.


    Hence, he chose to trick him into making him join. Of course, this would threaten Theo''s position because of his hatred.


    That was why Theo had another solution to solve it.


    He raised three fingers. "Three years."


    "��" Christopher narrowed his eyes, ring at Theo.


    "Since I won because of my scheme, you just need to follow me for three years. After that, whether you want to continue to follow me or not will be up to you. And within those three years, I don''t think we will move too much, so you don''t need to worry.


    "However, I want your loyalty for those three years. Follow my orders and believe in me. I won''t send you to your death, and I will even exin why I give you that order if we have time. I''m willing to step back and propose this three-year agreement to you."

 Chapter 1121 Theo’s Reason

    <h4>Chapter 1121 Theo''s Reason</h4>


    "You serious?" Christopher narrowed his eyes before looking down, falling into deep thought. ''Should I ept this? With how he acted, bing his subordinate is impossible. I don''t want to work for this brat.


    ''However, it''s true that his words are not an empty threat. If he wants it, he can suppress me in all aspects. And that weird power�� I''ve never heard anything about that. I have watched that phenomenal video where he defeated Winston since it blew up the Sk�� No, it must be the power that he used to fight against Winston''s Space Barrier.


    ''He can even affect Space Element, so he should be able to do the same to me. In other words, if I reject this guy, my entire life is over.


    ''But if I ept this agreement, I can still show that I''m still a trustworthy person. I''m 85 years old right now. 88 years old shouldn''t be too old for me to enjoy my life.


    ''In the meantime, I can still find some ns to counter his n. He''s promised not to send me to my death, so I can refuse his order. Although it means I need some excuses, I can still get away from it as long as I deem it dangerous.


    ''Besides, he''s still a rising star in this country. His progress is so fast that no one can believe it. That''s why it''s worth seeing what he will be in three years. If he can''t be someone exceptional, then I can simply leave him.


    ''Three years aren''t that long. This is the time limit he sets himself�� In that case��'' Christopher squinted his eyes, judging Theo''s ability.


    Little did he know, Theo had calcted everything. He knew that Christopher wouldn''t be able to wait for too long to see his growth. Hence, three years were the limit of what Christopher could ept.


    Within these three years, Theo only needed to show him his strength so that Christopher submitted to him personally.


    "Fine, I agree to work for you. However, it''s only for three years, and you need to fulfill your side of the agreement as well. I don''t want any more tricks." Christopher finally epted the deal.


    If Theo chose a decade as the time limit, Christopher would truly find himself too old to do something like this. After all, he would be 95 years old at that time.


    Little did he know, Theo was nning to be a Mythical Rank Expert within two years. So, he didn''t need to worry about it.


    "Okay. Since you''ve epted the agreement, you''re now working for me." Theo nodded with a calm expression before extending his hand. "I''m Joker. You can call me Joker or Boss. I don''t care."


    "I will call you Brat, then." Christopher snorted before half-heartedly shaking Theo''s hands.


    Felix clicked his tongue and wanted to cut this guy right now if not for Theo''s hand stopping him.


    After shaking his hand, Theo asked. "Give me your number."


    Christopher thought it was natural since Theo was his employer right now. He gave his private number, albeit reluctantly.


    As soon as he got what he wanted, Theo rose from his seat and left the room. "In that case, I''m looking forward to working with you."


    Without waiting for a reply, Theo left the mansion. Even Felix had been frowning this whole time, not liking how Christopher acted.


    Theo had defeated him while following the rule. He even took a step back and changed it to a three-year agreement instead of a lifelongmitment. Yet, Christopher didn''t appreciate Theo''s thoughtfulness and even scorned him.


    They soon regrouped with Isaac, who was waiting outside the mansion, and returned to Theo''s own mansion.


    On the way, Felix couldn''t help but say, "I don''t understand. Why are you tolerating this guy? I personally don''t like him. He can betray you at any moment�� What if another strong persones to entice him? He won''t hesitate to join as long as he could pay you back for that humiliation."


    Felix was saying all this out of concern. He didn''t want Theo to end up like him. The curse that harmed Millie had gued his heart this whole time, so he wanted to kill Christopher to ensure that something like this would never happen.


    However, Theo shook his head and replied, "That''s not it, Felix. As soon as the Magic Power pushed us away earlier, I knew he wasn''t nning to work for someone.


    "The three year agreement has only one purpose. It''s to let him observe me. I know that a stubborn guy like him will only whole-heartedly agree after seeing my strength. And he''s impatient enough that he will reject anything more than three years.


    "Every time we work together, he will observe me and make that judgment himself. As you know, an enemy often knows you better than your family.


    "Because of this, he will observe my actions better. After three years, I win if I can melt his stubbornness. If I lose, well, who cares? Three years have passed anyway, and I''m nning to reach the Mythical Rank within two years��


    "By the time the agreement is over, I have be strong enough and should have a recement ready. Trust me. I won''t do something without thinking carefully." Theo exined his reason to Felix.


    Even though his reasoning was enough to soothe Felix''s heart, his concern still remained. "Still, what will you do if he sells your information to other people? It will be extremely dangerous."


    "Don''t worry about it. I''m nning to have Jeff watch over him. If he has any weird movements, I''m going to eliminate him." Theo''s tone became cold.


    It would be a matter of time before Christopher figured out his real identity. Theo only showed one illusion for him. It was an illusion that had no meaning other than a preparation for the challenge.


    Unlike thebat illusion that he used during his fight against the assassin, this illusion could be interpreted as a skill that Theo picked up recently just to recruit him. However, this thought wouldn''tst long.


    That was why Jeff would help Theo to watch Christopher. At the very least, Theo had three Mythical Rank Experts that could help him if needed for the time being. This should be enough to prepare for what woulde.

 Chapter 1122 Hidden Danger

    <h4>Chapter 1122 Hidden Danger</h4>


    While Theo returned to his mansion, there was a meeting hidden in the dark. Because they were calling each other, no one knew they were nning something.


    A bald man was standing in front of his Skylink and looked at the elderly woman standing on the opposite screen.


    The woman''s hair had already be white and her face was full of wrinkles. Her age was simr to that of the Wind Emperor.


    "Your condition is worse than I thought, Fist Saint��" The old woman narrowed her eyes. Although the Fist Saint didn''t show it, she could see the aura of deathing from the Fist Saint''s body. It looked like a tank that was storing a ck liquid. If it waspletely filled, the Fist Saint would die.


    "As expected, nothing can''t escape your eyes, old hag." The Fist Saint clicked his tongue and looked away. "What? Are you going to kill me?"


    "We have an agreement; I''m not going to kill you or anything even though I''m tempted to do it. Still, there will be a huge movement if I kill you since you''re also one of the top ten experts in the world." The old woman made a mocking smile.


    The Fist Saint wanted to rebuke her, but he was currently in no condition to antagonize people.


    Hence, he decided to shift the attention to somewhere else.


    "There is a particr young man that I''m interested in. The young man was the reason for my injury."


    "Huh? A young guy could injure your body? Impossible. Even the number one genius of the younger generation can still be killed with a flick of your finger, let alone that young man."


    "I know. But that guy�� appeared to be manipting everything behind the scene. Can you imagine there was a young man who couldmand a King ss Monster�� Oh, sorry. Two King ss Monsters. On top of that, he even brought the freaking Frost Giant."


    "Are you serious?" The old woman chuckled. It was ridiculous to believe, so she justughed at it.


    However, the Fist Saint maintained his calm and serious expression, showing that it wasn''t a joke.


    Soon, she stopped as her expression darkened. "There''s a young man like that in the US? Who is he?"


    "I don''t know. He was using an illusion to cover his appearance. So, I couldn''t see his real face since a King ss Monster stopped me."


    "Won''t that be Joker?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion. "Joker is hiding his identity. And his character is so hidden that not many people know. In that case, it''s normal to suspect him."


    "Now that I think about it, the US president has received some help from the Star Group. Although I haven''t confirmed their rtionship, I have some suspicion."


    "Then confirm their rtionship! If they''re rted, it''s clear that the young man is Joker. Still, I can''t fathom this young man who is only a level 600 expert but can influence King and World ss Monsters. Who is he?"


    "I don''t know. No one knows his identity except the one that brings him to thepany�� I''m afraid only Hendry Hamilton knows Joker''s real identity. However, Hendry Hamilton has been living in seclusion somewhere on the other side, so no one can find him."


    "So, we have no one that can confirm his identity." The old woman fell silent and looked down. "In that case, let''s bait him out first. I''ll pull some strings and confirm that guy�� If he can influence those King and World ss Monsters, he should at least have an Order."


    "If we take a look at his fight again, it''s weird that he could sh that space barrier��" The Fist Saint pinched the bridge of his nose.


    "Yeah. There are many mysteries about him, so I think we should know his identity first. Everything will be clear afterward."


    "But how can we prove his identity? You should know that the US president is cleaning up the white house because of the information they got from that small base." The Fist Saint shook his head helplessly, not finding anything that could blow Theo''s cover.


    "Leave it to me. Although it''s going to take a while, I''m going to send someone to the banquet to challenge him. As long as we can confirm he is using an Order, it should be enough to treat him as a dangerous threat. Even if the Time God is trying to stop us, he needs to die."


    "Sending someone to infiltrate the banquet�� But he isn''t a person who will take that bait."


    "Don''t worry. Just leave it to me." The woman shook her head nonchntly. "I have a way to drag him out. In the meantime, I want you to do something for me."


    "You should know I''m injured, I shouldn''t make any move right now." He refused it without hesitation.


    However, the woman added, "I''m talking about your favor. You should be able to get some help from the ''seeker,'' right?"


    "The seeker?" The Fist Saint''s body trembled when he mentioned this title. "Are you telling me to��"


    "Obviously. I want to know the Time God''s location�� And I think it''s the right time to y with him for a bit." The woman smiled.


    "You''re crazy. His time ability is too powerful."


    "Don''t worry. I''ve my own discretion. Just sit back, rx, and wait for the good news." The woman immediately hung up after saying those words.


    No one knew that the danger was lingering around Theo as they started doubting his identity.


    This was why Theo was reluctant to make his appearance to save the Shadow King. However, it was toote to cry.


    Theo himself knew about his predicament. But it was useless for Theo to do anything because no matter what he did, he couldn''t fight against two top ten experts in the world.


    The only thing he could do was�� visiting Bernard the next day he finished recruiting people.


    Theo was standing outside the Star Group''s building, looking at the top floor before entering.

 Chapter 1123 Exposed

    <h4>Chapter 1123 Exposed</h4>


    "I want to meet the Time God." Theo stated with a firm tone. This was the request that he stated the moment he reached Bernard''s room.


    Bernard closed his eyes. Even he had expected this request toe.


    "That''s��" Bernard scratched the back of his head before sighing. "I''ll do my best. Only the president knows how to contact him because he often disappears, creating mess here and there."


    "That''s what you should do." Theo mmed the table in front of him while ring at Bernard. "Don''t forget that I almost died because of yourck of information. If the frost giant didn''t help me, I would have died. Do you think this matter is as simple as you think?"


    Bernard closed his eyes, letting Theo insult him or whatever. After all, Theo had that right. No one would have expected that the Fist Saint would personally visit their target.


    "I have no excuses." Bernard let out a long sigh. "I''ll try to persuade the president to allow you to meet the Time God. Before that, I want to discuss three things with you."


    When Bernard was about to exin the reason he called Theo here, his Skylink rang, notifying him of a call.


    "Speaking of the devil, the president is calling me." He made a wry smile as he scratched the back of his head. He epted the call and asked, "Hello, Mr. President. Do you need anything from me?"


    "No. I''m calling you because Joker has returned from the expedition. It seems that the Time God wants to meet him�� Do you think he has time to meet me?"


    "��" Bernard opened his mouth in shock as he looked at the Skylink on his wrist in disbelief. His eyebrows were twitching as he never thought that the president would be the first one to call him.


    "Actually, Joker is with me right now. He''s expressed his will to meet the Time God before you call me actually."


    "For real?" The president was certainly startled as he never expected that the two had desired to meet each other.


    However, Theo couldn''t feel happy when his wish was fulfilled. The reason why he wanted to meet the Time God was to receive his help. He didn''t know how much time he had right now, considering he had shown himself to the Fist Saint.


    But the Time God actually expressed his will to meet him first. It reeked of schemes.


    Theo clenched his fists and squinted his eyes, falling into deep thought.


    While he was pondering whether to recall his wish or not, Bernard hade to him and handed him the Skylink. "You''ve fallen into deep thought again? I''ve called you a few times�� Well, that''s not important. It seems the Time God is in the white house right now, and he wants to talk with you."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the Skylink for a moment, hesitating. After a while, Theo finally grabbed the Skylink and put it right next to his ears.


    "Hello, this is Joker."


    A deep, energetic voice resounded from the Skylink. "I can finally talk to you, Joker�� No, should I call you Theodore Griffith?"


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in disbelief as he never expected that someone could recognize his real identity.


    "What?! Theodore Griffith?"


    There was another voiceing from the Skylink, but it was low, showing the one who said it was actually far away from the caller.


    Suddenly, that voice turned silent as the deep voice continued, "Haha. Do you want to know why I know about your identity? It''s simple. The skill you showed against Winston, I know it''s your illusion. There is only one person who is as strong as you and affiliates yourself with the Star Group�� Theodore Griffith."


    Theo frowned when he said the power he showed was an illusion, but he didn''t care about correcting him. After all, as long as he didn''t admit it, there was no proof of his identity.


    However, the person behind the call seemed to have another sense of humor as he said, "Well, that''s a joke. It''s not an illusion, and I know it. It''s impossible to see it through the camera, but you''ve truly exposed yourself. Even if you don''t admit you are Theodore Griffith, you can''t deny your identity as the Reality King."


    As expected, that statement was too shocking. The president couldn''t help but react. "Reality King? But that kind of title is something that the monsters would grant? And you need to have an Order to be called like that? Wait�� He actually has that kind of power?"


    Theo''s expression darkened. Joker''s identity could be exposed since he could counter it with another thing, but he never expected that the caller would know his identity as the Reality King.


    No one in this country was supposed to know his identity as the Reality King. Yet, this person who called himself the Time God seemed to know everything about him.


    Even he didn''t understand what was going on.


    Without him realizing it, Theo''s eyes were emanating bloodlust as if he wanted to kill this person to stop the information spread. However, he soon let out a long sigh, knowing it was impossible to fight against the Time God with his current strength.


    "What do you want?" Theo asked with a cold tone.


    "You didn''t deny or ask anything�� I guess you understood how I could deduct your identity. Well, your guess is correct�� I''ll tell you in detailter, but I just want to say this. Come and meet me. You won''t regret it."


    "Where?"


    "Come to the white house with that Bernard over there. The president will guide you to my ce."


    "Wow. So you can even order the president?" Theo harrumphed, trying to pry more reaction from him.


    However, the Time God didn''t seem to care about it as he replied, "Haha. This is not an order. He wants to do it even if I don''t ask about it. So, how is it? If you want to meet me,e to the white house in three days. I just want to talk with you privately�� what do you think?"


    Theo hesitated for a moment, thinking about the pros and cons. "Fine. Let''s talk."


    Despite how suspicious the Time God was, Theo had no choice other than ept his invitation.

 Chapter 1124 Time God

    <h4>Chapter 1124 Time God</h4>


    "Are you sure about this?" Felix furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Theo with a worried expression. "After all, you''re going to meet the strongest person in the world."


    "It''s fine." Theo waved his hand. "He seems to have everything he needs to kill me, but the fact that he hasn''t done it means he''s only nning to talk."


    Felix was apanying him to the White House with Bernard and his wife. Considering Ste was a Mythical Rank Expert, it seemed Bernard had asked her for protection instead of Patrick.


    All four of them entered the White House through the normal procedure to meet the president.


    After the guards confiscated their weapons, five Mythical Rank Experts apanied them to make sure no one could do anything to the president. Each of them looked imposing.


    Although he had confidence in Felix''s power, he thought Felix might probably have his hand full with just taking one of them. No wonder they guarded one of the most important people in this world.


    "Mr. President. The guests are here." One of the bodyguards knocked on the door.


    "Let them in."


    As soon as he got the confirmation, he opened the door and revealed the office where the president worked.


    However, none of the items inside the office took their attention because there was a man standing on the opposite side of the room, looking at them with a confident smile.


    Half of his hair had turned white and his face was filled with wrinkles. However, his body seemed to have possessed a strong vitality that made him look younger than he actually looked.


    "Wee, wee." He spread his arms with a smile.


    Without hesitation, the president even walked toward the door to greet them.


    The guards looked at his action carefully to make sure no one did anything. Even though Bernard had a huge reputation in the US, they couldn''t lower their guard.


    "Bernard. Thank you for your help. Without you, I won''t be able to clean up this mess." The president smiled and patted Bernard''s shoulders. After that, he shook Theo''s hand up and down for so long as if he was refusing to let go. "Young man, I''m truly thankful for what you''ve done for the country."


    "I''m not doing it for the country." Theo shook his head while ncing at the guards to see their reactions.


    The guards seemed to be dissatisfied with his answer even though they still maintained their poker faces.


    "Haha." The presidentughed before saying, "As much as I want to greet you properly, I can''t waste too much time. Without further ado, except Joker and Bernard, I want all of you to leave this room."


    "What? But��" The guards furrowed their eyebrows. Guarding the president had be even moreplex because of this power. The enemy didn''t need to carry a hidden weapon because their raw strength alone could kill him in an instant. That was why they never wanted the president to be alone.


    However, everything changed when a middle-aged man''s voice echoed in their ears.


    "That''s right. You all can leave because the four of us will have a talk." A middle-aged man suddenly appeared out of nowhere.


    Ste and Felix widened their eyes while the other guards took out their weapons. "Who are y��"


    Before they finished their sentence, they recognized this face. The middle-aged man had brown hair and a thin beard. He was six-foot-tall, making him the tallest among them. His muscr body made him look even bigger.


    "Sir Time God."


    "That''s right. With me here, do you still think anyone can hurt the president? Only me can hurt him in this room, and if I want to do it, no one can stop me. So, go back." The middle-aged man smiled and waved his hand.


    "Enough. All of you are dismissed." The president sighed and ordered his bodyguards.


    Meanwhile, Theo nodded his head to Felix, asking him to leave them alone.


    It seemed Bernard also signaled his wife to leave.


    "Then��" The guard closed the door after checking the situation one more time.


    As soon as they closed the door, the middle-aged man opened his mouth. "Well, this is the first time we''ve met�� Let''s not be tense. Right, we should chill down here."


    He nonchntly walked toward the sofa on his left and took a seat, acting like this was his home.


    The president then turned to Theo and smiled, "To think that you''re Theodore Griffith. It blew my mind when he revealed your identity."


    "Huh?" Bernard widened his eyes, never expecting that the president would mention Theo''s real name. He didn''t know about their talk yesterday, so he wasn''t aware that Theo''s identity was already exposed.


    "Don''t worry. Only the people in this room know about your real identity. I guarantee you that I won''t sell you out�� After all, you were the one preventing the tragedy that might befall hundreds of millions of people." The president put on a gentle smile.


    Despite this smile, Theo furrowed his eyebrows. He was wondering if that was what he truly felt or just a figure of speech.


    It seemed after you yed in politics, you could easily mask your real thoughts from everyone, he thought.


    "Though, I never thought the Fist Saint would appear there." Theo gave a remark, ming the event on Bernard and the president.


    "Ahaha��" The president had a wry smile. "Well, we can talk about itter. How about taking a seat first?"


    Theo nced at the sofa and found the Time God patting the spot next to him, wanting him to sit there.


    "��" Theo still felt suspicious about this guy, so he ended up sitting on the corner of the sofa.


    And the Time God didn''t seem to be nning to leave him alone as he immediately moved closer.


    "��" Theo looked at him with a weird expression, thinking he might be gay.


    However, the Time God leaned his head toward him and whispered to his ears. "Have you heard about the bootstrap paradox?"

 Chapter 1125 Kidnapped

    <h4>Chapter 1125 Kidnapped</h4>


    "��" Theo looked at him with squinted eyes. Although he had crammed a lot of knowledge into his mind, it was impossible to know everything. This was one of the things Theo''d never heard.


    "I see. In that case��" The Time God raised both hands and gave some distance to Theo. "Well, just know that I''m not your ally or your enemy. How did I find your identity? That''s simple. What I said earlier is the answer. That''s all. You can check the details in the Skter."


    "��" Theo wanted to check it immediately, but the president had spoken. "Anyway, it''s my pleasure to know there''s such a prodigy in this world�� Your talent might be as good as those two people��


    "But still, to think you could be a King at such a young age, even I have a hard time suppressing my desire to recruit you." The president smiled.


    "A King? What''s that?" Bernard tilted his head in confusion. It was normal for the most important person in this country to know about Order, but Bernard was different. If he had known about Order, the Star Group would have taken a different path.


    "You should know about the five ssifications of the monsters, right?" The Time God was the one answering his question.


    "Yeah. Normal, Rare, General, King, and World ss."


    "Then, let''s talk about Mythical Rank Expert�� Those who have some talent and can be a Mythical Rank Expert can be ssified as normal. Those with more talents that can master one or two Aspects can be considered Rare ss.


    "And a peerless genius who can master three to four Aspects is known to be General ss. King and World ss are simply on a whole different level. There is one more important power that they need to possess�� Even if they''re a genius who can master all five aspects, it will be useless if they don''t have this power.


    "In fact, even if you only understand one Aspect or even nothing at all, you can be considered a king as long as you have this power. This is the most powerful strength in the world that can defy nature itself.


    "All top experts in the world have this power. Unfortunately, I can''t disclose too much about this power to maintain stability�� You just need to know that this friend here has that power despite being a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "There are many hidden dragons in the world, but he''s the first person I know to be able to acquire that strength while being a Supreme Rank Expert." The Time God exined a little bit about the ssification, hinting about Order.


    "Make you want to look forward to his future, eh?" The president smiled. No one was able to figure out what he was thinking. After all, Theo was a double-edged sword. If Theo was his enemy, he needed to kill him as soon as possible since Theo might be the biggest threat in the future.


    However, the Time God seemed to have some interests in Theodore Griffith. Instead of killing him, he thought it would be more beneficial to make him his friend.


    "Power��" Bernard narrowed his eyes.


    "The Griffith Family truly makes me envious. Your grandfather is holding the 9th position, and your father has the potential to be the third strongest person in the world like your ancestor, and it''s said that your cousin, Ne Griffith has simr potential. With you as the addition, the Griffith Family would be the peak power in this era." The president chuckled, prying Theo''s intention about the Griffith Family.


    "I don''t care. The only reason why I still have Griffith in my name is simply that I don''t like wasting my time to erase it." Theo shrugged.


    "Want me to help you with the process? I can help you remove your name." The president smirked. If he could remove the rtionship Theo had with the Griffith Family all together, this troublesome process was not worth mentioning.


    "��" Theo felt the president''s scheme and said, "If I want to do it, I''ll be the one to do it."


    "Haha, sure." The president smiled again, not taking the rejection to his heart.


    "Now that we''re talking about the third strongest�� I almost forgot about the Wind Emperor. At his peak, he was the third strongest person in the world�� His wind was so strong that it could disintegrate the time�� Truly a beast.


    "Albeit he was ambushed and had an evesting injury. It''s truly a shame�� How is the Wind Emperor doing? Is he good?" The Time God asked.


    "Why are we talking about this?" Theo refused to answer. In fact, he felt ufortable when they were talking about his real identity here.


    "Anyway, I have one reason to call you all the way here, Theodore�� Never mind, Theo. I want you to know that I''m not anyone''s friend�� I am not even this country''s protector." The Time God smiled.


    "Oi, what are you telling him��" The president felt a bit disturbed by that statement since the Time God was the pride of the country.


    "Haha. I know, I know. But I am telling the truth��" The Time God waved his hand, brushing it off easily. "Instead, I''m actually the Earth''s protector as well as an observer. If protecting the country can put the Earth in danger, I won''t mind fighting the country."


    "What��" The president widened his eyes.


    "That''s it. Anyway, let me borrow this guy�� I need to do something." The Time God smiled and tapped Theo''s shoulder.


    "You��" Theo wanted to slip away, but the Time God was quicker, sessfully tapping him in the shoulder.


    Suddenly, both of them disappeared from the room.


    "What��" Theo couldn''t continue because the scenery suddenly changed. From the white house, he now found himself standing in the middle of nowhere. "Eh?"


    There were only short grasses around him and a blue sky. He couldn''t even find any living being, whether it was an ant or a bird.


    He raised his guard and formed a sword before he found his Skylink in his hand. In that instant, he opened the Skylink and found the time had changed.


    14:57:59


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock as his body trembled. "I visited the White House at 1 pm��"


    Before he got his answer, the Time God''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "So, you havee back. Anyway, I kidnap you here��"


    Theo turned around and found the Time Goding toward him. However, what shocked him the most was that the Time God was blinking a few feet every time he moved as if he wasgging.


    "Time��"


    "Haha. I already told you that I''m the Earth''s protector�� I bring you here to train your Order because it''s necessary. I''ve told you the reason earlier�� Bootstrap paradox."

 Chapter 1126 Fight Broke Out

    <h4>Chapter 1126 Fight Broke Out</h4>


    "Mhm��" Theo squinted his eyes, reading some information about the paradox. He found something weirding from the Time God''s statement.


    "What''s wrong?" The Time God smiled, asking.


    "ording to the exnation, you seemed to have gotten the information from the future�� It''s even said that it feels like there are two notebooks or pieces of information, and the newly created one is actually given to you in the future��


    "If you''re talking about this paradox, it means your future self informed you about my identity.


    "However, this action of yours only suits the role of an observer like you said earlier. After all, the moment you''re changing the future, other time paradoxes will start to ur.


    "Yet, I heard you often disappear to make a mess here and there�� as if you''re changing the future. You being an observer and you actively changing the future are two opposite things. I can''t truly trust your words." Theo narrowed his eyes, looking at the Time God to pry for more information.


    "I don''t care about your doubts. I''m going to tell you this, if you refuse me, I''m going to kill you right here." The Time God smirked, refusing to answer Theo''s doubt.


    But Theo simply shook his head and stated, "Then kill me. There''s no need to hesitate."


    The Time God smirked and walked toward Theo while pulling out his sword. He ced it on Theo''s neck as he said, "Do you think I don''t dare?"


    Theo closed his eyes, feeling the coldness of the metal de. He looked helpless as if he had given up all hope.


    But as he predicted, the Time God pulled his sword back and took a step back, admitting his defeat. "OK. You win. I don''t n to kill you right now. How about answering me?"


    "That depends on your sincerity first." Theo''s eyes were exuding pressure, not scared of the Time God.


    After the Time God revealed his identity, Theo had felt something wasing. So, the person that came with Felix was none other than his clone.


    With the current clone''s rank, he could easily fool everyone, so even if the Time God killed him, the real Theo was still alive.


    At the same time, it was also the time for Theo to leave the country since it would be dangerous to stay in this ce anymore with the Time God aiming for your life.


    Of course, Theo didn''t flinch for one more reason. After knowing about the bootstrap paradox as well as his intention in teaching him, Theo knew the Time God had no n to kill him.


    Hence, there was no need to feel scared. In fact, this was the chance to take the opportunity to gain as much as possible. He was nning to scam the Time God.


    "I''m the number one person in the world. You should be the one answering my question! No, it''s your honor to answer my question." The Time God stepped forward as his body was only inches away from Theo.


    After that, his Magic Power started seeping out of his body, creating a different pressure from anyone he had seen.


    This kind of pressure was closer to that of the Wind Emperor, but it might be due to his age, the Magic Power was slightlyckingpared to this.


    "��" Theo gritted his teeth as he felt the pressureing from above. It seemed that the Time God wanted to crush him with this pressure alone.


    Without hesitation, Theo poured his Magic Power into his Order, forming a sword in his hand. Unlike the normal illusion sword, this sword was created with realistic material, imitating the real sword.


    After that, Theo shed the Time God as if he wanted to kill him.


    But to his surprise, the Time God stood still, taking this sh head-on.


    Theo widened his eyes in shock when he saw what had happened.


    ''What? I shed through?'' Theo thought as his sword shed the Time God''s body. But he didn''t get any feel from shing a body as though the Time God was just an illusion.


    As someone who had the Reality Order, Theo could confirm that it wasn''t an illusion or hologram. The Time God in front of him was his real body.


    ''But what is this�� I cut through him��'' Theo gritted his teeth and poured more energy into his Order, activating his Reality Order.


    He didn''t know the Time God''s power, but his title signified his strongest power. So, he tried to remove the time element, albeit he never fought against someone with a Time Affinity.


    Although the same applied to Jeff, who had a nt attribute, Jeff was still a normal Mythical Rank Expert. He couldn''t bepared to the number one person in the world.


    That was why his Order wasn''t effective at all.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and took a few steps back, regaining his distance. Since the Time God didn''t n to kill him, he should be able to think more about the current situation.


    But the Time God seemed to have the same intention as Theo. Since thetter didn''t bother to respect him or even answer him, the Time God suddenly moved from his position.


    His movement looked like he was blinking. Theo didn''t hesitate to use his Blink, but the Time God did the same, keeping the distance.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering how he should fight against this guy. However, the Time God didn''t let this slight gap go. He grabbed Theo''s head and pushed it down. ''Shit.''


    As if showing his grudge, the Time God raised his knee, hitting Theo in the face.


    *Bam!*


    It seemed that he filled that attack with a huge amount of power as it produced a pretty loud sound. However, the sound actually came from the fortification of Theo''s skin.


    The Supernatural Snake Body truly protected him from getting his nose broken.


    Since his identity had been exposed, Theo didn''t hold back anymore. His head and entire body soon turned into a dragon.


    The size was too big for the Time God to hold, so Theo somehow forced him to let go. After that, he opened his huge mouth and swallowed the Time God.


    But as one would expect from the strongest person in the world, before he entered Theo''s mouth, he had disappeared.


    "You have no hesitation to swallow me, fully knowing that I can break your body apart�� It seems that this is only your clone. To think I would be able to see a clone that can even fool my eyes�� It seems that the Reality Order is quite good." The Time God smiled, assessing Theo''s ability.

 Chapter 1127 Realization

    <h4>Chapter 1127 Realization</h4>


    "!!!" Theo saw the Time God on the side and immediately turned back into his human form. After that, a spear formed in his hand as he stabbed the Time God in the stomach.


    Unlike the sword, the spear had a longer range, so he thought he could somehow reach him. However, it was still the same; there was nothing he could feel.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, wondering how he fought against this invisible enemy. Whenever the Time God touched him, it felt so real. Yet, whenever he tried to hit the Time God, thetter felt as if he was a ghost.


    ''What''s wrong with his body? He''s not controlling the space, so it''s impossible to do it.'' Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering how he should approach him. ''Since he''s not nning to kill me right now, I''ll take this opportunity to fight against the Time God, getting as much knowledge as possible.''


    Theo took a deep breath and started formting his n on how to hit the Time God. It was clear that the Time God before him was real, but there seemed to be something hidden from him.


    ''I don''t see any notification about his skill, so this means he''s using his Order, not skill��'' Theo thought, wondering what kind of power the Order could use. ''Since it''s time��''


    When Theo was about toe up with an idea, the Time God disappeared from his vision.


    ''Where is he?'' Theo looked around before his Awareness picked up his presence. He immediately turned around and raised his spear upward. The Time God appeared above him, pushed the spear away, and punched Theo in the face.


    The force from the punch twisted his body a bit and ultimately pushed him to the ground.


    "Bam!"


    The clone fell to the ground and caused a small crack.


    However, the clone didn''t even spout blood despite getting hit with enough force that could result in some broken bones.


    "I see�� The clone doesn''t have bone or blood, so no matter how injured you are, you can keep fighting. This clone is too great to be true if it''s not a B Rank Skill, that is��" The Time God assessed Theo''s power, not knowing about Theo''s ability to rank up his Clone Skill.


    Death Avatar.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar on top of the Time God and smacked him. With Theo lying down on the slightly lower ground due to the crack, the Death Avatar should only hit the Time God, not him.


    To his surprise, the Time God actually disappeared instead of bing invisible and letting that palm go through his body.


    ''Hmm?'' Theo picked something off. There were two asions where the Time God actually avoided an attack. The first one was when the dragon was about to swallow him, while this was the second one.


    ''An attack that has a wide range?'' As soon as he thought about it, he rose from the ground and waved his hand.


    Numerous Magic Bullets were summoned on top of him as Theo shot the Time God as well as the ground next to him. That was right. He spread the bullets to create a wider attack range.


    Yet, his guess seemed to be wrong as the Magic Bullets still pierced through his body.


    ''It''s a mistake? No�� let''s try this one.'' Theo waved his other hand and formed a huge barrier of Magic Power. He swiped the entire barrier from left to right, trying to push everything.


    This time, the Time God raised his hand and stopped the barrier with it.


    "!!!" Theo realized one thing after this attack.


    And the Time God also knew Theo had realized the weakness of this ability.


    "Heh�� You adapted so fast that it shocked me." The Time God smirked, feeling a bit excited. However, Theo made the wrong move. By inciting the Time God, thetter would be serious.


    After a smile, the Time God disappeared from Theo''s vision again.


    This time, Theo could easily see the Time God approaching from the left, so he waved his right hand while spinning his body, but he felt even more strange.


    Despite his eyes looking at the Time God approaching him at a low speed, his body seemed unable to keep up with his movement. Before his sword reached the Time God''s body, thetter had struck his stomach and blew him away.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    His body skipped on the ground a few times beforending a hundred feet from the Time God.


    Theo shared his senses with the real body to understand what was going on because the pain didn''t bother him in the slightest.


    After sensing that pain, Theo knew this wasn''t a special realm or something that was controlled by the Time Power. Hence, he had some chance to attack the Time God.


    ''It seems that I was right�� Instead of a body that can be pierced through, he is manipting the time of his body. In other words, the Time God is speeding up with that power, avoiding the attack and returning to the same spot. It created an illusion of my attack going through his body�� It''s just his after image��'' Theo clicked his tongue.


    Although he hated to admit it, he couldn''t bepared to the Time God in any way. His ability was far too strong.


    ''Wait a minute�� Time? How did he bring me here?'' Theo widened his eyes,ing to a realization.


    Meanwhile, in Theo''s mansion, specifically in Theo''s room, the real Theo was hiding inside.


    He was nning to meditate until his clone came back, but he suddenly opened his eyes as if he had noticed a loophole.


    "Wait a minute�� I lost contact with my clone for a few hours. I couldn''t even recall my clone during that period as if the time of my clone was frozen��" Theo muttered in a low voice before squinting his eyes. "Don''t tell me��"


    Theo took out his Skylink and opened the time, finding what he was looking for.


    15:07:07


    "Ten minutes almost passed? Even with all the talking, it felt like only five minutes had passed�� Don''t tell me�� He can even manipte the sense of time? That bastard is manipting my perception of time. That''s why he looks like he''sgging or too fast��" Theo gritted his teeth and put the Skylink in front of him as his eyes focused on the time.


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo lowered his body while raising his spear, pointing it at the Time God.


    Both Theo and his clone smiled.


    "It''s time for a counterattack."

 Chapter 1128 Counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 1128 Counterattack</h4>


    "It''s time for a counterattack."


    ''Hmm��. Something is different.'' The Time God narrowed his eyes, noticing Theo''s change.


    Theo rushed forward while thrusting his spear, trying to reach the Time God even one second faster.


    "Ha!" Theo roared, putting everything in this one strike.


    "It seems nothing has changed��" The Time God narrowed his eyes as he received the stab normally.


    However, he soon found himself hitting the spear with his waist.


    ''Eh?'' The Time God was amused. The only way for this to happen was when his ability failed to distort Theo''s sense of time. ''His Order? No�� What is it?''


    He didn''t know how Theo could actually avoid his ability, but the fact that he did was enough to impress him. After all, Theo''s power was still far too low.


    "Interesting�� Truly interesting��" The Time God smirked and raised his hands, trying to grab Theo''s spear.


    Suddenly, Theo let go of his spear and used his Telekinesis to push the spear forward, making it slide the Time God''s waist.


    The Time God couldn''t see what happened since the spear had entered his blind spot, but the moment he used his Awareness, he realized the Magic Power fluctuation as well as what was truly happening to the spear.


    The spear turned out to be disintegrating into numerous threads. And when he looked at Theo''s fingers, he saw threads appearing.


    They all moved toward the threads from the spear, connecting with each other. In this way, there were at least twenty threads surrounding the Time God''s body.


    After that, Theo waved his hands, tightening the threads. Unfortunately, he wasn''t as good as his brother at manipting the threads, so he needed to use his Control to move the threads.


    "Interesting�� To be able to do this, you need per��" While talking, the Time God nned to jump so that he could escape from the threads. But the moment he was in the air, a Magic Power fluctuated and struck him from above, hitting him down.


    "Hahahaha! Amazing." The Time God was hit, but the power seemed to be a bit too low to bring him down. It couldn''tpletely kill the momentum, allowing the Time God to safely avoid the threads.


    "A perfect clone that can fool even me, the Perfect Control, and the ability to avoid my time distortion�� You have all this ability at this age�� I''m impressed. However, none of them can actually do anything without that brain of yours�� The brain that can adapt and learn so fast." The Time God smirked, examining Theo''s power.


    Yet, despite saying all those, the fact that Theo failed to harm the Time God was apparent. However, that was only Theo''s wishful thinking. No matter how abnormal he was, it was impossible for a level 600 Supreme Rank Expert to harm the current strongest person even if he only used a percent of his power.


    "It seems that I need to be serious. I''ll use 0.2% of my power now." The Time God smirked as he disappeared.


    What a flex.


    Theo gritted his teeth and waved his spear to the side as soon as he felt the fluctuation. But at that moment, his body refused to move as if they were trapped inside a block of ice.


    ''Wha��! I can''t move my body��'' Theo noticed the only one that could move was his head. As a result, his head could only watch how the Time God kicked him in the face.


    The force blew his body away as Theo''s body regained its ability to move.


    ''0.2 percent of power��'' Theo gritted his teeth. Despite giving his all, Theo couldn''t even make the Time God release one percent of his power. Yet, there was no sense of despair in Theo''s eyes. ''No, this is what makes it worth it. If he''s too weak, he can''t be the strongest person in the world.


    ''This is the genius that defeats all top rank experts to ascend to the very top�� Just wait, I''m going to sh with every top ten expert and learn from them�� I''ll learn from them and use that knowledge to defeat you in the future.''


    Theo took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind. He was thinking about how to fight against the Time God.


    "You''re truly amusing. Your ancestor once shook the world�� He was just a normal person like any other person, but he used his different method of Magic Power to rise to the top.


    "It was said that his Magic Authority could manipte any Magic Power. Normal people couldn''t even protect themselves from him as their Magic Power was used to fight against them. Even those who have Orders and Authorities could only bring half of their power before him.


    "That was why he could reach that position! Your grandfather could reach the 9th position because of his limited talent��No, should I say because of the Wind Emperor getting injured? If not for the Wind Emperor losing his legs, your grandfather could barely reach the 10th position.


    "Still, it''s said that your father has the same talent as your ancestor. Everyone thought your father could grow in the Griffith Family and kill the Wind Emperor to take his position as the younger generation recing the older generation. s, the tragedy befell the Wind Emperor.


    "However, no one thought he could rece the second position or even me! Do you know why? To put it simply, it''s not easy to be the strongest person in the world." The Time God smirked and snapped his fingers.


    Suddenly, a huge clock appeared behind him. The clock emanated a strange pressure that even made Theo shudder.


    "Feel grateful that I, the Time God, will train your Order!"


    Theo took a deep breath to calm his heart. After that, he pointed his spear at the Time God and red at him, not feeling scared at all.


    "Griffith Family this, Griffith Family that�� I couldn''t care less about them! I have nothing to do with the Griffith Family."


    Theo poured his Magic Power into the air, forming a huge sword as big as him. This was the sword that Isaac suggested previously. Although the pressure emanating from it couldn''t bepared to the clock behind the Time God, it still had a big impact. After all, this technique was inspired by his mother''s Divine Technique, the God Killing Spear.


    With this power, Theo bravely stood as he stated, "I have sworn that I won''t have anyone teaching me anymore! However, it doesn''t mean I''m going to stop here. I''ll fight you with everything I got and use this experience to be stronger."


    The Time God saw Theo''s resolution and smiled, feeling excited. "Prove it to me then, cheeky brat."

 Chapter 1129 Outsmarting 100

    <h4>Chapter 1129 Outsmarting 100</h4>


    Two monthster.


    A sword flew forward before curving a few times, following a certain path. At the end of the path stood a middle-aged man.


    The man only smiled and waved his sword, striking this sword down. After that, he disappeared from the field.


    The other guy, Theo, turned around and thrust his spear into thin air. There was supposed to be no one in that spot, but a secondter, an afterimage of the middle-aged man appeared.


    Unfortunately, the spear pierced through the afterimage while the real body managed to escape with its sheer speed alone.


    Since his attack had missed, the spear turned into numerous threads and stretched out, trying to circle around the man.


    "How many times have you used this technique?" The Time God smirked. "I''m starting to get bored with this attack."


    Theo maintained his silence since there was another trick inside these threads. Instead of tightening, the threads stopped mid-air.


    With his Perfect Control, Theo formed many spikesing from those threads.


    "!!!" The Time God widened his eyes, amused. After seeing the numerous spikes, he increased his speed as his body soon vanished into thin air.


    In the past two months, Theo had been fighting against the Time God. There were three major improvements in this training. First would be his Perfect Control.


    To outsmart the Time God, Theo needed to use that Perfect Control continuously. Eventually, he managed to fully master the Perfect Control.


    After all, this might be the first time Theo had time to use his Perfect Control for a long period of time.


    The second improvement came in Theo''s perception. His eyes had been trying to follow the Time God''s movement. That was why Theo activated his Awareness the entire time.


    He didn''t realize it in the first month, but in the second month, Theo found his Awareness was able to predict the Time God''s movement better.


    His Awareness had been in the Prediction Eyes Stage since a year ago. And this fight had improved it further.


    Although Theo didn''t know when he could reach thest stage, the Future Vision, he had already be closer to that stage.


    Using these two, Theo managed to surprise the Time God earlier. However, it wasn''t enough.


    The Time God didn''t hold back with his speed at all. He would constantly disappear, making Theo fail to hit him again and again.


    During the past two months, Theo never once hit the Time God again. It was brutal training. One could feel down because of theck of achievement. Luckily, Theo''s focus remained on Perfect Control and Awareness.


    He was already satisfied with their improvements.


    Even so, the Time God had said that he was here to train his Order. So, the biggest improvement he had over the past two months was none other than his Order.


    Theo snapped his fingers and utilized his Order.


    The Time God, who was moving to the left at high speed, suddenly found himself glitching.


    "!!!" The Time God was impressed once again when Theo''s Order had started to manifest. This whole time, Theo''s Order could never influence him due to their gap.


    However, it seemed Theo had managed to control his Order better after using it to the fullest for the past two months.


    This glitch could easily be neutralized by his power, but this alone was enough as proof that Theo had learned Reality vs Illusion.


    After that glitch, the Time God poured slightly more power into his Order, strengthening his own Order so that Theo couldn''t influence him.


    However, it was at this time Theo appeared next to the Time God with his spear.


    "I got you," Theo muttered as he thrust his spear forward.


    The Time God turned his head around and saw Theoing. This should take him by surprise, but the Time God actually smiled when he saw the iing spear.


    "You think?" The Time God grabbed the spear and pulled Theo closer before he struck Theo with his fist. "I might not be able to see something far in the future, but I still can see a few seconds into the future continuously. I know you''re going to ambush me."


    However, Theo smiled as the spear turned into spikes, trying to pierce the Time God''s hand.


    "Yeah? That vision might actually be an illusion I showed to you?" Theo smirked.


    "Nope. I have seen you trying to outsmart my outsmarting." The Time God smirked as he used the sword to sh the spear made of Magic Power. At the same time, the other fist struck Theo''s body.


    However, Theo suddenly disappeared before the punch hit his stomach. Albeit, the thorns that the Time God cut were actually Theo''s real body. After two months, he realized that he could also turn into a weapon or any object. Instead of a fish or a monkey, Theo turned into a vine filled with thorns.


    He knew that the Time God would cut the vine, so he simply detached himself from the stick, making it look like the Time God managed to cut the vine. As for his body that disappeared, it was just an illusion. The body itself couldn''t do anything. Even the stick was controlled by Illusion and Telekinesis.


    With this, Theo reappeared under the Time God as he made an uppercut, straight to the Time God''s jaw. "Right? I gave you the vision of you outsmarting me outsmarting your outsmarting!"


    The Time God smirked and froze the stick that was used to attach the spear de, making Theo''s illusion couldn''t disappear as the stick''s time had been frozen.


    With that stick in his hand, the Time God waved his hand, hitting Theo in the head. "Hahaha. I have seen you outsmart me outsmarting you outsmarting my outsmarting."


    It seemed that both of them refused to lose in this argument to the point they kept repeating the word ''outsmarting.''


    "I��" Theo opened his mouth and nned to use his trick.


    However, the Time God smirked and elerated his body even further, hitting Theo to the ground with that stick before he could say anything. "Haha. The lines have be too long. It''s my win!"


    "Heh, hitting me in the head, like the image that I showed you!" This time, it was Theo''s turn to be smiling as he reinforced his head with the Supernatural Snake Body and withstood the force from the stick. After that, Theo raised both hands and turned them into swords before thrusting straight to the Time God''s stomach. "I give you the image of you winning so that I can win!"


    "No! I have seen the future of me winning against the image of me winning against you!" The Time God used all his force this time, finally hitting Theo until he hit the ground and created a crater with his head.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1130 End of Training

    <h4>Chapter 1130 End of Training</h4>


    *Bam!*


    After cracking the ground, Theo wanted to get back up immediately. However, the Time God locked his body up in his time prison, preventing him from moving anymore.


    "Kh. You''re cheating." Theo clicked his tongue.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. However, I do need tomend you for forcing me to use 0.4% of my power over the past two months." The Time God smirked while looking away, not admitting what he did.


    "Sore loser."


    "Cheeky brat."


    Although Theo didn''t want to admit it, he had done all his best during the past two months. However, he still couldn''t touch him. At thest second, the Time God used his power to prevent him from getting thatst touch by releasing an even stronger power.


    If he was a normal person, he would have felt hopeless once in a while. But because Theo only focused on his improvement, he ended up forcing the Time God to use even more power when fighting against him.


    This alone was enough for his achievement since the Time God would probably only need 0.1% of his power to handle all people in the Asda Younger Generation List.


    "Your talent is truly scary." The Time God shook his head. "I couldn''t help but imagine what actually would happen if you were trained by your grandfather since you were young�� I don''t care which grandfather we''re talking about�� Whether it''s from the War God Family or the Griffith Family.


    "You would have reached a new height if that was the case�� I guess the Griffith Family had reaped what they sowed after forcing your father to return to the family��" The Time God smiled.


    Theo gritted his teeth as the Time God constantly mentioned the Griffith Family from time to time, making him feel sick. That ruthless family wasn''t his family.


    "I know what you want to say. It seems that you''re pretty eager to leave this ce." The Time God smiled and waved his hand. "Just leave. The next time we meet, I might be your enemy or your ally�� Who knows?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes, never expecting that the Time God actually left him this time.


    "I have had my fun. It''s time to return to being an observer."


    "I can''t understand. Why do you even use these two months for me��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "You''re not qualified to know about it." The Time God waved his hand again. "You should go back, or I will throw you out."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes. Since he was using his clone, everything except the Skylink and mask was something he copied from the original.


    So, Theo took out those two items and burned them with a fire produced by his Order. After that, he looked at the Time God''s back with a serious expression.


    As if knowing Theo''s intention, the Time God added, "No need to thank me. Just like what you said at the very start, we were simply fighting each other. I used you to fulfill my own wish. That''s all."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment before politely bowing to him. Only after that did Clone Theo disappear.


    As soon as Clone Theo left, the Time God walked toward the edge of this field, finding a chair and a table. His eyes were locked on the book on top of the table. There was the title of the book as well as its production.


    Time Journey of the Time God (2690-2790).


    Made By: Time - 2790


    "No matter what I do, it seems that I can''t live past one hundred years��" The Time God shook his head helplessly. "Well, I need to do more. I can''t be an observer if I can''t even live until the end of my lifespan."


    With a long face, the Time God sat down while opening the book. "I wonder if the future me changes some information or not��"


    ��


    Meanwhile, in the mansion, the real Theo opened his eyes.


    It seemed that the Time God knew that it was impossible for him to do some training if the real body or the clone was upied.


    Even during their training, Theo''s real body had been practicing what the clone did and saw. That was why the clone could actually improve.


    Unfortunately, this clone was produced two months ago. Even if Theo''s real body improved by leaps and bounds, the clone''s improvement wascking due to the skill''s limitation. That was why despite gaining some understanding about the Order, Clone Theo couldn''t utilize it properly, especially the ability to produce elements like the one he used to burn his items.


    "I didn''t know the reason why the Time God actually helped me despite being an observer, but I truly gained so much during the past two months." Theo sighed in relief. "At the very least, he''s not my enemy right now. I can use that fact."


    "Two months are up, and now, I need to do some International Mission. I''ve investigated the people I want this time��" Theo smiled and opened the Skylink. "I should get an international mission in Mongolia or Japan since those two are my next destinations."


    It took him a while, but Theo finally found a mission that managed to pique his interest not as an agent from the Star Group but as an Order holder.


    "This is��"


    Theo frowned.


    Mission: Exterminate ck Snake Group.


    Description: ck Snake Group is a sand pirate in Mongolia. They managed to smuggle a few supersonic bullets. ording to the investigation, the group has created a weapon that can utilize those supersonic bullets.


    "Mhm��" Theo continued reading while muttering, "It seems that they are aiming at the base instead of the monsters�� They want to use those bullets to destroy the city from afar. The Star Group has managed to get an informant that seems to be able to track the ck Snake Group.


    "I need to meet this informant and cooperate with the military from Mongolia to exterminate the ck Snake Group. It''s said that this mission needs two Mythical Rank Experts because the ck Snake Group is said to have several Mythical Rank Experts as well.


    "Anyway, my priority is those weapons�� I''m still learning, but it seems that too much usage of deadly weapons that can harm nature will affect the Order�� That''s why King ss and World ss Monsters are trying to eliminate every single threat just to maintain that stability. Since I''m also a king, I should help, I guess��" Theo epted the mission before informing Jeff, Felix, and Christopher.

 Chapter 1131 Two More People

    <h4>Chapter 1131 Two More People</h4>


    The next day, Theo stood in his garden as Christopher, Jeff, and Felix had been waiting for him.


    Still, as one would expect from Christopher, he had an annoyed look on his face.


    "I know that this is annoying�� Even I wasn''t nning to bring you at first, but I chose to do it because this is one of the asions where you can observe me, Christopher." Theo said with a calm tone.


    "Just call this guy Chris, you know." Jeff smirked while circling his hand around Chris''s neck like that of a friend.


    "You''re thest person who can call me Christ." Chris gritted his teeth, ring at Jeff. He simply hated Jeff for using that picture to threaten him.


    "Haha, alright, Chris." Jeff continuedughing, annoying Chris.


    "Are you provoking me, Jeff?" Chris started using his Magic Power before Theo sighed. "Felix. Stop them."


    Felix suddenly appeared behind them and grasped both of their heads before pushing them away.


    "Anyway, I''m going to deal with a group that has multiple Mythical Rank Experts. I need your help as we are going to recruit the next two people for our group." Theo exined.


    "By the way, who are they? It''s not like I want to advise you or something�� I just want to know about their identity. I mean, I don''t want to meet a random guy who is trying to kill me, you know." Jeff added.


    "I''m the one who will kill you!" Chris red at him, breaking Jeff''s words earlier.


    However, Jeff simply shrugged his shoulders. "You''ll kill me? That''s hrious."


    "Are��" When Chris was about to rebuke him, Felix stood between them with a stern face, stopping them with his body alone.


    "��" Jeff and Chris ended up looking away.


    Before Theo exined their identities, Millie came out with some papers.


    "This is what you requested earlier." Millie handed the papers to Theo. "I havepiled them for you."


    "En." Theo nodded before showing it to Jeff. Ultimately, Christopher got curious and took a sneak peek at the information.


    The first one was a woman called Ergene. She lived in Mongolia and was known as a tigress.


    "She is a Magic Warrior, huh�� I haven''t heard her name, but she seems strong. ording to what''s written here, she has power and speed for her de as well as the lightning affinity that allows her to enhance her performance even further." Jeff nodded with a serious expression. "How do you recruit her though?"


    "You can''t even see that line? It''s said that she needs someone younger than her to defeat her." Chris snorted.


    "So, you took a peek." Jeff smirked, turning to Chris.


    "It doesn''t matter. It''s said that she is only fifty years old and has be a Mythical Rank Expert for a few years. It''s clear that she has a great talent, considering she has mastered Breathing and Technique." Chris snorted. "The only person who is younger than her is��"


    Both of them looked at Theo. Although Theo was strong, he still couldn''t defeat her. So, it was weird for Theo to pick her.


    "I have a way." Theo shook his head and pointed at her blessing.


    Khutulun.


    "Ehm, I''m not familiar with this country. Who is that person anyway?" Jeff asked.


    "You should search for it." Theo shrugged. "As for the one, he''s a former mafia, or you can say yakuza ording to the local''s term. Unlike the norm, he has a big body and wields two shields. Unfortunately, he can''t hurt anyone, so he''s lost his job. I''m going to make him my shield."


    "For real? He does look strong, but if he can''t hurt his enemy, he''s going to be useless. After all, you can''t really send him to fight against someone, knowing that his enemy will still be alive even after thousands of years."


    "What an exaggeration."


    Theo shook his head and nced at Felix. "What do you think?"


    "With him protecting you, I can eliminate all the enemies." Felix nodded.


    Both Chris and Jeff looked at Felix. They had gathered some information about him, so they knew Felix''s words were not an empty threat.


    It seemed that among them, Felix was the most loyal person in the group. They didn''t know how Theo managed to recruit Felix, but thetter truly looked like Theo''s sword that could kill anyone.


    "Either way, that''s the n. We''re providing some weapons for the Mongolian Army, so we will head there with the Star Group''s ne. Before we leave, is there any question?"


    "Just one." Jeff raised his hands. "The enemy has weapons for mass murders, right? How do we even fight that? They might be able to notice us from afar and kill us��" Jeff asked.


    "I''m not sure. For now, the Star Group has a connection to an informant. It seems the informant can find them. We''ll then cooperate with the army to defeat them. As for the army��" Theo smiled. "Why do you think you''re here, Jeff?"


    "Ah!" Jeff suddenly realized something, understanding Theo''s n. It seemed that his ability was crucial in this fight. "Roger that. This is getting exciting now."


    "You should remember our agreement, right? I won''t send myself to death." Chris added, reminding Theo about the condition.


    "Don''t worry. I have several arrangements�� I just want to confirm which n I''m going to use after getting the information." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I am not nning to break my promise."


    "I just wanted to confirm that one thing. Since you still remember, I''ll follow you on this mission." Chris nodded, finally agreeing with the mission.


    "Alright. Let''s go to the airport." Theo nodded before looking at Millie and Isaac, who were looking at them from the mansion. Isaac was sulking because he couldn''t follow Theo this time.


    However, that sulking face was soon reced by a terrified expression when Felix red at him.


    The pressure from Felix''s eyes alone was enough for Isaac to know that if something happened to his daughter, he would be dead.


    Isaac furiously nodded while Millie chuckled, feeling the love of her now overprotective father.


    After that, Theo and the three Mythical Rank Experts finally left the mansion.

 Chapter 1132 A Coincidence

    <h4>Chapter 1132 A Coincidence</h4>


    ''Wee to Mongolia.''


    "We''ve finally arrived." Jeff stretched his hands, feeling a bit tired after the trip.


    "Are you sure you don''t want any of the rewards?" Theo asked with a smile.


    "Of course. I have told you that I have enough to live my lifevishly. So, there''s no need to share the reward with me. I''m here just to witness your power, that''s all." Jeff smirked.


    Christopher also shared the same opinion. It seemed their job as a pianist and a painter had brought them enough riches. Only Felix received the reward because Theo insisted on it. After all, Felix had used most of his money to take care of his daughter.


    At the very least, Theo wanted him to get some money so that he could fulfill his daughter''s needs.


    "Alright. You two should go to the hotel and check-in first. Felix and I will meet this informant." Theo split the jobs immediately, even though they hadn''t even left the airport yet.


    "Sure. Leave it to me." Jeff nodded with a smile.


    "Let''s go, Felix." Theo thanked him with a waving hand before splitting.


    Felix followed him while Jeff looked at Theo''s back with a longing face.


    "Sadly, it seems that his trust in Felix is bigger than anyone else in the group. Such a shame�� to think I would be the second person he recruited." Jeff sighed.


    "I don''t understand why you look at that brat so highly. He''s just a brat who uses tricks." Chris snorted while rolling his eyes.


    "You don''t understand a thing, Chris. Let''s make a bet�� before the time limit is up, you will follow him from the bottom of your heart. That''s the kind of guy he is��" Jeff waved his hand while pushing the cart carrying their luggage.


    "Hmph. You have jinxed it. Because you''ve said it, I won''t do it." Chris shrugged.


    Jeff only shook his head helplessly, remembering the golden Magic Power Theo had shown to him. That Magic Power was Theo''s qualification to be one of the best. Although he didn''t know what kind of power Theo possessed, it was enough for him to submit. He thought, ''If Felix bes his right hand, I will do my best to be his left hand.''


    While they carried the luggage to their hotel, Theo and Felix used a taxi to bring them to the meeting ce with the informant.


    Since the informant himself wasn''t a local, they had agreed to meet in a restaurant.


    Theo had booked a private room so that no one could listen to them.


    Since he wasing first, they ended up ordering some food to eat.


    While eating, Felix asked, "Who is this informant? If he''s not a local, he shouldn''t be able to track them better than a local��"


    "Well, I''m not very sure. ording to Sir Bernard, it seems that the one handling the informationwork of the Star Group suggested we should get their help. Thepany has a good informationwork, so hiring anotherpany means this one has that ability." Theo shook his head helplessly. Even he didn''t know much about the informant.


    "That''s kinda true. I mean, the information broker that I''ve told you about is someone like that. He can easily get information in Kyrgyzstan and the neighboring countries." Felix nodded in agreement.


    "Well, we can only trust thepany with this." Theo shrugged nonchntly. "By the way, are you not feeling repugnant with the fact that I need to work for the Star Group for another few years?"


    "Thepany doesn''t matter to me."


    "But you might need to follow me like this mission��"


    "It doesn''t matter. You said it yourself that you''re too weak right now. In that case, I''ll protect you until you are strong enough. Besides, I''ve sworn that I''ll cut down all your enemies even if he is the king of hell."


    Theo smiled, feeling gratified. However, there was one thing that worried him. He asked, "Do you�� want to know my real identity? You should be able to realize that the face that I''ve shown you is not my real face, right?"


    The room fell silent as the atmosphere became heavier. The conversation turned serious all of a sudden.


    Fortunately, Felix soon broke it without a single doubt in his heart. "That doesn''t matter. You saved my daughter. For me, that''s the most important thing."


    "Your daughter might be dragged into this, you know. After all, my enemies are strong, stronger than you can imagine." Theo smiled.


    "I know for a fact that the Star Group won''t let you go that easily, so they should ask you to work for them for at least a few decades. Yet, you said that you would only work for them for a few years�� That alone is enough for me to know that you''ll be so strong that you don''t need to care about anything within a few years.


    "Besides, I''ve watched you for a long time�� It''s enough for me to know your personality. Even if I die fighting your enemy, I don''t need to worry about my daughter because you will protect her even if it means pushing her away from you. I know that my daughter can live just fine." Felix shook his head, exining his trust.


    "You��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment before giving him a name. "Theodore Griffith."


    "Huh?" Felix was dumbfounded by this name. Most people in the world should have known this name because of how extraordinary he was. He had basically taken the world by storm.


    Yet, Theo said, "That''s the name of the person you''ve sworn to protect."


    This was the proof that Theo hadpletely trusted him. After all, this name was his biggest secret.


    "!!!" He didn''t know why but his heart felt heavy at this moment. Felix finally understood the weight of this secret. For someone who worked in the dark, he obviously knew the name of the Griffith Family and their strength.


    However, another shock suddenly came. This time, it wasn''t only him who was startled by this. Theo was the same.


    *Knock!*


    *Knock!*


    *Kacha!*


    A woman opened the door and took a peek inside. She had dark blue hair and beautiful blue eyes.


    After seeing their appearance, she smiled and introduced herself. "Hello. I''m Ne Griffith from Gatahana Group. May I know if I''m speaking with Mr. Joker?"

 Chapter 1133 Agreement

    <h4>Chapter 1133 Agreement</h4>


    "��" Theo and Felix were stunned. Theo had just revealed his name, but to think the only one he could consider a family from the wretched Griffith Family would appear before him.


    Ne Griffith. This name had also shaken the world. Having the same talent as Ray Griffith, the man who was known to have the potential to be the third strongest person in the world, Ne was one of the people at the center of attention.


    However, Ray had brought her under his care and hid from the Griffith Family. Due to Ray using the Griffith Family''s power to erase himself, no one could find them now. So, no one knew what kind of improvement Ne had during the past few years.


    But just like Theo''s grandfather, Ray and Ne had created another group as their front. That was the Gatahana Group.


    Ray applied every single thing he learned during his stay with the Griffith Family, so thepany was actually an informationpany. And Ne had also been working in thispany.


    Of course, Theo didn''t know anything about this. He didn''t expect that the Star Group actually asked for their help. Whether it was a coincidence or not, Theo was truly stunned by this sudden development.


    Luckily, Theo had used his Awareness to make sure no one was outside when he said his name. So, Ne wasn''t aware that Joker was actually Theo.


    "Mhm. Yes. I''m Joker." Theo nodded, replying to her. "I''m sure the Star Group has sent you our agreement, right?"


    "Of course." Ne nodded and came in. She sat down in front of Theo and continued, "I''ll help you calcte the enemy''s numbers, information, as well as their whereabouts."


    "Okay." Theo nodded, trying hard to be calm so as to not make it suspicious. At the same time, Felix wanted to kill Ne just because she had ''Griffith'' in her name. After all, the Griffith Family wanted to kill him.


    If not because Theo''s hand tapped his thigh to signal that she wasn''t an enemy, he would have killed Ne.


    "How do you n to find them? I can''t waste too much time waiting." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "We''ve got their basic information as well as their general location. All I need to do is to go there and confirm it with my tools. So, it shouldn''t take more than a few hours as soon as we reach the general location. If we do it in the morning, you and the army can deal with them in the afternoon. Of course, I''d like to ask you not to disclose my information to the army. That''s the condition." Ne smiled.


    It seemed that Ne showed her real appearance and name only to the Star Group. In other words, there was another intention Ne had.


    "Okay." Theo nodded with a calm expression. "So, what should we do?"


    "The journey alone should take around 30 hours to get to their ce. We should inform the army to make their move to the designated position since you have the authority to talk to them. ording to our investigation, the enemy is going tounch an attack on the base in 48 hours. So, we''ll need to go tonight."


    Theo looked down, contemting. He didn''t know how Ne could gain this information, but if it was true, the situation was more serious than he originally thought.


    "Okay. Give me all the information you have. I shall make the decision after that."


    "Certainly." Ne smiled and took out her Skylink as she began her exnation.


    Theo listened to her carefully while picking a few important points. It seemed that the ck Snake Group had apany that backed them up. That was why they got the resources to make that kind of weapon.


    The money came from a conglomerate family called Bolhom Family. They managed the media as well as resorts. That was why they could escape from any weird rumor.


    "We can only deal with the ck Snake Group because they have been deemed as a bad mercenary organization. However, we can''t do anything to the Bolhom Family because we don''t have enough proof of their involvement. Even our information is not enough." Ne ended her exnation with this statement.


    Theo looked down, contemting for a while. ''A conglomerate family�� The Star Group�� Ne�� and the ck Snake Group��''


    Theo muttered these names in his thoughts before remembering the mission requirement. The Star Group only wanted to destroy the ck Snake Group. Though, they didn''t know anything about Bolhoms'' involvement.


    "I see. Let''s follow your idea." Theo nodded in agreement. "We''ll move tonight. I''ll inform you about the time and the ceter since none of us knows how to operate your tools. I''ll also tell the military to make their move immediately. We want to deal with them before they reach the base after all."


    "Certainly." Ne smiled, epting the arrangement.


    After that, Theo rose from his seat and reached the door. "Let''s leave, Felix."


    "Yes." Felix followed Theo without hesitation, leaving Ne alone in the room.


    "Ho�� Is that rude or just putting up a front?" Ne muttered in a low voice, looking at the door. "Uncle Ray wants to approach the Star Group and the Starry Group simply because they once helped Theo in the past�� I guess after this job is done, we''ve paid them enough. I wonder where Theo is�� He shouldn''t have died, but I couldn''t find him no matter how hard I searched.


    "Well, it''s Theo who we''re talking about. He should be building his power quietly, unlike Joker, who is always unting his power�� After all, Theo wants to avoid the spotlight right now due to the Griffith Family." Ne put her chin on the table while sighing. "Where are you, Theo? Ugh, Uncle Ray has removed the influence of the Mind Elder, but I can''t stop thinking about Theo right now��


    "I guess this is the aftereffect��" Ne sighed. "I wonder if he eats well�� I wonder if he is sleeping in a good environment��"


    Ne ended up shaking her head. "I shouldn''t think about him right now. I have a job."


    Little did she know, Theo had been so close to her. It was really a cruel reality that you couldn''t meet the person despite being in front of you.

 Chapter 1134 Another Coincidence

    <h4>Chapter 1134 Another Coincidence</h4>


    After leaving, Theo gave a message to the military authority whom he should meetter. He told him that the army needed to move right now, and he would exin the reasons when they met.


    Since they still had two hours before meeting, Theo headed to another ce not far from their meeting point. It was the thirdrgest city in Mongolia, Darkhan.


    ording to the information, they could meet Ergene in this city.


    However, when Theo reached her house, she was actually not there.


    "Mhm?" Theo narrowed his eyes. Her house wasn''t big, unlike a normal Mythical Rank Expert. There wasn''t even security that took care of most of the problems.


    Instead, there was only one old man sitting in front of the house''s gate.


    After seeing Theo''s appearance, the old man sighed and asked, "Are you here to challenge Miss Ergene?"


    "Yes. May I know who you are?" Theo asked politely since he wanted to make a good impression.


    However, the old man pointed behind him and said, "If you go this way, you will find some hills. She''s there, epting someone''s challenge. However, I do think that he''s too old to challenge her, so I think you should go back."


    "Thank you for the information, but you don''t need to worry. It''s me who wants to challenge her."


    "You?" The old man tilted his head in confusion. He was a Supreme Rank Expert, so he knew that Theo was the same as him. Although he didn''t bother to look at Theo''s information, it was still impossible for Theo to defeat her.


    Since the old man doubted him, Theo didn''t care about him anymore. He took a step back and waved his hand. "Thanks for the information. I''m going to meet her right away."


    "��"


    Theo didn''t wait for his response as he had already left with Felix.


    On the way, Felix asked, "Why did you stop me from killing Ne Griffith? She''s from the Griffith Family."


    "Ne is the only person that I can call a family in that wretched family, Felix." Theo shook his head. "Our meeting is short, but I guess she''s like a younger sister to me, even though our age difference is only months apart."


    "��" Felix narrowed his eyes and asked again, "Is there anyone that you don''t want to kill?"


    "I couldn''t care less about the others. As long as they don''te for my life, I won''t kill them. However, there are two people that I must absolutely kill. They''re my grandfather, the current ninth strongest person in the world, and the Mind Elder who destroyed my childhood."


    "I�� understand." Felix nodded calmly. Despite Theo saying that his grandfather was among the top in the world, he couldn''t care less about it. After all, Theo would be strong enough when he confronted him.


    He could only believe him because Theo''s growth was beyond everyone''s imagination.


    After ten minutes, they finally reached the hill area. Even though they couldn''t see a single person, they could hear some loud noisesing from behind the hill.


    *Boom!*


    *Bam!*


    *Boom!*


    Theo and Felix leaped toward the hill without hesitation because there was only one person that could cause such amotion.


    When they reached the hill, they saw three people. The first one was a young man like Theo. He wore formal suits on this hot day.


    His head slightly rose as if he was looking down on them. The smug on his face showed how confident he was.


    "Haha. Defeat her!" He ordered his subordinate, a man with ck hair.


    The man seemed to be the same age as the woman, who should be the one Theo was looking for.


    The man brandished his sword against hers. Spark starteding from Ergene''s sword as it repelled the man''s ming sword.


    "You''re only a month younger than me�� Not even a local��" Ergene sighed, disappointed.


    "It''s your fault for putting that requirement. You didn''t state anything about getting any help." The young man snorted before licking his lips vulgarly. "Once you be my subordinate, hehe��"


    His eyes were looking up and down, scanning the woman''s voluptuous body. As a Magic Warrior, she also had some muscles, adding another charm to her appearance.


    It was no wonder that the young man looked at her vulgarly.


    "I can simply cut you down. Do you think you can? I didn''t kill you here simply because it''s a waste to kill you." The young manughed. "They don''t dare to fight against my Bolhom Family just for you. That''s why there won''t be anyone challenging you other than me."


    "Shameless." Ergene gritted her teeth. It was true that Bolhom Family could kill her easily if they brought their experts to subjugate her. However, she was even more furious that this vulgar man openly told her about all his deeds. The disgusts for this idiot increased because of that.


    "Mhm�� Bolhom Family, huh��" Theo and Felix suddenly appeared next to the young man.


    "!!!" Both the man and Ergene stopped their fights when they felt Felix''s aura.


    Without hesitation, the man hurriedly rushed to the young man, trying to protect him from Felix.


    "Who are you?!" The young man red at Theo.


    "Is there any reason for me to answer you?" Theo shrugged and ignored him as he said to Ergene. "Miss. I''m here for the challenge too."


    Ergene furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing who Theo was. However, Theo looked different from the other one. After all, Theo was excluding a warrior aura. It was clear that Theo was a warrior that had fought numerous enemies.


    When she saw Felix''s face and roughly calcted his age, Ergene said with a serious expression. "You''re the one going to challenge me?"


    "Since you''ve figured it out, it makes the talk easy." Theo smiled. "Yep. You''re right�� Although I don''t have the confidence to defeat you with my raw strength, I can defeat you with something else."


    "Who are you?!" The young man was furious when Theo ignored him. He was so angry that he could attack Theo at any moment.


    "What''s wrong with you? Have an anger issue?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    ''Huh? This is not like him�� Why did he provoke him even further?'' Felix furrowed his eyebrows. However, he remembered that the man came from the conglomerate family that had some involvement with their target. ''Don''t tell me�� Although we have some proof about their involvement, we still can''t prosecute them.''


    The doubt was soon answered when he felt Theo gently patting his back twice. Since Felix had be his bodyguards, they had agreed with three signals. One tap was to hold himself back, two taps were telling him to follow hismand, and three taps signaled him to kill the people in front of him.


    Since it was two taps, Theo seemed to have an arrangement.


    He didn''t know that Theo was smiling underneath that mask. For Theo, this coincidence meeting with the people of the Bolhom Family was a godsend opportunity. If there was no one in this ce, Theo would have said, ''ck Snake Group? Recruiting Ergene? Bolhom Family''s involvement? I''ll show you the way to hit three birds with one stone.''

 Chapter 1135 Kill

    <h4>Chapter 1135 Kill</h4>


    Although Felix didn''t know what Theo wanted to do, he obviously had heard about Theo''s achievement. He single-handedly solved many problems in Italy.


    He might not know about the details of what happened in the dark because he was in Australia and too invested in his daughter, but he was aware that Theo wasn''t a normal young man.


    "If you''re going to waste my time here, you should leave." Theo shook his head helplessly as if he was disappointed with this man.


    "You��!" The young man gritted his teeth before pointing his finger at Theo. "Do you know who I am?"


    "I couldn''t care less." Theo shrugged and looked at Ergene. "So, is there anything that I need to do before challenging you?"


    Ergene nced at the young man before looking at Theo worriedly. "You shouldn''t have done that��"


    "What can he do to me? Nothing." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, I want to challenge you."


    Even so, Ergene knew how dire the situation had be, especially for Theo. She warned him, "Your ent�� you are not from this country, right? In this country, there is a conglomerate family ruling in the dark. The Bolhom Conglomerate is one of them. Basically, if you offend them, you will suddenly disappear. And now, you''re provoking their heir��"


    "He is an heir?" Theo chuckled,pletely mocking him and his family. "You serious? An heir with an anger issue? When he takes over the family, he willpletely ruin it."


    "You bastard. I''ve had enough! Kill him! I''m going to make you regret provoking me!" The young man shouted, ordering his Mythical Rank Expert to cut Theo down.


    Because he had been paid for this, the Mythical Rank Expert rushed toward Theo with his de.


    "Watch out!" Ergene raised her sword to block this sword since she didn''t want anyone to die in this situation. However, she was toote not to protect Theo but to stop Felix. All of a sudden, the sunlight glowed even brighter, blinding their eyes. Ergene even covered her eyes while gripping her sword after feeling the movement. ''Kh��''


    "AAAHHHHH!"


    In the next second, a scream shook the area as the Mythical Rank Expert dropped to the ground, clutching his severed arm. "AAAAHHHHH!"


    "!!!" Both Ergene and the young man widened their eyes in shock. After all, Felix appeared next to the Mythical Rank Expert with his sword.


    He was looking down on the Mythical Rank Expert and even put his sword right on top of his neck to stop him from moving. He thought, ''Th-Ahem, Joker only tapped me two times instead of three times. In other words, I shouldn''t kill him for now.''


    "Good work, Felix." Theo smiled as he nced at the back.


    "You�� you!" The young man was stunned. They both were Mythical Rank Experts, but his elite couldn''t even do anything against Felix. It was truly shocking.


    Little did he know, even among assassins, Felix was one of the best in Australia. And as someone who possessed a light affinity, his power was at its peak when there was sunlight, let alone now that the sun was almost on top of their head.


    The disparity was simply too big.


    Of course, Theo was also using his power to erase his power for a split second.


    "Now, now�� what should I do with him��" Theo smirked while looking down on the Mythical Rank Expert. "ording to what I heard earlier, you were not a local too, and you had been brought here just to deal with her�� Should I kill you or not��"


    The Mythical Rank Expert surprisingly didn''t reply to Theo. Instead, he was ring at Theo as if he wanted to kill him.


    At the same time, the young man from the Bolhom Family shouted again. "You! How dare you to raise your hand against the Bolhom Family! Even with your Mythical Rank Expert, the family will hunt you down!"


    "Felix. That guy disgusts me. Kill him!" Theo clicked his tongue.


    "Yes." Felix nodded.


    "Wha��?! You��!" He stopped when Felix actually raised his sword.


    Still, Felix''s number one priority was Theo''s protection. Before going to kill the young man, he cut the Mythical Rank Expert a few times. They were heavy wounds, but they shouldn''t be enough to kill the expert. At the very least, he wouldn''t be able to do anything when he dealt with the young man.


    After that, Felix''s sword shone. The light was so strong that it blinded them again.


    "N��" Before the young man could say something, Felix''s sword had reached his heart, killing him. Just like that, the young man died without being able to utter another word. Even Felix had to agree that having the young man as their heir wouldn''t be good for a big family since it would lead them to their ruin.


    Still, it didn''t mean that they could kill him as they pleased, considering the one before them was a local tyrant. If this was spread, the problem would be bigger since the other party controlled the media.


    Theo then looked at the Mythical Rank Expert and stated, "I''ll give you a chance to live. Bring the body back to his family. I don''t want to dirty my eyes anymore."


    The Mythical Rank Expert gritted his teeth. Although he didn''t want it, he couldn''t do anything against him. After all, Felix was too strong.


    In the end, he carried the young man''s body with his remaining hand as he staggeringly walked back.


    "Are you sure we can let him go back? Judging from their recklessness, I''m afraid that they are going to call more people to hunt us down." Felix asked with a concerned expression. He was already long enough in the dark that he knew what would happen.


    "It''s fine. I''m going to exin itter with the rest." Theo nodded before adding, "He''s an important piece toplete our missions."


    "An important piece��" Felix muttered in a low voice as he couldn''t imagine the role the Mythical Rank Expert would y.


    However, one thing was true. Theo''s n had been in motion.

 Chapter 1136 Ergene’s Qualification

    <h4>Chapter 1136 Ergene''s Qualification</h4>


    Since the nuisance had gone, Theo turned back to Ergene and smiled. "As I told you earlier, I''d like to challenge you. What do I need to do?"


    "��" Ergene still hadn''t recovered from what had happened. She never thought there would be someone brave enough to harm the heir of the Bolhom Family. So, there was one question in her mind. "Are you going to kill me if I refuse?"


    "Nope. We''ll simply leave. However, I can assure you one thing�� I''ll be ying fair when challenging you." Theo stated with a calm tone, genuinely expressing his desire to recruit her.


    "��" Ergene fell silent for a moment. "Can you even stay alive being chased down by the Bolhom Family? Before I do something, I need to know the risks first. After all, it won''t be worth it to follow you (in case you win) and die because of them��"


    Theo nced at Felix and said, "Call Jeff and Chris here. We''re going to weaken the Bolhom Family even further."


    "I understand." Felix immediately took out his Skylink to get some help.


    After that, Theo asked, "What do you think will happen after this?"


    Ergene thought for a moment. "Most likely, the Bolhom Family will hunt you down�� But because there''s only one Mythical Rank Expert here and you''re not local, they will bring only two or three Mythical Rank Experts with a bunch of Supreme Rank Experts.


    "After all, people rarely travel with more than one Mythical Rank Expert because it''s hard to get the permit for a Mythical Rank Expert. No matter where they go, they will be a force to be reckoned with after all.


    "And seeing you calling those two names�� I''m afraid that you''re getting help from Mythical Rank Experts as well. Three versus three�� The rest will be in my hand or you�� I am a Mythical Rank Expert, so I shouldn''t have any problems dealing with a bunch of Supreme Rank Experts.


    "The Bolhom Conglomerate has 9 Mythical Rank Experts�� Ten with that guy, but I think we will die the moment he returns. With that kind of injury as well as that guy''s corpse, there''s no way that they will let him off.


    "If we can cut down two or three Mythical Rank Experts, we will be able to lower their number. At the same time, their family can''t send all the experts�� So, at most, we will only deal with five Mythical Rank Experts in the next wave. Four versus five�� I can''t think much more about this because I don''t know about your people''s capability.


    "In addition, they would certainly hide this news until they killed you. And if you seeded in killing a few of their Mythical Rank Experts, they would certainly have no ability to expose your deeds. After all, other organizations would investigate their current condition. To put it simply, using the media is the same as telling people to investigate them. If they know they''ve been weakened, other organizations won''t hesitate to attack them.."


    Felix widened his eyes when he listened to Ergene''s exnation. He thought, ''ording to the information, Khutulun was a femalemander in the past. She apanied her father on the battlefield and was quite talented on top of that. She was a woman with a brain and martial prowess�� It seems that her blessing truly deserved its reputation. Still��''


    Just like Felix thought, Ergene listed the biggest problem. "That n can only work if I join you! If I give you to them, won''t it be a different case? Staying neutral might put me in a bad situation, but I won''t die."


    Her gaze became fierce when she stated that sentence. Shepletely thought that Theo was still reckless about pinning down hope on her.


    "You''re mostly correct. However, you''re missing a few things." Theo raised three fingers. "First, I''ll introduce myself. I''m Joker from the Star Group. I''m here for a mission that involves the military hunting the ck Snake Group that is nning to destroy the base on the other side."


    "What?!" Ergene widened her eyes. Although she had never seen him personally, she had heard his name from the locals. "So, you''re nning to make me join the Star Group?"


    "No. I''m creating a group of elites under me. There are already three Mythical Rank Experts and one Supreme Rank Expert. I want you to be the fourth Mythical Rank Expert." Theo shook his head.


    "A group of elites��" Ergene frowned.


    "Second, You are not within my calction before killing that idiot. Last but not least, it seems that you''re underestimating me�� As long as they can hold their Mythical Rank Expert, I can deal with their Supreme Rank Experts? Unless they bring more than fifteen Supreme Rank Experts at once, they won''t be able to defeat me."


    Theo''s statement blew her mind. Although she wanted to call him arrogant, she couldn''t do it. Theo didn''t show it, but he certainly had an aura of a warrior.


    "That''s why I want to ask you, what can I do to challenge you? I won''t put you in danger until you join me." Theo smirked.


    Ergene narrowed her eyes before raising her finger, pointing at her face. "Assuming that I agree with you, I need to confirm your age. Take off your mask�� You might be able to change your voice, but I can see whether your face is real or not. Illusion or a face mask will be useless against me."


    "!!!" Felix was startled because he had heard Theo''s name a moment ago. If Theo took off his mask, he couldn''t hide his identity anymore. ''Theodore Griffith is an illusionist, but she''s a Mythical Rank Expert. That Magic Power won''t escape her eyes.''


    Unbeknownst to them, Theo took the mask off without hesitation, revealing his ''real'' appearance.


    But this appearance was different.


    Theo had short red hair and fierce ck eyes. On top of that, there were three diagonal w wounds on his cheek, adding another charm to Theo''s face.


    On the one hand, these scars could be Theo''s reason for hiding his face, simply because he was insecure that his face was ruined. On the other hand, itpletely erased the doubt that Theo had another reason for hiding his face.


    Little did they know, Theo was actually using his Order right now. After training his Reality vs Illusion with the Time God, Theo could make a real appearance like this.


    Just like the sword he used to recruit Jeff, Theo learned a bit more about skin and hair''s material. With his Order, he turned that material into reality, creating a perfect skin that one couldn''t see through. Even the Magic Power didn''t fluctuate.


    At the same time, Theo even added a bit more details for the scars as well as eyes, giving aplete aura to his overall appearance.


    ''Is this enough?'' Theo made a gentle smile, asking.


    ''Damn, he''s handsome. The scars just made him even more handsome�� No, wait. His age�� There''s no illusion or face mask�� I guess this is his true appearance. His face, action, and voice�� Yeah, he should be around 30 years old.'' Ergene nodded with a calm expression. "Y-yeah. I''ve confirmed that you''re younger than me."

 Chapter 1137 Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 1137 Challenge</h4>


    "Since you''ve confirmed my age��" Theo put on his mask again before saying, "Well, you should know that I''m just a Supreme Rank Expert, right? I know that you want someone stronger than you, but I''m also much younger than you. That''s why I want to propose one thing.


    "Can I suggest the battle condition? Don''t worry. I''ll make sure it''s something rted to your specialty as well."


    "Hmm?" Ergene narrowed her eyes. It was quite unpleasant that Theo tried to change the condition. However, his words had some truth in them. So, she tried to be more flexible by saying, "Okay. Though, you need to exin it first. I have the freedom to ept or reject this proposal."


    "Fair enough. The match between us is simple." Theo smirked and continued, "Do you know the ck Snake Group?"


    "Yes. They''re a notorious group in this country. You are going to subjugate them, right?"


    "Indeed. But everything is up to me, considering I have an informant that the military needs. That''s why my suggestion is�� We both are going to handle the enemies to a certain degree. Who does better will be the winner."


    "Mhm?" Ergene looked down and put her hand on her chin, thinking. "Although I don''t know the scale, the ck Snake Group is supposed to be a big group. They should have a few Mythical Rank Experts and roughly a hundred Supreme Rank Experts. Well, I don''t think I need to mention it, but there should be a few hundred more with Hero Rank or lower."


    "Yes. This is the n. I''m going to ask you to join me in this battle. Even if I don''t win, you helping us will be a kind of merit to the country, right? So, you should be more respected in this country after this mission.


    "I have a way to bring them out. Felix and the others will handle their Mythical Rank Experts. On the contrary, I''ll split the enemies into two�� We both will have an equal amount of enemies. You and I will handle each of them, and the fastest one to eliminate them will be the winner. As for the military, I''ll redirect them to the mission, so you can rest assured that they won''t help any of us. In other words, this will be a battle between you and me." Theo exined his n.


    "Can you even do all that? Even I don''t have the confidence to bring them out and split them apart��" Ergene narrowed her eyes, doubting Theo.


    "If I can''t, we can consider this battle my loss. You can also reconsider whether you want to join the battle or not."


    Even though Theo was exining the challenge, Felix was rolling his eyes. Now that he was aware of Theo''s real identity, he thought, ''Can he even do that? His grandfather is literally the War Saint. And he has learned from his grandfather for a few years. You can''t, but he should be able to do it.''


    Unfortunately, Ergene had no idea about Theo''s real identity. She could only consider this proposal carefully to avoid any traps within the agreements.


    "There''s no outside help, and the number will be even. This challenge can also prove your ability�� Since you''re far younger than me, I can understand the need to challenge people at Supreme Rank or lower. And if you can finish it faster than me, it means that your prowess and potential are better than mine.


    "That''s why this challenge is actually rted to me and can prove your ability. Even if I win, I can still gain merits from the country. This is a win-win situation��" Ergene nodded in agreement. "How about the Bolhom Conglomerate?"


    "You know what, the proof is not enough to prosecute them, but it''s enough for me to know there''s involvement between the ck Snake Group and the Bolhoms. I''m going to make them pay the price as well. If my n seeds, I can get some more information. Don''t worry. I don''t think you''ll deal with them before our battle reaches its conclusion."


    "I see." Ergene paused for a moment, looking at the pros and cons of this battle.


    "Just to let you know, I might need your help to deal with the Bolhom Family after I win," Theo warned her again. "That''s why think carefully before you choose."


    That warning actually startled her. Theo should be trying to win with any means possible. However, it seemed that his desire was genuine. He didn''t want to trick her or anything.


    If she joined his group, it would be because of her own decision. Luckily, Chris wasn''t here or else he would make a fuss with it.


    Ergene thought for a moment and asked, "Will you be able to surpass me in the future?"


    Theo raised his hand, controlling the Magic Power in the air. Soon, multiple invisible balls were formed.


    "This is�� Perfect Control��" Ergene widened her eyes. "I heard that you defeated someone a hundred levels above you��"


    "Yes. I am not close to Mythical Rank." Theo admitted without hesitation.


    "Yet, you''ve already gained the Perfect Control." Ergene was impressed by Theo''s achievement. Seeing how he easily showed it to her, Theo should have some more trump cards hidden. This made Theo even scarier.


    "I see. With the Perfect Control, you indeed have some potential to defeat me in that challenge. It''s a fair battle�� That''s why I shall agree to this challenge. If you win, I will join your group. Since I''d be your subordinate at that time, you could use me as you see fit. Still, don''t forget that my blessing came from a great general, you shouldn''t underestimate me too much, especially in a battle like this."


    Theo nodded with a smile. "Should be the other way around."


    "Heh." Ergene smiled back, feeling a bit challenged by that little provocation. "Okay. When will we move?"


    "Tonight. The enemy is going to hit the base in 48 hours."


    "I see. That''s why you said you can bring them out."


    "I didn''t lie." Theo shrugged.


    "I know. I appreciate that you''re not lying to me, and I consider this a necessary bluff in battle." Ergene nodded. "In that case, I''ll prepare a few things. When and where will we meet? Never mind, inform me through this number. But you need to be alive if you want to recruit me."


    "Don''t worry." Theo received Ergene''s business card. "I''ll inform you after Ie to an agreement with the military."


    "Got it. May fortune bless you with its presence." Ergene nodded.


    Theo waved his hand and turned around. "Let''s go, Felix. Our schedule is tight today."


    Little did she know, just like the Bolhom Family, Ergene had also fallen into Theo''s trap.

 Chapter 1138 Military

    <h4>Chapter 1138 Military</h4>


    After leaving the woman, Theo didn''t bother to hide himself. He just walked out in the open as if he wasn''t scared of the Bolhom Family.


    However, the Bolhom Family would surely find out about the cooperation between him and the military, making him hesitant to attack Theo.


    This would lead to the failure of the n. Hence, Theo and Felix disappeared without a trace after giving enough information about their location.


    After that, Theo headed straight to the military base to meet themander of this operation.


    As soon as they knew Theo''s arrival, an old man along with two assistants came out to meet him.


    "I have heard that the Star Group is sending Joker along with three Mythical Rank Experts��" The old man narrowed his eyes. Despite his aged face, his body was still excluding fierce energy as if he was still in his prime.


    "I''m Joker. And with me here is my assistant, Felix. Don''t worry. I have brought three experts with me."


    "Okay." The old man nodded with a calm expression. Since Theo was speaking, the old man instantly knew the true leader of the group. He didn''t know whether Felix was a part of the Star Group or not, but it was clear that Theo led them here.


    Hence, he straightened his back and extended his hand to Theo as a basic greeting between the two leaders. "Nice to meet you. You can call me Commander Okho. I assume that you have gotten the information about their whereabouts?"


    "Yes. The general location has been identified. All we need to do is to lure them out before annihting them. What do you say, Commander Okho?"


    The old man paused for a moment before replying with another question. "If you''re on the battlefield, what will you do?"


    "They''re nning to hit us in two days. So, I''ll let theme out on their own."


    "!!!" The old man nodded before giving another question. "What''s the general location?"


    "It''s a in surrounded by jungle from many sides. It''s called the Bodge Region."


    "Bodge Region.." Okho recalled the information about that region and sighed. "No wonder. That ce is suitable for guerri warfare. The region itself is quite popr, so there will be people around there. They can hide among the people or between the trees and grasses�� I guess we can only lure them out of that region."


    "Yes. As soon as they reach the region below there�� What''s the name again��"


    "Hambha."


    "Yes. As soon as they reach Hambha, we will eliminate them. My group and I will take the front while you bring your army tounch a sneak attack, focusing on their weapons. After that, you should go to their base and eliminate them thoroughly." Theo offered a suggestion politely.


    He was aware that the old man before him was an important person. There were even two gold stars on his shoulders.


    "But of course, you''re themanding officer. I can only offer you some suggestions. That''s all." Theo took a step back in this situation.


    Okho nodded with a smile. "Knowing that the enemy is going to hit us is enough. I agree with this arrangement as well. Although I will put some twistster, let''s use it as our general n."


    "Understood."


    "Still, the main point is will you be able to stop the people in front?" He asked.


    "I''m going to hold them back with four Mythical Rank Experts. I was lucky to get some help from the locals."


    "Oh? You''ve even got some help from the locals? If I''m not wrong, you should have just arrived in this country."


    "Ahaha. The time is tight, so I want to add more cards to y with." Theo shook his head. "She goes by the name of Ergene."


    "��" Okho fell silent when he heard this name. As someone who was strong but hadn''t joined an organization, Ergene was a headache. She should have some surveince as her power was that great. That was why he recognized her name instantly. "I see. That woman is strong. But four Mythical Rank Experts��"


    "There will be a total of six people stopping them, so they should be wary of you instead of me. I''m pretty sure they won''t even send half of their forces��And probably those forces are quite weak. But with a huge impact revealing the power of Mythical Rank Experts��" Theo smirked.


    "You can pull some of the experts your way and give us the perfect opportunity tounch our ambush��" Okho understood what Theo wanted to do. The n was reasonable.


    Because the people''s strengths could easily be differentiated, strength would be the biggest factor in a battle like this. Weapons like guns or even their ''cannon'' wouldn''t be much of a problem since these experts would be strong enough to destroy them.


    That was why the moment four Mythical Rank Experts came out, the enemy would move ording to Theo''s prediction.


    Of course, Theo couldn''t reach this conclusion without learning from Leonardo. Those two years he spent in Italy truly brought a great impact on his way of thought.


    "Haha. You''re interesting." Okho smiled. "Since you can even bring out this kind of strategy, I don''t mind epting your arrangement. With this kind of timing, it''s pretty hard to do a simtion battle, so we can only do it this way."


    "Ahaha, I apologize for noting sooner."


    "No. There would probably be no information even if you came early. Don''t worry. I''ll lead the army and thoroughly destroy them. If you need my help, send a distress re, and I''ll immediately send some reinforcement to you. How about going there with me? We can chat a bit more on the way."


    "Ahaha. My apology, but I need to decline your invitation. I''ve another n to do today."


    "��" Okho shook his head helplessly, disappointed. He patted Theo''s shoulder and sighed. "The army should have been stationed on the other side. I''ll send a messenger to have them go to the location right now."


    "Understood. Thank you."


    "Still, the enemy has a dangerous weapon that can destroy the wall. If the wall crumbles, the monsters can easily enter the city. And I don''t think General ss Monsters will let this slide�� That''s why failure is not eptable. So�� Are you sure about the information?" Okho red at Theo. He asked this onest question before he left.


    Okho was afraid that the enemy didn''t behave the same way as the information. If they somehow managed to bypass them and hit the castle, the situation would be extremely dangerous. They might even need to evacuate the entire region.


    However, Thoe still nodded.. Even though he despised the Griffith Family, their strength was a real deal. He nodded, "Don''t worry. I trust the informant."


    "Okay then." Okho smiled and finally let him go. "Looking forward to working with you, kid."

 Chapter 1139 Falling Into the Trick

    <h4>Chapter 1139 Falling Into the Trick</h4>


    Bolhom Family.


    "What did you say?!" A muscr man shouted. His voice was filled with anger and sadness as his eyes focused on the guy that carried his son''s corpse in front of him.


    The atmosphere became cold because he loved his son so much that he spoiled him to the point the guy reached this point. And Theo took advantage of this situation to bring him out.


    "Who was that guy? The one who killed my son? There was no grudge between us, but he actually dared to kill my son?" The man mmed the table.


    "I�� I don''t know his identity, but he''s not a local. Hees to this country to challenge Ergene." The Mythical Rank Expert Felix defeated earlier exined with a pale face. He had been losing too much blood this entire time.


    If not because the Bolhom Family was far too strong, he would have escaped instead of sending the corpse back.


    "Tell us everything about that man and what has happened! Your face is already pale because of the blood loss. If this continues, you''ll die. That''s why you should tell me everything you know. Depending on the amount of information, we''ll decide whether to save you or not." Another middle-aged man opened his mouth.


    They were inside a hall with at least twenty people inside. It seemed they were the important people of the family.


    After hearing those words, the Mythical Rank Expert enthusiastically recounted every single scene, including Felix''s strength.


    Obviously, they were surprised by his exnation. It was clear that Felix was strong even among Mythical Rank Experts. If not, he wouldn''t be able to cut a Mythical Rank Expert''s hand in a single move.


    "Bring everyone! Bring everyone out and chase him right now!" The muscr man was thoroughly angered when he listened to the exnation.


    "I don''t think it''s wise to lead everyone to hunt these two down. They''re not local after all�� one wrong move can lead to an international dispute. As for him killing Baltu�� no one witnessed what happened except that Ergene. It wouldn''t be that easy to prosecute them." Another person raised his voice, stating his concern.


    "Do you think I care? I want him dead!" The muscr man roared. "Do you know how painful it is to lose the son you loved so much?!"


    "��" The people around him couldn''t say anything. On the one hand, his behavior wasn''t befitting that of the family''s head. On the other hand, they knew how much he spoiled his son. There was no way he could calm himself down when someone from another country came and killed his son.


    "Besides, we can''t bring too many people. This news can''t reach other organizations'' ears, or they''re going to weaken our influence. That''s why we need to conceal Baltu''s death!" Another one also voiced his concern.


    However, hisst statement was the trigger for the man''s anger. Without hesitation, he shouted again, "Conceal his death? Do you want me to kill you?"


    "No, no. The reason we need to conceal his death is because of the current situation. As soon as we can kill this person, we can tell the media everything. We can simply brand him a criminal, and he won''t be able to do anything since he''s dead.


    "At the same time, we need to find his identity. Having a Mythical Rank Expert as an escort, I''m afraid this man''s identity is not simple. I know that your heart is bleeding to see your son like this, but please don''t forget your position."


    His statement was filled with logic as this was the most reasonable thing to do. After all, the muscr man was the family head. He also needed to take care of this giant family as it was the responsibility of his power.


    However, the man didn''t buy it. He shouted back, "I don''t care. I want him dead!"


    "That''s right. We also want the same. However, we also need to look at the bigger picture. Hence, we should send two or three Mythical Rank Experts instead of all�� We don''t know the extent of the other party''s expert, but it''s clear that he is not your average expert. That''s why this number should be enough to restrain, if not kill him.


    "And we will send twenty Supreme Rank Experts to handle the young man. With this number, even if the Mythical Rank Expert somehow breaks through the encirclement, he can''t stop all twenty of them at the same time."


    The people looked at each other and nodded their heads.


    "That''s logical."


    "We should do it. This way, our family won''t be affected, other influences won''t know anything about this, and we can still avenge Baltu."


    They agreed to this arrangement simply because it was more reasonable than the muscr man''s argument.


    Little did they know, Theo and even Ergene managed to predict this kind of movement. As expected from someone who received the blessing of amander, Ergene would be the stabilizer for the group. Even if Theo wasn''t there, Ergene should be able to fight back with her own strategy alone.


    Albeit, even Ergene''s insight was still too straightforward. Both the Bolhom Family and Ergene didn''t realize that Theo''s reason for killing the arrogant heir was for another reason.


    Still, the man didn''t hesitate to conclude the arrangement. "For now, we will mobilize our people to find those two first. We''ll use the locals to lead us to them. Also, we need to send some people to Ergene to make sure she doesn''t do anything. At the very least, she will be a good hostage for us since the other party wants to recruit her.


    "The man should have expected us toe after him, so we need to kill him as soon as possible. We can''t afford to have those men escape to another country. Make sure you keep an eye on the airport, the teleportation gate, and the border. The rest will prepare to attack them."


    The logical guypleted his arrangement and asked, "What do you think about this? You should have no problem, right? After all, we can still avenge your son this way! With that number, it''s possible to bring him alive. You can even do anything you want to him."


    The muscr man furrowed his eyebrows as he needed to make the decision.

 Chapter 1140 Time to Run

    <h4>Chapter 1140 Time to Run</h4>


    "Tsk." Chris clicked his tongue. "You truly brought a disaster�� What is your excuse this time? If I don''t think we can win, I would rather escape right now. It was you who caused the disaster, not me."


    Chris'' words made one frown, but he wasn''t wrong. ording to the agreement, Chris had this right.


    That was why Theo stated, "I''m simply doing my job as an agent from the Star Group. To deal with the ck Snake Group, we need to pull the roots��"


    "The roots? What the hell are you talking about?!" Chris gritted his teeth, not understanding a single thing because Theo exined in a roundabout way.


    However, Jeff immediately snorted. "It means there''s a connection between the ck Snake Group and this conglomerate family. The only reason he killed that man was simply to make them aware of our presence."


    "What''s the deal with them being aware of our presence? Now they''re going to send Mythical Rank Experts to us."


    "That''s��" Jeff nced at Theo. Even he didn''t know the exact reason why Theo did all this.


    Theo smiled and exined to them his real n.


    Jeff was the one to first drop his jaw. He simply couldn''t imagine Theo had been thinking this way. Still, the most amusing reaction came from Chris.


    He had been opposing Theo''s idea this whole time. Yet, when Theo gave him his n, it felt like they could turn around the situation.


    In other words, Theo wasn''t scared to fight against the Bolhom Family. Of course, Theo never cared about the Bolhom Family. He had messed with the Griffith Family and destroyed the Safulli Group, if Theo was still afraid of danger, there was no way Theo could do all this.


    Jeff sucked a cold breath as he asked, "Are you serious about this? But we don''t have enough proof, right?"


    "Don''t worry. I''ll take care of the proof. As long as we kill the enemies thate after us today, I can deal with the rest." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "I see." Jeff thought for a moment before nodding furiously. "No wonder. I don''t think you need my help when recruiting Chris�� Your brain alone is enough to fool this proud man."


    "What did you say?!" Chris gritted his teeth, ring at Jeff. Now that he was aware of Theo''s n, he couldn''t rebuke Theo''s action any more. It seemed that Theo had formted the n before provoking the enemy.


    In the end, Chris'' attention ended up on Jeff most of the time as he was too embarrassed to even argue with Theo.


    "Now that you know the idea, let''s move to a more secure ce. I need Jeff to prepare some illusion traps�� As for Chris, I know that you''re not good at fighting. Just focus on supporting us."


    "Don''t look down on me." Chris pointed his finger at Felix. "Unless they''re irregrs like him, I still can hold them down in a one-on-one fight."


    Chris had some confidence in his power as well. Although he knew he couldn''t defeat his enemy no matter what, it didn''t mean the enemy could defeat him easily.


    Theo nodded with a smile. "Is that so? Then, I''m counting on you. Just don''t push yourself too hard."


    "��" Chris now felt embarrassed when Theo acted this way. He had been confronting Theo this whole time, but Theo never bit the bait. Instead, Theo just showed him kindness like the other people from this group. He couldn''t help but look away, ashamed of himself for acting childish. It was true that he was angry because Theo tricked him into joining this group, but he should act a bit wiser.


    Jeff was chuckling inside when he saw Chris couldn''t do anything against Theo.


    "Anyway, we have some time. Please use it wisely because we''re going to be busy for the next few days." Theo then nced at Felix. "You should get some rest too��"


    "No, I''m fine. Sticking with you will make the enemy think we''re alone here." Felix shook his head, declining the suggestion.


    "Is that so? Well, not that I mind." Theo nodded. "Alright. We will split up for a few hours. It''s going to be tough for Felix because we don''t have sunlight, but��"


    "Please don''t underestimate me. I can assure you that my power will remain the same even if it''s midnight."


    "I know. I''m counting on you a lot, Felix." Theo chuckled and waved his hand to Jeff and Chris. "Alright. See you guyster."


    "Understood." Jeff nodded, feeling a bit envious of Felix.


    After that, the group split up once more as Chris prepared some illusions to fight the enemy.


    As expected from a conglomerate family, their influence spread massively. With their personnel tracking Theo down, they easily found his location. Although Theo also didn''t bother to cover his track, the Bolhom Family would be able to find him sooner orter.


    Luckily, they didn''t have the exact description of Joker. If not, they would have realized that the enemy was actually Joker from the Star Group.


    After a few hours, Felix suddenly whispered something to Theo. It seemed that their guests had arrived.


    They were inside a small bar right now, and it wouldn''t be wise for them to fight in a crowded area, considering there were at least four Mythical Rank Experts in here.


    Hence, Theo rose from his position and left the bar. Without hesitation, Theo moved to a in not far from the bar. With this, they should have gotten far enough from the city.


    After reaching his destination, Theo closed his eyes for a moment before turning to them. "Twenty Supreme Rank Experts and three Mythical Rank Experts�� Wow, you truly don''t hold back."


    One of the Mythical Rank Experts narrowed his eyes and said, "You, too, shouldn''t have killed him. And now, it''s toote to regret your decision."


    "Killing him? I don''t know what you''re talking about. Just admit it�� You''re envious of me and want to kill me? Just because you''re a local tyrant doesn''t mean I''m going to bow my head to you guys. Do you think this number is enough to deal with me?" Theo smirked with confidence. It was as if he believed these 23 people couldn''t do anything to them. At the same time, Theo didn''t forget to not admit the problem. He didn''t lie since Felix was the one killing them.


    Since they had the support of the media, he was afraid that the enemy woulde with a camera, so Theo made sure to never admit anything.


    Even the enemies became even more careful since they couldn''t underestimate Theo or Felix.


    "It''s enough to kill you." The Mythical Rank Expert smirked.


    Surprisingly, Theo''s reply was something they would never expect.


    "You goddamn right!"


    Theo simply admitted that he and Felix couldn''t handle these people despite that tough front.


    "Wha��" But before they could react, both Theo and Felix had turned around and started running.


    "I''m here for a job, but to think I would be bullied by a local tyrant. Trashy Bolhom''s dogs... Time to run!"

 Chapter 1141 Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 1141 Ambush</h4>


    "Wha��!" They couldn''t even react when Theo chose to run. Theo was brazen enough to kill Baltu, but the first thing he did was run.


    They simply couldn''t understand Theo''s thoughts.


    "Chase them!" The Mythical Rank Expert roared as he couldn''t afford to let Theo go.


    "But isn''t this weird? He''s been wandering around this ce for a while�� If he wants it, he should be able to hide for a while. At the very least, it won''t be this easy to find him�� It is as if he wants us to find him." Another Mythical Rank Expert frowned, raising his concern.


    "It feels like a trap for me." The other Mythical Rank Expert agreed with that suspicion. "I think we shouldn''t pursue too far."


    "But the family head will make a fuss about it again. It''s annoying."


    "As annoying as it is, preserving our strength is more important. After all, even the slightest weakness can be taken advantage of."


    The three Mythical Rank Experts contemted for a moment whether to pursue Theo or not. After a while, they stopped at the same time as if getting the same conclusion.


    "Let''s stop chasing him. Put some people to trail him." One of them said to the people behind them. "The enemies are dangerous, and the road ahead might be a trap. It''s better to scout the area first so that we won''t fall for their tricks."


    "What? You are running away now?" Theo smirked and turned around, provoking them.


    The Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t say anything. Although he was ashamed of running away with all these people, the road ahead was extremely dangerous.


    "Let''s go back." The Mythical Rank Expert snorted and ordered a retreat.


    However, Theo smiled and formed a giant sword on top of him. "Do you think you can escape from here?"


    Without hesitation, he released this sword that was slightly bigger than his body toward the Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Hmph! Overestimating yourself!" The Mythical Rank Expert took out a dagger and struck the de to destroy it thoroughly.


    But the moment he received this attack, he realized something was different.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert widened his eyes. The sword itself looked like an illusion or a weapon that was created by Magic Power. His dagger alone should be enough to destroy this sword.


    Yet, when he struck this sword, itpletely felt different. Even with his power, he had a hard time erasing this power.


    ''It is a real sword? No, a real sword can''t appear out of nowhere��'' The Mythical Rank Expert furrowed his eyebrows before pouring more Magic Power into his dagger before he deflected the sword into the air.


    "��" The two Mythical Rank Experts beside him were stunned. The disparity between them should be enough to remove Theo''s attackpletely, but he actually chose to deflect the sword. It was a questionable decision.


    Of course, his strength alone was enough to deflect the sword. He just couldn''t remove it because the sword felt real.


    Unfortunately, Theo used their confusion to wave his hand down. In that instant, the sword spun in the air and pointed to the ground,unching itself like a bullet.


    "The sword!"


    The three Mythical Rank Experts raised their heads. Because the other two were curious, they were the first to move, hitting this sword with their power.


    Yet, both of them failed to destroy it.


    "This is��"


    "A real sword?"


    They were stunned and ended up doing the same thing, which was deflecting the sword to the side.


    "Since you have gone all the way to capture me, let''s see whether you have the ability or not." Theo snorted.


    Suddenly, numerous vines started emerging from the barren ground.


    "What?! The ground is supposed to rock. How can these vinese out?!" The confusion started to happen in their ranks.


    But the vines didn''t care about their confusion and started moving their bodies closer. After that, they circled around the enemies with a few of them pointing their pointed edges toward the Supreme Rank Experts.


    "Be careful! These vines are their power!" The Mythical Rank Expert shouted.


    All Supreme Rank Experts immediately raised their own weapons. Those with Fire Affinity even released their mes to burn the vines down.


    Surprisingly, those vines returned to their original form, the paint.


    "Huh? This is��" One of the Mythical Rank Experts noticed something different from these vines. He looked around and found a man drawing the vines. "There! There is another Mythical Rank Expert over there. But how?! It''s hard to travel with more than one Mythical Rank Expert."


    "That''s not important. I''m going to stop him! You will reorganize our group." A blue-haired man stepped forward as he raised his sword, waving it down.


    Blue light glowed from his sword and flew toward Jeff in a crescent shape. The energy was so cold that the vines that tried to stop it ended up getting cut and frozen.


    It was at this time Felix suddenly appeared before the sword strike. Felix''s de was shining so brightly that it blinded all the people.


    Even the Mythical Rank Experts had a hard time opening their eyes.


    Felix struck this crescent-shape sword energy with a calm expression. The sh brightened the area with white and blue light. The white light tried to illuminate and even disintegrate the blue light, while thetter was freezing the white light.


    "��" Felix was surprised when the ice started forming on his de. His opponent seemed to be stronger than he expected.


    He poured more Magic Power into his light andpletely disintegrated this attack. After that, he charged forward to the Mythical Rank with ice affinity.


    *ng!*


    The clicking sound of the swords echoed in everyone''s ears as Felix finally shed with their Mythical Rank Expert.


    Seeing hisrade was stopped and the vines were still rampaging, the person that was attacked earlier immediately shouted, "I''ll handle that guy!"


    Without hesitation, he rushed toward Jeff while the Ice Mythical Rank Expert decided to stop Felix with his sword.


    "So, you''re my opponent." Jeff smiled and drew a curved line in the air. Suddenly, the curve expanded and turned into the same shape as the previous sword strike without its cold temperature.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert was surprised by this attack. He thrust his spear forward as hard as he could. "It''s just an illusion. I will destroy it with this!"


    The tip of his spear was filled with Magic Power. It was clear that the spear had high prating power.


    But the moment the spear hit the attack, Jeff''s element came into y. Due to his nt affinity, his illusion could be extremely stic like a vine or hard like a trunk. This time, the illusion imitated that of a vine.


    When the spear touched it, the illusion was stopped and the sides of the illusion began to move like a whip, trying to capture the enemy.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1142 Clash

    <h4>Chapter 1142 sh</h4>


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert ducked down to avoid this illusion. However, the moment he did it, the area turned dark as if something covered the moonlight.


    ''A tree?'' He raised his head and muttered inwardly. The tree was so big that it would crush him. Even though he had some confidence in his body, Jeff''s strength was too weird, so he could only be more careful in this fight.


    Ultimately, he leaped away to avoid the tree, only to find a face sculpted on the tree. Soon, the two holes that were supposed to be the eyes shone as though something possessed the tree.


    "I also want to know the strength of the Mythical Rank Expert from another country. Let''s see whether you''re strong or not." Jeff smirked as he started moving his hand again, painting more and more stuff in the air.


    "Shit�� Kuchar has been stopped, and Tayang is confused by the illusion." Thest Mythical Rank Expert gritted his teeth, finding the situation wasn''t as favorable as he thought.


    But with these two Mythical Rank Experts fighting each other, no one would be able to protect Theo from their attack.


    "Two of our men have died from those vines�� Luckily, I have cut those vines down. All that''s left is��" He turned to Theo andmanded, "There is no one to stop us anymore. Kill him!"


    After hearing his order, the Supreme Rank Experts charged toward Theo. Still, he was the one that had been seeing through Theo''s scheme this whole time, including this trap. There was a reason why he sent the Supreme Rank Experts first instead of killing Theo by himself.


    And that reason became clear when the Supreme Rank Experts were about to reach Theo''s position.


    A low-pitched melody resounded across the field.


    At the same time, pressure began to build up in the air.


    "What''s that sound?" The Supreme Rank Experts were confused as they couldn''t see any figure that could produce such a sound.


    However, it soon changed when the pressure suddenly fell on top of them.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!"


    "What is this?!"


    "I can''t move my body!"


    Three people fell to the ground as the ground started to crack around them.


    "Enemy attack!"


    They needed to find the enemy immediately to help these three people. After all, they couldn''t afford to lose more men.


    This was the reason why the Supreme Rank Experts went first. It was to identify Theo''s helper.


    "There you are!" Thest Mythical Rank Expert from the Bolhom Family smirked and jumped toward a figure on the left side.


    "It''s strange for him to run away after baiting us. So, it must be a trap! And there is no reason to run away, so it means he has the same number of Mythical Rank Experts! You won''t have more Mythical Rank Experts because you can easily crush us at that time. As long as I can stop you, the Supreme Rank Experts can capture him!" He shouted, revealing the situation.


    When the Supreme Rank Experts heard his exnation, they realized their job as well as condition.


    But before they could move, the sword that flew in the air earlier fell down and shed the three guys that were pinned on the ground.


    "Argh!"


    *Bam!*


    A loud sh urred at the same time as those screams.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert widened his eyes when his hand stopped in the air as if he had hit a wall. "A barrier?"


    Chris clicked his tongue and raised his hands, nning to start ying the piano. "Do you know that you need to be quiet in a piano concerto?"


    *Ting!*


    *Ding!*


    *Ring!*


    The melody started ringing as the pressure gradually dispersed into the surroundings, blending themselves.


    "This is��" The Mythical Rank Expert gritted his teeth before ducking down, feeling something fly toward him. He even felt the wind brushing his skin. "Sound waves!"


    "Ssshh��" Chris smirked while trying to shut him down.


    Meanwhile, Theo walked toward the remaining Supreme Rank Experts. "There are 14 people, huh��"


    These 14 people started moving in a formation. There were three Knights and two Fighters in the front, who were responsible for stopping him. Theo could see three Magicians preparing their skills, but they weren''t his priority, considering he could remove their strength with his Order.


    The danger from this group leaned on the two assassins as well as two enchanters in this group. They needed to be eliminated first.


    Suddenly, there was a high-pitched voice that shook the battlefield. Theo suddenly raised his hand and felt something different. It felt like he gained additional strength just by hearing this tune.


    "I see. So, this is an Enchanter. I should have found one sooner if they''re this good." Theo muttered. "I wonder if this powerful ability can be stacked together�� Won''t it make me the strongest person in the world like�� if there are a million Enchanters supporting me?"


    "You talk too much!" The three knights headed toward Theo with their shields in front, trying to stop Theo.


    At the same time, the assassins disappeared, hiding themselves tounch a sneak attack. The same applied to the Fighters, albeit they were hiding behind the Knights since they were the backup of firepower.


    "Alright. Let''s test you first!" Theo smirked and ran toward the Knights.


    "You fool!" The Knights looked at him with contempt. After all, this was one they wanted him to do. As a knight, it was their job to receive the enemy''s attack so that the others couldunch an attack from behind.


    However, Theo was different from their opponents so far.


    Theo made a big swing to strike all three shields.


    "Hahaha! A big swing like that will leave you unguarded!"


    "You must have relied on the Mythical Rank Experts to protect you!"


    The two Fighters came out and swung their swords, albeit everything didn''t go ording to their n.


    There was a huge burst of Magic Power in front of them. The burst wasn''t even visible because the concentrated Magic Power was not enough to manifest.


    And this concentrated Magic Power exploded, creating a powerful shock wave that hit their stomachs.


    "Gah!"


    Both of them felt as if a car hit them and spat some acids from their stomachs before getting blown away.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1143 Feel My Music

    <h4>Chapter 1143 Feel My Music</h4>


    "What happened?!"


    "I don''t know!"


    They were confused. Theo''s move should be big enough to take advantage of, yet they were blown away for no reason.


    "This fluctuation��" All the Mythical Rank Experts were stunned when they saw this strength.


    After all, the only one that had realized Theo''s Perfect Control was the Time God. Even when hunting together, Isaac and the others had a hard time knowing this power.


    But everything was different for a Mythical Rank Expert. They could easily see through this Magic Power''s fluctuation.


    Whether it was Felix and the others or even the enemies, they were shocked beyond belief. After all, they never expected a Supreme Rank Expert to have this kind of ability.


    "Perfect Control!" The Mythical Rank Experts from the Bolhom Family shouted at the same time, informing the Supreme Rank Experts about Theo''s power.


    "What? Perfect Control?!" The Supreme Rank Experts had obviously heard about this. After all, they needed to master the Five Aspects if they wanted to continue improving their power.


    Of course, Theo used this confusion toe closer to the Knights, nning to take down at least one of them.


    "Don''t be distracted. He''sing!" One of them shouted while pushing his shield forward, bing the first one to stop Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo wasn''t alone. A monkey soon appeared next to Theo.


    The monkey covered its fists with Magic Power as he struck the shield.


    *Bam!*


    A thunderp shook the battlefield as the shock wave pushed the knight back.


    "Kh��" He gritted his teeth while looking at his shield. "I can''t even block a monkey''s punch?"


    Theo didn''t care about his reaction. He continued onward and waved his de toward the other two knights.


    The two knights thought Theo would be using the same thing, so they nted their shields on the ground, bracing for impact. Even the people behind them tried to shift their positions.


    But this was what he needed because nothing stopped him anymore.


    A spear soon appeared on top of the monkey as thetter jumped and grabbed the spear. The monkey focused on one person and threw the spear as hard as he could.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The spear flew past the Knights as well as Fighters, directly reaching the Enchanter.


    "No!" The Enchanter used his sword to block it, but this spear was the same as the sword that derived from the God Killing Spear. The power behind it was beyond anyone''s imagination.


    Even with all that preparation, the moment the spear struck the sword, the force carried inside this spear overwhelmed the enemy. The sword was swung backward and ended up cutting its own owner as the spear pierced through his head.


    Despite the shock, they still had something to do. The Assassins, Healers, and the Fighters immediately attacked Theo.


    The Assassins appeared behind Theo as they nned to ambush him. The Fighters surrounded Theo to prevent him from leaving this killing zone while the Magiciansunched a few skills from above.


    With all these attacksing simultaneously, Theo wouldn''t be able to protect himself unless he had an absolute shield that could block from all directions. This was why fighting against multiple opponents was hard.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo wasn''t an ordinary person.


    With a single wave of his hand, the elementsing from the air disappeared, leaving only the Magic Power that gently brushed the ground. At the same time, a giant avatar emerged from Theo''s shoulder, smacking the two assassins with its hands.


    As for the monkey, he went to challenge one of the Fighters as there was only one reason for Theo to use his clone right now.


    "AAAHHHH!" A scream startled the enemy as they saw the monkey cutting the Fighter''s hands before shing his body into two.


    "Kiki��" The monkeyughed while looking down at them.


    ''Good. That''s two. 12 people left.'' Theo smiled before having a doubt in his heart. ''Hmm�� Although I''m confident in my strength, this battle is a bit too weird. The enemies seem to be weaker than I originally thought. At the same time, I''ve been moving too well, even with this power surgeing from Chris�� No, wait a minute�� I think this is my best performance so far.


    ''I can use my skill even more fluently than I used to. And I believe this is not the effect of the training with the Time God. In that case��'' Theo suddenly focused on the rising beat ringing in his ears.


    The beat could make one get excited. Even the tone felt like he was the general that fought against a thousand men.


    Theo waved his hand to the side without even looking before a clicking sound rang, making him aware that the other Fighter tried to attack him.


    ''I can actually move better right now. This beat�� No, should I say this rhythm?'' Theo thought about the melody and nced at Chris, realizing what was happening. Despite ying the piano to control the sound wave to fend off the Mythical Rank Expert, Chris was making a melody that could support Theo and the others.


    ''So, that''s how it is. This is Chris'' true power. Those melodies have four purposes. The first one is to control the sound wave around him, repelling any attacking toward him. The second one is to boost my physical abilities. I have noticed the difference in my strength�� If not for it, it''d be harder to fight these people.


    ''At the same time, the melody can even lower the enemies'' strength. It is like the melody is actually suppressing or disrupting them. Last but not least, this melody can even make his movement better. It was as if giving him a rhythm to follow.


    ''How can he even know what melody to use? No, this is Chris'' power!'' Theo smirked, realizing Chris'' true potential.


    On the side, Chris had a serene expression as his hand moved to create a beautiful melody. The more he yed, the calmer his face became.


    When he felt Theo''s gaze, he couldn''t help but smile, muttering in a low voice.


    "Feel my music."

 Chapter 1144 Enemy Reinforcement

    <h4>Chapter 1144 Enemy Reinforcement</h4>


    "Feel my music."


    Theo wasn''t the only person boosted by the melody. The illusion trees under Jeff''s control somehow matched the movement with the beat, creating a new attack pattern.


    "As expected��" Jeff smiled when he heard this melody. In fact, this was one of the reasons why Jeff wanted to coborate with Chris in the past, even if he needed to go as low as ckmailing him.


    He had experienced the unique ability Chris had.


    On the contrary, Felix�� wasn''t like a human anymore.


    His body was spinning around Kuchar, the Mythical Rank Expert from the Bolhom Family.


    There were many superficial wounds on Kuchar''s body because he couldn''t follow Felix''s movement. When that melody was up, Felix looked like he was dancing.


    His movement was so fluid that he moved like a fish that had returned to the water. The swing was swift and precise. His steps were small and unpredictable. The moonlight shone brighter, illuminating him and Kuchar.


    "Kh. I can''t even follow his movement. What is he?" Kuchar gritted his teeth as he kept parrying Felix''s sword. Unfortunately, the swordnded a hit on his body every now and then. If this continued, he would be the first person to go down.


    Felix maintained his silence as he kept cutting Kuchar until the blood loss was enough to lower his movement.


    At the same time, he finally understood why Theo wanted an elite squad consisting of unique individuals. Chris alone could actually do this much and Jeff''s illusion managed to handle some of them at the start so that the development of this battle could go ording to the n.


    In the home, Millie could handle technology, while Isaac''s ability was useful for researching a new type of power.


    Theo even wanted a general like Ergene, whose purpose was stabilizing the battlefield, and a dual-shield wielder in Japan. If Theo also got the information broker, he could work with Millie to create an informationwork for them.


    With all these unique people helping each other, the elite group wouldn''t be just a normal elite group. Theo wanted ten Mythical Rank Experts in his group, but even if the enemy was twenty Mythical Rank Experts, he felt they could still destroy the enemy.


    Once again, he realized how far Theo had seen ahead.


    Upon that realization, Felix couldn''t help but smile as he muttered inwardly, ''I''m fired up.''


    His eyes started excluding killing intent as his sword became even deadlier.


    And Theo, who was overseeing the entire battlefield, was satisfied with this result.


    Despite being surrounded, Theo still didn''t feel pressured. In fact, he had been using his Perfect Control topletely overwhelm the enemies.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    Each swing of his sword generated a shock wave that could push or evenunch them back.


    When they saw Theo, fear started crawling inside their hearts as they couldn''t see how to defeat him despite outnumbering him.


    "What is this?"


    "We can''t even get closer, let alone capture him."


    "Our skills will always disappear before hitting him. His power is weird."


    "The assassins can''t get close because of that huge figure too."


    "The monkey is annoying as it seems to be able to understand its owner''s thoughts, stopping anyone from hurting that guy."


    "No, wait. This power is simr to that guy in the Skytube! The one from the US that once shook the Sk!"


    "Joker?!"


    "What? He is Joker?"


    "You only realized it until now?"


    It seemed only a few people recognized Theo after summoning his Death Avatar, but they thought the others would have realized it too, so they didn''t say anything this whole time. It turned out to be a mistake.


    "I''m speechless. How foolish can this family be��" Theo shook his head helplessly. He never thought that it would take them that long to realize his identity when he wasn''t even covering them.


    However, that didn''t matter anymore. Without hesitation, Theo charged forward. The Knights tried to stop him.


    nning to end this fight as soon as possible, Theo summoned the sword as big as his body again.


    At the same time, something unexpected happened.


    "AAAAHHH!" That scream shook everyone''s heart as it came all the way from Felix''s battlefield. When they nced to the side, they saw Kuchar screaming while dropping to the ground. His right hand was cut by Felix.


    Still, as one would expect from a Mythical Rank Expert, Kuchar endured the pain and put his sword between them, stopping Felix''s attack that was supposed to be the killing blow.


    However, this situation made the Supreme Rank Experts have a cold sweat.


    "That��"


    "What will happen if our expert is defeated?''


    "That Mythical Rank Expert doesn''t seem to be injured. He should have enough energy to cut all of us down. And if he helps the other Mythical Rank Experts��"


    The exnation stopped as they all sucked a cold breath, realizing what would happen. To put it simply, the moment Kuchar was cut down, they would be dead as well. Even if they retreated, the family head wouldn''t spare them.


    Upon that realization, their faces became pale. They were scared.


    Theo took this opportunity to swiftly kill the other Enchanter as well as one Fighter.


    With this, he lowered their number again. If he reduced their number to eight, Theo wouldn''t have any problem dealing with the rest.


    However, the moment he was about to kill another person, Felix shouted. "Joker!"


    "!!!" Theo turned to the side and saw an iing spear. He hurriedly changed his sword into a shield and put it in front of them.


    "Kh!" Theo gritted his teeth as the spear actually had so much force. Eventually, he couldn''t stop it anymore.


    *Boom!*


    The spear exploded before Theo had the chance to throw himself to the side. The explosionunched Theo a hundred feet from them, skipping a few times on the ground.


    On the other side of the battlefield stood another fifty men with a muscr man standing in front of them.


    When they saw this figure, they all said the same thing.


    "Family Head��"

 Chapter 1145 Reason

    <h4>Chapter 1145 Reason</h4>


    Two hours ago.


    "This is not good, Family Head. We have a dire situation!" Someone suddenly entered the office to bring news.


    He panted a few times as he didn''t expect the severity of this matter.


    "We''ve found out his identity. He should be Joker from the Star Group! That''s right. The fourth biggestpany in the world, the Star Group. We don''t know about his purpose here, but the Star Group shouldn''t allow him to travel with only one Mythical Rank Expert."


    When he mentioned the Star Group, the muscr man was shocked.


    No one didn''t know about the existence of the Star Group. They were one of the biggestpanies in the world, and their equipment was so famous that many experts desired them.


    However, the most important thing was the fact the Star Group had tens of Mythical Rank Experts. A single order from their CEO was enough to annihte their Bolhom Family.


    And Joker was the name that had been booming recently. He was considered the most talented person in the Star Group. In other words, his reputation alone was more important than many Mythical Rank Experts.


    Since the Star Group sent him here, there was no way he would havee here alone.


    "It''s over�� We need to pull them back. As long as we can stop this conflict, the Star Group won''t pursue this matter." The Mythical Rank Elder, who had been giving one suggestion after another, stated with cold sweat. "Family Head. I know that you''re still angry, but please calm down and see the bigger picture. If you kill Joker, we will be destroyed by the Star Group."


    "Enough! I don''t want to hear anything from you anymore!" The muscr man roared as giving up the revenge was a trigger for his anger.


    "You need to see the bigger picture. It was your son that provoked him first. If he didn''t want to kill him, Joker wouldn''t even order the Mythical Rank Expert to kill your son! It was your fault for spoiling your son too much! And now, are you going to destroy the family because of your anger?" The elder didn''t care. He raised his voice even bigger than the muscr man.


    He had enough. The muscr man punched the guy''s face and blew him to the corner of the room.


    "You''re the one who can''t see the bigger picture. Even if we leave him be, do you think he will not consider any revenge?" The muscr man gritted his teeth. "That''s why we should kill him right now. We can''t leave any witnesses alive."


    "That will destroy the family!" The elder gnashed his teeth as he was nning to fight the family head for this decision.


    "No. We will divert their attention to somewhere else." The muscr man snorted. "The ck Snake Group can take the me. After destroying the base, they should have served their purpose. That''s why it''s better to destroy them and erase all evidence that can connect to us. The Star Group''s purpose ofing here is only for revenge, not that evidence. This way, we can kill two birds with one stone."


    The elder widened his eyes in shock, not believing what he had just heard.


    ��


    Recalling this incident, the elder nced at their leader. He even personally helped him since his n might work better than asking for forgiveness.


    At the same time, the moment the people below saw their leadere personally, they felt a bit relieved. From their appearances alone, they could see three more Mythical Rank Experts as a reinforcement.


    With this, they couldpletely overwhelm Theo and his group.


    "This is��" Chris narrowed his eyes as he didn''t know what to do anymore. The moment their leader appeared, his opponent immediately retreated as if nning to regroup with them.


    He saw Felix cutting down one of their Mythical Rank Experts, but the situation remained the same. The enemy still had five Mythical Rank Experts. Even they would have a hard time doing it due to the numerous Supreme Rank Experts. Before long, Theo would be defeated.


    His face already had the sign of running away since his loyalty to Theo was still too weak. Meanwhile, Jeff moved to Theo''s side and even stepped forward to protect Theo.


    Felix did the same but even more forward.


    "Jeff, Chris. Bring Joker out of here. I will hold them back with all my strength." Felix took a deep breath as he became even more focused. He was ready to die to protect Theo.


    "Come on. You''re cold. Even though my meeting is brief, I don''t n to let you die alone." Jeff smirked. "Although the art is notpleted, I have finished the foundation. At least, I hope that you can use it to build your world, Joker."


    Felix nced at him and smiled. "I guess I was wrong about you."


    "That''s right. Don''t underestimate me." He smirked.


    From their tone alone, these two were ready to die as long as they could buy some time for Theo.


    Just like what they wanted, the war started.


    "Attack!" The muscr man shouted as all five Mythical Rank Experts, including him, charged forward to kill both Felix and Jeff before moving on to Theo.


    "This is ourst fight. d to work with you, brother." Felix smiled as he released all his Magic Power.


    "Indeed." Jeff smirked as he started waving his brush.


    "Die!" The muscr man roared.


    But the moment they were about to sh, three people appeared from the darkness. All three of them helped Jeff and Felix stop the Mythical Rank Experts.


    "!!!" Whether it was the enemy or the ally, they were stunned by their appearances.


    "Those three��" Felix widened his eyes and recognized these three people. They were the ones Theo met in the military base: Commander Okho and his two assistants.


    "That uniform? The military?" Jeff widened his eyes. "Why is the military getting involved in this?"


    Even the enemies didn''t understand why the military stopped them.


    However, there was only one person that had a different expression than anyone in this ce.


    Yes, it was none other than Theo.


    Behind his mask was a huge smile that seemed to be able to understand everything.

 Chapter 1146 Proof

    <h4>Chapter 1146 Proof</h4>


    Smirk.


    Theo had predicted that the military would make a move because of one thing. Even Okho had personally stated that he recognized Ergene. It was clear that he had stationed some people to observe her.


    After all, Mythical Rank Experts who had no influence were considered an asset that could be brought to the state since nopany or organization took care of them.


    At the same time, Theo was a person that the military had invited to help them during this venture.


    That was why Theo would be under huge surveince. They were about to make their move before Felix killed the Mythical Rank Expert from the Bolhom Family, but they were too shocked because of the reinforcement. They never thought that there would be a reinforcement from the Bolhom Family, and it was toote to make a move because Felix had killed the Mythical Rank Expert.


    This was a great loss for the country.


    "Why is the military here? That guy is a criminal!" The muscr man pointed at Theo in anger.


    Even Okho didn''t have the answer. He nced at Theo and asked with a cold tone. "Joker. I hope that you can exin what''s going on. Depending on your testament, I might need to arrest you."


    "What I''m doing? It''s simple. Destroying the terrorists." Theo shrugged.


    "What did you say?" The muscr man roared as he wanted to make a move. However, Okho released his Magic Power first, stopping everyone. He stated with a firm tone. "Shut up. I''m going to learn the story of both sides before making a decision. Anyone who moves will be handled ording to thew."


    Theo then waved his hand as if calling Okho. "Why don''t Commander Okhoe here? I have something that I want to show you."


    "And what is that?" Okho frowned.


    "The connection between the ck Snake Group and the Bolhom Family." Theo happily answered him.


    "Watch your mouth, you bastard!" The muscr man became even angrier. He wanted to kill Theo immediately as he never expected that someone actually found the connection between them.


    However, everyone stood still because Felix and Jeff had prepared to make a move if the enemies tried to harm Theo.


    Theo smiled and opened the proof that Ne had given to him earlier. Obviously, this wasn''t enough to prosecute them.


    When Okho saw all this, he let out a long sigh and said, "You did all this just because of this little proof? I''m afraid that it doesn''t prove anything. If you think I will believe this, then you''re too naive. I believe I should use my authority to raise the level of this matter�� Your action right now might cause a diplomatic issue between the two countries��"


    When he heard this, the muscr man felt relieved because Theo turned out to be destroying himself.


    However, Theo said, "Oh. This is not enough, but I''m sure that all the data I''ve got from his Skylink should be enough, right? I can''t do anything to hispany, but I can do it to his personal Skylink. Want to watch the footage? I mean, I''ve recorded it."


    Theo switched it again and showed a certain room.


    "!!!" The muscr man obviously recognized his own room. Thepany indeed had its own cyber team, but his personal Skylink was a different matter. There might be security for him, but it wasckingpared to hispany.


    What Theo aimed for was actually the office room in his house instead of thepany.


    "You do know what you''re doing is trespassing, right?" Okho furrowed his eyebrows.


    "What do you mean? This is just an investigation." Theo shrugged and pointed at what he was about to show. "Wooo! What is this? Look at it."


    There was a man''s hand opening a few files from images to videos that showed the Bolhom Family''s involvement in the video.


    While they were focused on the evidence, Theo suddenly pointed at the Bolhom Family. "What are you doing? Do you want to call your house to avoid this? You freaking terrorists!"


    Obviously, Theo didn''t see any movement from the Bolhom Family. He just said it to provoke them even more.


    His n worked as Okho shouted, "Don''t do anything. Begter, Temulun. Stop them from doing anything for now!"


    "Yes, Sir." His two assistants acknowledged his order, noticing the change of expression on their faces. It seemed that Okho had found something.


    "Wowowo, what is this? Juicy!" Theo smirked.


    "��" Felix narrowed his eyes and thought about what they had done earlier. Because he had revealed his identity to him, Theo didn''t hesitate to summon his clone in front of him.


    After meeting with Ergene, Theo actually used the Mythical Rank Expert that apanied Baltu to guide him to their mansion.


    Just like Ergene said, there would be peopleing toward them. However, Ergene didn''t know Theo''s real status, so she didn''t say what they would do the moment they found Theo''s real identity.


    Different from her, Theo had considered his status properly. That was why he sent the clone to go to their family.


    All this time, his clone had been waiting outside their mansion. And just like he predicted, the reinforcement came out of the house.


    At that moment, Theo used his Metamorphosis to infiltrate the mansion. Since there were no more Mythical Rank Experts protecting the mansion, he had the freedom to reach the main office.


    Without hesitation, he entered the office and opened it. Of course, Millie had been cooperating with him, cracking down on the security of the Skylink. Different from thepany''swork, his personal Skylink wouldn''t be that protected. Even Millie alone could handle it.


    Now that no one was inside the office, he could even record everything and show it to Okho.


    Although he couldn''t show all the proofs, it should be enough to twist Okho''s opinion.


    "I have finished copying the data, so all I need to do right now is retreat." Theo smiled. As a killer move, Theo made his clone leave the mansion, showing the mansion''s appearance. With that alone, it was clear that this was the Bolhom Family''s mansion and the room that he showed earlier was none other than the family head''s office.


    "��" Felix nced at Theo and realized how he had actually checkmated the Bolhom Family the moment he gave the order to kill Baltu.


    Theo noticed his gaze and waved his hand near his neck as if he was chopping his own neck. The message was clear.


    ''I told you earlier I will hit three birds with one stone.''


    And Baltu''s death was the stone that could take down the Bolhom Family, convince Ergene to join them, and everything was to destroy the ck Snake Group from the roots.

 Chapter 1147 Theo’s Real Plan

    <h4>Chapter 1147 Theo''s Real n</h4>


    "What? Our family head did that?"


    "No way."


    "This must be a lie."


    The Supreme Rank Experts were panicking. After all, not all of them were the children of the Bolhom Family. Half of them were the experts that the family recruited.


    They were the first ones to break down.


    Dropping to the ground, they clutched their heads, falling into despair.


    "The family head still hasn''t said anything. It must be a lie."


    "He''s fabricating��"


    "But the military��"


    The confusion continued. After all, the military had been watching them intensely, trying to stop all of them from interfering with the investigation.


    At the same time, Okho''s expression became colder and colder as time passed. It was clear that he had enough proof to understand the involvement.


    "You''re framing me!" The muscr man couldn''t hold it any longer as he jumped toward Theo at his fastest speed. He was nning to kill Theo and destroy the evidence as this was thest way to avoid any investigation.


    As an owner of a media enterprise, he was clear that the public opinion would drop the moment this information was released. Many would even think he manipted the media this whole time to cover everything.


    Hence, the best solution was to get rid of the evidence before they could continue the investigation.


    The moment he made his move, Felix also disappeared, trying to cut him down before he could reach Theo.


    Still, there was one man whose anger had been pent up this whole time. It was Okho.


    His speed was faster than Felix''s as he arrived in front of the muscr man. Both men pushed their hands forward and released all their Magic Power.


    Unfortunately for the Bolhom Family, Okho was considered one of the highest veterans that had fought on numerous battlefields.


    When they shed, Okho didn''t hold back anymore. His hand and two feet started shining, supporting his entire body. Ultimately, he stopped him and mmed the muscr man to the ground.


    "Enough! Do you think my eyes are decorations?!" Okho roared as he released all his Magic Power, creating a powerful shock wave that shook the entire field.


    This was the same strategy that Theo''s grandfather, Leonardo, had employed when destroying a family from the church. It was to manipte the authority to make a move by showing some evidence.


    In other words, he didn''t need to personally do it as controlling the authority alone was enough. Okho would easily believe it was the case due to Theo''s identity as the agent from the Star Group that wanted to handle the ck Snake Group. Just like his grandfather''s identity as the War Saint as well as the former head of the War God Family.


    Okho let out a long sigh and said weakly. "I know that young people these days are not that patriotic because there is so much information that influences your point of view in the Sk.


    "Even I don''t force people to love the country. I know that they have the right to choose what they believe in�� I don''t care if you don''t love the country that much, I don''t care if you criticize the government''s works, I don''t care if you look down on our country.


    "It''s just�� You were still born in this country. I don''t care about all that, but just��" Okho gritted his teeth as he took a step forward, using all that force in his foot to create a crater with a hundred feet radius. "Just don''t destroy your own country!"


    Okho''s heart felt heavy. He often saw people looking down on the government because of some small mistakes despite the government has done much greater things�� He had seen people asking the current government to step down from their positions. He didn''t care.


    Everything was different when they were talking about the ck Snake Group. This group wanted to destroy one of their bases on the other side. When that happened, the country would suffer greatly from economic to public trust.


    Even the monsters might go to this side by taking advantage of that chaos. These monsters would kill numerous citizens.


    His heart simply couldn''t take it anymore. He shouted, "Capture them!"


    "!!!" Both of his assistants widened their eyes. One of them couldn''t help but say, "But Sir, we need a document to arrest them."


    "I''ll take full responsibility. I want a full-scale investigation on the Bolhom Family!" Okho held nothing back as he was thoroughly angered.


    As soon as they heard Okho''s statement, they shouted, "Surrender if you don''t want to die!"


    "Felix, Jeff. Help them!" Theo also added the fuel, taking advantage of this.


    Felix and Jeff smiled as they subconsciously called Theo their leader. "Yes, Sir."


    "Chris? Still going to run?" Theo smirked.


    Chris couldn''t say anything. He realized that the situation had been under Theo''s control. Okho''s appearance wasn''t luck but a thorough calction.


    Ultimately, Chris summoned his piano again, nning to support them.


    "As for you��" Okho took off his military jacket and snapped his fingers, warming up his body. "I''m going to capture you personally."


    "He is framing me! You''re getting led by him!"


    "Say that in court!" Okho snorted and walked forward, slowly approaching the enemy.


    "You bastard!" The muscr man red at Theo. He wanted to notify his people to kill the intruders, but Theo''s provocation earlier forced Okho to order his subordinates to watch them andpletely stopped that idea.


    It turned out Theo''s real intention wasn''t weakening their force here. It was to make the family head leave his mansion.


    As soon as he left the mansion, Theo''s n seeded.


    Chris looked at Theo''s back while furrowing his eyebrows. ''He has calcted everything? No, no. How can he evene up with this kind of strategy on the fly? I heard that they met the young man from the Bolhom Family out of nowhere�� It wasn''t supposed to be the n. But this also means that he''s been nning this from the start?''


    Chris sucked a cold breath. If Theo could even think of this on a fly, what kind of n would he be able toe up with after months or years of nning. It might even be easy for Theo to ruin his life without bing a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Fu��" Chris shuddered with just the thought alone.

 Chapter 1148 Capture

    <h4>Chapter 1148 Capture</h4>


    In the instant, most of the Supreme Rank Experts surrendered. One of the Mythical Rank Experts also surrendered since he didn''t participate that much in the family other than being a Mythical Rank Expert that protected the family.


    Because of this, the situation became even easier for the rest. Theo handled the Supreme Rank Experts, and the Mythical Rank Experts were down one by one, mostly due to Felix and Okho''s overwhelming strength.


    Reinforcement from the police had also arrived.


    "I''m sorry for asking you a lot tonight." Okho sighed, ncing at the middle-aged man in a police uniform.


    "Anything for my father''s friend." He nodded. "So, is there any proof that you can show me? Or else, I can''t give investigation permission."


    Okho nced at Theo, asking him to hand over the video.


    Theo then showed him to him. It truly made the police frown. As someone who had been dealing with the internal problem of the country, he certainly understood what the proof meant.


    "I have copied the entire data. But you need to grab it personally." Theo said. He used his clone earlier, so when he called the monkey, the clone needed to disappear. Luckily, two hours were enough to get everything and retreat to a hotel. Unfortunately, due to this situation, all the evidence was left in that hotel room.


    The police nced at Okho, who nodded his head. "Okay. Let me know the location."


    Theo then asked his Skylink and wrote down the location so that only he and Okho knew about it.


    "Got it. I know that you don''t like your people to be seen, so I''ll respect that." The police nodded. "Though, I hope that you don''t cause more trouble��"


    "I''m here for a mission." Theo shrugged.


    "Never mind. I''ll also go there after this." Okho suddenly opened his mouth. "I also need to receive the same thing. Because we''re going to stop the ck Snake Group, I''ll review the proof when we''re going there�� If I confirm that the proof is not enough to prosecute the Bolhom Family, I''m going to capture you personally."


    "Sure thing." Theo agreed without hesitation. "In fact, I don''t mind going there with you. I can even show you the Skylink."


    "Good. Let''s do that. When are we going to leave for the other side? Okho asked.


    "My schedule is three hours from now�� Considering we will need one to two hours to go there�� I''ll tell them to push back the schedule a bit."


    "No need." Okho shook his head and nced at the sky. Soon, they heard the pping sound echoing in the sky before a small airne became visible.


    The ne had a vertical thrust so it could act like a helicopter, allowing the pilot tond it near them without making too much noise or disturbance like that of a helicopter.


    "It won''t take too long."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and nced at Felix. "Take care of the others for me, okay? It won''t take too long."


    "Understood." Felix acknowledged Theo''s order as he saw him entering the helicopter.


    "It seems that I''ve been underestimating him the whole time, Felix." Jeff smirked, appearing next to him. "To think that the situation would be turned around that easily��"


    "Easy, huh��" Felix closed his eyes. The name of Theodore Griffith had been fresh in his mind. Although he never saw him personally, he realized that Theodore Griffith truly deserved his reputation. He thought, ''He might even surpass his grandfather in the battle of wits soon enough.''


    "Mhm? What''s wrong?" Jeff tilted his head, not understanding Felix''s response.


    "Nothing."


    "Okay?" Since Felix didn''t n to say anything, he could only stop pursuing this matter. Instead, he turned to Chris and smirked. "What do you think, Chris? Aren''t you lucky that he hasn''t done anything to you? If he wanted to harm you, he would have crushed you."


    "Shut up." Chris snorted and looked away. He himself knew how he had escaped death.


    "Heh."


    After dealing with the problem, the group headed to the rendezvous point where they were supposed to meet Ne and Ergene.


    Meanwhile, Theo had arrived at the hotel. With the help of the police, they got a spare key and opened the room.


    After that, he showed the proof to the police and made a copy of it so that Okho could read it on the way.


    Still, Okho had seen a few things inside. The proof of their involvement with the ck Snake Group aside, it seemed that they had stored their corruption inside. Of course, the data only came from the family head. If they investigated thepany and the entire family, more proof could be found.


    However, it was clear that the Bolhom Family would be destroyed by the proof Theo had gathered.


    Still, Okho couldn''t help but ask, "Why do you target this particr proof? There''s a chance that the enemy doesn''t have this kind of proof in their Skylink."


    "Of course, I''ve investigated thepany as well since if you want something from them, you should actually go there, but��" Theo smirked. The real reason why he targeted only one Skylink was due to the information from Ne.


    He knew this was the target as soon as he read Ne''s investigation.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t say anything since Ne refused to make her appearance.


    So, he could only say, "You aren''t going to force me to hand over my method to find my proof, right?"


    Okho scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Just treat it as an old man''s random mumbling. Though, I''m thankful that there won''t be a second ck Snake Group after this."


    "Well, we can get more proof from the ck Snake Group as long as we can deal with them." Theo nodded.


    "Still, it''s truly unpleasant that you''re using me for this whole thing." Okho sighed, realizing Theo''s real n.


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled and looked away.


    "But I guess since this is the problem of the country, someone in the country should solve them. At the very least, I want to thank you on behalf of the citizens whose lives would be affected by this."

 Chapter 1149 Hidden Threat

    <h4>Chapter 1149 Hidden Threat</h4>


    "Well, it seems that everyone has arrived." Theo smiled and nodded to Ne and Ergene. "Anyway, I can''t really go with all of you since the military requests me toe with them. However, that doesn''t really matter since I''m going to act with all of you after we arrive."


    "We''ve been briefed by Felix." Ergene acknowledged Theo''s words. She had understood why Theo actually killed Baltu back then.


    Ne, on the other hand, felt something was wrong. She looked at Theo while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "Yes? Do you need something from me?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, feeling Ne''s intense gaze.


    "Ah, no." Ne shook her head. She just couldn''t help but think about Theo.


    After all, Theo had a brain that was capable of doing this, and his prowess was strong as well. She suspected Theo to be Joker, but their personality didn''t really match. And after living in Italy and the US for years, his ent had be different.


    Unlike Maya, who could recognize his ent because they had met only a few months prior, thest time she saw Theo was on a mission in Italy.


    She couldn''t be sure whether Joker was Theo or not. And it wasn''t like she could disclose Theo''s information right in front of everyone when he desperately hid it.


    Hence, it was better to act natural for the time being.


    "Anyway, we''ll set up a rendezvous point." Theo pointed at the map. "Here. As soon as we arrive and I''ve done my part, I''ll immediately meet you guys in this ce."


    "Yes."


    "Felix. I''ll leave the group to you."


    "Got it." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    "Alright. See youter." Theo waved his hand and left them, heading back to meet Okho.


    After that, the group started moving toward their destination to handle the ck Snake Group. And the Bolhom Family couldn''t do anything as the police had started moving.


    This was Theo''s desired oue in his first n. He only needed to defeat the ck Snake Group and returned with Ergene.


    Fortunately, when they ventured to the other side, the trip went smoothly. Theo was staying at Okho''s side so that he could capture him the moment he realized Theo fabricated the evidence.


    The next night, Okho sat down next to Theo as they looked at the fire.


    "To be honest, I can''t really understand the proof. There are too many confusing things there, and I''m also not that goodpared to the police when investigating things like this. However, what I do know is that the Bolhom Family is indeed rted to the ck Snake Group.


    "It seems that they have bought some of the soldiers so that they can let them go when transporting the materials.


    "Still, one thing confuses me. Why do they want to destroy the base? What is the purpose of the Bolhom Family destroying the gate? After all, they won''t do something that makes them broke for no reason��" Okho narrowed his eyes.


    "I am not sure as well��" Theo shook his head helplessly. Although he wanted to rte this matter with beings in a higher dimension, he needed more proof to do that.


    "If it were you, why would you do something like this?"


    "Hmm��" Theo paused for a moment, contemting his answer. "There will be so much news in the media. If it''s the Star Group, their intention is clear since it must be rted to weapons. It''s instant profit. However, the only thing I can think of is just the Bolhom Family''s media enterprise."


    "Media," Okho muttered this word a few times. "I don''t know whether this can prosecute the Bolhom Family or not, but I think it''s fine to let you go for the time being. I hope that you can apany me again when we go back to the country. I need to make something clear with the police."


    "Certainly. I don''t really mind the problem." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Good. Onest thing, I want to make sure of our n." Okho thought for a moment. "I want your group to stop them from the front. But I hope that you don''t use your Mythical Rank Expert too soon. I don''t want them to scatter around since we''re nning to either kill or capture them."


    "I understand. I''ll do my best to get some of them to move forward. The rest will be up to you."


    "Then��" Okho handed him a small device. It was just a cube with a button on one side and a hole on the other side. "After you finish your job, I want you to push that button. It will give me the signal to start.


    "Don''t worry about traps or the weapons. I''ll handle their weapon as well as their Mythical Rank Experts. Once you''re done, I want you to meet me at this point to confirm the mission."


    "Got it." Theo acknowledged themand. As expected of Okho, he had done all the small details to perfection. With all his preparation, the n would be moving smoothly.


    "Great. In that case, I wish you luck."


    "Yes, Sir."


    "Good night."


    "Good night, Sir."


    Little did he know, Theo actually had one more problem that he never thought would appear.


    He had underestimated the Griffith Familypletely.


    In the corner of the Khaltar Base, the base that was supposed to be attacked, there was a group of ten.


    Three of them were Mythical Rank Experts, while the others were Supreme Rank Experts.


    However, all of them had a matching characteristic, which was their dark blue hair and eyes.


    "Finally. We''ve gotten some information about those traitors. They didn''t take their cover this whole time, but Ne seemed to be in this country. Our mission is to capture Ne to bring out Ray and Valerie."


    "What''s about her parents?"


    "Her parents won''t dare toe out. They have been hiding with Ray and Valerie, but they won''t cause much trouble. That''s why our mission is only to capture Ne Griffith."


    "The Star Group?"


    "Stop them for a while. I don''t know what kind of trump card Ne has, so it might take a few minutes for us to capture her. That''s why I want you to stop the people from the Star Group."


    "Got it."


    "Let''s move then."

 Chapter 1150 Felix and Jeff

    <h4>Chapter 1150 Felix and Jeff</h4>


    The next morning, they finally reached their destination.


    Theo then moved back to his team.


    "How is it?" Theo asked while finding Ne missing from the group.


    "She is searching for them." Jeff pointed to the north where Ne went a moment ago. "Felix is with her, so there should be no problem."


    "Okay." Theo nodded. "Have you prepared what I want?"


    "Of course." Jeff took out his sketchbook and showed him his drawing. It was a drawing of an army consisting of numerous soldiers. "One page has fifty people. I''ve made four pages."


    "That should be enough." Theo nodded and looked at the terrain from the air. He then found a slightly elevated ground in the distance and pointed at it. "There."


    When he returned to the ground, Ergene was looking down as if she was thinking about something.


    After a minute, Ergene asked, "Are you nning to use the elevated ground to confuse the enemy of our numbers? And what''s the drawing for? Is it an illusion or something? Are you going to create an illusion army to separate them?"


    "As expected of you," Theo admitted without hesitation. We''ll use the terrain to split them into two."


    "But they won''t move ording to your n. Instead, they might charge together."


    "Yes. But it will be different with Felix and the others." Theo smiled.


    "Hmm��" Ergene realized something and finally understood how Theo would split them. "I see. It won''t be perfect, but it''s certainly good enough."


    "Yes. If you win, you don''t need to follow me and even get yourself an honor for serving your country. If I win, you follow me back to the US and join my group. That''s the agreement between us."


    "Of course. I''m not going to take back my promise. If you can be faster than me, you''re more than qualified to be my superior. Looking at your age, it''s clear that you''re younger than me. With your talent, you can surpass me sooner orter, so I don''t see anything wrong with it."


    "Great. The agreement is set." Theo extended his hand and Ergene shook his hand to seal the deal.


    Meanwhile, Jeff furrowed his eyebrows and recalled what Felix had told him.


    They were alone at that time.


    "What''s wrong, Felix? You said you wanted to talk to me privately. What''s this all about?" Jeff asked.


    "I call you here simply because I feel like I can trust you." Felix indirectly mentioned his willingness to sacrifice his life for Theo.


    Jeff smiled. "It''s nothing. That''s what I was supposed to do. Besides, you should thank Isaac."


    "Isaac?"


    "You don''t know? Isaac has been contacting me this whole time, you know. I am pretty sure he''s been contacting Chris too."


    "Really?" Felix was surprised as he never thought Isaac would actually help the group in the dark.


    "Yeah. Anyway, what do you want to say to me?"


    "I just want to know that whatever you think about Joker right now is still underestimating him."


    "Mhm? What do you mean?"


    "I realized it not long ago, but can you see the reason why he killed the young man from the Bolhom Family?"


    "Wasn''t it to call all of them out?"


    "No." Felix shook his head helplessly. He was shocked when he realized it. "What you said is true, but that''s not all the reasons."


    "Hoh?"


    "The second purpose is to eliminate any person that wants to recruit Ergene."


    "Well, that''s true. The young man wanted to recruit her too, so killing him means there won''t be anyone close to her anymore."


    "Yes. However, this was also his way of showing Ergene his true strength. That''s why Ergene even agreed with his arrangement."


    "That''s true."


    "But don''t forget the real reason why hees here."


    "Huh? Isn''t it to recruit Ergene?"


    "No. It''s the Star Group''s assignment."


    "!!!" Jeff widened his eyes and started muttering as if he could see the bigger picture. "Now that I think about it, Ergene herself hasn''t joined us. So, she actually doesn''t have an obligation to help us.


    "That''s why Joker proposed this kind of challenge. Even if Ergene won, he would have received freebor from a Mythical Rank Expert. After all, the one that would reward Ergene was the country, not him."


    Jeff sucked a cold breath. It turned out Theo was actually using the freebor of the person he wanted to recruit toplete his own mission. He never thought Theo would be able to trap her this far.


    Felix nodded with a serious expression. "Yes. Of course, Joker should have some assurance when proposing that challenge. That''s why when I realized this, I thought Joker actually used Ergene herself to recruit her."


    "Ahaha." Jeff started chuckling while closing his eyes. He realized that everything had been under Theo''s control. Baltu was just a bonus. "It seems that I have underestimated him. How far does he see?"


    "I''m not sure. But as scheming as he is, I don''t think he''ll mistreat us."


    "You don''t feel him taking advantage of you?"


    "No. In fact, I''m indebted to him."


    "Well, I also investigated you a bit. Your daughter''s curse��"


    "He helped her."


    "I see. You don''t feel bad about it? I mean, taking advantage of your situation to recruit you��"


    "No one could save her at that time."


    Jeff felt silent for a moment. "So, that''s the reason why you follow his words blindly."


    "Yes. I know that his every decision is carefully thought out. There''s no need for an exnation. The reason I call you here is that I want to ask you to fully trust him and do what he wants. You can ask the reasonter, but just focus on doing the task first."


    "I see." Jeff smiled. "No wonder that Joker trusts you that much. You''re the one who trusts him the most. Now I can''t really feel envious of your position�� Anyway, don''t worry. Now that you have told me this, I can understand what kind of person Joker is�� On top of that, he has that golden Magic Power. The world will soon recognize him."


    Felix nodded. "I know that not all the people under him won''t trust him fully, but I just want you to know that if there is a traitor in our group, I will rally all the people to cut them down. I hope that you will help me at that time."


    "Of course. There''s no need to say it. I won''t forgive any traitors. Right now, I''m watching Chris closely." Jeff nodded with a cold expression. "If he dares to harm Joker, I''ll inform you immediately. Both of us can kill him."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 1151 Start

    <h4>Chapter 1151 Start</h4>


    "It seems that the enemies have moved out." Ne said to Theo after returning from her observation. "I have found their base, and there seems to be a huge movement around there. I believe they''reing out right now."


    "Okay." Theo nodded. "I will split our missions. I and Ergene will remain here to fight the enemy. Jeff will help me in maintaining the fake armies and split them into three. I and Ergene will handle the sides, while Felix and Chris plunge through the middle and stop any reinforcement or chase the escaping enemies.


    "Our fake army will fool them to make it look like there''s only one escape, so do your best to do your jobs. We can''t afford to miss a single one."


    "Got it." Felix and Jeff nodded while Chris asked, "Why can''t I boost you with my power? I mean, a Supreme Rank Expert challenging a Mythical Rank Expert alone is already hard enough�� Shouldn''t we bnce it a little bit?"


    Ergene thought for a moment and agreed. "Yes. I don''t really mind to be honest."


    "It''s fine. Do you think I''ll lose without his ability?" Theo chuckled, provoking Ergene.


    "Now you say it." Ergene shrugged. "I''ll ept that provocation. If you still win, it will mean it''s yourplete victory."


    "Okay." Chris ultimately agreed to not interfere since Theo had said so.


    Theo then turned to Ne. "So, what can you do for us during this time?"


    "I am here as an informant. Although I want to help you, I''ll just remain here." Ne shook her head, refusing to take any role.


    However, Theo already had a role for her. He said, "Fine. Your role is simply ring at them from this ce."


    "Huh?" Ne tilted her head in confusion.


    Ergene exined, "Just by ring at them from here can create a massive distraction. Only both of us will handle the enemies since the army is fake, so you ring at them means there''s another army that can move at any moment''s notice."


    "I see." Ne understood her exnation and thought for a moment. "Should I act like I''mmanding the group or something? It should make them wary, right?"


    "That''s true��" Ergene couldn''t make a decision with this one, so she nced at Theo.


    "No. Just standing here alone is enough. Doing more will make the enemies panic and start scattering. That''s thest thing we want from them as there might be another resurgence."


    "Fair enough. But are you alright with killing so many humans? In a war, you''re bound to kill hundreds if not thousands of humans�� So, I''m fine with it." Ergene nced at Theo.


    "It''s fine. I''ll only kill a few of them anyway." Theo shrugged.


    "A few of them?" Ergene was confused by Theo''s words.


    "The scouts areing." Felix opened his mouth when he noticed the change in the area.


    Theo saw a cloud of dust on the horizon. It could only be produced by numerous people walking together.


    "Hmm, okay. Let the scoutse and inform the enemies to detach themselves." Theo turned to the side. "The military is also preparing to move this time. Do the enemies have drones or something�� Never mind."


    As soon as he asked those questions, there were a few drones flying in the sky. Felix could also see a few people leaping around.


    They were hiding in the barren in, so it was easy for them to find them. It was also a perfect ce to execute the enemies.


    "Mhm��" Theo narrowed his eyes and raised his right hand. "Jeff."


    "Yes."


    "I need a spear. A good one with an explosive fire."


    Jeff opened his sketchbook and ripped a page. "How about this? It''s made of a Red Harness Stone that can transmit fire. If you put too much power into that stone, it will explode."


    The spear had a long red handle and a zing me surrounding it.


    "Good enough." Theo nodded.


    "In that case��" Jeff summoned the spear for him. Unfortunately, unlike the drawing, Jeff couldn''t help with the me. Only the red spear appeared, and its texture was simr to that of wood.


    But the moment Theo grabbed the spear, the Magic Power in that spear started to change from a mere illusion to a real stable item.


    "!!!" Chris, Ergene, and Ne widened their eyes when they saw this. They were shocked by how Theo could camouge the illusion energy that the spear emitted.


    Unfortunately for them, their shock had yet to end. Sparks started appearing around the spear until a zing fire engulfed the entire spear''s de.


    ''Fire�� he is not Theo then. Theo doesn''t have an affinity.'' Ne sighed inwardly. She was disappointed to know that Joker wasn''t Theo since they were so simr.


    "As expected of you, please use this spear with care." Jeff smiled. He had learned that Theo could trace his own illusion by putting something real. Hence, he started learning about more things. Instead of just a mere drawing, he actually learned what materials to put in as well as the impact.


    This way, Theo''s tracing could be even more powerful. The foundation he had been drawing this whole time was the same. The trees that he drew were not mere trees. He could identify each tree type and the reason he put it there. The same applied to the building.


    With this, his drawing grew by leaps and bounds. And everything was for Theo''s power.


    Theo took a deep breath as he put his left foot forward, pulling back the spear to throw it.


    "Go." Theo used all his strength, Telekinesis, and even Thunderp Fist tounch this spear.


    As a result, the spear flew like a bullet.


    Still, the enemies had Mythical Rank Experts in their rank. If not, Theo wouldn''t be required to bring Mythical Rank Experts with him.


    One of them reacted to Theo''s spear and leaped into the air, striking the spear with his sword.


    But as Jeff said earlier, the fire spear could explode if he put more energy. Although he couldn''tpletely imitate its characteristics, Theo could still make an explosion.


    *Boom!*


    The spear exploded and knocked the man to the ground. However, he still saw Theo and Ergene standing on the small hill in front of them since Felix and the others hid underneath.


    The moment he reached the ground, he shouted, "There are two enemies in front of us. One of them is a Mythical Rank Expert. We don''t have any information about them, so two hundred of you go first and probe our enemies!"

 Chapter 1152 Confusion

    <h4>Chapter 1152 Confusion</h4>


    "Here theye." Theo smiled and lowered his hand, giving a signal for Jeff.


    Jeff immediately disappeared as he was nting the army just to trick the enemies.


    Ergene narrowed her eyes. "The enemies are not that much. Is this it?"


    "Yes. Wait for my signal." Theo confirmed it as the battle between him, and Ergene was about to start.


    "Got it." Ergene nodded.


    Soon, they could see two hundred people marching forward while scattering in the area to scout them.


    "Still, a battle like this is weird. In the past, the war didn''t require too many personnel since we could use technologies." Ergene narrowed her eyes.


    "Well, that''s because an individual might is better than a gun except for a cannon they''re bringing right now. That''s why the warfare has returned to the primordial one. Isn''t your blessing rted to this style of warfare?"


    "That''s true. Still, I want to say this." Ergene paused for a moment as if she was pondering whether to say it or not. "Bolhom Family, this challenge�� You''re truly one of a kind. Even if I win, I shall respect you as my equal from today."


    Theo smiled and raised his hands. Suddenly, numerous swords appeared on top of him as he released them to shoot the enemies down. This time, the sword didn''t contain Fire Energy which confused the people again.


    ''Mhm? There''s no element? Isn''t his element fire? No, he must be a unique individual that can separate his own Magic Power and Element, making an illusion that he can wield both fire element and one without affinity.'' Ergene thought while ncing at Theo.


    At the same time, Ne started doubting herself again. ''Theo is an illusionist. Can he actually create a realistic me with his illusion? No, even the Mind Elder can''t do it�� ording to Uncle Ray, the Mind Elder has something far more powerful than Five Aspects. Yet, he can''t do something like that.


    ''But then, who is Joker? I''m confused right now. What is his ability?'' Ne frowned, wanting to know the answer.


    While they were confused, Theo''s swords had been raining the enemies down. However, Theo did something special for the swords.


    "This is��" Ergene was amused when she realized what Theo had done. The swords were actually aiming at the people at the edge, pushing them to the center so all two hundred people could gather in the center.


    However, the people on the lower ground obviously couldn''t see this kind of detail. They only focused on one thing.


    "They''re attacking us."


    "Don''t worry. It''s only the Supreme Rank Expert."


    "We need to watch out for the Mythical Rank Expert. If she''sing, we need to group up to stop her. Even if she''s strong, she can''t target all of us at the same time."


    "That''s right. We can also block her together."


    "But what about the people at Hero Rank or lower? They''re not strong enough to handle her."


    "Just send them to that Supreme Rank Expert. The principle is the same. It won''t be that easy for the Supreme Rank Expert to handle multiple Hero Rank Experts because they can attack and block together."


    "The fact that they find us and attack us means they know our identity. Obviously, the military has moved as well. We need the main group to handle the military. That''s why we need to deal with these two here. We''ll exhaust their energy and attack them at every single opportunity. Even if they''re colossal monsters, they will be dead after losing so much blood."


    The enemies also had some understanding of the situation. Even though they were just a random bunch that joined the ck Snake Group, they still had gained enough knowledge to assess their situation, especially those Supreme Rank Experts who had experienced more battles.


    "If the situation is dire, we''ll also ask for the main group to reinforce us or attack them with their cannon. Anyway, prepare for battle. There are only two enemies."


    "Hoo!"


    They started shouting, trying to boost their morale. However, weird things started happening to them.


    "Hey, what are you doing?"


    "We need to spread a bit more. If we can pass them, we will be able to create a distraction."


    "That''s right. We need to spread more!"


    People starteding from the right side, closing to the middle group. Not long after, the left side also experienced the same situation.


    With only five hundred feet separating them, they couldn''t do anything more.


    It was at this time numerous people began to appear.


    "Aaahhhh!"


    "What''s that?"


    A bunch of people suddenly started emerging at the top of the small hill, revealing themselves.


    "There are more people?! How many are there?"


    "No, how many people are hiding behind that hill? There must be more people hiding by using the difference of our elevation."


    But before the enemies could respond, the confusion became bigger when they heard another shouting from the sides.


    "There are also people from the right."


    "Enemies are spotted on the left."


    "Their number is around fifty!"


    "What? With two sides�� that''s already a hundred people. And with the addition of the people on top of the hill along with that Mythical Rank Expert, I am afraid��"


    They started panicking because the number might match their number. And with Ergene controlling the army, the enemy could easily destroy them.


    "We need to ask for reinforcement from the main group!"


    "That''s right. They should bring more Mythical Rank Experts in our way!"


    "Hurry up!"


    They started to move ording to some instructions, trying to save themselves.


    However, Theo dropped another bomb when he called Felix and Chris to the front.


    When they saw another two Mythical Rank Experts, their faces became pale.


    "Two more��"


    "What is this��"


    "Are we going to die?"


    "It''s impossible for two hundred of us with two-thirds of us being a Hero Rank or lower��"


    On the contrary, Theo smiled as he raised his hand, creating a single line in a certain direction. "I guess this is it."


    "Felix, Chris. Cut through in this direction. This should split the enemies. Just kill all the people on this line and continue forward, bing our wall that stops their reinforcement, especially the Mythical Rank Experts from their side. Me and Ergene will handle the rest." Theo gave his order.


    "Got it." Felix nodded.


    "In that case, let''s do it, shall we?" Theo nced at Ergene.


    "Okay. The battle is on."


    "Let''s go." Theo smirked as he jumped forward. Ergene, Felix, and Chris also did the same, matching their speed.

 Chapter 1153 Didn’t Kill But Kill

    <h4>Chapter 1153 Didn''t Kill But Kill</h4>


    "Here theye!"


    The enemies started panicking because they were just sending some people to get help, but Theo had made his move.


    Felix, whose job was to create the line that separated the two sides, elerated even further.


    Not wanting to lose, Chris also started ying the piano to boost his ability. With that additional support, Felix turned into a beast and shed all his enemies.


    "Surro��" They wanted to surround him, but the next thing they realized, Felix had reached their position and sliced their neck.


    Each stroke was precise and his movement was fluid enough to jump from one person to another. In fact, he moved so fast that he could kill two to three men in one second.


    In just ten seconds, Felix had reached the other side and killed a total of forty enemies.


    ''He''s a monster. How could he move like that?'' Ergene gulped down, thinking she wouldn''t be able to even keep up with Felix''s movement. To think there would be someone that strong under Theo, she waspletely stunned.


    But she had yet to realize Felix''s true power. Felix had been using his light to blind the enemies this whole time, lowering their reaction time. This way, Felix could kill them easily.


    Of course, Felix''s strength was also that strong.


    "Chris. We''ll keep that gap open for you," said Theo to Chris before looking at Ergene. "After Chris passes them, the battle starts."


    "No objection."


    "Let''s go." Theo nodded.


    Both Theo and Ergene stood inside the gap.


    Ergene raised her hands and summoned numerous lightning from the ground. The lightning was linear, creating a wall that stopped anyone from traveling past them.


    Meanwhile, Theo summoned his Underworld Dominion to grab everyone''s attention.


    Chris slipped past them without hesitation, not wanting to bother them too much.


    As soon as they saw Chris regrouping with Felix, the battle had officially started.


    Ergene smirked and took out her sword. Lightning also started sparking on her body as she suddenly disappeared, using her fastest move to reach the closest guy.


    "Wha��!" The guy was shocked, but Ergene only smiled coldly at him as she sliced his neck.


    "Surround her!"


    Multiple Supreme Rank Experts and Hero Rank Experts managed to react as her speed was lower than Felix''s.


    Ergene didn''t care about them as she waved her sword. The lightning that covered her sword suddenly moved to the ground and spread forward, electrocuting anything on top of the ground.


    However, some Supreme Rank Experts moved their shields forward and put them in front of the lightning path. With the help of the Magic Power to prevent the electric shock, they stopped the lightning even though they were pushed back for a few feet.


    "Hoh?" Ergene widened her eyes, amused by their strength. Normally, this type of group would be in despair because of their difference in strength, but it seemed they could do something more.


    Just like when Theo and his group fought against a Mythical Rank Dragon in Antis, they could do the same against Ergene.


    "Interesting. But that''s only twenty percent of my power. Let''s see how much you can handle!" Ergene smirked as the spark became fiercer to the point the ground started cracking due to the fierce lightning.


    "Here shees!"


    Ergene began her conquest of this left side which consisted of eighty people.


    On the contrary, Theo actually made a unique approach. After summoning the Death Avatar just to grab their attention, Theo actually used the Death Domain, summoning the mist to cover the battlefield.


    This mist had no effect other than shortening one''s sight and restricting one''s Awareness. With this mist, Theo was supposed to turn this mist into a killing spot.


    However, no matter how strong Theo was, he couldn''t defeat Ergene if they approached the battlefield in the same way.


    That was why Theo wanted to do this in a different way.


    He still recalled the battle between Agata and Alea in the Grand Gaia Competition. At that time, Agata trapped Alea in the pink smoke that blinded her.


    After that, it was easy for her to create herself to fight Alea. Even with her eyes, Alea had a hard time discerning the situation.


    ''I guess I need to thank her again for this.'' Theo smiled due to the inspiration from Agata.


    The moment the mist was up, the people became even more confused.


    "What''s this?"


    "A mist?"


    "Don''t worry. The one we''re going to face is the Supreme Rank Expert. We will be able to handle him!"


    "That''s right!"


    "Let''s do this."


    "I found him! Ha!" One of them suddenly shouted while swinging his weapon. However, he soon said, "What? He avoided my sword? Beware. He''s slick! Stop him!"


    "Here he is!"


    "Kill!"


    "Aaaahhh!"


    "Why did you hit me?"


    "What the heck?"


    "Die!"


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    The screams increased as time passed. This scream actually came from the enemies.


    "What''s this?" One of them asked, confused by all those voices. Suddenly, he saw a masked man appearing within the mist.


    As a Supreme Rank Expert, he could easily stop him. So, he waved his sword toward the masked man, albeit his sword actually won against him, pushing back the masked man''s sword before ultimately cutting him.


    "Aaaahhhhh!" The masked man screamed.


    "Did I do it?" He muttered in a low voice before the masked man turned back into its original form, which was one of the terrorists. "What?! Did I kill my own people? Wait��"


    He raised his head and looked at the mist while observing the voices. He suddenly realized what was going on. "Are we hallucinating? Did he use an illusion to trick us into killing our own people by using this mist?"


    He shuddered by that thought alone. "Don''t attack that masked man! He''s making us hallucinate his own appearance. He''s making us kill our own people! Stop!"


    He was so desperate to stop everyone from attacking one another. Unfortunately for him, Theo took this speech to his advantage.


    The moment they heard that shout, the group stopped killing each other, but it also meant they gave the full right for Theo to attack them.


    The masked man once appeared again in front of a person. He plunged his sword toward them.


    Obviously, they didn''t want to die, so they shed downwards to stop his de, but on the way, they stopped, remembering the situation. And that hesitation took his life as Theo''s sword continued, shing them into two.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "Aaaahhh!"


    "Nooo!"


    "Stop attacking!"


    "Masked Man!"


    Unfortunately for them, everything was toote. In just a single minute, Theo actually killed thirty of them with this illusion alone, and Theo only killed five of them. This was another day Theo didn''t kill many people but still killed many people.

 Chapter 1154 Doubt

    <h4>Chapter 1154 Doubt</h4>


    "��" Ne narrowed her eyes, observing Theo''s movement. However, the mist truly made it hard for her to see what was going on.


    On the other hand, when she nced at Ergene, she could see her overwhelming power, cutting down the enemies one by one.


    However, the most chaotic battlefield was on Theo''s side.


    ''What''s going on there? I can''t really see anything. I want to see Joker''s strength�� I still believe that Joker is connected to Theo. After all, Theo knew Maya from the Starry Group. And he has been controlling the situation this whole time like Theo always did in the Grand Gaia Competition. Is he really Theo?'' Ne was curious.


    She almost forgot that she had been too focused on Theo due to the side effect of the Mind Elder''s power.


    ''Kh.'' She gritted her teeth, frustrated. In the end, she nced at the battle beyond them. ''Still, this is truly a unique group. That assassin is strong�� even I will have a hard time finding one like him in the Griffith Family.


    ''The same applies to that pianist. He can both support the allies and weaken the enemies. And the sound can be heard far away, allowing his area of support to be enormous.


    ''The painter is quite unique as well, but his role is more like support to Joker. Even so, with Joker''s ability, it can be a terrifying ability as well.


    ''And now, there is that woman. She is young and talented. Without any support, she can reach this point. Not only that, but she also has a brain that can understand the situation.


    ''They can easily be one of the top groups in a country.'' She examined all their qualities and realized why Joker became one of the most important people in Star Group. ''Now that I think about it, Uncle Ray is nning something big soon. That''s why he sent me to this cooperation.


    ''He wants to know whether it''s possible or not to cooperate with the Star Group. It seems that the Star Group has received a favor from the president too. They''re going to rise even further.''


    Ne contemted what she needed to report. However, Ne''s thoughts alone also reflected the might of the Griffith Family. Even with Ray''s small faction, they could know the secret rtionship between the US President and the Star Group. The main family could do much more than this.


    And not far from Ne was the scary part of the Griffith Family.


    The ten people that were chasing after Ne had stationed themselves near them, observing the situation.


    "This is��" One of the Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family observed what happened on Theo''s battlefield.


    "What''s wrong?"


    "Their confusion is weird. They''re chopping their ownrades as if they''re bewitched by something?"


    "Hm? Illusion?"


    "I think so."


    "But Joker has never used an illusion."


    "Is he hiding it this whole time?"


    "I believe so. Why did he hide it this whole time? But he might just learn it too��"


    "The proficiency is too good for that. If he can learn such a thing in such a short period, it means he''s a monstrous talent for learning new things�� That sounds like��"


    "Theodore Griffith. The biggest genius in learning."


    "Impossible. Theodore Griffith is dead."


    "But no one could see his corpses."


    "That''s kinda true."


    "Wait a minute. Before that, I want to mention something. In the Starry Group, Maya Hamilton seems to have epted someone new as her assistant. He is a Supreme Rank Expert, and he seems to be close to her."


    "Theodore Griffith is close to Maya, right?"


    "Yes. That''s why I think that guy is Theodore Griffith. We don''t know about Joker though. After all, if we take another look at it, Joker''s power is different from Theodore Griffith�� You should have seen that fire spear, right?"


    "Isn''t the illusion from that painter?"


    "Who knows. My point is that other than the illusion, Joker is different from Theodore Griffith. He is good at using the sword, unlike Theodore Griffith."


    "So, we have two suspects�� What should we do?"


    "The family wants to eliminate the future trouble, Theodore Griffith. So, it''s obvious that we need to kill both suspects."


    "But it''s not the time to provoke the Star Group. With the help of the US President, they might worsen the family condition after those traitors weaken us. At the same time, it will be hard to fight against four Mythical Rank Experts, especially the swordsman that cut down many people in an instant. He''s stronger than any of us here."


    "That''s true. What should we do then?"


    "I suggest one of you fight Joker and take off his mask. This way, we will know whether he''s Theodore Griffith or not."


    "But he might be using a face mask."


    "Whether it''s a face mask or illusion, we''ll know. In fact, if he uses it, he must be Theodore Griffith. We shall retreat and inform the main family. I believe this is more important than a mere Ne Griffith."


    "Alright. Here is the n."


    While they were discussing their own n, Theo, who was unaware of this hidden danger, kept killing the enemies one by one.


    However, Theo would once again find out why the Griffith Family was scary and why his parents couldn''t even escape from them in the past.


    "Aaahhhhh!"


    "Help!"


    The chaos still continued because of Theo. After two more minutes, Theo somehow killed fifty people with their own help.


    Since the poption was scarcer, the Death Domain became less useful. In the end, Theo retracted the Death Domain, allowing everyone to see what was going on.


    "What?!"


    Obviously, they were stunned by the sight. Many corpses were lying on the ground, and there was a single man standing in the middle of the corpses. It was Theo.


    He looked like a Death God that had brought an impending doom to this battlefield.


    "How many have he killed?"


    "Only a Supreme Rank Expert can actually kill these many people?"


    "Impossible."


    They refused to believe it, but their eyes couldn''t lie. It was truly horrifying.


    Even Ergene, who was on the other side, couldn''t help but check Theo''s condition.


    ''What? He is only a Supreme Rank, right? Even I only killed 35 people in three minutes�� He is 30 percent faster than me?'' Ergene remembered Theo''s confidence and realized it wasn''t an empty word. Theo truly had the power to win against her.


    *Boom!*


    Suddenly, a huge explosion urred. An explosion on a battlefield was something normal, but Theo and Ergene suddenly turned their heads around to the hill they came from.


    Yes, the explosion came from the hill where Ne was supposed to hide.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1155 Fighting Together

    <h4>Chapter 1155 Fighting Together</h4>


    "!!!" Theo and Ergene looked at that hill, stunned.


    Ne was in Theo''s mind because there was supposed to be only one person standing there.


    And this attack was something outside his calction. In other words, the enemies might have outsmarted him.


    The moment this happened, his entire n would crumble because Felix and Chris were holding the reinforcement back.


    So, Theo abandoned his position as he flew toward the hill. At the same time, he shouted, "Ergene. I give up! Take care of this battlefield for me."


    Ergene obviously didn''t care about thepetition anymore. After all, she couldn''t see thising as well. Instead of unting her win, Ergene jumped toward Theo and said, "Okay. I''ll take care of them."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and signaled Jeff toe back.


    In that instant, the army disappeared as Jeff left his position.


    The moment Theo reached the top of the hill, he saw eight people surrounding Ne with one of them being a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "What the hell��" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting them toe. However, their dark blue hair and eyes reminded him of one family.


    "Don''te! They''re from the Griffith Family. This is my problem, and I don''t want to drag you into this!" Ne gritted her teeth and raised both hands, preparing to handle them alone.


    Obviously, even Theo could easily see that Ne would be overwhelmed by the enemies.


    Hence, Theo ignored her words and stated coldly, "Griffith Family! I don''t care who you are, but she is currently the informant of the Star Group. Don''t mess with us!"


    "Go!" The Griffith Family didn''t care about his statement. In fact, they actually wanted to attack Joker to confirm his identity.


    Five Supreme Rank Experts hurriedly jumped toward Joker while the Mythical Rank Expert handled Ne.


    "Only Five Supreme Rank Experts? It seems that you are looking down on me." Theo raised his sword.


    As expected from the Griffith Family, an influence whose Control Aspect was one of the greatest in the world.


    When these five Supreme Rank Experts reached him, they showed their own Control. One of them created a de from their hands, turning their heads into a sword. Two of them had a giant cannonpletely filled with their Magic Power. And thest two raised both hands as they had the same fighting style like Ne.


    Theo waved his sword, releasing a crescent-shape sword strike that ran through the ground.


    Because they had seen how Theo fought earlier, two of them with a giant cannon on top of them released their Magic Power, shooting their Magic Power.


    The two cannonballs and Theo''s sword strike shed, resulting in a huge explosion from the cannonballs that ultimately neutralized Theo''s attack.


    After that, the other two approached Theo from the right and left, punching the air.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    The two released a torrential Magic Power to bind him. Even Theo could feel the sheer pressure as if two giant bs were trying to squeeze him.


    And the one with the de advanced, shing Theo''s mask. He even released some Magic Power to crush the mask if Theo could still somehow block his sh.


    Unfortunately for them, they had severely underestimated Theo. Before the sword reached him, Theo stepped on the ground, releasing a powerful shock wave with his Thunderp Fist.


    The shock wave was strong enough to stop the pressure for a few seconds, so Theo struck the enemy''s sword with his own before using his Telekinesis to neutralize all the Magic Power toward him.


    After that, Theo leaped to the side, wanting to kill one of them.


    All of them acted in a different way. The target raised both hands as he released an unusual amount of Magic Power, creating a wave that could destabilize one''s grip.


    Magic Saint Shield Style, Osciting Magic Power.


    This back and forth movement would cause Theo''s hand and even body to move up and down.


    On the other hand, the other four attacked him in their own way.


    ''Despite being a Supreme Rank Expert, they are clearly hard to deal with.'' Theo understood why the Griffith Family deserved their reputation. All these Supreme Rank Experts seemed to know formation and teamwork. Even their individual strength was far above the Supreme Rank Experts from the terrorist side.


    However, their opponent was Theo.


    His target looked like the one with Magic Saint Fist Style, but Theo suddenly stopped and turned around, pointing his left hand toward the other four.


    "This is��"


    "!!!"


    All of them lowered their vision, finding a Magic Power fluctuation around their stomachs.


    "Not good!"


    They used their own Control to cover their body with Magic Power, but Theo''s Magic Power had exploded,unching them away.


    All four of them rolled a few times on the ground and started coughing.


    "That is��"


    "Perfect Control."


    "Perfect Control."


    Both Ne and the Mythical Rank Expert dropped their jaws as they never expected that Joker actually had Perfect Control.


    After seeing them fall to the ground, Theo formed four swords on top of them and lowered them down to kill those four as this was the biggest opportunity he had so far.


    Unfortunately for him, the Mythical Rank Expert acted first and struck all the des with his own, shattering the Magic Power. "You guys move! You''re not strong enough to face him. I''m going to handle him myself."


    The five Supreme Rank Experts had no choice but to follow his instruction. It was clear that Theo was above them, so it wouldn''t be wise to fight him more than this. Hence, Ne was now surrounded by seven Supreme Rank Experts.


    "That is if you have the power to do so!" Jeff''s voice finally reverberated in their ears as numerous vines starteding out of the ground. They all had a diameter two times bigger than that of a human''s body. Their movement was like a whip, forcing the Mythical Rank Expert to avoid it altogether.


    "Apologize for thete entry. I''ll handle the Mythical Rank Expert. In the meantime, you should eliminate the Supreme Rank Experts first. I can clearly see that they''re not your average person."


    Theo nodded in agreement as he leaped to Ne while saying, "I''ll help you deal with this guy. I don''t know how you fight, so I''ll handle six of them and you kill them one by one."


    "No. I can take care of three of them easily. Don''t underestimate me." Ne raised both hands.


    "Whatever. I only want them to die." Theo raised his sword as their backs were facing each other. "Let''s do this, shall we?"


    "Yes."

 Chapter 1156 Fighting the Griffith Family

    <h4>Chapter 1156 Fighting the Griffith Family</h4>


    "Before that, we need to kill them as quickly as possible. Knowing the Griffith Family, they''ll most likely send more than one Mythical Rank Expert for me. I don''t know what they''re nning to do, but we need to eliminate them as soon as possible."


    "Got it." Theo nodded.


    As soon as they reached an agreement, Theo and Ne jumped in the opposite directions, trying to handle their own opponents.


    They deemed Theo to be stronger than Ne because of his Perfect Control, so they had four people surrounding him.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar to boost his power. Although he couldn''t deploy the mist to confuse them because Ne would be inside the mist as well, it would be useful to add some attack power.


    It seemed that one of the cannon users went to Ne''s side, so there was only one cannon that hit him.


    Theo used his Death Avatar to p the cannonball. Of course, he used his own Magic Power to protect himself since the p actually destroyed the cannonball.


    The eruption of Magic Power didn''t bother him in the slightest as he moved toward the previous de user.


    ording to his observation earlier, this guy actually wanted to attack his mask. It seemed that the Griffith Family had some suspicion about him.


    Theo suspected it was due to his Illusion Ability. Luckily, he had nted another double from time to time in the Starry Group. It wouldn''t be that much effective to other influences, but the Griffith Family was proud of their informationwork. So, that body double managed to make them doubt Joker''s real identity.


    Of course, there was a chance of them suspecting both Joker and the body double to be Theo and his clone. That was why he was thankful for the Time God''s help.


    With his current Order, Theo could fool them, making his illusion look like a reality.


    That was why when this battle happened, Theo nned to create a chance for them to see his real face while letting one of them go. This way, the Griffith Family wouldn''t suspect him for the time being.


    Theo charged forward and waved his sword against this de user. Thetter also did the same.


    Both he and Theo had covered their swords with their skills, so when the two des shed, the power contained in the sword exploded, pushing both of them back.


    After that, the two fist users came to him again. This time, they punched the ground and created a crater, causing Theo to lose his footing.


    In addition, the canon user shot another ball of Magic Power to hit him.


    Instead of protecting himself from the Death Avatar, Theo asked the Death Avatar to smack the fist users. At the same time, he took a deep breath and cut the magic ball with his de while applying Heisk, the Invisible Vortex.


    Another wave of Magic Power struck the de user, stopping him from taking a step forward.


    ''Tsk. Annoying.'' Theo clicked his tongue. He just realized one of his fatal ws. It was true that his Reality Order could remove any elements and simply brush off the remaining Magic Power.


    However, the Griffith Family actually had no affinity. With that kind of Pure Magic Power, Theo could only brush them. Unfortunately for him, it wasn''t that simple.


    Unlike other people who focused on the help of the element to bring down their enemies, the Griffith Family trained their Control and extraordinary Magic Power, making their power solid.


    This resulted in Theo having a hard time brushing their power with his Telekinesis and Control.


    It became Theo''s fatal w as he had yet to make a countermeasure against a person like this since, most of the time, his enemy used elemental power. After all, ording to the research, less than 15 percent of the world''s poption had no affinity. That was why he focused on the 85 percent first.


    And now, he had a hard time against those 15 percent.


    ''I need to kill them quickly. From this hill discussing the battle to the execution, only around ten minutes have passed. Since the Griffith Family has chosen this timing to attack us means they''re moving at a fast speed. If we can get rid of all the Supreme Rank Experts, Ne and I should be able to fight against one Mythical Rank Expert just to buy time.'' Theo thought as his gaze became sharper.


    He was nning to bring down one enemy as soon as possible.


    And the easiest target was none other than the cannon user.


    Theo leaped to the cannon user while the other three surrounded him from all sides, trying to attack him while he was too focused on the cannon user. Even thetter recalled his cannon and formed a defensive shield instead.


    However, Theo actually smiled when he saw that shield.


    ''I can''t do anything to their Magic Power, but I noticed it when I blocked that cannonball�� If there is a shape, it seems I can remove the shape. It means in my reality, that shape never exists.'' Theo smiled as he waved his sword, striking the shield.


    With the help of his Order, the shield suddenly turned back into a scrambling Magic Power.


    "Wha��" Everyone who saw this phenomenon widened their eyes as they couldn''t believe what just happened.


    And it was toote for the cannon user. After cutting through the shield, Theo''s sword reached his body and split him into two.


    Although they were shocked, the other three continued to hit him, but before that happened, Theo actually moved forward, trying to go to Ne''s side.


    This thought only appeared when he saw Ne, who luckily looked at his side as well.


    With their eyes intertwining, the two seemed to have the same thought.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    Ne punched the air and created a tornado that sted away the three people behind Theo while Theo leaped to her side and struck the two guys before using the Death Avatar to block the cannonball.


    *Boom!*


    Despite never fighting together, it seemed that both of them could understand what the other wanted to do.

 Chapter 1157 Monsters

    <h4>Chapter 1157 Monsters</h4>


    "Tsk."


    "How can they fight together like this?"


    "Their individual might alone is enough for them to check each other''s movement."


    The Griffith Family''s experts were confused about how to deal with Theo and Ne, who seemed to be able to coordinate their movements. At the same time, their Mythical Rank Expert was upied by Jeff.


    However, Theo and Ne didn''t wait for them to find an answer.


    As soon as they saw an opening, Theo and Ne went back to their original post.


    Theo went straight to the de user to kill him next while the other two fist users approached him from different directions.


    He used his Death Avatar to smack the ground next to him where the fist users were standing. After that, he formed another sword, the size of his body, next to him.


    The sword hovered around him and looped his enemy, striking him down.


    The de user, who was receiving Theo''s sword, ended up ducking down to avoid that magic sword.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo used this opportunity to kick him in the stomach, blowing him away.


    *Bam!*


    The loud sound didn''te from the de usernding on the ground. Instead, it came from the sides with both fist users destroying the Death Avatar''s hands.


    They came closer to Theo and hit his body.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist.


    Theo extended both hands to the sides. The right hand used the sword de to block it while the left hand directly received it.


    The power was far stronger than what he remembered. But it was several years ago, and Ne wasn''t that strong at the time, so he could understand this difference in power.


    The Induction Fist ripped his sleeves apart as the Magic Power kept moving toward his body. However, Theo used his Thunderp Fist along with his own Magic Power to counter-attack.


    After that, his left hand formed several threads that attached the enemy''s hand to his.


    "!!!" The fist user widened his eyes and realized it was a trap. Theo used that Magic Power to do the same.


    With the help of Perfect Control, Theo''s counterforce was far more powerful than the fist user''s. Not only the sleeves but the skin on his arm also started getting peeled off.


    "Geuh." The fist user gnashed his teeth, enduring this pain.


    The other fist user noticed this attack and jumped to the side, looping around Theo to help hisrade, but the Death Avatar now could focus on him.


    The Death Avatar used both hands to smack him, upying him for a minute.


    Meanwhile, the sword user that Theo blew away earlier tried his hardest to recover from the attack and make way to help hisrade.


    However, Theo''s strength was beyond their imagination. The skin was half peeled off and the flesh started getting cut. The blood had also covered the man''s face. It was quite a brutal situation, so the fist user took a drastic measure to prevent Theo from doing this anymore.


    He covered his right hand with his Magic Power and waved it. At first, he wanted to attack Theo with the other hand, but Theo also moved his sword, scaring him. In the end, the fist user used his other hand to cut his right hand.


    "Argh." He gritted his teeth. With just a single nce, he realized he wouldn''t be getting out of this alive. Instead of fearing death, he roared and punched forward.


    Theo received that punch with his left hand, nning to do the same as earlier. But the fist user actually nned to drag him down together with him.


    The moment Theo grabbed his fist, the fist user pulled Theo in.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in surprise as he never thought the enemy would make a suicidal move.


    Unfortunately, it was toote for him to dodge. The fist user headbutted him in ast-ditch effort, hitting the mask with everything he got. Even the Magic Power went to the side as if trying to blow the mask off.


    Experiencing this, Theo noticed his chance hade.


    He used his illusion to make the mask scatter while the real mask, which was his Death Armor, hid inside his body.


    With his mask getting shattered, Theo clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Tsk."


    "That face��"


    "Who?"


    The enemies were confused because they could only see a scar-faced man. Even the Mythical Rank Expert took a nce at Theo and noticed there was no illusion or face mask.


    "He is not Theodore Griffith?"


    "There''s no illusion or face mask."


    "That''s his real face."


    "Who is he?"


    Theo gritted his teeth as he roared, "Griffith Family? I don''t fucking care about your internal conflict. Since the Griffith Family dares to mess with me, I''m going to kill all of you!"


    Theo''s left hand that grabbed the fist user''s hand started releasing a red fire. The fire gradually spread to the fist user''s hand and body.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    He screamed in pain while using his Magic Power to blow the fire off but to no avail.


    "Fire?"


    "He''s experiencing pain."


    "He''s really not Theodore Griffith."


    With this, Theo''s identity had been ''exposed''.


    Even Ne felt a bit sad when she realized Joker wasn''t Theo.


    On the contrary, Theo showed his wrath by burning the fist user before him.


    "Stop!" The de user returned to the battlefield while swinging his de toward Theo''s neck.


    Theo easily struck the sword and deflected it, but the de user took that as an opportunity. With the de getting deflected toward the fist user, he cut down the fist user as a way to relieve the pain he was suffering right now. That was thest mercy he could give when fighting Theo.


    However, this created an opening for Theo as he punched the de user in the face.


    The fist contained all his Magic Power, resulting in a huge thunderp resounding in the area.


    ''Gh.'' The de user felt his jaw was dislocated and his skull cracked a bit. Unfortunately for him, a monkey appeared behind him and pierced his heart with a sword.


    "Kiki��" The monkey smirked and moved toward thest guy. Even Theo focused all his attention on thisst guy before helping Ne, who seemed to have eliminated one of them.


    However, Theo suddenly felt something fast moving toward him. He put his sword forward and changed it to a shield before another guy appeared in front of him, punching the shield.


    The force blew him away as the guy roared.


    "Aaaahhh!"


    To everyone''s surprise, that roar invited a series of roars from one direction, symbolizing the monsters that came along with him.

 Chapter 1158 Help

    <h4>Chapter 1158 Help</h4>


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the Mythical Rank Expert. What Ne said was true.


    There was more than one Mythical Rank Expert in this group and it seemed that he was searching for monsters to cause chaos.


    ''For what reason? If they''reing together from the start, it will be a simple capture for Ne. Or does Ne have something hidden that can repel them that they need to rely on these cheap tactics?'' Theo frowned, not understanding their course of action.


    On the contrary, the Mythical Rank Expert observed Theo and his face. With a single nod from his friend, he realized Joker wasn''t Theodore Griffith they were searching for.


    With this, the situation had be a bit moreplicated.


    "Jeff can''t do it and I don''t have enough strength to go against a full-fledged Mythical Rank Expert without exposing my clone. Hmm��." Theo muttered inwardly, assessing the best course of action. At the same time, he pulled back his own hand as if reaching something from behind him. It turned out, Theo used his Death Armor to form another mask and put it on as if he had a spare mask behind him.


    The two stared at each other for half a minute before Theo started rushing forward.


    The Mythical Rank Expert covered his fists with Magic Power and took a step forward.


    Theo shed downwards, sending forth a sword strike. At the same time, he and the Magic Sword that hovered around his body approached the enemy from different directions.


    Meanwhile, his monkey attacked him from behind while the Death Avatar smacked the Mythical Rank Expert from above.


    This was an attack from all directions. Theo wanted to know how far he could go against a Mythical Rank Expert.


    However, it seemed that he still underestimated the power of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    With just a single wave of his hand, the Magic Power in the air changed its flow, causing a fierce gale that swept the sword strike, Theo''s de as well as the monkey.


    After that, his other hand stopped Death Avatar''s giant hands while his left foot kicked the sword Theo summoned earlier.


    Even so, the Mythical Rank Expert didn''t stop there. As soon as he finished stopping Theo''s attack, his hand grabbed the sword that his foot had stopped earlier and crushed it with his bare hand.


    ''What? That sword was inspired by the God Killing Spear. But he could crush it easily?'' Theo was surprised by the opponent''s strength and leaped back, trying to get some distance.


    ''Still�� What''s wrong with the Griffith Family�� They''re this strong without relying too much on their skills. I barely saw any skills they used.''


    Theo realized that the Griffith Family rarely used their skills. They relied a lot on their Control, creating that unique martial art that could allow them to go toe to toe against him.


    "Should I kill him?" The Mythical Rank Expert asked the guy that Jeff stopped.


    "Yes. He''s a dangerous person. Since he dares to dere he wants to fuck with us, he''s better dead."


    "Great." The Mythical Rank Expert smiled and waved his hand.


    Theo took a deep breath as the monkey reached his side, nning to guard against any attacks even with its body.


    ''How do I leave now? I still haven''t mastered the way to dispel their power since I was too focused on elements��'' Theo gritted his teeth, searching for a way to buy some time.


    However, his thought was cut short because the Mythical Rank Expert rushed forward, going on the offensive.


    The monkey did the same and shed with the guy head-on while the Death Avatar formed a huge sword in its hands and swung it down.


    The Mythical Rank Expert kicked to the side, almost hitting the monkey. Luckily, thetter managed to stop at thest second and avoided it.


    However, a Magic Power fluctuation was felt next to the monkey. Theo hurriedly created his own and neutralized the enemy''s fluctuation.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert widened his eyes in shock. "He has Perfect Control? I see. He''s too dangerous to be left alive."


    The Mythical Rank Expert had decided to kill Theo as quickly as possible. By receiving the monkey''s attack with his back, the Mythical Rank Expert stopped the monkey''s movement and kicked him.


    After that, he punched the air and struck the sword in Death Avatar''s hands, resulting in the sword moving backward and cutting the Death Avatar on its own.


    Theo changed his sword to a shield because the next thing he realized, the guy had appeared in front of him.


    He punched Theo''s shield but from below. His raw power raised the shield up to the point Theo leaned backward, causing his bnce to be disrupted.


    "Not good." Theo''s posture became unstable due to blocking this attack. The Mythical Rank Expert on Jeff''s side leaped to him with his fists covered by Magic Power.


    There was an excited smile on his face.


    "Stop!" Jeff started drawing to create something that could stop the enemy, but the Mythical Rank Expert on Theo''s side moved toward him, using his Magic Power to disturb Jeff. This was the simr tactic Theo used with Ne.


    And now, the Griffith Family used it to eliminate Theo.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and thought, ''I need to expose my power here.''


    "Die!"


    When Theo was about to use his Blink to escape, a huge explosion urred in the midst of the monsters.


    *Bam!*


    A figure appeared next to the guy, resulting in thetter spinning his body and pushing his hands forward.


    *Cling!*


    A clicking sound echoed in everyone''s ears as they immediately recognized who had appeared. It was Felix.


    His expression was filled with rage. With that emotion, Felix roared and used all his power to cut down his enemy.


    "Kh." The Griffith Family''s expert gritted his teeth as he felt Felix''s sword pushing him back. The situation became even worse when Felix''s sword reached his fingers and cut three of his fingers. He ended up using his foot to kick the de, utilizing the counterforce tounch himself back.


    "It hurts." Hended on the ground and checked his fingers.


    On the contrary, Felix''s expression turned cold. If a person''s gaze could kill, the Griffith Family would have died a few times.


    Felix coldly asked, "Who do you want to kill again?"

 Chapter 1159 Worst Situation

    <h4>Chapter 1159 Worst Situation</h4>


    When he saw Felixing here and theck of monsters, Theo realized that the monsters were actually used to stop Felix.


    However, it seemed they were not enough to stop Felix''s overwhelming strength. Unlike other Mythical Rank Experts, Felix possessed an overwhelming strength in a one-on-one fight. Felix fought the monsters that way to create a line for him to cross. That was why he could kill forty people in an instant at the start of the battle.


    If there was someone strong stopping Felix, his rhythm would be stopped.


    But this time, Felix did it again by reaching Theo''s side.


    "Felix��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I apologize. It took me a while to realize something was wrong." Felix nced at Jeff. "Chris is stopping the monsters. Ergene will do the same very soon, so you should go and support them. Your strength is more suitable to fight those monsters."


    "There are two Mythical Rank Experts here."


    "There are around five thousand monstersing in our direction; we need to stop them until the armyes. Because I''m not there, the terrorists will alsoe at us. We need to stop them no matter what. As for them��" Felix took a deep breath, looking at the two Mythical Rank Experts. "I will handle them."


    After looking at Felix''s expression, Jeff immediately jumped in the monsters'' direction, nning to use his illusion to stop them.


    As for Theo, he had disappeared from Felix''s side, knowing his priority.


    "Aaaahhhh!" He delivered a killing blow in the midst of confusion to the Supreme Rank Expert that attacked Ne. With this, both he and Ne had a chance to leave this ce.


    "I''m sorry for dragging you into this." Ne apologized with a pained expression. She never expected that Theo almost died because of her.


    "Talk about thatter." Theo''s mind was revolving, trying to find a way to turn around the situation.


    ''Should I escape? If I escape from here, it will be troublesome since I need to meet up with Felix again. What if the enemies have more hidden experts? When that happens, Ne and I will definitely die since Felix won''t be able to find us anymore.


    ''But if I can escape, Ne, who is their target, should disappear as well, resulting in them failing the mission.


    ''Still, the risk is too high. The monsters and the terrorists are keeping Jeff, Ergene, and Chris busy. It seems that I''ve underestimated the Griffith Family.


    ''In that case, should I get another n? Instead of running away��'' Theo thought for a moment.


    "What should we do, Joker?" Ne asked. There was no awkwardness when she said ''Joker'' because she knew Joker wasn''t Theo. She treated him as a business partner instead of a family.


    Theo frowned before realizing something more. His eyes were wide open as if he was shocked by the situation in his mind.


    He shouted, "Felix! Did the terrorists move first or did the monsters appear first?"


    "Huh?" Felix was confused by that question as he leaped back to gain some distance from the enemies. "The former."


    He didn''t know what Theo was thinking, so he just answered without hesitation before going back to fight against the two Mythical Rank Experts.


    "Fuck." Theo clenched his fists and realized the situation was more unfavorable than he thought.


    Theo realized the fact that the terrorists moved first meant there was a spy in the terrorist group. It turned out the Griffith Family also sent some experts to manipte the battlefield over there.


    With this situation, everything seemed to be marching toward their locations. It would be a brutal fight, and they needed to finish the battle as quickly as possible before the terrorists reached them.


    However, there was one more concern. He asked Ne, "How many Mythical Rank Experts did he send?"


    Unfortunately, Ne could only shake his head. "I don''t know. It''s impossible to know what they''re thinking and how many people they''re sending. The Griffith Family and their vassals have around 80 Mythical Rank Experts altogether."


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened as he raised his sword again. "We need to have Felix kill the Mythical Rank Expert as soon as possible."


    "Are we going to charge in? Shouldn''t escaping be the safest option?"


    "You don''t know how many experts they send, so it''s not an option anymore." Theo shook his head and shouted, "Felix. Ne and I will take care of one of them. You kill the other guy as quickly as possible."


    "Understood." Felix nodded, not doubting Theo''s decision. He even shifted a bit to the side so that Theo had more room to fight the Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Are you scared?" Theo asked as the monkey regrouped with him.


    "This is my fault. I''m prepared to die."


    "Good. Follow me." Theo nodded and rushed to the Mythical Rank Expert that Jeff stopped earlier. Considering Jeff himself had the ability to stop this guy, it was clear that he was the weaker one among the two of them.


    So, Theo nned to buy some time from him since his and Ne''s strength should be enough to do it.


    This time, the Mythical Rank Expert was a sword user that could turn both hands into a sword. This was why Jeff''s illusion was cut down this entire time.


    However, Theo wasn''t scared of this power. He and the monkey waved their des at the same time, stopping him for a split second.


    Ne used this opportunity to attack him from the side, but the worst finally came.


    Another Mythical Rank Expert from the Griffith Family appeared next to the guy and punched Ne.


    Thetter barely reacted to it by putting her hands in front of her head, resulting in the punch directly hitting her arms.


    Ne''s mind was jolted by extreme pain. She could feel clearly that the bone on her lower arm cracked.


    "Argh." Ne gritted her teeth, enduring the pain while ring at the new Mythical Rank Expert.


    At the same time, there were more and more peopleing as they all found Theo and the others.


    "So, they''re the ones creating trouble for us?" One of them looked at Theo and Ne.


    "The terrorists? And now it''s five Mythical Rank Experts and hundreds of experts?" Ne gasped.

 Chapter 1160 Turn the Situation Around

    <h4>Chapter 1160 Turn the Situation Around</h4>


    There was a total of five Mythical Rank Experts, including the two people Felix fought as well as the Griffith Family Expert that came to the terrorist group to change their course of action. With the addition of two Mythical Rank Experts from the terrorist group, the enemy now had Five Mythical Rank Experts with hundred of experts from the terrorist group.


    It seemed they brought the entire group here while leaving some people to hold the rear.


    And there was only Felix, Theo, and Ne on this side. Theo''s allies and the military were still upied by their respective enemies. In other words, the Griffith Family realized they couldn''t capture Ne easily, so they used this strategy to deal with Theo and Ne.


    Even Ne wouldn''t be able to survive this onught.


    "What should we do?" Ne gritted her teeth, realizing there was only one choice. It was to escape.


    Theo''s expression became cold as he continued finding a way to escape this situation.


    "Felix," Theo called Felix as thetter immediately leaped back to regroup with him.


    "I will handle all those Mythical Rank Experts." Felix''s tone was firm as though he was prepared to fight to the death.


    Even for Felix, taking two Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family was quite hard. At best, he could take on three of them at the same time. However, there were still Mythical Rank Experts from the ck Snake Group as well as hundreds of experts that would make Theo and Ne busy.


    There was no way Felix would be alive after taking all of them, especially without Chris'' support.


    However, Theo had yet to give up. His expression wasn''t like someone who was nning to run away.


    Even Felix felt his cold gaze and nced at him, thinking, ''Is he still nning to kill them?''


    "Do you remember the things I said about the beggars?" Theo asked.


    "Beggars?" Felix recalled the information. And there was one thing that stuck in his mind the most. He nodded with a serious expression, knowing Theo was talking about the formation that beggars used to create awork.


    He still recalled the talk after that when Theo talked about the formation.


    They were sitting in the garden as Theo drew a on the ground.


    "A Formation?"


    "Yes. In the past, it was hard even for amander, who had fought a hundred battles, to understand the formation, the battlefield, and their movements. However, it''s different these days. The soldiers, or you can say the people at the lowest rank, are not that foolish anymore.


    "With the free education that most people get, it''s easier to exin one n after another to them. It doesn''t need to beplicated as long as they know what they should do.


    "Thus, the beggars can easily create an informationwork that captures everything. This is the modern formation. Of course, it will be hard to create a huge formation�� That''s why there are many supervisors who have a bigger responsibility, overseeing the entire formation.


    "But even so, only a few can thoroughly understand the entire formation. They''re on the upper echelon�� In other words, their leaders. Without them, it''ll be easy for the formation to copse, just like what I asked you to do earlier."


    "Yes. I understand. So, do you want to mess with the beggars by deploying several Mythical Rank Experts? That''s why you want to create your group?" Felix asked.


    "No." Theo shook his head. "To be honest, when I learned to manipte the battlefield, I failed most of the time because my teacher saw through me the entire time. That''s why I created one thing that yed a huge role in most of my wins."


    "And that is?"


    "Using the opponent''s strength to take them down." Theo smiled.


    "That''s the basic martial art�� Taekwondo or something? We''re talking about the formation, right? If��" Suddenly, Felix fell silent before grasping Theo''s hidden meaning. "You��"


    Theo smirked.


    Recalling that memory, Felix asked, "Are we going to use it?"


    "Yes. I''ll leave the Mythical Rank Experts to you, but don''t be too reckless. Let''s turn the situation around, shall we?" Theo had the same smirk as he was back then.


    Even Felix could finally see Theo''s n in action. He couldn''t help but say, "Yes, Sir."


    "Youe up with something?" Ne asked.


    "Just shut up and follow me." Theo waved his hand to the left, the direction where the base was.


    "They''re going to do something?" The enemies saw Theo''s gesture and looked in the direction where they were supposed to go.


    Monkey Theo followed Theo''s hand movement and ran in that direction.


    "Huh?"


    "There is a monkey going there?"


    "What the heck?"


    "He is saving the monkey instead of himself?"


    The people were confused because they saw Theo''s body slightly leaning in the opposite direction as if he was nning to go through them.


    ''No. Joker has beenmanding the group this whole time, and it seems that hismand is quite good. There''s no way he''s ordering the monkey for no reason. In other words, there is something in that direction, and the monkey is not a distraction, but��Ah!'' One of the Mythical Rank Experts thought beforeing to a realization. "Not good. Kill that monkey immediately. There might be a reinforcement from the military in that direction! No. It might be the position of the reserve army!"


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes. It would be dangerous if the reserve army attacked them. They would be strong enough to stop them until Okho dealt with their rear. If they didn''t take the reserve army by surprise, it would be theirplete defeat.


    Theo''s n was to use the reserve army to fight them.


    Unfortunately for him, his n couldn''t work well because the enemies saw right through him.


    Suddenly, a Mythical Rank Expert leaped to the monkey and pierced through his heart when Felix and Theo were about to move in the opposite direction.


    "Yes. He killed him."


    "The military won''t be notified."


    Even the Mythical Rank Expert that killed Theo''s monkey red at him, saying, "No matter how hard you try, you can''t escape your death."


    "��" Theo was stunned as if his n had failed at the first move.

 Chapter 1161 Plan Failed

    <h4>Chapter 1161 n Failed</h4>


    Italy.


    After Theo ''died'', Leonardo often visited Theo''s mansion and asked some maids to clean this mansion while he sat in the garden, remembering how he used to y there.


    On his side, there was a wine that Theo gave him before their separation. It was truly the best wine he had ever tasted.


    However, no matter how tasty the wine was, there was still the loneliness in his heart.


    He closed his eyes and smiled, "It''s been one and a half years. I''m truly bored since no one can make me have an exciting battle other than him in the younger generation. Those who are older are too focused on their work that they''re neglecting me. Ah, I really want to have another simtion battle with him.


    "Now that I think about it, most of my defeates from one strategy. I always had superiority at that time, and suddenly, he pulled something that turned around the situation.


    "And yes, he actually used my own superiority to take me down. Eventually, I knew that I couldn''t be overconfident when facing him because when there was a huge disparity between us, he would be able to take that opportunity.


    "Now that I think about it, he rarely killed people because his enemies died in numerous ways that he didn''t need to kill them. No, wait, this was actually his winning style.


    "I see�� To think I never realized this�� The most terrifying time when we should fear him was actually when we thought we would win. After all, he would use us to destroy us." Leonardo smiled. "Theo�� Theo. Come back here�� I want another match."


    ��


    Mongolia.


    "You must want to inform the military''s reserve army while you''re distracting us to the opposite direction. Hahaha, it''s useless!" The Mythical Rank Expert that killed Theo''s monkeyughed, mocking Theo''s n.


    "Let''s run." Theo fell silent for a moment before giving anothermand.


    Ne gritted her teeth, realizing the n didn''t work. Meanwhile, Felix continued observing the situation. He was ready to create an opportunity for Theo to escape.


    In the meantime, Theo still continued his n. Just like the enemy said, he was nning to go in the opposite direction.


    Of course, it was filled with numerous enemies, so Theo moved slightly to the outside, looping around them.


    "It''s useless. Kill them first! We can''t take on the army with all of them."


    The terrorists immediately moved toward Theo''s group to surround him.


    All sides looped around so they could encircle Theo, but everything needed time. Because the enemies consisted not only of Supreme Rank Experts but also people at lower ranks, they became a bit slow when moving around.


    At the same time, they only knew how to chase Theo, resulting in their movement being restricted due to their number. When they looped around, more and more people did the same, resulting in their position slowly getting pushed further.


    And because they were nning to encircle Theo, the same applied to the other end. They were stretched so far that the enemies created a ''U'' shape with Theo in the center.


    Theo smiled when he saw this as he said, "Continue onward, Felix."


    "Got it." Felix nodded and raised his de. He leaped forward and started killing the enemies one by one.


    "Kill them."


    "There is a woman here. We can''t kill her yet."


    "Right. They want to capture her, but it doesn''t mean we can''t do anything to her."


    "Hehehe."


    Theo maintained his calm and looked at the situation.


    The terrorists, on the other hand, became even more brutal as they were gradually closing him in.


    Their actions would be perfect if they were in the army. With the army''s discipline, the entire army should be organized when moving together. However, the ck Snake Group wasn''t an army.


    They might be good at gueri warfare, but they couldn''t synchronize with the entire group.


    The people that were getting pushed further also tried to loop around ande closer to Theo to kill him. But they had a ''U'' Shape, so with both sides trying toe to the center��


    "Wait, wait��"


    "It''s the people on the back. Why are theying here as well?"


    "We just want to loop to the center, so we can kill him."


    "We''re the same."


    "Stop!"


    Both sides stopped, but the people behind them didn''t see what was happening and couldn''t listen to their orders due to the chaotic situation, resulting in them hitting the people in front of them.


    And the people behind them rammed their bodies and the situation repeated, resulting in the people at the front getting pushed to the ground and stepped on.


    "NO."


    "You bastards!"


    "Stop!"


    Both sides were desperately moving to the center but ended up killing their own people by stepping on them. And eventually, the two sides crashed into each other, causing a huge disruption in this direction.


    "What?"


    The Mythical Rank Experts had climbed the hill and saw the people from the terrorist group crashing into each other.


    "What is this? Why are they?"


    "They need to let��"


    "No. They can''t because the people behind them keep pushing them forward, thus the crash."


    Suddenly, they saw one big movement in the middle of the group.


    Theo suddenly shouted, "Right!"


    Felix and Ne nced to the right and saw the crash. Realizing it was the weakest point of the group, they both turned around and charged to that side.


    "Use all your strength, and we shall escape from this hell," Theo shouted as he waved his sword, creating a sword strike.


    "Aaahhhh!"


    "They''re too strong."


    The enemies were cut down one by one to the point the Griffith Family understood what Theo was nning to do.


    "That crash will continue to happen even after they break through. They''re nning to use that crash to stop all the experts from the ck Snake Group."


    "Useless."


    "We can''t let this happen."


    All the Mythical Rank Experts went to the right side before Theo could break through their encirclement.


    Even Theo noticed their movement and shouted, "Felix. Hurry!"


    Felix didn''t reply to him. He simply increased his speed so they could advance faster. However, everything was for naught.


    When they broke through, there were five Mythical Rank Experts standing next to each other.


    "Using our own people to stop us. Do you think we will allow such a thing? I''ll kill you for ruining our n!" The Mythical Rank Expert from the ck Snake Group smirked. With them patching this area, Theo would be attacked from the left, right, and behind, so this ce would be his execution ground.

 Chapter 1162 Another Failure...or Not?

    <h4>Chapter 1162 Another Failure...or Not?</h4>


    "This is not good. We''repletely surrounded. Even if they''re not that strong, they will be able to defeat us soon." Ne stopped and turned around, trying to buy some time for Theo to think about another n. Theo''s n had failed.


    Felix''s expression was calm, but it was clear that he was thinking about how to deal with these five Mythical Rank Experts.


    "We don''t need to focus on Joker and Ne. We will defeat this assassin first since our hundreds of experts should be able to stop them." The Mythical Rank Expert from the ck Snake Group exined.


    Unlike the group that Theo and Ergene fought earlier, the main group consisted of more Supreme Rank Experts. That was why it would be a problem to fight them.


    Felix didn''t know how long he could endure this fight.


    Ne gritted her teeth and looked at their situation, thinking, ''It''s impossible to escape anymore. Are we going to fight to thest breath here?''


    "Felix." Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "I understand. I believe the experts other than those five will alsoe from this direction. Do you want me to stop them too?" Felix remained calm as if this wasn''t the end of their journey.


    "Will that be an issue?" Theo asked while turning around, ready to face the enemies from behind.


    "Please be assured that none will pass me." Felix took a step forward, ready to face five Mythical Rank Experts along with some random experts that came to them.


    "!!!" Ne widened her eyes. With Theo''sst question, it was clear that they intended to fight here to theirst breath.


    She wanted to apologize to Theo for dragging him down, but Theo was so focused on the enemies that he didn''t bother to nce at him. His action was also a message to her.


    Upon deciphering his message, Ne''s expression turned grim as she raised both hands, preparing to use all her strength to fight.


    ''This is my fault, and you still help me even if it means your doom. If that''s the case, I can only fight to the death with you.'' Ne took a deep breath as she gathered the Magic Power in her fists. "Haaa!"


    With a single punch, the Magic Power erupted. Her breathing technique umted all that energy to create an explosive power unlike Theo''s breathing technique, allowing her to create a far bigger torrential flow of Magic Power that swept the enemies.


    "AAahhhh!"


    Some people took the full brunt, but some stronger ones gathered and formed a barrier that dispersed the attack.


    Meanwhile, Theo didn''t summon his Death Avatar since it was the same thing as telling them his exact position. Instead, he gathered his power to Supernatural Snake Body as well as his Perfect Control.


    A single wave of his sword could cause a shock wave that blew everyone away. At the same time, Theo created a sword, the size of his body, to deliver a killing blow to the people who had fallen due to the shock wave.


    However, there was a huge difference in number. With them getting surrounded in all directions, the enemies would swarm him. And due to the push from behind, the enemies felt like they had no fear and fought Theo even if it meant dying. This was why encirclement was such a bad situation.


    Theo needed to use all his Magic Power to keep blowing the enemies with his shock wave to clear some space, or he would die. At first, Telekinesis was a good move since he could fly away, but the Mythical Rank Experts would definitely chase him.


    Although Felix could stop them, it was because they were focusing on him. Three of them were enough to stop Felix as the other two could chase him. That was the dead end, so the only way for him to survive was on the ground.


    "They won''tst long. Keeping at them, and they will exhaust all their Magic Power soon."


    The enemies kept pushing forward, doing the same thing to deplete Theo''s Magic Power.


    On the contrary, Felixpletely lifted off his limiter. Even without Chris'' support, Felix''s movement became crazy.


    In a random person''s eyes, Felix looked like he was spinning like a dancer, but the spin actually allowed him to move from one ce to another.


    "He is crazy!" The Mythical Rank Expert from the Griffith Family was stunned. It seemed that Felix became even fiercer the closer he was to dying.


    "I will stop him. Protect other experts so that they can sneak up on Joker and Ne. It will be over if we kill his master. A dog without an owner is just a useless dog after all." Another one stepped forward as he prepared to receive Felix''s attack.


    Just like he predicted, Felix moved toward him as he saw people going to pass him. However, the Mythical Rank Expert struck Felix''s own de and stopped his movement.


    "I got you!" He smiled.


    Felix gritted his teeth and slightly tilted his sword.


    ''Kh. Light?'' The Mythical Rank Expert was stunned and closed his eyes. He realized it wasn''t the light from the de that blinded him, but it was the sunlight that was reflected by the mirror-like de.


    Using that opportunity, Felix looped around him and sliced three guys.


    ''But now, you''re open!'' He still didn''t give up. While covering his eyes from another light that would blind him, he turned around and struck Felix from behind.


    Felix took a deep step because of earlier, so the de actually hit Felix''s left arm. But it turned out to be Felix''s n as thetter turned around and swiftly waved his sword toward the enemy''s neck.


    ''He let me attack him so that he can kill me? And that wound is too shallow�� It''s a trap.'' The Mythical Rank Expert widened his eyes and took a step back. However, it was toote as Felix''s sword cut the hands that held the de.


    "Die!" Two more experts appeared since this wasn''t a one-on-one fight.


    Felix kicked the expert he cut earlier to one of them before leaping forward, not only avoiding the other expert but alsoing closer to the two.


    Because of the body, one of them needed to catch him, but Felix''s sword was so fast that it cut both of them at the same time.


    "What?!"


    "He sacrificed his left hand to kill two of us? Is he a monster?"


    They didn''t know that Felix was a professional assassin. As long as he could kill the target, he would sacrifice everything. And he had gotten used to utilizing something like this to lower the opponent''s guard.


    After killing two Mythical Rank Experts, Felix leaped back, regaining his distance while checking his wound. Although the wound was shallow, he couldn''t move his left hand anymore. It must cut his muscle.


    "��" Felix took a deep breath while checking the situation.


    "Don''t be afraid and be more careful. We can still take down this guy."


    The people Felix killed earlier came from both the Griffith Family and the ck Snake Group, but it seemed to be not enough to cripple their group.


    "That''s right. It''s hisst struggle. As long as we are careful, we can take him down."


    Felix panted a few times before a smile reced his tiredness as he red at the remaining Mythical Rank Experts. "No."


    "A dying person is surely desperate." They brushed it off easily, thinking Felix just wanted somefort for thinking he still had the chance to survive.


    Felix panted a few times and finished his words. "The person I''ve served is a much greater man than all you think."


    "Hah?!" They started getting angry because of Felix''s taunts.


    But when they were about to attack, Felix''s smile became even bigger as he muttered inwardly, ''It is like what he said back then��''

 Chapter 1163 Positioning

    <h4>Chapter 1163 Positioning</h4>


    He continued recalling the time when Theo told him about the formation.


    "Using the opponent''s strength to take them down."


    "That''s the basic martial art�� Taekwondo or something? We''re talking about the formation, right? If that''s the case��'' Felix fell silent before grasping the hidden meaning. "You��"


    Theo smirked. "That''s right. With them destroying themselves from the inside, those who are adept in formation will realize the situation and try to patch them up. When that happens, you can move them depending on the situation.


    "This gives you the freedom to ce your enemy in the position you want and ultimately��" Theo''s hand made a pistol and aimed it at his own head. "Bang!"


    "So, your target is the brain of the formation, making them copse from within. But if that''s the case, you need a bullet that can prate everything. Who will be the bullet to cripple their formation?" Felix asked.


    "That is of course��" Theo smiled while closing his eyes.


    Felix recalled that scene and smiled, saying, "Anyone that is qualified to take that role."


    Before the enemies attacked him, they suddenly turned around, feeling an enormous Magic Powering from their back.


    "!!!"


    Clouds of dust had been rising to the sky. It was clear that the number of peopleing to their position was not small.


    When they came closer, the person Theo chose as the bullet was finally revealed.


    "You bastard! To think I would be fooled this whole time! I''m going to kill you all!" The person roared as he led more than fifty men to their sides. More importantly, all of them were either Mythical Rank Experts or Supreme Rank Experts.


    "That''s�� The general who is known as a tiger general, General Okho!" The remaining Mythical Rank Expert from the ck Snake Group dropped his jaw to the ground. "How is he here? Shouldn''t he fight in the rear?"


    The battle stopped for a moment as all of them were stunned to find their biggest enemy toe to their position.


    Ne''s eyes were wide open as she took a peek at Theo. ''How did he call them?''


    None of them had realized that they had fallen into Theo''s trap the moment they killed the monkey. The monkey was nothing but a distraction.


    Onlymander Okho understood Theo''s n.


    A few minutes ago.


    "Attack them. Capture those who can be captured and kill those who resist. Those are the trash of society," Okho shouted.


    Suddenly, a person came to his side, reporting. "Commander. There is someone continuously sending the transmission. Is there any instructions about it?"


    "There is none. I only told them to use the transmission once so that we know where to go. Whose transmission is it?"


    "It''s Joker''s."


    "Joker? He''s supposed to be holding the front, right?"


    "Yes. It looks like he needs reinforcement."


    "Now that you think about it, the enemies are moving forward, trying to break through. It makes them easier to kill, but it''s weird that these terrorists suddenly make such a movement�� There is an unknown variable?" Okho came to a realization and immediately ordered. "Call Husun, Tungge, Cirina. I want them and their toons to follow me to aid Joker. The rest can follow the same n. Make sure no cannon shoots at us."


    "Understood."


    After that, Okho led a total of 65 people to assist Theo.


    However, when they reached Theo''s position, Okho saw three Mythical Rank Experts suppressing Felix.


    This kind of position wasn''t a coincidence.


    The military was on the north of the battlefield, splitting into two, with one group killing the terrorists that came to the center and the other group taking over the cannon. Then, there were numerous monstersing from the west, making it hard for them to break through there.


    Hence, there was only one direction he could go. It was none other than the east. He looped around the east to help Theo.


    And Theo used this strategy to make the Mythical Rank Experts go to this weak spot, which was at the east of the battlefield.


    This way, Okho could ambush them, killing all the strongest people on the enemy''s side.


    In other words, without even saying his n to Okho, he used Okho as the bullet that would shoot down the enemies.


    "Commander?" Husun, one of Okho''s subordinates, a Mythical Rank Expert, asked for hismand.


    "Husun and Tungge will deal with the Mythical Rank Experts. Cirina will lead the rest to nk the enemies from two sides. Remember to rescue Joker since he looks like he has been holding them for a long time."


    "Roger that."


    All of them immediately nodded their heads as they moved ording to Okho''s direction.


    "What?"


    "Enemies!"


    "How are theying from our back? Shouldn''t the rear hold them back?"


    "Did they break through?"


    The Mythical Rank Experts were stunned, trying to think of a way to turn around the situation. They noticed that from the hunter, they had be the hunted. If nothing was done, they would die here.


    However, Okho actually recognized the remaining Mythical Rank Expert from the ck Snake Group.


    It turned out that guy was a Mythical Rank Expert from the Bolhom Family that had been situated here to control the ck Snake Group.


    "Yargai! As expected, the Bolhom Family has created a terrorist organization and betrayed the country! I shall make sure that your entire family faces thew!" Okho roared. There was no need for more evidence from Theo. Of course, Yargai never nned to go out if not for the Griffith Family, who found him hiding. It showed how powerful their informationwork was.


    And it turned out their strength also helped Theo.


    "They''reing."


    "The military ising."


    "Are we going to be killed by the military?"


    "Will they spare us if we surrender?"


    The people were panicking as they didn''t know whether to continue the fight or not.


    Meanwhile, Theo asked Felix. "Felix. Can you keep going?"


    "I can''t use my left hand, but my right hand is my dominant hand. Killing a few more people shouldn''t be a big matter."


    "Those two from the Griffith Family�� I want their heads."


    Since the situation had been turned around because of Theo again, Felix smiled as he became fired up. "Consider it done."

 Chapter 1164 Loser

    <h4>Chapter 1164 Loser</h4>


    "Kill!"


    The battlefield became chaotic as the military finally reached Theo and Ne.


    "Leave this to us." Cirina, Okho''s direct subordinate, arrived and assured them. "Thank you for holding them back this whole time to the point none of them break through��"


    Theo nodded. "Can you take care of the rest for us?"


    "Certainly." Cirina nodded.


    After that, Theo took a step back and hid behind the soldiers while Ne came to him, wanting to apologize.


    "I''m sorry. if It wasn''t because of me, we wouldn''t face all this trouble." Ne bowed her head to Theo. She was aware that if the Griffith Family didn''t aim for her, they would have a smooth battle.


    Theo remained silent for a moment before asking, "Will they know the information about me?"


    "I need to check their corpses after this. The Griffith Family usually ces some transmitters along the way as well as their bodies, allowing them tomunicate with each other from afar. If they have a transmitter, the other side will know about your identity. If they don''t have one, they won''t know."


    "I see. How do they know where you are?"


    "Ehm��" Ne scratched the back of her head, wondering how to answer this question.


    "I believe that I have the right to know this, right?" Theo narrowed his eyes, reminding her that she had dragged him into this.


    "Yes." Ne could only sigh and exin it to him. "There are two factions in the Griffith Family. The elder faction and the new faction. The elder faction is the original ruler of the Griffith Family while the new faction is formed by those who don''t like the current Griffith Family. I belong to the new faction that is led by Ray Griffith�� Ah, you might not know him, but I think you know Theodore Griffith. Ray Griffith is his father.


    "He is sacrificing his life and his son''s childhood to make them think they''re on the same side while using that time to get stronger and learn how they manage the family. After the Grand Gaia Competition a few years back, they separated themselves from the family.


    "I am currently replicating some of the ways the original Griffith Family uses to track people. But our faction is still not at the level of the old one. That''s why their informationwork is better than ours.


    "And this cooperation is actually a way of Ray Griffith saying thank you to the Star Group for helping his son when he was alive. That''s why he sent me here since I was one of the most important people.


    "Usually, I used a face mask, but because we wanted to thank you, I used my original appearance to show our genuine feeling. Of course, I used the mask most of the time. I took them off only before meeting you. But it seemed they used that slight gap to find me. That''s how strong their informationwork is."


    "Hmm? So, I am getting dragged to your internal strife now?"


    "I''m sorry. That''s all my fault." Ne lowered her head. "I thought it would be more polite to take off the mask first before our meeting�� I should have taken the mask off when we actually met. If you want somepensation, I will prepare it."


    "Just a fight with Winston can earn me a few billion, you know."


    "��" Ne scratched the back of her head. "I will go on some more missions to get the money."


    "That''s enough." Theo sighed. "Put on your face mask and stay beside me for the time being. I''ll handle the military."


    "!!!" Ne was confused. It was clear that Theo was angry due to being dragged into this situation, but he still tried to protect her. "Why are you protecting me?"


    ''Why? I can''t think of any reason?'' Ne furrowed her eyebrows. ''My stature is quite petite, so I''m not that sexy. I am confident with my face, but that''s all. Does he swing that way? I can''t think of any reason other than that. But there is Theo��''


    Ne was wondering why Theo protected her while Theo asked again, "Why? Is that a problem for you?"


    "N-no." Ne furiously shook her head, thinking, ''Is it really like what I''m thinking? But�� but��''


    She was confused, but Theo simply stated, "Just do it. Two dayster, I want you to meet me somewhere. I will tell you thepensation I need at that time."


    "Ah!" Ne realized she was overthinking. Theo simply wanted thepensation since he was nning to extort her at that time. And she couldn''t escape because it would mean the new Griffith Family wasn''t trustworthy. When that happened, it would lead to more problems, especially if the Star Group joined hands with the old faction.


    ''So, that''s how it is.'' Ne felt somewhat hurt and relieved at the same time. She nodded in agreement. "I understand."


    Theo then looked away, observing Felix''s situation.


    Felix and the two experts from the Griffith Family stood in front of each other. Because of the help from the military, Felix managed to severely injure both of them. The battle would be concluded sooner orter.


    Suddenly, the Griffith Family opened their mouths. "Are you going to challenge the Griffith Family? A mere Joker and an assassin can be easily destroyed by the Griffith Family."


    Felix didn''t know why thest resort of these guys was actually their identity. It was clear that if he didn''t kill them right now, they woulde with more trouble in the future.


    However, their words truly made him angry. Theo and his real identity appeared in his mind. With how brilliant Theo was, Felix knew one thing.


    He said, "I know, I have been working in the dark for decades. I know how big the Griffith Family''s influence is�� I know they will be etched into history as one of the biggest hidden families."


    "That''s r��"


    Before they spoke, Felix added one more thing. His tone became cold as his expression turned grim. "But�� You''ve angered my master. There is only one result for those who provoke my master. There will be a time your power will be the one that destroys you. Griffith Family�� Silently ept that your name shall be etched into history as the vanquished."


    "You��!"


    Felix leaped forward, not letting them say another stupid thing.


    Despite their efforts, with the help of the military, Felix cut both of them while Okho also defeated thest Mythical Rank Expert, bringing the war to a close.

 Chapter 1165 A Big Loss

    <h4>Chapter 1165 A Big Loss</h4>


    After a while, the terrorists were rooted while Theo, Ne, and Felix went to the side to get some rest while the military continued their jobs.


    "How is your hand?" Theo asked.


    "The muscle is cut, but it should be easy to heal with some skills. There''s no need to worry."


    "That''s good then." Theo felt relieved.


    "There is actually one thing I want to ask. When did you give the signal to them?" Felix asked.


    Theo took out a device and handed it to him.


    "This is��" Felix never knew about this device while Ne recognized it. She said, "It is like a transmission device. The range is not that long, but it''s pretty handy."


    "I used them to call for reinforcement."


    "Still, I never saw you using this one."


    "Remember the monkey?"


    "Ah?!" Everything clicked in Felix''s mind. It turned out the monkey was bait.


    Theo used the monkey to distract everyone while he used the transmission device to notify them. And it worked like magic.


    "So, that''s how it is." Ne finally understood Theo''s n.


    However, as someone who had been by Theo''s side for a long time, Felix furrowed his eyebrows and said, "I don''t think that''s the only reason why you used the monkey."


    "As expected of you." Theo smiled.


    "Eh?" Ne was startled to know that there was another depth in Theo''s almost perfect n.


    "The enemies thought they managed to disrupt my n by killing the monkey. Then, they would think I got another n and immediately went there to disrupt the n again." Theo nced to the east side of the battlefield.


    "With their overwhelming superiority, they would move to the easy to patch the hole, allowing you to shoot at their heads��" Felix continued Theo''s exnation while remembering their talk about the formation.


    "And that bullet is us. You damn brat, to think you''re also making me y in your hands." Suddenly, Okho''s voice echoed in their ears as he walked toward them.


    "Commander Okho." Theo wanted to get up, but Okho waved his hand down as if telling them it was fine to sit down.


    "Still, there is actually the Griffith Family''s interference." Okho nced at Ne, who had put on her face mask.


    "That''s��"


    "There is no need for Commander Okho to pursue this matter anymore, right?" Theo used this one question to stop Okho from judging Ne.


    And it seemed Okho knew what he meant. He could only sigh and nod. "I know. Without her information, our base would get destroyed before we could move. We wouldn''t have known the involvement of the Bolhom Family in this. Andstly, we couldn''t eradicate them in one single swoop.


    "Because your information has contributed too much, I shall make an exception and consider you as a part of Joker''s group, and the Griffith Family has nothing to do with you."


    This was the reason why Theo asked Ne to stay with him. However, Okho still added, "But I can''t really let you go that easily since the oue will be much different if not because of the Griffith Family. I''ll impose a ban on you�� As long as I''m alive, you can''t go near Mongolia again."


    "I understand. Thank you, Commander Okho." Ne bowed to him to show her gratitude.


    "Thank that kid, not me." Okho snorted while Theo chuckled.


    Before Okho left, Chris, Ergene, and Jeff found Theo and ran to him. They noticed the big wound on Felix''s hand, so they were quite worried, but when they saw Okho talking with them, they knew the situation was fine.


    Felix had wrapped the wound too so that there wouldn''t be an infection before getting healed.


    "Joker. Sorry that I can''t help you that much." Jeff examined Theo''s body and realized there was no insignificant injury. Only some bruises and shallow cuts.


    "It''s fine. You worked so hard as a wall. If you three didn''t hold the monsters back, I couldn''t position the enemies like I wanted to."


    While Jeff checked Theo''s condition, Okho looked at Ergene and asked, "You must be Ergene. You have worked splendidly for your country. I will make sure you''re rewarded."


    "Thank you, Commander Okho."


    "You''re this talented�� Do you want to study under me? You should be able to rece my position in the future."


    Ergene widened her eyes, startled by the offer. There were two big generals that supported Mongolia. These two generals were feared because of their strength. And Okho was one of them.


    Recing Okho meant having one of the greatest positions in Mongolia.


    However, Ergene shook her head, rejecting his offer without hesitation. "I apologize, Commander Okho. I''m truly honored by the invitation, but I''ve found someone that I want to serve."


    "Is that so?" Okho closed his eyes with a pained expression. "Truly a great loss for the country��"


    It was truly painful since the Bolhom Family would be destroyed after this. With the addition of Ergene, it meant Mongolia lost ten Mythical Rank Experts. How could Okho not feel any pain?


    "Well, Khutulun herself apanied her father in the past. I guess I can''t stop you��" Okho looked at Theo and said, "Even though we have no blood rtion whatsoever, as a fellow citizen, I''d like to ask you not to treat her badly."


    Okho''s action couldn''t help but make Theo smile. Okho truly loved his country. Theo nodded with a serious expression to show his sincerity. "I understand, Commander Okho. I treat my group like my family after all."


    "Is that so? I''m relieved." Okho nodded and turned around. "In that case, you can rest for now while we take care of the remaining terrorists and monsters."


    "Yes." Theo saw Okho off. He truly respected Okho. He was just, fair, and loved his country while not overbearingly looking down on others. He was truly a role model.


    After he left, Theo said, "Well, this mission is done. We''ll return and get a good rest. As for the next destination, I''m thinking of going with only Jeff. Felix and Chris can go back to the US while Ergene handles the process for leaving the country."


    "Understood." Felix nodded.


    "Haha, my time hase." Jeff smiled excitedly.


    "Okay," Chris answered nonchntly.


    "Yes, Sir." Ergene acknowledged Theo''s order.

 Chapter 1166 It’s Been A While

    <h4>Chapter 1166 It''s Been A While</h4>


    Two days had passed and Theo finally had onest meeting with Ne to discuss thepensation.


    They both met at a restaurant again, but Ne was more careful by using her face mask this time.


    As soon as she entered, she said, "Sorry, it seems that the Griffith Family has realized their failure. They''re going to send more people soon. That''s why I''ve booked a flight to escape from them. After this conversation, I''m going to the airport immediately."


    "Is that so?" Theo nodded with a calm tone.


    "So, I believe you''re going to ask forpensation��"


    "You''re not going to get angry? I might extort you, you know. After all, thest thing you want to have is a big group like the Star Group to side with the old Griffith Family."


    "I''ll do my best to satisfy your condition." Ne nodded.


    "Hoh?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "All my conditions?"


    Ne''s expression turned serious as she knew Theo was going to add a ridiculous condition after knowing the fact yesterday. This was what made her hesitate to tell him the situation.


    "For example, like you bing my woman or something." Theo smirked.


    "Please give some respect, Joker. If that''s your condition, then I refuse."


    "Is that so? Well, that can''t be helped since you refuse. No taking back." Theo chuckled.


    "Huh?" Ne was confused why Joker chuckled.


    However, Theo added, "Well, what I want for thepensation is�� none."


    Theo dropped the bomb.


    "Huh?" Ne raised her voice as she looked at Theo in disbelief. His current situation had be worse because of her. In fact, he almost died back then. Yet, he asked for nopensation? It was a ridiculous lie in her eyes.


    "What should I ask from the only person I consider my family in that wretched family?" Theo asked nonchntly.


    When she heard that statement, she dropped her jaw to the ground. Her eyes were wide open as if she had just seen a ghost. "You��"


    "You��"


    She rose from her seat and took a step back, almost stumbling.


    Suddenly, Theo blinked as his eyes color changed to dark blue before turning back to ck.


    "You were the one suggesting that marriage, but since you have canceled it yourself, there''s no taking back." Theo chuckled, reminding her about the conversation they had in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    At that time, Ne emphasized the fact they were seven generations apart to marry him. Obviously, Ne rarely talked about marriage because she could have anyone she wanted due to the family rule.


    And because of that, there was only one time that Ne talked about it. It was with Theo. In other words, the only person who should know about it was none other than Theo himself.


    Upon that realization, tears starteding out. Even though she was happy, the tears were like rivers. She couldn''t stop it.


    "You��"


    "You�� are still alive." Ne covered her mouth with her hand. Her body was shaking with excitement.


    "It''s been a while, Ne." Theo smiled.


    Ne jumped over the table as she crashed into Theo and hugged him as tight as possible. Theo caught her too so that they didn''t break anything here.


    "Easy, easy." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    Ne couldn''t say anything as she just buried her face in Theo''s chest. She never expected that Theo was still alive, and they had been cooperating this whole time.


    The person she thought had died was actually alive.


    "I know it, I know it�� you wouldn''t have died that easily."


    Theo smiled and just hugged her back for a few minutes, calming her down. Their meeting was a brief one, but he still considered Ne as his only family back then. Meeting her this time was truly something that he was grateful for.


    After ten minutes, Ne finally returned to her seat with a smile on her face.


    "I guess I should say it again. It''s been a while, Ne."


    "Yes." Ne nodded furiously.


    "How are you?" Theo asked.


    "It''s been tiringtely, but it''s fine. Your parents��" Ne paused for a moment and saw Theo shaking his head. "Ah, okay��"


    She understood that Theo didn''t want to hear about his parents.


    "Anyway, I won''t be opposing them or anything�� However, I can''t bring myself to have this family back�� That''s all you need to know." Theo shook his head.


    "I understand."


    "Also, keep the news about me being alive a secret," Theo added. "There are only less than ten people who know I''m alive. I don''t want to add it anymore to avoid suspicion."


    "Okay, I''ll also keep it a secret from your parents." Ne nodded in agreement. "Don''t worry. Your secret will be safe with me."


    Theo smiled. He remembered when he was hugging her, he found an unknown Magic Power in her brain.


    He thought this was the Mind Elder''s power, so he immediately got rid of the remaining Magic Power.


    And it seemed Ne also had felt it.


    "Now that I think about it, why does my mind feel a bit refreshed? Usually, I would be like a horny bitch." Ne furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Oh?"


    "The Mind Elder once controlled my mind and reced a bunch of stuff to make you my ideal lover. I didn''t say it back then, but when we fought together in the Dark Poison Swamp, I was wet. That''s the effect�� and I was embarrassed to admit it. Later, Uncle Ray helped me diminish the effect to the point I could control it.


    "It''s just�� when I realized it was you, I couldn''t help it. But right now, it''s different. Even after using my power to hold the desire back, there''s no change." Ne tilted her head in confusion.


    "I''ve removed it." Theo smiled. "This time, you''re truly free."


    "What?" Ne widened her eyes. "How can you do that? Even Uncle Ray can only weaken its power with his strange power."


    "I have my own way. Do you think I haven''t done anything in the past few years? Also, don''t forget to keep it a secret. This time, no one will be able to control you anymore. As long as you''re not directly hypnotized or drunk, you shouldn''t say anything sensitive."


    "Uhm. I will be extra careful from now on. Thank you�� Joker��" Ne nodded weakly. In the end, she called Theo ''Joker'' because he refused to take off his mask. She believed Theo didn''t want to show any opening more than necessary.

 Chapter 1167 Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 1167 Leaving</h4>


    "It''s fine."


    "Still��" Ne covered her face. "I don''t know whether I should be happy or sad this time. You rejected me using my own mouth��"


    Theo didn''t say anything while Ne found something in that sentence. "It seems you already have someone��"


    "En." Theo nodded.


    "Your assistant?" Ne asked again, recalling Agata. "I mean, her? Well, you have spent most of your time under one roof��"


    "Enough with my love story."


    "I guess... Then onest thing, congrattions. I guess the hardship doesn''t break you from the possibility of having a family."


    "No. She restored it." Theo shook his head.


    "Oh��" Ne finally understood why Agata won his heart. "Well, I''ll just take my own victory as the only person you can consider a family from the Griffith Family�� What should I call myself? Hmm�� I''m younger than you, so I''m the little sister?"


    "I don''t really care about that. Nothing will change anyway."


    "That''s true."


    "Anyway, let''s talk about something else, shall we?"


    "Sure."


    Theo and Ne had a good chat for an hour, talking about various things. She was just happy with the fact that Theo was still alive. As someone she idolized and respected from when she was young, Theo''s figure had a special ce in her heart.


    On the contrary, Theo wanted to know more about the Griffith Family and how they worked. After all, this family would be his greatest enemy in the future. He needed to know as much as he could.


    Ne didn''t hesitate to provide all the things he wanted.


    After they finished, Ne finally left for the airport, catching a flight. There was a big smile on her face, much different than the one she showed back when she first met him.


    Theo also smiled and took his time in the restaurant before going back to the hotel.


    It seemed Chris, Ergene, Jeff, and Felix had been waiting for him.


    "How is it?" Jeff asked.


    "Yes. They all have been taken care of. All that is left is the recruitment." Theo informed them.


    "Then our destination has been determined. Japan!" Jeff felt excited as this was the time he would shine.


    "Anyway, I''ve started the process. Where should I live in the US? Do you want me to purchase a home there? To be honest, I don''t mind moving to your house��" Ergene raised her hand.


    "Mhm." Theo thought for a moment. "Well, I do have a n to get a base soon, but I guess my power is not enough for now."


    "I don''t really mind spending some money, but how about I stay with you instead? I heard Felix and his daughter, as well as another boy, are living with you, right? It shouldn''t be much of a problem if I live with you, no?" Ergene asked.


    "That''s true. But I''m just afraid that the people after you are going to choose the same thing." Theo scratched the back of his head.


    "You can use my mansion." Jeff broke his silence, offering a solution.


    "Well��" Ergene suddenly hesitated. She looked at Theo and said, "To be honest, I was amazed by your performance on the battlefield. This is the first time I''ve seen someone that can see this far ahead. That''s why the reason I want to move in is because I want to learn from you, specifically your tactics."


    "I guess that''s fine. It''s not like we''re going to have another you." Theo nodded. "Besides, the mansion will be more protected since I can choose to go with you or Felix."


    "Yes. Leave it to me." Ergene agreed without hesitation.


    "Your mansion will be the backup n, Jeff." Theo thanked Jeff for offering the solution.


    "Don''t worry. I have three mansions to be honest. The one with the art gallery is the one I use. The other two are my vacation vis. So, you can use them however you like since I''m waiting for our base." Jeff smiled.


    "Okay." Theo smiled. It would probably take a while since he was nning to create the base when he had reached the fifth stage of the Reality Order, Reality Alter.


    The Covenant Seal could produce energy suitable for the Order. The Dark Poison Swamp utilized the Covenant Seal to convert the Magic Power in the air into poison, turning themselves into a fortress.


    Theo was nning to do the same with his Covenant Seal. By using the energy provided by the Covenant Seal, he nned to create a house and other stuff, creating a small world that Jeff painted.


    "Anyway, I''m going to recruit our next teammate. I might send him to one of your mansions, Jeff."


    "Got it. I''ll inform the maid to clean up the mansionter."


    "As for you guys��" Theo nced at Felix''s arm that seemed to have been healed. "Felix and Chris will go back as nned. Thank you for your help in this mission. Ergene�� I also want you to do one thing for me."


    "And that is?" Ergene furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Can you make sure that the Bolhom Family lose their way out?"


    "Do you mean I need to kill them?"


    "No. I just want to make sure they stay in jail for a long time."


    "Oh? That''s an easy task. Even without me, Commander Okho will do it. He''s a righteous man after all. However, I can oversee the entire situation for you."


    "Thanks. I don''t want them to create more trouble for me anytime soon. Well, killing is nice, but sometimes suffering is more suitable for my enemies. And even if they''re out, I should have no problem erasing them."


    "Now that I think about it, you''re younger than me, right? How old are you? You can have this prowess and that brain�� your talent is simply far above me." Ergene asked.


    "Isn''t that rude to ask a man''s age?" Theo looked at her weirdly.


    "Shouldn''t I be the one who was supposed to say that?" Ergene''s eyebrows twitched.


    The group chuckled before Theo settled the rest of the matter before going to Japan with Jeff.

 Chapter 1168 Arrival

    <h4>Chapter 1168 Arrival</h4>


    "Wee to Japan''s Kansai International Airport."


    Theo looked at the sign on the ceiling while waiting for their luggage. They had finally arrived in Japan, specifically Osaka.


    *ck!*


    *ck!*


    Jeff took two pieces of luggage, one for each of them. "This is our luggage. We should get going. I wonder if I have the time to visit Akihabara�� My style is different, but maybe I can learn a bit from them and make a cute maid for our base��"


    Theo looked at him before shaking his head helplessly. "Don''t forget what I told you back then."


    "Ahaha�� I was joking. I''ve already been using only one style for a while�� It turns out that dropping one style can make me more focused. Although it''s true that two styles give me a lot of creativity and ways to draw something, I don''t need them anymore since I have you who can fulfill my dream."


    Theo retracted his gaze as they immediately left the airport, heading straight to the hotel.


    However, right after they left the airport, there was a middle-aged man standing in front of him.


    "Wee to Japan, Mr. Joker." He smiled and politely bowed his head.


    "Ehm? Do I know you?"


    "I''ve been tasked to monitor you when you''re in Japan. I''m just afraid that you''re going to cause havoc in Japan like you did in Mongolia."


    "It seems that you''ve heard about it."


    "You''re already on our radar the moment the Star Group makes you a visa. And two days are enough for us to know what has happened." He smiled, not holding back since it was useless to y dumb in front of Theo. Of course, he refrained from talking about something more secretive.


    Of course, they didn''t want any ident like the Bolhom Family to happen in Japan. Even though it was punishing evil, as long as the citizens didn''t know much about it, they were still a legitimate family with many experts.


    Although it was a sad truth of the society, they could only do it this way.


    "Well, I only have one principle. As long as they don''t bother me, I won''t hit them. If you can prevent them from bothering me, that''s all. After all, I''m here for one thing. If I can''t do it, then I''ll just go back after two or three days of vacation." Theo shrugged.


    "Certainly." He nodded. "Oh, where''s my manner�� Apologize. Let me formally introduce myself. I am Masafumi Shinoda. You can call me Mr. Shinoda or just Shinoda."


    "Mhm. I''m sure that you''ve been informed about him." Theo nodded and pointed his finger at Jeff.


    "Jeffrey Watkins. Certainly." Shinoda acknowledged it without hesitation.


    "Then, that''s easy. Are you going to follow us in the open like this or��"


    "Don''t worry. Just treat me as if I don''t exist. Although I will be near you, others won''t realize it."


    Theo nodded. "Well, nice to meet you. Hope that no one bothers me."


    "Yes�� Wait, no. I''ll make sure that no one will do that." Shinoda smiled while adding, ''We can''t afford to lose so many Mythical Rank Experts after all.''


    After the brief exchange, Theo and Jeff immediately headed to the hotel. To make it simpler, they had a big room for two people, making it easier for them to talk.


    "What do you think about that Shinoda?" Jeff asked.


    "Nothing much. He''s just doing his job." Theo shrugged. "The only reason wee here is to recruit someone. If that doesn''t work, then we just leave this ce. As simple as that."


    "Still, from what I heard, the shield user�� What''s his name again?" Jeff took out his Skylink and searched for his profile. "This�� Uozomi Ryoichi�� He seemed to be able to kill people and monsters in the past.


    "Hecked money in the past and became a mafia. However, one day, his own mafia group betrayed him and killed his wife and daughter. After destroying the mafia group, he joined another group and learned he couldn''t harm both people and monsters anymore as if he had trauma.


    "That was why he was kicked by thest mafia group. In the end, he created a small dojo to settle down himself. But that ended up a failure as well because his enemies ruined it again.


    "In the end, that dojo only has him inside, no disciples or whatsoever. He was nning to retire just like that. It seemed that his enemies were too strong. The mafia group that betrayed him was simply taking an order from someone." Jeff read the information out loud while assessing their situation.


    "So��" Theo nced at him.


    "If we bring him out here, we''ll be targeted by his enemies."


    "They need to talk with the Star Group if that''s the case." Theo shook his head.


    "That''s true. Besides, if they''re smart, they won''t challenge me and create more mess. The same applies to the police since I''m just going to cause more ruckus if they want to attack me inside the country.


    "To put it simply, no one wants to light up the fuse of a walking bomb unless they''re crazy." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s kinda true. Is that why you create your reputation like that?" He asked.


    "Well, my original n for my reputation was to make my words be taken seriously. I guess it bes too serious." Theo chuckled, remembering how he wanted to build his reputation simply because he wanted to avoid random people creating trouble for him. And he somehow became too scary in people''s eyes.


    "For real? I guess they unknowingly created a monster."


    "So, I''m a monster��"


    "Oops. My loose mouth." Jeff looked away.


    "Haha. It''s fine. I don''t really mind if you see me as something else. My attitude and actions won''t change. And I also have my responsibility as the leader of our group." Theo chuckled.


    "That''s��" Jeff lowered his head. "I''m sorry. Even though it''s a joke, a joke that can hurt you is not worth it."


    "Well, I don''t mind. I''m simply making our group not be too serious. It''s taxing."


    "I understand." Jeff nodded. "If that''s the case, I''ll continue�� If we recruit him, there is one big problem."


    "And that is?"


    "He can''t get stronger anymore. If he refuses to harm anyone, it will be impossible for him to level up. So, his progress will be stuck forever. No one is willing to invest a lot of money for someone like that�� That''s probably the biggest reason why they don''t want to offend his enemies�� He''s simply not worth it."


    "s, our views are different." Theo smiled and waved his hand as if he had another opinion about Uozomi Ryoichi. "We''ll go to his dojo tomorrow to meet him personally."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1169 Nagasawa Siblings

    <h4>Chapter 1169 Nagasawa Siblings</h4>


    The next morning.


    Theo and Jeff were standing in front of a dojo. The location itself was blended into a middle-ie housing district. Having a Mythical Rank Expert teach their children should be a good thing, but no one actually visited this dojo.


    "Who are the enemies again?" Theo recalled the information.


    "We don''t have the confirmation, but it''s said to be a group considered to be one of the top ten influences in the country. Their name is Hakushi�� I don''t know what that means."


    "Mhm. That''s okay, I guess. Top ten shouldn''t be that much of a problem." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    He heard once that Japan had a man called Sword Saint. He was ranked 4th in the world because his sword could cut everything, including time.


    "Well, as long as it''s not the Sword Saint. I don''t mind offending them." Theo shrugged before a clicking sound echoed from inside the dojo.


    "Eh?" Theo turned his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "Did you hear it?"


    "Yes. It sounds like a sh between two metals��"


    "Is someone sparring inside?"


    "Should we wait?"


    "No. Let''s juste in. In any case, we''re noting with a bad intention. They shouldn''t bother me too much." Theo shook his head, thinking the people inside were just typical experts that wanted to test their strength.


    "Yes. Since the enemies want to torment him, exhausting him like this every single day will be one of the ways�� As long as they''re noting every day, I don''t think the enemies will do anything." Jeff nodded in agreement. "Let''se in. The door is open anyway as if he is inviting us."


    "Yeah."


    Theo and Jeff then entered the dojo. When he opened the door, they found three people inside the building.


    The first one was a muscr man wielding two shields, parrying all the sword strikesing to him.


    His opponent was a young man. His age didn''t seem to be that much older than him, but his age didn''t reflect his skill like Theo.


    With a single sh, he shattered a barrier that the muscr man deployed. That attack was clearly beyond what a Supreme Rank could do. However, Theo didn''t find a single trace of Order, making it weird.


    At the same time, there was another person fighting the muscr man. Her face was pretty simr to the guy''s. If not because of her long, braided hair and curvy body, she would be mistaken for the guy.


    ''A twin?'' Theo widened his eyes, amazed by their strength.


    The twins were fighting together. Although Theo could feel the synergy between them, their movements still looked pretty awkward as if they hadn''t fought together for a long time.


    When they noticed Theoing in, they suddenly stopped. The female nced at the side and said, "There''s another person here?"


    "I''ve seen his face somewhere. Ah, right. He''s Joker from the US." The male twin nodded, recognizing Theo in a nce.


    "Joker?" The female was surprised, remembering this name.


    Meanwhile, the muscr man put down his shield and approached Theo, saying, "I''m sorry for not weing you. I''m Uozomi Ryoichi. I don''t know if you know it, but I don''t think you should enter this dojo. You will be facing serious problems."


    "I don''t think it will be much of a problem." The male twin stopped him. "The people targeting you are afraid of the Star Group. They are not going to do anything soon."


    "Even so, I don''t want to give any trouble to other people��" He sighed


    "It''s fine. I''m just visiting here to look for you." Theo assured him. "If I can''t get anything I want, I''ll simply leave the country. That''s all."


    "Look for me?" Ryoichi tilted his head in confusion.


    "Yeah. Though, I believe you should finish your matter first with them. I don''t want to take up someone''s spot." Theo took a step back while ncing at them.


    With his words, Theo confirmed that his previous assumption wasn''t entirely correct. If meeting him once could put them into trouble, the identity of these two should be extraordinary.


    Coupled with their strength, he didn''t think they were unknown people.


    "Heh?" The male twin smirked as if his interest was shifted to Theo. He even walked to him and asked, "Do you want to spar with me?"


    "Why?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding why this guy actually approached him.


    "Because you''re strong and still a Supreme Rank Expert like me. I want to fight all the strongest people in the world," The guy answered without hesitation.


    "Please wait!" Suddenly, another voice echoed inside the dojo as Shinoda finally entered the building to stop them.


    "Who are you?"


    "I am Masafumi Shinoda, from the JSDF."


    "Oh, monitoring him?" He nodded as if he understood how the system worked.


    "Yes. I apologize, but I''d like to request you to put down the request." Shinoda nodded firmly before turning to Theo. "It seems that you''re not aware of their identities, so I''d formally introduce them. They''re the Sword Saint''s twin children: Nagasawa Sojuro and Nagasawa Rea."


    "Oh." Theo was amused by this sudden revtion since he just said he didn''t want to make the Sword Saint his enemy. Although the Sword Saint wasn''t afraid of the Star Group, a conflict between the two groups would be big enough to create massive waves that would impact thousands of people. So, Shinoda believed he should stop them before anything happened.


    "Well, the offer is interesting, but I''ve promised them to just do my business and leave the country. So, I''m afraid I need to refuse." Theo turned to Nagasawa Sojuro and refused him.


    "Tsk. The military is annoying. Why do they even exist?" Sojuro clicked his tongue while his sister hit his head with the sword hilt. "What are you doing?"


    "Honorable Father asks me to hit you if you are making a mistake either rude remarks or bad actions."


    "But can''t you do it at ater time? Not in front of people like this?"


    "If you can maintain your dignity, that is�� Don''t forget that you''re the sessor of the Honorable Father''s sword."


    "��" Sojuro clicked his tongue and fell silent.


    "I apologize for my brother''s remarks. He''s not trying to pick a fight with you�� He simply loves to fight to get stronger. Please don''t mind his words."


    "No, it''s fine." Theo waved his hand as if he didn''t mind at all. "I was just surprised to meet the two children of the Sword Saint."

 Chapter 1170 Sword Saint

    <h4>Chapter 1170 Sword Saint</h4>


    The twins seemed to be supporting each other. The older one had extraordinary prowess but with a straight character, while the younger one had a calmer behavior but slightly less prowess.


    Theo observed the twins a bit more before saying, "Anyway, it''s good to meet you, but I need to finish my purpose first."


    "Be my guest. You can finish it first. We won''t do anything." Rea nodded in agreement while making sure Sojuro didn''t do anything to him.


    Since he got the confirmation, Theo then looked at Uozomi Ryoichi and asked with a serious tone. "Uozomi Ryoichi. Ie here to ask you to work for me."


    "!!!" Not only Ryoichi but the twins were startled by this request. This waspletely out of nowhere, especially with his reputation and enemies.


    "This�� I don''t know what to say��" Ryoichi blinked a few times, not understanding the reason why Theo wanted him. After all, he was useless without the ability to level up. And his enemies were too powerful for most people to contend with. Even some powerful groups didn''t want to offend them just for one Mythical Rank Expert that couldn''t get stronger.


    Meanwhile, the twins couldn''t stay quiet after hearing this. The older one said, "Are you sure about this? A person of your status should have known his background, right?"


    Theo remained silent. His focus stayed on Ryoichi the whole time as if this matter was only between them.


    "Give me a reason that makes you not want to follow me," Theo stated once again.


    "That is��" Ryoichi thought for a moment and stated one of the biggest reasons. "I have sworn to my wife and my child to not harm a single soul anymore. So, I won''t be of any use to you. Though, I appreciate the offer."


    "I don''t need you to harm people. There are many ways to fight people without harming them." Theo shook his head. "You can exhaust them or something. I have a sword in my hand, but Ick a shield. That''s why I want you."


    "But I won''t be able to be stronger. So, it will be a mistake to invest in me."


    "Stronger, huh�� Do you mean level up?"


    "Of course. How do you even get stronger without leveling up?"


    "When you reach Mythical Rank Expert, levels are no longer relevant." Theo smiled.


    "!!!" Both Nagasawa siblings were shaken when they heard Theo''s words. They remembered the scene when their father taught them.


    At that time, their father stood in front of the exhausted children and stated, "Use your youth to level up as much as you can. When you''re older, you won''t be able to go to the other side that easily because others are trying to keep you in check."


    "Father�� You are this strong, but you never aim for level 1,000�� why is it? If it''s because of the others, you can sneak around to kill a few monsters at a time, and eventually, you can reach level 1,000. Why?"


    When he heard that question from his daughter, he shook his head and answered with a firm tone. "Level is not relevant. I don''t know why we get all this stuff�� Although it''s good for the people who just started their lives in this system�� it won''t work when you''ve reached the peak. You realize that leveling up is just a waste of time. There is even a risk of dying."


    "Then, if we don''t level up, how do we get stronger?"


    "There are many ways to do it. For example, the herbs you''ve consumed many times increase your status�� Or the Five Aspects that I''ve taught you this whole time�� and��" He paused for a moment, making the siblings curious.


    "And��" The twins were staring at him with a great expectation as if waiting for the greatest answer.


    "Never mind. Just know that there is an Absolute Strength beyond what you call level. You''re currently not at the level I should start speaking about this! Just know that I''m focusing on both your levels and Five Aspects when you''re young!"


    The siblings remembered this conversation at the same time. They even exchanged looks as if thinking the same thing.


    ''Does he know anything about that absolute strength?''


    ''No, no. He must be talking about the herbs and artifacts as well as the Five Aspects.''


    Even though they were only staring at each other, they seemed to be able tomunicate with each other.


    Meanwhile, Ryoichi was confused by Theo''s words. Though, he could clearly see the confidence in Theo''s eyes, believing that his words were true.


    "I��" Even Ryoichi started to doubt his problem. He thought he was already useless because he could no longer harm another living creature, but there was a person that didn''t believe it was true.


    "You can''t harm others�� That''s fine with me. Doesn''t that mean you''re emphasizing your strength to those shields of yours so that the person behind you won''t get hurt too?" Theo added with a smile.


    Ryoichi couldn''t deny it. As a Knight, he had a sword and a shield in the past. However, he started using two shields after the promise to his wife and child.


    "I still have many enemies here. Recruiting me is the same as making you their target. As you said, I''m a shield. That''s why I need to refuse to protect you too." Ryoichi shook his head, rejecting Theo''s offer.


    "Or you can strengthen that shield of yours so that you can protect me better." Theo smiled.


    "A person can''t get strong overnight."


    "That''s where you''re wrong." Theo smiled.


    "What do you mean?"


    "You simply need to forget that promise, and you can get stronger."


    "Are you trying to make me take back that promise?" He frowned as his eyes started emanating his hostility.


    "No. I''ll never ask you to take back that promise. I just want you to know that you can get stronger overnight. There are multiple paths to do it�� In your case, one of them is broken. All we need to do is to find another path. Come with me, Uozomi Ryoichi. Those shields of yours are not useless. I want to prove them." Theo extended his right hand, inviting him once again.


    Unlike the others, Theo had a hard time finding a way to convince Ryoichi because he had low self-esteem, unlike the rest, who had their own pride and goals. That was why he was using all these words to convince him.


    However, Theo still found a great doubt in Ryoichi''s eyes.


    Yet fate took another turn as another voice echoed inside this room.


    "Interesting."


    "!!!" Both Theo and Jeff immediately turned around as they couldn''t feel his presence at all. They found a ck-haired middle-aged man standing next to the entrance while looking at both of them.


    "Honorable Father!"


    "Old Man."


    The two siblings greeted him immediately before the middle-aged man smacked Sojuro''s head with a stick, saying, "It''s ''Father''!"


    Shinoda''s body was shaken as he immediately greeted him. "Sir�� Sir�� Sword Saint. Why did youe here?"


    "Well, I got a message from my son and became a bit interested in it. So, I came."


    Everyone''s eyes were locked on Sojuro as thetter looked away while saying, "Ehm, the military didn''t want any conflict or misunderstanding, right? I just messaged my father for permission to have a spar with Joker�� I never expected Pop�� I mean, Father toe here."


    "��"

 Chapter 1171 Abuse of Power

    <h4>Chapter 1171 Abuse of Power</h4>


    "Ahaha�� Ahahahaha��" Sojuro''s awkwardugh reverberated inside the hall as he truly never expected that his father woulde.


    Of course, someone as important as him would be followed by the military as well. Two Mythical Rank Experts appeared next to him while panting.


    "Please don''t go like this��"


    The Sword Saint rolled his eyes and said, "Come on. I''m not that reckless. Do you think I''m like the Fist Saint? I still know where to draw the line."


    It seemed that the top ten experts had their own unique personalities. The Time God had his arrogant and mysterious attitude. The Fist Saint he met had an overwhelming fighting spirit that simply wanted to challenge every single person he encountered. The Wind Emperor was a wise and calm person.


    Meanwhile, the Sword Saint seemed to be a carefree person.


    "I am near here, so I don''t think there''s a probleming here." The Sword Saint shrugged. His nonchnt attitude made everyone retort in their mind. They wanted to smack him with the fact that his sudden movement might cause a big movement within and outside the country.


    However, the Sword Saint simply didn''t care. He looked at Joker and smiled, "I see. Joker, is it?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering how the situation would be like this. However, the Sword Saint was still too much for him. He could only endure this by saying, "Yes. May I know how I can help you?"


    "ept my son''s challenge. It''s only a spar. There is nothing wrong with it."


    "Okay." Theo epted without hesitation. Of course, he wouldn''t go all the way to reveal his Order in this fight.


    "Oh? I thought you were more of aplicated person. You got all those items and money from�� who is his name again? Whatever�� From that former first-ranked guy. I thought you were going to ask me to pay some fee."


    "Winston couldn''t offer something that I wanted, so I ced that fee. Your son is different."


    "So, you''re telling me that my son has something special that you want?"


    "Yes. There''s no reason for me to refuse other than��" Theo nced at Shinoda.


    "I see." The Sword Saint smiled and said, "I authorize this spar. If the country asks, I''ll be responsible for it."


    "That''s�� Let me make a call first." Shinoda didn''t know what to do other than call his supervisor for advice.


    On the other hand, the Sword Saint said to Theo. "Let''s make a bet."


    "A bet?"


    "Yes. The bet that you love so much. If my son wins, how about working for my group? I will handle the contract between the Star Group and you." The Sword Saint smiled. "I am very interested in the talent that is recognized by a lot of people around the world."


    "You''re exaggerating."


    True to his character, the Sword Saint also ignored Theo''s words as he continued, "If my son loses, hmm�� what should I give you�� Ah, right! My daughter can follow you. She''s a strong woman and has a good understanding of the Five Aspects. She should have some use for you."


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes in shock. The fact that her father actually put her as the gambling piece was truly shocking.


    On the other hand, Theo was frowning. In this battle, the Sword Saint was actually making him lose.


    Even if he defeated Sojuro, Rea woulde with him, allowing the Sword Saint to observe him through Rea. If he couldn''t defeat Sojuro, he would be forced to work for him. It was clear that the Sword Saint was using this opportunity to keep him in check.


    And the worst part was that he couldn''t decline because of their difference in power. If other people killed him in this country, it would be a great dispute. However, it would be different if the Sword Saint personally killed him. It would still lead to a dispute, but his fame could easily handle this.


    ''As expected, the top ten experts in the world can do everything they want simply because they have the strength. It seems that visiting this ce was actually the worst move I could make. It seems no matter what I do in the future, I should avoiding to a country that has one of the top ten experts��'' Theo thought, wondering if he should admit defeat today.


    The Sword Saint was truly outside his calction, but Theo also knew his own mistake. If he had just waited for the siblings to leave before entering the dojo, he wouldn''t face this problem.


    ''Have I be toocent after the incident with the Bolhom Family? The situation is the same, but the people involved are at another level.'' Theo gritted his teeth, knowing his mistake.


    "I�� don''t think it''s appropriate." Theo tried to shift the focus and change the bet. "There''s no way I can afford to have someone like her work for me."


    "My daughter is talented enough to work for you."


    "There are still some international problems�� And the fact that I need to consider you before asking her to do something is also a problem." Theo shook his head.


    "It''s fine. You can order her as you like. Just think of her as your random subordinate�� I''m fine with it."


    "That''s��" Theo frowned, not knowing how to change the conversation again. Though, he should have one more escape route. It was a draw. With this, he wouldn''t need to work for the Sword Saint and take care of his daughter.


    Albeit, the Sword Saint was shrewder than he expected.


    He stated, "Of course. If it''s a draw, let''s get the best of both worlds. Not only can you work for me, but you can also have my daughter as your assistant. Alright. That''s all."


    Without hesitation, he grabbed Sojuro and dragged him elsewhere while saying, "I''m gonna tell him how to defeat you so that you will work for me. Hahaha."


    "��" Theo was speechless. The Sword Saint was truly abusing his power.


    However, what he didn''t know was that there was another reason why the Sword Saint added this bet. Of course, he would be lying if he didn''t abuse his power.


    "Pop��Father! Why did you suggest that bet? I''m angry that you''re using Rea as a tool! This is not like you! You''re a bad guy, but you never used us that way! You disappointed me!"


    The Sword Saint''s expression became serious as he grabbed Sojuro''s hand, opening his palm. "Look at your hand, Sojuro. Is it rough?"


    "What? This is not the time��" When he was about toin, Sojuro hesitated to continue when his father''s expression darkened. He paused for a moment and answered, "Yes."


    "Swinging your swords continuously�� day after day, just to get stronger. Even with all these calluses, you still continue swinging your swords." The Sword Saint paused for a moment. There was sadness in his eyes. "Have you ever felt your sister''s hand?"


    "What do you mean? I don''t swing that way."


    The Sword Saint closed his eyes for a moment. "Your sister''s hands are worse than yours."


    "!!!" Sojuro was startled. There was only one meaning in those words. It meant his sister worked much harder than him.


    "Do you think I have been working all this time? I have been watching over both of you too�� Although she doesn''t show it, your sister doesn''t want to lose to you.


    "You don''t know that you have that fighting talent while your sister has that brain. As much as I don''t want to say it, your sister''s talent for fighting is much worse than yours. But how do you think the gap between the two of you is not so big?


    "The answer is simple. She works harder than you can imagine. She keeps swinging�� whether it''s raining or snowing, your sister doesn''t stop. Even with her hands bleeding, she endures the pain and continues.


    "Even then, she barely keeps up with you. I don''t know if you notice it or not, but your sister doesn''t have confidence in herself��"


    "My sister? She often hits me and acts overbearing��" Sojuro wanted to refute him, but the Sword Saint shook his head.


    "She doesn''t show it, but I can see it. Your sister always thinks herself lower than you even though both of you are equal in talent, just in a different area."


    "Then, that Joker��"


    "Yes. Whether you win or lose, I''m nning to have her be his assistant. From my investigation, it seems that Joker is gathering people from all around the world. And they''re unique individuals. Since she doesn''t need topare herself to you or me, she will be able to sh with them more. I believe that this experience will be great for her�� In the future, I hope that she regains her self-esteem."


    "Then, you can tell her like so�� There''s no need to make it look like she''s just a tool."


    "It''ll defeat the purpose. Unlike Martial Prowess or money, you can''t easily get it just by working hard. You need to get experience to gain some confidence in yourself. Do you think I haven''t encouraged your sister? I have done it multiple times, but your sister thinks of it as an insult to her pride, so this is the only way. Your sister is a smart girl, I believe she''ll understand the reason sooner orter. In the meantime, I don''t mind ying the bad guy."

 Chapter 1172 Spar

    <h4>Chapter 1172 Spar</h4>


    While he was waiting for the confirmation, Theo thought of another way to escape from this hell. However, no matter how hard he tried to escape, the Sword Saint could easily kill him.


    ''As expected, there''s nothing I can do to escape this spar. The only thing I can do right now is to learn more about their strength before taking care of his daughter�� Well, I can prepare many excuses to push her away from me. At the very least, I can''t do anything if the daughter wants to leave me on her own.''


    Theo believed this was the best solution for the time being.


    Meanwhile, the Sword Saint''s daughter, Nagasawa Rea, looked at Theo for a moment while having her own thoughts. ''Father never treated me like this before�� Does this mean he has another intention? Joker is clearly a rising star�� Is he trying to keep him in check? Is there something wrong with the Star Group?


    ''No, wait. The Star Group is going to be extremely powerful in a few years when Joker bes an even bigger figure. In other words, I''m here to monitor the situation. Still, he should have told me something first�� I guess he needs to do it because of the situation.''


    Rea thought she had a mission even if her brother lost. Although she wanted to believe in her brother, Joker''s strength was not necessarily below him. That was why she was curious about the result of this battle.


    After a few minutes, Sojuro and the Sword Saint came back to the dojo. The Sword Saint personally came to Ryoichi and said, "First of all, I want to apologize for making things thisplicated in your dojo."


    "!!!" Ryoichi immediately waved his hands, never expecting the strongest person in Japan to apologize. "No, no. It''s fine. In fact, this is my honor."


    "Thanks." The Sword Saint smiled and turned to Joker. "How is it? Are you ready?"


    Theo nodded with a calm expression while ncing at Shinoda and the rest.


    It seemed the Sword Saint had the same idea as he said, "Ahaha, I''m sorry. You guys need to leave. It''s just going to be a spar."


    "At least one of us needs to be here to make sure nothing goes wrong."


    "Even if you''re here, can anyone stop me?"


    "��"


    The Sword Saint shut them up in an instant and waved his hands, pushing them out of the building. There was only the Sword Saint, his children, Theo, Jeff, and Ryoichi inside the dojo.


    "If I''m not wrong, you can make a barrier, right?" The Sword Saint asked Ryoichi, who nodded his head.


    Without even asking, Ryoichi already stepped back and formed a barrier that protected the building from getting destroyed.


    Theo signaled Jeff to stand by on the corner while he walked to the middle of the arena. Sojuro also walked to the center with his katana in his right hand.


    "Let''s have a nice fight." Sojuro bowed politely.


    "��" Theo didn''t know the custom, so he just nodded his head while taking out his sword.


    The Sword Saint smiled and took out a coin. "As soon as this coin touches the ground, you may start. I''ll stop anyone from killing each other."


    After he tossed the coin into the air, he went back to his daughter''s side and said, "Watch their battle carefully."


    Rea nced at him for a split second before her attention was distracted by the clicking sound the coin produced.


    In that instant, Sojuro leaped to Theo and shed his sword downwards.


    Theo didn''t even move as a sword, the size of his body, appeared in front of him, stopping Sojuro''s de.


    *Cling!*


    "��" Sojuro was surprised but still leaped back to regain some distance due to this unknown de.


    Theo waved his hand forward, controlling the sword to fly to Sojuro. Thetter took a deep step to strike the sword, but Theo waved his hand downward.


    A Magic Power gathered above Sojuro''s head and exploded, causing a powerful shock wave that sted Sojuro to the ground.


    "!!!" Every single person in this building was stunned.


    "Perfect Control?!" Rea gasped. The Sword Saint frowned. He had expected Theo to be good, but not this good. It turned out he had underestimated Theo.


    ''Did he hold back during his fight against Winston? No, it should be his full power. In that case, he has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the past few months. Does he have a teacher?'' The Sword Saint pondered.


    Meanwhile, Sojuro spun his de, so it pointed upward. After that, he swung in the opposite direction, striking both the de and the pressure in rapid session.


    To Theo''s surprise, his de actually shattered and the pressure was split into half. Once again, he was reminded of Sojuro''s identity. He was the son of the Sword Saint, a man who could cut even time.


    ''A de that can cut everything. Even if it doesn''t have an Order or Authority, the technique alone can be considered to be a Divine Technique.'' Theo thought and controlled the Magic Power again.


    This time, several balls appeared in the air like that of a Magic Bullet. Each ball flew forward, leaving a trail of light.


    Sojuro took a deep breath as he waved his sword, striking all the lights in rapid session. The light balls split, but it turned out the lights were not Magic Bullets.


    The tails they left behind came forward, swinging like that of a whip and surrounding Sojuro.


    "It''s a whip?" Sojuro widened his eyes in shock before he leaped into the air to avoid this.


    However, Rea shouted as if understanding the real form of Theo''s attack. "No. They''re threads!"


    The instant she told Sojuro the real form, the whips unraveled, turning into a hundred threads. Each of them contained Theo''s Magic Power, which could turn them into a de.


    Sojuro gritted his teeth and spun his body, cutting all the threads that came after him.


    This was a normal move, but Theo could find something unexpected from Sojuro.


    Skill: Spin (E)


    Effect: Spin the body in a clockwise direction.


    ''Why would someone like Sojuro actually possess such a low rank skill?''

 Chapter 1173 Low Rank Skills

    <h4>Chapter 1173 Low Rank Skills</h4>


    The question appeared in Theo''s mind as he himself couldn''t ept any skill below B Rank now because they were useless.


    Still, it was surprising that a lower rank skill as well as the de''s sharpness could actually cut down all the threads he summoned earlier.


    Curious, Theo formed another sword and sent it to him, trying to test it out.


    Sojuro squinted his eyes before he struck the de from the side, knocking the de away before leaping to Theo.


    On the contrary, Theo still maintained his calm because there was onest defense line Sojuro needed to challenge before reaching him.


    The Death Avatar emerged from Theo''s shadow and summoned a giant de, waving it toward Sojuro.


    Thetter raised the sword with both hands and received this attack.


    *Bam!*


    The impact was so powerful that if Ryoichi didn''t put on a barrier, the ground would turn into a crater.


    However, Theo found that oddity once again.


    Skill: Stone Feet (D)


    Effect: Increasing the hardness of the muscle in the feet to strengthen them.


    After receiving this attack, Sojuro took a deep breath and shed his sword diagonally.


    "!!!" Theo was shocked by the sudden Magic Power fluctuation. It was as if the sword cut the air itself.


    Suddenly, the Death Avatar was split into two.


    "Tsk. So, that''s a Divine Technique?" Theo squinted his eyes, observing Sojuro''s de.


    "You also have a simr thing�� What''s the name of that de? That de has a solid Magic Power�� I don''t think your Perfect Control alone can achieve it." Sojuro asked while observing the de that had returned to Theo''s side.


    "No name." Theo clicked his tongue.


    However, it turned out Sojuro was surprised by Theo''s answer. Even the Sword Saint and Rea were startled by this answer, looking at Theo as if he was a fool.


    "Huh?" Theo frowned, not understanding why they suddenly looked at him this way.


    "You don''t know the importance of the name for a technique?" Sojuro asked before facepalming, never realizing that his opponent was a disappointment.


    "A name is the second most important thing that you need to have a good Original Technique. Just using your imagination alone is not enough to make an Original Technique. For example, if you don''t have a name, you need to imagine what kind of sword you want to make. But if you have a name, you just need to recall that name, and your brain will instantly remind you of the shape, the Magic Power, and other stuff instinctively. This is the reason why a name is important. It will be able to affect you at the instinctual level.


    "Instinctual level?" Theo narrowed his eyes. He almost forgot one fact. If Italy was the home of Awareness, Japan was known for their Technique.


    "How is it? Do you want me to name that de for you?" Sojuro smirked.


    "No need." Theo harrumphed.


    "My sister is more knowledgeable than me. How is it? Do you want my sister now? You can get more information from her instead of me." Sojuro smiled.


    "Why did you even promote your sister?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "So that you can be more serious in this fight! Give it your all! This is not enough!" Sojuro''s smile became even bigger as he was fired up. Even he could feel Theo still holding back thatrge power within him.


    However, Theo shook his head. "Then, you can try fighting me with all your abilities. Maybe if your strength is at a certain level, you can force me to use all my strength."


    Sojuro harrumphed and disappeared again, using his fastest speed.


    Theo turned around, following Sojuro''s speed. Soon, he found Sojuro appearing behind him as Theo stomped the ground.


    The moment Sojuro swung his sword, he suddenly threw himself to the side, barely avoiding a spike that came out of the ground.


    Even the back of his left palm was scratched by the spike.


    "��" Sojuro gritted his teeth, realizing Theo was baiting him to make that attack.


    Meanwhile, his sister, Rea, sucked a cold breath, thinking, ''He is injured first? Impossible. This is the first time I''ve seen my brother get injured first in a fight. Is Joker a greater man than reported?''


    "You''re good, really good." Sojuro smiled despite getting injured. This was the battle he had been waiting for. There was no one who could match him before, so Theo''s appearance was truly a perfect opportunity to let go of all his power. "I don''t need to hold back anymore since I know you can take it. Let''s make this battle even more exciting."


    "No. You can continue holding back and underestimate me since it''s better that way for me." Theo retorted him while finding another low rank skill.


    Skill: Front Leap (D)


    Effect: Using all the strength from the lower body to create an enormous leap.


    Theo suddenly waved his sword downwards, striking the air. However, his de soon hit another metal, which turned out to be Sojuro''s de. Even before Sojuro disappeared, it seemed Theo had managed to see through his skill.


    "Kh." Sojuro used all his strength to push through, but Theo had the height advantage, allowing him to pin him to the ground.


    After that, Theo kicked Sojuro in the stomach with his Thunderp Fist.


    *Bam!*


    The thunderp shook the dojo, but surprisingly, Sojuro remained in his position instead of getting pushed back by the shock wave.


    Sojuro smirked and raised his head, headbutting Theo.


    "I got you! My head is stronger than anyone else! You shall fall because you''re underestimating me!"


    *Bang!*


    "Impossible." Rea covered her mouth with her hands, not believing what she saw.


    "Gah��" The one who was injured was actually her brother, Sojuro. Theo''s mask opened a little bit, showing his forehead and hair. However, there was a snake skin that protected him on his forehead. And after hitting Sojuro, the mask recovered itself, allowing him to protect his identity.


    "The mask��" Sojuro gritted his teeth, feeling the pain on his forehead as if he had just hit a rock. But when he took another look, the mask remained unscathed.


    Theo waved his de, nning to use this blow to finish him. However, Sojuro grabbed the sword with his hand as thest attempt to win this exchange.


    Since the Sword Saint would do anything to stop the match before it got dangerous, Theo didn''t hesitate to swing his sword right at Sojuro''s neck. In other words, he was going to cut through Sojuro''s hand.


    However, the moment the hand caught the de, Theo couldn''t move his sword anymore before realizing there was overwhelming energy in Sojuro''s hand.


    "My body is my sword! Since I know that you have that powerful skin, I don''t need to hold back anymore, worried about identally killing you!" Sojuro roared as he used his other hand to reach out to Theo''s neck, even if it meant letting his sword go.


    "Fool. Why do you throw away your sword if you''re a swordsman." Theo used his other hand to grab this hand while using the Supernatural Snake Body to cover his body.


    However, he soon realized that Sojuro''s strength was beyond his expectation as he felt a sharp paining from his palm.


    "!!!" Theo nced at his hand for a split second and realized the sharp energy in Sojuro''s hand could cut through the Supernatural Snake Body.


    "Got you!" Sojuro smirked as he continued pushing forward to cut Theo''s hand.


    "No. Fuck off." Theo clicked his tongue and used the Invisible Vortex to hit Sojuro''s stomach, this time knocking him back.


    "Gah."

 Chapter 1174 Name

    <h4>Chapter 1174 Name</h4>


    Sojuro was blown away because he couldn''t react to Theo''s Invisible Vortex. Perfect Control truly surpassed anything below it.


    "Even if you have Divine Technique, you can''t utilize its full power." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Of course, I know that!" Sojuro gritted his teeth while holding his sword. It seemed he managed to grab his sword before Theo knocked him away.


    Theo also had Divine Technique. Although he didn''t know much about Divine Technique, he still knew that an Original Technique and Divine Technique were perfectly tailored for the one that created it. Other people who could use it wouldn''t be able to use it to its fullest potential because they were not the same person.


    Just like Wind Emperor''s Ascension Step, Theo couldn''t utilize its power properly. If it was the Wind Emperor, he would have used his Authority to amplify the wind power. The Thunderp Fist was the same. He could only use the Invisible Vortex simply because that technique was tailored for Perfect Control instead of the Dark King.


    Even the sword strike that could cut everything was only possible because the Sword Saint had his Authority.


    And Sojuro was already aware of it from both knowledge and experience. It was impossible to use this ability because it never belonged to him.


    Because of that, Theo''s words didn''t hit his sore spot as he continued focusing on Theo, nning to cut him down. This time, with his own technique.


    "Fu��" He took a deep breath as his expression became colder. He looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    Theo suddenly felt something was wrong with the air in Sojuro''s surroundings. The airflow actually stopped for a moment as Sojuro waved his sword. It was as if the air was allowing him to cut something without any friction with the air.


    The sh released powerful crescent-shaped energy that ran through the ground like that of a bullet. It was so fast that Theo had barely any time to react.


    Luckily, his Awareness had reached Prediction Eyes. If not, he wouldn''t be able to see through this attack and avoid it by jumping to the side.


    "You move now." Sojuro smirked, satisfied.


    "Ah!" Rea came to a realization. She just realized that Theo might have used a kick or two, but he hadn''t moved from his position. She couldn''t help but say, "So, he beats you to a pulp without taking a step?"


    There was another feeling creeping in Rea''s heart as if another wall, higher than the ones she had, rose.


    It turned out there was another person in their generation whose strength was beyond their imagination.


    However, she also saw the smile on her brother''s face.


    ''How can you smile when you''re at this kind of disadvantage�� even with this disparity between you?'' Perplexed, Rea thought before remembering what her father had said earlier. She needed to watch this match carefully. ''Did Father know this would happen before the fight?''


    No one answered it as the match continued.


    Because of what Sojuro said earlier, Theo released a bit more of his power.


    While covering his de with the Thunderp Fist, Theo leaped to Sojuro and struck his de.


    Upon contact, the de cut through the Thunderp Fist before it exploded. However, Theo realized that Sojuro couldn''t use the same thing in a row.


    So, this was the moment the Invisible Vortex was released. Just like how the Dark King used it, Theo created the shock wave in front of Sojuro''s stomach.


    "Gah!" Sojuro coughed, feeling as if a truck had hit him. He gritted his teeth while pushing his body forward, resisting the force that wanted to blow him away.


    When looking at Sojuro''s face, Theo muttered inwardly. ''A name, huh�� It''s a sword inspired by the God Killing Spear. This sword will apany me around to be my third hand that can attack and block�� I guess I should name it Guardian Sword.''


    As Sojuro said earlier, the moment he named it, there was a change in his mind. Just by uttering those two words in his mind, an image appeared.


    ''So, that''s how it is�� It seems I need to learn a bit about Technique here.'' Theo took a deep breath.


    The moment Sojuro raised his head, a sword appeared above Theo''s head.


    Without hesitation, Sojuro took a leap back because the sword also moved at the same time, hitting him.


    He struck the de with the same ability, but he soon realized something was different. "Huh? I can''t cut it?!"


    The power inside the sword was concentrated on the tip of the sword, making it hard for Sojuro to cut it down.


    "Concentrated power�� No... He is pushing the Magic Power to the tip, making it regenerate the Magic Power that is cut constantly." Sojuro gritted his teeth, knowing it was impossible to cut this sword down.


    Ultimately, he leaped back to avoid this sword.


    "How? That''s the effect of the name? Have you named the ability?" Sojuro asked.


    "Name? Is that the effect of a name? I have never seen such an impact just from having a name." Rea muttered in shock.


    Her father heard it and smiled as he said, "That''s a given. After all, that technique�� has the potential to be a Divine Technique."


    "Huh? He has Perfect Control, and his technique is already at the level of Divine Technique?" Rea gasped. "But he didn''t even know the importance of the name a moment ago?"


    "I only said the potential�� He needed a lot to learn and experiment to perfect that technique. And I''m now regretting sending you to him�� I just want to snatch him right away. Such a talent��" The Sword Saint paused for a moment as if thinking about another thing.


    Rea was shaken because she realized that Theo had a talent that far surpassed her brother.


    "Don''t worry. Your brother won''t go down that easily. After all, your brother hasn''t used his specialty yet." The Sword Saint smiled.


    Just like what he said, Sojuro leaped back to regain some distance before sheathing his sword. "You''re strong. Since Pops�� I mean, my father is going to stop us. I''m going with the intention to kill since I know I can''t do anything to you without doing so. Be careful, Joker. You might lose your life."


    Theo''s expression turned grim as he could feel something different when he sheathed that sword.


    However, Sojuro soon disappeared as his movement became even faster. "Drawing Sword Style��"


    "!!!" It was so fast that Theo reacted a bit toote. The next thing he realized, Sojuro had already appeared before him, drawing his sword.


    "Untraced de."


    The drawing speed was so fast that even Jeff shouted, seeing the sword had been sheathed. "Joker!"


    *sh!*

 Chapter 1175 End of the Battle

    <h4>Chapter 1175 End of the Battle</h4>


    "Joker!"


    When everyone thought Joker was cut, thetter actually surpassed their imagination by using his Guardian Sword. Just like his artifact that could change shape, the Guardian Sword turned into a shield that blocked that quick draw.


    The sword itself was Gin''s idea and the concept came from the God Killing Spear. It wasn''t his original. Theo made this technique Original by infusing his will into the sword. In other words, for him, the perfect technique for this ability was the shapeshifting ability that could match his own strength.


    ''It seems that I need to change its name��'' Theo smiled. Since the name came up on a fly, he hadn''t put deep thought into its name. So, he was grateful to Sojuro for making him realize the ability he wanted.


    With his Perfect Control, he manipted the form. From its shield form, it changed again to a spear.


    ''Everything has its own purpose. A sword can cut and stab, but as expected, the one that is used to be thrown was a javelin. Still, he wasn''t that adept at using a javelin, so he shaped it into a spear, a thin spear.


    Sojuro was startled when he saw that transformation and immediately leaped back. However, the spear followed him and struck him.


    He managed to block it with his de, but the spear suddenly became stic, turning into a chain. The chain looped around Sojuro, trying to capture him.


    Sojuro spun his body again, trying to cut it down. However, the chain turned its shape again.


    "What is this ability? It doesn''t have a form? No, it''s like a slime that can be shaped into all kinds of stuff. There''s such a versatile technique like this?" Rea muttered in shock. She realized why her father told her that this ability had the potential to be a Divine Technique.


    An ability to control the Magic Power to be as solid as metal and as stic as rubber. The moment Theo perfected this technique, it might truly be a Divine Technique.


    "That naming stuff is within my expectation, but this is beyond my imagination. Truly�� marvelous." The Sword Saint muttered in a low voice, observing Theo''s skill. "Even your brother might be defeated�� and it won''t be too long either."


    Ryoichi had been listening to their conversation the whole time. He looked at Theo while remembering the words Theo said to him.


    ''He is truly amazing. With enough time, he might be stronger than me. And such a person is recruiting me�� Investing in me, huh�� I think it''s the other way around. He''s actually investing in his own future.'' Ryoichi lowered his head, staring at his palm. His vision glitched as a bloodied hand reced his clean hand.


    It truly reminded him of the event in the past.


    ''Can I even do it? I thought I''d given up in this life��'' He bit his lips. The only reason he hadn''tmitted suicide to meet his family again was simply because of the promise. ''I have promised them to keep living on and never harm anyone anymore�� Are you trying to give me another purpose to live, Joker?''


    Ryoichi had a dilemma when he watched this battle.


    On the contrary, Theo started overwhelming Sojuro with this newfound technique. He had a fun time changing its shape ording to their own purpose. He blocked with a shield, shed with a sword and tied one up with a chain.


    *Pant!*


    *Pant!*


    Sojuro started getting tired as his mind couldn''t keep up with all this transformation. Each of them excelled in one thing, and Theo utilized their full potential, making it hard for him to counterattack. In fact, Theo hadn''t taken another step from his position again.


    ''So, this is Joker.'' Sojuro tried to regain some distance but to no avail. If only the arena was a bit bigger, he should be able to get some time to think of another way. However, they couldn''t choose the battlefield, so he needed to ovee his weakness.


    However, Theo''s ability was simply too versatile. In fact, Theo''s versatility might be his biggest strength this whole time.


    ''I don''t even have time to sheathe my sword, and he is predicting my movement. No way, Perfect Control and Prediction Eyes�� If the Prediction Eyes bes the Future Eyes, he might be able topletely read my moves. How old is he?'' Sojuro gritted his teeth.


    Suddenly, the sword turned into a huge bell. Its size was so big that it could trap a few adults inside.


    And Theo used it to trap Sojuro inside.


    Of course, even Theo would have a hard time concentrating his power like this, making the bell brittle. Sojuro took this opportunity to cut the bell into two, making it return to its original state, the Magic Power.


    However, Theo''s real intention was to use this bell to cover Sojuro''s eyes for a second. He used that one second toe closer to Sojuro.


    Sojuro could feel the fluctuation, so the moment he cut down the bell, he waved his sword toward the fluctuation since he knew Theo was there.


    *ng!*


    Their swords shed again before Sojuro noticed something off.


    ''Wait a minute�� Since when is his sword filled with that Magic Power?'' Sojuro saw that Theo''s sword was actually forged from Magic Power. Of course, he could see it because Theo didn''t dare to use his Order to create a perfect replica to fool him.


    Still, there was one question in his mind. ''If that''s not the real sword, then where is��''


    He lowered his vision and saw a sword nted on the ground.


    Without hesitation, Theo pulled that sword and struck Sojuro''s neck.


    ''I''ve lost��'' Sojuro understood Theo''s n and closed his eyes, admitting his defeat inwardly.


    "Alright. That''s enough." The Sword Saint appeared between them and grabbed Theo''s real sword with his bare hand. Just like Sojuro''s, his hand felt like a sword that was impossible to cut.


    Theo red at the Sword Saint without saying anything. Still, the Sword Saint could hear the words he wanted to say.


    ''Are you going to be shameless and take back your promise?''


    "Joker won this battle." The Sword Saint smiled. "Congrattions. You must be happy that now you have my daughter."


    ''Who the fuck wants your daughter?'' Theo''s eyebrows twitched, albeit he couldn''t say it aloud.

 Chapter 1176 Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 1176 Leaving</h4>


    ''So, Joker is stronger.'' Rea closed her eyes. She didn''t know what to feel right now. The Sword Saint had noticed her heart, so he had expected another movement in her heart after seeing the brother she had seen as her rival was defeated.


    After all, the goal that she had chased this whole time waspletely defeated by another person of the same generation.


    Meanwhile, the Sword Saint looked at Theo and said, "I''m not going to do anything. It''s clear that you''ve won. Take my daughter with you, and if you try to harm her, I don''t mind fighting against the Time God as long as I can kill you."


    Theo squinted his eyes, finding a loophole in his words. Just like what he said, if he harmed her, he would be dead before he could reach his level. However, it would be different if the opponent was much stronger than him.


    "You should know that I''m living a very dangerous life��" Theo replied.


    "My daughter has enough ability to protect herself. Besides, she would be able to provide you with some knowledge about Technique." He smiled before ncing at his daughter. "Of course. You can tell all the general stuff. Leave our family stuff alone."


    Rea nodded her head. As expected, her father had a reason for sending her to Theo. If not, he wouldn''t go all the way to threaten Theo.


    "You are surely bold. To send your daughter to a battlefield where she can die at any moment." Theo snorted.


    "At the very least, you''re going to protect her until you are strong enough to fight me." The Sword Saint smirked. Both of them seemed to have their own ns regarding Rea, while thetter also prepared herself to do this.


    Theo then walked to Ryoichi and said, "I''m going to leave the country in three days. I know that you have a dilemma in your heart, so I want to tell you that�� I''m not going to force you toe with me. If you ept my offer,e to me before I leave this country.


    "I don''t mind ying with those who are stopping you from leaving the country." Theo then took out his Skylink. "I''ll send you my number, so you can inform me."


    "There''s no need for that. I have two questions for you."


    "Go on."


    "Will I still be able to get stronger?"


    Theo then pointed at the Sword Saint. "You ask him. He will tell you the same thing."


    "��" Ryoichi closed his eyes for a moment and asked, "Will my shield be able to protect something again?"


    "I already told you. I need a shield." Theo only stated this, reminding him about Theo''s strength. It was clear that Theo''s strength was overwhelming because he managed to defeat Sojuro, whose offensive strength was among the best in the younger generation.


    "If that''s the case�� I have two conditions." Ryoichi raised two fingers. "First, I''d like to visit my family grave every year."


    "I won''t stop you from going." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "Second. Do you think I can get a new shield? I don''t think my current shield is enough��"


    Theo smirked. "Well, that''s the Star Group''s specialty."


    Ryoichi closed his eyes, pondering everything for onest time. When he opened his eyes, his expression was serious and firm as if he had decided what to do.


    "I understand. I''ll follow you."


    "Good enough. You can take your time to handle all the processes. I believe it won''t be that hard to find me as soon as you reach the US. I''ll be waiting for you." Theo nodded.


    The Sword Saint was listening to their conversation. Just like Theo said, Ryoichi''s strength was still great even if he couldn''t harm living beings anymore. If he wanted it, no one would bother Ryoichi anymore since the title of the Sword Saint was basically the only thing needed to stop them.


    However, the Sword Saint didn''t n to recruit him. After all, Ryoichi should go to Theo so that Theo''s group could be stronger. At the very least, it would be hard for the enemies to harm his daughter when she was still with them.


    "In that case, it''s time for me to excuse myself. Thank you for providing a worthwhile experience." Theo then nodded to the Sword Saint and Sojuro onest time before leaving the dojo. He was already annoyed that he ended up needing to take care of Rea.


    ''Well, I have plenty of ways to use her identity.'' Theo sighed. ''The Sword Saint''s daughter title is at least a bit useful. Even if the Griffith Family finds out who I truly am�� they will think twice because the fact Rea is there means I have a cooperation with the Sword Saint. Whatever. I''ll just see what''s going to happen from now on.''


    Theo then left without a word while Shinoda felt relieved that there wouldn''t be anything wrong with the diplomatic issue.


    After they were far enough, Jeff asked, "Are you sure about this? There''s going to be a spy within our group. There''s no way that woman is going to be loyal."


    "I know you''re worried about it. Even I don''t like where this is going. However, our group is not strong enough to fight the Sword Saint�� So, I''ll also be using her the way I want to." Theo stated coldly.


    "I see. A pitiful woman indeed. I guess I will lend her my mansion."


    "Yeah. She won''t be near us anytime soon. That''s why I think I need to speed up my n." Theo sighed.


    "Your n?"


    "Yeah. In one and a half years, I want to get five more Mythical Rank Experts toplete the group and reach Mythical Rank." Theo smirked. "Do you think I''m too young to do all this?"


    "No. You have enough strength to do it." Jeff shook his head. "The faster you get stronger, the quicker my dream can be fulfilled. I''ll support all your decisions."


    "Is that so?" Theo smiled. "I guess I should start killing some monsters after we go back."


    "Indeed. Do you want any help?"


    "No. It''s fine. I can do it alone." Theo smiled.


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1177 Spy

    <h4>Chapter 1177 Spy</h4>


    Three dayster.


    Ryoichi was sitting in front of a small temple he built to honor his wife and daughter in his house. There was a shield next to him.


    In front of the photo of his wife and daughter, he said, "Dear. I''m going to move on�� I''m afraid that I can''t meet you easily in the future�� I don''t even know what I will find after doing this. I might even end up regretting it.


    "However, I want to honor the promise I''ve made as well. I''ll keep living on and find a new purpose in my life. I hope that every year I cane back here to tell you about my journey and purpose.


    "Darling daughter�� I''m going to be the father that you''re proud of. I know it won''t be easy, but your father won''t run from it anymore. Please watch over me�� I''ll leave this shield to protect you." Ryoichi rose from the floor and put the shield in front of the temple as if trying to use it to protect them.


    He had done the same thing to the grave. He used these two shields, hoping to protect them even if he wasn''t there.


    After saying his goodbye, Ryoichi then walked away while saying, "Then�� I''m going."


    As he walked, he somehow felt his heart be a bit heavy for a split second as if someone was touching it. It might be because of the state of his heart, but Ryoichi thought it came from his wife and daughter as if it was the only way to say goodbye to him.


    With a sad smile on his face, he said, "See youter. Both of you."


    ��


    In the meantime, Rea had also prepared her luggage. Due to the Sword Saint''s influence, it was easy for her to leave the country. Unlike Ryoichi, she could follow Theo straight away.


    "Are you sure you will go?" Sojuro asked Rea again.


    "You have asked that same question 44 times." Rea sighed, feeling a headache just from hearing that question. "Honorable Father wants me to go. Then, I''ll do it."


    "But you can simply ask him to take it back. Even that Joker won''t mind doing it." Sojuro pouted. Even though he had heard the reason from the Sword Saint, he became hesitant again since Rea had always been on his side for as long as he could remember.


    "I''ll do it�� Besides��" Rea paused for a moment, recalling the talk between her and the Sword Saint.


    "Do you hate me for sending you away, Rea?" He asked.


    "I know that you have your intention to send me like that. But if you don''t mind, I''d like to ask what your real intention is��"


    "There are multiple reasons. But I can tell you are three of them��" He raised three fingers. "First, Joker is a rising star. I want you to observe that group and see whether it''s a good idea to form a real rtionship with him and his group or not.


    "The fact that he can gather multiple Mythical Rank Experts alone is already astonishing, let alone when those Mythical Rank Experts are the hardest bunch to recruit. There is something in him, and I know that''s important.


    "It''s true that I can eliminate him, but I''d rather have an ally instead of removing a potential threat. I know that he''s going to have a little grudge against me, so I want you to keep me informed about the situation. Before he bes as strong as me, we can simply mend that rtionship.


    "So, I''ll leave the rest in your hand. Make sure that you don''t antagonize the people over there and follow his orders. If possible, you can learn from him as well.


    "Second, I want you to monitor the movement in the US. There are already several spies there, but the US is currently in the center of the storm. ording to my investigation, the Fist Saint and the Death Reaper have begun to move. With Joker as the proof of your identity, your movement will be more unrestrained.


    "You can use my identity to scare them. If you have something that can''t be solved, you can call me to ask for help. I''ll see what I can do from here.


    "Last but not least, I want you to have an idental meeting with this Joker and find out the face behind that mask. Unlike me, who can forcefully remove his mask, your ident is more tolerable. This way, we can learn Joker''s real identity.


    "For example, you can simply storm inside the bathroom when he takes a bath�� Don''t forget to cover yourself with a long towel. Or you can go to his bedroom for a sneak attack, no sex is allowed. Just tell him that I''m a traditional person that allows you to have sex after you two get married. He should pull back because he hates me right now. Anyway, that''s the gist of it."


    The Sword Saint exined it. Though, the real reason was to make Rea experience character development.


    "But I''m afraid Joker will push me away since he should have seen through your n."


    "Yes. That''s why I''ll abuse my authority onest time and add another condition when you meet him tomorrow. I will have you stay in his mansion. Will all this be alright with you?"


    Rea thought for a moment and nodded. "I might be a bit ufortable with it, but I think this is necessary. What if Joker still hates you in the future?"


    "In that case, you inform me about it, and I''ll personallye to kill him. I know that the treatment will be worse, and it''s going to be extremely dangerous for you�� but I know that you''re a smart child. You should be able to find a way to blend in."


    "Understood." Rea acknowledged his mission and stood up, nning to leave.


    "That''s right. Before you leave�� I mean, tonight��" The Sword Saint stopped her for a moment. "Let''s have dinner. Me, your mom, you, and Sojuro. Only the four of us."


    Rea had a small smile. "Yes. I''ll be looking forward to it."


    At this time, they were unaware what they had gotten into because ying with Theo was the same as ying with fire.

 Chapter 1178 Surprise News

    <h4>Chapter 1178 Surprise News</h4>


    "What are you looking at?" Jeff asked, finding Theo staring outside the window. They were already on their way to the airport to meet Rea and returned to the US.


    Theo shook his head and retracted his gaze.


    They just passed a huge livingplex with a huge que on its front.


    Shibuya.


    It was supposed to be a city name, but there was one top family that had such a name.


    The name of Shibuya reminded Theo of a guy that had gone to Japan. Yes, he was Laust. Back then, Laust left the country with the invitation of Shibuya Mami, Theo''s opponent in the semifinal.


    Although there was friction between them, Theo hardly felt anything when he recalled this memory.


    ''Well, I can''t visit this ce since it might give away my identity.'' Theo smiled underneath his mask before closing his eyes.


    Since Theo didn''t say anything, Jeff stopped talking about it.


    Not long after, they had arrived at the airport. Rea seemed to have been waiting for him along with the Sword Saint and Sojuro.


    "Well, it seems that you have been sneaking around to find more knowledge about Technique. I already told you that you could consult that kind of stuff from her." The Sword Saint pointed at Rea, trying to make her look important.


    "Whatever." Theo shrugged. It was true that Rea could be his source of knowledge, but he didn''t want to deal with the Sword Saint too much. After all, the Sword Saint could easily kill him right now.


    Just like he predicted, the Sword Saint added, "In that case, I''d like to ask you to take care of my daughter in your mansion. Your mansion is big, so I don''t think there''s a problem with her staying there, right? No, no, should I say you should be happy to have my daughter staying with you, right? She is beautiful, can cook, and very gentle."


    "There''s no need to sell your daughter to me." Theo shook his head. "I know that you''re nning to force me this whole time."


    "d that you''re understanding." The Sword Saint smiled.


    "But I need to remind you that it''s my mansion. She needs to follow the rules like what I''ve been doing during this visit." Theo stated.


    "That is of course." The Sword Saint nodded.


    "Fine then. I''ll allow her to stay in my mansion." Theo agreed without hesitation. However, the Sword Saint didn''t realize that he had fallen into Theo''s traps. Those rules were something that Theo could make up anytime.


    That was why Theo had some ns when they returned.


    "Well, if you don''t have anything to say anymore, I''ll excuse myself." Theo bid goodbye to the Sword Saint and started walking away.


    "Tsk. A clever guy�� He''s truly a scary man equipped with both Martial Prowess and Brain." The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly. "You''re going to have some trouble there."


    "Don''t worry, Honorable Father. I won''t disappoint you." Rea politely bowed to him. "Then�� I''ll be going."


    "Be careful." The Sword Saint nodded and hugged her onest time. Sojuro also did the same.


    After that, Rea followed Theo inside while Sojuro said, "Pops. Do you think she can be stronger than me when shees back?"


    "If I''m not wrong about Joker, she might be much stronger than you."


    "Can you�� teach me? No, I want to study under youpletely. I can''t afford to lose to my younger sister and that man. That man hasn''t even gone all out, so I''m deeply ashamed."


    "In that case, do your best to reach Mythical Rank Expert within two years. If you can aplish that, I''ll teach you something that can help you reach the top."


    "I''ll do my best."


    While waiting for the airne, Theo red at Rea and said, "This is thest chance for you to turn back. I''m going to say this, but I''m responsible for your life, but if I can''t protect you, I don''t need to exin anything to the Sword Saint."


    Rea shook her head. "Please be assured. I''mpletely prepared for what will happen."


    "Well, whatever. I know that, unlike the others, you won''t be loyal to me. Just make sure that you follow my orders or I can''t guarantee your life." Theo added.


    "Don''t worry�� Joker? Should I call you, Mr. Joker or��"


    "Just call me Joker. It''s just a nickname."


    "Then, please call me Rea, Joker. I know that you don''t trust me, but I''ll still work hard for the group as long as I''m there."


    "Whatever. I don''t expect much from you." Theo shook his head. "After all, you''re boring."


    "Boring?" Rea tilted her head in confusion. Although she didn''t like his words, she couldn''tpletely ignore his words since they might contain some hidden meanings.


    Theo shrugged and looked away, refusing to answer. She never knew that the ''boring'' in his mouth referred to her role. She had nothing to shine in his group other than her identity.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo never opened his mouth again even after boarding.


    Only after returning to America did Theo open his mouth, surprised to see there were a few calls from Isaac and one iing call.


    "Hmm? It''s rare to see him calling me. Did something happen?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and nced at Jeff. "Did Felix contact you or anything?"


    "Nope. Everything should be fine." Jeff shook his head. "I have nothing to report."


    "Don''t tell me��" Theo turned to Rea and said, "Your father��"


    Rea furiously shook her head. "My father didn''t tell me anything. I don''t know what''s going on! And it might be something else."


    Theo suspected that the Sword Saint used the time they took to reach the country to publish something that shook the Sk. However, it seemed he was wrong when he epted the call.


    "Ah, I can finally reach you."


    "Yeah. Is there something wrong?" Theo asked with a confused tone.


    "Look at the news right now!"


    "The news?" Theo was confused, but Isaac had hung up, so Theo decided to open the Sk to see the news. It was then he found a surprise that might shake the entire country.


    The title of the news had told everything.


    ''An unknown woman crushed Winston in a one-on-one duel.''

 Chapter 1179 Killing the Death Reaper?

    Chapter 1179 Killing the Death Reaper?����''An unknown woman crushed Winston in a one-on-one duel.''


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock while Jeff, who took a peek at what was going on, dropped his luggage.


    "This is��" Theo narrowed his eyes and opened the news, reading it without caring about his surroundings.


    "Winston has lost to this woman?" Jeff muttered while scratching the back of his head. "Hey, hey, isn''t this woman using your words?"


    Just like Jeff said, the news told them that the woman actually said to Winston, "You''re nothing but an arrogant man who is drowned by your own pride in that pitiful list. Just like Joker, I can defeat you easily because I''ve been focusing on honing my skill instead of that ranking."


    Theo once gave a simr statement. It was simply his excuse so that they epted him in the ranking.


    However, he never thought that there would be another person hidden like this. However, there was one thing that piqued his interest.


    "This is�� This woman is so bold��" Jeff narrowed his eyes, angered by her statement.


    "Just like you, Joker can''t hold himself back in the ranking. And now, he''s grown weaker. Come out now, Joker. I''ll defeat you right now."


    "I want to smack this woman so bad." Jeff gritted his teeth. In his eyes, Theo was one of the strongest people under the Mythical Rank. To think there would be someone that wanted to challenge him.


    Even Rea took her own Skylink to check the news, finding out something unexpected.


    "This woman is��" Rea frowned.


    "Do you know something about her?" Theo looked at Rea''s shocked face.


    "I''ve met her once." Rea nodded with a serious expression. "Back then, I was apanying my father to attend a meeting with another top expert."


    "Another top expert? Who is it?"


    "3rd Strongest Person in the world, the Death Reaper."


    "So, that''s how it is." Theo sighed before he got another call. This time, it was from Maya. He epted the call and asked, "What''s wrong? Do you want me to see the news too?"


    "No. There is a womaning to the Starry Group and the Star Group, trying to challenge you. She''s been creating a huge storm in the media. I''m afraid your reputation will be tarnished."


    "I don''t care." Theo shrugged. "I''m not epting the fight."


    "But you''ll bebeled a coward sooner orter. She''s manipting people''s opinions so that they can look down on you."


    "Instead of worrying about my reputation, you should worry about yourself." Theo sighed.


    "Worry about myself?" Maya tilted her head in confusion before there was a loud bang in her office, followed by someone''s voice. "It''s not good, Miss. There are many reporters in front of ourpany. ording to them, you and Mark are the obstacles that need to be removed before Joker can be challenged."


    Maya was too shocked that she dropped her Skylink.


    "What the hell?"


    Theo shook his head helplessly, realizing the enemy was moving faster than he expected.


    "Tell your father that he won''t have a peaceful time soon," said Theo. "And it seems that I''ve won the bet and got myself a new subordinate."


    "What did you��Thud!"


    Theo disconnected the call before Maya finished her sentence.


    The bet he was talking about was obviously the condition that they had agreed on before Theo went to destroy the unknown base on the other side. In other words, Maya would be his subordinate when things went wrong.


    And because of theck of information from the Star Group, the enemies were aware of his involvement.


    This time, they mighte after him, so there was only one best thing he could do in this situation.


    "Are you telling me that the third strongest person is going toe here to deal with you?" Jeff asked with his forehead getting covered by sweat.


    "Yeah. Are you scared?" Theo smiled.


    "I would be lying if I said I didn''t, but just likest time, I''m ready to fight to the death."


    "Don''t worry, Jeff." Theo shook his head. "We''re not in Japan�� Since this is my home ground, I''ll show you something special."


    "Something special?" Jeff widened his eyes. "Do you have a way to escape from this situation?"


    Even Rea carefully fixed her hair around her ears, so she could listen to their conversation clearly.


    However, Theo shook his head and said, "I''ll tell youter in the car. Though, I also want you to do something for me."


    "Understood. Order me anything." Jeff was wondering how they were going to fight back, but Theo seemed to be confident in this.


    They immediately headed to thepany car and apologized to the driver that he wanted him off for a private conversation. After giving some bonuses to the driver, Jeff drove the car back to the mansion.


    The atmosphere was tense the whole time, wondering what Theo wanted to say.


    Since they were too curious, Theo opened his mouth.


    "This is something that I can only do once, but well�� I might need to say that if the Death Reaperes to this country personally to deal with me, she''ll be dead." Theo smirked.


    "What? The Death Reaper?" Jeff sucked a cold breath, not believing what he had just heard. Theo imed he could kill the third strongest person in the world? It would certainly have a huge impact on the world. And no one would believe a Supreme Rank Expert said he could kill the Death Reaper.


    "You can defeat her? How?" Rea couldn''t contain her curiosity. She was too shocked that Theo imed something this unbelievable.


    Theo looked at her in contempt. "Heh. Why don''t you ask your father? He''s the Sword Saint, right? He should be able to cut her down, though, after paying some prices."


    "Are you nning to have me call my father here? You must be insane."


    "Oi, oi. Who do you think you''re talking to? I am not asking your father toe because I know that your father wille no matter what." Theo shrugged.


    "He wille?" Rea sucked a cold breath.


    "Well, I don''t care much about him because��" Theo looked to the front. "Jeff. I''ll be counting on you to create my ultimate weapon that can kill the so-called Death Reaper."


    Although he didn''t know what kind of weapon Theo was talking about, Jeff still nodded as this was a heavy responsibility. "I understand. I''ll create that ultimate weapon to perfection."


    Theo smiled evilly. He had been preparing himself before even going to meet the Frost Giant. At first, he wanted to use this to stop or kill his grandfather, the current ranked 9th person in the world. However, it seemed that the Death Reaper was courting death.

 Chapter 1180 Drawing

    Chapter 1180 Drawing����"Did he tell you that?" The Sword Saint asked, staring at Rea''s face.


    As soon as they returned to the mansion and retired for the day, Rea spared no effort to contact her father and tell him everything regarding Theo''s n.


    "Yes. I know it''s hard to believe it, but he certainly said that." Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    "I have no choice but toe?" The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes, thinking for a while. Suddenly, his eyes went to Rea again, realizing how Theo could force him toe. "I see. He''s using you."


    "Me?"


    "Yeah. The only reason for me toe there is you being in danger that you can''t help but ask me toe." The Sword Saint exined.


    "Now that I think about it��" Rea paused for a moment. "Honorable Father forced him to agree, so his intention was clear. He wanted me to leave for my own or Honorable Father to call me back to Japan. With this, there wouldn''t be any more cooperation."


    "Exactly. That man is scary. Just after returning to the US, he was forcing me to make a decision." The Sword Saint sighed.


    "Then�� Should I go back?" Rea asked in confusion.


    "Did he tell you about the date?"


    "No. He only said that as long as the Death Reaper came, she would be dead. And it seems the painter that he brought with him was the key to creating an ultimate weapon that could kill the Death Reaper."


    "So much bullshit. Is he ignorant? There is a reason why we can be one of the top ten experts in the world�� We''re different from your average Mythical Rank Expert because we have absolute power." The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, starting to get annoyed. He felt like Theo was ignorant to think he could kill her.


    "Honorable Father. What is this absolute power?" Rea asked.


    "Ehm�� I can''t really tell you about it to be honest. It will simply put you in danger. However, I can tell you something about this�� Look at your birthmark."


    "My birthmark?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "Yeah. Just lift up your shirt a bit so that you can see your birthmark."


    Rea hesitated for a moment but still followed her father''s words. She slightly raised her t-shirt and showed a birthmark that looked like a sword tattoo. When they were born, it was said that the birthmark was their talent.


    People praised them for being the prodigy simply because the birthmark chose them. And the Sword Saint also had it on his chest. So, this was clearly the sword choosing them.


    However, those who had an Order would think otherwise. Even the Sword Saint had no choice other than to reveal it.


    "That''s not a birthmark."


    "It''s not?" Rea was confused since she got this birthmark from birth.


    "Yeah. You can ask your mother, and she can confirm that it wasn''t there right after you were born." The Sword Saint snapped his fingers.


    Suddenly, the sword mark on her lower abdomen shone, confirming what he said. After all, there was no way a birthmark could shine.


    "This is��"


    "I can''t tell you anything about it, but that''s my way to protect you." The Sword Saint sighed. Even though he couldn''t tell the truth, his statement wasn''t a lie. The Sword Saint used this Friend Seal to make sure she was fine the whole time.


    "��" Rea fell silent for a moment.


    After that, the Sword Saint lifted up his clothes and showed his chest. It was a clean chest with no tattoo whatsoever, but soon the same sword mark appeared on his chest.


    "See this?" The Sword Saint sighed. "This is the true mark for those who have been chosen by the swords. Unfortunately, I can''t tell you anything about it because of the rules."


    "The rules��" Rea looked down. "Then, if that mark is the symbol of absolute power�� does that mean Joker is a fool for thinking he can kill the Death Reaper?"


    "That''s what I thought too." The Sword Saint nodded. "It seems that he is overconfident with his strength. After all, the Death Reaper can kill a hundred Mythical Rank Experts by herself."


    "I see. In that case, should I go back right now before getting entangled too far?"


    "Hmm��" The Sword Saint hesitated, contemting his choices. "What do you think about him?"


    "What do you mean?"


    Before the Sword Saint exined further, there was a sudden knock on the door.


    "!!!" Rea turned around and asked, "Who is it?"


    "I am Millie, Felix''s daughter."


    "Oh? Wait a bit. I''m changing my clothes."


    "It''s fine. I know that you''re not. Joker said that you must be contacting your father right now. So, he wants to show Jeff''s drawing to your father." Millie exined.


    "Drawing?" The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes. "Sure. Why not? He had predicted that you would be contacting me anyway. Get the drawing and show it to me."


    Rea nodded and said, "Thank you, Millie. Let me show the drawing to my father."


    "But�� But��" Millie suddenly spoke before Rea opened the door. "Only your father can see the drawing, he said."


    "!!!" The Sword Saint widened his eyes in shock before his expression turned grim. "Okay. Bring her in."


    Rea acknowledged the order and opened the door, allowing Millie to enter.


    "Hello. It''s our first meeting." Rea smiled, politely greeting Millie.


    Millie nodded weakly before ncing at the Skylink that showed a guy''s face.


    Finding Millie''s gaze toward her father, Rea awkwardly said, "Yes. He''s my father."


    "Can I go to him right now?" Millie asked.


    "Of course."


    Millie then walked toward the Skylink after nodding to Rea as a greeting. When she saw the Sword Saint''s face, she was stunned for a second because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet this honorable person.


    "So, your name is Millie, right?"


    "Yes. I''m Millie Holt. It''s my honor to meet you, Sir Sword Saint."


    The Sword Saint nodded and asked gently. "You have something to show me?"


    "Yes. Joker told me no one other than you could take a peek." Millie nodded and took a step back. After that, she carefully opened the paper and pointed it to the Sword Saint so that only he could see it. Millie even closed her eyes to ensure that she followed the instruction even though she was curious about the drawing.


    The moment the Sword Saint saw the picture, he gasped as if he had found something unbelievable.


    "Hahahahaha!" Heughed uncontrobly for a minute before facepalming while saying with a tired voice. "Ah, I start regretting my decision to send you there."


    ******


    What''s the drawing Millie shows to him?


    A) A Sword


    B) A Middle Finger


    C) A Busty Maid


    D) NSFW Picture


    E) Add your answer here...

 Chapter 1181 Time

    Chapter 1181 Time����"Ah, I start regretting my decision to send you there."


    "Is this enough?" Millie asked while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "Yes. That''s enough, youngdy. You should crush it and burn the paper."


    "I understand." Millie nodded and crushed the paper so that no one could see anything. After that, she opened her eyes and confirmed the paper had been crushed before saying goodbye to both of them.


    Meanwhile, Rea waspletely dumbfounded by her father''s reaction.


    "What do you mean earlier?"


    "Ipletely took back what I said earlier. That Joker�� might have a way to kill that old hag. Though, I don''t know what he''s nning to do."


    "Huh?" Rea tilted her head in confusion. "You said he was ignorant�� So, he''s not anymore?"


    "Yes. I am sure that he has a teacher who has taught him that. Though, I am not sure who his teacher is."


    "How about the Time God?" Rea asked. "He is the strongest person in the world, right?"


    "Well, that''s true. But I met him a long time ago. He was not a person who would teach anyone about it, so it should be someone else. But among the top ten experts, only the Time God resides in the US. There are two more top one hundred experts, but�� I don''t think they can teach him. So, someone from the outside?" The Sword Saint pondered.


    "Then, what should I do now? Should I go back right now?"


    "No, you can continue to work for him and find his identity. And if possible, find his teacher as well. However, you need to be careful, you might die in the process. That''s why I want to ask you once again, do you think you canplete them?


    "If you seed, I believe you will be aware of this hidden power by the end of your mission. You might even surpass your brother. However, the risk is too big. As a parent, I want you back immediately.


    "But as the Sword Saint, I want to ask you to continue this mission. Because the storm is brewing and Joker is in the center of the storm."


    Rea raised her hand and asked one question before answering him. "There is something that I want to know. If you knew about this back when you met him, what would you do?"


    "Hmm�� Force him to submit to me or kill him. But I can''t turn back time, so I want a friendly rtionship with him. He is like an investment with the highest return but also the highest risk."


    "I see. In that case, I''ll stay here." Rea nodded.


    "Okay. I''ll respect your choice. Just call me if you need some help. I''ll do my best from here."


    "I understand. Thank you for worrying about me, Honorable Father." Rea politely bowed to him.


    "I wish you luck, Rea."


    "Yes, Father."


    While Rea disconnected the call, Theo was having a meeting with Jeff and Felix. There was a calendar as well as a map on the table.


    Theo had been staring at them for a while before Millie returned to the room.


    "I''ve shown it to him," Millie reported with a smile as if she had just aplished a big mission.


    "Thank you, Millie." Theo nodded.


    Millie hesitated for a moment and said, "He seemed to understand the meaning. He said he regretted sending her to this ce."


    "I know." Theo acknowledged it without hesitation. "How can he not regret it? Everything was under his control this whole time, but it turned out his daughter was a useful weapon for me to deal with the current threat. It was the same as telling the world that she was the proof of the connection between the Sword Saint and me."


    "So, you''re going to use her to drag the Sword Saint into this?" Millie asked.


    "Yeah."


    "��" Millie was speechless. Everyone in the world knew how big the name of the Sword Saint was. Yet, Theo imed he had the confidence to manipte the Sword Saint�� If anyone heard it, they would think Theo was crazy.


    "You should sleep first." Felix came to her, not wanting to have her fall deeper than this. After all, this meeting would turn the world upside down. The more she knew about it, the more it endangered her life.


    Although disappointed, Millie knew her boundary and decided to go back to her room.


    "So, what''s the matter with those things that you want me to draw?" Jeff asked. "I don''t see the reasons for it being the ultimate weapon."


    "That''s not the ultimate weapon. That''s just a simple bait." Theo shook his head. "The ultimate weapon is something else."


    "Oh?"


    "Well, the situation is going to be difficult for us." Theo sighed.


    "What''s going to happen? Are we going to fall into danger?" Felix asked, worried about Millie.


    "I won''t say it will reach that point, but the Star Group will certainly be shaken. Even with their wealth, they might have a very hard time." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Are they going to be attacked?"


    "Most likely. Even our lives will be in danger. I don''t think they''ll go as far asing to this ce since it''s filled with Mythical Rank Experts, buting out will be extremely dangerous."


    "So, we''re going to hole up for years?" Felix asked.


    "Yeah, but there''s a problem, more like my personal problem." Theo sighed. "I still need to reach Mythical Rank in 18 months. I''m worried that I won''t get enough levels if we hole up. That''s why I''m nning to find a way to escape from here."


    "You''re focusing on your level instead of your life?" Jeff shook his head helplessly. "Why do you sound like the Death Reaper is less important than leveling��"


    "Well, she is less important. If not because of her, I won''t have to use this n that I''ve prepared for someone else." Theo sighed.


    "So, you have already prepared some stuff to kill a top expert this whole time?"


    "Yeah. I got thatst piece not long ago."


    "Nagasawa Rea? No, the Sword Saint?" Jeff frowned.


    "Exactly." Theo smiled. "I''ll make him regret forcing me to take care of his daughter."


    "��" Jeff scratched the back of his head, never expecting Theo to be this bold.


    As for Felix, he actually thought of someone else. It was Theo''s grandfather from the War God Family, Leonardo. Even though Leonardo wasn''t a top ten expert, not many actually wanted to fight against him. After all, Leonardo''s n could manipte the situation and kill them. Theo just proved that point by how he was trying to manipte the Sword Saint.


    Even the Death Reaper might die from this. That was what he believed.


    However, there was one thing that remained unanswered.


    "We can''t really hole ourselves up for years or decades. For how long do we need to wait? I mean, looking at the situation, the longer we wait, the more perilous the situation will be."


    "I know. That''s why we''re going to move at��" Theo looked at the calendar and pointed at a certain month.


    "This is��"


    Theo smiled. "Isn''t it exciting? A great person should have a grand event for her funeral."

 Chapter 1182 Weakening the Start Group

    As Theo predicted, the enemy seemed to be taking matters to another level.


    As soon as the news about Mark and Maya being the obstacle to challenge Theo spread, the unknown woman, whose name waster revealed to be Rachel Vikson, officially stated that she wanted to challenge \''Joker\'' to hold this number one position.


    She deemed Theo was not worthy of the position. At the same time, she also stated that she would defeat Mark and Maya first, who were affiliated with both the Star Group and the Starry Group.


    If she managed to defeat both of them, it would mean no one could hold the Star Group and the Starry Group\''s reputation anymore other than Theo.


    To make matters worse, the enemy was a Supreme Rank Expert. If the Starry Group wanted to deal with her, they would need to think twice before sending a Mythical Rank Expert. After all, the enemies might take advantage of this opening to show the world that the Star Group and the Starry Group used underhanded tactics to eliminate their opponent.


    If their reputation was damaged, theirpanies would be hit as well. After all, they produced all sorts of equipment. They were so proud that their equipment could boost theirbat ability with the quality of those pieces of equipment.


    At the same time, Bernard was facing another issue.


    p����d��`no��?1`��o�� "Kh�� Bastard." Bernard gritted his teeth while looking at the news. "The real enemy is the one behind this woman. The Mythical Rank Experts protecting her is from Great Britain. They\''re definitely from the Death Reaper."


    Bernard clutched his head, feeling a headache just thinking about the solution. "To make this matter even worse, I\''ve lost the bet."


    He obviously remembered the agreement with Theo. There was no way he wanted to send Maya to Theo that easily. However, it was clear that the moment the Death Reaper personally moved, the situation would be extremely dangerous.


    Hiding in Theo\''s ce would be a good option. However, he still didn\''t think that it would be this hard to part with his own daughter, especially when the current situation was still under control.


    "Ugh. She is only working for him, not bing his." Bernard sighed. "What I need to think about is��"


    Before he finished his thought, someone knocked on his door and rushed in before he even said anything.


    "This is bad, boss." A guy panted. His body was trembling as he was clearly shaken by something. After taking a deep breath, he finally stated, "Spencer died."


    "!!!" Bernard widened his eyes in shock. "What did you say?"


    "Spencer died�� yesterday. We\''re still investigating what has happened, but all the people involved have mysteriously passed away."


    The moment he heard it, his expression darkened.


    "A Mythical Rank Expert died mysteriously��" Bernard sucked a cold breath. "What is this��"


    That was right. With strength bing the most important thing to decide an organization\''s strength, losing one Mythical Rank Expert was a huge loss.


    The enemies could easily target the Mythical Rank Expert one by one, lowering the organization\''s strength. When they were low enough, they would use the help of other organizations to take them down.


    This was a standard strategy to take down a colossal organization like the Star Group and had been poprized by Leonardo in the past. In fact, this strategy was what made Leonardo famous.


    There were four enemies that he knew currently. Three of them were the Mythical Rank Experts from the Death Reaper, with one of them being the Fist Saint\''s first disciple, Hatem Rahal. With a rank 91st expert in the world, killing one or two Mythical Rank Experts would be extremely easy.<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    If he started chipping down their strength, the Star Group\''s foundation would be shaken greatly.


    "Alright. You go out first." Bernard waved his hand, trying to be as calm as possible. As expected, the first thing he did was to call Theo since Theo was more formidable in tactics. He should have a way to solve this matter.


    "Yeah? How can I help you?" Theo asked after picking up the call.


    "One of our Mythical Rank Experts has died."


    "Oh�� My condolences."


    "En. That\''s important, but I have a more important matter right now. What do you think I should do to hold them back? The enemy is the Fist Saint\''s disciple, ranked 91st in the world, along with the Fist Saint\''s assistant. And from the Death Reaper, she\''s sending that woman as well as one more Mythical Rank Expert. I\''m afraid they\''re targeting my people, especially the Mythical Rank Experts, to weaken us before destroying us with the help of others."


    Unfortunately for him, Theo only had one answer. "I have nothing to help you. You should ask the president for help, not me."


    "What?" Bernard widened his eyes, but before he could say anything, Theo hung up as if he was trying to distance himself from him. He tried to call Theo again, but Theo had no intention of answering him more than necessary.


    In the end, he called Maya.


    "What\''s up?"


    Bernard told her the situation briefly, which caused Maya to tremble.


    "They\''re moving this fast?"


    "Yes. I\''m afraid so. If we don\''t do anything, we\''ll be severely weakened."


    "Okay. What\''s about�� Joker? Have you called him?"


    "Yeah. But he didn\''t give me any answer other than to rely on the president."


    "Mhm��" Maya paused for a moment and said, "Is he trying to remind you about the bet? Like if I don\''t start working for him, he won\''t help you?"


    "I don\''t know right now. They\''re simply too fast that I haven\''te up with something that can deal with this situation."


    "Ehm�� For now, I\''ll be going to Joker\''s house to talk about it. You should call the president just like he said. That\''s probably the best we can do right now. Oh, right. We need to maintain our stock price."


    "Yeah. I\''d do that right now. And I will try to find your grandfather. Make sure that the Mythical Rank Experts from yourpany don\''t go around for the time being. At least they need to group up before going out�� Five people in a group, minimum."


    "I know. I\''ll also start investigating stuff." Maya agreed and hung up the call as the two continued working to solve the situation.

 Chapter 1183 Scary Thoughts

    Chapter 1183 Scary Thoughts


    While they were panicking, Theo was training in his mansion. He had experienced some stuff overseas, so he knew something that could be done differently had he learned this.


    Of course, the primary reason for his situation was none other than his set of skills.


    After getting to an agreement, this training session was apanied by three people: Isaac, Millie, and Rea.


    "So, you''re moving to Technique right now? Didn''t you just learn Breathing and Endurance not long ago? How''s that two going?" Isaac asked.


    "Well, it''s just some basic stuff. I haven''t reached Inner Regeneration for both." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Why don''t you focus on those two first instead of Technique?"


    "I think it''s a good time to learn Technique since I seem to have been using it this whole time without realizing it. So, I think it''s better to learn everything and see which one I should master first." Theo shrugged.


    "I see." Isaac looked down, thinking for a moment. He opened his notebook and wrote down a few things before agreeing to him. "To be honest, I don''t have any objection. So, the one who will give you some knowledge about Technique��"


    Isaac nced at Rea, who nodded her head. Theo had agreed to allow Rea to observe his training for two weeks in exchange for all the fundamental knowledge about Technique.


    "So, without further ado, let''s have her exin all that stuff." Theo nodded in agreement, looking at Rea.


    "I understand." Rea acknowledged it and raised three fingers. "There are three important parts in Technique. I''m sure that you are already aware of that. They''re Weapon Mastery, Original Technique, and Divine Ability.


    "Weapon Mastery is a level where you''re focusing on honing your Martial Art to a perfect degree that allows you to get all the necessary foundation to create an Original Technique and Divine Ability.


    "Meanwhile, Original Technique is a stage where you can create two techniques tailored perfectly for you. If you''re good at speed like my brother, you can create a sword drawing technique as fast as him.


    "Of course, his weapon mastery is already at its peak. Each swing is perfect, allowing him to make no waste movement when using his Original Technique. That''s why the foundation is important.


    "However, there is one important fact that you need to know about Technique. This Aspect is the first requirement tobine all other Aspects. For example, if you want tobine both Awareness and Control, you need a good Technique to infuse them.


    "It''s true that you can use both of them at the same time, but Technique canbine them. This is different, okay?


    "Another example is for your sword. The sword that can change form. It is thebination of Control and Technique.


    "ording to my father, hebines Control, Breathing, and Technique for his sword strike. Of course, I''m not telling you to do it at the get-go since the more aspects youbine, the harder it will be to create.


    "Anyway, that''s not important right now since we''re discussing the basics. I''ll continue the brief exnation about the Divine Technique.


    "There is a qualitative leap from Original Technique to Divine Technique. To put it simply, a Divine Technique is at a different level. We can use Skill Ranks for a simpleparison. Weapon Mastery is simply some basic movements, so they are simr to F to E Rank. On the contrary, Original Technique can be as low as D Rank or as high as A Rank.


    "However, there is a reason why not many people can create a Divine Technique. It''s basically the realm of an S Rank Skill�� In other words, a God Rank Skill.


    "Why is it called a God Rank Skill? It''s simple. A Technique of this rank simply breaks the system. For example, there is a Divine Technique that can grow�� we call it Growth Divine Technique. Or there is a Divine Technique that allows you to control all mes, whether it''s from your power or someone else�� Or it can be simr to that of a Skill Verse. I think you can understand what I mean by breaking the system."


    When Theo heard her exnation, he couldn''t help but recall three of his skills.


    Skill: Clone (S)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself and give apletely new life.


    Skill: Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (S)


    Effect: Personification of Death, the ruler of the Underworld. Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, and Unknown.


    Skill: Supernatural Snake Body (S)


    Effect: The user will receive extreme regeneration and hardness.


    Of course, Clone and Death Avatar skills were still A Rank Skills. This description came from his memory when he was first introduced to such a skill.


    The Clone skill was basically an overbearing skill that allowed him to have two lives that could be resurrected by his will. It was a skill that transcended the limit of a mortal.


    The same applied to the Divine Avatar, considering it was the personification of Death as well as a Skill Verse. Last but not least, it was his growth skill, the skill that allowed Jormungand to expand and harden his body.


    He could finally understand the realm beyond mortal, the S Rank Skill.


    "So, that''s how it is��" Theo nodded in understanding while recalling the upgrade requirement for all those A Rank Skills. The requirement was simply on another level. From a few billion, he would have to spend at least a few hundred billion just to upgrade one skill to S Rank. It was so hard, but it was clear that the skill had transcended to a whole new level. So, upgrading one of them would probably be worth it.


    "However, there is one thing that people want to know the most. The monsters can wield their abilities or what we call skills, right?" Rea started her exnation again with this one interesting topic, piquing everyone''s interest. "The ability to learn to wield their power�� It''s extremely simr to our Technique.


    "Then, why don''t humans drop Skill Cards like the monsters? It''s crazy, but people specte that it''s because we have two different systems. The first is our status system which allows you to store your power and skills. The second system is the natural system that binds the monsters.


    "In other words, if there is a way tobine both systems�� It would mean you could get a Skill Card and EXP when you kill a human." Rea exined with a dark smile.

 Chapter 1184 Technique

    Chapter 1184 Technique


    Isaac and Millie sucked a cold breath while Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    This topic reminded him that this world and the other side were separated by a gap between two realms called Spatial Rift.


    The only thing they needed to do was to remove the Spatial Rift tobine the two realms into one. They might probably gain some EXP and Skill Cards when killing a human.


    However, there was a bigger result when the Spatial Rift was removed.


    Theo once thought about it. What would happen if the two realmsbined into one? The monsters and humans might get ovepped and kill each other. Then, there would be ultimate chaos everywhere. A huge sh between the humans and monsters.


    ording to his research, this was one of the biggest reasons why the monsters were trying to protect Orders. The change in the Order might weaken the Spatial Rift like how humans created so much pollution that it damaged the ozone.


    So, the monsters would spare no effort in destroying anything that could cause harm to the Orders.


    That was why when Rea brought up this topic, Theo''s expression became cold as he asked with a firm tone. "Have you said those words to your father?"


    Rea''s body trembled when she felt Theo''s cold gaze. Of course, her father had heard something simr from her in the past.


    But at that time, her father, who rarely got angry, was thoroughly angered, banning her from saying a single word about it. Although he didn''t stop the humans from researching, he would stop anyone from discussing it in front of him.


    That was why when Theo gave the same gaze as her father''s, her body was shaken.


    "That''s��" Rea looked down apologetically.


    On the one hand, she realized Theo and his father might see the world differently from normal people. On the other hand, this was the first time she felt fear in her heart.


    Even though there was no killing intent in his eyes, she could feel chills down her spine. It was as if she would be killed if she yed around with this.


    "I apologize." Rea ended up lowering her head, not wanting to continue this topic anymore.


    Theo took a deep breath and said, shifting the topic. "Never mind. Let''s continue talking about Technique. What should you do to learn Weapon Mastery? Original Technique? Or even Divine Technique?"


    Rea also calmed her heart down and started exining, albeit a bit awkward because of earlier. "Ehm. Weapon Mastery is simply your unique Martial Arts. If you use a sword, have you tried swinging a thousand times? Or a hundred thousand times?


    "I''m sure that if you do it, your 1000th swing will be different from your 1st swing because your muscles, body, and other parts know how to swing the sword perfectly. The same applies to the 100000th time.


    "My father asked both of us to do a thousand swings every single day. Weined at first because one thousand swings took us more than a whole day toplete, with our arms feeling like it was going to fall.


    "However, after a few weeks, months, and years, a thousand swings didn''t satisfy us anymore.


    "My brother did something different, which was the sword draw. He did one thousand sword draws together with one thousand swings. Your body, technique, and everything rted to that particr movement will be enhanced as time passes.


    "Of course, advice from a good teacher is necessary too, since you don''t want to blindly swing without thinking about any improvement.


    "After having the mastery of that particr movement, you can start putting some Magic Power and other stuff like Aspects into that movement, allowing you to create something that only you can use. After all, you''re the only one doing that movement for thousands, if not tens of thousands of times. That''s the Original Technique.


    "Though, there are different cases like you, who are not aware of what you''re doing. By using outside force, you''re creating the Original Technique forcefully.


    "So, there''s a need for a huge improvement before doing it efficiently. First of all, how about using that technique a thousand times every single day? You might find something iscking sooner orter.


    "There are different cases, but there are four major points that you need to improve. First is the speed. Whether it''s the creating speed or attack speed, if you don''t have the necessary speed to summon or even attack your enemy, it will be a useless technique that can be easily dodged. So, you usually try shifting the Magic Power and see which one gives the best speed.


    "Second point is rted to the first one. It''s power. Even with a full speed, it will be useless if it doesn''t have any power. The enemy can just receive it with their own body without any consequences.


    "Thirdly, Magic Power Efficiency. You need to know how much Magic Power you''re willing to spare. And how much Magic Power that the ability needs to reach its optimum capability. You usually need machines to measure it.


    "Last but not least, its versatility. The more versatile it is, the more unpredictable the technique can be, like yours. Your Technique has incredible versatility. If you can put a perfect amount of Magic Power, you don''t need to spend more Magic Power than necessary while still getting the optimum capability. At the same time, its hardness, power, and speed will be good enough to match people''s abilities.


    "Divine Technique is simr, but just on another level. To be honest, this is the basics of Technique. I can exin more about each, but I think you get the idea." Rea finished her long exnation.


    "I see." Theo looked down, recalling the name of his ability. "How about naming the ability?"


    "It''s rted to speed."


    Theo nodded in agreement and tried to find something about Technique that he wanted to know.


    "Unlike the others, it seems Technique is the easiest to master, but perfecting that ability will require a huge amount of time." Theo shared his opinion.


    "That''s right. The greatest genius in Technique created a Divine Ability when he was only a Hero Rank Expert three hundred years ago."


    "I see. I got it." Theo nodded.


    While they were talking about Technique, there was a visitor in front of his mansion. She was none other than Maya.


    "Alright. Let''s meet him." Maya nodded with a firm expression.

 Chapter 1185 Almost Ruined

    Chapter 1185 Almost Ruined


    "Alright. Let''s go." Maya opened the gate with a serious expression. Of course, her action was soon found by Felix, who immediately stopped her in front of the mansion.


    "Sorry. Can I help you?" Felix asked. After working for Theo, he obviously had learned some basic knowledge regarding his current affiliation, the Star Group. So, he recognized the woman before him.


    "I am here to consult with Joker," Maya answered with a slightly rushed tone because she immediately headed here after finishing her job.


    "Mhm��" Felix thought for a moment while ncing at the garden. "Wait a minute. I''m going to let him know."


    Felix disappeared for fifteen seconds to let Theo know before he reappeared, stating, "Sure. Pleasee in. He''s waiting for you in the garden."


    "Thank you." Maya followed Felix to the ce Theo used to learn some knowledge today.


    While walking, Maya looked at Felix''s back. She never expected that Theo had Felix, who seemed to be strong evenpared to other Mythical Rank Experts. Even her sense was tingling, telling her how dangerous the man in front of her was.


    But the moment she found Theo in the garden, she almost stumbled when she recognized one of the people that sat down next to Theo. It was none other than Nagasawa Rea, the Sword Saint''s daughter.


    ''Huh? Why is she here? Isn''t she supposed to be staying in Japan? Has Theo met the Sword Saint and struck a deal? Is that the reason why he''s not helping us? Is it because the Sword Saint guarantees his safety if the Star Group falls?''


    There were many questions and reasons in Maya''s head. But most of them actually made her awful.


    Although it was just a business rtionship, the Star Group had been helping him this whole time. From money to his identity, they had done so much for him.


    Yet, she felt awful knowing Theo was ready to jump ship this easily. She felt betrayed and disappointed.


    "Yo. I think I have told you that I won''t tell you anything regarding your next move�� Just go to the president since he has more influence than me." Theo reminded her again about his words earlier.


    "You�� Is it so hard for you toe up with something? I know that you''re smart enough to find a way, right?" Maya asked with a pained expression. Theo looked as if he didn''t care about the Star Group at all.


    "I think you don''t understand this. I''m here as your agent, a fighter. You brought this upon yourself but still asked me to do everything to solve it." Theo sighed, stating another fact.


    It was true that the Star Group was the one to me. If not for them joining hands with the president to stop them, they wouldn''t be targeted like this.


    In fact, they would still be ignorant about their ns. Although it resulted in hundreds of millions of people dying, theirpanies would soar through the sky because of the situation.


    That was why Theo had the right not to help them. If they told him about the Fist Saint being there, everything would turn differently.


    "But there will be nothing left if the Star Group is destroyed." Maya sighed. "Is it really that easy for you to jump ships? Because you have her, you want to abandon the Star Group?"


    "Who do you think I am? I am a man with integrity. I''ll fulfill the contract." Theo shrugged, not showing any interest in this conflict. "I''ll stay in the Star Group for as long as the contract wants me to."


    "But if the Star Group falls, you don''t need to fulfill your part of the contract anymore!" Maya gritted her teeth.


    Theo shrugged. "Isn''t that the purpose of the Star Group when they''re gathering their experts? They want to appear strong in front of many people by having numerous Mythical Rank Experts and resources.


    "I think this is the time where your Star Group and Starry Group will be truly tested. Can you stay afloat while facing this challenge? Show it to me�� If you''re too easy to break, won''t it be a waste for me to stay here? Isn''t that right, Miss Maya?" Theo replied as if challenging Maya.


    Maya gritted her teeth and said, "As you said, we didn''t have the right to demand many things from you. However, you still need to follow the Star Group arrangement, even if it means fighting against the enemies!"


    "Of course." Theo shrugged. "But I still need to remind you. Your Father has lost the bet. We''re in the same position."


    "I��" Maya gritted her teeth. Just like what he said, Maya also needed to follow his arrangement since she worked for Theo after her father lost that bet.


    The moment the Star Group sent him to his death, Theo would do the same to her without hesitation.


    This meant the Star Group had no control over Theo, even if it meant asking him to help. If they had some control over Theo, they could force Theo to participate in this, forcing him to turn around the situation.


    However, it also meant they had to burn the bridge with Theo. In the future, Theo woulde back and destroy them just like how they sent him to his death.


    That was why Maya gritted her teeth and turned around. "Fine. I know that I can''t ask anything from you. But don''t forget that the Star Group�� No, forget about everything I said earlier."


    Maya almost said something that she would regret her entire life. Theo had gone all the way to allow Bernard to announce that she and Theo would be friends for life. Yet, she almost used the ''good guy'' card.


    So, the moment she said those words, it was the same as breaking those words with her own. She didn''t want to destroy their current rtionship.


    Even Theo furrowed when she almost said it. It seemed that she still had some self-awareness despite the situation. It was true that facing a top expert in the world was more dangerous than facing a hugepany or organization, so Theo could understand how desperate she had be since things would only get worse from now on.


    "I will show you that it won''t be that easy to destroy the Star Group and the Starry Group. Just you wait." Maya finally walked away, barely avoiding the destruction of their rtionship.


    Theo closed his eyes when she left as if he was thinking of something.

 Chapter 1186 Strong and Independent

    Chapter 1186 Strong and Independent


    After Maya left the mansion, Felix nced at Theo and asked, "Is this okay? Isn''t your rtionship with her good?"


    "It''s fine." Theo shook his head calmly. "I know that she''s desperate, but she''s not someone who will take a beating without fighting back."


    "Is that so?" Felix nodded while thinking about one particr strategy. ''Still, doesn''t the current course look like the same situation as back then?''


    This situation reminded Felix of Theo''s famous strategy when destroying the Safulli Group.


    Back then, Theo made it look like he joined the enemy, suppressing the Mota Family so that the Safulli Group could take over.


    But at that time, Theo turned around the situation and even elevated the status of the Mota Family after that.


    ''Is he trying to lower the evaluation of the Star Group so that he can raise it even higher in the near future? Now that I think about it, those who are ruling in the dark will know the conflict between the Star Group and the Death Reaper.


    ''If he could kill the Death Reaper, the credit would go to the Star Group, making them think that the Star Group managed to eliminate the Death Reaper. Don''t tell me��'' Felix thought while ncing at Theo, who had turned back to his study.


    When she returned to her office, her heart felt heavy as if all the problems had just dropped on top of her.


    "Ugh" While clutching her head, Maya went to her seat and sat down with an exhausted face even though she hadn''t done anything tiring.


    Her face was pale, and she kept biting her lips.


    "The situation will get worse from now on. The Star Group won''t lose too many experts for now, but when the situation gets worse, the Mythical Rank Experts will feel fed up with the Star Group and leave thepany.


    "The same applies to my Starry Group. In the era where the supremacy of Supreme Rank Experts exists, losing one or two Mythical Rank Experts is already a huge loss, let alone ten if not twenty. The moment we lose all of them, we''ll be greatly weakened.


    "If otherpanies and organizations join hands with the enemies, they''re going to kill all our experts before blocking our business with their overwhelming strength.


    "Even my life will be in danger. Having the president as your help is good, but the president will choose the country over us. That''s why the president won''t help the Star Group that much.


    "Then, how about the Time God? No, no one other than the presidents can actually call upon the Time God. So, it''s impossible for us to even ask the Time God to handle the Death Reaper.


    "In other words, we can only hold out for two to three months with the president''s help. The rest will rely on ourselves.


    "For now, there are three main targets if the enemies want to weaken our strength. The first will be our Mythical Rank Experts. For now, they can go together to avoid casualty.


    "Then, the second target will be our warehouses, factories, and other facilities. It''s going to be hard to protect all of them. And if we split our forces, the enemies will just eliminate every single of them. I should start moving the equipment and other items to lower the cost if they''re going to be destroyed.


    "I''ll choose only a few ces where we can concentrate our forces. But it''s only going to hold for a few months until the Mythical Rank Experts leave the Starry Group. Whatever. I wille up with something within those few months.


    "Last but not least, their target shall be me to lower thepany''s evaluation. It will give them an opportunity to drop the stock prices, so I need toe up with an immediate solution for this one.


    "This is going to be harder than I expected." Maya pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how she should solve this situation.


    While she was in the middle of her thoughts, her assistant rushed into the room and said, "Not good. There is a crowd in front of the building."


    "Huh? Reporters?"


    "Yes. And normal people as well. The one leading them is none other than that Rachel Vikson, the woman who crushed Winston. They''re demanding you to ept the challenge because they want to see the battle between Joker and her."


    "��" Maya clicked her tongue and waved her hand. "Just ignore them for the time being. I''lle out after making a decision."


    "I understand." The assistant reluctantly closed the door while Maya was scratching her head as if she had gone crazy.


    "I really want to beat her up. But the fact that she could overwhelm Winston meant she had some strength to spare. It''s clear that I''m not her match." Maya gritted her teeth. "If only I had his help��"


    When she mentioned Theo, an image appeared in her mind. That image was the destiny that the Queen of Destiny had read for her.


    "Your life will be filled with ups and downs."


    "There is one cmity in front of you right now. If you don''t have anywhere to go, you should head to the east by foot as it will be a pir of hope in that cmity."


    "After seeing the first light in the cmity, you''re bound to make a huge decision that will decide your future. However, no matter your decision, your life will continuously face ups and downs."


    "What you need to face tomorrow is a belief. That belief can be in the form of anything. Trust that no matter how grim it is."


    Maya suddenly fell silent as if she had gained some enlightenment.


    "The east�� It''s exactly where Joker lives�� He is the pir of hope? And I need to make a decision that will decide my future. That''s right. If I submitpletely to him, he will have to help me. But is that what I actually want? It''s true that my father has lost the bet, but��"


    She facepalmed before she started chuckling.


    "Hahaha. It''s clear that no matter what I choose, my life will be filled with ups and downs. In that case, why should I think hard when choosing a path?


    "Oh, Maya�� Since when have you be so weak that the first thing you think after getting a big problem is to get his help? This is not you.


    "I have always envisioned myself as a strong and independent woman. I fight my enemies head-on and swallow them to make mypany even bigger�� without relying on anyone, even my father. Why did I go to him when this problem just hit me? Shit, I''ve grown so weak.


    "My belief remains the same. I shall be and always be a strong and independent woman! Fuck help! I don''t need them."


    She rose from her seat and headed to the door.


    "Just you wait, Joker! I might have be your subordinate because my father lost the bet, but I will be an even bigger person that you won''t dare to say that I''m your subordinate." She opened the door with a smile. "And now, let''s solve the first problem��. Those idiots who are standing in front of mypany."

 Chapter 1187 Strong and Independent

    Chapter 1187 Strong and Independent����After Maya left the mansion, Felix nced at Theo and asked, "Is this okay? Isn''t your rtionship with her good?"


    "It''s fine." Theo shook his head calmly. "I know that she''s desperate, but she''s not someone who will take a beating without fighting back."


    "Is that so?" Felix nodded while thinking about one particr strategy. ''Still, doesn''t the current course look like the same situation as back then?''


    This situation reminded Felix of Theo''s famous strategy when destroying the Safulli Group.


    Back then, Theo made it look like he joined the enemy, suppressing the Mota Family so that the Safulli Group could take over.


    But at that time, Theo turned around the situation and even elevated the status of the Mota Family after that.


    ''Is he trying to lower the evaluation of the Star Group so that he can raise it even higher in the near future? Now that I think about it, those who are ruling in the dark will know the conflict between the Star Group and the Death Reaper.


    ''If he could kill the Death Reaper, the credit would go to the Star Group, making them think that the Star Group managed to eliminate the Death Reaper. Don''t tell me��'' Felix thought while ncing at Theo, who had turned back to his study.


    When she returned to her office, her heart felt heavy as if all the problems had just dropped on top of her.


    "Ugh" While clutching her head, Maya went to her seat and sat down with an exhausted face even though she hadn''t done anything tiring.


    Her face was pale, and she kept biting her lips.


    "The situation will get worse from now on. The Star Group won''t lose too many experts for now, but when the situation gets worse, the Mythical Rank Experts will feel fed up with the Star Group and leave thepany.


    "The same applies to my Starry Group. In the era where the supremacy of Supreme Rank Experts exists, losing one or two Mythical Rank Experts is already a huge loss, let alone ten if not twenty. The moment we lose all of them, we''ll be greatly weakened.


    "If otherpanies and organizations join hands with the enemies, they''re going to kill all our experts before blocking our business with their overwhelming strength.


    "Even my life will be in danger. Having the president as your help is good, but the president will choose the country over us. That''s why the president won''t help the Star Group that much.


    "Then, how about the Time God? No, no one other than the presidents can actually call upon the Time God. So, it''s impossible for us to even ask the Time God to handle the Death Reaper.


    "In other words, we can only hold out for two to three months with the president''s help. The rest will rely on ourselves.


    "For now, there are three main targets if the enemies want to weaken our strength. The first will be our Mythical Rank Experts. For now, they can go together to avoid casualty.


    "Then, the second target will be our warehouses, factories, and other facilities. It''s going to be hard to protect all of them. And if we split our forces, the enemies will just eliminate every single of them. I should start moving the equipment and other items to lower the cost if they''re going to be destroyed.


    "I''ll choose only a few ces where we can concentrate our forces. But it''s only going to hold for a few months until the Mythical Rank Experts leave the Starry Group. Whatever. I wille up with something within those few months.


    "Last but not least, their target shall be me to lower thepany''s evaluation. It will give them an opportunity to drop the stock prices, so I need toe up with an immediate solution for this one.


    "This is going to be harder than I expected." Maya pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how she should solve this situation.


    While she was in the middle of her thoughts, her assistant rushed into the room and said, "Not good. There is a crowd in front of the building."


    "Huh? Reporters?"


    "Yes. And normal people as well. The one leading them is none other than that Rachel Vikson, the woman who crushed Winston. They''re demanding you to ept the challenge because they want to see the battle between Joker and her."


    "��" Maya clicked her tongue and waved her hand. "Just ignore them for the time being. I''lle out after making a decision."


    "I understand." The assistant reluctantly closed the door while Maya was scratching her head as if she had gone crazy.


    "I really want to beat her up. But the fact that she could overwhelm Winston meant she had some strength to spare. It''s clear that I''m not her match." Maya gritted her teeth. "If only I had his help��"


    When she mentioned Theo, an image appeared in her mind. That image was the destiny that the Queen of Destiny had read for her.


    "Your life will be filled with ups and downs."


    "There is one cmity in front of you right now. If you don''t have anywhere to go, you should head to the east by foot as it will be a pir of hope in that cmity."


    "After seeing the first light in the cmity, you''re bound to make a huge decision that will decide your future. However, no matter your decision, your life will continuously face ups and downs."


    "What you need to face tomorrow is a belief. That belief can be in the form of anything. Trust that no matter how grim it is."


    Maya suddenly fell silent as if she had gained some enlightenment.


    "The east�� It''s exactly where Joker lives�� He is the pir of hope? And I need to make a decision that will decide my future. That''s right. If I submitpletely to him, he will have to help me. But is that what I actually want? It''s true that my father has lost the bet, but��"


    She facepalmed before she started chuckling.


    "Hahaha. It''s clear that no matter what I choose, my life will be filled with ups and downs. In that case, why should I think hard when choosing a path?


    "Oh, Maya�� Since when have you be so weak that the first thing you think after getting a big problem is to get his help? This is not you.


    "I have always envisioned myself as a strong and independent woman. I fight my enemies head-on and swallow them to make mypany even bigger�� without relying on anyone, even my father. Why did I go to him when this problem just hit me? Shit, I''ve grown so weak.


    "My belief remains the same. I shall be and always be a strong and independent woman! Fuck help! I don''t need them."


    She rose from her seat and headed to the door.


    "Just you wait, Joker! I might have be your subordinate because my father lost the bet, but I will be an even bigger person that you won''t dare to say that I''m your subordinate." She opened the door with a smile. "And now, let''s solve the first problem��. Those idiots who are standing in front of mypany."

 Chapter 1188 Getting Help

    Chapter 1188 Getting Help����While Maya faced her problem, Theo continued his training, focusing on his Technique.


    "I feel like you''re stillcking when summoning it. The time to change the form is a tad too slow. If my brother was a bit faster, he would have got you." Rea assessed Theo''s performance when he was showing this newfound technique.


    Despite her assessment, Theo didn''t utter a single word as he becamepletely entranced in manipting his Original Technique.


    "So, the name is Irregr Guardian. Simply because this Original Technique can change its form ording to their own purpose, from a shield to a sword. I see." Isaac nodded in understanding while noting it down. He was simply doing his job.


    Theo kept practicing for a few hours before Felix returned with a person.


    It was none other than Ergene.


    Theo immediately stopped his training and saw Ergene in amusement. "So fast? I thought you needed a few weeks to finish all the paperwork."


    "Sir Okho helped me with the process to thank us for solving the problem," Ergene exined.


    "I see. That''s good then." Theo nodded and pointed at the mansion. "Wee then. You can take any room there. Felix will guide you to your room."


    "I understand." Before she left, she nced at Theo''s spear and asked, "It appears you''re training��"


    "Yeah. The mansion is crowded now, so it''s hard to find a ce to train alone." Theo shrugged before ncing at Isaac. "Well, I guess it''s fine to have a punching bag."


    "Oi. Did he nce at me when saying those words?" Isaac''s eyebrows twitched.


    Rea chuckled because she realized Theo had some sense of humor instead of that serious and scheming guy.


    "I see." Ergene nodded and turned around. "In that case, I shall go to my room first."


    "Yep."


    "Wait. What did you understand earlier?" Isaac tried to stop her, but Ergene ignored him.


    On the other hand, Felix stopped and asked, "By the way, we have several months to prepare. When are you nning to go to the other side?"


    "Hmm?" Ergene stopped and looked at Theo. "You''re nning to go to the other side?"


    "Isn''t it a bit too dangerous in the current situation? One Mythical Rank Expert and ten Supreme Rank Experts died not long ago, you know." Isaac frowned.


    Ignoring their reactions, Theo answered Felix''s question. "After ourst member arrives."


    "Him? But the problem is the fact that they''re monitoring you." Felix became worried again.


    "Don''t worry. I have a n to hide my presence. Though, I''ll need the cooperation of all of you." Theo shrugged.


    "We understand. Please leave it to us." Both Felix and Ergene answered at the same time.


    "Felix. Do you remember what I told you about formation?"


    "Formation!!!" Felix gasped and finally understood who Theo nned to ckmail to help him.


    "I see. I shall prepare."


    "Huh? What''s about this formation?" As someone who was blessed by Khutulun, Ergene became interested in this topic.


    After getting a nod from Theo, Felix said, "He''s nning to ckm�� I mean, cooperate with an organization to hide his information."


    "With an organization? Which organization?" Ergene asked.


    "Did you just want to say ckmail?" Isaac''s eyebrows twitched. It seemed that Felix had been influenced by Theo.


    "The organization that had the biggest control over the local informationwork," Felix answered with a cold tone. "The beggars."


    "The beggars? Is there an organization like that?" Ergene furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Yeah. I have heard it from rumors, though. ording to them, there are two types of beggars. Those who are in the association and those who aren''t. Thetter is for those who really beg for money, while the former works for the association, controlling the underworld. It''s said that if the beggars want to find you, you can''t escape. And the one who controls the association is the Beggar Master��" Isaac exined and made it mysterious, only to end it with, "I don''t know his name though."


    *Cough!* Rea coughed a few times as she almost choked herself. Isaac had been building up tension with his exnation, but he ended it with disappointment. She didn''t know why she wanted to hit him so much.


    "I see. So, the beggars�� Well, I don''t know what you''re nning, but I''m going to learn from it." Ergene nodded to Theo as she finally went to the mansion to settle down her luggage.


    Felix led her to an empty room while Theo continued with his training.


    Time flew by in a blink of an eye.


    Two weeks had passed.


    Maya somehow stabilized the situation like Theo expected. Felix was dumbfounded to find this talent from Maya. Even her father ended up being the assistant instead of the head this time, allowing Maya to do everything.


    It turned out this hurdle made Maya''s talentpletely bloom as she gradually controlled both the Star Group and the Starry Group.


    Maya''s talent in businesspletely kept her enemies in the business world in check. Hence, she had some spare attention to deal with the reputation attack from the Death reaper and Fist Saint.


    At the same time, the president also stepped in, giving them another boost in strength. After two long weeks, they were finally ahead for the first time.


    There were only three months and two weeks before Theo''s n came to apletion.


    Finally, in the third week, the man he had been waiting for had arrived.


    Ryoichi came to Theo''s mansion to greet him.


    "I havee to work for you, Joker." Ryoichi smiled.


    "Yes. Although I want to let you rest for a bit, I need you to follow me to do some small tasks. Mr. Uozomi" Theo nodded.


    "Sure. A Mythical Rank Expert won''t get tired easily. Also, you just need to call me Ryo to simplify my name."


    "Okay. Thanks, Ryo." Theo nodded and nced at Felix. "Call Chris and Jeff here. We''re going to do a small exercise. Let''s mess around with the beggars a bit, shall we?"

 Chapter 1189 Marcaman

    Chapter 1189 Marcaman����"There is a huge movement in the third block."


    A piece of information came through the Skylink near their ears. A beggar, who was asking for money, suddenly stopped and rose from the ground, walking to another spot as if he was trying to change location to get some money.


    However, he moved to a different location simply because he was tasked to do so to observe their targets.


    "Joker has brought five Mythical Rank Experts with him. They''re moving to the fourth block."


    Each beggar knew their area of observation and immediately changed to another ce to maintain their post.


    However, the situation soon started when another piece of information came in.


    "Joker and the five Mythical Rank Experts are going separate ways!"


    "One is on 3rd avenue, the other one��"


    A bunch of information suddenly came in, causing a bit of disruption to their speed. And it became worse when Theo stepped up his game.


    "Joker is gone."


    "The same applies to this Australian Expert."


    "The�� What? How are you here?"


    "I''m on my way to my position. HEY! You''re intruding on my territory, dude."


    "You''re the one entering my territory."


    "You��"


    From one person to another, there was suddenly a huge conflict that happened in the line ofmunications. And they somehow lost track of Theo and his teammates.


    "I can''t find Joker."


    "I can''t find the Australian Assassin."


    "I can''t find��"


    "Where are they?"


    The confusion began to take over as the situation gradually fell into chaos.


    As expected, the moment the situation became uncontroble, there was a deep voice that stopped them.


    "Enough! I will use my right as the supervisor to give themand right now!"


    "I understand. Please��"


    "I understand. Please��"


    "I understand. Please��"


    "I understand. Please��"


    The sudden repeat of the lines didn''te from different people. Instead, it came from one person, but the lines got repeated because there were six people standing in front of each other, surrounding the supervisor.


    "Eh?"


    "Why are you here?"


    "I was walking down that way."


    Six beggars stared at each other before looking at their supervisor, not understanding what had happened. They were just following their instruction and standard operation procedure. Yet, they ended up in this way.


    "This is�� not good." The supervisor frowned while looking at the situation. "3rd block, 4th block, respond!"


    "In the 3rd block, six of us suddenly met each other."


    "Same for the 4th block."


    "1st Street?"


    "We''re in the same situation. What is happening?"


    As soon as he realized the severity of the situation, the supervisor was biting his lips as he took out another Skylink and called a certain number. "We''ve got a problem. The gets entangled. It seems someone has seen through the and is trying to confuse us. Require backup from the HQ."


    There was no response for one minute, but soon a tired voice echoed through the Skylink. "Graham here. HQ''s Head of Emergency Units. Let me confirm the situation. Can you make sure of the situation?"


    "ording to the reports, there are a total of four blocks that get entangled. We don''t know the situation, but I believe this is the case. We��"


    Before he finished his words, Theo''s voice echoed in his ears and got transmitted to the other side.


    "Joker here. I hope that you like my warm wee. Do you think you can call your leader here?"


    All of them turned around and suddenly found Joker and five Mythical Rank Experts standing behind him. Each Mythical Rank Expert was emitting an overwhelming aura as if they were trying to crush them to death with their pressure alone.


    Their cold gazespletely froze everyone except the supervisor, who wanted to scream for his life.


    "What a warm wee�� Joker. Do you know what you''re doing right now?" Graham replied.


    "Of course, I know. However, are you sure you can talk to me in this tone? Should I teach the Star Group how to destroy yours? They are in trouble right now, I think they won''t hesitate to threaten you to cooperate."


    Theo''s words were true. Because of the current situation, the Star Group was trying to get some help to ease the situation. Having the beggars'' help would certainly be able to relieve some problems for them. And when that happened, they would be involved in this problem, resulting in the beggars getting dragged into this huge conflict. They wouldn''t be able to escape unscathed from this.


    "��" After a momentary silence, Graham said, "Wait a minute."


    Graham seemed to be informing his boss about the situation while the group of beggars in front of Theo fell to the ground as they were too scared of Theo''s group.


    Theo only took the Skylink while waiting for the person he wanted to meet toe.


    After five minutes, a man''s voice finally came out.


    "This is Felipe. What a warm wee you have for me, Joker."


    Theo smiled. As someone who had gotten the information from the Star Group, Theo, of course, knew this name, unlike Isaac. Felipe was none other than the Beggar Master that he talked about.


    "Well, this is a warm wee�� literally. Have your body warmed up now?"


    "Indeed. I am sweating now because of it." Felipe replied with an annoyed expression. "So, what do you want?"


    "I don''t think it''s appropriate to tell you what I want over the Skylink."


    "So, you want to meet me, this Felipe?"


    "You''re not going to invite me?" Even though it was a simple question, it was a threat from Theo. The message was clear. If he couldn''t meet him, Theo would throw a fit by destroying the around this area before giving this information to the others.


    After that, the beggars would lose their standing.


    The Beggar Master was already annoyed by Theo''s threat. However, he considered the meeting seriously since they could deal with the situation with a simple meeting.


    Although Theo would ask for something, it was better to solve this peacefully.


    After two minutes of consideration, Felipe replied, "Tell the supervisor there to bring you to Marcaman."

 Chapter 1190 Agreed!

    Chapter 1190 Agreed!����"This is the ce��" The supervisor pointed at an old abandoned building.


    "There are three Mythical Rank Experts inside. I don''t know how many Supreme Rank Experts though." Felix informed him while looking around.


    "Should we go in?" Ergene asked.


    "Of course." Theo entered the building without hesitation, finding arge hall with a table and a pair of chairs in the middle with a middle-aged man sitting on one of them. There were also many Supreme Rank Experts and three Mythical Rank Experts guarding the man.


    The man had a sword mark running from his left eyebrow to his left cheek, blinding his left eye. So, he only looked at Theo with his right eye.


    As soon as Theo entered, the situation became tense as Felipe spoke, "Wee, Mr. Joker. Your wee truly warmed us up."


    "I have no choice since I need to contact you." Theo shrugged.


    "It seems that you''re in a bind. If you want to ask for my help, you shouldmission through the normal way. As a person from the Star Group, you should know about the procedure. Or if you don''t, just go to the Star Group to tell you the procedure," Felipe stated with a cold tone.


    "That is if the Star Group isn''t facing a problem." Theo walked to the middle of the hall to get a closer look at Felipe.


    Felipe extended his hand as if asking him to sit while saying, "Like I said, this is not asking for help. You''re simply ckmailing me."


    "This is the only way." Theo shrugged. "For me to do what I think is best."


    "The best? Is challenging my Beggar Association included?"


    "Offending the Beggar Association? No way. It''s simply cooperation between us."


    "So, you''re thinking you have a good proposal that can turn this situation into a cooperation instead of a ckmail?" Felipe narrowed his eyes while clenching his fists.


    "Yes. The association loves information, right?" Theo smirked.


    "We do love information since we sell information to live. But that''s not the organization''s main priority." Felipe shook his head.


    "Fame and power." Theo smiled.


    "It seems you understand us a bit."


    "Of course. What if I told you I have a way to make your association stronger?" Theo smiled, offering his proposal.


    "Do you think it''s that easy to make the association stronger? Or probably, you''re going to offer these five to me." Felipe smirked.


    "Of course not. Have you ever heard this idiom, Mr. Felipe? Our poweres from the perception of our power."


    "��" Felipe fell silent as his expression became serious, understanding what Theo meant. After a while, he asked, "And how can you create that?"


    "I have my way. In this envelope." Theo took out a white envelope and showed it to him. "Though, I can''t give it to you yet."


    "Hoho, it seems that you put too much trust in us. Have you forgotten that you have the resources to ckmail us? I''m sure that a person as smart as you know that the way to destroy our is something that is sought by many. They''ll offer anything to get that secret."


    "I know. However, I simply don''t want to create a conflict with the association." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "And I have been saying that��" Felipe mmed the table while gritting his teeth. "You have the stuff to ckmail us. No matter how you try to smoothen your words, it''s clear that you''re threatening us. Joker!"


    "Of course. I''m nning topensate you for this chaos."


    "With what? As long as you and the five people who are involved in this incident know the secret, you will be able to ckmail us at any time!" Felipe roared, showing his anger.


    Felix''s hand was already at his de as his finger had flicked the cross-guard, allowing him to draw the sword at any moment.


    Theo raised his hand, asking him to stop it. Then, he said, "Mypensation is that�� I and the five people behind me promise you to not say anything."


    "Verbal Promise? Even a contract can''t do anything about this promise. Do you think a verbal promise is enough? I''m afraid I''m going to have you die here." Felipe red at Theo menacingly.


    Felix and the others immediately unsheathed their weapons. At the same time, the three Mythical Rank Experts and numerous Supreme Rank Experts from their sides did the same. The sh was one ''shout'' away.


    The moment Felipe ordered them to attack them, the big war would happen.


    "So, thepensation is not enough." Theo, on the contrary, smiled at this pressure as if the situation wasn''t as bad as he imagined.


    "Of course, it''s not enough. Your lives are the minimumpensation!"


    "Really? I think this is��" Theo threw a piece of paper at him. "��enough for thepensation."


    Felipe grabbed the paper and saw a small word that only he could read. He suddenly fell silent for a while.


    ''Paper?'' Felix narrowed his eyes.


    ''What kind of paper is that? He hasn''t told me to draw anything.'' Jeff muttered inwardly, curious about the paper.


    ''An agreement? But the paper is too small for that.'' Ergene was perplexed, not being able to understand what a piece of paper could do.


    ''However, one thing is clear.'' Ryo gradually moved toward Theo, making sure he protected him even without a shield since they rushed here.


    ''That paper can decide the agreement. Whether he epts or not will depend on the content of that paper.'' Chris also wondered how Theo tricked Felipe this time. After all, he was the only one among the group that got tricked by Theo.


    When the tension rose to the peak, Felipe suddenlyughed out loud.


    "Hahahaha!"


    His voice was so loud, as if he released all theughter he had been storing this whole time.


    Everyone was bewildered by this sudden burst ofughter. They didn''t know why Felipe suddenly became crazy.


    But he suddenly dropped a bomb as he said with a serious tone. "Okay. I ept the agreement."


    "!!!"


    All of them dropped their jaws to the ground as if not believing what they just heard.


    "WWWHHHAAATTT?!"

 Chapter 1191 Final Preparation

    Chapter 1191 Final Preparation����"WWWHHHAAATTT?!"


    They couldn''t believe Felipe would agree so easily. After all, he had listed every reason why he didn''t want the cooperation.


    Yet, a single piece of paper was all it took for Felipe to change his mind.


    "I''m really scared right now. To think there is someone as scary as you in this country��" Felipe scratched the back of his head before letting out a long sigh.


    Listening to Felipe''s words, they became even more curious about that piece of paper. However, Felipe crushed it and burned it in front of everyone so that no one would bother him with this anymore.


    "I''m not scary at all. Look at me. I''m pretty harmless right now." Theo shrugged.


    "Yes, sure. You do, but��" Felipe paused for a moment. "I don''t think you want to waste too much time here. Just state your business�� What do you want from me?"


    "I want to ask you four things." Theo raised four fingers. "First, I want you to help me go to the other side without anyone knowing about it."


    "That''s a pretty easy thing to do. You can consider it done. Just let me know the ce and time. In fact, your ability alone is enough to do it, but I guess you want it to be perfect."


    Theo nodded and stated the second point. "I want you to manipte the information about me and my group."


    "You and your group? Still, manipting the information? Not blocking the information?" Felipe looked down, contemting for a moment. "Oh, I see!"


    "I''ve left all the details in this envelope." Theo pointed at the envelope and continued to the third point. "Next, I want you to make a fake ID for me."


    "You should ask the Star Group to do it. They should have some connections to the government."


    "No. The Star Group can''t do it this time. I need you to do it." Theo shook his head calmly.


    Felipe pondered Theo''s request and nodded. "Fine. Creating something like that shouldn''t be that hard."


    "Good. Lastly, I want you to start a rumor. With all these people, it shouldn''t be that hard to spread some rumors, no?" Theo nced at the Experts inside the building.


    "Start a rumor?" Felipe became even more confused. Although there was no problem with them, he didn''t understand why Theo wanted to do all this.


    "As for the reward��" Theo ignored his reaction and waved his hand a few times as if asking Felipe toe closer.


    Curious, Felipe leaned toward him as Theo''s mouth was next to his ear, whispering.


    No one could hear what he was saying. However, the content was clearly extraordinary, as it was shown on Felipe''s face.


    "What?!" Felipe sucked a cold breath, staring at Theo as if he was looking at the devil. "Are you kidding me?"


    "I''m not kidding. I wouldn''t have visited you if this matter was simple." Theo shrugged.


    "Do you know how hard it is to achieve what you want? You are underestimating your goal!"


    "Goal, huh�� I''m not underestimating someone. Don''t you think so? Especially if you remember my new member."


    "New member��" Felipe''s expression darkened. As someone who was watching the country from the darkness, Felipe certainly knew about Rea''s presence.


    In other words, Theo was nning to use the Sword Saint on this asion. He never thought there would be someone that could move the Sword Saint.


    And Theo dropped thest bomb to destroy the wall, which made Felipe hesitate. "Besides, if you think about it, your involvement won''t be that deep. Even if it ends up as a failure, you can pretty much escape unscathed."


    "That''s�� true." Felipe nodded and thought for a moment.


    After five minutes, Felipe finally agreed to Theo''s offers. "Fine. I''ll cooperate with you."


    "The details of what I want as well as the reward are in here." Theo handed the envelope to him.


    Before epting the envelope, Felipe asked, "Are you sure you want to give this to me? I can betray you, you know."


    "Will you dare?" Theo smiled as if he was assured that Felipe wouldn''t betray him.


    "��" Felipe fell silent before closing his eyes. He thought, ''I see. It seems that he has another backup n ready. Even without me, he is going to do it. On the other hand, this deal will benefit the association greatly. If I can take advantage of it, this ce will soon undergo its golden age.''


    Felipe shook his head helplessly as if admitting his defeat against Joker. "Fine. I''ll cooperate with you. If you have anything else, do ask me about it."


    He tossed a Skylink to him and said, "If you want anything else that requires my cooperation, you can contact me through that."


    "Okay." Theo nodded and turned around, ready to leave.


    "Have a nice day." Felipe smiled as if he started getting excited by the thought alone.


    Theo waved his hand back while walking away with his group.


    No one other than Theo and Felipe knew the details of Theo''s n.


    However, Ergene had uttered her interest in learning from Theo, so she couldn''t help but ask, "What did you do earlier? I thought it was impossible to get an agreement."


    "Mhm��" Theo shook his head. "I''ll tell youter after everything is finished. Can you wait a bit, Ergene?"


    "Well, if that''s the case, I''ll wait." Ergene nodded. She was dying to know about the content, but she decided to let it go.


    "Ryo. You can go with Jeff to your own house. We currently don''t have a base, so I can''t really give you a ce." Theo sighed.


    "Don''t worry. I''m already satisfied to have a ce to live in."


    "As for your shields, I''ll send you the catalogter. Unfortunately, I can''t really bring you to the Star Group, especially in the current situation. If you don''t like the shield, I can order another stuff from you."


    "I understand."


    Theo then nced at Jeff and Chris.


    "Jeff. You will create my ultimate weapon. Mhm�� Around one or two weeks before the n ismenced, I''m going to send you somewhere else. Get ready, okay?"


    "Sure. There''s plenty of time to prepare."


    "As for Chris, there''s nothing you need to do right now. So, you can rx. Felix will be in charge of training Isaac, Millie, and Rea. As for Ergene�� Do you want toe with me to the other side? I need to level up." Theo asked. "The urgency to level up is far above anything else this time."


    "You want me to weaken the monsters so that you can kill them? Well, it''s true that this practice is legal, but it will make you weak over time because everythinges from others'' efforts, not yours. So, I need to refuse."


    "Is that so? Even though the monsters I''m nning to kill this time are Mythical Rank Monsters?" Theo smirked.


    "!!!" Ergene widened her eyes in shock. "What did you say?"


    "Well, I can''t kill a Mythical Rank Monster by myself, but with your help, I should be able to do it. Besides, you reached Mythical Rank Expert not long ago, right? This should be a good opportunity for you to increase your levels a bit." Theo exined.


    "Are you serious? Are you underestimating a Mythical Rank Monster?"


    "I once killed a Mythical Rank Monster with Maya, Isaac, and Mark." Theo shrugged. "Though, that''s already a few months ago. I''m stronger now�� The gap between me and a normal Mythical Rank Monster shouldn''t be that big anymore. You are the one who will fill the gap."


    "If that''s the case, I can agree. But if I deem that you''re just leeching off me, I will return. I don''t want to serve a weak person."


    "Don''t worry." Theo nodded in agreement. "Alright then. Let''s make the final preparations for the trip."

 Chapter 1192 Surprise

    Chapter 1192 Surprise


    The beggars helped them in all processes until they could leave the base on the other side. They even blocked the information about Theo and Ergene so that no one knew about them leaving the country.


    The Fist Saint used a simr method to disappear from the US president''s view, causing all that ruckus. So, Theo did the same thing to disappear, not caring about other opinions. After all, they would be more focused on the Star Group and the Starry Group instead of him.


    It took them two days before Theo and Ergene reached their desired location.


    The location was at the south of the base. It was one day away from the nearest Star Group hotel, which was perfect for Theo if he wanted to use the hotel to rest for a while.


    After searching for an hour, they finally found a Mythical Rank Expert. Because of their strength, even a normal Mythical Rank Expert was hard to find. They indeed gave a huge amount of EXP, but they were also extremely dangerous.


    Even fighting one would be arduous. That was why a Mythical Rank Expert would have a hard time leveling up.


    "Well, this is truly something else." Theo furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the monster from afar.


    The monster was standing on two feet. It was covered by yellow fur that looked like spikes. Its height reached 10 feet, and its body was equal to five Theos gettingbined.


    "Those sharp ws and spikes��" Theo muttered in a low voice. "Its skin should be hard too. The tail might not be long, but it can protect both its sides. It''s going to be a dangerous fight."


    "This is yourst chance to back down. I''ll remain here until I deem that you''re either qualified or unqualified to do it," Ergene said, reminding him about the agreement.


    "Don''t worry. I''m not backing down." Theo smiled. "Well, just watch from here. I''m going to show you something special�� that you should know if you want to follow me."


    Ergene looked at Theo mysteriously. Even though she doubted Theo could defeat a Mythical Rank Monster, she still said, "May fortune bless you with its presence."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled and leaped toward the monster. He checked the monster''s status with his Skylink.


    Name: Entema


    Level: ???


    ording to Ergene, most Mythical Rank Monsters were like this. They had a name since the people who found them usually named them. However, their strength was unknown because it was hard to grasp their strength.


    Still, as long as the Mythical Rank Monster was a Normal ss, he was ready to fight them.


    As if sensing Theo''s movement, Entema turned around while raising its right hand. The ws started glowing as it located Theo.


    "Here is the first��!!!" Theo suddenly ducked down before finishing his words.


    *Bam!*


    The trees around him abruptly flew into the air as a green light passed them, cutting every single trunk in the area.


    Only Theo managed to survive there.


    "Seriously�� It''s too fast." Theo made a weird smile as he immediately circted his Magic Power.


    Muscle Enhancement.


    "Well, I can''t really match its speed, but I should be able to follow his movement with my Prediction Eyes and react fast enough with Muscle Enhancement," Theo said as he continued rushing toward the entema.


    The entema was surprised to find someone far weaker than him dared to fight him. However, he didn''t have enough intelligence to think about it.


    The only thing he knew was to kill Theo.


    Before Theo reached him, the entema raised both hands, covering its ws with Magic Power.


    As soon as Theo was only fifteen feet away from him, the entema waved both hands, creating a cross''s w shape. Each diagonal line crossed each other, making it impossible for Theo to duck down again.


    Hence, Theo raised his blue sword and turned it into a shield.


    Receiving the attack head-on was his objective since it would prove he had enough strength to fight a Mythical Rank Monster.


    Without hesitation, he stomped the ground with his left foot and pushed his body forward, taking the attack head-on.


    The sh between the w energy and Theo''s shield was intense as Theo was pushed back several feet due to the raw force alone.


    He knew Muscle Enhancement wasn''t enough to rival a Mythical Rank Expert, but this attack should haveunched him away without it. So, he was relieved to have this skill now.


    After that, Theo raised his left hand, summoning his Irregr Guardian in its sword form.


    The sword immediately flew toward the entema as thetter struck it with its ws.


    Suddenly, the sword split into two, turning into long stic sticks that looped around the w to hit the head behind it.


    However, a Mythical Rank Monster was scarier than Theo thought as it had enough speed to suddenly grab the two sticks and snap them into two.


    "Shaaa!" The entema let out a cry. Before the sticks could transform, Entema threw them away and rushed to Theo, realizing what he wanted.


    "In that case, how about this?" Theo waved his hand again, summoning three balls of Magic Power that weren''t visible to naked eyes. This was Theo''s Heisk or Invisible Vortex.


    Unfortunately for him, the entema was fast enough to cut all the balls with its ws before they could explode.


    "Seriously?" Theo leaped back to gain some distance.


    However, the entema caught up to him in a second and mmed both hands, trying to squash Theo to death.


    "It''s time to show the special stuff, I guess." Theo nced at Ergene and received the attack.


    *Bam!*


    Both hands mmed Theo to the ground. It packed so much power that it created a hole in the ground.


    However, the entema suddenly turned around as if feeling something. It even waved its ws to scare it away, albeit it was toote.


    "Aiii!" The entema let out a scream as blood sttered to the ground.


    The one behind him was none other than Theo. And the only way for Theo to reach that position was Blink Skill.


    "Still, it''s too dangerous." Theo ducked down again, avoiding the ws after injuring the monster.


    Unfortunately for him, his luck ran out as the entema turned out to be more stubborn than he thought.


    ''Oh no��'' Theo raised his left arm and protected his head while using his Supernatural Snake Body as well as his equipment to protect himself from the impact.


    *Bam!*


    The entema kicked Theo from the side, blowing him a hundred feet away from his position until Theo crashed into a huge tree.


    "That hurts�� Luckily, the equipment and Supernatural Snake Body were enough, or I would have been injured by that attack. I can understand why the Mythical Rank Expert has a hard time fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster." Theo smiled and immediately rose from the ground, preparing to face the entema again.


    But this time, Theo had a surprise for both the entema and Ergene.


    "Well, let''s step up our game, shall we?" Theo smiled as another Theo suddenly appeared next to him. Their appearance was exactly the same, except for the weapon.


    That was right. Theo finally used his clone.


    "That''s��" Ergene, who saw Theo''s clone, gasped as if she had found something hard to believe.

 Chapter 1193 Surprise

    Chapter 1193 Surprise����The beggars helped them in all processes until they could leave the base on the other side. They even blocked the information about Theo and Ergene so that no one knew about them leaving the country.


    The Fist Saint used a simr method to disappear from the US president''s view, causing all that ruckus. So, Theo did the same thing to disappear, not caring about other opinions. After all, they would be more focused on the Star Group and the Starry Group instead of him.


    It took them two days before Theo and Ergene reached their desired location.


    The location was at the south of the base. It was one day away from the nearest Star Group hotel, which was perfect for Theo if he wanted to use the hotel to rest for a while.


    After searching for an hour, they finally found a Mythical Rank Expert. Because of their strength, even a normal Mythical Rank Expert was hard to find. They indeed gave a huge amount of EXP, but they were also extremely dangerous.


    Even fighting one would be arduous. That was why a Mythical Rank Expert would have a hard time leveling up.


    "Well, this is truly something else." Theo furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the monster from afar.


    The monster was standing on two feet. It was covered by yellow fur that looked like spikes. Its height reached 10 feet, and its body was equal to five Theos gettingbined.


    "Those sharp ws and spikes��" Theo muttered in a low voice. "Its skin should be hard too. The tail might not be long, but it can protect both its sides. It''s going to be a dangerous fight."


    "This is yourst chance to back down. I''ll remain here until I deem that you''re either qualified or unqualified to do it," Ergene said, reminding him about the agreement.


    "Don''t worry. I''m not backing down." Theo smiled. "Well, just watch from here. I''m going to show you something special�� that you should know if you want to follow me."


    Ergene looked at Theo mysteriously. Even though she doubted Theo could defeat a Mythical Rank Monster, she still said, "May fortune bless you with its presence."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled and leaped toward the monster. He checked the monster''s status with his Skylink.


    Name: Entema


    Level: ???


    ording to Ergene, most Mythical Rank Monsters were like this. They had a name since the people who found them usually named them. However, their strength was unknown because it was hard to grasp their strength.


    Still, as long as the Mythical Rank Monster was a Normal ss, he was ready to fight them.


    As if sensing Theo''s movement, Entema turned around while raising its right hand. The ws started glowing as it located Theo.


    "Here is the first��!!!" Theo suddenly ducked down before finishing his words.


    *Bam!*


    The trees around him abruptly flew into the air as a green light passed them, cutting every single trunk in the area.


    Only Theo managed to survive there.


    "Seriously�� It''s too fast." Theo made a weird smile as he immediately circted his Magic Power.


    Muscle Enhancement.


    "Well, I can''t really match its speed, but I should be able to follow his movement with my Prediction Eyes and react fast enough with Muscle Enhancement," Theo said as he continued rushing toward the entema.


    The entema was surprised to find someone far weaker than him dared to fight him. However, he didn''t have enough intelligence to think about it.


    The only thing he knew was to kill Theo.


    Before Theo reached him, the entema raised both hands, covering its ws with Magic Power.


    As soon as Theo was only fifteen feet away from him, the entema waved both hands, creating a cross''s w shape. Each diagonal line crossed each other, making it impossible for Theo to duck down again.


    Hence, Theo raised his blue sword and turned it into a shield.


    Receiving the attack head-on was his objective since it would prove he had enough strength to fight a Mythical Rank Monster.


    Without hesitation, he stomped the ground with his left foot and pushed his body forward, taking the attack head-on.


    The sh between the w energy and Theo''s shield was intense as Theo was pushed back several feet due to the raw force alone.


    He knew Muscle Enhancement wasn''t enough to rival a Mythical Rank Expert, but this attack should haveunched him away without it. So, he was relieved to have this skill now.


    After that, Theo raised his left hand, summoning his Irregr Guardian in its sword form.


    The sword immediately flew toward the entema as thetter struck it with its ws.


    Suddenly, the sword split into two, turning into long stic sticks that looped around the w to hit the head behind it.


    However, a Mythical Rank Monster was scarier than Theo thought as it had enough speed to suddenly grab the two sticks and snap them into two.


    "Shaaa!" The entema let out a cry. Before the sticks could transform, Entema threw them away and rushed to Theo, realizing what he wanted.


    "In that case, how about this?" Theo waved his hand again, summoning three balls of Magic Power that weren''t visible to naked eyes. This was Theo''s Heisk or Invisible Vortex.


    Unfortunately for him, the entema was fast enough to cut all the balls with its ws before they could explode.


    "Seriously?" Theo leaped back to gain some distance.


    However, the entema caught up to him in a second and mmed both hands, trying to squash Theo to death.


    "It''s time to show the special stuff, I guess." Theo nced at Ergene and received the attack.


    *Bam!*


    Both hands mmed Theo to the ground. It packed so much power that it created a hole in the ground.


    However, the entema suddenly turned around as if feeling something. It even waved its ws to scare it away, albeit it was toote.


    "Aiii!" The entema let out a scream as blood sttered to the ground.


    The one behind him was none other than Theo. And the only way for Theo to reach that position was Blink Skill.


    "Still, it''s too dangerous." Theo ducked down again, avoiding the ws after injuring the monster.


    Unfortunately for him, his luck ran out as the entema turned out to be more stubborn than he thought.


    ''Oh no��'' Theo raised his left arm and protected his head while using his Supernatural Snake Body as well as his equipment to protect himself from the impact.


    *Bam!*


    The entema kicked Theo from the side, blowing him a hundred feet away from his position until Theo crashed into a huge tree.


    "That hurts�� Luckily, the equipment and Supernatural Snake Body were enough, or I would have been injured by that attack. I can understand why the Mythical Rank Expert has a hard time fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster." Theo smiled and immediately rose from the ground, preparing to face the entema again.


    But this time, Theo had a surprise for both the entema and Ergene.


    "Well, let''s step up our game, shall we?" Theo smiled as another Theo suddenly appeared next to him. Their appearance was exactly the same, except for the weapon.


    That was right. Theo finally used his clone.


    "That''s��" Ergene, who saw Theo''s clone, gasped as if she had found something hard to believe.

 Chapter 1194 Theodore Griffith

    Chapter 1194 Theodore Griffith����"A clone?" Ergene gasped before furrowing her eyebrows again. "But why is its Magic Power different from a normal one? They flow like a real human, not a clone�� normally, you can easily figure it out just by looking at the flow, but his is��"


    Ergene was confused by what Theo had shown. On the contrary, Theo continued his fight.


    Theo and his clone summoned their Death Avatar at the same time and covered the area with mist, trying to blind the monster.


    The entema swept the mist with a powerful energy from his w, blowing them away.


    Theo didn''t maintain the mist well enough, so they left the area in an instant, revealing Theo and his clone position.


    It turned out both of them were charging straight at the entema with their Death Avatar and Irregr Guardian.


    The entema was confused for a second, not knowing which one was the real Theo.


    Both of them waved their hands at the same time, sending the Irregr Guardian Sword forth. The entema easily struck both swords down, but the Death Avatar tried to overpower it with their giant bodies.


    The entema, for the first time, received their blows with its hands.


    *Bam!*


    The collision between their hands caused a small shock wave in the area, but because Theo was nning to attack him, the entema grabbed the Death Avatar and spun its body to throw them away.


    Theo felt like his shadow was being pulled out until it reached the maximum range of the Death Avatar''s summoning range and disappeared.


    "��" Theo and his clone were quite shocked by the entema''s power, but he continued moving forward and slipped past through its defense.


    When they were about to sh the entema''s feet, a surge of wind covered the feet and blew everything away.


    "!!!" Theo tried to withstand this power with his Telekinesis and immediately utilized his Order to remove the element from it.


    The wind soon disappeared, leaving only the Magic Power. However, the Magic Power was actually enough to blow him away.


    "What''s that?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. Even though the Magic Power lost its element, it seemed that the entema could still find a way to make them move.


    ''Seriously? I guess a Mythical Rank Monster is that strong that you can easily control the Magic Power in the area to push me back.'' Theo thought while furrowing his eyebrows, finding a way to defeat the monster.


    Before the monster couldunch an attack, both Theo and his clone controlled their Irregr Guardian Sword at the same time, stopping the entema from making a single move.


    After that, they used their Telekinesis and flew back to the monster.


    Clone Theo raised his de and covered it with Thunderp Fist and Enhanced Concentration Capacity, focusing all the Magic Power to the tip of the de.


    Seeing this enormous Magic Power, the entema''s focus returned to Clone Theo as he waved both ws, sending crescent-shaped energy to cut him down.


    However, the real Theo appeared between them. His right hand was wielding a shield made by the dwarf while the other hand controlled Irregr Guardian Shield Form.


    With those two hands, he stopped the ws attack, resulting in him getting pushed back.


    "He can use a clone, that kind of powerful technique, as well as a Perfect Control�� Why does this sound like the person that once shook the world in the Grand Gaia Competition?" Ergene muttered in a low voice, observing Theo''s movement. "But he should have died��"


    Ergene fell silent, contemting the probability. She soon widened her eyes and gasped.


    "No way. What if he didn''t die? I don''t know how he did it, but if he could make a clone that had the same Magic Power flow like the real body, it would be possible for him to escape. Is he truly THE Theodore Griffith?"


    Ergene was horrified by this sudden revtion.


    In fact, Theo didn''t really want to hide his identity from his group. After all, they were going to cover each other in a fight. If the truth suddenly came to light and caused a hugemotion in the group, they might destroy the group he worked hard to create.


    Hence, Theo had been trying to reveal his identity to one person at the time.


    He came up with this idea when he saw Felix''s loyalty. After that, Theo could make a broader n with Felix, allowing him to use all his skills like a clone or blink.


    Then, he moved to Jeff. Although Jeff hadn''t discovered it yet, he should have some suspicion already. It was just a matter of time for Jeff to figure it out.


    Although Chris was a good candidate since he was basically the third Mythical Rank Expert he recruited, he chose not to because Chris'' loyalty was not at the level yet.


    And this time, it was Ergene''s turn to know about his identity. He wanted her to be prepared for what was toe, making sure she didn''t regret following him.


    Of course, there was a huge shock on Ergene''s face as if she was trying to determine if her guess was correct or not.


    However, Theo gave her thest clue that proved his identity.


    When the entema was about to stab Theo''s body with its ws, Theo suddenly disappeared into thin air. There was no way Theo was fast enough to escape from Ergene''s eyes, especially when she was watching from afar.


    In other words, Theo truly vanished.


    The next thing she realized, Theo was already behind the entema and struck its back, albeit getting stopped by the spike-like fur.


    "As expected, he used that earlier. That is�� his teleportation ability. There''s no mistaking it." Ergene''s body was trembling upon this revtion. "He''s truly Theodore Griffith. He''s from the Griffith Family, so that exins his Perfect Control. He''s extremely cunning, like his reputation. Last but not least, he''s in the Star Group because he''s close to Maya from the Starry Group. Why did I never think of this?


    "Joker is Theodore Griffith! Why? Was it because they had two different styles? Was it because Joker had been unting his power everywhere while Theo was hiding his power and working in the dark?"


    Ergene realized�� from his funeral in Italy to Theo''s current action and character turned out to be Theo''s n to shift their thought from the actual Theo.


    "How can he even n all this?"

 Chapter 1195 Weird

    Chapter 1195 Weird����*Huft!*


    *Huft!*


    Theo panted a few times as he had been fighting against a single monster for fifteen minutes. It was truly one of the longest fights against a Normal Monster.


    Although he was exhausted, he had some confidence in taking down the monster because he had been injuring the monster from time to time, weakening it with those wounds and blood loss.


    If this continued for another ten minutes, he was sure that the monster was dead.


    But the moment the entema rushed forward, lightning suddenly sparked in front of Theo and spread only in the entema''s direction, electrocuting it.


    "!!!" Theo was slightly surprised that Ergene chose to interfere now. But he didn''t waste this time.


    With the lightning numbing and paralyzing the entema''s body, he made a swift charge and cut the entema. Thetter still managed to avoid his attack by throwing himself to the side, but Theo still cut his left arm.


    After that, he continued cutting the entema apart and ultimately killed him.


    [Killed an Entema.]


    [EXP +4,511,900.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    "That was hard." Theo let out a breath of relief. He had exhausted arge portion of his power to kill this one Mythical Rank Monster. If not because of Ergene''s help, he might need two-thirds of his Magic Power to kill a single monster. And the situation would be extremely difficult with multiple Mythical Rank Monsters or Supreme Rank Monsters joining the fight.


    Although the amount of EXP he got was huge, he wouldn''t be able to reach his goal this time.


    And that was where Ergene came in.


    After seeing Theo killing the entema, Ergene leaped into the air andnded next to Theo, asking, "Are you truly�� Theodore Griffith?"


    "What''s wrong? Regretting your choice now?" Theo smiled.


    "But you have shown your face to me at that time! You didn''t use any Magic Power or face mask��"


    "You can just say that it''s my power." Theo pointed at his clone. "Don''t you think my clone looks like a real body?"


    "That''s true��"


    Theo shrugged with a smile as if telling her that was the case. Of course, Theo wasn''t going to say anything since it would be a lie.


    Ergene, on the other hand, furrowed her eyebrows. Obviously, everyone wanted to be Theodore Griffith because they idolized him. From someone who was bullied and lost everything, Theo fought against fate and became the MVP of the Grand Gaia Competition.


    Later he found out that he was the son of the two big families: The War God Family and the Griffith Family. His talent was also beyond everyone''s imagination.


    His name alone could strike fear in many people''s hearts because they didn''t know what evil ns he had for them.


    Although they idolized Theo, no one dared to im he was Theodore Griffith. After all, one of the top hidden families, the Griffith Family, would hunt them down.


    Yet, Joker imed that he was Theodore Griffith. With the rest of the proof in her head, she had to admit that they were really the same person.


    "Still, even if the Star Group created an ID for you, it would be impossible to escape from the Griffith Family''s eyes. They would realize that the ID Card just appeared out of nowhere." Ergene was still confused about one thing.


    However, Theo only shrugged his shoulders and said, "I already created two identities even before going to the Grand Gaia Competition�� Even if they can trace it, they won''t know it''s me. Unless the Griffith Family can threaten the United Nations, they won''t be able to find out."


    "��" Ergene sucked a cold breath. To think that his n was already from that far away, she waspletely stunned, not realizing it was just her misunderstanding since Joker Identity was createdpletely not for a huge n like this.


    "What''s wrong? Do you regret it now? Following me means fighting against the Griffith Family. They''ll hunt you down as soon as they know it''s me." Theo smirked.


    "How many people have known this?" Ergene answered his question with another question.


    "Felix and Jeff? I think. I''ve given a task to Jeff, which is basically one of the biggest hints to my identity. So, with you, there are three people in our group. Millie, Chris, and Ryo are unaware of this at all�� But Isaac seems to have some suspicions already. He''s a smart guy after all."


    "No wonder yourbat prowess is ridiculously high." Ergene let out a long sigh. "It turned out the moment I epted that challenge of yours, I had fallen into your trap."


    "So, are you going to leave me now? Or probably kill me and give my head to the Griffith Family?" Theo smiled.


    "Don''t underestimate me. I have sworn to follow you, so of course, I''m going to see it through, even if it means the path of my doom. However, I feel a bit excited now." Ergene smiled while snapping her fingers as if she wanted to fight.


    "Excited?" Theo expected Ergene to be angry and scared, but he never thought she would be excited.


    "Yes. You can fool the Griffith Family this whole time is enough for me to know you are qualified to challenge them. Fighting against all odds anding out victorious�� there''s nothing more exciting than this."


    "Sorry to say, but you''re pretty weird, you know that?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "You''re thest person who can say that. You''re a freak." Ergene snorted.


    "Well, since you helped me earlier, that means you have��" Theo nced at Ergene, waiting for her answer to their cooperation.


    "You can indeed fight and even defeat a Mythical Rank Monster with all your power. However, it will drain too much energy, lowering your leveling speed which is already ridiculously high. That''s why you brought me here, right? You want to lower the Magic Power consumption with my help while raising my levels as well."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. Ergene''s eyes indeed could see his n easier than anyone else in the group.


    "I''m in! Let''s do this. You already have Perfect Control, so I don''t see any problem in you reaching Mythical Rank right now. If my help can quicken the progress, I''d love to help."


    "Great. Let''s do it then?"


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1196 Interference

    Chapter 1196 Interference����In Egypt, the Fist Saint received a distinguished guest.


    She was a middle-aged woman with long brown hair. There was a huge ck bag under her eyes, making her face look gloomy. However, her gaze felt different for those who made eye contact with her. They would feel their souls were getting ripped apart.


    The woman had no fear, even when she was facing the Fist Saint as she walked to one of the Fist Saint''s mansions, only to find the Fist Sainting out to greet her.


    "Madam F." The Fist Saint smiled warmly.


    Despite being a top ten expert, the Fist Saint was extremely polite to this woman.


    Madam F nodded her head and said, "You are injured indeed."


    The Fist Saint scratched the back of his head awkwardly.


    "I''m not going to talk about it right now. I can understand why you want me to visit you instead of the other way around." Madam F observed the Fist Saint''s condition before saying, "Anyway, I owed you a favor, so I''m going to repay it right now."


    "Thank you. Pleasee in. I''ve prepared everything you requested for."


    Madam F nodded and followed the Fist Saint to the back of his mansion and found a few things.


    They were a sheep, sword, mirror, and brush.


    The Fist Saint had emptied the mansion so that no one could see Madam F or even disturb her.


    As soon as she confirmed the items, she asked, "Who do you want to read?"


    "To be honest, I want you to read mine and the old hag."


    "My favor only allows you to request me to read a single person. And that is only a person that I''ve seen." Madam F rejected him without hesitation.


    The Fist Saint thought for a moment. Since he needed a bit more time to recover and would stay in the country within that time, he answered, "Then, the old hag."


    "The Death Reaper is it��" Madam F nodded and walked toward the mirror. She dropped the mirror on top of the grass and grabbed the sword. "I have seen her, but do you have her current photo?"


    "No. But I think I can ask her selfie right now."


    "Ask it then."


    "Okay." The Fist Saint immediately grabbed his Skylink to contact the Death Reaper.


    Meanwhile, Madam F led the sheep to the mirror and�� cut its neck.


    There wasn''t a single hesitation to cut the sheep. The blood sttered around, but most of them dropped to the mirror, covering the entire mirror.


    After that, Madam F sat on the grass and used the brush to write down a few symbols on the mirror, utilizing the blood as her paint.


    "This is her photo." The Fist Saint came to her and put down his Skylink, showing the photo to Madam F.


    Without answering him, Madam F looked at the photo as her ck eyes turned white.


    A huge shadow suddenly came out of the ground and grabbed her as if trying to possess her. After that, Madam F lowered her head until her face was only a few inches away from the mirror.


    Her entire body and even Magic Power turned ck.


    "��" The Fist Saint took a step back to give her some distance. He observed her while furrowing his eyebrows, thinking, ''Blood Divination. An ability that makes her one of the most protected people in the world.


    ''The ability itself can only be used once a month. However, it''s so urate that many powerful leaders or businessmen want to receive her divination because they can gain so much rich from her divination.


    ''If someone targets her, they will receive the anger from those who want to receive her favor. That''s why she''s one of the most protected people in the world.''


    While he was thinking, an abrupt conclusion urred.


    The mirror suddenly cracked, and the blood spurted like a fountain, covering her entire face.


    "AAAAHHHH!" Madam F screamed in pain as she used her hands trying to cover her face.


    "Madam F? What happened?!" The Fist Saint''s heart instantly dropped when he saw something unfamiliar. He immediately came to Madam F''s side while checking her condition, wondering what had happened.


    Madam F gritted her teeth. Although her eyes were covered with blood, she could still endure the pain as a Mythical Rank Expert. However, her body was clearly shaken from the shock.


    "Madam F?" The Fist Saint tried to know her condition. "Who do I need to call at a time like this? Do you want to go to the hospital?"


    "Fist Saint��." Madam F grabbed his hand tightly as she started wiping the blood on her face while keeping her eyes closed. She asked with a heavy tone. "Who have you offended?"


    "What?" The Fist Saint tilted his head in confusion, not understanding her question. "I have offended many people, but no one is stronger than me."


    "NO!" She shouted desperately.


    "What did you see earlier?"


    "I didn''t see anything. Only blood. And that''s exactly the problem." Madam F gnashed her teeth. "Even the Time God wouldn''t escape my eyes that could see the future! However, this is different.


    "There is someone blocking my eyes the whole time. That bloodied thing prevented me from seeing anything! Do you know what this means?"


    Her tone was filled with anger while the Fist Saint had no words to say as he truly didn''t know anything about this.


    "This means there''s a stronger existence than the Time God who can block my eyes from seeing the future. Only someone at that level can do it! Who did you offend, Fist Saint? Out with it!"


    "I��" The Fist Saint scratched the back of his head. "I don''t know. I truly don''t have any idea which is strong enough to cause all that. If that person is stronger than the Time God, wouldn''t I be dead already?"


    Madam F gritted her teeth as she couldn''t refute his words. But she was still angry. If she didn''t read the Death Reaper''s future or the Fist Saint didn''t invite her here, she wouldn''t be involved in this.


    "You make that existence aware of my presence. I don''t even know what my future will be from now on! You fist bastard! I''m going to curse you for this."


    Just like the Fist Saint, no one actually knew this existence since they couldn''t imagine a person stronger than the Time God.


    Unbeknownst to all living people in the world, an unknown force had begun to move.

 Chapter 1197 Illusion

    Chapter 1197 Illusion����Meanwhile, on the other side, Theo shouted, "It''sing, Ergene!"


    "Okay!" Ergene nodded and stepped forward, charging her electricity on her sword before striking a huge bear.


    The bear was fifteen feet tall. With its size, a smack from him would crush all the bones in Ergene''s body. The paw was even covered by ck-colored me.


    However, the moment Ergene struck the paw with her lightning sword, the lightning dispersed in all directions, extinguishing the ck me.


    After that, Theo and his clone moved toward them.


    The beat immediately spread its paw to hit both Theo at the same time. Ergene took this opportunity to duck down and sh the bear''s feet.


    As a Mythical Rank Monster, the bear still managed to react to this attack. It covered its body with the ck me to block it.


    This was the time Theo took him by surprise. He snapped his fingers, removing the ck me from his reality.


    Ergene''s sword should be sharp enough to cut through the Magic Power no matter how dense it was.


    However, Theo clicked his tongue when he saw the ck me appear again right after it was extinguished, receiving the impact from Ergene''s sword.


    He and his clone ended up stopping and leaping away to regain some distance.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth.


    They had been fighting together for two months. Theo''s level had even reached 670, only twenty levels away from his goal.


    But even with his current strength, it was still hard for him to remove everything.


    Unlike the curse in Millie''s body, whose caster was already dead, the bear was still alive. Because he only removed the element, the remaining Magic Power could still be used to reignite its power.


    And the thing he learned from the past two months was that someone at Mythical Rank had its speed double as well. Not only could it use a move twice the strength with half the effort, but the speed ofpleting that ability was also quicker.


    Even Theo had a hard time removing them. His Order worked, but not that effective.


    "I''ll y with the bear first. You will wait for the right time tounch an attack." Ergene shouted as she rushed to the bear, keeping itpany.


    Meanwhile, Theo observed their movement while furrowing his eyebrows.


    ''As expected, unless I''m a Mythical Rank Expert myself, I will still find some trouble in fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster. There is another difference between humans and monsters. When fighting against humans, I''m fighting against their intelligence. However, monsters, especially Normal ss Monsters, use their instincts in the fight. That''s why their response is extremely fast,'' Theo thought.


    ''How I wish to be a Mythical Rank Expert right now�� I can use the Magic Power in the environment to keep the ''Attribute Removal'' before killing the monster.''


    After learning about Technique, Theo didn''t name only the Irregr Guardian. He also gave a name to his Order''s technique, Attribute Removal.


    Due to him using his Order continuously, he also gained another ability for his Order, specifically the Illusion vs Reality.


    Using the concept of what the Mind Elder used to fight against his parents, Theo utilized his Order and Illusion Maniption to recreate this extremely powerful illusion ability.


    "Ergene. I''m going to use a new thing. It will also impact you since I don''t have enough control to focus on a single target right now. Tell me how you feel after this, okay?" Theo smiled.


    "Got it." Ergene nodded.


    Theo then ced his hand on the ground and retracted his clone so he could focus better.


    Without anyone knowing, he had ced a Covenant Seal on the ground like the Frost Giant and the Dark King.


    With this seal, the Magic Power in the environment would start to get sucked by the seal and released into the air as a Magic Power contaminated by his Order. This way, he had another supply of Order Energy to wield this power.


    Theo then snapped his finger.


    Suddenly, the bear and Ergene widened their eyes as they looked down, finding the ground started to split.


    "This is��" Ergene gasped. She couldn''t see through the illusion due to the Covenant Seal giving enough energy to turn the illusion into reality.


    "The ground split?!" Ergene nced at Theo, who was outside the range.


    However, before she could say anything, the ground was fully opened as the bear and Ergene fell into the darkness.


    "Aaaahhhh!" Ergene screamed because of the shock, while the bear had the same reaction.


    But soon, the twonded on the ground with their feet. The fallsted for ten seconds, so when theynded, there was a sharp pain in their knees due to the fall and body weight.


    "Kh!" Ergene gritted her teeth and saw the bear fall to its knees.


    However, the bear had yet to give up and waved its ws, hitting Ergene from the side.


    Ergene raised her sword, but because of the shock, she didn''t have enough time to take a deep step to receive this attack. In fact, even the ck ground felt like muddy ground.


    Ergene ended up getting blown away and crashed into a hard object in this darkness. Even though it was filled withplete darkness, the bear was still visible with her eyes, to her surprise.


    She felt like she was floating on muddy ground with only her and the bear existed. But she also noticed the hard object that caught her and turned her head, finding a ck stone.


    "What is this ce?" Ergene gasped, looking around to find Theo. But she couldn''t see a single creature other than the bear. "What did he do to cause all this?"


    The bear was also confused by what happened, but it still attacked Ergene since she was the only prey it could kill.


    Unbeknownst to them, Theo hadn''t even taken a single step from his previous position. And in Theo''s eyes, Ergene crashed into a tree while the bear just started moving from his original position.


    That was right. The feeling of falling, the darkness, and everything was the illusion Theo created. And it was even impossible to see through due to his Reality Order.


    ''Well, the first test is a sess. They didn''t realize they were standing still when falling because I manipted their senses�� but I need to experience more like the wind resistance when falling and other stuff. If I can''t recreate every single feeling, the enemy will realize it sooner orter. It''s not at the level of the Mind Elder, but it''s good enough for my first time, I guess��'' Theo smiled.

 Chapter 1198 Missing

    Chapter 1198 Missing


    Two months after the reading Madam F had, the Fist Saint finally met the Death Reaper for the first time, telling her about the incident.


    "So, I want to know your thoughts about this. Do you think there is an existence stronger than the Time God?" the Fist Saint asked.


    "I don''t think so. The Time God is the strongest person in the world. But still�� Even if there''s no human stronger than him, we don''t know anything about the other side��"


    "!!!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes in shock. "So, you mean��"


    "Yeah. The monsters�� especially those King ss and World ss Monsters. We don''t know anything about their Orders and Authorities. There is a possibility that they have a unique Order that can block her eyes.


    "I''m pretty sure that you know how versatile an Order can be, right? If you take a look at it, we have an Order called Camera."


    "Indeed." The Fist Saint nodded. "That guy who thinks himself the undying cameraman�� That shouldn''t have existed in the past. In other words, the world recognizes that as a new Order, giving it to him."


    "Yeah. There might exist an Order that is beyond our understanding. That''s why I''m thinking about the real reason for that incident��"


    "I see. What kind of monster would cause that incident, especially with the fact that she was outside the picture before this." The Fist Saint nodded in agreement. "How about that Joker? Everything starts to change after meeting him."


    "Don''t be ridiculous. He''s only a Supreme Rank Expert."


    "How about his backing? He can get the help of two King ss Monsters and one World ss Monster. Don''t you think this is strange?"


    "We don''t know if it''s Joker or not." The Death Reaper shook her head. "For now, I''m nning to go to America sooner orter. I want to make sure to cripple the Star Group and the Starry Group. I''ll use their influence to find out who Joker really is."


    "I see. Well, you have my disciple and my assistant to help you. What''s the stance of their president? Do you think he will help the Star Group?"


    "Well, I can give him many benefits to stop him from interfering. Even though the Star Group is a bigpany, there are manypanies that are ready to swallow them the moment they copse.


    "If I help him control thosepanies, I''m sure he will agree to abandon the Star Group." The Death Reaper shrugged.


    "But the Time God still resides in that country."


    "I''m not nning to kill someone. The Time God only moves when we''re killing someone but won''t do anything if it''s just a small conflict like your disciple is doing." The Death Reaper shook her head.


    "Well, if you have thought it through, I don''t really mind. However, you need to be extra careful because of what happened to Madam F."


    "I know. Don''t underestimate me! I''m the third person in the world. Death is my power! And right now, I can''t even see my own death! That''s why it''s impossible for me to die right now" She snorted.


    "Okay if you say so. Still, have you heard about the rumors spreading in the US? My disciple told me about it."


    "About Joker appearing in the Asda Banquet or the scandal of the Star Group?"


    "Both."


    "Well, Joker appearing in the Asda Banquet will be a perfect time for my student to fight him. This way, she can challenge him formally and reveal his face. As for the Star Group, I''m not very sure�� Though, we''ve gained a huge opportunity for this, allowing us to weaken the Star Group, which has been gaining some leads in this battle."


    "So, you''re nning to attack them because of that?"


    "Yes. I''m nning to weaken the Star Group until they have no choice other than to send Joker to fight my student. In other words, I will be using the second rumor to make the first rumore true."


    "That''s a good n. Unfortunately, I can''t help you due to my current condition. I still have a hard time removing the frost energy from my body."


    "You can just rest. I''m enough to settle everything." The Death Reaper snorted.


    As they continued discussing their n, Maya was scratching her head while looking at the Skylink, trying to figure out a way to handle this problem.


    She was sitting in Bernard''s office alone. In fact, the seat was Bernard''s seat.


    After two months, her talentpletely bloomed, making Bernard even speechless.


    In the end, Bernard gave the responsibility to Maya and supported her, teaching her about the informationwork and other stuff that he had been doing. Eventually, he handed the position of the Star Group CEO to her. He doubted anyone would refuse to acknowledge Maya if she could solve this situation.


    With that knowledge, Maya took the approach to a whole different level, overwhelming the enemy''s side.


    However, she didn''t know when it started, but the rumors about the Star Group scandal began to spread.


    Even with an official statement from the Star Group, the rumor shifted a bit but still attacked them.


    It was as if someone deliberately spread the false news to weaken the Star Group and the Starry Group''s reputation.


    She investigated the rumors, but she was horrified when the beggars turned out to be the culprit. She never thought that the beggars would choose the Death Reaper''s side.


    They even went all the way to deny any responsibility and continue to attack them with the rumors.


    "Why is this happening?" Maya gritted her teeth. "Our stock price has gone down by 20%. Not only that but there are already three Mythical Rank Experts canceling the contract and leaving thepanies! It''s because of that damned rumor�� There are around thirty thousand people working for the beggars. They can spread the rumor quickly and reach a vast area. Fuck!


    "Everything has been going downhill ever since the rumor started. What should I do right now?"


    When things couldn''t get any worse, her mother suddenly mmed the door open while panting. She looked at Maya with a panicked face.


    "Mom? What''s wrong?"


    "Your father�� Your father��"


    "What happened to him?"


    "Your father has disappeared. I don''t know where he is right now�� Has he been kidnapped?"


    "What?!"

 Chapter 1199 Situation

    Chapter 1199 Situation


    "This��" Maya clutched her head.


    Without hesitation, Maya immediately asked for an investigation group to find her father. If he was kidnapped, the enemy would most likely ask for a huge ransom.


    However, even after three days, there wasn''t any news about her father. It was as if her father had just vanished into thin air.


    She thought her father had been killed by someone. Even so, Maya still didn''t lose hope. As long as she hadn''t found his corpse, she would continue to believe that her father was still alive somewhere.


    Unfortunately for her, that wasn''t the only thing she needed to worry about.


    The news of her father missing immediately spread to their enemies, causing them to start poaching the experts from the Star Group.


    It was clear that Bernard was a good CEO who controlled this giantpany. There was a lot of trust in him.


    But because Bernard suddenly disappeared as if he was killed by someone, the unrest started to creep into his followers'' hearts.


    It was at this time all the experts from the Star Group, whether they were Mythical Rank Experts or just Normal Rank Experts, started to reconsider their choices.


    On the one hand, Maya was indeed capable of recing Bernard. On the other hand, Bernard was still the bigger person since he had so much experience and achievement.


    That loss of trust made the people''s hearts waver.


    With the help of the enemies who started poaching the experts from the Star Group and the Starry Group, they began to leave the twopanies. Their experts simply couldn''t resist the temptation of a great contract because the twopanies'' prospects had gone down.


    In the end, a third of the experts that the twopanies had decided to resign. Although the Star Group and the Starry Group received a huge amount of money due to the penalty of breaking the contract, they simply couldn''t spend that capital easily.


    Maya first took a portion of that money to stabilize its stock price. With the loss of so many experts, the investors had begun to leave as well, causing a lot of shares to be sold in the market.


    After that, Maya used the rest of the money to find some more experts to rece them.


    Unfortunately, not many people actually wanted to join the twopanies simply because the Star Group would be destroyed sooner orter. And someone would buy their share and take over the business. So, they decided to wait even with that huge incentive from thepanies.


    That one month was basically hell for Maya as she hadn''t gone home at all. She couldn''t show any more weakness or the twopanies would copse.


    Due to the other side affecting the strength of the people on this side, the business had two giant pirs supporting them. The first was money, while the second was strength. Now that the second pir had been chopped down, Maya needed to burn some money to retain a bit of their strength.


    Unfortunately for her, the turnover rate of herpany soared to the sky, causing huge chaos in thepany itself.


    Maya was lying down on her table with a huge ck bag under her eyes. Her assistant brought a coffee.


    "This is your coffee." She put on a gentle smile, trying to soothe her heart even a little bit.


    "Mhm��" Maya mumbled in a low voice. She asked, "What''s the situation right now? How''s the investigation?"


    "Thepany is under a lot of stress. From our data, the statistic of people quitting is above 40%. Some Ranks even reach 60-70%. Also, 50% of Mythical Rank Experts left thepanies. Even with both groupsbined, we only have roughly 20 Mythical Rank Experts right now. One of the S Rank Talent from the Star Group has resigned as well."


    "Who is that?"


    "Silvia."


    "How are Patrick and Mark?"


    "Both of them have been extremely quiet in their mansion. We haven''t heard anything from them."


    "I see. Still, this is a problem." Maya scratched the back of her head, wondering how to deal with this problem again. "How is the situation of our warehouses and factories?"


    "Two warehouses and one factory were destroyed. One more factory will go down soon because no one can take care of that ce anymore."


    "The Star Group is the 4th biggestpany in the world while my Starry Group is 68th. Yet, we can''t do anything against the top ten experts in the world�� Is there even a reason for us to build apany if strength is all they need to conquer these two colossalpanies?" Maya let out a long sigh.


    "That�� I don''t know."


    "Anyway, I want you to take care of the worker distribution. Do you have any way to contact my grandfather? He should be aware of this sudden attack, so I don''t understand why he''s noting out�� If my grandfather is here, his reputation can stop the people from leaving. He has a lot of achievements after all." Maya sighed.


    "We haven''t found him nor received any contact."


    "Why? Why does my grandfather not do anything? Well, whatever. How''s the military?"


    "They''ve been reinforcing our hotels on the other side so we can focus on this side, but that''s all. They haven''t done anything more."


    "Tsk. They asked us for help, and now they abandoned us after we were done. Fuck them. I''m not going to have any connection with the military or white house anymore." Maya clicked her tongue. "Then, how is Joker?"


    "I''m not sure. Every time we went there to check, we were stopped by his Mythical Rank Assistant."


    "This is not going to work. I''ve done so much, but to think my father is all it took for thepanies to copse." Maya sighed. "It seems that no one looks at me that favorably."


    "I apologize for saying this, but I believe it''s due to your arrogant nature. It''s true that you''re talented, but you''re too arrogant, making people dislike you. That''s why you can entice them, but you can''t make them stay."


    "Well��" Maya closed her eyes. It was true that she was arrogant, but she had worked hard to reach this point by herself. She had the right to act like that. If it was a small problem, the people would still continue to trust her, but with a problem at this scale, the hatred in people''s hearts was enhanced.


    "I know, I''m wrong. I can make excuses like I''m still young and full of energy or I''ve achieved all that from myself, but I don''t want to do it anymore. Instead ofmenting my mistake right now, I''ll do it better next time. So, for now, I want to focus on saving the twopanies first before fixing that problem." Maya nodded. Although the words were harsh, she understood her mistakes perfectly.


    "I understand. I''ll return to my position then."


    "Yeah. Thank you for the report. Tell me if anything goes wrong��"


    When her assistant was about to leave, her Skylink rang. She excused herself and took the call outside before suddenly rushing back inside.


    "Ehm, Miss. There is someone who wants to meet you."


    "Who is that?"


    "She goes by the name of Nagasawa Rea. It seems she is delivering an invitation."


    "Invitation?" Maya widened her eyes in shock, considering Nagasawa Rea was under Theo''s jurisdiction.


    "Yes. The invitation to the Asda Banquet."

 Chapter 1200 Mark and Patrick

    Chapter 1200 Mark and Patrick


    While Maya was stuck in her office, Mark was surprised to see a guest. He was none other than Patrick.


    "Hello, Mark. How are you?"


    "Excellent. Although I shouldn''t say this, the situation has truly given me the opportunity to focus on getting stronger." Mark nodded with a calm expression.


    "Great. Do you mind if Ie in? I have something to say to you."


    "Sure." Mark invited him in, leading him to the living room so that they could talk.


    After getting themselvesfortable, Mark asked, "So, what do you want to talk about?"


    "I''m actually thinking of leaving the Star Group. We''ve lost many experts, causing thepany to weaken. This will cause a huge disruption in thepany. There''s a chance that the enemy will attack us too."


    Mark''s body trembled when he heard Patrick''s words. He couldn''t help but close his eyes, thinking the time hade.


    After listening to the current situation of the group, there was a thought of this potential future. But it soon reminded him of the prophecy of the Queen of Destiny. It was said that he needed to make a big decision soon that would decide his entire life.


    It was clear this situation was where he needed to make that decision. After all, he might have died during this incident had he not left thepany.


    However, Mark smiled and shook his head, thinking, ''A big choice? I don''t even need to think to answer this��''


    "I''ve heard the situation." Mark nodded in agreement. "Though, are you sure about this?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "I am talking about quitting the Star Group. I know that the situation has be like this�� Even I have numerous messages asking me to join theirpanies. However, I''ve deleted all of them." Mark shrugged.


    "Ho? Delete them? It''s surprising to hear that, considering you still have a long future awaiting you. Although theirpanies won''t be as good as the Star Group, the current condition makes their offer better than what the Star Group can provide us."


    "I know. That''s why I don''t ept it." Mark nodded. "I owe Sir Bernard a lot. My heart hurt when I heard he was missing. To be honest, I was a homeless guy that you could find anywhere beforeing to this ce. I was abandoned by my parents when I was six years old and lived from other people''s pity.


    "Sir Bernard had amunity event at that time. Long story short, I met him at that event, and he decided to take me back. When I became old enough to start getting stronger, I was happy because I could repay him back.


    "Later, I got a God Rank Blessing, and Sir Bernard wanted to contract me with a huge incentive. Honestly, I didn''t care about that. I even refused it because I wanted to repay Sir Bernard. If he didn''t take me away at that time, I would have suffered and died long ago.


    "Still, Sir Bernard insisted on me taking the contract, the one that all the experts got. The terms weren''t that different as well. Even if he wanted to take advantage of me, I wouldn''t hesitate to help him. But he didn''t��


    "So, I want to dedicate my life to the Star Group. You may call me a fool or whatever, but I''m staying here." Mark smiled, exining his choice.


    "I see." Surprisingly, Patrick had a smile on his face as if he felt relieved by his answer.


    "Huh?" That smile confused Mark since it was very contradicting to what Patrick said earlier.


    "Haha. That was just a test for you, Mark." Patrick chuckled.


    "A test?"


    "Yeah. I indeed received many offers, but��" Patrick took out his Skylink and showed his Skymail to him. "See this? I have been replying to all of them."


    "Replying��" Mark furrowed his eyebrows.


    "No, no. That''s not like what you think. I am also indebted to the Star Group, but in my case, it''s Sir Hendry."


    "The former CEO?"


    "Yes. Not long after themotion started, Sir Hendry appeared in front of me once. He told me to keep all the information, as well as the offers from these people. It can be used to recognize our enemies."


    "What?"


    "You shouldn''t delete the mails, Mark." Patrick smirked. "With this, we can know which one is taking the opportunity and which one is trying to attack us. I have no doubt whether it''s the grandfather, the father, or the daughter�� All of them have great talent in the business. I know that the Star Group won''t fall down.


    "That''s why I am finding the targets to strike back as soon as we go through this hard time. Though, I haven''t told anyone about this since Sir Hendry wanted me to keep quiet until everything ends. I don''t know the reason though."


    "I see." Mark nodded in understanding.


    "Haha. I guess we will be together from now on, Mark." Patrick smiled.


    "Yes. It''s my pleasure to work with you."


    "Since I''ve confirmed your intention, do you want to train with me? Since we can only wait, I have some spare time to train you."


    "Are you sure about this?"


    "Of course. I''ve been busy replying to those emails, but most of them have emailed me, so I have some time now."


    "Well, training huh��" Mark looked down as if he remembered something.


    "What happened? Do you not want to train with me? Well, I don''t really mind."


    "No, it''s not that."


    "Then, what?"


    "If we''re talking about training, I haven''t seen him leave this whole time. He must be training for the past three months."


    "Who?"


    "Joker. Who else?"


    "Ah!" Patrick scratched the back of his head. "I was stopped by an assassin when I was about to discuss this matter."


    "To be honest, there''s another reason why I choose to remain here." Mark looked in Theo''s mansion direction with a small smile. "He hasn''t left yet."


    "��" Patrick was confused, not knowing how scary Theo was. Mark had witnessed him personally meeting a King ss Monster easily�� a monster that was so strong and would surely attack him somehow acted friendly to him. Even if anyone said Joker was just a normal person, Mark would firmly deny it in his heart.


    Just like Mark said, after a long three months of fighting monsters, Theo and Ergene had finally returned to Earth.


    "We''re finally back! There are only two weeks left before the banquet! This is the first time the banquet looks entertaining." Theo smirked.

 Chapter 1201 Call

    Chapter 1201 Call


    "Wee back." Rea politely greeted Theo when he returned.


    "Thanks." Theo nodded with a calm expression. Although Reaing here was a forced situation, Theo could make this bold n because of her.


    "I''ve delivered the invitation to Maya and Mark. Is there anything else you want me to do? Maybe you want to convince my father to help you?" Rea asked while examining Theo''s reaction.


    It was clear that Theo wanted to make a move in this banquet, but she didn''t see much development in the past few months. At the same time, the Star Group''s condition became worse day by day.


    Even after talking with her father, they couldn''t find a single n that Theo could use to turn around the situation.


    "It''s fine. I''m going to settle down on thest few things." Theo smiled. "And I''m sure I''ve told you about this�� I won''t be inviting your father because I know that your father wille."


    "Really? My father has been hesitating this whole time."


    "Yeah. Since we have the Star Group and the Starry Group here�� we will have Patrick and you being our protectors."


    "As expected, you''re going to make me go into danger, so my fatheres out, right?"


    "Well, you''re free to refuse. However, don''t you find it strange for the Star Group and the Starry Group to receive so much bacsh after suppressing their enemies?" Theo asked.


    "Huh? You have been on the other side this whole time. How do you know Maya managed to suppress the enemies and currently faces a huge attack from all directions?"


    "That''s because I''m the culprit." Theo chuckled. "Tell your father that, and he''lle."


    "Huh? You''re the culprit? But you were on the other side��" She frowned, but Theo only waved his hand and walked away, not waiting for her reply.


    "��" She was thoroughly confused right now. Why would Theo actually cause the Star Group''s downfall?


    Rea tried to talk to Theo a bit more, but because thetter refused to answer any of her questions, she ended up retiring to her room early, talking to her father.


    Meanwhile, Theo reunited with Felix and the others.


    "Isaac! Do you want toe with me to the banquet? It''s going to be extremely dangerous though."


    "Hell yeah! I really want to smack that unknown woman! She''s been cornering you in front of many people. She said you''re a coward, a weak guy, and so on in front of the camera. I want to hit her so hard�� not that I''m strong enough to do it! But I want to see you beat her!"


    "Haha, is the rumor about me that bad?"


    "It''s worse than you can possibly imagine! Most of your fans have thought the same and left you!"


    "I don''t care about my fans." Theo shrugged. "Though, it''s time to change the rumor I''d spread myself."


    "Huh?! You spread the rumor?"


    "Yeah. With some help." Theo smiled.


    "Why would you even do something like that?"


    "It''s just an invitation."


    "Invitation? To whom?"


    "Who else? I only have one person that I want to invite, the Death Reaper." Theo smirked.


    "��" Isaac looked at Theo dumbfoundedly as he couldn''tprehend the reason for Theo''s action.


    "So, that''s why it will be dangerous this time. If you want toe, tell me three days prior. I need to do a few things."


    "O-okay?!" He nodded, watching Theo leaving.


    "Felix. I want you to go to Jeff and tell him that the two of us shall go somewhere together in two days. You''re strong, so escort Jeff, alright? Millie! I want you to spread the words in the Sk that I''ve confirmed my attendance in that banquet and shall ept a fighting request from someone worthy. Ergene, go to Chris and Ryo. I''ve told you all the ns, so I expect great things from you."


    "Understood! I will do my best." Millie nodded enthusiastically as she also hated those people from ming Theo.


    "Okay." Felix epted the mission without hesitation.


    Ergene smirked while sping her hands as if she was fired up with this. Theo had truly told her his ns on the other side. She never expected that Theo truly wanted to kill the Death Reaper this time. Although this matter wouldn''t go to the public, those who had deep connections would certainly be aware of this matter. No one would underestimate Theo anymore.


    "Ergene, you can rest for a week. There''s no need to rush after all. I, too, will recuperate my body for two days." Theo smiled.


    "I''m raring to go though."


    "Rest is important too." Theo shrugged and waved his hands. "Anyway, I want to take a bath and get some sleep. See youter."


    Without waiting for their response, Theo retired to his room and tidied up his appearance as he called Agata, who he hadn''t met for thest three months.


    "You finally called me!" Agata let out a long sigh. She was worried about Theo because he was under all that pressure without being able to reveal his identity.


    "I miss you."


    "I miss you too, but wait, that''s not important. Do you know your current situation right now? Even my parents are raring to go to help you."


    "Don''t worry. Everything is under control. It''s going to end soon." Theo smiled.


    "Really? Do you need any help?"


    "No, it''s fine. Though, you may want to keep watching the news��"


    "Watching the news, huh��"


    "Yeah. Well, that''s not important right now. I just want to tell you that." Theo opened his status again and smiled at it.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 691


    EXP: 2,190,900/ 14,411,914


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Illusion Maniption (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A)


    Attributes: Strength 850, Endurance 665, Agility 657, Vitality 655, Magic Power 1200


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "��I have been killing Mythical Rank Monsters. And now, I''m at level 691�� I''m going to find thest few members I need in my group." Theo paused for a moment and looked Agata in the eyes. "Just 15 more months to do all that. I believe I can do it. I promise you that I won''t bete, even if it''s only just a day."


    That statement put a smile on Agata''s face. There were even tearsing out of the corner of her eyes. Theo had truly pushed himself too hard this time.


    "Why are you so stupid when it''s like this�� Your safety is the most important. I don''t care if you''rete by a day or even a year! I just want you to be safe." Agata closed her eyes, feeling warmth in her heart.


    Theo didn''t say anything as he simply stared at her for two more minutes before their time limit ran up, and he needed to end the call.

 Chapter 1202 Revealed

    Chapter 1202 Revealed


    "Did he say that?"


    "Yes. He was the one causing this whole mess." Rea nodded, confirming his suspicion. Even she, who heard it with her own ears, couldn''t believe it, let alone her father.


    "Are you kidding me? I''ve been following their movements this whole time because I''m curious about the conclusion of the battle between two giantpanies and two giant figures, but�� the previous result shocked me.


    "I never thought that Maya could hold them back. She was truly a peerless talent in the business world, if I say so myself.


    "However, there was a rumor striking the twopanies, followed by Bernard''s disappearance. If the rumor came from him�� doesn''t that mean Bernard''s disappearance was also rted to him?"


    "Ah!" Rea sucked a cold breath. "The time of the rumor and Mr. Bernard''s disappearance match perfectly."


    "My point exactly. Then, there''s one more thing that confuses me." The Sword Saint thought for a moment, hesitating to say it.


    Rea also tried to figure out what her father wanted to say. Ultimately, she opened her mouth first. "The invitation?"


    "Yes. It''s clear that he was using you to deliver that invitation because you were under my protection. Even the Death Reaper and the Fist Saint didn''t want to challenge me right now. So, why did he want you to send the invitation? Especially bringing you to the Asda Banquet?" The Sword Saint squinted his eyes.


    On the contrary, Rea stated in awe. "It''s the event where he will strike the Death Reaper."


    The Sword Saint smiled, nodding. The only reason he didn''tpletely tell her anything was to make her think. This was his way of teaching his daughter.


    "I see. That means he wanted Honorable Father toe here at that time. That''s why there are still two weeks for preparation. He knows it''s hard for you to travel."


    "But I still don''t see the reason for me to go there. I can simply ask you not to follow him to the banquet even if he forces you." The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly.


    "Isn''t the current situation simr to that one?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "What do you mean?"


    Rea didn''t answer her father immediately. Instead, she looked down and mumbled a few words. "Perfect Control, Chaotic Situation, Execution Time, and Turn Around��"


    The Sword Saint didn''t say anything, watching his daughter grow.


    After three minutes, her daughter sucked a cold breath and asked, "Is this connection secured?"


    "Yes. Only you and I know about our conversation."


    "Then, I have a question. Is Joker�� Theodore Griffith?"


    "!!!" The Sword Saint certainly didn''t expect that answer. He was thoroughly dumbfounded by that conclusion.


    "I mean, he has Perfect Control, matching Theodore Griffith''s talent. He also has some connection with the Starry Group and has been invited to their family house. After meeting Mr. Bernard, he should be able to get to the Star Group.


    "To be honest, I''ve been watching him most of the time, and he seems to be stuck in this mansion. What if he has been manipting the entire situation with his clone?" Rea asked.


    "��" The Sword Saint''s expression darkened as he began contemting the same thing.


    "Don''t you think this situation is simr to that one in Italy, Honorable Father?" Rea asked again. "Back then, he joined the Safulli Group, which was the enemy of the Pata Corporation.


    "When they were on the brink of copse, Theo switched sides and helped the Pata Corporation regain their glory whilepletely destroying the Safulli Group. You said that he is not that ignorant to think he could defeat the Death Reaper�� So, I am thinking if he''s confident in killing the Death Reaper, this situation perfectly fits!


    "First, the Star Group and the Starry Group will fight back to the best of their ability. Then, they''re going to start to copse like the Pata Corporation! And when the timees, he will kill the Death Reaper and regain everything for the Star Group and the Starry Group!


    "In other words, at Asda Banquet, the Death Reaper shall fall, and everything will be normal again." She exined her thoughts entirely.


    Even the Sword Saint couldn''t contain his shock. This was truly unexpected.


    "I see. So, that''s what he wants from me��" The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes as a smile soon appeared on his face. "Interesting."


    "Honorable Father?"


    "I can assure you, Rea. The Death Reaper will surely fall in the Asda Banquet. You should go with him there because I''lle too! I can''t afford to miss this kind of opportunity�� Let''s see whether my sword can cut the Death itself or not." The Sword Saint smirked.


    "You areing here, Honorable Father?"


    "Yes. It seems he''s baited me intoing! I''ve no choice but to take this bait. It seems I have severely underestimated this guy called Theodore Griffith. It was said that the reason why the Griffith Family wanted to kill him was his talent, the talent of Learning. Basically, he can learn anything�� It won''t be at the same level as the teacher, but it''s a pretty high level. Because he can learn anything, he will have the most abilities in this world.


    "In other words, his growth will be unlimited. Just imagine this, Rea. What if he learns from all the top ten experts in the world? He will be pretty much invisible. What if there is a stronger person than the Time God? He can be even stronger. In other words, as long as there is an opportunity to learn, he will continue growing.


    "Unlimited Growth! This is what the Griffith Family feared because there was already a conflict between them. And what makes it worse is that�� Theo''s brain seems to surpass his mother and grandfather, and his talent in control is above his father, who is said to be able to reach 3rd rank in the world.


    "Can you imagine what kind of monster he will be in the future? He might be able to rece the Time God! There are two big sides fighting right now! Those who want to curry favor from him and those who want to eliminate him.


    "So, I''m nning to be the former! I want to make a connection with him through you. That''s why I will help him in eliminating the Death Reaper. As for you�� I think you should stay and learn from him as much as possible. As I said earlier, his growth is unlimited. If you learn from someone with unlimited growth, you might be able to be an even bigger person since you need to keep evolving your talent just to keep up with him."


    "I understand, Honorable Father. I''ll work hard." Rea was surprised by all this information and knew the benefits of working for Theo.


    However, there was one question in the Sword Saint''s mind.


    "Still, I expected him to use this kind of opportunity to take down his grandfather from the Griffith Family. I don''t know why he chose the Death Reaper as his target since I fail to see the benefits of doing so." The Sword Saint tried to find a reason but to no avail.


    Rea offered an answer. "What if he wanted to take revenge by himself?"


    "No, he''s not a person like that. There must be an unforeseeable situation�� I think. Either way, I''ll go there, so you can wait for me."

 Chapter 1203 Appearance

    Chapter 1203 Appearance


    The time went by quickly. Theo and Jeff had left the house while Ergene and the others did their jobs perfectly.


    After a week, Theo returned to the mansion, preparing for the banquet that they were going to attend.


    This time, Theo, Isaac, and Rea would go together. Mark, Maya, and Patrick also followed suit because Theo finally made his move.


    The news shook the country since they could finally witness the battle between two giant figures.


    Some people called him a coward because he never came out this whole time, to the point the Star Group had begun to copse. Some expected him to turn around the situation, wanting to know how he would defeat this new challenger. Some didn''t care much about the whole situation.


    However, there were two people that actually cared about this. They were Lexie and Winston.


    "What do you think about this news, Winston?" Lexie asked with a calm expression.


    After the defeat, Winston had been very silent, so this was the first time he finally talked to others again. "I''m going to the banquet."


    "Are you sure about this? Others might think��"


    "I know. If I''m aspiring to be the hero in everyone''s eyes, I can''t afford to show my face right now. However, I also have a heart of a Martial Artist. No matter what, I will watch the fight to its conclusion." Winston nodded with a serious expression.


    "If you say so, then I''ll apany you."


    Winston looked at Lexie for a while before lowering his head. "Thank you for doing all this, Lexie. Even though I''ve been ignoring you this whole time."


    "Haha, you''re simply too focused on your training." Lexie chuckled. "I like your stubbornness."


    Winston was stunned to see her smile this time. It might be the first time in his life that someone had enough patience to keep up with his bad attitude. Although she was forced by her family, no one would have this patience.


    "Mhm�� I''m really sorry for ignoring you this whole time. I promise I''ll make up for it." Winston lowered his head again.


    "Is that so? I''m truly okay with it." Lexie smiled while waving her hands.


    "Then, I also want to apologize for all my bad behaviors�� I''ve truly treated you poorly. For that, I apologize."


    "You''re being weird right now, you know that?"


    "I guess��" Winston smiled awkwardly.


    "But I guess I''ll ept your offer. I''ll be waiting for you to show me how you want to make it up to me." Lexie smiled gently.


    Winston nodded with a serious expression. "After this banquet."


    "Looking forward to it."


    ��


    A few days passed by.


    Theo wore a in white shirt and long ck pants covered by a huge cloak and mask that covered his hair and face.


    Isaac wore short pants and a blue t-shirt as if they were going on vacation. On the contrary, Rea wore a sleeveless orange shirt and a white mini skirt.


    With just a single nce, Theo knew that Rea was influenced by Isaac, thinking this was a vacation.


    In the end, he let them go and picked up the other participants.


    As they went toward the venue, Maya red at Theo the whole time.


    "What?" Theo asked with a small smile.


    "You must want tough at me. Despite my confidence, I still couldn''t fight back. Even now, the twopanies are going to copse soon." Maya looked at him coldly as if she was ready to beughed at.


    Theo shook his head calmly and replied, "There''s no way I''m going tough at you. I truly respect you from the bottom of my heart. Look at you right now, you''re the CEO of both the Star Group and the Starry Group�� I can say that you''re one of the most influential women in the world."


    Maya clicked her tongue. She wanted to rebuke him, but Theo had been praising her this whole time. In the end, she couldn''t say anything and simply looked away to distract herself.


    ''This is surprising. Miss Maya has been contained with just a few praises�� that should make her be even more arrogant.'' Patrick was surprised. ''Miss Maya said she would marry the person that could defeat her�� it seems that marriage is going to happen soon, probably��''


    The trip was silent because no one seemed to befortable chatting in this situation. Thepany was in an awkward situation, so they didn''t want to identally mention it here.


    After a few hours, they finally arrived at the same mountain range where the arena and hotel were built to host this specific event.


    As expected, there were already so many people inside the hotel. Some even waited for the Star Group and the Starry Group to appear because they were the main attraction for this year''s banquet.


    Everyone wanted to see whether there was going to be another number one person in the Asda List.


    Those who were swimming in the pool on the roof suddenly stopped and looked at the bottom.


    "Hey, look at that!"


    "The Star Group and Starry Group have arrived."


    "It seems they''re nning to settle this in one go."


    "That''s right. What will they do this time?"


    "I''m waiting for the challenge!"


    From Isaac to Theo, they all starteding out of the car and entered the hotel.


    "There it is! As expected, Joker is here. We''re going to see something interesting this year."


    "Maya''splexion is not that good. Well, it can''t be helped. She''s the one controlling bothpanies. She must have a hard time."


    "Isaac seems to be together with them."


    "Yeah. And who is that girl? She''s a foreigner?"


    "Huh? Their group can''t afford another Mythical Rank Expert to even have a foreigner Supreme Rank Expert toe to protect them? I bet Joker is even stronger than her."


    "But why do I feel like I have seen her somewhere�� I can''t remember."


    The rumors of Theo''s appearance started going around. It made everyone curious about this banquet, especially tonight.


    Rachel, the woman who defeated Winston, would certainly challenge him tonight.

 Chapter 1204 Challenge

    Chapter 1204 Challenge


    After settling down, the group decided to wait in their own room to not make moremotions than they needed to.


    Finally, the night had arrived. The banquet started with all the promising young peopleing to meet each other.


    There were new peopleing to the party because Rachel wasn''t the only one who had entered this ranking. However, their attention was focused on Rachel this time, so they had been waiting for Theo and Rachel to arrive.


    However, the first one to arrive was none other than Winston and Lexie.


    Their appearance stunned everyone because they thought Winston was too ashamed to appear here after his two defeats against the current first and second person on the list.


    But it seemed Winston was nning to challenge them again in this banquet.


    "Hey. That''s Winston. What is he going to do today?"


    "As expected, he''ll ruin the challenge this time."


    "But I think Winston has be a different person after this defeat, I don''t know why."


    "Yes. Look at his expression�� Even Lexie has started smiling more often right now."


    "Is there something happening behind the scenes? Like Lexie pampering Winston after he lost?"


    "Hii��"


    "Don''t say anything else. He''s going to hear us."


    The people suddenly stopped. Although he had prepared for this, Winston still couldn''t take all of their insults.


    However, everyone''s attention soon shifted to the person that entered after them.


    She had long blond hair tied into a ponytail. Despite wearing a dress, she chose a blood-red color as if she wanted to intimidate everyone. Coupled with her cold gaze, everyone somehow froze upon her arrival.


    "This is��"


    "So, this is Rachel Vikson."


    "Yes. This is the first time I''ve seen her."


    The people started whispering to each other. Unlike Winston, they had so many things to talk about due to theirck of information. They simply didn''t know much about Rachel Vikson just like Jokerst year.


    Finally, after a five minutes pause, the door opened again. This time, the main party had arrived.


    "Hahaha! We''ve finally arrived! Time to fuck you up, motherfuckers!" Isaac couldn''t contain himself anymore. His words certainly stunned everyone.


    "Joker is really here."


    "I can''t wait for them to fight!"


    "Yeah."


    "But look, there are Mark and Isaac as well."


    "Still, look at Maya, man. She looks exhausted."


    "True. The current situation makes me pity her to be honest."


    "Well, I dislike her because of her arrogance."


    "Indeed."


    "By the way, do you know that girl over there? Shees together with Joker and the others��"


    "Now that I think about it, I feel like I''ve seen her somewhere."


    "Wait�� She is�� no way! Has Joker managed to pique that person''s interest?"


    "That person? Who?"


    "She is Nagasawa Rea!"


    "Japanese?"


    "Idiot! If he''s talking about Nagasawa Rea, he must be talking about the Sword Saint''s daughter!"


    "What? Is there a connection between Joker and the Sword Saint? Impossible."


    The people were stunned. Even Winston never expected Theo to bring such a person to this banquet.


    At the same time, Rachel made her first move by standing in front of Theo, stopping his group.


    "I don''t like what he said earlier��" Rachel narrowed her eyes, ring at Theo and Isaac. "Does this mean you''re stronger than me?"


    "Who knows?" Theo shrugged.


    "Then, we shall find out tomorrow. You and I will fight to determine who is stronger."


    "And why should I ept that?"


    "Because I''m the second rank! The only reason I can''t be the first is you! If you don''t like this necessary problem, you should have stepped down, Coward." Rachel snorted.


    "Coward, huh��" Theo smiled and nced at Rea. "What do you think?"


    Rachel looked at Rea as her expression darkened. On the other hand, Rea politely bowed to her as a greeting. "Hi, Rachel. It''s been a few years."


    "Nagasawa Rea. You shouldn''t get yourself involved in this."


    "Why? My Honorable Father sent me to help him. Is there anything wrong with it?" Rea squinted her eyes, not scared of Rachel''s threat. "If you don''t like it, why don''t you bring your teacher? My Honorable Father hasn''t fought against your Teacher after all��"


    Rachel''s eyebrows twitched.


    "I want to remind you. If your teacher wants to kill him, she will fight with my father." Rea stated coldly, threatening Rachel back.


    Rachel clenched her fists and said, "Kill? You are using a heavy word there�� I just want to challenge him. I want to see which one of us is stronger. Is there anything wrong with that?"


    "Of course not."


    "Then, you should fuck off! I don''t care about you." Rachel snorted and red at Theo. "Do you dare to fight me, Coward?"


    "Haha. Do you think you''re worthy?"


    "Heh, you''re hiding behind those words again. It''s already old." Rachel snorted.


    "I''m not hiding. I just want to warn you that I won''t hold back. Even though this is just sparring, I might not be able to stop at thest moment and identally send you to the hospital." Theo chuckled.


    "I don''t need your concern. You''re the one who should prepare a hospital bed." She snorted. "Since you''ve epted my challenge, I have no interest in this banquet anymore. I''m going back to my room."


    Without wasting any more time, Rachel left the hall. The people were stunned for a moment while Theo''s group had already spread around to enjoy the banquet. Maya, of course, didn''t have many people around her anymore because of the fall of the Star Group and the Starry Group, so she ended up staying with him.


    She looked at Theo and asked, "Are you sure you''re not nning to leave the Star Group until the contract is over, Joker?"


    Theo smiled and patted her shoulder. "Don''t worry. I''ll stay since I have the CEO of the Star Group and the Starry Group working for me. How can I leave?"


    "��" Maya closed her eyes and asked, "If I surrender everything to you, including myself, will you help the twopanies go through this crisis?"


    "The Maya that I know is a strong and independent woman. If I need to use an analogy, you''re like a zing fire, burning everything with your intense heat. But now, your ze might be smaller, but it''s very stable. This incident has given you the opportunity to stabilize the foundation of your talent. Trust yourself, Maya��"


    "��" Maya didn''t expect to receive that kind of praise from Theo. But before she could say anything, Theo patted her shoulder again and walked away.


    Still, he left one message.


    "That''s right. There is one thing you need to know. The group I created is like a family�� and you''re included. I won''t do something like my parents�� You don''t turn back on your family even if they do."


    Maya''s expression suddenly brightened, understanding Theo''s words. He already knew that she was going to make herself big because she didn''t want to work for Theo. However, Theo never nned to abandon her.


    "You��"

 Chapter 1205 The Start of the Battle

    Chapter 1205 The Start of the Battle


    "Hello, everyone! Wee back to Myan-Myan''s Channel! Today, we have a special fight that I''m sure everyone has been waiting for!" The most famous Skytuber among the top 100 experts in the Asda List, Myan-Myan once again opened her stream.


    "Before that, I want to talk about Joker! Did you know that Joker brought an important person yesterday? She is Nagasawa Rea. I know that some of you don''t know about her, while some have heard her name! Yes, she is none other than the daughter of the Sword Saint, the 4th strongest person in the world. In other words, there might be something happening between Joker and the Sword Saint. And now, I''m wondering what that is��


    "That''s why I''ve been waiting for Joker to arrive to interview him." Myan-Myan smiled excitedly while looking at the chat.


    SkyLabyrinth9940: Damn, Nagasawa Rea? Is the Sword Saint trying to marry her daughter to him?"


    Lab0y: He might!


    Seohyo: Gossip.


    SwordEmperor: Seggs?


    Agata69: That must not be the case. Joker is mine after all.


    Renanata: The person above me is delusional.


    Many people started chatting as they were hyped with this fight as well as the news about Joker''s cooperation with the Sword Saint. It might also be the reason why Joker didn''t respond to the provocation this whole time.


    However, before Myan-Myan could interview Theo, she suddenly heard loud cheersing from the arena.


    "!!!" Myan-Myan turned around and pointed her camera at the arena. "Eh? Did you hear the cheers chat?"


    Chansu00: They might have started already!


    Proson: They might.


    "I think I''ll go there to check!" Myan-Myan rushed to the spectator seat and found Theo and Rachel standing in front of each other. "Ah! They''ve truly started! Since when?"


    While Myan-Myanmented that she couldn''t interview Theo, the two people that stood in the middle of the arena had a different tension.


    Theo took out his blue sword while Rachel lifted her huge scythe.


    Under the gaze of numerous people, they started releasing their Magic Power to intimidate each other.


    "I''ll defeat you, a man who has started indulging himself in the rank. Unlike you, I will give up my rank after this battle. I know that my priority is to get stronger," said Rachel with a cold tone.


    "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You bark a lot for a weak dog." Theo yawned as if he wasn''t interested in her.


    Rachel''s expression darkened as her eyes began emanating killing intent.


    The killing intent was beyond everyone''s imagination. Even the spectators could feel them.


    "This is��" Myan-Myan sucked a cold breath. "Chat! You are not here, so you don''t know what I''m feeling right now. But the moment she''s releasing her killing intent, I can somehow smell blood. Is that even possible?"


    Her statement shocked her viewers. Even the others who watched this battle felt the same thing.


    "To think Rachel Vikson is this strong. Joker might lose today��" Myan-Myan gasped. However, her statement soon changed to the point she dropped her camera.


    After all, Theo smiled in front of this killing intent. Instead of backing down, Theo released his own killing intent.


    "!!!" The atmosphere shifted again.


    If Rachel''s killing intent could make them smell blood, Theo''s killing intent could make them hallucinate a figure with a huge scythe appearing behind them, preparing to take their lives.


    "You��" Rachel widened her eyes. She was the disciple of the Death Reaper, the person who held the Death Authority. That was why she had always been confident with her own killing intent. Yet, Theo just showed her something even superior to her killing intent. However, Theo crushed her confidence when he said, "This is not enough."


    A huge figure appeared from Theo''s shadow as it released its power.


    Death Avatar, First Authority. Death Eyes.


    The ability sent a powerful shock wave to the area, amplifying Theo''s killing intent.


    *Crack!*


    Myan-Myan''s camera fell to the ground.


    Skytree: What happened? The camera fell?


    Jokerfan1: We request Myan-Myan to exin to us what happened!


    IStanJoker: That''s right. Hurry up, Myan-Myan. We can''t wait anymore.


    Soon, Myan-Myan picked up the camera. However, the vision was shaking, making people ufortable.


    When they were about toin, Myan-Myan''s face entered the camera. The color on her face had disappeared. She was gnashing her teeth as if she was cold.


    She looked at the camera, trying to calm down her shaking hand. "I�� I''m sorry, chat. I was�� That was scary�� The moment�� Joker used his ability�� I saw my own death�� as if I was mutted."


    She was stuttering as she was clearly shaken by what she felt earlier.


    The entire chat went silent for a few seconds as they could see Myan-Myan not lying. After that, Myan-Myan put down the camera, pointing it to the arena. She couldn''t afford to hold the camera with that hand after all.


    In the arena, Rachel was shaking. She wasn''t that affected by this killing intent. She simply couldn''t believe there was a person with this type of killing intent other than her teacher.


    "You�� How can you have this killing intent?" Rachel shouted as she leaped forth, trying to attack Theo.


    Theo maintained his calm as he used another ability from the Death Avatar.


    Death Avatar, Second Authority. Underworld Body.


    By enveloping his body with this ability, Theo could make sure that no curse, poison, or substance that could harm him entered his body. After all, ording to Rea, Rachel could manipte the substance in the air to weaken one''s body. That was probably the reason why Winston couldn''t do anything against her.


    As soon as the power protected his body, Rachel widened her eyes again, realizing that her ability couldn''t prate Theo''s defense.


    "This is��" Rachel stopped in her tracks to reconsider her decision, but Theo took this opportunity to jump forth, appearing before her.


    "Why stop, coward? You have talked too much, so I''ve decided. I won''t end this fight easily. I''ll thoroughly crush your body and spirit." Theo smirked.


    "You!" Rachel shouted and waved her scythe.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo''s perfect control had begun to show its might. Multiple shock waves hit her scythe, blowing it away.


    "What?!" Rachel nced at her scythe. "Magic Power fluctuations? This can only be�� You have Perfe��Ghmmm!"


    Before Rachel finished her words, Theo punched her in the face, blowing her away.


    DragonLord665: Damn. That Joker hit a beautiful woman''s face.


    SinnerLord: GENDER EQUALITY!!!

 Chapter 1206 Overpower

    Chapter 1206 Overpower


    Rachel rolled a few times on the ground before stopping fifty feet away from Theo.


    This time, Theo acted cold and aloof as if he was looking down on Rachel to the point he wanted to y with her a bit instead of defeating her in that first blow. As he said, he wanted to show everyone that he was far superior to Rachel.


    On the other hand, Rachel hurriedly stood back up while ring at Theo, shocked. "You�� you have Perfect Control!"


    That statement immediately shocked every single person in the arena.


    Even a Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t achieve Perfect Control easily, let alone a Supreme Rank Expert. But after what Rachel said, all the Mythical Rank Experts in the arena also confirmed her words. Just like she said, they could see Theo manipting the Magic Power in the air.


    "You talked too much." Theo shook his head helplessly as he finally made the first move.


    Seeing the iing Theo, Rachel stabbed the ground with the back of her scythe.


    "Blood Scythes!" She shouted in desperation.


    Suddenly, multiple curved des of the scythe appeared from the ground, cutting through the soil and making their way toward Theo.


    They came in six different directions, trying to surround him. If it was a normal fight, Theo wouldn''t hesitate to use his Attribute Removal and neutralize her Magic Power with his Telekinesis, but he was sure that the Death Reaper was watching this battle. The moment he used his Order, she would recognize it and attack him.


    So, he couldn''t afford to use his Order in any way. At the same time, he couldn''t use any illusion since it would give away his identity.


    But even with those two limitations ced on him, what Theo currently had was enough to crush Rachel.


    When he saw these six scythesing out of the ground, Theo snapped his finger. Soon, the Telekinesis pushed everything downwards, crushing the ground to the point it created a small crater near him.


    This intense pressure crushed the blood scythes easily.


    Not giving up, Rachel summoned a few blood bats and spread them.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows because those bats were dangerous.


    As soon as they spread enough, all of them opened their mouths, shooting a blood-red beam.


    Theo raised his hand as a huge shield formed in front of him. The shield expanded until it was big enough to receive all the blood beams.


    However, the moment the blood beam hit the shield, it started corroding the shield. If this continued, Theo''s body would be hit and corroded.


    Theo had yet to panic even in this situation. Instead of avoiding this attack, Theo chose to attack.


    The Death Avatar pulled his one hand and concentrated a huge amount of energy on it before punching forward.


    Energy st.


    The burst of Magic Power caused a powerful shock wave that pushed everything away. Even the ground cracked and started flying away.


    The bats faced an even horrible end. They werepletely crushed by this pressure.


    "Kh!" Rachel gritted her teeth as she was also blown away.


    Before she was out of range, she pointed her palm toward Theo. ?????? ???? . ???.


    Soon, the blood that fell to the ground after melting the shield started rising in the form of rope. They all aimed at Theo, nning to restrict him.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo''s Irregr Guardian changed its form into multiple small knives.


    Irregr Guardian, Dagger Form.


    These multiple daggers cut the blood rope, preventing it from touching Theo. After that, they joined into one and changed into a spear.


    Theo made a pistol sign with his hand and aimed it at Rachel before shaking it up as if he had just shot her.


    The spear then flew straight to her like a bullet.


    Rachel blocked it with her scythe, but the power in the spear was beyond her imagination. After all, Theo used Enhanced Concentration Capacity on the spear''s tip. This attack would pierce even a Mythical Rank Monster, let alone Rachel, who was only a Supreme Rank Expert.


    Rachel was pushed back to the wall, and the force still continued until the wall of the arena cracked.


    "Blood Sacrifice!" Rachel shouted, releasing everything she had.


    Even Theo could see that skill.


    Skill: Blood Sacrifice (A)


    Effect: By burning the blood in your body, you can release all thetent talent in your body for 10 minutes. After the time limit is up, the user won''t be able to move their body for six hours.


    A huge pair of blood wings suddenly emerged from her back as red lines started to form around her body.


    After that, the spear was cut down by her scythe as shended on the ground with a grim expression.


    "To think I would be pushed back this far not long after the match starts." Rachel gritted her teeth.


    "You''re simply too weak." Theo snorted. "I care about rankings? Not really. I have used all my time to get stronger."


    All of Theo''s words and actions denied all the bad assumptions about him. Hepletely destroyed those who had lost hope in him or even mocked him previously.


    "Shut up," Rachel shouted and disappeared.


    Theo''s expression became serious when he realized her speed was far above his expectation. Suddenly, Rachel appeared behind Theo before Theo''s body could even turn away.


    The moment she shed that scythe, everyone thought the match was over. However, Theo managed to use his Irregr Guardian to form a shield that received her scythe.


    After that, Theo spun his body and kicked her side, only to find her disappear again.


    "��" Theo looked to the left and found Rachel glitching due to her going so fast.


    Not long after, Rachel appeared on his right, taking him by surprise.


    Theo''s body might not be able to follow her, but his control and instinct could keep up with that movement.


    As soon as he appeared, multiple shock waves burst on top of her head, knocking her down. After that, Theo used Muscle Enhancement to increase his speed and strength a bit.


    Using this ability, he spun his body quicker and finally kicked Rachel''s body, blowing her away.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1207 Ugly?

    Chapter 1207 Ugly?


    Rachel rolled a few times on the ground, but before she stopped, she used her hand to push her into the air.


    Then, her wings pped once and stabilized her body.


    After that, she raised her scythe as the ground started glowing red.


    "Blood Field," Rachel muttered her skill''s name again.


    Skill: Blood Field (A)


    Effect: Making the target feel nausea due to theck of blood lowers their abilities. The light can also help neutralize the Magic Power.


    Theo looked at the description and nced at his Irregr Guardian. It was clear that the light was absorbing the Magic Power in the Irregr Guardian.


    The Magic Power in his body started to gather in his right foot as Theo lifted it up, nning to stomp the ground to cancel the Blood Field.


    Obviously, Rachel wouldn''t let this happen.


    She immediately disappeared, trying to distract Theo again.


    Rachel appeared on Theo''s left. When she was about to swing her scythe, the Irregr Guardian stood in her way.


    "Thought so." Theo smiled.


    "Or so you think." Rachel smirked as her body suddenly glitched. It turned out the one that appeared earlier was just an afterimage.


    Meanwhile, her real body had already looped around, approaching Theo from the opposite direction.


    "I know that you will stop me there. This time, you''re going to lose." Rachel smiled as she waved her scythe.


    "Thought so," Theo repeated the same line with a calm smile.


    Soon, Rachel felt something block the sun above her head. When she raised her vision, she saw a huge palming down, smacking her to the ground.


    In other words, Theo expected her expecting him to block the first attack, so the Death Avatar had moved before Rachel faked her appearance. This way, even the Death Avatar could follow Rachel''s extraordinary speed.


    *Bam!*


    The smack crushed the ground, but only the crushed area looked unstable.


    Rachel noticed the change in Magic Power and hurriedly cut the hand, freeing herself. Unfortunately, she was toote.


    Theo had gathered enough energy with his Enhanced Concentration Capacity and Thunderp Fist in his right foot.


    The moment he stepped on the ground, the entire arena cracked and turned into a huge crater. The blood field that affected the ground had dispersed as well.


    "What?!" Rachel dropped her jaw to the ground. "This power can only appear in a Mythical Rank Expert��But you are only a Supreme Rank Expert��"


    Rachel couldn''tprehend Theo''s source of power. Her level was already close to 750. That was why she was confident she could win against Theo.


    But the reality was different. Theopletely overwhelmed her. Of course, she didn''t realize Theo''s level was close to 700, so there wasn''t that much difference in their level.


    And Theo had one big advantagepared to Rachel. It was his Perfect Control.


    The concentrated Magic Power had no leak, so he could utilize the full potential of his ability, releasing the power that a Supreme Rank Expert shouldn''t have.


    "Joker is this strong?" Winston widened his eyes in shock. Even Lexie had no words to say.


    "He is a monster." Isaac smirked. "Wait, no. He''s my boss."


    "As expected of him." Mark smiled while closing his eyes, believing Theo would give another surprise when he appeared.


    "Chat? Can you believe that?" Myan-Myan sucked a cold breath as she had no words to exin this power. Even the people on the chat started going crazy.


    Truckkun100: Where are those guys who said Joker is weak, Joker is a coward? Come out now!


    Monsterfe: Come forth, you mfs. It''s time for you to repent for your sins!


    Shellotpthe: It''s not Joker who is weak or a coward. He is simply on another level that he doesn''t want to bother fighting against a Supreme Rank Expert anymore.


    Agata69: Those who call Joker a coward or weak are trash.


    LonelyMuscle: 100% Agree.


    However, the atmosphere soon shifted again as a huge red light came from Rachel.


    "Ha!" Rachel shouted as she bit her thumb before rubbing the blood on the scythe. Suddenly, all the energy she had in her body was transferred to her scythe.


    While leaving some energy in her feet, she was nning to use this powerful attack toplete her objective, knowing that it was impossible to find a gap in Theo''s defense.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows as if he realized something. ''I guess this is it. My face has been reinforced by my Order, so there won''t be any fluctuation that can be picked up by those people. After all, like the Magic Power, Order Energy fluctuates.''


    Raising his sword, Theo was nning to take this attack seriously. Theo used his Enhanced Concentration Capacity and Thunderp Fist to receive this attack.


    Seeing Theo''s n, Rachel smirked as she knew she could finish the mission assigned by her teacher.


    She jumped forward, approaching Theo.


    As soon as they were only a few feet away, both of them swung their weapons.


    *ng!*


    All the remaining Magic Power from Rachel fought against the concentrated Magic Power with zero leaks from Theo.


    It caused the air to look like they were painted in two colors, red and blue.


    The sh caused a shock wave that almost blew everyone away if not for the Mythical Rank Experts using their ability to block this shock wave.


    *Boom!*


    Their sh led to an explosion, covering the entire arena with dust.


    When the dust settled down, they saw Rachel lying on the ground while Theo stood as if he wasn''t concerned about anything. However, there was one big thing that happened.


    Joker''s mask fell to the ground.


    "So, all those abilities and Magic Power are just for this��" Theo coldly stated as he lowered his head.


    "That''s��"


    "Joker''s mask fell off��"


    "That''s Joker''s face?"


    In their eyes, Joker had brown hair and ck eyes. In fact, his face was so handsome that they wondered why Joker even hid his face. He could be a celebrity with that face alone.


    However, they soon noticed a scar on his right cheek. There were three scars side by side, clearly getting inflicted by a monster''s ws.


    Normally, it would make one ugly, but the scars were perfectly ced that they not only enhanced Theo''s charm but it also made him look more gant.


    Joker''s face truly blew everyone''s mind and entranced many girls.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and looked at all of them. "Can''t you even respect me for hiding my face? Can''t you even see these scars?"


    Theo raised his hair a bit with his hand while lifting his head as if he was trying to pose to the best of his ability to impress others with his face.


    "Don''t these three scars make me ugly?"


    Myan-Myan dropped her jaw to the ground as she waspletely entranced. After a few seconds, she couldn''t help but say, "Chat�� I think I''m in love."

 Chapter 1208 3rd vs 4th

    Chapter 1208 3rd vs 4th


    "Chat�� I think I''m in love." Myan-Myan was stunned. No one ever expected Theo had such a face.


    Not only the people in the arena but also those in Myan-Myan''s chats were crazy over the revtion.


    CherryMuach: I gotta change my name right now.


    SimpForJoker: Toote!


    SimpForJoker2: Damn!


    Agata69: You guys are toote. I''ve told you that Joker is mine.


    JokerStan201: Delusional!


    NightButterfly: Who would think Joker has that charm? Ugly? Those scars actually made him more handsome.


    The Sk was crazy. There were so many assumptions about the reason for Joker hiding his face before. He was a coward, ugly, or a criminal.


    But when they realized Joker was trying to hide his scars, he became a Sk Celebrity in an instant.


    And the Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t even find a single clue about Theo hiding his face with an illusion or face mask.


    In other words, this was Theo''s real face.


    "You��" Rachel looked at Joker in shock. She didn''t even find a single fluctuation of Order like her teacher instructed.


    Theo looked at this weakened woman and appeared before her.


    "You have said so many things about me. Now, it''s time for me to return it to you," said Theo coldly as his foot was already in front of Rachel.


    "Wait, stop!" The Mythical Rank Expert that became the referee wanted to stop him, but he was also stunned by Theo''s face, so he was one step toote.


    Theo''s kick had arrived at Rachel''s face. The kick wasn''t that powerful, but it was certainly enough to crack her skull andunch her to the wall.


    *Bam!*


    "You bastard!" An aged voice suddenly resounded in the arena as a female figure in front of Theo, grasping his neck.


    "What?! There is someone in the arena?!"


    The figure was an old woman. She had white hair and wrinkles all over her face and skin. She looked like a frail aged woman, but it was clear that her strength was extraordinary to grab Theo by his neck and prevent thetter from struggling.


    "Who are you?!" All the Mythical Rank Experts that were responsible for the defense of the Asda Banquet immediately went out, trying to solve the situation.


    Theo gritted his teeth but still red at the woman as if he wasn''t afraid of her.


    "You truly don''t have anything to hide your face." The old woman looked at Theo coldly. "But you''re too dangerous to be left alive."


    The first one that acted was Nagasawa Rea. She shouted in a voice that everyone could hear, including her. "Death Reaper! Joker is my father''s friend! If you kill him, the Sword Saint will hunt you down! And are you not afraid of this country''sw? For you to kill a person in front of the Sk?"


    "!!!" When Rea revealed the woman''s identity, all of them were shocked. They were certainly aware of the Death Reaper as it was the title of the third strongest person in the world.


    "Let hime! If your father is the one asking me today, I can change my mind. However, you need absolute strength to make me follow thew or even listen to your words. I will show you the reason why we, the top ten experts, are equal to one thousand Mythical Rank Experts!" The Death Reaper replied with a cold tone.


    "Then, my sword shall be the one asking you, Old Hag." Another voice resounded in everyone''s ears.


    "!!!" The Death Reaper suddenly dropped Theo and formed a scythe from ck-colored energy, waving it to her back.


    Suddenly, a middle-aged man appeared in the arena, striking the Death Reaper.


    A normal sh from them alone created a powerful shock wave that deepened the crater and started breaking some stones apart.


    "Sword Saint?" The Death Reaper widened her eyes in shock. She didn''t know why the Sword Saint was in this ce.


    Because Theo was behind the Death Reaper, he was also blown away by the shock wave. Of course, he didn''t forget to give a thumbs up to the Sword Saint as he disappeared from the arena.


    "You!" The Death Reaper gritted her teeth and used all her strength, blowing the Sword Saint away.


    "Honorable Father!" Rea shouted, calling her father.


    The Sword Saint smiled and winked his right eye. "Miss me?"


    "That''s the Sword Saint? Nagasawa Rea''s father? Then, this is the sh between the 3rd strongest and 4th strongest people in the world."


    Everyone sucked a cold breath because this was certainly a peak fight. They were lucky to be able to witness this fight live.


    However, the Death Reaper didn''t want anyone to watch her fight because this wasn''t a zoo, and she wasn''t an endangered species.


    So, she tapped the ground with her scythe and shouted, "Death Field."


    A huge burst of ck energy erupted, going in all directions. The soil that was passed by the dark wave instantly turned pale as if all the life in it had disappeared.


    Before the wave reached the wall, both the Death Reaper and the Sword Saint saw the dark wave glitching.


    "!!!"


    In that instant, all the people inside the arena disappeared into thin air.


    "So, you''vee, Time God." The Sword Saint smiled. "She is attacking the people in your country, you know. Why don''t you help me kill her?"


    "I am just an observer." The Time God shook his head. "My job is to prevent both of you from taking someone''s life in the country. As long as you don''t kill anyone here, I''m not going to make my move. After all, I can restore everything here with my power."


    The Sword Saint clicked his tongue and checked his surroundings. The dark wave stopped for a moment, but they soon reached the wall and the entire arena. In an instant, some parts of the arena started copsing as if they had be too weak to support their own weight.


    Their color became paler as if they had aged by hundreds if not thousands of years. All life, whether the soil or even an object like concrete, had been taken away by the dark wave.


    "Is that so? Then, I don''t need to hold back anymore." The Sword Saint smiled as he flicked his katana''s handguard (Tsuba) to draw his sword. He had the same pose like his son as he muttered in a low voice while drawing his katana. "Sword Drawing Style, Omni-Draw."


    The blue light shone brightly from his katana as the next thing everyone realized, there was a huge explosion engulfing the entire arena, including the building itself. The light pir caused by the explosion soared to the sky as the start of their battle.

 Chapter 1209 Peak Fight

    Chapter 1209 Peak Fight


    The people that were supposed to be in the arena had been moved away by the Time God with a single glitch. They were taken to the arena, five hundred feet from the arena.


    All of them dropped their jaws to the ground when they saw what had happened to the arena.


    In an instant, the arena felt like it had aged for hundreds if not thousands of years. They started crumbling naturally as they had no strength left to support their own weight.


    At the same time, the dark wave also reached the perimeter, taking away all the lives nearby. The green grass became yellow and started to wither away, the flower turned ck and died.


    Nothing was spared from that dark wave.


    The scene simply reminded them of what the Death Reaper said earlier. This was the meaning of a top ten expert that could be equal to one thousand Mythical Rank Experts.


    In front of them, even if they were a Mythical Rank Expert, they stood no chance.


    Not long after, they saw a huge light piring from the arena and started expanding to the entire surroundings. The arena was cut into six big pieces before each of them crumbled due to the aging.


    In other words, those two abilities alone obliterated the arena. When the dust settled, they saw two people standing in the air.


    The Death Reaper was surrounded by a ck sphere as if hiding herself there. Meanwhile, the Sword Saint looked like he could step in the air.


    The Sword Saint sheathed his sword again when he saw the Death Reaper, forming a huge ck tornado that would take away all lives that got sucked by it.


    As soon as the tornado was aligned to the Death Reaper, the Sword Saint once again drew his sword.


    It was a normal swing as they couldn''t feel anything from that swing. But suddenly, they heard the ground rumbling.


    There was a huge hole in the ground. In just a single look, it was impossible for anyone to determine the depth of the hole, signifying how deep he had cut the ground.


    Even the ck sphere protecting the Death Reaper red up as if receiving something. But the most shocking thing that happened from the sh was when the people raised their heads, looking at the sky.


    The clouds were split apart as if the Sword Saint had just cut both Heaven and Earth in a single swing.


    All of them didn''t have any reaction other than dropping their jaws. They simply couldn''t believe what they had seen.


    Even a Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t do such a thing. They were really on a whole different level.


    ''So, this is Father''s real strength. He has never shown all his strength to me. And that sh is�� the sword strike that cuts everything��'' Rea frowned, looking at her father''s back. "Absolute Strength��"


    Her low voice was somewhat heard by Isaac, who was dropped next to her. He nced at her for a moment as if he had a thought in his head.


    Soon, the two people went to the horizon as if they were continuing their fight elsewhere.


    The Time God, who had been standing in front of them to protect them, also followed their movement, trying to make sure there was no casualty.


    After they went away, the tension gradually calmed down, but their bodies were still shaking because they had never expected such a powerful expert.


    "So, that''s the top ten experts in the world��" One of them said while gritting his teeth.


    People who had their own confidence in their talent somehow felt their pride crushed. They doubted they could reach that level even if they spent their whole life training.


    Winston clenched his fists as there was one person in his head that might be able to reach that level. It was Joker.


    With such a strength when he was a Supreme Rank Expert, Joker might reach that level at his peak.


    ''Frost Giant? A World ss Monster.'' Maya thought as it was said that these experts were equal to World ss Monsters. Even so, she couldn''t deny that Theo was someone who had some rtionship with people like them. She couldn''t help but recall what Theo said at the banquet.


    ''The reason why the Sword Saint appeared here�� might probably be rted to Theo. In other words, Theo''s n has been going on in the dark without my knowledge.'' Maya pressed her chest as if her heart hurt. ''It seems I was the one who wronged him. I''ll apologize to Theo after all this is over. Now that I think about it��''


    Maya looked around but couldn''t find Theo anywhere.


    ''Where is he?'' Maya tilted her head in confusion.


    While they were stunned, there was a single person that was more excited than the rest. She was Myan-Myan.


    "Chat! Did you see that?!" Myan-Myan shouted. This incident might be a blessing for her. As a Skytuber, having a clip of a fight between two top ten experts would raise her poprity to another level. She also had a clip of the Time God appearing, making it even more precious.


    With the addition of the power that the Death Reaper and the Sword Saint showed, she would be a huge celebrity after this.


    "Did you all see that? I''m very lucky to be here because I can get this clip! Also, you guys are as lucky as me because you can witness that fight LIVE!"


    SkyLord: I''m blessed. I wish I could be like them in the future.


    Shemale400: Don''t wish for something that high. Their existence is basically less than 0.1% of the Mythical Rank Experts in the entire world. And there is only one person like them for every one billion people in the world.


    MeCantique: That''s why I changed my wish. The Sword Saint is handsome. He has that charm of a mature man. I want to be his second wife and give birth to a bunch of babies.


    BonkLord69: I smell horniness!


    ButcheredPig: Bonk her!


    FeatheredWing: Bonk her!


    AGuyWithBeard: Bonk her!


    While they were joking around, Myan-Myan said, "Okay, guys. They''re already gone now. Although I want to show you what is happening right now, I have a hard time keeping myself calm right now. So, I''ll stop the stream for thirty minutes. See you in 30 minutes."

 Chapter 1210 Former 3rd vs Current 3rd

    Chapter 1210 Former 3rd vs Current 3rd


    Their battle continued for a while. The Sword Saint continuously cut her with his power, but the Death Reaper used her Authority to make all the Sword Saint''s attacks withered away.


    The sh between two Authority Level figures was a sight to behold. Their Authorities were canceling each other. Even with the Death Reaper having one of the big Orders, the Death Oder, the Sword Saint still managed to keep up with her.


    The battlested only twenty minutes, but they left behind marks everywhere.


    Eventually, the Sword Saint returned to the arena to find his daughter.


    "Father?!" Rea hurriedly came to him, seeing the blood on the Sword Saint''s chest as well as him pressing his own chest.


    "I''m fine. That Old Hag is stronger than expected��" The Sword Saint clicked his tongue. "I can''t really cut her down even if I use my all."


    "Then, the n fails?"


    "No. If he is really the man we thought he was�� Then, the one who will kill the Death Reaper is not me, but��" The Sword Saint smiled, looking at the sky as if he already had the vision of the battle.


    While the Sword Saint returned to Rea, the Death Reaper went in the opposite direction. She was nning to escape the country through the other side. After reaching another country, she nned to take a ne from there.


    However, her strength was greatly weakened due to the injury that the Sword Saint inflicted earlier. She stopped not far from the base to check her condition.


    "Kh. To think I would be in this situation�� Even though I hurt the Sword Saint, he still managed to injure me as well��" The Death Reaper gritted her teeth. She mmed the tree and checked her condition. "I don''t think I can recover in just a few weeks�� I need at least three months to recuperate from my injury. To think the Sword Saint is this troublesome. Why did hee to the US? Was it truly because of his daughter?"


    The Death Reaper suddenly opened her eyes in surprise when she remembered Theo had disappeared after getting sted by the shock wave of their sh.


    "Wait a minute. Where is Joker?" The Death Reaper sucked a cold breath upon this realization. But before she could find an answer, she suddenly turned around and shouted, "Who?"


    *Creak!*


    *Creak!*


    A high-pitched sound echoed in the area as a person in a wheelchair appeared from the woods. There was a man with a mask pushing his wheelchair.


    "You are��" The Death Reaper widened her eyes. "The Wind Emperor and that mask, you''re Joker! No, wait. I can understand if you have some connections with the Sword Saint, but how do you know the Wind Emperor?"


    The Death Reaper was stunned, but it didn''t take too long for her to realize Theo''s real identity.


    "No, wait. The Star Group and the Wind Emperor�� There is only one person who knows both of them that is still a Supreme Rank Expert. You are Theodore Griffith." The Death Reaper gasped. "But how? I didn''t see any fake face masks of illusion�� No, wait! You have an Order? A Supreme Rank Expert has an Order?"


    The Death Reaper simply couldn''t believe what she had just discovered.


    Even the Wind Emperor closed his eyes for a second, recalling the meeting that happened two weeks ago. It was truly shocking because there were two unknown people visiting him back then.


    Theo and Jeff were standing next to each other as they walked toward the Wind Emperor.


    "So, what do you mean by this?" The Wind Emperor narrowed his eyes, showing a piece of paper that Theo sent in order to meet him. There were only three words on that paper. "10 Years Promise."


    "I think I don''t need to say anything more than that, Sir Wind Emperor." Theo smirked.


    Even with his mask on, the Wind Emperor clicked his tongue and said, "To think you''re still alive, Theodore Griffith."


    "It''s truly been a while, Sir." Theo nodded.


    Jeff had found out about Theo''s real identity from his task. After all, the ultimate weapon that he prepared to kill the Death Reaper was rted to his real identity.


    "I don''t think you like to beat around the bush. What do you want from me? There''s no way you are risking your own life just to have a drink with me, right?"


    "Certainly, Sir. Actually, I want to ask whether you have confidence in defeating the Death Reaper?"


    "The Death Reaper?" The Wind Emperor furrowed his eyebrows. "I''m just an old man near his death. Do you expect me to exert that much power? Also, my feet can''t move anymore. There''s no way I can defeat her."


    "What if I told you the Death Reaper would be heavily injured by the Sword Saint?"


    "!!!" The Wind Emperor fell silent for a moment. "Why do you want to do this, Theo? You''re not someone who will kill a person at this level without any reason."


    "I just want to save my own life." Theo shook his head. "Besides, the Death Reaper is too dangerous right now. Not her power, but her action��"


    "Hoh?" The Wind Emperor narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. Her action might lead to world destruction. So, I want to remove her."


    "But I simply can''t move from here because those people will be aware of my presence." The Wind Emperor shook his head.


    "In that case��" Theo smiled and extended his hand to Jeff. Thetter ripped a page from his sketchbook and turned it into a perfect replica of the Wind Emperor.


    With Theo''s power, he turned that replica into reality while using his clone as the base of this form.


    "This is��" The Wind Emperor widened his eyes. He could feel the Order Energy fluctuation, but after that, it was very stable as if he was the original Wind Emperor. "You have that power?"


    "I''m lucky."


    The Wind Emperor thought for a moment and smiled. "Fine then. It seems that among the top ten experts, I won''t be the first one to die. Old Hag! Don''t me me."


    Theo smiled and used the illusion as well as his Order to create another body and face for the Wind Emperor, allowing him to go through the airport without anyone noticing.


    "You brat�� is really a monster." The Wind Emperor smirked, looking at this new body. Although his wound was still there, no one would indeed expect him to be the Wind Emperor because the aura that he excluded from his body was that of a Supreme Rank Expert.


    When he recalled that scene, the Wind Emperor smirked and looked at the Death Reaper, "Sorry, Old Hag. You shouldn''t have provoked this little devil."


    The Death Reaper shouted, "Do you think an old man in his death door can kill me? Once I escape from this, you all will die, and the Griffith Family will chase you down."


    A burst of wind shook the area as the Wind Emperor lifted his body with that wind before his feet suddenly stepped on the ground.


    "This wound has been guing me this whole time, but I have spent a few decades to let it recover. Even though I can''t use them to their full potential, I still have enough power to do myst dance, Old Hag." The Wind Emperor''s eyes started glowing in green.


    "I am the 3rd strongest person on the, Wind Emperor. You are barely hanging on that 10th ce."


    "It seems that you have forgotten. A few decades ago�� The seat you are sitting in right now was my seat in the past." The Wind Emperor started releasing his power. "It''s time for you to die, Old Hag."


    "Try it!" The Death Reaper also surrounded herself with the ck sphere.


    Both of them pushed their hands forward at the same time as the collision of their power caused a huge explosion in the area.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1211 Yazlev

    Chapter 1211 Yazlev


    "Truly a hard battle��" The Wind Emperor coughed a few times before blood starteding out of his mouth. He was too tired to even use his power to float. "Come here and help me go back to my wheelchair."


    Theo ran to him and hurriedly picked it up. On the way, he looked around the area and saw the aftermath of their fight.


    It was apocalyptic.


    There was a crater one mile in diameter caused by their fight, mostly due to the Wind Emperor chipping the ground everywhere he went with that power. Some of the ground had pale color as they were influenced by the Death Reaper''s power.


    There was nothing left in the crater other than the soil. The trees, grass, and bushes had been blown away.


    If they fought a bit closer to the base, the base would have seen this fight and tried to stop it. However, they would surely find this ce sooner orter. As for what they thought about it, Theo didn''t care much about it.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t watch the battle from up-close because the Death Reaper would certainly target him, making the battle even harder.


    Of course, it didn''t mean he would pass this fight. He watched it from a few miles away with binocrs. Although he had a hard time seeing the fight, he could certainly see some portion of their power. This was very beneficial to his understanding of Order and Authority.


    After the fight ended, he returned with the Wind Emperor''s wheelchair and carried him to the wheelchair.


    "How''s that, Brat? I still have that much power even in my death door." The Wind Emperor smirked.


    Theo fell silent. In fact, his expression darkened as he said, "Thank you, Sir Wind Emperor."


    He was truly indebted to the Wind Emperor because he had helped him twice when he needed it the most solely for the promise between them. Theo only promised that he would take care of the Czar after he passed away.


    This kind of promise could easily be broken because Theo would already be strong enough to walk away with it. In fact, due to him getting weakened from this fight, the Wind Emperor couldn''t do anything to Theo if he wanted to renew the promise.


    That was why Theo asked while carrying him to the wheelchair. "Sir�� I want to ask something�� Why��"


    Before he finished his question, the Wind Emperor said, "Yaslev."


    "Sir?" Theo widened his eyes, looking at the Wind Emperor with a confused expression.


    "That''s my name. Call me that."


    "Sir�� Yaslev��"


    "Good boy." The Wind Emperor patted his head and said, "The answer is simple. You remind me of my past self. That''s why I know even if I''m not here to protect my family, you''ll be there for me."


    "That''s��" Theo looked down with a serious expression.


    "I don''t care how many enemies you have�� In fact, I know that my Czar Family will be severely weakened after I die. And your enemies might contribute to that. However, that is alright!


    "After I die, my family doesn''t have someone strong enough to take the helm. You, too, will be busy with your own stuff.


    "But for me, I think it''s fine for my family to be smaller. That way, they won''t need to worry about too many things simply because they can''t protect them. It''s just�� Can you make sure that none of my family will at least have a decent life? I know that they''re talented and strong, but the enemies might be stronger than they imagine��"


    Theo looked at Yazlev, stunned. He had severely underestimated the Wind Emperor''s kindness to his family. Despite his cold and overbearingness, whether to his family or his enemies, Yazlev might be the person that cared about the family the most in the Czar Family.


    Even Theo had his heart shaken by his statement and views. He said while swearing the same thing in his heart. "Don''t worry, Sir. I respect you as my elder. I''ll make sure that the Czar Family will lead to a good life."


    "Is that so?" Yazlev smiled and finally sat down in his wheelchair. "Huu�� It''s truly hard for my old bones to fight."


    "I''m sorry to push you this much." Theo once again apologized.


    "You don''t need to mention it anymore. When will you reach the Mythical Rank?"


    "In a year or so."


    "I see. You''re progressing so fast in level, Order, and Five Aspects�� I''m so envious of your talent but also admire you." The Wind Emperor smiled and said, "Well, in the near future, we should talk a bit more."


    "Yes. I''m looking forward to it, Sir. Just call me, and I''ll rush to your side." Theo nodded.


    "Haha, I know that you, young person, are too busy for that. No need to rush. I don''t have the energy to move too much, but I have time to wait for you to arrive." Yazlev patted Theo''s shoulder and pointed at the corpse of the Death Reaper. "You should bring back her corpse. I''m sure that you can still use her, right?"


    "I know that it disrespects the deceased, but yeah."


    "Then, go. Grab her, use your Order, and go back to the other side. I also need to return as quickly as possible."


    "I understand." Theo agreed and used his Order to make the Death Reaper look like a balloon.


    He then floated her body with Telekinesis before attaching the string to the wheelchair, making them look like a grandfather and his grandkid having a stroll together.


    Because the Wind Emperor was tired, Theo utilized his Telekinesis to go back.


    Upon the Wind Emperor''s request, Theo ended up bringing him to the airport soon so that Yazlev could go back as fast as possible. Theo spent all the money needed for the airne''s ticket to make sure Yazlev could go back smoothly.


    Before returning, Theo retracted the clone in Russia and summoned it so that the clone could go together with Yazlev, providing him with the Order to mask his identity.


    These few hours shouldn''t be that hard to conceal for someone like Yazlev, so it also marked the end of his role here.


    After sending off Yazlev, Theo finally returned to the arena to meet with the others who had been waiting for him.

 Chapter 1212 Interview

    Chapter 1212 Interview


    After he returned, the first person that he saw was the Sword Saint. It seemed that he wanted to meet him beforeing back.


    When both of them stood in front of each other, the Sword Saint let out a long sigh as if he admitted defeat. "Since when have you nned all this?"


    "What are you talking about?"


    "Your identity."


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment.


    "You''re not going to y dumb?"


    "Is there a reason for it?" Theo shrugged. "I''ve prepared for the worst since long ago, and it seems that it pays off."


    "The worst, eh? Even if I didn''t help you, it seemed that you had nned to take down the Death Reaper��"


    Theo didn''t answer him, but that was also an answer.


    The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly. "I never expected that you tried to justify your identity as Joker by using the Death Reaper."


    As the Sword Saint said, Joker wanted to make everyone who doubted his identity believe that Joker was a man with scars on his face.


    The Death Reaper was one of the top ten experts in the world. She had Authority and eyes far sharper than almost all people in this world.


    If she confirmed that Theo had no face mask or illusion, it meant that it was Theo''s real face.


    This way, even the Griffith Family needed to believe that Joker was that man, not Theodore Griffith.


    "You really squeeze the Death Reaper''s to dry." The Sword Saint closed his eyes, wondering what would happen if he was in the same position. "It seems that your Order is so unique that it can fool everyone here�� even me. Is it among the Big Orders?"


    "I''m sorry, Sir. I don''t think I can answer that question."


    "Fair enough. Your Order is your biggest secret. At least I know that someone has acquired an Order when he''s a Supreme Rank Expert�� I can brag to someone when you''re stronger."


    "Thank you�� for the praise?"


    "That''s praise." The Sword Saint thought for a moment and said, "I think I can say it to you now. The reward that I want when participating in your scheme is for you to take care of my daughter.


    "I think it''s fine for me to say this now, but my daughter has an inferiorityplex. It''s not severe, but it''s been ingrained in her heart for too long.


    "That''s why she''s been setting one impossible goal to another even if it hurts her body. I just want you to take care of her�� I want you to let her learn that there is one way to get stronger. Isn''t this what you''re good at?" The Sword Saint smiled and patted Theo''s shoulder. "This is a request from a father. Can you do that?"


    "I''ll still be suspicious of her and even use her because I know she''s connected to you, but I can open up a bit so that she can learn new things. As for how much she can grow, it will entirely depend on herself." Theo replied with a serious tone.


    "Good enough for me. I believe in her. Thanks, Theodore Griffith." The Sword Saint smiled and turned around, walking away. "Well, I won''t take too much of your time. Bye."


    "Thank you for your help, Sir."


    "No worries. I''m just here for my daughter�� Well, also the Time God. That bastard promised to have a drink with me."


    "Ahaha��" Theo chuckled, watching the Sword Saint disappear.


    After that, Theo went back to the hotel and looked at the arena that had been destroyed. He immediately escaped from this ce to alert the Wind Emperor earlier, so he couldn''t see this fight.


    Luckily, Myan-Myan had recorded it. He could watch the fightter unlike the battle between the Wind Emperor and the Death Reaper.


    Speaking of the devil, Myan-Myan was actually standing outside the hotel as if she was preparing to go somewhere. It was at this time she saw him.


    "!!!" Myan-Myan widened her eyes and immediately rushed to Theo to interview him, not letting this chance go away.


    "Joker! Please wait!" Myan-Myan used her fastest speed to reach him and said, "Do you have time? I want to have an interview."


    Theo thought for a moment and raised three fingers. "Three conditions. I want the record of the battle between the Sword Saint and the Death Reaper, you can only ask three questions about me, and I have the right whether I''ll answer that question or not."


    "What�� That''s not fair." Myan-Myan pouted.


    "You''re going to use the record and me to boost your poprity, right? I''ve been too lenient with my conditions. If you don''t like it, the Sword Saint is probably the one who will call you next."


    "Mya?!" Myan-Myan froze when Theo mentioned the Sword Saint. If that big figure wanted to harm her, she wouldn''t be alive past tomorrow. Knowing that Theo was the one bringing such an expert to the country, she hurriedly nodded. "I ept, I ept!"


    "Well, I have spare time right now. Let''s do it now." Theo pressed her again, forcing Myan-Myan into the situation where she needed toe up with spontaneous questions.


    "Mya?!" Myan-Myan panicked. She couldn''t disobey Theo right now because of the Sword Saint, so she racked her brain while hurriedly turning on the camera. "Then, then�� What is your rtionship with the Sword Saint? I mean, why is Nagasawa Rea following you?"


    "Noment." Theo shook his head.


    "��" Myan-Myan paused for a moment. Although she was disappointed, she still asked another question. "Why do you remain in the Star Group even though thepany is experiencing that turbulence?"


    "The Star Group won''t easily be destroyed. The reason I stay is probably simr to others. We can see more of what the Star Group has than those who have left."


    "Last question�� hmm�� What do you think about the people who have left the Star Group?"


    Theo only shrugged as he said, "Hundreds of Supreme Rank Experts leave the Star Group? And even more people below the Supreme Rank? I can rece them by myself.


    "Or if you''re talking about the Mythical Rank Expert, I can rece all of them by myself when I be a Mythical Rank Expert. Well, that''s probably just my arrogance�� So, If we''re talking about the Star Group as apany��


    "Isn''t this situation perfect to see something that we can''t see before? We know which one is loyal to the Star Group and which person is not.


    "Can you say this in another way�� Won''t those people that betray the Star Group backstab you if the condition is right?


    "At least that I can tell you this, the Star Group will be even more solid from now on. This has been proven by ourselves with the fact that three out of four S Rank Talents in the Star Group still remain in thepany. That''s why I believe thepany will only be stronger from now on."

 Chapter 1213 Theos Real Scheme

    Chapter 1213 Theo''s Real Scheme


    After finishing the interview, Theo then walked to his group.


    Rea was the first one to approach him as she asked, "Has Honorable Father��"


    "He''s gone to drink the Time God." Theo shrugged.


    "Haha. How is it, Joker? Have we aplished our goal this time?" Isaac smirked.


    "Perfectly." Theo had the same smirk.


    "Then, thest thing we need to do is that, right?"


    "Of course."


    "What''s that?" Mark asked carefully. This entire scheme had blown his mind, but it seemed they had yet to finish. So, he carefully listened to their conversation.


    "There''s only one thing that we need to do. Turn around the situation." Isaac made a smug smile. "By�� I guess the CEO knows what to do?"


    Isaac looked at Maya, who could only sigh while pressing her forehead.


    "I have a good capital to counter the enemies." Maya nodded. "If I return to mypany right now, I can start threatening them."


    "That''s not enough, Maya." Theo shook his head.


    "Not enough?" Maya raised her eyebrows, confused.


    "Yep. The first thing we need to do is to fetch your father."


    "My father? Do you know where he is?" Maya dropped her jaw to the ground. She had used so much money to find her father but to no avail. Yet, Theo could do it easily.


    However, Theo''s answerpletely blew everyone''s mind.


    "Of course. After all, the one who kidnapped your father was your grandfather."


    "What? My Grandfather?"


    "Yep, under my request, that is."


    "Wait, what? You''re the culprit?" Maya grabbed Theo''s cor as her frustration rose to the peak. "What did you say? Did you ask my grandfather to kidnap my father? Did you know that your decision cost hundreds of billions?"


    "Of course, I know. That''s why we''re going to grab your father right now." Theo smiled. "Follow me."


    They had so many questions, but Theo simply ignored them until they met Bernard.


    And Theo led them to Marcaman, where he had made an agreement with the boss of the beggar association.


    "This ce is��" Maya furrowed her eyebrows.


    Theo only smiled at the guard and asked the people inside, "Where''s the boss?"


    "I''ll guide you to his room. He''s ying cards right now." One of them responded. "He''s told us that you''ll visit us today, so he''s been waiting for you."


    "Great." Theo nodded.


    "Wait. Since when did you be good friends with these people?" Maya had so many questions in her mind.


    However, those questions disappeared for a second when the beggar opened the door where her father, grandfather, grandmother, and Felipe were ying cards together.


    "Hahaha! Full House. Get rekt!" Bernard proudly shouted as if he had just won.


    "You still have a lot to learn from me, brat." Hendry snorted and revealed his card. "Straight Flush."


    "As expected, Sir Hendry." Felipe smiled.


    Meanwhile, only one person actually realized the group''s arrival. She was the only Mythical Rank Expert among them, Maya''s grandmother.


    "Wee, my little darling."


    "Ah!" Bernard looked at Maya fuming in anger. His face became pale as Maya did the exact thing he imagined she would do.


    "Wait, wait, wait, my dear daughter!" Bernard raised both hands as he looked at the pistol she pointed at her own father.


    "What do you mean by this? Do you know how worried I am?" Maya gritted her teeth.


    "This is not my n. It''s him. me him." Bernard pointed at Theo without hesitation. "He believed that your talent would bloom in this situation�� which was proven when I let you be the CEO of the Star Group. He said he wanted to make his subordinate stronger, you see��"


    "��" Maya was shaken by this revtion as she turned to Theo.


    "Haha, I know your character, Maya. You must have thought that you would be an even greater businesswoman so that no one would believe me if I said you''re my subordinate. I think you''re mistaken�� it''s the other way around. You were not qualified to be my subordinate at that time, so I gave you the opportunity to grow so that you''re qualified." Theo smiled.


    Maya''s body trembled as she looked at Theo in fear. His action somehow reminded her of the words she had told him back then.


    "I only ept a man who can push me down." This n simply showed that Theo had the strength topletely crush her, not simply defeat her. And with that, he made her grow.


    "But the current situation of the Star Group and the Starry Group is so dire that it won''t recover for a long time��" Maya said while gritting her teeth.


    "Don''t worry about that. People won''t dare to go against thepanies anymore simply because they''ll be scared of us from now on." Bernard shook his head, denying her concern. "Besides, thepany now has a lot of cash to spend. Making it recover to its former glory will only take a year or two.


    "But with this incident, you will know who is truly loyal to thepanies. Make sure to treat them with respect. I''m sure that the current you won''t make the same mistake with your arrogance. Besides, we can use that capital to buy otherpanies to expand ourselves a bit or even strike down our enemies."


    "You should know more about this, Dad. It''s hard for us to defeat those enemies in our current state even with money!" Maya gritted her teeth.


    "That''s why Joker insisted on this n." This time, Felipe was the one who answered her. "We received a package earlier. The package consisted of the Death Reaper''s corpse as well as her student�� she''s only unconscious though.


    "With both of them, it will be easy to threaten Great Britain to help you take care of those enemies of yours�� After all, a country won''t like it if their strongest expert gets a disrespectful death. Although they will hide that news�� if the top ten experts die miserably, they will lose a great amount of standing in politics. It will be much worse with the fact that the country has lost such an expert.


    "If we add her disciple''s life who can be said to be her sessor, it will be easier to threaten them. In other words, you will get help from Ennd, Scond, Wales, and Northern Irnd to take your enemies down by using the corpse of your enemy. Threaten them with their own people�� Sounds really good if I say so myself.


    "And my Beggar Association will deal with the negotiation�� This way, Joker has fulfilled his side of the agreement in making my Beggar Association stronger, even in name only. Lucky. It''s like free money." Felipe chuckled. "Thanks, Joker."


    "No problem." Theo nodded.


    "But�� but�� we still don''t know whichpanies are the enemies. Some might just join the fun to get the benefits. There''s no way they''re going to make unnecessary enemies��"


    "Ah!" Mark gasped. "Patrick."


    "Hehe�� I''d asked several people to record their conversation with otherpanies." Hendry smirked. "This way, we can determine our enemies and focus our capital on taking them down.


    "And it''s time to prove your own worth, Maya. Because of your foolish father who bet away his own daughter�� Joker created this test for you. Now that you''d be wiser and more experienced, it''s time for you to take the mantle and be the CEO of bothpanies and make them big enough that even a storm can''t harm thepany. This is the reason why I agreed to Joker''s n�� Felipe was the one telling me all this though."


    "I just followed the instructions." Felipe chuckled and took out the envelope that Joker had given him at that time.


    "Hahaha!" Bernard, Hendry, and Felipeughed together as if they had gained so many things.


    "I guess I can retire and enjoy my life now. Just waiting for my grandchild." Bernard leaned back with a blissful expression.


    Albeit, Maya, with an annoyed expression, pointed her pistol at him. "No. You are still going to work even as my support. I''m not going to let you retire this early, Father."


    "��" Bernard looked away and said, "Ehm�� Can anyone kidnap me again?"


    "Mom will be the one chasing you down."


    "Yes�� Ma''am. Looking forward to working with you."

 Chapter 1214 Aftermath

    Chapter 1214 Aftermath


    In the dark room, a middle-aged man walked to the table and opened his Skylink, receiving a call from four people at the time. They were the people who held the highest power in the four countries of Great Britain.


    Meanwhile, the middle-aged man was none other than the Fist Saint.


    As soon as he received the call, he narrowed his eyes and muttered coldly, "I''ve heard the news. Did that old hag�� really die?"


    "It was your fault, Fist Saint! If not for you cooperating with that America''s congressman, we wouldn''t need to experience this massive loss!" Ennd''s Queen spoke, ring at the Fist Saint.


    "What do you mean it was my fault? It was her decision, not mine."


    However, the other party didn''t seem to be nning to listen to him as the queen continued, "We''ve decided to send them some money for recuperation, and you''re going to be responsible for taking care of the problem."


    "Hey! Did you just threaten me?" The Fist Saint shouted, stopping them from talking.


    Unfortunately for him, they had his weakness too.


    "If you don''t do this, then don''t me us for telling the people of your location. You''re heavily injured right now. I wonder how many people want your head. Normal Mythical Rank Experts or those among the top one hundred��"


    "You, bitch." The Fist Saint gritted his teeth. After bing the top expert in the world, he was a man that would be respected everywhere. Even Egypt''s president was polite to him. After all, he was an asset that was worth at least one thousand Mythical Rank Experts. Even a superpower country only had 500 to 1000 Mythical Rank Experts. So, one of the top ten experts was enough to make the country a superpower.


    That was why he couldn''t ept that they were threatening him.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that he was heavily injured. Although he had some confidence in dealing with one or two top one hundred experts, he would be in trouble if more of them came. And in the worst case, one of the top ten experts woulde too.


    With the addition of the empty seat of the Death Reaper, the people would be fighting for the top ten seats.


    Hence, this threat wasn''t an empty one.


    "We would be happy if Egypt also suffered like us."


    "Enough!" The Fist Saint mmed the table. "I will tell my disciple and assistant to take care of them."


    "Then, we''ll be waiting for your cooperation."


    After receiving what they wanted, all of them shut down their cameras while the Fist Saint tried hard to calm his anger.


    "Star Group! Joker! Good, good, good. I will remember this." The Fist Saint''s eyes were emanating killing intent. He couldn''t wait until he recovered and killed Joker. Still, he had a question in his mind. "Who is Joker exactly? That Old Hag confirmed it was his real face, but I never saw that face�� Is he really a hidden expert?"


    ��


    The United States of America.


    "Not good! We just lost two Mythical Rank Experts."


    "A few of our Mythical Rank Experts are leaving because they''re scared of the threat from the Fist Saint."


    "What? Why did the Fist Saint treat us like this? Wasn''t he attacking the Star Group?"


    "I don''t know. Either way, thepany is in peril. We need to reorganize thepany."


    In anotherpany, the same chaos also happened.


    "The CEO has died in his home. We don''t know the cause yet."


    "Many investors are also pulling away! We''ll have a massive loss this month."


    "Not only that, we might go under if this continues."


    "We need to stabilize ourpany."


    The chaos spread to all enemies that wanted to destroy the Star Group. Of course, the list came from Hendry and Patrick. The Beggar Association dealt with the negotiation by promising to return the Death Reaper''s corpse. They wouldn''t want to see the Death Reaper''s body getting mutted and shown to the world since she was the idol in many people''s hearts.


    Even Great Britain wondered how the beggars could defeat this powerful expert on their own. The only possible oue was that they were helped by a great person. Unfortunately, it would be hard to find the exact details because the beggars closed their gates, enjoying their fame.


    Meanwhile, Maya was stuck in her office. As the CEO of the Star Group and the Starry Group, she took care of all the enemies and thepany''s recovery.


    It seemed Myan-Myan''s interview helped a lot because thepany''s reputation soared to the sky, knowing there was a strong man in the Star Group.


    Theo''s strength had been witnessed by so many people.


    Maya pushed that matter back and held a banquet for the people who remained loyal to the Star Group and the Starry Group. Whether they were just a Normal Rank or Mythical Rank Expert, they came together after experiencing such a turbulent time.


    Obviously, a lot of them felt relieved that their choice was right. And due to this event, Maya''s poprity also increased within thepany because Maya had changed and even apologized for her arrogant behavior before.


    With the addition of recovering thepany, Maya''s reputation soon rivaled that of Bernard''s. Even if he was kidnapped again this time, thepany wouldn''t lose their trust that easily from this point on.


    Of course, Bernard still worked in thepany because he promised Maya to help until thepany stabilized.


    In the end, the Star Group''s reputation had soared while Theo''s hidden n also worked. It was the loss of trust in the military.


    Although he didn''t want to admit it, the government was the one who caused all this mess. With Maya not believing in the government anymore, there wouldn''t be any more impossible tasks for him to take care of.


    After so much struggle, Maya had decided to merge the Star Group and the Starry Group since they only had one CEO. It made the control even easier for her.


    Although the ranking of thepany had gone down to 10th from 4th, the addition of the Starry Group allowed her to push the ranking to 8th. After they recovered, she wanted to aim for the top spot, showing Theo that she was more capable than he thought she was. This little rivalry between them would continue for a long time.

 Chapter 1215 Reas Resolve

    Chapter 1215 Rea''s Resolve


    While they were busy out there, Theo was chilling in his mansion. He even took some time to rest.


    In the garden, Theo was lying down while closing his eyes as if sleeping.


    But he was soon disturbed when his vision darkened due to someone blocking the sunlight.


    He gradually opened his eyes and found Rea standing next to him, bending her body so that Theo noticed her.


    "What are you doing?" Theo narrowed his eyes, annoyed.


    "I want to talk to you about something important."


    Theo looked at her serious expression and finally rose from the ground. "Sure. Let''s talk there."


    "Here is fine. You can just rx." Rea made a wry smile.


    He felt silent for a few seconds before sitting down on the grass. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"


    Rea gracefully bent her knees down so that her feet were neatly tucked in ce, underneath her body.


    "Actually, I''ve talked to my father�� I''ve heard that you want ten Mythical Rank Experts, right?"


    "Who told you that?" Theo frowned before shaking his head. "Never mind. Must be that bbermouth, Isaac."


    "I''m sorry."


    "It''s fine. He''s useful because his bber mouth sometimes can fool the enemies." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, what do you want with that knowledge?"


    "Is it possible for me to be one of them?" Rea asked with a serious expression.


    "You want to be one of them? Do you know the implication it will bring to you and your family?"


    "I know. I''ve talked to my father about this. He said that the implication can be avoided as long as there is a scheme about disowning me. When it bes too far, my father can simply take me back, saying that you have led his daughter astray."


    "Hoh? You wanted to escape and even framed me?" Theo smirked as if he felt challenged.


    "That won''t happen unless you use me too far." Rea shook her head. "Besides, I can help you wholeheartedly if you agree. Even though I''m like this, I have a big influence on my father''s group. They will help you gather information or anything as long as it doesn''t harm my father.


    "Also, I can teach you a more detailed Technique that I''ve learned from my father so far. Besides, I am already at the level of Rachel, and my level is approaching the Mythical Rank. As long as I be one, I don''t think I will be weaker than Ergene."


    "What a bold im." Theo snorted.


    "That''s not a bold im. I''m sure that you already know about my brother''s power�� My strength is simr to his. Also, I am more of a secretary type�� I can work as your secretary like the one you had in Italy."


    "And what do you wish to seek from me?" Theo asked.


    "That''s��" Rea hesitated a bit. It was clear that lying to Theo wouldn''t help in this situation, so she could only be honest with him. "By bing your assistant, I can learn more from you, just like your previous assistant."


    Theo stared at her for a whole minute. She was kind of embarrassed, but she still stared at him with a serious expression to show that she was serious about this.


    After a while, he finally said, "Two years. Tell your father that he can''t take you back within two years, even if my order is ridiculous. Don''t worry. I can promise you that I won''t go that far. However, I want two years of your loyalty."


    "There''s no need for my father. I can promise you."


    "Well, I can''t really trust you one hundred percent, but I''ll still delegate some tasks for you and give you some pieces of advice on your work. I know that even if I forbid you from calling your father, you will still call him. I''m sure you can understand why I can''t trust youpletely��"


    "Yes, I understand. But I''ll do my best in every task you give me."


    "You are not qualified to be one of them now. I''ll give you one year as the time limit. Within this one year, I will give you some tasks, and you''re required to at least meet the minimum requirement�� Also, you need to be a Mythical Rank Expert. If you can''t fulfill these two conditions, don''t dream about it. Just a reminder, if your father dares to scam me, I don''t mind screwing him a little bit."


    "My father actually wants to have a good rtionship with you. So, I don''t think he will harm you."


    Theo shrugged. "Well, those are the conditions. What do you say?"


    "I''ll do it." Rea agreed without hesitation.


    "Well, that''s all. Since you''re done, you should call Felix here. I need to talk to him."


    "I understand. But before that, I want to ask one question."


    "What is it?"


    "Why two years? Normally, you will want at least five years at a minimum."


    "You might not want to go back after two years. Or if you decide to go back, you will be reced easily at that time." Theo answered coldly.


    Even Rea was surprised by his first statement. What kind of tempting n did Theo have to trap her in the group? To have her loyalty, Theo wouldn''t harm her family, so she couldn''t see anything that would tempt her.


    Since she had received her answer, Rea left Theo and called Felix.


    "Do you need me to do something?" Felix asked.


    "I''m thinking about meeting that guy."


    "That guy?" Felix was confused a bit before a person shed in his mind. "The information broker that I told you about?"


    "Yes. I''m going to leave the country soon to go to France and Kyrgyzstan to meet the person Jeff introduced and the information broker you introduced�� Well, I might go to my home country to see my home for a bit."


    "I see."


    "Still, it''s hard for us to go there because I don''t think I will travel with more than one Mythical Rank Expert. So, tell Jeff that I''m going with him to France before we meet up in Kyrgyzstan."


    "Okay. I''ll arrange it. When do you want to leave?"


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and raised a finger. "In one week."

 Chapter 1216 Delicious

    Chapter 1216 Delicious


    One weekter.


    Theo was in the ne''s first-ss with Chris sitting next to him.


    "So, she is Coline Laffitte��"


    "Yes. She is a Chef. However, she''s kinda weird since she cooks everything; whether it''s your skill or monster, she will cook it."


    "She can cook my skill?" Theo raised his eyebrows in amusement.


    "Yep. Thest time I saw her, she cooked my illusion until they disappeared��"


    "Well, she''s interesting enough. Though, I don''t know if we can recruit her." Theo shook his head. "Unlike the others, she doesn''t have anything that I can use to recruit her."


    "Just leave it to me. I can convince her. In fact, if you show her your ability, she will join you without hesitation. I mean, she asks me to create drawings so that her food is artistic. If you can make it look real, she will be interested. After all, that woman can actually taste and smell the food, even if it''s just you using your illusion and telling her the ingredient.


    "If you recruit her, it will be a great addition to our group since food won''t be a problem anymore�� Well, it wasn''t a problem, but it might bring some enjoyment. Having good food can definitely calm your mind and cheer your heart."


    "That''s�� true." Theo nodded in agreement. "So, I''ll leave the negotiation to you?"


    "Yep. Just leave it to me."


    "Alright then." Theo then opened the next person''s profile.


    Jeff took a peek and asked, "Is this the information broker Felix introduced?"


    "Yeah. Akbaraly Ibraev. Even though he stays in Kyrgyzstan, his informationwork is so strong that he can search for almost everything."


    "Millie will be a perfect match for him." Jeff thought if Millia could study under him, she could use her ability to find the information that Theo wanted.


    "And he wants to see my unique power. Simply showing that power is enough to convince him, ording to Felix."


    "I see. That''s good then. How about tempting him about your n to create that small realm for our base?"


    "That can be done as well, but I need to talk to him first to know his personality."


    "That''s true. With his help, you can find the information of a person that you want to recruit."


    "Well, assuming that I can recruit those two, there will only be two more people for each rank."


    "Now that you think about it��" Jeff nodded in agreement. They had Assassin Felix, Pianist Chris, Painter Jeff, Guardian Ryo, and these two people. As for the Supreme Rank Experts, there were Isaac, Maya, and Millie. "No, wait. Isn''t there one more slot for the Mythical Rank?"


    "I''ve decided to let Rea in."


    "What?" Jeff was shocked. "Are you sure about that?"


    "Yeah."


    "We''re talking about the Sword Saint, you know." Jeff still couldn''t believe Rea was a part of the group. After all, her first priority would be her family instead of their group. "To be honest, I can''t agree with this decision."


    "I know you''re going to doubt my decision. But you might change your mindter on. It''s not like she is indispensable."


    "I see. That''s true. She is only important because of her identity as the daughter of the Sword Saint."


    "Yeah." ??? ????? ???????s ??? ?????s??? ??


    . ???


    "Well, if you have considered it carefully, I''ll ept your decision. Or do you not like the fact I deny your decision?"


    "Not really. You are people, not robots. I don''t like people who can only voice their agreement without putting any thoughts." Theo shrugged.


    "Is that why you ept Chris?"


    "A bit of hatred is necessary because he will observe me better than myself. He will be the first person to realize I''m not myself."


    Jeff nodded with a serious expression because all his doubts had been answered.


    After arriving in France, they headed to the hotel as Jeff called the chef, Coline, to have a meeting. She had agreed a few days ago, so he only called her to confirm her schedule.


    In the end, they decided to meet two days from now at her house because Coline wanted to cook for them. Despite being an amazing chef, Coline never affiliated herself with any restaurant or even made one herself. She thought it was a hassle and the workload would just hinder her from venturing on the endless journey of cooking.


    Theo agreed and finally went to her house, which turned out to be a humble house. The size alone was only less than 1500 square feet.


    "She likes to be alone so that she can immerse herself in cooking."


    When they arrived, the door was opened by Magic Power, showing that it was Coline who invited them in, and there was nobody in the house except for them.


    Even the floor had an arrow sticker on it, guiding them to a table for two.


    "This is truly like her. She wants us to sit here as she will bring the food."


    The first te was a small cup with brown-colored sauce in it. On top of the cup was a thin cracker that looked like it was made of egg and shrimp.


    "What''s the name of this dish?" Theo asked.


    "Dunno. She wille outter and exin it to us. For now, we can eat." Jeff shrugged.


    She was a unique individual, so Theo didn''t bother with the normal concept and took a small bite of the thin cracker.


    Suddenly, he opened his eyes in shock because the freshness of the shrimp somehow made him imagine a shrimp jumping out of the ocean. He even forgot about the taste due to his imagination running wild.


    "How is it?" Jeff smiled. "She is so good that you can imagine something, right? You would have a hard time experiencing the actual taste because of that imagination�� Of course, the taste is heavenly as well. If you get used to her food, you will understand both taste and imagination. Depending on the ingredients, the thought put into it, and the cooking process, she can alter that imagination."


    "She is an Illusionist?"


    "Nope. It''s her skill. Her job is Magic Warrior."


    "Well��" Theo was speechless.


    "Anyway, don''t bother with anything for now. Let''s just enjoy the food."


    "Yeah."


    Both Theo and Jeff continued to eat and experience many things. Even though Theo was surprised, one thing was clear. Coline''s culinary skill was a real deal, and the fact she could be a Mythical Rank proved that herbat skill was also top-notch.


    After thirty minutes and all the food had been served, a young woman that looked like she was in herte twenties came into the room with a smile on her face.


    "How is it? Do you like the food?"

 Chapter 1217 Illusion Power

    Chapter 1217 Illusion Power


    "It''s excellent. It''s the first time I''ve tasted a meal that delicious." Theo nodded with a smile.


    "You have improved again." Jeff smiled, enjoying the meal.


    "That''s great." Coline smiled back and turned to Theo. "I am Coline Laffitte. It''s my honor to cook a meal for the famous Joker."


    "I''m not that famous." Theo chuckled while waving his hand.


    "You''re already an International Celebrity, you know that." Coline chuckled and nced at Jeff. "Still, this is the first time Jeff actually brought another person other than Monica here."


    "Does that bother you?" Jeff scratched the back of his head, wanting to apologize.


    However, Coline shook her head. "Nah, it''s fine. How is Monica?"


    "She''s good. She doesn''t have much work to do, considering no one visits me anymore."


    "No one visits you anymore? Ah!" Coline widened her eyes, understanding his intention. "So��"


    "I''m working for him right now," Jeff confirmed without hesitation.


    "Ah!" Coline nodded politely to Theo. "Sorry, I don''t know that you''re an even bigger person than I thought��"


    "Is there something wrong?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Nope. It''s just�� Jeff is a very stubborn man that pursues ideals. He fought against anyone that wanted to force him. They even threatened him with Monica."


    "Hmm?" Theo was still confused, but he noticed that the rtionship between Jeff and Coline was closer than he originally thought. "Now that I think about it, you two know each other, right?"


    "Yes. We''re best friends�� To be exact, I was Monica''s best friend when she stayed in France for a few years. I often invited both of them here, so we became best friends. If Jeff works for you, you should know Monica, right?"


    "Yeah. It should be his sister."


    "Yep. Even though they lived in the US, I still invited them toe from time to time."


    "I see. No wonder Jeff looked like he has been here so many times to even know the purpose and theyout of the house." Theo nodded in understanding.


    "Hehe." Coline chuckled and finally asked the main question�� At least for her. "So, how is the meal?"


    Theo thought she was going to ask for his purpose, but it seemed Coline was more focused on the meal''s taste.


    "I think I can��" Jeff paused for a moment before taking out his brush and painting a shrimp jumping. Of course, Jeff''s painting skill was top-notch, but he wascking in personalization because he didn''t have time to recreate the entire feeling in a few seconds. "Something like this��"


    "I see. I''m d that you can have a clear picture about it." Coline smiled.


    "Actually, Coline�� The reason why I''m here with him is because I want to ask you to work for him too." Jeff exined with a serious expression.


    "Oh? This is the first time you asked something this important, Jeff." Coline''s expression turned serious as well.


    "He has what you want because that''s also the reason why I follow him."


    "Hmm? So, he is an illusionist�� Still, what I want is something more��"


    "I know. That''s why��" Jeff turned to Theo and said, "Can you show the entire image in your head? The more detailed it is, the better."


    "That''s easy, I guess. I''ve been working on this stuff with Ergene." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    "For real? I''m envious."


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled and looked at Coline. "So, do you want to see the image I saw?"


    "Yes." Coline nodded furiously. She wanted to see whether the person that Jeff rmended was as good as he imed to be.


    But it turned out, both Jeff and Coline had underestimated Theo.


    The moment Theo snapped his finger, both of them suddenly felt the heat of the sun brushing their skin.


    "Eh?" Jeff widened his eyes in shock while Coline raised her head as if the sun in the sky blinded her. "The heat�� The sunlight�� We''re indoor��"


    When she looked at the sky, she saw a vast blue sky with white clouds scattered around. She lowered her head and saw the scene change.


    This time, she was on the beach of a small deserted ind. She looked around and saw the endless sea and a few palm trees that separated this side and the other side of this ind.


    Even the smell waspletely replicated as she could feel the slightly burnt smell. The gentle wind brushed over her skin.


    Her vision then gradually turned to the ocean, where she saw a giant shrimp leaping out of the water, sshing water on her body.


    This waspletely unbelievable because the scene was recreated perfectly for all senses. In other words, Theo managed topletely fool her sense into thinking she entered the other world that allowed her to see the image when he tasted the meal.


    However, there was also another detail that she managed to pick on this illusion.


    Some of the water droplets somehow hit her nose, making her pick up the slightly salty smell.


    "This is��" Coline gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.


    After seeing her expression, Theo snapped his finger again, retracting the illusion.


    "Wow, wow, wow!" Jeff was the first to react as he mmed the table, looking at Theo intensely. "You could do that? For real? Why didn''t you tell me about this? I could draw an entire realm for you to y! If you want abyrinth, I could draw something confusing with a lot of details, allowing you to use your ability even more efficiently! It will surely take a lot of toll on your mind to create that illusion, right? If you use my drawing as a base, I can lessen the burden with my drawing."


    "I was about to tell you about it, but you are still working on the project!"


    "Ah right! The base!" Jeff nodded in understanding. "But still�� That kind of illusion�� Doesn''t this mean we''re closer to my dream?"


    "That''s right." Theo smiled. "I will fulfill my promise, Jeff."


    "Thank you." Jeff smiled as he knew that his choice wasn''t wrong.


    "What? You can improve that illusion even further?" Coline, who listened to their conversation, gasped.


    "Yeah. I don''t know to what extent�� But I think the moment I can fulfill Jeff''s dream, I can somehow allow you to use that power even when I''m not there." Theo confirmed calmly.


    "!!!" Coline widened her eyes as she immediately grabbed Theo''s hands and asked, "Do you still need a chef in your home? I can cook rice with�� I mean, I can cook good food. I can warm your b��Ahem, I can warm cold food and make it like new."


    "What the heck? We''re talking about illusion and food here, why do you sound like a horny b��" Jeff stopped because Coline stared at him with intoxicated eyes.


    "Don''t you know what I felt from the illusion, Jeff? I realized that my food had a tad more salt than what I should use! In other words, if I have this power, I can perfect my cooking!" Coline was truly obsessed with cooking to the point that she smiled excitedly, ignoring allmon senses.

 Chapter 1218 Decision

    Chapter 1218 Decision


    "��" Jeff facepalmed as he looked away, thinking, ''I obviously know your personality, you cooking maniac! I was trying to warn you to hide that excessive behavior so that he could ept you easily and not be disgusted by you.''


    Coline couldn''t see his intention because all she thought was the illusion that could make her see the w of her dishes.


    Theo even confirmed that she could use this ability even without him in the future, so the recreating ability would be extremely precious in the long run. She might even be the best chef in the world if she followed him for decades. There was no way she could resist the temptation.


    As Jeff predicted, Theo was dumbfounded because of the sudden personality change. Coline looked like a calm and mature woman earlier, but his illusion somehow changed her personalitypletely.


    Even Theo didn''t know what to say at this point since Coline looked like a crazy woman instead of a weird one.


    In the end, Theo closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his heart down.


    It was then Coline woke up from her obsession.


    "Ah!" Coline''s body trembled as she immediately took a step back and bowed to him. "Wait, wait, wait! That''s�� That''s��"


    She wanted to exin her behavior earlier, but Theo''s reaction looked like he was disappointed and freaked out, so she might have busted her own chance.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was contemting whether he should retract his offer or not.


    "Please let me exin! That''s just a weird behavior of mine. I didn''t usually act like that�� I am just a little bit obsessed with cooking sometimes. Sorry if you''re scared or something."


    Coline tried her best to straighten things up and ultimately looked at her best friend to help. Jeff, of course, had trouble persuading Theo, especially when he knew about his real identity and character.


    ''Don''t stick in crazy�� I guess he''s thinking about it right now. How do I even help her at this point�� Still, she is my and Monica''s best friend. I need to help her at the very least.'' Jeff pondered.


    After a minute, Jeff said, "As she said earlier, she didn''t act that way normally. If wepleted the base, you didn''t need to deal with that behavior anymore since she would be too focused on ying with that ability instead.


    "Her cooking skill is top-notch�� In fact, among the best in the world. If what she said was true�� your ability could perfect her dish. After some time, she might be the best chef in the world. Don''t you like to have the best chef in the world as your personal chef?


    "She can also fight and her fighting prowess is simr to mine. Since she is my sister''s best friend, she can stay in my mansion. I''m sure my sister would love to have her in our house.


    "And she can��"


    Before Jeff finished, Theo let out a long sigh and said, "Jeff, you''re too desperate."


    "Ah." Jeff stopped. Although he wanted to help more, he really didn''t know what he should do to persuade Theo.


    Meanwhile, Coline waspletely terrified. She dropped to the ground and almost had a mental breakdown. She even clutched her head as if she had done something that she would regret her entire life.


    But the worst had yet toe. Theo opened his mouth again, saying, "I have decided."


    With that low voice that looked like he had given up on her, Coline wanted to say something to stop him, but when she raised her head, she saw Theo extending his hand to her.


    "Eh?" Both Coline and Jeff widened their eyes, not believing what had just happened.


    "I wee you to my group."


    "Eh?!" Coline panicked, not knowing what to do.


    "What? You don''t want to? Well, I guess I''ll retra��"


    Seeing Theo was about to retract his hand, Coline hurriedly shook Theo''s hand with both hands and said desperately. "I want, I want, I absolutely want!"


    "That''s good then. Well, Jeff can give you a detailed exnation about our group, and you can start applying to move to another country because I''m afraid you can''t stay in this country anymore."


    "That''s absolutely fine. To pursue the ultimate food, I can move to all countries."


    "Alright. You should listen to Jeff first about the group. You can decide after that." Theo nodded before looking at Jeff. "You take care of her and probably stay in this country for another few days. I''m going to rest at the hotel tonight and head to another country tomorrow."


    "I understand." Jeff agreed without hesitation.


    "Alright then. I''ll return first. You don''t need to follow me." Theo waved his hand and left the house. Jeff agreed simply because a person as great as Theo would be under surveince, so he knew he would be safe. Even a Mythical Rank Expert wouldn''t attack him easily since Theo had shown the power that only a Mythical Rank Expert could exert.


    Provoking him wouldn''t be a good idea.


    As for Coline, she dropped to her knees, feeling relieved. She was sweating as if she had just fought a hard battle.


    "Now, now. What should I do with you��" Jeff clutched his head, feeling the headache because of what happened earlier.


    "I��" Even Coline realized that was a bit excessive. She looked down, feeling guilty. "Sorry."


    Jeff let out a long sigh. "Well, whatever�� Even though I''m working for him, Joker is a man who will make a decision for the best oue he desires. If he invited you, it meant that would be the best.


    "It''s just�� you really need to hold back for a while there. I can''t really change his opinion, you know�� In fact, nobody in the group can."


    "Ugh."


    "Well, that''s enough for that. Since you''ve joined the group, I need to brief you about our group. I''m sure that it will blow your mind because for me, he''s crazier than you��"


    "Really?" Coline raised her head, surprised.


    However, Jeff added, obliterating her again. "Of course, he''s leaning to the cool and badass type while you''re leaning to the horny and disgusting type."


    "Ugh."

 Chapter 1219 Humanitys Mistake

    Chapter 1219 Humanity''s Mistake


    After returning to his hotel, Theoid down on the bed. He didn''t know why but he felt a bit tired after dealing with Coline.


    Although Coline''s action was weird, he shouldn''t have any problem dealing with her. So, this state of exhaustion appeared out of nowhere.


    "What''s wrong with me?" Theo gritted his teeth. It felt like he just wanted to sleep.


    At first, he thought that he was under someone''s ability. The ability he was talking about could be a curse, hypnosis, or even an illusion.


    However, such an ability wouldn''t escape his eyes. He would have stayed in Coline''s house if not for the God of Mischief telling him.


    [Go sleep!]


    He thought this was the God of Mischief calling him, but this shouldn''t be the case because every time he called him, there would be a headache, not sleepiness.


    Still, he had no choice other than to listen to him. After asking the Mythical Rank Expert, who had been tasked to supervise until his visit was over, to stand by outside, using him as his own guard, Theo finallyid down on the bed and closed his eyes, wondering what happened.


    Unlike the usual sleep, he somehow could feel something. He felt like he was falling slowly. Although his body or clothes weren''t wet, he felt like he was falling under the water.


    He tried to open his eyes but to no avail. Even his finger couldn''t even move.


    ''Where am I?'' Theo asked himself with his fuzzy consciousness. ''Is this sleep paralysis? Is this a lucid dream? I don''t know.''


    Theo didn''t know his current state and sought the answer.


    As if responding to his wish, a light that lit up the darkness appeared in front of him. Even though Theo couldn''t open his eyes and he could see the darkness in his eyes brightened.


    A high-pitched sound suddenly rang directly in his head.


    ''Theodore Griffith, my child.''


    Theo felt the love and care from that voice. It also sounded like the voice of a mother, but it was different from his mother''s voice.


    ''Who�� Who are you?'' Theo asked in his mind.


    ''I am the mother of all.''


    ''Eh?'' Theo didn''t expect such an answer as it took him a while to understand what she said.


    But before he could finish, she had said another thing.


    ''I have seen all your progress and determined that you''re worthy to wield that power to the fullest potential.''


    ''My power to the fullest potential�� the mother of all��'' Theo muttered inwardly as one name appeared in his head. ''Order!''


    ''That''s right. I''ve given you your power.''


    ''That means you are the world itself? I''ve heard that the world has its own consciousness�� So, that is you?''


    ''You''re correct. Every person who wishes to hold the supreme power that can destroy the bnce of this world needs to be assessed once again after receiving the trial periods before you''re allowed to wield that power to its fullest potential.''


    ''Trial periods? Does that mean you''ve been assessing me on my character, power, and action?''


    ''That''s right.''


    Theo fell silent and asked onest question. ''If that''s the case, do you think I''m worthy to wield this power?''


    ''That''s the question that you ought to answer yourself. Do you think you''re worthy?''


    ''I don''t know.'' Theo gave an immediate answer.


    ''Almost all the people who havee here in the past have the same answer. They believe they''re worthy. But why do you not know?''


    ''It''s simple. I don''t know everything�� you, my power, the future�� When I know about you, I might have a different answer. If I know the extent of my power, I might get tempted. If I know the future, I might regret having this power.''


    The world fell silent for a moment before it used its power.


    Suddenly, Theo felt he had reached the bottom of the ocean and stood carefully. He soon heard the world saying, ''Open your eyes.''


    Theo followed the world''s instructions and opened his eyes, albeit he could see nothing in front of him.


    He tried to look around but found nothing. There was onlyplete darkness. Even the light that illuminated him earlier disappeared.


    However, the darkness soon brightened as mes appeared, scattered in the area. Then, the mountain was created, and the trees followed right after�� even the soil, the grasses, and all the details were formed.


    However, the most terrifying thing he could see was a giant hill that stood tall in front of him.


    The hill was wobbling around as if it was alive. The hill itself had a muddy pinkish color with ck dots scattered around.


    But when more details appeared, Theo realized it was a living being. There was a waveing down the body every few seconds, so it was clear that it was a monster.


    Theo felt frightened from just seeing it alone. He even took a step back and asked with a horrified expression, ''What is that?''


    ''That''s what happens when you disrupt the bnce��''


    ''Disrupt the bnce? Disrupting the orders?!''


    ''Yes. A few hundred years ago�� when humanity sent a nuclear bomb.''


    ''Wait a minute�� A nuclear bomb��'' Theo gasped upon that realization. ''The humanity once sent a nuclear bomb to the other side, and the World ss Monster razed the entire country to the ground��''


    ''Yes. Humanity was his creator. I loved everything in this world, even if that creature is made by mistakes. That''s the system. Hence, the monster that absorbs the radiation evolves and finally gets recognized with one Order�� Mutation Order!''


    Theo dropped his jaw to the ground. After being aware of Orders, he knew the possibility of a new Order manifesting.


    It would be easy to me everything in the world, but the World ss Monster had been warning the humans not to disrupt the orders. Yet, humansunched the nuclear bomb.


    Humanity should be the one at fault since the world just followed the system that she already had.


    And the price of that disruption was the monster before him that could even make him terrified just by staring at him.

 Chapter 1220 Sacrifice

    Chapter 1220 Sacrifice


    The big monster grabbed his attention, but Theo caught something weird from the world''s statement. ''Loved?''


    He didn''t understand why she stated it that way. After all, if she loved everything, it would mean she didn''t love them anymore.


    Theo tried to empty his mind, but his subconsciousness actually remembered what the God of Mischief said about the being in another dimension that reset the world.


    From the meteor that brought the dinosaurs to extinction to the sudden disappearances of past great civilizations, he felt that the world was actually the one who caused this extermination instead of that being.


    However, he couldn''t ept this theorypletely as well. After all, it would mean the world regrly exterminated all lives.


    Ultimately, he started another conspiracy theory that the being in the other dimension, who was said to be able to watch them like watching a movie, manipted the world.


    And the God of Mischief was aware of their existence because he understood the world''s system or simply how she acted.


    Unfortunately for him, there was no answer because the world ignored him and continued without getting fazed.


    ''The one who is responsible for the creation of this creature has died. However, the effect still remains.''


    Theo was slightly disappointed that she didn''t answer his doubt, or she might not be able to answer a question at that level.


    He could only move on for now, trying to figure out everything on his own.


    At the same time, he found four King ss Monsters appearing near the slime, looking at this gigantic monster.


    "This is��"


    "Those humans are bastards. Even if they realize their action, they will still do it simply because of their greedy nature."


    "No need to cry over spilled milk. We need to suppress this thing before it grows bigger."


    "Mountain Saint is still on the other side, so we''re the only ones who can dy its evolution."


    "A monster that can be a King in just a few hours�� if it''s left for a few days, it might be a Saint�� It''s extremely dangerous."


    "No. The other side is more dangerous because they have more spots like this. Look at this giant monster, it''s absorbing the radiation."


    "Anyway, we need to eliminate this creature as soon as possible."


    "Alright. Let''s work together."


    All four of them immediately leaped toward the giant monster.


    There were two monsters that took the initiative to attack the giant monster, but the moment they approached this giant creature, they received a huge reaction from the monster.


    A huge hole suddenly appeared in the middle of the creature before a tentacle shot out.


    "!!!" It was so fast that one of them couldn''t even escape this attack and gotunched to the ground.


    "Argh!" The monster screamed in pain while raising both hands. Surprisingly, there was a huge burn mark on the monster''s arms. And before long, the heat melted everything from the elbow to the hand.


    Yes, the monster''s entire lower arms and hands melted to the ground together with his blood.


    "Argh!" The monster couldn''t endure the pain as it dropped to its knees. But before they could do something, the radiation spread all over the body.


    The King ss Monster''s body started releasing ck dots all over the body before it screamed once again and died mysteriously.


    "!!!"


    All of them were shocked as they couldn''t understand what had just happened.


    "Why did he not use his Order to remove the radiation?"


    When the question was uttered, the answer came from the other guy that attacked the monster.


    "Because of this!" He shouted while shooting a white-colored ball.


    All of them raised their heads to see what was going on but soon gasped when they saw the white ball turned yellow, green, and blue before the ball was deformed,pletely not resembling its first form.


    "I''m afraid this is his power. Something that can change the structure of everything, including our Order." After stating those words, hended on the ground, regrouping with the two others.


    "Radiation�� Then, is it something like Mutation? Mutation Order?"


    "Perhaps. But don''t forget that the radiation here is absorbed by this one guy. Can you even imagine the power of that radiation, let alone the concentrated one? Even if we manage to defeat this guy, the st of that radiation will kill everyone."


    The three King ss Monsters felt the heaviness of this task. It wasn''t because they didn''t have the ability to kill them, they were simply scared of the apocalyptic consequence that the creature would bring the moment it was defeated.


    "That''s why he needs to be sealed instead of destroyed." Another voice suddenly came from their backs as another monster came. The monster''s body was rocks that were stacked on top of each other, making it look like a golem.


    "Mountain Saint." The three King ss Monsters immediately kneeled on the ground, greeting the golem.


    Meanwhile, the golem sighed and looked at the monster with a sad expression. "If I have time, I''m sure that my power can deal with this monster without any consequences. However, the more time we give, the harder it will be to deal with this monster.


    "So, I''ll use my body to seal this creature. With that, the radiation won''t affect anyone." The Mountain Saint had decided. After killing all the humans on the other side, whether they were innocent or involved in the nuclear attack, he returned only to sacrifice his life again.


    "But��"


    "This is why I don''t want to disrupt the bnce. When you disrupt the bnce, there will be something that no one can imagine appearing, like this creature before us. Don''t worry. Mountain is rich in minerals. I can use the soil, minerals, or metals to dilute the radiation. It will take maybe a few hundred, if not thousands of years, but I can reduce this creature to nothing.


    "In the meantime, I want the three of you to inform other Saints nearby to find a solution that can destroy this monster as soon as possible."


    "Why do we need to pay the price because of those humans?" One of the King ss Monsters shouted in anger.


    Even the other two couldn''t contain their anger.


    Only the Mountain Saint could smile calmly. "This might be my fault. If I was more aggressive in retaining the Orders, this wouldn''t happen."


    "It''s those humans. They don''t even feel grateful and want to get everything. Their greed has no limit!"


    "That''s enough." The Mountain Saint shook his head. "You all go now."


    The three King ss Monsters could only clench their teeth and left. The Mountain Saint had made it clear that he wouldn''t die when sealing this creature, so they could only find a way to solve it as soon as possible.


    As soon as they left, the Mountain Saint raised both hands. As he submerged underground, the soil beneath the giant creature started to rise and envelop the monster until it waspletely sealed inside a tall mountain, that was the body of the Mountain Saint himself.

 Chapter 1221 Test

    Chapter 1221 Test


    Theo sucked a cold breath when he witnessed this scene with his own eyes. He closed his eyes as if he felt ashamed to be born as a human.


    "After that, three other Saints got involved and solved this problem fifty yearster. However, the Mountain Saint turned out to be underestimating the power of the radiation. He didn''t die, but the Mutation Order somehow changed him, making him lose the qualification to wield his Order and Authority anymore.


    "After teaching the future King ss Monsters and World ss Monster that would rece his position, the Mountain King passed away as a mountain."


    Theo clenched his fists and bit his lips, having no words to say.


    "Is this the reason you said ''loved'' instead of ''love''?"


    Once again, the world ignored his question. It seemed she didn''t really want to talk about it.


    "I hope that this can teach you why the world needs bnce."


    "Yes, I know." Theo nodded in understanding. Of course, he would protect the bnce because it certainly had the potential to cause a disaster beyond everyone''s imagination.


    "However, what I''m worried about is that�� There are several areas in human society that have this level of radiation."


    "!!!" Theo gulped down. "Nuclear Power nts like Chernobyl, Fukushima�� Or Nuclear Weapon testing sites like New Mexico, Ocean��"


    "Each civilization has its own problem. I have no intention of breaking my own system to interfere in this matter. I have never expected my child to fix the past mistakes, but I only expect you to not make the same mistakes."


    "Then, does that mean the Fist Saint and the Death Reaper have met you too? After all, whether it''s humans or other creatures, they will meet you when learning about Order! Does that mean they''re breaking the rules?"


    "There is no rule. Everything is what you decide. I don''t and won''t give you any restriction because restriction itself can be a maniption technique to interfere with all the process��"


    Theo fell silent when he heard this answer. He realized that the world itself wouldn''t do anything other than follow the system. Whether it would turn for the worse or better, the livings were the ones that would answer this question.


    "I understand." Theo nodded after taking a deep breath. "I have my own answer."


    "Then, it will be your answer. How it will affect all the lives of me�� No one knows that answer. Still, from now on, you''re going to affect yourself, the people around you, and even the environment�� For that, I need to end this introduction and start the test."


    "There''s a test?"


    "Of course, there is. This is the test that you need to undergo at least once as the master of Reality power. Whether you''re ready or not, I shall start the test."


    The darkness started getting brighter and brighter.


    When Theo opened his eyes, he saw a familiar ceiling.


    "Ah?!" Theo raised his body and looked around, realizing he was inside the hotel''s room. The room was dark because he had turned the light off earlier.


    "This is�� Have I returned to my body?" Theo tilted his head in confusion and pointed his palm forward, using his power to affect the illusion, albeit nothing happened.


    The possibility of him returning to the real world had increased, but he couldn''t be so sure because he was dealing with the world, the one that gave him his power. She might have sealed his power or used something even stronger to the point his power couldn''t affect it.


    *Boom!*


    Suddenly, a huge explosion urred outside as the ck smoke rose to the sky.


    Theo hurriedly rushed to the window and dropped his jaw. "What is this?"


    The building in front of him was pierced by a huge tree from the ground. Although it was still standing, there was blood sttered all over the building and trees, showing how many people had died.


    When he lowered his vision, he saw all vehicles had been either abandoned or destroyed. But that wasn''t important, he saw monsters roaming around the street, killing any humans in sight.


    "What is happening right now?" Theo narrowed his eyes and took out his Skylink. Since Skylink''s connection came from the satellite instead of any connection tower, he should be able to get a signal.


    Hence, the moment he saw the signal was gone, he knew this wasn''t the real world. Instead, he was still under a powerful illusion that he couldn''t remove.


    "So, that''s how it is��" Theo narrowed his eyes and looked at the window. "In that case��"


    *ng!*


    Theo shattered the sses and jumped outside while saying, "The hotel surely won''t me me for destroying the sses."


    As soon as hended on the ground, he took a look at his surroundings to see what was happening.


    On his left, he saw a couple running away from a monster. In the opposite direction, there was an elderly that fell down in front of the monster.


    Without hesitation, Theo summoned hundreds of swords and used them to attack the monsters, saving those people.


    He also took out his own spear and prepared to face the monsters in this area.


    "Still, I should ask the people around. Since the illusion is so freaking real, they might have some information as well. It''s better if I can gather some information to solve this trouble." Theo nodded in agreement.


    He went to the couple first, but when he was about to ask his question, the couple vanished in the blink of an eye.


    He turned around, and the elderly had also disappeared.


    "What? What''s wrong?" Theo frowned, not knowing what was happening. Even when he tried to maintain their form with his Reality Order, he couldn''t stop them from disappearing.


    "It seems that solving this trouble is far harder than I expected��" Theo squinted his eyes. While he was assessing his situation, a monster just broke a wall of the hotel and stood before him, nning to pounce on him.


    At the same time, Theo got thest wake up call he needed to understand the situation.


    [Mission: Solve the trouble before your eyes.]


    [Reward: Reality Eyes.]

 Chapter 1222 Realization

    Chapter 1222 Realization


    "This is really the test."


    Upon that realization, the monster started to attack him. It pounced on him and swiped its paw from the left.


    Theo used his Energy st to hit this paw so that this Supreme Rank Monster could spin in the air. But the moment he was about to hit the paw, the monster disappeared.


    "Eh?!" Theo widened his eyes and utilized his Awareness before he felt a presenceing from the opposite direction.


    He protected his body with Magic Power, but he still felt the paw hitting his waist before blowing him away.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and rolled a few times on the ground before stopping in the middle of the street. He hurriedly rose from the ground, but another presence appeared from his back.


    *Honk!*


    *Honk!*


    There were two loud honks ringing in his ears, but the next thing he realized, he was struck by a Cubicar. He rolled a few times on the roof and dropped to the ground.


    The monster attacked him this time by using its ws, but Theo summoned his clone to take care of the monster.


    Surprisingly, the monster disappeared again.


    After experiencing it a few times, the real Theo managed to react at thest second. He raised both hands and tilted his body together.


    The monster turned out to be in front of him, striking him to the point itunched him into the air. It was clear that the monster wanted to attack him in the air, so Theo used his Telekinesis to hold his body still.


    After that, he summoned his Death Avatar and Irregr Guardian, increasing his defense.


    Even his clone charged at the monster so that it couldn''t attack Theo again. Unfortunately for Theo, the monster disappeared faster than he could see. The blink felt a tad a bit slower than this.


    "What?!" Theo gritted his teeth, using both hands to contain the monster''s paw. But the moment they were about to sh, the monster''s paw actually reached Theo''s chest, blowing him away


    "Gah!" Theo coughed blood as he struggled to get up. "What is that? It''s not Blink or speed, but I still can''t follow it at all."


    Theo couldn''t figure it out and started feeling restless.


    To think he would struggle so much fighting against a Supreme Rank Monster, if this was known to the people, they wouldn''t trust him anymore.


    Theo took a deep breath, trying to maintain his calmness. Although the monster''s power was unique, he still had four hands that he could use to deal with them.


    Without hesitation, Theo pushed both hands to attack the monster while the Death Avatar turned around, protecting his back.


    The monster brought the fight to a whole different level when its body glitched, and five more monsters appeared from all directions.


    "Huh?!" Theo was stunned.


    Although he and his Death Avatar could stop four of the monsters, there were still two monsters left.


    In the end, his clone used Blink to appear next to Theo and used the Death Avatar to cover both above and below him.


    "Almost��" Clone Theo muttered, feeling relieved.


    The monster in front of him was not a normal Supreme Rank Monster because its power was too unique.


    ''I need to endure this for a bit longer. Hopefully, I canprehend the real power after this.''


    When Theo was about to make his move, Theo and his clone widened their eyes as the real Theo used his Blink to leave the area. "What the heck?"


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo could only nce to the side, finding a huge airne suddenly appeared out of nowhere and struck him.


    Because he used the Blink Skill earlier, Clone Theo had no chance to use it again, so he could only receive this attack.


    The airne then caused a huge explosion, obliterating his clone.


    "Seriously?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "This is the first time I''ve seen someone this unique. I can''t even touch him."


    Theo didn''t understand the principle of the power that the monster utilized.


    "What''s wrong with this��" Theo clicked his tongue to lead their ns to victory.


    "It feels like the world is going against me with such a ridiculous concept." Theo gritted his teeth. If the world wanted to attack him, it could simply send millions of people at once to hunt him down. Yet, there was only one Supreme Rank Expert thatpletely obliterated him.


    ''I can''t really defeat all six directions because I don''t think it will be a good idea as the monster will be stronger and stronger from now on.'' Theo contemted, trying to get some information from his surroundings.


    "As expected, the monster didn''t use Magic Power when it disappeared�� As if it didn''t exist to begin with. But that existence would appear again when it appeared��


    "Ugh. I have trouble putting this into words, but the monster is simply not real but real at the same time. That airne, Cubicar, and all other creatures that attacked me, they''re the same."


    Because of his thoughts, Theo started leaping around to gain some distance and time to give another thought about this situation along with how he could solve the situation.


    However, he actually arrived at apletely different conclusion than he originally thought. It was so ridiculous that it never shed in his mind earlier.


    "Now that I think about it, the God of Mischief wanted to teach him Reality Eyes when my body and soul were strong enough�� And this mission wanted to reward me with Reality Eyes�� Why doesn''t it look like the God of Mischief was the one giving that mission?"


    Theo contemted, finding a way that could allow him to go back.


    "Those two are pretty simr, but why do I think they''re not from the same person? One is from the God of Mischief while the other one is from the world��


    "Now that I think the mission is for me to solve the trouble before my eyes�� Wait a minute. This can''t be..." Theo sucked a cold breath as if he hade to a realization.

 Chapter 1223 Multiple Realities

    Chapter 1223 Multiple Realities


    "This can''t be��" Theo narrowed his eyes and saw the monstering toward him.


    When he was about to pounce on him, Theo used his Reality Order. There was no way the Reality Order could take someone''s life, but he could do something else with this Order.


    This time, he struck the wolf''s w with the Energy st.


    If it were the previous situation, the monster would have disappeared, and Theo would have been attacked by other people.


    But this time, Theo''s spear managed to hit the w, blowing the monster away.


    "As expected, that''s how it is." Theo smirked and sent his clone to handle the monster in front of him.


    Meanwhile, he looked at the environment while muttering, "This is a ce where multiple reality exists. When I was about to hit him, the monster ceased to exist because this ce changed the reality into another one.


    "In that reality, I was attacked by the same monster, but from the opposite direction. Then, I was attacked by multiple monsters, or even an airne in another reality. Hence, as long as I can enhance this reality, I can lock that reality in ce, making it impossible to change it."


    Theo smiled, ncing at the clone, who still continued beating the monster.


    "Solving the problem before my eyes, huh��" Theo squinted his eyes. "What kind of problem should I solve here? Despite changing reality, only the monster is affected. I know that there are some limitations to using Reality Power, but I need to figure it out right now.


    Even Clone Theo returned not long after he started thinking. Killing the monster was truly not the problem.


    "What kind of trial is this��" Theo waved his hand, asking his clone to scout the area. ????w???ov??.co?


    It turned out they were inside a half-sphere. The dark night wasn''t created by the illusion, but it was just the color of the ceiling.


    "So, the space is limited. There should be a clue somewhere in this space." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    While his clone looked around to find the clue, Theo had one more job that he needed to finish. It was toprehend the reality.


    "I am aware that there are multiple realities. Well, in another reality, there might be another me who has different parents, leads a different life, or even bes a monster. Just like that monster earlier�� In another reality, he is a monster that can split his body into six or even a crashing airne��


    "If we''re talking about Reality Eyes, I am wondering what it can do. Reality itself is a hard concept to approach.


    "I have been meditating with my power this whole time and am aware that I can''t go to a different reality because I need Space Element to back me up. As the God of Mischief said�� Order Synergy. With my Reality Order and someone''s Space Order, I might be able to go to another reality.


    "In fact, if I believe that this world was created by the God of Mischief and a few other Authority Level Figures, I believe that Reality Order was the key requirement to create this world. Then, the Space Order helps create the Spatial Rift as well as the Transportation Circles that spread all over the world.


    "There is a Time Order that can make both worlds experience the same timeline and exist at the same time. There are a few more Orders toplete the project��


    "If I go to another reality, it might disrupt the reality over there. But what if I use something in reverse? Instead of going there, I call myself here?


    "I''m not going to summon them to this reality, but I''m simply manifesting them in this reality. But for that, I need something to understand what''s going on in another reality�� And that''s the role of the Reality Eyes.


    "Reality Eyes allow me to take a peek at what''s going on in a different reality. Andstly, Reality Alter, the next stage of my Reality Order. In this stage, I feel like I can use this power to manifest the other reality here��


    "Well, basically, I''m just creating an illusion of that reality and making them real with my power. Is this the essence of the Fourth Stage of Reality Order?" Theo narrowed his eyes. No one could answer this question other than himself.


    At the same time, he didn''t have either of them.


    "Solving the problem before my eyes�� What if the other realities are connected right now?" Theo fell silent and stopped pouring his power into this reality so that no other monsters appeared. "Maybe the test is for me to solve the trouble in each reality because they all appear before my eyes. But I can''t be so sure because I haven''t checked the entire realm.


    "For now, I''ll have my clone look around while I''m experimenting with reality. After all, this might be the biggest chance I can learn about multiple realities. Parallel Universe huh." Theo took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, starting toprehend how reality worked.


    After deciding on his next move, his clone investigated all the buildings, the trees, and the blood in the area.


    Meanwhile, Theo kept meditating. In this ce, Theo''s senses were heightened. With the help of his Order, he somehow felt the existence of another reality.


    In other words, he not only believed another reality existed but also had felt it with his skin. Soon, he also picked up the difference in Magic Power in each reality. The noises and even the taste were unlocked.


    To his surprise, he found five different realities in his meditation. The first reality was the one with a single monster that he''d killed.


    Then, the second reality was where the young man and an old man existed. The third reality was the cloning monster, while the fourth one was a copy of his first one but with more monsters. Thest reality was the ne crash.


    If he took a look at it, that one particr monster was the cause of the situation all five reality experienced.


    After the clone finished his investigation, Theo immediately rose from the ground and decided to hunt this one monster in these five different realities.

 Chapter 1224 Acquired Reality Eyes

    Chapter 1224 Acquired Reality Eyes


    "Help!"


    A young girl shouted while running away from six monsters.


    Theo and his clone appeared and killed all the monsters while locking this reality. This way, the monsters had no way to change to another reality.


    "Are you alright?" Theo asked after killing all the monsters.


    Without hesitation, the young girl leaped to him and hugged him with a shaking body. She was too scared to even do anything.


    But to Theo''s surprise, the young girl started climbing his body.


    "What?!" Theo widened his eyes as he prepared to push the little girl away, but the little girl rubbed his cheeks with hers. Coincidentally, their ears also touched each other.


    It was then Theo stopped what he did. He realized that his hearing had been enhanced as he could clearly hear the situation in the other reality.


    When he saved the survivor from the airne''s disaster, the human was rubbing his skin, amplifying his sense of touch.


    Another woman almost kissed him because she made their foreheads touch each other. But when their noses touched each other, the woman stopped.


    As for thest two, they were the young man and the old man he saved at first.


    The young man turned out to have his own tongue cut as if it was sacrificed for him.


    Meanwhile, the old man was blind. It was just his spection, but it seemed all the people that he met in this ce had lost one of their senses.


    And that was what he needed. Thatck of senses actuallypleted his own senses.


    He had perfect sight, so he never experienced what it meant to have no sight. And the old man gave him that sensation to perfect Theo''s sight.


    The others did the same.


    After saving all of them and reaching this conclusion, Theo finally understood the reason why the pope covered his eyes.


    "Now that I think about it�� The only reason why the pope covers or closes his eyes most of the time�� It''s toplete his own Awareness with thatck of sense." Theo sucked a cold breath. "Does that mean��"


    Theo looked at his clone. Thetter turned around, but somehow his action made Theo gasp.


    "This is��" Theo widened his eyes. "When you''re blind, you use smell, hearing, and touch to predict where the person in front of you wants to go. A deaf person sees the movement of the lips, the frequency that brushes their skin, and the smell of their breath to understand them.


    "So, that''s how it is�� This is what I''mcking to evolve my Prediction Eyes to Future Eyes. It turns out those who have a disability have their other senses enhanced naturally. This will allow them to understand the people around them.


    "That''s why the pope is trying to make him blind by covering his eyes. And now, I''ve filled thest ingredient to upgrade my Prediction Eyes�� With my current Future Eyes, I can see something like one or two seconds into the future by predicting their movement. The uracy and effect are beyond what Prediction Eyes can do.


    "However, I still can''t understand. Why do my eyes get enhanced like this? Who are those people to help me? Or�� Are they people from another reality? Is this the world preparing me to receive the Reality Eyes? Is it because my eyes are not powerful enough��


    "Now that I think about it, the God of Mischief told me that when my body and soul are strong enough, he will teach me about Reality Eyes. So, the fact that I''m invited here is that my soul is enough to learn all this. It''s just�� my body is not strong enough, and the world makes this trial to make my body, specifically my senses, strong enough to perceive other reality."


    The moment he learned the truth, the notification appeared.


    [Mission: Solve the trouble before your eyes.]


    [Reward: Reality Eyes.]


    "��" Theo''s body shuddered as he understood the reality a bit. "So, that''s how it is��"


    As if responding to Theo''s words, the world finally spoke again. "Congrattions for perceiving your power."


    "My power�� So, this power has truly be mine."


    "Yes."


    All the buildings, trees, or even corpses started crumbling down, returning to the empty darkness.


    But before everything shattered into pieces, a small blue light appeared in front of Theo.


    This palm-sized ball fell down to Theo''s palms.


    "This shall be your power from now on. Please use it wisely and keep protecting the bnce of this world."


    The blue light started to get peeled like an apple, releasing two thin white lines from above and below.


    The one from the bottom part entered Theo''s left eye while the other one entered the right eye.


    "Argh!" Theo screamed in pain. This was a different pain than he''d ever imagined. With the help of his Death Avatar, he obviously had experienced his eyes getting gouged.


    But the feeling was different from this. Despite wanting to close his eyes, the white lines were preventing it. In fact, they felt like a thin de that if he closed his eyes, it would slice his eyelid.


    The piercing sensation brought chills into his brain that somehow froze all his actions.


    Theo could only scream while enduring this torture. The palm-sized ball in front of him gradually became smaller, so it should end sooner orter.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo''s eyes had undergone a change. The white lines that entered Theo''s eyes began to take their own spots.


    A small white circle was gradually drawn in the center of Theo''s blue eyes. Then, a vertical line stretched from the top of his eyeball to the bottom, splitting the circle perfectly in the middle. Last but not least, a horizontal line appeared at the same proportion as the vertical line.


    Those two lines split two eyeballs into four areas with a circle half the size of the eyeball.


    With thepletion of all the lines, the blue light had depleted all its light and disappeared.


    *Pant!*


    *Pant!*


    Theo fell to his knees, exhausted.


    He saw another notification.


    [Congrattions. You''ve acquired Reality Eyes.]


    With that notification, everything had turned dark again. His consciousness became fuzzy as he felt the world trying to expel him from this ce.


    In the end, he closed his eyes and epted his fate.

 Chapter 1225 Adjustment

    Chapter 1225 Adjustment


    "Aaahhhh!" Theo screamed in pain as he rose from his bed. His body was covered with sweat and he was panting.


    He looked at his room and found it was dark.


    Then, a voice rmed him.


    "What''s wrong?"


    Theo''s body shuddered and turned around, finding Jeff turning on the light while looking at him dumbfoundedly. For safety purposes, Theo and Jeff shared a hotel room, and it seemed to be handy because Jeff could react to anything.


    "Nightmare?" Jeff asked.


    Theo shook his head as he tried hard to calm his heart down.


    But now that Jeff had turned on the light and had a better view of Theo''s face, he noticed the pattern in Theo''s eyes.


    "Hey, what''s that?"


    "What? I''m sorry, but can you stay quiet for the time being?" Theo gritted his teeth as if he was in pain.


    "Sorry. I was just shocked to see a pattern in your eyes." Jeff nodded and stepped back. Although he was confused by the sudden change, he felt Theo would exin it when the time was right.


    But to his surprise, the moment he mentioned the pattern in his eyes, Theo was shocked and even left his bed just to take a look at himself in the mirror.


    As Jeff said, his blue eyes now had a cross that split his eyeball into four and a circle that connected the four sides.


    "This is��" Theo sucked a cold breath.


    "What''s wrong? You''re not aware of it?" Jeff squinted his eyes, starting to get suspicious.


    Before answering Jeff, Theo hurriedly ran to the window and looked at the outside world.


    In that instant, he dropped to his knees while wailing in pain.


    "Argh!" Theo gritted his teeth. The pain was truly different. Even Theo, who had gotten used to pain, couldn''t help but scream.


    "What happens?" Jeff panicked as he came to Theo while stroking his back, trying to calm him down.


    Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t give an answer because he kept screaming.


    Soon, Jeff became even more panicked when he saw blood dripping out of Theo''s mask.


    "Blood?! Seriously, what happened? Let''s call the hospital to send an ambnce here. We need to bring you there right away!"


    Theo gritted his teeth and grasped Jeff''s arm as if telling him not to do any of that.


    Theo even closed his eyes to reduce the pain. What he saw earlier were multiple realities that would happen in the outside world.


    The cubicars, the buildings, and the vegetation in the surrounding area were vastly different in each reality. And that huge influx of information hurt his brain and eyes to the point he couldn''t differentiate which reality he was looking at.


    This might be the reason why Loki wanted his body and soul to be strong before getting the Reality Eyes. He needed to prepare himself for all this.


    After half an hour, the pain finally subsided, and Theo opened his mouth.


    "Call Felix and tell him that we need to change the schedule. I need three days�� No, seven days to adjust myself here. Extend this room for another seven days. And don''t tell anyone about my condition and eyes for now�� I''ll exin to you what has truly happened after I get used to this condition a bit."


    "I�� I understand." Jeff was worried, but Theo''s assessment was detailed. It was clear that Theo had a clear view of his current condition, so he trusted him and didn''t say anything that could cause worry.


    He even lied to Felix that Theo was a bit upied with the chef, so he needed more time to persuade her. This would make Felix think Theo simply wanted her and took his time to invite her.


    Every time Theo looked outside or even the hotel room, he would get all that information and end up hurting his brain and eyes again. Even so, he could only do it continuously until he got used to the condition.


    After three days, Theo could endure two hours of looking outside. By the fifth day, he could see the outside world for twenty hours.


    Finally, Theo managed to see the world for twenty-four hours after six days. He used the seventh day to try a few things like how much he could see, the illusion that could hide his eyes, or even the power of the Reality Eyes.


    Before leaving, Theo also exined about his Reality Eyes. He assured Jeff that his eyes had evolved, and he needed time to get used to it. That was why he suggested seven days.


    He even informed him that their goal might be aplished because of these eyes. Of course, Theo didn''t tell anything about Reality Order or the true name of the eyes.


    ording to his experiment, the Reality Eyes could see five different realities at the same time. As for which reality he wanted to see, it was directly rted to his brain. That was why his eyes and brain would be hurt every time he looked around.


    He couldn''t turn off this power but he knew which one was the reality he was in. He wouldn''t lose himself in another reality after this.


    After all, Theo might identally bump into a building that existed in the current reality because he forgot he was looking at a different reality.


    Of course, there were so many benefits he found in these eyes. Seeing different realities constantly could allow him to predict the movement. Theo even joked that he was d he had made a rule to never drink any alcohol since he might get too drunk and lose himself in another reality.


    Jeff became his practice partner. When he raised his hand, Theo could see another reality where Jeff raised his other hand or even his foot. In addition to his Future Eyes, Theo could predict all those movements.


    He might be able to predict all kinds of attacks that woulde to him. In fact, his Reality Eyes were simr to the Queen of Destiny''s eyes. Thetter could see different future actions while his could see different realities.


    It might take months or years to fully explore and get used to his Reality Eyes, but he knew the benefit was so great that he couldn''t resist.


    After seven days, Theo finally decided to leave the country.


    "Are you sure about this? If not, then we can prolong our stay for a bit more."


    "No, it''s fine. I betterplete my objective first and take a rest in my mansion than stay here."


    Although he was still worried, he could only agree with his statement. "Understand. I''ll see you off."


    "Yep. Thanks for protecting me thest seven days, Jeff." Theo smiled as his eyes turned ck again without any pattern.

 Chapter 1226 Akbar

    Chapter 1226 Akbar


    After finishing the initial adjustment, he immediately flew off to Kyrgyzstan to meet up with Felix.


    As if Felix knew something about his condition, he waited for Theo at the airport. It seemed he hade one day prior so that he could wait for him here.


    Even Theo was quite surprised by his dedication.


    "Felix?"


    Felix looked at Theo with a serious face and asked, "Are you sure nothing happened?"


    Theo smiled and patted his shoulder. "Not at the level you need to worry about."


    "��" Felix still didn''t buy it.


    So, Theo gave his first and most loyal follower another secret. "Felix. My power requires me not to tell a single lie."


    When he heard that statement, his body shuddered. It was clear how hard it was for a normal person to never lie, let alone a person like Theo who manipted people in the darkness. Yet, Theo imed he never lied.


    At first, he wanted to deny that, but he soon realized that Theo never really told other than the truth. It was just others misunderstanding his words.


    In other words, he said he couldn''t lie, and that statement was also not a lie.


    "I apologize." Felix lowered his head. To think that Theo needed to tell that secret to convince him, it seemed he had overstepped his bounds.


    "It''s nothing. Let''s go. I want to finish this as soon as possible."


    "I understand." Felix paused for a moment and remembered the little talk they had. "Still, with your current condition, do you need to visit Thernd?"


    "Mhm��" If it were the previous Theo, he wouldn''t hesitate to go there. However, he had wasted seven days in France, and the adjustment for his eyes would take months if not years, so he couldn''t really waste too much time.


    At the same time, it might be thest time he could rx before a training session that wouldst until he reached the Mythical Rank.  pondering the pros and cons, Theo smiled, "I guess I''ll visit�� Let''s say, two to three days."


    "I understand." Felix nodded in agreement.


    When they came out of the airport, there was a ck Cubicar waiting for them. The driver came out and immediately greeted them. "Wee, Sir Felix, Sir Joker. My boss has been waiting for you."


    "Boss?" Theo narrowed his eyes and nced at Felix, wondering if he knew this person.


    Felix nodded and said, "His boss is Akbaraly Ibraev, the person we''re looking for."


    "So, he is��"


    "Yes. Though, he must have found me yesterday and started looking at the information."


    "Thus calcting my time of arrival and our identities."


    "Yeah."


    "I see. It seems he is a real deal." Theo acknowledged this man and said to the driver. "Lead the way."


    Theo and Felix entered the car as the driver brought them to a small house in a rundown area.


    "Hmm�� He sure loves to blend in, eh?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. Every time I met him, the house was different, but all of them were in an area like this. It''s quite hard to find him." Felix confirmed his suspicion.


    "Should we go there?"


    "Yes."


    Aftering to an agreement, the driver opened the door as Felix entered first to protect Theo from whatever the man had prepared for them.


    Theo also observed this ce with his Reality Eyes, albeit it was useless. He still couldn''t control the reality he saw, so he didn''t find anything suspicious in this home.


    Surprisingly, the house was apletely normal one without any traps or devices that would harm them.


    And the house''s owner was sitting on a sofa while taking out his cigarette.


    The man looked at least two decades younger than Felix. He had ck hair and slightly denser eyebrows. His body was skinny but still had some muscles here and there, making him look fit instead of malnourished.


    He wore a blue t-shirt and long white pants.


    "Wee." The man put on a gentle smile. "I''m Akbaraly Ibraev. You can call me Akbar if you think my name is too long. Please sit."


    He pointed at the couch in front of him. Since they were going to talk, he wanted the conversation to be as rxed as possible.


    "Well, I know that you want to recruit me. But I''m pretty sure Felix has told you about what I''m searching for, right? And if you stille despite that, I believe you have it. It''s just��" Akbar paused for a moment and let out a long sigh. "It seems I''m the one who gets judged instead of you, even though you''re the one trying to recruit me, not the other way around."


    Akbar already knew about his intention and Theo''s condition. There was no way Felix would rmend someone that didn''t have the thing he wanted to see the most. So, Theo came here simply because he wanted to confirm his ability and proceed to recruit him if he passed the test.


    That was why, Akbar presented them with three pictures and said, "Anyway, I have investigated what you''ve done in the past few months.


    "The first picture is when you were spotted taking a stroll with five Mythical Rank Experts. Of course, it wouldn''t be that weird because the Star Group had asked its people to move around in a group of five. Getting protected by five Mythical Rank Experts would be able to push any enemy away.


    "And assuming that the beggars have suddenly be stronger�� I believe you''re there to meet the beggars�� I don''t know about the details though, since it''s already beyond me. The beggars are also good at manipting information.


    "The second picture was taken when you came to the Asda Banquet. The fact that you chose to make a move means you''ve prepared everything. You''re already aware of your enemy''s true strength and still proceed to kill her.


    "And thest picture�� Well, it''s the picture the beggars used to threaten other countries. As of now, many countries in the world have received the news of the Death Reaper''s death. I''m pretty sure they''re going to elevate your status even further, making sure you were not messing with them.


    "In fact, some of the countries have put you in their eyes. Whether killing you, capturing you, or forming a rtionship, they''re going to do whatever they think is right��


    "That''s why�� going to Thernd might be the same as telling them your identity, Theodore Griffith." Akbar''s expression turned grim as he somehow managed to guess Joker''s real identity.

 Chapter 1227 In Control

    Chapter 1227 In Control


    "What are you saying, Akbar? He is Theodore Griffith?" Felix tilted his head in confusion, ying dumb so that he could shift their conversation. Theo clearly stated earlier that he couldn''t lie, so he should be the one to deal with it.


    "There''s no need for you to say anything, Felix. What do you want to use as an excuse right now? The Death Reaper''s rification? That woman is dead now. The Sword Saint? Oh,e on." Akbar shrugged.


    He was the real deal, Felix thought.


    Suddenly, Theo opened his mouth. "You''re forgetting something."


    "And that is?"


    "I still can change my face with my power that could even fool the Death Reaper."


    "So, you''re not going to hide your identity anymore? That was easy to make you confess your real identity."


    "I don''t like to beat around the bush." Theo shrugged. "I know what you were going to say, so let''s just skip all that stuff."


    "Heh." Akbar indeed had a few more reasons that could prove Joker was Theodore Griffith. "Well, I apologize in advance�� My influence might not be as good as the Griffith Family, but this country is my turf. You won''t be able to escape from me as long as you''re in this country.


    "Although your conversation wasn''t that easy to pick up, I heard you saying Thernd in a somewhat nostalgic way. I believe there''s only one person, who is as talented as you, that will say such a thing. He''s none other than Theodore Griffith."


    Theo''s expression was still calm. In fact, he looked a bit uninterested after Akbar gave all that information.


    "Is that all?" Theo asked.


    "Yes. I just want to tell you that it''ll be a bad idea to visit Thernd right now."


    "So, you''ve been advising me like you''ve epted to be my subordinate, but don''t act like one?" Theo rose and released his Golden Magic Power. "Akbar. I don''t have too much time to waste on you."


    Akbar''s body trembled when he saw this Golden Magic Power. With this, he had confirmed that Theo truly had that quality. However, he also picked up what Theo said earlier.


    Theo had stated that he wanted to enter Thernd by using his power to make a perfect cover that wouldn''t blow his identity away.


    Yet, Akbar actually rejected the idea and even criticized his action. He had clearly admitted that Theo had a superior mind with how he exined his observation this whole time. But Akbar still wanted to advise Theo on something that he was already aware of instead of focusing on solving the problem that Theo had given him.


    That was right. Theo had told him he wanted to go to Thernd. As his subordinate, instead of denying that request, he should have asked the reason and ns or even started working on it to make that n a reality.


    What did he do? Heined about Theo''s performance. In other words, he had stepped outside his boundary this whole time. That was why Theo wasn''t interested.


    Even though he wanted a family, he still needed the full reign of this group because he had a clear goal to build this family. If Felix, Chris, or even this new person, Akbar, controlled his group instead of him, what was the difference between this and him joining the Star Group?


    That was why Theo was angry that Akbar didn''t understand his position.


    If Akbar had acknowledged him and wished to serve him, he should have agreed to Theo''s request and used his influence to create another identity for Theo so that he could go to Thernd. Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t see that earlier.


    Only when Theo stood up and showed his power did all the realizationse into his mind.


    His body was shivering non stop as if he recognized his fault one by one. His face filled with fear.


    No one knew about this, but the me Lord, the strongest person in Australia, once visited him because he wanted to recruit him. However, the me Lord realized that Akbar wasn''t someone that would simply lower his head.


    "I��" Akbar lowered his head. "I apologize��"


    "I can finally understand what kind of person you are now," Theo said coldly as a warning to Akbar. "It turns out you''re only at this level."


    Akbar widened his eyes, confused by Theo''s statement.


    "You can''t give your loyalty to someone else because you want to be in control." Theo sighed. "There''s no need to have such a person in a group because you''re going to confuse the chain ofmand, destroying the group from within."


    Theo exined the reason why the me Lord didn''t invite him to join his group despite having the power he sought the most.


    "Wait�� Wait a minute�� Let me have a second chance." Akbar desperately asked Theo who was about to leave the house. At first, he could use the threat of Theo''s identity to ckmail Theo, but Felix wouldn''t hesitate to kill him at that time.


    And if he spread Theo''s real identity, Theo would hunt him down. In fact, the Griffith Family would do the same. So, he could only hide Theo''s identity if he still wanted to live.


    On the other hand, Theo had finally achieved his objective. "Fine. I''ll give you a second chance."


    "But��" Felix wanted to protest, but Theo simply stated, "His ability is a real deal."


    "Even so, if he can''t be loyal to you, he might stab your back sooner orter."


    Theo ignored Felix''s warning and said, "I''ll give you a second chance."


    Aside from Theo''s real identity, he couldn''t use anything else to ckmail him. Even with that identity, he couldn''t do much without picturing him dying.


    Then, if he wished to take control of his group, Theo knew Felix, Jeff, Coline, or even Rea had loyalty to him. The best he could use was Christopher and Isaac.


    However, telling Christopher Theo''s real identity would just scare him, making him realize Theo was even more dangerous than he originally thought. With that kind of identity, Christopher would be more loyal to him.


    On the other hand, Isaac was a bbermouth. He could say many things, but his loyalty still leaned to Theo.


    This was the reason why a small elite group was the best. It was easy to control one and got absolute loyalty from each member, unlike the me Lord, whose group consisted of thousands of people.


    Theo''s group wouldn''t easily crumble because he invited Akbar.


    Of course, Theo didn''t n to miss this chance to get an agreement between them as well.


    "Still, I need to mention it here. Even though I can give you a second chance, my order is absolute. As long as I''m there, if I see you talking first, don''t me me if I kill you."

 Chapter 1228 Reason

    Chapter 1228 Reason


    "Y-yes." Akbar nodded furiously. "Then, I''ll immediately buy a mansion in the US so that I can stay there. And I''ll make sure that your fake ID Card is prepared within a day."


    "No. You need to stay in this country." Theo shook his head.


    "Eh? Why? All the people who follow you havee to the USA too, so�� Do you reject me because of my behavior earlier?"


    "You''re more useful in this ce. Kyrgyzstan�� You''ve truly used your strategic position wisely�� It''s close to Africa, Europe, and Asia. It will be easy for you to monitor the situation here. However, I''ll still call you when I need you to do something."


    Akbar''s face became pale. In his eyes, Theo was suppressing him. After all, it was clear that he wasn''t someone that easily bowed down to someone. If he stayed here, he wouldn''t need to meet the others that much, resulting in him failing to manipte them.


    Contrary to his thought, Theo believed Akbar was worth more when he was here instead of going with him. He also knew that Akbar wouldn''t be able to manipte his group.


    Of course, Theo considered Akbar''s personality carefully. This action also allowed him to suppress Akbar''s influence. Although he didn''t want to admit it, Akbar was indeed quite dangerous even to him.


    So, he wanted to be a Mythical Rank Expert first before defeating Akbarpletely.


    And with Theo''s current condition, it was impossible for him to think the way he used to because of the problem with his Reality Eyes. Even so, this was enough for now. One yearter, he should be able to control his Reality Eyes and be a Mythical Rank Expert.


    If he didn''t need Akbar at that time, he could simply throw him away.


    Theo looked at Akbar with a calm expression as if he was not trying to repulse him. Even Akbar started to think that this was just a test from Theo. Theo wanted him to show his loyalty first before allowing him to stay with him.


    In the end, Akbar admitted defeat and said, "I understand. I''ll follow your arrangement."


    ''Just a bit longer�� I need to endure it a bit longer.'' Akbar thought, still believing that he could turn around the situation.


    Theo then passed a number to him. "I know that you want to know about my power, but I can''t say anything to you. You''re free to observe me, but that''s what you will get. You''re pretty lucky because we have an excellent scientist in our group. That''s his contact. So�� If you get the answer, it''s your effort, not my fault.


    "If you have something to ask or If I have a task for you, I''ll contact you through Felix. That''s all." Theo finally walked away as if he had finished confronting Akbar.


    "Please wait a minute." Akbar tried to stop him again. "There is something that I haven''t told you."


    "And that is?"


    "There is a bounty on your head in the underworld. Your head is currently worth one billion Zil. Unfortunately, it''s close to impossible to find the one who posts the mission, so I hope that you can be careful."


    "One billion, huh�� To think they think I''m worth only that much." Theo snorted. "Well, what do you think, Felix?"


    "If it''s just a normal assassin, fighting against three Mythical Rank Experts is an easy task. With your help, five won''t be a problem." Felix answered with a calm expression.


    Even Akbar thought, ''He might actually do it.''


    Theo was immune to poison and curses. He could even remove them from Felix''s body if the assassins attacked them this way. So, it was almost impossible to harm him under normal circumstances.


    After listening to his warning, Theo then left the house.


    Felix nced at him with worry. At first, he thought inviting Akbar was a good thing. But when he realized Akbar''s true personality, he might bring more harm than good to the group. At the same time, Theo had epted Rea, who was obviously the spy of the Sword Saint.


    He didn''t know why but Theo had been making a questionable decision. Even he couldn''t understand his thoughts. He was worried that Theo had lost his mind after the victory against the Death Reaper.


    As if knowing Felix''s worry, Theo smiled. "Don''t worry, Felix. I''m still me."


    ''I''m still me.'' That was a powerful statement to Felix. It was the same as telling him that he was fine and his decisions had been considered carefully.


    ''It seems I am the one who has been questioning himtely. His thoughts�� I don''t think anyone can decipher it. I should believe in him. There will be an opportunity in the future for his decisions to click together.''


    "I understand. Sorry."


    "It''s fine. Let''s have a rest here for now, and we''ll go to Thernd two dayster." Theo nodded.


    "Sure."


    Both of them began to travel to the hotel they''d booked earlier. Theo became a bit passive in the next two days because he was focusing on adjusting his eyes. Although it wouldn''t do much, he still needed to do it as much as possible.


    "Still, do you have any attachment lingering to your country?" Felix asked.


    "I don''t think I do." Theo shook his head. "Even my pastrades have spread all over the world. There is only one person that I want to meet there."


    "Who is it?"


    "Do you know the rabbit that was always with me?"


    "Ah!"


    "Her mother is there. So, I want to visit her to tell her about her daughter. All my opportunity was given by her, so I want to do at least this much to repay her."


    Theo didn''t lie. His opportunity came because of the Friend Seal that Avarice gave to him. So, he thought this was the only way to repay her. Avarice should be happy that her daughter became the sole sessor of the current Authority Level Figure.


    As for his brother, he already knew that his brother was forced by the circumstances, but he still held his opinion about his family. He wouldn''t attack them, but he had decided to cut any contact with them.


    So, his only purpose in visiting Thernd was Avarice.

 Chapter 1229 Nostalgic

    Chapter 1229 Nostalgic


    Two dayster.


    Theo and Felix stood in the airport. Theo now didn''t have a mask on because Joker, his clone, had gone back to avoid any controversy.


    Meanwhile, Theo used his Reality Order to forge a new identity for himself. He had short brown hair and ck eyes to make it not suspicious.


    At the same time, Felix had long ck hair and a gentle gaze. A Mythical Rank Expert was a huge matter in Thernd, so Theo had used his ability to make the Magic Power in their body disappear. This way, people would mistake them for a Hero Rank Expert.


    To prove his loyalty, Akbar gave him their new ID Cards just to go to Thernd.


    After that, he saw them off personally.


    "I shouldn''t have introduced him to you," Felix muttered in a low voice. He somehow started not liking Akbar''s personality because he was normally a chill guy that was easy to talk to. The current Akbar was too obsessed with Theo.


    "It''s fine. At the end of the day, it''s my decision." Theo shrugged. "I have my own ns anyway."


    "Well��" Felix ultimately dropped the matter and boarded the ne together.


    It wasn''t a long flight before Theo and Felix arrived.


    "Mr. Aaly and Mr. Azamat, is it? What''s the purpose of both of youing to Thernd?"


    "Sightseeing," Felix answered with a calm expression.


    "Okay. I''ve checked all your documents and��" The airport staff stamped their passports and handed them to Felix. "That''s done. Wee to Thernd."


    "Thank you." Felix grabbed the passport and left the airport with Theo.


    This time, they didn''t have anyone to escort them this time because no one knew their identities.


    "This is the first time we''re out without someone''s surveince," Felix muttered.


    "Well, I''m not nning to use it that much because the more I use it, the higher the chance of it being discovered."


    "Fair enough."


    "As for where we stay�� Oh boy, where are we going to stay now?"


    "To be honest, I''m quite curious about your previous life in this ce. I''ve read it somewhere�� It seems to be pretty rough."


    "Haha. Looking back now, it feels a bit nostalgic. Back then, I needed to work hard just to get a few hundred Zils. And now�� I still need to work hard to get a few hundred�� billion Zils."


    "That''s the proof that you''ve be so sessful. There''s nothing wrong with that." Felix shrugged.


    "Anyway, let''s get a hotel near my previous house then. I don''t mind showing you around today. I can finish my objective tomorrow."


    "Okay."


    Theo then headed straight to the fanciest hotel in the region where he previously lived. He never experienced the life of the rich in this country, so there weren''t many memories he could recall in this country other than the dark period when his life was filled with bullies.


    "Looking back, my hatred haspletely gone now�� The bullying made my life the worst, but somehow they became irrelevant to me."


    "The best revenge is just the fact that you''re living better than them."


    "True." Theo nodded.


    After checking into the hotel, Theo then guided Felix around his hometown. Felix first visited the small house where Theo previously resided. The house had been upied by another tenant like him. It seemed the price had skyrocketed because they could im, ''This was where Theodore Griffith lived when he participated in the Grand Gaia Competition.''


    However, he didn''t really care much about it because that wasn''t relevant to him anymore. On the other hand, Felix shook his head helplessly, saying, "I thought I had already lived a modest life, but it seemed that you were more miserable than I was��"


    "Oh, you haven''t seen my apartment. That small apartment��"


    "What apartment?"


    "Haha�� it''s a unique apartment." Theo chuckled and led him to the small and dark alley where crime could happen. Even the hygiene was very bad.


    "This is��"


    "The room was only enough for one table, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bed." Theo smiled. "I don''t know what''s happened to this ce though."


    Felix widened his eyes. Even when he was a kid, his life was better than this. Considering his parents were quite influential people, they should have left some money for the kid, but it seemed not to be the case.


    With the addition of constant bullying, his life was truly much worse.


    Suddenly, they heard a female''s voice ringing from behind.


    "Are you two foreigners? Visiting this small museum where Theodore Griffith once lived? Do you want me to give you a tour?"


    When Theo and Felix turned around, they saw a woman at the same age as Theo. She had a pale face and long gray hair. She even wore whiteb coats and sses like a scientist.


    However, Theo recognized this woman with a single nce. She was one of the people Theo remembered in this country, the only person that praised him when achieving his goal to participate in the Grand Gaia Competition, Aisha Gata.


    Theo looked at her with a nostalgic gaze, while Aisha was confused because he''d never seen these two men.


    "Oh? Are you familiar with this ce?" Theo asked.


    "Of course. I often visited this ce when I felt down, reminding myself that I could do better just like the famous Theodore Griffith." Aisha shrugged.


    "In that case, can you guide me a bit? I''m curious about the most popr person in Thernd," said Theo with a smile.


    "Sure." Aisha agreed without hesitation.


    Felix didn''t understand anything at all. In fact, he had been asking a question in his heart. ''Why did the homeowner want someone to give a tour of his previous ce?''


    Theo didn''t say anything. He simply followed Aisha into the apartment.


    After paying a small fee at the entrance, they arrived in this small ce that had be tidy and clean. It might be because there wasn''t any other equipment that his room looked more spacious, but it was horrible when he lived here.


    "This is the ce where Theodore Griffith once lived. Even with this condition, he somehow reached the peak of the Grand Gaia Competition. Truly a role model." Aisha smiled, presenting them with the room.

 Chapter 1230 Past Acquittances

    Chapter 1230 Past Acquittances


    "��" Felix was speechless because there was no way Theo could have a decent life here. It was too cramped. He would be under a lot of stress when living here, let alone when he was bullied by the people around him.


    "You''re so happy when introducing this ce." Theo chuckled.


    "Of course. Theodore Griffith is my idol and will always be. There are many things that I can learn from him. He''s really the definition from zero to hero." Aisha smiled, not realizing that the person she was talking about this whole time was right before her.


    "So, what do you do for a living? Since Theodore Griffith is your idol, are you hunting on the other side?"


    "I do that sometimes, but I''m focusing on my studies in Medical School. I believe that I should focus on medicine to make use of my power."


    "Is that so? You''re so good." Theo nodded, remembering the girl had the blessing of Hippocrates.


    "I''m nothingpared to my idol." Aisha chuckled. "How many days are you visiting the country?"


    "It won''t be too long. Only three days."


    "Three days. Good. There are many ces you can visit here, you know."


    "Yeah, I know." Theo nodded. "I heard that Theodore Griffith''s school was near this ce."


    "I can''t say it''s quite near, but it''s around fifteen minutes away if you walk from here."


    "What happened to the school after he left?"


    "The school obviously got a lot of attention after his performance due to his reputation. There was a lot of pressure on the school. Unfortunately, it seemed that the school had failed to produce the second Theodore Griffith.


    "No, should I say�� Theodore Griffith was a godsend opportunity for the school? Even in thest previous Grand Gaia Competition, our team didn''t manage to attain the key to the mainpetition.


    "If Theodore Griffith led the team once again, we could defeat Russia,st year''s runner-up, or evenst year''s winner, China. People med the participants for not achieving the same feat." She let out a long sigh, disappointed.


    "Ahaha, you might have overestimated him."


    "I''m sorry, but I need to deny you there. There are a lot of people who think I''m overestimating him, but in fact, I''m not. He''s truly a unique person.'' She red at Theo for a second before apologizing for her rude remark.


    Of course, Theo also apologized for insulting ''himself.''


    "Anyway, it''s truly a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for showing us all this." Theo smiled. "Let me repay you with the money you used to enter this facility."


    "No, no, it''s fine. I''m working part-time in the hospital, so I''m not bothered with money." Aisha politely refused Theo''s offer and took a step back.


    "Okay then, thank you so much." Theo smiled.


    "You''re wee. Do you want to visit his school now? I can give you directions, but I''m afraid I can''t show you around."


    "Oh? Don''t worry. I know the general location." Theo nodded.


    "I see. That''s good then."


    They then left the building as they were going to continue their day.


    However, the moment they came out of the building, they saw an unconscious man leaning on the wall.


    His right hand was severed, and the blood was still dripping, showing that the wound was new.


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he never expected to be at a crime scene all of a sudden.


    Aisha hurriedly checked the man''s condition and pped her hand. A green light then started to shine around her hands as the energy from it gradually flowed to the man''s hand.


    To Theo and Felix''s surprise, the lower arm was slowly created out of nothing as if the arm grew back.


    "This is��" Felix sucked a cold breath. Limb regeneration was a rare ability. Only a few people in the world could use something like this. Even the pope needed the severed limb to repair the damage.


    But it seemed Aisha''s ability was more unique than they originally thought.


    "Do you know him?" Theo asked with a gentle tone.


    "No."


    "So, you still help him? I mean, this is a dark alley, you know. He might not be a good person either."


    "I am a doctor. I''ll help people who need me��" Aisha gave a perfect answer but changed her attitude right after. "Well, that was what I would say in front of the camera. But this time, I simply want him to recover because I don''t want him to taint the ce of my idol."


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment and asked another question. "I see. So, you can regrow someone''s limb��"


    "Yes. But it will take a long time to connect the nerve that transmits the Magic Power though�� In other words, even if he has his limb back, he won''t be able to channel any Magic Power for at least one and a half years."


    "That''s a price that nobody cares, you know." Theo smiled. If she actually healed the Wind Emperor by amputating his feet first, the Wind Emperor might be able to fully recover within a few years. Even if the Wind Emperor was too strong, the recovery would probably take only one to two decades.


    "Well, I rarely showed this power. So, I hope that you don''t tell anyone else about this."


    "Don''t worry. My lips are tight." Theo smiled.


    "Thanks." She nodded.


    "Instead of that, why don''t you work for me? I can offer a high sry and an opportunity that you can''t meet anywhere else."


    "I''m thankful for the offer, but I''m not interested."


    "I see. Such a shame." Theo nodded as his expression became cold.


    "��" Aisha''s heart skipped a beat as she never expected that Theo would be like this after she rejected his offer.


    But before the misunderstanding became even deeper, Theo raised his head and called, "Felix."


    "I believe there are around thirty people." Felix looked around as they found peopleing into this dark alley before taking out their weapons.


    "!!!" Aisha realized she had misunderstood Theo''s action and hurriedly rose from the ground, raising both fists as if she was prepared to fight.


    "Hmm? To think we can find Aisha Gata here." One of them recognized Aisha''s face and smirked excitedly.


    "The boss wants her alive because her ability is useful. We will kill that man Azoth and capture her. As for those two foreigners, they''re unlucky to meet us here."

 Chapter 1231 Offer

    Chapter 1231 Offer


    "��" Theo looked at them with ack of interest, while Felix thought it was the other way around.


    Meanwhile, Aisha stepped forward and said, "I don''t know what''s going on, but it seems that I''ve made the wrong decision today and ended up causing trouble for you two. I''ll buy you some time. Use that chance to escape from here."


    "Haha. Look at that confidence." The assassin chuckled.


    Before they made a move, Theo came to Aisha and asked, "Well, I do want to ask you once again. Do you want to join my group? I can save you from here�� Well, at least, how about hearing my offer for a bit? In exchange, I''ll defeat them."


    "This is not the right time for that." Aisha gritted her teeth.


    "Oh, want to be a hero to save beauty? You don''t even realize that I''m a Supreme Rank Expert!" The leader of this groupughed as if he had taken pride in his own achievement. It was true that a Supreme Rank Expert was a peak power in this country, but Theo had seen the world. Supreme Rank Experts were just an ant in his eyes.


    "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Theo didn''t care about him as he simply looked at Aisha. "Well, do you want to hear my offerter?"


    "You should really go. A Supreme Rank Expert can recognize another Supreme Rank Expert. Since he doesn''t recognize you, you shouldn''t be a Supreme Rank Expert�� So, it''s better if you escape now." Aisha was concerned. After all, her words were true because she didn''t know Theo was simply hiding the Magic Power in his body with his order.


    "Come on. I am just asking. Don''t I deserve an answer?" Theo asked, a bit rude. She didn''t need to answer his question since they had just met a moment ago. Or that was what her memory was.


    He was also aware of it and considered this question hisst. If Aisha didn''t agree, then he would just pull back for the time being.


    "Fine. Okay! Is this enough? Now go!" Aisha shouted as she desperately tried to have the tourists avoid the worst oue.


    "It''s toote. Kill those two tourists first. We''ll show them that there are ces they shouldn''t visit."


    The attackers hurriedly charged toward them. Even the people on the roof jumped down, ambushing Theo from all directions.


    Unfortunately for them, they suddenly stopped in their tracks. Even those who jumped off were stuck in the air, unable to move their bodies.


    "What is this?"


    "What''s wrong with this situation?"


    "Why can''t we move our body?"


    Even Aisha was confused by this urrence and looked around to see who was using their power. But the only thing she could see was Theo standing calmly in front of her.


    The Supreme Rank Expert would have been able to see through another Supreme Rank Expert from the Magic Power alone. It would be even more obvious for a Mythical Rank Expert. Yet, Theo wasn''t either of them. It meant Theo was Hero Rank Expert or below.


    "Well, my opponents have been either peerless Supreme Rank Experts or Mythical Rank Experts. I guess this is the first time that my Telekinesis can work so well." Theo smiled.


    One''s body could release Magic Power continuously. This force was stronger for Supreme Rank Expert or Mythical Rank Expert.


    Meanwhile, his Telekinesis could control their body by using the Magic Power as the catalyst.


    In other words, there was still a force that connected Theo''s body to the enemy''s body. And that force was dispelled by the natural flow of Magic Powering from Supreme Rank or Mythical Rank Experts.


    However, Hero Rank Experts had no such feature. Without this strength and theck of force they could umte, it was impossible for them to break free from Theo''s Telekinesis.


    "What is this��" The Supreme Rank Expert was stunned. He never thought there was someone this weird and strong. He couldn''t even see whether this person was a Supreme Rank Expert or Mythical Rank Expert, but he clearly knew that he wouldn''t be able to suppress all his subordinates without moving his finger.


    "No!" The Supreme Rank Expert was aware that he needed to leave as soon as possible.


    Unfortunately for him, before he could even turn around, the sunlight somehow illuminated this dark alley, and he was knocked out.


    Yes, Felix appeared behind him like a ghost.


    "Good work." Theo smiled and sent his killing intent to all these guys, knocking them out.


    "You''re not going to kill them?" Felix asked.


    "They''re not a threat to me." Theo shrugged.


    "Okay, then. Let me drag them away from here first." Felix nodded in agreement and started working, moving their bodies to another ce.


    "Anyway, they shouldn''t wake up for another thirty minutes. You can send them to the police or whatever." Theo took out a small piece of paper and handed it to her. "If you want to talk about my offer, message this number."


    "Who are you? Why are you so strong?" This was the first time she saw normal logic didn''t apply to a person.


    Theo patted her shoulder and said, "That''s not important. What matters to you the most is�� I can give you an opportunity that you really want."


    "What I really want?"


    Theo smirked and whispered to her ears. "You too are amazing�� You, too, can change your destiny. And thank you for cheering for me for thest five years, Aisha."


    "Eh?" Aisha widened her eyes as her brain froze for a second.


    Theo patted her shoulder a few times before walking back to the main street.


    "Wait�� That line��" Aisha widened her eyes in shock, looking at Theo''s back.


    Theo only waved his hand and said without looking back, "I will stay here for three days. Bye-bye."


    Aisha''s body trembled as if she had recognized the whole truth. The memory that happened five years ago before the award ceremony shed in her mind. At that time, she had the liberty to talk with Theo.


    At that time, she said, "After losing to you, I watched the battles again and again. I knew you were the real reason we lost. That''s why I respect you from the bottom of my heart. It''s amazing to see someone that can change his destiny by using their brain alone. If you''re going to fight in Grand Gaia, I will cheer for you."

 Chapter 1232 Realization

    Chapter 1232 Realization


    After meeting with Aisha, the duo continued their trip. The next destination was Theo''s school. There weren''t many memories in this school other than painful ones, so Theo didn''t really know what to talk about.


    Since Theo didn''t talk too much, Felix finally asked, "Sorry, but I think I need to ask you this question again. Are you sure you''re alright? I know you assured me that you''re still you, but I think you''re different."


    Theo looked at Felix in confusion and asked, "What do you mean?"


    "Just like the previous one. If it were the normal you, you would have recruited her in one way or another instead of disclosing your identity. I know it''s easier to talk to her with your real identity, but you''ve been hiding yours for a long time.


    "And after the sudden prolonged stay in France, you didn''t even react too much when Akbar revealed your identity. I truly believed that you were going to threaten him or something��


    "Although I didn''t see any change in your normal behaviors, I could still see the difference in your not ordinary activities like negotiation and such.


    "I feel like you''ve been trusting people so much recently," Felix exined his observation this whole time. "I''m not good at this, but I believe Isaac will find out this change easily."


    "��" Theo fell silent. It was rare for Felix to speak up like this, so he considered his words carefully.


    The one thing that stuck in his mind the most was thest part.


    "I''m trusting people easily?" Theo muttered in a low voice. After a long pause, a question appeared in his head. "It''s true that I''ve been hiding my identity this whole time. Only after I recruited them and trusted them enough that I would reveal my identity�� In that case, why?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. After getting recognized by the world, he could see multiple realities at the same time.


    In that reality, he knew that they were trustworthy. However, he forgot the fact that it was his other self in that particr reality that met them, not him.


    Even they weren''t the same as the ones from the other realities. No matter how simr they were, they were, by no means, the same.


    ''I feel like this has happened before. Because of the Synergy, I''ve been influenced by the numerous possibilities causing my action�� No, wait. The God of Mischief has rified that the Synergy is real, but the connection between my reality and destiny is not.


    ''In other words, I wasn''t influenced by the Destiny Order. It was something else. And looking at how simr my condition is to that particr situation�� This can''t be��


    ''Have I experienced the same thing? Now that I think about it, at that time, the Queen of Destiny was using her power to supply the energy so that I could reach the third stage of the Reality Order.


    ''There was a possibility that the world had recognized me due to that influx of power. But because my body and soul weren''t strong enough, it became a side-effect.


    ''And now, my body and soul are strong enough, and I personally have epted the Reality Eyes. So, this might be the side-effect. In other words, whether it was in Antis or in this ce, I was influenced by the side-effects of Reality Order.


    ''The Reality Order was truly manipting or affecting my mental state. Is this what you mean by losing yourself in reality?


    ''I know that my current power is not strong enough to go to the other realities�� And I''m not nning to do it very soon because I don''t want to affect the realities around me.


    ''But still�� reality will make you lose your personality. This might be the true meaning of that sentence.'' Theo frowned.


    With a single look, he couldn''t really see any w in his argument, considering the past and the current symptom were simr.


    "It seems that I need a lot of time to sort out everything," Theo muttered in a low voice. ??? ????? ???????s ??? ?????s??? ??  that?" Felix frowned, worried about Theo''s condition. It seemed that Theo had noticed something strange in his current state, so he wanted to make sure Theo didn''t do anything stupid.


    Luckily, Theo looked at him with a smile. "Thanks, Felix. It seems that I haven''t paid enough attention to my current self."


    Looking at that smile and listening to his tone, Felix felt relieved because this was the usual reaction from Theo when he understood the entire situation. He knew everything was going to be alright.


    "I''m sorry, but I think I need to do meditation to sort all the stuff in my head. I can''t really show you around after this."


    "It''s fine. You don''t have many good memories about this country, so I''d rather not know about it�� it makes me angry too." Felix smiled, assuring Theo.


    "In that case, let''s go back, shall we?"


    "Yes. Though, are you still nning to go to the other side tomorrow?"


    "I can''t miss that opportunity because it''s true that I owe her that much."


    "Should I go with you?"


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and eventually shook his head. "Sorry, but I think I''ll go alone."


    "I understand. You said tomorrow, so I believe you wille back that day. If that doesn''t happen, I''m going to start looking for you. Sorry if you feel like I''m constraining your actions."


    "Nah, it''s fine. My current situation is a bitplex, so I can understand your worry. Even I will have a hard time fixing this, so I won''t do anything dangerous for the next three months."


    "I understand. Thank you for your understanding."


    After recognizing his situation, Theo returned to the hotel with Felix constantly checking on his current condition.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Theo''s day was truly eventful.


    When he passed on a rtively quiet area where only rich people could stay, since it was where his hotel was, he met another acquaintance.


    *Bam!*


    The wall shattered before him as two people came out at the same time. Both of them had purple hair, but Theo felt nostalgic when he saw the huge de that was as big as the user''s body.


    Suddenly, another person emerged from the wall. He had the same facial features, but he looked much olderpared to the other two.


    He red at them and said with killing intent. "You two bastards. I''m going to make you regret angering me."


    Theo couldn''t help but roll his eyes while thinking, ''What is the chance��''

 Chapter 1233 Indifferent

    Chapter 1233 Indifferent


    Theo became annoyed because he recognized one of them. With the addition of their location and the simrity between all these three people, it was clear the people before him were Laust and his family.


    It had been years, so Laust had changed so much to the point he had a hard time recognizing him. Even so, he knew it was him.


    Still, he was here to rest in the hotel so that he could sort his thoughts, not to deal with this random problem that somehow appeared in front of him.


    Obviously, those three noticed Theo and Felix, who happened to be there.


    "What are you two doing? Hurry up and leave this ce." Ben Lange shouted while Laust struck his father''s sword, stopping him.


    "You must have so much confidence to even bother with peasants like them when fighting against me." Their father, Endo Lange, shouted in anger.


    He released a huge lightning spark that engulfed Laust.


    As someone who had been learning many things in Japan, Laust skillfully moved his sword around, creating a small wind that directed the me to the sky. However, the me was too strong for him to handle, ultimatelyunching him away.


    After that, Endo Lange hurriedly made his way to Ben, kicking him with his zing foot.


    Ben ended up crashing into Laust as the two struggled to get up.


    "Even if you two are a Supreme Rank Expert, your strength is too weak." Endo snorted before ring at Theo and Felix. "You two. Since you''ve seen me, I can''t let you leave this ce alive."


    "Annoying." Theo clicked his tongue. "There are so many problems today��"


    When Endo leaped toward Theo, who reacted to his words, Ben shouted, "No! Run away!"


    Everyone thought Theo would die because of Endo, but Felix stepped forward and caught his fist.


    "Who do you want to hit again?" Felix gritted his teeth. He was worried about Theo''s condition, so getting harmed like this might end up worsening Theo''s condition.


    That was why he became angry because Endo wanted to make everything worse.


    When the fire in his fist got fiercer, Felix released his light element. The sunlight somehow got brighter in this area, suppressing the fire.


    "What?" Endo widened his eyes in shock, not believing that someone could suppress his fire so easily.


    Unfortunately for him, he met Felix. After suppressing his fire, Felix grasped Endo''s wrist, spun his body, and mmed Endo to the ground.


    "Gah!" Endo spat a mouthful of blood as he was still too shocked that someone was strong enough to make him feel this useless.


    Theo nced at Ben and Laust with a poker face before turning back, nning to just leave. It was clear that they were trying to take revenge against their father. There was also grievance between him and Endo Lange because thetter wanted to kill him for the pocket watch he had at that time, but he would just let Laust fulfill his own revenge.


    "I''m not interested in this fight. Let''s go back." Theo shrugged, informing Felix.


    Felix nced at Theo, who didn''t seem to know these two people. After considering it, Felix finally let Endo''s hand go and followed Theo walk past all three of them slowly as if he was telling them that he could do whatever he wanted without them being able to do anything to him.


    However, Endo Lange seemed to have lost all the reason in his head. The moment he was free, he turned around and charged toward Theo, who was in control.


    As long as he could catch Theo, he could order Felix to kill Ben and Laust.


    With mes covering his fists, Endo Lange arrived at Theo''s back and tried to grab his neck.


    However, Felix didn''t show any sign of surprise or remorse because he could see what Theo was doing.


    Right before Endo''s hands reached Theo, a translucent barrier appeared, stopping him.


    "!!!" Endo was shocked because his me and strength couldn''t do anything against this barrier.


    But Theo soon opened the shield and grabbed Endo. His left hand was on Endo''s wrist while his other hand grabbed Endo''s shoulder.


    "Not good!" Endo realized his current position and wanted to escape, but it was toote.


    Theo hit Endo''s elbow with his knee, making Endo''s hand bent in a weird way. After that, Theo threw him into the air as his body spun, and his foot ended up kicking him in the chest, cracking a few ribs.


    The force was strong enough that Endo couldn''t protect himself from that attack.


    With this kind of injury, Endo''s performance would decrease by half. Even Laust and Ben wouldn''t have any trouble in taking down this old man.


    At the same time, he had also taken his own revenge.


    After seeing that miserable state, Theo snorted and left the area without even sparing any words to Ben and Laust.


    He had learned the side-effects of the Reality Order, so he knew he had been trusting others too much. If he stayed a bit longer in this ce, he might subconsciously tell them his real identity.


    To not make Felix worry anymore, he decided to have as little contact as possible until he finished sorting everything in his mind.


    "Let''s go back. Why does trouble love to find me��" Theo sighed.


    "I don''t know." Felix shrugged. "Everyone has their own share of problems."


    "That''s true." Theo shrugged and walked away.


    Only after they couldn''t see the duo anymore did Laust and Ben take down their father. As if nning the same thing, Endo rose from the ground. Due to his injury, Endo tried to retreat to recover first, but Ben and Laust didn''t let this chance go and eventually killed their own father.


    There were so many things that could be discussed, but they couldn''t find Theo and Felix to thank them. Even though it was unintentional, they truly helped them in fulfilling their revenge.


    Of course, no one realized that Theo had recognized them and simply finished his own revenge.

 Chapter 1234 Avarice

    Chapter 1234 Avarice


    The next day.


    Theo headed to the other side by himself. Of course, he didn''t care about the military since he could easily escape from the base with his Blink.


    As soon as he used his Blink to go through the thick wall, he used his fastest speed to disappear from any form of surveince.


    Theo only had one destination. It was the ravine where Avarice stayed.


    As expected, the moment he arrived at this ce, he could see numerous monsters fighting against each other like usual.


    On the other hand, the shadow fox had found him and kept staring at him, nning to make his move if Theo suspected this ce.


    However, Theo said with a smile. "It''s been a while, Shadow Fox. How are your kids?"


    The shadow fox was confused, but he remained in Theo''s shadow to avoid any suspicion. However, he soon saw Theo''s hair turning blue as it symbolized his identity.


    Only then did hee out of the shadow. "You�� are��"


    Theo smiled and nodded. "I''m here to talk with Avarice. Do you think it''s possible to meet her?"


    The shadow fox frowned because Avarice never stated anything about this. However, Theo showed the mark that Avarice left on his hand. "Is this enough?"


    "Friend��" He obviously recognized this symbol and decided. "I understand. Please wait for a bit. Although I know that you''re not our enemies, I need to hear my queen''s thoughts."


    "It''s okay. I''ll be waiting for you here." Theo smiled.


    "It won''t take too long."


    The shadow fox disappeared for a few minutes before it returned with Avarice.


    When Theo saw this white rabbit that reminded him of Ava, he smiled and greeted her. "Hello."


    "Theodore Griffith." Avarice nodded, greeting him back. She then turned to the shadow fox and told him to leave because she would handle the situation.


    After they couldn''t feel the shadow fox anymore, Avarice looked around, not finding Ava with him.


    "She is��"


    "Don''t worry. It''s not like she doesn''t want to see you or something." Theo shook his head. "She is currently training with the Lightning Authority."


    "Authority? You have met someone that great?" Avarice widened her eyes in shock.


    "Yes. You should know that I''m leaving to meet my grandfather, right? It turns out the Lightning Saint is protecting the area of the other side of Italy."


    "I see." Avarice nodded in understanding. "So, that''s why she can easily surpass my power."


    Just like when she felt Theo''s Order when he first got it, Theo and Avarice also knew Ava''d gotten her Order long ago. And it was clear that Ava''s strength couldn''t bepared to her previous self anymore.


    "Follow me. You don''t mind telling me your experience with her, right?"


    "Of course. It might take a bit long, though."


    "I have time."


    The two nodded at each other before Avarice invited Theo to her house.


    It wasn''t a grand ce because it was just a cave inside the ravine.


    "So, she is not going back��" Avarice muttered in a low voice as she felt a bit disappointed.


    "No, no. It''s true that she''s be the Lightning Saint''s sole sessor, but it''s not like she can''t really leave that ce. When I go there, I''ll try asking the Lightning Saint so that she can visit you.


    "And after she bes an Authority Level Figure, won''t it be easier for you to just stay there with her?" Theo asked. "I don''t know the details, but I don''t think this area is guarded by a Saint, right?"


    "Yes. This small piece ofnd is not, but the neighboringnd is protected by one. Still, I need another King to maintain the Order. Who knows what the humans will do if no one maintains the Order." Avarice shook her head helplessly.


    "Indeed. Well, I just want to tell you that you might have a hard time meeting her for the time being, but it should be resolved pretty soon. I''ll also help you just like how your Friend Seal has helped me this whole time."


    "Thank you."


    "I should be the one to thank you."


    "Anyway, do tell me about your experience."


    Theo nodded with a smile. He started telling her about the training he had with Ava. Agata was also included since they had been living together for years.


    Avarice was happy that Ava actually became that strong before even meeting the Lightning Saint.


    She also liked this Agata a bit since thetter had taken care of her daughter.


    After that, Theo told her about the hunts about the disruption of the Order in the form of the Goblin Experiment. Even Avarice was disturbed by the story.


    Back then, Theo didn''t know much about the disruption. However, looking back at this experiment, he was reminded of the image that the world showed him about the monster that got the Mutation Order.


    That disruption, specifically the Orc Lord, might be a danger of that level if not for his grandfather dealing with this situation before it got out of hand. He could see why his grandfather was generous when trading with the information about the experiment.


    Still, there were many exciting adventures they had together. Despite facing so many dangers, Avarice thanked Theo for keeping her daughter safe.


    The story continued for another few hours, and Avarice also asked a few things about Theo.


    However, there was one thing that stuck in Theo''s mind after telling the story.


    After finishing the story, Theo''s expression suddenly became serious as he looked at Avarice.


    "Hmm?" Avarice narrowed her eyes, knowing that Theo wanted to ask something. "What is it? I won''t know if you don''t tell me straight."


    Theo was hesitant but still took the courage to say it. "I know that this is rude of me, especially after all you''ve done. However, I still want to ask you one thing�� Will you fight me? This will be the first time I face another King with all my power��"

 Chapter 1235 Negotiation

    Chapter 1235 Negotiation


    When she heard the invitation, she closed her eyes for a moment before shaking her head. "It''s tempting, but I''d like to refuse."


    "Eh?"


    "It seems that you don''t know much about it�� You need to give a lot before being able to challenge another King or Queen."


    "Give a lot?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. He had never heard any of this when learning from the Lightning Saint.


    "Yes. The implication of two Kings fighting against each other is too big. There is even a potential of a full-scale war. That''s why we don''t really fight against each other. Also, with the two Orders colliding with each other, there is a potential disaster that wille after it. That''s why the one who needs to clean up is the one being challenged."


    "Because that''s your territory?"


    "Yes. Basically, depending on the result, there is a chance that our territories will go to war. Even if you don''t have territory or I''ve warned my people, there is a chance that they wille and attack you. In the worst case, they might see me getting injured and taking that chance to seize my power."


    "I see. It seems that I haven''t put thoughts into it." Theo lowered his head, recalling his memories about Orders.


    He remembered that when the Dark King asked him for a spar, thetter immediately gave him the Friend Seal. Giving this one seal alone could implicate him because the others would realize that he was rted to him. If he caused trouble, there would be a chance that another King ss Monster would take advantage of the Friend Seal to attack the Dark King.


    Then, the Dark King also gave the mining right. Last but not least, it was the help to contain the Fist Saint.


    Of course, a part of it was due to the stability of the region as well as his thanks for helping his son, but it wasn''t equal. In other words, the reason why the Dark King actually gave all this to him was the payment for the sparring they would haveter.


    Hence, Theo realized that he was indeed rude to Avarice.


    "I apologize for my behavior. I should have put more thoughts into it."


    "That''s fine. It''s true that I''m interested in your power. Because this is your first time, I''ll give you a discount. I have two conditions if you want to challenge me. First, reveal your Order before the fight. Second, we''ll fight tonight."


    Theo was surprised that Avarice still gave him a chance despite his rudeness. An Order was one of the biggest secrets a person could have. It was obvious that he couldn''t share his Order that easily.


    But this fight was against Avarice. Even he had already known that her order was Moonlight. Revealing his Order before the fight was like a chivalrous spirit.


    As for the second condition, Avarice wanted to use the moonlight to strengthen her. Theo also wanted to fight Avarice at her best, so he didn''t really have any problem agreeing to this condition.


    The fight shouldn''tst too long because he needed time to return to the other side as well. Since there were still a few hours before they could fight, Theo thought about using his clone to inform Felix that he might be a bitte.


    After some consideration, Theo nodded with a serious expression. "That''s good enough for me."


    "Remember. I''m just trying to teach you that it is not that easy to ask someone to fight you, especially another King or even a Saint. Unless you want to cause a huge war, it''s better not to ask about it. It will be bad if you get killed or kill the opponent in the process."


    "Yes, I understand it now. I''ll be more careful."


    "Good." Avarice nodded, satisfied.


    "There is still time. You can have a proper rest or visit someone��"


    "Sorry, I think I''ll stay here until the nightes." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    Avarice looked at his face for a moment and respected his choice. "Alright. In that case, it''s better to bring you to the ce where we''re going to fight. You can wait there."


    "Sure." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    Avarice then asked the shadow fox to do a few things for her before she led Theo to a huge in one hour away from the ravine. There was nothing that could be used here. No trees, boulders, or even slopes.


    If they fought here, they could only rely on their strength.


    "This is where we''re going to fight. There are no monsters in the area, so it''s perfect. I have to warn you about one thing. Fighting against a King is not as easy as you think it''ll be."


    "I understand." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He never underestimated his enemy, so he would prepare for the worst.


    "Alright. This is just a spar, so I don''t wish to fight too much. The fight will onlyst for ten minutes. Whatever state that fight is in, we''ll end the fight."


    "Okay. I don''t have any problem with that."


    "Alright then. Since you''ve agreed, I''ll prepare for the fight as well." Avarice nodded with a serious expression and finally left him.


    Of course, Theo didn''t forget to say ''Reality'' as a part of the agreement.


    After that, Theo closed his eyes as he focused on his body.


    ''This is it. I know how a King ss fights, but this is the first time I face a King ss Monster�� This is what I''mcking right now. The Order is truly effective against normal people, but if my opponents are top one hundred experts, it will be a different case.


    ''Also, my current situation is not that good either because my rationality has been corrupted by other realities. And with my clone going back to the other side, I can''t really showcase my full power. Even so, this will be a good spar because I can learn so much from it.


    ''In that case, what I should think right now is��'' Theo focused on his Reality Eyes, the recent strength he acquired from the world itself. What kind of fight could he show with the addition of the Reality Eyes��

 Chapter 1236 Sparring

    Chapter 1236 Sparring


    The wait might take a few hours, but Theo didn''t really care because he was busy sorting his thoughts. He also wanted toe up with an idea on how to use his Reality Eyes.


    When the moon gradually rose in the sky, Avarice returned to this area, this time with her battle form.


    Her humanoid form was simr to Ava, but she had aplete ring with seven balls that emitted light. Her ws were sharp and strong.


    ''Killer bunny'' might be her title if the people on Earth discovered her. With those bloodshot eyes, Avarice created a heavy atmosphere around her.


    As soon as he felt her presence, Theo rose from the ground and opened his eyes, observing her.


    After that, he took out his sword and even summoned his Irregr Guardian (Sword Form) to increase his security.


    "It seems that you''ve grown stronger than my imagination." Avarice narrowed her eyes.


    "I might not be as strong as you." Theo lowered his spear as he took a deep breath, calming his mind. His eyes were focused on Avarice''s body.


    "The time limit is ten minutes."


    Theo nodded and summoned his Death Avatar. He even summoned a giant coin so that both of them could see it. "As soon as the coin touches the ground, we''ll start?"


    "Sounds good."


    After getting her agreement, Theo hurriedly tossed the coin into the sky.


    Avarice then released her own Magic Power that wasn''t losing against Theo. She even let out her sharp teeth.


    *Cling!*


    The coin fell to the ground.


    Avarice pointed her palm at Theo as the ring behind her body moved to the front and shone brightly. Each sphere sent a powerful light to the middle and created a powerful beam.


    Theo channeled his Magic Power to the tip of his spear with the help of Enhanced Concentration Capacity. This way, the tip of his spear would be the strongest weapon in this ce.


    He stabbed the beam with his spear, causing it to split into two. Surprisingly, Theo was also pushed back by the force of this white beam.


    "!!!" Theo never expected that the beam would be this strong.


    Before the beam was split into halfpletely, Avarice had appeared next to him, swinging her ws. The light power that covered her ws turned into crescent-shaped white energy that flew to Theo.


    Seeing this energy, Theo changed his Irregr Guardian into a shield and received the attack head-on. The ws somehow made a small hole in his shield.


    ''That''s too strong. In that case��''


    The Death Avatar''s eyes glowed as Theo utilized its amplification to increase the intensity of his killing intent to scare Avarice.


    But when she felt this killing intent, a single roar was all it took for her to neutralize the killing intent.


    "Wha��" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. As soon as the beam was cleavedpletely, Theo jumped back, trying to gain some distance from her.


    Avarice waved her ws once again to stop Theo from running away.


    Theo snapped his finger, using his Attribute Removal to erase the element from that ws.


    The white energy soon disappeared, but the Magic Power remained. When he was about to disintegrate the Magic Power, the white light returned as if it was reinforced by the moonlight.


    "!!!" Theo clicked his tongue and turned his spear into a sword before releasing a simr attack to destroy her.


    After that, Theo changed his weapon into a sniper rifle and shot at Avarice.


    Avarice raised two of her fingers before the moonlight somehow became brighter, shrinking the bullet from Theo''s sniper rifle.


    When the bullet split into a few, the moonlight shone even brighter, suppressing the energy. In the end, the bullets had disappeared before they reached her.


    ''��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and pointed his palm to the moon.


    However, despite trying hard to remove the attribute from the moonlight, he couldn''t do it.


    "Tsk." Theo raised his vision and thought, ''It''s too far. Does she really control the moon? Or is it just the moonlight? Unlike normal elements, the moonlight isn''t formed by Magic Power�� It literallyes from the sunlight that is reflected by the moon. So, I can''t really remove that.''


    Theo knew that all his Magic Power could be disintegrated by the moonlight but not the other way around. In other words, he was in a very disadvantageous position.


    ''I see. That''s why it doesn''t really matter whether you have one of the Big Orders or not. Depending on how you use it, the normal Orders can defeat those Big Orders. Of course, there are some advantages as a possessor of one of the Big Orders.'' Theo thought as he started focusing on the other realities reflected in his eyes.


    "What''s wrong?" Avarice smirked. "I haven''t even started."


    Theo''s expression became even more serious as he snapped his finger.


    The ground in front of him suddenly rose to the air as the soil was split into two. After that, the floating soils and rocks formed a huge roof that covered the moonlight. Of course, the rocks were just an illusion. Theo reinforced it with his Order so that the roof was like a real thing. This would prevent the moonlight from affecting it.


    It was true that his Magic Power would be disintegrated by the moonlight, but he could simply use this solution.


    Avarice nced at the roof for a second before leaping toward Theo.


    Theo summoned a few swords forth, trying to defeat Avarice. Unfortunately for him, Avarice easily avoided all of them as she approached Theo.


    However, a smile appeared on Theo''s face as he summoned the thin threads that connected all those swords.


    "!!!" Avarice was surprised as her body was stopped by the trip, resulting in her tripping to the ground.


    Theo nned to use this chance to defeat her, but Theo forgot one detail in Avarice''s body.


    His Reality Eyes picked it up at thest second as he raised his vision to the roof.


    On top of the roof, the ring with seven spheres had expanded.


    "An Order from the moon. Be judged by the seven stars." Avarice waved her hand down.


    In that instance, the seven spheres released a powerful light with pointed tips. These seven giant lights shattered the roof and hit the ground, causing the ground to burst out. The swords and threads were neutralized by the moonlight that finally returned after the roof was gone.


    Avarice then took this opportunity to move again, appearing in front of Theo while striking his body with her ws.


    Theo also saw her movement and struck her ws.


    *Cling!*

 Chapter 1237 Alter Ego vs Blood Moon

    Chapter 1237 Alter Ego vs Blood Moon


    *Cling!*


    The conclusion came all of a sudden. Avarice passed Theo after that one sh while Theo gritted his teeth, thinking he had blocked that one.


    But in the next second, a w wound appeared on his shoulder.


    Theo didn''t care much about the pain. He was just�� confused.


    ''My movement felt a bit stiff in thest sh. Did she use the moonlight to make my body heavier?'' Theo frowned.


    Not wanting to lose, Theo raised his finger.


    Suddenly, the ground split into two as they fell down to the gap without any light in it. The reality was different. Theo was simply using the rocks and soils to create a huge ce for them that could block all lights from the outside.


    But because Theo applied the Reality Order to it, this subspace became their new reality. With this subspace, Avarice wouldn''t get the supply of energy from the moonlight.


    After that, Theo used his Death Domain to cover this ce with his mist, restricting her Awareness.


    With the help of Muscle Enhancement, Theo prepared himself to follow Avarice''s every movement, preventing her from escaping from this subspace.


    ''What should I do now? It''s clear that my Supernatural Snake Body is not hard enough to stop her ws. The moonlight is also a problem because I can''t shatter the moon. In that case��'' Theo came up with a solution.


    After creating this darkness, Theo used his Reality Eyes as well as Awareness to get a good grasp of Avarice''s movement. After that, he changed the Irregr Guardian into a spear and threw it at her.


    Avarice''s instinct was sharper than a human, so she could feel the danger from the spear without even looking. And she could also see in the dark. The only disadvantage of this subspace is her inability to utilize the moonlight.


    However, it was soon resolved as she activated the ring on her back. The seven spheres emitted the light and sent it to the middle. And the spheres started blending with the light, causing the ring to turn into a sphere of light.


    "If I don''t have a moon, then I just need to create it." Avarice felt the power emanating from the artificial moon that she had.


    "Tsk." Theo felt his ability getting suppressed by the light. He tried to remove the power, but thetter also tried to disintegrate his Order. In the end, the two Orders shed.


    "I''m still wondering why you don''t use your Battle Form?"


    "Battle form?"


    "Unlike creatures like us who can have a battle form as soon as we be a General ss, humans can do it after meeting with the world. I''m pretty sure that your power is enough to get the qualification from the world, right?"


    "I just got it a few days ago."


    "No wonder. I don''t know much about the power system of a human, but I can see that your power is affecting only the outside, whether it''s the Magic Power or the environment itself�� I haven''t seen you use that ability to yourself."


    "To myself?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. He never had a thought about this. The first stage of his Order was the recognition of the Order. So, he didn''t think much about it.


    The second stage was Magic Power. He affected the Magic Power with his Order, allowing him to create that overpowered ability, Attribute Removal.


    Then the next stage was Reality vs Illusion. He had been using it to block the moonlight. However, he realized he hadn''t done anything to his body.


    ''Reality Alter.'' Theo muttered inwardly as he forgot about one thing. ''That''s right. Instead of looking at others in another reality, I should have focused on myself. This is why I want to sort my thoughts, right? Because the me in the other realities are affecting my feelings and thoughts.


    ''In that case, I should have focused on my other self instead of anyone else.'' Theo came to a realization.


    "So, that''s how it is." A grin appeared on Theo''s face.


    "It seems that you''ve realized something. The time limit is almost up. This will be ourst sh." Avarice smiled.


    "Yes." Theo nodded in agreement as he pointed his sword at her.


    Avarice suddenly pped her hands as the circle revolved crazily.


    Suddenly, the darkness was illuminated. No, if one took a look at the roof, the soil and rocks began to crumble.


    The moon in the sky shone brightly as all the clouds around it opened a huge hole in the sky as if acting like a magnifier. The moonlight hit them intensely as Avarice received a surge of strength from the moonlight.


    "We might be moon rabbits, but we have another identity. We are known as killer rabbits." Avarice muttered with a serene tone as she raised her hands. "We''ve killed so much that the blood paints the moon red. That''s why the moon is now��"


    The moonlight soon turned red. If someone took a look at the sky, they would see a blood-red moon. Whether it was an illusion or her Order affecting the light, it still gave a creepy feeling.


    "Blood moon." Avarice muttered as the circle moved to her right hand, absorbing the red moonlight and turning red itself. The ring emanated a powerful killing intent and strength that might be able toy waste to the entire area.


    However, Theo also didn''t n to lose.


    ''Instead of focusing on other things, I should find a reality simr to my current reality and focus on my other self in that reality�� There are numerous realities happening right now�� a hundred�� a thousand�� a hundred thousand�� no, it''s infinite. Infinite realities, infinite possibilities.


    ''In one of those realities, there shall be��'' Theo''s status window appeared before him.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 691


    EXP: 7,355,110/ 9,478,452


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Illusion Maniption (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A)


    Attributes: Strength 850, Endurance 665, Agility 657, Vitality 655, Magic Power 1100


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Theo narrowed his eyes and focused on one thing. It was his attributes.


    Attributes: Strength 850, Endurance 665, Agility 657, Vitality 655, Magic Power 1100


    ''That''s right. In that reality, Theodore Griffith used all its points to��'' Theo fell silent as his Order revolved crazily.


    The attributes also soon increased.


    Strength 1400


    Strength 2800��


    Strength 3500��


    ''Strength.'' Theo smirked as he saw all the attribute points turning into strength.


    Strength 3931


    Attributes: Strength 3931, Endurance 665, Agility 657, Vitality 655, Magic Power 1100


    Theo smirked. "Instead of using this reality, I am using the other reality to affect my own reality for a period of time. This is my Reality Alter."


    With all that strength points, he would be the strongest person in the world. After covering his body with Magic Power, Theo leaped forward.


    Avarice also did the same as she used all her strength in this attack.


    "I call this move Blood Moon Curse." Avarice shouted as she plunged her ws into Theo.


    "I haven''t prepared its name, but I''ll call this Alter Ego," Theo replied as he waved his sword down.


    *Cling!*

 Chapter 1238 Conclusion

    Chapter 1238 Conclusion


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    Both Theo and Avarice wereunched back, crashing into the ground far away from the sh.


    Theo gritted his teeth as the pain spread all over his body.


    He couldn''t help but recall what happened earlier.


    As soon as his sword struck Avarice''s ws, the red moonlight shone brightly, suppressing the blood in his body. Of course, he used his Attribute Removal to fight against it.


    However, he realized that the consumption of his Alter Ego was simply too big. It was true that he could gain an insane amount of power, but he could barely use it. After all, it was the same as bringing another reality to this reality with the energy in his Order.


    After using the Alter Ego and the Attribute Removal at the same time, he used half of his energy right away. Theck of supply soon contributed to the instability of his power, resulting in the red moonlight overpowering him at thest second.


    Still, Avarice was in the same situation. The impact of his strike that contained all his strength was simply too powerful. Even a single swing almost broke her hands.


    After checking his body, Theo ignored the pain and stood up, trying to check Avarice''s condition.


    "How are you? That''s the first time I used that, so I couldn''t hold back." Theo asked with a worried expression.


    "That was a great trump card. If you''d mastered it, I might die in thatst sh." Avarice nodded with a serious expression. "I don''t know about your attainment in Order, but it''s clear that you''ve reached a pretty high level."


    "Well." Theo nodded in agreement. Although he hadn''t been able to control it, he truly had a great understanding of Order since he managed to cultivate it to the fourth stage.


    "Anyway, this is myst piece of advice. In and out�� If you want to use your Order properly, you need to understand the inside and the outside. The inside is your body and the outside is the environment. There are many variables that you can use to amplify your Order."


    "I understand. Thank you very much�� especially for agreeing to have a spar with me." Theo lowered his head. Avarice might be one of the people that he owed the most.


    "It''s fine. Although I don''t think there are heavy injuries, I''m too weak to move right now. Do you mind carrying me back?"


    "Please." Theo agreed without hesitation.


    Avarice then returned to her small form and Theo carefully put her on top of her palm. After that, the two returned together.


    After leaving Avarice to the shadow fox, Theo hurriedly returned to the other side.


    On the way, he had some time to think about what he did earlier.


    "That�� Alter Ego�� is a technique that I use to summon another reality to affect my own reality. This means there are two realities that exist at the same time, and maintaining them requires a huge amount of energy. At my current state, I can''t use it for more than three seconds.


    "Still, this ability is too broken because I can switch my status easily. What if when I am about to die, I put all my points to Vitality? How about using all my Agility to be faster than anyone else? Although it will onlyst for a few seconds, it''s going to be useful for me, especially in a battle.


    "There is even a possibility of using that ability to change my skills or even level? Hmm, I don''t know about it yet because I haven''t experimented with it. I mean, if I increase my level, don''t I need to arrange my status points? That will take too long.


    "On the other hand, it''s better to use the skills that I''m familiar with. My skills are going to be an S Rank soon, so I don''t think I need a skill from another reality. That''s right�� What if I change my blessing? I bet he''s going to be angry. Haha."


    The God of Mischief knew his thought because he had been observing him, so he replied.


    [Use it to change your gender instead. With the help of metamorphosis, you might be an even more perfect woman.]


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. "Still, in and out. I can affect the Magic Power and even the reality in the environment. However, I haven''t explored the inside, which is my body. How much can my power affect me? What are the side effects of using this power? I need to experiment with everything so that I can utilize my power better.


    "To be honest, there are many things I can explore. Instead of my status, can I affect others'' status? Unfortunately, I can''t really use it on others for now because it''s not the time yet to introduce Order to my people. Even when the timees, only Isaac and Felix can see it." Theo sighed.


    "Anyway, I have managed to use the side effect of Reality Order. Since the other realities could affect me, it meant they could influence my own power. That was why a single clue from Avarice was enough to inspire me.


    "I really can''t thank her enough. I need to make sure that she can reunite with Ava. This will be the way I pay her back." Theo smiled as he firmly swore to do it.


    After several hours, Theo finally returned to the other side. It was already dawn on the other side, so Theo went straight to the hotel so that Felix didn''t need to worry about him anymore.


    To his surprise, Felix was meeting someone in front of the hotel. And when he took a closer look at this person, she was none other than Aisha.


    It seemed she was nning to tell him the answer. So, Theo approached them without hesitation and waved his hand with a smile. "I''vee back."


    Felix felt relieved when Theo returned while Aisha scratched the back of her head with a sad expression.


    Theo felt a bad premonition from it, so he asked, "What''s wrong?"

 Chapter 1239 Solving Her Worries

    Chapter 1239 Solving Her Worries


    "What''s wrong?" Theo asked.


    "It seems that she has some problems that prevent her from leaving the country," Felix exined.


    "Is that so?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "Do you remember I told you something about how I have grown numb to pain because of the organization behind me?"


    "Yes."


    "That organization would track me down and even bully the orphanage that raised me. So��"


    "Well, do you want me to destroy them?" Theo asked.


    "No, no. I don''t want to trouble you for this. I''ll just handle this matter myself�� When I be a Supreme Rank Expert, I should be able to break free from this restraint."


    "Do you want to do it alone, or do you want my help?" Theo asked again, assuring her with a smile. "Listen here. I want you. Just like you, who will help me in the future, I''ll offer my protection. If you need my help, just ask, and I''ll be there. There''s no need to feel bad about it."


    "That''s true. I can testify for it since he was risking his life just to recruit me." Felix nodded with a serious expression, confirming Theo''s statement.


    "Thank you��" Aisha looked down. "But they have Mythical Rank Experts in their rank because they''re an international organization. I''m afraid that they''re not going to swallow this matter easily."


    "I can help you protect the orphanage. To put it simply, destroying them is easy to be honest. Right, Felix?"


    "I''ve defeated five Mythical Rank Experts at once, so facing them one by one will just allow me to kill more." Felix nodded. Although it looked like bragging, Felix just wanted to assure her. "Well, we can call the others�� I don''t think you know about this, but there are eight Mythical Rank Experts under him, including me."


    "What?" Aisha widened her eyes, shocked. Although Theo had revealed his identity, the current identity he used right now wasn''t Joker. There was no way Aisha knew he was Joker.


    That was why she was surprised to hear this information.


    "I can leave behind my clone in this country for the time being to solve your problem. Felix alone should be enough to handle the Mythical Rank Experts. If he''s not enough, I can call more experts to warn them. That''s why if you want my help, just ask. That''s my responsibility as the leader." Theo smiled, assuring her.


    Aisha closed her eyes for a moment. On the one hand, she felt terrible for asking so much even when she hadn''t done anything for him. On the other hand, she felt relieved that Theo was this good to her.


    "That''s right. We usually have an agreement when recruiting someone. So, how about this? I will solve your problem as well as prepare your medical school tuition�� In exchange,e with me to the US and join my group."


    Aisha smiled when she heard the offer. She furiously nodded as she felt overwhelmed by his kindness.


    "Can I hug you or something?"


    "Sure." Theo smiled and opened his arms.


    Aisha hugged him while saying, "Thank you�� Thank you��"


    Even Theo knew that she had struggled a lot in the past few years, even before she met him in school.


    "I''m sure this is not a problem, right?" Theo asked Felix.


    "Don''t worry. Leave everything to me. Having your clone supervise the entire operation is good enough."


    Theo thanked Felix and turned to Aisha. "By the way, who are they?"


    "They''re not a big organization. There are only two Mythical Rank Experts from what I know�� Their exact location is in Tajikistan. Well, their organization itself is about human trafficking."


    "Then, I don''t need to feel bad when destroying them." Theo smiled.


    "Once again, thank you." Aisha released him and bowed to him.


    "Good enough. You should stay in this country until I settle everything. I want you to see the proof that I''ve taken care of your problem so that you don''t need to worry anymore when leaving this country. Don''t worry. Other than medical school, I''ll also give you some money to send back home and some days off so that you can visit them."


    "En." Aisha was grateful for his consideration. Little did she know that the money that he would give her was beyond her imagination. After all, she never expected Maya, one of the richest women in the world, to be his subordinate. Although he couldn''t really get all the money he wanted, money wasn''t that much of a problem anymore to him.


    And he could also scam people for money.


    Afterward, Theo asked her toe to his room so they could discuss the terms and conditions in detail.


    She truly dropped her jaw when Theo promised one billion Zils per year for her alone. Ten billion Zils that a Mythical Rank Expert could get from the Star Group alone was beyond almost allpanies in the world, so one billion Zils for a Hero Rank Expert was indeed a little too much.


    Still, Theo favored the healing ability that could regenerate a limb. It was very rare in the world.


    She was the one that couldn''t ept the term because it was too good for her.


    After many arguments, Theo agreed to give her only one hundred million Zils, a full-tuition for the best medical school, all the equipment she wanted, and some days off to visit the orphanage.


    In exchange, she would be studying under Theo for Martial Prowess and reaching the Supreme Rank within one year. This was the condition Theo set so that Aisha worked hard.


    After reaching an agreement, Theo then summoned his clone so that he could control the situation and eliminate the threat.


    He spent the rest of the day recuperating from exhaustion after fighting Avarice and nned his flight.


    The next day, Theo bid goodbye to them as he went to the airport while Aisha led his clone and Felix to the orphanage to discuss the n, thus concluding his visit to Thernd.

 Chapter 1240 Unexpected News

    Chapter 1240 Unexpected News


    Theo spared no efforts to return to his mansion after arriving at the airport. He was truly exhausted from maintaining his sanity through the side-effects.


    Ergene and Rea were the ones who picked him up, considering Jeff was taking care of Coline in France while Felix handled the problem in Thernd.


    "Is there anything new?" Theo asked while closing his eyes as if he wanted to go to sleep.


    "No. There''s nothing wrong in thest few days. However, there are indeed a few big things happening all around the world. The information hase from the Star Group."


    "Must be Maya." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Yes. Great Britain has confirmed that the Death Reaper will retire from the world and focus on training the people. This ispletely a lie because they can''t inform the world that the Death Reaper has died in your hand.


    "Still, many countries and big organizations will surely ce their eyes on you. This will be dangerous for us."


    Theo chuckled. "They have put a bounty on my head."


    "I see." Rea thought for a moment and asked, "How about finding the person that put that bounty?"


    "It''s not that easy. For now, I''m going to remain in the mansion so that no one bothers to attack us."


    "I understand. Our existences are not that known, so they won''t realize we''re protecting you. This will allow us to increase our strength for the time being."


    "Yeah. At least they won''t target you easily."


    "In that case, I''ll move on to the next news.." She nodded. "Because of theck of response from the Death Reaper, the Sword Saint has be the new third strongest person in the world. Of course, the rest of the people have an increase in their rank.


    "This means the current rank 11th in the world has now officially reached the big milestone."


    "Who is this person?" Theo asked with a calm expression.


    "I think I should show you the list of the top ten experts."


    "Sure. That will help as well."


    Rea then focused on the Skylink for a minute before showing it to him.


    1. Aiden Turner (USA)


    2. Feng Hao (China)


    3. Nagasawa Ken (Japan)


    4. Flora Wegener (Germany)


    5. Chand Padhya (India)


    6. Anwar Hadad (Egypt)


    7. Alexandra Boric (Chile)


    8. Haiskal Hetson (Find)


    9. Yaslev Alexandrovich Romanov (Russia)


    10. Tirta Kurniawan (Indonesia)


    Theo frowned when he looked at the list. They were really from all around the world. And even someone from the lower rank could possibly defeat someone from the higher rank as long as they had enough control over their Order.


    In other words, although they were ranked like this, no one knew their exact rank because they didn''t want to fight against each other for obvious reasons.


    "I see." Theo narrowed his eyes. "It''s good to know about this."


    "Do you wish to be one of them?"


    "I do, but that''s just a n for the future. After all, my original target was him." Theo pointed at the number eight.


    "Haiskal Hetson?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "Yeah. His real name is Mason Griffith."


    "Griffith?"


    "Yeah. He is my grandfather." Theo stated. This time, Rea could feel killing intent and the coldness of his tone. It was clear that Theo hated this person. "So, the previous n was for��"


    "Yeah. I knew that the Griffith Family would be after me sooner orter. So, I wanted to use that n to kill him as an assurance, but it seemed that not everything went ording to the n."


    Rea closed her eyes. Since she was clear about Theo''s real identity, that n would truly seed if the Death Reaper wasn''t on the way.


    "Wait a minute. You don''t know about his real identity?" Theo raised his eyebrows, feeling weird. As the Sword Saint''s daughter, she should have been aware of it.


    However, Rea shook her head. "My father didn''t really want us to go to this world that soon."


    "I see. It''s a cruel world where you need to constantly protect your life." Theo nodded.


    "I promise that I''ll learn more about this," Rea promised him again, afraid that she had just given a bad performance as a secretary. She had promised to work for him after all.


    "Whatever. Anyway, any other update?"


    "There is one more." Rea nodded and opened another page, showing him the news on the Sk.


    Robin Argaris, an unknown man from Colombia, has defeated Regure Hans, ranked 44th in the world.


    "Hmm? Who is he?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "We don''t know anything about it yet. I''ve asked Maya to investigate this person and also get some help from my connections back home. I believe we can get the information soon."


    "I see." Theo opened the news and read it.


    ''Robin Agaris shocked the world with his performance. He defeated the current rank 44th in the world, Regure Hans, who was known as Tarot Seeker.


    ''A single punch from this unknown man shattered a mountain, forcing the Tarot Seeker to be on the defensive from the start.


    ''Their duelsted for three hours and caused so much destruction around them. If it was on Earth, the damage alone might be around four billion Zils.


    ''After a gruesome three hours, Robin Agaris officially defeated Regure Hans and took over his rank.''


    While he was reading, they received an email.


    "Hmm? It seems the information hase in. Let me open it for you." Rea hurriedly opened the mail to show the result of the investigation.


    However, they couldn''t help but open their eyes wide and lower their jaws as they couldn''t believe what they had seen.


    The picture on the corner of the screen was a man with blue hair and blue eyes. And the name next to it showed his real identity.


    Ray Griffith.


    "This is��" Theo couldn''t help but remember the talk he had with Ne when he was in Mongolia.


    "Your father�� I mean, Uncle Ray is nning to do something big soon. Even I don''t know what that is."


    And that answer had finally arrived.

 Chapter 1241 Future Teammates

    Chapter 1241 Future Teammates


    "This is��" Theo narrowed his eyes, never expecting to find this kind of answer.


    "Do you know anything about it?"


    "This is a surprise even for me."


    "Then, what should we do in response to this news? You should be aware that he is your��"


    "I have no rtionship with him anymore." Theo shook his head with a stern face.


    Looking at his expression, Rea stopped talking, respecting his decision. Compared to him, she felt grateful to have a caring father.


    "So, what are we going to do for now?" She asked.


    "I''m not nning to leave my mansion for two to three months. That should frustrate the assassins that want to get the bounty on my head."


    "Fair enough. But I believe not all of them will stop."


    "Yeah. But within that time, I should have be stronger and more prepared to fight against them."


    "Is that so?" Rea furrowed her eyebrows, thinking, ''How does he be stronger anyway? I don''t really understand. He is so confident in getting stronger in a short period of time. Is it because of his talent?''


    "Anyway, I want you to try probing the information about the people that put the bounty on my head."


    "I can try, but I''m not that good in this area."


    "Cooperate with Akbar."


    "Akbar? Who is that?"


    "An information broker from Kyrgyzstan. A new member of our group."


    "Okay, will do."


    "Then��" Theo thought for a moment and said, "Never mind."


    "��" Rea didn''t know what Theo was talking about since he didn''t even say a single clue. But she wasn''t in the position to ask, so she changed the topic. "By the way, now that there are only a few people left to be a part of your group, do you have someone in mind?"


    "Hmm�� To be honest, I don''t really mind anyone as long as they are unique. Unique people have their own personality and character that makes them more interesting. So, for me, I don''t really care about this."


    "I mean, if you have an option, what kind of person do you wish to have? Maybe their position or job?"


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment and realized he almost had all the jobs under him.


    From the Vanguard Temple, he had Ryo as a Knight, Rea as a Fighter, Ergene and Coline as a Magic Warrior. From the Magician Temple, there was Aisha as the Healer and Chris as their Enchanter. Last but not least, he had Akbar as their Scout, Felix as the Assassin, and him as the Illusionist.


    People like Millie and Isaac were more like support, so their jobs didn''t really matter.


    So, he thought there might be something that he wanted toplete his group.


    "Maybe I should find a Ranger and a Magician next. As for a Summoner, I don''t think I need one. It''s true that they''re pretty useful, but our individual strength is so great that the monsters might not be able to keep up."


    Rea tilted her head and asked, "How about a summoner who has a General ss Monster under them?" ??? ????? ???????s ??? ?????s??? ??


    . ???


    Theo rolled his eyes as if it wasn''t that important to him. Although it would only be for a while, Ava would travel together with him. A General ss Monster could make a summoner famous, but they would think twice if they knew about a King ss Monster that helped humans.


    So, he believed there was no need for a summoner.


    "Nah, it''s fine. I don''t need a summoner. What I''mcking right now is a Magician and a Ranger."


    "A Magician and a Ranger��" Rea looked down, contemting. She took a peek at Theo''s face as she wondered, ''Why did he tell me all this? I asked it because I was curious, not that I expected him to answer it.


    ''After all, he wouldn''t trust me one hundred percent. I could use this information to even recruit these people first, making them my double agents. Or even worse, my father could bring them back personally.


    ''That''s why this is weird. Does he trust me that much? No way, he had stated that! In that case, this must be a test from him.


    ''He wanted to test me whether I am loyal to him or not. If I do anything that''s not beneficial to him, he will know that it''s time to end the rtionship. And the rtionship between him and my father will be destroyed�� because of me.


    ''In that case, I should follow his words and act like someone who is working for him. I am currently his assistant, so it''s better to follow his wishes first and see what kind of n he has. This way, I can strengthen the bond between him and my father as well as learn from him.


    ''Yeah. This must be it.'' Rea was so sure that she couldn''t think of any other possibilities.


    She didn''t realize that a part of the reason why Theo told her about what he wanted was due to the side-effects of his Reality Order. It was still affecting him like what he did in Thernd and Kyrgyzstan.


    It might be true that usually, a smart person would misunderstand people''s words easily.


    Still, everything worked out for him as Rea''s eyes showed a fierce determination that she would find a perfect candidate for him.


    Before reaching their mansion, Rea had onest question.


    "By the way, there is something I want to ask you."


    "What is that?" Theo nced nonchntly.


    "Do you have a girlfriend?"


    "��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he stared at her with a suspicious look. "You��"


    "No, no. I''m just curious. Someone like you can easily get a woman or two, you know." Rea looked away as if she was telling him that she might be one of them.


    "A girlfriend, huh." Theo smiled. Instead of saying ''yes'' to dispel all the confusion, Theo decided to answer it in a roundabout way. "After the world knows about my identity, I''m afraid that my bounty will at least increase by five times. How dangerous will it be?"


    Rea interpreted it as Theo wasn''t prepared to have one for the time being because he was still growing his own power to go against anyone that wanted his life.

 Chapter 1242 Progress

    Chapter 1242 Progress


    After returning to the mansion, Theo immediately closed his mansion door, not nning to take a single step outside.


    Due to the side effects, the first week of his training was spent sorting all his thoughts. Of course, the side effects couldn''t be controlled that easily. However, Theo managed to resist the urge to say many things when talking to others now.


    He believed that once he finished this training, he would be able to control the side effects and start experimenting with the Alter Ego.


    And because of his Reality Eyes, he could use them as a recement for his Future Eyes. Though, he also didn''t wish to let go of his training of the Future Eyes since it was his foundation.


    Luckily, he found the simrity between them, allowing him to progress by leaps and bounds. From his prediction, he should be able to attain Future Eyes before reaching the Mythical Rank.


    In that case, he could focus on a few other things, especially the rest of the Five Aspects.


    With this progress, he would have mastered two out of Five Aspects before reaching the Mythical Rank. Hence, he shifted all his training to the one that progressed the most, the Breathing.


    After knowing that Mythical Rank Expert could easily use the power in the surroundings to supply their abilities, Theo wanted to create a strong inside with the Breathing, allowing him to be able to supply all his attacks continuously.


    Of course, he didn''t stop training his Endurance and Technique. Because Rea had be his assistant, she had been helping him practice his Technique.


    Rea even showed him a system that the Nagasawa Family usually used to measure the Original Technique. It was clear that his Original Technique, Irregr Guardian, wascking in so many aspects.


    He proceeded to stabilize his own Irregr Guardian while maintaining his training on the Supernatural Snake Body, which was directly rted to his Endurance.


    The first month went by quietly. Akbar seemed to have been working hard in order to gain Theo''s trust by supplying information about the dark web that ced a bounty on him. Unfortunately, it was close to impossible to find the real person that issued the bounty, so the investigation would take a while.


    Clone Theo had also taken care of the problems in Thernd. With the help of Felix, they eliminated the human traffickers.


    This way, Aisha could finally leave the country without any burden.


    And because of the medical school, Chris offered her to stay in his mansion. Like Jeff, Chris also had enough riches from ying piano and huntingmission.


    One of his mansions was located near the medical school, so he lent it to Aisha so that she could be even stronger. And with theck of contact with Theo, no one thought she was rted to her, guaranteeing her safety for the time being.


    On the other hand, Coline had a big entrance when she came to the US. She was one of the best chefs in the world, so of course, she got a fair share of attention.


    But with her staying in her best friend''s house, the news about her started to fade away. After one month, Coline began visiting Theo''s mansion to cook for him.


    Of course, what she wanted was the feedback from Theo. Theo''s illusion was so realistic that she could find ws in her own food, allowing her to advance her cooking.


    Some even had been perfected that Theo didn''t mind eating it for a whole month. Still, the one that loved Coline the most was none other than Isaac. His stomach waspletely captured by Coline''s cooking.


    Even Rea was impressed by Coline''s culinary skill. With the help of Theo, she might truly be the best chef in the world.


    Still, the biggest joy came from Chris. Although the person didn''t want to admit it, he knew that Theo had truly grown much stronger than he couldn''t help but wish to see how much he could go. Even if he wasn''t a top one hundred expert, Chris believed Theo would reach that rank in no time.


    That was why lending his mansion was the sign of him finally epting Theo as his boss.


    He even personally visited Theo to talk about it privately. They had a long talk about it.


    Both of them apologized for their own actions and finally reached an agreement.


    Then, Isaac analyzed his power and finally achieved a breakthrough. He could exin a portion of Order even though he knew nothing about it.


    Of course, Theo had told him that he needed to be careful with this information because the implication would be huge. He didn''t stop him from learning about it, but he controlled how much he could explore.


    Last but not least, Millie, Rea, and Akbar had been coborating with each other. Most of the time, Akbar was the one teaching them, but he also recognized their talent in this area. He could see himself working with them in the future, so he spent most of the time teaching them the work. Millie''s talent would bloom under his teaching. Of course, Felix closely observed them, ensuring that Akbar didn''t poison his daughter''s mind.


    With all this progress, Theo felt rest assured. His group was going in the same direction. Sooner orter, they would grow to what he expected from his group.


    However, not everything went smoothly. After more than two months, the world experienced a huge shock. The news was all over the media. They could find it everywhere.


    It even struck deep fear in everyone''s heart as they might experience such a thing.


    Even Maya somehow visited his mansion to talk about this matter.


    Theo, who was apanied by Isaac, Rea, and Felix, met Maya inside the living room.


    The first thing Maya did was show him a picture that would shift the entire conversation in this direction.


    Maya stated with a serious face. "I''m afraid that we need to talk about this right now. I''m sure that you will share your opinion, right? After all, this is��"


    Theo narrowed his eyes as he looked at the picture because he saw a familiar figure in this picture.

 Chapter 1243 Huge Problem

    Chapter 1243 Huge Problem


    It was a picture of a monster with a ck armor and ck horse. With just a single nce, he recognized this monster as he was none other than the Dark King.


    Maya then presented him with the news that had been going on all around the world.


    ''The world is in a frenzy.''


    ''Argelia has been destroyed.''


    ''A country that became independent just two hundred years ago is now destroyed in a single night.''


    ''Two hundred thousand people are missing, and approximately one million people have died under the monsters'' onught.''


    ''The two Teleportation Circles in the country were said to be destroyed before the monster''s invasion.''


    ''Did the monster destroy the teleportation circles?''


    ''Did humans have once again incurred the monsters'' wraths?''


    There was so much news about them, from just stating the facts to conspiracy theories. Even Theo couldn''t believe it yesterday when he got this news from Rea.


    But the most shocking thing was the appearance of the Dark King.


    "Do you know anything?" Maya asked with a serious expression.


    "I have no idea." Theo shook his head helplessly. "Besides, shouldn''t he be on the other side of this country?"


    "We are trulycking in the research about the other side because the monsters are hindering us." Maya sighed. Even she couldn''t give any conclusion as everything would just end up bing a conspiracy theory.


    "Has your father said anything?" Theo asked.


    ''My father also doesn''t know anything about this. There is an indication that something has been broken, but he doesn''t know the exact details." Rea shook her head in disappointment. "He also wants to hear your opinions about this. ording to him, this matter will make all the top ten experts wary."


    "Actually, the Time God asked me to give this to you." Maya handed him a piece of paper.


    Theo opened it in the corner so that only he could read it. Although they were curious, they didn''t dare to approach him.


    Theo frowned when he saw the message. There wasn''t a single word on it as if he didn''t want to intervene in this matter.


    As someone who had knowledge about the future, the Time God obviously knew something about this matter. But he had rified that his role was just an observer, so it was clear that he didn''t have any intention of fixing this problem.


    "What is this then��" Theo narrowed his eyes and returned to his seat while burning the paper.


    "I don''t know. Let me summarize the situation a bit. Around 11 pm, a huge crack appeared on top of the two Teleportation Circles in Argelia.


    "Those two cracks caused a huge disruption. It seemed to be an electromaic wave, causing all the airnes to evacuate from the area. Then, the cracks became bigger and bigger as the police and military stood by the cracks to understand what was happening.


    "And at 1 am, all hell broke loose. The cracks shattered, making it look like the sky had broken as if it was a piece of ss. After that, numerous monsters emerged from the cracks, swarming the entire area.


    "The military was fighting against the monsters, and all hunters had been dispatched, but there were simply too many monsters.


    "In the end, they could only retreat while evacuating the citizens. Still, many people died, and it seemed that people disappeared when the cracks started to appear, causing so much confusion around the area. That was also the cause of the deaths of tens of thousands of people.


    "In the end, the two biggest cities of Argelia werepletely evacuated, and the monsters decided to take over the two cities. There were numerous attempts to investigate this matter, but no one could understand it for the time being.


    "I think you know the reason why I''m showing you this picture, right?" Maya exined the entire news.


    Theo''s expression became serious as he knew that this matter wasn''t as simple as he thought.


    "So, do you want me to investigate what''s going on?"


    "Not really." Maya shook her head. "If it''s my father, he wouldn''t hesitate to ask you about this. But this is me. Even when the military asked me, I didn''t give a damn about it. I hate them now.


    "So, the reason I came to you is to ask you to form a team to go to this country."


    "To help them?"


    "Yes, with supply." Maya nodded with a serious expression. "I''m not asking you to go there to investigate it. I just want you to deliver supplies that ourpany will donate."


    "You''re still indirectly asking me to investigate. You are sure that my curiosity will get the better of me." Theo snorted.


    "Well, I didn''t ask." Maya rolled her eyes.


    "But this is kind of... There is something big happening. I don''t know what''s going on as well, so I might try asking people in that country about it." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "That''s great. Anyway, you need at least five Mythical Rank Experts there to make sure everything is safe. If you want any Mythical Rank Experts from thepany, just tell me."


    "That''s good then. In that case, I need your mother and Patrick to follow me to this area."


    "Huh? Patrick aside, why my mother?"


    "For an image. If the mother of the CEOes, it will give the best image, no?" Theo shrugged.


    "That''s true�� My father and I are upied with thepany, so we can''t really leave right now. My grandparents�� They''ve disappeared again, so there is only my mother��"


    "Yeah. That''s the reason." Theo then nced at Isaac. "In that case, from my side, I''ll have Ryo, Coline, and Ergene with me."


    "Okay. I don''t really mind if you''re using your own force for this." Maya agreed without hesitation.


    "I need to go there. I can''t let this opportunity go!" Isaac''s eyes were shining. He was too excited to investigate this unknown phenomenon.


    "Well, do you want to go, Isaac? In that case, I''ll have a Healer with us too, since we''re going to help people."


    "I also want to go." Rea raised her hand with a firm gaze as if asking to be included.


    "Fine." Theo nonchntly agreed while looking at the ceiling with an empty gaze,menting. "Still, what''s wrong with this world��"

 Chapter 1244 Arrival

    Chapter 1244 Arrival


    "Have we brought everything?" Theo asked.


    "Yes. All the items have been packed, and they''ll be sent over in a few waves." Rea nodded while checking her Skylink.


    "It seems that we''re going to work together. Nice to meet you." Ste smiled, walking toward Theo. Despite the situation, only Maya, Bernard, Hendry, and his wife knew Joker''s real identity. Ste was the only one unaware of Theo''s real identity.


    It looked unfair, but Bernard believed this was the best option right now. Of course, Ste also had her own suspicions.


    Theo nodded and shook her hand. "Thank you foring here, Madam."


    "I know my reputation will be useful on this trip. I''ve heard that you''re the one helping Maya in suppressing the enemies. So, just do what you believe is right."


    "Yes." Theo acknowledged it as they looked at the airne. Since they were carrying weapons and other supplies like food and water, they needed a special ne.


    This ne was the Star Group''s private ne which was used as a Cargo ne.


    After having thest check-up, Theo then entered the airne while talking to Aisha. "Sorry, but do you think you can avoid regenerating people''s limbs?"


    Aisha tilted her head in confusion. If someone was in trouble, she wanted to help them. However, Theo wouldn''t say such a thing without any prior thoughts, so she said, "I can. But I need to know why."


    "I simply don''t have enough power to protect you right now. You should have known your own worth, right?"


    Aisha nodded with a serious expression. In the previous organization, she had been brainwashed that healers like her were useless. But aftering here, she had learned that everything was wrong.


    Her talent was rare even among the healers and, in fact, the most sought after. Only a few healers could bepared to her unique talent.


    That was why Theo wanted to promise her such a sry in the first ce.


    "I understand. I''ll try to avoid healing people to that extent." Aisha nodded with a serious expression.


    "Seriously, sorry. It won''t be too long for you to be able to do anything."


    "En." Aisha nodded with a smile, knowing that Theo had been thinking about this.


    "Excuse me. Do you have a sec?" Rea came over, interrupting their talk.


    "What''s up?" Theo asked while Aisha quietly moved away.


    "Numerouspanies and countries are helping them. So, this is going to be quite dangerous. People who are after you might use this chance to attack you, so I''m wondering why you don''t bring Felix, who is supposed to be your strongest fighter?"


    "It''s fine." Theo shook his head. "I have my own arrangement."


    "Care to tell me?"


    "You can see itter." Theo shrugged.


    "Well, okay." Rea still doubted him because she couldn''t find any way Theo could take advantage of his own weakness to deal with his security. However, Theo had been showing so many miracles to turn around the situation, so she decided to wait.


    "It''ll be a while before we arrive there, so I''m going to have some sleep first."


    "Yep." Rea nodded as she handled the rest of the process.


    Not long after, the airne took off. The journey itself went smoothly because no one even bothered to aim at Theo. It was clear that Joker had enough strength to protect himself from the explosion, and there was an indication that Theo could fly, so even if they exploded the airne, Theo would survive.


    Of course, Ergene and Ryo kept the surveince tight, showing no opening that could be used. Meanwhile, Ergene had been in the small kitchen in the front cabin so that they could get a good meal.


    The journey took six hours, so it was quite a tiring journey.


    To their surprise, the moment theynded, they saw a middle-aged man with three silver stars on his shoulders. It seemed he had been waiting for them.


    As expected, Ste was the first toe out since she was the highest representative of thepany.


    "Hello, thank you foring all the way here. I''m Reinhardt, the one in charge of the refugees."


    "Hello, Mr. Reinhard. I''m the representative from the Star Group, Ste Hamilton. I know this is a hard time for your country, but if you''re nning to fight back or protect the civilians, I hope my gifts are useful for you."


    "Certainly. The Star Group''s equipment is the best in the world. How can I even reject it? I''d like to thank you on behalf of the country."


    Ste smiled and nodded. "Still, I need to let you know that I might be the representative of thepany, but the leader of this operation is someone else. Let me introduce you to��" She nced at Joker. "Joker."


    "This is the name I often hear recently." Reinhardt nodded, acknowledging Joker''s presence and even extending his hand. "Hello, Joker. Thank you for the help."


    "It''s my pleasure. Well, I''m sorry if I''m being rude right now, but I''d like to cut to the chase."


    "Of course. The citizens are our priorities right now. I''ve prepared an arrangement for your group."


    "That''s great. Also, have you investigated the entire ident?"


    "We''re not very sure either. We''ve been taking information from the civilians, but we can''t really make any conclusion to exin this phenomenon."


    "How about the investigation team?"


    "They''ve gone there, but they haven''te back. We''re a small country with only four Mythical Rank Experts. Two of them are assumed to have died. I and one other person are currently holding the fort. There are also various Mythical Rank Experts from other influences."


    "I see." Theo paused for a moment. "Well, I''ve brought with me the scientist that helped a breakthrough of the research about a Special Region back in the US, so I''d like to have your cooperation with the research if possible."


    "To be honest, we can''t do much right now. It''s not that I don''t trust you, but we don''t have enough manpower right now. The best we can do is to send you civilians. You might be able to talk to them while handing some supplies."


    "That''s a good idea. We''ll take it then."


    "Great. Although I want to show you around, I need to handle other matters. So, I''ll let my direct subordinate show you the area where you can build a small tent for your operation."


    "Okay, thanks."

 Chapter 1245 Story

    Chapter 1245 Story


    As soon as they reached the affected area, Theo could see numerous people sitting down on the ground with sad faces. Obviously, they didn''t know anything about this phenomenon.


    Even Theo coulde up with a few theories, such as someone breaking the Order and the monsters being forced to fight back. However, he couldn''t understand why there was a picture of the Dark King.


    So, he thought there was something more to this. He nned to check it thoroughly before making any conclusion.


    "Here you go." Ste smiled, handing a box filled with food, water, and other necessities to a refuge.


    Patrick and Ergene, along with a few other volunteers from the Star Group, did the same. On the other side, Rea did all the paperwork, making sure that the help went to the right people.


    Unlike her, Isaac was going around to check the condition of the Magic Power with his skill. Of course, Coline was there to protect him in case there was a stray powerful monster that attacked them.


    Last but not least, Aisha was treating the injuries with her healing power. There might be some desperate people, so Theo asked Ryo to apany her. He couldn''t hurt anyone, so he was the perfect person for this job.


    "Here you go."


    "Thank you." The person she helped thanked her and left the tent.


    After that, another person came in and started telling her about the injuries.


    Soon, she realized something and asked, "So, you were at the site when everything happened?" Aisha widened her eyes in surprise. She had been tasked by Theo to heal them while gathering information.


    "Yeah, it was a nightmare."


    "Can you tell me more about it?" Aisha smiled and started talking to distract the person''s attention from the wounds like a doctor.


    ��


    Two days ago.


    It was a clear night without any clouds. He could clearly see the full moon in the sky.


    As a normal worker, he had juste back after pulling overtime.


    "This is too much. They didn''t pay me that much during the day, and the overtime bonus was less than I expected�� Should I find another job soon?" The man let out a long sigh while raising his head, looking at the sky as if he was considering hisint seriously.


    However, he gasped when he saw a huge crack in the sky as if they were inside a screen.


    "What is that?" The man dropped to his butts. His office was close to the teleportation circle, so he could clearly see the crack spreading in the sky above the circle. "What is going on?"


    His shout disturbed other people on the street as they couldn''t help but look at him with curiosity before following his line of sight.


    Like him, they froze upon finding a huge crack in the sky.


    He felt chills down his spine as he started shouting. "Wait, we need to call the police!"


    When he looked at the people, they took out their Skylinks, not to call the police but to record the phenomenon as if they were only interested in getting something cool on their social page.


    "What the hell?" The man panicked. He also felt the urge to take the picture but still called the police emergency service.


    Unfortunately for him, there was only one sentence he got.


    "Your call will be put in the voice mail."


    "What the hell? What''s wrong with the police? Can they do their jobs properly? No, wait. Many people must be seeing this and reporting it to the police." The man felt a bit relieved that there were still some sane people.


    "Should I go back or record this as well?" The man hesitated, and another thought appeared in his mind. He called his home.


    "Hey, are you on the way now? I''m still waiting for you."


    "Sorry, but I just want to make sure you''re safe."


    "What''s wrong?"


    "The sky cracks�� And that crack is expanding. I don''t know babe�� Let me show you." The man pointed his camera to the sky.


    "You''re not joking?"


    "That''s the proof babe. The others are also recording this. Maybe, the news has spread."


    "Where are you right now? You shoulde back."


    "I know, I know. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. I''m wondering if I should go back or stay here until everything is gone."


    "You should go back. I know that you''re curious about it, but won''t it be the same if you see the newster? There might be exnations about itter."


    "That''s true."


    "But if you''re that curious, I guess I can allow you to stay there for another five minutes to record it. Promise me to go back after that, okay?"


    "Of course. Thank you, babe."


    "You''re��"


    Her voice abruptly stopped before he heard something fall to the ground.


    "Babe? What''s wrong? Babe?"


    No matter how hard he called her, there was no response. He instantly panicked as all his thoughts were to return to his house to check the condition of his girlfriend.


    However, the moment he turned around and started running to get a taxi, he heard a woman''s scream.


    "Aaahhhh!"


    "He disappeared?"


    "Where does he go?"


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "Another person vanishes."


    "What''s going on?"


    There was a lot of confusion as people started disappearing one by one. They didn''t even know why the people could even vanish.


    Soon, the Cubicars started to crash into each other as the passengers of those Cubicars had the same fate.


    Chaos began spreading all over the region. The man''s face was already pale as he had spected that his girlfriend had disappeared just like them.


    "This is��" He looked at his surroundings in horror.


    "No, no. I need to go home right now. I need to check it with my own eyes." He shook his head and found a taxi parked nearby. He opened the door and said, "I need to go home right now."


    The taxi driver was filming the phenomenon and felt annoyed when he was disturbed, but the man stated, "Come on, dude�� Please help me. I was contacting my girlfriend earlier, and she suddenly stopped responding to me. I''m afraid something has happened to her."


    "Okay, okay." The taxi driver immediately stored his Skylink after knowing that it involved life. "Tell me where to go."


    "Reyne Avenue 36A."


    "Got it." The taxi driver hurriedly drove away to help this guy.


    But everything didn''t go ording to his n. After three minutes of driving, the taxi driver also vanished.


    "What?!" The man gasped and saw the Cubicar going out of control. Before he could take the wheel, he saw another cubicar without a person driving straight toward him.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1246 Speculation

    Chapter 1246 Spection


    "Ugh��" The man opened his eyes fuzzily as his head had been ringing. "What''s happening?"


    He tried to gather his consciousness while looking at his surroundings. His vision was half red because the blood had covered his right eye.


    Luckily, he soon remembered about the phenomenon.


    Although struggling, the man managed to climb to the top of the cubicar, leaving the vehicle to see his surroundings.


    "We''ve found another person here. He needs medical attention!" A shout echoed in his ears as the man saw two soldiersing toward him.


    They bravely stepped onto the cubicar and pulled him out.


    "What''s going on? Mr. Soldiers? What is currently happening?"


    "We don''t know about that either. However, we need to evacuate this region as soon as possible."


    "My girlfriend�� I need to go home to check on my girlfriend. She stopped responding so suddenly when we were on the call. I need to go home!" The man desperately begged the soldiers.


    However, they also had their own priority and protocol, so one of the soldiers rejected the idea. "We can''t do that. The military is cooperating with the police to evacuate all the citizens in this ce. The best you can do here is to believe that they''ve rescued your girlfriend. You can still meet her in the refugee camp!"


    He wanted to struggle, but his bone was broken and his consciousness was fuzzy. He tried to walk by himself but ended up dropping to the ground.


    In the end, the soldiers carried him with a stretcher as they ran back.


    While looking at the sky, the man noticed another phenomenon urring. He couldn''t help but point at the sky.


    "Monsters��"


    "We know about the crack already. Stay with us for now. We''ll make sure you''re fine." The soldier responded while the other heard something disturbing. "What did you say? Monsters?"


    He abruptly stopped, confusing the other soldier, but when he raised his head, numerous flying monsters came out of the cracks, flying in all directions.


    Due to the monsters, the crack in the sky finally shattered like sses.


    When it happened, the ground trembled. More monsters began toe out of the sky, but more importantly, huge explosions urred everywhere even before the monsters attacked them.


    One of them soon appeared before them as a huge tree suddenly emerged from the ground, breaking through the road.


    The roots also came out and reached them,unching them to the side.


    "Not good!" The soldiers panicked as they were thrown to the side. As for the man, his consciousness disappeared after falling to the ground.


    And the next thing he realized, he had reached the refugee camp. He desperately asked for his girlfriend but found no clues about her. He had been in despair this whole time.


    Even when he was sharing his experience with Aisha, he shed so many tears.


    Aisha kept assuring him while healing his injuries, encouraging him that without any injuries, he could start searching for her again.


    After thanking Aisha, the man immediately left the tent to search for his girlfriend.


    Theo, who people thought was doing nothing, actually had been listening to the conversation here to gain some information.


    After two more hours, he realized that their experiences were simr.


    Even Theo frowned upon this matter. It was clear that something big was going on, but there was one more thing that disturbed his heart this whole time.


    He leaned back and muttered in a low voice. "So, a crack in the sky, monstersing out of it, people''s disappearance, and the emergence of trees."


    Theo''s expression darkened as he couldn''t help but remember the test that the world gave him not long ago.


    The scene was exactly like this. And it also happened during the night.


    "This is�� Is this a coincidence? Or the world actually showed me a scene of the future?" Theo sucked a cold breath. "The scene is simr. The difference is the people, but they''re more like rewards to improve my Awareness. Other than that, I can''t see any difference other than the ce.


    "It seems I need to investigate what happened by myself. I need to be careful because there is a chance that I''ll also disappear.


    "I''m not an expert in this, but I believe these people are transported anywhere. Even the trees feel like they''ve just arrived in the new environment. If that''s the case, it''s better if I go alone. At least I won''t need to worry about anyone else when exploring.


    "At the same time, I also need their power, especially Isaac, who might be able to decipher the current situation. Should I bring him? But there is a chance that we''ll disappear��"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, contemting his choice.


    "The most important part is... Did the world show me the future? Did the world know that it was going to happen? I mean, as someone who gives Orders, the world should have the original Destiny or Fate Order. This way, it can also take a peek at the future.


    "But I don''t know whether it''s true or not, considering the world won''t appear in front of me again." Theo scratched the back of his head. There was still one more person that might know about this matter.


    "What do you think, God of Mischief?"


    Unfortunately for Theo, there was no answer from the God of Mischief.


    "Still, the world gave that scene for me to have the Reality Eyes�� Does this mean that my Reality Eyes are the key to this phenomenon? How about Alter Ego? It''s bringing another reality to this world, so�� if this is rted, there''s a chance that I''m the criminal.


    "I simply don''t know. There''s no information that can exin what''s going on. The Dark King might know more about this, so I really need to make a trip to this unknownnd to find the answer." Theo took a deep breath as he began calcting his n in this region.

 Chapter 1247 Theories

    Chapter 1247 Theories


    "This is��" Isaac sucked a cold breath when he saw thend that had been ruined by the phenomenon.


    Even Coline furrowed her eyebrows when she witnessed this scene. The trees emerged from the ground. Some even destroyed the buildings.


    "To think this kind of phenomenon can��" Coline sucked a cold breath. "The trees destroy the structures. I can see blood everywhere. Even from this ce, I can see a few corpses from both humans and monsters. Should we bring back those bodies?"


    "No." Isaac rejected the idea in an instant. "We can''t go there."


    "What do you mean?" Coline was confused.


    "I can see a huge difference in Magic Power. I''m sure that you know about this already, but the Magic Power on Earth and the other side are vastly different."


    "Yes. The Magic Power on the other side is denser than the Earth��" Coline suddenly realized Isaac''s meaning and looked at him in horror. "It can''t be��"


    "I can easily measure the Magic Power in the air, so I can say this one with certainty. The Magic Power in that direction is at a simr level to the other side. In other words, I believe that the other side is now affecting our world with this one ce being their first anchor."


    "But there is no record of the intrusion from the other side."


    "That''s why this is unprecedented. And there is a much worse theory I cane up with now. It''s a spection, but if we can get the military to answer some confidential questions, I''m afraid that I can confirm my own theory."


    "Then��" Coline turned back.


    "Yes. Let''s go back and inform him about this discovery. I hope that he can somehow get the military record."


    After listening to Isaac, Coline immediately escorted him back to the refugee camp to inform Theo about this matter.


    In the end, Theo chose toe to this ce to prove their theory. Instead of Coline, Ergene was the one apanying them.


    Because of Theo''s power, Isaac chose not to bring the military to prove his theory.


    Instead, he briefed him about the situation and said, "Anyway, I believe that ce has be the other side. I don''t know what''s going on, but you might lose yourself there."


    "What do you mean?" Theo narrowed his eyes as he didn''t feel anything with his order. It was truly not another reality.


    "Do you remember the report about teleportation circles?"


    "Yeah. They exploded."


    "Exactly. Due to the difference in Magic Power, there is a kind of distortion between these two sides. The teleportation circle was the one connecting them�� And now, with the loss of the teleportation circle, the distortion will teleport you to the other side.


    "From my point of view, the teleportation circle is like a beacon connecting the two sides. Now that the beacon is lost, the teleportation will bepletely random.


    "And the effect doesn''t end here. If we''re talking about the teleportation circle, it''s a ce where we can teleport together��"


    Theo frowned. "So, without it, there is a chance that we won''t get teleported?"


    "Yes. It''ll be random. For example, out of a hundred people storming to that ce, maybe forty of them will teleport�� maybe seventy people? Or maybe none at all."


    "If I bring you there, we might get teleported together, or only one of us��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Exactly." Isaac pinched the bridge of his nose. "On the positive side, there''s a chance that the people who got teleported when the phenomenon started are still alive."


    "I see. That''s good news for this country."


    "Still, I need to know the statistics of this city. How many people lived here? How many people were teleported? How many died or stayed?" Isaac sighed.


    "Well, I don''t think the military will listen to you because they''ll think your current spection is just conspiracy theory without any proof. After all, you don''t have any title."


    "That''s true. So, I hope that you can convince them."


    "That''s not easy even for me." Theo shook his head. "Well, I''ll try your theory first."


    "How?"


    "Don''t you want to know why I didn''t bring Felix here?"


    "That''s true. He''s the strongest person among your people, so you should want to bring him. Yet, the reality is different."


    "It''s for this time." Theo smirked.


    "Huh?" Isaac was confused by his statement because he couldn''t see through Theo''s n.


    "We''re going to test your theory by sending the people there!" Theo pointed forward.


    "But this is going to be dangerous. When you don''t even know where you''re going to be teleported, there will be countless dangers. And in the worst case, if we bring people, only some of them will be teleported. It''s going to be too dangerous."


    "Yes. That''s why we''ll be using my clone to test it. This way, I can know what will happen to me when I go inside."


    "You''re not hiding your identity anymore?" Isaac frowned.


    "With your brain, is there a need for me to tell you my real identity?"


    "Nope. The hints are obvious, so I''ve spected about your identity long ago. But I guess Ergene has known about it too."


    Ergene nodded with a calm expression.


    "But we need to wait for one more day before we can do any testing." Theo sighed.


    "Why is that? We should do it as soon as possible. Or the people will die under the monsters'' onught."


    "I''ve told you that we''re going to send my clone in, right?" Theo sighed.


    "Yeah. It''s going to be dangerous, but your clone shouldn''t have that kind of weakness."


    "But do you remember when Maya showed us a picture?"


    "Yes. A picture of a monster. The monster had ck armor, and it looked like an intelligent monster. Perhaps, General ss Monster." Isaac nodded, confirming it.


    "I know that monster�� Well, he can be considered my friend."


    "Your friend? No, wait. The fact you know about that monster''s identity means you know where to find him��"


    Theo smiled. "That''s right. I''ve already made an arrangement. To rescue those people, we''ll send people in. But because of the risk, we''ll need to have a different approach. That''s why��"


    "Don''t tell me you''re going to��" Isaac gasped as he finally understood the arrangement Theo was talking about.

 Chapter 1248 Unexpected Meeting

    Chapter 1248 Unexpected Meeting


    "Well, we''ve arrived in the area. From now on, I want you to stay here because I need to go alone," said Theo to Felix.


    He had been apanying him to the other side. Instead of Argelia, he used America''s teleportation circle to reach this area.


    "Are you sure about this?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    When Felix was about to agree, he could feel a presenceing toward them at a fast speed. He immediately took out his weapon, but Theo raised his hand, stopping him.


    To his surprise, the one that emerged from the woods was a small guy wearing ck armor. He didn''t look like a human from the attire and power, so Felix wanted to kill the monster as Theo''s protector.


    But Theo actually approached the monster himself as if he was nning to cut it down.


    "Humans?" Another monster also came toward them. The monster was a huge tree that looked like a Mythical Rank Expert. And the worst part was that this monster had enough intelligence to speak. It was clear that the monster was at least a General ss Monster.


    Felix hurriedly unsheathed his sword and leaped to this giant tree monster. At the same time, the monster also extended its branches to capture or even pierce Felix with its pointy tips.


    *Bam!*


    Felix struck the monster''s branches, trying to buy time for Theo to handle the small humanoid monster.


    But to their surprise, they heard a cheerful sounding from the other side.


    "Yey."


    "Ada!"


    They turned their heads around and saw Theo and the little monster doing the high-five as if they were friends.


    "Eh?!" Both Felix and the tree monster widened their eyes, not understanding what had just happened.


    "Ada, Ada!"


    "You miss me?" Theo smiled and bent his knees to match his eye level.


    "Ada!" The little monster nodded furiously.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t really y with you right now. It''s already surprising to see youing out like this, but I think I need to see your parents." Theo scratched the back of his head, apologizing to the little guy.


    "You know him?" Felix stopped fighting the monster and approached Theo carefully.


    "The son of my friend." Theo chuckled.


    "Son?" Felix was confused.


    "Your friend?" The tree monster was even more confused than him since this was the first time he heard a monster having a human friend.


    "Yes. I need to see the Dark King." Theo smiled while showing a ck mark that the Dark King gave him.


    "!!!" The tree monster widened his eyes, recognizing this Friend Seal.


    However, Syk shook his head and said, "Ada ada! Adada Ada!"


    "I can''t meet your father right now? As expected, something has happened."


    "Ada, ada!"


    "So, you want me to meet your mother instead?"


    "Ada." Syk furiously nodded.


    Theo thought for a moment and agreed. "Alright. Let''s go meet your mother."


    "Ada ada?!"


    "Eh? Can I reject it for now? I''ll y with you after all this is over."


    "Ada." Syk lowered his head with a sad tone. However, he reluctantly agreed. After that, Syk walked to the tree monster and raised both hands. "Ada!"


    The tree monster paused for a moment before agreeing to his request. "I understand."


    It then extended its branches to Felix and Theo while saying, "Please get on. I''m going to bring you to meet someone."


    Theo nonchntly stepped on the branches while Felix checked Theo''s action first before following him. It was truly beyond his imagination to see a human befriending a monster.


    ''I know that he has a rabbit with him, but a summoner only needs the monster''s soul instead of the living monster. Seeing him having a monster''s friend makes me realize that the rabbit that was with him wasn''t actually a soul, but a real monster.'' Felix thought while ncing at Theo.


    Still, it was a fresh experience even for him to ride a monster, especially when the monster was actually a tree.


    The roots were moving like tentacles as they moved without destroying the terrain. With the size of the tree, it could easily avoid any small obstacles, marching back home.


    To his surprise, they felt no vibration as if they were flying in the sky. It was so smooth they didn''t realize they were on top of a tree.


    A few minutester, they reached the forest surrounded by ck energy that made the forest creepier than its surroundings.


    Instead of entering this forest, the tree stopped right in front of it as if he didn''t dare to enter this area.


    Syk, on the other hand, leaped to the ground and waved his hand to the tree as if thanking him for bringing them here.


    After putting down Theo and Felix, the tree monster then left this area.


    He was worried about Syk, but he returned because he had sensed the presence of the supreme queen.


    Soon, her voice echoed in everyone''s heads.


    "Thank you foring here."


    "!!!" Felix''s body trembled as he suddenly turned around and saw a ck figure appearing out of nowhere. If the monster was hostile, he would have already died.


    On the other hand, Theo nodded and said, "It seems that you want to talk to me."


    "Yes. I''ve been expecting your visit."


    "Don''t tell me... The Dark King was the bait to call me?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "As expected, the humans managed to capture his image." The Shadow King confirmed his suspicion without hesitation.


    "I see." Theo then nced at Felix. "Are you sure he can hear this?"


    "He is your person?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, there is no problem. It seems that you trust him too, so I believe there''s no problem." The Shadow King nodded. "However, I need to remind you that there are a few things that I need to discuss in private."


    "I see. That''s fine by me."


    "In exchange, he can find those people."


    "Those people?" Theo frowned.


    "Yes. The people that got transported here. Well, half of them died because of the creatures living in the area, but I''ve taken half of them into custody. It''s just there''s another problem. I have no resources to take care of them. They might die sooner orter."


    "For real��"

 Chapter 1249 clues

    Chapter 1249 clues


    "Felix. You''ll be in charge of this matter. I''ll go to your side after that."


    "Alright." Felix nodded.


    "In that case, I''ll guide you to them. Let''s talk while we walk." The Shadow King nodded in agreement while walking to the west.


    Theo followed her without hesitation while asking, "By the way, where is your husband?"


    "Well, he''s a person who fulfills his promise."


    "I see. He''s not going to meet me, eh?"


    "Yes. Anyway, we have a problem on our side too."


    "That''s true. Do you know anything about it?"


    "We don''t understand anything either. However, we do have some clues that might lead to this incident."


    "Hmm��" Theo thought for a moment. "ording to our researcher��"


    Theo told her about Isaac''s spections and theories to understand this phenomenon better.


    "I see. The teleportation circles��" The Shadow King pondered for a moment. "Still, we don''t have any ideas about this incident. We''ve some spections, but the saint has told us that he doesn''t see any anomaly. That''s why this is weird."


    "If that''s the case, tell me about your spections and clues first. Maybe we can link up a few things?"


    The Shadow King was a bit hesitant because Felix was here, but she still said, "Do you remember the agreement between you and me?"


    Theo nodded without hesitation. It was about a weird structure that couldn''t be approached no matter what. He promised the Shadow King that he would try to look at the structure after bing a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "It cracked."


    "What?"


    "By a human."


    "Seriously? Didn''t you protect the structure?"


    "I got this from my people. ording to them, there was a group of humans hunting my people like usual. That''s just survival to the fittest. But the problem is that�� Those humans were too weak and ended up running away��


    "Unfortunately, they passed the structure and somehow slipped past its protective barrier. The barrier prevented the monsters from entering, but they actually wanted to take the structure back. In the end, they dropped it, causing the structure to crack."


    "So, that''s the reason for this incident?"


    "I don''t know. The timing iste by at least a day. To be honest, even the saint can''t feel any power from it, so we don''t think that''s the problem. We are currently finding another reason why this incident can happen." The Shadow King sighed.


    "Hmm�� Well, I''ll take a look at itter. For now, I need to confirm the safety of the humans."


    "That''s true. We don''t need human corpses since they''re too weak. We can''t feed them either. So, if they''re gone, that''s the best."


    Theo nodded. "In that case, do you mind showing me the way to reach the other side? I mean the path used by the Dark King?"


    "I can, but won''t they be teleported again?"


    "I''ve just asked my talented researcher. It seems that the problem is in the distortion itself. When the crack appeared, the distortion spread, causing them to be swallowed by the distortion of the Magic Power.


    "However, the current situation is different. The disruption has stopped spreading and rather be stabilized.


    "If that''s the case, we can send people from this side to the other side without getting caught by the disruption. After all, they teleport to this ce due to the reverse process.


    "But to be honest, if we call for help right now, many people might not make it. We need a supply of water to let them wait for the rescue, and carrying back hundreds of thousands if not millions of people will be close to impossible.


    "Rather than carrying them back one by one that might cause more chaos in this area, it''s better if I lead them back to the disruption so that they can return faster."


    The Shadow King pondered Theo''s suggestion and asked one more question. "Still, we were the ones scaring them so that they didn''t split off to cause more trouble. And to do that, we killed some of them.


    "Looking at the humans'' nature, they''re going for revenge sooner orter. After that, this ce will be known, and humans will find this structure. I''m afraid that I can''t let them have it."


    Theo could understand her worries. Even he needed to consider this problem.


    "Well, we''ll show them that we''re fighting against your people. This way, they''ll think of us as a rescuer. After that, we''ll show them the way back to their country.


    "Even if they''re going to have revenge, they need to research this ce first. Hence, I will have my own researcher dy their project by asking many questions. At the very least, we can use this time to find the real cause of this anomaly and solve it."


    "Sounds good enough for me. After all, I know that humans will invade this ce sooner orter." The Shadow King agreed with him.


    "Still, I don''t understand why this ce is connected to that country instead of my current country, where the teleportation circles belong?"


    "No one knows about it either. Even the saint doesn''t have any clues because there''s no trace that can be tracked." The Shadow King let out a long sigh.


    "Anyway, we can discuss this at ater date. I hope that rescuing them won''t take more than a day." Theo looked at Felix. "I have a task for you."


    "Understood. What should I do?"


    "Make a shy entrance. The bigger the impact is better. After that, you''re going to exin a few things to them. I''ll tell you about the detailster after I confirm their number and expressions."


    "Okay." Felix epted the role immediately.


    "By the way, where is the saint?" Theo asked.


    "He''s moving around to find anything rted to this phenomenon."


    "Is there a way for me to contact him?"


    "I can lead you to him, but he doesn''t want to be disturbed when searching for clues. If you want to talk to him, you need to at least have a theory that can convince him or he''ll be angry."


    "Fair enough. Knowing that I can contact the one who manages this area is enough." Theo nodded. "I guess the reason you want me toe is to dy the humans from invading this ce."


    "Yes." The Shadow King admitted it without hesitation.


    "Okay, then. I know what to do."

 Chapter 1250 Helping People

    Chapter 1250 Helping People


    After talking a bit more with the Shadow King, Theo tried to take a peek at the unfortunate humans that got caught by the distortion.


    Still, as one would expect from hundreds of thousands if not millions of humans, Theo couldn''t see all of them at once despite most of them gathering at one point.


    He already saw them from an elevated ground, but the people he could see right now were roughly one hundred thousand people. Yet, they already looked so small like ants.


    "This is a bit too many for us to handle. Shouldn''t we go back and bring some people to help us?" Felix asked.


    "That can be done, but they need to survive first. Don''t you forget that the people here have no water or food? At the same time, if the monsters don''t put them under their custody, they will die from other uncontrolled monsters." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Now that I think about it, humans can only live for three days without water. And almost two days had passed, considering the incident happened one day before we rushed to this ce. And we needed one day to reach this ce. Even with the military, I think these people would have died before the military came."


    "My point exactly. That''s why we can''t really get any help."


    "But I don''t think we can lead all these people right now. It''s too much."


    "I know. That''s why I want you to gather one thousand people. Each of them will handle one hundred to one thousand people around them. After that, you give the n for our rescue, and I''ll take over when they don''t want to move. Even if it''s not possible to handle all of them, we can at least bring seventy percent of these people back." Theo sighed.


    "I''ll try then." Felix nodded.


    "Remember our n with the monsters. For now, I''m going to test Isaac''s theories to make sure that they can pass through the distortion. After that, we''ll lead them back to their country."


    "Still, it''s surprising that you want to help them. I mean, you are not the type of someone who will do something like this."


    "True. Humanity is trash, greedy, and pathetic, and I can continue the insult for as long as I want. Even so, it''s not like I can really let them die. Pretty contradictory, eh?"


    "No, I call it sympathy."


    "Either way, we need to move fast."


    "Understood."


    As soon as Theo and Felix agreed with the n, both of them disappeared into thin air.


    Meanwhile, the people in the valley could only clutch their heads or stomachs. They were hungry and thirsty.


    However, all the troublemakers had been killed by the monsters, making them too scared to even move.


    Due to the continuous pressure, they started giving up all hope, thinking there was no way they would survive in this situation.


    "We need to fight them!" One of the people who seemed to be a Hero Rank Expert shouted.


    "Idiot. Don''t raise your voice. Do you want to die?"


    "They have multiple Mythical Rank Monsters and numerous Supreme Rank Monsters. If they want, they will kill us right now."


    "It''s better to die trying than simply waiting for our death here!"


    The people had some small conflicts here and there because a small part of people who thought they had some power wanted to fight their way out.


    On the other hand, the people who never even hunted a single monster in their life couldn''t do anything, including voicing their opinion. They were simply too scared that the situation would get even worse.


    While they were shouting at each other, they heard loud explosionsing from all sides.


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    "Boom!"


    "!!!" All of them fell silent when they heard these explosions. They thought the monsters had decided to kill them.


    However, a human''s voice echoed from the cliff.


    "We''ve found them!"


    The human was Felix. When they saw Felix''s figures, hope started to return to their hearts. But before Felix looked at them, he took advantage of the different heights to confuse them.


    He turned around and did some hand signals as if he was telling hisrades to do something for him. Soon, the explosions continuously urred as if the subordinates continued to fight them.


    After that, Felix looked down and saw the people cheering for him. He hurriedly put his finger in front of his mouth as if asking them to shut up.


    To his surprise, most of the people who saw his gesture stopped talking as if knowing that the situation wasn''t as good as they thought. Still, some were desperate that they continued shouting at him from saving their lives to bringing their children.


    Felix immediately jumped off the cliff and hurriedly entered the valley. As soon as he reached the ground, he was flocked by those desperate people.


    In the end, he jumped to get to a higher elevation so they could talk to them seriously.


    "Shut up if you want to survive!" Felix shouted in anger.


    "!!!" Most of the people shuddered in fear.


    However, some still approached Felix.


    "I don''t need you to save me. Just please bring my child."


    "I can give you all my money. Just save me from this ce please!"


    "I don''t want to die!"


    Felix gritted his teeth, annoyed by all these people. They were the ones stopping the help.


    In the end, he reinforced his voice with the Magic Power so that he could shout louder. He pointed at another ce and said out loud, "All soldiers or experts are to assemble in that area! This is the only chance if you want to live. The rest should stop all these people from stopping the rescue team from doing their jobs!"


    "!!!" They heard hope from Felix''s shout. They wanted to follow Felix''smand because this might be the chance to live.


    However, some of the normal citizens also mixed in as they were going to save themselves.


    In the end, Theo descended with his Telekinesis and helped Felix levitate fifteen feet above the ground to avoid the masses.


    "This is really beyond my ability." Felix sighed, talking to Theo.


    Theo shrugged and whispered a few things to Felix as they were flying toward the designated spot.


    Although some of the people were still desperate to survive, at least two hundred people were serious about this.


    This was the challenge Theo needed to face in controlling these desperate masses.

 Chapter 1251 Human Bond

    Chapter 1251 Human Bond


    As soon as they reached the designated spot, Theo ignored all the desperate people and asked Felix to start.


    "Stop those who are crying out loud. We''re on a tight schedule! And we don''t have enough personnel to handle this!" Felix shouted. Obviously, the people didn''t trust them that much so they didn''t make a single move despite following Felix''smand to move to the designated position. After all, they didn''t want to hurt those desperate civilians.


    That was why Felix continued, "I am from the local group, Ending Shal. We stumbled upon you a few hours ago and saw that you seemed to have been like this for at least two days. Because we''re a small group, we don''t have enough provisions for handling so many of you.


    "Luckily, there is a path that we can cross from this ce to a weird ce that seems to be connected to the other side. I know that you don''t trust us since we''re strangers, but this might be thest chance for you to survive.


    "If you want to help us move hundreds if not millions of people, please raise your hands. I''ll talk about our ns with you."


    When they heard Felix''s exnation, it made sense. They had been teleported to the other sides where none of them could recognize it. So, it was clear that they were somewhere else.


    And as a local hunting group, it was clear that Felix didn''t have that many people. There were many questions in their heads, but they could only trust Felix if they truly wanted to survive.


    Suddenly, one of them raised his hand. "I am Ricky from the Military! I''m prepared to help!"


    There was research that people loved to follow other people. And Theo took advantage of that psychology to get the rest of the people.


    "Stan from the Military! I''m ready to help!"


    "Mohan from the Grand Sia Group��"


    "Reyhan��"


    More and more people raised their hands. Even those who didn''t want to help somehow raised their hands.


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes and the people who gathered below him and those who didn''t move earlier somehow raised their hands.


    Theo took a deep breath and moved toward them. After that, he raised his hand and lifted twenty people to the air at a time for uracy purposes.


    He finally utilized his Telekinesis to the limit and somehow brought three hundred people into the air.


    "Hu��" Theo let out a tired breath because using his Telekinesis on these many people took so much toll on his mind.


    "Are you alright?" Felix asked, worried.


    "Just continue." Theo nodded, assuring him.


    Although he was still worried, Felix looked at the people that Theo lifted and shouted, "I need your help to spread the messages to the people in this area. I know that it''s going to be close to impossible, but I want to repeat my words.


    "I believe these lines are the best to convince them. Tell them, ''We''ve stalled the monsters in the perimeter for at least an hour. The explosions are our group fighting against the monsters.


    ''Soldiers or experts, please help us protect the civilians and guide them to safety. Follow the people in the sky! We can return to the city within three hours!''


    "These are the words that you''re going to tell them. Do you have any questions?"


    Felix''s instruction was clear. Still, one of them raised his hand. As a soldier, he needed to know about the military.


    Of course, Theo used his Telekinesis to move him to Felix so that he could ask the question.


    After that, Felix shouted again, "The man asked where the military is? The answer is there are none. When our group found you, we knew that we would be fighting against time. That''s why we also sent a few experts to inform the military in that area.


    "However, if we waited for the military, many people would have died from dehydration! I believe we can meet the military on our way or even when we reach the city. If you still don''t believe us, then we can''t do anything. We''ll only help the people who are willing to trust us because it''s impossible for a small group like us to help so many people!"


    Felix''s answer instilled fear in many people''s hearts but also many questions. They wanted to ask again, but Felix warned them they didn''t have much time left. If they failed to evacuate from this area within an hour, they would die under the monster''s onught.


    "If you don''t believe us, please raise your hands. We''ll put you down. Those who remain, please shout those words so that we can get as much help as possible while escorting all the civilians to safety."


    They were still hesitant, but surprisingly, only around ten people raised their hands.


    After that, Theo put them down as he used the Telekinesis to hover at that altitude while bringing them to the masses.


    "We''ve stalled the monsters in the perimeter for at least an hour."


    "The explosions are our group fighting against the monsters."


    "Soldiers or experts, please help us protect the civilians and guide them to safety."


    "Follow the people in the sky! We can return to the city within three hours!"


    "Please keep in line and avoid stepping on each other."


    It might be due to the fact that most people in the sky were from the military, the civilians actually believed there was going to be a rescue. And their speech raised the spirits of other soldiers to help the civilians.


    Even the experts also rose from their positions, trying to help the people.


    As expected from the soldiers, they seemed to have learned signnguage as well. While shouting, they informed the other soldiers about taking their own positions.


    Due to their initiative, Theo managed to control the crowd easier. Even so, it required a huge amount of effort to convince them.


    And Theo didn''t n to convince all of them.


    As long as half of the people in the valley could move, they would ultimately drag or force another thirty percent to move. And another ten percent woulde from the desperate people that were scared they would die, so they had no choice but to follow the masses.


    As for the remaining people, Theo had considered them as casualties, thinking that they didn''t want to move because they thought they would anger the monsters.


    Yes, Theo had expected at least one hundred thousand people to stay behind and die here. And there was nothing he could do.

 Chapter 1252 Felix Losing Hope in Humanity?

    Chapter 1252 Felix Losing Hope in Humanity?


    "What? Where are they? You told us that those people were still alive?" Reinhardt shouted in frustration.


    He had brought the military to stand by near the disruption because Theo said the people would return from this ce.


    He couldn''t believe it, but Theo was the leader of the Star Group''s expedition team. After some persuasive words from Theo, he ended up agreeing to bring the military personnel.


    Before Theo spoke, Isaac warned them again. "Please wait, General Reinhardt. I need to remind you that even though you have seen the people from here, you can''t immediately rescue them. We need to wait until they cross the line so that no one will be teleported to the wilderness again. We don''t know how many people will disappear this time."


    "I know that already!" Reinhardt gritted his teeth. He had been informed by Isaac''s words, and from the missing personnel, he knew it was true.


    "Still, I''m afraid that people are still refusing to go because they don''t trust our people." Theo sighed. "I can''t do anything for them, General."


    "That''s��" Reinhardt gritted his teeth. "Our military can simply rescue them there!"


    "Are you sure? We''ve assumed that half of the people have died just from getting teleported there. Your subordinates will face the same challenge, and there''s no way for you to know the location of those people because we don''t know where you''re going to be teleported."


    "Even so, I can''t abandon people. I''ll go there personally to convince them!" Reinhardt gritted his teeth.


    "Whatever." Theo shrugged.


    Theo was already tired from using too much Magic Power to levitate the people in the air, so he didn''t want to warn him anymore.


    "If my prediction is right, the people will reach this ce in thirty minutes. Can you spread your soldiers so that they can handle all these people? Have you prepared the route for the evacuation?" Theo asked.


    "I�� I''m going to prepare it right now." Reinhardt harrumphed and left as he assigned the soldiers ording to their roles.


    Due to this problem, they also had problems with supplies and eventually asked more people toe for the water and food.


    Because of the numerous preparations, time passed by in an instant.


    However, the soldiers soon shouted in joy as if they had found the people.


    "They are��"


    "We''ve spotted the citizens."


    "Prepare to move!"


    As expected, the moment they saw the citizens, they were ready to run to the people. However, Isaac stood in their way and shouted, "Stop it! I''ve warned you! Just wait for another ten minutes until they reach this ce!"


    Theo only nced at them before turning to the iing civilians. When those people saw the military, they were overjoyed and started running as they couldn''t bear living in this ce longer.


    However, they were also shocked that the military didn''t move to rescue them as if they were scared to move.


    Luckily, Isaac made the initiative to wave his hands as if asking them to continue to their sides.


    Eventually, the soldiers followed his actions, asking the citizens toe to the other side.


    Eventually, Clone Theo shouted, "The military can''t get into the zone, so we are the ones who need to go to the other side!"


    After working together for a few hours, the people who floated in the air also conveyed Theo''s words. At the same time, their expressions were filled with joy and hope because they were now safe.


    Some of them couldn''t help but look at both Felix and Theo while thanking them.


    "Congrattions. It seems that the operation is sessful. You thought that one hundred thousand people would die, but because of the desperate persuasion, it seems almost all of them follow you." Felix congratted Theo''s achievement.


    Despite such an aplishment, Theo didn''t have a change of expression. Instead, he only sighed as if he could see problemsing in the near future.


    He only continued moving forward before stopping right in front of the distortion while waving his hands to ask the people to continue moving forward. He also put down all the people in the air.


    The military immediately assumed their roles and helped the people despite their exhausted state. Some experts and civilians were inspired by their actions and helped them too.


    This was what Felix saw previously. Just like Theo expected, more than one hundred thousand people didn''t wish to leave the ce. Even hemented that one hundred thousand people would further die on thisnd.


    However, a miracle happened. The soldiers kept persuading them to the point most of them followed the group.


    Unfortunately, they needed to abandon a part of them. Even some soldiers remained behind to persuade them toe together until now. They were desperate to save the civilians.


    Whether it was Theo''s power in manipting people''s desires and emotions or the desperate action of the soldiers, they somehow managed to bring back at least 98% of the entire poption.


    Felix couldn''t help but admire Theo.


    When the civilians crossed the distortion, the soldiers immediately helped them by giving them some food and water and leading them to another ce.


    Luckily, Reinhardt brought more than one thousand personnel and a huge amount of supplies that they could somehow serve all of them. It was an amazing feat that Reinhardt couldn''t help but lower his head to thank him from the bottom of his heart.


    Meanwhile, Theo and Felix disappeared into the woods again because they needed to go back to fulfill the agreement with the Shadow King. On the other hand, Felix wanted to handle the rest of the people since he knew the monsters were under the Shadow King''s control, and they wouldn''t attack the humans for the time being.


    On the way, Felix was confused by Theo''s expression.


    "What''s wrong?" Felix asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "Nothing." Theo shook his head.


    "You don''t feel happy by saving around one million people?" Felix asked.


    "Saving people, huh." Theo sighed.


    "What''s wrong?" Felix kept asking him, but Theo remained silent. Felix hadn''t known the reason why Theo considered humanity idiotic, prideful, resentful, depraved.


    And he would get the answer to his own confusion a few dayster.

 Chapter 1253 Star Sacred Stone

    Chapter 1253 Star Sacred Stone


    "Anyway, I''ll leave this matter to you, Felix," said Theo with a smile.


    "Understood. I''llplete the mission as soon as possible. At least they won''t die until the reinforcement arrives. Taking care of more than a million people is impossible, but I can manage if there are only a few thousand." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    "Good." Theo then went separate ways, heading straight to the Shadow King to handle the other matter.


    "Anyway, it seems that you have another n in mind." Surprisingly, the Shadow King emerged from Theo''s shoulder.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled as he was the only one who could feel the Shadow King since she was utilizing her Order this whole time.


    "Do you have a thought of going to live on this side instead of with those humans? I think that you''ve given up on humanities."


    "Who knows? I haven''t given up on them. I just don''t care about most people in the world. I can help them, but I don''t care if they choose to die." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, where is the structure?"


    "It''s not far from here. Only one hour away."


    "Should we speed up then?"


    "Sure."


    Both of them nodded as Theo used his fastest speed to decrease the travel time while the Shadow King easily followed his speed.


    The two arrived in just forty minutes as a white-colored structure stunned Theo.


    The structure had four big pirs on the outside and a star above each of them. Beyond the star was a small tform that connected the four pirs together. A human could stand on top of this tform, but Theo could see a pure white crystal hovering above the tform.


    On the bottom of the pirs was a white pentagram made of two rectangles with different angles. Each pir stood on top of each side.


    Although it was faint, Theo could see a white translucent protective barrier.


    "The size seems to be around thirty feet in radius." Theo narrowed his eyes while assessing whatever he could find from this structure.


    Still, he could clearly see the cracks on the pir. One of them was worse than the others as a part of them fell to the ground. It meant that the pir didn''t support the tform above them anymore.


    "This is��" Theo sucked a cold breath. "I can see the protective barrier, but I don''t feel anything from it."


    "That''s right. The saint had investigated this structure, but he couldn''t find anything, only this protective barrier. He tried to use his Authority to pry the barrier open, but he got a huge resistance from it. In the end, a part of that pir fell."


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Then, doesn''t this mean the Frost Saint was the culprit?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Remember when the humans cracked it?"


    "Yes."


    "What if the humans actually cracked it and caused that phenomenon? And due to the Frost Saint breaking the pir, the phenomenon fully manifested?"


    "That''s��" She lowered her head, contemting. "That might be true, but we need more proof."


    "That''s true. Humans are the first to cause this problem, so I don''t want to me anyone." Theo shrugged. "In that case, doesn''t this mean we just need to fix this pir?"


    "If your assumption is correct, then yes. But can you even do that? Although it isn''t emitting anything, I can see that it''s a magical structure from the barrier alone. Can you even fix something like this?"


    "Only humans can enter, right? How about letting the human artisans do it?"


    "But if they do anything to the structure, we can''t do anything to them. And if it''s truly the cause, leaving this to a human is a bad move."


    "That is something I can absolutely agree with." Theo nodded in agreement. "What should I do then?"


    "Can you learn about it and fix this structure?" She asked.


    "Impossible. Do you know how long I need to learn something like that? I can''t afford to do it. And even if I do it, I will need at least a few years to reach the level of a master that can repair this stuff. By that time��" Theo sighed.


    "The humans would have discovered it, huh." The Shadow King thought for a moment.


    "That''s right. There are too many risks if we wait too long to repair it. By the time we repair this, the humans might have discovered more stuff from that distortion. Of course, there is going to be an invasion."


    "Hmm. I think I should consult with the saint first." The Shadow King thought for a moment. "But there is no proof that this is the reason."


    "There is no proof this is not the reason either."


    "Yeah. Even if it''s just a suspect�� Hmm, I don''t know whether the saint will be angry or not." The Shadow King contemted hard, not wanting to make a bad decision.


    "By the way, can I enter this ce to test it?" Theo asked. "Maybe if I enter and inspect it more closely, I can find something more?"


    "That''s true." The Shadow King nodded in agreement. "I can''t enter, so I can only leave it to you."


    "Good. Now that I have your permission." Theo smiled and approached the barrier carefully. Before entering the barrier, he extended his hand so he could see what effect it would cause upon contact.


    "Any attack and other creatures will be repelled, so��" The Shadow King warned him.


    However, it turned out to be unnecessary because she saw Theo''s fingers entering the protective barrier.


    "No, I think it''s true that this ce can only be reached by humans."


    "Then, I''m going." Theo nodded with a serious expression as he gradually moved inside the barrier. There was no restriction or weird feeling either.


    "This is��" Theo suddenly gasped because the environment inside the barrier was vastly different. At the same time, he got another shock from the God of Mischief as if he was awakened by the environment.


    [How in the world did this structuree above the ground?]


    ''Huh? Do you know about this structure? Wait a minute. Why do you respond sote? I''ve been discussing this matter with the Shadow King for a while, and you just came out now? Or were you asleep this whole time?''


    [That doesn''t matter. This structure is one of the keys that maintain the existence of the two realms. This thing is called Star Sacred Stone.]

 Chapter 1254 Ten Sacred Stones

    Chapter 1254 Ten Sacred Stones


    [That doesn''t matter. This structure is one of the keys that are maintaining the existence of the two realms. This is Star Sacred Stone.]


    ''Star Sacred Stone?'' Theo gasped while looking around. He could feel an immense amount of Order Energy. It was continuously produced by the star on top of the structure.


    [Why did the pir break? Who did it? Has the Earth integrated with this side?]


    ''Wait, you know something?'' Theo widened his eyes.


    [I already told you about my mission to create a new realm, right?]


    ''Yes. With the help of Authority Level Figures.''


    [There are ten Authority Level Figures involved in this creation. Yes. We tried to create a new world like what the Creator God did. But we couldn''t do it because none of us could wield all thirteen Big Orders to create the world, so we could only create a separate realm with different rules.]


    [However, we need to continuously maintain the two realms so that they won''t collide with each other. And it''s impossible for us to live that long. Hence, there is only one solution.]


    ''You created a structure that could maintain the two realms?''


    [Yes. Those are the ten keys called Ten Sacred Stones. Their sole purpose is to maintain the bnce. But a few hundred years ago, one of the Ten Sacred Stones was found and destroyed.]


    ''Wait a minute. One of them was destroyed? By who?''


    [Who else? Humans.]


    ''Humans�� A few hundred years ago��'' Theo widened his eyes in shock. "Don''t tell me."


    [That''s right. They even hid that fact, right? They told the people they found a pandora box or whatever unknown thing they described�� That''s not an unknown thing, but one of the Sacred Stones.]


    ''One Sacred Stone can create a thousand Teleportation Circles��'' Theo sucked a cold breath.


    [That''s what you call, but for me, those teleportation circles are simply stitches that connect the two worlds.]


    ''One thousand Teleportation Circles, one thousand stitches.'' Theo''s body trembled upon this revtion.


    [And now, one of them is going to be destroyed soon if you don''t do anything.]


    ''What will happen if this one is destroyed too?''


    [It''s simple. One is enough to reveal the stitches. Two are enough to destroy a part of the stitches. Three are enough to destroy half of the world. And four�� the two realms will be connected once again.]


    "!!!" Theo''s body was shaking. "Wait a minute. It cracked and somehow teleported the people�� If the two realms are connected again, then��"


    [The massive disruption will create a random world. In other words, all living creatures on both sides will be teleported randomly. I''ve told you earlier that the two realms have different rules. Now that the rules will be jumbled; no one knows what will happen.]


    ''��'' Theo closed his eyes as he could foresee such trouble if the situation indeed urred.


    Still, there was one important thing Theo heard from the God of Mischief. "If I don''t do anything�� Is there a way to fix this? Or even the broken Sacred Stone?"


    [Thetter is impossible. However, this partial destruction is possible. Although it won''t be as good as before, it can be done.]


    ''What should I do? I don''t know anything about structure. Should I call some human artisans from Earth?''


    [No. Haven''t you learned about our living conditions in the past? If you can pass it, then there is another race that can pass it too�� After all, none of the people back then could create this structure other than��]


    ''The dwarfs!'' Theo sucked a cold breath. ''That''s right. Gods from Asgards are depicted simr to that of a human. At least, their appearances. But I don''t think they have the ability to create this magnificent structure that canst for thousands of years. And only one race can build this, and they are the dwarfs.''


    [That''s right. They are probably the only ones that can fix this Sacred Stone. However, there is another problem.]


    ''And that is?''


    [I still haven''t received the answer to why this Sacred Stone cane out of the ground. All ten Sacred Stones are supposed to be hidden in the safest ce. Like the one the humans broke, it was on the ocean floor, which was impossible to find. If not for their luck, the humans wouldn''t have found it.]


    ''Now that I think about it��'' Theo narrowed his eyes beforeing up with a possible theory. ''Earthquake?''


    [It''s impossible. I have calcted all the safety cautions. Unless you''re that lucky, you won''t find those Sacred Stones. Even if you''re the one asking me the ce where I hide it, I won''t tell you. All of us who are involved in that project have sworn to never reveal it. And you shouldn''t underestimate the promise of a being of our level.]


    ''In that case, this is weird. I don''t know any possible reasons why this structure can appear here.'' Theo shook his head helplessly. ''Still, without any investigation, this can be a natural process or the work of an outsider. There is a need for investigations.''


    [No. Before thinking about it, you should consider fixing it and thinking about how to protect it or even hide it.]


    ''Do you have any solution? I mean, how to hide it?''


    [I''m afraid I won''t help you with this. If you know how I hid all the Sacred Stones, you might be able to figure out their locations. Even you are not allowed to know their locations for safety reasons.]


    ''So, you want me to solve this problem?''


    [Yes.]


    ''Don''t you think I deserve a reward for solving this kind of problem?''


    [No.]


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched, but he soon saw the God of Mischief''s exnation.


    [I''m not alive anymore, so I don''t really care about the world. It''s you who need to care about it. If you don''t, the world will end, and all living creatures will be wiped out again.]


    ''Well, Whatever. I''ll try to fix this problem then. There is a dwarf that happens to have the power to fix this anyway�� I hope that King ss is enough.''


    [If we''re talking about creating one, then it''s not enough. But if it''s only fixing it, then that''s enough.]


    ''Okay. I''m going to solve this problem first.'' Theo sighed, feeling a lot of problems were going to happen soon.

 Chapter 1255 Assassination

    Chapter 1255 Assassination


    After learning the situation from the God of Mischief, Theo came out of the barrier, meeting the Shadow King''s surprised expression.


    "It seems that you know something." The Shadow King narrowed her eyes, examining Theo''s expression.


    "Yes. And I need the Frost Saint to be present before exining all this stuff."


    The Shadow King was still hesitant to involve the Frost Saint, but looking at Theo''s expression convinced her that this matter required the Frost Saint.


    "Alright. Wait for me here. I''ll inform the Frost Saint. However, with the current condition, I need several hours to reach his position."


    "Alright. However, you need toe back as soon as possible. The sooner we fix this, the better."


    "Understood." The Shadow King nodded and disappeared, using her fastest speed to go to the Frost Saint.


    After sending the Shadow King away, Theo focused on his original self in Argelia.


    There were so many refugees that needed medical care, so Theo had been standing by next to Aisha to help her.


    "Are you alright, Aisha?"


    "It''s fine. I still have enough Magic Power to heal them. This is a precious experience for me." Aisha smiled while looking at the people who were lining up for her medical ability.


    Of course, there were other healers as well. This was simply what happened when there were more than a million people to take care of.


    "Ryo, how are you?"


    "I''m good. Please be at ease; I won''t let anything happen to her." Ryo smiled, assuring him. It might be due to her age or her bright behavior simr to his daughter, but it certainly made Ryo feel a sense of responsibility.


    "Okay. I''ll leave it to you then. I''ll check the others." Theo nodded.


    "Sure." Ryo nodded while Aisha waved her hands.


    When leaving the medical tent, Theo was approached by a few people.


    "Thank you�� Thank you for saving us." An elderly man grabbed Theo''s hands and lowered his head a few times. It was clear that Isaac and Clone Theo were a part of the Star Group, so they wanted to thank Theo, who was the leader of this group.


    "If not for your group help, we wouldn''t be able to return here."


    "Thank you�� Thank you!"


    Theo waved his hand, telling them it was fine. They couldn''t see his expression due to the mask, but it didn''t matter.


    Theo had saved their lives, so there was no need to ask a simple question like that.


    Everywhere he went, there were people who thanked him.


    Eventually, he needed fifteen minutes to reach Rea''s tent, which managed the logistics.


    "Oh? To think that you made such an arrangement." Rea smirked, teasing Theo. She remembered when Theo said he had some arrangement for Felix and the others. She didn''t expect Theo to do all this behind her back.


    "You learned something?" Theo shrugged.


    "Indeed. It''ll be beneficial for me." She nodded without hesitation. "Is this the reason you brought Coline instead of Felix? You can have Coline cook for them?"


    "A normal chef won''t be able to serve a thousand serving a day alone. However, we''re talking about a Mythical Rank Chef here. Coline can cook something big that can be used for a thousand people at once."


    "That''s true. And her cooking ability is simply too good."


    "Anyway, has hee?"


    Rea knew who he was talking about. Her expression became serious. "Yes. He expressed his gratitude to us and apologized for his previous behavior. He''s thankful that most of the people who survive are still alive.


    "And it seems there will be a press conference about this situation. It''s going to be troublesome to deal with them."


    Theo had expected this, so he asked, "Can you attend it for me?"


    "Are you sure about this? You should know that I''m an outsider, right? Giving me this right means��"


    "Do you want me to say it?" Theo sighed. "I''ll trust you this time."


    Rea smiled, feeling moved. Having this chance meant Theo had agreed to give her the role of his assistant. So, he wanted her to prove her worth.


    At the same time, he also gave a chance for the rtionship between Theo and the Sword Saint to develop.


    That was why she couldn''t afford to mess up.


    "By the way, who will be the representatives? They need three people from us."


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "You, Isaac, and Madam Ste."


    "You love to say ''Madam,'' don''t you?"


    "Habit." Theo shrugged, telling her that it was the culture of Thernd.


    "Anyway, I''ll handle it to perfection."


    "Hopefully." Theo let out a long sigh as if he didn''t have any trust in her.


    "Please believe me." Rea pouted, annoyed by theck of confidence. However, she misunderstood his sigh.


    As someone who had learned how to manipte human thought and emotion, he knew what would likely happen there. He just pushed all these problems to Rea.


    "Okay, I''ll leave everything to you." Theo nodded. "When will it be held?"


    "Two dayster. We need to stabilize the situation first."


    "Got it. I''ll check the others then." Theo waved his hand as he walked away.


    Suddenly, a man took a peek at the tent. The man seemed to be a Supreme Rank Expert.


    When he reached this tent, he was confused for a second and looked around. Because he didn''t know anything, he asked Theo who was about to leave. "Excuse me. Is this the ce where I can get healed?"


    "No. The tent is on the right. Just walk for two minutes, and you''ll find it." Theo shook his head, replying.


    "Ah, I see. Sorry for disturbing you then." The man ced his hand on the back of his head while bowing a few times with an embarrassed expression.


    "It''s fine." Theo waved his hand.


    "Also, thank you so much for helping us earlier. I heard that it''s your group that did most of the work." The man smiled and extended his hand, wanting to shake Theo''s hands like anyone else.


    Theo nodded and extended his hand.


    But when they were about to shake hands, a knife came out of his long sleeve as the man plunged his dagger at Theo''s heart.


    *Zab!*


    Rea widened her eyes not because of the surprise but because she saw the dagger piercing through Theo''s back.


    Theo widened his eyes and lowered his vision, looking at the dagger that struck his heart before spatting a mouthful of blood.


    *Cough!*

 Chapter 1256 Learning

    Chapter 1256 Learning


    "Gah!" Theo spat a mouthful of blood while Rea looked at him in horror. "Eh?"


    Theo grabbed the assassin''s hands while gritting his teeth. However, his grip was not that strong.


    He red at the man before him and said with anger. "So, out of those many people, you''re the one who gets me��"


    The man smirked as he tried to wave his de so he could cut through his body while saying, "That''s right. They''re not as good as me after all."


    "Joker!" Rea hurriedly leaped to help Theo.


    However, Theo was the first to make his move. He smiled and said with a cold tone. "Is that so? That means they''re not as dumb as you."


    Theo''s hands skillfully circled around the man''s head and snapped his neck.


    "Eh?" The man was shocked because he also used his strength to skewer Theo''s heart, but his de was actually sliding down Theo''s shirt without a single drop of blood. Even the blood that Theo spat a moment ago disappeared.


    However, it was already toote for him to react. Theo snapped his neck and cut it with a de made by Magic Power.


    In an instant, the assassin was the one to die while all the wounds on Theo''s body disappeared.


    "Eh?" Rea widened her eyes in shock before looking at the translucent barrier inside Theo''s clothes.


    That was the Irregr Guardian that Theo had shaped into an armor. It was the one that blocked the dagger. And Theo utilized his illusion to remove the sound, create the wounds, and release the blood smell.


    It was so real that they never thought it was an illusion.


    "Well, we can use him." Theo looked down with a cold expression. He pointed at the corpse and said, "If you have any trouble in convincing those people that I can''t go, use this guy. Tell them that assassins are aiming for my life, and I''ll hide for the time being. In fact, I''m disappointed. Why do I have to experience this while helping people?"


    Rea sucked a cold breath before realizing Theo''s real n. "Wait a minute. The reason why you let yourself get stabbed��"


    Theo smiled and found the camera hidden in his body. There were usually two ways to show that he had aplished the mission. The first was to use Theo''s head. The other way was to show the proof that he had died.


    Because he was helping people here, there would be huge chaos if the guy brought Theo''s head out of this tent. So, he needed to resort to the second option.


    But that was his mistake. By taking the video to prove that he had cleared the mission, he allowed Theo to use it as a justification for his action.


    In other words, Theo had been nning to use the assassin to take an absence from the press conference, which should be attended. Even Rea would have a hard time convincing the other party that Theo couldn''t attend it. So, this was the solution.


    "Well, it seems that I''m pretty lucky that this assassination is when I''m still with you." Theo smiled and handed the proof. "Anyway, you should do the rest."


    "I�� I understand." Rea received the proof with a nod. After that, she saw Theo off.


    As soon as the tent was closed again, Rea ignored the corpse and sat down while pinching the bridge of his nose.


    ''It turns out to be like that. Theo has been utilizing every opportunity to his advantage. No, should I say that he has made many ns ording to his needs? As long as there is an instance where he can take advantage of it to aplish his goal, he will do it.


    ''That''s why if you want to fight Theo, you need to show nothing until thest moment. Just like the War Saint, Theo is thinking about what his opponents will do, allowing him to outsmart their thinking.


    ''Is that Theo''s true tactic? Why do I feel like everything he said is the truth? Whenever he says something, it feels like there''s no lie in it. However, a shrewd guy like him will lie all the time, especially against his enemies or even a neutral party like me.'' Rea pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling troubled to discern the man called Theodore Griffith.


    Little did she know, the reason why Theo''s words were believable was that he never lied.


    With him saying the truth all the time, it was easier for them to believe that was the case. However, Theo created a persona where people saw him as a shrewd guy. This way, they would even doubt the truth.


    No one knew whether Theo told the truth or not. So, they would be trapped in that doubt until Theo defeated them.


    To put it simply, if Theo ever said to her that he never lied with a sly smile, she would never believe those words.


    Rea clutched her head and muttered in a low voice. "It seems that what my father said is true. Having a good rtionship with him is better than bing his enemy. As someone aiming at the top, he''ll most likely challenge Honorable Father, so a neutral party is not a good idea either.


    "It seems that this is my w. Everything I think is for short-term gain. I should focus on the long-term gain like Honorable Father and him. If I can''t do this, I won''t be able to improve. And I still need to consider my Martial Prowess too. He''s strict with himself and challenges impossible goals. That''s why he can continue working hard tirelessly.


    "I know that he can do all that because of his talents, but I can learn a lot just watching how he acts. I see�� It seems that I shouldn''t see my brother as the wall. I should see him as the wall so that I can climb higher." Rea clenched her fists, determined to focus on chasing after Theo''s back so that she could climb to a higher ce.


    However, there was still one minor problem before her. She looked at the corpse and said, "Well, I should call the soldiers first to take care of this problem."

 Chapter 1257 Agreement

    Chapter 1257 Agreement


    While Theo continued moving around to find more and more assassins, Clone Theo finally met face to face with the Frost Saint.


    "So, do you know anything?" The Frost Saint asked while sitting down on the ground. His expression showed his annoyance and frustration. It was clear that he had been roaming around to find another clue about this incident.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression. He also didn''t wish to prolong this matter.


    "As expected, this is the problem?" The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes, looking at the broken structure.


    "Exactly," Theo confirmed without hesitation. "I know you can''t feel anything right now, but it''ll be vastly different if you can enter the protective barrier. You''ll feel an immense amount of Ordering from the structure."


    "So, the protective barrier is preventing the energy from leaking out?"


    Theo nodded. "That''s why this is a very important structure."


    "I still don''t understand the significance of this structure. Unlike you, I don''t have any information and can''t even feel anything from it."


    "Let me exin it." Theo thought for a moment, making sure that everything he told him was something that could be told. "To put it simply, the structure is the one maintaining the bnce between the two worlds. If they''re destroyed, the two worlds will fuse."


    "!!!" The Frost Saint widened his eyes in shock as he immediately asked, "So, how do I fix this? Is it even fixable? We can''t even enter this ce, only you humans."


    "No. There is another race that can help us fix this problem. Though, I want you to hear me out a bit." Theo raised three fingers. "We have three problems. First of all, I can''t help you with anything when negotiating with this person. It''s up to you. Basically, I also have an agreement with him�� Our situation is simr to me and the Dark King."


    "That''s understandable. Who is he anyway?"


    "A dwarf."


    "I see." The Frost Saint pondered for a moment and said, "Since I broke a part of that pir and allowed the whole situation to fully manifest, I''ll personally handle this problem. I''m going there to discuss it."


    "I think that''s for the best." Theo nodded in agreement. "Then, let''s move to the second problem. Even though we can fix it, what happened can''t be restoredpletely."


    "That''s understandable. Broken stuff can never be the same again, even if it''s fixed. If I''m right, the tree and the building that have be one will either be a part of this side or the other side. And we need to see what will happen to the other side. Will they be a void that messes up with the world''s Order or not��"


    "Yes. I''m also nning to observe it, but I''d like if we can exchange our thoughts about the aftermath."


    "I can agree with this condition. It''ll also benefit me to understand the other side''s situation. I need to make sure that such a thing won''t happen again."


    "Then, thest problem." Theo paused for a moment as he also didn''t have any ways to handle this. "It''s to hide it. I''m sure you understand the risk of letting this structure get exposed, right?"


    The Frost Saint''s expression turned grim. "Yeah. The humans can try to steal it. Or even worse, this structure will be destroyed."


    "Yeah. That''s why I want to ask you whether you have a solution or not�� I want to hide it so that it won''t be found anymore."


    "Fair enough. This structure is that dangerous. But there are so many things that need to be considered if we want to hide this structure. I''m sure that you, a human, know more about the natural process, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Earthquakes, tornados, and other natural disasters can happen and break this stuff."


    "That''s why I''ll do this." The Frost Saint had made a huge decision. "From this point onward, I''ll reside in this ce and turn it into my personal territory. This way, I can protect the structure with my life and delegate someone to protect it when my life is over."


    "But this can''tst forever." Theo shook his head while pinching the bridge of his nose. "I mean, there is a chance that your sessor doesn''t know anything. Even if you tell your sessor about it, there is a chance that your sessor won''t tell it to his sessor and so on. Eventually, the reason will lose because of the passage of time, and it''ll eventually be destroyed. This is why I can''t find any solution."


    The Frost Saint understood Theo''s concern, considering this matter involved the stability of the two worlds. Even he couldn''t guarantee that it wouldst for a thousand years if he chose this path.


    "Well, it''s hard for us to think about it, especially with such a short time. I can still provide some protection for the time being. After a few years, we mighte up with a n to solve this problem."


    "That''s true." Theo agreed with his opinion. "So, you''ll protect this structure for the time being?"


    "Yes." The Frost Saint then looked at the Shadow King. "Sorry, it looks like I''ve seized a part of your territory."


    "Don''t worry." The Shadow King politely bowed to him. "At least that idiot husband of mine still has his own territory. I can simply live there."


    "I''m truly sorry." The Frost Saint lowered his head. It seemed that he felt guilty that he was the cause of this problem.


    "No, it''s truly fine. This way, I also have enough reason to reign that guy in. I can''t allow him to kidnap our son again."


    The Frost Saint smiled for the first time. "Though, I also need to trouble you a bit because I''ll need to go on a trip."


    "I shall protect it with my life."


    "Ask at least five other Kings to protect this area."


    "Will do."


    "Then, can you tell me where this guy is?" The Frost Saint turned to Theo, finally asking the core question to solve the problem.


    Theo smiled and revealed the man''s whereabouts, but he actually revealed his superior since he was the one equal to the Frost Saint. "In the Lightning Saint''s territory."

 Chapter 1258 Unexpected Visit

    Chapter 1258 Unexpected Visit


    After finishing his discussion with the Frost Saint, Theo finally had some time to rest. He was standing on top of the abandoned building, looking at the ruined city.


    His expression had a trace of sadness and loneliness.


    He couldn''t help but close his eyes and mutter in a low voice. "Sorry, Ava. It''s not that I don''t want to see you, but it''s not the time yet."


    Although the Mountain King didn''t want to meet him again, he could use this as an excuse to visit both the dwarf and Ava on this asion. He might even bring Ava back with him.


    However, he chose not to cross the ocean and visit Ava even with his clone. He believed the perfect time for his reunion was the time he returned to Italy.


    Because of the continuous assassination attempts, Ergene insisted on following him wherever he went to ensure his safety.


    When she heard about this name, she couldn''t find out about her identity. Ava was truly a weird name since there shouldn''t be any human with that name close to Theo.


    After a long sigh, Theo finally turned around as he had another job to do. He saw Ergene''s curious expression and asked with a smile. "What''s wrong? Do you have something you want to ask?"


    "Yes�� No." She wanted to ask him about this ''Ava,'' but she pulled back at thest second.


    Theo chuckled and asked, "Is it Ava? I guess I haven''t introduced anything about my personal life."


    "No, no. It''s fine. Even I don''t tell you much about my personal life. It''s something that we don''t like to share."


    "Ahaha, I think it''s fine to tell you about her. After all, she''s going to be the 11th Mythical Rank Expert in our group."


    "11th Mythical Rank Expert?" Ergene widened her eyes in surprise. Theo had shared about the group''s n, so she knew Theo only wanted ten Mythical Rank Experts and five people with support roles. This was the first time she heard anything about the additional member.


    Theo waved his hand and said, "Well, that''s all you need to know. It''ll be more interesting if it''s a surprise, right?"


    Ergene scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say.


    "Anyway, let''s go back."


    "Wait a minute. I need to look around the area first. Do you know that you''ve been attacked 28 times by those assassins?"


    "I know. I guess that much money for just a Supreme Rank Expert is a huge temptation. It''s just they don''t know that they need at least to be a Mythical Rank Expert if they want to kill me."


    "Please don''t underestimate assassins. They can kill you in all sorts of ways, from poison, surprise attack, or even a cur��" Before Ergene finished her words, she saw a huge ck light flying toward them. "What is that?"


    Ergene hurriedly unsheathed her sword and leaped into the air, striking this ck light.


    However, the ck light simply passed her body and went straight to Theo.


    "Not good!" Ergene turned around and hurriedly went to Theo to protect him, but Theo maintained his poker face the whole time.


    A Death Avatar emerged from his shadow as a small protective barrier appeared in front of her.


    "It''s a weird attack. It passed my body! A protective barrier might not be able to sto��" Ergene dropped her jaw when the barrier somehow stopped the ck ball and even dispersed it. "Wha��"


    Theo shrugged. "Actually, your count is not right. This was the 33rd assassination attempt. There were four more curses that attacked me, you know."


    "��" Ergene was dumbfounded. She didn''t expect this at all.


    "Ah, you don''t know that the reason why Felix followed me was because I solved Millie''s curse?" Theo smirked, teasing her.


    "This is the first time I heard it." Ergene''s eyebrows twitched, feeling embarrassed. She thought she had repelled all the assassinations attempt, from poisons to sneak attacks. But it seemed she was wrong.


    "Anyway, poison, curse, and the like won''t work on me. All you need to do is to deal with the physical attack." Theo shrugged. "Don''t worry too much about me."


    "Well��" Ergene sighed. "I wish that you could talk about this, so I don''t panic��"


    "Hehe�� Isn''t it considered a private secret?"


    "Maybe I should take back what I said earlier." Ergene sighed. "You''re simply too mysterious�� What a troublesome man to follow."


    "Interesting, right? Well, wait until I''m strong enough to create our base. I promise that it will be a st." Theo smirked.


    "When are you going to build it?"


    "I''m not sure. Maybe after reaching Mythical Rank Expert? It truly depends on my luck. And I''m going to buy a plot ofnd�� Don''t know where to buy it though." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, let''s go back."


    "Yes��" Ergene sighed and followed Theo while maintaining the surveince around the area.


    Since the press conference would be held tomorrow, Theo nned to talk about it with Ergene.


    However, he was surprised that two other tents miraculously appeared next to Rea''s tent.


    "Huh?" Theo frowned because he thought he had told them that this spot was only for the Star Group.


    So, he nned to ask Rea about the situation.


    "Rea. What''s going on? Why are there two more tents here? I thought the country has given us this area to handle."


    Rea was reading the document before finally taking a nce at him. "Sorry, I was preparing for the press conference tomorrow. As for the two tents�� Due to the number of the people and there are too many tents in the other areas, they''re relocating two of them here. I can''t do much about it."


    "They forced us topromise?"


    "Yeah," Rea confirmed.


    However, Theo never expected that two women would suddenlye into the tent.


    The first one was a short ck-haired woman. She had a gentle and soothing smile, but Theo felt familiar with her aura and gaze.


    The second woman was a brown-haired Italian woman. Her beautypletely outshone every single person in the tent. Her smile could pierce every man''s heart.


    And surprisingly, both of them said the same thing, "Hello. We''re your neighbor in this area."


    "I am Lily from Harky Group."


    "I am Agata from Pata Corporation."


    "��"

 Chapter 1259 Nellas Warning

    Chapter 1259 Ne''s Warning


    "I am Lily from Harky Group."


    "I am Agata from Pata Corporation."


    Everyone was in disbelief when they saw these two womening with a small bag for a gift. Still, the one that shocked them the most was Agata. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, so there was no way they could calm themselves when she was there.


    Rea and Ergene narrowed their eyes as they didn''t know whether these two people were a threat or not.


    On the other hand, Theo shook his head helplessly. This was certainly something that he didn''t expect. There was no way Theo would think these two woulde here, considering the danger that mighte.


    Because they were their neighbors now, Rea rose from her seat to greet them.


    However, to everyone''s surprise, Theo was the first one to make his move. When everyone thought Theo was about to greet them, he ced his hand on Lily''s head.


    "What are you doing here?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Do you know her?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "I''m honored to be recognized by Joker." Lily smiled before she felt him tightening the grip. "Wait, wait, wait. Let''s talk about this."


    "Do you know her?" The same question was uttered, but this time by Agata. She even narrowed her eyes, examining this girl.


    "I am Joker''s girlfriend." Lily yfully smiled.


    "Eh, what?!" Rea and Ergene widened their eyes. They never expected Theo to have a girlfriend.


    Meanwhile, Agata''s smile remained on her face as if she could see through her. "Okay, that''s a lie. I know it. So, who are you?"


    "Eh? I''m Joker''s girlfriend. I''m not lying! We''ve vowed to get mar��Aaaahhhh!" Lily felt Theo''s grip start crushing her head. "I''m joking, I''m joking!"


    "What are you doing here��" Theo red at her while summoning the Death Avatar, surrounding this ce with the Death Mist. The mist functioned as a barrier to prevent anyone from prying with their Awareness. After that, he revealed her identity. "��Ne?"


    "!!!" This time, all the women in the tent widened their eyes.


    "Ne? Which Ne? Ne Griffith?" Ergene and Rea had the same conclusion because Ne was a figure to remember if they were talking about Theo.


    "Hehe, it seems that I''ve been caught." Lily smiled while scratching the back of her head. Although she didn''t know why Theo used the Death Avatar, it was clear that she could reveal the truth inside this mist.


    "So, you''re still trying to marry him?" Agata pinched the bridge of her nose.


    "Yes, we''re already seven generations apart, so it''s safe�� is what I wanted to say, but It seems that I stand no chance." Ne smirked. "I''ll settle with the younger sister status. Anyway, congrattions."


    "You know about it?" Agata narrowed her eyes before ncing at Ergene and Rea.


    "Just looking at their conversation, it''s clear that these two have known him as well." Ne shrugged and took out her Skylink, showing the chat in Myan-Myan''s stream. She pointed at one nickname and said, "To think that you didn''t bother to hide it and even unted your status. Well, no one was gonna believe it, so it''s fine, I guess."


    "��" Agata let out a long sigh.


    "Eh?" Rea and Ergene dropped their jaws to the ground. This was the first time they heard about it. When they saw the chat, it was clear that Agata was iming that Joker was her.


    And Agata should know about Joker''s real identity. In other words, she was really Theo''s girlfriend.


    "This is��" Rea sucked a cold breath.


    "Don''t change the topic. What are you doing here?" Theo continued ring at Ne as he hadn''t received the answer to his question.


    "Ah��" Ne scratched the back of her head and said, "Can''t I just visit you because I want to?"


    "I''m a bit tired of this bullshit."


    "Tsk." Ne clicked her tongue and said, "Regarding the news a few months ago. You should know that your fath�� I mean, Uncle Ray has defeated someone from the top 100 experts, right?


    "I am here to tell you that his original target was actually the Mind Elder. However, the Griffith Family had closed their gates right now due to his rise. It''s just�� When that old man starts moving, I''m afraid that the situation will be a bit too much to handle.


    "You might be able to hide your identity using the Death Reaper, but it''s impossible for you to continue that way due to your rising strength. You''re simply getting stronger too fast. It''ll be easy to deduce that you have the talent for learning.


    "When that happens, your identity will be blown away, and even more people wille after your life. So, I think it''s better to hold your progress for a bit or just hide from the spotlight for a while. This way, the suspicion will disappear." Ne''s face became solemn when she exined the current situation.


    Even Agata lowered her head, understanding the impact it would bring. It was true that Theo had been working hard for the promise, but she now felt bad that Theo continued pushing himself just to fulfill this promise. She felt like she was a selfish woman.


    However, Theo shook his head. "So, what?"


    "Eh?" Agata and Ne were dumbfounded.


    "Let them suspect me. I don''t really care. By the time they confirm my identity, it''ll be toote. Even if I can''t defeat him, running away is possible. As for the Mind Elder, if hees, I''m going to kill him personally." Theo''s eyes were emanating killing intent.


    "Well, I know that you have defeated the 3rd strongest person in the world, the Death Reaper, but I don''t think you can do it again, right?"


    "No."


    "That''s why��"


    "But I have another n." Theo snorted. "If you can''t find a n to solve a problem, then you haven''t thought hard enough. I have all the cards to y, so I don''t mind fighting against the Griffith Family."


    "In that case, do you want to cob? With the help of the new faction, it''ll be easier to deliver a huge blow from the inside."


    "No." Theo rejected without hesitation.


    "Well, I anticipated this. In that case, I want to give you a warning." She pointed her finger at Agata. "It seems that they have started getting some clues about your rtionship with her. And that clue might go all the way to her fake identity as your assistant.


    "When that happens, it''ll be easy for them to realize you''re still alive. Hence, they''re going to make a move, not at you, but her. The Griffith Family had three vassals: the Orel Group, the Eilric Family, and the Skyward Mercenary.


    "The Orel Group has separated themselves from the Griffith Family, and the Eilric Family remains neutral. So, the Skyward Mercenary is going to make their move. I just want to warn you that the Skyward Mercenary has a man called Airvans Lockens, the 88th strongest man in the world."

 Chapter 1260 Agata

    Chapter 1260 Agata


    "I just want to warn you that the Skyward Mercenary has a man called Airvans Lockens, the 88th strongest man in the world."


    When they heard Ne''s words, Rea was the first to react. "Airvans Lockens, the 88th strongest man in the world. He is known as a Liquid Controller. It''s said that he can manipte all water in the world, including the one in your body. He is a dangerous man."


    "So, they''re aiming for my life?" Agata narrowed her eyes, wondering how she should solve this situation.


    "No. They''re, perhaps, gonna harass you. The reason is simple��"


    "To bring him out eh?" Agata nced at Theo. If Ne didn''t say anything about this, they might fall into their ns.


    "Yes. He has a super annoying son�� Basically, a home wrecker, a lecher, a pervert�� He is a perfect guy to draw him out." Ne nodded while pointing at Theo.


    "Hoh?" Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering if he should just kill this person.


    Ne immediately shut her mouth, knowing that Theo was pissed.


    Meanwhile, Agata smiled at Theo and said, "Don''t reveal yourself yet. Keep getting stronger. I''m not so weak that I need your protection all the time. If hees, I''m going to handle it myself. At the very least, I can employ a few of your tricks and wait until you reach the Mythical Rank. Do you think you can handle Airvans Lockens after that?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm his heart down. His tone became solemn as he nodded. "Yeah."


    Agata smirked. "In that case, let me handle him. I already told you before. I''m not going to be an essory."


    Theo clenched his fists and nodded. "I understand. Please take care of him."


    "Hehe. I''m going to set the stage for you. Go with a huge st when that happens."


    "En." Theo nodded.


    "Still��" Agata jumped to his embrace and hugged him tightly. "It''s truly been a while��"


    Theo didn''t reject her. In fact, he also hugged her, sharing his longing.


    "So, it''s real." Rea sucked a cold breath while shaking her head helplessly. "No wonder why Joker has never fallen for my lucky bastard schemes."


    "You do admit that?" Ergene nced at her.


    "My father''s directions. Though, I stopped after learning about his identity." Rea looked away, feeling embarrassed.


    "Heh? I have prepared myself for the appearance of the second spot, you know." Agata made a sly grin as if teasing them. "I mean, his clone is so real that�� Ahem��"


    "What are you saying?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Sister Agata! It''s nice to meet you." Ne was the first to act, but Agata chuckled and said yfully, "Though, he is a man with integrity. If he can''t share me with another man, then he doesn''t want me to share with another woman. That''s why I love him. It even makes me a bit greedy."


    "No way!" Ne pouted before spitting, "In that case, I need to tell you that you shouldn''t show your affection in public."


    "Jealous?" Agata smirked, teasing Ne.


    "No, I''m just worried that Alea is going to make a fuss with it. Don''t forget that the Eilric Family is neutral right now. Suppose they use this farce as a reason. In that case, they can act together with the Griffith Family since they can promise that they can make Alea conceive his child after capturing you. You know that it''s possible�� They''re going to do it even if both parties reject that idea." Ne shrugged.


    "Be careful that the Eilric Family will be your enemy. They don''t have top experts, but they do have twenty Mythical Rank Experts. With the additional support of the Skyward Mercenary and the main Griffith Family, they can mobilize 60-70 Mythical Rank Experts. Luckily, the Orel Group has separated themselves or you will be fighting against 100 Mythical Rank Experts."


    Rea sucked a cold breath as she said, "Now I can see why even huge countries are afraid of the Griffith Family. They''re indeed one of the biggest hidden families. Even superpower countries only have five hundred Mythical Rank Experts at most�� And a hidden family like them has twenty percent of the entire country''s strength. And there is the fact that they''re a hidden family specializing in espionage, not fullbat."


    "They''re indeed scary." Agata nodded before smirking. "How about a date right now?"


    "Did you hear what I said right now?" Ne''s eyebrows twitched.


    "I know, but��" Agata released her pink smoke and turned it into a drill as she excavated a human-size hole on the ground. "We can leave this ce with this tunnel."


    "I mean, they''ll feel your power��"


    "You haven''t realized it yet? Oh wait, you focus on Control, so I guess you haven''t realized it. If you check with your Awareness, you''ll realize that you can''t feel anything. In other words, this mist can block your Awareness, allowing us to move through the ground without getting found out." Agata stuck her tongue out.


    "That''s��" Ne somehow had no words to rebuke her.


    ''Assistant huh��'' Rea thought while looking at Agata. She realized that if she continued studying under Theo, she would be able to reach Agata''s level. It was clear that she was stronger, but Agata''s resourcefulness and thought process were indeed far different from her.


    If Agata was nning something, she might lose against her. She looked at her as the former assistant, thinking if she could learn from her.


    "Hehe, how is it, Sister�� I mean, Sister-inw?" Agata couldn''t help but want to tease her this whole time.


    "Alright, alright." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "How about our appearances?"


    "It can be fixed easily," Theo assured her. "Though, we can''t be outside for too long. It''ll be too suspicious."


    "I know." Agata smiled. Even though she was a bit reluctant to be separated again, she needed to agree with him because of the situation.


    "Ehm, before you go��" Rea suddenly rose from her seat and asked Agata, "Do you mind if I ask you a few things��ter?"


    "Sure. I heard that you''re his current assistant. It must be a hard job, eh? He delegates every task he can��"


    "Well��" Rea couldn''t deny it.


    "But I can assure you that each task has a purpose behind it. Just continue doing your tasks with your best, and you''ll soon realize that you''ve improved so much. For example, I''m pretty sure he is sending you to the press conference tomorrow�� I need to remind you that humans are a piece of shit. As someone from a famous family, I''m sure that you can keep your calm, but they''re going to target one specific area that will frustrate you." Agata nced at him. "But keep calm because he''s going to do something, right?"


    Theo looked away before snapping his fingers. Their appearances soon changed, and no one could feel any Magic Power from it like an illusion.


    After that, Agata waved her hand yfully as she led Theo through the hole for their small date.

 Chapter 1261 Date

    Chapter 1261 Date


    "This is the first time we have a time like this." Agata was humming while hugging Theo''s arm. Even though she said it was a date, there was nothing they could do in the ruined city.


    They could only walk around the town while maintaining their vignce.


    Agata looked at the ck-haired man as she also had ck hair. This was just their disguise, but if the others saw them like this, they would think it was just a random couple.


    "Yeah. Sorry that I have been too busy in the past two years to the point I have a hard time calling you." Theo sighed.


    "It''s fine. I know you well." Agata smiled. "I know that you''ve been working hard. I''m the one who feels guilty for not working hard enough."


    "I did promise you." Theo chuckled. "There''s no need to me yourself. In my eyes, you''ve worked hard enough. From maintaining the informationwork to managing thepany�� you even make some time to hunt the monsters to raise your level."


    "And now I wish that we can return to the past. If I met you in school, I wondered if we could be together like this without worrying about threats from all around the world��"


    "Instead of that, you might not like me at all. After all, the me in the school was just an empty shell." Theo shook his head.


    "That''s true, I guess." Agata chuckled. "The bully might be worse if I approached you."


    "unting your beauty?"


    "What? You don''t like the fact I''m pretty?"


    "I love it of course."


    "Hehe��" Agata then pointed at a building. "Let''s just sit there and watch the stars. Now that the city is ruined, there''s no moremp that can blind us from looking at the stars."


    Theo nodded as he gently lifted them up to the top of the building. They sat down on the floor while looking at the stars.


    "Still, I want to ask you once more. Can I handle the Skyward Mercenary by myself? I''m afraid you''re going to be jealous."


    "What do you feel when I''m talking with Maya, Rea, Ne, or even Ergene?"


    "To be honest, I have prepared myself to share you with another woman. So, I don''t feel much about it�� I''d be lying if I said I''m not jealous, but I can ept that. After all, you''re that charming."


    "I can say the same to you�� But still, you''re really strong, huh. I might have a hard time not feeling jealous."


    "Haha, is that so? But I''m thankful that you feel this way about me. You know what, if those people who pursue me hear me saying the possibility of a second wife, they will lie to me that I''m the only one for them while they''re searching for the second wife. But you�� you never lie, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "That''s what I love about you." Agata smiled before tugging his shoulder.


    Theo turned to her and saw Agata tapping her thighs as if asking him to lie down on herp.


    Her expression brightened as if she was begging him to lie down.


    In the end, Theo gently put his head on herp as Agata started stroking his hair while smiling.


    "To be honest, I have wanted to do this for a long time. You''ve been working hard�� harder than anyone else for the past few years. Sometimes, I want you to take some rest. I know that if I say it, you''re gonna brush it off by saying you''ve rested enough.


    "But to me, I somehow want to��" Agata gently covered Theo''s eyes. "��close these eyes and tell you that it''s alright to rest more. It''s alright for you to stop working for once."


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face as he said, "I might doze off if you continue doing this��"


    Despite wanting to let him sleep, Agata retracted her hands, knowing the consequence. Just like him respecting her choice, she also respected his decision.


    "Still, let me lie like this for a while." Theo smiled. "It''s truly been hard�� the past few years."


    "I know." Agata''s soothing tone contained a bit of sadness. She truly couldn''t help Theo more than this�� She hoped she could do more.


    "Say�� do you have any thoughts about marriage?" Theo asked.


    "I do, but I''m going to be angry if you ask me now."


    "Why is that?"


    "I feel like if you''re gonna propose to me right now, it''s because you''re forced by the situation. You feel guilty for leaving me so long�� and this is my reward for staying loyal to you this whole time. Instead of marriage, I want both of us to spend more time together first.


    "It''s not like I am against the idea of marriage, but I don''t want you to regret this decision in the future because the time, ce, and reason are not right."


    Theo let out a long sigh. "I really can''t beat you in this��"


    "Hehe. Don''t you know who gave me the blessing?" Agata chuckled.


    Theo felt embarrassed and tried to shift the topic by taking out his Skylink to check the time. "I guess we only have two more minutes. Do you want to do anything?"


    "Hmm�� Let''s see��" Agata contemted for a moment before saying, "Do you want to dance?"


    "Dance? I''ve never done that, you know."


    "It''s easy. Your reflex should be enough." Agata smirked. "Let''s get up."


    They stood in front of each other as Agata instructed him.


    "ce your left hand on my waist and hold my hand with the other one."


    Theo followed her instruction while Agata ced her hand on Theo''s shoulder. "We just make some small steps to the side while circling around. Easy, right? Follow me."


    As Agata said, Theo managed to follow her movement with ease as they slowly moved in a circle while feeling the serene atmosphere. The bright moonlight illuminated them as if they were in the center of a grand ballroom.


    After a while, Agata gradually guided Theo''s hands to her waists as she ced both hands on his shoulders.


    Their faces were close to each other as Agata took the initiative to put her forehead against his. She closed her eyes while moving left and right, savoring every second.


    "Theo��"


    "Ehm?"


    "I love you."


    "I love you too."

 Chapter 1262 The Start of the Conference

    Chapter 1262 The Start of the Conference


    The next day.


    Rea, Isaac, and Ste dressed in the same style. White shirt, ck skirt or pants, and ck tuxedo. They were attending the press conference as the group that contributed the most.


    Not only the local media but also international media were invited to cover this conference.


    There was a middle-aged man with white hair. He was still brimming with energy, but he felt like he had just aged for decades due to the current situation.


    Of course, at such a level, they were broadcasted Live so that everyone could understand the situation better. It could also put some relief in their hearts after knowing the situation.


    They all looked at the empty podium while anticipating. The number of viewers this time exceeded one million, and it kept increasing.


    The incident was that intense because more than two million people were reported missing. People were afraid that they would be the next victim, so they watched this to understand the situation better.


    MustacheGuy: Damn. I''ve been waiting for this. What''s going on right now?


    Reigor: Chill dude. They''ll start soon.


    BukuM4c4n: Will our country experience something like this too?


    Imuimu: There he is!


    The president stood in front of the podium and said, "Before we start the conference, I''d like to extend my thanks to the Star Group for providing help to the refugees. It''s due to your effort that most of the people have survived this ordeal. I can''t thank you enough for your assistance.


    "Due to personal reasons, the team leader of the Star Group can''t attend the conference, but Miss Nagasawa Rea has taken the role. And Miss Ste, as the supervisor from the Star Group.


    "I''d like to thank the rest of the people who have helped the people in this country. With all of your help, we can still continue to fight this anomaly."


    The middle-aged man solemnly bowed to convey his thanks.


    Hairudin: Damn. Props to the Star Group for rescuing them.


    Myan-Myan: Right. The Star Group has never ceased to amaze me.


    Mole50: Bravo! Bravo!


    Ste and Rea nodded their heads while Isaac nced at the side, finding an old man standing on the opposite side. His face was fierce as if he had prepared to destroy anyone that entered the stage.


    "Who is he?" Isaac whispered to Rea.


    "Someone from the democratic party. After five questions from the journalists, we''ll take three more questions from that man." Rea answered.


    "So, there are the limits of questions?"


    "Just for time and current situation. They can''t hold us for that long due to us helping them."


    "Okay." Isaac nodded.


    Meanwhile, the president continued his speech.


    "In that case, let me exin the situation briefly." The president took a deep breath. "After the phenomenon, it''s reported that roughly over 2.4 million people are missing.


    "Thanks to the Star Group''s efforts, over 1 million people have been recovered. ording to the testament, around 1 million people have been killed by the monsters, and fifty thousand people are still waiting to be rescued.


    "After getting their location, we''ve made a joint operation with the United States to rescue the remaining people. And they will arrive by tomorrow."


    "That''s all. If you have any questions, raise your hands."


    The people in Sk were frenzied. Thements flooded the Livestream. A part of them just pressed "F" for respect for the people who lost their lives in this incident. Another part thanked the Star Group for rescuing that many people before another hundreds of thousands of casualties.


    However, some of thements were not to everyone''s liking as they insulted the Star Group.


    Haiskal500: What the heck? Did the Star Group abandon those fifty thousand people? Can''t they bring them too?


    Wakakatori: Did they know what it means to abandon 50,000 people? They can fill more than half of the ser stadium. How could they abandon those many people?


    There were more and more hatements, but there were some that attacked these haters too.


    REscuePLease: Dude. They save more than one million people. Can you even do that?


    FemaleSupremacy400: My friend went to Argelia yesterday and heard that those people didn''t believe them and chose to stay. And the Star Group seemed to only have less than fifty people on their sides. With their spontaneous response, they invited people from the refugees to help them guide most people. And it''s impossible to ask for help because the distance to the nearest teleportation circle is more than a day away. By the time they return, most people would have died due to dehydration.


    Rondolord: Those guys are jokes. They can''t even save ten people in their entire life, but they still think they can criticize these few people who managed to save more than a million people.


    There was a war in the Livestream. However, the haters soon lost their numbers due to the overwhelming number of people thatughed at them.


    All the journalists hurriedly raised their hands as the president pointed at one of them.


    "Will the people who are still there survive? It''s said that they''re getting surrounded by monsters."


    Ste rose from her seat and nodded to the president.


    "In that case, I''ll allow Miss Ste from the Star Group to answer your question."


    "The process is different, eh?" Isaac asked.


    "Each country has their own procedure. It''s nothing new at all."


    "Fair point."


    While Isaac and Rea talked, Ste answered the question.


    "We''ve got the report from our hunting group. ording to them, they have managed to repel the monsters. Unfortunately, it appears that these people refused to move because they were too scared and couldn''t believe us. You can confirm it with the people we''ve managed to rescue.


    "So, all we can do right now is to wait for the military to arrive to rescue them. We''re ready to cooperate with the military to find the scattered people too."


    Another journalist was selected to ask the question.


    "How about the resources? Even though the monsters have been repelled, there is an immediate danger because the people haven''t had any water and food for the past three days. A normal person won''t be able to live on without water for that long."


    "Our hunting group will try hard to help them from procuring the water and food to the daily necessities. And we''ll also ask the remaining people to help us as well so that everyone can return to their home alive."


    Another one came in and asked, "Is there no way for us to send people to that ce from this country?"


    Since the question for him had arrived, Isaac rose from his seat and reced Ste. He then asked another person to turn on the Skylink to show a few pictures.

 Chapter 1263 Scorns

    Chapter 1263 Scorns


    "Before I start my exnation, I want to say this. I know that you''re doubting my age, knowledge, and experience. However, I just want you to know that I have a skill that allows me to measure the amount of Magic Power in the area. I believe the technology can prove my wordster. Feel free to refute my imster because this is just my spontaneous assumption."


    Isaac pointed at the city and split it with a huge red wall. "The density of Magic Power in the ruined city is roughly ten times the other side. So, I assume that the ruined city has been influenced by the other side�� or you can say they''re the other side itself.


    "When the incident happened, the people were sucked by this red wall where the two different densities met and caused them to be teleported to the other side. However, I have no extensive research about who will be teleported or won''t."


    Surprisingly, one of them suddenly shouted, cutting in. "So, you made those people go through the disruption without confirming their safety? What will you do if they end up in a worse situation?"


    Isaac was annoyed to be interrupted, but he still answered that question. "Of course. I''ve done a series of tests.


    "I run a test one thousand times to go to the other side through this disruption. And the disruption teleported people 478 times out of those one thousand times. On the other hand, when we approached from the opposite side, meaning from the high density to lower density, out of one thousand times, the number the disruption teleported us was�� Zero." Isaac narrowed his eyes, ring at the one that interrupted him.


    NotAnIdiot: Damn. How did this guy test that? But thankfully he tested it first. Thanks to him, more than one million people returned to their homes.


    NegativeGuy: He''s just a maniac. He alone made such a decision? I can''t trust a guy who is still sucking their mommie."


    Precopine: I bet he doesn''t have any degree in his life. Does he think he can rely on his skills for everything?


    Due to Isaac''s petite body and young age, most people didn''t like him even though his analysis managed to save those people. Some professors who watched also started arguing, presenting their arguments. But most of them looked down on Isaac.


    "What the heck?" Millie, who was watching the broadcast back home, gritted her teeth. Thements annoyed her. "Without him, no one would even think about returning alive. And what? Because he is young, so he shouldn''t do something like this? Then when those one million people died because no one found them or had no idea how to return, who would they me? Without him, more than a million people would die. Maybe Big Brother Joker shouldn''t save them and let those people die."


    "Hush. You shouldn''t say that." Jeff shook his head. Because Felix was helping Clone Theo, Jeff was the one that protected Millie.


    "So what? They''re scums." Millie bit her lips. "At first, they were praising us for helping those people, but when they found out about our age, they started scorning us. I''m angry."


    "Haha." Jeff chuckled before he looked down with a sad expression. "It can''t be helped. Will you trust a young doctor who says that he can cure the disease that no one has ever seen before or will you trust a few old doctors who have been in this area for decades?"


    "I''ll believe the young one. Big Brother Joker was the one that helped me, not those old people."


    "Ahaha, that''s your unique experience. But most people will choose thetter. Humans��" Jeff let out a long sigh.


    "Whatever." Millie snorted.


    While those two were arguing, the question continued. "Do you think you can represent the scientists who have been working hard to examine the situation? What will you do if more people die because of your wrong analysis?"


    Isaac''s expression was already devoid of emotion as he stated, "I can''t represent anyone. However, I have done enough tests to prove my own theory for the minimum safety measure.


    "If I didn''t make that decision, all those one million people would have died from starvation and dehydration because they needed to wait for the scientists to say it''s safe a week, a month, or even a yearter.


    "You may condemn me or whatever. But I don''t care about it anymore. Even if everyone says I shouldn''t be a scientist anymore and won''t take my words seriously anymore, I don''t mind because I know that some people will still ept my opinions. And those people saved more than a million lives today."


    Even Rea was gnashing her teeth, annoyed by their response. She could understand the discrimination, but Isaac nheless saved those people.


    Knowing that Isaac should stop right now, Rea stood up and reced him while patting his shoulder as if telling him that it was alright.


    Rea took a deep breath and stated with a solemn tone. "I don''t know if you have seen this, but you may want to look at the strongest person on Earth�� If you haven''t, then I can show you here."


    Rea pointed at the Skylink and changed the image into the Time God''s Skypost.


    Aiden Turner


    "By the way, I just used my Time Power to peek into future possibilities. Out of one thousand futures, 200 of them result in those people getting saved. However, 166 of them are thanks to a young genius'' decision. Without him, I can say for certain that those one million people would have died."


    Rea then delivered the killing blow by saying, "If you take a look at the date and time, you''ll know that the Time God posted this a few hours before the rescue operations. Do you think he can predict the number or the young genius�� Isaac correctly? Alright, I know that you don''t like a paranormal power like this, but at the same time, please don''t forget that this phenomenon can''t be exined by science alone."

 Chapter 1264 Act

    Chapter 1264 Act


    Everyone was silent for a minute. In fact, they started opening the Sk to check the prophecy, and it was truly there.


    They started debating and shifting the me from Isaac to other people who couldn''t help those people. Without Isaac''s daring personality, no one would have been saved because the chance was less than five percent. Even if they managed to save them, hundreds of thousands of people would have died on the way.


    When Agata saw this, she nced to the side, smirking. "Heh. So, is this your way to help them?"


    "I know that most people won''t believe in Isaac. And I''d seen Isaac''s mental state when he was harassed by a few people for a few days. It was awful. So, I contacted the Time God for his help�� This way, Isaac wouldn''t have to suffer that much." Theo nodded with a grim expression.


    He knew that the Time God was nning to be an observer, so he only asked him to tell about some sort of prophecy. He could even lie through his teeth because Theo had prepared some lines to trick people. And posting something like this wouldn''t really make him turn into an active piece that moved the storyboard. He could remain as an observer.


    That was why the Time God agreed to help. He also owed Theo that much for saving one hundred thousand people from the Frost Saint.


    "Well, this is not over. There is still one most important viin in this conference." Theo nced at the old man in the corner of the screen.


    "That''s true��" Agata nodded.


    After Rea and Time God''s statements, the journalist had mixed reactions. They wanted to attack Isaac, but they would be stopped by that statement. Why would they lower the number because of age? They would be the ones to be attacked.


    Even Isaac nodded to Rea, thanking her for the help.


    Rea then continued to choose another person to ask their question.


    However, she was suddenly interrupted by the old man from the democratic party as he couldn''t let this chance go to make a name for himself.


    "Miss Nagasawa. Can you take responsibility for your words? I can admit that the genius'' action was necessary, but there is no record of the incident ever happening. So, one wrong move might cost more than a million people''s lives?"


    Rea maintained her calm even though she wanted to hit this petty old man. At the same time, taking responsibility for her words would impact the Nagasawa Family, especially the Sword Saint. So, she needed to choose her words wisely.


    "Instead of doing it alone, why don''t you get any help from the scientists nearby and even other parties that help this country? This looks like you are ying with people''s lives just for the sake of your glory. Do you look at humans like you''re looking at animals?"


    Rea remembered Agata''s words and realized this man was the one who would target her.


    ''Politics��'' Rea sighed inwardly before giving the answer. "Our leader judged that cooperating with other parties would significantly dy our progress. At that time, they hadn''t even prepared most of their equipment.


    "On the other hand, the situation on the other side was severe. The people had symptoms of dehydration. If we waited any longer, they would have died. Hence, our leader chose to make a decision himself and save these people."


    "Then, may I ask where your leader is? How can he not attend this conference when his decision made one million people risk their lives?! How can your leader be absent at this time? Is he trying to run from his responsibility?" The old man asked again, rebuking her statement.


    As expected from an expert politician, he could divert many people easily and make them back him up. Even thements started asking for Theo''s appearance.


    TwinkleStarsss: That''s right. Where is Joker right now? Is he escaping from his responsibility as the man who risked more than one million people''s lives? Is he not going to apologize for risking so many people''s lives?


    SmartPerson1010: Joker needs to apologize right now. Boycott Joker!


    There were manyments defending Joker, but the haters seemed to have the same number.


    However, Rea mmed the podium with her hand. Her face was filled with anger.


    "Miss Nagasawa, please refrain from directing your anger to the podium and give us an exnation professionally? And what are you nning to do with fifty thousand people that remain on the other side? Why did you abandon them?"


    "An exnation? You want an exnation? Fine!" Rea swept her hand and showed another picture along with two videos. "Look at this!"


    The picture was Joker''s shirt that had holes and blood on it. As for the video, the first one showed a video of the assassination from the ceiling. It was a CCTV video. The second video showed the assassin''s point of view.


    And all people gasped when Joker was stabbed by the assassin. The videos stopped and silenced the entire hall.


    Rea mmed the podium again and shouted in anger. "Where is Joker? He''s recuperating from his injury right now! What? Humanity? I''m losing my faith in humanity right now.


    "What do we get from saving one million lives? What? Thank you? No, it''s an assassination attempt! If not for Joker''s superiorbat ability, he would have died! And you still ask me where he is?"


    Rea looked at them to the point tears started forming in the corner of her eyes. She couldn''t ept that when Joker saved people, the people returned it with a knife in his heart.


    Before they could react, someone mmed the door as a red-haired young man rushed into the room despite being stopped by security.


    "Miss Rea, Madam Ste. I''ve received the news from the Star Group''s expedition team!" He panted a few times and reported. "Our separate rescue team has reached the remaining fifty thousand people. Thanks to our fast reaction and quick choppers, we''ve managed to deliver the supply.


    "The supply willst for two days. And the military is predicted to arrive within 12-15 hours. As for the injured, they''ve been taken away by our choppers and are now on the way back to seek medical attention. And there is no��" He took a deep breath. "The casualty is zero! With the supply and our personnel, the remaining fifty thousand people should be able tost until the rescue operation ispleted."


    When they heard the news, all of them were stunned because of how unbelievable the news was.


    On the other hand, Rea remembered Agata''s advice.


    "They''re going to target one specific area that will frustrate you, but keep calm because he''s going to do something about it."


    With just that memory, she realized the man that brought the news was none other than Clone Theo.


    Although she wanted to cheer, she still acted and even shed tears, saying. "You know what�� Even after the assassination attempt and asking me to substitute him, Joker instructed the rescue operation and let me handle it. Despite the assassination attempt and his disappointment, Joker still wanted to save everyone."


    She dramatized Theo like he was an angel descended from Heaven. She looked at the old man and asked with disappointment as if she had lost trust in this country, "Do you have another question?"

 Chapter 1265 Reactions

    Chapter 1265 Reactions


    "You bad man." Agata chuckled as she watched how Rea acted. "She must have learned to act like that from you."


    "What? I didn''t do anything." Theo shrugged.


    "Heh?" Agata smirked while ncing at thements.


    Skylord300: Where are those people who asked for Joker''s whereabouts? Why are they still alive?


    Myan-Myan: That''s right. To think that Joker received an assassination in exchange for saving one million people. Myan-Myan starts to lose hope in humanity.


    Sharckque: If another intelligent species came by and told us that we were trash, most of us would agree instantly.


    Peanuts_9: Human nature is pretty pathetic sometimes, so I wouldn''t oppose it.


    IWillNotWriteAlot: Reject humanity��..return to Monkey.


    Not a single person there realized that everything was Theo''s plot. He had lost hope in humanity anyway, so he knew that there would be this kind of reaction. So, he added his clone and Rea to the mix and gave birth to this kind of response.


    Yes. No one knew at that time that Theo had just trolled the Sk and the entire country of Argelia.


    Meanwhile, Theo would have received support worldwide after this incident. And even the assassin would stop their operation for the time being.


    That was why Theo had been wandering around to do inspections. When he got attacked, he told Rea that he finally got the reason not to attend.


    In other words, the assassination attempt was actually Theo''s ultimate weapon to handle his current problem.


    If he, one day, took off his mask and returned to be Theodore Griffith, they would link their personality together. Yes, Theo himself had solved the Goblin Experiment and saved Italy from the Safulli Group and the World ss Monster''s anger.


    Even if he hid his identity, Theo still tried to act like a proper human being, not knowing that every little stuff he showed was just his plot.


    Of course, the God of Mischief took them as Theo trolling the entire.


    When he watched their reaction, Theo let out a long sigh and said, "Agata��"


    "Mhm? What''s wrong?"


    "There will be a long fight for us in the future." Theo mysteriously said before closing his eyes as if he didn''t want to exin anything.


    "Is that so?"


    "But don''t worry. I promise there will not be a single lieing out of my mouth."


    "I understand. But don''t endure it alone, okay? I''m here to help." Agata smiled and gently rested her head on Theo''s shoulder. She just wanted to stay like this forever without caring about future problems.


    "Yep." Theo nodded.


    Obviously, Theo and Agata weren''t the only ones amused by Rea''s action.


    Leonardo was aware Joker was Theo, so he chuckled when Rea acted like this. "I don''t know how many schemes he mixed into it, but I know that my grandson is not a saint like people think. He''s a devil�� Well, I''m his grandfather, so I''m also a devil, I guess. Haha, interesting. A devil in angel clothing."


    Just like Leonardo, the Sword Saint chuckled when he saw his daughter act like that. Even her brother, Nagasawa Sojuro, widened his eyes.


    "Your sister has truly changed so much. It seems that Joker is a bad influence on your sister�� If this continues, your sister can defeat you with a scheme alone." The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly.


    "Well, she has been able to do that this whole time." Sojuro sighed. "But I know that she cares for our family the most. I know she won''t do something like that."


    "Yeah. I''m just afraid that Joker is going to snatch your sister forever."


    "Huh? She won''te back?"


    "That''s a possibility. Well, I think she will just stay by his side while helping the family when needed only."


    "Really?" Sojuro widened his eyes in surprise.


    "Yeah. I mean, I saw your sister''s progress when I visited her. Her strength obviously had a sharp increase�� I can certainly say that it far surpassed yours. That''s why you need to work harder if you don''t want your sister to defeat you easily." The Sword Saint smirked, teasing his son.


    "I will." Sojuro nodded with a solemn face. He had prepared to do everything to improve.


    ��


    Another person who knew Theo''s real identity and discerned his plot was none other than the Wind Emperor.


    He was watching the conference in his room and chuckled when he saw the crocodile tears.


    "Truly magnificent. When he was in the War God Family, his action could impact the country. But now, he has improved so much that he can influence Sk. What? In the future, he will be able to manipte the world.


    "Griffith Family, O'' Griffith Family�� Not a single organization is as strong and as deep as the Griffith Family. The Griffith Family is strong, there is no doubt.


    "Every generation leaves a top ten expert! No one can even do such a thing. Other organizations would onlyst for two to three generations, but the Griffith Family can produce them for every single generation.


    "And in this generation, they should be in their golden age. Ray Griffith just defeated a top 100 expert, and his future potential would be around 3rd strongest person in the world. And there is Ne Griffith, who has the same amount of talent.


    "With the addition of Theo, who is so wise and talented, the Griffith Family would be able to capture all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seats in the world. There won''t be anyone that can oppose them.


    "Unfortunately, the rules that allowed the Griffith Family to produce top ten experts every generation have finally backfired on them. Whether it is Ray, Ne, or Theo, all of them hate those rules.


    "Instead of a golden age, the Griffith Family would fall, and a new Griffith Family would be born. But in the end, they''re still the Griffith Family, so I guess they''ll still enter the golden age.


    "If only Ne and Theo marry, they''ll be able to make their lineage pure. And that family will have the best genes for future generations. People will even kneel to let them marry into their family.


    "Such a scary family��" The Wind Emperor smiled. "I hope that Theo can protect my family when I''m gone."


    He looked at the ceiling while clutching his chest. "Hurry up and grow, Theo�� I don''t have much time left."

 Chapter 1266 Picnic

    Chapter 1266 Pic


    "Hahahaha!" Isaacughed out loud as he said, "Did you see their reactions?"


    Rea covered her mouth,ughing.


    "You pped them so hard." Ne grinned, teasing Rea.


    "What do you mean? I''m simply telling the truth. He indeed had instructed the Star Group to move first to get more credit." Rea rolled her eyes and looked at Theo.


    On the other hand, Theo maintained his calm and asked Isaac in a solemn tone. "Isaac. Are you okay?"


    Isaac widened his eyes for a few seconds before scratching the back of his head. "You saw through me."


    Even though most of them had diverted their attention elsewhere, people still hated Isaac for risking so many lives.


    So, there was no way anyone would ept Isaac to work or even study under them. And Theo was concerned about this.


    "Don''t worry. I''ve told you back then that I''ll make you my lifelong research, right? I don''t need to work for anyone anymore because you''ve been paying me enough tost a lifetime. So, even if you disband the group, don''t dismiss me, okay?"


    Theo smiled and extended his hand.


    Isaac shook it and even raised it so that it looked like a brother handshake.


    "Still, it''s been a tiring day. Do you mind if I retire right now?"


    "Sure." Theo nodded gently.


    Isaac waved his hand and left the tent, leaving Theo with all the girls.


    "I am surprised that you could deduce this kind of situation." Rea looked at Agata with admiration.


    "Just continue to work under him andplete every task. Sooner orter, you''ll be able to do it." Agata winked, promoting Theo again.


    "I''ll do my best."


    "That''s right. Have you realized that he also took care of your problem?" Agata asked.


    "My problem?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "You told him that it would be fine to follow him because the family would disown you when bad things happened, right?"


    "Yes."


    "After this, there is no way they can disown you anymore. After all, it means they deny all the good things you''ve done to this country. The people in the Sk will be raging if they disown you."


    "Ugh." Rea scratched the back of her head, never realizing this aspect. Theo''s n had been thoroughly considered.


    "If you have any questions, you can ask me. I''ll give you some advice whenever I can." Agata smiled.


    "Thank you." Rea nodded shyly. She somehow felt too inferior to Agata. Not only her beauty but her wisdom far surpassed her.


    Ne suddenly appeared from behind and pushed her cheek against her while asking, "What is this? Is this your n? Are you trying to get close to her so that she can convince him to take you as his second wife? I will stop you."


    "Ahaha��." Rea didn''t agree or deny it.


    "Anyway, do you want to celebrate a bit?" Agata asked. "There won''t be a movement any time soon, so we should make some celebration today. Let''s just eat and drink together today��"


    "Here? Or do you want a night pic?" Ne asked.


    "How about outside? We can go a bit further so there won''t be anyone to interrupt us."


    "That''s a good idea. I have many things I want to ask you, but��" Rea nced at Theo.


    Theo shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don''t mind."


    "That''s great! I''ll ask Coline to make us something!" Rea smiled and hurriedly left the tent.


    Meanwhile, Theo asked Agata, "By the way, when are you going to leave?"


    "After you. This is a rare chance that I can spend time together with you, so I want to do it for as long as I can."


    "Why does sister-inw exist in the dictionary?" Ne pouted, ring at them.


    Agata chuckled while Theo was calcting the time. "To be honest, I still have some problems to solve, but I can delegate my clone to do it."


    "Problems? What kind of problems?"


    "The cause of this anomaly." Theo shrugged. "Don''t ask about it. It''splicated."


    "Oh!" Agata nodded in understanding. "If that''s the case, you don''t need to think much about my request. You should focus on solving the problem instead."


    "Nah, it''s fine. But staying here for too long won''t be good either, so I will be here for another three days."


    "Alright." Agata smiled.


    They continued to talk until Rea returned with a few packs of food from Coline. They then used the underground tunnel to slip outside and picked a rooftop of a building to have their own celebration.


    Rea and Ne obviously offered Theo alcohol, but Theo being Theo, rejected them.


    Still, they had a good time talking to each other. Ne also learned that no one seemed to be able to rece Agata in Theo''s heart. She started pitying Alea at this point.


    On the other hand, Rea learned some tips from Agata if she wanted to work as Theo''s assistant.


    "By the way, when are you going to reveal your identity?" Ne asked Theo with a serious expression. "It''s truly hard to live with another identity, right? Especially when fighting since you can''t bring out your full power while fighting against a more powerful person."


    "A secret." Theo shrugged.


    "Hehe." Agata smiled.


    "Anyway, I want to��" Before Ne finished her words, there was a loud howling from the sky.


    "Ooooo!! Here you are, Joker!"


    All of them frowned and raised their heads, finding a brown-haired man falling from the sky.


    They rose from the ground while releasing their Magic Power. Agata frowned, "An assassin?"


    "Nooooo!" The man somehow heard Agata and replied. "I heard that you''re searching forrades! I am Maisa Walker, an S Rank Mercenary! I want to join you!"


    "Huh?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he didn''t know anything about this guy.


    "Maisa Walker? I was about to rmend him to you after another review. He''s a unique magician, but��" Agata narrowed her eyes.


    "Hoh? It''s my honor. But I also want to follow those who are strong. So, let''s fight!" Walker shouted and pushed his hand forward. Suddenly, five white chains came out of his arms and flew toward them. "Heihooo!"


    *****


    AN: Maya''s Art is on thement

 Chapter 1267 Recognition

    Chapter 1267 Recognition


    "Heihooo!"


    "He is a magician. Instead of fire or other power, he creates chains. He is a strong guy, but his personality is a problem." Agata clicked her tongue, exining to him. She hurriedly went to find a way to inform Ergene.


    However, the five chains had arrived at them. So, Agata stomped the ground.


    A huge wall of pink clouds was erected. The pink cloud hardened and repelled the chains.


    "Hoh?" Walker smirked and formed another wave of chains.


    "It is said that his chains are unbreakable, so try to avoid it. We''ll find a way to escape." Agata spoke to Ne and Rea.


    With a nod, the two jumped forth, avoiding the chains.


    Ne arrived at his left, and Rea was ready to draw her sword on his right.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    Sword Draw: sh.


    "This is not good." Walker smirked and raised both hands as if trying to block their attacks. However, they soon saw chains covering both arms, blocking the impact from Rea and Ne.


    "Tsk. As expected from a Mythical Rank Expert." Ne clicked her tongue before finding Walker sending his chain toward her. Without hesitation, Ne let out a burst of Magic Power beneath her foot, causing the shock wave to push them upward.


    On the other hand, Rea waved her sword, sending crescent-shaped energy toward the chain. The power was enough to bend the chain, causing it to miss.


    But with a snap of his fingers, the chain turned around and went to Rea from a different direction.


    "Tsk." Rea wanted to strike this chain again, but her ability couldn''t be disyed fully in the air. When she was about to strike him, a pink cloud grasped her and pulled her down, escaping the chase.


    "Thank you." Rea took a deep breath and looked around, wondering how to deal with this situation.


    At the same time, Walker had alsonded on the ground. He lowered his vision and saw the pink smoke covering his foot. The smoke kept rising as if engulfing him.


    "What is this? I can move, but the smoke is forcing my body to move back." Walker gritted his teeth. When he moved his foot to the right, the smoke would make his foot circle around, returning to its original position. It didn''t need power because the smoke used his own strength to return him to the original position.


    ''So, this is Agata Mota?'' Rea nced at her before pouring everything into her sword.


    Sword Draw Style: Cheetah.


    The crescent-shaped energy turned into a cheetah, and surprisingly, the speed of the energy increased, reaching the trapped Walker in an instant.


    "��" Theo nced at Rea and remembered the talk about her power.


    "This is my power��" Rea waved her sword a few times, and each sword wave turned into an animal. "My original technique, Animal Sword Draw. It allows me to turn my sword energy into an animal and grasp their natural ability. The animal version is the optimized version of a sword strike, while the Sword Draw itself is the optimization of my utilization speed. This is the Original Technique I have perfected."


    Obviously, Walker could sense her Magic Power and immediately used his arm to block it. Even though the cheetah was fast, the power was low.


    It had a hard time injuring him with this alone. That was why Rea had drawn her sword once again.


    Sword Draw Style: Wildebeest


    The sword energy turned into the Wildebeest and gave birth to an unprecedented speed and strength. After colliding with the cheetah, the energy exploded, causing a shock wave that blew away the smoke and Walker himself.


    "This is impressive." Walker whistled after feeling the power behind the Wildebeest. However, he still needed to handle one more problem.


    Ne fell on top of him while making a stomping motion.


    Magic Saint Kick Style, Mountain Crasher.


    "This one is not good!" Walker widened his eyes when he saw the amount of Magic Power contained in that one foot. He hurriedly tapped the ground and summoned ten chains to create a sphere.


    When Ne stomped the chains, the Magic Power was dispersed by the sphere and created a crater in the area. Only the ground that was protected by the chain didn''t sink.


    "Tsk." Ne gritted her teeth and used thest bit of force tounch herself away, regrouping with the others.


    "Strong, you''re strong! Are you sure all of you are Supreme Rank Experts?" Walkerughed crazily as he retracted the chains.


    However, he might have made a mistake. The moment the chains disappeared, a huge figure appeared from the pink smoke.


    The figure had a muscr body but two horns on its head like that of a demon.


    The demon smashed Walker with its giant hammer, sinking the ground beneath his foot.


    *Bam!*


    The dust kicked up and covered the area, but before they settled down, four white chains flew out of the dust and circled the demon''s body before crushing it.


    Agata smiled as she pped her hands. The smoke turned flexible again and dispersed due to the chain. However, they were still connected to each other and even changed form in the process.


    The demon and the hammer turned into a single giant scythe, impaling Walker.


    "This is great, so great!" Walker shouted while jumping into the air.


    Agata didn''t let him go as she changed the shape again into a giant spear, sending it toward Walker.


    Walker sent another chain to circle around it and bound the spear before crushing it.


    "That won''t work." Agata smirked and sent more Magic Power to change the shape of the spear.


    "No, it''ll work." Walker also smirked in excitement as he waved his finger down. "Physical Bind."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the skill because the moment the skill was activated, Agata was stunned.


    "Eh?" Agata couldn''t move her smoke anymore as if the smoke now had a physical body. And that body was chained by Walker''s power.


    Sword Draw Style: Falcon.


    Rea shed her sword and sent forth a fast falcon with a sharp beak that could pierce anything like Agata''s spear, but Walker simply pointed his middle finger at the crow, and a chain with a pointed tip struck the crow, tearing the whole body apart.


    "What?" Rea hurriedly leaped into the air as the chain was going to hit them.


    *Bam!*


    "!!!" The chain was stronger than anyone expected because it had enough power to create a crater the same size as Ne''s stomp.


    "This is interesting. To think there are three strong Supreme Rank Experts here�� You must be pretty famous, but I don''t like searching for names, so who are you?" Walker red at them in excitement.

 Chapter 1268 Test

    Chapter 1268 Test


    "You are a pervert." Rea gritted her teeth, annoyed by his action.


    "I can agree with that." Ne nodded in agreement.


    "He is just crazy." Agata sighed.


    "You three seem to be rxed�� Do you think you can defeat me? It''s better if you go away and let Joker fight me. I want to join Joker''s group since it''s amusing, and I can take my revenge with it��" Walker smirked, looking at Theo, who hadn''t made a single move.


    "We three are enough to kill a pervert like you." Ne snorted.


    "Come on, Joker. Hurry up and fight me. If you''re strong, I''ll recognize you as my master!" Walker grinned.


    "There is no need for him to fight. You are dead now." Ne gritted her teeth. She was nning to attack him again, but Theo suddenly said, "What are you trying to do? You have lost, you know."


    "That''s right. You have los��Eh? Did you direct those words toward me?" Ne widened her eyes, shocked.


    "So, you can see it, Joker?" Walker became even more excited as he raised his left hand.


    Suddenly, chains appeared in Ne''s body and tied her up.


    "Eh?" Ne widened her eyes, but another few chains emerged from the ground and pulled her to the ground to restrain her. "What is this?"


    Even Agata and Rea touched their bodies to see if they had the chains or not.


    "Those chains have been stuck on you this whole time." Theo let out a long sigh.


    "Since when?" Ne was confused before realizing an instance where she hit the chains. "When I stomped him?"


    "Heihooo!" Walker gave a thumbs up as if he was praising Ne.


    Agata and Rea hurriedly stepped forward, protecting Theo.


    "Find a way to escape from this situation, will you?" Agata asked Theo to inform Ergene while buying time for him.


    Meanwhile, Rea struck the chains, albeit couldn''t cut it.


    "It''s useless. My chains are unbreakable. Only those strongest people in the world can break my chains." Walker grinned, flexing his power.


    "Haaaaa!" Ne refused to go down as she released all her Magic Power in one go, causing a Magic Power explosion.


    This explosion would destroy a whole building, but even with this power, the chains didn''t break.


    "I already told you it''s impossible to break free from my chain. Just resign to your fate." Walker snorted.


    "Well, it seems that you want to join me. For what?" Theo finally spoke to Walker.


    "Because you''re interesting, and your strength seems to be able to allow me to have revenge against my enemy." Walker grinned.


    "If that''s the case, is there a reason for us to fight? If you want to join me, won''t it be better if you just do it in a peaceful way?"


    "Joker. Don''t think too highly of yourself. Your current power might be able to fight a Mythical Rank Expert for a few rounds, but you''re still not a Mythical Rank Expert yourself. Even among Mythical Rank Experts, I''m pretty high in the ranking because of my unbreakable chains, so this is a test. I''ll simply leave if you can''t even do anything against me." Walker snorted.


    "Is that so? But don''t forget it''s you who areing to me. Instead of testing me, I should be the one testing you and giving you the opportunity." Theo pointed at thedies and said, "This is my test. Defeat these three without harming them, especially her�� Then, I''ll fight you."


    "Oh, it seems that Joker is quite a simple man." Walker narrowed his eyes. "But do you think you can order me around like that?"


    Theo''s answer came in the form of action. He raised his hand and swung it toward Ne.


    It confused everyone because there was no meaning, but suddenly, they heard a clicking noise.


    *ng!*


    "!!!" All of them turned to Ne and found the chains were cut.


    "Eh? I can move again? The chains are destroyed?" Ne widened her eyes and moved her body around to check whether there was any restriction or not.


    "How did you break that chain?" Walker sucked a cold breath as he was clearly shaken that a Supreme Rank Expert could break a chain that even a Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t.


    "I have given you the test. If you do something more than necessary, then I''m going to��" Theo released all his killing intent and directed them to Walker.


    "This is��" Walker''s body trembled as he could see a rising shadow behind Theo. The shadow had blood red eyes and huge horns as if preying upon him. "Interesting, interesting."


    He hugged himself as he couldn''t contain his excitement. "Fine by me! Because you''re so interesting, I''m going to ept this test. I only need to defeat your main wife and two mistresses, right? In that case��edies."


    Twenty chains appeared from the ground, wiggling like tentacles.


    "You have heard me. It''s time for the three of you to fight." Theo smiled. "This is going to be a precious experience. Fight the Mythical Rank Expert before you with all your power."


    "Are you sure? Won''t this mean that if we lose, you''re going to ept him into the group?" Agata asked.


    "You told me that you wanted to rmend him."


    "Now that I look at his personality personally, I don''t want to rmend him anymore."


    "It''s fine. His shitty character is not about crimes. He''s weird, but he''s extremely powerful. Even right now, he hasn''t even used half of his strength." Theo exined with a calm tone.


    "You can see that too, Joker? How many secrets do you have? To think that your eyes can see through me easily." Walker became even more excited while looking deep into Theo''s eyes.


    "Oh, I can see it. I can see through you easily." Theo smirked.


    Skill: Heaven Chains (S)


    Effect: Allow the user to draw 50 Unbreakable Chains of Heaven and move them with his own will.


    This was the first time Theo saw a man with S Rank Skill. His blessing shoulde from a God Level Figure, so Walker''s strength was beyond anyone''s imagination.

 Chapter 1269 Challenge

    Chapter 1269 Challenge


    "Nel��I mean, Lily. Focus on pressuring him with your power. Remember, don''t touch him. He can transmit his chains through physical contact, it seems. As for Rea, find a way to hit him. I''m going to make that opening." Agata took the lead andmanded the other twodies.


    She knew this was a precious experience because the Mythical Rank Expert before them had yet to join Theo''s group, meaning he would fight them seriously. Even with the restriction Theo said earlier, the enemy would find a way to capture them.


    Hence, she needed to take this fight seriously.


    "You surely won''t mind if I go with the intention to kill, right?" Rea asked Agata.


    But the one who answered her question was Walker. "Sure. I don''t mind�� That is if you can make me bleed."


    Because of Theo''s hand earlier, the chains that got cut weren''t only the ones that bound Ne. The chains that restrained Agata''s smoke had disappeared as well.


    So, Agata made the first move by raising her pink cloud.


    "You''ve escaped earlier, but I''m going to restrain it again." Walker smirked and used all those twenty chains to blind the smokepletely.


    "Try it then." Agata pped her hands. Suddenly, the smoke turned into numerous chains and captured Walker''s chains. Using these chains, she nned to see Walker''s limit.


    At the same time, Ne appeared next to Walker and punched the air.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    The torrential Magic Power flew straight to Walker, trying to blow him away.


    Due to Agata''s smoke, Walker couldn''t use his Chains of Heaven. Of course, he could summon more, but he didn''t n to do it for the time being.


    Instead, the tip of his fingers started shining as he waved his hand, drawing an "X" in the air.


    The blue cross received the torrential Magic Power. Even though it was spinning, the shock wave couldn''t get through.


    In Walker''s point of view, the "X" had spun so fast that it started blowing cold air like a fan.


    Meanwhile, Rea stabbed the ground with her sword, sending a massive amount of Magic Power into the ground.


    Drawing Sword Style: Centipede.


    Walker pointed his middle finger to the ground, sent the pointed chain again, and crushed the centipede.


    "Impressive." Walker suddenly became calm now that he had agreed to participate in this test. He was thinking of a way to capture these three strongdies now that they had known a bit of his weakness.


    Agata still had a few chains remaining, so she transformed the free chains into des.


    Walker hurriedly jumped back to avoid the iing des, but the moment the des hit the ground, they turned into huge spikes and almost hit him.


    "A versatile smoke that can turn into any weapon, a powerful st of Magic Power, and a shapeshifting Magic Power," Walker muttered, observing the three girls.


    As expected, if he wanted to capture someone, it would be the closebat first.


    As soon as he avoided Agata''s attacks, he jumped toward Ne. "I''m going to capture you first."


    Ne grinned and sent a fist forward as if wanting to punch him in the face.


    Walker had prepared for this. In fact, he would be fine even if he needed to receive this attack with his body as long as he could restrain Ne.


    But before they shed, Ne suddenly jumped back, matching his direction.


    Two fingers suddenly opened up as Ne created a pistol sign, pointing at him.


    "Bam!" Ne shouted yfully as her hand raised as if she truly shot him with a pistol.


    Surprisingly, Walker raised his hands before a powerful shock wave struck him, stopping his momentum.


    "!!!" Walker realized that Ne also hadn''t utilized all her strength this whole time. When the dust settled, Ne had already raised her left foot like a pitcher.


    "What are you doing? Are you ying baseball right now?" Walker widened his eyes.


    ''You goddamn right. This is my own Magic Saint Style�� This is Freedom!'' Ne muttered inwardly as she threw a blue ball made of Magic Power.


    Seeing the concentrated Magic Power, Walker knew that the explosion would be simr to a grenade. Taking such an attack with his own body would be quite hurtful.


    Hence, he covered his arms with chains and raised them, blocking the attack.


    "Sorry, but that one is a curveball." Ne grinned as the light ball suddenly dove to the ground and exploded.


    *Boom!*


    Walker clicked his tongue and was blown away beforending on the ground twenty feet away.


    Agata had prepared another surprise for him. The moment hended on the ground, the pink smoke captured his left hand, preventing him from moving.


    When Walker was about to stomp the smoke, he felt a presenceing from above.


    It turned out there was an eagle diving down as if it wanted to catch its prey.


    Walker waved his right hand to the side and summoned another chain that continuously expanded until it circled an entire building. Then, he retracted the chain so that he was pulled to the building.


    The force was so strong that Agata couldn''t hold him with her pink smoke.


    As soon as he escaped, Walker raised the power in that chain and crushed the entire building, snapping it into two. He pulled the upper part and threw it to the threedies.


    "Seriously?" Agata, Rea, and Ne had the same reactions as they leaped into the air to avoid the rubbles.


    "Are you trying to kill us?" Neined out loud.


    "No. How is Joker?" Rea turned around and saw Joker standing on top of the rubles instead of flying in the air.


    "You are strong. I admit that. However, I need to win this battle, sorry, but I''m going to y dirty today." Walker pped his hands.


    Suddenly, numerous chains emerged from the rubbles as if he had been hiding all those chains inside them.


    "!!!" The three of them were shocked because a skill like this shouldn''t be possible. They never expected the chainsing from the rubbles, so the chains immediately captured them. Some even gently pulled them to the ground so that they didn''t get hurt.


    "A skill that can summon chains from everything that you or your chains have touched�� Damn�� What is that skill? It''s so broken." Rea gasped and realized the true worth of that skill. "Do you have an S Rank Skill?"

 Chapter 1270 Second Round

    Chapter 1270 Second Round


    "Do you have an S Rank Skill?" Rea gritted her teeth. As someone who had been working on the Technique, she was sensitive to the skill ssification. So it was quite shocking to find a person with an S Rank Skill.


    "An S Rank Skill is rare even among God Rank Blessing. After all, the S Rank Skill is a bit too personalized to one''s power, so not all God Rank Blessing can give one. At the same time, not every Mythical Rank Expert had God Rank Blessings. Although the percentage is higherpared to other ranks, only ten percent of the entire Mythical Rank Poption had a God Rank Blessing.


    "In other words, if he has an S Rank Skill, his blessing shoulde from a God Rank Figure." Rea realized that the opponent was far stronger than they expected.


    "Who knows? You don''t expect me to answer your question, right? Especially since I''m not a part of your group yet." Walker smirked nonchntly. After that, he looked at Joker and pointed at him. "Now, it''s your turn, Joker."


    "Not yet." Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    "I have defeated them. Are you trying to buy more time?"


    "No." Theo sighed and asked, "When are you going to make your move?"


    Agata chuckled as she said, "Is that too obvious?"


    "What?" Walker widened his eyes and realized a thinyer of smoke was protecting their bodies. That smoke then pushed the body to the front, so they escaped the chain.


    Walker obviously knew why the smoke behaved that way, considering he had experienced it himself when the smoke forced him to return to his original position.


    "This is��" Walker narrowed his eyes, realizing that the three girls were still in position.


    "This is the second round," Agata stated as she wanted to touch the girls again to hide some smoke in their bodies so that they could escape again.


    However, Walker hurriedly sent multiple chains toward them, preventing her from helping them anymore.


    "I won''t hold back anymore. I''m sorry, but it seems that I have been rude to all of youdies." Walker took a deep breath and snapped his fingers.


    Suddenly, thirty chains emerged from the ground, and each person was surrounded by ten.


    "Time to do it, I guess." Ne smirked as she raised both hands. The Magic Power soon emerged from her body, covering her entire body. However, there were two spots where the Magic Power was concentrated: her hands and feet.


    ''This is my own Magic Saint Style.'' Ne smirked as she took a deep breath. ''Magic Saint Freedom Style, Magic Possession.''


    Agata snapped her finger, but nothing happened. However, a few vines emerged from the ground and bound the chains themselves.


    Aurelia Dimension.


    As soon as she immobilized the chains, Agata ced her hands on the ground.


    Suddenly, a few shadows emerged from the ground as they surrounded Walker from all directions.


    "��" Rea widened her eyes in shock, thinking, ''They still have some trump cards? I thought they were using all their power already.''


    As someone who had been fighting all her best this whole time, she realized that she might be weaker than Agata and Ne.


    Still, she wasn''t someone who would take a beating without any fight.


    ''Well, there is something worth trying even though I''m not that good at it. I need to at least keep up with them.'' Rea suddenly spun her scabbard and turned it into a de. In other words, she was using two swords.


    Every time she shed her des, two animals woulde up. This way, she could keep up with the chains.


    Walker nced at his environment and made the first move.


    A few chains appeared from the ground and circled the shadow soldiers Agata made. However, the soldiers disappeared and reappeared within one second, allowing them to bypass the chains.


    "Physical Restraint!" Walker released a few more chains to bind them like a physical object.


    However, Ne took advantage of the situation and hid behind one of the soldiers. The moment they were about to be captured, Ne slipped past them and approached Walker.


    ''This is perfect for me. I''m going to capture you again.'' Walker thought while trying to catch Ne''s attack with his chain-covered hand.


    As soon as Ne entered his range, he would touch her hand and hide the invisible chains.


    However, the concentrated Magic Power on her fist erupted, creating an explosion that blew away even the invisible chains.


    ''What?'' Walker was shocked, and the power was enough to blow him away.


    Due to the force, he was captured by the shadow as thetter turned into a vine with thorns on it.


    However, Walker skillfully moved his finger as a chain appeared and circled around, hitting the shadow behind him before it managed to pierce him.


    As soon as he escaped, he saw an iing cheetah that pounced on him.


    Walker ducked down and kicked the cheetah''s head with his chain-covered foot, destroying the image.


    Even though Rea managed to send an attack on him, it was clear that only Rea had trouble taking care of the chains. The other could trick the chains or outrun them, but Rea was still dodging the chains.


    Not wanting to give him any time to rest, Ne approached him again and kicked him from the side.


    Walker received it and failed to sneak some invisible chains into her body again. In the end, he was blown away as his feet were sliding on the ground.


    Agata created another illusion in her dimension, but Walker threw a piece of rubble at her main body.


    Agata summoned a wall in front of her to protect her, but the moment the rock touched the wall, a chain emerged from both the rock and the wall.


    The chain from the wall headed straight to her, while the one from the rock headed straight to Rea.


    Because she had expected something like this, Agata managed to avoid it, albeit barely due to the speed. However, Rea waspletely taken aback because the ten chains upied her.


    "What?" Rea felt the chain touch her back and immediately wrap around her body, capturing her.

 Chapter 1271 Crushing Defeat

    Chapter 1271 Crushing Defeat


    "��" Rea was shocked that she was the first one to be captured. However, she could do nothing because Agata didn''t ce any smoke to escape again.


    Even Theo stood in front of her as if telling her and Walker that she had been defeated.


    Walker received Theo''s signal and smirked, focusing on the other two.


    Ne approached Walker carefully, but she soon looked down, forgetting that everything he touched would be a ce to summon his chain. And it wasn''t limited to what his chain or his hand touched.


    "His foot too?" Ne gritted her teeth and jumped to the side as four chains almost captured her. She rolled a few times on the ground, but Walker took this opportunity to seize her.


    "No, you won''t!" Agata formed two huge scythes and swung them, preventing Walker from getting closer to Ne.


    Her n worked as she forced Walker to jump into the air.


    But his feet picked up arge rock and kicked it toward Agata.


    Agata prepared to block it with her smoke, but the rock that he threw earlier summoned another chain and shattered the huge rock into a few pieces. And that touch was all he needed to summon more chains.


    "What?" Agata gasped and saw six big rubbles spreading in all directions. She thought this would be just a normal rock with a single chain attached to it, but with the rocks turning into six pieces, she needed to handle six chains at once.


    Agata formed a barrier to stop three chains and immediately retracted it so that Walker couldn''t take advantage of the touch, but the remaining three managed to get through her defense and capture her.


    "Kh." Agata clicked her tongue. She wanted to escape again, but Theo walked to her this time, saying, "It''s enough."


    "��" Agata gritted her teeth and lowered her head as if she had recognized her defeat.


    Meanwhile, Ne got the opportunity to approach him because he was too upied with Agata.


    Unfortunately for her, she had just entered the wolf''s den. With two chains binding Agata and Rea, the rest of the chain now could focus on Ne.


    Suddenly, all those chains emerged from the ground and surrounded Ne.


    "Eh?" Ne gulped down as her face became pale. "Can I give up now?"


    Walker didn''t hesitate to chain her up as he had promised to defeat three of them without harming them.


    With this, Walker easily defeated the three Supreme Rank Experts on Theo''s side.


    "I have defeated them, Joker. If you think that they can waste my Spiritual Energy so that you can defeat me, you might want to rethink that." Walker smirked.


    "No. I don''t need it." Theo shook his head as he raised his right hand.


    *ck!*


    With a single snap of his fingers, all the chains disappeared, freeing all the three girls.


    "Eh?" Walker widened his eyes in surprise, never expecting that he would manage to make all his chains disappear just like that. "So, that''s the power that removed even the space element? An interesting power you have there."


    "As promised, I''m going to fight you." Theo nodded.


    "Finally. I''m not going to hold back, you know." Walker smirked.


    "Of course. You''re free to do that." Theo then turned to the threedies. "Sorry, but the time is up. Can youe over here so you won''t be affected by the battle?"


    Ne, who was the farthest among them, was the first to regroup with the rest. She had a long face as if she wanted to fight more.


    "Anyway, you three have a lot to improve, especially you, Rea." Theo let out a long sigh and said, "Why did you use something you''re ufortable with? The more you force yourself with two swords like that, the more openings I can take advantage of. I''m sure you already know this."


    "That''s�� I know that already, but��"


    "Just hone what you currently have. Whether it''s strength, speed, or even your unique ability�� You need to use what you''refortable with." Theo scratched the back of his head. "Well, whatever. Just watch what I''m going to show you."


    "Must be hard to take care of them, eh?" Walker smirked.


    "It''s fine. Sorry for making you wait this long." Theo narrowed his eyes as he started releasing his Magic Power.


    "As long as I can see your true strength, I can wait for this long. Let''s do this, shall we?" Walker raised his hands, summoning all fifty chains in an instant.


    "It seems that you''re not holding back anymore."


    "Of course. I know you can fight against a Mythical Rank Expert, but I hope you don''t lose easily." Walker leaped forward.


    Theo had the same reaction. He approached Walker while looking at the chains that were going to surround him any second.


    Theo snapped his finger again and removed all of them. After that, he punched forth, nning to hit him in the face.


    ''Hmm�� now that he has used it a few times, I can see that my Magic Power is still lingering in their positions. In other words, he only removed my chains, not the Magic Power itself. And if I use the Magic Power to summon my chains again��'' Walker thought while turning the Magic Power into chains again.


    He seeded as the chain began to return.


    But Theo''s punch had hit its target, which was the air. Suddenly, all the Magic Power that had yet to turn into chains were blown away, causing Walker to fail.


    "Kh." As he saw the iing fist, Walker raised both hands to block it.


    Meanwhile, Ne widened her eyes and observed Theo''s movement carefully. ''My Freedom Style focused on the explosion of the concentrated Magic Power, but he is concentrating the Magic Power outside his body to create an invisible strike?''


    Theo didn''t stop there as he stomped the ground.


    Walker might be pushed back by Theo''s punch, and his chains couldn''t influence Theo, but there was something that he could do. He should summon chains in session so that he could gain some time to react.


    However, that stomp gathered the Magic Power beneath him as it burst out, hitting his stomach. The force sent him flying into the air as he coughed a few times.


    Walker looked at Theo and Ne and realized that despite fighting him, Theo still found a way to teach her something.


    ''He is insane. To think he still believes he has that kind of leeway while fighting me.'' Walker smiled excitedly.

 Chapter 1272 Teaching

    Chapter 1272 Teaching


    When Walker was about to reach the ground, Theo spread his hands.


    The ground suddenly split apart, and Walker fell right into the gap. Even the girls were stupefied as they were trying to save themselves from the fall.


    "What is this?" Agata sucked a cold breath, not understanding the principle of this power. It should be an illusion, but Theo wouldn''t use an illusion with his Joker''s identity.


    However, this turned out to be his illusion. Of course, Theo added something to shift Walker''s attention from illusion.


    "This is�� illusion?" Walker gasped as he pointed at the two walls and used his chains to stop the fall. To his surprise, the wall was intact, and he could even feel it. "Eh? An illusion would have been destroyed by now, but�� What is this power?"


    "Do you think I simply removed your chain?" Theo smirked. "I alter this world."


    "You what?!" Walker widened his eyes and looked upward as he could only see a part of the night sky. As Theo said, the ground might have been ripped apart.


    Even though Theo managed to fool Walker, Agata knew precisely this was an illusion, a very high ranking one. Theo never told a lie, so if he said, ''I alter this world,'' it meant serious business. Just like what he showed to Ne earlier, Theo was trying to show him the peak of illusion.


    The illusion was to turn the entire situation into a part of reality.


    Theo waved his hands.


    Suddenly, Walker felt iing presence all around him. The walls and the floor summoned spikes that almost pierced him.


    He let go of one of his chains and swung to one side of the wall before jumping straight to Theo to defeat him.


    Theo, on the other hand, had been standing on the tform he created from the walls.


    "You truly have an amazing ability. Even with this alone, I really want to serve you as my master. You have the potential higher than anyone I can see��"


    "Who is your enemy?" Theo asked. "You seem to hate him so much."


    "I only have one person that I want to kill no matter what. He is the Skyward Mercenary''s leader."


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes. "Hoh?"


    "Now that I think about it��" Agata opened her Skylink and saw the data about him. "It''s said that he was formerly a mercenary captain too, but his group was destroyed in a single night by the Skyward Mercenary."


    "That''s right. I want him dead, but I know that I don''t have the strength. Instead of killing him myself, I''m ready to lower my head so that he will die in the future. I know that it''s impossible to ask anyone around the top one hundred, so I''m searching for someone younger that has the potential to reach his level in the future."


    "Still, why me?"


    "There was no reason. If I needed to say it�� because the Skyward Mercenary sent their young master to this ce. I wanted to ambush them, but he had a few Mythical Rank Experts as his guards. There is no reason for the Skyward Mercenary toe here, so there should be a big enough figure that they wanted to kill.


    "And the only person I can think of is��" He narrowed his eyes, looking at Theo.


    "Me, huh." Theo thought for a moment as he knew that the Skyward Mercenary was aiming for Agata instead of him. However, it would be fine if Walker misunderstood for the time being.


    "Though, I don''t have a n in making my move here." Theo shook his head. "If you''re hoping that I will kill them here, then you''re wrong."


    "Of course, I know that. I have watched the conference, so I know your deed. Killing someone here means that your reputation will be denied by the masses. However, as long as you promise me to destroy the Skyward Mercenary, I''m going to serve you."


    For Theo, killing those people would be good enough for him. However, Agata had requested him to let her handle the problem. So, he wanted to trust her even though he was worried about her.


    After some consideration, Theo chose to not do anything even though he could kill them without any bacsh.


    Agata smiled sadly when she heard Theo''s answer. She felt a bit guilty that her decision forced him not to be able to do anything he wanted.


    However, Theo gave a thumbs up to her as if telling her that he would amodate her wish, like how she had been amodating his personality this whole time. If he solved everything, it was the same as him not putting any trust in her even if he told her that wasn''t the case.


    Agata clenched her fists and swore to aplish their goals.


    "Alright. Let''s wrap it here with onest round."


    "You''re going to stop here when everything is going to be interesting?" Walker frowned.


    "Walker is it? Well, I''m going to ept you if you don''t die in this onest strike from me."


    "Onest strike? Do you think you can defeat me with a single strike? You must be underestimating me. No matter how abnormal you are, it''s impossible to win against a Mythical Rank Expert in a single strike." Walker shook his head in disappointment.


    "Say that after you survive." Theo lifted his hand as the Telekinesis pushed them back to the surface. He then closed the ground again.


    "Rea. I''m going to show you what it means to have absolute speed. If you continue to hone something, hone it to an absolute level. Do you know what it means to be absolute?"


    "Normal can''t win against absolute." Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s why��" Theo took a deep breath as he utilized his Order to the limit as his aura started to change.


    Agility 1000��


    Agility 2500��


    Agility 3348��


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level 691


    Attributes: Strength 850, Endurance 665, Agility 3348, Vitality 655, Magic Power 1100


    The immense power from the Agility somehow put pressure on his surroundings as Walker and Rea dropped their jaws to the ground, not believing what they currently witnessed. Soon, Theo disappeared.


    "This is��" Walker couldn''t finish his own thought as his eyes had moved to the corner as if trying to follow Theo''s movement.


    However, Theo was too fast. He reappeared a few feet behind him from his position as if he had just teleported. His hand was also holding a sword.


    *Boom!*


    A shock wave shook the area as Rea gasped. "A shock wave? No, he is too fast�� This might be a sonic boom�� He�� Has he surpassed the speed of sound? A human has surpassed the speed of sound?"


    "I can destroy the Skyward Mercenary for you, but what can you offer me?"


    Walker smiled excitedly as he said, "Everything, My Mas��!"


    He couldn''t finish his words as his shirt and his chest were cut, and a huge amount of blood spurted from his body.


    "What?" Rea looked at Theo in horror. "He was too fast. It was like the body and the severed blood vessels took a while to realize they had been cut."

 Chapter 1273 lnstruction

    Chapter 1273 lnstruction


    "Hu��" Theo let out a long breath before closing his eyes.


    "What has just happened? That was too fast��" Rea stared in horror. Looking at Theo''s back reminded her of her father. She thought, ''Has he caught up to Father? No, he is still not that strong yet. But�� the potential is there.''


    She couldn''t help but remember her father''s advice.


    "Theodore Griffith has the talent of learning. As long as he continues to learn from someone else, he will grow�� endlessly. Sooner orter, he might be able to rece the Time God."


    When she thought about it, she missed one thing in Theo''s power.


    If one took a closer look at his body, Theo''s clothes started to get shredded apart as his skin was covered with scales.


    Suddenly, a fountain of blood also spurted out from his body.


    Unlike Walker who was only injured on the chest, Theo was bleeding all over his body as if numerous swords cut him.


    This was the consequence of using the full speed.


    "Joker?!" Rea shouted while gasping.


    Agata was the first to run to him, checking his condition. Meanwhile, Ne stood between him and Walker as she had yet to trust this person.


    "What happened? You lost too much blood. Where are the swords that cut you?" Agata asked in panic. She never thought she would see Theo be covered by blood.


    "As expected, even with my Supernatural Snake Body, it''s still not enough to handle the pressure from going beyond the speed of sound." Theo let out a long sigh, disappointed. At the same time, he also used thest bit of his Order Energy to put everything into his VIT status to increase his metabolism. At least, he wouldn''t die from blood loss.


    "It seems that you''re the winner of this battle, Walker." Theo turned around while waving his hand, assuring Agata that he was fine.


    "No. If you didn''t use this opportunity to teach them or hold back, I would be the one to die. Even though I had my confidence in being a high ranking mercenary, I couldn''t defeat you." Walker shook his head as he walked to Theo staggeringly.


    Ne stopped him because she was afraid Walker used this opportunity to kill Theo.


    Walker ignored her and kneeled on the ground. He bowed his body and even put his forehead on the ground. "It''s just a family tradition in my mercenary group for full submission. I am Maisa Walker, an S Rank Mercenary, a former captain of Minst Keeper Mercenary Group, offer my body, soul, and future to my master. Please take care of me, My Master."


    "Okay. It''s nice to meet you, Walker." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "But can you do something about My Master? I''m not thatfortable to be called that. Even the rest of the group calls me by my name."


    "I''m afraid that I can''t do that. The choice is between ''Boss'' or ''Master,'' I won''t call you with anything else."


    "Master is it? Fine, just don''t use "My" when you call me."


    "Yes, Master."


    Theo took a deep breath and said, "Alright. Now that we''vee to an agreement, we can talk about the detailster. Luckily, we''re a bit farther from the camp, so no one shoulde right now."


    Theo turned to the girls and said, "Wrap everything up and we''lle back. I and Walker need medical attention."


    "Understood." The girls nodded their heads as they grabbed everything they brought here.


    Meanwhile, Theo asked Walker. "Can you walk?"


    "Yes. I might be a little bit slow, but the wound itself is not that critical."


    "Alright. Follow me. Also, are you sure that the Skyward Mercenary ising here?"


    "The preparation has beenpleted. They''ll most likely arrive here tomorrow in the morning or afternoon." Walker confirmed.


    "I see. Well, I''m going to change my schedule a bit then. I''m sure that you don''t mind waiting a bit longer, right?"


    "Yes. I see that your potential can reach that person, so I''m going to wait. As long as I can see him die, I don''t mind how long."


    "Don''t worry. It won''t take too long. Just wait for another year." Theo nodded. "For now, you should make some preparations to move to another country and stay there."


    "I understand, I''m going to prepare for a green card."


    "No, no. I''m not going to stay in the USter." Theo shook his head. Now that he had Walker and Agata, he knew what to do.


    "Then, where?"


    "Italy. In one year, I''ll go there and make a base somewhere in that country."


    "Why don''t you make a base in the US?"


    "No. The Time God is there, so I''m not going to stay there. Making the country a bit too strong is also a problem after all. At first, I was thinking about staying in Asia, but it''s better to make a base in Italy. I have a few reasons that I can''t tell you, but all you need to know is that, I''m going to eliminate the Skyward Mercenary in Italy."


    "Are you serious?"


    "Yeah. That''s why I want you to assign you a mission right away."


    "What is the mission?" Walker''s expression was serious, knowing he could get his revenge soon.


    "I''m going to assign you to Agata. Obey her order because Skyward Mercenary is going to focus on her instead of me. I want you to protect her. And one yearter and the stage has been set up, we''re going to eliminate the Skyward Mercenary."


    "Are you sure? Do you trust me that much?" Walker widened his eyes in shock.


    Theo closed his eyes for a bit before saying, "I can see it, Walker."


    "See it? See what?"


    Suddenly, Theo opened his eyes again. This time, his eyes were not ck. Instead, they were blue. But what shocked him the most was the circle and four lines that connected the circle to the edge of the iris.


    When Theo revealed these eyes, Walker shuddered as if he was being stripped by Theo.


    Walker opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but the words stuck on his throat.


    "Well, I also want you to find suitablend to buy so that we can start making our base." Theo closed his eyes, hiding his Reality Eyes again before smiling. "So, what do you think?"


    "Please leave this task to me. I shall aplish it without fail, Master." Walker lowered his head, epting the mission.

 Chapter 1274 Separation

    Chapter 1274 Separation


    "What the heck? How did this happen? What happened to you?" Aisha shouted while treating Theo with her skill. "How did you get all these injuries?"


    "Haha, going too fast." Theo chuckled.


    "Going too fast? What? It doesn''t make sense." Aisha gritted her teeth. Theo''s clothes had been dyed red due to the blood. It was better to buy new clothes instead of washing them. That was how bad it was.


    While trying to close his wounds, Aisha inspected his condition. On his right arm alone, she could see thirty small wounds. It was a surprise that Theo wasn''t screaming in pain, considering there were at least two hundred wounds all over his body.


    Theo chuckled and turned to Agata, "Sorry, but it seems you need to leave this ce earlier."


    "Yeah, I know. If I want to settle it with him, it''s better to do it on my home ground." Agata nodded with a solemn face.


    "If you need my help, do call me."


    "I should be able to do it if it''s only a year." Agata looked at the blood and started to worry. "Are you sure your body is alright?"


    "Yeah, I''m fine. Aisha should be able to handle it."


    Agata sighed, sat next to him, and started wiping the blood on the parts that had been healed. "At least let me do this before going home."


    "Okay��" Theo smiled.


    "Are you sure you''re not in pain? You haven''t let out a sound with all these injuries." Agata looked down, thinking he must have been injured too often that he had gotten used to injuries like this.


    However, Theo said, "It''s my training. I have trained my pain resistance to the limit. Unless it''s a shock or reflex, I won''t make any sound."


    "Your body��" Agata narrowed her eyes.


    "Nope. I just trained my physical pain and mental pain. I didn''t do anything with my feelings�� After all, the moment I tampered with my heart as well, I would lose my own feeling and emotion. That''s something I can''t bear to lose." Theo looked at her as if she was the only reason that he wanted to be like a normal human.


    Agata was moved. Theo had truly endured so much.


    "Anyway, did you learn anything?" Theo asked.


    "Yes. I can see where I should develop my dimension." Agata nodded.


    "Still, I need to remind you again that��"


    "My own path is something that I think about, not what is shown by others. I know. I haven''t forgotten your warning." Agata finished his words.


    "My own path is something that I think about, not what is shown by others��" Rea muttered the phrase in a low voice while looking down.


    Ne scratched the back of her head and said, "Your control of Magic Power has more freedom than my own. I guess I still can''t call my own Magic Saint Style a Freestyle."


    "Well, that''s due to my Perfect Control. I''m sure that you can do much more when you reach Perfect Control."


    "I have found the door to the Perfect Control previously. Thanks to you, it''s now gone, you know." Ne let out a long sigh.


    "A door?" Rea tilted her head in confusion, looking at Ne. It was said that geniuses had their own thoughts, so she realized that Ne truly had a unique way of perceiving Control.


    "Ahaha, sorry." Theo chuckled.


    "Still, the next time I found that door, the Perfect Control might even be beyond anyone''s imagination. It might even surpass yours." Ne smirked.


    "I''m looking forward to it. I don''t mind if I need to learn from you again." Theo replied, epting the challenge.


    Their conversation reminded them of the Grand Gaia Competition, where Theo copied her Magic Saint Style with his Control and Telekinesis.


    "Well, I don''t know when I''ll meet you again. Just remember my warning��" Ne waved her hand.


    "Yeah. Don''t worry. I''ve taken everything into consideration." Theo assured her.


    "Okay. Bye bye." Ne left the tent as if she was prepared to leave. Agata wasn''t the only one that was affected by the Skyward Mercenary.


    As the Griffith Family''s vassal, the mercenary group also had learned about their espionage skill, so there was a chance that the visitors this time would find out about her identity. Hence, she took her leave right now.


    After wiping most of the blood, Agata also rose from her seat, preparing to leave.


    "That''s right. I''m leaving him to you." Theo pointed at Walker. "I''ll give him the detailed assignments, but he will surely help you."


    Agata thought for a moment and nodded. "Well, his personality aside, he doesn''t seem to be foolish. With his hatred, he should have gathered a huge amount of information about the Skyward Mercenary. I surely can bring out the Skyward Mercenary this way, making sure at least all the Mythical Rank Experts get wiped out." She turned to Walker. "I''m looking forward to our cooperation."


    Walker realized that Agata wasn''t a normal sheltered girl. She also had the potential simr to Theo, so it was clear that he could follow her orders.


    "I understand. Please take care of me, Mistress." Walker politely bowed to her.


    "Then, I''ll be leaving first." Agata nodded and hugged Theo for two minutes before finally leaving.


    Because he didn''t want to be seen by the Skyward Mercenary, Walker also left with Theo''s permission. From his expression, Theo knew that Walker was eager to do his part, waiting for the chance to deal with the Skyward Mercenary.


    And now, there were only Theo, Rea, and Aisha left in the tent.


    Theo looked at Rea, who was still disappointed by her own performance in this fight. "Rea."


    "Y-yes?" Rea hurriedly raised her head and smiled so as to not worry him.


    "Taking one step at a time is good, and that''s what you have done this whole time, right? However, if you continue to walk on this path, I''m afraid I need to tell you that you''re not worthy of your current position."


    Rea''s body shuddered. Theo was truly disappointed. Despite her boasting that she could do everything, she barely did the minimum.


    "How did you train this whole time? Swinging more than a thousand times until your hands are rough? There is no point in continuing this practice in my honest opinion."


    "But!" Rea rose from her seat, not wanting to stop that one routine she had.


    "Of course, I''m not going to stop you. However, I want to tell you that you are not allowed to swing your sword more than a thousand times a single day."


    "Huh?"


    "Whether you are practicing your swing or any other forms of practice, you need to count every single swing, and you''re not allowed to swing more than a thousand times. At the same time, I also want you to do imagination training. The fact that you can deduce my n from time to time means you have a wild imagination in your head.


    "Hence, try to imagine that you''re fighting against me. While fighting me, you need to track your swing. Every swing you make beyond one thousand swings will result in a penalty. One swing means one day without training. Two swings mean two days and so on."


    "What? What did you say? I can''t stop training!" Rea gritted her teeth.


    "That''s why you shouldn''t swing more than a thousand times from today. If you can''t follow my rule, I''m going to send you back to your father. Okay?" Theo looked at her with a serious expression.


    Rea clenched her fists and lowered her head. She wanted to refuse, but Theo''s threat forced her to ept the condition.


    "I understand."

 Chapter 1275 Mountain King

    Chapter 1275 Mountain King


    Time passed quickly.


    Now that everything had gone ording to his n, Theo had leisure time in his tent while maintaining the order in the camp.


    He worked for another three days before another group took over their jobs.


    With Theo''s contribution, the president personally met him and apologized for the assassination while increasing the number of guards to stop any assassination attempts.


    He also thanked him for saving so many people.


    During those three days, Theo also monitored the Skyward Mercenary. As expected, the Skyward Mercenary was trying to find Agata''s location, only to realize that Agata had returned to Italy.


    They didn''t bother the Star Group at all, allowing them to finish their jobs without any more problems.


    After that, Theo and his team left the country.


    In the meantime, Clone Theo finally got another visit from the Frost Saint. It seemed he had used his fastest speed to cross the ocean and managed to bring back the Mountain King.


    "Hehe, it''s been a while." Theo smirked, sitting in front of the Mountain King.


    The Mountain King''s eyebrows twitched as he never expected that he would see Theo again.


    "I''ve fulfilled my promise, you know. I didn''t visit you." Theo chuckled.


    "Shut up or I''m going to beat you up." The Mountain King gritted his teeth. He couldn''t help but remember how he lost against Theo in the drinking contest, so he knew how shrewd Theo could be.


    "Fine, fine." Theo raised both hands as if he had given up.


    "Mountain King." The Frost Saint called the dwarf with a grim face.


    "Don''t worry, Frost Saint." The Mountain King nodded and carefully approached the barrier.


    As they expected, the dwarf''s hand could enter without any restriction. As soon as he confirmed the safety, the Mountain King entered the protective barrier.


    "This is�� so much energy!" The Mountain King shouted in shock. "Authority? No, this is beyond that. How did you even create this stone? It could emit a huge amount of energy and everything was directed to the ground��"


    The Mountain King looked excited as if his brain had been filled with dopamine.


    "Mountain King." The Frost Saint called him again, reminding him that he had a task.


    "I know, I know." The Mountain King let out a long sigh, knowing that he needed to give a satisfactory exnation first before he could admire the structure. "Well, I need to study more about this structure, but I can give you a rough exnation."


    "Please tell me. And do you think you can repair this structure?"


    The Mountain King grabbed the piece that fell to the ground and showed it to the Frost Saint. "First of all, I need this material. Some of them had been dposed or too small to be used anymore, so I needed some to patch it up. It won''t look new, but I should be able to repair the severed connections. Thankfully, it''s only the pir that gets broken; if it''s the star, you can only abandon it."


    "I can ask around about the materials, but even I don''t know whether I can get it or not, considering we''re not that well versed in minerals."


    "That''s understandable. You can ask him in that case. Who knows if humans have some?" The Mountain King smirked as if he wanted to make trouble for Theo.


    However, Theo shrugged and said, "Sure."


    "!!!" The Mountain King and the Frost Saint widened their eyes as if they didn''t expect Theo to agree with this so easily.


    "I''m just repaying the favor of repelling the Fist Saint," said Theo to the Frost Saint.


    Obviously, the Frost Saint remembered the bald man and nodded. "Thank you."


    "But I need to know about the materials. I can''t simply search for something without the item, right?"


    "I know." The Mountain King picked a smaller piece and tossed it to Theo. "Take this. The mineral itself is called Stoksit White Stone. I don''t know what you humans call it."


    "This is enough. And let me take a picture of that piece so that it''ll be easier for me to show it."


    The Mountain King nodded and handed it to Theo. While taking the picture, Theo asked, "How much do you need?"


    "A palm-size one. It''s going to be expensive since it''s a rare material. I''m surprised that such a mineral exists in such arge quantity." The Mountain King sighed. "I worked on it once and created my masterpiece. All I could say is that this rock was a perfect item to make an artifact."


    "Noted."


    "In that case, I''ll stay here for the time being to learn more about the concept behind this structure."


    "Mountain King. Can you exin to me how this works?"


    The Mountain King contemted for a moment and pointed at the star. "The star generates a huge amount of energy, and it''s delivered by these four pirs. They''re like a tube.


    "Now that one of the tubes is broken, it''s impossible to channel the energy anymore. Looking at the direction��" The Mountain King pointed at the east. "I''m sure that there is something happening over there, right?"


    "!!!" The Frost Saint was stunned by his deduction. He realized the Mountain King was the perfect guy to repair this pir.


    "The pirs are transporting a huge amount of energy to the ground for more than five thousand miles in each direction. And they''re spreading like roots to cover every single area.


    "Looking at the current condition, it seems that the pir cracked first before getting shattered like this. When it cracked, it would affect the stability of the energy in this particr direction. Sooner orter, the incident would bound to happen because the crack would continue to be bigger as time passed.


    "And now one pipe is broken, the ident happened. Even I don''t know what kind of incident is happening right now due to myck of understanding of this structure. That''s why I need to learn more about this structure before starting to repair it."


    After hearing the Mountain King''s exnation, the Frost Saint agreed. "Please take all the time you need. I''ll also help in finding the materials."


    "I understand." The Mountain King politely bowed to him before asking, "This may sound rude, but I have a request."


    "Sure. Do tell me. I''ll try to help you to the best of my ability." The Frost Saint agreed without hesitation since he was the cause of the incident.


    "Can you force him to drink my wine?" The Mountain King grinned as this was his n to take revenge against Theo.


    "I''ll begin my search immediately." Theo waved his hand and disappeared since it was only his clone.


    "Ah!"

 Chapter 1276 Playing

    Chapter 1276 ying


    "Can you find me this material?" Theo asked while handing the picture to Maya. As soon as he returned, he immediately headed to Maya after procuring the sample.


    "This is?" Maya was confused because she wasn''t an expert in this.


    "If I want to solve the problem in Argelia, then I need this material."


    "You know about the problem and the solution?"


    "Yeah. I can''t exin it to you, but just know that I need this stone."


    Maya thought for a moment and sighed, "I can try to search for the stones, but I am not that confident, considering I don''t know much about this stone from the picture.


    "I have the sample, but I also need to take it back to fix the problem, so I don''t know if I should hand it over or not."


    "Ah, do you mean you''re afraid of me using them for something else?"


    "No. It''s the scientist who will perform research on this stone." Theo shook his head. "I can''t afford to lose this stone even if it''s just a small piece."


    "Still, I need to know the severity of this matter. If it''s that dangerous, I can trust it to someone I highly trust to handle this matter."


    Theo pondered for a moment and said, "Basically, Argelia suffered that kind of damage just because a part of this stone was chipped away�� Around a basketball size, I think."


    "Seriously?" Maya sucked a cold breath, looking at the picture as if she was seeing a mineral worth more than anything in the world. "Just a small piece of that stone can crush an entire country��"


    "Yeah. I think you can understand why I don''t want to tell you much about this stone."


    "Indeed. The moment this stone falls into the wrong hands, the world will be chaotic." Maya nodded. Her expression became grim and her tone was serious. "I can search for this material. If you can entrust the sample to me, it can help me discern the real material and the fake one.


    "I''ll ask a specialist in this matter to handle it personally. Of course, I won''t use it for other things like scientific research or whatever. So, only that person will know about the details of the materials."


    Theo remembered what the Mountain King said. "To be honest, I think the people already know about it, considering this material is good to make an artifact. Then again��"


    "I see. There are many materials used for an artifact, but something like this should be extremely scarce." Maya nodded. "I don''t really mind helping you."


    "You should know that this work won''t be rewarded because I can''t afford for everyone to know about this material. If they know about it, the world will be in chaos. This includes countries."


    "Yes. I can understand that." Maya nodded with a calm expression. "Just take it as my thanks for handling the problem a few months ago. Without you, the Star Group would be reduced greatly, and my life would be in danger too."


    "Alright. Thank you, Maya."


    "No problem. I can spare some money right now, so I don''t mind."


    "If you don''t have money, just call me. I can find a way to make money."


    "You''re not going to sell your body, right? How about selling it to me?"


    "Who do you think I am?" Theo shook his head helplessly before waving his hand and leaving her office. "Anyway, you shoulde to my mansionter to get the material."


    "Okay. See ya."


    He wanted to personally search for the item, but Maya had a better connection in the underground market or any important markets. Hence, he decided to rely on her.


    "Have you finished your discussion?" Ergene asked. Since Felix had been tasked to take care of the refugees, Ergene had been acting as his bodyguard this whole time.


    "Yeah." Theo nodded and entered the car before Ergene started driving.


    "By the way, I know that this is out of the blue, but do you happen to know about ourst two members? I mean, do you have any idea about their personality or roles?" Ergene asked.


    "Well, I need one more Mythical Rank Expert and one Supreme Rank Expert."


    "You sound like you believe that Rea can fulfill your requirement as a Mythical Rank Expert��"


    "Of course." Theo smiled. "Rea reminds me of myself after all."


    "Reminds you of yourself?"


    "Yeah. I once chased after my brother for different reasons. Then, when I got what I wanted, I suddenly felt empty. I just moved forward without a goal, so when I met my grandfather, I just wanted to get everything that I could to back up my goal that I might find in the future." Theo shrugged.


    "It seems you have a goal now."


    "Of course." Theo smiled, teasing her. "Want to know?"


    "Well, that''s your secret." Ergene shook her head.


    Theo paused for a moment and said, "What do you think about the copse of great civilizations like Maya Civilization, Ancient Egypt, or other stuff? If we''re talking about the great swipe�� maybe the dinosaurs too? How about the Mythologies? Why did they end up as myths instead of actual civilization? With their great power described by the myth, why is no trace of them left?"


    Ergene wasn''t prepared for this kind of question, so she just gave him a random answer. "Maybe they lived on another?"


    "Even right now, we still haven''t found a single alien species out there. And those people from the myths can still be connected to you through blessings. Then, what''s the cause of their destruction?" Theo smirked.


    "Hmm, I don''t know."


    "From what I know about the Norse Mythology, Odin was said to have the premonition of the end, which is called Ragnarok. And the God of Mischief actually tried to twist that Ragnarok by pushing the schedule up or changing things up. Where do you think he got that premonition?"


    "In physics, we know about a higher dimension. It''s said that beings in the higher dimension can watch us like we''re watching a movie right now. The script and the plots have been prepared��" Theo smirked.


    "Are you suspecting that there is someone that is writing about Maya Civilization like a series and once the series ends, the civilization copses?" Ergene widened her eyes. "Wait a minute. Does that mean someone is writing about our civilization right now, and when the story ends, our civilization will be destroyed?"


    "That''s just my theory." Theo smirked as he got this conclusion after agreeing with the God of Mischief. That was why he started toe up with a quite good idea to test that concept. He said, "Do you want to know my goal? I can tell you. My goal is��"


    Theo opened his and told her his goal.


    Ergene was stunned and even stopped the car as her body started shaking when she heard Theo''s goal.


    However, Theo dropped another bomb by saying, "If my theory is correct, I''m sure that my goal won''t be told to anyone. After all, it won''t be interesting to know it easily. I have no way to prove my point, but if this is true, things will be exciting from now on. It seems that I can y with those beings from a higher dimension."


    There was one person that was smiling when Theo uttered that goal and his idea. He was none other than the God of Mischief, Loki.

 Chapter 1277 The Origin

    Chapter 1277 The Origin


    "Hahahahahahahaahha!" The God of Mischiefughed out loud inside Theo''s consciousness. He was so happy and excited that he almost fell to the ground. "I can''t hold it anymore. My choice was truly not wrong. Theodore Griffith might do something that I couldn''t in the past.


    "O'' beings from the higher dimensions, whether you exist or not, be prepared! I might not be able toe to you, but he wille in my stead!" Loki looked up as if he was ring at those beings from the higher dimension.


    "It seems that you''re happy with the progress, Father." A woman walked to him with a smile on her face.


    "Haha!" Lokiughed for another minute before saying, "My conclusion was that the higher do exist. I dedicated my whole life to proving their existence. However, that guy is different. He assumes that they exist and starts ying with them."


    "Do they even exist? Even if it''sing from you, I still can''t believe it."


    "Who knows? There is no exact proof. But that might create another paradox." Loki grinned.


    "A paradox?"


    "I will use a movie as an example. If the writer makes his character visit him, the writer, in the plot, will that character be summoned to the higher dimension? If that''s the case, Theo, who has the power that can turn it into a reality, might be able to achieve it. This is a paradox that he needs to test in the future."


    "Still, there''s no proof to that paradox."


    "Of course, this is just my assumption. But don''t forget about his power."


    "Reality�� Wait a minute." Hel widened her eyes and took a step back. "Are you assuming that the higher being exists in a parallel universe?"


    "That''s right. Just like a writer creating a world with their talent, that kind of world might exist in a different universe. For them, that normal writer is their creator. And there might be someone who is writing the story of that writer writing something.


    "See? There''s an endless loop of a creator creating a creator who is creating another creator. In other words, the parallel universe might just be a creation of someone, and our current universe is created by someone from another universe.


    "In a normal multiple universe paradox, let''s say your parents exist in another universe. What''s the chance of you being born from the same sperm and ovum?


    "But I don''t think many people think it''s like this�� What if another universe of you is created by someone from another universe? And that universe is created by another person and so on." Loki smirked, excited to see the conclusion of this matter.


    "But if we follow your theory, there should be a universe that is the creator of all universes." Hel narrowed her eyes, confused.


    "Yes. I shall call that one ''The Origin.'' A ce where everything is created."


    "The Origin��" Hel sucked a cold breath as this was too much even for her.


    "And that''s what Theo is thinking. It''s impossible to reach the Origin of this theory, but he certainly can find the person who is creating our universe. And that''s what he believes as the higher being of my version. In other words, Theo is considering his perspective along with my theory so that both of us can win."


    "He is not assuming things randomly?"


    "Yeah. That''s why I said that Theo might surpass me in the future. It seems that forcing the Reality Order on him was the correct choice. And thanks to that mermaid who introduced the paradox, Theo has begun to learn more about parallel universes.


    "As expected, the ones that can help him the most are the Reality Eyes and his Reality Order."


    "Still, doesn''t this mean there''s a sudden change in Theo''s personality?" Hel asked. "He was NOT that interested before. Why did he suddenly mention it?"


    "He is not interested? You''re joking." The God of Mischief smirked. "He is, of course, interested. He has been thinking about it this whole time."


    "But we haven''t gotten anything about that." Hel was confused. They should know about Theo''s thoughts because they resided in Theo''s consciousness.


    However, Loki smirked yfully and said, "That''s why I told you that. He''s using his own theory to prove that. If we don''t know anything about it, that means the details are not included. He''s using that gap to y around and test his theory. But it is also weird because we should know about it. Thus, creating an imbnce in the system."


    "��" Hel sucked a cold breath. She seemed to understand something even more vicious than the theory itself.


    "Don''t say that." The God of Mischief shook his head. "Instead of the world, we might get erased by the creator of this universe due to us prying too much about the secret of the universe. As for him, he might also be erased for convenience. But it is surely more interesting this way. How much can we take advantage of it? It depends on him."


    The Goddess of Death fell silent and asked, "Do you think he can surpass you?"


    "Who knows. He might die or be erased before that happens. Even if you can see the future, you can''t really know what will happen. However, one thing is clear. He needs to get stronger as fast as possible and reach Authority Level. Only after that can he start thinking about his perception and see whether it''s possible or not to get the truth." The God of Mischief smirked.


    "It seems that you''re nning something, Father."


    "Of course. If his theory is correct, then no one will know what I''m doing right now. Only the creator of the universe and myself will know about it. Isn''t it a good test to see whether the theory is correct or not?"


    "But at the same time, you can''t prove whether that theory is correct or not?"


    "I know. Even so, this is also another clue. I won''t be able to know the answer if I don''t try everything. There''s no way I''m going to give up this opportunity." The God of Mischief added another thing. "Also, no one might know about our conversation. Or everyone might be aware of this conversation. Either way, we have no answer unless we test it. Which one is known and which one is hidden, I''m going to test it. Hahahaha."

 Chapter 1278 Change

    Chapter 1278 Change


    "It seems that it''s still too much for you." Theo chuckled while staring at Ergene who was drinking a coke. After learning more about Theo''s goal, she was shocked that they ended up going to a fast food restaurant just to get some drink and calm themselves for a bit.


    "Of course, it was too shocking for me. The concept itself is tooplicated, and the implication it can bring is simply unimaginable." Ergene let out a long sigh. "Following you is like following a bomb that can explode at any time."


    "Now regretting your choice?"


    "Don''t underestimate the loyalty of a warrior of the in." Ergene snorted. "Although I''m scared, I''m also interested in that answer too."


    "Haha. If it''s just a normal person, I bet they''d have quitted right away." Theo chuckled.


    "Is that why you''ve been gathering weirdos?"


    "At first, I just wanted someone unique, but I guess it now looks like a gathering of weirdos." Theo chuckled, impressed by her bluntness. "Still, you''re the first one to know about it."


    "Since you''re testing that on me. Why do I feel like I have be your guinea pig? Just like that illusion power��" Ergene continued his words and sighed.


    "Haha, it might be just your imagination." Theo chuckled.


    "I hope that''s the case. Or I''m going to cling to you if I die because of the test." Ergene rolled her eyes, not believing Theo at all.


    They continued their journey with light-hearted jokes to lessen the mood.


    And Ergene drove slowly since she was a bit shaken. Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t really drive. He only drove a Cubicar once. It was when he hunted with Maya and Agata. And when he drove, it was already on the other side where they didn''t need to deal with traffic, so Theo couldn''t really rece her as the driver.


    The trip that should only take one hour ended up bing two hours.


    Still, they returned safely. Though, they were greeted by something funny. It was Rea falling to the ground head first.


    "Gya!" Rea screamed before stopping due to her face being buried.


    "Are you alright?" Theo asked lightly.


    Rea hurriedly rose from the ground and turned around as if she was embarrassed. "I''m fine. Thank you for your concern."


    "Don''t forget about the rule. I have multiple ways to check it." Theo grinned.


    "I know," Rea shouted this time, letting out her frustration.


    Since he got his answer, Theo went inside the mansion while Rea continued her training.


    "Does he know how hard it is for me to stop the urge to continue swinging my sword?" Rea gritted her teeth, muttering with a volume that she was the only one who could hear it. She bore a bit of hatred and frustration on Theo right now.


    Normally, she would swing more than a thousand times already. It had be her routine, so not doing it would make her feel ufortable.


    That was why she had been agitated this whole time.


    As soon as Theo entered the mansion, she closed her eyes again and imagined Theo standing in front of her.


    ''I can swing my swords twenty more times. How should I defeat him in twenty swings? Argh, I want to beat him so much. This is the first time I''m so frustrated by someone.'' Rea thought while imagining Theo charging forward with his sword.


    Rea then swung her sword from above to stop his movement. Theo then jumped to the side and attacked her waist, but she skillfully used her de to parry it.


    Meanwhile, in the mansion, Ergene asked, "I forgot about this because you changed the topic earlier, but why did you give her that kind of limit? Shouldn''t we train as much as we can to be stronger?"


    "That''s true in your case because you already have a clear path in your head. But she doesn''t have it right now." Theo waved at her, signaling her to follow him to the balcony where they could observe Rea''s training.


    "She doesn''t have the path?"


    "She has been chasing after her brother this whole time by imitating his training and doing it more than him. But without his brother, she was nothing but an empty shell."


    "Still, that doesn''t answer the question."


    "I know, but you should have heard of these two phrases, right? Work Harder and Work Smarter."


    "Yes. You should work smarter instead of work harder."


    "True. If you just want to aplish your goal, work smarter is good, but you won''t be able to reach the top that way. If you want to aim at the peak, you should work harder and work smarter.


    "If you work smarter without working hard enough, you will just achieve a small goal and get stuck for the rest of your life. If you work harder without knowing the path and goal, you will just train aimlessly.


    "Now that my shadow has overshadowed her brother, it''s clear that her focus is on me right now. Due to that, she''s be an empty shell. So, my role here is to be her brain."


    "That''s why you gave her that rule." Ergene narrowed her eyes.


    "Exactly." Theo pointed at her. "Look at that. She''s going to show you something good."


    Ergene watched Rea closely, wondering what Theo meant. However, she soon dropped her jaw and realized Theo''s intention.


    In the garden, Rea fell to the ground once again.


    "Kh. I can only swing two more times today! Should I end this imagination training here and do two swings toplete the training? But I have agreed that I''ll start my training with 900 swings before doing this imagination training until Iplete the one thousand swings.


    "If that''s the case, how do I even defeat him with only two swings? None of the animals can defeat him and my swing�� If it''s my brother, what will he do? The super-swift sword draw? But that was useless in thest fight. Without anything powerful to defeat him, what should I do? No, I need to ovee this limitation�� if I only have two swings, I need to put everything I have left in these two swings�� something bigger, something more powerful, something�� absolute��" Rea took a deep breath as she poured her Magic Power into the sword.


    The Magic Power behaved like a raging me that changed its form every second. She was trying to create the animal from her Magic Power but ended up scrapping the idea again and again. She wanted something even more powerful than the animal.


    Theo was happy to see her progress. "I''ve done my job. It might take months or even years toplete it, but without change, she will stay as an empty shell forever. So, the rest is up to her. Watch her for me, will you?"


    He patted shocked Ergene''s shoulder and went inside.

 Chapter 1279 Change

    Chapter 1279 Change����"It seems that it''s still too much for you." Theo chuckled while staring at Ergene who was drinking a coke. After learning more about Theo''s goal, she was shocked that they ended up going to a fast food restaurant just to get some drink and calm themselves for a bit.


    "Of course, it was too shocking for me. The concept itself is tooplicated, and the implication it can bring is simply unimaginable." Ergene let out a long sigh. "Following you is like following a bomb that can explode at any time."


    "Now regretting your choice?"


    "Don''t underestimate the loyalty of a warrior of the in." Ergene snorted. "Although I''m scared, I''m also interested in that answer too."


    "Haha. If it''s just a normal person, I bet they''d have quitted right away." Theo chuckled.


    "Is that why you''ve been gathering weirdos?"


    "At first, I just wanted someone unique, but I guess it now looks like a gathering of weirdos." Theo chuckled, impressed by her bluntness. "Still, you''re the first one to know about it."


    "Since you''re testing that on me. Why do I feel like I have be your guinea pig? Just like that illusion power��" Ergene continued his words and sighed.


    "Haha, it might be just your imagination." Theo chuckled.


    "I hope that''s the case. Or I''m going to cling to you if I die because of the test." Ergene rolled her eyes, not believing Theo at all.


    They continued their journey with light-hearted jokes to lessen the mood.


    And Ergene drove slowly since she was a bit shaken. Unfortunately, Theo couldn''t really drive. He only drove a Cubicar once. It was when he hunted with Maya and Agata. And when he drove, it was already on the other side where they didn''t need to deal with traffic, so Theo couldn''t really rece her as the driver.


    The trip that should only take one hour ended up bing two hours.


    Still, they returned safely. Though, they were greeted by something funny. It was Rea falling to the ground head first.


    "Gya!" Rea screamed before stopping due to her face being buried.


    "Are you alright?" Theo asked lightly.


    Rea hurriedly rose from the ground and turned around as if she was embarrassed. "I''m fine. Thank you for your concern."


    "Don''t forget about the rule. I have multiple ways to check it." Theo grinned.


    "I know," Rea shouted this time, letting out her frustration.


    Since he got his answer, Theo went inside the mansion while Rea continued her training.


    "Does he know how hard it is for me to stop the urge to continue swinging my sword?" Rea gritted her teeth, muttering with a volume that she was the only one who could hear it. She bore a bit of hatred and frustration on Theo right now.


    Normally, she would swing more than a thousand times already. It had be her routine, so not doing it would make her feel ufortable.


    That was why she had been agitated this whole time.


    As soon as Theo entered the mansion, she closed her eyes again and imagined Theo standing in front of her.


    ''I can swing my swords twenty more times. How should I defeat him in twenty swings? Argh, I want to beat him so much. This is the first time I''m so frustrated by someone.'' Rea thought while imagining Theo charging forward with his sword.


    Rea then swung her sword from above to stop his movement. Theo then jumped to the side and attacked her waist, but she skillfully used her de to parry it.


    Meanwhile, in the mansion, Ergene asked, "I forgot about this because you changed the topic earlier, but why did you give her that kind of limit? Shouldn''t we train as much as we can to be stronger?"


    "That''s true in your case because you already have a clear path in your head. But she doesn''t have it right now." Theo waved at her, signaling her to follow him to the balcony where they could observe Rea''s training.


    "She doesn''t have the path?"


    "She has been chasing after her brother this whole time by imitating his training and doing it more than him. But without his brother, she was nothing but an empty shell."


    "Still, that doesn''t answer the question."


    "I know, but you should have heard of these two phrases, right? Work Harder and Work Smarter."


    "Yes. You should work smarter instead of work harder."


    "True. If you just want to aplish your goal, work smarter is good, but you won''t be able to reach the top that way. If you want to aim at the peak, you should work harder and work smarter.


    "If you work smarter without working hard enough, you will just achieve a small goal and get stuck for the rest of your life. If you work harder without knowing the path and goal, you will just train aimlessly.


    "Now that my shadow has overshadowed her brother, it''s clear that her focus is on me right now. Due to that, she''s be an empty shell. So, my role here is to be her brain."


    "That''s why you gave her that rule." Ergene narrowed her eyes.


    "Exactly." Theo pointed at her. "Look at that. She''s going to show you something good."


    Ergene watched Rea closely, wondering what Theo meant. However, she soon dropped her jaw and realized Theo''s intention.


    In the garden, Rea fell to the ground once again.


    "Kh. I can only swing two more times today! Should I end this imagination training here and do two swings toplete the training? But I have agreed that I''ll start my training with 900 swings before doing this imagination training until Iplete the one thousand swings.


    "If that''s the case, how do I even defeat him with only two swings? None of the animals can defeat him and my swing�� If it''s my brother, what will he do? The super-swift sword draw? But that was useless in thest fight. Without anything powerful to defeat him, what should I do? No, I need to ovee this limitation�� if I only have two swings, I need to put everything I have left in these two swings�� something bigger, something more powerful, something�� absolute��" Rea took a deep breath as she poured her Magic Power into the sword.


    The Magic Power behaved like a raging me that changed its form every second. She was trying to create the animal from her Magic Power but ended up scrapping the idea again and again. She wanted something even more powerful than the animal.


    Theo was happy to see her progress. "I''ve done my job. It might take months or even years toplete it, but without change, she will stay as an empty shell forever. So, the rest is up to her. Watch her for me, will you?"


    He patted shocked Ergene''s shoulder and went inside.

 Chapter 1280 Information

    Chapter 1280 Information����"Get up! You said you want to fight me, but it seems that your will is not that strong." Ergene shouted while ring at Rea, who was lying on the floor.


    After two weeks, Rea''s training went to another level. Instead of imagination, she asked Ergene to fight her until shepleted her 1000th swing. And Ergene epted.


    To her surprise, Rea requested her not to hold back even if she needed to injure her.


    Recalling Theo''s words as well as seeing Rea''s solemn expression, Ergene ended up agreeing to this request.


    While they were fighting, they got an unexpected visitor in the mansion. And Theo was the one who dealt with him.


    "So, why do you want to meet me?" Theo asked the middle-aged man before him. Even Maya was shocked that he asked for this meeting. But the man had an important thing that Theo wanted, so Theo had to agree to this meeting.


    "I want to see the man who has tortured my man." The middle-aged man red at him.


    "Your man? You sure love to talk that way, eh? Mr. Helsbert. Why don''t you call Winston your son?" Theo snorted, not scared of his fierce re. Of course, he knew this guy, especially with those three stars on his shoulders. Someone at his rank was rare even in the military.


    Winston''s Father, General Reyn Helsbert. This was the identity of the man before him.


    "Now that you''ve seen me, I''m going to ask you for information about that piece of stone," Theo stated with a cold tone.


    "I have no intention of telling you." Reyn looked down on him while emanating his killing intent.


    "Then, you can die right now." Theo narrowed his eyes. Since they were meeting with a Mythical Rank Expert, Felix insisted on staying with him. Two weeks had passed, so the rescue operation had finished. As soon as he heard Theo''s words, Felix flicked his sword, preparing to unsheathe it.


    "You''re not scared of the country?"


    "Cut the bullshit. If you don''t give me the information, I won''t be the one to visit you at night. It will be the president." Theo snorted. He could simply request the Time God to pressure the president to ask him since it was rted to the disruption of the order. There was no way the Time God wouldn''t cooperate even if he was an observer.


    "Do you not have the country in your eyes?" Reyn clenched his teeth in anger.


    "Such bullshit. I have no loyalty to any country. I''m doing as I please."


    "Like you said, I won''t be the one visiting you next time. It will be the whole military with all our equipment. Leaving you alive will surely endanger the country." Reyn gritted his teeth.


    "Sure. Let''s do that." Theo shrugged, not caring about it. "Give that idea to the president, and you''ll regret it soon. Don''t worry. I won''t be a ruthless man. I''m just going to break your son''s brain to turn him into an idiot. See? I''m not a bad person; I don''t kill people."


    Reyn kept ring at him before closing his eyes for a moment.


    "If you don''t give me the information, I''m going to do whatever I want to obtain it."


    "I want you to promise me one thing."


    "And that is?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Never leave this country."


    "Then, I don''t need to entertain you any longer. Felix, see the guest out." Theo snorted.


    Felix then stepped forward as he prepared to drag him off, but Reyn suddenly opened his mouth. "Brazil. There will be an underground auction for Cholsite Mineral. However, that item is sought after by many people, including the local tyrant, Paolo from ASD. If you want to get that item, you''re going to have a sh with him. No matter how powerful you are, the moment you step in their den, you''ll die."


    "Ho?" Theo narrowed his eyes, realizing that Reyn was putting on a fake facade this whole time. In fact, he didn''t hate Theo for beating his son, considering Winston had grown up. He started to trust Lexie, had the desire to seek something outside of his strength, and became a responsible person.


    Hence, he tried to threaten Theo to stop this farce. He wanted Theo to stay in the country and abandon the thought of getting this item.


    "I am not scared of anything." Theo harrumphed. If he was scared by something, he wouldn''t even y with the higher being. So, Theo would do everything necessary. "When will the auction start?"


    "Do you know what you are doing? ASD has that guy! 98th on the world list, the ughter." Reyn gritted his teeth.


    "He should be the one fearing me. If he doesn''t want to die, he should stay quiet." Theo added inwardly, ''The one he is going to face is not me, but the Frost Saint. The Frost Saint has shown his eagerness in helping me, so he won''t mind helping me on this asion.''


    "You��"


    "So, when is it?" Theo asked again, pressing for the answer.


    "Two weeks."


    "Oh, it''s quite long." Theo smirked.


    "It''s a stone used to create an artifact. More organizations areing to that auction�� more than you can imagine. Not only the local tyrant but you''ll be hunted by international organizations who are trying to get material for the artifact."


    "That''s true, but well, there are already many people who want me dead. So, a few more won''t be that much of a problem." Theo sighed. "I am going there."


    "You��" Reyn gritted his teeth, frustrated by Theo''s arrogance. In the end, he took out a piece of paper and handed it to him. "Then, you should go to this location. They should be able to help you in the identity needed to attend the auction."


    "Hoh? A state secret?" Theo smirked.


    Reyn mmed the table and shouted, "Remember. This is how the country treats you!"


    "Yeah, yeah." Theo shrugged, watching Reyn leave with a furious face. As soon as Reyn left, Theo''s face became cold, recalling how he had been treated after dealing with a world ss disaster. "Now he''s gone."

 Chapter 1281 Permission

    Chapter 1281 Permission����"Are you sure you''ll go to this ce? This mission is very dangerous. You should task me for this type of mission," said Felix, concerned with Theo''s recklessness.


    "I fought against the Death Reaper before. So is this ce really dangerous?" Theo asked nonchntly.


    "That''s�� But this is on their turf. We have no control over their territory, so we can''t do much." Felix shook his head helplessly. "Besides, you shouldn''t be toocent just because you managed to kill her."


    "Don''t worry, Felix. I might have lost myself a bit back then, but I never once underestimated my opponent." Theo assured Felix with a serious tone.


    "Still, there''s no telling about what will happen there. It''s best if we mobilize all our people there. At least, we should gain enough people to handle the situation well."


    "No. The only people who will go there are�� me, you, Ryo and�� Rea."


    "What? This is very risky." Felix refused his n due to the severity of this matter.


    "Of course, I have one more arrangement. This reinforcement will be far stronger than any of you." Theo sighed. "For now, I''m going to prepare myself to go there."


    "Still, why do you even bring Rea there? She is too weak to even handle anything. She might be a burden."


    "That''s true, but the fact that she''s training with Ergene right now means she has some room for more brutal training. It seems that I haven''t seen her limit." Theo smirked.


    "You seriously think about that right now? In a ce where we can''t even guarantee your life, you''re trying to bring someone else there?" Felix pinched the bridge of his nose.


    "That''s it. Sorry, Felix. I''m going to be adamant about this n, so I will begin my preparation right now." Theo thought for a moment and said, "I''ll tell you about the detailster. You surely won''t have a problem after that, so just trust me."


    "That''s fine, but��" Felix sighed, finding no way to convince him.


    "Anyway, just wait here." Theo smiled and patted his shoulder before leaving the room.


    Felix stared at the door and scratched the back of his head. "Ugh, I can''t really figure out his n even after following him this whole time. When everything doesn''t seem to be bright, he always prepares an extra torch�� No, if we''re talking about him, he always prepares an extra lighthouse in the darkness.


    "Following him means going into danger but with all the tools that can protect us. It will be scary, but the moment everything is revealed, you will get a sense of relief." Felix didn''t know what to do with Theo.


    "What should I do now?" Felix contemted, wondering if there was another preparation that he could do. At least to lessen Theo''s burden. "I have promised him to be his sword. I won''t let him bear the burden alone."


    Because he wanted to bring Rea, he, of course, needed to give some exnation to her father, the Sword Saint.


    As expected, he was furious.


    "What? You freaking bastard. What did you say? How dare you bring my daughter to that kind of ce? Are you going to kill her?!" The Sword Saint had let go of all his dignity and simply threw a tantrum.


    He couldn''t believe Theo to endanger his daughter''s life like this.


    "I can''t afford to implicate you here, so I''m going to use another cover for your daughter. So, this way, your reputation won''t be affected." Theo smirked.


    "That''s precisely the problem! You''re making this hard for me. If you didn''t use another identity, people would lose their trust in me, and I was forced to dere that she had been corrupted by you after what she had done in Argelia. And if I allowed her to go there with another identity, she might die!"


    "Don''t worry. I''m not nning to die there, so your daughter will be safe too as long as she''s with me." Theo assured him, but the Sword Saint still didn''t buy it. He already hated the fact that his daughter would be targeted by many organizations.


    "Are you forcing me to go there personally?" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth.


    "No, this time, I don''t want you to intervene." Theo shook his head.


    "It is extremely dangerous."


    "I know, but if everything goes ording to my n, you might see your daughter evolve to a phoenix in one go."


    "What?" The Sword Saint was stunned, but looking at Theo''s serious eyes told him that he wasn''t joking. Theo truly nned to create a breakthrough for his daughter.


    "How do you n to do that?"


    "It''s simple. While the stone may be my priority, I''m going to go back to the US through the other side. ording to my knowledge, their location is only one month away by foot. So, yeah, I''m going to increase my level with her. Don''t you think this is a perfect opportunity?"


    He had heard about Theo''s limitation and the fact that his daughter was improving due to that limitation. And Theo seemed to be nning to use this asion to let her surpass her past self.


    It might be extremely dangerous, but the reward was indeed tempting.


    He thought for a moment and said, "I''m not going to let you do this alone. Even if it''s my decision to allow her to follow you, I''m still responsible for her life. I won''t agree if you don''t ept my condition."


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Certainly. How can I stop a father from worrying about his daughter?"


    "Tsk. As expected, this is your n. You''re going to use me as a reinforcement."


    "Your people, to be precise." Theo smirked.


    "If you were my son, I would have beaten you up."


    "It''s family abuse."


    "With my sword of love."


    "It''s still abuse."


    The two stared at each other for a while before the Sword Saint clicked his tongue. "Anyway, there will be three Mythical Rank Experts who will assist youter. I''m going to give their detailster. But you must promise me that my daughter won''t be hurt."


    "I can promise you she won''t die, but don''t worry, if she loses a limb or two, I can fix her up." Theo let out a joke. Even though he had Aisha, he would never make a n that would require such a sacrifice after all.


    "You freaking devil. It''s not funny even for a joke."


    "I''m just using your sword of love."


    The Sword Saint clicked his tongue and finally gave his consent.

 Chapter 1282 Shadow Ability

    Chapter 1282 Shadow Ability����As soon as Theo finished convincing the Sword Saint, he used his clone to split up. His clone went to talk with Maya while the real person headed to the other side.


    Of course, there was no way he nned to leave the Frost Saint out of this.


    After getting all the details from the Star Group, Theo nned to visit the Frost Saint to request his help. He had a perfect person to do the job. That was why he wasn''t afraid of going there.


    The trip took a day as Theo arrived at the structure once again, meeting six King ss Monsters that were protecting the structure from any harm.


    "Who is it?" One of them shouted while ring at a tree.


    "Theodore Griffith. I know you''re there." The Shadow King narrowed her eyes, forcing Theo toe out.


    "It seems that I have been found out." Theo smiled whileing out of the trees.


    All King ss Monsters except the Shadow King were alerted and prepared to fight, but the Shadow King asked them, "Please don''t. He''s an ally."


    "You know him?"


    "Yes."


    "But don''t forget that he is a human."


    "It''s the saint''s decision." The Shadow King stated with a solemn tone.


    That statement silenced all the opposition as they realized Theo''s identity was bigger than they thought.


    On the other hand, Theo was quite surprised to see this kind of lineup. He could see powerful King ss Monsters that would cause catastrophic damage if they attacked the US together.


    "Do you think I can meet him?" Theo asked the Shadow King. "It''s regarding the material. I''ve found it, but the ce is quite dangerous, so I need some help."


    The Shadow King widened her eyes in shock. She nced at the rest of the King ss Monsters and said, "It seems that we need to alert him."


    Although they didn''t believe Theo''s words, they believed the Shadow King. Since thetter had confirmed his words, they could only agree with her suggestion.


    "That''s a good idea. The Frost Saint is going around with the Mountain King, so we can ask them toe together." Another King ss Monster agreed without hesitation.


    "Also, Shadow King. I might need your help�� No, I really need your cooperation there."


    "Hmm?" The Shadow King pondered for a moment and asked another King ss Monster to inform the Frost Saint. Meanwhile, she remained here and said, "I understand. Let me hear your n first."


    "Sure." Theo smiled as he started talking about the information they got to the n he had in mind.


    While they were engaging in talk, the Frost Saint had arrived with the Mountain King, asking, "So, you have it?"


    "Nope, not yet. My world is not like yours�� Well, it''s simr in this case, but I don''t n on betraying my own norm. If I want to get it, I''m nning to win it. Seizing or even stealing it is an option, but when I was weak, I didn''t like people who did something like that to me. So, now that I have be stronger, I''m not nning to be like them. This is just a matter of principle." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    Of course, if he got help from this side, seizing the item or even stealing it would be easy.


    However, Theo tried his best not to be a hypocrite like the one he hated the most. Laust''s Family tried to kill him to get the pocket watch from him, and he hated them. But he would be the same person if he used the power from this side to steal the stone.


    "You don''t want to act like the person you hate." The Frost Saint thought for a moment. "Do you have the confidence to win it?"


    "I have one of the biggestpanies in the world backing me up financially. I have some assurance."


    Suddenly, the Shadow King spoke up. "Saint. I have decided to go with him to protect him. He has agreed to let me have the stone after procuring it. In the worst-case scenario, I can use my power to steal it."


    "Are you sure about this?"


    "Yes. This ce was my former territory, so I was responsible for the incident. Please let me do it."


    The Frost Saint paused for a moment before asking, "Are you going to do that?"


    "That?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Shadow Possession. Basically, I''ll control your shadow and lend you my ability. It won''t be as strong as the current me, but it should allow you to use some of my abilities."


    "Hoh?" Theo was amused by this Shadow Possession.


    "Since you asked me that way, I have no way to prevent you. Be careful." The Frost Saint finally gave his permission.


    "Thank you." The Shadow Queen asked, "When will it start?"


    "In two weeks, but I should go there in ten days."


    "That''s enough. In seven days, I''m going to teach you how to use my ability. This way, even without me making my appearance, you should be able to fend off any danger thates your way. If it''s only running away, if you can utilize my power, running away from that human King shouldn''t be that much of a problem. Our problem can be solved without you giving your identity away."


    "Hoh?" Theo smirked. "Interesting."


    "If you agree, then follow me."


    Theo nced at the Frost Saint, who gave his nod and followed the Shadow King.


    They went to another ce away from any monsters. The Shadow King stood in front of him and raised three fingers. "I''m going to enter your shadowter and grant you power. My n is to allow you to use three of my abilities."


    The Shadow King waved her hand once.


    Suddenly, the shadow from the trees and bushes emerged from the ground and expanded, creating a sharp thin shadow de that cut all the trees in the area.


    *Boom!*


    All the trees fell down.


    "This is the first Shadow Ability, Shadow des. I believe you can learn three of my abilities within a week, but it''ll depend on your talent."


    "Hehe. I''m looking forward to it." Theo smirked.

 Chapter 1283 Infiltration

    Chapter 1283 Infiltration����"Well, it seems that I''m ready." Theo smirked while looking at the entire area. The forest had been cut by him, and it seemed there was a need for someone to use their power to recover the forest.


    Meanwhile, his shadow was moving independently, not matching his own movement at all. In fact, there were two bloodshot eyesing from the shadow.


    "I am good to go. Unless necessary, I''m not nning to leave your shadow." The Shadow King, who was hiding inside Theo''s shadow, spoke.


    "I know, I know. By the way, I want to ask you something." Theo nodded as he started running back to his home.


    "What is it?"


    "Have you ever gone to the other side?"


    To his surprise, the Shadow King answered. "Yes. I have�� This should be my 56th time."


    "For real?"


    "It''s easy for me to infiltrate the human world. No one would realize that I''m hiding in their shadow."


    "That''s true. And the one who can recognize you is probably someone with an Order or Authority." Theo nodded.


    "Yes. That''s why I have gained so much information about the other side, and this ce is now bing one of the most knowledgeable ces about your terrain. I know that the ce we''re going right now is a dangerous ce south of your location."


    "Seriously? It seems that the information that you''ve got is not shallow."


    "My idiot husband often kidnapped Syk, so I used that time to infiltrate human society. I know about your society and even have used Skylink. It''s easier for me to use that to find some random information."


    "Don''t tell me that you''ve brought them back to learn about human society?"


    "No. There''s no need for me to bring it back. I''m simply searching for important information and telling the saint about this so that he can prepare for any schemes."


    "I see. That''s understandable. And it seems that no one knows about your existence yet."


    "Of course, this is the reason why I''m using Shadow Possession right now. I don''t want to fight or even show myself."


    "Though, that means you''re directing their focus on me?"


    "Isn''t it easy for you to erase that kind of trace? Like the changing face ability that you showed back then. It was clear that not even someone with an Authority could see that through."


    "That''s true." Theo sighed, knowing that the Shadow King was talking about the Death Reaper instead of the Fist Saint. Even though she had seen his performance with the Fist Saint, thetter still recognized his power. On the other hand, the Death Reaper couldn''t see anything wrong at all.


    With this statement, she was indirectly implying that she had gone to Earth once more and knew the news about him.


    "Still, it will be impossible for you, a Supreme Rank Expert, to challenge a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "You''re not talking about a normal Mythical Rank Expert, right?"


    "I''m talking about the guy that you''re going to faceter. What''s his name again? I think something about the ughter?"


    "Yes. That''s the guy. Are you worried that your Shadow Possession will be exposed because I''m just a Supreme Rank Expert?" Theo asked.


    "Exactly."


    "Don''t worry." Theo took a deep breath before covering his body with his Order, creating a fake Magic Power that came out of his body. He had seen enough Mythical Rank Experts copy their appearance, so the Shadow King could see a body that excluded Magic Power like that of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "This is��" The Shadow King thought he had seen through Theo after training with his husband back then, but she was wrong. Theo might be able to improve much faster than she thought.


    "I can use my power to make your Order unnoticeable too. So, with this new identity and your Order, we can create a persona where no one knows about us."


    "I see. Where is the city where the auction will be held?" The Shadow King asked.


    "Salvador."


    "Hmm. If I''m not wrong, it''s a city near the coast."


    "You''re right. What kind of memory do you have? To be able to remember everything in detail." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "Anyway, if you''re going there, as soon as we retrieve the stone, you should go to Feira de Santana and head into the teleportation circle there. ording to your n, you''re nning to get some power up on the other side while going through thend to go back to your country, right?"


    "Yes."


    "That ce is called Elkisia Great Land, ruled by someone the saint knows. I can go through there too by myself to deliver the stone."


    "I see. So, we''re going separate ways after that?"


    "Yes. Thank you for the help in advance."


    "No problem. Are you not angry that I''m going to beat your husband up in the future?"


    "If your two fists are not enough, I will make him suffer more."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled. "Anyway, we''re just going to run away, so there''s no need to be that tense."


    "I understand. I''ll leave the rest to you." The Shadow King nodded. "I''ll fall into slumber in your shadow then. Call me if you need anything."


    "Okay."


    After talking to the Shadow King, he realized that the monsters from this side had been infiltrating human society as well.


    However, they were passive because they didn''t want any conflicts. If it was human, they would definitely take revenge the moment they saw someone die. But it seemed that the monsters didn''t care much about it.


    Still, he wondered if a monster actually controlled a country from the shadows.


    After some consideration, Theo believed that the monsters weren''t that harmful. At least, he would consider them not more dangerous than the humans.


    Of course, Theo had many thoughts about monster society this time as he continuously revolved his mind toe up with all sorts of assumptions.


    The trip took more than a day, so he had a great time.

 Chapter 1284 Going

    Chapter 1284 Going����"Well, we''ve arrived," said Ryo while walking in the front. Due to him not being able to protect Theo when the assassin attacked, he had been quite depressed, thinking he wasn''t useful at all despite Theo convincing him that everything was his n.


    Even so, Ryo took the responsibility to his heart. This blunder almost made him pay for it with his own life.


    Looking at Ryo''s serious attitude, Theo considered bringing him here.


    "By the way, are you alright with this, Fel��I mean, Xile? Your power is light, right? The auction is held during the night." Rea asked with a serious expression. She didn''t want to be a burden on this team, so she wanted to make sure that everything was ready and ording to n.


    "Don''t worry. Light doesn''t necessarily mean sunlight." Felix nodded coolly. He really looked like a reliable teammate to have.


    "But where do we go right now? To get the identity, we need to go to this location." She narrowed her eyes while looking at the map given by the military.


    "Yes. If that''s the case, then we should rest in a hotel near that ce."


    "I have booked a room for us." Rea nodded. "Because of the auction this time, there is danger looming around, so I only book one room."


    "Are you sure you''re alright to stay with all of us?" Ryo asked politely. Both of them came from the same country, so Ryo needed to respect Rea because she was the daughter of the Sword Saint.


    "Yes. I''m fine staying with others. Both of you are parents and he��" Rea nced at Theo and sighed as if there was no hope of evening closer to Theo.


    "I mean, are youfortable enough to sleep in one room?" Ryo asked, worried about her like she was his daughter.


    "It''s fine. I don''t move around too much in my sleep. Besides, it''s safer this way." Rea nodded.


    Despite talking like this in the open, no one noticed them because none of them looked popr. Theo had be a blond-haired man this time. Of course, he also excluded a body aura that looked like a Mythical Rank Expert to scare other people off.


    Rea, Ryo, and Felix had their own disguises formed by Theo''s power, allowing them to be able to stay in the open without bothering people.


    "Have the preparation finished?" Theo asked Felix mysteriously even though Rea was the one handling all the matter.


    Felix nodded with a serious expression, causing Rea to misunderstand that Theo believed in Felix more than her. It was true, but this was her area, so it felt a bit hurt not when Theo didn''t rely on her.


    "Don''t forget that you''re going to experience hell after this." Theo turned to Rea.


    Rea gulped down. She had heard about his n to train her personally. She thought this was a good chance because Agata told her that every time Theo brought her for training, the benefits were enormous. No matter how hard it was, she needed to continue following him.


    That was why Rea agreed to this training and even promised him that she wouldn''t let go of this opportunity.


    As soon as they hade to an agreement, Ryo then called a taxi so they could go to their hotel. The meeting was in the evening, not long before the auction.


    The city looked bustling like normal, but Theo could see many Mythical Rank Experts gathering in this country. Some soldiers had been stationed too, trying to make sure that the auction didn''t cause too much destruction.


    Theo wore a white suit to match his blond hair, giving him an elegant aura. He smiled gently while fixing his cor.


    "You��" Rea walked to him with a wry smile. She didn''t realize it previously, but Theo had always created a handsome face every time he used a face-changing ability. "Why are you always so handsome?"


    "Huh?" Theo tilted his head, looking at Rea who was wearing a short red dress to make her easier to move. Even her heels weren''t that high. She shouldn''t have some trouble moving around with this getup. Still, he couldn''t deny that he had made a beautiful woman with his power. Theo chuckled and said, "Why not? Won''t I look good if I''m handsome?"


    "That''s true, but��" Rea shook her head as she already knew that arguing with Theo was useless.


    "In his case, it''s easier for him to deceive people if he''s handsome, especially little fan girls," said Felix while walking to them. He also wore a tuxedo since this was a big auction. They needed an appropriate suit for such a situation. No one would think that Felix was a highly regarded assassin.


    Andst but not least, Ryo apanied them with a suit that barely fit his muscles. Among them, he looked like the bodyguard the most.


    "Is everyone ready then?" Theo smiled and nodded. "Let''s go then. We can''t bete for the party."


    The group nodded their heads and moved to the designated location where they could get their identity to enter the auction.


    Due to the level of the auction, there was indeed a need for identity to avoid letting small friese in.


    The location was only a few minutes away, and the group reached the ce in time.


    It was just a shabby house on the outskirts. Even so, it still looked decent from the outside, making it not stand out. This was indeed a perfect ce for a serious operation.


    Theo knocked on the doors five times in a rhythm as the password.


    Suddenly, a young woman with a dress came out with a smile and opened the door for them. "Hello. I have been waiting for you. Pleasee in."


    Theo nodded and entered the house. From the looks of it, they looked like they were visiting a friend for a party.


    However, it was more than that.


    As soon as he entered, he saw a huge living room with three people inside.


    There was a middle-aged man who sat down on the middle couch and smiled at them. "Wee. We''ve been waiting for you."

 Chapter 1285 Leaving

    Chapter 1285 Leaving����"And so, there will be an auction in this ce. This is the catalog. How about checking it to see whether you have something you like or not?" The middle-aged man handed a small book to Theo.


    Theo then opened it while listening to the middle-aged man.


    "As for your identity, we''ve prepared it for you." The middle-aged man nced at the woman in dress and nodded.


    The woman acknowledged his order and walked away as if she was going to retrieve it.


    "While she''s retrieving the proof of your identity, how about we talk a bit? Do you need our assistance?" The middle-aged man asked.


    "Mhm." Theo mumbled with his eyes still focusing on the catalog. "Oh, this one is good."


    Name: Dusk and Dawn Rings.


    Description: The Dusk and Dawn Ringse in a pair. The jewel used on it is Star Moon Twin Jewels. It''s said that the rings can allow the other to know that the partner is still alive. By pouring Magic Power into it, it can dim the light inside the jewel to show the partner that they''re alright.


    In a world where danger kept looming in the shadows, this kind of ring was perfect for a couple, especially if they were important people. This would allow either the husband or wife to be notified if something happened.


    ''Should I buy this ring?'' Theo looked at the two silver rings with red and blue jewels on top of them. ''These two rings should be perfect for our engagement.''


    He thought he wasing only for the stone, but it seemed he had another purpose in this auction.


    When Rea took a nce at the ring, she realized that Agata''s ce in Theo''s heart wouldn''t be changed no matter what.


    Theo continued to look at the items to see if there were any other interesting items.


    He really underestimated an underground auction like this. The items they got might be more precious than the items that the temple auctioned.


    There were a few artifacts as well as important medicines and herbs that could increase their status points. No wonder only rich people could attend this auction.


    Still, Theo wasn''t that interested in other items. He just wanted the pair of rings and the stone.


    "Do you guys have anything you want?" Theo asked Felix and Ryo.


    "No." Both of them shook their heads.


    Meanwhile, Theo didn''t ask Rea since she was busy engaging in conversation with the middle-aged man when Theo was looking through the catalog.


    After five minutes, Theo finally broke his peace, "So, when are you going to show us your real intention?"


    "Huh?" Rea tilted her head in confusion before realizing what was happening. The talk was light-hearted, making her lose track of time. She didn''t realize that so much time had passed since the woman from earlier went to grab their proof of identity.


    "As expected of Joker. Your reputation is well-deserved. When did you realize it?" The middle-aged man didn''t bother to hide it. It was clear that Theo would have realized it at some point, so peace was never an option.


    "At the start." Theo yawned. "You truly put a boring n here. Let me guess. An old official wants you to keep me here."


    "I''m sorry, but you are a precious asset in our country. We can''t really allow you to court death by going there. I hope that you can stay here until the auction is over." The middle-aged man smiled while ncing to the sides.


    Suddenly, thirteen people came out of their hiding, including the woman who had changed her dress to abat suit.


    "Hoh? To think that the army is doing their best�� Sending out five Mythical Rank Experts and 9 Supreme Rank Experts just to keep me here. Should I be honored?" Theo looked around with a poker face.


    "This is not your turf, Joker. We''ve prepared everything here, so no strategy will work. We''ve strengthened the house, so you won''t be able to escape." The middle-aged man smiled. "I truly don''t want to resort to violence. So, I hope that you can remain here."


    Rea gritted her teeth and said, "So, you were nning to keep us here half an hour before the auction to make us preupied here. And because of the distance, we wouldn''t be suspicious of your intention."


    "That''s n A. Unfortunately, we could only resort to n B. Though, without us, you couldn''t get any identity to go to the auction." The middle-aged man smiled.


    "Say. Is the soldier trained to talk about their ns?" Theo sighed. "I''m disappointed. Let''s go back."


    Theo rose from his seat before all the people stepped forward as if trying to stop him.


    Ryo summoned his child while Rea took out her sword, ready to fight.


    However, only Felix didn''t do anything. In fact, he didn''t have any intention to fight.


    "Please stop, Joker. I don''t really want to do this, but I might need to get a bit rough if you''re like this." The middle-aged man red at him, threatening him.


    "What do you think?" Theo asked Felix with a smile.


    "Nothing much. I can handle all the Mythical Rank Experts, but I don''t think my part hase." Felix shook his head with a sigh.


    "Then, let''s go then." Theo chuckled. Felix indeed had realized his n. Even though he had heard Theo''s n, it was just a rough one. Only Felix, who had followed Theo for the longest, was able to decipher his true thought.


    "Joker, stop!" The middle-aged man shouted, trying to stop him. However, the moment Theo took a step forward, he ordered, "All men, apprehend them!"


    "You should stop this�� If you want to capture me, you should havee to me in a room where the light can''t reach." Theo smirked as he raised his left hand. "Rise."


    Suddenly, the shadows of the walls, the furniture, and even the humans rose from their position, covering their bodies like a powerful chain.


    "What is this?"


    "Shadow?"


    "This ability is strange."


    The people were confused. Even Rea didn''t expect that the shadow would be helping them. However, the most shocking part was the fact that Theo was the one controlling this power.


    The people struggled to stop it, but their effort was useless.


    "Joker, stop!" The middle-aged man kept shouting but couldn''t even move due to the shadow. Even when he released his power, the shadow couldn''t be destroyed.


    Little did they know this shadow came from the Shadow King. There was no way they could break free from it.


    "Let''s go then." Theo smirked and walked to the exit. He nced back and said, "With this, I don''t have anything to do with the military anymore�� not that I have something to do with you from the start. But there''s no need for me to trust you guys anymore. Thanks for giving me that reason. Bye."


    "Jo��Mhmm!" Theo ended up covering the middle-aged man''s mouth because he was already annoyed by his voice.


    Meanwhile, the group followed him even though they were confused by this power. They knew that Theo had always nned for something, so this was nothing new.


    Still, Rea noticed one more problem.


    "Even if we can escape from this ce, we don''t have the identity to enter the auction. What should we do now? That''s right. My father sent a few men here�� I wonder if they could bring us in." Rea thought for a moment, but the answer came as soon as they left the building.


    There were two Cubicars on the outside. In the front cubicar, there was a sexydy taking the wheel.


    She winked at Theo and waved her hand coquettishly. "Hello, handsome man. Let''s go to a party."


    "Who are they?" Rea gasped, not expecting helping like this. She didn''t recognize the people that drove the car.


    However, Theo had already entered the cubicar, sitting next to the prettydy. He nced at the dumbfounded Rea and asked, "What are you doing? Let''s go now."

 Chapter 1286 Danger

    Chapter 1286 Danger����"May I know your identity?" Rea, who sat behind Theo, looked at this beautifuldy, not knowing that Theo had this kind of connection.


    "Me? I am just a bridge to connect Mr. Joker with the auction." Thedy smiled before giving a piece of paper to Theo. "This is the list of the people you should worry about."


    Theo received the paper and took a look.


    "There are a total of five names. One of them is none other than the local tyrant, the ughter, not the ughterer. A weird nickname, but he is a real deal. He has the ability to control blood and seems to have the blessing of Drac. He can turn all kinds of Magic Power into blood. So, you should be careful. If he manages to touch you, he can even control your body, specifically blood.


    "The second one is a man who is close to rank 200th in the world. He''s known as a powerful man that brings conquest. His blessing is said to be from the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the Red Rider, representing conquest.


    "As for the other three organizations, they''re pretty strong, but I don''t think they''ll pose too much of a threat for you, Mr. Joker. At best, they''re going to send Mythical Rank Experts after you. The most dangerous are those two."


    Theo stared at the names for a moment before asking, "How about our identity?"


    "I''ll go with you, so you won''t have trouble entering."


    "Well, I have heard the condition from Maya." Theo nodded.


    ''Maya? Did he know that the military was going to stop him all along? That was why he asked Maya to do this? But I thought the preparation was only for two weeks�� Don''t tell me. He already saw through everything since then?'' Rea widened her eyes in shock. She wasn''t present in the negotiation, so she didn''t know about Reyn''s action. It was normal for her to never expect something like this.


    Meanwhile, Theo sighed and asked, "What do you want?"


    "I am going to help you fend off some enemies. Even though I''m like this, I''m still a Mythical Rank Expert. I''ll go with you until we''re safe and after that, please let me go back with you."


    "Now that I think about it, you want��"


    "Yes. I want to work for the Star Group." Thedy smiled sweetly.


    "Well, that''s fine." Theo nodded. "I can understand that. Have you prepared the route?"


    "Of course. I''m going to be your guide. I can assure you that the terrain is perfect. And you can release your power without affecting other people."


    "Okay. I promise you." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "Thank you very much."


    "Still, I don''t know how to call you?"


    "Just call me 042."


    Theo looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Alright."


    "By the way, you should wear this. I know you''re in disguise, but you must use this when attending the auction." She took out a masquerade from the container next to her.


    "No need. You should wear one for yourself." Theo shook his head while his sleeve suddenly got separated from the shirt and turned into a masquerade. The ripped sleeve then regenerated as if nothing happened.


    "Eh?" Thedy was dumbfounded, not understanding what happened. She wanted to think it was an illusion but didn''t sense any Magic Power.


    Unbeknownst to her, the only reason why Theo always had a perfect outfit to wear every single time was due to the Death Armor. The changing shape of the Death Armor indeed allowed him to change his clothes as he pleased.


    "Well, thank you." She was a bit awkward but still put on the masquerade. After that, she said, "The fund that you can use this time is 170 billion. As for the stone price, it''s estimated to go over 100 billion, but I believe we should have enough since people will choose to rob instead of win with money at that level.


    "I know that you''re a bit impatient, but please let me deal with the auction because we shouldn''t add more enemies than necessary this time."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "Well, you can do the bidding. Also, what do you think about the pair of rings?"


    "Ah, that?! The rings are quite nice. Although it doesn''t have that much function, it''s a perfect ring for a couple. And the fact that it''s powered by Magic Power instead of satellite and other stuff makes it more expensive."


    "Can we use the remaining money to buy them?"


    "!!!" She was stunned for a second. She didn''t know much about the situation in the Star Group, so she thought Theo wanted these rings to propose to Maya. If that was the case, she would definitely buy them. "Don''t worry. I''ll make sure that you get both of them."


    "Alright then." Theo nodded.


    After confirming all their situation, the group finally reached the auction. It was held on the outskirts of the city, a bit farther away from the coastline. Due to its location, there were not many houses in the area, so they could go a bit rough around here.


    And Theo could see an emptynd a bit farther. He assumed that this was the escape route she said earlier.


    There were quite a lot of people near the building. One looked richer than another. Considering the items that would be sold in this ce were extraordinary, he could see the attraction.


    Theo''s group came out of their cars.


    Since Theo had yet to use his power to look like a Mythical Rank Expert, their group looked like there were only three Mythical Rank Expert bodyguards that protected Theo and Rea.


    Even so, three Mythical Rank Experts alone were considered a powerful influence in this ce since most people only had one or two.


    042 gave a golden coin with a skull head on it to the guard, and thetter hurriedly fetched a waitress inside to send them upstairs. It seemed that there were two levels for the participants.


    They were guided to the VIP room upstairs.


    There was a huge ss that separated them from the lively auction hall. And 042 immediately exined, "The other side can''t see through this ss. So, we''ll bid through the machine. You can take a nap here while I bid the items for you."


    "Okay."

 Chapter 1287 An Archer

    Chapter 1287 An Archer����"Ladies and gentleman. I''m sure that you''ve been waiting for today. We finally have the chance to hold our auction that only happens once every three years.


    "Today, we have plenty of unique items for all of you. So, without further ado, let''s start the auction with this item!"


    A middle-aged Mythical Rank Expert came to the stage and started talking. He was apanied by a beauty that held a trolley with an item above it.


    As soon as he grabbed their attention, he took out the cloth that covered the item, revealing a bronze round shield.


    "This bronze shield is an artifact found in a deep ruin located in Cuba. We''ve tested its durability. The shield itself won''t have any problem in stopping a Mythical Rank Expert, but there is one more feature that this shield has to offer."


    The woman lifted the shield as the Mythical Rank Expert shot a small fireball at the shield. Suddenly, the fire bounced back to him, forcing the expert to destroy the fireball.


    "As you can see earlier, the shield can reflect an attack. The shield can naturally absorb Magic Power to repel one attack per day for a maximum of three attacks. This is an artifact that you truly want. The starting price is 500 million Zils. The bid can''t be lower than 50 million Zils. Let''s start the auction."


    The cheers erupted as the people began to bid for the shield. This bronze shield was the worst item in the auction since it came first, signifying the level of this auction. Even the temple couldn''t do anything like this.


    No wonder the auction attracted so many people. Even the people in the VIP Room might be just ackey from an extremely powerful organization.


    Theo watched the bid battle for a bit before utilizing this excitement to take a peek at other rooms.


    It seemed that all the people had arrived before them.


    On his left, he could see many Mythical Rank Experts, especially a strong one in the center.


    On his right, he found something simr, albeit there were not many outstanding people among them. It was clear that the only outstanding Mythical Rank Expert was the one that had control over Order.


    Hence, Theo recognized this one extraordinary person as the ughter.


    ''Each room seems to contain 3-4 Mythical Rank Experts. This is going to be a bit more annoying than I originally expected.'' Theo thought while narrowing his eyes. "It seems that we need to face 15-20 Mythical Rank Experts."


    "Ehm, my father''s force could stop one group," Rea stated. "I would let them know to take care of the group that consists of 4 Mythical Rank Experts."


    "Well, what do you think?" Theo looked at Felix.


    Rea looked down, feeling hurt again. It seemed that Theo really didn''t trust her. However, Felix scratched the back of his head, saying something no one expected. "It seems that you''ve found out about it."


    "Ahaha, I was wondering when you were going to talk about it."


    "I have a friend. She won''t be able to kill them, but suppressing them should be possible. At least she can stop a group by herself since it''s dark now."


    "It seems that your friend is powerful." Theo smirked.


    "During the dark, she''s extremely powerful." Felix nodded. "She''s an archer that controls the wind. However, she never condenses enough wind to make it visible like a tornado, so you''ll only feel the shock wave. Unless you have an extremely powerful Awareness, you won''t be able to see her arrow. That''s why she''s the best to stop them."


    "An archer, huh��" Theo thought for a moment and smirked. "I''mcking an archer. What do you think about it?"


    "Ehm, I''m not sure about this��" Felix scratched the back of his head. "She is a lone wolf from what I know. Unlike the others, there doesn''t seem to be a way to attract her to our group. So, I think you should give up on this idea."


    "Is that so? Well, that''s a shame indeed." Theo nodded nonchntly. "So, how do you get her help this time?"


    "We once hunted the same person, and the mission turned out to be more dangerous than we thought. In the end, I saved her life during the mission. So, she''s just repaying the favor."


    "I see. Well, I''m not going to force someone who doesn''t want to enter my group, so I''ll give up. Though, I''ll offer her once at the very least. Can''t give up without giving my best."


    "I understand." Felix nodded.


    "Well, that''s that��" Theo sighed. "With them gone, we still need to take care of 9-12 Mythical Rank Experts. I don''t know which room will attack uster, but yeah, we should prepare for the worst."


    "Fighting those many people, huh��" Felix thought for a moment. "I can handle half of them, but��" Felix looked at Theo worriedly.


    "Yes. I will fight the ughter and whatever guy with the conquest thingy. Ryo will focus on the defense. So, that leaves four more people." Theo closed his eyes.


    "Three billion!" 042 was bidding for the pair of rings for Theo but still listening to their conversation. She couldn''t help but take a secret peek while gulping down. ''Who the hell are these people? I mean, I don''t know if they''re being arrogant or confident��


    ''The thin guy over there said he can handle six Mythical Rank Experts at once? Seriously? Even a talented one has a hard time fighting three. What is he talking about? He must be bluffing.


    ''And that giant guy is the Knight, right? Can he handle the defense? Even though all of them won''t attack at once, each attack is powerful. Do you think you can handle them by yourself?


    ''Last but not least, Joker. He is the craziest one. He ims that he can stop that psychopath ughterer as well as the guy that controls numerous armies, the conqueror? And he is still a Supreme Rank Expert, right?


    ''Why do I feel like they''re just being overconfident? Am I actually helping an idiotic group?'' 042 didn''t know that this was the time that hermon sense would be shattered.

 Chapter 1288 Suppression

    Chapter 1288 Suppression����"22 Billion!" The middle-aged man looked around before saying, "Going once, going twice, going thrice�� sold!"


    042 let out a sigh of relief and said, "Well, it seems that I have managed to get the rings for us."


    "Yeah, thanks. Though, why did I see a bit of resentment there?" Theo nced at the VIP Room that fought them for the rings.


    "Ehm�� I apologize."


    "Well, whatever." Theo sighed. "I''m going to prepare for another group to take care of."


    It seemed that someone really fancied the ring since that person fought tooth and nail with them. There was a chance that they woulde to them to steal the rings.


    042 thought that she had been careful enough, but to think that the opponent this time was that desperate, even if she didn''t know what to do.


    "Anyway, I might need to kill a few people this time instead of running away." Theo narrowed his eyes. He felt a bit ufortable since he needed to change his n.


    He thought killing them was unnecessary before, but due to the change, he really needed to kill them.


    "Is that so?" Felix nodded with a serious expression. Everyone except 042 actually believed that Theo could kill multiple Mythical Rank Experts after what he showed in that house.


    Theo could restrain many Mythical Rank Experts easily, so it wouldn''t be that much of a problem for Theo to kill some Mythical Rank Experts. Although they were wondering where Theo got such power, they believed Theo had some means like how he always did.


    After another thirty minutes, the main item in this auction had finally appeared.


    It was a pure white stone without any blemish on it.


    Theo could see that it matched the description and the picture, so this was truly the stone that he needed.


    "I''m sure that everyone has been waiting for this item tonight. This is Cholsite Stone, one of the main ingredients if you want to build a powerful artifact. I don''t know if you are aware of this, but it''s said that the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Emperor have their weapons reinforced by this stone. And even the Fist Saint has used this stone to reinforce his bones.


    "Three out of ten strongest people on Earth used this stone to get stronger. So, I don''t need to exin more about its power because the real proof is there.


    "Without further ado, let''s start the auction. The bid starts at 20 billion Zils and every bid can''t be less than 1 billion."


    When everyone heard the starting price, they became crazy. After all, this item was the most important item in this auction. Outside the three mentioned names, there were many more people among the top one hundred experts that used this material. So, they knew that if they wanted to be as strong as them, they needed this stone.


    That was the reason why the ughter and the Conqueror fought for this stone.


    "21 billion."


    "22 billion."


    "23 billion."


    The people on the lower floor tried their best to raise the bid, hoping to get their hands on this stone. However, the first shouting from the VIP room shook the entire hall.


    "30 billion Zils. Anyone who dares to bet will be the target of our Severing Hunters."


    "Idiot, do you think your reputation is worth more than a shit on my boots?" Another VIP room replied while shouting, "35 billion. Unlike him, I''m fighting for the item fair and square. Why don''t you just ban this guy?"


    "40 billion. You won''t be alive past today!"


    "45 billion. Let''s see whether you have the ability to do it or not."


    Their battle was fierce because every bid was five billion. However, no one was happy to see this fight because these two were really ridiculous.


    Hence, a deep voice resounded inside the hall, stopping both of them.


    "70 billion. If you keep fighting, then just give it to me. A conqueror needs a good weapon to lead his army."


    "!!!" It turned out the one that made a move earlier was the Conqueror, the man who was said to be close to the top two hundred people in the world.


    However, the bet became even more ridiculous when Theo gave a signal to bid.


    "71 billion." This time, the one who announced was the Mythical Rank Expert on the stage, considering the VIP room didn''t let out a sound, only giving him the signal about the additional bid.


    "What?" The Conqueror widened his eyes and shouted, "75 billion. You dare to get what I want?"


    "Who don''t dare?" Another person suddenly entered the fray. His high-pitched voice cracked. There was no need for an introduction because his sound was unique. "85 billion."


    ''It''s the ughter. As expected, this is going to be a bloody fight.''


    Everyone had the same thought.


    "90 billion!" Suddenly, a powerful Magic Power burst out, shaking the hall.


    "!!!" The shock wave was soon neutralized by the joint effort of everyone, but they could clearly see where it came from.


    Yes, the Conqueror couldn''t contain his anger this time.


    Even though this was an auction, there was no one powerful enough to regte the auction other than the local auction house. Even though the people still followed the rules of the auction because they didn''t want to lose the trust of the auction house, a little fight like this was normal. That was why everyone brought a bodyguard.


    People in the VIP rooms often fought against each other when they were bidding.


    "It seems that you''re overconfident." The ughterughed before creating a blood-red hand that marched toward the Conqueror.


    A golden lion suddenly emerged from the room and bit the hands, but the Conqueror obviously didn''t have the power called Order.


    The moment the lion touched the hand, it turned red and converted into blood.


    The hand absorbed it and crashed into the room, causing it to crumble.


    "You bastard!" The Conqueror roared but didn''t do more because his power wasn''t enough against the ughter.


    "If no one wants to bid anymore, then this stone shall be mine." The ughterughed uncontrobly before a gentle voice stopped hisugh.


    "100 billion. This is an auction. You fight with money, not power." Theo was the one speaking this time.


    "It seems someone is courting death. In this ce, you fight with both power and money. If your elder hasn''t taught you that, then I will teach you right now!" The ughter formed another blood hand toward Theo''s room.


    Everyone who looked at this situation could only shake their head helplessly, knowing that the ughter was the strongest person in this room. There was no way these people could do anything.

 Chapter 1289 Strength

    Chapter 1289 Strength����Everyone thought Theo would die since even the Conqueror couldn''t do anything against the ughter.


    However, the blood hand suddenly vanished into thin air as though it was erased from existence.


    "What?!" All people dropped their jaws, staring at the disappearing hand in disbelief.


    Even the ughter was stunned because this man could actually erase his Order.


    Suddenly, he ced his hand on the ground while tilting to the left. Numerous spikes emerged from the shadows.


    *ng!*


    The ss shattered and the room started to crumble. The spikes were humongous to the point it made the VIP room look like a sea urchin.


    Two Mythical Rank Experts even left the room to avoid the spikes, showing themselves to the audience.


    "What?"


    "That guy stopped the ughter''s power?"


    "He even fought back to the point the ughter couldn''t do anything."


    Everyone sucked a cold breath, realizing that there was someone who was stronger than the ughter in that room. When they thought no one would be able to get this stone from the ughter, Theo shattered everyone''s expectations.


    042, who doubted Theo earlier, dropped her jaw to the ground. Even she didn''t know that Theo, a small Supreme Rank Expert, had this kind of power. It was true that Theo had the power of a Mythical Rank Expert, but the ughter was different from a normal Mythical Rank Expert.


    This showed that Theo''s power was already beyond a normal Mythical Rank Expert, and he was still in the Supreme Rank right now.


    Meanwhile, Rea, Felix, and Ryo furrowed their eyebrows, feeling weird about this power. Theo''s power was vastly different from this. Although Theo used it once not long ago, they realized that this wasn''t Theo''s power.


    ''Shadow?'' Rea contemted, ''How can he suddenly wield a Shadow Ability? This is weird. Does Father know something about this? No, I don''t think so. I should discuss this with Father.''


    ''His defense, huh��'' Ryo looked at Theo for a moment before realizing that Theo had an overwhelming attack power. What hecked was a shield that could protect him no matter what. He clenched his fists as if he was tightening his grip on the shields. ''I promise that I shall be your sturdy shield.''


    ''Well, a reinforcement that is stronger than anyone else, huh.'' Felix thought. He knew this wasn''t Theo''s power, considering Theo never showed anything like this before. At the same time, this power reminded him of a certain figure.


    She was the monster Theo met when rescuing the people from Argelia.


    ''So, a King ss Monster is the reinforcement. If that''s the case, then I don''t think we need to be afraid of anyone else.'' Felix nodded in satisfaction, believing that everything had been secured. ''As expected of him, to think he would invite a King ss Monster here�� Though, the only risk was his involvement with a monster. There''s a chance that the people will think that he''s betrayed humanity and joined the monster''s side. Well, he should have considered it too.''


    "Bastard!" Their shock was crushed by the cracked voice from the ughter. The spikes turned into blood and disappeared.


    After that, the ughter walked to the edge of the room, showing himself.


    He had spiky white hair with blood-red eyes. He was thin as if he hadn''t eaten for a long time. Hisplexion was pale, but his body emanated a powerful aura.


    He didn''t stop there. Red-colored Magic Power started gushing out of his body as he red at Theo''s VIP room.


    "So, the rumor is true��"


    "The ughter has trained to the absolute limit that his Magic Power starts changing color into blood-red like that�� As if he''s emitting blood mist from his body."


    "This is the power of the ughter��"


    They were afraid of him because the blood-red Magic Power signified his position. Most of the people in this ce never saw a different color of Magic Power. Although they had heard about it, the information was only something simr to the absolute power.


    "It''s said that the ughter has killed so many people that his Magic Power came from the blood of the people he killed."


    "That was why his Magic Power had blood-red color."


    "He''s scary."


    Everyone was talking about his power, especially Magic Power.


    "Who are you?" The ughter shouted.


    Theo spoke immediately, but it wasn''t directed to him. In fact, Theo even ignored him and said to the expert on the stage. "I have made my bid. If you don''t continue, is there even a reason for me to stay here?"


    "Ah?!" The middle-aged man, although scared, still shouted, "100 billion going once! Going twice! Go��"


    Before he finished, the ughter shouted, "101 billion."


    The bid was simply the means to extend the auction duration. Meanwhile, the ughter formed a spear from the blood and shot it toward him. This spear was different from the palm because it had an extraordinary piercing power.


    Suddenly, the shadow of the people on the first floor rose and merged together, turning into another spear. Both tips shed with each other, causing a powerful shock wave.


    "Shadow?"


    "Our shadows are��"


    The people were confused because their shadows had merged and turned into a spear. But Theo ignored them and said nonchntly, "110 billion."


    "You��" The ughter gritted his teeth. When he was about to raise the bid to fight this man, a Mythical Rank Expert from his room stopped him and whispered, "Please stop right now, Sir. There is a chance that the other party is trying to provoke you to bid more. Even if he somehow managed to escapeter, he would be able to make you overpay.


    "Instead of letting him y us the way he wanted, we should stop and let him buy the stone. After that, we''ll start preparing the ns to steal it from him. This way, you''ll get thestugh."


    The ughter''s body shook before snorting. "Hmph. You''ll have a brutal death."


    "110 billion! Going once! Going twice! Going thrice! Sold!"


    The entire hall was shocked that the mysterious man actually managed to win against the ughter.


    In one of the VIP rooms, a young man looked at the ughter before smirking, "I see. This is interesting. Someone who can defeat the ughter, eh? But the ughter hasn''t used all his power as well�� This is interesting, very interesting."

 Chapter 1290 Presence

    Chapter 1290 Presence����"We''ve confirmed the payment." The middle-aged Mythical Rank Expert from the stage nodded after receiving the money, handing them the stone as well as the rings.


    He hurriedly left as soon as he finished handling everything, not wanting to get involved in the bloody fight that would soon happen.


    There are already many people who are leaving this ce, not wanting to be caught in the fight. At the same time, they weren''t going to leave that far because this was the perfect chance to see a fight at this level.


    "I guess we''re leaving now?" 042 asked Theo while handing the two items.


    Theo inspected them for a moment and confirmed that the energy was still the same. After that, he stored the rings in his pocket while putting the stone in a bag.


    "Ryo. Take care of this, will you?" Theo handed the bag to Ryo, who wouldn''t really join the fight.


    "Understood." Ryo nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo finally stood up before snapping his finger. Suddenly, his body started emitting a huge amount of Magic Power like that of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "This is��" 042 sucked a cold breath because Theo truly looked like a Mythical Rank Expert this time.


    At first, Theo didn''t want to bring anyone here, but he realized the situation was a bit too dangerous. He wasn''t rash, so he wanted to be as safe as possible. That was why this group was formed.


    "Well, do you have any problems with moving at high speed?" Theo asked 042 and Rea, who were wearing a dress.


    "I''m good. The dress is short, so it won''t hinder my movement." Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    042 slightly ripped apart her skirt and snapped the heels before saying, "Done."


    "Alright. Let''s go then. What can you do for us, 042?"


    "Lady Maya has expected this kind of problem, so she asked me to help you. I am a Summoner. I have several Mythical Rank Monster souls that I can control to stop them�� At least for a few minutes."


    "Good." Theo then walked to the front, leaving the room. Because of the situation, Ryo ended up taking the front. Felix stayed at the back with his hand on his sword. Meanwhile, the twodies were walking by Theo''s sides as if Theo was unting his status.


    Still, the moment they left, they were greeted by the curious gazes of the bystanders. Luckily, there were not many people that dared to snatch the stones, considering Theo had the ability to fight against the ughter.


    Still, the major influences that had the ability and intention to do it were nowhere to be seen. It was clear they were setting up some ambush after Theo was a bit farther away from the city.


    Of course, they didn''t care if they ended up fighting inside the city. But Theo nned not to cause so much problem, so he led his group straight to the forest not far from the auction house.


    More and more presence soon entered Theo''s senses. His Awareness was close to thest stage, so he could find them faster than anyone else in the group.


    "13 people��" Theo muttered in a low voice while maintaining his calm expression.


    "13 people?" 420 frowned since the number didn''t match up.


    "How is the other unit?" Theo asked Rea while looking around.


    "They''re here."


    "So, assuming 3 out of those 13 people are allies, then�� No wait, there is one more presence�� But this one is so far away and the presence is thin��" Theo suddenly turned around and raised his vision, looking at the small hill half a mile from them. "Felix��"


    "I''m afraid it''s her." Felix nodded.


    Meanwhile, the person in question gasped and even hid behind a tree when she sensed Theo''s gaze. Even in the darkness, she had no problem watching their movements, so it was clear that Theo had found her.


    "Seriously? He could find me from this far away? My presence is already thin, and this distance should be enough to hide from all the people I''ve seen so far, but he actually found me?" The woman sucked a cold breath.


    She didn''t know that Theo had seen her power through his Reality Eyes. In that reality, the opponent rashly charged at him, so she had no choice but to open fire.


    By calcting the angle and focusing his Awareness in that direction, he managed to find her barely.


    "Is he the man Felix worked for right now? Felix is a lunatic in the assassination work, but because of his family situation, he let go of his S Rank Assassin status�� it seems that the person he works for is a monster like him." The woman muttered in a low voice, assessing the situation. "Whatever. My job is simple. I''ll buy them a few minutes so that they can escape."


    She calmed her heart down beforeing out of her hiding ce and raising her left hand. Her hand gesture appeared as if she was holding a bow, but there wasn''t a single thing in it.


    At the same time, her right hand moved to her back as if pulling out an arrow from a quiver. However, just like the other hand, she had no equipment.


    She made a gesture of drawing the bow and aiming at the group. If this was seen by an ordinary person, she looked like an actress who was into her act. But if there was a Supreme or Mythical Rank Expert here, they would see a huge amount of Magic Power that concentrated on both hands, forming a bow and arrow.


    Meanwhile, Theo finally started moving again before he felt all the people around him moving closer to the point they showed themselves.


    Three people were in front of them while the rest gathered on his back.


    "Stop. Hand over the stone, and we''ll let you go." The Mythical Rank Expert in front of them shouted before ncing at the other who wanted to get a piece of what Theo said. "Brother. Do you think you can fight against all these Mythical Rank Experts?"


    "It seems they have teamed up in exchange for splitting the reward," said Rea while ncing at the Mythical Rank Experts. She then found a group that blinked four times as soon as their gazes interlocked. "Should we break through here?"

 Chapter 1291 Appearance

    Chapter 1291 Appearance����"No. Let''s kill some to make our lives easier." Theo''s voice echoed in everyone''s ears. "Take care of the rest. I''ll try to kill those three as soon as possible."


    "You bastard!" The guy gritted his teeth and shouted, "Since you don''t want to live, I''m going to send you to your maker right now. Attack!"


    The first to move was the group that gave Rea a signal. As soon as they heard themand, they turned around and struck the group next to them.


    As one would expect from Mythical Rank Experts, they managed to block their attacks, but the confusion had been sown.


    Since Theo wanted to take three of them and the other three had defected, stopping another three, only four targets were left.


    "Protect them. I''m going in." Felix patted Ryo''s shoulder before jumping toward the remaining four Mythical Rank Experts.


    His de shone as if it was reflecting the moonlight. "Here hees!"


    One of them stepped forward and blocked Felix''s attack with his shield while the other looped around. One of them attacked Felix while the other two headed straight to Theo''s group.


    "Where do you think you''re going?" Felix''s eyes started emitting killing intent as he spun his body, avoiding the attack while making his way toward the two guys that wanted to harm his people.


    "Stop!" Ryo suddenly shouted while raising a shield as big as him to the front as if he was preparing to stop the two guys.


    However, his focus was on something else. There were three lights approaching them from the sky. When he took a closer look, he could see fire, lightning, and light.


    Thebination of the three of them should be enough for a huge explosion that would affect the entire battlefield.


    "Great Wall." Ryo''s shield shone before it projected a huge wall that separated them from the remaining people. Still, Felix would be in the middle of explosions, so he didn''t know what to do.


    When the three attacks came closer and closer to the point their light started illuminating the area, they exploded in session.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes as they couldn''t see anything before the attacks exploded.


    Felix smiled, knowing that it was the work of his friend. He didn''t hesitate to catch up with the two enemies and attack them.


    "I shall help you." 042 shouted before raising both hands. "Selxon, Melxon."


    Two werewolves appeared out of thin air as they howled to the moon. Their eyes turned bloodshot as they ran toward Felix, trying to help him restrain the other two so that he could focus on them.


    Felix appreciated the gesture and he immediately stepped up his game.


    He spun a few times like he was dancing while delivering precise and deadly strikes in rapid sessions.


    "What''s wrong with him?" The two experts gritted their teeth. They felt overwhelmed by Felix''s attack. If they didn''t stop him together, Felix would have already cut one of them.


    Still, this situation wouldn''tst long, so they truly hoped for reinforcement.


    In the meantime, Theo leaped forward, facing the three Mythical Rank Experts. With a single wave of his hand, the shadow of these three people rose from the ground and turned into chains, circling around them.


    Without hesitation, those three charged forward, trying to outrun their own shadows. However, that was impossible because this shadow wasn''t reinforced by the Fist Saint''s power, so it still had the basic shadow''s property.


    The chains followed them and were about to capture them.


    However, the man in the center roared as he released a huge lightning spark that extinguished everything around him. Unlike the soldiers earlier, these guys were ready for a fight, so they managed to react to these chains.


    The lightning spark was burning the chains, whether on him or his teammates. As for his two teammates, the Magic Warrior took this chance toe closer to Theo while thrusting his spear.


    The blue light in his spear expanded and turned into a dragon head made of water. The dragon head opened its mouth and tried to swallow Theo before the chains could capture them.


    Theo formed a huge drill with his own shadow and started spinning it like a real drill, shredding the dragon.


    Meanwhile, the other Mythical Rank Expert approached him from the side with two daggers to assassinate him.


    Theo lifted his hand as another shadow drill appeared next to him, scaring the assassin away.


    They ended up regrouping, giving Theo the opportunity to attack them.


    Sadly, his chance was interrupted by the loudest guy in the auction.


    *Roar!*


    A lion roar reverberated on the battlefield as a golden light shone in the sky. It was so bright that they thought the sun had descended.


    "That stone is mine. No one shall take it from me!" The Conqueror dered out loud while channeling all that golden lightning into his right fist. "Conqueror Fist!"


    Theo narrowed his eyes while looking at his teammates. In the end, he jumped back to regroup while creating a barrier to protect them.


    However, the Conqueror''s fist was much stronger than anyone expected. The moment it touched the ground, the entire area, over one hundred feet radius, turned into a crater. The stones also came out like spikes. Those spikes moved toward Theo and his group.


    Fortunately, Theo managed to create a barrier to protect the group with his Magic Power. But the challenge had yet to end because there was red crescent-shaped blood running through the ground.


    "!!!" Theo turned around and formed a sword with his shadow. That sword then released simr shaped energy toward the blood wave.


    Their sh caused a huge explosion consisting of two colors, ck and red.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, knowing that he had missed the chance to kill those three Mythical Rank Experts. No, the two didn''t want him to kill them because they still had some uses for them.


    "I''ve told you earlier. You''ll die a horrible death." The ughter red at Theo.


    "Fu��" Theo let out a long breath, focusing on the battle as the fight had just gone to another level.

 Chapter 1292 Fighting Two Strong Men

    Chapter 1292 Fighting Two Strong Men����''Is he going to be alright? His opponents are dangerous people��'' Rea thought, recalling the importance of the people at their levels. Even her father imed they were dangerous. In fact, that was the reason why Theo got an earful ofments from her father when he presented this n.


    However, Theo had prepared to fight them, especially the ughter.


    "You all go to the others. We''ll handle this youngster who doesn''t know about respect." The Conqueror shouted to the three experts that fought Theo earlier.


    Theo''s choice in showing his strength against the ughter had now turned against him. If Theo chose to steal it from them, he could orchestrate an ambush against him by using these people. But due to his superiority in the auction, the people decided to band together to eliminate the biggest threat.


    After that, they could fight among themselves for the stone. In other words, his superiority forced the others to gang up on him. This was also why Theo usually let the others gain superiority first.


    Unfortunately, he had his own principle to win the bidding war. Hence, he needed to solve the problem he''d created.


    And that solution was none other than Felix. Yes, the enemies would overwhelm them with their number if not for Theo cing his main card on Felix''s extraordinary power.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    The shout shocked every person on the battlefield as they turned around, finding Felix cutting down two of his enemies.


    "What?" They were bewildered by the sudden situation.


    However, this was a chance for a counterattack. Theo pointed at the group the Sword Saint sent. Without saying anything, the other group understood Theo''s intention since they had received their instruction before.


    Theo''s gesture was tranted as, ''Take care of those three people as far as possible and flee. There''s no need for you to risk your lives in this ce,'' to them.


    And the Sword Saint had told them to trust Theo''s words no matter how absurd they were.


    Hence, the Japanese team hurriedly dragged their opponents away from the battlefield.


    Meanwhile, Felix''s friend sniped the three iing experts, stopping them from reaching Felix. At the same time, she took care of the iing volleys of attacks that would disrupt the battlefield.


    Theo could clearly see her powerful ability, so he shouted to Felix, "Kill those two men, and we shall escape from here."


    "Do you think you can escape from this ce?" The Conqueror roared as he waved down his hand. "Bow down to me, the Conqueror!"


    Theo felt an overwhelming pressure above him, trying to make him kneel. While he was being restricted, the ughter waved both hands, creating a blood spear and shooting Theo with it.


    The difference between a Supreme Rank Expert and a Mythical Rank Expert was huge. However, the Shadow King had given a part of her power.


    "This is annoying." Theo clicked his tongue and raised his left hand. People had their shadows controlled by Theo and rose to the air. Instead of blocking the ughter''s spear, Theo used his Blink to appear behind the Conqueror.


    "!!!" The Conqueror and the ughter widened their eyes because they were sure it wasn''t Theo''s speed but a space element ability.


    "Teleportation?" The Conqueror widened his eyes in shock while turning around, trying to block whatever Theo had for him.


    However, the ughter could see that Theonded in the Conqueror''s shadow and shouted, "No. He can teleport to people''s shadows!"


    ''Thanks for the misunderstanding.'' Theo thought as he waved his shadow sword, releasing a ck wave.


    "Haaa!" The Conqueror covered his hand with the golden energy, catching this ck wave.


    However, the force from a King ss Monster was something that not the like of him could catch easily. His body was pushed back, giving Theo an opportunity to focus on the ughter.


    The ughter''s shadow rose and circled around him to restrict him. Surprisingly, the ughter even let himself be caught.


    "You didn''t catch me." The ughterughed as he released red Magic Power from his body. In an instant, the shadow turned into blood red before dropping like that of real blood.


    "This is the difference between us." The ughter smirked.


    However, Theo also showed something that closed his mouth. A ck-colored Magic Power came out of his body as Theo''s body was covered with his own shadow.


    "That''s��" Felix nced at Theo in shock.


    Even Rea thought, ''Isn''t that what Father likes when he gets serious? Just like the ughter, he has reached a level where his Magic Power is influenced by his own power,'' thought Rea. It was quite ignorant, but the Sword Saint never exined his power to her. So, she was oblivious to this level of power. She only knew that Theo had surpassed a certain threshold.


    "So, you have it too." The ughter had some suspicions when Theo could match his ability, but now he had confirmed it.


    On the other hand, the Conqueror was gritting his teeth as he was the only one who hadn''t reached that level.


    "You bastard!" He shouted in anger, trying to fight against Theo. Since he couldn''t recall Theo''s name in the ranking, he thought the ughter was stronger than Theo. So, there was a chance for him to defeat Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo never ced him in his eyes. As soon as he came toward him, Theo raised his sword, shing downward.


    Suddenly, the Conqueror leaped to the side as a powerful shock wave appeared and crushed the ground.


    "��" The Conqueror recognized this power. It was Perfect Control. However, he also had mastered one aspect and was close to mastering another one. He mastered Endurance among the Five Aspects.


    Hence, he charged forward to Theo without fear this time after confirming Theo''s power. It wasn''t at the level he could harm him, so he just needed to maintain his distance before killing Theo.


    On the other hand, the ughter had been a bit too quiet this whole time. To the point he started to be wary of his presence. There was a chance that the ughter had another n to disrupt the battlefield.


    Unfortunately for him, what he feared the most came. The ughter waved his hand, sending forth crescent-shaped blood toward Ryo and the others.


    "!!!" Ryo turned around and ced his shield in the front, preparing to take on this advantage.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1293 Gettting an Upper Hand

    Chapter 1293 Gettting an Upper Hand����"Ah!" Ryo widened his eyes in shock because he never felt the impact. He soon saw Theo blocking this kind of power for them.


    "Your shield will turn into blood if you block it and end up taking your life," said Theo.


    Ryo had worked hard during this fight. Even Felix couldn''t handle all attacks if they wereunched at the group, so Ryo was the one taking all of them.


    However, this attack was at a different levelpared to the other attacks. An attack that was infused by Order. Although he could easily use his power to remove it, he didn''t want to utilize his own Order too much to avoid being suspected of having two Orders. When that happened, he would face more problems.


    "No need to care about them. I''ll be the one handling these two people." Theo released all the ck Magic Power from his body.


    ''It''s really hard to fight without using my own power. And I can only use three abilities of the Shadow King. As for Felix�� he seems to need another three minutes to eliminate the other two people.''


    "He is protecting them. In that case, focus on them instead of him. After his group crumbles, we can start surrounding him!" The Conqueror said, assessing their situation.


    "Indeed." The ughter smirked excitedly.


    Even so, these two fought slowly. It might be due to their confidence that they could defeat them or whatever, but this was Theo''s opportunity to buy some more time.


    ''Well, my original n wasn''t to fight them. I only wanted to escape, so��'' Theo raised both hands and nced at the forest not far from them. He really wanted to go there right now since the trees produced a lot of shadows. When they reached that ce, he had confidence in escaping.


    Of course, Theo could utilize the shadows of the grasses in this area, but this wasn''t his Order. So, his control was sloppy. There was no way he could utilize a shadow at that size.


    ''Shadow huh��What kind of illusion can I use with shadow?'' Theo got another thought before he saw the twoing toward him.


    The ughter waved his hand and sttered the blood around him. Before touching the ground, the blood turned into bats that flew in different directions.


    At the same time, the Conqueror punched forward, sending overwhelming pressure. Theo even felt that this shock wave had a domination aura that wanted everyone to kneel before it.


    ''He''s close to getting an Order.'' Theo thought. At the same time, the ughter also had a thought about Theo. ''He has an Order from such a young age. However, he''s not that good yet. This is the chance to kill him.''


    Theo stomped the ground, channeling his own shadow and expanding it into a wall that split the shock wave.


    However, it meant that no one could catch up with the blood bats.


    "Suck them all, my bats!" The ughterughed uncontrobly.


    Unfortunately for him, if he wanted to fight Theo, he shouldn''t fight with numbers or something flying. After all, the shadows that the bats created were longer when they were flying.


    "Not in my watch." Theo pped his hands as the bats'' shadows turned into long spikes.


    All the bats were shredded apart.


    "Or so you think." The ughter''s smile became even bigger as the bats were only a distraction.


    The real attack was the blood on the other side. Felix had killed two people and injured another two people, so their blood was perfect to be utilized as weapons.


    The blood rose on the other side, forming a giant bat.


    Theo could see it with his Awareness. Even if he didn''t turn back, he knew what kind of shape and power the bat had.


    Instead of turning around to show his weakness, Theo waved his shadow sword, sending forth another ck wave.


    The ughter covered his hands with red energy as he caught this ck wave. This was the sh of the two Orders.


    The Blood Order turned the ck wave into blood. At the same time, the ck wave slightly flew upward, causing another shadow that corroded the Blood Order.


    Still, the ck wave didn''t have an unlimited supply of Order Energy since Theo was far away from his attack. In the end, the ughter managed to turn all energy into blood, neutralizing the attack.


    "This is not eno��" As the ughter wanted to tell Theo that he wasn''t at his level yet, he lost contact with his blood weapon on the other side. When he raised his vision, he realized that Theo used the ck wave to cover his eyes so that he could use that time to neutralize his power.


    Unfortunately, this was costly for Theo as well. Since he had split his focus on those two, the shield in front of him became weak.


    "Smash. Conqueror Fist!" The Conqueror took this opportunity to smash through the wall, taking advantage of the wall as Theo''s blindspot.


    "Now you die, whoever you are! I''ll soon be famous." The Conqueror smirked as he sent his fist toward Theo.


    "Or so you think��" Theo smirked as he tilted his body back as if he was about to drop to the ground. His foot moved upward as if he wanted to kick the Conqueror''s balls.


    "No, I''m out of your dis��" The Conqueror thought Theo''s foot wasn''t long enough to reach him, but he saw the shadow extend his foot by creating a long de in front of it.


    "!!!" The Conqueror leaped to the side, avoiding this attack.


    However, Theo''s attack wasn''t directed at him only. That de sent another ck wave toward the ughter.


    "Tsk." The ughter used his power to turn the ck wave into blood again.


    Theo didn''t stop his attack here. He ducked down before both of them could recover from their positions. After that, he sent a horizontal sword wave, forcing both of them to jump into the air.


    "Not good." The Conqueror was the first to react byunching his body into the air with his hand.


    Unfortunately for him, now that he was in the air, he couldn''t avoid Theo''s attack. The Conqueror could see Theo''s shoe right in front of his eyes.


    Strength 3931


    Theo smirked as he utilized his real Order and kicked the Conqueror.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1294 Escape

    Chapter 1294 Escape����*Bam!*


    The Conqueror managed to raise his arms to block this kick at thest minute, but he certainly felt the extraordinary impact of that kick.


    ''What is this��'' The Conqueror gritted his teeth as he felt his bone break despite mastering Endurance.


    The Conqueror''s body flew toward the ughter and ended up crashing onto him.


    "Gah!"


    Both of them flew a few feet away.


    "Argh." The Conqueror rose from the ground but was unable to raise his arms. Both bones in his arms had been crushed from that strength alone.


    It was true that Theo didn''t use Energy st or Enhanced Concentration Capacity to amplify his attack, but a strength close to 4000 points was everything but ordinary.


    If it was a normal person, that blow would have continued to their heart and killed a normal Mythical Rank Expert. Even so, the Conqueror''s extraordinary Endurance as well as his reaction speed somehow managed to catch that kick with only broken bones.


    On the other hand, the ughter also felt like he was hit by a truck since the Conqueror''s body was truly that hard.


    Still, Theo wasn''t in good condition either. Although the ability onlysted for two seconds, Theo still felt exhausted.


    ''I can only use that power for five seconds, and I''ve wasted two seconds. And now�� my feet are hurt because the Strength developed my muscles to the very limit for two seconds. It was like what I experienced when fighting Avarice. Still, I can endure the pain. It''s not a problem. The muscle is not torn either.''


    Theo assessed his condition before looking at the Conqueror and ughter.


    It seemed that the Conqueror''s Endurance would be able to fix those broken bones in a few minutes. Meanwhile, the ughter still had some ability to fight.


    ''Well, I don''t think I can use my Reality Order anymore since the ughter seems to be able to pick up a different Order��'' Theo clenched his fists. Now that the Conqueror was out of the picture, he should be able to use this chance to run away.


    "I think my body needs five minutes to recover the broken bones. I can''t fight during that time to maximize the healing output," said the Conqueror to the ughter.


    "Is that so? In that case��" The ughter, who was behind him, suddenly pierced the Conqueror''s heart from the back.


    "What?!" The Conqueror spat a mouthful of blood as he looked down, finding the ughter''s bloodied hand. "You��"


    The Conqueror turned his head around, but before he could say anything, the ughter pulled his hand and crushed his heart on the way, killing him.


    "You''re useless now." The ughter grinned while looking at Theo. "I don''t know who you are, but you should surrender. Only that way can you keep your life."


    "Killing your coborators? Do you think I''ll join someone like that?" Theo frowned.


    "He''s already useless. Even the people he brought couldn''t do anything." The ughter snorted while ncing at the remaining two people that Felix killed.


    It turned out those four people were the Conqueror''s force. With Felix killing those four experts, they now had the opportunity to break through this situation. And Theo nned to do it.


    However, he soon picked up multiple presences around the area that wereing toward them at a fast speed.


    "We''re moving!" Theo hurriedly shouted, informing his group.


    Unfortunately for them, before they could leave this ce, ten Mythical Rank Experts had arrived, surrounding them.


    "This is my turf. You won''t be able to escape from this ce alive." The ughter smirked, looking down on him. He was even thankful to other experts who had exhausted Theo''s force.


    Felix immediately returned to the group while asking, "What should we do now? My friends still held back those three, but there are ten people like these��"


    Theo looked around. Even Felix would have a hard time fighting five of them since he was the strongest during the day when the sun was at its peak. And 042 could only hold back two experts. That left four more Experts for Ryo to take care of since Theo needed to focus on the ughter.


    Unfortunately, the Japan team had left to take care of three Mythical Rank Experts. There was no way they would return here and help them.


    In other words, Theo''s group needed to handle all these people by themselves.


    "This is really surprising. To think that you''ve prepared your people in this ce��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "I already told you, this is my turf." The ughter smirked. "Surrender, and I''ll let you keep your life. Of course, you''re going to be my blood ve after that."


    "No need to emphasize your turf. It seems that not all the Mythical Rank Experts here are yours. So, there is another coborator��" Theo looked around and noticed that a few of them were foreigners. It was clear that the entire n was orchestrated by this hidden mastermind.


    ''Who is the mastermind?'' Theo thought while examining the people with his Reality Eyes. Unfortunately, he could only see the present, not the future. Or else, he would have discovered the culprit already. In the present, no one seemed to be foolish enough to say something.


    "I will give you ten seconds. If I don''t get your answer by then, I''ll exterminate your group. 10��"


    The ughter started counting as Theo let out a long sigh and turned his head to the others.


    "Sorry, guys."


    When the ughter heard that statement, he was excited because he could control Theo.


    However, Theo raised his foot before they could answer.


    The ughter remembered the kick that crushed the Conqueror, so he shouted, "Not good. Attack him!"


    They hurriedly charged toward the group, but Theo smirked as he waved his hands. Now that these people were close enough, he controlled their shadows and turned them into des that aimed for their lives.


    "!!!" All Mythical Rank Experts widened their eyes and hurriedly jumped to the side to avoid this attack.


    Theo utilized this chance to form a half-sphere to cover his group.


    "Ha!" The ughter sent his own blood to disperse the ck sphere.


    However, it was toote. Theo and his group were gone.


    "!!!" The ughter remembered Theo''s teleportation ability.


    "Shadow�� a ce where there are many shadows��" The ughter hurriedly turned around and saw Theo and his group appearing next to the forest.


    "Do you think I can only use big shadows?" Theo stuck his tongue out before adding inwardly, ''You goddamn right.''


    But the ughter misunderstood him and thought, ''He�� He teleported to the grass'' shadow and carried his whole team?''

 Chapter 1295 Confusing Situation

    Chapter 1295 Confusing Situation����The entire team chased after Theo as they couldn''t afford to let him go away with the stone.


    "��" Theo nced back while running. With the distance they had right now, it was clear that the enemies wouldn''t be able to catch up before he reached the forest.


    However, there was a question in his mind. Since the other party had an Order, they should know more about the four seals. He wondered why the ughter had yet to use his Death Seal.


    If he marked him, he would be able to know his location as long as he was near him. There was no way Theo could escape easily after that. And this situation wasn''t simr to when Theo met the Death Reaper or when the Frost Saint fought the Fist Saint.


    He could understand why none of them ced their Death Seal.


    ''Ah, I almost forgot the fact that you could only sense that person within your territory. I guess he doesn''t ce his Covenant Seal in this ce. There are more things I can learn about Orders.'' Theo saw the iing blood bat and formed a shield from the shadow, blocking the bat.


    "Hurry up, chase after them!" The ughter continued to shout but to no avail.


    Theo kept getting closer and closer to the forest before he suddenly waved his hand around as if trying to control the shadow of the grass. This way, the spikes would have killed a few unprepared Mythical Rank Experts.


    In that instant, the ughter shouted, "No, stop! The shadow from the grass will��"


    The instant he stopped, he realized Theo had tricked him because nothing happened. Theo took that opportunity to finally enter the forest where he could finally show his true might.


    "Not good! Pursue them, but thread the forest carefully." The ughtermanded again, but this was a truly contradictory instruction. On the one hand, if they wanted to pursue them, they needed to use their full speed. On the other hand, they couldn''t do it if they moved carefully.


    This was a significant part of Theo''s n since he had shown enough to make these people scared.


    The moment the enemies entered the forest, Theo waved his hands, using the Shadow King''s ability to control the shadow of the trees, branches, and bushes.


    Numerous spikes manifested around them.


    "What?"


    "Kh."


    "Argh!"


    The people were confused because they''d never seen these spikesing. Some of them managed to block this attack, while some took the hits because they couldn''t react fast enough.


    "You shouldn''t have killed the Conqueror. Well, he would have been perfect to be a Human Bulldozer in this ce. Hahaha." Theoughed out loud, mocking the ughter''s decision.


    However, the ughter couldn''t say anything since he knew that the Conqueror could release his overwhelming might to the area, blowing these trees. As long as he moved together with them, the trees would have fallen down before Theo could utilize their shadow.


    And now, he needed to pay for his choice.


    "Blood Wave." The ughter shouted in frustration, sending forth the crescent-shaped blood to cut down the trees before him. Like him, the other Mythical Rank Experts could destroy a part of the forest with their power, but there was a problem.


    The shadow spikes soon vanished into thin air, but Theo released his own ck wave to destroy his blood wave, causing Theo to still be protected by the woods.


    ''So, this is his n��'' Rea thought. ''After showing how he could utilize the shadows, especially the big ones likeing from humans, he is making the people hesitate to pursue him. And even if they do, it won''t be that easy.


    ''Still, there is one more question. Those foreigners�� Why do they help the ughter? Who is the mastermind Theo is talking about?'' Rea narrowed her eyes, wondering what was going on behind the scenes. ''There is no way the ughter will join forces with someone unknown.''


    ''Even the Conqueror was murdered by him. It meant this coborator was someone as strong as him or even stronger. Can Theo fight both of them at the same time?''


    Rea was worried that if Theo fought against these two powerful men, he would lose.


    It seemed Felix was also aware of this situation and approached Theo. "What should we do now? I don''t think we can escape this easily."


    Theo nced back and saw the ughter leading his group carefully. If he continued this way, Theo could easily run away from them after some time.


    However, there was a potential threating from the one partnered with the ughter. He didn''t know what kind of n the other party had for him.


    In his mind, specifically his eyes, he ran many simtions through multiple universes simr to this one. To his surprise, there wasn''t a single time he was ambushed or had the indication of an ambush.


    ''What''s going on?'' Theo frowned. He had expected an ambush the moment the ughter joined hands with another party. So, he couldn''t understand their current situation.


    ''Should I continue with the original n or change our course?'' This was the first time Theo couldn''t see through the situation due to the unknown enemy. Unlike his enemies this far, he had no information about this one.


    Since he didn''t know what this person was aiming for, Theo had no idea what to do as well.


    "Let''s continue with our original n for the time being." Theo ultimately decided that it was safer to stick to their original n. He could change his n if something happened anyway.


    "Understood." Felix acknowledged the order.


    However, they were soon shocked when 042 came to them, saying, "Excuse me. We have a situation here."


    Theo saw her pointing at the back. He thought the ughter had caught up to him, but to their surprise, the ughter had disappeared from his Awareness.


    He couldn''t sense him anymore as if he had just disappeared. Luckily, Theo had gotten used to splitting his focus, so he knew that the ughter stopped the chase as if they''d given up.


    "This is��" Theo narrowed his eyes, not knowing the reason why the ughter suddenly stopped.


    "What is going on?" 042 asked, perplexed by the sudden turn of events.

 Chapter 1296 Mysterious Young Man

    Chapter 1296 Mysterious Young Man����On the back, the ughter was stopped by the people he coborated with.


    "What is this?" The ughter furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the Mythical Rank Experts lent to him.


    Unfortunately for him, none of them said a single thing. They just stood in front of him, blocking his way.


    "If you''re not going to say something, then I''ll kill you too." The ughter shouted as he released his red Magic Power.


    However, a young man''s voice soon echoed in his ears. "You are not strong enough to kill them."


    "What did you say?" The ughter gritted his teeth, turning around only to find a young man walking toward them.


    He had blue hair and wore sses even during the night. His clothes were just a simple suit that he wore previously in the auction.


    "I''ve agreed to cooperate with you because I want that stone. If you''re going to stop me, then I''ll kill you." The ughter couldn''t stand this guy''s nonchnt face as if he had done nothing wrong.


    "It''s impossible. You can''t defeat me." The young man harrumphed. His face was brimming with confidence.


    "Then, die!" The ughter didn''t want to waste any more time with him and hurriedly attacked him with his blood bat.


    Meanwhile, the young man jumped back to regain the distance. After that, he pointed his palm toward the blood bat as ck-colored energy came out of his palm.


    "Devour."


    The ck energy then swallowed the ughter''s blood bat.


    "Hmph!" The ughter instantly utilized his power to turn this ck power into blood like he usually did.


    Unexpectedly, the moment the bat released their energy, everything was devoured by this ck power like what the young man said earlier. His Magic Power, his Order, and even his skill were devoured.


    "This is��" The ughter widened his eyes in shock before forming a giant blood spear above his head.


    The young man smiled and released the same power, enveloping the spear. The spear shrank and eventually disappeared.


    "There is nothing that I can''t devour, including your power." The young man smirked, releasing his power to the surroundings.


    In that instant, the Mythical Rank Experts from his side leaped away as if knowing what would happen.


    However, the Mythical Rank Experts from the ughter''s side didn''t know about this power before they were eventually surrounded by this ck power that kept expanding.


    One of them got their hand touched by this ck substance. And in just one second, his hand became so thin that only bones and skin were left. The blood, the Magic Power, and even the muscles had been devoured by this power.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The Mythical Rank Expert screamed in pain, but it was toote. The ck power had moved toward his body and sucked everything in him. He died.


    The corpse only had bones and skin left. The color of his skin was dark gray as if nothing was left in him.


    "You bastard!" The ughter shouted and sent another spear to stop the ck power. At the same time, he realized he couldn''t feel any blood left on the corpse.


    The young man easily spread his power and devoured everything around him. All the experts the ughter brought with him died after touching the ck substance. The ground turned gray, and the tree died as soon as they touched, as though the ck substance took away every life they had in them.


    "Hahaha, die." The young manughed as he released another ck substance from his body, turning it into a giant shark that would swallow everything on its path.


    "!!!" The ughter''s body shook because he never expected that his people would die in an instant. And the cause was the young man before him. There wasn''t even a struggle because they were too shocked by the ck substance.


    And this time, the young man was nning to kill him. For the first time in his life, he felt fear running through his body.


    "What is this��" The ughter leaped back, regaining some distance. He could see that this man was using his Order, but he didn''t know what kind of Order he used.


    With this kind of power, the young man should be in the top 50 strongest people in the world. Yet, he had no information about the young man at all.


    As someone who had been working in the underworld for decades, he could see through some face masks or illusions that could hide his face, but he didn''t see any of that.


    "Who are you?" The ughter finally realized that he had made a deal with the devil. And this unknown devil would surely leave no one alive to tell the tale, considering he had gone through such a length to hide his identity.


    "Me?" The young man had a huge grin as heughed uncontrobly. "Hahaha. This is funny. All the people in the world have known me, but you don''t. I am a man who has returned from death."


    The ughter didn''t know anything about this person even though he had given him some hints. After all, there was no way for someone to return from death.


    "And now, you need to choose. Kneel before me and acknowledge me as your owner or I will kill you." The young man smirked.


    "Owner? Do you think I''m a pet?"


    "A pet? A pet is someone who I still need to care for. You''re not a pet; you''re my ve."


    "ve?" The ughter gritted his teeth, never expecting that the young man had an even more ridiculous thought than him. He couldn''t contain his anger anymore as he charged forward, releasing the blood from his own body to create the strongest attack.


    Unfortunately for him, he suddenly dropped to the ground after extreme pain jolted his mind.


    "Eh?" The ughter widened his eyes as he saw his feet had turned into skeletons due to him stepping on the dead ground. And he realized that his body would experience the same thing the moment he fell.


    But there was no more time to react as the ughter touched the ground and had his life force devoured by the young man''s power.


    "Hahahaha!" The young manughed uncontrobly while looking at the darkness where Theo''s group went. "Just you wait for me�� You''re going to die, but not now��"


    Unexpectedly, the young man said something that no one other than the insider should have known. "Theodore Griffith."

 Chapter 1297 Phantom Archer

    Chapter 1297 Phantom Archer����"We have arrived." Theo, unaware of the madness behind him, had finally reached the teleportation circle.


    "Yes. Then, we''ll go separate ways from here." Felix nodded with a serious expression. "But are you sure you''re alright with this?"


    "Don''t worry. Even if I can''t fight against the monsters, I have the ability to escape." Theo patted Felix''s shoulder while assuring him to not worry about him too much. Felix always worried too much after all.


    "I understand." Felix was a bit reluctant but still trusted Theo.


    "042, you can go back with them." Theo pointed at Felix and Ryo. "They can testify for you."


    "Thank you." 042 thanked Theo politely since this meant she would be able to work with Maya directly. She had achieved her objective.


    Suddenly, Felix and Theo raised their hands, looking at the rooftop of the building next to them.


    "That''s��" Theo nced at Felix, who confirmed his suspicion. "Your friend."


    "Yeah."


    After arriving at the building rooftop, it seemed she was going down properly.


    In the meantime, Theo turned to Rea. "You''re going with me to the other side. I''ll train you personally there; you can''tin about my conditions."


    "I understand." Rea agreed since she had prepared for this training. In fact, she was looking forward to what kind of training Theo would give. Agata had glorified it, so it made her a bit excited.


    Before long, a woman suddenly walked toward them. She had long ck hair and a poker face. Even though she was an archer that could snipe someone from far away, there was no trace of a bracelet, ring, or even a real item as her weapons. It seemed that she truly came to this ce bringing only her body.


    "Hello." The woman nodded to them.


    "Hello, thank you for the help." Theo smiled.


    "I was just repaying the favor." The woman nced at Felix. "I have repaid the favor of saving my life, S Rank Assassin, the White Death, Felix Holt."


    "White Death?" Theo tilted his head in confusion while Rea gasped.


    After searching for the people who put a bounty on Theo''s head, Rea found the name of the White Death. She immediately gasped and looked at Felix. "You are the White Death?"


    042 also dropped her jaw, recognizing this title. There was a trace of fear when she looked at Felix.


    "So, you''re famous, Felix?" Theo looked at him with a poker face.


    "Famous? Don''t use simple terms like that one. He''s more than famous." Rea sucked a cold breath. "Rank 6th registered assassin in the world. If it''s in the world ranking, his rank should be around 400-500. But he is an assassin, even if the enemy is a rank 300-400 person, he would be able to kill them." Rea exined. Of course, she dared to reveal all that information because they were standing in a slightly remote area where not many people passed by.


    "Oh?" Theo nodded. He had expected something like this, considering Felix''s strength was extraordinary. He figured out that Felix would be able to match Walker despite thetter using his unbreakable chain.


    "I have stopped working as an assassin." Felix shook his head calmly. "So, please don''t call me with my title."


    Felix wasn''t worried about Theo knowing his identity. In fact, he thought Theo was already aware of it before recruiting him.


    It turned out that Theo was unaware of his identity. It meant Theo valued him as Felix Holt, not the master assassin. It meant a lot to him since it showed Theo''s sincerity.


    "Still, why did you just know about it?" Theo asked Rea.


    "In that list, everyone has their own codename. There''s no real name, so I never expect that he is the White Death." Rea shook her head helplessly.


    "Well, in terms of assassination, I guess you''re already above me." Felix looked at the woman. "Right? Phantom Archer?"


    "Phantom Archer?" Rea dropped her jaw again. "Rank 7th in the list, Phantom Archer. It''s said that both Phantom Archer and White Death were rivals."


    "I never surpassed his rank despite him being too focused on his family. Tsk." The woman clicked her tongue, annoyed.


    "Ah, sorry." Rea calmed down and apologized since it was rude topare them even though she was shocked.


    "No problem. Anyway, I helped you just to repay him. So, you don''t need to think much about it. Now that I''ve finished my job, it''s time for me to leave." The woman nodded her head.


    "Wait a minute." Theo opened his mouth, stopping her.


    "Is there anything wrong?"


    "Do you have any thoughts about joining my group? I mean, working under someone?"


    "I''m sorry.." The woman bowed her head as the answer.


    "I see��" Theo had expected this after Felix''s reminder.


    "I''ve told you. So��" Felix wanted to remind Theo again, but as if the woman had a grudge against him, she suddenly added, "Though, if you can fulfill what I want, I don''t mind working for you for a period of time."


    "What?" Felix was dumbfounded as this was the first time the Phantom Archer took the initiative.


    "A condition?"


    "Yes. Well, I don''t have much knowledge about this, but after seeing your power, I know one thing. You have the ability to fulfill what I want�� In exchange for the information, I don''t mind working for you for ten years, considering the importance of that knowledge."


    "Hmm��" Theo contemted for a moment before asking, "Sure. It doesn''t hurt to listen to the condition first."


    "Alright." The woman took a deep breath before stating, "I want to be a ''Queen.'' Please fulfill that."


    "A Queen?" The request was truly unexpected, making them think that the Phantom Archer was a nobility from some countries. However, Theo was the first one to realize her true intention.


    He looked at the woman dumbfoundedly, asking, "What you mean by ''Queen'' is that kind of queen, right?"


    The woman nodded with a poker face. "Yes. I want to be that kind of Queen. I will work for you for ten years. In exchange, please teach me about Order."

 Chapter 1298 Agreement

    Chapter 1298 Agreement����"Please teach me about Order."


    This statement stunned everyone in the group, including Theo. He never thought that the Phantom Archer was already aware of this information.


    "Order? What kind of Order?" Felix narrowed his eyes.


    "Like the order of the society?" 042mented with a dumbfounded face.


    "Order? Queen?" Rea contemted for a moment while looking at Theo. Somehow, she connected the dot to Theo and her father''s power. The absolute power that would allow them to enter the rank of the strongest people in the world.


    Ryo was shocked as well, but he was a person who took his job seriously. Even when they were discussing this, he didn''t turn his back around and just kept looking at their surroundings for their safety.


    Meanwhile, Theo was pinching the bridge of his nose. His troubled face already showed the severity of this matter.


    "This is not something easy for me to say." Theo sighed.


    "I know. You are correct about one thing. I consider him my rival. In my pursuit, I stumbled upon this kind of information." The Phantom Archer nced at Felix and said, "I believe this power will allow me to finally surpass him. If you can teach me about this power, I''ll work for you."


    "And why me? You can ask other people."


    "I''ve confirmed your power personally. And the White Death has entrusted his life to you. It means that you''re trustworthy or else he won''te with you or be this docile."


    "��" Theo paused, contemting whether he should recruit her or not. After a long pause, Theo turned to Felix and the others. "You guys can go to the airport immediately. Let me talk with her a bit more."


    "Are you sure about this?" 042 tilted her head in confusion. She didn''t know anything about Order after all.


    "Yeah. Just go." Theo nodded while looking at Rea. "You''re going with me. Nevertheless, you''re the Sword Saint''s daughter. Sooner orter, you''ll know about this secret."


    "Understand. Please be careful." Felix nodded. Since Theo had given hismand, he epted it immediately.


    Although he never admitted it, he felt a bit proud as Theo''s right hand man. However, Theo didn''t seem to n to tell him anything about this power. If the Phantom Archer really joined the group, there was a chance that Theo would use her more instead of him.


    Still, he couldn''t really ask Theo about this matter, considering Theo had warned him a lot about it.


    Luckily, there was one more person that might have an idea about this power. It wasn''t Akbar who was obsessed with this power. It was Isaac.


    Isaac had researched Theo''s power for a long time, so he should ask Isaac about it. Only after he got some clues could he ask Theo for rification.


    Hence, the best thing to do was to go back.


    "I leave them to you, Felix." Theo smiled and turned to the Phantom Archer. "You sure don''t mind following me to the other side, right?"


    "Yes."


    After receiving the order, Felix brought 042 and Ryo to the airport while Theo led the Phantom Archer and Rea to the other side.


    As soon as they reached the other side, Theo didn''t go out immediately. Instead, he searched for a hotel there.


    The night was still long, so there was a lot to talk about.


    To prevent any words from going around, Theo asked Rea and the Phantom Archer to talk about Order in his room.


    Theo had prepared the table and the chairs, of course, with his illusion power. However, what made them confused was the empty fourth chair.


    There were only three of them, so there wasn''t a need to prepare that chair.


    Seeing their confusion, Theo stated, "We''ll have a guestter."


    "A guest?" Rea didn''t know that Theo had another acquaintance in this ce, but she remembered 042''s case. So, there might be another person that would appear out of nowhere.


    "As you can see, what you want to know is a big secret of the world. People don''t want to talk about it that much." Theo sighed and raised two fingers. "First of all, I need to ask you two questions. Where do you hear this power and can you tell me to what extent your knowledge is?"


    The Phantom Archer still didn''t trust Theo fully, so she contemted for a moment.


    "For the first question, I can''t tell you the exact person. But I once worked with a top rank expert. From there, I learned about this power, so I did some more coborations with other top experts."


    "So, purely from your observation?"


    "They talked about it a little but never in detail."


    "Okay. I can understand that. How about the second question?"


    She knew that Theo wanted to see her knowledge simply to make sure that she didn''t have the wrong knowledge. So, she said, "If I need to summarize it, I know about three things.


    "First, this power is called Order. When you have this power, your Magic Power will change to a certain color and amplify your power.


    "Second, this poweres from the other side, not human''s invention, but the monsters.


    "Third, you shouldn''t use your power openly because people don''t know much about colored Magic Power."


    "I see." Theo listened to the three things and asked, "Before I rify anything, I want to make sure that you''re going to work for me after learning about this?"


    "For ten years, yes."


    "I''m not going to specify the time because you need to be epted first. Even with the knowledge, if you''re not epted, you won''t be able to wield this power. And to be able to use this power will take a long time."


    "Time is not specified��" The Phantom Archer furrowed her eyebrows. "And how do I know that you''re not trying to trick me? By providing incorrect information wrong knowledge, you can keep me for a long time."


    "Two years!" Theo raised two fingers. "Within two years, I can make you receive this power. Of course, it depends on your condition as well, so you can be epted faster. If you haven''t received this power and felt tricked, you''re free to go or even try to assassinate me. But if you get this power, work for me for ten years after that�� After ten years, it''ll be your choice whether you want to continue to work under me or not. How''s that?"

 Chapter 1299 Kicked Out

    Chapter 1299 Kicked Out����"Still, two years are a long time, don''t you think?" The Phantom Archer still hesitated. With how Theo fought against the ughter, there was a chance that people would think she was a part of the group and get targeted, forcing her to stay with the group if she wanted to live.


    However, Theo said, "I still have one more proof to show. I''m sure you can believe me after this."


    "Hmm?" The Phantom Archer frowned, wondering what kind of trick was in his sleeve.


    "You said this poweres from the other side, right?"


    "Yes. It''s said that humans learned this power first from the monsters who aren''t so hostile to them." The Phantom Archer nodded.


    "That''s why I''m going to invite one of them here." Theo smiled.


    "Huh?" The two women were confused.


    "Please."


    Suddenly, his shadow emerged from the ground, turning into a humanoid body covered in ck.


    "Why do you want me to appear in front of these two?" The Shadow King looked at Theo.


    "Come on. I have helped the Frost Saint do this job, so why can''t you help me? I used your power earlier, but we mainly tried to escape, not eliminate them." Theo chuckled.


    "!!!" The two women jumped from their seats and took out their weapons when they saw a monstering out of Theo''s shadow.


    "What did you say earlier? You used the monster''s power earlier? Then, doesn''t that mean you didn''t have Or��" The Phantom Archer wanted to rebuke Theo, but she stopped right at thest moment when Theo suddenly released his golden Magic Power.


    "I couldn''t show my own power to them, no? Or they would have realized I was in disguise sooner orter." Theo smirked.


    "By the way��" The Shadow King interrupted the awkward silence after this sudden revtion. "I''m not prohibiting you from sharing the knowledge, but I''m here for another thing��"


    "Of course." Theo took out the stone they had just won in the auction and handed it to her. "Here you go."


    "Thank you."


    "Please use it to handle the problem in Argelia, will you?"


    "No worries. It should be fixed within two months to three months." The Shadow King nodded.


    "Argelia?" Rea dropped her jaw to the ground because they had just returned from Argelia. The problem was still stuck in her mind.


    The incident was so big that even the Phantom Archer was aware of it.


    Theo then mmed the table and said with a cold tone. "Yes. The incident happened due to the disruption of what you call Order! This is the kind of power that can destroy the world like nuclear missiles."


    Killing intent started emanating from his eyes as Theo warned them. "That''s why before telling you about this power, I''ll say this to both of you. If you dare to tell others about this power, I''m the one who will hunt you down no matter who is your backing."


    Rea and the Phantom Archer''s bodies trembled, realizing the true severity of this knowledge. That was why only a tiny poption was aware of this power.


    ''So, this is the reason Father never talks about it. He knows that if this knowledge is known to the whole world, there will be a huge catastrophe. I have never thought about this, but Father''s responsibility doesn''t lie only on the country and the family, but on the whole world. To think that Father has borne this kind of burden for a long time.'' Rea thought, having another level of respect for her father.


    "Well, I know that you have a good rtionship with this girl." The Shadow King pointed at Rea before ncing at the Phantom Archer. "Are you sure it''s alright to tell her about this? She can run away with this knowledge."


    Before answering the Shadow King, Theo said to the Phantom Archer. "Can you lift up your hand?"


    The Phantom Archer followed his instruction and extended her hand.


    Then, Theo shook her hand like a normal handshake. However, she soon felt Theo''s killing intent transferred into her mind.


    Even when she didn''t think anything, she felt that Theo could see through her. Even if she ran away, she felt she was being hunted by Theo.


    She instinctively pulled her hand as if Theo had done something to her body and raised her hand, finding a red-colored tattoo. The tattoo was simr to a moon, but the Shadow King realized it was Theo''s Death Seal due to the red color.


    Without the twodies realizing, Theo had also used his Covenant Seal to activate the Death Seal since he could only pick up his enemy''s presence in his territory.


    After that, he erased the Covenant Seal. The Phantom Archer felt that the presence had stopped as she looked at Theo in horror.


    "Alright, I deactivated it�� Sorry, but I need to do this. That mark is one of the applications of Order. Marking you with my seal will allow me to find your position. So, when I know that you''re telling other people about it, it won''t be hard to hunt you down." Theo smiled before ncing at the Shadow King, "It''s fine, right?"


    The Shadow King looked away. She couldn''t say anything since she was aware it was just a trick to fool the Phantom Archer. The Death Seal wasn''t that convenient, but the Phantom Archer didn''t know about this Death Seal. It was easy to trick her.


    At the same time, the Phantom Archer knew that Theo wasn''t a lie from what she felt earlier. Theo truly had the ability to locate her.


    Still, this only reinforced the Phantom Archer''s determination. She looked at Theo and said, "I know you can''t trust me yet, but I''m not someone who will stab someone from the back. And since the White Death is in your group, it''s easy for me topare myself with him. I''m going to openly surpass him within these two years."


    "Great. Now we can talk about Order." Theo nodded with a smile.

 Chapter 1300 Explanation

    Chapter 1300 Exnation����"Still, it will be pretty useless to talk about the Order application if you haven''t received that power." Theo sighed. "So, I''m going to talk about the requirement to receive this power."


    The Phantom Archer fell silent, listening to him attentively.


    Even Rea focused on this lesson, thinking she was going to get the information about her father''s power.


    However, Theo smiled at her and said, "Unfortunately, this is the limit of what you can hear, Rea."


    "What?" Rea opened her mouth in shock. She obviously wanted to listen to him because this was the chance for her to surpass her brother.


    However, Theo said, "Basically, knowing this will just harm you. It''s hard for me to throw you off like this because when I''m just a normal student, I want to learn everything from my teacher. I absolutely hate this phrase because it''s going to make me curious and end up falling into the wrong path. Curiosity kills the cat; that''s basically it.


    "That''s why I''m not just going to throw you like this. Instead, I''ll give you a condition. If you want to learn about this power, you need two things. First, full mastery of your power�� a power that has your existence in it. Put everything in your existence, whether it''s your power, the way of living, or your entire being, into this power. To put it simply, your power should be able to define who you are.


    "Second, you need toplete my training session with a passing mark. In the next two months, we''re going to hunt monsters for training. I''m going to say this, if you don''t pass my training, then you can say goodbye to this power. In your entire life, you might not be able to achieve it after all. So, if you want to learn, you shouldplete my training first, okay?"


    Theo gave those two conditions to shift Rea''s attention from this power to the hurdle. With clear requirements that didn''t seem out of reach, Rea would focus on fulfilling the conditions before asking for it. Of course, she would ask her father, but knowing Rea''s personality, she would also include Theo''s condition.


    In the end, the Sword Saint would just agree to Theo''s condition and ask her to fulfill it before telling her anything about Order.


    Rea, although disappointed, agreed to the condition. "I understand. I''ll do my best. But you''re not going to take back this promise, right?"


    "I don''t lie." Theo shrugged.


    "Okay, I''ll believe you." She nodded and left the room in frustration.


    After that, Theo looked at the Phantom Archer and asked, "Are you ready?"


    "Ruth Lukita."


    "What''s that?"


    "My name." The Phantom Archer looked at Theo with a solemn expression. She was serious about learning from him, so this was a show of sincerity. "I am Ruth Lukita from Indonesia."


    "Indonesia? If I''m not wrong, it''s near Australia."


    "Yes, that''s why me and Felix��"


    "Ah!" Theo nodded in understanding. "No wonder."


    "Since we''re going to work together for the next two years, you should know my name."


    "Alright, thank you." Theo smiled before raising two fingers. "Alright. Without further ado, let''s talk about the requirement to get this power. I''m going to answer your question first before moving to the exnation.


    "First of all, you need a rule for yourself. A rule on how you will live! After that, you need to hone your technique with that rule. These two are the requirements to wield this power."


    "A rule?"


    "Yes. The Order itself is the power from the world. In other words, the world will grant you this power so that you can maintain the stability of this world. It''s also a way of recognition.


    "For example, let''s talk about ughter. He has the blessing of Drac and has been ying with blood for as long as he can remember. So, his rule is something about blood.


    "This is just a spection, but his Order seems to be the Blood Order. It means that he has control over blood because he has been living with his rule about blood. When he touches the Magic Power, the Magic Power turns into blood and so on.


    "However, let''s take another example. How about Forest Order? What if the person who wants this power actually loves to cut trees and burn the forest? Will the world acknowledge you and grant you this power?" Theo asked.


    Ruth shook her head. "No. Even as a human, there''s no way that we''re going to grant this person the power over the forest."


    "Exactly. That''s why you need a rule for how you live and follow it for a long time."


    "Is that the reason why the condition is two years?"


    "Yes. Though, I am assuming that you''ve been living with a certain code? Like assassin code or whatever. So, just by following that kind of code, you can be closer to that power."


    "But doesn''t that mean I can get a certain Order that isn''t rted to my Wind Affinity?"


    "The Sword Saint should have something like a sword instead of his affinity. It''s just a matter of focus."


    "I see." Ruth thought for a moment.


    "Of course. It is impossible for someone to wield this power if their power doesn''t corrte to that rule."


    "That''s why you set the first condition to that girl?" Ruth finally understood the conditions Theo set up. It seemed he had been working on it without telling them.


    After a long pause, Ruth exined, "I think I have a pattern of living. Can I just make them my rule?"


    "Yep. Maybe you should write it down somewhere. After all, the world can take back its power from you."


    "I see. If someone with Forest Order starts to burn the forest and cut down trees��"


    "Exactly."


    "I understand. Although I don''t have the details, I think I''ve got the gist of it."


    "When the world thinks you''re already worthy of that Order, it will immediately give you, so it''s not a matter whether you want it or not. As for the application of the Order, I''ll exin it to you after you get an Order. Then, let''s talk about the small details, shall we?"


    She nodded with a serious expression, ready to learn more.


    Suddenly, the Shadow King opened her mouth. "I don''t think I need to say this, but just in case�� he doesn''t lie. That''s how the monsters live. Only after receiving an Order will you qualify to be a King ss Monster."

 Chapter 1301 Warning

    Chapter 1301 Warning����"That''s all. Do you have any more questions?" Theo finished his exnation.


    "No. I think I''ve understood it a bit. I can see why you are asking me to stay for two years. And I can''t see any w in the argument even though there are many questions that I want to ask. If you cane up with any lie during this time, I''ll be surprised." Ruth sighed.


    "Well, that depends whether you want to believe it or not."


    "Even so��" Ruth politely bowed her head. "I''m looking forward to working with you�� for at least two years."


    "Sure." Theo smiled.


    "Now that I''m working under you, do I need to move my base of operation?"


    "That''s what I''d like to ask you." Theo nodded without hesitation. Everyone other than Akbar and Walker stayed around him, so it would be better if she could do the same.


    However, the rtionship between them wasn''t as close as the others. Ruth would be ufortable staying in the country just for two years because of this. And their current rtionship was only a business rtionship.


    After contemting for a while, Ruth said, "Well, I don''t mind staying there. Though, I heard that it''s expensive to stay there."


    "Don''t worry. I''ll prepare a mansion for you."


    "If that''s the case, then I don''t mind." Ruth agreed to this condition. "Besides, it''s better to stay close since I might have a question for you. Asking this question through the call will be extremely dangerous, so��yeah."


    "Ahaha, I think I''ve told you everything I can." Theo chuckled awkwardly.


    "Anyway, this topic is done. Then, as your employee, I''m going to give you important information." Ruth paused for a moment as her expression turned grim. "The ughter has died."


    "��" Theo remained silent, but his expression changed. Even he didn''t expect that someone would kill the ughter, considering he was one of the strongest experts in the world.


    "Because of my position, I retreated a bitter than you, so I managed to witness it. There''s a man with a masqueradeing to him, killing him."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows as Ruth recounted everything that happened in that ce.


    She told him how the ughter died, the masked man that killed him, and the ck power used to kill the ughter. Unfortunately, she was too far to listen to the man calling Theo''s name. So, Theo wasn''t aware of the enemy''s identity, let alone his intention.


    "I see." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose.


    "I think he''s targeting the ughter," Ruth added.


    "Well, that''s one of the possibilities, but I can''t brush aside that he''s using his men to surround me. Maybe both of us are the targets, but I can''t be sure."


    "Do you want me to look it up?"


    "No. I will just tell Akbar about it. He should be able to do it better."


    "Akbar?"


    "Akbaraly Ibraev."


    "!!!" Ruth widened her eyes. "He''s be your subordinate?"


    Akbar was one of the best information brokers in the world. After all, due to his strategic location as well as his management, he set up an informationwork in Asia, Europe, and Africa.


    That was also why Theo wanted him to stay there. He would be able to gather enough information for him.


    "Just like her��" Theo nced at the wall as if looking at Rea, who was in the next room.


    "The Sword Saint''s daughter." Ruth closed her eyes. Now that she thought about it, she didn''t know the great extent of Theo''s power. It seemed that she had severely underestimated him.


    And moving to America would provide her the chance to understand it further. Her choice to move wasn''t a mistake.


    "For now, you should focus on trying to achieve that power. It''ll take a while after all. If I need your help, I''ll call you�� I don''t think we''ll move too much, considering I only move around together like two times a year? And it wasn''t with everyone."


    "I understand." Ruth nodded politely. "If that''s the case, I''ll immediately go back to handle this process."


    "Sure."


    Without wasting a single second, Ruth rose from her seat and left the room. Before opening the door, she nced at the Shadow King because this was the first time she saw a King ss Monster cooperating with a human.


    But knowing that the monsters taught Orders to humans, this rtionship shouldn''t be weird. She was simply unaware this whole time.


    After she left, the Shadow King looked at Theo and asked, "Are you sure about this? You''ve tricked her into joining."


    "Well, I didn''t lie. She just misunderstood my meaning." Theo shrugged.


    "I guess that''s the reason why the Mountain King was so angry at you. Was that how you tricked him?"


    "Ahaha." Theo chuckled while looking away.


    "Anyway, I''m going to leave tonight. Tell me about your n. I might be able to give you some suggestions."


    "Nothing much. I''m just going to hunt some Mythical Rank Monsters. The enemies this time are going to be far stronger than now, so I want to reach Mythical Rank as soon as possible. When that happens, I should be able to contend with the people in the top 100 experts.


    "Now that I think about it, that''s really a huge leap, eh? Without even rising through the ranks, I just skipped everything and entered the top one hundred experts rank." Theo chuckled.


    "You''ve learned the Order since you''re early Supreme Rank. That''s understandable. Normally, you''ll only be aware of Order after you be a Mythical Rank. I think I''ve told you the reason."


    "True." Theo nodded.


    "In any case, if you want to hunt some monsters like that, you should go to the northeast instead of the north. You''ll take a bit of detour, but that''s a piece ofnd without an owner. If you kill all the monsters in that region, no one wille to you."


    "Really? I''ll visit that ce then." Theo smiled. The Shadow King felt like a Skypedia where she knew everything. Unfortunately, he wouldn''t be able to exploit her knowledge the whole time.


    "Anyway, it''s time for me to go." The Shadow King looked at the stone for a moment and said, "On behalf of the saint as well as myself, thank you, Theodore Griffith."


    Theo''s smile became bigger as he watched the Shadow King gradually slip into the shadow. "You''re wee."

 Chapter 1302 The Best Right Hand Man

    Chapter 1302 The Best Right Hand Man����The next day.


    Theo hurriedly led the way to the path the Shadow King told him. Since there was no King ss Monster ruling thend, he shouldn''t encounter any trouble. As for the Mythical Rank Monster, even if he couldn''t kill them, he should be able to escape safely.


    On the way, Rea asked, "Where are we going? Shouldn''t we head to the north?"


    "Just taking a bit of a detour. After all, we''re going to train here." Theo smirked.


    "Hunt, huh?"


    "How is your training progress?"


    "Well��" Rea took out her sword and looked at it while pouring some Magic Power into the de. The Magic Power tried to take shape but to no avail. It would be disrupted at thest moment as she had no picture in her mind.


    She didn''t know what kind of power she actually wanted from this power despite knowing that this technique might be far stronger than her current strength.


    "I don''t know. I can feel something different, but I don''t know where I should go. And now, my mind bes a bit disrupted because of the requirement. The power that can define me? I don''t know."


    "You''ve been following your brother''s footsteps this whole time after all." Theo added.


    "Yes. He is amazing. Even Father praised him for being so creative. As for me, I can only follow someone to a certain extent. And it will take a while for me to even be able to copy them. So, now I''m perplexed�� What kind of power can define me? I''m empty." Rea looked down, feeling downcast.


    Theo paused for a moment as if he was thinking about what to say. Eventually, he opened his mouth, saying, "Say�� are you proud of following your brother''s footsteps?"


    "Of course, I''m proud," Rea admitted without hesitation. That answer came from the bottom of her heart. That was why she could answer that fast.


    "How about me?"


    Rea looked at him dumbfoundedly, never expecting to hear this question from Theo. "Do you want my recognition or something? Is that a try to hit on me or something? But you''re not that type of a guy."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched as his expression darkened.


    Seeing that change of expression, Rea hurriedly answered his question. "Of course. Although I hate to admit it, your reputation is much bigger than my brother''s. I feel like I can aim at a bigger world when I''m following you. But it''s a different kind of pride from my brother. I�� truly respect you for what you''ve done and achieved.


    "And there is this time where you can sacrifice so much money to save the world without anyone noticing. Even I can only lower my head to you." Rea smiled sadly, feeling a bit disappointed in herself.


    Theo closed his eyes while smiling. "Is that so? Well, with this, I can confirm one thing. Your brother is certainly a man who will take the lead. He doesn''t bow down no matter how big of a blow that hits him. As for you, you''re just someone who will always be number two since your mindset is always following someone."


    "Wha��" Rea was taken aback by this insult. "You��"


    Theo raised his hand as if telling her to stop. He added, "Of course, that''s not a bad thing."


    "Not a bad thing? I don''t know if you''re trying to insult me or praise me." Rea was holding back her frustration and annoyance due to this confusion.


    "I was praising you. Bing a right hand man will never be a bad thing. If you think that''s an insult, then it''s your problem. For me, even if I can''t be number one, I''ll be content with second ce." Theo paused for a moment. "It''s just if I''m going to be someone''s right hand man, I''m going to be the number one right hand man in the world.


    "I''ll make the person I serve unable to live without me because I''m the one taking care of all his matters. In that case, won''t I be the best and get thestugh?" Theo smirked.


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes in shock. "The number one right hand man in the world? The one that makes the number one can''t live without you?"


    When she was still in Japan, she thought she would continue to serve her brother, helping him in managing the business since her brother would be far stronger than her and be the face of the Nagasawa Family.


    But it was different in Theo''s view. Theo didn''t want her to just be a mere assistant. He wanted her to be the best assistant, the one that Theo couldn''t live without.


    She then soon realized Theo''s subordinates were like that. Felix wanted to be Theo''s strongest sword, exterminating all enemies. Jeff wanted to paint a world. Coline wanted to be the greatest chef with perfect cooking.


    Every single Theo''s subordinate had their own dream. Even Isaac, who was only a Supreme Rank Expert, wanted to do the greatest research about Theo.


    Or Maya, who always tried topete with Theo. All of them had huge ambitions.


    On the other hand, she had been thinking about learning anything from him and serving her brother. She tried to chase after him without a huge ambition in her heart.


    That was why she couldn''t keep up when fighting against Walker. She soon realized that Agata also experienced the same thing, thus her current strength.


    ''I�� I don''t have anything up until now? Doesn''t that mean I''ve wasted a few months?'' Rea got the shock of her life. She had been wasting this precious chance.


    "Are you sure it''s alright to give me this kind of ambition? If I''m putting my mind to it, you might not be able to leave me, you know." Rea looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "I''m looking forward to it."


    Rea smiled brightly. This might be the first time in her life she wanted to do something so strongly. Not just keeping up with someone, but dominating someone.


    "Though, you shouldn''t talk big first before youplete my test." Theo suddenly stopped as he pointed to the front. "There you go, your test."


    "Eh?" Rea turned her head around and saw a Mythical Rank Monster. "I don''t know if my eyes are failing me, but I can only see a Mythical Rank Monster��"


    "Yes. Your eyes are still good. I want you to kill the Mythical Rank Monster."


    Rea dropped her jaw to the ground as everything good about Theo just shattered in her mind as Theo wanted to send her to her death.


    "You motherf��"

 Chapter 1303 Byakko

    Chapter 1303 Byakko����"You motherf��!"


    *Roar!*


    Before she finished cursing Theo, the monster let out a roar. It had a huge humanoid body like that of a bear but with shorter hands. However, the monster had a long boneing out of his elbow as if it was a de.


    When it saw Theo and Rea, it let out a roar and charged at them.


    Theo used his Blink to disappear from the battlefield, leaving Rea alone. However, he didn''t forget to give the instruction.


    "Ah, you must have swung your swords 900 times in the morning. Remember, I haven''t lifted the ban."


    "What the fuck? You sadistic bastard! Are you telling me to fight a Mythical Rank Monster with only one hundred swings?" Rea shouted, wanting to curse him more.


    However, she was forced to leap back as the monster punched from above. The fist ended up hitting the ground, causing the ground to crack.


    Still, the monster had no intention of letting Rea go. Since he couldn''t find Theo, he rammed his body into Rea.


    Thetter clicked her tongue and unsheathed her sword, trying to cut this fist. The fist had been imbued by Magic Power, forming a thinyer of smoke that covered the entire arm.


    But to her surprise, when the fist was about to strike the sword, it immediately moved faster so that the sword shed with the bone behind his elbow.


    *ng!*


    ''His bone?'' Rea gritted her teeth before seeing the monster spinning.


    The spin was so fast that the next thing she realized, the monster''s fist was already right before her head.


    She directed her energy to form a turtle to block this fist.


    Unfortunately for her, the fist punched through the turtle shell and ended up hitting her cheek.


    The force sted her away as her body bounced on the ground a few times.


    "Gah." She let out a mouthful of blood. Luckily, the turtle managed to receive a portion of that power or her head would have gone. "Kh."


    She tried to find Theo but to no avail. In the end, she could only rely on herself.


    Seeing that the monsters came toward her again, she hurriedly rose from the ground and poured all the Magic Power she had into her sword. She imagined the power but couldn''t form the animal that would be stronger than what she had right now.


    In the end, this unstable Magic Power only became a bit stronger than what the animal could provide.


    Even so, it was better than dying here. She struck the monster with this unstable Magic Power. The monster was too powerful, so she tried to repel its attack instead of taking it head-on.


    While waiting for an opportunity to attack, she fought the enemies for another fifty rounds. Unfortunately for her, the power difference between them was too much.


    She couldn''t do anything to the monster. At the same time, the monster had been injuring her this whole time.


    Her left hand was numb, and there were many bruises all over her body.


    ''As expected, fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster is still too much for me.'' Rea gritted her teeth. But before she could shout for Theo''s help, the monster had appeared before her, suppressing her.


    The worst part of this fight was the fact that she couldn''t exceed one thousand swings. Theo looked like the worst boss to work for because he was just toying with her life at this point.


    In the end, another thirty swings had beenpleted. And all she could do was defend herself.


    It took her everything to defend against the monster''s attacks. In the meantime, her injury kept increasing.


    There was even a cut on her forehead as the blood started flowing from her right forehead to her right cheek, causing her to close one of her eyes.


    Due to the injury, her performance gradually decreased. Her consciousness had been slipping from time to time.


    ''Tsk. I only have five swings left�� How do I even fight against this monster? I haven''t even dealt a single injury to the monster. Is he not going to help me? Is he going to let me die here? No, knowing his personality, he won''t let me die here. But he''ll make me get enough injuries so that I won''t be able toplete the requirements I''ve set for myself. In other words, I might not be able to reach the Mythical Rank within a year and get kicked out of the group.'' Rea gritted her teeth.


    She didn''t know why but she remembered their earlier discussion. Rea was talking about her power at first, saying that she couldn''t shape it.


    However, Theo suddenly changed the topic to her ambition.


    ''How in the world did the conversation change from my power to my ambition? I know that my previous ambition was to be my brother''s helper. That was what I wanted and believed until this point��


    ''Wait a minute. Believed until this point? Isn''t that what defines me? Does that mean he wanted me to know that the path I''ve forged until this point is not wrong? This power I''ve acquired from my decades of hard work.


    ''My power, huh? Does that mean he approves of my power?''


    The image suddenly connected to what Theo said back in Argelia when she fought against Walker.


    "Just hone what you currently have. Whether it''s strength, speed, or even your unique ability, you need to use what you''refortable with."


    These sentences stuck deep in her mind.


    ''That''s right. I''ve beenfortable with shaping my power into an animal. Why would I even think of another form like a de or dual-wielding? But the animal can''t withstand this amount of power.''


    Rea looked at the monster while raising her sword. ''If that''s the case, I need a stronger animal. That''s right. If I want to be the best right hand man in the world, I need absolute power�� Something that is far beyond the animal�� the being that the animal considered a God��''


    The Magic Power in Rea''s sword gradually began to take form. It looked like a tiger. However, this tiger had a white color and gray stripes all over its body.


    "If a tiger doesn''t work, then I''ll call upon the god of tiger in my memory." She muttered in a low voice as her consciousness became fuzzy due to straining her mind when shaping this power. She then swung her sword, releasing the white tiger. "Go, Celestial White Tiger, Byakko."


    *Roar!*

 Chapter 1304 Reas Growth

    Chapter 1304 Rea''s Growth����"Go, Celestial White Tiger, Byakko."


    *Roar!*


    The white tiger let out a thunderous roar as it marched forth, pouncing at the monster.


    Thetter tried to block its fangs with the bones, but the moment it raised the elbows, the white tiger opened its mouth, shooting a white beam that deflected one of the arms.


    Meanwhile, its body plunged right into the monster''s body, bit the shoulder, and ripped it apart.


    The monster screamed in pain and hurriedly cut down the white tiger.


    Rea, who witnessed everything, felt unwilling to lose.


    ''Even with this, it''s impossible to kill a single monster?'' Rea held back for as long as she could, but her mind soon went nk, fainting. Thest thing she saw was her white tiger getting sliced by the monster. ''Damn it.''


    The monster was fully angered when its arm was severed. It red at Rea, nning to kill her brutally.


    That was the time Theo reappeared on the battlefield, smiling. "Good work. Let me take care of the rest."


    Theo red at the monster as he released his Magic Power.


    ��


    ��


    ��


    "Guh��" Rea let out a small groan before her eyes gradually opened. To her surprise, she could see a wooden ceiling as if she was inside the building.


    "Now that I think about it��" Rea tried to recall what happened previously but couldn''t recount the imagepletely. She suddenly rose from the bed in shock. "That''s right. I was fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster!"


    But as soon as she lifted her body, she felt excruciating pain all over her body as she reflectively said, "Ouch!"


    Her body became weak as she fell to the bed again.


    "Where is this?" Rea turned her head, realizing she was inside a small room made of wood. It was just an empty room without any furniture other than the bed.


    She then raised her arms and saw bandages all over her body.


    "Ah! That''s right. I was training with him." Rea panicked for a moment as she looked at her body. Her clothes had changed, and the wounds had been dressed perfectly.


    *Creak!*


    The door was opened from the outside as Theo entered, finding Rea had woken up.


    "Oh, it seems you''re alright." Theo smiled before he saw Rea''s face redden. That blush came from her embarrassment as well as shame. So, he said, "Don''t worry. I closed my eyes when dressing your wounds and utilized my Telekinesis to change your clothes."


    "��" She didn''t know why but she felt relieved and disappointed at the same time. Theo was truly not interested in her.


    "Just lie down for a moment. This small hut is my illusion." Theo smiled. He created this small hut with his illusion and turned them real with his Reality Order, allowing him to build a small private hut for resting.


    However, Rea''s focus remained elsewhere. She looked at Theo and asked, "Did I��kill that monster? I�� I don''t know how I should say this, but I could only feel the things that happened before I lost my consciousness, but my memory was still fuzzy."


    "You failed to kill the monster." Theo shook his head, walking toward her. As soon as he reached the bed, Theo created a chair and sat down. "But I should congratte you on your achievement. Congrattions, Rea."


    "Congrattions��" Rea''s body trembled as she looked down for a while. Numerous feelings mixed in her heart to the point she didn''t know how to face Theo.


    On the one hand, Theo''s way was extremely dangerous and insane. On the other hand, it managed to stimte her potential, the potential that her inferiorityplex had buried.


    She squeezed the nket as her body continued trembling. Tears couldn''t help bute out and fall down.


    Happiness and relief filled her heart. This might be the first time she felt this in her life. Yes, for the first time in her life, she was proud of herself.


    "I did it�� I did it��" Rea squeezed even tighter as she bowed down, crying. "I really did it."


    Theo looked at Rea with a smile. She had been chasing her brother this whole time. But this time, she managed to catch up to that shadow and even surpass it.


    The fear, responsibility, and anxiety that had been upying her heart finally disappeared.


    "Theo��" She looked at Theo and bit her lips. "Can I�� Can I really do it?"


    Theo answered with a smile. "You have talent in swordsmanship, but it has been overshadowed by your brother. But that doesn''t mean you''re inferior to your brother.


    "You have an extraordinary talent in analysis and managing things. It''s just�� everything has been focused on your brother this whole time because you''ve epted that you''re inferior to your brother.


    "You didn''t realize that you, too, are someone equal to your brother. If you don''t have enough talent in swordsmanship to beat your brother, use another talent of yours to help you to do it.


    "I don''t like saying something just tofort you. That''s why I''m going to say this�� It''s going to be a hard path to follow. It''s a path filled with pain. But I have recognized you as my people." Theo extended his hand gently and asked with a smile. "I''ll help you. But it will be your choice. Will you be satisfied with just something like this or will you continue walking on this arduous path?"


    Rea looked at Theo dumbfoundedly. This whole time, she felt she was in the middle of the darkness.


    There was a road of light. Her brother was running on this path. On the contrary, her talent was only enough to make her walk instead of running.


    That was why she had been enduring everything. She worked hard tirelessly. When her brother stopped running to rest, she continued to walk.


    The image of her swinging her swords thousands of times every day shed in her mind. Her hand hurt, her body was tired, and her will had wavered.


    "Have I done something right? Have I worked hard enough? Or should I find another path that will deviate from the goal that my brother and I have?"


    But this time, Theo suddenly took her hand and said to her, "Your path is not wrong. If you can''t catch up to your brother even with all that effort you''ve put on, then you should use your other talent to��"


    Theo paused for a moment as they started floating, moving like her brother but from in the air.


    "��fly."


    Yes. If she couldn''t catch up walking, she just needed to fly to catch up or surpass her brother.


    Her eyes brightened. Her brother''s body had always covered her vision from the path that they took. But now that she was in the air, she could see the long white line in the darkness, extending to the endless darkness.


    Theo''s voice resounded again, repeating what he said earlier.


    "I''ll help you. But it will be your choice. Will you be satisfied with just something like this or will you continue walking on this arduous path?"


    "I will�� I will continue on this path no matter how far I need to fly�� Even if the path never ends, I''ll continue to move forward." Rea''s heart was screaming as Rea grabbed Theo''s hand with both her hands. She said from the bottom of her heart. "Please�� Please help me."


    Theo smiled while closing his eyes.

 Chapter 1305 Weird Group

    Chapter 1305 Weird Group����A few minutester. Theo walked to her while bringing a water bottle. "Have you calmed down?"


    Rea didn''t dare to look at him as she was too embarrassed from her breakdown earlier. She never realized it before, but she had been carrying too much burden this entire time.


    It might be the first time in her life that she showed her weakness to someone else. Even when her palms were full of blisters or her body was about to copse, she always smiled and assured others she was fine.


    Theo might not carry her burden, but he showed her how to carry it easier. This action lifted that burden to the point she had leeway to cry.


    ''Ugh. Even my family never saw me crying.'' Rea was too embarrassed recounting what happened earlier. ''And to think that the one who saw it was Theo, not someone from my family.''


    She received the water from Theo timidly while taking a peek at his face. ''Ugh. Now I can understand why people are following him. Whether it''s Felix, Jeff, or the others, they follow Theo because of this��


    ''It''s no wonder that Theo has gotten the heart of the world''s most beautiful woman, Agata Mota. And I can understand why Alea Eilric, Ne, or even Maya have some feelings for him. Maya has shifted that feeling to rivalry, while Ne has epted her status as her little sister because Theo doesn''t have the intention to have more than one woman. I don''t know if it''s a blessing or not, but he sure has broken many people''s hearts.''


    Rea sighed. If she didn''t have this kind of thought, she would also fall for Theo. Luckily, she remembered the scene where Theo bought a pair of rings for his engagement. It stopped her from having any weird thoughts about him.


    ''Agata is surely a lucky woman. And that engagement�� I hope the best for them.'' Rea made a small smile.


    Seeing Rea''s condition, Theo walked away, saying, "You can rest for another thirty minutes. I''m going to step out for now."


    Rea raised her head and saw Theo leaving the hut. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly and looked at her condition. Although the injury was still painful, it wasn''t at the point where she couldn''t fight.


    Hence, she stretched her sword for a bit before changing her clothes.


    After ten minutes or so, Rea came out of the hut, finding Theo leaning on the wall while waiting for her.


    "How is your condition?" Theo asked.


    "Because of my injury, I think I can only exert around seventy percent of my power. But I should be able to regain my full power in two days."


    "I see." Theo nodded and retracted the illusion as the house vanished into thin air.


    "By the way, there is a question that has been bothering me ever since you showed your illusion ability when fighting Walker. Your illusion can transmit sound, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded.


    "If that''s the case, why don''t you use that illusion to manipte my own sense to make me think that you''re talking to me? I mean, can you just give me an illusion that makes me think your voice is ringing in my head? With this power, don''t you think you can make a replica of telepathy power?"


    Theo shook his head in disappointment. "Well, I certainly have done that. But it''s just�� it''s not very effective most of the time."


    "Why so? Won''t this make you able to hide yourmand?"


    "Yes, but��" Theo stopped for a moment and said in anothernguage. "Can you understand me?"


    Rea nodded furiously as this foreignnguage was tranted by Skylink.


    Theo then opened his mouth again while utilizing his illusion. "Sketchev Gesukuku?"


    Rea tilted her head in confusion because the Skylink didn''t pick up thenguage, causing her to not understand thenguage.


    "See?" Theo smiled. "Despite me opening my mouth, all you can hear is me talking in Teleg."


    "Teleg? Ah, Thernd''s nationalnguage."


    "Yes. If I speak normally, you can easily understand my words because they have been tranted by Skylink. However, if I transmit that voice into your brain, you won''t understand what I''m saying.


    "Of course, I can speak threenguages right now: Teleg, Italian, and English. Although I can speak to others in English, not everyone understands it. Don''t you think it''s easier for me to talk in Teleg with Aisha? How about Akbar, Coline, Ryo, and the others?" Theo asked.


    "That''s right. If you transmit your voice directly to our brains, we need to have the samenguage first so that we can understand each other. If you want to use this power, you need to recruit the Mythical Rank Experts from the same country, but that''s not possible, and they won''t be unique as well. Now that I think about it, isn''t our group kind of weird?"


    "Weird?" Theo narrowed his eyes, not understanding her meaning.


    "I mean, just take a look at our group. We have Felix, an assassin who is stronger during the day. If you''re an assassin, won''t it be better if you assassinate someone while using the darkness as your cover?


    "Then, we have Jeff, a painter who can only draw a nt as his power source. How about Ryo? A Knight who cannot hurt anyone. What about Walker? Normally, a magician''s role in the group is to utilize their super firepower to kill the enemy, but Walker''s power is to bind his enemy. And like thest person that joined us�� She is an archer, but she doesn''t have a bow and arrow.


    "We also have a researcher, Isaac, or a businesswoman, Maya. I don''t want to start with a hacker and a doctor at this point." Rea scratched the back of his head. She realized that Theo''s group was filled with people that did the exact opposite of what their job was supposed to do.


    "How about you?" Theo smirked.


    "Me?" Rea''s body shook as she immediately answered, "Aren''t I the only normal person in the group? Since I''m a swordswoman."


    "Haha. Talk that way, Miss Swordswoman, who can''t cut her enemy and can only rely on the animals." Theo chuckled as he walked away.


    "��" Rea couldn''t rebuke him as she muttered inwardly, "I guess I''m also weird."

 Chapter 1306 Two and a Half Months

    Chapter 1306 Two and a Half Months����Theo''s mansion.


    Maya had paid a visit to this mansion, only to be greeted by Felix.


    "May I know the reason for your visit?" Felix asked.


    "Come on, Felix. No need to be that cold�� Don''t forget that I''m now one of the fifteen." Maya sighed.


    "So, you''ve epted the role��" Felix squinted his eyes.


    "Sure, why not?" Maya shrugged. "Whether he can control me or not, it''ll depend on him."


    "If that''s the case, I''m going to act a bit more casually." Felix nodded.


    "Yep. That''s better."


    "So, do you need something here? If you''re searching for him, he hasn''t returned yet. It''s been a month, so I think it''ll be another month or two."


    "I see. That''s not a problem, but I think that I should tell you about this first since no matter what others say, you''re his most trusted subordinate." Maya opened her Skylink, showing the news.


    The news was talking about how the situation in Argelia had been controlled, and the phenomenon had vanished into thin air. The Magic Power distortion had disappeared.


    "It seems that we''ve done our job." Felix smiled, knowing that Argelia could start to recover from now on.


    "Indeed." Maya nodded in agreement.


    "Still, you used a lot of money to buy the stone�� you even bought him a pair of rings. It''ll hurt you financially, no?" Felix asked.


    "It''s true that I can expand my business or even buy anotherpany with that kind of money, but don''t forget that I''m using around 800 billion Zils just to pay my people from the Mythical Rank Experts to the normal employees. Besides, it wasn''t me who earned that money."


    "Huh?" Felix was confused since only Maya could buy that expensive item.


    "You know that many people broke the contracts when the crisis happened, right? The money I got was much more than that from thosepanies or individuals that poached my people. And it was him who did all that. So, I am simply using that money so that he can buy anything. To put it simply, I shouldn''t have that money if not for him, so��"


    "But that''s because you have an employee in the first ce."


    "Ahaha, no need to worry about the details." She shrugged. "Anyway, you should ask Isaac to return. Staying there won''t be that useful anymore, right?"


    "That''s true. He''s instructed me to recall Isaac from Argelia, but because he hasn''t returned, it''s better to let him stay there for a little longer. At least, he won''t be that bored." Felix shook his head.


    "Are you sure about it?" Maya smirked.


    Felix fell silent. Maya looked like she was aware of him having been contacting Isaac a few times.


    "Hahaha. I''ll just trust your decision when he is not here." Maya chuckled before showing a picture of a woman. "Though, I''ve been informed that she''ll arrive somewhere around next week."


    "��" Felix fell silent because he recognized this person. It seemed the Phantom Archer had really joined the group. "I understand. I''ll take care of her."


    "Alright then." Maya nced at the house before returning to her car. "Tell him to contact me as soon as he returns, okay?"


    "Sure." Felix then waited until he couldn''t see her car anymore before returning to the mansion.


    As soon as he entered, Felix called Isaac again.


    "What''s up?"


    "As expected, it''s no use. How about youing back?"


    "Huh? But this research is interesting."


    "There is a woman who seems to have gotten some teaching about his power�� You might be able to find some clues for your research." Felix tempted Isaac with Ruth.


    "I''ll go home as soon as possible. You said that the situation ispletely fixed anyway, so it means this city will just be a normal city again. There''s no need for further investigation."


    "And��"


    "Haha, of course. I''m going to share everything I know about his power. I''m going to show you the result of my research aftering back."


    "Okay." Felix closed his eyes while clenching his fists as if he didn''t want to lose to anyone.


    ��


    Meanwhile, the progress on the other side went smoothly.


    Theo and Rea had been working together in hunting Mythical Rank Experts. Although it was Theo who did most of the job, Rea also showed a huge improvement over the month.


    At first, Rea couldn''t replicate the white tiger again because she managed to summon it out of desperation.


    Still, she knew what to do next. Hence, after that, she continuously practiced this power.


    Of course, her knowledge about mythical beasts wasn''t that good since she had been too focused on the animals. All the mythical beasts she had some knowledge of came from her country, Japan.


    Even so, it was enough to show Theo that she had the power to keep up with the group.


    Theo also showed her his full power from his clone to illusion.


    She realized that if Theo didn''t hold back, a normal Mythical Rank Expert wasn''t his enemy, especially with that Alter Ego.


    Theo asked her to give her all the loot, which she didn''t mind since she only wanted to get stronger right now. It wasn''t like she needed any skills or money. So, she just handed everything they got.


    On the other hand, Theo focused on collecting A Rank Skill Card that dropped from a Mythical Rank Monster.


    However, he had two challenges in collecting these skill cards for his skill upgrade. The first challenge was that only a few monsters would drop the cards out of a hundred Mythical Rank Monsters. And some would only drop a B Rank Skill Card, which was already useless to him.


    Even during his hunt with Ergene, he only got ten A Rank Skill Cards despite killing 130 Mythical Rank Monsters.


    And with Rea here, he wouldn''t be able to reach his original target to upgrade one of his skills to S Rank. Still, he was quite satisfied with the result, considering he was closer to Mythical Rank.


    After two and a half months, Theo finally finished his training. And he only needed to recruit one more person and leveled up another 21 times within the next six months before he could finally go to Italy.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Supreme


    Level: 729


    EXP: 1,250,222/ 12,611,500


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Illusion Maniption (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A)


    Attributes: Strength 850, Endurance 695, Agility 687, Vitality 685, Magic Power 1200


    Free Attribute Points: 0

 Chapter 1307 Congratulations

    Chapter 1307 Congrattions����"Mhm." Theo stretched his body, feeling tired. "It was really a hard training session this time. Though, it was beneficial, right, Rea?"


    After the training, they finally returned to Earth again. It could be said that the training was the most insane training that one would ever think. There was no way people would believe that two Supreme Rank Experts would hunt a few hundred Mythical Rank Monsters to level up.


    And Rea, who was standing behind him, looked at him with a tired face. She said, "I feel like I have died more than fifty times."


    "Though, you can''t deny that it was good training, right?"


    "That''s true." Rea nodded in agreement. "But I don''t think I want to undergo that kind of training anymore."


    "Really?" Theo smirked.


    "��" Rea couldn''t answer this question. On the one hand, her progress improved by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, she truly had a bad memory of this training. It was simply too harsh.


    She looked at Theo and thought, ''The world sees Theo as an idol because he rises through the rank from the very bottom. Although I can admit that he has the talent for learning, it''ll be impossible for anyone to be as strong as him right now because they don''t have the guts.


    ''People see Theo when he''s be sessful, but all the people who have trained together with Theo will surely know one thing. Theo achieves this greatness due to him training nonstop.


    ''He schedules his training time perfectly and makes sure to use every single second not to go to waste when he''s training. Although I can see that he''s actually a carefree guy when he''s like this, he''s truly an insane man when he''s training.


    ''I haven''t seen anyone who works harder than him. Even me, who would continue to train until I copse, can''t bepared to him. After all, he''s smart enough to schedule all that training to allow him to work harder than anyone else.


    ''If someone tells me that Theo can only reach this level because he''s from the Griffith Family, has an extraordinary talent, or whatever reason, I will definitely tell them that''s not the case.''


    Rea remembered all the training they had done and couldn''t help but smile. From the bottom of her heart, she truly respected Theo.


    "Alright. Do you want to eat something? Or should we just go back right now?" Theo asked.


    "I think we should go back right away. We can just eatter," said Rea while thinking about her father. She obviously wanted to tell her father about this experience.


    "Sure." Theo smiled as they started running toward their mansion. "By the way, how many levels do you need to rank up?"


    "Two." Rea raised two fingers.


    "Well, I don''t really want you to be a Mythical Rank Expert in one go."


    "I understand. I''m going to polish my new technique first. Only after I gain your approval will I rank up."


    "Yep. Don''t worry. We still have six months, so the time is enough."


    Rea nodded.


    The journey didn''t take a long time since both of them were already close to a Mythical Rank Expert.


    As soon as they reached the mansion, surprisingly, they didn''t find a single person in the garden. Normally, Felix would have greeted them, or they would find someone training in the garden.


    So, it was quite surprising to see the mansion empty.


    Theo immediately activated his Awareness and found that all the people seemed to gather inside the house.


    Hence, Theo and Rea walked into the house before Felix suddenly appeared before him. Felix''s expression contained anxiety and despair as he looked at Theo and said, "We have bad news."


    "What is it?" Theo felt something was wrong, so he immediately used his Awareness to see where they gathered. It turned out they were gathering in a single guest room, making things a bit eerier.


    "Ehm�� Actually, Ruth is unconscious right now after getting a curse. She was visiting us before a curse suddenly struck her, and now we don''t know what''s going on. So��" Felix looked at him. He managed to heal Millie, so he should be able to do the same to Ruth.


    "Okay, let''s go then." Theo nodded. "I''ll take a look at her."


    They immediately rushed to the guest room, finding everyone inside. Ergene was guarding the room, making sure no curse struck them again. Millie was looking at the curse in Sk but to no avail. Isaac was inspecting her body to see if he could do anything.


    "Big Brother." Millie immediately came to Theo as soon as he entered the room. As someone who got cursed before, she obviously wanted to solve the curse quickly. So, she begged him. "Big Brother. This is bad. She has gotten a curse. And her pulse has gotten weaker. If the situation continues, it''s going to be dangerous."


    Theo patted her shoulder to assure her. She was already close to eighteen years old, but she acted like a kid. Though, it might be the influence of her trauma with a curse.


    "Don''t worry. Let me take a look at her." Theo smiled.


    "Mhm." Millie nodded timidly as she kept stealing a nce to check Ruth''s condition.


    Theo then approached Ruth while Isaac walked to him with everything he had.


    "I don''t know anything." Isaac sighed. "At that time, she was struck by a green light from the sky and her body was enveloped by the light for a moment. After that, her body gradually became weaker like this. I couldn''t find anything since she was unconscious. We wanted to bring her to the hospital, but they didn''t treat curses, so��"


    "Mhm?" Theo raised his eyebrows and asked again, "What did you say? Her body was enveloped by a green light?"


    "Yes. For a moment�� this was the wound." Isaac nodded and slightly lifted her shirt, showing a crescent-shaped scar.


    When the others gritted their teeth, regretting that they couldn''t react to that curse, Theo was stupefied and said a banned word in this type of situation. "Oh. Congrattions."

 Chapter 1308 Felixs Resolve

    Chapter 1308 Felix''s Resolve����"Oh. Congrattions."


    "!!!" That word stunned everyone. They were worried sick about her, yet Theo said, ''Congrattions?'' They simply couldn''t believe it. There was no way Theo was so cruel to spite people like this.


    "Big��" Millie looked at him in horror, remembering the scene where Theo removed her curse. She didn''t want to believe that memory was fake.


    Even Felix furrowed his eyebrows.


    Theo sensed the tension in the air and chuckled. "Ahaha. You misunderstand everything. That''s not a curse, but a blessing for her."


    "A blessing? That kind of blessing?" Isaac tilted his head in confusion. The blessing in his mind was the one from the figure of the past. However, there was no reason for them to bless her right now since she had grown far too strong to even need their power.


    Curious, Rea took a peek at the symbol and dropped her jaw.


    "This is��"


    "You know something?" Isaac asked.


    "Ehm��" Rea couldn''t say anything as she remembered the mark that her father had shown her. She looked at Theo in shock. "Is this what it is?"


    "It seems that you''ve recognized it��" Theo nced at Rea and asked, "Sword Saint?"


    "Yes. Father has shown me some stuff." She nodded.


    "I see." Theo nodded. "Well, just leave her like that. She will wake up sooner orter."


    "You are not joking?" Isaac frowned. "What is this blessing? Is this really a blessing, not a curse? I don''t understand a single thing."


    "Yes. It''s a blessing for her. After she wakes up, tell her to see me." Theo nodded and turned around. He muttered inwardly, ''This is truly an unexpected blessing for me. I thought two years were enough for her with that kind of skills and knowledge, but to think she achieved it this fast.''


    After confirming her condition, he walked while saying, "Isaac. This time, you got another research subject."


    "Another research subject?" Isaac was confused for a second before understanding the meaning behind those words. He sucked a cold breath. "She can''t be��"


    Unfortunately, Theo had left the room, not wanting to waste his time with this situation.


    Since Theo rified that it was a blessing instead of a curse, Felix decided to follow him.


    "Felix? Do you need anything?"


    "Maya is asking you to call her after you get back."


    "Okay. I''ll call her after this." Theo nodded.


    "In that case, there is one more question." Felix looked at Theo with a solemn face.


    Seeing Felix''s expression, Theo turned serious and looked him in the eyes. "Okay."


    "Is it possible for me to have a vacation�� for a few months?"


    "Alone?" Theo frowned.


    "Alone," Felix confirmed without hesitation.


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment and asked, "For how long?"


    "I am not sure. But I promise to return before the promised time."


    Theo hesitated for a second but still nodded his head. "I understand. Do whatever you need to do."


    "Thank you." Felix bowed until Theo returned to his room.


    He never thought that the situation would turn like this. It might be due to Felix having some suspicion about Ruth''s status, but it seemed Felix wanted to train himself even further. He didn''t want to lose to Ruth.


    "I''m truly blessed with a great group." Theo smiled, thinking, "Well, Chris won''t be too much of a problem anymore. Walker is weird, but he''s the type of person who will be loyal to me. That leaves Akbar��


    "If someone approaches Akbar with the same promise as I do or even better, he''ll abandon me easily. Or in the worst case, he might betray me for it.


    "Should I go to him to handle this problem? But I haven''t seen Akbar''s strength. Even with this information, I don''t think he will be able to achieve it at least for the next few years."


    Theo muttered, thinking about the group problem. However, he did have one more problem. "That''s right. With this, all ten Mythical Rank Experts have been assembled. That leaves the Supreme Rank Experts�� I have one more slot open. But what kind of person do I need?"


    "I don''t expect them to bebat based since the fight will be extremely dangerous from now on." Theo let out a long sigh before taking out his Skylink to call Maya.


    "You finally call me." Maya hurriedly picked up the call.


    "Yep, what''s wrong?"


    "Actually, you can find it on Sk already. Just check the news about Agata."


    "Mhm?" Theo paused for a moment and opened the news at the side, understanding what she was talking about.


    The son of the Skyward Guardian, Airvans Lockens, the 88th strongest man in the world, has promised to hold the biggest proposal to his loved person, Agata Mota, six months from now.


    "Yeah. I see that now." Theo remained calm.


    Because Maya wasn''t with him in Argelia, she wasn''t aware of Ne''s warning. Even Rea was absent.


    That was why Maya was angry to see Agata getting approached by someone else. She had recognized Agata as Theo''s woman, so she was a bit annoyed to see someone want to snatch her from him.


    However, she never expected Theo to be this calm as if he didn''t have any feelings toward Agata.


    "You didn''t have any reaction?" Maya frowned.


    "It''s the stage she has set up for me." Theo smiled. "So, you don''t need to worry about it."


    "A stage?" Maya looked down, contemting a few things. "Now that I think about it, the Skyward Guardian is the legal business that the Skyward Mercenary has. And that Skyward Mercenary is the vassal of the Griffith Family�� You can''t be��"


    Theo smirked as his eyes started emanating his killing intent. "It''s time for me to fight the Griffith Family."


    Maya sucked a cold breath, realizing that Theo had nned everything. However, she felt something was wrong with this proposal. "Wait a minute. This must be a trap set up by them. If you''re going there, you''ll be ambushed."


    Theo smirked and said, "Then, let us see who will be the winner."


    "You serious?" Maya looked at Theo with a grim expression before closing her eyes as if she had made a decision. "Alright. If that''s the case, I''m going to start my preparation."

 Chapter 1309 Reporting

    Chapter 1309 Reporting����Meanwhile, in Rea''s room, Rea was staring at the screen of her Skylink, waiting for the call to be connected.


    Soon, the Sword Saint''s face appeared on the screen, staring at his daughter.


    To his surprise, the Sword Saint felt the change in Rea''s face as a gentle expression reced his stern face. "You�� have worked hard."


    Normally, she would politely bow to him. But this time, Rea nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Honorable Father."


    "You''ve truly be strong." The Sword Saint smiled, feeling proud of this growth. He never thought that agreeing to Theo''s hell training was the correct choice.


    Rea closed her eyes, recalling the scene when her father abruptly sold her to Theo back then. She thought her father didn''t need her anymore. But this time, she was just thankful for the opportunity.


    "Honorable Father��" She lowered her head to ny degrees. "Thank you very much for sending me here."


    "I guess I can''t really call you home again. It seems that a certain bastard has snatched my daughter from me." The Sword Saint sighed, but still, he felt proud that he had the urge to tell this to his wife and son immediately. He just hid the excitement for the time being.


    "That''s right, Father�� I think I''ll be able to learn Order sooner orter." Rea suddenly dropped a bomb.


    "What?" The Sword Saint dropped his jaw as he suddenly raised his voice. "What did you say? Who did you hear it from? That brat? How dare he tell you something like that?! I''m going to butcher him."


    "No, no, no." Rea shook her head furiously, denying it. "I heard it from the Phantom Archer�� who now bes a part of us."


    "Really? Why did she even mention that?"


    "I think she''s just clueless about that information. So, she bluntly asked to be taught about it by Theo."


    "Seriously? Is he aware that teaching others easily is frowned upon?" The Sword Saint''s anger rose as he never expected Theo''s mouth to be this loose.


    "I''m not sure since he kicked me out before the exnations. However, he told me two requirements that I can fulfill if I want to learn this information." Rea raised two fingers.


    "Requirements?"


    "Yes. He wanted me to be a Mythical Rank Expert and wields a power that can define me." Rea smiled. "I think he has a simrity when ites to teaching with you. You always ask us what the sword means to us? It is as if you''re asking us our identities."


    The Sword Saint pinched the bridge of his nose. After this exnation, he understood that Theo was actually aware of the unwritten rule. The reason why Theo ced these two conditions was because he wanted her to be qualified to receive the Order first.


    By the time she asked this question, she would have received an Order. So, there wasn''t any exnation needed. In fact, he also nned to do this for both of his children.


    "I see." The Sword Saint sighed. "It seems I can''t really get angry at him."


    "Is that so?" Rea smiled as if she was happy about it.


    Looking at the smile, the Sword Saint said jokingly, "It seems that I won''t be able to meet my daughter anymore."


    "Ah!" Rea flustered as she waved her hands, denying the im. "I''ll be visiting home sooner orter. I just want to stay in this group a bit longer�� As for whether I''ll continue working here or not�� Ehm, I don''t know."


    ''I don''t know.'' That was a strong statement. If Rea still had the past mindset, she wouldn''t hesitate to go back after bing strong enough. But the fact that she didn''t know meant there was a chance that she would be loyal to this group for the rest of her life.


    The Sword Saint didn''t know whether tough or cry.


    "Whatever. By the way, your brother has be a Mythical Rank Expert, you know."


    "Yes. I''m two levels away, but I''m restraining myself from bing a Mythical Rank Expert for the time being. I want to get used to my power first. Father�� when I visit home in the future, you should try my�� Divine Technique."


    "!!!" The Sword Saint was shocked before smiling proudly. "I''m looking forward to it."


    "Oh, that''s right. I have another thing to report�� This just happened today, so I''m not sure whether I should tell you or not."


    "What happens?" The Sword Saint tilted his head in question. "Are we talking about his woman?"


    "No, no. It''s about the Phantom Archer."


    "Phantom Archer. Now that I think about it, she''s one of the best assassins in the world."


    "Yes. The people thought she was cursed, but Theo said it was a blessing. At first, she was struck by a green light before her body was enveloped by it. And it left a mark on her body. After hearing that exnation, Theo deemed it was a blessing, not a curse."


    "!!!" The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath as he asked again to confirm it. "Are you sure about it? You said this word to word, not your own interpretation?"


    "Yes." She nodded.


    "Why is he that lucky? Not only is his body blessed by that learning talent, but his group is lucky enough to find another person to use this power." The Sword Saint sighed. "I wish that someone in our group could do that too."


    "I guess it''s truly a blessing." Rea clenched her fists and said, "Don''t worry, Father. I''m going to continue to stay here and work hard. In the future, I''ll be able to wield this power as well. I''ll ensure that the Nagasawa Family remains as the top family in Japan."


    "Yes, I''m counting on you. It seems that my investment in him is going to skyrocket from now. An elite group, huh��" The Sword Saint smirked, feeling excited to see the future of this group. "There is one thing I need you to pass to him."


    "What is it?" Rea asked.


    "Tell him that I owe him."


    "Father��" Rea felt moved because the cause must be her growth. It meant her father still cared for her.


    "See you. My break is going to end soon." The Sword Saint smiled while waving his hand.


    "Yes, Honorable Father." Rea politely bowed until the screen disappeared.

 Chapter 1310 Plan

    Chapter 1310 n����"It seems you have woken up. Congrattions." Theo smiled, staring at Ruth in front of him. After waking up, the others also felt relieved and finally understood what had happened to Ruth.


    "Thanks to you. But what should I do after this? You only told me about the requirements," asked Ruth while cing her hand on the mark.


    "To be honest, you first need to understand what kind of Order you have right now."


    "Eh?" Ruth tilted her head in confusion. "Can''t you just see what it is?"


    "No." Theo shook his head. "The mark is there, but we don''t know what kind of Order you''ve got. For example, I saw your mark yesterday. It was a crescent-shaped tattoo�� What do you think it is?"


    "A bow!" Ruth answered without hesitation. "I wished for that Order."


    "Even if you wish for it, there''s a chance it won''t be that Order. Of course, I will be happy if you get what you want, but I can''t immediately conclude that your Order is Bow." Theo sighed.


    "Why is that so?"


    "From my understanding, Order itself is a kind to our dictionary. Just put a single word in it and add "Order" behind it. Right now, you think that mark is a bow, but how about a moon? It looks like a crescent moon, right?"


    "That''s true��" Ruth gradually wavered.


    "And even if it''s a bow, there''s a chance it can be a snipe or whatever words rted to it. Although they''re simr or rted, each of them has a different meaning. That''s why the power will vary.


    "Hence, you need to do trials and errors to confirm your power. Besides, there''s a reason why I want you to find it out too�� It will take six months before your Magic Power turns into another color."


    Theo started exining about Order. He first mentioned the bridge, the person, and the world analogy.


    From this exnation, she could understand the need to confirm her Order. If she didn''t confirm the Order, it was the same as her refusing to acknowledge the bridge despite having been built.


    After that, he continued with a few more basic topics. Of course, he didn''t n to tell her everything yet because he still couldn''t trust her fully.


    The lesson took an hour at most, but Ruth felt satisfied with the lesson. Even if she had more lessons, she couldn''t do anything with them because it wasn''t at that stage yet.


    Eventually, Ruth left the mansion and returned to the ce Chris lent her.


    Not long after, Felix came to him to bid him farewell since he nned to leave for training. Although it was sad to know that Felix wasn''t here anymore, he didn''t stop Felix. In fact, he was gratified by Felix''s initiative.


    When he was in the room, he was looking at the map. The map was not a random map since there was a huge word on top of the map.


    Genoa.


    Genoa was a metropolitan city in Italy and the ce where the Pata Corporation made their name.


    Yes, Theo had started nning to deal with the Griffith Family.


    He reckoned there would be three big influences that would be involved in this ce. They were his own influence, the Skyward Mercenary, and the Griffith Family.


    "This is going to be hard because I can''t really ask for the Wind Emperor''s help anymore. He has helped me so much during the fight against the Death Reaper, so I don''t want to burden him anymore.


    "At the same time, the Skyward Mercenary and the Griffith Family have a total of fifty Mythical Rank Experts, in which two of them were a King and the other one was a Saint. It was impossible for me to fight against the Saint��


    "Should I ask for Grandfather''s and the pope''s help? Grandfather aside, I don''t think the pope will agree to it since he''s just trying to keep everything neutral. Though, the military will be forced to make a move due to theirnd being invaded by a foreign power.


    "And since I''m nning to make my base there, they will dly help me to please me. Hence, I can at least ask the military to stop ten Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family. That leaves another twenty��


    "Well, there is the War God Family, but I can''t bring too many problems to the War God Family. They don''t owe me anything after all. Though, I can be sure that Grandfather will be willing to help. In other words, Grandfather will be the only person to help.


    "Still, he won''t be enough to stop those twenty Mythical Rank Experts at once since their target is to get past him and attack me. Hence, we need more people to handle them�� And the worst part is that the Griffith Monster ispletely free. Even Grandfather won''t be able to fight against the 8th strongest person in the world�� My other grandfather.


    "So�� I guess I''ll ask the favor from the Sword Saint to stop him. I don''t know about the negotiation, but I''ll need him in this plot. It''s sad that even though I''m a Mythical Rank Expert right now, it''s impossible for me to handle an Authority Level Figure.


    "As for the Eilric Family, they won''t have enough time to make a move because they''re not aware of my current identity. Even if they know and move, they will be toote.


    "That''s why those twenty Mythical Rank Experts�� need to be stopped somehow since Grandfather can stop the Mind Elder. Well, I''ll leave this area for now and focus on the Skyward Mercenary, which will most likely appear at full force during the engagement."


    Theo subconsciously snapped the stick he used to move the pieces around. Just thinking about the Skyward Mercenary made him angry.


    "Whatever. I''ll handle the Skyward Mercenary leader�� and I should pick Ava up. I can handle the Skyward Mercenary leader by myself, allowing the others to focus on the rest of them. Well, Ava, Felix, and Ruth could handle several of them easily. I have some leeway in this battle.


    "It''s better to send some to help on the battlefield then," Theo muttered, moving one of his pieces to the battlefield between his grandfather and the Griffith Family.

 Chapter 1311 Report

    Chapter 1311 Report����After taking care of all matters, Theo finally had some time to continue his training. It was truly hard to manage an influence, especially if they had a big enemy.


    Theo needed three days to settle everything for his n.


    But when he was about to train, Theo had another thought in his mind. "Now that I think about it, I''m nning to find thest person for my group. It''s just�� I don''t know what kind of person I will bring this time. After all, our rtionship most of the time is a bit special.


    "Isaac is a kind of a friend. Maya is a rival. Millie is Felix''s son. Last but not least, Aisha�� She''s from my hometown." Theo pondered for a moment, wondering who would be the next person.


    If it was just a random person like the Mythical Rank Experts, it would be weird since they didn''t have any use for him.


    Suddenly, Rea came to him, bringing news. "Joker. Maya called you earlier. She said you needed toplete an international mission."


    "International mission?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Ah, right. The quota. Well, I don''t really mind. There are still three months to do that, so I''m not rushing."


    "That''s true, but she asked if you want to recruit thest person from the international mission. It''s a perfect chance after all."


    "I see." Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "To be honest, I don''t have any vision of the person that I want to be ourst member."


    "Is that so? That will be problematic." Rea nodded in understanding. Theo usually had a vision, but this time, he already felt fulfilled with the current team. "How about taking a disciple instead?"


    "A disciple?" Theo was confused. "I have been teaching people, you know."


    "I know, but this person will be your real disciple. In other words, your sessor. You will pass everything to this person." Rea exined.


    "That''s a good idea, but I think I won''t take in any students for the time being. After all, if we''re talking about a disciple, they need to be talented, right? Even so, they need to have some sort of training first to show their talent. And ording to the age restriction, won''t it mean that my disciple will only be a few years away from me?"


    "Now that I think about it, you were only 17 years old when you participated in Grand Gaia. And only five years have passed since then�� So, you''re only 22 years old." Rea lowered her head. "I forgot you''re that young. Ugh, I''m now feeling a lot older."


    "Yeah. Anyway, I won''t take in any students. Besides, Maya can take care of Business, Isaac is in the research field while Millie handles ourmunication problems, and Aisha is our doctor. What kind of role do Ick right now?"


    Rea couldn''t answer that question since she also felt that everyone had fulfilled the role if she added the other roles from the Mythical Rank Experts.


    "Though, tell Maya that I''ll rest for another two months here. Just want to consolidate my power. After that, I''ll go on a mission. Since I''m nning to rank up, I need a few Mythical Rank Experts to guard me."


    "Huh? You''re joking. One Mythical Rank Expert should be enough, right?" Rea frowned. One Mythical Rank Expert was all it took to protect Theo since they were just standing on guard, but Theo asked for a few guards? It was a bit ridiculous even for her.


    "I''m not joking." Theo sighed helplessly, recalling what happened to Ava when she broke through. Ava released that amount of energy with the addition of her Order power.


    So, when he ranked up, he would also release his own Order, inciting the monsters. One Mythical Rank Expert wouldn''t be enough for this.


    "I''m nning to bring Ryo, Ruth, and Ergene to protect me," Theo exined. "So, tell her that I want a mission that can allow me to bring them with me."


    "Well, I don''t understand why you need them, but I''ll tell her just in case." Rea scratched the back of her head while looking at her Skylink. "Then, to your next schedule. Since you don''t know what kind of person you want next, how about throwing a dart to the world map? Whatever countrynds, we can ask Millie to gather data about the people there."


    "Are you going to overwork Millie? What I want is not a Mythical Rank Expert, but just a talented person. There are more people than just Mythical Rank Experts." Theo squinted his eyes, judging Rea.


    "No, no. Millie has done the basic ssification with Akbar''s help. All we need to do is to open the archive andpile it. I promise that it won''t take three days just to get all the data in one country." Rea exined.


    "If that is not a lot of work, then I guess I can do that. But it feels like the next person is chosen just because of luck, not a genuine choice." Theo sighed.


    "Well, that''s your choice. I''m just giving some options." Rea shook her head helplessly.


    "Whatever. I''m going to think about the next member for the time being. We have six months anyway."


    "I understand." Rea was supposed to have finished her job, but she mysteriously remained at his side as if she wanted something.


    "What is it?" Theo wasn''t annoyed, but he still preferred to train alone.


    "Actually, I want to ask you�� Since you''re at that level, do you think you can give me that mark? Like the one I thought was my birthmark?" Rea asked. "My father suggested that you should mark your people as soon as possible since the group has been formed. It''s hard to exin, but don''t you think it''s kinda cool to have a tattoo that will be the group''s symbol? Also, we need the group''s name."


    "Name aside, but I think it''s true that I should give you the mark." Theo contemted for a moment. Although Friend Seal wasn''t that useful since General ss Monsters wouldn''t be able to see it, it was clear that they served some purposes since most of his people were Mythical Rank Experts which was exposed to King ss Monsters a lot. "I''ll give it after I think up our group name."


    ******


    AN: What will the group name be and who will be thest member of the group?

 Chapter 1312 Reunion?

    Chapter 1312Reunion?


    "So, you want me to go to this ce." Theo read the mission that Maya gave.


    "Yep." Maya nodded with a serious expression. "There is something wrong with the situation there. It''s not a terrorist organization or a subjugation mission. Instead��"


    Theo narrowed his eyes as this was the first time he got this kind of mission.


    Mission: Guard the Poison Princess.


    "A bodyguard mission, huh." Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "This doesn''t suit me much, to be honest."


    "That''s what you''re thinking, but there is something you need to know about this person."


    "And that is?"


    "She is a rising star like you. Her poison is unmatched, and not many can neutralize her poison. It''s so lethal that you will have a hard time resisting that poison with your Magic Power. She''s a person you don''t want to be an enemy.


    "Also, the mission is only to bring them to a certain ce. After that, there''s no need for protection as her father, the Poison King, will take care of the rest.


    "I''m sure you know about this, but both the Poison King and the Poison Princess can easily kill thousands of people without anyone noticing. If we clear this mission, they promise to never harm anyone from the Star Group, including your group."


    "Mhm?" Theo looked down, contemting.


    On the one hand, the Poison Princess was indeed a powerful expert. On the other hand, he didn''t feel like going because it would be too much trouble.


    "Can you do this for me? Think of it as me asking you for the benefit of the group. I know that your Death Avatar can protect you, but how about the others?"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, not knowing what to say when Maya asked him like this.


    "One question."


    "Okay."


    "Don''t you think it''s easier to eliminate the threat if we just kill the Poison King?" Theo asked with a cold tone.


    Instead of getting his cooperation, it was better to kill the Poison King since he was too dangerous.


    "From what I know, the Poison King is nning to challenge the King ss Monster in Italy�� What''s the ce''s name again? Dark Poison Swamp? He is ranked 24th in the world list, so it''s not wise to offend him easily."


    "Challenge the King ss Monster?" Theo paused for a moment, thinking, ''It''s said that an Order won''t bepleted unless they gather every Order into one. That''s why there won''t be another Lightning Authority unless the current Lightning Authority and all Lightning Order possessors die. In other words, the Poison King is nning to merge the two Poison Orders to form a Poison Authority.


    ''It seems that I have underestimated the enemy this time. Although it''s true that my Death Avatar can handle the poison, the Order and Authority are much stronger than my Death Avatar. They can turn my Death Avatar into poison itself. Meaning he will be extremely dangerous.''


    There were many things that he needed to think of, but Maya suddenly took out another document. "Ah, by the way, it seems that this movement attracts too many people this time. It''s said that they need at least another ten Mythical Rank Experts from outside help, so it means you won''t be the only one to go."


    Theo received the document and opened it.


    However, he was stunned the moment he saw the profile picture.


    "You serious?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Yes. I don''t know whether this is a coincidence or not, but what do you think about having a reunion?" Maya smirked.


    What Maya meant by reunion was the fact that the Star Group was nning to join hands with two other influences to handle the problem.


    World Martial Institute.


    Empress'' Pce.


    The one that woulde from the Empress'' Pce was obvious. It was Alea Eilric.


    Although Maya was an entric character, she wouldn''t suggest taking this mission just so he could meet Alea. After all, their rtionship would be ruined after Alea knew about his n to propose to Agata.


    The reason why she still suggested this trip was the World Martial Institute. After looking at their profiles, Theo realized it was time to meet his old friends.


    Ellen Marcines.


    Phyrill Hilbert.


    After graduating from Thernd, they headed to a college in Egypt. Egypt itself was a country known for their extraordinary researchers, since many famous researchers hailed from this ce.


    And World Martial Institute was one of the best colleges in the world that taught not only Martial Arts but also an extensive amount of knowledge.


    Phyrill took Ellen to this ce after getting offered by them due to their performance in the Grand Gaia Competition.


    And now, they were sending a few Mythical Rank Experts and twenty Supreme Rank Experts. Ellen and Phyrill were among them.


    In other words, if he joined this mission, he would be able to meet all of them at the same time.


    However, Theo was contemting whether it would be alright to do it. After all, when he visited Japan, he didn''t meet Laust because he didn''t want to cause unnecessary problems with others knowing his identity.


    So, even if he met them here, he wouldn''t really take off his mask.


    But the problem was the fact that these three would have realized it in an instant. After all, Joker itself was his persona that all his team members from the Grand Gaia Competition were aware of.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "All of them should know about Joker, you know. Going there is the same as suicide."


    "If it''s you, you can go there without your identity as a Joker, right? I mean, as a friend, you should be curious about their conditions, no?" Maya asked again.


    "That''s true." Theo looked at the ceiling while taking a few deep breaths, disturbed by many pros and cons. Ultimately, he gave a condition. "I will impersonate Mark."


    "That''s easy, but are you sure about that? Can you even imitate his wind?"


    Theo raised his hand and formed a small tornado on his palm.


    "This is�� not an illusion." Maya gasped, seeing a different Magic Power from an illusion skill.


    "I can imitate his power to a certain extent. But I still want my people to take part in this."


    "That can be done. I''ll also talk to Mark about it."


    "Okay then. I''ll depart tonight." Theo nodded and rose from his seat, nning to leave. It wouldn''t be a reunion, but he didn''t mind checking their condition. However, Theo also added, "My main objective is not the reunion, okay?"


    "Okay?" Maya was confused but still nodded her head.

 Chapter 1313 Persuasion

    Chapter 1313Persuasion


    "So, we''re going to escort this princess?" Ruth looked at the photo of the Poison Princess. "Can''t her father just escort her himself? He is supposed to be a great man, right?"


    "If you look at this mission, it''s said that the Poison King is preparing for a ritual to baptize the Poison Princess. It''s said that after this, the Poison Princess will have the body of poison that umtes one thousand poisons." Ryo pointed at the exnation in the report.


    "That''s true, but why can''t he just go together with her and do the ritual without anyone knowing? Won''t it be safer that way? It''s rather suspicious." Ruth shook her head, denying the information.


    "Well, there is a chance that he wants to take advantage of us to guard him during the baptism. I think it''ll attract the monster since it''s stated that we need to stay for a few hours after escorting the princess." Ergene also read about the information while furrowing her eyebrows. She also felt suspicious about the whole mission, but it certainly brought great attention to everyone in the world.


    "This is not a joke. There are many holes in the argument here." Ruth was truly skeptical about the mission. After all, she was an elite assassin. She was there to kill people, so she had learned how to find a hole in the documents since it would impact her sess rate tremendously.


    "Still, he has epted the mission." Ergene nced at Theo. Thetter should have realized that the mission reeked of schemes, yet, he still participated in this mission. It was clear that he was nning something.


    "These are my friends." Theo showed them three people among the participants.


    "Huh?" Ryo and Ruth widened their eyes as they stared at Theo dumbfoundedly. Ryo hadn''t been told the truth while Ruth had just joined the group, so they weren''t aware of Theo''s real identity.


    When they saw these people, they instantly recognized them since they managed to shake the world a few years ago.


    And the one that could lead them and fool everyone was their leader, Theodore Griffith. In other words, Joker was Theodore Griffith, who should have died a few years ago.


    Ergene maintained her calm since she was already aware of Theo''s identity, but to everyone''s surprise, Ruth also remained calm.


    "I see. So, that''s how it is." Ruth stared at Theo and asked, "Are you nning to deal with the Griffith Family in the future?"


    "Yes. And it won''t be too long." Theo admitted without hesitation.


    Getting into this sort of trouble would make Ruth fall into a deeper scheme where she couldn''t leave the group. However, it was surprising that Theo was actually open about this.


    "I don''t understand. If you didn''t tell me anything about it, I would have fought against the Griffith Family and got chased by them for the rest of my life because of my connection with you. This is where I''m supposed to draw the line with you. So, I don''t understand why you actually told me about this." Ruth frowned. "What are you nning?"


    "I am not nning anything. If I want to gain your cooperation, you need to know about it sooner orter. I''m nning to tell Chris and Coline sooner orter, so yeah��" Theo shrugged.


    "Chris and Coline? Does that mean the others have known about this?"


    "Other than Walker, who doesn''t need to know, and Millie, who won''t even be inbat�� Yes."


    "But you��" Ruth bit his lips and asked, "No. Please answer this question. What is your goal? Are you nning to destroy the Griffith Family?"


    "The Griffith Family is the end and the beginning," Theo answered mysteriously.


    "The end and the beginning? I can''t understand. Do you think I will follow someone who is trying to kill himself?"


    "The end for my conflict with the Griffith Family as well as the beginning of my true journey," Theo smirked.


    "Your true journey?"


    "What do you think about the top ten experts in the world?" Theo asked.


    "They''re strong. Even with this power, I don''t think I can bepared to them."


    "But what if I told you that they are just the start of my journey and bing the number one expert is not my goal?"


    "Huh?" Ruth dropped her jaw. She wanted to say something, but the words stuck in her throat.


    Ergene closed her eyes as she was already aware of Theo''s goal. The one that only she and Theo knew. A goal that was beyond everyone''s imagination.


    "Well, I''ll stop here. If you decide to distance yourself, I don''t mind. But I need to keep you with me for a while to make sure that you don''t tell anyone about that power." Theo looked at Ruth with a sad smile.


    However, Ruth asked onest question. "I want to know this one thing. How confident are you in destroying the Griffith Family?"


    "Zero percent. The Griffith Family won''t be destroyed. However, the future Griffith Family won''t go against me since it''ll go under a huge reform," Theo answered.


    "��" Ruth never expected that Theo would answer it this way. If he told him one hundred percent, she would be impressed because Theo''s achievement made her think it was possible. Yet, Theo''s answer was in the form of an exnation, showing her that he didn''t n to make a false im.


    Trust. It was the fundamental of a rtionship. That was why Theo didn''t lie to her�� or so she thought. She was simply unaware that Theo couldn''t lie.


    "If you keep guiding me to be a top ten expert or anywhere near that position, I''ll follow you," Ruth added a condition.


    "Sure." Theo closed his eyes. "Though, it''ll also depend on your talent."


    "Hmph. You shouldn''t have said thest part, but�� thank you for not lying. As someone who is working in the shadows, deception, lies, and schemes weremon. That''s why I''m going to follow you for now because of your honesty." Ruth finally decided.


    ''For now, eh?'' Theo thought but didn''tment. He already expected this kind of answer, so he turned to Ryo, who hadn''t spoken anything this whole time.


    "If you''re already this strong, do you even need me to be your shield?" Ryo asked.


    "Yes. That will never change, Ryo. You''ll always be my shield. Protecting me doesn''t mean you''re standing in front of me with your shield."


    "��" Ryo closed his eyes for a moment as if he fell into deep thought. However, he soon opened his eyes and said, "I don''t have anything other than my shield."


    "No. You have everything, including the ability to harm people."


    "I have promised not to injure other people anymore."


    "I didn''t say that by injuring people, you could harm them. But if you protect me and everything around me, can''t you say that it can also harm people?"


    Ryo fell silent for a moment before lowering his head. "I shall serve as your shield. If you think I can''t protect anyone anymore, don''t hesitate to throw me away."


    "You shall be my shield, and it won''t change. I promise." Theo smiled.

 Chapter 1314 Unexpected Meeting

    Chapter 1314 Unexpected Meeting����Philippines.


    Theo and the others had finally arrived at their destination. Unlike others who sent many experts, only Theo, Ryo, Ergene, and Ruth participated in this mission.


    With Ryo, as Mark, it should be enough to prove their identity for this mission. And if they were questioning the others why Joker didn''te personally, he could say that he had sent his representative, which was Ryo, Ergene, and Ruth.


    This way, no one would doubt the Star Group anymore.


    "Well, this is my first time in this country." Theo smirked. "We have two days to prepare, so I think we have a lot of free time."


    "Sightseeing?" Ergene''s eyes brightened.


    "Of course." Theo smirked. "Though I need to ask Ruth to do something for me. I''ll give you the detailster, but let''s check in to the hotel for now."


    "Got it." Ruth nodded.


    Ergene was curious about Theo''s n since he wouldn''t do anything meaningless. If he sent Ruth somewhere else, there would be something she needed to do to ensure their sess.


    So, she was quite curious about his n. Though, she didn''t have a high hope that Theo would reveal his n to anyone other than Ruth for obvious reasons.


    They took a taxi to the hotel as Ergene handled the check-in process. Meanwhile, Ruth stared at him, wondering what he wanted her to do.


    This was the first time she had gone on a mission together with Theo, so she wasn''t aware to what extent Theo''s ability was. Meanwhile, Ryo asked, "Do you have anything in mind?"


    "Yeah. I guess fighting with my full power is neededter." Theo sighed. "Am I being nice right now? Have I actually done something out of my character?"


    "I don''t know about that." Ryo shook his head. "But you''re a nice person. That''s something I can confidently say."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled.


    "But what is my mission?" Ruth asked.


    "Can you speak English?"


    "Yes. For my work, I can talk in fivenguages." Ruth nodded.


    Then, Theo pointed at his head before using his power.


    A voice suddenly rang in Ruth''s head.


    "Can you hear me? Don''t panic. I am using my illusion to send something simr to telepathy. Just nod if you can hear me."


    "!!!" Ruth''s heart skipped a beat. She even took a deep breath first before she nodded her head.


    "Anyway, don''t ask anything since I can''t hear you. This is just one-waymunication." Theo paused for a moment. "You have two missions. There is a chance that we''ll be fighting against the Poison King, so your first job is to observe my battle against him.


    "Since you confirmed your Order a few weeks ago, I''m nning to let you see the battle between two Kings. Of course, I can''t really say anything about your unique power since you are the only one who can understand it. But watching the battle should give you some insight.


    "As for your second job, you''ll introduce yourself as a scout instead of a ranger. So, you will be the one scouting the area in front of us when we''re escorting that princess.


    "During that time, you don''t need toe back to me to give reports. In fact, you should leave my side most of the time.


    "I want you to move from one high ground to another, positioning yourself to a sniping position. I don''t know what will happen during this mission, so I want you to watch us and be ready to take a shot.


    "The signal will be when I make a gun sign. You shoot the person I point at. Of course, you shouldn''t just watch the Poison Princess, but the surroundings since we might be ambushed by other influences. Also, make sure to keep a close look at our own group.


    "If you understand, nod once. If you have a question, nod twice."


    Ruth nodded twice, but Theo added, "With this huge group, there is a high chance that one of them is a spy, so we need to be careful this time. And if there is a huge number of people approaching us, I want you to send a signal."


    Ruth widened her eyes in shock. She felt like Theo could see through her mind since that was the exact question she wanted to ask earlier.


    Theo then added in her mind, "Do you remember what I said about sightseeing? It''s true, but we''re not doing that in this town, but on the other side��"


    ''Ah!'' Ruth thought, finally understanding what Theo said earlier. It turned out Theo wanted her to look around the other side. Due to the sudden influx of Mythical Rank Experts, some foreign power surely managed to sneak in as well. That was why he wanted her to check about it.


    Theo had been building up his preparation as soon as he reached the area. Then, she suddenly turned around, feeling as if she was being watched.


    ''Hmm��'' Ruth looked down, remembering that Theo managed to find her from afar due to his extraordinary Awareness. It seemed that he was already aware they were being watched. The sightseeing was just a pretense to eliminate potential threats.


    ''I see. It seems that I''ve underestimated him. No wonder Felix trusts him that much��'' Ruth thought before saying, "I''ll do whatever I want, so don''t go looking for me."


    "Here you go." Ergene returned with two keys.


    "Can you bring this to our room, Ryo? I''ll wait for everyone outside." Theo handed his bag to Ryo.


    "Sure." Ryo nodded while Ergene asked, "Do you want me to apany you?"


    "Nope. It''s fine." Theo shook his head.


    "Alright, then."


    In the end, everyone other than Theo went to their respective room while Theo left the hotel.


    As he expected, a woman suddenly approached him as if she was trying to hit on him. "Hello, handsome guy."


    Theo ignored her as if she didn''t exist in the first ce. However, the girl insisted on approaching him to the point she ced her hand on Theo''s shoulder and said, "Come on, handsome guy. Are you shy?"


    "Are the people here so op��" Before he finished his words, the woman showed her palm, giving him one word.


    Ne.


    "!!!"


    ******


    AN: The die has been cast. Who will be thest member?


    A. Phyrill (The Torturer)


    B. Alea (With the unique eyes)


    C. Ellen (A special magician)


    D. Ne (The spy)


    E. The Poison Princess

 Chapter 1315 Nellas Suspicion

    Chapter 1315 Ne''s Suspicion����"!!!" Theo was shocked that Ne managed to see through him. Still, Ne was aware of his real ability as well as his group, so she should be able to predict something like this.


    "Sure, prettydy. Since you''re that persistent, I can spare a few minutes with you." Theo smiled.


    The two understood their roles and immediately slipped away, walking to an uncrowded area.


    They even went to a restaurant that had a service of a private room so that they could talk.


    As soon as Ne confirmed their safety, she finally said, "It''s been a while."


    "Yeah. Not that long though." Theo nodded in agreement. "What do you want from me?"


    "I want to warn you that this mission reeks of schemes."


    "Do you think I can''t see that? I''m already aware of the possibilities."


    "Still, to think they''re gathering your pastrades. I don''t know whether this is a coincidence or not, but this is going to be extremely dangerous. They''re trying to lure you out since there''s no way you''re gonna let your friends in danger." Ne sighed, feeling troubled with this entire mission.


    "But I don''t think it''s to that extent."


    "Reason?"


    "They''re just nning to confirm my existence to prepare their n a few monthster."


    "Are you nning to go to Italy and reveal your identity?"


    "Yes. That''s the reason I''ve been working hard this whole time."


    Ne paused for a moment and said, "In that case, I have a proposal. How about letting me join the group?"


    "Letting you join the group? I have submitted the profile of the people joining the group, you know." Theo shook his head helplessly. "It''s impossible to do that."


    "Your power can turn me into someone else, right? I don''t think you''re nning to have the Phantom Archer by your side."


    "You''re already aware of her existence in my group?" Theo raised his eyebrows.


    "That''s the power of the Griffith Family."


    "I feel like you''re going to be an extremely powerful spy in the future." Theo chuckled.


    "That''s right. I''ve heard that you''re establishing a unique group. How about me? Have you considered me? No, more like I want to join."


    "You are affiliated with the Griffith Family, right?"


    "But even then, it will be a long while until I take the helm of the new Griffith Family since Uncle Ray will at least rule a few decades to reform the family. I can work with you for that period." Ne smirked.


    "That''s kinda tempting even to me." Theo closed his eyes for a moment.


    "How is it? I can be someone who is in charge of espionage." She smirked.


    "Well, I''ll consider it for the time being." Theo shrugged.


    "Fine. I''m looking forward to your positive reply."


    "You''re pressuring me." Theo sighed before narrowing his eyes, returning to the previous topic. "Still, you want to try to be the Phantom Archer?"


    "Yes. When I''m with you, I can use some of my tools to see the surrounding area, preventing any ambush from a third party. Of course, this entire mission will be filled with attacks, but I''m trying to warn you about the party that''s not supposed to join the fray."


    "Is there any rtionship between the Griffith Family and this Poison King?" Theo asked.


    "We don''t have any record of it. So, I can''t say for sure."


    "How about you? Are you here on your own or on behalf of��" Theo paused, feeling a bit weird to call them his parents anymore.


    Ne also understood the current rtionship and answered before the atmosphere turned awkward. "I''m here on my own. Even though we''re hiding, it''s not like we''re holing ourselves up for a long period of time. I''m free to do something like this as long as I''m not getting found out."


    "Fair enough. Your disguise is truly hard to discern." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "That''s the same for the Griffith Family. You won''t realize they''re around you. In addition, their informationwork is extremely powerful and vast. That''s why Uncle Ray couldn''t even leave Thernd before it was toote." Ne sighed. "If only they were in the UK when doing this, I could convince them to marry you to me."


    "Oi." Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "I mean, we''re seven generations apart, so we can be said not to be connected by blood anymore." Ne pouted.


    "I''ve heard that excuse so many times. Even if there is no blood rtion, there is still an emotional rtion. Only an abnormal guy can love his rtive in that way."


    "Fine, fine." Ne chuckled. "So, we have a deal?"


    "Yeah. I''ll inform her after this and change my n a bit. If you''re helping me in surveying the area, it''ll be a lot easier."


    "Great!" Ne smiled. "Still, I''m wondering how you''re going to break the news to Alea. If you do this poorly, the Eilric Family will be influenced by the Griffith Family and end up retaliating against you. It''ll surely make your n fall apart and you won''t feel good either."


    "Leave me alone in that matter."


    "Okay. Then, onest question. Are you nning to meet them, or do you just want to watch them from afar?"


    "Thetter. Revealing my identity will be dangerous right now, but if needed, I won''t hesitate. The World Martial Institute and the Empress'' pce both had someone in the top one hundred people in the world, so I don''t think they''re going to be that extreme.


    "At the same time, our enemies this time won''t be that easy, considering we have twenty Mythical Rank Experts escorting this so-called Poison Princess."


    Ne looked at Theo''s confusion and asked, "If it were you, how would you attack the group?"


    "Multiple ways. But I''ll try to divide them in most scenarios. After separating them enough, it''ll be easier to defeat these people. And the worst part is�� I wonder if the experts that escorted the Poison Princess would actually betray us or not." Theo sighed.


    "Too much trouble."


    "True. Well, if you still want to follow me,e to my room two dayster."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1316 Reunion

    Chapter 1316 Reunion����"Alea!"


    "Ellen!"


    The two women finally met again after a long separation. They were childhood friends, so it felt a bit more nostalgic.


    They hugged each other as they truly missed each other so much.


    Alea had tied her blond hair into a ponytail, making her look a bit gant. Even though she acted like how she used to when they were still together, Ellen couldn''t deny that Alea felt a bit more mature. It wasn''t just her face or body, it was her aura that gave a feeling of a warrior.


    Ellen also had changed. She looked gentle and caring previously, but she now had braided hair resting on her left chest. She even wore sses due to her eyes deteriorating from bing a bookworm in the institute.


    Still, everyone who knew Ellen previously would agree that Ellen looked more mature and lovely like that of a mother.


    "Mhm?" Ellen nced to the side, finding another woman approaching them. As someone who had been talking with Alea the longest, she already knew her identity. "Hello, I''m Ellen. Thank you for taking care of Alea this whole time. I''m sure that she''s bothered you a lot."


    Ana chuckled and said, "Ahaha, it''s fine. She has truly grown a lot. Even I am feeling gratified when seeing her growth."


    That was right. She was Anastasia, the Empress'' granddaughter. She was already like a sister to Alea since they both grew at the same pace, making them look like a real family.


    "Can''t you put nicer words?" Alea pouted.


    "Well, I don''t want to disturb your reunion, so I''ll leav��" Ana stopped when he saw Phyrilling toward them. "Hello."


    "It''s an honor to meet the Empress'' granddaughter." Phyrill slightly bowed to show his respect.


    "You don''t have to be that polite. Alea''s friends are my friends as well." Ana extended her hand.


    Phyrill smiled and shook her hand. "Thanks."


    "Alea has told me about it, but you two have truly gone to the World Martial Institute together." Ana looked at Phyrill and Ellen.


    "I wasn''t invited by them though. It was Phyrill who asked me toe together with him." Ellen smiled, answering Ana''s doubt. She even positioned herself next to Phyrill as if she was backing him up.


    "Huh?" Alea raised her eyebrows. Due to her exceptional vision, she could see something more in that action. She couldn''t help but open her mouth in shock while pointing at them, "Are you two��"


    "Hehe��" Ellen made a big smile and admitted it without hesitation. "That''s right. We''re in a rtionship right now."


    "Oh, oh?" Alea was stunned for a moment. "Congrattions."


    "Thank you."


    Seeing Ellen''s smile made her happy, but she also had another feeling in her heart. She felt jealous. The disy between Ellen and Phyrill couldn''t help but remind her of Theo, the man who was said to have died.


    To avoid making others worry, Alea shifted the topic. "Still, to think Phyrill''s height hasn''t increased since then."


    "Wha��Alea, do you want a beating? I don''t think I''m weaker than you now." Phyrill smirked while raising both hands as if he was raring to fight.


    However, a pair of hands suddenly circled around his neck before pulling his head back. He suddenly bumped into a soft cushion, and his fighting spirit instantly disappeared.


    Yes, Ellen just pulled him into her embrace, and due to Phyrill''s height, his head perfectly fell on her breasts.


    "Isn''t it fine to be short? He''s perfect for me." Ellen smiled, backing Phyrill up while showing the proof of their rtionship.


    "��" Alea was speechless while Ana said, "Congrattions, Phyrill. It seems that you''ve found your other half."


    "Ehm, thank you?" Phyrill replied with an awkward tone because he felt a bit embarrassed about this. Not that he nned to push her away though.


    "Still, he''s not short. If you look at his back, he''s like a giant tower, protecting you." Ellen smiled as if she remembered something from the institute.


    "I think you should stop at that." Phyrill sighed.


    "Right?" Ellen chuckled.


    "Anyway, I need to arrange my people here, so I must leave. There is only our Empress'' Pce and the World Martial Institute right now. We''re still waiting for the main party to arrive�� I''m curious about this Poison Princess. Though, I have heard that the Star Group doesn''t send many people."


    "Yeah, it was like 4-5 people?" Ellen nodded. "I wonder who they are��"


    "Well, it seems that the one leading them is an S Rank Talent from the Star Group. Joker was supposed to participate, but he only sent three of his men." Ana sighed before waving her hand, leaving in a hurry after someone called her.


    "Isn''t Joker just a joke? People think he has the ability to fight against a Mythical Rank Expert, but no one has seen him fighting them." Suddenly, a young man walked toward them, participating in the discussion.


    "Ragnar��" Phyrill frowned, ring at him.


    "Who is he?" Alea asked in a low tone. Ellen, who was next to her, whispered, "A troublesome man who is unting his power everywhere. He likes to bully the weak just to make them look strong. Though, we can''t do anything right now because he has a lot of connections and his strength is already at Mythical Rank."


    Ragnar suddenly came to Alea with a sly smile. "Well, if it isn''t the famous Alea Eilric?"


    "You know me?" Alea frowned, not having a good feeling when she was observing his expression.


    "Of course, who doesn''t know Alea Eilric? The Sword Maiden of the Empress'' Pce." Ragnar smirked.


    "Ragnar!" Phyrill raised his voice. "You should take back what you said earlier. I don''t care if you like him or not, but your loose mouth will bring you big trouble sooner orter."


    "What? Did I say it wrong? How about I fight Joker now? Well, we can''t because he''s too scared to even go on a mission like this. You can''t spell Joker without Joke." Ragnar smirked.


    "What a bold im you have there." Another voice suddenly entered their ears as all of them turned around, seeing Theo and his group finally make their entrance.

 Chapter 1317 Theo Being Petty?

    Chapter 1317 Theo Being Petty?����"What a bold im you have there."


    "!!!" Everyone''s attention suddenly turned to this iing group.


    Ryo, Ergene, and Ne, who was disguised as Ruth, red at him as they didn''t like what he said earlier.


    Everybody sucked a cold breath, thinking there would be a bloodbath in this ce.


    "It seems that the World Martial Institute can turn people into brain-dead people who don''t even have an etiquette," Theo, who was using Mark''s appearance, said while looking at this Ragnar.


    He never thought that the reunion with Alea, Ellen, and Phyrill would be in this situation.


    "What did you say?" Ragnar stepped forward. Due to his height, he was looking down on Theo, who had smaller stature.


    But Theo still had a calm expression as he said, "Oh, it turns out they''re not just brain-dead, but also deaf."


    Ragnar clenched his fists and raised them as if nning to hit Theo, but in that instant, Ryo had already reached his position and grabbed his wrist with a cold face. "What do you think you''re doing?"


    It seemed that none of them nned to drop the topic. Even the other Mythical Rank Experts from the World Martial Institute started to rise from their positions, nning to join the fight.


    The tension was rising as the conflict was just one step away. If someone made a move this time, a brawl would surely happen.


    However, one of the Mythical Rank Experts from the World Martial Institute came to them and said, "Let''s just drop this topic. It''s just a misunderstanding."


    "Heh?" Theo nced at this guy while stating coldly, "If I don''t want to? This idiot is insulting not only the person himself but the entire Star Group."


    "What do you want then?" The Mythical Rank Expert narrowed his eyes. "Don''t forget that you also insult our institute."


    "It''s simple. I just want your World Martial Institute to issue a formal apology." Theo smirked.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert''s expression turned cold. "You are not nning to drop this matter?"


    "Don''t pick something so that you ask others to drop it back to the ground." Theo didn''t back down.


    He was indirectly implying that you didn''t insult someone only to ask that person to drop the matter.


    Unfortunately, someone broke the tension.


    "How about we drop this matter with just him apologizing to you, Mr. Mark?" A feminine voice echoed in the area as all of them saw a ck-haired woman walking with tens of experts around her.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw this person. The ckness of her hair didn''t seem to be natural as Theo could see that it was excluding ominous energy.


    "Princess, Joker is my friend as well as the most talented person from the Star Group. He is basically a figure that can represent the Star Group, just like your father. I''m sure that you don''t like to have your father insulted just because of a mere joke, right?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "That is of course." It looked like she would be supporting Theo, but she added, "Even so, the more we waste time here, the more we''re making my father wait. I don''t care what you want to do after the mission, but I''d like to ask you to finish this matter so that we can leave."


    "As you said�� since you''ve requested it, I''ll drop this matter for now. However, I won''t forget to convey the message of the World Martial Institute to him." Theo smirked before ncing at Ergene.


    ''Why are you looking at me?'' Ergene didn''t know Theo''s n anymore since he was looking like a petty person this whole time.


    However, there were a few people who didn''t think the same. Ana was one of them. As someone who was handling the Empress'' Pce, she obviously knew the current politics and situation all around the world.


    Obviously, the news about Joker visiting Mongolia and someone eliminating a group consisting of many Mythical Rank Experts had reached her ears. By ncing at Ergene, Theo made her think that Joker would be doing the same ''visit'' to the World Martial Institute. When that happened, no one would be able to predict the oue.


    Meanwhile, the Poison Princess didn''t continue to pursue this matter while saying, "I don''t ask much, but this trip is going to be extremely dangerous. I''d like to ask for your full cooperation so that we can reach the destination safely."


    "Yes."


    They nodded as the Princess'' force was actually the same as their three influencesbined. So, if the Princess joined hands with one of them, she would be able to wipe out the rest.


    Of course, not many thought about it because they weren''t aware of the danger that was lingering in this mission.


    Even Theo remained silent while observing everyone''s expression.


    Before leaving, the Poison Princess said, "With the cooperation of three groups, I''ll ask the Empress'' Pce to take our front while the World Martial Institute and the Star Group protect the sides. My guards will take care of our rear as well as send help in case of an emergency.


    "Our destination will be the Green Valley, a ce filled with many poisonous animals. Don''t worry, I''ll be able to detoxify you in case you''re poisoned during the trip. After that, I''d like all of you to remain on standby for five hours because there is a chance that the monster will rush to our ce during the ritual.


    "I promise that you all will be rewarded greatly." The Poison Princess paused for a moment and turned to Theo. "I''m sorry, but I need to confirm this. Are you confident in dealing with the monster if theye your way? Your group is a bit smallpared to others."


    Theo nodded his head with a calm expression. "We won''t have a problem in handling the monsters."


    "Okay then. I shall trust your judgment and the Star Group." The Poison Princess took a deep breath and said, "I know that this is going to be extremely dangerous, but I''d like to ask for your help."


    She politely bowed as if she respected each of the experts sent to this ce. After that, the journey finally began.

 Chapter 1318 Overwhelming Strength

    Chapter 1318 Overwhelming Strength����"Attack them!" Since the Empress'' Pce took the front, they were the ones handling most of the monsters. As expected from their ce, all of them were women, and their strength couldn''t be underestimated.


    The Mythical Rank Experts from the Empress'' Pce took care of ten Mythical Rank Monsters alone while leaving the Supreme Rank Monsters to their own Supreme Rank Experts.


    Alea and Ana showed their power. Ana had control over ice, so she used ice spikes to create terrains to confuse the monsters while Alea led the group of the Supreme Rank Experts to eliminate the monsters. It was a clean sweep and the battle ended not long after.


    On the other hand, the World Martial Institute had the most members among the three influences. Their Mythical Rank Experts were as strong as the Empress'' Pce.


    Despite his words, Ragnar showcased the power that could prove why the World Martial Institute was one of the most powerful colleges in the world.


    Even though his temperament was bad, he still managed to lead the group to fend off one hundred monsters easily.


    Meanwhile, the monsters that came to Theo''s side made people worry since Theo didn''t have enough members topletely cover the entire side by themselves.


    The Poison Princess even asked Theo once again, wanting to know if he needed any help.


    Theo''s answer came in the form of action as he said, "Mr. Ryo."


    Theo, of course, called Ryo politely since he wasn''t Theo, but for Ryo, he felt a bit weird because Theo never called him like that.


    Still, Ryo smashed the ground with his shield. In an instant, two giant walls emerged from the ground. These translucent shields formed a V-shaped barricade, causing the monsters to stay on this path.


    Meanwhile, Ergene unsheathed her sword as her body started sparking. She would be the one taking care of these monsters.


    And since Ne was impersonating Ruth, she also raised her hand as if she was pulling an arrow. After knowing Theo''s n, Ruth also nned to y along. She nned to help Ne and shoot every single monster that she shot.


    "First of all��" Theo raised both hands. Two wind balls suddenly appeared on his palms.


    Although he couldn''t replicate Mark''s ability to perfection, creating a wind and double shock waves wasn''t that hard for him.


    These two wind balls had two different concentrations of wind, so they would explode at different times.


    Theo then fused the wind balls carefully while thinking, ''As expected, I used my Order to create a Wind Element in both palms with different concentration�� and I separated these two winds with my Telekinesis. So, when it hit, the firstyer would open up, allowing the second burst to erupt.''


    Theo shot that wind ball to the right side.


    The monsters were confused because this didn''t seem to be a lethal wind ball, but the moment it touched one of them, the eruption caused a huge st, decimating the ground and the monsters in a fan-shaped area.


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" The explosion rmed everyone, whether they were from the Empress'' Pce, the World Martial Institute, or the Poison Princess'' men. They never expected that Mark would have this kind of power.


    Although he needed a few seconds to form that attack, the power was useful even against a Mythical Rank Expert. At the same time, this kind of attack would bepletely useless in a duel because the enemy would keep up with him, but Ryo took care of it. Not only did he limit the monsters'' movement by using that barrier, but he also protected Mark''s safety.


    This was why Mark dared to use something this powerful.


    When she saw the opening on the left side after that st, Ergene leaped toward the copsed side and started hunting the monsters that didn''t die from the st.


    Ergene''s might couldn''t be underestimated either. Even though she just became a Mythical Rank Expert two years ago, she had undergone Theo''s training as well. Though, it was due to Theo asking her to help him in his training. Nheless, Ergene had gained a lot during that trip.


    Her movement was swift and precise as though she knew where to go in an instant. She was so fast that it created a lightning trail along the way.


    It might be due to her trying to imitate Felix, but Ergene managed to create her own basic movement with this. Instead of Felix''s smooth spin on every step he took, Ergene created a zig-zag trail by jumping from one spot to another. With the help of the extraordinary prating power her lightning had, she just rammed everything into a single spot, shredding the monster''s body apart.


    Even Ragnar would have a hard time against her with only this power.


    But it didn''t stop there. While Theo was creating another wind to bomb the monsters, Ergene''s back was wide open due to that movement.


    It was at this time both Ne and Ruth made the exact same move and targeted the same monster. Their targets were the monsters that tried to sneak attack Ergene, who was on the front line.


    Everyone was stunned because the monster had their body explode the moment Ruth shot her arrow. And eventually, Theo managed to create another wind bomb and dropped it on the right side, stopping their advance toward them.


    *Boom!*


    With all these attacks, the monsters felt hopeless to even approach Theo. And they couldn''t circle them because of Ryo''s barrier.


    Still, the monsters were desperate enough to reach the group. They evenunched a volley of attacks that would cause a major explosion in the middle of their group.


    Ryo stomped the ground and put his shield forward. If the two walls he erected came from his first shield, this one skill came from his second shield.


    "Divine Protection."


    A huge white shield suddenly formed in front of him. This shield was sturdy, and everyone thought they wouldn''t be able to prate it. However, its size wouldn''t be able to protect the entire group. Some of the attacks would slip past it and cause a disorder among them.


    Even the others wanted to make their move, but they soon stopped when they saw the volley of attacks turned to the shield as if they were pulled by a magical force.


    And all of them ended up going straight to the shield and exploding.


    *Boom!*


    The explosion caused a shock wave that didn''t lose to Theo''s wind bomb in terms of might. Yet, it didn''t leave a single scratch on that shield.


    This was the power of the group Theo sent in ce of him. Even without him, they were extremely strong.

 Chapter 1319 Greeting

    Chapter 1319 Greeting����"That''s��" Ana looked at Theo''s group while sucking a cold breath. "The Star Group is really sending their best fighters. No wonder Joker doesn''te. I think they''re enough."


    Alea furrowed her eyebrows, staring at Ne and Theo. She felt something was wrong with them, but she didn''t know what it was.


    Of course, something was wrong. Theo had never wielded a wind element in his entire life. Although he could use his Control or Telekinesis to imitate it, this was the first time he utilized the element himself.


    Meanwhile, Ne never did anything. Although she released her Magic Power to form a bow, she never shot the actual arrow. Ruth was the one sniping down the monsters.


    Still, Ruth''s bow and arrow were invisible, so they didn''t know that Ne was just imitating the power.


    Nheless, it was enough to surprise all of the people on this expedition.


    Not only the Empress'' Pce, even the World Martial Institute felt pressure from Theo''s group.


    Ragnar gritted his teeth as if he felt Theo was saying to him that the World Martial Institute was insignificant before the group that Theo created. And he only needed to have one Supreme Rank Expert to handle the job of many Supreme Rank Experts.


    The Poison Princess looked from the center of their formation, impressed. "Hoh? It seems that the Star Group''s reputation is well deserved. Even though they''ve been weakened, the people who remain in the Star Group are those who are strong like Mark and Joker. If I''m not wrong, those three Mythical Rank Experts are not from the Star Group but the experts that Joker recruited himself.


    "If it''s like this, it can be said that Joker himself is above this Mark. Joker might be able to defeat a Mythical Rank Expert without being one himself."


    Unbeknownst to her, Theo had indeed won against a Mythical Rank Expert and a high ranking one on top of that. And Walker would be d to even tell his defeat against Theo since it also showed others how strong the person he served was.


    Everyone''s attention was on Theo''s group. Some hated them, but some also respected the group for having this kind of strength.


    Theo smirked when he saw their reactions, as this was what he wanted. In fact, the entire scenario had gone ording to his n. They were just unaware that they were ying on Theo''s palm this whole time.


    The trip continued for three days and everyone had gotten used to Theo''s group. Their overwhelming strength had invited admiration from most of them, but they were too scared to talk to Theo because of the conflict between Theo and Ragnar.


    Seeing how petty Theo was, they didn''t want to talk to him easily because they might end up dead just because of his pettiness.


    But after three days, some of them soon understood Theo''s personality a little bit, thinking they could talk to Theo without offending him.


    Ana was the first to make her move. And it seemed she also brought Alea to observe their expressions so that they could pry some information from them.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo had told them about Alea''s powerful vision, making them aware that they couldn''t make eye contact with her.


    Only Theo could handle Alea without being found out. Of course, if he couldpletely suppress Alea, thetter would suspect him, so he nned to give away some clues here and there only to confuse her.


    "Hello, Mr. Mark." Ana smiled politely. "It''s an honor to meet you."


    "I should be the one saying that." Theo nodded and shook her hand. "This is my first time seeing the granddaughter of the famous Empress."


    "I apologize for myte greeting. To be honest, I''m impressed by your group." Ana smiled while ncing at the three Mythical Rank Experts behind them. "Are they the people Joker recruited?"


    "Yes. I can''t bepared to Joker since his vision is far bigger than mine. To think he would send people outside the Star Group to handle his problem�� Well, it''s really a great help." Theo smiled.


    The words Theo said earlier were a bit confusing and not that cohesive, but this was just the foul signal that Theo gave to Alea. And the proof was that Alea''s eyebrows twitched when she found it.


    "I see." Ana nodded in understanding. But when she was about to say something, Mark said, "Ehm, I apologize if I''m being rude here, but Joker has told me to cut to the chase when I''m participating in this group. So, if possible, may I know what your purpose is in visiting our group?"


    Theo, as Mark, didn''t lie since Joker in his mind was himself. There was nothing wrong with him ordering himself to speak to Ana this way.


    "I understand." Ana had expected something like this from how Mark treated Ragnar, so she didn''t beat around the bush and ask, "Do you think it''s possible for a coboration between your Star Group and my pce?"


    "Hoh? Coboration? May I know what kind of coboration you''re talking about?"


    If one talked about coboration with the Star Group, they could be talking about equipment, joint mission, or exchange meeting. So, they needed to be specific with their request.


    "Actually, I am wondering if you have some ns in a program like an exchange student. We''ll send our people to your ce to learn from you and vice versa."


    "Ah, if it''s this coboration, I''m afraid you need to talk it out with Miss Maya as the CEO of the Star Group. Of course, if this is your intention, I don''t mind passing your message to her."


    "That would be good. I''ll be looking forward to your positive answers." Ana smiled and nodded.


    After revealing her intention, Ana and Alea retreated to their own group. Meanwhile, Theo fell silent while ncing at their back.


    ''An exchange, huh�� It seems that they have been suspicious about Joker''s identity. Even if they can''t have me visit them, they will send Ana and Alea together to check my stance. Unfortunately, it''s toote for them since I won''t be in the US in a few months.'' Theo smirked. ''Either way, I''ll just pass this message to Maya.''

 Chapter 1320 Poison

    Chapter 1320 Poison����As expected, Theo''s group hadpletely shocked everyone. Even the Poison Princess went all the way to him.


    "Good evening, Mr. Mark." The Poison Princess politely greeted him.


    "Good evening." Theo greeted her, but his tone wasn''t as warm as he treated the people from the Empress'' Pce. It was clear that Theo showed his discontent with how the princess handled the matter before.


    The Poison Princess smiled awkwardly as she never expected that everything would turn this way. She thought without Joker, the entire group would be doomed. Yet, they proved it wrong.


    But she couldn''t cry over spilled milk. She thought of a way to lessen the situation and said, "I wonder if you''re free tonight�� I''d like to talk to you privately."


    This invitation was surprising. On the one hand, the Poison Princess had no need to talk to him politely. Her father alone was definitely someone the Star Group didn''t want to be an enemy. That was also why they agreed to this request since the Poison Princess and the Poison King would promise them that they would never harm these groups.


    Yet, the Poison Princess still asked him. It was clear there was something behind Theo and his group. Whether she was interested in Mark personally, Joker, or the three Mythical Rank Experts behind him, the Poison Princess asked Theo to go with her alone.


    Still, that didn''t change the fact that the Star Group was the only influence that didn''t have an expert among the one hundred strongest people in the world. So, they couldn''t see any reasons why the Poison Princess approached Theo like this.


    After all, the Empress or the World Martial Institute''s dean was also among the top one hundred experts, though they were lower in rankpared to the Poison King. Nheless, it would be normal if the Poison Princess actually approached either influence first instead of the Star Group.


    "��" Mark looked at the Poison Princess for a moment before epting her invitation. "Sure. I''d love to."


    "!!!" If he was still the same person as he was back then, Theo would obviously reject the invitation because of the sh between the two. So, it was strange to see Theo suddenly ept the proposal.


    "Great." The Poison Princess smiled sweetly and extended her hand. "Please."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression as the two walked away, disappearing into the darkness. Even the guards that the princess brought helped them block everyone''s vision, making it not suspicious.


    "What''s going on?"


    "Did the princess just invite him to a small date?"


    Everyone wanted to know why the two walked away and why the guards blocked them since someone with such a status wouldn''t even think about Mark of the Star Group since thetter didn''t have much influence.


    Meanwhile, Theo and the Poison Princess walked into the woods nonchntly. The princess even started humming while Theo remained silent.


    Suddenly, she asked, "What do you think of me, Mark? Am I pretty?"


    "Yes, you are pretty," Theo answered without hesitation.


    "What do you think of me? Do you hate me for not taking your side in the argument a few days ago?"


    "Yes."


    "I want you to forgive me."


    "I understand. I''ll forgive you." The Poison Princess smirked and approached Theo while saying, "You''re interesting�� very interesting. What do you think about Joker? Is he strong? Stronger than a Mythical Rank Expert?"


    "Yes."


    "Hoh? If he''s with us today, how do you think the situation will revolve? No, how about the conflict from a few days ago? How do you think he would handle the situation?"


    "He would do something about it and force the World Martial Institute to apologize. If not, there''s a chance that the stability of the institute itself will be shaken greatly."


    "You must be exaggerating. There''s no way such a person can do something like that, especially a Supreme Rank Expert." The Poison Princess squinted her eyes.


    "No, Joker has the ability to do it."


    "��" The Poison Princess fell silent for a moment and said, "I want you to be my spy in the Star Group!"


    Mark politely bowed his head as if epting her order.


    "Good. From now on, I''ll protect you. I''ll make sure you stay alive no matter what happens. When you go back to the Star Group, I want you to pay close attention to Joker and tell me everything about him."


    "I understand." Theo nodded.


    "Good. This is indeed a good expedition. To think I''d gain another ve." The Poison Princess smirked and muttered, "Anyway, I want you to believe in me no matter what happens in a few days. I''ll make sure you''re alive!"


    "Thank you." Theo politely nodded.


    "Great. For now, go back to your group and continue to act like usual. Make sure that they don''t get too suspicious about your current condition. Even if I order you something, don''t immediately ept it to show that we''re not in the same group for the time being." The Poison Princess smirked before walking away.


    She was the first to leave as Theo saw her off first since he needed to go backter than her.


    Unbeknownst to her, Theo was never her ve.


    He recalled what happened to him earlier when the Poison Princess talked to him.


    ''Hmm? It seems that something is infecting my will�� it''s as if I need to follow her��'' Theo thought. As someone who had been fighting against his other self from other universes, Theo could easily know that he was influenced by something.


    ''It seems there is a poison that can affect one''s will�� At first, I thought the poison could only harm the body, but it seems there are many kinds of poison. I guess it''s to be expected from the Poison Princess.''


    Even without dispelling the force, Theo was still awake from this poison. And his guess was proven when the Poison Princess asked him whether he was beautiful or not.


    So, he just made her think he was under her influence and followed hermands. But when she returned, Theo used the Underworld Body from the Death Avatar to erase the toxin from his body.


    ''Well, this kind of poison is useless even without the Death Avatar since the influence of my other self from other universes is far stronger than the poison. It seems that my suspicion is correct�� Since you''re nning to y it like this, I''m going to use you too.'' Theo smirked, nning something evil in his mind.


    And the next morning, the expedition would meet their first huge problem.

 Chapter 1321 Among Us

    Chapter 1321 Among Us����"WHAT IS THIS?!"


    A loud shout shook the camp. It was two o''clock in the morning, so most people were sleeping. And the new people had finally changed shifts.


    However, one person among them actually found something that would shake the entire group.


    Due to their location deep inside the monster''s territory, they were already on high alert. A single shout was all it took for the people to wake up and evene out of their tents with their weapons.


    "What is happening?" The Poison Princess shouted while trying to wear a long gown to cover her body from the cold wind. The voice was clearly not far from her, so that shout must havee from her bodyguard.


    More and more people also gathered at one spot as they were wondering what had happened.


    But the moment they reached the area, they were stunned to see the corpse of one of the Poison Princess'' experts.


    "This is��" The Poison Princess sucked a cold breath as she recognized the corpse.


    The body had turned pale. It looked like it had been quite some time since he was murdered. Still, what shocked her the most was the huge hole in his stomach that ultimately killed him.


    It was clear that there wasn''t a single resistance before this man died, making it look like the work of an assassin.


    "Who? Who killed my escort?" The Poison Princess gritted her teeth and shouted in anger, looking at the people around her. Although it was only a single Mythical Rank Expert, losing him was still a huge blow to her influence.


    No one said anything because they were also perplexed about it.


    "Did you kill him?" The Poison Princess looked at Theo immediately. However, thetter shook his head and said, "No."


    Since Theo had been influenced by her poison, the Poison Princess immediately believed him. So, she turned to the Empress'' Pce and the Martial World Institute. "Either of you must be the culprit."


    "!!!" The Poison Princess'' statement shocked both influences, never expecting the Poison Princess to instantly make them the culprit.


    The first one to blow up was none other than Ragnar. He pointed at Theo and replied out loud, "No. It must be his group! Look at this hole on the stomach, it''s so big that it looks like the wound that his archer''s inflicted."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and said, "You can''t say anything you want without proof. There is also a chance that you''re the killer. Do you think you can justify your reason just because of that? You''repletely trying to make me like a viin because of the grudge earlier. Good, good, World Martial Institute, since you''re ying like this, don''t me me for telling Joker about it."


    "You bastard. This wound ispletely simr to what your archer inflicted! And you''re still ying innocent?"


    "Creating this kind of wound is simple. You and I can even do it." Theo frowned. "It''s clear that you''re trying to frame me. Don''t tell me�� you''re the culprit and trying to frame me? So, that''s how it is��"


    The n was simple, Ragnar killed the guy and created a wound simr to what Ruth left. Then, he med Theo for everything.


    Of course, that would be the case if the people around here were just utter fools. But Phyrill suddenly stepped forward and said, "Instead of arguing for something like this, shouldn''t we take a close look at this corpse? As Mr. Mark said, a wound like this can easily be created, so there''s a possibility that the archer is not at fault. It''s just someone trying to imitate the wound and me it on her.


    "But this is just me speaking objectively. I''m good at examining wounds since I''ve worked in this kind of job before. Unfortunately, I can''t tell the real wound because of this huge hole, and without proper equipment, you can''t really examine anything too. Though, I can say with certainty that the culprit is among us."


    Phyrill maintained his calm and even dared to voice his opinion objectively. It was a shocking statement, but they could understand why he said such a thing.


    They felt a bit of admiration for Phyrill, thinking this young man had lots of guts as well as honesty. At the same time, the people from the World Martial Institute detested him for saying it objectively. After all, it looked like Phyrill was ming Ragnar for the entire mess.


    Still, they heard that the culprit was among them.


    They immediately looked at each other, wondering if the person next to them was actually the culprit. Only Theo and his group didn''t even bother looking.


    Ne even smirked, mocking Ragnar for ming her. "Among us huh��"


    "What are you grinning about?" Ragnar roared at Ne.


    "What? You want to me me for weakening our group? You are very suspicious." Ne narrowed her eyes.


    "You bitch!" Ragnar shouted as he stepped forward as if he was nning to beat Ne.


    However, Ryo stood in his way, making sure that nothing would happen to his team.


    Meanwhile, Theo had been staying for quite a while, looking at Phyrill. Despite working in such an environment, Phyrill still did all he wanted.


    The Phyrill he knew was someone who just lived for the moments, enjoying his life to the fullest. But his calm demeanor showed how much he had matured over the past few years.


    He truly never expected that Phyrill would speak up for him. Though, he understood that Phyrill was just stating all the facts he got from the corpse.


    "So, who is the culprit?" The Poison Princess bit her lips, looking around.


    "There might even be a traitor among your group, Princess." Ne smirked, annoying the princess.


    "What did you say?" The Poison Princess red at her.


    Even Mark couldn''t help but turn around and say, "Miss Ruth. Joker has told me that we''re not here to make enemies. Please don''t say something unnecessary."


    "Tsk. Fine." Ne raised her hands as a symbol of giving up and stepped back just to enjoy the show.


    Still, everyone was wondering who the culprit was, and they needed to find the culprit no matter what because it would greatly influence the entire expedition.

 Chapter 1322 Phyrills Assessment

    Alea thought for a moment and whispered to Ana. Thetter then ryed it to Phyrill, asking, "Phyrill, do you have the tool to examine his body? Or to what extent can you diagnose this wound?"


    "I am not very sure." Phyrill pointed at the hole in the stomach. "First of all, killing a Mythical Rank Expert like this is hard, especially if you need to be quiet about it.


    "After, you can''t expect to have a Mythical Rank Expert die without a single fight, right? That''s why this is weird.


    "The enemies this time might be stronger than we expected. Thus, it''s normal to suspect the Star Group. There are three reasons why we should suspect the Star Group.


    "First, the wound that is simr to what the archer there inflicted on the monster. The second reason is the location of the corpse. It is leaning toward the Star Group''s camp, making it look like they were the ones who did it. Third, the enemy must have known about the conflict earlier. That''s why the culprit is among us." Phyrill exined.


    "What did you say? You''re suspecting us?" Ne shouted while Theo tried to stop her as if he didn''t want to make it even worse.


    Phyrill added, "Of course, there are also three reasons why we shouldn''t suspect the Star Group.


    "First, the killer this time must have known about the conflict like the reason from earlier. He''s utilizing this kind of assassination to make the people conspire against the Star Group. Whoever did this is expecting us to me the Star Group.


    "Second, this big crack on the ground��" Phyrill pointed at a small crater on the ground. "If you take a look at the location of the crack, the attack muste from the Empress'' Pce''s direction. Before you make an assumption, I''m telling you that I''m not going to lie or ce the me on any of you. I''m simply analyzing the crime scene.


    "As for the third reason, it''s simple. If the Star Group is the one doing it, it means we''repletely ipetent. For example, we''re taking turns for the night shift with at least one Mythical Rank Expert to stand by for every group. As for Miss Poison Princess�� your group needs to send two every shift.


    "Then, ites to this question. If he is killed by that person, how about the other person? Why the closest person who is patrolling the camp are not aware of this assassination?


    "With these three reasons, I want to say that all of us are the suspects. And the culprit is among us. However, there is no way to determine who is the culprit unless you have a special ability to do it." Phyrill finished his exnation and took a step back.


    ''Hoh?'' Theo was impressed by Pyhrill''s observation skill. He was good at torturing people meant he had exceptional knowledge about the human body. After all, he couldn''t afford to identally kill the tortured person.


    The Poison Princess thought for a moment, understanding Phyrill''s reasoning. As he said, they couldn''t really determine the culprit.


    "So��" Ana paused for a moment beforeing to a conclusion. "If this is the case, I can''t really trust anyone else from here since all of you have the chance to be the culprit."


    Theo also stated, "It seems we can only go this way. My team doesn''t mind taking the right side, but we''re not going topromise with other groups because there''s a chance that we''re being targeted to be made as a culprit. And I can''t really trust that guy."


    Theo red at Ragnar, who was biting his lips to suppress his anger.


    Meanwhile, Ragnar also showed, "There''s no need to suspect anyone. Just treat the Star Group as the culprit, and we can be done with it."


    "Shut up. I''m inviting everyone here, and you think your voice is the biggest here?" The Poison Princess raised her voice in anger. What others didn''t know was that she had poisoned Theo, so Theo wouldn''t be able to lie to her anymore. Since he had admitted that he didn''t kill her guard, the culprit should be either the World Martial Institute or the Empress'' Pce.


    She red at them before making a hard decision. "We''re going to continue our expedition. Because the culprit is among us, I want all of you to stand ten meters away from each other. This way, we can see each other''s movement, and no assassination will take ce again."


    "Hmm? Ten meters?" Theo looked at his Skylink and confirmed the distance in feet, thinking, ''Ah, 33 feet.''


    They considered the Poison Princess'' proposal. Since none of their three groups were harmed, it was clear that the Poison Princess was the only one suffering from this incident. So, they could still continue as long as the Poison Princess gave themand.


    Of course, the Poison Princess also suspected her own group. Since the night guard came in pairs, it was clear that the other Mythical Rank Expert that came out together with this victim was to be considered a culprit as well.


    And she wanted to handle it personally instead of letting other people do it. Hence, it was better to disperse them first and do the interrogation.


    Since this was also a satisfactory agreement, they epted the terms.


    To everyone''s surprise, Theo came to Phyrill, who managed to examine the wound to such an extent. He thanked him personally. "Thank you for speaking up for us. Without you, we would be branded as a culprit unjustly."


    "It''s fine. I was just stating the truth. Nothing wrong with it." Phyrill shook his head with a calm expression.


    "Okay. If there''s an opportunity, let me treat you." Theo smiled.


    "Ahaha, I''m looking forward to it." Phyrill chuckled as he watched Theo walking away. He didn''t know why but his instinct gave him a familiar feeling from this man. But in the end, he thought that his instinct was messing with him.


    Meanwhile, Ragnar gritted his teeth, ring at Phyrill as if he wanted to rip him apart. If there was no one here, Phyrill would have died.

 Chapter 1323 The Culprit

    The Poison Princess looked down on the man who was kneeling before her. The man was the suspicious person in her mind since he didn''t sense anything about his fallenrade.


    The Poison Princess asked, "Are you the culprit?"


    "Me? No, I''m not the culprit!" The man shook his head furiously, scared that one word might be all she needed to kill him.


    "Then, what were you doing when the assassination happened?"


    "I��" The man bit his lips. Although it was embarrassing, he said, "I was asleep. I didn''t know why but I was so sleepy that I didn''t realize I''d fallen asleep."


    "Huh?" The Poison Princess gritted her teeth, wanting to kill this man immediately. After all, a guard falling asleep was fatal in this environment since they could be ambushed during that time.


    However, her guard should have been carefully selected, and their strength could allow them to not sleep for one week straight.


    Yet, the guard imed he fell asleep.


    ''Something that can put him to sleep.'' The Poison Princess muttered inwardly, ''Is there someone who is using a sleeping poison as well? But a poisonous gas will rm me as well, so that means the poison needs to be in contact with him. If that''s the case, it must be something that he consumed��''


    After a while, the Poison Princess asked, "Who did you meet before you fell asleep? Did that person give you a drink or something?"


    "I��" The man gritted his teeth, trying hard to recall what happened. However, his memory seemed to be blurry as he had a hard time saying it. "This�� I don''t remember much, but there seems�� to be a man. I can''t recall the clothes or what he gave me, but�� I am sure it''s a man, a big man."


    "!!!" The Poison Princess widened her eyes, thinking. ''A big man? The Empress'' Pce doesn''t have any men, so they''re out of the question. How about the other two groups? There is one man among the Star Group, but Mark has confirmed they''re not the culprit. In that case, the only other person who can be considered a big man is�� Ragnar from the World Martial Institute.


    ''After all, my people don''t have a big body. In fact, this guy is the biggest one among them.'' The Poison Princess bit her lips. ''To think the culprit is that Ragnar. I''m not going to let this go, World Martial Institute. Not only did you dare to harm my ve, but you also had taken the life of my people��''


    The Poison Princess wanted to release her anger, but she couldn''t do it because there was not enough proof to me Ragnar for what happened.


    She looked at the big man and nced to the side. She had been burning incense this whole time.


    ''The Truth Incense is something that I develop with the Truth Drug in mind. When the person inhales a lot of it, he won''t be able to lie. So, it''s clear that this pig bastard hasn''t lied to me. Although the effect is only for the truth, the efficacy is far beyond my Control Drug.


    ''I have used my Control Drug to influence Mark''s mind so that he''ll be my ve. But still, this pig is not lying��'' The Poison Princess assessed the entire situation and ended up dropping this matter.


    Although she wanted to me Ragnar immediately, it would be extremely dangerous right now. So, she decided to gather some proof first before ming Ragnar.


    "Fine. You''re good to go. However, you still need to be punished for falling asleep. Go to Skar to talk about your punishment."


    "Y-yes. Thank you mdy for your forgiveness." The man furiously nodded as he rushed to the exit, not wanting to stay any longer.


    ��


    While the Poison Princess was contemting her n, Ne lied down on her sleeping bag while looking at the ceiling.


    ''Hmm�� It seems that the situation proceeds as he said��'' She thought, recounting what Theo said if he wanted to conquer this group.


    Back then, she asked, "If it were you, how would you attack the group?"


    "Multiple ways. But I''ll try to divide them in most scenarios. After separating them enough, it''ll be easier to defeat these people. And the worst part is�� I wonder if the experts that escorted the Poison Princess would actually betray us or not."


    This answer didn''t seem to be that simple.


    ''Theo might have seen thising.'' Ne frowned. ''Now that I think about it, the enemy managed to divide us. Without trust in each other, it''ll be easier to conquer them since all you need to do is overwhelm them from one side.


    ''And Theo is suspecting that the people from the Poison Princess are the culprits. The Poison Princess has brought ten Mythical Rank Experts, the same number as the three influencesbined. Now that we''ve been divided, it''s clear that if the Poison Princess suddenly backstabs us, we won''t be able to do anything.


    ''But the question is�� Why does the person who is dying to be one of them instead of the three influences? Is it because they don''t want the three influences to abandon the mission because of the casualty and theck of trust?


    ''Either way, it seems everything has gone ording to Theo''s vision. In that case, I want to see how Theo will reply to them this time.'' Ne smirked, thinking there would be a good showter when Theo revealed her cards.


    Unbeknownst to her or anyone in the big group, there was a single person who was still roaming in the area.


    "Hii�� Don''t kill me! I was forced to do it!" A Mythical Rank Expert dropped to the ground while raising his hand, trying to stop the person in front of him.


    "I don''t care about your motive. The moment you do it, you must also have the resolve to be hunted." She raised her hand, forming an invisible bow and arrow with her Magic Power. ''Now die.''


    *Fwoosh!*


    The wind blew slightly and ripped apart the Mythical Rank Expert''s head. She then looked at the two other corpses next to him. "Tsk. As he said, there are other influences trying to harm them. Well, they''re perfect to be my training partner since I have many things to try with my Bow Order."

 Chapter 1324 Concern

    Chapter 1324 Concern����"Let''s move out!" The Poison Princessmanded the next morning. But as expected, the others were still wary of her to the point they distanced themselves from each other.


    Other than his group, Theo could see that the rest didn''t have any trust in their own team, creating a huge gap in their formation.


    Still, there wasn''t a single Mythical Rank Expert from a third party that came after them. Even the Poison Princess grew restless and often checked around the camp to see what was going on.


    This journey would be extremely dangerous because she had expected at least ten Mythical Rank Experts woulde after them. Yet, she hadn''t encountered a single one of them.


    ''What''s going on? This is not like the n. I have gone all the way to bring twenty Mythical Rank Experts to protect myself, but why has no one arrived yet? Are they still going to attack me? I''m only two days away from the destination, so it''s clear that the best time to attack us has almost passed.'' The Poison Princess frowned.


    On the one hand, she was happy that no one attacked them since there would be more casualties. On the other hand, she was afraid that the attackers this time had banded together and nned to attack her at the right moment.


    In the end, there wasn''t a single answering to her mind. She wasn''t aware that the attackers had trulye, but they came a few at a time.


    As someone who had be a King, even though she was just like a fledgling, Ruth still managed to kill them one by one.


    This way, there was no more attack that would haunt them until they arrived.


    Theo observed the Poison Princess'' every action while recounting what had happened in the past few days.


    The biggest thing that had happened to him was the poison used by her. It was a colorless and odorless poison that could influence one''s mind.


    At first, he suspected that the Poison Princess was actually trying to control him because she nned to kill the rest of the group. But it didn''t seem to be that case.


    The Poison Princess seemed to have another n on her sleeve.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the journey didn''t encounter a single problem. They fought against many Mythical Rank Monsters, but they were just a normal ss with low-level intelligence. Some were Rare ss Monsters with some intelligence, but luckily, they didn''t find a single General ss Monster.


    There wasn''t a need to deploy a formation or something to protect the carriage.


    Alea seemed to have realized there was a hidden scheme in this mission that was beyond what they expected, but she had no proof to show. In the end, she and Ana only prepared for something worse while maintaining their jobs.


    On the other hand, the World Martial Institute didn''t have that kind of peace.


    Due to Phyrill stating the truth that brought harm to Ragnar at the same time, Phyrill was excluded from the rest of the group. In addition to his talk with Theo, they were looking at him like a traitor.


    When they returned to the instituteter, he wouldn''t really have that much of a peaceful time.


    Since he spoke up for him, a stranger, Theo thought about asking Phyrill about his condition.


    ''Hey. Do you mind looking to the right for a bit?''


    "!!!" Phyrill was startled when there was a sudden voice in his mind. He straightened his back and looked around to see what was going on. But as the voice said, when he looked to the right, Theo was waving his hand to him.


    ''Telepathy?'' Phyrill widened his eyes, thinking in his mind. Since it came from the mind, it should work this way.


    But Theo also knew about the question in his mind and answered, ''I am using a method that can transmit my voice to you. I''m assuming that you''re good at English, so I just want to ask you�� Do you understand what I''m saying? If you understand, please look down. If you don''t, please let out a sigh."


    Phyrill looked down as if he was depressed.


    Now that he had confirmed Phyrill''snguage skills. He asked, "Anyway, I just want to ask you if you''re alright�� After all, I''m pretty sure that you won''t have a good time in that institute anymore, considering that Ragnar is petty. And when Joker makes his move, you won''t escape unscathed either."


    Phyrill let out a long sigh as if he agreed with his statement. He knew the situation would be that way after they returned since Ragnar couldn''t afford to beat his group in front of these people.


    ''Well, this is just a normal day for me.'' Phyrill muttered inwardly. Although it was a shame that he couldn''t say anything back to him, Phyrill was still thankful that someone actually cared about his condition.


    However, he soon got a huge question when Theo presented an offer. "Anyway, this is what I actually want to ask. Do you think you have time after this expedition? Since you''ve spoken up for me, I''m going to at least make you busy for the rest of the trip so that you''re not bullied like that. Well, I don''t mind if youe over to me right now since I''ll just repay you for what you''ve done."


    Phyrill let out a sigh again, rejecting his offer. He nced at Ellen with a troubled expression. It was clear that he was saying Ellen would be a victim the moment he left.


    Unlike him, Ellen didn''t do anything earlier that was enough to garner someone''s attention, so the situation would be extremelyplicated the moment he left.


    "I understand. I won''t say much to you, but if you''re in trouble during this expedition, you can go with the woman beside you. I''ll take care of your problem for a while.''


    Phyrill looked down, thanking him for worrying. But Phyrill had no intention to give up on this matter because their future was at stake.

 Chapter 1325 Arrival

    After learning from their brief conversation, Theo understood that Phyrill didn''t really have a good life when he was studying at the World Martial Institute. It seemed that every day was a fight that he obviously couldn''t lose.


    ''I see. His situation right now is close to what I''ve experienced in Thernd, but this time, he has some strength to fight against the circumstances.'' Theo didn''t know what to say about this condition.


    On the one hand, his identity right now was Mark, not Joker or Theo. On the other hand, he pitied the lives of his friends. Phyrill was actually a cheerful guy. He often cheered the group up when they were in a team before.


    Meanwhile, Ellen was a kind of mentor to Theo. She was the first one to extend her hand and show him many things that could happen in a battle.


    ''Well��'' Theo suddenly remembered Ne''s words when she offered herself to be thest member of the group. ''Now that I think about it, what do I think of having my former teammate be my people?


    ''For example, if it''s Ne, she will be specialized in espionage. Someone who can disguise and learn something from the scene. She will be extremely useful since her presence will strengthen Akbar and Millie.


    ''On the contrary, asking her to be my subordinate would make the situation a bit moreplicated, considering Ne is now affiliated with the new Griffith Family. Though, it''s true that she can help me for a few decades before taking over the Griffith Family. By that time, I might not need her power anymore.


    ''Then, how about Phyrill? I still remember how Phyrill tortured a schoolmate to get some information. He will surely be able to work well in this area since his family operation is simr. But then again, does Phyrill want to live that kind of life?


    ''He wants to enjoy his life to the fullest because of his illness, so I don''t really want to take that freedom from him.


    ''Then, how about Ellen? Ellen is a natural dual caster Magician. Although you will be able to use two skills in rapid session to the point it looks like you''re using both skills at the same time, Ellen is extremely talented.


    ''Whatever I can do, she can do it two times simultaneously. Isaac can also help her with that split personality. But then again, she''s Phyrill''s girlfriend. I''m not going to separate them like that.


    ''This is hard. Each of them has pros and cons. But if we''re talking about a former teammate, how about Alea?'' Theo raised his vision, looking at Alea''s back for a moment before shaking his head helplessly.


    ''No, no, no. I don''t think so. Unless fate gives such a twist to me, I don''t think I''ll have Alea as thest member. I''m not going to start a series of sadness and madness, especially during this period.


    ''If Alea and Agata meet, it''s going to be a world war where losing is the only result.'' Theo sighed. In other words, if he wanted someone, it would be among these three.


    After that, he nced at the Poison Princess. Her poison was extremely useful because it could affect even his mind. Although due to him messing with alternate realities that the poison couldn''t do anything to him, it was clear that her poison was quite potent.


    However, the path had been destroyed the moment she tried to poison him. Even if he could use the Death Avatar to dispel the poison, it would be a different matter with the rest of the members.


    She could poison them and kill them without anyone knowing. So, the risk was too big.


    Besides, she was just a stranger. With this kind of power, he didn''t dare to trust her as easily as the other members he had recruited so far.


    ''In the end, I shouldn''t rush this matter. It''s true that I''mcking onest member, but I still have four months left before the promised time. Assuming that two months are enough for thest hunt to reach the Mythical Rank, I still have two more months to gain thest member.


    ''Now that I think about it, I have seen many prominent Supreme Rank Experts too, but��'' Theo paused for a moment. ''Only Winston and Lorenzo are good enough, but then again, Winston is useless to me since he can only fight, while Lorenzo''s space ability is extremely useful. It''s just...he needs to remain in the War God Family to seed the house. In the end, I''m out of options.''


    Theo let out a long sigh, feeling so much trouble just to get thest member.


    In the end, thest member remained unknown to him, and Theo could only keep thinking about it during the journey.


    It didn''t take too long for them to reach this area.


    The destination seemed to be a valley with two tall cliffs standing next to it. The valley itself was 100 feet wide, so the entire group could easily fit inside.


    But if one took a look at the cliff, they would notice that there was some pollen rising from here and there.


    Judging by the status of the person they escorted, it was clear that those pollen were poisonous.


    It seemed that the Poison King had been refining all the poison in this area to create something that could enhance the Poison Princess'' body.


    And the only thing that could withstand such a potent poison was none other than one of the Five Aspects, Endurance. Normally, they would have physical resistance when they trained Endurance, but the Poison Princess was different.


    Instead of physical resistance, she had a body immune to poison as her body had turned into a poison itself. If the me Lord, the strongest person in Australia, had a fire body, the Poison Princess had the body of poison.


    If she could turn her physical body into that of poison, she might surpass her father and attain the top ten experts in the future as a Poison Saint.


    When that thought was in Theo''s mind, a middle-aged man walked toward them with a dignified expression. He gently ced his hand on his chest and said, "Thank you for escorting my daughter to this ce. I''m her father, Artur Alvarez Ambrosio. People know me as the Poison King."

 Chapter 1326 Truth

    Chapter 1326Truth


    The man looked like a gentleman. No one would think that he was a vicious man that could kill millions of people with his poison alone.


    However, Theo could see some dark green Magic Power slipping out of his body.


    "It must be a hard journey for all of you." The man smiled.


    "Father." The Poison Princess stepped forward to greet him, but she soon asked, "By the way, what should I do after this, Father? We only have a few hours, right?"


    The few hours she mentioned was the agreement that the people had to stand by after their arrival.


    Artur nodded with a calm expression. "That''s right. To be honest, this is easy for you. I have been training your body by infusing one poison after another. And now, I''m nning to do the same so that you can break through to the Inhuman Physique.


    "With this, your body will be that of poison. There won''t be anything different between you and the poison. Everyone will bow down to you no matter where you go, and you will surpass me in the future and stand toe to toe with those freaks in the top ten."


    ''Huh? Why did he even mention it in front of everyone?'' Theo frowned, finding this announcement weird. ''If you have this kind of n, won''t it be better for you to stay quiet until you achieve it? After all, you''re going to be targeted by many people because of this ambition.


    ''Having a Poison Saint is extremely dangerous to the world. What if she disintegrates herself into the ocean or river? Won''t it mean that the entire water supply is contaminated?


    ''When that happens, the Poison Saint''s body is equal to a walking nuclear disaster. That''s why you shouldn''t say anything about your n.''


    Theo didn''t see any reason why he should announce it.


    However, Artur soon looked at the people who were in charge of the escort.


    "My daughter shall be the future queen of the world. This is your chance to pledge your allegiance to her!" Artur announced proudly.


    "Huh?" All the people who heard those words were startled.


    "I''ve told you to kneel down and lick her foot, you dogs."


    Ragnar was the first to explode as he shouted, "You bastard! This is different from the promise!"


    "It''s not. I promised you that the poison wouldn''t harm your influence!" The Poison King smirked and paused for a moment before stating with that disgusting smile on his face. "After all, why should I harm my subordinates who have pledged their allegiance?"


    "You��" Ragnar clenched his fists.


    "Thanks to the poison, you shall be the ve of my daughter. The only way for you not to die is to follow her words or else your body will explode." Artur smirked.


    "I see. It seems that you''ve been nning to do this." Ana frowned. "The Empress'' Pce and the World Martial Institute have a top one hundred experts while the Star Group has an exceptional financial might.


    "That idiot Ragnar is the son of the current principal while I am the Empress'' granddaughter with Alea being her student. By taking advantage of us, you want to make the two influences submit. Even if they''re hard-headed, the poison is enough to deal with it since they won''t realize we''ve carried the poison with us. Before long, they''re going to beg you to lift the poison.


    "Meanwhile, the Star Group was supposed to bring Joker and possibly Maya. But Joker seems to have seen through your intention and chose not toe. It seems that your n doesn''t work the way you want��" Ana narrowed her eyes as her expression turned cold. She also looked at the Poison Princess, who was already at the Poison King''s side. It was impossible to capture her anymore to turn around the situation.


    "As expected from the sessor of the Empress�� You''re indeed smart and powerful." Artur smirked. "I''m still giving you the option whether you want to submit peacefully or you want me to force you to do it."


    "What?! You poison bastard. What is the meaning of this? We''re going!" Ragnar immediately shouted. Instead of rage, he decided to flee before anyone else.


    However, that action was the worst mistake he would ever make.


    When he was about to turn around, a few explosions urred.


    The Poison Princess had brought many experts, and each of them carried a backpack. And all of them exploded at the same time, releasing blue gas into the area.


    "Poison Gas!" Ana shouted as she hurriedly closed her mouth and nose.


    But she soon felt her body lose its strength to the point her hand fell down. Her legs gave up as her body dropped to the ground.


    Although Ana''s consciousness wasn''t affected, she truly couldn''t move a single muscle in her body.


    "What is this?"


    "What is happening to my body?"


    "I can''t move a single muscle?"


    "How? I should have covered my nose and mouth. I should be able to run for a while�� This is just too quick."


    The poison gas soon dissipated with some of them still lingering around the area. However, it was already clear enough to see their surroundings.


    There wasn''t a single person who remained standing. Even the experts from the Poison Princess didn''t.


    They were also confused about why they became the targets too.


    "My king, Princes�� Why do we not know about any of this?" One of the guards asked.


    The Poison King smirked and said, "To fool your enemies, you need to fool your allies. Don''t worry. All of you have sworn your allegiance to her, so I''ll give you the antidoteter. For now, I''m going to handle these people first."


    When they got the assurance, they felt happy. However, Ragnar kept shouting in anger. "You said that you won''t attack us with poison!"


    "I do, but I promise you after youplete the mission. And your mission still requires you to wait here for a few hours. And within that time��" The Poison King smirked while taking out a few vials from his pockets. "I will use all sorts of poisons on you. From the one inducing pain to heighten your senses�� I''m going to make sure that you''ll experience what it means to live worse than death. If you don''t want to experience it, you should pledge your allegiance immediately."


    "Wait a minute, Father." She stopped him for a bit with a sly smile on her face.


    "Hmm?"


    "I actually take a liking to someone here. I have used the Mind Controlling Poison to turn him into my ve. Do you think it''s fine for me to use the antidote so that he can serve me right away?" The Poison Princess smirked.


    "Hoh?" The Poison King was amused and saw the Poison Princess walking toward Theo, not realizing that was a mistake even worse than the one Ragnar made earlier.

 Chapter 1327 Bam

    Chapter 1327 Bam����The Poison Princess smiled while walking to Theo, who couldn''t move his body due to the poison.


    "What?!" Ne gasped, staring at the Poison Princess. She didn''t know why thetter tried to approach Theo, but her words earlier meant he had controlled Theo this whole time.


    "What is happening? She has controlled him?" Ryo gasped while Ergene narrowed her eyes, not saying anything.


    If the Poison Princess had controlled Theo, it meant she had gained the strongest ally that she could find among them. Ergene was just afraid of the consequences of this action.


    Before she said anything, Theo opened his mouth and reported with a calm expression. "As expected, it seems that the Mythical Rank Experts that were tailing us were the people who wanted to kill you because they knew about your n."


    "!!!" Everyone was startled by that statement.


    "Hmm? What''s that?" The Poison King narrowed his eyes, looking at Theo.


    "So, that''s why our group didn''t encounter a single resistance. It turned out your group had been dealing with them secretly. The Star Group is indeed strong�� No, should I say the people under Joker?" The Poison Princess narrowed her eyes, finally understanding why their trip could progress smoothly.


    "Hahahaha! They didn''t know they had killed the people that wanted to save them?" The Poison Kingughed out loud, amused by this development. "No wonder you took a liking to him! He''s useful!"


    "Thanks, Father." The Poison Princess politely bowed her head to her father before turning to Theo. "This means that Father has no problem whatsoever with me taking him in, right?"


    "Of course." The Poison King smirked. All the doubts in his heart disappeared because Theo was extremely useful to them. And Mark of the Star Group was their first step to control Joker. So, this was an absolute win for him.


    "You bastard! We are in this predicament because of you!" Ragnar shouted in anger, ming everything on Theo.


    Instead of admitting that he didn''t know, he just med everything on Theo, he was truly pathetic.


    Even the others gritted their teeth, trying to find a way to escape from this ce. However, the poison was simply too much. Even if most of the poison had dispersed into the air, the residue still remained, maintaining their current paralyzed state.


    They could somehow imagine the torture that the Poison King would use to make them submit. And with that mind controlling poison, it was impossible for them to escape.


    "Haaaaa!" Alea shouted out loud. As expected of the person that was recognized by Heracles, even if everyone had given up, she would keep fighting to the very end. "If we can''t move our body, we will use the Magic Power!"


    Alea tried to revolve her Magic Power, trying to burn everything around her.


    Seeing her desperatest effort raised the people''s spirits as they also tried to do their best.


    Unfortunately for them, the Poison King''s poison wasn''t as simple as they thought.


    The Poison King snorted and said, "Do as you like because you won''t be able to do anything for the next three hours. The one you inhale this whole time consists of three poisons. They''re Paralyzing Poison, Magic Power Dispersant, and Acute Senses.


    "I don''t think there''s no need for me to exin the usage of these three, right?" The Poison King looked down on them as if he had controlled everything.


    No matter how hard they tried, they wouldn''t be able to do anything. At the same time, by telling them about his poison, they would be even more scared as time passed.


    The Poison King enjoyed their struggle that would gradually turn into despair because the more helpless they became, the easier they would be controlled.


    "Is this really the end��" Ana muttered in a low voice while thinking, ''Can I actually kill myself? No, can I evenmit suicide in this situation? Biting my tongue? Is that even possible? But thinking logically, I bleed to death or, in the best case, I get drowned by the blood that rushes to my lungs�� But it will take time and these people will surely notice it first.''


    Ana couldn''t find any way to kill herself. Although living was a good option, being humiliated and causing more deaths to the family that had fostered her the whole time was worse than death.


    The people started to fall in despair because they truly couldn''t do anything. If she only passed out, she would only be treated and brought to another ce. When that happened, the torture to make her under control would be easier.


    So, she needed something that could kill her in an instant, but she couldn''t find any way.


    The people had begun to fall into despair as they didn''t know what would happen to them.


    "Ahhh, do you know what you are doing right now? I am the sessor of the Great Schr Laktha. Do you think you can get away from this?!" Ragnar shouted.


    "��" Whether it was Phyrill, Ana, or even Theo''s group, they knew Ragnar was an idiot. The Poison King was stronger than his father, the Great Schr. At the same time, he had captured him like this, so there was no way for the Great Schr to defeat the Poison King. Knowing the Poison King''s personality, he would send Ragnar to poison the Great Schr himself.


    "You are really a fool. To think that the son of the Great Schr is an utter fool." The Poison Princessughed coldly, disgusted by Ragnar. She finally reached Theo and said, "Compared to you, this guy is much more useful and resourceful."


    "What did you say?" Ragnar gritted his teeth.


    The Poison Princess asked, "Do you think this princess is beautiful?"


    "Yes."


    "Do you think I am an angel?"


    "Yes."


    The Poison Princess asked those words to show her father that Theo waspletely under her control.


    After getting a nod from her father, she took out a vial and raised Theo''s head with her, opening his mouth. "To reward your loyalty to this princess by fending off those Mythical Rank Experts, I''ll personally feed you this antidote. Happy?"


    Everyone thought this was over because Theo hadpletely under her control and they would be the same mindless ve sooner orter.


    However, his next answer shocked everyone.


    "Fuck you!" Theo''s hand suddenly moved and grasped the princess'' face.


    "Eh?" The Poison Princess was taken aback by this sudden action, but it was toote because Theo mmed the back of her head to the ground with all his strength.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!"

 Chapter 1328 Turned Around the Situation

    Chapter 1328 Turned Around the Situation����*Bam!*


    Everyone dropped their jaws to the ground because they never expected that Theo would be able to move before consuming the antidote.


    The crater that Theo created by mming the princess'' head to the ground was one hundred feet in radius, showing how much strength he put into it.


    At the same time, there was a gust of wind that dispersed the poison residue around, cleaning this ce.


    However, that very gust also directly hit the Poison Princess'' face,pletely ruining her face.


    "Tsk. As expected, it''s hard to act. I need to hide my anger." Theo clicked his tongue before ring at the Poison King. "Now, now. Let''s do it your way, Poison King. You move, she''s dead."


    "You�� How do you escape the poison?" The Poison Princess asked while ring at Theo.


    The answer came in the form of wind as the wind started scratching her face again as if he was drilling a hole.


    "Aaaahhhhh!" The Poison Princess screamed in pain.


    "I don''t have a big mouth like you and your father, so shut up." Theo clicked his tongue.


    "You bastard!" The Poison King shouted as he was releasing his dark green Magic Power. However, he couldn''t move because his daughter would be killed.


    Theo then used the wind to open the vial and sent the antidote to Ergene. "Take it."


    "Understood." Ergene opened her mouth without hesitation as if shepletely trusted Theo.


    In that instant, Ergene suddenly regained the ability to move and used her Magic Power.


    "Let''s see�� What should I do next?" Theo smirked while looking around as if he wanted to do something amusing.


    "We should kill those Mythical Rank Experts and retreat from here. Since the World Martial Institute is a bitch, we can let them die here." Ergene answered with a calm expression.


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    Ergene stared at Theo, who somehow managed to turn the situation around. Even she didn''t expect this. ''Judging by��''


    As expected from the Poison King, who managed to orchestrate the whole thing, he had the same thought as Ergene.


    "To think a brat like you outy me�� Judging from their expressions, it''s clear that they don''t know anything about this. To fool your enemies, you need to fool your allies. And by taking a hostage, you can handle the situation to your liking."


    The Poison King gritted his teeth. He never expected that Theo was actually using his own tricks against him. Theo''s teammates didn''t know Theo was just pretending to be affected by the poison. And now that the Poison Princess was close to him, he used that chance to capture her to turn the situation around. Just like the Poison King''s n.


    "How long have you nned this��" The Poison King asked in anger.


    "Ohe on. Who did you invite from the Star Group?" Theo smirked.


    "Joker�� He has seen through my scheme that long ago?" The Poison King clenched his fists as if he wanted to kill Mark and Ergene. And to everyone''s surprise, the Poison King actually leaped forth and shouted, "But you haven''t realized that I don''t care if she''s dead or not. If she dies here, I''ll just make another Poison Princess. Hahahahaha!"


    Ergene tried to make a move to stop this Poison King while the people realized that it was still the end. Their hope just got shattered again since no one could defeat the Poison King.


    To their surprise, there was another person''s voice echoing on the battlefield.


    "And you haven''t realized that I''m here��"


    A shadow appeared before the Poison King.


    Both of them gathered their Magic Power in their fists as they punched each other. The sh of their fists caused a huge shock wave that shot upward, blowing the cloud above them.


    However, what they didn''t expect was that the Poison King''s hand suddenly snapped in another direction before the force in that fist blew him away. His body flew for at least a quarter mile and destroyed many trees and boulders along the way.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!" The Poison King spat a mouthful of blood as the excruciating pain jolted his mind.


    "What had just happened?" The Poison King asked himself as he looked at his hand in horror. A single punch was all it took for him to break his bone. Although it was true that the punch caught him off guard and that he couldn''t even prepare anything to block it, he could feel that the enemy was only a Supreme Rank Expert, not a Mythical Rank Expert.


    He recounted his memory and remembered that the person''s hand didn''t even touch him as if he was covered with a thin screen.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the people were stunned as well.


    Alea dropped her jaw as this was the first time she saw someone with the Magic Power of a Supreme Rank Expert crush someone who was ranked 24th in the world.


    ''Who is he?'' Alea asked inwardly, looking at this person.


    ''He is�� Isn''t he the guy from the Poison Princess?'' Ana thought while looking at the man. The clothes he used came from the Poison Princess, so it was clear that he was her guard. And if she didn''t remember it wrong, this person should be a Mythical Rank Expert, not a Supreme Rank Expert.


    ''Who is he? Judging by his looks, he seems to be familiar with the Star Group�� but didn''t he say��'' Phyrill gulped down as if he could see through the man''s real identity.


    The Poison Princess recognized this man since she had called him a few days ago. When the incident happened, he told her that he was sleeping due to poison.


    She thought it was the World Martial Institute, but she soon came to a realization.


    "That incident from a few days ago�� It was you, right, Joker?!" The Poison Princess finally called the name.


    It turned out the one who died a few days ago wasn''t just one. Both of them died due to the assassination. Joker immediately reced one of them while the other one remained there, shifting their focus from him.


    And due to the distance that urred after the distrust, they wouldn''t expect that Joker was among them.


    The man smirked and said, "It seems that there''s no point in acting anymore."

 Chapter 1329 Last Member

    Chapter 1329 Last Member����"It seems there''s no point in acting anymore." Theo smirked as he ripped apart the face skin he had. It wasn''t real face skin. He just used his illusion to make it look like he had a face mask since his illusion power was still a secret.


    He also amplified that power with the Order to fool anyone here who didn''t have Order yet.


    After that, he shook his clothes as a few pillows fell to the ground as proof of why his body had be big. In other words, Theo had been among them this whole time, yet, they never realized it.


    They soon saw scars unique to Joker before thetter raised his hand to cover his face.


    A thin cloth wrapped in his hand suddenly moved as if it was alive. It then turned into a mask as Joker finally made his appearance.


    "As expected, being like this feels good." Theo smiled.


    Everyone gulped down.


    ''So, this is Joker. He has been anticipating everything and doing all this�� Why does he remind me of him? The guy who always outys the others that losing still means winning to him��'' Alea thought as she could see Theo''s figure in Joker.


    ''Star Group''s Joker�� No wonder they can defeat many Mythical Rank Experts. His reputation is well-deserved.'' Ana bit her lips. Joker was truly the genius of the generation.


    ''So, that''s why Mark contacted me?'' Phyrill stared at Mark.


    Ergene lowered her head to Theo. She knew that both Mark and Joker were Theo, but in this case, her loyalty was to Theo, so she needed to show it to everyone here.


    "What should we do?" Ergene, who gave the suggestion to Mark earlier, suddenly became like a student who asked her teacher''s guidance.


    "Let''s see�� I''ve heard that you can spell Joker without ''Joke'' eh?'' Theo nced at Ragnar while smirking, "I''ll be a joke then. Instead of saving these guys? How about killing all of them here? Not only can I eliminate all the future threats but also stop the Poison King from gaining an ally."


    Ana suddenly shouted, "Joker! I know that my pce is in the wrong for not stopping him from insulting you. But if you want to direct your hatred, just do it to me. Please save the rest!"


    "Hoh? A bold request." Theo smirked. "To think that the Empress'' granddaughter is this brave and responsible�� Thanks to you, I''ll save your people then. But since the World Martial Institute is picking a fight with me, I don''t think I''ll save them��"


    "You bastard!" Ragnar gritted his teeth.


    Theo raised two fingers. "Two people! I''m going to kill two people from your group to satisfy my revenge. Choose wisely, O'' Son of the Great Schr."


    Ragnar was dumbstruck, but it didn''t take too long for him to state the name. "Phyrill and Ellen. Kill them!"


    Theo''s smile became bigger and bigger as he said, "Then, the deal is made. Ergene��"


    "Yes." Ergene nodded with a serious expression, walking to Phyrill and Ellen. They were helpless and had epted their fate.


    Phyrill begged, "Can you be satisfied with just me? If you don''t want me to die easily, you can torture me until you''re satisfied�� But please spare her."


    "No! I have a Split Personality! It means you can count my life as two! Please just kill me!" Ellen shouted, not wanting Phyrill to die.


    But Ergene remained silent as she finally arrived in front of them.


    The two begged her, but Ergene suddenly grabbed both their waists and carried them to Theo''s side. "I have brought them with me. With this��"


    "Yes." Theo smirked. "Our group has finallypleted. I guess it''s a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Nice to meet you, Phyrill, Ellen�� Wee to my group."


    "Huh?" All of them were dumbfounded, not understanding what Theo had just said.


    However, their shock fell short as the Poison King finally returned to the battlefield.


    "It seems that you have got what you want from here�� When I was blown away earlier, I realized that you had no reason toe here if you already knew about my plot�� So, I was wondering the reason for you toe here. It turns out you''re nning to invite people to your group!" The Poison King narrowed his eyes.


    "Took you long enough to realize that. But thanks to your slow brain, I can finish my matter here." Theo smiled. "There''s no need for me to stay here anymore."


    "Do you think you can leave?"


    "Do you think I can''t?"


    "��" The Poison King couldn''t deny it because of Theo''s power. "As expected�� despite being only a Supreme Rank Expert, you''ve attained that absolute power that only the top one hundred experts can receive�� No wonder there is no Supreme Rank Expert that can fight you anymore.


    "The moment you be a Mythical Rank Expert, you will be able to enter the top one hundred experts in the world instantly and your rank won''t be that low." The Poison King gritted his teeth while looking at his broken hand.


    Theo inflicted that damage with his Alter Ego that increased his strength to the very limit. And the side effect was his body hurting all over. Though, he could endure the pain easily since the side effect wasn''t as strong as when his Agility was at maximum.


    "Still, this is the end, Joker. You have ruined my n, but the price is your life!" He raised his hand, pointing his palm at his daughter.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" The Poison Princess started convulsing as her body gradually melted due to the corrosive effect of the poison inside. Even the Disguised Mark leaped back to avoid being affected by that poison.


    As soon as the skin, flesh, and bone disappeared, the gas hiding inside her body exploded, surrounding the area with a thick purple gas.


    "Hahahahahaha!"


    "Poison?" Theo narrowed his eyes while looking at the people around him that had started convulsing as well.


    "Do you think you have escaped? That poison contains all the poison that I have infused into her body. In other words, it will be an extremely potent poison that will be able to kill a Mythical Rank Expert! It''s a shame that I need to work on everything again from the start, but this is the end, Joker!" The Poison King shouted excitedly, thinking he had won.


    However, a translucent white screen appeared out of thin air and expanded, pushing all the poison away from them. Even the poison in their body was released into the air and swept by the screen.


    And Theo, who was standing in the middle of them, looked at him with a poker face, saying, "Ah, okay."

 Chapter 1330

    "Ah, okay."


    The poison was expelled within that area. Whether it was the poison in their body or the poison in the air, none of them managed to escape Theo\''s Underworld Body.


    "Wha��" The Poison King widened his eyes in shock, never expecting that someone would manage to expel his poison easily. It was supposed to be a poison that could kill Mythical Rank Experts easily, yet, Theo showed a skill beyond that.


    Before his shock ended, the disguised Mark created a tornado on his palm, throwing all the people who were on the ground. They were shocked as well, so they were toote to react.


    In the end, they were thrown away to the side as Theo shouted, "Just go away. You\''re just in my way if you stay here."


    Still, as one would expect from the number 7th assassins in the world. The Phantom Archer, Ruth, didn\''t let this chance go. When those people were thrown into the air, she released several shots.


    p��nd��`no��?1~��o�� Her arrows targeted the people that the Poison Princess previously brought. They would just cause more problems if they let them live, so she tried to kill as many people as possible.


    Ultimately, she managed to snipe five of them, leaving only three of them alive.


    Ergene took this chance to use her power to go straight to them, killing two others. She was the one who figured out Theo\''s n and had some clues about what he nned to do next, so she was the first one to react to this abnormality.


    As soon as theynded on the ground, Ergene shouted, "Kill that onest man and leave this ce if you want to stay alive!"


    Remembering Theo\''s kindness, Ana immediately shouted, "Help them!"


    Ergene, Ryo, and three Mythical Rank Experts from the Empress\'' Pce surrounded thest Mythical Rank enemy, ultimately killing them.


    But before they felt relieved, Ergene kept shouting, "If you don\''t run right now, we won\''t go back to help you."


    Mark immediately turned around and led Ergene, Ryo, and Ne back while leaving Theo and Ruth to remain in their position, nning to take on the Poison King for just a little longer to ensure their safety.


    "I won\''t let them go!" The Poison King raised his hand and released a ck gas from his sleeve.


    Theo snapped his finger, removing the power from within that gas. In an instant, there was only Magic Power left in that gas.


    "So, that\''s how it is." The Poison King narrowed his eyes. "It seems that you can remove my poison from the Magic Power. However, you underestimate what a Mythical Rank Expert can do!"


    Suddenly, the Magic Power that was lingering in the air turned ck again as if getting another supply of poison.


    But this time, Theo could see the dark green Magic Power.<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    The gas now contained the Poison Order, so it would be impossible for him to remove it.


    Theo channeled his Order Energy into his power, removing the poison again.


    Attribute Removal.


    But when he used this ability, the Order Energy was actually corroded by the poison.


    \''As expected, this is the sh between two Orders. I can remove the Poison Order, but thetter can corrode my own Order, making me unable to remove it. But��\'' Theo gritted his teeth, looking at the gas.


    Even though his Reality Order managed to remove half of the poison before the Poison Orderpletely corroded it, the Poison King showed the might of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    The moment the poison disappeared, the Mythical Rank Expert\''s ability to supply half of the energy of their attack from the environment revealed its might. The poison recovered in just a second as if nothing had happened before.


    "Kh." Theo clicked his tongue. Ergene had told him about the advantage of a Mythical Rank Expert.


    Unlike Supreme Rank Expert, the Mythical Rank Expert could use the Magic Power in the air to amplify their power. This was also why a Mythical Rank Expert excluded more Magic Power from their body and the reason why they couldn\''t pass the sea. The natural release of Magic Power affected a farrger area.


    And due to this difference, Theo couldn\''t remove the poisonpletely, and even if he managed to do it, the poison would soon recover to its original state.


    "Fifty percent more of my power�� I see. It seems that you have already gained extensive knowledge about Order. I\''d never thought that there\''ll be a time where I see a Supreme Rank King." The Poison King narrowed his eyes, stopping. It turned out his attacks earlier were just a way to measure Theo\''s power.


    "Your understanding about Order is so deep that you can definitely crush a Mythical Rank Expert. It\''s just that you don\''t have enough resources to handle a Mythical Rank Expert like me who both have the characteristics of the Mythical Rank as well as Order.


    "I wonder who your teacher is�� To be able to learn Order this young, I don\''t know if your teacher is a bastard who reveals the existence of this power too early or a talented teacher who knows that you can withstand this kind of power. I\''m more impressed that you can actually hide the different colors of Magic Power.


    "Is it the Time God? No, I don\''t think so. What about the Sword Saint? He\''s helped you before and even entrusted his daughter to you. It seems that he\''s fond of you like that of a teacher." The Poison King kept mumbling to see whether Theo had a reaction or not.


    Little did he know, he was just spouting all his spections without a single speck of truth. The one who taught him Order was not human, but monsters, a Saint on top of that.


    "Either way, you\''ve ruined my n and let them escape. What should I do to you?" The Poison King looked down on him as he started releasing all the Magic Power in the area, poisoning the entire ce.


    Theo took a deep breath and released his true Magic Power, the gold-colored Magic Power.


    He looked at the Poison King, who seemed to be excited when he saw this Magic Power, and said, "You talk too much. If you want a fight, I\''ll give it to you."

 Chapter 1331 Theo vs Poison King

    Chapter 1331 Theo vs Poison King


    "What fight? You are just buying some time." The Poison King snorted. Despite losing many subordinates and even his daughter, the Poison King didn''t seem to be affected.


    Even Theo didn''t understand what was going on in his mind.


    "Whatever. I''m just going to have some fun with you!" The Poison Kingughed as he released his poison toward Theo. The poison gas turned into the shape of a dragon''s head, allowing the Poison King to imbue not only the poison, but also the overall power of this attack.


    In other words, this attack had a powerful corroding effect as well as a strong force that Theo had no hope of beating.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and used his Underworld Body again, trying to stop this poison.


    The moment it touched the barrier, he could certainly see the poison was being stripped out of the attack. But as one would expect from the Order, the barrier that was meant to push all the poison away started getting corroded by the poison itself.


    At the same time, Theo could see the sheer might of this dragon''s head.


    Theo took out his sword and gathered his energy into the tip of the sword with his Enhanced Concentration Capacity.


    After that, he thrust forward, releasing all that piled-up energy forward.


    The energy turned into a small, prating beam that struck right at the dragon''s head. The beam prated the dragon''s head and the Magic Power around it also bent, following the dragon head''s shape.


    Still, as expected from a Mythical Rank Expert, the force alone wasn''t something that he could contain.


    Even with that beam, the residual Magic Power was still enough to severely injure him.


    "��" Theo frowned as if he was prepared to get hit by this attack.


    Before the pressure reached Theo, another burst of pressure soon appeared from Theo''s back and challenged the Poison King''s attack.


    The pressure turned into a small tornado that directed the Magic Power from the Poison King upward, neutralizing it in the air.


    "Hmm? It seems there is someone who can help you?" The Poison King narrowed his eyes while looking at Theo''s barrier that had a huge hole in it. If Theo continued fighting him this way, he would die sooner orter.


    "I know how hard it is to fight against a Mythical Rank Expert." Theo narrowed his eyes, thinking about his fight against Walker. If he didn''t have an Order that could keep Walker''s chains away, he wouldn''t be able tost a few rounds against Walker. So, Ruth remained by his side to neutralize all the attacksing toward him.


    They didn''t need to fight for that long. As long as they stalled him for five minutes, they could get away freely.


    After all, they could go in all directions without being known by the Poison King. They could go through the previous portal or move to another teleportation circle to escape from him. Hence, Theo nned to stay for only a few rounds while learning the power of someone like him.


    ''To think I''d be this useless against him. My Underworld Body is defeated by his Poison Order. My Control is rendered useless by his extraordinary Magic Power unique to only that of the Mythical Rank. If I''m fighting him alone, I''d be defeated in five minutes no matter how hard I struggle�� At the same time, I can''t reveal my illusion power and the Reality Order too much because I know I''ll be shing against this guy in the near future.'' Theo looked around, wondering what to do.


    The Poison King fell silent for a moment before feeling a bit disappointed. "I see. It seems that you haven''t realized the meaning of your Order yet. I can see that your Order is unique and your mastery is good, but it seems that you haven''t found that meaning."


    "The meaning of my Order?" Theo narrowed his eyes. He never thought that the Poison King would blurt out something like this out of the blue.


    It was clear that they were enemies, yet, the Poison King would actually give him a clue about an Order. Though, Theo believed the Poison King said this simply because of his big mouth.


    The Poison King smirked. "You don''t understand for what purpose you''re wielding that power. That''s why you won''t be able to fight against me! After all, my Order can poison everything, corroding them from the inside."


    The Poison King released a green tornado that contained his poison. The air that was sucked into the tornado became the poison itself, causing the tornado to expand.


    "Taste this power. The poison that can corrode everything, even the time itself."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock because he could feel the difference between this attack and any of his previous attacks. This one felt like it was alive, continuously swallowing the air and turning them into the poison itself to strengthen this attack.


    Theo used his Reality Order to remove the poison or at least weaken it, but he was surprised that it became less effective. Instead of half the attack, he could only remove 40 percent of the entire attack. Even then, the corroded Reality Order was soon turned into poison, allowing the attack to regain half of what it lost earlier.


    With the addition of the Mythical Rank Expert''s power, the tornado escaped unscathed from Theo''s power.


    "What?!" Theo gasped and immediately jumped back, trying to get away.


    Ruth''s arrow struck this power, but the sh onlysted for two seconds before the arrow was swallowed by the poison.


    "Hmm? Although it''s faint, I can see the trace of Order in that wind�� I see. Not only do you have an Order yourself, but your subordinate is also in this realm. Interesting." The Poison King was amused while observing them.


    "��" Theo didn''t have the liberty to even listen to his words because the tornado kept chasing him no matter how hard he tried to shake it.


    In the end, Theo utilized the Underworld Body to push back the poison.


    The poison was held back for three seconds, but the barrier soon crumbled into pieces. Meanwhile, the residual Magic Power kept going straight to Theo.


    Instead of running away, Theo actually confronted this torrential Magic Power with his Supernatural Snake Body.


    "Kh." Theo felt his body was being shredded apart by this torrential Magic Power, but he withstood it before eventually jumping into the air, using this wind tounch him far away.


    "Hmm?" The Poison King widened his eyes and realized that Theo used his attack to escape. He could still catch up to him, but the Poison King mysteriously remained still. No one could hear him anymore since he was the only one in this area, but he still said, "I see. No wonder that group can be strong�� It has two Kings with Joker at the helm�� No, should I say Theodore Griffith?"


    The Poison King grinned, turned around, and entered the valley. "As expected of that man�� Theodore Griffith truly appeared when I invited his former teammates to a mission. Although he asked me to sacrifice my daughter and all my people, I''m a free man now. With this, I can join him and y a more interesting game."

 Chapter 1332 Five Years

    Chapter 1332 Five Years


    In the deep poisonous valley, the Poison King opened up a cave that had been covered by a giant boulder.


    When he opened it, a pair of eyes shone within the darkness and asked, "So, have you got your answer?"


    The Poison King smirked and said, "Of course. It seems that we''re going to be together for quite a while."


    The man gradually rose from his position and walked outside, revealing his appearance. However, he still had his masquerade on, covering most of his face.


    When he left the cave, the Poison King opened his mouth. "Still, I do want one thing from you. I want to test your power!"


    The Poison King didn''t wait until he suddenly released the same wind tornado that he used against Theo earlier.


    However, the man raised his hand and let out a ck bubble.


    When the tornado hit the ck bubble, the tornado was swallowed into nothingness as if it had never existed.


    "My poison was swallowed? I couldn''t even corrode your power��" The Poison King sucked a cold breath.


    "My devouring power can swallow everything, including your ability to corrode my power." The masked man snorted.


    "As expected�� you''re amusing." The Poison King smirked. "I don''t know your name, but I guess I will have a fun time for the rest of my life."


    "Hmph."


    The two men eventually walked away from the ce, disappearing into the wilderness.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo managed to regroup with Ruth afterward.


    "Did he truly not chase after us?" Theo asked Ruth.


    "I stayed for a few seconds, but he remained there. Although I couldn''t confirm it, I''m pretty sure that he won''t move for a while. So, I believe we''re safe now."


    "What is he nning?" Theo looked down, contemting. It was clear that the Poison King was a weird guy.


    On the one hand, he didn''t even bat an eye when he saw his daughter, as well as the Mythical Rank Experts from his influence, die one by one. Instead of crying, he seemed to be happy about it as if he was relieved from his duty. On the other hand, the Poison King would be an extremely powerful enemy if he aimed at his life.


    "What should I do right now?" Theo muttered inwardly.


    "Should I remain in this ce to watch over him? If he wants to act, I can let you know." Ruth offered a solution.


    "That''s��" Theo hesitated, knowing how powerful the Poison King was.


    "Although my strength can''t bepared to him, I''ve been living as an assassin for a long time. Just observing him should pose no problem for me."


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "I understand. Let''s do it your way. Besides, I guess I''m too pathetic right now��"


    Theo must be mentioning how he waspletely overwhelmed by the Poison King. However, Ruth shook her head and said, "Not at all. You''re already that strong when you''re this young. You haven''t even be a Mythical Rank Expert, so it''s clear that your potential is far bigger than anyone else. I''m prepared to bet my future on you. As long as you don''t think you''re worthless, it means that I''m not an idiot who invests in something useless."


    "I guess��." Theo made a small smile as he said, "Thanks, Ruth."


    "No. I should be the one thanking you." Ruth shook her head, smiling.


    "Let''s go meet the rest then."


    "Roger that."


    They continued their trip for a bit longer until they reached the rendezvous point that Theo had set up before the mission started.


    As expected, everyone was waiting in silence. Mark still remained there because it wasn''t time for the revtion. Ergene didn''t do anything rash because she knew the consequences, while Ne just enjoyed her time here. Ryo was a quiet person, so waiting like this wasn''t that troublesome for him.


    However, Ellen and Phyrill were confused. Their faces seemed to have one thousand questions, but they didn''t utter a single of them before Theo returned.


    But to their shock, they saw another Ruthing back with Theo.


    "Eh?" Phyrill and Ellen were shocked as they were the only ones who didn''t know Joker was Theo.


    Meanwhile, Theo said, "I know that there are many questions you have in mind now. But let me officially invite you again, I want you in my group, Phyrill Hilbert."


    "That''s��" Phyrill looked down, hesitating. Although he was thankful that Theo saved them, he still didn''t know whether to ept it or not, considering this was a kidnapping.


    "I know what you''re thinking��" Theo smiled. "First of all, I''ll be paying you for your work, so you don''t need to worry about not being able to earn. And my group is stronger than your average group, so learning from them is better than learning from the teachers in the World Martial Institute."


    "No, no�� That''s not the problem." Phyrill shook his head. "My family is fine, but her family is�� just a normal family. If the World Martial Institute, especially Ragnar, targeted them, then��"


    "Don''t worry about that. I''ll ensure both of your family''s safety. Right now, it''s clear that Ragnar has sacrificed you. I''ve got the video proof. Then, with the current conflict as well as me helping the people from the World Martial Institute, I can pressure them to not involve both of your families in this conflict. If they still dare to do it, I don''t mind erasing the World Martial Institute from this world. I''ll promise you that one thing!


    "Of course, I''ll take care of everything you need. And your girlfriend can go with you, I don''t really mind that. You''ve shown me that you''re a bigger person who dares to sacrifice yourself for her, so it''s clear that you''re someone who won''t abandon my group that easily." Theo smirked. "Besides, there is one more reason for me inviting you��"


    Suddenly, Theo disappeared into thin air while Ne ripped apart her face mask, showing her real appearance.


    "I can finally use my original face again." Ne smiled. "It''s been a few years since west met in the Grand Gaia Competition, right?"


    "Eh?!" Phyrill and Ellen looked at her with dumbfounded expressions. "You�� You are Ne Griffith?!"


    "Correct. And��" Ne nced at Mark, who turned off the power of the illusion and revealed his original appearance.


    The familiar blue hair and blue eyes that once shook the entire world, Theodore Griffith.


    "The�� Theo��" Phyrill and Ellen dropped their jaws to the ground as if they were looking at a ghost.


    "It''s been five years, Phyrill, Ellen." Theo smiled at this reunion.

 Chapter 1333 Reunion

    Chapter 1333 Reunion


    "It''s been five years, Phyrill, Ellen." Theo smiled at this reunion.


    "Is that really you?" Phyrill and Ellen gasped, not believing that Theo was actually the man that had shaken the world once again, Joker. Despite Joker''s mask having been taken off, no one could find his identity as if his face wasn''t real.


    Still, the Death Reaper had confirmed that it wasn''t a face mask or even an illusion, so it must be his real face. Yet, it didn''t change the fact that no one could find his information. He was so mysterious that many people had many conspiracy theories about him.


    And to think Joker was Theo this whole time. On the one hand, they could understand his extreme progress that surpassed anyone''s imagination. On the other hand, they simply couldn''t believe Theo was Joker.


    "Everyone here already knows about me anyway." Theo shrugged.


    With Ne as the biggest proof, Phyrill and Ellen had no choice but to ept it.


    "This��" Phyrill looked down, still feeling skeptical about it.


    So, Theo said, "The first time I met you, I was chased by you simply because you were interested in the man who Alea tried to recruit."


    "Ah!" Phyrill widened his eyes since that was the only thing that Theo and Phyrill only knew. He looked at Ellen with a serious expression. "He''s real."


    "��" Ellen gulped down and stared at Theo, hesitating to say something.


    "Anyway, do you have anything that you want to bring from the institute? I''ll send my people to bring it back while threatening them of course."


    "Hmm��" Phyrill thought for a moment. "All of my stuff is something that I can buy again, so I don''t think I have one. Going back there will expose me to a certain risk, especially after this incident. I''m already sure that we won''t have a good ending without you, so I can go anywhere since I know that my family won''t face any problems."


    "All the most important stuff is with me, but there is an important ne that I haven''t brought with me. So, I think I need to go back to get it." Ellen shook her head helplessly.


    "Well, you don''t need to go back. Since that''s the case, I can just ask my people to bring everything back with them." Theo assured her.


    "Still, what do you mean by recruiting me?" Phyrill asked as this was the biggest question in his mind. Theo went all the way to get the reason to bring him out of the institute, so Theo must have something in mind.


    "Well, your ability is useful to my group."


    "My ability? Are you talking about my current ability, which is veryckingpared to the people here? Or��" Phyrill paused, but the meaning was clear. It was the ability that he used in the dark because there were too many people skeptical about such practice.


    Theo didn''t say anything. He just put on his mask as the answer.


    Phyrill felt a slight tug on his hand. He knew it came from Ellen, so he lowered his head and said, "I apologize, Theo. It''s just�� I have been trying to stay away from this kind of practice. After living with her for a while, I don''t want to��"


    Phyrill closed his eyes regretfully and said, "Well, you must be disappointed, right? I''m grateful, but I guess I need to disappoint you. If you abandon me here, I don''t have anyints."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and said, "That''s good enough."


    "Eh?" Phyrill widened his eyes in confusion.


    "You shouldn''t have any problem teaching me about it, right?"


    "That''s�� I don''t think it''s a problem."


    "That''s good. Teach me about itter. In that case, your job will be different from my original expectation, but it''s still useful for me." Theo exined.


    "Eh? You still want to recruit me even though I''m useless now?"


    "Yeah. Why not? As I said, you''re still useful to my group, so I don''t have any reason to take back my offer." Theo shrugged. "Of course, I''m going to pay you less, but I think you should be able to livefortably with that money. As for your lodging, I''ll take care of it."


    "This��" Phyrill somehow felt bad that Theo ended up amodating him. "If you value me that much, I don''t have any reason to reject you. And Ellen also has shared her interest, so we''ll gratefully ept your offer."


    "Why so formal?" Theo shrugged.


    Phyrill scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "You''re already a person of this level, so just my instinct. I''m still shocked by the fact that you''re Joker, you know�� Let me get used to it first."


    Theo chuckled and patted his shoulder. "Anyway, with this, our group has beenpleted. I''ll just focus on strengthening it."


    "Tsk, it seems I''m not chosen." Ne clicked her tongue,ining with a pout. She had been expecting to be chosen, but in the end, she didn''t.


    "Don''t say that��" Theo chuckled. "I''ll give you my personal numberter. I can allow you to participate in some, but just be satisfied with it, okay?"


    "Fine." Ne still pouted. Of course, she was disappointed. She had been thinking about Theo this whole time. Whether it was due to the side effect of the Mind Elder''s power or her own thoughts, but she felt at ease when she was together with Theo.


    "That''s right. Do you mind if we talkter? Just the two of us." Phyrill asked.


    "Sure, I don''t really mind." Theo agreed without hesitation. "For now, let''s go back to our hotel first. And since you need to pick up your baggage from your room��"


    Theo nced to the side and asked, "Ryo, do you mind escorting them for me? Ergene will stay with me. We''re going to return to the US as soon as possible."


    "Understood." Ryo nodded.


    "Are we going to stay in the US for a long period of time?" Phyrill asked.


    "No. Our base won''t be there." Theo shook his head. "There''s another ce I have in mind. For now, we''ll live there for the time being, and after you settle down, I''ll exin the details of our development."


    "Got it." Phyrill nodded.


    "Alright. Let''s go back then." Theo smiled.

 Chapter ?1334 Ellen (1)

    Chapter ?1334 Ellen (1)


    A few dayster.


    Theo''s group managed to safely return from their trip. The World Martial Institute and the Empress'' Pce seemed to have returned earlier than them. Nheless, he had no intention of approaching them anymore, so he remained in his room until the night came since Phyrill wanted to have a serious discussion with him.


    Theo was looking outside the window as he had prepared a table and a pair of chairs for their discussion, waiting for Phyrill toe in.


    Soon, he heard a knock on the door as he waved his hand, using the Magic Power to open the door. But to his surprise, the one entering the room was not Phyrill. It was Ellen.


    "Ellen?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. From the look on her face, Ellen seemed to have been thinking about a serious matter, so he extended his hand. "Please sit."


    Theo sat down in the opposite direction, staring at Ellen''s face. It seemed Phyrill was talking on her behalf, so he asked, "So, what do you want to talk about?"


    "First of all, I''d like to apologize." Ellen lowered his head politely. "Due to me living with Phyrill, he changed, albeit to not your liking. You even needed to amodate us�� I felt guilty."


    "There''s no need to be so formal. I mean, we''ve known each other for a long time, so��"


    Ellen shook her head. "This and that are different. Even though we''re friends, I still need to apologize since your expectations fell short��"


    "Ehm��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how to talk to her. It felt like Ellen was distancing themselves from him.


    "Come on, this is not like you, Ellen. In my memory, you are like the elder sister of our group, taking care of everyone." Theo tried to cheer her up, telling her that it wasn''t her fault.


    However, Ellen shook her head furiously, denying his im. "I think it''s fine to tell you this. Actually��"


    Ellen began to recount what had happened in the past few years.


    After graduating from Thernd, Phyrill epted the invitation from the World Martial Institute. He was supposed to go alone to the institute, yet, he still asked her to apany him, giving her a huge opportunity.


    Back then, it caused so much trouble for his enrollment. But Phyrill never stopped smiling, assuring her that it was fine.


    Even she started falling in love with him from that time. Not wanting to burden him continuously, Ellen began training like crazy.


    Eventually, she managed to gain some recognition. And due to her natural dual casting system, she became an object of interest.


    Many tried to target her whether to harm her or invite her. Those who wanted to harm her ended up getting defeated by Phyrill. Of course, Phyrill couldn''t defeat all of them. He had suffered many times when they attacked him.


    Their condition was quite severe as they barely managed to handle all those problems. And the ones that hated him weren''t limited to Supreme Rank Experts, some Mythical Rank Experts also bullied Phyrill.


    Still, Phyrill neverined and kept protecting her. She also managed to stop a portion of them, but if Phyrill wasn''t there, she would have suffered a worse fate.


    After living together for a while, Phyrill and Ellen were in a rtionship. Phyrill gradually changed when they were together, just like her, who gradually became quiet since she didn''t want to get into more trouble so that Phyrill didn''t suffer much.


    They relied on each other and somehow survived until now.


    From the story alone, Theo realized why Phyrill and Ellen could still smile like that to Alea was to make sure Alea wasn''t worried about their current condition.


    After listening to the story, he could also understand why Ellen and Phyrill had changed. Phyrill abandoning his way in the darkness such as assassination, torture, and all that stuff, was to show that he was serious in their rtionship. He didn''t want to drag Ellen into this darkness by living in the light itself.


    So, Ellen had been ming herself this whole time because Phyrill deserved more. She had even talked about it to Phyrill, but how could she reject him when what Phyrill wanted was her the entire time.


    Hence, their rtionship only grew stronger.


    "��" Theo closed his eyes, listening to the story. "I see�� I can understand why you''re ming yourself, but I don''t think you''ve made any mistakes. My offer might not be the same, but I still need Phyrill. That''s why you don''t need to me yourself anymore.


    "In fact, there''s a person in my group that will do the same as Phyrill if he has a second chance. He is away right now, but when he returns, you should talk about it with him if you don''t mind. I''m sure you can finally understand why Phyrill is like this and stop ming yourself because it''ll hurt Phyrill more."


    Ellen bit her lips before letting out a long sigh, disappointed in herself. "I''m pathetic, ain''t I? You said I was the one taking care of everyone when we were in our group, but now�� I''m just a burden."


    "Huh? When did I say you''re a burden?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "If you think you''re a burden, then you''re a burden. I can''t change it because you''ve epted yourself that way. But if you think you don''t want to be a burden, there are plenty of ways to do it. Supporting him from the back is also a solution. And if you want to fight together with him, there are many elites in our group. You can just ask them how to get stronger.


    "It''s your mind, Ellen. If you don''t want to change, then I won''t say anything, but��" Theo rose from his seat and extended his hand to Ellen. "But if you want to change, I can help you, Ellen."


    Ellen widened her eyes and bit her lips. She didn''t want to be a pathetic person anymore who always relied on Phyrill. "Please, help me."


    "Okay. Don''t think of yourself as a burden because you have the quality and the will to be the one in the lead." Theo smiled.

 Chapter 1335 Ellen (2)

    Chapter 1335 Ellen (2)


    "Here you go." Theo gave her a cup of water to calm her down.


    "Thank you." Ellen gratefully epted it and looked at Theo. "You''ve changed, Theo... Our role is now in reverse. You''re the one taking care of me right now."


    "Hahaha, even I have troubled others a lot." Theo chuckled. "Anyway, if you want to change, we have a Chef, a Researcher, and even a Magician to help you to work with your strength. As for other things, that depends on what you want. Ah, that''s right... Do you remember Aisha?"


    "Aisha? Ah, the first person that recognized you outside of our group? That Zombie Healer, Aisha?" Ellen widened her eyes in shock.


    "Yep. That''s her. She''s working for me right now while studying to be a good doctor." Theo nodded.


    "I see." Ellen looked down as another thought appeared in her mind. "By the way..."


    Theo saw the hesitation in Ellen''s eyes. He knew what she wanted to talk about, so he said, "I''m sorry, Ellen. There''s already a woman in my heart."


    "I see, sorry." Ellen closed her eyes for a moment. Even though they were apart, Alea was still her childhood friend, so she just wanted to know about the condition. "Is it Ne?"


    "No. It''s Agata."


    "So, it''s Agata..." Ellen thought for a moment. "Have you told Alea about it? I know that your rtionship isn''t that far to the point you''re obligated to tell her too, but I think she deserves to know too. So, if you don''t mind, I can break the news to her andfort her. At least, this is the best thing I can do for you."


    Theo contemted. On the one hand, Theo never knew much about Alea. Although she had shown an interest in him, thetter never openly shared the sentiment unlike Ne. That was why Theo was the one to break the news to Ne back then.


    But for Alea, if she didn''t ask him out, there was no obligation for him to answer it as well.


    At the same time, Theo also felt bad about it since he had disappeared for years. That was when Ellen''s role came in. Although he didn''t act like a gentleman, this solution would give Alea the least impact.


    Theo also couldn''t really show his face to her because he was afraid that his identity would be exposed too early.


    Theo was in a bind, not knowing what to do in this situation.


    He thought for a moment and shook his head. "I''m afraid that I can''t allow you to go. I can''t go because I can''t afford to reveal my identity to her for the time being. The fact that she doesn''t know about me being Joker means that her family doesn''t tell her anything.


    "If I remember it correctly, five years ago, I used my Death Avatar for the first time to kill a Supreme Rank Monster. At that time, all people fainted due to the extraordinary pressure, leaving only the Supreme Rank Experts and Monsters. It means her grandfather and mother already know about it, but they don''t tell a single soul about it. It means they don''t want her to know as well, believing that a few years should be enough for her to move on. s..." Theo sighed.


    "So, you''re nning to break the news to her personally?"


    "In a bit cruel way, I guess..." Theo sighed.


    "What do you mean?"


    "I''ve been nning to reveal my identity to the whole world four months from now. But on that day..." Theo hesitated for a moment. "I will propose to Agata."


    "!!!" Ellen widened her eyes and finally understood why the situation wasplicated. She finally understood why Theo had trouble dealing with it.


    She thought about it and asked, "What if you send me to Russia at that time? Since Phyrill is officially in your group, he needs to handle the operation, right? In that case, let me go there and break the news to her. What you''re nning to do will surely attract the attention of the whole world, right? If that''s the case, I should prepare tofort her there to avoid such a situation."


    "That''s..." Theo believed it was a good idea. "Let me think about it first, but I think your idea is good as well."


    "Well, Phyrill might be the one to join your group, but I still benefit from it. You even allow me to learn from your group, so the least I can do is this." Ellen smiled. "Please leave everything to me."


    "Mhm." Theo nodded. "Well, I''ll give you the reply sooner orter."


    "I understand." Ellen paused for a moment. "Also, this might be thest thing I want to talk about. What are you nning to do with the World Martial Institute?"


    "Nothing much. The only reason for me to be that petty is to make them a reason for me to wreak havoc in Egypt." Theo sighed.


    "Huh? For what reason do you want to do it? I mean, we''re talking about a country that is known for its research about the new power that we gain from the other side, you know."


    "Yes, it''s just... I have a conflict with the Fist Saint. Do you remember about the Death Reaper?"


    "The former 3rd strongest person in the world?"


    "Yes. She had a coboration with the Fist Saint back then, so I need to solve this problem sooner orter. The World Martial Institute is simply a stepping stone for me. Of course, I''m not nning to fight against the Fist Saint right now since I''m not strong enough. It''s just a n."


    "I see. I can understand the situation." Ellen nodded with a serious expression. "Don''t worry. My mouth is sealed."


    "I know. Why do you think I told you all this? Among our people, you and Phyrill are the hardest to crack, you know." Theo sighed. "I know that you''re not going to tell anyone about it."


    "Hehe." Ellen smiled. "Thank you, Theo."


    "No, it''s fine. But... I am Joker."


    Ellen was startled and soon understood the reason he said that. The smile returned to her face as she rose from her seat, opening her arms as if she wanted to hug Theo.


    Theo just stood in front of her, letting her do whatever she wanted.


    She gently hugged him and said in a tone filled with emotions. "Still, it''s good to know that you''re doing fine... it''s truly been a while, Joker."


    "Yeah."


    ******


    AN: Sorry, there was a power outage earlier. It just went back on and I could finally log in.

 Chapter 1336 Last Lesson

    Chapter 1336 Last Lesson


    Two dayster.


    Theo and his group had finally returned to his mansion.


    Rea was shocked when Theo suddenly brought two people back from this trip.


    "This is��" Rea tried to recall their faces. She found them together when she was searching for Theo''s background.


    "They are Phyrill and Ellen. Phyrill is ourst member." Theo smiled. "I need you to take care of their admission this time since the negotiation is needed with the World Martial Institute. Here is the weapon for the negotiation."


    Theo gave her a Skylink, making Rea startled. She had a wry smile on her face as she asked a question that she already knew the answer to. "Negotiation? Do you mean ckmail?"


    Theo never gave a simple weapon even in the negotiation. He loved to drop a bomb or even a nuke during the negotiation, controlling the entire conversation. That was why this Skylink should be enough to handle the negotiation alone, and her job was to ensure that everything went smoothly.


    "I understand." Rea let out a long sigh.


    "That''s right. Has Felix returned yet?"


    "Nope. He''s still on the other side; no information about him yet." Rea shook her head. "Are we going to search for him?"


    "No. Let him be." Theo thought for a moment and asked, "In that case, can you call Coline and Chris here tomorrow? I need them to finally reach the Mythical Rank."


    "Ah, okay. I''ll call them."


    "That''s right. How is your progress? Do you want to go with me to be a Mythical Rank?"


    "No. I have asked Ryo to apany me to be a Mythical Rank Expert. Don''t worry. I''m just one step away from mastering my power. Don''t worry though. I''ll surely reach that step within the next four months." Rea exined.


    Theo nced at Ryo, who nodded his head. "I see. If that''s the case, I''ll let you do what you ought to do."


    "That''s right. Do you have any big ns for the next four months?"


    "I''m just going to take two months of a hunting trip to reach the Mythical Rank before using the remaining of my time to adjust my power to the characteristics of the Mythical Rank." Theo shook his head, showing that he didn''t have any special n for the next four months.


    "I see. That''s not a problem since my schedule is simr to yours, but I still need another month to master my power."


    "Got it." Theo nodded. "By the way,e to my room tonight."


    "I understand, though, since there are two new people here, shouldn''t you add ''to discuss our n'' instead of leaving it there? Won''t it be a problem if they misunderstand our rtionship? Not that I mind though."


    "They''re aware of my choice and my character, so��" Theo shrugged as he walked inside, ignoring her statement.


    Rea chuckled. After Theo entered the mansion, Rea turned to Phyrill and Ellen. "Hello, my name is Nagasawa Rea, my father is Nagasawa Ken, the Sword Saint. It''s my pleasure to meet his friends."


    "Hello." Phyrill and Ellen politely nodded to her.


    "In here, you don''t need to be that formal just because of the difference in age. Just call our names since we''ve gotten used that way. I''ll also exin some stuff regarding the group and lead you to the temporary mansion." Rea smiled at them, starting to work again.


    "Thank you."


    "It''s alright. If you have something you want to do or need, just call me, and I''ll provide it. There is no formal agreement between all of us to be honest, so there''s nothing to bind you to this group. But I think our group is quite solid. For now, I should introduce both of you to the people in this mansion." Rea extended her smile, asking them to follow her.


    Since he wasn''t needed here, Ryo went back to his mansion while Ergene took some rest in her room.


    Meanwhile, Theo, who was about to get some rest, suddenly felt an overwhelming pain in his mind as if someone was calling him.


    Since that was the case, Theo hurriedly sat on the bed in a lotus pose and closed his eyes, receiving the call.


    He then entered his consciousness. To his surprise, the realm inside his consciousness had changed. Instead of a in surrounded by hills like the ce they always used to meet, he seemed to be inside a huge hall.


    The pirs supporting the roof were made of gold, and the ceiling was so tall that he felt he was just an ant.


    He stood on top of the red carpet, leading to a huge throne several steps above the floor. It turned out the floor was also made of gold.


    On that throne sat down a ck-haired man. He ced his chin on his hand, resting on the throne. Looking down at the entire hall, he had a bored expression.


    When Theo appeared, he opened his mouth and said, "Wee."


    "!!!" Theo sucked a cold breath. The God of Mischief seemed to be different this time. His expression was serious and cold.


    "It seems that you''re just one step away from reaching Mythical Rank. That''s good, but I want you to understand two things first." The God of Mischief paused for a moment. "First, I''ll be the one granting you a skill this time. Yes, I''ve bestowed you your first skill, Clone Skill. And now, I shall be thest one to close it.


    "This skill will be extremely useful for you. And I can only say that you should rece Illusion Maniption with this skill because that one is toockingpared to my skill. You''ll understandter why I want it that way.


    "As for the second reason�� I''m different from the rest. I won''t be granting you skill that easily. Instead, you need to earn the qualification to wield this skill. And the only way to show it is to fight me!"


    "What? We''re going to fight?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise.


    "That''s right. This is yourst mission, Theo." The God of Mischief smirked.


    Mission: Last Lesson.


    Description: Be a Mythical Rank Expert and fight the God of Mischief to gain his approval.


    Reward: ???

 Chapter ?1337 Emotion

    Chapter ?1337 Emotion


    "��" Theo sucked a cold breath when he saw this mission.


    "But before that, I promised you something, didn''t I?"


    Theo paused for a moment before saying, "The way for us to connect."


    "That''s right." The God of Mischief rose from his throne and walked to Theo. "What do you think about the strongest force in this world?"


    "Hmm?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "Are you talking about scientific terms or��"


    "Thetter."


    Theo frowned, trying toe up with an answer. "Order and Authority?"


    "That''s the second strongest force in the world. There is one thing that has an even higher powerpared to them. And that''s the only reason why no one has ever mastered it this whole time. Even the Creator God can''t." The God of Mischief exined.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and looked down, contemting. However, no matter how hard he tried to find the answer, it couldn''t bepared to the Order and Authority.


    "I don''t know." Theo shook his head, giving up. "You''re not going to say ''love, friendship, or family,'' right?"


    "It''s emotions!" The God of Mischief shook his head helplessly. "There''s no way I''m going to say that."


    "Emotion��" Theo pondered for a moment, not understanding why emotions were the strongest force in the world. "I can''t understand, sorry."


    "Just to show you the proof, have you ever seen a God of Emotions?"


    "Hmm?" Theo tried to recall any information about the God of Emotions, but he soon realized the meaning of emotions. "Now that I think about it, all the Gods who have some connections to emotions always end up with only one or two of them.


    "God of Misery, God of Happiness�� But not a single one of them can control all emotions. In other words, God of Emotion has never existed." Theo sucked a cold breath.


    "That''s right. The power of emotion�� I believe this is the supreme power that no one can disobey. For example, you have the power of reality�� What if you create a reality in the future and a God of Emotion appears in the world you''ve created�� That God of Emotion will affect your own emotion, causing a lot of stuff.


    "Meanwhile, you can''t do such a thing against your creator, the higher being we''ve been seeking this whole time.


    "If you want those higher beings sad, you control their sadness. That kind of action can lead to the destruction of this world because they''re simply too sad to see this world. How about anger? It''s the same.


    "That''s why emotions are the strongest power in the world. Even the Creator God is useless against it, and that''s the reason why Emotion Order never exists. Just imagine if the Creator God is influenced by that emotion. Anger, sadness, anxiety��"


    The God of Mischief closed his eyes, imagining all the destruction and imperfections that would appear if the Creator God was influenced by emotion.


    Theo lowered his head with a grim expression. "Emotion�� If someone affects the higher being that creates this world�� they can manipte that higher being to erase this world from its existence. If he gives happiness, the higher being will give something good to this world. In other words, if you control emotion, you control everything."


    "That''s right." The God of Mischief confirmed it without hesitation. "And that emotion is the fuel of our meeting most of the time. Someone wants to grow stronger, someone is crying hard�� Those feelings have been influencing your power the whole time."


    "Now that I think about it, every time you appear or give missions, I''d experience something that affected my feelings a lot." Theo paused for a moment, recounting every time emotion came to y. "There was also our first meeting. When I was cursing the whole world, feeling betrayed�� you appeared.


    "Then, I remembered Laust receiving his blessing when he strongly desired it. In other words, emotion has been the main driving force for missions, skills, and blessing."


    The God of Mischief smirked. "That''s right. Of course, that''s not the only one. Order and Authority are considered a driving force too. You should remember how you got the Death Avatar, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded in agreement. Back then, he absorbed the Death Order or Authority from the crown that Osiris used in the past, giving Hel enough power to establish the connection. "But then�� how about the skills that I received whenever I ranked up?"


    "That''s also Order! Whenever you ranked up, your body entered a state of serenity. It allowed the world to be connected to you like a bridge. It was the time for people like us to establish a meeting between us."


    "I see. So, that''s how it is�� That''s how the system of this world works." Theo nodded in understanding. He finally realized the truth about the blessing.


    "With this, I''ve fulfilled my promise. I hope that you don''t tell anyone about this secret because it''s far more important than Order and Authority. The emotion must be genuine, so they can''t fake that emotion just to establish the connection. That''s why I''ve never told you about it the entire time. If you''re aware of this information, you''ll always think about this power whenever you have an emotional fluctuation.


    "I can understand that, and the world will be chaotic if the people, who know this information, are trying to manipte innocent people. But isn''t this what you want in the first ce? You want me to create chaos around the world as your emissary. And I think I can do it in a few months since my identity reveal will cause a huge uproar all around the world." Theo exined.


    "Aren''t you already aware of the real reason why I want chaos in the world?"


    "To prevent the higher being from resetting civilization like how they''d done it in the past." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "See? I am a good person. I created chaos the way I liked while saving the world? Killing two birds with one stone."


    "Saving the world? Do you think I''ll believe that?" Theo snorted. "You just want to annoy those beings in the higher dimension. In fact, you''ve been trying to affect their emotions with all of your mischiefs. Ending the world faster than they intended too might make them annoyed�� Causing the death of the most loved god to make them sad�� and so on. Don''t you think so?"


    The God of Mischief smirked as he snapped his finger, sending Theo back to the real world. However, he still said onest word. "Smartass."

 Chapter 1338 Plan

    Chapter 1338 n


    After getting that revtion, Theo couldn''t sleep anymore.


    He finally understood why the God of Mischief never wanted to tell him about emotion. "I see. It seems that everyone has been missing something that simple. But then again, Emotion Order huh�� To think there is something that doesn''t exist�� No, should I say can''t be allowed to exist?"


    Theo fell into a deep thought until he heard someone knocking on the door.


    "Joker, it''s me." Rea''s voice resounded from outside.


    "Come in."


    Rea opened the door, finding Theo sitting on his chair with aplicated expression. She reported, "I''ve taken care of Phyrill and Ellen. I''ll immediately go and handle their transfer the day after tomorrow since my father needs to convince the Fist Saint to not make his move. In fact, that''s the reason why you send me there, right?"


    "Yeah. Do you hate it?"


    "Well, it''s my father who takes the full brunt, so I''m okay for now. Though, I wish that you don''t really push everything to my father in the future."


    "Don''t worry. I won''t be someone ungrateful."


    "Thank you." Rea nodded, satisfied. "Then, let''s continue the discussion."


    Theo raised his hand and formed a map.


    "Hmm. Italy? Are we going to discuss our n for your proposal?"


    Theo then summoned a few pieces with his illusion, dividing them into five big groups.


    "Our group, War Saint, Military, Skyward Mercenary, and Griffith Family��" Rea narrowed her eyes. "So, we haven''t gotten a name yet."


    "Welp." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, these are the five that will most likely influence the course of the battle. If you''re the strategist, what will you do?"


    Before Rea thought about it, she asked one question. "Do I need to assume your grandfather''s action?"


    The reason why Rea asked this question was due to the big influence that a strategist like the War Saint could bring. His own n could affect the entire n itself, so Rea realizing this trap was the proof of her growth.


    "Assume that even me will be ying that big role." Theo smirked.


    Rea''s expression turned serious as she kept looking at the map, contemting his move.


    "I have been thinking about your n this whole time. I want to see how much I have improved my strategic thinking after learning from you. So��" Rea paused for a moment before pointing at the Griffith Family and said, "They will be the biggest factor that can change the whole n. After all, their former head is the current ranked 8th in the world�� And I believe your n is to send my father to stop him. Unless you believe that the War Saint can handle him alone."


    "I give you 70 points for this one. Your move is correct, but the reason is different."


    "The reason is different? Are you talking about the difference in number?"


    "Correct. It''s true that the War Saint won''t fall even if he fights against twenty Mythical Rank Experts. But it''ll be a different case if those twenty experts are trying to get away from him. There''s no way for him to chase after all of them."


    "I see. So, that''s why the Griffith Family has be the biggest factor in this n." Rea nodded in understanding. "If that''s the case, I''ll still send your grandfather to handle the Griffith Family. There''s also another person in the rank one hundred, right?"


    "Yes." Theo confirmed the existence of the Mind Elder.


    "Why do I feel like he''s going toe with this group?" Rea asked while pointing at Skyward Mercenary.


    "He will. The Griffith Family should have expected that if Ie back here, I won''te unless I have an assurance of defeating the Skyward Mercenary. In other words, they''re nning to send the Mind Elder with them."


    "To throw the bnce, huh." Rea thought for a moment and asked, "Still, how do we fight against two top experts like that? Even if Ruth had gained this power as well, she was still too weak to bepared to them."


    "Let''s just say that I have a hidden weapon to handle the Skyward Mercenary. As for the Mind Elder, I''ll be the one to kill him." Theo''s tone became cold when he mentioned the Mind Elder. He was the one that wrecked his family, so Theo wanted to kill him personally. No one could change his decision.


    "I see." She nodded with a serious expression. "Still, we have one more problem. The Skyward Mercenary has like twenty Mythical Rank Experts. Our group only has ten."


    Theo said, "Walker will handle their vice leader. That''s the promise. As for the rest�� Ruth is enough to handle five of them even if she''s still new to that new power. You can handle the rest."


    "So, we''re going to fight them one-on-one except for Felix and Ruth�� If that''s the case, should we mobilize the Mota Family?"


    "You don''t know that answer?"


    Rea thought for a moment but still shook her head.


    "Don''t forget that I''m going to reveal my identity and propose to Agata."


    "Ah! You must want to shake the world and announce to the world that Agata is yours. That''s why there must be many people around the area. The Mota Family will be protecting them. At the same time, Agata has told you that she will create the biggest stage for you�� If that''s the case, there will be many mediaing. This way, your name will reverberate all around the world." Rea sucked a cold breath. She never thought that Theo already had such a vision back then, and Agata seemed to have realized it and asked her to entrust that task to her.


    She realized that the gap between her and Agata was still too big because Agata might be the only person in this world that could see through Theo''s n.


    "I see. That''s how it is�� If that''s the case, don''t you think this move is good?" Rea suddenly pointed at the two groups and moved them together.


    When he saw this sudden move, Theo''s expression changed as he muttered, "Interesting."

 Chapter 1339 Answer

    Chapter 1339 Answer


    The next day.


    Chris was walking toward the mansion while muttering, "It''s already close to the time limit that he once set in the past. So, I guess he''s trying to be a Mythical Rank Expert right now."


    Chris couldn''t help but remember how Theo recruited her previously. He already showed a clear annoyance toward him, but he still managed to recruit him.


    "And due to that matter, I haven''t participated much in the operations. Only when we recruited Ergene did he ask me toe�� simply because there were not enough people to follow him." Chris sighed. "I guess it''s also the consequence of my action. Then, the reason for him to invite me here�� I see. Today seems to be the time for my answer."


    Chris closed his eyes. On the one hand, Theo might be his doom because Theo''s problems were simply too dangerous. On the other hand, Theo was indeed someone strong and talented enough to be one of the top talents in the world.


    With that thought in mind, he entered the mansion to meet Theo. Rea led him to the room where they would discuss this matter.


    "He''s here," Rea said to Theo.


    "Hmm." Theo nodded, asking Chris toe in.


    When he was inside, the room suddenly turned into a beach. The hot air, the intense sunlight, and the sound of waves were replicated so perfectly that he truly believed this was a beach.


    "What do you think?" Theo asked Coline, who was waiting for his illusion to rate her food.


    "Hmm��" Coline thought for a moment and nodded. "I guess I can give this food 99 points out of 100 points. I cooked the shrimp a bit too hot."


    "This is��" Chris looked around and asked, "What is this ce?"


    Theo snapped his finger as the beach disappeared, turning into a normal room. "It''s nothing much."


    "Huh? Is that an illusion? It felt so real." Chris widened his eyes in shock. "Aren''t you a Magic Warrior, not an Illusionist?"


    "Is this what you want to talk about?" Coline asked as her expression became serious.


    "Mhm." Theo nodded. "Well, I don''t want to hide it from you, but I guess you two are thest ones to know about my identity."


    "A Magic Warrior? An illusion?" Chris narrowed his eyes, trying toe up with a name. However, he couldn''t find anyone.


    Coline was too absorbed with food, so she never cared about this. Instead of thinking, she chuckled and said directly, "So, you want to reveal your identity to us. If that''s the case, you don''t really need to. All I want is to be the best chef in the world. Searching for ingredients, killing monsters to increase my skills, and so on�� I can list many things that can endanger my life. You are one of them. But even so, I follow you in order to be one. So, I don''t really care who you are.


    "Even if you are the devil from hell, I''ll just ask you to provide me with a hellfire to see if I can cook my food with that." Coline shrugged, not caring about it. At the same time, she had also witnessed how much Jeff trusted him. If even Jeff didn''t leave him after knowing his identity, she had no reason to do it.


    "Even so, you need to know my identity. At least, that''s what you deserve."


    "I guess." Coline nodded in agreement. "Knowing your identity can allow me to see the future a little bit. But then again, it''s not going to change anything and I can understand the reason why you haven''t told me anything. I am basically among thest people you recruit, so��"


    Coline shrugged again. She was rather nonchnt about this whole situation.


    "As for Chris�� I don''t think I need to exin it to you, right?" Theo was thankful for Coline''s understanding and turned to Chris.


    "Well, our rtionship might be the worst among the entire group. It''s true that I have seen your potential, but I''m scared that I''ll die in the process. I am a coward�� At leastpared to the people in this group. Telling me your identity that you have been hiding this whole time means another huge burden on my shoulder."


    "Yes. That''s why the illusion is just a clue for you. If you still want to follow me after this, please decide right now." Theo stated.


    Chris was faced with two options. If he followed Theo, he would be able to know Theo''s real identity. If he didn''t follow him, he would be let go after this. Knowing Theo and his charm in recruiting these people, he knew that Theo had someone in his mind in case he left the group.


    But there was one question bothering his heart.


    He looked at Theo and asked, "I want to know one thing. How far do you n to go? Is it the top one hundred people in the world? Or are you nning to��"


    Chris paused, but the meaning was clear. He was asking Theo if he wanted to be one of the top ten experts in the world.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "That rank is just a stepping stone for me. Unfortunately, that''s the only thing I can say."


    "A stepping stone?" Chris sucked a cold breath. The only one in the world that actually dared to think that the top ten experts were just stepping stones was probably Theo.


    At the same time, Theo had shown him that his ambition was far greater than anyone else. And he also proved that he would gain that godlike ability that he asked Theo to have back then.


    In other words, Theo had fulfilled the promise from back then. It was Chris who needed to decide whether he wanted to continue to work with him or not.


    Chris paused for a moment, contemting. His expression turned grim and his tone became serious. "I''d like to ask. What is more important to you? Your ambition or the group?"


    This was a tricky question. If Theo chose ambition, it showed that Theo could easily discard them. But if Theo chose the family he had here, it meant Theo''s ambition wasn''t that great, which proved that it was just him showing a strong front to Chris.


    To everyone''s surprise, Theo smirked as he said, "Chris�� How long have you known me? To think that you''re asking that kind of question�� My answer is obvious, and it won''t ever change.


    "I never pick a fight that I can''t win."

 Chapter ?1340 Discussion

    Chapter ?1340 Discussion


    "I never pick a fight that I can''t win."


    This statement showed them that Theo prioritized both. This looked like apletely optimistic answer, but Theo had shown them this whole time. No matter how dire the situation was, he always proved that he couldpletely turn around the situation as if everything had been nned this whole time.


    In other words, if Theo nned to go to fight, victory was already in his vision.


    He dared to have such ambition because he believed he could reach it while protecting his group.


    If someone said this, they would doubt him. But Theo was different. There wasn''t a single shred of doubt in Theo''s or even Chris'' heart.


    Chris closed his eyes for a moment before politely nodding his head. "I''m looking forward to working with you."


    Theo nodded with a smile as he took off his mask, revealing his blue hair and eyes.


    "Eh?" Chris and Coline widened their eyes in shock. Even though Coline didn''t care much about Theo''s identity, it was still shocking to her that the one she followed was supposed to have died.


    "Theodore Griffith?"


    Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "I see. So, that''s how it is�� Well, ever since you showed that illusion after eating my food, I never thought about it since I didn''t care. But this makes me understand why your illusion is so good. You''re originally an Illusionist." Coline looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "No wonder you''re desperately hiding your identity. Once it''s known to the world, the Griffith Family will hunt you down, right? Now that I know how bad that Griffith Family is�� I only know that they''re strong." Chris frowned.


    "Yes. They''re extremely dangerous. But even so, I don''t n on losing." Theo nodded, confirming the danger.


    "So, did you call us here just to inform us about your identity?" Coline asked.


    "No. I want to ask you to follow me to the other side because I''m nning to reach the Mythical Rank. To be honest, bing a Mythical Rank Expert will cause me a lot of trouble like getting chased by numerous monsters. So, I''m nning to be one step away from Mythical Rank before going back to the area where there are only Supreme Rank Monsters in the area, lowering the danger." Theo exined.


    "Danger? Chased by monsters?"


    "Yes. Because of my power, there will be a disruption in power, causing the monsters to chase after me because the energy from my body is like super delicious food."


    "I see. I can understand the analogy." Coline nodded in understanding. "In that case, you want us to be your bodyguards? Do you want us to handle the monsters for your leveling up too?"


    "No. I have no problem defeating a Mythical Rank Monster now since my level is already close to their level. It''s just�� the leveling speed will be a bit slow. I''ll be lucky to be able to get one level every day."


    "If you say that to everyone else, they''ll surely p you. You''re the only one who dares to im that you can level up once every two days. Do you know how hard it is to gain one level?" Chris'' eyebrows twitched, annoyed.


    "You''re talking about a group with six people, right? And it''ll be even worse if you''re going with arger group. But I''m different�� I don''t need others." Theo shook his head.


    "So, you want us only to protect you during your breakthrough to the Mythical Rank? Well, together with escorting you to the safe ce when you''re one step away from the Mythical Rank," Coline asked.


    "Exactly," Theo confirmed without hesitation. "Though, I do need to say that I should spend more time with you guys. I can use my illusion to rate your food and try to learn about Chris'' soundworld. This way, won''t it be better to spend it with you guys?"


    "Well, that''s true." Coline agreed. "This might be the first time I show you my power to fight against monsters too. So, I guess I''ll show off my power a bit."


    "Haha, I''m looking forward to it." Theo chuckled. This might also be the first time he witnessed a chef fight.


    "Still, I don''t understand one thing. You''re supposed to wield a spear, right? Why are you so proficient in using a sword?" Chris asked.


    "Chris. I think that you asked too much." Coline stated, furrowing her eyebrows.


    "Nah, it''s fine." Theo stopped her. There was a need for an opposition that always questioned everything about him. It also allowed Theo to introspect himself. "To answer your question, I''m proficient with four types of weapons."


    Theo raised his hand, showing the bracelet that he used to store his weapon. The bracelet turned into a spear, a sword, a sniper rifle, and a shield in session.


    "This is�� I can understand the spear and the sword, but a sniper rifle? A shield?" Chris widened his eyes.


    "I rarely used the Sniper Rifle, but it can give me a lot of advantage, especially when I''m nning to support you guys from behind. As for the shield, it''s stronger than you expect�� the shield can easily block your power, so it''s myst defense." Theo smiled.


    "Support us from behind? Your power alone is already far beyond what a Supreme Rank Expert can do�� If you be a Mythical Rank Expert, your strength will be beyond anyone''s imagination�� And you''re only nning to stay on the back?"


    Coline shook her head. "No, in his case, he will probably use it for distraction or something else before he suddenly appears out of nowhere and kills an enemy, don''t you think?"


    "That''s true." Chris nodded in agreement.


    "Well, that''s all about me. I''m going to the other side in two days for around two months. I hope that you can prepare yourself during that time." Theo exined.


    "I understand." Chris and Coline nodded, receiving the instruction.


    "Also, you need to know that there will be more problems after I be a Mythical Rank Expert because that''s when the world will take me seriously." Theo smirked. "After all, I''ve truly be a thorn in their eyes."

 Chapter 1341 Power

    Chapter 1341 Power


    Two dayster.


    Theo, Chris, and Coline had gathered in front of the teleportation circle, preparing for their trip to the other side.


    "Okay. The trip will take a long time, so I assume that both of you are ready." Theo nced at Chris and Coline.


    "I''ve told my butler to handle all my problems, so you don''t need to worry about it," answered Chris with a nod.


    "I''ve brought many spices with me."


    "Ehm, okay?" Theo was speechless with Coline''s dedication. It seemed the food was a higher priority instead of the trip itself. "Anyway, let''s go."


    Theo''s group entered the teleportation circle and went through the security check to pass the gate.


    Without hesitation, Theo led them to a ce where they could find a powerful monster.


    They saw many monsters on the way, but they were just Hero Rank or below, so they could simply outrun them. However, they soon found their first Supreme Rank Monster.


    Although it was just a test, Theo said, "Do you want to take on this monster? I just want to see your power."


    "Well, you have seen my power, so I guess I''ll let you see it again." Chris stepped forward as he summoned the piano.


    The moment he yed the piece, Theo could feel his energy revolve crazily as if they were incited by the melody. However, the best part was the sound wave that flew from the piano to the monster, knocking the monster again and again.


    Eventually, the monster was covered in bruises and died.


    Theo had seen this power. It was true that Chris could somehow stop a Mythical Rank Expert for a few minutes, but the offensive power was quitecking. Even Chris couldn''t end a Supreme Rank Expert in a single blow.


    "So, that''s how it is. I can understand why you''re a support." Theo nodded in understanding.


    "Yes. My sound wave is strong but not that strong. In fact, your attack power is already above me. The only reason I can hold out for long is because I can easily manipte the sound wave with the Magic Power in the environment as well as create the enemy''s rhythm, forcing them to move the way I want to.


    "But in a few minutes, their body will get used to this melody and the effect won''t be as effective. That''s why this power I don''t really like fighting in the front line." Chris exined.


    "How about staying behind Ryo? Ryo can protect you while you''re ying the piano to boost everyone''s strength." Theo asked.


    "That''s a good idea. Normally, I''m one at the very back and don''t get any people to protect me. But Ryo can only defend, so I think he''s good to be a shield to protect me so that I can support everyone." Chris nodded with a serious expression, thinking it was going to work.


    Theo understood his rolepletely and finally led them to another ce to test their power.


    But this time, Chris asked, "Actually, I''m more curious about your power. Although it''s true that your strength is the same as Mythical Rank Expert�� at least in terms of power alone, I want to see how you actually fight."


    Theo nced at the Supreme Rank Monster in the distance and raised his left hand.


    Suddenly, the trees in their surroundings expanded. The branches extended themselves toward the monster, trying to kill it.


    With the number of branches as well as getting attacked from all directions, the beast had a hard time reaching Theo. During that time, Theo turned the bracelet into a sniper rifle.


    He pointed at the monster and shot it, releasing a powerful beam from the sniper rifle.


    When the monster saw this attack, it immediately opened its mouth and let out a roar. The sound wave struck the beam. In normal circumstances, the power should be enough to cause Theo''s beam to explode, but Theo was a master of Control.


    Right when it hit the shock wave, the beam split into fifty and flew in all directions, looping around the shock wave. They then used the branches as a cover and pierced through the monster''s body. Even if the monster could see theming, it would have a hard time finding those small beams that moved skillfully between the branches.


    Only when the monster died that Theo snap his finger. The branches disappeared, leaving only the monster. In other words, the branches were only an illusion that restricted the monster and obstructed its vision.


    "So, that''s how you fight without the facade of being a Magic Warrior�� To be honest, it''s harder to fight against someone like you since your Control is like that of a Magician, your tricky mind is like an Illusionist, and your strength is the same as Magic Warrior. In other words, if they want to fight you, they need to conquer those three problems." Chris exined.


    *Roar!*


    When Theo was about to reply, a monster''s roar echoed in their ears. They turned around and saw another monster ring at them from a distance.


    It immediately rushed to them as if wanting to avenge the monster that had just died a moment ago.


    Coline stepped forward while muttering, "Hmm�� The size is not too big, but the skeleton is a bit tricky. The skin is quite thick, but�� I see, I should use this one then."


    Coline took out a cleaver as well as a sharp knife.


    When the Supreme Rank Monster attacked her, Coline''s eyes turned serious as she released some small cuts.


    *Roar!* The monster let out another roar as if he he was in pain. Blood suddenly started flowing out all over his body as there were at least thirty cuts on the monster''s body.


    After that, Coline appeared behind the monster and struck the monster another thirty times. With those wounds, the monsters truly had no more strength left to fight Coline. It was then, Coline released rapid strikes that separated the meat, skin, and bones at the same time.


    It turned out that all those strikes that Coline used earlier were just the preparation for this final attack.


    "I don''t know if I should be amazed by the fact that she somehow prepped the monster like this, or I should pity the monster that is dismembered alive��" Chris looked at her with his eyebrows twitching, feeling a bit disturbed.


    "How about killing the monster first before prepping it?" Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "��" Coline stared at them, speechless. She just wanted to show off his power but got told off in the end.

 Chapter 1342 Warning Call

    Chapter 1342 Warning Call


    One monthter.


    Ryo met up with Rea, who was ready to reach the Mythical Rank Expert. Unlike Theo, she only had two levels left, so it wouldn''t take more than a week of hunting with Rea''s current ability.


    And after settling down a few things, Rea finally went to the other side.


    In the meantime, Ergene was the one taking care of all the business since Theo and his assistant, Rea, weren''t there anymore.


    However, there was an absurd movementing from Akbar.


    "What''s wrong?" Isaac asked after getting an international call from Akbar.


    "Is he there?"


    "No."


    "In that case, who has the highest level of authority that can learn about this news?"


    "Rea is absent as well, so Ergene takes care of the business. Or you can go to Maya�� Well, if you don''t mind, you can ry the news to me so that I can inform them after this."


    "Understood. Please tell both Maya and Ergene this." He paused for a moment and said, "The Griffith Family and the Skyward Mercenary is on the move. The Skyward Mercenary is smuggling some Mythical Rank Experts from time to time. I''m assuming that they''ll arrive at full force within months."


    Isaac frowned and said, "Alright. This is indeed important enough."


    "Also, I can''t really say anything about the Griffith Family, but they have weird movements right now. I can''t predict it, but the Griffith Family has been closing their gates in some countries.


    "Last but not least�� this is just my assumption, but there''s a possibility of a third partying to Italyter. I don''t know much about it because they haven''t made any obvious moves, but it''s clear that Italy will be a huge battlefield."


    Isaac thought for a moment and said, "I''ve noted it down. Do you have any more information?"


    "Not at the moment, I just want you to tell them to be extra careful."


    "Got it."


    "Onest question�� is his absence this time for��"


    "I was told that he was nning to be a Mythical Rank Expert on this trip."


    "I see. Thanks."


    "You''re wee." Isaac ended the call as he immediately informed Ergene, who was in the mansion, before going to the Star Group to inform Maya.


    Meanwhile, Akbar was sitting in his house, pinching the bridge of his nose.


    "This is��" Akbar narrowed his eyes as he looked at the book in his hand. "It seems the situation will be a bit messy soon."


    As he reported earlier, there was a big movement in the Griffith Family.


    There were three people sitting inside a big room.


    The first one was a middle-aged man who was closing his eyes while crossing his arms as if waiting for the conversation to start. He sat with his back straight and lowered his head, falling into deep thought.


    The second person was an old man. Unlike other people, this old man only had one arm and one leg. But when he took a seat, the missing limbs appeared as if they had grown back.


    He leaned on the couch with a cold expression, looking arrogantly at these two people.


    As for thest person, he might be the oldest person among them, but his muscr body was still excluding such an immense Magic Power and fighting aura, causing him to look like he was in his thirties.


    His gaze was fierce, and his tone was cold. A normal person would have wet their pants if they got red at by this guy.


    "Lockens, have you moved your force to Italy?" He asked with a strict tone as if joking around or lying wasn''t not allowed.


    The middle-aged man who had been closing his eyes was the Skyward Mercenary''s leader, Airvans Lockens. He was the leader of one of the remaining two vassals of the Griffith Family.


    He opened his eyes and answered with a calm tone. "I do. It''s just�� the War God Family has been increasing their surveince, so it''ll take a while before I can send all of my Mythical Rank Experts. As for the Supreme Rank or below, they''re stopped by the military. It''s annoying."


    "Supreme Rank Experts won''t change the battle that much, so we''ll just focus on the Mythical Rank Experts. It''ll be best if we can smuggle as many Mythical Rank Experts as possible into that country." The muscr man nodded with a serious expression. He then turned to the other old man and said, "Eric, where is the Eilric Family?"


    "They are staying neutral because of that fucking bastard influencing their minds. You should know that my power is to imnt a new living style and purpose like brainwashing, so it''ll be impossible for me to use it on them unless I do it continuously for a while." The Mind Elder, Eric Griffith, snorted while looking away. He was angry because this conversation reminded him of how Leonardo took his arm and leg from him.


    "If that''s the case, why don''t we control Alea Eilric instead? Infiltrating shouldn''t be that much of a problem, right?" Airvans asked.


    "It''s not as easy this time around. If Theo is still alive, he''ll use the Wind Emperor to protect her. Besides, the Empress is also there. So, it''s impossible for us to get her right now." The muscr man, the former head of the Griffith Family, Mason Griffith, exined.


    "Hmm? Then, should we wipe out the Eilric Family before fighting against Theo? We can''t really have them betray us at thest moment since the one who has been stopping the Eilric Family is your son, Ray." Airvans narrowed his eyes, looking at Mason.


    "I know. It seems that by using Nina Eilric, he manages to infiltrate the Eilric Family and influence them. To think that Nina Eilric is not just Theo''s teacher but a spy that controls the Eilric Family�� No, should I say that Nina Eilric''s role as a teacher is nothing but a fake so that we don''t realize their true intention��" Mason gritted his teeth, annoyed.


    "As expected�� Ray is determined to cripple the family with this. Without two other vassals, the Griffith Family has lost a huge portion of its strength. And the one who has been controlling this situation from the shadow must be��Valerie, the daughter of the War Saint. Her brain is truly a good weapon." Airvans sighed.

 Chapter 1343 Suspicion

    Chapter 1343 Suspicion����"Without Valerie, Ray won''t be able to do much against us even with his talent." Airvans pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled. "If only you killed that woman when you visited Italy, Eric."


    "Do you want to fight me, Lockens?" Eric red at him.


    "I don''t. I''m just stating the truth. If you managed to kill her back then, we wouldn''t have this kind of problem." Airvans shrugged.


    "Enough. The problem is Theo now! He is said to have a brain surpassing Valerie and even Leonardo. His talent for learning is also too overwhelming. Just looking at this, it''s normal for us to suspect that Theo is Joker because they''re simr." Mason stopped their conflict by presenting the main problem.


    "Well, that''s true since he has gotten a hold of you using the Dark Poison Swamp. But in this case, I can see why you suspect Joker is Theo, but Joker is using a sword instead of a spear."


    "But he excels in Control among the Five Aspects. It''s perfectly aligned to our family''s talent." Eric added, denying Arivans'' im.


    "But at the same time, he has never shown his previous power. Even the Death Reaper has acknowledged that he doesn''t have a face mask or an illusion to cover that face. The Death Reaper can even see through our disguise, so don''t you think it''s clear that Joker is not Theo?" Airvans didn''t back down in this argument.


    "Can you say for sure that Joker is not Theo?" Eric clicked his tongue.


    Airvans obviously couldn''t answer that. So, he reversed the question. "Can you say for sure that Joker is Theo?"


    Eric and Airvans red at each other as if they were picking a fight at each other. Airvans continued, "You can''t, right? In that case, it''s better to assume that Theo is another person.


    "If we''re assuming that he''s smart enough to know the risk of being spotted by the Griffith Family by staying in the open, won''t it be a better choice to avoid the spotlight?" Airvans asked. "How about that guy?"


    "That guy?" Mason narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. Didn''t you receive some news regarding the Poison King recently? It was said that the Poison King disappeared out of nowhere. His daughter, as well as the Mythical Rank Experts under him, died." Airvans nodded. "If we assume that Theo managed to survive the poison of the Dark Poison Swamp�� shouldn''t we suspect this guy too? With the help of the Poison King, he can survive the poison, causing us to be in distress right now."


    "��" Both Eric and Mason fell silent. On the one hand, this guy was so mysterious that not much information could be obtained about him. On the other hand, they couldn''t brush off the suspicion either. After all, the Poison King indeed had the power to rescue him there.


    "So, here is my suggestion. Let''s prepare some antidotes in case this is the problem. We surely don''t want to fall into the poison trap, right?" Airvans asked.


    "Still, there''s no proof that this guy is Theo. After all, there''s no record about Theo meeting the Poison King." Eric tried his hardest to deny Airvans.


    Airvans only shrugged and looked away, not taking his opinion seriously.


    "Don''t fight," Mason shouted, stopping their annoying pettiness. He said, "We can''t prove whether this information is true or not. Either way, it''s not bad to prepare for the worst. We have enough money, so we''ll supply everyone with the antidote.


    "As for the Supreme Rank or below, the Griffith Family will also send their experts to confuse the military and all other influences in Italy. I know that some of them will be trying to gain favor from the War God Family by helping them this time, so it''s best to take them away first so as to not have tens of Mythical Rank Experts join the fight.


    "Meanwhile, twenty Mythical Rank Experts from the Skyward Mercenary, including you, will aim for Agata. It''s clear that the assistant that Theo once had during his stay there was Agata, so we''ll use her to bring him out. After that, we''ll surround them with twenty Mythical Rank Experts. You surely have no problem handling someone like the Poison King, right?" Mason asked.


    "The Poison King? So, you''re assuming that Theo is the mysterious guy? Either way, are you sure that I won''t be facing Theo?"


    "With his brain, he''ll surely have someone among the top one hundred experts to be his supporter. Meanwhile, I''ll have Eric go for his life."


    Eric smirked. "It seems that I''ll be the main star. You can clean up the rest, chickens�� I mean, Lockens."


    "What?" Airvans gritted his teeth, ring at Eric.


    "Enough!" Mason stomped the ground, creating a small crater. "I am not here to watch you arguing. Both the Skyward Mercenary and Eric will handle Theo and his supporters, including the Pata Corporation.


    "Meanwhile, I''ll be taking on the War God Family before nking them from the side if you can''t deal with them."


    Airvans thought for a moment and asked, "Don''t you think the Wind Emperor will appear here?"


    "The threat of Eric suddenly appearing in Russia will put too much threat to Theo''s n, so the Wind Emperor has no choice but to stay there." Mason denied the im.


    "I see. So, you''ll be dealing with Leonardo�� I don''t think that will be much of a problem, right?" Airvans smirked.


    "Who do you think I am? The only reason Leonardo can escape death this whole time is because he has prepared enough, causing a huge disturbance in the family. But this time, we''re the one on the offensive. He can''t do anything to us anymore. So, the only problem now is Ray. He''ll surely appear to help Leonardo to stop us. I don''t know what kind of trick he has, but I''ll crush it with my power." Mason stated coldly.


    "That''s true. Your power can destroy them after all." Airvans paused for a moment before raising one finger. "In that case, there is one more problem that we need to talk about."

 Chapter 1344 Agatas Preparation

    Chapter 1344 Agata''s Preparation����"In that case, there is one more problem that we need to talk about." Airvans raised a finger. "We need to talk about the aftermath. You don''t expect to leave the Eilric Family alone, right? After showing such insubordination, we need to make an example of them. Since Nina was the culprit this time, how about exterminating her family? It''s said that Alea Eilric is Nina''s granddaughter�� Don''t you feel this is the right move?


    "If we can''t go to Alea Eilric because of the Wind Emperor and the Empress, we can make here to us." Airvans grinned.


    He was nning to take Alea''s family hostages before capturing them. In this situation, Eric could use his power to mess Alea up.


    "Eilric Family has shown insubordination, and I n to punish them after this expedition. But for now, we can''t afford to make such a big move because the world will be watching us. If we show a single weakness, they''re going to take advantage of it to swallow us."


    Eric clicked his tongue. "Those bastards. They can''t even bepared to us in terms of espionage, so they want to swallow us just because we''re weakened right now?"


    "Anyway, don''t make any sudden movements. Just stick to the n. We can''t afford any mistakes in this situation. No matter what, we need to have Theo die before he bes a huge threat that can annihte the entire Griffith Family." Mason stated coldly.


    Eric and Airvans knew that this old man was angry. If Theo was right before him, he would have turned Theo into a small cube,pressed by his power.


    ��


    Italy.


    "It seems that the situation has be a bit dangerous recently," said a young man who was politely bowing his head. "Mistress, what should we do?"


    The woman, who was called Mistress, was none other than Agata. As for the young men, there was only one person that called Theo ''Master,'' he was Walker.


    "There''s nothing we can do. The stage is set, and we can only wait for the y to start." Agata shrugged. "That''s right. Have you done your research here?"


    "Of course. I have gotten three perfectnds that can be cultivated to be our base ording to his preference. After we settle this problem, we can buy thend after that. I have talked about it with the higher-ups." Walker nodded, confirming it.


    "I see. That''s good then." Agata thought for a moment and asked another question. "Then, how about the Skyward Mercenary?"


    "Master has promised me to leave the vice leader alone. Although I am a chain user unlike a normal magician who has that overwhelming firepower, I''m confident I can defeat him. No, I have been preparing for this fight. I''ll defeat him." Walker narrowed his eyes, giving a cold gaze.


    Agata shook her head helplessly. "This is not like you, Walker. The usual you would have been so hyped instead of cold like this. What did you say again? Heihoo?"


    "��" Walker was startled that Agata suddenly talked about this.


    "Come on, cheer up. Don''t be serious like that. I mean, you can be serious��" Agata rose from her seat and walked to Walker before pointing at his heart. "But keep it here. Be as calm as you can but just keep it in your heart. You can act like your usual character, being hyped all the time!"


    "Isn''t it the other way around usually? You must maintain your calm face and keep all that fighting spirit in your heart?"


    "That''s for others to not know what you''re thinking, but Theo''s usual style is not like this, right? He wants the other to think about something so that he can take advantage of it. That''s why it''s fine for you to keep that cheerful act since it also boosts our morale. But you need to cool your heart and mind so that you can have some attention to think about your next move.


    "The enemies will think you''re a fool with those acts, making them lower their guards. Isn''t it a perfect opportunity for eliminating them?" Agata smirked.


    Walker sucked a cold breath. He knew that Agata had been learning from Theo for a long time, but it seemed that she could apply everything she had been taught from Theo.


    However, Agata added while patting her shoulder. "Still, if you''re cold like this, I can see that you are too tense for this. Haven''t you learned that the more tense you are, the higher chance you''re going to make a mistake?"


    "Ah!" Walker widened his eyes in shock.


    "That''s it. I''m not telling you what you''re doing is wrong, but don''t be too tense." Agata smiled.


    Agata wanted to tell him that he was too fixated on revenge that he couldn''t see everything around him. She reminded him to be himself because that was the only way for him to utilize one hundred percent of his strength. She had seen the problem and solved it.


    Walker couldn''t help but smile. He turned around and bowed to her. "Thank you, Mistress. I think I can understand why Master is head over heels to you. He is indeed blessed to have you by his side."


    Agata chuckled. "You''re exaggerating. I should be the one to say that."


    Seeing Walker''s expression had mellowed a bit put her heart at ease. And as expected, Walker immediately came to her and said happily. "If that''s the case, what do you think of having me as the MC of your wedding in the future? I''ll make it a st."


    "Haha, I won''t say anything about it." Agata stuck her tongue out. "Anyway, I''ll be asking you to protect me for the next three months, Walker. I''m afraid that the situation will be even more dangerous."


    "I understand. I''ll make sure that no dangeres your way, even if it means I must sacrifice my life." Walker nodded.


    "Let''s go back then. It''s closing time." Agata smiled as she opened the door to leave thepany.


    "Yes." Walker smiled and followed her.

 Chapter 1345 Felixs Training

    Chapter 1345 Felix''s Training����*Pant!*


    *Pant!*


    Felix was panting while using his sword as a support to hold his body up. He looked at the small ck monster in front of him, feeling useless.


    The sky was dark as the rain kept pouring down.


    The monster looked down on him, provoking him again. "What''s wrong? Are you done here? If you''re too tired, you can go rest, but that''s the end of the training."


    "I''m still not done." Felix gritted his teeth, straightening his back again. After another deep breath, he charged toward the monster.


    Thetter smirked and raised his ck sword. They were exactly the opposite of each other.


    Felix''s sword was covered in warm and bright light, while the monster''s sword was wrapped in the gloomy and cold darkness.


    When their swords shed, the light shone even brighter, trying to illuminate the sword. However, the darkness grew even stronger and devoured the light itself.


    "You still can''t do it. I still feel the emptiness in your light. That''s why I can devour that light easily." The monster shouted.


    "Yes!" Felix gathered even more power while closing his eyes to concentrate all his focus on this power. He waved his sword again, but the darkness soon devoured the light, causing Felix to deplete most of his power.


    The monster looked at Felix and asked, "Still, why are you so adamant about this kind of attack? It doesn''t feel like you at all. At first, you were kind of interesting, considering your attack pattern was random and so fluid that it could overwhelm many opponents. But this time, you only focused on one swing."


    "I need to pour all my power into one attack so that I can eliminate my enemy in rapid session. That''s why all that light goes to my sword." Felix gritted his teeth, still unable to do it after long training.


    "No, you don''t understand me. If you already have a form, why would you change that when you''re in a rush? You''ve worked in that direction for a long time, so there''s no reason for you to change it. An overwhelming light at one spot can indeed cause a fire, but a dispersed light can illuminate an entire area." The monster furrowed his eyebrows. "I can see that your power isn''tplete, but I don''t think you can defeat me with this half-baked power."


    Felix looked down, unable to answer him.


    Meanwhile, the monster continued, "What are you doing right now? You should know you are the one asking me to train you, but you don''t seem to take any of my advice."


    Felix bit his lips and recounted the memory from a few months ago.


    He was sitting in front of a huge monster covered in ckyer that hid its identity. The monster asked, "So, why do you want to meet me, human? It seems that my wife has sent you here. ording to her, you are my friend''s assistant."


    "I want to get stronger. The way I am right now�� don''t deserve to follow him. I''m far too weak. That''s why I''m seeking strength from you." Felix answered, looking at the monster with a serious expression.


    "Do you know how absurd it is for you to ask me to train you?" The monster released his strength, angry at Felix.


    However, Felix didn''t back down. He red back and stated, "If I don''t be stronger, he might die in the future. His strength is unfathomable, but if I am content with the way I am right now while he trusts me this much�� I feel like I''ll be his weakness. I don''t want the enemy to use me to kill him!"


    "And do you think I care?"


    "You care! Not only do you have an agreement with him, but you can make me owe you too!"


    "Don''t think too highly of yourself, human. You are nothing before me."


    "That''s true�� I am not that good in your eyes, but it''ll be different in the future. If this is not enough, then I''ll be threatening you."


    "Hoh? A mere human dare to threaten me?"


    "If you don''t train me, he''ll die in a few months. After all, his opponent is not a weak person this time�� It''s the 8th strongest person in the world. If I can''t even fight against someone like you, he''ll be overwhelmed from many sides."


    "8th strongest person in the world?" The monster fell silent for a moment and said, "That''s certainly something that can threaten me. But what can I get from this? The fact that I spare your life from your audacity alone is enough for you to owe me."


    "If you agree to train me, after this matter is over, I''ll be begging him to go to meet you so that you can fight. I''m sure that you have been waiting for a long time."


    The monster paused again. "That''s indeed tempting even for me. I can train you, but you need to answer two of my questions. The first question is�� I can see that your sword has be dull. You should have reached the end of your path, but there seems to be something that drives you forward. What is that?"


    "He needs someone he can trust. Someone who can keep up with him. That''s why I have promised him that I will be his sword�� and he takes me in, a person who only knows how to kill.


    "That''s why if the enemy is stronger than me, I''ll be even stronger and kill them. If he dies, I''ll dly kill the king of hell so that I can drag him back. For that, I need strength."


    The monster then asked the second question. "And do you think you deserve that strength? You, who have abandoned your sword and made it dull��"


    Felix clenched his fists as he red at the monster, stating with conviction. "If someone says I don''t deserve it, I''ll kill them no matter who they are!"


    The monster smirked as if he was amused by this answer. He rose from his seat and dered out loud, "Fine by me. In the name of the ruler of ice, I, the Dark King, shall train you!"

 Chapter 1346 Recognition

    Chapter 1346 Recognition����Felix was still panting as he had a hard time to maintain his consciousness because of theck of Magic Power in his body. He had almost used up all his Magic Power and stamina.


    Seeing Felix''s state, the Dark King sheathed his sword and said, "The training ends here. Go back and rest."


    "Wait a minute. One more time!" Felix raised his hand as if asking him to stop.


    However, the Dark King knew Felix was beyond his limit, so it was better to stop here. "No. Better go back and rest because you''ll injure yourself right now!"


    Listening to his answer made Felix disappointed in himself. He fell to the ground while punching the dirt, not convinced by this result.


    ''If only I didn''t put down my sword for years! If only��'' Felix wanted toin about everything, but he stopped when the topic was rted to his daughter. Millie was the reason he could keep fighting, and Theo was the one who drove him forward.


    If he was stuck in here, he couldn''t fulfill his promise.


    ''No. I shouldn''t regret everything I''ve done so far. I need to keep pushing myself forward to ensure that I don''t make any more mistakes.


    ''But my light is not strong enough to overwhelm my enemy, and my swordsmanship is stillckingpared to the true expert.


    ''I don''t have anything that I can be proud of despite being a high-ranking Mythical Rank Expert. What should I do?


    ''My light�� has disappeared��'' Felix gritted his teeth as his consciousness became fuzzy. However, what he didn''t realize was the fact that the rain had stopped.


    The cloud gradually dispersed, allowing the sunlight to pierce through and illuminate the area.


    ''Huh? The sunlight?'' Felix''s consciousness returned a bit due to the change in the weather.


    He could see one pir of light after another because the cloud hadn''t disappeared yet. Each pir of light looked like a guide for Felix.


    ''The light pirs from the gap between clouds�� The light is even brighter in that area, but they don''tpletely illuminate the entire area. Those are��''


    Felix didn''t know why but these pirs looked like all therades in Theo''s group. Theo, Millie, Isaac, Jeff, and everyone else.


    At the same time, the darknessing from the Dark King somehow made him forget that he was the light itself. That overwhelming darkness had made him think his light wasn''t strong enough even though it was already far stronger than most Mythical Rank Experts. What hecked right now was the recognition of the light itself.


    "Ah, the dark night gave me ck eyes, but I use them to seek the light. The dark night won''t be beautiful without stars�� But one star is not enough. I need more��"


    Felix had been muttering for a while, confusing the Dark King.


    "If he is not enough as the sole light, then I will use myself as the second light. Millie will be the third light. Jeff��" Felix called all the names in the group as the stars and Theo was the moon that shone above his head. Those lights also had their own subordinates like his five disciples, Jeff''s family and even Maya''s employees.


    Before long, Felix could picture a whole bright sky.


    "So, that''s how it is�� I am alone because I have closed my eyes in that darkness, not knowing that I have been surrounded by lights this whole time."


    Felix suddenly rose once more as he pointed his sword at the Dark King, saying, "One more time, please!"


    The Dark King widened his eyes as he could see that instead of his sword, Felix''s body was the one enveloped by the light. And that light soon spread to his limbs, head, and even his sword.


    After that, the light around him became even brighter as if the sun was giving him the strength itself.


    "Huh?" The Dark King raised his head and saw that the cloud had be thinner, and the entire area gradually became brighter. "The sun�� No, the light itself?"


    When the Dark King lowered his head, Felix was already gone.


    "!!!" He suddenly felt an abrupt movementing from his side. He instinctively drew his sword in that direction to cut that presence. But he soon realized that it was Felix. "Ah, sorry!"


    However, the feeling of cutting something never entered his brain. Confused, he took a nce to the side and saw Felix''s figure turning into the light itself before disappearing once again.


    He looked around and saw Felix moving so fast as if he became the light itself.


    Even the Dark King gave his undivided attention to him so that he didn''t get overwhelmed by this speed.


    He suddenly waved his sword to the right, to the left, below, and behind him. And every swing gave him a clicking sound that happened after two swords shed.


    "This is��" The Dark King widened his eyes as he kept shing with Felix.


    However, Felix seemed to be teleporting from one spot to another because he was moving too fast.


    "Wait, this is��" The Dark King suddenly noticed something off in this movement. Even though Felix''s speed was a lot faster, this kind of movement reminded him of Felix''s unpredictable movement, where he kept spinning to release a continuous attack.


    That movement was actually the thing that piqued the Dark King''s interest from the very start. He had been advising Felix to use that movement instead of getting fixated on gathering the light to his sword.


    At the same time, every attack Felix dealt right now felt like he had gathered the same amount of light, giving heaviness to each attack.


    ''What''s going on? It feels like he''sbining the light attack he came up with not long ago and the unpredictable movement. No, wait, he is��'' Before he finished his thought, the Dark King felt an extreme dangering from behind. This might be the first time his instinct was screaming at him. If he didn''t do anything, he would die.


    Without hesitation, the Dark King used all his power and turned around, mming his sword to the back.


    He heard the clicking sound again but followed with a loud ''boom'' sound a bit far away from him this time.


    When he tracked the sound, he saw Felix stuck in the cliff''s wall, unconscious.


    "This guy��" The Dark King was impressed for the first time in his life, but it seemed he had underestimated Felix because his expression soon changed after what he witnessed next.


    A bright light suddenly enveloped Felix as the light itself carried Felix out of the wall, baptizing him.


    The light soon gathered in his chest, forming a pattern. As soon as the symbol waspleted, the light disappeared, causing Felix to fall to the ground.


    "Hoop!!" The Dark King managed to catch Felix before he fell to the ground. He looked at the unconscious man and smiled, "Haha, my friend, Theo�� it seems you have an interesting man under you!"

 Chapter 1347 Ranking Up

    Chapter 1347 Ranking Up����Meanwhile, Theo, Chris, and Coline were traveling smoothly in the forest. He only had a month of hunting and his level had finally reached 750. As long as he filled up the remaining EXP points, he would be able to be a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "As expected, traveling is the worst part. It takes a lot of time�� If only we had another teleportation circle that directly goes to the area we want." Chris clicked his tongue,ining.


    "That''s fine. After all, there are more monsters that I can use as ingredients." Coline smiled.


    "You cooking maniac." Chris'' eyebrows twitched as he was already fed up with Coline. She had been talking about food this whole time as if she was possessed by the food God.


    Those questions were directed to Theo, but thetter always answered her like it was nothing. Of course, with the illusion.


    Although the food was extremely delicious, he just wanted to enjoy the food, not get interrogated after eating.


    ''Now that I think about it, he has many subordinates with unique personalities and goals. Like Coline, who keeps asking about food, Rea, who pesters him with assistant jobs, or Ergene, who always asks for advice�� Most of them have their own request for him when they join the group.


    ''He is the one who has been dealing with them while maintaining the bnce for his training as well as other schedules. And he only has around four hours of sleep every day because a lot of his time is used for that.


    ''I guess the one who is most tired in the group is him. After all, he has been working like a robot this whole time.'' Chris thought while looking at Theo''s back.


    He didn''t know thatpared to his time in Italy, Theo had been getting many rest days recently. And Theo used that time to fully recuperate from the tiredness. But it also showed how much pressure was in his shoulder the whole time.


    After a while, Theo opened his mouth, saying, "If the situation bes dangerous, please take my body away. After all, it''s going to be a hassleter."


    "I know. We have prepared to fight against many monsters at once. Hopefully, the enemies are only Supreme Rank Monsters." Chris nodded. "At least, Coline can defend you by herself. I''ll just be staying on the back."


    "You need to support me with your ability!" Coline red at him.


    "I know, I know. My piano will be used to increase your ability as well as release a sound wave to any monster that slips past your defense."


    "But where can we find a good ce to protect you? I mean, we can''t afford to protect all directions."


    "Indeed. I''m nning to go to a ce with only a single entrance."


    "And where is that?" Chris asked.


    Theo smirked. "The Moniac Dungeon!"


    "Ah, that one? The people called it a treasure trove, but a few years ago, someone found the secret, and after that, it became an abandoned ruin since the treasure had beenpletely cleaned up." Chris sighed.


    "Yes. I am nning to go to the boss room!" Theo chuckled.


    "Seriously? But then again, if we only need to defend one direction, it''ll be easier." Chris nodded in agreement.


    "Now that I think about it, who found the secret room?" Coline asked. "I am not from this country, so I don''t know the news. The person who found it should be famous, right?"


    "Now that you say it��" Chris recounted the information before looking at Theo. "Don''t tell me. It''s you?"


    "Ahaha!" Theo chuckled, not answering him. However, the meaning was clear.


    "You goddamn freak!" Chris clicked his tongue.


    "I was visiting this ce back then and ended up with some treasures." Theo chuckled. "Though, I got a good amount of money back then."


    "I feel like everywhere you go, trouble will follow." Chris sighed.


    Theo shrugged as it wasn''t in his control.


    The group continued their way to the Moniac Dungeon before Theo used three days to fill up the rest of the EXP to reach the Mythical Rank. It might be because he had gotten used to fighting the Mythical Rank Monster, but he truly felt that raising his level with Supreme Rank Monsters was too slow.


    He remembered that thest time he hunted the Supreme Rank Monsters for levels was when his level was in early 600, so it was still quite fast back then.


    Nheless, Theo managed toplete it in three days. While fighting the urge of the call, Theo headed to the Moniac Dungeon''s secret room.


    It was a familiar room to him, but he didn''t pay attention to it anymore because he needed to take the call from the God of Mischief.


    Due to his Blink and speed, the previous one-day trip he took to reach the bottom floor only took three hours toplete.


    As soon as Theo reached the secret room, he threw himself into the center of the room and sat down. "I can''t wait anymore. I''ll leave everything to you!"


    The moment Theo sat down and closed his eyes, Coline and Chris witnessed an unexpected power from Theo.


    The Golden Magic Power leaked out of his body.


    "Huh? Golden Magic Power?" Chris sucked a cold breath.


    "It''s said that when you train hard enough, you can have a different color of Magic Power, meaning that your power has gone beyond the extreme, AKA surpassing the limit," Coline muttered. "But all of them are supposed to be Mythical Rank Experts�� He might be the only one to achieve this before bing a Mythical Rank Expert."


    "No wonder he is so strong. Did he have this power when he recruited me?" Chris asked himself.


    However, the answer never came since Theo had entered his consciousness.


    He returned to the golden hall with the God of Mischief waiting for him on his throne.


    Looking down on Theo, the God of Mischief said with a cold tone. "You''vee. I don''t like wasting time, so let me see how far you have grown, Theodore Griffith."


    Mission: Last Lesson.


    Description: Be a Mythical Rank Expert and fight the God of Mischief to gain his approval.


    Reward: ???

 Chapter 1348 Fighting the God of Mischief

    Chapter 1348 Fighting the God of Mischief����Theo looked at him with a serious expression and said, "I''vee. It seems I''ve made you wait."


    "You sure do. It''s been a while since I can use my power. As expected of the energy when ranking up to the Mythical Rank, it''s surely quite big." The God of Mischief smirked.


    Theo also realized that the time he could see these people were longer and longer as he rose through the ranks.


    "I''m gonna tell you this one thing. Even though I''m going to limit myself to your level, I''ll show you the full power of an Authority."


    Theo raised his hand and tried to channel his power. As expected, he could summon his spear easily and utilize his Magic Power the way he used to. In other words, there was no need to hold back anymore.


    Theo imagined a spear using his Reality Order and illusion, creating a pair of spears. After that, his clone appeared next to him and received one of the spears.


    Looking at the God of Mischief, he said, "Then, there''s no need to hold back, right?"


    The God of Mischief smirked and summoned a staff. There was nothing extraordinary from the staff. The handle was made of sturdy metal, and the eye of the staff was created by using a crystal that could channel a huge amount of Magic Power.


    "Come." The God of Mischief waved his hand, challenging Theo.


    Seeing such provocation, Theo remained still. Instead of following what he wanted, Theo smirked and provoked him back. "It''s you who needs to step out of that throne. You are not my teacher or parents, so I have no reason to obey you anymore."


    "It seems that you have learned a lot." The God of Mischief started releasing his Magic Power.


    "From you of course." Theo pointed his spear toward him.


    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    The ground started to shake before a skeleton suddenly appeared behind Theo.


    Clone Theo immediately turned around while looking at the skeleton. It looked like the one that Hel usually summoned, but it didn''t give the intensity like that skeleton. There wasn''t even a killing intent.


    Looking at this skeleton, he could see the skill behind it.


    Skill: Mind Image (S)


    Effect: The power to project the image in one''s mind.


    The skill''s description was simple, but Theo could see how strong the skill was. To project everything in his mind was simply overwhelming. As long as his imagination and illusion skill were at that level, this skill would overwhelm the opponent.


    Clone Theo summoned a Death Avatar as the challenger to this skeleton. The Death Avatar raised both hands and pushed the skeleton back, only to find that the skeleton was stronger than he expected.


    Instead of getting pushed back, the skeleton actually managed to stop the Death Avatarpletely.


    However, a huge sword soon appeared above the skeleton, and thetter immediately took the sword to sh the Death Avatar.


    Clone Theo also did the same, giving the Death Avatar a weapon. Both the Death Avatar and the skeleton waved their swords a few times as clicking sounds kept echoing inside the hall.


    While the Death Avatar kept the skeleton busy, Clone Theo pointed his palm at the skeleton, trying to use his Order to erase this skeleton.


    As expected, the result was simr to when he fought against the Poison King. His Reality Order could erase the illusion, but the Illusion Order kept regenerating it, causing both of them to cancel each other''s power.


    Even so, Clone Theo didn''t stop as this was his job for now. While he had some time, he started stomping the ground while manipting the wind around. He was nning to use the Ascension Step, the Divine Technique that he hadn''t used for a long time.


    While he was getting ready, the real Theo summoned numerous swords and sent them toward the God of Mischief in order to make him step off the throne.


    However, Theo could see the same amount of swords appearing around the God of Mischief along with a new skill


    Skill: Illusion Reflection (A)


    Effect: The power to reflect illusion back against users.


    As expected, the description was simple but very effective.


    All the swords hit each other until all swords fell down to the ground. Still, he wasn''t lost yet. To win against the God of Mischief, Theo needed to force the God of Mischief to step out of his throne.


    Irregr Guardian.


    He summoned another spear with this Divine Technique and poured a huge amount of Magic Power into the tip of the spear with his Enhanced Concentration Capacity.


    With that huge amount of Magic Power in the tip, there was no way the God of Mischief could take it head-on. He pushed that spear forward,unching it like that of a bullet.


    The God of Mischief smirked as numerous shields appeared in rapid session, lining up between him and the spear, causing thetter to ram its body right at the shields. Even if the spear could destroy the shields, its momentum was decreasing rapidly.


    Skill: Hallucination Solidification (A)


    Effect: The ability to solidify any illusions or hallucinations.


    It was clear that the God of Mischief was trying to replicate what the Fist Saint did back then. By reinforcing the air itself, he could create a solid shield that could block everything. Of course, he could only solidify the illusion, so he created those shields so that he could stop Theo''s spear.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo had another surprise for him within this spear.


    There was a reason why Irregr Guardian was a Divine Technique. This power allowed Theo topletely shape Magic Power into everything in his mind. Whether it was a shield or a sword, as long as Theo willed it, the shape would change, giving a super versatility.


    The spear turned into a thin shawl that could be blown away by the wind, but the tip still held so much Magic Power. Getting hit by this shawl was fatal, but at the same time, the shawl used the shock wave to push it to the side before Theo controlled it to reach the God of Mischief.


    Every time the God of Mischief created a shield, the shawl would slip past it like an eel.


    Eventually, the shawl reached the God of Mischief, carrying a huge amount of Magic Power.


    "This is my first present." Theo smirked as he watched how the shawl suddenly exploded like a grenade.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1349 Multi-Layer Illusion

    Chapter 1349 Multi-Layer Illusion����*Boom!*


    One would expect a huge explosion from that thunderous eruption, but everything waspletely suppressed with a box created by the God of Mischief. Instead of a shield, he created a box withyers of screen to contain that kind of explosion.


    "Present? Where?" The God of Mischief nonchntly asked as he still looked down on Theo from his throne.


    Theo clicked his tongue, knowing that it wouldn''t be easy to fight against him.


    Theo didn''t give up as he immediately released his next attack.


    "Since there''s no present, I should be the one giving it to you then." He smirked and summoned a huge gear on top of Theo.


    At the same time, numerous gears appeared around him. Even if he could fit in one of those gaps, he would be hit by the gear above it, making Theo unable to escape other than going to the throne since that was the only space without a gear.


    On the one hand, Theo wanted to remove all these gears with his Attribute Removal, but the God of Mischief would use his own order to keep the gears. So, it would be impossible for him to remove the gear with his current power. On the other hand, he also didn''t want to go to the throne since it would mean he admitted his defeat.


    With these huge gears falling on top of him, Theo was thinking about the reason why the God of Mischief summoned a gear. If he wanted, he could summon blocks since it would mean he had no choice but to escape. Even the gap wouldn''t be nonexistent unlike the gears above his head.


    "Tsk. This can''t do��" Theo''s expression became cold as he had been preparing this move to attack the God of Mischief, not to move around the gears.


    "Ascension Step, Fifth Step!" Clone Theo finally made his move by releasing the umted air above him, creating a torrential air that pushed the gear upward.


    However, it only stopped the gear for a split second. There wasn''t even any longsting effect.


    Not convinced, Clone Theo took another step, sending forth an even stronger shock wave.


    Ascension Step, Sixth Step.


    Unfortunately for him, even with the Sixth Step, the shock wave didn''t even make the gear flinch.


    Theo sent two more shock waves, but they could only stop the gears for a bit longer.


    Finally, he could see some light when he released the ninth step.


    The overwhelming shock wave tilted the gear slightly, but he soon realized the reason why the God of Mischief used gears instead of any other objects.


    When one of them was tilted, all the gears also had the same reaction since they were connected to each other.


    If he made a sphere or a cube, Theo could strike the edge or side to push them. But with a fewyers of gear, it would be impossible to break them unless he managed to find the weak points.


    And that wasn''t possible within this time frame.


    "��" Clone Theo gritted his teeth and finally used all his might to strike the edge to tilt the gear over. "I will use everything I have in this strike."


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step!


    The step that he never once took when he still used the Ascension Step openly.


    But this step was also the reason why the Ascension Step was considered a Divine Technique. If the nine previous steps could gradually be stronger by umting the residual wind of the previous step, the tenth step replicated all nine steps and fused them into one.


    Instead of a torrential wind flow anymore, it became a huge twister that spun in the clockwise direction.


    The power was so great that Theo had a hard time controlling it. In the end, Theo changed his target.


    "Instead of tilting it over, I''m going to break it!" Theo struck the center point, trying to break this construction of gears from the middle. Snapping the structure into two would be great, but creating a hole was also a sess.


    For the first time, the extraordinary wind from the tenth step pushed back the gears and continued as it kept rising and rising.


    At the same time, Theo gathered the Order into his spear, which soon changed its shape into a sword.


    "If I want to cut something, there''s nothing in this world I can''t cut." Theo applied the Reality Order to his sword and swung upward.


    Just like the ability that he used to fight against Winston, Theo''s Reality Order finally created a huge impact on the entire structure.


    There was a clean cut apparent in the gears, showing that Theo''s power was enough to shake his opponent''s power.


    However, he was still underestimating the power of the God of Mischief.]


    When the gear was about to split up so that Theo could escape from this gear, the God of Mischief snapped his finger, causing the floor to disappear.


    "��" Theo looked down and realized he began falling down into unending darkness. When he raised his vision, everything became smaller as time passed.


    If he was a normal person, he would believe this was the case, but Theo was an illusion master as well.


    Before he fell downpletely, a tform appeared and raised him back up to the ground before Theo used his ability to summon lights around him to illuminate this darkness.


    Not wanting Theo to escape, the God of Mischief immediately closed the hole so that Theo couldn''t leave that hole.


    Clone Theo, who witnessed everything, was quite shocked that his real body looked indeed as if he had fallen down. Not a single trace was found when he looked at the floor.


    Still, Theo wasn''t a pushover either. Suddenly, his body appeared in his previous position as he panted a few times.


    "As expected, it''s just an illusion. I have a hard time escaping that one." Theo took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.


    He recounted what happened earlier and said, "So, that''s how you use the illusion. Creating a doubleyer illusion so that even if I break free from the first illusion, I won''t realize that I am already inside the second illusion."

 Chapter 1350 Absolute Ruler

    Chapter 1350 Absolute Ruler����"No. It''s not just twoyers of illusion." Theo gritted his teeth.


    A few moments ago, when he was trapped within that darkness, Theo realized a few missing links as soon as he used Blink. If he truly fell, the Blink could allow him to reach the floor since the distance wasn''t that far.


    Yet, it was useless to use Blink because he couldn''t reach them anymore.


    That was why he was convinced that he was still within the illusion even though he had been trying to dispel this illusion with his ability.


    It was then he realized there were separate illusions to create this illusion. The first one was the floor. The floor itself was a real illusion floor that when they disappeared, it looked like he had just hit a real trap that would lead him to a pitfall with spikes at the bottom.


    The second illusion was in reality itself. Instead of a huge realm, the wall and the floor were actually a real thing. They were just floors and walls that were painted the darkest ck.


    After that, the third illusion was sense maniption. Instead of making him think he was falling down, the God of Mischief utilized his power to make him behave like he was using a binocr but the other way around.


    And the fourth illusion was the bridge he made himself. By using that bridge, Theo was convinced that he was still in reality. If the God of Mischief wanted it, the bridge would never appear.


    "Instead of using a single illusion to trap someone, the God of Mischief used separate illusions so that when Theo removed one of them, he still had three remaining illusions that he needed to resolve.


    Upon this realization, Theo escaped from all of them immediately.


    ''Terrifying indeed. How manyyers can he actually create? And the fact that each illusion needs to be maintained separately and matched with other illusions has increased this ability''s level to an unprecedented level.


    ''Even the Mind Elder only used oneyer of illusion.


    But before Theo continued, he couldn''t help but smirk excitedly. "Ah! I take back what I said earlier. It''s not fouryers, it''s five! And thest one is��"


    Theo stomped the ground.


    Suddenly, numerous spikes appeared around the God of Mischief, trying to impale him.


    At the same time, Theo used his blink, teleporting in the opposite direction. There was supposed to be nothing, but when Theo swung his sword, he heard a clicking sound.


    Another throne suddenly appeared with the God of Mischief leaning to the right side to avoid all these spikes. And the clicking sound appeared due to the sh between Theo''s sword and the spike.


    Yes, when Theo stomped the ground, he summoned those spikes with the illusion. But his target wasn''t the throne in front of him but the one in the back.


    "Impressive." The God of Mischief smiled, praising Theo wholeheartedly.


    "The fifth illusion�� it''s your Illusion Reflection�� Instead of me and my power, you use this power on yourself, allowing you to hide your real body behind me this whole time." Theo smirked as he felt good for discovering the real God of Mischief.


    He had been tricked this whole time, but at the same time, this action also made him lose the challenge.


    "But don''t forget that��" The God of Mischief pointed at the floor. "This is the throne. You''ve lost."


    "No, it''s my win." Theo smirked as Clone Theo summoned the exact copy of the fake God of Mischief on the floor.


    When the God of Mischief saw it, he soon realized what Theo meant. "You''ve truly learned so much."


    "I only told you that I would drag you out of that throne, not this one." Theo stuck his tongue out.


    "If that''s the case, let''s take this to a whole new level, shall we?" The God of Mischief smirked.


    "Huh?!" Theo didn''t know why but his sense was tingling as if he knew that the God of Mischief was nning to do something dangerous.


    "Still, you are wrong, Theo. It''s not five, but six!" Loki was the one sticking out his tongue now.


    "Wha��" Theo suddenly saw that the entire hall gradually changed as if it wasing from a flip book. The ceiling, the wall, and even the floor were folded on top of each other before a new skin came out from another folded part.


    When he realized what was happening, Theo nced to the right and saw the floor. In other words, he was actually standing on the wall as if he was on the floor.


    "This is��" Theo leaped back but felt surprised that he didn''t fall down. Even though he felt that the gravity was pointing to the floor, his feet surprisingly stuck on the wall and his body refused to go to the floor.


    He turned to Loki and saw him walking on the wall easily as though he didn''t feel the gravity.


    "My sense is��" Theo looked at his hands, trying to figure out what had truly happened.


    Loki had truly messed up his sense by using this power. But it became even more confusing when the entire room was shaking.


    It took Theo a split second to realize that he was actually in the ceiling.


    "This is��" Theo sucked a cold breath. Even though his hair, clothes, and everything he wore was falling to the ground, his body and sense thought the ceiling was actually the floor and kept sticking to it. Even if he jumped, he would fall back to the ceiling instead of the floor.


    "I have told you, right? It''s not fiveyers, it''s six." The God of Mischief smirked.


    "��" Theo couldn''t reply to him as he realized that the sixth illusion was actually the greatest. Yes, the sixth illusion was actually the hall itself. This grand hall was an illusion that the God of Mischief could control as he liked, including gravity.


    In this illusion,mon sense couldn''t be applied because the God of Mischief was the ruler of this sixth illusion.


    "This is what I want to teach you, Theo." The God of Mischief smiled as Theo could finally see the skill description. "The ability I created to fight against those beings in the higher dimension."


    Skill: Absolute Ruler (???)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving the authority to govern allws of physics inside the illusion.

 Chapter 1351 A Hard Time

    Chapter 1351 A Hard Time����Skill: Absolute Ruler (???)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving the authority to govern allws and physics inside the illusion.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes as this was the first time he saw something like this. A skill that had surpassed logic.


    The God of Mischief smiled as if he was amused by Theo''s expression. However, he still pointed at Theo and said, "That is if you are qualified to wield this power. If you want it, then show me."


    Instead of bing excited, Theo asked himself, "Why do you want to teach me this power? It''s clear that this kind of power shouldn''t have existed as the rank itself is not registered."


    "My illusion power has reached its limit. But it''ll be a different case if you use this power with your Reality Order. There''s a chance that you''ll be able to surpass me and reach a higher dimension."


    "A higher dimension itself might just be a parallel universe. We just don''t know what universe gives birth to this universe." Theo shook his head.


    "No one has the proof, so there''s no right and wrong. I am simply trying to add the chance for the proof to appear�� After all, no matter what people say, I am nothing but a soul." The God of Mischief shook his head. "If I have a body, I would have done it myself."


    "Then, why don''t you take over my body? Knowing you, you should have found a way to do it, right?"


    "Hahaha!" The God of Mischiefughed uncontrobly before saying, "Do you think I like your body? You underestimate me. If I want to get a body, I''m not going to live in this universe anymore."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling the hidden meaning in that statement.


    "Unfortunately, I don''t think I want to say anything about it." The God of Mischief raised his staff.


    "After you witness everything about me." Theo pointed his spear forward.


    "You don''t like it. Then fight me." The God of Mischief smirked.


    "That''s what I''m nning to do." Theo jumped forth and thrust his spear.


    However, the ceiling then turned around as Theo''s body fell down as if gravity and his senses finally pulled him down to the floor.


    On the other hand, the God of Mischief still remained in the ceiling, looking at Theo as if he was disappointed in him.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to float in the center of the box. Even if Loki rotated this hall again, he would remain there.


    Seeing Theo manage toe up with a solution in a short period, the God of Mischief smiled and made his next move.


    Suddenly, the room expanded vertically, causing the ceiling and the floor to continuously move away.


    "!!!" Because the God of Mischief became far away, Theo hurriedly used his Telekinesis to catch up to him. At the same time, Theo recalled his clone since he didn''t need to stop the skeleton anymore.


    Theo wanted to catch up to the God of Mischief, but the room suddenly became twisted as if they were inside a cylinder this time.


    Theo already didn''t know what was going on anymore. Hepletely bent the illusion like he wanted.


    If he just made the illusion expand or something, Theo wouldn''t have a problem since he could adapt to it. But Theo felt the constant change of physics. It continued to force him to move to the left, up, right, and down until he lost his sense of bnce.


    Even when he was flying, he felt as if he was spinning.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, realizing that the God of Mischief managed to seal his ability to fly with this. As long as he kept flying, he would feel a bit sick due to constant change. Hence, he lowered his body and stepped on the floor that had be a spiral.


    Theo looked at the God of Mischief, who finally stopped running away. He raised his hand as another skeleton appeared to stop the clone. It seemed that Loki only wanted to fight the real Theo one-on-one.


    He then decided to do it his way. By facing the God of Mischief like this, he could see the gap between them too.


    Theo started running on this path as the God of Mischief began to raise his hand again.


    The floor suddenly split randomly as if they were trying to make Theo fall into the endless darkness.


    Seeing the unfavorable situation, Theo utilized his Blink to appear next to Loki and thrust his spear.


    *Clink!*


    He heard the clicking sound as his spear was stopped by Loki''s staff.


    Theo suddenly lowered his head when he felt a sudden pressure sweeping from his right.


    When the pressure passed, there was nothing to be seen. It was clear that Loki was manipting thew of physics again. Although he couldn''t sense it, his instinct was still enough to react to any danger.


    Not wanting to lose, Theo also applied his own illusion and enhanced it with his Reality Order.


    The floor soon emerged from the ground and covered Loki''s legs, preventing him from moving.


    After that, Theo tried to kick him from the side, but his Irregr Guardian turned into a de on his shoe so that his kick would cut Loki in half.


    But as expected from the battle between the Reality Order and Illusion Order. The former tried to make all illusions a reality, while thetter turned reality into an illusion.


    When Theo''s attack reached him, they disappeared as if they never existed. After all, they ended up bing an illusion.


    Theo clicked his tongue and tried once again. He utilized the most powerful ability that he had right now, the Alter Ego.


    Instead of strength, he nned to defeat Loki with his speed. Even though he would be injured in this battle, he needed to do it if he wanted to win against Loki.


    Agility 3943


    Theo felt the surge of strength in his body as he suddenly disappeared in front of Loki and reappeared a few feet away from him as though he had cut them.


    ''This should be eno��'' Before Theo finished his thought, Theo fell to the ground while holding his right leg. "Kh."


    "What''s wrong?" The God of Mischief smiled and turned around, looking at Theo''s injury.


    Theo gritted his teeth, realizing what had happened.

 Chapter 1352 Worlds Interference

    Chapter 1352 World''s Interference����Theo gritted his teeth, realizing what had happened.


    At thest second, the God of Mischief somehow managed to block all his attacks and even injure his foot.


    "How can you have such a speed?" Theo gritted his teeth.


    "The speed is indeed abnormal, but you forget the fact that I am basically the ruler of this illusion world. I can simply copy your ability with my Illusion Reflection." Loki smiled.


    "Impossible. Even with that ability, you won''t be able to replicate it." Theo obviously couldn''t believe it. Even though he couldn''t bepared to an Authority Level Figure, Theo knew that his ability was impossible to recreate even for the God of Mischief.


    "Hahaha!" Loki chuckled. "Come on. Believe me again like you used to. You always took my opinion seriously in the past."


    "You were the one telling me not to." Theo clicked his tongue while trying to figure out the ability earlier. He soon remembered one thing.


    "Wait a minute�� Authority Level figures like the Frost Saint can freeze everything, including time. Don''t tell me your illusion can��" Theo sucked a cold breath.


    At this time, Theo started wondering if Loki had just created a fake speed in his mind so that he could block everything. This way, Theo would move like usual in reality because his mind was the only thing going fast forward.


    "Now that I think about it, you can create an illusion of the future possibilities when the Queen of Destiny tries to take a look at my future. As expected, Authority itself can affect everything whether they''re rted or not. That''s probably the essence of Authority and what differentiates it from Order.


    "Instead of canceling each other like the Orders, an Authority could affect other Authority and Order."


    In other words, Theo affected his mind so that Theo didn''t realize he was moving slowly. Still, it was too much even for Theo. He couldn''t believe that the God of Mischief could still react with that kind of speed.


    "��" Theo still wondered how to defeat this guy. He didn''t think about whether it was possible or not to defeat the God of Mischief. But as long as he didn''t give up, the chance was never zero.


    Hence, this kept him from going. He wanted to see how far he could push the God of Mischief back.


    But when he was about to fight him again, he heard a voice echoing right into his head.


    "You think you can use this power freely?"


    "Huh?!" Theo widened his eyes in shock because he never thought that someone would suddenly interfere with their fight. He didn''t know why but this voice felt a bit familiar.


    The God of Mischief furrowed his eyebrows and said, "I don''t do anything bad with this power. Isn''t it fine?"


    "And do you think I don''t know that you''re going to make him learn this power? There will be a disruption if you use this power nonchntly."


    "Nope. It''s just you who are scared of such a thing." The God of Mischief smirked.


    Theo tried to figure out this third party''s identity. But he got confirmation soon after he heard the next sentence.


    "You used that power to steal something from me."


    "Come on. It''s just Reality Eyes, nothing wrong with it." The God of Mischief shrugged.


    "Reality Eyes?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. He suddenly remembered that the God of Mischief had seen the world and learned many things about it. And the special eyes that he gifted to him in the first meeting were actually the Reality Eyes but not awakened yet.


    Even so, the Reality Eyes could upgrade the rank of his skill, bending the reality itself. So, it was clear the other identity was the world itself.


    "Just Reality Eyes? I bestow the power to people who deserve it. And you have broken that system!"


    The God of Mischief smirked. "Then what? You''re going to punish me? How about erasing me? You can''t, right? I know you can''t!"


    The world didn''t answer him. This was the time Theo noticed that the world was actually overwhelmed by Loki''s shamelessness.


    He stole something and gave the Reality Eyes to him, but he seemed to know something that forbade the world to punish him. That was why the world couldn''t say anything.


    ''Did he just shut the world up?'' Theo asked inwardly.


    "It seems that you want to be sealed again." The world finally fought back.


    "Let''s see whether you can do it or not." The God of Mischief smirked as he raised his hand, preparing to use the Absolute Ruler. "You should know the ability of my Absolute Ruler. The ability that allows me to gain an advantage against you for the first time. But my aim is not you but the one who creates you."


    Yes, the God of Mischief just admitted that he actually won against the world once. The proof was the Reality Eyes as well as the knowledge about this world.


    "Do you think I am afraid of you? If you have your previous strength, you might be able to win against me. But you now don''t have that strength anymore."


    As if being fed up with Loki''s attitude, the world finally sent its mighty force to crush everyone in this room.


    Theo felt the intense pressureing from above him as he immediately fell to the ground as if he was being crushed.


    Loki, on the other hand, maintained his calm. His feet didn''t even shake as if he could withstand this power.


    But Theo knew the God of Mischief used the Absolute Ruler to iste himself from the world''s force, making that illusion world didn''t have the mechanism of the world itself.


    That was why Loki could stand there nonchntly.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the world''s aim wasn''t Loki but his ability.


    "Hmm?" The God of Mischief furrowed his eyebrows as if something was wrong with his body.


    Suddenly, the skill he had popped out, sealed.


    Skill: Absolute Ruler (A)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving little authority to manipte a part of thews of physics inside the illusion.


    "What did you do?" The God of Mischief roared in anger.


    "I do what I have to do to maintain the system." After sealing the power, the pressure suddenly disappeared.


    "You��"

 Chapter 1353 Real or Fake?

    Chapter 1353 Real or Fake?����"You��"


    The God of Mischief gritted his teeth as his heart was filled with anger.


    This might be the only time Theo could see such a frustrated face from the God of Mischief. But when the pressure disappeared, Theo finally returned to his feet.


    Soon, the God of Mischief''s facepletely changed as a big smile reced his angry face in an instant.


    "You foolish motherfucker." Loki smirked.


    Skill: Absolute Ruler (???)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving the authority to govern allws and physics inside the illusion.


    The skill suddenly reverted back to the previous grade.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock and said, "Did you just use your illusion to affect what it''s shown in that message so that the world believes you?"


    The God of Mischief only winked his right eye as if telling him not to tell anyone.


    Still, as one would expect from the world that watched everything, it immediately returned, and Theo was forced to go back to the ground again.


    "I know it. Do you think you can fool me now?"


    "What do you mean?" Loki smirked.


    Skill: Absolute Ruler (A)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving little authority to manipte a part of thews of physics inside the illusion.


    "You certainly have sealed it. I''m just tricking him into thinking that you haven''t sealed my ability." The God of Mischief stuck his tongue out.


    But Loki kept changing the skill''s rank, confusing even the world. At one time, it was A Rank, but at another time, it returned to an unknown grade.


    On the one hand, Loki''s skill might have been sealed, but his power to rewrite what was written in the message could make one not believe him. On the other hand, Loki''s skill might truly haven''t been sealed and he just rewrote it so that the world believed him.


    Ultimately, no matter which one was the truth, there was no one who knew it except for Loki.


    But Theo was more shocked by the fact that Loki''s power could even fool the world where the power originated.


    "Fine, fine!" The God of Mischief snorted. "Let''s just seal this power and give it to him, okay?"


    The God of Mischief snapped his finger as a message appeared in front of Theo.


    Skill: Absolute Ruler - Sealed (A)


    Effect: Bing the absolute ruler of the illusion, giving little authority to manipte a part of thews of physics inside the illusion.


    S Rank Unlock Requirement: Upgrade the Order to the Authority.


    ??? Rank Unlock Requirement: Unknown


    "Do you like this?" The God of Mischief harrumphed.


    There was no answer. Even Theo didn''t expect that the skill would be sealed like this.


    "See?" The God of Mischief shrugged and said to Theo. "Do you remember about sealing the Death Avatar? Well, this is the same case. Even if I give the skill to you, the power of the ability is far too great for you to handle. So, this is the only option."


    When Theo heard his statement, Theo''s eyebrows twitched because he could understand the God of Mischief after dealing with him for a long time. "This is your intention this whole time. There''s no way you''re gonna give that unknown rank skill in an instant�� Is there a point in arguing with the world?"


    "Who knows?" The God of Mischief stuck his tongue out.


    "I can finally understand why your brother always wanted to smack you with his hammer." Theo stared at him with a poker face.


    "��" Loki fell silent as if he couldn''t rebuke him for that one.


    "Still, I can''t understand how you can manipte the message��" Theo narrowed his eyes. If he could show a fake status to others, people would surely be tricked.


    "You still haven''t figured it out? You already have that power but never explore this possibility?" The God of Mischief looked away as if he was disappointed.


    "I already have the power?" Theo narrowed his eyes before a realization came to his mind. "Reality Alter? Instead of applying the Alter Ego, I just need to use the ability to rewrite something. Since I don''t need to activate my Alter Ego, the Order consumed by it won''t be that big."


    The God of Mischief shrugged as if asking why he did just figure it out.


    Theo simply hadn''t encountered the need to use this power, but it surely would give someone a surprise when needed.


    "Anyway, it seems that I have won." The God of Mischief smirked and ced his hand on Theo''s head because he was still on the ground because of the world''s pressure.


    "Wait, this is not fair. The world��" Theo suddenly stopped as if he realized something. "This is my consciousness�� Was the voice I heard earlier real?"


    Theo opened his eyes in shock.


    "What if the world''s voice wasn''t real?"


    "What if those bickering was just a fake skit that the God of Mischief used to fool him?"


    "What if the pressure actually came from an unknown rank skill?"


    There were so many ''what if'' in Theo''s mind to the point he asked himself, "Since when��"


    The hall soon crumbled into pieces before the scenery changed back to the grand hall with Theo lying on the red carpet.


    There was no proof of a battle, no destruction, and even Theo''s wound disappeared.


    "This is��" Theo sucked a cold breath because he felt that his clone had disappeared even though he didn''t retract it. And there was no trace of the clone getting killed either.


    In other words, the clone truly disappeared just because the God of Mischief willed it.


    "Wait a minute�� Don''t tell me this whole time��" Theo dropped his jaw, looking at the God of Mischief in shock.


    "I guess I''ll be giving you a passing mark for realizing it." The God of Mischief smiled.


    Theo''s heart dropped. The God of Mischief actually admitted that everything was just an illusion. Whether it was his clone, the Ascension Step, the Death Avatar, the world, their fight, and even the skills, they were fakes.


    If the God of Mischief could actually rewrite or even create his own skill just for the sake of the illusion, it meant that everything he had experienced this whole time was fake.


    Seeing Theo''s expression, the God of Mischief smirked and said, "I only used one skill this whole time, Theo."


    Skill: World Re-Creation (???)


    Effect: Bing the absolute creator of the illusion, giving the authority to govern allws and physics inside the illusion.


    Yes, it turned out the battle that they had earlier was never real. It was just a perfect simtion in Theo''s mind. The God of Mischief recreated everything from his own world to Theo''s ability and even his personality.


    The God of Mischief said onest thing. "This is what I want to show you, Theo. To fool your enemy to the point that they can''t differentiate which one is real and fake anymore. The pinnacle of the illusion, the world re-creation."

 Chapter 1354 Question

    Chapter 1354 Question����A few moments ago.


    The God of Mischief had been sitting on his throne for a while until Theo arrived. Before Theo reacted, he had already utilized his World Re-creation and maintained his silence this whole time.


    Theo also remained still because his mind was already wandering into the world that he had created. Although the God of Mischief could still move, the moment he lowered his guard, Theo would be able to break free from this illusion.


    So, he sat still on that throne while controlling his illusion so that Theo didn''t realize that he was inside an illusion already.


    He kept controlling the illusion until he could catch Theo off guard. And that chance appeared when Theo witnessed the conversation between the God of Mischief and the world.


    He walked toward Theo and grabbed his head before he mmed it to the ground. That was when he felt an extraordinary pressure that he couldn''t disobey.


    While looking at Theo who was lying on the ground, he had an unexpected visitor.


    At the same time, the world itself came to him and asked, "What are you nning to do by showing that interaction?"


    Loki smiled and said, "He deserves to know the truth."


    "I don''t care about the truth as long as it doesn''t mess with the Order."


    "Of course, I won''t. I promise that I won''t cause too much chaos in the world since my opponent is not you anymore." Loki smiled. "I''ll seal that ability for a bit and unlock it when he''s ready. You surely won''t mind that, right?"


    "Authority. He needs to have an Authority before being able to wield that power, or else that power will break him and, in the worst case, disrupt the Order."


    "I know, I know. I''m cooperating with you this time simply because I want to see the end." The God of Mischief shrugged.


    "Will a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? Will a man be called a bad guy when he joins the enemy side to protect the people on his side? A tricky question, but the answer wille to you sooner orter."


    The God of Mischief''s eyebrows twitched as he remembered sending that message when Theo became an Elite Rank Expert and met Jormungand for the first time. "Why would you mention it?"


    "I have seen everything, including how you killed people to create the current utopia."


    The God of Mischief snorted, annoyed. To think the world would remind him of what happened so long ago.


    "I have already received that answer." Loki snorted. "You better go away or I''ll be seriously pissed off."


    "I''m nothing but the world itself. It''s not my ce to intervene�� I shall watch how the creatures I loved will survive."


    After giving that message, the world disappeared. Loki looked to the left and muttered in a low voice, "Loved, eh?"


    The God of Mischief remembered what happened in the past. Destroying the kingdom of gods to create the current utopia called Earth. And the answer to his question was that he would always be forever remembered as the bad guy who started the end of the world.


    "I was and will be the ruthless guy who massacred those gods and goddesses. I was and will be the bad guy because I joined the higher being''s cause and started the end earlier so that everything didn''t go ording to their way and the people wouldn''t be wiped outpletely.


    "I wonder what you will choose at that time, Theo. Will you save the world and go down with the infamy? Or will you save yourself and let those billions of people die? You won''t be a hero when you save them as you will walk the path of a viin, and you won''t be a bad guy if you let them die as no one can curse you." The God of Mischief''s expression darkened as he stated with the belief in his heart. "Surpass me, my Joker. Let me see the answer that can surpass mine."


    The God of Mischief waited for a moment until it was the right time for him to release Theo from the illusion, showing that he was already restraining Theo on the ground.


    "I guess I''ll be giving you a passing mark for realizing it." The God of Mischief smiled as soon as Theo returned to the real ce.


    He then exined the illusion itself and asked, "What do you think about the illusion?"


    "Hu��" Theo let out a long sigh, recalling everything that happened in that battle. He contemted for a moment and said, "It''s dangerous. The moment you wonder if you are in reality or an illusion, you have already lost."


    The God of Mischief smirked. "That''s good enough for now."


    Theo took a few deep breaths to calm himself as he said, "This is surprising. To think that you can replicate all my abilities, your personality, and even that conversation.


    "To be honest, if your illusion is just me suddenly entering another space, I''ll instantly recognize the illusion. If you show me my family in that ce, I''ll realize something like that. But you don''t��


    "Instead of showing a change of space, you are using this space and even expanding it to create your own realm�� or so I say that you expand it because you want me to believe that we''re still in the same space, so the fight looks more real," Theo exined his understanding in the previous fight.


    At the same time, he gradually stood up to get a more rxing position when talking.


    "It seems that you have understood a lot. However, don''t expect me to exin how my illusion works because you will get the answer to your own illusion. That answer will be different from mine. So, keep searching for that answer." The God of Mischief smiled.


    "I know. I still remember when you told me not to follow you." Theo nodded in understanding. However, he felt something stuck in his mind. "Still, you promise me that you will try to answer everything that I want to know, right?"


    "Yes, but I''ll remain silent if I think the answer will harm you instead."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression as he raised a question. "There is one question that hasn''t been answered in my mind."

 Chapter 1355 Lokis True Strength

    Chapter 1355 Loki''s True Strength����"There is one question that hasn''t been answered in my mind." Theo frowned, contemting. No matter how hard he worked, he still couldn''t find the answer. Ultimately, he asked, "How do you know what kind of power I have? I mean, it''s true that you have been watching over me this whole time, but I''m pretty sure that you can also use this power against someone else. This power can only work if you know them inside out."


    A smile appeared when Loki heard that question.


    "I have been waiting for that question." He walked to Theo and said, "What are the three rules I asked you to follow in the past?"


    Theo nodded with a solemn face. "First, I need to know my and the other party''s purposes. Second, I need to be known by many. Third, don''t lie."


    "What do you think is the hardest?" The God of Mischief asked.


    "The first one," Theo answered without hesitation. "No one knows what you''re thinking. You can only direct their thoughts in a certain direction, but that''s all."


    "Certainly. Then, how about telling me the reason why I give you those reasons?"


    "Well, I''ll answer from the third one since that''s the first thing I can do. I don''t need to lie because I am basically projecting reality. No, I might need to change my sentence a bit�� It''s not that I can''t lie, it''s that everything I say wille to reality, so it means I don''t lie."


    "As expected from someone recognized by the Reality Order." The God of Mischief was satisfied with this answer.


    "Then, to be known by many. If they know me with that set of personalities, I can simply fool them enough, depending on how I want to act. Like what you have shown me earlier�� by using that personality and identity of yours, you made me believe that the world intervened. Whether it was the truth or not, you and the world were the only ones to know."


    The God of Mischief smirked. "The world interfered earlier."


    "I can''t believe you." Theo shrugged.


    "You can''t believe me? Not don''t believe me?" The God of Mischief chuckled and asked, "Then, what about the first one?"


    Theo fell silent for a moment. He previously had an answer, but it felt that the answer wasn''t enough. So, he changed his answer into a question.


    "The purpose itself is not solely rted to their intention, right?!" Theo smirked. "Their purpose is rted to everything! At first, I thought that their purpose meant what they wanted, but I realized it wasn''t all the answers.


    "Just by raising their hand, you need to know about their purpose in raising their hand. They can release a skill, channel their Magic Power or something else. Even when they''re breathing, you need to know that the purpose of breathing is to keep them alive. And if it''s a set of breathing techniques, you know that they''re trying to recover some of their Magic Power. In other words, purposes meant the intention of everything, whether their goal or the intention of their actions!" Theo exined. "This is the best answer I can give you."


    The God of Mischief smiled and said, "To be honest, you have surpassed my imagination. It seems that I won''t be bored for a while. Alright, you''ve passed! I''ll tell you how to know their purposes!"


    Loki closed his eyes as he raised two fingers and ced them in front of his eyelids. Suddenly, two white lights shone on the tip of his fingers as Loki said, "Close your eyes."


    Theo followed the instruction and closed his eyes.


    "The conversation with the world earlier is the truth. The reason why I know about many things is because I have seen them from the world itself. But have you thought about this, Theo? What''s the second thing I give to you?"


    "The second thing?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, trying to recall that moment. "Assuming that the first one is a new life with that clone�� That means the second one is�� the eyes that can see the skill''s upgrade requirement, which Iter know to be the Reality Eyes. Wait a sec!"


    "Correct." The God of Mischief smiled as he gently ced his fingers on Theo''s eyelids and said, "I snatched that Reality Eyes, thepleted one�� have you forgotten about the words that I said back then?"


    Theo remembered that particr scene when Theo learned about the higher dimension for the first time. Loki said back then that when his body and soul were ready, he would give him another opportunity to upgrade those eyes.


    At first, he thought that the world upgraded his eyes as that kind of opportunity, but the God of Mischief truly wanted to give that opportunity himself, not the world.


    After all, what he snatched were theplete Reality Eyes. The world could upgrade it, but the other half was still in Loki. And the reason why Loki could see through him this whole time was due to these eyes.


    While realizing the entire situation, Theo felt the warmthing into his eyes as if they were nourishing his current eyes.


    "Your body and soul are ready now. It''s the time for you to wield theplete Reality Eyes."


    The God of Mischief gently moved away so that Theo could open his eyes.


    Theo gradually raised his eyelids as he showed hisplete Reality Eyes for the first time.


    Before, the Reality Eyes had a small circle in the middle and from that circle emerged four lines, creating a "+" symbol on his eyes. Now that the God of Mischief had handed thest part of the Reality Eyes, a cross symbol was added to the pattern.


    The God of Mischief offered him the best smile. "Congrattions foring this far. But this is the time we part ways. As thest reward, I''ll allow you to look at me."


    Theo was confused for a moment, but he soon found the real ability of the Reality Eyes. The power system itself was created by the Reality Order in the center, so this time, he could finally see Loki''s real status for the first time.


    Name: Loki Laufeyson


    Status: Singrity


    Level: 1023


    EXP: 101,222,977/ ???


    Blessing: Laufey


    Skill: Clone (S), Hallucination Solidification (A), Illusion Reflection (S), Mind Image (A), Metamorphosis (S), Omni-Phantasm (S), Soul Mirage (S), World Re-creation (???)


    Attributes: Strength 2233, Endurance 700, Agility 1700, Vitality 1283, Magic Power 5210


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    There were many questions in Theo''s mind, but one thing shocked him the most. It was his status.


    "You��" Theo opened his mouth, but the God of Mischief waved his hand at him as Theo''s vision gradually became nk, and his consciousness was expelled from that ce.

 Chapter 1356 Return

    Chapter 1356 Return����Theo gradually opened his eyes as his consciousness returned to reality.


    He still had that one big question.


    ''Singrity��The rank above Mythical��'' Theo muttered inwardly. ''Is it because he''s the cause of the Ragnarok that he can finally surpass that level? I don''t think anyone in this world has reached that level yet, and leveling up to that rank is tedious and extremely dangerous. Just like how I need three days just of killing Supreme Rank Monsters, I might need weeks to just level up one time. After all, Mythical Rank Monster is more scarcepared to Supreme Rank Monsters.''


    Theo understood the difficulty in reaching Singrity Rank.


    After opening his eyes, he could see a series of notifications like what usually happened during his breakthrough.


    [Level+1]


    [Free Attribute Points +50]


    Mission: Last Lesson.


    Description: Be a Mythical Rank Expert and fight the God of Mischief to gain his approval.


    Reward: World Re-Creation (A)


    Skill: World Re-Creation (A)


    Effect: Bing the absolute creator of the illusion, giving a little authority to govern a part of thews of physics inside the illusion.


    S Rank Unlock Requirement: Upgrade the Order to the Authority.


    ??? Rank Unlock Requirement: Unknown


    ''As expected, it''s still too much for me to wield this power.'' Theo smiled as he immediately reced Illusion Maniption with this skill since it was more useful.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 751


    EXP: 0/20,111,950


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(A), World Re-creation (A)


    Attributes: Strength 900, Endurance 680, Agility 672, Vitality 680, Magic Power 1300


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Theo immediately distributed the free attribute points ording to his need as he looked at this status.


    ''Still, I have fought many Mythical Rank Monsters�� Though all of them are only Normal ss since I can''t fight a Rare ss Mythical Rank Monster yet. But with this status, I shouldn''t have a problem defeating them. I need to adjust my power as well and adapt to the characteristics of the Mythical Rank.


    ''And I do need to know how the heck the God of Mischief can get all that status�� They are simply too much. 5000 points for Magic Power and over 2000 points for Strength? The other three are beyond me too. How many artifacts and herbs had he ingested when he was alive to be that strong?'' Theo thought.


    Instead of checking Coline and Chris, Theo decided to check the difference between the Supreme Rank and the Mythical Rank himself.


    He tried to raise his hand and found something unexpected. "So this is��"


    The Magic Power around his hand suddenly started swirling around him as if he was loved by the Magic Power.


    ''No, instead of getting loved by Magic Power, it seems that my body bes the Magic Power itself. So, the Magic Power from the air actuallyes to me to mix together. That''s why the Mythical Rank Expert can utilize the power of the environment since they have be the environment themselves.


    ''This is the secret of the Mythical Rank. I think I can understand the difference between ranks. From Normal Rank to Elite Rank, your body is baptized by the Magic Power so that you can be a true fighter. Then from Elite Rank to Champion Rank, the Magic Power has baptized you again so that your body can reach the limit of a normal person.


    ''When you reach the Hero Rank, your body has surpassed the limit of a human. And when you be a Supreme Rank, the Magic Power envelops your body so that you will be loved by the Magic Power. That''s why your body will start excluding the Magic Power naturally, and your eyes can finally see the Magic Power easily.


    ''And when you reach this stage, your body has be one with nature, allowing you to borrow the power of nature. But��''


    There was one big question in Theo''s mind. ''What''s about Singrity?''


    What did the world do? What was the behavior of the Magic Power when they reached that rank?


    Theo couldn''t imagine what kind of phenomenon would appear when someone became a Singrity. Still, the name itself was already overbearing, so Theo knew that whatever the power came from that rank, it would be too overpowered.


    Theo had finished checking the difference, so he just needed to adjust himself with this power. And it would take time because he needed to find a form that worked for him the best.


    After confirming his condition, Theo raised his head and tried to find Coline and Chris.


    Chris was standing in front of the entrance while Coline was a bit deeper inside, fighting against all monsters. Chris was continuously ying his piano to support Coline, but they looked slightly exhausted. It was probably because he was away for a while.


    But before he made them aware that he had already woken up, Theo took a sneak peek at their status with this new Reality Eyes.


    Name: Christopher Grant


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 783


    EXP: 20,900,555/25,120,700


    Blessing: Dinu Lipatti


    Skill: Air Strike (B), Force Rhythm (A), Increase Agility (B), Increase Dexterity (B), Music Piece Creation (B), Music Piece Empowerment (A), Sound Marite (A), Sound Wave Maniption (A), Soundworld (A), Wind Fall (B)


    Attributes: Strength 799, Endurance 599, Agility 1199, Vitality 699, Magic Power 1099


    Free Attribute Points: 72


    Name: Coline Laffitte


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 811


    EXP: 6,433,100/27,111,950


    Blessing: God of Food


    Skill: Culinary Magic (A), Culinary Master (A), Cross sh (B), Enhanced Butcher (A), Food Empowerment (B), Phoenix Fire (A), Preservation (B), Taste Maniption (B), X-Ray Vision (C), Z-Footsteps (B)


    Attributes: Strength 1510, Endurance 580, Agility 1239, Vitality 449, Magic Power 501


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''Chris seems to be obsessed with the number ''99,'' but whatever�� Coline''s strength is also good, and it''s true that she has the potential to be the best chef in the world. I should support her soon.'' Theo smiled. After taking a peek at their status, Theo smiled and opened his mouth, calling them.

 Chapter 1357 Finish

    Chapter 1357 Finish����*Pant!* Coline took a deep breath as she stepped back while looking at the numerous monsters that had yet to stoping. As Theo said, he truly attracted so many monsters.


    At first, she underestimated him since when she became a Mythical Rank Expert, she hadn''t experienced something like this. But the more abnormal Theo was, the better their condition would be.


    Theo was their leader and the future, so they hoped Theo could be as strong as possible. And if Theo could really be one of the top ten experts in the world, they would be known to be Theo''s assistants that helped Theo reach that point. Their prestige would increase tremendously.


    At the same time, Ergene and Rea had grown so much due to Theo''s assistance. Even Ruth seemed to be able to get the power that could allow her to reach the rank of the top one hundred people in the world.


    Just by staying by Theo''s side, they might be even stronger. Instead of being disgusted, they would take pride in Theo''s strangeness.


    "Still, I truly want one more person to help me. It''ll make my job easier." Coline sighed while looking at the monsters. Their strength wasn''t that much since she was a Mythical Rank Expert, and they were Supreme Rank Monsters, but the number was still too overwhelming.


    She had a hard time fending them off.


    After regaining her breath, Coline raised a long knife that was used to cut a tuna and covered it with Magic Power.


    A few monsters charged at her as if they didn''t care about injuries as long as they could slip past her.


    "Enhanced Butcher," Coline muttered in a low voice as she stepped forward.


    But this was the time she felt something wrong in this ce as the Magic Power fluctuated.


    "!!!" Coline widened her eyes when she saw the ground suddenly expand in both directions, making her and the monsters keep moving away despite running toward each other. "Huh?!"


    When she was stunned, a figure appeared before her as the expansion was nullified, causing the monsters and her to stumble to the ground.


    The man that appeared earlier cut down all the monsters near him in an instant by using multiple des from the ground.


    "Huh?" Coline was dumbstruck as this was the person that she had been protecting this whole time. Even Chris didn''t expect to see him suddenly arrive and cause this much damage in an instant.


    "Joker (Theo)." Chris and Coline called him at the same time. Coline added immediately as the surprise was truly too much earlier. "Oops, wrong name."


    Despite Chris'' bold actions, he still maintained his calm all the time and wouldn''t give away any information. This was also why Theo never thought about recing him despite his attitude.


    Coline, on the other hand, had exhausted herself, so he just forgot about the slip-up.


    "Sorry. It was longer than I expected." Theo smiled.


    "It was about three hours," Chris exined.


    "For real? I felt like it was less than an hour�� Well, whatever. Let''s move away from this ce." Theo nodded and snapped his finger.


    In an instant, a huge wall came out of the ground and blocked the entrance, blinding the monsters behind.


    ''Still, I could expand the illusion, but it seems that I have limited control over the illusion. As expected, the World Re-creation needs to reach the S Rank if not higher to fully utilize its power," Theo thought while looking at Chris and Coline, extending his hand.


    Chris and Coline understood this gesture and grabbed his hands as Theo used his Blink to teleport them to a higher floor before going back to the surface.


    On the way, Coline approached him. "Congrattions for reaching the Mythical Rank."


    "Thank you. Though, I still can''t really use the special characteristic since I''m not used to it."


    "It took me a year to master it, but since it''s you we''re talking about, two months should suffice." Coline nodded, assuring Theo.


    "Well, I''ll just see whether I have enough time or not." Theo thought for a moment and said, "That''s right. I''m telling both of you this�� I''m not nning to leave the mansion until the time is ready. Hence, I''d like to ask you guys to do something for me."


    "Please tell us." Coline nodded.


    "Chris. I want you to go to Akbar to make thest preparations needed. I''m sure that you already know this, but in two months, I''m nning to go back to Italy and confront the Griffith Family there. I''ll give you a letterter, so please ry it to Akbar.


    "As for Coline, I want you to tell our people to make preparations to move to another country. Well, Maya can''t go with us, and Millie should be safer in this ce. If we consider Aisha''s college�� Never mind, I will bring Aisha there, and she can go back after that."


    "Why do you want me to inform them? Shouldn''t Rea do the job?"


    "She''s probably leveling up right now, so I don''t know if she''s there or not."


    "When we go back, I''ll tell you whether you should do it or not." Theo nodded, assuring her. If Rea was in the mansion, he would certainly ask her to visit all of their people.


    "Okay." Coline acknowledged the order and added, "Then, I should also prepare a wedding cake, right?"


    "Wedding cake?" Theo was stunned for a moment.


    "I see. If that''s the case, I need to train myself in ying the wedding march piece." Chris nodded in understanding.


    "Aren''t you guys moving too fast?" Theo''s eyebrows twitched. "It''s just an engagement for now. I need to do some stuff before I can prepare for marriage��"


    "I see. Light and romantic music then�� I''ll note it down first." Chris corrected himself.


    "A banquet." Coline also followed Chris and corrected herself.


    Theo could only look at them before rolling his eyes away, never expecting that these two would make a big of it.


    "Anyway, we should go back right now so that I have more time to adjust myself."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1358 Preparation

    Chapter 1358 Preparation����A few dayster.


    Theo finally returned to the mansion as he found Rea opening the gate personally as if she was aware of his return.


    "Hmm?" Theo also noticed from the Magic Power around her body that she had be a Mythical Rank Expert. And it was reinforced by the status that was visible from his Reality Eyes. "It seems that you have be a Mythical Rank Expert too."


    "Of course." Rea nodded. "I didn''t need that much level, so I could finish before you even if I startedter than you."


    "Yeah, yeah." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, what''s the situation?"


    "Felix hasn''t returned. The rest are preparing for the battle in two months. Though, I don''t know who you will bring this time, so I''m waiting for your order. As for the Walker, he has gotten thends. All you need to do is give an inspection before buying thend."


    "Got it."


    "Still, I''m wondering if we''re going to move together or not. After all, if we move to Italy, it''ll cause a huge disruption. It''s clear that you''re showing that you are Theodore Griffith." Rea exined her worry.


    "Don''t worry. I have been preparing for that one." Theo smiled. "Why do you think I maintain a rtionship with the beggars? And there is my clone and Akbar."


    "Huh? Beggars, your clone, and Akbar?" Rea looked down, contemting for a moment. It took her a minute to understand Theo''s n. "You can''t be��"


    "Haha. Anyway, I have made some preparations." Theo smiled. "As for our personnel, except for Millie and Maya, everyone will go. Also, Phyrill and Ellen will go to Russia, so arrange their trip. Millie will stick to Maya so her protection can be guaranteed."


    "Are you going to bring Millie to Italy?"


    "Felix will answer that question, not me." Theo shook his head. "Also, I want you to contact one more person."


    "Who?"


    "Your father."


    "��" Rea sighed. "Well, I expected this. My father wanted to thank you for making me grow like this. So, he agreed�� Still, it would also affect his reputation and cause a few diplomatic issues. Hence, he has one condition."


    "And that is?"


    "He wants you to visit Japan one year from now and fight him. By that time, you shouldn''t be that busy anymore, right?" Rea asked.


    "Well, I don''t know what our enemy is nning to do. So, I can''t guarantee that I can visit Japan. But I promise that I''ll go there after finishing all my business. How''s that?"


    "I''ll ry your message to my father." Rea was aware that the reason why her father invited Theo to Japan was simply because he wanted to reinforce the rtionship between them. Since she was studying under him, it would have a huge impact on the media to know that Theo and the Sword Saint had a good rtionship.


    "Okay, thank you." Theo nodded with a smile. "If there''s nothing else, I''ll return to my room."


    "There is one more thing." Rea reported, "It seems that the Skyward is moving big this time. They''re inviting all kinds of media to make sure everyone in the world sees this."


    "I don''t care. The problem is their protection."


    "Don''t worry. The Mota Family will take care of them together with the police."


    "Good enough. Is there a movement from all superpower countries?"


    "Not at the moment, they want to see who Theodore Griffith is before making their move, I think." Rea thought for a moment and continued, "And I''m sure that your life will be in danger if they know that your clone can even use that kind of power�� Imagine if you be a top ten expert, you can be counted as two�� There''s not a single country that has two experts of that level. And basically, as long as your main body is alive, the other can revive again and again."


    "That''s why my debut this time is when I have gained enough strength to protect myself. Unless they bring top ten experts against me, they can''t bring me down. If they want to use schemes, they''ll face me and the War Saint at the same time. If they send those in the top ten�� I have a connection with the Wind Emperor, the Sword Saint, and the Time God�� Unless they''re prepared to see another incident like the Death Reaper, they''ll be cautious for a while.


    "By the time they have made enough preparation��" Theo stopped at that part, but his meaning was clear.


    The preparation would take a long time since they needed to wait for the Wind Emperor to die and stop the Sword Saint from interfering. As for the Time God, no one could predict him, so they needed to watch out for him.


    Hence, the preparation would take at least one to two years before they were ready. And no one could really kill Theo since Theo was equal to two King ss Monsters. Unless they sent multiple top one hundred experts, Theo wouldn''t die. But then again, there was still the pope and Leonardo in Italy as well as his father, Ray Griffith.


    In other words, Theo had been preparing everything for his reemergence that would shake the world. And he would propose to the most beautiful woman when he reappeared.


    It was surely going to be the scene that no one could forget.


    Rea already knew how scary Theo was, but this was still too much even for her. She smiled and said, "I wish you luck."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled and waved his hand as he walked back to his room.


    As soon as he reached his bed, Theo sat in a lotus pose and recalled a few memories of the past. The memory of his bad childhood, the danger called the Griffith Family that had been looming around, and his separation from Agata for three years.


    Theo remembered everything and continued to move forward. And the chance to regain everything wasing soon.


    Theo''s expression darkened as a small smile appeared on his face as though he had gained hope. He muttered with a determined tone. "Just a bit more�� I''ll regain everything. Just you wait, Griffith Family."

 Chapter 1359 Last Training

    Chapter 1359 Last Training����In his training, Theo learned three major powers. The first was rted to his Reality Eyes.


    After seeing other people''s status, Theo had been experimenting with his Reality Eyes to see what they looked like. To his surprise, not only the skills, but he could also see their description, allowing him to grasp their power.


    And when he took a closer look at the skill''s description, he realized that Theo''s power was beyond his imagination.


    The Order itself could affect him, his surroundings, and the people around him, including his enemies. That was why when he looked at them, he could see the upgrade requirement of their skill.


    In other words, Theo found out that every skill could be upgraded. The system itself had existed from the beginning. The only reason why no one ever did it was that they never realized such a system existed. If they knew that they could sacrifice some skills to upgrade their power, they would have done so.


    Unfortunately for him, it seemed that he had been mistaken about it. After learning from the Order itself, he realized that this power was given to him through the Reality Order residing in his Reality Eyes.


    In other words, if one wanted to rank up their skill, they needed the help of the Reality Order''s owner.


    At the same time, ranking up people''s skills would take a lot of resources. Although he could do business with it, the power bnce would tip over, causing another bloodbath and, in the worst case, the disruption of the Order.


    Even if Theo could do it easily and be the wealthiest person in the world through this road, he chose not to upgrade people''s rank for those reasons.


    Still, he would surely upgrade someone''s skill from time to time, but that was when he felt indebted to them, not because they simply bought his service.


    Then, the second power he managed to master was the special characteristic of the Mythical Rank.


    He kept using his power to learn the flow of Magic Power, understanding the mechanism of this special characteristic.


    Due to his body bing one with nature, the Magic Power in the air gathered around him, supplying half of the Magic Power needed to use his skill. So, if he supplied all the Magic Power, the power would be doubled.


    That was why he had a hard time producing an attack at Mythical Rank''s level.


    People thought Theo could produce such an attack, but his power was only equal to the attack with only half of the power, not the full power of a Mythical Rank Expert. It showed that Mythical Rank Expert was a realm that no ordinary person could enter.


    The same applied to Rea, who had worked hard to master this power. She even trained together with Theo so that she could learn faster.


    Last but not least, the third power was the Future Eyes, thest stage of Awareness.


    Due to the ability of theplete Reality Eyes, Theo could see the flow of Magic Power before the skill was used.


    When Rea tried to channel her Magic Power to summon a mythical beast, Theo could already see what kind of beast she would summon.


    And before the mythical beast attacked him, he could see the attack pattern. Although it was only for a split second, it seemed that his eyes allowed him to see 0.5 seconds into the future.


    Although it wasn''t much, Theo''s illusion ability allowed him to create such a thing with his illusion. As long as he continued practicing this ability, using the ''World Re-Creation'' at Loki''s level wouldn''t be just a dream.


    He didn''t know whether this vision came from the Future Vision or the Reality Eyes, though. Nheless, it gave him this ability.


    Theo used those two months to prepare for everything while watching the movement from all parties in the world, making sure that no one would interrupt his n.


    And a week before their nned trip, Felix finally returned to the mansion.


    Theo personally weed him since it had been six months. Even Millie hugged her dad as soon as she saw him.


    Felix looked like a beggar with dirt covering his clothes and a foul odoring out of his body. But Felix''s appearance became even fiercer that Theo could feel a different kind of power in his body.


    Isaac dropped his jaw to the ground because he saw a simr Magic Power leaking from Felix''s body. It was the same white-colored Magic Power that he saw from the stone in Antis.


    "This is�� This is��" Isaac wanted to say many things, but all the words stuck in his throat. He simply couldn''t believe it. But because Felix only attained his Order for less than six months, his Magic Power hadn''tpletely turned white yet. Even so, this alone was already a huge matter.


    Felix and Theo looked at each other for a while.


    Theo was the first to open his mouth as he said with a wide grin on his face, proud of Felix. "Congrattions, Felix."


    Felix politely bowed his head to him as he said solemnly. "Fortunately, I didn''t disappoint you."


    ��


    While all of them were preparing for the confrontation between Theo and the Griffith Family, they were not aware that there was a person who escaped everyone''s attention.


    It was none other than Theo''s clone.


    Because Italy had be everyone''s attention, it would be hard to sneak into Italy without any preparation. But Theo''s intention wasn''t Italy itself.


    His original destination was the mountain where he once met the Lightning Saint, so he could bypass everything by traveling through the other side.


    "I''m finally here again." Theo smiled as he looked at the mountain that was showered by lightning.


    Suddenly, he found a King ss Monster approaching him and even politely bowed to him. "It''s been a while."


    "Yes, it''s truly been a while." Theo smiled as he said, "I''m preparing to meet the Lightning Saint."


    "There will be ten trials."


    "I know." Theo smiled. "My only wish�� I think you already know it."


    He smiled and politely stepped back as if giving Theo the ce and time to challenge the trials.


    Theo stomped the ground and dered loudly, "I, Theodore Griffith, challenge the lightning trials to meet the Lightning Queen!"

 Chapter 1360 Rechallenging the Trial

    Chapter 1360 Rechallenging the Trial����"I, Theodore Griffith, challenge the lightning trials to meet the Lightning Queen!"


    Theo took a deep breath since it had been a while for him to challenge this trial. He remembered that the trial''s difficulty would be adjusted depending on their strength, so he expected the lightning to be reinforced by Order.


    "If I remember correctly, the first and the second tforms require me to avoid all lightning strikes, the third and the fourth tforms want me to receive the lightning with my body, and the fifth and sixth tforms want me to challenge three lightning strikes. Last but not least, I need to go through that cloud for thest trial, right?" Theo asked the Thunder King for confirmation.


    "You are certainly correct. Do you need any preparation?"


    "No, Let''s do it immediately." Theo smirked while stretching his body.


    "Very well. Please go to the first tform." The Thunder King nodded and guided Theo to the first tform.


    Theo smirked and looked at the cloud that was ready to rain him down with lightning. But this time, Theo had gotten far stronger.


    "For this one, I don''t think I''ll move�� No, let''s see if the trial can make me move." Theo smirked.


    It was a bold statement for the Thunder King, but Theo truly had confidence in dodging the lightning.


    After standing on top of the tform, Theo raised his head and smirked. "Come!"


    The first lightning came forth. The speed was like that of a bullet, and if Theo wasn''t careful enough, he would have gotten hit from the first strike.


    But Theo simply closed his eyes and snapped his fingers.


    Attribute Removal.


    In an instant, the Lightning dispersed, turning back into Magic Power. Then, Theo''s Telekinesis swept the Magic Power, neutralizing this attack. In other words, there was no need to dodge if the lightning couldn''t even harm him.


    The Thunder King widened his eyes in shock as he never expected that Theo could remove the lightning with a single snap.


    ''What? He has be this strong in just three years?'' The Thunder King narrowed his eyes, assessing the lightning strike. ''The lightning contains the trace of Order, so to remove it, he needs to utilize his Order too. It seems that his attainment in Order is not that weak.''


    The Thunder King was thoroughly impressed by Theo''s rapid progress.


    Even if the Order remained, Theo had be a Mythical Rank Expert now. He could continuously pour his energy into maintaining the Attribute Removal. In other words, his Order was simply bullying these lightning strikes.


    Theo smirked all the time as he remained still in his position. He only snapped his fingers every time the lightning came forth.


    "Hehe��" Theo chuckled and passed the first test in just two minutes. In the end, he moved to the second tform and faced the same challenge but with more speed and more lightning strikes.


    Nevertheless, none of them worked against Theo. He nonchntly looked at the cloud and even showed a bored expression.


    The Thunder King made a wry smile as he didn''t see this kind of sceneing.


    Eventually, the Thunder King came to him and said, "Well, the first and second trials won''t be challenging to you, but in the third and fourth tform, it''s basically to test your willpower. So, removing them like this won''t be valid."


    "I know. Don''t worry. I''m nning to meet her, so I''m not going to pull any tricks." Theo smiled.


    "I understand." After getting Theo''s confirmation, the Thunder King leaped off the mountain and kept watching him.


    As soon as Theopleted the second trial, he moved to the third trial.


    "Willpower, eh?" Theo smiled and just sat down, not caring much about the strength of the lightning. All he needed to know was the fact that the lightning itself wasn''t harmful. They just induced pain. As long as one could withstand the pain and didn''t pass out, they would remain alive.


    Hence, Theo just closed his eyes and waited for the lightning to strike him.


    *Bam!*


    The first lightning came forth and struck him right on top of his head. The electricity enveloped Theo''s body. If he was a normal person, he would have screamed in pain because the pain felt as if someone was poking his body with numerous nails.


    Still, Theo remained unmoved. There wasn''t even a single sounding out of his mouth as if he didn''t feel this lightning sting at all.


    Instead of pain, he felt bored. He was even yawning andined, "How many more lightning do I have to endure?"


    "Do you want to give up?" The Thunder King asked while checking Theo''s condition.


    "No, it''s not that. The pain feels like an ant biting my skin." Theo shook his head, "So, if possible, I want to finish the trial as soon as possible."


    "Well��" The Thunder King certainly didn''t know what he should say about Theo''sint. After all, Theo looked like a monster in his perspective. "You can only wait. You have been separated for three years, so I can understand that you''re missing her. But a few more minutes is nothingpared to three years, right?"


    "That''s true." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "I''ll be waiting then."


    Theo continued to endure the lightning without letting out a single sound. Eventually, he cleared the third tform and moved up to the fourth tform. And he cleared it as well.


    Finally, Theo had reached the fifth tform to test his might. Back then, he fought with all his strength against this lightning, so he wondered how much power he needed to utilize against the three bolts of lightning.


    Theo took a deep breath and looked at the lightning cloud, steeling his heart.


    Since he wanted to test this lightning strike, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian first and shot it to the sky as the first move.


    It was a surprise that Theo sent his attack before the lightning came forth, but the cloud seemed to be alive and epted his challenge.


    Theo smirked as the battle between him and this lightning had begun.

 Chapter 1361 The One Who Administered the Challenge

    Chapter 1361 The One Who Administered the Challenge����The lightning contained a huge amount of Magic Power as well as the Lightning Order, so even Theo wouldn''t be able to contain it that easily. At the same time, removing the Order meant that he would be removing the trial itself since it was the test of might.


    Hence, Theo nned to use all his strength against this lightning without removing any of it.


    As soon as the Irregr Guardian in the spear form struck the lightning, it caused a huge shock wave that dispersed the lightning.


    At the tip of the spear, there was actually a concentrated Magic Power that Theo gathered with the help of Enhanced Concentration Capacity. Although Theo wanted to use that Magic Power to prate the lightning and disperse it, the lightning looked alive. Even if he dispersed it, the lightning would just fuse again after they slipped past the Irregr Guardian.


    Hence, the Magic Power dispersed them to the point they couldn''t join together anymore.


    With the addition of Theo''s high amount of Magic Power, the lightning was dispersedpletely.


    "Good." Theo smirked. "Let''s do it once more, shall we?"


    Theo picked up the Irregr Guardian that fell after the first strike and poured more Magic Power into it. Not only the Enhanced Concentration Capacity, but Theo was also using his Muscle Enhancement to produce a far stronger throw.


    "Hu��" Theo took a deep breath and threw the spear once again.


    The lightning cloud responded by sending another lightning that contained an even stronger Order.


    This time, when they shed, the lightning Order was chipping away the Magic Power. In Theo''s eyes, the Lightning Order seemed to be electrocuting the Magic Power, causing them to be burned into nothing.


    "Ho?" Theo was impressed as the lightning finally won against Theo''s Irregr Guardian. However, the power remaining in that lightning was minuscule.


    Theo simply used his Telekinesis to disperse the residual lightning, passing the second lightning strike.


    Finally, thest lightning strike for the fifth tform appeared. This time, the lightning actually formed a beam.


    Instead of prating power, the lightning seemed to focus on the raw strength.


    Feeling challenged, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian again and channeled his Magic Power to the tip of the spear.


    With the Enhanced Concentration Capacity alone, Theo wouldn''t be able to go against this lightning. Hence, he added Energy st into the spear, allowing him to cause a huge explosion to disperse most of the lightning energy.


    Instead of throwing it, Theo leaped and challenged the lightning personally.


    "Haha,e!" Theo smirked and flew to the sky with his Telekinesis and thrust his spear, hitting the lightning beam.


    When the spear pierced the lightning beam, thetter was actually durable enough to contain the thrust.


    Eventually, the middle part tilted to the inside and the rest continued moving forward, causing Theo to be surrounded by the lightning beam from all directions.


    Only after Theo was enveloped by lightning that the middle part popped out, allowing Theo topletely enter the lightning beam.


    *Bam!*


    A huge thunderous roar reverberated, causing a powerful shock wave that startled the monsters nearby.


    But even with that kind of lightning, Theo was still intact.


    "Huh?" The Thunder King widened his eyes in shock when he witnessed Theoing out of the lightning unscathed. "There''s not even a single wound on his body. Wait, what''s that?"


    The Thunder King saw something like snake scales covering Theo''s body. It confused him for a while, but he soon understood that it was probably Theo''s power.


    Theo smirked and felt almost nothing when he was enveloped by the lightning beam.


    "It seems that I have leveled up this Supernatural Snake Body. It doesn''t hurt anymore." Theo smirked, remembering the time when he always used the Supernatural Snake Body to withstand the force of using his full speed.


    With that kind of pressure shredding his body, the Supernatural Snake Body progressed by leaps and bounds. And now, even if he used his full speed, the air friction wouldn''t be able to tear his body apart.


    And this lightning had a slightly lower power from the air friction, so Theo didn''t feel anything from thest hit.


    "It seems that my skin is now as strong as steel. But then again, unlike my Future Vision and Perfect Control, I haven''t been able to learn the other three Aspects that much. I need to focus on my Breathing, Endurance, and Technique after this�� Then again, I have created a Divine Technique. Although it''s not perfected yet, I can im that I have reached the highest level of Technique�� I guess?


    "Or should I only im that I have mastered Technique when I can create an ability as strong as the World Re-Creation? The skill whose grade was beyond S Rank��" Theo smirked. "Either way, it''s time to challenge thest three bolts of lightning. I can think of itter."


    Afternding on the tform, Theo immediately headed to the sixth tform. Unfortunately, the sixth tform was simr to the fifth tform. Theo could destroy everything with the help of Death Avatar, Muscle Enhancement, Telekinesis, Enhanced Concentration Capacity, and Energy st.


    There wasn''t even a need to utilize his Ascension Step to challenge the lightning.


    But everything changed when he stepped on thest tform.


    When Theo reached thest tform and looked at the lightning cloud that he needed to go through in order to finish the trial, Theo actually smiled and provoked it again. But this time, he already knew the culprit who made this trial hard for him.


    And that was also the reason why he had been acting a bit arrogant instead of his usual humble self.


    He smirked. "I know you''re there, Ava. Let''s see if you can stop me or not."


    As soon as Theo leaped into the air, the cloud suddenly opened, revealing the bright sunlight. However, there was a figure falling in the middle of the hole. She had covered her ws with lightning and prepared to take on the challenger.


    But both of them actually smiled at each other as they said the same thing. "It''s been a while."

 Chapter 1362 Reunion

    Chapter 1362 Reunion����"I''ve been working hard for thest three years, you know." Ava smirked. She was in her battle form, so she looked a bit menacing. Even so, in Theo''s eyes, she always looked like a kid in her cute form.


    "Let me see how much you have improved��" Theo smirked. "Let''s settle this in one blow, shall we?"


    Theo was already aware that Ava was the one administering the trials this whole time. After all, his Reality Eyes picked on Ava and the Lightning Saint''s status behind the cloud.


    Knowing that the lightning contained Order instead of Authority, Theo knew that Ava was the one giving the trials.


    Hence, the two partners finally met once again after their separation three years ago.


    Theo used his Alter Ego, boosted his strength to the limit, and covered his fist with the Energy st


    Meanwhile, Ava utilized the seven lightning balls that revolved behind her. This moon constetion power had always been Ava''s biggest trump card that differentiated her from any other monsters.


    Now that she could congest all seven lightning balls and be a King ss Monster, Ava finally surpassed Avarice.


    And she put everything into this one attack to show her partner how much she had grown in the past three years.


    The seven lightning balls revolved crazily as they began hovering around her cute paw, acting like it was a bracelet.


    The lightning sparked even further to the point it caused a powerful shock wave. The sheer might alone doubled the size of the hole.


    Theo and Ava smiled at each other as they finally struck forth.


    The Energy st caused a huge explosion and dispersed the lightning around Ava''s ws. But the seven lightning balls continuously provided an insane amount of lightning power, causing Ava to slightly burn Theo''s hand with that power.


    Luckily, the Supernatural Snake Body covered Theo''s hand and prevented any damage from the lightning. Although the protection would only be for a while, it was enough for Theo to show the true might of strength with more than 4000 points.


    Alter Ego, Strength.


    The insane amount of force in that fist was finally released when the lightning around her w finally disappeared.


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes in shock because her paw was hurt just by touching Theo''s fist as if all that power directly went through her hand. If this continued, her arm might get ripped apart.


    Still, she didn''t want to lose against Theo. She showed her willpower by using all her strength to withstand that punch.


    "Haaaa!" Ava shouted and pushed Theo, albeit no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t beat the absolute power.


    "Kh!" Ava gritted her teeth as the force finallyunched her to the sky.


    Theo knew that he would injure Ava if he continued, so he stopped at thest second and released all the shock waves produced by that strength to just blow her away. This way, Ava wouldn''t be injured at all. She would just be thrown back to the sky.


    "Tsk." Ava clicked her tongue while floating in the air. Her form returned to her small form as she gradually fell down. "As expected, he''s still so strong. I can''t defeat him after all this��"


    But her movement suddenly stopped as if she fell on top of a soft mattress. A gentle voice soon reverberated in her ears.


    "Still, you have grown a lot stronger, partner."


    Ava turned to the right and saw Theo catching her with his palms as he floated on top of the lightning cloud, looking at her with a gentle gaze.


    Even Ava wanted to cry at this moment because she was missing Theo.


    "Theo!" Ava leaped to Theo''s face and covered his face as if she was hugging him.


    "Haha, you''re too excited." Theo chuckled but didn''t push her away.


    However, an aged voice soon interrupted their reunion as a dragon flew toward them.


    "It seems that you have be a lot stronger, Theodore Griffith." The Lightning Saint smiled.


    Theo''s eyes were still covered by Ava''s body, but Theo maintained his calm face and turned to the dragon, saying, "Yes. I hope that I didn''t disappoint you, Lightning Saint."


    "Haha, your progress alone is enough for me to see that you can protect her just fine. I don''t have any issue if you want to bring her there. But you need to ensure that no human captures her because I know they''d like to dissect her."


    "I''ll protect her with my life." Theo smiled. "And thank you for taking care of Ava this whole time."


    "I had my fun too. This child is bright and smart, so it''s quite exciting to teach her. Well, you can go have fun for ten to twenty years. At the very least, I can still live for a few decades�� After having your fun, I hope that she can return here to prepare to take my mantle."


    "I understand. She will keep getting stronger from now on, and by the time she returns, she''ll surely be a great person."


    "Haha, I''m looking forward to it."


    "Still, I''d like to inform you that I''ll be setting up my base in Italy, so we''ll most likely meet each other from time to time."


    "I see. At the very least, there will be another person to help me to maintain the Orders here. I hope that you can help me to the best of your ability."


    "Certainly. Also, Ava�� Shouldn''t you get off right now?" Theo sighed.


    "Haha, this child asked me about you every day when I didn''t even know about your information. Nheless, she was happy to know you were alive when the Frost Saint visited my territory." The dragon chuckled.


    "Is that so?" Theo smiled.


    "Well, I don''t want to interrupt your reunion. I just want to tell you one thing." The dragon''s tone became serious. Your power is a double-edged sword from the looks of it. It''s good if you can handle it, but don''t limit it to yourself�� Why don''t you give your opponent a weapon too? But one with only a single edge that will always face them?"


    Theo fell silent for a moment and nodded politely as if he understood his advice. "Thank you very much, Lightning Saint."


    "It''s just friendly advice. You should go now."


    "I understand. Then please excuse us." Theo then used his Telekinesis to descend, albeit with Ava still covering his face.

 Chapter 1363 No

    Chapter 1363 No����"This is the biggest moment of the life of Agata Mota, the woman known to be the most beautiful person in the world."


    "The son of the Skyward Guardian Master''s Larry Lockens is going to propose to the world''s most beautiful woman."


    There was a lot of news spreading all over Sk. Whether it came from the conventional media or Skytubers who wanted to cover the entire proposal, they spread the word to almost everyone. Even the international media came to Italy specifically to let the world see.


    After all, they were talking about the world''s most beautiful woman. And Larry Lockens was also known to be the son of Airvans Lockens, one of the top experts in the world.


    "Hey guys, I''ve arrived in front of Agata Mota''s house, where Larry Lockens will be proposing to Agata Mota. It''s said that the Skyward Guardian, the number one bodyguard servicepany in the world, will being in full to show their sincerity," said one of the Skytuber while trying to get some space from the people that wanted to see the entire process.


    The presenters from the media had also been talking about the ceremony, waiting for Larry Lockens to arrive.


    "Hah�� I have finally arrived!" Suddenly, a female Skytuber reached this ce and immediately started her stream. "Hello, guys! Myan-Myan is back! I am now in Italy, specifically in front of Agata Mota''s house."


    Skylord669: Myan-Myan is online now! Let''s go!"


    BreadToast: We''ve been waiting for you.


    AvocadoNotToast: I was surprised when you said that you wanted to stream this proposal.


    "Hehehe!" Myan-Myan smiled and said, "Well, I did get insider information. That''s the reason for me to be here! As for the insider information, I won''t say it because you all will find a big surprise! I guarantee it!"


    Muumuu55: A big surprise? What''s that? Don''t leave us there!


    Seki: That''s right. Still, it''s such a shame to leave Agata Mota to that jinx.


    Ryuun: True! Larry Lockens was known to be a yboy. Just because his papa was a big guy, he pressured her to marry him. We demand justice!


    Myan-Myan smirked but didn''t see anything. She was just looking at the number of viewers that continued rising.


    With a total of fifty media and more than a hundred Skytubers, the total number of people who were witnessing this proposal had surpassed two hundred million people. It was truly one of the biggest moments in the world. Though, most of them were just throwing a tomato at Larry Lockens because they couldn''t believe that Agata would end up with a jinx.


    Theymented the fact that no one would stop him.


    Little did they know, the strong people who wanted Agata as well had to stop because of pressure from the Griffith Family. They simply didn''t know what happened behind the scenes.


    Myan-Myan nced at the mansion, where seven people suddenly came out of the mansion with serious expressions.


    "There they are!" Myan-Myan immediately got excited when she saw Agata along with six Mythical Rank Expertsing out of their house. They stopped in the garden but were still present for everyone to see. "Agata Mota has finallye out!"


    Skylord669: She''s so beautiful! Why does she end up with that yboy? The world is unfair.


    BonkLord: Sorry, this time�� it seems that the horniness is taking over!


    Sytwardxxx: Even the bonk lord has agreed to this, this is so heartbreaking! To think such a beautiful woman needs to end up with a freaking bastard! We need to free her!


    Myan-Myan also felt inferior to Agata, but she didn''t say anything about her. She said, "Still, it seems that they''re getting ready to receive their guests. We can only wait for this to happen."


    EnteiL: Noooo�� A goddess will fall from Heaven.


    LemonJeruk: This is torture. Why must you hurt us this way?


    SwordCultivator: Myan-Myan. We''re waiting for the big surprise. Please tell us! We can''t wait anymore.


    "Haha, you guys must be dying for everything to happen, but I can assure you that something good will happen." Myan-Myan chuckled.


    As she said those words, a cheer erupted from the side as Myan-Myan hurriedly turned her camera to the cheer, finding a convoy with police escorting them.


    It was clear that the convoy was the people from the Skyward Guardian. They had truly made this a huge ceremony as if they wanted the attention of the whole world.


    Unbeknownst to them, the one who made the big deal of it was Agata. She was the one that wanted all people to see everything.


    As the convoy became closer and closer to Agata''s house, the people started getting agitated because they could only see the beautiful woman being tortured for the rest of her life after this.


    Still, the moment the convoy arrived at the door of Agata''s house, they still admired the power of the Skyward Guardian. Theirpany had guarded many important people in the world, so their reputation was huge.


    In addition, the first person toe out of the vehicle was none other than a middle-aged man that everyone knew, Airvans Lockens.


    "There he is, Airvans Lockens!"


    "With him here, there''s no way Agata can refuse the proposal."


    "I remember that they''re nning to give a private ind as well as many gifts with a total of ten billion Zils. Only apany at their level can pour so much with just a dowry."


    "Look! The main star hase out!"


    "Tsk."


    "Don''t click your tongue."


    All people''s attention was directed to the blond-haired maning out of the car. Behind him, there were neen Mythical Rank Experts escorting him to the gate.


    Before going, he politely bowed to his father and said, "I am ready, Father."


    Airvans nodded with a serious expression and turned to the gate where he could see Agata''s Father, Boris.


    "Boris. As I promise you, I have brought my son here so that he can ask for your daughter''s hand in marriage. With me here is the deed of the private ind owned by our Skyward Guardian Company as well as many gifts from all around the world." Airvans smiled while squinting his eyes.


    With that deration, the young man smiled and dered out loud with the help of his Magic Power. "Agata! I have promised you that I''lle back in six months to propose to you. You are and will always be the only woman in my heart."


    He took out a small box containing a ring as he came to her with bended knees. "I promise that I''ll make you the happiest woman in the world. Will you marry me?"


    The world felt like they remained still for a moment as they had already known Agata''s answer. They just pitied her.


    Contrary to their pity, Agata was actually smiling at Larry as if she was ready to ept their marriage happily. However, the word that came out of her mouth couldn''t be more different. There was only a single wording out of her mouth, and she made sure that everyone could hear it.


    And that word was��


    "No."

 Chapter 1364 Lost

    Chapter 1364Lost


    In another ce, thirty Mythical Rank Experts were running toward Agata''s house as if they were expecting to ambush them.


    However, an old man in front raised his hand and abruptly stopped, sensing someone here. "I know you are there, Leonardo."


    They were in the middle of a in that was located between the teleportation gate and Agata''s house, so their fight here wouldn''t involve anyone.


    And Leonardo gradually walked toward them with a smile on his face. He looked at the muscr old man before him and said, "It''s truly been a while, Mason. Why did youe here?"


    "You always came to wreak havoc in my Griffith Family. Don''t you think karma is real?" Mason, Theo''s other grandfather, smiled while releasing his blue-colored Magic Power. "Besides, do you n to stop us alone?"


    "Hoho��" Leonardo stomped the ground lightly before sixteen lights appeared on the ground. Sixteen chess pieces appeared from the ground with each of them having the size of ten times of a normal human. "I have prepared for that, Mason."


    Mason smirked, still looking down on Leonardo. "You need double that number to stop us here. Besides, you are not strong enough to stop me."


    "In that case, how about me?" A gentle voice suddenly entered everyone''s ears as a light suddenly cut down the soil, creating a long line that separated Leonardo and the Griffith Family. A middle-aged mannded next to Leonardo with a sword in his hand. "What if I want to stop you, Mason-san? Oops, do you prefer I call you Mr. Mason?"


    "There''s no grudge between us, Nagasawa!" Mason narrowed his eyes. "But the fact that you are here means�� Joker is Theodore Griffith."


    Nagasawa Ken, Rea''s father, smiled and said, "I feel indebted to Theo for taking care of my daughter. So, I''ll tell you that the one who crosses this line shall be cut by me."


    Mason narrowed his eyes and said to the experts he had brought here. "Half of you stop Leonardo and the rest will go to our destination. I''ll stop the Sword Saint here."


    "So, you choose to fight��" The Sword Saint also released his Magic Power, ready to make his move.


    "Even if you are here, don''t forget that there are only two of you here. You don''t have enough members to stop us." Mason snorted.


    "Oh, you don''t need to worry about that. We''re not alone." Leonardo smirked.


    Four people suddenlynded behind Leonardo. All of them were already old because they were Leonardo''s peers in the past. One of them also had seen Theo personally as he was thementator in the Grand Gaia Competition, the Ice Emperor.


    "Thank you foring here, my friends." Leonardo smiled.


    "Haha, you have helped us in everything from strategy to the resource to reach the Mythical Rank and never asked anything back. We are excited to finally hear our friend ask us for help since we can finally repay you before we die!" The Ice Emperorughed out loud as he was also excited to finally fight together with Leonardo again.


    "It''s not eno��" Mason wanted to remind him again, but he soon felt numerous presenceing from the side.


    Suddenly, a total of ten Mythical Rank Experts appeared with the one leading them spreading a blue-colored Magic Power like Mason.


    "If they''re not enough, we''ll be the one closing that gap��"


    Mason gritted his teeth and red at the blue-haired man. "Ray!"


    "It''s been a while, Father. Unfortunately, you have to die here." Despite calling him ''Father,'' Ray''s expression was extremely cold as if he was looking at a dead man. There was no more love between them anymore. "You have truly put us through hell�� So, this time, we shall be the one to send you to hell!"


    "Hahahaha!" Masonughed even though he was surrounded by two Kings and one Saint without any help. He said, "As expected, the one who made this n was you, Valerie. Still, to think you dare to step into this country. Even if you can stop me here, do you think Theo will ept you back? You''ve killed that child!"


    Valerie bit her lips and clenched her fists while Ray stepped forward and stated, "What we have done is unforgivable. However, we only have ourselves to me for not having enough strength to oppose the Griffith Family. That''s why even if he hates me and wants to kill me in the future, I''ll give him my head�� but after I see you dead."


    "What a strong word, Ray. Then, let''s see whether you all can stop me here or not!" Mason released all his Magic Power, spreading an intense amount of Magic Power to the area.


    ��


    Another battle was also about to start in another country. But contrary to this battle, the battle that was about to explode was a different kind of battle where the winner and the loser had been determined.


    In the Empress'' Pce, Alea was sitting on the ground with two swords in front of her as if she was channeling her power into her sword.


    However, she soon heard Ana''s voice informing her.


    "Alea. Your friend hase here."


    "Huh?" Alea was confused, looking at Ana with a confused look.


    But her heart skipped a beat when she saw Ellen standing behind Ana. Her expression was filled with sadness as she had to break the news to her best friend.


    "Alea." Ellen greeted her with a weak nod.


    "Why are you here?" Alea still didn''t know what was happening.


    "Phyrill has joined an elite group, and I''m here to help him to finish the mission."


    "Mission? The mission for what?" Alea tilted her head in confusion.


    Ellen took out her Skylink and opened the Myan-Myan''s stream.


    Ana, who was smarter than Alea, immediately understood the reason. Her face became pale as she covered her mouth in shock. "You don''t mean��"


    Alea took a bit more time to finally understand the meaning of Myan-Myan''s stream. All the color on her face disappeared.


    Her horrified expression made Ellen bite her lips, but the answer was clear.


    Tears already came out of Alea''s eyes. There were no words exchanged between them, but all of them knew what they wanted to say.


    Alea had lost.

 Chapter 1365 Yes

    Chapter 1365Yes


    Italy.


    "No."


    *Hiss!*


    The world was stunned for a second as they just couldn''t believe what they heard.


    "What?"


    "Did she just reject him?"


    The people were dumbfounded because they didn''t expect this kind of answer. There were already so many people watching the entire process, yet, even with those many eyes, Agata still rejected him.


    It was the same as her deration to the whole world. The embarrassment and insult were unimaginable for the Skyward Guardian.


    "You��" Larry was in shock as his body started convulsing due to the embarrassment alone.


    "Isn''t this inappropriate?" Airvans stepped forward, staring at Boris and Agata with a frown.


    Suddenly, Walker stepped forward as if he was protecting them.


    "Hmm? If I''m not wrong, you are Walker whatevershit. If you rejected my son just because of him, I need to warn you that you are treading in a dangerous zone." Airvans squinted his eyes, pressuring them.


    "No, you have promised me!" Out of desperation, Larry took out his Skylink and showed a video of Agata.


    In that video, Agata said with a smile. "Hmm�� Well, I do love to have someone propose to me exactly six months from now."


    That was the reason why Larry had waited for so long because she had told him to propose�� or so he thought.


    Even the people thought the same since it was clear that Agata was talking to Larry, and no one seemed to be close enough to Agata to propose to her. So, the rejection was truly unjustified. This made Agata look like an evil woman that just wanted to break people''s hearts.


    However, Agata asked, "Yes. I indeed said that�� but I never said I wanted you to propose to me."


    "Huh?" Larry was stunned by her reply.


    "Lady, are you going to y with us today? If that''s the case��" Airvans wanted to warn Agata again, but he abruptly stopped as if he realized something.


    Out of desperation, Larry shouted, "You! I have prepared many gifts and even a private ind for you! Do you think you can reject me in front of these people without any reason? You will be condemned by the entire world!"


    "I do have a reason." Agata smiled calmly as if everything was under her control. "After all, I have someone that will propose to me today."


    "That''s me. That''s why I am here!"


    "No, it''s not you. As I said in that video, I have someone�� And that someone is not you." Agata shook her head.


    "Not me? Then who?" Larry gritted her teeth.


    "That is me of course." A hand suddenly grabbed Larry''s head and mmed it to the ground.


    "Huh?!" The people looked at them as if they didn''t expect Theo to appear among them. They almost forgot the fact that Theo could teleport.


    "You�� You are Joker!" The people were stunned as they didn''t expect that everyone would see this kind of figure appear in this proposal.


    Theo smiled and snapped his fingers.


    Suddenly, a red carpet appeared on the ground as if they were there to greet him. Theo''s clothes suddenly turned into a white shirt and long pants. The white tuxedo appeared to cover his shirt.


    After that, Agata''s clothes also turned into a white dress that matched Theo''s white suit. Her hair also changed as if someone had styled it perfectly. However, everyone could see that it was just an illusion.


    Joker was the one casting that illusion so that the two of them could look more handsome and beautiful.


    Even Myan-Myan was stunned as she involuntarily muttered, "So beautiful."


    The balloons appeared, giving a festive mood to this whole proposal. The flowers grew as if they came out just to greet their love.


    "Is this how an illusionist proposes?"


    "I somehow want to be an illusionist if I can be this romantic."


    The people didn''t realize that they had been entranced by the illusion. However, none of them actuallyined. Agata was the most beautiful woman in the world, while Joker was the most talented man in the younger generation. They truly matched each other.


    The soothing but cheerful melody filled the atmosphere as Jeff was ying on the side while waiting for their turn to appear.


    Theo smiled when looking at the woman he loved so much.


    "Three years. Due to my circumstances, we needed to be separated for three whole years��" Theo gradually walked to Agata while he recounted everything that happened in the past. "I had to leave the woman I love for three years.


    "During that time, I couldn''t even show my face to the public. But for three years, you kept encouraging me, and that made me able to continue fighting so that one day we can reunite once again.


    "And the time has finallye��" Theo gradually took off his mask, showing his scarred face. However, that face soon disappeared as if it was getting peeled off. His hair and eyes gradually changed to the blue color they were familiar with, revealing his true identity.


    Theodore Griffith had returned.


    Three years ago, the world thought he had died because he fell into the Dark Poison Swamp. But three yearster, he returned to this ce with Joker''s identity on his back. The man who was known to be the most talented person in the world.


    Theo had shown them that for the woman he loved, he kept fighting and fighting until he reached the top. No matter how hard the battle was, he fought and won every battle just to finally return home and propose to the woman he missed so much.


    Even Agata couldn''t hold back her tears of happiness as the wait was finally over. She could finally reunite with her man in the open without having to hide anything anymore.


    She covered her mouth with her hands as she had the urge to just hug him.


    Theo smiled and took out the small box that was supposed to contain twin rings. He had put on one of them, leaving only the other pair inside the box.


    He bent on one knee and raised the ring. "The time has finallye�� the time for me to show myself and ask you��


    "Will you marry me?"


    With a big smile on her face, Agata answered.


    "Yes."

 Chapter 1366 Brother

    Chapter 1366Brother


    "Yes."


    That answer shook the whole world. Whether they were present or watching from behind the screen, they were stunned to find this revtion.


    Theo had been dropping one bomb after another. From his true identity to his proposal to Agata, everything was creating a huge panic.


    "Hey that��"


    "Look at that ring!"


    "Isn''t that��"


    It seemed that some of the people, especially from the media, recognized the ring that Theo tried to put on Agata.


    "Isn''t that the twin rings, the Dusk and Dawn Rings? Now that I see it closely, the one that Theo has is the Dawn Ring, while the one he puts on Agata is the Dusk Ring."


    "That''s right. If I''m not wrong, there seems to be a piece of information about it being auctioned at 22 billion."


    "For real? He''s using that amount of money to propose to her?"


    "The ring alone is 22 billion. It''s more than twice the amount of the dowry that the Skyward Guardian brought with them. Damn, can I be the bride instead?"


    "But that''s not all, the Dusk and Dawn Ring are the best couple rings because of their special features."


    "So, the man is the most talented man in the world, the woman is the most beautiful woman in the world, and their wedding rings are the best couple rings in the world?"


    "That''s��"


    The people were impressed by the sheer amount of dedication Theo had put in. If he chose that kind of ring for their wedding rings, it was clear that he didn''t mind spending his entire fortune if it would make Agata happy.


    At the same time, Agata wasn''t the one who livedvishly. It was clear when she was the one taking care of thepany and never really used thepany''s money to buy anything too expensive for herself.


    It could be said that the best couple had been born as if Heaven had matched them personally.


    From his appearance to the proposal, the people from the Skyward Guardian should be able to stop them. However, Theo managed to stall for time by dropping those bombs, so by the time they realized, everything had ended.


    Still, such an attempt wouldn''t work against the Skyward Guardian''s leader, Airvans Lockens. As a top one hundred rank expert in the world, if he couldn''t do anything to stop Theo, he wouldn''t be credible enough to protect anyone since the enemies could simply stall him for a while until they killed the person he protected.


    That was why there was one more secret to Theo''s n.


    When Airvans tried to pressure Boris and Agata earlier, he abruptly stopped as if he realized something.


    It turned out he indeed realized something. It was an intense gazeing from behind him. With just sensing that amount of Magic Power, it was clear that the Magic Power let out a portion of Order, showing that the one who watched him was also among the top.


    But when he tried to pry further, he realized that the one who was staring at him wasn''t a human but a rabbit.


    That rabbit was simply standing behind the wall, so no one found her. She was staring at Airvans with her bloodshot eyes. The gaze was so intense that Airvans could understand the meaning of that stare alone.


    ''If you move, you''re dead.''


    Airvans had to prepare for everything because he realized that the rabbit behind him was actually a King ss Monster.


    ''Does he have a King ss Monster under him? Now that I think about it, he should have had a rabbit following him when he was in this country�� Don''t tell me that rabbit is��'' Airvans'' body trembled, finally seeing the monstrosity of Theo''s talent.


    However, that peace was broken by the desperate Larry who had already fallen into despair. He screamed while taking out his sword. "You bastard! If not because of you!"


    "Not good!" Airvans clicked his tongue and hurriedly leaped to his son because he saw Theo taking out his weapon. Theo was a Mythical Rank Expert and his son was just a Supreme Rank, so if those two shed, his son would be murdered in a split second. He didn''t care much about his son, but it would be bad if he was cut in two just because of his carelessness.


    As soon as Airvans reached him, he pushed his son back while forming a shield made of water to stop Theo''s de. He even released his blue Magic Power, showing that he was serious about taking him on.


    However, that shield soon moved to the side as a rabbit appeared from the side, kicking his water shield as if kicking a solid surface.


    And from that kick, purple lightning came out and a purple Magic Power leaked out, showing that the rabbit had the same power as Airvans.


    More importantly, the kick had so much power that it blew Airvans away.


    "Protect the young master!" A green-haired guy immediately ordered the rest of the Skyward Guardian''s personnel and surrounded Larry to make sure no harm came to him.


    This would look like Theo fighting against the Skyward Guardian by himself, but Theo also had his own people that appeared as soon as the conflict broke out.


    "Well, isn''t this fun?"


    "You want to fight our leader? Sorry, you are not worthy."


    "Since it has be like this, it seems that a war is inevitable."


    Nine people suddenly appeared behind Theo as Walker stepped forward, bing the tenth member.


    "They are��"


    "Wait. She is Nagasawa Rea. She is supposed to be Joker''s helper�� So, that means Joker is truly Theodore Griffith?"


    The people instantly recognized Rea and confirmed that Joker was indeed Theodore Griffith. After all, Rea had always been vocal in every matter about Joker.


    The shock shook the masses because all of them were Mythical Rank Experts. Even when he was hiding, Theo was still recruiting Mythical Rank Experts.


    However, there was one man who had been expecting all this. In fact, he was proud that everyone finally recognized him anymore.


    He was the one who used his ability to send all those nine people to Theo''s side. Not wanting to steal the spotlight, he had been hiding behind a wall while listening to their reaction.


    There was only one person in Italy that Theo knew who possessed the Space Element. He was none other than Lorenzo Guerrero.


    A smile appeared on his face as he finally walked away without anyone noticing him. He closed his eyes and wished Theo the best. "It''s your time to shine and�� Congrattions, my brother."

 Chapter 1367 Overwhelming Strength

    Chapter 1367Overwhelming Strength


    "This is��" The people were shocked because the tension suddenly came.


    More surprisingly, they saw a rabbit with another color of Magic Power.


    "Hey�� Don''t you need to train super hard even if you are a Mythical Rank if you want to have a different color of Magic Power?"


    "It''s said that you need to train yourself to the extreme to even reach that point."


    "But�� How in the world can that rabbit do the same?"


    "Is he a summoner too? Isn''t he already an illusionist?"


    "When he was in the US, wasn''t he a Magic Warrior?"


    "Still, that rabbit should be the same rabbit that he had when he lived here, right?"


    Airvans, who managed to recover, immediately came in between them and spread his arms as if trying to stop Theo from attacking them. At the same time, he confirmed Ava''s real identity.


    "Impossible�� That rabbit�� is a King ss Monster." Airvans gritted his teeth.


    When everyone heard it, they dropped their jaws to the ground. Even the people on Theo''s side weren''t aware of Ava''s real identity. In fact, this was the first time they met Ava in person.


    "What? A King ss Monster?"


    "Theodore Griffith has summoned a King ss Monster?"


    "The first King ss Monster to follow someone?"


    "Impossible."


    The people were stunned. Even the world''s strongest summoner only had General ss Monster to fight for him. And that was already shocking enough because he could stay above Leonardo''s chess pieces.


    So, it was clear what it meant to have a King ss Monster under you.


    Ava didn''t care about their reaction. She instead focused on preparing herself to fight by transforming into her humanoid form while ring at Airvans.


    Instead of focusing on them, Theo turned around and looked at Boris and the others. "I apologize for this conflict, but��"


    Boris smiled and said, "Don''t worry. We''ll surely y our parts. But are you sure you can do this? They have twenty Mythical Rank Experts."


    "Don''t worry. I can handle them." Theo smiled.


    "Kh. This is the second time I taste the easy life of having a good son-inw." Boris clenched his fist.


    "Alright. Go first. The more you stay here, the longer we have to settle the problem." Agata sighed and pushed her father while asking the others to follow the part as well.


    In the end, everyone from the Mota Family moved to the people so that they could protect them.


    "That''s the Mota Family!"


    "Agata is here as well?"


    "Is the fight going to break out?"


    "A fight involving thirty Mythical Rank Experts? Not good. We''re going to get dragged into this fight."


    "We need to hurry up and run away!"


    The people started panicking, realizing that their life was in danger. Some strong people like Myan-Myan stayed in the area. They just moved to a safer spot while trying to capture the fight between these two colossal groups.


    But in the midst of panic, there was one more person staring at Agata as if he was aiming for her life.


    A smile appeared from that person as he ran toward Agata together with the panicked people. When he was one step away from her, that person stopped and channeled all his energy into his fists.


    "What?!"


    "Not good!"


    "Watch out Agata!"


    Boris and the others realized that by bringing Agata here, they had exposed Agata to danger. They didn''t think much because Theo was the one suggesting this n, but Theo might be outyed by them for the first time.


    Unexpectedly, a smile appeared on Agata''s face despite facing this danger. "As expected of my husband�� He has been waiting for you, Mind Elder�� No, Eric Griffith."


    "!!!" The disguised man''s body trembled for a moment before a purple-colored Magic Power erupted from his body.


    At the same time, an ant that stood on top of Agata''s shoulder suddenly transformed into Theo and released a golden Magic Power, stunning everyone.


    Both of them were pointing at each other''s hands for a while as a huge shock wave shook the area, blowing away the dust and everything light from the area.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "What''s this?"


    "There''s another Theo?"


    "But he has a golden Magic Power."


    "That man also has purple Magic Power."


    "What''s going on?"


    The people stopped for a moment to see what was happening to them. They never expected that Theo would appear again next to Agata even though his body was already in front of Airvans.


    They almost forgot the reason why people feared Theo was his clone. They always had to count Theo as two people. But there was one more thing they had to consider after this.


    Eric Griffith obviously recognized it as he sucked a cold breath. "You�� I can''t see through whether you are a clone or the real one�� But there is one thing clear to my eyes�� Both you and your clone can use this power?"


    This statement would only confuse normal people, but those high ranking people in countries were different. They would understand the meaning of his words.


    Theo''s clone could also use Order, meaning that Theo would be counted as two Kings. If he continued to grow, the bnce would be tipped over by having a genuine Authority Level Figure and an immortal Authority Level Figure that Theo could summon again and again. And this was why Theo told them that it would be more dangerous after this because countries would seriously go after his head as soon as they were aware of Theo''s information.


    "I have been waiting for you. In fact, It''s time for us to settle this debt." Theo looked at the Mind Elder coldly.


    "A brat like you should respect your elder." The Mind Elder snorted.


    "An elder who wanted to brainwash me when I was a kid?" Theo snorted.


    The two squinted their eyes as both of them released all their Magic Power, splitting the air into two different colors.


    "Well, isn''t this going to be troublesome?" Airvans gritted his teeth, looking at Theo and Ava.


    "Assuming that the leader will be taken care of and the vice leader to be given to Walker, won''t it mean there are eighteen people left for nine of us? Since we''re supposed to be the one taking care of most of them�� the rest of them should get one, right?" Ruth smirked as she walked forward together with Felix.


    "Yes. With them taking seven of the enemies, there are only eleven people left. I take care of six of them, and you handle the remaining five." Felix nodded calmly.


    "What did you say?" Ruth''s eyebrows twitched as both of them released their Magic Power at the same time, revealing Ruth''s green Magic Power and Felix''s white Magic Power.


    This was the strength of Theo''s elite group.

 Chapter 1368 Unexpected Appearance

    Chapter 1368Unexpected Appearance


    "A King ss Monster, two transcendent Mythical Rank Experts, and a master at the same level but has a clone with the same power�� Are you kidding me��" Airvans trembled as he finally saw the trump card that Theo had been holding up until now.


    Unlike the ways monsters talk, humans also had their own terms in calling Kings and Saints. For them, those who had surpassed the limit of Mythical Rank Expert and gained absolute power were called transcendent.


    Still, Airvans only had neen Mythical Rank Experts and two transcendent experts to fight Theo''s group. Although they were lesser in number, it was clear that Theo could overwhelm them easily. After all, Theo only had to kill Airvans by joining hands with Ava. With those two overwhelming powers, they could turn around the situation easily.


    Ruth and Felix would surely defeat the rest of the Mythical Rank Experts in the meantime.


    In other words, as long as there wasn''t anyone that could stop Theo or Ava personally, the battle would result in a quick defeat.


    "Tsk." Airvans tried to buy some time to think about the solution. They could aim for Agata, but all five Mythical Rank Experts from the Mota Family had circled around Agata, making sure that she wouldn''t be harmed by anyone.


    Theo had truly made an execution zone for him and the Mind Elder with this. Even Eric was shocked and started to think differently in this battle. He could already picture their defeat and thought they should break free from this ce. Theo had truly yed thempletely this time.


    As if thinking the same thing, Airvans and Eric made the same move by jumping to the west. "We''re leaving!"


    The people were stunned because they never expected that Airvans and Eric would choose this action, but seeing their disadvantage, it was clearly a rational decision.


    Without hesitation, the people from the Skyward Guardian followed them to avoid a direct confrontation.


    Eric Griffith, Airvans Lockens, along with the rest of the Skyward Guardian, had to be eliminated in this ce, so Theo and the others chased after them.


    "Don''t let them get away!" Ergene shouted as they immediately left the area.


    "They''re running away!" The people also noticed that the battle had turned into this type of situation and wanted to chase after them to see the conclusion of their battle.


    However, there was a huge screen that stopped them from chasing after Theo and the others.


    The five Mythical Rank Experts from the Mota Family immediately stood in front of the barrier as they were the ones arranging this barrier.


    Boris stepped forward and stated, "I''ll say this. If you follow after them, you''ll die. The fight involving thirty Mythical Rank Experts will surely not be small. So, even if we need to use our force, we shall stop you here."


    Suddenly, a round of police arrived at the area as they stood next to Boris and said the same thing as if everything had been nned. "We''re also asking all people to stop here."


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo kept chasing after Eric and the Skyward Mercenary until they left the city.


    During the escape, Eric Griffith''s instinct was telling him that he was in danger. He thought that he was truly in danger, but he suddenly noticed something significant.


    ''Now that I think about it�� Where are the people that want to chase after us? Although there won''t be any Mythical Rank Experts, they should be popping here and there in the back.


    ''No, wait�� We''re in a in outside the city, and there are no buildings in this direction for at least ten miles��'' Eric Griffith gasped as he looked at Theo. ''Did he n all this? By stopping us in that ce, he assumed that we would be leaving because of the disadvantages��


    ''The reason why they hadn''tunched an attack this whole time was because they wanted us to keep running in this direction so that we couldn''t use the city to escape�� There are many things that we can use if we''re in the city, especially guerri warfare�� but in this in, there are only us.


    ''No way�� did he position himself that way so that he could force us to flee in this direction? In other words, the true killing zone is in this ce?'' Eric Griffith gasped as he saw a smile appearing on Theo''s face.


    "It''s time!" Theo whispered to Ruth.


    "Understood." Ruth smirked as she pointed her hands toward the sky as if she wanted to shoot the sky with her arrow. "By the love of bow, I shall summon thee��"


    A green light suddenly flew to the sky and formed a giant ballista, pointing at the Skyward Mercenary.


    That huge arrow aimed for one of the Mythical Rank Experts as if she was nning to kill him in a single move. This was an attack that had been conjured by her Order, so the impact couldn''t be blocked by a normal Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Airvans!" Eric shouted.


    Airvans clicked his tongue, stopped in his tracks, and turned around. "Water��"


    A bubble of water appeared on top of his head as it turned into a cylinder facing the arrow.


    As soon as the giant arrow was released, it immediately pierced through the water.


    But as one would expect from the sh between two Orders, the arrow was like a beam that shredded everything in its way. Even the water was dispersed by the arrow. But Airvans'' Order was stronger than her.


    The water dispersed Ruth''s Order as well, turning it into a normal arrow. Hence, after a while, the arrow gradually lost its momentum and started to fall straight to the ground.


    "This is��" The Skyward Mercenary was shocked because that arrow was supposed to kill one of them. Because their leader and Eric stopped, they had to do the same, resulting in Theo''s group catching up and surrounding them.


    "He got us." Eric gritted his teeth as his expression darkened, looking at Theo.


    This would be a perfect n until there was someone interfering in their killing zone.


    "!!!" Theo felt the extraordinary powering toward them as he hurriedly turned around and snapped his finger.


    A green smoke that wasing toward them suddenly disappeared as a person emerged from the green smoke. He was none other than the Poison King.


    "It seems that we can fight without you holding back anymore, Joker�� I mean, Theodore Griffith." The Poison King smirked.


    On another battlefield, the same interference happened at the same time.


    Just before the Griffith Family was going to be executed by the Sword Saint, the new Griffith Family, and Leonardo, a yful voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    "Come on. You are fighting like this but not going to invite me."


    "!!!" Everyone turned around and saw a man with blue hair walking toward them.


    "This is a family matter��" Leonardo wanted toin, but he abruptly fell silent because of the shock that struck his heart when he recognized this person.


    Whether it was Mason, Leonardo, Ray, and Valerie, all of them recognized this appearance because he was the reason this war even happened.


    "Theo?"


    The guy made a big smile and yfully said, "Hello guys. I''vee back from death."

 Chapter 1369 Opponents

    Chapter 1369Opponents


    "!!!" Theo suddenly waved his hand, trying to control the poisonous gasing toward them.


    "Hoh?! This is interesting." The Poison King grinned as he felt the forceing from Theo. Unlike the previous time, Theo had now be a full-fledged Mythical Rank Expert. Although he hadn''t found the meaning of his Order yet, the fight would still be different fromst time.


    Theo released his energy and wrapped the poisonous gas. While he was removing the poison attribute, he used his Telekinesis to control the gas and gather them at one single point.


    The Poison King started to get serious too as he tried to corrode Theo''s power with that poison.


    Both of them released all their strength as their green and golden Magic Powers shed.


    "Don''t you think you have some spare strength to ignore me?" The Mind Elder took this opportunity to strike Theo, but the clone used his Blink to appear between them as Clone Theo utilized the Alter Ego and increased his strength to the very limit.


    He punched forward with that amount of strength.


    The Mind Elder felt the hidden power from that fist and immediately stopped since he realized it wouldn''t be wise to fight against this power.


    However, he might have underestimated the sheer might of Theo''s 4000 points of Strength.


    That punch caused a powerful shock wave that struck the Mind Elder,unching him more than two hundred feet away until he crashed to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The people were shocked by the sudden result, but they saw Clone Theo follow the Mind Elder, nning to take their battle to that ce.


    As if having the same intention as Theo, Ava''s bloodshot eyes released an extraordinary killing intent as she released the seven lightning balls and charged them with her lightning. After that, the seven lightning balls released a single bolt of lightning that shot straight to Airvans.


    As expected from someone who had fought with Theo for a long time, Ava knew how to y dirty. When she aimed this attack, she made sure to position herself right in front of Airvans along with his people.


    In other words, if Airvans dodged this attack, the people behind him would be killed. When that happened, Felix and Ruth would help them in finishing the battle quicker. That was why Airvans had no choice other than to take on this attack.


    Airvans clicked his tongue and raised both hands. "H2O in the air, heed mymand."


    The water particles in the air suddenly gathered around him, forming a huge bubble. After that, the bubble started spinning as if there was a tornado inside.


    The tornado seemed to be able to leave the water and struck the lightning beam to repel it.


    Both the lightning and the water shed with each other.


    "Hmm��" Ava squinted her eyes, realizing something different from this water. "I can''t spread my lightning?"


    "You won''t be able to use your electricity against my water." Airvans smirked as he kept neutralizing her power.


    As if understanding Airvans'' power and information, Akbar shouted to Ava. "Pure Water, the water that is a perfect instor�� But that kind of water can''t form in nature, so��"


    "It''s his power, huh." Ava finally understood his power and started thinking about how to counter that power.


    Just like Ava, the others seemed to be taking their own enemies as well.


    Felix and Ruth obviously fought against half of them, considering they were still in apetitive mood.


    But the most important battle was between Walker and the green-haired man, the right hand man of Airvans Lockens.


    Walker smirked when he looked at the green-haired man. "It''s truly been a while since I''ve met these fucking faces�� And now, it''s my turn to annihte your group like what you did to mine a few years ago. You''ll pay for everything you''ve done!"


    The green-haired man snorted and said, "That depends on whether you have the ability to do it or not. Just like in the past, I would humiliate you once again."


    Like how they had intended to do it, Chris was hiding behind Ryo while ring at two Mythical Rank Experts that were supposed to be their opponents. The opponents this time seemed to be twins, so it would make them a bit more unique than any other pairs.


    "Ryo, I''m counting on you��"


    "No harm wille upon you." Ryo nodded as he took out two giant shields.


    "Okay then�� Let''s y, shall we?" Chris smirked as he summoned his piano.


    "We need to handle that pianist first. His sound will surely increase the ability of the people here." The twins instantly recognized Chris as their opponent.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Coline had to fight against their summoners, who seemed capable of summoning ten Rare ss Monsters at once with various abilities.


    "Well, well�� There are many ingredients here." Coline smirked, feeling excited.


    "You will be the prey." The summoner looked down on her as he raised his hand, summoning all ten summoned beasts. Two of them were Mythical Rank Monsters, while the rest were Supreme Rank Monsters.


    On the other hand, Jeff''s opponent was the only female in the group, who seemed to be a knight that usually protected people with her shield.


    "A female knight, huh�� Theo would be angry at me for saying this, but I don''t mind drawing a little bit horny nts for today." Jeff chuckled. "Well, if you want to me someone, me Isaac for poisoning my mind."


    "You dare." The female knight took out both sword and shield, preparing to take Jeff down.


    "Hey, cutie. How about fighting on the bed instead?" Ergene''s opponent seemed to be more vulgar than Jeff as he was licking his lips while checking Ergene''s body.


    "It seems that we''re of the same type��" Ergene took a deep breath. "So, that means I should cut that part first."


    "Oh, scary��" Rea smiled next to her while ring at the one to be her opponent.


    "I''m so unlucky. I''m fighting against the only person that can''t die in this ce�� I don''t want my life to be executed just because I kill the Sword Saint''s daughter�� Such a shame." The Mythical Rank Expert sighed.


    However, he soon heard a dragon''s roar echoing in his ears. When he looked at Rea again, he saw a dragon circling around her.


    "You don''t have to worry about getting executed since you''ll die here." Rea ced her hand on the dragon''s body as if she was stroking a cute pet. "Let''s go, Ryujin."


    Last but not least, Akbar. But unlike the others, Akbar had the least excited face because he was left with the jinx of the Skyward Guardian.


    "Why do I have to end up with you�� Goddamnit." Akbar cursed while feeling jealous of everyone who got better opponents than him.


    "What did you say?" The man felt offended because Akbar was looking down on him. "You are just a mere scout."


    "A mere scout, huh��" Akbar grinned and stepped forward. "Fine. The fact that I got you as my enemy means Heaven wants me to finish this battle as soon as possible."


    "You think a mere scout can defeat the great me?" The guy snorted.


    "Oh, I am indeed a scout, but the thing that I''m looking for is not just any ordinary information or terrain�� It''s��" Akbar smirked as he raised his hand. A golden book suddenly appeared on top of his hand, shining golden light. It even made Akbar''s eyes shine as if getting influenced by that book''s power.


    "What I have been trying to find is��" Akbar smirked as his expression became cold. "��Heaven''s secrets."

 Chapter 1370 Reinforcement

    Chapter 1370 Reinforcement


    While the rest had their own match up, Theo was still thinking something else. He nced at his teammate and looked at the Poison King again.


    His appearance was not natural as if he was here because he already knew that Joker was Theodore Griffith.


    ''How did he know my identity? Even the Griffith Family couldn''t realize who I was��'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''Still, is heing here because he has a grudge against me? There are many questions about his appearances�� I can''t even understand why the Poison King would attack me here��


    ''It''s true that I have shown myself as Joker, but he shouldn''t know that I''vee to this ce. The fact that he knows I''ming here because of my purpose means he knows about my identity. Who has the information about my identity?''


    Theo frowned, having so many questions in his head.


    However, one thing was clear. The Poison King didn''t act alone because he wouldn''t dare toe here in a fight of this level.


    "It seems that you have someone to help you here��" Theo took a deep breath, ring at the Poison King.


    "So what? In the end, I can meet you here. I''ve told you back then that I''ll pay back for what you''ve done there." The Poison King snorted as he started releasing his poison again.


    "Tsk." Theo hurriedly contained that poison as he thought about something. ''If hees here with another person, where is that person? Is he just sending the Poison King to me? No, the fact that he can tame a madman like the Poison King means he has a strength stronger than the Poison King himself. Is there such a person? Is there another Authority that I''m not aware of?''


    Theo questioned himself before realizing what was going on.


    "So, that''s how it is��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "You seem to be the one to chat a lot." The Poison King smirked, trying to use his own spell against him.


    However, Theo ignored him as he took out the Skylink in his pocket.


    "You have the nerve to take out your Skylink while fighting me?" The Poison King started to get angry as he raised both hands. The poisonous gas now changed its shape to that of a rose. The most poisonous rose in history.


    Theo also nned to challenge him, but he had no time for it right now. He clicked his tongue and tried to use his Attribute Removal to slow him down. Meanwhile, he called one of the people on his contact list.


    And that was none other than his grandfather, Leonardo.


    "Oi, oi. You''re contacting me in this kind of battle. Have you finished your battle?"


    Theo ignored his grandfather''s teasing and immediately cut to the chase.


    "Is there something weird there?"


    "Something weird, huh��" Leonardo paused for a moment. "There''s certainly something weird�� You are not sending your clone here, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, there''s another you here�� We believe that he is an impostor, but this guy surely has so much information. Is he your stalker or something? Though, we can''t say that his face is not real as well, considering I don''t feel any face mask or illusion�� So, do you have any ideas? This guy is strong�� His power seems to be able to swallow everything."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock.


    ''Huh? There''s another me there? But my clone is fighting the Mind Elder, so I don''t think there''s another clone appearing on that battlefield. But he knows a lot of information about me��''


    When he was in the middle of confusion, Leonardo dropped a bomb thatpletely shocked Theo.


    "That''s right. He also told us that he''de back from death. What the heck? Anyway, we should be able to maintain the status quo�� Oh, shit�� I can feel another Ordering from the west�� As expected, this guy is not alone. I need to get serious, so bye."


    Leonardo abruptly hung up, but Theo was already too shocked after listening to what he said earlier.


    ''Coming back from death�� Don''t tell me�� But this is not possible. After all��'' Theo fell silent as his mind was in a mess.


    Still, one thing was sure. The n didn''t work ording to their n. With him getting stalled here by the Poison King, the people over there might lose their ground and get annihted.


    At the same time, if he didn''t go there, there would be a chance that Mason woulde to this ce to kill or capture him. Hence, the best option would be to reinforce that side.


    However, he couldn''t leave his ce because the Poison King would rampage in this area. They were already outnumbered, so if the Poison King was free, the situation would be extremely dangerous.


    "You should go." Suddenly, two people''s voices reverberated in his ears. He could feel two people on his back.


    They were Ruth and Felix.


    Ruth nced at Felix and said, "I''ll buy some time against the Poison King. Let''s just say that I admit that your killing speed is faster than mine, so you should kill them as quickly as possible and help me buy more time against the Poison King."


    "It''s time to stop thepetition I guess." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    "You two��" Theo never expected the two would volunteer like this.


    But what startled him was the help of the third party.


    "You should go, Theo."


    "!!!" Theo and the Poison King turned their heads around and saw six people standing next to the battlefield. The one who led them was none other than the current head of the War God Family, Lorenzo''s father, Marzio Guerrero.


    "We''ll be helping here, so you can go there. Your old man doesn''t want me to help him, but he doesn''t tell me not to help you. Since you recognize my son as your brother, then it''s only right for me, your uncle, to help you. s, I could only bring five people with me because of what happened with the Griffith Family''s attack three years ago." Marzio smiled, looking at them.


    Theo was startled, but it seemed that everything had aligned. Although barely, these people should be enough to win against these people.


    He hesitated for three seconds before bowing to Marzio. "Thank you."


    In the instant he thanked Marzio, he disappeared, trying to go to another battlefield. As for Ruth and Felix, Theo had considered them as families.


    And Marzio obviously knew it as well as he said while seeing Theo leaving. "What thank you? There''s no need for thanks because we are a family."

 Chapter 1371 Faker

    Chapter 1371 Faker����"Do you think you can leave?" The Poison King clicked his tongue and immediately spread his poison toward Theo, trying to stop him from leaving.


    However, the poisonous gas suddenly shook as the tip of the poisonous cloud was tilted to the side due to the sudden impact from the side.


    "Huh? My poisonous cloud?" The Poison King was surprised that someone could hit his poison that was supposed to have no physical form.


    When he turned around, he saw Ruth pointing her invisible bow at the poisonous cloud as if she had just shot it down.


    "Don''t even think to prevent him from leaving. Everything has its form and weak point�� Just like you, I''ll shoot your poison down." Ruth stated as her eyes glowed as if she could see the form of the poisonous cloud, treating it like a living creature. She finally took the first step toward bing the world''s strongest hunter.


    "It seems that I need to kill you here first. As expected, you were the one that shot down my people back then. That''s good. Now that I''ve got the opportunity, I won''t waste it." The Poison King turned to Ruth, nning to overwhelm her.


    Meanwhile, Marzio immediately went to Ergene and said, "Youngdy. It seems that you are the leader of these people��"


    "You can tell?"


    "The strategist should have the ability to discern the leader, no?" Marzio smirked. "I can direct them ording to your wish, but this is a group I''m unfamiliar with, so I''ll be needing yourmand. You will be the general and I''ll be your strategist. What do you think?"


    "You even know that I have a general giving me a blessing?" Ergene was impressed, but at the same time, she expected the current leader of the War God Family to have this kind of ability.


    She suddenly raised her hand and shouted, "I''ll take themand on behalf of our leader."


    The rest of the group only smiled as they recognized Ergene''s ability. Theo had specifically told them that Ergene would always be the second-inmand whenever he wouldn''t be there to lead them personally. Even if Felix was Theo''s right hand man, he would still follow Ergene''s order.


    "Good," Ergene shouted as the opponent before her was stopped by the expert from the War God Family for the time she had to reorganize the group.


    Her eyes had aplete view of the entire battlefield like that of a real general before she called out a name. "Akbar. I need your expertise. Mark each person''s target!"


    "Got it." Akbar acknowledged themand as the book in his hand started getting its pages flipped continuously before many names came out of the books, flying toward the enemies.


    All those names suddenly stuck on top of their heads.


    Marzio was startled that Akbar knew all their names too. After all, the names on top of the enemy''s head were their names.


    "Those are your targets. Felix will kill the rest and join hands with Ruthter." Ergene exined.


    "So, that''s how it is�� To think that my nephew''s group is so reliable�� I can''t lose either." Marzio smiled, feeling excited. A golden light appeared on his left palm before turning into a giantpass. "Let''s do it, shall we? Star Compass."


    "Divination Start! Star Link."


    The goldenpass suddenly released many golden strings and attached themselves to Theo''s group as well as the experts he brought here.


    Suddenly, Marzio waved his fingers a few times.


    "!!!" The people from Theo''s group felt as if they were ordered to move ording to Marzio''s way. Although they didn''t know much about Marzio, he was still the current head of the War God Family, a superpower family known for their strategy.


    They tried to move around ording to the instructions while bringing their opponents with them.


    But to their surprise, they had made a circle with Felix and Akbar in the center.


    "This is��" Ergene was stunned because she realized that Marzio could actually see the whole battlefield far better than her.


    And to everyone''s surprise, Akbar was actually in the middle instead of Chris, who was able to help others with his support ability.


    "Why did you ce me here?" Akbarined to Marzio.


    However, Marzio only smiled and replied, "Doesn''t your fighting style require you to be in that position?"


    Akbar was startled, not expecting Marzio to know his power in their first meeting. "You��"


    "It''s the strategist''s intuition," Marzio added, making sure that Akbar didn''t say anything.


    Akbar couldn''t help but smile. "It seems that the War God Family''s head deserves his reputation."


    "Then, heed mymand. Kill them all." Ergene finally gave the ultimatemand. All of them instantly acknowledged that order as if Theo had given them the order personally.


    ��


    On another battlefield, Theo was fighting against Ray.


    Ray was releasing a huge amount of Magic Power to Theo, trying to rip him apart. But thetter easily absorbed everything as if Ray was pulling his punch.


    "What''s wrong? You don''t want to hurt me, eh, Father?" Theo smirked, looking down on Ray.


    "Who are you?" Ray gritted his teeth. Seeing Theo''s face indeed made him hesitate to fight him because of the trauma that remained in his heart.


    "Who am I? You already know, right? I''m your son, Theodore Griffith." Theo smiled.


    "You��" Ray clenched his fists, trying to stop him from spouting all those lies.


    They pointed their palms at each other. A burst of Magic Power as well as an eruption of ck energy immediately enveloped the area.


    However, a snap soon echoed in everyone''s ears as their power suddenly vanished into thin air. After that, a figure appeared before Theo and kicked him away.


    While getting pushed back, Theo looked at the appearance of the intruder and smirked, "Oh, you''re finally here."


    "What, you?" The one appearing earlier was none other than Theo, who came from another battlefield. He gasped as he finally recognized this person. Even the Reality Eyes showed the same thing, answering all doubts.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 783


    EXP: 1,777,666/23,356,500


    Blessing: Erebus


    Skill: Devour (S), Infinite Darkness (S), Death Vision (A), Darkness Descent (S), Rampaging Darkness (A), Curse Bestowal (A), Superior Undead Body (A), Darkness Possession (A), Soul Poison (A), Bottomless Stomach (A)


    Attributes: Strength 800, Endurance 800, Agility 750, Vitality 730, Magic Power 1700


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    The Theo that no one recognized as the real Theo smirked when he saw what people recognized as Theo.


    How could they not realize each other when they were the exact same person? In other words, the one before him right now was the real Theo that had died in Thernd. Instead of reincarnating, it seemed that he managed to revive himself.


    "Yo�� We finally met." The reincarnated Theo smirked and red at him as if releasing all his pent-up emotion. "Faker."

 Chapter 1372 Impostor

    Chapter 1372 Impostor����"Faker."


    Theo narrowed his eyes, never expecting to fight the original Theo here. "Faker, huh."


    "What? I''m not wrong." The Original Theo smirked. "You are just a mere clone of me. After dying at that ce, I overcame the underworld! But still�� Thanks to you sending the Death Reaper down there, I had the chance to finally revive myself.


    "I should be the one to have all that achievement, but you�� you took away everything even though you are just a mere clone."


    There were many pieces of information in his sentences. It seemed that the Original Theo somehow escaped from the system that Hel created. Still, he knew many Gods of Death other than Hel, so the original Theo seemed to be pretty lucky that he went there instead of anywhere else.


    Although he could consider other underworlds that other Gods created, the Death Reaper died in the US, so the closest underworld to that ce was the one Hel created.


    ''Hmm, Loki''s clone copied the body and the soul, which is the current me. And when I used my clone for the first time, it copied my soul only because the body that I had to copy would soon rot.


    ''That was the real body, and after reviving that body, I could gain possession of the original body. However, there was one thing missing�� It was the original soul that was supposed to have reincarnated. But because of some circumstances, it seemed that he managed to get away from the cycle of reincarnation and got stronger.


    ''Then, when the Death Reaper came, she revived him, probably creating his body. Although I could say that the Death Reaper couldn''t bepared to Hel, it was clear that the Death Reaper was a Death Authority. They had reached the same level.


    ''So, it meant that the Death Reaper could easily create a body and give it to him,pletely reviving him. Now that I think about it, how did he escape from that icy ce? Well, I''m not sure, but it''s clear that the one before me is my original soul with a different body.


    ''And that''s why he had that power�� Devour. He wants to devour me and everything I possess. Something like Devouring Order, huh.'' Theo''s expression became cold as he looked at the Original Theo and said, "To think that the guy who ruined my n was myself."


    "Yourself? Don''t overestimate yourself. You are just a mere clone while I am the original Theodore Griffith." The Original Theo snorted as he looked at Ray and Valerie. "Father, Mother. I am your original son, while he is a mere clone. I hope that you can help me deal with him so that we can mend our rtionship after this."


    "You��" Ray and Valerie were shaken by their conversation. It was clear that the Original Theo didn''t lie about his identity. At the same time, they couldn''t choose either side.


    On the one hand, The Original Theo was the one that Valerie gave birth to, while the current Theo was produced by a clone.


    If they just looked at it roughly, The Original Theo should be the one to be favored. But they hesitated because they had also seen Theo''s progress over the years.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister!" Ne shouted as she struck the Original Theo with a torrential Magic Power.


    "What are you doing, Ne?" The Original Theo narrowed his eyes and took a leap back, avoiding the attack.


    "Fucking bastard." Ne snorted. She had been watching the fight from afar while listening to them through the camera from the people of the new Griffith Family, so she had a good grasp of the situation and decided to join toplete the battle. "Whether you are the original Theo or not, the one I consider as my brother has only been one. And the memory we share together doesn''t lie."


    Ne stood next to the current Theo. There was no hesitation in choosing the side for her because the best memory in her life was together with the current Theo.


    "When did you die?" Ne asked.


    Theo paused for a moment and said, "Before the schoolpetition."


    "The schoolpetition? Before the Grand Gaia Competition then. So, there''s no need to hesitate." Ne smirked. She had spent many times together with the current Theo, so she shouted to Theo''s parents. "If you can''t even choose the side, then leave! It''s the best thing you can do."


    Ray and Valerie truly didn''t know. Unlike Ne, they had no experience with Theo that much, so they couldn''t choose.


    That was why Ne suggested they leave instead of staying here. This would be the battle between the Original and the Clone.


    The Original Theo nced at Ne and said, "Ne. How about getting married?"


    "Huh?" Ne widened her eyes in shock.


    She had always been in love with Theo. This time, the Original Theo wanted to bring her over by marriage. It would certainly make Ne change sides if she was the Ne back from the Grand Gaia Competition that was.


    When Ne heard that suggestion, she raised her middle finger. "Fuck off. You disgust me. The Theo I know is someone who won''t go against his moral values but still wins every battle. Thank you for making it easier for me to hate you. For me, you are the fake one!"


    The Original Theo was startled by this response as ck smoke gradually came out of his body. "So, that''s how it is�� Then, I''ll devour him and be himself. Don''t you think it''s better that way?"


    "You��" Ne gritted her teeth.


    Theo suddenly stopped Ne by cing his hand on Ne''s head.


    "Thank you, Ne." Theo smiled and walked forward, facing the original him. "Let me handle this. As you said, these few years were not a lie."


    "Theo��" Ne''s expression mellowed a bit. Very different from the expression she showed to the Original Theo.


    Theo smiled and looked at his original, saying, "You call me faker, but my body is the original body. Meanwhile, your soul is the original one but your body is a fake. So, what should I call you? Impostor?"


    The Original Theo''s body trembled as he finally let out his killing intent. "You bastard. I''m going to devour you today!"


    "Try it�� Im-pos-tor." Theo smirked, mocking the Original Theo like how he always mocked other people.

 Chapter 1373 Illusion vs Reality (1)

    Chapter 1373 Illusion vs Reality (1)


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo and the Mind Elder were facing each other, undisturbed by anyone else.


    "I have always wanted to kill you," said Clone Theo while ring at the Mind Elder.


    "If only I had put you under my power, we wouldn''t have gone through this shit." The Mind Elder narrowed his eyes. "Either way, I''ll be responsible for killing you. Even if you have be transcendent, you are still a newbie in my eyes!"


    "Yes, so?" Clone Theo smirked while snapping his fingers.


    Suddenly, the Mind Elder felt his bnce tip over as his body fell to the side.


    ''Eh? My arm and my leg��'' The Mind Elder realized that the limbs that he had reconstructed with his illusion after getting destroyed by Leonardo suddenly disappeared.


    At the same time, Theo took this opportunity to leap toward him, thrusting his spear.


    The Mind Elder frowned and created a glove from metal that could stop this spear.


    *ng!*


    The Mind Elder used the spear to hold his body down while trying to form another limb to use.


    Theo wanted to remove it again, but the moment Theo snapped his finger, the illusion didn''t disappear.


    "Huh?" Theo was confused for a second, allowing the Mind Elder to counterattack.


    Suddenly, a whirlpool appeared in the air. The suction force was so strong that Theo felt like getting sucked into this whirlpool if not for him immediately creating a spike that nted his feet to the ground.


    Both of them were using their illusion to create everything in order to counter each other''s abilities.


    Seeing that his attack failed, the Mind Elder stomped on the ground and created numerous swords from the ground.


    However, Theo managed to snap his finger again as he removed all the swords before they reached him. After that, he spun his body and kicked the Mind Elder, blowing him away.


    The Mind Elder managed to block that kick with both arms and slid on the ground for a bit just to stop the momentum.


    Now that there was a distance between them, the Mind Elder ced his hand on the ground.


    Suddenly, the ground split into two, making them fall into the darkness.


    Theo, who was aware of the possibility of this illusion, immediately lifted his left hand. Suddenly, theynded on a tform made of golden light, stopping their fall.


    "!!!" The illusion couldn''t be removed by his own illusion, so he was quite shocked to find something "So, you possess this power. Reality Order. The only illusion that I can''t control because it''s already 16:12


    bing a part of reality." The Mind Elder gritted his teeth. However, he hadn''t lost yet. "In that at this level. After all, as someone who possessed the Illusion Order, he had be an Illusion King.


    All illusions should be under his control, and Theo''s illusion wasn''t an exception. And he was someone who had crawled over hisst defeat against Leonardo.


    During this period, he had finally broken through to the fourth stage of the illusion, the Illusion Alter.


    The moment he used this ability, he realized that Theo''s illusion didn''t look like an illusion. Instead, it was as if there was indeed a tform like this in reality.


    In other words, Theo had made an illusion a reality.


    "So, you possess this power. Reality Order. The only illusion that I can''t control because it''s already bing a part of reality." The Mind Elder gritted his teeth. However, he hadn''t lost yet. "In that case, I''ll just turn that reality back into an illusion!"


    The tform suddenly tilted to the side as the Mind Elder finally regained control after turning the tform back into an illusion tform under his control. Tilting the te would force Theo to fall into the deeper darkness.


    However, Theo was someone at the same level. His illusion immediately created a stick that stretched from one edge to another, getting locked to the circr tform right in the middle.


    After that, he used his Reality Order to turn them into a reality while summoning another item to attach his body to the tform.


    With the tform tilting to the side, the stick made the tform not fall down and instead started spinning.


    "Kh." Theo and the Mind Elder gritted their teeth as they somehow managed to attach themselves to the tform.


    Theo had experienced something like this when fighting against the God of Mischief, but he still had a hard time adjusting the gravity when it kept changing. On the other hand, the Mind Elder had his own trick to stop the spin. He summoned four pirs perpendicr to the tform. Each pir had its own poles that somehow stopped the tform in the middle, allowing them to stand on the tform without any more spin.


    Theo and the Mind Elder had the same thought as they charged toward each other, hoping that the enemy was slightly sick due to the spin.


    But both of them seemed to have enough experience, allowing them to release their blow, unaffected by the earlier spins.


    Theo wanted to use his Alter Ego, but using the Alter Ego drained too much of his energy, so he chose to use other things not only to save some energy forter but also because he wanted to use it to deliver a killing blow that couldn''t be dodged or blocked by the Mind Elder.


    Theo used his World Re-Creation to suddenly expand the tform, causing them to run at the same spot like they were on top of a treadmill.


    "!!!" The Mind Elder was shocked because he couldn''t do something like this with his illusion. So, he thought it was Theo bending reality. Although he was jealous, he couldn''t think of it for now. He simply jumped into the air and tried to approach Theo from the air.


    But to his surprise, the tform wasn''t the only thing expanding. It was the whole realm that was expanding. This was the only thing he could do with the current World Re-Creation, but it should be enough to confuse even the Mind Elder.


    Since the Mind Elder was in the air and stayed in his position due to the expanding realm, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian in its spear form and threw it into the air.


    Theo''s attack was supposed to stay in the same ce due to the expanding realm, but in that instant, Theo stopped the expansion, causing both of them to move toward the same spot.


    "Shit!" The Mind Elder gritted his teeth, seeing the iing spear.

 Chapter 1374 Illusion vs Reality (2)

    Chapter 1374Illusion vs Reality (2)


    The Mind Elder pped his hands and formed a shield with his illusion power. But Theo snapped his fingers at the same time, erasing the shield.


    The Mind Elder gritted his teeth and punched to the left, causing a shock wave thatunched him to the side.


    He just barely avoided the spear. But since it came from Theo, he knew that the spear wouldn''t be down from just one strike.


    The spear would turn around on his back and attack him again. Hence, the Mind Elder had no choice other than to punch the air above him, releasing a torrential Magic Power that pushed him to the ground.


    Now that he hadnded on the tform, dealing with the spear only needed a single wave of his hand. He summoned a huge block that knocked and suppressed the spear to the ground, forcing Theo to retract his power.


    "Reality Order. To think that I need to face someone with this power. Nheless, it won''t change the result." The Mind Elder charged forward while waving his hand. Sharp spikes emerged from the darkness, trying to stab Theo.


    Thetter only leaped back since the spikes couldn''t change their form.


    Still, the Mind Elder was an illusionist and the spikes were nothing but an illusion, so he was the one choosing the rule of the spikes. The spikes suddenly bounced on the tform and started moving like a snake to reach him.


    Theo used his Reality Order to apply the reality to the spikes, causing them to stop moving since no spikes could move like a snake in reality.


    His n failed, but the snakes were just a distraction. The Mind Elder shrouded himself with darkness, causing Theo to lose him.


    Theo obviously didn''t lose him, considering he kept seeing the Mind Elder''s status wherever he went. The Reality Eyes were truly too overpowered. Even if he somehow couldn''t predict the Magic Power''s movement with the help of his Reality Eyes and Awareness, he could still find his status.


    Still, Theo didn''t beat around the bush and pointed his left palm upward.


    Suddenly, a huge light appeared, illuminating the whole darkness.


    The darkness that the Mind Elder utilized was unlimited but little did he know, there was another reason for Theo to expand the tform and the realm itself.


    With the tform bing big enough, he snapped the tform, turning it into a box to trap themselves inside. And the light illuminated every nook and corner, causing the Mind Elder to reveal himself.


    "This is��" The Mind Elder narrowed his eyes. This was the first time someone could gain an advantage against him in a battle of illusion. Not wanting to lose, the Mind Elder raised his hand and created an illusion of Valerie and Ray at the same time. But if Theo took another look, he could find Leonardo and even Agata there.


    "Go!" The Mind Elder shouted, ordering them. However, Agata didn''t move as if the Mind Elder had something in mind.


    With those three illusions stopping him, the Mind Elder seemed to be nning to make Theo witness how he shamed Agata.


    "You surely have a twisted mind," Theo muttered and snapped his finger.


    Even if he needed to face the rest of the illusion, Agata must be removed from this illusion. He poured all his Order to erase her.


    Annoyed, Theo used Ergene''s idea.


    "Huh?!" The Mind Elder''s body startled as he looked down, finding all his clothes were gone. He was naked.


    "You sure satisfied your wife with that?" Theo asked while looking down in disgust. Then using the split second where the Mind Elder forgot to control his illusion, Theo turned those three into his own, allowing them to control these three figures to turn back.


    "Hahaha!" Illusion Leonardo was the first tough like a real personality. "Small PP."


    "This is an illusion! My dick is not small!" The Mind Elder shouted as he tried to cover himself with the illusion.


    But Theo used his ability again, forcing him to go naked. With the help of the power of the Mythical Rank''s characteristic, he could maintain it for a while no matter how hard the Mind Elder tried to cover himself.


    "You bastard!" The Mind Elder shouted.


    "Yeah, but you''re disgusting, so��" Theo snorted and snapped his fingers.


    This time, he felt extreme pain in his lower abdomen. But when he looked down, he saw his dick falling to the ground.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The Mind Elder screamed in pain while releasing all his Magic Power. The pain gradually subsided as Theo''s illusion was repelled from his mind. Even the naked illusion disappeared since the Mind Elder had figured out how that attack was used.


    "Now, I have understood how it works. I won''t let you shame me anymore." The Mind Elder gritted his teeth.


    "Come on. What I did was nothingpared to you. You even made my brother suddenly fall down to the floor as if my mother gave birth to him in an instant. You crushed my brother after that��" Theo shrugged.


    "Huh? How do you know?" The Mind Elder was sure that Valerie and Ray wouldn''t tell anyone about it. And there was no way Theo would ask them about this fight, so he couldn''t see how Theo could know what happened back then.


    Either way, the Mind Elder had one task here. It was to kill Theo.


    He released his killing intent and all his power as he shouted angrily, "You bastard. I''m going to kill you in the worst way possible."


    "No, no. You misunderstood me. The only reason why you haven''t died yet is your illusion. I couldn''t help but want to see more. But since you have be impatient, I think it''s time to end this. Time for me to get serious." Theo smirked while blinking.


    But after the second blink, the illusion in his eyes finally disappeared, revealing the pattern in Theo''s blue eyes.


    Theo had to focus on the illusion to hide his Reality Eyes, so he couldn''t focus on looking at the illusion that would appear from Magic Power. But now that he had removed the illusion to hide his eyes, the Reality Eyes would soon reveal its true might.

 Chapter 1375 Theos Bad Influence

    Chapter 1375Theo''s Bad Influence


    "What''s wrong? You can''t do anything to me?" A Mythical Rank Expert from the Skyward Mercenaryughed, looking down on Rea.


    He had a problem defeating Rea because the Skyward Guardian wouldn''t hesitate to throw him out just to appease the Sword Saint in case he killed her. So, the only way to end this fight peacefully was to overwhelm Rea.


    And he managed to handle all the animals that came to him except for the first dragon she summoned.


    "��" Rea remained silent while looking at her sword as if there was a problem with it. She thought, ''As expected, the animal version is far weaker than the mythical beast version. And this is the first time I''m fighting with this ability while using the animal version�� I expected something from it, but I guess it''s time to abandon the animal version.''


    Rea raised her sword again, pointing it at the enemy''s neck. Her expression became solemn as she had chosen to get serious. "Sorry, but I''m not going to hold back anymore."


    "Huh?" The guy furrowed his eyebrows as if he felt the same intensity as the first strike she released.


    "Sword Draw Style, Mythical Creature Version, Tenko (Celestial Fox)."


    The Magic Power around her sword was zing like a me. The moment she waved her sword, a fox suddenly emerged from the tip. The fox was only as tall as a human, but its nine tailspletely changed the meaning.


    The fox howled and charged toward the guy. Feeling the tremendous Magic Power behind the nine-tailed fox, he hurriedly raised his hammer and struck the fox on the head.


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Rea''s face as she said, "I won''t do that if I were you."


    "!!!" The guy didn''t feel the hit because the nine-tailed fox suddenly turned into a beautiful woman with close-set eyes, thin eyebrows, and high cheekbones. This was a shapeshifting ability that a kitsune had.


    With the sudden change of shape, the hammer missed the kitsune''s head as thetter hurriedly leaped around to strike him from the side.


    The guy gritted his teeth and threw himself to the side, not expecting that the fox suddenly became a woman. However, the woman still had sharp ws and scratched his arm, causing it to bleed.


    But the most important thing was the fact that such a strong summon was called by a powerful swordswoman called Nagasawa Rea.


    When the enemy focused on her summon, Rea approached them from the opposite direction.


    The guy could feel that his heart was gripped by someone. His instinct told him that he would die if he didn''t do anything.


    In that instant, he used the weight of the hammer to tilt his body downwards before a sword strike flew past him, cutting his left arm.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" The guy screamed in pain while finding Rea standing behind him.


    Although he wanted to stop the bleeding and the pain, he knew that if he didn''t move, Rea would kill him. So, he had no choice but to endure the pain and push himself back.


    He also understood how Rea''s power worked.


    ''She''s summoning that thing just to distract me. The main attack will be carried by her.'' The guy thought.


    ''Or so you thought,'' Rea smiled as if she could know her thoughts. After learning from Theo, she seemed to be able to understand other people''s thoughts because that was the essence of what Theo would do. ''No, I think I misunderstand it a bit. It''s not that I can see their thoughts�� It''s just that I manipte their thoughts to think about what I want them to think. That''s how Theo always fights.''


    The moment the guy realized Rea''s fighting style, the guy hurriedly charged toward the nine-tailed fox and struck its body. If Rea would be the one to deliver the killing blow by exposing his back like this, he could invite Rea in before taking her out by surprise.


    The nine-tailed fox used both hands to stop the giant harmer. Despite her look, it seemed that the kitsune had some power to block this hammer containing so much energy.


    "You are stopping it with your hands?" The guy smirked as the energy erupted, causing a small shock wave. That shock wave might look insignificant, but the damage was actually beyond one''s imagination. In that instant, the kitsune''s hands bent in a weird way. It couldn''t even support its own weight as if the bone inside the arms werepletely destroyed.


    "Attacking the inside?" Rea was dumbfounded for a moment before jumping forth to help the nine-tailed fox.


    "I have been waiting for you. As long as I don''t kill you, I shouldn''t get any problem. So, I''ll break all your bones topensate for my missing arm." The guy roared as he turned around and swung his hammer.


    "What? You''re baiting me?!" Rea gasped as she suddenly put her katana on the front, trying to stop this swing. Even though the power was lesspared to what he could do with two hands, it was still far stronger than Rea, who got taken by surprise.


    The swing pushed her back and made her slip to the ground.


    "Kh!" Rea fell on her butt and saw the guy raising his hammer, wanting to crush her.


    "You��" Rea''s face became pale as her position wouldn''t allow her to get enough strength to stop this swing.


    "It''s a shame that I can''t kill you, but breaking your bones should be enjoyable as well." The guy smirked as he swung down that hammer.


    However, at thest moment, a smile reappeared on her face. "Yeah. That''s why you''ll die."


    "!!!" The guy was startled because he could feel the presence behind him was moving. He should have crushed her hands and pushed her down, but he didn''t expect her to attack him.


    The nine tails hardened and stabbed his body, creating holes everywhere, including his heart.


    "Wha��" The guy spat a mouthful of blood as the strength was leaving her body.


    With her position, Rea suddenly cut the guy''s legs, forcing him to fall to the ground. And with that injury, he should die in a matter of seconds.


    "You should learn more about mythical creatures. What I summoned is not an ordinary kitsune, it''s Tenko. A celestial fox that has gained nine tails and lived for 100 years. It''s basically the strongest form of a Kitsune." Rea smiled.


    The reason why her Tenko could fool him was because he underestimated her power.


    Rea couldn''t help but recall all the training with Theo. "So, this is how Theo fights. Making your opponent underestimate you by giving them an overwhelming advantage�� I don''t even need to use all my power to defeat a Mythical Rank Expert."


    Unbeknownst to her, her head was already contaminated by Theo''s training, and she might get addicted to it.

 Chapter 1376 Painter vs Insane Knight

    Chapter 1376 Painter vs Insane Knight


    On the other side of the battlefield, the only female Mythical Rank Expert from the Skyward Mercenary was shing all sorts of nts that emerged from the ground.


    "Haahahahahaha!" She wasughing hysterically while chopping down the nts. She suddenly looked down and found a vine filled with thorns emerging from the ground.


    She instantly blocked the vine with her shield before swiftly cutting it down.


    "You are weak, very weak. As expected of an illusion, you can''t even create something hard with this nt affinity. It''s even a wonder how you can even be a Mythical Rank Expert. Are you leeching off others?" The girl shouted while grinning, mocking Jeff.


    "I thought you were the silent type, but it seemed I was wrong. You are the one with a poisonous tongue and insane character. If I were to draw you, I would have scrapped the previous painting to add an evil smile on your face." Jeff maintained his calm while drawing the nts with his brush in the air, causing them to appear.


    "You are talking nonsense." She gritted her teeth. "This is yourst time to apologize to me. If you do that, I''ll kill you painlessly."


    "If I end up dead anyway, there''s no need to beg." Jeff smirked. "Besides, you should be the one to apologize to me and start acting cute. I might forgive you and kill you instead of humiliating you."


    Jeff waved his hand a few more times and summoned another vine through that drawing. The drawing in the air looked like a vein, but it was just a rough sketch with a brush. After all, there was no way he could create aplete drawing just for one attack since it would take a lot of time.


    Meanwhile, he could listen to Chris'' piano, allowing him to get a boost in his physical abilities and rhythm.


    While enjoying the music, hepleted one drawing after another.


    "I''m waiting��" Jeff smirked.


    "Shut up! Since you want to die so much, then I''ll make sure you suffer the extreme pain." The woman raised her shield as the energy gathered around her shield, forming a small half-sphere thatpletely protected her from all sides.


    Shield Charge.


    She rushed forth with the shield. The ground that touched the barrier ended up getting pushed back, making it look like she was plowing the field. At the same time, the vines that tried to stop her couldn''t do anything, allowing her to eventually catch up to Felix.


    "I got you!" She smirked while mming her shield to Jeff''s face.


    Jeff narrowed his eyes and raised both hands, blocking this shield.


    *Bang!*


    "Kh." Jeff gritted his teeth, enduring the pain in his lower arms. However, he soon leaped to the side when he saw the woman almost slicing his arm.


    He managed to escape, but the sword scratched his arm, causing him blood. Because he was wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, the blood flowed out and dropped to the ground.


    "��" Jeff narrowed his eyes and raised his brush again while moving around to avoid getting killed.


    "What''s wrong? You are silent this time? Have I shut up that mouth of yours? Be a good boy and kneel in front of me." The woman kept provoking Jeff, taking pleasure in Jeff''s condition.


    "I don''t care." Jeff shrugged and drew another nt. This time, he summoned a palm tree out of thin air, standing straight in front of the woman.


    "!!!" The woman crashed into the tree because it was truly in front of her. She had no time to react.


    "Kh." Her nose was bleeding due to the collision. Even though it looked like a normal palm tree, she could feel that it was stronger than she thought,pletely different from the vines she had cut down so far. In other words, Jeff was getting serious at this point.


    She wiped the blood off her nose and pursued Jeff again. "You motherfucker!"


    "Can you be a little gentle like ady?" Jeff sighed. "You might be fun as a bro, but you are certainly not my type."


    "That''s right. I''m going to cut your tongue first so that you won''t be able to talk anymore." She became angrier while releasing her strength even further. Although the dome-shaped barrier required a huge amount of Magic Power, it was the most effective ability to chase after Jeff.


    She learned that after running to the palm tree.


    "If one is not enough, then I''ll just increase the numbers. A thousand leaves can stop a bullet." Jeff smirked and summoned ten palm trees this time.


    *Bam!*


    A huge crash happened. The woman mmed her barrier into the palm trees. As Jeff said earlier, a thousand leaves could stop a bullet if they were stacked, so Jeff took that concept and built a barricade of trees to stop her charge.


    However, the woman was like a bulldozer. The moment the barrier crashed into the tree, it stopped for two seconds.


    The woman''s eyes turned bloodshot as she roared loudly.


    "Aaaaaaahhhhh!" She stomped the ground and gained a surge of energy from the lower body as she kept pushing forward.


    She bent all ten palm trees with her own power as she kept pushing forward until the palm trees couldn''t endure the pressure anymore and snapped.


    "Really?" Jeff''s expression became serious because these palm trees should be enough to stop a powerful''s monster charge, but it seemed that his opponent this time was stronger than he thought.


    "It seems that I can''t win with normal methods." Jeff smirked, maintaining his calm. Although he wasn''t a goodbatant, he still had some ways to defeat her.


    As soon as he chose his tactic, Jeff drew more than one hundred trees without summoning them.


    "I''ve got you!" During that time, the woman kept rushing to him and finally caught up.


    When she was about to m the shield again, Jeff finally utilized his power and summoned all the trees he had drawn earlier.


    "Forest Descent." Jeff smiled as the tree illusions that scattered in the region created a forest in the middle of a in.


    He ducked down and allowed the woman to m the tree behind him, snapping it. Then, Jeff jumped around the artificial forest to hide, buying some time until the others could save him.

 Chapter 1377 Bloody Rose

    Chapter 1377 Bloody Rose����"You bastard!" The woman shouted while slicing the trees down.


    Her movement had been restricted this whole time because of the terrains that Jeff created, but she hadn''t exploded this whole time because she managed to hit Jeff once in a while.


    His injuries added one after another as the blood continued to fall to the ground.


    "I should be the one to say that." Jeff kept running away while using his power to restrain her for as long as he could, hoping that someone would help him soon.


    This was a battle between a Knight and an Illusionist, but because of his nt affinity, his illusion was weakerpared to other illusionists. So, he ended up getting suppressed.


    Jeff continued moving around as the trees gradually disappeared. In just a few minutes, the insane woman managed to cut down half of the trees he summoned earlier.


    "Can you stop chasing me and just wait here until my friendse to help?" Jeff asked.


    "Hahaha. Just surrender. But because you didn''t ept it earlier, I''m going to give you a cruel death." The womanughed as her confidence kept rising.


    Jeff''s condition became worse as more trees were chopped down.


    It took him another three minutes before Jeff finally stopped in his tracks as if he had given up. He panted a few times while looking at the woman.


    "Finally giving up?" The woman smirked, getting a bit arrogant.


    "Ah, I really can''t do this. I guess I don''t need other people''s help." Jeff sighed as the trees he summoned earlier had beenpletely chopped down. Not even a single tree remained. "You don''t even care about the forest."


    "What bullshit are you spouting again?!" The woman roared. "There are no more trees and your condition is already that bad. I''m going to kill you right now!"


    Jeff couldn''t refute it since his condition was certainly bad. He was covered in injuries and lost a lot of blood. Even his head had be fuzzy.


    Still, he wasn''t someone who would give up that easily. His eyes still had their focus.


    "I will die sooner orter due to the blood loss if I don''t treat this, but the first person that will die is not me." Jeff smirked, looking at the woman as if implying that she would be the first to die.


    "What did you say?"


    When the woman was about to charge again, Jeff suddenly raised his hands as if he had surrendered.


    "So, you''re going to surrender. But it''s toote. I''m going to make you experience something worse than death." The womanughed uncontrobly.


    "You are truly a fool. I am nothing but a painter, I obviously can''t fight you head-on�� After all, the only thing I can do is painting." Jeff smirked.


    Suddenly, the entire forest glowed brightly.


    "Huh?!" The woman was stunned for a second and saw all those red lightsing from the ground. When she lowered her head, she found that the ground wasn''t the one that shone, it was his blood. In that instant, she understood what Jeff had been nning to do this whole time. "You�� You used your own blood as the paint and your body as the brush?"


    "Correct and the reward is��" Jeff smirked and snapped his finger. "Bloody Rose."


    If one took a look at the battlefield from above, they would realize that the blood trace actually managed to draw a sketch for a rose.


    And they were right inside that rose. The woman didn''t realize it until now because of the trees that Jeff summoned earlier, covering her eyes to see what was important.


    Even if she wanted to leave right now, she was in the middle of the painting. It was toote to escape.


    The rose finally emerged from the ground, reaching the sky. Jeff was standing on top of its petal while the woman was enveloped by the remaining petals in the center of the rose.


    "Tsk." The woman gritted her teeth as she waspletely surrounded by the petals. She raised her sword to st everything around her, but a spike came out of the petal like a thorn.


    "!!!" The woman was startled and immediately raised her shield, blocking this spike.


    However, another spike came from the petal behind it, causing the spike to pierce through the petal on its way, taking the woman by surprise.


    "Tsk!" The woman hurriedly tilted her body to the side, but the spike still scratched her.


    "It''sing from everywhere and even from behind those petals. I can only��" The woman raised her shield again and formed a sphere that blocked everything.


    More and more spikes came to her but got destroyed because of the sturdy shield.


    "I can withstand these spikes for a while until I find a solution. Besides, that guy is dying from blood loss as well, so I can hold out until he dies." The woman thought.


    However, she felt the Magic Power rampaging on her arm where the spike grazed her earlier.


    "Huh?!" She widened her eyes in shock and saw a roseing out of the wound when the blood was enough to draw that rose.


    At the same time, the blood on her sword and her armor suddenly turned into spikes and pierced through her body.


    "What?! His blood got into my equipment too?" The woman was shocked as her face became horrified with the thought that the blood in her body would be spikes as well.


    But that kind of thought and shock made her forget about the shield and the rampaging spikes from the outside. Just for a split second, the sphere became weaker, allowing the spikes to finally shatter the barrier.


    "Not good!"


    Unfortunately for her, she couldn''t do anything as the spikes pierced all over her body. Her death was indeed a brutal one.


    Jeff, who could feel what happened inside, ended up sitting down while looking down on the battlefield with his sad eyes.


    "This is why I don''t like fighting. I don''t like the idea of using blood to paint because I don''t want to be cruel." Jeff sighed.

 Chapter 1378 Overwhelming Strength

    Chapter 1378 Overwhelming Strength����Ergene stood in front of her opponent, displeased by the fact that her opponent was looking down on her with those vulgar eyes. Different from Jeff, who was only teasing his opponent, this guy''s expression already showed everything. In fact, if they fought in a ce no one knew and she lost, she would suffer unimaginable shame.


    Ergene took a deep breath and raised her sword, covering it with lightning.


    But before she charged at him, she took a glimpse of the battlefield situation to make sure that everyone was alright.


    "What are you looking at?" And the guy took advantage of that moment to reach Ergene. He thrust his long spear right at her stomach.


    "��" Ergene skillfully leaned to the side and used her sword to knock the spear away as if she had expected this moveing from him. After that, Ergene stomped the ground and created a crater to lower their battlefield.


    The time their body took to go to the ground was one second, meaning Ergene had one second tounch an attack while they were floating in the air.


    Since she was the one preparing the battlefield, she was the first to react by shing her sword straight at his neck.


    "Hoh?!" The guy still maintained his calm despite not being able to avoid this attack. He simply raised his spear and stopped the de with the spear''s handle.


    The lightning on the sword caused a huge spark that spread the lightning to the surrounding.


    "Huh?" Ergene widened her eyes because the lightning spark didn''t go as intended. She then realized her enemy was the culprit.


    "So, that''s how it is." The guy smirked. "Your lightning doesn''t seem to be that great."


    "��" Ergene clicked her tongue. The lightning directed at him actually went in the opposite direction, confusing her. But after another look, she realized that her enemy this time had good control. He controlled the flow of Magic Power and pushed them back, causing her lightning to spark in the Magic Power''s direction.


    Seeing her attack fail, Ergene shed her swords a few times.


    The vulgar guy smirked and took a step back as he thrust his spear as many times as Ergene swung her swords, stopping all her attacks.


    The lightning kept sparking to attack the guy, but every time she released that lightning, they just got repelled.


    "Hmm?" The guy also felt something in these few shes. "Your Control is Sloppy and your movement is still predictable, so it means your Awareness is not good. Your Technique is not that great, but your Breathing is quite good. It seems you''re mastering Breathing and Endurance."


    Ergene maintained her poker face, but she was shocked by how urate his guesses were. Despite his vulgar behavior, the guy before her was strong.


    As if bing more confident, the guy started pressuring her this time by increasing the speed of his thrust.


    "!!!" Ergene gritted her teeth and took a step back as she got overwhelmed by the continuous thrusts. But suddenly, she felt deathing toward her. At the same time, there was a ray of hope that would help her ovee this danger.


    It was the light from Marzio, asking her body to move.


    Ergene hurriedly followed the instruction, which was tilting her body to the left. And when that happened, one of the spear thrusts slipped past her defense.


    The spear contained a huge amount of energy as if the guy was sure that he would defeat her by using that thrust. The moment the thrust waspleted, the Magic Power struck forth, creating a small tornado that destroyed the ground for at least a hundred feet.


    "!!!" Ergene knew she had just escaped death. She might be able to contain that power with her own, but it would surely severely injure her.


    "You couldn''t even see that attack�� Ah, it seems that you haven''t joined the Mythical Rank for too long. No wonder your power is still too sloppy." The spear guy smirked as he kept thrusting his spear.


    More and more torrential Magic Power slipped past her as Marzio saved her again and again. This might be the most unbnced fight among them because Ergene was still considered new and wasn''t as genius as Rea and Theo, who had a strong foundation. Meanwhile, her opponent seemed to be among the strongest in the Skyward Guardian despite his vulgar eyes.


    "Haaaa!" Ergene was frustrated and stomped the ground again, channeling her lightning.


    However, the enemy also released his own Magic Power, pushing all her Magic Power so that the lightning didn''te toward him.


    "It won''t work. Your skill is too sloppypared to mine even if we''re both Mythical Rank Experts. And it''s clear what type of people you are, you only have that stubbornness that allows you to reach this level. After all, you keep persisting in killing monsters instead of training your foundation." The guy smirked, exining Ergene''s weakness.


    He deemed that the only reason why Ergene could be a Mythical Rank Expert was because she was focusing on killing monsters instead of training her Five Aspects or abilities. That was why despite being a Mythical Rank Expert, she was weaker.


    Even so, she had trained under Theo for months. Her skill might be sloppy, but her mind was sharp.


    "Ha!" She shouted while shing her sword again, channeling that lightning.


    "It''s useless." The guy was staring at her with contempt because this battle was in the bag.


    The lightning ran through the ground like what happened to all previous lightning. But this time, the lightning somehow shattered the ground, causing them to split apart.


    "This is��" The guy understood why Ergene kept attacking him this whole time. Every time he deflected that lightning, it was to crush the ground as if the lightning was the scissor that cut the ground.


    The moment everything had been cut, Ergene stomped the ground as she released her lightning, bouncing the cut rocks up. The rock turned into walls that blocked his vision and he could feel Ergene charging her power behind the rocks.


    This was Ergene''s way to ovee the difference in their skills. With this stone wall, they both didn''t know what the other was nning to do.


    ''Lightning Purgatory.'' Ergene swung her sword, releasing the sword strike that would decide their battle.

 Chapter 1379 Five Ways to Kill

    Chapter 1379 Five Ways to Kill����''Lightning Purgatory.''


    Suddenly, huge lightning erupted and split into numerous lightning, looping around to surround the guy from four directions.


    "!!!" The guy was surprised that Ergene managed to control her lightning to this degree despite her sloppy control. So, he believed this was her skill, not rted to her control at all.


    ''So, it''sing at me directly.'' The guy thought as he thrust his spear once again. The torrential Magic Power sted the wall in front of him and continued straight to the lightning, engulfing everything.


    But Ergene, who was supposed to be in that direction, disappeared.


    "Huh?" The guy was confused for a moment and tried to look for her. He couldn''t use his Awareness since he didn''t master it, so he had a problem searching for her.


    And that was when the lightning pierced through the wall, shattering it and making its way toward him.


    "Huh?" The guy turned around and realized that the lightning had a homing ability.


    But because the lightning shattered the rocks, it threw a huge part of them toward him, causing the attack toe in the form of rock and lightning.


    "Tsk." The guy clicked his tongue and thrust his spear again, trying to push back all these attacks.


    The torrential Magic Power dispersed all the lightning and shattered the rocks. But unexpectedly, Ergene was actually behind the biggest rock. When the rock was destroyed, she passed through the rock and waved her sword.


    ''She was hiding behind that rock?'' The guy tried to avoid this attack, but it was toote.


    Ergene struck him with a sword, but her frustration remained because the guy somehow managed to avoid it at thest second. If he only used his body to dodge her attack, it would be toote. But his Perfect Control threw him to the side, allowing him to give his body enough momentum to escape from her attack.


    "It seems I have underestimated you." The guy made a smug smile as if he took pride in avoiding that attack.


    Ergene realized that the situation became dire because she needed more and more backup ns to strike him. The only way for her to defeat him was to be unpredictable and take him out by surprise.


    "You should take pride in yourself because you can injure me, the left hand of the leader of the Skyward Guardian." He smirked. "And I''ll make sure to enjoy you well after I defeat you."


    ''My raw power is not enough to fight him and my Five Aspects can''tpare to his own.'' Despite her negative thoughts, she still smirked and taunted the enemy. "It seems the Skyward Mercenary is a ce of sex offenders. No wonder there is only one woman in your ce."


    His eyebrows twitched, but he didn''t burst out this time. "Don''t worry. You are going to be the second one."


    Ergene narrowed her eyes, organizing another backup n in her mind. In total, she could see five ways to take him out by surprise.


    ''I''m d that I follow Theo. Thanks to him, I can learn how to take on someone stronger than me.'' Ergene took a deep breath as she became calmer and calmer. After that, she charged forward and swung her swords a few times, trying to fight him again.


    This fightsted for more than twenty rounds as the guy gradually suppressed her again.


    "Useless, useless! You won''t be able to defeat me." Heughed while thrusting his spear.


    Ergene gritted her teeth and looped around at her fastest speed. She was running with her lightning, so this speed was beyond the enemy''s expectation.


    "Huh?!" The guy was startled and immediately raised his spear handle to the side. His eyes had a hard time keeping up, but his instinct was telling him the danger.


    As he predicted, the spear stopped Ergene''s attack again, but Ergene started moving faster than his eyes again, confusing him.


    "This is��" He had truly underestimated Ergene. He thought Ergene was just a normal Mythical Rank Expert that Theo recruited just because of her body, but it seemed that the woman had high potential as well, considering her movement became better and better as the fight continued.


    "You are bing more and more interesting." He smirked excitedly before swinging his spear a few times, blocking the consecutive attacks from Ergene.


    "Tsk." Ergene clicked her tongue, noticing that she might be faster than his eyes, but his instinct was still sharp enough to pick her location.


    ''The first n was to outrun him, but it seemed that it wasn''t sessful.'' Ergene thought, assessing the situation.


    Now that Ergene had finally piqued his interest, the guy suddenly made his move one step ahead as if he was predicting where she nned to go.


    "!!!" Ergene widened her eyes because when she was about to wave that sword, the guy had already thrust his spear forward, forcing her to stop that swing and use the sword to block it.


    "Got you." The guy smiled.


    The spear let out a torrential Magic Power, blowing her away.


    "Kh." Ergene gritted her teeth and felt the force contained in this attack. Her clothes were cut again and again as they were weak against the pressure of this attack.


    ''I should have asked Theo for a set of armor from Maya''spany.'' Ergene thought while getting pushed back for at least two hundred feet.


    Despite the distance, the guy followed her as if he was nning to make a follow up attack that could defeat her.


    ''Second way��'' Ergene rotated her sword while blocking this shock wave and released all her lightning. The lightning erupted and expanded the de to at least thirty feet long. She swung it down, trying to kill him before he could reach her. ''Kill him with an extraordinary power by surprise.''


    "!!!" The guy noticed that Ergene nned to pin him down to the ground and overwhelm him with this power since his control couldn''t deflect this amount of lightning.


    "Kh!" The guy gritted his teeth and raised his spear, blocking it.


    "Die!" Ergene''s eyes turned bloodshot as she waved her sword as hard as she could.

 Chapter 1380 Five Ways to Kill (2)

    Chapter 1380 Five Ways to Kill (2)����"Die!"


    *Bam!*


    The moment their weapons shed, the overwhelming force from above immediately crushed the ground, turning it into a huge crater.


    "Kh." The spear guy experienced the extraordinary force while gritting his teeth. This was too much even for him.


    "Haaaaa!" Ergene kept shouting, raising her spirit as well as pumping up her heart to give more strength.


    The guy kept enduring all this lightning while dispersing some of it to the ground, weakening this attack.


    If Ergene couldn''t kill him right now, the attack would fail.


    "No. You have to die!" Ergene pushed with all her might. She was desperate because this attack contained half of her Magic Power. If not for this all-out attack, the guy wouldn''t be suppressed like this.


    But the lightning kept getting weaker and weaker as time passed. It looked like she couldn''t kill him with this attack. But Ergene still had one more surprise for him.


    *Boom!*


    The lightning suddenly sparked, causing a huge explosion that engulfed the entire crater. Everything inside would be burned to a crisp with this amount of lightning.


    ''The third way�� hide an unexpected attack within that all-out attack.'' Ergene smiled, hoping that this one took him by surprise. She actually used Theo''s tactic when Theo was recruiting her.


    In that terrorist attack, Theo positioned the enemies ording to his way so that his arrow could pierce them. Just like him, she used that all-out attack to position her enemy inside a crater where she could use the explosion to finish him off.


    Unfortunately, her strategy might be good, but the execution was stillcking. Theo''s arrow was an extremely powerful arrow that guaranteed his enemy''s death. But her arrow was still a bit too weak to kill her enemy.


    "Hahahahaha! That hurts, you bitch." Her enemy''s voice suddenly echoed in her ears. The dust had settled down, revealing the spear guy in the middle of the crater.


    A part of his body was burned and he had severe wounds, but he seemed to be able to endure his condition and still managed to act like it was nothing.


    "I''ve decided. You''re going to be my woman from now on." The guy smirked as he leaped as if the wounds didn''t hinder him the slightest.


    "!!!" Ergene was dumbstruck. Even that kind of injury couldn''t affect him. ''No, he''s not like Theo, who can endure all the pain. He just loves the pain because he''s insane.''


    Ergene gritted her teeth because the enemy seemed to not hold back anymore.


    When they were about to sh, Ergene suddenly leaped back.


    "Huh? Escaping?!" The guy was startled because he didn''t expect that Ergene would be escaping at this point in time.


    But as soon as he caught up to her and thrust his spear, Ergene opened her mouth, calling someone''s name out loud. "Ryo!"


    *ng!*


    The moment he thrust that spear, he felt he struck an indestructible metal thatpletely stopped his momentum as well as the power in his spear.


    "Huh? A barrier?" The guy was surprised and saw Ergene fall to her knees not for forgiveness but for the next attack. "Shit!"


    ''The fourth way, if you can''t beat him, get some help. You must haven''t realized that I took that attack head-on intentionally because I wanted to get closer to Ryo without you noticing.'' Ergene took a deep breath as she watched the barrier closely.


    The moment Ryo retracted the barrier, she swung her sword.


    "Shit!" The guy cursed while jumping back to avoid this attack, but he was toote. Although Ergene didn''t manage topletely cut his right leg, the sh still cut the bone, making the leg useless.


    And due to his sudden jump, he lost his bnce and fell to the ground.


    In this instant, Ergene stepped forward and shed her sword downwards. "Die!"


    A smile suddenly appeared on the guy''s face as he actually managed to bait Ergene into this position.


    "Using an all-out attack right after retreating, right?" The guy smirked as the spear released a huge amount of Magic Power.


    "!!!" Ergene realized that he was using her strategy to attack her.


    The two weapons shed, but the lightning was dispersed by the huge amount of Magic Power. In fact, she didn''t have enough strength left to produce lightning that could be capable of rivaling this guy''s Magic Power anymore.


    "Haaaa!" She let out a loud cry, desperately pushing him to the ground. But her enemy was simply too strong this time.


    "You became a Mythical Rank Expert not long ago and your abilities are sloppy. If not for you stubbornly resisting me, I would have won. But I guess you are good enough to reduce my leg to that state." He smiled while using all his strength to st the sword into the air.


    "Heh? I got you." The guy smirked as he raised his spear to defeat her. This was the time he thought he would win. "Now, there''s only one more thing I need to do."


    He thrust his spear forward, trying to stab Ergene''s stomach. It seemed that he was adamant about making sure Ergene didn''t die so that he could take her as his woman, but it would be hisst mistake.


    "As I said, your aim is obvious." Ergene ced her palm in front of her stomach and let the guy pierce it.


    "What?" The guy was shocked that Ergene sacrificed her palm. But in that instant, Ergene coated her hand with Magic Power to strengthen her hand while enduring the pain.


    With this, she managed to grasp his spear.


    "No, my spear!" The guy tightened his grip to make sure Ergene didn''t get to take this spear from his hand.


    But this action resulted in his sturdy foundation shaking. Ergene took that opportunity to twist the spear, moving it to the side.


    After that, she spun her body and kicked the guy in the head, blowing him into the air.


    "Gah!" The guy spat a mouthful of blood and his nose was bleeding because the kick contained her lightning that sparked all the way to his back. Due to the shock and the numbing sensation the lightning gave, he let go of his spear.


    Ergene grasped that spear and threw it away while approaching the guy. Her lower arms joined together with both palms facing the same direction.


    "Her hands?" The guy gritted his teeth, trying to avoid the next attack. He didn''t expect that Ergene would keep fighting even after losing her sword. And that thought was the biggest mistake in his life.


    Ergene thrust those two palms straight to the guy''s heart.


    "If there''s an enemy in front of you, you should aim for the heart." Ergene snorted as the palm struck the guy''s chest and the lightning sparked, creating a hole through his heart. This wound was telling him not to create a hole in her stomach since she would still be alive and aim for her heart instead.


    But more importantly, she stated with a conviction, answering hisst doubt as she watched him fall. "As you said earlier, I only have my stubbornness. That is because a general won''t stop fighting until they''re dead. If you don''t have that vulgar thought, you would have won."


    The Fifth Way! Keep trying until you make it!

 Chapter 1381 Earth vs Chain

    Chapter 1381 Earth vs Chain����On another battlefield, Walker was smiling in front of the vice leader of the Skyward Mercenary, Farhan Reckens.


    As the vice leader, Farhan obviously remembered Walker as a captain of a mercenary group that got vanquished by them. After all, Walker was the sole survivor of the attack.


    "I don''t understand. Your mercenary was caught up in that incident�� Our target wasn''t your mercenary group, but because you were there, we wiped your group out too. Someone at your level should have been aware of the reason why we attacked that group." Farhan squinted his eyes, trying to probe the information from Walker.


    "Of course, I know. The conflict started after the S Rank Mercenary�� Or in our line, Diamond Level Mercenary Red Lion died in Ray Griffith''s hand. There was a conflict between the Griffith Family and the Yunteiweln Mercenary Group, so they dispatched your Skyward Mercenary to deal with the Mercenary Group topletely eliminate them. And due to us being there, we ended up getting involved and got wiped out by you."


    Farhan continued, "Then, you must know that the reason why your people died back then was because of Ray Griffith, who is supposed to be the father of your boss. If you want to attack someone, you should go to him."


    "No. It was you who killed my people. There wouldn''t be any problem for me since they wouldn''t attack us. If not for you killing my people, they wouldn''t have died. So, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But to think that he''s strong enough to be my master." Walker smirked. "For those two reasons, I''m going to kill you here!"


    "There doesn''t seem to be any words that can influence you anymore." Farhan released his Magic Power. Despite both of them standing in front of each other, none of them actually had a weapon.


    However, there was a bracelet containing a huge piece of gem that could channel their Magic Power. This was their weapon. Easy to use and useful.


    "That annoying smile. It seems that you''ve gone insane after that day." Farhan''s expression darkened as he raised both hands, channeling his energy into the jewel to amplify his power.


    "I have been insane since birth." Walker grinned and leaped into the air. "I can''t wait to kill you. It''s party time, baby! Heihoo!"


    Walker energetically pushed his right hand and summoned five unbreakable chains from his sleeves.


    Farhan leaped back to avoid these chains.


    *Bam!*


    The power from the chain alone was strong enough to create a crater. But the moment the chains smashed the ground, Walker noticed something.


    "Hmm?" Walker couldn''t pull his chain back as if it was getting sucked into something. Only when the dust settled that he could see what was going on.


    The ground that Farhan stepped on earlier turned into a pit of living sand, sucking the chains.


    He also noticed that the moment his chains were sucked into this pit, he couldn''t retract his chains.


    Taking advantage of this situation, Farhan sped his hands.


    Suddenly, a huge block emerged from the ground. The block made a cube-shaped face with big but durable teeth.


    This stone monster came out and tried to swallow Walker, who couldn''t escape from the living sand. However, Walker spread his arms and closed them again as if he was making a closing motion.


    Suddenly, chains appeared from the two sides of this block-faced monster, grasping both jaws.


    After that, Walker clenched his fists,manding his chain to use all their power to pull both jaws in the opposite directions, ripping apart the monster''s head.


    *Tsss!*


    The sand couldn''t withstand the power of the chains and ended up getting destroyed with the remaining sand starting to fall down. Some of the dirt seemed to haven''t been converted into sand.


    "Earth Magician," Walker muttered while making another smirk. He remembered what Agata said to him back then. No matter what happened, he needed to put on his smile.


    They both were magicians, so their battle wouldn''t be easy.


    After destroying the monster from the ground, Walker waved his hand, sending the chains toward Farhan in order to capture him.


    Farhan maintained his calm when those chains were about to hit him. Suddenly, a wall emerged from the ground, blocking the chains.


    Instead of destroying the wall, the chains got sucked into it, causing Walker''s both hands to be caught by this living sand.


    As soon as he caught Walker, Farhan stepped to the side,ing out of the wall that protected him earlier. After that, he raised his right hand and lifted the dirt around him.


    He manipted the dirt and reshaped them into huge nails, shooting them straight to Walker.


    A smile suddenly appeared on Walker''s face as the chains appeared from the ground and caught all these nails. The chains then spun around and threw the nails back at Farhan.


    "��" Farhan furrowed his eyebrows and leaped to the side.


    "It seems you can''t control the things you have summoned." Walker smirked, noticing this weakness. In other words, it was impossible for Farhan to control the living sand beneath his feet anymore.


    Hence, Walker gathered his Magic Power and stomped the ground, destroying the area around the living sand pit and causing the living sand to fall to the ground after losing the sucking power.


    Walker then threw another chain toward the sucking wall and shattered it, freeing himself.


    "Now, now. I''m free again." Walker smirked and leaped forward, trying to fight Farhan in closebat.


    Farhan surprisingly also followed suit.


    Both of them seemed to be capable in closebat despite being a magician.


    When they were about to collide, the chains came out of Walker''s body and enveloped him so that he wasn''t affected by his opponent''s Earth power.


    Meanwhile, Farhan jumped into the air as the rocks began to rise from the ground and formed a golem body.


    With twice the size of a human body, Farhan utilized this golem body to punch Walker.


    In response, Walker struck the golem''s fist with his own chain-covered fist.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter ?1382 Equivalent Exchange

    Chapter ?1382 Equivalent Exchange


    *Bam!*


    A huge shock wave erupted as the chain-covered fist destroyed the golem''s fist. But in the end, the golem was only made of normal rocks, so it was already a powerful golem to even cause that huge of a shock wave.


    "��" Walker also knew it because even though he was stronger, he didn''t feel like winning at all.


    Still, this was an advantageous position.


    As soon as he shattered the golem''s hand, Walker continued marching forward to strike the golem''s body.


    However, the golem suddenly restored its lost hand in an instant as a part of the rock was reattached to it. And with him charging toward the golem''s body, the golem took advantage of its size and tried to hug him, crushing him inside.


    Walker squinted his eyes, but he was still confident that the golem couldn''t do anything to him. The part of the rocks earlier had been touched by his hand, specifically the chains on his hand. So, the reattached arm suddenly summoned ten chains surrounding the golem.


    "!!!" Farhan was surprised by the chains'' sudden appearance and immediately left the golem. While jumping back, he saw the chains binding the golem before tightening until they crushed the golem. If he was still there, his body would suffer the same fate.


    Still, Walker had yet to finish his attack. The ten chains that destroyed the golem suddenly grabbed the rocks and threw them at Farhan.


    Recalling what happened to the reattached arm, Farhan''s expression became serious, knowing he would lose if he held back.


    As he predicted, the rocks summoned numerous chains to capture him.


    "Tsk." Farhan clicked his tongue and made a circle with his hand. "Living Wall."


    The dirt rose and formed a dome, isting Farhan inside.


    The moment the chains struck the dome, they got sucked as the dome turned into living sand again.


    ''As expected, it seems that I can''t summon anything in those living spots. They''re sucking everything, but��'' Walker smirked and sent five more chains and struck the dome from five different spots, making it crumble to the ground. With this, he could still use all his chains again.


    But to his surprise, the moment the dome crumbled, numerous golems made their appearance.


    "It seems that I need to fight you with numbers, so be it!" Farhanmanded a hundred golems at the size of the previous one, challenging Walker.


    "Your soldiers against my chains, huh? Interesting." Walker smirked and summoned all fifty chains, counting on them to destroy two golems each.


    The moment they reached the golems, the chains easily shattered them in a single thrust. Walker had expected this because it was impossible to maintain the quality with so many golems.


    But what he didn''t expect was the fact that Farhan turned the golems into living sand, forcing him to be unable to take advantage of the rocks to summon the chains around him.


    "Tsk." Walker clicked his tongue since he couldn''t take advantage of the situation.


    But when he was about to strike the remaining golems, he suddenly felt an overwhelming presenceing from his back.


    "Huh?" Walker turned his head around and saw a huge fist hit him.


    "Gah!" Walker spat some acid from his stomach.


    It turned out all the golems in front of him were just a distraction for Farhan to summon his greatest golem and sneak attack on him.


    The punch was so hard that Walker ended up getting blown away by the remaining golems and lost control over his chains.


    ''So, that''s how it is. He used those golems to distract me. It was for the golem behind me. And after sending me this way, those remaining golems will swarm me and beat me up. I''m not that easy!'' Walker gritted his teeth and snapped his finger.


    When hitting Walker, the golem touched Walker''s back, so of course, he could summon his chain now.


    That chain flew to Walker and caught him, stopping all his momentum.


    With this, he still hadn''t reached the golems'' location.


    After stopping in his tracks, Walker''s eyes turned bloodshot as he pulled the chain that stopped him earlier.


    "!!!" Farhan was stunned because the giant golem that he nned to use to kill Walker was flying straight at him after Walker threw it with his raw strength.


    "Die, you mongrel." Walkerughed crazily. However, thatugh was simply hiding his astonishment. In his heart, he was actually feeling relieved that he didn''t die from that attack. ''Luckily, I maintained our distance. As a fellow magician, I know that it''s impossible to get good control over something from that far away. That''s why his golem can only punch me instead of using a sword or drill.''


    Farhan gritted his teeth and used the remaining golems as a shield, stopping this giant golem.


    However, Walker summoned more chains from the giant golem''s fist and shattered all the golems that stood in his way.


    ''Annoying. That motherfucker can summon his unbreakable chains from everything he touches. He''s dangerous.'' Farhan bit his lips as he summoned the same monster from the ground that would crush the giant golem with its jaws.


    *Crack!*


    The golem could easily be crushed by this monster, but even Farhan would be surprised when it suddenly shattered when he hadn''t applied enough force to destroy this golem.


    A chain pierced through the golem''s body and went straight to Farhan.


    "!!!" Farhan widened his eyes in shock. "He''s using the golem as bait?"


    It turned out the real attack was the chain instead of the golem. Walker just took advantage of its giant body to hide himself behind it.


    After all, behind that chain was Walker, who was waiting for the opportunity to slip past through and kill him.


    Farhan covered his body with the rocks and took this chain head-on. It was already toote to dodge.


    "Gah!" Farhan also spat some acid from his stomach as if feeling the payback that Walker just did from the fist earlier.


    The chain, unfortunately, couldn''t pierce through his body due to the sturdiness of the rocks but the momentum and power still blew him away.


    Walker then leaped into the air with a huge smile on his face. "An eye for an eye and a hit for a hit! And I have confidence that I won''t lose in terms of endurance. Let''s go again, Baby. Hooo-!"

 Chapter 1383 Magicians Who Couldnt Be Called Magicians

    Chapter 1383 Magicians Who Couldn''t Be Called Magicians


    "Hooo��!" Walker summoned numerous chains and nned to crush Farhan.


    Farhan gritted his teeth and leaped forward as if he nned to dodge all those chains while getting closer to Walker.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    The chains rained him down, but none of them hit him.


    They were bing closer and closer until Farhan reached Walker.


    Instead of a golem, Farhan stomped the ground, lifting the ground underneath Walker and turning them into spikes.


    "!!!" Walker spun his body while using centrifugal force to crush the spikes with his chains. The chains acted like a whip and shattered all the spikes before they reached him.


    However, the spikes were just a distraction. As soon as they fell down, the ground turned into a living sand pit, sucking Walker''s body.


    "Huh?!" Walker couldn''t move his feet, but Farhan had already reached him, sending a punch straight to his face. Of course, he used the rock to make sure Walker didn''t summon a chain directly from his hand.


    Walker gritted his teeth and immediately raised both hands, blocking this punch.


    "Kh!" The force knocked him back, but because his feet couldn''t move, he ended up falling on his butt.


    The rock fist had turned into the living sand again as Farhan created another fist. It seemed he nned to continuously renew his rock to make sure Walker couldn''t take advantage of it.


    In desperation, Walker pushed his palm forward, summoning the chain directly from his palm.


    "You can''t move now, so this is easy." Farhan smirked and tilted his body to the side, avoiding the chain. He even prepared to hit Walker again.


    But Walker smirked as he said, "Though, I didn''t miss my target."


    "Target?!" Farhan was stunned and turned around. But using that sudden confusion, Walker destroyed the ground around him with the chains, scooping him out of the living sand.


    After that, he punched Farhan with his chain-covered fist.


    Farhan couldn''t discern what Walker said because he was forced to turn back to stop this punch. He ultimately thought Walker bluffed his way out and chose not to trust any words he said anymore.


    In the end, both of them struck each other''s face with their fist.


    "Gah!" Their nose bled, but Walker kept smiling as if he got more excited the more damage he could deal to Farhan.


    "Come on!" Walker shouted excitedly and kept throwing punches after punches.


    This was truly a bizarre battle between two magicians since they ended up exchanging fists. None of them seemed to have any intention to back out.


    Not many knew about it, but Farhan was also an entric magician like him. His Earth Affinity could make him a summoner and a magician, but he was more adept in closebat.


    In fact, his golems could be so strong because he had extensive knowledge about Martial Arts, allowing the golems to move like a Martial Master.


    "Ha��"


    "Ha��"


    .


    Both of their bodies were tattered. Bruises had covered their bodies and they would fall sooner orter.


    "Tsk. I ended up getting drawn to your pace because of that freaking smile." Farhan gritted his teeth, never expecting to be so bothered with that smile.


    "Haha, I have promised the Mistress to keep smiling. But it seems that you don''t know what kind of smile I have this whole time��" Walker''s smile became even bigger. Agata told him to keep smiling like a fool while hiding his true intention in his heart. So, for the first time, he finally let out his true feelings from his heart.


    Farhan''s body shook as he felt the boundless killing intent within that smile. Instead of an insane guy, that smile was like that of a devil.


    It turned out Walker had been fighting him with this kind of intention. But at the same time, the only reason why Walker let out his true intention was because he nned to end this battle.


    Farhan felt challenged and gathered all the rocks that he could muster and formed a huge drill. "Your chain and my earth affinity�� We both can''t do much as a magician despite being one. If you want revenge, thene!"


    "That''s my n!" Walker summoned all fifty chains at the same time. As he said, their attributes couldn''t do much as a magician since Walker could only summon his chain, bind his opponent or crush them with the momentum. That was why they couldn''t really be called a magician.


    Hence, he nned to end this battle the same way as Farhan intended to. They both created a huge drill to see who was stronger.


    Both of them marched forward with their drills in front of them, trying to prate everything in front of them.


    The moment they shed, the chains suddenly loosened and wrapped the rock drill, tightening its grip to destroy it. At the same time, the rock drill kept spinning until it reached Walker.


    *Boom!*


    The rock shattered and the chains derailed as the dust kicked up, covering them.


    When the dust settled, the result was clear.


    "It seems�� I have witnessed the reason why you managed to escape from us." Farhan coughed up blood as his body was lying on the ground with Walker''s foot on top of his chest, ready to crush him.


    He looked at Walker while saying, "I have lost. Kill me."


    "I''ll give you painless death if you apologize to my deceased friends." Walker narrowed his eyes, pressuring him. He panted a few times because his body was tattered as well.


    "Apologize? Dream on. I never regretted killing people." Farhan snorted. "Even if they were a child, I only killed them because I had convinced myself to kill. That''s not something to regret."


    Walker gritted his teeth. Without saying a single more word, he already knew that it was impossible to convince him no matter how hard he tortured Farhan.


    "In that case��" Walker pointed his palm at him and summoned numerous chains, stabbing all over his body. This looked like Walker wanted him to die from blood loss, but this was Walker''s revenge.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" Farhan screamed in pain. He had already expected all this, but Walker seemed to be crueler than he thought because he even pierced through his eyes.


    However, he still underestimated Walker because what Walker did next was one of the most brutal deaths that one could receive.


    Walker suddenly pulled his hand back as the chains also came out of Farhan''s body. But all the chains actually pulled out something from his body.


    Eyeballs, brain, heart�� every organ in Farhan''s body was pulled out by those chains. Walker released all his hatred in that one pull as if nning to end everything.


    Farhan couldn''t even scream before he died.


    Seeing the gruesome death of Farhan, Walker took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and raised his head. The memory of his pastrades shed in his mind.


    "Cheers!" There was a memory of a party with hisrades in the middle of a desert as if they were adventuring instead of going on a mission.


    "Aaaahhhh!" Another memory was about hisrades getting ughtered left and right by Farhan. He couldn''t do anything because he was suppressed by Airvans and could only watch hisrades die such a cruel death.


    "Captain. Please live on!" There was also the memory of when thest three people of his group pushed him away in order to stop Airvans even for just a second longer. They were the first threerades he gathered when he created the mercenary group. They all sent him away with a smile.


    And finally, the memory he had burned into his brain, the memory of Farhan''s death. Tears couldn''t help but flow out of his eyes as Walker muttered with a shaky voice. "Farewell, my brothers and sisters. I''ll keep living on to serve my master for the rest of my life to repay his graciousness. I hope that we can gather once again in the next life."

 Chapter 1384 Steamed Turtle or Turtle Soup

    Chapter 1384 Steamed Turtle or Turtle Soup


    "Attack her. Don''t give her any time to think." The summoner of the Skyward Mercenarymanded all ten monsters to attack Coline.


    There were two Mythical Rank Monsters and eight Supreme Rank Monsters before her, but Coline couldn''t really gain any advantage by targeting the eight Supreme Rank Monsters.


    The summoner had positioned his two Mythical Rank Monsters to be in the front, taking her on. The first monster was a blue-colored ape that seemed to have an ice attribute that could neutralize her fire, while the second monster was a turtle that kept protecting the ape from his attack by using its barrier.


    These two monsters kept her at bay while the remaining monsters attacked her from the side. All they did was maintain their distance and distract Coline with their attacks. None of them didn''t care if Coline could dodge their attacks easily since they coordinated their attacks, restricting Coline''s movement.


    As for the summoner himself, instead of attacking Coline together with the Mythical Rank Monsters, the summoner stayed behind to protect the eight monsters from Coline''s ranged attack in case he targeted them. This position was the perfect position to suppress Coline since she had been on the defensive this whole time.


    "��" Coline squinted her eyes while jumping around to avoid the ape''s punches.


    Each punch contained so much power that it created a small crater. In just a few rounds, the battlefield was destroyed.


    *Bam!*


    Another punch struck the ground as Coline managed to safely jump away. Before the ape was out of reach, Coline waved her kitchen knife and released a me wave that seemed to be able to burn the ape.


    However, a translucent barrier appeared in front of the ape, blocking this me. After that, the ape froze that me and shattered it with a punch.


    "You won''t be able to defeat my sweethearts." The summoner smiled. "If only they send someone to help you, you might be able to defeat me. But as long as you can''t destroy my turtle''s barrier, you won''t be able to win."


    "Phoenix Fire." Coline waved her hand as a bright red me came out of her body, trying to envelop both the turtle and the ape together. However, her attack was suddenly suppressed by a stream of water that fell to the ground.


    The water came from one of the eight Supreme Rank Monsters and another volley of attacks rained her down.


    Coline narrowed her eyes and raised her hand. "Culinary Magic. Summon, Pan."


    A huge pan suddenly appeared before her as Coline grabbed that pan and struck this volley of attacks. The pan even had a zing fire on the inside as if she was cooking the attacks itself.


    "You are more annoying than I thought�� but that doesn''t matter anymore. I have understood their principle and will start cooking them." Coline smirked.


    "Huh?" The summoner was confused, but Coline immediately leaped forward.


    The turtle hurriedly stood in her way and summoned the barrier to stop her.


    "I have seen through this barrier. It''s only filled with Magic Power, so�� I just have to cut it." Coline took out a huge sharp knife that was used to cut a tuna or other big sea creatures. "Enhanced Butcher."


    Coline suddenly cut down the barrier thinly as if she was trying to filet a fish.


    "What?" The summoner widened his eyes because this was the first time Coline destroyed the barrier.


    The turtle hurriedly returned to its home, hiding inside its stone hard shell.


    "Help him!" The summoner ordered the ape to make his move so that Coline didn''t kill the turtle.


    However, she had been waiting for him this whole time. As soon as shended on the turtle''s shell, she jumped up, avoiding the punch. After that, Coline climbed this thirty feet tall ape''s hand.


    "Come on. It''s time to prepare you." Coline smirked and raised her giant knife. She even activated her X-Ray Vision to see the ape''s bones and organs.


    .


    "Attack her. Stop her no matter what!" The summoner panicked because if Coline could easily cut the barrier down, she could cut the ape into pieces easily.


    The other monsters tried to attack her from afar while the summoner finally stepped forward, trying to help the two Mythical Rank Monsters.


    However, her aim actually wasn''t the ape but the turtle itself.


    When she saw the watering to her, Coline hurriedly summoned a huge pot and caught all the water, putting it next to the turtle.


    "No. Protect the turtle!" The summonermanded again, panicking after realizing Coline''s aim.


    However, it was toote, Coline leaped off as the attacks rained the ape down, preventing him from doing anything.


    Meanwhile, Coline reached the giant turtle and struck him from below.


    Cross sh.


    This powerful attackunched the turtle into the air.


    As if it didn''t want to die, the turtle hurriedly surrounded himself with a barrier. But he suddenly felt an impact on his body.


    When his head came out to take a peek at what was going on, he saw the pot filled with water inside the barrier. In other words, there was his body and the pot inside the barrier.


    Coline smirked and released her Phoenix Fire. She asked the question to the turtle with a devilish smile. "Choose. A steamed turtle or a turtle soup?"


    The turtle was horrified because the Phoenix Fire was so hot that the water had started boiling. His body also began to heat up as the cooking process seemed to have started.


    He hurriedly opened the barrier to run away, but that was his biggest mistake. The moment the barrier was opened, Coline appeared next to his head with a giant butcher knife. "Thought so."


    "!!!" The turtle was stunned, but before it could hide inside its shell again, Coline had struck his neck, cutting it down.


    "I wonder if I should steam the turtle or make soup for the banquet of Theo and Agata''s engagement��" Coline smirked while ncing at the ape as if she was him as another ingredient she had to prepare.


    The ape truly feared Coline now because he could picture himself getting killed and turned into food by Coline. The ape''s instinct told him to run without caring for the one who summoned him.


    And it truly ran away�� A Mythical Rank Monster actually ran away from Coline.


    "Oi, you are a fucking ingredient. Don''t you dare run. Never mind, I''ll just roast you right away!" Coline gathered all her power and released a huge me that could burn the ape into crisp.


    The ape was in deep fear and hurriedly threw his body to the side to avoid the me. However, that was also another mistake because Coline caught up to him with a tuna sword.


    "Enhanced Butcher." Coline smirked and cut the ape''s neck, killing it the same way as the turtle.


    When she was about to dress the ape, she swung her sword to the side as the sword collided with a meta wand.


    *Clink!*


    "You bitch. What did you do to my beloved pets?!" The summoner finally reached her.


    "They are just ingredients." Coline smirked. "And don''t worry, I''ll kill youter. After all, your summoned monsters will disappear if I kill you, right? I should prep them first."


    "You�� You monster!"

 Chapter 1385 Cook Everything

    Chapter 1385 Cook Everything


    "You�� monster!"


    Coline replied with a calm tone. "No, they''re monsters, not pets. As long as they''re monsters and not domestic pets, I consider them as my ingredients."


    With a smirk on his face, Coline suddenly leaped away.


    Z-Footsteps.


    She looped around the summoner and approached the remaining monsters. "Come here, my cute ingredients. I''ll make you delicious."


    The monsters had seen the cruelty of Coline as fear started to grow in their hearts as well. She was truly brutal against a monster.


    "No!" The summoner tried to chase after her, trying to stop her. At the same time, he couldn''t retract his summon since they were the only hope left to win this battle. If they didn''t attack Coline, they had no chance of winning. If he died, they would disappear as well.


    That was why the summoner was in a big dilemma. On the one hand, he had his job to defeat Coline. On the other hand, he couldn''t stand Coline''s brutality.


    Unfortunately for him, there was a huge difference in power between him and Coline now that the two Mythical Rank Monsters had died.


    The Supreme Rank Monsters attacked her desperately because they didn''t want to end up like the ape and the turtle.


    Unfortunately for them, Coline simply raised her tuna sword and channeled her Magic Power into it. "Enhanced Butcher."


    She cut down everything. Even the water that had no form somehow got shaped into a flower. The rocks that rained her down cracked like a peanut. The lightning was minced.


    She truly considered everything as an ingredient.


    Coline might not be the best chef in the world, but she was truly the strongest chef in the world. After all, she was the chef that could actually cook everything, whether they were real ingredients or even the Magic Power itself.


    When all those attacks were neutralized, Coline finally reached the monsters.


    "Hey, hey!" The smile on her face became bigger. With the Phoenix Fire in her left hand and a butcher knife in her right hand, Coline began her cooking.


    "No!" The summoner roared as he frantically chased after her, but she could escape every time and continued to chase after the monsters that frantically ran away.


    Some of them were well-done, some were medium-rare, and some only got butchered as she had no time to cook all of them.


    "You�� You don''t deserve to live!" The summoner shouted as the tears flowed out of his eyes, never expecting that Coline would treat them so brutally. She killed them not as a fighter but as an ingredient. It was truly a brutal death.


    Because there was no monster left, Coline became disappointed and looked at the summoner, who seemed to have gone insane.


    "If you have more monsters, hurry up and call them." Coline snorted, looking down on him.


    "You have killed all of them. Even if I have more, I won''t summon them because of your brutality!"


    "Tsk. You are already boring then." Coline clicked her tongue and swung her sword at him, killing the "That''s the end, I guess�� If only he is like Theo, who can make a real fish or something with his illusion, I can keep practicing my butchering skill with them." Coline let out a long sigh. "Now that I think about it, I think my me goes somewhere�� Did I hit someone?"


    She turned around to see where her me went.


    ��


    In the middle of the battlefield, Akbar was facing an assassin of the Skyward Mercenary.


    Akbar was only a scout, whose job was to go ahead to explore thend. This job wasn''t that good in terms ofbat power and a scout rarely became a Mythical Rank Expert because theycked in killing power like a healer.


    That was why a job like Healer or Scout usually came in the form of a secondary job. But Akbar was different.


    Despite the scout being his sole job, he managed to reach the Mythical Rank. Among the people in Theo''s group, Akbar might be the hardest to be understood.


    "It seems that they want you to only buy some time." The expert from the Skyward Mercenary smirked, looking down on Akbar.


    Akbar maintained his poker face while ncing at his book.


    "Edgard Melvist, an assassin, who has some bad records in his mission. You seem to have failed the bodyguard mission three times, the highest among your peers. Your killing power isn''t that great either." Akbar let out a long sigh, disappointed in his enemy.


    Edgard didn''t know why Akbar seemed to know so much.


    Without hesitation, Edgard took out his weapon and leaped to Akbar to kill him.


    Akbar maintained his poker face. He didn''t have any weapon since he only had that book. Even Edgard thought he could destroy the book easily with a single sh.


    Akbar frowned and started running away as if he didn''t want to fight him. "If I were you, I would just stay in your position and stop chasing me."


    "You''re telling me you''re weak without telling me you are weak." Edgard smirked as he sped up, catching up to Akbar while swinging his dagger.


    Akbar waved his hand and released a huge amount of Magic Power to deflect this dagger.


    *Fwoosh!*


    Edgard felt the tremendous pressure from Akbar''s hand and furrowed his eyebrows. What Akbar was doing was releasing his raw Magic Power excessively just to stop his swing.


    "Not only are you a scout, but you don''t have any weapons to protect yourself? I wonder how you even live to this day. Well, I don''t care since I''m going to kill you." Edgard smirked and swung his dagger again.


    Akbar furrowed his eyebrows and kept pushing the dagger away. It seemed he didn''t care about using so much Magic Power just to deflect his de.


    Akbar was indirectly telling him that he didn''t mind spending all his power just to keep him at bay. Since he was in the middle of the battlefield, others would be able to reach him in an instant after finishing their battle. In other words, he was sacrificing himself until they finished their battle.


    Their sh was very different from anyone else because Edgard was swinging his daggers effortlessly, trying to tire Akbar out. He didn''t even bother to use his Magic Power because of his confidence.


    Their sh continued for ten minutes before Akbar suddenly stopped running.


    "Hmm?" Edgard was confused for a moment, but it seemed Akbar had run out of gas already.


    summoner who couldn''t match her prowess by himself.


    However, there was a smile on Akbar''s face. "Well, it''s time, I guess."

 Chapter 1386 The Power of Information

    Chapter 1386 The Power of Information


    "Well, it''s time, I guess." Akbar smiled as he finally stopped running.


    "You''ve finally given up. You think you can escape when I''m chasing you around? And it''s your people who make a mistake. They shouldn''t have sent you to the middle of the battlefield when you can''t even protect yourself." Edgard snorted. "The reason you die is because of your people sending you to your death."


    "To my death? Not at all. They sent me to the ce where I could utilize my strength." Akbar shook his head and pointed at Edgard. "And from now on, I can assure you that you won''t be able to do anything."


    "I won''t be able to do anything? I''ll kill you right now!" Edgard roared. His eyes turned bloodshot as his Magic Power red up, showing his anger.


    Akbar''s book suddenly shone as Akbar read everything inside the book. "Yes, yes. There is a 100% chance that you will use a cross-sh attack that will fly at me."


    "How��" Edgard paused for a moment because he truly wanted to use it.


    "Oh! If I were you, I wouldn''t do that." Akbar smirked.


    "What did you say?" Edgard gritted his teeth and channeled his power into his two daggers before shing the air to release a powerful strike forward.


    .


    But when he was shing forward, he felt an overwhelming presenceing from behind.


    "Wha��" He didn''t expect that someone woulde over, but it was toote to even do anything.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!" Edgard spat a mouthful of blood as he fell to his knees. There was a powerful impact on his back. Even though he managed to cover his back with Magic Power to soften the impact, the power behind it was still too much for his body to handle.


    He felt that his consciousness faded for a moment because something hit his spine.


    When he nced at his back, he saw a chain disappearing on the ground as this was the culprit of the attack this time.


    "A chain?" Edgard was stunned because Walker was supposed to be fighting their vice-captain.


    However, Akbar smiled calmly and stated, "If I use my power to mark you, there is a hundred percent that Walker will notice. Despite his entric behavior, his vision is the third widest after Ergene and me. You should run away right now."


    "What are you saying?" Edgard gritted his teeth, taking this taunt head-on. He hurriedly released the power that still remained in his daggers.


    But the moment he raised his hands, huge crescent-shaped energy flew past them and cut his hands.


    "Huh?" Edgard had a horrified expression, not knowing what had happened. But he witnessed how his hands fell to the ground. "A-aaaahhhhhh!"


    He screamed in pain when he understood what had happened to him.


    "I already told you to run away. After that attack, there is an 85% chance that Felix''s attack wille to your position because your friend avoids it instead of taking it head-on." Akbar smirked. "After all, that guy is an assassin, and his targets are not only those Mythical Rank Experts before him but all of you, including you."


    "Aaaahhhhh!" Edgard tried to endure the pain and find a way to stop Akbar. "You�� What are you��"


    "I am just a Scout, not worthy of a god like assassin such as yourself." Akbar smiled, mocking Edgard. "I simply gather everyone''s information, including you. Due to your personality and job advantage, you will be arrogant and don''t heed my advice, so there''s a 90% chance that you will do the opposite of what I tell you to do."


    Edgard was dumbfounded.


    "I know the information of your people as well as myrades. But the information I have is not simply data regarding yourbat power. I also collect your personality, behavior, character, and your daily conduct. All of that data can be used to calcte what will most likely happen in this ce. All I need to do is to use their actions to attack you. Don''t underestimate information." Akbar smiled as if he could see through everything.


    "W-what?! You�� You��!" Edgard panicked and desperately grabbed his dagger even if he had to use his mouth. He bit the dagger and threw it with the help of Magic Power to attack Akbar. He needed to distract him before running away from this ce.


    But when the dagger was about to hit him, a translucent barrier suddenly appeared, covering a wide area. The barrier blocked the dagger effortlessly.


    "What? A barrier? No, I should escape." Edgard hurriedly stood up.


    "After realizing that you stand no chance against me, you''ll be desperate to distract me. But after a few minutes into the battle, there''s an 85% chance that your people will leave Ryo and Chris since they couldn''t prate Ryo''s barrier. To prevent them from interfering with others'' battles, Ryo has to cast a wide-range barrier to lock them in." Akbar kept reciting everything as if he had calcted everything. "And when you are about to run away��"


    Before he finished, a huge burst of me suddenly struck Edgard''s back and burned him.


    "Aaaaaahhhh!" Edgard screamed again. He simply couldn''t do anything because he got attacked relentlessly from all sides without Akbar even coordinating with them. He simply calcted how they moved and used that information to kill him.


    And thisst me came from none other than Coline.


    "You shouldn''t forget about Coline, who is pissed off because her ingredients are running away. Even though she is an easy-going person on the surface, she''s an insane woman when ites to ingredients. There is a 95% chance that her me will go this way." Akbar smirked.


    "Gah!" Edgard was burned to a crisp as his consciousness gradually faded from the continuous attack.


    "And there is a 100% chance that you''ll die if you fight me." Akbar smirked.


    "You��" Edgard red at Akbar in his dying breath.


    Akbar made a pistol gesture with his hand and pointed at him while saying with a smug smile. "If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. You die today because you underestimate information."

 Chapter 1387 Theo vs Theo

    <h4>Chapter 1387 Theo vs Theo</h4>


    "Hu..." Akbar took a deep breath while closing the book as he had finished his job. He turned around while saying, "There is a 99% chance that Rea will finish the battle first ande to me instead of Ergene."


    As he said, Rea came to his position with a frown. "Can you not say    chance?"


    "Haha, is it creepy?"


    "Well, I don''t mean to be rude, but when you were talking about it with Isaac, you often talked by chance or something. It made me ufortable to be honest like you saying there''s an 80% chance that I''m getting bothered with how you talk or something. Not everything is based on probability." Rea scratched the back of her head. "I apologize if I insult you."


    "No, that''s understandable. If that makes you ufortable, unless it''s important enough, I can refrain from using the probability." Akbar nodded.


    "Anyway, we''re the first to defeat our opponents. What are we going to do?" Rea asked. "Should we help Ryo and Chris? Or go to Felix? Maybe the rabbit?"


    Akbar fell silent for a moment before giving her the option. "There''s an 80% chance that you will die if you help the rabbit, but you are 100% burdening her."


    "So, we can''t go there. How about the others?"


    .


    "If there are only two of us, there is a 50% chance we will seed in helping Felix. So, I suggest that we help Ryo and Chris, who have been helping us this whole time. If not for Chris'' music, our abilities won''t increase that much. If not for Ryo, Chris can''t y this long. If we have their help, we can relieve Felix so that he can help Ruth.


    "At the same time, there is a 70% chance that Jeff and Coline finish their battle at that time."


    "I see. With more help, we can turn around the situation. That''s the best. How about the winning probability of others?"


    "Our group is quite entric, but I can say it''s around 60% at the very least. But I can''t predict Theo and the rabbit."


    "Understood. We''ll be focusing on the others then. If we can surround the Poison King..."


    "The probability of us dying against the Poison King will decrease from 90% to 40%."


    "It''s still too high, but that depends on the help of the War God Family. Anyway, we''re going to Chris and Ryo."?


    "Okay."


    Akbar and Rea hade to an agreement and moved ording to their judgment.


    Still, the biggest movement came from the other battlefield where the Griffith Family and the War God Family shed.


    Theo and the Original Theo were staring at each other as if they could see through what each other was thinking. It might be due to them being the same person, but everything seemed clear in their eyes.


    Both of them actually thought the same thing, which was to prove their doubt by raising their right hand at the same time.


    ''As expected, it seems that both of us can understand each other. Even though he''s just my clone.'' The Original Theo narrowed his eyes. The fact that his clone did the same thing as him angered him.


    On the other hand, Theo had a different thought. ''Even though we''re able to see each other''s thoughts. It seems that we have different perspectives and characters. After experiencing many things, I have matured and am well-versed in strategy. On the other hand, I don''t know what he''s experienced in that ce, but it surely affects his state of mind.


    ''He probably has an anger issue, and that''s something I can take advantage of. The problem will be his Devouring Order. Can I do this?'' Theo gulped down as he was watching the Original Theo with his Realistic Eyes.


    Surprisingly, in those realities, the Devouring Order overwhelmed him.


    "I see. This is interesting. Doesn''t this mean a chance for me to surpass him?" Theo muttered in a low voice as he leaped forward while shouting, "Ne. Leave this ce."


    Ne knew that staying here would just endanger his life, so she immediately stepped out of the battlefield after showing she supported him no matter who he was.


    Theo thanked Ne in his heart while raising his right hand.


    Suddenly, a huge monster head came out of the ground and swallowed the Original Theo. Of course, this was just an illusion, but the monster''s head suddenly turned ck as it melted to the ground.


    Theo saw that the melting process didn''t make the monster flow down, so it was clear that the Original Theo devoured it instead of melting it.


    The Original Theo then replied in the same way. Pointing his palm at Theo, he shot out a ck substance.


    Due to his Reality Eyes, Theo could see that this attack was the Curse Bestowal. Hence, Theo summoned his Death Avatar and opened the barrier, preventing any curse froming inside.


    The ck substance waspletely stopped by the barrier and only the Magic Power flew past it.


    "Hahaha, this is interesting." Theo smirked.


    The Original Theo frowned. "What''s interesting? A mere clone dares to go against the Original?"


    "It''s interesting because I can see my limits by fighting myself. And don''t forget that... I don''t have to limit myself anymore." Theo smirked.


    Suddenly, Magic Bullets appeared on his back.


    In the past, Theo had taken advantage of the versatility of the Magic Bullets in most battles. But because of Joker''s identity, Theo couldn''t use the Magic Bullets in the open anymore. He had to change their shapes to make them not look like Magic Bullets, resulting in him not being able to summon the Magic Bullets to the limit.


    There was one advantage of Magic Bullets, they didn''t need a huge amount of Magic Power since Theo didn''t need to reshape them and they were easy to control.


    Three years ago, Theo could only summon two hundred Magic Bullets at once. But three yearster, Theo had reached Perfect Control and Mythical Rank.


    The Magic Bullets that appeared behind him were so many that their light was blinding.


    "It''s truly been a while, so I''m going all out." Theo smiled as he summoned more than two thousand Magic Bullets.


    *****


    (AN: I''m using Theo as the current Theo and "Original Theo" as the one with devouring power to make it easier to differentiate.)

 Chapter 1388 Theo vs Theo (2)

    Chapter 1388 Theo vs Theo (2)


    "��" The Original Theo squinted his eyes as the Magic Bullets were truly blinding. However, he wasn''t someone who would allow Theo to move as he wanted.


    "Infinite Darkness." The Original Theo muttered in a low voice. Suddenly, his body emitted a wave of ck energy.


    When it reached Theo, he could see that the world had turned ck. The blue sky became lifeless gray and the white cloud turned ck. The ground was now filled with dead grass.


    "How about ying in a horror movie instead? You seem to be talented there." Theo smirked, taunting the Original Theo again.


    "Shut up!" The Original Theo shouted while waving his hand down.


    Suddenly, the Magic Bullets he summoned earlier turned ck as if they were influenced by this power.


    "!!!" Theo felt something wrong in the Magic Bullets and immediately leaped into the air as the Magic Bullets suddenly flew forth and curved to his position, trying to harm their own master.


    Theo looked at the bullets for a moment and snapped his finger. The Magic Bullets that turned dark earlier suddenly regained their light and Theo controlled them again to fly toward the Original Theo instead.


    The Original Theo lifted his finger and the Magic Bullets turned ck again. Theo, of course, wanted to use his Reality Power to remove the influence, but the Original Theo seemed to have another n as he summoned a ck substance from his hand.


    This time, the ck substance actually devoured all the Magic Bullets before they could explode.


    As the skill''s name implied, it devoured his Magic Bullets until he could feel no trace of them anymore.


    Theo took out the spear for the first time and pointed at the Original Theo. It seemed that thetter didn''t have his weapon.


    They truly had the same thought because before they shed, both of them had nted their Covenant Seal on thisnd, trying to utilize the energy from thend to use their Order.


    The Original Theo used a portion of the energy while pping his hands, sending forth a ck bubble toward Theo.


    Meanwhile, Theo gathered his Order into the tip of his spear and thrust the ck bubble.


    The two powers shed as ck and golden energy split this gloomy world.


    Theo''s Reality Order tried to remove the ck bubble from its existence, but Theo noticed something during the sh.


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes and hurriedly jumped back to regain his distance while observing the ck bubble.


    "You won''t be able to do anything!" The Original Theo smirked, looking down on him.


    Theo had seen this a few months ago.


    ''Now that I think about it, the Poison King has done the same thing. And it seems to be the base of Authority as well. What kind of power do I want for my Reality Order? If it''s the Frost Saint, he wants the ice that can freeze everything, including time. For this Order, I''m sure that my original self wants to devour everything like that of a ck hole where light can''t escape. That''s why my Reality Power is sucked into it too��'' Theo observed this devouring power while frowning.


    On the one hand, Theo was wondering about his desire for this power. On the other hand, he didn''t believe that he would be skillful enough to utilize it unless he gained enlightenment which wasn''t going to happen here.


    Hence, Theo only had one job to do. Defeat his original self with the current power he had.


    Theo clenched his fist while looking at the Original Theo.


    Thetter suddenly felt the Magic Power gathering on top of him and immediately waved his hand, using this ck substance as his roof.


    However, it seemed that he had underestimated Theo because when the Magic Power erupted, the shock wave was so strong that it turned the area into a huge crater with only the ground beneath the Original Theo unaffected.


    "��" The Original Theo became even angry because Theo was making a face as if telling him, "Come on. That was just a joke, but you still had to protect yourself. I''m embarrassed if you im you are the original.


    It was clearly a provocation to tell the Original Theo that he better die so as not to embarrass himself.


    No matter what, unless he could kill Theo today, he had to hide himself since Theo''s prowess had been known to the world. Even if he told the world that Theo was his clone, not many would believe him. Most of them just considered him as the fake trying to be the original or this whole n was just an urban myth or him being Theo''s clone.


    That was why the Original Theo knew that Theo had to die in this ce if he wanted to live openly again.


    He gritted his teeth and said, "Darkness Descent."


    Theo raised his head and saw a moving ck te descending from the sky. It looked like the form of this skill, but Theo couldn''t be fooled. There was no way this te was the S Rank Skill.


    Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian in the spear form and shot the small te, trying to knock it down.


    Seeing the iing threat, this skill finally showed its real prowess. A small hole appeared on the bottom of the te as an oval-shaped creature emerged from the hole. It had several tentacles that moved around like that of a whip.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock when the tentacles tried to stop his Irregr Guardian.


    moved around like that of a whip.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock when the tentacles tried to stop his Irregr Guardian.


    He even forced the Irregr Guardian to stop and go back because it stood no chance. Unfortunately for him, it was toote. The tentacles from this creature suddenly moved and caught the spear, sucking the Magic Power until the spear disappeared.


    This creature truly sucked everything to death.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, thinking, ''As expected of an S Rank Skill.''


    "But I''m not done." Theo smirked as he stomped the ground with all his might, causing the air to go up. ''If you want to descend, then so be it. Let''s see if you can.''


    Ascension Step, First Step.

 Chapter 1389: Theo vs Theo (3)

    <hr>


    Chapter 1389: Theo vs Theo (3)


    "Do you think I will let you do that?" The Original Theo recognized this power since it was the same attack that defeated Alea and Ana when he visited Russia a few years ago.


    The Original Theo hurriedly covered himself with darkness as his skin turnedpletely ck. However, it resulted in the skin releasing an extraordinary amount of power.


    Darkness Possession.


    By using the power of darkness and the help of his Infinite Darkness to turn the day into night, the Original Theo leaped forward at his fastest speed.


    "!!!" It was so fast that Theo could barely react. The next thing he realized, the Original Theo had appeared before him and was about to punch him.


    Theo instinctively activated his Blink to gain some distance before using the second step, umting the Magic Power above him.


    "You!" The Original Theo gritted his teeth and turned around, trying to catch him.


    However, Theo''s intention was never the Darkness Descent.


    When the Original Theo reached him, Theo covered his body with snake scales as he utilized his Alter Ego and improved his speed to the limit.


    "!!!" The Original Theo''s body startled as he hurriedly covered his body with an exoskeleton.


    Superior Undead Body.


    *Bam!*


    *Crack!*


    "!!!" The exoskeleton from the Superior Undead Body suddenly cracked.


    "Tsk. As expected of a Mythical Rank Expert, their reaction is far betterpared to the Supreme Rank Expert. If you were only at Supreme Rank, you would have died from that attack." Theo smirked as some of his pores bled while the rest was still covered by snake scales. Though most of them started falling down as if they got destroyed by the sheer pressure of Theo moving faster than the speed of sound.


    The Original Theo was frustrated, but with this, the Ascension Step had failed. He didn''t want Theo to crush the Darkness Descent with that Divine Technique since that skill would only reveal its might after fully descending.


    ''I''ll buy enough time for the Darkness Descent to fully utilize its power.'' The Original Theo thought as he raised both hands, covering his hand with this zing ck energy.


    Theo, on the other hand, had the same thought as the original. If thetter wanted to protect it, he wanted to destroy this attack. Due to the low descent, the power should be tremendous. So, he didn''t want to take the risk.


    ''What should I do to take him out by surprise and destroy that Darkness Descent Skill?'' Theo asked himself.


    Meanwhile, the Original Theo went between Theo and the Darkness Descent, deter


    mined to protect it.


    ''As much as I hate to say it, the one before me has superior skills. It''s proven by the fact that he has three S Rank Skills while I only have one. But I have one skill that has surpassed an S Rank Skill. Though, it''s in a sealed state.


    ''Now that I think about it, why did Loki show me the World Re-Creation instead of how can I be stronger with my Order? What do I want with the Order, something like that?'' Theo narrowed his eyes, trying to understand Loki''s mind.


    Loki never did something meaningless. His every action and exnation would have double or even triple meanings, depending on how he interpreted them. So, his action should have some hidden meaning.


    ''The World Re-Creation Skill is just an A Rank and I can only use a part of its original power�� Well, it''s only the normal illusion and the domain expansion or something. Is that ability rted to my Order or any of my skills?''


    Theo narrowed his eyes, trying to find the answer. "Wait a moment. My Order can affect the environment, my enemy and myself�� That means I can target something with my Order. Depending on my target, the Order will have a different effect�� Doesn''t that mean��"


    Seeing Theo was distracted, the Original Theo waved his hand. "Since you have the leeway to lose yourself in your thoughts, then die!"


    The ck substance flew like that of a beam this time, trying to st Theo and devour him.


    However, Theo simply looked at this ck beam and lifted his finger.


    "World Re-Creation."


    Suddenly, the ck beam flew back as if it went back in time.


    "Huh?!" The Original Theo widened his eyes in shock as he hurriedly retracted the power that almost hit him. He even raised both hands as if he was trying to protect himself.


    "What''s that?" The Original Theo looked at Theo in shock. ''What did he do? Did he turn back time? No, if it''s turning back time, my power won''t try to attack me. It''s as if he''s twisting the reality to be the owner of my attack.''


    Theo smirked as if he had gotten his answer. The Original Theo might see through a portion of that power, but he didn''t realize the true meaning of that attack.


    ''So, that''s how it is. The only thing I can use with the World Re-Creation right now is the normal illusion and the domain expansion. But that expansion doesn''t necessarily mean it''s an illusion domain or something. Like my Reality Order, I can change its effect depending on my target.


    ''In other words, if I target the attack itself and use the expansion on that target, I can make them look like they''re turning back time when the truth is them simply going back because I expand that area. Just like how


    I couldn''t even catch up to Loki when he used this power, I simply had to use the Alter Ego to increase the speed of expansion to make it go back to the user.''


    Theo somehow felt more excited because he could see more and more ways to utilize his power. He wasn''t sad because he didn''t get the overpowered ability. In fact, he was thankful that he could gain the World Re-Creation in its sealed state. After all, his creativity was needed to utilize the skill''s potential.


    "Alright. Time for round two." Theo smiled, looking at the Original Theo. This time, he didn''t see him as an enemy but as a tool to improve himself so that he could surpass the original. "This time, I shall bend reality."

 Chapter 1390: Separation

    <hr>


    Chapter 1390: Separation


    The Original Theo narrowed his eyes as if he felt the enemy before him had changed slightly.


    ''What''s the attack earlier? It feels like the time turns back for a moment, making my attack go back to me. But if it''s turning back time, the attack should return to my body, not attack me.'' The Original Theo was trying to figure out Theo''s power.


    In the meantime, Theo had also sorted his thoughts. Despite staring at each other, the two didn''t seem to make a move at all as if they were examining each other''s abilities.


    However, the peace was soon broken after Theo made his next move.


    World Re-Creation.


    He utilized this ability to expand the reality, but only at the part of the Original Theo''s Darkness Descent, forcing the creature to go back inside the ck hole.


    "!!!" The Original Theo widened his eyes in shock because he found the movement of Magic Power.


    Without hesitation, he used his Devouring Order and Magic Power to devour this power. After all, his devouring power could devour everything, including reality itself.


    Theo also felt the restriction from the Darkness Descent, but he stepped forward, releasing a surge of wind into the air.


    Ascension Step, First Step.


    "!!!" The Original Theo turned around and saw Theo trying to attack him with this Ascension Step.


    Theo remembered the Wind Emperor''s teaching. The reason why the Ascension Step could be a Divine Technique was not its power. Although its power was extraordinary, it wasn''t feared by anyone.


    What people feared of this step was the fact that this step could be used at any time. Whether it was dodging or attacking, they could burst out this amount of power to gather it in one spot.


    Theo also didn''t forget when the Wind Emperor fought the Death Reaper, he told her that he would do hisst dance.


    In other words, the Wind Emperor was using his ''dance'' or footwork to release the Ascension Step. It would be able to crush anyone if they got suppressed by the Ascension Step continuously. That was why there were many and big craters in the battle between the Wind Emperor and the Death Reaper.


    Theo nned to apply this strategy to his fighting style now that he had no restrictions on his ability anymore.


    "No!" The Original Theo realized he had to choose whether to stop Theo''s Ascension Step or stop his World-Recreation.


    The more he hesitated, the longer Theo could prepare his Ascension Step.


    ''What should I do? If I stop that wind technique, his other ability will send the Darkness Descent back. Darkness Descent isn''t an ability that I can use easily due to the high amount of Magic Power and the long casting time.'' The Original Theo narrowed his eyes.


    However, his decision came when he felt the wind pressure


    raining him down.


    "!!!" The Original Theo looked at Theo while gritting his teeth. Thetter had sent his Ascension Step forward and the more he waited, the stronger that step would be. ''I can''t wait any longer. I should stop that step since if it''s toote, I''ll be attacked by both abilities.''


    The Original Theo let go of the Darkness Descent and used the Darkness Possession to reach Theo in an instant.


    Theo smirked and used his blink to appear next to the Darkness Descent.


    Since he had abandoned the Darkness Descent, Theo appearing there didn''t disturb him anymore. He just let Theo send the creature back.


    Meanwhile, he raised both hands and sent two substances from his hands. The left hand released the ck substance from Curse Bestowal Skill, while the right hand used Soul Poison Skill to release a purple fog.


    Both of them flew toward Theo, trying to see whether Theo could stop them together or not.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo summoned his Underworld Dominion easily and stopped both of them with the Underworld Body that expelled any ailments.


    Seeing the situation wasn''t that favorable anymore, the Original Theo ced his hand on the ground and released a ck wave.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and snapped his fingers to stop the ck wave. But he could feel that the Magic Power he put into it got sucked into the Original Theo.


    "Hmm?" It took Theo by surprise when he saw the Original Theo recovering his Magic Power rapidly. ''He can devour the Magic Power to supply himself? Doesn''t that mean his power is a kind of the strongest form of Breathing? He won''t run out of Magic Power.''


    "Do you think you are the only one who has a trump card?" The Original Theo then summoned another ck substance and shot it at Theo.


    Theo pushed the air forward with his Telekinesis while maintaining his Ascension Step. This time, he had reached the seventh step. As long as he could persist for just twenty seconds, he could release the tenth step, the umtion of all steps.


    However, the moment both Telekinesis and the ck substance shed, Theo saw the Magic Power from the Telekinesis get sucked into the ck substance as it continued forward.


    Theo clicked his tongue and snapped his finger.


    Instead of Attribute Removal, he was using World Re-Creation. He wanted to test this new power to expand reality a little bit.


    Although he believed it to be expansion, the concept he had wasn''t the expansion itself. Expanding reality was a little bit too much even for him since it was simr to expanding the universe itself.


    What he was doing was simply rolling the reality around. In other words, he took a part of reality from somewhere, so there was a part of reality missing and expanded the part he wanted, filling the disappeared part of the


    reality.


    And he didn''t use the World Re-Creation to send this attack back. Instead, he tried to separate reality into four.


    He divided the attack into four quadrants. The first one flew up, the second one went to the right, the third one fell down, and the fourth one was thrown to the left.


    "Separation."


    "Huh?" The Original Theo widened his eyes. Although his power had the ability to devour everything, it wouldn''t give the maximum power if Theo separated them.


    But little did he know, this separation itself was nothing but a means for Theo to finally understand that bending reality was possible.

 Chapter ?1391 Twisted Reality

    Chapter ?1391 Twisted Reality


    "You��" The Original Theo narrowed his eyes, realizing that his opponent was actually improving at a crazy rate even in a battle. It seemed that showing his power actually made him learn more than he was supposed to.


    "Learning Talent��" The Original Theo gritted his teeth. "What he has is the Learning Talent from the original body and the clone''s soul, while the learning talent I have onlyes from my soul."


    The Original Theo cursed the fact that the Original Body couldn''t be revived by the Death Reaper, who sacrificed her soul to revive her so that he could kill Theo as her revenge.


    "No. I have devoured everything. I''ll also devour you." The Original Theo shouted in anger while releasing a ck substance from all over his body. "Death Vision."


    As soon as he activated this power, his eyes gradually turned ck as a dark cloud started to appear in the air. They all moved around as if there was a special wind since it wasn''t just a simple vertical or horizontal move.


    But for the Original Theo, these clouds were the guidance on how death approached.


    He had been fighting for so long in the underworld, fighting the dead. So, he was familiar with how they moved. With this ability, he could clearly predict how Theo should die.


    As if sensing his own death, Theo also released his Reality Eyes.


    If the Original Theo could see how Death approached Theo, thetter could see how Theo would move in order to kill him.


    Both of them didn''t move, but in their own world, they had been trying to approach things differently. Even the Original Theo could see the clouds moving so fast as if there was a tornado around. It was clear that Theo understood how he nned to approach him.


    ''What are those eyes?'' The Original Theo asked inwardly while looking at the special pattern in Theo''s eyes. It felt like those eyes pierced through the deepest secret he had.


    Annoyed, the Original Theo leaped toward him and covered himself in the ck substance. If Theo attacked him this way, everything would be swallowed by his power.


    But he forgot the fact that Theo hadn''t stopped using his Ascension Step. They had been in a stalemate for so long, so Theo had finished his preparation.


    Without hesitation, Theo took thest step.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    "!!!" The Original Theo felt the intense pressureing from the sky. He gritted his teeth and expanded his ck substance to devour everything.


    However, Theo also used his Attribute Removal to make the devouring power disappear.


    The sh between two Orders made the atmosphere revolve crazily. The shock wave that they produced was amplified with the Ascension Step that couldn''t be devouredpletely.


    "Haaaaa!" The Original Theo roared as he desperately absorbed as much as he could while maintaining the Devouring power due to the Attribute Removal.


    *Crack!*


    *Bam!*


    A huge crack followed by the destruction of the ground reflected the might of the Ascension Step. The crater itself was one hundred feet in radius, even though half of it had been absorbed by the Devouring Order.


    If the Wind Emperor was the one using it with his Wind Authority, this ability could turn a mountain into ake in a single step.


    Still, Theo had done a great job using this ability because he managed to restrain the Original Theo in one ce for a few seconds.


    Using that time, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian in spear form and aimed at him.


    "Go!" Theo shot the spear and used the World Re-Creation to expand the reality at the spear back. Although he had no idea how to shrink the reality for now, he could expand the back of the spear, giving a boost to the spear''s speed.


    "!!!" The Original Theo gritted his teeth and expanded his ck substance. He knew that Theo''s n was to use the spear''s speed to hit him before it got swallowed by his devouring power.


    But Theo actually lifted his finger before the spear hit the ck substance.


    ''Well, this is just something that I came up with, but I''ll call this�� Twisted Reality,'' said Theo inwardly.


    Suddenly, the Reality Order created an expansion in the form of a spiral instead of separating them into four.


    In other words, Theo expanded the realm like a cylinder, causing everything within the cylinder to go outward.


    "What?!" The Original Theo widened his eyes in shock because he could see that Theo bent his ck substance. The Devouring Order could swallow even the reality, but this reality was expanding. So, the Devouring Power only swallowed the expansion, giving Theo a small gap for the spear to pass.


    The Original Theo gritted his teeth and covered his body with the Superior Undead Body while tilting his body to the left to avoid the Irregr Guardian.


    "Kh!" The Original Theo saw the spear fly past him, but it also managed to pierce through his arm, creating a hole in it.


    "That''s pretty useful." Theo smiled, finally seeing the potential of his new technique. This was the Original Technique he came up with by utilizing his Reality Order. In other words, there was only one person that could use this ability. Twisted Reality.


    Theo also could use the technique from earlier called ''Separation'' that could separate others, but he thought Twisted Reality was more flexible, so he chose this one instead of Separation.


    "Now, now. Let''s continue." Theo was excited because his original self coulde here to let him improve himself.


    Meanwhile, the Original Theo was thoroughly angered. He suddenly reached out for the pocket in his pants and took out a syringe.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes, recognizing this syringe. It was the recovery medicine he often used.


    "You don''t think this is over, right?" The Original Theo smirked. Instead of injecting the fluid into his body, the Original Theo actually used his power to devour the liquid, absorbing the efficacypletely. The wound in his arm instantly healed instead of gradually, showing that he managed to absorb everythingpletely. "You know and I know. We both love to prepare something as a backup n."


    "��" The smile on Theo''s face disappeared as he couldn''t help but frown upon seeing this development.

 Chapter 1392 Retreat

    Chapter 1392 Retreat


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, thinking, ''Tsk. He can recover any wounds with that liquid and his devouring power. And his Magic Power is unlimited because he continuously absorbs the energy. It feels like I''m fighting an immortal who won''t be tired. The only way to kill him is one strike to the head, neck, or heart.


    ''But even with my Reality Power, it''s not that feasible. I can try, but I doubt any of them will seed. And if I drag this battle, I''ll be at a disadvantage.


    ''Because of his experience, he seems to have some emotional damage, but his ability makes up for it. If he doesn''t die here, I''m afraid that he''ll be going to the Griffith Family. Even if I kill the Mind Elder and the Skyward Mercenary, I''m afraid that he and the Poison King are enough to make up for the loss. No, should I say that the Griffith Family will be stronger than before?


    ''When that happens, I don''t know what they''ll do next. This is quite troubling. What should I do now?''


    Theo had many problems with the fact that the Griffith Family would be stronger. It was clear that the Original Theo was someone that would do anything to get what he wanted, including joining the Griffith Family to devour him.


    And if the Griffith Family joined hands with some countries, their force would be far higher.


    Meanwhile, Theo''s side would gradually weaken. The War God Family wouldn''t help him anymore because Leonardo wouldn''t help him again after this due to his equal love motto. The Wind Emperor would pass away soon because of his current condition.


    The only thing he could rely on was Maya''s Star Group. As for the United States, he had burned the bridge between them, so it was better not to take advantage of them anymore unless he nned tomit such a rtionship.


    Last but not least, the Nagasawa Family. Nagasawa Ken was strong and still young enough to handle the world''s affairs. As long as he was still in charge of the Nagasawa Family, he might be his biggest ally.


    But that was all. The rest would rely on him. At present, he had Ava, Felix, and Ruth as Order Holders. And he could count himself as two people.


    Still, he wasn''t an Authority itself and it might take a bit while for him to reach that stage. So, there would be a period of darkness when the Griffith Family couldunch an attack on them.


    And the Original Theo seemed to have seen that possibility in case his n failed.


    In other words, Theo''s n to weaken the Griffith Family or destroy it had failed. The reason for this failure was the unexpected appearance of his original self.


    ''What''s this? Did the world�� No, the higher being think of me to be too powerful that they have to send me to kill myself? The only one who can defeat me is myself or something like that?'' Theo''s expression turned grim, seeing the cruel path in front of him. As long as he wasn''t an Authority himself, he couldn''t do much.


    This might be the first time Theo''s careful n had been defeated by someone. But that someone was still himself, so he didn''t know whether this was a defeat or not.


    "��" the Original Theo seemed to have the same thought. The moment he saw the frustration on Theo''s face, he realized that the time hade.


    In fact, he wanted to eliminate the Mind Elder to remove the possibility of brainwashing. But since Theo''s group would take care of him, his n had seeded.


    Without hesitation, the Original Theo leaped toward the fight between the Sword Saint and the Magic Saint.


    "!!!" Theo saw that action and immediately chased after him. "No, you won''t!"��?????(?)?????


    The Original Theo smirked as he had the advantage in this battle now. He broke the Infinite Darkness, returned to the normal world, and started shouting, "Oi, foolish Grandfather of mine!"


    Theo gritted his teeth and waved his hand, sending a massive force toward him to blow him away so that the Original Theo didn''t say anything.


    But the Original Theo easily saw through him since his goal was clear for both of them. He simply covered his body with the ck substance to take on any attacks. Even if Theo wounded his body again, he could simply heal itter.


    In the meantime, he shouted as loud as he could so that Mason Griffith could hear. "Don''t you think this is a perfect time to retreat? I''ll join the Griffith Family right now while bringing my subordinate, the Poison King. Instead of losing more men, don''t you think it''s time to conserve the power for the real battle?"


    "Haaaaa!" In the meantime, Theo utilized his illusion to create a loud sound that everyone could hear, so Mason Griffith couldn''t hear what he said.


    But Mason Griffith was the absolute ruler of Magic Power. What the Original Theo did was amplify his voice with Magic Power. As long as he differentiated the Magic Power, he could clearly hear what the Original Theo said perfectly.


    In that instant, Mason Griffith suddenly appeared on the battlefield, stopping the battle against the Sword Saint.


    At the same time, he released intense pressure on Theo.


    "!!!" Theo gritted his teeth as he could feel the Magic Power was actually trying to crush him to death. But soon, the pressure disappeared when the Sword Saint appeared, cutting all the Magic Power that nned to crush him.


    "Are you alright?" The Sword Saint asked while keeping his eyes on Mason since the situation would be dangerous if they made a reckless move.


    "We have to kill him!" Theo pointed toward the Original Theo.


    The Sword Saint immediately pushed Theo away while drawing his sword.


    Suddenly, the air was sliced, creating a void in the middle of the air. However, that was actually the void created by the sh between his Authority and Mason''s Authority.


    Meanwhile, Mason took that opportunity and dragged the Original Theo away while stating, "Griffith Family! Retreat!"


    "Kill as many as you can!" Leonardo obviously couldn''t let them go, but Mason released all his power for the first time as if he was gambling with his life. If they dared toe, even if they could kill him, they would also suffer a wound that would lead to their death as well.


    Even the Sword Saint stopped moving because he couldn''t afford the consequences.


    "��" Nagasawa Ken could only see them leaving with Leonardo taking advantage of the situation to kill five more Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family.


    The Original Theo was sticking his tongue out while saying, "Bye. We''ll meet again."

 Chapter 1393 Gap

    Chapter 1393 Gap


    "Hu��" Ruth took a deep breath to calm her down because her opponent was far stronger than her. She just learned about Orders a few months ago, while her opponent was someone who was already among the top for more than a decade.


    The difference in their power was clear.


    "It seems that you''re not going to stop anytime soon." The Poison King smirked. Instead of focusing on ruining Theo''s group, it felt like he was just ying with them. He waved his hand and turned the poison fog into a tornado.


    Ruth hurriedly shot another arrow right at the tornado as if hitting an animal. But the moment the arrow hit the poison tornado, the poison burst out, expanding to all directions.


    "!!!" Ruth narrowed her eyes because she realized that the tornado was just a bait as the Poison King''s intention was to expand that poison. She could also see that due to the tornado form, the bursting poison fog seemed to have five targets that needed to be knocked down before it could be stopped.


    In other words, the Poison King had made some dummies with his own understanding of Ruth''s power.


    "Come on!" The Poison King smirked.


    Ruth clicked her tongue and pointed her bow again, aiming for all the spots. She shot them in rapid session, but as one would expect from the poison fog created by the Poison Order, Ruth had to use her own Magic Power and Order Energy to supply the arrow.


    Without these two, her arrow couldn''t shoot down the poison fog. That was why it had been quite taxing to her body. Even though they had been fighting for only a few minutes, Ruth had started getting exhausted.


    ''So, this is why Theo wants me to learn more about Order first before focusing on utilizing its power. It seems that the Order Energy is rted to our understanding, so he wants me to open up a big enough vessel tost a single fight.


    ''Without my Order, I won''t be able to shoot down the poison fog, but this way, I''ll be in a dire spot.''


    Ruth might not get any injuries during the whole fight, but it was clear that the moment the Poison King injured him, it was the time she died. The Poison King would be able to insert his poison into his body, causing her to die not long after.


    That was why she had been fighting him from a distance. And the Poison King seemed to have enough time to y with her while waiting for the time to kill her to arrive.


    Ruth took a deep breath and muttered inwardly, ''Alright. I can shoot around thirty more arrows that can take down the poison mist. If I pass that limit, I''m dead.''


    Ruth shot those five spots and neutralized the poison again. She then asked to buy time, "Say�� Why do you attack us?"


    "Hmm?" The Poison King narrowed his eyes and smirked. "Why did you make a move against me at that time?"


    "So, you''re telling me that the reason you attack us right now is for revenge? You''re joking. The fact that you''re making a move at that time is enough for me to see that you have prepared to attack us. This is not revenge." She snorted.


    However, from the battle''s perspective, she suddenly noticed something. "No. You have been preparing for war by trying to control the three influences. By using them, you will be able to handle many problems."


    "Since you already know, why bother to ask?" The Poison King smirked. "Buying time? Of course, I like to buy time as well."


    "!!!" Ruth suddenly leaped into the air and saw the ground emitting gas from its pores. It turned out the reason why the Poison King even talked to her was for the poison. He was also buying time to sneak attack her.


    And now that she was in the air, she had no way to dodge the next attack.


    The poison gas turned into a tornado, nning to swallow Ruth. However, Ruth pointed her bow to the ground not far from them and used the arrow as a pivot point. There was a small thread in the arrow, so she pulled herself there, avoiding this tornado.


    After that, she shot down the tornado, which caused another eruption of poison. Some nts died and some melted, showing the poison''s potency.


    If she was inside that poison, she would die without a doubt.


    ''This is getting bad.'' Ruth clicked her tongue while maintaining her vignce so that no poison would reach her. "There is something that I don''t understand. Who do you follow to cause our boss to have the need to go to the other battlefield��"


    "My boss is your boss." The Poison King smiled calmly as if he didn''t tell her a single lie.


    "Huh?" Ruth was annoyed. He could easily say someone random, but he was adamant about annoying her by telling her that his boss was Theo. She didn''t realize that was the truth.


    She was just annoyed and said, "Well, we''ll know about his identity sooner orter. For now, I''m going to focus on dying you."


    "Then, try me." The Poison King smirked, not bothered about her ignorance. Even he wouldn''t believe it either if he was in her position.


    The Poison King raised his hand and turned the poison mist into a dragon head, sending it forward.


    Ruth aimed at its head and released her arrow, sting the poison with the explosion of Magic Power. Still, as one would expect from the Poison King, the explosion was corroded and lowered the intensity. Some of the residual poison escaped and continued in their path.


    "��" Ruth remembered that the people from her group were behind her, so Ruth aimed for the residual poison which had been scattered into three small creatures in her eyes. Although she would end up using more arrows than expected, it would protect her teammates.


    However, such a thing didn''t seem to be necessary when there was a light beaming from the air that cut the poison until it was destroyed to smithereens.


    "Sorry to keep you waiting." Felix''s voice resounded as hended next to her, ring at the Poison King.


    Even the Poison King was impressed by Felix and stated with shock. "A great power you have there. I was disappointed that I couldn''t face Theo, but both of you seem to be more interesting than I expected."

 Chapter 1394 120% Power

    Chapter 1394 120% Power


    "Sorry, it took me a while. As expected, people rted to the Griffith Family aren''t easy to deal with. I could only kill three of them before the others helped me." Felix sighed.


    "Three of them�� And you''re fighting against seven of them." She nced at him while furrowing her eyebrows. "But well, you have an Order now."


    "Don''t worry. The reason I couldn''t do my job well was��" Felix released his white Magic Power and red at the Poison King, ready to fight him with his full power.


    "��" Ruth was speechless because Felix could kill those people without even using his Order, which could give him the biggest advantage against normal Mythical Rank Experts. She couldn''t do something like that.


    "Hoh? Do you think you can stop me?" The Poison King smirked. "You who haven''t even fused with Orderpletely?"


    The Poison King could see that it hadn''t been six months since Felix gained his Order. Within that period, his Magic Power would remain half blue, half white.


    In other words, his power would be limited even if he came here.


    Hence, the Poison King waved his hand and created another tornado to distract them.


    When Ruth was about to shoot it down, Felix''s body suddenly started glowing as if he became the white light itself. The figure soon became blurry until it disappeared.


    "There you go!" Felix suddenly appeared behind the Poison King while walking calmly as if he hadn''t done something significant.


    But the Poison King''s body had instinctively moved to the side and barely reacted to Felix''s movement. His shirt in the left chest area soon got cut as a shallow wound appeared with blooding out of it.


    "Huh?" The Poison King widened his eyes in shock. His speed was so fast that the Poison King didn''t have the time topletely dodge it. "What is that speed?"


    Ruth, on the other hand, sucked a cold breath. As someone who possessed Order, she obviously had asked for some advice and fighting practice from Theo. She had seen what Theo''s Alter Ego could do when he used it to increase his speed.


    ''That speed. It''s simr to Theo! But there''s a difference between them. Felix is turning into light itself and forcefully elerating his speed, while Theo''s ability is to increase his raw physical abilities. Still, both of them could move at that kind of speed which was extremely dangerous to all their enemies.


    She even wondered why Felix didn''t use this ability since he could finish the battle faster and help her.


    But the answer was simple and it was already in her head, she just refused to believe it. During the fusion period, Felix didn''t have much Order Energy since the progress could only be made after the Order fusedpletely with the Magic Power.


    That was why he didn''t want to waste the little energy he had to kill those people.


    And the wait paid off as Felix managed to wound the Poison King before Theo even did it.


    "��" The Poison King widened his eyes in shock. "This is��"


    His Poison Tornado had disappeared due to his shock and Ruth took advantage of it by shooting an arrow toward his head. Unfortunately, the Poison King easily reacted to her arrow and used the poison to corrode the Magic Power for that arrow, erasing it.


    He also sent a wave of poison toward Felix, but thetter easily escaped it. Instead of increasing his speed to the limit, he only poured a bit of energy to be fast enough to escape from this poison and Ruth''s arrow eventually took the poison down, freeing Felix.


    Felix couldn''t help but recall the training after he received his Order.


    Back then, the Dark King exined. "Well, I don''t know what your Order is, but I can tell you one thing. Since you won''t be able to fuse with the Orderpletely since the time is not enough, you have to use your power to the maximum limit.


    "You won''t be able to do this many times because the energy that fills your Order is scarce and you can''t gather more before the fusion ispleted. Hence, you have to challenge your limit until you can use all your strength in one moment.


    "When we''re in a fight, you should know that we only use 75% of our power most of the time, right? We don''t want to get injured, but we still want the enemies to die. But in your case, if you use 75% of your power with the current state, you''ll bepletely useless against someone with an Order.


    "Hence, You should use 120% of your power in a few moments so that you may injure your opponents. Before that time, don''t ever use your power."


    "120% of my power��" Felix furrowed his eyebrows, looking down.


    "Is it that hard to understand?"


    "No. I can understand it, but I don''t know how to do it."


    "First, search what Order you have and work on it. Remember, your time is limited."


    Remembering that conversation, Felix took another deep breath. "Instead of using 75% of my power for a few minutes, it''s better to use 120% of my power a few times. But in those chances, I have to wound my enemy. My body can only handle two more strikes."


    His expression turned cold as Felix''s body turned into the light once again.


    The Poison King furrowed his eyebrows and hurriedly covered himself in poison so that the poison would hit Felix once he touched him.


    But before Felix disappeared, he smiled and waved his left hand down.


    "Great Sun."


    "!!!" The Poison King was shocked as he instinctively channeled all the energy to the top of his head. Suddenly, a ray of light brighter than the sunlight fell down from the sky. The light was burning the poison as if it contained so much heat, but the Poison King could feel that the light was just trying to illuminate his poison as if it treated the poison as darkness.


    But more importantly, his body soon moved away again as the Poison King realized this was the moment Felix had waited the whole time.


    Now that the poison mist was on top of him, Felix used that gap to once again shoot himself like a bullet and cut the Poison King.


    "Gah!" The Poison King screamed as a bigger cut appeared on his chest.

 Chapter 1395 Assassin

    Chapter 1395 Assassin


    "Gah!" The Poison King screamed in pain as Felix once again hurt him.


    "Impossible." Ruth was also stunned because she never expected that Felix could do this much even with his power being iplete. Back then, Theo couldn''t even do anything against the Poison King, so this was surprising.


    But the answer came right after.


    *Clink!*


    Felix dropped his weapon as he breathed heavily. He coughed up blood as if those three moves drained everything from him.


    He tried to run, but his legs went limp. Ultimately, he crawled away, trying to leave the area as soon as possible.


    "What? Did he use all his power in those three strikes?" Ruth widened her eyes. That was a reckless move because if Felix couldn''t escape after those three strikes, he would die.


    Even the Poison King gritted his teeth as these two wounds thoroughly angered him.


    "Die!" The Poison King sent his poison forward, wanting to kill Felix.


    However, Ruth hurriedly shot down the poison and regrouped with Felix to the point she grabbed his cor and threw him as far as possible so that he could recover somewhere.


    "You insane bastard!" Ruth cursed at Felix. However, Felix''s action reminded her of the days when she first started bing a veteran assassin.


    At that time, there were three rules she had as an assassin. Firstly, she had to kill the opponent in a single strike. Secondly, if the target didn''t die, she had to shoot them until they died. She didn''t want to let them suffer. Last but not least, if they couldn''t be taken out by a few shots, the mission was considered a failure.


    Due to these rules, she could be the Phantom Archer, the archer that sniped others with her invisible bow and arrows.


    It might be due to the Order that she had forgotten her identity as an assassin. And Felix reminded her of this moment.


    Felix was an assassin, and that would never change even if he decided to follow Theo. He would kill the target as quickly as possible with his overwhelming offensive power. And the sun was right above their head, meaning Felix was in his peak form.


    That was why he tried to eliminate the Poison Kings within those three strikes, but because of their huge gap, he could only injure him. Although the second wound was quite deep, it wasn''t life-threatening.


    If this was a pure fight between two warriors, Felix would be apletely foolish person to die just to wound the other party. But this was a battle of a group. As long as he could injure them, their performance would be reduced.


    And it was the time for Ruth to take advantage of it.


    She pointed her bow at the Poison King while finding his weak points.


    The Poison King gritted his teeth and prepared to take on these arrows.


    "Do you think you can defeat me with these small wounds? If I can kill someone from the top one hundred with just this small wound, then it''s good!" The Poison King smirked. "You forget that my ability lies on the poison, not my physical ability!"


    As he said, the reason why Felix could injure him despite him being among the top was his ability. The Poison King wasn''t good in hand-to-handbat, so Felix used it to his advantage. If Felix was fighting Leonardo, thetter wouldn''t be hurt at all.


    "But it doesn''t matter. You all are going to die today!" The Poison King released all his energy as if he didn''t n to hold back anymore. Felix had to die today.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the Sky Earphone in his ears rang.


    "Retreat."


    "What? I''m going to kill all of them!" The Poison King couldn''t hold back his anger, but the next few words stopped him.


    "Do it and you''ll die. He ising."


    The ''he'' in his mouth was surely Theodore Griffith. So, if he continued to pursue them until Felix died, he wouldn''t be able to escape due to Theo''s appearance.


    Even if he could, it would take time since Ruth would be buying some time. And the fact Felix was here meant the other Mythical Rank Experts could also help them.


    "��" He still wanted to kill Felix, but dying wasn''t an option. He clicked his tongue and leaped back. "You''re lucky to keep your lives today."


    Ruth and Felix frowned upon those words, but they knew Theo was going back to this ce. That was the only reason why the Poison King would retreat.


    So, Ruth didn''t do anything until the Poison King wasn''t visible anymore.


    "I don''t know if this is lucky or calcted," Ruth muttered while walking to Felix. "What should we do now?"


    "I don''t know. I can''t do anything in my current state. Even a Supreme Rank Expert can kill me right now." Felix sighed. "I overstrained myself a bit."


    "Well, to have that kind of offensive power for this price, I guess it''s understandable. I''ll stay here and guard you. Our group is not weak, so there''s no need to worry about them. I can also help them from here��" Ruth nodded.


    "Still, this doesn''t sit right. I couldn''t evenst more than two minutes against that guy. It seems I should step down and let you be his right-hand man."


    "What are you talking about? I could only buy time, not injure him." Ruth snorted. "You are and will always be his most trusted person. No one can rece your positions. Now, I can understand what it means to be his sharpest sword�� Even if you have to die, you will cut down his enemies, huh. Such dedication."


    "Ahaha��" Felix chuckled awkwardly. "I''m still too weak. This might be the first time I regret not training myself properly in the past few years."


    "Situation demanded it." Ruth shrugged. "Instead of living in the past, we should look toward the future."


    "True."


    "And thanks��" Ruth looked away. "I remember my identity and know how to move forward."


    Felix was surprised and stared at her for a while before smiling. "That''s good then."

 Chapter 1396 Join Hands

    <h4>Chapter 1396 Join Hands</h4>


    "��" The Mind Elder was staring at Theo with a serious expression. This was the first time Theo had such confidence, so he didn''t want to lower his guard. Although he didn''t want to admit it, Theo was indeed stronger than he expected. He wouldn''t be able to kill him without making some sacrifices.


    Clone Theo''s expression turned cold as he raised his hand. His Reality Eyes kept staring at him trying to figure out how the Mind Elder moved.


    The Mind Elder knew that he couldn''t hide in this bright room, but it didn''t mean he couldn''t disappear again.


    By creating an illusion of what Theo would see from his perspective, the Mind Elder would be able to disappear into this bright room.


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes while ncing back and forth, trying to find him.


    Meanwhile, the Mind Elder maintained his calm and looped around, trying to sneak-attack him from behind. He even increased the Magic Power in the air to camouge his own usage of Magic Power.


    In Theo''s eyes, the Mind Elder seemed to specialize in Awareness with his illusion. That was why he could fool every sense when using his illusion. He knew what it meant to have the five senses to pick up the Magic Power and remove that feeling.


    In other words, Theo wouldn''t be able to sense him at all. The proof was the fact that Theo was turning around to check the movement of the Spiritual Energy to locate him.


    "��" Theo used his Irregr Guardian to create a sword that he could use. Knowing that the Mind Elder would sneak attack him, thetter would try closebat, so a sword or a dagger would be a good weapon in this scenario.


    Theo maintained his calm, waiting for the Mind Elder to show himself. However, the Mind Elder seemed to be patient enough to wait. In fact, he looked like he was going to be reminded like this until he was rescued by the others.


    Not wanting to wait, Theo summoned numerous Magic Bullets for omnidirectional attacks.


    The Mind Elder took that opportunity to show himself and attack him from behind. In his hand formed a dagger that would stab Clone Theo''s heart.


    However, Theo suddenly jumped back as if he could sense him this whole time. In fact, he had been waiting for him.


    Theo hit the Mind Elder with his back while spinning the sword and stabbing a spot next to his waist.


    "Kh!" The Mind Elder gritted his teeth and immediately pushed Theo''s head in order to snap it. Theo formed a shield this time, preventing him.


    When he was about to use the sword to kill the Mind Elder, thetter pushed the shield andunched his body back.


    ''How did he do it? He shouldn''t have been able to pick up my presence and Magic Power earlier.'' The Mind Elder was confused, examining Theo''s ability.


    Little did he know, Theo used his World Re-Creation to imitate the Mind Elder''s ability, allowing him to make the Mind Elder think he was using his own ability even though it was Theo''s ability to replicate it.


    Theo nced at the Mind Elder with a cold expression. Heined inwardly, ''Tsk. As expected, my ability is not that strong. I still can''t replicate what the God of Mischief did previously. Right now, imitating one skill at a time is my limit. I can''t even use my own skill to counterattack.


    ''I have to train this one well since I can replicate the fight in their mind with the help of this skill. For now, I''m satisfied that I can injure him.'' Theo smiled and asked out loud, "Oi, what''s wrong? It seems that you''re confused."


    The smile on Theo''s face was filled with mockeries. Even the Mind Elder was gritting his teeth. ''Is his illusion better than mine? But he''s a brat who isn''t even in his thirties. There''s no way that his ability has reached that level. Still��''


    The Mind Elder had a hard time admitting that Theo''s illusion ability had surpassed him. It might be due to the Reality Order, but fighting against Theo would be disadvantageous from now on.


    Without hesitation, he pointed at the ceiling and tried to turn the illusion that had been enhanced by Reality Order off.


    Theo raised his vision and saw a hole in his box. As expected, the Mind Elder should only be at the third stage, Illusion vs Reality, when he first came to Italy. But after Leonardo defeated him, he managed to step onto the fourth stage, Illusion Alter.


    Even with his Reality Order, the Mind Elder could turn it back into illusion and remove it, allowing him to run away.


    Obviously, Theo didn''t want to let this guy go. He would be extremely dangerous if the Mind Elder left. In desperation, he could brainwash many people and turn them into his army to cause a huge mess. Hence, eliminating him was a must.


    When the Mind Elder jumped into the air and escaped through that hole, the box suddenly disappeared, showing that they hadn''t moved from their location.


    Theo used his Telekinesis and applied some pressure from above, causing the Mind Elder to fall.


    *Bam!*


    "Kh!" The Mind Elder managed tond on his feet, but the wound on his waist was truly painful. Theo truly outsmarted him earlier.


    ''I have to escape.'' The Mind Elder thought. Even though his position could allow him to escape, Theo''s speed was faster than him. He would easily catch up to him, so escaping needed someone to stop Theo for a few seconds.


    It seemed both of their minds clicked as they thought about the same person.


    Without hesitation, Theo and the Mind Elder leaped to the west to meet Airvans, who was fighting against Ava this whole time.


    They saw Ava and Airvans were in a stalemate as the Mind Elder shouted, "Airvans, we have to work together if we want to survive."


    Airvans was shocked because the only reason why the hard-headed Mind Elder woulde to ask him to work together was Theo''s overwhelming strength. If he wasn''t overwhelmed by Theo, he wouldn''t evene and simply leave everyone behind.


    But Airvans didn''t have any reason to reject it since the situation was worse than he originally thought. "Alright."


    Unlike them, Theo and Ava were smiling at each other. "Ava, give me a hand."


    "With pleasure." Ava released her lightning as if she was excited to fight together with Theo again after so long.

 Chapter ?1397 Ava vs Airvans

    Chapter ?1397 Ava vs Airvans


    A moment ago.


    Ava leaped into the air and punched Airvans with her ws covered in lightning.


    Airvans created a water bubble above him to stop Ava.


    When the w hit the water, the lightning remained in her ws as the water was non-conductive. At the same time, the water acted like rubber and tried to swallow Ava.


    If Ava was swallowed by this bubble, she would be trapped inside the water and drown. That was why she immediately pulled back, using the rubber characteristic tounch her back to her original position.


    "It''s useless. Your lightning won''t be able to defeat my Pure Water. If it''s something conductive, I don''t have a doubt that you''ll be able to defeat them. But Pure Water is different." Airvans smirked, not nning to die here. They were foolish to send this rabbit against him.


    Ava had been attacking him with her lightning, but as he said, none of them actually reached him. They were simply contained by the water and remained in their ce. It felt like she was wrapped by a rubber that couldpletely stop the electricity.


    Ava narrowed her eyes and gathered her Magic Power into her ws. Suddenly, she sent forth three crescent-shaped energies and cut the water bubble as if to protest.


    *Bam!*


    The water bubble popped out and the water sshed.


    "��" Airvans was dumbstruck as he heard Ava saying, "You talk too much. Don''t forget that I''m a monster! Don''t think your dumb logic can be applied to me."


    "Then, so be it!" Airvans gritted his teeth, feeling challenged by Ava. He released two water tornadoes that bounced on the ground a few times. They looped around and tried to attack Ava from the sides.


    Ava only took a nce at them before jumping forward, trying to reach Airvans.


    But this was his trap. Airvans hurriedly spat another tornado from his mouth that would stop Ava here.


    "��" Ava squinted her eyes. The water couldn''t be popped and conducted lightning, so she had to dodge it.


    Since she was in such a situation, she jumped into the air.


    However, this was what Airvans wanted since Ava couldn''t avoid things in the air.


    The two tornadoes from the side earlier suddenly curved and bounced upward, trying to strike her to the ground.


    However, Ava suddenly turned into her small form, causing the two tornadoes to miss her.


    "What?" Airvans was stunned because her transformation was so smooth and quick.


    Ava then covered her feet with lightning. Since the water wouldn''t disperse her lightning, it meant that if she used the lightning on her feet, they would be able to stop her from entering the current.


    As she predicted, she stood on top of the current and used them as her footholds for a moment as she leaped toward Airvans, attacking him from the air.


    Her body was covered with lightning, so this move contained so much pration force. If the electricity couldn''t be used, she was nning to use her body as a bullet that popped the water bubble and pierced through Airvans'' life.


    She kicked the air,unching herself to Airvans.


    Airvans frowned and hurriedly summoned another water bubble. "Let''s see whether you can burst the bubble or get captured by me."


    Airvans had the utmost confidence in the water bubble since it had been helping him for decades. He believed Ava wouldn''t be able to do anything to it.


    Unfortunately for him, he was tricked by Ava because right before her body reached the water bubble, Ava turned back into her battle form.


    This humanoid form allowed Ava to have a bigger sizepared to the bubble that was forced to be concentrated to contain her overwhelming prative lightning.


    "What?!" Airvans widened his eyes in shock and hurriedly leaped back, trying to escape.


    Ava took this chance to wave both her hands and send forth more crescent-shaped attacks.


    "Tsk." Airvans clicked his tongue and prepared water to stop the attack, but Ava''s attack was stronger and more unpredictable than he thought.


    The water he summoned couldn''t stop these sharp des and eventually reached his body.


    However, the des were somehow stopped by the clothes and some of them made a scratch on his clothes.


    "Hmm?" Ava narrowed her eyes while using the water bubble to bounce her back like a trampoline. She soon noticed that Airvans'' clothes weren''t ordinary.


    "��" Airvans gritted his teeth. It had been a while since he was suppressed like this. He never thought that the monster would make him remind him that he wasn''t that strong despite his overwhelming power.


    The clothes came directly from the Griffith Family, so they could easily withstand an attack at this level, especially since the attack contained no Order earlier.


    ''That fucking rabbit is using the normal attack to hit my body while making me think that she can''t do anything against me because of my Pure Water. It seems that she''s going to rely on normal attacks from now on.'' Airvans thought.


    Meanwhile, Ava was thinking about how Airvans had been stopping her this whole time. ''The Lightning Order can''t reach him? He truly has the element advantage. Then, what should I do?''


    She recalled the memory of training with the Lightning Saint. At that time, the Lightning Saint was standing on top of a cliff while staring at the mountain in the distance.


    "This is your next training. Shoot that mountain down."


    "Huh? Why should I destroy nature for no apparent reasons?"


    "I''m teaching you how to overwhelm your power. Our Lightning is different from anyone''s because our lightning is the most destructive lightning. If you can''t destroy the mountain with a single attack, then you''re wasting your power."


    "Then, what should I do? I don''t have an attack at that level yet."


    "Just create one."


    "That''s easy for you to say��"


    "Well, that''s easy for me to do as well." The Lightning Saint opened his mouth and let out a breath. This lightning breath contained a highly destructive power, and the explosion was so big that it swallowed half of the mountain. "Just like that. It''s your training now. Create a technique with overwhelming destructive power to take advantage of your lightning property."


    Ava remembered that scene as the seven lightning balls behind her shone. She pointed her palm forward as the seven lightning balls gathered in front of her hand, creating a circle.


    The seven lightning balls released so much lightning and gathered it in the middle.


    The lightning was so powerful and violent that the ground started to crack by the sheer pressure alone.


    "This is��" Airvans gasped at the power contained in it. "Not good!"

 Chapter 1398 Ava vs Airvans (2)

    Chapter 1398 Ava vs Airvans (2)


    That lightning breath from her teacher inspired her to make this move. She gathered all the lightning in one point and released it in the form of a cannon.


    "He called that breath a normal lightning breath because it''s an attack that a Lightning Saint is supposed to have, so this, too, shall be the normal lightning cannon," Ava muttered as she shot forth the lightning cannon.


    The lightning beam flew forth. The sheer pressure alone destroyed and even chipped away a portion of the soil underneath it as it continued to march toward Airvans.


    If her lightning couldn''t prate the water that couldn''t connect her, it meant the lightning wasn''t strong enough. This was the answer she got.


    "No!" Airvans shouted and released a huge water tornado to engulf this lightning.


    Since the lightning would be deflected by his Pure Water, he made the shape like a drill so that the deflection would go somewhere far away from him.


    But what he didn''t expect was the fact that the lightning suddenly cracked his water as if its power was beyond what the Pure Water could handle.


    The water suddenly popped, and the lightning continued to disperse the water and continue its way to Airvans.


    Seeing an attack of this level, Airvans immediately threw his body to the side as the lightning destroyed his attack and almost harmed his body. Unfortunately for him, even if he avoided the first attack, it didn''t mean he was safe from the second attack.


    When the lightning passed him, Ava smirked and controlled the lightning to explode.


    *Boom!*


    The explosion was so big that it created a huge crater. However, Airvans managed to survive by forming a bubble of water and hiding his body inside.


    Though, Ava could see the electricity that still remained around his body and a few burn spots left by the lightning. It seemed that he reacted a little toote.


    "s, my lightning is a bit different from my teacher. His lightning has the destructive property while mine is lightning that can pierce everything." She recalled the time shepleted the training and created a huge hole instead of thorough destruction. Even when she exploded the lightning like this, it couldn''t release the same amount of destruction as her teacher.


    But the Lightning Saint passed her in that training, so it was indeed a good technique.


    Ava took a deep breath, charging the lightning for another attack. It was true that this ability required a lot of lightning and Magic Power, but it was the most effective attack that she could use to defeat her current enemy.


    ''My teacher and Theo will be ashamed if I can''t defeat this guy.'' As the student of the Lightning Authority and the partner of the most talented man in the world, she had to defeat him no matter what.


    "What''s that��" Airvans gritted his teeth while recalling the attack earlier. It seemed that Ava still had enough firepower to pierce everything, even if he had an elemental advantage.


    A King ss Monster was truly different from a human with Order. The monster had been training this power from the start and their instinct properly matched the power. That was why they could be stronger than a human with Order.


    And with their intelligence that was on the same level if not beyond, they became even more terrifying.


    Airvans finally understood what it meant to be suppressed by a King ss Monster. And this was also the reason why the Fist Saint and the Death Reaper had to join hands and even prepare a cannon that could weaken the Frost Saint before they could kill him.


    The higher the monster ss was, the stronger they were.


    "��" Airvans took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart down. He would lose sooner orter if this continued. Even though this move required a lot of Magic Power, the fact that he could injure him this much from a single attack meant his condition would continue to worsen.


    Ava had the endurance of a monster, so if they fought till death, she would be the winner.


    "I don''t understand why a monster like you wants to follow a mere human like him." Airvans tried to buy some time to get some openings to exploit.


    But he didn''t expect that his words would backfire.


    Ava''s killing intent erupted when she heard Airvans'' words.


    "What did you say? A mere human like him?"


    Ava could still remember the first time she met Theo. She would never forget it because that was the moment she changed.


    If someone dared to look down on Theo, she wouldn''t forgive them. And Airvans unknowingly stepped on it.


    "!!!" Airvans was also stunned because he didn''t expect this reaction. Because Ava was a pet, her instinct as a King ss Monster should remain. That pride should make her arrogant, but Ava turned out to be different.


    "You bastard. I''m going to kill you right now." Ava''s heart was filled with anger. This time, she wouldn''t hold back anymore as long as she could kill her in the most brutal way possible.


    However, the battle didn''t seem to go as nned. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the Mind Elder suddenly intruded on the battlefield and said, "Airvans, we have to work together if we want to survive."


    "Alright."


    Fighting them would be hard even for her, but this time, Theo also came together with the Mind Elder.


    Excitement burst in her heart. Thest time they fought together was three years ago and Ava would always be stronger whenever Theo helped her. After all, Theo would always support her as she destroyed her opponent thoroughly.


    The excitement that she hadn''t felt for thest three years suddenly put a smile on her face.


    When she nced at Theo, both of them understood each other''s thoughts. They were going to fight together after so long.


    "Ava, give me a hand."


    That request widened her smile as she excitedly said, "With pleasure."

 Chapter 1399 Teamwork

    Chapter 1399 Teamwork


    Theo, Ava, Airvans, and Eric were staring at each other.


    The first one to make a move was none other than Airvans. He was the ruler of water, so he immediately took control of the water in their bodies.


    "!!!" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and felt the movement in his body. Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. By controlling the water in their body, Airvans could easily defeat someone.


    But Theo was also a Mythical Rank Expert. He utilized a portion of his power to suppress this feeling.


    ''So, Ava has been fighting him in this condition. But maintaining this ability will be tiring as well. So, the three of us have our abilities suppressed while the Mind Elder has full control over his power.'' Theo noticed that he had to allocate twenty percent of his power to suppress the water control continuously.


    Airvans also had to allocate a portion of his power, but he believed it wasn''t that much.


    He wanted to use the Attribute Removal, but there was something more important than the water control in his body.


    Seeing the situation, the Mind Elder raised both hands. This time, he wanted to defeat Theo with a different approach.


    The ground began to rise and envelop his feet.


    Theo looked down and snapped his finger. The dirt disintegrated for a moment before it started rising again. But this time, the dirt suddenly flew toward the Mind Elder.


    The Mind Elder tried to remove the illusion dirt, but he soon noticed his power failed to erase it. In other words, the dirt that wanted to catch him was actually the real dirt. However, he managed to turn reality into an illusion and make it disappear at thest second.


    Since Theo was suppressing the Mind Elder, Ava leaped toward the Mind Elder, taking advantage of the situation to eliminate this guy.


    However, Airvans stood in her way and created a water bubble to stop her.


    ''Keep going!'' Theo didn''t open his mouth, but Ava could hear his voice. This was Theo''s illusion that only she could hear.


    She trusted Theo with her life, so Ava went straight to the bubble while covering her ws with lightning.


    "Airvans! Dodge!" Eric shouted, rmed by what Ava nned to do. He had been fighting Theo from the beginning, so he knew what kind of ability Theo had.


    Airvans, on the other hand, was confused for a second. He hesitated, but Eric didn''t seem to be lying. Hence, he ducked down to avoid the ws.


    As Eric predicted, the ws made of lightning suddenly cut through the water.


    "!!!" What shocked Airvans the most was the fact that the water could now conduct the electricity.


    "His Order is Reality! He can twist your element into another reality that he wants!" Eric shouted, informing him.


    "Wha��" Airvans was shocked, but Ava had used his hesitation to loop around and make her way to Eric Griffith.


    Airvans immediately controlled the water in the air and formed another bubble to stop her.


    Seeing what Theo could do earlier, Ava would be able to destroy the water bubble again, so he exploded it right before Ava hit him, causing a huge burst that was strong enough to push Ava back.


    But this was the time Theo approached them. With a sword in his hand, Theo aimed for Airvans'' neck since the battle would be easier if Airvans died here.


    Nheless, Airvans was still one of the best. Killing him wouldn''t be that easy. As soon as he saw Theoing, Airvans formed another shield to stop Theo.


    However, seven lightning balls flew toward the water. Theo snapped his finger and turned the water into ice, and the lightning balls shattered it into pieces.


    Eric wouldn''t allow Theo to move, so he raised his hand while applying his illusion. The shattered ices turned into nails that flew to him from below.


    At the same time, Airvans applied more pressure on his body to control that water, forcing Theo to use his own Attribute Removal continuously so that his body wouldn''t be affected for a while.


    Theo also activated his Supernatural Snake body to reinforce his body. Eric thought Theo was foolish because these ice nails weren''t ordinary. He wanted to kill Theo with these ice spikes. "Die, you fool."


    Unfortunately for him, before the spikes reached Theo, Ava, in her small form, suddenly appeared and kicked Theo''s shoulder. The force from the gentle kick stopped Theo''s momentum while she used that force tounch herself to Airvans.


    This way, not only did they avoid the spikes, but Ava also had the chance to attack them.


    Airvans blocked her with his water bubble, but Theo snapped his finger to turn the water into normal water.


    Ava saw the change and immediately pierced through the water with her speed, making his way to Eric.


    Thetter hadn''t given up yet because Eric summoned more and more stuff out of nowhere. There was a totem, there was a huge sharp knife, and there were some monsters that came from the other side.


    With such diversity, Ava couldn''t focus on any of them and might even endanger her life.


    "��" Ava narrowed her eyes but still didn''t back down as if she was challenging these items.


    Still, this was a team fight. Right before those objects hit her, a shield suddenly flew past Ava and blocked everything that came her way. This was Theo''s Irregr Guardian that would protect Ava until she reached her target, which was Eric.


    Airvans tried to turn around to stop Ava with his body, but Theo was next to him and swung another sword to stop her.


    "You are with me." Theo smiled.


    "Tsk." Airvans clicked his tongue.


    Meanwhile, Eric utilized his illusion power again to change the battlefield. He even summoned two giant rocks that suddenly joined together to crush her inside.


    However, Ava''s small body pierced through everything. The moment she reached Eric, she threw a punch right at his face, trying to kill him.


    Eric raised his left hand to protect himself. Seeing this, Ava punched the hand so that it would continue until it hit Eric. But thetter actually turned off the illusion, making the arm disappear.


    Due to that sudden movement, Ava lost her bnce and saw Eric going to hit him to pay her back.


    "Die." He punched Ava with his strongest power, hoping that Ava would die.

 Chapter ?1400 Theo and Ava

    Chapter ?1400 Theo and Ava


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes. It turned out Eric took advantage of his losing limb to create a perfect opportunity to attack Ava.


    However, Theo obviously wouldn''t allow him. By using his Blink, Theo appeared in front of the Mind Elder and tried to chop that hand.


    Suddenly, the water around his sword gathered and created a rope that stopped the swing. Airvans was the one stopping him.


    Since he couldn''t use his sword, Theo let it go and received the punch head-on.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist.


    Theo felt the familiar power that he experienced five years ago. Back then, Ne was too weak to perform the true power of the Induction Fist.


    When Theo felt the punch, he felt like the Magic Power in his hand was being ripped apart as they moved around violently. Some even came out of his body, albeit failed to shred the sleeves due to the quality equipment from the Star Group.


    However, the effect of the Induction Fist soon disappeared when Ava hit Eric''s head. She even covered her ws with lightning.


    Still, as expected from the Mind Elder, he still managed to tilt his head a bit farther so that her ws didn''t hit his skull or brain and used the force of the lightning to blow him away.


    The Mind Eldernded thirty feet from them with his cheek having three wounds next to each other. The ws couldn''t pierce through his skull. If it was bleeding, Eric wouldn''t have much trouble in a fight.


    Even Theo took a deep breath as this battlested a bit too long to his liking. As expected, Eric and Airvans were Mythical Rank Experts at his level. Defeating them wouldn''t be so easy.


    At this pace, Theo believed they could defeat them after another thirty minutes. But that would be a bit too long because there might be new variables appearing on the battlefield.


    ''Hmm. So, this is the fight between Order Holders. It willst for quite a while. What should I do to end this fight as soon as possible before another variable appears?'' Theo muttered inwardly as he approached Eric while using his World Re-creation to counter his illusion.


    If he didn''t risk anything, a battle like this couldst for hours or even days if they were at the same level and both of them didn''t want to get a longsting injury.


    Still, this was his fight. It wasn''t his style to let the battle go for so long. He was searching for a unique approach to handle these two guys because he had to kill them before the Poison King overwhelmed Felix and Ruth.


    ''What kind of ability can defeat them?'' Theo looked around. Ava had been fighting Airvans this whole time, but she injured Eric first. Meanwhile, Airvans had some trouble against his Order.


    When he saw these two facts, Theo''s expression turned grim as he immediately used his Illusion to tell Ava about his n.


    After that, Theo summoned his Death Avatar.


    Theo released the Death Eyes to scare both of them.


    "!!!" Airvans and Eric experienced the Death Eyes for the first time. It was clearly a fresh experience since this was the first time they could see Death. But Eric was the master of illusion, so he immediately expelled the thought before Theo could do anything. Airvans also couldn''t control the water from the blood, so he immediately woke up from the illusion.


    It didn''t evenst for a split second.


    "It''s useless. Do you think a killing intent of this level can still affect us?" Eric snorted, looking down on Theo. The Death Eyes were powerful, but it wasn''t at the level that could be used against Mythical Rank Experts, let alone someone with an Order. It was proven by the fact that the Death Eyes came out as the Death Avatar''s First Authority. He had received it when he was only a Supreme Rank Expert.


    Still, Theo smiled and said, "No. That''s enough."


    "��" Eric and Airvans furrowed their eyebrows as they realized Theo used that time to summon the mist around them. With his strong Awareness, Eric felt that the mist was blocking his Awareness.


    "This mist can block Awareness. Beware! Theo is going to use his illusion to disappear here!" Eric thought Theo was using the same strategy as him when disappearing in the darkness but with mist.


    So, Airvans immediately lifted his hands to control the mist. "Mist is formed from water and gas. So��"


    Airvans had control over the mist as he immediately dispersed the mist to reveal Theo and Ava.


    Surprisingly, Ava was already in front of Airvans while Theo tried to sneak attack Eric.


    "!!!" Airvans and Eric were rmed. Airvans created a bubble to stop her while Eric turned around to stop Theo''s attack.


    However, Ava suddenly smiled and snapped her finger.


    Airvans noticed something different from Ava this time. "Wait. The rabbit is male?"


    Suddenly, Ava revealed its original form, which was Theo. And the one behind Eric was Ava disguised as Theo.


    Eric summoned numerous objects to stop her, but Ava covered her body with lightning and pierced through anything until she kicked Eric on the forehead, knocking him to the ground.


    "Gah!" Eric felt his skull was almost crushed and his neck almost snapped.


    On the other hand, Theo snapped his fingers and erased the water, taking advantage of that gap to punch Airvans in the face. He even used his Alter Ego to boost his strength.


    But as one would expect from Airvans, he still had the time to react. He summoned a bubble right in front of his face to soften the impact of that attack.


    Theo felt this jelly-like water that had so much resistance. But Theo''s Strength was over four thousand, so it broke the water bubble and crushed his nose. His face even tilted a bit to the inside as it became disfigured.


    Still, Airvans was a bit too lucky because Theo just got an influx of information after blowing him away.


    "Ah! Why didn''t I realize it sooner?" Theo couldn''t help but click his tongue when he got this experience. After fighting so long, the battle on the other battlefield had reached the stage of Theo utilizing his Twisted Reality. When Theo received the experience and knowledge about this Twisted Reality, he knew the battle was on the bag, though he was a bit annoyed by the timing.


    Theo looked at Eric and Airvans while stating, "Alright. From here on out, I''m going to step up even further."

 Chapter 1401 Killing the Source of Trouble

    Chapter 1401 Killing the Source of Trouble


    Theo immediately informed Ava about their change of n. Ava immediately leaped to Theo to regroup with him. But their real target was none other than Airvans.


    While they regrouped, Theo and Ava headed straight to Airvans to kill him on this one asion.


    "No, you don''t!" Eric hurriedly lifted the ground and created a spiral as if it was trying to confuse Theo with its shape.


    But the spiral actually wasn''t Eric''s fault. He originally wanted to create a wall to stop Theo so that he could catch up, but Theo used his Twisted Reality to create a spiral with a hole in the middle, allowing him and Ava to pass the obstacle without wasting a single second.


    Seeing Theo and Avaing for him, Airvans endured the pain of his disfigured face and hurriedly summoned all the water in their surroundings. Many ropes made of water formed as they wrapped Theo and Ava''s limbs to stop them.


    But Theo used his Twisted Reality again to twist the water, making it turn in another direction and resulting in them not being able to catch up to Theo anymore.


    "What is this ability?" Airvans dropped his jaws to the ground as he ran away, trying to distance himself as far as he could. He didn''t know how Theo could be this strong, but it was clear that something had happened on the other battlefield.


    Suddenly, Theo smirked and asked, "It seems that you have been abandoned by your master."


    "Huh?" Airvans'' eyebrows twitched while Eric shouted, "Don''t be distracted. He just wanted to distract you!"


    Unfortunately, not many people were aware that Theo couldn''t lie. Although it would be good that Airvans had a doubt if he knew that wasn''t a lie, there were more advantages if only a few people knew about his rules.


    Ava leaped into the air and Theo hurriedly extended his sword. As soon as shended on his sword, Theo threw her so that she could catch up with Airvans.


    Airvans gritted his teeth and felt Eric''s power.


    As soon as Ava caught up, she struck his face to crush his skull. The face exploded, but Theo shouted, "It''s an illusion!"


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes as Airvans'' crushed figure disappeared and another Airvans only one foot away from this illusion appeared. He struck Ava by utilizing the confusion Eric created.


    It turned out Eric faked Airvans'' death with his illusion and it worked against Ava. Theo clicked his tongue and asked Ava to handle Eric since he was going to kill Airvans here.


    Still, this was Ava''s weakness. She truly couldn''t see which one was the illusion since Eric was simply that good. He was just overwhelmed by Theo''s Reality Order this whole time, rendering his power useless.


    But when Ava turned around, she saw ten Erics standing before her.


    Theo snapped his fingers and removed the illusion as he continued toward Airvans.


    Now that she had found him and focused on the real Eric, Ava only needed to kill this guy and ignore the rest of the illusion.


    Eric summoned more illusions again since he could rece himself with illusion while moving away to avoid Ava''s attack just like what he showed her with Airvans.


    Ava summoned all the lightning balls and caused them to let out a huge spark, destroying everything in their surroundings. Since he spread them, even Eric wouldn''t escape from the spark.


    "Kh!" All Erics were destroyed, leaving one that was crawling on the ground as if trying to move away unnoticed. Without hesitation, Ava leaped to him and struck him with her ws, ripping apart her head.


    "Your illusion won''t work anymore!"


    Eric died in Ava''s hands, or so she thought. The illusion suddenly disappeared as the real Eric appeared behind her with a sword in his hand, stabbing her. "Or so you thought��"


    But Theo also did the exact same thing and thrust Eric''s stomach. "I know you''re going to do this."


    "Huh? Gah." Eric spat a mouthful of blood in shock.


    Theo had seen how Eric used his illusion to summon another person and used them to attack his mother. So, he thought Eric would do the same thing if Ava faked her weakness.


    Yes. Theo had asked Ava to fake her weakness by not being able to see through his illusion. That act managed to lower Eric''s guard, allowing Theo to take him out by surprise.


    Eric widened his eyes in shock while ncing back, finding Theo had stopped chasing after Airvans.


    He realized the entire n and said, "You��"


    Despite piercing his heart, Theo waspletely annoyed. After seeing his brutality, Theo truly wanted to let Eric experience a brutal death, but this wasn''t the time for it. He had to see the bigger picture and focus on their objectives.


    Since Theo managed to kill him, Ava leaped to his foot.


    Theo then kicked Ava''s feet, giving her a boost to catch up to Airvans. "Catch up to him!"


    "Got it." Ava nodded with a serious expression.


    Meanwhile, Theo looked at Eric and moved his sword around. "This is for my childhood."


    "Gaaaaahhhhhh!" Eric screamed in pain. The pain of having his body torn into pieces was extremely painful.


    ording to some research, there were a few seconds that your body and mind thought you were still alive and experienced all the pains even after your head was severed.


    So, Theo took these few seconds to let go of that emotion in his heart and rip him apart to give as much pain as possible.


    "This is for my big brother and family." Theo moved around and stabbed him a few times.


    "Aaaaaaahhhh!" Eric continuously screamed in pain as his body was sliced apart. The blood sttered on the ground and the pain had been increased by Theo''s illusion, making him suffer as much as possible in thest few seconds of his life.


    "This is for everything you''ve done to me!"


    "Aaaaaaahhhhh!"


    Unfortunately, Eric gradually lost his energy and consciousness as he finally died.


    Only then did Theo let go of his sword, watching Eric''s body fall to the ground.


    "Tsk. I could only do that much after you ruined my childhood." Theo clicked his tongue. If not for this man, he would have a great older brother who he could look up to. If not for him, his family situation wouldn''t be thisplicated. And if not for him, his childhood would be filled with love. He wanted to make him experience the same thing he had endured for so long, but unfortunately, the situation didn''t allow him to do it.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had killed the one that ruined his family.


    Theo looked at the sky with a long sigh.


    "Damnit."

 Chapter 1402 Welcome

    Chapter 1402 Wee


    "With this, the battle has finished." Theo muttered while looking at Airvans'' severed heads. After Eric died, he was overwhelmed by Theo and Ava. It didn''t take too long for them to kill Airvans because there was no more Pure Water as long as Theo was there.


    "You don''t seem to be that happy even though we''ve defeated all of the opponents," Ava asked, noticing the emotion hidden behind that poker face.


    "Yeah. Won the battle but lost the war, I guess." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "The situation would be far moreplicated. Even I can''t predict everything that will happen after this."


    "Even you?" Ava widened her eyes in shock. Normally, Theo could see or even predict what would happen all around the world after his action. Even if he didn''t say it, he was aware of how others would act. So, it was surprising that Theo admitted he couldn''t do it this time.


    "Yeah. I''ll tell you about the detailster. But the Griffith Family is not weakened at all in this battle. In fact, I can say they have be stronger." Theo sighed. "Now that my identity is exposed to the world, other countries have the chance to ally with them to eliminate me.


    "Even if they can''t easily kill me, I can''t say the same about other people. Luckily, I don''t have many friends, or I''ll have a headache."


    Theo thought for a moment and turned around. "Anyway, it''s time to go back. The Poison King should have retreated and the group has eliminated the enemies."


    "Alright." Ava jumped to her favorite spot, Theo''s right shoulder. She asked, "By the way, are you not satisfied with that old man?"


    "Although it''s true that I can''t do much to him, I don''t think I''m that disappointed." Theo shook his head gently. "Karma."


    "Karma?" Ava tilted her head in confusion.


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and didn''t exin further. He then went to his group, which managed to defeat all the enemies. With Ergene taking themand and Akbar matching the enemies, the group could easily fight without him. And Marzio''s helppleted the group, allowing them to handle all these enemies.


    Walker gently bowed his head upon Theo''s arrival, thanking him for the opportunity to exact revenge. Akbar closed his book while maintaining his dignified appearance. Coline was searching for some recipes on the Sk for the celebration.


    Rea had begun calling people to clean up the mess and informed them that the battle had finished. Felix and Ruth sat next to each other as they were tired of fighting against the Poison King, while Ryo still stayed with Chris who was ying his piano for their victory.


    Jeff even painted and transformed the in into a flower field to soften the atmosphere.


    All of them were waiting for him as this was their victory.


    Theo knew this wasn''t the time to break out the news about the situation on the other side, so he put on a gentle smile as they enjoyed this victory for a moment.


    And of course, Theo might be disappointed that he couldn''t kill Eric, but he wasn''t that angry at all. After all, he had knowledge about Heaven, Hell, and the Spatial Rift. If this ce was Heaven and the other side was called Hell, then the Spatial Rift was the ce where a strong soul gathered and watched over the world instead of reincarnating.


    And the Mind Elder''s soul absolutely had the qualification to enter that world, considering he was someone possessing Order.


    And due to this particr reason, Theo didn''t feel that angry when he couldn''t do much before the Mind Elder died.


    The Mind Elder himself arrived into the spatial rift with a hollow gaze. His consciousness had yet to gather after traveling to the underworld. He had just gone to the underworld and was about to reincarnate, but due to the system Hel created, he was transported to the Spatial Rift as well. If the Death Reaper didn''t sacrifice herself in the underworld to revive the Original Theo, she would have ended up in this ce.


    After a while, the Mind Elder had gathered enough consciousness that he started moving.


    In his front was a road made of gold. He could see a few houses made of gold that looked majestic despite their humble style. The atmosphere in this ce was cool, but he could feel something that energized his heart. It was an amazing feeling that he could only feel here.


    "This is..." the Mind Elder was confused and looked left and right to confirm his ce. "Is this an afterlife?"


    On his left was a road made of clouds and stretched to the horizon. Meanwhile, on his left were two people walking toward him as if they were trying to guide him.


    The first one was a guy with short ck hair. He had a confident gaze and wore formal attire coupled with a knee-length jacket. At one nce, people believed he was an intelligent man.


    The second one was a woman. On one side, she was an extremely beautiful woman that could make people fall in love. But on the other side, her body was like an undead. Her flesh was melting continuously and some of her bones were exposed.


    They looked like a guide until the Mind Elder heard what they were talking about.


    "So, this guy is the one. Even I have my own standard in using my illusion. But I guess we can tie him up somewhere and bring the snake to melt his body with poison. I''ve experienced it, so I know it''s very effective."


    "Instead of poison, why don''t I make his flesh melt like an undead? The pain is simr, and no one can stop it."


    "That''s a good idea."


    These two finally arrived in front of the Mind Elder with huge smirks on their face.


    "Who are you two?" The Mind Elder asked, curious. This was the first time he experienced the afterlife, so he wanted to know everything.


    The two answered at the same time with a big smile. "We''re the ones who will torture you for eternity."

 Chapter ?1403 Discussion

    Chapter ?1403 Discussion


    On the other battlefield.


    After the Griffith Family ran away, Theo met up with the Sword Saint while Leonardo went to Valerie and Ray together with Ne.


    "So, what are you going to do now? After thinking for a while, I can understand that you''re in a dire position." The Sword Saint asked.


    "I''m not very sure. I have to do some calctions first before making another move." Theo sighed.


    "That''s true. A half-baked decision will lead you to ruin, especially if they know that your clone can use Order as well. It''s a freaking powerful technique that everyone wants to possess. If they can''t get it, they''ll eliminate you.


    "After all, no one will reject having two Top Ten Experts in their country, especially an immortal one, since you can be hidden and just use your clone to do all the jobs." The Sword Saint shrugged.


    "Is that the reason for you to stay with me? If you kidnap me here, no one can do anything about it." Theo looked at him with a serious expression.


    "Hahaha!" Nagasawa Ken chuckled and said, "I''m just ying the long-term game. And bing your ally is something that I can use as an inheritance. Knowing you, I don''t think you''ll abandon my children."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "The situation is tooplicated. I''m worried that we''re going to be surrounded by multiple Saints."


    "The Wind Emperor?"


    Theo shook his head, indicating that the Wind Emperor wouldn''t participate in any more battles due to his age and health.


    "I see." The Sword Saint thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think you can escape from this kind of situation?"


    "Which country will be the greatest enemy?" Theo answered with another question.


    "Country��" The Sword Saint fell silent. Two superpower countries had be Theo''s allies through the Star Group and the Wind Emperor. Then, the most important factor in this equation would be that one country. The Sword Saint answered with a serious expression. "China."


    Theo smiled. "What if I turn them into my ally?"


    "Huh?" The Sword Saint was confused for a moment but fell silent, thinking about the possibility. He got many questions about this n, but knowing Theo, he mentioned it because he had some confidence in turning them into an ally. If he truly had three superpower countries supporting him, he should be able to create a stalemate against the Griffith Family.


    "Still, the Griffith Family is the best in the espionage industry."


    "Don''t worry. I''m going to throw the bait pretty soon."


    "Well, if you have some confidence in dealing with the situation, I won''t worry too much. If you need some help, just tell me about it. The situation will be chaotic soon."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "Well, you can rx for a few days. Do you want to join me at the celebration party?"


    "I don''t mind that, but this is your group''s moment, no?"


    "Nah, it''s fine. The Mota Family will join too anyway, so you can use this opportunity to talk to your daughter."


    "Hahaha!" The Sword Saint patted his shoulder. "Then, I guess I''ll stay in this country for one more day."


    "So, do you want to drink?" Leonardo suddenly came over with a smirk. "I still save the wine this guy gave me. The taste was beyond anything I drank so far."


    "Really? Then, I''ll ept that invitation." Nagasawa Ken nodded in agreement.


    "Grandfather." Theo politely bowed his head to him. This time, it wasn''t just a letter. Theo finally called him grandfather for the first time.


    The grandson he had lost for 23 years had finally returned home. Relief, happiness, and sadness mixed in his heart. He was relieved to know that Theo had finally returned her. He felt happy because his grandson finally acknowledged him as his grandfather. And he was sad to think this grandson experienced so much bad stuff in his childhood.


    He couldn''t help but say, "Don''t worry about the government. It''s easy to convince them. I''ll handle the prime minister himself. Your group has four Orders with you being counted as two. No nation will reject you if you want to stay here."


    "Thank you, Grandfather."


    "How about your living quarters?"


    "I just need to finalize the deal."


    "You can stay in your mansion during that time."


    "No, it''s fine. The construction won''t take that long anyway." Theo shook his head. "Though, there are going to be problems."


    Leonardo smirked and added, "I''ll help you too."


    "Huh?" Theo was confused. Leonardo had his motto, so helping him meant breaking his motto.


    However, Leonardo exined the scenario. "This is not my love but a transaction. You seem to be capable of teaching people, right? You teach some of the younger generations. Just by making them know that you have two subordinates with an Order make it clear that you are a capable teacher. The fee is huge. So, I''ll be the payment."


    Theo couldn''t help but smile seeing Leonardo try so hard just to twist the logic so that he could help him. But it was indeed his way.


    "Hey, hey. If you begin your teaching ss, I do want to reserve that spot." The Sword Saint''s eyebrows twitched.


    "No can do. It''s family''s rted business! No outsiders allowed." Leonardo stuck his tongue out.


    "What did you say?" The Sword Saint red at Leonardo.


    "Hahaha." Leonardo chuckled.


    "Then, it''s time for me to leave."


    Leonardo fell silent. He wanted to say it but couldn''t. His parents were here, so Theo could meet them. But he didn''t want to mention it because he didn''t want to make Theo feel guilty just for his personal satisfaction.


    He made a wry smile and said, "I understand. This is your big day, so you should go right now."


    Theo nodded. However, Theo suddenly nced to the side before leaving, seeing his parents one more time.


    Valerie looked away, ashamed. On the other hand, Ray looked at him with a grim expression as if telling him that he acknowledged the mistake and was prepared to be responsible for the consequences as the head of the family. He knew he was guilty, but he wouldn''t run away from it just because he was ashamed.


    Finding Theo still ncing at them was enough for him. Even Ne had some admirations in him as she tugged his sleeve and pointed at herself.


    Even though there were no words exchanged between them, Ray understood Ne''s gestures.


    Ray smiled and nodded to her, slightly pushing her back so that she could chase after Theo.


    At the very least, Ne would still report to him that Theo was fine. That information alone was enough for him.

 Chapter 1404 Agata and Theo

    Chapter 1404 Agata and Theo


    After the big battle, Theo and his group returned to Agata, preparing for their celebration.


    Coline was fired up as she immediately headed to the kitchen to prepare all the food. Meanwhile, the others were a bit rxed since they had won the battle.


    But Rea continued to work, dealing with all the people who were curious about Theo. She basically became Theo''s spokesperson.


    Of course, Theo had told them what she could say and what she couldn''t. He just satisfied a bit of their curiosity.


    Only after that did she get some time to talk with her father.


    Meanwhile, Theo was sitting with Agata and Boris as they had a serious conversation going on.


    Theo even lowered his head to apologize. "I''m sorry."


    "This�� Why do you apologize?" Boris asked, not understanding the whole situation.


    "I''m afraid that the situation will be a lot more unpredictable from now on. I''ll do my best, but I don''t know how and when I can solve this problem. That''s why I''m afraid that I can''t marry her yet."


    "��" Boris was shocked at first, but he soon got disappointed that the conversation suddenly turned this way. "Is that it?"


    "Eh?" Theo raised his head in confusion.


    "You are still too young. Waiting for another decade for marriage is normal. Public opinion is important, but that doesn''t really matter." Boris shrugged. "It''s not like you rush your marriage."


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head. He nced at Agata, who might be disappointed about his decision. But she also shook her head, agreeing with her father''s statement.


    "There''s no rush. We still have like one hundred years to live anyway." Agata shrugged. She smiled and assured him instead. "Besides, you are now living here again. Meeting you and living with you is enough."


    "I don''t mind that. Though, where is your home? Is it the same mansion?" Boris asked.


    "No. I''m nning to move out. Well, I''m going to finish the deal as soon as possible. After acquiring thend, I''m going to build the house there."


    "Need help?"


    "I''m going to use my power to create the buildings, so I''ll handle it myself."


    "Alright then. If you need some help, just call me."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Since there''s nothing to discuss anymore, I should leave. It''s your time, so enjoy it." Boris smiled and patted Theo''s shoulder before leaving the couple alone.


    "Is that what you''re worried about right now?" Agata asked. "I mean, there''s no need to rush for marriage."


    "I''m sure you know the problem if we haven''t married, right?" Theo nced at Agata.


    "Pretty much." Agata nodded with a nonchnt expression. "People will force you to leave me so that you can enter a political marriage. From your expression, it seems that the problem is more troublesome, so the chance is pretty high. This is the best way to bind you into a certain influence after all."


    "Yeah. That''s why I am a bit rushed." Theo let out a long sigh. "Though, a part of me also wants to show it��"


    Agata smiled. She justid down her head on his shoulder and held his hand, saying, "No need to trouble yourself with this. I believe we can ovee anything. You can handle the parents and I''ll handle their daughters. At least Alea, Ne, Maya, or Rea are better options�� Though, I''m going to monopolize you, hehe��"


    "Well, I don''t have that intention. For now, I think you need to know about the real situation." Theo exined about the original him briefly.


    Agata was surprised by the fact that Theo was just a clone created by skill and became real after reviving himself. And now, there was his original that came back from death.


    "I see. So, that''s why you are so troubled. What? ''The only one who can defeat me is myself'' type of situation?" Agata smirked, thinking the only person in the younger generation that could defeat Theo was only himself. So, the Original Theo came back to defeat him.


    "Yeah. And I don''t know how to deal with this problem since I can''t see a way to fish the Griffith Family out of their water."


    "Well, a way will eventually appear as you get stronger. So, why don''t you rx a bit? If you want to throw a bait, you should wait for a few days so that they have time to gather some information and make some meetings. That''s the right time to drop the bomb�� I mean, the bait."


    Theo nodded in agreement. "Yeah. That was my n."


    "How about our house?"


    "Grandfather told me that he would help me to speed up the buying process. I should be able to get the deed tomorrow or the day after."


    "So, are you going to stay in your previous mansion for the next couple of days?"


    "Well, the construction should onlyst for one day, but I think I''ll stay here for a moment."


    "Ah, where is the base anyway?"


    "Thirty miles from here. There''s a plot ofnd with a smallke and hill."


    "Ah, that ce!"


    "Because the ce hasn''t been developed yet, I get it pretty cheap. And because that ce will be built from my power, it''s good to be a bit away from the city. I just have to make a road connected to the city."


    "I see. The road won''t be created from your power, right? Let me call the constructionpany. Contacting Maya right now won''t be a good option right now."


    "I guess."


    "Anyway, do you have all you need like decorations or materials?"


    "That can be created with my power."


    "Alright. I''ll go with you just to make sure you don''t forget anything."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled.


    "In that case, let''s go back to the others. I''m sure they aren''t going to start the party without us."


    Theo and Agata smiled at each other as they finally walked back to the garden, where they held the celebration for their small victory.


    It was the time for the Mota Family, the War God Family, the Sword Saint, and Theo''s group to meet each other as they celebrated Theo and Agata''s rtionship.

 Chapter 1405 A Good Morning

    Chapter 1405 A Good Morning


    "Mhm." Theo let out a gentle moan as he gradually opened his eyes. Even though they had covered the room, the morning sun still entered the room through the gap between the curtains and somehow ended up on Theo''s face.


    Theo just wanted to go back to sleep again to ignore this light, but he ended up turning his head to the left and saw Agata sleeping soundly beside him.


    All the memory rushed back into his head, making him feel surreal. The party was quite a st and Agata couldn''t stop herself from drinking. Boris asked him to bring Agata to her room, only to find Agata was faking her drunkenness just to leave the party with him. And they ended up in this room.


    As if hearing the little moan he had when waking up, Agata opened her mouth while her eyes were still closed. "Good morning."


    "Mhm. Morning." Theo smiled. "Want to sleep more?"


    "Can you bring me a drink? I''m a bit thirsty."


    "Sure." Theo smiled as he gradually rose from the bed and put on his clothes, trying to get some water. But before he left the room, he noticed that his Skylink was vibrating.


    Curious, he took the Skylink and checked the message.


    "Is there something wrong? Your Skylink isn''t that busy if I remember it correctly."


    Theo smiled and asked Agata. "Want to check the new home?"


    Agata was confused for a moment but soon saw Theo showing the deed that his grandfather had taken. It seemed that the prime minister helped the entire process since he truly wanted many people with Orders to stay in this country. This was a great boost to the country''s strength, so he made sure that Theo''s group had the priority.


    "Oh?! Sure, I''d love to."


    "Okay. Wash yourself first. I''m going to bring something to drink." Theo nodded. "As well as waking the others up."


    "Mhm." Agata timidly nodded.


    Theo smiled as he left the room.


    It didn''t take him too long before he came back, finding Agata was dressing up for the inspection.


    "By the way, how do you create the building? Is it just an illusion?" Agata asked while brushing her hair.


    "Yeah. They''re an illusion, but I''m spicing it up with another power. So, they''re simr to that of the real stuff."


    "If people know about your power, it''ll cut the cost of thepany to build a factory and so on."


    "Not at all. I can create all the dead objects like a building, a bed, and decorations. But I can''t create machines." Theo shook his head.


    "Machines�� Like refrigerators and stoves?"


    "Yep." Theo nodded. He raised his hand and summoned a fire on his palm. "I can create the element, but maintaining it requires me directly involved since we have to turn it on and off. The mechanic is simply too difficult to copy."


    "So, we still need to buy some stuff, right?"


    "Yeah, but not so much. For now, I''ll try to create the building and the rough outlines of the buildings before going for the details. I''ll see which one I need to buy and which one can be replicated with my power."


    "Won''t they disappear if you aren''t present?"


    "Nope. The source of energy is from somewhere else." Theo shook his head and pointed at her waist. "Take a look at your right side."


    Agata tilted her head and noticed a small circle on her waist. She never tattooed herself, so this symbol bewildered her.


    "That''s the mark of my power. As much as I want to tell you about this power, I can''t. You have to be a Mythical Rank Expert and need to be able to understand your power to a certain degree�� Sorry."


    "No, it''s fine. If this kind of power is easily essible, the whole world would know of its existence already." Agata nodded in understanding.


    "You can try to pour your Magic Power there."


    "Magic Power?" Agata followed Theo''s instructions. After pouring her Magic Power, the symbol reacted by letting out a wisp of Golden Magic Power, the same Golden Magic Power that Theo released from his body.


    "That''s the proof the mark is real. King ss Monsters and World ss Monsters won''t easily touch you because it also means a war against me. Of course, they don''t know me, but they surely know the consequence of fighting against someone at the level of King ss or even World ss Monster. So, they are usually pretty civil if they know about this power."


    "I see. It''s a pretty useful symbol. Is that the reason why the King ss Monsters we have met so far are pretty civil to you?"


    "Yep," Theo admitted without hesitation.


    "Thanks for letting me know. Though, I will rarely go to the other side from now on since I''m going to help you maintain the group. And I''ll just level up and pursue my power at my own pace."


    "Mhm." Theo nodded. Knowing Agata, even though she was telling him she wanted to get stronger at her own pace, she wouldn''t be cking. She would use the rest of the time to do something else. That was why there was no need to warn her or tell her something else. He only had to trust her.


    "Done." Agata finished tying her hair into a ponytail as she rose from the chair, looking at Theo as if telling him that she was ready to go.


    Theo smiled. "Let''s go then."


    "Yep." She walked to him and grabbed his hands. She felt a bit energetic today because this time, she didn''t have to hide everything anymore. They didn''t need to disguise themselves anymore just to be together. And this was the greatest joy in her heart.


    They walked a bit slowly just to enjoy their time until they reached the garden where his group had gathered.


    They seemed to be pretty eager to see Theo''s power in constructing their base. Jeff had even hugged his sketchbook as if it was an important document. He said, "Everything is ready. I''ve taken everyone''s ideas and drawn all of them."


    Theo nodded with a smile as he said, "Let''s go then! To our new base."

 Chapter ?1406 The Best Construction Worker

    Chapter ?1406 The Best Construction Worker


    Thend that Theo bought covered a smallke and a hill. It would be a good spot for investment, but thend was simply too far from the teleportation circle, so it wasn''t that expensive.


    The smallke was perfect for them just to enjoy ying around the water whether using a boat or fishing. And the hill was good for observation post. In any case, both of them could be used for housing residences, depending on their preferences.


    Looking at this spot, Theo smiled and said, "This is going to be good."


    "Still, how are you nning to build in this ce?" Agata asked.


    "It''s simple. I just have to turn this ce into my territory. Remember the Poison King and the Dark Poison Swamp?"


    "Yes."


    "That''s the idea. Though, because I''m going to add more details, the area will be a lot smaller."


    "Like how small?"


    "Hmm. If I use theke as the center�� around one thousand feet in radius? It''s only one hundred times smaller than the Dark Poison Swamp, but I can concentrate my power to make small details."


    "That''s already quite big."


    "Anyway." Theo turned to Jeff. "Bring them to the first spot, will you? I''ll catch up after making this ce my territory."


    "Understood." Jeff nodded with a serious expression. All the designs were in his sketchbook, so he was the only one who knew the exact spot.


    As soon as they left, Theo took off his clothes and wrapped his body with the clothes from the Dark Armor. After that, he jumped into theke and headed straight to the center of theke.


    Since it would be a problem if this mark was destroyed, he dug the soil underneath theke for a bit before cing the Covenant Seal to turn this ce into his territory.


    Soon, the Golden Magic Power starteding out of the seal. The Covenant Seal itself was simr to Theo''s body. It would channel the energy from the world and continuously release it until the mark disappeared. The amount of energy that coulde out from this mark depended on Theo''s understanding of Order.


    Now that he was only one step away from thest stage in Order before reaching Authority, the energy released was quite huge. In fact, he could create the same Dark Poison Swamp if he wanted, but because he wanted to apply some of his power to make the details in this ce, he sacrificed a huge portion of that energy for them.


    After ensuring that the seal was stable, Theo came out of theke and put his clothes back on before catching up with the others, who had been waiting on the first spot where his and Agata''s house would be made.


    Theo turned to Ruth and Felix and said, "Watch carefully."


    Ruth and Felix nodded with serious expressions. Theo would be showing them how to utilize the Covenant Seal. This was also his first time using the Covenant Seal this way, but in every fight, he put a Covenant Seal somewhere to supply more power for him. That was why he could overpower most of his enemies.


    Theo then lifted his hand and directed the energy from the Covenant Seal to thend in front of them.


    They were located not far from theke.


    Theo and Agata had a certain ideal house in their mind. And they often talked about the designs in their free time.


    Thend itself was on a gentle slope. It would be hard work for a construction worker to deal with this kind of terrain.


    But Theo only needed a single wave of his hand to summon the house.


    The construction began by forming a few white pirs on the ground and attaching them to a tform six feet above the ground.


    After that, he formed stairs that allowed them to go to the tform. Only after that did he start creating the outline of the house. From the concrete wall to to windows and even the second floor as well as an attic. The house in Theo''s mind wasn''t that big since he didn''t have too many family members.


    And if he needed to, he could simply change the shape to his liking. Unlike a normal building, this one was created by his power, so he only needed to use his power again topletely reshape the structure.


    "This is��" All the people from Theo''s group were stunned by the house''s appearance. The house itself looked like a normal andfy family house. It wasn''t even a mansion or a castle. But the fact that a house was created in just a few secondspletely blew their mind.


    "What will happen if there''s an earthquake or something? And do we need a civil engineer to measure the ground? Can they withstand the weight?" Jeff asked. "You told me that I didn''t need them, but��"


    "Jeff, chill." Theo chuckled and formed the same pir as the building''s foundation and tossed it to him.


    "Huh?" Jeff was stunned as the others also prepared to move out. But Jeff somehow caught the pir with one hand and was shocked. "Eh?"


    Curious about Jeff''s reaction, Rea came to him and tried to lift the pir. "Eh?"


    Both of them had the same reaction. They only blinked their eyes in shock.


    "It''s light�� like a feather," Jeff answered their doubt.


    Theo smiled and exined. "Of course, they''re light. They are just my illusion that I reinforce with my power to make them real. In other words, the only weight that the ground has to withstand is the equipment inside as well as our own weight. Do you still need to check the foundation for that? I mean, for Air Conditioner, Stoves, and Refrigerator�� they shouldn''t weigh that much, right?"


    "That''s��" Jeff was speechless. "Still, the fact that this is an illusion means if there''s an earthquake, it won''t be destroyed?"


    "Of course." Theo nodded and snapped his finger, removing one of the foundation pirs. "And if it''s partly destroyed, the building won''t fall. This is just an illusion that I make real. Just like how I suddenly create a sword or spear with my illusion, the physics don''t apply, right?"


    Everyone was shocked because this was truly an unbelievable power.

 Chapter 1407 Mystical Place?

    Chapter 1407 Mystical ce?


    *Hiss!*


    Everyone sucked a cold breath. As an illusionist themselves, Jeff and Agata obviously understood how the illusion worked. But they wouldn''t be able to live inside their illusion since they needed to use their power to maintain it and an illusion was just an illusion.


    However, Theo''s power was able to solve those weaknesses. He used the Covenant Seal to supply the energy and the Reality Order to make the illusion real. This was actually the best ability one could have to be a civil engineer.


    "This is��" As expected, the craziest and most energetic person, Walker, immediately grabbed Theo''s shoulders and asked, "Ma-Master! Can you create a flying continent on top of theke? Don''t you think it''s awesome to live in a fantasy ce?"


    "A flying continent?" Rea widened her eyes in shock. "Then, then�� Can I also ask for a flying dojo and temple? Won''t it look mystical?"


    "A floating gallery huh�� Maybe like the Artemis Temple but floating in the air. Won''t it be good to host an art exhibition in a ce like that?" Jeff nodded in understanding.


    "Why don''t you just make a floating aquarium with fishes inside? It can be another attraction?" Coline smirked. "I can also freshly choose my fish from there. Hehe��"


    "I don''t need anything mystical. I just want a huge field to train myself in." Ergene shook her head in question. However, Rea walked to her and whispered something to the point Ergene corrected herself. "I think I need a battlefield that can defy gravity. It''ll be a good practice spot."


    "Well, an observation tower in the center of this ce�� Maybe an observation tower that stretches from the hill to the floating one��" Akbar also followed suit. Ruth nodded in agreement. "That''s a good idea you have there. I can shoot people from those spots too. Why don''t we just connect all those flying buildings so that I can move around in the air?"


    "Why are you all obsessed with flying stuff?" Ryo looked at them with a weird smile. "Won''t it be better to have a bunker? It can protect you from anything."


    "As expected of the shield guy, you want something tough huh." Rea smirked.


    "Millie loves fish, so I think an underwater building is good too." Felix looked away.


    "Moon replica! I''ll be the true moon rabbit." Ava nodded in agreement.


    Theo looked at them with a poker face. "You have too many requests�� Even though I have that ability, I don''t think I''m going to do it�� At least for now."


    "Eh?" They looked so disappointed as if they were a child who didn''t get their toy.


    "Well, the satellites and people are looking at us too. Although it''s truly eye-catching, I don''t want random people to just enter as they please. And if they try to take over the area, I''m going to be extremely annoyed, especially since I know that many businessmen will approach me to create a hotel in this ce.


    "For now, let''s stick to the original n. And I still have no ability to create all your requests right now like Coline''s illusion room where you can replicate the illusion thates into your mind after eating the food��" Theo exined. As he said, Theo needed to reach thest stage of the Reality Order, the Reality Realm, to be able to give Coline what she wanted.


    "Still, a magical ce like that one is quite tempting, you know. There are a few magical ces like this on Earth. The first is the Fist Saint''s residence. It''s said that the air there is heavier and you can basically improve your physique as if there''s a gravity room." Rea exined. "All of those ces are indeed a great business opportunity. And they can basically make this ce bustling with people."


    "That''s right." Theo nodded. "For now, I''m not strong enough. I have to get stronger first to ensure the safety of this area. Only after I can settle downpletely will I start developing this ce. And at that time, no one will dare to intrude into this ce easily.


    "Besides, the stronger I get, the more stuff I can fit in here. So, eventually, you''ll be able to experience it all." Theo smiled. "If you don''t like it or just get bored by it, we can simply reshape the entire structure with my power. This is the best thing if we don''t have outsiders here. No one willin if we destroy or reshape their ces."


    "Ah! A magical fantasy ce that can change depending on our mood." All of them finally understood. Theo truly wanted to progress this ce, but he didn''t want to open it so soon. He needed to make sure that this ce was a good ce even for their retirement.


    After all, retiring and even dying of old age in a flying tomb surely would be unprecedented. And with Theo being this young, his power wouldn''t run out soon. Without flying buildings, they wouldn''t copse if Theo somehow died in the future. That was why Theo wanted to get stronger first so that he could ensure the stability of this area.


    When no one could kill him anymore, it was time for him to develop the area.


    "Well, even the oldest one among us hasn''t even reached 100 years old. So, waiting for a few decades is not that bad." Rea nodded in understanding. "Though, we''re lucky Isaac is not here."


    "��" All of them were surprised Rea mentioned Isaac here. But when they thought about Isaac''s personality, he would truly make a fuss about it, especially with how the illusion defied gravity.


    Agata only chuckled this whole time, and maintained her silence. She was amused by the group''s reaction. This was Theo''s group, the people that had be her family.


    Theo also added, "Don''t you think the one who will make the most fuss is Maya?"


    "��" The group fell silent, agreeing with this opinion.


    Whether it was a coincidence or not, Maya and Felix somehow had the urge to look at the sky.


    "I feel like I''m missing out on a lot of fun."


    "Ah, I smell money."

 Chapter 1408 Allys Reaction

    Chapter 1408 Ally''s Reaction


    After a whole day, the whole world finally knew what happened in Italy as well as Joker''s real identity.


    The United States.


    The Time God and the president had a little talk about this sudden movement.


    "What do you think about this, Turner?" The president asked with a serious expression. The Star Group seemed to have distanced itself from the government and Theo had cut the rtionship off with the government. So, they could turn their back on them without hesitation.


    The Time God simply closed his eyes and spoke nonchntly. "There''s nothing you can do. Your rtionship right now is not good or bad. So, there''s no need to do anything because he''s not a person who will bite you without any provocations from your side. Besides, even though you two are not an ally, you can be considered a friend."


    "Hmm��" The president narrowed his eyes.


    "The one you should worry about right now is the next president. You have governed for two terms, so it''s time for you to step down. It''s better to warn the next president not to bother him." The Time God advised.


    As someone who had met Theo, what the Time God said was certainly a fact. Theo only wanted to maintain the bnce like the Time God. He didn''t have to rule a certain country and he wouldn''t bite unless provoked.


    "I see. I''ll think about it." He nodded with a serious expression.


    "I just want to tell you this one thing. Never aim for hisrades." The Time God raised his finger to strengthen his point. "If pushes to shove, Theo can disappear. Don''t forget about his clone. No one knows that he''s living by using the clone or it''s his real body. When he disappears, you won''t find him. And the next thing you realize, the country will be on the path of ruin."


    "��" The president''s expression turned grim. Just like the Griffith Family, there was a chance that Theo would fake his death again. He didn''t know whether Theo was someone who would abandon his people or not when it was clear to be a trap. If Theo chose to abandon everything and take revenge in the future, the country would surely be ruined.


    If Theo became a top ten expert, there would be an immortal saint that couldn''t be defeated unless they found his real body. And unless all the top ten experts joined hands with him, they wouldn''t be able to defeat Theo.


    It was clear the Sword Saint wouldn''t be Theo''s enemy, so it was better not to step on a lion''s tail.


    "I see." The president nodded with a serious expression.


    ��


    Japan.


    As expected, after knowing about Joker''s identity, Japan''s Prime Minister, Okumura Isamu, visited the Sword Saint.


    He was staring at the Sword Saint, who calmly sipped his tea.


    "It seems that your investment has paid off. I can understand why you do all that much to Joker."


    The Sword Saint smiled. "I didn''t do much. I was also as shocked as you when I learned about his identity. I never thought that Joker would be Theodore Griffith. Back then, Theodore Griffith only had the experience and knowledge from his grandfather, the War Saint. But this time, he has gotten the strength and people toplete all tasks. If someone wants to harm him��"


    The Prime Minister remained silent for a moment before asking, "And where will you point that sword?"


    The Sword Saint squinted his eyes as his face turned grim. "Don''t worry. My de is for the country."


    The Prime Minister closed his eyes as if he was thinking about his decision. After two minutes, he opened his mouth. "Alright. Japan will support Theodore Griffith."


    "A wise choice."


    ��


    There was one more person that had been enjoying his life after knowing Theo wanted to stay in Italy.


    He was none other than Italy''s Prime Minister.


    "You should have told me about this a few years ago, Leonardo." He let out a long sigh. "My job would have been easier. Look! There are many organizations,panies, and countries trying to contact your grandson."


    "Hahahahaha!" Leonardoughed out loud, taking pride in his grandson.


    "It seems that the War God Family doesn''tck a sessor."


    "No. The War God Family sessor is Marzio''s son, Lorenzo."


    "He''s not going to be your sessor?"


    "Nope. He is sick of family, so he won''t be a part of the War God Family. Instead, he will create one for himself." Leonardo shook his head.


    "I see. But he will remain in Italy, right?"


    "Of course."


    The prime minister sighed. "There were two people that could elevate the country''s name in the past. One is the pope and the other one is you. But right now, there are two additional Transcendent Level Mythical Rank Experts, Felix Holt and Ruth Lukita.


    "And I can''t forget their leader, Theodore Griffith, a guy who can clone himself and wield the same power. The fact he can kill Airvans Lockens and Eric Griffith means that he''s already in the top one hundred experts in the world. But the most terrifying thing is the rabbit that always stays with him. To think there''s a King ss Monster staying with him.


    "This makes his group the strongest group in Italy. The power bnce is going to tip over, especially if he wants to revolt, the military can''t do anything about it." The prime minister pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled.


    On the one hand, he was happy that Italy got those people. On the other hand, the stability of the country was threatened by their existence.


    Normally, if the War God Family tried to do something big, he would ally with the pope to restrain the War God Family and vice versa, keeping the bnce. But even if they allied with both of them, he still couldn''t stop Theo.


    Theck of stability might impact the economy and politics, so he wondered what to do. Although the chance was low, the fact that Theo couldunch a coup d''etat alone would impact the country severely. That was why he asked Leonardo to meet him.


    "First of all, you should ride the wave of his poprity. Right now, there''s going to be a huge rise in your country and it''s your opportunity to raise it as much as possible." Leonardo advised.


    "Yeah. I guess I''ll do that for now. I hope that the people''s sentiments won''t change so soon." He nodded.

 Chapter ?1409 Enemys Reaction

    Chapter ?1409 Enemy''s Reaction


    Unlike Theo''s friends or allies, there were countries that had treated Theo poorly.


    The biggest one was none other than China.


    They once again prepared a huge meeting for all leaders in the country, preparing to discuss their actions toward Theo.


    The first one to attend was a middle-aged man with a muscr body. He had a pair of sharp eyes that seemed to be able to look through all people.


    He was one of the four Transcendent Mythical Rank Experts in this country, ranked 95th in the world, Zhou Yu.


    "Oh? Isn''t this the Zhou Family from Shanxi, Zhou Yu?" A feminine voice echoed in the room as ady entered the room after him. She had long ck hair and a mature expression that could charm people. Her gaze was said to be so powerful that it could leave people in a trance.


    The man nced back. "Han Family, Han Xinya. You rarely make your appearance."


    "The matter is simply too great, so I have to attend this meeting personally." She shrugged. "Where are the rest?"


    "It seems that we''re here first."


    "No. I just came back." An old man returned to his seat as soon as he said those words.


    "Oh my, Elder Cheng Pu. It''s truly great that you are still healthy." Han Xinya smiled and immediately greeted the old man.


    "Xinya? It''s truly been a while." Cheng Pu nodded with a serious expression. "To think that there''s a need for this old bone to return."


    "It seems that they''re assembling everyone here. Old Cheng, do you know something about this meeting?" Zhou Yu asked.


    "Obviously, it''s gonna be Theodore Griffith. Someone at our level that can produce a clone of the same level." Han Xinya smiled sweetly as if she was interested in this name.


    "I am here just to fix my son''s mistake. If only he was more strict with his opinion." Cheng Up snorted and sat down in his seat.


    "It seems that everyone has arrived." A cold voice filled the room as all of them turned around and saw a group of people. They were the ministers and all personnel that would be involved in this meeting. And the ones leading them were a middle-aged man and a young woman.


    The young woman had long brown hair tied into a horse tail. She wore sses, but her gaze was so sharp that they could feel cold from it. She was thest Transcendent Mythical Rank Expert, ranked 51st, Zhao Jia.


    Meanwhile, the middle-aged man was none other than the current president of China, Ma Yijun.


    Everyone immediately fell silent when he entered as all people took their respective seats. As expected, the four Transcendent Level Mythical Rank Experts were in the very front.


    They were staring at the president, who sat on the edge of a big oval table.


    "Then, let''s start." Zhao Jia stood up as she prepared her presentation.


    But Ma Yijun stopped her and said, "Not yet."


    "!!!" Cheng Pu, the most senior among the people, instantly understood the hidden meaning behind those two words. "Is heing?"


    "He?" The rest finally connected the missing part and realized the ''he'' in his mouth.


    But before they could say anything, a voice entered the room, followed by an extraordinary pressure that forced them to kneel.


    "I am here."


    "!!!" Cheng Pu, Zhao Jia, Zhou Yu, and Han Xinya immediately covered their bodies with their own power.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the people felt immense pressure that pushed their bodies and heads down.


    "This is��"


    "Kh."


    "This power?"


    Everyone was shocked. Some weaker ones had fallen to the ground, kneeling. Some still managed to resist, but they couldn''t keep their heads up.


    They were looking at the door as a figure gradually walked into the room. He looked like a young man in his early twenties, but his body seemed to be naturally releasing an aura that forced anyone to bow down to him.


    "To think the brat from back then has gotten this strong." Cheng Pu smirked as he was the boldest one among these people.


    The young man noticed him and smiled. "Old Cheng. How are you?"


    "I''m great because of you now. So, care to shut this up?" Cheng pointed at the ceiling, but he was indicating the pressure from above.


    "Ah, it is my natural charm, I guess." He smiled.


    As if not liking his response, Zhao Jia stroked the air with her two fingers as golden trigrams appeared on the floor. In an instant, the pressure disappeared.


    Noticing this power, the man turned to Zhao Jia, who stopped the pressure before making a cheeky smile. "Jia Jia."


    "Please conduct yourself appropriately." Zhao Jia red at him. "And call me Zhao Jia."


    "Hoho, it seems that little Jia Jia is angry. Fine, fine." His previous serious expression soon disappeared, leaving behind the cheerful and nonchnt atmosphere.


    Even so, he was still walking to the opposite side of the room and sat down across from the president, Ma Yijun, showing that they had equal status.


    Even though the room was silent, the people were staring at this young man, finally recognizing his status and identity.


    ''So, he is the second strongest person in the world, Feng Hao.''


    ''Such a powerful pressure and he doesn''t even release all his strength��''


    ''As expected from the one who is blessed by the Heavenly Sovereign, Fu Xi.''


    ''He is the strongest person in this country.''


    Despite people''s gazes, Feng Hao smiled nonchntly and looked at Zhao Jia. "It seems that Jia Jia is going to lead the meeting. Good luck."


    "If you didn''t interrupt us with your farce, we would have started. And stop calling me by my nickname." Zhao Jia''s eyebrows twitched, but she still maintained her cold face.


    "Fine." Feng Hao smirked. "Jia Jia!"


    Zhao Jia gritted her teeth and waved her hand, summoning a few trigrams underneath Feng Hao.


    But before anything happened, Cheng Pu mmed the table to stop them. He red at both of them and said, "Can we start? Are you going to make this old bone waste more time here?"


    Feng Hao immediately raised both hands since Cheng Pu had spoken. Zhao Jia also closed her eyes to calm her down before stating.


    "This meeting is about Theodore Griffith. In this meeting, we''re going to decide how we kill Theodore Griffith."

 Chapter 1410 Trash?

    Chapter 1410 Trash?


    On the screen, Theo''s profile was shown to others.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Age: 23


    Blessing: ???


    Rank: Mythical


    Job: Illusionist


    Zhao Jia then exined to them. "Theodore Griffith has be one of the youngest people to reach Mythical Rank in history. However, that''s not what makes him terrifying. The fact he is an illusionist means more than you can imagine.


    "An illusionist is considered to be one of the jobs that will have a hard time leveling. So, him reaching the Mythical Rank at this age can mean one thing�� He is the most talented man in the world and the youngest person to reach the Mythical Rank as an Illusionist.


    "ording to the investigation, he has attained Future Vision and Perfect Control. And after a long debate, we have decided that he also possesses an Original Technique, close to Divine Technique. If we consider the rtionship between him and the Wind Emperor, we conclude that he has the Wind Emperor''s Ascension Step.


    "Just these three Aspects alone show that he will be unstoppable if we leave him alone. Then, let''s talk about his pet, a King ss Monster. He is the first person to have a King ss Monster willingly follow him. But the fact that he''s not a summoner means the King ss Monster''s life is not attached to him. It means there''s a hidden danger that can happen if the monster decides to go rampage.


    "Then, let''s talk about his subordinates. The most famous ones are these two: White Death and Phantom Archer. With them being able to utilize the transcendent power, it''s clear that they''re going to be top experts as well. It''ll differentiate them from the rest of Mythical Rank Experts and eventually reach the same level as King ss Monsters.


    "Then, there are three more people that we have to take note of. Akbaraly Ibraev, Maisa Walker, and Nagasawa Rea. Akbar is the king of information that has stretched hiswork to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Maisa Walker is one of the best Mythical Rank Experts with an unbreakable chain. And Nagasawa Rea is the daughter of the Sword Saint. If we take her on, there''s a chance that the Sword Saint will dere war.


    "We also need to watch out for Maya Hamilton, the current owner of the Star Group. She''s dangerous because she can affect the economy without using her power."


    Zhao Jia had exined many things about Theo''s group, but Cheng Pu suddenly interrupted her by saying, "Forget about his group first. The most dangerous person is Theodore Griffith."


    Zhao Jia fell silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes. Theodore Griffith has a clone skill that can wield the same power as him. It means Theodore Griffith alone is equal to two Transcendent Level Mythical Rank Experts.


    "But what we have to consider thoroughly is the fact that Theodore Griffith''s mind has surpassed his grandfather, the War Saint. If we get tricked into fighting him, there''s a chance that he will eliminate one of us easily with the help of his clone.


    "And fighting him in Italy means that there''s going to be a huge war. And Russia won''t help us due to the rtionship with the Wind Emperor. That''s why we have to consider many things." Zhao Jia exined.


    "Should we use Curse and Poison to kill him?" Zhou Yu asked.


    "It''s said that he has an ability that stops curses and poisons. From the battle against the Death Reaper''s disciple to the information we received not long ago." Zhao Jia shook her head.


    "If we want to use poisons, we can ask the Poison King. The Griffith Family is at odds with him, no? If I''m not wrong, the Poison King has joined the Griffith Family."


    "Then we also need to pull the Fist Saint to our side. He has suffered from his hand, so we can take advantage of that hatred."


    "How about the people from the Death Reaper''s side? They surely want to avenge their master, right?"


    While the people were discussing, the president noticed one thing and asked Zhao Jia. "Do you have some suggestions on how we should approach this?"


    Zhao Jia sighed and shook her head. This matter was also beyond her ability, so she didn''t know what they had to do. That was why she wanted this meeting to decide things.


    The discussion went for a while as they were debating on how to take down Theo. After all, they couldn''t mobilize their troops easily unless they wanted a world war. At the same time, they had to kill Theo before he became far too strong.


    However, there was one man that never said anything ever since the meeting started.


    "Mhm?" Zhao Jia raised her vision and saw the Heavenly Sovereign looking at the meeting with a bored face as if what they were discussing wasn''t important to him. "Do you have anything you want to say, Heavenly Sovereign? You seem to want to deny what I have said earlier?"


    Feng Hao''s expression brightened as he nced at Cheng Pu first to see if he was going to berate him again or not. After confirming that everyone wanted to listen to him, he said, "Yeah. I want to say one thing."


    "Please tell us about it. We won''t know what you want to say if you don''t speak."


    "I won''t hold back then. I only want to tell you one thing! What you have been discussing this whole time is utter trash."


    "!!!"


    "Huh?"


    "What?"


    They red at him, displeased. After all, Feng Hao imed such a thing even though he didn''t say anything this whole time.


    Zhao Jia also wanted to erupt in anger, but she controlled her anger and asked with veins bulging on her head. "Can you please exin what you mean by utter trash?"


    He smiled and nced at the door, muttering, "It''s around this time��"


    Noticing his nce, Zhao Jia followed his line of sight and found the entrance. Suddenly, someone mmed the door open and rushed into the room.


    He panted while shouting, "We have an emergency."

 Chapter 1411 Adjourned

    Chapter 1411 Adjourned


    "We have an emergency!"


    The moment he mentioned ''emergency,'' people''s expressions lit up as they heard what Feng Hao had said earlier.


    "Speak! What''s the emergency?" Zhao Jia immediately shouted, trying to get all the information.


    The man panted a few times before stating, "The Star Group, specifically Maya Hamilton, has ripped apart the contract with Joker."


    "!!!" All of them were stunned. Zhao Jia knew such news would make it big, so she tried to see all the news about Theodore Griffith.


    The news appeared in an instant as it became a trending topic.


    In the news, Maya was attending the press and openly showed Theo''s contract.


    She said, "Joker has left the Star Group. So, this contract is now invalid."


    Maya''s message to the whole world was she didn''t want to have any more rtionships with Theodore Griffith. Back then, her father had helped Theo in the past and even fought against the Griffith Family in order to investigate Theo''s death. It showed that he supported Theo and became his ally.


    But Maya seemed to have a different stance from him. She ripped apart the contract to show that she didn''t want to get entangled in Theo''s business because the Star Group had just faced a hardship. So, she didn''t want it to be unstable again.


    No one knew that Maya ripped apart the contract simply because Joker would be no more, considering Theo would face all problems openly from now on. And he was her boss, so there was no need for a contract anymore.


    All her actions were to act as if she wanted to protect the Star Group by showing the world that she had severed their rtionship.


    Zhao Jia sucked a cold breath and turned to Feng Hao, asking, "You�� You know about this?"


    "Why do you think I''m a bitte to attend this meeting?" Feng Hao smirked. "Gotst-minute information."


    "Why did you not mention this from the start?" Zhao Jia gritted her teeth, understanding theplication of Maya''s action.


    The Star Group became the sole connection between Theo and the United States, so her severing that connection meant there was a chance to exploit.


    If they abandoned Theo, one would think it was because of the Griffith Family. At the same time, Theo''s potential made them rethink their decision because Theo and the Griffith Family seemed to be equal in status.


    Feng Hao smirked and exined his thoughts. "First of all, the fact that they have severed the connection means he is now free. There''s a possibility of mending the rtionship and bing his ally. This way, the status quo will change drastically.


    "What will you do? Kill him or be his ally? That''s the first question that you have to ask, apletely different question than the objective of this meeting.


    "What do I think about killing Theodore Griffith? It''s simple. It''s close to impossible. There is one fact that you''re missing. The fact that he is using the twin rings means he''s the one buying it in the ck market auction hosted by�� what''s their name again? Well, whatever. You got my point.


    "But the testament of the people there, Theo has been a Mythical Rank Expert. Do you understand what this means? This means Theo has the ability to change his body''s situation ording to his will. If he wants to be a Hero Rank Expert, people will believe it since his body won''t release Magic Power naturally.


    "Don''t forget that he is the master of illusion. He can change his face to the point the Death Reaper can''t recognize him. It meant if he truly tried to live as a Hero Rank Expert or below, you wouldn''t be able to find him. And the next thing we realize, there''s someone at the same level as me causing ruckus here and there."


    "��" The entire meeting hall fell silent. After listening to his exnation, they realized that they still underestimated Theo.


    "So, you are assuming that we should mend the rtionship with him, Feng Hao?" The president asked.


    Feng Hao remained silent for a while, looking at him. Seeing the president''s serious expression, Feng Hao said, "That''s what this meeting has to decide. But I personally don''t like the idea of chasing after him. If it''s just someone like the Poison King and the like, I don''t really mind killing him since I can easily find him. But he is different. This is why I don''t like fighting against an illusionist."


    The people sucked a cold breath. What kind of existence was Feng Hao? He was the second strongest person in the world. He was only ranked second because he never fought against the Time God, and he reached this level after him. No one knew which one was actually the best.


    Yet, Feng Hao didn''t want to kill Theo for all these reasons. It meant he had acknowledged Theo''s power and potential.


    Still, if they supported Theo this time, they had to face the Griffith Family, specifically Mason Griffith, the current ranked 8th in the world.


    "So, do you have a suggestion, Feng Hao?" The president asked again before focusing on one matter. "Your personal suggestion."


    Feng Hao smiled and said, "Well, I''m just going to y for a bit."


    "ying? Are you going to visit him? You should know how big the effect is if you''reing there personally!"


    "No way! I''m not going to visit him personally." Feng Hao shrugged.


    "Then, where are you nning to go?"


    Feng Hao smirked. "Japan. Gotta drink with the Sword Saint for a bit."


    "!!!" Everyone widened their eyes. They never expected such a move from Feng Hao.


    Although Feng Hao was known as the Heavenly Sovereign despite his yful side, he wasn''t someone who did things randomly. It was clear that Feng Hao had a bigger scheme in his action.


    The president closed his eyes for a moment, contemting. The atmosphere became tense as they waited for his decision on whether to continue this meeting or not.


    Eventually, he opened his eyes and turned to Zhao Jia. "The next meeting shall be in three days. Make sure that you observe every movement all around the world."


    Without hesitation, the president left the room after dering his decision.

 Chapter ?1412 Warning

    Chapter ?1412 Warning


    Since the meeting was adjourned, the rest of the people soon left the room to talk about what happened. Even Feng Hao didn''t stay to chat with the rest of the people.


    His expression was cold and aloof. No one could figure out what he thought when he was like this.


    Zhao Jia noticed Feng Hao and immediately left to meet him. She had a serious expression as if she was trying to discern Feng Hao''s real intention.


    Noticing her presence, Feng Hao stopped and nced back. His aloof expression was reced by his usual smile. "What''s wrong, Jia Jia? Do you want to ask me to teach you again?"


    "��" Zhao Jia wanted to smack him again for calling her by her nickname, but she managed to calm herself. She took a deep breath before asking, "What is your real intention? There''s no way you only want the meeting to rethink their decision. The fact that you''re wasting people''s time means�� No, you are actually buying time. For what?"


    "As expected of my disciple, it seems that you have learned a lot from me." Feng Hao nodded with a smug.


    "Answer me!"


    "You shouldn''t be too hard-headed and cold. How many times have I told you this? You won''t be able to get married, you know."


    "Don''t worry. I''m not nning to marry anyone. So, answer me." Zhao Jia squinted her eyes while clenching her fists.


    "Not nning to marry? I''m afraid that''s not your decision anymore." Feng Hao smirked.


    Zhao Jia frowned. She was the youngest Transcendent Level Mythical Rank Expert, so it was clear that no one could force her to do anything. However, there were actually two people that had this kind of authority. The first one was the president. The second one was the man before her.


    "You��can''t be." Zhao Jia suddenly understood the hidden meaning behind those words. With her status and current age, she was suitable for Theo. Political marriage was one of the oldest tricks in the book for a longsting rtionship. If they could force Theo to marry in exchange for support, the previous hatred between them would be solved.


    At the same time, Theo now needed allies the most, so they had to do it before anyone tried.


    That was why Feng Hao said those words.


    However, Feng Hao contradicted himself with the next thing he said. "That''s just me joking. There''s no way we can force you to marry someone you don''t want to. You are the youngest among the four, you know."


    "You��" Zhao Jia truly wanted to smack him. He always teased her at every chance he had. After so long, she started hating the constant tease.


    "Hahahaha! Of course, it''s not like what you''re thinking. The reason we can''t force you is not because of your status, but his opinion."


    "Huh? Do you mean I''m not worthy?"


    "This is why I like to tease you. You didn''t want to get married, but when your opinion changed, you questioned me whether you were worthy or not. It''s amusing to tease you." Feng Hao chuckled.


    "Kh." Zhao Jia gritted her teeth.


    "Well, I shouldn''t be here for too long. I only have three days to drink with Ken." Feng Hao chuckled.


    "You�� Stop! I haven''t finished yet!"


    "What more do you want to talk about?" Feng Hao smirked as if he already knew that there was nothing Zhao Jia wanted to ask.


    Even she waspletely speechless and tried hard to find a question. After a few seconds, she finally got another question. "How much have you calcted?"


    "Haha, that''s the question youe up with? Well, I guess I''ll answer your question with one warning. One is the number for destruction, two is the number for connection, and three is the number you have to be worried about."


    "Huh?" Zhao Jia waspletely stunned, not understanding a single thing about that warning. She wondered what he meant by those numbers.


    While she was confused, Feng Hao turned around, nning to leave.


    "Wait!" Zhao Jia wanted to stop him again, but Feng Hao ignored her as he disappeared, leaving a yin-yang mark on the floor.


    "One�� Two�� Three��" Zhao Jia furrowed her eyebrows,pletely not understanding the warning. It was simply too random and general.


    "No. He is not someone who gives a random warning, despite his constant teasing. What do these three numbers represent?" Zhao Jia recalled every information she had. "Knowing him, those numbers should be rted to himself, specifically his actions. Then��"


    She was contemting hard to understand the clues Feng Hao had given her. "He must have calcted something�� Rted to these three numbers. One is destruction�� What does he mean by one?"


    Zhao Jia recalled the meeting and tried to figure out Feng Hao''s action.


    "Wait a minute. One�� Does one mean one minute? Did he use one minute to suppress the others while ying around before eventually reaching his seat? Does that mean he''s using that one minute to avoid the destruction?


    "No. The destruction is absolute. So, he redirects the destruction from something huge to the destruction of the meeting''s atmosphere. By releasing his power, he''s buying time for exactly one minute.


    "That''s right. If we follow this route, two means the two hours we have wasted in the meeting. He must have calcted that if we didn''t waste two hours, we wouldn''t even consider his opinion.


    "That''s why he waited for two hours before giving his opinion. That''s the time we need topletely consider his words as well as the appearance of the one who gives the news. That''s the basics of connection! In other words, he''s guiding us to the connection with the number two.


    "Then the number three��" She fell silent because the number three was obvious. The first one was minute, the second one was hour, so the third one was day. In other words, the third answer was, "Three days! The exact time to hold the next meeting. So, he already knows that the president will reschedule the meeting. And I have to worry about this next meeting�� What should I worry about?


    "He''s going to Japan right now when our current situation revolves around Theodore Griffith�� Shouldn''t he go there if he wants to y around? No, wait��" Zhao Jia realized something and immediately called someone. She said, "Get me all the nes'' passengers'' names in thest three hours. I need all of them to be investigated and tell me if they''re connected to the Heavenly Sovereign in any way!"


    After giving that message, Zhao Jia gritted her teeth. "How much Divine Power did he use to calcte the future this time? Heavenly Sovereign."

 Chapter 1413 Alliance

    Chapter 1413 Alliance


    Just like Zhao Jia predicted, there was one person rted to the Heavenly Sovereign. He was called He Jun, the Heavenly Sovereign right-hand man.


    He was organizing the meeting with Theo. As soon as he received the instruction to go to Italy to meet Theo from the Heavenly Sovereign himself, he immediately set off. Those two hours were enough to slip past all the guards. And with the current position, no one could order the ne to turn around anymore.


    That was why he managed to reach Italy without any problems and head straight to Theo''s mansion.


    Of course, he didn''t know about Theo''s current residence, so he ended up going to the War God Family so that he could meet Theodore Griffith.


    They ended up meeting Theo in his previous mansion since his current residence hadn''t finished yet.


    Theo and He Jun were sitting in front of each other with serious expressions.


    "I havee here to bring the words of my master." He Jun started the conversation by opening the Skylink and directly reading the message as proof that he hadn''t seen the message at all. It was clear that no one knew about this message.


    Theo listened to him attentively, making sure to understand the intention of the Heavenly Sovereign.


    As he said to the Sword Saint, he wanted to set up a bait. The Sword Saint thought the bait was to the country itself, but Theo''s bait had the sole purpose of catching the Heavenly Sovereign himself.


    What he needed right now wasn''t the strength of a country but the strength of an Authority Level Figure. After all, with one more figure at this level, no one would be able to kill him until he became strong enough.


    That was why he asked Maya to dere that he had left the Star Group after paying some penalties. Of course, the penalty was nothing since Maya wouldn''t ept anything. Their rtionship was still the same anyway, so this big move was simply to catch a big fish who could make a decisive decision.


    There was no way a country could make such a decision at such speed, so it was clear that only the Heavenly Sovereign would take the bait.


    Seeing He Jun here, he knew the Heavenly Sovereign had taken the bait. He only needed to listen to what he had to say before continuing his n.


    He Jun hesitated for a moment before dering. "My will is not the country''s decision. I am nothing but a willow tree. But the future doesn''t have the soil that lets even a willow tree live.


    "Henceforth, I am seeking for a vessel that can store that soil and preserve it for the future so that the world will see its greenery again."


    "..." Theo closed his eyes for a moment. He never expected that the Heavenly Sovereign would use such phrases to dere his intention.


    This was the reason for He Jun''s hesitation. So, he ended up exining, "Willow tree is a tree frequently used for habitat restoration and erosion control because they''re able to filter toxins, grow quickly and establish strong root systems."


    After listening to the exnation, he could somehow understand the meaning of these words.


    The Heavenly Sovereign seemed to have found out about the future possibilities. The Queen of Destiny once said that there would be a huge ordeal in his life, so that ordeal might be rted to these words.


    He indirectly implied that the future ordeal might be too great for anyone to handle. It was clear that the Heavenly Sovereign was mentioning the great reset. In the past, Loki caused the Ragnarok simply because he didn''t like the Great Reset, so he was the one bringing such a thing.


    In this era, there was a possibility of another great reset where humans would no longer exist. So, the reason why the Heavenly Sovereign wanted to form an alliance with him was so that they could protect humanity from extinction.


    Still, he never expected that the Heavenly Sovereign had such high expectations of him. No one knew whether he could do anything about what was going to happen, so it was quite absurd to ce that expectation on someone who had yet to reach the Authority Level.


    "This is what my master wanted to tell you without even me knowing." He Jun gave the Skylink to Theo, showing one file that contained the words of the Heavenly Sovereign.


    Theo received it and opened the message while making sure that He Jun couldn''t see it.


    "There is no need for two tigers in one mountain. I believe this idiom because there''s no need for two rulers of the world. However, I do believe one more thing. A tiger is the ruler of thend. Then, who is the ruler of the sea? Who is the ruler of the sky?


    "One ruler is not enough. Two rulers have more chances. But three rulers are what we should worry about."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, understanding his words. He had contradicted himself here. If he imed to be the ruler of thend, the tiger. It meant Theo could be one of the rulers, either the sea or the sky.


    But who would be the ruler of the sky? Theo first thought about the Time God and this alliance was them fighting against the Time God.


    However, Theo had a different perspective. For him, the greatest enemy was not the Griffith Family but the higher being that wanted to reset the world. Even the Heavenly Sovereign mentioned them a few times, signifying their importance.


    And when he thought about the being from another dimension, he would look up as if they were from outside of this world.


    In other words, the Heavenly Sovereign considered himself the ruler of thend, and Theo was the ruler of the sea, with the one above them being the ruler of the sky.


    If they didn''t join hands, the sky would split open. If he put it in the context of science, the atmosphere would disappear, causing the entire poption to go extinct. In other words, the Heavenly Sovereign wanted to create an alliance to resist not the Time God but the higher being.


    "Hahahahaha!" Theoughed uncontrobly as he finally understood what the Heavenly Sovereign wanted. Although he expressed his will in such a way, the Heavenly Sovereign expressed his desire to fight, unlike the Time God, who chose to be an observer.


    Theo smirked and mmed the table, looking at He Jun excitedly. "Fine by me! I, Theodore Griffith, ept this alliance!"

 Chapter 1414 Griffith Family

    Chapter 1414 Griffith Family


    The Griffith Family.


    After returning back to their main base, Mason Griffith finally had the chance to talk to the Original Theo. Although he had the power to threaten the Original Theo, it was clear that he would lose his assets if he killed him right now.


    Theo had killed Airvans and Eric, so without the Original Theo and the Poison King, he would be in huge trouble.


    The Original Theo and Mason were sitting in front of each other. They were staring into each other''s eyes as though they were examining the other party''s ability.


    Eventually, Mason opened his mouth. "Who are you?"


    "I am Theodore Griffith. The Original Theodore Griffith."


    "Bullshit. I have seen him personally. Do you think I''m going to believe you?"


    "That''s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. The one who has been roaming around the world is none other than my clone created by a skill. Even I don''t know the information about that skill, but I''m assuming it''s the Clone Skill. Perhaps, S Rank Skill."


    "��" Mason fell silent. At first, he wanted to rebuke his im, but he couldn''t due to the fact that Theo''s clone could actually wield the same power as the original. Unless it was an S Rank Skill, he wouldn''t believe it.


    "And why do you say you''vee back from death?"


    "It is as it is. I''ve truly died and that clone is summoned right before I die as a new life. After the Death Reaper died, she sacrificed her soul in order to revive me. That was where I got the second chance, and I''d promised her that I''d kill my clone.


    "I''ll devour everything�� his identity, his women, his strength, and his status! I''ll take everything that''s supposed to be mine."


    "��" Mason fell silent. It looked like a whole big lie, but Theo''s expression this time was like someone who had experienced a true death once. It was clear that surviving in the underworld wasn''t easy.


    "I have answered a few of your questions. It''s time for me to ask my questions!" Theo stopped Mason before he gave another question.


    As someone at the top, Mason furrowed his eyebrows and even released his killing intent, not liking Theo''s attitude.


    However, he simply said, "If you want to kill me, then try it. The moment you kill me, you won''t be able to do anything against your enemies. The only reason why the Eilric Family and the Orel Group haven''t betrayed you is simply because I''m here. If you kill me, the Griffith Family will be destroyed."


    Mason became even more suspicious after this. Although the Theo that everyone knew was a clone, it was clear that it had the memory of the original. In other words, it suffered the same past and hated the Griffith Family.


    It was weird to see the original Theo actually join the Griffith Family.


    "I don''t understand. You should be the one hating this family." Mason narrowed his eyes, examining Theo''s reaction.


    "So what? I hate this family to the bone, but it doesn''t change the fact that I need this family to get what I want. And if I keep this hatred�� What? Am I going to take revenge on my parents against this family? Blood thicker than water? And I shall be the sessor of this family?


    "I don''t have those ns. All I want is to utilize this family''s power. You need me and I need you. You want my power and status to preserve the Griffith Family and I want your power to take back what was supposed to be mine. That''s all."


    Mason felt that this Theo was far different from the one he had seen so far. There was a huge hatred buried in his heart, but the desire to take back everything he had was far stronger than the hatred to the point he didn''t mind working together with what he hated.


    "So, you want to use my power to devour your clone and get everything from him? And in exchange, I can use you to regain control over the Griffith Family." Mason narrowed his eyes.


    "That''s basically the deal. You use me and I use you."


    "There is no reason for me to ept. I want to control everything with the Griffith Family, but there''s one big problem�� It''s my age. I''m already this old and even if I can gain back the control of the Griffith Family, there won''t be any sessor. In the end, the Griffith Family will fall because of theck of sessors."


    The Original Theo furrowed his eyebrows, realizing how sly Mason Griffith was. It was clear that Mason was trying to push him to the position. If he wanted to get his support, he should be the sessor of the Griffith Family. This was his message.


    If Mason continued like this, the Griffith Family would decline, but he could also drag the original Theo down. In other words, the only path for him was to ept this proposal.


    "If you be my sessor, I will help you get everything. Your reputation, all the women you want, the money, and strength!" Mason smirked. "No matter how much you hate this Griffith Family, you are bound to be the leader of this family. Instead of creating a group from the start, why don''t you use the Griffith Family as the foundation?"


    "��" The Original Theo gritted his teeth. On the one hand, Mason''s words were a hard cold fact. Building up another group like Theo was impossible because everyone had been watching him. And Theo wouldn''t allow him to do something like that.


    Unlike Theo, who mastered the illusion, his power was Devouring, so he couldn''t truly escape the eyes of the countries.


    On the other hand, if he ended up taking this offer. He had to lead the family he hated so much. He wanted to destroy this family but had no choice other than to rely on it.


    The Original Theo closed his eyes, contemting. "Alright. I''ll ept the position."

 Chapter ?1415 Ruthless Theo

    Chapter ?1415 Ruthless Theo


    "Alright. I''ll ept the position."


    "Wise choice." Mason smirked.


    There was one reason why he ultimately epted bing the sessor of the Griffith Family. The Mind Elder had died, so no one could affect his state of mind anymore. In other words, he wouldn''t be the mindless soldier of the Griffith Family.


    No one would be able to tell what he was going to do after Mason died in the future. At that time, he would have achieved everything.


    After agreeing to the condition, the Original Theo said, "However, I have another condition."


    "And that is?"


    "I want you to follow my directions in how I''m nning to y things out!"


    "Naturally. This is the best chance to train you as a proper heir. Hence, I''ll be following your directions. Of course, I have to be able to exin my reasons to you, and you shall be willing to listen to me. We have to be able to convince each other before making that move. How''s that?"


    The Original Theo contemted for a moment. Knowing that a top expert like him was under his control was enough. As long as he could convince him, everything would be easy.


    Without hesitation, Theo gave the first instruction. "So, we have to gather all the enemies he has in order to kill him. Contact all the countries that have a feud with him, especially the strong ones."


    "That''s what I''m nning to do as well. Right now, he doesn''t have a good foundation in Italy even though there''s the War God Family. No one in Italy has Authority, so we can take advantage of that gap.


    "If he is still in the US, the Time God might stop us. But to think he''s foolish enough to choose to live in Italy instead of returning to the US. This is his biggest mistake."


    Theo replied, ignoring the significance of the mistake. "You have to contact them right now, especially China. The country that I''ll approach as soon as possible to neutralize the situation in China because of their strength. Even if we can''t get their support, we have to convince them not to take Theo''s side. If they go to his side, we have to prepare for the worst because the momentum will disappear."


    Mason understood what Theo said. As expected, he was still a child from the War God Family, he thought. Even without proper training, his brain was above the rest.


    "I''ll personally get to them after this meeting." Mason nodded with a serious expression. "Then, the second person should be the Fist Saint as well as Great Britain, since they have suffered. They''ll be useful for revenge."


    "That''s right. We have to ask for others as well such as funds, resources, and people."


    "Still, how do you n to find him? It''s clear that he has the ability to disguise as someone else. His disguise can even fool the Death Reaper."


    "I am the only person in the world who can recognize him," Theo stated with confidence. He was himself, so of course, he would be able to recognize himself. However, no one knew whether it was an empty im or not, considering Theo had the power of Reality that no enemy had known yet. And the Mind Elder who knew about it had died in Theo''s hands.


    "Well, there is no proof to what you im. But let''s assume that I''m buying it. What are you nning to do then? Go straight to him?"


    "No. We''ll make him leave Italy. If he stays in the country, even if that country doesn''t have a top expert, it''ll be impossible to find him. That''s why we have to lure him out."


    "How?" Mason asked while narrowing his eyes.


    "We''ll use his friends. ording to the information, Phyrill and Ellen, his former teammates, have been brought to his group. We''ll take advantage of their families to lure him out.


    "There''s also Alea. With such news, it''s clear that we can take advantage of her. It''s impossible to kidnap her as long as she''s in Russia, but we can use her family to lure her out."


    "Hmm? Phyrill and Ellen?" Mason furrowed his eyebrows.


    Theo nced at the Poison King, who stood behind him. He was present when Theo got Phyrill and Ellen from the World Martial Institute, so they could take advantage of it.


    "Is that so?" Mason understood the meaning in his nce. "If that''s the case, there are a few things that we can exploit."


    "There are also a few things I can do, but that''s not possible for the time being. I''ll only use it if I truly don''t have any way to bring him out."


    "Such as?"


    "It''s not for you to know." Theo snorted. "You just have to start preparing to kidnap these people. If he doesn''te, we''ll torture them."


    "You''re more ruthless than I originally thought. Your conduct ispletely different from the Theo I know."


    "Don''tpare me to him. He has lost his purpose. Humanity is a fucking piece of shit, so I will use everything I can to achieve everything I want. I''m the one who will fix this world by ruining it."


    Mason widened his eyes when he saw such determination. This hatred toward the world seemed to be much bigger than he thought. No wonder he dared to use everything like calling his parents, returning to the Griffith Family, or trying to take advantage of Ne''s feelings.


    He didn''t mind using everything in order to achieve his objectives.


    "Interesting." Mason smirked. "I don''t really mind helping you in this matter. No, I will take care of them right away. However, I want you to attend the ceremony that will crown you as the sessor of the Griffith Family next week. If you promise me, I''ll do it. Just remember, you won''t be able to leave this ce until next week. And if you leave after I have done so much for you, I''m going to kill you immediately no matter the cost." Mason red at him, telling him that he was serious about this.


    The original Theo closed his eyes for a moment and said, "Alright. I agree to this condition."

 Chapter 1416 Growth

    Chapter 1416 Growth


    Italy.


    *Creak!*


    A chess piece fell to the board after getting pushed by Theo. He was discussing their next moves with Rea, Felix, Ergene, and Akbar.


    "That''s how I''ll be defeated." Theo shrugged after showing all the possibilities of his defeat.


    Ergene was staring at Theo as if he was a weird guy. Normally, they would be thinking about their opponents'' moves. However, Theo was different. He simply showed the way to defeat him so that they coulde up with the enemies'' move.


    There would be many possibilities about the enemies'' move, but Theo didn''t really mind those possibilities. As long as the few key factors that led to his defeat were secured, he wouldn''t be defeated.


    "What do you think, Ergene?" Theo asked, noticing her gaze.


    "There are too many ways to defeat you. Well, I don''t know about it without you telling me. But it''s clear that the enemies will take advantage of your weaknesses. So, what we need to do is to narrow down to a few things that will be the important factor."


    "I''m going to Thernd then." Rea smirked. "I''ll take care of the situation over there by myself."


    "Are you sure?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yeah. I know that our opponent is yourself and that person seems to be able to do anything he doesn''t like as long as it can give him some advantages. Hence, I''ll be the bait. They''ll either change their focus to me or go straight to those people.


    "If it''s thetter, then they''re ready to face the traps I''m going to set up for them. Although I''m not as good as you, after learning from you for a while, I can apply some of your tactics." Rea smirked. "Of course, the tactics are different from Ergene''s frontal style. So, I think I''m the best person to go there."


    As Rea said, the original Theo might even attempt to kidnap her. Rea''s identity was a bit special. She was one of the Mythical Rank Experts in Theo''s group, but she was also the daughter of the Sword Saint. If they could capture her, there was no need to grab Theo''s friends anymore. Even the Sword Saint couldn''t do anything to them.


    Hence, she would be the perfect bait.


    "Should I go with her?" Akbar asked. "My ability should be good to locate the targets. This way, we can create a where I can track all of them and discern their targets perfectly."


    "That might be a good idea since there''s no way Theo will allow me to leave alone, especially with my identity. If it''s the best information broker in the world apanying me, the bait will look even more real. They''ll be in a dilemma whether to chase after me or not." Rea nodded in agreement before looking at Theo as if expecting him to agree to this mission.


    Felix, on the other hand, pointed at another ce on the map. "How about this one?"


    "The Fist Saint, huh." Ergene thought for a moment. "It''s impossible to keep track of him. Even if you can do it, the moment he finds you, it''ll be a disaster. It''s best to let him do whatever he wants."


    "But won''t it be too dangerous to leave him be?" Felix asked. The Fist Saint was one of the biggest threats, so they had to keep him in check.


    "If I and Rea go to Thernd as bait, then I think it''s better to send someone here." Akbar pointed at Spain, where the Orel Group resided.


    "Oh? You have a unique way of thinking, Akbar." Ergene widened her eyes in surprise, understanding Akbar''s point of view. "We can offer the Orel Group to be an ally or a neutral party. Even if they reject us, we can still make them look bad in front of the Griffith Family. This way, the Griffith Family won''t take them in anymore, resulting in the Griffith Family only having one ally, the Eilric Family.


    "Then, how about sending one to the Eilric Family as well?" Ergene smirked. If they could cripple the Griffith Family, they would becking in manpower. This would be a perfect scenario.


    However, Rea rejected the idea. "No. Doing it too much will have the opposite effect. Alea Eilric is broken-hearted right now. If we approach the Eilric Family, they''ll use it as an excuse to force the rtionship with Theo. And the result is obvious, the Eilric Family will be extremely hostile to us. There''s even a chance that they''ll be using Alea Eilric herself for the cause."


    "That''s true�� As expected, human emotions are tooplex to understand." Ergene snorted. "I guess we can only stop the Orel Group for now."


    "Then, Felix and I will take care of the Orel Group?" Ergene asked.


    "No. You are not suited to this mission, Ergene. Felix should go alone, but I''m worried about the hidden danger, considering Felix will be storming into their territory."


    "Then, should Ruthe too?" Ergene narrowed her eyes.


    "Don''t we have the best person to deal with this?" Rea smirked, ncing at Theo. Obviously, Theo wouldn''t be working on this mission. Rea was implying someone rted to Theo but strong enough to handle the Orel Group in case the worst-case scenario happened.


    "The rabbit? I mean, Ava?" Ergene sucked a cold breath upon the realization. Ava''s strength indeed couldn''t be underestimated and she was a King ss Monster, meaning she had a smart brain. As the rabbit that had apanied Theo the whole time, Ava would be a perfect figure to make them fall into the trap.


    "Though, the ultimate decision lies on��" Rea turned to Theo. The leader of this group was none other than Theo, so it was obvious that he had to make a decision.


    Theo was smiling this whole time despite not saying anything. The reason he didn''t open his mouth was to see his people''s growth. Rea''s way of thinking had been overwritten by his, making her a bit too shrewd. Ergene also had shown a great improvement even though her strategy was a direct one.


    If he was the one leading the group this whole time, they wouldn''t be able to grow. Just like how Ergene took over themand in the previous battle, he allowed them to discuss the strategy after his exnation.


    And after they had presented their own ideas, they would look at him to listen to his decision.


    Theo smiled at them and said, "Interesting growth. But it''s not enough�� Let''s make this a st, shall we?"

 Chapter 1417 Change of Plan

    Chapter 1417 Change of n


    ''Nagasawa Rea is visiting Thernd. Does Theodore Griffith ask her to visit his hometown?''


    ''Theodore Griffith doesn''t go to Thernd? Is there bad blood between them?''


    ''Theodore Griffith was bullied in the past.''


    ''Theo��''


    ''Nagasawa Rea��''


    A lot of news about Rea''s appearance in Thernd spread all over the Sk.


    Those who didn''t know about the Griffith Family''s attempts would think that Theo hated Thernd.


    However, the people involved in the assassination or kidnapping would frown upon this visit.


    "What''s going on around here? This is not like the n." One of the Griffith Family Experts furrowed his eyebrows while looking at the Mythical Rank Expert that was tasked to lead the mission. To avoid getting into trouble, they only brought Supreme Rank Experts. There was only one Mythical Rank Expert among them, so they knew they had no chance of finishing their missions in this situation.


    "Call the headquarters for backup. We need at least five Mythical Rank Experts to finish our mission. But this is weird; shouldn''t he send stronger people?"


    "I have received another piece of news. It''s not as trending as this, but��" One of them showed the news about Ava and Felix.


    "This is��" He sucked a cold breath.


    The news showed that Ava and Felix were visiting the World Martial Institute. Of course, this action threatened the Orel Group, the vassal of the Griffith Family.


    This action threatened the position of the Orel Group. On the one hand, the Orel Group couldn''t afford to send them back because they were far stronger than them. On the other hand, if they didn''t do anything, the Griffith Family mighte to erase them.


    The Orel Group waspletely confused as to what they should do. And the n to silence the Orel Group had seeded.


    Theo had truly made the first move, making the situation extremely unpredictable.


    "Report it to the headquarters right away and ask for their instruction. If we want toplete this mission, we need at least ten Mythical Rank Experts because we don''t know if he has more hidden cards in Thernd. Don''t forget that Theodore Griffith himself hasn''t personally moved."


    They nodded with a serious expression and immediately informed the Griffith Family.


    As expected, the Original Theo, the Poison King, and Mason gathered once again to discuss their next action.


    "He has seen through your n." Mason furrowed his eyebrows, ring at the original Theo. If this mission ended up a failure, the original Theo would lose his footing.


    "��" the original Theo paused for a moment, contemting. "We need to send fifteen Mythical Rank Experts to Thernd. No matter what, this is the best chance to capture them. We have to capture Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev. If we can get the former, we can seal the Sword Saint''s movement. If we kidnap thetter, we can stop him from getting information. This is a perfect opportunity.


    "Even if we can''t deal with them, we can disperse the force and kidnap our original targets. There''s no way that the two of them can stop this number. Even if they bring Ruth, the remaining Queen in the group, it won''t be enough. If they split up to protect one family each, they''ll end up losing to our people. So, the probability of capturing them is high."


    Mason also agreed with the exnation. However, there was one big problem they had to face. "Still, he hasn''t made his move yet."


    "I''m assuming he''s going to the Sword Saint to ask for his help. Don''t forget about one thing�� The Heavenly Sovereign is now visiting the Sword Saint. It''s clear that he has to visit him personally if he wants the Sword Saint to make a move. At the same time, China will be preparing for their meeting the next day.


    "Let''s see. In a few minutes or hours, we''ll see himing to Japan." The Original Theo smirked. As expected from the original, their line of thinking was simr.


    Even Mason praised him inwardly, knowing that Valerie''s gene truly influenced him. If only the original Theo was trained by Leonardo, he would be able to fully utilize that gene.


    Mason thought for a moment and asked, "So, what are you nning to do with this situation?"


    "Abandon the Orel Group, there''s no way we can trust them anymore. Even if they have alibis, we don''t know whether it''s true or not. Instead of relying on them, we should focus on the task at hand.


    "First, even if we fail to get Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev, we have to capture the Eilric Family in Thernd. We''ll bring Alea here and turn the Eilric Family into our strongest family. They''ll know about my existence sooner orter, so it''s the same Theodore Griffith. I''m sure the Eilric Family will agree.


    "And then, you have to go to China directly to convince the rest of the people when the Heavenly Sovereign is not there. This way, they''ll be able to agree or stop interfering with the situation. Depending on their actions, you should know what to do.


    "If you can convince them to have the Heavenly Sovereign capture Theo there, the Sword Saint won''t be able to make a move. Even if that body ends up being a mere clone, it''s fine. What we have to worry about is another country. It''s clear that at least one king has to remain in Italy because of Agata.


    "So, we''ll take advantage of it and fill up the hole. With him trying to go to the Sword Saint and meeting the Heavenly Sovereign, I''ll go to the US and persuade them to work together with us. The Poison King will go with me to ensure my safety since his power works better against the masses.


    "This will be a perfect opportunity to handle him. He must be overconfident with his n since he strikes first, so we have to turn around the situation."


    The exnation this whole time made sense to Mason. Even he couldn''t picture a better n. They were taking advantage of the current situation to instill one doubt in another like what Theo did to the Orel Group.


    If both ns worked out, they would be slightly ahead in terms of ns.


    "The only one who can defeat you is yourself, huh." Mason smirked. "Interesting enough for me. I''ll take care of my job then."

 Chapter ?1418 Golf

    Chapter ?1418 Golf


    As the original Theo predicted, the news soon spread.


    ''Theodore Griffith is visiting Japan.''


    ''Is he visiting the Sword Saint or the Heavenly Sovereign?''


    ''What is his purpose in visiting this country?''


    The headlines were enough to confuse all of them. While Theo was working in the open, the Griffith Family had been making preparations in the shadows. They all had their own ns and believed they could seed.


    As for who would win, no one would know. Only those who were aware of their n would be able to determine the situation.


    And Theo was immediately greeted by the same Mythical Rank Expert that once guided him when he visited Japan, Masafumi Shinoda.


    Since Theo''s visit this time had a clear goal, Shinoda didn''t beat around the bush and immediately brought him to the Sword Saint, albeit they ended up going to a golf park, finding the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign ying golf together.


    "What the hell?" Theo muttered inwardly after seeing a middle-aged man and a young man standing next to each other, brimming with energy.


    "Watch this." The Sword Saint raised his golf stick and covered it with Magic Power, infusing it with his own Order. His expression turned serious as he struck the ball as if he cut it.


    However, the extraordinary Magic Power in his stick didn''t cut it. The ball flew like normal, but they soon realized that the sword strike actually cut the wind restriction and it would only stop until it reached a certain distance. When the sword strike disappeared, the golf ball started falling down and directly headed straight to the hole.


    "Hole in one. See that?" The Sword Saint smirked.


    "Do you think you can defeat me like that?" The Heavenly Sovereign snorted. While he was preparing to hit the ball, trigrams appeared underneath them as if calcting everything.


    "Angle 42 degrees. Height 20 meters. Direction, northwest." The Heavenly Sovereign muttered a few things before he hit the ball without transferring his power into the ball.


    The ball curved and was carried by the wind until it reached the hole without any bounces like the Sword Saint.


    It was another hole in one.


    "Don''t be proud yet because you still can''t defeat me." The Heavenly Sovereign snorted.


    "Then, let''s see who misses first!" The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes, challenging him.


    However, they soon stopped and nced to the side, finding Theo and Shinoda waiting for them to notice.


    "Oh? Isn''t this Theo? What''s up? You usually called me instead of visiting me directly." The Sword Saint smirked.


    "Hoho�� It seems that this brat is rather daring. To even show himself in front of me." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, looking down on Theo as if he could kill him at any time.


    "Oi. This is my country." The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes, nning to make a move if the Heavenly Sovereign dared to touch Theo.


    "I know, I know." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. He turned to Shinoda and said with a cold tone. "Consider yourself dismissed."


    "That''s��" Shinoda had a troubled face. On the one hand, he wasn''t strong enough to do anything if the Heavenly Sovereign decided to make a move. On the other hand, he couldn''t afford to leave Theo alone, exposing him to danger.


    "Just leave." The Sword Saint sighed, agreeing with the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "This guy must be his clone. No one dares to appear before me with their real body if they''re still my enemy. That''s why there''s no need for you to be here. Even if I kill him, his real body should still be in Italy." The Heavenly Sovereign exined in contempt as if getting disappointed by his slow thinking.


    However, Shinoda wasn''t his subordinate. If someone could make him leave, it would be the Sword Saint. Since thetter had asked him to leave, Shinoda politely bowed his head and finally left them alone.


    As soon as they couldn''t see Shinoda anymore, the Heavenly Sovereign smirked at Theo, asking. "Do you y golf? Seeing you''re still too young, you must be thinking about training the whole time. Come and enjoy ying golf. If you can''t get a hole in one, you have to buy us a drink."


    "��" The Sword Saint nced at the Heavenly Sovereign, frowning upon this action. The Heavenly Sovereign wasn''t usually this carefree in front of his enemies. Hence, the only reason why the Heavenly Sovereign acted this way must be rted to Theo''s action.


    Theo had told him that he would take care of his biggest enemy and turn them into an ally. It seemed he had seeded.


    "I can''t y golf." Theo shook his head.


    "That''s it. It means you''re going to buy us a drink."


    "No way. I don''t drink." Theo shrugged.


    "In that case, your only option is a hole in one. Less than that, I won''t be listening to you." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, acting like a child despite his age to be simr to the Sword Saint.


    "If you''re using your ability, ying golf is easy." Theo sighed and snapped his finger.


    Suddenly, a ball appeared right on top of the hole and entered the hole. "See?"


    "��" The Sword Saint was speechless while the Heavenly Sovereign objected to it. "No, no, no. You can''t do it that way. You have to hit it with a stick."


    Theo summoned a golf stick and a ball before hitting it. The ball soon vanished and reappeared on top of the hole.


    "There you go. Vanishing ball." Theo sighed.


    "��" The Sword Saint remained silent, knowing that Theo''s shamelessness knew no bounds.


    "You know what you are doing right now is basically courting death." The Heavenly Sovereign''s expression darkened.


    The Sword Saint was ready to make a move if the Heavenly Sovereign decided to attack Theo.


    However, the next thing that he did waspletely dumbfounded him.


    "That''s good. Our alliance alone is basically walking to death itself. If you don''t even dare to do something like that, I have to rethink my decision." The Heavenly Sovereign winked his right eye.


    "��" Once again, the Sword Saint remained silent.

 Chapter 1419 World Chess

    Chapter 1419 World Chess


    "An alliance? What kind of alliance?" The Sword Saint got the curiosity better than him.


    Unfortunately for him, the Heavenly Sovereign only stuck his tongue out and said, "No way! Not telling. Not gonna happen!"


    The Sword Saint''s eyebrows twitched as he said while taking a deep breath. "You should act appropriately.".


    Even Theo was a bit surprised because the Heavenly Sovereign was using all those flowery phrases to present the alliance. The image in his mind was the serious Heavenly Sovereign, while the one with him right now was his carefree self.


    "So, what are you nning to do now?" The Heavenly Sovereign coughed once and stopped acting carefree.


    "Nothing. I am simply visiting this country so that I can enjoy some free time." Theo shrugged.


    "Hmm? Let me guess, you are here to confuse them about your intention. Knowing you, they''ll think that you''re here to aplish something. But in reality, you don''t do anything. Is that it?" The Sword Saint asked.


    Theo''s answer came in the form of a smirk as if he was enjoying the situation he had created.


    "I give up. You''re truly too daring. You should know that the situation is not that good right now." The Sword Saint sighed. "I know that you have a n, but seeing you this carefree somehow makes me want to smack you in the face. Like this guy."


    "En." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded his head a few times as if giving his approval of Theo''s conduct.


    "So, do you have anything you want to do here? Since this guy is leaving tomorrow, it''s better to bring you two together so that you don''t cause any mess." The Sword Saint sighed, knowing it was his responsibility to take care of them.


    "How about visiting your friend? You have a friend here, right? Whose n is it?" The Heavenly Sovereign squinted his eyes, trying to remember the information.


    "Shibuya n. Shibuya Mami once recruited his former teammate, Laust Lange. Do you want to go there?" The Sword Saint remembered the information since he took care of this country. Of course, he had investigated Theo''s background and connection.


    "Well��" Theo scratched the back of his head. On the one hand, he didn''t visit himst time because he was Joker. On the other hand, he didn''t know whether it was a good idea to visit him or not.


    "Let''s go. Let''s not waste any more time!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked as if thinking it was exciting to surprise them like this.


    "Can you be more serious?" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, starting to get annoyed.


    "Come on. Don''t be too strict. Since I''m going back tomorrow, it''s clear that the Griffith Family will definitely make their move today. If the country decides to oppose this little guy, I will have to make a move before leaving this country. So, today is the best day tounch a surprise attack on others!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "That''s a good idea. If I''m not wrong, the Shibuya n also has one, right?" Theo nced at the Sword Saint.


    "Shibuya Tatsuo." The Sword Saint nodded.


    "That''s right. Let''s meet him. I bet he''s gonna have a shocked face when he sees Theo apanied by two Saints! Hahaha, I can''t wait for it."


    "You��" The Sword Saint truly wanted to hit him. However, this could also show something big to the public.


    They didn''t know Theo had met the Time God before, but they were indeed acquaintances. The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint were his allies. This showed that Theo had the backing of two top experts and knew the strongest guy in the world. If the Griffith Family wanted to do something to him, they would do everything in order to make the Heavenly Sovereign remain neutral.


    So, they had to strike first, and Theo agreed with the idea.


    "This is going to be troublesome." The Sword Saint could only resign to his fate, looking at these two guys who seemed to be able to understand each other because they had the same personality.


    "Attaboy." The Heavenly Sovereign winked his eye.


    "We''re at the same age." The Sword Saint clenched his fists. "If you continue like this, I''m seriously going to stop anything you want to do right now."


    "Fine, fine. No need to be angry." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. Just like Zhao Jia, it seemed the Heavenly Sovereign loved to tease people. Even the Sword Saint became frustrated.


    In the end, the Sword Saint took them to visit the Shibuya n so that they could meet Laust, who was training in the n.


    Of course, they had to use the car since they didn''t want to be seen.


    In the car, the Heavenly Sovereign asked Theo, "Do you y Go?"


    "Go? Ah, you mean chess?"


    "Yep. Chinese Go!"


    Theo shook his head.


    "How about Shogi?"


    "Nope. If it''s just normal chess, I often y it with my grandfather." Theo shook his head, exining.


    "Well, I guess it''s fine to y chess. Let''s do one quick round before we arrive!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "I''m sure you have something to say to me, so tell me while we y."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "I don''t mind. But do we have chess here?"


    "Won''t your illusion suffice?"


    "As expected." Theo sighed and summoned a chessboard. "White or ck?"


    "You can go first."


    Theo then summoned the ck pieces for the Heavenly Sovereign and the white pieces for himself.


    He moved the pawn forward with a calm expression as if he didn''t need time to think about what kind of strategy he wanted to y against the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The Heavenly Sovereign also raised his pawn in an instant. But when he ced the pawn on the board, Theo somehow heard a clipping sound of a water droplet that had just fallen down to the pool of water.


    "Mhm?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise because the next thing he realized, the scenery had changed. They weren''t in the car anymore. Instead, they were standing on top of a void with the entire gxies to be their background. Theo could see numerous stars that illuminated them as if giving the Heavenly Sovereign the wisdom to take him down. At the same time, Theo could feel a few words that the Heavenly Sovereign wanted to convey to him.


    "This is��" Theo gritted his teeth, feeling ufortable.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked and extended his hand as if telling him to make his second move. "This is World Chess. My domain."

 Chapter 1420 Theos Reality

    Chapter 1420 Theo''s Reality


    "This is World Chess. My domain."


    Theo was surprised by the sudden change of scenery, but he could faintly feel that they were still inside the car.


    It felt like an illusion, but it wasn''t. He was sure of this fact as someone who possessed the Reality Order. In other words, this World Chess was something else.


    "Your domain?" Theo squinted his eyes, examining the whole area.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked but didn''t answer him. He simply extended his hand and said, "It''s your turn."


    Theo hesitated for a moment and moved another pawn forward. But this time, he found a great change in the scenery.


    As soon as he ced the pawn on the board, one of the nearest stars suddenly changed its position as if following Theo''s move. After that, three stars shone brightly as if they were trying to match each other.


    He could feel those three stars were actually connected to three pieces on the board. His pawn, his bishop, and the Heavenly Sovereign''s knight.


    "This is��" Theo frowned. "��not a normal chess."


    The Heavenly Sovereign didn''t reply to him. He instead made his next move by cing a knight forward, the same knight that shone earlier.


    The knight soon shone together with two of his pawns as well as Theo''s queen. But what shocked him the most was the fact that the light was red instead of blue like earlier.


    Theo believed the difference in color came because it was the Heavenly Sovereign''s turn, but he was wrong.


    When he ced his next piece, the glow was also red. Only when the Heavenly Sovereign moved his king did the light turn white.


    Theo became even more curious about this mechanism. There should be a meaning behind those colors as well as the entire scenery that kept changing.


    But what shocked him the most was when the Heavenly Sovereign used the knight to destroy his pawn. When his pawn was destroyed, two others were destroyed, symbolizing the Heavenly Sovereign''s pawn as well as Theo''s rook.


    And surprisingly, the pawn was removed while the rook remained.


    "Hmm?" Theo became even more confused because this game wasn''t like anything he had yed before. "Care to tell me about the rule?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. "Will your enemy exin the rule?"


    Theo''s expression turned grim. The answer itself gave him another meaning behind this chess. The Heavenly Sovereign was looking at this chessboard as a battlefield instead of a simple game of chess.


    He had seen four lights during the game, making him realize that they represented the affiliation of those pieces. The red light meant enemy, the blue light meant ally, the white light was a bystander, and the yellow light represented the third party.


    But when he looked at the board and how the chess pieces were positioned, he felt something strange. "Wait a minute��"


    He realized that his knight and rook were trying to take down a bishop. At the same time, his king was close to the Heavenly Sovereign''s king as well as his queen.


    These two situations alone might be able to represent the condition with the Heavenly Sovereign bishop going straight to Theo''s Queen.


    "It seems that you have understood this game a little bit." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "There are five stages of Order: Fusion, Body, Earth, Transcendent, and Heaven. Or that''s what I conclude based on my own naming sense."


    "Fusion is the stage when the body and the Order are assimting. Body is the stage where we can utilize that power. Earth is the application to everything around us. Transcendent is the stage where we find the uniqueness of our power, andstly, Heaven represents the domain." Theo narrowed his eyes as if he had learned something.


    What the Heavenly Sovereign used this whole time was the fifth stage of Order. Like his fifth stage, the Reality Realm, the Heavenly Sovereign made this realm his domain.


    To reach the domain stage, Theo had to know about the uniqueness of his power first. And the Poison King had dropped a big hint to it. It was to wield his power the way he wanted to.


    For the Poison King, his poison had powerful corrosion that was powerful enough to affect space and time.


    He had been thinking about his own meaning, but he never gave a concrete answer because he was still hesitating so as to not choose the wrong meaning.


    But he forgot about one thing. It wasn''t his choice anymore because he had chosen the uniqueness of his power already. The only time he could choose was his rules, the way of his life. That determined his Order.


    As for the meaning of his Order, he himself had already known it this whole time. Whether it was the recognition of his Order or when he proved himself in the underworld that he was the true Theodore Griffith, it didn''t change the fact that he had given the answer.


    "Ha�� To think it took me this long to realize it. I guess what people say ''about the more you overthink things, the farther your answer will be,'' is true." Theo let out a long sigh.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled, hiding the shock in his heart. He never thought that a little clue was enough for Theo to learn something big.


    He nned to do this because they had made an alliance. He wanted to see Theo''s potential with his own eyes to know whether the alliance was the right choice or not. But it seemed this was the correct choice.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment while muttering, ''Is this an illusion or is this a reality? Am I the real Theodore Griffith or am I just a clone of Theodore Griffith? To think the answer is this simple.


    ''From this point on, I won''t be lying to anyone�� no, it''s not that I won''t be lying, it''s that whatever I say will be the truth. Even if it''s not, I''ll make it to be the truth. After all, this will be��'' Theo suddenly reached for his rook and ced it forward. Suddenly, the light didn''t shine this time. Instead, a pair of red diamonds and a pair of red hearts appeared on top of four chess pieces as if this was ''two-pairs'' in poker. ''��my reality.''

 Chapter ?1421 Poker Chess

    Chapter ?1421 Poker Chess


    ''��my reality.''


    Theo had a small smile on his face as if he had just felt enlightened. He had recognized his own power.


    Right before he was recognized by the world to wield the Reality Order, Theo once said, ''No one can tell whether the world you have been living in is an illusion or not. You only know and believe that this world is real. And you or even this might be just an illusion of mine. Even Order and Authority might just be the image nted in our minds. Seek the truth of this world��''


    He couldn''t finish the sentence back then because the world had recognized him and given him the Order at that time. But he could finallyplete the answer.


    Just like when he was in Helheim and challenged the test to revive his body, he dered to the world.


    "I shall now be the one in control. Who cares if it''s an illusion or not�� This world is an illusion of mine? No! If I say this world is real, this world shall be real! If I say I''m Theodore Griffith, I shall be the real Theodore Griffith. From this point onward, I, Theodore Griffith, shall tell no lie because everything I said shall be a reality!"


    He couldn''t help but remember those two scenes. It was his deration as well as the essence of his power.


    ''You think this is chess?'' Theo smirked while looking at the Heavenly Sovereign, showing the symbols of cards. ''If you think this is a game of chess, then I''ll deny it. After all, this shall be a game of poker.''


    <sub></sub>


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but make a big smirk, excited to see the growth of this man in the future. He was truly one of the people that could impress him, no, Theo might be the one to surpass that because his hands were covered in sweat as if he feared Theo''s potential.


    ''In that case, can you keep up with me?'' The Heavenly Sovereign asked inwardly, but his gaze, his movement, and his expression showed it all.


    When he moved, the world turned around like how the game had been yed. But every time Theo made his move, the chess pieces showed the symbols of cards. It amplified their effect depending on whether Theo opened the two pairs or a full house.


    Their match created an apocalyptic effect in that domain. The stars ands collided, dispersed, and shattered. Their explosions became bigger the better Theo opened his cards. This was a weird battle, but both of them seemed to be able to understand each other''s intentions in this game.


    Even the Sword Saint, who was driving the car, couldn''t help but feel Theo''s change.


    ''Well, this is a surprise even for me. To think that this brat evolves right in front of me�� I can now understand why those people want him. If only I had known him first or Rea had participated in the Grand Gaia Competition, I would have given her to him. Albeit, it was toote.'' The Sword Saint let out a long sigh, knowing that bing his ally was the second greatest thing he could do to ensure a good future for his Nagasawa Family.


    ''Oh boy, Theodore Griffith is truly terrifying. The only one who can defeat him at the same level is probably himself, the Original Theodore Griffith. But then again, in terms of connection, Theo has a rtionship with me and the Heavenly Sovereign. Depending on what China will do, the Heavenly Sovereign might pull out or something, but I shall wait and see the situation.'' Nagasawa Ken smirked because he couldn''t wait to see how the situation unfolded.


    He kept driving while sparing a bit of his attention to keeping a close eye on those two. He wanted to see what kind of progress Theo would show him after this.


    Meanwhile, the game still continued for a while. They were silent this whole time, but it looked like they were telling each other something.


    In front of others, the game looked like a mess as if two amateurs were ying for the first time. But Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign were experiencing a gctic war that destroyed manys and stars.


    However, these two remained in their seats and yed the game until one of them won.


    Eventually, Theo ced his bishop diagonally to the Heavenly Sovereign''s king and said, "Checkmate."


    The Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes for a moment and said, "It''s indeed a checkmate. A quite big discussion we had there."


    "Indeed. It''s the first time for me to do it." Theo nodded in agreement. "Never in my wildest dreams can you talk to someone like this."


    "Haha. How is it? No one will be able to see through our discussion, right?" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "That''s true, but it''s a hassle when my illusion can do all the job." Theo sighed. "Though, I''m thankful for your guidance."


    "Nah, I was just testing you. It was you who turned it into an opportunity." The Heavenly Sovereign. "With the current you, I guess I have more confidence to win. All I can say is that the Death Star has shone brightly, and a great change will be happening soon. I don''t know when, what, how, and why it will happen. But I know who and where it will happen."


    "I guess I know what, how, why, and where it will happen." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "What are you two talking about? The Death Star?" The Sword Saint nced back. These two were talking to each other with a secret message that made him worry. "Come on. I''m your ally, right? Do you mind telling me this stuff?"


    "Nah, it''s not your time to know about it." The Heavenly Sovereign shook his head.


    "Come on, Theo." The Sword Saint turned to Theo since he seemed to know more.


    "Rea will be the one to help you." Theo smiled, refusing to give him any exnation too.


    "Oh, it seems that we are about to arrive." The Heavenly Sovereign immediately changed the topic.


    "��" The Sword Saint was speechless because he felt left out.

 Chapter 1422 Causing Ruckus

    Chapter 1422 Causing Ruckus


    "So, this is the Shibuya n." Theo came out of the car while raising his head. There was a ten feet tall white wall standing in front of them with a wooden gate standing in the middle. Although he could barely see it due to the fact that the building inside was only two-story tall, he knew the building was huge.


    "This is exciting. What kind of friends do you have here? Is he good?" The Heavenly Sovereign came out while smirking. With the two young men standing next to each other, they looked like a rich second younger generation that simply wanted to visit someone in this ce.


    However, their appearance was too surprising for the two people that stood in front of the gate to protect the residents.


    They dropped their jaws to the ground when he recognized one of them. "You�� You are Theodore Griffith! What are you doing here?"


    "Hey, hey! Why do you recognize him and not me?" The Heavenly Sovereign furrowed his eyebrows before turning to Theo. "Don''t you think this is weird? I am more famous than you, but they recognize you first."


    "Maybe if you have an appearance and a personality that matches your age." Theo shrugged before telling them. "I am here just to visit my friend. I don''t know if you know about it, but my former teammate is in this n."


    Laust himself was quite talented even among the younger generation. Of course, they knew about Laust.


    "I�� I know him. But please let me tell the elders first because there''s no appointment beforehand," one of them said, panicking because they didn''t expect to find Theodore Griffithing to this ce.


    <sub></sub>


    "Haha, no appointment huh. Maybe I should st this door to force those people out?!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "You really love to do whatever you want, don''t you?" Theo rolled his eyes. After ying that chess, he learned more about the Heavenly Sovereign. Even he felt a bit more familiar to him. To even make him feel that way just from a single game of chess, the Heavenly Sovereign''s reputation was indeed well-deserved.


    However, the gate was soon opened by an old man. He had a calm expression as he lowered his head politely. "This is an honor for this old man to receive a visit. If you don''t mind, pleasee in�� Mr. Mirage Prince, Mr. Heavenly Sovereign, and Sword Saint-sama."


    "!!!" The two gatekeepers widened their eyes in shock when they heard thest name. They turned to the car and saw someoneing out of the driver''s door. They recognized that face. In fact, no one in Japan didn''t know about this face. He was the Sword Saint, Nagasawa Ken.


    And these two were actually making the Sword Saint be their driver, it was truly a ridiculous thing to see.


    But they recognized those names, especially the Heavenly Sovereign. There was only one person with that title in his name.


    The gatekeepers'' legs were shaking because they couldn''t recognize him.


    "Mirage Prince? What''s that?" Theo nced at the Heavenly Sovereign. "I feel that he''s saying that to me��"


    "You don''t know? People in the Sk are considering you as the Mirage Prince because you have fooled everyone as well as your famous clone. Mirror Image, Mirage�� And since you''re still young, they give you the name Prince. That''s how the world knows you as the Mirage Prince. That''s like your title."


    "Well, I don''t need that title��" Theo sighed.


    "I don''t need one too, but that title is necessary. The title alone is enough to scare the enemy�� Well, when I first get it, I feel cringe. But right now, when they hear Feng Hao, they''ll mistake me for someone else. But when the Heavenly Sovereign is mentioned, it gives them fear. Also, the cooler the name is, the bigger the impact it''ll give." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded in approval. "You''ll get used to it sooner orter."


    "��" Theo sighed. "Whatever."


    After the Heavenly Sovereign''s exnation, the old man looked at them with a serious expression. "I am honored to be in your presence, but I might get a heart attack if you do this next time. Please send me a message first."


    The Sword Saint chuckled while scratching the back of his head. "My apology. These two are simply too much even for me to handle since they''re so willful."


    "Why do you act like you are my caretaker?" The Heavenly Sovereign red at the Sword Saint.


    "I will stop when your actions reflect your age."


    "I do that all the time! Don''t you know there''s an idiom growing old and staying young at heart! It''s my trick to remain youthful." The Heavenly Sovereign harrumphed.


    "Yeah, yeah, whatever." The Sword Saint sighed. He walked to the old man and said, "Sorry, we are thinking about visiting your n since they want to see Theo''s friend.


    "I presume he''s Laust Lange?"


    "Yeah. To be honest, we''re just going to look around without a formal meeting. As you can see, our identities are kinda special. It''s better not to disturb them too much." The Sword Saint sighed, feeling troubled.


    "I can understand that. If that''s the case, I shall be your guide." The old man could only resign to his fate. He was still one of the Transcendent Level Experts in Japan, but he ended up being a guide. Though, others would be envious since the one visiting him was these three.


    "I appreciate it, and I apologize foring without an announcement." The Sword Saint made a wry smile, feeling embarrassed.


    "Alright. Let''s go!" The Heavenly Sovereign cheered as he was the one who was most excited about this visit.


    Even Theo could only shake his head because he couldn''t keep up with that energy.


    The old man then turned to the gatekeepers and said, "Bring more people to watch over the car."


    "Y-yes Sir!"


    "Finally, we''re going in!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked as he finally entered the gate. His face alone showed others that he nned to create a small ruckus in this ce. However, he felt chills down his spine after feeling the Sword Saint''s murderous gaze. "Come on. You don''t have to be that strict."

 Chapter 1423 Poor Saint

    Chapter 1423 Poor Saint


    "Ha." A group of people were swinging their short swords forward with the same motion. They shouted at the same time as if to match each other''s actions.


    On another spot, there was a young man who was brandishing his giant sword at a woman. The woman deflected the sword with some effort, withstanding the power behind that impact.


    "You seem to be more spirited today. What''s wrong?" The woman asked with a smile.


    "Nothing." The man answered with a very short reply.


    After knowing him for a few years, the woman smirked. "Is it because your friend is visiting Japan? Now that I think about it, he has visited this country twice."


    "��" The man squinted his eyes. He was aware of that matter already, but at that time, he didn''t know him due to the disguise. But this time, he came with his true self, so he couldn''t help but look at his former teammate.


    In the past, his strength was far stronger than him. But in just a singlepetition, the situation had been turned around.


    "Uooooh!"


    <sub></sub>


    "That''s��"


    "That''s the Sword Saint!"


    The cheers suddenly erupted from the side when one of them noticed the appearance of Theo''s group. And the others soon realized their presence and cheered since it was a rare opportunity to see the Sword Saint with their own eyes.


    "��" The pair that had been sparring in the side couldn''t help but stop to see what was going on, only to be shocked to find Theo and the Sword Saint standing next to each other. And as the daughter of the n, she also recognized her grandfather as well as the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "Seriously?" She made a wry smile, never expecting they would be visiting.


    Meanwhile, the guy next to her was frozen as if he didn''t know what to do.


    "Come on, Laust. You''re not going to greet him." She smirked.


    Yeah, they were Laust Lange and Shibuya Mami. After Laust decided to go here, he showed great progress that surpassed most of the people in this ce. In the Grand Gaia Competition, he couldn''t show himself too much because he was overshadowed by Theo and his blessing came a bit toote.


    But after getting ustomed to his blessing, Laust showed incredible growth to the point the n recognized him as one of the most prominent talents in the n, giving him special treatment.


    And this time, the guy who always overshadowed him and would never change had appeared before his eyes.


    If this was the past him, where he still had hatred for Theo and was under the control of his father, Laust might be doing something bad to Theo. However, when he once again saw Theo standing from that high, he couldn''t help but smile.


    There was pride in his heart as well. There might be some friction in the past, but it didn''t change the fact that Theo was the one giving him all his current achievements.


    ''Our path might be different, but I''m d that I met you in the past,'' Laust thought while looking at Theo from afar.


    However, they soon made eye contact. It had been a while for Theo to see this guy.


    He still remembered the time when Laust was trying to kill him. And after the Grand Gaia Competition, the same guy actually came back and apologized to him, using everything he had to atone for his sins. Laust used all his savings just to pay Theo, which greatly helped him.


    When he saw him in Thernd, Theo didn''t feel anything because he was busy with his own matters. But this time, Theo couldn''t help but smile. The hatred in the past felt like it had never happened before.


    ''Time can heal wounds, I guess.'' Theo thought while looking at Laust. He even waved his hand as if greeting a friend.


    "So, that''s your friend?" The Heavenly Sovereign suddenly came to him while staring at Laust. "It seems that you had bad blood with him in the past. But now, there''s nothing I can see��"


    "Do you enjoy looking at that?" Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Not really. I am just here to make fun of this guy." The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at the Sword Saint. "Listen to their cheers and you''ll notice that he''s the culprit of thismotion. In other words, he is the problem even though he has been preventing us from causing trouble. What a hypocrite."


    "Hey!" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, ring at the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "I didn''t say anything." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged.


    The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly. He never thought this would happen, considering Theo was the rising star. His name was a hot topic, so he should be the first one to be recognized.


    Little did he know, the Heavenly Sovereign and Theo had been using their power to hide their presence so that people would have a hard time seeing them. Meanwhile, the Sword Saint thought of this country as his home, so there was no need to do so. That was why he was the first they recognized.


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but smirk, teasing, "Why don''t you give a few words, Sir Sword Saint?"


    "��" The Sword Saint''s eyebrows twitched, but the Heavenly Sovereign had shouted to the people. "It seems that your favorite Sword Saint is going to show you something!"


    "Ooooohhhhh!" The people got excited when they heard the Heavenly Sovereign. They didn''t know it was just a joke, so they treated this seriously. All of them hurriedly stopped talking while looking at the Sword Saint in admiration.


    ''I''m truly going to hit you after this.'' The Sword Saint red at the Heavenly Sovereign with veins bulging in his head. However, when he nced at their guide, the former head of the Shibuya n.


    He coughed a bit and exined, "Since we''re here uninvited, do you mind if I show them something?"


    "Not at all." The old man smiled. This worked well for his n as well. In fact, he started feeling grateful for the Heavenly Sovereign''s assistance.


    He also noticed the Heavenly Sovereign staring at him. When their eyes met, the two seemed to understand each other as they raised their thumbs up.


    "��" The Sword Saint once again became speechless.

 Chapter ?1424 Teaching

    Chapter ?1424 Teaching


    In the end, the Sword Saint chose to ignore them. He walked to the training ground and looked at the disciples of the n.


    He let out a sigh, but he still said, "All of you are training your movements. The repetitive movement that you practice here is the one that will help you the most when you''re on a mission. Even when you can''t move your body due to fear, your instinct will force your body to move. That''s why you have to keep up with your repetitive training. It''s boring, but it is certainly useful.


    "However, you arecking one thing when you''re training. You look serious when you''re swinging your de, but you''recking one thing! You don''t have any intention in each swing!


    "Even if you''re practicing swinging, you have to imagine yourself in a situation where you need to make that swing. In that situation, you might be attacked by a hidden weapon, an ambush, or a normal attack, but you have to imagine that situation before swinging your sword.


    "In that situation, what do you intend to do with that swing? Why do you need to know the intention behind each swing? It''s simple��" The Sword Saint suddenly pulled out his sword and turned around, striking the pir behind him.


    *Bam!*


    The sound was like an explosion. It wouldn''t be weird if the pir, as well as their building, was cut in half after that swing.


    All of them were startled by that loud noise and tried to see what was happening.


    To their surprise, nothing happened. Not a single thing was harmed.


    The Sword Saint sheathed his sword and pointed at the pir. "You need to know the intention behind each swing. If you don''t intend to cut something, even with the most powerful strike, you won''t cut anything."


    "Oooohhhh!" The people were stunned. The impact and the sound should be enough to make them believe the building would be destroyed, but the Sword Saint truly deserved his reputation. They couldn''t help but cheer after seeing such an amazing strike.


    However, the Sword Saint added, "And if you intend to cut something, then your sword will be able to cut anything."


    Suddenly, the air was slit open, showing a voice as if someone with Space Affinity was here.


    They were dumbfounded right after.


    The Sword Saint just cut the air and opened the void while his strike actually hit the pir. It waspletely beyond theirprehension as to how he could do this.


    However, his words from earlier stuck in their mind. They were thinking about the intention of each swing. Whether it was in training or in a real situation, they had to know about it.


    The Sword Saint felt this was enough and stepped back. Of course, after getting yed by the Heavenly Sovereign so many times, the Sword Saint smirked and said, "That''s right. The one who is the most excited to visit this n is this friend here, the Heavenly Sovereign. I''m sure that he loves to teach you something."


    "What?!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock.


    The Sword Saint finally made a smug smile as if telling him, ''You think you can do everything you want? I''ll make you show something so that the children of this country can learn about it and steal your ability.''


    The Heavenly Sovereign realized that the Sword Saint held a grudge.


    "The Heavenly Sovereign, the 2nd strongest person in the world."


    "This is�� such a rare opportunity."


    "I never thought that I would be able to see two figures in the top ten in the world with my own eyes. I''ll brag to my girlfriend. She''s sure going to be my wife with that."


    "That guy just jinxed it."


    Seeing theirments, the Heavenly Sovereign scratched the back of his head.


    "What should I show to you guys�� seriously." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed.


    "Creative, Tranquil, rity, Initiative, Gentle Entrance, In-motion, Completion and Receptive are eight basic attributes. Creativity needs a tranquil heart. A tranquil heart needs rity of purpose. Once you get rity, you have to take the initiative and so on.


    "You have all of them but never use them at the same time. Like the Sword Saint said, if you have the intention to cut someone, that person will be cut. You have to be creative in your path, have a tranquil heart, search for the rity of your goal, take the initiative, and so on.


    "When you try to do something, you have to ask yourself about all these eight attributes. When you do it, your path will be clear." The Heavenly Sovereign finished his simple lecture. "That''s all."


    "O-oh!" The people were confused by his lecture. After all, it was a bit too high level for them.


    "Show them something, will you? A demonstration is the best��" The Sword Saint red at the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The Heavenly Sovereign snorted. "No way. You told me to teach them something, so I did just that. It was your fault, not me."


    "Wha��" The Sword Saint was startled. To think that the Heavenly Sovereign would be this shameless. It certainly surpassed his imagination.


    However, the Heavenly Sovereign didn''t stop at that level. He actually presented Theo to them. "This guy here is the reason for our visit. Since he wants to visit his friend, why don''t we also ask him to SHOW you something?"


    He emphasized the word ''show'' so that Theo couldn''t do the same trick. As expected of the Heavenly Sovereign, he was truly sly.


    "That''s a good idea." The Sword Saint agreed. His daughter learned a lot from him. ording to her, Theo was a good teacher because he was a good student. He knew what the student needed to understand the lecture and convey it. If Theo taught them, they would certainly gain something good.


    However, they were trying to trick Theo into showing something. Obviously, Theo wouldn''tply. Of course, he would be too shameless if he rejected the suggestion, so Theo only smiled. "I don''t mind showing something, but I won''t hold any responsibility for what will happen after this."

 Chapter 1425 Unexpected Decision!

    Chapter 1425 Unexpected Decision!


    "I don''t mind showing something, but I won''t hold any responsibility for what will happen after this." Theo''s smile was like a gentle guy who warned them out of his kindness. But everyone could see the hidden intention behind that smile.


    *Cough!* The old man couldn''t help but ask, "If I may know, what are you nning to show?"


    "Their deaths, I think. Don''t worry, they won''t be dying more than ten times."


    "Their deaths?" They were stunned.


    "What''s wrong? You have to learn how to die and experience the pain to get used to it. If you''re ustomed to your deaths, you won''t fear anything." Theo smiled brightly.


    "This��" The old man hesitated because he didn''t know how it would affect his people.


    "Don''t worry. The death won''t be that painful. Maybe like gouging their eyes, skinning them alive, or slicing their bodies into pieces. With my illusion, I can make them experience pain simr to that as well.


    "I know that I won''t give them trauma since I won''t be showing them death with a thousand mice eating you, filled with insects, or even taking out your nails with rusty nails. I''ll be merciful." Theo smiled from ear to ear.


    "��" The people gasped. Even they couldn''t imagine the pain they had to suffer with the former, let alone thetter. Their bodies were having cold sweat as their faces became pale. All they wanted to do now was scream to reject the offer.


    "You know that kind of pain? Don''t tell me you��" The Heavenly Sovereign looked at Theo with a suspicious gaze.


    "What''s wrong? I often had nothing to eat for a whole week and almost died many times since I was seven years old." Theo maintained his smile. But everyone could only see him as a devil that wanted to let them experience the same pain.


    "��" The old man from the Shibuya n made a wry smile and said, "I think it''s better if they don''t experience it. They''re talented people of the n, so I don''t want them to suffer heavy trauma. Thank you for your kind intention though."


    "See? It''s not me who doesn''t want to show them anything. It''s him who doesn''t want me to show it." Theo looked at the Heavenly Sovereign with a smug.


    "��" This time, the Heavenly Sovereign was speechless. He realized that Theo outsmarted him on this one even after he joined hands with the Sword Saint to trick Theo.


    "Please this way��" The old man tried to guide them again to another ce to avoid the awkward situation.


    In this fight, Theo won against them. No one could force him to do anything he didn''t want.


    Meanwhile, Shibuya Mami nced at Laust, remembering what Theo said to the Heavenly Sovereign about him starving and dying since he was seven years old. "You�� You truly bullied a pitiful guy like him in Thernd? And you almost killed him? I was surprised that you could do that, Laust�� Are you��a demon?"


    "Ugh��" Laust looked away. "I''m deeply ashamed of my past self."


    ��


    While those disciples were absorbing what the two Saints had taught them, Theo''s group continued with their visit. After seeing Laust wasn''t treated horribly, Theo didn''t have any more purpose in staying in this country.


    However, he still had to stay in this ce for some time simply to waste his time.


    The Heavenly Sovereign also had the same idea.


    In the end, they went around for two hours, learning about the n. For the Sword Saint, this was an easy job. Instead of letting these two guys run around Japan, it was better to keep these two guys in the Shibuya n as long as possible.


    Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign soon got bored, and the Sword Saint knew it was the time to leave. The Heavenly Sovereign had understood theyout of the building and the reason for the Shibuya n, so there was nothing more to hear.


    Meanwhile, Theo understood the structure of this building that was built in traditional style. Since Rea wanted a floating temple and building for her to stay in, this would be a great reference for the future building.


    Of course, Theo decided to visit many ces since he wanted to understand the culture for more references. He nned to make his domain the best fantasy ce, so he had to learn all sorts of details.


    Eventually, they had to return to the hotel so that they could rest. The Heavenly Sovereign had to go back tomorrow, so if he wanted to make a move, it would be tomorrow.


    That was right; the Sword Saint could go with Theo to reinforce Rea tomorrow. With that thought in his mind, the Sword Saint retired to his room and sharpened his de as if he would protect his daughter from any dangers.


    However, not everything went ording to his n.


    When the night came, someone opened Theo''s room easily as if it wasn''t locked. Theo, who was staring into the city through the window, remained calm while asking, "It seems my time is over."


    The Heavenly Sovereign looked at Theo with a long sigh. "Sorry, but�� Although I like your personality and character, I still have to kill you here. It''s the order from the country."


    "Are you really going to do this?" Theo smirked.


    "I don''t want to, but I have to think about the country I represent. So, I have no choice other than to do this."


    Theo looked at him with a smile. "Even if you kill me, it doesn''t mean I''ll die. I''ll return to pay you back for what you have done tonight."


    "I''ll be waiting for it." The Heavenly Sovereign''s tone became extremely cold as his eyes were oozing bloodlust. He suddenly leaped to Theo and pierced through his heart with his hands, killing Clone Theo.


    Without the heart, Clone Theo gradually disappeared while saying, "I shall remember this, Heavenly Sovereign."


    "Condemn me as you like, but I have my job to do." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed as if he was losing a friend.

 Chapter 1426 Incoming Enemies

    Chapter 1426 Iing Enemies


    Thernd.


    A middle-aged man entered a room where many experts were staying. "We''ve received the confirmation. It''s time to attack."


    "!!!" The people in the room had been waiting for this answer. One of them asked, "The n?"


    "The original targets are Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev. They''re located in this building. With only the two of them, they shouldn''t be able to withstand our attacks since we have ten Mythical Rank Experts and twenty Supreme Rank Experts.


    "However, there is a possibility that the entire situation is a trap, especially with the chance of Ruth Lukita to help them. Hence, the moment you see a reinforcement from their group, we''re going to split the group into four.


    "The first three groups consist of two Mythical Rank Experts and four Supreme Rank Experts. Thest group will have the remaining people to hold them back. Then, the first three groups will go to the three families of our original targets.


    "They might split up too, so try to take them out if you see there''s a chance to defeat them. That''s all. Any questions?" The middle-aged man asked. Since no one raised their hands, he continued, "In that case, I''ll divide you��"


    While he was dividing people into four groups, Rea and Akbar had been waiting for them in an abandoned building far away from the vicinity where they nned to fight. In this ce, no people would be hurt, so this was the best ce to fight them.


    "Akbar. What is our chance to seed?"


    "We have an 80% chance of us surviving, 40% chance of us killing all of them, and 10% chance of us having casualties. As long as we''re not provoked in any way, we can deal with the situation here. I''ve also prepared my informationwork as well."


    "This is the first time I have to face so many Mythical Rank Experts. It''s beyond my imagination��" Rea smirked.


    "How do you n to fight so many Mythical Rank Experts?" Akbar asked.


    "Theo doesn''t want us to involve the citizens, so guerri warfare is not possible. Hence, I have another solution for us to handle this matter. Do you have any confidence in us killing two or three people at the get-go?"


    "Hmm�� I''m not sure. The probability is quite low to be honest, but I can try."


    "If we can kill at least two of them, I can guarantee you that they all will be dead."


    "I see. I''m looking forward to your strategy. For now, we''re just going to thin their number in this ce?"


    "Yes. Get ready for the situation that is going to be chaotic soon." Rea nodded.


    "Just onest question. Is there any reinforcement?"


    "I have asked my father about this. He has sent a killing squad. The reason why Theo went to Japan is not to create an alliance with the Heavenly Sovereign but to distract him. I took that opportunity to have my father send people." Rea smirked.


    "I see. I can finally understand your n. If that''s the case, I''ll make sure the situation is going smoothly." Akbar nodded in understanding and jumped out of the abandoned building, standing on the ground as if he was preparing to meet the people.


    "You''re going?"


    "They''re within two miles, yes."


    "Good luck." Rea nodded as her expression turned grim. She pulled out her sword and started covering it with her Magic Power. "Which divine beast should I use this time?"


    Rea took a deep breath as she could see a few people marching toward them from the top of the building. It seemed that the battle was about to begin.


    On the ground, Akbar was smiling while waiting for them to arrive.


    "Twelve people?" Akbar smirked. "It seems that people are underestimating me. Do you think I don''t know you''reing with thirty people?"


    "��" The people from the Griffith Family remained calm. Some of them even began to examine the building with their eyes before eventually finding Rea standing on top of the building.


    "If you wish to capture us, then it''s better if you show up right now. You have a 99% chance of not being able to catch us if you continue to be this stubborn." Akbar red at them, releasing his killing intent.


    The middle-aged man was a bit surprised that Akbar managed to see through them easily, but he couldn''t see any reinforcement either. After some consideration, he ordered.


    "Team A and Team B shall chase after Nagasawa Rea. Make sure you don''t kill her. Team C will go with me and capture this man. Don''t forget that he''s the best information broker out there. He''s more useful when he''s alive."


    The people nodded as they immediately split up. Some shadows also emerged from the sides, showing themselves.


    With this, Rea was chased by four Mythical Rank Experts while Akbar needed to fight six of them.


    Akbar took out his book again while smirking, "Since youe here, then don''t think you can escape."


    Suddenly, a huge barrier appeared, isting this area from the rest of the vicinity.


    "!!!" The people were stunned while Akbar smiled. "As expected of Nagasawa Rea. There''s a 100% chance that she will trap you here."


    Rea was standing on top of the building with her katana touching the floor. The Magic Power on her sword had been spreading to the area to create this colossal barrier. Although it wasn''t as sturdy as what Ryo used, this barrier was formed by a special divine beast.


    "Animal Sword Draw, Mythical Beast Version, Genbu." Rea smirked while looking at the iing people that wanted to kidnap her.


    "It seems that they''re underestimating me just by sending four Mythical Rank Experts to me."


    "There''s no need to worry. We are enough!" One of them snorted before ordering them. "Move out! We have to catch her alive."


    "Since you''re nning to do it, then you should die!" Rea smirked.


    They didn''t understand why Rea was still confident when they were being outnumbered this much. If they were Ruth and Felix or even Theo himself, this arrogance was normal. But Rea and Akbar weren''t that powerfulpared to the rest of the group, so they didn''t know why Rea would be this confident.


    Rea waved her hand up without any more words.


    Suddenly, a huge snake appeared from the ground, destroying all the floors of the building and finally emerged from the building, trying to swallow them.


    "!!!"

 Chapter ?1427 Big Brothers Duty

    Chapter ?1427 Big Brother''s Duty


    "!!!" They widened their eyes upon the snake''s appearance that was trying to swallow them. One of the Mythical Rank Experts immediately created a huge fire that sted the snake from its mouth.


    *Boom!*


    The explosion was huge, considering the one who did it was none other than a Mythical Rank Expert from the Griffith Family. After that, the rest of the people nodded and split up, climbing the building in their own way.


    They had one goal: Capture Nagasawa Rea. Two of the Mythical Rank Experts headed straight to Rea. Meanwhile, the other two Mythical Rank Experts along with eight Supreme Rank Experts nned to climb the building from the inside, allowing them to approach her in an unpredictable way.


    Seeing the iing duo, Rea hurriedly controlled the snake to swallow the explosion and maintain the snake''s appearance with her Magic Power. After that, she used the snake to stop the duo from climbing the building.


    This was Rea''s n.


    ''Genbu is a divine beast�� It''s arge tortoise and a snake. The tortoise will be able to help my defense while the snake will be handling these people.'' Rea thought while looking at the iing two people, who managed to dodge the snake and reach the rooftop.


    "It seems that the snake is not that big of a deal." One of them said with a smirk, looking at Rea as if they had won.


    "Is that so?" Rea maintained her calm. Suddenly, the snake that had gone down to intercept them suddenly turned around and came back to the rooftop with its head floating right behind them.


    Even the two Mythical Rank Experts frowned because they could feel the huge presence behind them.


    "Shaaaa!" The snake let out a cry and spat out venom at them.


    The duo split up. One of them nned to attack Rea while the other stopped the snake.


    The one attacking the snake immediately pointed its hand forward, bursting out wind that knocked the snake''s head. Meanwhile, the one in front of Rea leaped forward and struck her with a powerful fist.


    Rea tapped the ground with her sword. The clicking sound echoed as if they were inside a cave, but when he struck Rea, his punch was stopped by a transparent barrier.


    *Bam!*


    "!!!" He widened his eyes in shock because there was another barrier protecting Rea. It turned out therge tortoise could let out multiple barriers. Rea used the first one to iste them while utilizing the second barrier to protect her. This way, she could get some opportunity to kill them like this one.


    As soon as the barrier stopped the punch, Rea changed her stance from a standing position to a drawing position.


    "Sword Draw��" Rea took a deep breath and swung as fast as she could.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style��" The Mythical Rank Expert also didn''t n to die just like this. He pushed all his Magic Power so that he could have enough to stop Rea''s attack. After all, he was seriously taken by surprise.


    *Cling!*


    Suddenly, a clicking sound reverberated in everyone''s ears as if two swords were shing. However, what actually happened was a sword and a fist collided with each other.


    "As expected of the Griffith Family''s Magic Saint Fist Style, you can turn your own fist like that of a metal. It''s truly a powerful Martial Art." Rea smirked. "But��"


    "Tsk." The expert from the Griffith Family clicked his tongue, feeling the pain. When he looked at his palm, he noticed there were two holes in his hands. It wasn''t a sword wound, so it confused him for a moment until he saw Rea''s de.


    At the tip of the de attached a tiger''s head. This was Rea''s original Sword Draw Art, which featured animals. That was why she could summon two creatures from the same sword.


    Theo told her that she had to polish what she had right now instead of trying something new. So, Rea had been practicing this move.


    After learning more about the Divine Beast version, Rea could see the hidden potential of her animal version, so she kept practicing it even though the Mythical Beast version was better.


    And the training paid off.


    "What''s wrong? Aren''t you going to capture me?" Rea smirked. She didn''t seem to believe the Griffith Family could take her away today. "Come."


    "You are too arrogant." The Mythical Rank Expert snorted while pointing his finger at her. "Capture her!"


    As expected, the people from the Griffith Family immediately came out from their hiding spots. They had been waiting for this chance after climbing this building.


    However, what they didn''t expect was that when they came out, multiple shes flew in all directions, cutting the building.


    "!!!" The experts from the Griffith Family widened their eyes in shock because the sh was a bit unexpected. There were only three sword users in Theo''s group: Felix, Ergene, and Rea. However, Felix was supposed to be in another country while Ergene remained in Italy.


    Multiple shes meant there were a few people that helped Rea, so it didn''t make sense.


    "This is a trap. As expected, they''re waiting for us to attack them. We have to destroy the barrier first and go to n B. Even if that barrier can withstand our attacks, it''ll drain her Magic Power." One of them shouted, trying to rearrange their n.


    "I''m sorry to make you do this��" Rea smiled. "I will maintain the barrier for as long as possible. Do you think you can do the rest?"


    "There''s no need to apologize. This is my duty. Everyone is focusing on the Sword Saint, so they give me a bit of space to escape." A young man that looked like he was the same age as Rea walked out of the dust that kicked up after the rubbles fell down. Two other people also followed him as if they were trying to protect him.


    "I mean, I''m sorry for involving you in the group''s matter when I should be the one helping you." Rea shook her head.


    "As I said, it''s the elder brother''s job to protect his sister." The young man smirked as the people from the Griffith Family recognized him. "Nagasawa Sojuro?!"

 Chapter 1428 Akbars Calculation

    Chapter 1428 Akbar''s Calction


    Meanwhile, Akbar, who was on the ground with numerous experts surrounding him, maintained his calm as if he wasn''t in a pinch.


    "You should surrender as soon as possible. If not, you will die." One of them threatened him since this fight was already one-sided. Even if Akbar had some power, he wouldn''t be able to win against six Mythical Rank Experts as well as Supreme Rank Experts that would be supporting them from behind.


    "I don''t have much time to reply to yourint. So, spare my ears from hearing your buzzing sound." Akbar yawned. They were fighting during the night since the negotiation took a lot of time, so this action made Akbar look like he was sleepy from waiting for too long.


    "Capture him dead or alive. Even if he''s alive, cut one of his hands as a reminder." The one who seemed to be the leader passed down the judgment.


    Akbar smirked as he could see those six Mythical Rank Experts moving in unison as if they had been fighting together for a long time.


    ''So, this is the Griffith Family''s soldiers. It''s said that they''re trained together so that they can overwhelm the enemy with their number. And with their extraordinary individual strength, they can defeat people who are stronger than them. And of course, I am even weaker than all the Mythical Rank Experts here.'' Akbar didn''t expect much from himself since he was weaker than his enemies. However, a smile couldn''t help but appear on his face as Akbar''s eyes became sharp. "But��"


    Suddenly, two Mythical Rank Experts appeared from the two sides, kicking Akbar''s head and feet at the same time.


    "��there is a 100% chance that you will attack me from both sides��" Akbar smirked and jumped before ducking, making him avoid these two kicks just by staying in between.


    However, this was a mistake because another Mythical Rank Expert appeared from behind, punching his back to disrupt Akbar''s peace.


    Unfortunately for him, Akbar had calcted his move again.


    "Yep, I thought so." Akbar smirked as his body was actually spinning to the front, allowing him to spread his body again and resulting in his hand touching the ground.


    Meanwhile, his foot kicked the hand that almost struck him, directing the fist upward.


    *Bam!*


    "Argh!"


    The punch created a shock wave that sted everything in front, but because Akbar directed it to the foot that almost hit his head, the foot had to endure all that power.


    The Mythical Rank Expert felt like his bone was about to crack. If not for another person to appear and drag him out before his bone was crushed, the punch would have stopped him from fighting.


    But this was where Akbar showed his might.


    "I know that one of you will help the injured guy, so die together��"


    He took out a flying knife and tossed it to the injured Mythical Rank Expert to kill him.


    Still, his opponent was a Mythical Rank Expert. There was no way Akbar, who was only a weak Mythical Rank Expert, could defeat them with only this one knife. Hence, the Mythical Rank Expert deflected it to the side with his fist.


    "This is foolish. Do you think you can kill me with this knife?"


    Akbar smiled once again as he raised his finger, showing a thread that he attached to the flying knives. The flying knife suddenly stopped flying randomly but instead turned as if it was making a loop.


    "!!!" The Mythical Rank Expert that attacked him from behind was shocked and tried to escape, but it was toote. The flying knife pierced through his right arm.


    "What?!" The people from the Griffith Family were shocked. They should be outnumbering Akbar, yet, thetter seemed to be able to deal with them.


    Akbar stood in the middle of them while smirking, "Yep, I know that if I look down on the people from the Griffith Family, they''re bound to deflect my flying weapon instead of catching it. Thanks to you, I can injure yourrade. That''s great. Of course, after this shock, the inexperienced ones have a 90% chance of making a rushed attack and the old guys cover them up."


    Suddenly, a few elemental attacks rained Akbar down, trying to wound him if not kill him. But as expected, the Mythical Rank Experts from the Griffith Family didn''t believe Akbar could die from that. And with him being stopped from all directions, the remaining two Mythical Rank Experts that had yet tounch their attacks appeared from above and struck where he stood.


    *Bam!*


    Their punches caused a shock wave that cracked the ground as well as blew away the dust that was kicked up from the elemental attacks.


    "Huh?!" The two of them felt the same thing as they looked at each other, finding that Akbar had disappeared from his position. Akbar should have been surrounded from all directions, but they forgot that they came from above.


    Because they didn''t want to wound their injuredrade behind Akbar, they had to attack him from above instead of the front. Hence, Akbar took that opportunity to cover himself with the dust and followed the movement, escaping from the encirclement from the front.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" They suddenly heard multiple screams from the side and saw Akbar butchering the Supreme Rank Experts.


    "There is a 70% chance that you guys will be too focused on me and leave the Supreme Rank Experts to fend for themselves. But that chance will be 100% if I can injure the person behind me since you don''t want to injure him more than that." Akbar smirked as if he had been calcting all their moves.


    And due to that reason, not only could he escape from their encirclement, but he also managed to kill all the Supreme Rank Experts.


    Akbar might be weaker than them as a Mythical Rank Expert, but he, by no means, had any trouble in killing a couple of Supreme Rank Experts.


    What they didn''t know about Akbar was his extraordinary calction ability. He might be weaker than them, but the more they outnumbered him, the more cards Akbar could use to kill them.


    Akbar smirked and coolly said, "Number is not absolute, but by no means should you underestimate numbers. And the chance of six of you defeating me is�� zero."

 Chapter 1429 Overwhelming

    Chapter 1429 Overwhelming


    "And the chance of the six of you capturing me is�� zero." Akbar made the statement with a smug.


    The more people that attacked him, the more they would be at a disadvantage because of his ability. That was why if they wanted to capture him, they needed to send someone strong to fight him in a in where he could use nothing to defend himself.


    When he fought against the mercenary from the Skyward Group, he was in a disadvantageous position the whole time. Only when he started using his teammates and enemies as a part of his offensive could he overwhelm his opponent and even defeat him.


    Hence, if they couldn''t figure out Akbar''s weakness soon, they wouldn''t be able to defeat him.


    ''I have killed the Supreme Rank Experts, but they can''t bepared against six Mythical Rank Experts. What I have to worry about is their next reaction. 30% chance of them escaping, 50% chance of them continuing the fight, and 20% chance of stopping the fight. Depending on the situation, I might not be able to keep them here.'' Akbar took a deep breath, wondering how he should deal with these six Mythical Rank Experts. ''Well, I have promised Rea to kill two of them.''


    The Mythical Rank Experts seemed to have recognized him as a dangerous enemy that was on par with Felix.


    Their next move wouldn''t be small since it wouldn''t be possible to capture him due to his weird calction method.


    As if understanding what they needed to do, the Mythical Rank Experts tried to surround him again.


    Akbar hurriedly located the two guys he had injured earlier and headed straight to them, treating them as a weak spot.


    "!!!" The six experts immediately reacted. The injured ones hurriedly formed a barrier that would stop Akbar''s charge, while the other two wanted to help them block because they were afraid of Akbar''s sudden attack. Thest two people ambushed him from behind. Once they managed to stop his charge, they would be able to hit Akbar.


    However, Akbar hadn''t used all his strength this whole time. When he was in Italy, he could calcte the entire group''s possibilities. And this battlefield was far too smallpared to that one. That was why he could also calcte the possibilities of the people in the building.


    He smirked while muttering, "There is an 80% chance that the building will be destroyed before I reac��"


    *Bam!*


    Suddenly, the building was cut and crumbled, showing the reinforcement from Rea''s side.


    "What?!" The six experts on the ground were stunned while Akbar corrected his words, "Before I could finish my words."


    "What''s going on?!" The people were shouting, trying to get the information. They were thinking about escaping since that was the original n in case something happened. With the barrier that Rea made, it would be impossible for them to escape in a short amount of time. So, they had to start working on the barrier right now.


    Akbar took advantage of their confusion to slip past their guards before ambushing them from behind.


    "Watch out!"


    "!!!" They immediately turned around and tried to stop Akbar. As expected of the Griffith Family, even when they were disarranged, they could still move this fast. Even if he took down one of them, he also had to pay the price.


    Hence, Akbar had to let this chance go. He stopped his movement and jumped back, trying to regain some distance to restart the fight.


    But it would also give the Griffith Family some time to think about their next move.


    "What should we do?"


    "This must be a trap. There are three more people standing on top of the roof."


    "I recognized one of them, Nagasawa Rea''s brother, Nagasawa Sojuro. Shouldn''t we capture him as well since he''s gone all the way here? He is the sessor of the Nagasawa Family, so we might be able to get something more."


    "Both of them are targets, so we can overwhelm both of them, we can threaten the others."


    "Sounds good, but our situation is not that good. Shouldn''t we stick to the original n?"


    "The barrier will take time to be destroyed, so it''s better to capture the siblings so that we can force Nagasawa Rea to remove the barrier."


    The experts from the Griffith Family had reached an agreement. Suddenly, two of them leaped into the air, trying to reach the building.


    Akbar had predicted this and leaped at the same time as them, trying to stop these two from helping the other group.


    "Do you think we''re going to do that?" The two of them suddenly smirked. The moment Akbar reached them, they were ready to punch him to the ground. It turned out their n was to ambush him this way.


    It was proved by how the remaining four experts had surrounded him on the ground. Once the two of them managed to blow Akbar to the ground, they could immediately kill him.


    But there was a reason why Akbar didn''t even bother stopping them from discussing their n.


    When they punched his face, Akbar suddenly stopped in the air as if he was pulled down to the ground, resulting in the two punches missing their targets.


    And these two had their bnce off as a result. Akbar surely wouldn''t waste this opportunity.


    Without hesitation, Akbar pointed his palm forward as thin threads flew out of his fingertips, catching both of them. Now that they didn''t have any bnce, there were no other things he had to stop other than their momentum.


    Hence, Akbar pulled the threads and stopped their momentum with the help of the thread that attached him to the ground.


    "Wait, he''s using a thread! Destroy it!" The two who were watching everything from above informed the people on the ground to cut Akbar''s threads.


    Unfortunately for them, it was toote as Akbar had removed the thread on his body since he hadpletely stopped their momentum. Akbar then spun his body and tossed them back to the ground.


    "Go back to the ground!"


    "No!" One of them suddenly reached for the other guy''s back, trying to push him with a shock wave. This was the only way to stop Akbar''s n to make them go back to the ground. "The rest of you! Attack him too. He doesn''t have any momentum and will start falling to the ground.


    This was a perfect execution since only one of them would fall. While the one in the air stopped Akbar, the other four would surround him. Without any momentum, Akbar wouldn''t be able to handle them, so this was a decisive moment for Akbar.


    But Akbar didn''t fear this situation. In fact, he said one thing. "There''s one hundred percent that you will die."

 Chapter ?1430 Another Threat?

    Chapter ?1430 Another Threat?


    "There''s one hundred percent that you will die." Akbar smirked.


    "Huh?" The experts were confused while the one who was falling to the ground understood his meaning and nced back, finding spikes that came out of the ground. It turned out Akbar had been preparing for traps this whole time. That was the only reason why he didn''t even bother to stop their conversation.


    And in the end, those spikes pierced through his body even with the protection of Magic Power all over his body, killing him.


    "One down," Akbar muttered.


    "You bastard!" As expected, the death of a Supreme Rank Expert and a Mythical Rank Expert felt different. The one that was going back to Akbar''s direction due to his dyingrade''s help roared and punched Akbar as strong as he could.


    Akbar, for the first time, closed his book in the middle of the battle and actually received the punch with his book.


    *Bam!*


    A shock wave exploded from the fist, blowing Akbar away. But the momentum stopped because Akbar had attached himself to this guy, causing them to stop each other''s momentum.


    And that was when Akbar pulled the thread so that they could move closer before the other intervened.


    "You should read more books! After all, books are great! It''s so great that it can make you dizzy." Akbar smirked as he raised his thick book and smacked the guy''s head as hard as he could.


    "Kh��" The expert didn''t expect Akbar to be this adept in closebat. But more importantly, the book was the most abnormal one since it was strong enough to be his shield and hard enough to almost crack his skull.


    In the end, the expert fell to the ground after Akbar removed the threads attaching him.


    Seeing their second expert was about to die, one of them changed direction to catch the falling guy to avoid getting stabbed by the spikes anymore.


    However, he sure lost his focus from that hit.


    "See? The book can make you dizzy."


    ''It''s not because of the words?'' They wanted to scream at him since that wasmon sense.


    However, the hatred made them forget about anything and kept chasing after Akbar in the air. As an expert from the Griffith Family, their control over Magic Power was good enough to allow them to step on the air, so fighting Akbar in the air would be simr to a fight between a drowned monkey against a shark.


    The remaining trio tried to attack him from three different directions.


    "I know you will be fighting me this way." Akbar smirked and summoned another trap on the ground.


    "!!!" The people from the Griffith Family were rmed by the sudden appearance of another trap. They thought Akbar had another n to attack the people from the ground, so they checked it to warn them.


    But this time, the trap was actually a roll of giant thread that somehow flew into the air to catch Akbar.


    "He''s escaping!" The guy on the ground shouted, trying to stop Akbar.


    "Not good!" The people in the air were truly confused by Akbar''s fighting style. No matter what they did, Akbar seemed to be able to counter it as if he could see through their minds.


    But that confusion made them lose Akbar as thetter had started moving to the ground.


    "No, you won''t escape!" The nearest person to Akbar hurriedly used all his strength to catch up to Akbar and hit him.


    "Tsk!" Akbar clicked his tongue. The momentum was too much even for him, so he couldn''t escape from this attack, causing the punch to hit his back.


    Even though he had managed to contain most of the impact, it still left him with a small internal injury.


    *Bam!*


    He fell to the ground and immediately leaped back to regain some distance. Blood came out of his mouth as Akbar wiped it while saying, "As expected, fighting against six of them is tough. They may not be able to capture me, but there''s a 60% chance of me getting severely injured in this fight. And a 40% chance that I will be lightly injured. What should I do now?"


    However, Akbar''s prediction couldn''t be more wrong after this point. He suddenly turned around and saw a shadow outside the barrier, shocked. "Seriously? There''s a 100% chance I will die if youe for my life."


    ��


    While Akbar was holding back the six Mythical Rank Experts, Rea had an easier time now that her brother came to help.


    "Can you deal with the rest of the Supreme Rank Experts? I''ll handle two Mythical Rank Experts while you kill them," said Rea.


    "As much as I want to say no since it''s my duty to protect my little sister, but alright! You''re the boss today." Sojuro smirked and leaped to the Supreme Rank Expert since they were the most annoying ones.


    "We have to run away! But the decision will be from those on the ground." One of the Mythical Rank Experts said, knowing this was a trap. If the people on the ground couldn''t help them or tell them to retreat, they would be annihted this way.


    "That��" The other one wanted to reply, but he soon noticed the presence of the snakeing from below. Both of them leaped back as they saw a huge snake devouring everything in its path.


    After that, Rea moved to one of them while summoning a hawk from her sword.


    Rea''s target immediately covered his fists with Magic Power, strengthening them like metal. He punched forward to st Anna away to get more time.


    However, the hawk actually didn''t fly toward him so that it could bite him. Instead, it flew to Rea''s back and grabbed her clothes before pping its wings. Rea''s momentum suddenly stopped as the hawk actually started flying as if bing Rea''s wing.


    "!!!" He was shocked and immediately kicked the air to get some force to allow him to move his body in the air.


    *Cling!*


    The fist and the sword collided as they somehow managed to maintain their bnce.


    "Tsk. Not good, huh." Rea clicked her tongue, dissatisfied with this result. She even nced to the side and saw the other Mythical Rank Experting to her as if nning to capture her before her brother killed all the Supreme Rank Experts.


    Rea hurriedly slid her sword and spun her body, blocking the other guy''s fist.


    Unfortunately, the momentum and the force behind that punch knocked her back to the rooftop.


    *Bam!*


    "Kh." Rea gritted her teeth, feeling the pain from the crash.

 Chapter 1431 Zhao Jia

    Chapter 1431 Zhao Jia


    "Kh!" Rea gritted her teeth and hurriedly stood up since he had to keep these two here for as long as possible. She wouldn''t have any problem fighting one Mythical Rank Expert, but two were still too much even for her.


    Earlier, she could stop them by surprise, but she had some distance to exploit. This time, if she didn''t keep them close, they would turn around and attack her brother.


    Hence, the only way to stop them here was to maintain a close distance and keep attacking them even if she ended up getting injured in the process.


    "Well, Theo''s training is far more painful than this injury. So, there''s no need to hesitate." Rea smirked and raised her sword again. She couldn''t make any excuse since it would make her look weak.


    If she wanted, she could simply say she couldn''t fight them at full power since she had to maintain the barrier. But after Theo trained her, she never med theck of her talent anymore. Instead, she used it to discover the other talent hidden in her.


    That was why she taunted both Mythical Rank Experts. "Then, let me see how strong the Griffith Family is�� I wonder if their old experts can even defeat a young girl like me."


    The two weren''t provoked by her words but still leaped toward her. They still had one job to do: Capture her. As long as theypleted their jobs, the situation would be turned around, and this was their only chance.


    They raised their own fists and punched Rea.


    Rea stomped the ground and summoned the barrier to stop their attacks.


    "!!!" The two experts hurriedly stopped their punches and saw Rea preparing to draw her sword. After seeing it for the second time, both of them had already known what to do in this situation.


    They had the same thought and immediately jumped into the air, looping around her from above.


    However, Rea had yet to draw her sword. Only when theynded did she draw her sword.


    "Sword Draw��"


    "!!!" One of them immediately leaped away to regain some distance to avoid the sword, while the other covered its foot with Magic Power, making it as hard as diamond.


    He then kicked Rea''s sword to stop her, allowing the other to attack her from another side.


    There was even a smirk on the guy''s face as if he managed to disrupt her n, resulting in her getting punched by hisrade.


    However, Rea''s original intention was never to cut them.


    When the other guy took the opportunity to attack her from the side, the snake suddenly appeared from above and tried to devour him.


    "!!!" The guy raised his head and immediately stopped his momentum, barely avoiding the snake.


    Meanwhile, the one who stopped Rea''s sword suddenly noticed someone''s presence. The guy even muttered in a low voice, "Sword Draw��"


    "!!!" He immediately leaped back while spinning his body, kicking the de that wasing for his life.


    "Severing."


    "Eh?!" The expert widened his eyes in shock. The swing was too fast for his body to react as he watched a sword cutting his leg. In fact, if not for his leg trying to attack the guy, his body would be the one to be split by the sword.


    This was the same sword draw that almost cut Theo down in the sparring. Now that Nagasawa Sojuro had be stronger, his drawing speed was like a bullet. Even a Mythical Rank Expert had trouble keeping up with this speed.


    ''So, this is Nagasawa Rea''s brother�� This is the sessor of the third strongest person in the world�� This is the man called Nagasawa Sojuro." The expert from the Griffith Family gritted his teeth to endure the pain as he leaped back with his left foot. The situation was truly unfavorable for the Griffith Family.


    But there was oneint the people on the rooftop had.


    ''Where is the reinforcement from the ground? Have they escaped alone?''


    That question appeared in their heads since the only one who could make a chance was the six Mythical Rank Experts on the ground.


    They simply couldn''t believe that one guy could stop six Mythical Rank Experts from the family, especially since that guy wasn''t Felix or Ruth.


    They would be shocked to know that one of them had actually died under Akbar''s traps. And he was stopping the remaining five people by utilizing their own power.


    But it didn''t seem everything was ording to their n. There was one w to this entire situation. It was the interference of the third party.


    Suddenly, Rea stopped when she felt extraordinary pressureing from the side. Just like her, Akbar could sense the energy. And due to his position, he could clearly see who it was.


    She had long brown hair tied into a horse tail. Her sses mellowed her gaze a bit, but everyone could feel the coldnessing out of her eyes.


    "How in the world are you here?" Akbar gritted his teeth as sweat started covering his forehead. They were truly in a dire situation.


    Without answering him, the woman raised her left palm. Suddenly, a golden item appeared in her hand.


    It had a small tform with dragonsing out of the tform as if they were showing their ferociousness. But the golden color made them look like they were majestic and mystical.


    The woman opened her mouth, muttering in a low voice.


    "The Mandate of Heaven."


    Following the golden mandate, a golden scroll appeared in front of her. The scroll opened up and showed one word.


    "Receive the Imperial Decree. Disappear!"


    That was right, the one word on the scroll was the word ''Disappear.''


    As if epting the decree, the barrier suddenly cracked from the very top. The crack instantly spread all over the barrier and eventually made the barrier shatter into pieces.


    "Shit." Akbar gritted his teeth. "That''s the Mandate of Heaven, the proof of a ruler. And she is the sessor of the Great Empress Wu Zetian, Zhao Jia."

 Chapter 1432 Negotiation

    Chapter 1432 Negotiation


    A moment ago, the Magic Saint, Mason Griffith arrived in China to meet the president to negotiate their position in this situation.


    As expected, both of them couldn''t meet face to face due to security reasons. For better or worse, Mason was someone with an Authority Power, so he was simr to a walking nuke. If the president came here, there was a chance that Mason would threaten him to make that kind of decision.


    At the same time, the president couldn''t neglect such an important person, considering he would lose credibility as if he was afraid of him.


    This was also the reason why the Heavenly Sovereign left the country. If he stayed in the country, he would have to meet the Magic Saint face to face, which might lead to war. Of course, this also looked like the country was trying to leave their ce open so that they could be terrorized by Mason''s power.


    Hence, the president sent two people for the negotiation. If they seeded, he could show that the country wasn''t scared of him.


    Cheng Pu and the minister of defense were sent to the meeting site.


    They met up in a remote building where not many people lived to lessen the impact if a fight broke out.


    "Hmm?" Mason Griffith narrowed his eyes. "Feng Hao doesn''t return?"


    As a top expert in the world, Mason obviously thought he would be greeted by someone at the same level. This was the greatest courtesy that others could give.


    However, Cheng Pu stated, "No, he hasn''te back."


    "It seems that your country is underestimating me." Mason Griffith narrowed his eyes. He thought he could force the Heavenly Sovereign to leave Japan, specifically Theo, so that he didn''t get influenced by him.


    But Cheng Pu answered his doubt with a head shake. "Don''t forget that you''re intruding on our country. Youe to this country out of nowhere without making a single appointment. Who do you think you are?"


    Mason''s expression turned dark as his eyes started emanating killing intent. The atmosphere became tense, making the minister of defense next to Cheng Pu begin shaking.


    Nheless, he was still a normal civilian. Although he had fought in the front line and became a Mythical Rank Expert, Cheng Pu and Mason Griffith were at a whole different level. They weren''t something they could fight.


    "What did you say? Do you want to die?" Mason narrowed his eyes.


    "If you want to kill me, then so be it. In this case, you''re going to be branded as a terrorist and the Heavenly Sovereign has all the reasons to go after you." Cheng Pu smirked. "If my head can allow us to defeat you, then I''ve lived and served the country to the end of my life."


    "��" Mason suddenly understood something. He finally realized the real reason why the Heavenly Sovereign didn''te back.


    He wanted to give Mason the opportunity to kill some people. If he killed Cheng Pu right now, there was no one stopping them from making an all-out war against the Griffith Family.


    Although the Griffith Family would survive due to their powerful system, their family would decline from that point on.


    This was the trap that the Heavenly Sovereign had set up for him. This action was telling him as well that if he wanted to beg for their cooperation, he should lower his head. That was why he sent Cheng Pu. He might not have status as high as the Heavenly Sovereign, but he still had enough status to not embarrass the Magic Saint.


    Mason gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He wanted to kill both of them right now, but this would also turn them into his enemies. If they thoroughly supported Theo, the Griffith Family would be in a dire situation.


    Mason thought for a moment and calmed his heart. His tone was cold but didn''t contain the hostility like the previous tone. "Can I ask for the president to meet me?"


    Cheng Pu had been smiling inwardly since he had finished his job. He might not be able to get him to lower his head, but this action was enough.


    Without hesitation, Cheng Pu took out the Skylink and opened it, showing the call with the president. It turned out they had been connected this whole time.


    Mason wanted to smash the Skylink because they had embarrassed him, but he refrained himself. He took a deep breath and said, "Ie here for one purpose. I''d like to ask for this country to not support Theodore Griffith. If you want the help of our Griffith Family in eliminating the threat, we''ll dly cooperate."


    As expected, Mason was nning to cooperate with the country to chase after Theo. They had been hunting Theo this whole time, so this cooperation would allow them to hurt Theo or even kill him.


    They would take this cooperation without hesitation if they didn''t hear what Maya did to Theo. In the current situation, Theo was considered a free agent after Maya threw away their cooperation to save her ownpany.


    It created an opportunity to mend the rtionship. If they sided with Theo right now, they could let bygone be bygone.


    On the other hand, if they sided with the Griffith Family right now, they didn''t know whether they could kill Theo or not since the other party had the power to hide their strengthpletely.


    "Wee to our country, Mr. Griffith." The president smiled as he was sitting behind his office chair in a bunker somewhere. They had thoroughly done the countermeasures to handle Mason Griffith without letting the people know about his existence.


    "I do think that your offer is very attractive. We all have known the power of the Griffith Family for a long time. I don''t mean to look down on your family, but I have to reconsider my decision because I don''t know if I can expect the Griffith Family to find Theodore Griffith. No, let''s make it clear since you don''t like to beat around the bush. What can you give to us?"


    However, Mason suddenly dropped a bomb in the conversation by saying, "The Theo you know right now is a fake�� No, I should say he''s only the clone of the Original Theo. The Original Theo is in the Griffith Family."

 Chapter ?1433 Decision

    Chapter ?1433 Decision


    "Mhm?" The president raised his eyebrows, confused upon this statement.


    "The one that everyone knows right now is none other than a clone from the real Theodore Griffith. He escapes from the Griffith Family with the help of Ray Griffith and Valerie Guerrero.


    "There is a reason why we didn''t hunt him this whole time. We wanted to set up the prestige while the real one devoured himter. That''s how we''re nning to progress the family." Mason exined the situation. He was lying, but he mixed some truth to make it more believable. He just twisted it to the version he liked.


    "What do you mean? I don''t think I understand what you''re saying��" The president narrowed his eyes.


    Mason smirked. "He is produced by an S Rank Skill, Clone Skill. As you can see right now, he has a clone skill, right? That power derives from the original S Rank Skill thatpletely grants life to a mere clone. But it also makes the current clone only has an A Rank Clone Skill. That''s why he will have to disappear after some time and requires Magic Power.


    "It''s different from an S Rank Skill. At first, the clone has the simrity to the original, but after he learns more and more, his character changes a bit.


    "I''m sure you know about our family''s mission, right?" Mason raised one finger as if asking him to point up. However, he was simply hinting to think about the person who had died.


    "The Griffith Family''s ancestor��" The president narrowed his eyes.


    "That''s right. We know that Theodore Griffith is the destined one. Hence, we''re building him up to lead the Griffith Family. We have taken the real Theodore Griffith right before the Grand Gaia Competition while letting the clone gain the experience and skill so that when the original absorbs him back, he''ll gain everything and be the strongest in the world.


    "So, this is your chance. If you want to ally with the Griffith Family to capture or eliminate the current Theodore Griffith, we can create a political marriage for the longsting rtionship."


    When he listened to his words, it was surely convincing. After all, if the current Theo returned to the original and thetter took over everything. Not only could he get all the achievements of the current Theo, but he could also lead the Griffith Family.


    The Griffith Family''s ambition to lead the world from the shadow might happen. However, there was one doubt stopping him from agreeing to this proposal.


    "And where is that Real Theodore Griffith? Do you expect me to believe such bullshit without any proof?" The president narrowed his eyes, pressuring Mason back.


    "Of course." Mason took out his Skylink and connected it to the Original Theo, who was apanied by the Poison King.


    "!!!" The president opened his eyes wide because he obviously had the report of Theo versus Theo in the previous battle. Normal people didn''t know about it, but all superpower countries had been using their spies and technology to observe their fight.


    Although it was unbelievable, there was indeed a report about Theo fighting another Theo. The first one had a ck-colored power that seemed to be able to devour everything.


    When he connected the devouring power and Mason''s story, he felt a click in his mind. There were some ws in the story, but he couldn''t simply brush off the connections between them. So, the decision became harder to make.


    On the one hand, if they allied with the Griffith Family and let thetter absorb the current Theo, they could control the Griffith Family for a bit through the marriage. However, it also had some ws such as the stability of the country. If they had to be terrorized by another influence, they couldn''t be called a superpower country.


    On the other hand, if they didn''t ally with the Griffith Family and instead supported the current Theo, they could gain some benefits along the way since Theo wouldn''t be their enemies in the future. Having him as a friend was surely a good thing to have in the future to keep the bnce.


    But this made them rely on him a bit, which wasn''t that different from Mason''s proposal. Hence, the president had to thoroughly consider his decision. And he couldn''t be so slow either since the battle was going on.


    "It seems that the negotiation is a bit hard��" The Original Theo smirked.


    "How do you prove you are the real Theodore Griffith?" The president asked while observing Theo''s movement. Although he had the report, he couldn''t believe it just like that. He had to test the original Theodore Griffith to prove his ability.


    The original Theo suddenly released his ck-colored Magic Power to show them that he was also at the same level. Just like the report, this Magic Power symbolized his status as someone who possessed an Order.


    "This is my Order, Devouring Order. Even if I can''t use my skill to absorb my clone, I can still use the Devouring Order to gain everything. If I manage to absorb him, you can also gain the War God Family as well as all of his connections. I have been training in the Griffith Family this whole time to get stronger while letting my clone roam free. This is how you kill two birds with one stone."


    The fact that the Poison King helped him too must be to show his influence as well as the Griffith Family power. It seemed that they hadn''t grown weaker because of the previous battle. In fact, they had gotten stronger.


    This was the battle between the original and his clone. There was one thing that he considered thest. After the battle, if the Original Theo won, they could gain the War God Family and other connections. But if the clone won, they could only gain connection to him, not anyone else.


    The difference in benefits between them was simply too big.


    After considering the pros and cons as well as all the reports from his subordinates, The president made his decision, putting a smile on Mason''s face.


    "Inform her to capture Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev in Thernd."

 Chapter 1434 Result

    Chapter 1434 Result


    After that meeting, the president closed his eyes and leaned to his seat, sighing. "I wonder if I have made the right choice or not��"


    Han Xinyan and Zhou Yu, who guarded him, looked at him with troubled expressions because they didn''t know either.


    He remembered the talk with the Heavenly Sovereign before the meeting.


    It was just a brief meeting so that they wouldn''t be tapped.


    "I believe we should side with Theo instead of the Griffith Family."


    "Is he that good in your eyes?" The president asked, looking at the Heavenly Sovereign with a grim expression. This decision was heavy, so he didn''t dare to make the judgment easily.


    "What I''m scared of right now is not Theo or the Griffith Family right now, but something else. So, it''s entirely up to you. I have given you my answer, and it''s your time to make the decision." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged.


    The president sighed. Recalling this conversation truly gave him a headache. He wished he could see the future, but it was impossible to know what the future had for him. Whether this was a correct decision or not, the future will tell.


    ��


    Thernd.


    Zhao Jia had prepared to make her move as soon as the order came. She was standing not far away from the barrier, so it would be easy to reach that area before they were scattered.


    Not long after, Zhao Jia finally got the highestmand.


    "Zhao Jia. It''s an order. Capture Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev."


    "Understood." Zhao Jia nodded as her expression became extremely cold, executing her mission. Without hesitation, she went to the barrier and destroyed it, rming both sides.


    "Shit. Zhao Jia." Akbar gritted his teeth, realizing that they had lost in this battle. With Zhao Jia helping the Griffith Family, they would be captured and the situation would be turned around.


    "Restraining Order." Zhao Jia dered while pointing her hand to Akbar.


    "!!!" Akbar tried to move, but her ability was faster. Trigrams appeared beneath his feet as they started shining. "What is this? I can''t move?"


    He felt there was an immeasurable pressure that stopped his movement. The trigrams suddenly summoned a dome that isted him from the rest as ifpletely restraining him inside.


    Akbar tried to use his power, but he wasn''t Felix or Ruth, who had extraordinary strength that could break free from this scenario.


    Before he could think of anything, a Yin and Yang symbol appeared on his neck, locking his neck in the middle with both hands locked in each Yin and Yang''s eyes.


    "Kh." Akbar gritted his teeth, remembering what Theo told him before visiting Thernd.


    "Akbar, Rea. I''m sending you there to weaken the Griffith Family further. Meanwhile, I''ll be visiting Japan to talk with the Heavenly Sovereign himself. Don''t worry�� I can assure you one thing. The Heavenly Sovereign is an ally, so I won''t be in danger.


    "So, you have to trust me that everything is going to be alright." Theo smiled at that time as if he had prepared everything, and they just had to y their parts so that the ns worked.


    But this was the reality. He was captured without the means tomit suicide. The only thing he could do was shout to Rea. "Run away!"


    Rea widened her eyes in shock and turned to her brother. "We need to escape."


    Sojuro was stunned because he didn''t expect this kind of development. He was here just to help Rea, but it seemed the luck didn''t go his way.


    Rea immediately retracted the barrier and turned around to escape. Unfortunately, she was toote.


    "Restraining Order!" Zhao Jia was far faster than her and the rest of the reinforcements. Even the people that Sojuro brought to help him could only try to protect them but stopped in the middle of their path, restrained like Akbar.


    "Do you think you will get away from this?" Rea gritted her teeth. "Even if you can capture us, you won''t be able to defeat Theo."


    Zhao Jia maintained her cold expression and stated, "I don''t care what you say. I only do as ordered."


    Seeing that all people had been restrained, the people from the Griffith Family immediately went to her to thank her assistance.


    After seeing the Mind Elder or the Skyward Mercenary Leader, the Griffith Family experts knew the power of someone at this caliber. Still, it was shocking to see that power was utilized in front of their eyes.


    "As expected, no matter how much I see it, the power of a Transcendent Mythical Rank Expert far surpasses normal Mythical Rank Experts like us." One of them said and politely lowered his head to thank her. "Thank you for your assistance."


    Zhao Jia looked around and sighed in disappointment. "Even with all these people, you couldn''t even capture them? Maybe I should have reconsidered the Griffith Family''s power�� Without me, you couldn''t capture them even after using all of your people. Pathetic."


    "You��" One of them wanted to berate him. She had helped them, but it didn''t mean she could say anything.


    However, he was stopped since they didn''t want to make her their enemies. "I apologize for our disappointing result. Our Griffith Family will give you properpensation."


    "Proper Compensation eh? I have something I want." Zhao Jia smirked as huge trigrams suddenly appeared on top of their heads, illuminating the whole building.


    "This is��" The people from the Griffith Family were stunned before they understood the real intent behind this power. "Run! She is on their side!"


    Unfortunately, they realized it toote. The reason why she had been talking this whole time was to prepare this trigram. Now that it had been activated, no one would be able to escape.


    "Martial Court, judgment�� Guilty. I hereby sentence you to death." Zhao Jia waved her hand down.


    In an instant, the trigrams in the sky released a yellow light both upward and downward, creating a huge light pir that reached the dark sky as if Heaven had passed on the judgment.


    "Nooo��!"


    The people from the Griffith Family were engulfed since the trigrams covered the entire building area.


    When the light was gone, only a huge crater remained. Not a single rubble was spotted.


    Yes, that one light actually erased everything in that radius. Only Zhao Jia, as well as the people protected by her golden barrier, were still alive and gradually fell down to the ground.


    While falling down, she remembered the instructions of the president.


    "Zhao Jia. I want you to go to Thernd right now to prepare for our next move. You said to me that the meeting three dayster is something we should worry about. For you, it''s a meeting where we shall decide our move.


    "But for me, it''s slightly different. To me, the decision has been made in this meeting. That''s why Feng Hao leaves the country. So, what we have to worry about in that meeting is none other than the result of our choices."


    "��" Zhao Jia didn''tpletely understand him, but an order was an order. She politely bowed her head. "I will go then."


    When Zhao Jia was about to leave, the president stopped him. "Ah, wait a minute. I also have one more thing you need to remember."


    "What is that?"


    Zhao Jia closed her eyes as she could remember those words perfectly.


    "If I order you to capture them, it means you should capture them and kill the rest of the people. If I order you to kill them, it means you should kill the targets without hesitation!"


    ''He ordered me to capture Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev, so it means I should capture them and kill the people from the Griffith Family. So, this is the decision, huh��" Zhao Jia gently pushed her sses as the mission waspleted.

 Chapter 1435 One Year

    Chapter 1435 One Year


    Zhao Jia let out a long sigh, realizing that with this, the Griffith Family would be targeting them. However, Theo''s matter would surely keep them busy for a while.


    Zhao Jia pped her hand once, removing the barrier that isted these five people.


    "We''d like to thank you for your assistance." Rea politely nodded her head.


    "I''m simply doing my job." Zhao Jia shook her head with a calm expression. The situation became extremelyplicated, so she didn''t know what to do after this.


    "Hehe, if youe to fight me, I''d be dead�� one hundred percent. But then again, I believe in our leader�� he''s guaranteed me that I only have to do my parts." Akbar grinned, ncing at Zhao Jia.


    "I am not here to be friends with you guys. Since I have done my job, I will be returning."


    When Zhao Jia was about to turn around, Rea suddenly stopped her. "Wait for a moment. Theo has asked me to pass this message to you."


    Zhao Jia stopped and looked at her, wondering what she had to say.


    Rea raised one finger. "One year. Everything will be answered in one year, but you have to prepare for everything, including the safety of the people. No one can tell what will happen, but even if you ask the Heavenly Sovereign, you will find the same answer."


    "One year?" Zhao Jia squinted her eyes, not understanding what this meant. Rea seemed to be exaggerating it a bit, but Zhao Jia felt she would indeed get the same answer from the Heavenly Sovereign.


    So, she nodded her head and said, "I understand. I''ll keep that in mind."


    Rea also didn''t know what Theo meant, but everything seemed to be clear after one year. Hence, she nned to ask for Theo''s instruction about this matterter.


    While watching Zhao Jia leaving, Akbar asked, "Since when Theo told you that?"


    "Before we left. It seemed he only told me and Agata in this situation. I don''t understand the meaning though."


    "Hmm? That''s kinda weird. How far do you think you can reach in one year?"


    "Not very sure, but I don''t think it''s that high. Still, it''s different for Theo�� I bet he can do much more." Rea sighed. "Anyway, do you mind cleaning up this area?"


    "Sure. Have fun with the family reunion." Akbar nodded.


    Rea then left to Sojuro and the two elders that he had brought. It had been a long time since theyst met, and Sojuro could see her progress. In fact, he couldn''t even show his power thoroughly because the battle ended so soon.


    Meanwhile, the Magic Saint, Mason Griffith, was enjoying their win against Theo in this battle. He had gotten the report of the Heavenly Sovereign destroying Theo''s clone in Japan and heard the president ordering the capture of Nagasawa Rea and Akbaraly Ibraev.


    With this, all the pieces had been gathered. They all needed to move to the next step.


    "Hehe, it seems that the current Theodore Griffith will be superior to the clone. And I''ll be the one to win the most. If this momentum continues, my Griffith Family will be the greatest influence in the world, far surpassing any country. I will make sure that all the people who have deserted the Griffith Family suffer in the future."


    Mason Griffith was smiling while going home through the other side since it was better not to stay in one ce for so long. There was a chance that the Heavenly Sovereign would return as well, so he decided to wait for the news in anticipation.


    Little did he know, the news that he would be receiving upon his return was the exact opposite of what he was expecting.


    On the other hand, Zhao Jia was thinking about the warning Theo gave to her.


    ''One year�� What does that mean? If we''re talking about Theodore Griffith, I have seen his growth in the past few years. Although I''m sure that he can progress by leaps and bounds, the gap between each stage is going to be vast from this point on.


    ''Even he won''t be able to easily learn them. So, I wonder what he''s nning to do one year from now. I want to ask my teacher, but��'' Zhao Jia looked up, recalling the grinning face of the Heavenly Sovereign who would always be teasing her. She almost snapped and took a deep breath to calm her heart down.


    ''Still, it doesn''t change the fact that the president has chosen Theo''s side instead of the Griffith Family. With what we have done right now, we have solved the grievance between us.


    ''At the very least, the Griffith Family doesn''t have enough personnel to fight us right now, so they can only target Theodore Griffith.


    ''So, what I should do after my return is�� prepare for the meeting tomorrow. No, wait. My master told me to worry about the meeting tomorrow because something big will happen.


    ''Does that mean he''s already aware of the warning? Is the meeting tomorrow for that one-year warning? What''s going to happen?''


    ''No, knowing my master. He will most likely return early in the morning even though the meeting is around 10 am. If that''s the case��'' Zhao Jia squinted her eyes, steeling her resolve. She had gotten some clues, but she acknowledged herck of information. So, the best course of action was to go to the person she loved and hated at the same time, Feng Hao.


    The next day.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was grinning while walking in the airport. "I''m finally back. I wonder what kind of ce I should visit next?"


    However, he suddenly turned his head around and saw his cold but cute disciple, Zhao Jia.


    She was staring at him intensely as if she wanted to lecture him.


    "Oh, it''s rare for you to wait for your master here!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked and started acting chummy, wanting to hug this disciple of his.


    But he soon stopped and his expression changed when Zhao Jia opened her mouth. "Master! I''d like you to exin something to me!"


    It seemed that Zhao Jia had noticed something. Even the Heavenly Sovereign turned serious as he nodded, "Sure. Let''s go to the meeting ce then. I''ll tell you on the way."

 Chapter ?1436 Seeing Through Theo

    Chapter ?1436 Seeing Through Theo


    The Heavenly Sovereign and Zhao Jia were going to the meeting by car. Inside, she asked, "Do you know what one year means?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign grinned. "If you call me Master, I''m going to answer you."


    "Can you stop joking?" Zhao Jia gritted her teeth but knowing the importance of this matter, Zhao Jia let this hatred go for now. "Master�� Please."


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled when watching her embarrassed expression. His expression turned serious soon and he snapped his finger, isting this ce so that no one could listen to their conversation.


    "Ordovician-Silurian Extinction, 440 million years ago. Devonian Extinction, 365 million years ago. Permian-Triassic Extinction, 250 million years ago. Triassic-Jurassic Extinction 210 million years ago. Lastly, Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction 65 million years ago."


    "Mhm?" Zhao Jia tilted her head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"


    "The five extinction level events in the past." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "Huh? I don''t understand."


    "Well, what do you think about the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs?"


    "Hmm? Is there something wrong with it? Wasn''t it just a natural disaster?"


    "Indeed. It''s simr to a natural disaster. Science can exin it in one way or another through proof�� But then again, how about the mythologies all around the world? In one ce, we had a snake that was so long that it could loop around the world. In another ce, we had a guy that destroyed nine suns but spared thest one. In another ce, we have someone who could create the whole world itself. What do you think about them?"


    "They''re mythologies. At the same time, they''re real and we acknowledge them after we start receiving a blessing from them." Zhao Jia answered.


    "If they are real, then how in the world did they die? If they can create a world, why can''t they end their own extinction?"


    Zhao Jia was confused because the Heavenly Sovereign kept throwing some random questions about extinction.


    "In one myth, we had this guy who started the end of the world. In another myth, we had a corrupted and polluted world. In the end, those, who were so powerful and glorified, died�� Only their stories remained to this date.


    "Just like our country, we have this government who will continue to strive even if the leader changes. In the past, kingdoms will continue as long as the royal bloodline is still alive. So, the past people who we referred to as Gods should be the same, right? Then, why did they die as if their era needed to end?"


    Zhao Jia narrowed her eyes. "Are you assuming our era will end too?"


    "Yeah. Do you remember about the sudden phenomenon that took millions of lives in Argelia?"


    "Yes, I still remember it. I took part in the relief mission too." Zhao Jia nodded before noticing what he wanted to say. "Do you mean it''s a sign that our era is going to end?"


    "Bingo!" The Heavenly Sovereign. "And if it trulyes, no one will be able to stop it. This is the reason why I team up with Theo instead of the Griffith Family. He has that kind of clue."


    "The clue of the end of an era?" Zhao Jia sucked a cold breath.


    "Yeah. ording to what he said, it seems he has more information than me. As an Authority Level Figure, I have understood and seen many things, yet a 23 years old guy told me that he knows more than me. Don''t you think it''s weird?"


    Zhao Jia clenched her fists. She truly never asked this question. Why could Theo rise so fast? Was it truly only his talent? Was there someone who actually guided him so that he could be this fast?


    Many questions appeared in her mind as Theo abruptly became shrouded in mystery.


    "Wait a minute. I don''t think there are many people who know about the extinction, so it''s impossible to learn such a thing. Even you paid some of your life span to see it�� Then, there''s only one possibility��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "Exactly my point."


    "Blessing!" Zhao Jia finally understood Theo''s real strength. It turned out the one who was behind his progress was the one who gave him the blessing. "Still, who is the one behind him? He has illusion power, extraordinary fighting ability, and even something that can incite death�� His ability is too random."


    "Even I couldn''t find his blessing if I saw it that way. But think of it the other way. Who do you think knows the most about the end of an era?"


    "Who?" Zhao Jia tilted her head. Even after thinking for a moment, she couldn''t find any name.


    "Of course, the one who knows the most is the one who had once ended an era."


    "Ah!" Zhao Jia trembled. "Do you mean��"


    "Yeah. He had a son who was good at fighting, another son who was a snake, and a daughter that knew about death. But more importantly, he had knowledge about the end since he brought it himself�� There is only one person who I believe to be the one giving him his blessing. The God of Mischief, Loki Laufeyson." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    This was why no one could predict the mind of the Heavenly Sovereign. His point of view was simply too far different. If he had thought like Zhao Jia or any other people, he wouldn''t havee to this conclusion.


    The Heavenly Sovereign stated one thing, "I don''t fear the Griffith Family. I am more scared of the end itself. The fact that this God of Mischief has started making his move means he''s nning to turn Theo to bring the end itself like what he did in the past.


    "Yeah. It''s like what you think. One year! That one year is the time Theo is nning to use to bring the end itself. Theo has suspected his original self to be the end itself. So, he is going to use him to bring a premature end.


    "Without enough preparation, the premature end won''t be able to wipe out the entire poption. In other words, Theo is nning to use that end to avoid our true end. This is why I partner up with Theodore Griffith.


    "Zhao Jia! This is one piece of advice for you! One year! Prepare everything you can to withstand this disaster so that we can save as many people as possible. Understood?"

 Chapter 1437 God of Tricksters in the Making

    Chapter 1437 God of Tricksters in the Making


    "Zhao Jia! This is one piece of advice for you! One year! Prepare everything you can to withstand this disaster so that we can save as many people as possible. Understood?"


    Zhao Jia was shaking in fear. She never expected the truth to be this bad. However, she could finally see Theo''s brilliance.


    Theo had realized that there were so many things that could influence his original self. And like what Loki said about Hell and Reincarnation, his original self should go to reincarnation instead of Helheim since he died in Thernd, not the US like the Death Reaper.


    Then, for whatever reason, that soul managed to go there and remain until the soul met the Death Reaper. It was true that the Death Reaper''s sacrifice to revive him was reasonable, it didn''t change the fact that this original Theo mysteriously reached Helheim instead of any other Hell all around the world.


    Hence, Theo suspected that his original self was actually led to that area by something out of this world. This was the sign Theo saw as the end itself.


    For Loki, the prophecy that Odin once got was the trigger. But for Theo, the appearance of his original self was actually the trigger for that end.


    When Theo thought this way, he created a n not to handle the Griffith Family but the end itself. In other words, he trapped the Griffith Family so hard that they had no choice but to rely on that trigger to cause havoc all around the world.


    Loki brought the end itself, and it was remembered as Ragnarok. And in this era, Theo nned to manipte the end so that it appeared prematurely, lessening the impact. This would make the era avoid the true extinction.


    Unlike Loki, who ended up in a whole world''s extinction and died in the process, this premature end would give Theo a chance for survival. He was nning to use this opportunity to go straight at the one who created this world, the being in the higher dimension. This was Theo''s maniption and answer as the sessor of the God of Mischief.


    Even the Heavenly Sovereign was shocked when Theo told him something during their game. After understanding the chess'' principle, Theo actually yed in such a way that it averted his attention from the Griffith Family.


    It was at that time he finally understood Theo''s real n was not the Griffith Family but the end. He felt lightning just strike his heart as he couldn''t believe the 23 years old guy could make this kind of n.


    If he managed to grow up, he would be a terrifying person.


    Since he didn''t want to die and see humans extinct, he chose to fully support Theo even if it meant giving him the chance to grow.


    Zhao Jia couldn''t say anything. She had so many thoughts in her mind that she had trouble keeping up. But one thing was clear, her master had been working on this n for so long. And Theo was the one who could work together with him.


    "So, are you telling me to prepare for something that I don''t know?"


    "Yes. I don''t care what it is, bunkers, food, or equipment. Just make sure that no one knows about what I have told you in this ce. You are better than me in preparation like this. What do you think are the most important ones?"


    "Well, it must be military, equipment, and food. Bunkers can be built, but it will require a huge amount of manpower, I''m afraid people will realize it, especially the Griffith Family. If the endes from the Griffith Family, it''s not something we can show. But then again, if we''re too slow, the bunker couldn''t bepleted. So, bunkers aren''t my priority right now.


    "I also have to make a n about steps after the disaster. Because we don''t know what kind of disaster that will happen, I need to prepare for all kinds of ns."


    The Heavenly Sovereign nodded in agreement. "Well, Theo seems to know what will happen."


    "Did you ask him?"


    "He didn''t tell me. You know, our current rtionship��" The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. "And the fewer people know about it, the better. So, he didn''t tell me. A cheapskate."


    "But Nagasawa Rea warned me��"


    "That''s right. Only important people rted to him were informed like Nagasawa Rea or probably his woman, Agata Mota. Why don''t you marry him? How about practicing a gentle and warm smile? Wife material lesson?" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "Can you be more serious about it?" Zhao Jia sighed. She couldn''t get angry after this because that one solution might probably be the best one. If she could marry him and get the information, she, who would probably be themander-in-chief in this operation, would be able to do many things to prepare for the end.


    Unfortunately, this kind of rtionship wasn''t possible. If this was possible, Theo would already have a second woman in his life. And with the previous bad rtionship between Theo and the country, Zhao Jia only had one solution.


    "Support him with everything you can to make him feel indebted." Zhao Jia sighed, realizing this was the reason why the Heavenly Sovereign made the first move and created an alliance with him.


    He wanted to show Theo that he had be his ally, so he had to give that information to him because he was indebted. If he managed to be the second Wind Emperor in Theo''s heart, he surely could get this information.


    "What are you nning to do after this, Master?" Zhao Jia asked.


    "Me? I''m simply going to wreak havoc around the world to support him. As you can see, that''s the only way to get that information. If only I knew this kid sooner�� Why didn''t those old guys call me when they discussed what to do after the Grand Gaia Competition��" The Heavenly Sovereign pouted. "Anyway, I''m going to cause you a lot of trouble. Cover me up, okay?"


    Normally, Zhao Jia would berate him. But she had a change of mind after learning about his intention. The only thing she could do was to aid him, so Zhao Jia said, "I understand. But please tell me about the matter before making your move so that I can handle the situation faster and easier."


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised his eyebrows in amusement before smiling. "Sure."

 Chapter 1438 Playing

    Chapter 1438 ying


    In Theo''s consciousness, the Goddess of Death was visiting her father, frowning.


    "Hmm. I don''t really understand his n," she said while trying to think about the possibility. She didn''t realize that Theo had been stopping to think too much as if his brain could automaticallye up with a n. As a result, she could only observe his actions.


    The God of Mischief, who was sitting down on the floor to rx, yawned and said, "What do you not understand?"


    "His action. Won''t it be bad to bring the end sooner than expected? He hasn''t even prepared all the things needed if something goes wrong."


    "Haha, it seems that he has grown so much that it''s impossible to see his thoughts anymore. Do you remember me talking about beings in the higher dimension that are watching us like we''re watching something on the screen?"


    "Yes. Even your thoughts might be seen by them. That was why you remained in his consciousness to train him against the higher being. Wait a minute�� Don''t tell me, this is the way? If he can process everything automatically in his mind without letting his thoughts out, the higher being won''t be able to know his n?" Hel widened her eyes in shock.


    "Yep!" Loki smirked excitedly. "For example, if I am lowering my head to contemte and end up muttering all my ns in my mind, the higher being will know, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, what if the higher being only knows him lowering his head and contemting without the details?"


    Hel nodded with a grim expression. "They won''t know about your n. And in the future, a sudden twist will ur, causing a disturbance in their n."


    "Exactly. When he visited Japan, it seemed that his partner could understand his thoughts without Theo exining them. If that''s the case, what he understands is solely from his interpretation. Theo''s n might be different than what you think!


    "Then, there is this higher being who is watching us. Even if the higher being can see through that guy''s understanding, they won''t know about Theo''s n himself as long as the higher being doesn''t get the details.


    "Hence, Theo could twist something to match his own desired result in the future. The hidden n has been working in the shadow, and it''ll reveal itself at some point.


    "This is how Theo is nning to fight against the higher being. And like me, I''ll give you my own interpretation of Theo''s n.


    "To put it simply, the Original Theo might be the trigger of the end. Then, how will he bring upon an extinction level event?" He asked with a smile.


    The Goddess of Death closed her eyes but eventually shook her head, not finding the answer. "I don''t know. The current him is not strong enough to do something like that."


    "Exactly my point. If the real Theodore Griffith is actually the trigger for the world''s end, by speeding up the progress for that end, the trigger won''t be strong enough to start the extinction. Ultimately, the end itself will only be like an apocalyptic event. It''s bad, but it won''t kill all humans.


    "When that event happens, there will be a gap to exploit to mess with those bastards from the higher dimensions. That''s what I believe his n is.


    "Well, he hasn''t forgotten about the first promise we exchanged�� Mess up this world with his wisdom, huh�� He truly has wisdom at this point and is messing the world�� I never expected that he''s going to bring the end itself like this to mess up the world." The God of Mischief sighed.


    "I don''t know what to say. I feel like he''s gonna surpass you very soon." The Goddess of Death shook her head helplessly. "Remember about asking him that question? Whether he''s an evil guy who kills fifty people to save billions of lives?"


    "Ah, right! With this kind of n, he''ll truly be the bad guy�� Killing billions of lives to ensure the continuation of humanity." Loki smirked. "There''s no need for that question anymore since he''s gonna walk in the path of the bad guy."


    "I see. It''s truly hard for him. And he doesn''t seem to be the guy who likes to get someone from his family to get hurt, so I guess he will ensure them. He might have some ns in building his own realm."


    "Yeah. Remember what the mermaid said to him back then?"


    "For you, the difference is between Heaven and Hell. And the gap between them is so narrow that you can fall into any of them with just a single variable.


    "For example, you can be the savior who saves a billion people. But one variable can easily make you the murderer of a hundred million people. That''s how narrow it is.


    "Also, the world will experience Cruel winter and moral chaos�� That''s like the prophecy that your brother had once got. And he seems to be the Beacon of Light and Dark�� No, wait. Is it because he knows that there will be two of him? Beacon of Light and Dark, the original Theo and his clone. The first one will bring the end, while the second one will save the people��" Hel gasped, never expecting this kind of thought to appear in her mind. She realized that Theo had been considering all these possibilities.


    In fact, he had been using the prophecy to go against the higher being. She looked at her father and asked, "But didn''t you affect the future she saw?"


    "I did. I erased some of them to suit a situation I could teach Theo. However, half of the possibilities she saw were correct. As for the possibilities that I changed�� All of them are stored in my mind��" Loki smirked while closing his eyes, recalling all the events.


    However, he suddenly stated, "And like this�� No one will know about those possibilities?"


    "Huh? What are you talking about?"


    "Don''t you realize that the fact we''re talking like this could be watched by those beings? And why did I answer all your doubts to the point exining everything to you? The reason is simple. I want to let them know about Theo''s n. If those guys are watching us, they''ll realize that not everything will go ording to what I say! That''s right. The only reason I told you this was to make Theo have a change of mind to make an even more unpredictable oue.


    "The n might be different, might be the same, might be simr�� But no one can tell because��" The God of Mischief pointed at his head. "Those possibilities are also in my mind. Come on, higher beings�� I have been recounting those possibilities for a while. Can''t you see it? No, you can''t, right? I made it so you can''t see my thoughts."


    The God of Mischief was smiling crazily as if he was messing with them. "This is how Theo hides his n from you. Or he might even give you a n with multiple meanings just to confuse you. Hahaha, just you wait, O'' beings from the higher dimension, for he wille at you. He is the best person I have trained so far after all."

 Chapter ?1439 Reality King vs Dark King (1)

    Chapter ?1439 Reality King vs Dark King (1)


    Meanwhile, the one who had been causing all this time was actually not participating in the mess directly. Even when he was in Japan, he didn''t really talk to them about this matter except for chess.


    After all, Theo had a few things to do before he started his n. And one of those things lied on the other side.


    Theo stood in the middle of a in while dering, "My friend, it has been so long since we exchanged that promise. And now is the time for us to finally fulfill our promise. I havee and am ready to fight you."


    As if hearing that deration, a huge explosion suddenly urred, sting a powerful shock wave that blew away the trees and grasses from the area, making the in barren.


    Suddenly, a crescent-shaped ck energy wave ran through the ground, aiming for his life. If he took a peek at the one behind this energy, he could see a huge ck knight marching toward him with his horse.


    His voice was loud, but his cheerful tone seemed to let go of all the excitement in his heart. "I have been waiting for this time, my friend! Receive my attack!"


    Theo smirked and floated in the air with his Telekinesis. He lifted his finger once as the entire ground started to expand, causing the energy to actually go backward. And with the ck knight behind the energy, he ended up swinging his sword and deflecting it to the side.


    "Kh!" The knight gritted his teeth and felt the impact of his own attack that Theo reflected earlier.


    "You have truly be stronger. This shall be a good fight!"


    "Of course. I have made you wait too long, I guess."


    "What too long? You''re the fastest one to rise to this level." He smirked and raised his hand. "I, the Dark King, shall fight with my friend today. No matter what happens, he shall always be my friend."


    "I, the Reality King, shall fight with my friend today. No matter what happens, he shall always be my friend." Theo smirked.


    If one looked at this battle, Theo was like a small ant flying in the airpared to the humongous size of the Dark King.


    However, the moment both of them made their move, it was clear that both of them had a simr power.


    Their first move was none other than cing the Covenant Seal in their position so that they could take advantage of the energy in this fight. At the same time, it also allowed them to release all their power.


    Suddenly, a golden Magic Power and ck-colored Magic Power came out of their bodies. The seal increased the output to the point their Magic Power looked like a colossal zing me that was trying to overpower each other.


    "Hahahaha!" The Dark Kingughed as he swung his sword, releasing the same ck energy wave. "It''s on!"


    Theo lifted his finger again. But this time, he didn''t expand the area. Instead, he twisted reality, making the ck energy wave swirl like a donut.F


    Theo passed through the attack from the middle and took out his spear, thrusting it straight to the Dark King''s head. "Why don''t you use your true appearance right away?"


    The Dark King smirked and struck Theo''s spear. Both of them had the same thought, which was to use Heisk tounch each other.


    Theo and the Dark King felt the punch of each other''s Magic Power, but because of the horse, the Dark King barely managed to withstand the force because his horse made a few steps to counter the force.


    The Dark King smirked. "If you think you can do it, why don''t you force me to use my original appearance?"


    "Then, so be it." Theo felt challenged as he raised his hand. The cloud suddenly gathered on top of their head as if Theo had attached a string made of Magic Power to gather them. The cloud soon turned dark as if it was going to rain soon.


    "If you want to fight me, don''t you think this is the worst move you can use? I''m stronger in the dark, for I am the dark itself!" The Dark King moved forward. His speed became even faster as he reached Theo in an instant.


    However, Theo suddenly snapped his finger. In that instant, the cloud suddenly disappeared, making the sunlight illuminate the area again. Due to the sudden change of brightness, the Dark King suddenly felt his body a bit sluggish because he relied on the power of darkness.


    "Wha--" The Dark King was surprised and saw Theo taking advantage of his sluggish reaction to reach his face.


    Theo punched the Dark King''s helmet with Energy st, causing a powerful shock wave thatunched the Dark King off his horse.


    ''He used the cloud to bait me to use the dark power so that he could take advantage of the sudden gap created from the change of my power?'' The Dark King gritted his teeth, realizing he was fooled by Theo. And now, his bodynded on the side of his horse. It looked like he didn''t fly too far, but if Theo used the human''s measurement, the Dark King was five hundred feet away from the horse.


    The Dark Kingughed even when he was hit. Hended on the ground and pointed his sword against Theo. "This is great. I shall face you this way then."


    "Yeah, like I said, you should go back to your original form. This is too big to face me." Theo''s voice suddenly echoed from behind him. Theo flew toward him earlier, but used the Blink Skill at thest second to take advantage of a giant''s body slowness.


    "!!!" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock and turned around to hit him. But it was toote, Theo had reached his helmet again and struck it.


    This time, Theo used a sword to cut his neck since he didn''t want to reveal his original body. And this sh contained the Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity. Thetter allowed Theo to cut the neck cleanly and the former caused a shock wave in the middle so that the head flew away.


    Theo smiled when he saw this giant corpse without a head. "Hurry up and show yourself."


    The ck energy soon enveloped the armor as they began to take off the armor, revealing the real appearance of the Dark King. A voice soon echoed from inside the armor before they fell to the ground. "Then, so be it. I''ll be fighting you seriously from now on."


    "That''s what I''m hoping for." Theo released his Magic Power as he was looking forward to this battle as well.

 Chapter 1440 Reality King vs Dark King (2)

    Chapter 1440 Reality King vs Dark King (2)


    The armor soon fell to the ground, revealing a giant lump of ck Magic Power. Suddenly, this ck ball let out several hands to surround Theo.


    However, Theo snapped his finger and removed the ck hand, leaving behind only the Magic Power. And due to the characteristic of a Mythical Rank Expert, Theo could continue supplying his power to constantly remove the power. This way, the Dark King couldn''t do anything to those who had been removed.


    After that, Theo turned his weapon into a sniper rifle and aimed at the ck ball. He charged the weapon with Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity. This might be the most powerful bullet that a human could have.


    When Theo pulled the trigger, a beam came out of the muzzle and immediately expanded itself into a huge beam that was capable of swallowing the ck ball.


    As if responding to the size of the beam, the ck ball also grew its body and turned the ck power into a huge ball that opened its mouth, swallowing the beam inside.


    Of course, this wasn''t the Devouring power like the Original Theo had. The beam that entered the ck ball actually turned ck because it was influenced by the Dark Power. The ck area spread all over the beam and continued toward Theo.


    "..." Theo furrowed his eyebrows and stopped supplying the beam with his Energy, allowing the ck power topletely turn the beam into a ck stic stick that was soon spat out of the ck ball.


    After that, the ck ball started spinning violently as it gradually gathered into a single concentrated small body. The size itself was slightly bigger than his son, Syk. However, the power concentrated in that small body was terrifying.


    The Dark King smirked and pointed his palm at Theo. Suddenly, a ck beam came out of his palm as if he was paying Theo back with the same attack.


    This time, Theo turned the sniper rifle into a shield, a shield made by a dwarf.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to push himself forward, countering the force that came from the beam.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. The shield itself wasn''t the problem since it could withstand the power of the beam, but he was in the air, so he was bound to fly sooner orter.


    To avoid such a case, Theo actually used the Thunderp Fist on the fist, causing a powerful shock wave in front of the shield that dispersed the energy to the area.


    He could take on this move with his Twisted Reality or Attribute Removal, but he also wanted to taste the strength of a King ss Monster. Hence, he took this attack head-on like what the Dark King did earlier.


    "This is good! You understand me well!" The Dark King smirked.


    After feeling the power contained in the beam for a while, Theo finally made the next move. He flew on top of the beam and summoned the Irregr Guardian in the form of a surfboard.


    That was right, Theo was actually surfing on the ck beam.


    "What?" The Dark King was shocked by this power. This beam was supposed to knock him back, and it wasn''t even water to begin with.


    However, Theo used his Reality Power to change the beam''s attribute into water like how he changed Pure Water to normal Water.


    Theo moved toward the Dark King by using his own power. When he was about to reach him, Theo leaped forth and struck the Dark King with his sword.


    The Dark King did the same.


    They used Heisk again to blow each other away, but it seemed they had the same idea in the utilization. The invisible vortex of Magic Power canceled each other out, causing both of them to not move a single step from the sh.


    Theo and the Dark King smirked at each other as they became even more excited.


    Theo then used his Twisted Reality and his World Re-Creation Skill.


    The sword made by his Dark Power suddenly changed to another form, rming the Dark King. "My power?"


    The sword soon turned into a spear, making the Dark King slightly ufortable.


    "Are you sure it''s a sword?" Theo smirked.


    The Dark King widened his eyes because he couldn''t change the shape of the spear again as if Theo had changed the rule of his power. However, what Theo did was as simple as making the spear a reality instead of a mere Magic Power. That was why it couldn''t change shape unless the Dark King threw it away and made another one. But of course, Theo would use the same power to disturb him again.


    "Tsk." The Dark King clicked his tongue and used all his strength to push Theo back. His effort wasn''t a waste as he managed to gain some distance after pushing Theo back. He took that opportunity to cover the spear with his Magic Power, turning it back into a sword.


    Still, due to the spear''s long handle, he had to create a long de as well, ending up with a giant sword with a three-foot long handle and a twelve-foot long de. Coupled with the Dark King''s original small body, it surely made him look funny.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t have the chance tough at him because the Dark King showed his power as well.


    The ck spot that he had left behind in Theo''s weapon suddenly spread and sttered like ink. If it touched Theo, his body would be controlled by the Dark King.


    Still, Irregr Guardian was the perfect skill in this situation since it was easy to call it. The Irregr Guardian turned into a sphere that isted him from the outside, blocking all the ck ink.


    After that, Theo used his Attribute Removal to remove all the ck spots on his weapon.


    Theo and the Dark King looked at each other. The fight had just begun, but it had be this exciting. They couldn''t help but wonder what kind of fight they could show after releasing all their power.


    "Can you keep up with me?" The Dark King smirked.


    "I should be the one to ask that." Theo snorted as he pointed his spear at the Dark King. "It''s time for the next round."

 Chapter 1441 Reality King vs Dark King (3)

    Chapter 1441 Reality King vs Dark King (3)


    The Dark King smirked andnded on the ground. He ced his hand on the ground as his power started turning the soil ck. This was what Theo had seen back then. If he touched the ground, his feet would be influenced and he might be controlled by that power, considering the Dark King could control that power.


    Even though he could remove them, it would be troublesome to keep removing them in a high-speed fight.


    However, Theo alsonded on the ground, not far from the Dark King. He started stepping on the ground and umted the energy on top of his head.


    "!!!" The Dark King widened his eyes and noticed the extraordinary power from those steps.


    Hence, he waved his hands and summoned numerous tentacles from the ground, surrounding Theo.


    Theo had never done this, but he wanted to try it in this fight. He snapped his finger, using his Twisted Reality to make the tentacles curve to the side, attacking each other.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he realized it took quite a toll on his mind. The energy itself was less than when he released a barrier, but his mind felt a bit heavy after what he did.


    He had to put so much concentration into that single attack, which made it hard even for him.


    Since his attack failed, the Dark King threw away his giant sword and reced it with a new one. After that, he leaped forth and tried to take on Theo with the same strategy.


    Theo raised his left hand, preparing to turn the de into something else. However, the Dark King suddenly released a ck screen in front of the sword as if acting like a shield.


    Theo widened his eyes in amusement. He realized that the ck shield was used to hide Theo from changing the de''s shape.


    As he expected, the moment he twisted the ck shield, the sword was right behind it, trying to hit him before Theo could change the shape.


    Theo nced at the attack and summoned his Irregr Guardian in the form of a small shield, stopping the sword. After that, the sword soon changed its shape.


    "Tsk." The Dark King clicked his tongue as he couldn''t really reach Theo unless he somehow stopped the Twisted Reality.


    Theo then shed his sword diagonally to cut the Dark King. Seeing this normal attack, the Dark King threw away his sword and created another one.


    But when Theo''s sword was about to reach his sword, thetter started to bend ording to Theo''s sh.


    ''What? He''s bending the space?'' The Dark King widened his eyes in shock. ''No, he''s bending my sword to follow his de?''


    The Dark King realized that if it continued this way, his sword would continue to bend until Theo''s sword could cut him. So, he immediately threw himself to the side, barely avoiding that swing.


    While throwing himself to the side, he also tried to kick Theo. Due to his small stature, the Dark King let out a tentacle of his foot to reach Theo.


    Theo snapped his finger and used the Attribute Removal topletely erase this power. Then, he moved forward and tried to sh the Dark King again.


    Knowing his speed or power wouldn''t be that effective against the Dark King, Theo made the first move by using his Alter Ego to increase his agility. His body soon disappeared in a sh.


    "What?" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock as he instinctively raised his sword to the side.


    Suddenly, Theo appeared on the other side as if he had passed him. And a clicking sound produced by the collision of their swords finally echoed afterward, followed by a sonic boom.


    "Kh." The Dark King gritted his teeth. His eyes couldn''t follow Theo''s movement, but thankfully, his body could react to him. The instinct he had honed this whole time worked in his favor. In fact, all the people Theo fought also had this kind of instinct. After all, the Mythical Rank Expert had experienced hundreds if not thousands of battles.


    Still, Theo smirked and said, "That''s one��"


    "One?" The Dark King narrowed his eyes and suddenly felt pain on his cheek and arm. "!!!"


    He lowered his vision while cing his hand on his cheek, realizing that blood hade out of those two spots. In other words, Theo managed to slip past his defense in that attack.


    "Still, you must have used a quiterge amount of Order Energy with that attack earlier." The Dark King narrowed his eyes while turning around, staring at Theo.


    "Really?" Theo smirked, acting as if he was fine. Just like he said, after progressing so much, using the Alter Ego was still the most taxing among his skills. A few months ago, he could use it for five seconds. But he had improved since then and he could use it for seven seconds now.


    With all the Twisted Reality and Attribute Removal abilities he had been using, he could only use the Alter Ego for five more seconds. So, he had to be careful when using this power.


    "Your wounds, I''m going to widen them to weaken you." Theo smirked and leaped forth.


    The Dark King resolved himself. He knew that Theo wouldn''t be recklessly using that ability since it would take a toll on his body. Hence, he smashed Theo''s sword with his power, only to find something different in Theo''s swing.


    His right arm felt crushed as if Theo''s strength was something no one could ever touch. The power struck him to the ground and created a huge crater that almost destroyed his bone, especially around his hands.


    ''Again?'' The Dark King realized it was Theo''s ability to change the power in his body. But it was still surprising to see how much Theo had improved.


    He gritted his teeth and tried to endure the attack, but Theo took this chance to reshape his sword into a sniper rifle.


    The Dark King could see the Magic Power gathering inside the barrel.


    "No way!" The Dark King immediately summoned a shield before him before the light in Theo''s sniper rifle flew forth, engulfing the Dark King.

 Chapter ?1442 Upgrading Skill

    Chapter ?1442 Upgrading Skill


    *Boom!*


    The Dark King was engulfed by the beaming out of the sniper rifle. Theo shot it at point nk range, so there was no way the Dark King would escape unscathed.


    Theo could see that his attack started turning ck as the Dark King was utilizing his power to resist Theo''s attack.


    "You''re truly great. To think you''ve grown to this level in only a few years." The Dark King smiled and used the gap the ck beam created to slip away.


    Theo could see that the Dark King was heating up from the smoke that came out of his body. Even though he didn''t show it, he should experience some injuries from that attack.


    But then again, Theo almost used half of his Order energy. If he continued this way, he wouldn''tst more than ten minutes against him. So, Theo''s goal was clear. He had to finish this battle before his energy ran out.


    The Dark King also knew this, so he smirked. "Still, I''m the one who will win."


    "If you can, that is." Theo smirked and stepped onto the ground.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    That was right. Despite fighting against the Dark King at this level, Theo didn''t forget to maintain his Ascension Step. He released all that energy he had gathered.


    "Kh." The Dark King felt an extraordinary pressure that pushed him to the ground. He tried to resist it, but the force cracked the ground and created a huge crater, bigger than the one Theo made earlier.


    ''My movement is getting restricted?'' The Dark King realized the real purpose of this attack. Unlike the Wind Emperor, whose wind could disintegrate everything, Theo could only use this power to bind his opponent. Even so, the Ascension Step was still a Divine Technique, the power contained in it was not something that could easily be handled.


    Theo used this opportunity to attack the Dark King again with his Alter Ego, forcing the Dark King to show his trump card.


    A small ball appeared on his palm and flew to Theo like that of a bullet.


    "!!!" Theo was startled and hurriedly threw himself to the side. He canceled his Alter Ego since the ck ball stopped his momentum.


    ''The speed is fast, but it''s not something I can''t handle. Alright. Let''s use the Alter Ego again to reach him and cut him down.'' Theo''s expression turned serious as he went straight to the Dark King, nning to ignore everything. As long as those small balls didn''t hit important organs, he would be fine.


    Yet, the Dark King actually smiled.


    "!!!" Theo could see his death in his Reality Eyes that had been reinforced by the Future Vision. He nced to the ground and saw a thin shadow.


    ''A shadow�� No, Darkness��''


    The Dark King smirked and raised the darkness created by a small thread attached to the small ball earlier.


    "Dark Curtain."


    Theo hurriedly ducked down and saw a ck de that came out of the thread''s shadow. Due to the position of the sun, the shadow was projected diagonally, so if he didn''t manage to react fast enough, his head would have been flying.


    ''This is��'' Theo sucked a cold breath, realizing the potential of this power. He realized that the Dark King''s power could actually be an ultimate weapon to kill an enemy in a dense forest. By using the trees as cover, he simply had to raise the curtain again, cutting all the enemies on the ground.


    But more importantly, he could hear numerous trees falling down behind him. Theo nced to the back and saw all trees in the five hundred feet range were cut. If he used it against a small hill, he would have cut the hill into two.


    "Seriously��" Theo took a step back, regaining some distance.


    "This is the ability I have prepared to defeat you, my friend. I call it the Dark Door." The Dark King smirked and summoned three more ck balls on his palm.


    "Heh." Theo smirked. That ability was truly dangerous because he had to be careful against the shadow now. Although the Dark King didn''t control the shadow, he was actually in charge of the dark color of that shadow itself. In other words, his power was far superior to his wife.


    The Dark King tossed the three balls toward Theo, spreading them a bit.


    Theo hurriedly turned his body around as the Dark King summoned the Dark Curtain again, almost chopping him into four.


    ''This is annoying. That power is different from what I originally thought��'' Theo took a deep breath and looked at the Dark King again.


    Skill: Dark Door (S)


    Effect: Summon ck balls as a transmitter of dark power.


    Skill: Dark Curtain (S)


    Effect: Release a dark de through the dark color of the shadow produced by the transmitter.


    The two new abilities themselves weren''t that powerful. But they werepleting with each other, making the abilities extremely dangerous.


    Theo tried to understand the ability a bit more while using his Blink to go to another location, away from those abilities.


    After receiving the Reality Eyes, he could see the Original Technique and Divine Technique as well, not just the skills. It seemed that the world registered the newly created techniques as well, albeit it needed a little time for it to get processed.


    In other words, the Reality Eyes allowed him to ess the world''s database to analyze an ability.


    And he was quite shocked to see the Dark King had used five S Rank Skills this whole time. In other words, the Dark King actually had five Divine Techniques. It was a huge achievement, considering his only Divine Technique was the Ascension Step. His Thunderp Fist, Irregr Guardian, and invisible Vortex were still considered A Rank Skills.


    However, Attribute Removal, Alter Ego, and Twisted Reality were considered S Rank Skills.


    Still, those abilities wouldn''t be able to allow him to win against the Dark King.


    Both of them had five S Rank each, so Theo needed one more S Rank Skill to be superior to the Dark King.


    "Dark King. Since you''re showing your power without holding back, I should also show my power a bit." Theo smirked and took out the Skill Cards he had been gathering for a whole year. After a long time, he finally gathered enough.


    He never used it because he was confused as to which one to upgrade, but he found the perfect one to tip the bnce.


    The Skill Cards suddenly glowed before they gradually disappeared as Theo sacrificed all those Skill Cards to upgrade his skill.


    [Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A) has been upgraded.]


    Theo smirked. "Come out."

 Chapter 1443 Death Descent

    Chapter 1443 Death Descent


    [Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A) has been upgraded.]


    Theo smirked. "Come out."


    Theo''s Death Avatar suddenly emerged from the ground. Normally, the Death Avatar would only release an immense Magic Power upon its summon, but there was one big difference this time.


    Instead of Magic Power, the Death Avatar was excluding death itself.


    [Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (A) has now changed to Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (S)]


    [Opening thest seal of the Death Avatar.]


    [Acquiring the fourth authority, Death Descent.]


    Theo smirked and utilized its power. "Let''s enjoy this fight a bit more, shall we?"


    The entire world suddenly changed into endless darkness. But soon, a blood red moon illuminated the entire area, weakening the power of the Dark King. There was no cloud today because it would only just weaken the blood moon''s light.


    Now that the ce had changed, Theo finally used his new ability, muttering in a low voice. "Death Descent."


    The Death Avatar suddenly released a loud roar.


    "Shaaaaa!"


    Blood colored threads suddenly appeared out of thin air, attaching themselves to the Dark King.


    "This is��" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock. He never expected that skill could actually touch him like this. Without hesitation, he used the Dark Power to influence these threads before breaking them.


    However, he somehow couldn''t affect it.


    Theo smirked because he knew the ability''s true power. It was only the path of his death, it didn''t do anything to him. So, even if the Dark King used his power to erase the threads, he wouldn''t be able to do it unless he covered the entire path that could lead to his death.


    ''Now I can see why the Death Avatar, especially the Fourth Authority, is the signature move of the Goddess of Death.'' Theo smirked excitedly because the ability had one more catch.


    Skill: Death Descent (Fourth Authority)


    Effect: Revealing the path of one''s death.


    The description alone was simple but overpowered. But it also ended up in the hands of someone with the power of reality.


    Theo leaped forward and swung his sword.


    The Dark King was still confused by this power and immediately used his sword to block Theo''s.


    However, their focus shifted to the thread on the Dark King''s hand.


    Without hesitation, Theo hurriedly struck the hand instead of the sword.


    The Dark King didn''t expect that the red thread actually showed his weakness. It revealed the path to his death, starting from the removal of his hand.


    When Theo struck that spot, the Dark King managed to pull his sword back, but Theo still continued and struck the Dark King''s sword, knocking the de off his hand.


    "!!!" The Dark King was startled because this was the first time Theo overpowered him. This new ability was so overpowered.


    ''I felt death earlier. But this thread�� I don''t think they''re the ones to be killing me. Instead, it''s a series of instructions that can show me how I''ll die. In other words, as long as I know what will happen to that area, I can still counter Theo.


    Theo smirked and continued moving forward, shing his sword ording to the thread.


    "I got you. You shouldn''t show this thread." The Dark King smirked and spun his body before striking Theo''s sword. He had predicted this, so the power behind his attack could be stronger. This way, Theo had no choice other than to drop his sword.


    However, when he was spinning his body, he actually felt a sharp pain on his waist and stopped his swing, realizing that Theo''s sword had changed into a spear and grazed his skin.


    "Huh?" The Dark King became confused again.


    Theo smirked. "Yeah, maybe I should hide the threads since it can be better for me to be the only one to know the path to your death. However, don''t forget that I''m the Reality King. Changing the reality of your death is as simple as flipping over my hand. I wonder if those threads you see are real or not."


    "!!!" The Dark King came to a realization. The reason why Theo showed all these threads and even told him his power was to make him doubt Theo.


    On the one hand, the thread might be real and Theo would follow it. But that particr thread might just be an illusion that hid the real thread like how Theo attacked him the second time. However, Theo was the Reality King, manipting those threads were simple tasks for him.


    In other words, his mind had been split into three. The first one was thinking about those threads that could be his weakness. The second one was predicting Theo''s attack like a normal fight. And thest one was observing Theo''s movement and maintaining his instinct to react to all movements.


    This was Theo''s way of making him think which one was real and which one was fake.


    Theo liked the confusion on the Dark King''s face as he immediately waved his swords continuously, following the threads.


    As expected, the Dark King could only follow his movement because the moment he let his guard down, Theo might twist his death path ording to what he liked. And with Theo''s weapon that could change into four different forms, there was a chance that Theo would smash his shield or shoot him again.


    "Kh." The Dark King gritted his teeth while trying to figure out a way to counter this new ability. Still, it wouldn''t be that easy because the Death Avatar was Hel''s favorite ability and this skill had been reinforced by Theo''s cunningness and Reality Order. No one could know whether it was true or not anymore.


    "Come on!" Theo became energetic and smashed the sword against the Dark King, suppressing him.


    Of course, Theo slightly turned crazy because he wasmenting about his choice earlier. Each A Rank Skill could give him more than one billion Zils. Yet, he had to use hundreds of them to upgrade the skill. It was too much even for him. If not for the fact that the skills actually came from him killing the Mythical Rank Monsters, he would have spat blood.

 Chapter 1444 Mutual Destruction

    Chapter 1444 Mutual Destruction


    "Hu��" The Dark King took a deep breath as he realized Theo''s ability surpassed his imagination. No wonder why Theo could improve this fast.


    Still, the most shocking thing was what he did earlier. He sacrificed all the cards to do something that he didn''t know.


    Even if Theo showed it, no one could see his real skill after all. Unless he upgraded their skill ranks, they wouldn''t realize what he did.


    "I never expected you''re this strong�� It seems that I shouldn''t have let you grow for a few years." The Dark King smirked.


    "Is that what you''re supposed to say to a friend?"


    "Haha, of course, that''s just for an enemy. Right now, you''re my opponent, so I can say that."


    "That''s true." Theo chuckled. "But then again, I think it''s better to end this battle as soon as possible. I have a few things I want to say to you."


    "Hoh? I''m looking forward to it. If that''s the case��" The Dark King suddenly released his ck aura, covering the thread itself. Due to him having Dark Power, his ck color became absolute dark with no light being reflected. In other words, Theo had no chance to see the threads. "I told you earlier. You should have hidden these threads."


    "Really?" Theo didn''t back down. He utilized his power to extend the threads all the way to himself. Unless he could paint this worldpletely ck, the Dark King wouldn''t be able to hide the threads. But��


    The Dark King furrowed his eyebrows. "Are these threads really the extension of my weakness?"


    "Who knows?" Theo smirked. "Why don''t you try it to find out?"


    The Dark King responded to Theo by swinging his sword, releasing crescent-shaped energy that blocked his vision.


    Theo snapped his finger and used his Twisted Reality to twist the energy, creating a spiral that would pass him as long as he didn''t move.


    However, the Dark King appeared next to him, taking advantage of the ck power to ambush him. It turned out he used that energy to cover himself as he approached Theo.


    Theo nced to the side and swung his sword. Surprisingly, both of them passed each other without a single clicking sound.


    "Oi, oi. Are you serious?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and saw his left arm was grazed by the sword. The blood started flowing out of the wound. This was the first wound he had received in a while.


    "I''m serious, my friend. In this battle, I''ll do my best to win. Other than killing myself, I''ll do everything to win even if it means mutual destruction."


    "Isn''t that the same as killing yourself?"


    "Haha, you and I know that we won''t do that, right?" The Dark King smirked as a wound also appeared on his body. This time, it was his chest.


    Despite the mutual destruction, his wound seemed to be much harsherpared to Theo''s. But he was a monster. His constitution was better than Theo''s, so if they were talking about Endurance, he had the confidence to win.


    "��" Theo sighed. He had covered his body with Supernatural Snake Body, but it seemed the skin wasn''t strong enough to stop the Dark King.


    ''As expected, my Supernatural Snake Body is equal to an A Rank defensive skill right now, but the defensive ability is only enough for a normal Mythical Rank Expert. King ss Monster is too much.'' Theo thought while looking at the Dark King.


    He seemed adamant about using all sorts of methods even though Theo had shown him how he would die.


    Instead of covering the path that led to his death, he actually changed it himself with this strategy. But the worst part was the fact that he changed it to a path of mutual destruction.


    "No wonder why you''re considered a King ss Monster on our side. And you''re only one step away from bing an Authority Level Figure��" Theo took a deep breath, calming his heart. His opponent was truly no joke. If he made one wrong move, he was afraid that the situation would be extremely dangerous.


    "I''m simply too stubborn. You can even consider me as a battle maniac. But who cares? I''m going to defeat you." The Dark King raised his sword again.


    "Then, shall be it." Theo also did the same.


    After releasing their Magic Power, both of them leaped forth and struck each other with a sword.


    Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian and changed his sword into a shield. The shield protected him from the attack, while the Irregr Guardian took the form of a sword to cut the Dark King down.


    As for the Dark King, he released his power and created two swords, both hitting Theo''s weapons.


    Theo tried to use his Alter Ego again to overpower him, but the Dark King made the first move.


    He suddenly stomped the ground and crushed the ground. Suddenly, the darkness from underneath the ground starteding out.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and realized that the Dark King had been nning to do this for a while. Despite using the Covenant Seal to improve their power, the Dark King had actually been prating the ground so that it could influence his area that had been improved by his Covenant Seal.


    "Do you think you''re the only one to have improved? After fighting against that bald man, I know that I have to use something unexpected. So, I try to find a way where I can influence my enemy with my seal. And this is the way�� I have to take you by surprise!"


    "!!!" The ground should be dark, so he used that ck color to actually connect and spread his influence. And his dark power actually came and enveloped his Covenant Seal, forcefully removing it.


    "You are truly��" Theo smirked. As expected from King ss Monster, they truly had surpassed a human of the same level. In fact, he realized that the Dark King hadn''t used too much Order, so if he prolonged the fight, he would only be at a disadvantage.


    If only the Dark King was one stage lower, he would be able to defeat him. But the current Dark King couldn''t easily be defeated without his clone.


    "Why don''t you use that clone? I know that your clone can have the same strength as you."


    "My clone is busy. Besides, this is our fight, I don''t want a third party to tip the bnce even if it''s my clone."


    "So, you''re telling me that you don''t want to release all your power when fighting against me."


    "I am telling you that I respect you."

 Chapter ?1445 Glitch

    Chapter ?1445 Glitch


    *Clink!*


    *Clink!*


    *Clink!*


    A series of shing sword sounds echoed in the area.


    After the Dark King destroyed Theo''s Covenant Seal, Theo was suppressed by the Dark King. The fact he was losing his only way to harvest Order energy meant he had trouble keeping up with the Dark King.


    After all, the same as Magic Power, after reaching Mythical Rank, he could use the energy from Covenant Seal to supply energy to his attack. But now, that way had gone and Theo had a hard time cing another Covenant Seal since the Dark King would destroy it too.


    At the same time, he had been moving away from the Dark King''s seal, only to find the Dark King never cared about this seal in the first ce. In his eyes, stopping Theo from utilizing the seal was more important than using his own seal.


    And with his superior prowess, he started getting the upper hand in the fight.


    "What''s wrong? You can''t do anything without using the Covenant Seal?" The Dark King smirked.


    "Not at all. I''m currently thinking."


    "Thinking? To think you have the leeway to think in this battle. It seems that I have been holding back too."


    "Hahaha, you think so? But don''t worry�� I now understand what those people mean by turning this normal weapon into a true artifact that only we can use." Theo smirked.


    "!!!" The Dark King suddenly understood what Theo nned to do. He had utilized it this whole time after all. "So, you have been fighting me without that one? Now that I think about it, your weapon doesn''t seem to be emitting anything. Now I know why you''re this weak."


    "Haha,pared to a hundred years old monster, I''m simply a baby." Theo snorted as he ced his Covenant Seal on his weapon.


    This was what the Goddess of Death had talked about when teaching him about Order. Just like the Death Armor or the Death Crown he had encountered in the past, if he infused his Covenant Seal to influence the item for a while, the item would be one of the sources of energy. This was why it was important to have a personal artifact.


    "Still, it won''t really improve yourbat ability right now if you haven''t infused it with your energy for a while. After all, it takes time."


    "Yeah, it seems that I have been toocenttely. Maybe it''s because everything went well and mybat prowess was like the monsters who could definitely defeat a human at the same level."


    "Are you bragging?"


    "Not at all. It''s because of this reason that I have been toocent. I should have prepared for this��" Theo smirked.


    "Haha, aren''t you just making an excuse for your loss?" The Dark Kingughed.


    "You''re definitely right. This is just an excuse, so��" Theo suddenly struck the Dark King''s sword before sliding his sword on his de while spinning his body, allowing him to cut the Dark King''s body.


    The Dark King managed to avoid it with a graze on his waist, but Theo wasn''t in good condition either because that sh left a deep cut on his lower left arm.


    "You''re serious?" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock.


    "Yeah. Our ce is now reversed. I don''t mind having mutual destruction."


    "You''re crazy." The Dark King smirked. "Fine by me. It''s more exciting that way."


    Both of them raised their swords and nned to have this fight that would injure both of them. There was no need for defense anymore as they focused all their strength on attacks, trying to wound their opponent as much as they could.


    They both were soon covered in wounds, yet, their smiles never faded away as if they had gone crazy.


    Despite fighting this hard, they were actually enjoying the fight. It wasn''t every day they could meet an opponent like this after all. Even if they met another King ss Monster, they might not dare to allow themselves to be covered with wounds since their lives would be in danger after that fight.


    "Hu��" The Dark King let out a long breath after gaining some distance. It was truly a good fight between two friends. He looked at Theo, who seemed to be in a worse condition than him.


    "This is truly a good fight. I dere that you''re going to be my brother from now on. If your peoplee to my territory, I''ll make sure to take care of them." The Dark King dered out loud.


    This was his final recognition of Theo''s strength. Of course, the Dark King wasn''t shrewd enough to think about making a connection like this when Theo was still weaker than him. He simply recognized Theo''s strength and actions.


    Theo also understood that reason and said, "Haha, I''m going to rely on you in the future. But I think our fight is going toe to an end soon."


    "You are right. Although we still have stamina and Magic Power, our body won''t be able to keep up." The Dark King nodded with a serious expression.


    "Yeah. Though, I have promised someone that I won''t lose against anyone else. So��" Theo smirked as his body somehow started glitching.


    "Huh?" The Dark King didn''t understand this situation. Theo never used this ability. But he soon noticed the change in Theo''s body. The wounds he inflicted earlier started to disappear one by one as if they never existed to begin with.


    "What?" The Dark King dropped his jaw to the ground because all the wounds had truly disappeared.


    "Are you sure the one fighting you this whole time is real? Maybe the fight itself is an illusion. Thankfully, I can give you a good time, brother." Theo smirked as he walked forward without a single wound on his body. Even his clothes recovered as if he had turned back time.


    "Have I been in an illusion this whole time?" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock. "What the��"

 Chapter 1446 Annoying

    Chapter 1446 Annoying


    "What the��" The Dark King came to a realization. They were just an illusion portraying their own mind. This was the only way to exin this situation.


    However, the truth couldn''t be any different. This was the reality. Even though Theo was strong, he wasn''t strong enough to wield the World Re-Creation to that degree since it was a skill above S Rank.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had been practicing his World Re-Creation and the way to replicate what the God of Mischief showed him.


    What the Dark King didn''t know was the fact that Theo actually used his Alter Ego to increase his vitality status. He had five attributes: Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, and Magic Power.


    Strength and Magic Power worked like their name implied, while Agility increased his speed and dexterity. On the other hand, Endurance increased his defensive power, which hecked. But if he wanted to heal all his wounds, he only had to increase his Vitality status to the limit with Alter Ego. The metabolism in his body evolved for a second and healed all his wounds.


    In the reality where Theo used all the points to Vitality, he was like a zombie. Unless someone could burn him into ashes, he wouldn''t die even if someone severed his head.


    So, he used this ability to recover from his wound in exchange for his Order Energy and recovered his clothes easily since it was made of Death Armor. The glitch effect was simply meant to trick the Dark King.


    Nheless, the Dark King couldn''t see through his trick. Theo could see it from his expression alone since he looked like he was regretting recognizing Theo as his brother.


    Theo smirked and said, "Alright. Let''s fight again."


    "You bastard! This is why humans can''t be trusted!" The Dark King started cursing him.


    "What''s wrong? I have told you that I''m not going to use my clone to fight you, but it doesn''t mean I''m not using the others." Theo smirked.


    He simply used a simr trick like when he fooled the elder dwarf in a drinking contest against his clone. This time, the Dark King didn''t realize that the Dark King would actually win against him if he persisted because his Order Energy was almost empty.


    Unfortunately, the Dark King was too angry to realize it to the point he shouted, "Fine, fine. I admit defeat! I start regretting considering you my brother."


    "Haha! Thankfully, you admitted defeat or I would have lost." Theo smiled brightly before releasing his Order.


    "!!!" The Dark King widened his eyes in shock because he couldn''t see that much energy anymore from his body. In other words, Theo had been bluffing this whole time.


    "You�� How does a human call someone like you? A bastard? No, I need something more insulting." The Dark King pointed at Theo in frustration.


    "Hahaha��" Theo chuckled. "To think that also works�� I guess you''re not as reckless as I thought you''d be."


    "Since that''s the case, then let''s continue the fight. It''s the second round, right? I can still win in the best of three matches."


    "You are a sore loser, aren''t you? I''ll still win though, since I will be using my clone right now. How about fighting two people with this power?" Theo smirked.


    "You said you won''t use your clone because you respect me."


    "In the previous fight, that is." Theo stuck his tongue out.


    "��" The Dark King waspletely speechless. He just realized that Theo had been nning everything this whole time. The reason why he started fighting him without defending himself was to make him think that he had the chance to win. That kind of thought would be destroyed when he revealed his power that reverted his body condition to full health. In other words, if he didn''t choose mutual destruction, he would have won.


    Theo was actually controlling where the battle would go this whole time. It wasn''t like how the God of Mischief used his illusion that could simte a fight between them, but Theo managed to create the fight he wanted.


    "I really want to beat you right now." The Dark King gritted his teeth in frustration.


    "Haha, I guess the end of our fight is not that great for you. It''s great for me though." Theo chuckled.


    "That''s the exact reason why I want to hit you right now."


    However, Theo''s smile gradually disappeared.


    "Still, I have a few things to tell you." Theo let out a sigh as his expression became serious.


    "What is it? You might not want me to listen to you in this mood."


    "I don''t have much time left." Theo shook his head. "I''m going to meet the Frost Saint soon when everything is ready. I want you to make sure that you''re near your family for a year since there''ll be a great change that will happen on both sides."


    "Mhm?" The Dark King furrowed his eyebrows. "You seriously do everything you want no matter the timing. You''re dropping such information in this atmosphere�� Ugh, I have never been annoyed this much in my entire life."


    "I''ll take that as apliment." Theo nodded. It was true. The more he annoyed others, the better he applied the God of Mischief''s rules to annoy people.


    "Alright. What''s going to happen then?"


    "I don''t know the details myself. I can specte, but I don''t think any of them is correct. For now, just make sure that you''re together with your family."


    "I see. I understand what you''re saying. Should I tell this to the saint?"


    "Nah, it''s fine. I''ll be the one telling him."


    "Alright then. Still, this is annoying. Do you know the frustration I''m feeling right now?" The Dark King gritted his teeth.


    "Of course." Theo smiled. "Though, I''m not just trying to frustrate you. There are others that I have to annoy."


    "Huh? Who? The saint? Your friends?"


    "Who knows? Maybe the God of Mischief? The souls living in the Spatial Rift?" Theo shrugged yfully. "Though, I hope that you remember this. You can me me for everything."


    "Huh, me you? I won''t do that. Even though you''re annoying, you''re still my brother." The Dark King shook his head with a serious expression, not nning to change his opinion.


    "Thanks." Theo smiled as he muttered inwardly, ''I hope that your opinion never changes.''

 Chapter 1447 Preparation

    Chapter 1447 Preparation


    "Fuck that clone bastard!" Mason Griffith shouted in anger, never expecting that ten Mythical Rank Experts would die just like that.


    "This is why you should have stayed." The original Theo red at Mason.


    "Do you think it''s easy for me to stay there? There''s a chance that the Heavenly Sovereign will go back and attack me. They can im me as everything, including a terrorist. And in the worst case, they can bring another top ten expert to besiege me." Mason gritted his teeth, mming the table.


    "That''s your problem. Either way, the situation has gone from bad to worse. With the current situation of the Griffith Family, there''s no need to suspect the Orel Group anymore. They''re going to leave and be independent. As for the Eilric Family, there''s a huge chance that they''ll do the same. In other words, the Griffith Family is going to be alone from now on."


    "The Eilric Family will be poached by that bastard Ray." Mason wanted to snarl again, but releasing his anger wouldn''t solve the trouble. With the current situation of the Griffith Family, they wouldn''t be able to do too much.


    "So, we now only have me, the Poison King, and you. The Star Group haspletely left that faker, so we have to be careful in the next move since we only have around fifteen Mythical Rank Experts left." The Original Theo looked down.


    Unfortunately for him, even if he was smart like his clone, he hadn''t received the War Saint''s training, making his ability worse than Theo''s.


    Still, he was still talented enough to understand the situation and used all sorts of ns to win.


    He thought for a moment and said, "We have gotten the confirmation from the Fist Saint. If we''re going to attack that faker, we''ll be able to gain his support. The same applies to the World Martial Institute. Luckily, there''s an idiot who is hating the faker and Phyrill more, so it''s easy to influence him to side with us."


    "I see. A saint and a king. But this is not enough." Mason narrowed his eyes. "Right now, he''s backed by multiple kings and queens along with multiple countries. Unless we can stop them, we won''t be able to defeat him."


    "I''ll deal with those countries. I don''t want to do it at first, but this is the only thing we can do to turn around the situation."


    "What are you nning to do?"


    "You don''t need to know. No, I am the only one who can know this information. For now, I''m going to prepare for the event that will cause chaos all over the world. This way, there''s no way they can help him. In this situation, we''re going to attack him as hard as possible and kill him."


    "A chaotic world��" Mason narrowed his eyes, not knowing what the original Theo wanted to do. "So, I guess the preparation you''re talking about."


    "That''s right. We need more people who can work with us to deal with him. He currently has the Wind Emperor, the Sword Saint, and the Heavenly Sovereign backing him up, along with a King ss Monster, Phantom Archer, White Death, as well as a few Kings like Leonardo and experts from other countries.


    "However, the Wind Emperor is going to die soon. We will wait until his death beforeunching the n.


    "Before that, we have to get at least three Saints and ten Kings, along with many Mythical Rank Experts. For now, we have you and the Fist Saint as well as four kings, including the Fist Saint''s first disciple."


    After listening to his exnation, Mason replied, "I''ll use my influence to get one or two saints with us. I''m not sure about the time God, but I think I can manipte one Saint from Chile. You made sure that you didn''t show yourself killing that bloody bastard after the auction, right?"


    "Yes. So, you''re going there?"


    "Yeah, I''m going to the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric." Mason nodded. "She loves chaos, so she will surely join since you can give that chaos."


    "Alright. In that case, I''ll try to go around to find some Kings among the top one hundred experts. To think there are many top one hundred experts that die in just one year�� But I guess the world has been chaotic this whole time." The original Theo nodded, knowing what to do.


    "Alright. That sounds good to me. We still have the Poison King, so we can alsounch a sneak attack and massacre people with poison."


    "He''ll only act ording to my will. Don''t ever think about controlling him." The Original Theo red at Mason.


    Mason raised both hands as if he was yielded in this argument. He still needed him, so he had to yield.


    ��


    While the Griffith Family had trouble keeping their strength, Theo was having a rxed time in his territory.


    He had done everything he could, so there was nothing he had to do for the time being other than getting stronger.


    After establishing his territory, he could finally move a few more people from the US. They were none other than Isaac, Millie, Phyrill, and Ellen.


    Millie obviously liked her new house, a house with only her and her father. The house wasn''t small, but it was cozy enough for them to live as a family.


    Isaac, on the other hand, had to buy equipment for his research, which obviously came from Theo''s pocket.


    Meanwhile, Phyrill and Ellen finally got some privacy with a good spot. They felt like a newlywed couple.


    While Theo was practicing, Phyrill suddenly came to Theo.


    "Thanks." This was the first word that came out of his mouth.


    "For what?" Theo smiled calmly.


    "This way, no one will be messing with our families anymore. And with Akbar''s informationwork, we''ll know if they''re being targeted again or not."


    "It''s alright. It''s true that I''m the one bringing them to danger." Theo shook his head.


    "Without you, I would have died, so there''s no need to mind. And this ce seems to be good to live in." Phyrill smiled.


    "I''m d you like it."


    Phyrill nodded. "That''s right. I have been helping Akbar with the situation around Italy, and I don''t think there''s an anomaly around here. But seeing the enemy has the Poison King, I''ll keep the guard up, especially around the water supply."


    "Yeah. Our water supply is mainly supported by theke, but the city is the problem. It''s not like we''re nning to make the neighboring city a dead city." Theo nodded. "How do you feel about your job now?"


    "As a detective huh." Phyrill closed his eyes with a smile.

 Chapter ?1448 Goals

    Chapter ?1448 Goals


    "As a detective huh." Phyrill closed his eyes with a smile.


    That was right. Phyrill had promised Ellen to never go back to the dark side like how his family operated. But it was true that his ability revolved around there.


    Hence, Theo nned to ce Phyrill in this area but still respected his choice. The job was none other than a detective.


    With the threat from the Griffith Family, especially the Poison King, Phyrill''s job was an insignificant one.


    Phyrill would be sniffing around in all kinds of criminal cases and solving them like police. But Phyrill still worked in the dark instead of cooperating with the police.


    As for the information, Akbar could easily set it up.


    Theo also hade to an agreement with China and decided to pull Akbar to Italy and set up an informationwork with this country as the center. Of course, it would mean that Akbar''s influence was weakened, but in exchange, he could focus on these countries to ensure no information could escape his eyes.


    Hence, Phyrill could work as a detective. Even Isaac and Millie could help him with their own expertise.


    On the other hand, Ellen would be bored in the house alone, so she also started finding a job suited for her.


    Surprisingly, Leonardo nned to take her in so that she could grow a bit. Two personalities turned out to be something that Leonardo sought. Other than using two abilities at once, two personalities could be used as a strategist since both people would give two different ns, giving them more options to choose from.


    Of course, Theo also started his ss in exchange for Leonardo''s support. He was actually teaching the people from the War God Family.


    But with his busy schedule, Leonardo and Theo agreed that Theo only needed to teach four days every month, and Theo could use his clone to do it. So, it wasn''t that much of a problem. It was a small price to pay for the War Saint''s support.


    This was the state of Theo''s group after settling down in Italy.


    Still, Theo needed to carefully n his move in the next one year since the next attack would begin with an apocalyptic event. Even if he could understand the severity of what woulde, he didn''t know what would actually happen.


    Theo looked at Phyrill and said, "Well, I''m going to be able to prepare a torture chamber made of illusion, so it''s not like you are going to dirty your hand anymore. With this room, you should be able to do it by manipting the illusion. I''m sure that you''re fine with this, right?"


    "Of course. After all, it''s your illusion. And thank you for your consideration��" Phyrill nodded. Theo had truly done much for him. Not only did he respect his decision, but he also took him in that condition. This job was truly perfect for him. Though, for Theo, his calm and unbiased opinion in front of a great danger was the one that charmed him, making him believe this job suited him the most.


    Theo nodded. "If that''s the case, I hope that you have a great day around here." Theo smiled.


    "By the way, what are you nning to do after now?" Phyrill asked. "I don''t know much about the situation, but I think we''re in a bad situation, right?"


    "Yeah. That''s why I''m going to turn this ce into a fortress. As for my n, I''m not nning to do something big because I know that the enemies are waiting for the right time to attack us. I''m simply increasing our strength for the time being."


    "I see. I wish you luck." Phyrill waved his hand.


    Theo waved back, seeing him off.


    Now that no one disturbed him anymore, Theo stood in the middle of the training hall he had created in his territory. The hall was simr to a ser field but without spectators'' seats.


    He sat down in the middle of the arena while closing his eyes.


    "Before everything happens, I have three goals that I want to achieve. The first one is none other than some levels as well as A Rank Skill Cards, which I can save to upgrade my skill ranks sooner orter. I have sent my clone out there. Even if other countries put surveince on me, they won''t be able to find my clone since the disguise is perfect. The leveling speed will be far lower, but it''ll be good if I can raise ten levels every month. By the time the apocalypse starts, I will be level 800 to 850, if not more.


    "Then, the second goal is none other than my Five Aspects. Among my five Aspects, I have reached Perfect Control and Future Vision, which means I have mastered both aspects. So, I''m going to focus on my third aspect and, if possible, master it.


    "So, which one should I focus on, Breathing, Endurance, or Technique? My Endurance is boosted by Supernatural Snake Body. Right now, my metabolism is better than normal since a wound will normally heal in a day instead of a few days. But it''s nowhere near the level of the people who can turn their bodies into mes or something.


    "As for Technique, I have Irregr Guardian, but it''s still only at Original Technique level right now. I have to research more if I want to improve it to Divine Technique. That leaves Breathing.


    "Loki has promised to teach me Breathing, but has he forgotten about it? I mean, thest meeting was called the Last Lesson�� That means I won''t get to learn anything from him anymore��"


    Theo fell silent for a moment. "No, the God of Mischief can lie, but he is not someone who breaks a promise. I know that because he''s a man who will get his job done in one way or another. In other words, he has taught me the breathing technique. Then, when?"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows, recounting everything he said about Breathing. "Now that I think about it, the God of Mischief said he needs me to have an Order first to master this Breathing Technique. Wait, don''t tell me��"

 Chapter 1449 Order x Breathing

    Chapter 1449 Order x Breathing


    "Don''t tell me�� The Breathing Technique itself is not actually a real breathing technique? After all, if you need to learn a breathing technique, you need to give an exnation since the pattern of breathing, the way the air travels, and otherponents need to be precise for it to be called a breathing technique.


    "On the other hand, I have never learned anything about those patterns. Instead, I''m only aware that I need an Order first to learn the Breathing Technique. If that''s the case, there''s only one possibility. The Breathing Technique itself is infused by Order!


    "That''s right! How can I forget about this�� The God of Mischief has created a foundation in my body with Control being the core of the foundation." Theo looked at the ground and started drawing a plus.


    In the middle, he wrote Control, and each tip would be filled with the other Five Aspects.


    "My Awareness has been greatly influenced by Reality Eyes and Death Avatar. Still, the one affecting all my senses is the Death Avatar. The Death Eyes influences my eyes, the Underworld Body affects my sense of touch, the Death Domain is rted to my sense of smell, hearing, and taste. Last but not least, the Death Descent�� Wait, what is rted to the Death Descent? My sixth sense?


    "Whatever it is, it doesn''t change the fact that I need Magic Power to control the Death Avatar. This is closely rted to how well I control my Magic Power.


    "The same applies to Supernatural Snake Body and my Endurance. If that''s the case, the rtion between my Order, Breathing Technique, and Control is��"


    Theo fell silent, thinking about the connection between them. He also recounted all his past memories of the God of Mischief. He never did something meaningless. Even though he often joked around, his words had some meaning behind them.


    "Order has five stages: Assimtion, Magic Power, Reality vs Illusion, Reality Alter, and Reality Realm. Assimtion represents the fusion between me and the Order. Magic Power is rted to my ability to govern over them. Reality vs Illusion��Ah, so that''s how it is!"


    Theo smirked. "There is never a Breathing Technique. The technique he wants to teach me is my ownprehension of the Order itself.


    "The better you are, the more free you can act. In other words, what he meant by Breathing Technique is turning my Order into breathing itself. No, I should make them as natural as possible so that I can use them like I''m breathing.


    "Assimtion! I need to assimte myself with the Order, which is the reality itself. In order to do that, I need to turn on the Magic Power, which represents the second stage. How? The answer lies in the third stage, Reality vs Illusion.


    "I usually used this ability to turn the illusion into reality, but I might be wrong this whole time. I should consider everything as reality! Yeah, instead of making them real, I consider them one from the start!


    "That''s where the Reality Alteres! In this stage, I''m governing the reality itself and changing everything to my liking. That''s why it''s called ''Alter'' since I''m literally altering them.


    "Then, the result is none other than the fifth stage, Reality Realm! This is the realm I have created to amodate everything I want. Just like what the Heavenly Sovereign, this shall be my domain, the result of my Order.


    "And making them flow like this is the work of Breathing Technique, my current Breathing Technique that I get from the Star Group. Instead of learning a new technique from scratch, I''m incorporating all the five stages of Order into my breathing technique.


    "My breathing technique is mild. It doesn''t have explosive power, but in exchange, it has the stability I need for my power.


    "This is closely rted to the fifth stage that I haven''t been able to reach this whole time. I need to connect the previous four stages to master the five stages. This is what it means to be my domain.


    "And the purpose of my domain is none other than the identity of my power. Everything is the reality in my eyes. If I say I''m the real Theodore Griffith, I''m the real Theodore Griffith. Hence, my Reality Realm is a domain of reality where I''m the ruler."


    Theo couldn''t help but remember his battle against the Heavenly Sovereign. In that domain, he could see the Heavenly Sovereign creating a rule for his own domain.


    He managed to influence that rule with his Reality Order, but it was clear that the domain was still his. This one particr battle actually gave him inspiration for the realm he wanted.


    "This is exciting. To think the answer to the Breathing Technique is actually rted to my third goal, which is mastering the fifth realm within one year.


    "Now I can see the path to reach that goal. I don''t know how hard it''s for me to incorporate my Order into my breathing technique, but I''ll do my best. Alright. Let''s aim for it." Theo smirked as he immediately closed his eyes, figuring out how to incorporate the Order with his Breathing Technique.


    Little did he know, Theo was actually overanalyzing the entire thing.


    The God of Mischief had been hiding his exnation in something else, but because he wanted Theo toe up with his own answer, he never exined it directly. After all, Theo would just stick to the exnation without trying to learn other things. This would just make Theo a puppet, not his Joker that could change everything.


    The God of Mischief would have said, ''I didn''t say that shit. This is what happens when you were not taught, your idea went wild and you came up with a crazy n,'' when he saw Theo.


    At the same time, he would add, ''But this is what piques my interest. He has the talent for learning. I''m teaching him, but the student will be able toprehend something else, making him more creative. If he can actually ovee this struggle, there''s a possibility that his answer is better than mine, allowing him to reach an even higher height than me. That''s why this is my way of teaching Theo!''


    The God of Mischief was actually smirking inside Theo''s consciousness, anticipating the answer he would get.

 Chapter 1450 Reality Realm

    Chapter 1450 Reality Realm


    Theo was spending his entire time training, moving toward his goal. What woulde next was something far bigger than anything he had seen so far. So, he had to improve as much as possible.


    In the first few months, hepletely focused on the method of assimting his Order and Breathing Technique. It was a huge problem he had never thought about. Still, Theo managed to grasp a bit of the connection.


    It seemed that he could connect the Order to his Breathing Technique through one path. It was none other than splitting his breathing technique into five parts, allowing each part to represent each stage.


    Depending on the situation, he could choose which part he nned to use. And there was one advantage when he did it.


    The Breathing Technique had three small stages: the Burst, Innate Regeneration, and Unlimited Regeneration. In the first stage, due to his choice of breathing technique, the burst was small but very solid and stable.


    Theo had reached the second stage of the Breathing Technique, Innate Regeneration. After assimting the Innate Regeneration with the Order, thetter seemed to have the effect of Innate Regeneration too.


    When Theo used his Covenant Seal, he could actually gradually recover his Order. It also meant that when he recovered his Order in his territory, he could actually recover much faster. This was the biggest benefit he could get, especially in battle.


    Theo could use his Alter Ego for eight seconds maximum. But if he yed carefully and continuously recovered his energy, he couldst for ten to twelve seconds. It was a huge improvement, considering the absurd ability of the Alter Ego itself.


    Theo felt he would be able to reach the Unlimited Generation sooner orter, but he had no guarantee for the time being. At the very least, he was sure he could assimte all five stages into his Breathing Technique, which was more important than an unlimited supply of Magic Power.


    The next few months were spent on the fifth stage, the Reality Realm. This was an important ability for Theo because this domain could allow him to do more stuff with his Illusion. In this domain, every illusion he created turned into reality in an instant as if he didn''t need to apply for the Reality Order anymore.


    After all, it wasn''t called Reality Realm for nothing.


    The first test of his Reality Realm was in the dining hall, where people usually gathered to eat Coline''s food. It was quite a hassle, but it felt like a cafeteria for them.


    Theo stood in the middle of the hall and closed his eyes while cing his hand on the floor.


    "First of all, I have to establish the Reality Realm first," Theo muttered in a low voice. "Turning the illusion into reality in an instant. I just want them to remain an illusion since they can disappear just by stopping the Magic Power supply, but this is the only way to do it with my power.


    "I''m going to extract the image in their mind�� No, it''s more like they''re the ones giving their image to the Reality Realm, and my realm is the one creating everything.


    "This is the rule of the Reality Realm. Then, I''ll continue with the fourth stage, Reality Alter. It''s hard topletely show the image in one''s head, so I''m going to apply it so that they can make some adjustments ording to the image in their mind. Well, they truly have to remember it perfectly if they want to show it.


    "Of course, before altering, we have to make the illusion of the image in their mind. I''m granting them the ability to use my illusion through the Reality Realm, and this third stage is the one creating the possibility.


    "Continue to the second stage; creating the image requires Magic Power. The Order itself will be provided by my Covenant Seal, but the Magic Power will be provided by them. It shouldn''t be a problem for them.


    "Last but not least, the foundation. I should put my Friend Seal on the table so that they can touch the Friend Seal and assimte with my Order for a bit, allowing them to connect their mind and create an illusion. This is the foundation for the Reality Realm.


    "Then, I''m applying the rule for the rest like time and other stuff. The image will appear for one minute and the amount of Magic Power required is�� equal to 20 points of Magic Power, maybe?" Theo couldn''t really make an urate rule for the Magic Power since the amount was intangible. However, he should be able to adjust itter after everyone tested it.


    After setting up the Reality Realm that was powered by someone''s Magic Power as well as Covenant Seal for the Order, the Reality Realm would continue to exist as long as the Covenant Seal wasn''t destroyed or the one possessing the Reality Order hadn''t died.


    Still, it was quite tiring for Theo to use it. He immediately dropped to the ground after creating the Reality Realm.


    "Hu��" Theo let out a long breath.


    "Theo?!" Coline panicked as if she thought she had overworked Theo.


    "I have created the realm." Theo smiled and gave a thumbs up.


    "Ah!" Coline clenched both hands to show her happiness but let out a long sigh to show how relieved she was to know Theo was fine. If it was too much for Theo, she didn''t mind waiting for a bit longer after all.


    "You should try it, Coline. There are many ways I can improve it, but this is the prototype." Theo pointed at the table. "There should be a small circle on top of the table. Touch it and pour your Magic Power into that symbol. After that, try to channel that Magic Power to reflect the image in your mind. There''s no need to be that detailed yet since this is just a test run."


    Coline nodded with a serious expression. She looked at the circle that became the proof of their group. Theo gave this tattoo to all members, so they recognized this one symbol. She poured her Magic Power into the symbol and imagined a kitchen knife. The metal and the handle, the shape and the length. She made sure that the image was vivid in her mind.


    Suddenly, she heard a cracking sound in front of her and opened her eyes, finding a knife resembling the image in her mind falling on the table.


    "This is��" Coline gasped in disbelief as she grabbed the knife. She inspected it carefully; the metal de could reflect her face and the wooden handle which was easy to use. Everything looked the same as her image.


    This meant the Reality Realm truly worked. And with this, her dream to be the best chef in the world could be achieved sooner orter.


    She couldn''t help but let out tears. She couldn''t hold back her happiness as she looked at Theo while hugging the first knife she created with illusion.


    "Theo!" She leaped to Theo, wanting to hug him to share her happiness and excitement.


    "Wait! Put down that knife first!"

 Chapter ?1451 Progress

    Chapter ?1451 Progress


    Coline was so happy and started inviting the others to test the Reality Realm. Of course, people were surprised because this was the first time they could use an Illusion Power without having the power itself. Theo literally borrowed that power.


    Although it was only for a small space, it was clear that the power was beyond their imagination. This was the first time they saw someone lending their power.


    If this power was known to the whole world, the people would be dumbfounded.


    Still,pared to what Theo nned to do with his territory, it was nothing. This was just the beginning of the greatness of his territory.


    After the test was sessful, Theo also made one for Phyrill, but with a different set of rules since this Reality Realm was for a torture chamber.


    He needed to be careful not to use too much energy since the Covenant Seal might break if he used more than the Covenant Seal could produce.


    Phyrill was testing his torture chamber himself. This way, it wouldn''t be a real torture, which matched Ellen''s request. He didn''t have to dirty his hand anymore.


    It was a joyous asion for the group as they immediately created a party.


    Theo also learned that Ruth and Felix had been training together this whole time since their Order was at a simr stage. They exchanged knowledge and improved each other.


    They looked like a friend, a rival, and something more than a friend due to how much they spent their time together.


    Although Millie hadn''t told anyone except for Theo, she had been secretly rooting for them together. She even thought that Ruth would be her mother sooner orter. At that time, there would surely be a huge party.


    For Theo, Felix truly deserved that much. His loyal personality and strength were something that made him speechless, so he wished Felix for the best.


    Still, Felix and Ruth had outstanding achievements during their training. Both of them seemed to have understood the usage of Magic Power, the second stage.


    Felix somehow could move like a light. By creating mirrors that reflected the light, he could maneuver like crazy, enhancing his previous prowess. With this new power, his offensive power would at least be doubled.


    Ruth, on the other hand, had a Bow Order. It might not look like an important Order, but this was an Order that fit her the most. When she fought against the Poison King, she could shoot everything with her bow due to her Order.


    And now, her bow allowed her to use everything as an arrow. Since she didn''t have any concrete form of bow, she could actually adjust them to match the arrow.


    In other words, if she used a sword as an arrow, she could shoot it by changing the bow''s shape. If she wanted to use a spear, the bow would be even bigger to the point she didn''t need to touch it anymore. This would give her a huge range of choices when striking an enemy.


    Theo was overjoyed for their achievement since it meant their power had been consolidated. And they would continue to progress from now on.


    Meanwhile, the others also did something too. It wasn''t like they were just waiting for everything to happen.


    Rea had been contacting her father after getting some information from Theo, making some preparation for what was toe.


    Ryo was sent to Japan to support her father as well as to visit his family''s grave.


    On the other hand, Jeff had beenpleting theyout of the entire territory. He had been drawing nonstop.


    After knowing Theo''s Reality Realm, he had been training his drawing ability. In the future, he might be able to use Theo''s Reality Realm to paint with the illusion.


    And he was training this ability byndscaping the area. Since his affinity was nts, Jeff was using his ability to alter thendscape like the tree or even bushes, matching everything that could give an aesthetic view. Theo could use his ability to alter itter after getting the report from him.


    Meanwhile, Agata had been going back to Pata Corporation with Walker being her bodyguard. She wanted to represent Theo to prepare for the apocalypse, trying to bring the pope and the War God Family to handle the relief. However, there was one influence that ripped the fruit from the seed they nted a few years ago, the Pietro Family.


    Back then, they helped Theo buy Pata Corporation''s stocks and give him all the stocks back. And now, they were included in the preparation.


    The Pietro Family realized that they had made the right decision in getting involved with Theo back then. And the family head couldn''t thank his past self enough for epting the offer.


    Although he was freaked out by the idea of an apocalypse, he chose to trust Agata since the War God Family and the pope were involved too.


    There were actually four countries that had been sneaking around to prepare for the apocalypse. They were the United States, Italy, China, and Japan.


    The other three aside, the United States wasn''t informed by Theo. Instead, the Time God approached the government due to his book telling him about the uing apocalypse.


    Maya had been informed as well, but she only focused on strengthening her ownpany instead of assisting the government.


    Of course, Maya didn''t talk to Theo that much since she didn''t want to be seen as someone close to Theo for the time being. This was Theo''s n to protect the Star Group against the Griffith Family.


    But more importantly, the Star Group had to grow even more for the future that was about to be shaped.


    While researching in his room, Isaac suddenly noticed something wrong.


    "Hmm?" Isaac furrowed his eyebrows, realizing there was an abrupt increase in Magic Power. "What is this?"


    Isaac looked around and realized that the room was filled with more Magic Power. "This is weird�� Is there something wrong with my experiment?"


    Isaac didn''t understand what was going on, so he tried to look outside and dropped his jaw to the ground. "That''s��"

 Chapter 1452 Change

    Chapter 1452 Change


    "That''s��" Isaac furrowed his eyebrows. "What''s going on? Has the Magic Power been this dense? No, does something happen in this territory? Is Theo experimenting with something?"


    Isaac was confused and immediately headed straight to Theo, asking him the question.


    "Theo, have you done anything to increase the density of Magic Power in this ce?"


    "Huh? Is there something wrong?" Theo frowned. "What did you find?"


    "Although it''s hard to feel, I can see that the Magic Power in the air has increased by two percent," Isaac exined.


    "Increased by two percent?" Theo narrowed his eyes. In fact, that kind of change was hard to notice, but Isaac''s eyes were different. With his power, he could see through the density of Magic Power. So, this sudden increase rmed him. "I''m not sure. Let''s leave the territory to see if it''s only my territory or the whole world."


    "Alright." Both of them immediately headed out of the territory, and Isaac''s expression turned grim. "It''s the same. They are increasing�� Unless they are very sensitive, I don''t think anyone will notice it. But if they''re using the machine, I''m afraid many research institutes will find out what''s going on sooner orter."


    "The increase of Magic Power��" Theo frowned, looking down. The sign of the apocalypse had finally appeared, but he couldn''t see what truly would happen next.


    "Do you know anything? Is this rted to the apocalyptic event that will happen soon?"


    "I''m afraid so. This is the sign of it. But I''m not sure what''s going to happen." Theo sighed. "For now, I''ll send my clone to a World ss Monster to try to get some information from them. As for you, can you go around the world to check the density? I mean, just go around the country first."


    "I understand. This is also creeping me out." Isaac nodded with a serious expression. He was afraid of what was toe.


    "Hmm, Rea or Ergene have to assume themand soon since I need to leave sooner orter. But Rea might be too focused on her own family, so I have to make Ergene stay here. If that''s the case, I''ll ask Chris to apany you. He should be able to calm your heart with his music if something happens."


    "I understand. Thanks." Isaac thought for a moment. "Also, can I get Phyrill and Ellen''s help?"


    "For what?"


    "Phyrill is good at talking with people, so he''ll be gathering the information from the local people. As for Ellen, she has been training in the War God Family, right? Although she''s not as good as you or Rea, I think she still can help me." Isaac exined.


    "That''s good enough. Alright. I''ll tell them about it. You''ll depart tomorrow. I''ll also ask Akbar to provide information from the surrounding countries."


    "Focus on the government and research institutes."


    "Got it." Theo nodded. "Well, Felix and Ruth are going to stay here and Agata is with Ava and Walker�� Hmm, I guess I have to recall Aisha back to this ce or maybe ask her to go to Maya. Knowing Maya, she will surely help her."


    "Yeah, I don''t think it''s safe traveling around unless you''re someone as strong as you."


    "Alright then. For now, let''s get as much data as possible before doing anything. Don''t go too far and make sure that your Skylink is open if something happens. The first few minutes are the most important."


    "Understood. I''ll keep that in mind." Isaac immediately turned around. "Then, I''ll be preparing for the trip."


    "Sure." After seeing him off, Theo immediately called all the necessary people for their help. Rea hurriedly came to him to discuss this matter.


    "Theo. What are you nning to do? As much as I want to try thinking about the n, I believe this is not the time. I''m not prepared yet for an apocalyptic level n." Rea asked with a serious expression.


    "I know that you''re going to focus on your family. While you''re at it, I want you to get your father to cooperate with me. Tell him to work together with the scientists to find the anomaly of Magic Power''s density in the air and try toe up with theories."


    Rea scratched the back of her head. "Are you going to send me back to my family?"


    "That''s your choice."


    "I''ll remain here," Rea answered without hesitation, looking at him as if she had steeled her resolve.


    "Mhm?" Theo was quite surprised by her determination.


    "Well, Father is there, so I don''t think something bad will happen. As long as they''re prepared enough, the situation might be better than this country that doesn''t have an expert at my father''s level. So, I''ll remain here to help the group." Rea smiled.


    "I see. Thank you."


    Suddenly, Rea felt the vibration in her hand and noticed she''d gotten a call from someone. "Sorry, this call seems to be important."


    "Alright. Take it." Theo nodded. Now that he was alone, he started thinking about his next n.


    ''For now, I''m going to direct my clone to the Lightning Saint so that he can take me to the Frost Saint.


    ''I might even need to work together with the monsters to solve this problem. As for the current situation, I think we still have some time. Two weeks to two months.


    ''Still, two Saints are not enough to handle this problem.'' Theo looked down, contemting.


    He had been thinking about it for the past few months. But not knowing what kind of apocalypse they would face truly gave him a headache. He had prepared many things, but he didn''t know whether they would work or not.


    But it seemed the time hade sooner than he expected.


    Rea rushed to Theo, catching up to him. She panted a few times because of the shock from the information, not because she was exhausted. She looked at Theo for a moment and dropped a bomb. "Theo! You have to hurry! We''ve just got the information that the Wind Emperor is going to��"


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1453 Prime

    Chapter 1453 Prime


    Theo, who had been focusing on his training, heard the information about the Wind Emperor and immediately took the flight, heading to Russia without hesitation.


    The Wind Emperor, a man who was once hailed as a hero, was on his deathbed. It would have a huge impact not only on the country but on the world itself.


    As soon as Theo reached the airport, he immediately rushed to the Wind Emperor''s residence, noticing a familiar figure. She was Levina, the Wind Emperor''s granddaughter.


    "Levina?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    Levina nodded. "I''m going to guide you there."


    They were talking about the national hero, so the military seemed to be on edge because his death would cause a huge disturbance to the stability of the country. So, going alone would be a problem too. Hence, he followed Levina to the car.


    On the way, Theo asked, "Will we make it in time?"


    "I don''t know." Levina shook her head. Theo remembered her cheerful nature, but it seemed the news was too shocking to her. She was hiding it, but her body was shaking.


    Even Theo''s heart beat rapidly this whole time. Theo considered the Wind Emperor as one of his elders after all.


    In his eyes, the Wind Emperor had all the wisdom, boldness, and willpower to carry everything. Even he could only admire the Wind Emperor''s action.


    So, Theo hoped that he could reach his mansion before it was toote.


    "How is his situation?" Theo asked.


    "I''m not sure, but it seems that he''s been losing consciousness intermittently."


    "Still, why are you here? Shouldn''t you be by his side?" Theo asked.


    "Grandfather asked me to call you and bring you there when he was about��" Levina couldn''t finish her words.


    Theo closed his eyes, understanding her. It was truly hard. Even he had a hard time suppressing the emotion in his heart.


    "Still, have you had a good time with your grandfather?" Theo smiled, looking at Levina.


    Levina let out tears. "Yes. I have misunderstood Grandfather this whole time. We were the ones who were scared of him. Even when Grandfather opened up to us, we were the ones who couldn''t ept him.


    "If only I was stronger, if only I was more persistent��" Levina cried, regretting all her cowardice.


    Theo smiled. "I can understand him. But I do think that your grandfather had the time of his life when he spent his remaining time with his grandchildren. That''s something I can say for sure."


    Levina kept crying, wishing for the chance to make it better, albeit everything was toote.


    ��


    Meanwhile, in the Wind Emperor''s mansion, there were numerous people who were gathering around him. They wanted to send him off because they were grateful for his protection.


    Still, only some close family members seemed to be able to apany him in hisst moments. The atmosphere was filled with tension and sadness. On the one hand, they were panicking about what would happen from now. On the other hand, they were sad that the Wind Emperor wasn''t here anymore.


    Inside his bedroom, the Wind Emperor was lying down on his bed, surrounded by ten people. They were his children and grandchildren.


    The Wind Emperor could hear the cry of the people that were carried by the wind. Unfortunately, he didn''t have the strength to open his eyes anymore. He could only hear them.


    His consciousness had begun to fade away soon. He didn''t know why but he remembered the memories of the past.


    Back then, the Wind Emperor was still in his prime as heughed out loud, staring at the Time God.


    "Hahahaha! You brat, let''s continue our fight!" The Wind Emperor smirked.


    "It''s time for you to get down from your throne, old man." The Time God smirked as he leaped toward the Wind Emperor.


    Ascension Step.


    The Wind Emperor stepped forth, releasing a torrential wind.


    "!!!" The Time God raised his hand and formed a green circle on top of his palm. Suddenly, the torrential wind stopped as if its time had been paused.


    "Not enough!" The Wind Emperor smirked as his wind suddenly started spinning again, disintegrating the time itself.


    "Then��" The Time God flicked his finger,unching a powerful shock wave that had been elerated by his time power.


    The Wind Emperor raised his hand and grasped that shock wave with his hand as if it had a physical body. He then threw the shock wave back to the Time God and even applied his power to increase its force.


    The shock wave flew at fast speed and chipped away the soil beneath it.


    The Time God had to jump to the side to avoid it before seeing a huge hole appear in the hill behind him.


    "Haha, this is great. Show me more, brat!" The Wind Emperor was having the time of his life. He could fight someone with all his strength.


    The Time God smirked and said, "If that''s the case, I can''t really hold back anymore."


    "Indeed. Now, show me. You said you''re going to surpass me, then show it" The Wind Emperor smirked.


    The Time God snapped his finger. "Chronosphere."


    Suddenly, the world stopped, including the Wind Emperor.


    The Time God could only walk in this world. He was even struggling due to the huge burden of stopping the Wind Emperor.


    However, he still had enough power and speed to reach the Wind Emperor and strike him. "This is the blow that will defeat you."


    Suddenly, the Wind Emperor''s mouth lifted up.


    "!!!"


    The world''s time began again as the Wind Emperor was blown far away, crashing into a tree.


    Meanwhile, the Time God''s face became pale as he realized that the Wind Emperor could still escape from the constraint of time that had all his power. If the Wind Emperor had been faster, he would have died.


    "Hehe, you bastard. It seems that I''ve lost." The Wind Emperor smirked even though he was sitting on the ground with blood flowing out his mouth.


    "No, I was simply lucky. If something went wrong earlier, I would be in your position." The Time God suddenly spat a mouthful of blood and dropped to the ground. "Thank you for your advice, Sir Wind Emperor. It''s an honor to fight you."


    "I''d also like to thank you, brat. Thanks to you, I could have the time of my life." The Wind Emperor smirked. "Keep going and reach the top. I''m the one who will vouch for you."


    "Thank you, Sir." The Time God bowed to him, showing his utmost respect. They were enemies, but the Wind Emperor was truly an elder worthy of respect.

 Chapter ?1454 Thank You

    Chapter ?1454 Thank You


    The scene suddenly shifted to the one where he fought against the Heavenly Sovereign. Just like the Time God, he was younger than him, despite having this kind of power.


    The Wind Emperor smirked, saying, "It''s been a while since I''ve been this fired up�� Was it five years ago? I was fighting against the time brat."


    "If that''s the case, I want to defeat you faster and better than him so that I can prove I''m superior to him." The Heavenly Sovereign smiled as he summoned trigrams above their heads.


    "Mhm." The Wind Emperor smiled and stepped forth. "Go wild!"


    The Ascension Step produced a powerful wind that sted the trigrams. In exchange, the trigrams were releasing golden light that was suppressing the wind. However, the Wind Emperor''s wind could disintegrate everything, so it was fighting the light.


    In the end, each attack neutralized each other.


    "It''s truly hard to find someone like you among us. Your strength is not unique. Unlike other people in the top ten, your power is actually the most ordinary. Wind�� You are simply using your wind to reach that position."


    "Haha, that''s right. Respect me." The Wind Emperor chuckled, teasing him.


    Though, the Heavenly Sovereign added, "Of course, there was not a single day I didn''t respect you from the moment I knew you. But this time, Ie here to surpass you."


    "Using me as a stepping stone? So be it. Let''s see if you two are strong enough to be above me or not." The Wind Emperor smirked.


    "Of course. That''s why I have prepared this one for you." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, looking down on the Wind Emperor from the air. He pped his hands as a few trigrams appeared around the Wind Emperor.


    "Three Great Formations, Immovable Mountain!"


    "!!!" The Wind Emperor widened his eyes in shock as he immediately released all his wind, trying to dissolve the trigrams.


    However, he soon realized that the trigrams weren''t offensive ones. Instead, they were there just to stop him from moving.


    He could feel that he couldn''t move as if he was buried under the mountain. "This is��"


    "With this, I shall surpass you. I am the Heavenly Sovereign, and I shall be the strongest in the world, for I rule Heaven!" The Heavenly Sovereign raised his hand, gathering all his power before waving it down. "Heaven Fall."


    The Wind Emperor saw a golden light falling from the sky. Normal people couldn''t show it, but this light contained so much power. Although it wouldn''t destroy the surrounding area, it would surely destroy its target into nothingness.


    The Wind Emperor smirked, knowing that this one power could kill him.


    Without hesitation, the Wind Emperor released all his winds. "If that''s the case, I shall face it with all my might. Disintegration!"


    The air around him started gathering in one ce. Even if the world stopped him from moving, he could still use his ability. That was right.


    His ability wasn''t fancy like the Heavenly Sovereign or the Time God. However, this seemingly ordinary power could actually be the strongest because he could gather the wind anytime and anywhere. He was restricted by anything.


    That was why the Wind Emperor would be the greatest hurdle if they wanted to be at the top.


    The wind tornado was formed and headed straight to the light, shing with each other. Their sh made the world look split. The air turned golden and the ground was filled with green air, trying to paint their own world.


    The light and the wind were disintegrating each other and only those who remained would be able to defeat the other party.


    But the Wind Emperor wasn''t someone that timid. He raised his hand and spread his tornado as if allowing the light to enter. "Come on. If we continue to do this, we won''t be able to see the winner for another three days."


    "So be it." The Heavenly Sovereign kept pushing down while the wind started gathering around the light and continued its way toward him.


    "Kh."


    "Haha!"


    Both of them had their own reaction when they saw their enemy''s attack hit them, engulfing them with all that power.


    *Boom!*


    A huge shock wave blew away everything in the surrounding area, turning the battlefield into a huge crater.


    When the wind blew away the smoke, the Heavenly Sovereign and the Wind Emperor were still standing.


    The Wind Emperor had his shirt disintegrated and his body boiled from that light. Meanwhile, the Wind Emperor''s body was covered with wounds, shredded by the wind. If not for both of them using their power to protect themselves, they would have died.


    "This is good." The Wind Emperor smirked.


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised his hand again, trying to continue the fight. However, the Wind Emperor raised his hands and said, "Let''s stop it. You can take my position."


    "Huh?" The Heavenly Sovereign was bewildered by his action. "You��"


    "I simply wanted to see the power of the man who imed to have surpassed me. That''s all. I''ve seen your ability and the potential to go forward, so I''ll give you my spot." The Wind Emperor smirked. "Congrattions."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign never thought the Wind Emperor would admit defeat despite being able to continue to fight. This was a matter of honor, but the Wind Emperor didn''t seem to be interested in it.


    "Don''t be too focused on your ranks. It''s nothing but a number. As long as everyone knows you are strong, that''s enough for me." The Wind Emperor waved his hand. "With this, the battle has finished."


    The Heavenly Sovereign took a deep breath and sped his hands. "Thank you very much for your guidance, Senior Wind Emperor."


    The Wind Emperor smirked.


    ��


    They didn''t know why but the Time God and the Heavenly Sovereign had a nostalgic feeling. They came out of their houses and looked at the sky, picturing the man who was loved by the sky, air, and wind. He was a man they respected so much.


    The Time God and the Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes, feeling sad.


    "Thank you so much for your guidance." Both of them uttered the same words, remembering the man they would never forget in their lives.

 Chapter 1455 The Wind Emperors Words

    Chapter 1455 The Wind Emperor''s Words


    "Grandfather..." Levina rushed into the room, while looking at the entire family. From their faces, it seemed that they weren''t toote. She could see her brother next to the Wind Emperor.


    When he heard her voice and saw Theo together with her, Lyovkin approached the Wind Emperor and whispered, trying to wake him up. "Grandfather... Grandfather..."


    The Wind Emperor''s consciousness gradually returned. His face was alreadypletely white. It was a wonder how he managed to stay in this world for this long.


    His hands werepletely cold as if his body was already a corpse.


    Theo clenched his fists when he saw that pale white skin.


    His breath was weak, but the Wind Emperor still managed to open his mouth.


    "Is that you, Lyov..." The Wind Emperor asked. He was already stuttering. If one didn''t pay attention to his words, they wouldn''t understand him at all.


    Lyovkin made a sad smile as he spoke with a trembling voice. "Yes. Levina is already back with Theo."


    "I see." The Wind Emperor made a small smile. "Where is Layev?"


    "Master Yermyev is with us through the screen, but he can''t be here to handle the unstable situation of our businesses." One of them answered while presenting the Skylink with the current acting head of Czar, Yermyev, in it.


    Although he wanted to attend it as well, this was the only timing that could shake their foundation. After all, Theo would be helping them after this, so if he was also there, no one would be able to make a decisive decision in thepany.


    His heart was heavy, but this was the only thing he could do.


    "I see. Yalev, you are the head of our Czar. From this point on, the Czar will be relying on you. There''s no need to replicate my achievements. You have your own path, so do what you think is right. I don''t care if the Czar is going to decline after my death; all I want is this family tost for a long time."


    Yalev, who was watching from the screen, closed his eyes and lowered his head. "Yes, Father."


    "Theo..." The Wind Emperor smiled. "I wish that I could talk to you more. I think you are the only person in this world to understand me. However, I don''t wish for you to go on the same path as me. This is an atrocious path filled with coldness and loneliness.


    "I know that you''re creating your own group... your own family. I can say one thing for sure. Treat your family as warm as you can; don''t be like me. I know it because I have experienced it and have been regretting it, even now.


    "Putting up a strong front and lowering your guard with your family, you''ll find yourself in a better position than I am.


    "Don''t think your family is a burden. It''s fine if you think of them as your weakness, but never a burden. After all, even if they''re your weakness, that weakness is the one that shows you the path to get stronger."


    Theo lowered his head while clenching his fists. "Thank you for your kind words, Sir Wind... Sir Yaslev."


    "Is it fine to ask you to take care of my family?"


    "I do, Sir. I''ll make sure that you can leave without any worry. I''ll destroy anyone that dares to ruin the family you''ve created." Theo nodded. His tone contained his resolve and determination, making the Wind Emperor feel relieved.


    "That''s good." The Wind Emperor smiled and paused for a moment, catching a breath after talking for so long. After a moment, he opened his mouth again, "Lyov, Levi. You two are the leaders of the younger generations. I know how talented you are, so there''s no need to hesitate and keep going forward. Lead the other younger generations to keep the family alive because the future lies on you.


    "When everything is hard, you don''t have to do it alone. If you keep doing it, before you know it, there won''t be anyone with you anymore. You can only stand in your position, staring at your own bloodied hand. So, if you can''t do it, ask others for help.


    "How do I say this... This is the regret of my life... If only I had asked for help back then, the situation would have been far different.


    "Back then, our family was quite big, but not strong. Everyone wanted to swallow our family. And even my sister could only get married away to keep the family stable... I still remember how I found her dead not long after.


    "I was filled with grief at that time. In my mind, there was only one solution. I had to get stronger, stronger than anyone else. Back then, I was like a demon, roaming around. In my head, I only thought about killing more and more monsters until I was exhausted.


    "When I became strong enough, I managed to avenge my sister and be the leader of this family. I took charge of everything and paid back all the things others had done to us. Even if enemies came, I''d get stronger and overwhelm them.


    "At that time, I finally became one of the strongest people in Russia... but also one of the loneliest people. To reach that point, I had to keep a strong front so that no one thought we were weak even though we were facing a crisis at that time.


    "I couldn''t give Yalev and others the love they needed and wanted because when I did, they became the targets of the people. I chose to sacrifice everything so that everyone focused their eyes on me. I apologize for not being able to be a good parent, uncle, brother, cousin, and grandfather.


    "I can finally put down my strong front and be honest with you guys for onest time. I loved, love, and will always love all of you from the bottom of my heart. It won''t change.


    "This is myst request to all of you, don''t sacrifice the family anymore and regret it for the rest of your life. There''s no need to be a strong or influential family, I just want you to be a loving family."


    The people were already in tears as they were dropping to the floor, realizing how much the Wind Emperor had sacrificed for the family.


    He wanted to love, but he couldn''t. He wanted to y with them like any ordinary father or grandfather, but his enemies didn''t allow him. Just for them, he gave up everything.


    How lonely was it? They could imagine the back that had carried the entire family alone.


    They wanted to turn back time and just did everything. No, they just wanted to turn back time just to tell him one thing. "Thank you... Thank you for protecting us this whole time. But now, it''s enough. Let''s go back."


    Unfortunately, it was already toote.


    Hearing the cry of his family, the Wind Emperor made a small, weak smile as he said, "Still... What a long journey it has been..."


    Thest message with hisst breath echoed, silencing the room. They didn''t know why but they could feel it.


    The Wind Emperor, Yaslev Alexandrovich Romanov, had passed away.

 Chapter 1456 Theos Crazy Plan

    Chapter 1456 Theo''s Crazy n


    Theo lowered his head, showing him thest respect to see him off.


    ''It''s my greatest honor to have met you, Sir Yaslev," said Theo inwardly while clenching his fists.


    Theo took a deep breath and walked to the screen connected to Yermyev. "Mr. Yermyev, I''m going to your location. You are not busy, right?"


    Yermyev wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded. "Yeah."


    Theo then politely nodded to the people in the room before leaving the room. Even though he was close to the Wind Emperor, he wasn''t that close to his family. It was better for him to leave the Wind Emperor with his family. He would only visit them again during the funeral.


    Theo sneaked out of the mansion, avoiding all the masses outside the mansion.


    There were some who were waiting for the news, but there were also some who just wanted to get some content to share.


    Theo only took a glimpse of them before continuing forward.


    He wondered if he died in the future, would the situation be the same? Considering the path he chose to take, more people would probably throw a tomato at his grave instead of mourning.


    Theo didn''t care much about his future for the time being as he had a big job to do.


    It took him an hour to finally reach thepany where Yermyev had to remain in order to keep watch so that no one attacked them while they were processing the funeral.


    As much as he wanted to go there, he couldn''t. The one who was pained the most might be Yermyev.


    Theo reached thepany and surprisingly saw Yermyev waiting for him outside thepany.


    "Mhm?" Theo was confused and immediately approached him.


    "Oh?" Yermyev noticed his presence and said, "Theo."


    Theo nodded. "As much as I want to ask you to give me the full authority so that your enemy doesn''t dare to take advantage of this situation and also give you the chance to see Sir Yaslev off, I have to talk to you about an important matter."


    Yermyev''s expression turned grim. "I understand. Thank you for your help."


    "You can thank meter."


    "Alright. Let''s go to my office." Yermyev nodded and invited Theo in. There was a reason why Yermyev waited outside hispany.


    Theo didn''t notice it, but he had been watching the movement of the people outside. There were some spies who had been observing his movement, so he thought about meeting Theo outside thepany to show them Theo''s presence as if telling them, ''Theo is with me right now. Attack me if you dare.''


    After some thought, Theo also figured out his n and made a wry smile. "Well, sorry to say, but I think what you did earlier ispletely unnecessary."


    "Really?"


    "Yeah. Because it might make the situation harder for you." Theo nodded, confirming it.


    "Ah�� I thought about using your appearance to shoo them. But it seems to backfire."


    "Well, the n doesn''t change. Just need more time." Theo shook his head calmly.


    "Sorry."


    "No, it''s fine."


    As soon as they reached the office, Yermyev asked, "Alright. What do you want to tell me? Since we''re in a crisis, I don''t mind giving you the full authority."


    "I''ll only be here for a few days, so it''s alright for now." Theo shook his head. "For now, I have three things to ask you."


    "Alright. Ask me anything. I''ll answer it to the best of my ability."


    "First of all, what kind of family do you envision? How do you want the family to change and live in the future?"


    "As you can see right now, we don''t even have a single Transcendent Level Expert. Grandfather said that the two kids have the potential, but it''s still too far from them right now. So, I''m prepared to downsize the business.


    "My priority right now is to keep the family stable. I don''t want to let the tragedy happen again�� Marrying people off just to keep the family stable like that. As for me, I don''t really have that big of an ambition. I just want to keep as much as I can in this decline and let the future generations inherit it."


    Theo closed his eyes, contemting his words. After a while, he nodded and asked the second question. "Alright. The second question is�� how much support do you get from your family? How about other allies? Are they going to help you solely because of you, or are they going to help you simply due to my presence?"


    "Hmm�� It''s kinda hard to answer this one." Yermyev pondered for a moment. "To be honest, the people you saw in the room are the closest family who share the same vision. Basically, they''re from the same side. As for those outside the room, they''re also family, but they''ll try to take advantage of this situation to get my position. That''s why only those inside the room know about my father''sst words.


    "As for those outside the mansion, just think of them as bystanders. Continuing to the allies�� I have one ally that will help us no matter what, and there''s one a bit special. I''m sure you know this one�� they''re the Empress Pce.


    "The Empress has a good rtionship with my father. She will certainly not be an enemy, but if we want to get their help, we have to fork out something.


    "As for the rest, there are some allies, but they are those who can be enemies if the situation allows. That''s all I think?"


    Theo nodded, considering them carefully. The condition wasn''t as good as he thought since they still had an ally. After all, his n was very questionable.


    After a while, he asked thest question. "Then�� Are you sure about giving me the control? Are you sure you''re going to follow my n no matter how weird it is?"


    "Mhm? How weird?" Yermyev narrowed his eyes.


    "Something like selling the entire business." Theo smirked.

 Chapter ?1457 Overthinking

    Chapter ?1457 Overthinking


    A few dayster.


    "What''s going on?"


    "The Czar is selling all their family business?"


    "Yes, we also found Theodore Griffith meeting with Yermyev before they did this."


    "So, this means Theodore Griffith is the culprit?"


    "Is he insane?"


    "Does he know that the businesses are the reason why Czar is barely hanging on right now? If they sell everything, they''ll be in trouble."


    "That''s right. We should buy them right now."


    "Indeed. This is our chance."


    A group of people was discussing how they should devour the Czar since the Wind Emperor had passed away. No one would be protecting them anymore.


    And Yermyev was actually foolish enough to sell everything. If they didn''t take this opportunity to acquire them, they would be a fool.


    The same situation happened all around the countries as there were many people who were aiming for Czar''s power. The Wind Emperor had truly protected the entire family this whole time.


    With these many people aiming for Czar, sooner orter, the family situation would return to its previous state. The Czar had no choice but to sacrifice their people to get married away and be tortured for the rest of their lives.


    This was the reason why the Wind Emperor never dropped his guard down to the point he was also cold and ruthless to his enemy. He wanted to show the enemies that there was no mercy if they dared to poke him. At the same time, he was telling his family members, who weren''t on the same side, that if they dared to betray the family, he would destroy them as well.


    Unfortunately, that decision also made the people he loved the most suffer. That was why he regretted his decision but couldn''t do anything to change it.


    Unlike Theo, whose brain could scare people off, he didn''t have anything other than his strength and coldness. If he showed any weakness, they would take advantage of his weakness and use him.


    But the Wind Emperor had passed away. Everyone wanted a piece of what the Wind Emperor had built. This was a chance for them to get a name for their own.


    However, some of them hesitated to make their move like apany that was holding a high-level meeting with all their shareholders.


    "What should we do? Should we get a piece of the Czar? This is the perfect opportunity."


    "Still, we''re talking about Theodore Griffith here. I''m sure there''s a big reason why the Czar is selling their business like crazy."


    "Isn''t the Czar simply knowing their limitations? There''s no way Theodore Griffith will protect them the whole time. So, they''re selling their businesses to downsize their family. This is what I call declining."


    "That''s true."


    "But they''re not selling any random businesses they have�� They''re literally selling all of their businesses. This is crazy. If they''re doing this, they won''t get any more revenue. Once their assets are gone, they''ll be useless."


    "But do you remember what Theodore Griffith has done whenever a simr situation arrives?"


    "Now that I think about it, there was once a battle between the Safulli Group and the Pata Corporation. The Pata Corporation suffered the same to the point the Safulli Group took control of the Pata Corporation. But that was a trap. Theodore Griffith used that opportunity to destroy the Safulli Group and give back the Pata Corporation."


    "There was also an issue with the Star Group. We didn''t get much information about it, but I heard that the Star Group also endured the same situation, albeit it wasn''t as bad as the Pata Corporation. People were leaving and the assets were shrinking, but he turned around the situation. The Star Group might be a bit smaller, but their foundation was solidified and filled with loyal people."


    "So, you''re telling us that Theodore Griffith is doing the same thing?"


    "He wants us to buy all of their assets before doing something to turn the situation around? When that happens, not only will we lose money, we''ll also lose many things."


    "This is�� This must be his scheme."


    "We''re almost falling for this scheme. I''m sure that there are many who don''t fall, but there are more people who will fall for this trick and buy the assets. They''re going to suffer."


    "But there is a possibility such a situation won''t happen."


    "What are the Czar''s doing?"


    "They''re closing their gates and n to hide, it seems. This is why it''s a perfect opportunity to buy them. It''s as if the Czar is just trying to escape from all the disturbance that the Wind Emperor''s death will cause."


    "Are they not doing anything?"


    "They''re only bringing some experts and buying some expensive equipment with the money they get after selling those things. They''re also stocking many things for training."


    "Are they really going to hole up there?"


    "This is weird. It''s simply too good to be true."


    "But if we don''t take this chance to get some pieces, we might regret it if nothing happens in the future."


    "But there''s also the risk of ying this game. We''re talking about Theodore Griffith here. This trick muste from him."


    "There are so many variables. Theodore Griffith is known to be far more brutal than his grandfather, the War Saint. If we''re falling for his scheme, there''s also a chance that we''ll be wiped out."


    "That''s right. What should we do right now?"


    "This is why we''re having a meeting here. We need to figure out our next move. Whether we''ll fish in the troubled water or we''ll stay away from this entire mess."


    "Yeah, we need to talk a bit more before making a decision."


    The people agreed. As they said, there were many people who thought the same way as them, believing this was Theo''s scheme to deal them with a blow. They believed Theo nned to get everything the Czar had back while getting the benefits from them.


    So, this was why they weren''t doing anything. They chose to monitor the situation a bit more before making this decision.


    Little did they know, Yermyev was actually sitting on his boat, fishing. After the Wind Emperor''s funeral, Yermyev chose to spend his time with fun activities to wash away their sadness.


    "Oh, I got this one! Lyov, ready the."


    "I''m here." Lyovkin smiled and prepared to catch the fish.


    They were doing what a family would do, not troubled at all by the mess outside. As for Theo, he was sitting on a beach chair, watching them from the side. He was sipping out the drinkzily.


    It was peaceful.

 Chapter 1458 Agreed

    Chapter 1458 Agreed


    While catching the fish, Yermyev nced at Theo, remembering the discussion they had a few days ago. He still couldn''t believe himself agreeing to that kind of n.


    "Something like selling the entire business." Theo smirked.


    "What?" Yermyev dropped his jaw, shocked. He couldn''t believe what he had heard earlier.


    "You didn''t hear it wrong. I''m nning to sell everything the Czar has except for a few assets." Theo shrugged. "That''s why I want to ask you how much you trust me to handle this matter."


    "I don''t know if I can decide right away. I''m not like my father, who seems to understand you. So, please don''t feel offended by my request�� If it''s possible, can you exin it first before I decide?"


    Theo nodded. "Sure thing. Before that, I''m going to tell you what I want you to do if youpletely trust me."


    "Okay."


    "There are three things you are going to do. First of all, I want you to sell all the businesses. If you can do that, you''ll be able to get some money. I want you to use that money to buy equipment, resources like food and other stuff, and pay people to follow your decision. It''s better if they''re already there to begin with.


    "After that, you''re going to hole up in an area that you think is the safest and keep getting stronger there for a while," Theo exined.


    "Mhm? May I know the reason why I should sell all the businesses? Suppose we''re talking about downsizing the family due to the situation. Shouldn''t we release all the unnecessary businesses and focus on our main source of ie?"


    "Because they''re going to be irrelevant. It''s fine if you don''t trust me, but I''m telling you that everything you own right now will be useless soon. Instead of letting them get destroyed like that, it''s better if you turn them into money to make you as strong as possible."


    After listening to Theo''s exnation, he could understand it as long as he trusted himpletely. He didn''t know why it was going to be irrelevant, but Theo didn''t seem to be nning to exin it. So, he assumed he trusted Theopletely.


    "Also, by selling all of them, this is going to drain all your enemies'' money, making them unable to do anything to your ''core'' family. In fact, those who are not from the same side will surely buy it as much as they can even if they need to use debt or the money they have corrupted from the business."


    "That''s true. If those people are poor, they won''t be able to do anything to my family for the time being. We can also cut ties with the parasites of the family." Yermyev nodded in agreement.


    "Then, you''re gonna use that money to buy all kinds of resources to get stronger and just hole up in some location."


    Yermyev''s expression darkened. "To be honest, I can get some experts, Mythical Rank Experts and Supreme Rank Experts, with me. There are people who are loyal to my father, so getting some won''t be a problem. But it seems that you want to bring as many people as possible."


    "Yes. I know that it''ll cost you money, but I think they''ll be loyal to you sooner orter. That''s why you don''t need to worry about spending the money. It''s fine even if you spend it all."


    "I see. Assuming that''s the case��" Yermyev thought for a moment. "I have some connections that allow me to stock up on all kinds of resources. Those experts will surely follow me for a while, thinking they can leech off me for a while before going to another ce after I''m broke. But I have to be careful so as to not let any spy get in."


    "Well, that doesn''t really matter. Even if they''re spies, they won''t report anything important. All you are going to do from now on is just enjoy your days while trying to get stronger." Theo shook his head.


    "I see. If that''s the case, I can do much more with that. But if you don''t mind, I don''t want to sell anything that my father personally possesses like his mansion and other stuff."


    "It''s fine. I also respect Sir Yaslev."


    "That''s a relief." Yermyev let out a long sigh. "Then, what''s about thest thing? I can understand about getting stronger, but the safest ce? Are you talking about a bunker or something?"


    "Not necessarily. You can just have a peaceful life outside. Just close your front gate so that no one will bother you when you''re getting stronger. After a few months, I''m sure people will think you have abandoned everything and forget about you."


    "I can understand that. But this is not an easy decision even for me. Even the core family will be baffled if I present this kind of n." Yermyev scratched the back of his head.


    Only an insane person would follow Theo''s idea. There was no way they would sell everything they had and just spend it to live in luxury for the rest of their life. He didn''t know how many questions the people would ask him if he agreed to Theo''s n.


    Still, he could remember two cases: The Pata Corporation and the Star Group. He heard that Boris and Maya were unaware of the entire situation until Theo''s n waspletely revealed. It seemed to be the same case. Theo was nning to turn the situation around when he was unaware of the real n.


    If he used this as a reason when exining it to the core family, they should be able to ept it.


    At the same time, there was one piece of advice that he couldn''t forget. At that time, he was visiting the Wind Emperor.


    While looking at the sky, the Wind Emperor said, "If I have Theo on my side, I''ll do anything he suggests because the weaker you''re going to look, the more Theo''s n will work. That''s why the more his n is going to ruin my family, the more I''m going to gamble on it. In a battle, the people who underestimate you will have many openings. And Theo uses this psychology well."


    Yermyev opened his eyes, staring at Theo with a serious expression. "I understand. I''ll do it ording to your n. I''ll ce my entire family in your hand, Theo."

 Chapter 1459 Returning

    Chapter 1459 Returning


    "How''s the situation out there?" Theo asked Yermyev.


    "We have gathered a total of 25 Mythical Rank Experts, 100 Supreme Rank Experts, and 1,000 Hero Rank Experts or below. I believe this is the extent we can get with the current situation. Not many want to follow us."


    "It''s pretty good, considering you''ve got all those Mythical Rank Experts. I believe that around thirty to forty percent of them are just leeching you off right now, but it''s fine. Their perspective will change." Theo shrugged.


    "Well, some of them are sent by our ally, so I wonder if I truly can''t say anything regarding our n to my closest ally?"


    "Unfortunately, I don''t think I can allow you to do it. The limit I can do right now is to allow you to bring some of them in." Theo shook his head. "It''s not that I don''t trust you, but the more people know about this, the more serious the matter will be. Even I don''t have any confidence I can escape in the near future. So, I''m sorry."


    "No, it''s fine. I can understand. Although I don''t know what you''re talking about, it seems to be serious. As much as I want to disregard you in that area, there''s one fact I can''t ignore. It''s the connection between you and the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint. I don''t think they''re helping you for nothing. So, I''d like to trust you right now." Yermyev nodded in understanding.


    Although he had the urge to repay his ally for being an ally no matter the situation, he couldn''t really do much.


    Theo nodded. "Thanks for the trust. Well, with this, my job here is done. I''m going to return to Italy toplete my final preparation."


    "I understand. As much as I want to see you off, I think it''s better if I stay here, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo rose from the chair and disguised himself easily as he started walking away. "Take care."


    "You too."


    Theo waved his hand and left. On the way to the airport, Theo sent a message to Rea.


    "Send the message to your father to prepare for the worst, I don''t know how much time we have, but it won''t be too long."


    Rea''s reply came not long after as if she had been paying attention to her Skylink, waiting for his message.


    "I understand. Your tickets and other stuff have been taken care of, so you can go back immediately. Also, there are a few people asking about you. The first one is your grandfather, the second guy is the pope, and the third person is Zhao Jia, the Heavenly Sovereign''s disciples."


    "Do you know what they want to talk about?"


    "Your grandfather simply toured around just to check your preparation while informing us that he has finished his own. As for the pope, he wants to ask you whether it''s alright to send their Saintess to you, hoping you can take care of them if the worst truly happens. Last but not least, Zhao Jia wants to confirm the situation. It seems the Heavenly Sovereign has asked her to do it."


    "Well, since Grandfather has probably returned to the War God Family, just tell him that we''re going to be fine and I hope we can contact each other after the situation settles down for a bit." Theo paused for a moment, wondering what to do with the other two.


    "I don''t mind having Enrica since Agata is her childhood friend. Tell him he can send her as long as she can agree topletely follow my decisions no matter what. The moment she disobeys me is the day I''ll kick her out. Also, don''t bring anyone else other than Enrica, I don''t like dealing with holy knights or priests. It''s not that I dislike religion, I just don''t want someone interfering with my decision when we''re in crisis.


    "Last but not least, tell that woman to go back to her master. The sign is there, but we don''t know when it''ll happen. I''m pretty sure that it''s going to happen, so the only question is when. Hence, it''s better for them to get together to know what they''re going to do."


    Seeing the message, Rea immediately acknowledged hismand and ryed the message to all rted people.


    Meanwhile, Theo let out a long sigh after giving his order. Since he had finished all the procedures, he immediately boarded the airne, knowing this might be thest time he would fly for a while.


    While looking at the window, Theo muttered inwardly, ''Things are going to be chaotic soon. Isaac reports that the Magic Power in Italy has been rising constantly. Since only a few days pass, only those with high sensitivity can feel it. But the fact that they''re raising means there''s a chance the Magic Power is leaking from the other side.


    ''After all, the Magic Power there is denser than this side. The fact that they''re leaking means the Spatial Rift, theyer that separates the two realms, is in a mess.


    ''As expected, the cause of this time apocalypse is the Spatial Rift. I don''t know what will happen if the Spatial Rift is gone and the two realms merge into one. The other side has Magic Power and beasts, while this side has technology and humans. If they merge��''


    Theo let out a long sigh. All kinds of things could happen, so he didn''t dare to imagine. No, he just found no point in thinking about all possibilities. Even his Reality Eyes had been tingling. He had seen some realities getting destroyed.


    ''Ah, right! Now that I think about it, if the Spatial Rift copses, doesn''t that mean the souls in the Spatial Rift will disappear? After all, they have no ce to stay in this world. This might be thest time I''ll meet the God of Mischief�� But knowing how shrewd he is, he should know about it and make some preparations.''


    When Theo thought about it, the God of Mischief obviously saw it and replied.


    [You goddamn right. I''ve been waiting for this. Don''t worry about me. I''ve made some preparations, but I won''t tell you anything about it. Still, do you want to meet me for onest time?]

 Chapter ?1460 Dyings Memory?

    Chapter ?1460 Dying''s Memory?


    After returning from Russia, Theo immediately met Rea. "How''s the situation?"


    "You might want to see this." Rea nodded and gave him the Skylink, showing a few pictures of the sky. There were a total of ten pictures, but each of them had a crack on it.


    "This is��" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "There are five countries that are experiencing this phenomenon. They are Australia, Sweden, North Korea, Nigeria, and the Antarctic. The people are panicking, and a mass evacuation has been ordered, fearing the same thing that happened to Argelia will happen to them as well. So, there is chaos everywhere."


    Rea took a deep breath. Not only in those five countries, but all countries in the world were panicking right now, thinking they would be next.


    Even her father would be the same if not for Theo''s warning she had been passing to him this whole time. Although they couldn''t save everyone in Japan, they could fare much betterpared to the rest of the world. And everything was due to Theo.


    Her father''s decision to be Theo''s ally might truly be the one that saved the country. The same applied to all his allies.


    They had made some preparations for it. So, when the situation happened, they could immediately take action.


    Rea looked at Theo and bowed her body until ny degrees. "Theo. Thank you�� Thank you very much."


    Theo was surprised by her action. She rarely did this because her usual bow was just to show her politeness. But this one contained endless gratitudeing from the bottom of her heart.


    He looked at her for a moment before saying, "Well, you have been helping me, so I''m simply repaying you back. There''s no need to thank me more than that. If you still want to thank me, help meplete our final preparation."


    "Understood." Rea nodded. "Still, you managed to solve the trouble in Argelia, right? Wouldn''t this make other countries ask you to solve the same problem?"


    "That''s not the case." Theo shook his head. "Even if they call me, I won''t be able to do anything."


    "Is that so? I''ll stop all the calls asking for your help then."


    "Yeah, just ignore them. Even I can only ept my fate when it happens. Anyway, for thest preparation, I want you to recheck all our supplies as well as our connections to our allies. Also, make sure that you ration everything since we don''t know what will happen. Luckily, our position is a bit far away from the city. But won''t this make us a ce for the refugees to go? Will you ept them? What if they start taunting you or something?"


    "That''s what I''m nning to do. I''m going to camouge our area with thest bit of energy, directing them to somewhere else. I don''t care if they think of me as a cruel person or not, but I''m simply a selfish person from the very start. They''re the ones misunderstanding my personality."


    "Well, you never said you''re a kind guy." Rea nodded in understanding. Although she was pitying those people, Theo was at the helm right now.


    "If you want to hate someone, you''re free to hate me. However, my decision won''t change."


    "I understand, Theo. I won''t hate you." Rea shook her head calmly. "Anyway, I should get going."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. After getting separated from the Rea, Theo went to manipte his territory again, creating a mirage that removed everything that had been built so far. But when they entered the area, they would realize it was just an illusion. Of course, Jeff had been working hard to fortify the area by changing thendscape. This was what he had been doing this whole time.


    As for the people from his group, they could bring people they were close with to live in Theo''s territory. This was the benefit of being a part of Theo''s group.


    Like Jeff, who brought his sister to live here, Agata also brought her father and mother and told the rest to evacuate to this ce if something happened. She gave the secret passage so that they could make it here. Of course, she only gave the information to her close family, not everyone who had some blood rtionship with her.


    After creating the illusion, Theo went to his room to talk with the God of Mischief onest time.


    It wasn''t a lesson, just small talk, so this meeting could be held.


    The God of Mischief and Theo sat across each other.


    "So, what should I talk about��" The God of Mischief smirked.


    "I don''t really know. On the one hand, I have many questions for you. On the other hand, I think I can get the answer as long as I think hard enough." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s certainly an unpleasant feeling.'' The God of Mischief closed his eyes for a moment, recounting all of his memory. He raised one finger. "Actually, I have one thing I want to tell you."


    "What is it?" Theo asked.


    "If I tell you that this is just a dream you''re experiencing in yourst moment, what do you say?" The God of Mischief smirked.


    "You''re talking about my state after getting rammed by the turtle? Before our meeting?"


    "Yes." The God of Mischief smirked, making Theo question the question itself.


    Theo looked down, contemting. "Who knows�� I''ll simply turn this into my reality."


    "That''s what I''m talking about." The God of Mischief''s expression became serious. "Do you think the clone can actually revive you? What if I tell you that the whole thing you have heard about the clone is just fake stuff?


    "The whole reason why I''m asking you to be my emissary is to heal you. That''s right�� Your current life is actually just an image you have before you die. And the only way for me to save you is to make you experience this dream and have you get this strong so that you can turn the dream into reality��


    "This is my n to fight those people from the higher dimension. If you can turn this illusion into reality, I can put you into an illusion where you fight against those beings from the higher dimension, and you''ll defeat them and turn that scene into reality. It''s time for you to wake up, Theo." The God of Mischief snapped his finger.


    The realm suddenly crumbled as Theo''s vision turned red as if blood was covering his vision. Theo realized his breathing was short and his body felt heavy. He was sitting on the ground while watching a big turtleing straight to him, nning to ram him.


    It was then he saw the message from the God of Mischief.


    [It''s time for you to rise up again, O'' Joker.]

 Chapter 1461 Disappeared

    Chapter 1461 Disappeared


    [It''s time for you to rise up again, O'' Joker.]


    Theo realized that he had returned to the time when he first met the God of Mischief. What he said truly made sense. If Theo could use his reality to heal his wound and get stronger, he would be able to go to the higher dimension through the illusion.


    However, Theo was now a master of reality. His body, which was filled with pain, was suddenly brimming with energy as he rose back up and grabbed the turtle''s head.


    He didn''t even feel the force from the turtle as he ripped the turtle apart. But that wasn''t all. Not only the turtle but the air was ripped apart as if Theo was tearing a curtain to show something behind it. And that something was the reality where Theo was meeting the God of Mischief.


    "Don''t ever use that again. I''m thankful for your help all this time, but this kind of joke is not funny. I already told you, I''m the reality itself. And your way won''t bring you to a higher dimension. It''s moreplicated than that." Theo stated while ring at the God of Mischief.


    Surprisingly, the God of Mischief smiled at him and said, "As expected, it seems that I don''t need to teach you any more than this. The truth is, I only want to tell you this�� If the opportunity arrives, we may be able to meet again. But for now, this is a goodbye, Theo. As I said to you back then, you''re my Joker, the one that won''t be affected by anything, whether it''s other realities or influences from a higher dimension. That''s why�� keep impressing me."


    The God of Mischief smirked while pushing Theo back to reality.


    Theo gradually opened his eyes with a grim expression. This was what happened when people yed with illusion and reality.


    People often underestimated an illusion. They thought that someone who was under an illusion simply had their scenery changed. They forgot the fact that the scenery change itself was a huge disturbance in one''s mind that could make them realize it was just an illusion.


    That was why the God of Mischief had been giving him the tales to make him ept the illusion with hismon sense and memory, making him think this was truly the case.


    And this was a real illusion, not a cheap imitation that simply changed people''s perspectives.


    This whole time, Theo had also been using the real scenery as his illusion.


    "Hu��" Theo took a deep breath. "You simply don''t get trapped in an illusion just because you''re under an illusion. You get trapped in an illusion because you ept the illusion as your reality. Unless you can make them ept they''re living in reality, the illusion is useless."


    The God of Mischief might be able to shake his heart for a second, but such a thing was not possible anymore after he told him to use the reality power to sneak into the higher dimension.


    As a master of reality, he knew how to go to the other reality, but it wasn''t possible yet with his current power. That was why he immediately knew the God of Mischief was using his illusion.


    Still, Theo wasn''t an ungrateful person. He was thankful for the God of Mischief''s support, together with his children.


    "Thank you. But this time, I''m going to do everything my way. I have escaped from my parents, the Griffith Family, and now your control�� Henceforth, my next step is to break free from the control of those higher beings."


    Theo smiled and stepped out of his room. Since he had some time, he decided to spend his time with Agata, waiting for the apocalypse. In Argelia, itsted for a few hours, so he expected the apocalypse to start soon.


    Without hesitation, he called Agata and walked with her for a while before they stopped near theke, watching the peaceful scenery.


    "Yeah. With this, We''re just waiting for the big thing to happen. I don''t know what kind of impact it will bring to the world, but because I make it premature, I know that it won''t be enough to destroy all of us." Theo nodded.


    "I see. " Agata looked up, recounting all Theo''s activities. "I think it''s time for you to tell me the whole truth, right?"


    "Well, I''ve told you about the apocalypse, right?"


    "Yeah. But you never told me more than that. You just told me we needed to prepare for an apocalypse without knowing what kind of apocalypse we''re talking about.


    "If we''re talking about a meteor, we should prepare a bunker or something, but there''s nothing like that. If we''re talking about a zombie apocalypse, then the infection will only start in some ces. It won''t destroy the entire world in an instant unless they can bring zombies all around the world at the same time.


    "So, I''ve been guessing this whole time, bute up with no answer. This is the reason I''m waiting for you to bring the matters up." Agata exined. "Though, I''ve now seen the sign and understood a bit more."


    "Well, sorry that I can''t really talk about it. The more I talk about it, the more I change reality. I don''t want to underestimate the scale, so if there''s an abrupt change by talking about it to many people��" Theo let out a long sigh as he couldn''t finish that sentence.


    Still, the meaning was clear, and Agata said, "It''s fine. I know that you''re working hard on your own. I''m simply going to follow you this time until I understand the whole situation. Can I trust you?"


    "Of course. After confirming the entire situation, you will be the first one to be informed." Theo smiled and looked at Agata. "Please trust me."


    Agata grabbed Theo''s hands and smiled while looking him in the eyes. "Don''t worry. I''ll trust you, Th��eo��"


    Theo opened his eyes wide when he saw Agata glitching. When she finished saying his name, Agata suddenly disappeared.


    "Eh?"

 Chapter 1462 Explanation

    Chapter 1462 Exnation


    "Eh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock as he suddenly stood up and looked around. He suddenly opened the Skytube. Knowing such a thing happened, there should be people giving live footage of what happened.


    It was there he found out that the crack was finally gone, and the distortion finally happened.


    "This is�� This is the apocalypse." Theo was horrified before he heard a roaring next to him.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    It wasn''t just a single roar. It turned out monsters began to appear in the area. Theo clicked his tongue as he truly didn''t want anyone to bother him right now.


    "You motherfucker!" Theo shouted in anger as he used his illusion to create a huge sword on top of the monsters'' location and pushed it down, killing all of them. After that, he used Reality Power to patch up the hole.


    "What''s happening right now��" Theo gritted his teeth, trying to understand the whole situation. "Rea, Ergene, all the people in my territory! Gather in theke right now!"


    Theo used his Spiritual Energy to spread his voice so that everyone could hear it.


    "!!!" All the people inside were rmed by his voice and hurriedly came out. Of course, unlike the people from Theo''s group, the people that sought refugees here like Ellen''s family or Mota Family were slightly slower.


    So, Theo focused on his people first, finding that there were only a few people who came out.


    "This is��" Theo was horrified, never expecting this was the case. "Kh."


    "Theo?" Rea asked, confused. "What''s happening?"


    The remaining people were Felix, Jeff, Akbar, Walker, and Rea as Mythical Rank Experts. As for the special members, there were only Aisha and Millie. Luckily, Phyrill suddenly came out together with Ellen, meaning they didn''t disappear as well.


    "Theo? What''s going on?" Rea asked again.


    Theo clicked his tongue and stated, "I''ll call Agata. Felix, you call Ruth. Rea��"


    He assigned all his people to call the rest of the members who had disappeared. They were truly appearing in another ce and the call was still connected.


    With this, Theo confirmed what had happened.


    Agata looked at Theo for a moment before turning around, finding a monstering to her. She tried to use her smoke to escape into a building so that she could call Theo without getting interrupted.


    "What''s happening here, Theo?" Agata asked while searching for a safe ce.


    "Are you alright, Agata?"


    "I think I can manage. For now, I need some exnations before I can do anything. This is very weird." Agata gritted her teeth, not understanding the whole situation. Monsters wereing out everywhere.


    Even in his territory, more and more monsters emerged.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and stated, "Felix. Deal with all the monsters here. I''ll exin to youter. For now, you don''t have to worry since Millie will be safe."


    "Understood." Felix nodded with a serious expression and immediately left to hunt the monsters, giving them precious time to talk.


    As for Theo, he stated, "This is worse. I have made some preparations, but not at this level."


    "What''s going on?" Rea asked again.


    Theo thought for a moment and formed a coin with his illusion. "See this coin? What if I tell you that this coin is actually hollow? The thickness you see right now is just a thin te of metal that separates the two sides of the coins.


    "Do any of you know what happened when the teleportation circles appeared? I mean the cause."


    "Hmm. I''m not very sure myself, but it''s said that they found something underneath the ocean."


    "That''s right." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "This actually has two sides. I''m not talking about the sides of coins and starting the t earth conspiracy. I''m talking about realms.


    "The first realm is the other side that is filled with the monster, while the second realm is our home. These two sides have been separated by what we called ''pirs.''


    "The first pir is the outeryer." Theo suddenly took out the thin te that covered the coins, making them look like they had some thickness even though there were only two sides connected by numerous tiny pirs inside.


    "Wait. So, that was the actual reason for the teleportation circles to exist?"


    "Yes. Humans somehow found the first pir and destroyed it, causing the teleportation circles to appear. Teleportation circles are the pirs you see between the two sides right now, separating two sides.


    "As for the pirs I talked about earlier�� It''s the cluster of teleportation circles. Do you remember what happened to Argelia? It''s simple. One of the pirs was almost destroyed. If not for the fact it wasn''t thoroughly destroyed, Argelia might not be the only country to suffer that incident.


    "So, I fixed that pir, allowing us to restore the situation. But this time��" Theo stopped with a grim expression.


    "Are you talking about the destruction of all pirs?" Rea gasped.


    "No. There''s no need to destroy all the pirs. But the pirs act like the foundations of a building. If you take a few of them out��" Theo nced at Rea.


    "The building will copse."


    "That''s right!" Theo nodded. He removed the pirs and let the other side copse until the two sides of the coin eventually hit each other and merged. "This is what''s happening right now.


    "All the things that have kept the two realms from merging have copsed. It means the two realms are going to merge right now. The proof is the appearance of the monsters."


    "Then, what will happen to the people who have disappeared earlier? I mean, they''re teleported to another ce, right? Is it the other side?"


    "No. Since the pirs can''t support the two sides anymore, there will only be one side. In this situation, I believe that the shape of the itself is taking the form of our home. But the assimtion will also result��"


    Before he finished, they heard a rumbling sound from the ground as all of them instinctively leaped back, finding a tree that suddenly came out of the ground.


    "Yeah. The terrain, vegetation, and Magic Power density�� I''m afraid the other realm will be influencing it." Theo gritted his teeth.

 Chapter ?1463 Roles

    Chapter ?1463 Roles


    "So, that''s why you immediately asked me��" Isaac furrowed his eyebrows.


    "Yes. Anyway, I''m going to exin the restter. I hope that you know this is the most important transition. The world will change ording to my exnation earlier. You''ll find monsters and all kinds of thingsing into this world.


    "So, I want all of you to learn your current situation from the locals to know your location. We''re using satellites right now. I doubt that the monsters can destroy something in outer space, but it''ll be a disaster since no one will be able to control the satellites anymore. In other words, before themunication copses, I want you to do three things.


    "First, know about your location as well as your current situation from the locals. Second, if you can reach our base bynd, you should immediately go straight here. However, if we''re separated by sea, I want you to stay there for a while. I''ll find a way to rescue you since the sea is going to be the most dangerous ce right now.


    "Last but not least, if something happens to you and you can''t fight against the opponent, whether it''s a human or monster, I want you to find a General ss Monster or, even better, a King ss Monster and show them the tattoo. They should offer you a bit of protection. Within that time, I''ll find a way to rescue you. Record this if you want because it''ll be easier to convince the King ss Monster that way. I''ll surely pay them back.


    "That''s all. Make sure you hurry up because ourmunication will go down sooner orter."


    "Understood." All the people outside the bases acknowledged themand.


    Only Maya remained since he stayed in the US by her own will.


    She asked, "Theo. Is this why you want to stock everything up?"


    "Yes. I have some expectations, but not at this level. For now, I think you can use the resources you have right now as you see fit."


    "Understood." Maya nodded with a serious expression. "I have to confirm my family''s safety as well."


    "Got it. I wish you luck." Theo nodded with a serious expression, seeing the people closing theirmunications.


    Meanwhile, Rea asked Theo. "Then, is it impossible for us to know their location from here?"


    "Impossible. Do you remember Argelia? The other side of Argelia should be in the US. So, I don''t know where they are right now. The Space Distortion�� It''s supposed to transfer all of them to a certain ce on the other side, but right now, the realm is merging, so the distortion is so random that it might teleport you to somewhere else. For now, I''m happy that none of them are teleported to the sea or sky."


    Rea listened to Theo''s exnation and nodded in agreement. "Then, what should I do?"


    "Shouldn''t you confirm your father''s condition?"


    "He can manage for a while. I have to stabilize this ce first." Rea shook her head. "After all, Ergene can''t take charge since she''s teleported as well."


    "Alright. I want you to exin all these to the people who seek refugees here. For now, we want their information before we can do anything like rescuing them."


    "Got it." Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo then turned around and continued giving instructions. "Akbar. I want you to restore the informationwork as soon as possible. Also, maintain the channels for the people to keepmunicating with us. We have to know their situation as soon as possible."


    "Understood. Leave it to me."


    "Walker. I want you to be in charge of our security for the time being."


    "I''m good at protecting." Walker nodded with a smile.


    "Then, Jeff�� I want you to start working on a long term project. I know that we should take care of the situation first, but we have enough supplies tost for a while. But we don''t have more than that�� For now, I want you to focus on the food supply, mostly vegetables and stuff like that."


    "Okay, understandable." Jeff received the order without hesitation. "By the way, where are you going?"


    "I''m nning to go around to see the situation of this world." Theo sighed. "It''s gonna be chaotic."


    "Indeed." Jeff nodded and immediately walked away.


    Theo then began distributing the rest of the jobs to the others. "Millie. I want you to hack all governments. They have more people than us, so they should get more information. Now that the situation is this messy, I doubt the government will care about hacking. Just don''t destroy anything."


    "Got it, Big Brother." Millie nodded with a serious expression.


    "Aisha will help Rea''s job in exining to the people while taking notes on the people who have disappeared. Give it to Akbar so that he can monitor everyone. As for Phyrill, you''re the calmest one here. I want you to contact all our allies such as the War God Family, Italy Government, the church, and listen to what they have to say. Lastly, Ellen, you have to calm the people down in this chaotic world. We must keep our cool because this is when we have to unite.


    "We all know that the people are going to ignore thews sooner orter. Robbery, rape, and all those bad things can happen. I don''t want it to happen in our ce. Understood?"


    All three of them nodded their heads, acknowledging the instruction and walking away.


    Theo was left alone as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He had prepared for many things, but he didn''t expect that he would be separated from Agata. But what he worried about the most was actually Ava.


    Ava wasn''t here, and she didn''t have any Skylink.


    "Ugh. Maybe monsters using Skylink should usemon sense��" Theo let out a long sigh. He looked at the sky and muttered with a pained look. "Cruel winter and moral chaos, huh�� Such a bad time to live in."

 Chapter 1464 Chaos

    Chapter 1464 Chaos


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    "Help me!"


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    In the middle of the city, explosions urred everywhere; from a car explosion to an explosion from someone''s skill to the copse of a building. It was chaotic now that the monsters had begun to fill this world.


    They killed people on sight and even destroyed the building, especially those tall buildings.


    The ordinary citizens were scrambling, trying to escape. Some of them were hit by uncontroble cars, some were killed by monsters, some died getting crushed by buildings, and some managed to get into another shorter building to get some secure ce for a while.


    Meanwhile, some experts who could fight also picked up their weapons, fending off the monsters. Some seeded, but some failed and ended up bing the monsters'' prey.


    In an instant, the world copsed. The electricity cables were running underground, so they could still supply some electricity to intact buildings, but they wouldn''tst long. If the monsters destroyed the power station, the city wouldpletely turn dark.


    "We''re here to inform you that the��" The reporters, whether on the scene or inside their studio, tried to inform the situation. However, some of them were ambushed by monsters and died before they could finish. Some managed to survive, but in this situation, no one knew whether there was someone listening to them or not.


    The government also began to move to all areas, but because all areas were attacked by monsters, they could only focus on one area at a time. The military, police, and all people that could fight tried to fend off the monsters, but the number of monsters was overwhelming.


    Some ces with Mythical Rank Experts could gain some advantages as long as they didn''t meet another Mythical Rank Monster, especially a General ss or above.


    "Help me." The people were crying on the street. Their faces were filled with despair, not believing this could happen.


    However, the worst had yet to happen. Due to the sudden increase of Magic Power, the animals who barely got the exposure gradually turned into monsters.


    People with cats, dogs, or any animals inside their houses were shocked when they saw the animals turn into monsters. They simply never got exposed to this amount of Magic Power, but that peaceful life had ended. Their pets, now monsters, devoured their owners.


    Still, just like the humans, around half the monsters were teleported randomly while the rest were teleported together, causing a big change in the monsters they had seen on a daily basis.


    The aggressive monsters immediately attacked the monsters they didn''t know and vice versa.


    And with the copse of the government, the humans had to continue to live on. Some of them showed theirpassion, which the other party returned with their own kindness. But some weren''t that lucky. After getting their help, the other party attacked their helper and took everything.


    Some even robbed people, whether it was food, equipment, or even money, which was already useless.


    It was truly moral chaos.


    Still, not everyone was like them. Those who had prepared for everything finally made their move.


    In the sky, a middle-aged guy stood on top of them, staring at the monsters in his city.


    "This shit truly happens. I''m lucky to know something like this will happen by allying with Theo. But from now on, this is gonna be a stressful moment.


    "How many people have died just from this? I''m afraid that seventy percent of the world''s poption will die in the next few weeks. This Earth has be the survival of the fittest. Still, I can see some people taking advantage of the situation to rob others�� Fuck them. I can understand why Theo tells me that humanity is fucking piece of shit. Unlike monsters who only attack for their survival, people are doing it for their own satisfaction sometimes.


    "And I bet there will be more people who kill people for petty reasons after this like to show their dominance. And people will want more blood like a psychopath. There are even people who might cheer for me for killing people who are innocent but have different ideologies.


    "Truly�� a shitty world." The Sword Saint sighed and pulled out his sword. "Well, I''ve marked all of them now. It''s time��"


    He raised his sword and closed his eyes, gathering his energy into his de. "Divine Technique, Nagasawa Sword Style, Severing."


    Suddenly, all monsters in his sight and some humans he found to be robbing or doing some bad things not for their survival but for their own satisfaction got their heads chopped off.


    It was shocking to the people that their cries filled the entire town.


    But the Sword Saint infused his Magic Power into his voice and shouted as loud as possible. "If you don''t have anywhere to go, go to the Nagasawa Family. Prepare to follow the rules, and we''ll offer you a safe ce. I, the Sword Saint, have killed all the monsters around, so make your way here!"


    ��


    China.


    They experienced the same thing and the Heavenly Sovereign had decided to make his move as well.


    A huge throne appeared in the sky, emitting golden light. The light was so strong that they thought the sun had descended.


    However, the golden light that came out of the throne was actually a deadly light.


    "I am the ruler of Heaven, the Heavenly Sovereign, Feng Hao. As a ruler, I shall pass down the punishment, perish."


    The golden light scattered in all directions, hitting the monsters and some humans and ultimately killing them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign dered out loud. "Go north and climb my mountain. I, the Heavenly Sovereign, wee all of you. Be at ease because I''ve killed the monsters in the area."


    Unlike those two, other areas weren''t so lucky. They met King ss Monsters or even World ss Monsters during the fight, but as expected, the worst thing they could face was none other than radiation.


    A mutated monster actually appeared on Earth, and there were also some areas that got polluted by radiation like Chernobyl, Nuclear Testing Sites like in the Pacific Ocean or other countries. With thebination of high radiation and the dense Magic Power, the monsters started mutating into a form never existed before, bringing another kind of danger.

 Chapter 1465 Moral Chaos

    Chapter 1465 Moral Chaos


    "Please don''t��" A woman was hugging a child while looking at a middle-aged man in fear. They were trembling in fear while the woman just tried to protect the child.


    "If you want my protection, then strip!" The middle-aged guy smirked, licking his lips. "Hurry up. You''re still outside, and if you refuse, the monster might find you."


    The middle-aged man was standing inside a store. The store itself wouldn''t be too safe, but the middle-aged man was an expert, so he truly had the power to grant some protection.


    The woman gritted her teeth, but she couldn''t do anything other than obey this person if she wanted to save both her and her kid.


    "That''s good." The middle-aged guy couldn''t contain her smile, looking at the woman vulgarly.


    The woman was so embarrassed that she closed her eyes, not wanting to see her own pathetic self as well as this guy.


    "The world is ending, so no one will be able to take care of you anymore." The middle-aged man stated to make the woman act faster.


    She never thought that they would be in this situation. Despite knowing there was amon enemy, there was actually someone who would take advantage of this situation.


    Suddenly, a young mannded next to her.


    "You��" The middle-aged man was the first to react because he was an expert, but the young man easily grabbed his cor and threw him into the street.


    "Disgusting. I''m throwing the trash." The young man clicked his tongue.


    The middle-aged man was shocked, but he still recognized the young man. "You are The��"


    Before he finished, a monster appeared on his back. It wasn''t that the monster just appeared out of nowhere, the monster was there all the time. However, the young man used his illusion power to camouge the monster and finally revealed its appearance when it opened its mouth, biting the man to death.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The middle-aged man screamed in pain, but the sound soon faded away as the monster swallowed the man alive. After that, the young man summoned a blue light and shot the monster, causing an explosion that engulfed the monster and erased both the monster and the man.


    The young man asked while closing the kid''s eyes. "Are you all right?"


    "You��" The woman was bewildered, never expecting to see such a celebrity here. "Theodore Griffith."


    Theo ignored her reaction and asked, "Can you still keep going? If you keep following this road and turn right at the end, you''ll find a military camp there. I''m going there as well, but I can''t go with you since I have to go around to try to help people in the military. Don''t worry. I''ll do my best to get rid of all the monsters around here. Can you go with your daughter?"


    "Y-yes." The woman nodded as she was still stunned. However, Theo had already jumped to another ce, trying to kill some monsters. The woman had no choice other than to go ording to his instruction, trying to get help from the military.


    Killing that man truly left a bad taste in his mouth. Theo clicked his tongue, "This is why I don''t really want to help. I don''t like humans. Even in this kind of situation, there''s someone trying to take advantage of the situation. If I were not here, I don''t know what would happen to that mother and daughter.


    "If I stay too long with them, they''ll grow dependent on me and keep asking to save people for the sake of humanity. Eventually, they''re trying to make me their ve with those flowery words. I wonder if I should just allow the higher being to reset this world. But then again, I don''t want to die yet."


    Theo let out a long sigh as he continued forward to open the path for many people, directing them to the army.


    However, he found another group of people that surprised him.


    After he saved her, they started spouting a bunch of nonsense.


    "Please take us with you!"


    "That''s right. You''re strong, right? You should bring us with you."


    "The phenomenon that appeared all around the world was simr to the one in Argelia. You had saved them, so you must know about it, right? Why didn''t you do anything?"


    "Are you a human being? You are actually letting all those people die!"


    "It''s because of you not doing your work that those people are dying!"


    "The world is in chaos."


    They ran their mouths to the point Theo was disgusted by him. Ultimately, Theo ignored them and used his Blink to get away from them.


    His heart became even worse. The more he saved people, the further his heart wanted him to stop.


    Those people didn''t know that his action actually saved more people than they thought. If he actually did something, the higher being could actually reset the worldpletely, killing all 17 billion people on Earth.


    But with his action, at least a few billion would survive and continue living in this world. It was impossible to rm more governments since if they made more preparations, the apocalypse would be far bigger than this.


    Theo could only stand on top of the buildings while recalling what the God of Mischief said back then.


    "Will a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? No, in my case, will I be called ruthless if I allow the apocalypse to kill billions of people to save humanity from extinction?


    "Will a man be called a bad guy when he joins the enemy side to protect the people on his side? I wonder if I will get the answer to this in the future�� Joins the enemy side�� I wonder if I''m going to join the monsters or even a higher being to protect these people��


    "Those are truly tricky questions since the answer wille sooner orter. And now, the first answer is currently forming. After some time, I will know that answer."


    Theo took a deep breath while looking at this world with a sad face.

 Chapter ?1466 Course of Action

    Chapter ?1466 Course of Action


    After telling people to go to the military camp, Theo started looking around, checking the situation.


    Before he started his next n, he received a call from Akbar, and he sent it to all the people so that they could talk in real time.


    "What''s wrong, Akbar?" Theo asked.


    "We have located all of them. Agata is in Thand, Ruth is in Guatem, Chris is in Chad, Coline is near the border between Syria and Iraq, Ryo is in India, and Ergene is in Indonesia. As for Isaac, he''s in Romania. We have located the rest of the people too."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Agata, it''s close to impossible for you to go back to Italy right now. Still, do you have some confidence to go to China?"


    "Do you want me to seek the Heavenly Sovereign''s protection?"


    "Yes."


    "I understand. I''ll try to move around, but considering I don''t know which ce has Mythical Rank Expert and not, I''ll be more careful. It might take a few weeks or even months just to cover that distance." Agata sighed.


    "Don''t worry. I''ll also try to find out the solution from a distance. The problem is themunication since it''s going down soon."


    "Agreed, but you can only trust me this time." Agata nodded with a serious expression. "This is madness. I''m afraid that the humans are going to join hands and form a group, I don''t know whether it''s a bad group that wants to control the entire area for themselves or a good group that helps people in need. But I''ll try to move as soon as possible if I want to leave. Though, I heard that one of the Mythical Rank Experts from the War God Family is near me. I''m going to meet up with her and head to China."


    "I understand. I''ll trust you. Make sure you stay alive."


    "Got it." Agata nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo then turned to Ruth. "It''s impossible to bring you back with us for now. Since you''re in Guatem, you should go to Maya."


    "Yes. That''s what I''m nning to do. Considering the equipment and resources Maya has, I''m nning to assist her in creating an airne that is safe enough. If possible, I want to connect the continents again." Ruth nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s a good idea. I''ll leave it to you, Ruth." Theo thought for a moment. "As for Chris and Coline. I want Coline to stay in your position and wait for Chris to reach your position. Since you''re a Mythical Rank Expert, you should be able to reach Coline sooner orter. Then, both of you are going to go back together. Coline, I want you to stay there to get some information."


    "Got it." Coline and Chris nodded. Chris, especially, had put down all the grudges in his heart. If not for Theo, he would have been ignorant about this event, causing him to not have any goals right now. But with Theomanding the group, they knew what to do.


    "As for Ryo... You shouldn''t go to Coline''s position. Instead, I want you to go to China to regroup with Agata."


    "Leave it to me. I''ll protect her with my life." Ryo nodded. "Though I don''t know how tomunicate with her after a long time. I don''t even know if I can meet her."


    Millie raised her hand. "I can calcte the distance for you and both of you can agree to meet in one ce ording to the map and the distance. If you download the map and use it to navigate, you should be able to meet."


    "That''s a good one, Millie." Theo added one thing. "Also, make sure you keep the margin of error since the position might be their of many Mythical Rank Monsters or even worse."


    "Understood. I''ll also prepare the second point and third point as a backup." She smiled as if telling them this was the time she was going to shine.


    Feeling happy with her enthusiasm, Theo finally turned to Isaac. "As for you, stay where you are. I want Millie to make a few meeting points as backups. Don''t forget to put on the dates. I''m going to Romania to bring Isaac back since you''re necessary to examine what''s happening to the world."


    "Okay!" Isaac agreed without hesitation.


    "Good. We''ll keep themunication to the veryst minute. How''s the situation for us, Akbar?"


    "The power station in our area is safe for the time being, thanks to you asking the government to set up a camp near it. We can''t really get enough electricity since we can only get it from sr panels, but they should have created a n to maintain the satellite above us. For now, we should believe that our connections won''t lose unless some unpredictable things happen. I don''t know about other countries though."


    "China, Japan, and the US should have done the same thing. If you can take advantage of that, we can still maintain our connection. It means the only person I won''t be able to see is Ergene. Sorry, I don''t know how to bring you back just yet." Theo let out a long sigh, disappointed in himself.


    "It''s fine." Ergene waved her hand. "I''ll try to check the situation around here. If I''m not wrong, there''s a top ten expert in Indonesia, right? I''m going to his ce, hoping he is there. After that, I''m trying to find a way to restore the connections with their help."


    "I understand. Use my name if you have troublemunicating with them. My name should carry enough weight to change their mind." Theo nodded. "Then, I have one warning for all of you. I want you to stay away from areas that have contamination problems, especially if it''s radiation. You''ll find a monster far more dangerous."


    "Understood." All of them nodded.


    "Alright. I''ll close mymunication since I have to get back to form the rescue party." Theo took a deep breath and looked at them once more. "I wish you luck."

 Chapter 1467 Allies Reactions

    Chapter 1467 Allies'' Reactions


    Russia.


    "Father." Lyovkin walked to Yermyev with a serious expression after knowing the situation all around the world. "We''ve received the reports. There are a total of 343 people missing. Two of our core family members are included�� especially Levina."


    "Mhm." Yermyev nodded with a serious expression. "For now, we have to turn this ce into a fortress."


    "Then, how about Levina?"


    "I''m not very sure yet. What did she say?"


    "She''s going to hide for the time being until there''s a solution. If possible, she wants to go back here."


    "I understand. For now, we have to understand the situation around us if we want to create a rescue party. Levina is a strong kid, so she should be able to survive." Yermyev walked together with his son. "Follow me. Let''s meet those people."


    "Yes." Lyovkin looked down for a moment, contemting. "Still, those people are cheering your name, thinking thanks to you, they''re able to fare better."


    "Is there anyone searching for me?"


    "Yes. The Empress wants to talk to you."


    "What did she want?"


    "Information, specifically the reasons why we''re holing up. She suspects we know about this whole situation."


    "Tell her that I''ll contact her in two hours. As for the rest, I''m going to turn them into our people, making sure they don''t have the intention to rebel. This is our fortress after all."


    "Then, are we going to ept refugees?"


    "I''ll give that answer after we settle the situation. For now, if peoplee to us, just ce them right outside our gate. Don''t let them in yet."


    "Understood." Lyovkin nodded, knowing that his father was trying his best right now. They finally understood the reason why Theo told them their businesses would be insignificant anymore.


    Although they hadn''t fully utilized their money, they got many equipment and supplies which couldst them for a few years.


    ��


    Japan.


    Nasagawa Ken, the Sword Saint, was having a meeting with the emperor and the prime minister, along with all high ranking parties.


    "You have warned us at thest second. Do you know this will happen, Sword Saint?" The prime minister narrowed his eyes.


    "To a certain extent. Remember Theo and Feng Hao''s visit?"


    "So, that''s how it is." The prime minister paused before having another thought. "If that''s the case, what do you think we should do?"


    "I''m not too sure myself since my information is limited. I''ll be trying to get some more information from those two for the time being. That''s right. Theo has warned me about some areas in our country. They are Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima."


    "!!!" The prime minister widened his eyes in surprise. "We�� actually got a report that the monsters there were weird. We don''t have any further information for the time being."


    "I''m assuming there is a mutation because of radiation."


    "Radiation! That''s right. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima are��" The prime minister''s expression darkened.


    "I''ll let you handle that matter for the time being, Prime Minister. I have something that I need to do." The Sword Saint pointed at the prime minister, asking him to take on the mission.


    "What is it?"


    "I have to locate the King ss and World ss Monsters. The other Transcendent Level Experts can handle the King ss Monsters, but I''m the only one who can fight the World ss Monster." The Sword Saint took a deep breath and dered. "I''ll be focusing my eyes on them."


    The people sucked a cold breath. Now that the Sword Saint had said it, they wondered whether there were King ss and World ss Monsters actually appearing on theirnd.


    "I understand. I''ll leave it to you, Sword Saint. If you need help from the military, please contact the JSDF."


    "Yes." The Sword Saint nodded with a serious expression.


    ��


    China.


    Feng Hao and Zhao Jia were sitting next to each other, staring at the screen that showed many people''s faces.


    The president smiled. "Thanks to both of you, we could make some preparations. We have set up a few points to fight back. However, we have a few problems right now."


    "The World ss Monsters?" The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. We don''t know how many there are, but for the time being, we have received a report about them."


    "How many are there?"


    "There are around four World ss Monsters and ten King ss Monsters in our country alone. On the one hand, we''re lucky that we can prepare early. On the other hand, our country will be ruined by those monsters. Do you think you can handle them?"


    "Nope. Even a single World ss Monster is already tough for me. I''m pretty sure that they''re going to fight each other, so I need their location. If they''re injured, I have some chances to kill them. But we''ll see." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed. "Don''t forget that there are many World ss and King ss Monsters on the other side�� We haven''t even explored all theirnd. So, we don''t know how many World ss Monsters there are."


    "That''s true. We have to locate all of them as soon as possible. If the situation bes far too dangerous, we have to try evacuating the people."


    "Yeah. But for now, no matter what happens, I believe I can protect this country for at least a year." The Heavenly Sovereign stated.


    "Alright. For now, we have made sure our satellite won''t be hitting anything, so at the very least, we''ll have the means tomunicate. We''ll tell you about itter." The president nodded. "Feng Hao. Don''t die."


    "Hahaha. Everyone is going to die at one point. Though, I prefer dying because of old age. So, don''t worry. I''m not nning to die." Feng Hao smirked and closed themunication.


    His expression turned grim now that he was alone with Zhao Jia.


    "Jia�� Do you think you can help me rescue Theo''s woman?"


    "For what? In this situation, I don''t think he can help us."


    "No, he''ll be able to help us. I''m sure of it. So, this is the time to make him owe us." Feng Hao smirked. "This time, it''ll be our counterattack."


    "Understood." Zhao Jia nodded, agreeing to his request.

 Chapter 1468 Chaotic

    Chapter 1468 Chaotic


    Theo was putting his baggage inside his bag.


    Rea stood next to him, looking at him worriedly. "Are you sure about this?"


    "Yeah."


    "But shouldn''t you bring more people?" Rea asked, ncing at Walker. Theo only brought Walker along with him.


    Theo shook his head. "Akbar is focusing on the informationwork while Jeff is working on our long term project. Felix will be in charge of protecting this area while you take control while I''m not here. So, Walker is the only one who can go with me. It''s not like I can bring any Supreme Rank Experts in this situation."


    "Well, I can understand that. But what about your clone? It seems that you haven''t been using your clone this whole time."


    Theo smiled and shrugged. "What do you think?"


    "You seriously don''t n to tell me anything. Well, if you deem that way, it must mean that it''s not important enough for me to know."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled. "You''ll find the answerter. But for now, I''m going to keep it a secret. Anyway, I''m nning to leave for a month or so, considering the distance. If anything happens to me, this territory will be destroyed. If not, I''ll return safely."


    "Understood." Rea nodded. "I know that it''s impossible to contact you, but I want you to take care of yourself. You should know that the situation is��"


    "Don''t worry." Theo waved his hand and smiled, turning to Walker. "Are you ready, Walker?"


    "Yes. At any time."


    "Alright. Since we won''t be able to use the road, we''re going to use the GPS to reach Gin''s position, so we''re going there by foot."


    "Are we going to kill the monsters around us?"


    "Not at the moment. For now, I want to make sure Gin is safe first."


    "Got it." Walker nodded and finally lifted his bag, ready to go out.


    Theo then waved to Rea. "Take care of this ce for me, will you?"


    "This ce is considered my home too, so of course." Rea politely bowed to him. "I wish for the best."


    "Oh!" Theo nodded and started walking with Walker, opening the map to set up their course.


    Aftering to an agreement, the duo began their journey to Romania. On a normal journey, they would reach Romania in just one hour or so by ne. But because they had to cover this distance by foot and the situation out there was unknown, they might reach Romania after a week or so, hoping Gin could survive that long.


    As expected, they could see ruined buildings everywhere with many people trying to fight for their lives. There were even some groups made by humans along the way, seeing how they managed to survive that way. However, their situation wasn''t that good either.


    They had many problems like food, an authorityplex, and nows that could bind them.


    Walker watched those people from far away since Theo didn''t want to deal with them. He looked at Theo, "So, we''re going through Slovenia and Hungary before reaching Romania?"


    "Yes. For the time being, let''s continue our way outside the city."


    "I understand. I can see why you choose to avoid them. First of all, we''re not nning to rescue them. At the same time, once we rescue them, they''re going to be dependent on us. I kinda hate how they''re going to manipte you to protect them for the sake of humanity." Walker sighed.


    "Either way, there''s going to be a problem sooner orter. Look at this ce��" Theo looked at the building in the city. The blood smell permeated the air and the former bustling city had turned into a ghost city.


    "This is a ghost city. Now that I think about it, the grid around here seems to have been taken down since there''s not a single light present." Walker squinted his eyes.


    "That''s their first problem. Light source. If they don''t have enough light, it''s gonna be hard for them to defend themselves. Then the second problem will be the supply. Once people start running out of food and water��"


    "They might kill the others to decrease the number of mouths to feed. But in the worst case, they''re not going to kill the monsters. Instead, they''re going for an easier target, the humans. Cannibals��"


    "Exactly. Despite having the solution if they work together, humans will no doubt try to go to the easiest option, which is cannibalism."


    "But they''ll feel disgusted about it. I don''t think they''ll do it easily."


    "That''s not what I consider as a problem really�� When they''re cornered, humans can do anything. What I''m worried about is a group of cannibals. Once they''ve be a cannibal, they feel they won''t be epted by society anymore, resulting in them forming a group of opposition. In other words, sooner orter, the enemies are not just the monsters, but the humans too."


    "This world is fucked up." Walker''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Yeah."


    "By the way, have you noticed this yet, Theo? You can''t ess the system anymore."


    "Really?" Theo squinted his eyes and tried to open the system.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 825


    EXP: 2,666,677/46,336,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (A)


    Attributes: Strength 1000, Endurance 700, Agility 702, Vitality 700, Magic Power 1500


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''I still can use the system. I guess this must be because of my reality power, especially my Reality Eyes, which is still connected to the world itself. In other words, I think I''m the only one who can see this�� If that''s the case, is there any difference for the monsters? Are they still dropping cards and can we still learn skills?'' Theo had many questions in his mind. It seemed Isaac would be a good candidate to investigate all of this stuff.


    "Well, my power is connected to the world itself, so I still can ess it," Theo answered.


    "Seriously?"


    "Yeah. There are many things I want to test, so let''s pick up the pace, shall we?"


    "Understood."

 Chapter ?1469 Reas Plan?

    Chapter ?1469 Rea''s n?


    As expected, a few days were enough for so many things to happen all around the world.


    "Hurry up and get in!"


    "There are no monstersing anymore."


    A group of people entered a shopping mall that had been turned into a fortress. After the apocalypse, they formed a group in this ce since it contained preserved food that couldst for a while.


    There were around one hundred people in this ce, each of them trying to do their part.


    However, this was just one of the lucky fortresses. In another ce, there was also a fortress created by people. But in that ce, the people had a leader figure that had absolute control over everything. Unlike Theo, who governed his ce to the best of his ability, the leader was a scumbag who did anything he wanted in exchange for protection.


    The people who stayed there only had two choices. Either they suffered through torture inside the fortress or went out to die.


    There were more and more groups forming. The group varied. There was a group that employed democracy, liberalism, or even a group of cannibals. Their views toward the world had drastically changed.


    In the first few days, half of the world''s poption had died. The monsters started taking control of the world. With that kind of number, the humans had a hard time fighting against them. Some groups were destroyed by them, some were taken over by a General ss Monster or above.


    The situation became even more chaotic because the World ss Monster had begun to move, trying to get their own territory since they had to live in this new area. Some humans tried to fight them, but it was just a futile effort. There was no way they could fight against World ss Monsters. Even the King ss Monsters could wipe them out.


    In the end, the humans started getting pushed back and the government became crazy, wondering what they should do. If they continued this way, the situation would just get worse. They had to reach another country to work together, but the King ss and World ss Monster had ordered the monsters to destroy everything that could interrupt their Order, including the electricity.


    The loss of electricity caused the entiremunication couldn''t work. The satellites in outer space could still function for a moment, but because no one controlled them anymore, they would soon hit each other. Some would surely go down to Earth.


    It was truly pure madness.


    The governments tried their best, but with the strength of the monsters, they had a hard time even holding their base.


    The people began to fall into despair because the help from the military didn''te. They simply couldn''te.


    Rea''s expression turned serious when she saw the current state of the world. She narrowed her eyes and said, "This can''t go on. There might be a need to concentrate our forces in one''s ce."


    Felix nced at her. "Do you mean you want to create an alliance between the countries?"


    "Yeah. At the very least, we have to gather all the governments in the EU. If we can create a strong front and solid foundation, we should be able to withstand the monsters'' attack and restart civilization. This will allow us to create the opportunity to fight back."


    "Do you think you can do that?" Felix shook his head helplessly. "I''m afraid that the situation is far trickier than you think."


    "Still, if we don''t do anything, humanity might lose." Rea gritted her teeth, feeling a bit frustrated.


    "Have you talked to him?"


    "No. I just got this information, so how can I even tell him?" Rea sighed. "How''s the situation with the War God Family?"


    "The War God Family has an influx of refugees. Even they are having a hard time. The same applies to the church. Only our ce is having an easy time. Akbar and Millie have been gathering the information all over Europe."


    "And the result?"


    "There are six King ss Monsters spotted around us. They are in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Pnd, Sweden, and Lithuania. We haven''t spotted any World ss Monsters. Though, the others are surely having a hard time. It seems that China is hit the hardest by having multiple World ss Monsters on theirnd. As for the US, they''re on a separate continent.


    "There are World ss Monsters in northern Canada and ska. I''m not sure about the country itself, but Mexico has one too. The rest should appear in South America." Felix gave her the report.


    "That''s��" Rea narrowed her eyes. "Say? Shouldn''t we create bases all around the world where we can concentrate our forces? It''s to fight back and eliminate all monsters from our area. Also, our is mostly water, so there''s a chance that the rest of the World ss Monsters are teleported into the water."


    "That''s possible as well."


    "I can''t really tell other countries something like this since my status is not enough. But if I tell our allies about this, we can have them influence the government.


    "Maya has stocked up many weapons and she will be the greatest weaponpany with this situation. She should have some influence over the government in this current state.


    "The same applies to my father. We should lower our pride in this situation. If we can ask all the people around Asia to seek refugees in Japan, we can turn Japan into a fortress, especially with the help of the Heavenly Sovereign. These two are allies right now because of Theo, so they could keep the order.


    "When that happens, we can have�� that''s right. How many top ten experts are in Asia? There is one in India and one in Indonesia. With this, we can form a strong front by uniting all countries in Asia, United Asia." Maya smirked. "Don''t you think this is a good idea? The sooner we start this n, the faster we can deal with the situation."


    "That''s��" Felix narrowed his eyes. "I don''t know. It''s your decision since you''re currently in charge. I don''t know what Theo will say about your decision though."


    "Well, I''ll try to see the situation first and inform my attention to the rted parties. If they''re interested, I''m going to make a concrete n before informing Theo. I have one month to do this."


    "Take your time."

 Chapter 1470 Unexpected Encounter

    Chapter 1470 Unexpected Encounter


    A few dayster.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions resounded in the area as Isaac took a peek from the abandoned building.


    "This world is seriously in deep shit. I have understood Theo''s theory perfectly. It seems that the Spatial Rift is the membrane that prevents the two sides from merging, while the teleportation circles act as pirs that separate them.


    "That''s why Theo used a coin to describe the two realms. Both realms had their own system. Previously, our Earth didn''t have anything rted to Magic Power. But we opened that teleportation circle, causing the first pir to copse and creating a hole for the merging process.


    "That''s where the Magic Power starts entering this side. And as a result, a new system is born. Humans receive this power that allows them to ess this power system which I can''t use anymore��


    "Anyway, there is this Spatial Rift holding the souls of the creatures. They''re residing in the hollow gap between the two sides.


    "They''re the ones giving us blessing and the Magic Power is the one allowing us to gain their power. Anyway, now that the Spatial Rift is gone and the other realm might have disappeared too�� Does that mean the souls in the Spatial Rift have disappeared as well?


    "As much as I want to know where those souls go, I think it''s better to focus on the apocalypse event that is urring right now. Now that the system has gone, I wonder if we can still use Skill Cards or get some EXP to level up.


    "Should I research them right now? But Theo should being over soon. I shouldn''t risk my life for the time being." Isaac let out a long sigh. He had many things he wanted to do, but the situation was far more dangerous. For now, he could only endure the situation.


    While he was waiting, someone''s step echoed in the emergency exit and ultimately reached his ears.


    "!!!" Hearing the footsteps, Isaac immediately walked behind a pir, hiding from this person. Although he was a Supreme Rank Expert, he couldn''t bepared to Mythical Rank Experts. If he underestimated the whole situation, he would be in deep trouble.


    To his surprise, the one that suddenly came out of the door and entered the floor he was residing on was a young female. From the energy surrounding her body alone, she seemed to be a Supreme Rank Expert.


    After entering this floor, the woman looked around, wondering if there was a person here. ording to her ability, she could feel someone''s presence in this ce.


    "Hello. Anybody here? Well, I know that you''re here, but��" The young woman furrowed her eyebrows, looking around carefully. She couldn''t miss a single clue about the presence she felt in this ce.


    Meanwhile, Isaacpletely erased his presence, hoping that she didn''t find him. There were so many ways to bluff, but this one wasn''t one of them. So, he believed this woman had some special ability to detect him.


    ''What should I do? Should I show myself? What if she''s rted to the group outside, especially the hostile ones? Then, should I escape from him? Exposing myself too early will cause a lot of problems.''


    The young woman took a deep breath and raised her hand, letting out her wind power. She used the wind to lift up all the furniture, making sure that no one was hiding behind them. She could feel the weight of the furniture, so unless someone was floating, it would be impossible to escape from her detection.


    "!!!" The young woman suddenly felt the presenceing from the left side. "There you are! Wait!"


    The young woman saw Isaac ready to leap out of the building. Their gaze intertwined as both of them recognized each other.F


    "Wait, you are��" The young woman and Isaac widened their eyes in shock.


    "Isaac Walton."


    "Levina Alexandrovich Romanov."


    That was right, the young woman was actually the granddaughter of thete Wind Emperor, Levina. She was teleported during the apocalypse and ended up in this ce.


    Levina knew Isaac because he was rted to Theo, so it was easy to find his name.


    "What are you doing in this ce?" Levina narrowed her eyes. "Don''t tell me. You''re teleported too?"


    "Y-yeah." Isaac let out a long breath, realizing she wasn''t an enemy.


    "To think I would meet someone familiar here." Levina let out a sigh of relief.


    "Indeed."


    "Have you been hiding here since the beginning?"


    "Yeah. Theo has promised to go to rescue me, so I''m just waiting for him to pick me up. He should be able to reach this ce in a day or two."


    "What? Big Brother Theo wille?"


    Isaac nodded. "How about you? Have you been wandering around in the past few days?"


    "I joined a group not far from here since they had a Mythical Rank Expert as their leader. I was one of the explorers in charge of scouting the area, but you know�� in this situation, there are still people who have moral issues. I ended up getting separated from the rest of the group because I ran away from them since they wanted to trap me."


    "Sounds rough. So, do you want to wait here with me? Well, I have some food prepared, but I guess we need to find more. At the very least, we will meet Theo soon."


    "That''s also a good option. I don''t have any attachment to the group that wanted to trap me anyway." Levina nodded in agreement.


    "Then, let''s make some ns until Theo arrives. Can you tell me all kinds of information you''ve got in thest few days? Like, the disappearing power system, what happens after you kill a monster, and so on?" Isaac asked with a serious expression.


    "Sure, I can tell you about it. This is going to be a long story though."


    "We don''t have anything to do other than searching for food and waiting for Theo to arrive."


    "That''s true." Levina smiled as Isaac led her to a morefortable ce.

 Chapter 1471 Bringing Isaac Back

    Chapter 1471 Bringing Isaac Back


    "Isaac."


    "Isaac."


    A familiar voice kept echoing in his ears, waking Isaac from his slumber.


    "Mhm?" Isaac gradually opened his eyes and saw Levina standing in front of him. She was pointing to the side, making him follow the direction.


    Surprisingly, Theo and Walker were standing right outside the room.


    "It seems that you are having a good time, Isaac. To think that you''re enjoying yourself here while we''re fighting our way here." Walker smirked.


    "Wha��!" Levina fidgeted before trying to exin. "I haven''t done anything."


    Isaac was still half asleep, so it took him a moment to understand what Walker said. He hurriedly rose from the bed. "No, no. What are you thinking? You''re misunderstanding everything."


    "Whatever. It''s good that you''re safe. And I can also find another acquaintance." Theo let out a long sigh. "Either way, we''re going back immediately. We don''t have that much time in this ce."


    "Understood. Give me a few minutes, I''ll pack everything up." Isaac nodded with a serious expression.


    "Why are you in a hurry?" Levina didn''t understand Theo''s situation, so she asked innocently. Since they had been stranded here in this situation, there should be no need to rush like that.


    Theo shook his head, not exining the reason to her.


    Walker and Isaac obviously knew that Theo was rushing because he couldn''t leave the base for too long. This apocalypse was caused by their enemy, so it was clear that they might take advantage of this situation to attack their base. This wasn''t something Theo desired.


    Of course, they had to make sure whether the enemies were separated or not. Hence, Theo''s action right now was quite risky.


    After getting prepared, Theo immediately led them out of the city, heading back to Italy.


    Compared to what had happened in the previous few days, the city had grown far quieter. The monsters seemed to have settled down, and the humans who still survived chose not to show themselves. Some groups were still fighting, but their effort was futile because, in the end, they were just small groups.


    On the way, Theo asked, "Have you researched the situation right now, Isaac?"


    Isaac nodded. "There are five points that I want to tell you. The first thing will be about the system. We can''t ess it anymore. In fact, we have no way to connect with the people who gave us blessings.


    "However, after getting some information from Levina, the system itself still exists. We just can''t connect it. In other words, we can level up, but we can''t ess the Attribute Points. Do you know what this means?"


    "Well, it seems that humans have to evolve once again." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Exactly. Right now, Mythical Rank Experts are going to be a hotmodity, the stronger you are, the better. This is just my conjecture, but after this, no humans can increase their Magic Power anymore. As for other status points like Strength and the others�� They can still enhance those to a certain degree with drugs and training. But Magic Power, I don''t think it''s possible for the time being.


    "Hence, humans are going to evolve by using the current Magic Power in one''s body. In other words, if you want to have a talented child, you have to marry a Mythical Rank Expert. This is probably what''s going to happen in the next few decades.


    "At the same time, we can''t really retain the number of Mythical Rank Experts because we have to fight against those monsters. If we don''t unite, all of our people are going to be wiped out, especially the talented ones."


    Theo nodded in understanding. "That''s going to be a problem, especially since the world''s poption has been thinned out. Do you forget the fact that there are only ten thousand Mythical Rank Experts in the world? With the current situation, I''m afraid there are only five thousand left and the number will keep decreasing."


    "Yeah. But it''s not like everything is bad. Now that the Magic Power has be as dense as the other side, the child will still be better than your average child in the current era."


    "I see. Then, continue to the second one."


    "Alright." Isaac nodded with a serious expression. "The second one is that�� It seems that the Skill Card Function can''t be used anymore. If we kill monsters, we won''t be able to gain Skill Cards anymore. If that''s the case, Five Aspects are going to be extremely important right now."


    "Eh?" Walker widened his eyes in shock and nced at Theo. "But the monsters dropped��"


    Walker didn''t finish his words because he finally realized what his words meant. Theo had the ability to open the system, so with the current situation, Theo was the only one to be able to ess the old power system.


    "For real?" Isaac sucked a cold breath and stared at Theo in shock. Even without the full context, he understood what Walker was about to say.


    Theo sighed and exined. "Don''t tell anyone about it. Besides, if I''m gone, it''s not going to be relevant anymore unless I teach them how to use it. In the end, humans have to adapt to the current situation."


    "I understand." There were many things he wanted to ask about Theo, but it seemed thetter didn''t want to talk about it. He could understand him since there might be people aiming for Theo''s life for this no matter what way they had to get it. Even his allies might turn into an enemy. With Agata staying in a foreignnd, it wasn''t an option.


    "Anyway, I now understand them. Since the old power system can''t work anymore, humanity should start finding a solution to the current situation. If that''s the case, research is going to be important. There are many people from around the world here, so their specialty in Five Aspects is different. If we gather them and focus on researching the Five Aspects, we can save humanity from declining." Theo exined. "So, what''s the third?"


    "The third��" Isaac lowered his head, looking concerned.

 Chapter ?1472 Research

    Chapter ?1472 Research


    "The third one is just my spection. I''m thinking about the possibility of humans growing stronger like monsters. For example, what if we consume those beasts and increase our Magic Power like how the monsters do it?"


    "I don''t think it''s possible. I mean, our organs are not like them, no?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yeah. But it''s also a possibility. Even if it''s impossible to do it right now, maybe we can do it in the future by fusing a human and a monster. But then again, this is not ethical research. Although the world has fucked up, I still have my own conscience. But I don''t know what others will do?"


    "Time will tell. We can''t really talk about it now."


    "Indeed. Then the fourth thing I research is the Magic Power itself. Now that the density of Magic Power has increased drastically, normal animals have be monsters."


    "Are you telling me about livestock?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes. There is a possibility about the nts, but right now, the immediate change is in the animals. If all livestock be ferocious beasts, it''s going to be hard to acquire meat."


    "We just have to restore the government and ask the experts to kill monsters for money. The meat can be used to feed. If we''re talking about the huge number of animals on Earth as well as the monsters, we won''t be vegan soon." Theo shook his head.


    "Then, a problem urs because of that."


    "And that is?"


    "I''m talking about the monsters living underground or in the sea. Animals like ants might mutate and create more problems in the near future. Hence, if we want to restore the government, we have to exterminate all kinds of monsters on thend, sky, water, and underground."


    "That''s indeed a huge problem. I''m thinking about a huge base that gathers all survivors in one ce to set up a giant base where we can start fighting back. Knowing Rea''s intelligence, I feel like she''s going to suggest that when we''re back. So, I just need a more concrete n."


    "I see. As expected of Theo, I guess I''ll leave everything to you." Isaac chuckled. He thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, thest research is about the ranks. I told you about evolution earlier, right?


    "But the ranks are differentiating people previously. I mean, it''s not about talent but baptism. The world is the one enabling you to wield Magic Power, so I don''t know if we can get baptism anymore, especially like the Supreme and Mythical Rank Experts where our bodies are emitting Magic Power."


    Theo thought for a moment. This was indeed a problem. Although he could understand a bit about the Magic Power that could only be inherited, there was a big difference between ranks like one could see the Magic Power when they reached the Supreme Rank and used the Magic Power around them after reaching the Mythical Rank.


    If they couldn''t do it anymore, sooner orter, the humans would be wiped out by the monsters.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking about it. "Well, I can''t give you any opinion. For now, we have to restore a working government."


    "Understood. I''ll do my best to research with my power when I can work on that." Isaac nodded in understanding.


    The current situation was truly a mess. From their perspective, everything would take time. So, they had to make a move fast.


    "Still, this means the sea is going to be dangerous as heck. If we''re talking about the sky, even if they''re going to be filled with monsters, it''s not like we have any trouble traveling around. It''s dangerous, but we''re not going to get instant death. But the sea is different�� all kinds of boats will be destroyed by the monsters hiding underneath the sea.


    "And with the fact that animals like fishes be monsters�� Can you imagine their number? And it still doesn''t change the fact that most of our is covered by water." Theo sighed, facing huge trouble inside.


    The others couldn''t say anything since Theo was thinking about the whole world. Theo had expected the apocalypse, but not at this scale. He thought that he had made the apocalypse premature enough, but with the current situation, he was afraid that 99 percent of the human poption was going to die.


    Thest one percent wouldn''t be able to stop the monsters, so he had toe up with something safe.


    ��


    As Theo expected, Rea had forwarded the idea of creating a base to her father and Maya. She received a favorable response after seeing the current situation of the world. It wasn''t the time to try to get the benefits. They had to unite and survive this apocalypse.


    After that, she sought Leonardo for advice since he was the War Saint, one of the most talented strategists in the world.


    "Sir War Saint. This is my n. What do you think?" Rea presented the n while looking at Leonardo with a serious expression.


    "So, you want to create a union to form a strong front to fight the monsters." The War Saint furrowed his eyebrows. "I''m in favor. There are going to be many problems, but it''s true that it''s better than doing nothing. I want to do this as well, but my influence is not enough."


    "I know. That''s why I want to ask Theo tounch this nter. Since he''s out right now, I want to form a concrete n so that we can do it right after he arrives."


    "I see." The War Saint nodded in understanding. "Sounds good to me. I''ll help you create a n for our development."


    "Thank you very much."


    "Though, I want to warn you one thing. I''m pretty conservative unlike Theo�� Maybe because of my age, but if you don''t mind seeing a n from a person who has low expectations, I don''t mind setting up the n."


    "What we need right now is to conserve our numbers. So, it''s better to be conservative." Rea smiled.


    "You really do know how to please someone." He chuckled.

 Chapter 1473 Returning

    Chapter 1473 Returning


    Fortunately, Theo''s trip actually didn''tst too long. It took him only a total of two weeks to return with Isaac.


    As expected, he only got work to do after going back.


    Theo let out a long sigh, sitting on his chair. "This is too much even for me. It''s not like I''m going to be a politician."


    "Come on. This is all the data of our people. You have to take care of them, you know." Rea chuckled.


    "Well, you do it. I''m just going to focus on the big matter." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, have you sent the report Isaac made to the others yet?"


    "Yes. In fact, they have replied to us, wanting to hold a high-level meeting with all countries around. The problem is�� Not many countries can use theirmunication system right now."


    "How about some traditional means? Maybe a satellite phone or, even worse, the morse code?"


    "That is possible. I''ll suggest it to them, though I believe they''ve tried it. But well��" She shrugged. "Anyway, Maya and my father have expressed their agreement with this method."


    "That''s good then."


    "Also, this is the n." Rea presented the map to Theo.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when he saw all these marks and recognized who was the one giving the n. "My grandfather?"


    "Yep."


    "Using the Nethends as the base, we''re trying to expand to the whole of Europe. Not a bad n, but this is too conservative."


    "That''s what he said too. So, he wants to ask for your opinion."


    "I know that my grandfather is trying to use Flora Wegener in Germany to be the one taking themand. She is the fourth strongest person in the world, so it''s obvious. However, we have a problem, which has been stated in Isaac''s report. We can''t make a base near the coast because it''s the most dangerous.


    "Hence, we''re going to turn the Nethends into a fort instead, connecting our base to the UK and Irnd. And yes, Germany will be the center of the union. Then, we''ll have Northern Italy as the south pir, Czech as the east pir, France as the west pir, and Denmark as the north pir.


    "This is our perimeter and we''ll start eliminating all monsters within that area by using all of our military might," Theo exined.


    "I see. The problem is that we can contact Germany, but not France, the Czech Republic, and Denmark."


    "Then contact them in any way even if it means sending the military toward their ces. We have to set up the convention within a month."


    "Got it. I''ll inform Germany about it." Rea noted the instruction down and asked, "Then, how about our allies? I think it''s better to abandon the others first since we don''t have any control over them. It''s better to focus on our allies."


    "Tell Maya to ask the government to set up a base in the middle of the US. They should agree with the resources Maya can give them. At the very least, Maya has a strong ally there.


    "As for your father, it seems that there isn''t much of a problem in Japan. It might not have hugend and natural resources, but it has a strategic position to withstand this kind of apocalypse. There''s one World ss Monster there, but if I ask the Heavenly Sovereign to join hands with the Sword Saint, it shouldn''t be a problem to eliminate this monster.


    "Still, I''m going to buy some time first until Agata reaches there and meets up with the Heavenly Sovereign. Also, other countries might also go there if they hear the union between the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign."


    "Understood." Rea nodded. As expected, Theo focused on Agata and nned to do anything to ensure her safety. She was truly a lucky woman in her thought.


    "Alright. Is that all?"


    "Yes. I''ll handle the rest of the problems for you, but you should help me from time to time too."


    "Of course. But for now, I''m going to focus on the Five Aspects since it''s going to be important in the future." Theo nodded. "Also, inform me when the meeting is ready to take ce since I''ll make my move personally. Before that, I don''t want to be disturbed."


    "Huh? You sure? This is an important phase, you know. The world just experienced an apocalyptic event, and you''re going to hide?"


    "I have something more important to do." Theo shook his head.


    "More important things to do��" Rea squinted her eyes.


    Theo smirked.


    ��


    Argelia.


    As expected, since Argelia was connected to the other side that was supposed to be the US territory, if he stayed there, Theo would be teleported to Argelia.


    But Theo was actually sitting in front of the Frost Saint while sitting on top of a white structure that they repaired a year ago.


    "It seems that the structure is useless now." The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes.


    "Indeed. Now that the world situation has be like this, the structure is useless. Still, it''s not like we can throw this away, considering the importance of this structure." Theo looked at the Frost Giant with a smirk.


    "So, what are you nning to do with that?"


    "Give this structure to me. It''s not like you can use this structure since it''s still excluding energy that repels you."


    "That''s not a problem. But I still have to know what you n with it. I don''t wish to experience another nightmare in this situation." The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes.


    "This structure has so much energy because it''s created by a few Authorities. So, I''m nning to use this structure for research for the time being." Theo shrugged. "I promise that I won''t use it to harm you."


    "Really?" The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes."


    The Frost Saint and Clone Theo stared at each other for a moment. Ultimately, the Frost Saint sighed and said, "Alright. You can bring it with you."


    "Thanks."


    "But how are you going to bring that back with you?"


    Theo smiled mysteriously as if he had a n in his mind. It seemed he was nning for something big next.

 Chapter 1474 Regret?

    Chapter 1474 Regret?


    "Tsk. I wonder what she''s nning to say to me." Theo clicked his tongue while waiting for the Skylink to be connected. He couldn''t help but remember two days ago when Rea suddenly came to him.


    "Theo. It seems that our n has been approved. However, because you''re the one suggesting this n, they want to talk to you," Rea reported withplicated feelings in her heart.


    "Huh? Talk to me? Isn''t it fine just to talk during the meeting?" Theo narrowed his eyes in confusion.


    "Well, I''m not very sure. ording to them, Germany has made contact with the other governments. The meeting can be held as soon as they inform them. However, there''s a problem. Flora Wegener, the fourth strongest person in the world, wants to talk to you before the meeting."


    "She wants to talk to me?" Theo squinted his eyes. "Are you sure?"


    "Yeah. If you can meet her, we can make the meeting faster, they said. I don''t know what''s going on as well."


    "This is kinda troublesome." Theo narrowed his eyes, not understanding the reason why she wanted to meet him.


    "So, should we reject it?"


    "I don''t want to meet her personally since it''s dangerous for me to leave the base right now. If she doesn''t mind, I can do a meeting on Sk. If she doesn''t like it, then I won''t meet her."


    "Understood." Rea nodded and immediately gave Theo''s answer.


    Surprisingly, the other party epted it. Considering the other party was the fourth strongest person in the world, no one would reject her invitation in person. In fact, they would rather do a face-to-face meeting to show their sincerity.


    Unfortunately, the current situation was filled with chaos. So, Theo didn''t want to leave this base, knowing there was a hidden danger from the Griffith Family.


    It took him a few minutes to finally be connected. On the screen was a woman with a cold and aloof expression.


    She had long blond hair tied into a ponytail and wore a military uniform. She was leaning on her chair while using her left hand to support her head.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering what this woman wanted to do. Flora Wegener was the second youngest person among the top ten experts after Alexandra Boric. However, she was still around ny years old. She couldn''t be called young anymore.


    Still, with her power, she managed to keep her look young. If she was standing in the middle of the street, one would think she was a new model.


    Her fierce eyes seemed to be examining Theo.


    "Theodore Griffith. This must be the first time we meet."


    "Indeed." Theo nodded with a calm expression as if he wasn''t affected by her charisma and beautiful face. "So, may I know what''s the reason for you to meet me, Flora Wegener?"


    "I have read the report, stating about our inability to increase our level anymore. It results in our generation being unable to increase our status anymore, especially Magic Power, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. "That was just a spection and still needed to be proven, but three weeks after the apocalypse, nothing changed."


    "It seems that if you want to give birth to a talented child, you have to get talented parents too."


    "That''s just spection. We''re not experts in DNA, especially since humans are going to evolve again."


    "I don''t care. Since that''s the case, I have one thing to tell you." Flora took a deep breath. "Be mine!"


    Theo''s expression became cold as soon as he heard those words. He had expected this after giving the report, but he was certainly pissed when someone said it to him.


    "I apologize, but I have to refuse." Still, Theo maintained his calm since he didn''t want to create more enemies at the moment.


    "You are refusing me? Sorry, but that''s not an invitation. It''s an order."


    "Do you think you can order me around?"


    "You can reject my order, but I''m telling you that if you do it, you might regret it."


    "Oh, tell me how I''m going to regret it."


    "You can think of it yourself."


    "An empty threat? I see." Theo shrugged as if he didn''t care about the threat.


    "I don''t care if you are going to have another wife or whatever. I only need one thing from you. Your seed! That''s right. I want your seed to make a talented future generation. I don''t need you to marry me or whatever and I certainly don''t need your love. All I want is your seed."


    "Then, in that case, all I want is for you to fuck off." Theo snorted.


    Flora suggested this for a reason. In the surrounding area, there was only one Authority Level Figure. It was her. Then, if she took another look at the figures who had Orders in the area, all of them were just old men.


    Hence, they were basically kicked out of her options.


    Luckily, there was one person in her mind. He was talented in both mind and physique. His talent itself allowed him to learn everything, making him the most talented person in the world. In addition, he had the Order when he was only in his early twenties. This showed how much his potential was.


    So, she wanted him.


    "I''m going to say this once more. All I want is your seed, you don''t have to take care of the child since I''m the one going to raise him."


    "If you just want to raise a talent, you can simply ask those old men to bang you." Theo snorted. "Since I have understood your intention and have listened to all your nonsense, it''s time for me to hang up."


    "Theodore Griffith. You are going to regret rejecting me." Flora mmed the table and red at her.


    "I''m already regretting the fact that I have lost a few minutes of my life listening to your nonsense." Theo immediately hung up, not nning to talk anymore.


    Flora gritted her teeth as her eyes were excluding killing intent. "You''re going to regret this, Theodore Griffith."

 Chapter ?1475 Disappointment

    Chapter ?1475 Disappointment


    The next day, Theo was practicing in his garden as he still had two more days before the meeting took ce.


    This was an important time since he had little time to practice after the apocalypse started.


    But he was once again disturbed by others. However, it wasn''t Rea that came to him this time.


    The one who stood before him was none other than his grandfather, Leonardo.


    His expression was grim as if he had many things he wanted to say. But Leonardo didn''t say a single thing and only looked at Theo.


    "Don''t you think I deserve some exnations from your side, Theo?" Leonardo let out a long sigh while scratching the back of his head. He felt betrayed as this was the reason why he came here.


    "What do you mean, Grandfather?" Theo tilted his head in confusion. "I don''t understand."


    Leonardo took out his Skylink and showed him the video.


    The video was shot in the middle of nowhere. In that ce, Theo stood while smiling evilly, staring at a huge white structure.


    "Haha, with this, there''s no need for humanity anymore. It''s time for all of you to die." Theoughed crazily as he struck the pir, destroying it. Soon, the camera turned to the sky, showing a huge crack in the sky.


    Since one punch wasn''t enough, Theo crushed the entire structure with all his strength this time, making sure the structure shattered into pieces.


    In that instant, the crack in the sky shattered, marking the beginning of the apocalypse.


    "This has been spread among the poption. Whoever still has the connection to the Sk can see this video." Leonardo exined. "Well, there''s also the case of another Theodore Griffith, so I''m not going to believe it immediately. However, I need to listen to your exnation right now."


    "Hoh?" Theo narrowed his eyes. He couldn''t help but remember yesterday''s meeting with Flora Wegener. "I see. It seems that the witch loves to do it like this."


    "That witch?"


    "Flora Wegener. An old hag who pesters a young guy." Theo shrugged. "Anyway, before I exin everything to you, I''m going to state this first. That''s not me or my clone. Instead, it''s the Original me."


    Leonardo took a deep breath, feeling relieved. Theo wasn''t someone who would lie, so he believed it without hesitation. "Alright. That''s all I need to know. But it doesn''t change the fact that you''re in trouble right now."


    "Indeed." Theo nodded while squinting his eyes. "The Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign have known about it, so I don''t care much. But this ce is that old witch''s territory. If she''s helping the Griffith Family, I''m afraid that my life is in danger right now."


    "What did she want?"


    "She wants me to fuck her."


    "She wants what?" Leonardo widened his eyes in shock, thinking his ears had failed him.


    "You didn''t hear it wrong."


    Leonardo pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can understand the situation now."


    "Well, that''s how it is." Theo sighed.


    "So, since he can''t get you, she ns to��"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "She''s taking the hands of my original self. Since I''m not there, my original self should be the second option. In other words, the Griffith Family is approaching this ce, wanting to deal with me by joining hands with her."


    Leonardo''s expression turned grim. "I see. It seems that they''re ying with fire, a huge fire."


    "Indeed." Theo nodded. "Though, since you''re my grandfather, I think you should know this. I was the one forcing my original self to start the apocalypse."


    "You what?" Leonardo widened his eyes in shock. "You did what?"


    Theo shrugged, not repeating his words.


    Leonardo''s expression became pale. He felt a bit betrayed since his grandson was actually the cause of the apocalypse. It was true that the Original Theo was the true culprit, but Theo was the one instigating it. This way, no matter how he tried to reword it, Theo was the one who caused the apocalypse.


    "Why�� Why did you cause the apocalypse?" Leonardo grabbed Theo''s shoulder with a pained look. "Do you know what you''re doing? You cause ten billion people to die and will increase from today onward. I ask again�� Do you know what you''re doing?"


    Theo looked at his grandfather and nodded with a calm expression. "Yes. I''m not going to deny it. I''m the one who causes it."


    "You�� motherfucker." Leonardo gritted his teeth and clutched his hand. "There are a total of forty people missing from the War God Family. And there are ten people dying from the family. Do you not feel anything?"


    "I do. If you want to condemn me, so be it. Even if I can rewind time, I''m going to do the same thing."


    "Do the same thing? Do you know how hurt I''m right now? I feel betrayed!" Leonardo gritted his teeth. "I''m training you and protecting you this whole time not so that you can cause a genocide!"


    If not for his age and calmness, Leonardo would have blown up and attacked Theo with all his strength. He was clenching his fists until they bled, trying to calm his heart. No matter how painful it was, he wanted to hear the full exnation first. "Exin it to me�� EXPLAIN!"


    "Will you believe my words if it sounds like bullshit?" Theo asked.


    "I just want to hear your exnation." Leonardo gritted his teeth.


    "I understand. Before I tell you about it, I want you to know one of my rules for my Order." Theo took a deep breath. "I won''t lie. That''s all. Whether you believe me or not, it''s up to you, Grandfather."


    Theo nced at his grandfather''s face for a moment, showing how pained he was. He was the second person that made Theo feel the warmth of a family after a long time. So, he also felt hurt to see him this way.


    Theo took a deep breath, knowing that his story was so absurd that no one would believe, except for the Heavenly Sovereign.

 Chapter 1476 Screwed

    Chapter 1476 Screwed


    "��That''s all I can tell you." Theo ended his exnation with a sigh. He told Leonardo about beings in the higher dimension as well as what would happen if he didn''t create an apocalypse.


    The story was ridiculous because no one would ever believe there was a being up there that wanted to destroy the whole world.


    Theo didn''t say anything about the God of Mischief because they could simply say that Theo was fooled by the God of Mischief and caused the apocalypse.


    Leonardo was fuming in anger because he never expected that Theo was doing something like this against the being that they didn''t know existed.


    "Are you kidding me?" Leonardo gritted his teeth.


    "Are my words a joke to you?"


    "I can''t defend you anymore, Theo. Do you know what you''ve done? Do you truly know? For god sake." Leonardo was facing the biggest hurdle in his life. He was the one raising Theo to be a strategist and protecting Theo this whole time. If he knew that everything would make him kill more than ten billion people, he surely wouldn''t teach Theo how to get stronger.


    Theo had his reason, but it didn''t change the fact that no one had proven the existence of the higher being. He truly had nothing to defend him.


    "Since the situation has be like this, I''m going to leave, Grandfather." Theo sighed. "I''ll bring whoever that wants to follow me, only my group, I think. Either way, I''m not going to stop here. If I don''t start the apocalypse, we''re going to face extinction. So, I''ll live with this sin."


    "You��" Leonardo wanted to say many things, but no words came out of his mouth.


    "Thank you for doing everything for me, Grandfather." Theo kneeled in front of him as his head was right in front of Leonardo''s shoes, as if he was kissing his grandfather''s feet for thest respect he could give to him. "I''m d that you''re there for me, Grandfather. Thanks to you, I can finally learn what it means to have a family again. Please take care of yourself, Grandfather.


    "Even if I''m going to be the biggest viin, I won''t hesitate to do it because I have a reason to fight." Theo smiled and finally rose from the ground. "Goodbye."


    That ''goodbye'' was brief but painful. Leonardo couldn''t say anything. He wanted to believe in Theo, but the higher dimension itself was something fictional. There wasn''t any proof they existed and wanted to destroy this world.


    His heart was filled with grief as he watched Theo walking away.


    Theo walked to Rea and said, "We need to leave."


    "Is the video��"


    "Yeah. That''s my original self." Theo nodded. "I never thought that the Griffith Family was this close�� I''m afraid we don''t have much time left."


    "I understand. Who are we going to bring?"


    "Everyone from our group, including Millie, Aisha, Phyrill, and Ellen. Of course, if anyone doesn''t want to follow me, it''s perfectly fine. Also, tell the Saintess to go back with my grandfather since he shouldn''t mind bringing her back." Theo nodded. "Though, now the situation is like this, I''m afraid that your father is going to take you back."


    "The world is in this situation, so all he can do is disown me. That''s fine, I guess. It means I can follow you." Rea shrugged.


    "Thank you�� Thank you very much."


    "What''s wrong with you? Did you mellow up a bit after talking to your grandfather?"


    "I guess. Gather everyone here and we''re going to leave." Theo nodded.


    "Where are we going?"


    "Turkey. I don''t know if we can meet up with Coline and Chris, but let''s go there for the time being."


    "But what are you going to do with this whole situation?" Rea furrowed her eyebrows. "I mean, the Griffith Family is going to take this opportunity to influence the base. They''re going to��"


    "I know. It''s funny, right? The real enemy is hiding among them while I, the one fighting the enemy, am actually forced to join the other side." Theo chuckled.


    "You�� Are you nning to��" Rea widened her eyes, understanding the real meaning behind Theo''s words.


    Theo smirked. "Since people believe I''m the one screwing the world, I''ll show them what it feels like to have me screw it for real."


    Rea trembled and didn''t dare to continue that conversation. She could only run away and call upon the members.


    The whole world had been turned upside down by that video. There were many people cursing at Theo, the one who caused everything.


    Theo had mixed feelings in his heart. Firstly, everything he did was for humanity. If he didn''t start the apocalypse early, there might be a greater event like what wiped out the God Age or even the dinosaur.


    Yet, no one thought that way. They only considered Theo to be the greatest criminal, who had caused billions of deaths. If he wasn''t the worst person in the world, no one dared to be the second.


    This might be what the God of Mischief felt when he started the Ragnarok. No one understood his mind and thought that he had gone too far with his mischief by causing the end of his era.


    But in that darkness, there was actually one light that shone far brighter than the other. The light appeared so suddenly and dumbstruck the entire.


    It was a video of Ray Griffith.


    He wasughing crazily in front of the camera while looking at the people who saw him with bloodshot eyes.


    "Hahahaha! To think that bastard finally did it! Screw the world. You took everything for me and now, it''s time for me to take everything from you." These were thest words that Ray gave in his video.


    His meaning was clear. He was the culprit, manipting Theo to do such a thing. In other words, the reason for this apocalypse was him.


    His words stunned the world.


    Meanwhile, Ray was standing in front of his room while clenching his fists. Ray made a sad smile. "I know that I had to leave you with that harsh condition when you were a child, Theo. However, I have never once stopped loving you. You are always my child and will always be. This time, I''m going with you, Son��"

 Chapter 1477 Leaving

    Chapter 1477 Leaving


    "Hahaha, are they an idiot?" The Heavenly Sovereignughed out loud. He was still in the call with Theo since the only one who believed the being in the higher dimension was him. Even the Sword Saint didn''t know much about it. So, if there was an ally Theo could rely on, it was probably the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "Well, whatever. I''m simply going to leave. At the very least, some people know that''s not me and my clone."


    "Fair enough. Even though you were the one causing all this."


    "What are you talking about? I''m saving humanity." Theo shrugged.


    "That''s true. But I guess, this time, the situation has been turned aroundpletely. The Griffith Family is going to hide directly behind the union, making it hard for you to stay there.


    "The actual enemy is living among us while the real hero has to bear the burden of bing the viin. Such a pathetic world to live in." The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but pity Theo.


    Theo shrugged. "Anyway, I''m going to leave this ce."


    "Are you going toe here? But I don''t have much time left. The best I can do is to wait for your woman to arrive before evacuating to Japan. We''ve agreed that in exchange for a living area, I''ll help the Sword Saint to eliminate the threat there."


    "That''s what I want to do, but it''s going to be dangerous to cross the entire in. I mean, there are a few European countries before I can even reach Asia. Then crossing the Middle East before I have to cross Asia. It''s pretty hard to aplish even for me."


    "So, are you nning to go the other way around? Going to the US and staying there? To be honest, I love the idea of you staying here since I will have someone to talk to."


    "Nope. I''m going to stay in the Middle East for the time being." Theo shook his head. "I have some ns there."


    "Alright. That''s good enough for me, but you''re going to have a lot of things to do if you want to restoremunication. I mean, it''s impossible to make the satellite work anymore since I''m sure the one stationed above that area has beenpletely destroyed. But rest assured, I, Feng Hao, will protect your wife until youe. This is the least I can do as one of the three��"


    One of the three in his mouth referred to the three kings, who ruled the sky, thend, and the sea respectively.


    Theo nodded. "Thank you."


    "I hope that the next time we meet, you already have your Authority."


    "See you soon." Theo smirked.


    The Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes while hanging up.


    Theo, on the other hand, fell silent because he had a lot of things in his mind. "My entire n has copsed, but I guess it''s a given because of the situation. I guess the clone ising handy."


    Theo smiled. There was a reason why Theo wanted the structure and had been asking the Frost Saint to give it to him.


    The structure itself could be used to make a safe haven since no monsters could prate the barrier. All he had to do was to meet the God of Mischief. Thetter had said that he had prepared a few ns, so it meant the God of Mischief was actually still living. In fact, it could be said that the God of Mischief had resurrected himself.


    Although he didn''t know the entire n and how he survived, the chance was there.


    Hence, Theo''s n was to head where his clone was after carrying the structure by himself.


    While he was in the middle of his thoughts, Rea came to him with a serious expression.


    "Theo��"


    "What''s wrong? Did someone choose not to go?" Theo''s tone was calm as if he had expected it.


    "Did you predict it?"


    "Let me guess, Phyrill and Ellen? Unlike the others, we don''t really have any family, no? Except for you, whose family is kinda too strong. So, I''m guessing that Phyrill and Ellen are going to stay here." Theo nodded, confirming her doubt.


    "��" Rea looked at Theo with a sad expression. Everything was ruined because of Flora, who sided with the Griffith Family.


    "Anyway, we don''t have much time left. When can we move?"


    "Most of the stuff is your illusion, so we don''t have many things to bring. For now, the ones who are going to follow you are Felix and Millie, Jeff and his sister, Akbar, Walker, Isaac, Millie, Aisha, and me."


    "Good enough for me. Tell my grandfather to take in Phyrill and Ellen along with all their families. Also, bring Enrica back. We''re going to depart in fifteen minutes."


    "Understood." Rea acknowledged the order and immediately informed the others about Theo''s decision.


    Before they left, Theo went to theke to erase his Covenant Seal. In that instant, all thendscape returned to normal. The building disappeared, half of the trees vanished, and even the mist that stopped the people froming had been retracted.


    When he came out of theke, he saw Phyrill and Ellen right next to theke. Both of them looked down because their decision this time was truly a big hit for Theo.


    Theo made a small smile and patted their shoulders. "It''s fine. You don''t have to feel sorry."


    "But the one in the video wasn''t you��" Phyrill gritted his teeth. "And I�� feel ashamed that I couldn''t even repay your kindness."


    Theo shook his head. "Since I''m a viin now, I should start acting like one. That''s right. Your two families are too many, so they''re just going to be a burden on this trip. It''s better for them to fuck off."


    Phyrill and Ellen gritted their teeth. They shouldn''t end up this way, but they had families to take care of.


    ''Burden? Fuck off?'' Theo was just saying all those words because he wanted to make them feel better. He never thought of them as a burden.


    The Wind Emperor also said to never look at others as a burden. He might look at them as a weakness, but he knew that without enough strength, he wouldn''t be able to protect everything. This was the path to be stronger.


    Yet, Theo could only pat their shoulder onest time before he walked away, leaving them along with all their acquaintances in this ce.

 Chapter ?1478 Danger

    Chapter ?1478 Danger


    Theo stood in front of his group with a smile on his face. "Are all of you ready?"


    "We''re good to go." Rea nodded with a smile. "Where are we going though?"


    "Middle East. I''m going to send you the exact location." Theo typed a few things in his Skylink and said, "From this point on, I don''t know where we can startmunicating with the rest of the world but don''t worry, I''ll ensure that we''re going to be self-sustained sooner orter."


    "Understood." Rea opened the exact location and said, "If that''s the case, we should go immediately."


    "Yep. Let''s go." Theo nodded as he started walking with the rest of the group, nning to go to their next destination by foot. Other than Millie and Aisha, all of them were either Supreme Rank or Mythical Rank, including Jeff''s sister. Hence, Felix carried Millie with him while Rea summoned a tiger so that Aisha could ride it.


    They were immediately going straight to their destination.


    On the way, Felix approached him and asked, "What are you nning to do after reaching our next home? Are you going to seriously��"


    Theo smirked. "No. At the end of the day, the union will be the home of my grandfather. There''s no way I''m going to destroy it. The world is already a shitty ce to live in. Even withmon enemies, the humans are still fighting among themselves. So��" Theo shrugged. "As for my n, it''s simple. I''m going to build up my strength for the time being. The n is going to be a bitplicated, so I''ll tell you the rest when we reach that ce."


    "Got it." Felix nodded.


    The journey went smoothly since all of them were quite strong. With Felix and Theo taking turns to lead the group, they managed to conserve most of their stamina due to their overwhelming strength.


    Rea, Jeff, Akbar, and Walker focused on protecting the rest. They had Aisha, who could recover a limb, but they didn''t want to be injured at this point. Because they were rushing, they sustained a few injuries, but Aisha had no problem healing them.


    Even so, it was impossible topletely erase their trail because it would take too much time. The Griffith Family would be able to catch up sooner orter. So, they could only continue going forward.


    As expected, the Griffith Family could differentiate between the corpses of the monsters that fought against the locals and the monsters that Theo''s group defeated. There was simply a big difference in strength between Theo and the local powerhouses.


    Hence, they kept tracking the trails.


    There were three problems that Theo''s group soon encountered. The first would be the distance. With their current pace, they could only reach their destination in a month.


    The second problem was rted to Coline and Chris. Since the Griffith Family was pursuing the group, if they somehow passed Coline and Chris, they would be in danger. So, Theo had to find them along the way.


    Last but not least, the exhaustioning from the trip. As expected, even for Theo and Felix, it was quite hard to keep fighting monsters. And it would be even harder if they met a King ss or even a World ss Monster along the way.


    Still, Theo''s group didn''t have a choice. They continued their journey, hoping for the best.


    After a whole four days, they had crossed Slovenia and continued their way to Serbia. But because of the continuous usage of Magic Power, they decided to take a rest in Croatia for a bit so that Theo and Felix could recover.


    The group was worried about them since they had been fighting nonstop. Although the effect was quite good for Theo and Felix since they managed to level up three times in the past four days, their bodies wouldn''tst long at this rate.


    However, the trouble had yet to end. Felix and Theo were sitting in a lotus pose side by side, recovering their energy. But they suddenly opened their eyes.


    Theo suddenly felt someone''s gaze. Even Felix noticed something wrong and looked at Theo.


    Theo nodded. "Go!"


    Felix disappeared the moment he said that word.


    "!!!" The guy was startled. "He disappeared?"


    Soon, he felt a cold de pressing on his neck as Felix''s words echoed in his ears. "Who are you?"


    "What are you talking about? I''m a Supreme Rank Expert transported to this country. I saw your group there and decided to take a look since we can''t really lower our guard down. I apologize for not showing up." The guy gulped down, trying to exin.


    "I see." Felix nodded as if confirming his identity. However, that de cut the guy''s neck the moment Felix noticed a hiddenmunication device in his body. As an assassin, he was used to this kind of situation, so he instantly recognized everything.


    He immediately rushed back to Theo and said, "It''s not good. The Griffith Family is right around us. We have to run away immediately."


    "!!!" The entire group widened their eyes, knowing that if the Griffith Family managed to catch up, they would be in huge trouble, especially if Mason Griffith was actually among them.


    "Alright. Let''s move again. We don''t have much time left." Theo nodded. "This is going to be extremely dangerous for us. Felix and I will try to hold them back if necessary, but for now, we will continue." Theo immediately gave the order as the group immediately picked up the pace.


    As expected from the Griffith Family, whose family was focused on espionage, once they managed to mark the target, all units started moving together since they were talking with radio instead of the Skylink that used the satellite to operate.


    They had someone bring a big emitter that could be used to connect all theirmunication systems within a few miles radius, so they managed to track down Theo in seconds and started moving toward him.


    "We got him." Mason smirked, ncing at the original Theo and the Poison King next to him.


    "I can''t really show myself around, but this world has been in this state, so I don''t mind bing someone else in the future. For now, I want him dead." The Original Theo smirked, ready to kill his clone.

 Chapter 1479 Goddess of Death

    Chapter 1479 Goddess of Death


    As expected from the Griffith Family, Theo''s group had just gone for two hours before they caught up to them.


    A volley of attacks suddenly flew into the air and fell in front of them, causing the group to stop to avoid the attacks.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and turned around, seeing a few people in the air. He was sure that many were still hiding around them.


    The three in the air were the ones ordering these people. In the middle, Mason stood as the supreme leader while the Poison King and the Original Theo were standing behind him.


    "You won''t be able to run away anymore." Mason smirked, looking down on Theo. "If this apocalypse didn''t happen, the Griffith Family would surely change the owner because of you. I apud you for your action since you''re the only one who manages to shake the Griffith Family''s foundation to that degree.


    "However, your time has passed. It''s time for the new era, and a clone like you doesn''t have a ce here."


    The Original Theo licked his lips. "Well, it seems that there are a few useful people there. If you take that female kid who seems to be the White Death''s daughter, you can control the White Death. If you take that Nagasawa Rea, you can control the Sword Saint. And after that, I''m going to devour my clone and gain everything."


    "Don''t worry. The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint can''t help him anymore. Even the Wind Emperor has died. No one can stop me anymore." Mason nodded in agreement.


    "Haha, I''ll make sure to take care of everyone you leave behind, faker, including those two girls." The Original Theo looked at them with a vulgar gaze.


    "You seem to have been fucked up by those undead that your head has been reced by your dick." Theo snorted as he stepped forward, nning to take them on. It was impossible for them to keep going unless someone stopped them, so this was the time for Theo to sacrifice himself since his group could go on with that.


    "Felix. You lead the group to reach that destination. My clone won''t be there for you, but at the very least, the group can survive." Theo stood as a leader, giving hisst order.


    "I''m afraid that the job shall be handed to Rea. I promised you back then. I''ll be your sword. If you die on the battlefield, then that''s where I belong. Let me apany you for onest fight." Felix stepped forward once again. He had Millie on his back, but Millie had said something before they left Italy. ''Father, if they''re going to use me to control you, I''ll kill myself without hesitation. This time, I''d rather die instead of bing a tool.''


    This gave him the motivation to fight to hisst breath. Although he didn''t want Millie to die, he couldn''t convince Millie. So, he wanted to do everything as a father who would protect his master and his daughter to the very end.


    "What a touching moment. However, do you think you will be able to stop us?" Mason smirked and raised his hands. A few Mythical Rank Experts showed themselves, surrounding the group.


    Rea and the others immediately took out their weapons, ready to fight. But it seemed that Theo''s prediction was correct.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!"


    Suddenly, a personnded on the ground at fast speed to the point she crashed onto the ground, turning it into a crater.


    This person shocked all of them because they didn''t know someone with this kind of strength.


    Surprisingly, a thin cloth flew out of Theo''s body as if recognizing this person. It immediately reattached itself to this woman.


    "It seems that I''m notte to the party." She smirked while waving her hand, sending all the smoke that covered her away.


    The people from the Griffith Family were confused because they''d never seen someone like this. The Griffith Family people furrowed their eyebrows because they noticed that the person that had just arrived was strong.


    The woman had long ck hair and eyes filled with confidence. She wore a red gown with a ck lower part, making her ck hair look like it continued to the ground. She looked graceful, but the coldness that soon surrounded her could send a shiver down their spine.


    Theo widened his eyes in shock. "You�� why are you here?"


    "You know her?" Rea and the others had the same question as they didn''t recognize her.


    The woman smirked and said, "I''m here to back you up!"


    "Who are you? You dare to stop us, the Griffith Family?"


    "What Griffith Family? Your ancestor is at my mercy, and you dare talk big in front of me? It seems that theter generations are far more arrogantpared to that ant." She snorted.


    Mason''s veins bulged on his forehead as he clenched his fist, emitting killing intent. "What did you say?"


    "What a weak killing intent��" The woman smirked as she gently stepped onto the ground. "I will show you who is the one in front of you right now."


    Suddenly, a huge skeletal hand rose from the ground before waving it as if trying to pull out its body that had been buried underneath. The skeleton soon came out and looked at them with bloodshot eyes.


    Just its appearance alone could make one shiver in fear as if death came out of Hell to invite them in.


    "I am��" The woman smirked as she activated Theo''s skill at its greatest form. It was far different from what Theo could do even if he could upgrade its power to S Rank.


    The bloodshot eyes emitted a red energy wave in all directions. In that instant, the ground dried up and turned gray as if all life had been depleted from within. The trees around them withered away in an instant and the leaves fell to the ground.


    In a radius of two hundred feet, all living beings aside from humans had been deprived of their lives.


    This action made one suck a cold breath. Even Mason''s hands were shaking and sweating as if he knew the power was far too dangerous than he expected.


    The woman coldly smiled and stated with a serene tone. "The ruler of Helheim�� People know me as the Goddess of Death, Hel."

 Chapter 1480 Powerful

    Chapter 1480 Powerful


    "Hel?!" Everyone was stunned when she presented this name. After all, it referred to the Goddess of Death that ruled Helheim in the God Age. No Gods or Goddesses actually survived the Ragnarok and all of them were watching over them.


    So, they didn''t know why someone would impersonate her.


    However, Theo couldn''t say the same thing. After all, he had seen Hel personally whenever he entered his consciousness. Even if someone mistook her for someone else, he wouldn''t.


    After all, his Reality Eyes also gave the same information.


    Name: Hel


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 979


    EXP: 55,633,212/101,336,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Afterlife Marking (A), Afterlife Border (A), Death Lordship (S), Death Maniption (A), Death Force (S), Death Wave (S), Death Sense (A), Necromancy (S), Purification (A) Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S)


    Attributes: Strength 1577, Endurance 898, Agility 900, Vitality 1200, Magic Power 3532


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Theo wouldn''t mistake her because she had been registered by the world itself. So, the one before him was truly Hel. However, he was confused because Hel was supposed to have died during that event. So, even if she managed to get a body, it would be someone else''s body. She could form her own body like the Death Reaper, but she would pay a huge price for it.


    But the power that she released earlier clearly showed that she was on her top performance. She was truly the Goddess of Death.


    "Someone at this level without me knowing it?" Mason sucked a cold breath. He couldn''t believe the one before him was the real Hel since no relic of the past actually came into this world anymore. If they did, they would have met them already, considering there were many Gods and Goddesses or even Mythical Beasts.


    So, this person mustn''t be the real Hel. Knowing that the other party was just impersonating the Goddess of Death, Mason waved his hand and shot out a torrential Magic Power. If it touched the ground, the powerful Magic Power would have destroyed the ground like a drill.


    But Hel simply raised her hand with a calm expression. Suddenly, his Magic Color turned ck as if it was infused by her Death Energy. That energy gradually formed a ck cape for her skeleton, making it even scarier.


    "!!!" Mason widened his eyes in shock. He finally confirmed that the enemy this time was also an Authority Level Figure and he didn''t know whether he could defeat her or not.


    His hesitation didn''t escape Theo''s eyes as he ordered, "Felix. Stop the Poison King; the rest of you are to protect the group and kill anyone approaching you."


    "Roger (Yes)." All of them realized that no matter who just appeared, whether she was real or not, she was the beacon of hope that would lead them out of here.


    "There are many things that I want to say, but I think we have to focus on the people in front of us," said Theo while looking at his original self.


    "Indeed. Do whatever you think is right. I''ll handle that ant." Hel nodded as she was still looking down on Mason.


    "You--" Mason wanted to refute her im, but Hel suddenly jumped toward him while waving her right hand.


    Mason immediately pointed his palm at her and released another burst of Magic Power.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Twister.


    Hel had seen this many times through Theo''s eyes, so she also released her own Magic Power, not scared of losing in terms of Magic Power.


    The collision of their Magic Power was so fierce that it created a powerful shock wave that even blew trees away.


    However, Mason noticed something from this attack.


    "Huh?" He couldn''t believe it when Hel''s Magic Power gradually overpowered him. ''I am losing? I, the one who has Magic Order?''


    Hel didn''t stop after that. The Magic Powering from her body gradually turned ck as it swirled around her arm to shoot out another wave of Magic Power.


    Death Wave.


    "Not good!" Mason clicked his tongue and hurriedly threw himself to the side as the ck Magic Power created a huge tornado that flew horizontally. It didn''t destroy anything, but the tornado took away their life. Even if it was a concrete standing in its way, its life would be taken away and the concrete would be too brittle to support the weight and start to crumble.


    If Mason didn''t cover his arms with an extraordinary amount of Magic Power, his arms would be reduced to only his skeleton.


    Suddenly, the skeleton behind Hel''s back pped its hands and created a gap between two palms, forming a ck light.


    Death Lordship.


    "!!!" Mason widened his eyes because he suddenly felt his body being pulled to the ground. He tried to resist it, but it was futile because the power was far greater than his own.


    *Bam!*


    Mason crashed to the ground. He wasn''t that injured due to his Magic Power that softened the impact, but he certainly didn''t feel good. After all, this unknown woman actually managed to overwhelm him to this degree.


    The shock was spread to the entire Griffith Family. Mason Griffith was their strongest person, so if he could be overpowered like this, they would be in trouble the moment Mason died.


    Of course, Theo didn''t let this opportunity go. This time, they managed to turn the situation around again. So, he hurriedly jumped to the original Theo and waved his sword.


    The original Theo clicked his tongue and released the ck substance, catching Theo''s sword.


    Theo smirked and forged a Reality Realm around his sword. In the Reality Realm, he applied his own Attribute Removal. It meant everything that passed through the Reality Realm would lose its affinity.


    That was why when Theo swung his sword, his sword cut through the ck substance, rming the original Theo.


    If not for his fast reaction, his hand would have been cut by the sword.


    The original Theo leaped back and released another wave of ck substance, trying to devour Theo by surrounding him entirely with it.


    However, Theo changed his weapon into a spear and wrapped it with Reality Realm and Attribute Removal.


    All the ck substance was turned back into Magic Power as soon as they reached the shield, allowing Theo to push through and approach the original Theo.


    "I''m not afraid of you anymore." Theo smirked.

 Chapter ?1481 Retreat

    Chapter ?1481 Retreat


    "Kh." The Original Theo furrowed his eyebrows, realizing Theo had achieved thest stage of Authority like him.


    He let out an even more powerful one to pressure him but to no avail. In Theo''s realm, the Order couldn''t be allowed to exist. But because of that powerful rule, Theo could only spread it around his weapon.


    Theo understood this concept after learning about the Reality Realm. He found that the bigger the rule, the more energy he needed to supply it. Hence, if he wanted to use this power continuously, he could only wrap it around his weapon.


    Still, this was enough because the original Theo was forced to go back like Mason.


    All Felix and the others had to do was survive the onught until Theo and Hel defeated their respective opponents.


    "No!" The original Theo shouted as his whole body excluded ck substance before a ck-colored wave flew in all directions, turning the entire area ck. The blue sky became gray, the white cloud turned ck, and the ground became yellow.


    This was the original Theo''s devouring domain.


    Seeing this kind of power, Theo couldn''t help but smile, recalling what the Heavenly Sovereign had shown him back then.


    When ying chess, the Heavenly Sovereign introduced him to the concept of a domain. The first one was about the realm itself, which was the gxy in his case. Secondly, there were rules like how the chess had different sets of colors whening into a certain ce. These rulespletely took control over the domain.


    However, Theo altered the realm itself with his own power, creating a poker inside a game of chess.


    So, Theo immediately utilized his Order to alter this domain''s rule.


    "Devour!" The original Theo utilized his domain, which allowed him to summon ck holes everywhere in the domain as long as it wasn''t disturbed by someone''s Magic Power. Hence, the ck hole suddenly appeared next to Theo where his Magic Power didn''t reach.


    Everything would be sucked into the ck hole and no one could tell what would happen if Theo was sucked into it.


    But a single snap from Theo actually turned the ck hole into a white hole. The white hole was releasing all kinds of things instead of absorbing everything. But due to theck of material inside the white hole, there was nothing other than Magic Powering out of the hole.


    "You!" The original Theo never expected that his clone could actually do something at this level. If he brought out another clone, he was afraid that he would be defeated by those two.


    However, Theo didn''t seem to be nning to use his clone because he had to take care of the pir. He was about to use it before because this might be hisst fight, but it seemed there was no need for it anymore.


    Theo was confident to be able to defeat the original Theo before they fell into a deep problem since Hel was here.


    But it seemed that the situation wasn''t favorable enough to kill the original Theo because Mason Griffith crashed to the ground again and spat some blood. He then gave the order out loud. "Retreat!"


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes and saw Mason starting to leave. Surprisingly, Hel also didn''t give chase as if she didn''t even want to move.


    While moving away, Mason Griffith sent a powerful torrential Magic Power to Theo, blowing him away to give a chance for the original Theo to escape.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and removed the Magic Power with his own. But it was toote. The remaining members of the Griffith Family had left as well. Even if they chased them, it was impossible to wipe them out.


    "You''re not going to chase them?" Theo was slightly disappointed because Hel didn''t kill Mason, but Hel shook her head with a serious expression as if she had some problems.


    "I still haven''t recoveredpletely, you know." Hel sighed.


    "Really?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Still, they''re going toe back againter. It''s annoying."


    "That''s true. I''ve seen everything through your eyes, so I know what it means. But I can''t do anything."


    "Well, true enough. Also, where is he? Is he also in this world? What happened after the Spatial Rift copsed?"


    "Mhm." Hel nced to the side. "I think it''s fine for them to hear it too."


    "Is that so?" Theo thought for a moment and ultimately agreed. "Alright."


    Theo and Hel walked back together as if they had known each other for a long time. Theo saw Felix''s pale face and immediately came to him with his Death Avatar. He used the Underworld Body to expel all the poison in his body.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Yes. All the bad feelings in my body have disappeared. There should be no poison left, so I just need to recover."


    "Good enough." Theo felt relieved and checked the rest of his group, wondering if there were any injuries. Though, Aisha had healed all of them.


    Everyone was staring at Hel, curious about who she truly was. People often impersonated their idols, even if they were figures in mythologies. So, they thought Hel was the same.


    They were waiting for Theo to exin since Theo wouldn''t lie.


    "Well, I have introduced myself, but I''m going to do it again. I''m Hel! Nice to meet you." Hel smirked. Even though she was telling the truth, no one believed her.


    "Hel is supposed to be the Goddess of Death. And she has died��" Isaac was the first to reply since he was the most knowledgeable in the group.


    "I never died though." Hel shrugged.


    "Huh?" Isaac was bewildered by her statement because it wasn''t funny, even for a joke.


    "What''s wrong? You have visited the outeryer of my territory, but you still can''t believe me?"


    "Outer territory?"


    "The one filled with snow and ice."


    "!!!" Isaac widened his eyes in shock. "Wait a minute. Don''t tell me, that ce is��"


    "It seems you''ve figured it out. Yeah, that''s Niflheim."


    "Seriously?"


    Theo let out a long sigh and said, "What she said is true since I went deeper and visited Helheim. Well, I think it''s time for me to tell you about my blessing. My blessing doesn''te from her but her father."


    "Her father�� Illusion��"


    "Yeah. The one who grants me the blessing is her father, the God of Mischief, Loki."

 Chapter 1482 Blessing

    Chapter 1482 Blessing


    "Yeah. The one who grants me the blessing is her father, the God of Mischief, Loki."


    This statement shocked everyone because this was the first time Theo revealed his blessing. Others could only specte about his blessing, but they were the ones who heard it directly from Theo.


    "Though, I certainly don''t understand how you''re still alive." Theo nced at Hel.


    "I never died. I mean, what did I do during that time?" Hel asked back.


    "What did you do?" Theo pondered for a moment. "Now that I think about it, there is almost no record about you during Ragnarok. Even Fenrir and Jormungand fought people��"


    "Yeah. I remained in Helheim at that time. I mean, there will be a huge influx of soulsing to Helheim after that, so I have to remain there to take care of those souls."


    "To the Spatial Rift?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Correct. Those who could be reincarnated went through the usual way while those who are strong enough went to the Spatial Rift and remained there." Hel nodded and soon noticed the dumbfounded expression they had.


    "��" Theo let out a long sigh and exined everything from the beginning. "I''m sure that all of you are aware of Ragnarok, right? Before everyone died at that time, the God of Mischief had created a separate realm for refugees, our world. The destroyed world is on the other side.


    "This was what truly happened behind the scenes. In other words, after the other side was thoroughly destroyed, he sneaked in some people and other living beings to this side, letting them popte the empty realm.


    "I have exined the structure of the two sides and the Spatial Rift to you, so I''m sure that you can connect everything." Theo sighed.


    Isaac gasped. "Then, the reason we could find Antis and all historical structures��"


    "Yeah. That''s because they belonged to the other side. Though, you haven''t answered my question." Theo nced at Hel.


    "Ah? About me staying alive? That''s simple. You remember about the coldness that would freeze everything?"


    "You''re not going to tell me that you''re faking your death, right?"


    "That''s exactly what I did. I froze myself and separated my own soul to enter the Spatial Rift, making it look like I was dead even though I wasn''t. As for the method, I think the fact that I''m managing the souls of the dead alone is enough to exin it.


    "Anyway, I faked my death this way and entered the Spatial Rift with everyone else. This way, I could give blessings like the others.


    "Then, when the Spatial Rift copsed, my soul didn''t belong to the dead since I''m not dead yet. So, I returned to my body and got teleported to this ce. Well, this ce is near the former Helheim, so I thought about going to your ce�� I guess we''re lucky to meet here."


    "Indeed." Theo chuckled.


    Hel shrugged and nced at Theo''s group. "Well, my Death Armor is stopping my flesh from rotting. Do you want me to take it out so that you can touch the rotten flesh? It''ll be a new experience."


    "��" Everyone was speechless while Theo said, "I don''t think you should do that. Humans."


    "Yeah, humans." Hel rolled her eyes, not liking humans as well.


    "Anyway, I have another question, where is he? His soul should belong to the deceased, right? The record is there."


    "I''m not sure myself. I do believe that he''s like that, but you know him�� He might suddenly appear and say, ''I''m bored, so I''m going to enjoy this world for the time being,'' or something like that."


    "��" Theo couldn''t refute it. Knowing Loki''s personality, he would certainly not die with the other souls in the Spatial Rift when it copsed. In other words, he might be somewhere in this world, but no one knew what he was nning to do.


    "Still, there''s something that doesn''t add up. How do you know her, Theo? If your blessinges from the God of Mischief, doesn''t it mean he''ll be the only one you meet?" Rea asked.


    Theo and Hel looked at each other. Their gaze decided that Hel was going to exin it.


    Hel raised her finger. "To put it simply, he created the realm, so he knew what he could do with it. Hence, when he gave his blessing to Theo, we coulde along. There were four of us back then while the rest took care of the matter in the Spatial Rift."


    "Four��" Rea gasped, understanding that meaning. "Doesn''t that mean you were trained by four godlike figures?"


    "I guess you can say that. I think you have seen my power��"


    "Now that I think about it��" Rea contemted, recounting Theo''s skills. "The snake skin, the avatar, and the blink. Are they��"


    "Yeah, the serpent, the death, and the beast." Theo nodded, confirming her doubt. "My Metamorphosis, Telekinesis, and Clone are from the original blessing��"


    Theo, of course, didn''t mention anything about the World Re-Creation due to its nature thatpletely broke the system.


    "No wonder you''re so talented. Your progress is so fast that everyone can''t believe it." Rea shook her head helplessly.


    "That''s where you''re wrong, little girl." Hel smirked. "It''s not because of us that he''s so talented. It''s because he''s talented that we chose him."


    "Ah!" Rea looked away since that meant Theo was far more monstrous than she originally thought.


    "Anyway, what are you going to do next? Find him?" Theo asked Hel.


    "My body is still too weak right now. I have been frozen for so long, so a few months are not enough for me to fully recover. Since it''s impossible to find him with this condition, I''m going to stick with you until I recover. Just don''t include me in your n since I''m going to focus on my recovery. Though, if your ce is attacked, I''ll help you."


    "I see. That''s reassuring." Theo nodded. "But there is one more problem now. My people are going to pass here, so I''m afraid that we''re going to miss them. If they somehow meet the Griffith Family��"


    "That''s easy." Hel snapped her fingers as numerous skeletons began toe out of the ground. This was her Necromancy Skill. But as expected from an S Rank Necromancy Skill, the numbers of skeletons were so high that it resembled an army. "I''ll spread them in a straight line. This way, we can easily find them."


    "With this number��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "We can stretch to five miles in either direction if we properly distance them."


    "I can do that much since I just have to program them. If they meet your people, I can control them precisely and tell them to catch up with you. Of course, I don''t think we can go too fast with them here and there are cities too."


    "That''s enough." Theo nodded.

 Chapter 1483 Regroup

    Chapter 1483 Regroup


    A few dayster.


    Coline and Chris were running together in a in to meet Theo, but Coline suddenly raised her hand, stopping Chris.


    "What''s wrong? Another enemy?" Chris asked.


    "I smell stock."


    "You serious? So, we''re going to fight against monsters now? Is it strong?"


    "Stock and broth are different. The broth is made of meat and vegetables while the stock is made of bones."


    "I am a musician, not a chef. I''m not going to call you out if you don''t understand the musical notes��"


    "��" Coline fell silent before pointing forward, seeing a great number of skeletons walking at the same pace.


    "Skeletons? But there are so many of them and they seem to be organized. They''re not monsters."


    Coline took out her weapon and said, "Either way, we have to go through these skeletons to reach Italy."


    "Fair enough." Chris nodded in agreement as he began increasing Coline''s ability with his music.


    Coline went first, bing the vanguard. They didn''t need to fight all these skeletons since all they needed to do was to create a gap and slip past them.


    But she was shocked when she approached the skeletons. Their bodies trembled as if they recognized her and immediately raised their hands, surrendering to Coline.


    "Huh?" Coline furrowed her eyebrows since this was the first time she had met something like this.


    The skeleton suddenly stopped in their tracks, and one of them stepped forward, writing something on the ground.


    "Huh?" Coline became even more confused. Although she didn''t dare to get that close to the skeletons since they acted weird, she could see what they were waiting for. It was a person''s name. And that person was none other than Theo.


    That was right. The skeleton wrote ''THEO'' on the ground and pointed at the left as if telling him that if she followed them in that direction, they would find Theo.


    "Huh? What''s going on?" Coline stopped and waved her hand to Chris, asking his opinion.


    "What''s wrong?" He rushed to her while asking before following her gaze. "Theo?"


    "Yeah. The skeleton is pointing there as if telling us that he''s there. Is this a trap?" Coline frowned.


    "It might be, but there is a chance it''s not. Maybe we should follow them and see what''s going on. Of course, from a distance."


    "Fair enough. The skeletons also have stopped moving." The skeletons seemed to be intelligent enough to do something like this, so they must be controlled by someone. However, Theo wasn''t supposed to be able to wield this kind of skill, so they didn''t know how these skeletons could direct them and even know Theo.


    To their surprise, when they were about to make their way in the pointed direction, they saw a figure approaching them at high speed.


    "That''s�� Felix?" Coline squinted her eyes, recognizing the person. "It''s really Felix."


    Theo sent Felix to fetch them the moment the skeletons found them.


    "Felix. What''s going on?" Coline asked.


    "We''ve been had. The one who caused this entire event was not Theo but another him aside from his clone. They''re trying to make it look like he''s the culprit, causing us to be chased away by those people. Then, the Griffith Family took that opportunity to get rid of us. We''re safe right now, but we have to move to another ce. So,e with me to meet Theo."


    "For real? Does that mean we''ll be rejected by everyone else after this?" Chris widened his eyes in shock.


    "You should know Theo''s personality. He''s not someone who will get beaten down without any fight. We should follow him for the time being and see what he''ll do next." Felix shook his head helplessly, recounting all the past scenes when Theo was in this unfavorable situation.


    No matter what he did, he actually managed to turn it around beautifully. This time, there was Hel that helped him, but Theo should have some ns when fighting the Griffith Family as well. Hence, he believed that Theo would do something about this as well.


    "Anyway, follow me. I''m going to lead you to Theo." Felix waved his hand, brushing all the matters. The exnation could wait since they should regroup with Theo first.


    Chris and Coline nodded in agreement and followed Felix. At the same time, the skeletons began to crumble as if they had served their purposes. Their bones also disappeared since everything was made of Magic Power.


    "Still, how many skeletons are there? Who is the one controlling the skeletons? He/she must have a huge amount of Magic Power."


    "The one controlling it is the Goddess of Death from Norse Mythology, Hel."


    "Huh? Goddess? What are you talking about?"


    "It seems that she didn''t die in the past and froze her body or something. It was quiteplicated, but she might be the only survivor from the God Age." Felix shrugged.


    "Are you serious?" Chris'' face was distorted because he couldn''t believe it.


    "Well, you can see herter. I''m merely telling you stuff I learned a few days ago."


    "Fair enough. By the way, are we going with everyone? How many people survive the onught?"


    "Everyone. Though, Phyrill, Ellen, and their families are not with us. The same applies to Enrica."


    "I see. So, we''re back to the original group." Coline nodded. "At the very least, everyone is still together even in this situation, except for those two. Well, I can understand that they have a big family to take care of."


    "Either way, what are we nning to do next?" Chris asked.


    "I don''t know. Theo hasn''t said anything about it yet."


    "I''m pissed." Chris sighed. "Those people needed Theo when the apocalypse happened, yet they immediately threw him away when he was used like this."


    "Don''t say it. I''m also pissed. Those ungrateful bastards." Felix nodded in agreement. "Either way, we have arrived!"


    Chris and Coline looked forward and saw a group of people sitting on the ground, waiting for them. Millie was the only one standing, waving her hand as if she was greeting her father.


    Seeing this group made Chris and Coline feel relieved. "I guess our situation is not that bad."

 Chapter ?1484 Reactions

    Chapter ?1484 Reactions


    Meanwhile, Maya was furrowing her eyebrows, ncing at Ruth. "What do you think about this?"


    "It seems that he''s the one Theo was talking about." Ruth nodded.


    "Still, why the hell did they kick Theo out? It was clear that the Griffith Family would be targeting them. Are they insane?"


    "That''s also my question. But doesn''t that mean we can invite him here?"


    "Are you serious? Do you know how hard it is for us to go there right now? We have been sending drones to see the aggressiveness of the monsters, but I think it''s pretty clear. All monsters act like usual, but the most dangerous one is in the sea.


    "Those numerous monsters will try to attack us and even if we go above their reach, there are potential dangers from the flying monsters, considering they can fly at a higher altitude and have sharp senses. Right now, there are no nes ready to cross the continents. Even if they are ready, it won''t be easy to use them." Maya shook her head, denying the idea.


    "So, we won''t bring him here?"


    "I didn''t say that. It''s just not the time yet. Thanks to Theo, I have been preparing everything and we also have stored enough resources. If we focus on this area, we can be the first one to connect the continents again. And flying to each continent won''t be cheap�� very profitable. Just need to think of a way to reduce the risk." Maya smirked.


    "You seriously still think about money in this situation? Even when the money is worthless?"


    "The bases are going to be formed and the government will be restored soon. In my opinion, a decade should be enough to calm the entire situation and everyone''s life can start like normal, except for the fact that there are monsters everywhere. By the time they''re ready and the new normal has been built, we can immediately capitalize on the market. Yep, capitalism all the way." Maya smirked.


    Ruth shook her head helplessly. Even though Maya acted nonchntly like this, she was still hurt after her grandfather and grandmother went missing. Shepletely locked herself here just to distract herself from the grief.


    "Anyway, I''ll be helping you around and make sure that no one will stand in our way. At the very least, this is the least I can do for Theo." Ruth sighed and looked through the windows, watching the people working around them.


    "It seems that you''re quite loyal to Theo. Considering his current condition, isn''t it the best time for you to let him go and use your power for yourself? There''s no need for you to uphold the promise, you know."


    "What about you? You''re exactly the same. Even though you can focus on weapons that people need the most right now, you''re trying to make an airne as fast as possible. Isn''t it to bring him here?"


    Maya smirked. "Of course, I''m going with him. After all, he''s a man who always surpassed my expectations. Whenever I think I have done enough and no one will be able to beat me, he wille out and surpass me. So, if I be the richest person in the world, what will he be?"


    Ruth''s expression turned serious. "The most needed person in the world. That''s right. If the world actually needs him, doesn''t that mean he will be able to turn around the situation?"


    "Who knows? That guy ispletely unpredictable, so I''m looking forward to what he will be next." Maya shrugged.


    ��


    Just like Maya, Agata also received the words about this matter. Agata and Ryo were sitting in front of the Heavenly Sovereign.


    She had arrived a week ago and was about to evacuate to Japan.


    "What do you want to talk about?" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "I need his location. Where is he? I''m going to him."


    "I don''t know where he is right now. As for you�� you''re going to follow us to Japan. There will be a huge convoy of airnes that will cross the sea, hoping that some will reach Japan. This is going to be a massive evacuation with a high mortality rate. And you''re going to board the same ne as me and all the other important staff."


    "I don''t need to evacuate. I just want to see him. In this situation, he needs to support the most."


    "That''s why I said it''s impossible for you to go there. Instead of making him worry, why don''t you follow me?"


    "When he was in Italy, I could follow him around. But everything changed when the Griffith Family attacked us, causing us to be separated for years. And this time, I should be the one sacrificing myself for him, so I''ll go to him."


    "Sorry, but I can''t allow it. You''re going to Japan with me with or without your consent. This is the only thing I can do for Theo." The Heavenly Sovereign shook his head. "If you''re still going to be stubborn, I''m going to use my power to suppress you right away."


    "Are you threatening me?"


    "Yes. I''m simply doing what I can for my friend here. Trust him�� He''s a bigger man than you think."


    "��" Agata bit her lips. She had been far away from Theo this whole time. Even the time they spent together recently had to be ruined by this apocalypse. Her heart was truly in a mess.


    "As expected, he knows you the most. Before leaving Italy, he actually gave me a message."


    "A message?"


    "Yes." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded and raised two fingers. "Two years. Wait for two years. After that, I''m the one going to meet him, so I''ll let you tag along."


    "You''re not lying?"


    "Yes. I promise that. For now, it''s impossible to contact him, but let''s see it from another perspective."


    Agata''s expression turned cold. "An unknown enemy lingering in the shadows��"


    "Yeah. Theo is going to hide again, causing unrest in everyone''s hearts. They know that Theo wille, but they don''t know when, where, and what he will do. I''m looking forward to seeing his next appearance." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "��" Agata closed her eyes as if she had made a decision.

 Chapter 1485 Theos Plan

    Chapter 1485 Theo''s n


    "Here you go. This is our new home." Theo smirked while standing next to the white structure.


    After a long journey, they finally reached the ce that Theo deemed to be usable as a living quarter.


    "There are two towns on our right and one town on our left. We can use them to find something for the furniture while the rest can be taken care of by my power. As for food, I guess Jeff will restart everything and the meat is never a problem to begin with."


    "Don''t worry. I have enough experience right now after learning in Italy. Even if we have to start, I canplete it faster. We just have to wait for enough time before we can harvest it. Though, the nts are also getting mutated because of the amount of Magic Power in the air, making it more nutritious. I don''t know the exact effect though." Jeff assured Theo, taking the job happily.


    "I''ll prepare all your food, so at the very least, you won''t die hungry." Coline nodded in agreement.


    "If that''s the case, I will hunt some monsters around." Felix raised his hand, taking his job.


    "I''ll try to create another informationwork around here. But I also need some human resources. Also, if you don''t mind, I''m going to use some primitive ways tomunicate like the radio and create some towers to connect us within a few miles radius." Akbar nodded, knowing his role.


    "I''ll help Akbar." Millie didn''t know what to do without the Sk, so she tried to do her best to learn from Akbar.


    "Alright. Walker will go around to get some information from the towns around us. Rea will establish the administration system. Isaac will focus on the research. I know that you''re not an expert in all research, but I want you to focus on the impact of Magic Power as Jeff said earlier. As for Aisha, you can stand by and help everyone in need. That''s all. Any questions?" Theo asked after giving everyone a role.


    "I have one." Rea raised her hand. "What are you nning to do, Theo? You haven''t told us anything. Are you trying to be aplete viin like how they brand you?"


    "Me? It''s simple. I''m going to meet some monsters now. Humans might be more advanced in research, but the monsters have been living in this kind of environment, so they know more about them. I''m nning to meet them to get more information. Also, I''m nning to be one of the top ten experts within two years."


    "��" Thatst sentencepletely struck everyone''s heart because Theo might truly do it. Now that this world had been in this situation, they wouldn''t be able to focus on stopping Theo from leveling up or getting stronger. It meant Theo would have a great time increasing his power, making this a perfect opportunity to turn the situation around. If he could be one of the top ten experts, he might be able to overpower Flora Wegener and Mason Griffith at the same time.


    When that happened, no one could imagine people''s expressions.


    Since everyone didn''t have any more questions, he was trying to wrap up their conversation and start creating their houses, but Hel suddenly came to the structure, inspecting it.


    "This is��" Hel furrowed her eyebrows. "This is quite familiar."


    "Aren''t you one of the people who made it? That''s one of the pirs separating the two realms."


    "Ah!"


    "So, do you know where they are? I''m nning to gather them."


    "I do know a few located on Earth. But if we''re talking about the other side, I don''t know�� they might have been destroyed or not teleported here."


    "It''s fine. How many structures on Earth?"


    "There are seven pirs on Earth, but one should have been destroyed, leaving only six more. As for their locations�� Let me borrow your memory to see the map." Hel had been using Skylink in the past few days, so she could easily open a map of her own Skylink and show it to Theo. "These are the spots."


    "One was in the Antic Ocean, but it was the one to be found and destroyed, so I''m gonna skip that one. The rest are in Mexico, Argentina, the Pacific Ocean, Botswana, Russia, and Indonesia. I see. Interesting." Theo squinted his eyes, contemting.


    "One of the Orders that has been infused to the pir is your power. So, are you nning to��"


    "Yeah. I''m nning to create a realm or, you can say, a dome where no monsters cane. This way, this ce will be a hidden beast that will survive no matter what. At the very least, even if I fail, there will be some survivors on Earth." Theo smirked. "They can repopte itter unless the Earth splits into two and the atmosphere breaks down."


    "I see. I can help you with that."


    "But if we''re talking about Indonesia, shouldn''t Ergene have��" Rea thought Ergene should have been evacuated.


    "Well, I''m going to Russia and my clone will go to Botswana. Once I pass China, I''m going to try to get some connection to contact Ergene and Maya to recover the pirs. As for whether they can do it or not, that''s a separate matter."


    "Do you need someone to apany you?"


    "No. It''s better if I work alone this time. Focus on the development of this ce. For now, I''m going to create a few more houses for all of us."


    "When will you leave?"


    "In three days." Theo smirked. "By the way, can you tell me how many people have infused their strength into this structure?"


    "Let''s see�� Space, Time, Reality, Elements, Destiny, Life, Death, Sun, Moon, ugh, there are too many that I forget about them. But if I''m not wrong, there are around seventy beingsing at that time."


    "Well, that''s enough, I guess." Theo nodded. "At least, I know that each pir can create a small realm that can iste them from the rest of the world. You can say it''s a doomsday bunker. I''m trying to recover as many as possible."


    "Bunkers? For what? I mean, there are only a few of us here, so bunkers shouldn''t be needed."


    Theo''s answer came in the form of a smirk, making them specte many things. But without knowing what Theo had in mind, they couldn''t determine what it was.

 Chapter 1486 Helping

    Chapter 1486 Helping


    "The journey is quite hard even for me." Theo clicked his tongue while sitting on top of a cliff, looking at the entirendscape.


    It had been ten days since he started his journey, and because he was alone, he could reach Nepal in just ten days. However, the journey couldn''t be said to be easy.


    Unlike in the past where he would know what kind of monsters in that area, this time, he had to be extra careful and even fought numerous Mythical Rank Monsters that had been creating their nests around.


    "The people have finished grouping up, and they''re going to start devouring each other for survival. Eventually, they will have a hard time surviving because they have to understand how to farm and other things to create a new civilization."


    Theo suddenly stopped and squinted his eyes, finding a group of people who were walking around the mountain. Each of them carried a huge bag as if they were nning a long trip.


    "I guess. There are also people who are trying to migrate to a safer ce. I don''t know where they''re going, but it''s clear that they have hope in that ce. Maybe I should gather the information from them as well��"


    Theo contemted for a moment. On the one hand, he wanted to rush to Russia to recover the structure. On the other hand, this trip was for him to get stronger as well.


    By gathering the information around, he could find new monsters or even a weird phenomenon, allowing him to get stronger.


    "From the looks of it, all of them are Supreme Rank Experts. I guess the only people who can travel around like this are Supreme Rank Experts or above. The others can only ept their death and die." Theo muttered for a moment.


    He was in Nepal, so the area was rtively safe because of the mountain range. This was also the reason why he crossed this area by following the mountain range.


    However, monsters still came to intercept them. And this time, the group he saw faced a real problem since the monster that justnded on top of them was a giant bird that was supposed to be a Mythical Rank Monster.


    "Not good! It''s a Mythical Rank Monster!"


    "Hurry up and go to the cave we found earlier. The bird won''t be able to attack us there!"


    The group hurriedly ran away since they didn''t want to die in this bird''s hand. However, the bird had a huge advantage over them because it could fly.


    With a single p of its wing, the snow on the peak of the mountain fell down, causing an avnche. At the same time, the bird flew on top of them, ready to capture them with its talons.


    "Not good! I''m going to stop the avnche. Ley, Rick, you go stop the bird for a while." A female from the group stepped forward and waved her hands, creating an ice wall that would split the avnche.


    Seeing there was no escape unless they could stop the avnche, the two shield users nodded their heads and raised their shields, stopping the bird''s talons.


    *Bam!*


    As expected from a Mythical Rank Monster, its power was extraordinary. Once the talons hit their shields, the talons blew them away.


    "Argh!" One of them seemed to be injured, while the other had his hands numb.


    The bird pped its wings again to increase its altitude and turned around, heading to them for the second time.


    "No!"


    Suddenly, a young man with long red hair fell from the sky and hit the bird''s head, causing it to crash to the ground.


    "!!!" They widened their eyes in shock, not knowing who he was. Of course, Theo couldn''t show himself after his video went around, no matter if they could see it or not. After all, his identity was sensitive.


    Hence, he used another disguise. He had used this disguise multiple times, but it wasn''t recognized widely. So, no one should recognize him.


    Theo then raised his fist and covered it with Energy st before striking the bird''s head as strong as he could.


    *Bam!*


    The punch created a crater underneath the bird''s head, but the bird was quite tough, considering it managed to survive and try to push Theo away by releasing wind around its body.


    But Theo neutralized the wind with his Telekinesis and Attribute Removal before punching the bird multiple times until it died.


    However, his action caused the mountain to vibrate and the snow started to fall down.


    Seeing this avnche, the woman who put up the ice shield was ready to brace herself, but Theo simply waved his hand, utilizing his Telekinesis to sweep the avnche away.


    With this, he managed to save the group.


    When they saw him, they were thoroughly impressed, never expecting to have such an expert to help them.


    "Thank�� Thank you." One of the shield users, Ley, stepped forward and thanked Theo politely.


    "Why are you people here?" Theo asked with a calm tone as if he didn''t care about what he did earlier.


    "We��" Ley paused for a moment. He realized that he might be able to convince this powerful expert to follow them, giving them extra protection. "We''re heading to China."


    "China?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Ley?!" The people were worried because they thought Theo might kill them for this information. After all, they couldn''t trust anyone in a world like this.


    However, Ley didn''t care about their objections. He decided to gamble by telling Theo, "We heard from the radio that there is a safe haven in China as long as we can reach that ce. At the very least, they have concentrated their manpower around there, making it safer than most ces on Earth."


    "Interesting." Theo narrowed his eyes. "I am also nning to go to China, but I don''t have any specific ce in mind."


    "If that''s the case, how about you go with us? I can provide you with information we''ve gathered around."


    "Mhm?" Theo paused for a moment. "I don''t mind."


    Ley''s expression brightened as he immediately shouted, "Great!"

 Chapter ?1487 Information

    Chapter ?1487 Information


    "Now that we have almost left Bhutan, we have to go to Cheng Du, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, andstly, Jinan. ording to the information, there is a huge military base formed in that area. They will ept refugees and assign people to their tasks. Although it sounds bad, it''s better than any other ce because the military can handle any cannibals, bandits, or even monsters."


    "You''re worried more about cannibals and bandits instead of monsters." Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Of course. They usually have someone strong leading them, allowing them to rob anything from the bases they found."


    "I see. But if we''re going to Jinan, shouldn''t we just go straight through Xi An?"


    "No way. We''re not going to die there. They said that we shouldn''t go to Xi An, Kunming, and Xiamen because World ss Monsters have used those ces as their territory. Then, there is also Lanzhou, who seems to have mutated monsters. Last but not least, Beijing, it seems that it has be a huge monsterir after there."


    "I see."


    "You seriously don''t know anything?"


    "I''m just roaming around." Theo shrugged.


    "Dude! But I guess you can have that kind of mindset with your power. I bet those people like to have you go there."


    "We''ll see." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    He had been learning some new information over the past few days. Although it wasn''t much, he understood the state of the world better.


    There might be multiple bases to survive, but they couldn''t do anything against bandits and cannibals. Though, most people they considered bandits were just from a bigger base. They survived by ransacking other bases'' supplies. It was a normal thing to do in this situation, especially with the monsters roaming around.


    However, cannibals were different. They could defeat some monsters, but most of them were forced to kill humans because they were weaker than them. It was even easier than fighting the monsters. So, meeting cannibals was actually thest thing people wanted.


    As for the monsters, they had gotten used to living on Earth as well and began creating their territories. There were many monsters fighting for territories as well, terrorizing the humans since those with territories would be General ss Monsters or above.


    "Is there any news about King ss Monsters?"


    "There are many of them. It''s better if you look at this map instead." He showed the map to him with many markings. There seemed to be a total of 32 King ss Monsters in China and many more that were still hidden.


    "Interesting." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Don''t tell me you''re going to challenge them?"


    "Well, this world is already in a mess, so it''s better to die on a battlefield." Theo shrugged. "Though, I''m going to see what kind of base they have in Jinan before doing anything."


    "Is that so?" The guy felt relieved, knowing that Theo would at least protect them until they arrived. This was a blessing for them.


    As he expected, the military base they were talking about was actually the one that the government had prepared previously for the apocalypse. Although they would face many difficulties, these were the people that would fight to theirst breath, hoping that there was a way to settle down.


    "There you go." Theo pointed forward, finding a base with a huge wall in the middle of a in. It could cover every corner, so there wouldn''t be any ambush. There were even cannons and all kinds of weapons to fend off monsters. In fact, the area around this base had been destroyed because of the continuous battle.


    "It seems that my trip here is finished." Theo closed his eyes, knowing that he should be able to connect to the Skylink in this area.


    "You shoulde with us to the base." The group looked at him with an expectant gaze. After traveling together for weeks, they had grown a bit of an attachment to Theo. Unfortunately for them, Theo had no interest in going to the base since his goal was to go to Russia.


    "No." Theo shook his head and waved his hand, pushing them with his Telekinesis. He stood there, watching them going away.


    As soon as he was alone, Theo opened his Skylink and tried to call everyone as well as find some information.


    "Mhm? It seems that there are a few huge bases. In Japan, there is United Asia. They''re gathering all people from the countries near them, whether from Russia, China, India, or even Indonesia, to create a united front against the monsters.


    "As long as they can eliminate all monsters in their countries, they should be safe since the location is quite strategic.


    "As for the EU, they have created a union with my idea�� Even though they boldly kicked me from there. Either way, they''re going to have trouble sooner orter.


    "Last but not least, the US Base. They''ve been gathering people from around them, including Canada, Mexico, and those countries in South America.


    "I don''t see anything from other ces�� Maybe they''re not ready for it, so they can''t save the satellites, but there should be some survival bases out there, considering there are a few Order and Authority Level figures there. The progress is good enough, I guess. Although it''s just a rough calction, there should be more than three billion people that are still alive on these three bases alone. As for the rest, I don''t know."


    Theo fell silent for a moment and decided to start calling the people he knew.


    Of course, the first person should be and always be Agata.


    It took him an instant before Agata picked up the call as if she had been waiting for this call for far too long.


    When Agata saw Theo''s face again, she couldn''t help but shed some tears. She was d that Theo was alive and seemed to be doing well.


    "Theo�� you��"


    Theo smiled and nodded. "Don''t worry about me. I''m fine, Agata. I''m sorry, but it might take a bit longer before I can bring you out."

 Chapter 1488 New Targets

    Chapter 1488 New Targets


    "It''s fine," said Agata while wiping her tears.


    "How are you doing?"


    "I''m living well here. I have been involved in a few projects. Although I''m not as good as you, employing a few of your tricks is enough to pique others'' interests. So, I''m still highly regarded around here. I''m currently working with Zhao Jia."


    "I see." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Though, I want to ask you whether Ergene hase to you or not. Considering her next destination should be that ce. Or maybe the top ten experts from Indonesia, Tirta Kurniawan."


    "Yes. They have arrived." Agata nodded. "Right now, I''m with Ryo and Ergene, so we''re safe here since there are three top ten experts in this ce. Unfortunately, Mr. Chand from India has fallen after fighting against two World ss Monsters."


    "I understand. It seems that I can''t ask her to go back to Indonesia. It''s going to be dangerous, so�� just remain there. I''m pretty sure that Maya is going to connect to the world again. At that time, we''ll be able to meet."


    "How long will it be�� I wonder." Agata sighed.


    "Haha, she''s working hard right now, so I''m pretty sure that we can soon meet. At most, two to three years."


    "Alright. I''ll be patient. Though, where do you live right now? Is everyone fine?"


    "Yep. There''s not much you need to worry about. As for where I live�� I won''t say anything for now."


    "I understand. It seems that you don''t have much time."


    "As much as I want to continue talking to you, I still have something to do. Tell Ergene and Ryo that I''m good, and they don''t need to worry about the rest, okay?"


    "Yeah. I hope that everything will be fine."


    "By the way, I''m going to Russia right now. Is there any information there?"


    "Yes. There is a massive evacuation by nes as well, and it seems that the people in Russia are going to the EU Base instead of this ce. I don''t know about the details though."


    "That''s good. Though I don''t know what happens to the Czar��" Theo sighed.


    "I''ll try to gather more and more information. It''s not like you''re nning to live in the wilderness for a long time, right? I''m sure that you''re going to infiltrate the EU Base again for more information."


    "You know me well." Theo smirked. "But for now, I''ve to get stronger fast."


    "I understand. I can''t help you with anything. I can just pray for your well-being."


    Theo waved his hand with a smile while hanging up.


    After that, he called Maya.


    Just like Agata, she was also surprised that Theo called her. But unlike Agata, Maya was in the middle of her sleep. She woke up because of the call and picked it up with a sleepy face. "Theo? Am I dreaming right now?"


    "Nope. You''re not dreaming. I am near a ce with a satellite connection, so I can contact you right now."


    Upon hearing that, Maya immediately rose from her bed and rubbed her eyes to see Theo closely. "It''s real. What the hell��"


    "You''re that shock?" Theo shook his head helplessly. "How''s the situation on your side?"


    "It''s quite good. The big base has beenpleted, and we''re now starting to expand. Of course, since I have stocked up materials and equipment, I have be a very influential person here. Hahahaha!"


    "I''m d that you''re having fun." Theo chuckled.


    "By the way, I''m still working on the airne. Because of the current density of Magic Power, it seems that we can create an airne with Magic Power as fuel. It can make the airne lighter and has the capability to employ a few defensive mechanisms, allowing us to travel in this situation. It might look like a warship though, but traveling around the world should be fine. Just a bit expensive."


    "I see. That''s good to hear. How long do you need toplete it?"


    "I''m not sure. If we''re lucky, we can make a breakthrough in a year, but I guess I set up the expectation around two years. It already includes the testing time and such."


    "That''s good enough for me."


    "What are you nning to do now?"


    "Actually, I want to ask you whether you can retrieve something for me in Mexico and Argentina."


    Maya furrowed her eyebrows and ended up shaking her head. "Impossible. It''s not like I don''t want to help you, but it''s impossible to send people there, even Ruth. In Mexico, there is a World ss Monster, so unless the Time God personally makes his move, it''s impossible to go to Mexico, let alone Argentina."


    "I see. I''ll abandon that thought then."


    "What kind of thing do you want me to retrieve by the way?"


    "Just some structures." Theo shook his head. "Anyway, I''m going to Russia for a while, so I will be out of contact."


    "Russia? Why?"


    "Retrieving the same thing. I''m also going to challenge some King ss Monsters to get stronger, and the Mutated Monsters kinda piqued my interest. I''m just going to explore this new world after the apocalypse to learn more about it."


    "My business is not in that area, so I can''t say anything. But what do you want me to do from now on?"


    "Yes. I have an important task for you. I want you to put some people to research the change in the world, especially the nest of monsters. Knowing that the strong monsters will cause a great effect, I want you to track all of them down with satellites. Also, find a way to predict monsters'' movement. It''ll be useful for your airne business."


    "I understand. Since I have received the n from the great Theodore Griffith, I''ll surely follow it." Maya smirked. "Do you want me to keep track of the EU Base, especially the Griffith Family?"


    "No need. I''ll be dealing with them personally."


    "Got it."


    "Take care, will you? Ruth too."


    "Mhm. See you." Maya smiled and hung up.


    Now that he had finished all his worries, Theo''s mind could finally focus on the purpose of this journey.


    Theo looked at the horizon with an excited smile.


    "Let''s go, shall we? The first destination should be a King ss Monster! Let''s fight a King ss Monster."

 Chapter 1489 Finding the King Class Monster

    Chapter 1489 Finding the King ss Monster


    Theo had reached one of the ces that were reported to be a King ss Monster''s nest.


    Still, as one would expect from the information from a normal person, it didn''t state the specific location or any details regarding the monsters. Hence, Theo could only fight the monsters around until he sensed or the other party showed himself to fight him.


    Theo thought for a moment. "This should be the ce. But the city is quite huge, so I have to take my time to find the monster. Is it fine for me to do it? After all, I''m here to challenge a King ss Monster who has no trouble with me. Well, it''s not like I''m going to fight them to death, I guess that''s fine."


    Theo steeled his resolve and began to look at this ruined city from above the sky.


    He could see numerous monsters residing in this city. If he attacked one of them, there would be at least a thousand of them that woulde out. And considering this was a King ss Monster''sir, there should be multiple Mythical Rank Monsters, especially the General ss Monsters.


    Hence, this would be an extremely hard ce to raid for normal people. But Theo was different.


    As soon as hended on the ground, he could feel multiple gazes on him as if preparing to prey upon him. There were three pairs of eyesing from a small store on his left, there were two moreing from the building on the opposite side. He could also feel the presence inside the ten-story apartment before him.


    Theo walked carefully while watching them, waiting for them to react. However, their instincts seemed to be telling them to stop as they would die if they came out right now.


    However, Theo misunderstood their instincts as he thought there were General ss Monsters controlling the monsters. So, it was better if he could lure them out by stating, "Who can talk to me? I have a business in this ce."


    The monsters didn''t understand his words, so they immediately leaped out of their hiding ces, ambushing him from all directions.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and waved his left hand, utilizing his Telekinesis to sweep the Hero Rank Monsters on his left. After that, he took out his spear and covered it in Energy st, thrusting it to the right side. The shock wave produced by the extraordinary power from the Energy st blew the monsters away, crushing an entire store.


    After that, Theo stepped on the ground, releasing another wave of Magic Power from above with his Ascension Step, knocking the monsters that leaped out of the apartment.


    As soon as the monsters fell down, Theo kicked the monsters so that they would leave him alone.


    Unfortunately, he realized that there was no General ss Monstermanding them because the monsters that fell down in the previous battle actually stood up and started charging at him without caring about their bodies.


    "..." Theo clicked his tongue and swung his sword,unching a sword wave that stopped the monsters in front of him. After that, he waved his hand down while utilizing the Invisible Vortex, causing the monsters to get hammered to the ground. One of them had their head crushed, while the others managed to survive with some injuries on their heads.


    From the right side, aser flew forth and almost hit him. Theo skillfully used his Twisted Reality to make theser curve around his body and continue to the monsters in the opposite directions.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Theser attacked their own and killed the monsters from his left, allowing Theo to leap to the right and thrust his spear.


    The monsters tried to escape, but Theo used his World Re-creation to expand the reality to his direction, causing the monsters toe toward Theo no matter what they did. Theo took this opportunity to pierce their heads in rapid session.


    Then, he snapped his fingers, summoned more than a thousand Magic Bullets and rained the rest of the monsters down with the bullets.


    The Magic Bullets'' explosions caused a bit of disturbance in the area since Theo wanted to meet a General ss Monster to ask about the King ss Monster''s whereabouts.


    But his action actually invited a bit more trouble for him because more and more monsters came to his location, noticing the disturbance. Around twenty monsters ranging from Hero Rank to Mythical Rank reached his location within two minutes.


    "Well, this is quite surprising." Theo clicked his tongue since this wasn''t his purpose here. Still, he could only fight since the General ss Monster didn''t seem to meet him.


    Hence, Theo immediately released his gold-colored Magic Power and spread it around as if challenging the leader of this ce to fight.


    This Magic Power was actually something the monsters loved to eat because of its importance to them. Just like the Shadow King exined back then when Ava ranked up, this energy was important to monsters because it was nourishing and allowed them to evolve. Hence, they all wanted to devour Theo.


    "Come then." Theo squinted his eyes, knowing this step was crucial. On the one hand, he couldn''t use too much Magic Power in this situation since he had to fight against a King ss Monsterter. On the other hand, he had to kill them to make the monsters behind theme forward.


    Without hesitation, Theo released his Death Avatar and utilized his Death Eyes. The Death Avatar released a powerful killing intent in all directions, rming all the monsters that surrounded him.


    After that, Theo summoned Magic Bullets and shot down all the monsters that were struck by fear.


    He managed to kill half of them in an instant, but Supreme Rank and Mythical Rank Monsters were quite immune to that killing intent as they immediately jumped at him, trying to kill Theo by themselves.


    Theo summoned a giant shield in front of him with the Irregr Guardian and kicked the air to the right, causing a shock wave that stopped the monsters from that direction. Then, he leaped to the right and waved his sword, trying to slice the monsters from this direction.


    "How many monsters do I have to kill before I can meet the General ss Monster?"

 Chapter ?1490 Dragon vs Golem

    Chapter ?1490 Dragon vs Golem


    "Hu..." Theo took a deep breath, standing on top of a tall building. On the ground were numerous corpses of the monsters he had killed earlier. In just thirty minutes, he had killed around a thousand monsters, but there was no sight from the General ss Monster.


    "This is quite exhausting even for me, considering I fought with multiple Mythical Rank Monsters."


    As if responding to Theo''s words, the ground started to let out a gurgling sound.


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock because he had to jump off the building and stay afloat with his power.


    Suddenly, the ground started rising and formed a head, a body, and a pair of hands. This monster was huge. It could even rival the ten-story building he saw earlier.


    In fact, that apartment felt like it was this monster''s pillow.


    "The monster is actually the ground itself?" Theo widened his eyes in amusement.


    Once the monster came out, he actually snapped the tall building and let it crumble. After that, he stared at Theo in the air and asked, "What do you want in my ce, O'' unknown human king?"


    "Mhm?" Theo narrowed his eyes, feeling something different from this monster. "You''re the King of thisnd?"


    "I have conquered this ce."


    "Then, I''m here to challenge you. I simply wish to fight you because I want to get stronger." Theo stated with a calm expression. The only reason he wanted to fight this risky battle was due to the potential lesson from the King ss Monster.


    Each King had a different way of utilizing their Order, so Theo wished to see the way he utilized his power to discover more utilization methods for his Reality Order.


    The golem monster narrowed his big eyes. In fact, the size of the eyes alone was several times bigger than Theo''s body, showing how huge the monster was.


    "There''s no reason for us to fight just because you want it," answered the golem.


    "That''s certainly true. Then, how about if I fight for the people you have killed in this ce?" Theo smirked.


    "If that''s the case, then I won''t hold back!" The golem suddenly waved his hand toward Theo.


    His movement was slow, but because of the giant hand that covered a huge area at once, its speed looked multiple times faster. At the same time, with that momentum and size, it would be dangerous if Theo got hit by it.


    Theo hurriedly raised upward to avoid the monster''s attack before summoning numerous Magic Bullets, raining the monster down.


    "It''s useless!" The golem said while raising his hand further to catch Theo. He was supposed to stop soon, but Theo noticed the ground that kept moving, supplying all the rocks that the golem needed.


    At the same time, the other hand of the golem actually grabbed the tall tower he had snapped earlier, turning it into his weapon.


    Knowing that the monster could keep growing, Theo chose to descend, fighting the golem with all his strength instead of running away.


    Seeing this movement from Theo, the golem suddenly infused more Magic Power into its arms. Suddenly, more and more soils started to gather around its arms before spikes emerged to pierce Theo''s body.


    Due to his small body, Theo easily survived this attack by using his Telekinesis to move through the gaps.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. As expected from a King ss Monster, even though he could easily dodge the attacks, the King ss Monster had prepared something at the end. In fact, the spikes came out to guide him to this ce.


    Yes, the spikes actually guided him to the monster''s mouth as it was trying to bury Theo alive.


    Theo hurriedly used his Blink. His blink could teleport him for one hundred feet, but he underestimated the golem''s size because when he teleported with what his blink could do, he could only cover the distance between his two eyes.


    Theo looked like a mosquito that was trying to escape from a human''s palms. Seeing that he couldn''t even reach his shoulder, Theo hurriedly used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality next to him,unching him away.


    The golem then tossed the tall building at Theo like a spear to crush Theo, but thetter used his Telekinesis to stop the building. Still, the momentum from the tower forced Theo to fly back for five hundred feet.


    And the golem hadn''t even stopped its attack.


    As soon as he was about to throw the tall tower back, the ground around the area started moving.


    Theo lowered his head and saw the ground rising and making waves, causing the buildings on top of it to tilt to Theo.


    If Theo didn''t lower his altitude, he would have been crushed by those buildings. At the same time, the rubbles and the sses were falling on top of him.


    Theo easily stopped them with his Telekinesis, but the golem took this opportunity to move toward him.


    Even he was surprised with how the golem moved. It seemed to be able to rece its body with the soil in its path while excreting the excess soil from its back.


    ''I have sent numerous bullets to check his weak points, but even when the bullets hit the eyes, the golem didn''t react. It seems there''s something more to this golem.'' Theo narrowed his eyes. "I guess I can try that."


    The golem extended its hand again to punch Theo. This time, Theo didn''t even bother to move as he used his own palm to stop this punch like stopping a human''s punch.


    The golem thought Theo was foolish for fighting his fist with his palm, but Theo surprised him with what he did next.


    The moment the golem''s fist touched Theo''s palm, Theo utilized his Twisted Reality to disperse the ground in all directions to deform the fist. And the fist was actually deformed.


    "!!!" The golem widened his eyes because his hand started to crumble. Still, he had an unlimited supply of soil, so he hurriedly reced his own palm.


    Theo smirked. The palm was peculiar after he felt it. The Attribute Removal couldn''t do anything because the golem used real soil to create that hand, so he believed the golem couldn''t be dealt with the Attribute Removal. This was the first opponent he faced with this kind of advantage.


    Theo couldn''t help but feel excited. "If that''s the case, fight size with size."


    Theo''s body gradually grew and turned into a western dragon. The size wasparable to the golem since he was now a powerful King, unlike when he was taking care of Syk in the past. Theo wanted to try this for a long time. "Now, let''s see who will lose."

 Chapter 1491 Metamorphosis

    Chapter 1491 Metamorphosis


    "Now, let''s see who will lose." Theo smirked before opening its giant mouth, gathering all the Magic Power he usually used for Magic Bullets. This time, he was nning to use it as his breath, so he concentrated on a single point before shooting it.


    The golem raised both hands to block it, but the Magic Bullet destroyed his left arm and partly his right arm. Unfortunately, the breath didn''t seem to touch the golem''s body, showing how sturdy the arms were.


    Seeing that it was impossible to stop him, Theo waved his tail, using it as a whip to snap the head.


    However, the golem waved his partly destroyed hand that was gradually recovering from summoning a huge wall that stopped Theo''s tail.


    This blue dragon seemed to be able to match the golem and even started pressuring it, causing the golem to be more on the defensive.


    Theo didn''t stop his attack here. He used his Alter Ego to increase his strength for one second.


    He used that one second to stomp the golem.


    The golem tried to stop him, but because of the weight as well as Theo''s strength, the golem ended up getting pinned to the ground, creating a deep crater underneath.


    Even the buildings began to copse due to the huge cracks on the ground.


    The golem''s body also cracked, but it didn''t seem to damage the golem that much.


    ''Well, this dragon form is quite useful, especially since I can confuse people that I''m a monster.'' Theo smirked before leaping away. He tried to p his wings, causing a powerful wind to the surroundings.


    "It seems that I have been underestimating the Metamorphosis. I have been using it to disguise myself, but I rarely use it in a fight. I should use this more often from this point on."


    While Theo had his own thoughts, the golem had recovered both arms and tried to catch his neck to strangle him. However, Theo managed to see it and grabbed both golem''s wrists.


    As expected, although he had the weight now, the golem''s strength still overwhelmed him. He had a hard time just stopping the golem''s hands even with the help of his Telekinesis.


    To avoid getting strangled to death, Theo opened his mouth and let out another breath.


    The golem took this breath head-on, causing a giant hole in its body.


    Still, the golem didn''t seem to be that hurt, making Theo believe this golem was simr to the Dark King, whose real body was just a small creature.


    Hence, Theo nned to expose its real body soon.


    The golem pulled Theo in and nned to head-butt him. Since the golem was made of stone, this should be powerful enough to injure Theo.


    But Theo remembered what the golem did earlier. "That''s right. The golem used the things in his surroundings as his weapons, so..."


    A huge helmet suddenly covered Theo''s head, not scared of the golem''s head. This helmet was actually formed by using his Irregr Guardian. Instead of small concentrated power, he chose to replicate his mother''s God Killing Spear.


    At the same time, he used his reality power to make the helmet real, especially since he actually formed a safety helmet with springs that could lessen the impact if something hit the helmet.


    *Bam!*


    The sh of their heads caused a powerful shock wave to the surrounding. The helmet cracked and the golem''s head suffered worse. A part of it fell down because it was made of soil instead of concrete. If it was thetter that hit Theo''s head, he wouldn''t dare to fight it like this.


    "That''s right. I have been using my Irregr Guardian as my weapon, but shouldn''t I use it as my armor as well?"


    Theo tried to form the biggest Irregr Guardian he could, but unfortunately, he could only make a single pant that covered his lower body. It wasn''t enough to be the dragon''s armor.


    But there was actually a second candidate that could use this Irregr Guardian.


    Theo summoned the Death Avatar which was far smaller than him. However, its size was as big as the monster''s eyes, so it should be a bit effective against this kind of opponent.


    With the Irregr Guardian, Theo created a set of armor and a sword, turning the Death Avatar into something simr to Leonardo''s King Piece.


    He used that sword to cut down one of the golem''s arms that tried to strangle him with Theo''s Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity, freeing Theo.


    Theo had truly learned a lot from this fight and he might be able to learn a lot more if he continued. Although the consumption of Magic Power was quiterge, he could see multiple useful applications of his power.


    But to his surprise, the golem had a hidden trick in his sleeve as well.


    As soon as its arm fell to the ground, it was absorbed into the ground. After that, the ground began to fluctuate again like a wave, causing the buildings to face Theo.


    The golem then shot those buildings into Theo''s body like a bullet.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because he expected spikes, not bullets. He couldn''t dodge this kind of speed in this form and ended up taking a hit on his body.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth, feeling the pain in his body.


    Since Theo stopped for a moment, the golem tried to catch him again.


    ''So, that''s how it is. The golem uses his size advantage instead of Magic Power as his primary attack because, with a body of this size, you''re bound to use more Magic Power. This is how the golem fights, no, this is how an extrarge size monster fights,'' Theo thought, examining the monster''s ability.


    Since the monster wanted to grasp him, Theo changed his form with his Metamorphosis. This time, he was actually turning into a giant snake.


    "Metamorphosis, Jormungand Imitation." Theo smirked as he fell to the ground and started moving his giant body, wrapping the golem''s body. Since he shouldn''t use too much Magic Power, he nned to use his body size and shape to strangle the golem and snap its body. "Prepare yourself."

 Chapter 1492 Danger

    Chapter 1492 Danger


    The snake wrapped the golem''s body, trying to snap it.


    Theo could feel the reaction from the golem as it tried to push him away, but Theo used all his strength to suppress him.


    "Kh." The golem and Theo gritted their teeth, doing their best.


    The conclusion came in a sudden.


    *Crack!*


    "!!!" The golem widened his eyes and felt his left arm cracking.


    Theo''s eyes brightened as he used all his strength to snap the golem''s left arm.


    Knowing Theo would gain a huge advantage after this, the golem poured his Magic Power into the ground. Instead of regenerating his arm, the golem actually summoned a few arms from the ground, catching Theo.


    "Mhm?" Theo was startled and saw three hands gripping his body. These giant hands prevented him from doing anything and even helped the golem to throw him off his body.


    Theo tried to cling to the golem but to no avail. One of the hands moved to his head and pulled his head. If he didn''t let the golem go, his head would be ripped apart. In the end, he loosened the restraint, causing him to be thrown away by the hands.


    His giant body crushed several buildings before stopping three hundred feet away.


    ''It''s quite painful.'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''I have used the Supernatural Snake Body to withstand the damage, but I might need an S Rank Scale. Anyway, should I change to another form? I have several more forms, but I only have one more transformation with a size this big. The rest are normal size, so I don''t think they can fight against this golem.


    ''I still have one empty spot for Metamorphosis, but I think it''s better if I wait until I upgrade the skill to S Rank.'' Theo looked at the golem that had regenerated its body. It seemed to be quite exhausted as well after continuously regenerating its body. And all his abilities were giant in size, making him expend more energypared to normal monsters.


    The golem mmed its hand on the ground and caused the ground to wave like water, trying tounch Theo into the air.


    He would be at a disadvantage if he was in the air, so Theo returned to his original form instead while figuring out the golem''s real body.


    The golem also noticed Theo''s change and immediately summoned two giant hands from the ground, trying to p Theo like pping the mosquito.


    Theo used his Telekinesis and World Re-Creation to move away from these two palms, heading straight to the golem.


    The golem opened its mouth, trying to swallow him.


    However, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian, creating a giant bow with it. After that, he gathered the Magic Power and formed an arrow that matched the bow''s size.


    This was simr to his dragon''s breath. It used a lot of Magic Power, but there was a big difference between this arrow and the dragon breath. The breath acted like a beam, so it would melt everything on its way. On the other hand, the arrow was to pin the golem to the ground by shooting it at the right angle. He believed he could find the secret of the golem when the golem tried his best to escape from his arrow.


    "Shoot!" Theo smirked and snapped his finger as the arrow flew forth.


    The golem tried to tilt its body to the left, but it was simply too big. Even when he tried to move to the side, the golem didn''t have enough time to do it.


    Theo chose this opportunity to shoot him.


    The arrow hit the golem on the right shoulder. The momentum knocked the golem to the ground, causing the arrow to pierce the ground.


    The arrow''s Magic Power started to change its form. The head of the arrow became wider and acted as an anchor that stopped the golem from lifting his body.


    "What?" The golem tried to lift his body but to no avail due to the anchor. It tried to use the ground to remove the arrow, but Theo had predicted it and simply let the golem do whatever he wanted. However, he would surely take this opportunity to attack the monster.


    Theo gathered all his strength into his spear with his Energy st and thrust the golem, who was trying to use his arm to stop Theo''s attack.


    *Boom!*


    The Energy st exploded, destroying the golem''s arm and slightly crushing the body.


    "..." Theo noticed something from this action. He let out a breath that created a giant hole in his body earlier, but the golem didn''t seem injured. However, it was surprising that the golem tried to use his arm to block his attack right now.


    He tried to recall the information from earlier, especially when he struck the golem''s body.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t have much time to think as Theo had to leap away as the golem''s body let out numerous spikes that would surround him if he didn''t move away.


    Theo still had another attack on his sleeve. He took a deep breath and summoned his Death Avatar.


    Death Descent.


    Theo used the Death Avatar to calcte the ways to kill the golem. But to his surprise, there was nothinging into his vision. Even when he tried to look down to the ground, he couldn''t find anything as if the real monster wasn''t even there.


    ''Interesting.'' Theo narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out how to deal with the golem. It seemed that the situation was far trickier than he originally expected.


    He had a hypothesis in his mind, so he was going to test it. Without hesitation, Theo transformed into a giant dragon and overwhelmed the golem''s strength for a bit with his Alter Ego increasing his strength. Theo wanted to pressure the golem for as long as he could as he whipped his tail after gathering his energy on his tail.


    Theo smirked as he used his tail as a de and cut the golem''s body off the ground before pping his wings, trying to bring the golem out of the ground.


    When he saw the golem was still alive, he knew that the golem''s real body was somewhere hidden in it. "Got you."


    However, the golem soon smiled and said, "No, you."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock as if he felt something.

 Chapter ?1493 Turning the Situation Around

    Chapter ?1493 Turning the Situation Around


    "!!!" Theo instantly felt presenceing from all directions. With a single nce, he saw numerous monsters surrounding him. They were standing on the ground, on top of a building, and in other spots where they could see Theo.


    The monsters ranged from Hero Rank Monsters to Mythical Rank Monsters.


    He instantly understood the golem''s n. He was nning to shoot him down by using those monsters.


    "You''re the one intruding on my territory. You should have no excuse if I use my people to fight you, no? Especially after you kill numerous subjects in my territory!" The golem hugged Theo''s body, making sure he didn''t escape.


    "Shoot!"


    As soon as the golem let out his order, the monsters let out their attacks. Some let out a breath, some sent forth their elemental attacks, and some threw some objects. All of them were simply trying to use everything they could to attack Theo. Even if they didn''t have a ranged attack, they could still pick up rubbles on the ground and toss them to Theo.


    If Theo was attacked by all this, even he would be injured. The golem seemed to be nning to restrain him and continuously rain him down with all these attacks.


    Theo smirked and said, "Interesting. I can retrieve the structure anytime I want, but I guess, fighting against you and other King ss Monsters excites me more."


    "Huh?" The golem was confused, seeing the confidence in Theo''s eyes.


    However, the answer soon came when another Theo appeared on top of the dragon''s body.


    It was his clone. His clone was supposed to retrieve the structure in Botswana, but he canceled the mission because fighting for experience was more important to him. He could simply retrieve the structure after he was stronger, considering the monsters wouldn''t be able to steal it.


    Clone Theo summoned the Death Avatar and released a powerful killing intent, spreading it to the surroundings. The Hero Rank Monsters that felt this killing intent were dumbstruck and some of them instantly passed out. The Supreme Rank Monsters managed to withstand the killing intent, but they felt their bodies became weaker. Only the Mythical Rank Monsters could resist this attack.


    Still, even if Theo could deal with some of them, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had to deal with all the attacks that were soon going to reach him.


    Theo summoned numerous Magic Bullets and shot all of them down with precision.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" The golem widened his eyes because he could see half of the attacks were shot down so easily. Another portion got destroyed by multiple bullets. Luckily for him, the Mythical Rank Monsters should be strong enough to reach Theo.


    This was when Clone Theo turned into a giant snake and tried to cover both the real Theo and the golem. He even used the Supernatural Snake Body to strengthen his skin so that no attack prated his body.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Clone Theo felt the extraordinary paining from all these attacks. There were multiple holes on its body, but luckily, the holes didn''t reach the other end.


    After this attack, the snake disappeared before Theo summoned another clone. This was the most dangerous power that Theo had.


    The clone would always be created with the situation of the real body. In other words, its Magic Power and Order Energy werepletely the same as the real body. If Theo actually stayed hidden somewhere and kept sending his clone, he wouldn''t really use any Magic Power since he only expended his Magic Power for his clone, the rest came from the clone itself.


    "You!" The golem widened his eyes in shock. He hurriedly used spikes to stab Theo''s giant dragon body.


    But Theo and his clone had the same reaction. Dragon Theo let him go and used his Telekinesis to lift the giant body. Since it was too much for Theo alone, his clone helped lift the golem''s body, making him stay afloat.


    "What?!" The golem was shocked because he couldn''t move this way. Dragon Theo even had returned to his human form. "Attack!"


    The golem panicked because this situation would be too dangerous if it continued. He had to stop Theo and fell back to the ground.


    But that order was a mistake because when those monstersunched another wave of attack at Theo, the two Theos hurriedly flew around the golem, trying to avoid the attacks. At the same time, the attacks he dodged ended up hitting the golem instead of Theo because of the size difference.


    Theo even used his Twisted Reality to change the direction of the strong attacks so that they could have more impact on the golem.


    "Aaahhh!" The golem screamed in pain as if his real body had been hit by an attack.


    Theo immediately looped around to check all spots to find the golem''s real body.


    Theo soon found a small golem that seemed to be controlling the giant body, falling from the crack to escape.


    The golem felt Theo''s presence and saw his smirk when he was falling to the ground.


    "Got you!"


    The golem panicked because his fall suddenly stopped because of Theo''s Telekinesis.


    "This is..." The golem gritted his teeth. He was in a perilous situation because his real body was exposed to danger.


    The golem remembered what Theo did with his Irregr Guardian as he immediately waved his hand, controlling the giant golem''s body and changing its shape.


    "Seriously?" Theo smirked and saw two big hammers and swords on top of his head.


    With the monsters aiming at him also, this battle was truly a life and death battle.


    Both Theo summoned their Death Avatar, trying to hold the hammers from hitting Theo''s body. At the same time, the two Theos approached the golem.


    The two swords the golem created earlier fell down and stood in their way, swinging their bodies to stop Theo.


    However, the clone suddenly formed threads from his hands and attached them to the sword that would hit the real Theo.


    He used Alter Ego to increase his strength and pull the sword, allowing Theo to slip past it. But the Clone Theo was cut right after by the other sword.


    ''This is enough!'' Theo thought as he even used his Blink to close the distance. He finally reached the golem''s real body with his sword. "This time, I really got you."


    The golem gritted his teeth.

 Chapter ?1494 Unexpected Find

    Chapter ?1494 Unexpected Find


    Theo swung his sword with all his strength.


    *Clink!*


    The clicking sound echoed on the battlefield as the monsters thought Theo had cut their king. But surprisingly, nothing happened. Even the King ss Monster was dumbfounded when he realized he was still alive.


    "This is��" The golem looked at his body. There was only a dent on his body, which could be repaired in a few days. But that was all the damage from Theo''s attack.


    Theo was capable of severing his arm, so splitting his body into two shouldn''t be a problem for him. And Theo still had enough Magic Power to do it.


    "You�� went easy?!" The golem turned around, staring at Theo in shock.


    Theo smiled and said, "I told you earlier, right? I didn''t want any bloodshed. I just wanted to challenge you. I simply wished to learn something new from how other King ss Monsters utilized their power. I never intended to kill you from the start."


    The golem was bewildered. If this happened before the apocalypse, other people would dly kill him because it would bring them fame. Just knowing they were strong enough to eliminate a King ss Monster by themselves was already enough tost for a lifetime.


    So, Theo''s action struck deeply in his heart.


    The golem paused for a moment before shouting to all the monsters. "Go back!"


    The monsters were confused, but because this was their King''s Order, they left their king and Theo alone.


    Seeing there was no more hostility in the golem''s eyes, Theo gradually descended to the ground.


    "This is the first time I see a human like you." The golem looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "It''s my honor." Theo smiled.


    "So, you''re really training yourself this way? I''m pretty sure you are aware of how rude you are�� Intruding someone''s territory and challenging the owner of that ce."


    "I know. But this is how I intend to get stronger. No, should I say that this is the only way for me to get stronger as soon as possible?"


    The golem looked at Theo for a moment before saying, "I guess you''re a different kind of human, unlike the rest of the humans on this, including me."


    "Including you? You are a human?"


    "I was a human." The golem nodded. "I don''t know if you have heard about this, but I seemed toe from an ind in the middle of the vast ocean. I have gathered some information from the human world as well. If I remember correctly, the humans actually built us a statue of a face as a symbol."


    "A statue of a face��" Theo muttered before a ce came into his mind. "Easter Ind?"


    "Maybe that''s the name."


    "But shouldn''t you have died long ago?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "I mean, we''re talking about the two realms here. You should be someone from the other realm, right?"


    "Yes. We were supposed to die. I was a leader back then because my Magic Power was far stronger than anyone else. We died because of a huge eruption of the volcano, and our bodies were buried or you could say mummified by the ashes.


    "That was how I died�� Or was supposed to die. I don''t know how long, but I suddenly returned to life. My mummified body waspletely burned down by theva, so I ended up forming this new body. No, it might be due to my power rted to this that I could transfer my consciousness to a rock. Whatever.


    "After traveling around, I soon found out that there were two realms that split the world. The other side was theplete opposite of this ce. I mean, literally. This world was filled with water, but could you imagine if the water was reced by thend and thend turned into water."


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. "Wait a second. Are you telling me that most of the other side is thend? Scientifically speaking, that ce won''t have enough evaporation, and it''s going to be extremely hot. Now that I think about it, is that the reason why this ce is called Heaven and the other side is Hell?"


    The golem shook his head helplessly. "I don''t know much about it. Even though I''m one of the people who survived the ordeal, I woke up only after a long time had passed. That is why I still use Order instead of Authority."


    "Fair enough." Theo nodded in agreement. "Then, how do you know about Easter Ind?"


    "After I woke up, I went on an adventure to find the truth about this ce until I met a Saint that I served. I learned something and started looking at the ce on this side. I learned that there were some records about life before that disaster, so I was curious whether mine was recorded as well.


    "It was then I stumbled upon the information about my people. The statues seem to be built for us since everything matches." The golem shrugged.


    "Is that so?" Theo looked down, contemting. Just like Mythologies or even Helheim and Niflheim, this kind of story was actually usible. "So, you''re like a living legend?"


    "I guess?" The golem chuckled. "Though, I don''t have my previous body. So, I can''t really say anything."


    "Well, to be honest, it''s quite surprising that I can meet another living legend."


    "Another? There''s another one like me?"


    "Yes. She is a Goddess." Theo nodded.


    "Hoh? That''s interesting.".


    "Well, I can''t tell you more than that though." Theo shrugged.


    "If I forget about your rudeness in attacking my territory, you don''t seem to be a bad human to be honest."


    "Ahaha, I apologize for attacking your territory. I have told you the reasons and I don''t see any way to challenge you without doing so."


    "True enough." The golem nodded. "You''re interesting. Since you''ve defeated me, take this."


    The golem sent out his friend seal for Theo. "If you use this seal in my territory, my people will help you."


    "Is that so? Thank you so much."


    "That''s just the proof of my defeat." The golem chuckled. "Still, do you have information about Easter Ind? I never went there because I couldn''t show myself to the humans due to the Saint''s restriction."


    "Maybe you can in the future, considering the two realms have merged."


    "True enough. It will be normal for someone like me to travel around the world."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled and also gave him his friend seal. "Thanks to you, I think I''ve got another goal."


    "Hoh? What''s that?"


    Theo smiled, not telling him. However, he muttered inwardly while looking at the sky. ''There are many things to learn in this new world. Even I never expected I would find someone like him. As the master of this reality, I should learn more about this world."

 Chapter 1495 Message

    Chapter 1495 Message


    "So, this is the structure��" Theo stood in front of a huge white pir. Unlike the structure he found that consisted of four pirs, a tform connecting them, and a star, the structure he found was actually a single pir without even a single decoration.


    Still, Theo could see the extraordinary amount of power residing in the pir. "Each pir seems to have different shapes�� Is there a meaning behind their shapes? I should ask Hel after this."


    After fighting against the golem, Theo started his journey again to the pir. And it took him one week to find the pir since he had a huge area to find it. Luckily, he could use the Eagle Form to scout along with his clone, making the search far easier. In the past, he couldn''t use his eagle form to go around because the energy from his body was that of a human. But with the help of the Reality Order, he had no more problems with it.


    Though, Theo didn''t mind fighting against monsters when he was just on a normal trip since they would be the source of his EXP.


    "What kind of power does this pir have?" Theo tilted his head in confusion while using his Order as well as the Reality Eyes to find anything different from this one. He also looked around for a monster to test whether the pir could repel monsters as well.


    "The effect is the same. I guess they can be considered the basic function. As for the rest, I think I can only ask Hel." Theo muttered while furrowing his eyebrows. "Yeah. Just bring it back with me. I also n to visit the mutated monster, so I think I''ll need this pir to help me a bitter."


    During this time, Theo had been asking one important question in his mind. Since he had been learning how to use his Order from monsters, Theo wondered about the difference between Order and Authority.


    He had been cooperating and even seen Authority Level Figures fighting, but he still couldn''t decipher the secret of their strength.


    "What''s the difference between an Order and Authority? Should I ask the world about this? But I don''t think I''ll get the answer." Theo scratched the back of his head. No matter how hard he tried to find the answer, no image came to his mind to exin it.


    "Whatever. I know that there is a difference between Order and Authority, but I think I can know that after going to Hel. Then again, I don''t know if Hel will answer that question. Should I go to the Frost Saint instead? He''s not that far from my ce." Theo thought for a moment before shaking his head helplessly. "Either way, I should continue my mission first. Let''s go to the mutated monsters before heading to Germany. I want to cause them some mess for abandoning me easily after they take my n away."


    Because he was going to Germany, he wanted to meet the mutated monsters in Chernobyl, which allowed him to visit the Czar''s base in southern Moscow.


    This was a perfect course for him.


    Of course, Theo used his clone to send back the structure to his ce while the original continued on his path. Since Theo didn''t want to summon his clone again, he used his eagle form to move around. It was also faster this way because he was traveling in the air.


    Most monsters didn''t attack him because he was another monster in their eyes, but some aggressive ones still attacked him. Luckily, they were just normal monsters that posed no problems for him.


    With this eagle form, he also had another idea of crossing the ocean. He could fly in the sky, but he didn''t know whether he would seed or not due to the amount of Magic Power. He didn''t know how much he needed after all.


    Of course, he could choose the other path, which was to be a fish to cross the ocean. Either way, he should have no problem traveling the ocean if it was only by himself.


    Nheless, he had no n to travel that far for the time being. All he wanted was to gain as much knowledge as he could to evolve his Order to Authority.


    Four days had passed, and Theo finally reached the base where the Czar was supposed to stay.


    However, the only thing he could see was a ruined building. From all the scratches on the building, it was clear that this ce had a bitter fight with its enemies.


    "Are they alright?" Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering what had happened to all of them. Considering the Czar had gained many Mythical Rank Experts, they should have enough people to fight their way out.


    Though, they would also be in the grasp of the Griffith Family. He didn''t know whether the Czar would be taken advantage of or not because of their rtionship with him.


    Theo sighed, "Well, I''m going to check it myself after this. For now, I should investigate this ce."


    Theo walked inside the building, trying to find anything useful, especially from Yermyev''s room. There were still some documents left behind, but he didn''t find anything useful until he opened the drawer on Yermyev''s office table.


    He found a small letter that piqued his interest.


    "The monsters are too much to handle. They seem to be stronger and more ferocious than normal monsters. We need four people of the same level to defeat a single monster because the monster will fight to thest breath as if it doesn''t feel any pain."


    "After meeting with some people, we have agreed to evacuate to Germany, which seems to have formed a big base. Theo should be there as well,manding them. So, this is going to be a perfect n.


    "Instead of dying here, it''s better to fight our way out. And if anyone finds this letter, go to Germany since it''s a safe ce."


    Theo scratched the back of his head. "You want someone to find this paper, but you hide it in the drawer? Are you kidding me?"


    When Theo was about to continue his rant, he suddenly heard a howling from two hundred feet away from him.


    *Aooo!*

 Chapter ?1496 Mutated Monsters

    Chapter ?1496 Mutated Monsters


    Theo stopped reading the letter when he noticed a wolf standing not far from him. He walked to the window and took a nce outside.


    The wolf was different from his imagination because this wolf had ck and purple fur. The eyes were bloodshot and the mouth kept showing its fangs while letting out some mucus. The ws were far sharper andrger and there was even a horn on the wolf''s head.


    Theo''s expression became serious as he muttered, "So, this is a mutated monster."


    As if reacting to his voice, the wolf let out another howl as if calling for his group.


    "!!!" Theo was surprised because the wind was louder than him, so there was no way the wolf could hear that. But the fact was different. He knew that the wolf would react to him, so Theo immediately took out his sword while checking the wolf.


    When he was about to take a step forward, the wolf let out another howl as seven wolves came to him and started charging at the building.


    Theo''s expression turned cold as he took out his sword and waved it, sending forth crescent-shaped energy to kill the wolves.


    The wolves leaped into the air while pointing their horn at the building. Red-colored lightning started sparking around the horn before the lightning flew toward Theo.


    "!!!" Theo jumped away while using his Irregr Guardian to block the explosion.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred, overwhelming Theo as well as tearing the building down.


    When they spotted Theo, the wolves'' ws began to glow red as they leaped in Theo''s direction.


    Theo raised his hand to block these wolves with a single swing to overpower them, but one of the ws managed to reach his hand and scratched his lower arm.


    The red energy seemed to enter his hand before Theo found the wound turning ck at speed visible with naked eyes.


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes in shock.


    However, this wasn''t the real Theo. It was one of the realities he saw when encountering these monsters. His Reality Eyes gave him the vision, and Theo deemed it to be dangerous.


    In that instant, Theo summoned his Irregr Guardian in the form of a shield to stop the wolves.


    "Ar��"


    "Aaaaargh."


    Four wolves crashed into the giant shield while trying to bite it to crush the shield, while the other three managed to react and leap to the side, looping around the barrier.


    Since Theo didn''t want to get hurt fighting these wolves, he summoned numerous Magic Bullets to overwhelm them.


    The wolves stopped as they received the Magic Bullets head-on. Surprisingly, their skin managed to receive all the Magic Bullets. Although Theo didn''t concentrate them into one spot, they were still hit in the same spot at least a few times. So, it was quite surprising to see that the wolves'' skin became that hard.


    Since it wasn''t effective and the monsters started going at him again, Theo retracted his barrier, allowing the rest of the monsters toe together.


    At that time, Theo used his Alter Ego to increase his speed and went beyond the sound barrier, cutting all the wolves that surrounded him.


    After so long, Theo had upgraded his Supernatural Snake Body a bit more. Despite going at speed above the speed of sound, Theo''s body only had a few small cuts instead of being covered with them. This was a huge improvement.


    And with this attack, all the wolves died, except for one wolf, who hadmanded the seven wolves earlier.


    "You''re next." Theo smirked, challenging the wolf. He indirectly implied that if the wolf wanted to avenge his fallen kins, he coulde to Theo and kill him personally.


    The leader wolf leaped forth while waving its red ws. It let out a huge amount of energy that sharpened and extended the ws.


    Theo used his Irregr Guardian in the form of a shield to stop it, but he found a crack on the shield from that one single attack.


    ''Interesting.'' Theo hurriedly used his Heisk to smash the wolf''s head, knocking it to the ground. After that, the wolf tried to get up, but Theo hurriedly struck it with his de.


    The wolf used its paws and ws to stop Theo''s sword, but thetter was covered with Energy st. The eruption of the Energy st knocked the de and the wolf''s paws away.


    Seeing this as his chance, the wolf tried to get up so that Theo couldn''t take advantage of him anymore. But the smoke caused by the explosion was actually the cause of his death.


    Theo used the Death Domain to seal the wolf''s Awareness as he struck the wolf''s neck, slicing it.


    [Killed a Mutated Green Wolf.]


    [EXP+1,200,85793]


    "What the hell?" Theo widened his eyes in confusion. He couldn''t understand why there were two more additional numbers on the back. Still, this monster was a mutated monster that shouldn''t exist, so he thought this was the case.


    However, there was something that piqued his interest. "Hmm? They''re stronger, but they''re actually giving so much EXP? It''s true that they''re hard to kill, but with my clone, I should be able to get so much EXP from them."


    "This is quite surprising. Is mutated monster bad for the environment?" Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering about all kinds of possibilities.


    "These wolves are weird." Because he didn''t know what to do with these wolves, he used gloves to touch the wolf''s body. He wanted to use his clone, but he couldn''t really leave the structure behind.


    As long as he didn''t touch it for too long, he believed there wasn''t much radiation exposed to his body.


    "What''s the secret of this mutated monster?" Theo muttered in a low voice. "They''re more aggressive, stronger, and harder to kill��"


    Theo hesitated for a moment, but he ended up cutting the wolf to see their inside before noticing something to his investigation.


    "The blood is blue and the flesh is purple. What''s going on?" Theo squinted his eyes, feeling confused.

 Chapter 1497 Time Bomb

    Chapter 1497 Time Bomb


    "Mutated monster��" Theo couldn''t understand anything since there were many questions about this mutated monster. Isaac wasn''t a researcher in this area either, so he couldn''t bring this corpse back.


    "Well, can I safely assume that these monsters are tougher than the normal ones? And they''re going to cause a lot of damage if they can injure me? It''s truly troublesome, but if I use my clone to fight them the whole time to level up, I think I can reach level 900 sooner orter."


    Theo cut the wolves into pieces to see more. He had cooked wolves many times during his journey, so he knew what kind of organs the wolves had. Yet, this wolf had two of its organs disappear. Some organs were bigger, and some had a change of color.


    "Mhm�� I don''t understand anything. For now, I''m going to record what I''ve seen first and tell Isaac about it. Maybe he can give me some suggestions." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Well, the mutated monster is indeed different, but I can''t really find anything from them. Should I kill some more to see how they utilize their abilities?"


    With that thought in mind, Theo approached Chernobyl while trying to find the power nt. He feared that the power nt that contained the radiation had been breached and the radiation was flowing out of that ce continuously. It would surely cause another disaster that they had to take care of.


    And to his surprise, Theo could see the monsters gradually increase in number the more he approached Chernobyl Power nt.


    Theo even had to sneak in carefully so that no monsters found him. He didn''t want to let out a single sound because the mutated monsters might react.


    What he found next was one of the biggest shocks in his life.


    There was actually a monster sitting on top of Chernobyl''s containment building.


    ''That''s��'' Theo sucked a cold breath. The monster was a ck-colored dragon with bone wings instead of real wings. A portion of its body also got charred ck and another portion was rooting. Still, Theo could feel the difference between that dragon and a normal one.


    The sleeping dragon on top of the building was significantly stronger than all dragons of the same level.


    But what he feared the most wasn''t the dragon. It was the numerous monsters that also slept around the power nt as if they were consuming the radiation.


    ''They''re absorbing the radiation? I don''t have the Geiger-Mueller detector to see how much radiation I''m getting into my body. But if my hypothesis is correct, those monsters are absorbing the radiation.


    ''I don''t know all the effects on their body, but I''m sure the radiation is making them far stronger. In the near future, I''m afraid that they''ll wake up and terrorize the world. When that happens, I don''t know what kind of danger the world will face.''


    Theo couldn''t help but recall when the world told him that it ''loved'' everything. The past tense showed that the world had given up on every life that it hosted.


    ''Another global catastrophe.'' Theo muttered inwardly with a grim expression. If these monsters were disturbed, the first one to be destroyed was the best in the west.


    Theo didn''t dare to do anything in this ce, not daring to wake up all these monsters. Even he would die if he tried to escape from all these monsters, let alone fight them.


    ''No, let''s not disturb them for the time being. Even an Authority Level Figure had to sacrifice his life to seal a mutated slime who seemed to have evolved into an Order level figure. Then, what''s about that dragon over there who is staying right on top of the containment building?


    ''We''re lucky that the containment building is still intact, but who knows what will happen if the radiation spreads again. More and more monsters will get this radiation.


    ''Now that I think about it, how much radiation it''s going to spread? It''s been a few hundred years since the Chernobyl incident happened. I don''t know much about it. Considering the potency of the nuclear reaction, I guess Ukraine will be affectedpletely. Maybe the country around it will also receive the effect like Pnd, Lithuania, Latvia, Moscow, and the countries in the south.


    ''I have to prepare for the war that might happen as well. So, I need to build up an army to fight against these monsters. And I don''t think humans will be the only ones to participate in this war.


    ''Should I invite other Saints to resist all these monsters? But to do that, I have to be a Saint as well.''


    Theo took a deep breath, imagining the trouble ahead of them. Since there was nothing he could do at the moment, he chose to leave the area.


    This also gave him a deep thought. After flying for two hours straight, Theo sat down on a tree, pondering.


    "Should I continue with my n? I''m nning to mess around in the EU Base to pay back for what they have done to me. But if I cause too much trouble, the base won''t have enough strength to resist a future disaster, those mutated monsters. Although I don''t really mind if they die, I don''t think I can let this go as well.


    "After all, the War God Family is still there along with Agata''s family. I don''t wish for them to die needlessly.


    "Well, should I tone down my n a bit? All I want to do is to kill that Flora Wegener and the Griffith Family, but I guess I can do something else. The Griffith Family has to die though, especially my original self. I don''t want him to ruin the Czar since I''ve promised to Sir Yaslev."


    Theo contemted for an hour before a smile appeared on his face. "Yeah. I think we can use this n."


    Theo turned into an eagle again and started flying to Czech first where the refugees from other ces would arrive first before they were spread to other regions.


    The people in the EU Base didn''t know what wasing to them.

 Chapter 1498 Crisis

    Chapter 1498 Crisis


    Czech Republic.


    Yermyev looked through the window of his room. There were many soldiers roaming around the area as the situation hadn''t been controlledpletely. The extermination had been progressing smoothly, but the speed was stillckingpared to Theo''s prediction.


    He never thought that Theo would be in this situation as soon as he reached this ce.


    He clenched his fists and thought, ''Theo has been framed as a criminal. Though, I am also suspecting it a little bit because Theo seemed to know about the uing apocalypse. At the same time, I don''t think Theo is someone who will do something like this.


    ''It''s true that Theo is weird and crazy at a time, but he''s not someone who will cause the apocalypse. I have been investigating this matter in this ce, but no one seems to know whether the cause is real or not. No, they don''t even bother to question themselves and just believe that Theo is the culprit.


    ''Is this one of his tricks? He always turns around the situation whenever he''s in a bad position. But I believe the bad position is when he''s forced to leave the base instead of causing the apocalypse. So, is it from a different Theo?''


    Yermyev furrowed his eyebrows, contemting. He suddenly noticed someone familiar on the field.


    "Mhm?" It piqued Yermyev''s interest as there were a guy and a woman meeting each other. The guy had short spiky ck hair. He wore a shirt and jeans. However, he had a few bodyguards, proving his importance.


    "Anastasia. This is a great chance for you to be mine. If your ruined Empress Pce joins hands with my Lexon Group, not only can we revive your Empress Pce, but the Lexon Group will also be stronger. My father is the same as your mother after all." The guy smirked.


    Ana, the Empress''s daughter, looked at him in disgust. "There''s no need to consider it. I disagree. I have told you multiple times to leave me alone."


    "If you don''t want to marry me, then there''s also another solution. Give me that Alea Eilric!"


    Ana''s expression became cold as she asked with killing intent emitting from her eyes. "Is that a challenge, I presume? Even if our Empress Pce is not based here, we don''t really mind fighting against your Lexon Group."


    "You should learn to see the bigger picture. If you think that your Empress Pce can withstand the anger of the Griffith Family, feel free to do so." The guy smirked.


    "Ricky Nixon." Ana gritted her teeth as her body excluded all her Magic Power, representing her anger.


    The bodyguards immediately stepped forward, trying to protect Lexon.


    "Remember this, Ana. You only have two weeks. If you don''tply�� hehe��" He ended his sentence with a vulgar chuckle.


    Ana clenched her fists. She had learned about the theories that Isaac and Theo hade up with. So, many had been courting people with talent because no one would be able to level up anymore. Even she didn''t feel any different after fighting so many monsters. Even if she leveled up, it would be useless if she couldn''t allocate her attribute points.


    She gritted her teeth because she wasn''t in a position where she could reject itpletely, considering the Griffith Family had taken root in this ce.


    Ana took a deep breath and shook her eyes helplessly, brushing the thought off. She then walked away disappointedly, trying to do something to forget this mess.


    Yermyev narrowed his eyes, watching the entire scene. He pinched the bridge of his eyebrows and muttered, "If Levina is with us, I''m afraid that they''re going to do the same. Even now, they''re trying to take advantage of us because we''re rted to Theo. Even in this situation, the humans are still fighting each other and they can''t control their greed, lust, or wrath��


    "Well, that fake Theo in the Sk should probably create a bigger apocalypse and wipe the entire humanity. Still, I have to do something for our livelihood. At the very least, I should go to the War God Family, where Theoes from. I believe that our strength can bolster their power, so a union can happen. The problem is, how can I go there without being noticed by the Griffith Family? Even the War Saint has been monitored. If not for the fact they still need his expertise, he would have been removed from the union."


    Yermyev closed his eyes, not knowing what to do. Heid down on his bed while racking his mind toe up with a solution. It would be hard, but it shouldn''t be impossible.


    Meanwhile, Ricky Nixon walked to a building not far from that ce to meet someone inside a room.


    He had short red hair and wore a suit as if he had just finished an important talk.


    "I have conveyed your intention to them, Young Master." Ricky smirked, politely bowing his head. "With your status, why do you have to wait for two weeks? You can simply bring her with you and no one canin."


    "Because it''s not interesting. The more they struggle, the more foolish they''ll be. And that faker will surely appear to help them."


    "As expected of the Young Master." Ricky smiled while asking politely, "Then�� can I get��"


    "I don''t need that useless woman. All I want is Alea Eilric. I don''t need someone else. You can get that Anastasia." The guy snorted.


    "Thank you for your kindness, Young Master. I have to convey your words to my father too and I believe that my father will fully support you." Ricky smiled and took a step back as if he had prepared to leave.


    "Then go away. Keep reminding them every day!"


    "Certainly, I will harass�� I mean, remind them every day. You don''t have to worry about this matter, Young Master Theodore Grif��Oops, I mean, Young Master Harry Hetson, the son of the eighth strongest person in the world, Haiskal Hetson." Ricky yfully smirked and left the room.

 Chapter ?1499 Impostor?

    Chapter ?1499 Impostor?


    After returning to his family, Ricky had a chat with his father.


    "That''s the situation, Father." Ricky smiled.


    "Good enough for me. Alea is easy to sacrifice. As long as we can gain the Empress, we''ll be able to gain a bigger portion of the union. Remember this, don''t mess it up!" The middle-aged man in front of Ricky warned him with a stern voice.


    "Of course. I''ll do my best, Father."


    "Good. I don''t care how many women you want to y with as long as you can aplish this. We have driven away that fake Theodore Griffith, so the union is controlled by Flora Wegener and the Griffith Family. If we can get the Empress to our side, we can defeat all otherpetitors and be the third strongest influence in the union. Make sure you remember that!"


    "I understand." Ricky nodded with a serious expression.


    "Good. You may go."


    Ricky nodded again before leaving the room.


    "Hahaha, I am going to etch my name in history as one of the strongest members of the union. Only in this situation can I etch my name deeply into the world''s history. I should thank that fake Theo for providing me this opportunity." The middle-aged manughed crazily as he could imagine himself reaching that position.


    He didn''t know thatter that night, his son, Ricky, actually walked back to the refugee camp where they gathered the refugees from Russia. As soon as he reached their ce, Ricky looked around as if he was trying to find someone.


    When he found the person he was looking for, an evil smile appeared on his face. He suddenly walked to that person, who was none other than the Empress.


    "I greet the Empress." Ricky politely greeted her.


    The Empress'' expression became extremely cold, knowing what happened with Ana and Alea. She ignored him because she was disgusted by his behavior.


    However, Ricky said, "May I say something about your situation, Empress?"


    "Do you think you''re worthy of talking to me?"


    "I am simply wondering if I can get some insight from you regarding the real person and the fake." Ricky smirked.


    "��" The Empress'' expression changed as if she heard it wrong. She fell silent for a moment and said, "Follow me."


    "Yes." Ricky politely nodded and started walking together with her. Without ncing, Ricky could feel the two auras that fluctuated from afar. They wereing from Ana and Alea, who were releasing their power to agitate him. But they were shocked when the Empress brought him somewhere as if she had taken a liking to him.


    They were worried that the Empress would actually agree to this situation, but there was nothing they could do.


    Meanwhile, Ricky and the Empress reached a quiet ce.


    "No one is around. Tell me the reason you asked that question."


    "I simply wish to gain some insight from you, who seems to have known both people. My father wishes to ascend in the union by borrowing your power. I don''t really care much about it because I have some worries��"


    "About them?" The Empress narrowed her eyes.


    "Yes. On the one hand, the real person has the backing of the Griffith Family and Flora Wegener. On the other hand, the fake has learned from Sir War Saint. So, I''m curious about your opinion regarding them. And depending on your answer, I might help you a bit." Ricky smirked.


    "Help me? You can''t help me."


    "Oh, I have two weeks, Madam. There are many things I can do. I simply don''t want to make the wrong choice." Ricky yfully incited the Empress'' interest in him.


    The Empress red at him for a while, examining his expression. Ricky didn''t seem to be like the rumors.


    ''Useless yboy? Is he actually hiding his real fierceness with that facade?'' The Empress muttered inwardly, doubting what she had seen. ''Let me test him then.''


    "I don''t have any opinion. But if I were to choose, I would prefer the one from the War God Family, considering he has morals and stuff like that. Though, I also hate him for breaking the heart of my disciple." Her eyes started emitting killing intent and her answer was vague because she chose him but hated him at the same time.


    Ricky thought for a moment and said, "If that''s the case, then please give me some chance to prove my worth. I''ll bring flowers for your daughter."


    "Flower?" The Empress stopped for a moment, confused. It took her two minutes to realize what he was nning to do.


    Since Ricky was trying to court or threaten Ana, flowers were perfect for hiding a secret letter. Even the Griffith Family wouldn''t see this as a weird idea because Ricky was known to be lecherous. It was normal for him to use some flowers to court people. They wouldn''t suspect the flowers. This might also be the reason why Ricky put on a fake facade.


    "Then, let me see your worth for the next two weeks." The Empress snorted.


    "I won''t disappoint you." Ricky smiled yfully as he walked away happily. When he was about to leave the ce, he caught a glimpse of Ana and winked his right eye, trying to flirt with her.


    Ana''s eyebrows twitched as she wanted to beat him right this instant. But the only thing she got was a re from the Empress as if ordering her not to do anything.


    She could only swallow her anger and look away.


    Meanwhile, Ricky nonchntly left the building while retiring to his room. He opened a cupboard to change his clothes, but there was a pungent smelling from the bottom as he could find another Ricky, tied up. His body was covered in wounds and he didn''t have enough strength left to even do anything.


    Ricky smirked and said coldly, "Oh boy. You haven''t died yet? Maybe you should kill yourself instead of torturing yourself like this. Do you want me to help you?"


    Seeing Ricky''s smile, the tied-up Ricky panicked and fainted.

 Chapter 1500 Another Impostor

    Chapter 1500 Another Impostor


    Ennd.


    "Prince Karl, we have received information regarding the movement in Czech. It seems that the Lexon Group is nning to control the union with the help of the Empress."


    Prince Karl, who had been managing the royal family and working together with the prime minister to handle the government, was furious.


    He mmed the table and shouted in anger. "Make sure the union doesn''t happen, even if you have to kill her daughter!"


    "Y-yes!"


    "Kh." Prince Karl pinched the bridge of his nose, getting overwhelmed by the trouble that kepting to him. "We have been in a bad situation after the apocalypse, and now we have to deal with this situation. Flora Wegener and the Griffith Family have taken control of the union, so if there''s another influence standing there other than us, we won''t be able to handle the union anymore. We need someone to help us, but we don''t have anything to pay for their support."


    Prince Karl narrowed his eyes, contemting.


    Suddenly, another person came to him and reported in a rush. "Prince. We have an emergency!"


    "Can''t you see I''m busy right now?" Prince Karl roared.


    "But�� but the person you''re looking for previously hase!"


    "The person I''ve been looking for previously?"


    "There is someone who ims to be able to upgrade someone''s skill."


    "!!!" Prince Karl widened his eyes in shock. He had been searching for that kind of person this whole time but to no avail. The purpose was to get him to get Theo to his side.


    However, the apocalypse had happened and they couldn''t use their skills anymore. And Theo was already chased away as well. The search was supposed to be irrelevant now, but the prince actually thought it another way.


    Although they couldn''t see their status anymore, including their skills, there was a chance that this person was still able to see those skills and upgrade them. In other words, he might be a person that could still strengthen someone else''s strength.


    If that were the case, this person would be the only person to be able to get stronger. Hence, he immediately dropped everything and stood up. "Where''s that person? Lead me to him and bring the best snack and tea you have!"


    "Y-yes! This way, please!"


    It didn''t take five minutes before the two guys met.


    The prince had brown curly hair and a gant body. His gaze was filled with pride, but when he met this person, his expression became extremely gentle.


    Meanwhile, the one who imed to be able to upgrade one''s skill was actually a skinny young man. With a single nce, he looked like a beggar. But when he examined his body a bit more, he could see a circr bruise that covered both of his wrists, ankles, and neck as if he was chained down by someone. He looked so weak that he might fall down with a single push from him.


    The guy lowered his head, but his body was continuously shaking as if he feared him.


    The prince didn''t believe him instantly. He sat down in front of this weak looking guy and asked, "So, you im you can upgrade someone''s skill? Why do youe to my ce?"


    "I�� I heard that they were looking for people who could upgrade a person''s skill. If�� If you didn''t need one anymore�� then I�� I will leave," the guy stuttered and his body kept trembling.


    "Before you leave, I have to ask you something. Why do you choose toe to me now? There were multiple chances where you could go to me��"


    "I�� I�� I''m not from here." The guy shook his head while hugging his own body, making his callous to be seen.


    The prince narrowed his eyes and thought, ''It seems that someone has known his power and used him for themselves. And the only reason he could reach here was the apocalypse. He must have been teleported here due to that space distortion. That''s why I couldn''t find him this whole time since he was chained down.''


    He thought for a moment and said, "Your power should be useless now, so I don''t think I need you anymore. After all, we don''t have the ability to open the system anymore."


    "But�� but my power��"


    "Are you trying to imply that your power can still be used?"


    "Y-yes."


    Seeing the fear in this guy''s eyes, the Prince thought for a moment before stating, "If you can prove to me that you''re useful. I''ll protect you and make sure that you don''t undergo that kind of torture anymore. I''ll treat you as an honored guest of the royal family and give you the best treatment. In other words, I''ll change your lifepletely if you can show me your worth."


    "Y-yes." The guy hesitated for a moment and said, "That''s�� I better show it to you personally. Still, don''t�� don''t hit me if I fail because the possibility��"


    ''So, there is a chance for it to be upgraded. But you also need Skill Cards even though the monsters don''t drop any more Skill Cards. No, wait, if I take this from another perspective. The fact that the resources are limited, I can increase the price exponentially.'' The prince thought before a smile appeared on his face. "Can you upgrade all ranks?"


    "Y-yes."


    "Good. Is there a difference in sess rate depending on the ranks? For example, the B Rank Skill is harder to upgradepared to F Rank Skill."


    "There is no difference."


    "Good. I''ll test your ability first. Still, F to E Rank won''t change that much. Then, how about a C Rank Skill? I want you to upgrade a C Rank Skill to a B Rank Skill. How many Skill Cards do you need?"


    "I�� my eyes can see the requirement and my power can upgrade it."


    "So, you have to see it yourself first? Then, how about my power?"


    "You have three C Rank Skills�� I don''t know which skill you want to upgrade."


    "!!!" Prince Karl widened his eyes in shock because what the guy said was correct. He truly had the ability to see his skills, allowing him to see the requirement. ''He is a real deal.''


    "Before that, I want to test your ability with multiple people. How many people do you need and how many Skill Cards do you need? For example, how about my Govern Skill?"


    "You need ten B Rank Skills and thirty C Rank Skills�� As for the people, three, no four��"


    "I see. One in four people and it seems that a person can only be upgraded once." The prince nodded and stood up. "I''ll prepare everything you need immediately so that we know the result. Do you have any other requirements?"


    "No."


    "Alright then." The prince walked away, but before he left, he remembered something and asked, "What''s your name?"


    "My�� My name is Richard, Richard Coulson." The guy tried his best to make a smile.


    "Alright. Wait here. I''m going to return as soon as possible."


    As soon as Prince Karl left, the guy smiled evilly.


    Name: Richard Coulson (Theodore Griffith)


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 829


    EXP: 2,666,677/46,336,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (A), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (A), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (A), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (A)


    Attributes: Strength 1020, Endurance 700, Agility 702, Vitality 700, Magic Power 1500


    Free Attribute Points: 0

 Chapter 1501 Experiments

    Chapter 1501 Experiments


    "We have four people here." Prince Karl brought four people and asked, "What do you think about them?"


    "Do you want to upgrade their C Rank Skills too?" Richard asked.


    "Yes, I want you to upgrade their C Rank Skills. You say that you can see their skills, so I want you to see theirs and choose the skill with the lowest requirement. I''ll provide the Skill Cards immediately."


    "I�� I understand." Richard nodded politely. He looked at each person for a few seconds and said, "He has Aqua Torrent Skill. The requirement is 15 C Rank Skills and 60 D Rank Skills. He has��"


    He mentioned everyone''s skill explicitly and the upgrade requirements, making Prince Karl trust him more. His words became more credible since four of them acknowledged their skills.


    As soon as confirming what he said, Prince Karl immediately prepared the Skill Cards. Although it was quite a big amount for upgrading one''s skill, the potential was so high that he didn''t need to hesitate. He could even get more Skill Cards from the people he sheltered in this ce.


    In a world where Skill Cards were worthless, he could easily get all of them and rise through the ranks, bing one of the most important people in the world. If Richard could truly do it, his ambition could be fulfilled.


    As soon as he gathered the Skill Cards, the prince immediately asked Richard to work. "Here you go."


    "I�� I understand." Richard nodded timidly. He gathered the Skill Cards in front of him and closed his eyes. He pped his hands and enveloped the Skill Cards with his Magic Power.


    Suddenly, the Skill Cards disappeared. Richard''s face became pale, showing what had happened.


    "It fails?" Prince Karl narrowed his eyes.


    "I apologize!" Richard hurriedly apologized, not wanting to get into more trouble. His body was shaking and his arms covered his head as if he would be beaten whenever he failed to upgrade someone''s skill.


    However, Prince Karl could only let out a sigh as if he had prepared for this. He already knew that the chance was one in four, so he didn''t get angry with the first one. He said, "Just continue to do it!"


    "Y-yes!" Richard moved to the second person and did the same thing. As soon as the Skill Cards disappeared, a smile appeared on his face. "Con-congrattions!"


    "My skill is upgraded?" The guy furrowed his eyebrows, not believing it. After all, he didn''t feel anything.


    "What should I do, Your Highness?" The guy asked for Prince Karl''s instruction since there should be no change in his body.


    "Open the window and shoot your skill outside. Make sure not to destroy anything."


    "Understood." The guy nodded and walked to the window. As soon as he opened the window, he pointed his palm to the outside and gathered his Magic Power into his hand. "Lightning Dragon!"


    A lightning strike came out of his palm and turned into a dragon. The size was three times of a human and it even had a pair of wings.


    "What?!" The guy dropped his jaw to the ground and said, "Impossible. Even with all of my power, I couldn''t produce a lightning dragon this big, and it even came with a pair of wings. I could even control this skill better!"


    "!!!"


    That statement shocked the entire room. Even Prince Karl opened his mouth in shock, staring at Richard in disbelief. There was only one thought in his mind. ''He is a real deal!''


    Prince Karl paused for a moment and said, "Upgrade the other two!"


    "Yes." Richard nodded and hurriedly followed what he said. The third time he upgraded the skill, Richard instinctively raised his arms, but because he knew he wouldn''t be hit in this ce, he didn''t say anything. Even so, his action and expression already showed enough.


    However, the fourth person was different. After sacrificing the Skill Cards, Richard smiled and said, "Congrattions, Prince��"


    Prince Karl''s expression brightened and he stated, "Try it outside!"


    "Yes!" The fourth person nodded his head and immediately leaped out of the window. The people walked toward the windows to see what he was doing.


    The fourth person started jumping around in an unpredictable manner. He was fast and skillful in these jumps, but to his surprise, he somehow kicked the air and jumped up.


    "What?! Not only can I leap faster, but I can also kick the air?" The guy tried it a few times and reported it. "I can kick the air three times, but this should be impossible with my skill��"


    The answer to his improvement was clear. Everyone turned to Richard with a dumbfounded expression. With this test, his power was clear.


    Prince Karl walked to him and patted his shoulder. "Your name is Richard Coulson, right?"


    "Yes. Will I be beaten?" Richard looked at Prince Karl with a horrified expression.


    Prince Karl thought that Richard was scared because of his two failed attempts. He smiled to assure him and said, "Of course not. I don''t know how those people treated you in the past, but I will be sure to treat you well."


    He ordered the four people that had participated in the experiments. "Four of you are forbidden to talk about this experiment. Also, call the maids to bring Richard to the highest guest room as he is now the distinguished guest of my Royal Family."


    "Yes, Sir!" All of them nodded their heads and followed his instruction.


    ''It seems that his sess rate is around 25 to 50 percent since he asked three to four people. Even so, this is enough because his ability will surely help me greatly. There are going to be many people who want to upgrade their Skill Ranks, especially those who want A Rank or even S Rank Skills. I''m going to use him to rise through the ranks in the union.'' Prince Karl obviously couldn''t reveal such a thought. He just gave Richard a simple smile and said, "You don''t have to worry anymore because I will be the one protecting you from this point on."


    "Thank�� thank you!" Richard smiled as if he felt relieved that he didn''t need to be tortured again.

 Chapter ?1502 Sly Foxes? Mischievous Kids?

    Chapter ?1502 Sly Foxes? Mischievous Kids?


    After a moment, the maid came and brought Richard into his room. The room was spacious. It could even be called a house for a small family with everything needed inside from the bedroom to a bathroom.


    Richard hurriedly walked to the bathroom to take a bath. At the same time, he released his Magic Power, surrounding himself with an illusion that looked like he was taking a bath.


    Meanwhile, the real Richard was sitting on the toilet with a smile on his face.


    He waved his hands as many Skill Cards suddenly appeared. These Skill Cards were from the ''failed'' experiments earlier.


    It wasn''t that he failed, it was the prince who deemed him to have failed. What he did earlier was envelop the cards with an illusion so that no one could find them and make a panicked face to show the answer.


    The prince was the one misunderstanding that expression. In other words, he never lied to the prince.


    The only reason why the prince wouldn''t suspect him was because he had misunderstood everything he had said earlier.


    One in four people? There was no such a thing. If he wanted to upgrade a skill, the chance was one hundred percent. However, because he asked for four people, the prince thought that way.


    He panicked? He only showed that expression to make it look like he had failed. He just hid the fact that the cards were hidden inside his clothes. Because of the bruises and callouses on his body, the prince couldn''t help but agree, thinking about the brutal torture he had to endure in the past.


    ''Smart people easily misunderstand things. I can take advantage of that. And the prince seems to be useful since his ambition is big.'' He smirked yfully and nced at the cards. ''And with this, I can get more cards for my own use.''


    He paused for a moment and muttered inwardly, ''The fun is about to begin.''


    ��


    While Richard was taking a shower, the prince gathered his executives, including the prime minister.


    "Prime Minister. I won''t hold back this time. From now on, I''ll also be handling the government." Prince Karl stated with a serious expression.


    "Mhm?"


    "Listen to me first. I have a guy who can upgrade skills, meaning the first person to be known to have the ability to get stronger in the current situation. By sacrificing Skill Cards that are useless right now, we can make people get stronger and gain their loyalty. And it''s possible to get an A Rank or even S Rank Skill with this. Do you understand the meaning of this person?"


    "!!!" The Prime Minister''s eyes brightened. "Prince, you��"


    "Lexon Group has been approaching the Empress Pce, so we''re not going to go down without a fight. I want the secretary of state for defence to find Skill Cards from all around the country. Whether it''s in a normal house or the storage of the ruined temples, I want you to gather all Skill Cards from them.


    "I also need to announce the n for exchanging their Skill Cards with some support from the royal family. We''ll gather all the Skill Cards to increase our own strength."


    After listening to his rough n, the Prime Minister immediately added, "If that''s the case, we can''t do everything at the same time. First of all, we have to gather the Skill Cards first by mobilizing the military. This will pique someone''s interest and begin to be looking at it.


    "Once we have them figured out about the skill upgrade, we can start informing the people to bring their Skill Cards to us. This will also make the others know that we can give them more strength.


    "Now that they''re hooked, we''ll give them bait by announcing that we''ll also help other influences to strengthen their forces in exchange for their favors. We''ll make them owe us, and gradually, we''ll approach the union with this. I''m sure that the members of the union will be interested in this skill upgrade.


    "It''s at that time that we can get the big fish. If we do it all at once, we''ll be destroying ourselves since they''re going to force us to hand over this person."


    As expected of the Prime Minister, who had been working in politics for a long time, he surely knew how to work with this advantage.


    "But there is one problem. If we want to get the people from the union, we have to set up a base in the Nethends or even Germany. Of course, we have to bring Richard there. I''m afraid they''re going to force us��"


    "No!" The Prime Minister shook his head. "Please remember this, Prince. We''re going to strengthen our forces in this ce, including from other countries like Irnd, Northern Irnd, Wales, and Scond. With this, they can''t demand him from us easily.


    "And don''t forget that the people from the union are strong. We can simply ask them to go to us, considering they have to cross the dangerous ocean�� Only those with strength and money wille to us. In other words, we will catch the small fishes first from all around us before the bigger fishes from the union."


    "!!!" Prince Karl finally understood the entire scheme. "As expected of you."


    "Not at all. I''m simply doing my job." He smirked.


    Both of them were truly like sly foxes who had nned their rise in the union. Even without them agreeing on their cooperation, both of them knew that if one rose in the union, they had an obligation to bring the other one.


    This was the mutual agreement between them that had been formed just by meeting each other.


    "In that case, I''ll let you handle the details." Prince Karl nodded.


    "I understand. Please leave it to me."


    They hade up with a n that would indeed trick the union. It should be enough to rival the powering from the Lexon Group.


    However, no matter how sly they were, they didn''t realize that they were ying in Theo''s palms this whole time, to the point they looked like a mischievous kid instead of a sly fox.

 Chapter 1503 Establishing Ones Prestige

    Chapter 1503 Establishing One''s Prestige


    Since the prince had confirmed Richard''s power, he began his n. Of course, he couldn''t be too slow, considering the Lexon Group had created an ultimatum that the Empress had to join them within fourteen days.


    Hence, he sped up the process, hoping that they had enough time to grab enough attention before the time limit.


    In the first three days, the prince asked Richard to upgrade many people''s skills, establishing his prestige first as well as credibility.


    From F Rank Skill to B Rank Skills, everyone knew that the prince had someone that could rank up their skills. A person only had one chance. This was incredibly frustrating if that person was still able to get stronger in the future. After all, they would rather upgrade an A Rank Skill to an S Rank Skill than a C Rank or a B Rank Skill.


    However, the world had changedpletely. After the apocalypse, they couldn''t level up anymore, let alone get a new skill from a Skill Card.


    Hence, the chance that they got from Richard could turn their life around.


    Since they couldn''t get stronger anymore, it was better to upgrade their strongest skill, which would give them at least a twenty to thirty percent boost in their overall strength. This was enough to make them a bit more useful in people''s eyes.


    Richard''s reputation soared through the roof as he became the most sought-after person in the country. Of course, everyone had to go through the prince if they wanted to get this chance.


    "Hu��" Richard let out a long sigh as if he was tired.


    "Are you alright?" A young woman, who had been guarding him this whole time, asked with a worried expression. She was one of the Mythical Rank Experts they had. Not only did she have the skill to protect Richard, but she had the looks to seduce him.


    The prince''s n was to make Richard loyal to them through any means. From the best facilities, food, and woman, he would give them to Richard so that he couldn''t escape from the prince''s palm.


    Of course, this bodyguard had no problem doing all those jobs because she was one of the people who had benefited from him. He upgraded her A Rank Skill to an S Rank Skill, proving Richard''s capability. Of course, the prince had to bleed because S Rank Skill needed at least twenty A Rank Skill Cards, and in her case, they had to fork out thirty five A Rank Skill Cards.


    Still, Skill Cards couldn''t be used anymore other than this way, so in the end, everything was worth it.


    Hence, she had to take care of Richard''s problem and make sure that he didn''te to hate this power.


    "Do you want to rest first?"


    Richard smiled while wiping the sweat on his forehead. ''I''m fine. The prince is so good�� He''s done so many things for me. I feel bad if I can''t��"


    Richard lowered his head, feeling sad as if he wanted to repay him. Of course, because of the no lie rule, the sentence didn''t finish.


    However, it was enough for the bodyguard to understand his meaning.


    She bent down with a sweet smile and said, "Please don''t worry about it. The prince wants you to be well. Please don''t overwork yourself. For now, I''ll inform them that you''re going to rest for an hour."


    "Mhm��" Richard looked like he still wanted to continue, but in the end, he dropped the idea and agreed to the rest. "I understand."


    She nodded and walked to the door to inform them about his condition. But the moment she opened the door and was about to announce one hour of rest, she noticed the princeing to her.


    "P-Prince!"


    "How is he?"


    "Is it alright if I stop the operation for an hour?"


    The prince knew that she wanted to give some exnation and immediately agreed with her.


    After she announced it, she went together with the prince to a quieter ce.


    "So, how is he?" The prince asked again.


    "He was sweating too much. As expected, it took a toll on his body. However, he sees you as his savior and wants to repay you. If I hadn''t stopped him earlier, he would have continued working."


    "Mhm." The prince didn''t show it, but he felt happy when he heard Richard''s sentiment. "You make sure that he''s not overworking himself."


    "Yes, I understand."


    "Then, how is your progress with the other goal?"


    The woman paused for a moment while scratching the back of her head.


    "So, it''s still useless��" The prince felt a bit annoyed. He was nning to marry this woman to Richard, binding him to the royal family. But it seemed there was no progress, making him reconsider his choice.


    The woman hurriedly exined. "It''s not that I didn''t do it. When I tried to approach him during the night, he immediately covered himself as if he was afraid to experience the same thing as in the past."


    The prince pinched the bridge of his nose. "We can''t really ess all the data that has been lost during the apocalypse, so it''s impossible to find his record, considering he''s from Indonesia and got trafficked somewhere. It''s impossible for us to go there to download the database of that country.


    "At the same time, we can''t really rush the treatment for his trauma as well." The prince was contemting, trying to find a way to bind Richard to the royal family. "For now, you will continue taking care of him. Make sure that he feelsfortable."


    "I understand." The woman politely nodded.


    "Remember this. The reason why you have an S Rank Skill is the Royal Family, and you are valued right now because of the Royal Family. If you fuck up this job, I don''t need to tell you about the consequences, right?"


    "Yes." The woman hurriedly lowered her head, knowing her position.


    "Good. If you seed in this job, not only will you be an important woman because of his status, but you will also be a noble. Remember that!"


    "Yes, Sir! I won''t disappoint you."


    "Good. Go back to him!"


    The woman politely nodded as she walked back to Richard, making sure he was fine.

 Chapter 1504 Caution

    Chapter 1504 Caution


    "Ma''am Flora. We''ve received the information." A middle-aged man wearing a formal suit ced down a document. "ording to our information, The British Royal Family has finally found the person they''ve been looking for this whole time.


    "It seems that this person can increase one''s Skill Rank. We don''t have many details right now, but we have confirmed his ability."


    "Is that so?" She narrowed her eyes and looked at the document. "It seems he can only upgrade the skills to B Rank, not more."


    "That''s what we believe too, but ording to some information, the royal family has been contacting other influences about ranking up their Skill to A Rank. There is also a more unbelievable rumor. It''s said that he can upgrade a skill to S Rank, but we don''t have any proof of that right now."


    "Upgrading skill to S Rank?"


    "Yes. The rumor said he has upgraded someone''s skill to S Rank."


    "Who is that person?"


    "She is currently working as her bodyguard."


    "Give me the details of that person."


    The middle-aged man immediately took out his Skylink and showed the data. Although it wasn''t reported because the rumor was still too vague, he had prepared for this.


    Name: Silvia Allen


    Age: 61


    Gender: Female


    Rank: Mythical


    Job: Magic Warrior


    At a nce, she seemed to understand the reason why she became the bodyguard.


    "The rumor is most likely true." Flora Wegener squinted her eyes and said, "It seems that Ennd is nning to bind him with the Royal Family. I will give you three days to investigate her. We have to make a move immediately so that the Royal Family can''t monopolize him. I''ll also check his ability.


    "Hmm, it''s said that he can only upgrade a single person once, right? If that''s the case, bring me all the Skill Cards we have."


    "Are you sure about this? The chance is low��" The middle-aged man worried that she would be tricked.


    "I know what to do. For now, prepare everything and we''ll see who can fight against me."


    "I understand."


    ��


    However, she wasn''t the only one who received the information. Every influence within the union received simr information. They were shocked because of the importance of this man, considering he could rank up a skill to A Rank or even S Rank. The boosting from those skills was beyond B Rank Skill or lower. That was why they were prepared to fork out money toe to an agreement.


    Still, Flora''s movement was monitored closely. Her influence as the strongest person in the EU Base was enormous, so her making a move would pique everyone''s interest, thinking they could use their connection to board the same ne as Flora, ensuring their safety as well as upgrading their skills.


    This was the opportunity they had been looking for.


    Of course, they would also contact the royal family since they had to get approval to rank up their skills. All people immediately started working behind the scenes so that they could get the favor of the Royal Family, allowing them to give that favor to Flora to make Flora owe them a bit.


    This sudden movement steered the whole union.


    And the Lexon Group, thepetitor of the royal family, was panicking.


    "Bastard!" The head of the Lexon Group, Alexej Nixon, mmed the table while gritting his teeth. He raised his head and red at his son, Ricky Nixon. "What''s the progress of your work?"


    "I have managed to convince the Empress a bit by bit."


    "You''re too slow!" Alexej roared.


    "I can only do my best. But I can''t make it faster because the young master doesn''t want to get her that fast." Ricky shook his head.


    "You idiot! Do you understand what''s going on right now? That bitch Flora is nning to go to Ennd. When that happens, the Royal Family will gain her favor. Even the Griffith Family might go there to test it. Without those two, we won''t be able to turn around the situation even with the Empress!"


    "But there''s no way to convince them like this. Even if we create a rumor to make the information unreliable, the fact has been spread around." Ricky sighed.


    "That''s because you''re an idiot that you can''t think of something." Alexej gritted his teeth, looking down on Ricky.


    He wanted to keep shouting to relieve his anger, but shouting only wasted his time. He had to think of a solution to handle this situation.


    Suddenly, Ricky raised his hand and asked, "What if we killed that guy?"


    "Killed that guy?"


    "Yes. There is a difference between the Empress and that guy. The Empress is not easy to kill, while this guy can be killed as long as we push away his bodyguard. That''s why we''ll also sneak in and kill them."


    "There won''t be anyone that will help us. Even the Royal Family won''t ept us."


    "No. How about we use something we have?!" Ricky smirked. "We have those refugees here."


    "!!!" Alexej suddenly fell silent, realizing Ricky''s intention. He immediately ordered, "Tell that bastard Yermyev that I can grant him real status for his family as long as he assassinates him."


    "I understand." Ricky agreed without hesitation. "But how do we get the chance to go there? The refugees don''t have enough standing to even request to upgrade their skills."


    "I''ll ask the Griffith Family for it. It''s time for them to repay me for helping them spread those fake videos." Alexej gritted his teeth in anger.


    Ricky''s expression became cold for a split second before lowering his head. "I understand. I''ll make sure Yermyev epts it."


    "Go!" Alexej snorted and took out his Skylink to call the Griffith Family. He was sure that they were going to ept it because he would spread the truth about the video if they didn''t help him this time.


    Meanwhile, Ricky left the room and walked through the corridor. His expression became extremely cold as if he was about to murder someone.

 Chapter ?1505 Huge Gain

    Chapter ?1505 Huge Gain


    When Ricky reached the Czar''s camp, he shouted, "Yermyev. Come out!"


    That shout raised everyone''s anger, especially those from the Czar. Yermyev was their leader, so there was no way they liked to hear he was looked down upon by a spoiled younger generation.


    However, Yermyev knew better than anyone else that it wasn''t the time to fight them yet.


    He came out with a smile on his face and asked, "I wonder what Young Master Ricky wants from me?"


    "I''ll give you a chance to gain real status for your family!" Ricky snorted as if he was disgusted talking to him.


    "��" Yermyev paused for a moment before saying, "If that''s the case, it''s not something that should be discussed here. Do you mind following me somewhere else?"


    Ricky snorted. "Lead the way."


    Everyone was ring at Ricky, but because he was protected by the bodyguards, it was clear that he came prepared. And if they did something to Ricky, they would surely suffer the wrath of his father. Hence, it was better to stop whatever they were nning.


    ��


    As Ricky exined the n, Alexej called the Griffith Family to get their agreement. If they couldn''t sneak in, they would be mutually injured. Even if the Griffith Family tried to kill him to silence him, the ticking time bomb had been set. If they couldn''t be the third strongest influence in the union, Alexej threatened them to explode that bomb.


    With this kind of threat, even the Griffith Family had to take a step back. They were proceeding to get favors from the royal family for them.


    This was what the Lexon Group wanted. As long as they could kill Richard, they would be able to weaken the royal family.


    "You have to kill Richard for us. If you seed, we''ll grant you the real status and take in your family." Ricky stated with a cold expression.


    "Richard? Who is he?"


    "You don''t have to care about his identity. All we want is for you to kill him."


    Yermyev narrowed his eyes. The Lexon Group had gone all the way here to ask him to kill someone, so that person must be very important.


    "Are you asking me to kill myself?" Yermyev gritted his teeth.


    "It''s your choice. Sacrifice for your family or die from helplessness." Ricky smirked.


    "Kh, you��" Yermyev gritted his teeth.


    He truly had no choice.


    ��


    Meanwhile, the royal family had been receiving everyone''s favor.


    Prince Karl and the prime minister wereughing together.


    "There are some who offer us more Skill Cards. There are some who will help us in the union."


    "There are also influences that will fight together with us. This is certainly good. It seems that our hard work has been paying off." Prince Karl nodded in agreement, happy with this development.


    "We''re now in our final n. Once those people taste the pleasure of ranking up their skills, they''ll be dependent on us. The world will start searching for more Skill Cards and help us even more. Even those from other bases will alsoe to us sooner orter. As long as we have that Richard, we''ll be able to rise even more."


    "That''s right. The union is not the final destination. We''re going for the world. Still, the situation will be extremely dangerous for Richard. I want you to increase our surveince."


    "Of course, I''ve been working for it. Please rest assured."


    "Then, what''s about them?"


    "The Lexon Group? It seems they''re panicking. We don''t know what they''ll do, but it''s clear that they''re going to do something during this event. For now, we''ve banned the people affiliated with the Lexon Group. Even if they gain the Empress, they won''t have enough influence in the union."


    "Great." He nodded with a serious expression. "I want you to monitor them and make sure that nothing happens during this time."


    "Yes. And do we need to increase the number of bodyguards for that Richard?"


    "Mhm?" The prince thought for a moment. "I''m not sure at the moment. He''s be a bit morefortable with her right now, so I don''t know if I should increase it. If we''re solely considering the situation, of course, we should.


    "But Flora Wegener will surelye for him. She might snatch him from us. So, it''s better for us to make him morefortable instead of more secure."


    "I see. That''s also the problem. We can''t stop her in terms of prowess, so we''re going to beat her in an emotional war. I''m not the one monitoring him closely, so I don''t know his needs."


    "Well, I''ll try to talk to him after this to make sure of his state of mind. I''ll tell you about the resultter."


    "Understood. I''ll manage our security system first." The prime minister nodded in agreement.


    "Then." Prince Karl stood up and walked away. He thought with an evil smile. ''Just you wait, Lexon Group. You won''t be able to do anything and you shall be our first stepping stone. I''ll make sure no one can do something during this period.''


    The prince couldn''t help but recall the memory of Richard. He had been visiting him regrly to check his condition.


    Richard seemed to be grateful to him and even before binding him to the royal family, he didn''t seem to be someone who would jump ship easily.


    Since they needed to prepare as much as possible, he had to give the prime minister the answer as quickly as possible. Hence, the first thing he did after finishing his discussion was to meet Richard.


    Richard had been upgrading people''s skills for the past week. And surprisingly, the total count of his visitors had reached tens of thousands. In other words, Richard took care of a thousand people per day.


    Of course, not all of them got their skill upgraded, but those who were helped thought they were extremely lucky.


    When Richard opened the door leading to Richard''s office, where he usually used to work, he found Richard still doing his job for an old man.


    "Your�� Your Highness!" Richard instantly noticed his presence and stood up.


    The prince gave the best smile he could offer and asked, "How are you? Are you tired? Do you want to take a rest? You''re truly my lucky star. Richard, you''re like my brother!"

 Chapter 1506 Comfort

    Chapter 1506 Comfort


    "I''m fine, Your Highness." Richard smiled. "I can still work!"


    "Are you sure? I don''t want you to overwork yourself."


    "I''m fine. This is better than��" Richard looked down while holding his wrists where his callous was. Compared tost time, it had gotten better. And Richard seemed to still have the trauma that prevented him from talking about his past.


    "I understand. But make sure you prioritize your health, alright? Don''t worry. This will only continue for another week. I can assure you that you won''t get as much work next week and it''s time to enjoy life."


    "Thank�� Thank you, Your Highness." Richard nodded many times.


    "That''s right. I do want to ask you something."


    "What is it?"


    "I wonder what you feel about having another bodyguard beside you?" He asked carefully so as to not make it offensive to Richard.


    "That''s�� I don''t know."


    "Just for one day since there are going to be important people visiting you. I''ll also make sure that they don''t talk to you or something, so they won''t disturb you."


    "One day��" Richard looked down, contemting for a moment. Ultimately, he nodded his head. "I understand. If it''s only for one day, I can manage, I think."


    "That''s good!" The prince nodded with a smile, satisfied. "If that''s the case, get some rest first."


    "I understand. Thank you very much." Richard nodded. He saw the prince bringing his bodyguard outside. There was a smile on his face as if he had known what they were going to talk about.


    Outside, Prince Karl asked, "How is he? Have you gotten the statistics?"


    "Yes. He doesn''t really like someone looking angry or scary. It might be the instinct that has grown on him after getting tortured, but it seems that he can notice the slightest hostility from one''s expression." She nodded.


    "I see. We have been receiving many people over the past week. What''s the statistics for his job?"


    "There are a total of 361 people who got upgraded from a total of 1199 people. And we have investigated their identities.


    "Out of those, we have a total of 186 people who can be ssified as a criminal or have done something bad in their lives. And 149 out of those 186 people fail."


    "What? So, only 37 people seed? It''s not even a fifth. Does it decrease that much?"


    "Yes. I''m assuming that his emotion and feeling are rted to his sess ratio as well and if people approach him with a smile like that, the sess rate has increased.


    "When someone begged him or smiled as if they had received the biggest favor in their life, the sess rate could reach 40 percent. This is a big number. It should be simr to what Your Highness has done."


    "I see." Prince Karl narrowed his eyes. Out of the four people that received the first experiment, two of them managed to seed because Karl gave him a big favor.


    This was indeed a useful statistic.


    "This is good data. I have started to worry about what will happen if Flora Wegener or all those important people fail to upgrade their skills, but it seems I have enough reason to tell them off. I can simply tell them that they''re scaring him and that''s the reason for their failure."


    "Yes, Your Highness."


    "Alright. Keep monitoring them. We''re going to receive the people five days from now on. You have to make sure that he''s in the best condition possible."


    "Understood."


    "Good." Prince Karl nodded and walked back into the room. He saw Richard wiping his sweat all over his body and made sure that he took a proper rest. But when he saw Karling back to the room, he immediately greeted him. "Your Highness!"


    "No need to call me, Your Highness." Prince Karl smiled. "I told you yesterday. You can consider me as your brother."


    "That''s�� I can''t dishonor Your Highness'' status. I''m just a lowly person." Richard shook his head furiously.


    "No need to do it. You are like my lucky charm. Even if you don''t ept it, I''ll still call you my brother!" Prince Karl smiled.


    "That''s�� I''m very grateful. I don''t know how to repay you."


    "No need. We have our own jobs to do. You just have to do what you''ve been doing and I''ll make sure to protect you from those bad people. Besides that, I want you to enjoy your life as much as possible. The world has many things to offer, so I want you to have fun. How about having her as your wife?"


    "What? Wife?!" Richard gasped and nced at his bodyguard. He shook his head furiously. "No, no. I don''t dare to. She has great status and strength, unlike me who can''t even fight a chicken."


    "I consider you as my brother, so your status is far above her. I know that it''s hard for you to be confident after what happened to you in the past. But I will assure you that you''ll get everything and finally smile because you like the world, not because of your gratitude toward me." Prince Karl smiled and patted Richard''s shoulders.


    "Your Highness��" Richard opened his eyes wide as if he felt moved.


    "Whenever you feel difort, just tell me about it. I''ll make sure that you''re fine."


    "But��" Richard looked down, not wanting to bother him more.


    However, the prince said, "You''re bothering me more if you''re sick or unwell. That''s why I want you to take care of your body, alright?"


    "Y-yes!" Richard nodded furiously.


    "Then, it''s time for me to leave. I still have some work to do."


    "Yes. I won''t disappoint you, Your Highness!"


    Prince Karl smiled and waved his hand as he left the room. Outside, the warm smile was reced by a sly and evil smile. He thought, ''You have to take care of yourself, Richard. After all, you''re the tool I need to rise. I''ll make sure nothing happens to you!''

 Chapter 1507 Cant

    Chapter 1507 Can''t


    A few dayster.


    Richard came out of his room. This time, he wore a white shirt and long ck pants, looking a bit more formalpared to his usual days.


    As expected, his bodyguard had been waiting for him outside. "Good morning, Sir Richard."


    "Mhm." Richard nodded.


    "��" Seeing this kind of response as well as the ufortable expression he had, it seemed that having him wear a shirt for formality was a bad idea. However, they were going to meet the fourth strongest person in the world, Flora Wegener, so they couldn''t dress casually.


    "Please be at ease. I''ll also be supporting you as usual. And His Highness will also be with you today."


    "I understand." Richard timidly nodded.


    There were three different things he had to face today. The first would be his clothes which made him slightly ufortable because he wasn''t used to wearing this type of clothes. Though, the prince had at least made him a bit morefortable by taking off the tuxedo.


    This wasn''t the first time Richard met important people since he had been helping people from all over the country, but their status couldn''t bepared to Flora Wegener and the rest of the people he had to meet today.


    Last but not least, there was no way a normal person would trap him and torture him that way while exploiting his ability. Hence, meeting important people reminded him of the people that exploited him in the past.


    This made his face pale, making everyone worried.


    However, they still had to go. His bodyguard led him to the prince who had been waiting for him with another person. The bodyguard he arranged was a muscr middle-aged man.


    He looked reliable from everyone''s perspective, but his size truly made Richard a bit ufortable.


    "Richard. How are you?!" Prince Karl put on a gentle smile as soon as he noticed Richard''s pale face.


    "I''m fine." Richard put on his best smile, but with that pale face and a wry smile, it truly made Prince Karl doubtful.


    "Don''t worry. You don''t need to fear anyone today, for I will stay beside you to protect you."


    "Thank you." Richard''s eyes brightened a bit, but his face was still pale. Even the prince could see his shaking hands. He could reassure him a bit, but it seemed he couldn''t really do itpletely.


    He said, "I promise, Richard. Just for today. After today, you don''t have to do something you don''t like anymore. You don''t have to wear these ufortable clothes and meet someone you don''t want to."


    "I understand. Thank you, Your Highness." Richard nodded as he clenched his fists as if trying to stop his trembling body and get rid of his nervousness.


    Karl nodded before he noticed a signal in his Skylink. He started walking while saying, "Let''s go. Our guests have arrived."


    "Yes."


    They immediately headed out of the royal mansion and found numerous people outside the gate. There were two people leading them. The first one was Flora Wegener, while the other one was an old man with long white hair.


    "Wee, Madam Flora, as well as Sir Haiskal." The prince stepped forward, weing them. It turned out the old man was the eighth strongest person in the world, Haiskal Hetson.


    However, Richard could see through his identity in a nce as he was none other than Mason Griffith, who used his other identity.


    "Thank you for weing us here, Your Highness." Flora confidently said with a big smile on her face.


    "No, it''s an honor to receive you here, Madam Flora." Prince Karl smiled and shook her hand. "Pleasee in."


    "Before that, Your Highness. I have to say something to you. I want to upgrade my skill right now, so I want you to make it possible." Flora smirked.


    Prince Karl''s heart beat rapidly. This was a bold request from Flora. There were numerous people behind her, and all of them had their own reputations. He had agreed for Flora to be the first person to be upgraded, but he never thought that she would dere it in front of everyone.


    It was simr to her trampling other people''s status. However, no one could say anything because Flora was the strongest expert in this base, so if they didn''t agree, Flora could simply leave the base, creating a big hole in their base. This was extremely dangerous.


    However, Flora pressed him by stating, "I want you to do it right away since I don''t want to go through the formality. I''m sure you can understand me, right?"


    If this was a normal world, her arrogance would be condemned by people all around the world. But no one could say anything right now because after the apocalypse, the strong ruled. There was no freedom of speech anymore, considering you could easily be killed since the government wasn''t the same as the one before the apocalypse. They didn''t have enough strength to maintain order, let alone fight against the strongest person in the base.


    "Noah." She called someone''s name as a person with a butler suit stepped forward with a big case filled with Skill Cards.


    "I don''t know how much you need, but I have brought with me at least a hundred A Rank Skill Cards, a thousand B Rank Skill Cards, and two thousand C Rank Skill Cards with me. I want you to upgrade my Ice Field to S Rank." Flora dered out loud. "You can use the rest to upgrade my adjutant''s skill."


    "��" Prince Karl wanted to decline politely, but Flora didn''t allow him to do it. He gritted his teeth and nced at Richard. "What do you think, Richard? Can you do it for me?"


    "That''s��" Richard looked down as if he was scared of her.


    "What''s wrong? You''re not telling me that this is just a scam, right?" Flora narrowed her eyes, pressuring them.


    "Madam Flora. If you truly want to upgrade your skill, it''s better not to pressure us like this, or you''re bound to fail." Karl stepped forward, protecting Richard.


    "I''m bound to fail? A quite interesting choice of words." Flora narrowed her eyes as her expression became colder and colder.


    Karl bit his lips and said, "Please, Richard. Just be at ease and do what you always do."


    Karl had to take a step back and just let Flora do whatever she wanted. Her arrogance waspletely beyond his imagination, but he had no choice.


    But the words that came out of Richard''s mouth stunned everyone.


    "I�� I can''t."


    "!!!" Everyone widened their eyes in shock because Richard actually dared to reject Flora''s request.


    "Hoh?" Flora''s eyes began emitting killing intent, ready to blow up and destroy everything here.

 Chapter ?1508 Useful?

    Chapter ?1508 Useful?


    Everyone was stunned by Richard''s answer. Flora''s reaction was normal and she seemed to be ready to kill Richard by using this as an excuse.


    "Wait a minute, Madam Flora. Richard must be nervous right now. Let me talk to him a bit!" Karl hurriedly stepped in. He was panicking himself, not knowing why Richard tried to screw him up. Karl turned around and red at Richard. "Richard!"


    Richard looked down while stuttering. "But�� but��"


    "There''s no but for today. What''s wrong with you today? Why do you want to screw me over?"


    "But�� I can''t." Richard shook his head helplessly. Karl was about to explode, but Richard managed toplete his sentence before that happened. "I can''t upgrade a skill that doesn''t exist."


    "You��!" Karl suddenly stopped and realized something. "Doesn''t exist?"


    Richard could easily see through one''s skill, so it was clear that Richard didn''t lie. In other words, Flora was the one who pressured Richard this whole time by asking him to upgrade a skill that didn''t exist.


    "I only saw an A Rank Skill called Ice World."


    "!!!" Everyone was stunned by that response. Even Flora realized that Richard was the real deal.


    "Madam Flora��" Karl immediately turned around and red at Flora. She came here to upgrade her skill, but to think she would lie to him.


    "Ah, that''s what I meant earlier�� This skill is too weak for me, so I always call it Ice Field since it doesn''t suit that name." Flora shrugged as if she didn''t feel any burden from that lie. She nced at the suitcase and said, "I''ll give you the remaining Skill Cards after you upgrade my and my adjutant''s skills as an apology."


    Karl gritted his teeth. He truly didn''t like her who would do something like this. She believed she could do everything because she had that strength.


    However, she had no choice but to rely on her this time. The royal family couldn''t rise in the union without her support, so he had no choice but to swallow his anger.


    "Richard. Please."


    Richard''s body was still shaking, but he still opened his mouth. "To upgrade��"


    Before he finished, Flora stated again, "There''s no need to say anything to me. Just get all the Skill Cards from the suitcase."


    "You, Flora Wegener!" Karl roared.


    But before Karl did anything, Richard grabbed his arm and made a wry smile. It was clear that he was afraid to do this as well, but he tried to steel his heart for a moment to smoothen the situation. "It''s alright, Your Highness."


    "Richard, you��"


    Richard staggeringly walked to the suitcase and grabbed 35 A Rank Skill Cards and 100 B Rank Skill Cards. He then approached Flora with a pale face and said, "Here�� I go."


    Flora didn''t say anything. She kept observing Richard''s movement as if she was trying to examine his power.


    But all Richard did was envelop his Magic Power into the cards and started closing his eyes as if he was trying to concentrate. Suddenly, the Skill Cards disappeared.


    It shocked everyone because they couldn''t feel anything from the Skill Cards. Even if it was burned to nothing, it would still give off some smell. But this time, they couldn''t sense anything as if the Skill Cards simply vanished.


    "Con�� Cong��" Richard had a hard time speaking because he was scared. But Prince Karl instantly stepped forward, protecting Richard again. He said with a serious expression. "Congrattions, Madam. It seems that your skill has been upgraded sessfully."


    "Mhm?" Flora narrowed her eyes because she didn''t feel anything. She suddenly raised her hand and utilized the skill. The temperature suddenly dropped as the ice began covering everything, from the grasses around them to the mansion and the gate. Yes, a thinyer of ice covered an area of a half-mile in diameter in an instant. "This is��"


    Without her saying anything, everyone could see the power behind that skill. It was already beyond the scope of an A Rank Skill. In other words, an S Rank Skill had been born.


    "I''m sure that you''re satisfied with this, right, Madam Flora?" Karl narrowed his eyes.


    "Of course." Flora''s expression turned grim, and she said, "Now, upgrade my adjutant''s Wind Extermination Skill."


    "��" Karl gritted his teeth, but Richardplied with her request and upgraded her adjutant''s skill. Though, he ended up shaking his head in disappointment. Richard panicked and moved to Prince Karl for his protection.


    Seeing this, Karl stated coldly, "You''re very lucky, Madam Flora. The chance of you upgrading your skill is low because you''re stressing him out."


    "��" Flora fell silent because this statement wasn''t only for Flora but to anyone else who came to this ce. This was a warning for them not to pressure Richard.


    Flora squinted her eyes and grabbed the suitcase, throwing it at them. "I don''t feel good today, so I''ll go back. I''ll surely repay the favor."


    Karl immediately caught the case and nced at the old man. "Are you nning to upgrade your skill like this as well, Sir Haiskal?"


    That cold gaze told him everything. Even he had to swallow his pride and put on a gentle smile. "Of course not. Since I''vee here to ask for a favor, of course, I will follow the host''s procedure."


    Karl closed his eyes for a moment before telling the rest. "If that''s the case, please go inside. We have prepared you a banquet so that you can have a good time while waiting for your turn. We will call the people one by one. Pleasee in."


    Prince Karl led the group inside while walking next to Richard.


    "I''m sorry, Richard. I have to let you suffer like that."


    "It''s alright, Your Highness." Richard had a weak smile as if he was trying hard to calm down his heart after what had happened earlier. He even asked, "Am I useful to you?"


    Karl didn''t expect this kind of question from him. Still, he had to answer it immediately. "Of course. You''re like my brother!"


    Because he was overwhelmed by that smile, he even gave the suitcase to Richard. "This is for you. You have done all the work yourself, so you should keep this suitcase. Maybe if there''s someone you like and you want to upgrade his/her skill, you can use these Skill Cards to help them."


    Richard opened his mouth as if he wanted to refuse, but Karl immediately stopped him. "Don''t refuse. I told you, right? I want you to pursue your own happiness too."


    Richard ended up with a smile. "I understand, Your Highness. I will treasure this."

 Chapter 1509 Broken

    Chapter 1509 Broken


    The banquet had started, and Richard had sat down in his room to finish his work for today.


    Meanwhile, the prince hosted the banquet while making sure they didn''t do anything that would harm Richard.


    The two bodyguards stood next to Richard, preparing to throw their own lives to protect Richard.


    But as expected, with his status, Haiskal Hetson or Mason Griffith was personally received by the prince himself.


    "Sir Haiskal. Please follow me."


    Haiskal nodded with a serious expression. While walking toward the room, he asked, "What do you mean by stressing him out?"


    As expected from the Griffith Family, he was extremely careful. He asked everything he needed to know before upgrading his skill.


    "The probability of upgrading your skills decreases if he feels stressed, especially if it reminds him of his past. Basically, if you look like a bad guy, the chance decreases. But if you look gentle and make him happy, the chance increases."


    "Hoh?" Haiskal narrowed his eyes.


    "We have the statistics if you want to see it."


    "No need. I shall trust you, Your Highness."


    "��" Karl narrowed his eyes, wondering what this sly old fox nned to do.


    When Mason Griffith entered the room, he was guided by the prince to sit in front of Richard with his own case that contained all the Skill Cards.


    "Hello." Mason put on a gentle smile.


    "Hello, Sir." Richard nodded timidly.


    "I want you to upgrade my Torrential Magic to S Rank. Do you think you can do that?"


    "I''ll do my best, Sir."


    "Haha, no need to be that stiff. I''m not like her." Mason chuckled and said, "How is your life here? Are you tired or something?"


    "No, Sir. I''m living well here thanks to His Highness."


    "Is that so? Then how many Skill Cards do you need to upgrade my skill?"


    "I need 30 A Rank Skill Cards and 20 B Rank Skill Cards."


    "Then��" With a single wave of his hand, fifty Skill Cards flew out of the case like magic to impress Richard. "These are the Skill Cards."


    "You are so cool, Sir!"


    "Hoho? Are you interested in it?"


    "Ahaha, I''m not worthy of it." Richard chuckled, brushing it off.


    "If you want, I can teach you, you know."


    "That''s��" Richard scratched the back of his head before hurriedly upgrading his ability. "Let me upgrade your skill first, Sir!"


    He hurriedly upgraded the Skill, but his face became extremely pale, showing the result.


    Prince Karl immediately stepped forward to de-escte the situation. "I apologize, Sir Haiskal. It seems that the upgrade has failed."


    Surprisingly, Mason Griffith smiled. He evenughed while waving his hand, treating it as not a big deal. "Don''t mind, don''t mind. The chance is one in four people, right? I understand the risk. That''s why I brought my family here, so I''m sure that a few will be able to rank up their skills."


    "Thank you for your understanding." Karl nodded politely.


    "Still, you''re impressive, Young Man. To think that you can upgrade a skill to S Rank. I have seen that Flora Wegener using her skill, so I know your power is extraordinary. Do you have any person you like right now?"


    "Wha��!" Richard was taken aback by this question while Karl tried to stop him.


    "We have many beautiful women for you. You can pick whoever you like. What do you think, Young Man? Do you want to follow me?"


    "Sir Haiskal!" Karl mmed the table to stop him.


    But he didn''t stop. He kept enticing Richard with many things. "That''s right. If you want to get stronger, I can also teach you how to use your Magic Power. And unlike the prince you''re serving right now, our ce is far stronger.


    "I can even directly stop Flora Wegener from bullying you, unlike the prince who can only swallow his pride and let you suffer."


    "You�� I need you to leave right now!" Karl gritted his teeth.


    Surprisingly, Richard also opened his mouth. "Sir��"


    "!!!" Karl''s heart skipped a beat, thinking Richard had fallen for this trick.


    But what he said next was truly shocking. "Please don''t say hateful things to His Highness. His Highness has helped me so much. I want to repay the prince by staying by his side."


    Richard made a genuine smile thatpletely showed his heart.


    Mason was taken aback by that smile. Even Prince Karl widened his eyes in shock. He thought of Richard as a tool and tried to manipte him to do so. All the good things he gave were just simply to make Richard love this ce.


    But he was aware of Richard''s past. He had been tortured because of his ability, so this smile that had no lie or other hidden intention behind it struck deeply in his heart. In fact, he felt moved by Richard.


    ''Maybe I was wrong with him. I shouldn''t have treated him as a tool. What if I consider him as my brother for real?'' The prince had a sudden change from that smile. He felt bad for treating Richard like that in the past. From this point on, he would treat Richard far better like his own brother.


    This might be the first time the prince thought of someone else as a genuine family, not because they were blood-rted but because he desired to do so from the bottom of his heart.


    However, the bigger his feeling for someone else, the harder the fall he would experience when it disappeared.


    And he would regret it for the rest of his life because he couldn''t do anything for this brother.


    ��


    The prince was standing in Richard''s room during the night. His eyes opened wide and his draw dropped to the ground. Pain couldn''t describe what he felt in his heart right now.


    After all, before his eyes, his brother, Richard, leaned on the wall lifelessly. His blood was sttered on the wall and his left arm had been separated from his body. But the one that shocked him the most was the severed left hand still holding the case that he had gifted to him earlier as if it was proof of his feeling and gratitude to the prince.


    At that moment, something broke inside of him.

 Chapter 1510 Suspect

    Chapter 1510 Suspect


    A few dayster.


    Karl was sitting in front of Richard''s grave. His bodyguards, who had been protecting him this whole time, noticed the change in Karl. This might be the first time they saw the prince being this sad after losing someone.


    It was truly a lot to take that day. After finding Richard getting killed, the base was in chaos. Richard was the hope that could strengthen them, yet, someone actually killed him brutally.


    After that day, the prince asked them to investigate the matter. And there was only one living witness who didn''t die in that attack. She was Richard''s bodyguard.


    The prince was so mad that he wanted to kill her, but she was the only one who knew about the murderer. Even when he tried to investigate the cause, there was no clue or whatsoever. All the surveince cameras actually didn''t pick anything.


    Hence, he had to keep Richard''s bodyguard alive and ask her as soon as she woke up.


    Still, this sadness and anger kept welling up in Karl''s heart. He couldn''t help but remember how Richard was buried. He buried Richard with the case that he held back then. His pale, lifeless face would always remind him of this day.


    Suddenly, someone rushed into the grave while shouting. "Your Highness, Your Highness!"


    The bodyguards tried to block him, but the other person immediately stated his business. "She''s woken up!"


    "!!!" Karl widened his eyes in shock. He immediately said while turning around, "Let''s go then. Does anyone know about her being alive?"


    "No. I haven''t told anyone about her."


    "Good. Let''s go to her." Karl nodded. After that incident, he hid the fact by telling everyone that Richard and his bodyguard were killed. Meanwhile, the real bodyguard had been transferred to a secret room where she got the priority of treatment without anyone knowing. Even the doctor couldn''t leave that ce until everything was finished.


    Knowing that she had woken up, Karl knew that the moment of truth would finallye.


    When he entered the secret room, he saw her lying on the bed helplessly. There was a trace of regret reflected in her eyes as if she had failed him. She seemed to be saddened as well by Richard''s death.


    "What happened that day? Who attacked you?" Karl didn''t hesitate to ask.


    "Your Highness. She''s still too weak. I''m afraid that she can''t answer you." The doctor in charge of her warned him. "In fact, if she has some strength left, I''m afraid she''s going tomit suicide."


    Karl gritted his teeth. If Richard was still alive, he didn''t care whether this woman died or not. But now that Richard was dead and the only one who knew about it was her, she had to survive no matter what.


    "I understand. Make sure she''s alive. I won''t forgive you if she''s dead."


    "Her vital is weak, but it''s quite stable. So, if she continues the treatment, she will be able to recover sooner orter." The doctor nodded with a serious expression, assuring the prince.


    However, it might be because of her failure or her determination that she weakly opened her mouth, saying something.


    "Masked�� Punch�� Torrential�� Magic�� Power��"


    Those were the five words that she uttered with thest strength in her body before her consciousness became fuzzy again.


    "What do you mean by those words?" Karl tried to ask her, but she ended up passing out.


    "Masked, Punch, Torrential, Magic, Power? No, it should be Torrential Magic Power��" Karl looked down with a serious expression, contemting. "Punch, a punch that can let out a torrential magic power? And a masked man?


    "But there is no record of the attack, no wait�� There is no record? The fact that it has no record shows something else." Karl dropped his jaw to the ground, never expecting this to be the case.


    He turned around and asked the guy who had informed him earlier. "Tell me, how many people Griffith Family managed to rank up their skills?"


    "Eh? Ah?!" The guy was confused for a moment but immediately took out his Skylink to check the data. "There were a total of 12 people asking for ranking up from the Griffith Family and only one person managed to rank up. Ah!"


    It seemed that he had realized it as well.


    "Griffith Family, you bastard!" The prince roared in anger.


    The guy was startled. His back was drenched in sweat because they finally realized what had happened. He muttered inwardly, "A punch that can cause a torrential magic power, there is one punch that is strong enough to do that. It was the Griffith Family''s Magic Saint Fist Style.


    "The fact that there was no record means this was the work of the Griffith Family, who is the number one family in espionage. Removing themselves in this situation is their forte, so there was only one influence who would do that.


    "They took out their anger on Richard, who couldn''t upgrade their skills. This was the scenario of the murder. Also, the expert from the Griffith Family is above average, so it''s not surprising to be this way. But since even a Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t even hold a candle against this masked man or even cause a little ruckus to rm the other, it means the enemy was extremely powerful.


    "That''s why the suspect couldn''t be any clearer. The Griffith Family was the culprit. It''s also said that Mason Griffith has taken a liking to him and asked him to go to the Griffith Family but got rejected�� This must be his retaliation.


    "To think the situation is like this��" He looked at Richard''s bodyguard. "In fact, back then, her situation was very severe. If not for the fact that she had the new S Rank Skill which focused on defense, she would have died back then. No, she was supposed to die and the Griffith Family didn''t realize that she had that S Rank Skill and managed to keep her alive.


    "This��" He realized what the prince was nning to do.

 Chapter ?1511 Culprit

    Chapter ?1511 Culprit


    The union was holding their meeting for their next n. They had been kept for another day after their visit, but since the government had just begun to stabilize after the apocalypse, they couldn''t leave the pose for too long.


    Flora was overseeing the meeting. There were a total of thirteen members of the union. They represented their own countries: Germany, Nethends, Denmark, the UK, France, Austria, Switzend, Italy, Spain, Czech, Irnd, Austria, and Pnd.


    Germany was represented by Flora, who took charge of the union and became the leader. For the union''s advisor, this position could only be filled by none other than the War Saint, Leonardo.


    "The four pirs have been doing good and the process is satisfactory. By eliminating all monsters in the defense area, we can create a fortified base and our goal is to expand our base to the surrounding area." Leonardo reported with a poker face. "We have been able to survive without production right now, but it''s the best time to start producing our own food like vegetables and other staple food because it''ll be our main concern next.


    "However, we have to make sure that we''re not going to expand that soon because it''ll risk the stability of our progress. There are also a few King ss Monsters that have to be dealt with. Luckily, the nearest World ss Monster from this ce is in Hungary and Sweden. At the very least, they won''t be our priority for now. That''s all."


    Flora nodded with a serious expression. "Denmark has joined hands with Sweden and Find. I want you three to handle our north. The Nethends will be focusing on the connection between this area and the UK and Irnd since it''s extremely dangerous to travel above the sea. If possible, make an airne that is safe to connect them.


    "France, Italy, and Spain will focus on your own stability for the time being. You can focus on our food supply. As for Czech, I want you to focus on maintaining our defense since our threates mostly from the east." Flora summarized the situation by giving everyone the task. "That''s all from me."


    "Then��" Leonardo wanted to continue, but suddenly, there was a priority message the UK diplomat received.


    "Mhm? I am sorry, Sir War Saint. I have to cut your speech because I have an emergency message from the British Royal Family, Prince Karl."


    Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Sure. Since it''s an emergency, it must be something important."


    "Thank you." He nodded and took a deep breath. "Let me read the message. It seems that we have found the culprit for the death of Richard Coulson."


    "!!!" Leonardo squinted his eyes. Richard Coulson was a very interesting person who actually gave hope to people in this situation. However, he was murdered a few days ago, brutally at that. It angered so many people because their world had been destroyed like this, yet, the people in power still killed a person like him. It was unbearable.


    "Hoh?" Flora''s expression became cold.


    "What''s this? Are we still going to discuss a dead person? We don''t have time to do this." Czech''s representative, who was none other than the leader of the Lexon Group, snorted. "It''s better to move forward. Don''t you know how much work we have to dy for just one day for his funeral?"


    "I can understand your anger, Sir Alexej. But Richard was an important person as well, who became the hope of this base. Why are you stopping us right now, Sir Alexej?" The UK''s representative narrowed his eyes.


    "Stopping you? I''m simply stopping a useless topic from being discussed."


    "Is it truly a useless topic? Or is it rted to you that you have to hide it?" He narrowed his eyes, not backing down. They had been in a fight for the third position in the union, so this hostility was normal. Even the other members had gotten used to this kind of fight.


    "Hoh? Do you have any evidence for that? Freedom of speech doesn''t mean you can say anything. You have to be responsible for your own speech." Alexej mmed the table, ring at him. "Instead of talking about the dead person, how about talking about the important position? I have just received the information from my son that the Empress is going to support me, and he''s going to marry Anastasia. With her helping my Lexon Group, we can be a sturdy front.


    "Hence, I believe that I can be the leader of the military. As Madam Flora had said, our ce will be the sturdy shield that protects the base from most threats. Hence, it''s better for me to have this position since I can easily mobilize the army for protection purposes."


    This was what Alexej had been waiting for. As long as he could mobilize the soldiers, he could control the stability of the base itself, giving him enough authority to be the third inmand after Flora and Mason.


    "Unfortunately for you, we have to discuss the death of Richard Coulson today." The UK''s representative stated with a cold tone. "His Highness is also making his way toward this ce after getting important evidence."


    "Huh?" Alexej narrowed his eyes.


    "Proof? Interesting." Flora was the first one to show interest, considering Richard was useful in her eyes. "Speak!"


    "Yes, Madam Flora. I''m sure that everyone knows that Richard and his bodyguard died during the attack, right?"


    "Of course." The people nodded.


    "However, that''s not necessarily true. His bodyguard has also upgraded her skill, specifically a defensive skill to S Rank. She managed to escape death at that time, and our skilled doctors had been operating on her this whole time. She had just woken up today to tell us about the culprit. Due to her weak condition, she couldn''t reach this ce. But we''ve recorded a video of what happened inside the room she stayed in."


    His expression became ruthless as he stated with confidence. "And we have managed to find out the real culprit behind the assassination of Richard Coulson. They are��"

 Chapter 1512 Shock

    Chapter 1512 Shock


    "The mission ispleted and there is no witness." These are the words that Yermyev told him after his return.


    Alexej believed it since he had seen the funeral and the fact that the prince couldn''t do anything meant there was truly no witness.


    But to think there was a witness, even Alexej didn''t expect it. It was a huge blunder. Alexej''s heart beat rapidly because he never thought that he would be found out here.


    ''Yermyev, you bastard. No, I''ll just tell everyone that Yermyev is the culprit.'' Alexej thought while ring at the UK''s representative. He wanted to shut him up, but he didn''t think it would be possible, considering the distance between them. And the proof was in the video, which should have been recorded in the UK too, so it was impossible to get rid of them.


    "Who is the culprit?" The representative from France wasn''t that patient and asked.


    "The witness told us five words, which could be seen from the video. I''m sure it''s pretty clear from her lips'' movement." The UK''s representative showed the video to everyone in this ce.


    They could see the weak woman lying down on the bed. It was truly Richard''s bodyguard, and she was still alive. She opened her mouth for a moment, weakly muttering those five words. Because she was too weak, the camera couldn''t get her voice, but looking at the movement of the lips alone was enough for them to understand it.


    "Masked, Punch, Torrential, Magic, Power."


    Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows and repeated those words in a low voice, "Masked, Punch, Torrential, Magic, Power?"


    As expected from the War Saint, he was the first one to figure it out as he suddenly asked, "Wait a minute. How many people from the Griffith Family managed to rank up their skill?"


    "One out of twelve."


    "What are you talking about, Leonardo? Why are you bringing the Griffith Family into this conversation?" Since Haiskal Hetson, Mason Griffith''s second identity, came from Find, the representative from this country obviously spoke up as he was also from the Griffith Family too.


    "Griffith Family�� Ah!" Flora was the second person to realize Leonardo''s question. "Leonardo, you��"


    "Yes!" Leonardo nodded with a serious expression. "I believe what she meant was like this. The assant was wearing a mask, which represented the first word. Punch meant punching, and that punch caused a torrential Magic Power, representing thest three words."


    In that instant, everyone understood because there was one punch that could actually defeat a Mythical Rank Expert in an instant.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style." One of them uttered the real identity of the culprit. They sucked a cold breath because they realized this assassination was a grudge from the Griffith Family, who couldn''t upgrade their skills.


    And the Griffith Family was known to be cruel, so they could see why Richard also died in a brutal way. There were many points connecting the assassination to the Griffith Family.


    The UK''s representative nodded with a serious expression. "Yes. The prince suspects them as well. And if I remember, the Griffith Family is supporting the Lexon Group.


    "This assassination might be a plot those two devised so that they can put the Lexon Group in that position. I wonder if the Griffith Family is nning to take over the base for their own purpose without even thinking of anyone else."


    The situation had been turned around. This time, the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family were getting pushed back. As long as the witness recovered, she could continue her story. But those five words were enough to describe the suspect.


    "I wonder if the Griffith Family has an exnation for us? We''re also demanding the same thing from the Lexon Group." The UK''s representative red at both Alexej and Find''s representative.


    "There is no concrete proof, and you dare to use us like this? The witness can''t even say aplete sentence, so it''s easy to misunderstand her. We have to investigate this matter thoroughly first." Find''s representative stated with a calm expression.


    "No concrete proof, huh�� Isn''t that what you''re good at, Griffith Family?"


    "!!!" Everyone suddenly remembered that the prince couldn''t do anything because there was no proof. All clues had been pointing at the Griffith Family. It would be hard for them to exin the situation, and they could only remain silent this time.


    "After looking at it, we have also noticed a weird behavior from the Lexon Group''s Young Master, Ricky Nixon." He raised his hands and opened a few pictures. "We have found him talking to the Empress and Yermyev. If I recall correctly, Yermyev was also one of the chosen people�� I wonder what he was doing there?"


    The Griffith Family and the Lexon Group had been pushed to the corner by all the clues. Even they couldn''t form up an argument that could make others suspect something else since everything had pointed at the Griffith Family.


    Obviously, the Lexon Group couldn''t me the Griffith Family either, considering Alexej would pay a huge price for doing it. But there was a chance for the Griffith Family to exploit.


    And that chance came when the UK''s representative suddenly said, "In that case, I hope that the union can authorize us to interrogate Ricky Nixon and Yermyev."


    "That''s indeed a good idea. If we''re going to stabilize the base and expand it, we have to clear out some weeds first. After all, no talented person with a unique talent that can strengthen the base will appear if they know they''ll die and the culprit will be free. It''s for the sake of the base." Leonardo nodded in agreement, showing a logical argument.


    Everyone believed that was the case until someone interrupted them.


    *Bang!*


    Suddenly, someone rushed to the room and shouted, "Emergency!"


    Everyone''s attention was directed to this guy. Even Alexej thought he could keep their attention to him so that everyone forgot about this discussion. At the very least, it would be easy to steer the conversation from this point on.


    However, no one, especially Alexej, would expect this. The guy who intruded on their meeting walked to him and gave him a picture.


    When Alexej saw the picture, he was stunned and dropped the picture. His face was pale and horrified as if he had just seen a ghost.


    Those around him could see the falling picture on the ground and saw Ricky dying the same way as Richard.


    "��"

 Chapter 1513 Deception

    Chapter 1513 Deception


    Alexej was stupefied because this was the reality he had to ept. His son actually died in the same way as Richard.


    "This is��" Everyone who could see the picture on the ground sucked a cold breath. If a normal person saw this picture, they would think this was karma. The Lexon Group seemed to be involved, so his son paid the retribution.


    With the loss of his son, the Empress would surely stop joining hands with him, and she would protect Alea from the Griffith Family. In other words, not only could he lose the Empress'' support, but he also betrayed the promise to the Griffith Family''s Theodore Griffith.


    However, Alexej had a different thought. After all, Yermyev couldn''t kill his son that easily, considering he was protected by bodyguards.


    And with how the wounds were simr to Richard''s, it was clear that the culprit was the same.


    Magic Saint Fist Style.


    That one thought was presented in everyone''s mind at this time. In other words, the Griffith Family was truly the culprit. Since Ricky was one of the people involved in this matter, the Griffith Family tried to remove him so that no one would tell the truth.


    After all, Ricky was going to be interrogated by the union. This would cause a lot of trouble. Hence, the Griffith Family removed him to make sure no one said anything. As for Yermyev, he couldn''t say anything because his family would get involved and punished for his action as well. Hence, only Ricky died in this incident.


    The room fell silent as the tension rose exponentially.


    Only Leonardo maintained his calmness this whole time. In fact, he felt a bit nostalgic when looking at this scene.


    A certain memory couldn''t help but sh in his mind. Back then, he was ying a real life simtion game with Theo.


    After cing his piece, he dered with a smug smile. "I think I''ve won, Theo."


    "No, it''s my win, Sir Leonardo." Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    "Huh? What do you mean? I have clearly gotten rid of the remaining members. With this kind of force, the only thing I have to do is to kill the rest of the people."


    "Are you sure? Please look at it again, especially my pieces."


    "Huh?" Leonardo was confused and looked at it again. The two pieces that had been acting as Theo himself and his clone were separatedpletely. There should be nothing he could do even if he recalled the clone since he could simply counter his move next.


    But there was something that caught his eye. "Wait, this is��"


    Theo and his clones might be separated, but it wasn''t a normal separation. It looked like Theo had abandoned the head of the group he was trying to fight for and fled to other ces, but these ces were actually nearby parties who remained neutral this whole time.


    Since they had been taking turns for quite a while, it could reflect hours or even days. At that time, Theo finally understood what Theo had been nning to do. "Wait a minute. You''re using your illusion to trick those two so that they join the battlefield?"


    Theo smiled. "Although these two are neutral in this battle, they''re fighting against each other for supremacy. The fact that you''re going to exterminate this group means these two can take this chance to devour them. In other words, they''re nning to fish in the troubled water.


    "I simply have to give them a chance to fight each other. There are multiple ways that I can use it, but I''ll give you three simple examples. The first will be sowing discord like their members are killing each other. The second example is to set up a rumor. I can simply spread the information about the other party going to make a move right now and vice versa. Although they won''t participate in the battle, if I spread the word to them at the same time as a part of the information, I can make them meet your party, causing a huge battle.


    "Of course, I can also use your party to trick them into thinking you''re going to be the overlord and no one shall be able to stand close to you." Theo smiled.


    "But if you want to imitate someone, you have to impersonate someone important. Obviously, you have to understand their living situation, how they act, and especially their power�� No, wait. Are you telling me��"


    Theo smiled. "I have enough information after a few days, so all I need to take care of is their power. I can simply impersonate them if that''s the only hurdle. That''s why I won this time."


    "��" Leonardo pinched the bridge of his nose. Leonardo and Theo had different styles. Leonardo would work together with the organization he was working for and create a concrete n for victory. His way was solid and stable, which was hard to beat.


    However, Theo''s way of thinking came in the form of absurdness. He took advantage of his clone and the unfavorable situation to make the enemy not think much about him. In fact, Theo had been lowering Leonardo''s guard by directing him to the battle between the two influences instead of him.


    Remembering that battle, Leonardo couldn''t help but recall his grandson. He realized that both Richard and Ricky were Theo and his clone. The fact that Theo could cover up his Magic Power meant he could be an ordinary person and mingle with the others while setting up his own illusion.


    Then, thest thing that Leonardo had to answer was the purpose of Theo''s n. It was clearly directed to the Griffith Family and the Lexon Group, but he certainly thought this wasn''t the only concerned party.


    He nced at the UK''s representative and widened his eyes in realization. The guy said earlier that both Ricky and Yermyev were suspicious and had to be taken into custody.


    It meant Yermyev was involved in this matter, and there was one reason why Yermyev would be involved.


    Without hesitation, Leonardo stood up and looked at Flora. "With this situation, we have to secure the witness immediately, including Yermyev and his family. We can''t allow the culprit to remove the next person, so I''m asking for your authority to bring Yermyev and the Czar to my family because I can provide them with enough security. I will also conduct the interrogation myself."

 Chapter 1514 Role

    Chapter 1514 Role


    "Wait, Sir War Saint!" The UK''s representative immediately stopped him since he wanted to weaken the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family with this opportunity.


    However, Leonardo was focused more on the Czar than those two. He immediately stated, "My ce is the closest to them, and I believe my family is one of the few influences that can protect them right now.


    "I have told you the reason earlier. This incident can''t be taken lightly. If we stop the investigation just because we don''t want to deal with it, there won''t be any talented people that will show themselves from today onward.


    "They''ll be scared because they''re going to die if they stand out. That''s why I have to take them into custody immediately. I also have heard that Ricky has been visiting the Empress for a while. Since I''m at it, I''ll also bring the Empress Pce to my ce to secure them.


    "If you''re going to argue with me after all this exnation, then I have to ask you to leave this ce. Don''t forget that the US Base has been reinforcing themselves, and many corporations, especially the Star Group, have begun their transformation. The Star Group seems to be working on arge-scale project to reconnect the world again with their new airne. In other words, they''re going to monopolize the sky.


    "Meanwhile, United Asia has created a strong front with the Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, and the Daemon. They are number 2nd, 3rd, and 10th in the world. With them there, I believe that they''re going to be the first to expand their base.


    "What about us? We''re going nowhere. By the time they have recolonized the, we''re here stranded in fear. If you''re going to go that way, then I''ll leave the union and do everything I want."


    Leonardo gave them the ultimatum as he was the adviser of the union. Although Flora had suppressed him after Theo''s incident, even she wouldn''t push Leonardo to the brim because the moment the War God Family stopped their support, they wouldn''t get more ns on how to progress from now onward. This was the War God Family''s forte, so Leonardo''s words had a huge weight in everyone''s heart.


    Still, the only one who could say something in this situation was none other than Flora. She asked, "But Leonardo, I don''t think your family can handle both influences by yourself."


    "Don''t worry. I have a friend that can help me." Leonardo gave an immediate answer.


    Flora fell silent and remembered one person. "The pope?"


    "Yes. I''ll leave the Empress, who doesn''t seem to be involved too deeply, to the church. The church itself is a neutral party even in the union. Hence, there won''t be anyone who needs to fear that the Empress is joining hands with the pope to cause instability in the union."


    Flora closed her eyes for a moment and said, "Alright. I give you the authority. Send your experts to Czech immediately and ensure the safety of the Czar as well as the Empress. After that, coordinate with the church to handle the situation."


    "Understood." Leonardo nodded with a serious expression as he immediately ryed the words to his son, Marzio.


    After that, Flora turned to Alexej and said with a cold tone. "I want a full investigation of Richard''s death. We have to make sure the public knows about it for the future of the union. I''ll give you the right to investigate Ricky Nixon''s death as well as his involvement in this matter. The rest will be taken care of by Leonardo."


    "What?" Alexej wanted to refuse immediately, but Flora suddenly added, "I also want to investigate the Griffith Family''s involvement in this matter."


    Her tone was cold and her voice was filled with killing intent. She was serious. She nned to remove anyone that wanted to challenge her seat. If the Griffith Family seeded in their scheme, she might also die from the Griffith Family''s plot by joining hands with the Lexon Group, so she nned to use this opportunity to weaken them both. This way, she would gain sole control over the union.


    Leonardo closed his eyes calmly as if he was tired of this political bullshit. He wasn''t even here to gain anything from the union. He was here just to protect his family. Still, Leonardo felt chills down his spine when he looked at this situation.


    The British Royal Family would be strengthened a bit because of Richard, but they could still be kept in check because of his death. The Lexon Group would suffer because they would sh with the Griffith Family this time.


    In other words, Theo was actually nning to make the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family fight against each other.


    Meanwhile, the Royal Family was simply a third party among them. But because they were a bit useful to him, he gave some advantages to them in the form of connection with the people in the union. In fact, Theo might be the whole reason for the attack. The proof was the fact that Richard''s bodyguard didn''t die. She should have helped Theo quite a bit, so Theo didn''t kill her for two reasons. First for her testament and second for debt and gratitude.


    The two allies fought among themselves and Flora swept them with her strength. This was Theo''s n.


    But there was one question in Leonardo''s mind.


    ''Since when could he upgrade one''s skill? Is it from the start? No, it might be after acquiring his Order�� But Order should be an absolute power, not something with probability��'' Leonardo suddenly realized Theo''s real reason for going to the British Royal Family.


    The fact that no one could ess their system anymore was the perfect timing for his ability to upgrade a skill. If he showed this power before the apocalypse, he would be the target of the world. But this time, he would look like a savior.


    But Theo had a hidden intention in revealing this ability. ''That brat was actually using that power to make others give him free Skill Cards for him to upgrade hisrades'' abilities. Then, how did he smuggle the Skill Cards across the sea�� No, wait��''


    ��


    Czech.


    Yermyev was sitting on his bed because there were too many suspicions around him. But there was a reason for him staring continuously at the door as if he was waiting for someone. Under his bed were two huge suitcases he used to travel to the UK a few days ago. But the quilt covered them, so no one would realize they would disappear.


    Suddenly, a blue-haired man entered Yermyev''s room with a smirk on his face. "Yo."

 Chapter 1515 Scary

    Chapter 1515 Scary


    "Yo!"


    Yermyev made a wry smile as he truly couldn''tpare himself to Theo. This man had confused the whole union without even making his appearance somewhere.


    He couldn''t help but recall their conversation a few days ago.


    At that time, he thought he was talking to Ricky before suddenly, Theo retracted his illusion that changed his appearance.


    "You��" Yermyev widened his eyes in shock and turned around because there was a hidden camera in his room.


    "There''s no need for you to worry about it. I have created a realm with my skill. The camera will only see that Ricky is talking with Yermyev. So, you don''t have to worry."


    "I see." Yermyev felt relieved.


    "I''m sure that you have been treated horribly, but I have three things I want to tell you. I don''t want to cause any suspicion by talking about too many things, so I hope you don''t interrupt me."


    Yermyev nodded with a serious expression.


    "First of all, trust me one hundred percent, and I''ll be able to fulfill my condition to Sir Yaslev by focusing on the safety of your family.


    "Secondly, I want you to go to the UK to meet my clone and do nothing. Also, bring two suitcases with you. Make sure they''re huge. I want you to bring something from there, which I will give you. I''ll tell you the concrete n through telepathy�� Well, I can''t say it''s telepathy since I''m the one making you hallucinate my voice in your ears. I don''t know what you say, but you can understand English, right?"


    "Yes. I have no problem."


    "Good. I''ll tell you the concrete n there. As for thest thing I want to say�� Well, Levina is safe with me right now. Don''t worry about her."


    "Ah!" Yermyev was surprised and relieved at the same time. "I believe being with you is the safest ce in this world. She''s lucky to meet you. I hope that you can take care of her."


    "Don''t worry." Theo nodded. "In that case, let''s meet again soon. Of course, y along with me to trick the hidden camera."


    Theo retracted his illusion and continued with his order about Richard''s assassination.


    ��


    Recalling this memory in his mind made his body tremble. Theo was someone who could destroy the union from within as long as he desired to do so. But because his real target was the Griffith Family, the impact this time wasn''t that big.


    "These are the suitcases."


    "Thank you for doing all this." Theo nodded with a smile.


    "No problem. In fact, I want to thank you again. I have just received the news that Leonardo will be our caretaker from now on. Even the Empress will be ced near the church for their protection. If your n is to mess with the union, you can do much more. But you prioritize our safety, so please let me give my thanks to you. Unfortunately, I can''t give you anything."


    "There''s no need to. Living well is the greatest gift you can give me." Theo smiled and patted Yermyev as he grabbed the two suitcases. "Well, take care, will you? I''ll meet you again sooner orter."


    "Yes." Yermyev smiled as Theo disappeared, and his illusion was retracted.


    ��


    Leonardo and Yermyev weren''t the only people to know Theo was behind this. There was one more person that had figured out the n.


    She was the Empress.


    While walking outside, she found Ana with a smile on her face. Her smile was big and bright as if she was the happiest girl on the.


    "It seems that you''re happy." The Empress narrowed her eyes.


    "Mo��ther." Ana''s smile instantly disappeared when she saw her mother''s distorted face as if she was disappointed with the situation. After all, the Empress had always wanted her to marry Ricky, while Ana wanted to be free.


    "Let''s talk." The Empress pointed to the left after making sure no one was there.


    Ana had no choice but to follow her with her head hanging low.


    "It seems that you''re happy with his death. Do you really not want to marry him that much?" The Empress asked.


    "��" Ana looked down. "I know I am your daughter, and I have an obligation to protect the people from the Empress Pce. By marrying him, we could be even stronger. In fact, I don''t really mind a political marriage. I have been preparing for a scenario when you suddenly bring a guy in front of me. But I simply don''t want him. I hate him. If it''s a kind of decent guy, even if it''s a political marriage, I will surely be able to find some happiness in my life, but not him��"


    The Empress shook his head helplessly. "s, you have missed the best man in the world."


    "The best man in the world? Mother, what are you saying? He is a lecher, pervert, yboy�� I can insult him for an hour, and I will still feel it''s not enough."


    "It''s better you stop there before I p you." The Empress shook her head helplessly. "If it''s that Ricky, even I won''t give you to him. But that Ricky is not the Ricky people know."


    "Huh? What do you mean?"


    "Do you remember that night when I first brought him somewhere?"


    "Yes."


    "He asked me whether Theodore Griffith from the Griffith Family was stronger than the Theodore Griffith that had been pushed away from the union."


    "Huh?" Ana obviously was aware of the situation with Theo as well. There were two Theos in this world, the one she knew and the one affiliated with the Griffith Family. But Ricky should ally himself with thetter, not the former. So, the question itself was meaningless unless��


    "Ah?!"


    "It seems that you''ve figured it out. Well, even I couldn''t believe it at first, but I managed to confirm his identity on the thirteenth day. Just take a look at the union''s situation right now, the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family fought each other, our influence will be directed to the church to protect us and the Czar will be protected by the War God Family."


    "Did he��"


    "Yes. He held back this time. If he wanted to target the union itself, he would be able to destroy the union easily. But he held back to protect us, a mere acquaintance. Can you believe such a person would actually destroy this world? The Theodore Griffith in that video was the one from the Griffith Family, and the Ricky you were supposed to marry was the Theo we knew. That''s why I told you that you just lost the best man."


    "��" Ana fell silent, not being able to say anything else after all the exnations.


    The Empress nced at her and said, "Don''t tell anyone about this, especially Alea. Though, I can kinda understand that he never ns to marry you, so let''s just take his kindness for granted this time and go to Italy."


    "I��understand."


    The Empress sighed and walked away. "Theodore Griffith�� I feel like, after this, I fear no one except him."

 Chapter 1516 Upgrading Skills

    Chapter 1516 Upgrading Skills


    After causing that disturbance in the union, Theo had yet to go back to his ce in Iran. There was a sole reason why he still stayed here. The fun had yet to end.


    He was waiting for the fun on top of the building while he was looking at the suitcases filled with the Skill Cards. He had waited for it this long.


    "As expected, gathering the Skill Cards from more than ten countries is good. Unfortunately, it''s pretty hard to find A Rank Skill Cards. Only a spendthrift like Flora can have those many A Rank Skill Cards. Even the Griffith Family didn''t bring that many.


    "Either way, I have enough Skill Cards to upgrade three A Rank Skill to S Rank. At least for me. Sadly, I can''t really lie when I give the requirement, I can only make them misunderstand the chance. Of course, I still have some spare A Rank Skill Cards for two more upgrades from those skills, but I''m nning to save those for Felix and Walker, who are our main fighters.


    "As for the upgrade for B Rank Skills or lower, I think I can upgrade all my people''s skills to A Rank. There are basically more than a thousand B Rank Skill Cards in my case and three thousand C Rank Skill Cards. Unfortunately, I can''t bring all of them in those two suitcases, but well��" Theo shrugged.


    He was thinking about the three skills he nned to upgrade this time. He had two S Rank Skills right now, but these weren''t enough for the battle that woulde in the near future.


    "Let''s see. I have a good defense and avatar for S Rank Skills. With my current ability, what should I upgrade? Clone or Metamorphosis? These two are very useful for me. The World Re-Creation, on the other hand, can''t be upgraded except for me bing a Saint.


    "Then, should I upgrade both Clone and Metamorphosis Skills? If that''s the case, should I upgrade Blink, Telekinesis, or Energy st for the third skill?


    Theo contemted for a moment and decided to focus on his current ability, which focused on Reality. The Twisted Reality and World Re-Creation were the base of his current fighting style, so he could finally choose the third skill to upgrade.


    "Alright. I''m going to upgrade these three." Theo smirked.


    Skill: Clone (S)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to create a clone of himself and give apletely new life.


    Skill: Metamorphosis (S)


    Effect: Super Transformation. The user can transform into another creature ording to the detail in the user''s head. It would also imitate the organs and their usage. The user won''t be restricted by anything except the user''s own imagination. Limit: 25 forms.


    Skill: Telekinesis (S)


    Effect: Master Level of Telekinesis. Break thews of gravity with Telekinesis.


    "Nice." Theo smirked when he saw these three skills. First of all, he had seen the Clone Skill''s description, so he wasn''t that surprised anymore.


    The fact that he could give birth to a new life meant the clone would be real this time. In other words, if he somehow died and his clone was still somewhere in the world, his clone could still live like this and continue his life.


    In the past, Theo wouldn''t realize that he was a clone because of hisck of understanding.


    But Theo had gained a huge amount of knowledge about reality and even fought against his other self in other realities. Hence, he could instantly recognize his clone and his real body.


    If he wanted to do it, he could simply live in his clone but still behave like the usual Theodore Griffith. After all, he could transfer his own reality to his clone, making that clone the real Theodore Griffith.


    This was what Loki didn''t have in the past because of his Illusion Order. If he had the Reality Order, Loki would practically be invisible. Hence, Theo loved this opportunity.


    The second skill, Metamorphosis, was also good. This time, the limit had increased by ten. It also gave him the perfect imitation of something in his head. And if he enveloped the Metamorphosis with his Reality Order, even those Gods wouldn''t be able to find him like how they found Loki. Though, he also understood why Loki said that he could be a female and give birth since the description told him that it would produce the organs and their usage. But Theo had sworn to never be a female, so he just skipped that part.


    Last but not least, the Telekinesis Skill. He was surprised because Telekinesis could finally break thew of gravity.


    In the past, he would have to lift a giant tower against gravity. He still felt the weight of the tower. But if he could ignore the gravity, he could do much more, not only the weight but also the application of that weight. He couldn''t help but feel excited about how he could use his Telekinesis.


    "And with this, I have five S Rank Skills. I can upgrade two more Skills, but I''ll leave that for the people back home." Theo smiled. "Alright. I have done all my jobs in this ce. The Czar will be safe from now on, and the Empress Pce will also get some advantages, I guess. I think this is the best thing I can do for Alea, and this is probably thest time. Knowing the pope, I know that he''s not like others who are thirsty for power.


    "Thanks to the Royal British Family, I can do all this, but I guess that''s fine since I give them some backing. Think of it as a payment for using you. Last but not least is the Lexon Group, which seems to be the one spreading the video of my original self.


    "The Griffith Family and the Lexon Group, I''ll make sure to watch what you''re going to do next. Hahaha.


    "Andst but not least, Flora Wegener. You''re throwing me that easily even though you''re still using my n when you''re in power. Don''t worry�� You''re still useful to me, so you can get whatever you want during that time. But I''ll surely make you pay what you owe me along with interest." Theo smirked as he stood up, looking at the town.


    "Now, now�� The fun is about to begin."

 Chapter ?1517 Anger

    Chapter ?1517 Anger


    "Alexej. This must be a trick by someone. We have never killed Richard and your son!" Haiskal Hetson or Mason Griffith stated with a serious expression. He had been talking to Alexej through the Skylink for a long time, trying to exin the real situation.


    But at the same time, he couldn''t do it because the clue was clear.


    At first, he thought Yermyev was the one killing Richard, but Yermyev didn''t have the capability to reproduce the Magic Saint Fist Style. So, it was impossible for Yermyev to kill Richard.


    Hence, there was only one answer, the Griffith Family. Of course, no one was guilty until proven otherwise.


    The Griffith Family instantly denied all kinds of usations. However, they didn''t expect that their own reputation was actually the one destroying them.


    The Griffith Family was known to be the number one hidden family, whose espionage system could go toe to toe or even ahead of that of a country despite their small number.


    Those in power usuallymissioned them because they trusted the Griffith Family to bring them something.


    This reputation had been established for seven generations. So, they were trustworthy in the business.


    However, the clue that had been leading to the death of Richard and Ricky was simply connected to the Griffith Family. The reputation that had been established for seven generations? It made the people believe that the Griffith Family had the power to do so.


    The number one hidden family that could remove their records and stay hidden for seven generations? It was clear that they had the ability to remove themselves, including all kinds of evidence. If not for the fact that there was a witness, no one would be able to prove it was them.


    The family worked in espionage that could even best a country? Assassination was one of the branches, so it was most likely they were the ones to kill them.


    In other words, no matter how they were trying to exin they didn''t do it, everything they had established actually worked against them.


    Just like in Aikido or Jiu Jitsu, the usation used the power of their opponent to defeat them.


    Those people never realized that they were in Theo''s palm this whole time.


    And now, Mason Griffith tried to exin to his ally about this whole situation, trying to prove how he wasn''t involved in this matter.


    But Alexej refused to believe it. "Shut up, Mason Griffith. You''re simply using me as an excuse to kill that Richard. That was why you agreed to send Yermyev. I know everything now!


    "You wanted to use that opportunity to kill Richard and me everything on Yermyev. Then, you''re going to kill him, along with my son who gave that mission to deal with the evidence.


    "Your n is truly perfect if not for the fact that Richard''s bodyguard was still alive! If she had died and I found this simr way of assassination, I would believe that Yermyev did it out of spite and killed him.


    "I would never think that it was you who tricked me and killed my son. Because of that, the Empress wouldn''t join hands with me as well because there wasn''t any more political marriage. It allowed you to retain your position in the union.


    "You are very good, Griffith Family. You''re nning to remove me from power by allying with me. You use this chance to make me believe you.


    "And now, I know that you are the culprit who wants to eliminate both the Royal Family and me so that you can stay in power. I bet you''re going to aim for that Flora next because your grandson is favored by Flora.


    "Hahaha, unfortunately for you, he lost her favor because of this incident. Serve you right, Griffith Family!" Alexej berated Masonpletely,ughing because the Griffith Family received their own karma.


    In Alexej''s head, the union between the original Theo and Flora would give both Flora and the Griffith Family an absolute power that no one could fight in the union. They would be able to rule the base for generations ahead and no one could go against them.


    But with this incident, Flora distanced herself from the original Theo since she didn''t want to deal with the angry mass. She had abandoned Theo and sided with the Original Theo with this strategy, so she didn''t want to taste her own medicine.


    And now, the Griffith Family was cornered because Alexej also reserved some of their plots.


    Mason was trying to exin the situation so that Alexej didn''t ruin the entire n they had built.


    "Alexej. Listen to me. There must be someone who is trying to sow discord among us. If we''re talking about this kind of n, it must be Leonardo. No, there is a possibility that Theodore Griffith is involved in this. So, let''s cool our heads down and talk about this."


    Mason persuaded Alexej to the best of his ability, but Alexej simply mmed the table as his anger soared through the roof.


    "Theodore Griffith? You have told everyone that Theodore Griffith has died. The only Theodore Griffith left in this world is your grandson who is with you. And now, he''s not dead? Do you think I''ll believe that?


    "Even if we assume that Theodore Griffith is not dead, it also means you''re lying to all of us this whole time by telling us that you have managed to kill Theodore Griffith. We believe you that there''s no threat anymore. And we''re supposed to trust you after that lie? Fuck you, Mason!"


    Obviously, the Griffith Family couldn''t tell the world that Theo didn''t die. After all, it would smear their reputation since the Griffith Family imed that Theo had escaped from the family because he wanted to destroy the world while the Griffith Family tried to protect it.


    If they admitted that they hadn''t killed Theodore Griffith, it would make the world confused, and all the people in power wouldn''t believe them anymore.


    That was why they had to dere the sess of their mission in killing Theodore Griffith. But this ended up backfiring at this time, causing all this ruckus.


    "I won''t believe anything you will say to me, Mason. From now onward, you and I will be enemies. I''m going to make you pay back my son''s life as well as the cooperation with the Empress!" Alexej roared as he closed the Skylink.

 Chapter 1518 Statements

    Chapter 1518 Statements


    The next day.


    There was a rumor in the Sk that spread like a zing forest fire. The Lexon Group was the one in charge of the video that took down Theo''s reputation, it wasn''t that hard for them to spread something simr.


    "The Griffith Family is actually the culprit of the chaotic apocalypse?"


    "The Theodore Griffith they imed to escape the Griffith Family because he wanted to destroy the world was actually a lie?"


    "The one who wanted to destroy the world was actually the Griffith Family? And Theodore Griffith was actually leaving the family because he didn''t agree with that idea?"


    "The union actually brought in the bad guy and pushed out the good guy? They even let them die?"


    Rumors like this spread in the Sk, causing a huge ruckus not only in the union but also in the US Base and United Asia.


    ��


    Italy.


    Yermyev, who was protected by the War God Family, stood in front of the media and gave his own opinion.


    "To be honest, my father, the Wind Emperor, is Theo''s good friend. And I have seen Theo many times, so I know that Theo is not like that. If I remember, he once revealed the plot of the Safulli Group, which angered the World ss Monster before the apocalypse. If you take a look at it, didn''t he save Italy from destruction?


    "What''s about my action who suddenly sold everything for the sake of survival? Of course, I knew about what the Griffith Family wanted to do. Even Theo should have told you about that. Unfortunately, the Griffith Family had deleted all of them because they are the number one hidden family. Erasing those kinds of data is simple.


    "Theo once got attacked by them and had to hide in the past by faking his death. You can see that Theo has been fighting the Griffith Family this whole time, but the other party is simply too strong. It''s not that he didn''t want to tell you, he simply couldn''t.


    "That''s why I was disappointed when I knew that the union banished Theo and let him die. They even brought the Griffith Family to the union. The anger in my heart was simply too much. They pushed the good guy away and invited the bad guy�� No wonder the world is in chaos.


    "Also, to the people who believed the video without trying to find the proof, I am utterly disappointed. It''s because of you guys that he dies��"


    Yermyev could only shake his head helplessly, disappointed. He was also disappointed by the people who immediately turned against Theo without trying to prove the uracy of that video.


    This speech shook the world as well as all the people who watched it. They never expected that the truth had been buried this whole time. They trusted the wrong person.


    Regret�� They could only regret it because they were the ones who killed Theo this time. If they pushed the government to step up to protect Theo, they would still have a hero that could save the situation.


    Yermyev even told them that the n of the union as well as the base came from Theo himself. Before his death, he still tried to contribute to humanity. There were no words that could justify their actions. No matter how they regretted it, Theo wouldn''te back to life.


    ��


    US Base.


    Maya also caused another ruckus.


    "I''m utterly disappointed that the union has thrown away the best guy they could hope for. You must have seen me denying my rtionship with Theo�� That''s because of the Griffith Family.


    "Did you see the chaotic situation that mypany had to endure? It was because of the connection with Theo. This was the power of the number one hidden family.


    "Theo asked me to dere all that because he didn''t want to see mypany and me suffer. But despite all that, he still asked me to get more resources and all kinds of weapons to prepare for the worst. He wanted me to save as many people as possible.


    "And look at this, I''ve provided a weapon for fifty thousand people, and our base can be strong and independent. With his help, I believe that I can reconnect to the world with a new airne that can travel across the ocean safely.


    "Everything he did was for humanity. Yet, humanity threw him away. I''m disappointed in humanity, including myself. I wish I was stronger at that time so that I could support him against all odds."


    Maya let out a sigh and turned around because she was truly disappointed. She could only walk away after that speech.


    ��


    United Asia.


    Agata was sitting down with a sad expression as she was apanied by three people, Feng Hao, Nagasawa Ken, and Tirta Kurniawan.


    The Sword Saint stepped forward and said, "The truth has been revealed. I''m sure you know that my daughter has been helping Theo. It was all for this. We were simply trying to provide you a safe haven and prepared for the worst.


    "Theo could meet the Heavenly Sovereign in Japan because he visited me. And Ergene, Theo''s subordinate, visited Tirta Kurniawan for it. Theo had been trying to contact the world''s leader since he knew normal people wouldn''t believe him and those in power could do more than ordinary people. We all wanted to help, but it was toote. The apocalypse happened far too soon, causing the world to fall to this state.


    "I wouldn''t me anyone in this matter. However, I am disappointed because the union pushed him away just like that even though they had taken advantage of him and could survive because of him."


    ��


    All statements came from Theo''s past allies, making it a bit more believable because they could finally speak up after a long time.


    This wasn''t a conspiracy theory anymore. It was the trial that the world set up to judge the Griffith Family.


    Obviously, the Griffith Family tried to push the me to the Lexon Group since they were the ones sending Yermyev. But the Lexon Group simply pushed it back to the Griffith Family by showing that the video was fake, and the Griffith Family forced them to spread it.


    The two big groups were mutually injured after all this.


    Meanwhile, the one who caused all this ruckus, Theo, simply watched it from a rooftop, watching the town coolly. There was a smile on his face, as if telling them.


    "Serve you right."

 Chapter 1519 Leaving

    Chapter 1519 Leaving


    "What''s going on here? That bitch Flora." Mason mmed the table and ended up destroying it. He gritted his teeth, looking at the current situation.


    "Sir��" His assistant, who was reporting to him, was scared, thinking he would die after this.


    "What''s our status?"


    His assistant hesitated for a moment but still gave the report. "The union has taken action against us by recing our representative in the union. Our second identities have been published as well by the War God Family as well as the Lexon Group.


    "Because of the status of Haiskal Hetson as the eighth strongest person in the world, the people believed we were the cause of their deaths."


    "Lorenzo, that bastard. I have let him live for this long, but he dares to take action against me this time?" Mason gritted his teeth. "What about our allies?"


    "Three out of five have distanced themselves from us while the other two are waiting for your action."


    "Any movement from the Lexon Group?"


    "There is none at the moment. After releasing the rumors, the Lexon Group is also under a heavy hit from the masses. For now, we believe that they can''t make any big moves."


    "The citizens?"


    "They''re letting out their anger in the Sk, condemning us."


    "Those useless ants. They can''t even do anything for us, yet, they are the loudest."


    "Should we kill them?"


    "No. We''re not going to touch them for the time being. If we kill them, that bitch will have the justification to hunt us. For now, recall our forces back here. We''re going to hide for a few months until they stop talking about it. After that, we''re going to make a resurgence. Even though those ants are useless, they still have some roles to y."


    "I understand." His assistant nodded while gulping down.


    "Where is the Poison King?"


    "He''s following the young master somewhere."


    "Tsk." Mason gritted his teeth. He never expected a situation like this woulde. He had thought about the culprit, but to show the Griffith Family''s strength, he couldn''t give them the whole truth back then.


    After all, letting Theo alive was the most dangerous thing they could do. But they couldn''t admit it because it would bring great shame to their family.


    At the same time, he remembered the Saint that saved Theo''s group back then. He had never met someone that strong.


    Someone who could do this was Theodore Griffith. It was easy for them to realize Richard and Ricky were the same people.


    Ricky was the son of Alexej, and his reputation had been established. Meanwhile, Richard was a person that suddenly appeared out of thin air. If Richard was the only one to appear in this scenario, they could easily suspect Theo to be Richard.


    But Theo steered the entire ship through Ricky, causing a deep grudge between the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family.


    He truly underestimated Theo. Had Theo focused all that hatred on the Griffith Family, he could create a situation where Flora was forced to kill them. But Theo focused on the safety of his allies, not them, so this was the result.


    "We''re going to disappear for a few months. The next time we appear, we''re going to hunt him. Also, make sure the Lexon Group suffers as well. Release all their scandals and make them fall from grace."


    "Understood." His assistant nodded and immediately sent a message to someone.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo had been watching the situation with his Skylink.


    "And with this, I have done my part for the time being. I can cause more problems for them, but I still have to consider the mutated monsters in Chernobyl. If I don''t care about those monsters, I can simply kill a few Kings in this base." Theo narrowed his eyes before shaking his head helplessly. "They''re lucky, I guess."


    Theo then disappeared together with his suitcases, going east. Only five miles from Czech, there was a structure that Theo had left here because he was messing up the union.


    But since the job was done, it was time to go back. He didn''t n to meet anyone, including his grandfather. He would still worry about this base, but in his heart, this ce wasn''t suitable for living anymore.


    If he wanted to lead a new life, it would be either in United Asia or the US Base.


    "It''s time to go back��" Theo looked at the sky before remembering something. "Ah, right. I should go to the Frost Saint first to ask about the difference between Authority and Order. I wonder if he''ll give me some information."


    With that thought in mind, Theo carried his luggage with Telekinesis and started moving toward Iran.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t see the original Theo this time. Though, it could be said he was rather lucky since the original Theo might be able to recognize him.


    However, he was quite curious about the reaction from the original Theo. After all, he had seen his conduct this whole time. Despite being the original Theo, his behavior waspletely different from him.


    The Original Theo actually acted more lecherous and thought anything that could benefit him as a target.


    But considering he had all that hatred and was thrown away to Helheim. He could understand the resentment.


    The original Theo had never felt the doubt in his heart, the warmth of the family, and the happiness of a victory. Instead, the only thing he felt was the need to survive. He had to fight against those zombies inside Niflheim to get stronger while hiding from reincarnation.


    Although he didn''t know how he was reincarnated by the Death Reaper, he believed it was something that the being in the higher dimension arranged.


    Still, Theo would surely pay another visit to the union as he had some unfinished business. But at that time, he would bring a great surprise to all of them.


    But for now�� Theo was smiling as he flew toward Iran, crossing all monsters and environments.


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Theo stood in front of a blue-skinned giant with a smile on his face.


    He raised his hand and smiled. "Yo."

 Chapter ?1520 Question

    Chapter ?1520 Question


    "What are you doing here, Theodore Griffith?" The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes.


    "I''m simply wondering if you''re nning to do something." Theo smirked.


    "Doing something?"


    "Yes. Do you happen to know about the mutated creatures?"


    "Mutated creatures. Are you talking about the mistake that humans created?"


    "��" Theo couldn''t answer that. He only nodded his head for his reply.


    "I''m not nning to do anything. I have investigated the area and know that there''s nothing like that near me. That''s enough." The Frost Saint shook his head calmly. Even Theo knew that no matter how hard he tried to convince him, the Frost Saint wouldn''t budge in his decision.


    "Well��" Theo shrugged.


    "If you only n to talk about that, you should leave this ce at once. I don''t feel like being bothered with insignificant matters since there are a lot of things to adapt to."


    "There is one more thing that I want to ask you." Theo raised his finger as his expression became serious. "I want to know the difference between the Order and the Authority. I know that I have just reached the fifth stage recently, but to be honest, I don''t know where to go."


    The Frost Saint furrowed his eyebrows as if he didn''t like this kind of question. However, the Frost Saint still asked Theo back. "Then, what do you think is the difference between the Order and Authority?"


    Theo fell silent for a moment before guessing. "It''s like a different type of absolute power?"


    The Frost Saint stood up while sighing. "I''m not going to exin the entire thing to you. I treat my people the same, so if you want to learn, I''ll give you a chance to fight against me. But because you''re not one of my people, you only have one chance."


    Theo widened his eyes in shock. Fighting against a World ss Monster when he had yet to reach authority was truly ridiculous.


    However, Theo felt excited because this might be the only chance where he could fight against a World ss Monster without worrying about his death.


    "Interesting." Theo smirked. "Let me put my luggage away for a bit since I don''t want them to be destroyed."


    "You have five minutes. I''m not nning to wait any longer."


    Theo nodded and hurriedly brought his suitcases and the structure away before returning to this ce.


    "I''m ready," said Theo while taking out his weapon.


    "Before we fight, I''m going to ask you this. What did the first creature who received an Order do?"


    "Huh? What do you mean?"


    "When the world didn''t know that Order and Authority existed, what did the first creature do to receive an order? What was he thinking?"


    "He would be clueless and didn''t know what to do. Are you trying to imply that I''m in the same situation? I am clueless on how to progress��" Theo closed his eyes as an image of him walking in a desert shed in his mind. It was a vivid image.


    The heat was scorching his skin, the desert was confusing him as nothing was in sight, and the sand didn''t move due to theck of wind. No matter how hard he walked, he couldn''t find anything.


    "Exactly. But what did that creature do to find the first Order?"


    Theo shook his head. "Sorry, I don''t know."


    "Then, after he found his Order, what did that person do to get Authority? Or did he even manage to upgrade his Order to Authority in his lifetime?"


    "No one knows." Theo shook his head. "At the very least, I never read any information about it."


    "That''s what I want to say. Have you ever thought about it yourself? What will you do when you face this kind of situation? Search by yourself, hoping that you can find something? Or will you go to someone who has achieved it?"


    "I''m doing thetter right now."


    "Then, why don''t you do it by yourself? Find the Authority yourself."


    "That''s what I''m nning to do if I have all the time in the world. Unfortunately, I don''t have much time left. If I can''t gain Authority soon, I might die. That''s why Ie to you, Frost Saint."


    The Ice Giant furrowed his eyebrows and asked onest question. "Then, what did you see, Theodore Griffith?"


    "I saw a desert, a never-ending desert. No matter how hard I walked, I would find nothing. The temperature, the burning smell, or even the creatures underneath the sand hindered me."


    "In that case, I''ll be the sandstorm. I don''t know if you will get it or not, but if you''re lucky, you might find something behind that sandstorm." The Frost Saint raised his club as the temperature dropped and the clothes began to gather on top of him, letting out some snow.


    "If that''s the case, I won''t hold back, Frost Saint. Thank you for your guidance." Theo smirked as he leaped into the air.


    The Frost Saint waved his giant club. A single swing alone caused a powerful wind that surrounded the club. Even Theo might not be able to handle the wind itself, let alone the club.


    Seeing this club, Theo waved his sword and shed it diagonally.


    Suddenly, the club split in half. This was Theo''s illusion and he wanted to make it permanent by applying for the Reality Order.


    The Frost Saint noticed it and instantly froze the club, causing the club''s head that was separated earlier to return back to his club.


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes, muttering inwardly, ''He is freezing my illusion and Reality Order? No, I have seen this, so it''s normal.''


    Even though Theo calmed himself in an instant, he still had to fight against this giant club.


    Knowing that he would only be thrown away if he fought against this club recklessly, Theo used his Metamorphosis and turned into a giant dragon. He grabbed the clubs and stood on the ground.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth, feeling the force from the Frost Saint. The blow was truly heavy, but it wasn''t something he couldn''t stop.


    The moment he blocked the attack, Theo opened his mouth, gathering a huge amount of energy in his mouth to attack the Frost Saint.


    The Frost Saint looked at him and smiled.

 Chapter 1521 Theo vs Frost Saint

    Chapter 1521 Theo vs Frost Saint


    Theo noticed that smile before he suddenly felt the freezing temperature in his throat. The Frost Saint actually froze the Magic Power in his throat, but he didn''t know how he could do that.


    ''I could use the Reality Order on someone, but the other party had the chance to resist by using their own energy as well as Magic Power. But this freezing�� I couldn''t even do anything. No, it was more like I didn''t feel anything.'' Theo thought while looking at the Frost Saint.


    He suddenly remembered that he was still holding the Frost Saint''s club. When he turned that way, the club was releasing a blue-colored Magic Power like the Frost Saint.


    He almost forgot the fact that a weapon could be an artifact if it apanied the owner for long enough.


    After all, the Covenant Seal that the owner had given to the weapon would influence the weapon by its Order, causing the weapon to gradually change to match the owner''s preference.


    Theo had been doing that after his realization during the fight. But he still couldn''t call his weapon an artifact since it wasn''t at the level yet. Though, he had seen multiple examples of that such as Hel''s Death Armor and Osiris'' Crown.


    Since his throat was frozen, Theo retracted his Metamorphosis, turning back into his human form.


    After that, he grabbed his spear and released the energy from within the spear. The spear excluded the Reality Order from within, but its energy couldn''t bepared to the Frost Saint''s club.


    ''How in the world did he do that? I should have felt the energy from the Frost Saint if he tried to freeze me. That''s right. This fight is to let me learn a bit about Authority. What''s the difference between Order and Authority?


    ''Does the Authority have stages like Order? In my Reality Order, there are five stages: Assimtion, Magic Power, Illusion vs Reality, Reality Alter, and Reality Realm. They''re systematic and their power is extraordinary.


    ''Then, if I assume that the Frost Saint had the same stages as me, I should separate the abilities that he used with Order and the one he used with his ability. In that case, let''s start with the first one, the freezing temperature in my throat.


    ''My assumption is that the Frost Saint was using the second stage of Order to influence the Magic Power in my throat because I was about to release a breath. But if that''s the case, how could I not feel anything from his Order?''


    "What''s wrong? You''re done?" The Frost Saint asked while pointing his palm at Theo. He suddenly released a powerful blue-colored light from his palm, freezing everything around it. Crystal droplets caused by the frozen air started falling to the ground.


    Theo could feel the danger from this attack as it was one of the Frost Giant''s abilities. He immediately waved his left hand to use his Twisted Reality so that he could deflect this ice.


    But when he used it to direct the freezing light, the temperature froze his Order again, causing it to change the direction slightly.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. If the Frost Saint nned to harm him, he could simply turn the ice again to hit him, but the Frost Saint remained there without doing anything, waiting for Theo to do something.


    Theo clicked his tongue and analyzed the attack again. ''That attack that can freeze my own Order�� It must be the fourth stage. I can alter reality, but he can freeze everything. It should be something like that. But because his ice is far too strong for my reality, it can even freeze my power, never letting it be activated.''


    Theo took a deep breath and chose to attack this time. He summoned a giant Magic Bullet by gathering all his Magic Power.


    Seeing this power, the Frost Saint tried to freeze it again, but Theo smiled this time.


    The moment the ball was freezing, the ice exploded by the second burst inside the lump of Magic Power. This was Mark''s technique that he learned from him during their visit to Antis.


    The Frost Saint maintained his calm face as he simply covered his body with the club, letting it block the shock wave. After that, the Frost Giant waved his club again from the side.


    Theo hurriedly leaped upward to avoid the club that ended up creating a giant crater on the ground.


    But when the club touched the ground, the crater was covered in a thickyer of ice. The trees, the rocks�� nothing was spared from being frozen.


    "��" Theo nced at it again, wondering what technique he used. After all, his Reality Eyes didn''t pick anything, showing that this ability came from his Authority instead of any skills.


    ''The third stage? He is using that ability to freeze the ground now? No, wait, maybe the attack before this is the third stage instead? Freezing vs everything or something. That''s like my Illusion vs Reality. If that''s the case, what''s about the ability simr to my Reality Alter?''


    Theo was confused. He asked the Frost Saint to show him Authority, but it seemed that his attack was only using his Order.


    "What are you nning to show me, Frost Saint?" Theo asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "The fact that you''re still asking that question means you haven''t got it yet." The Frost Saint smiled and flicked his fingers.


    The ck cloud hovering above their heads began to let out snow as if he was nning to cover this entire field with snow.


    The temperature dropped significantly to the point Theo had to use his own Magic Power to protect himself from the cold.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and used his Reality Order to remove the snow from this area. He even used his Reality Realm to create a small domain that denied the existence of snow and cold, returning the temperature to the previous state.


    Still, to cover this much area, Theo let out quite a huge amount of energy. He wouldn''tst long in this state.


    But the Frost Saint was much worse than he expected because he actually smirked and taunted him. "What''s wrong? The Dark King is more capable than you."

 Chapter 1522 Meaning

    Chapter 1522 Meaning


    "What''s wrong? The Dark King is more capable than you."


    "More capable, huh?" Theo narrowed his eyes. It was a unique choice of words. The Frost Saint said more capable instead of stronger. In other words, the Dark King himself was actually weaker than Theo in terms of raw power, but the Dark King utilized his power far better than him. That was why he chose more capable instead of stronger.


    ''What should I do now? What''s the difference between Order and Authority? He must be using his Authority right now, but what am I missing?'' Theo muttered inwardly while observing the Frost Saint. He kept attacking the Frost Saint to see something hidden behind his power.


    ''Still, why the hell should I know what the first Authority thought? Is it for me to be original? No, the fact that there are numerous people who have be Saint before me means it''s hard to be original anymore. Yet, why do others still manage to be Authority?''


    Theo''s expression became serious. ''There are already many references through history. The Gods have a clear difference in their power. If not for that, each of them would have equal power.


    ''If my assumption is correct, those strong Gods and Goddesses in mythologies are Saints while those lesser Gods and Goddesses are Kings. What differentiates them?


    ''I shouldn''t consider only humans. There are other races or even beasts. There are Mythical Beasts�� Mythical? Is it rted to Mythical Rank and Supreme Rank?


    ''Now that I think about it, there are seven ranks of blessing from F to S. They''re assumed to be divided by their rank, but there is a clear distance between a normal Mythical Rank Expert and one with Order and Authority.


    ''Ah, wait. If I''m not wrong, the Lightning Dragon once told me that the ssifications in ancient times were different. The ssifications are Common, Nobility, Legendary, Saint, Apostle, Lesser Deity, and Supreme God. Instead of Mythical Rank�� it has Supreme God, which symbolizes the Authority��


    ''If that''s the case, I shouldn''t think about the current system. Is that why the Frost Saint asked me to think about what the first person who attained the Order and the Authority thought? Don''t focus on the present, but look at the past.''


    When Theo was in the middle of his thoughts, the Frost Saint released a huge piece of ice above him. "What''s wrong, Theodore Griffith? You have the nerve to think that deep when fighting against me?"


    Theo gritted his teeth and raised his hand. "Shut up. I''m thinking here."


    Suddenly, the ice turned into fire and burned the remaining ice.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint was amused by this power. He felt that his Freezing Power changed a little bit when the fire appeared.


    Theo''s re was intense and the Frost Saint could feel a chill down his spine. This was simr to what Theo had always been giving whenever he felt he coulde up with something.


    The Frost Saint grinned and summoned another block of ice. "I''m not going to stop. Youe to me for guidance, so I''m giving you it now. Who cares about your opinion?"


    Theo looked at the ice block and pointed at his palm again. However, Theo asked a question before releasing his power. "Frost Saint. What is a KING to you?"


    The Frost Saint smirked and pushed the ice block even stronger while stating, "It''s obvious. A King is the supreme being that governs and gives ''Order'' to the people he rules."


    A smile suddenly appeared in Theo''s mind as hemanded with a strict tone. "Then, Imand you, perish."


    The ice block gradually disappeared as if it was following Theo''smand and tried to erase itself. No, Theo was actually erasing the block from his own reality.


    It was simr to his Attribute Removal, but instead of only the attribute, Theo removed the whole thing, whether it was the ice element or the Magic Power itself.


    "It seems that you have thought something." The Frost Saint smirked. "The Dark King and the Shadow King informed me about your talent. I didn''t believe it at first, but now that I have seen it with my own eyes, I can say it''s interesting. Take this, Theodore Griffith."


    The Frost Saint swung his club to crush him. Theo repeated his movement, cutting the club once again.


    As expected, the Frost Saint immediately used his Frost Authority to freeze Theo''s own Order, stopping the splitting process that came from his illusion.


    But before Theo''s power was depleted from the club, Theo stated with a cold tone. "Scram!"


    Suddenly, a powerful shock wave spread from the club as this shock wave carried a powerful freezing wind that ended up freezing the entire area.


    Still, it couldn''t help but shock the Frost Saint because he noticed a small cut on his club. It was insignificant due to the club''s size, and his club had been covered with marks from all sorts of attacks.


    After all, unlike other Saints, he allowed his subordinates to fight against him to progress. That was why the Dark King and other Kings in his territory became strong.


    The Dark King, his most trusted and strongest subordinates, had left more than a thousand sword marks on the club. However, those efforts came from numerous battles they had undergone so far.


    This was the reason why the Frost Saint smiled.


    "Hahaha! Interesting." The Frost Saint smirked. "There are 1670 sword marks left by the Dark King. Do you think you can surpass it?"


    "Shut up, Frost Saint." Theo also smirked. He had numerous thoughts in his mind. Although he couldn''t connect all of them yet, he felt there was something that could connect them.


    And this fight would help him connect them. That was why even Theo became a bit more excited because he might be able to find the secret to Authority in this fight.


    "Even though you are weak, your words are truly nasty."


    "I am not your subordinate after all." Theo pointed at the club and said, "I have decided. In this fight, I''m going to cut that club of yours. Don''t me me if that happens."


    "Try it if you can."

 Chapter ?1523 Law

    Chapter ?1523 Law


    "Try it if you can."


    This was the mark of the second round of their battle.


    Theo flew toward the Frost Saint while calling his Death Avatar. A sword appeared for the Death Avatar to use.


    Before using the Death Avatar to attack, the Death Avatar utilized its fourth authority, Death Descent.


    The Frost Saint widened his eyes while looking at the sudden appearance of threads on his body.


    Just like the Dark King, he tried to use his power to freeze these threads. He could freeze it, but Theo didn''t really mind since he had seen the path to victory.


    When the Frost Saint snapped his finger and covered his club with extraordinary freezing wind, Theo used his Telekinesis to stop the club in the air.


    "Hoh?" The Frost Saint was surprised because he could feel the restriction of Theo''s power. His frost power kept freezing the Telekinesis, but the club didn''t budge for a moment.


    If Theo didn''t have the S Rank Telekinesis, he would seriously be in trouble. In fact, he wouldn''t even be able to fight against the club at all because the weight from the swing and the club was beyond his imagination.


    However, Theo didn''t stop there. He actually raised both hands and used his Telekinesis to the highest degree, trying to lift the Frost Saint himself.


    "What?" The Frost Saint was surprised because he began leaving the ground. Without hesitation, he created a giant ice chain to pull him back to the ground.


    But Theo''s eyes became brightened as his Death Avatar swung the sword, releasing a powerful sword strike that aimed for the Frost Saint''s heart.


    "Do you think this puny strength can harm me?" The Frost Saint roared and froze the sword strike before it reached him.


    "Imand you��"


    "Freeze!"


    Theo was suddenly trapped in a thickyer of ice. Even his Death Avatar was frozen.


    However, Theo didn''t stop there as the ice gradually disappeared. This was the upgraded version of Attribute Removal. He called it Reality Removal. As the name implied, he removed everything from this reality as the sole king that governed this reality.


    He smirked and said, "Your freezing power has weakened, Frost Saint."


    "Hmph. Don''t be too proud. I''m simply holding back. If not, I would have knocked you out like what I did to that human a few years ago!"


    "Then, let''s test it." Theo smirked as another Theo appeared next to him.


    "Your clone, huh. That doesn''t matter!" The Frost Saint began gathering his power in his body, nning to freeze the entire area.


    On the other hand, Theo maintained his Telekinesis to keep the Frost Saint floating in the air while his clone turned into a huge dragon.


    The dragon opened its mouth again and gathered a huge amount of energy in his mouth.


    "It''s no use! I can freeze it again!" The Frost Saint shouted as Clone Theo felt its throat freezing.


    However, Theo smirked and asked, "You said a King is a ruler that governs and gives Order to the people below him�� Then, a Saint should be higher than that, right? What''s above a king?


    "If it''s something from the past, the answer will be an emperor. However, there is no emperor in the current age. Instead, there is something that a king should still obey."


    "And that is?" The Frost Saint asked while smiling.


    "Law!" Theo gave his answer without hesitation. "Even a King can be prosecuted byw in modern society. Even if you tell me to see myself as the first person to attain this power, I can''t and won''t do it because I''m a modern person. Hence, this is my answer. Law!


    "In this reality, I''m the Law. No, I''ll be the one that sets up thew!" Theo pointed his hand to the Dragon Theo and stated. "And in my reality, the ice has to have the form of a fire!"


    "!!!" The Frost Saint suddenly turned to the dragon and realized his ice had turned into a fire in the dragon''s throat. Using that power, the dragon could finally let out its breath. The breath was blue, and there was no heating from it. When the Frost Saint felt it, the breath was extremely chilling.


    If this were any other person, the breath itself would freeze them in an instant. But the Frost Saint only smirked as he said, "This is cool. Are you even trying?"


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, disappointed. But he still felt excited because he could see the future path.


    "I haven''t finished yet," Theo shouted. He had figured out a few things. He didn''t know how much it was relevant to the Authority, but he believed the answer was thew.


    As a King, Theo had been governing everything and protecting the ''Order.''


    The Order itself could mean three things. The Order that was given by the world,manding other people, and the Order that was particrly the system of the government itself. That was why Theo believed that his Authority was Law that controlled how the Order worked.


    And he would be a Saint, a status above a King that was basically above thew itself. This was his definition of a Saint and Authority.


    There might be someone whose thought process was simr to theirs. It wasn''t the Time God since he couldn''t connect his definition of Authority to the Time God. However, he could feel some connection with the Heavenly Sovereign.


    Thew of the universe. For the Heavenly Sovereign, hisw must be rted to the universe that he showed him when they yed chess. Even chess could have a different type ofw, which acted ording to his needs.


    That was why Theo created his ownw of Reality. But as expected, Theo felt a huge emptiness in his heart when defining his Authority.


    Since he associated the Authority with thew of modern society, he had to fill up this emptiness with all kinds ofws, or his Authority wouldn''t bepleted.


    He might have made it moreplicated for himself, but this was fine. He could see the path ahead.


    And this battle would help him tremendously when setting up somews.


    Theo smirked and pointed at the Frost Saint. "I''m sorry, but I won''t lose until that club of yours breaks."


    The Frost Saint smiled, epting his challenge. "I told you earlier. Try it if you can."

 Chapter 1524 Bet

    Chapter 1524 Bet


    Theo took a deep breath before he pped his hands. The Frost Saint was released from the Telekinesis, but the p of Theo''s hands instantly affected the terrain.


    All the ice in the area suddenly disappeared, and all craters and destroyed trees returned to normal.


    "Hmm?" The Frost Saint furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting to see Theo depleting his own energy to return the area to the previous state.


    Meanwhile, the Dragon Theo opened his mouth and released another breath. Because the Frost Saint knew that his ice would turn into a fire again, he didn''t bother to freeze his breath. Instead, he simply summoned a huge ice wall that would freeze everything it touched.


    When the breath hit it, the breath froze instead of destroying the ice wall. This was the difference in strength.


    But the ice wall and the freezing beam turned into fire, causing the momentum from the beam to hit the Frost Saint, albeit it still contained the chill which was the nourishment for the Frost Saint.


    "It seems that you haven''t gotten used to that power yet." The Frost Saint smiled, taunting him.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. Not only it depleted a huge amount of his Magic Power, but it also took a heavy toll on his mind.


    As he expected, he had to finish thews first. Like modern society, he had to create a concretew, and there was no way he could finish it within a day. He might have to lock himself for a year or more this time to set up hisw.


    Still, he had said that he wouldn''t lose before cutting the club, so he nned to make that statement a reality.


    ''What do I have right now? The abilities from my Order are Reality Removal, Alter Ego, and Twisted Reality. Now that I think about it, I don''t have many abilities from my Reality Order.


    ''Although I have three new S Rank Skills, it''s impossible to defeat the Frost Saint with only those skills. Hence��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and remembered the five stages of his Order. "Reality Realm, Ascension Step, and Law��"


    Theo muttered three of his abilities. The Reality Realm, thetest stage of the Reality Order, became the foundation of what he was nning to do.


    The moment his Reality Realm was forged, Theo started stepping in the air, causing an outburst of wind on top of him.


    Even the Frost Saint felt the power contained in that wind. Theo hadn''t even stepped the tenth step, but it had be extremely powerful.


    However, Theo went one step further this time with the use of hisw.


    He set up a new set ofws. Like how the ice had to be in the form of fire, the wind also changed its shape.


    The moment he stepped the tenth step, the wind flew into the sky and turned into a giant boulder.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint widened his eyes in shock as he nned to smash this giant boulder. He even swung it like how a baseball yer hit the ball, sending the ball to Theo.


    But when the club touched the rock, the Frost Saint felt his hand strike a metal instead of a rock. He then realized this was Theo''s power again.


    Not only did he turn the wind into a giant boulder, but he also changed the concept of rock into that of metal.


    The Frost Saint even heard the cracking sound on his bat, showing how his bat couldn''t confront this metal rock. "Is this even possible? What kind of Order do you have?"


    Theo smirked. "Guess."


    The Frost Saint clicked his tongue and stomped the ground before realizing why Theo restored the area to its previous state.


    When he stomped the ground, the trees felt like they became metal as well. With the difference in size between the Frost Saint and the trees, the Frost Saint felt like he had stepped on nails.


    "Kh." The Frost Saint gritted his teeth as he managed to freeze the stabbed area in an instant, preventing it from prating his skin. Still, this power was beyond his imagination because Theo had changed thew of this world itself.


    Judging from the area Theo recovered earlier, it seemed his domain was a quarter mile in radius. At the same time, maintaining this ability would also drain his ability. So, Theou couldn''t fight for too long.


    "Interesting." The Frost Saint smirked. "If that''s the case, I''m going to use more power against you! I have been using a third of my power, so I''m going to use two-thirds this time, which is equal to a newly promoted Saint. You haven''t reached that point, but your strength is simr to that, probably because of your unique Order.


    "Let''s make a bet, Theodore Griffith. If you managed to destroy this bat of mine before losing to me, I''m going to cooperate with you against those Mutated Monsters. However, if you can''t do it, you have to leave me alone and won''t ask me for another cooperation for the rest of your life. Do you dare to bet?"


    Theo smirked and said, "Fine by me. I ept."


    "Then." The Frost Saint instantly increased his power output. In an instant, the temperature dropped again as he enveloped the area in another thickyer of ice.


    Theo didn''t restore the area to the previous state, he simply used his ability to create an illusion of the original area. And now, the Frost Saint ovepped it again with his ice. But this time, all the trees had a bigger surface area due to the ice, so when he stepped on the trees, it wouldn''t feel like stepping on nails.


    After that, the Frost Saint waved his hand down as a giant snowke fell down from the sky.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because he could feel an extraordinary power from this snowke crystal. He tried to remove it, but after a tenth of the crystal disappeared, his power was frozen.


    This attack was nothing like what the Frost Saint had shown this whole time.


    Theo smiled, feeling challenged. "Interesting."


    The battle between Theo and the Frost Saint had entered the third round.

 Chapter 1525 Replica

    Chapter 1525 Replica


    "Interesting." Looking at the snowke that he couldn''t erase, Theo smirked, knowing that the Frost Saint was going for real. He took a deep breath and raised his hand.


    Just like before, he turned the ice into a fire, starting from the bottom. However, its effect was simr to Theo''s Reality Removal. After two-tenth of the area changed into fire, the ice started freezing the me again, neutralizing Theo''s power.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, thinking, ''Its speed is slow, but if I see the power behind it correctly, I might lose if I let it drop to the ground. If this is a real fight instead of training, the Frost Saint will attack me together with this snowke. I guess I can focus on this snowke.''


    Theo raised both hands while Dragon Theo stood in front of the Frost Saint, making sure he didn''t do anything while he stopped the snowke.


    Suddenly, a lightning strike flew forth Theo''s palm and struck the snowke. Thetter instantly tried to freeze it, but the lightning strike itself contained tremendous heat to the point Theo even changed the attribute from lightning to fire to boost the heat.


    The intense heat melted the snowke while thetter also tried to freeze the lightning. Their exchange caused smoke spreading in the area.


    But Theo actually used this smoke to his advantage again by turning the fog into a zing smoke, causing all the heat to gather in one area and melting the snowke.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. His brain felt like melting because he had to change everything that way. With the help of Reality Order, he could create another element. He had been doing it before he used the mask to hide his identity.


    But now that he had mastered his Reality Order, he turned the property of the element itself, fighting this extreme coldness with intense heat.


    At the same time, he also had to keep the Frost Saint in check so that he didn''t attack him during this time. After all, Theo wouldn''t be able to stop both the Frost Saint and the snowke simultaneously.


    As expected, the Frost Saint didn''t seem to be nning to just let Theo do whatever he wanted. He started marching forward with his club.


    Dragon Theo flew toward the Frost Saint, letting out a powerful beam from its mouth.


    The Frost Saint simply blocked the attack with his club as the explosion froze in an instant.


    The Frost Saint then raised his club to smash Dragon Theo''s head, but the dragon suddenly turned into a white snake and started wrapping the Frost Saint''s body, trying to bind him.


    Snake Theo even opened its mouth again, gathering the Magic Power in the throat. But this time, he hesitated for a moment, realizing that there were elements that he hadn''t learned.


    Because he could easily repel poison with his Death Avatar, he realized that he had never learned anything about poison.


    He had understood all kinds of elements like fire to wind, but he never learned anything about the curse, poison, or something simr. This was the first time Theo realized he hadn''t learned enough.


    "What''s wrong?" The Frost Saint also noticed it and immediately grabbed the snake''s head and tried to throw it away.


    Theo tried his best to hold on, but if he continued this way, his head would be severed, so he had to let it go and get thrown away by the Frost Saint.


    "Tsk." Snake Theo red at the Frost Saint and hurriedly returned to his position, stopping the Frost Saint.


    "It seems that there are things that you can''t replicate." The Frost Saint smirked, noticing the reason behind the failed attack.


    "I have realized that I haven''t learned enough." Snake Theo kept ring at the Frost Saint. Each temple had four jobs, and he thought he had learned everything.


    In the Vanguard Temple, Theo believed he could be Knight, Fighter, Magic Warrior, and Ranger simultaneously. The same applied to the Magician Temple since he could be a Magician with his Magic Bullet, a Healer with his illusion, an Enchanter with his skill sets, and a summoner with his clone and Metamorphosis.


    However, the assassin temple was something that Theo hadn''t fully covered.


    He could act like a scout and an assassin while he himself focused on being an illusionist. But he forgot there was one banned job in the assassin temple: The Dark Magician. This job was rted to poison, curses, and all kinds of ominous power that could kill someone from the inside.


    Theo tried to recreate the poison earlier, but he didn''t know how to create it because of his limited knowledge. Even if he wanted to use a curse, he couldn''t form it.


    Seeing the situation was much worse than he expected, Theo decided to y it even bigger to hide his own weakness.


    "If that''s the case, then I''ll fight you with this." Snake Theo released his Magic Power and enveloped the Frost Saint with it.


    Suddenly, everything felt like standing still. There was no movement either from the Frost Saint to the trees. They couldn''t even feel the wind blowing.


    Snake Theo narrowed his eyes as if he was exerting a huge amount of power to use this ability.


    "This is..." The Frost Saint widened his eyes in shock. "I can''t move. Are you replicating the ability of time?"


    The answer from Theo was just a smirk.


    The Frost Saint never expected that Theo could even manipte time. He didn''t realize Theo was simply using the illusion to recreate the time.


    He first made an illusion realm that made everything stand still. After that, he used Telekinesis to stop the Frost Saint''s movement. Hebined these two to cause aw of time.


    Snake Theo turned back into the dragon form and punched forward. "I won''t stop just from this."


    As soon as Theo punched forward, a huge ck gate appeared in front of the fist, swallowing it. At the same time, another ck gate appeared as the fist came out of it and hit Frost Saint''s head.


    "Gah!"

 Chapter ?1526 All Out

    Chapter ?1526 All Out


    "Gah!" The Frost Saint gritted his teeth and released an extreme cold from his body, freezing the frozen time itself. Soon, the air around him began to turn into ice as the Frost Saint gradually moved his body.


    After that, he turned around and hit the w that hit his head earlier.


    He didn''t realize that Theo just replicated the space element too. He simply used an illusion to create a gate and made the Frost Saint believe his fist went through it. However, the reality was different. Theo simply punched forward and stood still because nothing happened.


    As for the fist that hit Frost Saint''s head, it was also an illusion. Due to Theo''s Reality Power, Theo managed to make it look like the real dragon''s fist.


    Theo took a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed by his own power. It was true that this power was amazing, but Theo''s energy had been depleting like crazy.


    But in the midst of this battle, Theo couldn''t help but recall the battle between him and Loki. World Re-creation, he wouldn''t ever forget this skill because Loki managed to recreate everything in that illusion.


    He realized that there was a reason why Theo had Hel''s Death Avatar and Loki''s World Re-creation.


    The Death Avatar allowed Theo to simte all kinds of attacks. It was indeed torture for him, but if Theo could understand the effect of each element or attack that harmed his body, he could replicate that feeling through his illusion.


    Then, he could apply his illusion to create elements, causing them to believe the attacks they created were their attacks.


    "This is insane. The more I fight you, the more I learn." Theo smirked.


    "Isn''t that great?" The Frost Saint smiled before he noticed something. He had lost his control over the snowke. Soon, Theo regrouped with his clone to fight against the Frost Saint. "Interesting. What are you going to show me next?"


    Theo took a deep breath as the clone turned back to human form.


    Both of them seemed to have the same mind as they pped their hands at the same time. "Try this, Frost Saint."


    "Mhm?" The Frost Saint raised his head and saw another boulder falling on top of him.


    Since this was the most effective so far, Theo must want to use this opportunity to injure him.


    The Frost Saint smirked and covered his club with ice. "I have seen this attack once, so it won''t work anymore."


    The moment the Frost Saint hit the boulder, the ice around his club spread to the boulder, coating it with his power.


    However, the ice soon turned into a fire as the boulder continued on its path.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint was surprised that Theo managed to fight against his ice. Even though this wasn''t his full strength, his power was still equal to a newly promoted Saint. Meanwhile, Theo was only a king. Even though there were two Theos, it wasn''t stillparable to a single saint.


    This was what stunned him the most. It seemed that two Theos were enough to rival that of a newly promoted Saint.


    Even so, he didn''t give up as the veins began to bulge all over his body. The Frost Saint roared while swinging his club as hard as he could. "Haaaaa!"


    Both Theos gritted their teeth while maintaining their power.


    The Frost Saint maintained his strength, but he also heard a cracking noise on his club as if the boulder was tearing his club apart.


    "No, you''re still not that strong!" The Frost Saint roared as he made aplete swing,unching the boulder to Theos.


    Both Theo and his clone used the Blink Skill to avoid it before they regrouped in the previous position and continued their attacks.


    At that moment, the trees began to grow from the ground as Theo controlled the nts now with the help of the knowledge that Jeff gave him when he was creating his home.


    Even the Frost Saint felt the pointed tips of the trees, causing him to startle. Without hesitation, he covered everything with his ice again.


    However, the ice began to break this time. It seemed that Theo had changed hisw. Instead of fire, Theo turned the ice into wind, a chilling wind that could freeze one''s bones if it brushed their skin.


    The Frost Saint also noticed this. Since his feet were hurting, he raised the cold wind upward with a single swing of his bat, causing the shock wave that knocked the cold wind up.


    *Crack!*


    The rock and the soil had been turned into metal, so the club cracked again. Even so, the cold wind was now trying to kill Theo and his clone.


    Not wanting to end the fight this soon, Theo and Clone Theo returned the ice to its original shape. Now that the ice had be solid again, they utilized their Reality Removal to create small holes in the ice, allowing them to pass through the ice.


    "Hoh?" The Frost Saint smiled, impressed by Theo''s power. This was the first time he felt overwhelmed against a single King. Even the Dark King never gave this much excitement in a single fight. "Interesting. In that case, let''s taste your strength a bit further."


    The Frost Saint summoned the snowke again. But this time, he also nned to attack together with the snowkes so that Theo couldn''t destroy them so easily.


    Seeing his movement, Clone Theo actually jumped up and applied his Telekinesis on the snowke.


    "!!!" The Frost Saint felt that his snowke was fighting against something. It tried to freeze this power but to no avail.


    "As long as I can stop the snowke from falling down, it''s enough." Theo smiled and flew forward.


    Theo gathered his energy into his foot with Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity. After that, Theo used his Alter Ego to increase his strength to kick the Frost Saint.


    The Frost Saint felt the overwhelming strength from Theo, so he instantly raised the club with both hands, stopping the kick with his weapon.


    *Bam!*


    A powerful shock wave shook the area upon impact as Theo roared, desperately trying to destroy the club. "Haaaa!"


    The Goddess of Victory seemed to be blessing Theo with her presence as the first sign of victory appeared in the form of noise.


    *Crack!*

 Chapter 1527 End of the Battle

    Chapter 1527 End of the Battle


    *Crack!*


    "What?" The Frost Saint widened his eyes in shock. On the one hand, this kind of overwhelming strength made it look like the crack was normal. After all, the Frost Saint was forced to take two steps back from this attack alone. On the other hand, he was too shocked because Theo had this otherworldly strength.


    "Impossible. Did you interrupt the way of the world?" The Frost Saint looked at Theo.


    "No. I simply borrow the power of myself." Theo smirked. "But not from this world."


    "!!!" The Frost Saint suddenly noticed something. Since the clone had the same ability as the owner, he realized it would be bad if he actually did the same thing.


    And it seemed that Theo was nning exactly like what the Frost Saint feared.


    Clone Theo leaped forward, abandoning the snowke in the sky for the sake of this one attack.


    "If one is not enough, then I just need two." Theo smirked as Clone Theo flew next to him and kicked the club with the Alter Ego. "Haaa!"


    *Bam!*


    This time, the crack expanded and caused a huge crater on the surface of the club. This might be the biggest damage that the club had suffered. Yet, the attack didn''t stop there.


    The crack began to expand again toward the other end of the club. If this continued, Theo might be able to destroy the club.


    Obviously, the Frost Saint didn''t want to allow that to happen since he didn''t want to fight the mutated monsters. Still, the Frost Saint was a fair man. He had promised to use two thirds of his strength, so even in this kind of situation, he only used that strength. However, he truly pushed that strength to the limit.


    "Haaa!" The Frost Saint let out a huge roar as the chilling wind started spinning around his club.


    "Not good!" Clone Theo gritted his teeth.


    "No, it''s not over!" Theo shouted as he controlled his body and the clone to do the same thing. They gathered the rest of their energy to their fists with the help of the Enhanced Concentration Capacity and Energy st Skills. But this time, they added one more thing to the mix.


    Thunderp Fist.


    A powerful shock wave urred, but the thunderp didn''t ur in the fist itself but on Theo''s elbow, boosting the fist''s momentum to match Theo''s extraordinary strength.


    *Bam!*


    The shock wave also struck the spinning chilling wind, causing a huge explosion. The chilling white smoke expanded for a moment before the Frost Saint realized something.


    "Not good!" The Frost Saint waved his hand, sweeping the smoke so that Theo didn''t die. Theo had truly used all his strength during that attack, so if he was frozen this time, he would be in danger.


    When the white smoke dispersed, Theo''s appearance was revealed. His face was pale, and his skin was covered in frostbite. If he wasn''t this strong, he would have died from that attack.


    Theo panted while staring at the Frost Saint. His body was weak, and he could fall down at any moment. Yet, he never forgot his goal. "It seems I have won."


    "!!!" The Frost Saint widened his eyes because the club was still clinging with a thinyer of wood, swinging left and right. Eventually, it couldn''t withstand the weight of the club anymore and broke apart, causing the other part of the club to fall to the ground.


    "Ye��" Before the Frost Saint could say anything, the sky began to crumble as the real world suddenly made its appearance.


    "!!!" It turned out the entire thing was an illusion. They had that kind of fight inside the illusion because when the illusion crumbled, he could see two Theos still floating in their original ce. Their faces were pale and blood had already flowed out of their eyes, nose, and mouth.


    "Tsk." Theo panted as his clone disappeared. He gritted his teeth and said, "I just needed a bit more time��"


    The Frost Saint realized that if he actually acknowledged Theo won before the illusion crumbled, it meant he had to fulfill his promise to Theo. But because the illusion had crumbled, he realized that Theo didn''t actually manage to destroy his club.


    When he checked his club, he still found a huge crater on his club, showing that the illusion had been affecting reality itself.


    "You�� How did you even replicate my power?" The Frost Saint gasped in shock. That couldn''t be said as an illusion anymore.


    Theo bit his lips because he was disappointed in himself. Before he used this strategy, he remembered Loki''s World Re-creation and discovered the real trick to creating a world like Loki. The key was in Hel''s Death Avatar and Loki''s illusion. That was why he could recreate the battle to this extent.


    But Theo wasn''t at the level of Loki yet. The proof was clear since he couldn''t even break the club.


    However, this was the first attempt Theo tried to surpass Loki himself. After all, he applied his Reality Order in this power. If it was Loki, he had to move toward the club and destroy it himself. But Theo could use the illusion and turn it into reality since his Order could affect the reality itself.


    Unfortunately, Theo fell short since he had be too weak to maintain the illusion a bit longer.


    "I won in the illusion, but I lost in reality�� I guess this is a perfect example of I won the battle but lost the war." Theo let out a long sigh, disappointed in the result.


    The Frost Saint''s voice suddenly echoed in his ears. "If that''s the case, it''s one win and one lose. We can call it a draw for now.


    "Hence, as promised I won''t go there to fight the mutated monsters. However, I''ll send five Kings under me to help you to fight against the mutated monsters. In exchange, you have to make sure none of them die during that battle. What do you think, Theodore Griffith?"


    Theo was surprised by this statement and blinked his eyes a few times.


    "I recognize your ability because you are the only one who can push me this much with a strength of that level." The Frost Saint extended his fist as if asking for a fist bump.


    Theo understood the hidden meaning of this action. He was overwhelmed by the favor that he smiled while bumping his fist. "Yes. I promise you."


    The two fists bumped as a snowke symbol appeared on Theo''s hand and a golden circle appeared on the back of Frost Saint''s hand. The sign of friendship between the Frost Saint and the Reality King.

 Chapter 1528 Friendship

    Chapter 1528 Friendship


    Theo and the Frost Saint smiled at each other. There was a strange friendship that was formed over the fight.


    However, the Frost Saint that Theo had be significantly weaker due to excessive usage of his power, the power that he had just learned. Even Theo would have a hard time using that power, so the heavy toll on his body caused the blood toe out of his eyes, nose, and mouth.


    Hence, the Frost Saint said, "Why don''t you rest for a bit?"


    "Indeed. I might need to trouble you for a day to recover." Theo chuckled.


    "Haha, it''s fine, it''s fine." The Frost Saint didn''t mind having Theo over since he had a few things to talk about.


    Theo then dropped to the ground with a satisfied smile. He was truly happy with the realization he had during the fight.


    "Authority, huh��" Theo raised his hand as if trying to grasp the sky.


    "Still, you''re talking aboutws. Do you think you can finish it easily?"


    "I''m not sure. Thews are moreplex than you think. Thews are created for generations, and after one generation, they often don''t work anymore. So, it''s truly a challenge to finish thisw."


    "Then, are you nning to find another way to get the Authority?"


    "No way. I''m going to set up myw. I''llpress the time just by making a generalw. But even with that, I might need a year or so to make sure it''s not wed."


    "I see. I don''t have any piece of advice for you."


    "I know. I can kinda understand now why you can''t tell me anything about Authority. Authority is different than Order." Theo closed his eyes with a smile, recalling the talk with the Lightning Saint. "The Lightning Saint once told me that if you want to get an Authority, you have to defeat all Kings with the same Order.


    "I didn''t think much back then, but now that I have crossed my path with you, I can understand it. There is only a single Authority and zero Order. In other words, I shall be the sole owner of that Authority because I''m above thew. If there is someone who sets up a differentw, it will cause a huge w in the Order, causing the disruption.


    "However, the Lightning Saint took a disciple a few years ago. So, I realized that the Lightning Order that she had was based on the Lightning Saint''s Authority. As long as the Lightning Saint is still alive, no one will be able to influence the ws'' he has set up. This is the reason why I should search for my own path to Authority. The originality."


    "Yes. Even if it''s different, you should be the one to understand it. For example, if I tell you all this information before you reach this conclusion, my words will influence you, disrupting your originality. You don''t want your w'' to be affected by the ''Frost Law,'' right?"


    "Yeah, you''re right. Thank you, Frost Saint. Without your help, I won''t be able to realize all this." Theo smiled.


    "Haha, I guess we can call it even."


    Theo remembered that the Frost Saint once owed him for helping him to fix the space distortion caused by the half-broken structure that maintained the two sides.


    Now that the debt had been repaid, their rtionship had returned to zero, allowing them to form a purer friendship.


    Even Theo had a big smile on his face. "You''re right!"


    Theo thought for a moment and asked, "Since we''re a neighbor now, do you have anything you want to say to me?"


    The Frost Saint hesitated for a moment. He never expected Theo to be this direct, but he was also thankful since he didn''t have to hold back.


    His expression turned serious as his tone became more polite. "I do have something I want to say. If possible, I do wish that you could leave my territory alone. I mean, don''t bother fighting against my subjects."


    "Aside from me, no humans can level up anymore. And I won''t be leveling up in your territory, so you don''t have to worry about it." Theo shook his head, assuring him.


    "I see. That''s great then."


    "Though, I want to ask you. Do you mind if we can continue the friendly rtionship between the two territories? Just like you, I''m also nning to make them get stronger. I even have two Kings in my ce, and there might be more in the future. We can have them exchange their knowledge with each other."


    "Are you sure? I''m more worried about the fact that your people can''t live with us."


    "I''m sure they can."


    "I don''t mind if that''s the case. In fact, this might be a good opportunity. Humans and creatures like us have different views, so it might give birth to a unique strength�� like our fight earlier."


    "Indeed. Though, I''m more worried about the future."


    "The future?"


    "Yeah. When my time and your time have ended�� What will happen after that?"


    "You''re talking a bit far too long. Even with my body, I should be able to live for at least another few hundred years."


    "That''s true. I don''t know about my lifespan either since I''m nning to reach an even higher stage." Theo smirked. "Either way, I hope that we can have a good rtionship from now on."


    "Agreed."


    Theo and the Frost Saint continued talking for another few hours, discussing many things.


    After their business had finished, Theo then started focusing on his recovery, especially his Order Energy and Magic Power.


    It took him a whole day before he recovered to full health.


    Theo stood in front of the Frost Saint, who insisted on seeing him off.


    Theo waved his hand with a smile on his face. "Then, I''ll be off."


    "Yeah. Take care, Theodore Griffith, no, Theo." The Frost Saint corrected himself, calling Theo by his nickname instead of his full name.


    Theo nodded with a smile as he gradually walked away. "You too, Lastius."

 Chapter ?1529 Return

    Chapter ?1529 Return


    A few dayster.


    Theo had finally returned to his home, only to be shocked by the current appearance. Because this was their new ce, he obviously had arranged the same thing as their previousnd.


    And since they had practiced using the Reality Realm to create something because of Coline, they actually transformed this piece ofnd to their liking.


    Thend was a quarter mile in radius, so it was quite big for everyone to live.


    However, they seemed to have decided to bring their house close together in the center of the region. Theo could see a few houses grouping up there.


    To their right, there was farnd made by Jeff. With the help of Magic Power, they could easily take care of the farnd, especially since Jeff was the master of illusion. He could simply use his illusion to create farming tools and use his Magic Power to farm. Since he had used more than two months on this trip, the wheat had grown so much. Sooner orter, this ce would be a ce that could self-sustain for a long time.


    Next to the farnd, Theo could see multiple trees as well. He assumed that those trees were fruit trees, which would be good as a source of vitamins in the future.


    In the opposite direction, an industrial tower with a few huge antennas on top of it. He believed it was the tower that Akbar created for theirmunicationwork.


    Still, there was one thing missing from this ce. It was the wall that kept everyone away since they didn''t want others to disturb them.


    So, Theo had to take care of this job personally. With that thought in mind, Theo finally returned to his home.


    As expected of the Mythical Rank Experts, they instantly recognized a strong presence like Theo.


    Felix and Walker were the first to react as they immediately stood in front of him to stop him from trespassing. However, they instantly dropped their weapons when they realized who had juste back.


    "Theo?!"


    Theo smiled and waved his hand. "I''m back."


    In that instant, Walker took out a walkie-talkie and said, "Our leader is back."


    His voice suddenly echoed from a big speaker ced on top of the tower, informing everyone.


    "!!!" The man they had been waiting for had finallye back. Rea dropped her Skylink and leaped out of the window.


    Coline''s eyes shed as she hurriedly grabbed a chicken that had turned into a beast by the Magic Power for the celebration.


    The entire area became lively as everyone was dying to see Theo since this would be the most important time since Theo would bring something good for them.


    Theo couldn''t help but chuckle, seeing their enthusiasm.


    "Theo. You''re back!"


    "You''re back!"


    "Hey, he''s back!"


    Theo waved his hand, dropped the structure he brought back, and said, "I''m d that everyone is safe."


    "Come on. Don''t stop him. He must be tired, so let''s go back first and rx before we talk about anything." Rea was the first one to control the crowd.


    The rest realized what they had done and felt embarrassed. Theo only chuckled and said, "Haha, sure. By the way, where is my house?"


    "There." Rea pointed at a small building in the center of their housing area.


    "Aren''t you bullying my house too much?" Theo chuckled because his house looked like an ant surrounded by multiple humans.


    Theyughed since they had tried to make themselvesfortable while leaving Theo''s house untouched.


    Theo started walking and said, "In that case, we should have a meeting hall that is separated from the living area."


    "Oh? That''s a good idea. Where are you going to ce it?" Rea asked.


    Theo nced at her with a smile but didn''t answer that question. He simply walked forward, confusing everyone.


    However, a stair suddenly appeared in front of Theo. The moment he stepped on that stair, another stair appeared.


    The process continued, allowing Theo to climb up infinitely.


    The people widened their eyes because this was the first time Theo had done it so smoothly like this. In fact, it felt like Theo was adjusting his illusion to match his step.


    This was what Theo had learned in the fight against the Frost Saint. The World Re-Creation was creating an illusion depending on the target''s action, so he could now produce an illusion like this more smoothly.


    But in everyone''s eyes, it looked magical as this might be the first flying building they would have.


    There were a total of 150 white stairs, making its height to be the same as a five-story building.


    Before Theo reached the top, a huge tform appeared as a hall was created. The hall was made of wood to make it morefortable, but the exterior was made of concrete so that it looked more modern.


    The railings began to be created, and five big chains appeared at the bottom of the tform, connecting the tform and the ground as if it was trying to stop the tform from flying away.


    In front of the hall was a grand wooden gate coupled with a white concrete wall. However, there was something different with this gate.


    On top of the gate, there was a blue fire, a lightning bolt, and a light ball. If this was a normal element, they wouldn''t be as surprised. But the blue fire gave an extreme chill to their skin, the lightning bolt gave a warm heat which was in contrast to the blue fire. Last but not least, the light ball actually spread ck light.


    The people were in shock because this was the first time they had experienced such a thing.


    "A fire that behaves like ice?"


    "A lightning bolt that acts like a campfire?"


    "And a light bulb that darkens the area?"


    They were shocked because what they felt waspletely different than what they were supposed to see. However, their senses kept telling them that these three elements were real instead of an illusion.


    All of them had the same thought in their mind.


    "How much stronger has he be?"

 Chapter 1530 Report

    Chapter 1530 Report


    Theo and the others sat down on the soft wood floor. For Rea, this was like the tatami mat that she was used to. However, Jeff felt this softness to be familiar. This was his nt element, which gave afortable feeling when sitting on it.


    Theo smiled and raised one finger. "Alright. Let''s do it this way. You report to me about the progress and ask me a question to answer. Starting from Rea, I guess."


    Rea nodded and opened her mouth. "I''ll give you a brief summary. In the past few months, we have created a working system for a self-sustaining environment. The farnd can work as our food supply and the food for the livestock. The fruit trees will give us the vitamin as well. What we''recking right now is fish because our area is covered in desert.


    "As for the rest, everything is settled down, and we can even begin a small expansion. The details will be left to those who focus on them. That''s all."


    "Good enough. We''ll talk about the next course of our nter. For now, you can ask me anything you want."


    "I want to know the situation in Japan." Rea didn''t hesitate to talk about this since his family was important.


    "Your Father has joined hands with Feng Hao and Tirta Kurniawan. They''re changing their name from Japan to United Asia after taking all refugees from all around Asia. Although there is a problem in Fukushima, they should be able to deal with it. And my assumption is they''ll begin their expansion sooner than the rest. Also, Agata, Ergene, and Ryo have managed to reach there, and they''re safe at the moment."


    "That''s great." Rea let out a sigh of relief.


    "Then, Isaac!"


    Isaac nodded. "We have made some progress in research. Due to the effect of the Magic Power influx, everyone has started to mutate, for better or worse. For example, normal animals have now be a beast evolved by Magic Power. I call them Magical Beast for now.


    "The nts are also like that, but they don''t evolve into aggressive living beings. Also, if we grow crops and vegetables, they''re bing extremely nutritious. You can say that we can eat half what we used to and still get more vitamins than our body needs. So, we have to take care of our dietter.


    "Last but not least, the humans. I''m afraid that humans have evolved as well, but because the thin Magic Power has evolved humans too much previously�� There''s also the power system�� So, I don''t think humans can evolve during our generation. I have told you about this hypothesis, but my assumption is humans will only start to grow differently in the next generation."


    "Understandable. So, your question?"


    "Can I research the structure? I have seen the structure letting out a barrier that repels anything other than human beings. I haven''t touched it because I''m afraid that I might break it."


    "Of course, you can if you don''t mind the half-broken structure. I have brought back a perfect one anyway."


    "Yes! Also, Levina has be my assistant, and I have decided to take care of her."


    "Alright. I''ll leave her to you. Also, her father and the rest of the Czar have gone to the War God Family, so they won''t be harmed in any way."


    "I''ll ry the message to her."


    Since this meeting only consisted of the core members of their group, Levina couldn''t participate. Isaac could only bring back this joyous news to her.


    "Then, let''s move on to�� Jeff."


    "Understood. I think Rea has told you most of them, so I''ll just fill in a few details. We have started the four-field rotations here. The irrigation system ispleted by using the water from the Dez River. The river is not that far away anyway, so it''s not that hard to build. We should be able to enjoy our first harvest season in two months."


    "Alright. I''m d I entrusted this matter to you, Jeff."


    "Thank you." Jeff politely nodded his head. "Then, my question is simple. Do you n to go back to live in Italy?"


    "I''m not sure. Depending on the situation, I might leave Italy and head to Maya since I don''t like the union that much." Theo shook his head. "Of course, this is not an absolute decision. I have to see the progress first."


    "I see."


    "Let''s move on to Akbar then. What do you have for me, Akbar?"


    "Themunication has been set up, but it''s radio instead of satellite. Unfortunately, the Electromaic spectrum of the radio seems to be able to be picked by monsters. So, we can''t really use them too much. As expected, we have to rely on satellites if we don''t want to mess around too much. Basically, living here is like living in the countryside. You just enjoy your slow life and watch the farnd."


    "That''s kinda a problem since I know that not everyone likes living that way. For now, I''d like to ask all of you to bear with my selfishness. In the near future, I''ll certainly give you the opportunity to choose your way of living." Theo politely lowered his head, requesting all of them.


    "Please raise your head, Theo. You are our leader, and we have agreed to follow you. So, we''re going to follow all your orders." Rea smiled, assuring Theo. "We''re thankful enough to have a leader like you."


    Theo smiled. "Mhm."


    "Then, may I ask a question?" Akbar raised his hand since it became awkward.


    "Y-yes, of course. Ask everything."


    "I just want to know�� Have you paid back everything they''ve owed you?" Akbar grinned, excluding a bit of killing intent. His meaning was clear. Since Theo had gone to the union, he must have done something. He just wanted to know what Theo did there.


    "Of course. I think it''s the farthest thing I can do right now because there''s another threat in the east. But I will surely pay them back in full. I''m going to send you all the news I have saved in my Skylink after this meeting."


    "Hahaha. Serve them right!" Akbarughed crazily before realizing he was still in the meeting and immediately stopped and covered his mouth. "Oops. I''m sorry. I should be more elegant. Kuku��"

 Chapter 1531 Upgrading Skill

    Chapter 1531 Upgrading Skill


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "Alright. Let''s move on. Who should I ask again�� Felix and Walker are in charge of the defense, right?"


    "Yes." Felix and Walker nodded without hesitation.


    "Tell me about our defense. By the way, who is scouting the area?"


    "No one." Both of them shook their heads in unison.


    "I see. Then, tell me about our defense."


    "The defense is tight. There are a few people that are trying to rob us, but we have fended off all of them and made sure that no one will disturb us." Felix exined.


    "We''ve got some information from them as well. It seems that there are multiple small bases around us. If it continues this way, they''re going to be exterminated soon due to the extreme condition they''re facing right now," added Walker.


    "Extreme conditions?"


    "They can use monsters as food, but the problem is the hierarchy as well as the vitamins. The people are trying to get some resources, so they''re probably going to devour each other soon, creating a bigger base."


    "As expected, it''s going to be ''the strong will survive'' situation." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "In that case, Felix will be in charge of scouting. I want you to locate all the bases and get me their information. Akbar will be helping you in the information gathering."


    "Understood." Felix and Akbar agreed without hesitation.


    Meanwhile, Theo turned to Walker. "As for you�� you''re going to be the one patrolling our area, repelling anyone that wille close to this ce. Well, I have begun creating the mist to hide this ce, but I just want to make sure."


    "OK."


    "Alright. I''ll ask questions to both of you first." Theo paused for a moment. "What is the A Rank Skill you think is the most necessary for your development?"


    "Huh?" Everyone was confused because this kind of question waspletely out of the norm. It was clear that everyone had lost their power system, so they didn''t care much about their skills anymore. They could still use it, but that was all.


    "Just answer my question." Theo sighed. "I can see that Walker seems to have two useful A Rank Skills: Sealing Chain and Unending Chain. Which one is better for you? Felix has three useful A Rank Skills: Blinding Light, Extreme sh, and Sword of Light. The question is the same."


    "!!!" Walker and Felix widened their eyes. No one should be able to see their Skills since the only person who could ess their system was themselves. Hence, it was surprising that Theo could see through them that easily.


    "What are you talking about, Theo?" Rea asked, confused.


    However, Theo maintained his poker face and kept staring at those two, demanding the answer.


    Walker decided to be the first one to answer. "I like the Sealing Chain skill."


    "Alright." Theo took out Skill Cards from the suitcases he brought back with him and used his Telekinesis to ce them in front of Walker. He then sacrificed all these Skill Cards to upgrade this skill.


    Everyone was confused because they couldn''t understand what had happened. Even Walker didn''t feel anything. He furrowed his eyebrows, asking, "What are you doing?"


    "Try using that ability." Theo smiled.


    Walker tilted his head but still followed Theo''smand. He made some distance from the others and raised his left hand. "Sealing Chain."


    He purposely said the skill name to show that he was using the skill. Suddenly, the chains came out, not from his hands but from his back. The number was twenty.


    "This is��" Walker dropped his jaw to the ground.


    Everyone obviously didn''t know this skill, so they were confused about why Walker looked so shocked.


    "What�� What have you done to my skill?" Walker asked with a dumbfounded expression. This was the first time he saw something this magical.


    "Did you do something?" Rea couldn''t contain her curiosity, so she decided to ask.


    Theo simply shrugged and asked Walker. "So, what''s the difference in your skill?"


    "It''s far stronger, the number itself is beyond my imagination. And I feel like these chains aren''t restricted by people as well."


    "That''s your skill Sealing Chain, but that''s not an A Rank Skill anymore. Instead, it''s an S Rank Skill."


    "What?!" The statement dumbstruck everyone because it meant Theo had the ability to upgrade other people''s skills.


    Theo maintained his poker face and said, "Why don''t you try to capture someone? You''ll find a difference."


    Walker gulped down while Isaac volunteered. As a researcher, Isaac wanted to get involved as much as he could in this weird phenomenon after all.


    When Walker captured Isaac with the chains, Theo said, "Try to use your Magic Power, Isaac."


    "Eh?" Isaac blinked his eyes a few times. He tried to revolve his Magic Power but to no avail. "Can your skill seal someone''s Magic Power?"


    "No. My Sealing Chain can stop someone from using their skills, but not Magic Power itself. Wait a minute. Don''t tell me, this is the ability of an S Rank Sealing Chain Skill?" Walker was shocked by the realization.


    Theo nodded. "Yes. That''s your new ability. I''m nning to upgrade Felix''s skills as well since you two are in charge of the defense. At first, I was nning to upgrade the one who contributed the most, but I''m afraid we''ve to prioritize stability. Sorry, Jeff."


    Jeff didn''t feel anything. He was still too shocked by the fact that Theo could upgrade one''s skill rank.


    "So, you can upgrade someone''s skill?"


    "Yep." Theo nodded.


    "Is this your new ability?"


    "Nope. I have this ability from the start." Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    "Then, the reason your clone can�� No, wait a minute. I seem to have misunderstood your ability a bit. It seems that you haven''t changed much of your core skills." Rea pinched the bridge of her nose, finally understanding the secret of Theo''s strength.


    "Well, I upgraded my skills. My Clone Skill was formally an F Rank Skill. Now, it''s S Rank Skill." Theo shrugged.


    Everyone''s heart thumped upon this revtion.

 Chapter ?1532 Relation

    Chapter ?1532 Rtion


    "To think you have this kind of ability��" Rea let out a long sigh. "It feels like we never know the depth of your strength."


    "Haha, isn''t it better to be mysterious? Everyone can misunderstand you." Theo chuckled. "It''s easier to fight against someone who misunderstands you. And fool your ally to fool your enemy."


    "That''s true. But why do you reveal it now?"


    "I used this ability during the trip, so I guess it''s time for me to tell you guys about it. Besides, this is also the perfect time for this ability to be even more important."


    "That''s true." Rea nodded in agreement. "The fact that no one can ess the power system anymore means they will stop growing. If you can raise everyone''s skill, it''ll have a good impact on one''s strength."


    "No. That''s not all." Isaac, the genius of the group, noticed something more behind this power. "Theo�� Why did you take out all those Skill Cards earlier?"


    "As expected of Isaac." Theo smiled. "Yes. Upgrading skill requires Skill Cards. I sacrifice all those Skill Cards to raise the ranks. And��"


    Theo opened the suitcases, showing numerous Skill Cards. "I''m nning to upgrade everyone''s skills. But I can only increase it to A Rank, not S Rank. Well, I require a lot of A Rank Skill Cards, so I hope you can understand."


    "A lot of A Rank Skill Cards? Now that I think about it, if you''re trying to find a lot of A Rank Skill Cards, you need tens of billions��" Rea gasped.


    "Yeah. Even the Star Group can''t handle this much money. Even if I can utilize other people''s efforts, it will bring me more trouble than necessary."


    "That''s true. Those people from the top ten or even the top one hundred people in the world wille to you to upgrade their Skills. They won''t leave you alone."


    "There you have it. Since the world has copsed, the Skill Cards are useless."


    "Ah! We can gather the Skill Cards far easier." Rea nodded in understanding. She finally knew Theo''s train of thought.


    Theo nodded. "So, Felix. I want you to choose the Skill that you want to upgrade. As for everyone, I need to see your ability first since the higher the skill rank, the higher the consumption. I can''t expect Millie to use an A Rank Skill, right?"


    They agreed. If Millie was forced to use an A Rank Skill, she might have used up all her Magic Power before she could even use it. So, it would be just a useless skill.


    "That''s it. Anyway, let''s move on. Do you have any questions you want to ask me, Felix, Walker?"


    "No. I''m still overwhelmed by this skill upgrade to be honest. If I want to ask you something, it''s rted to the Skill Rank. So, I guess I''ll wait for this one." Walker shook his head. Felix also didn''t have any questions, so Theo could continue.


    "Then, Coline. How''s the food? The recipe is different?"


    "Yeah. The diet will have to be adjusted, but for now, I''m experimenting with it. We''ll also have a hard time getting other spices, so we have to create a trade route. For now, we''re good by ransacking the stores and houses."


    "Fair enough. I''ll think about it during our expansion. Any questions?"


    "Nope."


    "Then, we''ll move to Aisha. How is everyone''s body in your eyes?"


    "Everyone seems to be healthier due to the increase of Magic Power. I believe that the next generation will be healthier, and their strength will dramatically improve. For now, there''s not much change. I''ll keep focusing on searching if we start evolving or not."


    "Got it. Do you have any questions?"


    "It''s impossible to find the information about the orphanage, so I don''t have any questions."


    "Sorry that I can''t help you with this one."


    "It''s fine." Aisha waved her hand in understanding.


    "So, who''s left? Chris? What is your job here?"


    "I''m in charge of education. You''re talking about the Five Aspects being the most important things for the future, right? Since I have mastered Control and Awareness, I''m writing everything down. I''m also recording other Five Aspects from others.


    "Since we can''t have any skills in the future, the next generation has to create their own skill like the monsters. But humans love to generalize things, like me. So, we have to create a set of skills that can be generalized so that normal humans can use them. This is the current project."


    "That''s pretty good. Make sure you work together with the others, especially Rea and Isaac."


    "Yeah, that''s what I''ve been doing this whole time." Chris nodded.


    "Alright then. Do you have any questions for me before I move on to the next topic?"


    "I don''t really have any questions. In fact, I''m curious about what you did in the union."


    "Haha, you can find it outter." Theo chuckled. "Alright. I''m going to discuss the next topic. I have created an agreement with a World ss Monster in our northwest. This is a friendly rtionship.


    "I forbid anyone to kill the monsters in his territory. In exchange, we''ll get special treatment for them, especially a safe path. They''ll escort us through their territory and if monsters from outside territory attack you, they''ll fight to protect you."


    And just like this, Theo dropped another bomb.


    "World ss Monster?"


    "Agreement?"


    "Friendly rtionship?"


    "Protecting us?"


    This was the first time they ever thought about cooperating with the monsters.


    However, Theo also said, "The monsters have been living in this kind of environment for a long time. Talking to them will allow us to get a greater understanding of how this world works. So, this rtionship is the best way to improve ourselves.


    "Also, if you don''t know about the World ss Monster�� Basically, the monster I''m talking about is the World ss Monster that is supposed to be located on the other side of the US. He''s a Frost Giant, and you should call him Frost Saint.


    "And with this rtionship, I have suggested that we''re going to have some exchange knowledge with them, allowing us to improve in a unique way." Theo paused for a moment, then smiled. "Yes, I''m talking about the union between monsters and humans."

 Chapter 1533 The Top

    Chapter 1533 The Top


    "The union between humans and monsters."


    This ambition was big because it was impossible for humans and monsters to join hands. The monsters would fight with their instinct, so most of them wouldn''t be their friends. But the General ss Monsters had enough intelligence to connect to them, so it wasn''t impossible.


    Knowing Theo, he must have some ns for this rtionship, so they might be able to go hand in hand with them. However, it was impossible for the entire humanity to do that. It was only possible for their group.


    "I can kinda understand what you have in mind, though I don''t know if it will work or not. But I''m sure that you have some idea in mind, so we can take a look at itter." Rea exined.


    "Yeah. Then the next thing will be about the threat from the east. You all should know about Chernobyl, right?"


    "One of the worst nuclear disasters, yes."


    "The monsters are living there and starting to mutate. These mutated monsters are stronger and more ferocious than normal monsters. I have seen a King ss mutated monster that can defeat multiple normal King ss Monsters. Imagine if there was a World ss mutated monster��"


    Everyone widened their eyes in shock. It turned out the apocalypse wasn''t the only thing they had to worry about. The humans had turned the Earth almost inhabitable in the past and with the help of the apocalypse, it was going to bite back. In other words, this was a man-made disaster.


    Rea, as Theo''s assistant, noticed something. "Is that why you''re strengthening us by upgrading our skills?"


    "Yes. I don''t know what will happen in the future, so I''m preparing all of you."


    "You still want to help humanity even though they have abandoned you after seeing a single video?"


    Theo shrugged. "My goal is beyond your understanding."


    Theo didn''t lie here. No one would even think about the being in the higher dimension that had been controlling them this whole time. Theo had been trying to fight them this whole time, but he didn''t know whether it had any impact or not.


    Even so, he was nning to continue his resistance until he could reach the higher dimension.


    So, his goal was truly beyond anyone''s understanding except Loki.


    "Anyway, that''s my n. I don''t know if you will agree or not." Theo sighed. He knew that everyone was skeptical since they didn''t hesitate to throw him away without Theo being able to prove himself.


    They didn''t mind living together with humans again, but they preferred to stay in the US Base or United Asia, not the union.


    "Well, if you n that way, we''ll follow you." Rea sighed.


    "Alright. Thanks." Theo nodded and took out his Skylink. "Anyway, this is everything I''ve gotten from the union. I''m sure you can understand what I did there with all this information."


    "Hoho, this is getting interesting." Akbar licked his lips, excited to see what happened.


    Before they looked at the record, Theo upgraded their skills since he had an important thing to do after this.


    Of course, everyone was surprised by the change in their skills. This was the first time they saw this kind of overpowered ability.


    Theo really looked like a treasure chest. He was mysterious but gave them huge anticipation because the secret hidden in him might be more amazing than they imagined.


    After upgrading their skills, Theo dismissed everyone so that they could go back to their jobs.


    Of course, Theo told Rea to stay since she was his assistant and had to know what he was nning to do.


    "Rea. It seems that you''ve gotten used to leading everyone."


    "In your stead. That''s the most important. Without your identity, it''s impossible to lead them." Rea denied it humbly.


    "You''re more capable than you think you are. Don''t think too much about your past."


    "Mhm. Thank you for teaching me all this. I''m truly indebted to you for allowing me to break through from my past stigma."


    "Hence, I''m going to give you a big task."


    "A big task? You sure know how to put pressure on me��" Rea chuckled.


    Theo paused for a moment because this was an important matter for him. Seeing his serious expression, Rea stoppedughing and looked into his eyes, ready to receive the task.


    "I''m going into seclusion soon."


    "Seclusion? Are you going to meditate or something?"


    "Something like that." Theo nodded.


    "For how long? We can''t really have you missing for a long time."


    "I''ll try to go out once a month. But if I want to go as quickly as possible, I have to focus on this." Theo sighed. "I don''t know how long it will take. From my rough calction, I feel like I''ll need at least a year."


    "A year?! Are you serious?" One year was long for a human, especially in this apocalypse. There would be a huge change within a year, so she was surprised that Theo wanted to go into seclusion for this long.


    Even Rea was worried because she didn''t know what would happen in the next one year. "I''m trying to progress as quickly as possible by utilizing my clone since it''s a kind of having two brains. Well, it''s hard to exin, but you get the idea."


    "By the way, why do you want to go into seclusion? At least tell me the reason so that I can calm the others. We also have to consider the future development." Rea let out a long sigh, feeling a headache ahead. She could control everything within a few months, but if it was longer than a year, Rea didn''t feel confident in leading the group. The others would also feel down.


    "The reason, huh��" Theo scratched the back of his head since the reason was hard to exin. "The top."


    "The top?" Rea tilted her head in confusion. She then waved her hand as if creating a box that emphasized her body. "You mean this kind of top?"


    "No. The top ranking."


    "The top ranking, You mean top ten rankings?"


    "Yeah. This time, the hurdle is far bigger than I originally thought, so I have to go into seclusion for at least a year. I''m going to tackle the hurdle that separates the top ten experts from the top one hundred experts."


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes. "You mean��"


    "Yeah. It''s time for me to aim for the number one spot." Theo nodded.

 Chapter 1534 Questions

    Chapter 1534 Questions


    Inside the temple in the air, Theo was sitting alone because he had topletely focus on thews that would be the foundation of his Authority.


    The reason why he chose this ce was due to the space as well as the location. In this ce, he could move around, and if everyone wanted to meet him, they only needed to go to this ce.


    Before he began, Theo summoned his clone, his partner. Unlike the usual clone, an S Rank Clone was like a separate entity. Even the skill description told him that he gave birth to a new life. Although Theo still hadplete control over his clone, the clone still had a certain degree of independence.


    That was why Theo could finally utilize his clone as his training partnerpletely since he had that kind of awareness.


    Now that they sat in front of each other, they stared at each other. There was no need to talk among them since their consciousness was shared. However, Theo liked the discussion, which gave him the best perspective.


    So, Theo began. "I have to create a set ofws for my Authority. I have found severalws that I want to ce from the battle against the Frost Saint. The first one will be the element. I want to set up different kinds of elements that can work in my domain like ice that bes cold fire. It retains the ability of ice because I''m not the master of elements or something, but the change of the form is enough to confuse them."


    Clone Theo furrowed his eyebrows and gave a suggestion. "However, if you use that kind ofw, ice will only be a cold fire. There are many things that can be incorporated into one''s element. For example, a fire that changes into ice can be a cold fire, but if a fire changes into the wind, it''ll be a scorching wind. The same applies if the fire change into the earth, it will be a meteor."


    Theo fell silent because this kind of thought was transmitted together with what he said, giving a clear image of what the clone wanted to say. Even he was surprised by the efficiency of this discussion.


    "If that''s the case, what if I let the elements be free?" Theo asked, presenting a question. "If they''re free, the elements can change into anything depending on the rule I set. However, this kind of freew is hard to make due to the fact that they''re going to create one contradiction after another if I find a newbination. It''ll make thew unstable."


    "That''s true. If that''s the case, let''s set up the limit into three. In other words, a certain element can only transform into three things. This will greatly limit the expansion and three possibilities should be enough to confuse our enemies."


    "Three possibilities. If that''s the case, we have to create three different sets ofws. In other words, if the first set changes fire into ice, ice turns into wind, and so on. In the second set, it''ll be fire to wind, ice turns into earth, and so on. This is an example."


    "That''s true. Even if we allow threebinations, it''ll cause too many possibilities. In fact, there are more than a thousandbinations that we have to rule out due to the number of affinities�� Hence, it''s better to set this fixed set ofws."


    "Yes. This way, we can save up a year worth of calction." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, thews for elements have been set. We will finalize itter after I present all the things I''ve learned in that fight."


    "Agreed." Clone Theo then presented the problem since he also had the memory. "Then, let''s talk about the ice that''s in our mouth during the fight�� It feels like the Frost Saint has the ability to attack us from a distance. At the same time, it''spletely rted to his Authority, not other things."


    "Indeed. Why is that?" Theo looked down for a moment and asked, "Is there a way to manifest your power from a distance without being disrupted by the Magic Power?"


    "We haven''t met anyone that can use their power that way other than the Frost Saint. Now that I think about it, the Frost Saint once threw his club and heavily injured the Fist Saint. Is it rted to that?"


    Theo fell silent and took out his weapon, which slowly turned into an artifact. He had been using his Order to transform the weapon since he wanted an artifact that could hold all his power.


    However, even with this artifact, Theo didn''t know whether he could do the same thing.


    It was true that the Order Energy would linger in the artifact itself, but this kind of energy would be useless unless they utilized it themselves. In other words, the moment the club left the Frost Saint''s hand, the Fist Saint should be able to dispel the cold energy.


    Yet, the reality was different. The power was able to heavily injure the Fist Saint. This wasn''t possible unless the Frost Saint was able to use his power from far away.


    "How about we remember the fight between the Wind Emperor and the Death Reaper? As well as the Sword Saint against the Death Reaper? We also have seen the power of the Lightning Saint as well as Hel. Can we find something from their fighting style?"


    "That''s true. Let''s discuss their powers. For the first fight, we could only look at their fight from afar since their strength is so destructive. The Death Reaper had a simr fighting style as Hel, but she was still a downgrade version. So, we should focus on Hel instead of her.


    "As for the Wind Emperor, don''t you think he had something simr to what we''re trying to figure out?"


    "Ascension Step? That''s right. The Wind Emperor sent forth his energy through the Ascension Step or let the wind carry it. But there was no ''frost'' in that ce, so how?"


    Both Theo fell silent once again, contemting.

 Chapter ?1535 Clues Were Everywhere

    Chapter ?1535 Clues Were Everywhere


    "What''s about our affinity?" Theo asked. "I have never asked this, but what''s affinity? It''s said that it''s a rtionship between us and the elements. But why does a human only have one affinity instead of multiple affinities?"


    "��" Clone Theo couldn''t answer it because he also didn''t know. "Let''s discuss the affinity first. Why? Theoretically speaking, we should be able to wield more than one affinity, right? I mean, there should be a way to do something like that. Yet, no one has actually done it."


    "No. There was one research about it. It was the goblin experiment,bining all kinds of genes to the goblin so that they could evolve by having other abilities. But the Lightning Saint destroyed it because it disrupted the Order."


    "Then, there is someone who sets up thew that a living being can only have one affinity?"


    "Most likely. But who?"


    "The world?"


    "Or is it the higher being?"


    They stared at each other. Although they couldn''t find the truth, they believed they weren''t far from it either.


    However, they didn''t actually answer it. Instead, Clone Theo shifted the conversation by saying, "What if this is a kind of our talent? I mean, it is our talent. But what if this being who sets up thisw gives us the same opportunity as others for Order and Authority?


    "The fact that we can wield one element means we have the same opportunity as the rest to attain Fire Order and the likes."


    "What''s about the Element Order? You should be able to wield all elements, no?"


    "Indeed. That''s just an anomaly. Let''s talk about the generalization. At least we have the same talent to reach the end goal, which is Order and Authority. Yet, we have to calcte other talents we possess to see whether it''s possible or not to attain Order and Authority. Like our Reality Order."


    "Indeed. Still, we haven''t answered the meaning behind affinity. It''s a talent, but what is a talent to you?"


    "Talent��"


    Both Theo fell silent again, confused. They couldn''t define the word affinity.


    "The connection to one element�� Let''s assume that this is the meaning." Theo paused for a moment before continuing, "What''s about us who don''t have an affinity? The connection to Magic Power?"


    "Magic Power is in the air, so it''s abundant. If that''s the case, won''t it mean that our affinity is the greatest?"


    "Wait a second. We can attract Magic Power, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, if others can attract them as well, won''t it mean that every single Magic Power in the air has elements in them? I mean, let''s think about atoms. There are protons, neutrons, and electrons inside it, no? If we think this way, we can assume that the Magic Power is the atom and particles are the elements."


    "What we attract is the atom itself while the rest is attracting the particles�� This can exin how the Frost Saint used his ability.


    "The reason why we couldn''t feel the Magic Power and stop him from affecting the Magic Power in our breath is because he was connected to the Ice Element inside the atom, not the atom itself."


    "That''s right." Theo gasped. "If we think this way, our Attribute Removal is exterminating the Ice Element inside the atom, not everything in it. Only by using Reality Removal can we erase all of them since we''re erasing the Magic Power itself.


    "We have been using that power without realizing this concept. We have been too focused on elements in general knowledge instead of detailed one. That''s why we can''t do anything against Frost Saint.


    "What if we lock the Magic Power itself instead of removing them?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "If we lock the Magic Power and iste the element inside, we can stop other Orders from affecting the elements inside. This way, even the Frost Saint won''t be able to easily use his ability."


    "But locking every Magic Power is hard and requires a lot of energy. It''s impossible."


    "But if we just erase the elements from Magic Power, the elements from other Magic Power in the surrounding will soon fill up the emptiness. That''s why unless we use our power continuously, the enemy can use their element again. Wait a minute, so erasing their element has nothing to do with Mythical Rank Expert''s characteristic this whole time? What the hell?"


    "Instead ofining, I think I''ve got the answer from the Sword Saint. He can cut precisely from the distances, right? Is he using the Sword Element inside the Magic Power? Is there even such a thing?"


    Clone Theo contemted and said, "What if he controlled the Magic Power instead of elements?"


    "That''s the only exnation I guess. In that case, we should also focus on what to do with the Magic Power with our Reality Order. Instead of removing them, what if we change them ording to thews? With the help of Reality Realm, we might be able to stop someone from using their elements for a bit. This will only affect those with affinities though."


    "But it''s worth the shot."


    Theo, for the first time in his life, went into details for every understanding he had. It turned out all the clues were already present in the world. However, they never thought about it and just utilized them for granted.


    In fact, Isaac had been a great help to him since a scientist''s way of thinking was simr to what he was doing right now.


    Theo learned what kind of mind he should have when approaching hisw. For every statement he had, he would ask many questions to understand them correctly.


    Only when he felt the depth was enough for thews would he finalize this kind ofw.


    This was a new concept for Theo, so it was interesting. Theo continued focusing on hisw and only stopped when he was about to eat. Of course, Coline was the one bringing it to the temple since Theo couldn''t be bothered to go to the cafeteria to meet her.


    Theo also asked the rest to gather a bunch of Skill Cards since it would be good if he could strengthen others when they began to live with them again.


    But for now, Theo kept holing up inside the temple, creating onew after another.

 Chapter 1536 Protected

    Chapter 1536 Protected


    While Theo was holing up in his temple, the Griffith Family was facing the attacks from all directions.


    Mason Griffith mmed his table while gritting his teeth. "Shit!"


    He looked down and thought, ''There are many who are trying to attack us this time. If not for the fact that Flora was with them, I would have killed all of them. Besides, it''s hard for us to live outside the union because the world isn''t that easy after the apocalypse. One wrong move, we''ll be surrounded by monsters. King ss and World ss Monsters might join hands to kill us. So, leaving this base is not an option.''


    His anger rose even further when a call came through. The name presented on the Skylink was none other than Flora Wegener.


    When Mason epted the call, Flora looked at him coldly and stated, "I''m here to remind you, Mason. Don''t do anything that you''ll regret because even your family will have a hard time living outside the union. Just take a look at other Saints, unless they group up like this, they won''tst long. Even now, we haven''t heard anything from Anwar and Alexandra. Chand has died after being surrounded by World ss Monsters.


    "I''m telling you here. You are still useful to me. That''s the only reason why you can still stay in this union. Maybe I should thank that Theodore Griffith that you''ve killed�� Thanks to him, your Griffith Family has grown so weak.


    "If it''s the previous Griffith Family, you will still be able to resist me even after this setback. No, should I say that you won''t even be affected?


    "Unfortunately for you, all your strong allies have left you, and even your son, Ray, is opposing you. Right now, the Griffith Family is weak enough that you can only be my dog, Mason." Flora made a smug smile as if she had gotten the biggest victory.


    "Don''t becent, Flora Wegener." Mason mmed the table. "If you think that you have won, then you''re wrong! I won''t go down just like this. Don''t push us too far or I''m going to make you regret it!"


    "Hoh, scary." Flora rolled her eyes, treating it as an empty threat.


    Mason gritted his teeth and red at her.


    "Peace was never an option, Mason. This whole time, we''ve been fighting each other. And in the end, I''m the one who wins this war." Flora smiled smugly, enjoying her victory and showing that the prize of this battle was the sole possession of the union. "Anyway, I have reminded you. I hope that you understand this in your heart�� You can only live as my dog. The Griffith Family is indeed a good hunting dog that I need�� Remember that, Mason."


    When she was about to close the video call, Mason smirked and said, "Theodore Griffith hasn''t died. We failed to kill him because there was an unknown figure who was stronger than me. She proimed to be the Goddess of Death, Hel. That''s why Theodore Griffith hasn''t died and probably, the one who caused all those deaths and chaos was him."


    Flora''s expression instantly changed when she heard that statement. "What did��"


    Before she could confirm it, Mason hung up as if he had gained some dignity during that talk. Mason''s message was also clear. The fact that Theo hadn''t died meant there was a chance�� No, knowing Theo, he would surelye back to repay everything that they had done to him.


    In other words, the moment Theo came out to everyone to seek justice, he would certainlye for her and the Griffith Family.


    This would annul her words about the condition of the Griffith Family. It was not her who kept the Griffith Family alive. They were her shield that stopped Theodore Griffith''s anger. If the Griffith Family died, Theo would instantly go straight to her.


    In other words, if she let them die, her life would be in danger, especially with the fact that Theo had a Saint stronger than Mason.


    However, Mason was annoyed by her, so he hung up ruthlessly after that information, not nning to exin it to her.


    As he expected, Flora immediately called him back to hear his exnation, but Mason simply ignored her.


    "Kh." Flora was the one gritting her teeth this time. She even bit her nails in frustration, looking at the call that wouldn''t connect no matter what. "Mason, you bastard. Hurry up, ept my call."


    Flora just realized that Richard was actually Theo in disguise and Ricky''s death was rted to Theo. The fact they could stay in two ces reinforced the idea of the clone. That was why she was one hundred percent sure that Theo was the culprit.


    However, Theo''s death had been spread to the whole union, making them lose the trust of the people. Even if they made a rification, the disappointment and the loss of trust wouldn''t disappear.


    And the fact that Theo could actually raise one''s skill rank alone was enough for him to go all around the world to be appreciated as a hero. Lastly, Maya was still connected to Theo. The moment she finished her airne, it would be the time Theo left. It would be the time for her doom as well.


    Her face became pale as the fear gradually filled her heart. This was the first time someone who hadn''t even gotten their Authority scared her this much.


    ��


    On the other hand, Mason was smiling, knowing what kind of face Flora was making.


    Suddenly, there was a visitoring to his room.


    "It seems that the opportunity for us to rise again has appeared."


    "!!!" Mason widened his eyes when he saw the original Theoing into the room. "Where have you been this whole time?"


    "I got enlightenment." The original Theo shrugged. "I found a way to be an Authority."


    "Hoh�� With two Saints on our side, we''ll be able to control the union once again. Good job. Still, I have a question. How do you get enlightenment? I know that it''s an opportunity of a lifetime, but the timing is rather too convenient for me to believe."


    "I don''t know. Either way, I''m not nning to focus on that question since it''s better if I can be a Saint as soon as possible."


    If the Fist Saint was here, he would wonder which Theo caused the divination to fail. After all, he once asked a famous person to see the future about Theo, but it failed abruptly. Even the Destiny Queen had done the same thing and got a huge setback as if someone had been protecting Theo, but no one knew which Theo was protected.

 Chapter 1537 Shop

    Chapter 1537 Shop


    In a certain small base.


    A pair of people were happily discussing a few things. However, they soon arrived at a weird topic.


    "Hey, do you know that there is a merchant that is gathering Skill Cards from us? It seems that they can give us food or equipment if we can bring them Skill Cards?"


    "Seriously? There''s something like that? You''re not kidding?"


    "Of course not. I have heard that Jibel has tried it once and he''s got that new sword."


    "Ah, that sword?"


    "Exactly. It seems that you can get a high level weapon if you can find an A Rank Skill Card. We''re talking about Skill Cards, you know. They''re different from Material Cards since we can still use thetter to summon the materials contained in the cards. Meanwhile, the Skill Cards arepletely useless because we can''t ess our system anymore."


    "I know. That''s why I''m surprised. Are you sure we can get something like that? Who are they?"


    "I don''t know. However, both of them seem to be Mythical Rank Experts, so it won''t be wise to steal from them unless you''re ready to be killed."


    "I seem to have found some Skill Cards. Maybe I should go to them and trade something��"


    "Let''s check the price first."


    The two smirked as if they had a good n. Unbeknownst to them, there was a figure hiding behind a tree, listening to their conversation. The person seemed to be shocked, thinking this was an opportunity as well.


    Soon, the figure disappeared, nning something.


    On the other hand, Felix and Akbar were sitting inside a house nonchntly.


    "Are you sure this is going to work?" Felix asked.


    "Of course. I even got Rea''s approval." Akbar nodded. "This is another way of information gathering."


    "What do you mean?"


    Before Akbar answered him, he noticed someone entering his senses. As a scout, his sensing range was bigger than Felix, so he looked at the door for a while before Felix also felt it not long after.


    Soon, the door was opened by two people, surprised to find them. As expected, the two people that guarded the items were Mythical Rank Experts, leaving no chance to steal from them.


    "Wee, wee." Akbar smiled.


    "We heard that you''re using Skill Cards to trade for items."


    "Of course. We basically turn them into points because we don''t care whether the Skill Cards are useful or useless. Please take a look at the conversion rate." Akbar pointed at a board next to him.


    F = 1 Point


    E = 10 Points


    D = 50 Points


    C = 200 Points


    B = 500 Points


    A = 2000 Points


    "2000 Points can give you a Supreme Rank Equipment." Akbar enticed them even more. A Rank Skill Card was usually used by Mythical Rank Expert since the monsters that dropped such a skill card must be Mythical Rank. This wasn''t an equal transaction for them if the apocalypse didn''t happen.


    But now that the Skill Cards had be useless, such a thing was already beyond what they could want. So, it wasn''t that hard to incite their interest.


    Akbar smiled and asked, "What are you going to exchange?"


    "Do you have any other items as well?"


    "Of course. Here they are." Akbar smirked and showed them many items. Most of them were equipment used by Supreme Rank Experts, but there was one that actually looked better than the rest. It was sold for ten A Rank Skill Cards.


    They could also see the price list of each item. It was truly surprising that the useless Skill Cards could be exchanged this way. Due to theck of connection to the satellites, they obviously didn''t know that Skill Cards were useful.


    As someone who wasn''t in power, they weren''t that sensitive about such a thing. They only took out their bags and took out a bunch of Skill Cards. "I believe we can exchange this for more than three thousand points."


    "I also have some with me. It should be enough for another one thousand. We want two Supreme Rank Weapons."


    "Certainly. Let me check it first." Akbar snapped his finger as the Magic Power began moving the Skill Cards, sorting them out. Akbar was also calcting it this way, and in just one minute, Akbar smiled and said, "You have a total of 4097 Points. Which weapons do you wish to exchange?"


    "This one."


    "I choose this."


    Both of them instantly chose their weapons as Akbar immediately gave them the weapons and said, "You two still have 97 points left. Do you need anything more?"


    "Nah, dude. We have a good deal already. Just think of those points as a tip. Thanks!"


    "Thank you for your patronage." Akbar smiled while seeing them off.


    "What kind of information gathering were you talking about, Akbar?" Felix asked again since there was no one here.


    Akbar smirked and said, "Theye from the right, meaning theye from the base there. It means that their base hasn''t known anything about us yet. Seeing how they behave and stuff like that, you can conclude that their living area is not that terrible. At least, the environment isn''t like a bandit or cannibal group.


    "Do you think you can only get information from what you see yourself? No, it''s also about psychology. By making them spread rumors about us, more and more people wille to visit us, allowing us to see the kind of living environment they have.


    "At the same time, we can also bring back some Skill Cards. This will be useful for us because of Theo''s ability. Even if he''s not nning to use it now, we can still use itter when we''re living with other humans again.


    "And look what we exchange? The scraps that we found on our way when investigating this area. Those items were left behind by the dying experts. So, it''s basically free information, free Skill Cards, and freebor." Akbar chuckled. "I see no better deal than this."


    "Don''t you think we''re going to be targeted this way? You''re underestimating humans'' greed like those people in the union."


    "Why do you think you''re here?" Akbar stuck his tongue out.


    "��" Felix was dumbfounded, realizing that he was tasked as a bodyguard. Even if the enemies had multiple Mythical Rank Experts, they wouldn''t be able to defeat him, who had an Order. That was why a single person was enough.


    Akbar smirked and concluded it. "I receive your everything, and you''ll think I''m giving you something good cheaply. We have a one hundred percent chance to profit."

 Chapter ?1538 New Comrade

    Chapter ?1538 New Comrade


    Just like what Akbar said, more and more people came in. Of course, they didn''t dare to say it aloud at first since they were taking advantage of this shop to strengthen themselves. They could even be a hero of their small group if they took advantage of this shop that only they knew.


    Though, some people also informed their boss, making theme. Akbar obviously didn''t mind making a transaction with him, but if they caused trouble, Felix would be the one making a move.


    So, the business was booming and the people began ransacking buildings for Skill Cards.


    However, Akbar was getting another surprise when he received a certain customer.


    The customer was a female. By the looks of it, she was still young, only thirty or forty years old. ording to the world''s lifespan, she was like a teenager transitioning to an adult.


    However, there were a lot of bruises on her body, which was quite different from the rest of the customers.


    Despite such a condition, her eyes were fierce and even emitted killing intent. She red at Akbar and Felix.


    Felix narrowed his eyes, preparing to make a move. On the other hand, Akbar smiled and asked, "Hello, youngdy. Do you wish to trade something?"


    "I want that!" She dropped the bag she carried and pointed at the only item left behind by a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "Hoh?" Akbar was amused by this choice because no one had yet to buy this one. After all, there were only one or two thousand Mythical Rank Experts all around the world, so it was rare for them to show an interest in an item of this level.


    Still, she was his customer, so Akbar took out the Skill Cards to count them. However, he soon furrowed his eyebrows and said, "I''m sorry, but you only have 14,807 Points with all of your Skill Cards. You are a few thousand short for that item."


    "I want that item." She gritted her teeth, ring at Akbar.


    "I''m sorry, but a trade is a trade. I won''t take any loss." Akbar shook his head helplessly. "I believe that the price I have given is already good enough. So, there won''t be any negotiation."


    "You��" She gritted her teeth and started loosening her button. "You want this, right? You are like the men who tortured and killed my sister!"


    Akbar was baffled, not understanding why she coulde up with this kind of reason. Shepletely misunderstood his transaction with her own body, which was already covered in bruises.


    However, there was something that piqued his interest. As a master in psychology, he found three things from her, so he changed his way of talking.


    "It seems that you misunderstand me. I''m simply trading with everyone fair and square. Do you think I''ll give you a discount or something for your body that has been covered in bruises? Can you even make men horny with that body anyway?" Akbar smiled slyly.


    She couldn''t say anything since what Akbar said waspletely correct.


    "However, there''s also a way to get some points." Akbar smirked.


    "Huh?" The woman looked at Akbar in shock.


    "I can give you some discounts or points for information. It seems that you haven''t had a good life in a while. Do you mind giving me the reason? I can deduct five hundred points for that." Akbar smiled.


    She was confused for a moment before realizing this was an opportunity. "You''re going to deduct it more?"


    "As long as I''m satisfied with your first answer, I might ask another question."


    "��" She looked down, contemting for a moment. "My sister and I lived in a group two kilometers away from here. We were bullied by the whole group and my sister decided to sacrifice herself to protect me. They raped her until she died and gave her to a cannibal group to feed them. I want this weapon so that I can kill them. I should be the one to die��"


    Akbar paused for a moment when he saw the hatred in her eyes. He then asked again, "Then, do you think I should reduce the price again for you just so because I pity you? Since you have been living in that kind of group, do you think I will reduce the price just like that?"


    "You��" She released her Spiritual Energy as if she wanted to kill him. Akbar tricked her. Even if he continued asking her questions, he would say that thest question didn''t excite him more and the price couldn''t be reduced lower than the cards she brought. In other words, he just took advantage of her weakness.


    However, Akbar added with a small smile. "That''s the second question. Depending on your answer, you can get a thousand points deduction."


    "!!!" She widened her eyes in shock, realizing she had misunderstood him. Akbar was trying to see whether she was useful or not for him to lower the price. After all, selling this item to her also put him in danger.


    ''She''s clever.'' Akbar thought while smiling, waiting for her answer.


    "I don''t know."


    Akbar narrowed his eyes. "You don''t know?"


    "My power is useless." She raised her hand and summoned a small mouse. "This is my ability. I''m a summoner who can only summon moles. That''s why I should have been the one to die, not my sister."


    "Hoh?" Akbar smirked and asked, "I have been wondering how you can gather all these Skill Cards. It seems that you''re able to use the mouse to find them��"


    "How do you��" The woman hurriedly shut her mouth again, not wanting to give the information for free.


    He smiled and said, "Last question. If the devil gives you a deal for revenge, what kind of thing are you prepared to give that devil?"


    The woman was dumbstruck. This time, Akbar''s smile contained his killing intent. She couldn''t help but start trembling as if Akbar was the devil itself.


    However, she remembered what happened inside that base that was even worse than her own death. She gritted her teeth and said, "I will sell everything to the devil. I was supposed to die anyway, so just take everything for my revenge."


    "Thank you for your patronage." Akbar grinned.

 Chapter 1539 Disciple

    Chapter 1539 Disciple


    "Haha, I have brought enough Skill Cards for a weapon this time." A guy smirked while opening the door excitedly, only to find nothing inside the house. There was no trace of items or the merchant anymore. "Eh? Where are they?"


    ��


    Akbar and Felix had left the area with the woman they had just found.


    "Mhm?" Felix was confused by this transaction since this was the first time Akbar agreed to something this absurd. Of course, Akbar often offered price deductions from time to time, but this was the first time he agreed to give her revenge.


    Curious, Felix dragged Akbar to the side and asked while ncing at the woman. "Why do you agree to this? I don''t understand."


    "I''m nning to make her my disciple."


    "Your disciple? You what?" Felix became even more confused. Disciple? They already had a hard time living in this kind of world, yet, Akbar nned to bring another person into the base. Theo or Rea hadn''t even said anything, so Akbar''s decision was hard to ept.


    "Yeah, I''m nning to make her my disciple. She is clever, and her ability is useful for this kind of job. Do you remember that she can summon a mole instead of a mouse?"


    "I remember, but is that important? Are you nning to use her to gather the Skill Cards? I believe a shop is a better way to gather Skill Cards."


    "Nope. What do you think we should worry about the most? Is it a threat from the sky or is it the monsters on the ground? Nope, it''s��" Akbar pointed at the ground.


    "Underground?"


    "Yep. Let''s talk first about ants. Ants are probably a species with the most poption in this world. If they evolve like the monsters, they''ll be an extremely dangerous threat to any base."


    "That''s where her abilityes��" Felix looked down, contemting. He was slightly persuaded by this kind of reasoning.


    However, Akbar didn''t stop there. He added, "With my training, she will also be a good scout. The fact that she can control her moles means she can see what her moles see. This way, it''s easy for her to eavesdrop or anything. Last but not least, she is clever. The fact that she''s clever means she will be useful if I train her a bit. In a world where we can''t get ess to Sk the whole time, her ability is very useful.


    "Just help me this time, Felix. I''ll talk about this with Theo and Rea after we return. Even if she can''t enter, I will just let her stay outside, not far away from our ce."


    Felix thought for a moment and sighed. "Alright. I''ll help you."


    "Thanks." Akbar grinned as they returned to the woman. Akbar said, "He has agreed to help your revenge. What''s your name?"


    "Eleanor."


    Akbar nodded. "So, who do you want personally to kill? The group leader of the bad group? Or is it the cannibal?"


    "I can kill them personally?"


    "No. Just one person." He shook his head.


    "Then, I want the group leader."


    "Is there anyone left that shouldn''t be killed in that group? And do you have anything to identify the leader?"


    "The leader is the only red-haired guy in the group. As for anyone else�� The group often captured people from other groups and put them in a storage room. I don''t know if they should be killed or not."


    Akbar nodded and said, "There you go, Felix. Exterminate both the bad group and the cannibals except for those people."


    Felix looked at a giant supermarket that became the base of the bad group as well as a tall building for the cannibals.


    He closed his eyes for a moment, finishing the calction in his head. "Alright. Give me 23 minutes."


    "You got it." Akbar smirked as Felix disappeared into thin air.


    Meanwhile, Akbar continued talking with the woman. "So, we''ll remain here to wait until he''s done."


    She nodded, not knowing what kind of transaction they had. In fact, she felt a bit suspicious of Akbar.


    However, that confusion was overwhelmed by another emotion when Akbar threw the sword that they had agreed to trade earlier. "This is your sword. You can use it from now on."


    "This is��" She looked at the sword. She purchased this sword for revenge, but if they helped her revenge, there was no need for the sword anymore.


    Seeing the confusion on her face, Akbar said, "There''s no need to think much. I''m just going to say this. After this revenge, your life will be mine. Whatever I want you to do, you must do it. Understood?"


    "Yes. Even if you want to kill me after that or even if you n to rape me until I die, I''m prepared."


    "Good. I can assure you that this is the best choice in your life." Akbar smirked. He continued asking a few things about her because her power was great for the development of their base. So, he had to confirm everything first.


    Exactly 23 minutester, Felix came back while dragging a red-haired man who was confused by the entire thing. There was even a foul smell from his wet pants.


    "I''m back."


    "Wee back." Akbar smirked and pointed at the guy. "He''s all yours."


    "What is this? You�� You are Eleanor! You bitch! What are you doing?!" The red-haired guy shouted. When he was about to get up, Felix shed his body four times, severing his four limbs. "Aaaahhhh!"


    His body dropped to the ground, not knowing what had happened.


    "Felix!" Akbar furrowed his eyebrows.


    "He shouldn''t die in a minute, no worries. I''m not nning to stay here for too long as well, and you can do anything you want with him for a minute or so." Felix stepped aside, giving Eleanor the opportunity to exact her revenge.


    Felix, on the other hand, walked to Akbar with a calm expression. He could hear the guy screaming.


    "You�� Eleanor, you bitch. What are you doing to me? How dare you do this to me? Aaaahhh, no! Please forgive me. No, stop! Aaahhhh��"


    Felix didn''t even bother to look at them as he said to Akbar, "You''re going to deal with the rest. Also, are we going back after this? Looking at those bruises, it''s better to have Aisha heals her."


    "Even with how cold you act, you''re surprisingly soft." Akbar smirked, teasing Felix.


    The mood between the two was friendly, unlike the scream in the background.


    "AAAAHHHHH!!!"

 Chapter 1540 Healing

    Chapter 1540 Healing


    "So, you wish to take care of her?" Rea asked while looking at the picture of Eleanor. As he said, he didn''t bring Eleanor to their ce immediately. Instead, he left her alone in that ce to test Eleanor''s loyalty as well. After all, he couldn''t afford to have her betray him.


    The fact that she would leave that ce when he wasn''t there meant it wasn''t worth the investment.


    Rea seemed to want to confirm this matter with him after he disyed all the good and bad things that Eleanor might bring to the group.


    Still, Akbar was determined to get her. He nodded and said, "I have exined the pros and cons to you, so I''m thinking about whether it''s alright to bring her here or not. Besides, even if you don''t allow her, I can simply train her outside."


    Rea pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "To be fair, I don''t really mind since you''re going to be responsible for her. However, Theo is in seclusion right now, so I''m just afraid it''ll affect the entire group. After all, he said he''s not nning to take in people."


    "Yes, I understand that." Akbar agreed with her words. On the one hand, there was a reason why Theo didn''t allow anyone to enter this ce. On the other hand, he wondered if Theo would be that cruel since Akbar considered her his disciple. She would also have some uses in the future.


    This made Rea hesitant.


    "Well, the most rational answer will be to let her stay outside while you''re training her. Of course, seeing the bruises covering her body, I''m sure her condition is worse than what I can see from the picture. Hence, I''ll also send Aisha to heal her body. Though, she might have to wait for another week until Theo is scheduled to go out."


    "Yeah. I agree with you." Akbar nodded and looked at the building in the sky. "It''s been seven months since he started holing himself there."


    "We don''t know when he will make his move." Rea said, "Or maybe I should send a letter when Coline brings his food? He should be able to reply easily?"


    "No, it''s fine. It''s only a week. I can make her wait for that long. It''s enough for her to get healed." Akbar waved his hand, not wanting to bother Theo.


    "Alright Then. That''ll be the decision�� I''m just afraid that she''s going to hold some grudge."


    "Well, it won''t be able to affect our leader."


    "Fair enough."


    Akbar nodded and said, "Anyway, I''ll meet Aisha."


    "Sure."


    Akbar asked Aisha for her help immediately beforeing out to meet Eleanor, who hadn''t moved a single step from her previous position.


    "Teacher." Eleanor nodded her head politely.


    "How is your body?"


    "I''m fine. I can endure this."


    "Just tell me all the pain since I''m bringing back a doctor here." Akbar nced at Aisha and said, "She''s very talented, so I want you to be healed perfectly since I''m going to train you like crazy. I''m sure that you know only the strong can survive in this ce."


    "I know, Teacher." Eleanor agreed without hesitation.


    "Hello." Aisha walked to her and sat down while furrowing her eyebrows. "I think that I have to strip her."


    "Ah, do you want me to go out?" Akbar pointed at himself. It was justmon sense, but unfortunately, the one that didn''t have anymon sense was Eleanor, not Akbar.


    She said, "There''s no need for Teacher to leave. I''ll just strip here."


    "Wait, what? Are you serious?" Aisha was confused.


    The harsh environment she had lived in for the past few months might have destroyed all hermon senses. So, Eleanor nodded without hesitation. "Yes. If shyness can save a life, then I don''t mind being shy. But unfortunately, it can''t. Also, this is better because I can see you''re weaker than me. I''ll just expose you to danger if you''re alone with me, so it''s better to have another person here."


    Aisha looked at her with a weird smile because she wanted to rebuke her im. However, Aisha shook her head helplessly, knowing that Eleanor was truly broken. Though, Eleanor certainly looked clever in herst statement. Exposing Aisha to danger would be extremely dangerous, so she didn''t want to do anything that would make her bad.


    Aisha hesitated for a moment before agreeing to her request. In the end, Eleanor stripped while Akbar closed his eyes. Even without his eyes, he could still sense her movement, so it wouldn''t be toote to make his move.


    Aisha examined her body for a bit and asked her to make some movements to see the extent of her injuries.


    "Mhm��" Aisha squinted her eyes and said, "You are a strong girl��"


    "What''s wrong, Aisha? Is her condition that bad?"


    "The bruises can easily be fixed with my power. But there are two broken bones that are disced from their locations. Also, her kidney and liver are damaged. So, I know that she has been enduring a lot of pain just by staying alive this whole time."


    "Do you think you can heal her?"


    "Yeah. Though, I might need to operate on her to cut all the bad parts before using my power to regenerate that part of the body."


    "Mhm." Akbar thought for a moment. Aisha''s power could even regrow a limb, so organs shouldn''t be a problem as well. What he worried about was the after-effect. "Will she be fine?"


    "There are no other damages than those, so after I fix them, she will be like a normal woman. Though, she has to rest for a few days because it will drain a lot of her energy to restore her organs."


    "I understand. Please treat her. If you need anything, I''ll do my best to help."


    "Alright. Let me bring my tools first." Aisha exined.


    "OK. Let me escort you back." Before leaving, Akbar told Eleanor. "Don''t go anywhere. We''ll be back shortly. Unfortunately, I can''t allow you to enter our base for the time being. But I''m sure I can bring you there within a week, so please wait for a while."


    "Yes, Teacher. I''m already grateful enough for you to help me. I''ll follow whatever you say."

 Chapter ?1541 Human

    Chapter ?1541 Human


    After that, Aisha began operating on Eleanor. She cut her open and scrapped everything that wasn''t supposed to be there. After that, she channeled her power to regenerate the bones and the organs. It wasn''t like she had to recreate an organ, so she still managed to do it.


    Eleanor was weakened during that time, but Akbar took care of her the whole time. After a week, it was time she had to meet Theo.


    Akbar dressed her simple but elegant. She wore a sleeveless white shirt since there was no need to hide her bruises anymore.


    Just with the shirt alone, she looked like apletely different person. Her messy hair had been fixed, and the shorts she was wearing made her look a bit more energetic. However, the only thing she might becking right now might be the emotion on her face.


    Akbar had been living with her for a while, but she never made a single smile the entire time. It was also a necessary ability for someone working in espionage, but he was still a bit worried.


    And his worry struck his heart when Theo suddenly said, "I don''t need her."


    Akbar widened his eyes in shock. Even the rest of the people who were aware of her existence dropped their jaws, not understanding what Theo said.


    "Theo?" Akbar blinked a few times, looking at Theo, who was busy with the documents Rea gave him. He even spared her only a nce to decide this matter.


    Hearing that statement, Eleanor looked down. It might be the first time she felt disappointed in herself, but she was aware of what kind of figure Theo was since she had seen him before the apocalypse.


    She lowered her head and said, "I apologize for wasting your time, Sir Theodore Griffith. Please don''t me my teacher, because he''s just concerned about me. I hope that my existence won''t bring any problem to him, and I promise that I won''t show myself to you ever again."


    After saying all those words, Eleanor turned around and started walking away.


    Akbar looked at Theo and Eleanor back and forth, not knowing what to do.


    However, Theo also added, "Who said you can go?"


    "Ah?!" Akbar was shocked again while Eleanor stopped, misunderstanding Theo''s meaning. She said, "I apologize. I should have killed myself. Please let me do��"


    When she turned around to prove that she would kill herself, she stopped because Theo''s hand had reached her forehead, brushing her bangs so that he could look at her more clearly.


    "See? This is why I don''t need you." Theo looked at her coldly. "I won''t hesitate to sacrifice my own life for this group. Felix, Akbar, and the rest of the people here are the same. However, you''re different.


    "And no, I''m not rebuking the fact you''re prepared to kill yourself for Akbar''s sake. I''m talking about how you think nothing of yourself. You''re simply a zombie. You are dead but not dead at the same time.


    "What you''re thinking right now is to aplish something before you die. However, take a look around and see the difference between them and you. They also want to aplish something before they die, but they do it because they want to live with that aplishment. Meanwhile, you are different�� You simply do it because you''re seeking the path to die. I don''t want to take in someone who is already dead inside."


    "But that''s��" Eleanor wanted to say something but her words stuck in her throat.


    Theo was the one who finished her words. "What? Because you have undergone something horrible in your life, and your life is not important anymore?"


    "I have sold my life to the devil, so I''ll do everything for that person''s sake."


    "That''s why I don''t need you. Change your mindset a bit. How about�� You''ll do everything so that you and that person can live your ideal life?"


    "!!!" Eleanor''s lips were trembling. After that torture and revenge, she lost everything. That was why she wouldn''t think about her own life anymore. Even if Akbar told her to let others do her for his sake, she wouldn''t hesitate to do it because she would suffer a worse fate if she didn''t meet Akbar.


    Yet, Theo was telling her that she could agree or disagree with Akbar. She could live together with him as his true student. She owed him her life? No, it was because she owed him her life that she had to live for her and Akbar''s sake. This was the message that Theo wanted to tell her.


    Theo said, "I will take you in whether you are a human or a monster. But you''re not either of them. If you want to enter this ce, then you have to be a human or a monster. It''s your choice. So, what do you want to be?"


    "��" Eleanor bit her lips as her emotion gradually returned. But as expected, it seemed she couldn''t be fixed instantly. The anger that had been keeping her alive had disappeared after that revenge, so she didn''t know the purpose of her life anymore.


    But when she heard Theo''s words, there seemed to be something lingering in her heart. She didn''t know why but she could see her sister''s image, smiling at her while pumping her fists as if she were cheering for her.


    It would be a miracle or her hallucination if not for the fact Theo was a master of Reality. He was just encouraging her in her own way with the use of her sister, which he got her picture from the other reality. He asked, "Your answer?"


    "I want to be a human again��" Eleanor answered. Her eyes were zing as she wanted to cry but had no tears.


    Theo nodded and turned to Akbar. "That''s it, Akbar. You have two months to make her a human again. If you can''t do it by that time, then I''m going to expel her."


    "Expel her?" Akbar widened his eyes. Theo chose the word ''expel'' because he had already considered her as one of them and allowed her to enter. Whether she could keep staying in this ce or not would depend on their efforts.


    ''What''s wrong with me? I thought there was a hundred percent chance that I would trust him, yet, I doubted him for a moment. Ah, shit. Did I miscalcte? Still��'' Akbar smiled at Theo and politely lowered his head. "Certainly. I''ll do my best to make her a human again."

 Chapter 1542 Something Bad

    Chapter 1542 Something Bad


    Two monthster.


    Theo came outside again like he always did every month. As usual, Rea had been waiting for him right at the bottom, so he leaped down andnded next to her with his Telekinesis.


    "Rea. Sorry for making you wait again."


    "Haha, it''s fine. How are you doing?"


    "I''m fine. I believe I can finish everything faster than I first calcted. Just wait another two months and I should finish my matter."


    "Really? That''s good news." Rea''s face brightened, filled with hope. It had been too long for them to wait.


    "Anyway, is there any movement around us?"


    "Nothing. They''re fighting as usual and we''re lucky to have this ce since we aren''t disturbed this whole time. I''m just worried about what''s happening in those giant bases."


    Theo nodded. "Yeah. It''s been nine months, so I''m sure that they''re progressing rapidly."


    "For now, this is the report." Rea handed him a document before telling him a few things. "First of all, we won''t have any problems with food. It''s been three months since we started the cooperation with the monsters and crossing the knowledge between humans and monsters. It seems that Jeff, Coline, Aisha, and Isaac were nning something big."


    "Hoh?" Theo was amused by thisbination. "I can understand if it''s Isaac and Aisha, but Jeff and Coline?"


    "It seems that they are nning to make food that can strengthen our bodies. I mean, monsters can get stronger by eating nts or other monsters, right? After learning a few tricks from the monsters, they want to see whether they can do the same for humans."


    "That''s interesting. Just do whatever you want, and it seems that you''ve gotten used to leading the group." Theo smiled.


    Rea scratched the back of her head, feeling embarrassed. "Is that so? It''s rare to receive apliment from you, so I can''t help but smile��"


    "I have always wanted to give this opportunity to you. I have passed on all kinds of knowledge I have to you as my assistant, but you never have the opportunity to lead the group, so youck experience. At first, you can''t make a big decision without me, but look at you now, you''repletelyfortable making a decision without me."


    "Is that so? Maybe I should ask you again since it''s your group, not mine."


    Theo waved his hand. "Trust yourself a bit more. You''re the person I choose."


    "Thank you."


    Theo nodded before ncing to the side, finding a girl with a ponytail. She wore a hat, a thin shirt and shorts as if makingfortable for herself. The energetic gaze from her eyes waspletely different from the one from two months ago.


    But that energy suddenly disappeared when she came to Theo. She politely bowed her head and said, "Sir."


    "Eleanor, huh. It seems that you have changed after two months."


    "I can''t thank Sir enough for giving me the opportunity. I will do everything for everyone''s sake, including me."


    "Is that so?" Theo smiled. "It seems that we''ve finally got a new member, who is Akbar''s disciple."


    "Ah!" Eleanor''s body trembled for a moment. She was startled and excited at the same time.


    "Congrattions, Ele. You got it." Rea cheered for her because she had worked together with Eleanor for a while.


    "It''s thanks to Sir."


    "Sir, huh. There''s no need to be that polite. Just call me Theo."


    "No can do. Even if you''re going to kill me, I''m not going to disrespect Sir!"


    "Well, whatever." Theo didn''t bother with it anymore since she would soon change sooner orter like Walker, who once called him Master and now called him Theo. "Anyway, ask Coline to prepare a feast to celebrate our new member."


    "Understood." Rea nodded while Eleanor was overwhelmed by Theo''s favor.


    "How are you doing? Do you like your job or do you want me to assign you another job?"


    "No, I believe that I have gotten the perfect job that matches me perfectly. This is what I should be doing." Eleanor shook her head.


    "Is that so? That''s good then." Theo nodded. "Then, I''m going to tell you two things. First, respect is earned. If you hate me, then hate me."


    "There''s no way I can hate you, Sir. You have brought me back from that emptiness."


    "Then, the second thing is�� I''ll be responsible for your life as well. Your enemy is the group''s enemy as well as my nemesis. Understood?"


    Eleanor was shocked by the second statement. It meant that if she dered war with the world, Theo would be fighting against the whole world. She had heard it many times from her teacher, but Theo was truly one of a kind leader. He truly made one want to follow him.


    "My life is for this group''s glory. As long as the group is fine, I''ll still be able to smile." Eleanor made the brightest smile she could, showing that her words weren''t a lie.


    Theo was satisfied with Eleanor. But when he was about to return to the matter at hand, he felt a presenceing. When he nced to the side, he found Hel, who rarely showed herself.


    "Mhm? What''s wrong? Do you have something you need from me?"


    "Well, I have been focusing on my recovery this whole time, but as expected, it''s not enough. Also, I''m not nning to show myself to the world for the time being since it''ll cause a bit of a problem. I simply want to wait for that father of mine."


    "Yes, I can understand that. But it''s not like you to talk about this. Do you see something?"


    Hel nodded with a grim expression. "This one is kinda bad."


    Theo''s face became serious as he asked, "What''s wrong? Do you mind telling me?"


    Hel hesitated for a moment before saying, "I sensed death�� Numerous deaths. At least a few hundred million. It''s different from the deaths that constantly happen all around the world�� it''s that one influx��"


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock, couldn''t believe this information. "You mean��"


    "Yeah." Hel nodded, confirming it. "I''m afraid that you have to go now, Theo."

 Chapter 1543 Two Groups

    Chapter 1543 Two Groups


    "I''m afraid that you have to go now, Theo."


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment. There was no need for Hel to exin any further. In fact, Theo already knew what kind of event would cost all those lives.


    "I haven''t even broken through." Theo clicked his tongue, annoyed.


    "I have said everything. It''s up to you whether you''re going to make your move or not." Hel shook her head. "I''ll remain here to make sure no one causes trouble."


    Theo scratched the back of his head, feeling awkward. On the one hand, he didn''t want to leave before bing an Authority. On the other hand, if he didn''t go, it would cause a lot of deaths.


    He didn''t know how in the world it became quicker than he expected, but this matter must be rted to the Griffith Family.


    After some thought, Theo said, "Rea. Ask everyone to see who wants to stay or not. I''ll only bring people who want toe this time."


    "Understood. Give me a few minutes." Rea nodded and stepped away to contact all the people around.


    While waiting, Theo asked Hel, "Do you know when the deaths wille? I mean, the travel time won''t be that short."


    "Within a month. However, I can feel the thread of death increasing so suddenly, so I''m sure of that."


    "A month. That should be enough for something." Theo nodded whileing up with a n right away. There were so many things he didn''t know because of his seclusion, so it was a bit hard to predict the oue.


    Luckily, Rea had gone back and informed him. "Jeff wants to live herefortably if possible, and he''ll take care of the farms around here since they need it. Millie will also stay because her ability is needed to maintain the technology. Other than them, everyone has expressed their intention to go there."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "If that''s the case, I''m going to separate the team into two. Team A will consist of you, Felix, Akbar, Isaac, Levina, and Eleanor. Your job is to get all kinds of information before Team B arrives. I have to get some reinforcement, so it''s going to be dyed a bit.


    "Anyway, I''ll give you the concrete nter. You are to go in a few hours. My team will go after three days."


    "Understood. I''ll inform them."


    Even though Theo didn''t say much, Rea could predict some reasons why Theo split the team into two. The first team was for information gathering as he said. Akbar and Eleanor were good at this, while Felix maintained their security. Isaac, as the genius of the group, would have to conduct his experiment there to see the change and Levina could assist him. And thest person was herself. She was the only person who could control the group besides Theo, so she had to be there.


    Hence, this team was indeed the best one that they could send.


    So, Rea immediately gathered them to brief them about Theo''s intention. As soon as the team was ready, they left their base, following the route and the n Theo had given.


    They were excited because this was the first time they could see the huge base again, wondering what change it had undergone.


    On the other hand, Theo didn''t go immediately. Instead, he went back to his temple and summoned his clone.


    "I only have a month�� It''s true that myws have been set, and I only have to apply the finishing touch. But the two months I told Rea is the best case scenario, so I won''t be able to stretch it further.


    "I know that the enemy this time is going to be extremely dangerous. So, I wonder what I should do�� Should I skip some phases? But it will cause a weaker foundation to thews and there''ll be potential for error when using the power." Theo looked down with a serious expression. "I guess I''ll have my clone stay here so I can keep thinking. On the way, I''m also going to have someone carry me to make the progress quicker."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression, knowing he had an important job. He knew that without Authority, this battle would be extremely dangerous. So, he nned to do everything he could.


    As soon as he came out, the rest of the people had been waiting for him, ready to go.


    His group consisted of Christopher, Coline, Walker, and Aisha. Before they left, Theo looked at Walker and said, "Walker. Do you think you can carry me? Like using a chain to make a basket or something? I might have to continue figuring out my power the entire trip."


    "I can," Walker confirmed without hesitation. The fact that Theo wasn''t confident in this mission showed how dangerous the expedition was.


    Hence, he would amodate all kinds of requests to increase the sess rate.


    "Good. We''re going to go to the Frost Saint''s location to bring some reinforcement."


    "We''re going to fight alongside the monsters?" Aisha asked.


    "Yes. This battle will involve the humans, the monsters, and the mutated monsters. You can say that the failure of the humans affected the monsters and created something that would threaten the monsters themselves. It''s normal for the monsters to get involved too." Theo nodded with a calm expression.


    "I see. I don''t have any qualms though. I was just surprised since this would be the first time we fought alongside monsters�� other than summoned creatures."


    Theo nodded. "Anyway, our destination is there. I''ll leave the battle to you two, Coline, Chris. Aisha is with us, so there''s no need to hold back."


    "Got it." The two nodded.


    "I''ll leave everything to you, Jeff."


    "Leave it to me. I''ll take care of everything here." Jeff nodded with a smile, seeing them off with his sister.


    "Please protect this ce. Also, my clone will stay here until thest second. So, if you need anything, just inform my clone."


    "Got it. Don''t worry about this base. With me here, no one will be able to destroy it." Hel assured Theo.


    "Alright. Then, let''s go. Bye Bye!" Theo waved his hand with a smile as he sat down behind Walker before starting to meditate as soon as he couldn''t see them anymore.

 Chapter ?1544 Five Monster Kings

    Chapter ?1544 Five Monster Kings


    A few dayster.


    Theo''s group finally reached Frost Saint''s territory. They had a path to meet the Frost Saint exclusively, so the group managed to reach the ce where the Frost Saint resided with ease.


    Obviously, the Frost Saint could feel the extraordinary presenceing into his territory and immediatelye out to meet him.


    "As expected, it''s you." The Frost Saint looked at Theo with a smile. Seeing how Theo traveled together with his friends, he realized what Theo was nning to do. "Is it the time?"


    "Yeah. I need your help, Frost Saint." Theo nodded with a serious expression. His enemy this time wasn''t just the Griffith Family but also the mutated monsters. Flora might be able to stop Mason, but there was not a single person that could stop the mutated dragon that he saw sleeping on top of the Chernobyl Power nt.


    To raise his chance, Theo had to bring five King ss Monsters to help. Even if they couldn''t defeat these monsters, they should be able to repel them.


    The Frost Saint nodded his head. "Sure. I have promised you too. Just wait for a few days, I''m going to tell them toe here."


    "Understood." Theo agreed to wait since he could also take it easy while finishing hisws.


    The Frost Saint knew that Theo was still tackling the bottleneck, so he didn''t meet him this whole time.


    The monsters were also curious about Theo''s group. Although they had begun their cooperation, not all monsters had seen Theo. So, they were curious and took some sneak peek at them, wondering what was so special to this group.


    Theo didn''t mind about it, while the rest were eitherfortable or scared. Aisha and Chris never went to this ce after all, so it was given that they were looking around, fearing that the monsters would jump on them.


    After one day, a series of roars filled the entire area as a familiar voice echoed in Theo''s ears.


    "Hahahaha! It seems that I am the first one to arrive here! To think that we''ll be fighting together�� This is going to be a st, Theo!"


    Theo smiled and looked at this huge guy riding his horse. "Indeed."


    It was the Dark King, the Frost Saint''s right hand, who was said to be inheriting the Frost Saint''s position in the future.


    "Is your wife here too?"


    "No. A battle of this scale will be extremely dangerous for my son, so she has to remain." The Dark King shook his head. "Though, I can say that the people this time are an interesting bunch."


    "Ho? I''m looking forw��" Before Theo finished his words, he felt another presenceing from the sky. The wind split the cloud open, dispersing it to the side of the surroundings while revealing the monster''s behavior.


    The monster looked like an eagle, but it was so big that its wingspan far surpassed the Dark King''s height.


    "It seems that I have been called." The eagle monster pped its wing, gentlynding on the ground. Even so, with a bird of that size, thending still caused a huge wind that blew away some trees. He looked at Theo and said, "It''s an honor to meet you��"


    Theo nced to the side. Walker, Coline, and Chris were already aware of the stage beyond Mythical Rank Expert. As for Aisha, she shouldn''t really give any information to others. So, Theo said, "Reality King."


    "It''s an honor to meet you, Reality King. I''m known as the Sky King. I''ll be fighting alongside you. I hope that we can have a good fight together!"


    "Indeed. Thank you for helping me." Theo nodded.


    "Anything for Dark King and Frost Saint''s friend." The Sky King nodded and nced at the sky. "Of course, I also bring my family here��"


    Suddenly, a few hundred birds were darkening the sky as they were flying at the same pace. They varied from each other. In fact, this might be the first time they could see numerous birdsing together as one. All of themnded on either the ground or the trees, asserting their dominance."


    "Just make sure those birds don''t poop, Sky King." Another voice echoed from the side.


    They turned around their heads and saw a small troll staring at them. "Pleased to meet you, Reality King. I''m known as the Shaman King. I have also brought my people. You can expect us to support you from the back."


    "Nice to meet you, Shaman King. Let''s work together."


    Both of them nodded at each other before they heard numerous trees falling down to the ground. With such a ruckus, the three monster kings thought of someone and their faces were soon distorted. "Him?"


    "Who?"


    "Muhahaha!" Thest trees fell down, revealing a huge rhinoceros. "I am known as Steel King. I will destroy anything you''d like to destroy, even if it''s your human base. Haha!"


    "You have been told many times to stop destroying the environment like this." Another voice interjected as the Last King ss Monster appeared before them. The monster was actually a chameleon and the reason why they coulde here without anyone noticing was due to her camouge.


    "Nice to meet you, I am the Hidden King. I guess I''ll be bncing the people here." The chameleon nodded to Theo.


    "It''s an honor, Steel King, Hidden King. Thank you for helping."


    "Hahaha, don''t mind. I just want to fight these mutated monsters to see if they are as strong as you im to be." The Steel Kingughed while the Hidden King only nodded his head.


    Theo had no change of expression with this gathering, but the rest of the group dropped their jaws to the ground as the Frost Saint made his appearance again.


    "These will be the five that will help you this time, Theo. Make sure that none of these five die."


    "Haha, my Saint. Are you looking down on me?" The Steel King smirked as if feeling challenged by those words.


    "I''m simply telling you not to die. After all, I''m the only one who can beat you guys."


    "Hahaha!" The Steel Kingughed.


    Theo smiled since monsters weren''t that different from humans. However, Aisha and the others truly couldn''t contain their shock.


    ''It''s said that a General ss Monster is dangerous because of their ability to control monsters. But a King ss Monster is basically an existence that can destroy all kinds of bases that humans have made�� Looking at how organized they are, I don''t think it''s an exaggeration�� So, these are our reinforcement.'' Aisha thought while looking at the five Monster Kings whose presence alone overwhelmed her.

 Chapter 1545 Arriving at Italy

    Chapter 1545 Arriving at Italy


    Italy.


    Rea and the others had arrived inside the union. They were quite shocked by the sight of the town.


    The outer area was filled with military personnel since they would be tackling the monsters from time to time. Unlike the time when the teleportation gate still existed, there was nothing that stopped them from entering the city, so they had to make sure that the border could hold on.


    But when they sneaked inside and entered a bit deeper, they found that the roads had changed and many buildings had been demolished, reced by many apartmentplexes.


    Due to the influx of refugees, it seemed that they had to use it as a solution. After all, they had limited space and a huge number of people. So, they had to wait until they began some expansion to get more space for housing.


    Of course, the closer they were to the border, the more dangerous they were. So, the housing price was low and the living stability wasn''t that great either. It looked like a slum.


    When the group infiltrated a bit further, the housing became even better and the living area was filled with a smile. They hadn''t forgotten about the apocalypse, but it seemed that they had moved on and continued their life like normal.


    Still, richer people would want a better living standard. So, they were closer to the center of the union, which was based in Germany. At the very least, there was no border between countries anymore since the only border was for the monsters.


    "It seems that people have gained some stability in their living." Rea furrowed her eyebrows.


    "What are we going to do now, Rea?" Akbar asked.


    "Well, does anyone want to call their family or something?"


    Akbar and Eleanor shook their heads since they didn''t have anyone there. Felix only had Millie in the base, so it was impossible to call her. The same applied to Isaac.


    "I guess the only one who has to take care of it is myself. I have to call my family, Agata and Maya." Rea sighed before assigning their tasks. "Anyway, Eleanor and Akbar will find some information from the people. Your main priority is the way of living, the system of the union, and what happened in the past nine months, especially about the Griffith Family and all the rted parties."


    "Got it." Akbar and Eleanor nodded. Akbar patted Eleanor''s head and said, "Follow me. It''s time for you to gain some experience."


    "Yes, Teacher."


    Akbar and Eleanor immediately disappeared for their tasks.


    After that, it was Felix''s turn to receive his task. "I want you to create a way to connect with the War God Family, especially Sir War Saint. I hope they haven''t lost their power because it''ll be easier for them to influence the union. I have to meet Sir War Saint within a day."


    "Got it." Felix disappeared after nodding, leaving Isaac and Levina.


    "As for you two��" Rea pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, but I don''t think you can meet your father just yet, Levina. Calling him also has to wait until we confirm the current situation. We don''t like to have your call intercepted after all."


    "I can understand. I miss my father, but I believe it''s not worth it to destroy the opportunity and cause a ruckus just because of my selfishness." Levina nodded.


    "OK. So, your task will be to assist Isaac. I want you two to find any information in the Sk, especially regarding the technical development or research."


    Isaac and Levina agreed without hesitation. Since they didn''t need to leave, they simply sat down near her and opened their Skylink.


    Meanwhile, Rea took out her Skylink to call her father. It went through in an instant, followed by a huge cry.


    "MY DAUGHTER!"


    Rea was startled, looking at the Skylink in shock.


    "I missed you so much! Are you alright? Did you gain some weight? Or did you lose some weight? Let me see your face. Do you have a person you like? Do y��"


    "What the hell? Father�� Can you stop for a moment?"


    "But it''s been so long ever since Ist heard something from you."


    "Ugh. Whatever. I just want to check whether you''re still alive or not." Rea sighed.


    "What? So cold. It must be because you haven''t seen your father for a long time that you have be this cold. I have toin to Theo."


    "Alright, alright. I want to have a long talk with you, but it has to be a bitter. I''m on a mission this time�� an important one that might involve a few hundred million lives. So, please��"


    "��" When he heard it, the Sword Saint finally shut up. "Alright. Do you need any help?"


    "Can you even cross the ocean?"


    "If it''s just a two to three hour flight, the fatality rate is not that high. But if we have to go to the US or Europe, I don''t think it''s possible yet."


    "Yep. So, please wait for a moment. Let me finish the matter first�� I''ll call you again. I just want to tell you that I''m fine."


    "I understand�� I''ll be waiting for your call, no, we''ll be waiting for your call."


    "Yes. Thank you, Father. I miss you and everyone else, I love you. Bye."


    "I love you too. Be careful, alright? We''ll be waiting for your call."


    "Yes, Father." Rea smiled and hung up before calling Agata to inform Theo was alright and he was going to show something big.


    Aside from her, Rea had to call Maya as well. She was surprised that Maya had been making big progress for the airne, making them wait in anticipation.


    After calling everyone that had to be called, Rea finally had some free time, albeit it was taken away by Felix.


    "What the hell? Did you fail? Howe you have returned here?"


    Felix shook his head. "I met Theo''s brother, Lorenzo. He brought me to meet him with his ability, so it was a breeze. He had agreed to meet you after thest meeting�� So, in four hours."


    "Got it. Let''s get some rest first."

 Chapter 1546 A Letter

    Chapter 1546 A Letter


    Rea and Leonardo finally met face to face that night because this was the first time he had ever heard anything about Theo in thest nine months.


    Both of them stared at each other as if they were equal. Rea usually humbled herself in front of Leonardo because she wasn''t able to do anything against him. However, after learning from Theo and gaining some experience, Rea had more confidence to challenge Leonardo.


    Leonardo, on the other hand, was impressed by her improvement. Her strength might not be able to rise anymore, but it seemed that her temperament had be dignified. The Sword Saint had a great heir, he thought.


    Since the other party was the one visiting him, Leonardo extended his hand and asked, "So, why do you want to meet me?"


    Rea closed her eyes for a moment, remembering what Hel said back then. This incident would kill a few hundred million, so it would certainly destroy the entire union.


    So, she took a deep breath to show her seriousness. She said, "The union will be destroyed."


    "Mhm?" Leonardo narrowed his eyes. This statement was heavy, considering the union had grown stabilized and strongerpared to nine months ago. So, he wondered what kind of monster could destroy the base.


    In fact, Leonardo thought that only Theo was able to destroy the union. But he would never doubt Theo even after he controlled the apocalypse.


    Rea stated, "Do you know the nuclear power nt in Chernobyl?"


    "Yes. I know that." Leonardo nodded.


    Rea then took out her Skylink and opened a picture of the mutated dragon that stayed on top of the power nt. "Please take a look at this. This picture was captured around ten months ago."


    Leonardo looked at the dragon before furrowing his eyebrows. "A dragon with rotten flesh�� No, is it undergoing transformation? This dragon looks like a zombie with that rotten flesh. Zombie Dragon?"


    "A single mutated monster can actually kill a few monsters of the same rank. When this picture was captured, that dragon was equal to a King ss Monster, and it kept absorbing the radiation from the power nt��"


    "!!!" Leonardo widened his eyes, finally understanding her intention. "Are you telling me that the dragon might evolve to a World ss Monster? If this mutated monster is as you said�� it will be equal to a few World ss Monsters? There won''t be anyone that can stop it."


    "Exactly." Rea nodded before presenting another topic. "Have you been taking a close look at the Griffith Family?"


    "The Griffith Family has been closing their door this whole time due to the suppression from the union. They should be holding some grudge�� Grudge? Don''t tell me, the Griffith Family��"


    "We aren''t aware of what''s really happening right now, but that''s the best assumption that can be made with the current data. I don''t know if I should say this is fortunate or unfortunate." Rea sighed.


    "Fortunate or unfortunate." Leonardo fell silent as his expression gradually darkened.


    "Yes. It seems that you have understood it as well. This can be said fortunate because the Griffith Family might be nning to use this monster to destroy the union. This means the monster will stop absorbing the radiation. As a result, it won''t be able to evolve into a World ss Monster. Actually, this might be the best chance for us to kill the monsters.


    "On the other hand, it''s unfortunate because a horde of mutated monsters will surely bring a lot of deaths." Rea exined the problems before asking, "So, what will you do, Sir War Saint?"


    "Of course, it''s toe up with a defensive n. The current King ss Mutated Monster is equal to a few King ss Monsters, so�� Flora should be able to handle it. But I''m afraid that the Griffith Family will stop her.


    "In other words, Mason will buy some time from Flora. At the same time, the Griffith Family still has the Poison King and the Devouring King. Alongside them is the mutated monster�� I''m afraid that we have to bring at least ten people equal to King ss Monsters to stop them.


    "However, the problem is�� there are only five people with this kind of power: The pope, Alexej from the Lexon Group, the Great Guardian of France, Sweden''s Princess, and me. It''s not enough�� And we have to take care of the other mutated monsters as well.


    "This is going to be a headache. There are too many variables like Alexej. I can trick him one way or another to direct his anger to the Griffith Family, but it''s simply too much." Leonardo looked down for a moment before opening the map, staring at it as if trying toe up with some ns.


    Rea maintained her silence. This time, Theo was the one giving the n, so she didn''t add anything and just waited for the War Saint to finish.


    "It''s truly going to be troublesome. We can still bring some explosives to support us since this is our battlefield, but it won''t be enough." Leonardo scratched the back of his head.


    "How many heavy machines does the union have?" Rea asked.


    "Mhm. After the apocalypse, only 3,000 tanks, 500 military helicopters, and 200 fighter jets left. We can bombard them, but the mutated monsters are stronger than normal monsters, so I don''t think it will be that easy to kill them.


    "With that stuff, I think we can kill around a few thousand at most. We don''t know how many monsters are going toe at us�� It''ll be even harder if there are many General ss Monsters. And there''s a possibility of another King ss Monster among them." Leonardo let out a long sigh, having trouble finding a way to stop the enemies this time.


    Rea suggested. "I believe you should start investigating that area first to make sure of our target. We believe this is the only one that can destroy us, but there''s no proof whatsoever."


    "That''s true." Leonardo paused for a moment before sighing. "I don''t really want to ask it, but it seems that he has left you something, right?"


    Rea nodded with a calm expression and took out the letter from Theo.

 Chapter ?1547 Plan

    Chapter ?1547 n


    After reading the letter from Theo, Leonardo pinched the bridge of his nose while sighing. "Is he serious?"


    "I don''t know what the letter says since I haven''t read it." Rea shook her head, unable to answer Leonardo''s doubt.


    In the end, Leonardo handed the letter back so that Rea could take a look.


    "The monsters are in a berserk state. To minimize the loss, use all sorts of weapons from the military as this is the only way to deal with the mutated monsters. After that, send in people to sweep them, but this is where the casualties begin to increase.


    "Last but not least, send forth Flora Wegener to the frontline to fight against the mutated dragon. The mutated dragon should almost be a World ss Monster, and the fact that it''s mutated means the dragon''s strength should be equal to a World ss Monster.


    "After or while fighting the dragon, Flora will be a perfect bait to bring out Mason Griffith. As the leader of the union, she has to sacrifice herself for the greater good. The rest of the n will rely on Grandfather as you are the War Saint. Your battle n is more suited to this scenario."


    "��" Rea didn''t expect the battle n to be this simple. It wasn''t extraordinary either. Considering Theo''s strength came from his tricks, she thought she would be able to find something surprising in the n, but she didn''t see anything weird.


    On the other hand, Leonardo caught the hidden intention Theo had in this n. He said while recalling the past memory. "I have confirmed this since a few years ago�� Theo was never meant to be a strategist. After all, a strategist is someone who formtes a n to victory."


    "But isn''t this the n for victory?"


    "No. Not at all. His real intention is in the third paragraph. He''s nning to pit Flora and Mason against each other. Mason might be helped by the mutated dragon, putting Flora at a disadvantage. Either Mason or Flora will die in this battle while the other will be severely weakened."


    "Ah!" Rea widened her eyes in shock. She almost forgot that Theo held some grudge against the union, especially the Griffith Family and Flora. The Griffith Family had hunted them before and Flora had threatened him and abandoned him while taking advantage of all his ns.


    And this n was his payback. Rea looked down while muttering, "Revenge huh��"


    Leonardo sighed in reminiscence, "Just like the case with the Czar, the Safulli Group, or themotion a few months ago, he doesn''t care about winning or victory. He just wants you to y in his hand the whole time for his own sake. Whether it''s amusement, revenge or whatever. But I know that everything will go in a bad way��


    "In other words, the end result is not about victory or anything. It''s chaos. As for whether the chaos will give him an advantage or not, he doesn''t care. The Safulli Group and the Pata Corporation, the chaos causes the Safulli Group to copse while his rtionship with the Pata Corporation grows.


    "In Czar''s case, the chaotic situation invited the Wind Emperor, and it ended up benefiting him as the Wind Emperor became his friend. As for thestmotion, the union took a hit, the War God Family and the Lexon Group were scrutinized, and the British Royal Family got some advantage.


    "Can you see this? He never aimed for victory, he simply wanted to create some chaos since each event would cause the world to be disturbed by whatever they found at that time.


    "And right now, the chance that Flora dies is quite high with this n. If Flora and Mason die together, it might be the best scenario since no one has enough strength to rule the union anymore. That''s probably the time he will appear.


    "Without anyone to lead the union, the people have to beg him, the person they have once abandoned to lead them. Such irony."


    Rea listened to Leonardo''s rant and understood Theo''s way of thinking.


    She looked down because she might have been witnessing all that, but because she was a part of Theo, she never looked at it from others'' perspectives.


    Her father''s rtionship with him also caused a lot of controversies when it was revealed to the public. However, he somehow managed to convince her father to support him.


    After that, the Heavenly Sovereign was the same. Zhao Jia once helped them when she was besieged in Thernd because Theo had gotten the Heavenly Sovereign''s cooperation.


    Rea gulped down. She might have never understood Theo this whole time. In fact, the fact that his grandfather knew this might be within his n. In other words, Theo was letting his grandfather understand him as such. And he allowed the others to know him as another thing, causing a huge confusion when all of them met.


    Which one was actually the real Theo�� Theo might be the only one having that answer.


    Rea took a deep breath and asked, "However, it doesn''t seem that Sir War Saint is not nning to go with this kind of n��"


    "Of course. I am a strategist who fights for victory while minimizing our loss. So, I''m going to change the n that suits my way of victory."


    "Well, it seems that I have finished my task here. I''m only here to inform you about this letter and the situation, so the rest will be up to you, Sir War Saint. I hope that you can keep everything a secret."


    "Of course. No matter how angry I am at my kids or grandkids, I won''t snitch on them. That''s the least I can do." Leonardo nodded. "Still, how is he?"


    "He is alright. And our environment isn''t that bad either, except for theck of connection to Sk. So, you don''t have to worry, Sir War Saint."


    "I see." Leonardo let out a breath of relief and looked up, staring at the moon. "I really shouldn''t have told him how to get revenge without even doing anything."


    "��" Rea looked away as Leonardo might be the one responsible for the whole mess since he was Theo''s teacher who developed his strategic thinking. Of course, Rea wouldn''t say anything about it. She simply nodded her head before leaving.

 Chapter 1548 Control

    Chapter 1548 Control


    After leaving the War God Family, Rea regrouped with Felix.


    "How is the meeting?" Felix asked.


    "It is as nned." Rea nodded and took out another letter. This was a personal letter to her as Theo had listed all tasks in this one letter.


    "I see. It seems that the War God Family will be taking over, especially in the nning."


    "Yeah. With the War Saint at the helm, I don''t think the union will lose. However, the enemies this time are quite troublesome. So, let''s move to the next ce." Rea smiled.


    "Next ce? Where is it?"


    "The Lexon Group!" Rea smirked.


    Felix widened his eyes in shock. The Lexon Group was one of Theo''s targets, but going there at this time would just cause a lot of trouble. So, he didn''t know what Theo wanted to do this time.


    "I just want to let you know first that I can''t defeat Alexej."


    "Don''t worry, Theo doesn''t n to fight inside the union this time."


    "Then��"


    "Everything is just a build up, Felix." Rea shook her head. "So, let''s take our time to build the tension and excitement, shall we?"


    Felix gulped down, wondering what she wanted to do.


    However, the answer came not long after because numerous headlines started to spread on Sk.


    "The Griffith Family is nning a coup d''etat?"


    "The Griffith Family has been hiding this whole time. Is it true that they''re trying to cause another problem for the union?"


    "The Griffith Family wants to destroy the union just like how they killed Theodore Griffith?"


    "Help! The union has to act immediately!"


    "The Griffith Family has to be stopped."


    When Felix read all the news, he realized that Rea was taking advantage of the grudge between the Lexon Group and the Griffith Family. Even if Alexej believed that Theo was the culprit of his son''s death, Theo wouldn''t take revenge if not for the Griffith Family.


    Hence, this opportunity was a blessing to him. By using the power of the Lexon Group as an advertisementpany, he started spreading all the rumors without hesitation.


    Leonardo, Flora, and the rest of the members of the union were startled when they heard the report during their meeting.


    "What?!" Flora widened her eyes in shock, never expecting there was chaos outside.


    Leonardo, on the other hand, gulped down because he could see the scheme perfectly. Theo must be the culprit of the news because he was trying to pit Flora against Mason.


    The public was demanding the union investigate the Griffith Family. And with the Lexon Group bing the loudest influence in this area, it caused a lot of pressure.


    "��" Leonardo realized that Theo was adamant about making those two against each other.


    All of them took a look at themotion in the Sk. Everyone was demanding the Griffith Family be investigatedpletely this time.


    They had lost Theo, who had once saved the union, so they didn''t want to lose anything more from the Griffith Family.


    Hence, they demanded the union act immediately before everything was toote.


    The Lexon Group continued producing one fact after another about the Griffith Family, increasing the pressure.


    If this continued, it wouldn''t take long for the Griffith Family to be the public enemy.


    In fact, if Theo had used this kind of strategy since the start, the union and the Griffith Family would have fought against each other at that time. However, Theo didn''t do it just yet because he knew that if the Griffith Family wanted to direct their hatred, it would be rted to the mutated monsters he found in Chernobyl.


    With this, the Griffith Family would be ying in Theo''s hand. It was easier toe up with a n to counter something that he had expected, so Theo chose this timing to finally cause the huge battle between the union and the Griffith Family.


    On the other hand, the Griffith Family was silent this whole time. Ever since they had been deprived of their power from the union, the Griffith Family had been hiding inside their home this whole time.


    Only the original Theo and the Poison King were staying inside the Griffith Family''s residence. Mason had disappeared from there, so he didn''t know what was happening.


    "Master." The Poison King furrowed his eyebrows, presenting the news to the original Theo.


    The original Theo''s face was distorted upon reading the news. "Huh? Did someone find out about our n? Is there a mole in our rank?"


    "No, there shouldn''t be any mole in our ranks." The Poison King shook his head.


    The original Theo gritted his teeth and said, "Alright. It seems that the union is the one nning this. After all, the union now has the justification to investigate us."


    "What should we do?"


    "We''re going to speed up our n. I told you about your task a long time ago, right?"


    "Yes." The Poison King nodded with a serious expression. "I''ll make sure toplete the task. The union is truly bullying us too much."


    "Go!" The original Theo sent the Poison King on a mission as he also began to make his move.


    ��


    Seeing thismotion on the Sk, Rea was smiling. Everything turned out to be ording to Theo''s n. "How in the world could he predict all this?"


    Suddenly, Akbar''s voice resounded in the room. "It must be because he understands humans'' minds. Humanity is idiotic, greedy, prideful, resentful, depraved, and so on�� I can continue cursing them for a while. They have a ''Following'' mindset. Like when one person ps, the other person will p, and it will continue until all people p.


    "The fear will also be true when it''s told too much, and as expected of the media, they''ll surelye up with one bad news after another since it''s the one gaining traction. Let''s take the apocalypse as an example. Instead of a few billion people surviving, the media emphasize the ten billion deaths.


    "Then, the people will continue to talk about it, causing the rumor to be the truth. And when that truth is present, those people will be desperate and cause another chain of reaction. That''s how he maniptes them."


    "Akbar?" Rea turned around, surprised by his appearance.


    "I''vee back." Akbar nodded. "And Ie with important news�� The union has been talking about it. The monsters seem to have started moving."

 Chapter 1549 Situation

    Chapter 1549 Situation


    "Emergency."


    "The mutated monsters areing our way."


    "They''re moving at a fast speed and they are killing all monsters in their way."


    In the control room, Flora gritted her teeth, ring at the screen. "What''s the situation right now? How fast is their speed?"


    "The mutated monsters are picking up their pace and they will be reaching Czechia in 27 hours. Their number is expected to be fifty thousand."


    "Fifty thousand?" Leonardo''s expression darkened because he didn''t even expect this kind of number. "Each monster even has the ability to fight multiple monsters of the same level. No, by rough calction around, there should be at least three hundred Mythical Rank Monsters alone.


    "That number is not something that we''re prepared to take. This is not good." Leonardo bit his lips, racking his brain to find a brilliant idea. But no matter how hard he thought, the casualties would be enormous.


    "Leonardo!" Flora red at him, asking for the n.


    However, Leonardo shook his head. "I can''t think of anything. Even repelling them might kill at least fifty thousand of our soldiers and more than four hundred thousand soldiers will be injured."


    Flora narrowed her eyes and asked, "What if we send our Transcendent Level Experts?"


    "No. All of you have to conserve your stamina because the enemies might have another King ss Monster. Even if they don''t have one, the mutated Mythical Rank Monsters will still be troubling." Leonardo took a deep breath before moving to a table to see the map.


    "Griffith Family! You and I can''t live together anymore. I''ll make sure to eradicate your entire family after this." Flora mmed the table and shouted, "Gather all personnel toe up with a countermeasure.


    "All soldiers are to move to the border. No matter what, we have to stop them at the border. Send the message to every single person living in the union, if they still can fight,e to the front line or else, their home will be destroyed."


    The one who was about to take hermand found a weird situation. "If we tell them about our situation, won''t it cause huge unrest among the people? There will be chaos everywhere."


    Flora bit her lips. She also understood that. If the public was chaotic, there would be a huge rampage in all cities. They would begin hoarding the stores and do everything they wanted, thinking they would die after this.


    Flora thought for a moment and asked, "How many soldiers do we have? And how about the loose experts?"


    "We have a total of five hundred thousand soldiers scattered all across the union. As for the experts unrted to the military, we have more than one million."


    She thought for a moment and said, "All members of the unions, as well as influences, are to send their forces to Czechia immediately. The police in all areas will increase their security and stop any unrest even if you hate to use force. Leave fifty thousand soldiers to all borders and send the rest to Czechia. If they don''t send anyone, I''m going to personally visit them and destroy them."


    "Understood. But what should we do with the public?"


    "I''ll be talking to the public to inspire them." Flora''s expression became extremely cold, knowing that this was the hardest.


    "Understood."


    The team worked fast because they didn''t have too much time left.


    Leonardo immediately formed a team toe up with a n. This might be the biggest military operation they have done so far.


    As expected, it wasn''t that long for the news to spread.


    It caused great unrest among the people. Luckily, they managed to get this information as quickly as possible due to Theo''s interference.


    "Is the Griffith Family truly the cause of the apocalypse?"


    "They used the real Theodore Griffith to cause the apocalypse and drive out the good clone of Theodore Griffith?"


    "Why did the clone have to be the good one?"


    "Why does a good person have to die?"


    "Now the Griffith Family is targeting the entire union by baiting the mutated monsters."


    There were many people who held a huge demonstration because of this situation. However, the police stopped them and even used force because they had to if they didn''t want the union to copse.


    Obviously, Flora had to make a press conference immediately to exin everything.


    While walking in the hallway, Flora said, "Thanks to you, we can learn about their movement and have some time to react."


    The one next to her was none other than Leonardo. He shook his head and thought for a moment. "It''s nothing."


    He was contemting whether to take the credit or not. After all, if he didn''t take the credit, Theo would be exposed. In the end, he didn''t snitch on Theo for the time being and simply imed the credit and exined itter when Theo arrived.


    "At the very least, we have to act right now," Flora said as she passed through the door, entering the stage for the press conference.


    Because they didn''t have much time to move the troops around, Flora immediately cut to the chase.


    "I''m sure that everyone knows about the movement of the mutated monsters. That''s why I won''t beat around the bushes and tell you everything you need to know.


    "The number of monsters is roughly fifty thousand. This doesn''t look muchpared to our numbers, but each monster is equal to a few monsters of the same level.


    "As much as I want to say that the military can handle all this and all of you just have to stay at home and wait for the good news. I can''t."


    "The military has been severely weakened due to the apocalypse. So, we''recking people to fight at the border to protect this union! To put it simply, if we don''t fight, we''ll die.


    "Take a look to your left, who is the one beside you? Take a look at your right, who is the one staying with you? Take a look above you, the roof that has been sheltering you�� All of them will perish if we don''t stand together now.


    "Please forget about the grievance between us just for this moment. Tomorrow, we''re going to fight for the lives of humanity. We shall stand as one and united.


    "And I, Flora Wegener, promise you that I''ll be at the very front, leading the entire army. Please, all organizations,panies, influences�� All experts with no affiliation�� Let''s forget about our differences and stand together as one. I beg you to fight with me." Flora lowered her head to ny degrees.

 Chapter ?1550 Discussion

    Chapter ?1550 Discussion


    "��" People were staring at the news to learn about the current situation. All the media were sharing the same thing.


    There wasn''t even a threat from Flora. If they didn''t share this kind of news, they would be destroyed sooner orter by the public. And they would be a fool if they didn''t share her speech since it was the most trending topic.


    That was why those who were watching something on Sk soon found out about the speech and their current situation.


    "I think I have to go fight for humanity."


    "I don''t want to die, but if I don''t fight now, I''ll die anyway."


    "Flora Wegener is the fourth strongest person in the world. Since she''s going to lead the army, I''ll join as well."


    "That''s right. We should forget about our grievances first. We have to stand together as one to defeat the enemies."


    "If we don''t fight, we''ll perish."


    "Let''s destroy the mutated monsters as well as the Griffith Family."


    "The Griffith Family is the world''s enemy."


    The people''s spirit rose. Whether it was due to the threat or simply because of their patriotic heart, many people volunteered to fight.


    The union also prepared the transport to send them to war. Even thepanies and organizations gave their vehicles to bring everyone. It was truly a sight to behold as the hundreds of thousands of people stood together as one.


    ��


    Maya was staring at the Skylink with Ruth, watching this movement. "What do you think, Ruth?"


    "There is nothing much to see. If they don''t fight, they die. So, they have no choice." Ruth shook her head with a calm expression as if not expecting anything.


    "Do you think the union will survive?"


    "I''m not sure. There is one person that might make a difference if he knows about it."


    "Theo?"


    "Yes. I have received a call from Rea. She told me they were preparing something. So, I guess we have to wait."


    "Such irony. They have thrown away the person who has fought for them, and now that person is going to be the one saving them." Ruth shook her head in disappointment.


    "Haha. I guess everything has been calcted by Theo. Either way, the situation will continue to go like this, and I don''t know if they''re strong enough to handle those monsters or not."


    "What do you mean? There should be around one million people ready to fight those fifty thousand, right?"


    "Yes. But the problem is�� do you think it''s an easy fight for them?"


    "Mutated Monsters might be able to fight a few monsters of the same level, but their number is twenty times. So, I think this is enough."


    "If that''s the case, why do you think Theo brings five King ss Monsters as well as all of his people in this fight?"


    "!!!" Ruth widened her eyes. Theo never underestimate anyone, but five King ss Monsters were truly too much. Theo wouldn''t do that unless the enemies were far stronger than he expected. "It seems that�� I still underestimate them."


    ��


    Japan.


    There were five people sitting behind a round table, staring at the video that showed Flora''s speech.


    "What do you think about this, Sword Saint?"


    The Sword Saint shook his head. "It should be fine. I think we''ll be able to witness something extraordinary in this battle. So, sit back and rx, Heavenly Sovereign."


    "But the union has Flora Wegener and Leonardo, right? They should be doing fine."


    "Daemon. The situation is moreplicated than you think. We''re talking about the casualty. Even if they can repel them, the weapon will be hard to reproduce and the casualty will be high. Seeing this situation alone, the union will surely suffer a lot like us." The Sword Saint shook his head.


    Of course, he was implying the leaked radiation from the power nt in Fukushima. They had fought against the mutated monsters themselves and even a King ss one on top of that. However, they managed to join hands to eliminate them.


    "What do you think about this, miss Zhao? You are the head of ourmand center." Daemon smirked.


    Zhao Jia closed her eyes and simply stated, "I believe that you should ask that question to the person next to me."


    "��" All three of them looked at the female beside her. She was none other than Agata. She would be able to live leisurely with the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign''s protection.


    However, Agata didn''t want to be always protected. She wanted to contribute to society as well and she didn''t want others to look at her as a weak woman who could only rely on her husband. That was why she had joined the army for a bit as a special adviser in themand center.


    Zhao Jia could receive anyone''s opinion when looking at the situation, but she would take special care when Agata was the one suggesting a n.


    "��" Agata scratched the back of her head with a weak smile as if she didn''t know what to say. "Well, I don''t know. I haven''t even received a call from him. Though, Rea told me that Theo would bring some reinforcement. Though, I don''t know what reinforcement they''re talking about��


    "I don''t know how big he is nning, but I''m sure that we''ll get a surprise during this battle. After all, Theo''s objective is one thing." Agata paused for a moment to raise the tension.


    "Come on. Don''t stop there!" The Sword Saint sighed as his curiosity got better of him.


    "eptance."


    "eptance?" Daemon narrowed his eyes.


    "eptance, huh. This guy is truly good." The Heavenly Sovereign understood her meaning not long after, while Zhao Jia got it a bitter. Since the others were still confused, she exined, "eptance means Theo will be the hero of the union. With that kind of reputation, whatever he is going to do in the future will be seen as a good thing.


    "For example, if the hero ims that he destroys something for the people''s good. Most people will believe it. He only has to provide some facts to convince the rest. In other words, if he wants to trick the whole union, he only has to say a word in the future."


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1551 Start

    Chapter 1551 Start


    While the rest were discussing the situation, Flora was standing on a tform in front of a hundred thousand people. She was wearing her military uniform as if she was nning to charge straight at the enemies.


    The entire group was standing in front of the borders, waiting for the monsters toe.


    It didn''t take long for them to find dust kicked up by numerous monsters rising to the sky, signifying their presence.


    "Ready!" Flora shouted while waving her hand. "Our enemies are in front of us. Our family and our loved ones are behind us. And ourrades are standing next to us. Forget about our grievance, for we shall stand to fight for our freedom! Kill the monsters!"


    "Kill!"


    "Kill!"


    "Kill!"


    The people''s voices were echoing through the battlefield as Flora shouted, "Attack!"


    In that instant, a group of fighter jets flew on top of them as they sent forth their missiles for the first attack.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred, killing some monsters at the front. But, these explosions also served as a signal to move forward.


    "Let''s go!"


    "We kill the monsters."


    "Uoh!"


    The people roared and began to run straight to the dust where they could find the monsters.


    But before the first sh even began, the enemy''s leader seemed to be leading the enemies at the front as well.


    *Roar!*


    A huge roar suddenly filled the entire battlefield, startling everyone. Even though they hadn''t met the monster that produced such a roar, they could feel their body shaken from the sheer pressure of the roar alone.


    Suddenly, with a wingspan of a quarter mile, a huge dragon made its appearance. The dragon was half skeleton and half rotten flesh.


    It flew at high speed as if nning to destroy them single handedly.


    "Thank you foring so fast!" Flora''s expression became serious.


    "Wait, Flora. We''ll send the Great Guardian first.


    "No. I''ll go this time because it''s the leader. I have to inspire the men to decrease the casualty." Flora stopped him, She was standing in front of everyone to show that she would be the one to stop the monsters.


    "That''s Flora! Flora is going to make her move! The leader seems to be going to make the first move!" The people began to cheer because the bigshot was going to make their move.


    Since she nned to inspire the people below, she gathered her Magic Power into her palm before waving it, spreading the cold to the enemy''s line and freezing numerous monsters.


    "What? A single move can freeze so many monsters?"


    "Idiot. Look. There are monsters that can still break free from the ice."


    "But even so, a single move of her can kill at least a hundred mutated monsters. Don''t you think it''s amazing?"


    The people cheered for her as this move energized them, allowing them to fight even fiercer.


    But the zombie dragon didn''t n to hold back, so it gathered a huge amount of Magic Power in its mouth before releasing a purple fire.


    "!!!" Flora was shocked by the sheer amount of power contained inside that fire. She immediately created a huge ice wall to block this attack so that no one died.


    The ice was freezing the me, but the me actually turned the ice charred as if it was burning the ice in another way.


    "Impossible!" Flora widened her eyes in shock. This was the first time she had seen this kind of fire.


    "Flora. That''s a me containing radiation! You have to use all your strength to freeze it because the temperature of that me can be as hot as the sun''s surface. Unless you freeze it with all your strength, you won''t be able to stop it!" Leonardo shouted.


    "!!!" Flora gritted her teeth and used as much energy as she could release at a time to stop this me. Not only the ice but the surrounding area also began to melt. Flora gritted her teeth before sensing another presence from the side.


    A shadow appeared in the sky and struck Flora with his fist.


    "You�� You are�� Mason Griffith!" Flora widened her eyes in shock. Due to the surprise attack, she could only stop the impact from that fist, not the momentum transferred to her body, resulting in her crashing to the ground.


    *Boom!*


    "What?"


    "Someone hit Flora?"


    "Look at the sky. The blue-haired old man. He is�� He must be Mason Griffith from, whose second identity is known as Haiskal Hetson!"


    "You bast��" Before they could curse, due to the surprise attack, Flora couldn''t stop the breath anymore as itpletely melted the ice and came to the people.


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    The screamssted an instant because they instantly evaporated. Supreme Rank Experts and Mythical Rank Experts tried to stop it but to no avail. The heat was too much for them to handle. A single breath actually took at least two thousand lives.


    "Mason Griffith!" Flora roared while leaping into the sky. Mason punched forward while the dragon let out his breath, trying to kill both Mason and Flora.


    However, Flora had to freeze both of their attacks because it would be dangerous if she was injured just by this. Seeing the struggle Flora had, they wanted to help her.


    Even Leonardo had given hismand. "All Transcendent Level Experts are to buy some time for Flora. She has to kill Mason Gri��"


    Unfortunately for them, before Leonardo could finish, they felt a thunderous roar from the side. Even Leonardo bit his lips while saying, "Shit!"


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    A series of roars suddenly filled the entire battlefield. This kind of roar couldn''t be produced by a few hundred monsters. The sound came from at least more than a thousand monsters.


    "What��"


    "Impossible. There are more monstersing from that ce? But this doesn''t sound like the roars of the mutated monsters."


    "Are the monsters trying to attack us together with the mutated monsters?"


    "This is not good."


    "Is this the retribution for humanity?"


    The people started to fall into despair. They never thought that the monsters would take this opportunity to attack them.


    The dust that was kicked up by the monsters rose to the sky, showing the sheer amount of their number. The buildings and the trees were demolished one after another, creating a path for the monsters.


    Soon, the sky gradually turned ck because of the numerous birds that flew in the sky, giving an eerie feeling in one''s heart.


    A huge ck knight was riding his horse as if preparing for war. There was a rhinoceros running along with him.


    "There were a few other monsters standing on top of the rhinoceros. There was even a lizard half the size of the rhino sitting on top of it. But more importantly, those with binocrs could spot humans standing on top of the horse and the rhinoceros.


    And the one standing at the peak was a blue-haired guy that everyone had thrown away.


    The roars were not for intimidating the humans, the roars were sweet to their eyes as if it was the trumpet that signified the appearance of a single army. The army that would save humanity.


    Theo was simply sitting on the Dark King''s shoulder while smiling.

 Chapter 1552 Showing Whos the Boss

    Chapter 1552 Showing Who''s the Boss


    A few moments ago.


    "What? Are you serious about this?" Rea asked while furrowing her eyebrows, staring at the screen with Theo''s face on it.


    Rea opened the note he gave her and showed it to him. "See? Our n is to make them fall into despair after the defeat of Flora Wegener, right? This way, Flora will know that you are the one pulling the string this whole time, and if she can survive, you''re prepared to wash away the grudges between you.


    "Why do you want to change the n right now? I mean, this should be the best n. Even I can''t think of anything better than this." Rea furrowed her eyebrows.


    Theo closed his eyes with a sigh. "The answer is simple. If I use Akbar''s way of talking, if we follow this n, there is a hundred percent chance that Flora will definitely die, our n will be ruined, and the union will be destroyed."


    "Huh? Are you serious? Everything should be under control, no?"


    "I can see it. I literally can see it right now, Rea. The scene where we lose everything." Theo sighed. His eyes were still glued to her, but Rea didn''t feel his gaze at all as if he was staring deep into something else.


    This wasn''t like someone erasing their presence while watching her. She felt like Theo was indeed looking at something, but that something wasn''t her.


    "��" Rea scratched the back of her head. "To be honest, I don''t know what you''re nning to do. But you''re the boss, so we''ll change the n. What do you want me to do?"


    "You, Akbar, and Felix will hide among the army and keep reacting to the scene. Just make sure you let out your voice loud enough so that many can hear it."


    "You want to create a certain atmosphere in the army?"


    "Yes."


    ��


    Rea gradually opened her eyes, recalling the call from earlier. She had sneaked into the army.


    The perfect scene in her mind had shattered because of the change, but she still had to act ordingly, knowing Theo had a reason to change the n.


    "There are monsters from our side." Felix, not far from her, shouted as if trying to let everyone know.


    Rea''s eyes shed as she followed suit by saying, "Look! There are people above the monsters!"


    The people were turning their heads around to see what was going on. It didn''t take too long for them to find the most important person among them.


    "That''s�� Theodore Griffith!"


    "Is that the real Theodore Griffith?"


    "But the people on top of the monsters are from his group."


    "That must be the good Theo!"


    This reaction startled both Mason and Flora. They didn''t expect Theo to appear here because he hadn''t made a single move in thest nine months.


    At the same time, Theo''s appearance truly had the biggest impact.


    "He is together with the monsters?" Mason gasped because this kind of lineup might be able to disrupt his n. He thought that he could finish Flora as soon as possible, but it seemed that he had underestimated Theo once again.


    While Mason was gritting his teeth, Flora was actually confused. ''Why did he help me? Knowing how hard his trick hit the union months ago�� he wouldn''t even hold back against me. Yet��''


    Flora pped her hands and summoned a huge ice crystal, freezing the purple breath and blowing Mason away.


    At the same time, she used that opportunity to get some distance while looking at Theo. A reason suddenly shed in her mind.


    ''Wait a minute. If Richard was him, he wouldn''t have ranked up my skill. But why did he rank up my skill but not Mason?'' Flora sucked a cold breath and looked at Theo''s eyes from a distance. Theo was actually smiling at her as if confirming her answer.


    ''That''s right. You still have some uses for me. I won''t let you die easily,'' was what Theo''s smile said.


    Flora''s body trembled as if she was scared of Theo. ''Back then, his scheme could kill the Death Reaper�� That was the only way to destroy his enemy, but this time�� He''s manipting me instead of killing me. That makes it even harder. Are you telling me that his scheme can even manipte me?''


    Theo suddenly raised his hand, pointing at a certain person. It was none other than his grandfather from the Griffith Family, Mason.


    There were four people that managed to understand that action. They were Mason, Flora, Rea, and Leonardo.


    This was Theo''s way of telling Flora, ''Defeat him and bring him to me so that I can kill him personally.''


    "You bastard!" Mason gritted his teeth in anger, never expecting a brat to do something like that. He roared while gathering his Magic Power in his fist, trying to send forth a powerful shock wave toward Theo.


    Flora didn''t want to do it because it felt like she was his dog, who would do anything he wanted. But she knew that if she didn''t do anything, she would be in a worse situation than this. In fact, Theo was indirectly telling her that she should be grateful that she hadn''t died at this point.


    Flora suddenly leaped in Mason''s way and froze the air itself, stopping the shock wave.


    "Your opponent is me," Flora shouted.


    "Flora! Are you going to be his dog?" Mason red at her.


    Before Flora could say anything, the zombie dragon had stepped forward and prepared another breath in his mouth. His target was the same. The dragon wanted to eliminate both of them right at this instant.


    "Castle of the Empire!" A muscr guy fell in front of the dragon and raised his shield. In an instant, a huge wall emerged from the ground, blocking the dragon.


    "That''s�� The Great Guardian of France, Jeremy Crozier."


    People started to see some hope in this battle even though the war had yet to start. But the hope soon disappeared because the breath started to melt the wall.


    "Kh. Even this wall is not enough?" Jeremy looked unwilling. This was his best defense, yet, he couldn''t even stop a single attack.


    Suddenly, another person descended from the sky while shouting, "Voice Command! Disappear!"


    In the instant the voice echoed on the battlefield, the breath was dispersed as if it was following its order.


    And a woman soon descended on top of the wall while ring at the dragon fearlessly. "Don''t think you can do anything you like, Monster."


    "That''s�� the great queen, Sweden''s Princess, Elise Lund."


    "Don''t call me queen. It makes me look old."

 Chapter ?1553 Radiation

    Chapter ?1553 Radiation


    With the Great Guardian and the Princess having made their move, the battle had stepped to a whole new level.


    Even though they looked cool, they still couldn''t stop Leonardo from shouting. "You idiots! Go forward! Attack the monsters and stop them. Make sure they can''t help the dragon!"


    "That''s��" The people were dumbfounded for a moment but realized that the battle had just begun.


    The monsters started looping around the dragon and approached the half-broken wall to deliver thest blow to destroy it.


    "Ooh?!" The people were confused at the moment. After all, this was the first time they were fighting at this scale.


    "It seems that the military has to give an example first! Battalion 1, 2, 3. Onward! Leonardo, any backup?" A general in charge of the militarymanded the army while coordinating with Leonardo.


    Normally, they wouldn''t have to go to the frontline because their huge amount of experience was more useful on the back,manding the soldiers.


    However, Leonardo was the one giving themand, so all the veterans didn''t hesitate to step forward.


    "Not yet. We can''t send forth air support just yet." Leonardo denied the idea before calling someone''s name. "Jeremy!"


    "I know." Jeremy took out a device and checked his wall condition before cursing. "Fuck!"


    "What''s wrong?"


    "The dosimeter gives me a number�� It''s one thousand."


    "Are you serious?" Leonardo bit his lips. "One thousand roentgen�� If I''m not wrong, Chernobyl was releasing around 15,000 to 20,000 thousand Roentgen at that time. And two minutes of exposure with full protection gear would cut your lifespan at least half.


    "In other words, thirty minutes�� I can only allow the soldiers to fight for half an hour before pulling them back." He gritted his teeth.


    "Leonardo. We have good news and bad news. The good ones are�� The radiation can be blocked by Magic Power. There''s nothing behind my wall. It seems that the mutated monsters can wield the radiation but can''t replicate its true power. Also, the dragon should have the most radiation among them, so we can expect that the rest of the monsters have less radiation.


    "But the bad news�� I think you know this already, but all those monsters might constantly be releasing radiation."


    "I know." Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows before ncing at the side, wondering what Theo wanted to do.


    Little did Leonardo know, there was a mouse underneath the ground. That mouse transmitted the news to its owner, Eleanor.


    She immediately informed Theo about this information so that Theo could know the current condition.


    "Alright. The distance is enough for us." Theo smirked and said, "Dark King. Let''s start!"


    The Dark King smiled. "That''s where you should stop, Theo. We, monsters, have our own way of fighting."


    "Mhm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as the Dark King raised his sword. Suddenly, ck energy shot forward and split into five.


    The first light stopped right after the split, while three of them split into three ways. As for thest one, it increased intitude for a bit and moved together with the other three from above them.


    In an instant, Theo understood what was going on. These were the positions of the five King ss Monsters.


    "I''m reluctant to do it, but I''ll give you the middle position this time." The Steel King snorted. "Show off!"


    The Hidden King leaped and began to walk by itself.


    "What are you doing?!" Theo shouted in confusion.


    "This is our way of fighting, Reality King. We bring our own people and crush the enemy." The Steel King bluntly exined it to Theo.


    "Coordinating together is better in thisrge fight!" Theoined because he had a n in mind.


    "That won''t make us shine. We are here to fight to show our prowess. We are different from humans, Reality King! That''s why we''re going to do this in our own way."


    "You want to shine?" Theo sighed. "Why didn''t you tell me that from the start? I can make you shine far brighter than the others. If I can do that, do you mind fighting under my control?"


    "Huh?" The Steel King red at Theo for a while before saying, "The Saint has asked us to help you this time. I can agree with that. However, if you can''t do it, I''ll fight as I see fit."


    "That''s good enough." Theo smirked and raised his hand, shooting out another light while erasing the Dark King''s ck energy. "This is how you do it, right?"


    "Yeah."


    "Follow that light, including that shape. I''ll show you how you can crush the enemies!" Theo smirked. "This is not my forte, but I guess I have to use it now."


    "What do you mean?" The Dark King was confused, but Theo didn''t reply to him.


    Instead, he split the light into five again.


    This time, the light that represented the Steel King moved forward.


    "Huh? Hey! My position is higher than theirs. I should be the one taking the spotlight, not him!" the Dark Kingined.


    "Don''t worry. I can give you the show you want." Theo smirked.


    "Then, you''re telling me that I''m just an opening act." The Steel King clicked his tongue, not liking this position.


    However, Theo simply asked him. "Then, are you not confident to show your prowess? I heard that you could destroy everything. Are you afraid that others are going to outshine you? Maybe I shouldn''t have any expectations for you from the start?"


    "!!!" The Steel King was angry hearing Theo''s provocation. He roared, "I will show you that no one can outshine me. I''m the Steel King and I''m the best!"


    The Steel King moved forward as the rest of the monsters followed him, nning to ram their bodies against the mutated monsters ording to Theo''smand. He was going to show them that they were the best by crushing the enemies.


    He looked at the shape of the light and started ordering his General ss Monsters to follow it.


    Leonardo, who was watching the monsters, dropped his jaw to the ground. The Steel king was leading at the very front, bing the leading charge while the others were behind him, creating a nt in the formation.


    However, as amander and strategist, Leonardo understood the art of ancient warfare. And this was an impossible sight in this modern warfare. But the shape truly couldn''t lie.


    Leonardo gasped and said, "Are you serious? The monsters are using�� Wedge Formation."

 Chapter 1554 Army of Monsters

    Chapter 1554 Army of Monsters


    "Are you serious? The monsters are using�� Wedge Formation."


    Leonardo was shocked to the core. Even in ancient times, it was hard to utilize the Wedge Formation. Not only did you need good coordination, but the tip should be strong enough to hold on, or the formation would break.


    However, Leonardo was shocked that the monsters could coordinate this well. And the one leading the charge was the rhinoceros that was releasing a ck Magic Power, symbolizing his status as a King ss Monster. In other words, the monsters had solved the two problems for the wedge formation.


    "Are the monsters more coordinated than humans?" Leonardomented while ncing at his grandson, who was the culprit of this great scheme.


    The wedge formation was good for disrupting and piercing through the enemy''s line. And with their overwhelming power, they could even create a hole through the rank, making them unstoppable.


    And the Steel King did his job wonderfully. By covering his body with steel and bringing monsters who were good at defensive power, the Steel King crushed the mutated monsters one by one. Even if they couldn''t kill the monsters, they would throw them away and move on.


    "Move!"


    "Die!"


    The Steel King and his General ss Monsters roared, showing their overwhelming power.


    Even the humans were shocked when they saw the Steel King crushing numerous monsters just by using this single charge.


    "Impossible."


    "He is unstoppable. The monsters are so strong!"


    Hearing their praises, the Steel Kingughed proudly while ncing at the Dark King as if showing off his power.


    "Kh!" The Dark King gritted his teeth. "Theo!"


    Theo smiled and pointed at the dragon. "I know. Go for it!"


    The dragon was surprised by the Steel King and wanted to stop him. Seeing this action put a smile on the Dark King''s face because it meant that he was going to have a showdown against the strongest among them.


    "Let''s go!" The Dark King immediately rushed while gathering his Magic Power into his de. The dark energy shot to the sky as he shed his de down.


    Suddenly, the dark me-like energy ran through the ground and struck the dragon''s body.


    *Roar!* The dragon let out a roar as if it was angry by this attack. It stopped and gathered its energy again in its mouth, preparing for another breath.


    However, the Dark King had reached him and his horse leaped into the air and stepped onto the dragon''s head, kicking it to the ground.


    "What?!" The people were shocked that the monsters could actually knock the dragon to the ground. Meanwhile, the Dark King leaped right next to the dragon, trying to slice the dragon''s head. By killing the dragon in a single blow, he would be able to shine far brighter than the others.


    "Shit. Why did he give you that role!" The Steel King gritted his teeth, never expecting that the Dark King would take the pleasure of defeating the zombie dragon.


    However, the moment his de touched the dragon''s body, the sword melted because of the radiation.


    "Hahaha. You failed, Dark King!" The Steel King was obviously happy with the situation. "Follow��"


    He wanted to change his direction to fight the dragon as well, but the numerous mutated monsters from both sides actually attacked his people, causing him to be locked inside.


    "This is��" The Steel King was bewildered by the current situation.


    But this was when the Hidden King and his people appeared, helping the Steel King. They tried to create a line so that the Steel King could get out of his position and continue.


    "It seems that you need my help. You are truly a burdensome fellow." The Hidden King smirked, teasing him.


    "You��!" The Steel King wanted to refute him, but he sensed Magic Power fluctuations on top of him before ring at his back. "Shaman Bastard!"


    The troll smirked while waving his wand, saying, "Great Spirit God. Please grant us your blessing!"


    Suddenly, a huge circle appeared on top of the Steel King and its people. After that, numerous attacks from the monsters fell on top of the circles and thetter transformed them into arrows of light that rained the mutated monsters down, killing them one by one to create some space, so the Steel King could move.


    But the attack didn''t stop there. The birds had arrived at them while pping their wings.


    "Not you too!" The Steel King gritted his teeth.


    However, it was toote. The birds pped their wings in unison, creating a strong wind that blew away the monsters in front of the Steel King. This way, the Steel King waspletely free.


    "I open his path." The Sky King smirked, ncing at the troll since he was his rival in this battle.


    "What are you talking about? I break him free." The troll calmly replied.


    All of them had the chance to show their prowess. But looking at this condition, it made the Steel King look bad.


    "You bastard!" The Steel King was obviously angry because this was supposed to be his chance to shine. By showing his extraordinary strength, he should be able to show off. Yet, he was at a disadvantage to the point he had to get help from three of them.


    He gritted his teeth and turned around, starting his second charge. This time, his aim was the dragon since this was the only way to wash away the shame. "I''m going to kill you!"


    The anger motivated the Steel King even more as his people responded by enduring all kinds of pains they had to go through while charging. It was simply a fight between two armies of berserk monsters.


    However, problems started to ur. It began with the Hidden King, who was holding the enemies for a while to give some space for the Steel King to do anything he could.


    "Won''t this be bad for me?" The Hidden King nced at Theo in the distance.


    "Don''t worry. Everything will be fine." Theo smiled.


    As he said those words, Leonardo clicked his tongue while giving his order. "That sly grandson of mine. To think he managed to force me to make a move without even telling me anything. I want Supersonic Bullets! Coordinate��"

 Chapter 1555 Commanding the Monsters

    Chapter 1555 Commanding the Monsters


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Three huge explosions urred, sting numerous mutated monsters that were about to reach the monster army.


    "Oh?" The Hidden King, who was holding out the mutated monsters for a while, was surprised and finally understood that everything had been in his calction. "I can see why he wants to lead us."


    Theo had predicted that his grandfather would support them by using heavy artillery, so he dared to go against the mutated monsters without worry.


    "Still, aren''t you supposed to say something like that first? Those bullets might hit us, no? It wouldn''t be able to kill us, but it''s still going to be annoying." The Hidden King nced at Theo, asking for a reply.


    However, Theo raised his hand instead of answering him, pointing at everyone in the front line. "You might want to retreat."


    "Retreat?! Do you think I''ll��" The Steel King was the most stubborn that he rebuked every single thing Theo said. However, he stopped after he sensed an extremely powerful attack from the other side.


    There was a huge wave as if they were right on the beach. The water waspletely ck as if it was made of ink. But one could feel that nothing would be able to escape from this hole if one got absorbed into it.


    "!!!" The Steel King turned around, surprised by the absolute strength emitting from this ck wave.


    Meanwhile, the Dark King tried to disintegrate the Dark Color with his own power, but surprisingly, his Order was swallowed into the deep darkness.


    "What?" The Dark King was surprised, but the zombie dragon took that split second shock as an opportunity, hitting the Dark King with its tail.


    "Gah!" The Dark King wasunched back while shouting, "All of you. Retreat!"


    The Steel King would have a problem retreating because of his position, so the Shaman King leaped forward and raised his wand. "O'' Great Spirits. Lend me your strength. Inhulma."


    A few light balls rose to the sky and created an aurora like that of a curtain, stopping this ck wave.


    However, the ck wave absorbed thetter as if it was a mere object.


    "What?" The Shaman King gritted his teeth while retreating a bit, never expecting the ck wave to be that strong. "This kind of power�� Only a Saint can release it."


    "Tsk. I''ll be helping you!" Flora gritted her teeth. Even though she didn''t want to do this, the war had just begun. She needed Theo''s power to handle all these enemies. Hence, she had to show some goodwill to show that they were going to cooperate with each other.


    Unfortunately for him, Mason went between them and punched forward, disrupting the flow of Magic Power.


    "You��" Flora couldn''t form her ice anymore because Mason had dispersed it.


    "Your opponent is me. I won''t be able to defeat you, but I can hold you long enough." Mason smirked.


    Flora couldn''t do anything other than watch how the ck wave devoured the monsters.


    However, this was when a figure appeared. With a single wave of his hand, the dark wave instantly disappeared as if it had been forcefully removed.


    Of course, there were cracks and distortions right after, but when they broke, the ck wave red up for a moment before dying out.


    "What? The ck wave is gone?" The Steel King widened his eyes. He knew Theo was strong, but not this strong.


    Meanwhile, the Dark King smiled as if he was proud of Theo''s achievement. "As expected of him, I have seen his progress ever since we fought�� I guess he''s already close to a Saint right now. Still��"


    Theo, who was floating in the air after removing the ck wave, was ambushed by another shadow.


    This shadow punched him with torrential ck-colored energy covering his fist.


    Noticing the amount of power in that fist, Theo hurriedly used his Energy own fist as well as Reality Removal to disperse the power.


    But everything didn''t seem to be working for him as the zombie dragon moved toward him, using its breath to kill Theo.


    Before it could release its breath, a ck rhinoceros struck his head, knocking it down with its momentum.


    *Roar!* The dragon screamed and tried to free himself from this huge monster. But before it could do anything, another horse kicked him in the face before both rhinoceros and horse fled from the scene together.


    "Good job." Theo smiled.


    "I owe you that much. I''ll be following yourmand for now." The Steel King snorted. He realized that Theo had saved his life earlier. It would be bad if the ck wave swallowed him, so he promised Theo that he would fight under hismand in this battle.


    Theo smiled while the other party shouted, "Do you think you have the leisure to praise others in front of me?"


    The ck energy started spinning as the person released more power than Theo could handle.


    Seeing this situation, Theo used his Blink to gain some distance, avoiding the attack.


    And due to this, the people could finally see the two figures in the sky. They werepletely identical, but both of them had different powers, making them realize they were two different people.


    "I''d be damned. Are you the chosen one?" Theo smirked. "To think that you can somehow reach that level before me."


    "That''s right. I''m the chosen one. You are nothing but an ant in front of me because I''m now a Saint!" The Original Theo red at him while emitting killing intent.


    When people looked at them, they gasped.


    "Those are Theodore Griffith."


    "But their abilities are different."


    "The one with dark power must be the one from the Griffith Family while the other one is our savior."


    "He is still alive."


    "Who cares about the real and fake Theodore Griffith? The one people imed to be the clone is the real Theodore Griffith for me!"


    "Me too!"


    "Theodore Griffith."


    "Ooh!"


    The people began to cheer for Theo, causing the original Theo to grit his teeth in anger.


    "I''m stronger!" The original Theo shouted while releasing a ck-colored power.


    "Yeah, yeah. You''re stronger. But��" Theo snapped his finger, removing the ck power. After that, he raised his left hand before a Skylink flew into his hand. In that instant, Theo said, "I''m smarter than you. Hello, this is Theo speaking��"


    All people''s Skylink suddenly reverberated as if they had just received an Order.

 Chapter ?1556 Theo vs Theo

    Chapter ?1556 Theo vs Theo


    "Hello, this is Theo speaking��" Theo smirked and instantly gave his order. "The War Saint is to fix the frontline depending on mymand to match the movement of the normal monsters. The Great Guardian and the Princess will work together with the ck knight and the troll to buy some time from the zombie dragon.


    "The bastard is to look out for the Poison King as he might be hiding somewhere near us. Don''t attack the monsters if you don''t want to die. Just focus on the mutated monsters! That''s all, over!"


    Everyone could hear Theo''s voice because this was one of the Skylinks that connected to all armies. Eleanor used her rat to snatch it from them while Akbar altered it so that all people could hear it. And Felix was the one tossing the Skylink.


    "Ahem. Let me trante it for you. Alexej is to find the Poison King since he''s affiliated with the Griffith Family. All of the soldiers are to step forward and kill the mutated monsters. All volunteers are to stand behind them and get ready to rece their position." Leonardo immediately corrected Theo''s words.


    Aside from thest few sentences where Leonardo basically added some of his own orders, the only thing Leonardo fixed was Alexej''s Order.


    ''Why am I the only one��'' Alexej bit his lips. He didn''t know how to react because people would just think that there was something fishy between them. It wouldn''t take long before they found out that he was the culprit that influenced their opinion in the past.


    But for now, Leonardo took control of the battlefield again and began moving his army.


    On the other hand, Theo had to fight the original Theo while watching the development.


    "This is not going to be good." The Hidden King narrowed his eyes before jumping to the Sky King. "We have to ask the Reality King something."


    The Sky King agreed and immediately soared to the sky as the Hidden King used his invisibility ability to disappear in the sky.


    Suddenly, a huge tornado appeared in the middle of the enemies, throwing both Theo in the opposite direction.


    The Steel King retracted its power and caught Theo with his body.


    "Nice catch." Theo smiled while giving a thumbs up to the Steel King.


    Since he was too embarrassed to admit it, the Steel King ignored the praise and asked, "What are we going to do?"


    Theo nced at the zombie dragon for a moment, finding two King ss Monsters and two Human Kings fighting together to stop the mutated dragon.


    He then gave an instruction to the monsters. "I''ll handle the one that looks like me. The Hidden King will take care of the people the Dark King brought here while the Steel Kingmanded the Shaman King''s people.


    "The Hidden King''s job is to stop all monsters thate at you since many of them will branch out due to future explosions. The Sky King will continue to move in the sky to support the Hidden King while scouting the area. The Steel King is to prepare to make his move when a big change urs. It''s going to ur, so you have to calm down first."


    "Wh�� Alright." The Steel King was about to rebuke him again, but he remembered Theo''s deeds and took a deep breath to calm down. Theo might see something, so he was nning to follow his advice and wait until that something came.


    However, the Sky King noticed something and asked, "Are you sure you can handle him? If I''m not wrong, his strength is at the level of a Saint."


    "No one can fight him other than me right now." Theo shook his head and leaped back while shouting, "So, be careful!"


    "We should be the ones saying that." The Sky King shouted back before agreeing to coordinate this time.


    "Now that I think about it�� Where are they? Aren''t they supposed to be with us? The humans that the Reality King brought��" The Hidden King noticed that the humans had gone ''hiding'' without him noticing.


    However, the rest simply had an order from Theo before this sh even happened.


    Walker was actually leading the group and regrouped with Felix''s group because they had a separate mission.


    Meanwhile, Theo had shed again with the original Theo. Thetter pped his hand and summoned two big ck hands to p Theo.


    Seeing these two hands, Theo summoned his sword and waved it, cutting the ck hands into two.


    However, that illusion suddenly cracked, leaving a deep cut in the hands but not enough to split it.


    "It''s useless. I know that you can manifest your illusion into reality. You won''t be able to defeat me because our strength is already different!" The original Theo shouted while pushing his hands, causing the ck hands to squeeze Theo as if killing a mosquito.


    But before it could kill him, Theo used his Telekinesis to lift the ck hands to the sky.


    "What?" The original Theo widened his eyes. The hands were supposed to be made of Authority and Magic Power, yet, Theo was actually able to control it.


    Little did he know, Theo was simply using his Reality Order to give a real body to the pair of hands and used his Telekinesis to lift it up. That Telekinesis could lift up even a huge tower, so these two hands wouldn''t be able to resist.


    Although the original Theo was a newborn Authority user, he was still a Saint. The moment the first attack failed, another stronger attack containing his Authority emerged.


    This time, the ball was small, but it had extraordinary sucking power. Even though Theo had been using his Telekinesis to pull him away, the little ck bole still tried to absorb him.


    "��" Theo tried to use his Reality Removal, but to no avail. The sucking force was so great that his Magic Power simply vanished as soon as it came closer to the ck ball.


    Seeing the struggle Theo had, the original Theoughed, shouting. "This is the difference between us. You are only a King while I''m a Saint!"


    "You''re joking. I''m just a step away from a Saint." Theo smirked and pped his hands as they suddenly glitched.


    "What? Glitching?" The original Theo was shocked, but he soon realized that the ck ball had disappeared. "You�� You used an illusion to create that ck ball?"


    A smile appeared on Theo''s face, symbolizing the counter-attack.

 Chapter 1557 Stronger or Smarter?

    Chapter 1557 Stronger or Smarter?


    "You used an illusion to recreate my attack?" The original Theo was shocked that Theo could use this kind of illusion. After all, this would make him unable to discern which one was an illusion and which one wasn''t anymore.


    Theo waved his sword and released a powerful sword strike that had been enhanced by his Energy st.


    The original Theo raised his hand and caught this sword strike with his bare hand. However, the sword strike gradually vanished.


    If one took a closer look, they could see that the hand was actually absorbing the Magic Power, allowing the original Theo to replenish his Magic Power.


    This would make the original Theo able to fight endlessly.


    However, the original Theo felt something umon when he sucked the energy before he realized Theo had glitched again.


    Suddenly, the sword strike disappeared, showing that it was just another illusion of him.


    Before he could react, Theo glitched again and appeared right in front of him as if he could pause time itself.


    "!!!" The original Theo leaped back because he was afraid of that sh, but right at that instant, Theo''s body once again glitched, returning to its original position as if showing that everything he had done until now was nothing but an illusion. No, him making an illusion might be an illusion itself.


    "You��" The original Theo widened his eyes in shock, never expecting Theo to be able to do this level of illusion.


    Theo smiled and said, "What are you doing? Are you scared? I haven''t evene closer to you, and you''re already scared. Am I that scary?"


    The original Theo gritted his teeth. His Order might have been upgraded to Authority, but Theo''s Order wasn''t that either.


    However, there was one thing that he picked from Theo. The fact that his Order could challenge his Authority like this meant Theo was expending a huge amount of energy to maintain this illusion.


    On the other hand, he could keep replenishing both his Authority and Magic Power by using his Devouring Authority. So, Theo might gain some advantage right now, but he could turn the situation around sooner orter.


    Knowing this information, the original Theo hurriedly charged to Theo while summoning a ck ball.


    "If you think you can fight me, then so be it. We''ll see who''s stronger!" The original Theo roared.


    Looking at that ck ball, Theo snapped his finger and used his Reality Removal to stop him before increasing his ability to the limit using his Alter Ego.


    Suddenly, Theo disappeared, taking advantage of theck of the ck ball for an instant to hit the original Theo.


    "!!!" The original Theo couldn''t see it with his eyes, but he could still feel Theo''s movement as he covered his body with Magic Power and even used one of his hands to catch something.


    Suddenly, Theo appeared with his fist striking the original Theo''s palm, blowing him away.


    "Kh." The original Theo wasn''t hurt at all, but the embarrassment he received from this blow was enormous. He raised his vision and saw Theo getting covered in scale, preventing his body from getting torn by the air friction.


    This was his Supernatural Snake Body. After a long time, he finally reached the level where he could apply it to protect himselfpletely.


    "This is just the start." Theo smiled. "If you can''t go down easily, then I just have to kill you over and over again."


    Theo still remembered when the original Theo absorbed the medicinal liquid. With the Devouring Order, he could replenish his Energy and Magic Power as well as recover from his wounds by devouring the medicine, so the original Theo was like a zombie. He would keeping back until his opponent died.


    This would surely create some pressure on Theo because he had limited energy. Even right now, the original Theo could see that Theo''s Magic Power was depleting rapidly because he had maintained all the illusions.


    "Do you think you canpare to me?" He summoned the ck substance from all over his body, causing Theo to be unable to hit him with the Alter Ego again.


    He wanted to use his de while using his Alter Ego. Unlike the Frost Saint, whose body was sorge that a single cut wouldn''t be enough, the original Theo could be killed by that de.


    However, the fact that the original Theo was smaller, his speed would be much faster than the Frost Saint. So, his de would be blocked in one way or another.


    Seeing this situation, Theo let out a long breath and said, "It''s useless. I can''t find a way to defeat a Saint right now."


    "Haha, you''ve finally realized it. You have used a third of your Magic Power and that ability to increase your physical strength must use a lot of energy as well. Sooner orter, I can kill you."


    "You talk too much." Theo snorted before pping his hand. A huge smoke spread, covering both of them.


    The original Theo hurriedly sucked the white smoke to reveal Theo''s body, but the result was unexpected.


    "Huh? Where did he go?" The original Theo was dumbfounded and looked around, not finding Theo. He thought Theo actually escaped, but there was no way he would abandon these people. So, Theo must be hiding somewhere.


    However, it didn''t take long for Theo to reappear before him, and the original Theo dropped his jaw, finding something shocking. "You�� Your Magic Power and Energy��"


    Yes. The original Theo could see that Theo''s Magic Power and Order Energy had fully recovered as if nothing had happened.


    It didn''t take too long for him to realize what was going on. "The one I''ve been fighting this whole time was a clone. And you simply resummoned your clone to copy the main body''s current condition, which is in perfect condition."


    If the original Theo could use his Devouring Authority to recover, Theo had his clone. As long as his real body hadn''t used any power, he could copy that condition over and over again, giving birth to an endless clone. The only thing Theo had to pay attention to was the consumption of maintaining his clone, which could be easily recovered by natural regeneration alone.


    In other words, just like his original, Theo could fight endlessly.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "As I said, you might be stronger than me, but I''m certainly smarter than you."

 Chapter 1558 Enemys Reinforcement

    Chapter 1558 Enemy''s Reinforcement


    An hour ago.


    Before the battle started, Theo said to everyone. "Wait a moment. I''m going to step up for a bit."


    "Are you going to see the situation?" The Dark King asked.


    Theo''s answer came in the form of a smile, meaning he didn''t say a single thing. He then disappeared for a moment, finding a good ce where he wouldn''t be disturbed but was still close to the battlefield.


    "I guess this is the ce," Theo muttered before sitting down and crossing his legs. "If what I''ve seen is right, I''m afraid that I can''t reveal my true body."


    Theo summoned his clone from his base to this ce. While looking at his clone, Theo muttered, "This is the best option right now. With my clone like this, I might not be able to win, but I won''t lose either. Besides, thews are in thest step�� I shouldn''t be losing too much against an Authority Level Figure.


    "If I stay here, I only have to expend my Magic Power to maintain the clone. Even if my clone is running out of Magic Power and Order Energy, I can simply recreate the clone.


    "Because it''s copying my current condition, the clone should be able to appear in a perfect condition again. Still, this strategy��"


    Theo closed his eyes while taking out his Skylink.


    This was the preparation before the battle.


    Theo was nning to utilize his clone to fight the real Theodore Griffith. Since both of them were able to recharge their strength, they could fight continuously. Even if no one was winning, as long as they fought long enough, he should be able to turn the situation around.


    Clone Theo smiled at the original Theo as if he had a way to ovee this situation. Meanwhile, the original Theo gritted his teeth.


    Even though he had be an Authority Level Figure, he was still new to this power. He still couldn''t utilize it like Flora or Mason, let alone the Frost Saint.


    Meanwhile, Theo had once fought against the Frost Saint, who lowered his power to a newborn Saint. This experience allowed Theo to understand how a newborn saint fought.


    With the addition of Theo''s ipletews, it wouldn''t be that much of a problem to stall someone until they got some advantages.


    That was why both Theo knew that the longer this fight was dragged on, the more favorable this situation to the union.


    The original Theo didn''t want this to happen, so he pped his hands and formed another huge ck wave. This time, he didn''t n to attack the King ss Monsters or anything. Instead, his target was the people.


    "What''s that?"


    "No way!"


    "Are you kidding me?"


    The soldiers panicked when seeing the ck wave that even made the King ss Monsters tremble. They surely would die in this situation.


    "Since I have no reputation to protect anymore, I don''t have to hold back." The original Theo smirked.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. On the one hand, he didn''t have any obligation to protect those soldiers. On the other hand, if a huge number of people died, a big problem would ur.


    There were only a few people who were free. Leonardo and Felix. However, neither of them had the ability to block this power. On the other hand, if he stopped this ck wave, the original Theo would take this opportunity to kill more people.


    In other words, there was only one solution to this situation.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue before the real Theo made his appearance. He stood in front of the ck wave and snapped his finger, erasing it from this reality.


    "There you are!" The original Theo smirked and leaped to Theo, but the clone stood between them, stopping the original Theo from attacking him.


    "You are just a clone of my clone!" The original Theo roared while waving his hand.


    Clone Theo also waved his hand, neutralizing the ck energy from him.


    Seeing three Theos in the sky, it was clear that one of them was the Theo and clone they had known this whole time, while the other was the bad Theo.


    Without any need to prove himself, Theo''s identity was clear.


    However, their acknowledgment wasn''t needed because the original Theo was nning to use everything to exhaust Theo so that his clone wouldn''t be perfect anymore.


    "n B!" The original Theo shouted, giving a signal to the rest of the Griffith Family.


    Suddenly, a few torrential Magic Power flew into the sky, aiming for Theo.


    "Those people are from the Griffith Family! We have to stop them and help the good Theo!"


    "Spare us some Mythical Rank Experts!"


    "No. There are a few mutated Mythical Rank monsters here, so all experts are fighting against them."


    "Then, the Supreme Rank��"


    Before he finished his words, he suddenly felt his body going numb before he fell to the ground, spitting a mouthful of blood.


    "Gah!"


    More and more people suddenly copsed while coughing blood.


    "What is happeni��Gah!"


    "Poiso��Gah!"


    One by one fell down to the ground, weakening the front line.


    "What?!" Leonardo gasped before realizing what had happened. "Not good. The Poison King is here. Alexej, what''s going on with you?!"


    Leonardo tried to locate Alexej but to no avail. But the answer soon appeared as Alexej and the Poison King came out together.


    If Alexej was following the order, they would be fighting. But Alexej had finally chosen a side. Since he was infamous, there was nothing wrong with being a viin.


    "Alexej, you��" Leonardo gritted his teeth as he was prepared to let go of themand to strike him. But he also heard numerous screamsing from the front line.


    Due to the poison spread by the Poison King, the soldiers had been falling one after another, weakening the front line. Some monsters started to break through. If this continued, the army would copse.


    "This is��" Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows. The Poison King truly brought the biggest impact to any of them because the poison was an extremely powerful weapon with no smell or odor. "Kh. What should I do now?"


    Alexej smirked and said through the Skylink. "This is the price the union has to pay for ridiculing me. I''m going to make you all suffer. Hahahaha!"

 Chapter ?1559 Theos Reinforcement

    Chapter ?1559 Theo''s Reinforcement


    "Hahahaha!"


    That sinisterughter was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. They wanted to close their ears, but the situation didn''t allow them.


    Theo was once again in a perilous situation. However, Theo simply asked, "Do you think you''re capable of defeating me?"


    Theo wasn''t afraid to fight all the remaining experts from the Griffith Family along with the Poison King and Alexej. In the past, he might not be able to defeat the Poison King by himself, but this time was different.


    The Poison King wasn''t enough to defeat him anymore.


    "Of course, you can kill them. But you have to fight me as well!" The original Theo smirked because he leaped back while summoning a huge ck palm in the sky, heading straight to Theo.


    Clone Theo tried to stop it, but the original Theo waved his hand to stop the Clone Theo.


    "Kh!" Clone Theo gritted his teeth while trying to neutralize the Original Theo''s power. Meanwhile, the real Theo had to take care of numerous problems.


    The first one was the poison that the Poison King had spread. The second one was the ck sucking palm above him. Andstly, the iing attacks from the Griffith Family.


    When Flora saw this situation, she thought, ''I can suppress Mason this whole time because I''m stronger than him. That''s why no attacks harm the people. But he is different. The threat has Authority while his is still an Order. Even with his clone, it''s not enough.''


    Only Flora was able to understand Theo''s problem.


    "You bastard!"


    "Griffith Family, fight one on one if you dare!"


    "Coward!"


    "Using poison like this!"


    The people were angry and started spouting random bullshit. The Poison King simply snorted and said, "You have hundreds of thousands of people while we only have a few�� You''re the cowards."


    Leonardo wanted to help by utilizing the people to overwhelm their number or attacking him through air support, but he had to patch the hole and rescue the poisoned ones before he could do anything.


    But it seemed that there was a ray of light inside the darkness. In his Skylink, he suddenly heard. "This is Eagle-01. We are going to reach your airspace in one minute. Please confirm the orders!"


    "!!!" Leonardo''s eyes brightened because this was the chance for counterattack. If the missiles from the fighter jets could bombard the Griffith Family, they should be able to buy some time for Theo.


    "Alright. Attack��" Before he finished his words, Theo''s voice resounded in the Skylink. "Hit the mutated monsters. Give some time for the army to recover. I''ll be fine."


    Leonardo was stunned.


    Meanwhile, the Poison King chose this time to attack us first by forming a green dragon that contained his potent poison.


    "Die, Theodore Griffith!"


    Alexej also didn''t n to let this opportunity go as he gathered his power into his fist before raising his hand, creating a huge screen that showed a jet fighter shooting a missile. Suddenly, a huge missile came out of the screen, heading straight for Theo.


    "Movie System, Summoning!"


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar and released a huge barrier that repelled all kinds of poisons. His left hand erased the corrosive poison from the Poison Dragon while his right hand created a real body for the palm before pushing it with his Telekinesis.


    This way, Theo had just solved the poison dragon, the palm, and a portion of the poison.


    However, there was one thing that he missed. It was Alexej''s missile.


    "Not good! Dodge it!"


    Suddenly, a light shone among the numerous soldiers and this light shot the missile, carrying the missile as if the light was a living being.


    *Boom!*


    The missile exploded in the sky, away from Theo. Meanwhile, a middle-aged man appeared in front of Theo while stepping on a concentrated light in the air. "Are you alright?"


    "That is��" Alexej widened his eyes.


    Suddenly, numerous chains appeared from the ground, trying to capture the experts from the Griffith Family.


    The experts tried to avoid them, but a few other things appeared. The first one that attacked them next was a huge white fox. "Aoo!"


    The fox howled and pped one of the experts down. After that, a huge ze red up as if it was trying to cook everything.


    It didn''t stop there. A soothing melody echoed, slowing down the movement of the Griffith Family''s experts. Last but not least, a man smiled and announced, "If youe out today to challenge us, there''s a hundred percent that you''ll die."


    The appearance of six people stunned everyone. They were none other than Felix, Christopher, Coline, Akbar, Walker, and Rea. They finally came out to protect Theo.


    "What?" Alexej was shocked, but he immediately made his second move. He summoned a screen again to create another thing from a movie. "Do you think that this reinforcement is enough to stop us?!"


    "I might not be strong enough to stop both of you, but if it''s just a mere movie maker, my sunlight is enough to censor you!" Felix appeared before Alexej as his light covered the screen as if he was giving censorship of an adult scene in a family-friendly movie. "me the sun for ruining your movie."


    Alexej gritted his teeth and tried to strike Felix with his de, but he shouldn''t have challenged Felix in something he was good at. The moment the de was drawn, Felix began to move around with his light, creating an unpredictable movement.


    Each time the light moved near Alexej, a de would appear to kill Alexej.


    *Clink!*


    *Clink!*


    *Clink!*


    "Kh." Alexej gritted his teeth and leaped back to regain some distance.


    Even the other experts couldn''t do anything, including the Poison King, because Theo hadpletely removed his strength.


    Seeing this situation, Leonardo gasped while hearing a voice in his Skylink. "Commander? Please give your Order. We have to lock a target now!"


    Leonardo took a deep breath and finally gave themand, knowing Theo would be fine. "Target the mutated monsters."


    "Roger that."

 Chapter 1560 Unions Reinforcement

    Chapter 1560 Union''s Reinforcement


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Numerous missiles hit the mutated monsters and exploded, causing a ruckus in the monsters'' ranks. Some monsters instantly exploded, while some monsters were still strong enough to protect themselves from the st.


    And if they had enough distance from the st, it wouldn''t injure them that much, considering the monsters had tougher skin.


    Even with all these missiles, only around a hundred actually died.


    Still, there was a huge danger with flying not far from the monsters. Although it allowed them to send the missile, they had exposed themselves to danger.


    At this altitude, some monsters had opened their mouths and begun to shoot their power.


    The attacks flew like a bullet, and the pilots of the fighter jets began to panic.


    "Go up, go up!"


    *Boom!*


    "Eagle-20 is down."


    "Eagle-25 is down."


    The report starteding, but they hadn''t left the danger yet because the mutated flying monsters began to attack them after a single roar from the zombie dragon.


    "Mutated monsters are spotted."


    "Evasive maneuver. Evasive maneuver."


    The fighter jets began to change their direction as a new order came in.


    "Outrun them with your speed and hunt them down. They''re going to be dangerous for the people below."


    "Eagle-01, copy. Engaging the flying monsters."


    The fighter jets began their dog tag with the flying monsters. The flying monsters had great maneuverability since they simply pped their wings to change their direction. On the other hand, the fighter jets had a speed advantage, causing their battle to be unique.


    A flock of flying monsters suddenly entered their battlefield and started to attack the mutated monsters to shift the situation.


    "Report, Report! There are numerous monsters entering our battlefield."


    "Engage!"


    "Wait! The normal monsters are our allies. The mutated monsters are our enemies."


    "They look the same to me!"


    "Focus on the mutated monsters on thend. The flying monsters will stop those mutated monsters in the sky!"


    "But��!"


    "No, but! We have to fight together to win!"


    "Copy that!"


    The fighter jets began to disengage before regrouping in the sky, preparing for another strike.


    Leonardo, who watched this battle, was simply dumbfounded. In front of him was a battle between humans and mutated monsters. To his right was a battle between monsters and the mutated monsters. But if he looked to the left, he found Theo''s group stopping the Griffith Family. Last but not least, the sky was a battle between the three sides, so he had to trust the monsters and focus on thend.


    "Where are our tanks and helicopters?" Leonardo asked.


    "We will be arriving in two minutes."


    "The ground force is ready."


    "Got it. Headquarters, give the ground force the coordinate. Focus on helping our people on the ground." Leonardo ordered before he could find numerous bullets falling in the enemy''s rank.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Leonardo furrowed his eyebrows because the explosions were too loud. He knew that it would bring a bit of trouble to the people there, but they had to endure it for the time being until the army could be switched to a fresher one.


    It didn''t take too long for the fighter jets to appear again, shooting their missiles to suppress the mutated monsters. And the helicopters would soone to add some extra powers.


    They were certainly losing some fighter jets, but this was still a good development because it would give them some advantage against the mutated monsters.


    The monsters were also watching this. The Dark King muttered, "That looks fun. I wonder if this would happen had we invaded humans? The explosions weren''t that dangerous for me, but they surely stopped a portion of my force."


    The troll, who assisted the Dark King, shook his head helplessly. "The spirits said that they had seen this kind of scene in the past when the teleportation once appeared and the humans started invading our ce. To think that we would be helping our invaders now��"


    "We''re not helping humans. We''re only helping him."


    The ''him'' in his mouth was none other than Theo. Even the troll agreed as he smiled, "That''s right."


    The two smiled as they began focusing on the zombie dragon again.


    The current battlefield was in a stalemate since everyone managed to stop each other''s forces. However, the bnce would soon be tipped over because of a sudden appearance of a certain monster.


    This monster had a humanoid body, but her hands were wings and her feet had talons like that of a bird.


    When she looked at the iing fighter jets, the monster roared angrily before pping its wings, shooting numerous feathers. The feathers regenerated right after, but theunched feathers flew like a bullet.


    Most of the feathers missed, but five of them hit the fighter jets, causing five of them to explode.


    "Aaahhh!"


    The screams of the dying pilot didn''tst long. The only thing thatsted was the shock and hatred of the living pilots.


    "What?"


    "Something is shooting us down."


    "We have a visual. The mutated monster is a human with bird limbs�� This monster looks like a harpy, and that power�� I''m afraid it''s a King ss Monster."


    "It''s going to fly to destroy all of us!"


    The people panicked because the appearance of this harpy would turn around the situation. But suddenly, a huge ruckus urred in the monster''s area as the Steel King charged at the harpy without fear.


    The harpy was confused and pped its wings, shooting her feathers again. But the Steel King wasn''t afraid because the feathers couldn''t even leave a scratch on his body.


    "Hahaha. This is the time for me to shine. I''m going to stop this one!" The Steel King smirked. This was the time he was waiting for.


    Seeing her attack wasn''t effective, the harpy pped her wings to fly to the sky.


    However, the Hidden King that was clinging on top of the Steel King''s back made his appearance and let out a long tongue, catching the harpy''s feet.


    After that, the Sky King descended and created a powerful gale that blew the harpy to the ground.


    Before reaching the ground, the Steel King struck her body,unching her far away.


    *Bam!*


    The harpy crashed a quarter mile from her position as she now had enemies to take care of.

 Chapter 1561 Poison

    Chapter 1561 Poison


    The situation was chaotic. There were battles everywhere and if one copsed, the others would feel the effect.


    When looking at this situation, Theo furrowed his eyebrows. The Griffith Family had openly shown their strength, so it would be impossible for them to cause another surprise. At the very least, Theo had no information or prediction more than this.


    On the other hand, he still feared the mutated monsters. There was still a long line of mutated monsters that kept recing the monsters that had died.


    There was a chance that another King ss Monsters would appear. When that time arrived, it would be extremely dangerous due to the fact that a mutated King ss Monster could defeat a few opponents of the same level.


    This was what he feared because he had used all his cards in this war. In other words, if he couldn''t finish the Griffith Family as soon as possible, he wouldn''t be able to handle the worse situation.


    With that thought in mind, Theo''s eyes shed as his body started emitting intense killing intent, locking the Poison King. As long as he could kill the Poison King, he would be free to handle other situations.


    The Poison King felt the threat from Theo and immediately jumped back while releasing a cloud of poison.


    Theo easily pushed away the poison by using his Underworld Body. After that, he came closer to the Poison King, who was forming another cloud of poison. But because he knew that Theo would simply remove it, he chose to shoot this poisonous cloud to the ground instead of Theo.


    "!!!" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing what he was nning. But when he looked at the ground, he realized there was a hole that he must have prepared beforehand.


    "Not good!" Theo hurriedly used all his speed to reach the hole first, but he could only stop a third of the poison cloud, whereas the rest seemed to be distributed everywhere.


    When Theo turned around, he saw the poison misting out of the ground''s pores, trees, and other unexpected areas. In other words, the Griffith Family had been preparing for this battlefield this whole time.


    And the poison cloud struck his people as well as the Griffith Family. When they sucked that poison, they spat a mouthful of blood, but the Griffith Family didn''t show such a symptom.


    "Gah!" Rea gritted her teeth and raised her sword as two punchesnded on her. The de managed to stop one of them, but the other one hit her chest, blowing her away.


    "Kh." Rea crashed to the ground fifty feet from her original position.


    Felix also stopped utilizing his light to stop Alexej from using his power, causing a sword to stab his waist.


    Felix hurriedly jumped away while covering his wound. He realized that something was weakening his power, but when he noticed the green smokeing out of the ground, he realized what was happening.


    It turned out the Griffith Family had prepared an antidote beforehand. And the Poison King only had to bring Theo a bit farther from them as they tried to take advantage of this situation to kill Theo''s people.


    Unfortunately for them, Theo''s subordinates were elites among elites. They weren''t that easy to kill.


    However, there was one mancking in fighting prowess among them. If the rest was hurt in one way or another, this guy actually had his hand crushed.


    "Shit." Chris gritted his teeth while holding his right hand that had bent in a weird way. Without his right hand, he wouldn''t be able to produce a decent melody, so this would give Theo''s group enough disadvantages.


    Chris'' support that could increase one''s ability stopped, and those who had to fight multiple enemies immediately felt the pressure. They were also injured because of the poison. If this continued, they might die.


    It seemed that the Griffith Family and the Poison King were like long-lost brothers. They were lucky that both of them only joined hands recently or else the world would be more chaotic.


    Theo had returned to the group and utilized his Underworld Body to repel the poison in their bodies. However, the wound still remained, causing them to be weaker.


    And the Poison King managed to catch up to him,unching a sneak attack when Theo was busy dispelling the poison.


    Theo had used his other hand to stop it, but the Poison King took this advantage to graze his entire right arm. The wound was so big that it started coating Theo''s arm red.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, kicked the Poison King away, and shouted, "Are you alright, Chris?"


    Even in this situation, Theo was still worried about Chris'' condition, which was the worst among them.


    "He won''t be fine because I''ll kill him now!" The expert from the Griffith Family roared as he leaped to Chris with Magic Power covering his fist. "Die!"


    "I humbly refuse." Chris pressed the piano key, releasing a powerful shock wave that stopped the punch.


    "!!!" The expert widened his eyes in shock because he couldn''t prate this barrier.


    "I can manage for a while, but I don''t think I can give you any support," answered Chris with a calm expression as if he wasn''t nning to die in this ce.


    "That''s all to it."


    "You heard that?" Theo asked the rest of the group. "Kill them without him."


    Rea, Walker, Coline, Felix, and Akbar acknowledged with a calm expression. "Roger that."


    "Do you think you can stop them anymore? You have to y with me a bit more, Theodore Griffith." The Poison King smirked. He was simply ying tag with Theo because he wanted to waste as much Magic Power as possible, allowing the original Theo to defeat him sooner orter.


    But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, a huge roar suddenly resounded across the battlefield, rming everyone in the area.


    This roar came from a tiger half the size of the zombie dragon. But the tiger seemed to have a snake tail instead of the normal tail. The snake was spitting venom to the side, but the worst part was that the poison was potent enough to melt everything it touched.

 Chapter ?1562 Threat

    Chapter ?1562 Threat


    "Are you serious?" Both Theo and Leonardo were asking the same thing. After all, no one would be able to stop another mutated King ss Monster. If it came to them, they would have to sacrifice thousands of people just to buy time.


    "Hahahaha! This is why I''m the chosen one!" The original Theoughed as this mutated monster was a blessing to them. They had fought in a ce away from the mutated monsters because they knew the mutated monsters would fight anyone.


    Still, the fact that another monster like this appeared meant they could destroy the union by riding on this mutated monster''s achievement.


    They simply had to allow them to wreak havoc, and the union would copse.


    "Shit," Leonardo shouted in anger because there was simply no one left to handle this monster other than him. But if he left this post, the army would copse. And there was no way he could stop a mutated monster like this one.


    Suddenly, a huge ck me ran through the ground, aiming for this half-lion half-snake.


    The snake spat a venom that melted the me itself, and the dark color that remained on the ground also melted together with the fire.


    "!!!" Theo nced to the side, recognizing this attack. He soon saw the Dark King ring at Theo.


    "You�� You have to retreat. I have promised the Frost Saint to make sure that all of you return alive!" Theo shouted while gritting his teeth.


    "Don''t you dare to order that. This fight hasn''t ended yet." The Dark King roared as his armor began to fall one by one, showing his real appearance. "The war has just begun! Do you think I''ll go back without a fight?"


    "You��" Theo wanted to stop him, but the Dark King turned around, ignoring him.


    The Dark King red at the two humans and the troll. "Oi, you two humans. You have to work with my friend, the Shaman King, to stop this idiot dragon while I''m not here."


    "Oi, Dark King! You''re not nning to��" The Shaman King fell silent, realizing that the Dark King had made up his mind. He sighed before ten lights appeared on his back. "Great Spirit Possession!"


    The Dark King smiled and asked, "Can I leave it to you?"


    "Thirty minutes. I''m going to burn away all my power to give you thirty minutes. Don''t die."


    "Foolish advice. I''m not going to die before I can beat our Saint." The Dark King flew toward the other monster while shouting, "There you go, Theo. I''ll give you thirty minutes."


    "��" Theo was speechless. Challenging the monster alone was suicidal, even for the Dark King. It was true that the Dark King was the closest one to reach the Authority, but he still wasn''t at Theo''s level yet.


    So, thirty minutes were a stretch, and no one would know if he could even stop this monster or not.


    But seeing that the Dark King nned to do this by himself, Theo had no choice other than to respond to his determination.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue as if formting his n. "It seems that I have to burn my mind today."


    The original Theoughed while stating, "Burning your mind? It''s useless. No matter what you do today, no one will be able to stop us. This is the price that the union has to pay for daring to go against me!"


    Hearing that mockery, Theo smiled and said to the one giving themand of the army.


    "Grandfa�� Ahem, War Saint. I have to ask you to rece my position and stop the Poison King. Buy me some time to handle this��"


    Leonardo was startled by this request. Even though he wanted to move as well, the army couldn''t handle it. The situation would simply be worse if he didn''t take the helm.


    It was at this time that Marzio walked to him and said, "Father. Let me take control in your stead. I might not be as good as you, but buying thirty minutes should be possible. Besides, we still have air support to use."


    "��" Leonardo fell silent for a moment before stating, "I, Leonardo Guerrero, am now giving my full authority to the acting suprememander, Marzio Guerrero."


    This statement was a formality so that everyone knew that Marzio would be taking themand. In fact, without this statement, Marzio would just break martialw if he dared to takemand unless his situation was like Theo, who basically became the third party.


    Leonardo also smoothened the process by reying Theo''s order so that they knew he agreed to that n.


    And with this, Leonardo tossed the Skylink to Marzio and leaped to the Poison King. A King Piece appeared behind him as it shed his sword.


    "!!!" The Poison King leaped back while melting the sword strike with his poison. Still, the power contained inside the sword strike pushed him two hundred feet back.


    Leonardo took a deep breath before his pieces came to life one after another. The first one to appear was a simr armor to the one he previously summoned but with a staff instead of a sword.


    Then, a pair of bishops appeared, raising their wands. Next to them was a pair of knights wielding a long spear, while the very front was blocked by a pair of armor wielding huge shields.


    Last but not least were the pawns, the smaller pieces that might be weak but could be anything.


    "I''ll bury you here today, Poison King. Even if it takes all my power to do so." Leonardo raised his hands as white light shone from his armors. "Divine Chess."


    The Poison King wasn''t afraid of Leonardo because his rank wasn''t that far from Leonardo. He smirked and epted the challenge. "Do it if you can."


    On the other hand, Theo had leaped to the union''smand center as if asking for protection. He sat down, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.


    "I''ll leave my protection to you." Theo gave thest message before taking a deep breath, meditating again to finish hisw. "It might be iplete, but it seems that I have to take this step."


    Suddenly, his body emitted golden light as if Theo was trying to do something big.


    Seeing this, the original Theo panicked and shouted, "Not good! Stop him! Don''t let him break through to Saint!"

 Chapter 1563 Worst

    Chapter 1563 Worst


    "Not good! Stop him! Don''t let him break through to Saint!"


    The Griffith Family was startled because this was the first time the original Theo panicked. It also showed how significant this breakthrough was.


    The people from the Griffith Family tried to release all their strength to break through but to no avail.


    Walker released the chains that Theo had upgraded previously. Rea stepped back to join hands with Akbar and Chris to increase their chance to stop them while Coline took out all her cooking utensils, nning to release all her strength just to buy Theo thirty minutes.


    Alexej seemed to be the one who held the key to stopping Theo. Knowing his role, Alexej summoned another screen.


    "No!" Felix stopped him by using his light again, but the light seemed to be translucent for a bit.


    Alexej smirked and said, "I now understand the spectrum and the color. As long as I can understand your light, I can remove your light from my screen!"


    Felix gritted his teeth. Alexej was more adept to him in Order, so Felix had been suppressed this whole time. He might be able to stop Alexej, but if Alexej managed to understand his power, he would be able to defeat him easily.


    That was why Felix was a bit desperate this time as Theo''s right hand.


    "Kh." Felix gritted his teeth while trying to find a way to overturn the situation.


    ��


    While the battle became fiercer, Theo was meditating, finishing hisws.


    "There''s no way that one month''s worth of work will be able to be finished in just thirty minutes. That''s why I don''t think it''s possible toplete my Authority right now. However, after fighting that Devouring Authority for a while and experiencing the Frost Authority, I think I can understand Authority a bit better.


    "The Devouring Authority seems to revolve around the area. The ck wave, the hand�� Those are the new things the Devouring Authority creates. However, the Devouring Authority doesn''t naturally create a skill for you unless you specify the progress into the skill creation when you upgrade your Order to Authority.


    "In other words, I must forcefullyplete a portion of myw to create this skill�� A skill that has both the characteristics of Authority and Order. It''s iplete, but it should be enough to turn the situation around.


    "Then, how should I create this new skill? I can cheat the Divine Technique by using my Order. Still, it will be easily broken if I don''t carefully finalize it."


    Theo fell silent for a moment, remembering the condition he had set previously.


    "That''s right. I have set three sets ofws when I built up myws. The firstw is to convert the form of everything that exists in this reality. Fire turns into water, water into ice, and so on.


    "The secondw is to reverse everything in my reality. The heat turns into cold, and the sky turns intond.


    "Last but not least, the thirdw is the replica, a replica of another reality. I was inspired by my Alter Ego back then.


    "The Alter Ego allowed me to copy my ability from another reality. However, I realized another possibility. What if I copy not only my status but also my skills and power from that reality?


    "It''s impossible topletely copy it because I can''t change the fundamentals of my power. If I truly copy it, I might even lose my Reality Order after that because my Magic Power might get an affinity and so on.


    "That''s why there has to be a rule in copying the other form��" Theo became deeper and deeper into his thought, trying to gain some insight from hisws.


    To create a skill based on his power, Theo had to choose the set ofws that he was going to perfect. In this situation, Theo was calcting which one would be effective to turn around the situation.


    "As expected, It''s going to be this one." Theo smiled and chose the set ofws. It might look moreplicated than the rest, but once he connects the dots, he should be able to finish it the fastest. That was why he was forcefully connecting the dots in his mind. "This is my only chance to turn around the situation. Let''s do this."


    Theo kept meditating while the others desperately fought the invaders. Marzio also got some help to assist Theo''s group in stopping the Griffith Family. It would lead to another level of casualty, but he had to choose this option.


    Marzio gritted his teeth while looking at the situation. He could see the mutated monster injuring the Dark King. If this continued, he might die sooner orter. The situation of the zombie dragon was also not that good either.


    The Shaman King was able to maintain the status quo by burning all his Magic Power, but the condition wouldn''tst long because the radiation had started to spread around them, causing his body to be weakened.


    At the same time, the soldiers were pushed back by the mutated monsters, and the morale was quite low.


    He had been utilizing all the aircraft but to no avail. Even with all that support, the army was continuously getting pushed back. Many aircraft were also shot down by the mutated monsters.


    When the situation already looked the worst, Alexej added by pushing through the ranks.


    Felix was chasing him right behind, but Alexej might be able to hurt Theo before Felix could stop him.


    "Shit!" Felix gritted his teeth and used his light to move faster than Alexej.


    However, Alexej created a bigger screen and increased the brightness, causing Felix''s light to be overwhelmed by his light.


    After that, the screen dropped a katana for Alexej.


    Seeing him, Marzio ordered all people around them to form a line to protect Theo.


    "Stop him!" Marzio shouted as he also stood in the way.


    But this was the time Alexej showed his prowess by shooting a missile at them.


    Marzio stopped the missile with his body, but the missile turned out to be a smoke bomb, allowing Alexej to sneak past Marzio and the rest.


    "Haha, I got you!" Alexej smirked and shed Theo''s head.


    "No!"

 Chapter 1564 Protection

    Chapter 1564 Protection


    "NO!"


    The shout echoed on the battlefield, thinking that Theo would die in this swing.


    "Stop!"


    However, a shadow suddenly appeared next to Theo and ordered with a strict tone. In that instant, the sword stopped. No matter how hard Alexej used his strength, he couldn''t move that sword at all.


    "This is��" Alexej widened his eyes in shock and finally saw the figure next to Theo. "You are�� the Empress!"


    That statement shocked many people as they finally found an old woman who had been reigning the throne as an Empress.


    Her skills were simr to the princess, but it was clear who was stronger between them, considering one was called the Empress while the other was known as a princess.


    Now that she had arrived, no one would be able to harm Theo anymore.


    Alexej gritted his teeth and covered his entire body with a screen, allowing him to remove himself from the Empress'' Order before jumping back to regain some distance.


    Felix took that chance to strike him, which was blocked by Alexej''s sword. But Felix used all his strength to knock him away, making sure he didn''te closer to Theo anymore.


    "How��" Alexej gritted his teeth. "You''re supposed to be on the back, protecting the pope!"


    As he said, the Empress had one job in this war. The reason why she hadn''t made her appearance this whole time was because she had to protect the pope.


    Leonardo believed that the Griffith Family would bring anyone to harm the pope.


    When healing people, the pope often left himself defenseless, and the Griffith Family''s ferocity forced Leonardo to ask the Empress to fulfill the position of a bodyguard.


    Although the pope was also a King whose defensive strength was equal to the Great Guardian, he was more useful if he stayed back because it allowed him to heal the injured soldiers.


    If not for the pope healing them, there would have already been at least tens of thousands of casualties.


    Had the pope entered the frontline, it surely relieved some pressure on everyone''s shoulders, but their casualties would reach at least tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.


    When that happened, they couldn''t repel the enemy and call it a victory anymore. Hence, Leonardo believed that the Griffith Family would target the pope first, which forced him to ask the Empress to stay with him.


    Yet, the situation was different than anyone expected a moment ago.


    While healing the people, the pope and the Empress actually listened to Theo''s words as well. They had personal Skylink connected to the battlefield to know whether they could continue healing the people or inform others that they were attacked. So, the news about Theo making his appearance surprised them.


    Although the pope wasn''t that close to Theo, he never hated Theo or anything. In fact, he actually admired Theo. That was the reason why he even sent his student before the apocalypse in the first ce.


    So, hearing Theo''s distress call was a kind of wake up call for him.


    "This is��" The pope could feel the worry in the Empress'' heart and ask, "Do you wish to help that kid?"


    "I''m protecting you right now." The Empress shook her head.


    "There''s no need to hesitate. It seems that the Griffith Family has sent forth all their fighters."


    "But��"


    "I might be able to save tens of thousands of people here, but if the frontline is crushed, there will be tens of millions of deaths. We won''t be the one affected but all the people that live in the union." The pope shook his head, gently persuading the Empress.


    The Empress clenched her fists. On the one hand, she felt indebted to Theo because thetter had helped her gain some stability after reaching this new ce. On the other hand, she couldn''t really leave her post on her own whim.


    "Please go. My death has been destined, so there''s no need for you to hesitate. If I die here, it means that I''m fated to die. Meanwhile, you''re holding the key that he needs right now��"


    The Empress bit her lips. There was a conflict in her heart, but looking at the pope''s gentle smile, the Empress knew that she had to go.


    "I''lle back as soon as possible." The Empress nodded before rushing to the frontline.


    And that was how she managed to protect Theo. She took a deep breath, feeling relieved because she could reach this ce in time.


    The Empress looked around and said, "I''ll be protecting him."


    Marzio was stunned for a moment but eventually nodded his head. He still had some trouble with the Empress leaving her position, but she certainly saved Theo.


    With this, Felix could focus on Alexej. Even if thetter could slip past him, he wouldn''t be able to do anything with the Empress standing next to Theo.


    Felix gritted his teeth, feeling powerless. He had failed to protect Theo earlier when Alexej was about to kill him.


    In Theo''s perspective, Theo wanted Felix to be his de, so he didn''t mind if Felix could protect him or not because he wasn''t Theo''s shield.


    But for Felix, who was Theo''s right-hand man, this failure was the biggest shame in his life.


    Felix took a deep breath. Instead of letting his anger swallow him, he tried to be as calm as possible.


    These were the basics he had learned when working as an assassin.


    ''I have failed him. Can I even still call myself his bodyguard? No, I need strength, an even more powerful strength than I currently have.'' Felix bit his lips while recalling the five stages of the Order.


    ''The First Stage is assimtion, the second stage is the Magic Power''s influence, and if I want to stop this guy in front of me, I have to utilize the third stage��''


    ''Now that I think about it, he used his light to overwhelm my light. My light is all forms of light, whether it''s sunlight or artificial light. But how can that light be overwhelmed by his?'' Felix suddenly raised his sword as the light beganing out of his swords, dancing like they were alive. "That''s right. My light is all forms of light, so why do I restrict that form this whole time?"

 Chapter ?1565 Felixs New Power

    Chapter ?1565 Felix''s New Power


    "!!!" Alexej widened his eyes, never expecting that Felix could actually get stronger when fighting.


    He tried to stop Felix by shooting out another missile.


    Felix only nced at it for a moment before swinging his de. The de was sliding on the ground, creating a small spark. But one of the lights that looked like a snake fell down and ran through the ground as a t line.


    It was heading in the missile''s direction before a huge de came out of the ground, splitting the missile into two.


    "What?!" Alexej was shocked that his missile could easily be destroyed just like that. Previously, Felix would have trouble stopping this missile because he used his screen to release a light that disturbed Felix''s own light.


    But if Felix actually let the light travel on the ground by bing a t line, there was no way he could disturb that.


    Felix raised his sword once again, pointing it at Alexej as if challenging him. This time, he wasn''t nning to lose.


    "You bastard!" Alexej roared and activated his screen again.


    However, Felix waved his sword down, sending three lights from his sword to the ground.


    The three white lines moved toward Alexej, and the des immediately emerged as soon as they reached Alexej''s location.


    "!!!" The speed was so fast that Alexej had to leap back and use his screen as a shield.


    The three des cut the screen into four, destroying it.


    Felix pointed his palm toward Alexej before a light beam came out, forming a huge circle next to Alexej.


    Thetter immediately turned around and summoned another screen, summoning a bomb. He had seen this technique earlier, so he expected Felix to use this again to teleport himself to his ce.


    But to his surprise, the thing that came out of the circle was another de that destroyed the bomb, causing a huge explosion.


    ? "!!!" Alexej was blown away by his own explosion, causing him to crash into a tree.


    "Tsk. What a troublesome tech��" Alexej couldn''t finish his words because he noticed that the white line had moved to him.


    Alexej immediately leaped away to avoid this white line, but Felix gave him another surprise. Instead of summoning the de, the white line circled the tree as if trying to gain some elevation.


    When it was at Alexej''s neck level, the de came out, cutting everything at that height.


    "!!!" Alexej ducked down, barely avoiding this de.


    Another white line appeared before him, but Alexej was more prepared this time. He hurriedly jumped away while preparing himself for another de.


    But this time, the oneing out of the white line was actually Felix himself. Felix appeared before him and struck him.


    "Kh." Alexej summoned a screen to be his shield. Unfortunately, it wasn''t strong enough to protect him.


    In that instant, Felix''s eyes became bloodshot as he released several sharp and precise swings.


    Alexej jumped into the air to avoid Felix, but soon, several cut wounds appeared all over his body. There was even a big one on his chest.


    "What a troublesome technique." Alexej never expected that Felix''s ability could actually change the form of the light itself. By utilizing this power, he could make himself even more unpredictable. This was why Alexej had a hard time even reacting to Felix''s attack.


    Still, he was in the middle of the fight. He only had two fates. If he couldn''t be a conqueror, he would be a loser. That was why he had to kill Felix and somehow find a way to slip past the Empress to kill Theo before he could finish his breakthrough.


    "Carpet Bomb!" Alexej formed a screen but faced downwards. The screen started moving as a few huge bombs fell off the screen.


    He believed that Felix had no way to stop this. Even though Felix could send his de to the air by shooting a light beam, his new technique wouldn''t be able to defeat this screen.


    As he predicted, Felix shot a light beam into the air and summoned a light de to split his screen into two.


    However, the screen had another trick behind it. The moment it split, each screen would be able to do the same thing. In other words, there were two screens dropping bombs now.


    "!!!" Felix furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the explosions before him. He tried to do the same thing, thinking the screen would stop dropping bombs as long as he cut them small enough.


    But when the screen had split into twenty, the bombing hadn''t stopped at all.


    Felix narrowed his eyes, knowing that no more attack was allowed to go past him. With his new power, he stabbed the ground with his sword, pouring his light into the ground.


    Suddenly, the ground cracked a bit before a huge tree made of white light shot into the sky. The tree had numerous branches and each branch actually pierced through the screen, making it stuck.


    The bomb still dropped, but it ended up touching the branches, causing the explosion to destroy the screen itself.


    "��" Alexej became even more frustrated because he couldn''t find any way to go to Theo anymore. He took a nce to the side, wondering if there was any other person that managed to reach Theo, but the rest of Theo''s group had been maintaining their solid defense, stopping all experts.


    It was true that they had some trouble keeping up with the fights due to theck of Chris'' support, but they wouldn''t go down anytime soon.


    At the same time, Clone Theo was still keeping the original Theo in check. Its Magic Power had been depleted significantly, but at this rate, thirty minutes would have passed first before the original Theo could free himself.


    "Kh. Is there nothing more we can use?" Alexej gritted his teeth while looking around.


    Suddenly, a huge explosion urred in the distance. The explosion was so big that it grabbed most people''s attention.


    "What is that?! A nuke?!" The Empress was staring in the distance, wondering what had happened.


    "Our opponent is using the radiation to power up. There''s no way we can send nukes��" Marzio shook his head while wondering who caused the explosion. "But that position�� isn''t it supposed to be��"


    When he used his binocrs to take a look, he saw a small dark monster falling to the ground with his body covered in blood.

 Chapter 1566 Theo Reappeared

    Chapter 1566 Theo Reappeared


    *Boom!*


    "Gah." The Dark King spat a mouthful of blood as his body had be quite weak. While falling down, he nced at the monster.


    Thetter wasn''t that good either. Although he seemed to be the one losing, the monster was covered in wounds as well.


    But in the end, this was his limit. The mutated monster was simply too strong.


    ''A King that can go against a few Kings of the same level. What a monster.'' The Dark King gritted his teeth, unwilling to take the loss.


    ''Ugh.'' The Dark King used all his strength to move his body but to no avail. He saw that the mutated monster was prepared to deliver the killing blow. ''My Magic Power? It''s almost empty. There''s no way to stop that attack.


    ''My Order? Without enough Magic Power, I can''t do anything with my Order. Then, I guess this is it. I have injured this one quite badly, but it seems that I won''t be able to see it die��''


    The Dark King sighed and said, "I guess I should have taken his offer to retreat. I might probably die if I get hit by this."


    The Dark King closed his eyes as if epting his fate. The light from the mutated monster''s mouth became brighter and brighter.


    After gathering enough energy, the mutated monster released a small ball that flew toward the Dark King.


    The Dark King couldn''t move anymore, so he was just waiting for his death.


    "!!!" The four King ss Monsters that apanied him were shocked because they never expected the Dark King would die here.


    When the light was about to reach the Dark King, it suddenly disappeared, and the explosion never happened.


    Soon, a gentle voice echoed in his ears. "Seriously. Do you want me to break my promise to Frost Saint?"


    "Ahaha��" The Dark King chuckled. "You could just me me for acting on my own ord."


    "You know I can''t do that to my brother, right?" Theo smirked as he caught the Dark King.


    "I guess it''s fine to leave this to you, right?" The Dark King couldn''t contain his smile when Theo called him a brother. He had considered Theo as one from a long time ago, but Theo was still hesitant to do the same. It seemed that his sacrifice broke thest barrier in Theo''s heart.


    While the Dark King felt relieved, the others couldn''t feel the same thing. On the one side, they were filled with shock. On the other side, they were scared because this would cause a great change on the battlefield.


    "He saved the Dark King!" The Steel King smirked, feeling excited to see Theoe here.


    Meanwhile, the original Theo was in denial, hoping that Theo was forced to make a move because he had to save him, not because he had finished his breakthrough. "No. There''s no way he can be a saint in that instant."


    Clone Theo smiled because his consciousness was shared with the real him. "There''s no way I can be a Saint that easily."


    That statement stunned the original Theo, never expecting him to dare to release that secret.


    However, his smile disappeared as soon as he heard the continuation. "Of course, there is another way to turn around the situation without bing a Saint."


    "!!!" The original Theo felt the pressure from those words as he nced at the one in the distance.


    Theo looked at the mutated monster with a cold expression. "So, you''re the one who has harmed my brother. It seems that you want to die."


    The mutated monster roared and charged another bomb in his mouth.


    "Theo. Beware, that guy is fast, powerful, tough, and filled with Magic Power and radiation!"


    "It''s fine. He won''t be able to do anything from now on." Theo suddenly stomped the ground and created a fissure. The wind suddenly rose to the sky and went back to the ground, hitting the monster''s head.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    This Tenth Step was not like his usual Tenth Step. The moment the wind fell down, it felt like the whole sky was falling down, pressuring this monster.


    The monster tried to withstand the pressure, but the ground beneath it couldn''t, creating a huge crater on the ground. The crater was at least five hundred feet in radius.


    The monster suddenly lost control over his breath and caused it to explode inside its body.


    *Boom!*


    The monster still managed to contain the explosion, preventing himself from blowing up. But due to him pushing everything to his defense, he couldn''t put any strength to resist the pressure. His body and head immediately fell down as the monster felt like it was getting crushed.


    "!!!" In an instant, there were two people who recognized this power.


    "This is��" Leonardo gasped, never expecting to see this power. "The Wind Emperor''s Ascension Step. Its power is the same as him imbuing his Authority!"


    "Did he get a Wind Authority? No, that''s impossible!" As a peer of the Wind Emperor in the past, the Empress denied it immediately because it was impossible for Theo to change his ability that easily.


    But both of them were stunned because of Theo''s next ability.


    Suddenly, the world felt like it was undergoing a big change. The ground disappeared as Theo levitated in the air, and the crater changed into a big basin on a small''s surface.


    A few others appeared, and the sky turned dark like the starry sky.


    "That is Heavenly Sovereign''s Universe!" Leonardo, the Empress, and other King Level Experts recognized this power as he was one of the strongest people in the world.


    This was what the Heavenly Sovereign had shown Theo too when he visited him.


    Theo smirked. He had chosen the third set ofws where he could replicate everything, including all elements with his illusion.


    Earlier, Theo replicated the wind and added his S Rank Telekinesis to recreate the real Ascension Step. And now, he was using his new ability to recreate the Heavenly Sovereign''s power.


    "Now, I invite you to my domain, Mirage World!" Theo smirked.

 Chapter 1567 Replicating Peoples Abilities

    Chapter 1567 Replicating People''s Abilities


    "!!!" The people were stunned when they saw the abrupt change in the world.


    As an Authority Level Figure, the original Theo could feel directly that this power was that of an Authority even though Theo had yet to be one.


    "It''s iplete, but he''s certainly there!" The original Theo gritted his teeth.


    Theo smiled as his clone heard everything. He raised his hand, controlling the around.


    Suddenly, a fell on top of the mutated monster.


    The mutated monsters tried to melt the giant ball with its poison, but right before the poison hit, the was covered in steel like the Steel King.


    "Huh?" The Steel King faintly felt the strength hidden in that. "That''s how I was covering myself�� Don''t tell me he copied my power?"


    The steel ball continued forward. A part of it melted, but the poison wasn''t potent enough to destroy itpletely. So, the still managed to reach the mutated monster and hit the monster, crushing it with the help of the the monster stood on.


    Suddenly, an explosion urred,unching the steel ball away. The monster was spitting blood from its mouth, clearly getting the damage.


    But Theo wasn''t done yet. Before the monster could do anything, he sent another to the monster.


    Thinking it was going to crush him again, the lion''s head was the one charging the explosive attack.


    Unfortunately for him, the moment the light ball hit this, it slipped past its body as if the ball had just entered a hologram.


    "!!!" The monster was confused because it should have hit it.


    "It won''t work." Theo smiled and waved his hand down. The ball he sent forward was made up of water, so when the light hit it, the water just allowed it to pass.


    When the water dropped on the monster, it instantly flooded the entire as Theo released another made of lightning.


    Heavenly Sovereign could set up a rule of thes, so he also set up a rule for them by utilizing the elements. He could aplish this because he had his illusion and Reality Order.


    This was what he meant by a replica. With this ability, he copied everyone''s ability through his illusion and Reality Order.


    *Roar!* The mutated monster was screaming in pain when the lightning struck him because the water became the conductor of the lightning, causing him to bepletely electrocuted inside.


    "I''m not done yet." Theo snapped his finger.


    The lightning sparks suddenly became frozen as a thickyer of ice began to spread and cover the''s surface, freezing all water on its surface and trapping everything underneath.


    The monster was struggling to get out because it had been injured by the Dark King as well. If he was still in his prime condition, escaping this attack would be easy.


    Unfortunately, he ended up being Theo''s stepping stone.


    Theo summoned his sword and raised it. As he expected, the monster still had enough strength to break free from the ice.


    Sadly, the moment the monster poked his head outside the ice, Theo suddenly waved his sword, cutting the monster''s head from a distance. There wasn''t even a single thing visible that transmitted Theo''s power, yet, the monster had its head flying.


    "What?!" Leonardo dropped his jaw to the ground. "That''s�� The Sword Saint''s Invisible Strike. He can do all that?"


    ''No.'' Felix realized what truly happened. Theo was actually imitating his new technique. ''He used my technique to transfer his sh, but he also applied an illusion to make that technique invisible.''


    Felix sucked a cold breath. It turned out he had been copying everyone''s power by using his own Order.


    Although the monster had been injured, no one could believe that Theo managed to y a mutated King ss Monster with ease.


    "This is��" The Dark King looked at the result in astonishment. He couldn''t help but shake his head. "I guess I can''t fight this one."


    Theo didn''t say anything about it because he knew that the Dark King would just challenge himself to be stronger. So, there were no words to encourage him.


    Theo simply turned around and checked the entire battlefield.


    "!!!" The original Theo gritted his teeth, thinking the battle had beenpletely turned around. If he continued fighting, he was afraid that Theo would be able to kill him.


    Without hesitation, the original Theo shouted, "Retreat! We have to retreat!"


    Although they didn''t look like they had lost yet, the original Theo knew better than anyone else that this was the best time to retreat. If they let Theo get more advantage, it would be game over.


    The Griffith Family was startled because they never expected they would fail again even after all the advantages.


    They never expected Theo would appear with five King ss Monsters after all.


    If not for those Five King ss Monsters stopping two mutated King ss Monsters, they would have won even if Theo joined hands with the union.


    "Yeah. That''s why I don''t want to let you go anymore." Theo appeared behind the original Theo after tossing the Dark King to the rear.


    With this, Theo could encircle the original Theo to kill him.


    "Do you think I''ll go down that easily?" The original Theo shouted as he pped his hands, summoning the ck wave again. Even Theo had to use all his strength to stop this or so he thought.


    Theo activated his Mirage World again. However, the ability he copied was not the Heavenly Sovereign. It was the ability of Loki.


    World Re-Creation.


    Suddenly, the ck wave was twisted as if it was entering a spiral. It kept expanding and shrinking, which obviously came from the fight between Theo and the original Theo.


    However, Theo wasn''t done yet. He extended his own domain, causing the ck spiral wave to move back. After that, Theo expanded the realm again, but from above,unching the ck spiral to the ground.


    To everyone''s surprise, Theo''s subordinates were the first to react by leaping to the side as if they were avoiding this attack before Theo did anything.


    "NO!" The original Theo realized his n and hurriedly retracted his power, albeit it was toote.


    The ck spiral burst out the moment Theo retracted his power, spreading the ck substance to the area filled with the experts from the Griffith Family.

 Chapter ?1568 Strategist Duo

    Chapter ?1568 Strategist Duo


    "NO!"


    The shout was toote because the ck wave had expanded and sshed like ink, swallowing the experts from the Griffith Family.


    The people were so shocked that they couldn''t even say anything before they were absorbed by the ck substance.


    "Get some rest." Theo smiled at Rea and the rest. "I''ll take care of the rest."


    Rea let out a long breath and said, "Understood."


    Theo nodded and finally focused on the original Theo again. He ignored all the shocks that happened all around him because they never expected Theo could get rid of the experts of the Griffith Family and a King ss Monster in an instant.


    What they didn''t know was Theo expending a lot of his energy in this fight. He was acting tough like this, so no one realized his current condition.


    Even though he had to admit it, he still wondered whether he could kill the original Theo or not with this power. After all, the original Theo had infinite Magic Power and stamina. He had to be a Saint first before having enough confidence to take down the original Theo.


    That was why Theo was getting rid of as much power as he could.


    "Now, it''s your turn to die." Theo red at the original Theo.


    The original Theo wanted to re up, but he remembered that Theo might be using his attack to his advantage again. If that were the case, the Poison King would be the first target.


    ''No, wait. Don''t tell me this is his real goal?'' The original Theo had just realized that Theo never had the intention to fight him in his current state. It was simply impossible for Theo to kill him.


    But the shock in the original Theo''s face was all it needed for Theo to confirm what he thought earlier. With a sly smile on his face, Theo disappeared.


    "No, you don''t!" The original Theo leaped to catch Theo, but the clone Theo stopped him, asking, "What''s wrong? I''m your enemy."


    "You!" The original Theo gritted his teeth and created a ck substance from his body. He wanted to swallow everything, but the clone had been keeping him in check this whole time. It was truly hard to slip past him. So, the only thing he could do was shout. "Poison King. Retreat!"


    The Poison King was startled by the shout and confused at the same time. But he was toote to react to anything because Theo had reached his position.


    "I''vee for your life." Theo smirked and snapped his finger. Suddenly, the area turned into the starry sky again. "I''m going to assist you a bit, Grandfather. Do as you please; I''m going to match you!"


    "Hoh?" A smile appeared on Leonardo''s face. He was excited because this was the first time they had fought together like this. "Then, don''t mind if I do."


    Suddenly, the queen jumped forth while waving her wand. Normally, the wand would only let out Magic Power, but this time, the Magic Power had turned into a lightning strike.


    "!!!" The Poison King was startled and hurriedly produced a poison to melt this lightning.


    He managed to throw the poison, but this was only enough for when Leonardo only had Magic Power. And now, Theo gifted Leonardo''s attack an element that suited each of them, amplifying their power. There was no way the Poison King could deal with them easily.


    "Shit!" The Poison King gritted his teeth and threw his body to the side, barely avoiding the lightning strike. However, he had yet to escape the formation that Leonardo had arranged.


    Suddenly, two knights were standing on thes next to his, shing their des.


    A ck-colored me came out of their swords and ran forward through any medium, creating a huge wall of ck me that could burn everything.


    "This is that ck monster��" The Poison King noticed this attack and tried to use his poison to suppress this ck me.


    But Leonardo was faster inbining his power, knowing that whatever he did, Theo would match his movement.


    In fact, both of them seemed to know what each other was thinking, allowing them to cooperate perfectly. Other than Theo''s clone, there seemed to be someone who could match his movement fluidly.


    Leonardo smirked while waving his hands down. An ice wall came out perpendicr to the ck me, trapping the Poison King inside a box.


    "This is��" The Poison King noticed something. The ones who created this ice wall were the bishops. He was truly surrounded by a ck me on his two sides and an ice wall on the other two sides. Just looking at this alone, it was clear that Leonardo was nning an ambush.


    So, he had toe out immediately before Leonardo closed the box.


    He jumped into the air, but he somehow crashed into a barrier, knocking him back to the ground.


    "This is��" The Poison King recognized the barrier made by Leonardo''s rook. Of course, he wasn''t afraid of it because he could melt it.


    "It''s useless!" The Poison King smirked and shot out his poison, but the barrier suddenly turned ck, covering the entire barrier.


    "Kh." The Poison King gritted his teeth because his poison didn''t work due to Theo''s ability. He blocked the mutated monster''s poison and radiation with this steel after all, so even the Poison King couldn''t prate the barrier.


    Knowing that the air was useless, the Poison King hurriedly turned to the side, nning to break through from either the ck me or the ice wall.


    Since the ice wall could turn into ice, the Poison King chose to go through to the ck me. He sent forth his poison first to extinguish the fire, but he was stunned when he saw another barrier blocking his path after the fire was gone.


    "What?!" The Poison King was startled because he realized he had been trappedpletely. "No, wait. What''s the trap?"


    The Poison King suddenly felt Magic Power fluctuation above him.


    Numerous white lines appeared as if it was connected to something.


    "Wait, thes��" The Poison King gasped, finding each had been hiding the chess pieces. This allowed Leonardo to set up a formation. "Not good!"


    By the time he realized, the lines were aligned. One would be confused because they couldn''t see anything from the side, but the Poison King could see the shape directly because he was at the bottom.


    It looked like an octagram. The rooks, the knights, the bishops, the queen, and the king became the pivot points of two rectangles that were diagonal to each other. And the pawns took a spot on the crossed spots between lines.


    Leonardo stood in the middle of the formation while pping his hand. "It''s time for you to die, Poison King."


    "Checkmate."

 Chapter 1569 Exhausted

    Chapter 1569 Exhausted


    "Checkmate."


    The octagram suddenly shone and shot a ray of light down from the center, illuminating everything below it.


    The light was so strong that it felt like the octagram acted as a magnifier ss, amplifying the sunlight.


    "I WON''T DIE!" The Poison King shouted while releasing all his poison, covering himself to melt the light itself. "Haaaa!"


    He was soon swallowed by the light as thetter tried to evaporate him.


    The light was blinding, but it didn''tst long. There was a huge hole on the the Poison King stood on as if everything within that light had been pulverized.


    However, as expected from the top twenty experts in the world, the Poison King''s body was still intact.


    Although he lost his left arm and leg, the Poison King was still breathing.


    "Ha�� Ha��" The Poison King panted a few times as his body grew weaker and weaker. Despite his current condition, the Poison King had yet to give up, believing he would be able to survive.


    As if the ray of hope had appeared, the Poison King couldn''t help but smile.


    The universe that Theo had created suddenly crumbled into pieces, and the terrain returned to normal.


    "This is��" The Poison King tried to look around to see his savior before finding the original Theo standing in front of him.


    "You are still useful." Theo''s words stuck in his mind because this was how the original Theo usually spoke. They might be a master and a subordinate, but unlike Theo, who treated his people like a family, the original Theo strictly applied the formal rtionship.


    With the addition of simr clothing, the Poison King knew Theo had rescued him. "Yes. Let''s get away from here first!"


    There was hope in the Poison King''s eyes before he suddenly noticed something was wrong.


    "No, wait. Theo has been missing this whole time!" The Poison King remembered that the moment Theo helped Leonardo in enhancing his attack, he never appeared before him anymore.


    In other words, Theo was purposely hiding from him.


    This would be a perfect rescue operation if he didn''t realize this, but he hurriedly took a nce to the side, finding the original Theo and the clone Theo were still fighting.


    "You��" The Poison King tried to attack the one before him, but thetter had turned around while summoning a sword in his hand.


    "It seems that you''ve realized it." Theo smirked and cut his neck before the Poison King could do anything.


    The Poison King fell into despair in hisst moment as he watched his body without a head anymore. His consciousness soon disappeared as he finally died.


    "Haha, you''re next!" Theo smirked and red at the original Theo. After removing all threats from the Griffith Family, Theo could finally focus on the original Theo.


    "Tsk!" The original Theo gritted his teeth, wondering how he should escape this time. Now that everyone had died, he had to avoid getting surrounded at all costs.


    The original Theo hurriedly ran away, and the clone Theo chased after him, not nning to let him go.


    Unexpectedly, Theo, who was supposed to be doing the same, actually didn''t even move from his spot.


    "I have thought about this in our battle, but it seems that you''ve exhausted most of your power��" Leonardo nced at Theo. Imitating the power of the strongest people in the world might be extraordinary, but Theo had just acquired this technique and showed it off to everyone.


    It was already amazing that he couldst this long. That was why in thest fight against the Poison King, Theo was assisting Leonardo instead of personally taking care of the Poison King.


    In fact, Leonardo knew the reason why Theo aimed for the people from the Griffith Family instead of the original Theo this whole time because he knew he didn''t have enough energy to kill the real Theo.


    "Tsk. I guess I can''t hide anything from you. Shouldn''t you bemanding the army again?" Theo clicked his tongue and looked away.


    "It''s still manageable for now. As for you�� It seems that you are still conserving a part of your power for assurance."


    "Yeah. After this, there''s no telling what Flora will do. I can easily escape with my group, but I''m bringing arge group of monsters, so I need to have enough power tost a few rounds against her for assurance.


    "Do you think I can simply leave after experiencing her betraying me and taking all my ns?"


    "I can''t say anything about that." Leonardo shook his head. "But I''m afraid that guy and Mason Griffith will be an invisible threat for you."


    "I know. I''m prepared to fight them until the end�� No, in fact, they''re still useful, so I allow them to leave."


    "What are you talking about? They''re still useful?"


    "Yeah. To bring out the higher dimension which has been controlling this reality�� They have to be alive." Theo nodded.


    "You''re still talking about that?" On the one hand, Leonardo couldn''t believe this being from a higher dimension. On the other hand, Leonardo realized that the original Theo was progressing abnormally. Yet, it was still within logic as if someone purposely increased his power, but he couldn''t raise it to the very limit because it would break the world''sw itself.


    That was why he started to believe that a being in the higher dimension existed. He just couldn''t prove it while Theo was tantly telling him that he was nning to use the original Theo and Mason to bring out that being.


    "I can''t keep up with you. You do whatever you want, I''m too old for this shit." Leonardo sighed. "Since everything is fine, I''m going to take themand again. You should use your clone to annihte the mutated King ss Monsters�� though, I don''t think I need to tell you that.


    "Yeah. Don''t worry. I''m going to clean up everything."


    "Are you going to go back to live with all of us?"


    "Yes and no."


    Leonardo nced at him for a moment before closing his eyes, disappointed. However, he could only return to his post while saying, "I see��"

 Chapter 1570 Killing Alexej

    Chapter 1570 Killing Alexej


    It didn''t take too long for Flora to actually return to the battlefield. Theo had predicted that the original Theo would be informing Mason about the retreat even without his clone.


    And with his clone following right behind the original Theo, he confirmed the retreat. As soon as he noticed Mason regrouping with the original Theo, he instantly retracted his clone, not wanting to waste any more time with him.


    It was a shame that he couldn''t kill the original Theo or Mason, but he certainly had eliminated all the Griffith Family.


    Theo and Flora met for the first time. Theo''s expression was cold as if reminding her of her fault.


    "��" Flora couldn''t say anything to Theo. Theo never had an obligation to participate in this battle, but he still helped the union fend off these beasts.


    If she dared to berate him, she would be attacked by the public. If she thanked him, she would have no more face to keep up.


    So, there were no words exchanged between them. Flora could only return to Leonardo''s side while Theo walked away.


    Flora asked Leonardo awkwardly, "What''s the situation on the battlefield?"


    "I''d like to ask you to handle that zombie dragon. The troll can''t hold it too much longer. After that, we have to eliminate the monster that the other Monster Kings handle before wiping out the monsters."


    "Will they release radiation after I kill them?"


    "There''s no telling. Though, one of the King ss Monsters has died, resulting in no radiation. Or that was what it looked like. We haven''t confirmed anything due to theck of personnel."


    "Got it. Let''s conclude this battle as soon as possible."


    "Yes. That''s the n." Leonardo nodded in agreement.


    As soon as she got the confirmation, Flora headed to the zombie dragon to help the rest.


    On the other hand, Theo immediately went to Felix, who had been keeping Alexej in one ce.


    "!!!" Alexej widened his eyes in shock when Theonded next to Felix.


    "Felix. I''ll handle the rest. You get some rest first because we have to eliminate the rest of the monsters after this."


    "Understood." Felix nodded. From the looks of it, the oneing this time was his clone, not the real Theo.


    As Leonardo said, the real person was too exhausted to fight, so he just wanted to recover some power to continuously summon his clone to keep fighting on the battlefield.


    Hence, Felix immediately headed to their group''s location to make sure everyone was safe. Of course, Aisha had been taking care of the injured.


    "Wee back. Come and sit down here. Let me treat your wounds." Aisha waved her hand, asking Felix to sit down next to the others.


    Felix smiled and followed her instruction.


    Meanwhile, Theo was ring at Alexej and said, "I''m here to pay you back for everything you''ve done."


    Alexej gritted his teeth and shouted, "I have no choice. The Griffith Family was the one forcing me."


    "You don''t have a choice? You helped the Griffith Family spread that fake video, and now, you''re helping them as an enemy of humanity. And you''re telling me you have no choice? This is the most idiotic sentence I''ve heard in a while." Theo chuckled.


    Alexej clenched his fists, knowing that he wouldn''t be Theo''s opponent with the abilities he had shown not long ago.


    Although Theo had used most of his power, it wouldn''t be that hard to kill him.


    Alexej and Theo were staring at each other as if waiting for the other party to move. The tension rose as the atmosphere between them became cold.


    Alexej was the first one to make his move, knowing that he had to escape like the original Theo.


    Theo didn''t hesitate to chase him. Unlike the previous chase, he didn''t have to hold back anymore, knowing that his opponent was just a King, not a Saint.


    Alexej first summoned his screen and summoned numerous weapons of all kinds.


    Theo waved his des two times, one downward, one upward.


    "!!!" Alexej''s body trembled before his body leaned to the side. But because of his abrupt movement, his hands were thest ones to get to the position, causing his fingers to be cut.


    "Kh!" Alexej endured the pain and created another screen as a shield because Theo''s second strike almost reached him.


    Luckily, he was still fast enough to react to the second strike as it only hit his screen, cracking it.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. That strike should destroy the screen, showing how much Theo''s Magic Power was left in his body. He also had to deal with the numerous weaponsing at him.


    Since they were already far away from the battlefield, Theo used his Blink to slip past them, causing a bit of misunderstanding in Alexej''s head.


    Thinking his screen might be effective against Theo, Alexej pped his hands, summoning numerous missiles.


    Theo smiled, snapping his finger.


    World Re-Creation.


    He expanded the reality toward Alexej, causing his missile to hit him instead of Theo.


    "What?!" Alexej was dumbstruck but still managed to react at thest second. He covered his head with his arms as the missile exploded, blowing him away.


    *Boom!*


    "Aaaahhhh!" Alexej screamed in pain and crashed to the ground.


    Theo reached him right after and summoned his Irregr Guardian. Without his Mirage World, Theo couldn''t utilize this Irregr Guardian as a Divine Technique.


    But he now could imbue an element to his Irregr Guardian.


    With a single wave of his hand, the Irregr Guardian turned into a spear as lightning began to spark on the tip of the de.


    "Go!" Theo threw the spear.


    The lightning erupted, causing a shock wave as well as cracking the ground below the spear.


    "!!!" Alexej hurriedly threw his body to the side to avoid this attack because the spear could now destroy everything in sight.


    "Kh!" Alexej gritted his teeth and summoned his screen again, but Theo recalled his Irregr Guardian and turned it into a shield.


    He jumped forward and put the shield in front of him before coating the shield with the wind.


    Alexej shot another missile from the screen, hitting right at the center of Theo''s shield.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter ?1571 Killing Alexej (2)

    Chapter ?1571 Killing Alexej (2)


    *Boom!*


    The explosion was supposed to blow Theo away, but surprisingly, Theo actually withstood it with his shield.


    It turned out the wind that covered the shield didn''te only from one side. There was also wind on the other side that gave Theo the momentum he needed to resist the explosion.


    The wind in front of the shield also dispersed the explosion, allowing Theo to maintain his position.


    "What?!" Alexej tried to get away, but Theo''s momentum couldn''t be stopped anymore as he mmed his shield at Alexej, knocking him to the ground.


    "Gah!" Alexej spat a mouthful of blood while trying to push the shield. He felt like he was being crushed from the top.


    He summoned two smaller screens as a pair of jacks appeared. If he couldn''t push it with an explosion, he could only do it in the traditional way.


    "��" Theo was surprised that Alexej still managed to do something like this. Since his shield had a physical body, it truly allowed Alexej to use the jacks.


    Knowing that Alexej wouldn''t die this way, he tried another way. Instead of using the shield, Theo suddenly jumped into the air.


    Alexej used that chance to push the shield away from him, but before he could escape, Theonded on the ground and used his Ascension Step.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    The pressure from the wind struck Alexej.


    "Aaaahhhh!" Alexej felt like his organs were pushed. He could finally understand the pain that the mutated monster experienced when fighting Theo. And that pain was multiplied because he had no tough skin like a monster.


    The ground turned into a crater, and its depth kept increasing because Theo continued exerting the might of the Ascension Step.


    "No!" Alexej tried to summon another thing from his screen, but he was toote.


    Theo had summoned his Death Avatar. Although he couldn''t move while maintaining this ability, he could still use his skills.


    The Death Avatar appeared before Alexej as it extended both hands as if trying to drag him somewhere.


    "Death has set its eyes on you, Alexej." Theo smiled as he used the Death Descent, revealing the red threads that indicated how he would die.


    Alexej didn''t know about this ability, but he tried to use his screen to escape from this situation again.


    Unfortunately for him, he had no more luck this time because the Death Avatar had formed a huge sword, pointing it down.


    Alexej summoned another missile, but Theo snapped his finger, using his Reality Removal to make the screen disappear at thest second.


    "!!!" Alexej actually forgot the fact that Theo could remove his ability like this. Theo''s Mirage World created such a big impact that he thought Theo would rely on it most of the time.


    He tried to resist the force but to no avail.


    "NO. I don''t want to d��" Alexej roared while releasing all his power, but this was the end of him.


    The Death Avatar impaled his body before he could finish his words.


    Due to the size of the Death Avatar and the Sword, Alexej was split into two.


    This marked the end of Theo''s revenge.


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh. "A truly fitting end for you. No one witnesses yourst moment. No matter how many generations have passed, people will deem you a traitor."


    Theo nced at Alexej''s corpse once again and checked the system with his Reality Eyes. Ever since the apocalypse, he also saw the notification of killing a human due to the fusion of both power systems.


    This also gave him confirmation that he had killed Alexej.


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "If only I had broken through to Saint before this happened�� I would have killed both Mason and myself. Then again, they''re quite useful for me as well."


    Theo looked at the sky as if staring at something beyond this world.


    "You have given me enough clues of your existence. Unfortunately, the God of Mischief is not here or else, he would be overjoyed to confirm your existence��


    "Just you wait, you insane bastard. I''m going to solve the trouble of this world first beforeing for you." Theo smirked. This was a deration of challenge.


    Theo knew that the moment he let go of the original Theo and Mason, those two woulde for his life again with a new set of strengths.


    And he wanted to make that day thest one for them.


    Theo smiled before waving his hand. Suddenly, Alexej''s body was enveloped by fire and was reduced to nothing. Even the ashes had been spread by the wind, believing that his ashes would fall to the ground after a rain and even his ashes would be stepped on by monsters or humans in the future as a form of humiliation.


    After confirming the removal, Theo turned around and returned to the battlefield, finding the Shaman King and the Dark King had regrouped with the rest of his team.


    Rea was standing next to them since there was nothing to do in the army anymore.


    "Theo�� Are you done?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded with a calm expression. "The immediate danger has been removed, but I''m afraid the long war has just begun."


    Rea nced at the battlefield. Although the mutated King ss Monsters had been removed from the battlefield, the battle wouldn''t end unless they managed to kill the remaining mutated monsters.


    They even had to consider the possible radiation problem due to the mutated monsters.


    "That''s true. But that''s not our job."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "It seems that we can''t live in the union anymore."


    "I contacted Maya a few days ago. It seems that there is going to be a test flight in three months. We should be able to go there in four months as long as you discuss the details with her."


    Theo smiled. "As expected of Maya. For now, all of you can rest. Do whatever you want with the connection we have now. After that, we''re going to retreat and leave the rest to them."


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1572 Unforgettable

    Chapter 1572 Unforgettable


    "Attack. Attack!"


    Leonardomanded while staring at the battlefield. It had been ten hours since the battle began. There were a lot of casualties on both sides, but because Theo had eliminated most of the threats, they managed to keep the casualty minimal.


    Flora had also eliminated all strong mutated monsters, leaving the rest for the people to conserve her energy. At the same time, the pope had been healing the people tirelessly, saving those who could be saved.


    These four were the biggest contributors to this war. Although the war would continue for a while, the union wouldn''t copse with this.


    Since the war alsosted long enough, the Dark King and the Shaman King also had the chance to recover their Magic Power.


    Eventually, Theo gave an Order to all monsters. "Retreat!"


    After fighting for a long time, even the Dark King thought it was better to stop there. He also didn''t want his people to die needlessly. He instantly returned to the group while preparing to return.


    This movement startled the human side because they had fought with the monsters for quite a while. They thought that the monsters weren''t that scary at all since they helped them from being destroyed.


    Obviously, Leonardo and all Transcendent Level Experts from the union turned their heads to them, knowing what Theo nned to do.


    Without hesitation, they came to Theo to confirm his intention.


    Flora was the one leading them while the Great Guardian, the War Saint, and the Princess were standing behind her. If only they had the pope and the Empress, who remained in the rear, it would be an extraordinary lineup.


    However, Theo wasn''t losing either.


    Theo stood in the front with Felix and the five Monster Kings standing behind him to back him up.


    If both sides shed, no one could tell what would happen. Theo might not be as strong as Flora right now, but he was certainly approaching her strength.


    "You''re going back?" Flora was the first to open her mouth, asking with a cold tone.


    "Yes. There is nothing more I want to do." Theo''s words were sharp and acted as proof of the betrayal.


    "��" Flora paused for a moment, hesitating. If she could rewind time, she would have chosen Theo from the beginning. The only reason why she hadn''t died in this battle was because Theo deemed she was still useful to protect the War God Family and his allies in this ce. "Can you wait until we eradicate all mutated monsters for the sake of the people?"


    "!!!" Rea gritted her teeth when hearing that shameless question. She couldn''t help but shout, "For the sake of the people? You have the nerve to say those words when you were the one betraying him after taking advantage of him?


    "The union''s system was made based on his idea. Yet, after getting it, you threw him away! You even allowed those people to smear his name by using that fake video and allowed the Griffith Family to hunt him down.


    "If not for his ability, do you think we would have survived? NO! You��" Rea''s outburst was normal from people''s perspective. This also showed what was happening behind the scene.


    But Rea was Theo''s assistant. She had been training under Theo for a long time, so she knew what to say and when she should reveal everything.


    The people''s eyes were already staring at them when the monsters were retreating, so people''s curiosity rose.


    Theo would be breaking his character if he was the one letting out that outburst, so she took his role and revealed all that information. No matter how hard the people saw it, they would think Rea''s reaction was normal.


    If Flora dared to stop them from leaving after all this help, then there was nothing that would stop Theo from creating another war, this time, with the union. When that happened, the union would be razed to the ground.


    Of course, Theo knew when to stop Rea. He acted like he was surprised by her outburst, but he stopped her before she let out too much information that could confuse people.


    "Rea, stop it." Theo raised his hand in front of Rea to calm her down.


    "But��" Rea didn''t seem to be nning to stop.


    However, Theo shook his head with a calm expression and said, "It''s enough. We have done our parts, so it''s time for us to go back. Stand down."


    "��" Rea closed her eyes while taking a few deep breaths before following Theo''s order. The people didn''t realize that this was only an act, but their opinions had truly changed. With so many people witnessing it and some even recording it, it would be hard for the union to stop the crazy feedback from the citizens.


    Theo simply asked Flora. "Do you think I will do it because you simply said so? For the people? Do you for the people who once thought of me as nothing with just a single video?


    "Either way, we''re going back. Are you going to stop us?"


    Flora couldn''t say anything. The Great Guardian and the Princess weren''t that involved in this matter, but they didn''t say anything about this case. Leonardo knew that Theo was the one driving the original Theo to kill the people. At first, he couldn''t ept it either, but after seeing the original Theo''s improvement, he began to wonder whether what Theo said about a being in a higher dimension was real or not.


    Seeing there was no reaction from them, Theo raised his hand and said to all the monsters. "Everyone. Retreat!"


    *Cry!*


    The Sky King let out a cry, followed by a series of roars from the monsters as if cheering for their victory. The sound was so loud that the ground was shaking, but more importantly, no one would be able to forget this one scene where a human they once threw away became their savior by joining hands with their old enemies.


    The monsters turned around and began to return to their home while making a loud noise as if they wereughing at the foolish humans who threw their hero.

 Chapter 1573 Aftermath (1)

    Chapter 1573 Aftermath (1)


    "Hey, have you seen the news?"


    "That''s right. I saw that video. To think there''s such a thing happening behind the scenes."


    There were two people walking while talking about a certain video. The video wasn''t long. After all, they couldn''t capture what Theo said since he didn''t talk out loud.


    However, everyone''s attention came from Rea''s outburst. She was letting out all her emotions as well as the information of what transpired in the dark.


    It stunned all the people who watched it.


    "I was angry as well. To think that the real Theodore Griffith was actually from a hidden family called the Griffith Family�� And to think he wanted to destroy the world."


    "Yeah. And the one who wanted to save them was his clone. This is already wrong in the first ce. Cloning? Are they practicing cloning? It''s not a skill, right?"


    "How can that be? The clone has a personality of his own. If it''s a skill, the clone that the other one produces should be able to summon another clone."


    "That''s true. In that case, the Theodore Griffith that we know this whole time hase to love the people and wants to stop the Griffith Family."


    "Indeed. Unfortunately, the Griffith Family always tried to kill him."


    "Not only that�� Do you remember Nagasawa Rea''s outburst? From my perspective, no one could release that anger unless it truly happened."


    "That''s right. In that case, the union truly abandoned him. And I heard the Lexon Group was the one spreading the video."


    "Yes. It was said that Alexej had fallen in battle as well."


    "It seemed Theo was the one killing him�� well, it was justified. Where is his grave?"


    "Does a person like that deserve a grave?"


    "That''s true. If he has a grave, I will go there and fill it with trash. He''s the one causing all this mess after all."


    "We can''t disrespect the dead. Fuck that saying�� That one is not a human but an animal! Even I will go there to dig up his grave."


    "Indeed. Still, the situation in the union is not that good right now."


    "That''s true. I can feel it too. I actually participated in the previous demonstration."


    "For Theodore Griffith�� Despite being betrayed all the time, it didn''t stop him from helping us on that battlefield. Even the current union was built from his idea. Those guys are just running it."


    "That''s right. It was no wonder Theodore Griffith left the union back then. It was such a shame, but I felt like he deserved a better ce."


    "True�� But where did he live right now? I actually wanted to live in his ce. Maybe there is a base somewhere?"


    "Living together with the monsters?"


    "But those monsters didn''t look like they were going to harm us. He could even order King ss Monsters around. Don''t you think it''s already a mystical ce that no one has ever discovered before?"


    "Living together with monsters, huh? Now that I think about it, the animals have turned into monsters after the apocalypse, right?"


    "Are you saying that the monsters were once an animal too?"


    "That''s probably correct. They just evolved on the other side�� If we think that way, I can somehow see us living with them."


    "But those monsters are special. Other monsters will surely attack us."


    "True, but we can''t really go to his ce since no one knows his whereabouts right now."


    "Maybe the union knows, but they don''t want us to know."


    "Well��"


    The conversation continued. They were mocking, criticizing, and letting out all their emotions in the conversation.


    Unfortunately for the union, this kind of conversation happened all over the union. The trust in the union vanished, and Theo was hailed as their savior.


    After all, Theo''s group stopped the Griffith Family, Theo himself stopped the original Theo, and the King ss Monsters handled the mutated King ss Monsters.


    Without Theo and his reinforcement, there was no way the union could handle all that. If Theo didn''te, the union would have beenpletely destroyed, and another few hundred million people would have died.


    The union also faced another problem. After the battle, Leonardo immediately picked another job to deal with the aftermath.


    He was in his room, watching the public''s outburst. He understood that this was Theo''s n, and it was probably hisst retaliation for his dissatisfaction.


    However, he also caught a hidden intention in this public outburst. Theo was actually creating an opportunity for him.


    In the past, he waspletely suppressed by Flora. But after the incident with Richard and Ricky, Leonardo was known to be a just person inside the union because he protected the Czar and the Empress Pce before they were harmed by the union or the Griffith Family.


    If he wanted to reconstruct the union, he had the chance to do it. After all, public opinion supported him.


    While thinking about it, Marzio suddenly entered his office and reported, "Father. We have checked the aftermath.


    "The monsters are filled with radiation, so we have to bury them with concrete. This way, the water can''t prate the concrete, and the radiation won''t be washed away, affecting other things beneath the ground.


    "As for thend they crossed�� To be honest, we don''t find too much radiation. It''s kinda surprising even for me, but that''s the situation. So, we don''t have to worry about it for now.


    "It''s just that there is another problem. The corpses of the King ss Monsters are emitting quite high radiation�� It''s already affecting the ground. So, we have to dig up the soil and bury it under itself to prevent radiation and sickness.


    "And we have to make a surveince team that will supervise Chernobyl and other simr ces with high radiation to prevent the appearance of another disaster."


    "��" Leonardo listened to him and asked two crucial questions. "How much money do you need? How many men do you require?"


    "We can''t use the monsters'' parts to get some money, so we have to open our coffers�� It requires around 12 billion and approximately 10,000 people. The work will be done within a month."


    Leonardo thought for a moment before looking at Marzio. "Well, it sounds good enough. Marzio��"


    "Yes, Father?"


    "I''m going to retire."

 Chapter ?1574 Aftermath (2)

    Chapter ?1574 Aftermath (2)


    "I''m going to retire."


    "What? If you''re retired��" Marzio took a step back, seeing the trouble ahead.


    "I was supposed to have retired two decades ago. You people were the ones forcing me to take this shitty job."


    "But the people truly need your wisdom, Father."


    "Then, you take my job."


    "�� Did you listen to me, Father?"


    "I''m giving you an opportunity, Marzio. Don''t you see the hidden intention of the public outburst? It''s basically enhancing our family''s name and if I''m retiring, you��" Leonardo stopped, letting Marzio understand the rest.


    "!!!" It didn''t take too long for Marzio to understand the real intention of this retirement. "Father�� You don''t mean��"


    "Yeah. This is the best start I can give you to start your career." Leonardo nodded. With good public opinion, Marzio could reform the union from the inside, allowing him to gain more achievement. This was a good start for Marzio''s career in the union.


    Leonardo was also tired of dealing with all these matters, so it was time for him to step down.


    "But Father��"


    "There is not but! I''m going to retire. But well�� I''ll take care of the radiation problem before stepping down. During that time, you''ll learn everything from me. Understood?"


    Marzio clenched his fists and lowered his head. "I understand. I won''t disappoint you, Father."


    "Good." Leonardo smiled, knowing everything would be fine. This time, he could finally rest.


    ��


    US Base.


    "Hahahahaha!" Theughter echoed inside the room as a blond woman was having fun reading all the news she had just received. "This is hrious! Have you seen the news, Ruth?"


    "��" Ruth maintained her calm face while sipping her coffee. However, the corner of her mouth was tilting slightly, showing her happiness.


    Maya said, "Anyway, we''re going to bring Theo here in a few months. Also, I have to prepare another flight for Agata��"


    "Won''t Theo be the one going there?"


    "That''s true." Maya nodded. "What''s the situation with our airne?"


    "The airne is using Magic Power to fly, allowing us to produce a system without a single noise. This should enable us to fly stealthily in the sky.


    "Thest problem for this airne is dealing with the Magic Power itself. Like Supreme Rank Expert or Mythical Rank Expert, the natural release of the Magic Power can disturb the monsters, so we''re working to solve that problem.


    "There are several ways that we''re experimenting right now. And since traveling is dangerous, we also prepare several weapons and protective equipment from the attacks.


    "If everything works just fine, we should be able to solve the problem and travel all around the world. It''s just�� we have to know where to fetch him."


    Maya nodded in agreement. "True. But knowing him, he would have told uster when everything was finished. For now, we can continue our research and finish the airne as soon as possible."


    "Understood."


    "Then, let''s move on to the next topic. How is the public''s opinion about Theo?"


    "It''s pretty good. They''re talking like if they don''t want Theo, he cane here. If you release news that you''re working on the airne to bring him here, you''ll surely get a good opinion from the public."


    "That''s a good idea. Though, I''ll consult with him first since I can''t release that statement only to be rejected by him because of a change of n or something."


    "Understood." Ruth thought for a moment and said, "There is one thing that I''m confused about."


    "What is it?"


    "It seems that he has a good rtionship with the monsters over there. Is he going to bring them here? If not, what about the monsters?"


    "I don''t think he will bring them here. But I think Theo is going to utilize that rtionship for a future n. I mean, Theo has a base over there, and I don''t think he''ll abandon itpletely."


    "Then, is he going to be alternating between two ces? It''s going to cost him a bit."


    "That''s true. But Theo has two ways to solve that problem. First, he can upgrade someone''s skills!"


    "Ah!" Ruth forgot that Richard was actually Theo. Theo had informed it a bitter after that incident.


    "With this ability, he can simply be a rich person without ourpany. The cost is nothing to him."


    "Indeed. I can see that."


    "The second way is his clone. He can simply leave his clone there."


    "But won''t he need them to fight?"


    "Who is he going to fight in this ce? Ourpany has reimed its previous glory and if the airne business is a sess, we can rise far higher. Is there even a need to be afraid of anyone other than him?"


    "Other than him��" Ruth rolled her eyes, understanding why Maya emphasized that one.


    "Haha. I mean, who can resist that guy? With that poprity, he''s basically like the world''s idol. Even the union is in a mess with just a simple outburst. If Theo wants it, he can simply destroy thispany in an instant."


    "I can see him doing it." Ruth nodded in agreement.


    "But this also means I have lost to him again, tsk." Maya clicked her tongue. She had challenged Theo that she would be the most valued person in the world to the point he didn''t dare to im that she was his subordinate.


    But Theo had be a hero in people''s eyes; a single action from him could cause herpany''s stock to fall to the bottom. "I don''t want to admit it, but this is my 4th defeat against him."


    "Well, you''re going to continue fighting him?"


    "Of course. This is just a challenge for me to improve. Anyway, let''s start our n."


    "Which n?"


    "The Skill Rank n."


    "Ah! Then, we shall start procuring Skill Cards from all over the countries?"


    "Yes." Maya thought for a moment. "I''ll take care of the negotiation while you are going to roam around to find Skill Cards from the ruined buildings, especially temples."


    "Got it."


    "Then, I''ll leave it to you." Maya smiled. With Theo on her side, her dream of bing the most valuedpany in the world was just right around the corner. Even though she had be his subordinate, it didn''t mean she had lost her own goal.

 Chapter 1575 Aftermath (3)

    Chapter 1575 Aftermath (3)


    "Hahahaha!" The one who wasughing at the news wasn''t only Maya. The Heavenly Sovereign, who had been watching Theo the whole time, was truly amused by this sight.


    He nced at Agata and said, "To think that your man dares to do it this way."


    Agata sipped her tea calmly while saying, "That''s just like him."


    The Sword Saint sighed and exined what he got from this. "With all this news spreading around, his name is cleared, and his reputation soars to the sky. The union has lost its trust, but Leonardo''s reputation is still maintained as one of the best guys in the union.


    "The Czar and the Empress Pce have been taken care of too and this kind of reputation will give a lot of advantage to your family.


    "Basically, the ones rted to him will benefit from this entire scheme. Of course, that also means my daughter''s got something good too. After all, she''s acting as his assistant�� even though she was the one saying all that out loud."


    Agata smiled and said, "Don''t you think the people think she was in the right because she revealed everything? Also, it would cause her future enemies to think twice because she might let go of another outburst to destroy them."


    "Well, that''s certainly a weapon." The Sword Saint sighed.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. Only he knew Theo''s real enemies this whole time.


    ''I wonder what these guys would think if they knew Theo was the one causing the apocalypse�� not directly of course, but he certainly pushed his original self to cause the apocalypse.


    ''This is the first time I saw a viin hailed as a hero.'' The Heavenly Sovereign wasughing inwardly. If Theo didn''t do anything, the apocalypse would happenter in the future, and he wouldn''t be the one responsible for killing more than ten billion people on Earth.


    ''But if he didn''t intervene, the apocalypse would be so big that it would annihte the entire humanity from Earth. I wonder if I should call him a criminal or a savior next. It''s truly hrious.


    ''Either way, the situation has be like this. In the past, the God of Mischief caused the Ragnarok and was known as a viin. And this time, Theo caused another Theo to start the apocalypse and let him be known as a hero. I guess the student has surpassed his teacher?''


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t say it out loud, but he was amused by the entire situation. After all, Theo had managed to trick the whole world.


    The Heavenly Sovereign shook that thought off his mind and teased the Sword Saint. "Aren''t you d that he is your ally?"


    "��" The Sword Saint sighed. "Yes and no. How many times have I almost got a heart attack when he recklessly did something? My daughter was involved too��"


    "Hahaha!" The Heavenly Sovereignughed. "That''s true. If we want to kill him, all Saints might have to unite to besiege him, don''t you think?"


    "That''s certainly true."


    "Theo probably saw this future back when he first exchanged words with the Wind Emperor. The bnce started tilting. Then, the Time God should have made some moves since he helped him at that time�� Although it looks like the Time God is neutral right now, it doesn''t seem he''s nning to be his enemy.


    "Then, you came with your daughter, bing his ally. The bnce shifted, and the result was the death of the Death Reaper. With the addition of me, Theo is practically invincible.


    "Of course, the apocalypse slightly bnced it since we couldn''t really leave this ce for a moment. And now, who can stop Theo?"


    "He also has the power to rival us��"


    "It''s still iplete, but yes." The Heavenly Sovereign furrowed his eyebrows. "21 Years to be a Transcendent Level Expert and 23 Years to go beyond that level�� No, should I say that he''s only a few years old?


    "After all, his parents had been hiding his talent this whole time. They even suppressed him�� If Theo had grown from when he was a child, I wonder what he would be when he was at this age?"


    "Do you think the Griffith Family would have let him go?"


    "I don''t have a daughter, but don''t you think there are many people stronger than Mason who want him as their grandson-inw or son-inw?"


    "In the end, they have noplete proof to show Theo''s talent. They can show it the bud, but they have to carefully consider the Griffith Family since they were big at that time."


    "That''s true. Unless they were insane, they wouldn''t ept Theo. In fact, the moment his parents brought him somewhere for that, the Griffith Family would have taken him away."


    "Indeed. Life sure is tough, huh." The Sword Saint sighed.


    "I also have mixed feelings." Agata suddenly opened her mouth, interjecting their conversation. A smile appeared on her face as she said, "Due to that childhood, I could meet him."


    "��" The Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign looked at each other, annoyed because she was bragging about her rtionship with Theo. "Shut up."


    "Hahaha!" Agata chuckled as if telling them to ept their loss.


    "Still, the youngest King and the youngest Saint in history. With his lifespan, I wonder what kind of achievement he will have in the future. This might be a curse for him, considering he''s going to be too strong for anyone and leave him alone. It''s going to be lonely for him��" The Heavenly Sovereign sighed.


    "A strong talent can also be a strong curse, I guess." The Sword Saint agreed. If Theo became a Saint in his seventies or older, he would still have the desire to improve to fight against the other saints. But with Theo''s current level, he would be lonely in his thirties. Then, it would be a curse that gued him for the rest of his life.


    "And there is one more problem for him�� The fact that we can''t ess the system anymore means he can''t go beyond level 1,000. That''s a shame. After all, his shrewdness should allow him to trick everyone until he reaches that step."


    "That''s true. It''s truly a shame." The Sword Saint shook his head helplessly, disappointed.

 Chapter 1576 Aftermath (4)

    Chapter 1576 Aftermath (4)


    Agata looked at the two disappointed old men and shook her head. "Well, he wille to this ce sooner orter. Don''t you think it''s good to start procuring Skill Cards? I''m sure he won''t mind upgrading some skills as thanks."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint widened their eyes. Although they had some spections about Richard, this was the first time they received a confirmation from Agata. "You serious?"


    "Yes. Knowing him, he would thank you guys that way." Agata nodded. "He won''t stop even if I tell him not to��"


    "Haha, that stubbornness is good. Though, you''ll have a hard time from now on, girl." The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled. "It''s going to be hard to hold him down. After reaching the top, he''s going to be alone and bored�� At that time, he will start ying everywhere and more�� women in his life."


    Agata shook her head. "To be honest, I''d prepared myself for that instance. Theo might be stubborn right now, but who knows what he will do in the future. Just take a look at his current rtionship�� Maya, Ne, and Rea. Well, I don''t like it either, but I might not be able to keep him by myself."


    Agata''s problems were reflected in her expression. Even the Sword Saint somehow felt bad, even though his daughter was among those names.


    However, Agata added, "Though I don''t know what he is thinking, it seems he has a target that won''t disappear for a long time. That way, I don''t think he will be bored anytime soon."


    "A target?"


    "I don''t know about it yet. He just hinted to me that he had prepared an unending adventure for us to have some fun in the future."


    "I see. I''m also curious about it. Then again, he won''t bring me anyway." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged.


    "That''s true. Anyway, now that the situation is like this, Theo''s reputation will be unshakable. Even if he does something that people will frown upon, the first thing they will think is Theo having a hidden reason to do it." Agata smiled while watching the news on Sk.


    "Now that I think about it, you''re correct. If he suddenly visits us and attacks me, doesn''t that make me a viin?" The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at himself before asking Agata. "Shouldn''t I kidnap you now and make him kneel before me?"


    Agata only chuckled at the teasing and said, "You''re his ally, so of course, it won''t happen. Though, I can''t say the same as others."


    "Fair enough." The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled while ncing at the Sword Saint.


    "Why the hell are you staring at me?! Are you implying that I''m going to be stabbed like that?!"


    "What are you talking about? I''m simply looking at you, there''s no other meaning." The Heavenly Sovereign looked away yfully.


    The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint started bickering again while Agata kept reading the news with a smile on her face. She muttered in a low voice. "Just a few more months�� We''re going to meet again."


    ��


    While the others were reacting to Theo''s action during the battle, the person in question was still on his way back to the base. After all, their base was quite far from the union.


    Of course, Theo had his clone remain inside the union to observe the change.


    While sitting on the Dark King''s horse, Theo thought, ''Without my clone, I might need another two months toplete myws. After that, my Order will be an Authority.


    ''Although it''s beyond my schedule, there should be no more problems during the next few months. What I''m worried about right now is something else��''


    Theo hesitated for a moment before asking the Dark King. "Do you know how many Saints are out there?"


    "How many Saints out there?" The Dark King was startled by this question. "I''m not very sure about it myself since even the Frost Saint doesn''t tell me much about them. He only told me that in ancient times, there were 70 Saints that created an agreement not to interfere with each other and maintained Orders.


    "70 Saints��" Theo was surprised by the number. It was beyond what he expected. But considering the change in the current world, he thought that there were less than seventy Saints in the world right now, even if he included Human Saints.


    "Possibly, there are only forty to fifty Saints left in this world. But where are those Saints after the apocalypse? Several of them are showing themselves to the world, but there should be more Saints who are living in seclusion. It''s not that they don''t want to terrorize the Earth, there simply no merit in doing so."


    "Do you think so? I''m not that well-versed about the world."


    "No, I''m just thinking if there is a sudden phenomenon that can give them a reason toe out��" Theo muttered as his expression became cold.


    "Do you mean��" The Dark King understood his worries as his expression became grim.


    "Well, there are simply too many things that can cause it."


    "Such as?"


    "Natural Disasters like Earthquake, Tsunami and so on�� They can wake those monsters up. Feeling disturbed, they might cause a lot of destruction around the world. Then, there is that mutated monster��


    "The monsters created by humans'' mistakes�� And unfortunately, humans'' mistakes are not only about radiation. There are two biggest mistakes that might bite humans in the near future. This is what I''m worried about right now."


    "What are the two biggest mistakes?"


    "We have solved one of the three biggest mistakes, which is pollution. But we still struggle with trash and chemicals. The chemical might create a different type of mutated monster while the trash�� Oh boy, I don''t want to think about it." Theo sighed. "And if we still struggle with those two mistakes and another apocalypse happens that wakes up all those Saints. The Age of Gods might happen again."


    "How humans haven''t gone extinct yet?" The Dark King''s eyebrows twitched because he asked purely out of concern.


    "Don''t ask me. If an alien suddenly appears and tells me humans are trash, I''m going to agree without hesitation." Theo shrugged.

 Chapter ?1577 Staying

    Chapter ?1577 Staying


    It took them another few days before reaching the monster''s territory and going their separate ways.


    Upon his arrival, the Dark King immediately reported everything to the Frost Saint.


    "So, what do you think about him?" The Frost Saint asked.


    "He was insane. His adaptability was beyond my imagination�� no, more like, instead of adaptability, he seems to be able to learn something new far faster than anyone else." The Dark King remembered Theo copying a few powerful abilities to destroy his enemy.


    "I see." The Frost Saint closed his eyes as if thinking about something else. After a few minutes, he asked, "Tell me the rest about it."


    "Understood." The Dark King nodded and began telling the entire thing from the battle to Theo''s worries.


    The Frost Saint was amused by what he found. He asked a few questions to understand Theo better.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Theo and the rest were heading straight for their home and finally reached their base two dayster.


    When they entered their base, they didn''t find any change inside the base. There was only Jeff and his sister working on the field and just having fun with it. There was even a canvas of them ying together as if Jeff had created it before ying on the field.


    When they arrived, Jeff soon felt their presence and turned around. Upon seeing Theo, he hurriedly ran to him to greet him. "Ah! You''re back."


    "Yeah. How are you?"


    "I''m good. We''re good. There is no problem around here." Jeff assured Theo.


    "I see." Theo nodded and turned to the others. "I guess that''s all. You''re free to do anything."


    Felix was the first to disappear, not wanting to wait to meet his daughter. Soon, Coline also walked away to prepare for a feast for their victory while Rea began working again, checking everything to confirm their conditions.


    In a minute, they had left. Theo looked at Jeff and said, "It seems that you''re having fun here, Jeff."


    "Yeah. I can''t hide it from you."


    "It''s just��" Theo scratched the back of his head. "I''m thinking about leaving this ce soon."


    "Ah?! Leaving for good?"


    "Well, this ce is like a temporary base."


    "I see." Jeff thought for a moment. "To be honest, I and my sister havee to realize that we enjoy a slow living."


    "Even in our new home, I will surely get a ce for that slow living too. Just tell me about the requirement and we can find a new ce with that thought in mind. Of course, I''m making sure that we won''t be leaving anymore. It''s kinda annoying to be a nomad."


    "I see. I shall follow your decision." Jeff finally agreed after Theo''s promise. Back when he was first following Theo, he always desired to be his right hand man. Even if he couldn''t, he was satisfied with bing his left hand.


    However, no one could change Felix''s position in Theo''s heart, while Theo''s left hand had several candidates like Walker, Akbar, and Ruth.


    So, when he dropped the thought of bing an important person, he came to realize that he was actually having fun with this kind of lifestyle. He would still support Theo but from the back.


    He just let the others fight for that position.


    Jeff asked, "How long do we have left?"


    "Mhm? Around four to five months."


    "That''s good enough for me." Jeff nodded and politely excused himself. "Then��"


    After bowing his head to him, Jeff walked away. Theo felt happy that Jeff became more rxed. He surely hoped that he didn''t have to leave anymore after finding this next ce.


    He just wanted a ce to settle down. "Anyway, this ce is going to be a temporary base for me to keep an eye on the union. I have to establish a few things first."


    Theo wanted to start working before he noticed Hel standing outside her house as if waiting for Theo toe to him.


    Since she wanted to talk, Theo approached her and asked, "What''s wrong?"


    Hel looked at him for a moment as if she was hesitant to talk about it. But since she had made her decision, she told Theo. "I''m going to stay here."


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. "You''re not going with us?"


    "Yeah." Hel nodded with a serious expression. "It''s not that I don''t like your group. I even consider myself one of them since they''re fun to hang out with. But at the end of the day, I like my undead more�� Well, that''s not the point.


    "Anyway, I''m going to stay here. Knowing my father, he''s surely somewhere in this world, doing something that he loves. So, I''m going to stay here to wait for him�� I''m pretty sure he''s going to find this ce."


    "Really?"


    "Well, just think about it�� Knowing his personality, can you imagine him suddenly appearing before you as yourst enemy, saying, ''Hahaha, you think there is a being in the higher dimension? No, it''s all my scheme.'' Or something along the lines."


    "��" Theo facepalmed and started sweating. "Sorry�� He is the kind of person I can''t help but say that it is possible. No, I should say it''s weird if he doesn''t do something like that."


    "Ugh. Sorry�� I somehow felt ashamed of having him as a father."


    "��" Both of them fell silent while cursing the God of Mischief in their hearts. Knowing his personality, the God of Mischief might do that to troll the entire world.


    "Anyway, I''m going to stay here." Hel returned to the topic. "I have learned a bit about living here, so I can simply use my undead to take care of this ce. That is if you don''t take our Covenant Seal for your new home."


    Theo knew that his next home would be smaller if he didn''t take back the Covenant Seal, but when he thought about it, he somehow agreed with Hel. "I will give you this ce. Though, I have to shrink this ce a bit and remove some details to get a portion of my power back.


    "Of course, I''m going back here to expand it from time to time. What do you think?"


    "I don''t mind." Hel nodded, reaching an agreement with Theo.

 Chapter 1578 Authority

    Chapter 1578 Authority


    After solving a few problems in his base, Theo returned to seclusion, finishing the other twows.


    Theo had three bigws for his Authority. The first one was a replica and the skill born from thisw was called the Mirage World.


    Meanwhile, his otherw was that of conversion, while the other one was the mixture between the twows. Hebined replication and conversion to create a reversew.


    However, Theo hadn''t created a concrete skill to reflect his other twows. So, he was working more slowly and carefully to make sure he didn''t create any mistakes in the creation.


    He was lucky previously that the Mirage World could be created sessfully. If he failed, he didn''t know what would happen to him. There was even a chance that his Order would be taken away.


    Of course, he was checking the Mirage World first to confirm its condition.


    Due to his testing, he created a phenomenon outside.


    Rea, who was working with her Skylink, abruptly stopped when she saw the phenomenon. "What''s that? A temple in the middle of a gxy?"


    Yes. The area turned into the starry sky again and thes hovered around Theo''s temple. Theo''s temple simply became a structure that wasunched outside a and floated inside the empty space.


    "I have noticed this, but it seems that Theo has truly approached the level of my father. That original Theo seems to have gone past this stage, but because he was still new, he still couldn''t release the full potential of his power unlike my father.


    "Theo was trying to break through to that level right now�� So, I''m hoping he can seed since he really needs it. The original Theo and Mason Griffith are still roaming around after all."


    Rea closed her eyes for a moment. "I wonder if I should focus on reaching that level as well? Theo once said he was going to tell me after I understood the core of my existence and power��


    "I was so busy this whole time, but�� What''s exactly the core of my existence and power?" Rea muttered and fell into deep thought.


    She didn''t realize that she would be in deep thought for a few hours before realizing it.


    Although Rea was thest person to be a Mythical Rank Expert in Theo''s group, she was one of the most talented ones, considering her foundation had been built by her father, the Sword Saint.


    Her talent might be lower than her brother, but that gap was solved with Theo being her teacher.


    That was why Rea subconsciously had been approaching her limit and nning to break through from it through Order. However, getting an Order was easier said than done.


    Theo might make it look easy, but that was due to his overwhelming talent. So, Rea might be going in the right direction, but no one could tell when she finally received her Order.


    Aside from her, the closest person to Order was probably Walker since he was among the top three hundred Mythical Rank Experts in the world. However, Walker had never thought about reaching this step. So, only Rea was actually approaching the Order.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Theo wouldn''t be there to guide her since he was focusing on his own Authority.


    The phenomenon of Theo''s temple appeared from time to time. There was something different about the phenomenon next month.


    Instead of floating in the middle of the gxy, Theo''s temple somehow became distorted. The temple somehow tilted to one side, making everything look confusing.


    But Theo somehow stayed in the middle of the temple as if he was resisting gravity.


    When someone was checking his condition, they somehow felt their sense of gravity distorted too. They thought the ground was actually thirty degrees to the previous angle.


    It was shocking and they even experienced it with their own body.


    Obviously, Isaac became a madman after finding this phenomenon. He tried to learn everything he could find from this phenomenon, even if he had to have many sleepless nights. And he was lucky because Levina stayed on his side the whole time, assisting him.


    The change didn''t stop there. After another two months, the temple became even weirder. The solid turned into liquid, and the liquid became solid. The temple melted but still retained its original shape but the temple actually floated upside down.


    When Coline tried to bring him the food, the food somehow had the texture of oatmeal, making her a bit angry.


    But since Theo was in the middle of breaking through, she changed her recipe a bit so that Theo could eat something normal.


    Yes. Coline actually created a porridge, but Theo ate it as if it was rice. She minced and softened the meat so that Theo could eat it like real meat.


    It was a challenge at first, but Coline somehow grew as a chef. Even the others didn''t expect they would eat something soft but hard or something hard but soft.


    She didn''t realize it at first, but this was her unique path to bing the best chef in the world.


    The phenomenon reached its peak after four months of seclusion.


    A huge ray of light suddenly illuminated the temple as if blessing the temple.


    However, a giant circle soon formed on top of Theo''s temple.


    "!!!" All the people who witnessed this phenomenon dropped their jaws because they recognized this symbol. It was none other than the symbol Theo had ced upon them as a sign of them being his subordinate.


    The one who witnessed this change was not only him. There were five more people who felt the sudden change in Theo.


    They were Ava, Avarice, the Lightning Saint, the Frost Saint, and the Dark King.


    Despite being in different ces, they all had felt the sudden change transmitted through the Friend Seal.


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes in shock and looked at the sky. They thought the same thing.


    ''Another Saint is born!''


    Hel, who was meditating in her house, opened her eyes slightly and smiled, muttering, "Congrattions."

 Chapter 1579 Reality Saint

    Chapter 1579 Reality Saint


    "This is the first time I''ve seen something like this," Rea muttered, rushing to the temple. She had seen all kinds of phenomena that Theo had created, but this one felt different.


    There was a tingling sensation bursting from the Friend Seal Theo gave her as if telling her something.


    "What is this feeling?" Rea asked herself while looking at her hands.


    "I don''t know either." Isaac, who had just arrived, answered while feeling excited. There seemed to be another secret that could be researched, he thought.


    "From what I''ve heard about it, it''s just a sign." Felix appeared beside them with Millie while staring at the symbol on top of the temple.


    "You know about it?" Isaac asked.


    "Yeah. Though, it''s not something I can tell you. Sorry, but this is a bit sensitive." Felix shook his head disappointedly.


    Theo once told him that learning everything from the start about Order would just make them farther away from it. He didn''t understand much about it, but Theo had sessfully taught many people to a great degree, so he must say it because he hadprehended it.


    Hence, Felix didn''t say anything regarding the Friend Seal.


    The rest of the people who felt it immediately came out of their houses and gathered in front of the temple, wondering what had happened.


    They were questioning the feeling transmitted through the Friend Seal.


    However, this wasn''t limited to those around him. Theo had put his Friend Seal on all his subordinates.


    Maya and Ruth were staring at each other in shock.


    "Did you feel that?" Maya asked while trembling. She felt a great surge of power that pumped her heart as if trying to make her body excited.


    Even Ruth couldn''t contain her surprise. Although she had an Order, this was the first time she had felt the power transmitted by the Friend Seal.


    She furrowed her eyebrows and nodded her head. "Yes. All I can say is that he must have done something great... Probably a breakthrough."


    Maya''s expression brightened. "Are you serious?"


    "I believe so. This is what the feelings told me." Ruth nodded without hesitation, confirming it.


    Just like the two of them, Agata, Ryo, and Ergene also felt this shock.


    "There is-!" Agata was speaking about her next n before abruptly stopping.


    "!!!" Ryo and Ergene were standing next to Agata, protecting her while she was working in the army with Zhao Jia.


    Zhao Jia and the others were confused by the abrupt stop.


    "What''s wrong?" Zhao Jia asked while furrowing her eyebrows.


    Agata closed her eyes for a moment as a smile appeared on her face. "Congrattions..."


    "Congrat...What?" Zhao Jiapletely didn''t understand, but there was no one who would receive a congrattion from Agata except for Theo.


    By connecting what had happened recently, Zhao Jia understood what had happened.


    "Did he..." Zhao Jia muttered in a low voice, wanting to confirm her doubt.


    Agata simply said, "I''ll end the meeting in an hour. Is that alright with you?"


    That question was enough for Zhao Jia. She thought for a moment and said, "I understand. You can stop it here too..."


    Agata shook her head while pointing at the map she had shown earlier. "I''m not that irresponsible."


    The feelingsted for a while as Theo gained the world''s recognition from evolving his Order to Authority.


    Theo also felt the change in the world. Even though his eyes closed, his senses were heightened to a whole new level.


    ''This is...'' Theo muttered inwardly. His senses were actually picking a few things: the elements in the air, thews of physics, and other things that supported this reality.


    He might not be able to understand all of them, but he could certainly feel them.


    ''This is what shapes a reality...'' Theo continued focusing on his senses. ''I see. This is what my Authority is...


    ''I can sense all the things that shape this reality. However, myws are not creating this reality, but what changes its shape. In other words, my Authority is the tool to control this reality.


    ''My threews consist of replication, conversion, and reversal. Each of them has the ability to change the rules of this reality.


    ''In other words, this power can allow me to destroy or alter reality, but it will never allow me to create one.


    ''I guess this is the difference between me and the creator, who wields all thirteen big Orders.


    ''I see. That''s the difference. The creator creates this reality together with all thews. The Saint is the creator''s hand, utilizing their power to create uniquews in a certain era.


    ''After all, thews in the Age of God, the Jurassic era, and the Modern era will be different. The Saint is the one manipting thews that have been set up before to match the civilization.


    ''However, this power alsoes with a risk. There''s a possibility that the Saint will end up causing destruction by setting up weirdws with its power.


    ''So, I have to be a good Saint who shouldn''t use his power to destroy this reality since another apocalypse might happen.


    ''Last but not least, the Kings. They''re beings who are tasked to be thew enforcement of a Saint. You can be called a King like that of a ruler, but they''re still bound by all thesews from the Saint.


    ''These are the differences between Order, Authority, and Creation.''


    Theo couldn''t help but remember the time when the world visited him, telling him that it had stopped loving all living beings.


    ''A reality where the world doesn''t love the living beings that stay on it...'' Theo sighed and said, ''It seems that there are a lot of things to do to fix it.''


    Theo smiled and raised his hand. "I''m now stepping up as the Reality Saint. I might not be able to create reality because my power is only for destruction. However, I promise you that I''m going to make you question whether this power is meant for destruction or creation.


    "Just like when a man who killed billions of people is regarded as a hero or when the illusion bes a reality, I, too, shall make you question whether I destroy or create this reality."


    Upon saying his vow to the world, the symbol on his chest started to glow as if the world had acknowledged his vow.


    Theo smiled as the surge of power entered his symbol.


    Today, the Reality Saint is born.

 Chapter ?1580 Last Trip

    Chapter ?1580 Last Trip


    Theo opened the temple, revealing his appearance to everyone.


    Despite only walking down the stairs, those on the ground could see a huge change in Theo. Whether it was his temperament or the aura surrounding him, it gave them chills down their spines.


    ''Oh?!'' Rea smiled while gulping down, impressed by the change.


    ''To think that there is this much change after just breaking through.'' Felix sucked a cold breath. Even when he got his Order, he only changed a little. But Theo seemed to be more refined and calm as if everything was within his grasp.


    As soon as Theo reached the ground, the people said the same thing. "Congrattions."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a smile. "I''m sorry for troubling you for thest few months. Well, more than a year if we''re talking about the total."


    "We don''t mind. Everything is for the group." Rea smiled, assuring Theo. "Though, I believe that it''s time for us to go��"


    "My clone has received the report from Maya. The test is useful and after a bit more administration stuff, she''s going to pick us up." Theo nodded.


    "In that case, should we leave this ce?"


    "Sure. We''ll leave this ce in four days. We''re going to meet them in Italy."


    Everyone''s expression brightened, thinking they could finally integrate with the rest of the humans again.


    Although it also meant they would be returning to the US instead of their previous country, it didn''t diminish their happiness.


    "Alright. This will be yourst job. Rea is to summarize our stay here and gather all the data in one ce so that we can review itter. Felix, Akbar, and Walker, you three will go to the vicinity and share a bit of our farming technique as well as the information about the union. Just tell them that I''ll bring them to the union as thest goodwill in exchange. Of course, make sure they''re not from a cannibal group or bandit group.


    "Coline and Jeff will handle all our supplies, including for those people. We''ll also take in the people along the way, so the number will be quite huge. Let''s just say that this is the reward for them for surviving this long.


    "Isaac will gather all his research and report it to me before we go. As for the rest who aren''t working right now, I want you to focus on helping those who have tasks."


    "Understood." They epted the order without hesitation.


    "Alright. That''s all." Theo waved his hand, letting them do their jobs.


    All of them dispersed except for Rea.


    "Are you going back to stabilize your power?"


    "No. I''m going to get something to travel."


    "Considering we''re going to take in many people, our speed will certainly decrease. If we take in normal people, we might take months just to get there. So, you''re going to��"


    "Yeah. I''m going to bring a skyscraper or a football stadium to fit them all in and use my Telekinesis to bring them to the union."


    "Will it work? I mean, can you lift such a huge thing?"


    "Of course. Our journey might take a longer time, but it shouldn''t be a problem."


    "Understood. I''ll also prepare the rest. After finding the building you need, you can take it easy for a while."


    "Thanks as always."


    "No problem." Rea turned around and was about to help them before she heard Theo calling her name.


    "Rea."


    "��" Rea stopped for a moment to listen to him.


    The words he said next truly put a smile on her face because this might be one of the best praises Theo could offer.


    "Thank you. I''m really d that you''re here."


    Rea widened her eyes in surprise. The others had worked for so long but never received this kind ofpliment.


    That was why Rea was so surprised that she turned around to look at Theo, only to find him had gone.


    "Jeez. This guy must be embarrassed��" Rea had a hard time containing her smile. Theo''s voice rang again and again like a sweet melody in her ears. She stared at the distance and muttered, "Though, I should be the one thanking you. I won''t be standing like this without you."


    In the next few days, the group worked tirelessly. Rea never came out of her room since she had the hardest job.


    On the other hand, Akbar got the help of Eleanor to spread the news about the union. With the help of Mythical Rank Experts, they became even more convinced.


    Still, it was a bit hard to convince them, considering they thought Akbar''s group was a bandit group that picked a new way of trapping them.


    But all kinds of opposition disappeared when they saw Theo lifting a whole football stadium.


    With Theo showing such strength, they would be a fool if they still tried to fight back.


    At the same time, Theo''s face had been etched into people''s hearts due to his aplishment before the apocalypse.


    From around them only, there were still two thousand people who agreed to join Theo''s expedition to the union. Now that they had fought for so long in this ce, they had also be fiercerpared to people in the union.


    The same applied to the people Theo nned to bring on the way. They would be a great recement for the loss the union suffered during the battle.


    Meanwhile, Coline and Jeff also received some help from the people who joined them to solve their food problems, considering they would need a huge amount of food.


    Everyone was so busy, but they didn''tin, anticipating the time they arrived at the union.


    Of course, Theo made sure to conceal the existence of his base since he put the stadium a bit farther from his base.


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Theo was standing in the sky after finishing all the preparation. He took a look at the stadium filled with people.


    Rea came to him after summoning a bird with her ability and reported. "There are a total of 2187 people, and in this trip, the number might reach ten thousand��"


    "Got it." Theo nodded and raised his hand.


    Suddenly, the stadium began to tremble, startling everyone. However, all of them knew that Theo was actually lifting the entire stadium with his power since the distance between them had shortened.


    This was another journey that would be etched in history.

 Chapter 1581 Arrival

    Chapter 1581 Arrival


    "What''s that?" A group of soldiers was patrolling near the border before they saw a huge unidentified flying object approaching them.


    "We have to check it and report this UFO."


    "It''s heading to the union."


    "Ready your weapons."


    They were panicking because they had a lot of unforgettable moments after the apocalypse. And they had just finished a huge war not long ago.


    The soldiers had a hard time calming their hearts down to handle this huge problem.


    However, they soon found a person jumping off the object.


    After what happened a few months ago, they surely remembered this one face.


    "That''s�� That''s Theodore Griffith."


    "But which Theodore Griffith, the good one or the bad one?"


    "Draw your weapons."


    "Can we even win against Theo? Both of them are insanely overpowered."


    The people were stunned, while Theo put down the object that turned out to be a football stadium.


    He pointed at the stadium while saying, "I need the military toe out to escort the people here. There are about nine thousand people inside this ce. They''re refugees from the countries I''ve passed so far."


    Of course, Theo had shifted his course a bit, considering the people would be able to deduct his base if they had just heard the statement from the refugees.


    That was why Theo flew a bit farther to get to the stadium and gathered the people from there to confuse their ces. It was perfect and even if they reached the end, they had to search a huge area if they wanted to find him.


    With the addition of the fog Theo had created to hide his base, it was practically impossible to find his base.


    "Nine thousand people?" The soldiers were shocked.


    They thought the one before them was the good Theo, but they had to confirm it since there was a chance that the bad Theo was using this trick to enter their ce.


    But Theo simply took out his Skylink and called someone. "Grandfather. I''m bringing a lot of refugees with me. Can you help me a bit?"


    He paused for a moment, listening to Leonardo. "Alright. I meet a few soldiers too�� OK."


    Theo turned to them and asked, "What''s your group''s name? Never mind."


    Theo had seen them talking in another reality, so he replied to his grandfather. "Team Night Eagle."


    Not long after, they received a message from their headquarters stating that the one before them was the good Theo.


    "!!!" The soldiers were stunned because they didn''t expect to meet Theo in this ce.


    After that battle, Theo''s name soared through the roof. Even though he hadn''t made his appearance for a while because he lived with the monsters, his name still echoed in the union due to his aplishment.


    Theo was like an idol to them. When they confirmed that the good Theo was in front of them, they immediately raised their hands, saluting.


    Theo wasn''t affiliated with them, so he had no obligation to return their salutes. Hence, Theo only nodded his head politely.


    "Sir Theo. We''ve been informed that the reinforcement is going toe within ten minutes. Can we ask you to wait until the reinforcementes?"


    "Sure." Theo nodded in agreement. "You can check the inside too to make sure you know what to say when the reinforcementes."


    "That''s��" The soldiers looked at each other and agreed to enter together with Theo.


    Suddenly, one of the soldiers asked Theo politely. "I''m sorry, Sir. But can I take a photo with you?"


    "Sure." When Theo agreed, he saw the envious expressions from the rest of the people, so he said, "Just one group photo. You have to prioritize the people, you know."


    "Thank you very much!" They bowed as if they had just received a family heirloom that they could brag about for the rest of their life. Theo also helped them take the picture with his Telekinesis.


    After that, they entered the stadium and were shocked by the number of people Theo saved inside the stadium. There were multiple races from many countries, so it was clear that Theo had been roaming around to help them.


    The six soldiers were like living proof of Theo''s kindness. With the group picture they had, they would be bragging about how they helped Theo in this rescue mission.


    As soon as the reinforcement arrived, Theo and his group disappeared into thin air as if they had never existed.


    The only proof that Theo had evere to this ce was the group picture, creating a legend that Theo was helping the people not for their gratitude. Even the rescued people were sad they couldn''t thank them onest time.


    In the end, the group infiltrated the union and headed straight to Italy to catch up on their flight.


    "There should be three more days before the airne arrives. You all have free time to do whatever you want. Just don''t forget to keep in touch since I don''t want anything to happen in these three days. OK?"


    They agreed without hesitation since there were a lot of things they wanted to do.


    Still, the most important matter that the group had to do was probably rted to this new couple.


    Isaac was sitting in front of Yermyev with Levina on his side.


    Yermyev was ring at him with a cold expression as if judging Isaac.


    Levina was tense. She could only believe in Isaac to take care of this.


    On the other hand, Isaac got cold feet at thest second. His body was shaking and his back was drenched in sweat.


    Theo might be the scariest person in the world, but the man before him might take the second spot.


    However, this was what he had to do, considering he might have to bring her away from her family.


    Isaac took a deep breath, calming his heart and mustering all the courage. He looked into Yermyev''s eyes with a genuine and serious expression, saying, "I love Levina from the bottom of my heart. Please let me have your daughter''s hand in marriage. I promise that I''ll make her happy for the rest of her life."

 Chapter 1582 Advice

    Chapter 1582 Advice


    "To think that Isaac is getting married sooner than you�� Do you have any face to protect anymore?" Rea asked while smirking, teasing Theo, who was next to her. They were attending a simple wedding that Levina and Isaac had.


    It was truly fast, considering Isaac and Levina had just gotten together not too long ago. However, it didn''t take too long for them to get married. It was surprising even for Theo, let alone the bride''s family.


    But after seeing Isaac that day, Yermyev finally gave consent to marry his daughter. The marriage was small. Only family members, as well as Theo''s group, were invited. However, the ceremony was enough to convey the feeling between Isaac and Levina, considering this might be thest time Yermyev saw his daughter.


    On the other hand, Theo had been with Agata for years. It might be due to their situation that didn''t allow them to marry, but it truly had been a long time for them.


    "Three years in the US, one year in Italy, two years after that including the apocalypse�� You haven''t married yet." Rea nced at Theo.


    "You know about it as well. We have our own circumstances." Theo shook his head. "There is no rush for us to marry. She understands my condition, and I also respect her by ensuring she doesn''t wait too long."


    "So, you''re going to marry her after the reunion?"


    "Not yet." Theo shook his head. "There is something else that I have to do."


    "You aren''t afraid that Agata is tired of waiting and leaving you?"


    "If I don''t do this, there is no waiting anymore��" Theo sighed.


    "No waiting��" Rea suddenly fell silent. She didn''t understand Theo''s words, but Theo had done so many great things recently, making that ''waiting'' feel like a threat to their rtionship. "Death?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded helplessly. "I don''t want to do this anymore, but if I don''t mess with the world, this might be destroyed."


    "Are you sure?"


    "I haven''t seen the concrete proof yet, but it wille sooner orter."


    Rea scratched the back of her head. "Ehm, somehow I have to apologize for teasing you."


    "Nah, it''s fine. I know that I''m at fault for making her wait."


    "��" Rea didn''t say anything more after that. She distracted herself from the conversation by watching the marriage procession.


    As soon as they finished with the ceremony, Theo stepped away as he had gone somewhere since no one could find him afterward.


    It turned out Theo was visiting his family, though, it was only a couple of people such as Leonardo, Marzio, and Lorenzo.


    "Yo, Bro! How are you?" Lorenzo waved his hand. His age was the closest and now that Theo and Lorenzo were considered true brothers, Lorenzo acted cozily with him.


    "I''m good. How about you? Can I call her sister-inw now?"


    "Oops!" Lorenzo took a step back and looked away yfully. "Maybe a bitter. After the union stabilizes, we might."


    "Is that so? Invite me to your wedding. I mighte."


    "Haha, I got you."


    Seeing the rtionship between them made Marzio''s expression mellow a bit as he asked, "Are you leaving this ce?"


    "Yes. I''m notfortable living here. Though, I think there won''t be any danger happening here in a year or two."


    "I see." Marzio fell silent again, recalling what happened in the past. Even the War God Family was suppressedpletely by Flora. Now that Theo had the power to fight Flora equally, there was no way he would live here together with her.


    Leonardo, on the other hand, looked at Theo with a tired expression as if he had thought too many things. After that fight, Leonardo saw the ''something'' that Theo was talking about. Although he couldn''t confirm it, he couldn''t deny itpletely either.


    He was so angry at that time because he believed such a thing didn''t exist. But when he was presented with a clue, he regretted his choice.


    Theo could understand his anger back then. He knew how ridiculous it was to believe that a being in the higher dimension was trying to destroy them, so he didn''t expect people to believe it.


    Still, Leonardo asked, "I''ve heard about the marriage over there�� Are you going to marry anytime soon?"


    "I''m not sure right now, Grandfather." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "I see." Leonardo nodded in understanding. "If that''s the case, I want to ask you one thing."


    "What is it?" Theo''s expression became serious when Leonardo stared right into his eyes. He had the feeling that the question would be important.


    Even Leonardo had some hesitation in his heart before ultimately asking, "How far are you nning to go?"


    It took Theo a moment to answer. He already had a clear goal in his heart, but he hesitated whether it was alright to give the answer or not.


    He calcted how much he could say and how much he should hide before reaching a conclusion.


    Theo opened his mouth, saying, "I won''t stop until I can be the master of my own life."


    "��" Leonardo closed his eyes with a pained expression. He assumed everything Theo told him was the truth all along and realized what kind of pain he had gone through this whole time.


    He felt helpless because this grandson of his had surpassed him and started soaring to the sky. He should feel happy about this achievement, but Leonardo could see the path filled with torture Theo had to go through.


    And in that path, no one could help him.


    There was a tear forming on the corner of Leonardo''s right eye as he opened his eyes and gave him a piece of advice. "I think I don''t need to tell you this, but I still have to remind you.


    "Your choice will torture you. But I''m sure you can ovee it�� I just hope that you also take a look at the people around you more, especially the most important person in your life."


    Theo''s body trembled. He understood more than anyone else that this path was his, and if he failed, he would also bring the others down. That was why this piece of advice hit his heart deeply.


    He bowed to Leonardo and said, "Yes, Grandfather. I''ll remember your advice for the rest of my life."

 Chapter ?1583 Maya

    Chapter ?1583 Maya


    The next day.


    Theo was standing on the runway together with his group, watching a white airnending. It was a medium-sized airne.


    At best, the airne could only bring twenty people. However, Theo noticed something different from this airne.


    "Mhm? It seems Maya has created something interesting." Theo smiled as if he was impressed by this airne.


    "This airne doesn''t have a sound?" Rea sucked a cold breath, understanding what Theo meant.


    "By having no sound, you can stealthily fly in the sky. However, the airne can''t be too small or too big. If it''s too small, the airne won''t have enough power to fend itself if a dangerous situation urs. If it''s too big, the airne would only give their position away." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "That''s true."


    They were waiting for the airne to turn around and move toward them.


    "Still, this is an airport. To think we can use them easily. Well, it has been abandoned, so I guess it''s fine." Rea looked around. The airport had been cleaned in thest few days to make sure they couldnd or take off safely.


    There was no air traffic controller here because the airport wouldn''t be usable for a while since there was only one who seeded in creating the airne, which was the Star Group.


    So, until everything could be restored, there wouldn''t be anyone assisting their flight.


    As soon as the airne reached them, the door was opened from the inside as Maya came out of the airne with a smug smile. "Wee to my airne."


    "Show off." Theo smirked.


    "Haha, it''s a rare urrence where I can brag about something." Maya chuckled while walking to Theo. "It''s been a while, Theo."


    "Yeah. It''s truly been a while, Maya. It''s good to know that you''re still as lively as ever."


    Maya shook his hand and hugged him to show how d she was that he was fine. "I''m d that you''re fine."


    "Before talking about anything else, I think I have to confirm this first. I''ve told you about this thing, right?" Theo asked while pointing at the pir next to him.


    "Of course! That''s why the airne is this big."


    "I guess." Theo chuckled. "Though, don''t worry. With this pir inside, there won''t be any monsters who can destroy it."


    "Hoh, you are so confident?"


    "Even a World ss Monster has a hard time destroying it even with all his strength��" Theo added as Maya''s expression changed after hearing it.


    Maya immediately sped her hands and coyly asked, "Ahem, Boss. Do you think I can buy it from you? How much do you want? 20% Share of my Star Group, my body, or��"


    "It''s not for sale." Theo softly flicked her forehead. "Though, I might get bored with it sooner orter. Or it might be useless for me��"


    Maya immediately pointed at the airne and asked, "How about we talk inside?"


    Theo chuckled. "You have be more and more shameless, aren''t you?"


    "I have agreed to be one of your people. So, why not? Though, you''re the only one who has this privilege," Maya cheekily answered.


    "Well, it''s truly nice to see you again, Maya." Theo once again greeted her as if he had just done everything to check whether she was a real deal or not.


    "I feel the same way." Maya nodded in agreement. "So, I guess this is everyone. Congrattions, Isaac, Levina. And also, wee to the group, Eleanor. I am Maya Hamilton, your genius businesswoman who loves to show off."


    "You surely be more shameless to proim all that." Isaac shook his head helplessly. "But thank you."


    Levina also bowed to her politely, while Eleanor felt gratified to be epted by the others.


    "Anyway, are we going to fly right now? Shouldn''t we let them rest for a while? Also, Ruth, why are you standing there this whole time?!" Theo asked while ncing at five people who came out of the ne.


    Two of them were pilots and the other two were stewardesses, while thest one was Ruth.


    Since they were called, they walked to Theo and the others.


    "Even if I''m here, there''s nothing to talk about other than the greetings, no?" Ruth shook her head, exining the reason why she didn''t go with Maya.


    "Why are you so cold, Ruth? Even though your trust in Theo was higher than mine this whole time." Maya smirked, teasing her.


    "Hoh?" Theo also showed some interest in listening to this story.


    Ruth''s body trembled due to the embarrassment as she turned around and said, "I''ll be waiting inside."


    "��" Theo and Maya chuckled.


    After that, Maya introduced the other four. "These four are the pilots and the stewardesses that I''ve carefully picked. The pilots are from the military, while the stewardesses have experience in hotels, flights, and other simr services. Most importantly, all of them are Supreme Rank Experts. So, they shouldn''t be tired of just this."


    The pilots nodded in agreement while the stewardesses politely bowed to Theo. "Wee, Sir. We''re very honored to serve you on this flight."


    "Well, I guess that''s fine. So, we can take off anytime?" Theo asked.


    "Yes. Though, we have a small problem that can be solved easily." Maya raised a finger.


    "What is it?"


    "We need all the people here to inject their Magic Power into the energy storage since it''s the fuel of this ne. Even Ruth has to charge it ten times for it to reach the full amount. Since we have used two-thirds, we need everyone''s cooperation to fill it."


    "It''s fine. I''ll recharge it. Where should I inject my Magic Power?" Theo asked.


    "Theo. I know that you''re strong, but the amount of your Magic Power should be simr to others of the same level, right?! Don''t push yourself."


    "It''s fine. It''s fine."


    Maya was perplexed and nned to stop him after he had done enough. She showed the storage at the back of the airne.


    It was a huge round crystaling from a huge Mythical Rank Monster. It seemed the monster had an advantage in the amount of Magic Power instead of offensive or defensive power.


    "This is the storage. Just ce your hand on this small button and channel your Magic Power inside."


    "Alright." Theo nodded with a smile.


    His body started emitting Magic Power as the process began. However, Theo also added something that convinced Maya that he was enough to fuel the ne by himself.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Attributes: Strength 1000, Endurance 700, Agility 702, Vitality 700, Magic Power 1500


    ��


    ��


    Attributes: Strength 1000, Endurance 700, Agility 702, Vitality 700, Magic Power 5327


    Theo smiled and started infusing his Magic Power.

 Chapter 1584 Project

    Chapter 1584 Project


    "!!!" The people suddenly trembled. Those, who were weaker, immediately dropped to the ground while Supreme Rank Experts managed to resist it with the help of the Mythical Rank Experts that shielded them from this ridiculous amount of Magic Power.


    As soon as Theo was charging the Magic Power, the amount of Magic Power emitted from his body leaped to the degree that no one had ever felt before.


    Some of them had seen Theo''s Alter Ego, but Theo used it only on his Strength, Vitality, and Agility because they had actual application inbat.


    Meanwhile, this massive amount of Magic Power was useless because he couldn''t spend all of them before the Alter Ego drained his energy.


    Hence, this was the perfect time to show his Alter Ego when he was using all his points in Magic Power.


    "This motherfucker." Maya clicked her tongue while resisting the pressure. On the other hand, the workers she had employed had admiration in their eyes. This was the guy they were going to bring on this flight. The extraordinary guy who had changed the world.


    It was truly an honor to serve him on this flight.


    It didn''t take too long for Theo to finish as he felt he couldn''t pour more Magic Power inside. "I''m done."


    "O-oh?!" Maya was still shaken from the show earlier and walked to him to check the ne''s condition and nodded. "It''s full."


    "Alright. Let''s go then." Theo yfully smiled and entered the airne.


    The inside was luxurious. Each seat was simr to the first-ss seat he usually took during his trip, except for the fact that there was no need for privacy since this was still a private ne for Theo''s group.


    Theo put down the pir on the back as thetter excluded a barrier that prevented anything other than a human from entering.


    Rea and the others began toe inside since they were also curious about the interior.


    While watching them, Maya walked to Theo and asked, "What do you think?"


    "Is this formercial flights?"


    "Nope. It''s for us to move around. It''s also the prototype, so this is the only ne we''ve got so far. Hopefully, we canplete several of them within a year."


    "So, me taking this flight is a kind of promotion?"


    "Exactly." Maya didn''t hesitate to admit it. She was probably the frankest person in the group while Theo never lied, so they had a unique chemistry that was different from the rest.


    "Anyway, how is your family and the Star Group?"


    "I think I''m fortunate since none of my family members were teleported back then. Though, Patrick is gone. So, the only S Rank Talent in our group is Mark. But yes, the group is doing well. With this promotion, we can eventually be the number two soon."


    "I see." Theo nodded in understanding. "That''s good then."


    "By the way, do you have any interesting projects?"


    "Is your money limitless?" Theo rolled his eyes.


    "Nope, but I''m thinking about asking you��" Maya let out a sly grin as if indirectly implying something that Theo had.


    "You want to use my ability to upgrade skills to form a connection for your business?"


    "Yep," Maya admitted it immediately since she would just disrespect Theo if she lied about it. The two understood that it was better toe up with the truth, and Theo would agree or reject the idea.


    Theo contemted for a moment and said, "Not for the time being. I''m not nning to do anything in the next few months to stabilize my power. Instead, you should start gathering some Skill Cards if you want that."


    "I have been collecting them, yes. There are approximately a hundred A Rank Skill Cards, seven hundred B Rank Skill Cards and ten thousand of the rest."


    "You surely have prepared��" Theo shook his head helplessly. "Well, ask meter after I stabilize my power. Also, how is the weapon situation?"


    "There is no shortage of weapons in our inventory."


    "Supersonic bullets and other stuff like that?"


    "None. We''re not working for the military, so we don''t produce that stuff."


    "If I want you to create them, will you do it?" Theo asked with a serious expression. The mood suddenly shifted as if he was implying the importance of this task.


    Maya paused for a moment. On the one hand, she had never had this kind of work before, and the military wouldn''t be pleased with this project. On the other hand, Theo wasn''t someone who wouldn''t give her a project without thinking it through.


    After thinking about the pros and cons, Maya said, "I''ll do it. I can get the blueprints with my current connection."


    "Good then. Also, I want you to create some heavy machinery as well."


    "Yes. I can manage that."


    "Please make them for me. In exchange��" Theo thought for a moment, trying toe up with something good to pay her. "That''s right. I''m nning to go to get another pir�� Maybe I can let you have it ording to your job."


    "!!!" Maya widened her eyes. She thought her airne would be perfect if she had this pir. Even if it was only a portion of this pir, it would be a perfect airne if the effect was like what Theo said.


    So, this was an opportunity for her. With that thought in mind, Maya nodded her head. "I understand. I''ll make you satisfied."


    "I''m counting on you." Theo nodded.


    "Ah, we shouldn''t have talked about it he��" Maya wanted to warn Theo that she might have recruited those people, but she couldn''t trust them one hundred percent.


    However, she found other people''s gazes on her as if they were confused about what Maya said.


    "What are you doing, Maya? Did you forget something?" Rea frowned.


    "Ah!" Maya just realized that Theo had been using his illusion this whole time to create a space for them to talk privately. It turned out her worry was unnecessary. Maya forgot that Theo should have considered the risk if he started such a conversation here.


    She dropped to her seat while pinching the bridge of her nose.


    Theo stared at her with a poker face as if he was disappointed in her. "Is your trust in me that low?"


    *Gulp!* Maya looked away and said, "What are you talking about? I was just so happy to meet you again that I forgot about it for a second."

 Chapter 1585 Welcome

    Chapter 1585 Wee


    "Mhm. We''ve arrived!" Maya stretched her hands while walking out of the ne. Now that the airport was useless, Maya had acquired this airport for future use.


    There was no one that greeted them in front of the runway, but Theo could feel many presences waiting outside the airport as if waiting for them there.


    "Well, this is surprising," Theo muttered while staring into the distance.


    "Haha, this is a promotion. We arrived safely without problems. As long as we can gain more investors, we can grab the whole market." Maya smiled.


    "But won''t you be stopped by the monopoly banw?"


    "The government might have been reinstated, but thews have to wait for a while. After all, the apocalypse wasn''t that long ago. They have to change thews and other things. So, other thanmon sense and basicws, no one will be able to stop me for the time being." Maya shook her head.


    "Well, I guess we have to go out right now. Do you need only me or the others as well?"


    "You are enough. I know that some are ufortable with it, so I won''t force them."


    Theo nodded. "Felix. Bring the people who are ufortable with it outside in another way. We''ll meet in the hotel after this."


    "Got it." Felix agreed without hesitation.


    In the end, only Rea and Ruth followed Theo because Ruth originally came as Maya''s bodyguard while Rea acted as Theo''s assistant.


    The four of them, together with the pilots and stewardesses, walked to the exit, finding a huge number of people.


    There were cameras all over the ce. But the majority of the peopleing to this ce were actually Theo''s fans.


    They had watched the deeds of Theo in the union and they were trying to greet Theo, showing that they would wee him here unlike the union.


    There were many signs stating, "Wee to the US Base", "We ept you here", and other sentences to show a warm wee.


    "There it is! That''s Maya Hamilton!"


    "The one next to her is Theodore Griffith!"


    "We''re lucky that Theodore Griffith is here. The union is so foolish to throw him away."


    "Those are Nagasawa Rea and Ruth Lukita. But why can''t we see the rest of the group?"


    "Idiot. They must be ufortable to live like this since we rarely have any footage about them."


    "But they can''t simply leave when we''re receiving them like this, right?"


    "You demand something when you''re doing this on your own ord. Ridiculous. Are you going to turn them away too?"


    The people were debating, cheering, and capturing the moment. There was a lot ofmotion that needed many police officers to stop them. It was a mess.


    When they passed the reporters, there were many questions thrown at them.


    "Can we ask you a question?"


    "Why do you choose this base to settle down?"


    "Are you regretting your choice to leave the US before the apocalypse?"


    "What is your wish in living here?"


    "Do you have any opinion about the union?"


    Maya smirked and asked, "Are you going to answer their questions?"


    "Nope. You handle them." Theo shook his head. "I don''t have time for them anyway."


    "Though, you might want to answer one just to make them see that you''reing here with great intention."


    Theo thought for a moment. "You choose one."


    Maya smiled and pointed at the nearest reporter.


    Theo nced at the reporter, making thetter realize his intention to answer a question. Without hesitation, the reporter asked, "How long do you n to stay in this base?"


    "Who knows, but I''m looking to settle down here�� I''ll see whether it''s possible or not. The rest of the question will be answered by her." Theo pointed at Maya. "But I certainly have to thank you for the warm wee. Thank you."


    Theo turned around before finding a middle-aged man wearing a suit.


    He walked to Theo and extended his hand, "Hello, wee to our base."


    "Thank you." Theo shook his hand while smiling.


    "We''ll try to escort you until you can reach your hotel."


    Since it would be impolite to reject it, Theo agreed and thanked him. He went straight to the Cubicar they had prepared and entered it, leaving Rea and Maya to handle the reporters.


    On the other hand, Ruth sneakily entered the car because she didn''t want to deal with the media.


    "You don''t like it, Ruth?"


    "I''ve been living in the dark for too long. Those blinding lights don''t suit me. I only followed the entire process simply because I was teleported here, nothing else." Ruth exined her reason and sat down behind Theo.


    "Still, I haven''t said this to you. It''s been a while, Ruth."


    "Yes, I''m d that you''re alright."


    "How is the progress of your Order? Do you have any questions? I won''t answer too much, but if I can answer it, I''ll do my best."


    "No. The progress is quite stable. Although I don''t progress by leaps and bounds because of the peaceful condition, I don''t think I''ll lose to Felix. Though, I''m wondering something�� Have you��" Ruth paused, but her meaning couldn''t be clearer.


    She wanted to know whether Theo had broken through to the next step.


    And Theo gave her a nod.


    "I see. Congrattions."


    "Thank you. I''m still new at this stage, so I have to train myself and discover everything first before I can challenge those who are in the top ten experts in the world."


    "Don''t you think you have be one?" Ruth asked.


    "I''m not sure."


    "The fifth and ninth strongest people in the world have passed away. We still haven''t received any information about the sixth or seventh strongest people in the world.


    "Other than your other self, who can actually contend against you in the ranking? The eleventh?"


    "Well, I''m not sure. It''s true that things are going smoothly currently." Theo shrugged. "After stabilizing my strength, I''ll seriously go for the ranking, I guess."


    "I see. Do you need anything?"


    "Nope. Just prepare for another flight."


    Ruth knew that he was missing Agata, so she nodded and nned to remind Maya about it.


    It took fifteen minutes before Maya and Rea entered the Cubicar and they drove away.

 Chapter ?1586 Plan

    Chapter ?1586 n


    As soon as Theo reached the hotel, Theo, Maya and Rea had a meeting to discuss their next headquarters.


    "So, what do you want?" Maya asked.


    "I need a plot ofnd. Do you have the map of the frontline?" Rea was the one handling this matter while Theo observed them.


    Maya took out her Skylink and typed a few things as if finding the file before showing a map to her.


    "The country has moved its capital to Nebraska. There have been many rescue operations as well as expansions. I don''t have the exact number, but the rough calction states that there are around 700 million people from all states and neighboring countries.


    "Currently, we have expanded to Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri, which host all these people.


    "But there is good progress in Wyoming. It''s assumed that we''re going to expand in this direction to reim as muchnd as we can.


    "You can see that the green area is the human''s area and the red border is basically an unexplored area. We have explored them to a certain extent while saving some citizens, but that''s all�� There are too many unknown variables."


    Rea listened to her exnation and asked again, "Yourpany is in Missouri, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, we''ll go to this ce."


    "Hmm?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows. "Kentucky? That ce is in the red zone, you know!"


    "That''s why we have to go there." Rea smiled. "I believe that this is important for Theo to regain some more poprity and to be eptedpletely in this base. Hence, we''re going to mobilize our people to clear up Kentucky.


    "With Theo holding this ce, it''s easy for you to expand to the surrounding states since Theo is ensuring this pivot point''s safety, don''t you think? The normal people will just ept that Theo is doing something for their base, while the military will understand this concept and invest in thisnd heavily.


    "And with Theo''s reputation, we can rebuild this ce since many investors will being because of his protection. That''s why this ce is a good base for us and it won''t be that far from yourpany too."


    Maya paused for a moment. What Rea said made sense. If Theo set up the base in this ce, they could expand to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North and South Caroline, and Tennessee.


    Looking at the number of states they could conquer alone was enough to convince all those people.


    The Time God remained in the capital because if their base was destroyed by a sudden attack, it would cause a lot of trouble.


    But Theo was free. If he desired a certain ce by promising those conditions, the government wouldn''t reject him at all. In fact, they would go along with his n and pour a lot of investment.


    "Still, there is a problem. If the government is investing heavily in that area, there will be a lot of discussion from the western areas like Wyoming." Maya presented a problem. She didn''t want to get entangled in many problems in this situation.


    But Rea simply pointed at Theo and said, "Is he enough?"


    "��" Maya pinched the bridge of her nose as she had no words to deny it. "Still, I don''t understand why you want all this. It''s going to be troublesome for our group, no? Clearing a single state is impossible with only a single group."


    "Indeed. That''s why Theo''s reputation is important since the army is going to move as well. I mean, no one can deny Theo''s prowess, so even those people from Wyoming won''t be able to do anything against Theo''s strength. This n relies heavily on Theo, but you should be able to convince the government, right?"


    Maya closed her eyes, seeing the pros and cons. Theo taking care of this state meant bing the sole ruler of Kentucky. Thend could be developed ording to his n and since even the union adopted Theo''s system, it meant that this city would be developed properly. There was no reason to reject it.


    Maya sighed and raised both hands. "Alright. I''ll inform them about it. Do you have any specific ce you like to settle down?"


    Theo finally spoke since he hadn''t told anyone about his requirement. "Not yet. I''m going there to check the ce."


    "Then, I''ll negotiate with them a plot ofnd that you''ll choose at ater date, along with the investment for the new area. Well, mypany will take part in this as well. Are you going to develop this area personally?"


    "No, there are people who are good at city nning, right? They''ll do their job while I''m going to get involved here and there." Theo shook his head.


    Maya thought for a moment. "Alright. I can see what will happen in the negotiation. How confident are you in protecting Kentucky?"


    "Ny-nine percent."


    "Not one hundred percent?"


    "Yeah. I''m afraid that there is going to be another problem, but I don''t know about the scale yet. Also, you should get somends as well for military expansion."


    "Ah!" Maya remembered when Theo told her to develop military weapons. She understood why there was a need for the new area.


    It seemed that Theo nned to turn this ce into a fortress.


    "I understand. I''ll try to get the best terms. Can I use your identity during the negotiation?"


    "Not too excessive, yes."


    "Got it. When are you nning to start?"


    "In three days. We''re going to wait for the excitement to die out first to create another momentum."


    Maya had got all the cards she needed to negotiate with the government. And since there wasn''t much time, Maya immediately rose from her seat and said, "In that case, I''m leaving right now to negotiate with the government. Do you have any advice?"


    "No, I''ll believe in your skill." Theo waved his hand, seeing Maya off.


    When she left, Rea couldn''t help but ask, "I still don''t understand why you want to go to Kentucky. If your aim is to gather the pir, shouldn''t you go for Texas? Those people will feel relieved that you''re going to protect them from the World ss Monster in Mexico anyway."


    Theo didn''t exin it to her. He only said, "There is a reason."

 Chapter 1587 Aggressive

    Chapter 1587 Aggressive


    "Thank you. I''m looking forward to our cooperation." Maya politely nodded to the president while signing the contract.


    There were five big points in the contract.


    Firstly, Theo had to help the government to develop the area, turning it into a fortress that could assist them in developing the surrounding area.


    It wasn''t that big of a deal since Theo had nned to do it. Maya had just to make sure that the government didn''t stop Theo''s n like the union did.


    The second point stated that a big military base would be ced in that area within three months after Theo and his group had cleared a portion of the area for it to be possible.


    In exchange for this point, Theo and Maya were granted severalnds.


    The third condition was Theo would cooperate with the army to help in the area near Kentucky.


    Maya had made sure that Theo wasn''t under the military, and if they wanted Theo''s help, they had to ask him, not order him, as Theo didn''t n to be the government''s dog.


    The fourth condition was Theo would stay in thatnd to settle down and wouldn''t be involved in the government unless they tried to harm him in any way.


    Maya knew their concern that the power bnce would be tipped off due to Theo''s existence.


    In the union, Flora had absolute control due to her strength. On the other hand, United Asia had the Sword Saint, Heavenly Sovereign, and the Daemon. They were keeping each other in check, so the bnce remained.


    On the other hand, there was only Theo and the Time God in this ce. The Time God assisted the government, but Theo didn''t.


    The Time God might be strong right now, but Theo progressed by leaps and bounds. Together with his clone, the power bnce might be tilted to Theo''s side sooner orter.


    So, they wanted Theo to promise not to take any part in the government since kicking him out here was the same as asking for trouble.


    Of course, she had made sure Theo had some uses that he could use to defend himself from the government that tried to take advantage of him. Though, it might be unnecessary due to Theo''s strength.


    Last but not least, the government would heavily invest in the area for the next development. Missouri, the location of the Star Group''s current headquarter, would also be assisting with the development in this new area, which could create a migration to liven up the ce.


    There were several more uses that acted for the development of the area, but Maya believed those five were the more important.


    As soon as she finished signing the contract, she returned to Theo to give him the contract so that he could sign there too.


    Meanwhile, the president was clenching both fists as if he had just undergone a lot of stress with the negotiation.


    "What''s wrong? You are scared?" The Time God suddenly appeared behind the president.


    "That Maya might have surpassed her grandfather. She is truly a business genius, and with Theo behind her, I''m afraid no one can stop her anymore."


    "That''s true." The Time God nodded. "Still, Theo is the best hope you can ever have if you n to reim thends. And he might be the one leading you to the future��"


    "Not you?" The president frowned since the Time God''s tone felt like he had been defeated.


    The Time God looked at the door as he was reminded of Theo''s ferocity. He shook his head, looked at his book, and said, "I don''t have much time left."


    ��


    While the government was depressed, Theo readily signed the agreement. Maya would be the one finishing the administration business while Theo handled the rest.


    It only took a whole day before they heard from the army and the mobilization of the troops.


    As soon as Theo was ready to go, Theo immediately gathered the team again and stated, "Alright. I know that this is going to be stressful, but I''m nning to find some ces for us to rebuild our ces. If you don''t want to participate in this process, please raise your hand."


    No one was raising their hands. Even Jeff, who hadn''t been in a fight for so long, said, "What''s wrong with you, Theo? You have been asking too much about our opinion recently. Although it''s good to know that you''re respecting our choice, it''s kinda annoying to me. Why do you keep asking when you usually lead us like a leader before? Are you traumatized that we''ll leave you like Phyrill? Don''t underestimate us."


    "Beautifully said." Chris gave a thumbs up, not losing this opportunity to berate Theo. "I guess you''re still a kid who is easily traumatized by separation."


    Theo couldn''t deny itpletely. Somewhere in his heart, he felt a bit empty after so many separations recently. Agata might be one of the biggest holes right now, but she was stillmunicating with him.


    However, Phyrill and Ellen had left the group for good. Although the reason was justified, he never thought that the apocalypse caused the separation.


    There was also the Wind Emperor, who had passed away not long before that. The closer Theo to them, the more painful it was to know they were leaving.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment before smiling. "No, I just want to ask you whether you''re prepared or not. After all, You''re going to work tirelessly from now on."


    The people smirked, not because they liked overworking but because Theo finally returned to his usual self.


    Theo pointed at the center of Kentucky and said, "We''ll set up the military base in this area. They''re going to take care of the route to here while I''ll split our team into three. The leader will be me, Felix, and Ruth.


    "Akbar, Eleanor, and Millie will be in charge of ourwork, while Isaac will take care of the rest in the temporary base. Do whatever you like there.


    "I''ll be working together with Rea. Chris and Jeff will be in Felix''s group, while Coline and Walker will help Ruth. Got it?" Theo ended it with those words instead of ''Any objection?'' to show his confidence in his n.


    All of them smiled, showing no objections.

 Chapter 1588 Felixs Group

    Chapter 1588 Felix''s Group


    Theo floated in the air, taking a look at the situation on the ground. They had reached the center of Kentucky and nned to set up the military base near the former Elizabethtown.


    It was a small plot ofnd, but they shouldn''t have any problems building a base here after Theo scouted the area.


    "How is it?" Rea''s voice rang from the Skylink.


    "Yes. This ce is good. I can see that not many monsters are left on the ground. How is the underground?"


    "Eleanor is still checking, but there shouldn''t be too many threats left. Many evolved ants have been crushed by the overburden pressure, so they failed to evolve and grow in size. There are other dangers, but the military should be able to handle them."


    "I see." Theo thought for a moment. "There are three spots where the humans gather. For now, just mark them. We''ll eliminate this area first and have the military set up their camp here before rescuing them. Also, we''re going to focus on the monsters."


    "Understood. Do you want to start?"


    "Sure. How are the other teams?" Theo asked while seeing Isaac''s team on the ground, setting a temporary pivot point for their group. With Akbar protecting them, they should be safe until rescuees in case something happens.


    "Felix''s Team has been in position. Ruth''s team needs two more minutes to reach her position. That''s left us."


    "Got it. I''m going to take you to our destination."


    "I guess we can fight together again like when you first trained me."


    "We''re here not for training, but I guess I don''t mind training you a bit." Theo smiled whilending on the ground, regrouping with Rea.


    "I''m ready." Rea smiled while taking out her sword.


    Theo nodded and lifted their bodies with Telekinesis, flying toward their positions.


    Since they were thest ones to arrive, Rea immediately gave themand on behalf of Theo. "Please begin. Keep us up to date every thirty minutes."


    "Roger." Felix and Ruth answered in unison.


    Felix turned to Jeff and Chris and nodded his head. "Let''s go."


    "Got it." Chris acknowledged the order and summoned his piano, ying it as loud as possible. Felix and Chris had prepared noise-canceling headphones so they weren''t disturbed by the sound.


    On the other hand, monsters from half a mile radius started to get rmed by this disruption, causing them to go berserk.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters started moving toward Felix''s group, enraged. Since they were surrounded from all directions, Jeff immediately created a dense forest that would buy some time from the monsters.


    He ced this forest in their south and west, allowing Felix to focus on the other directions.


    "You''ve got thirty minutes, Felix," said Jeff.


    "Got it." Felix nodded and leaped to the front, facing numerous monsters that came after them.


    With a single sh of his de, three white lines ran through the ground and summoned a giant de upon making contact with monsters, slicing them.


    The white lines didn''t stop there. Unless Felix lost his control, the white lines would continue, allowing these lines to kill a hundred monsters in just a minute.


    Meanwhile, numerous monsters were crossing the forest Jeff created.


    They leaped from one spot to another, avoiding all these trees. However, the first obstacle appeared before them.


    Numerous vines appeared from the ground and caught their feet, pulling them to the top of the tree and leaving them hanging.


    Suddenly, the trees began to form thorns-like branches and prated their bodies.


    *Roar!*


    *Ao!*


    They were screaming in pain because the thorns didn''t directly kill them.


    Jeff didn''t stop here. The second obstacle came in the form of huge tree trunks attached to another tree by vines. They smashed the monsters from the sides, stopping their movements for a moment.


    Some monsters tried to dodge, but their bodies ended up crashing into a tree due to how dense the forest was. After that, the trees would create another thorn and stab them.


    Little did the monsters know, they were also fooled by Jeff by stacking trunks next to each other, causing the monsters to loop around to go to Jeff.


    But there was a trick behind the wooden wall. Jeff was gradually creating a maze in this dense forest with no way leading to him. And the trapped monsters would die one after another by his trap.


    Jeff might have been farming this whole time, but he actually came up with thisbyrinth from the irrigation system.


    He built the irrigation system and saw how the water reacted. From it, he learned how to create aplex irrigation system, allowing him to apply it to abyrinth like this.


    This way, the monsters would slowly die inside this forest made of illusion.


    Jeff smiled while looking at the dense forest. "Come here and die."


    Felix knew what Jeff was capable of and left Chris to him. Since he could go all out, Felix''s body gradually turned into light, allowing him to travel far faster than his original speed.


    With the help of the white lines that kept going, Felix turned into an unstoppable killing machine that obliterated a monster with a single hit before leaping to another monster.


    Looking at these two, Chris smiled while ying the music. They had been fighting together for years, so he understood what they wanted on the battlefield.


    After listening to the monsters'' voices, Jeff began to y another song. This song was disturbing for the monsters, allowing these two to bury more monsters in the area.


    "It seems that our group will be the winner in this littlepetition." Chris smirked. "Kill more!"


    Unbeknownst to Chris, there was an unbelievable sight in Ruth''s group.


    Ruth was standing on top of a tower. In front of her was a ground that had been chipped away in a fan-shaped direction. The ground was red as the blood had turned it into mud.


    In this ce, a total of five hundred monsters had been buried.

 Chapter ?1589 Ruths Group

    Chapter ?1589 Ruth''s Group


    A moment ago.


    "Please begin. Keep us up to date every thirty minutes," Rea said on behalf of Theo.


    In that instant, Ruth''s eyes shed. "Roger."


    After acknowledging the order, Ruth took out her bow and shot an arrow. This arrow acted as a re, sending Walker and Coline two messages.


    The first message was to tell them she had received themand. And the second message was to point out the direction where they should gather the monsters.


    As soon as they saw that signal, Walker and Coline took off.


    Coline excitedly disturbed all the monsters in the area by trying to cook them. In the end, she gathered a lot of monsters.


    They were angry at her because they were almost cooked alive. Now that their number wasn''t something Coline could handle, theyunched their counterattack, causing Coline to be the one to run away.


    On the other hand, Walker summoned all his chains on the ground. These chains were moving around as if it was dancing.


    Walker used them like a whip and destroyed the buildings, the trees, and other structures around that could cause a lot of noise.


    *Bam!*


    *Boom!*


    The noises rmed the monsters as they tried to see what was going on, only to find Walker yfully destroying the area.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters let out a series of roars as if rming other monsters to kill Walker. Although their instinct noticed the gap between their strength, they still had to fight Walker to regain their peace.


    Walker smirked and released a few chains toward them, killing a few demons.


    "Hahaha,e on!" Walkerughed while challenging the monsters.


    After gathering enough monsters, Walker turned around and escaped, running toward the ce Ruth had marked earlier.


    Coline also had finished gathering all these monsters in one ce, allowing them to join this number.


    These few hundred monsters would be a threat to a military because of their number, but there was one person who thought nothing of this monster.


    Walker and Coline raised their heads, seeing crescent-shaped light on top of a tower.


    The light came from Ruth''s power.


    This crescent-shaped light looked like the crescent moon.


    Ruth closed her eyes and put a massive amount of Magic Power into this bow.


    "This is a crescent moon that I''ll use as a bow��" Ruth grabbed the light and pointed it down. "Moon Bow."


    Her Order started revolving as Ruth formed an arrow made of wind. She aimed at these numerous monsters behind Coline and Walker as her arrow disappeared into nothingness.


    "My arrow is made of wind. Whether it''s during the day or during the night, no one can see my arrow as they can''t see the basic shape of the wind. But��" Ruth took a deep breath before shouting. "Move!"


    Coline and Walker widened their eyes, knowing Ruth was going tounch her attack. In that instant, these two leaped to the side, running away from anything that would hit them.


    "Wind st," Ruth muttered in a low voice while releasing the arrow.


    The arrow was already invisible to begin with, so nothing changed when the arrow was released. There wasn''t any change in the wind flow as well as if the arrow never existed.


    The monsters were confused because they could sense the fluctuation of the Magic Power. However, they couldn''t sense anything else, making them believe Ruth did nothing.


    In the end, the monsters decided to attack Coline and Walker.


    Unfortunately for them, that was the exact time when Ruth''s arrow hit them.


    Upon contact, the wind arrow created a disturbance in the wind flow before it expanded in an instant and turned into a huge tornado.


    "!!!" The monsters tried to react to this attack, but it was toote. Their bodies were shredded by the tornado.


    Some of the monsters even saw everything in that area was shredded apart without mercy.


    All few hundred monsters died in an instant and their blood sshed, turning the ground red.


    A single arrow from Ruth could kill so many monsters. This was the strength of the number one bow user in Theo''s group.


    Although her attack was like a cannon, she couldn''t move during that attack because she had to charge a huge amount of Magic Power to form both the arrow and the bow. Unlike Felix, who pursued a bnce between speed and strength, Ruth knew she had to focus on her power to be useful on the ground.


    "The role of a sniper in the group is to kill the enemy in a single shot without being noticed. That''s why I don''t have to move��" Ruth let out a sigh. She was an assassin and a hunter at the same time. And this was her path.


    Suddenly, Walker''s chains circled around the tower and brought both him and Coline to the tower.


    "Yo!" Walker waved his hand. "You''re practically a cannon. Different from a supersonic cannon, your bow can shred everything apart."


    "The speed isckingpared to a supersonic bullet." Ruth shook her head as if she was disappointed with this extraordinary power.


    "But the impact and the invisibility make up for it." Walker shrugged. "Anyway, we have cleared a single area. Let''s move to another ce or another direction. Where do you think we should go?"


    Ruth didn''t answer immediately. Instead, she looked around to see the monsters.


    After a few seconds, Ruth said, "We''ll handle the one on our right first before moving three blocks away to the left."


    "Got it." Walker nodded with a serious expression.


    Coline looked at Ruth and asked, "Before that, there''s something bothering me. How many times can you use that technique? I mean, Theo wants to clear the entire area, right?"


    "Don''t worry. My energy might not be enough for the entire state, but clearing our objective for today should be easy."


    "Alright." Coline nodded. "In that case, Walker and I will bring the monsters to you. If you feel tired, we both will change to an offensive and remove the remaining monsters."


    "Thanks."

 Chapter 1590 Theos Group

    Chapter 1590 Theo''s Group


    Meanwhile, Theo and Rea were standing without doing anything after giving that instruction.


    They might be the least excited among the other groups.


    After gaining all this strength, Theo knew he had to ce a limit on his power to avoid destroying something he shouldn''t. A power too great might be the cause of one''s destruction after all.


    Of course, unless a real threat appeared, Theo didn''t mind sealing a bit of his power.


    Meanwhile, Rea raised her sword. Before making her move, she exined, "My poweres from the Mythical Beasts in mythology. Of course, my current knowledge is limited to Japan''s Mythology.


    "At first, I thought that I should expand my knowledge to other mythologies as well, but I have realized that I should focus on one. There is a reason to do so.


    "First of all, I''m good at it, so I know what they can do when I summon them. On the other hand, these Mythical Creatures alone are enough to give a lot of options for my ability.


    "However, I''m thinking about something that suits me more�� I''vee to this conclusion during yourst seclusion.


    "It''s a kind of enlightenment, but I feel like I know my own path. Please watch this." Rea raised her sword while gathering her Magic Power on her sword.


    Suddenly, she stabbed the ground while conjuring her power.


    *Grumble!*


    *Grumble!*


    The ground began to crack as if something big was moving underground. The monsters also seemed disturbed by the movement and started approaching the area.


    They roared and charged at them when they found Theo and Rea standing in the epicenter.


    It was at this moment Rea released all her strength and summoned a huge turtle from the ground.


    Theo and Rea turned out to be standing on top of this monster.


    The sudden emergence of the turtle startled the monsters in the area. However, the turtle wasn''t the only one that came out of the ground.


    A snake also wrapped the turtle''s body while letting out a cry to the monsters


    *Shaaa!*


    The snake moved around and swallowed the small monsters in an instant, digesting them in its body.


    "It''s said that Genbu has the power to travel between thends of the living and the dead. The tortoise itself is a symbol of longevity and immortality, while the snake is a symbol of reproduction and multiplication.


    "That''s why��" Rea paused as she controlled this creature.


    An aura erupted from the tortoise, fueling the snake. The snake then spat all the monsters back out.


    Surprisingly, all the monsters had been digested and turned into smaller snakes. These snakes started attacking the rest of the monsters.


    Thetter tried to fight back by killing the snakes, but the aura of immortality and longevity that Genbu had somehow revitalized the snakes.


    In the end, the snakes massacred all the monsters in the area.


    Rea let out a breath of relief and asked, "What do you think, Theo?"


    "It''s a good technique." Theo smiled. "How about other mythical creatures? For example, Kitsune or Kappa? How about Oni?"


    Rea paused for a moment. Instead of giving the answer to Theo, she actually exined her thoughts about Genbu to show the concept of her creation. "Actually, the snakes are simply Magic Power that has been turned ording to my techniques. The immortality aura that the tortoise spread is simply a way to supply Magic Power to those snakes. That''s the principle of my power."


    "I''m asking you, Rea. Give me the answer." Theo didn''t buy her exnation. He could see that much with his Reality Eyes alone, so what he wanted to know was how Rea would replicate the others.


    "That''s��" Rea looked down. "I''m sorry. I don''t know."


    "What is your affinity?"


    "I''m sure you already know about it�� I don''t have any affinity."


    "Then, what is Magic Power to you?" Theo asked again.


    "��" Rea fell silent, not having that answer. After all, Magic Power only acted as a medium for her. There was nothing special about Magic Power.


    Theo snapped his finger and removed the creature she summoned, allowing them tond on the ground.


    "For me, Magic Power is the connection."


    "Connection?"


    "Do you know my job?"


    "Yes. It''s Illusionist."


    "That''s right. Illusionist is my job and my foundation. And my Magic Power is actually the bridge connecting my job to other jobs." Theo took out his sword and poured his Magic Power into it before swinging his de, releasing a sword strike that cut all the buildings. "See that? Is my sword strike good?"


    "Yes. It''s powerful."


    "That''s where you''re wrong." Theo shook his head and snapped his finger again as the building suddenly glitched and returned to normal.


    "Eh?"


    "The illusion is my foundation and the Magic Power connected me to a Fighter, allowing me to impersonate a Fighter. At the end of the day, I''m an Illusionist. Whether that sword strike is something from a Fighter or an Illusionist, no one other than me knows. However, it''s impossible to do it unless the Magic Power connects both of them."


    Theo paused for a moment and retracted his sword. This time, Theo raised his hand and the destroyed ground was gradually restored.


    "See this ground? Is this an illusion or is it me as a magician?"


    "I�� don''t know." Rea couldn''t answer it after what Theo had shown earlier.


    Theo snapped his fingers, but this time, the ground didn''t revert back, showing it had recovered.


    "This is your ability as a magician?"


    "Nope." Theo snapped his fingers and the ground crumbled again.


    "So, it''s the ability from your illusion." Rea nodded in understanding, only to find she was mistaken again because Theo snapped his fingers one more time, recovering the ground again.


    "This�� Are you ying with me?"


    "No. The first snap is to show you I''m a magician, the second snap is to show you I''m an illusionist, and the third snap is to show you that you don''t know who I am. Who am I? You can''t describe me. Who are you? I can''t describe you, but��" Theo pointed at him. "I know whether the ground has recovered or not because I can describe myself. How about you? Can you describe yourself?"


    Rea fell silent and looked down, asking the question to herself. ''Who am I? Magic Power as connection�� And my foundation lies in Magic Warrior because I was inspired by my father and brother.


    ''Butter in my days, I gradually shifted to a summoner with the animal summoning ability, which evolved to the Mythical Creature summoning ability.


    ''No, wait. My foundation still lies in Magic Warrior�� It''s just that Magic Power connects me and allows me to impersonate a Summoner.


    ''And the immortality aura as well as the snake replication�� It''s the unknown that Theo is talking about. And what is that unknown? Is it a Magic Warrior or is it a Summoner�� Or maybe is it something else?''


    Rea looked down, falling into deep thought. This was a question that he had to answer herself since this was rted to her foundation.


    Theo shouldn''t say anything more about it to make sure Rea''s power was influenced by him. He had affected her enough by telling her that Magic Power was a connection.


    Seeing Rea finding the answer, Theo smiled, knowing Rea was talented enough to ovee this hurdle.

 Chapter 1591 Rea

    Chapter 1591 Rea


    "Ha!" Rea shouted while shing her sword down, cutting a monster down. However, two other monsters approached her from two sides.


    Rea nced at them once before a turtle shell appeared on her right, blocking the monster''s charge. At the same time, the sword she swung earlier released a snake that rammed its head at the other monster before wrapping its body, bringing it down.


    After that, Rea spun her body, looping around the turtle''s shell to cut down the monster before moving toward the one strangled by the snake.


    Although she made a lot of moves just to defeat three low level monsters, Rea felt like she had done something excellent.


    After Theo''s lesson, she realized that her ability wasn''t deep enough. The summoning ability was indeed good, but he had yet to reach the core of her ability.


    In the past, she learned all kinds of things about mythology because she wanted to know how to deal with her enemies. Since she lived in Japan, she focused on Japanese Mythology.


    Due to them, she could learn her summoning ability. Of course, Rea never had the ability to summon mythical creatures in the past, but creating animals was a simple task for her.


    She didn''t think too much of her ability back then because it worked just fine against her enemies.


    But the stronger she became, the harder for her summoning ability to take them down. She was stuck without knowing any way to break past her shell.


    It was at that time her father found Theo and asked him to take care of her. That was the start of her progress which evolved her summoning ability.


    However, Theo''s words from earlier made her realize her ability. She might have gotten this strong ability, but that power might not bepleted yet.


    After pondering for a moment, she realized that she was not a summoner. She was actually impersonating a summoner. All the creatures she summoned didn''t have a soul.


    ''A summoner has a different system from all jobs because one can''t be a summoner if they don''t have a certain ability, which usuallyes from a Blessing.


    ''The ability has the space to store the soul of a monster in one way or another and recall them here. There are many theories trying to decipher the real system of a summoning ability, and some even recreate that ability to be a summoner.


    ''However, they don''t be summoners. They might be recognized as one from the temple, but they''re just impersonating a summoner.


    ''Just like me, I''m impersonating a summoner. Only when my summoned creatures have a soul can I be a real summoner, but since I can''t be one, why do I have to work hard to be one?


    ''Sometimes, giving up is the correct way. After admitting that I''m not a summoner, I realize that I can summon only a part of my summoned creatures. After all, they''re made of my Magic Power, not a soul from the real creatures.


    ''This also gives me an advantage. I almost forgot that my initial goal in picking up a sword was that I wanted to surpass my brother in terms of swordsmanship. But Theo''s lesson reminded him I was a swordsman before a summoner.


    ''That''s why the summoned creatures are only a support ability, not my main ability. Summoning them in parts allows me to return back to my original goal.


    ''And��'' Rea paused for a moment and nced at Theo, who was obliterating all the monsters in the surroundings. She recalled Theo''s ability when he copied other people''s abilities.


    The Ascension Step came from thebination of the wind element, the basic Ascension Step, and the Telekinesis, allowing him to recreate the Wind Emperor''s Ascension Step. The Starry Sky was created by thebination of illusion, all elements, and Telekinesis.


    There were also other techniques like Felix''s invisible strike. However, she noticed that Theo created it on one basis.


    It wasn''t that every technique was created by thebination of other techniques. But the technique was the representation of thebination of other techniques.


    ''Each ability represents his own skills�� The keyword is ''represent.'' What is the one representing my ability�� If only I have the system right now, I might be able to meet the God who blessed me, no, wait�� system?''


    Rea looked like she had just realized something important. She didn''t think in her head anymore. Instead, she was muttering excitedly as if she had found the clue she had been searching for. "My status�� There are five attributes: Strength, Endurance, Agility, Vitality, and Magic Power. There are also Five Aspects: Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance.


    "My abilities rely heavily on Breathing and Technique in terms of Five Aspects. As for the attributes, my Strength, Agility, and Magic Power. Ah! So, that''s how it is��"


    Rea gasped because she had finally discovered her true strength. She looked at Theo in shock and started approaching him as if she was nning to say something important.


    Feeling her gaze, Theo turned around and saw her serious expression. Because Rea kept walking toward him as if steeling her resolve, Theo waved his hand and utilized his Telekinesis tounch all the monsters away instead of killing them.


    *Bam!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters couldn''t resist Theo''s Telekinesis and wereunched into the sky. At the very least, they would get one or two minutes to talk.


    If it was just any ordinary talk, Theo would listen to her while killing the monsters, but he could feel the different vibe Rea was giving, so he tried to treat her the same way.


    When Rea arrived in front of Theo, she sheathed her sword and gradually fell to her knees. She gracefully ced her sword on the ground and looked at Theo.


    "I know that this might not be the best time to ask. And I know it''s presumptuous for me to ask this��" Rea extended her hands in front and lowered her head until it touched the ground. "I''d like to ask you, Theo�� No, Sir Theodore Griffith, to be my teacher. Please ept me as your disciple."

 Chapter ?1592 Master and Disciple

    Chapter ?1592 Master and Disciple


    "Please ept me as your disciple."


    Even Theo couldn''t contain his shock because this was the first time someone asked him to be his disciple. And that someone was actually Rea, the daughter of the Sword Saint.


    "What did you say?" Theo frowned, thinking he had misheard her. After all, her status didn''t allow her to be someone''s student. Even if she became one, the teacher would be her father.


    Yet, Rea actually asked him to be her teacher. Rea was also a lot olderpared to him. This would mess up the seniority between them.


    "I beg you to ept me as your disciple."


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    Before Theo could react, the monsters had returned, which annoyed Theo. Thetter clicked his tongue and shed his sword, cutting down all the monsters.


    When the area turned silent again, Theo looked at Rea and said, "I don''t think I''m qualified to be someone''s teacher. I can be a mentor or something, teaching you here and there. But I''m not someone who is responsible enough to be a teacher."


    "You might think that way, but in my eyes, you''re the best teacher I can ever have."


    "My talent is about learning, so I know how to make you learn something. You are mistaken about something!"


    "No, I don''t. I know it''s presumptuous for me to ask you to be my teacher, but this is a conclusion I''ve reached in my head and heart. I''d like to ask you to ept me as your disciple."


    "There are many problems to begin with. First of all, you are the Sword Saint''s daughter. Do you know what it means for the Sword Saint''s daughter to be someone else''s disciple�� The Sword Saint is a far better teacherpared to me since his ability is rted to yours."


    Rea shook her head and exined, "No! This is the request from Nagasawa Rea, not the daughter of the Sword Saint. This might be the first time I made a decision for myself without thinking about my status�� Just me as an individual. Please��"


    Theo''s expression turned grim as he tried to make her give up. "There is also seniority between us. Can you ept someone far younger than you as your teacher? I haven''t experienced the world more than you!"


    "A teacher is based on their skills and experiences. And your skill overwhelms that experience�� Even if you''re younger than me, it won''t change the fact I consider you my master."


    "Even if you don''t do this, I''ll still help you here and there. In fact, there won''t be any change even if I ept you as my disciple. So, there''s no need for this!"


    Rea shook her head. "There is a difference. I''d like the world to recognize your status. I promise that I won''t smear your name�� I believe I can prove it by how I''ve been doing as your assistant. Is it bothering you if the world knows that I''m your disciple?"


    "Not really. I don''t care about their opinions. Besides, I''ve been giving advice to others as well��"


    "That''s why I wish to be your disciple. I want to pave my way forward and seed so that I can tell the world that you are the one who has guided me all the way. I promise that I won''t bring you any shame."


    Theo looked at her expression and saw her determination. For Rea, everything she wanted was to repay everything Theo had done for her. For Theo, a disciple wasn''t a small matter. It was amitment.


    Like how Theomitted to one woman, Theo also had tomit to protecting his disciple. Rea had been safe this whole time because she was only a part of his group and her real identity was the daughter of the Sword Saint.


    But if he epted her as his disciple, Rea''s status as his disciple would overwhelm her identity as the Sword Saint''s daughter. In other words, if someone tried to aim for him, they would target her, who was usually protected by the Sword Saint to avoid angering him.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. His expression was distorted, troubled.


    There was one person that appeared in his mind. It was the Wind Emperor. In his dying breath, the Wind Emperor said, "Don''t think your family is a burden. It''s fine if you think of them as your weakness, but never a burden. If they''re your weakness, that weakness is the one that shows you the path to get stronger."


    epting her as his disciple couldn''t be considered a burden. The people who targeted her were a sign of his weakness. And the way for him to go forward was��


    Theo opened his eyes and muttered, "I want to ask you thisst question. Bing my disciple is forcing me to make amitment. Bing my disciple means I''m going to protect you. If the world wants you to die, I''ll destroy the world itself. If the king of hell wants to torture you, I will bring you back.


    "That''s why I want to ask you this question, Nagasawa Rea. Do you have themitment to be my disciple?"


    Rea took a deep breath. The answer was clear. Anna dered with a grim expression. "If the world wants to destroy me, I''ll get rid of myself before anything happens so that I won''t be your burden. No��


    "You are my teacher. It will be an embarrassment for you if I kill myself just to escape my responsibility." Rea paused for a moment and corrected her words. "If the world wants to kill me, I''ll destroy the world with your teaching. If the king of hell wants to torture me, I''ll trick him into servitude.


    "I promise, as your disciple, that I won''t make you ashamed. Your burden is my goal, your goal is my mission.


    "Disciple, Nagasawa Rea, greets her teacher."


    Theo closed her eyes for a moment before saying, "From now on, You are my student. Those who hurt you shall be my enemies. I promise you this, no one will dare to touch you or I''ll destroy them even if I have to turn the world upside down."

 Chapter 1593 The Happiness of a Father

    Chapter 1593 The Happiness of a Father


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    After Theo''s deration, the monsters came again, disturbing them. He nced to the side and said, "For the first task as my disciple, you are to kill the monsters andplete our objective with me."


    "Yes." Rea finally stood up while holding her weapon. "By the way, what should I call you? Master? Teacher?"


    "Can''t you call me like usual?"


    "No. Will you call your father by his own name? Or will you call him father, dad or something?"


    "I will��"


    "��" Rea nced at Theo in shock, forgetting that Theo had a bad rtionship with his parents. She simply used a bad example. "I mean��"


    Before she corrected herself, Theo said, "Just call me Teacher then."


    "Yes, Teacher." Rea smiled excitedly.


    "Let''s go, shall we?"


    "Yes."


    Rea and Theo jumped in their own directions, killing the monsters.


    Since Theo''s ability was above Rea, he finished his task first and retired to the side.


    He had mixed feelings about epting Rea as his disciple. On the one hand, Rea was a talented individual. Her talent might not be as good as Maya''s in one ce, but her talent was still top-notch.


    And with her training as his assistant this whole time, she was indeed a perfect individual to be the disciple of one of the top ten experts in the world, considering Theo could be recognized as one.


    On the other hand, Theo felt like he was getting too involved in her life. He might have taught her from time to time, but it wasn''t at the level of making her his disciple.


    That was why this request came from Rea herself. This decision wasn''t influenced by her father or anyone else. It was her wish to be his disciple.


    Bing his disciple was a bit tricky, considering she would be directly involved in his life. The battle she had to go through in the future might be beyond herprehension.


    However, Theo also thought about it as a challenge. His job was to make sure Rea got enough power to solve all those problems.


    While watching Rea from the distance, Theo reached for his Skylink and called a certain someone whose life would be shaken after hearing this.


    "Hello? Theo? It''s rare for you to contact me personally. Usually, you ask Agata or my daughter to give me a message."


    Yes, the one he called was the Sword Saint, Rea''s father.


    He remained silent for a moment, hesitating whether to tell him or not.


    "Hello?" The Sword Saint was confused, thinking it was a prank call.


    Before he hung up, Theo''s voice suddenly echoed.


    "I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"


    "What''s wrong with you? Good news? Bad news? What are you talking about? By calling me like this��" The Sword Saint suddenly fell silent as if understanding why Theo called him. He wouldn''t do this unless his daughter got involved, so this bad news must be rted to her.


    His body started shaking as he asked with a grim tone. "What happened to my daughter?"


    "The bad news is it��" Theo took a deep breath, creating suspense.


    The Sword Saint''s body was itching as he couldn''t wait to hear what had happened.


    "Your daughter will have a lot of trouble from now on."


    "What happened? Did something happen to my daughter? That''s right. Let me ask Maya to send an airne here, so I can go there immediately!"


    "Listen to me first." Theo sighed.


    The Sword Saint suddenly stopped and made sure he heard every single word Theo uttered.


    Now that he had regained the silence, Theo finally dropped the bomb. "Your daughter�� No, Nagasawa Rea is now my student."


    "My daughter? Your student�� no, wait!" The Sword Saint realized something when Theo corrected his words. He called Rea by her name instead of her identity to show that he recognized her as an individual, not a second generation who relied on their father''s prestige.


    This was the highest respect that Theo could give her. And Nagasawa Rea, as an individual, had be Theodore Griffith''s disciple.


    For the Sword Saint, it was a massive achievement since no one ever had be closer to him other than Agata, Lorenzo, Leonardo, and Ne, who became his lover, brother, grandfather, and sister respectively. Of course, Ava was also one of them, but the Sword Saint didn''t know about it.


    And from now on, one more name was etched in that list.


    The Sword Saint fell silent for a moment, realizing his outburst was unnecessary.


    "Mhm�� OK? So, she has be your disciple. What is the bad news?"


    "That''s the bad news. You should know that she''s going to face a lot of trouble from now on."


    "Yes, so?"


    "So�� what? Did you listen to what I said?"


    "Yes. I mean, you are her teacher, right? I know you, Theo. Someone like you is going to make her grow strong enough to tackle the trouble. So, I don''t see it as bad news�� Wait. That''s the bad news, not the good news? Then, does this mean the good news is actually excellent news? What is it? Tell me. Hurry up!"


    "��" Theo was speechless, listening to the Sword Saint. It felt like he was talking to a child who just got the toy he wanted.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and finally revealed the other news. "Well, she is going to receive an Order soon. From what I can see, it''s going to be between a month to a year."


    "What? You serious?! You''re not lying to me?"


    "Is there a reason for me to lie to you?" Theo sighed. Theo also couldn''t lie because of his rule anyway.


    There was no word exchanged after that because the Sword Saint had hung up. Theo was bbergasted and looked at the Skylink. He could only shake his head helplessly, not understanding the Sword Saint''s reaction.


    Meanwhile, the Sword Saint was celebrating. He was in the middle of the meeting and suddenly danced as he dered. "Alright, everyone. I don''t care what you want to say right now. You are dismissed. I''m going back no matter what you say! Bye!"


    He didn''t let others speak before he stormed out of the room and headed back to his house.


    He went to the garden and found his wife. "Dear! I love you! We are going to have a party tonight. Please make us the best meal!"

 Chapter 1594 Tasks

    Chapter 1594 Tasks


    After taking care of the whole area, Theo and his people regrouped with the support team.


    "Everything is done. The area within a one-mile radius is free of monsters. The military can set up their base here and begin expanding ordingly." Eleanor reported while checking the underground with her mice.


    "Good. Have you told them yet?" Theo asked Akbar.


    "Yes. They have begun marching to this ce. ording to our information, they have ten battalionsing to this ce together with all the necessary workers to set up the base. Their ETA is three hours."


    "Mhm��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows.


    "What''s wrong? Is there a mistake in their movement?" Akbar asked. He was afraid he had screwed up.


    Theo didn''t answer him. Instead, Theo ordered a few people. "Rea. Bring Felix, Ruth, Walker, and Coline to help them. Tell them as well that they have to speed up."


    "Understood." Rea nodded with a serious expression. Her mind was trying to figure out the real reason why Theo wanted to speed up the process, but no answer came to her mind, confusing her.


    She nced at Felix and the others, but they didn''t seem to have the answer as well. So, she could only leave to help the military.


    "By the way, where are we going to ce our base?" Akbar asked.


    Theo pointed in the southeast direction. "Here."


    "Why do you choose that ce? Well, I can see that there is a water supply there from the river, but that ce will be dangerous."


    "I know. But what I fear is not the monsters around that ce."


    "You fear something?" Akbar was more surprised, knowing Theo feared somethingpared to his decision. After all, they had to worry about something that could scare Theo.


    "I''m still not sure, but I believe there is going to be a battle pretty soon. And that ce will be strategic for us."


    "Another battle? We''ve just ended our fight with the Griffith Family and the mutated monsters. Are you telling us we''ll face a simr battle to that one?"


    "Yes. I can''t say anything for certain yet, but I''ll surely inform you once I''m sure about it."


    "Got it." Akbar nodded and epted Theo''s exnation and choice.


    Meanwhile, what others thought was not their n or anything else. Instead, it was Theo''s rtionship with Rea.


    Isaac couldn''t contain his curiosity and asked, "Theo. Is your rtionship with Rea��"


    "I have be her teacher." Theo nodded.


    They were astonished because Theo finally had a student. The others kept getting advice from him, and Theo should be qualified to be a teacher this whole time, yet, he never took anyone. It was quite surprising to see Theo break it.


    "I see. Rea, huh." Isaac contemted for a moment. "What should I call her after this?"


    "Who knows? I don''t think there''s any difference." Aisha shook her head.


    "That''s not important. There is one more thing that I want you to do." Theo pointed at the map again. "Akbar. I want you to set up a perimeter in this area. If there is something, call me immediately."


    "Understood. Are you going somewhere?"


    "Yes." Theo then turned to Isaac. "As for you, I have a project for you."


    "What is it?"


    "I want you to keep track of the chemical in this region, like a factory or even household waste. I need the map. Do you think you can do it?"


    "Well, I have to open the research about it. Since I''m used to reading this kind of paper, I should have no problem finding one."


    "Good. I want the map as soon as possible."


    "OK." Isaac agreed even though he didn''t understand why Theo wanted to know about the chemical.


    After that, Theo gave thest order. "Eleanor. I want you to spread your mice by using their animal instinct. I mean, try to let them ransack people''s houses to find out about trash. Is there any factory that deals with waste or trash here? I want you to keep an eye on that area if there is one."


    "Got it." Eleanor noticed the reason why he gave her this task because her mouse might be able to find those areas.


    "Alright. That''s all for now. I will leave the protection here to Jeff, Chris, and Akbar."


    "Understood." The rest of them acknowledged the order, seeing Theo off.


    They thought Theo wanted to leave for another ce to get a lot of Skill Cards, but he had no intention of doing so at the moment.


    Instead, Theo had a more important matter.


    Theo headed straight to the area where he was going to build their base. His goal here was to hunt these monsters by using all his strength.


    However, there was a hidden intention of him going alone instead of bringing anyone else.


    Theo opened his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 871


    EXP: 23,555,000/61,139,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (S), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1030, Endurance 700, Agility 702, Vitality 700, Magic Power 1700


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm�� I''m only 29 levels away from level 900. Unlike the world before the apocalypse, no one will realize my level before I reach level 1,000. This is an advantage to me because no one will hunt me down.


    "However, there is something that bothers me�� My status is too lowpared to the God of Mischief and the Goddess of Death. Is it because I haven''t absorbed enough herbs or artifacts to increase my power?


    "Now that I have be a Saint, I can see the world more clearly. Back then, I didn''t question much when absorbing the energy from the artifact.


    "Back then, the God of Mischief or the others absorbed the Order left behind by the people in the past, and the pure energy could go to me.


    "How''s that work anyway?"

 Chapter ?1595 Small Talk

    Chapter ?1595 Small Talk


    "How''s that work anyway?"


    When Theo threw that question, his mind became confused.


    It was true that he could absorb the Reality Order like what those people did. But how did he absorb the lingering energy to increase his own attributes? Why did the energy enter his body through their help?


    Theo wondered at this moment, trying to figure out the tricks. After all, this might be thest step he needed to go toe to toe against them.


    "Hmm�� Let me recall everything about my encounters with the God of Mischief." Theo fell silent. "Now that I think about it, the God of Mischief once tricked the world to gain the Reality Eyes as well as erasing the restriction.


    "He even became a Singrity and created a technique beyond S Rank. On the other hand, I had never done something like this. I might be able to fool people, but I have yet to do something beyond my own imagination."


    Theo fell silent as his expression became serious.


    "That''s right. The world''s system is still restricting me. Then, how do I lift up that restriction?"


    The contemtion took ten minutes before Theo sat down on the floor while locking himself in a room. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes.


    Once he became an Authority, the bridge that connected him to the world evolved.


    When he meditated, he could feel the connection between him and the world. Since the world had its consciousness, he thought there would be a way to find it.


    "I am the Reality Saint��" Theo muttered as his consciousness appeared in a in white world with nothing in it. There was nothing in this ce, but Theo walked forward without hesitation.


    Soon, a bridge appeared in that white room as if leading him somewhere.


    Suddenly, an androgynous voice echoed in his mind.


    "I''m impressed. You''re one of the people who can find me without asking me the way."


    "!!!" Theo knew this voice was the world since he had heard it many times. "I''m just testing everything I''ve witnessed so far. I am the Reality Saint, so I can bend reality as I like.


    "That''s why I know that I can create a reality where I can meet you��"


    "A reality to meet me? It''s more like a reality where you can force me to meet you."


    Theo smiled, not denying it.


    "I''m simply wanting to have small talk." Theo nced to the side, forming a mannequin without a face. Just like that, the world used this body as a medium to talk morefortably with Theo. Or, from the world''s perspective, Theo was forcing the world''s consciousness to enter this body.


    "Is it bothering you to be forced like this?"


    "I don''t feel anything. What you do ispletely irrelevant to me."


    "I see." Theo contemted for a moment before saying, "I want to know the limit of my power. I have seen all the amazing people whose strength is beyond my understanding. Yet, I can''t find a way to reach their level."


    "I believe you have found your answers." The world opened its mouth, staring at him.


    "��" Theo scratched the back of his head. On the one hand, he had prepared several ways that might be possible for him to reach their level. On the other hand, they were too absurd and he believed there was a limit.


    Theo sighed and said, "I have three ways to reach their level. The first is to level up like crazy and reach Authority with this system. However, this method has a fatal w.


    "Each level only gives me five attribute points. I have to reach level two thousand if I want to beat them.


    "Thus, I prepare the second way, which is to raise the attributes every time you level up. Unfortunately, I don''t think I can set up aw where each level can give me ten points instead of five without affecting the previousw.


    "That''s why when the condition is changed, it means that all people will have additional attributes, but they can''t utilize the system anymore, causing a hole in the order itself. It''ll just turn me into a criminal.


    "Then, I havee up with thest way. I am going to use all my power to alter the power system as a whole, creating a new power system and reactivating it.


    "But I''m afraid that the moment I do this, the one who is affected by this new power system is not only the human but all other creatures in this world. The monsters will be even more ferocious and won''t hesitate to kill the humans to get stronger.


    "That''s why all three answers are useless. I will only ruin this world if I do it."


    Theo exined to the world that all three ways werepletely useless.


    The world paused for a moment and asked, "So, what''s the problem? My job is not to give you the answer. If you want to know the way, you have to find it yourself."


    "I know. That''s why I''m talking to you right now. I can see there is one more possibility." Theo raised three fingers as if telling the world it was the third way instead of the fourth one. "The humans can absorb the lingering energy from the herbs or artifacts to increase one''s attribute, why?


    "People can understand that herbs are good for your body, but why could they absorb energy from artifacts? The answer is simple and I''m looking at it right now."


    The world asked for confirmation with a monotonous tone. "Me? Are you assuming that I''m the cause that humans can absorb the lingering energy?"


    "No. You''re not the cause. Instead, you''re the way to absorb the energy. There are three ranks that I recognize with you at the very top. Below you is the God of Creation and, finally the Saints.


    "You are the one creating the Orders and Authorities, which are used by the God of Creation. Then, the God of Creation created this world and allowed us the Saints to change the rules a bit.


    "However, the Orders and the Authorities areing from you�� How did you create Order and Authority? There is something beyond Authority�� And that something is the one allowing us to absorb the energy!"

 Chapter 1596 Negotiation

    Chapter 1596 Negotiation


    Theo continued his exnation while forming three balls: red, yellow, and green. "The red ball is your power, let''s call it Origin for the time being. Then, the Yellow is the Magic Power itself while the green ball is my Order and Authority.


    "Your Origin Element creates and leaves behind a trace in our Order and Authority." Theo ced the red ball on top of the green ball, causing the red ball to melt and forming a few red dots on the green ball''s surface. This was simr to a sign of infection.


    "And now, with this power, we bestow it on the artifact. Of course, bestowing your Friend Seal or Covenant Seal to an Artifact requires Magic Power." Theo fused the green ball and the yellow ball. "This is the product that lingers in the artifact."


    "The Kings and Saints of the past who gave our blessings simply took their Order and Authorities back, leaving the Magic Power and your Origin Element.


    "That''s why our bodies can ept it. It''s just a lump of Magic Power with your Origin Element, which all creatures have since they''re built from those�� Even the Authority and Order were created from that Origin Element.


    "In other words, all living beings in this world had Origin in their bodies like a branding from you. Just like having an Authority or Order, you receive that energy and the power system converts it to Attribute Points instead of Order Energy.


    "I have realized this from the mermaid known as the Queen of Destiny. She could use her own power to supply energy for my symbol. That''s absurd.


    "But if she removes her own Order from that energy and transfers it to me? It''s possible.


    "That lump of pure energy that contains your branding will allow my body to absorb it, and my Order will influence it, turning that pure energy into my Order Energy."


    The world didn''t have a change of expression, but the world seemed to realize Theo had figured out the principle.


    "So, what do you want, Theodore Griffith?"


    "It''s simple. I''m going to take advantage of this system to create numerous artifacts. Then, I''ll absorb the energy to gain additional strength. Before I know it, I''m sure my attribute points will reach ten thousand each." Theo smirked. "That''s not the limit��"


    The world noticed Theo''s real n. "You��"


    Theo raised his finger and pointed at the top. "Yes. I wonder what is beyond Singrity? Thanks to this power system, I can increase my attribute points unlimitedly.


    "If Singrity has a total of ten thousand points, what if my attribute points are ten thousand points for each attribute? If that''s not enough, what if I raise my strength to one hundred thousand points each? Maybe at that time, I''ll be far stronger than you�� Or in the best-case scenario, I might be able to destroy you with just a single flick."


    "You are insane, Theodore Griffith." The world slightly raised its tone. He couldn''t deny this n either because this was the system that had been set up.


    Theo might be able to absorb one artifact and get thirty points. But what if he created a thousand of those artifacts? He could get thirty thousand points. It already made him the strongest person in the world, surpassing those who passed the limitation and became a Singrity.


    At the same time, Theo could simply choose not to level up and be far stronger without even bing a Singrity.


    Even if he couldn''t create a thousand artifacts by himself, Theo had Felix and Ruth to help him. Rea would be able to do the same sooner orter. There were also the Heavily Sovereign, the Sword Saint, or even the monsters like the Frost Saint, the Dark King, or Ava.


    If they all helped him, it would certainly happen. His subordinates would still follow his orders even though they didn''t understand it, there was no guarantee that the others wouldn''t do the same.


    The world realized that he had been cornered.


    "It seems that this is a loophole in the system you''ve created." Theo smirked. "Thanks to you, I can finally know what will happen. No one will be able to stop me�� You can''t send people or monsters to kill me because you''re not something that will interfere.


    "At the same time, the one beyond this dimension can''t do anything other than see me increasing my power. That being could raise my other self''s power, but it had to follow the system, not the loophole that I''d just discovered.


    "Haha. Thanks to you, I can finally go at it without fear."


    "Wait, Theodore Griffith. What you''re trying to do��"


    "I''m not doing something illegal and it won''t cause a disruption in the Order since ites from the loophole in your system." Theo shook his head.


    "No. Stop what you''re nning to do right now."


    "What can you do? You can''t do anything since you''re not allowed to interfere." Theo shook his head. "That''s why I''m not going to stop."


    "State your condition in order to not use that loophole." The world decided to change its approach by giving Theo an opportunity to stop.


    "In that case, I won''t hold back. My condition is simple." Theo smirked.


    "You have a condition ready? No, wait��" The world paused. It just realized a big loophole in Theo''s own logic.


    If he had this brilliant n, there was no reason for Theo to tell the world about it. Yet, Theo actually gave away his plot as if he wanted the world to stop him.


    As Theo said, if he used this power, even the being in the higher dimension couldn''t stop him because even if they increased the original Theo''s strength, they couldn''t do it abruptly and mess with the entire world itself, causing a huge loophole in the system.


    However, Theo knew that this action would also cause those beings to utilize other ways to remove him from this world. The God of Mischief might not mind being erased since it proved their existence, but Theo didn''t want to die.


    That was why he gave away his plot to force the world to agree to his condition, giving him a safe passage to increase his strength.


    ''The world itself had stated that it didn''t love all creatures anymore, but it never specified anything. If the higher beings could actually cause all those reactions�� I''m sure that the higher beings could take advantage of the fact the world didn''t love the creatures anymore to erase me. That''s why I couldn''t take advantage of my own n. Instead, it''s better to get safe passage from the world itself.''


    The world also understood what Theo was thinking. "It seems that you have set me up."

 Chapter 1597 Condition

    Chapter 1597 Condition


    "It seems you''ve set me up." The world said without a trace of emotion. Despite knowing it got tricked, the world had nothing against Theo.


    "I didn''t set you up or something. I''m simply telling you the possibility and what I can do to take advantage of it." Theo shook his head.


    "You make mee to that conclusion to promise you something. If that''s not a trick, then what is it?"


    "Negotiation." Theo smiled.


    "You threatened me." The world corrected him with a more appropriate term. Theo threatened him that he would get stronger and destroy the world, so the world had toply since he wasn''t in a position to interfere.


    But Theo simply pped his hands once and said, "There you go. You have answered your own question."


    "��" The world was speechless. He just asked that question and Theo dared to give a cheeky answer. Due to that provocation, the world ended up stating another term, which indirectly answered his own question.


    "What do you want, Theodore Griffith?"


    Theo pointed at his head and said, "I know you can see through my mind. Just read it."


    "Do you know that it''s impossible to know your thoughts because your thoughts never existed? Only the conclusion is done."


    This statement was not surprising since even the God of Mischief also had trouble knowing Theo''s thoughts.


    After growing ustomed to the existence in his consciousness, Theo developed a strange ability.


    The God of Mischief and other people inside his consciousness could see and hear his every thought and action. So, it meant there was no way to hide a certain thing from them.


    That was why Theo had developed a way to counter that situation. He emptied his mind and didn''t think a single thing about his n as if he had no n at all. But when the time came, Theo''s n would start working.


    That was right. Theo had begun to subconsciously think of a n in his mind. If it was something he thought about, there would be a record of it.


    But what if Theo subconsciously thought of a n? Since it was done subconsciously, Theo''s brain didn''t have that record, allowing him to hide his real intention until thest second.


    This was why the God of Mischief had a hard time figuring out what Theo was thinking before the apocalypse.


    Of course, the God of Mischief was satisfied with this condition since this was the secret to going against the being in the higher dimension.


    If they didn''t know his thought, they wouldn''t know what would happen before it, allowing Theo to take advantage of it to turn around the situation.


    The same applied to the world. The world could see through one''s mind, but if that thought was never in his mind, even the world couldn''t know Theo''s intention.


    That was why when Theo told about his n, the world didn''t know that Theo''s real n was actually to agree to the condition instead of taking advantage of the loophole.


    And since the world had promised the condition to Theo, it could only fulfill that promise. Unlike humans, who could take back their words, the world''s statement couldn''t be changed. That was why the world didn''t meet someone easily.


    Now that he had trapped the world, Theo raised three fingers. "I have three conditions in exchange for not taking advantage of it."


    "Impossible. Do you know what you''re talking about? I''m this world''s consciousness. I never take anyone''s side, but the fact that I agree with your condition means I have to be on your side. You should know the implication, right?"


    "Then, how about this? Three conditions in exchange for my three promises. The first promise is about the ban taking advantage of the loophole, which you agreed to earlier.


    "Secondly, I promise that I''ll cover this loophole for you. Last but not least, I promise that I won''t tell anyone else about this loophole or teach them how to find another loophole in the system you''ve built." Theo smirked.


    The world fell silent. The first and second promises aside, the third promise was the most important.


    Theo was aware that the God of Mischief had managed to trick the system and gain the Reality Eyes, the restriction, and the ability to ascend beyond the limit. The Singrity might have been found by people in the past, but the skill beyond S Rank was something that the God of Mischief personally found.


    And Theo was finding another loophole right now, so it was clear that there were other loopholes they could exploit. If Theo began to teach people about it, there was a higher possibility that another loophole could be found again.


    The world had no choice but to agree to this condition, but it also added, "That''s not enough. You have to promise me something too! Promise me you won''t make me interfere with what happens to me."


    Theo could understand his condition. The world was neutral. It loved all creatures living on it equally, no matter how bad they behaved. However, there was a case recently that caused the world to stop loving all creatures.


    Theo didn''t know which creature had lost the world''s love, but it was certain that the change wasn''t caused naturally.


    That was why Theo said, "Alright. I agree. I promise that the condition I''ll make won''t make you get involved in the worldly affair."


    The world looked at Theo for a moment as if confirming Theo''s statement. But since Theo had a rule that he couldn''t lie, the world chose to trust him and asked, "What''s the first condition?"


    "I want you to change the reward for leveling up from the current level onward. That''s right. Give me one hundred points for every level." Theo smirked.


    "Impossible. If I change the reward, all living creatures will get that change as well. And��" The world suddenly fell silent as if realizing something. "From the current level onward?"


    Theo smirked as if implying he didn''t hear it wrong. Since Theo''s condition was from that level onward, it meant nothing to all living beings except for Theo, who still had the system. In other words, this condition only benefited Theo, not others.

 Chapter ?1598 Agreement

    Chapter ?1598 Agreement


    Theo smirked. "There you go. This way, it won''t affect the entire system, right? You just have to adjust it�� No, ''update'' is a better word for it."


    "��" The world was speechless. Theo''s shamelessness knew no bounds. He even dared to ask the world to update the current system to suit him.


    However, the world also noticed something. "No. This doesn''t benefit only you. The next Reality Kings will benefit from it as well. And giving you this power will make me get involved with the living creatures in this world."


    Theo shook his head and exined, "No, no, no. It won''t interfere with the current living creatures. For example, if you update it right now, there will only be me who can reap the benefits from it, not other people, since they have lost their control over the system.


    "Then, the next Reality King or Saint? Nope, they won''t appear. As long as I remain as the Reality Saint, no one will be another Reality King or Reality Saint, including my kids or grandkids. That''s something I can assure you because I don''t want them to undergo all this experience to wield the Reality Order.


    "As for the generations when I''m not in this world anymore�� It''s simple. The system is just a thing in the past and they won''t think much about it because the record of the system will just be history, not a real application.


    "Those younger generations after me won''t know what it means to have a system in you. They won''t know the reward of leveling up, so if they suddenly receive a hundred points every time they level up, they''ll ept it as it is.


    "Even if theye to seek the record, they''ll juste up with a theory that the apocalypse causes the Magic Power density on Earth to increase and make humans evolve. That''s the reason why they can gain a lot more pointspared to the people in this era.


    "That''s why it won''t affect the current living creatures." Theo finished his exnation with a smile as if he had given the world enough reason to grant it.


    The world hesitated for a moment before saying, "Fifteen points. That''s the limit."


    Theo contemted for a moment. If they had gotten 15 points since level 1, they would end up with 15,000 points if they reached level 1,000.


    This would be more than Loki''s status. However, with the story about the apocalypse and the increase in Magic Power as well as the evolution, it was still eptable to know that they would get a bit more points than the God of Mischief.


    Of course, not many people would be able to reach this point. And this change would affect not only humans but also other creatures.


    Still, this was a good deal for him. Theo said, "Fifteen points, is it? Alright, I ept."


    The world nodded. "Then, what is your second condition?"


    "My second condition is to increase the density of Magic Power."


    "It''s impossible. Do you know the cirction of Magic Power all around the world?"


    "Of course. For my second condition, it''s fine if it''s just for a moment. I want you to increase the density of Magic Power for a moment. I''ll tell you when it can ur. This shouldn''t be that hard, right?"


    "For a moment��" The world couldn''t rebuke it because it was a simple matter to him. As long as the increase happened all around the world, no one would im it didn''t benefit them.


    After some consideration, the world agreed to this condition as well. "Alright. Just for three seconds."


    "That''s enough." Theo smiled, satisfied.


    "Then, thest condition. State yourst condition."


    Suddenly, Theo''s smile turned into an evil grin as he said, "I''ll be saving my third condition."


    "Huh? You��"


    The world was stunned because Theo was so confident with the previous two conditions, but he somehow nned to conserve this onest wish, which he could take advantage of right now to get even stronger.


    However, the world didn''t know. Even Theo didn''t have any inner monologue about the condition.


    Only his subconsciousness knew what Theo was thinking. The world once dered that it didn''t love all creatures anymore.


    If he connected this condition with the higher being, he believed that the higher being caused the world to stop loving everything. It was a weapon they could use.


    The reason why Theo was sure that this weapon could be used was because of what happened to his original self.


    The original Theo managed toe back to life. The fact that he could survive Helheim and get stronger alone was already at the limit of their logic.


    Theo could somehow ept that the Death Reaper''s sacrifice allowed the original Theo to revive itself. Even Hel imed she could do it like when she was about to revive a God in the past.


    Still, how the Death Reaper could meet him in Helheim was a big question that couldn''t be answered no matter what.


    Seeing this situation, Theo believed that the being in the higher dimension was the one allowing the original Theo to resurrect. They bent thew and returned him to thend of the living.


    From this case, Theo knew that the being could cause something beyond one''s imagination, but they were also restricted by the world''sw. If what they did waspletely out of one''s reason, the world would copse.


    They wanted the world to be destroyed but within the realm of logic. That was why if they somehow destroyed the world because they created a loophole, they failed.


    This was the reason why Theo left the third condition open. Just like the being in the higher dimension, Theo nted a trump card in the world''s consciousness, allowing him to negate the trump card that the higher being had.


    Theo smiled and said, "It''s a pleasure to meet the world and I believe it''s time for me to step back. Please excuse me."


    Theo politely bowed to the world as he disappeared from this ce.

 Chapter 1599 Rebuilding the Base

    Chapter 1599 Rebuilding the Base


    Theo gradually opened his eyes as a smile appeared on his face. "With this, I can get far stronger than my current self. I am level 871 right now, so I still have 129 levels to catch up, meaning I have close to two thousand attribute points I can use to increase my strength.


    "Although it won''t be as good as the God of Mischief, the gap won''t be too much." Theo was satisfied with the result of the conversation.


    "Well, I should get going. I have to level up as much as possible�� At the very least, I should reach level 900 before the next battlees."


    Theo immediately stood up and started working. He killed one monster after another, making sure that he got all the EXP.


    On the other hand, he also saw Mythical Rank Monsters from time to time, waiting for them to drop A Rank Skill Cards.


    Maya had gathered a bunch of them right now, but it wasn''t the time to use them yet. He was afraid the battle that was bound to happen soon would be bigger than he thought, so he nned to hold back from using all his cards, knowing he could take advantage of those to gain allies to handle the problem.


    No one knew about it yet, but Theo had considered all the possibilities of what would happen next, knowing the next threat would attack humans again.


    As for the location, he didn''t know about it yet, but he was sure the union wasn''t the target. It would be either in this base or in United Asia.


    The only thing he could do right now was to prepare for the worst-case scenario.


    Rea had also led the army to their location, only to find out that Theo wasn''t there. She ended up calling him and heard about the next instruction.


    Although she wanted to apany him or send Felix or Ruth to help him, Theo had asked her to take care of the development of the military base because he was going to clear the area for their base by himself.


    As for Ruth and Felix, they were tasked to either protect the military base''s development or clear up the path.


    It would be hard to clear the entire state by themselves, so Theo also nned to have Rea lead the military for their expansion, promising them that they would be able to turn Kentucky into a living state again within a year. If Rea couldn''t aplish it, he would take care of it.


    After getting that assurance from Theo, the military agreed to cooperate with Rea.


    It was impossible to trust Reapletely, but the military promised if Agata''s n was reasonable, they would follow it.


    Just like Agata, Rea had also be an adviser.


    Theo, on the other hand, kept hunting the monsters for a few days, making one wonder how big of an area he nned to clear.


    They didn''t know that Theo had cleared the entire space long ago. He kept killing the monsters because he wanted to level up. It was pretty hard to increase his level even with these monsters swarming the area after all.


    Theo only came back to the group after ten days and asked Maya toe to their ce since they were going to rebuild their base.


    They arrived at a ce near the river where Theo imed thend. He had ced his Covenant Seal and finally said, "Alright. With this, everything is set. What do you want to build? I''ll make it for you. This time, there is no limitation to your imagination�� Just don''t make it difficult for me."


    The people''s eyes shed as if they could finally get what they truly wanted.


    "I''ll gost this time, so just tell me what you want. Who should go first��" Theo looked at his people and pointed at Rea. "I guess you''re the first. If I don''t prioritize you, who should I prioritize?"


    "Ah!" Rea realized that she had this chance because she had be Theo''s disciple. She felt happy and embarrassed at the same time since she had taken others'' positions away.


    However, Theo had given her the position, so she had to give the answer. She raised one finger and said, "I want a floating dojo. It doesn''t need to be that high, but it''s high enough to train with the stairs."


    "Hmm. Alright." Theo nodded and snapped his finger. The stairs to the air began to appear. After the two hundredth stair, the dojo was formed on a floating tform. "Well, I don''t know much about a dojo, but I have made one with Ryo''s dojo as the reference."


    "That''s enough. I''ll take care of the detailster." Rea politely bowed to him, thanking him.


    "What the actual fuck?" Maya dropped her jaw to the ground. She just kept listening and waiting for Theo to do what he wanted, but she never expected to find something this ridiculous. "What are you doing? It will fall if you leave this area since you have to use your Telekinesis to make it float!"


    Maya wanted to stop him from doing this ridiculous thing, but the others only chuckled, baffling her.


    "Huh? What? Why are you looking at me as if I''m a fool?"


    Theo chuckled and called another name. "Then, Felix is next."


    "I want somethingfortable to live in. And since we''re near a river, can I ask for a good house next to a river."


    "Sure." Theo nodded and Maya calmed down again, thinking Felix was sane.


    However, Felix added, "Also. Can you make a tree house? Not a tree house that is above the tree, but the actual tree. It''s Millie''s dream to live in that house."


    "Father��" Millie looked at him, feeling moved. It was a dream of the six years old her, but her father still remembered it.


    "What the hell?" Maya was dumbfounded once again while watching how Theo created a tree out of nothing, and the tree was quite big. It should be enough to stuff everything inside.


    "Coline!" Theo called the next name, to which Coline replied with certainty. "Just a dining hall and a floating aquarium!"


    "Floating, what?" Maya kept reacting to those strange requests as she still couldn''t believe what she was seeing right now. However, the floating aquarium soon appeared as she wished, making this area look like a fantasynd. Maya sucked a cold breath and asked, "What are you doing, Theo? Are you trying to create a Boosend?"

 Chapter 1600 Going

    Chapter 1600 Going


    "Alright. This should be enough." Theo muttered while looking at a humble house next to the water. Since Agata wasn''t here to give some input about their house, Theo didn''t make it too big since this was temporary.


    He could remake the house anytime he liked, so he wasn''t concerned about the size as long as it wasfortable enough to live in.


    Theo also kept killing the monsters in the area since he had promised to take back Kentucky.


    People began to hear about the rumor of Theo taking back Kentucky, raising his prestige among the people.


    He was also the person behind the system of the union, which seeded in stabilizing their own at a rapid rate. So, it was clear if they migrated to this ce, they would be able to get Theo''s protection.


    After all, knowing there was a famous figure like Theo, whose strength was unparalleled, was enough to know that the ce would be safe.


    Just like the new capital, thend''s price would soar. So, people were staring at this ce, especially the area near Theo''s location or the military base.


    Meanwhile, Theo just let Maya do her job.


    After making a small space for her in the base, Maya returned to take care of the business development of the state, especially the defense, since Theo nned to build several heavy weapons for the protection of this ce.


    With the help of Theo, the military also began their expansion. They received instruction from Rea, making both groups synchronize their movements.


    Of course, there was also another big matter that Theo nned to do.


    After getting all the data from the flight, Maya informed Theo that the ne was ready to take off again. And this time, the destination was United Asia.


    It had been two months since thest flight, so Theo was happy to hear the news.


    As soon as he knew the ne was ready to take off, he came out of his house.


    Rea seemed to have heard about it as well because she was waiting for him outside his house.


    "Oh, Rea. Are you going as well?" Theo smiled. He could understand if Rea wanted to go home since her family must want to see her after everything happened.


    Rea maintained her calm expression and stated, "We have made big progress in thest two months. With the help of the military, we have conquered at least thirty percent of Kentucky. If we can continue at this rate, it''ll only take another six months before Kentucky can perform as if nothing happened.


    "The business development is in Maya''s hands, but for now, the progress is rapid, and I think we will be able to fulfill our agreement sooner than our original target.


    "There is nothing big that will happen for a week or so, considering Felix and Ruth had begun to hunt monsters again after getting some rest in the previous week."


    Rea looked like she was giving Theo the report about their situation, but Theo noticed the hidden meaning behind this report. Rea was simply telling him that everything would be fine even if they were not here, so there was no reason that could keep her away from going with him.


    Theo chuckled and said, "You should be more honest with yourself. Is it because you''ve be my disciple that you are like this?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Rea yed dumb while looking away.


    "Haha." Theo patted her shoulders and said, "Go back and pack your��"


    "I''ve prepared everything, including our lunch." Rea pointed at the bag not far from them.


    Theo opened his mouth again, wanting to add something, but Rea took out the Skylink and showed him a document. "All the necessary documents have been taken care of."


    Theo couldn''t help but smile because Rea had be even more reliable. In fact, she was perfect to the point he became speechless.


    "I guess we can go now." Theo chuckled. "Felix is to takemand in my absence. Akbar will assist him as the deputy. For now, continue with our development and immediately inform me if they encounter a problem."


    "Understood." Rea immediately took care of the matter before bringing her bags so that they could go straight to Maya to discuss their trip to United Asia.


    Theo also brought some clothes before leaving the base.


    On the way, Theo nced at Maya, whose power seemed to have be more refined.


    In fact, they had been flying this whole time due to Maya summoning a dragon from her sword.


    "How is your power?" Theo asked.


    "Yes, I can say that it''s more refined. Though, I can''t bepared to Teacher, who has mastered Awareness, Control, and Technique. If I''m not wrong, your Endurance is close to Inhuman Physique, right?"


    "Yeah."


    "As expected from you, Teacher. You are probably the first person to master four of the Five Aspects. And your achievement in breathing is quite high as well."


    "This power is necessary for what''s going toe. But well, enough about me. This time, you''re going with me to United Asia. It''s time to flex in front of your father."


    "Flex? How can I be so rude?"


    "Is it rude if your father likes it?"


    "��"


    "Ehm, I won''t disappoint you at the very least."


    "Good enough." Theo chuckled. "So, how close are you right now?"


    "Hmm�� If I have to make aparison, it feels like I''m right in front of the door, trying to open it. However, I need a bit more time to find a way to open this door."


    "Sorry, but I won''t be helping you in thisst step. You have to take the leap yourself."


    "I understand."


    "Though, I can give you a little hint. When you flex to your father, you should show everything."


    "Show everything?" Rea was confused for a moment before gasping. "Are you telling me��"


    "Yep. Make sure you do that." Theo chuckled.


    "The flex that shows everything�� Father won''t like it if I just show him everything like a performer. That''s why the flex this time won''t be a performance, but a spar��" Rea muttered as if preparing herself to fight her father.

 Chapter ?1601 Longing

    Chapter ?1601 Longing


    "So, you two are going this time?" Maya asked while standing in front of the ne.


    "Yeah. Only me and Rea go this time." Theo nodded.


    "If that''s the case, I''ll leave everyone to you. You already know how it works anyway. How is the airport over there?"


    "The Sword Saint can''t wait to see his daughter anymore, so he ends up cleaning everything there. Agata took a picture of him wielding a broom instead of a sword." Theo chuckled while Rea looked away, embarrassed.


    Mayaughed and pointed at the ne. "In any case, the airne is yours, the schedule will be up to you. Just don''t forget to remind me before youe back since we have to make sure the airport is clean."


    "Got it." Theo nodded. "Thank you, Maya."


    "What thank you? After this flight, mypany is expected to be number two in the world. And it won''t be long before I create the most sessful business in the world, so I''m taking advantage of you, actually. Anyway, enough talking. You should go immediately."


    Theo smiled and patted her shoulder, whispering something to her.


    Maya was startled at first before she frowned. The smile on her face faded away as she nodded with a serious expression. "Alright, I understand."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and finally walked to the ne.


    Rea was confused about the secret message, but since he only said it to Maya, it was only meant for her. She shouldn''t ask Maya about the content of the message.


    "Maya. I''ll leave our base''s development to you. Please take care of it." Rea politely bowed to her, thanking her for her hard work and for creating this airne.


    "It''s fine." Maya smiled. "Make sure you get a good reunion with your family."


    "Mhm." Rea nodded before following Theo to the ne.


    It didn''t take too long for the ne to take off. This was the second journey of this ne and its sess would surely bring more trust inmercial flight. Although it would be extremely expensive due to the huge cost of each trip, many people would surely try it.


    Theo and Rea sat next to each other.


    "By the way, has your father prepared those things?"


    "Yep. Agata has taken care of it as well, so there won''t be any problems if you want to do it."


    "That''s good then." Theo nodded. "As for our stay��"


    Theo contemted for a moment and said, "A week should be enough, right?"


    "It''s more than enough." Rea nodded. "There are bound to be more airnes in the future, so it''s not that hard to meet them anymore. So, one week is enough to satisfy the longing."


    "Alright. That''s great." Theo smiled and informed the stewardess. "Tell the others that we''re going to stay for a week in that ce."


    "Understood. Thank you for the information." She bowed politely and walked back to inform the other employees.


    ��


    Unbeknownst to them, the Sword Saint was actually looking through the window while sipping his warm tea.


    His body was trembling in excitement. Many things had happened after the apocalypse, so he couldn''t contain himself. Unfortunately, the flight would take a bit longer. Even though sleeping was an option to skip the waiting time, he was fully awake.


    Suddenly, a middle-aged woman entered the room, seeing her husband standing in front of the window. She approached him with a gentle smile. "What''s wrong, honey?"


    "It''s nothing. I can''t sleep today��"


    "I know that you''re excited since she is finallying home. But you shouldn''t push yourself too much. Are you going to be like Sojuro too? He''s still swinging his sword, you know."


    "He is the next leader of the Nagasawa Family. He just doesn''t want to lose to his sister. She has always been running behind him, but without him realizing, she actually has surpassed him and started moving further and further away."


    "So, are you regretting sending Rea away?"


    "Nope. Not at all. If Sojuro doesn''t have the desire to improve and take the challenge, I''ll be disappointed. But I''m sure he will be able to seed. They have taken different paths, so there''s no need topare them. All I wish is for the best for both of them."


    "Then, I''ll apany you here. How long will the airne arrive?"


    "Nine hours from now."


    "I see." She gently hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, apanying him to watch the night sky as if hoping to see the airne as soon as possible.


    The one who got excited about their arrival wasn''t only the Nagasawa Family. Agata also couldn''t contain her excitement since she could finally reunite with the man she loved.


    Agata was sitting with Ergene and Ryo.


    "It seems that he''s trulying to us now," said Ergene with a smile. They had been looking out of ce this whole time, considering the only reason why no one had made a move against them was due to Theo''s reputation.


    Agata would be a tool of politics in this new environment since she had the talent, experience, and beauty for it.


    Luckily, the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint took care of anyone who dared to plot against her. And of course, Agata was the one controlling the situation from the shadows.


    Still, a part of them wanted to meet up with the others�� to a ce where they belonged.


    "Yeah. So many things have happened, but I''m d that none of us have died from it." Agata nodded, gratified.


    "That''s Theo''s ability. He knew who to choose�� Although it''s a shame that Phyrill and Ellen leave the group, we have gotten another reliable teammate, Eleanor."


    "Indeed." Agata agreed. Although it was hard to know that one of their members had to leave the group, they couldn''t do anything about it. She was worried that Theo might be hurt again as if the separation reminded him of his past, but she was d he was alright.


    "Anyway, there are only a few hours before he reaches this ce. We''ll be able to go home soon." Agata smiled while closing her eyes.

 Chapter 1602 Reunion

    Chapter 1602 Reunion


    The most awaited airne had finally shown its appearance as it prepared tond at the airport.


    Because no one said anything about Theo''s arrival, no one was waiting in front of the airport other than rted people.


    Even the Heavenly Sovereign waited for Theo since he was waiting for this guy who had caused a big ruckus in the world.


    Zhao Jia apanied him to ensure the Heavenly Sovereign didn''t go overboard.


    As soon as the nended, the stewardess opened the door, allowing Theo and Rea toe out.


    A smile appeared when he finally met the woman he loved after two years.


    Their gazes intertwined. There were no words exchanged between them, but it was clear that they were sharing the same feeling.


    Before greeting anyone else, Theo used his Blink to appear in front of Agata and held her hands, saying with a gentle tone. "I can finally meet you."


    "I miss you." Agata smiled as she had a hard time controlling her tears. She immediately let go of his hands and hugged him.


    Theo did the same while closing his eyes, enjoying her warm embrace. There was no need to do something special. They just wanted to hug each other forever, not wanting to be separated anymore.


    The others could understand it, considering Agata was the person who managed to change Theo and be his woman. They just left some space for them as they saw Agataing out of the ne.


    "Father, Mother, Brother." Rea immediately greeted them. "I''m home."


    The Sword Saint nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Wee home."


    "What''s wrong? I thought you were going to hug her?" Her mother suddenly slipped past him and took the chance to hug her. "Wee home, dear."


    "Thank you, Mother."


    "Wait, what? You��" The Sword Saint was dumbfounded that his wife actually hugged her first before him. And before he could do anything, Sojuro had also done the same thing, making him thest even though he had been the most proactive one in her return.


    "Haha��" Rea chuckled and spread her arms.


    The Sword Saint felt embarrassed because he was seen through by his own daughter. But it didn''t stop him from hugging her, feeling relieved that she was alright this whole time.


    The reunionsted for a few minutes as Theo greeted his two teammates.


    "Ergene, Ryo. You two have worked hard this whole time. Thank you for protecting Agata."


    "We are the ones being protected this whole time." Ergene scratched the back of her head while making a wry smile.


    Theo patted their shoulders and said, "Anyway, I''m d that you two are alright. You don''t have a hard time, right?"


    "Yes. Everything is smooth. We have to thank them for providing us with a peaceful environment." Ryo nodded, taking a nce at the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint.


    Theo nodded and walked to the Heavenly Sovereign. "Thank you for protecting Agata, Ergene, and Ryo."


    The Heavenly Sovereign shook his hand and smiled. "It''s just a small matter. But still, looking at you right now�� I''m afraid you have reached thest step."


    "Yeah." Theo smiled. "Although I''m still trying to get used to my power, I have truly reached the same realm as yours."


    "Hahaha, Congrattions!" The Heavenly Sovereignughed while Zhao Jia was stunned, realizing Theo had be the youngest top ten expert in the world.


    "Thank you."


    "Come,e. Let''s have a spar. You want to get used to your power, right? There''s nothing better other than a spar." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked before he heard Zhao Jia coughing once as if reminding him of his ce.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign had a wry smile on his face and said, "Well, I guess we can''t do that."


    "Haha." Theo chuckled.


    "Still, what do you have to say about that battle? How dare you imitate my power��" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, reminding Theo about his power back in the battle.


    With Skylinks, it was easy to record the battle. Of course, there were also other people that wanted to spread Theo''s prowess in this battle as well as prove his innocence.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was dumbstruck to see Theo copying his ability. After all, this ability was only for him.


    "There''s nothing to say. Well, what do you expect me to say?" Theo shrugged.


    "I guess there''s nothing." The Heavenly Sovereign clicked. "But you shouldn''t mind if we have another game of chess, right?"


    "Of course." Theo nodded and turned to Agata. "Actually, we''re going to stay here for a week."


    "I understand. I can finish the rest of my work within a week and leave my position." Agata waved her hand as if telling him that everything was under control. "Also, are you serious about that one?"


    "Of course. I''m sure that there are many people who have prepared it already, right?" Theo turned to the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "Haha. I have at least seventy A Rank Skill Cards. So, an S Rank Skill for me and Zhao Jia. You can get the rest of the cards."


    "Yep. It shouldn''t be a problem. Help me handle the other people as well."


    The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at the Sword Saint. "That''s his job. Oi, Ken. How long are you nning to hug your daughter?"


    "Forever. I''m afraid I can''t hug her anymore since Theo has stolen her from me."


    "Then, let your daughter and my Jia Jia exchange positions."


    "Go away." The Sword Saint snorted.


    The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. "Anyway, we shouldn''t be here for too long. Let''s go back to talking a bit morefortably. We''ll also release the information about your appearance as well as your ability."


    "Got it. I''ll leave the rest to you. Also, those four are on me." Theo pointed at the employees standing in front of the airnes. They didn''t dare to go past them, considering the background of the peopleing here.


    "Don''t worry. Everything will be taken care of." The Heavenly Sovereignughed and turned around. "Alright. Let''s go back. The car is outside."


    Theo nodded as Agata hugged his arm, walking together with him.

 Chapter 1603 The Heavenly Soveriegns Vision

    Chapter 1603 The Heavenly Soveriegn''s Vision


    "Theodore Griffith is opening the service to upgrade one''s skill for a week."


    "Theodore Griffith is actually Richard from the union?"


    "Because he couldn''t show himself due to him being targeted, he became Richard and wanted to help the union?"


    "The union killed Richard, who wanted to help them?"


    "How many times has the union tried to kill Theodore Griffith?"


    There were many news and conspiracy theories appearing as soon as the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint announced this service.


    ''To repay United Asia''s kindness for protecting his fiancee, Theo was nning to increase the power of this base as a whole.''


    This was the deration that stunned United Asia. There were a lot of people who immediately inquired about this news, causing a global sensation.


    This information created chaos in the union as well as the British Royal Family.


    "This is��" The prince furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting Richard to be Theo''s clone. He felt betrayed because he thought of Richard as his own family.


    At the same time, he could understand Theo''s thoughts a bit. On the one hand, Theodore Griffith was the target of the Griffith Family. He couldn''t show himself in the open, yet, he still did it in the form of Richard to help the union.


    On the other hand, Theo had to create a persona and lie about his real identity, causing them to feel betrayed. Still, Theo didn''t do any harm to the royal family. In fact, he helped them stabilize their power in the union.


    Although the power bnce had changed with Flora being the sole leader and the War God Family bing the one controlling the development. The royal family had a significant power that wouldn''t lose to any other influences other than those two.


    In the end, the prince could only sigh and ept everything. Even the public believed that Theo just wanted to do something good, not to lie to the royal family, considering he ended up getting killed again by the Griffith Family.


    Meanwhile, Maya also announced that Theo would be nning to do the same for the US base at ater date. This created some expectations for the people, especially since they had time to gather Skill Cards.


    In the end, Theo was quite busy helping people. He was also well-received because he wasn''t supposed to help them.


    They might shelter Agata, but the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint were the ones doing it. Agata even helped the military in stabilizing and expanding after the apocalypse, so Theo truly owed nothing.


    That was why they considered this as Theo''s kindness and sang praises to his name. The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint also received their own share of benefits.


    Agata was helping Theo in managing the excited people while Ryo and Ergene became his bodyguards. They weren''t protecting Theo, of course, since Theo was far stronger than anyone that came to receive his help. They were protecting the people from Theo.


    The one who got troubled by Theo''s arrival was actually the Heavenly Sovereign, considering Agata was ready to step down from her position.


    Zhao Jia had been keeping the Heavenly Sovereign in check, ensuring he wasn''t cking.


    While signing the documents, Zhao Jia couldn''t help but ask, "Can I ask you something?"


    "Mhm? What is it?" The Heavenly Sovereign nced at her, obviously wanting to talk instead of working.


    Zhao Jia hesitated for a moment. "How much do you know about this?"


    "Which one are you talking about? Theo''s arrival? His ability? Or��"


    "Everything."


    "Hmm�� This is the first time I''ve heard Theo has this ability. So, a few days ago, when he asked me to prepare for Skill Cards? Other than that, I don''t think I know anything about his thoughts. That man is truly unpredictable, and I don''t like specting about him at all, knowing I might make a huge blunder from the conclusion.


    "Instead of predicting what he''s going to do, it''s better if you prepare everything, hoping that what you prepare might work against him�� Well, that is if you are his enemy." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged.


    "You have a high opinion of him from the start."


    "I do. There is no way someone that young could achieve all this without a unique power. No, I should have known he has this ability, considering he always summons his clone that keeps improving�� Jeez, this guy." The Heavenly Sovereign shook his head helplessly.


    Zhao Jia stared at him for a moment before going back to work.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled, looking at Zhao Jia. He had already grown ustomed to this side of her to the point he considered it as her cute side.


    Even though Zhao Jia looked like she was sulking, she was actually improving herself from all that information. That was why if he passed away in the future, he didn''t mind, knowing Zhao Jia would take his mantle.


    The Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes for a moment while muttering, "Thend, the sky, and the sea�� The battle between the three of them is currently at a stalemate.


    "No one knows the oue of this battle. One wrong move might cause the entire to be destroyed.


    "That''s why this world needs a savior. Despite being imed by people, the throne of the sea and thend are still empty while the sky has found its sessor. If thend and the sea can''t find their kings soon, humanity will be destroyed."


    Zhao Jia paused for a moment. The Heavenly Sovereign often spoke nonsense that no one could understand. But he wasn''t someone who said a meaningless thing.


    There was a reason why he stated it, and that story gave a lot of information. Zhao Jia furrowed her eyebrows, trying to understand his words.


    Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereign scratched the back of his head and said, "I''m nothing in this grand scheme. It''s just�� I don''t like being useless, so Zhao Jia�� Remember this one thing. If something happens to me, don''t ever think about having revenge. Even if you use the rest of your lifespan, you won''t be able to do anything. Even I still can''t see how high I have to climb��


    "Just bury me in that peak so that I can watch over you in my favorite position." The Heavenly Sovereign smiled before going back to work.

 Chapter ?1604 Challenge

    ?1604 Challenge


    In the Nagasawa Family''s mansion, Rea was swinging her sword.


    "Ha!"


    "Ha!"


    "Ha!"


    She was relieved from her duty for a while since Agata was the one helping Theo at the moment. But now that she didn''t have anything to do, she didn''t know how to spend her time.


    She had been too busy in the past few years since there was a lot to learn as Theo''s assistant.


    In the end, she practiced her swing in the backyard.


    She had been doing this for a while as the sweat had covered her back. She looked a bit tired, but her focus remained the same.


    Suddenly, a gentle voice echoed in her ears.


    "You have free time after so long, why do you keep swinging your sword? Don''t you know it''s better to have a rest between practice?"


    Rea nced at her father and said, "I know."


    "Why don''t you spend some more time with your father here? Where should we go? Do you want to go shopping or do you want to visit somewhere for a vacation?"


    "That''s certainly tempting, but my body feels restless. It might be because I have finally stopped doing my job, but��" Rea had a hard time exining how she felt right now.


    "Maybe I shouldin to him for overworking my daughter." The Sword Saint smirked.


    "No, I don''t really mind that. Although I feel bad for saying this, I feel like learning more when working with him than when I''m helping this family.


    "I might be busierpared to helping this family or my brother, but it feels like I''m just doing the same thing over and over again. The challenge iscking. Ah, I don''t mean to say that it''spletely useless to learn from the family''s business��"


    "I can understand that. I mean, that''s how Agata is right now. So, I can understand if you feel the same way." The Sword Saint sighed. "Still, you should get some rest."


    "Rest, huh��" Rea fell silent for a moment, remembering what Theo had said back then. She turned to her father and said with a serious expression, pointing her sword to her own father. "Father, do you have time?"


    "!!!" The Sword Saint was startled. Although he often taught his children during his free time, this might be the first time his child actually challenged him.


    When he saw Rea''s expression, he could feel her determination in this challenge as if wanting him not to hold back in this fight.


    "It seems that Theo doesn''t only teach my daughter how to get stronger but also makes her a bit more confident. However, the rule is the same. You should know that."


    Rea closed her eyes for a moment, recalling what her father had taught her and her brother twenty years ago.


    Back then, he picked up a twig on the ground and said, "Sojuro, Rea. Your father is going to spar with you from time to time to check your progress. I''m fighting you with this twig right now instead of a sword. You might think it disrespectful, but if you want my respect and you want me to fight you with a sword, you have to show your worth. Destroy this twig."


    It was a challenge from their father. Of course, the Sword Saint enveloped the twig with his power, making it unbreakable for their past selves.


    But this time, Rea was ready. She took a deep breath and raised her sword, "I hope that Father doesn''t treat me like a kid anymore. I''m going with the intention to win this time."


    The Sword Saint smiled, took off his tuxedo, and unbuttoned his shirt to make himself morefortable in a fight.


    He then walked to the backyard, distancing themselves a bit from the mansion to avoid destroying it.


    Rea also followed him while maintaining her serious expression.


    As soon as they reached the ideal position, they stood in front of each other.


    Rea took a deep breath while releasing her Magic Power.


    "��" The Sword Saint couldn''t help but smile as soon as he saw her Magic Power. Her daughter had truly grown so much in the past few years. That was why he also released his Magic Power, trying to shake the stability of her Magic Power.


    The sh of their Magic Power raised the tension as Rea raised her sword, making the first move.


    She swung her sword diagonally, sending forth an eagle.


    The Sword Saint easily destroyed the eagle with a single wave of his stick. But the eagle was actually big enough to cover the Sword Saint''s vision, allowing Rea to appear right behind the eagle.


    "Ha!" Rea shouted while shing downwards. Her sword was covered in blue light as her swing became faster.


    *Cling!*


    *Cling!*


    Surprisingly, there were two sounds produced from their sh. This was Rea''s new ability. Now that this skill had reached A Rank due to Theo''s improvement, Rea could release two swings at the same time.


    However, her father seemed to have seen through this skill and blocked it.


    Rea didn''t give up because the sword released a snake at thest moment. The snake entered the ground and tried to bite the Sword Saint''s foot.


    Obviously, this little action couldn''t escape the Sword Saint''s eyes. He stomped the ground right at the moment when the snake''s head came out of the ground, crushing the snake.


    "��" Rea jumped back to gain some distance, but the Sword Saint followed her. This time, he struck her sword with the twig.


    "Kh." Rea gritted her teeth as the swing almost blew her sword away. It was truly powerful, but at the same time, Rea felt a bit proud, knowing that her father didn''t hold back in their fight.


    Rea used the force from the swing tounch herself into the sky.


    However, this was a mistake because her father raised his stick, aiming at her.


    "You shouldn''t go to a position where you''re at a disadvantage." The Sword Saint said while shing downwards, releasing a blue crescent-shaped sword wave.


    Rea smiled, showing that she wasn''t who she used to be. A pair of wings appeared behind her. It didn''t allow her to fly because she wasn''t Theo or had the ability of a flying creature, but the shape of the wings allowed her to maneuver in the air, avoiding the sword strike.


    "Hoh?"

 Chapter 1605 Swordsman

    1605 Swordsman


    "Hoh?"


    The Sword Saint was impressed, seeing his daughter manage to avoid it without getting into trouble.


    She effortlesslynded on the ground and summoned a tiger from her sword.


    The tiger wasn''t a normal animal like the previous two summoned creatures. This tiger was the white tiger.


    *Roar!*


    "Go, Byakko!" Rea shouted, controlling the tiger to move forward.


    The Sword Saint maintained his calm, preparing to take down this tiger in a single sh. But before the tiger reached him, the tiger actually opened its mouth, gathering its energy in its stomach.


    The tiger''s body became translucent as if the energy actually came from the Magic Power used to summon it.


    "Go." Rea smiled as she shot a whiteser from the tiger''s mouth.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint was surprised that Rea could be this creative with this one. He thought Rea would only use her beast''s physical ability to restrain her. Even Sojuro said the same thing when helping her in Thernd.


    "It seems that you''ve grown more than I expected." The Sword Saint smirked and swung his stick.


    Suddenly, the whiteser was split into six, dispersing it to the area. However, behind thatser was the translucent tiger, using thest bit of its Magic Power to pounce on him.


    *Roar!*


    The tiger opened its mouth, trying to bite the Sword Saint''s neck. The Sword Saint kicked the tiger''s stomach, stopping its momentum before shing the tiger. "Impressive, to think that you will use the tiger to��"


    The Sword Saint paused for a moment and spun his body, raising his stick at his neck to block Rea''s swing. "��distract me."


    That was right. The tiger''s overwhelming power was only a distraction. She knew the tiger wouldn''t be enough to break through her father''s defense, so she thought about tricking him into thinking that the tiger was the main attack. At the same time, sheunched a sneak attack from behind.


    Unfortunately, the Sword Saint was far stronger than that. A sneak attack like this wouldn''t work against him.


    "I guess this is Theo''s influence. Although it''s a bit different from the swordsmanship I''ve taught you, I guess your movement is more unpredictable when using this kind of style. Impressive, Rea." The Sword Saint smiled while pushing her back.


    Rea leaped back while trying to find another path to attack him. At the same time, she replied, "Thank you for yourpliment, Father."


    Rea smirked and kept shing with her father as if she wanted to learn something. The Sword Saint didn''t feel it at first, but he remembered Rea actually used only an animal against him at first as if she was trying something.


    "Mhm? It seems that you have so much leeway for using me as your sandbag." The Sword Saint smirked, teasing her.


    "Theo said I will be able to get an answer if I spar with you."


    "Is that so?" The Sword Saint smirked. "Did he say anything else?"


    "He only said thest step was for me to answer. Even if you are my father, I shouldn''t listen to you."


    The Sword Saint smiled. "Alright. I understand. Use me however you like, but don''t forget that�� you''re fighting me right now!"


    The Sword Saint suddenly released all his Magic Power, pressuring her.


    "!!!" This increase in Magic Power rmed everyone in the house, including Rea.


    "Ah�� I apologize." Rea realized she was in the wrong. "I forgot for a moment that I''m fighting the Sword Saint, not my father."


    The Sword Saint smiled, knowing that they could restart the fight.


    But Rea noticed something. "Wait, Sword Saint�� Sword?"


    "��" Rea suddenly stopped and straightened her back, looking at her father as if noticing something.


    The Sword Saint was dumbfounded by this sudden change, thinking Rea wanted to stop the match. "What''s wrong?"


    "Father. What am I to you?" Rea abruptly asked a question like this.


    "Why do you ask this now? Are you trying to distract me?" The Sword Saint nonchntly replied before he felt something different from Rea''s expression.


    He hesitated a bit before answering, "You are my daughter. I love you so much that I don''t mind dying as long as I can protect you."


    Rea closed her eyes for a moment as if she was in deep thought. Her next question became even more ridiculous. "Then, what is the sword to you?"


    "Huh?" The Sword Saint was baffled. He opened his mouth, wanting to tell her something, but the words stuck in his throat.


    Rea''s expression was begging him to answer this question honestly no matter how harsh it was for her.


    To respect her will, the Sword Saint gave an honest answer. "The sword is everything to me."


    The answer was clear. It seemed the Sword Saint put the sword above her or even the entire family. It was practically his existence.


    "Everything huh��" Rea wasn''t disappointed by the answer. Instead, she felt a bit relieved as if she had gained something precious.


    She closed her eyes for a moment and smiled. "So, that''s how it is��"


    ''Everything�� What is everything to me? What''s the thing that can describe me? That''s what Theo wants me to answer this whole time. I think I can understand it�� I might be a Magic Warrior or a Summoner. But before anything else, I pick up the sword because I always admire my father and his sword�� that''s right. Before a Magic Warrior or a Summoner, I was just a simple swordsman.


    ''My summoned creatures or all my skills are just means for me to advance my swordsmanship. That''s why I should go back to the sword and use everything to increase my ability as a swordsman��''


    Rea took a deep breath as the Magic Power around her body had begun to change.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint was startled due to this sudden change but didn''t say anything, allowing his daughter to finish it.


    Suddenly, nine fox tails appeared on her back. Her eyes became sharper as if they had turned into fox eyes. There were another pair of earsing on top of her head.


    "I am a swordsman, and my means are a part of me." Rea raised her sword once again and looked at her father. "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Nine-Tailed Fox Form."

 Chapter 1606 Changing Form

    1606 Changing Form


    "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Nine-Tailed Fox Form."


    "!!!" The Sword Saint widened his eyes, staring at his daughter. The aura from her body changed as if she had turned into someone else. "This is��"


    Before the Sword Saint could figure out her change, Rea leaped forth while swinging her sword.


    The Sword Saint didn''t see anything from this sword, so he only raised his twig to block it.


    However, the Sword Saint felt danger right before the sword hit, forcing him to duck.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint lowered his head and body as he saw the swords release a ck aura that turned into a w. If he didn''t lower his body, this w would hit him.


    Rea didn''t give up on hitting him. She truly wanted to deal some damage to her father for the first time, so she spun her body, pointing her tail at her father.


    The Sword Saint jumped back as the tails suddenly expanded and turned into spikes, almost piercing her.


    Still, this might be the first time the Sword Saint jumped back like this when he fought her.


    Rea wasn''t satisfied yet, so she hurriedly spun her body and released a sword strike.


    The Sword Saint confidently smashed this sword strike, and surprisingly, nothing happened unlike the previous attacks.


    "��" Rea maintained her silence while staring at her father. She knew the gap between them, but this wasn''t all her ability.


    ''Represent.'' Rea muttered inwardly while swinging her sword.


    Instead of a sword strike, Rea actually summoned another nine-tailed fox.


    *Aooo!*


    ''This is different from her usual ability.'' The Sword Saint furrowed his eyebrows. Normally, her summoning creatures would be lifeless and they had no will other than following Rea''s control.


    However, the Sword Saint could feel the gaze of this fox as if it had a soul in it.


    "This is��" The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath. It wasn''t supposed to happen, considering Rea wasn''t a summoner. But he couldn''t deny the fact he was feeling the ferocity and killing intent of the fox.


    "What is this?" The Sword Saint took a step back while raising his twig, trying to cut it down.


    However, the nine-tailed fox, whose body was five times that of a human, suddenly shrunk into the size of a cat. After that, the fox leaped forward while gathering the energy in its mouth.


    But before the Sword Saint could destroy this fox, the energy gathered by the fox suddenly flowed to Rea''s sword.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint hurriedly turned his body around, realizing Rea had disappeared from her position. ''She''s be faster?''


    The Sword Saint struck the de that almost hit his neck, but surprisingly, the de swiftly maneuvered as if it was using the bounce from the stick to move to another ce.


    *Cling!*


    *Cling!*


    *Cling!*


    In an instant, three clicking sounds echoed, impressing the Sword Saint even more.


    ''This is��'' The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath and recalled what had happened earlier. ''The de actually hit me three times? Her current speed is three times�� Yeah, I think she is three times faster.''


    The Sword Saint tried to measure the change while Rea kept attacking the Sword Saint, shing their swords a hundred times in less than thirty seconds.


    "Kh." Rea clicked her tongue and jumped back, regaining some distance from her father. She thought she would be able to surprise him this time, but as expected from the third strongest person in the world, the Sword Saint.


    "You''ve grown quite strong, Rea." The Sword Saint smirked. Even he had to be serious for a moment to stop all those strikes, so normal people might be heavily injured when fighting at that speed. "But you are wrong about something��"


    The Sword Saint suddenly disappeared.


    "!!!" Rea hurriedly turned to the right and raised her sword as the Sword Saint appeared before them, striking her sword. The power was so strong that itunched her thirty feet away. "Kh."


    "Your speed is quite good at that level, but you haven''t fully mastered this ability yet. I think you can go faster once you''ve gotten used to this ability. Also, that sense�� It seems that you''re able to sense my presence."


    Rea took a deep breath while feeling numb in her hands.


    ''As expected, my father is a monster.'' She gritted her teeth. What the Sword Saint said wasn''t entirely right. This battle armor has been created from all the lessons she''s got from Theo and her father.


    She had been thinking about the word ''represent'' after the lesson from Theo. She wondered what kind of thing she could represent, considering she had been impersonating a Magic Warrior and a Summoner this whole time.


    But when she heard what her father said about the sword, she realized that the ability actually represented everything. Every attribute in the former system, every aspect, and every characteristic.


    This Nine-Tailed Fox Form represented her Agility Status, allowing her to be faster. It also contained her Awareness. Although it wasn''t something she mastered, she managed to recreate the Awareness a bit with the help of the characteristic of a wolf.


    The ears turned into an antenna to read the flow of Magic Power and her brain predicted what her father would do in this situation, thus the reason for her being able to keep up with her father''s speed.


    Yet, it seemed she couldn''t defeat her father with only this.


    "Still, I can see that Sojuro might have a hard time winning against you." The Sword Saint smiled, proud of his child''s achievement.


    "I''m sorry, Father. The person I chase after is not you or Brother anymore. It''s my teacher. That''s why�� Please don''t insult me any longer. I won''t lose to anyone in my peers, even if it''s my brother!" Rea red at her father. She had broken off her shell and didn''t walk in her brother''s shadow anymore.


    This was the deration to her father that she was Nagasawa Rea, not the daughter in the Nagasawa Household.


    "Is that so? I apologize then. But you need to have the skill to back it up!" The Sword Saint disappeared once again to strike Rea from the back. This time, he would be using all his power tounch her into the wall.


    Rea turned around like previously as if nning to receive her father''s attack. But before the swordnded on her, the transformation disappeared before a clicking sound echoed in the garden.


    *Cling!*


    "!!!" The Sword Saint was astonished because Rea didn''t even take a step back and the clicking sound came from the shield on her left hand.


    Rea smiled. "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Genbu Form."

 Chapter ?1607 Full Strength

    ?1607 Full Strength


    This Genbu represented her Endurance for both Attribute and Five Aspects. That was why she managed to receive her father''s attack without flinching.


    And the Sword Saint became even more surprised when he noticed the slight crack on the stick. Although it was minuscule, it was clear that Rea gradually stepped into the realm where he had to take her seriously.


    Rea took advantage of the shock to swing her sword.


    The Sword Saint was forced back because he saw her sword transforming into a snake, almost biting him.


    "��" The Sword Saint nced at his clothes. Although he managed to avoid it, he realized that his sleeve was grazed a bit.


    Rea smirked and charged forward with the shield in front of her. Now that there was a distance between them, the Sword Saint could finally notice the pattern on the shield.


    As the name implied, the shield was actually the turtle shell from Genbu. She concentrated a huge amount of Magic Power into this shield to make sure it didn''t get pierced by anyone.


    Luckily, her father had yet to use his strongest attack, which could sh everything or she would have lost immediately.


    She used this opportunity to close the distance between them and rammed him with the shield.


    The Sword Saint took on the challenge head-on. He pointed his stick at the shield and used all his strength to stop her charge.


    *Bang!*


    "Kh." Rea gritted her teeth while staring at the stick. ''It couldn''t break it?''


    "Impressive. The strength is different from the previous one. It seems that your ability can improve your physical abilities or something." The Sword Saint smirked, analyzing her strength.


    Rea didn''t want to talk about her secret, so she shouted while waving her sword. "Haaaa!"


    The Magic Power around the sword extended it before turning into a snake. The snake looped around the shield before going back to the Sword Saint.


    Since he had seen through this ability, the Sword Saint used his left hand to grab the snake before cutting it into pieces with his hand as if that hand was formed by thousands of knives.


    "What?" Rea was shocked that her ability was easily destroyed just like that.


    "It seems I have to apologize to you, Rea." The Sword Saint smiled. "I was concerned about your progress this time and didn''t realize I was the cause of why you werecking in the development. If only I knew that you could grow stronger by learning from Theo, I would have done it much sooner instead of putting you in misery by making you grow the inferiorityplex."


    "There''s no need for you to apologize to me, Father. Instead, I should be the one thanking you for allowing me the opportunity to learn from him!" Rea smirked and tilted her shield to the side, letting the stick slide on her shield.


    This way, she managed to close in and thrust her sword.


    "Is that so? Then, I''ll give you onest lesson." The Sword Saint smiled. "I''ll show you the reason people are scared of me!"


    Suddenly, the Sword Saint turned his wrist around and stabbed the shield, shattering it.


    "!!!" Rea was startled and instinctively ducked down as the stick almost hit her head. When she raised her head, she saw her father''s foot directly in front of her.


    She managed to react at thest second, putting the broken shield in front of her to block the kick. However, the force from the kickunched her into the wall.


    *Bam!*


    Luckily, Rea was using the Genbu Battle Armor, so her defense increased drastically, allowing her to have no injury after that attack.


    "There is no reason for me to listen to you, Father. My teacher has told me specifically to not listen to anything you have to say." Rea provoked him with a sly smile as if trying to frustrate him.


    But the Sword Saint simply said, "That''s why I''m not going to say anything. He didn''t tell you topletely ignore me, only my words."


    "��" Rea never expected that her father would counter that argument with such a reason. Still, Theo never mentioned it, so her father wasn''t wrong either. "You are right. Then, I thank you for your guidance in advance."


    The Sword Saint smirked as he leaped forward.


    Rea also did the same. Since the shield had broken, she decided to let it go before changing to another transformation.


    Rea took a deep breath as a pair of red horns appeared on her head. Her hands also had a tinge of red that started spreading.


    When she struck her father''s stick, she roared. "Haaaa!"


    *Bam!*


    The collision between the stick and the sword caused a shock wave. None of them was giving up. Even Rea released all of her power in this swing while screaming to raise her own morale.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint noticed the power from the horns.


    "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Oni Form!"


    She released all her strength in one moment as she raised her sword, finally knocking her father''s stick up.


    The Sword Saint smiled excitedly because this raw strength actually surpassed him. If she had mastered this power before fighting him, that strike alone might knock the stick off his hands. Luckily, her power was stillcking, resulting in her not being able to utilize this form''s full power.


    Even so, Rea wasn''t sad about it. In fact, she felt proud that she managed to overpower her father for the first time. She smiled while waving her sword down.


    The Sword Saint used both hands to raise the stick, blocking the sword.


    *Bam!*


    In an instant, the ground turned into craters, cracking here and there. The people in the house would think there was an earthquake that struck their area, even though it was actually Rea''s raw strength.


    *Crack!*


    "!!!" The Sword Saint noticed that the crack on his stick had berger. If this continued, Rea might be able to destroy it.


    ''This Oni Form represents my Strength Attribute and Breathing. My Breathing Technique allows me to release an explosive power at once, which improves my strength attribute! That''s why I''m going to make you take me seriously with this, Father!'' Rea shouted inwardly while exerting all her strength to destroy the stick.


    "Haaa!"

 Chapter 1608 New Queen

    1608 New Queen


    *Crack!*


    The Sword Saint became even more excited as her sword ultimately cut the twig into two.


    In that instant, the Sword Saint let go of the twig and caught her sword with both hands, stopping it.


    "You are good, truly good!" The Sword Saint excitedly praised his daughter. She truly went beyond his imagination. Each form was different, and she seemed to be able to exert their power to a great degree.


    After catching her sword, he twisted his body to the side, disrupting his daughter''s bnce.


    Rea had no choice but to take a step back, pulling her sword out of her father''s palms.


    She regained some distance from him while staring at him as if reminding him of something.


    "Don''t worry. I will fulfill my promise." The Sword Saint smirked and disappeared for five seconds before he returned with a ck sword.


    Rea recognized her father''s de, meaning he would be taking her seriously from now on.


    However, Rea had a problem. She had been sweating like crazy as her Magic Power was leaving her body at a rapid rate.


    "Because you haven''t mastered that technique, it took a huge toll on your body. I guess you won''t be able to fight for a long time. That''s why I''m going to end this fight in a single swing. I hope you''re ready, Rea."


    Rea took a deep breath and released her transformation. There was onest thing that might be able to keep up with her father. And this was probably what she needed in thisst sh.


    After calming her heart down, a pair of orange dragon horns appeared on her forehead. The dragon scales began to cover her cheek, arms, body, and legs. Her eyes became sharp as her body was excluding a huge amount of vitality.


    When she raised her sword, an aura began to gather around her body, turning into a dragon.


    "Thank you for taking me seriously, Father." Rea thanked him first, knowing she might not be able to do itter.


    The Sword Saint smiled. His left hand held the scabbard while the other hand was on the handle. He slightly lowered his body, preparing to draw his de. "You have earned that, Rea. Be proud of yourself."


    Rea smiled and finally released all her Magic Power into this attack. "In that case, I won''t hold back. Here I go!"


    "Come!"


    Rea jumped forward while keeping her de in front of her. After closing the distance, she raised her sword on top of her head.


    Her eyes shed as the dragon expanded. For just one moment, she became the dragon itself.


    The Sword Saint''s body even trembled for a split second after hearing the roar from the dragon.


    "Dragon Sword Style, Thunderous Roar!"


    *Roar!*


    The dragon roared one more time as Rea passed her father while swinging her de as the dragon swallowed her father.


    *Ding...* What felt like a sound of a droplet falling into the water rang in her ears.


    "!!!"


    The gap between them was still too far. In a split second, Rea could actually feel many things.


    Right before she reached his position, the Sword Saint actually rotated his sword so that he would hit her with the back of his sword.


    And right after that, he drew the sword and cut through her. The movement was so smooth that she felt like her world suddenly darkened as she was running on top of the water. The world was cold and serene to the point she could hear the sound of the falling droplet.


    It was also at that instance her father''s sword struck her body, cutting everything. The dragon perished, the scale was broken, and her body went numb.


    The Sword Saint took a deep breath while smiling. "My daughter is truly amazing... Your power can be said to reach the realm of absolute."


    As he sheathed back his sword, he closed his eyes with a blissful expression as his right sleeve was cut cleanly.


    This was an achievement that no one had ever got before. Rea, who hadn''t even be a Queen, managed to break the defense of the third strongest person in the world, the Sword Saint. Although it wasn''t able to injure him, the result was still extraordinary.


    "Thank you for yourst guidance, Father. I''ve learned a l--Gah!" She spat a mouthful of blood as she fell unconscious.


    Of course, the Sword Saint wouldn''t allow her to fall to the ground as he immediately appeared next to her to catch her.


    But before she fell into his embrace, her body was enveloped by blue light.


    "!!!" The Sword Saint widened his eyes in shock because his daughter started floating in the air as if she was receiving baptism from the world.


    "Ahaha... Ahaha..." The Sword Saint wanted tough, but his smile was simply too big for him to let out a sound.


    What he was witnessing right now was the eptance and baptism from the world, recognizing his daughter, Rea, as a Queen.


    But there was something different from this baptism. A White Magic Power started appearing from her body as if it was trying to meet with this blue Magic Power and live in harmony.


    The two different Magic Powers moved to the back of her left hand, both creating half circle.


    "This is... not a circle, it''s two half moons. I don''t know what kind of Order my daughter has received, but I think I can understand a bit..." The Sword Saint smiled. "Two half moon... They represent her actual self and her battle form.


    "The Nine-Tailed Fox, the Genbu, the Oni, and the Dragon... These half moon might be representing that she is now half human half yokai." The Sword Saint raised his hands.


    As soon as Rea finished the baptism, her body fell down to his arms.


    With a smile on his face, the Sword Saint turned around and started walking to the mansion to let her get some rest whilepleting the process. Of course, he didn''t forget to say, "Congrattions, Rea. I''m proud of you."

 Chapter 1609 Childhood

    1609 Childhood


    Theo was ranking up people''s skills as usual before he suddenly felt a sudden change in his Friend Seal.


    He abruptly stopped and turned around, looking at the sky through the window.


    "What''s wrong?" Ryo asked, not knowing what was happening for Theo to suddenly stop.


    Theo smiled while closing his eyes. "Nothing much. It''s just one good piece of news."


    "I see." Ryo nodded and stepped back, allowing Theo to return to his job.


    ��


    On the other hand, the Sword Saint was overjoyed by his daughter''s achievement. He never expected the first one to have an Order to be his daughter, not his son.


    In the past, the Sword Saint believed Sojuro would be the one to be an Authority after him.


    Although Rea had shown her talent as well, it wasn''t in the ce where she could be a good fighter.


    Yet, Theo changed everything when he began teaching Rea.


    While putting down his daughter on her bed, the Sword Saint sighed and closed his eyes, recounting all the memories of her.


    ��


    Twenty years ago.


    "Haa!"


    "Haa!"


    The eleven years old Rea was swinging her bamboo sword in the backyard.


    "Ouch." She suddenly dropped her sword to the ground before looking at her palms. Unlike a normal eleven years old girl, her palms were covered with blisters. Even others would be weird out by her palms.


    "It doesn''t bleed��" She assessed her palm before reaching for her sword. After knowing there was nothing wrong with her hands, she started swinging her sword again.


    Little did she know, the Sword Saint was actually watching her from afar.


    Even he didn''t know why Rea was working this hard. Ultimately, his curiosity got the best of him as he walked to her and asked, "You haven''t finished your training?"


    "Ah?!" Rea was startled and turned around, seeing her father approaching her. "Honorable Father! I apologize. I''ll finish my training as soon as possible."


    "I have said this before, but training too much will just put a strain on your body. You have to know when to take a rest." The Sword Saint nced at her hands filled with blisters.


    "I know. That''s why I have made my schedules like this: eight hours of sleep, two hours of learning about school materials, and five hours of studying other things. Thatst one hour is thebination of eating and taking a shower. While studying, I can get some rest, and the sleep should also be good for my body."


    "Ugh." The Sword Saint was speechless. "How about ying outside? Your brother has finished his training and gone outside, you know."


    Rea shook her head. "Honorable Father. I know I''m not as talented as my brother. That''s why I''m going to work harder than him. Of course, I know my limit too, so I won''t go beyond my physical training.


    "As much as I want to train longer, I can''t make Father lose face as well. If I don''t have enough sleep, my body can''t develop as it should. And if I can''t take care of my face, I''ll be a stain in our family''s honor.


    "That''s why I''ll make sure that I can be beautiful, strong, and knowledgeable."


    "You��" The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath. This eleven years old daughter was so mature and thoughtful, making him a bit embarrassed.


    "Still, don''t you need people to converse with? If you''re like this, you''ll end up alone, you know."


    "Don''t worry, Honorable Father. Isn''t Brother doing exactly that?"


    "!!!" The Sword Saint''s body shook a bit, realizing what she meant. Rea considered Sojuro ''ying around'' as a way to improve connection. It was true that Sojuro would have a hard time ying together with a normal kid. All his friends came from the upper circle, so it could be called a connection.


    And Rea seemed to be nning to use that to her advantage in getting connections.


    At the same time, she didn''t spend any time on it for the time being to improve herself as a whole. The study time was the same as the physical training time, allowing her to research many things.


    This was beyond what a normal eleven years old kid could do.


    Rea seemed to have prepared an answer for every concern he had, making him unable to stop her from practicing.


    Of course, he never thought about marrying Rea away or treating her as a political tool. He just wanted his daughter to live the way she liked.


    Meanwhile, Rea adored her father and her brother so much, wanting to improve herself even if it meant sacrificing her time. She wanted to stand beside them.


    That was why she had been working this hard for quite a while.


    However, the reality wasn''t that kind.


    One yearter.


    *Kacha!*


    The bamboo sword dropped to the ground as Rea fell to her knees with her hands shaking.


    Sojuro was standing in front of her while looking at her with a weird expression. "I''m sorry, Rea. It seems I''ve used too much power."


    "Sojuro!" The Sword Saint immediately stopped him from talking that way. After all, his expression and his emotionless tone disregarded all her hard work. That was right. Her talent wasn''t enough to catch up to him. He might be training the same amount as her, but hecked the knowledge, information, and tactics Rea learned during the rest of her days.


    Yet, everything was shattered. The knowledge, hard work, and time she put into it were shattered into pieces by sheer talent.


    Upon realizing it, Rea gritted her teeth and grabbed her sword again before running away, crying.


    "Rea, wait!" The Sword Saint wanted to chase her, but he didn''t know what to do at the moment. He also wanted to berate Sojuro, but thetter never knew that his sister had been doing her best to catch up to him. Sojuro was also only twelve years old, so he didn''t have that sensitivity when talking.


    In the end, the Sword Saint chose to chase after her first to calm her down. However, it was futile because Rea ended up locking herself in her room, not wanting to meet anyone.

 Chapter ?1610 Untalented

    ?1610 Untalented


    "Rea��"


    "Rea��"


    "Rea��"


    The Sword Saint kept knocking on her door but to no avail. She never came out.


    Eventually, his wife stopped him to give Rea a bit more time to sort out her thoughts.


    His wife asked, "What''s wrong?"


    The Sword Saint clutched his head while telling the entire story.


    "�� I just want to be a good father to them. I want to support both of them in whatever they''re doing. But��" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn''t find a way to make Rea surpass her limit. Sojuro would just beat her again and again.


    "I know you have done your best, Dear. Rea is more talented in another ce, but you respect�� I respect her decision in wanting to be someone like you."


    They weren''t that far from her room, so Rea ended up listening to their conversation. She finally learned the hurdle that her father faced because of her.


    The tears that hadn''t stopped since earlier flowed even stronger. She bit her lips because she had made her parents suffer due to herck of talent.


    She fell right next to her bed while hitting the quilt again and again.


    "Why? Why am I so untalented?" She bit her lips. "Stronger. I need to be even stronger!"


    From that day onward, Rea swung her sword even harder. She shrank her sleeping time just to get more time to swing her sword.


    The Sword Saint couldn''t see Rea in the same way anymore. He never thought that loss actually caused harm to Rea''s body.


    A few months after that incident, he was walking down the hallway and caught sight of Rea swinging her de in her favorite spot.


    However, he found something he never thought would appear with Rea''s personality.


    A red droplet fell to the ground, coating the snow on her feet red. In fact, the snow had be quite red, showing it wasn''t the first droplet that had fallen from her hand.


    ''Blood?!'' The Sword Saint widened his eyes in shock. His heart felt like it was going to stop as he hurriedly came to her and caught her de.


    "Honorable Father?" Rea was startled with one of her eyes closing due to the pain. However, when the Sword Saint looked down to confirm the blood, Rea''s face became pale. "This�� This��"


    The Sword Saint forcefully opened her hand and took her de away, looking at the state of her hand.


    The cut was already quite deep.


    "Rea, you��"


    "This is nothing, Honorable Father. There''s no need for you to worry!"


    "No!" The Sword Saint didn''t even bother to listen to her anymore and immediately brought her to a doctor. In the end, he bought the most expensive medicine to heal her hands.


    "Father, this is��" Rea was dragged by her father into their mansion. ording to the path, her father would most likely lock her inside her room to force her to rest.


    "No, I won''t listen to you. Do you think I''ll let you injure yourself like that?" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, looking pained.


    Rea was also frustrated. She ended up shouting, "Father!"


    The Sword Saint''s body trembled, and he turned around, looking at Rea''s crying face.


    "Please�� Please let me continue training." Rea was begging her father to let her suffer, or that was what shed in the Sword Saint''s mind.


    But Rea even dropped to her knees while crying, "Please, Father�� I can''t stop training even a single day. Or else I can''t ever catch up to my brother anymore. I know that you care about me, but��


    "Do you know what people think about me? People consider me as your useless daughter. They said Big Brother is the most talented person they have seen, and he will lead the Nagasawa Family in the future.


    "That''s a fact I have epted for a long time. But what I can''t ept is that when they question my brother''s ability because I''m not as talented as him. They''re pitying me and treating me like a girl who will be married away someday.


    "I don''t want it! I want to be your pride as well. I want people to uphold our honor. That''s why please�� let me continue to practice�� let me continue chasing after my brother."


    The Sword Saint was speechless on that day. He could do nothing but let go of his daughter''s hand.


    Rea had been suffering this whole time. He had tried his best to help her, but the pressure of bing the daughter of the Sword Saint was simply too big.


    She was strong to begin with, so she faced that pressure head-on even if it meant destroying herself.


    But if he took that away from her by locking her in her room to let her rest, it would be the same as taking away her effort and determination.


    The Sword Saint couldn''t bear to do it.


    On the one hand, he was thankful and gratified to know his daughter thought this much for him. On the other hand, he didn''t want her to be destroyed by this pressure.


    In the end, the Sword Saint lowered his own pride and started searching for a tutor. He would bebeled by the world as a number one swordsman who couldn''t even teach someone to be a swordsman, but he didn''t care about it anymore.


    For his daughter, he lowered his head to others, asking them to be her tutor. He asked all kinds of tutors, no matter if they taught a sword or magic.


    As the Sword Saint, he knew that swordsmanship might be their foundation, but it didn''t mean they should only pursue this swordsmanship. They could use magic to strengthen the foundation too. So, he wanted to teach her all kinds of things, hoping that ability could improve her strength drastically.


    It took two years, and Rea finally went to high school. At that time, she met a ssmate that inspired her to summon a creature to aid her in battle.


    And that was the start of her Summoning Ability.

 Chapter 1611 Growth

    1611 Growth


    She started getting some advantages in the fight against her brother after creating this unique summoning ability.


    It was a surprise for them because Rea won against him for the first time. And this was the start of Rea''s counterattack.


    One win after another gave her a lot of confidence.


    Eventually, she came to her father, saying, "Honorable Father. Thank you for always supporting me. I ended up making you lower your head��"


    "Don''t say something like that. I can do everything for both of you�� You know what?" The Sword Saint showed his ck sword and said, "In the past, this sword was made to kill.


    "I kill all sorts of monsters and even people. Red blood, green blood, this sword has been stained by all the colors and finally reaches itsst color, ck.


    "There was only one purpose for this sword in the past. It''s to kill so that I can continue going upward. However, this sword has a second purpose after both of you were born��"


    The Sword Saint held his daughter''s hand tenderly. "After holding your tiny hand like this, it was the time I realized that my sword should be the sword to protect�� to protect the two of you.


    "I want both of you to grow up into a fine man and woman. This sword will protect you until the end of my life�� I want both of you to chase after your dream.


    "If I have to let go of this sword to allow you to fulfill your dream, I won''t hesitate to do it. That''s what I''ve learned from you. You''re not the only one who has grown, Rea. I have also grown as a father because of you. That''s why you don''t have to apologize to me. If you feel sorry, use it as your motivation to move forward because your father will always watch over you."


    Rea hugged her father as tight as possible, letting out all of her emotions. She was blessed to have this kind of father. "Thank you, Father."


    "Mhm." The Sword Saint smiled before adding, "I also hope that you won''t hold any grudge against Sojuro��"


    "You don''t have to worry because I never hate Big Brother. I know my ce. Even though I''m like this, I won''t be able to maintain my win for a long time. He is truly amazing��" Rea sighed. "I''ll continue supporting Big Brother.


    "I''ll make him fit enough to take your mantle, Father. I don''t know how long it will take, but I promise I''ll help my brother take the pressure off your shoulders. At that time, please let both of us take care of you�� You deserve to rest."


    "Is that so? I''m thankful."


    Just like Rea predicted, Sojuro practiced a bit harder, allowing him to close the gap between them within two months and start his winning streak again.


    Rea had known this would happen. But she made sure her presence was known and her words mattered since she didn''t want him to shame the Sword Saint''s reputation.


    This was the start of her image of being overbearing began to appear. Sojuro had grown up as well, respecting his sister.


    It didn''t take too long for them to be the twin stars of the Nagasawa Family. This time, both of them stood next to each other, making sure no one could look down on them.


    However, the Sword Saint always pitied Rea. Although she never realized it, the fact she epted her position reflected the inferiorityplex that had been ingrained in her heart.


    Her brother would take the Sword Saint''s mantle. Her brother would be able to do it. Her brother this, her brother that�� All of it proved his worry.


    The Sword Saint kept searching for a way to handle this inferiorityplex.


    And his wish was answered the moment he saw Theo, who was acting as Joker, appear in Japan.


    ''That''s right. Joker is trying to gather unique people from all over the world. If Rea can learn from them, Rea might be able to find another breakthrough like the one she had with her summoning ability.


    ''Still, threatening Joker, who is basically an apple in people''s eyes, might cause an international dispute��


    ''Whatever. I don''t care about it. As long as Rea can find a ce she belongs, I don''t mind sacrificing myself.'' The Sword Saint started threatening Theo to take in his daughter.


    His n came to fruition as her daughter could follow Theo from that point. She began to transform and gain more confidence after that.


    He was satisfied by the development, and when he found Joker was Theo, nothing was stopping him from letting him teach her anymore. After all, Agata became a sessful woman after bing his assistant.


    That was the beginning of Rea''s drastic growth. Her progress was always beyond his expectation, leaving nothing to be desired.


    And finally, in their battle earlier, he could remember her words clearly to the point her voice echoed in his mind.


    "Father, do you have time?"


    He never saw Rea this determined. She stood there proudly while pointing her sword at him, wanting to fight him as an individual instead of his daughter.


    She had truly broken off her shell. There was no word that could express how happy he was at that time.


    He fought her to the point he took her seriously and used his true power. Even Sojuro hadn''t pushed him to this point.


    Looking at her exhausted yet peaceful sleeping face made the Sword Saint feel gratified. "I should thank Theo for everything. My decision to ask him to take you in is probably the best decision I''ve ever made in my life. And now, you have be a Queen."


    While gently stroking his daughter''s hair, the Sword Saint made a sad smile, saying, "I''m sorry, Rea. If only I could be Theo in your life, you wouldn''t have to suffer in your childhood. I''m a bad father��


    "From now on, don''t think much about your father or family. Do whatever you want in the future. As long as it makes you happy, your father will support you from here."

 Chapter 1612 Return

    1612 Return


    A few dayster.


    Rea was having breakfast with his family. The mood was quite down because it was time for Rea to leave. Luckily, they weren''t in their previous base anymore, so Rea could call them any time.


    "You are leaving today, right?" The Sword Saint nced at Rea while observing her expression.


    "Yes."


    "In that case, follow me after this. There is something I want to give you."


    "I understand." Rea nodded, not knowing what he wanted to give. As soon as they had finished their meals, the Sword Saint brought her to his office.


    Rea was looking around to see what kind of special item her father could give her.


    Meanwhile, her father walked to the cupboard and took out something covered by purple cloth.


    "Mhm? A sword?" Rea narrowed her eyes.


    "I can''t give you my sword since I''ll pass it down to Sojuro, but I think you should get this sword," said the Sword Saint while taking out the sword. From a single nce, she could see theced purple handle and a ck scabbard. "Please take this��"


    "This sword��" Rea gently received the sword and slightly pulled it out to see the de. The design itself looked old and the color had faded a bit, but surprisingly, the de still looked sharp and clean as if it had been taken care of this whole time. "What is this sword?"


    "There was once a strong woman that dominated Japan with her sword. Her name was Akagawa Ryoko."


    "Akagawa Ryoko�� Wait, that name�� The Sword Queen?!" Rea widened her eyes, recognizing this name. It was a legend from a few generations ago, so there wasn''t much record about her. However, there was indeed a woman called the Sword Queen that dominated Japan at that time.


    Her name was Akagawa Ryoko. But there was another meaning to this name that shocked Rea. She looked at her father and said, "Father�� Isn''t this��"


    "Yes. That sword was my teacher''s sword."


    That was right. Akagawa Ryoko was special to the Nagasawa Family because she was the master of the current Sword Saint. It could be said the reason why the Sword Saint could exist right now was because of her.


    And the sword he gave Rea was her sword.


    "Since you haven''t known about this, I''ll tell you about one trick. You can actually turn a normal item into an artifact by letting your Magic Power coat that weapon for a long time.


    "I''ll let Theo handle your education about the seals, so ask him about the details. Nevertheless, that sword was an artifact. The Magic Power had subsided a little because I tried to preserve the body since I had to sacrifice the sword if I wanted the energy to remain.


    "So, that sword right now can be said as an artifact, but it''s not at the level of an artifact as well. Just call it a pseudo-artifact.


    "I can guarantee that the sword is sharp and the lingering energy, though small, it''s still ferocious. This will serve as good training for you, and you can turn this sword back into an artifact without taking as much time and effort.


    "I want to give you this sword." The Sword Saint smiled.


    "But Father, this sword is your teacher''s sword. It must have a special attachment to you." Rea wanted to reject it, but the Sword Saint shook his head.


    "A sword is meant to be used. A sword that can only be a decoration is not a sword. So, I want you to use this sword. Its length and sharpness are better than your current sword. I''ll be more assured if you wield this sword."


    Rea looked down. After her father said all that, it was hard for her to reject him again. At the same time, the sword looked powerful from the exnation alone and it had a history.


    It looked like her father wanted to protect her through this sword. Rejecting it would be the same as shaming her father.


    With a serious expression, Rea received this sword properly and bowed her head. "Thank you very much, Father."


    The Sword Saint patted Rea''s shoulder. "Be careful out there, will you?"


    "Yes. I''ll protect myself."


    Rea smiled as she packed up everything and met Theo at the airport before lunch.


    They knew Theo was flying back to the US unlike when he came in without any announcement. So, the people were already waiting outside the airport to thank him for giving them a chance to increase their strength.


    It was so wild to the point the police were concentrated in this area just to make sure nothing happened.


    Of course, Theo had to go to the airport by car. He just waved his hand to them. Although he didn''t underestimate anyone, the only people who could threaten his life were only the Daemon, the Sword Saint, and the Heavenly Sovereign. So, Theo didn''t mind doing all this.


    Agata was beside him, waiting patiently inside together with Ryo and Ergene.


    Zhao Jia was the one controlling everything behind the scene, solving all the problems to make sure the entire process could go smoothly.


    Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint were waiting for him in front of his ne together. The Daemon wanted to go as well, but they couldn''t leave this base defenseless, so the Daemon was the one taking care of their defense.


    Theo smiled and shook their hands as a formality.


    "Thank you foring here. You can stay here, you know." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "Haha, I''ll pass for now." Theo chuckled. "In fact, you might be the one who would live in the US after this��"


    "Hoho? Is that an invitation? When do you want me to go there?"


    "Who knows?" Theo shrugged before finally entering the airne and finding Rea waiting inside.


    "It seems you have a good vacation." Theo smiled, seeing her bright face.


    "Thanks to you." Rea smiled from ear to ear, expressing her happiness to Theo.


    After everyone took their seats, the ne finally took off to the sky.

 Chapter ?1613 Problem

    1613 Problem


    On the way back, Theo said, "I''m sure you want to learn many things after reaching this level, but wait until we''re back first, OK?"


    "Don''t worry. I''m not in a rush." Rea chuckled. "Still, did you get the same feeling as we did in the past?"


    "Not the same, but yes. It notified me about your progress."


    "I see. Still, thank you for giving me this opportunity, Teacher." Rea bowed to Theo.


    "The opportunity, huh? You are the one creating the opportunity. If you didn''t train like crazy to your level right now, you wouldn''t have be my assistant. If you didn''t work hard as an assistant, I would have kicked you out. If you didn''t practice hard under me, I would have stopped teaching you. That''s why I wasn''t the one giving you the opportunity, it''s yourself."


    "Nevertheless, I won''t be here without you. So, thank you."


    Feeling Rea''s gratitude, Theo stopped talking and received it properly. "You''re wee. Keep working hard from now on."


    "Yes." Rea smiled before looking at Agata. "Now that I think about it, what should I call you? Mistress��"


    Rea still felt awkward calling her this way. On the one hand, Agata was her teacher''s fiancee, so calling her ''Mistress'' was appropriate. On the other hand, Agata was her friend. Unlike Theo, who was her boss, it was awkward for Rea to call her with this weird hierarchy.


    "Just call me Agata. Mistress makes me look older." Agata chuckled.


    "I understand." Rea nodded with a serious expression, thinking it might change soon after it didn''t feel that awkward anymore.


    Of course, Rea didn''t spend all the time with her family alone in the past few days. She had been getting all the information while staying in that mansion.


    There was one particr matter that piqued her interest.


    "That''s right, Teacher. I have something to tell you." Rea recalled all the information and constructed the sentence. "There seems to be a weird movementing from the sea. People are confused about it, but there is no exnation for it right now."


    Theo didn''t say anything as if he had known about it.


    Rea scratched the back of her head and said, "it seems my warning is not necessary."


    "No, no. I don''t have the information about that, but I kind of expect it to happen. Show me the report."


    Rea took out her Skylink and showed the world''s map. There was a red line on the coast of Japan. "ording to the information, there are a few weird urrences happening on the coast, such as the appearance of numerous flying monsters and the change in the ocean tides."


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes while looking at the map. "Can you check whether other bases are affected as well?"


    "Certainly. Give me a moment." Rea checked a few documents before getting the report. "The same urrence is happening in the US Base as well, precisely at the coast in South and North Caroline. But because our base hasn''t expanded that much, we haven''t been able to get that much information.


    "Still, there seems to be an indication something is happening right now. We can''t see what it is right now, but we should get some pictures in the next few weeks."


    "I see." Theo fell into deep thought.


    Meanwhile, Rea remembered the reason why Theo allowed Rea to choose Kentucky as their base.


    At that time, Theo told her that there would be two problems that could threaten humans after the radiation. They were chemicals and trash.


    In the past, trash, chemicals, and radiation were the primary problems that almost ruined this.


    There was also a pollution problem, but it was already half-solved before the appearance of the teleportation circles. Some of it was solved by Magic Power as well, allowing them to fix this pollution problem. Even the Skylink used a sr panel on its body to make the Skylinkst for so long to the point one never had the need to charge it again if they didn''t use Skylink to y a game or something.


    However, the radiation from the nuclear fission reactions caused a lot of trouble and harmed a lot of areas. And this gue turned into something that endangered humanity when it began producing mutated monsters.


    Luckily, Theo had solved one of them, and all the bases should know they had to clean up the radiated area from time to time so that the incident didn''t happen again. So, the problem was solved, leaving only the trash and chemicals problems.


    There was a lot of chemical waste polluting the water. Some of them might be treated, but the rest were thrown away to either the sea or the river.


    Learning from what happened with the radiation, she was afraid that this chemical would cause the monsters to mutate again and begin to attack them. This time, the chemical woulde from within the base, so they had to create a countermeasure to prevent casualties.


    From the rough spection alone, humanity had been reduced to twenty percent of the previous poption after the apocalypse, so they shouldn''t drop any further to avoid getting humans in no position to resist the monsters.


    So, Rea nned to check this problem aftering back. However, she had another concern, the trash.


    The trash problem was like a never ending problem. Despite knowing they had to throw the trash into the bins, there were so many people who ignored it. Even if one country could do it, there would be other countries that couldn''t.


    And all that trash would pile up and, in the worst case, get carried to the sea.


    Seeing how the problem was rted to the coast, Rea was afraid this was the problem. The animals couldn''t do anything when the humans polluted the sea with trash.


    But the apocalypse changed it. The animals had turned into monsters and there were also other monsters from the other side. Since the world was filled with water, the trash surely spread all over the world, causing annoyance to the living creatures in the sea.


    And she was afraid those creatures would start to fight back.

 Chapter 1614 Discussion

    1614 Discussion


    Rea saw Theo''s distorted expression before realizing something. ''No, wait. Teacher has been asking Maya to make weapons�� Don''t tell me; he wanted to stay in Kentucky because he wanted to solve this problem.


    ''He predicted that Kentucky would be in a better position to handle the problems that came from the sea. That''s why he nned to turn Kentucky into a fort.


    ''In other words, everything had been moving the way he expected it? Why does Teacher think about it right now if that''s the case? Is there something different from his original expectation?''


    Rea fell into deep thought as well, trying to find what Theo was thinking.


    After a few minutes, Theo opened his mouth, saying, "Rea. Tell Maya to speed up the process for the weapons."


    "I''ll inform her as soon as we get a signal." Rea nodded with a serious expression. "As expected, the threat ising to us?"


    "I don''t know yet. There might be a small cataclysm in all areas�� For now, I''ll just inform the others about it since there is no proof about it happening yet."


    "Understood. Do we stand a chance against this problem? It''s not like a second apocalypse, right?"


    "I don''t think so, but it might be bigger than the radiation problem. There are simply too many things that have to be done to stop the entire process��"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling troubled. "Still, it''sing too fast."


    "What do you mean? Why is that a problem?"


    "Our is filled with water, no? In the past, people say the sea is actually as mysterious as outer space. What do you think will happen to this mysterious sea after merging with the creatures from the other side?"


    "The water creatures from the other side��" Rea contemted for a moment. "It seems we''re living in the worst era."


    Agata, who heard their conversation, couldn''t help but add her own spection. "The monsters havepletely blocked out the sea due to their numbers. There are even more creatures in the sea than in thend. And if all those creaturese out together to attack only the humans, there''s a small chance that the humans can survive.


    "That''s why informing other bases is necessary and keep a lookout on all coasts to check what''s happening to them right now. With it, we can see the scale of this cataclysm.


    "As for what happened inside the sea, it''s pretty obvious that the sea creatures will reach a higher position. In the past, sea animals couldn''t do anything when we polluted their water with trash. But with the strength they''ve gained from the apocalypse and the addition of the sea monsters, they have the chance to fight back right now.


    "And we''re talking about the King ss or even World ss Monsters that can lead all those sea creatures to attack us. In other words, they have the number, strength, and brain to conquer thend.


    "If this continues, the sea creatures will surelyunch an all-out attack on the people on thend. In the past, we threw trash�� but this time, they''re going to trash us."


    "��" Rea was speechless because the problem seemed to be bigger than she imagined. No wonder Theo was panicking.


    Even though Theo had be a Saint, it was still impossible to stop all these creatures by himself. If they weren''t careful, humanity would go extinct after this.


    "Haha. Humans destroyed nature in the past and now we''re getting wrecked by our mistakes." Rea chuckled. "Still, I''m surprised that you can fight for humanity even after experiencing all that."


    Theo shrugged and said, "Well, you can say I''m doing this for humanity. At the same time, I''m also doing it for myself."


    "Yourself?"


    Theo held Agata''s hands and looked at her gently. "I want to live together with her, but there''s no way I''m so insane that I don''t mind the rest of the humans dying. Nheless, we''re social creatures, so it''s impossible for us to live together without the help of other humans.


    "Even if we don''t care about it, humanity has to survive in my ideal world. If I want to live peacefully in the future, I have to save them right now." Theo smiled.


    "Though I remembered you saying shit about humans like how they''re hypocritical, idiotic, greedy, prideful and so on." Agata smirked.


    "Haha, the edgy me��" Theo chuckled. "Though, I only stated the fact."


    "Can''t deny that." Agata chuckled. Of course, Theo had made sure that no one heard their conversation or it would be a big problem. Only Theo, Agata, and Rea could hear their conversation.


    Theo looked at Agata while holding her hand. "I''m sorry, but it seems that I have to make you wait longer."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. You don''t have to worry. Compared to others, we''re still too young. I mean, look at Rea, she is still single."


    "How about sharing your fiance?" Rea sneered back.


    "Oh, it seems she likes a taboo rtionship between a student and a teacher. Though I had once talked about sharing him with other women, you know. He was the one rejecting the idea." Agata chuckled.


    "Come on. Don''t talk about it anymore. You know I don''t like it." Theo shook his head. "Should I seal your mouth to prevent you from talking about it ever again?"


    "Hoh? How do you n to seal my mouth?" Agata pointed at her lips as if asking him for a kiss.


    However, Theo dropped a bomb by saying, "How about marriage?"


    "Hmm�� WHAT?!" Agata dropped her jaw in shock, not believing what she had just heard.


    "Mhm." Theo nodded, confirming it. "Well, we have to wait for this kind of flight to bemercialized so that we can bring your parents back and forth to witness our marriage. So, we have to wait for another two to three years, I guess? In the meantime, I''ll try to solve as many problems as possible so that no one will bother us in the future. I hope you can take care of the preparation for me. How about that?"


    "You truly�� dropped a bomb just like that��" Agata was speechless. However, she conveyed her happiness by holding his cheeks and kissing him, answering his question.

 Chapter 1615 Behind the Scene

    1615 Behind the Scene


    "Haha, you''re too happy." Theo was finally released after two whole minutes. He wiped his mouth with his hands. "We''re in front of everyone, you know!"


    Agata smirked yfully, teasing him. "Do you think I don''t know you? Even with something like that, I''m sure your reaction speed is fast enough to create an illusion about us talking normally. In other words, only you and I know what we''re doing here."


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, busted.


    As she said, Theo had put up his illusion at thest moment. Instead of an intimate kiss, it was just a hug.


    Now that everything had returned, he let go of the illusion after making the illusion right in their positions so there wouldn''t be any change in their movement, making the others not realize the change.


    "Anyway, as I said earlier, you can start making preparations. It''s better for me to handle other problems first so that we don''t have to face too much trouble ahead."


    "I understand. Don''t worry. I''ll be preparing everything needed." Agata nodded enthusiastically. She seemed to be nning to use 120% of her strength to make sure everything went smoothly.


    Meanwhile, Rea congratted Agata with a smile. "Congrattions, Agata. Don''t worry about being his assistant. I''ll take care of it. You can focus on those preparations."


    "Yes. Thank you very much." Agata obviously didn''t reject this idea. This was good news because Theo had finally taken a step forward andmitted their rtionship to marriage.


    Back then, she was the one trying to grab Theo''s heart because of his feelings toward his family. This time, Theo had ovee all the bad things in his heart and finally became confident to start a family.


    She smiled and received congrattions from the others.


    Meanwhile, Agata asked, "In that case, what are you nning to do after returning to the base? I mean, you once said you nned to stabilize your strength, right?"


    "Yeah. But my clone has been doing it this whole time. So, what I''m going to do right now is to get a certain thing."


    "A certain thing?"


    "Yeah. They''re located in Mexico and Argentina. I don''t know if I can go there or not, considering there is a World ss Monster in the way��"


    "If you''re going there, I think you need to know about this."


    "What is it?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, finding Rea taking out the map.


    "You should know about the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric, right?"


    "Of course. Who doesn''t know her?"


    "Do you remember the time we were forced to leave the union?"


    "Yes. There was a problem with my reputation there."


    "Then, have you seen the video of your father iming he''s the culprit instead of you?"


    "Hmm?" Theo furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what she meant. On the one hand, he already had no rtionship with them, so there was no need for Ray to take the me. On the other hand, he felt Rea was talking about this because of a reason.


    "What do you want to say?"


    "From the information I''ve got from the Nagasawa Family. It seems the recording of your father was taken in Chile."


    "Huh, what?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. "Are you telling me��"


    "Yes. I''m afraid that the new Griffith Family made by your father has been located in Chile this whole time. Then, it bes easier to see through the current situation.


    "Currently, Chile can''t connect to their satellites anymore, but theirmunication can be used for at least three months after that situation.


    "So, I''m assuming that the Mafia Queen is still alive, and she is working together with the new Griffith Family."


    Theo frowned and contemted for a moment. "For what reason�� the new Griffith Family�� the base is there the whole time�� Ah!"


    Theo finally connected all the dots. The matter of the new Griffith Family''s headquarter seemed to have been considered properly.


    Rea had the same thoughts. She said, "Yes, I believe the consideration ising from your mother. First of all, a few years ago, you had two allies among the top ten experts in the world. They are the Time God and the Wind Emperor. The Time God couldn''t be considered an ally, but he was neutral to the point he wouldn''t help anyone to harm you.


    "Then, my father came because of me, making you have a third of the world''s power. Looking at their current situation, there is no way the old Griffith Family would look at this situation in a friendly manner, especially after the Death Reaper died.


    "This way, they have to look for an ally. There were five candidates at that time: The Heavenly Sovereign Feng Hao, Asura Chand Padhya, Fist Saint Anwar Hadad, Mafia Queen Alexandra Boric, and Daemon Tirta Kurniawan. Well, Flora was too proud, so she wouldn''t think much about the Griffith Family beforehand.


    "The only one they can bring is none other than the Fist Saint. So, they''re trying to find another one to handle both my father and the Wind Emperor.


    "However, Asura and Daemon were pretty neutral like the Time God at that time, leaving only the Heavenly Sovereign and the Mafia Queen.


    "The Heavenly Sovereign is entric, while the Mafia Queen is the best option. So, with this exnation, it''s clear that the Griffith Family would get the Mafia Queen''s help.


    "That''s why your parents are setting up their new headquarters in Chile to work together with the Mafia Queen. I''m pretty sure the deal is like this�� As soon as the old Griffith Family is dealt with, the new Griffith Family will work together with the Mafia Queen.


    "Whether it''s the new Griffith Family or the old Griffith Family, as a mafia, Alexandra surely knows that the Griffith Family method is useful. And luckily, she chooses to work together with the new Griffith Family instead of the Old Griffith Family. This is the reason why the old Griffith Family hasn''t been able to take care of us this whole time.


    "And I don''t think I have to tell you who came up with this n, right?"


    Rea stopped at that question. Without anyone answering it, there was only one answer.


    The one who saw through the situation and came up with this n was the second sessor of the War God Family. It was said she would be the head of the War God Family if Marzio didn''t want this position, showing her prowess in a mind battle.


    Yes, she was none other than Theo''s mother, Valkyrie Valerie Guerrero.

 Chapter ?1616 Message

    ?1616 Message


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, not knowing what to say. He leaned on his seat while pinching the bridge of his nose.


    Suddenly, a smooth finger touched his forehead and gently massaged it. "You can''t frown too much or you''ll look older."


    Theo opened his eyes and dropped his hands, looking at Agata who was standing behind his seat. "Are you going to tell me to make up with them?"


    "No. I won''t tell you anything about them. It''s just�� It seems I have to pass a message from your grandfather."


    "A message from him?"


    "Yes. It was after the battle in Italy��" Agata paused for a moment while recalling that scene.


    After that battle, Agata walked to Theo''s mansion to grab the rest of the items to move to their new ce. Back then, Leonardo came to visit, finding her who was about to leave the mansion while carrying a box.


    "Sir Leonardo." Agata politely greeted him.


    "Ah, Agata. You don''t have to be so polite to me, you know. You''re going to be my granddaughter-inw soon, so you can just call me Grandfather."


    "Ahaha, I''d love to do that, but I have to refrain myself from calling you Grandfather. I don''t want to look rushed and make Theo ufortable. Maybe after our marriage, I wouldn''t hesitate to call you Grandfather, but for now, I''m going to respect Theo''s boundaries and not go ahead by myself."


    "Is that so? Theo is lucky to have you in his life. Thank you for being sensible, and please continue guiding him on the right path."


    "Yes, Sir."


    Leonardo looked at her with a troubled expression.


    "What''s wrong, Sir? Do you have something bothering you?"


    "Nah, I��" Leonardo scratched the back of his head. He hesitated for a moment but ultimately said it. "Well, I don''t know if I can say it or not. To be honest, one part of me wants him and his parents to reconcile. Another part of me is telling me it''s impossible.


    "I can understand what they''ve done in the past, and after mulling it over for months, I could onlye up with two better ns than what they''ve done�� Though, those two ns are like standing on top of a threat�� Basically, you''re gambling.


    "That''s why I want them to reconcile. However, it''s kinda harsh to know that your parents have been making you suffer the whole time. I can understand how Theo felt when he knew about it.


    "Due to his suffering in the past, Theo surely had thought ofmitting suicide many times. And how much he suffered during those ten years? Hunger, pain, being bullied physically and mentally�� I couldn''t imagine how harsh it was for a child like him.


    "That''s why I''ve never tried to smoothen their rtionship. However, I know Valerie and Ray personally. Ray won''t do something like this if they have another option, while Valerie will work herself to death toe up with the best n�� Unfortunately, the n they chose is the best n in terms of results but the worst n for Theo.


    "So, can you pass him a message from me? I''ll let you choose the time. If you think it''s alright to say it, I want you to pass this message to him. You can just say it''s from me and let me take all the me.


    "I want you to tell him to think about this. There is a criminal who is a viger. The viger kills a person and gets sentenced to prison for twenty years. After leaving the prison, the viger can''t get a job because he is once a murderer. The people around him don''t give him a chance.


    "Meanwhile, the viger has changed over the years and promised not to do it again. He has turned over a new leaf, but because the others don''t ept him, he has no way to make a living, causing him to fall into despair.


    "The viger now only has two choices. The first is to ept his situation andmit suicide since it''s basically better than dying from hunger. Or�� the viger has to go to the dark world again and kill more people.


    "This is�� what I want you to pass him. This can be called I''m trying to persuade him, but I don''t want to gaslight him. After all, you can''t choose your parents��"


    Agata remained silent the whole time. The message from this story was pretty clear. If the people had given the viger a chance, the viger might have be a good human being. In fact, he might even help others to atone for his sins. But because they didn''t give him a chance, they basically forced him to do the same thing over and over again.


    Leonardo didn''t ask him to forgive them. This message was just to ask Theo to give them a chance, at least, a chance to get his forgiveness. If punishment was necessary, it was better to give them concrete punishment.


    Back then, Theo told them he didn''t want anything to do with them. But at that time, Theo didn''t think too straight, and he believed this was the best option due to the trauma.


    This time, Theo had grown both physically and mentally, so with him being more mature, Leonardo wanted him to rethink his decision. If he still chose not to go back with them, he would ept his decision wholeheartedly.


    After Agata passed the message to him, she added, "That''s the message. Well, the fact that I''m passing this message can be interpreted as I am helping him persuade you. So, I''ll tell you this. I don''t care whether you have parents or not. You are the only thing that matters to me. So, if you don''t want them, just push them away. I''ll support your decision."


    Theo let out a sigh while closing his eyes. "There are too many things to think about. As for the answer�� I''ll just decide when the timees."


    "Mhm." Agata nodded, epting his decision.

 Chapter 1617 Trouble

    1617 Trouble


    "Sorry, but can you give me some space with Rea?" Theo asked Agata with a serious expression.


    "Sure." Agata walked away, knowing there was something she shouldn''t know about. She was already aware of the Order from the way Theo talked, but she didn''t have any idea what it was. At the same time, she was only a Supreme Rank Expert, so it didn''t matter to her that much.


    Now that Agata had left, Theo put up an illusion before he began to talk. "Alright. Let''s continue with your lesson. Now that you have be a Queen, you should know a few basics."


    Rea nodded with a serious expression, making sure to listen to every single word.


    "What I want to talk about right now is the Five Stages, Four Seals, and your Order as a whole.


    "First, it''s about the Five Stages. Even I don''t have any concrete proof about your five stages. I have a Reality Order, so my Five Stages are Assimtion, Magic Power, Illusion vs Reality, Reality Alter, and Reality Realm. Although everyone will be different, it doesn''t change the basics of these five stages are��"


    Theo paused for a moment before creating an illusion of one''s body as well as another color of aura that surrounded this body.


    "The first stage is fusion."


    The aura and the body gradually fused with each other as this purple aura turned the body purple as well.


    "The Order will affect your Magic Power, resulting in a different color of Magic Power. Because the Magic Power ising in and out of your body like breathing, it''ll take time for your body to be able to adapt to this new Magic Power. It''ll take six months, so you can take it easy for the next six months.


    "Then the second stage is Magic Power."


    "Now that the Magic Power of your body has beenpletely fused with the Order, your Order will now affect the application of your Magic Power."


    The body suddenly pushed its palm forward and shot out a purple beam, telling her whatever she did now would be using this new Magic Power.


    "I don''t know about your Order and I won''t help you in finding out your Order. So, you should focus these six months on figuring out your true Order.


    "Without knowing it, you can''t enhance your current attack with that Order after all. And I can assure you your normal power is far weakerpared to the additional boost of Order alone.


    "Then, the next thing will be the third stage. At this stage, you can think of it as a way to��"


    Theo continued talking about the five stages, giving her enough exnation. Of course, he chose his words carefully.


    His exnation had to be neutral and didn''t influence her too much. Although he had inserted his Reality Order into this, he toned it down a lot.


    After the five stages, he continued to talk about the four seals and how to turn her weapon into an artifact.


    And finally, they reached thest step, which was the exnation of the Order itself.


    Rea had a lot of questions about Order, so Theo exined it to her the way Hel and the Lightning Saint exined it to him, which was the bridgeparison.


    Rea never expected that this power woulde from the world itself. No wonder they could be peerless. They managed to make this to defeat their enemies after all.


    After listening to all his exnations, Rea used the rest of her time to memorize everything and asked Theo if she had another question.


    Theo also didn''t answer all her questions since it would cause a lot of transformation from her point of view. So, he wanted her to approach the Order and Authority from her perspective as purely as possible.


    "Thank you, Teacher. I think that''s all." Rea politely bowed to him. She didn''t take a note in her Skylink as usual because Theo had asked her not to record it anywhere other than her mind.


    He had told her how dangerous it was for normal people to know about Order since it would cause a lot of disruption that might lead to another apocalypse.


    Rea made sure to remember everything. Even if someone asked her about it, she swore not to say anything.


    However, their peaceful time didn''tst until they returned to the base. They were only one hour away from the airport since they were near the coast of Florida.


    Suddenly, Theo felt numerous presenceing toward them.


    "This is��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows before turning to the side and finding numerous birds flying toward them.


    They came from the right side, following their airne''s speed.


    Because the airne''s speed was slowed down due to the new engine that let out no sound, the flying monsters seemed to have no problem catching up to them. Of course, only Supreme Rank Monsters or above could reach them.


    Seeing Theo''s sudden move, people realized something was wrong.


    The pilots, the stewardesses, and even Theo''s group instantly turned their heads and found the birds.


    "Monsters!" Rea was rmed and raised her de, wondering if she had to cut them down from this ne.


    "Sir!" One of the stewardesses came to Theo to ask for his help, but Theo simply sat back and rxed as if he didn''t care about the iing monsters.


    "It seems that we''re pretty unlucky�� To think we would meet monsters in our flight path�� Do we have sonar or something that could locate them?" Theo asked with a calm expression as if trying to calm her down.


    "This is not the time for that. Sir, there are monsters over there!"


    "It''s fine. I don''t have to make a move." Theo pointed at the pir at the back of the ne. "That pir will protect us."


    "But��" Before she could finish her words, they suddenly heard a loud bang as if something had crashed into their ne. Without anyone seeing it, they knew a monster had hit them.


    However, Rea widened her eyes and eximed, "Ah, a barrier?"


    "Yeah. That''s why I wanted to recover more of this thing�� even a King ss Monster could only make this ne tilt a bit, so you don''t have to worry too much as long as a World ss Monster doesn''te." Theo nodded with a calm expression.

 Chapter 1618 Threat

    1618 Threat


    *Bang!*


    *Bang!*


    *Bang!*


    The birds continuously hit them as if trying to destroy the ne, but the barrier that the pir erected protected them the whole time. Not even a single scratch was visible on the surface.


    "Hmm, this is good data." Rea narrowed her eyes. "Although the airne has a special engine that won''t bother the monsters and rm them, we can''t do anything if we meet them on the way.


    "Without the pir, there should be something that can attack them or protect this airne. We''re near the coast, so we can slowly descend, but if we''re in the middle of nowhere, we''re fucked up.


    "So, there is a need for a barrier as well as a weapon that can destroy them. Well, what do you think about an air balloon, Teacher?" Rea asked.


    "Air balloon?"


    "I mean, we have a huge balloon in the sky. They move at the speed of a helicopter, which allows us to fight on top of it."


    "But flying above the ocean is problematic."


    "That''s true." Rea nodded with a serious expression. "There are a lot of things we can try in the future, but for now, the pir is enough."


    "Yeah. Anyway, record everything before I handle them." Theo nodded while informing the stewardesses. "Tell them it''s fine to maintain the current speed. I''ll handle the monsters."


    The stewardesses were still panicking. Their faces were pale because they couldn''t handle all these monsters, let alone hope to survive an ident like this.


    They could survive the whole time due to Theo, not anything else. This was the danger of flying in a world filled with monsters. Still, they had to inform the pilots about Theo''s words, so they went to the cockpit.


    After a while, Rea gave a thumbs up, signaling Theo she had done gathering the data.


    "Alright." Theo waved his hand and used his Telekinesis to strike the flying monsters. Even though the airne''s speed was slowed down with this new engine, it was still quite fast. His Telekinesis alone stopped the birds for one second, allowing the airne to gain a distance of five hundred feet from these monsters.


    The monsters tried to catch up, so Theo waved his hand down and pushed these monsters downwards. In the end, the monsters couldn''t catch up to them anymore.


    Rea nced at the outside and tried to feel everything around her, making sure there was no monster around their airne anymore.


    "It seems we''re safe. Even if we canmercialize the flight, it''s still more dangerouspared to the flights before the apocalypse." Rea sighed.


    "Maya will take care of that." Theo shook his head. "Besides��!"


    Theo suddenly fell silent when looking outside.


    "Teacher?" Rea was confused and tried to find out what happened but to no avail. Theo''s eyes were glued to the bottom as though he had seen something.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "Can you lower the altitude of this ne?"


    "I''ll tell them. It should be fine since there is no ne flying in the air other than us." Rea nodded and walked to the pilots to inform them about Theo while she tried to see what Theo was observing with the bigger window in the cockpit.


    When they lowered their altitude, Rea widened her eyes and pointed at the sea. "What''s that?"


    The co-pilot stood up to check what was wrong and found a movement on the sea.


    It looked like there were ants swarming the beach, but there was no way ants could be visible from this altitude.


    "Lower the altitude a bit more," Rea ordered while narrowing her eyes. "Do you have any binocrs here?"


    "Yes." The co-pilot nodded and hurriedly walked away, bringing what she wanted.


    It didn''t take a whole minute before he returned with the binocrs.


    Rea immediately used it and tried to see what was going on before gasping.


    "This is��" Rea paused for a moment. Her hands were shaking, realizing this matter was much different than she originally thought. "Are you serious?"


    What she saw were actually crabs. The crabs had grown so much that each of them had the size of a truck, from a normal truck to a container truck.


    "This is not good." Rea handed the binocrs to the co-pilot before moving back to the cabin to see Theo. "Teacher."


    "Yeah, yeah. I can see it." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "It seems that the situation is worse than I expected��"


    "What should we do now? From what I saw earlier, there are many crabs. They can walk on thend and cause devastation�� It''ll be hard to stop that number. And��" Rea scratched the back of her head. "��the crabs are bringing a huge amount of trash. What should we do with this?"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, contemting.


    "What are they nning to do with the trash? I mean, I can understand that they''re trying to clean up the sea by throwing back the trash we once threw��" Rea clutched her head while sighing. "Ugh. Why did people not throw the trash in trash cans?"


    "��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment and said, "I want you to call three people as soon as we''re on the ground. Tell your father to check the coast. After that, warn my Grandfather about this threat. They have to look everywhere carefully. All the cities near the sea are extremely dangerous right now, so prepare for an evacuation. Look everywhere carefully.


    "Last but not least, I want you to tell Maya to speed up the preparation. I''m afraid we won''t be the only ones to get attacked. The people on the western side will face the same problem."


    "I understand. What will you do, Teacher?"


    "I will��" Theo looked through the window once again and said, "I''ll investigate this matter personally. Also, tell them to lower the altitude a bit more and open the emergency exit for me. Drop me here."


    "Drop you here�� Do you think this is a bus or something?" Rea sighed while shaking her head helplessly. Though, she still followed Theo''s words. Theo had his Telekinesis, so he would be fine after falling from this airne.


    So, the pilot lowered their altitude as Theo stood in front of the exit, preparing to jump.

 Chapter ?1619 Plastic

    ?1619 stic


    "Sorry, but I have to go," said Theo to Agata.


    Agata took a deep breath, understanding his action. "Alright. I can''t stop you. Just be careful out there."


    "Yep. I''ll try to go back before breakfast tomorrow!"


    "Got it."


    Theo smiled and gave a peck to her forehead before jumping off the ne.


    He just let his body fall as long as possible before using his Telekinesis to slow him down until he floated a few hundred feet above the ground.


    After that, Theo descended to the ground while checking his surroundings, making sure no monsters came out to attack him. Of course, he also shrouded himself in illusion, making him look invisible.


    Though, it was just an illusion of an empty blue sky. Some monsters who were focusing on him might realize the chance when he was near the ground, but at that time, not many monsters were aware of him.


    ''There is no monster around me.'' Theo muttered while taking out his Skylink to record the whole thing.


    Then, he began to approach the area where the crabs were taking care of their business, wondering if there was a King ss Monster or, even worse, a World ss Monster in the area.


    This kind of situation wouldn''t ur without an order from them after all. Even a General ss Monster wouldn''t do anything.


    ''What are they nning with the trash though?'' Theo muttered inwardly before standing a few hundred feet from the area. He was standing inside a tower that allowed him to take a close look at their operation.


    As expected, the crabs were huge, and they all brought all kinds of trash from the sea.


    ''Hmm? I wonder who is the one ordering them? There should be movements all around the world, right? If that''s the case, unless it''s a World ss Monster who is giving the order, I think it''s not possible to do an operation at this scale.


    "No, if it''s affecting the entire world, I''m afraid this is not the work of a single World ss Monster. There should be multiple of them��" Theo''s expression darkened.


    He might be able to handle a single World ss Monster with his clone, but he couldn''t fight more than one.


    ''Then, should I ask the Time God to participate in this battle? But we don''t know what they''re nning to do yet."


    Theo paused for a moment and found the mountain of trash. They gathered all the trash in one spot, making it a tall mountain. If they continued this way, they would surely create a mountain made of trash.


    ''Oh, boy. A mountain made of trash�� and most of them are stic. This is going to be disgusting.''


    Theo watched the crabs carefully. As soon as they arrived at their spots, they climbed the mountain and dropped the trash from the top.


    This way, the trash would start to fall down to the bottom and reinforce it. After a while, the height started to increase and the diameter of this mountain grew.


    ''From the looks of it, in one day, the mountain will be 200 feet high and have a 600 feet radius. This is not a joke�� What will happen if we wait for another few days or weeks? If we don''t even know this has been built up, we''ll be in danger.


    ''And I still don''t know what they''re nning to do with the trash. As for the amount of trash they have�� Oh, boy. I can''t imagine how much trash humans have thrown into the sea��


    ''Should I even bother to solve this? Considering the humans are the ones who caused this thing to happen? Either way, we''re in Florida right now. If I understand them correctly, they''re aiming at either Kentucky or the big base.


    ''For now, I''ll observe their movement and see whether they have someone ordering them or not.''


    Theo took a deep breath and kept the camera rolling while he hid himself inside. He had also spread his Awareness to make sure no one found him.


    As expected, the growth of the mountain was truly terrifying. However, Theo also found something even more horrifying than the mountain.


    The fishes began to appear a few hourster. They were spurting out water from their mouths, which seemed to carry some trash as well.


    In other words, the fish were trying to help the crabs to do their jobs.


    But that wasn''t the worst one. Theo had seen some fishes had mutated to the point they could breathe on thend. They pped their bodies from one ce to another, traveling on thend.


    Some of them even had legs that allowed them to move on thend. Although the legs were short and it couldn''t move too fast, it was clear that the fish had begun to transform.


    And Theo knew the cause of this transformation. It was as he feared.


    Some of the fish actually had their bodies punctured by the stic. Most of it was bigger stic like bottles or sharp ones like stic utensils.


    Their bodies had fused with the trash. Theo could imagine how the fish swallowed the trash and ended up injuring their bodies.


    But the fusion between the two realms had made the fish stronger, causing them to remain alive even with such an injury. After a while, the fish began to recover and the punctured area ended up regrowing its flesh, assimting itself with the stic.


    It was a horrifying scene.


    Theo could understand if a World ss Monster wanted to destroy the humans because of this trash. If a huge number of people got harmed this way, even the humans wouldn''t stand still, especially if they saw kids or elderly had their bodies transformed like this.


    After two years, there were simply too many fish that had devoured this trash and the monsters had enough. This time, they were going to fight the humans for the damage they had caused to their world.


    And Theo had to choose whether to help the wrong ones, which were the humans, or the victims, the sea creatures.

 Chapter 1620 Movements

    1620 Movements


    "Yes. Thank you for informing me. Take care of yourself there." The Sword Saint smiled and hung up the call before ncing to the side, looking at the Heavenly Sovereign and the Daemon. His expression turned serious as he asked, "What do you think?"


    "This is hrious. I want to tell the humans, ''serve them right,'' but then again, I''m also a human. It''s kind of a pity that when we''re fighting against the discriminated race we''ve harmed this whole time just for humanity. Then again, there is nothing we can do." The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled.


    "In the past, humans had higher awareness than animals. This allows us to do everything to other species. We can tame animals to be our pets, we can kill them if they try to harm humans, and we can make them extinct with our own mistakes. But this time, it''s different. Monsters'' awareness is as high as humans and with the General ss Monster or above on their side, it can be said other creatures are the same as us.


    "This time, humanity has to wage war against a simr creature to them. They willmand all those monsters to attack us and we''ll have to defend them.


    "And thanks to the King ss Monster or even a World ss Monster, it''s possible for an agreement to be reached between us. But what will the two of you do? In the past, humans were the peak predator. But this time, there are World ss Monsters from other species. I''m afraid we''re not the peak predator anymore."


    The Daemon''s words were understandable. It was his concern and thought.


    The Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes for a moment and muttered, "I wonder what will happen if the situation is reserved. Let''s say if I''m a vegan professor�� In the house, the humans are the pets. They''re trained��


    "Our owners, probably cats or dogs, treat us like how we treat them. There are bad owners that will abuse us. Imagining our tattered bodies like those dying animals��


    "What about livestock? Maybe we will be raised and treated like a robot who can only grow up and die. The cows will bring us to the ughterhouse and distribute our meat��


    "Or maybe the chicken farms to get eggs�� The women give birth to chi��" Before the Heavenly Sovereign finished thest example, both the Sword Saint and the Daemon covered his mouth.


    Their bodies were trembling because the third example was the worst. They were shivering from imagining it.


    "Stop, stop! Don''t talk about it anymore!" The Sword Saint red at him, asking him to stop.


    The Daemon didn''t say anything, but his panicked expression alone was enough to share his thoughts.


    "Let''s not talk about it, OK? Let''s just discuss what we''re going to do after this." The Sword Saint took a deep breath, trying to shift their conversation.


    "Y-yeah. If that''s the case, should I handle the investigation?" The Daemon asked. These three had been maintaining the status quo, but they each had their own job.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was in charge of the development, while the Sword Saint handled the police task to make sure the citizens from many countries could live together peacefully. Meanwhile, the Daemon handled all the stuff about the monsters around the base, so this was his job.


    Suddenly, Zhao Jia rushed into the room while shouting, "Emergency! I need help!"


    "What''s wrong? Did the sea monsters attack us?" The Heavenly Sovereign nonchntlymented.


    "Huh? You know about it, Teacher?" Zhao Jia was dumbfounded, never expecting her teacher to know about it despite being stuck in the room.


    "The information just came in. It seems they''re nning something big, but we don''t know about the details yet." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded.


    "Then, I need Sir Daemon to follow me to handle the investigation." Zhao Jia nodded and looked at Tirta to work together as usual.


    "No." The Heavenly Sovereign stood up and said, "I''m going to handle this problem personally this time."


    "Huh?" Zhao Jia furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding the sudden enthusiasm. Her teacher never wanted to work on something he could give to others, so it was surprising to see him volunteering to do this work.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled and said, "Theo is on the move, so I''m going to deal with this."


    ��


    Italy.


    Leonardo was sitting on his rocking chair while listening to the report. But after he finished listening to it, his eyebrows started twitching and his expression was distorted.


    "For fuck sake!" Leonardo shouted in anger while mming his hand on the handle. "Can I get a rest already? I want to retire!


    "No, I was retired in the past before I met that brat. I stopped my retirement to teach him, but from then on, I couldn''t get a single rest in my life anymore!


    "Have I invited a trouble ma? Why do I have to get involved in all this matter? I know I can trust Marzio, but this matter is simply too big since we must watch all coastlines.


    "I have to��" Leonardo suddenly stopped because he saw Lorenzoing to visit him as if he was rushing to check his condition because of the outburst. "Oh�� Lorenzo��"


    "Are you alright, Grandfather?"


    "I am�� not! How can I be fine after getting all these problems? How about I skip this one? This is a perfect asion to make Marzio grow�� I''m just going to sit down and rx, watching from the sidelines."


    Leonardo let out a long sigh to calm his heart down. He returned to his seat and leaned back, nning to rx again. But when he put his arm down on the armrest, his arm dropped as there was nothing to support his arm anymore.


    "Eh?" Leonardo nced to the side and realized he had broken the armrest with the p earlier.


    "It seems you broke the chair��"


    "��" Leonardo truly couldn''t get a break. He sighed and stood up, walking to the exit. "Follow me to meet your father."

 Chapter 1621 Conclusion

    1621 Conclusion


    "So��" Theo narrowed his eyes while looking at his Skylink. He had been taking notes on their behaviors.


    There were five major points from what he had seen this whole time.


    The first one was that the sea creatures were not limited to fish or crabs. Some other sea creatures also mutated and could live in both ces. Of course, even among the same species, a portion of them didn''t mutate like this and remained in the sea.


    He saw many fish spitting out water instead of going to thend. So, it was clear that they were trying to help, but they still had limitations in their bodies.


    The second point referred to the scale of the mountain. The sea creatures hadn''t stopped piling up the trash from the sea. Even though he couldn''t imagine how much they had nned to bring, it was clear they were going to create a massive mountain that could bury a small town near the coast.


    No matter what they nned to do, the mountain would surely cause a massive problem for humanity.


    The third point was the most crucial. It seemed the entire work was done by a single King ss Monster. Although Theo could eliminate the tree and handle the trash right now, he had to wait for it.


    After all, he didn''t want to rm the other party. And they had the right reason for doing it as well.


    Still, the fact that there was only one King ss Monster supervising this area meant there would be more in other areas. He had to know how many King ss Monsters were out there and how much damage they nned to cause.


    The fourth important point he saw was their movement. The monsters didn''t seem to be exhausted at all. They had been working with the same crabs for twelve hours and didn''t seem to be changing it.


    There were also some creatures that used their Magic Power to bring more trash as well.


    The crab seemed to be a normal or elite monster, so they could be easily killed with a single wave of his hand. But if other humans saw their behavior and noticed this fact, the humans would try to take advantage of them as freebor.


    They might work the crabs to death. There was no need to pay for theirbor as well. When that happened, he was afraid that the grudge between humans and sea creatures would increase and might never end this way. So, Theo wouldn''t say anything regarding this point.


    Last but not least, Theo found that the sea creatures were organized. Although the King ss Monsters had the ability to control them, it was still too organized.


    Even when he worked together with the Dark King and the monsters, those monsters could only match their pace and follow the direction. If he wanted to make them move together in sync, it would be impossible.


    This made him question whether the sea creatures had evolved to this level.


    ''They''re bing closer and closer to humans. I''m afraid the battle between humans and sea creatures will be something like the battle between two human nations.


    ''Each of us will try to use our own strategy to crush our opponents. And this trash mountain is very crucial��''


    Theo frowned, wondering what he should do in the uing battle.


    ''This is truly bad. On the one hand, I don''t know if it''s possible to change humans or not. On the other hand, I can''t let them be extinct as well. At the very least, I still need humans.''


    Theo thought for a while, considering the pros and cons of this uing battle.


    "This is not going to be easy," Theo muttered in a low voice before he packed up everything and disappeared from the building.


    Although he wanted to observe them a bit more, it was better to gather information from all around the world first. After all, he was pretty sure this base wasn''t the only one getting an attack like this.


    While running away, Theo was thinking about something else. "Still, this is the trash problem, huh. That means what kind of monster will thest problem, the chemical, produce?"


    Theo couldn''t help but recall the huge slime that the world showed back then. ording to the world, it was made of radiation.


    But this might be the closest form that he could imagine of a monster being mutated by chemicals.


    "Still, one King ss Monster crushed many King ss Monsters as well as forced the World ss Monster to give up its life to seal that monster��


    "Wait a minute�� Sealed? Hmm, what did the World ss Monster say back then? If I''m not wrong, the monster was waiting for another monster that could handle this slime. But��"


    Theo''s expression darkened, realizing the possibility of another threat.


    "For fuck sake�� I can''t really get a break, can''t I?" Theo sucked a cold breath while looking at the sky. "There is a possibility that the slime is still alive. And with the age of that slime, I''m afraid if it''s still alive, the slime has be a World ss Monster.


    "If that''s the case, doesn''t this look bad for humanity? The slime can fight multiple King ss Monsters and even forced the World ss Monster to give up its life when it was still a King ss Monster�� If the slime has be a World ss Monster, won''t it be able to kill multiple World ss Monsters and handle��"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Seriously? Can a monster fight a Singrity to a standstill?"


    Theo couldn''t help but remember the World Re-creation Skill that Loki gave him. It was a skill from a Singrity, and its rank was beyond what could be registered.


    "It seems that I have to create one ability of this level��" Theo sucked a cold breath. "As soon as I reach the base, I have to investigate this slime. At least, I have to know its location. Although I''m hoping that the World ss Monster managed to kill the slime, I still have to prepare for the worst."

 Chapter ?1622 Sleep

    ?1622 Sleep


    Theo reached the base at 7 AM. He was slightlyte as he could see people going back and forth in the street.


    Although Theo wanted to go back to his house immediately, he contacted Rea first, wanting to let go of all thoughts about work before having breakfast with Agata.


    Rea came out within three minutes and asked, "Do you find anything?"


    "Yes." Theo sent the data to Rea and said, "This is everything I''ve found. I have three jobs for you. First, maintain contact with the other two bases and find out their conditions. I want to see how big the attack these guys are nning��


    "Second, I want you to find out about a monster''s location. The monster is a slime. It should be rted to that night of horror that destroyed the whole country. I''ll give you the detailster.


    "Lastly, I want you to investigate the entire world''s condition through satellites. The process will be slow, so you may work together with the army.


    "Although I feel bad giving you all this task, you have six months of rest since the Magic Power and Order will have to merge naturally. So, I want you to focus on these three for the time being."


    "Understood." Rea nodded with a serious expression. Since Theo had ordered her to do something, she had to do it.


    "Thanks." Theo waved his hand while walking back to his house, finding Agata cooking.


    He sneakily came closer before hugging her from behind gently.


    "Ah, you''re back?!" Agata nced to the side. Thankfully, Theo knew how to cook as well, so his hug was gentle enough to not disrupt her movement.


    "Yeah. I''m home." Theo smiled. "You''re cooking?"


    "Yes. Although we can rely on Coline for our food, I want to be the first one to cook for you ever since we live together again with everyone." Agata nodded with a smile.


    "Is that so?" His weariness disappeared in an instant. He just continued hugging her, asking, "Do you need help?"


    "It''s fine. This is a special asion, so I want to do it by myself. How about you take a seat first? I''ll finish in ten minutes."


    "Let me hug you like this." Theo wanted to be spoiled a bit. He had been too hard on himself this whole time, so he was a bit tired from everything. Now that Agata was here, Theo could heal his heart.


    Agata kissed his cheek and said, "Alright, alright. Just don''t do it too hard and mess with my cooking."


    "Of course." Theo smiled.


    If they were normal people, Theo''s weight would be a problem for Agata. However, Agata was a Supreme Rank Expert, so a person''s weight didn''t matter too much. Since Theo held her gently, she continued cooking.


    After a while, Theo let her go and decided to sit down in the chair. She was going to finish up soon, so he just watched her the whole time. His smile never faded away and his heart was at peace.


    There were too many problems in the world, so this was the only time he didn''t want to be disturbed by anything else.


    Not long after, Agata brought the food to the table. "Let''s eat."


    "Umm."


    Theo nodded.


    The atmosphere was peaceful, but their happiness brightened the mood as they couldn''t stop giggling. It had truly been a while.


    Even in United Asia, they couldn''t do much because Theo had a lot of work there. When he returned to their rooms, they just slept through the night.


    So, after they returned here, Theo dropped his guard down. There were already one King and two Queens in his group.


    Although his influence still couldn''t bepared to the Frost Saint, who had ten Kings and Queens in total, he was slowly building up his power.


    There were a few candidates who might be able to break through to the next level. They were Akbar, Walker, and Coline.


    Still, he had to teach them personally for one or two years before they could meet the bare minimum. The rest would depend on their qualification.


    Nevertheless, with all these people, the base would be safe even if he didn''t make his move. So Theo didn''t have to put up his guard.


    After eating, he and Agata were just cuddling with each other while watching Sk, wondering what was happening with the world right now.


    "Are you going to sleep?" Agata asked with a soothing tone while looking at Theo, who buried his head in her chest.


    "Mhm."


    "Look at you. You''re like a spoiled child right now." Agata chuckled while stroking his hair.


    "Can''t I?"


    "Of course, you can. It''s just a bit funny to see the strong Theo, who has be the world''s hero and even be their hope, be like this. Do you know that you can melt someone''s heart just by doing this?"


    "I''m not nning to do this to anyone else other than you."


    "Is that so? I''m the lucky one then. I''m the only one who can see the weak Theo."


    "Do you not like me when I''m like this?"


    "Not really. You have been too strong this whole time. You deserve some rest. I''m happy to know you differently from the others." Agata giggled.


    "It''s pretty tiring to keep up the strong front. If I show any weakness, I would be devoured by those people in power. And if I can''t get my head straight, there is going to be something that will ruin this world."


    "Yep, you''ve worked hard. I''m d that you can talk to me this way�� You look�� very humane right now. And I like you better this way�� There is no need to be the Strong Theo everyone knows in this house. Just be yourself here."


    "Right�� Do you want to renovate the house?"


    "Mhm��Nope. Let''s stay this way. The house isfy, so we don''t have to change anything. But if you wish to change it, can you wait until we''re married? We can change it to prepare for the baby��"


    "��"


    Agata didn''t hear Theo''s response as she realized Theo had fallen asleep. She smiled while closing her eyes. "Thank you for your hard work this whole time. Sleep well."

 Chapter 1623 Rest

    1623 Rest


    Theo gradually opened his eyes after getting some sleep. He realized he was sleeping on the couch with the quilt covering him. The couch had been turned into a simple bed with the illusion, so he had afortable sleep.


    "Mhm��" Theo let out a small moan while stretching his body, trying to get up. His mind felt fresh to the point it put a smile on his face.


    ''It has been a while since I have felt this way.'' Theo muttered inwardly. ''In the past, I''ve always made sure to prepare for everything even when I''m sleeping. But for the first time in two years, I can finally sleep thoroughly.''


    Theo got up and removed the illusion while yawning.


    He tried to find where Agata was and sensed her in their backyard.


    She was changing their backyard a bit to make it more pleasing to the eyes. When Theo opened the door, she noticed him and stopped.


    "You''ve woken up." She smiled, staring at Theo''s sleepy face. "Do you have a good sleep?"


    "That''s the best one I''ve ever had in a while. Thanks." Theo gave a thumbs up and a cheeky smile.


    "Haha." Agata walked to him and asked, "Do you want to drink anything?"


    "It''s fine. I drank water earlier." Theo waved his hand while ncing at the backyard. "Changing something?"


    "Yeah. You haven''t done anything in the backyard, so I''m trying to figure out the bestyout." Agata nodded while snapping her fingers. "This is the best one I saw earlier."


    The backyard soon changed. The ground was covered with grass. There was a stone path leading to the end of the backyard where there was a small park with a couple-swing in it.


    "What do you think?"


    "Need a pool?" Theo asked.


    "Mhm?" Agata looked down, contemting seriously. "Nope. I don''t like swimming that much. Though, a jacuzzi would be nice."


    "Then��" Theo snapped his finger and formed a jacuzzi on top of the grass. He then created the path to it and decorated it with wood. He used his Order to form water and increase its temperature. After that, he poured his wind to give an illusion of a working jacuzzi.


    "For now, this should be enough. We can rece it with the real er." Theo smiled and walked to it. He checked the water''s temperature and smiled. "Want to try it?"


    "Is that an invitation for a bath or��" Agata smirked.


    "Just a bath. You''re dirty." Theo stuck his tongue out.


    "What did you say? I was just asking. I couldn''t help it since the one who blessed me was Aphrodite."


    "I mean, your body is dirty. Have you taken a bath yesterday? Ah, did you just admit you have a dirty mind."


    "��" Agata was speechless before saying, "Since I''m dirty, shouldn''t that mean I should stay away from you? I don''t want to let you smell a foul odor from my body."


    Agata fought back, trying her best to hold back herughter.


    Theo smirked yfully and walked to her. He grabbed her back and the back of her thighs before lifting her like a princess.


    "The only thing you have to do is this��" Theo carried her to the jacuzzi and entered it together.


    "Clothes, clothes! Don''t you dare to use your Telekinesis to destroy the clothes? I didn''t bring too many spares!" Agata stopped him before he dropped her into the water.


    "��" Theo fell silent for a moment before letting her down. He respected her opinion after all.


    "Pfft." Agataughed.


    "��" Theo realized Agata was joking with him. "It seems that you are challenging me��"


    "Haha. Who taught me to be a smartass." Agata stuck her tongue out before she suddenly felt wet. "Huh?"


    Agata looked down and realized she was actually standing in the middle of the jacuzzi.


    "This is��" Agata blinked her eyes a few times, never expecting she had been standing here this whole time. She turned around and confirmed Theo hadn''t done anything to her.


    So, she was stunned to find herself in this situation.


    "It seems that you haven''t seen the video of my battle in the union." Theo smirked.


    "Ah!" Agata obviously had seen it. Theo used his power to make the original Theo face a certain reality when it actually never happened. The original Theo didn''t realize it, so how could she?


    She just realized Theo had known about her trick this whole time and turned around the situation by using his illusion.


    "You, you tricked me."


    "Hahahaha!" Theoughed while looking away.


    "Haha, take this!" She hugged him as her weight pushed him back until both of them fell into the water.


    *Boom!*


    "Haaa!" Agata was the first one toe out while waving her hand to the back. She saw Theoing back up, so she said, "By the way, it seems someone is going to sleep on the floor tonight."


    "Wh-what?!" Theo''s face became pale as he looked at her in disbelief.


    Agata knew he was just acting. She said, "Do you think I don''t know your trick? The moment you''re sleeping on the floor, you''re going to lower the bed to the floor level. This way, I might be sleeping on the bed, but it''s all the same."


    "Hehehe." Theo chuckled before adding yfully, "Though, we can use tatami mats for that. They''re prettyfortable. You should have tried it as well when you were in United Asia, right?"


    "True. Sneaky." Agata smiled while hugging him. "What should I do with you��"


    "Haha��" Theo chuckled while moving back to the wall and took a seat on the side. "I''m not going down easily."


    "Hehe. You know I can''t trick you no matter what. Your ability and rules are making it impossible for me to trick you."


    "Should I y along then?"


    "Idiot." Agata flicked his forehead gently while smiling. "Who cares about that? No, let''s change the word ''trick'' to ''flirt.'' Yeah, that''s better."


    "That''s why you''re my fiancee." Theo gave a thumbs up.


    "Hehe��" Agata''s head became closer to him before they kissed again.


    This was truly a peaceful life that Theo had dreamed of and had been working toward it. After fighting for so long, Theo deserved rest.

 Chapter 1624 Report

    1624 Report


    "I''m going," said Theo to Rea through the Skylink while waving his hand to Agata.


    Agata chuckled. They truly had some fun time in thest few days and Theo had to go again to do some work.


    Still, she was satisfied with the days they spent together. It was simple but warm, it was brief but evesting.


    A smile appeared just by remembering it. Now that Theo had gone, she gently pped her cheeks to pump more energy.


    "Alright. It''s time for me to make preparations for our marriage." She nodded. "Two to three years should be enough for everything."


    While Agata started working on their marriage, Theo met up with Rea outside their base. He was holding his Skylink, reading the information they had received regarding the movement.


    "This is what I''ve found out about their movement. ording to our observation, the one near us has the fastest progress. However, it means that those people want us to make our move to stop them.


    "As for these kinds of attacks, they wereunching it all around the world. Although we can only confirm the ces in the three bases, we can safely assume there are more attacks like this scattered all around the world.


    "I''m not sure about this, but I''m specting their time to attack. Since the situation is happening all around the world, I believe they''re going to attack us on the same day."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the map. There were seven red dots scattered in three bases. Two dots were in the US Base, specifically in Florida and Oregon. The union had discovered two spots like this in France and Ennd. As for the rest of the dots were in Kyushu, Tokyo, and Southern Hokkaido.


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "What''s their progress?"


    "The one you observed a few days ago had created a mountain of trash. Although the trash isn''t that dirty since the sea water has cleaned it, we believe the damage will be great if they dump all the trash at our ce.


    "As for the others, they''re still building the mountain. Most of them are like two to three days behind." Rea exined while showing a few pictures.


    "I see. It seems they''re trying to deal with humans all around the world."


    "Yes. That''s why we believe it''s better to create an alliance between three bases to simultaneously crush them." Rea suggested.


    "No. I''m not thinking about that." Theo shook his head.


    "Hmm?" Rea tilted her head in confusion. "Then, what do you want to say?"


    "I said they''re going to fight humans all around the world."


    Rea was still confused, but after a few seconds, she realized what Theo meant.


    "Do you mean we can find the humans'' civilization near the area they attack?"


    Theo nodded. "I want you to check the ces all around the world. I''m not sure how big they are, but I''m pretty sure they''re quite big if they''re in our enemies'' eyes.


    "For now, I want you to focus on the people among the top one hundred. Track their location and see if they''re still alive or not in the area they live. I want a special investigation about Chile, where the Mafia Queen resides."


    "Huh? Do you want to meet her? Or��" Rea didn''t continue, but her question was clear. They were talking about the new Griffith Family near the Mafia Queen, so she thought Theo wanted to save his parents.


    However, Theo shook his head and said, "This trash problem is not the end. In the future, we''re going to face a more terrible monster. Even with the help of the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint, we might still not win. So, I want as many people as possible."


    "An even more terrible monster? The slime?" Rea narrowed her eyes.


    "Maybe yes, maybe no. I can''t say for the time being, but I can assure you that the battle will happen. So, I want you to search all coasts through the satellite. With their size, it should be possible to find them, right?"


    "Yes. The trash mountains are visible from the satellites."


    "Then, please do it. By the looks of it, we seem to have some time before the attack." Theo thought for a moment before asking, "What''s the government''s stance?"


    "They''re asking us to handle this problem as soon as possible. Because you are here, they want you to solve them by yourself, so they can handle the one from Oregon. After all, the Time God will remain in the capital."


    Theo thought for a moment and shook his head. "Even if they don''t want to help us by sending soldiers, I want them to send their heavy machinery. They''re going to be useful in this battle.


    "Also, the soldiers in Kentucky will be under mymand. Bring at least someone who canmand the soldiers ording to my instruction. I don''t care about the rest of the reinforcement."


    "Got it. I''ll tell them about it." She nodded.


    "How about Maya?"


    "I''ve asked her to speed up, but because the attackes all of a sudden, it''s hard to produce so many of it. She might not bother with hiding about their operation anymore as long as she can provide you with this stuff."


    "No. Keep it hidden for the time being. It''s not the time for it to appear in front of the world." Theo shook his head. "For now, tell her to keep up the production."


    "OK."


    "Then��" Theo paused for a moment before asking, "By the way, do you know how they found us? Although we''re not that far from the sea, we''re still in a different state�� At the very least, we''re different from the union and United Asia, which directly meet the sea."


    "Huh? Are you suspecting there is a spy?" She frowned, not believing there was a human that would join hands with these monsters.


    "We don''t know about it yet, but do you remember what I did to save the union?"


    "��" Rea was speechless, never expecting this connection. "You�� are not telling me that they''re inspired by you, right?"

 Chapter ?1625 Hint

    ?1625 Hint


    Theo shrugged. "Inspired or not, they can always say it that way. Since I''ve gotten the support of the monsters, there''s a chance that it will happen twice.


    "And what I''m worried about right now is the fact that this connection is formed by greed. There should be something that this person wants from the monsters. In exchange, this person is giving out our information.


    "With the current state of the monsters, I doubt the person they contact is in a low position. So, the suspect is among the high-ranking people in the new capital."


    "What? Do they understand that if humans go extinct, they will��" Rea couldn''t even finish her sentence due to the frustrationing from the foolishness of this person.


    "Humans. I''ve lost hope in humanity since a long time ago, so who cares about it right now? All I have to think about is how to deal with it and erase this tumor as soon as possible." Theo shook his head while trying to figure out a way to handle them.


    "So, what are we going to do?"


    "What do you think we should do?" Theo asked back, wanting to see her progress.


    Rea considered the situation before saying, "I''m thinking aboutunching a surprise attack. We don''t need too many people to attack them if we only want to dy them. So, if our group acts and strikes the trash mountain, it should be able to stall them for a while.


    "That way, we can prepare for more cards to y in this battle and use them to solve them."


    "Hmm, not a bad n, but I can''t say it''s good either. First of all, you''re missing one point. Even though they''re able to get a connection to one of us, it doesn''t solve the question of how they can find other small bases all around the world.


    "I''ve seen fishes living on the ground, so there is a possibility of them going to thend and checking it themselves.


    "The moment we attack them, they''ll be forced tounch an attack all around the world. This is what we should be careful of, considering the union had just dealt with the radiation problem.


    "However, I don''t say it''s a bad n because this can fool the spy they''ve nted on our side. This way, they''ll be shocked by our attack and might change their n to the point they have to retreat for the time being."


    "I see." Rea closed her eyes, recording his statement in her head. She had to learn this to make sure she didn''t make such a mistake in the future. "But I can''t find a better n than this. The fact that there is a spy among us means we can''tunch a surprise attack while involving the government."


    "Nope." Theo smirked. "We can sneak attack them."


    "Huh?" Rea was dumbfounded. No matter how hard she tried to find a way, it was impossible. They had to know about this spy first before doing it.


    Theo exined his n with a smile. "As you said, we must create an alliance with the union and United Asia to attack them simultaneously. This is the way to keep our casualties low.


    "And I agree with you. We''re going to attack them simultaneously." Theo gave her themand. "Tell the government and convey it to all people. We''re going tounch an all-out attack in two weeks. In the meantime, send a group of elites to mess with the monsters and the trash.


    "Make it quite big so that the enemies think they''re under attack. However, don''t provoke them too much to the point it would start the battle."


    "Huh?" Rea became even more confused. She couldn''t see how this was a sneak attack. Although Theo could say the surprise attack woulde two weekster, the enemies would know about it. The continuous harassment would be considered as well after hearing the information from their spy.


    So, no matter how Theo twisted it, it was impossible to create a surprise attack.


    Theo nced at her confused expression and sighed, "It seems you haven''t reached this level yet. Agata will understand my intention with just that clue."


    "For real? I don''t understand anything. Where is the surprise attack? And more importantly, why two weekster? Two weekster, the enemies would have made enough preparation for an all-out attack." Rea scratched the back of her head as she couldn''t figure out Theo''s n.


    Theo smiled and said, "The all-out attack is two weekster because we need time to prepare. As I said earlier, the union has just finished a big battle. They need time to rest. So, I choose this date in consideration of what''s happening all around the world."


    Rea could rte to what he said, but this was hardly a surprise attack.


    However, Theo didn''t seem to be nning to tell her about his reason.


    He only said, "Just tell the government about it. I''ll do the rest."


    "I understand." Rea was disappointed in herself. This was Theo''s style of teaching. He was giving hints from time to time. If she still couldn''t find the reason, she had to go back and revise all the clues.


    Sometimes, it would give birth to apletely new idea. Sometimes, she managed to guess Theo''s thinking correctly. That was why she had to consider all the clues after giving Theo''s words to the government.


    Theo smiled and said, "Are you disappointed because I didn''t tell you anything? This is different from our usual lessons since it involves many lives."


    "No, I''m just disappointed I can''t figure out what you''re thinking. You might make this a lesson for me, but you won''t throw away thest bit of your humanity just to teach me. I''m sure you''ve considered what will happen if I still can''t find the answer within these two weeks. That''s why�� I''ll make sure to use this opportunity to learn from you, Teacher."


    Theo smiled, satisfied with his student''s attitude.


    "In that case, you handle all the preparation. I''m going to make some preparations, so don''t bother me for a while."


    "Understood."

 Chapter 1626 Recognition

    1626 Recognition


    After giving his order to Rea, Theo finally left the US Base.


    "Hmm��" Theo looked at the map of Mexico. "This is troublesome. Mexico is big, so I don''t know where to find it. Well, I can kinda locate it one way or another, but it might take a bit too long.


    "There is also a problem with a World ss Monster. I don''t really want to get into any conflict with this guy."


    Theo narrowed his eyes. "In any case, I have a time limit."


    Without wasting any more seconds, he rushed toward Mexico from his current position. He had to cross multiple states after all, and all of them were filled with monsters. So, he had to be fast.


    Theo also couldn''t save the people he found on the way. Though, he didn''t mind killing as many monsters as possible during his trip.


    Not only could it help the people around that area, but he could also gain some levels.


    Theo nced at his current level after going through many things.


    "Hmm, I''m 20 levels away from level 900. As expected, leveling up from above level 850 is quite hard. There are rarely monsters this strong, and even if there are monsters like this, they''re General ss Monsters or even stronger.


    "So, killing them will cause a lot of problems, and it might notify the King ss Monster in that area.


    "Although it''s quite good to be able to kill more monsters, especially the King ss Monster, the excessive killing will cause more problems such as theck of orders, both the Order from the world and the order that the King ss Monster had maintained in his territory.


    "So, I have to kill normal or elite ss monsters most of the time. I wonder if the World ss Monster in Mexico will stop me. If that''s the case, I think I can use that chance to level up to 900.


    "After all, the World ss Monster would try to hunt me down," Theo muttered inwardly, thinking about his course of action in Mexico.


    Still, fighting a World ss Monster meant fighting his entire territory. Unless the World ss Monster wanted a fair duel between them, there was no way he wouldn''t be interrupted by other monsters.


    Multiple King ss Monsters would besiege him, and other monsters would hinder his movements. So, fighting the World ss Monster without a n was simply a foolish move.


    This was also why the Death Reaper and the Fist Saint tried to make weapons of mass destruction to help them in the fight. Those weapons could hinder the Frost Saint and stop the King ss Monsters from interfering. Although he only destroyed one of them, he knew there were a few weapons like that scattered around.


    So, Theo knew it would be impossible for him to fight the World ss Monster by himself. Due to this reason, Clone Theo, who had been meditating to stabilize his power, opened his eyes and came out of his temple.


    He walked down the stairs and immediately headed to Hel''s house.


    As if expecting him toe, Hel opened the door with her Magic Power and allowed him to enter.


    Theo walked carefully and found Hel sitting on the floor, meditating. The house was filled with skeletons who took care of the chores in the house.


    "You want to talk to me, right? Is it time for you to leave?" Hel asked.


    "Unfortunately, yes. I didn''t expect that the situation would be this bad." Theo sighed and sat down in front of Hel. "So, I''m wondering if you''re going to stay here or not."


    Hel smiled and said, "I believe you have heard about my legend, right?"


    "��" Theo paused for a moment, recalling her myth. There was one thing that clicked in his mind. This one particr record seemed to answer his doubt.


    "I see." Theo sighed. "It was said that among his children, you were the most uninterested in the world''s affairs. What you wanted was to live together with those who understood you the most�� the undead. That was why you were given Helheim."


    "They didn''t give me. They threw me away. Though, I didn''t really mind at that time�� And right now, I have to wait for a little longer. I believe there is going to be a great change in the world. And at that time, I''ll make my move.


    "I"m sorry, but I''m not going to do anything for the time being. This world doesn''t need the relic of the past. They need you to lead the future." Hel smiled.


    "Is that so?" Theo was a bit disappointed, but he didn''t try to change Hel''s mind. He looked into her eyes before politely bowing to her. "Thank you for everything you''ve done for me. From teaching me to protecting me, I''m d that you''re there."


    "What''s this? It feels like you''re trying not to meet me anymore." Hel chuckled.


    "Haha, of course not. I believe we''ll meet soon. Two to three years at thetest. After all, you don''t minding into my marriage, right?"


    "Of course, if you invite me. And congrattions."


    "I''ll be looking forward to the day I meet you again. And I''m afraid that the moment we meet, you''re going toe with him��" Theo smirked.


    "It seems we think alike." Hel patted Theo''s shoulder and said, "Still, remember this before you go.


    "Right now, the world doesn''t have Helheim or any other Hell. So, the moment you die, your soul will be lost, not going to Valha nor to Reincarnation. That''s why you have to treat life more gently."


    "I know. But don''t say it like I''m going to die." Theo chuckled. "Even if I''m going to die, I shall change that reality. After all, I''m the Reality Saint."


    "No. That''s not right, Theo. I didn''t mean you''re going to die." Hel smiled. "After all, in my eyes, you are not a Reality Saint. We didn''t have those terms back then. Instead, you are the God of Reality, Theodore Griffith. I''m proud of you. Keep doing what you believe is right."


    Theo''s body trembled a bit. Hel was a kind of older sister''s figure as well as his mentor, so calling him the God of Reality like the reflection of the people in the past meant she recognized him as a full-grown adult. In her eyes, they had be equal. This was the highest recognition he could get from Hel.


    This praise put a smile on his face as he said, "Then, it''s time for me to go. Take care, will you?"


    "See youter."

 Chapter 1627 Negotiation

    1627 Negotiation


    Rea was sitting in front of the one in charge of the military base in Kentucky.


    He had long blond hair tied neatly on his back. His face was calm and rxed, but it seemed he was assessing everything around him, including Rea. On his shoulder were two silver stars, signifying his rank.


    "So, what''s the opinion of Mr. Theodore Griffith?" He asked with a serious expression, considering Theo''s decision would be important in this uing battle.


    Rea hesitated for a moment since she still didn''t understand Theo''s n. However, Theo must have given her the n because he was sure it would work.


    If he could even confuse her, the enemies wouldn''t know what Theo was thinking either.


    So, Rea told him Theo''s n. "ording to my Teacher, he wishes tounch an all-out attack in two weeks. That decision came after considering the troop''s cement as well as the heavy machinery.


    "Of course, the biggest reason was the fact that these two weeks should be enough to create an alliance between the three bases and attack those sea creatures at the same time. It should allow us to push them back simultaneously, making them unable to concentrate their force in one ce."


    "The alliance between three bases and two weeks, huh? That''s understandable. Though, the problem is how we should deal with the enemies. I believe the one near us haspleted their mountain, right?" He asked.


    "We''re going to send elite teams to harass them and buy enough time for us to mobilize our troops. I believe you, Major General Logan, should be enough to handle this matter, right?"


    "If I only have to dispatch an elite team to harass them, then yes. But if we''re talking about an elite team, wouldn''t it be better for your group to make a move?" Logan asked.


    "That''s what I thought at first, but if we made a move first, the enemies would realize our strength and send strong monsters to stop us. On the other hand, if you first harassed them, they would send weaker monsters. When your team couldn''t handle them anymore, we would make our move. This way, we could prolong the time to two weeks."


    "I see. I can understand your reason. There is one problem. If I were to send my elite team, I would have to consider the movement of our headquarters too. After all, we might also need to bring the people from the headquarters." Logan raised one finger, focusing on this one problem.


    They had limited troops. Since this side had Theo, the other side could only rely on numbers. So, he had to consider the number of soldiers in this ce.


    "Don''t worry." Rea shook her head calmly. "We won''t ask for reinforcement from the headquarters. Instead, we''ll protect this area with only the soldiers of this base alone. Just keep minimal personnel near all borders to stop any monsters around us and send everyone to the battlefield.


    "Theo said, ''that''s enough.'' Of course, I hope the headquarters can send us some heavy weapons and support."


    "You''re quite confident, eh..." Logan scratched the back of his head. "Don''t you think this is a bit too rash?"


    "Well, I feel the same. However, we''re talking about Theo here. If he says it''s enough, it should be enough." Rea sighed. "That''s just my desperate reason since I don''t understand his ns either. Well, the decision is up to you."


    "I''ll ry your request to the headquarters first. Do you want to add anything?"


    "No. I don''t think so." Rea shook her head.


    "Still, where is Theodore Griffith? If he is the one exining it to me, I''ll surelyply with his condition. I don''t mean to look down on you, but he is just different." Logan sighed.


    "I know." Rea closed her eyes for a moment. Before Theo left, Theo had given her four letters.


    "These are four letters for you. Each letter has time to open it. If you choose to open it, the battle n might fail." Theo handed the letters to her.


    Rea was confused at that time and read the description of the letter.


    After leaving.


    If people couldn''t ept the battle n.


    In the battle.


    Last resort.


    The description was simple, but the message was clear. As soon as Theo left to prepare for the battle, she could open the first letter. Theo believed there would be people who didn''t want to ept his battle n, so if she couldn''t contain them, she could open the second letter.


    And after the battle started, she could open the third one. Only when there seemed to be no more hope that she could open thest one.


    Hence, Rea had opened the first letter since Theo had left this ce.


    Rea told Logan what the letter said from word to word. "I''ll be leaving until the time for the battle hase. I don''t know if I can finish this sooner, but I''ll try my best. However, if I can''te back before the battle begins, I''ll leave everything in your hands. Your word is my word.


    "This is the message he left me. I believe this is enough to answer your doubt." Rea looked at Logan with a serious expression. "I might not be experienced in battle, but I have followed him for quite a while. Although I''m not as good as him, I still can employ a few of his tricks.


    "Don''t forget that the enemies are in Florida. The first thing they''re going to hit is our base which is located in the southeast of Kentucky. With Agata, his fiancee, staying there, do you think he will abandon everything and just leave?"


    When Logan heard all these reasons, he couldn''t help but agree with Rea. If Theo didn''t care about Agata, he wouldn''t bother to announce their rtionship in front of the world.


    That was why he wouldn''t abandon Agata.


    Logan contemted for a moment before agreeing with her decision. "Alright. I''ll convey everything to headquarters. If you don''t mind, you can stay here today. I believe they''ll give us a reply tomorrow. What do you think?"


    "Sounds good." Rea nodded in agreement. "I''ll be looking forward to the reply."

 Chapter ?1628 Approval

    ?1628 Approval


    A muscr man knocked on the door.


    "Mr. President. General Reyhan is visiting."


    "Tell him toe in."


    The security leader opened the door for the general before leaving the room after noticing the Time God sitting on the couch as if trying to protect him.


    General Reyhan was a man in his nies. He had a long scar that ran from one cheek to another. His spiky brown hair and fierce eyes made people scared of him.


    But in front of the president, he politely greeted him. "Mr. President."


    "General Reyhan. So, why do you wish to meet me today?"


    "I''ve brought the report regarding Theodore Griffith''s stance in this battle. We''ve discussed this together with the secretary of defense and agree with this n. But we''ll need your final approval."


    "Mhm? So, you''re the only one visiting me? Where is Mr. Secretary?" The president furrowed his eyebrows before chuckling. "Well, that''s less important. For now, let''s hear about the n first."


    "Understood." Reyhan retold the entire report with the help of the map. The exnation was concise and the n was reasonable.


    "So, that means we can rally all our troops to Oregon?"


    "Yes, Sir. Though, they''re requesting some support too like heavy artillery and air support."


    "And how much do you think we should send?"


    "Since we can rally most of our men, we shouldn''t be too stingy either. We can safely assume a third of our weapons. After all, Theodore Griffith only has about 15000 thousand soldiers in that area. So, this should be enough to show our sincerity in supporting him to defend the base.


    "On that front, there will be Theodore Griffith and his two Transcendent Level Experts. On the western front, we have five Transcendent Level Experts and all personnel. This should be enough."


    The president nodded in agreement. "If that''s the case, I approve the mobilization. However, I still think two weeks is a bit too long for a surprise attack."


    "That''s understandable, Sir. However, these two weeks came after careful consideration. As he said to us, he wanted to create an alliance between the three bases.


    "We should be able to finish our preparation within fourteen days, but if we want to rush it, we can finish it within ten days.


    "However, we have to consider the other two bases as well. United Asia has the Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, and the Daemon. They all protected each side, so their mobilization could be faster.


    "But it''ll be a different case if we''re talking about the union. The union has to protect two spots, and there is only Flora there. So, one of the spots doesn''t have someone that strong to support just like us.


    "Still, we''re lucky to have Sir Time God to protect the capital, allowing us to fight without worry. Meanwhile, they''re going to leave their headquarters empty because if Flora takes one spot, the rest of the Transcendent Level Experts have to guard the other spot together.


    "So, these two weeks are Theo''s gift to the War Saint. I''m sure you''re aware of his achievement, so two weeks are enough for the War Saint to fortify their defense, allowing them to defend a spot without relying on Flora."


    "I see." The president nodded in understanding. "So, he is carefully considering everything and giving us this time."


    "Yes."


    "What do you think about his n? How high is our chance to deal with them?"


    "Eighty percent if everything goes ording to the n. We don''t know much about the strength of the enemies, so we can''t be too optimistic."


    The president then asked thest question. "And where is Theodore Griffith right now? You said Nagasawa Rea was the one telling us about this n��"


    "That''s��" Reyhan scratched the back of his head, not knowing how to exin it. "Theodore Griffith is currently on leave. We don''t know where he is right now. Even his people aren''t aware of his whereabouts. He is only leaving this message��"


    Reyhan handed him the message Theo left for Rea. He made sure to write it from word to word.


    The president furrowed his eyebrows when he realized Theo was missing. "Two weeks, huh�� And he doesn''t know whether he can go back in time or not. Should we extend our time a bit?"


    "I''m afraid we can''t do that, Sir. Two weeks is the limit. We have to send people to harass our enemies, so we can''t make it too long or our enemies will be too pissed andunch an all-out attack first. All we can do right now is to pray for Theodore Griffith to go back in time."


    The president nodded in understanding. "Well, I don''t know what he is nning, but the fact that it takes this long, I''m sure he has prepared something big that can give us victory. For the time being, we have to give our all in stalling for time."


    "Yes, we''ll be sure to send our elites to handle this mission."


    "Good. You have my approval for this. However, what do you think about leaving some people behind in case Theo couldn''te back in time?" The president asked.


    "In that case, why don''t I go there to help?" The Time God finally opened his mouth, stunning both of them.


    Although the president knew the Time God was neutral, it didn''t change the fact that the Time God seemed to be fond of Theo. So, him trying to help Theo was as expected.


    The president thought for a moment and looked at Reyhan. "What do you think?"


    "With Sir Time God''s guarantee, we don''t need to fear. As for sparing some people to help the other front in the worst-case scenario, please don''t worry, Sir. It''s not like we''re mobilizing all of our reserve armies. So, we should be able to muster thirty thousand soldiers to stall time."


    "I see. That''s good then. I''ll leave the nning to you, the elites. Just keep me up to date with the progress."


    "Understood." Reyhan stood up, straightened his back, and saluted. "Then��"


    He turned around and left the room, nning to give back the reply.

 Chapter 1629 A Spy

    1629 A Spy


    That night, after everyone had returned to their home. Someone was actually talking to someone in their Skylink.


    "Yeah. That''s the n. It''s better for you to attack them earlier. So, maybe in a week or so. And don''t forget to pretend to fall for their tricks to let them drop their guards."


    The sounding from the Skylink was rough and its hoarse voice sounded like it wasn''t from a human.


    It replied to this man. "You don''t have to worry about what we''re nning to do. We are not like humans who will rely on sneak attacks.


    "If they want to harass us, we''ll show them who among us is stronger! If they want tounch an all-out attack, we shall defeat them first."


    "You�� If you send your strong people the moment they harass you, they''ll realize something is off. They might suspect me as a spy." The man gritted his teeth.


    "That will be better. By letting them know there is a spy among them, it''ll make them wary. They won''t trust each other and chaos will spread from them. There won''t be any more instruction to those people at the bottom and we can defeat those disorganized humans."


    "What? You''re putting me in danger."


    "Don''t forget, human. You are only our lowly ve. We''ve promised not to kill you in exchange for your loyalty. However, don''t push us too much. If you don''t do well, we might kill you as well!"


    "You��"


    "We are the supreme race that should rule this world that is mostly filled with water. It''s because of your human stupidity that threatens our environment with all the trash that you''re in this situation right now. This is retribution. If you think you can stop us, then try it."


    The man gritted his teeth, never expecting this guy to be so stubborn.


    "There is a human called Theodore Griffith. If you underestimate him too much, you''ll suffer."


    "Theodore Griffith this, Theodore Griffith that. We don''t care. He is not even the strongest human, so why should we care? And in this battle, he shall die together with the rest of the humans."


    "You��" The man gritted his teeth. All the humans had known how ferocious Theo was in battle. However, these creatures weren''t aware of Theo''s reputation. They thought humans were just lowly races that could be easily conquered by their overwhelming power.


    No matter how hard he tried to warn them, they wouldn''t listen to him.


    "These creatures�� I have warned them!" He mmed the table in frustration.


    ��


    Theo and Rea had expected a spy among them. But Rea didn''t know that the spy worked as soon as he got the information.


    She was resting on her bed while waiting for the reply from the headquarters.


    The next morning, she was called by the soldier to meet Logan, who had received the reply from the headquarters.


    "We have received the reply." Logan handed her the document while telling her the summary. "The headquarters have agreed to your n and will send a third of our support here. However, the soldiers will go to the other front to handle the monsters there."


    Maya confirmed what he said. The documents stated the same thing.


    ''Then, does this mean I''ve been mistaken about Theo''s letter? I thought that people couldn''t ept the battle n because it was a bit ridiculous��'' Rea paused for a moment.


    There was one thing she hadn''t thought of. Rea was inexperienced inmanding a huge battle. Unlike Theo, who had done so many real-life simtion games against his grandfather, Rea didn''t know much aboutmanding the army.


    That was the reason why Theo asked one person to handle the army on her behalf.


    She nced at Logan, who stood up and saluted.


    "I''ll be under yourmand in this battle. Let me learn from the so-called disciple of Theodore Griffith as well as the daughter of the Sword Saint."


    "I''m no one. I have no reputation other than relying on those two big figures. So, I won''t bemanding your troops. I can give you some advice on how to send the people, and I''ll also tell you about the ns during the battle, but the decision will be yours.


    "I hope that you can use your experience to support me in the uing battle." Rea smiled. After Logan gave her the authority, Rea humbly returned it to him without rejecting the idea of her leading the battle.


    This way, both of them could do their jobs respectively.


    Logan smiled. Rea might be inexperienced in his eyes, but she seemed aware she was too green and allowed him tomand the army. She didn''t show her arrogance and blindly rushed to the battlefield with that authority. It was truly an act befitting her status as Theo''s disciple.


    "In that case, I''ll have the pleasure of fighting under you." Logan nodded in agreement.


    "Mhm." Rea nodded and read the rest of the documents to make sure about their deployment.


    After reading the documents, Rea added two things. "By the way, I want you to ce your soldiers on the front line as soon as possible. Also, tell your elite squads to be extra careful."


    "Understood." Logan nodded.


    Since she had fulfilled her task in this ce, she left the base and immediately rushed back to their territory.


    ''I guess I should burn Theo''s second letter since it doesn''t seem I''ll be using it. The battle n has been epted anyway�� Or maybe I should ask Agata about this? Agata is more experienced than me, considering she has been helping the military in United Asia. She is also more skilled in this kind of battle��''


    Rea contemted for a moment before another answer came into her head.


    "Wait a minute�� I''m inexperienced, right? If that''s the case, the battle n might not be his battle n but mine. He thinks they won''t ept my order because I''m still too green, so at that time, I should open that letter��"


    This answer made Rea fall into deep thought before deciding not to rely on Agata for the time being. This was a test from Theo, so she had to finish it alone.

 Chapter 1630 Alexandra Boric

    1630 Alexandra Boric


    "Hu��" Theo took a deep breath. He had been flying for a whole day while killing all the monsters he encountered. However, he could barely reach Texas even with his strength.


    He checked his body condition and muttered, "As expected, the enemies might not be that strong, but there are so many of them. Even with my current strength, the process drains my Magic Power quite a bit.


    "This is probably the reason why the monster usually doesn''t leave their nest. Well, if you take a look at it, I can be equal to a World ss Monster. Ruth, Felix, and Rea are King ss Monsters. General ss Monsters are the rest of the group, with Elite and Normal ss Monsters being the military.


    "Looking at thisparison, we have a pretty simr system. Though, in my case, I can''t mobilize the military easily."


    "Anyway, that''s not important. What I should worry about is my next course. If I continue this way, I should be able to find the World ss Monster within two days. Though, I should watch out for King ss Monsters surrounding that monster.


    "Hopefully, I can gain some understanding from the World ss Monster, and it''ll help me find this pir hidden somewhere in Mexico," Theo muttered while scratching the back of his head.


    With this thought in mind, Theo continued advancing through all kinds of hurdles. He killed the monsters without hesitation. Although he found some humans roaming in the street or some bases that still stood after two years since the apocalypse, he didn''t talk to them. He just saved them by killing the monsters around that area before moving on.


    Unbeknownst to him, there was actually a movement in Chile.


    Underground.


    There was a room filled with ten people. The room seemed to have been reinforced by thick concrete, making sure nothing could destroy it.


    In the middle of the room was a huge round table that could amodate all ten people.


    One of the people sitting among them was a woman with short spiky blond hair. She had a scar from her forehead to her right cheek, blinding her right eye.


    In her mouth was a cigarette she had lit up a moment ago. Despite showing such a fierce smile, she was wearing a formal suit, toning down her excitement.


    With a smile, she nced to the right, finding a bald old man.


    "What''s wrong, old man? Everything is under control, right?"


    "I''m afraid not. We don''t know what is happening, but the people we''ve sent to check the trash on the shore have disappeared. I''m assuming they''ve died."


    "Mhm?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "If I remember correctly, they were your elites, right?"


    "Yeah. They were the ones observing them this whole time, but this was the first time we had lost contact with them. So��"


    "You are assuming they''re attacked by those monsters?"


    "Yeah." The old man sighed while looking at the blue-haired man on the opposite side. "Why don''t you get to work this time?"


    "We''ve sent our investigation team as well. But a third of them suddenly disappeared yesterday. For now, I''m pulling it out for the moment." The blue-haired man shook his head helplessly. "Though, I do have one important piece of news."


    "What is it?" The woman asked.


    "One of the teams actually believed that they saw a monster releasing a colorful Magic Power."


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes in shock. Having another color of Magic Power meant they were a King ss Monster, so they couldn''t underestimate whatever they were dealing with right now.


    The woman closed her eyes for a moment and asked, "What about ourmunication station? Have they been rebuilt?"


    "Too many technicians died after the apocalypse, so we couldn''t progress too much. However, we managed to set up amunicationwork for the people around us. But��"


    "But what?" The woman felt something bad.


    As she expected, the news wasn''t something pleasant to the ear.


    "We''re building a radio station right now, but I''m afraid the radio waves can be sensed by the monsters. In other words, with such a huge building to try to connect to the rest of the world��"


    He paused, delivering enough messages for the woman.


    "I see. It seems that the tower is actually bringing them here." The woman pinched the bridge of her nose. "The fact that there is a King ss supervising it means this action is started by the will of a World ss Monster.


    "Although I am among the top ten experts in the world, I don''t have confidence in fighting the rest. My rank is high due to my support ability, not my fighting prowess. So, what should we do with a threat like this?"


    The man who reported about their connection raised his hand and added, "Of course, themunicationwork is a sess despite having such a fatal w. We''ve tried sending messages to a much farther area.


    "It seems that there is a huge base in our north. We don''t know too much about it, but the base is huge enough to function as a country."


    "Our north�� Americans?"


    "Most likely."


    She contemted for a moment. "Are you suggesting abandoning this ce and heading to the US Base?"


    Since they managed to protect their connection to the satellites for months, they were aware of the US Base. However, it was still an unstable base since the apocalypse had just begun.


    And after two years, the man confirmed that the base managed to withstand everything and appear as a safe haven.


    So, they believed the base was their chance to survive.


    "If that''s the case, then the Time God has been protecting that ce this whole time. It''s indeed a good ce to migrate. But there are numerous monsters, especially in Mexico. So, how in the world can we reach that ce?" The woman bit her lips. Although she wanted to have some hope, she had to be realistic.


    "Still, it''s better than letting the monster kill us like this. We don''t know what they''re doing either, but there is one thing for sure. Whatever they''re nning to do, it''ll be a devastating blow to us.


    "We currently have numbers, but if we retreat after they attack us�� we won''t have enough people to fight the World ss Monster in Mexico." A brown-haired woman suddenly opened her mouth, suggesting the n to her.

 Chapter ?1631 Leaving

    1631 Leaving


    After hearing that n, the woman narrowed her eyes. She was one of the top ten experts in the world located in Chile, the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric.


    Unlike other top ten experts who focused on their martial prowess, she was the only one who had a support system. After all, she was known as the number one Enchanter in the world.


    She could help all the people under her, making her group to be stronger than any other group of the same level. This was the reason why she had a higher rankingpared to the rest.


    Her threat level was simply higher than the rest, especially because she made the biggest mafia group in Chile.


    She thought for a moment and red at the brown-haired woman. "We currently have one thousand people in our group. You want me to sacrifice them to survive; Is that what you mean, Valerie?"


    Yes. The one suggesting the n earlier was none other than the Valkyrie, Valerie Guerrero.


    Feeling the intense gaze from Alexa, she didn''t fear confirming her n. Of course, she also added, "I''m not saying it''s sacrificing the people. All people have to work ording to their proportion and those who are lucky shall survive. We''re talking about a World ss Monster here�� Instead of fighting against a World ss Monster that has prepared for this attack, it''s better to take the other one on with surprise attacks.


    "You, I, and everyone here are expected to fight to give an equal chance of survival." Valerie looked back at Alexa, showing how serious she was with this n.


    "What do you think, old man?" She nced back at the old man. He was her most trusted aid, so she asked for his opinion at the very end.


    "If we fight these sea creatures, we''ll be attacked by whatever they''re nning and swarmed by their number. Even if we use all our strength, we don''t know how many of us will survive. My assumption, only some elites and half of the people here. After all, we''ll be chased deeper to Paraguay or Argentina. Those two ces have World ss Monsters as well.


    "But if we follow that n, we can indeed have a higher chance to survive. Most likely, a third of our group will survive�� But if we can execute the n carefully, half of us might be able to reach the base." He exined his thoughts on this n.


    His importance was shown by how Alexa fell into deep thought after listening to his exnation.


    "Hmm? Do you think there are survivors in Mexico?" Alexa asked.


    "I don''t know. But if I try to understand what you''re thinking, you must be nning to gather all the survivors from all countries in our path, right? From Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and all the way to Mexico�� With your ability, you can boost their abilities. Though there is one thing you should worry about.


    "Not all of them will be a fighter, so they might even be our burden. Though, this is your decision to make as the head of our group."


    Alexa contemted for a moment. On the one hand, she didn''t like the thought of abandoning or sacrificing people under her. This was the reason she could gain their loyalty. On the other hand, the world had just experienced the apocalypse.


    She could take care of her subordinates in the past since the threat only came from the police, government, and other syndicates. But this time, there was another threat that could even crush a civilization, the monsters.


    Clearly, her strength wouldn''t be enough to protect all members of her organization.


    ''It seems that I have to be ruthless this time. The world has changed, so if I don''t change, this group shall be destroyed.'' Alexa took a deep breath and said, "Old man. Gather the people and get ready to leave. We''ll sneak away before the enemies realize what we''re nning to do.


    "We''ll move tonight and make sure no one can spot the preparation. Valerie, Ray. Your Griffith Family should be capable enough to find our path to that base, right?"


    "Certainly." Ray and Valerie nodded. "Leave the path to us."


    "What we need right now is speed, so don''t pack up too much stuff. Just make sure it''s enough for survival. Because we''re going to pick up people in our path to strengthen our group, we will also slow down our paces to match them.


    "The refugees are yours, Vicente. Make sure they can keep up with us. I want to set up a target. If possible, we have to reach the base within two weeks. So, I expect them to be either running or getting carried. Bring buses as well to pick them up.


    "All our vanguards shall clean the path before they cross. If they don''t wish to be rescued, then so be it. If they try to stop us, kill them without mercy. If they want to submit to us and fight for the sake of the group, we''ll wee them.


    "No matter what, our ck Cross Group shall survive this ordeal. Understood?" Alexa red at her people.


    Everyone except for Ray and Valerie answered in unison. "Yes, Ma''am."


    "Get to work!" Alexa waved her hand, dismissing them.


    Surprisingly, the old man stayed on his spot, waiting for the rest to leave.


    It seemed Alexa knew what he wanted to talk about as she asked, "So, do you think this is the right move, old man?"


    "I don''t know. It might guarantee a higher survival chance, but there''s no telling what the people in that base do to us. After all, we''re the ck Cross."


    "That''s true. I don''t want to be someone''s dog too." Alexa nodded while narrowing her eyes. "For now, I''ll still go there. With the refugees we bring, the base should ept us. After that, our next move will be decided on how they react."


    "Sounds good enough." The old man nodded. "Still, speed is everything. We will need all drivers to work in a shift so that we can reach our destination within two weeks. It''s going to be dangerous, but this is a choice we must make."

 Chapter 1632 An Encounter?

    1632 An Encounter?


    There were options they could choose such as staying in other countries that they believed no World ss Monster stayed inside, such as Bolivia, Colombia, and Venezu.


    However, Bolivia was too close to their former ce. They were afraid the sea monsters would chase after them, so they had to go further to either Colombia or Venezu. But that came with a huge risk as well because both of them were near the coast. Although they could stay a bit further from the coast, they might still be spotted by the monsters again sooner orter.


    There was also another reason why they chose to go to this base. Unlike the base''s situation, which still had a connection to the satellite, they didn''t have anything to take advantage of. In other words, their civilization would be dyed while the US Base would advance by leaps and bounds.


    By the time the US Base had reached their ce, it would be simr to modern people staring at medieval people. The gap would be simply too big.


    Hence, they should go all the way through and reach the base.


    This was Alexa''s thought. However, this made the journey even harder because normally, they needed a few weeks or even a month to make this trip in a safe world.


    But now, there were numerous monsters standing in their way. Not only did they have to kill them, but they had to protect the people in their group.


    That was why this trip carried a huge risk, which made Alexa ask the old man again whether she should do it or not.


    And after listening to his answer, Alexa let out a long sigh andmanded her group to set forth, using the dark sky as their cover.


    The sea creatures didn''t know yet the people had left the area.


    And Alexa was clever. Since she knew they managed to find them because of themunication tower, they used that tower to send a message to the people around. The real goal wasn''t the message. Instead, they just wanted to let the monsters know they were still there.


    The monsters would notice sooner orter since there wouldn''t be anyoneing to disturb them anymore. But they wouldn''t realize it that soon because they had just eliminated many elite teams that investigated them.


    They believed the people were afraid because everyone was killed.


    While they were drunk in victory, Alexa reached Colombia and kept continuing forward.


    The group faced a lot of hurdles on this trip. The first one was the supply. They had to kill monsters in the way and use them as their food supply, but because of their number, they had to consider their drinking water as well, slowing them down because of the search.


    They had also freed a few survivor groups. It might be due to surviving in this harsh world for two years, the people who were still alive looked strong and determined. They wanted to survive and the moment they realized this group was led by one of the top ten experts in the world, they joined the group to head to a better ce.


    Alexa also had an easy time using her abilities to support a thousand people. Her ability was simr to the pope. However, the pope could only heal a few hundred people at once, while she could support a few thousand people with all her strength. That was why the group became even stronger.


    This additional power was good for the ck Cross because they had enough people to help them during their journey. And they kept absorbing all bases they found, except for the bandit group and the cannibal group that attacked them.


    And due to the constant driving, even during the night, the group managed to reach Colombia in four days. The problem would be crossing the Darien Gap situated between Colombia and Panama.


    Still, with their number, it was easy to make a road by using their Magic Power. They only had to watch out for other threats in the wilderness and they should be able to reach the other side.


    It wasn''t an easy journey either. Not only were there a lot of bandit groups, but there were also many monsters looming around the wilderness. Additionally, the swamp and mountain that covered most of their roads slowed them down.


    They didn''t realize yet that what awaited them in Mexico was a thirty-foot-tall scorpion. Its giant body wasn''t only tough but also poisonous. The tail was dropping out a green liquid that kept dropping from time to time, melting the soil. Its pedipalps were also tough and could crush almost everything.


    This was the World ss Monster in Mexico.


    It would be an even harder opponent since Alexa was an Enchanter instead of anyone else. She wouldn''t be able to defeat the monster even after strengthening all the people in her camp. After all, the scorpion also had numerous subordinates, including a few King ss Monsters that resided near him.


    But it might be her good fortune for not wanting to sacrifice her people. Theo was actually heading to the scorpion''s location.


    Instead of fighting the scorpion head-on, he wanted to try to reason with the scorpion in exchange for something.


    The scorpion was looking at the sky before a King ss Monster came to his side. "Saint. There seems to be a movement in the north. We''re not sure about it for the time being, but it seems there is a human walking around in our territory."


    The scorpion remained silent for a moment before asking, "Who is that person? What is his strength?"


    "We''re not sure. I''m about to go there to check his strength."


    "Then, check it. The fact that he tries to venture into this area alone means he has some confidence in defeating our people, who have thoroughly ughtered all humans in the area. There is a chance that he is as strong as you, so be careful."


    "Understood." The King ss Monster nodded and disappeared to check this disturbance, which it wouldn''t realize to be another Saint.

 Chapter 1633 Angry

    1633 Angry


    In the meantime, Rea had been preparing for the iing battle. She frowned every time she heard the report from Logan.


    "This is��" Rea furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you sure about it?"


    "Yes. We don''t know the reason as well, but all our elite teams are eliminated. Some of them managed to give us some messages, telling us they were ambushed by Mythical Rank Monsters along with one King ss Monster."


    "��" Rea frowned. Even though they were fighting another intelligent race, they never expected they would act this way. "Why do they send forth a King ss Monster?"


    "We don''t know about it either. Where is Theodore Griffith?"


    "He hasn''te back." Rea shook her head, assessing the situation calmly. "There is no reason for the monsters to send forth a King ss Monster yet. They might act as if expecting us toe, but it''s not at the point of sending a King ss Monster��"


    Logan also furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing how this could happen. He agreed to the n because it was reasonable from his point of view. Yet, the monsters actually behaved weirdly.


    Unlike Logan, who was working with Rea, other people from the other fronts wereining.


    Rea was facing the Transcendent Level Experts in Oregon.


    "Where is Theodore Griffith?" One of them raised his voice while mming the table. "Do you know what we''ve lost here?"


    Rea didn''t say anything. She maintained her calm expression as if everything went ording to n.


    "Nagasawa Rea. Don''t think just because you''re the Sword Saint''s daughter, you can escape the responsibility! Bring Theodore Griffith right now!" Another one snarled at her.


    However, there was one person whose remark made her angry. He was a middle-aged man with a long chin. After reaching this situation, he was the first to me Theo.


    "This is why we can''t rely on Theodore Griffith. He must be drunk in his victory and think everything will go ording to his n the whole time. No matter how reliable he looks, he is still a brat who is wet behind his ears."


    Rea frowned when she heard that remark. "Mr. Salvatore, I don''t mind if youin about me, but I don''t appreciate your remark about my teacher. Please take back your words."


    "Taking back my words? I''m simply stating the fact. See the cost of us trusting that brat? We''ve lost many elite teams to the monsters!" Salvatore harrumphed. "We''re the ones who should be asking him to take responsibility for this matter. Do you think we''ll let this go with just an apology?"


    Rea gritted her teeth. When she was about to explode, Anna suddenly entered the camera and said with a smile, "Mr. Salvatore. This n has been approved by the military headquarters as well as the president himself. Just because Theo has given this n doesn''t mean the n will go through the staff in the white house or the president himself. Unless you''re implying that''s the case�� Then, this is not a matter between us anymore. Instead, it''s your business with the headquarters."


    Salvatore''s body shook for a bit while he red at her. "What did you say?"


    "I''m simply stating the facts, unlike you, who love twisting the facts to fit your agenda." Agata shrugged her shoulders.


    "You! Do you think you can be responsible for your words just because you''re his woman?"


    "I''m simply speaking as a former special adviser of United Asia''s Combined Force under the supervision of Heavenly Sovereign, Sword Saint, and Daemon, the three big heroes. If you think I''m still inexperienced, then please call the Combined Force to get them to exin my deeds." Agata still maintained her calm expression, not scared of the threat.


    "You��" Salvatore gritted his teeth. He didn''t have anything to rebuke her anymore. Unlike Rea, Agata was more experienced in conversation like this as she almost tricked Theo a few times. Even Salvatore got owned by her to the point he could only shout, "Hmph. Then, what''s the n? Theodore Griffith can only hide behind a woman."


    Rea had enough of the disrespect, but Agata ced her hand on her shoulder, stopping Rea. After that, she said, "So, you want a n from the likes of us? That''s right�� You said earlier that we''ve drunk in our victory. Don''t you think it''s unwise to ask us for a n?"


    Salvatore wanted to burst out, but the other Transcendent Level Expert stopped him by asking, "Miss Agata. Please understand Mr. Salvatore''s condition. After all, he has just lost several elite teams, making him doubt Mr. Theo''s n. However, we should stand together right now because the threat is greater than we expected.


    "If you have a better n that can match the situation, that''ll be for the best. After all, we don''t have Theo now, so I hope you can give some suggestions."


    "��" Agata didn''t have a change of expression. She only looked at him as if she had lost her interest and said, "The n will be exined by Rea, his student."


    "Me?" Rea looked at her dumbfoundedly.


    "Theo gave themand to you, so you''re the one creating the n. I''m sure you''ve thought of a way to adjust to the current situation, right?" Agata smiled, assuring her.


    "That''s��" Rea took a deep breath and finally exined her ns. "My current n is to send one or two Transcendent Level Experts to attack them swiftly. It''s not that different from the previous n. We''re going to hit their mountain and destroy it.


    "There must be a reason for them stacking it into a mountain instead of spreading it evenly. So, destroying the mountain should buy some time. With the strength of a Transcendent Level Expert, we should be able to retain our power."


    The n was reasonable. A Transcendent Level Expert''s prowess was more than many elite teams.


    But as expected, Salvatore was the first one to object. "What a dumb n. Do you know what it means for us to risk our lives? What if the enemy knows about it and ambushes us too? The moment we fall, the war will be our loss. Do you think we''ll just follow the n of someone like you?"

 Chapter ?1634 Agreed?

    ?1634 Agreed?


    Salvatore had been provoking them continuously. However, Agata remained calm and said, "That''s the n. Theo had said in his letter that his student''s word was his word. In other words, you''re getting the n from Theo himself. Major General Logan should be able to testify."


    Logan nodded his head, confirming the content of the letter.


    "Still, Miss Agata�� Although I don''t mind risking my life with this, I have to consider the situation where I get ambushed as well." The one who tried to de-escte the situation earlier spoke again. "The enemies have a King ss Monster, but this is only what we can see. There''s no way the enemy will show their cards easily. It''s better to y conservatively first."


    There was no w in his logic either. The loss of a single Transcendent Level Expert was massive, especially in a battle like this.


    Even Agata nodded in understanding. "Indeed. Then, what do you suggest we should do, Rea?"


    "Mhm��" Rea looked down, contemting her decision. On the one hand, she believed her n was the best one. It was risky but gave the best result. On the other hand, she couldn''t really rebuke his words, making it hard for her to decide.


    Suddenly, she remembered the second letter from Theo.


    "Ah�� Please wait a minute." Rea walked away for a bit, bringing the second letter to the meeting. "My Teacher left this letter when someone disagreed with my ns. I understand my n has a big risk, but I still believe we can get the best result."


    This was the first time shemanded a battle of this scale, so Agata could understand her action. She looked overwhelmed because she had a hard time adjusting to the n.


    At the same time, she was also curious about the letter. She took a peek at the letter and smiled as if knowing Theo would always be Theo.


    ''There must be some bastards who disagreed with my n because the result of that n was aplete failure.''


    ''However, my decision is still the same. I know my student, Rea, is thinking about the best result we can get in this situation. Hence, I shall trust her decision and go along with her n.''


    ''I know how my student thinks. That''s why she shall inform the other bases about her n. Whether they agree or not is up to them.''


    ''If you don''t follow my n, then I won''t be responsible for the loss you''ll suffer in the future. Whether you agree or not, the people from my group shall carry out her n. So, don''t hesitate.''


    Rea''s expression was distorted. She felt moved by how he trusted her unconditionally, but she felt a bit disappointed in herself because Theo''s words looked like he also expected this bad result and had low expectations of her.


    Agata grabbed the letter and told them about the letter from word to word.


    As expected, Salvatore''s anger erupted. He mmed the table and shouted in anger. "Who does he think he is?"


    Agata raised her hand, stopping his outburst. She immediately said to Logan, "Can you connect the other two bases? If possible, you can contact Leonardo personally. And if I''m not wrong, Zhao Jia is in charge of the movement, so contact her as well."


    "Understood." Logan''s face became pale, never expecting Theo just letting his subordinates die. At the same time, he still followed her order, thinking the others would reject this idea like Salvatore.


    It didn''t take too long for Zhao Jia and Leonardo to enter the group meeting.


    "Yes?" Zhao Jia narrowed her eyes. She looked annoyed as well because she had suffered the same loss. Meanwhile, Leonardo maintained his calm expression, asking, "Why do you call us?"


    "I want to share Rea''s next n. But before that, I have to tell you about Theo''s messages first." Agata exined everything from the start before giving Rea''s n to them. She was acting like Rea''s mentor since she had to deal with the mess Rea made. After all, she agreed that Rea wascking in experience.


    "That''s how it is. Do you have any thoughts?" Agata asked after the exnation.


    Salvatore was smiling because he believed Leonardo, the War Saint, would be the first to reject this n.


    But surprisingly, Leonardo didn''t give an immediate rejection. Instead, he was falling into deep thought.


    "Mhm��" Leonardo closed her eyes while looking around as if trying to find the answer.


    "What are you doing, War Saint?" Zhao Jia''s eyebrows twitched, not understanding his action. She wanted to reject the n but seeing Leonardo like this made her wait until she heard his decision.


    And to everyone''s surprise, Leonardo mmed the table and smiled, "Alright. The union will follow the n. I''ll adjust my n right away! Thank you for the information."


    "Huh, what?" Zhao Jia was dumbfounded by Leonardo''s reaction. "War Saint, you��"


    Leonardo nced at her and said, "That''s why you can''t surpass your teacher yet. sses girl. If you understand what I mean, that is��"


    "This is why I can''t surpass my teacher?" Zhao Jia furrowed her eyebrows and saw Leonardo hanging up the call. It took Zhao Jia two minutes before understanding the n.


    "Ah!" Zhao Jia sucked a cold breath and nodded. "United Asia shall do the same. I''ll adjust my n right away!"


    Their decisions stunned all the people, including Rea, who gave the n.


    "What? Are they insane?" Salvatore burst out, not understanding why those two actually agreed with the n.


    "That''s their decision, Mr. Salvatore." Agata stopped him. "It''s up to you whether you want to follow the n or not. But our side will follow her n."


    Seeing their reaction, the reasonable one understood one thing. There was actually a hidden meaning in Rea''s n, which the person herself wasn''t aware of.


    So, one of them said, "With my name and my life on the line, I, Magi, shall follow the n. Even if I have to go there myself, I assure you that I will disturb them to the best of my ability."


    "You��" Salvatore didn''t expect he was betrayed at thest moment. They thought they could berate Theo''s side as they liked, but this ridiculous n actually managed to convince this guy.


    Agata smiled. "That''s enough. Since we''ve reached an agreement, we shall end this meeting since we will make our preparation as well."

 Chapter 1635 Hidden Plan

    1635 Hidden n


    Rea was still confused why everyone agreed to her n. She was walking together with Agata. The atmosphere was awkward because Rea had messed up earlier. "Sorry, Agata. It seems I''ve made trouble for you."


    "It''s fine. This is your first timemanding a battle of this scale. So, I can''t me you. You might be good at leading a small group or creating an overall n to get the best result, but you''re stillcking in experience. I''ll be with you for the time being." Agata smiled while patting her shoulder.


    It was fine to mess up, but she had to learn from this mistake.


    "I''ve talked too big, I guess�� I said I wouldn''t disappoint him, but it seemed I couldn''t fulfill it. I couldn''t even understand why they agreed to my n, especially the War Saint."


    "To fool your enemies, you have to fool your ally first. To fool your ally, you have to fool yourself first."


    "Mhm�� I''m sorry for being too dumb."


    "No, that''s not what I mean. If you don''t understand why they agreed to your n, it means you''ve fooled yourself earlier. That''s why those three couldn''t understand it either and your enemies would surely not know about it as well. Do you understand why I asked Sir Leonardo and Zhao Jia instead of anyone else?"


    "No." Rea shook her head.


    "Because Sir Leonardo knew Theo well. Then, do you remember what Sir Leonardo said to Zhao Jia?"


    "She hasn''t surpassed her teacher because she hasn''t understood the n. Well, I know he''s talking about the mind battle, but what does that mean?" Rea tilted her head in confusion.


    "The Heavenly Sovereign is Theo''s ally, and he is known as a wise sovereign. If the Heavenly Sovereign was the one in the call, he would consider your words as Theo like what the letter said. And do you think what Theo said about knowing you well was a bluff or flowery words? He can''t lie, we know it. So, those words were fact."


    "Ah?!"


    "It seems that you''ve understood it a bit. Yes. The Heavenly Sovereign knew Theo would predict your n. That''s why your words are his words. And giving you the right to give the n itself was the hidden n."


    "But I still can''t understand what the hidden n is."


    "It''s simple." Agata raised her finger. "There must be a mole somewhere. I don''t know much about the situation, but the fact that he doesn''t give an extraordinary n must be because he knows the mole will inform the enemies."


    "Ah?" Rea gasped. "So, with me giving the n means they''re going to intercept us with another n. Everyone knows that my n is wed, but because this n is considered Theo''s n, the enemies will be forced to adjust their move immediately.


    "Meanwhile, Teacher''s real n is still hidden from everyone. Even the mole doesn''t know about his real n. When the timees, Teacher''s real n will be revealed, and the situation will be overturned. Now that I think about it, this is how he usually fights�� The more disadvantageous the situation is, the easier for him to turn around the battle and win.


    "Ah, I almost forgot that he told me he was preparing something�� So, that''s how it is��" Rea gulped down. "He predicted how his allies and enemies would react to his n and came up with an even more amazing n to gain victory. Sorry, this might be a dumb question, but is he ying 4D Chess?"


    "Who knows? Even I don''t know about his real n." Agata shrugged. "Though, this situation is indeed simr to my Mota Family and Pata Corporation."


    "That''s right. There were many moles in your Pata Corporation, and your first few losses allowed him to let the enemy guard down. And that''s when he struck them from behind." Rea clenched her fists. "He knew I would mess up��"


    Agata smiled. "There were two directions when we shared our n with the headquarters. First, the mole will inform the enemies, but thetter is still confident and doesn''t change their n, which means this will be a sess for our n. The second possibility is that the enemies change their n and reach the current situation.


    "Still, the possibility might be divided into two, but these two possibilities will merge back into one and give an exact oue." Agata smirked while sweeping her thumb on her neck, making a gesture of someone dying.


    Rea gulped down, never expecting Theo to ce this kind of trap in his n. "I''ve lost�� How in the world can I even surpass a teacher like this?"


    "That''s the thing. You can''t. But chasing after him is interesting, isn''t it? After all, there is a saying, ''If you''re going to dream, dream to the seventh sky. Even if you fail, you''ll still fly among the stars.'' That''s why I haven''t stopped improving myself.


    "In the past, if Theo proposed to me, the people would report it like this, ''The most beautiful woman in the world loved a man who once fought her in the Grand Gaia Competition.'' But now, it will be like this, ''The hero of humanity, Theodore Griffith, will marry the most beautiful woman in the world.''


    "If I stop chasing after him, the people won''t know about me anymore. That''ll be the time I lose everything. That''s why, Rea�� Don''t ever stop chasing after him if you still want the world to know you as Nagasawa Rea instead of Theo''s student or Sword Saint''s daughter. Understood?"


    "Yes." Rea nodded with a serious expression. At the same time, her heart moved. She couldn''t help but mutter inwardly, ''Haha�� There''s no way I''m going to win against her. No wonder why there is only one woman in his heart. No one will be able to grab his heart as long as Agata is by his side��''


    Agata smiled and took out her Skylink, calling Felix and Ruth.


    "Alright, it''s time for both of you to make your move."

 Chapter 1636 Gathering

    1636 Gathering


    "It''s time for you to make your move."


    As soon as they heard about the order, Felix and Ruth looked at each other.


    "Ready for a fight?" Ruth asked Felix, who was standing before her. "Before leaving for the meeting, Agata told us just to shoot the mountain from afar. It''s an easy task, but it''s said there will be a King ss Monster stopping us."


    "Well, all I have to do is to stall the King ss Monsters, right?"


    "Along with the rest of the monsters. Will there be a problem?" Ruth smiled as if taunting him.


    "Take as long as you need to draw your arrow." Felix harrumphed, having pride in his own ability. Fighting a King ss Monster would be hard, but if he was only stalling for time, it was just a simple matter.


    "In that case, shall we go?" Ruth nodded, having no doubt in Felix''s ability.


    "Of course."


    Ruth and Felix stretched their bodies for a bit before they disappeared from the base, making their way to Florida.


    They made sure they were as far as possible, not wanting to rm the monsters for the time being. However, Felix had killed a few monsters that seemed to be patrolling the area.


    The enemies would know about them sooner orter, so they had to move fast.


    On top of a boulder, Ruth stood tall, staring at the mountain in the distance. The mountain seemed to have been finished. With a height of three hundred feet, this mountain still looked gigantic even when watching them from far away.


    "I never expected that humans had thrown this much trash. I mean, this is happening all around the world, right? If that''s the case, there are multiple mountains like this��" Ruth muttered while taking a deep breath, releasing her Magic Power bit by bit.


    "Indeed. Though, this is the umtion of trash since a few hundred years ago. Anyway, your target is that mountain. A hit that can make the mountain copse should be enough. As for the rest, I''ll deal with them. Make sure you don''t take too long, alright?"


    "Of course. Who do you think you''re talking to?" Ruth smiled as she raised her left hand, pointing forward. Suddenly, a green-colored bow made of Magic Power appeared.


    As soon as she let go of the bow, thetter expanded ten times its original size.


    "Moon Bow."


    Felix could feel the pressure from the Magic Power that the bow naturally released.


    He nced to the side and saw monstersing toward them as if trying to check the sudden fluctuation of Magic Power.


    Without bothering to say anything to her, Felix disappeared, making his move toward the monsters.


    The monsters weren''t aware of what was happening before a sh of light blinded him. The monsters suddenly felt a presence appearing next to them, but before they could even recover, their heads were already chopped down by Felix.


    "Only Supreme Rank Monsters," Felix muttered, assessing their strength. He turned around, feeling more and more presenceing to this area. Felix nced at Ruth for a moment as if confirming her condition before moving toward the iing monsters.


    The monsters didn''t realize what was happening as they suddenly died when passing the roads. And each time, there would be a sh of light that blinded them.


    Even the Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t handle Felix''s strength. As a King, Felix might becking. But in terms of offensive power, Felix was untouchable. The moment Felix attacked them, they died in under two seconds. They couldn''t even let out a shout.


    Ruth was assured and had the time to gather her power. More and more Magic Power was concentrated on her bow, making it heavier.


    The more energy she gathered, the more it affected the monsters nearby.


    ''My ability is different from the others. When hunting, my arrow will never miss and end the fight in an instant. This ability allows me to gather a huge amount of energy from my surroundings as well as from my body. But the problem ispressing it into one single form, which is why it takes this long. But��''


    Ruth suddenly fell silent before pping her hands. "Moon Bow!"


    The bow suddenly flickered and sent a powerful shock wave to its surroundings as if telling them the ultimate bow had been activated.


    *Fwoosh!*


    The shock wave even reached the King ss Monster, who was hiding near the mountain in case someone tried to destroy their mountain.


    "This is��" The King ss Monster was actually a starfish. Instead of floating in the water, the starfish had enough strength to walk on the ground. He suddenly leaped in the shockwave''s direction and saw a sh of green light in the distance. "Huh? Did someone attack us? But that kind of power�� Not good. A Magic Power of that level will surely be able to destroy the mountain!"


    The starfish leaped forward, trying to stop whoever gathered that Magic Power. His speed was fast and his Magic Power enveloped his body.


    The closer the starfish was, the easier for Ruth to find it. However, she actually ignored the starfish and raised her right hand. This time, she was gathering the Magic Power to form the arrow.


    "No!" The starfish gathered his Magic Power in his fist, dying that fish ck as if it was enhanced by something. He then punched forward, releasing pressure from that fish that carried all the wind in its path.


    If the pressure reached Ruth, the wind would explode,unching her away as well as stopping her ability.


    That was why Felix suddenly appeared in its way.


    "Tsk." The starfish covered its eyes when the sunlight blinded him. At the same time, Felix leaped to the wind and covered his sword with white light before striking this pressure.


    *Clink!*


    Surprisingly, thepressed air became as hard as metal. It even sounded like one, and more importantly, thepressed air actually pushed Felix back.


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes in surprise before raising his other hand, sending forth the light to illuminate this wind. "Disappear."

 Chapter ?1637 Struggle

    ?1637 Struggle


    As expected from a King ss Monster, when Felix used his light that could make Alexej''s attack disappear, he failed to do so this time. The wind flickered and weakened.


    Luckily, this weakened wind allowed Felix''s de to cut it, splitting the pressure into two. The wind hit the building on the two sides and burst out like an explosion, destroying the building.


    *Boom!*


    "��" Felix nced to the sides, never expecting the monster to be this strong. Even if he joined hands with Ruth, he might not be able to win against him.


    Felix saw the starfish about to make his move, looping around him since his priority was to stop Ruth from destroying their mountain.


    Unfortunately for him, Felix used his light and transformed his body into one. His body vanished, rming the starfish.


    "!!!" The starfish felt a presence moving at a speed he''d never seen before. He instinctively punched to the left as the light gradually formed Felix''s figure.


    The moment the punch hit the light, Felix''s de stopped it, albeit the punch was so strong that it pushed the sword back, forcing Felix to use both hands just to stop this punch.


    "Tsk." Felix clicked his tongue. ording to Theo, there were five stages for an Order user. They were just one step away from the third stage, but this monster was much stronger than them.


    ''Fourth�� or even the Fifth Stage.'' Felix muttered, wondering how he could deal with a monster of this level.


    He nced at the tower again to see Ruth''s progress.


    The arrow gradually formed. From the looks of it, ten percent of the arrow had been created. It was good to know the arrow would bepleted sooner orter, but if he roughly calcted the progress, Felix thought Ruth needed five to ten minutes to finish the arrow. The longer it took, the more ferocious this starfish would be.


    "Get away!" The starfish turned its body around and punched Felix, knowing he had to blow Felix away somehow if he wanted to reach Ruth.


    Felix smiled and blocked this attack with his de. The starfish had powerful strength. If Felix took this head-on, he would be pushed back at the very least.


    That was why the moment the sword touched the arm of this starfish that was as hard as a rock, the sword slid on the starfish''s hand. Felix approached the starfish''s body as he spun his body and bent his knees, hitting the middle of the starfish.


    To his surprise, the area he struck was covered with ck color. He had seen this multiple times every time he fought against someone with a metal affinity.


    Since hepletely captured the starfish''s attention, Felix asked the starfish in order to provoke him. "Your body is metal? Are you sure you''re not rusty living in the sea?"


    "Y-you!" The starfish roared and punched Felix with this metal fist.


    Felix used his light ability to get away again.


    Seeing Felix appear ten feet from him, the starfish would take that chance to make its way toward Ruth if not for the fact that Felix positioned himself between them even when dodging.


    "��" The starfish furrowed his eyebrows, realizing Felix was adamant about stopping him no matter what.


    Hence, he had another idea.


    He pped his hands, making a clicking sound that traveled in all directions.


    Suddenly, numerous roars resounded across the area as all monsters, including thend monsters, seemed to have been alerted.


    "��" Felix''s expression turned grim.


    "It seems that you''re trying to protect her no matter what. But can you stop all of these creatures by yourself?" The starfish smirked.


    Felix saw two monstersing out behind the building, making their way to the starfish.


    At the same time, the starfish leaped forward, trying to stop Felix so that the other monsters could defeat Ruth.


    "It seems she can''t do anything when concentrating her Magic Power like that. Then, don''t me me��" The starfish smirked and smashed Felix''s sword, trying to push him away.


    But once again, Felix''s de slid on the monster''s hand, making its way toward its neck. The starfish reinforced the neck with its ability, but the light on Felix''s sword shot forward and looped around the neck.


    "!!!" The starfish widened his eyes in shock. ''He is trying to attack the back of my head?''


    The starfish was shocked, but his reflex was still good enough to put up a thick metal on the back of its head, blocking Felix''s attack. "But this is not good enough!"


    He looked so proud when defeating Felix. It might be due to the fact that the sea monsters had been oppressed the whole time because of the trash or not, but the sea creatures seemed to enjoy defeating a human.


    Unfortunately, it also showed how inexperienced they were when fighting a human. The moment the light bounced off the back of the neck, the light expanded and curved around them, turning into a de that cut everything.


    "!!!" The starfish was surprised because the extended light hit both monsters in the head. Thetter tried to stop it, but the power of a King was simply different, rendering them useless.


    "Kh." The starfish gritted his teeth because his n actually didn''t work. Still, there were plenty of monstersing out, so it was just a matter of time. As long as he kept pushing Felix to the limit, one of the monsters would slip past him sooner orter.


    However, Felix once again shattered that thought when he struck the starfish from the side. The light extended again. Instead of bouncing on the starfish''s body, the light actually shot forward and bounced on the ground, heading straight to the monsters.


    The monsters tried to use their strength to stop at least one attack from Felix, but the moment they touched the light, thetter obliterated their body, creating a huge hole in their body.


    "��" The starfish clicked his tongue and leaped back, trying to find another way to handle Felix. If this continued, he wouldn''t be able to stop Ruth''s attack.

 Chapter 1638 Shooting Star

    1638 Shooting Star


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters kepting one after another, trying to sneak attack Ruth. However, Felix had been killing them by using the bouncing light that seemed to be able to target him the way he wanted.


    The starfish had overwhelming strength, but Felix truly managed to hold him while killing the rest of the monsters.


    "You are pretty good for a human." The starfish snorted. "To think you would be able to receive my strength�� This is the first time someone can stop me this way. My Order is simple but powerful, which is reflected in my strength. But it seems you can stop me for a while�� But let''s see how long you will be able to keep this up."


    Felix maintained his silence, staring at the starfish as if looking at a fool. Who would even talk about their abilities, especially to the enemies?


    "I don''t know if it''s your pride or you''re just dumb, but thanks to your bber, I can understand your Order." Felix smirked and became even faster, striking the starfish multiple times.


    However, the starfish covered its body with metal, stopping all attacks.


    "It''s useless. No matter how hard you try, your sword won''t be able to cut me down." The starfishughed.


    Felix didn''t say anything. He just kept striking his body no matter how hard it was, albeit the starfish kept advancing slowly but surely. Luckily, the starfish would have a problem if Felix aimed for his weak spots like eyes or areas that shouldn''t be covered with this metal. Felix''s attacks forced the starfish to protect the area while moving toward Ruth, decreasing his speed significantly.


    At the same time, Felix kept hitting the starfish while sending forth the light to kill the other monsters.


    "Tsk." Felix clicked his tongue, knowing it was impossible to stop this starfish. After a while, the starfish was only thirty feet away from the tower.


    If this went on, the starfish would be able to reach the tower and a single punch was enough to destroy the tower, making Ruth lose her foothold.


    Felix immediately cut down the ground underneath the starfish, nning to throw this ground into the air along with the starfish to stop him from advancing.


    The starfish suddenly smirked. When Felixunched the rock into the air, the starfish used that rock as its foothold and jumped, knocking the rock back to Felix. At the same time, the starfish finally came in front of Ruth, nning to take her down.


    "This is the end!" The starfish shouted while punching forward to crush Ruth together with her Magic Power.


    However, Ruth actually smiled. "You think? It''s only ny percent, but I''ve gathered enough Magic Power to destroy it. If you think you can stop it, then try it!"


    "Shooting Star!" Ruth aimed the bow upward as if trying to shoot the sky, but she didn''t forget to make the starfish one of the targets in its way.


    "!!!" The starfish felt chills down its body. This concentrated Magic Power was different than anything he had ever faced.


    Just the amount of Magic Power alone was enough to make him shiver, let alone take this attack head-on.


    However, he had to do it no matter what since he couldn''t afford for the mountain to be destroyed.


    "Haaa!" The starfish roared and gathered all the Magic Power he could muster before punching this arrow.


    The moment he punched the arrow, he felt like his metal power was cracking. If this continued, the arrow might evenpletely destroy his hand.


    "Haaa!" Still, he couldn''t admit defeat and kept pushing no matter how hard it was for him to stop it even for a split second.


    Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t do much when he was in the air. Even all the power and momentum he had gathered earlier was drainedpletely by the sheer might of the arrow.


    "No!" The starfish struggled a bit more while gritting its teeth, but it was useless. The arrow overwhelmed him, spinning his body in the air.


    As soon as the arrow reached the sky above the trash mountain, it exploded, brightening the entire area with a massive green light ball.


    *Boom!*


    The monsters didn''t know what was happening, but they could feel the amount of Magic Power put into this attack. It dumbfounded them to the point they thought they would die from this attack, so there was no need to react. Yes, they epted their fate.


    And Ruth was smiling in the distance, waving her hand down as if controlling the green light. "Fall."


    The green light suddenly looked like it was melting, nning to let a droplet fall to the trash mountain. However, this was Ruth''s arrow. So, the one that came out of the light ball was none other than an arrow.


    The arrow contained all the Magic Power and fell right on top of the mountain, obliterating all the trash on its way until it reached the hard ground.


    "NO!" The starfish screamed, but it was useless. The light had touched the ground and caused a massive explosion, engulfing a fifth of the mountain.


    At the same time, the st caused a shock wave that blew away all the trash in all directions. Some trash was destroyed in an instant, but most of it scattered in the area.


    Even Felix and Ruth had to use their Magic Power to push all the trashing toward them.


    "No��" The starfish looked at the mountain in horror. The gigantic mountain disappeared in an instant. Even if they could try to build it again, they couldn''t use that area anymore, considering the explosion created a huge crater.


    He turned around and realized Felix and Ruth had regrouped.


    With a smile on their faces, Felix and Ruth immediately ran away, not wanting to be surrounded by monsters while fighting the angry starfish.


    "Humans!" The starfish roared. His eyes turned bloodshot as he leaped toward them. There was a tower that Ruth had used earlier, but the starfish simply punched the tower, making it copse in a single blow.

 Chapter 1639 Losing

    1639 Losing


    Felix and Ruth kept running away with the starfish behind them. He kept punching the air and sending forth shockwaves from his fist, causing destruction after destruction on their paths.


    However, Felix and Ruth easily avoided all the attacks. Sometimes, Felix used his strength to stop the attack before using his light element to go back to Ruth, matching her pace.


    Ruth wasn''t losing either. She gradually gained more distance from the starfish with the help of her wind power. It boosted her speed for a bit.


    They were running away while staring at the starfish, wondering if he was going to keep following them or not. If this monster followed them to their base, it wouldn''t be so strange for Felix and Ruth to ask for help to kill this guy. After all, this was a big chance for them to gain some advantage.


    Unfortunately for them, the starfish seemed to be rational enough to stop after half an hour, knowing it was impossible to chase after them.


    "Tsk." The starfish clicked his tongue while ring at Felix and Ruth''s backs. He had more problems right now because the mountain had been destroyed. "They don''t hold back anymore. However, I have seen a portion of their power. They have a King and a Queen, but it doesn''t mean they''re strong enough to handle me.


    "As long as we get a bit more information about them, we''ll be able to defeat them thoroughly." The starfish paused for a moment before turning around. "It''s time to report the situation."


    Ruth and Felix didn''t realize that the starfish''s calm returnedpletely to the point it felt like everything went ording to his n.


    The starfish brought this news to his leader while Ruth and Felix did the same.


    When they reached their base, Rea and Agata hade back to the base as well, allowing them to report directly.


    "We have destroyed the mountain." Ruth nodded. She mentioned both of them because she couldn''t do anything without Felix, despite being the only one hitting the mountain.


    "Good." Rea smiled, satisfied with their work. Ruth had also recorded it, so they could see the destruction. "This is enough and I don''t think they can create another mountain. How''s the enemy?"


    "As expected, the King ss Monster is amazing. Even both of us won''t be able to fight him. Though, the gap won''t be that far. If you can help us in one way or another, we should be able to handle this King ss Monster." Felix exined as he was the only one fighting the monster seriously.


    "I see." Rea scratched the back of her head. "Still, the sea creatures which can now walk on thend, huh�� This is going to be troublesome."


    "Is it?" Ruth tilted her head in confusion.


    "Yeah. Our is mostly covered by water. Unlike the flying monsters who have to rest on thend because they can''t fly forever, the sea is a habitat where sea creatures can live indefinitely.


    "First of all, it''s going to be hard to transport resources from one ce to another since we won''t be able to reim the sea, at least not in our lifetime. Well, there are many problemsing along with it, but we''re discussing the countermeasures of the uing fight here�� So, I will focus on this matter."


    Rea paused for a moment and asked, "That''s right. How many monsters did you see?"


    "I didn''t go directly to their ce, but it''s possible there are more than one thousand."


    "There''s no way they''re showing everything they have. So��" Rea nced at Agata. "I think we have to deal with it somehow. Is it alright for me to even use Teacher''s weapons?"


    "If you mean by weapons are the ones Maya created, then yes. Feel free to do whatever you want with our resources." Agata confirmed it.


    Rea then said, "Then, we''ll somehow handle them until Teacher is back. For now, Ruth and Felix can rest. I''ll ask you to do something else if somethinges up."


    "Sure." Ruth and Felix nodded in agreement as they walked back together.


    Meanwhile, Rea pinched the bridge of her nose while remembering thest two letters from Theo. She could only use it when the battle had begun or when she was at her wit''s end.


    So, it didn''t seem she could get any instruction from Theo.


    Agata closed her eyes, allowing Rea to grow through this battle.


    "You can take your time thinking about the uing battle. And they''re sure going to attack us earlier than we expected�� Though, I don''t think I need to say this," said Agata while walking away.


    "No�� ah��" Rea scratched the back of her head. She knew that the mole would most likely inform the enemies about it and they would attack before Theo could return. And even after destroying their mountain, they could only buy a few days.


    "Three to four days at best." Rea narrowed her eyes, wondering what she had to do with the next n. "If Teacher is here, he would always amaze us with all kinds of ns�� I''m still nowhere around him."


    While Rea was contemting their battle n, Agata was walking back to her house while muttering, "Theo�� You are a bit ruthless to her, aren''t you? To think you want her first battle to be a battle that is doomed to lose.


    "Well, I know that you''ll save the day, but she might get trauma after this." Agata sighed. "Still, the fact that you still do it means you believe she can ovee the challenge, right?


    "In that case, I''ll just help her to the best of my ability even if the only result of this war is losing." Agata let out a long sigh.


    Out of the people in Theo''s groups, she might be the only person who could understand Theo''s n the most. And she also knew that his n was better to be hidden in the dark. That was why Agata hadn''t talked about it this whole time.


    She was hoping to reach the best result from this n.

 Chapter 1640 Reactions

    Meanwhile, the other ces also followed Rea''s n. On the western front, two Transcendent Experts beside Salvatore went to attack the mountain, destroying it. They managed to escape this time, but they surely wouldn''t be able to do it anymore, considering the enemies would send another King ss Monster to handle him.


    On the other hand, Leonardo had also implemented this n but knowing why he had to do it.


    Leonardo was sitting in his office while staring at the map with a few pieces on the boards, symbolizing all the cards he could use.


    Suddenly, Marzio entered the room. "Father. I''m here. Do you need anything from me?"


    "Yes." Leonardo pointed at the map. "What can you see?"


    "Mhm?" Marzio was confused and stared at the map. "This is our current situation?"


    "Yeah."


    Marzio furrowed his eyebrows. There were four pieces in Italy. They were the War God Family, the other Transcendent Level Experts like the princess and the Great Guardian, the military and the monsters.


    Meanwhile, the other ce only had Flora to handle their problems. Even the military wascking in manpower due to the previous attack. And with them destroying the trash mountain, it looked like they gained some advantage in the battle.


    But looking at this map gave him another suggestion in his mind. He frowned and said, "We sent three elite teams only to find them dead�� And with the destroyed mountain�� Father, are you suspecting we have a mole?"


    "It seems that I don''t have to teach you everything." Leonardo nodded. "Yes. There is a mole."


    "If I''m not wrong, Nagasawa Rea was the one who gave us the n��" Marzio muttered before raising his eyebrows as if realizing something. "Don''t tell me. Because Theo knows there is a spy among us, he is deliberately allowing Rea to handle this battle?


    "This way, he can keep his hand hidden while the monsters defeat us because the mole has given all kinds of information about us�� And due to him suggesting Rea give the ns to other bases, it means the spy is at a high level to the point he can give information about the other bases��


    "If that''s the case, we''re going to face the same problem and suffer a defeat unless��" Marzio narrowed his eyes. "Father��"


    "Yeah. This is going to be a hard battle for us, considering we''ve used up our ammunition in the previous battle." Leonardo thought for a moment and said, "The key to victory is you."


    Marzio seemed to have seen through the n as well and asked, "Father. May I suggest something?"


    Leonardo smirked, knowing they were going to have a fun time chatting about their n.


    The same applied to Zhao Jia and the Heavenly Sovereign.


    Zhao Jia was the one controlling the battle, while the Heavenly Sovereign only watched after her from a distance, listening to what she had to say.


    "We have to defeat them on this shore. We can''t give them a chance to raze ournd," said Zhao Jia in front of the high-ranking personnel who helpedmand the people.


    While listening to Zhao Jia, the Heavenly Sovereign gradually closed his eyes, sleepy.<sub> </sub>


    "Teacher. If you''re not going to be serious about this meeting, you should leave this ce immediately." Zhao Jia instantly berated him.


    "Ah�� You haven''t finished the discussion yet? You took too much time." The Heavenly Sovereign let out a long sigh.


    "We''re talking about a huge war that is happening all around the world right now. Do you think we''re discussing whether the sea monsters wear pants on thend or not?" Zhao Jia gritted her teeth.


    "Oh? That''s interesting. Wearing pants, huh�� Maybe there is a mermaid in the sea. When shees up, does she wear the shells to cover her breast? I''m curious�� Should we promote our bra for her? No, wait. It should be a bikini, isn''t it? Or she might not want to wear anything and we''ve to censor her body? We don''t have a nude beach here."


    "Get lost." Zhao Jia mmed the table in anger.


    "What do you mean? I''m just replying to your joke. Well, it seems that you know how to joke even in a serious situation like me. I''m truly proud of you, my disciple." The Heavenly Sovereignughed.


    Zhao Jia kept ring at him as if she wanted to murder this person.


    "Tsk. You''re not fun." The Heavenly Sovereign stretched his body while yawning. "Well, this is boring. The battle isn''t thatplicated either. You only have to know about the hidden enemy and strike our enemy. That''s all you need to do to win this battle. On the other hand, you''re making this tooplicated.


    "See? If I''m the one leading this meeting, it would be over in just a few sentences." The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged.


    "Ho�� Then, do you mind telling me who the hidden enemy is?"


    "Who knows? I don''t know about it either. Even Theo hasn''t found this hidden enemy. So, why should I find this guy?" The Heavenly Sovereign turned around as if he wanted to leave.


    "Wait! I haven''t finished here. Since you know about the hidden enemy, what will you do to strike our enemy?"


    "What will I do?" The Heavenly Sovereign made a smug smile as he gave her the dumb answer proudly. "Of course. Hit them head-on! Hahahaha!"


    "Kh." Zhao Jia, who had been expecting her teacher''s answer, got angry. She grabbed the key in her pocket and threw it at him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign caught the key effortlessly and smiled. "Oh. This is your Cubicar''s key? Perfect. I''m gonna use your Cubicar to visit Ken and Tirta. Gotta drink tonight. Hahahahaha!"


    "You�� bastard teacher!" Zhao Jia screamed in frustration.


    "Thank you, bye!" The Heavenly Sovereign smiled while waving his hand before disappearing from the room to visit those two.


    Zhao Jia never understood her teacher''s mind no matter how hard she tried. In the end, his words pissed her thoroughly.


    However, she couldn''t help but think about what he had told her earlier. "Hidden enemy��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign might look nonchnt, but he wasn''t someone who spouted nonsense. So, there was a reason why he said it.

 Chapter 1641 War

    "Here you go." Maya smiled while carrying a lot of boxes. There were more than fifty trucks she brought to the base for her support in this battle.


    "There are a total of three thousand weapons you can give to Supreme Rank Experts. Also, I''ve brought everything you want including the supersonic bullets. How is the construction of our weapon?"


    Rea pointed at the ces near their bases. "They''vepleted building it. Though, we only have one right now."


    "The time is not enough. Even if I have built the parts separately, it''s impossible to ce them in a ce we haven''t conquered yet. So, one should be enough, right?"


    "Yes. Though, I''ll need your people to help us a bit."


    "No worries. I''ve brought many people to help you." Maya smirked while pointing at the peopleing to their ce. "There are one thousand people ranging from Mythical Rank to Hero Rank. They''re going to fight alongside you. Just don''t kill them, OK?"


    "Don''t worry. I''m nning to use most of them as our support, not our vanguards." Rea nodded.


    "Alright then. I''ll be watching your battle from afar. If you need anything, just call me. I''ll try to provide you as much as possible."


    "Sorry for making you do this. You must have spent a lot of money." Rea scratched the back of her head. Just these fifty trucks alone should have cost her billions. Yet, Maya didn''t care much about it.


    "Well, Theo hasn''t had the chance to rank up people''s skills because of this matter. But yeah, I''m pretty sure he''ll help me do it. I''m going to extort him for this, so you don''t have to worry about using everything up. Theo will be poorer than me after all. Hahahaha."


    Rea made a weird smile, not knowing what to say. Theo and Maya had a peculiar rtionship. They were like best friends who seemed to be trying to beat each other. All Maya wanted to do was to be big enough to the point Theo couldn''t call her his subordinate anymore. On the other hand, Theo had always surpassed her expectation, defeating her on all asions.


    In the end, she just let the matter go. "Well, I''ll be using everything you give. Thanks."


    "No prob." Maya waved her hand while looking around. "By the way, where is he?"


    "Teacher is not here. Even I don''t know when he wille back. ording to him, it''ll be around two weeks and it might be more. So, I don''t have high hopes about it."


    "So, he won''t be with us in this battle��" Maya thought for a moment before nodding her head. "I see. In that case, I''ll bring more supplies for you. Gotta prepare it now. Bye."


    Maya didn''t wait for Rea''s reply as she had run away while calling someone.


    Rea was dumbfounded seeing her action.


    She could only shake her head helplessly, thanking Maya for the supply. They continued their preparation with Rea being busy assigning the people their jobs.


    Three dayster.


    Rea was called to Logan''s office because the military had spotted something different around the shore.


    "The monsters have stopped moving around. We don''t know why but looking at the timing�� I''m afraid��"<sub> </sub>


    "Yeah. There is only one answer to this. They''ve finished their preparation for the war."


    "It''s only ten days��" Logan bit his lips. "Whatever. All we have to do is position all the people to their stations and meet these monsters outside Kentucky. We can''t afford to let them destroy this ce after all."


    "Indeed." Rea nodded in agreement. As she was about to give a suggestion, someone suddenly mmed the door open and rushed into the room.


    "Ha�� Ha��" He panted a few times while shouting, "Emer��gen��cy!"


    "What happened?" Rea asked while furrowing her eyebrows.


    "They�� They have marched to us. There are approximately ten thousand monstersing toward us."


    "Ten thousand monsters? It doesn''t seem too much��" Logan looked down, contemting.


    "That''s�� That''s not all. Behind them is a huge shark flying in a water tornado�� And we''ve seen the starfish that is deemed to be a King ss Monster to be polite to him."


    "!!!" Rea and Logan opened their eyes wide, shocked. They both said the same thing. "World ss Monster?!"


    There was only one monster that a King ss Monster would act politely to. It was a World ss Monster in charge of him. In other words, the number of their enemies might not be big, but they had a World ss Monster to bolster their strength.


    However, their bad dream had just turned into a nightmare when another person rushed into the room.


    "Emergency! We''ve just got a report from the frontline. The drones have spotted countless low level monstersing out of the seas. They consist of turtles, crabs, and starfishes. We don''t know about their number, but currently, there are supposed to be fifteen thousand."


    "What the hell��" Logan gasped. "What the fuck is this��"


    "Emergency!" Another person rushed into the room after finding another thing. "We have spotted numerous tornadoes carrying all the trash from the area. We''re afraid that all the trash will be thrown into this ce and make this ce unsuitable for living."


    Rea gritted her teeth while saying, "This is a nightmare. The enemies this time��"


    She couldn''t finish her words, but everyone knew what they meant. With a World ss Monster leading the charge, no one would be able to stop him unless Theo came out. And there was one time when the World ss Monster charged toward the human''s vicinity�� It was the tragedy that decimated an entire country, killing tens of millions of people.


    And their base might experience the same thing.


    Just like reported, the World ss Shark was flying on the tornado whileughing. "Hahahaha. This is the time for us, the sea men, to let humans know what it means to throw the trash into our sea. We shall throw the trash back and make theirnds unsuitable for living."


    The shark seemed to have the time of his life since he could finally pay back for everything the human had done in the past.

 Chapter 1642 Help

    "We have to face them somehow." Rea gritted her teeth and immediately came out, wondering what she had to do.


    "This is not good." Rea kept muttering these words as she rushed to their base to discuss this with Agata and the others. She also remembered the letter Theo had given her. "Is this thest resort? No, the battle has just started. Even the World ss Monster won''t use his power instantly to kill all of us."


    She opened the third letter as the instruction said.


    As if already predicting what happened, the third letter actually said, "If you read this letter in panic, then you should call the Time God to make his move. If you''re still calm after all this, then I have no instruction. Do whatever you think is right."


    "��" Rea was speechless, never expecting Theo to resort to the Time God immediately. She bit her lips, knowing it would be impossible not to ask the Time God since he was the only top expert present.


    She tried to call Theo, but it couldn''t connect as if Theo was outside themunication area.


    She called Maya, who was waiting for the news.


    "Maya. We''ve got a bad situation here. Can you tell the white house to ask the Time God to help us?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "There is a World ss Monster in our direction. We need the Time God''s help to go through this hardship."


    "What? World ss Monster? What about Theo?"


    "I tried calling him a few times, but I couldn''t reach him at all."


    "��" Maya paused for a moment before saying, "Alright. I''ll handle this."


    Maya didn''t hesitate to call the white house through her connection to notify the president about the current situation.


    As expected, the president was sitting with the Time God as usual, waiting for the news. The Time God needed to protect the capital, so he couldn''t easily move or the monsters might sneak attack them and destroy the capital.


    But that peaceful time had gone away the moment the monsters attacked them. One of the staff rushed to the room and shouted, "Mr. President. We have bad news from the frontline. They seem to have spotted a World ss Monster in Florida. The people are requesting the Time God''s to move."


    "What?" The president widened his eyes in shock, never expecting the World ss Monster to start immediately. "What about Theodore Griffith? His strength should be enough to handle this monster, right?"


    "Theodore Griffith is still out of range. We can''t contact him at all."


    "What? Did he escape after knowing this would happen?" The president gritted his teeth. On the one hand, Theo told them he would take care of their hidden weapon that could repel the enemies. On the other hand, there was no one who knew about what he was nning.


    "It seems I have to make a move." The Time God stood up while smiling, ready to go. "Since we''re talking about a World ss Monster, no one can stop it�� Even our top ten experts will have a hard time fighting one World ss Monster. So, it''s better if I''m the one to go." The Time God exined his decision. As usual, he would be helping Theo.<sub> </sub>


    However, the enemies seemed to have known this situation would happen. Before he could leave, another person rushed into the room with the same information.


    "Not good. We have spotted a World ss Monster in Oregon. The people are requesting backup, especially Sir Time God."


    "What?!" The president dropped his jaws to the ground, never expecting their base would be pincered by two World ss Monsters.


    If they were at their peak strength, the president still had some confidence in stopping two World ss Monsters. But most of their people had died and their weapons had been used to clean up the monsters. So, fighting two World ss Monsters was an impossible feat.


    "What about the other two bases? Is there any information about the appearance of a World ss Monster from those bases?"


    "There is one World ss Monster in Italy and another one in Japan."


    "��" The president sucked a cold breath. "Four World ss Monsters? What is happening right now? There are four World ss Monsters joining hands to deal with the humans? Are they going to annihte us?"


    The Time God furrowed his eyebrows and said, "If that''s the case, I''ll stop the monster in Oregon."


    "What? If you stop the World ss Monster in Oregon, what about the one in Florida?"


    The Time God shrugged. "Well, I don''t believe Theodore Griffith will just let everything get destroyed. So, it''s better if I help the one that certainly doesn''t have the help of someone at our level. As for the one in Florida, I just hope that my prediction about Theo is right. Else, I don''t really care much about their fate."


    "��" The president bit his lips and said, "Fine. You can go to Oregon. Theodore Griffith is a shrewd man, so he must have set up some counter ns to handle this monster."


    The Time God nodded with a serious expression. He immediately left to reinforce the other side.


    Meanwhile, the secret service immediately escorted the president to the bunker to prevent the worst.


    "Mr. President." The detail leader walked to the president and nodded to him. "We have to go now."


    "Alright." The president nodded in agreement while asking, "How is the vice president?"


    "Mr. Vice President has entered air force one." The detail leader answered while escorting the president together with the other secret services.


    The president couldn''t say anything after that. This was truly a hard time, considering this was the first time a country took a hit from two World ss Monsters.


    Theo, who thought they could rely on him, actually disappeared without a trace, leaving them in despair.


    The only thing that kept him going was Theo''s character. After doing so much for his group, there was no way Theo would abandon them just like that. So, he was praying that Theo could immediately return to turn around the situation.

 Chapter 1643 Fighting To The Death

    Rea had regrouped with the rest. The information from the headquarters hadn''t been transmitted to her yet.


    "What''s going on?" Felix asked, noticing something bad in Rea''s expression.


    "A World ss Monster will attack us." Rea sighed, not knowing how to handle this problem. This news would surely hit their morale deeply.


    "Hoh?" Agata narrowed her eyes, amused. "A World ss Monster, huh��"


    "What''s wrong? Do you know something?" Ruth had a feeling that Agata already knew about Theo''s intention.


    Agata shook her head and sighed. "It seems that he''s gonna surpass our imagination again. Even I don''t know what he is nning to do�� But if I''m not wrong, you have opened the third letter, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Then, the content is about calling the Time God?"


    "Yes. How do you know?"


    Agata pinched the bridge of her eyebrows and asked, "Felix. What is your chance against their King ss Monsters? And how are theypared to World ss Monsters?"


    "Ruth and I should be able to buy some time from the Starfish. However, there seems to be another King ss Monster. So, I have to split up with Ruth and have Rea help Ruth during this fight. Even with this lineup, I''m afraid we''re going to be destroyed in just ten to twenty minutes. As for the World ss Monster�� I don''t think anyone can stop it."


    Agata sighed as if thinking this situation had be pointless. "I don''t think the World ss Monster wille directly at us. Even though they''ve managed to gain some advantage by attacking first, they must still be wary of Theo''s n. So, there should be some hesitations from the monsters, especially the World ss Monster.


    "So, I need to ask you to handle the starfish alone. Ruth and Rea will be fighting the other King ss Monster, and I will help ourmand center. We''re going to buy you more time by utilizing all our air support. But even with this, I don''t think we can stop them for one hour, right?"


    "Yes. I''m afraid that''s the case. Even a single attack from a World ss Monster is enough to crush us. I''m sure you''ve seen the video where Theo fights against the mutated monsters. That attack is still less powerful than an attack from the real World ss Monster." Felix sighed, not having any words to exin the power of a World ss Monster.


    Agata thought for a moment and said, "If I tell you to fight until the end, what will you do?"


    Felix smiled and ced his hand on his sword''s handle. "The answer will remain the same. It''s my pleasure."


    Agata nodded with a serious expression. "Then, Felix. I want you to use all your strength to stop the starfish. If possible kill it!"


    "Understood."


    The harsh order was given. Even Agata felt bad because it was the same as sending Felix to his death. She couldn''t help but ask again, "Still, are you sure about this?"


    "I am his first subordinate. I have apanied him on the battlefield longer than anyone else. That''s why I have seen all the miracles he has made on the battlefield. All I can say is that�� The more we''re at the brink of our destruction, the higher the chance Theo will flip the situation around.<sub> </sub>


    "And I don''t have a single doubt that he will once again show how he turns the table. That''s why I''m going to fight to the death, knowing Theo will appear." Felix smirked.


    "What about you, Ruth?"


    "I''m ready to fight." Ruth nodded. "I don''t know much about Theo since I''m among thest people to get invited here. But I know that Felix isn''t the type who says meaningless things. If he says he will appear, then I will believe so. So, I will stop the King ss Monster no matter what."


    "I will too! Although I haven''t finished assimting with my Magic Power yet, I still have the chance to go against them. Besides, I should be capable of stopping the enemy for a while with Ruth helping me from a distance." Rea raised her hand, not wanting to lose to them.


    "Alright. For now, don''t say anything about our current situation to not drop our morale. I''ll contact Logan about our movement and ask him to cooperate." Agata nodded with a serious expression.


    After they reached an agreement, they immediately headed to their posts.


    Agata went straight to the military to help them construct themand. Of course, Logan was happier to work with Agata than Rea, considering Agata was the former special adviser to thebined army from United Asia. Her deeds were famous among the military personnel.


    Meanwhile, Ruth and Felix stood side by side while looking at the in where they nned to take the enemies.


    With a calm expression, Felix said, "After this war is over, do you want to live with me?"


    "Mhm?" Ruth was not expecting Felix to say it, but she didn''t look that shocked either. She just thought this would be the case with how Millie acted to her. "You are older than me, so you must not know about this. Saying it at a time like this is what you call a death g, you know."


    "There is no word like that in my dictionary." He shook his head.


    "Well��" Ruth raised her hand and formed a bow and arrow before shooting the air above Felix''s head.


    *Fwoosh!*


    Felix could hear the wind blowing very clearly. He couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows, asking, "What are you doing?"


    "I can shoot everything, whether they''re a ghost, poison, or the imaginary death g." Ruth made a smug smile.


    "Heh��" Felix smiled back as he started walking away. "Don''t die."


    "You too." Ruth nodded with a serious expression. She walked to Rea, preparing her bow to handle a King ss Monster.


    Although they didn''t look nervous, their hearts were beating rapidly, knowing this battle might be bigger than any battles they had experienced. Even Theo might not be able to predict everything.


    Still, they had to preserve.

 Chapter 1644 Fools

    The humans were standing side by side, watching the entire in. They had been expecting the enemies toe through this in.


    The closer they were to the estimated time, the more nervous they became. Even so, they could only clench their teeth, thinking Theo was with them. Theo was the hero that saved the union from destruction. So, they believed he could do the same.


    They held their weapons as tight as possible while pumping their morale. They thought they were going to fight with the hero to protect their base.


    Suddenly, a few huge tornadoes appeared in the sky, marching toward their ces. The temperature dropped significantly as the sunny sky turned into a gloomy ck sky. The dark cloud started sparking, letting out a thunderous roar.


    However, they started noticing something off from these tornadoes. Instead of the wind, the tornadoes actually had so many colors. They thought it was a phenomenon created by Magic Power, but they could see it wasn''t the case when it became closer.


    The tornado was actually made of trash. It turned out they were gathering all the trash to let them carry it like this.


    One of the tornadoes moved forward faster than the others and threw all the trash it carried toward the humans.


    "What is this?"


    "stic?"


    "Bottles?"


    "There is so much trash."


    "Aaaah, this is disgusting."


    The soldiers wereining, never thinking this was the trash they had thrown away.


    This one huge tornado alone carried at least twenty thousand pounds of trash. And all of them were thrown back to the humans. Some of them even got injured with metal cans and simr hard trash.


    "Aaaahhh!"


    "We have an injured here."


    The people began panicking because no one did anything to this tornado. Felix and Ruth actually had taken out their weapons, nning to destroy the tornado. Though, they were afraid the trash would fall in one ce and another tornado would appear.


    But they couldn''t let this go on either since it would impact their spirit. Even if they had to spend a portion of their energy, they had to destroy it.


    "Let me do it," Felix said as he jumped into the air, heading straight to the tornado. Suddenly, a ray of light prated the thick, dark cloud like hope in a gloomy future.


    The light was concentrated in Felix''s sword as it expanded his reach, splitting the tornado into two.


    "Look!"


    "The tornado has��"


    As soon as it was cut down, the wind dispersed and threw away the remaining trash to the surroundings.


    Unfortunately for them, the enemy had expected it as well as the starfish monster he fought a few days ago jumped into the air.


    "I know you''ll be stopping it!" The starfish smirked, punching Felix.


    Felix managed to block it with his sword, but the forceunched him to the ground.<sub> </sub>


    *Bam!*


    "Kh." Felix gritted his teeth after crashing to the ground.


    Ruth immediately shot her arrow at this unguarded starfish. However, another tornado formed between them, swallowing her arrow.


    "!!!" Ruth looked left and right, trying to see the one who stopped her but to no avail. "Tsk."


    However, the bad news didn''t stop there. Rea and Agata received the same message from the headquarters.


    ''The Time God has gone to Oregon to stop a World ss Monster. The headquarters hopes everyone here can stop the invasion by themselves.''


    "Are you freaking kidding me?" Rea shouted in frustration. "We''re fighting against a World ss Monster too here. There''s no way we can stop them just by ourselves!"


    Unfortunately, there was nothing the messenger could do. Even Rea stopped at that moment because getting angry was thest thing she wanted to do in this situation.


    An image of the fourth letter appeared in her mind, including the words written on it.


    Last resort.


    Rea gritted her teeth and opened thest letter. She truly had no other way to stop a World ss Monster.


    Her hands were shaking because this was thest letter Theo had left for her. If this didn''t work, they could only ept their deaths here.


    This might be the first time Rea had a hard time opening a letter. After all, this letter actually decided her life and death.


    Even Agata took a peek, wondering what came in. She hadplete trust in Theo, so even if this letter was a joke, she would believe him, knowing he woulde back for her.


    Surprisingly, thest letter seemed to have predicted everything that had happened.


    "Opening this letter means you''re truly out of options. The Time God should be able to handle all your problems, but the fact that you''re still opening this one means the Time God isn''t with you.


    "In that case, I only have one instruction for all of you. Fight to the very end. I''ll handle the rest."


    Unbeknownst to all of them, whether it was his allies, his enemies, or even the spy, Theo was actually standing on barren ground.


    This was the trail that the army of sea monsters made on their march.


    He was located two miles away from the enemies as he could still see the tornado from his position.


    Next to him was a blonde woman who cracked her fists with an excited smile. "I see. So, that''s our target. Killing a World ss Monster, huh��how in the world do you think about it? It''s already impossible to trap a World ss Monster like this, let alone position it to the execution ground.


    "There is a spy among the higher ups. However, it''s impossible to know about this spy. All we know is that the spy will inform the enemy to destroy our ces. That''s why I give Rea a n to lose, allowing them to reach our territory. In other words, their fall is caused by the spy they''ve nted among us. And thanks to this, the sea creatures won''t trust that spy anymore, thinking he is a double agent. This way, the sea monsters will need to think twice before attacking us again.


    "Trapping the enemy to make an example out of them, separating their connection to the spy and killing their trust, and eliminating their intention to invade thend. Killing three birds with one stone, huh�� As expected of the well-known Theodore Griffith. If that''s the case, shall we stun the world?"


    Theo smiled. The sea monsters didn''t realize that they had lost before they even made their second move.

 Chapter 1645 Agreement

    "We''ll wait for a bit until theymence an all out attack." Theo shook his head, stopping at thest second.


    "Mhm?" The woman furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean? The longer you wait, the worse the situation will be, you know."


    "Yeah. If we attack them right now, they''ll still be able to react and create an escape route. But if they have sent all their people to the front, we''ll be able to kill the shark. Though, there might also be some casualties on your side too."


    "Mhm��" The woman couldn''t help but smirk. This guy was insane in her mind. There was a deal between them when they met identally in Mexico.


    Back then, Theo said, "Let''s have a deal, Mafia Queen. The US Base is just right ahead, but I''m sure the government doesn''t like an existence like you, who will control the underground.


    "That''s why I''d like to strike a deal with you. The government has granted me manynds in exchange for securing Kentucky, so I''ll give you thend for you to operate until one of the nearby states is open to the public. We will just be neighbors and won''t go at each other''s throats.


    "This should be a pretty good deal for you since you bring your entire group here," Theo exined the term with a smile, tempting the Mafia Queen.


    Alexa was surprised that Theo dared to strike a deal with her, but as she said, it wasn''t that bad. The base should be trying to restrain her movement as soon as she integrated herself into the base.


    After all, the power bnce between the government and the individual would be tipped over with her existence.


    Currently, the government had close ties with the Time God and other Kings to keep Theo, his clone, and his subordinates in check.


    But the moment she appeared on Theo''s side, the government would attack them in order to regain the supreme power in the country. Although she didn''t like to work either way, Theo gave her more freedom.


    And if she epted this condition, she would be able to stay under people''s radar for the time being and gradually mix the people among the citizens. Of course, the people she rescued would start talking about how she helped them, giving away her existence.


    However, that was when Theo came in. Theo nned to protect her existence from the government by using this deal. Even if they dared to put a leash on her, with her joining hands with Theo, they couldn''t do anything to either of them.


    This was a good deal for them since they could benefit from each other.


    "Then, what do you want me to do for you?"


    "Help me kill World ss Monsters."


    "Hoh? You''re trying to kill World ss Monsters? This is rather surprising, considering I don''t remember you��"


    "I have an Authority as well." Theo didn''t hesitate to tell her about this term, which only a few knew about it.


    Even the Mafia Queen was stunned, pausing for a moment. This time, she contemted carefully. She hadn''t had any contact with the outside world for a while, so she wasn''t aware of his deeds. But when Theo released his Magic Power, she was convinced it was an Authority.<sub> </sub>


    "I see��" The Mafia Queen closed her eyes for a moment before asking, "Do you have any confidence in taking down World ss Monsters?"


    "My clone is a perfect clone, meaning you can count me as two Saints. I am aware that I''m only a new saint whose strength still can''t bepared to a World ss Monster. But if I join hands with my clone, I should be able to reach their level. And that''s where youe in��"


    "So, you want me to support you with my abilities? That''s how you''re going to surpass the World ss Monsters."


    "Yes."


    "Interesting. It seems that you want to hide my existence as well, though not for long�� So, that''s how it is. Are you nning to make me your trump card?"


    Theo smiled. "The apocalypse was just a start. There would be an even more dangerous threating in the future. That''s why I need you."


    "The apocalypse was just a start��" The Mafia Queen remembered when Theo managed to solve the problem in Argelia. It was the sign of integration between the two worlds, while the apocalypse was that incident spreading all around the world. It was simple to connect Theo and the apocalypse, especially after seeing the video and Ray''s reaction after people imed Theo to be the world''s enemy.


    "I want to ask you one question and add one condition."


    "Sure."


    "I''ll start from the condition. When you have gone to the top, I want you to protect my people."


    "I believe I''ve said it earlier. We''ll be neighbors. As long as you don''t harm my interest, I''ll be your ally. You should know that I''m not someone who will ignore my ally just because of sudden interest, right?"


    "Of course." The Mafia Queen nodded. Theo was implying that if she became his ally, there wouldn''t be any thought about harming her if he suddenly wanted something from her. Theo was fair and just, so he would probably trade or discuss things with her if he wanted something.


    And this was enough for the Mafia Queen as she continued to the question. "I understand. This is a good enough condition for me. Well, this is only a verbal promise, but I''ve been dealing with verbal promises since childhood. I have confidence I can discern which one is a true promise and which one is a lie.


    "That''s why I''ll trust you with this verbal promise. If you ever break this promise, I''ll fight with you even if it''s thest thing I''ll do." The Mafia Queen took a deep breath before asking a question with a serious expression. "Say�� How far are you nning to go? The strongest expert in the world?"


    Theo smirked and pointed at the top. "That''s too low. Do you believe there is a being that can kill the Time God with a single thought?"


    The Mafia Queen was shocked by his answer. Theo was truly insane. He was implying he wanted to deal with something far higher than the Time God. But at the same time, she felt he could truly do it.


    It couldn''t help but put a smile on her face. "Hahaha, you''re insane, Theodore Griffith. However, I like it! I promise you that I shall be your ally."

 Chapter 1646 Fighting King Class Monsters

    "Send all the force forward. Our enemies never fought on thend, so we''ll have an advantage with our mobility." Agata shouted while looking at the map.


    Themands were transmitted to all soldiers on the battlefield. However, they wondered if they could even fight against a being like this. It was impossible to win this huge fight because they didn''t have a single expert that could stand a chance against a World ss Monster.


    However, Felix stood up and released his white Magic Power, ring at the starfish. He stomped the ground and dispersed his Magic Power as if showing he wouldn''t stand down even if death awaited him.


    He pointed his sword at the starfish. His expression implied to the starfish that he was going for the kill. No matter how low the chance he could win, he would never stop until the starfish fell.


    The starfish smirked. He seemed to be a fighter and Felix managed to excite his fighting nature.


    He raised his hands and asked, "Human, your name?"


    "Felix."


    "Very good. I shall remember this name. Despite fighting against overwhelming odds, you still have the courage to swing your sword to the veryst moment. I, Urnadir, shall treat you as my respectable opponent and kill you as a warrior!" The starfish smirked.


    Felix took a deep breath as his body was enveloped by light. The starfish could feel the change in Felix''s body before it immediately disappeared from his vision.


    "!!!" The starfish widened his eyes and turned around, finding Felix appearing on his right. He hurriedly raised his right arm to block the sword.


    *Cling!*


    "Tsk." Felix clicked his tongue, realizing his sword wasn''t enough to cut through the starfish''s metal body. Even so, he didn''t give up.


    The starfish saw Felix disappearing again, but he had already seen this move, so he wouldn''t be tricked the second time.


    He reacted faster than the previous one and even punched to his left, hitting Felix''s de before Felix''s appeared.


    *Cling!*


    Felix was blown away this time. Luckily, he managed to stabilize his posture in the air, allowing him tond on the ground with his feet.


    After that, he went back to the starfish and started spinning his body, trying to overwhelm the starfish with his speed.


    However, the starfish''s fighting instinct seemed to be honed enough to know where Felix was going. He kept up with Felix''s speed and unpredictable movement easily. He even managed tond a few blows on Felix''s body.


    Although a portion of its force was absorbed by Felix''s de, his body started going numb after those attacks.


    p The starfish was simply on a whole different level.<sub> </sub></anda>


    Meanwhile, Rea was still trying to find the monster that blocked Ruth''s arrow. The battlefield had be chaotic because the soldiers had begun their march to stop those monsters. So, she had to stop this King ss Monster from interfering. At the very least, she wanted to grant a safe passage for their people. As for the World ss Monster, she could only ignore it for the time being, hoping the World ss Monster didn''t make a move anytime soon.


    Suddenly, Ruth shouted. "There!"


    Rea was startled by her shout and followed her line of sight. Before she could spot a monster, Ruth had shot toward the spot.


    Rea was confused at the moment because the arrow went straight to the dust kicked by the monsters.


    The wind arrow was invisible, but the monster seemed to have noticed the surge of the wind and immediately waved its hand to create a gale that could sweep the wind arrow.


    "!!!" Rea could see what happened earlier. "He also controls wind? Don''t tell me, he has��"


    "No, I don''t think so. Theo has told me that there can be a few people who wield the same Order, but there is only one person who can wield something beyond the Order. The Wind Emperor wielded it in the past, and it was only a few years since his death�� There was no way a monster managed to cultivate his strength to this level��


    "Even I didn''t have a Wind Order. Before I became an assassin, I was a hunter. That''s why my Order is the Hunting Order. Basically, I hunt everything, whether they''re living beings or imaginary things." Ruth exined and pointed at the monster behind the dust. "And that guy�� he shouldn''t have Wind Order�� Since he is making a tornado continuously, he might have Gale Order or something. Either way, I''ll be hunting that guy down. Help me."


    "Got it." Rea nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, I''ll stop him for you."


    "Yeah. Please trust my arrow. I hunt everything I want, but my arrow won''t hit something I don''t hunt."


    Rea didn''t say anything because she hadplete trust not only in Ruth, but also in the rest of the group.


    She pulled out her sword while revolving her Magic Power.


    Her eyes gradually became sharp and a pair of pointy ears appeared on top of her head. Nine fox tails grew on her back as her speed increased.


    "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Nine-Tailed Fox Form."


    Rea took a deep breath as her instinct began to take over.


    "I shall be a fox�� No, I am a fox�� Release my beastly instinct. Let the fox be a part of me�� I shall perfect this battle form with my Order�� Embodiment."


    In that instant, Rea spun her body and swiped her tails like a fan, creating a gale that blew away all the dust, revealing a lobster standing on two feet.


    "There you are!" Rea raised her left hand as her nails into ws. She gathered the Magic Power into it and waved her hands, releasing multiple crescent-shaped strikes. This wasn''t a w strike but a sword strike. Rea was a swordsman, but after acquiring her Order, she knew she could use all parts of her body as a sword. Her body was the medium to connect the sword and the mythical creatures. This was her Embodiment Order.


    "Haaa!"

 Chapter 1647 Reinforcement

    "Haaa!"


    The lobster furrowed his eyebrows and waved his hand, sending another gale from the side, blowing the sword strikes away.


    Rea had expected that the gale could neutralize her attacks, so she immediately approached the lobster before swinging her sword to his neck.


    The lobster easily used his ws to block this sword. After that, it spun its body, hitting Rea with its tail.


    Rea also moved her tails and used them as a cushion, softening the hit from the tail. Even so, the power still blew her away, allowing the lobster an opportunity to attack her with her gale.


    Fortunately, she wasn''t fighting the lobster alone. Right before the lobster utilized its wind, Ruth shot an arrow, forcing the lobster to stop his action and block this arrow instead.


    The gale neutralized the arrow, but Rea managed to stabilize her posture and charged back during that time.


    The lobster furrowed his eyebrows and formed another gale in front of him. Unlike Felix, the lobster didn''t seem to have many options due to him maintaining several tornadoes to carry the trash. So, Rea and Ruth still had the chance to take down this monster.


    She tried to sh the lobster, but the gale in front of him acted like a barrier, deflecting her sword. After that, the lobster waved both ws to p her head.


    Rea managed to duck down at thest moment and spun her body. Her nine-tailed fox form was undone as a pair of red horns appeared on top of her head. Her fangs grew and her eyes turned red.


    "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Oni Form!" She kicked the lobster in the stomach and turned her leg into a sword.


    "!!!" The lobster felt like its stomach was being pierced by a sword. This would be dangerous if his carapace wasn''t hard enough.


    The lobster still didn''t say anything even after this kick. He simply tried to grab Rea''s leg and smash it.


    Rea hurriedly retracted her foot and took a leap back, regaining some distance. After all, Ruth had finished charging her arrow.


    The lobster seemed to be able to sense it as well and turned around, finding Ruth shooting her arrow to the sky.


    Suddenly, the arrow turned into ten, multiplied into one hundred, and fell down, raining him down.


    The lobster hurriedly formed another gale to stop it, but surprisingly, the arrow stuck to his gale as if the gale itself had a form.


    The lobster was shocked, not understanding how she did it. But the gale truly stopped as soon as those arrows fell down as though his gale had died.


    No matter how hard he tried to move it, he couldn''t control the wind anymore.


    And Ruth didn''t stop there.


    Onest arrow had been charging in the sky.


    The lobster remembered that Ruth was the one destroying their mountain. And this was the same attack she used from back then, albeit much weaker because she didn''t have the time to recharge it all the way.


    Even so, the arrow''s power broke apart the ''death'' gale and reached him.


    The lobster used its ws to block it, but this arrow actually managed to make a small dent in his w.


    It was surprising because his ws were extremely hard, even harder than his carapace. Yet, a woman far weaker than him managed to make a dent in the hardest part of his body.


    "��" The lobster was amazed, confused, and angry at the same time.<sub> </sub>


    Rea, on the other hand, used this time to regain her bearing and reapproach him. This time, she changed her form again, turning into a dragon. She gathered all her power into her sword to the point it felt like she became a dragon head, ready to devour the lobster.


    The lobster was angered thoroughly because Rea kept disturbing him. If not for her, Ruth couldn''t leave this mark on his body.


    That was why the lobster finally moved from his original position after so long. And he actually leaped back as if to distance himself from Rea.


    Thinking the lobster was afraid of their attacks, Rea continued forward before realizing something was wrong when the Magic Power fluctuated at the ce he stood earlier.


    "NO!" Rea suddenly felt a gale that pushed her feet a bit, tripping her. At the same time, the lobster''s w punched her face, wanting to destroy her head.


    Rea instantly changed her form into Genbu Form, using the shield to block this punch.


    *Bang!*


    The shield blocked the punch for a split second before it shattered into pieces. Luckily, Rea used that force to stop her body and immediately threw herself to the side to avoid the punch.


    "Kh." She fell to the ground, looking at the lobster that seemed to be nning to kill her first.


    But this was the time to turn around the situation.


    "!!!" The lobster suddenly widened his eyes and turned around, seeing a blue-haired man appearing before his eyes. He opened his mouth for the first time due to the shock. "You��"


    The man didn''t wait for him. He struck the lobster in the stomach with all his strength.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Induction Fist!"


    *Bam!*


    The punch alone created a powerful shock wave that shook the battlefield, startling everyone as if a huge explosion had urred.


    That punch wasn''t an ordinary punch. It was proven by a crack that appeared on the lobster''s carapace.


    The lobster spat some water before crashing to the ground a quarter mile away from him. Still, when he was flying, he still waved his w, sending forth a gale to deal with this man.


    Surprisingly, the man also did the same, creating a tornado with his fist.


    "Magic Saint Fist Style. Twister."


    The tornadoes neutralized each other, creating silence on the battlefield.


    Rea, who was next to him, dropped her mouth to the ground because she had never expected to see this figure on the battlefield.


    "You��" Rea gulped down. "Why are you here��"


    This guy would never appear here because no one ever knew his location. And even if his whereabouts was known, he wouldn''t go all the way here because of Theo.


    Yes. He was none other than Theo''s father, Ray Griffith.

 Chapter 1648 Strong

    "Why are you here?" Rea gasped, never expecting to see this figure here.


    However, thetter simply said, "I''ll take care of this guy. You should focus on the other guy, considering your friend is��"


    With just a nce, they could see Felix getting overwhelmed by the monsters. If they didn''t help him, Felix would be the first to fall at this rate.


    Rea didn''t think much about Ray''s appearance. He might be here just to help Theo without him knowing since thetter was away. Or he mighte here because Theo asked him.


    Either way, Rea knew Ray Griffith was strong, even stronger than Felix or Ruth. So, leaving this monster to him was the best choice.


    After all, there was another person that would help Ray in this situation.


    The lobster appeared before Ray and punched forward. Not afraid of this punch, Ray also gathered his Magic Power into the punch and confronted it head-on.


    Magic Saint Fist Style, Induction Fist.


    *Bam!*


    Both powers were pushing each other. However, they had two different powers fundamentally. The lobster had the power of the wind, while Ray had control over the Magic Power.


    As expected, the monster couldn''t win against Ray while controlling Magic Power. It ended up getting pushed back.


    The lobsters couldn''t help but p, letting out a sound that attracted the monsters. In that instant, a portion of the monsters that attacked the humans changed their direction, heading toward Ray. Although they weren''t strong, they should be enough to distract Ray.


    Suddenly, a Mythical Rank Expert also appeared above them. She had a white war gown and two pairs of white wings. She was wearing a helmet that covered her face except for her mouth, but she seemed to be able to see through the helmet.


    She pped her hand and the ck cloud suddenly created a hole, allowing a colossal spear to fall down.


    "!!!" The lobster widened its eyes, realizing she wasn''t an ordinary Mythical Rank Expert. He raised his arm to send another gale to disrupt her and destroy the spear, but Ray hurriedly raised his arm, sending forth the same gale to neutralize his opponent''s.


    The lobster frowned, realizing the man before him was actually as strong as him. No one had known that Ray had never neglected his training. He kept training and training until he could finally reach Leonardo''s level. And this was the time for him to unleash all the power he had been storing this whole time.


    Valerie used this chance to call forth the spear. "God Killing Spear."


    The spear fell down as the monsters on the ground tried to shoot it down. However, no matter how hard they attacked, it was impossible for Supreme Rank Monsters to stop this spear.


    Two Mythical Rank Monsters suddenly appeared before the spear, nning to stop it before the spear fully manifested. However, Valerie came between them and formed a spear of light on her hand.<sub> </sub>


    The two monsters gathered their Magic Power in their mouths and shot torrential water.


    "��" Valerie didn''t seem to be taking them seriously as she didn''t even bother to do anything special. She simply stabbed the water and dispersed the two water tornadoes in rapid session.


    "!!!" The monsters were shocked because their powerful attacks were stopped that easily. They tried to approach her, but this was Valerie''s strong point.


    She wielded her spear and killed the two monsters who had a hard time maintaining their bnce in the sky, unlike her, who could fly freely.


    The God Killing Spear finally fell down and shattered the ground. The cracks spread in all directions and each gap was more than twenty feet wide.


    The surrounding ground turned into a crater and swallowed the monsters inside the gap. Valerie''s attack didn''t stop there.


    The spear gradually vanished in people''s eyes, but it turned out the Magic Power was moving to the tip of the spear as if trying to inject that enormous Magic Power into the ground.


    The moment the spear couldn''t be seen anymore, a blinding light appeared from within the gap, killing all monsters inside.


    Ruth, who had enough height to watch the entire thing, couldn''t help but drop her jaw. "What? Is she a Queen as well? But her Magic Power is still normal�� Then, are you telling me there is a Mythical Rank Expert that is strong without an Order?"


    It was shocking, but the shock didn''t stop there. The moment shended on the ground, she wielded her spear, nning to take a thousand monsters at once. Every single monster that came to her would be split apart.


    The spear she made from Magic Power would expand or extend, killing more monsters. Just looking at how she easily wiped out two hundred monsters by herself made people think she was a War Goddess. Her gant figure inspired one''s heart, giving the humans a morale boost and pushing the enemies back.


    ��


    Ruth narrowed her eyes and muttered, "So, this is the Griffith Family. They were supposed to take over the Griffith Family. No wonder the Griffith Family was strong for so many generations�� it was because each generation had people like them handling the family�� Albeit, thest generation made a mistake and caused all those problems."


    Ruth finally understood why the Griffith Family was feared in the world.


    Meanwhile, Agata was confused as well when she heard the report.


    "There are two unknown people appearing on the battlefield. The first guy had an appearance simr to Theodore Griffith but older. The second person was an angel, wearing her war gown and disying an overwhelming power. Her spear could annihte hundreds of monsters easily."


    "What?" Agata was dumbstruck. Although the description was rough, there was only one couple that matched those descriptions. "Magic King, Ray Griffith. And Valkyrie, Valerie Guerrero. They''re here?"


    Just like Rea, she never expected these two would appear on the battlefield, especially since this ce was under Theo''s authority. But unlike Rea, who didn''t have the time to think about their motive, Agata fell into deep thought, trying to understand their intention. After all, their appearance would bring an impact on Theo, for better or worse.

 Chapter 1649 Information

    As Agata feared Theo''s reaction, someone entered themand center, reporting, "Ma''am. We have someone who ims to know you. As long as we say her name, she says you''ll recognize her."


    "!!!" Agata didn''t need to guess it anymore. She instantly asked, "Is that person called Ne?"


    "You know her?" The guy was confused for a moment, but Agata simply nodded her head, asking him to bring her here.


    It didn''t take too long for Ne to enter the room. She had a joyful smile on her face and waved her hand. "Hello, Sister-inw."


    "What?" Agata was dumbfounded, never thinking Ne would call her such.


    "Huh? Did I hear it wrong? I thought Theo was going to marry you. He told me it would happen in two to three years��" Ne blinked her eyes a few times. The only person Theo liked in the Griffith Family was her, so it was obvious why she managed to know about this important matter.


    But the fact she knew about this matter meant she was the real Ne Griffith, not someone who impersonated her. This might be the reason why Theo told her such important information.


    "Well, that can be discussedter. My question is�� why do youe here, Ne?" Agata pinched the bridge of her nose, not wanting to believe Ne was here just to chill down.


    "I''m here to bring you a message from Theo." Ne smirked. "The victory is right ahead. Please don''t lose hope."


    "!!!" Not only Agata but all people in themand center were stunned by that statement.


    "What? The victory?" Agata was baffled because the situation was looking bleak. Even she had no way to turn around the situation. Yet, to Theo, this situation was near their victory.


    After learning from Theo for so long, Agata suddenly gasped as if she had realized something. She looked at Ne and asked, "Is he nning��"


    "He told me if you figured out his n, he wanted me to tell you this. The chance of me killing that monster is 100% percent. It''s time to shock the world. So, please believe in me."


    "!!!" Agata''s body trembled, knowing what to do. She looked at her adjutant and said, "Call all our support and tell them to attack our enemies right now."


    "How many do we need to move right now?" The adjutant was confused for a second, but Agata hurried him by raising her voice. "All of them. Bombard them without holding back!"


    "Y-yes!" The adjutant immediately worked on it while Logan, their second-inmand, looked at Agata in confusion. "Why do you want to release all our forces this early?"


    "Sir Logan. Do you believe in Theo?" Agata asked.


    "If he is going toe out, I''ll believe him."


    ? "That''s enough. Then, let''s change the name of our operation. Instead of protecting the base, let''s change it to World ss Monster hunting!" Agata smirked.


    "!!!" It took an instant for him to understand Theo''s objective. What Theo actually wanted was to push the monsters to their side, making them go deep enough to close the gap to retreat. That was where Theo woulde in.


    Logan fell into deep thought before saying, "Do you need another officer on the field, Ma''am? I''m ready to wield my spear for our victory!"<sub> </sub>


    "Do you dare to do it?"


    Logan walked to the corner of the room and picked up his spear. He then stood in front of her as if waiting for his order.


    "Bring our reserve troops forward and deal damage as much as possible to our enemies."


    Logan saluted before leaving immediately. He knew it was time to turn the situation around.


    "My sister-inw is a big shot." Ne chuckled.


    "Don''t tease me. After telling all the messages, are you going to the frontline?"


    "Nope. I''ll be here to protect you. I''m not that strong, but I should be able to take on some attacks for you." Ne winked, telling her to rest assured.


    "In that case��." Agata smiled as she began rearranging the troops.


    ��


    The battlefield gradually changed after the arrangement and reinforcement. The humans began overwhelming the enemies despite being outnumbered. The heavy artillery kept raining the enemies down, killing one monster after another. But more importantly, they still managed to hide the weapon Maya made. This was huge for Theo and it might be included in his n. That was why Agata didn''t call Maya to start their operation despite their experts being ready to operate it.


    Meanwhile, she gave Felix, Rea, and Ruth another instruction. "You three. Focus on one monster and kill him. There''s no need to fear the World ss Monster anymore."


    "!!!" Those three were shocked because the World ss Monster was the most dangerous threat on this battlefield. If they didn''t care about it, they would be wiped out easily, especially since the World ss Monster hadn''t made its move yet.


    The shark was actually observing the situation from the air this whole time as if searching for something.


    After listening to the instruction, Rea figured out something. "Is he��"


    "Yeah. He''s somewhere. He hasn''t appeared because it''s not the time yet. That''s why you have to kill at least one King ss Monster to make the World ss Monster move."


    "!!!" The trio finally understood their role. They were looking at the starfish as if it was dead meat. Even if they had to use all their strength, they were nning to kill this starfish, not wanting to lose against Ray and Valerie.


    "Understood." They answered in unison. After that, Rea gave an instruction. "Felix, you distract this guy. Ruth will be the one taking it down. My role is to support both of you."


    "Got it." Felix took a deep breath while covering his sword with light as if telling the starfish this was the start of their second round.


    Ruth also formed a bigger bow to get more power and pointed it at the monster.


    Meanwhile, Rea turned into her dragon form with a smile. "Alright. Let''s kill this King ss Monster."

 Chapter 1650 Trapped

    "Hmm? Something changes." The starfish realized the change in his opponents. "The hesitation in their eyes has disappeared."


    Felix began his move, vanishing into thin air.


    "!!!" The starfish widened its eyes. Although his senses managed to keep up with him, his body couldn''t do it anymore. The best thing he could do was raise his arms to block Felix''s sh.


    *Cling!*


    "This is..." The starfish realized Felix had gotten stronger. Due to the hesitation, Felix slowed down to make sure he had enough time to react. But after Agata assured them that the World ss Monster would be handled by Theo, there was no need to hold back anymore.


    Even if his attack gave him a huge opening for the World ss Monster, he wouldn''t mind, knowing Theo would be there to cover for him.


    The same applied to Rea. She went straight to the starfish as if she was prepared to use her body to stop him.


    The starfish punched forward like usual, but Rea suddenly stopped on her track and changed her form into Genbu Form. She released her snake and turned it into rope, attaching it to the starfish''s right hand.


    "I got him!" Rea shouted while nting the turtle shell on the ground, using it to stop her body when the starfish tried to pull her.


    "This is..." The starfish was surprised because Rea managed to stop one of his hands while Felix kept overwhelming him with his speed, causing him to be unable to move from his position.


    And this was where Ruth released her arrow.


    The invisible flew toward the starfish. Even though he had felt the iing arrow, he could do nothing except for using his metal to stop the arrow.


    His Order might be the simplest one. It managed to cover his entire body, turning him into a monster with imprable skin.


    And it was still effective against this arrow.


    *Bang!*


    The arrow hit his metal body and knocked him a bit, but there wasn''t a dent on its skin unlike the lobster.


    Although using this much Order to cover his body would be draining, he didn''t mind spending all his energy today in order to destroy the humans.


    ''Tsk. It''s not enough.'' Ruth thought, narrowing her eyes. She needed a stronger bow if she wanted to prate its body.


    As if answering her prayer, her body suddenly got enveloped by rainbow lights.


    "Mhm?!" Ruth widened her eyes in shock. "What is this... I feel like my Strength, Magic Power, and Endurance increased drastically. Also, it seems that my body can concentrate more Magic Power and do it twice as fast. My eyes... No, not only my eyes but all my senses have been enhanced as well. I can look at this monster as if I''m using a scope and my skin even feels the Magic Power around me. Who..."


    Ruth was confused and looked toward the enemy, finding Rea and Felix getting enveloped by the same strange light. They were also confused because their overall prowess was at least doubled.


    Other than the trio, there were two more people who received this power up. They were Ray and Valerie. But unlike those three, Ray and Valerie knew whose ability this was.<sub> </sub>


    Yes. This was the ability of the number one Enchanter in the world. Her support ability could even double a Transcendent Level Expert''s strength.


    As for the culprit, she was actually on the hill a quarter mile away from the battlefield. She was sitting on a tree branch, looking down at the battlefield with a calm expression. She even took out her cigarette and lit it up as if she had aplete belief in her abilities to strengthen their power.


    "Hu..." She let out a long breath, filled with smoke. "Yeah, this is good shit. I was so upied with all those matters for an entire week that I didn''t even have time to smoke.


    "Well, I didn''t power up everyone here and send my people there yet because I didn''t want people to know about my existence. But I''ve powered up all the core people who would push forward the battle.


    "And let me see the power of the number one illusionist in the world, Theodore Griffith." She breathed out again and smirked, "Ah, shit. If only I had beers here... I would be watching the greatest fight while smoking and drinking. Such a shame."


    ...


    Although they didn''t know what was happening, Ruth, Rea, and Felix became even more determined to kill the monster before them. They finally had the strength to do so.


    "Heh..." Felix smirked, excited because of this sudden power up. The moment he disappeared, the starfish''s body trembled. It couldn''t even block Felix''s attack anymore as his body wasn''t fast enough to react.


    Before he realized it, Felix''s de hit his neck but was blocked by the imprable skin.


    Rea hurriedly approached the starfish, using Felix as her cover. She kicked the starfish in the middle like stabbing a sword.


    The Magic Power flew forward, entering the starfish''s body beforeing out from its back.


    "Gah!" The starfish coughed as he felt his inside move due to that attack. "Impossible. An attack of that level could injure me?"


    Rea smiled since there was a trick in that kick. Due to her being able to control her Magic Power better, Rea could try to infiltrate the pores in the skin to attack his inside.


    Before the starfish could react, both Rea and Felix had leaped back to gain some distance. It was at that time, Ruth shot to the sky, gathering the Magic Power in the air before the arrow fell down, hitting him.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" The starfish finally felt the impact for the first time. The arrow was so strong that even if he tried to withstand it, the ground ended up getting destroyed and turning into a crater.


    *Bam!*


    The starfish''s legs felt like giving up due to this overwhelming pressure as he kept maintaining his Order to stop this attack.


    "Haaa!" The starfish roared and eventually deflected the arrow with his head. But this time, the starfish panted as if he had just expended a quite amount of energy, giving more confidence to the trio. They could kill it, they thought.


    Unbeknownst to them, the World ss Monster had been observing them this whole time, noticing something from those lights.


    "Mhm... Those rainbow-colored lights... An Order? No, it might even be stronger. But Theodore Griffith isn''t supposed to have this power... Don''t tell me, we''ve been tricked? There are actually two Saints that are going to ambush me?" The shark widened his eyes as if realizing Theo''s trick.


    However, it was toote because the moment he turned around, he found Theo standing on the field behind him.

 Chapter 1651 Fighting The Shark

    Theo was staring at the shark with a smile on his face as if he was confident enough to kill this shark by himself. But like the others, Theo''s body was covered with the rainbow light as well, improving his ability significantly.


    As soon as the shark noticed him, Theo raised his hand and waved it a few times, challenging him.


    A World ss Monster was impossible to be ambushed. Not only was their skin tough, but their perception was extraordinary. So, if Theo wanted to ambush him, it had to be with something powerful enough to prate his skin, which was impossible because the monster would have felt the fluctuation before hitting them.


    So, Theo didn''t bother to waste his energy doing it.


    The shark narrowed his eyes, hesitating. On the one hand, he didn''t have enough confidence to defeat Theo with this hidden saint. On the other hand, he realized that his subordinates couldn''t escape from their own battle.


    If he couldn''t stop Theo, all these monsters would die. Even then, he would be severely injured as well, considering Theo wouldn''t let him go.


    "��" The shark paused for a moment and nced at his people once again before making his decision. The shark suddenly released his overwhelming Magic Power, stunning everyone on the battlefield.


    "!!!" The people felt this extraordinary pressure and thought how foolish they were to even challenge a World ss Monster. With this strength alone, the World ss Monster was able to destroy their base without anyone being able to stand against him.


    Fortunately for them, the shark was actually looking at their back as if something was hitting their enemies from the rear.


    And the lobster understood the meaning of that action. It was to rm him against the enemy on the back, but with how the World ss Monster acted, it was clear that the enemies were stronger than any King ss Monster.


    "Theodore Griffith?!" The lobster realized who was behind them and knew his master, the World ss Monster wanted him to retract the tornado so that he could go against him.


    They hadn''t even thrown all the trash yet, but they were forced to let go of the tornado. He was unwilling.


    "No!" The lobster shouted while controlling his tornado, trying to shoot all the trash to the front. At the very least, this should be enough to catch the enemy off guard.


    Unfortunately for him, this action actually forced the shark to make his move instead of Theo.


    The shark pped its fin, forming a huge translucent balloon to catch all the trash being thrown.


    "What? My Saint. Why did yo��" The lobster was baffled because they should use everything to their advantage.


    The shark didn''t say anything to the lobster. He simply threw the ball filled with trash to the side, letting it stay in that ce.


    Meanwhile, he dropped to the ground. Unlike the others, he had no feet to stand on the ground, so he was actually standing on top of his belly.


    However, he had made a small tform made of stic, allowing him to meet Theo''s eyes from the same level.


    "Mhm. I''m thankful for you not ambushing us," said the shark with a calm expression. He was spreading his Awareness to find the other saint but to no avail.


    Theo shook his head and said, "I simply don''t like to waste my energy, especially against an opponent like you."


    "Even if you don''t hit me, you can wipe out two of my subordinates along with my numerous subjects."<sub> </sub>


    "Hoh?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "You even thank me for something I don''t do?"


    "Either way, I''ve told you everything I want to say. I guess there is nothing that can stop our sh."


    "Indeed. It seems you''re ready to fight me to thest breath." Theo smirked.


    "You? Do you think I don''t know there is another Saint nearby?" He looked around, signaling he was already aware of Alexa''s presence.


    Theo smiled, which was already enough for an answer. He then took out his spear and pointed it at him. "Then, shall we start?"


    "There''s no need to ask!" The shark pped its tail, kicking its body toward Theo.


    Theo hurriedly gathered his Magic Power into the tip of his spear and thrust it forward.


    The shark opened its mouth, creating a stic bubble. The stic was actually hard enough to stop the spear, letting it slide on its side.


    The shark used this way to hit Theo with the stic ball. However, Theo skillfully used his World Re-Creation, expanding the reality so that the shark flew back.


    The sharp noticed the sudden stop and hurriedly changed the form of the ball into a thin thread. He thenunched the thread toward Theo''s spear to use it to avoid getting pushed back.


    Theo''s Telekinesis enveloped the thread and pushed it upward. After that, he took advantage of theck of limbs the shark had to strike his body with Magic Bullets. The shark was about to fall as well, so it would be hard for him to avoid it.


    The shark smiled and simply received the Magic Bullets head-on.


    *Boom!*


    The Magic Bullets exploded, but the moment the cloud was blown away by the wind, the shark actually showed no injury.


    However, Theo could see that a part of his body was actually stic, though a tough one that even his power had a hard time prating.


    "stic huh�� Looking at you, it doesn''t seem like you''re from this side. Why do you have this kind of power when you''re from that side?" Theo asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "Have you thrown any trash into the sea?"


    "No. I''ve always thrown my trash into the bin, so I can only pity you." Theo shook his head.


    "The other side, huh�� I think you''ve already got an answer in your mind��"


    Theo didn''t say anything. He knew that the humans seemed to have been throwing trash on the other side as well. They didn''t know it because it wasn''t recorded and easy to ess like the Earth, so it was a perfect ce to dump all their trash.


    That was how much humans had destroyed the other ces.

 Chapter 1652 Reality Vs Plastic

    "Our ce has been contaminated by your fault, humans. If you have any sympathy, why don''t you join us and punish those humans?"


    Theo knew that the people who were responsible for throwing all this trash must be the government. It was also easy for them to cover up the entire process.


    Although Theo felt bad for the sea creatures, he couldn''t assist them.


    "Well, I''m not as good as you think. I''m also selfish. If you kill all the humans, I won''t have anyone to live with anymore. Do you think it''s possible for humans to survive with only a few hundred of them in this messy world?" Theo smiled. "That''s why no matter what you say, I have to kill you today."


    "With that being said, I don''t need to hesitate anymore!" The shark''s eyes turned bloodshot as he leaped into the air. He then made stic from his fins, shaping it into the body of a human.


    "As expected, you humans have great anatomy for living on thend." The shark smirked. "With this, I should be able to fight you to the fullest."


    Theo was quite astonished by the stic body the shark made. After all, it could even move ording to his need like a proper human body. At the same time, he couldn''t strike the body because there was nothing there.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and called his Death Avatar as if nning to take the body on with this avatar.


    The shark moved toward Theo and mmed his fist against this Death Avatar, but Theo actually snapped his finger, utilizing his Reality Removal.


    "!!!" The shark realized that his stic had disappeared, leaving only his defenseless body. However, the stic could be shaped easily by his power, so the moment he lost the stic, he changed its shape, allowing him to break free from Theo''s illusion.


    Still, a third of the body had actually been erased, causing him to stumble to the ground.


    Theo and his Death Avatar used their spears to kill him.


    The shark made a dome on top of his body, covering him from the two spears.


    Theo twisted the reality of this dome and moved it downwards, reshaping it like a drill. This way, the stic would actually injure its master.


    Unfortunately, the shark had enough control to stop the transformation. After that, the stic dome released a few spikes.


    "!!!" Theo jumped back while using his World Re-creation to distance himself from the dome.


    The shark didn''t n to let go of this opportunity. The spikes that came out of the dome earlier transformed into tentacles, wiggling all around the barrier. They suddenly extended toward Theo, surrounding him in all directions.


    Theo took a deep breath and turned his spear into a sword. After that, he locked down all the tentacles before using his Order to replicate the Sword Saint''s strike.


    "Shatter!"


    Theo waved his sword, releasing a few white lines on the ground like Felix''s strike. However, these white lines were invisible because Theo had put an illusion to show that nothing had happened.


    The white lines split into numerous lines and rose right before the tentacles. Each tentacle was hit by at least four lights, shattered like ss.


    "!!!" The shark was baffled because he lost his property for a second. Although he could feel the connection between him and the stic, he felt they had turned into sses.<sub> </sub>


    Theo had shown his ability to copy someone''s attack or erase something, but he never showed his ability to change one''s property.


    The shark didn''t know this was actually one of two of Theo''s new abilities that he got after bing an Authority.


    "How did you change my power? Weren''t your power supposed to be removing or imitating something? Even when you imitated things, you were limited to the elements. That''s why I was in charge of fighting you because I knew you couldn''t copy my stic since it didn''t belong to any elements." The shark gritted his teeth, realizing something was wrong.


    As he said, Theo was restricted by his elements. Although he could use the Order to replicate the elements, there was no way he could replicate a perfect stic through the elements. The only thing he could do was to use his illusion to create the stic, but it wouldn''t be the same anymore.


    That was why it was shocking to know that Theo had an even more ridiculous ability besides that copy ability.


    "I pity you because your home is destroyed by humans. However, do you take me as a fool who will exin my power to my enemy?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Then, so be it!" The shark leaped toward Theo and punched forward. This time, he reshaped his fist, extending it forward like a rubber.


    Theo used his Twisted Reality to change the fist''s direction, but the shark kept matching the change of direction and continuously expanded toward Theo.


    Theo jumped back and turned the stic into sses as well before shattering it with a single swing.


    To avoid getting attacked by that punch again, Theo rushed to the shark and snapped his finger.


    The darkness began to form beneath his feet, spreading toward the shark. After that, it expanded, creating a huge circle. The edge began to rise, isting the space inside a ck dome.


    The shark couldn''t see anything at all. Though, it was still too early for Theo to even use this blindness to hit him.


    The fish relied on his instinctpletely and jumped to the left, avoiding the fist that was supposed to hit the back of his shark''s body.


    After that, his humanoid body expanded, trying to envelop the entire dark area with its hands.


    "!!!" The size of the humanoid body had be too big that it touched the edge of the darkness, breaking it apart. The shark didn''t stop until he was fifty-foot-tall, looking down at all the people on the ground.


    "That''s��"


    "What a huge body!"


    "What is that?!"


    The people were panicking because they had never expected the World ss Monster to act so soon. Some of the fighter jets that were trying to hit the enemy''s rank with their missiles panicked because they were about to crash into this body.


    They tried to maneuver, but the giant stic body expanded to the sides, making all the fighter jets crash and explode, killing the people in them.


    "Aaaaaaa!" The shark let out a roar of frustration, trying to settle this battle by himself.

 Chapter 1653 Outwitted

    "This is��" The people were trembling, especially the weaker ones. The Supreme Rank Experts and Mythical Rank Experts were ready to stop this giant because they had fought many big monsters like this.


    However, Theo flew into the sky, revealing his appearance to the people.


    "That''s��"


    "Theodore Griffith!"


    "He is on the battlefield!"


    "Let''s go!"


    The people felt energetic again, thinking Theo could deal with the enemies. And he proved himself by pping his hands, forming two giant balls in the air.


    The two giant balls turned into a ming ball and a freezing ball respectively.


    The different elements made the shark have to change his stic''s properties to match the temperature.


    From what Theo had seen, the shark seemed to not only be able to change form but also property. From the solid and hard one to a soft but mobile form. That was why he tried to challenge him with different elements, causing him to maintain two different characteristics in one go.


    "!!!" The shark was surprised that Theo had managed to decipher a bit of his ability already. Still, he wasn''t pushed to the point that he had to use all his power. Considering he had to create a path to escapeter, he wanted to conserve as much power as possible in case the second saint appeared.


    "It seems that you''re looking down on me. You think you still have the chance to leave this battlefield alive?" Theo''s expression became cold. He had yed for too long.


    He retracted his weapon and pped his hand. When he opened it a bit, a clock appeared between his palms.


    "Clock?!" The shark''s expression changed. He had never seen this ability, but there was only one element that came into his mind when seeing this clock. "Not good. Time!"


    "Stop!" Theo shouted and shattered the clock with a p.


    The shark suddenly felt like his entire body was stopped by something. This was Theo''s Telekinesis that pressured him from all sides, trying to stop his movement.


    But as one would expect from a World ss Monster, the moment he created his stic, he managed to break free from the time power.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo hadn''t stopped there. He was using World Re-Creation to expand reality in the opposite way of his movement, making him unable to move even an inch from his position.


    "This is��" The shark was shocked that Theo had this kind of ability on his sleeve.


    "As you said, I can copy others'' abilities. This time, I''m simply copying time from the master himself." Theo smirked, recalling all his battles against the Time God.


    "Hahaha!" The shark suddenlyughed.


    Theo didn''t have a change of expression despite being disturbed by thatugh. "There is nothing funny."


    "There is something funny. That''s why I''mughing right now. Although you have managed to outwit us on this battlefield, there are many things you don''t know, Theodore Griffith!" The shark smiled. "While we''re fighting right now, the sea race is unstoppable! Even if you manage to save this base, you can''t stop us in other ces!


    "Do you think it''s wise to set up Flora in the Nethends and the other experts in Italy to confront us? Do you think it''s wise to split up the three heroes, the Sword Saint, the Daemon, and the Heavenly Sovereign?


    "NO! We already know your ns, Theodore Griffith. Even if you can save this ce, you can''t do anything for the other ces! Do you know that the one attacking that Ice Witch is multiple King ss Monsters who have split their forces to destroy the entire city? Even that Ice Witch won''t be able to stop all of them. There are going to be millions of people dying!


    "And that''s not all. We have prepared someone like me on the other front. Your grandfather and his friends are going to die facing a World ss Monster!<sub> </sub>


    "We might have some trouble dealing with the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign, but the Daemon is your weakest link. We''ve sent our best fighter to that ce to kill him! Today shall be the mark of human tragedy!"


    As the shark said, the other forces had been moving in the shadow.


    Union.


    "We have spotted multiple armies of monsters," said one of the operators in the union''s headquarters. "They''re approaching the city. We request the Ice Witch to make her move."


    "This is impossible. There''s no way to stop all these monsters from reaching the city. She can''t do it alone!" another guy shouted while gritting his teeth, trying to find a way to fix this problem.


    However, another problem came when they got a report from the other front.


    "We have spotted a World ss Monster in Italy. It''s going to make its way toward the city. All of our Transcendent Level Experts won''t be enough against them! We''re requesting the Ice Witch to stop the World ss Monster."


    "It''s impossible. The time it took for them to move from one front to another was a few hours. By that time, there would already be too much destruction."


    "We''ve been had by those monsters!"


    "Impossible. We''re requesting backup!"


    "Evacuate the people immediately!"


    Just like the union, United Asia also had their problems.


    "There is a sight of multiple King ss Monsters on the shores. The Heavenly Sovereign''s forces are intercepting them. There are enough Transcendent Level Experts in that ce."


    "The Sword Saint''s forces have stopped the enemies as well. There is no problem."


    They thought this was over since the Daemon''s army had two Transcendent Level Experts, so they should be able to stop the enemies.


    However, the bad news came.


    "Not good! We have spotted a World ss Monster in the Daemon''s direction!"


    "Sir Daemon is weakerpared to Sir Sword Saint and Sir Heavenly Sovereign. Are these monsters aware of that fact and nning to eliminate the easiest one?!"


    "Not good!"


    "Requesting support from the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint!"


    "We can''t let them enter the city no matter what."


    "Evacuate!"


    The people were panicking because the humans were going to face a huge disaster. They were nning to at least take down one of the top experts as well as destroy numerous cities.


    And no one would be able to stop them.

 Chapter 1654 Trouble

    "What is this��" One of the soldiers muttered while looking at the octopus marching toward them. The giant octopus was one hundred feet tall and its reach was three times its body size.


    Not only was the octopus gigantic, but it also had tough skin. A single wave of its hands was enough to kill many people, considering the tentacles had sucking forces that pulled people in.


    The man was running earlier because he couldn''t fight against this octopus. But right now, he had given up this idea, considering the octopus was marching faster than he ran.


    p So, he had given up on his life, knowing there was nothing good to fight this octopus.</anda>


    "Is this the legendary Kraken?" The guy muttered while sucking cold air. Of course, it wasn''t the Kraken in the myth. Instead, this was a World ss Monster from the other side. It came from the depth of the ocean and tried to wipe the humans out.


    ��


    Just like this guy, there was another guy who had given up on his life upon seeing a giant eel that was moving like a snake on thend. The eel moved toward the humans and electrocuted them in an instant.


    Every time someone tried to attack this giant eel, they would be repelled by an electromaic pulse from the lightning.


    "This is the end. We have a kind of electric eel that is roaming on thend. We can invade the sea by using our equipment, but the monsters don''t need anything. They have evolved enough to live on thend. Is this truly because of the trash we''ve thrown into the sea?"


    The people were baffled by the current situation. This eel was supposed to fight against the Transcendent Level Experts from their union. However, it was impossible even for them to stop this eel.


    After all, the only one who might be qualified to take on this enemy was the Ice Witch, Flora Wegener.


    ��


    "Hahahaha!" The World ss Sharkughed despite being locked by Theo in one ce. He had already known what was going to happen to those humans.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows and said, "If that''s the case, then I will have to make sure to annihte you as soon as possible before killing the other World ss Monster attacking the other front. With this, we won''t lose too much."


    "Then try it! Do you think it''ll be that easy to kill me?" The sharkughed and summoned another stic. But this time, he shaped it like a PET bottle''s cap and shot it forward.


    The cap was spinning like crazy, turning the cap into a giant saw.


    "!!!" If this attack reached the humans, there would be hundreds if not thousands of deaths, so he hurriedly used his Telekinesis to stop this cap while using his Reality Removal to erase this power.


    As expected from the World ss Monster, he had better control over his strength. If he was fighting the Original Theo, he could easily remove half of the cap with his power, but this time, he only managed to stop a third of its body before it could reach the human.


    In the end, Theo used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality toward the shark''s direction, throwing the item back.


    "Hahaha. This is what you humans have thrown to the sea. I''m giving it back!" The shark smirked and turned the bottle cap into a stic fork. He then grabbed this fork with his stic hand and threw it toward Theo like a trident.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows because the moment he took this one on, he would be rained down by numerous stic utensils on top of his head. Yes, the shark actually used this one as a distraction beforeunching his attack.<sub> </sub>


    "Tsk!" Theo clicked his tongue and copied the Wind Emperor''s Ascension Step.


    He stepped forward and released the wind to knock the fork down. After that, numerous stic forks fell on top of him like tridents.


    Theo expanded the reality to the side, forcing these forks to curve a bit and fall to the ground.


    However, everyone could see these giant forks from afar. It might be what the fish actually wanted.


    "What? stic forks?"


    "Don''t tell me�� Does the World ss Monster have the power of stic? Is it because of all the trash we''ve thrown into the sea that we''re in this situation?"


    Karma is real. This was what they thought after seeing so many stics. They never thought that the enemies came to thend because they wanted to get their revenge.


    Theo didn''t say anything because he also wanted to tell them the same thing. These were human mistakes, and everyone had to ept the consequences whether they were involved or not.


    Theo hoped that the humans could live in a better way after this truth spread.


    Theo maintained his calm expression while trying to figure out the way to kill this monster. Although his illusion was extraordinary, he still had a hard time fooling this fish unlike his original self. After all, the fish had more experience as a World ss Monster.


    He was waiting for the right moment to fool the fish like how he recreated the battle against the Frost Saint.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath and raised his hand. "In that case, let''s change it up."


    "Mirage World."


    This was the first ability Theo got from his Authority. Now that he had fully activated this technique, he could recreate more than one ability at a time.


    Theo had picked two techniques. He suddenly raised his weapon and turned it into a sniper rifle.


    The moment he pulled the trigger, an invisible bullet flew forth, heading straight to the shark.


    This was Ruth''s arrow that changed shape into an invisible bullet.


    The shark easily felt the fluctuation of the Magic Power and formed a stic bag to catch it.


    However, Theo activated its second ability. The bullet suddenly revealed its appearance. It looked like Theo''s usual Magic Bullet, but Theo actually infused an ice element into this bullet. The moment it touched the stic bag, the ice bullet exploded, releasing a second burst like that of Mark. However, this explosion was as strong as the S Rank Skill that Flora used as soon as Theo upgraded it.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1655 Struggle

    *Boom!*


    The ice instantly covered the inside of the stic bag with a thickyer of ice. And Theo took this chance to appear right inside the stic bag with his Blink before hitting the ice with his fist.


    Induction Fist!


    The Magic Power around his fist spread and crushed the ice, including the frozen stic, allowing Theo to approach the shark.


    The sharp seemed to be ready to take him on. But Theo sped up their entire sh by shrinking the Reality between them, making them move toward each other.


    "!!!" The shark wasn''t prepared for the sudden shrink because Theo had only used that ability to expand reality, not the other way around.


    Seeing his enemy was taken aback, Theo activated his Alter Ego and increased his Strength to the maximum.


    "!!!" The shark felt the change in Theo''s body and hurriedly formed a huge ball outside his body.


    *Bang!*


    The fist struck the ball, creating a huge shock wave that even blew away humans and monsters at the same time. But due to the Reality that kept shrinking, the force from Theo''s punch didn''tunch the stic ball.


    And due to being stuck in one''s ce, all the force within that fist was transferredpletely to the ball and cracked.


    With just a simple push from Theo, the stic ball shattered into pieces.


    Theo hurriedly grabbed the shark''s real body to kill it. However, the shark''s body was made of hard ss as well. Unless he could release another punch like the one from earlier, he doubted he could destroy the shark''s body.


    At the same time, the shark''s huge stic body moved back while trying to grab Theo with its stic hands.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how to take this monster down. The World ss Monster before him had a unique ability and a powerful defense. He didn''t think much about his attack power since the shark didn''t seem to have that powerful attack that could harm him.


    But if he continued fighting this way, the shark would be able to turn around the situation because of his unbreakable body and enormous Magic Power.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Blink to escape the stic''s grasp.


    ''His ability is truly weird. This is the first time I have seen an ability like this�� The stic doesn''t seem to be that dangerous with my current power, but it''s extremely sturdy. I won''t be able to kill this guy without taking a risk myself.'' Theo muttered inwardly while observing the shark.


    Although the humans had gained momentum due to his sudden appearance, the monsters had an overwhelming number to their advantage. The momentum they had gained would disappear sooner orter, so they could lose this battle if they took it too long, especially since the support from the headquarters would be exhausted at that time.


    This might be the real reason why they sent this shark to him. Not only was his ability unique, but he could also stall Theo for a long time.<sub> </sub>


    The only thing he was afraid of right now was the appearance of the second saint. So, Theo had to find a way to catch him off guard and end his life, allowing him to help the army to kill the rest of the monsters.


    "��" Theo maintained his silence this whole time while the shark kept trying to crush him.


    ''It seems the n is working.'' The lobster watched the fight and was secretly pleased. He had already known about the battle n. They were to trick Theo and stall him for as long as they could while the rest continued crushing the humans.


    However, he didn''t expect there would be a strong King among the humans. He had some confidence in his strength as well, but all his power was destroyed by this man''s fists.


    The same applied to Rea and the others. They were in a stalemate. Due to the power up from Alexa, they managed to have equal power to the starfish and they were trying to catch the starfish off guard to finish him off.


    However, the starfish was more resilient. Just like the shark, he had a strong defense, not allowing a single wound on his body. The only thing he could do right now was to exhaust all his energy to stop these three.


    As people said in the past, this war wasn''t a battle between monsters and humans. Instead, this was a battle between two intelligent races. There were tricks in their move, trying to get the best result in this battle.


    And Theo had caught that intention. He was just struggling to break free from this trap.


    "It seems you have nned thoroughly this time. Lead the monsters? Attack the humans? No. Your job is to stall me." Theo''s expression became cold.


    "As expected of humanity''s most talented man. However, no matter what you say and do, you won''t be able to beat me until we aplish our mission." The man smirked.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and muttered inwardly, ''Hmm�� I can still use my Alter Ego for about twelve seconds, and I still have ny percent of my Magic Power. Should I y along with his n or��''


    A smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face as if he had already seen the path to kill this monster.


    "In that case, I''ll be the one to destroy your n." Theo smirked and summoned his Death Avatar.


    Death Avatar Fourth Authority, Death Descent.


    Suddenly, numerous red threats came out of the monster''s body, showing the path to kill him.


    "This is��" The World ss Monster was confused for a bit and tried to use his power to deal with this weird power, but to no avail. When he took a closer look, he realized that a few threats were leading to his known weaknesses. In that instant, he realized what these threads'' purposes were.


    The World ss Monster hurriedly formed many fan des around him. They started spinning and flying to Theo. "Die!"


    Theo smiled and used his Blink to appear next to the shark while swinging his de. "No, you die!"

 Chapter 1656 Different From Reported

    "No, you die!"


    The shark''s body trembled for a second as it hurriedly used its stic to block this attack. But Theo had used his Alter Ego to increase his strength again and hit the stic with all his strength.


    *Bam!*


    The shark couldn''t stop the attack this time because Theo used his Authority to change the stic into sses again. After that, the punch hit the shark''s body andunched him to the ground.


    The huge stic body crumbled, leaving only the shark on the ground.


    After that, Theo changed his Alter Ego from strength to agility, increasing his speed tremendously.


    He moved beyond the speed of the sound, leaving only the sonic boom behind. He arrived right before the shark and struck him after changing back the attribute to strength.


    The shark formed a dome to stop Theo''s attack this time.


    "!!!" Theo went so fast that he didn''t have enough time to change the stic to sses before hitting it.


    In the end, his punch pushed the stic down and shattered the ground. The entire battlefield was shaking as if an earthquake was happening, but this was just the power of one man.


    "You are a fool. You''re just wasting your energy!" The shark shouted.


    "Who cares about that?!" Theo released an even stronger strength and bent the stic until its maximum limit, snapping it.


    The shark gritted his teeth, never expecting Theo to be this reckless. He hurriedly pped his tail and flew to the side to avoid Theo''s punch.


    However, Theo kept changing his attribute to either Strength or Agility. He used Agility to chase after the shark and hit the shark with his Strength.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    There was so much destruction on the battlefield when Theo began his rampage. The shark was shocked and got bruises on his body because Theo sometimes caught him off guard with his speed.


    It seemed Theo was serious about killing him this time.


    "You! Even if you can kill me, you won''t be able to reverse the situation that is happening all around the world!" said the shark, trying to distract Theo.


    The moment he heard that statement, Theo couldn''t help but smile.


    "Why are you smiling? There is nothing funny here."


    "Ah, yes. Nothing funny. Like what I said earlier��" Theo''s smile became bigger as he asked, "Do you think I''ll be tricked by this cheap n?"


    "Huh?" The shark was confused for a moment before everything was clear when he heard Theo saying, "Your spy�� Are you sure it is your spy?"


    "Our spy�� Wait, you��" The shark gasped and misunderstood Theo''s question. That question was only meant to make him rethink the answer, but it ended up causing a misunderstanding in the shark''s head. "That spy is a double agent?! If that''s the case, then our counter n��"


    The shark''s face became pale. He was horrified by the current situation. If Theo gave a certain n and the spy told them about it. They would surely make a counter n. However, what they didn''t know was that the spy was actually Theo''s agent. By giving them his n, Theo could predict the counter n against his own before making another one to counter their n.


    In other words, they had been ying in Theo''s hands this whole time.<sub> </sub>


    "You��"


    ��


    Italy.


    "Die, die, die!" The eel shouted while electrocuting the people. He moved so fast, rampaging on thend.


    Suddenly, huge ice spikes began toe out of the ground, trying to pierce his skin.


    "!!!" The eel was surprised and turned its body around, barely avoiding the ice spikes. But another wave of ice spikes came from the opposite sides, trapping the eel. "This power�� I''ll just destroy it!"


    The eel discharged an electric shock to destroy the ice, but the ice actually dispersed the lightning easily.


    "This power��" The eel gasped and turned around, finding a huge ice pir forming out of nowhere. On top of that ice pir was Flora, the Ice Witch. "Why are you here?"


    The eel thought the Transcendent Level Experts from the human race would be the ones stopping him because Flora was supposed to be in the Nethends. Yet, he hadn''t seen a single Transcendent Level Expert in this ce before Flora appeared.


    "Wait, you��" The eel gasped, realizing their situation.


    "You are a fool."


    As she said that, Leonardo was standing with the Princess, the Great Guardian, the Empress, and the Pope.


    "The Princess''s royal guards and the Great Guardian''s army will be handling our left nk. The Empress''s disciples and the church''s holy knights will fight on our right nk. And my War God Family will destroy the center. Objections?"


    "To think that your spection is correct�� We''re d to change ces with Flora." The princess smiled.


    "Indeed. That''s why I don''t mind burning out today. I''m going to crush our enemiespletely this time." The Great Guardian nodded.


    "The union has given me a new ce to live, so I''ll be repaying the favor."


    "Well, I just hope no one gets injured." The Pope smiled.


    "Let''s go!" Leonardo smirked as they went to their own people to start marching to the battlefield.


    ��


    Just like the union, United Asia also handled their enemies.


    The ''Kraken'' wasughing while destroying the humans. But suddenly, numerous trigrams appeared and locked its tentacles, making him stop.


    "Mhm?!" The Kraken was startled and looked at his tentacles before tracing the Magic Power back to the man standing on top of a trigram in the air. "You�� How are you here?!"


    The man who was using the trigram was none other than the Heavenly Sovereign. However, it was weird for him to appear here because the Daemon was supposed to be holding this ce.


    Zhao Jia, who was following him this whole time, couldn''t help but smile helplessly. She remembered the time the Heavenly Sovereign went to drink with the Sword Saint and the Daemon.


    It turned out he was trying to change their position after Theo gave false information to their enemies.


    The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at the Kraken and said with a smile. "I''m here because I want a takoyaki tonight. After all, takoyaki and beer are a goodbination, you know! I can make the Sword Saint cook you tonight. Hahahaha!"

 Chapter 1657 Combine

    "You��" The shark was dumbfounded. "No, you''re just trying to act tough."


    "Who cares about it? After all, you''re going to be irrelevant from now on." Theo smiled. The shark was bound to die in this ce, and there was no Hell or Heaven right now, so his soul wouldn''t go to reincarnation or the afterlife, making him unable to see what happened next.


    Theo smirked. The shark didn''t know if what Theo said was correct or not.


    If he had predicted everything and the spy was a double agent, then they had been trapped. There would be a huge blow to the sea race. If Theo was just acting tough, the base that would survive the attack would only be this base.


    It felt like Theo was walking on top of a thread where he could fall at any moment.


    However, Theo still walked on this path with a confident smile on his face.


    He took a deep breath as if he was a bit tired from using all the energy he had recklessly. Although he could injure the shark a bit, his Order Energy had been reduced to a third of its full amount and his Magic Power was only half. If this fight continued, the monster would be able to win this battle.


    "You''re insane." The shark gritted his teeth.


    "I''m insane? No." Theo smirked as he disappeared. He used his Alter Ego again to appear next to the shark.


    The shark hurriedly used the stic shield again, but Theo had been changing his power continuously this whole time, allowing him to adjust the speed of his ability.


    Before he even reached the shark, he had already begun using his Reality Removal, erasing the stic ss.


    "!!!" The shark widened his eyes and used both his stic arms to block this sh. "Kh."


    He gritted his teeth because the sword cut down his arms and shed his fin. Although the wound was superficial, having more wounds would just reduce his physical ability.


    The longer it continued, the weaker the shark would be. And when the second saint appeared, he might not be able to defeat them. That was why Theo was just a bait to exhaust him.


    "You�� You are ready to sacrifice yourself to kill me." The shark gritted his teeth. He never thought Theo would be this crazy.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Theo smiled and changed his Alter Ego again, shing the shark.


    "Kh." The shark gritted his teeth and blocked the attack, but two more wounds appeared on his body. He hurriedly closed the wound with his stic, making the blood unable to flow outside.


    But if he continued this way, he wouldn''t be able to take care of all his wounds.


    Theo didn''t care much about his condition as he continued to attack without caring about his remaining Order Energy or Magic Power.


    His attack became even fiercer as he grew more ustomed to the change of pace. This might be the first time Theo had be this reckless, but his attack was effective.


    Unfortunately, the shark had extraordinary endurance, a vast amount of Magic Power, and unique power. Even though Theo had spent most of his power, he could only weaken the shark for a bit.


    The shark should still be able to utilize seventy percent of its power.


    "You are too reckless to fight, Theodore Griffith. You might be strong, but you''re too focused on your goal to kill me. If you maintain the current pace, you might weaken me further, and the second saint will be able to kill me.<sub> </sub>


    "Maybe if your opponent is not me, you might be able to utilize their power to your advantage. Unfortunately, your opponent is me. My ability is your weakness, and the current n is still better than your surprise attack. I can still escape from this battlefield."


    "I don''t care." Theo took a deep breath and gathered all his strength into his sword. He took a deep breath as he was enveloped by the golden light that gradually formed a dragon head.


    "That is��" Rea gasped. "My Dragon Form''s Dragon Crush."


    Theo smiled as if he wanted to show something to Rea. He flew forward, trying to challenge the World ss Monster with Rea''s technique.


    "Do you think I''m scared of that technique?" The shark snorted and formed a stic fork toward him.


    Theo snorted and marched forward. When the fork was about to hit him, a turtle shell appeared, blocking this fork. After that, a snake appeared from the de and circled around the fork before waving its body to throw the fork back.


    "Hmm?!" The shark furrowed his eyebrows while using his stic to deflect the fork.


    "You can use two forms simultaneously? No, wait��" Rea gasped, finding Theo doing even more.


    There were nine fox tails appearing behind Theo as a pair of oni horns grew on his forehead.


    It turned out he was using Genbu''s power to defend, Fox Form for speed, Oni Form for power, and her Dragon Form to attack. Hebined all four forms to show how she would be untouchable the moment she could fuse all those forms together.


    Even the shark felt something different from this attack. He hurriedly used his stic to block this attack.


    The moment Theo hit this barrier, he was reinforcing his Strength with Alter Ego, cracking the barrier with his raw strength.


    After that, he used the momentum from the speed he received from the Fox Form to crush the barrier.


    Now that the opportunity to attack the shark had appeared, he summoned his turtle shell behind the shark so that he couldn''t escape and even sealed the space with the snake''s body.


    Everything was just for this dragon.


    "This battle is led by my disciple, you see. So, I have to show her victory with her power." Theo smirked and waved his de, releasing the dragon.


    "NO!" The shark''s face became pale because his barrier had failed him. He used his fins to stop this attack, but the dragon felt like it was alive. Its roar was making his body tremble.


    The dragon even flew out of Theo''s body and swallowed him.


    "Gah!" The shark coughed up blood as he felt his body being pierced by a thousand needles.


    Still, he couldn''t go down just from this as a World ss Monster. After a split second, he hurriedly formed a second stic barrier, expelling the Magic Power out.


    "Ha��." The shark fell to the ground while being isted inside this barrier. He coughed up some blood as the previous attack was truly hurt. "Impossible."

 Chapter 1658 Turning Around The Situation

    Rea was stunned for a while, never expecting her power to be able to harm even a World ss Monster if she was able to use it properly.


    "Embodiment Order. My power allows me to be an embodiment of a creature. But have I been using it wrong this whole time? There are Five Aspects (Awareness, Breathing, Control, Technique, and Endurance) and Five Attributes (Strength, Agility, Vitality, Endurance, and Magic Power).


    "My Genbu Form is the embodiment of Endurance Aspect and Attribute, my Nine Tailed Fox Form is the embodiment of Awareness and Agility, my Oni Form represents my Technique and Strength, my Dragon Form is the image of Control and Vitality, while my Tengu Form reflects my Breathing and Magic Power.


    "However, my Teacher is actually showing me the potential of fusing all of them at once�� No, wait. I haven''t even used this power to its full potential! For example, there is a chimera in western mythology, a being that has multiple races mixed into it!


    "Even in our Japanese Mythology, there is Kirin (Qilin) that has a dragon''s head and ox, deer, or horse body�� If the head represents the dragon I have now and the body represents other powers, can''t I get empowerment from both?


    "Now that I think about it, there are also many yokai and creatures that have many body parts. Ah�� If Ibine Fox and Oni, it might give a different powerpared to the fusion between Dragon and Oni�� Combining three, four, or even all of them will give me an even stronger power.


    "What Teacher showed me earlier was the potential of my ability. He was just copying something that I hadn''t even used, so it was notpleted. Then, if Iplete it, won''t it be an even stronger technique?"


    Rea gasped. It felt like a huge door was opened in her heart. She felt she had been a bit toocent after bing a Queen. Theo was indirectly implying not to drown in her sudden empowerment because this was just the start of her true journey.


    "I have made a mistake��" Rea clenched her fists. On the one hand, she was ashamed for not realizing it sooner. On the other hand, she was d to have a teacher like Theo. She swore in her heart. "There is a sky above the sky. Haha, a Martial Path is indeed a never-ending journey. I''m thankful to fate for allowing me to be his disciple."


    Rea took a deep breath while the others gave her time to sort her thoughts for a moment.


    Meanwhile, Theo was panting in the air while staring at the injured shark on the ground.


    A part of his body got charred from the dragon''s energy. Of course, the dragon was infused by Fire Element through his Order and his illusion created the burning sensation. When it was applied to reality, he managed to injure the shark like this.


    However, it was still too much, considering the shark was still able to exert a great amount of power. On the other hand, he had exhausted his Order Energy. Even though he still had some Magic Power, his attack wouldn''t be that powerful without that energy.


    The shark smirked and hurriedly formed his stic body again as he challenged Theo in the sky.


    "Even I don''t know whether I''ll be able to defeat the second saint in this condition. You''re truly extraordinary Theodore Griffith. However, this is the time you die."


    "I''ll die? No, that will never happen." Theo smiled.<sub> </sub>


    "Hahaha. It seems that you are careless today, Theodore Griffith. Do you think I throw away all the trash we''ve carried here out of respect for you? No! I just want to make you think they have no use so that I can use them right now to defeat you. That''s why��" The sharkughed uncontrobly while trying to control the trash he had thrown earlier to return. However, no matter how hard he tried to call them, he didn''t feel anything from the trash.


    It was as if the trash had vanished into thin air.


    "Huh?" The shark widened his eyes in confusion, wondering what was wrong with his ability. He thought Theo was using his illusion to make him unable to use his ability, but that wasn''t the case.


    He suddenly remembered when Theo gave him information about the spy.


    "Wait��" The shark gasped as if realizing something. "No, wait. Don''t tell me��"


    "It seems that you''ve realized it." Theo smirked.


    Suddenly, another Theo appeared from the side with a smile on his face while the Theo the shark had been fighting this whole time reappeared next to him as if he had just been resummoned. All his energy and Magic Power returned to the peak since it copied the real body''s condition.


    "What? I''ve been fighting a clone this whole time��" The shark widened his eyes. Although he had prepared for this, it was simply unbelievable to have someone in this world who could be two Authority Level Figures just by himself.


    After all, Authority was something beyond everyone''s imagination. Its power, prestige, strength�� everything. Yet, Theo was able to bypass that limitation with his clone.


    He didn''t know that the clone skill came from the God of Mischief. In fact, the clone itself might be the greatest skill that he wanted Theo to inherit. After all, this was the first skill that the God of Mischief gave to Theo.


    It was the start of Theo''s journey and might be the end of it as well.


    Nheless, this powerful clone had forced him to use a huge portion of his energy. Theo could simply recharge it again and again with his clone ability, while the shark could only die if he couldn''t find the real Theo.


    "You''re simply too foolish. Do you think I will bother to fight you with my real body?" Theo smirked while pointing his sword at the shark''s neck.


    With the sudden appearance of the clone, the situation changed.

 Chapter 1659 Hunting

    "!!!" The shark was dumbfounded. He had a hard time even when he was fighting Theo because he attacked without caring about his condition.


    He should have realized it was just his clone earlier. But it seemed he forgot about it because he thought he had his trump card.


    No, he might have chosen not to trust the possibility subconsciously. After all, no one had ever seen Theo using his clone as an Authority Level Figure. Even when he was in the union fighting all the mutated monsters, the clone didn''t release a single attack from Theo''s Mirage World.


    Hence, he thought Order was the limit.


    Of course, even as an Authority, Theo should be weaker than this. He wouldn''t even stand a chance against him even if he attacked him with his clone.


    That was why Theo once said the probability wasn''t one hundred percent if he took care of the monster by himself, but it would be something fixed if he had Alexa''s help.


    Yes. Alexa was actually the key to this victory.


    Her support ability allowed him to fight toe-to-toe with the real World ss Monster.


    Now that the shark had been injured and exhausted to this degree, the best he could do was to defend himself while trying to find a way to escape, which was impossible because Alexa might join Theo to deal with this guy. Although herbat prowess wasn''t that high, she was still strong enough just to restrain the monster''s movement, allowing Theo to handle the rest.


    Theo smiled while pointing his finger, "I''ve said earlier. You will die here. I have never told a lie. Even if it''s not the truth, I''ll make it a reality!"


    "You��" The shark gritted his teeth. He was angry, but he was still trying to be rational enough to find a solution to this battle. ''What should I do now? With my current condition, I can only exert around sixty percent of my original power. Even his clone will give me a huge problem, let alone if there are two of him.''


    The shark couldn''t find any way to escape. He nced at the King ss Monsters he brought here and realized they were having trouble as well.


    It seemed that Theo would be able to win this time. Although he couldn''t confirm the situation in other ces, if what he said was the truth, the sea races would be facing a huge loss this time. They wouldn''t be able to recover from this loss for a long time.


    "It seems that I have no other way." The shark took a deep breath as if he had epted his fate. If he was going to die here, he would make sure to drag Theo down with him.


    "Haaa!" The shark shouted and charged toward Theo.


    Theo smiled and used his Alter Ego to increase his Strength. After that, Clone Theo touched Theo''s back and used the Blink to appear above the shark.


    "!!!" The shark widened his eyes in shock. He could barely block Theo''s punch, but this time, there were two fists striking the barrier. And each fist contained the same amount of power. "This is��"


    The shark gritted his teeth and used his stic arms to block the punches after they shattered the barrier.


    *Bam!*


    The shark crashed into the ground, feeling numb.<sub> </sub>


    He had made one more miscalction. If one Theo represented ten points, pairing up with his clone wouldn''t add the sum to twenty points. Instead, it would multiply them by one hundred points.


    ? Both of them knew what each other nned to do. After Clone Theo teleported them, this time, it was Theo''s turn to use his Blink to teleport to the ground.


    "!!!" The shark gritted his teeth, blocking it again with his barrier but to no avail. He threw his body to the side, barely avoiding Theo''s punch that shattered the entire area.


    The Earthquake became even bigger than what people had felt earlier.


    Even the shark panicked and let out a cry.


    This cry suddenly changed the movement of thousands of monsters as they were trying to help their leader from the enemy.


    Theo nced at them and smiled. "Well, I have to thank you for bringing these delicious EXPs."


    With tens of thousands of monsters, he should be able to reach level 900 this time. So, this battle wasn''t only to kill a World ss Monster to show his prestige but also to get a lot of levels for the preparation to take down the biggest hurdle.


    Clone Theo kept chasing after the shark while Theo turned around, nning to handle these thousands of monsters by himself. He was nning to show the people what it meant to be a top expert. Even before the apocalypse, the top ten experts were equal to a thousand Mythical Rank Experts.


    And Theo was going to show it today.


    Theo waved his de and waved it, chopping down one hundred monsters. This was actually an illusion that he learned when he first traveled together with Maya.


    At that time, he only removed their pain and sensation. However, Theo had gotten his Reality Authority, making this illusion a reality.


    All the monsters below Hero Rank couldn''t resist the illusion and split into two.


    Hero Rank Monsters had severe injuries, while most Supreme Rank Monsters suffered a bit. Only Mythical Rank Monsters were able to escape unscathed, considering Theo used this attack on one hundred monsters at once.


    Even so, he managed to reduce their number to twenty, so this was enough for him. He hurriedly waved his sword again in another direction, killing so many monsters again.


    This process was repeated to reduce their number to a third of its original size. In other words, Theo was able to kill more than three thousand monsters in the span of a few minutes.


    Although those who still lived were considerably stronger, it was still a feat that many people could only dream of.


    Theo smirked when he saw the remaining monsters. "Oh wow�� I got two levels after killing thousands of low-level monsters�� I guess I''ll level up even more after eliminating these stronger ones. Time to hunt!"

 Chapter 1660 Death

    "Haa!" Theo smirked while brandishing his sword, killing dozens of monsters. He had truly be a devil on this battlefield because the number of monsters that had died in his hand alone had surpassed the total count of the army.


    That was right. Theo used thest thirty minutes to actually kill more than four thousand monsters. And he was acting alone, considering his clone had been stalling the shark.


    If this continued, the monsters would have been wiped out by him and the shark would fall on this battlefield without being able to do any damage. Even the trash he had prepared couldn''t be used anymore because Theo had wiped it out.


    At the same time, Theo was thankful to the monsters for bing the source of his EXP. He was the only person who had ess to the system in this world due to his Reality Order that gave birth to the world''s current power system.


    That was why this was like a blessing in disguise. In fact, he wanted other races to continue to attack him because this would be a good chance for him to get more EXP and eventually reach the Singrity Rank.


    "More. I need more monsters. Come and kill me." Theo muttered inwardly. Of course, he couldn''t say it out loud because people might think he had gone crazy.


    "This is��" The shark gritted his teeth. Although he didn''t care much about the normal sea creatures, seeing so many of his kin die in Theo''s hands still pained him.


    Theo looked like a merciless demon in his eyes. But the shark was the one that ordered those creatures to attack him, so he had no excuse if others imed he was the one sending them to their deaths.


    They thought their ns had seeded. In fact, the n was brilliant. With the joint efforts of multiple World ss Monsters, they could deal significant damage to humans. Even if they couldn''t wipe them out, destroying many cities and making the humans suffer was already good enough.


    Yet, they turned out to be ying right in Theo''s hand. The spy was a double agent, Theo was able to turn around the situation all around the world, and hundreds of thousands of sea creatures would die after this attack.


    "This��" The shark gritted his teeth before releasing all his Magic Power and pping his fins so that everyone could hear his order.


    "!!!" The two King ss Monsters widened their eyes, never expecting to hear a distress signal from their Saint. At the same time, it meant the battlefield had be too dangerous that even he couldn''t guarantee his own life anymore.


    "��" The two King ss Monsters had to choose whether to continue this battle or not. On the one hand, they managed to overwhelm the enemies with their power. After a while, the air support the humans had was reduced significantly, allowing a gap between their ranks. They could take advantage of this gap and break through, dealing a deadly blow against their enemies.


    On the other hand, he couldn''t ignore this signal either, considering this was thest signal they should ever receive.


    They were wondering whether to hold on or scram in all directions so that humans couldn''t chase after them.


    The lobster was the first to make his decision. He let out another cry that signaled the others to run away.


    After that, the King ss Lobster formed multiple tornadoes that would help these monsters.<sub> </sub>


    Seeing the sudden movement, Ray jumped into the air and punched forward, causing a torrential wind that neutralized half of the tornadoes.


    "!!!" The lobster gritted his teeth, knowing how persistent Ray was. He wouldn''t be able to escape this way, so he leaped forward, trying to buy as much time as possible. At the very least, there should be people who could survive and tell the tale about their defeat. They had to punish both Theo and the double agent for deceiving them.


    Seeing the resolve from hisrade, the Starfish mmed the ground with his fist, causing the ground to vibrate. Although it wasn''t as powerful as Theo, many people could still feel the vibration.


    Felix hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Be careful. This guy�� is ready to die. If we''re not careful, he will drag us along."


    Rea took a deep breath and said, "Felix. Can you buy me ten minutes?"


    Felix nced at Rea and paused the moment he saw the determination in her eyes. It seemed she was nning to do something. So, he nodded. "Alright. You have ten minutes. Ruth will back me up in the meantime."


    Rea nodded and leaped back, trying to do something.


    The battle had shifted. The monsters started panicking. Those Low Level Monsters, whose intelligence was still quite low, didn''t realize what they had to do. Meanwhile, the Elite ss and even General ss Monsters tried to evacuate as many creatures as possible.


    They didn''t know how many could survive, but it was better than nothing.


    Seeing this kind of situation, Agata immediately gave the order to make an all-out attack to exterminate the monsters.


    Even Logan, who had been fighting on the battlefield, had an excited smile as he led his army to charge forward.


    However, this was the time they heard a loud bang along with a crash that happened not far from them. They thought the shark crashed to the ground again, but it was actually Clone Theo this time.


    The shark was using his giant stic body to stand tall as if covering the monsters that tried to retreat.


    Despite being injured, the shark still red at Theo and all the humans. "If you want to kill them, you have to pass me first!"


    "I''m surprised that a World ss Monster is trying to protect his kin. I guess that''s the reason why those two King ss Monsters are willingly following you to death. However, you''ve trespassed my territory, there is only one result��" Theo regrouped with his clone, giving all his focus on him. "��death."

 Chapter 1661 Second Law

    "Death!"


    "Then try it!" The shark shouted while moving forward. He was using his stic to form a giant shield to push everything. The shield was so big that it even reached the ground, trying to crush anyone in its path.


    However, Theo appeared before the shield and waved his de. For the first time in this battle, the stic was cut so cleanly.


    "This is��" The shark panicked because he realized one thing. "Illusion!"


    Clone Theo smiled as he appeared right before the body. He waved his sword and cut the body into two with his illusion.


    "Finally, you''re distracted enough to give this opening." Theo smirked, using his Telekinesis to slip past the gap.


    Theo flew straight toward the shark''s main body and mmed his fist.


    Thetter formed another stic to block it, but the moment it touched his fist, the stic shattered like sses. But even more amazing was the fact that the shattered sses turned into butterflies that flew around the shark.


    "!!!" The shark''s face became pale because all butterflies released a spike toward his body. "Aaaaahhh!"


    Almost all the spikes were blocked by his tough skin, but there were four spikes that stabbed the wounds he suffered in this battle, causing the wound to pierce through its flesh.


    Theo had been waiting for this moment. Since the start of their battle, Theo had been trying to put him under an illusion. He had multiple ways of using his illusion. One of them was like how he fought the Frost Saint by making the illusion fight a reality.


    However, the shark had been vignce of that power and left no gap to exploit. He wanted to use it, but the shark shattered that illusion every time.


    Then, he could use it like the fight against the original Theo. But the stic regenerated instantly. This showed how good the shark''s mental fortitude was.


    And finally, the shark had be weak and distracted enough from the wound and the sea creatures that Theo could exploit it.


    Theo didn''t hesitate to use his second method to remove everything in his way, allowing him to reach the shark once again.


    "This is where you shall fall," Theo shouted while shing his sword. He was nning to take down at least one of its fins.


    The shark smiled and summoned two stic balls. The first stic ball was used to block Theo''s attack while the other stic went to Theo''s stomach and expanded, pushing him back.


    Before Theo was thrown away, his clone appeared and shed the ball into two by using the illusion and turning it into reality.


    After that, the two Theos marched together while waving their swords.


    The shark gritted his teeth and summoned another stic ball, but this time to iste all three of them inside. After that, he made another one to surround himself before expanding it.


    It turned out he was nning to crush them by using these two stic balls.


    This n was useful and would work for normal people. However, Theo simply used his Alter Ego to get enough strength before shattering these balls.


    "Cling!*<sub> </sub>


    The breaking stic felt like a breaking heart. The shark truly had no other way to stop Theo. His body was tattered, his mind was upied, and his action was limited. No matter how hard he tried to stop him, Theo simply overwhelmed him with strength.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The shark screamed in pain as Clone Theo cut his dorsal fin with all his strength.


    After that, Theo looped around and surrounded the shark from two directions. He then waved his sword to stab the shark from behind, but thetter managed to form ast-second stic to stop his sword.


    But due to his injury, the shark failed to block the clone again. He tried to throw himself to the side, but Clone Theo cut down his left pectoral fin.


    This ce simply had be Theo''s execution ground. It wasn''t that the shark was weak. Theo had to join hands with Alexa, another Saint. He even had to use his trick to fool the enemies before using his clone to injure him as much as possible.


    If one part was missing, the shark would still be alive. In fact, Theo might have lost by now.


    That was why this victory wasn''t his victory alone. It was a collective victory.


    The shark realized his demise was approaching. Even his consciousness became a bit fuzzy due to the blood loss and injuries.


    The shark still didn''t want to go down just like this. He roared as loud as possible, sending all his remaining Magic Power in all directions to push Theo back even for a second.


    After that, he summoned another stic box to trap Theo inside.


    "It''s useless. You won''t be able to��" When Theo was about to destroy the stic box, he saw the shark expand and swallow Theo with the box.


    "!!!" Theo was amazed because this showed the determination of the shark. The shark''s body had been fused with stic, so if he actually used his body to squeeze them to death, it would be more feasible than using only his power.


    After all, this body was where the concentrated stic was.


    "You''re going down with me." The shark smiled. "You won''t be able to escape now. I''m sure you''ve realized it, but you can''t get past my stic by using that teleportation skill of yours. After all, this stic is immune to everything."


    As he said, the stic was truly strong. It couldn''t be frozen, scorched, or anything. If not for the fact he was distracted earlier, Theo wouldn''t be able to leave a scorching mark with Rea''s Dragon Crush.


    And this stic box kept shrinking, trying to squeeze him to death.


    "You''re truly strong, stic Saint. However, you have made one mistake��" Theo smirked. "You shouldn''t allow me to be together with my clone."


    "!!!" The shark suddenly felt chills all over his body as if knowing Theo was nning to do something.


    "In this world, everything has to be bnced. Positive, negative; fire and ice; yin and yang�� illusion and reality. I shall be the Reality." Theo smirked.


    "I shall be the Illusion." Clone Theo released all his Spiritual Energy.


    "Now, let''s swap everything." Theo and Clone Theo pped their hands. "Second Law, Reverse World."

 Chapter 1662 Killing His Enemies

    "Second Law, Reverse World."


    If Theo''s First Law was the Mirage World where he could copy everything, this Second Law allowed Theo to reverse everything.


    The fire turned into ice, the heat became cold, the light turned dark, and�� the durable became brittle.


    "!!!" The shark widened his eyes in shock while looking at his stomach and got directly hit by Theo''s power.


    In that instance, the stic inside his body that trapped both Theo and his clone that could even block teleportation became brittle. Even his body, which was made of hard stic, experienced the same thing.


    And there was only one result to his body after swallowing Theo.


    *Bam!*


    There was a sudden explosion made of ice that destroyed his entire stomach, allowing Theo to escape.


    The shark spat a mouthful of blood while staring at his open stomach. He was dying.


    His expression showed his unwillingness, but there was nothing that could be done with an injury that big. He could only look at Theo for two seconds before all the stic he summoned shattered into pieces as the shark fell from the sky.


    "��" Theo also spat a mouthful of blood. Even his clone disappeared.


    Theo gritted his teeth. "Ha�� It was still too much for my body. I still remember how I first used my Alter Ego�� not only was my Order Energy not enough, but my body was also not strong enough."


    Theo looked at the fallen shark and sighed, "To think that a World ss Monster would prioritize his people over himself. You''re truly a warrior that deserves my recognition. I promise that you and the King ss Monsters will have a proper grave."


    Theo coughed a few times while looking at the rest of the monsters. He saw the other two King ss Monsters struggling, so he believed there was no need for reinforcement.


    So, he summoned his clone again and made him chase after the fleeing enemies while he controlled the situation on the battlefield.


    ��


    "Our Saint has fallen��" The lobster was shocked, knowing Theo would being here to finish them off. Since he had no more time, the lobster nned to attack Ray with everything he got. In thisst attack, he was nning to drag Ray with him.


    "Gale." The lobster gathered all the wind around him before creating a tornado inside a tornado inside of another tornado. He was nning topletely stuff tornadoes in one ce to shred anything into pieces. "GO!"


    The lobster shot this mighty tornado, destroying everything in its path. Whether it was leaves, soil, or even the air, they were shredded apart upon meeting contact.


    Ray took a deep breath while raising both hands. He was concentrating his energy on his palms.


    "There is one thing that you can''t destroy." Ray stepped forward and grabbed the tornado.


    "What?! He is grabbing the tornado with his hands? Impossible. The wind should have shredded his hands a��" The lobster stopped because he realized Ray wasn''t holding the wind. Instead, the one thing he controlled this whole time was Magic Power.


    Yes. Ray was holding the Magic Power that made the wind itself. Even if the wind could shred everything apart, there were two things it couldn''t destroy. They were the Order itself and the Magic Power.


    And Ray had Magic Order, allowing him to grab the Magic Power like a solid. He then spun his body and threw the wind back toward the lobster.


    The lobster panicked because he had to face his strongest attack. He hurriedly dispelled his power, but he had stacked so many tornadoes inside, so removing them would take a while.


    The moment he managed to solve the tornado, Ray appeared behind the tornado, punching him in the face.<sub> </sub>


    *Bam!*


    The fist knocked him to the ground before pinning him down with that fist.


    "And it''s time for you to die." Ray released another wave of Magic Power. "Internal Punch."


    *Ding!*


    The raging Magic Power surrounding Ray''s hand suddenly became silent and peaceful before another surging Magic Power burst out.


    The force was so big that it blew up the lobster''s head and turned their battlefield into a crater. This force was actually even more powerful than the starfish''s punch earlier.


    ��


    At the same time, the starfish was also facing hisst moment.


    Although he had no injury in his body due to the Order, he had been quite exhausted due to Felix and Ruth forcing him to continuously use his Order to block their attacks.


    Of course, Felix and Ruth were exhausted as well since the amount of their energy couldn''t bepared to his. If not for the rainbow light empowerment, they wouldn''t stand a chance against this monster.


    "Ha��" The starfish panted a few times while gritting his teeth. Rea seemed to have reached the finishing stage, so he had to find some openings to stop her.


    However, Felix and Ruth had been keeping him away.


    But Rea had learned a lot from Theo. The fact that she showed she was almost done meant she had actually finished. She just wanted the enemy to know they still had some time to not bother her.


    The moment the starfish looked at Rea, thetter released her Magic Power. A Green scale appeared on her arms and a shell appeared on her back.


    "Mythical Creature Summoning, Kappa Form." She opened her eyes and said, "I''m ready!"


    Felix didn''t know Rea''s n, considering her energy seemed subtle like water. It didn''t seem she was going to overwhelm him, so he thought it might be hard for her to even prate the skin.


    However, Rea ignored all the concerns and marched forward.


    "Interesting. Then, I shall destroy you first!" The starfish jumped toward Rea, punching forward.


    Rea skillfully deflected the shock wave from his fist with the turtle shell while approaching him. When the fist was about to hit her, she raised her left arm, blocking this fist.


    They thought Rea was foolish because that fish would surely destroy her bone, but surprisingly, the scale was slippery, causing her hand to slide on the starfish''s hand.


    This way, Rea managed to slip past his defense.


    "No, you can''t harm me!" The starfish shouted, believing in his defense.


    Rea smiled because this kappa allowed her Control to move the Magic Power like a water current. That Magic Power included the one that the starfish used to coat his body.


    So, when she hit the starfish''s body with her palm, the skin looked like it was distorted.


    "Gah!" The starfish felt his organ move from the twist before the force behind that palmunched him away. "Aaaaaahhhh!"

 Chapter 1663 Message

    "Aaaaahhh!" The starfish was hurt for the first time. He realized that Rea was able to twist the Magic Power like water, causing this pain.


    He wanted to stand up to handle her, but Theonded right on his face, stomping him down while using his Order to cut his limbs and make it a reality. The starfish might be able to resist him, but his condition had deteriorated significantly and his energy was low, so Theo overwhelmed him with his extraordinary strength and killed him.


    "Good job." Theo nodded and gave a thumbs up.


    "Teacher!" Rea hurriedly sheathed her sword to greet him. "Congrattions for killing your first World ss Monster!"


    "That''s not the first. That''s the second." Theo shrugged.


    "Second�� what?" Rea was confused, but he remembered the power that strengthened them earlier. "Wait, that power��"


    "The power of the number one Enchanter in the world."


    "The Mafia Queen!" Rea gasped, realizing the World ss Monster in Mexico was probably the first kill.


    "Well, I''ll tell you what happened after we clear up the battlefield." Theo waved his hand and said, "What''s your condition?"


    "I''m pretty exhausted, but I should be fine handling some monsters."


    Theo nced at Ruth and Felix.


    "My injuries are shallow and I still have some energy left." Felix nodded. He almost forgot Theo didn''t have themunication Skylink that connected them, so he added, "Ruth is in the same condition."


    "Got it. You and Ruth are to follow me and eliminate as many monsters as possible. Rea will stay here to handle the aftermath and also give the message to Agata to handle the rest."


    "Understood."


    They agreed without hesitation.


    Before leaving, Theo nced to the side, looking at his father and mother standing in the distance, afraid to approach him.


    Theo didn''t go to them, but he still used his illusion to tell them something.


    "You are not expecting me to forgive you after making me experience that dark decade, right?"


    Their bodies shook, understanding perfectly what he meant. They didn''t say anything since it would simply make it worse.


    Theo continued, "I''m not against you two trying to live near me. I can check your condition and vice versa. However, I do hope that we aren''t rted anymore."


    Theo still couldn''t bring himself to forgive them. With his current strength, he knew precisely why they were so hopeless in the past. At the same time, they shouldn''t have another son if they couldn''t even protect him. He couldn''t choose who his parents were, but they could decide whether to have a son or not.<sub> </sub>


    That was why the most he could give them was a space near him. It wouldn''t be in his group, but with their strength, it wouldn''t be that hard for them to check on him without meeting him directly. As long as they didn''t enter his life, he wouldn''t bother to push them away.


    He added, "Instead of focusing on me, I think you''ve hurt one more person�� Even now, I don''t know if he''s alive or not. Instead of mending our rtionship, you two should focus on making it up to him. After all, everything he had done in the past was caused by your decision."


    There was no need for Theo to specify that person. There was only one person they would still consider a family. He was Theo''s adopted brother.


    They knew Edward had suffered as well after doing all their dirty work. That was why Ray said, "You don''t have to worry about him. We''ve located him and there doesn''t seem to be any problem in the ce he lives. He''s also far away from the sea.


    p "As soon as we can go to another continent, we''ll go straight to his ce and bring him back."</anda>


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and said, "You should be able to do that in a year. Though, you still have to pay. That''s all I can say."


    Ray nodded with a calm expression.


    "Also, you don''t have to care about Ne anymore. She is probably the only person I can consider a family from the Griffith Family."


    "Yes, we understand." Ray paused for a moment before saying, "I know that you won''t ept this, but I still have to say this to you. I''m sorry for everything. My words won''t be able to change the past, so I''ll be using the rest of my life to bear this sin.


    "That''s why you don''t have to think about us anymore. As long as you''re alright, we''ll be watching after you. If you need our help, just contact us through Ne and we''ll go straight to you.


    "I regret my actions in the past. We were drunk in happiness when we had you. We should have gone to prepare everything before getting another child. That''s probably the greatest regret in my life.


    "Even so, you still grow up into a fine person. There is no word to describe how happy and proud I am.


    "From now on, I promise you that we won''t enter your life anymore. I hope that you can lead a happy life with Agata and never do something like what we''ve done before.


    "We''ll keep watching over you from the sideline, hoping for the best for you." Ray closed his eyes.


    Theo remained silent for a while, listening to those words seriously. After contemting for a while, Theo gave hisst message before leaving to chase the monsters.


    "I met Owen in hell. He had the Time Element and showed me everything that had happened in the past. Even with that, I still can''t bring myself to forgive you. However, I can tell you this one thing.


    "Owen was supporting both of you to the point he endured the gruesome freezing temperature for 31 years just to share his memory about what happened that night.


    "It''s up to you whether you want to believe it or not."


    After saying everything he wanted to say, Theo disappeared, leading his people to chase after monsters.


    Meanwhile, Ray and Valerie were frozen in disbelief.

 Chapter 1664 Won

    Theo immediately began his purge with the rest of the soldiers. They had to make sure to inflict as much damage as possible.


    Meanwhile, Rea had returned to themand center and saw Agata and Ne.


    Without hesitation, she gave a thumbs up with a yful smirk, showing the result of today''s war.


    "We''ve won." Agata dered out loud with a huge smile on her face.


    As soon as they heard that deration, the people were shocked for a moment before cheers erupted. They hugged the partner next to them and shook their hands, congratting them for winning this battle.


    "Send the message to the headquarters. We''ve won on our front, and Theo is leading the army to chase the remaining monsters. Also, contact the other bases to know about their current situation!"


    "Yes, Ma''am!" After that brief celebration, they hurriedly went back to work.


    "By the way, Theo wants to tell you something," said Rea with a confused expression. "Even I don''t understand what he''s talking about."


    "What did he say?"


    "He told me that there was no need to prepare for the next battle. There wouldn''t be any more war against the sea races�� at least in this generation."


    "Mhm?" Agata thought for a moment. Although they managed to crush their n and eliminate a World ss Monster, there were still numerous monsters in the sea. With most of their covered by water, she wouldn''t be so surprised to find out there were more than fifty World ss Monsters under the sea. And if all of them emerged at the same time, it would be a catastrophe.


    However, Theo had guaranteed that they wouldn''t attack again during their generation, so this might be good news, even though she didn''t know how Theo reached that conclusion.


    In the end, Agata epted those words without putting too much thought. "I understand. If that''s the case��"


    Agata thought for a moment and said, "Tell all our soldiers to kill as many monsters as possible. We''ll set up a new perimeter and make sure they don''t chase after crossing that line."


    "Understood."


    "By the way, you shouldn''t excessively use the Skylink, you know," Ne interjected.


    "What do you mean?" Agata furrowed her eyebrows.


    "Hmm, I don''t have a specific exnation. In fact, this is just something wee up with after thinking about it together.


    "When we were in Chile, we were almost attacked by those monsters as well. It was surprising that the monsters knew about our existence. Hence, we''ve thought about the way to find us��" Ne raised her finger. "��And that is the electromaic wave."


    "Mhm?" Agata frowned. "What do you mean?"


    "Literally. I believe the signal from the Skylink and Radio can be sensed by them."


    Agata''s expression became serious as she finally understood why they managed to find the US Base despite being a few states away from the coastlines.


    "I see." Agata thought for a moment and said, "If that''s the case, I''ll tell Isaac to research this."


    Ne nodded.


    "As expected of you." Rea smirked. "By the way, how should I address you? I mean, Theo is my master and he considers you as his younger sister�� Should I call you Aunt?"<sub> </sub>


    "You''re older than me. Hearing it alone gives me goosebumps." Ne was shivering before saying, "Just call me by my name."


    "Sure." Rea chuckled. "Though, it seems that he''s nning to let you stay with us�� Although it means that you''re leaving the Griffith Family, he won''t forbid you from contacting them either. So, what do you think?"


    "What? You''re not lying?"


    "Yep. Though, you have to confirm it again with Teacher!"


    "If that''s the case, then I''d love to. Should I stay together with you, Sister-inw?" Ne made a cheeky smile as if teasing her.


    "If you want." Agata smiled, epting it easily to the point it startled Ne.


    "��" Ne scratched the back of her head. "I really can''t beat you. Tsk. Even if I''m going to live there, I''ll probably live somewhere nearby, not your house. I don''t want to disturb your peaceful life too much."


    "Haha." Agata chuckled. Since the war was over, she had calmed down and started pushing the rest of the matter to the people here while she was talking with Rea and Ne. Of course, she wouldn''t dare to do it in United Asia, but Theo had confirmed it, so she knew nothing would go wrong.


    ��


    On the other hand, Clone Theo met a person in the middle of his chase. After all, her contribution was one of the biggest to this victory.


    She was none other than Alexa, the Mafia Queen.


    "Thanks to you, we''ve won this war." Theo smiled while extending his hand.


    "And I got something interesting to watch. You''re truly something, Theodore Griffith. You''re the youngest saint in history and I don''t doubt that you might even reach an even higher stage in the future. I''m looking forward to it and I hope you can buy me a drink."


    "Haha, certainly. I hope that there won''t be any conflict between us." Theo nodded. "I don''t drink though."


    "What?" Alexa suddenly looked at him in disgust. "You don''t drink? Religion?"


    "No, it''s simply my rule." Theo shook his head. He didn''t want to be drunk because he might not be himself after drinking. And if he somehow said a lie, he would have broken his rule, causing him to lose his power. That was why he didn''t drink alcohol.


    "Well, I understand that." Alexa smirked. "Still, this is the second World ss Monster, huh��"


    She couldn''t help but remember the first time they joined hands to kill the World ss Monster in Mexico. It was truly a thrilling experience.


    "Haha, thanks to that, it seems I have a lot of stories to tell my people." Theo chuckled.


    Alexa smirked. "In that case, I won''t disturb you any longer. For now, I''ll be waiting for you in this location." She pointed at the dot on the map.


    "Alright. I''ll be thereter and arrange everything for your people and those refugees."


    Alexa nodded. "Then, see youter, Theodore Griffith."


    "Yes."

 Chapter 1665 Mastermind

    On the seabed, there was a group of sea creatures gathering. They seemed to be talking about the battle situation as if they were the ones nning it.


    "So, we''ve lost��" said a mermaid while sighing. Theo had actually met this mermaid since he once asked for her favor. Yes, she was the Queen of Destiny.


    After looking at Theo''s future, she had been preparing for this battle. After all, she knew that Theo was involved in this current situation.


    She mulled over it for a long time and decided to kill Theo to stop everything. Yes, she said that Theo''s fate could go either way. Just a single flick on his fate could make him the ultimate viin and another flick could make him the world''s hero.


    However, there was one more possibility that they could choose. It was to kill Theo. This way, there wouldn''t be any more conflict and the human race would continue to fight them, so it was better if the human race went extinct.


    That was why she had convinced many World ss Monsters to destroy the human race and she had a justified reason aftering into this world. All that trash made the World ss Monster angry.


    Unfortunately for them, it seemed that taking down Theo was tough. Even after seeing his future, the Queen of Destiny couldn''t kill Theo.


    "What? We''ve lost?" The other sea creatures hadplicated expressions. They couldn''t believe the mighty sea warriors would have died. Although they were fighting on thend, they had made a careful n and even saw the future.


    So, it was surprising to hear the war was lost.


    "This is�� What is happening?"


    "How can they fall just like this?"


    The people were panicking and seeking guidance from the Queen of Destiny.


    "Calm down first! I have to see the future again!" The Queen of Destiny gritted her teeth while predicting her own destiny. The rest also fell silent, not wanting to disturb her.


    After a while, a voice entered her ears. "My Queen, how is it?"


    She nced to the side, looking at a small fish who had been following her for a while.


    "We''ve lost the stic Saint. Electromaic Saint is injured, but his life is not threatening, but the Kraken Saint''s fate is unknown. It can go either way, so get ready and bring people to heal him as soon as he returns."


    "Understood." They nodded. Some of them immediately dispersed as if trying to gather the best healer they had.


    Meanwhile, the Queen of Destiny sighed and said, "I have to rest a bit."


    No one dared to stop her because it took a lot of her power to look upon the saints'' fate. So, they let her be for the time being.


    Of course, the small fish followed her, taking care of her daily needs.


    The Queen of Destiny looked exhausted and had a headache. She was burdened by the result of the battle and had exhausted a lot of her power from the divination earlier, so she was swimming back to her home with a fuzzy mind.


    "This is not good. I have to n for the next battle. We can''t let Theodore Griffith roam anymore or else, the future of the sea race will be bleak." The Queen of Destiny gritted his teeth.


    "My Queen, is it true that Theodore Griffith is dangerous?"<sub> </sub>


    "He is very dangerous. He might be the most dangerous human alive. So, we can''t let him grow anymore." The mermaid nodded with a serious expression.


    "I see. Then, if we want to kill him, what do you think we should do?"


    "We''ll probably have to focus all our people on attacking him. We can abandon the goal of exterminating the humans for the time being."


    "But do you think those Saints will agree to this?"


    "They won''t agree easily, but I''m probably the only one who can convince them."


    "Woah��" The fish looked at her in admiration. "My Queen, you are so important."


    The Queen of Destiny nodded with a smug smile. She didn''t say anything, but she took pride in that word because the fish was so innocent that she knew he didn''t lie.


    However, she didn''t expect that his words would be so cold upon opening his mouth again.


    "In that case, I only have to remove you, right?"


    The Queen of Destiny widened her eyes in shock and looked at the fish, only to find the fish''s hand had turned into a human''s hand, piercing her chest.


    "You�� are not one of us��" The Queen of Destiny couldn''t believe the innocent fish was actually a part of the humans.


    The fish simply crushed her heart with a smile. "Haha, do you think that all the future you''ve seen is real? It seems that you didn''t realize that the future possibilities you saw in Theo were made by me. The future of the battle was my illusion."


    "Wha��" The Queen of Destiny wanted to say something, but her consciousness had be too fuzzy. Her body had been weakened to the point she couldn''t even move her mouth anymore. In the end, she died with all that doubt in her mind.


    Meanwhile, the fish smiled. After confirming her death, the fish swam to the surface and finally turned back into a human on thend.


    He had short spiky ck hair and slightly nted eyes. Theo would have recognized this man if he were here.


    Yes, he was Loki, whose whereabouts were unknown this whole time. It turned out he had been scheming this entire battle.


    "Alright. The second problem has been removed. That means only one more problem left, the chemical. I''ve seen the pattern now�� It seems that the higher being is trying to kill us by using these problems. That''s why I incited them to have a war prematurely, making them unable to rope in more World ss Monsters, weakening their strength.


    "And with that destiny brat dies, the sea creatures won''t attack the humans anymore, leaving only thest problem.


    "I wonder how the higher being try to reset this world once we''ve solved our problems�� That must be something out of logic and that means I''ve proven their existence." Loki smirked. "Haha, this should also give Theo some levels. Come on, Theo. Hurry up and be a Singrity. It won''t hurt to have two Singrities to fight those higher beings."


    It turned out that the one who had been manipting them this whole time was Loki. Hel and Theo were probably the ones who had some suspicion but couldn''t prove it.


    But this God of Mischief had truly begun to move.

 Chapter 1666 Reason

    "It seems that we''ve managed to win this battle because of Theodore Griffith again," Flora muttered with a serious expression, looking at the eel who was leading the enemies back. Although she had made the soldiers chase after them, she didn''t want them to go too far.


    After they returned to the sea, Flora called Leonardo to ask about his situation. "Leonardo. How is the situation on your side?"


    "It''s not that bad. We''ve managed to repel the King ss Monsters. One of them is dead, and we''ve killed around thirty thousand monsters. We''re cleaning up right now. Since you have the time to contact me, has the World ss Monster run away?"


    "Yes. As you predicted, the World ss Monster knew that their n had been ruined and it wouldn''t be too wise to attack us for too long.


    "That''s good then." Leonardo paused for a moment and said, "In that case, we have to clean up the battlefield first."


    "Before that, I want to ask you something. Why did you suggest changing our spot like this? Was it because of Theodore Griffith?"


    "Do you remember what happened to the Safulli Group in the past?"


    "Yes." Of course, she remembered. It was an incident that made Theo super famous. However, she couldn''t find a connection between this n and Theo.


    Leonardo hesitated for a moment before exining it. "Nagasawa Rea is the Pata Corporation and the Safulli Group is the sea monsters. He knew there was a spy that would inform them about our n, but he didn''t know who the spy was.


    "Hence, he let the spy handle Rea, who was clearly inferior to him in terms of nning. Even without using all his brain power, he could easily make a n to turn around the situation."


    "But how in the world did you connect this battle to that incident?"


    "Theo isn''t someone who will do something meaningless. And putting Rea in charge was something meaningless at first nce, but if you looked into his history, it would be easy to find the spy. And that spy became the base of this conclusion."


    "Mhm�� I see." Flora closed her eyes for a moment and said, "Was that the reason why he contacted only you and why youter contacted us personally?"


    "Yes."


    "Alright. That''s enough. It''s clear that the base is safe because of him again�� Give him my thanks."


    Leonardo fell silent before hanging up the call.


    ��


    The same as Flora, Zhao Jia was experiencing a series of shocks because her master managed to severely injure a World ss Monster. He couldn''t cut him down, but with that kind of injury, no one knew what would happen to him.


    Before wrapping up the battle, Zhao Jia came to him and asked, "It seems that you were already aware of the spy."


    "By the way, I heard that you changed your mind after listening to Leonardo''s words. What did he tell you?" Instead of answering her, he asked her back.<sub> </sub>


    "��" Zhao Jia hesitated because it would make her look bad. But since the other party was her master, she opened her mouth, "My hesitation seems to be the reason why I haven''t surpassed you yet."


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled and said, "As expected of the War Saint, his eyes are extraordinary. Do you know what that means?"


    "I''m not very sure. From what I can see, it seems that you''re taking Theo''s background into ount�� No, instead of the background, it''s more like history."


    "You''re half correct. What I see from people are their personalities, history, character, and talent. I''m trying to calcte their next move like a game of chess." The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at her and smiled. "What you''ve been doing is only considering their history and background. You have tried to read what they''re nning to do, but you''re not putting enough into consideration."


    "I still don''t understand. It''s true that I amcking in that area, but why is the result that much different? They''re not that important, right?"


    "That''s where you''re wrong. Each of them is equally important and Theo is taking one more consideration to his n��" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "Not only did he consider all the above, but he also thought about what we were going to do with that information. In other words, he was predicting the prediction, allowing him to go one step further. That''s why I''m his ally right now."


    Zhao Jia looked down, contemting for a moment. "So, Theo had expected you to know about his n and made a n on top of that?"


    "Basically, yes."


    "Then, the reason for the drinking party��"


    "Yep. I couldn''t really talk too much because I didn''t know where the spy was. However, it was clear that there was a spy, so I just let you do your job and settled the rest sneakily.


    "This would make them lower their guard, giving us an opportunity to turn the situation around. That''s basically the essence of the n."


    "��" Zhao Jia was speechless. She remembered how the Heavenly Sovereign contacted him at thest minute and asked her to go with him to the Daemon''s ce, only to find out they were exchanging their ces. Of course, the Daemon had also changed his ce with the Sword Saint, so it would confuse their enemies.


    It seemed that her teacher had set up a fewyers of traps to fight this monster.


    She thought for a moment and asked, "Do you mind if I ask you about a few things regarding Theo and you."


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked and immediately acted coyly, "Oh! My cute disciple is now interested in me? Hahaha, this is the time for celebration. Let''s go to the Sword Saint''s house to have a party!"


    If Zhao Jia hadn''t experienced this battle, she would have stopped him and rejected this idea. But surprisingly, she knew that her master seemed to be nning something at this party, so she nodded. "I understand. Please let me clear the battlefield first and change my clothes."


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign dropped his jaw to the ground as if he didn''t believe Zhao Jia would actually follow him.


    "Why are you surprised��" Zhao Jia''s eyebrows were twitching, but she ultimately ignored him and took care of the battlefield.

 Chapter 1667 Lesson

    Meanwhile, Theo returned to the group after stopping the army from going too far. He was there to meet Agata, who seemed to have let go of her position and given the cleaning task to someone else.


    They had finished the battle anyway, so it would be right for the army to take over the business.


    Agata came out of themand center and hugged him.


    "I miss you." She buried her head in Theo''s chest, washing away her fatigue. Thest few weeks were truly hard because she had to handle so many things, including Rea.


    "I miss you too." Theo smiled, stroking her hair. "Have you lost any weight? You seem lighter?"


    "No way! You''re probably the one getting stronger." She chuckled. "Congrattions on your first kill."


    "Second, yes."


    <o>,m "��" Agata was speechless before shrugging her shoulders. "Ah, yes. One, insult. Two, honor. Alright, I know."</o>


    Theo chuckled. "Well, I''ll tell you and the others the storyter."


    "I''m looking forward to hearing the story of how you killed your first World ss Monster."


    "It''s nothing extraordinary. I got some help anyway." Theo chuckled and opened his Skylink, sending a document to Rea. "This is yourst task. Can you take care of the migration process and let the normal people integrate themselves into the base?"


    Although Rea had learned about it, seeing the name of the number one enchanter in the world on the list still shocked her.


    "You''ve truly made some connections to the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric." Rea shook her head helplessly. She knew trouble would being after this battle since the base would demand him to give them the Mafia Queen for the sake of stability.


    Having someone with a power bigger than the government was very dangerous since thetter had the potential of shaking the entire base or threatening the white house, so they would demand the Mafia Queen to work for them.


    However, Theo said, "Mafia Queen? All I know is that a woman called Alexandra Boric is living in mynd. Nothing else. If the government is trying to invade mynd, then I''ll respond ordingly."


    "That''s a threat to the government, no��" She shook her head helplessly.


    "That''s not a threat. I''m simply protecting my ce, so in this way, the government is the one trying to destroy my stability and break their agreement. I don''t have any choice but to retaliate."


    Rea pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Alright, I understand. I''ll handle it ording to your instruction."<sub> </sub>


    Theo nodded. "So, do you learn something from this?"


    "Do you mean how I''m far inferiorpared to you? Or is it about how I would get utterly destroyed by them if I didn''t have your letter?" Rea paused for a moment, looking at Theo''s calm expression.


    She thought she would be a bit apologetic after this teasing, but she knew everything was already within his calction. She clicked her tongue, frustrated that Theo knew she would act this way.


    "Fine, fine. I was joking. Yes, I''ve learned a lot. There were three big answers I got from this battle. First, I should consider what my enemies do more to predict their movement. My n seems to have been straightforward this whole time, so yeah��"


    "The first one is not your fault. It''s mine. After all, I have been telling you to do this and that. So, yourck of independence has been growing. I always want to give you this kind of opportunity to try to break it, but I guess I have cracked it this time�� I''ll ask you to lead the group for a bit more to gain some experience."


    Theo wasn''t perfect. He wasn''t embarrassed to admit his mistake or, even worse, me someone for his mistake. He taught Rea like how he treated Agata, but he didn''t consider one thing.


    Agata was working as his assistant for the sake of his heart, while Rea worked for him because she wanted to get stronger. The former was trying to stand next to him while thetter was chasing after him. That was why the dependency was formed, and this was his fault.


    Rea nodded with a serious expression, not rebuking him. She continued to the second point. "Also, I was too focused on our enemy this time to the point I panicked when a World ss Monster appeared. Instead of doing everything, hoping you would return to change the situation, I should have asked the Time God toe before the battle even began.


    "This way, I had a backup n to settle everything. Creating theseyers of schemes would be good because I wouldn''t have to panic when I''m in trouble. I''ve all those trump cards�� So, this means I haven''t prepared enough. I''m sorry."


    Rea lowered her head, apologizing. If she had demanded the Time God toe to their territory before the World ss Monster appeared, she could deal with the shark without opening the fourth letter.


    Theo nodded in agreement. He had told her that hepletely supported her decision.


    So, if she imed that the Time God had toe to make the n work, she should be able to force the Time God to make his move somehow. That was why she agreed this was her fault.


    "Last but not least, I know that my Embodiment is stillcking in many things. It turns out there is a way to connect them. My Embodiment has five points like a star, but I haven''t consideredbining them. What if Ibine two points? Three points or even all of them? This is something I have never considered.


    "And with this, I know what I should do to get stronger." Rea clenched her fists to show her resolve. "I''ll get stronger, far stronger than this."


    Theo nodded with a smile. "I''m looking forward to it. Though, before that, there is something you should do."


    "Of course! Please get some rest, Teacher. I''ll be handling all this matter for you."

 Chapter 1668 Threatened

    "Tell Theodore Griffith to hand over the Mafia Queen to us!" said the president with amanding tone, ring at Rea.


    Rea was staring at the screen with a calm expression and replied, "I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    "Do you think we don''t know that you''re hiding the Mafia Queen from us? The people who have integrated into the base are saying the same thing. They''ve been saved by both the Mafia Queen and Theodore Griffith! Are you trying to rebel?"


    "I seriously don''t know what you''re talking about. You''re assuming everything to the point it bes funny." She narrowed her eyes, showing an expression the exact opposite of funny.


    Theo''s existence alone was already extremely dangerous to the base, considering a single word from him could cause chaos in the base. If Theo ever said the base had expelled him, the people might lose trust in the government, thinking they would be the second union.


    After that, there would be even greater chaos that might destroy the basepletely.


    At the same time, Theo''s existence was crucial to their stability. Not only did Theo promise to assist them in reiming thend, but he also brought hope to the people.


    He couldn''t control Theopletely due to thetter being sneaky and overbearing. If he didn''t have the people''s support, he would have sent the Time God to capture him immediately.


    So, the base had been split into two after Theo''s arrival. The government had the Time God, the current strongest person in the world. On the other hand, Theo could be considered two Authority Level Figures. This was enough to create a bnce between them.


    Theo might lose against the Time God in a frontal attack, but Theo could split into two and attack them from two different directions, tricking the Time God. That was why their existence was equal.


    And with Alexandra Boric on Theo''s side, that bnce was broken. If Theo and Alexa wanted the base, they could simply attack the white house. Theo''s prestige would give them enough justification and Alexa''s power would be effective in a huge war.


    So, this was a threat to the government. What if they tried to implement a new policy and those two didn''t agree? They couldn''t do it. That was why they had to control the Mafia Queen at the very least.


    And this was also the reason why Theo didn''t give Alexa to them. Having her on his side gave him a lot of bargaining power.


    The president gritted his teeth, ring at Rea. "Can we assume that this is Theodore Griffith''s stance?"


    "As I already said earlier, we don''t know anything about the Mafia Queen. Besides, you are the one who should stop trying to put a leash on us�� Are you going to use the Mafia Queen to try to control us?" Rea narrowed her eyes. "It seems that you''ve forgotten why this base is still standing��


    "We''ve protected this side with only this many soldiers, giving you the opportunity to protect yourself from the other side. If you tried to protect both sides without us, the base would suffer great damage, considering the Time God wouldn''t be enough to stop two World ss Monsters, right?


    "Ah, don''t forget that my teacher, Theodore Griffith, killed the World ss Monster on our side. We''ve shown the power of humanity that wouldn''t lose against any invasion. Can I safely assume that the government is trying to make my teacher your ve?"


    "Don''t twist my words as you please! All I want is the Mafia Queen!" The president mmed the table.<sub> </sub>


    "I''ve been telling you that we don''t know any Mafia Queen. My Teacher found a group of refugees in Mexico and because of his big heart, he decided to take them back to the base, not only to allow them to have a better life but also to increase the poption of this base. That''s all."


    Rea remained calm this whole time because she had the upper hand in this conversation.


    The president stated with a cold tone. "If that''s the case, we might send the Time God to knock on your door."


    "Is this a threat?" Rea didn''t like it as her tone became cold.


    "I''m simply warning you. I won''t let you threaten the stability of the base."


    "Threatening the stability of the base? I think you''re trying to do that by trespassing in our territory. Don''t forget that you''ve promised us to not interfere with what we''re doing. Are you perhaps trying to break the contract? If so, then I will consider this as an act of aggression."


    The two red at each other. There was a fierce spark in their gaze as they tried to challenge each other.


    "I''ve told you everything. We don''t provoke everyone, but we won''t just stand still if we''re being provoked." Rea harrumphed and hung up the call. She truly had a headache in this politics.


    But this was also important since Theo''s n also considered politics and the economy to achieve the greatest result. So, she couldn''t escape from this.


    She let out a long sigh and left her room. She realized that they were having a small party in the hall, so she immediately joined them, wanting to wash away this tired mind.


    "Oh! She has arrived!" Agata smirked while waving her hand. "Come,e. You must be angry. We have been waiting for you."


    "Mhm." Rea smiled as she didn''t hesitate to take her portion.


    As soon as they finished eating, they were sitting close to Theo as if they wanted to hear how he killed his first World ss Monster.


    After all, this was a story that would be a legend. Theo wasn''t the only person who knew it. There were many people who witnessed that battle, and some of them had be citizens. They were going to spread that story to the people around them.


    Theo smiled and said, "Well, how do I start this��"


    Theo thought for a moment before smiling. "Ah, yes. If I want to start, I have to start from this. This is a story from four days ago��"

 Chapter 1669 King Class Monster

    Four days ago.


    Theo was standing on top of numerous corpses. His hands were covered in blood as he was about to kill thest monster, which turned out to be a King ss Monster.


    "What have we done to be killed by you?" The King ss Monster red at him.


    "Just like what happened to the humans here. We''re not allies or whatever, so there''s no reason for me not to kill you." Theo narrowed his eyes. "Besides, I was simply searching for something first before you attacked me."


    The King ss Monster gritted his teeth. He looked unwilling, but Theo had severed his neck, killing him.


    With this, a King ss Monster had fallen in his hands.


    "Huu��" Theo let out a long sigh. The fact the King ss Monster was on the move meant his movement had reached the saint''s ears.


    He had asked the monsters to exchange some information, but the monsters attacked him immediately, fully knowing he was a strong opponent.


    So, he had no choice other than to kill him.


    "Well, I guess I''m still in the wrong. These Low Level Monsters who didn''t know anything were chasing me, so I had no choice but to kill them. They were like the normal citizens in the base, so there was no way they would be weing after knowing I had killed their people." Theo sighed, admitting his own fault.


    "Still, now that I''ve killed one of the King ss Monsters here, this is going to be extremely dangerous, considering the Saint is probably going to move."


    Theo thought for a moment and muttered, "If that''s the case, should I fight the World ss Monster right now? I know for sure the enemies from the sea are nning to send a World ss Monster. So, I have to try killing one first to get some assurance��"


    Theo was contemting.


    On the one hand, he wanted to test the real strength of the World ss Monster. On the other hand, he didn''t know whether he could do it or not. If he failed in killing the World ss Monster, thetter would surely attack the base.


    He might even join hands with those sea creatures, putting them in a more difficult position.


    "��" Theo contemted for a while before sighing. "I guess there is only one n that allows me to kill a World ss Monster��"


    Theo looked at the sky and smiled. "An attrition warfare."


    With that thought in mind, Theo hurriedly hid somewhere and sent his clone to pick a fight against the World ss Monster.


    Of course, he didn''t need to go there immediately. Instead, he was waiting near the King ss Monster''s corpse he had killed earlier.


    As he predicted, the fact that the Friend Seal''s disappearance caused the disturbance from the World ss Monster.


    The World ss Monster residing in Mexico was called Silver Stinger. Just like the name implied, this scorpion could destroy everything with its silver-colored stinger that wasn''t only hard but also released an extraordinary poison.


    When Theo killed one of his subordinates, the World ss Monster sensed the energy disappearance from the Friend Seal and widened his eyes in shock. "This is��"


    His anger soared through the roof while shouting, "Who�� Who dares to kill my people!"<sub> </sub>


    <o>,m That anger was felt and his voice was heard. Three King ss Monsters appeared next to him to understand their situation.</o>


    "Saint. What''s wrong?" One of the King ss Monsters asked with a worried expression.


    "There is someone who dares to kill the w."


    "w?!" They widened their eyes. Their King called them by their Orders and the w was sent earlier to check the situation when there was a report about movements in the northwest.


    They instantly realized there was someone who was nning to threaten their sovereign.


    "This is�� Then, we should go!" The King ss Monsters looked at each other and exchanged nods. They realized they had to go together to check this opponent. At the very least, they should have enough power to retreat.


    "Call everyone and head there to check the enemies!" The World ss Monster nodded, giving his approval. He was frowning, wondering whether there was someone foolish enough to challenge a Saint like him.


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo was enjoying his waiting time, knowing this was his chance to kill the World ss Monster.


    Unbeknownst to both of them, there were actually people who were about to reach their ce from the south. They weren''t that far from reaching Mexico, with many people to boot.


    Theo closed his eyes for a few hours before feeling a presenceing toward his ce.


    "A human?"


    "How dare you kill our people!"


    Theo opened his eyes while saying, "I''m seeking something. If you just give me the information, then I don''t have to kill you. However, it seems that the discord has been sown, so if you want to fight, then I shall entertain you."


    There were six King ss Monsters standing before him.


    "Do you think we''re afraid of you?" One of the King ss Monsters roared while stepping forward. The others were waiting for him to act to measure the enemy''s strength, but they werepletely shocked when they saw Theo''s power.


    Theo''s body was shrouded by golden Magic Power as he waved his de.


    Suddenly, the King ss Monster''s paw was severed, causing the King ss Monster to fall down.


    "This is��" They were shocked, while the one who experienced it was scared. They had never seen an ability like this, but this ability turned out to be an illusion.


    He tried to cover the wound with his Magic Power, but it ended up moving toward the rest of his paw, breaking the illusion.


    However, Theo''s Authority had made that wound a reality. Although it wasn''t fully cut, the wound was severe.


    Even the King ss Monster could only raise his leg, seeing his paw hanging. If he made a sudden movement or someone tried to rip it apart, the paw would fall down.


    "He is�� not a King like us. This kind of power can onlye from a Saint!"

 Chapter 1670 Trying To Reason

    "This kind of power can onlye from a Saint!"


    That statement shocked thempletely. After all, they never expected the enemy to be a Saint this time. Even if they were a King ss Monster, only one King ss Monster whose strength was simr to the Dark King was able to stall him.


    The Dark King himself had some confidence in stopping the Frost Saint for a while because of his unique ability, but Theo''s ability was even more unique than the Dark King''s.


    There was no way this King ss Monster could stop Theo by himself.


    Theo didn''t let them think about it as he immediately leaped toward the King ss Monster he''d injured earlier.


    "Not good! Run!" The ape shouted while jumping toward Theo. "I''m going to stall him as long as possible. The rest of you are to run away and inform the saint about this guy!"


    Theo nced at him for a split second before focusing on the injured monster first.


    The injured monster gathered all its strength in its mouth and released a beam, trying to shoot him down.


    Theo ced his hand in front, nning to block this beam with his hand. But surprisingly, the moment the beam touched his hand, the beam turned into butterflies.


    After that, Theo used his Alter Ego to move at speed they''d never seen before to the point it looked like he had disappeared.


    "!!!" The ape, who was watching them from afar, could clearly see Theo suddenly appearing in front of the injured monster. Thetter let out a roar filled with Magic Power, trying to push Theo back even for a split second so that he could leap back.


    However, Theo used his Thunderp Fist to send a shock wave that neutralized his enemy''s power. He then kicked the monster''s head downwards, pinning him on the ground.


    The King ss Monster wouldn''t go down without a fight. It released another burst of Magic Power.


    "!!!" Theo''s senses suddenly went numb due to this weird power. At the same time, numerous monsters around the area were roaring as if trying to help them.


    "..." Theo narrowed his eyes and hurriedly stabbed the King ss Monster''s body, only to be blocked by an extraordinary amount of Magic Power. It seemed that the King ss Monster was using all his energy to stop this normal stab, giving him one more second to live.


    And that one second was enough for the ape to reach him.


    "Smash!" The ape roared and punched Theo.


    Theo used his Thunderp Fist to contain this fist, but surprisingly, the punch generated a mysterious force around his body,unching him away.


    "Mhm?" Theo was amused with this weird power.


    The ape punched again, but this time, he struck the air with all his strength. "Smash!"


    Surprisingly, a crack appeared in the air itself. And a part of the crack shattered, opening a void inside the air.


    "Hoh? He opened a void with his punch?" Theo was amused because he had learned a bit about the Space Affinity from Lorenzo. He knew that the void could lead them anywhere. Unless there was a Space Element user leading you, it was best not to go into this void.<sub> </sub>


    At the same time, Theo also knew how to solve this problem.


    Before the ape could throw the injured monster into this void, Theo formed numerous threads around his fingertips. He saw this technique from his adopted brother Edward and former teammate Sihan.


    With his Authority, he imbued these threads with a Space Element.


    When heunched these threads, they wrapped the void and stitched them.


    "What?" The ape widened his eyes in shock, never expecting to see someone who could close the void when he wasn''t even a Space Element user.


    Theo hurriedly jumped toward them, nning to take on this ape.


    The ape threw hispanion back while punching Theo. This time, the void opened before his punch was connected and another portal appeared on top of Theo as the ape''s fist appeared, nning to knock Theo down.


    Theo Irregr Guardian appeared on top of him, blocking this attack.


    Seeing the attack fail, he created another portal in front of him, trying to catch Theo.


    However, Theo used his Blink to slip past his defense and hit the ape from the back.


    "Gah! A Space Element user too?" The ape gritted his teeth as he rolled on the ground after gettingunched by Theo''s punch.


    "I don''t want to be a hypocrite. I hate when people oppress me when I''m weak, and this makes me look like I''m doing the same thing when I''ve be strong. That''s why I don''t like bullying the weak when they''re not my enemies and right now, I''m here for a single reason.


    "It''s to acquire something that should be somewhere in your territory. It''s a structure that can repel other creatures.


    "This is not a robbery. I know that you can''t use it anyway, so why don''t you give it to me?" Theo said. He had made his intention clear like when he fought against the dead King ss Monster.


    He had tried to reason, but thetter didn''t want to believe him and continued to attack him. Even Theo had considered him an enemy and killed him.


    He wanted to see whether these two were able to reason or not, considering they had enough intelligence to make such a decision.


    "A structure that could repel other creatures except for humans?" The ape gasped as if he remembered something.


    "Hoh? It seems that you know about it." Theo smiled, finally getting what he wanted. "As long as I can get it, I''ll leave. I will evenpensate you with some sort of agreement between the monsters and humans. This way, you can still live in this area without any disturbance."


    Before the ape could say anything, a huge scorpion was rushing toward them with its stinger, shooting forth poison.


    "How dare you kill my people!"


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes, jumping back to avoid the poison. He furrowed his eyebrows, finding another unreasonable monster.

 Chapter 1671 Evolve

    "��" Theo frowned, ring at this iing monster. From how the poison easily melted the ground and the speed of this monster, he could determine his power.


    "Wait, Saint! We''re not dead yet!" The ape shouted, trying to stop the saint, who wasing together with the other King ss Monsters.


    It seemed that the saint didn''t trust them to be able to defeat this opponent, so he followed them.


    "!!!" The saint stopped for a moment, realizing that was truly the case. Still, his anger red up again because he saw both of them injured.


    Before he rushed toward Theo, the ape shouted, "He wanted that mysterious structure. Since we have no use of that structure, why don''t we give it to him and get some benefits from him?"


    The saint seemed to recognize the structure as well, but because of his anger, he wasn''t going to reason with Theo anymore.


    "What structure? I have melted it with my poison! And today, you shall die because you have killed my people! Life for life!" The scorpion charged forth while shooting Theo with his stinger.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to fly around, avoiding the poison.


    He took a deep breath and said, "I don''t like fighting people like this, but since I can''t talk to you anymore. Then, so be it. I shall consider you as my enemy!"


    Theo released his Golden Magic Power and used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality. He expanded it around the poison, causing the liquid to move backward.


    Theo even manipted reality, so that the poison curved toward the King ss Monsters that followed him.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters hurriedly formed several barriers, blocking the poison.


    "You bastard. How dare you attack my people in front of me!" The scorpion became even more unreasonable. The sand began to appear in the area as some of them began to float in the air.


    There was a difference between normal sand and this saint''s sand.


    "Silver?" Theo widened his eyes, wondering what this silver sand he was seeing right now.


    The scorpion waved its stinger, causing a tornado of white sand.


    Theo used his Twisted Reality, distorting the tornado from its eyes and causing the tornado to disperse.


    He saw that the sand was about to reach him, so Theo used his Irregr Guardian to form a barrier, blocking this sand.


    Surprisingly, the Irregr Guardian started to get corroded by this silver sand.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes, knowing something was wrong with this sand. "Silver sand? Corrosion? What? Is it made of mercury or something? But is mercury that powerful?"


    Theo was confused, trying to figure out the enemy''s strength.


    Meanwhile, the scorpion continued chasing after him.


    Theo narrowed his eyes. "If that''s the case, then how about using this skill?"


    Skill: World Re-Creation (S)<sub> </sub>


    Effect: Bing the absolute creator of the illusion. Able to twist a bit of thew of physics inside the illusion.


    After bing an Authority, he could finally get an S Rank Version of this skill. Of course, the requirement for the next upgrade was none other than bing a Singrity. In other words, he had to reach level 1,000 first before he could gain the true skill.


    Even so, allowing him to twist thew of physics within the illusion was enough for the time being.


    He raised his hand and said, "Go up! Now gravity is pushing you upward instead of downwards."


    "!!!" The World ss Monster widened his eyes as he realized his feet were no longer touching the ground. Instead, he was floating in the air and kept rising.


    He immediately gathered his silver sand to push him downwards. As expected, the silver sand also began to fly naturally as soon as it entered Theo''s illusion.


    However, the control and Magic Power from the World ss Monster were stronger than gravity, so the silver sand could gather and push the monster to the ground.


    Still, the gravity was stronger than the monster expected, causing him to be unable to touch the ground. In the end, he was floating in zero gravity, not going upward or downward.


    "This is��" The monster was stunned, but Theo began his move right now.


    He used his Telekinesis to push himself downward, which gave him maneuverability in this zero-gravity situation.


    He flew toward the World ss Monster, nning to take him down while he was trying to figure out how this power worked.


    Knowing there was no other way to stop the fight between the two Saints, the ape opened a portal that swallowed the scorpion, teleporting him out of the illusion.


    Meanwhile, the sand that was trapped inside that ce flew upward. Even Theo didn''t want needlessly to go through this sand due to the corrosion.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, staring at the King ss Monsters. They were surely going to help their saint in this fight, so he had to eliminate them first before fighting this World ss Monster.


    At the same time, the World ss Monster might be charging like a berserk monster, but he always made sure to position himself between his people and Theo, protecting them.


    This made Theo have a hard time approaching those King ss Monsters.


    ''Mirage World, World Re-Creation�� I can fight the saint with those two abilities�� But these King ss Monsters are annoying. And I have to handle the silver sand. How do I fight them? Well, I know it''s impossible to defeat the World ss Monster with a single clone, but I should be able to wear him down to a certain level and kill the King ss Monsters��''


    Theo couldn''t help but remember what Rea said in the past even before she became his disciple.


    ''Now that I think about it, I have my own Original Technique that has the potential to be a Divine Technique but hasn''t reached that level yet. My Irregr Guardian. Its versatility was good, but I had a hard time improving it.


    ''But right now, I have my Mirage World�� Copying others'' abilities andbining them with my Irregr Guardian��''


    A smile couldn''t help but appear on Theo''s face.


    "Interesting. Not only will I use this chance to take a World ss Monster down, but I''ll also try to upgrade my Irregr Guardian to Divine Technique level."

 Chapter 1672 Improvement

    Theo took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to rank up the Irregr Guardian. In the meantime, he was using his Mirage World to recreate a few abilities to fend off the monsters'' attacks.


    ''Irregr Guardian is an ability that can create weapons for my personal use. It''s like my current weapon, but it can be formed by Magic Power. Although it has a variety of weapons, it''s not as strong as my artifact.


    ''If that''s the case, what should I do to upgrade this ability? First of all, is it necessary for the Irregr Guardian to be only a weapon or a shield? Should I expand it to other tools like hammers, screws, or even threads? I can consider them as a weapon too��


    ''But if I change it this way, I have to reform the foundation of this skill. If I don''t change it this way, how should I strengthen the strength of the Irregr Guardian?''


    Theo contemted while fending off the enemy''s attacks. He had be passive when he began thinking, but even the scorpion couldn''t harm Theo easily while he was on the defensive.


    ''Now that I think about it, can''t I use my Authority to replicate something with Irregr Guardian? What if I try to replicate the Sword Saint''s sword with my Authority? I can even imbue any element that I want�� No, the skill will be tooplicated and the chance of it breaking apart is higher.


    ''Then, should I just replicate the element and along with the weapons? No, it''s not versatile enough. What if I use elements and tools as well? In other words, the Irregr Guardian won''t be limited to weapons but also have numerous elements.''


    Theo felt like he had received an answer.


    He tried to form a sword with his Irregr Guardian and imbued the Light Element. The moment he waved it, the light flew forth while being hidden by the illusion.


    "!!!" The scorpion felt this attack and hurriedly changed its way before a fierce sword strike hit the ground, cutting the soil and the building on its path.


    "Hmm? This is interesting." Theo smiled. He replicated the Sword Saint''s sword strike by using Felix''s ability and illusion. The light element and the Irregr Guardian helped him program this ability, making it easier for him to use it.


    He then covered his sword with his me and shed downwards, letting this me burn everything in its path.


    The scorpion looked at it for a moment before crushing the me with a single wave of its stinger.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked. The me was crushed in an instant. Even though he hadn''tpleted this ability, it shouldn''t be that easy to crush his attack since it contained his Authority. It meant the attack this timecked basic power andpatibility.


    ''Trials and errors�� I have enough Magic Power and Energy to test this new ability. Besides, I have a lot of opponents to hit with this new attack,'' Theo muttered inwardly before leaping back, finding a portal with a punch that came along with it.


    Theo raised his hand and used his Irregr Guardian to form a scythe. He ripped the air apart after imbuing his scythe with the Space Element, opening the void.<sub> </sub>


    "Oh? It works." Theo was amused since he had limited knowledge of Space Element. Still, he couldn''t see anything in this dark void because he wasn''t a Space Element user. However, it was enough as a bluff, considering the ape retracted his fist, not wanting to get split by Theo in the void.


    "It seems that you have the nerve to try things when fighting against me!" The scorpion was enraged as it charged forward, pping the void with its stinger. Surprisingly, the mmed crushed the void itself, causing the air to fix itself.


    "Interesting." Theo smiled while changing his Irregr Guardian into a gauntlet and covered it with Metal Element before punching the stinger, trying to see how strong the monster was. He even used his Alter Ego to increase his strength.


    The scorpion took pride in its stinger as well, so it immediately pped Theo with this stinger.


    *Bam!*


    The punch and the p collided with each other, causing a powerful shock wave. The King ss Monsters jumped back, never expecting this kind of power in their sh.


    Still, Theo was a Saint, so it might be possible with all his energy. They were observing Theo''s movement, nning to make another move when the opportunity arrived.


    The shsted for a second before Theo and the scorpion decided to back off as if they realized their strength was equal.


    ''Seriously. This guy is no joke. I have used my Alter Ego earlier to increase my strength, but it seems that the enemy still has the power to stop me.'' Theo thought while observing the World ss Monster.


    He didn''t know the World ss Monster had a simr thought. He was surprised by the power Theo exerted earlier. ''What''s that strength? I can see that he is using a lot of energy for an instant, but that kind of power�� My stinger feels numb after taking that hit and I have even reinforced it with my silver. Not only that, but my stinger is naturally hard, so I have to avoid that punch. If that hits any other parts of my body, it''ll be dangerous.''


    The World ss Monster regained a bit of its rationality after knowing how strong Theo was. He truly couldn''t underestimate this human.


    Theo frowned before forming a huge hammer in his hand. ''Maybe I should pair a weapon with a certain element to copy a particr ability. This way, it retains a bit of its versatility, and its power will increase greatly.


    ''The Sword with Light to copy the Sword Saint''s sword strike. The scythe is paired with Space Element to open the void. And this hammer��''


    Theo gathered wind around his body before he struck the ground with the hammer,unching the wind into the air. Due to the force of the hammer amplifying the wind, the umted wind became even fiercer in the air.


    Theo smirked. "That''s right. It''s time to use the Ascension Step."

 Chapter 1673 Changing Target

    "Ascension Step, Tenth Step�� No, Ascension Step, Tenth Strike!" Theo mmed his hammer on the ground,unching the umted wind at the scorpion.


    "Hmm?!" The scorpion gathered the silver sand and turned them into liquid before it solidified into an umbre that protected him from the wind.


    However, the scorpion underestimated the power of this torrential wind. It felt like the sky had fallen on top of him. The silver umbre was pushed down. When it touched his body, the ground started to crack when carrying all that force from above.


    The crack spread to half a mile in diameter, showing the power of the Ascension Step.


    Theo smirked. ''That''s right. I can use this Irregr Guardian to recreate their abilities�� Not just replicating it but recreating it. Just like my World Re-Creation Ability, I can recreate those abilities and make them my own!''


    Theo realized that he might be able to copy others'' abilities, but he forgot to make them his own.


    "You''re annoying!" The scorpion shot poison toward him to stop Theo from using the ability so that he could move again.


    Theo retracted his ability and changed his Irregr Guardian into a scythe, shing the air to open the void.


    This void swallowed the poison inside, and no one would ever see that poison again.


    "Perfect." Theo smirked, proving his hypothesis. He truly could make them his own through his Irregr Guardian. In other words, this ability would be the trigger to recreate Divine Abilities. At this level, even the Irregr Guardian should be called a Divine Ability as well.


    After that, Theo formed a shield and imbued Earth Element into it. He remembered how the Great Guardian used his ability.


    He nted the shield on the ground while summoning a huge wall to block something. "The Great Wall!"


    But unlike the Great Guardian, who used his wall to block the enemy''s attacks, Theo dropped that giant wall on top of the scorpion, trying to crush him to death.


    "This is annoying!" The scorpion roared, not because he was injured but because he was annoyed by this confusing ability.


    Theo hadn''t stopped there, he turned the shield into a staff. "Now that I think about it, only Flora can be called a Magician, right? So, am I going to use her ability?"


    Theo didn''t care about it anymore. As long as that power was useful to him, he was going to use it no matter what.


    He tapped the ground with the tip of his staff. In that instant, ice spikes came out of the ground in all directions, surrounding Theo.


    The scorpion frowned because the ice was used to freeze his silver sand. He tried to corrode them, but it would take time due to Theo''s thick ice.


    "��" The scorpion narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Attack him right now!"


    This order was understandable. After seeing how Theo''s ability would disappear the moment he changed his weapon, Theo had no other choice but to release his silver sand if he got attacked.


    Unfortunately for him, the King ss Monsters were nothing in Theo''s eyes.


    The moment he saw theming, Theo gathered his Energy into his fist before using his Blink to appear in front of one of them.<sub> </sub>


    "Not good!" The scorpion realized it was a bad move to have them attack Theo. He should have just let them stay on the back while trying to make an opening for them to exploit. But due to his order, Theo could get close enough to one of them, trying to use this opportunity to kill at least one King ss Monster.


    The other King ss Monsters tried to stop him and the scorpion even shot its poison to stop Theo, but he was unstoppable.


    The Alter Ego increased his strength and Theo gathered his Magic Power into his artifact. He might have used his Irregr Guardian, but his artifact was free to use.


    His artifact turned into a spear and lightning began to spark on the spear''s surface.


    Seven lightning balls came out, regting this lightning and even amplifying it.


    "Seven lightning balls as a conductor��" Theo smirked. "Ava�� I don''t know where you are right now, but I still remember you. So, let me use your power to eliminate my enemy this time."


    "Stop him!" The scorpion shouted.


    The King ss Monster in front of Theo was actually a three-tailed cat. It used both ws to strike the spear''s de to knock it away.


    But the lightning released a huge spark, blowing away those two paws and leaving the King ss Monster without any defense.


    "Die," Theo muttered with a cold tone as he pierced the cat''s body.


    "You can''t defeat me. I have 9 li��" The cat smirked and tried to use his body to stop the spear as he attacked Theo.


    "Whatever." Theo smiled. Nothing could make him flinch on this battlefield.


    Before the cat finished his words, the seven lightning balls entered the cat''s body and exploded, electrocuting the cat.


    "With those seven lightning balls, now you only have one life��" Theo smirked. He pulled out his spear and casually sliced the cat''s neck, killing it. "And now, all your life is gone."


    "Cat!" The ape roared. Instead of helping the cat, he actually knew it was impossible to fight Theo since he had the experience from before. So, he chose to sacrifice the cat to make his next attack work.


    The ape suddenly appeared behind Theo, forcing thetter to turn around and wave his spear to cut him away.


    The ape had prepared for everything. After seeing how the Saint had a hard time against Theo, he grabbed the spear with his hand, allowing Theo to take that hand away so that he could duck down and punch Theo with his other hand.


    "You''re strong." Theo smiled, acknowledging the ape. This was the only monster that dared to use its body on the line to harm him.


    And that punch struck his body, creating a distortion that could even twist his body.


    "Gah!" Theo spat a mouthful of blood as this was his first injury in this battle.

 Chapter 1674 Tricking The Monsters

    "Die!" The other King ss Monsters approached him as well, taking advantage of this opportunity to kill Theo. Even the scorpion gathered his energy into his stinger as if nning to shoot something other than his poison.


    However, the only one who could see Theo''s expression was actually the ape.


    When the other King ss Monsters reached his range, a smile appeared on Theo''s face.


    "!!!" The ape widened his eyes and saw the blood on his hand disappear as if it was just an illusion. It turned out he had been tricked by Theo. "Not good! He is not injured!"


    Theo had actually used his Supernatural Snake Body and Alter Ego to boost his Endurance. And he managed to withstand that attack without a single injury.


    The instant the ape warned the others, Theo suddenly stood up as if proving what the ape just said.


    The other King ss Monsters were startled and used all their strength to stop their momentum. They had to regain some distance to avoid Theo''s attack.


    But this was actually what Theo wanted. The hesitation that appeared in their mind was the opportunity Theo needed to kill another King ss Monster.


    He used his Blink to appear before that monster and changed his weapon into a sniper rifle. He pointed it at the monster''s head, nning to st that head from point nk range.


    "Ah, no��" The King ss Monster panicked and wanted to use his power to block Theo''s attack, but he had just retracted his attack the moment the ape shouted, so he had no other way to stop this attack.


    Theo only poured his Magic Power into this attack as he shot the sniper rifle, sending forth a huge beam that vaporized not only the head but also the entire body.


    "With this, another King ss Monster has died."


    "You��" The ape gasped. "You tricked me! That illusion was actually to trick me, not the others�� You wanted me to warn them so that they retracted their power and went back. And you used that opportunity to kill them."


    The ape''s face became pale, never expecting he was tricked into helping Theo.


    "Nice assist." Theo smirked, admitting he did such a thing.


    "You bastard. How dare you kill my people again!" The scorpion had enough energy put into his stinger.


    Theo smiled again as if he had predicted this and nned to use this ability to kill someone else.


    The ape saw that expression and wanted to stop their saint, but he remembered what Theo had just done. He might be using the same trick again to make him stop the saint, so the ape didn''t say anything.


    The stinger released a beam of silver light that seemed to be able to corrode everything.


    But the moment he did it, Theo used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality around the World ss Monster. Instead of moving the beam, he was actually moving the source of the beam to the side.


    "No, wait!" The World ss Monster didn''t realize Theo wanted to make him kill his own subordinate by using this silverser. He tried to stop it, but it was toote because Theo also expanded the reality next to the King ss Monster, causing them to move toward each other.<sub> </sub>


    And that silver light sted the King ss Monster, evaporating its whole body.


    "You�� You made me kill my people��" The scorpion looked at him in horror. Meanwhile, the ape gasped and said, "Your smile earlier�� No, you were nning to do this from the start and you knew I wouldn''t fall into such a trick again. However, if I actually told the saint to stop, he wouldn''t have to kill��!"


    The ape was terrified. Theo didn''t look like a human anymore. He looked like a demon.


    By manipting their mind and action, Theo could make them assist him.


    "You�� You��" The ape didn''t know what to say anymore. He didn''t know whether he should tell the others about what he saw or not anymore. After all, it might be Theo''s trick again.


    The Silver Saint was trembling because this was the first time he had seen an opponent like Theo. His anger soared because Theo made him kill one of his subordinates.


    But if he continued like this, his subordinates might all die even if he could somehow kill Theo.


    "Space!" The scorpion narrowed his eyes, knowing he had to fight Theo alone to reduce the casualty. "Bring back everyone else. I''ll be killing him here!"


    "But Saint, he��"


    "Go! You should know by now that he is a devil that can force us to kill our own people. If you remain here, I might still be able to win the battle, but all of you might die in the process!"


    The ape and the other King ss Monsters trembled. They knew the saint was simply spitting out facts.


    "Just go. Even though he is tricky, his strength is far lower than mine. I won''t lose against him no matter what!"


    After hearing thatst message, everyone was determined not to go in his way. The ape pped his hands to form a portal, regrouping with others before they ran away.


    "My Saint. Please kill him!" The ape shouted.


    "Yeah." The Silver Saint nodded, ring at Theo as if he wasn''t nning to let Theo live.


    Despite their conversation, Theo surprisingly didn''t make his move this whole time as if he was nning to let them go, no, Theo wouldn''t be able to kill them anymore since they were adamant about running away instead of killing him.


    "You are going to die a brutal death. I won''t kill you immediately. Instead, you''re going to suffer for a long time before I kill you!" The scorpion released his killing intent.


    "Is that so? In that case, let''s see whether you can keep me alive or not." Theo smiled. He didn''t mention anything about staying alive, confusing the scorpion. However, thetter brushed it off because Theo might just be ying with his words again.


    Little did he know, the King ss Monsters he had sent back earlier met their ends.


    The real Theo was standing in the middle of the corpses of the King ss Monsters while smiling. "Thought so."

 Chapter 1675 Heavenly Sovereign

    "Die!" The scorpion roared while stinging Theo with all his might. The Magic Power in his stinger was overwhelming and the concentrated silver sand felt like it could melt everything.


    However, Theo wasn''t scared of this power. He knew that it was impossible to fight this strength with his Irregr Guardian, so he changed his approach.


    "Let''s use this one." Theo smirked and pped his hands. Suddenly, huge trigrams appeared beneath his feet.


    If the Time God was a man of focus, who controlled his Time Element to perfection. The Heavenly Sovereign was actually a jack of all trades. He didn''t focus on a single element because he never had an element to begin with.


    He looked like Theo at first nce, but he took a path different from him. If Theo used his illusion ability to use other people''s abilities, the Heavenly Sovereign used hisck of affinity to replicate other elements.


    And the only way for him to replicate those elements was the trigrams.


    Fire, Earth, Lake, Heaven, Water, Mountain, Thunder, and Wind. Each of them represented his element. When the Heavenly Sovereign showed his universe, Theo had gotten a bit of understanding of his power.


    In that universe, the Heavenly Sovereign was in control because he was in control over the elements. The rule imposed by him was the rule of elements. It wasn''t that he created a weirdbination with the chest.


    "Eight elements, four seasons, and four parts of the day. Sixteen representations and sixteen pieces of chess. These were the rules in our game back then��" Theo smirked. "And��"


    The trigrams underneath his feet released all eight elements from each point.


    "�� I don''t understand the true meaning of your ability, but I''m going to borrow your true technique a bit, Heavenly Sovereign�� No, Elements Saint." Theo lifted his finger.


    The trigrams spun around as the ''Mountain'' stood right in front of the stinger, stopping it.


    However, the stinger was stronger than the mountain as the former crushed it in an instant.


    But the moment the stinger pierced through, it was suddenly enveloped by leaves. Even when the silver sand melted them, the leaves continued to appear until they covered the stingerpletely.


    After that, a thunderous sound reverberated in their ears as a huge spark urred around the stinger, trying to st it away, if not crushing it.


    "!!!" The scorpion gritted his teeth while ring at Theo. He certainly felt this power. Due to the leaves covering the stinger, his silver sand couldn''t disperse the lightning, causing him to stop.


    "Tsk." Even though he managed to stop the scorpion''s attack, Theo didn''t look like he was satisfied at all. If the Heavenly Sovereign was the one utilizing this ability, he could evenunch the enemy back.


    "Should I learn Taoism to understand this power further? But I don''t have too much time recently. Whatever." Theo sighed and spun the trigrams again, putting the Fire and Wind in front.


    A zing fire appeared in the air as the gentle wind began to be ferocious and fuse with the fire, releasing a fire tornado.<sub> </sub>


    "!!!" The scorpion widened his eyes and shot this fire tornado with his poison, but the fire was so fierce that it vaporized the poison in an instant. "What? The poison should be stronger than that�� No, that''s not just fire and wind��"


    Theo smirked as he muttered inwardly, ''Mountain and Thunder represent the morning and spring while Fire and Wind represent the noon and summer. This is perfect.''


    Theo nced at the sky. During this zing summer, the sunlight was amplifying the fire. That was the reason why Theo was able to vaporize the poison in an instant. If he was fighting in the winter, this power would be weakened.


    The scorpion greeted his teeth as his silver sand gathered together, forming a huge shield to block this fire.


    The fire was trying to burn the sand to nothing, but the silver sand was trying to corrode the fire itself to extinguish it.


    "Kh." The scorpion gritted his teeth. He couldn''t understand Theo''s ability because he had been changing his technique to the point it didn''t make sense anymore. All elements, all Five Aspects, and all kinds of abilities. There was no way someone could keep up with this in their first fight.


    The scorpion knew it would be dangerous if he didn''t do anything. So, he gathered even more sand from his surroundings. This time, the sand turned into silver sand, making one think the scorpion could create unlimited silver sand.


    However, Theo also noticed that the scorpion used a lot of energy when converting the new sand into silver sand.


    But before he could observe any further, the scorpion had looped around and formed a huge silver ball with this new sand. Since Theo was in the middle of the trigrams, he knew Theo wouldn''t be able to leave this ce unless he retracted the technique itself.


    Just like Theo, the Silver Saint was able to see the enormous energy Theo used to activate this technique.


    Hence, he also wanted to stop Theo from continuously using this technique to force him to use it again so that Theo wasted a lot of energy.


    Theo noticed his intention and immediately spun the trigrams, moving the ''Earth'' and ''Lake'' forward.


    The ''Earth'' called forth a huge stone wall from the ground, stopping it like the mountain. However, the power was a bitckingpared to the mountain. After all, the Earth and Lake represented Afternoon and Autumn. The temperature had decreased significantly, which didn''t match the current season.


    The silver ball shattered the stone wall easily, heading straight to Theo. But surprisingly, Theo had another trump card, which was theke.


    As soon as the ball shattered the wall, the scorpion could see a huge pond in front of Theo. His sand would be useless if it fell into the pond, but he could still continue controlling his ability. This way, his sand wouldn''t be wet.


    Unfortunately for him, there was another huge wall on top of the silver ball. This was the shattered wall Theo had gathered with his Telekinesis. Hepressed them into another ball and let it fall right at the top of the silver ball.


    "What?!" The scorpion widened his eyes in shock because Theo''s n was to knock the silver ball into the pond.


    "Bam!" Theo smirked.

 Chapter 1676 Copy Everything

    "Bam!" Theo smirked.


    The stone ball fell on top of the silver ball, knocking it down.


    The scorpion tried to lift the ball up, but it was useless. Theo had used his Telekinesis to push it down and expand the Reality downwards with his World Re-Creation, causing the ball to dip into the pond.


    The water sshed and forced Theo to use his Magic Power to form a small barrier so that he didn''t get wet. But he was satisfied when he saw the silver sand bing wet.


    "You!" The scorpion roared and released all his Magic Power, trying to overwhelm Theo''s ability with his raw power.


    However, this was the time Theo utilized thest cycle. "Heaven and Water."


    Suddenly, a ck cloud appeared in the sky, covering the sun. The ck cloud released a few lightning inside before the rain started to pour.


    "!!!" The scorpion realized Theo wanted to use this water to make his ability useless. Hence, he shot down the cloud with his power, trying to push the cloud away.


    Surprisingly, Theo actually didn''t care about the ck cloud. Instead of retaining that ability, Theo used that opportunity to leap toward the scorpion while using his enemy''s strength.


    "Strengthen!" Theo shouted.


    The scorpion was startled and wondered what he nned to do. But he suddenly felt a fluctuation of Magic Power on top of its head and hurriedly used his stinger to disturb it.


    However, the air had solidified and began to fall on top of him, trying to crush him down. This was the Fist Saint''s ability.


    Although he didn''t understand his Authority yet, he had some assumptions. It seemed that he could harden everything with his power.


    And this time, Theo hardened the air and pushed it down to crush the scorpion. Of course, there was no way Theo could do it without the Fist Saint''s Authority.


    So, he utilized his illusion to create an invisible block in the air and used his Telekinesis to push it down.


    "!!!" The scorpion gritted his teeth as the ground beneath him began to crack. But he realized this was also another distraction.


    Theo suddenly appeared next to him with a new set of power.


    "Daemon. Unlike the others, the Daemon was actually an assassin�� The best assassin in the world."


    As Theo muttered all those words in a low voice, his shadow began to expand and a ck me gradually came out of the ground. His shadow suddenly had a tail and a pair of bloodshot eyes appeared.


    "Borrowing the power of your inner demon, huh�� I guess the Daemon is the biggest sore loser in this world." Theo smirked. Tirta Kurniawan was known as Daemon. It was because he had numerous inner demons whose power he could borrow.


    This was a good ability for an assassin because they could grant them invisibility, strength, or even speed, depending on his need.


    But Theo only had one demon in his heart.<sub> </sub>


    The Death Avatar suddenly emerged from his body as the shadow demon enveloped him, turning into a coat. Theo''s Irregr Guardian turned into a huge scythe for the Death Avatar to wield. That was right. Theo turned his Death Avatar into a death reaper. This was his demon.


    He was a clone and shouldn''t have died in the past. Even though he had revived this body, it didn''t change the fact that he had died once. He even used Death to train his will and power.


    It could be said Theo had embraced and yed with Death itself. That was why this was the demon representing Theo. Death.


    "The Death has sent you an invitation!" Theo smirked while activating the Death Avatar, Fourth Authority, Death Descent.


    Suddenly, a few red threads appeared on the scorpion''s body.


    The Death Reaper waved its left hand, releasing a few chains that caught the scorpion.


    "This is��" The scorpion was baffled and looked around, not understanding this kind of power. He tried to use his silver sand to melt these chains but to no avail. Of course, it was impossible to melt them.


    After all, these chains were just an illusion. As soon as he melted them, Theo remade the chains, allowing them to look like they were regenerating endlessly.


    Then, the Death Reaper pulled his hand as if pulling the chain. The scorpion was shocked because he couldn''t resist this pull at all. He didn''t realize it was actually Theo''s World Re-Creation. By expanding the reality toward himself, he could create an illusion of pulling inside. Of course, Theo''s senses maniption was already at its peak, so he truly felt like he was being pulled.


    The scorpion tried to remove the chains before eventually giving up because the Death Reaper had flown forward.


    The scorpion gritted his teeth and formed a shield to block this scythe. Even he felt the ''Death'' from this scythe, so it wasn''t wise to block it with his body.


    But that was what Theo actually wanted. The moment the scythe hit the wall, it was actually passing through as if the silver wall had never existed.


    "What?!" The Silver Saint was truly shocked. He didn''t realize that his perception between illusion and reality had been crushed.


    What actually happened was the silver sand melting Theo''s Death Reaper. At the same time, Theo used his illusion to make the Death Reapere out of the wall as if it was moving through the wall.


    And this forced the scorpion to m its pedipalps to the ground to crush it. By creating a crater, the scythe couldn''t help but miss.


    Unfortunately for him, the Death Reaper also disappeared after that swing as if telling him it was just an illusion. He was tricked by Theo into putting himself inside the crater.


    And Theo hurriedly used this chance to m his hammer to the ground, releasing a powerful wind.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Strike.


    He amplified the power of Ascension Step with his hammer, crushing the scorpion down.


    "Aaaahhh!" The scorpion was struggling for his life. This looked like he was at a disadvantage, but Theo was actually the one in a pinch.


    Despite looking perfectly fine, Theo had exhausted most of his energy. Copying all those abilities took a huge amount of his energy, so he couldn''t help but feel empty inside. Though, Theo had an advantage this time. It was the fact that the one fighting the scorpion right now was actually his clone.

 Chapter 1677 Brave Group

    "Hu��" Theo took a deep breath while looking at the hole before him. ''This is truly too much even for me. I have been copying everyone''s ability�� From the Heavenly Sovereign to Walker''s chains. I have seen how effective they are against a Saint. Though, it''s using too much Magic Power and Order Energy.


    ''I guess there is no way this overpowered ability has no weakness�� In exchange for this unique power, I have to sacrifice a lot of energy. I guess all of my techniques are like this. Alter Ego and my Three Laws are like this�� Well, among the threews, this copying ability is the one that uses the least amount of Magic Power.


    ? ''I don''t know how I can even cover this weakness�� I guess I can only use my clone continuously. And in the worst case, I have to go all the way to Singrity. Then again, I am a few levels away from level 900. Thest one hundred levels will be hard��''


    Theo contemted for a moment, waiting for the World ss Monster to reemerge. He knew that he would be dead after this, but he didn''t regret it. With all this information, he was nning to get some time to rethink his power before challenging the monster again.


    This was his preparation against a World ss Monster.


    As expected, the World ss Monster managed toe out of the hole. Although he was injured a bit and was quite exhausted, his vital sign was still strong. If Theo didn''t have any more abilities that could crush him, he wouldn''t die.


    This was the gap between the World ss Monster and him. He might be able to close that gap in the fight with his unique ability, but the energy, physique, and Magic Power couldn''t bepared at all.


    Theo smirked. "It seems that even with all those tricks, I couldn''t take you down."


    The scorpion also noticed the weak energying from Theo''s body. It didn''t take too long for him to realize Theo had been exerting a lot of power to pressure him like this.


    Even though he didn''t like the fact that his endurance was the one that allowed him to win, he couldn''t care less after Theo had killed his peop��!


    "!!!" The scorpion widened his eyes in shock when he felt the Friend Seal fluctuate before fading away. "This is��"


    The scorpion was shocked because this phenomenon only told him one thing. His subordinates had died.


    Theo smirked and said, "Oh. Have you felt it? It seems that your subordinates have died."


    "You�� human bastard!" The scorpion roared. His anger couldn''t be controlled anymore as he mercilessly stabbed Theo with his stinger.


    Surprisingly, Theo didn''t even put up a fight. Instead of grieving over his loss, Theo smiled.


    "I already told you, you couldn''t torture me because you couldn''t stop yourself from killing me." Theo smirked with blood flowing out his mouth. "This is myst present."


    Theo used his remaining energy for his Alter Ego to increase his strength. At hisst moment, he mmed his fist on the stinger with all his might, trying to crush it.


    *Bam!*


    Surprisingly, he found what he was looking for. A small dent appeared on the scorpion''s stinger, rming the scorpion himself.<sub> </sub>


    "!!!" The scorpion couldn''t believe that Theo used his life to make a dent in his stinger.


    But even more shocking, his body started to burn to ashes, making the scorpion unable to do anything with his corpse.


    "What?!" The scorpion wanted to put out the fire, but he was toote because the body hadpletely gone.


    He didn''t realize Theo was actually burning his own clone at thest moment to make it look like he had died.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo was still lurking in the shadows, nning to think more about his power before challenging the enemy again.


    "I see�� This is the gap between a World ss Monster and me. I can overwhelm them with my unique power, but the longer I can''t kill them, the more disadvantageous the situation bes.


    "In that case, how about ambushing this monster with my real body? No, even with it, I don''t have a guarantee to win. The best n to kill the monster is to exhaust it by fighting this monster several times.


    "By continuously harassing this monster, I can push him to the point he can''t fight me anymore. When that happens, I can kill him�� Now that I think about it, should I fight him with my real body in thest fight?


    "No, it''s better to stay hidden. This is the purpose of the clone. By using this clone, I can kill a World ss Monster without getting a single injury. Although I don''t know whether I can use it in the war that is about toe, I can test the effectiveness of this strategy.


    "Yeah. I think this is the only way to do it." Theo nodded in agreement.


    He used the rest of the days to think about his power and copy ability. Despite being able to use them, the only one that he could perfectly recreate was the Ascension Step since the Wind Emperor taught him. The other abilities were not perfect because Theo didn''t know the true concept behind them.


    Even so, it worked well enough for a bluff.


    With this thought in mind, Theo summoned another clone to ambush the World ss Monster, nning to try a new strategy. But when he was about to harass the World ss Monster, he found thetter besieged by another group.


    "What? There is a brave group that dares to challenge a World ss Monster? Damn, this is new." Theo muttered in amusement as he flew toward them, wanting to see what was happening.


    But the moment he came to the battlefield, he was spotted by someone he was familiar with.


    "Ah! Theo!"


    Theo''s body shook, and he immediately followed the voice, finding the familiar petite figure on the ground. She had a few wounds on her body, but it wasn''t life-threatening.


    "Ne?"

 Chapter 1678 Situation

    "Ne?" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting Ne''s group to be challenging the World ss Monster.


    But since there was Ne here, it meant there would be��


    Theo fell silent while narrowing his eyes, looking at a blue-haired man whose face looked like him falling from the sky while punching his fist.


    *Bam!*


    The fist was blocked by the stinger but created a huge shock wave and even shattered the ground beneath the scorpion. However, the punch wasn''t strong enough to even leave a scratch on the stinger''s surface.


    The scorpion waved its stinger to this man, knocking him to the ground.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes. He didn''t know whether he should help or not. But he noticed a rainbow light enveloping his body, strengthening his overall ability.


    Ultimately, Theonded on the ground first to hear Ne''s story.


    "Ne. Why are you here?" Theo asked while checking her condition.


    "We''re evacuating Chile before the monsters attack us. There are too many sea monsters, so we decided to go to the base in the north�� Though, we''re already aware of this monster, so we''re basically trying our luck to cross this ce."


    "Your luck?" Theo narrowed his eyes. "This is a World ss Monster, you know."


    "Yes. When we came here, the monster looked enraged and exhausted. Don''t tell me��"


    "Yes, I fought him before. I''m nning to kill him after all." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s��" Ne sucked a cold breath, never expecting Theo to be this strong already.


    "Before that, what''s this rainbow light?" Theo asked, pointing at the light enveloping her body.


    "Do you know the Mafia Queen?"


    "Yes."


    "She is the number one enchanter in the world and this is her power. My overallbat ability has increased by two to three times�� We''re trying to get past the monster."


    "So, you''re grabbing the monster''s attention for a while?"


    "Yes." Ne nodded. She never asked Theo for help because she knew the rtionship between him and his parents. However, Theo seemed to be nning to help for a different reason.


    For them, they just wanted to keep this monster busy so that they could cross this ce safely. For Theo, this was a perfect opportunity to take down a World ss Monster.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, staring at the monster.


    "Where is the Mafia Queen?"


    "Somewhere in the field. I don''t know her exact position."


    "��" Theo paused for a moment before steeling his resolve.


    "Are you going?" Ne asked with a concerned face.


    "I''m here not to help your group. I''m simply sticking to my original goal, which is to kill the World ss Monster." Theo took a deep breath before leaping into the sky, making his presence known by releasing his Magic Power.<sub> </sub>


    "!!!" This dense amount of Magic Power rmed all the people and the monsters in the area as they looked at the sky.


    "That''s��" Ray raised his eyebrows. Never in his wildest dream would Theo appear in this situation.


    "Theo��" Valerie muttered with a shaking voice.


    Theo didn''t bother to look at them. Instead, his focus remained on the World ss Monster.


    "Yo, we meet again."


    "!!!" The World ss Monster was dumbstruck. "You�� You should have died. I should have killed you yesterday!"


    "Really? While you were trying to kill me, I took down the rest of your people." Theo smirked.


    "What?! So it''s you!" The scorpion roared, releasing his overwhelming killing intent.


    Theo smirked and released his Death Avatar First Authority, Death Eyes. The killing intenting from Theo''s eyes overwhelmed this killing intent in an instant, neutralizing the fear from the rest of the people.


    At the same time, a rainbow light began to envelop his body.


    "Mhm?" Theo looked at his hands and felt the change in his body. As one would expect from the number one Enchanter in the world. Her abilities could easily be felt.


    "My strength is doubled and my speed is seventy percent faster. It even increases my Magic Power and other things�� To think she maintained this kind of support to so many people�� No wonder she is called the number one Enchanter." Theo muttered in a low voice before turning around and finding the Mafia Queen on the ground.


    The Mafia Queen seemed to give out her position, knowing Theo wanted to talk to her.


    On the other hand, the scorpion didn''t let them talk. He immediately arrived in front of Theo while swiping his stinger.


    "Watch out!" Ray and Ne shouted at the same time as they tried to jump to block this attack, but they weren''t quick enough.


    On the other hand, Theo used his Alter Ego, Enhanced Concentration Capacity, Energy st, and Thunderp Fist to punch the stinger. With the help of the Mafia Queen''s ability, Theo punched the stinger, knocking it away.


    Surprisingly, even the scorpion had its body flip over because of the strength behind that punch.


    *Bam!*


    Everyone dropped their jaws when they saw the impact. This fist was several times stronger than Ray''s.


    Even the scorpion didn''t think Theo would be able to exert this amount of power. He realized it was the work of the hidden powerhouse that kept enhancing their abilities. And Theo was staring at her.


    Theo looked at his hand for a moment, realizing how much strength he possessed right now. At first, he couldn''t see any chance of defeating the scorpion. At the very least, he had to fight the scorpion one or two more times before he managed to weaken the scorpion enough to kill him.


    But with this kind of strength and his clone, he didn''t have any doubt that he could kill this World ss Monster here.


    The Mafia Queen smirked as if she knew what Theo wanted to do with this strength. But Theo''s voice that echoed from the right startled her.


    "Mafia Queen�� Let''s make a deal here."


    "!!!" The Mafia Queen''s heart skipped a beat as she turned around, finding another Theo. It turned out the one in the air right now was only a clone. "Theodore Griffith�� What kind of deal do you want to make with me?"

 Chapter 1679 Agreement

    "Theodore Griffith�� What kind of deal do you want to make with me?"


    Theo smirked. "Tell your people to handle the monsters around, and I''ll take care of this World ss Monster for you. In other words, I can kill the World ss Monster while you get the safe passage."


    "You''re just trying to take advantage of my ability." The Mafia Queen narrowed her eyes, implying she didn''t want to be used by him.


    "Let''s be honest here. Your group has no way to deal with this World ss Monster. By the time you finish crossing this ce, you will have suffered great damage. Besides, without your ability, I can still kill the World ss Monster by myself."


    "��" The Mafia Queen didn''t correct him. Even she could see that Theo managed to exhaust the scorpion. If he used his clone to take him on for a bit more, it would be clear who would be victorious. It might take longer, but he certainly could do it.


    "What do you want from this deal? I''m sure it''s not only my cooperation, right?"


    "I heard from Ne that you were escaping from the sea monsters, right?"


    "��" The Mafia Queen thought for a moment. "Don''t tell me, the base is experiencing an attack as well?"


    "Yes. But I can assure you the victory. In fact, if you cooperate with me, our chance to kill this monster and another World ss Monster will be more than ny percent."


    "Another World ss Monster��" The Mafia Queen furrowed her eyebrows. "It seems that your appetite is not small."


    Theo didn''t deny it. He simply asked, "So, what are you nning to do? Will you cooperate with me or not?"


    "Let''s make this simple with a verbal promise."


    "Sure. You are going to cooperate with me to take down this World ss Monster and the one attacking the base. In exchange, I will protect you from the government, which will probably try to control you. I have severalnds, so you can use them for the time being.


    "After the expansion, you can get a new ce. What do you think?"


    The Mafia Queen didn''t expect Theo to be this generous. As he said, the government would surely fear things would be out of control with her existence. And they would probably send the Time God to pressure her.


    On the other hand, if she grouped up with Theo, she would be able to get his protection. Just by looking at the agreement, Theo didn''t seem to be nning to control her.


    "I still don''t understand one thing. What''s your intention? You seem to be nning to make me your ally��"


    "You should know the problem already. I''m simply strengthening my side to make sure the government doesn''t have control over my life and my group."


    "They have the Time God."


    "I''ll surpass him soon."


    "And during that time, you''re going to have me as your ally to protect yourself?"<sub> </sub>


    "Yes."


    The Mafia Queen thought for a few seconds. "I have a few problems with this agreement, but it doesn''t seem like we can talk for too long�� So, I''ll just ask you one question. Since I''ve brought a lot of people, they''re bound to know about my existence even if you try to hide me. What will you do if they want to use the Mafia Queen to pressure you?"


    Theo smirked. "I don''t know any Mafia Queen. I only want an ally and her name is Alexandra Boric."


    "!!!" The Mafia Queen widened her eyes in surprise. His statement meant he saw her not as the number seventh in the world, the Mafia Queen. Instead, he needed her as an individual.


    In other words, the one bound by the promise was only her, not her organization and people. On the one hand, it might look like a sloppy agreement where Theo wouldn''t protect her people. On the other hand, this gave her a lot of freedom. Even if she agreed, her people wouldn''t have to be someone''s ves.


    "��" The Mafia Queen smirked. "It seems that we''re going to have a drink tonight. Don''t you think so, Theodore Griffith?"


    "Should I take it as you agree with this alliance?"


    "Tsk. Why do you have to say that? Have I not made it obvious enough?"


    "I need verbal confirmation." Theo chuckled.


    "Tsk." Alexa raised her palm as if asking for a high-five. "Yes. From now on, we''re an ally. The details shall be discussedter."


    Theo smiled and gave her a high-five, saying, "In that case, we have one thing to do here."


    "Yeah!" Alexa became excited as she took out her radio tomunicate with her people. At the same time, she also enveloped the real Theo with her ability. "There you go! Do you need anyone to help you?"


    "No. With your ability, I can kill this scorpion by myself. Just make sure no one is interfering with my fight."


    Even though Theo said that, he couldn''t care less about Mythical Rank Monsters, even if they were General ss Monsters. Unless they were King ss Monsters, Theo wouldn''t even look their way. Even so, it was nice to have a peaceful battlefield.


    The Mafia Queen smirked and ordered all her people. "All of you, listen to my order. There''s no need to fight the World ss Monster anymore. Instead, you all are to step away from the battlefield and prevent any monsters froming to the battlefield. Someone will take care of that giant scorpion. That includes you, Ray, Valerie."


    They were dumbfounded by the instruction, but Clone Theo pped his hands and formed huge trigrams in the air, showing them he was enough to handle this monster.


    "You bastard!" The scorpion gritted its teeth and mmed his pedipalps to Theo.


    Thetter spun the trigrams. On his left, a mountain appeared. On his right, a stone wall emerged.


    The monster had seen this ability and got trapped yesterday, so it immediately stopped and took a few steps back.


    "!!!" They didn''t expect the World ss Monster to fear Theo''s power, but it showed that they weren''t needed on the battlefield anymore. All they had to do was one thing, keep the monsters away from here. And Theo would do the rest.

 Chapter 1680 Realization

    "Stop them!" While the people were fighting and shouting, Ray stopped for a moment, staring at Theo from a distance. He was watching how Theo fought the World ss Monster and realized he had achieved the next stage after the Order. It was clear that Theo didn''t need help from someone weaker than him.


    He took a deep breath before turning around, deciding to focus on the task.


    On the other hand, Theo and his clone stood in front of the troubled scorpion.


    "You are two people? No, there is no way two people will get the same Authority. Don''t tell me, the you from back then was a clone?" The scorpion realized he had been fighting a clone this whole time.


    Theo smiled and said, "It''s toote for you to realize it. And in this fight, you''ll die!"


    The scorpion could feel it. Theo was far strongerpared to thest time they fought. It might be due to outside help, but it was clear that fighting Theo would be harder from now on, especially since Theo had chosen to fight him with both his real body and his clone.


    Remembering their previous fight, he knew he might not be able to survive this battle. Even so, all his people had been killed by Theo. This anger had to be released.


    The scorpion red at him and shouted, "Even if you manage to kill me, I''ll make sure to use my life to drag you down with me!"


    "Heh�� I''m looking forward to it. Though, you need to have the power to do that first!" Theo smirked.


    Clone Theo made the first move. With a single p, numerous chains appeared from the ground, restraining his body.


    The scorpion tried to move in all directions but to no avail. He thought Theo managed to chain him down, but he simply expanded the reality ording to his movement, making him think he was chained down.


    After that, Theo raised his hand and gathered a ck cloud in the sky. Lightning began to spark inside the cloud as a huge spear emerged from it.


    At first nce, it looked like Valerie''s God Killing Spear. However, the spear was surrounded by lightning. And there were even seven lightning balls hovering around the spear. This was the bigger version of the spearbined with Ava''s ability.


    "Go!"


    The scorpion widened his eyes and tried to break free from the chain. Unfortunately for him, all his attempts failed.


    In the end, he had to take this spear head-on.


    First, he summoned all the silver sand around him and formed a simr spear to match the form. This way, his spear would be able to neutralize Theo''s spear.


    *Boom!*


    The two spears collided in the sky, creating a massive shock wave. Luckily, their sh wasn''t on the ground or else, the trees, the soils, and all the humans near it would have been blown away.


    The lightning around Theo''s spear became even more ferocious as it tried to burn the silver sand to a crisp. On the other hand, the silver sand was able to corrode everything, including the lightning that had no tangible form.


    "��" Theo and his clone knew the World ss Monster wouldn''t go down this easily. Hence, they jumped together toward the stinger while using their Alter Ego to boost their strength.


    The scorpion remembered the punch that made a dent in his stinger, so he raised his pedipalps to block their paths.<sub> </sub>


    Both Theo and his clone used their Magic Power to teleport past the pedipalps with their blink.


    Instead of the stinger, both of them dropped down as if they had changed their aim from the stinger to the scorpion''s body.


    It was true that the scorpion''s body would be thinner, but the scorpion wouldn''t hesitate to protect his body even if it meant his stinger was destroyed.


    With the stinger moving toward them, Theo and his clone changed their aim again. They used Telekinesis to stand still in the air before striking the same spot in the stinger.


    "Kh!" The scorpion gritted his teeth while trying to exert all his Magic Power to protect his stinger.


    *Crack!*


    "!!!"


    Unfortunately for him, it was useless. Theo''s full power might be able to leave the dent there, but this time, he had gotten even stronger due to the Mafia Queen as well as the help of his real body.


    This strike was not like any other. Instead of a dent, Theo managed to crack the stinger, forcing the scorpion to retract it before it got destroyed.


    Seeing this movement, Theo continued to fall down. Even though his punch wouldn''t be as strong, it was still enough to give the scorpion some injuries.


    "Just get wrecked," Theo muttered while punching the scorpion''s back.


    As one would expect from a World ss Monster, his intelligence was beyond an ordinary King ss Monster. Right before Theo''s fist hit him, the scorpion mmed its pedipalps on the ground and turned it into a crater.


    With the help of the Silver Sand that pushed his body down, he avoided this punch.


    "He destroyed the ground to avoid it?" Theo narrowed his eyes and nned to take him down with this opportunity. But that attack didn''t only destroy the ground but also the base of the chains that restrained him.


    Now that he was free, the scorpion looked up while shooting out a huge beam that enveloped both Theo and his clone. "Die!"


    The beamsted for three seconds before Theo could be seen again.


    His clone had moved in front of him, stopping this beam with all his energy to protect the real body. He lost his arm, but the real Theo didn''t get any injury. In fact, he didn''t even use his Magic Power.


    With Clone Theo getting crippled, Theo retracted his skill before summoning another clone.


    "What?!" The scorpion was dumbstruck. The clone''s energy was simr to what the real Theo had. It meant Theo could regenerate his powerful clone continuously until he died.


    His original n was to use his body as bait so that he got the chance to attack Theo like earlier. But it seemed that n also failed because the clone could continuously sacrifice its life to protect Theo.


    "This is��" it was at this moment that the scorpion knew he fucked up.

 Chapter 1681 Advantage

    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    A series of shock waves shook the battlefield as the scorpion gritted his teeth, ring at Theo. His body was already in tatters. His stinger had cracks all over it and there were a few holes in his body due to Theo''s attacks.


    It was truly harsh, considering all his attacks would be blocked by Clone Theo.


    Of course, he had managed to force Theo to spend a lot of his Magic Power as well, but the condition didn''t improve. He had exhausted most of his energy, while Theo seemed to have half his original amount. And more importantly, his body was covered in wounds, while Theo only had one burn mark and one scratch on his body. Their condition was simply not the same.


    "��" The scorpion was trying to find a way to kill Theo, but he still couldn''t find a way to do it, considering Theo could easily retract and summon his clone whenever he needed. At the same time, Alexa had been supporting Theo the whole time, enhancing his ability.


    Theo was staring at the scorpion. Although his victory was already in his eyes, he wouldn''t underestimate the scorpion until he killed him. After all, the monster before him was a World ss Monster.


    "You are strong. I wouldn''t be able to defeat you easily without any help." Theo narrowed his eyes. He admitted that he wasn''t as strong as the World ss Monster yet.


    But the scorpion noticed the hidden meaning. "You wouldn''t be able to defeat me easily? It seems that you''re confident in killing me even without help. I guess you will continue to exhaust me with that clone of yours until you''re confident enough to take me down."


    Theo smiled. "This might seem like a cowardly n, but the result is the most important."


    "Indeed." The scorpion had indeed underestimated Theo. He never thought that this human would give him this much trouble during the fight. He might hate Theo to the bone for killing him, but Theo was indeed a strong human, strong enough to be recognized.


    The scorpion looked at Theo for a moment. As Theo said, the result was the most important. He would die today, but he still didn''t stop searching for a way to drag Theo down.


    Theo and his clones pped their hands together. Suddenly, the echoes from the ps were amplified.


    "!!!" The scorpion''s body jolted while trying to figure out what kind of attack that was.


    Surprisingly, other than the mysterious echoes, he couldn''t feel anything from Theo.


    "This is��." The scorpion thought it was just a bluff. Theo had been using this kind of bluff multiple times to trick him, so he wouldn''t fall into his traps again. He hurriedly stomped the ground with his pedipalps, trying to counter the echo with the thunderous boom.


    *Bam!*


    Theo didn''t react to this action. Instead, he simply waited for the scorpion to make his next move.


    Confused, the scorpion gathered his Magic Power in his stinger before shooting Theo with the poison. Because of the condition of the stinger, the poison burst out from the cracks as well, causing them to spread in the air. In fact, this was actually deadlierpared to the original state.


    Theo was forced to create a barrier to block all the poison. Meanwhile, Clone Theo used his Blink to appear in front of the scorpion while gathering his Magic Power into his fist, nning to crush the stinger.


    As if predicting Theo''s movement, the scorpion raised both pedipalps, smashing them together to crush Theo to death.<sub> </sub>


    The Death Avatar appeared behind Theo, spreading both arms to stop the pedipalps.


    *Bam!*


    "��" Theo''s expression darkened as he maintained a lot of energy to stop these two pedipalps. But he was only a clone whose Magic Power and Energy could be refilled by the real body at any time. And this action actually gave Theo some room to make his next move.


    Theo used his Blink as well but to the back of the scorpion. Since thetter was too focused on the clone in front of him, Theo would be able to injure him somehow.


    However, the scorpion had seen enough of Theo''s trick. The moment Theo appeared behind him, the silver sand on the ground rose and gathered around Theo''s feet like ants crawling onto his feet.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in surprise before using his Telekinesis to push the air down and let the ground disperse it in all directions, blowing away the silver sand.


    The scorpion didn''t let Theo do what he wanted. Before the Telekinesis pushed them away, the silver sand joined each other, creating a solid form.


    This block of silver endured the Telekinesis and continued to make its way toward Theo.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue and used his Twisted Reality to deform this silver block, only to end up reshaping it into a ball.


    "Do you think I would lose my control that easily?" The scorpion smirked. In fact, he allowed Theo to reshape his silver block.


    And since it had be a ball, he started triggering the silver sand in the center of the ball, letting it burst out.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock because the ball let out silver spikes. And one of them stabbed Theo in the arm.


    Theo hurriedly jumped back to regain some distance, but the silver sand on the ground began to be spikes, trying to pierce Theo''s body.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth while holding his right arm. He felt his body get burned by the silver sand. "As expected of the corrosion from that silver sand��"


    "This is not over, Theodore Griffith." The scorpion finally regained his confidence in this fight. The path of killing Theo was present.


    Unfortunately for him, the Theo that took the attack earlier suddenly disappeared.


    "!!!" The scorpion widened his eyes because he couldn''t feel his presence anymore. Even when Theo used his Blink or Alter Ego, he would be able to pick up his presence, but this time it waspletely gone.


    In that instant, he realized there was only one technique that could erase the presence. He looked at the Theo he hadn''t crushed this whole time.


    A cunning smile appeared on Theo''s face as Clone Theo reappeared and made his way toward the scorpion.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1682 Killing The Scorpion

    *Bam!*


    Theo punched the scorpion''s body as the energy st cracked the hard carapace. Blood began to flow out through the crack.


    "Gah!" The scorpion screamed in pain. He was tricked again. It turned out the echoes Theo created before attacking him were an illusion that allowed him to exchange his body with his clone, allowing him to think the one he injured earlier was the real Theo.


    "��" The scorpion''s body became heavier due to the wounds. He had a hard time keeping up with Theo''s movement anymore. The only thing he could rely on was his silver sand maniption, but Theo had been throwing the silver sand far away from him so that he couldn''t control them anymore.


    And with his current energy, it would be impossible to convert more sand to silver sand.


    He was truly at his limit. If not for his unwillingness to die without dragging Theo with him, he would have sumbed to his injuries.


    "This is not the end yet!" The scorpion shouted as he released all his remaining energy, nning to end this battle in a single attack.


    Theo and his clone pped their hands again, releasing the same echo that tricked the scorpion.


    "Do you think I don''t know you have changed your ce with your clone?" The scorpion pointed his stinger toward the Clone Theo this time, but before he shot him down, a smile appeared on both Theos'' faces. "!!!"


    ''Wait a minute. Did he trick me again this time? Did they actually switch? Or did they remain the same, and those ps just tried to make me think they''ve exchanged positions?'' The scorpion realized that Theo might be tricking him into thinking he had changed. But he couldn''t be sure Theo hadn''t changed ce either.


    After fighting Theo for so long, he didn''t realize hismon sense was altered, his mind was confused, and his power had been twisted.


    "No! I''ll just destroy both of them!" The scorpion shouted. His pedipalps joined together and formed a silver light in the gap between them. "Silver Annihtion!"


    The light shot forth a silver beam into the sky, engulfing both Theo.


    As expected, Theo didn''t even bother to avoid this attack. He simply stood there with his clone blocking this attack for him.


    The clone exhausted a lot of Magic Power just to block it, but this wouldn''t be a problem since Theo nned to resummon his clone again.


    This time, the scorpion didn''t let Theo do it. He gathered the remaining silver sand on the ground and turned it into a tform to carry him into the sky. The tform was so thin that it looked like a carpet instead.


    But this carpet was enough to allow him to fly in the sky.


    Before Theo could retract his clone, the scorpion had moved toward him. If Theo retracted his clone, it was the same as allowing the scorpion to attack him.


    "Tsk." Theo gritted his teeth as he didn''t retract his clone. Instead, his clone stepped forward and gathered his Magic Power into both fists, nning to stop the next attack.


    The scorpion used his flying silver carpet to move toward the real Theo. When the clone was about to strike him, the scorpion leaped with its giant body. This was the first time the scorpion made this kind of move. Even Theo was startled because he didn''t expect the scorpion would be able to jump that high with his humongous body.


    "NO!" Theo shouted while gathering his Magic Power into his hands. With a single wave of his hand, trigrams appeared. His other hand formed the Irregr Guardian in shield form, nning to block it.


    The mountain and the stone wall emerged on top of him, blocking the scorpion. However��<sub> </sub>


    "It''s toote, Theodore Griffith. You must be shocked that I could jump this high!" The scorpionughed as he smashed both the mountain and the stone wall with his pedipalps.


    "!!!" Theo gritted his teeth and raised both arms, holding this shield desperately.


    "Haaa!" The scorpion roared while mming the shield with all his strength.


    *Crack!*


    "!!!" A crack appeared on Theo''s shield. Theo gritted his teeth because his shield began to crumble after that. Theo''s Irregr Guardian instantly changed into gloves. The infused metal element strengthened the glove, allowing Theo to block this attack.


    *Bam!*


    Theo crashed into the ground. The bone in his right arm was destroyed and his left arm bent in a weird way.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. This was the first time the scorpion managed to outsmart him and the damage to his body was simply too much.


    The scorpion fell on top of Theo. The giant body made the ground shake for a split second and kicked up the dust, making people unable to see what was happening inside.


    "This is the end, Theodore Griffith." The scorpion smirked. He knew he would be killed by the second saint, but it was enough because he could kill Theo before he died.


    But Theo actually smiled when he saw his deathing. "Yeah. This is indeed the end."


    The scorpion was confused for a moment before he felt a chill down his spine. The chill didn''te from ice but the death itself.


    He realized that the dust wasn''t the only thing that made up this cloud. There was also mist in it, and due to this mist, he couldn''t use his Awareness to locate anyone near him. This was Death Avatar Third Authority, Death Domain.


    "This is the end, indeed." Theo smirked.


    "You��" The scorpion realized what was happening when Theo''s body began to be translucent. Lightning shed within the mist.


    Theo always used his clone to block the attack, which gave him the advantage. But in the end, Theo relied on his body to exchange roles with his clone. By blocking the attack, he made him think it was his clone.


    Everything had been set up perfectly to the point he didn''t doubt for a second that he was aiming for the right one.


    And by the time everything was revealed, it was already toote.


    The scorpion tried to turn around, but Theo had thrown his lightning spear as hard as he could toward the crack he had made in his body.


    The piercing power that the lightning gave into his spear instantly shattered the carapace and pierced through the body. The lightning then burst out, destroying all the organs inside the scorpion''s body.


    "This is the end��" Theo muttered with a solemn tone, giving thest respect to the saint he had just killed.

 Chapter 1683 Paths To Get Stronger

    "��And that''s how I killed a World ss Monster," Theo exined.


    All the people who listened to him sucked a cold breath.


    "The battle felt so hard." Millie, who didn''t have muchbat experience,mented. "It didn''t look that way when you fought against the shark."


    Felix patted her head and said, "That''s because he has experienced killing one. After killing the scorpion, he considered his battle ns carefully and killed the shark that way."


    "I see." Millie nodded in understanding.


    "Though, I could feel that the shark wasn''t as strong as the scorpion�� Although the shark was at the same level, it felt like it could not utilize all his strength on thend. Though, I could kind of understand the reason," added Theo while recalling the battle.


    "That must be because of its habitat. The shark is a sea creature, not and creature. The shark will be able to move freely in the water, especially in the deep sea, where your movement will be slowed down because of the water pressure. There are also many reasons why we shouldn''t fight them in their ce��" Agata exined while ncing at Theo.


    "Yeah. The current situation is a bit tricky. Because of the difference between water andnd, we can''t invade their ce directly. In other words, they can attack us while we can''t attack them. This is an advantage that everyone wants." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Is that the reason why Teacher dealt as much damage as possible to the sea creatures? You wanted them to be weak enough to start another battle anytime soon." Rea asked.


    "Yeah." Theo confirmed her doubt without hesitation. "This way, the sea creatures won''t attack us for at least a few years. By that time, I should be able to reach the level where they don''t dare to fight me anymore��"


    "What kind of level is that��" Rea narrowed her eyes before remembering Theo''s ability. Theo was still able to utilize his system, meaning he was the only person in the world that could still level up. And with how he killed as many monsters as possible, his intention was clear. "Wait a minute�� Teacher, what is your level?"


    "My level?" Theo smirked. "It''s 909 after thest battle."


    "!!!" Rea gasped. He was 91 levels away from reaching the level no one had ever stepped on before. And because no one had the ability to use the system anymore, they thought no one in this world could level up again. That was why they thought Theo was in the same situation.


    It turned out they were wrong. Theo was steadily increasing his level. Before they knew it, Theo would have reached level 1,000 and no one would be able to stop him anymore.


    "After thest battle��" The people muttered as if trying to understand Rea''s words. Some of them realized; some of them were confused.


    Agata, who understood Theo''s ability, asked, "By the way, can you ess everyone''s system?"


    "I can only see them." Theo shook his head. "I can see everyone''s level, name, skills, and status��"


    Everyone sucked a cold breath, never expecting Theo to be able to do this the whole time. They finally understood why Theo could understand them so easily. He had all that information.<sub> </sub>


    Before they said anything, Theo added, "Unfortunately, after getting disconnected from the system, you''re unable to level up. And my power only allows me to rank up your skills, not your level or attributes.


    "Well, I''ve tried many ways to do it, but it''s still useless. From what I can see, there are a few ways to be stronger. The first one is practicing your Five Aspects. With all the information I''ve received from Isaac, it seems that your child will have Magic Power simr to their parents.


    "In other words, the stronger the parents, the stronger they''ll be. But unlike us who have to cultivate our Magic Power by raising our levels, the child will have that since birth.


    "Hence, what we can do for future generations is teach them the Five Aspects so that they can utilize their extraordinary power. And Five Aspects shall be their foundation.


    "Another way to get stronger is to eat herbs, but because our nts haven''t mutated to the point they absorb a lot of Magic Power, I don''t think we can get stronger this way, which brings us to the third way.


    "Our skills can''t be essed by anyone else anymore. So, why don''t we write everything we know about our skills and let others cultivate those skills? This way, people don''t have to start from scratch. Instead, there will be books that allow them to learn skills.


    "To put it simply, this is the exact opposite of what people are doing with Technique Aspect."


    "Ah!" As the one who was the most knowledgeable about Technique, Rea understood his intention. "Technique is our way to utilize our power and make it a unique technique. On the other hand, if we decipher our own skill and record it, we can create a guide for our technique for the future generations or even the people in this generation to use."


    "Exactly!" Theo nodded with a smile. "Of course, this is also the reason why I want to upgrade people''s skill ranks. I''ll have to ask them to write down all their experiences with their new technique and collect all of them into a database. Millie will work on the database together."


    "Understood." Millie nodded.


    "This is indeed a good idea." Agata approved his decision. It seemed Theo didn''t only work on their current situation but also thought about the future generations. Of course, this was simply Theo preparing for his child in the future.


    "Alright. I have told you everything I want. For now, I''m going to consolidate my power before making my move again." Theo stood up, nning to leave.


    But before he left, Rea asked onest question. "Wait a moment, Teacher. I have a question."


    "What is it?"


    "You seemed to use a different set of skills when killing the two World ss Monsters. And I could say that the abilities you used to kill the scorpion were stronger. Why is that?"


    Theo thought for a moment before smiling. He said while walking away, "You don''t show your trump card easily."

 Chapter 1684 Discussion

    "This is not going to be good. Their faction has be too big right now." One of the staff stated while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "This is really not good. We currently have the support of the Time God and three other Transcendent Level Experts. But their side has four Transcendent Level Experts, the Mafia Queen and Theodore Griffith."


    "More importantly, three of their Transcendent Level Experts are new. This shows that Theodore Griffith has somehow found a way to make someone a Transcendent Level Expert in a short period of time. Just taking a look at this, we know there will be more Transcendent Level Experts born in his faction."


    "But what should we do? This is the question right now. We have to act before it''s toote. With their current power, they should be able to influence our authority. We can''t let those people take control over this base."


    "We should send the Time God immediately. He is the strongest person in the world, so even though Theodore Griffith and Alexandra Boric join hands, they still can''t defeat him."


    "Don''t be ridiculous. The moment we send the Time God, they''re going to retaliate. You should know Theodore Griffith has surpassed his grandfather, the War Saint. And if we push him too much, I''m afraid he''s going to attack the base together with his clone. This way, we''ll be besieged by three people of their level. Even the Time God couldn''t stop them by himself."


    "That means he''s prepared to be a bad guy." Another guy harrumphed, thinking Theo would lose support from the people.


    However, another guy rebuked that statement. "No way, I''m sure that everyone in this room is already aware of it�� Theodore Griffith has the support of the people because he''s able to twist everything to make himself look good. If we attack them, it''s easy for him to brand us as the bad guy."


    "Then, what should we do? Are we going topromise with him? If we do this, there is a chance that both Theodore Griffith and Alexandra Boric act like they own this ce."


    No one could provide a n. The biggest factor would be Theo himself. Not only did he have his clone to confuse them or even attack them from two sides, but he was also a genius who could control the war itself. Just like how he had done this whole time, it would be easy for Theo to understand their movement.


    "We should kidnap his fiancee then. With how he loves her to the point he rejects all the women around him, it''s clear that we can control him if we have his fiancee."


    "Are you crazy? You''re clearly trying to make an all-out war with him."


    They were racking their brains, trying to find a way to fix this problem. Unfortunately, they couldn''t bypass Theo no matter what they did.


    It was impossible to acquire Alexa from him. As long as Alexa remained there, Theo would take action.


    "Then, are we going to let them just like this?"


    If Theo was here, he would just snort at them. All of them thought they were doing it for the people, but they were actually doing it for themselves. They wanted to be in control whether for their greed or their ambition.


    That was why Theo didn''t have any connection with the US Government after that incident. Even Maya agreed with him. The only reason why she helped them after the apocalypse was to establish her ownpany and help the people. It was a win-win situation.


    But Maya never acknowledged she was connected to the government. At the same time, Maya also became one of Theo''s greatest strengths. If Felix and the others could be influential because of their strength, Maya was the only one who could surpass them with money alone.<sub> </sub>


    This was why, despite being his subordinate, Maya always saw Theo as an equal and challenged him like a rival.


    The power she had could influence the base''s economy. If the Star Group ever lived at the base, they would certainly question the government.


    In the end, the moment they made a move, Theo could easily make the people look at them as the people in the union did.


    Theo and the government knew this, putting the situation inplete check. With how her airne seeded in transporting people across the ocean, it was clear that they could bring Theo and Alexa''s group to another base if they were cornered.


    At that time, the only way for them to solve their problem was to ally with the remnants of the Griffith Family. But at that time, they knew they would be thoroughly branded as the bad guy.


    To put it simply, Theo had put them in checkmate even before he asked Alexa to be his ally.


    "Then, we have to wait and see first? We will try to find their weakness and see if we can take advantage of it to turn the situation around."


    "That''s right. We shouldn''t make any contact with them for now. Instead, we should put all our strength into surveince. We have to maintain a close look at their operation."


    The people seemed to finally agree on something, albeit they didn''t sign up for what came next.


    *Bam!*


    "This is not good. We have an emergency!" One of the staff mmed the door open while shouting. "The Time God has disappeared."


    "What?"


    "At this point in time, he disappears?"


    "What''s the hell with the Time God? Does he know that we''re in a dire situation?"


    The staff gritted his teeth and continued the exnation. "We found his letter on his desk. The letter said��"


    The staff hesitated for a moment, making people curious. But before they were angry at him, the guy finished his words. "The letter said, ''I''m going to meet the little bastard, Theo."


    The moment they heard that statement, all their faces became aghast as their jaws dropped to the ground. They were talking about how they shouldn''t make contact with Theo yet since they had no feasible n, but the Time God broke every argument they had and simply went alone.

 Chapter 1685 Threat

    The Time God was walking down the empty street. Even he had a hard time finding Theo''s base, considering Theo had used everything he could to hide it.


    But walking around the area was enough for him to rm Theo.


    As he predicted, there was a mouse staring at the Time God for one second before disappearing.


    The Time God felt the gaze. Unlike an expert, who could conceal their breath and presence, the mouse''s gaze could easily be felt by someone like him.


    Since Theo had been notified, the Time God nced at the side and saw a half-broken bench. He walked to it and sat down, waiting for Theo to make his appearance.


    It only took him fifteen minutes before he could feel a presenceing toward him. He raised his head and saw Theo walking on the street.


    "It seems that you want to talk to me, Time God." Theo looked at him with a solemn expression.


    "You''re not going to invite me to your base? Thest time I helped you practice, I invited you to my home."


    "Invited me? You mean kidnapped me?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "But it doesn''t change the fact that the training was useful, right?" The Time God shrugged as if he didn''t care about Theo''s remark.


    Theo fell silent for a while before asking, "So, what do you want from me?"


    "Mhm��" The Time God contemted for a moment. Instead of answering Theo''s question, he praised him first. "I wonder how much of this is your n�� The people in the white house are talking about you and don''t seem to be able to find a way to get what they want from you.


    "At the same time, the fact that you disappear after the big war makes people think about your ns. They''re assuming you have a lot of ns to push them away from their position."


    Theo shook his head. "I have stated it from the very beginning. I don''t like getting involved in politics. Though, if you are going to annoy me, then I don''t mind jumping into politics."


    "That''s just like you." The Time God thought for a moment. "That''s why I''m going to ask this�� What do you want from the base, Theodore Griffith?"


    Theo''s expression became grim. This question had a lot of meaning. It looked like a sign of surrender, but the Time God must have a n beforehand, so Theo didn''t bite the bait immediately.


    Instead, he asked, "What do you mean? I''m currently confused since I have everything I want here. Even if I want something, the base can''t give it to me."


    "Hoh? This makes me curious. What do you want to be exact?"


    "That''s not something you need to know." Theo shook his head.<sub> </sub>


    "If I don''t know, why are you so sure I can''t give it to you?"


    "Because I know. That''s just a fact." Theo didn''t seem to be nning to give away what he wanted. However, Theo never lied, so he deemed the Time God to be unworthy to know about this. Rather than telling anyone else about it, he better keep it until thest moment.


    But the Time God couldn''t be underestimated either. He smiled and asked, "So, it is something that I can''t give you, but the Heavenly Sovereign can?"


    He had realized the Heavenly Sovereign must be connected to this. After all, there was no way that whimsical old man woulde down from his mountain to be Theo''s ally.


    Theo thought for a moment and shook his head. "He might, but I don''t think he''s qualified."


    "Hoh? Interesting." The Time God smirked. "Then, is there a single person to be able to give you something you want?"


    Theo smirked and stated, "No."


    The smirk on the Time God''s face disappeared. What Theo said didn''t make sense. If there was no one who could give it to him, even himself, then there was no point in asking for them. So, why did Theo even bother with this bullshit?


    The Time God asked, "If no one can grant it, including you, then how do you n to get it? Your argument doesn''t make sense."


    "Of course. There are people who know about what I want, but none of them can get it. However, that''s the difference between us, Time God. We might both rely on ourselves to get what we want, but you will always get stuck because you only believe in yourself. Meanwhile, I believe in others�� I believe they will give me what I want�� And what I need to do is simply do my job until I get it." Theo shook his head, disappointed. He thought the Time God could understand him, but it seemed he couldn''t expect too much from an observer.


    The Time God narrowed his eyes as if he was displeased when Theo showed his disappointment. However, he managed to refrain himself and asked another question. "Then, does what you want destroy the base or this world?"


    "I''m here to prevent that," Theo answered without hesitation. His tone was clear and his resolve was firm.


    Even the Time God could feel his sincerity behind those words. It seemed that no matter what Theo did, he wasn''t going to involve so many people in it.


    The Time God closed his eyes, falling into deep thought. He tried to figure out what he wanted but to no avail.


    In the end, the Time God sighed and said, "It seems that I can''t understand you. But your ambition doesn''t seem to be harming the base. That''s why I''m going to stop here. You can take in the Mafia Queen as you like and I won''t interfere."


    "I think you misunderstand something, Time God. I''m not the government''s dog, so I don''t have any obligation toply with what you want. Even if they send you to capture me, I''m not just going to open my gate and invite you in. In other words, the base should be the one to know their ce. If they n to control me, then don''t me me for being merciless," Theo stated coldly.


    The Magic Power around the Time God''s body began to fluctuate as his expression became extremely cold. He said, "It''s been a while since west fought�� Do you want to fight little bastard?"


    "I''m not scared of you, Old Clock."

 Chapter 1686 Challenge

    "Do you want to fight, little bastard?"


    "I''m not scared of you, Old Clock."


    Both of them released their Magic Power to the limit. The pressure alone created a powerful gale, blowing everything away. The ground began to crack as the tension soared through the roof.


    Unlike thest time they fought when Theo was still a new King, if they fought this time, the entire area would surely be destroyed.


    Both of them gave a cold gaze at each other before their Magic Power suddenly vanished into thin air as if it never existed to begin with.


    Theo and the Time God had fought so many times during that training, so they knew from each other''s gaze that none of them was nning to fight.


    In the end, they decided to drop the matter.


    "Theodore Griffith, you should behave for the time being. The current situation is not good. There are dangers looming everywhere and we don''t know when they wille."


    "How about we have our observer here change jobs? You have that book in your hand, so why not give it to me?" Theo smirked.


    "This book can''t be read by anyone else other than me or it will cause a huge disruption in the flow of time. That''s why you can drop the idea. Even if you can acquire this book from my hand, it''ll simply disappear because this book is connected to me and my flow of time."


    "Hmm��" Theo narrowed his eyes. He might be able to replicate some of his abilities, but his understanding of time itself was too low. So, Theo shrugged while saying, "In that case, leave this ce. I won''t be your enemy if you don''t provoke me."


    "I know. I''m pretty sure you already know what those folks in the white house are discussing, right?"


    Theo nodded. "Of course. To control me, they are trying to see the pros and cons of kidnapping my fiancee, killing my people, and even inviting the Mafia Queen. I''m not going to act on their n, but the moment they begin to make their move to hurt me, I will retaliate.


    "Tell those people I''m on the side of humanity, not their side. But if they want to make me switch sides, they''re among thest people I consider."


    The Time God closed his eyes and agreed to tell this message. "In that case, I''ll leave this ce. I hope that the day when we have to sh won''t happen anytime soon. Even if ites, I don''t wish it will be a battle of life and death."


    Theo didn''t give any remark regarding his statement. He might agree, but he might also wish for the life and death battle.


    However, it didn''t seem Theo was their current enemy, so he hadpleted his purpose here.


    Without hesitation, the Time God turned around and used his Time Element to elerate himself to return to the base.


    Theo, on the other hand, took a deep breath. Although he had be an Authority, it was still too much to fight the Time God.<sub> </sub>


    "As expected, that guy is a monster." Theo clicked his tongue. "Even with my current strength, I don''t see any way to defeat him. Even the scorpion can''t bepared to him.


    "The only way to defeat him is to get even stronger. I need to utilize my thirdw at the very least. Then again, I have to increase my level further."


    Theo knew that the Time God was stronger than anyone he had ever seen. And the only one who could stop him was probably the Heavenly Sovereign, whose full strength was still unknown.


    "Still, to think that Sir Yaslev once fought both of them as thest barrier to bing the top expert in this world. Haha, I once swore that I would fight all the top experts to be stronger. I guess I''m going to fulfill it soon." Theo smirked. "The danger is around the corner after all. If I don''t improve soon, it''ll certainly destroy all our hope."


    Theo took a deep breath and disappeared since it was only his clone. Meanwhile, his real body opened his eyes while letting out a sigh. As expected, the people were looking at him anxiously, thinking the Time God was nning to hunt them.


    "Teacher��" Rea approached him with a concerned expression.


    "Nothing happened, so you can lower your guard." Theo shook his head.


    They felt relieved since nothing bad would happen. There were already too many problems to handle, so they didn''t want to add one more.


    "Anyway, I want you to inform your father." Theo paused for a moment, thinking about his words.


    "What do you want me to tell him?" Rea tilted her head in confusion. It didn''t seem to be an important matter, so she was curious instead of rmed.


    "Tell him that it''s time to take his daughter''s tuition."


    "What?!" Rea was bewildered. Never in her wildest dream would she think of Theo asking for a lesson fee. However, everything was cleared up after listening to his exnation.


    "The lesson fee is simple. I want to spar with him. And ask him to tell the Daemon that I''d like to challenge him as well. But since he doesn''t owe me anything, I don''t mind tutoring one person of his choice for a month."


    "That''s��" Rea thought for a moment and found no problem in the agreement. Though, there was a problem from the outside. "Won''t this make the Heavenly Sovereign jealous?"


    "Just tell him I''m nning to challenge him sooner orter, but not now. Besides, I''m just going to fight with my clone, not both my real body and my clone. So, yeah�� You deal with the rest."


    "I understand." Rea nodded, epting the task.


    Meanwhile, the others were curious as to why Theo suddenly nned to challenge these people. It was clear that Theo wasn''t someone who would provoke others, so it was surprising to see Theo challenging them.


    Theo noticed their gaze and chuckled. "I''m simply curious as to how much I can do right now�� In fact, if they lose to me, I have to seriously consider their strength for what''s toe."

 Chapter 1687 Rumors

    "What''s wrong with you, Maya? This is the first time you''ve called me with that look on your face." Theo narrowed his eyes. He just wanted to have some time alone while building up his strength, but it seemed that he couldn''t do it when Maya called him with a troubled expression.


    Maya wasn''t someone who easily asked for help, but if she truly came to him, it meant the trouble was beyond her ability.


    Maya scratched the back of her head and said, "To be honest, I don''t know whether this rumor is correct or not. But I believe I should share this with you."


    "Rumor?" Theo muttered in a low voice, amused that Maya was troubled by a rumor.


    "Yes. There are a few rumors around my Star Group. The first one talks about the existence of the spy on the base. He was the reason why the sea creatures attacked us."


    "That''s not a rumor. In fact, thanks to that spy, I could ambush them." Theo shook his head calmly. "I think I''ve told you about this."


    "Yes. But this one is a different spy." She shook her head. "When you''re going around the base, you will hear people spreading this rumor deliberately."


    "Spreading the rumor?!" Theo raised his eyebrows. The rumor alone wasn''t a problem, but if there was someone spreading the rumor, it certainly piqued his interest. After all, unless they had an ulterior motive, they wouldn''t go all the way to spread this rumor.


    "So, what do you think about this?"


    "A personal attack. They''re targeting you, Theo." Maya sighed. "After all, among those rumors, there is a rumor about you being the spy."


    "Hoh?" Theo became more and more interested since there was actually someone daring to create this kind of rumor about him.


    "The rumor said that you used your illusion to create that World ss Monster and defeat it so that you could gain glory."


    "That''s ridiculous. Haven''t they seen the number of the enemies and the King ss Monsters? Do you think they would follow me just like that?"


    "That''s where the problemes in. The opinion splits into two. They''re either supporting you or doubting you."


    "Then, I can simply leave this country and go to United Asia. Of course, if this is the work of someone from the base instead of the spy, I''m going to make sure they are paying a heavy price." Theo narrowed his eyes, falling into deep thought.


    "They''re still drunk in their victory as well as the Time God along with the Mafia Queen. Even if you leave, they still have Time God and the Mafia Queen protecting this ce. That''s certainly better than the union''s condition right now. Hence, this might be the perfect time for them to release this rumor, considering you''ve be too strong."


    "Too strong, huh." Theo looked up while clicking his tongue. "As expected, humanity is a piece of shit."<sub> </sub>


    "I can absolutely agree with that. When I be this rich, they won''t be satisfied if I don''t donate all of my fortunes away. Even if I donate only five percent of my worth, it surpasses what one hundred million people can give. Yet, that''s not enough.


    "They want me to donate all my money so that I can be poor again. And they''ll feel good about it because they now have the same lifestyle as the richest person in the world�� Well, not anymore. They''ll look at me with contempt.


    "When you''re still poor and be sessful, people will look up to you and treat you as their idol. When they''ve gotten used to seeing you sessful, they''ll be jealous and hope you go down." Maya clicked her tongue while staring at Theo. "That''s the same as you right now, Theo.


    "When you were starting back in the day, they admired you and cheered for you. They loved to see the rise of the hero. Sadly, the other way around is also something they''d like to see.


    "When you be too strong, they''ll start to fear you, not knowing what you will do with that kind of strength unless they possess you themselves. They want to think that there is Theodore Griffith, so hurry up and go, Theodore Griffith. Protect us or something like that.


    "They have control of you or they''ll just condemn you as a bad guy. This is truly ridiculous. They want more blood to be spilled, but if we shove a baby''s hand into their parents'' mouth for torture, they''ll think it''s too much. Basically, humanity is a hypocrite. Me too, by the way."


    "Yeah, yeah, I know about all those facts already." Theo sighed. "So, why do you call me? You should know I don''t really care about the rumors, right? If they think I''m the bad guy, then I can be a bad guy."


    "��" Maya paused for a moment, agreeing with Theo''s words. If Theo wanted it, he might be able to bring humanity to extinction. Of course, Theo didn''t want it since he wanted to build a family. So, Maya said, "OK. Here''s the deal. Do you have some time right now? I''d like to invite you as a special instructor of my Star Group."


    "Me? A special instructor? I don''t mean to boast, but I don''t think I''d like to offer that kind of service to anyone."


    "No, no. You misunderstand me. I want you to be an instructor because of the event the government is hosting right now."


    "A special event?" Theo frowned.


    "Yes. It''s said that these are joint efforts between thosebat departments like the Department of Defense, National Intelligence, and so on.


    "To train a new generation of soldiers because too many people have fallen during the war, they hold a gathering for all influences in the base to train people. The result of this event will be put forward as the base of their education system after the apocalypse."


    "It''s an interesting event. But why should I join this event?"


    "It''s because the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President seem to be the ones to spread those rumors about you for whatever reason. Don''t you want to check them yourself?"


    "No."

 Chapter 1688 Event

    "No."


    Maya coughed a few times. She had predicted Theo wouldn''t go all the way to do this, but it was truly hrious when she heard it with her own ears.


    "If I want to investigate them, it''s better if I send Akbar and Eleanor there instead of myself. Do you know what I''m doing right now? I have to be far stronger because the next threat that wille is beyond anyone''s imagination." Theo sighed, exining the reason he rejected it.


    However, Maya added, "That threat mighte wayter than you think."


    "What do you mean?"


    Maya typed a few things on her Skylink before a few pictures appeared in their video call.


    "Hmm?" Theo immediately frowned because of the disturbing pictures. The picture was about an empty human skin. They didn''t have any flesh, bones, or whatsoever. They were only skin and all other outer parts like hair.


    However, he didn''t understand why Maya showed him something like this. "A horror movie?"


    "No. Those are real humans, now dead, yes." Maya''s expression turned grim. "After the battle against the sea creatures, the base is experiencing this weird incident. The government has been trying to hide this issue to prevent any public unrest, but we don''t know what''s happening right now.


    "There are a few spections like mutated bacteria, viruses, or even monsters. But something that can kill someone by swallowing everything other than their outeryer�� I think it''s worth investigating this case.


    "What I''m worried about right now is that the Vice President has gotten involved in this case. He is the one controlling the whole operation. If not for my agent luckily capturing all these pictures, we wouldn''t know what is happening in the shadows."


    Theo looked down, contemting. "You''re suspecting the vice president to be a spy?"


    "Yes. I don''t have any proof other than this though."


    "Still, this is not the reason why I should go there, Maya. It''s better to have the specialist handle it."


    "The problem is�� those people are not just random people, Theo. One of them is a student who wishes to join the event, while the other two are the instructors." Maya gritted her teeth. "And the worst part is�� All those three registered two days after these photos were taken."


    "!!!" Thest sentence caught Theo''s attention right away. The fact that the dead people would register to this meant there was something fishy behind it. There was no way a dead man would be able to register, let alone participate. But if they truly participated, there was a chance they would be connected to the spy.


    And he would be able to deal with those spies at once since he was at the scene.


    Theo also remembered that the Vice President was the one handling these problems. This person had enough prestige and power to see everything, including their battle n. So, him being the spy was very likely.


    That was why Maya wanted him to infiltrate their ranks by joining this event. There were three people captured in the camera, but there were certainly more people who experienced the same situation without anyone knowing it.


    "I see. Internal problem. If this is the work of the monsters, it can be said they''re nning to live among us ande out to attack us during the next war. That can''t happen��" Theo fell into deep thought.<sub> </sub>


    On the one hand, he didn''t want to do this since he wanted to focus on improving his strength. On the other hand, he would be the only person who could infiltrate them and check their status, considering he had Reality Eyes.


    In fact, Maya might be informing him about this because he had told her about this ability.


    "An attack from the back�� And that attack will probablye at Agata, who would be working from behind while I lead the group to the battlefield. I see. So, they''re aiming for Agata��" Theo''s expression became extremely cold. He didn''t mind them targeting him, but if they tried to hurt Agata, that would be an entirely different case.


    Maya thought she had convinced Theo, especially after hearing the question. "How long will the eventst?"


    Maya raised four fingers.


    "Four months?"


    "Four weeks." Maya shook her head. "The event willst for four weeks. In the end, this is just to get enough data to create an entirely new education system so that future generations can handle future problems. So, it won''tst for that long.


    "In the meantime, you''ll probably see a few important people during the meeting. And if they''re targeting you or something, it''s probably clear that they''re enemies."


    Theo closed his eyes, weighing the pros and cons. "If this is the work of the monster, then this is truly dangerous. However, their motive is still unclear. So, I have to reconsider my n."


    Theo, for the first time, doubted his own decision. He thought there were three great disasters that would impact the world: pollution, trash, and chemicals. The pollution had been solved, and the trash came in the form of sea creatures. Then, the chemical shoulde from the powerful slime he had seen in the world''s memory.


    But suddenly, this weird case appeared, making him wonder if he had missed something. A problem that hadn''t been solved might give the reason for the higher being to eradicate them.


    "Disappearance case, a weird disease, a microorganism, or another monster��" Theo muttered, trying to figure out the current case.


    But no matter how hard he tried to find the reason, there was simply no clue leading to this case.


    "What is happening right now��" Theo clicked his tongue, not finding anything he could use to exin the case.


    "I see. It seems I have to go there myself to investigate it. My eyes can see through their status, so I know their real name and strength even if they use a fake appearance��"


    Theo took a deep breath. "When does it start?"


    "In one week."


    "You surely don''t want me to go there with my identity, right?"


    "I have prepared your new identity."

 Chapter 1689 Monster Among People

    "Tsk. As expected, I have to solve it myself." Theo clicked his tongue, sitting down in Maya''s office whileining.


    Theo had spiky white hair right now. His face looked aged, but he still couldn''t be considered an old man because the white hair came from the stress he got from his work. Despite his aged face, his body was muscr and brimming with energy.


    "Ary Tjahaja. You''re from Indonesia. You got teleported to this ce because of the apocalypse and are stuck in this base. You are a Mythical Rank Fire Magician, who has been working for me ever since the apocalypse because I helped you."


    "I have a few questions. First of all, why do you want me to be an Indonesian? If you don''t want me to stand out, then you should make me an American."


    "No, you have to stand out, but not too much. I''m sure you already know this, you have to participate in all kinds of things so that you can observe all people participating in this event. Even the Vice President will make his appearanceter. That''s the reason."


    "OK. Understandable. But why Indonesian? We can use other countries��"


    "Well, I don''t think it''s good to use anything around Central Asia since it''s close to your hometown, which makes them doubt you. And the countries around this base are also a no go because you won''t be able to stand out at all.


    "Also, there''s no way I''m going to give you an identity from Europe since we will have a problem with the union. Hence, that leaves me with two options, Southeast Asia or Australia. You have a lot of experience with Australia, so I pick the former.


    "And among the Southeast Asia Countries, I think you have talked to Indonesian the most�� I mean, the only people you talk to now are all important people and the only personing from those countries is Tirta Kurniawan, the Daemon. So, I''m sure you have understood his ent, right? This is the least suspected identity I could find."


    "Fine." Theo sighed. "I''ll take the identity for now. But even after learning their ent, how do you even pronounce this? Tja-ha-ja? Am I supposed tough when announcing my name?"


    "It''s Cahaya. Light."


    "Oh." Theo nodded in understanding. "Weird, but interesting. OK. Anything else I need to know about my new identity?"


    "I''ll send you the remaining information for your background."


    Theo received the data immediately, so after he checked it, he turned off his Skylink and asked, "Lastly, you want me to investigate that ce, right?"


    "Yes. Of course, you''re the one in charge, so the method is up to you."


    "Well, this is also a good opportunity to hide. Currently, there is a lot of surveince near my territory. They seem to be trying to figure out my next move. With this new role, I could send my clone to raise my level while I''m trying to figure out this weird case."


    Maya nodded. "Of course. I''ll be helping you whenever you need it. Just call me."


    "Got it. How many people are going to attend this event?"


    "There are approximately one thousand students and fifty teachers. The studentse from many backgrounds. There are people from upper-ss society and there are some normal people as well. Their strength ranges from the lowest rank to Supreme Rank. It seems it''s a good idea to gather so many teachers from different cultures to teach their specialty, mixing all of them together."


    "But I have to act like a Fire Magician, right? I don''t think I have extensive knowledge about Fire."


    "But I don''t think anyone can easily beat you in Magic Power maniption, right? Just use your fire through that maniption, giving birth to a new kind of maniption�� Don''t you think so?"


    "Certainly, but I just hope that they won''t suspect anything." Theo sighed.<sub> </sub>


    "I believe in the world''s greatest human, Theodore Griffith. I''m sure you do a wonderful job."


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. "So, what''s the payment for this event?"


    "What? You''re asking for payment when I''m trying to help you infiltrate the event to find out about this incident that can harm humanity as a whole? I''m helping you here and you still ask me to pay you." Maya pouted, disappointed.


    "So, you don''t pay me for recing another person you should have chosen to attend this event?"


    "Of course, I have prepared the payment." Maya''s disappointed face instantly changed into a bright smile. She said, "I have been bribing people in the government to understand their n. You should know they''re aiming at you and the Mafia Queen, right?


    "In exchange for doing this, I''m going to give you all the information I''ve got from them. What do you think? This is inside information, you know. And the people I''ve bribed are in high positions."


    "��" Theo thought for a moment. Even Akbar and Eleanor would have a hard time getting information from the government since it was protected tightly. So, bribing corrupt officials would be the safest way.


    So, this deal wasn''t that bad.


    "Fine. I''ll do it."


    "Of course. I have prepared the car and your luggage has been packed up. You''ll have to do the registration first as soon as you arrive."


    Theo sat up and said, "Alright then. I''ll go immediately."


    ��


    Theo didn''t realize the extent of this problem. He walked toward the registration office and handed his documents as a woman suddenly came and handed the document as well.


    "Please take mine as well. I''m sorry��"


    The woman had chestnut hair and wore big round sses. She had a sloppy expression as if telling everyone that she would mess up on something. But that wasn''t what piqued Theo''s interest. It was the status he saw.


    Name: Rgsawr


    Level: 799


    Skill: Freezing Palm, Ice Burst, Eternal Ice, Frozen Pce, Freezing Prison, Ice Lock.


    There was a person that didn''t have any data about her EXP, Blessing, and Attributes.


    And the only creature that would give only this amount of information was�� a monster.

 Chapter 1690 Suspicion

    "Hmm?" She looked at Theo with a confused expression before smiling. "Hello. Since you''re registering here, that means you''re a teacher too?"


    She was polite and had a bright smile, making it look like she had no harm to the people. But if people knew she was actually a monster instead of a normal person. This fact alone made one wonder what she was nning to do here.


    At the same time, he couldn''t show any hostility before knowing the extent of the infiltration.


    He nodded with a calm expression. "Yes, I''m a teacher too. Nice to meet you."


    "My name is Ruby. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Mr..." She paused for a moment, waiting for Theo to give his name.


    Of course, Theo had changed his information from the system so that he didn''t lie to anyone whenever he said his other name.


    At the same time, he heard another voice from the office as the person was handing out his name tag.


    "This is your name tag, Mr. Tjahaja. And this is your key to your dorm for one month. You''ll be teaching in Elemental ss. The ss will be split into a few groups, and there will be teachers who shall lead the ss alongside you. The rest will be exined before the sses. You can be assured that we won''t restrict you in your curriculum. Just teach the students anything you see fit."


    "Got it." Theo nodded and took his tag and key. While showing his name tag, he turned to Ruby, saying, "Ary. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Ruby. Are you teaching in Elemental ss too?"


    "Ah, I''m lucky to find someone who teaches simr stuff." She smiled. Before she could continue, her tag and key hade out as well.


    "This is your key and tag, Miss Henessy. You''ll be teaching in the same ss as Mr. Tjahaja. The rest will be exined before the ss."


    "Thank you." She nodded with a smile. Before turning to Theo, she asked one question. "By the way, how many students do I have to teach?"


    "As you''ve been informed, there are multiple sses depending on their specialization. And you are in Elemental ss, which is attended by students who want to learn more about elements and control. In this ss, there are a total of two hundred students divided into ten teachers."


    "So, each teacher has twenty students." She nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s basically the case. Though, the rest will be briefed one hour before ss."


    "I understand. Thank you." She politely nodded. Twenty students didn''t seem to be that much, so she should be able to handle all these people.


    "Alright. Have a good day."


    "Thanks." Ruby nodded and stepped back, finally focusing back on Theo.


    "It seems that we''ll be in the same ss. Although I don''t know how they''re going to split it, it seems we''ll be meeting each other often from now on, Mr. Ary." Ruby smiled.


    "Indeed. It seems we''re staying in the same ce, just on a different floor. Do you want to go together?" Theo asked.


    "I''d love to." She nodded.


    Theo wanted to investigate the matter right now, but it was clear that he had to get her trust first.


    "So, what element are you teaching in this event, Mr. Ary?"<sub> </sub>


    ''Oh? This monster is not holding back.'' Theo didn''t expect the monster to be this bold. But considering they were infiltrating this ce, he was sure that they were trying to gather information. He just didn''t know what kind of information they sought.


    "I''ll be teaching Fire Element like my affinity."


    "Is that so? I''ll be teaching Ice Element and probably Water Element too."


    "Oh, our element seems to be the exact opposite." Theo chuckled. Normally, what people thought after meeting a guy like him would be his ethnicity, especially after how the person from the office had a hard time pronouncing his name.


    It was clear that Theo was someone from another country, not close to this ce. So, they would be asking where he came from first instead of talking about their element.


    Of course, other people wouldn''t think too much about it if they weren''t suspecting monster infiltration.


    But since the situation had reached this point, Theo yed along.


    "Is that so? Even though our elements are the opposite, I do hope that we can get along." Ruby smiled.


    "We''ll be teaching in the same ss, so I believe we''ll be meeting each other every now and then." Theo nodded before finding two huge towers.


    These two towers were former hotels. Because of the apocalypse, it had been abandoned.


    Luckily, they weren''t outside the border, so the monsters didn''t destroy the hotel. It took a series of inspections, but everything was confirmed to be safe.


    Hence, this would be a perfect ce for them to hold this event.


    As soon as they reached the first tower, a security guard approached them with a smile. "Hello. May I check your identity?"


    Theo and Ruby nodded, handing their tags.


    The security guard checked their names and appearance before leading them inside. "Pleasee in."


    They followed the security guard inside. Since this wasn''t a hotel anymore and the owner seemed to have died after the apocalypse, there was no receptionist to take care of their problems anymore.


    However, all the interiors seemed to be working perfectly.


    The guard opened the elevator for them and handed the card back. "If you have anything you need, please call the office. There aren''t any staff in this ce since all of them are busy preparing the sses."


    "I see. It seems that you are a bit understaffed." Theo made a casual remark, but it certainly caused trouble for the security guard.


    "I''m not sure about it since I''m just a guard here." He didn''t show it, but Theo could see the slight change in his expression. He looked anxious.


    Fortunately, he had checked his status and it gave him the normal system, revealing all information from name to attribute points. So, he was a human.


    Theo nodded and entered the elevator together with Ruby.

 Chapter 1691 Vision

    "Then, I''ll be off on this floor," said Ruby while waving her hand at him.


    "Yes. Have a good day."


    "You too. The ss will start tomorrow, so let''s work hard together, OK?"


    Theo nodded and closed the door. While waiting for the elevator to take him to his floor, Theo was muttering inwardly, ''There is something amiss in this entire event. The security told us that the staff was taking care of the other areas, but his expression changed for a split second when I said understaffed��


    ''It''s clear that he is hiding something. Though, I don''t know what he is hiding. At the same time, I found one monster this early�� I wonder how many monsters are hiding in this event��'' Theo thought while walking down the hallway, going to his own room.


    As soon as he entered the room, he immediately used his illusion to make sure there was no camera around.


    While searching for cameras, he also noticed a piece of paper lying on the bed.


    "This is the rule of the event, huh," Theo muttered in a low voice.


    1. The teachers shall use all their abilities to teach the students. There will be a few people observing the teachers'' abilities and recording them for the data.


    2. The data will be analyzed by the teachers and the staff after sses every day.


    ? 3. Any information regarding the students is recorded in the Skylink on the table.


    4. The teachers are allowed to stop any fight depending on the situation. No death is allowed.


    5. All the data gathered here shall be sent to respective influences to be analyzed to make the new curriculum.


    ''The rules are pretty simple. But since we''re living in this situation, I believe there will be physical training and evenbat training. After all, the teleportation circles aren''t there anymore, so they have to gain as muchbat experience as they can since this base could be attacked at any moment.


    ''I don''t care much about the data since I have my own way of teaching, but it doesn''t hurt to gain more references.


    ''Last but not least, I have to check all students�� Maybe I should have shuffled the students. Since there will be ten teachers, shouldn''t we try to shuffle the students to get the teacher they feelfortable with? That''s the best way to motivate them to learn. At the same time, it allowed me to check all the students in the Elemental ss. I wonder how many monsters I would find in this ss��''


    He sighed. ''Since they couldn''t level up anymore, it was clear that there was no point in hunting monsters. But this was the perfect task to gain experience. There would be a huge debate regarding this matter, but since they wouldn''t interfere with the teacher''s decision in their curriculum, then I should be able to convince them in one way or another.''


    Theo was formting his n as soon as the event started. He even wondered what they wanted in this event.


    ''Well, I shouldn''t think too much about the curriculum right now. My priority is to find the monsters and the mastermind. The Vice President is the prime suspect, but we''ll see��''


    Theo didn''t like the government, but he wasn''t biased either. As long as they hadn''t been proven guilty, he didn''t care about the suspicion.


    ''There are a lot of things to do during this time. As for my clone��'' Theo closed his eyes for a moment, seeing numerous monsters in his path. His clone had gathered a lot of monsters in one ce since he could kill them all at once. This was his way to level up, so he just let the clone do whatever he wanted.


    He checked his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 913


    EXP: 36,123,123/72,139,000


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (A), Clone (S), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1230, Endurance 740, Agility 752, Vitality 740, Magic Power 2000


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    ''Hmm�� My current level is 913, and the change in the number of Attribute Points is truly good. I might not be able to catch up to the God of Mischief, but I should be able to close the gap between us. And the herbs and other treasurester born in this world should allow me to close that gap.


    ''And with my current leveling speed, I should be able to reach level 920 within one month. It''s sad that we don''t have any big war going on or else I would be able to get a lot of levels.'' Theo clicked his tongue.


    Even though they were giving him a headache, the war against the mutated monsters and the sea creatures gave him a lot of levels to the point he was addicted to it.


    And this might be the biggest reason why Theo epted Maya''s proposal. He wanted to see whether he could pick a fight against them to get more levels. If possible, he wanted to reach level 950 with this conflict. But he would have to see the situation first.


    ''Either way, the situation is kind ofplex. I have to check the party involved, their motive, and their number�� And I don''t know if I cane to the other sses since moving too much will make me stand out.


    ''I''ll just check how the ss is going tomorrow, I guess. There''s nothing I can say since I don''t even know the teaching system in this ce.''


    Theo sighed and fell to his bed. He had nothing to do today, so he just closed his eyes, waiting for the time to pass.


    The next day.


    Theo wore a in white shirt and long ck pants. He didn''t even bother bringing staff or anything like other magicians did, considering he never had the need for it in the first ce. And what he wanted to teach was something different than a normal magician, so he came out of his room without bringing anything.

 Chapter 1692 Education System

    "Hello." Ruby smiled as Theo came to the briefing room.


    There was a middle-aged man wearing a military uniform leading the briefing. He looked at Theo with a stern face but didn''t say anything.


    After counting the head, he realized they were missing one more person, so he waited for a moment.


    "��" The military guy frowned because thest person was already five minuteste. It wasn''t eptable in the military since they had discipline.


    Fortunately, before he blew up, the door opened as thest guy entered the room.


    "Sorry. I lost my way earlier." The guy chuckled with a nonchnt expression as if he didn''t have any intention of apologizing for making others wait.


    Obviously, it made the others furrow their eyebrows, considering they had been waiting for him for a while.


    Theo also took a nce at him and was quite surprised. It turned out this guy was more amazing than he originally thought.


    ''His level is 849�� That''s quite high since most Mythical Rank Experts are stuck in level 751 to level 800. Does his confidencee from his level?'' Theo thought.


    Of course, Theo didn''t care about his level since he was the one with the highest level here. At the same time, no matter how high his level was, he couldn''t defeat a King ss Monster, even if thetter just became a Mythical Rank Expert.


    "I''m from the Salvatore Family, called Gray Salvatore. I''m a level 849 Wind Magician. It''s your honor to know me." The guy gave a confident smile.


    The people furrowed their eyebrows when they heard his name. Salvatore was truly a well-known name.


    This family was created by the famous Transcendent Level Expert, so it was clear his influence was above the people around here�� except for Theo.


    Of course, Theo didn''t bother to say anything since he just wanted to investigate things in peace. As long as he didn''t provoke him, he wouldn''t mess with him.


    The people, on the other hand, hadplex emotions. On the one hand, they hated this arrogant bastard. On the other hand, they couldn''t say anything since not only the Salvatore Family received the support of the government, but they also had a Transcendent Level Expert.


    "��" Eric looked at them with contempt as he sat down, not feeling any guilt for beingte. He even demanded the middle-aged man to start as if he was in charge of the room.


    The middle-aged man wanted to hit him, but because of his duty, he couldn''t do anything since the government didn''t want too much trouble in this event.


    He took a deep breath and finally began his exnation.


    "I''ll be exining three things to all of you. The first will be about your students. Because of the number of students, we''ll be giving each teacher twenty students. We''ll give you time to introduce yourselves to them and they''ll pick you based on their preference.


    "If there are more students picking one teacher, then you have the right to choose them based on their information. I''m sure that all of you have received their data in your Skylink.


    "Secondly, you''re the one deciding the curriculum, but we hope that you can split the curriculum in four weeks. The first week will be the introduction of your lecture. The second week will be more intense and we''ll end the second week with a test to see how much they understand from your teaching.


    "The third week will be filled withbat training, which means they''ll be fighting monsters. And thest week will be used to review their understanding. You can test them, givest advice, or anything��"


    "Andst but not least, the students won''t all be Supreme Rank Experts, so please teach something basic as well so that everyone can learn. If you have any questions, please ask. I''ll also pass along the suggestion to be reviewed."


    One of the teachers raised her hand and asked, "Since there is no restriction in what we''re teaching, can we teach them Five Aspects or something? After all, the Five Aspects have be the focus of the world after the apocalypse. Even the great Theodore Griffith has confirmed this fact."


    "Tsk." Eric clicked his tongue, annoyed when he heard her mentioning Theo''s name.


    However, the middle-aged man nodded his head. "Yes. It''s up to you. But since we only have four weeks, please make a schedule for it. After all, the Five Aspects are hard to learn."


    "Yes." She nodded.


    After her, Theo raised his hand and suggested, "I''d like to suggest something. Do you think we can implement a shuffle for teachers? For example, a group of students will be taught by Teacher A on the first day and Teacher B on the second day. I''m sure that not all the students will find a teacher that matches their personality just by an introduction."


    "Hahahaha!" Ericughed and mocked Theo. "Are you just implying that you don''t have the qualification to even attract a student? That''s why you want to steal other people''s students? Pathetic."


    Theo didn''t have a change of expression from this insult, thinking he was just like a weak dog who could only bark.


    Unfortunately, the middle-aged man supported Eric in this scenario. "I''m afraid that''s not possible. After all, there will be a lot of institutions teaching the new curriculum after this event. And the people can only choose an institution instead of a personal teacher. This is just like the previous education system."


    "I understand that. But if you try using the previous education system as the base, then you can add an exchange student system or transfer system, right? If the student wants it, then we can have them fill out a certain form to transfer to another teacher. Of course, the teacher has the right to ept or reject them. As for the student limit, you can choose whether you want to increase the limit or stay as it is."


    He thought for a moment. This argument was valid and made sense. Even he had no argument to refute it.


    "I understand. I''ll try to inform the centralmittee to consider this system."


    "OK." Theo nodded with a calm expression, not even looking at Eric''s annoyed face as if he had just lost in that argument.

 Chapter 1693 Introduction

    Inside a huge hall, a total of two hundred students who had been selected carefully were sitting, staring at a middle-aged woman. She exined the rules of the event to the students.


    "After this, there will be ten teachers attending all of you. They''ll be introducing themselves, and you''re free to pick them as your teacher. However, just like the previous education system, there will be another selection if the number of students of one teacher exceeds twenty.


    "The teacher will have the right to test you, so I hope you can showcase your ability to get the teacher that suits you the most. That''s all." She turned her head to the door and extended her hand. "In that case, let''s invite all the teachers to introduce themselves."


    Ten people, including Theo, entered the room. All of them were Mythical Rank Experts, so the students paid attention carefully.


    All these students came from all different backgrounds.


    Theo could see their different temperament as well as their strength.


    "These ten shall be your teachers. Without further ado, let''s have them introduce themselves. Let''s start with Mr. Eugene."


    A man stepped forward and said with a calm expression. "I am Eugene Cliff from the Expendar Group. As you can see, I''m a Mythical Rank Expert and I have deep experience in using my Wind Element. What I''m going to teach you during the next four weeks is the foundation of the element so that you can have an even more powerful ability despite using the same skill."


    "Oh!"


    "He is from the Expendar Group?"


    "Expendar Group is quite famous for their research in elements, so he must be a good teacher for elements."


    The people considered his data carefully, but they couldn''t cast their vote immediately since they had to wait until all the teachers had introduced themselves.


    "Next!"


    One by one, the teachers introduced themselves. Some made the students excited, some werecking in reputation.


    Eventually, they reached thest three people.


    Ruby stepped forward with a smile. "I''m Ruby from the Manta Mercenary Group. I have a lot ofbat experience and I shall be focusing on controlling your elements as both support and attackers in a group."


    "Oh!"


    "What is Manta Mercenary Group?"


    "I don''t know. But she is so beautiful. It''s better to pick her since the government must have selected all talented people to teach us. In that case, it''s better to pick the one that we like the most."


    The people, mostly men, were whispering at each other with a smirk on their faces.


    It annoyed the teacher next to Ruby as he stomped the ground, stopping all of them from chatting.


    "!!!" The students were startled because they had never expected a teacher to behave this way. When they were about to scold him, he announced his name.


    "I am Eric Salvatore!"


    "��" All people suddenly fell silent the moment they heard his name. They were surprised because ''Salvatore'' was a famous name.


    "Eric Salvatore? Isn''t he the brother of that famous��"


    "Yeah. He must be him."


    "I am the Great Fighter''s brother, Eric Salvatore. My level is 849, much higher than these guys. You should be honored because I''ll be teaching you the famous great cirction technique. No one who can wield wind in this ce is better than me." Ericughed in contempt.


    The teachers furrowed their eyebrows because it was a direct challenge to them. Meanwhile, the students were excited because they had heard about the cirction technique. It was the Breathing Technique that seemed to be able to improve their Control.


    This technique was made by the King of Fighters himself. So, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.


    Their expressions were brightened, wondering how they should get chosen.


    "Only the best can be picked up by me. So, show your ability!"


    "Ooh!" The students cheered.


    Theo looked at him for a moment before ncing at the middle-aged woman to ask her to stop the students from cheering.


    "Quiet please!" The woman immediately stopped them and presented Theo. "This is thest teacher. Please."


    "Hmph. There is one more ipetent teacher." Eric snorted, looking at Theo with contempt. He had defeated him during the argument earlier, so he decided to pick on him.


    Theo, on the other hand, didn''t understand why this guy wanted the recognition that much. He simply ignored him and made his introduction.


    "I''m Ary, and I teach Magic Combat."


    "Eh?" The people were surprised by Theo''s introduction. Even the other teachers still took at least ten seconds to introduce themselves. Yet, Theo finished his introduction before they could even hear him.


    "What?"


    "What did he say?"


    "What is Magic Combat?"


    "Why is his introduction so quick?"


    The students were bewildered because they didn''t understand a single thing from his introduction.


    "That''s��" The woman had an awkward smile as she reminded Theo, "Mr. Ary. How about you tell them a bit of Magic Combat, your affiliation, or your level?"


    "I think I have given the most simple and easy-to-understand exnation. Magic Combat is literally Magic Combat. As for my affiliation or my level�� I don''t think they''re relevant to my teaching. And I will pick students who amuse me. For example��"


    Theo nced at the students and pointed forward. "The girl with blue clothes on the second row, the boy with spiky red hair on the fourth row, and another boy with a scar on his cheek. If you apply, I''ll teach you. That''s all."


    "That''s��" The people were shocked. Instead of the students who chose them, he was the one picking his students.


    They were baffled because this was certainly unique, but he sounded arrogant and no one could really believe him.


    As for the people he picked, two of them came from a solid background and one of them was just a normal person.


    "This��"


    "How do we say this?"


    "We don''t know much about him, right?"


    The students were whispering while Eric, beside him,ughed. "Your level and your affiliation aren''t relevant? Such a big word. You just simply couldn''t take pride in them. Your level must be close to 750, and your affiliation isn''t a big deal."

 Chapter 1694 Interesting Student

    "��" Theo only considered him as a fool whose arrogance knew no bounds.


    "What''s wrong? You can''t say anything? I must have hit your sweet spot. Aw�� Do you need ice cream to stop crying?"


    "A pride, huh. I''m here as a teacher, not a representative of my influence. So, why do I have to unt my affiliation?" Theo chuckled.


    "That''s what the weak say. You can only try to give a reason to convince yourself." He smirked and pointed forward. "Those three students. Pick me. I''ll teach you the Great Cirction Technique! It''s better than whatever shit he is going to teach you."


    Theo smiled as if he didn''t have any intention of picking a fight with him.


    "See? Pathetic." Eric snorted.


    "This��" The woman didn''t know what to do since she didn''t dare to stop them, considering the army wouldn''t protect her if she intervened. After all, the other party was the brother of the King of Fighters. There was no way they would want to antagonize him.


    "Then, since everyone has introduced themselves. Let''s start by choosing your teacher ording to your preference. You can either use your Skylink ore to your teacher immediately and ask something from them."


    After hearing the instruction, half of the students immediately stood up as if they were trying to appeal to their teacher. And as expected, half of those one hundred students immediately stood in front of Eric.


    Two out of the three Theo picked earlier actually picked Eric as their teacher as if they knew Theo would lose in terms of reputation and skill. So, there was no need to antagonize Eric just because of Theo.


    And those who picked Theo chose to use their Skylink because they didn''t want to be seen that they were interested in him. They wanted the others to think they were forced to pick Theo because they didn''t have any other teacher to pick.


    But surprisingly, the girl with blue clothes rose from her seat and became the only one who stood in front of Theo, openly showing her interest.


    "You��" Eric was dumbfounded. "You dare to pick him?!"


    The girl smirked. "I''m sorry, Teacher Eric. But I choose my own teacher. I don''t like any coercion."


    "You��"


    "There''s no need to unt your identity. If you still want to do it, then I have to ask you if you dare to force me, Grace Anderson?"


    "Anderson? You''re an Anderson?!" Eric widened his eyes in shock before realizing her identity. "No, wait. If I''m not wrong, Jake Anderson, the Archmage, has two talented sons and an extremely powerful daughter. His talented sons dominate the field, but it''s said that his daughter is even better. She just never showed herself��"


    She harrumphed before looking at Theo. "Mr. Ary. May I know why you picked me earlier and now that you have heard about my identity, do you think you have the ability to teach me?"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. "Before I answer your question, how about answering this one first? What does Magic Combat mean to you?"


    "Magic Combat��" She thought for a moment. "I don''t know if I''m right or wrong. But I can see that your body has good muscle and there should be a few wounds on your body. Just by looking at it, I know that you are a veteran who fights in the front line.


    "Hence, I believe that Magic Combat is simr to the Magic Knight profession, but instead of focusing on the ''Knight'' part, you''re focusing on the ''Magic'' part. In other words, Magic Combat is a way for a Magician to fight by themselves without needing any vanguards to protect you."


    Theo smiled and said, "And that was why I chose you."


    "What do you mean?" She looked down, contemting his words.


    "See? When you tackle a question, you immediately try to think about the answer." Theo smiled. "You don''t have what they call a ''Cindere Complex.'' When people face a problem, they often ask others for solutions. Meanwhile, you are different. Instead of asking, you''re the one searching for the answer. And this rational mind is what you need to follow my lesson."


    Her body trembled for a split second as she looked at Theo in excitement. This was the first time she had seen someone like him. "But you haven''t answered my second question, Teacher."


    "That question of yours will be answered not by me, but��" Theo paused for a moment.


    Because of the conflict between him and Eric, the people were silent, wanting to know Theo''s answer as well. But due to their silence, Ruby remembered what Theo talked about and shouted, "Ah?! Is that the reason why you asked for the transfer system, Mr. Eric? You know this situation will arrive and you suggest that the student can transfer to another teacher if they think they don''t match the teacher?"


    ? Grace was shocked but because of another thing. Theo predicted this situation was one thing, but making Ruby reveal their conversation was another thing. Thetter was harder because he had to make another person react like this. It felt as if Theo had been manipting the entire conversation, including the conflict with Eric.


    She took a deep breath and politely nodded to him. "It''s my pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ary. I hope I can learn a lot from you and be a Magician that can protect herself."


    Theo nodded. "Besides, you should have understood why I dered my favoritism, right?"


    Grace smiled. "Of course. I''m the only one who dares to openly show my interest like this. Magic Combat means you have to do everything by yourself. In other words, you might have to fight the monster in closebat. To do so as a Magician, you need to be bold and have resolve.


    "If they''re scared to do something like this, then they might not be able to learn from youpletely."


    Theo nodded. "I give you ten points for that."


    "Hehe, thank you."


    Grace never realized at that time her decision to pick Theo as her teacher was the best in her life.

 Chapter 1695 Run

    It didn''t take too long for the teachers to begin selecting their students. As expected, Ruby and Eric were the favorites for different reasons.


    Meanwhile, some of Theo''s students decided to go together with Grace while feeling ashamed. They convinced themselves that Eric was the cause, not realizing the fact that they had fallen into the situation Eric described. The loser would always convince themselves that it was fine to fail.


    This was why Theo picked Grace as the first one. It seemed that he didn''t make a wrong decision.


    Not long after that, the students were distributed evenly. Of course, seven people from Theo picked him because they couldn''t get into any other groups. In other words, there were only thirteen students who picked Theo out of their own choice.


    Surprisingly, two out of them were actually monsters. If they distributed themselves evenly as well, there would be twenty monsters in this ss alone. And if he calcted the other sses as well, then he was expecting a hundred monsters to infiltrate their ce.


    "Since you have chosen your own teacher, then you''re free to hold your lecture. There are a lot of rooms you can use as your ssrooms, so please pick whatever room you like."


    The teachers nodded their heads while Eric immediately dered, "I''m going to use this huge hall! So, all of you leave this ce right now!"


    "!!!" The people were dumbfounded by Eric''s action. Even Grace narrowed her eyes, only to stop because one of her brothers was actually among the students under Eric. Even Theo patted her shoulder to stop her.


    "Follow me to the field," said Theo while walking away from the room.


    "Hmph. I''m going to show them that the people who chose you have made the wrong choice," said Eric in contempt.


    "Yeah, yeah. At the very least, I''m not like a dog. Isn''t there an idiom for it? What is it again?" Theo chuckled. "Haha, that''s right. The weaker the dog, the louder it barks."


    "You!" Eric gritted his teeth as his killing intent leaked out of his body.


    "Are you going to fight in front of the students? So immature." Theo sighed in disappointment.


    Eric clenched his fists. He wanted to punch him in the face, but as Theo said, they were in front of the students.


    Even though he didn''t do anything, Eric shouted inwardly, ''Just you wait, you bastard. I''m going to make you regret it!''


    Theo ignored him, considering there was no one in the Salvatore Family who posed a threat to him. In fact, they should be the ones cowering in fear if they n to fight him.


    Hence, Theo simply led the group into the field outside while muttering, "I guess this is good enough."


    "What are we going to do here, Teacher? Are we going to fight?" Grace asked.


    "Nope." Theo snapped his finger. Suddenly, a fire appeared on top of the grass and burned them.


    "This is��" Grace widened her eyes in surprise. The fire burned the grasses and created a circle on the ground.


    Theo pointed at the circle and said, "I''m going to test your limit first. Since you should have heard from the conversation already that Magic Combat will need a lot of physical ability. Hence, I want all of you to run until you reach your limit so that I know how much I can teach you. Go!"


    "That�� Teacher�� don''t you think it''s a bit inappropriate? I mean, I haven''t changed my clothes tofortable ones." Grace scratched the back of her head, trying to reason with Theo. She was still wearing a short heel and a knee-length skirt.


    However, Theo shook his head and simply said, "No. Do you think you''ll always be fighting your enemies when you''re ready? No. Monsters will often sneak up on you. You don''t have the time to prepare yourself."


    "That''s��" Grace couldn''t say anything to refute his words. Even the others could only look at the people next to them, wondering what they should do. They even thought they had chosen the wrong teacher.


    As expected from the number one student in his ss, Grace bit her lips and tied her hair into a ponytail.


    She lowered her knees and touched the charred ground, feeling a bit of heat from it. She bit her lips and took off her heels before starting to run. Instead of running in the circle he made, she actually ran a few inches away from the ck circle.


    "I''m sure you have no objection to this, right, Mr. Ary? I have to deal with all kinds of problems, but it doesn''t change the fact that I''m free to do whatever I want to cope with my situation. And running outside your circle can prevent me from burning my feet but still follow your instruction."


    Theo smiled and simply took a step back as if he didn''t have any problem with it.


    Seeing Grace''s enthusiasm, the others felt like they had to do it since they were already stuck with this teacher.


    They bit their lips and began to run as well. Some also took off their heels and ufortable shoes, while others followed the ck trackpletely.


    ''There are three people with Normal Rank, four in Elite Rank, three in Champion Rank, five in Hero Rank, and five more in Supreme Rank. Well, that''s fine, I guess, since I can also do some research here.


    ''Besides, the two monsters are both Elite Rank and Supreme Rank respectively. So, I wonder what they''re going to do next��'' Theo smirked as if he had nned something evil.


    He kept watching the people run endlessly as if Theo never had the intention to stop them until they dropped.


    "Teacher, can I ask how manyps we are going to do today?" Grace asked.


    "Run until you reach your limit. When you think you can''t run anymore, raise your hand," answered Theo with a calm expression, watching them run. Even Grace didn''t understand why Theo wanted them to do this instead of improving their stamina step by step.

 Chapter 1696 Frustration

    "Ha��"


    "Ha��"


    "Ha��"


    Grace was panting. After running for three hours, her stamina was almost exhausted.


    When she nced to the side, there were already twelve students who had given up on this training.


    They looked bored, considering they had to wait for the rest to finish. Some of them even used their Skylink while waiting.


    Theo was the only one who kept watching them the whole time. He waited patiently before he saw another person raising their hand.


    "I''m sorry, Sir Ary. I don''t think I can go on." The guy panted, almost dropping to the ground. His shirt was already drenched in sweat.


    Grace had already gotten used to seeing people dropping out. And she didn''t me them since they had truly exhausted all their stamina.


    Theo walked toward the guy and patted his shoulder. "Do you think you can do onestp before you finish?"


    The guy frowned. He felt too tired, but listening to Theo, who only wanted onestp, he thought he could do it.


    He took a deep breath before nodding his head. "I understand. I''ll try."


    "Good."


    Theo nodded and returned to his seat, watching the guy run his onestp.


    Surprisingly, the guy who thought he had reached his limitpleted his onestp. And Theo came to him again and asked, "What do you think about one morep? Maybe you''ll see something good after this one morep. And it''ll be good for your track record too."


    The guy frowned, not understanding why Theo kept insisting. But the sole thought of having a good track record from this event excited him. If he could get something like that, it wouldn''t be weird if others tried to recruit him. And at that time, he would be assured for life.


    The guy bit his lips and started running again.


    And yes, he finished anotherp. Seeing this situation, Theo came to him and said, "Congrattions. What if I add some rmendations if you can finish another run?"


    "I��" The guy became even more tempted when he heard Theo would give the rmendation. The teachers, who had been invited here, were elites from many influences. In fact, they might also be one of the recruiters.


    By teaching them and observing their strength during the event, they would invite these people to their influence by giving a good contract.


    So, the guy had no reason to reject it since Theo wanted to give everything to him.


    His speed had slowed down significantly and he often walked because he was too exhausted. Unfortunately, he dropped to his knees with regret on his face.


    He wanted to get the rmendation, but it was impossible. He was already too exhausted.


    "I''m sorry, Teacher. I don''t think I can move my leg anymore."


    Hearing the guy''s confession, Theo nodded and picked him up. He brought him out of the track and gave him a drink.


    After that, Theo focused on the remaining people on the track. One by one, they gave up.


    But like the guy earlier, Theo asked them to do a few moreps. Some managed to do one morep before falling to the ground, some did more than one. It varied depending on their determination, willpower, and strength.


    Even Grace couldn''t think of any reason for Theo to torture them like this. Everything Theo said felt like a lie because there was no way he would be giving all of them the rmendation.


    At the same time, some people judged Theo as a devil who wanted to kill his students. They regretted entering his group since the other groups would have an easier time. Even their lesson would be more interesting and usefulpared to Theo, who only asked them to run endlessly.


    "I''m sorry, Sir. I can''t go on anymore." Grace, thest person in the field, raised her hand as she almost copsed from exhaustion.


    Theo was there to support her. He carried her to the side and said, "You''ve done a good job."


    Grace didn''t understand what he meant. She tried to think about it but to no avail.


    After gathering them on the side, Theo looked at them and said, "You can rest for three hours. You can wash your body, change your clothes, and eat your meal before gathering in the ss. I''ll be informing you which ss to go through the Skylink. That''s all."


    Without hesitation, Theo walked away, not saying a single praise after they finished their run.


    "��" They were speechless. They thought Theo would say more than that, but no, he just walked away.


    "What the fuck?"


    "Is he really a teacher?"


    "We have bad luck getting him as his teacher."


    "That''s right. He just wants to torture us."


    "It might be because of you guys who got thrown here we''re suffering right now. He wanted to bully you guys, but because he could show it openly, he tortured us as well."


    "He told us that we could change our teacher soon, right?"


    "I''m going to pick another teacher for this!"


    "Yeah. That''s better than this trash teacher. He couldn''t do anything, yet, he picked a fight against Eric Salvatore. And he would drag us down with him."


    They wereining about Theo''s training. It was boring, made no sense, and exhausting. There was no reason to have training like this at all.


    "He must have a reason for making us run." Grace tried to stop them but to no avail. She only received bacsh after saying that.


    "A reason? You mean, torture us?"


    "Watch your mouth. She is��"


    They wanted to rebuke her, but they were scared of her identity as well, making them not know what to do.


    In the end, they could only look away, not talking to her. This was the only option if they didn''t want to antagonize her and not support the teacher.


    Even Grace couldn''t find any reason for Theo to give this training. She thought it would be to improve their stamina since they were learning Magic Combat, but this wasn''t a way to increase their stamina.


    Hence, she couldn''t help Theo at all.

 Chapter 1697 Question

    Since they had a lot of time after running, they were discussing what to do when they reached the ss.


    Some of them seemed to be nning to ask Theo all kinds of questions to make trouble.


    When they reached the ss, they had sly smiles on their faces. Even Grace could feel how much trouble Theo would face in this ss.


    She could only shake her head helplessly, waiting for Theo to give an exnation about the training.


    As soon as three hours were up, Theo opened the door and entered the room with a calm expression. The people who looked at him became angrier because Theo didn''t seem to feel bad at all.


    Theo looked at their expressions and said, "It seems that you want to ask me some questions. Since that''s the case, then you can raise your hands and ask."


    Without hesitation, all of them, except Grace, raised their hands.


    Theo frowned and asked, "You don''t want to ask me any questions?"


    "I want to. It doesn''t feel right if I can''t understand why such training is given."


    Theo then nced at the rest of the students and asked, "So, you also want to ask me what''s the purpose of the previous training?"


    "Yes!" All of them answered in unison.


    Theo sighed and walked to one of them, saying, "You��"


    The student trembled, thinking Theo would harm him or anything. But Theo only said, "Open your system right now."


    "System�� what?!" The student was baffled. There was no way he could do it since the apocalypse had shut down the system, causing them to be unable to get stronger.


    "What''s wrong?"


    "There''s no way I can open the system. All of us can''t even do it after the apocalypse."


    Theo shook his head in disappointment before he walked to the student next to them. "You follow me and hunt some monsters. We''ll kill as many monsters as possible to level up."


    "Level up? He already said we couldn''t open the system anymore. So, why do we have to kill monsters to level up? The only reason why we need to kill the monster is to protect our home!"


    Theo ignored him and walked to the next student. "Then, you. Allocate your free attribute points to your status right now."


    "Sir, we don''t have the system anymore. Why do you keep asking us to do something rted to the system?"


    The students became even more frustrated because Theo''s actions made no sense.


    And this was when Theo said, "So, all of you can''t ess the system anymore and now you have no choice but to be stuck at your current level?"


    "Isn''t that obvious? Of course, we''ll be stuck at our current level for the rest of our life! We have reached our limit the moment the system is taken away from us." One of the students interjected out loud, ring at Theo.


    "So, you''ve reached your limit?"


    "Of course."


    Theo frowned and asked, "Then if you have reached your limit, why do youe here? Since you can''t get stronger anymore, then is there any point ining here?"


    "We want to get stronger. That''s why wee here!"


    "But you said you have reached your limit."


    The students were frustrated because of Theo''s petty argument. However, Theo added, "The limit�� is something you set up yourself."


    "Huh?"


    "When I asked you to run until you reached your limit, what did you do? Raise your hand and give up, right? But then, if you have reached your limit, why can you still run more?" Theo looked at the previous three students.


    "Albert ran two moreps after reaching his limit. Celesta ran four moreps after she gave up. Khamur managed to finish moreps."


    Their bodies trembled because Theo had just said what they had done previously. It seemed he truly watched them and remembered them even though they hadn''t introduced themselves yet.


    "Why could all of you run for more even though you''d reached your limit? Is that truly your limit or is it just your brain that gives up while refusing to do more by creating all kinds of excuses?"


    The students became tongue-tied. They wanted to rebuke him, but Theo didn''t say anything wrong. Why could they run a few moreps after reaching their limit? Why did they make excuses they couldn''t get stronger when the system had been taken away?


    Theo walked to Grace and asked, "Then, can you utilize one of your skills for me?"


    Grace nodded and formed a water bubble on top of her palm.


    "How big can you make it?"


    "Mhm?" Grace thought for a moment before saying, "Around fourteen feet in radius, I think."


    "Can you do it for me?"


    Grace nodded and started pouring more Magic Power into the water bubble, expanding its size. When it was about to reach the fourteen feet mark, Grace bit her lips and said, "Sorry, I can''t do it more."


    Theo looked at the bubble and pointed at her lower arm. "Try to shrink it a bit and pour the Magic Power into this point. After that, infuse all that Magic Power into the bubble at once."


    She followed his instruction and finally expanded the bubble to more than fourteen feet radius.


    "See? You can even make a bigger one than you think." Theo smiled.


    "That''s because you helped me��"


    "No. I didn''t do anything. You clearly had enough control and the capability to do it. But why did you stop before reaching your goal? Was it because you thought it was your limit?"


    "That''s��" Grace looked down, feeling ashamed.


    Some of the students understood what Theo wanted to say.


    Theo simply asked them again. "Have you seen that? The system has been taken away, but she still can use the skill from the system. The system has been taken away, but you can still raise your status through the herbs or artifacts. You might not have the system anymore, but it doesn''t mean you can''t level up. Just like how you can keep going after reaching your limit, you still can get stronger like before the apocalypse. It''s just you have given up on finding that path and trying to get another alternative. Why? Is it because of your limit? Or is it because you just don''t want to do it?"

 Chapter 1698 Limit And Opportunity

    The students suddenly looked down. All the questions in their minds vanished into thin air. All that was left was the shame from badmouthing him and plotting against him.


    "Before teaching anything in this ss, I want to let you all know that the system is not your limit. There might be alternatives like increasing your Five Aspects, abat technique, or any others. But I don''t want you to give up on pursuing a stronger strength.


    "Even if you''re stuck in your current level, I want you to continue to raise your attribute by absorbing herbs or artifacts."


    They couldn''t say a single word to refute Theo. They had never thought about this previously. No, it seemed like they had given up on finding this path.


    Theo returned to the front of the ss and introduced himself. "I''m Ary Tjahaja from the Star Group."


    "Star Group?!"


    The people widened their eyes in shock the moment they heard that name. The Salvatore Family might be big, but the Star Group was bigger. Not only was it the biggestpany in the world, but thepany was also protected by the hero, Theodore Griffith.


    There was no reason why their teacher had to be afraid of the Salvatore Family. In fact, thetter should be the one to apologize.


    Instead of unting his affiliation and strength, their teacher chose to ignore everything. Even without affiliation, he would still continue forward. The limit of a single individual? No, it was the reason why he wanted to teach Combat Magic. He kept improving even if it meant he was alone.


    That was why he never gave away his affiliation. He was here as their teacher, Ary Tjahaja, not a person from the Star Group.


    Theo looked at their shocked expressions and let out a long sigh. "I''m disappointed in all of you. Beforeing here, I heard the news that there would be another season of ranking up skills.


    "Even without essing the system, you still can get stronger through the system by upgrading your skills��"


    "!!!" The information dumbfounded them. Since Theo came from the Star Group, he should have insider information.


    Considering the rtionship between thepany and Theodore Griffith, it was clear that they had the priority to get their skills enhanced by Theo.


    Theo looked at Grace and said, "I should praise you for trying to look objectively. Whenever you''re tired or being pushed to the corner on the battlefield, you''re bound to have an irrational thought. I''m sure that you have seen it here."


    "��" They looked down, not daring to raise their heads anymore. Theo was implying that they never trusted their teacher. They forgot the fact that as a teacher, it was his job to train them. Yet, they simply hurt him by throwing that kindness away.


    Theo looked at Grace and said, "I have received the quota to allow people to be prioritized to get their skills enhanced. I thought I could get more than one person just by seeing your training�� I had told you earlier that I would try to give you a rmendation and such, yet, you threw it away��"


    They bit their lips. Theo had promised them about it, but they chose to backstab him by plotting against him. It was already good that Theo didn''t throw them away after this.


    In fact, the moment they knew about this opportunity, they wouldn''t leave this ss, let alone inform others about it. After all, this was their chance to get it. And they would be considered a fool who threw away such an opportunity if others knew about it.


    They regretted it. Instead of plotting against him, they should have put some trust in him and tried to think logically like Grace.


    "Grace. You''re the only one who receives the rmendation from me. I''ll tell the Star Group about it and arrange a special seat for you when the upgrading session is open."


    A smile appeared on Grace''s face. She was overwhelmed by the favor. She never thought that her small action could give her something like this.


    However, it looked like Theo didn''t give her the rmendation because she was exceptional in the previous task, but it was because the rest was too awful.


    Theo looked at the rest of the students and said, "I won''t say how many quotas I''ve received. I''m sure you''re already aware of this. The reason why all influences are sending their elites to this ce is that they will also benefit from it since they can seize you up.


    "And for me, it might be a rmendation for you to enter the Star Group or the rmendation to receive the skill upgrade. Either way, in the next four months, I''ll be observing every single one of you.


    "You might have gotten the rmendation from me, but it doesn''t mean that you can keep it forever. If you be toocent just because you have it, I''m going to remove it personally. If you be toozy because you think you have more time to get the rmendation, then don''t bother.


    "As such, whether you want to throw this chance away or tell others about this opportunity so that they can snatch it from you, it''s your choice. I won''t be interfering with what you will do.


    "But remember this, I have the right to everything. And you won''t know the requirements for receiving my rmendation. That''s all." Theo walked to the door and nned to leave.


    He added one more thing. "Ah, that''s right. The rmendation for skill upgrade this time is different. I''ve heard that this rmendation can allow you to upgrade your skill all the way to A Rank. It won''t be just one rank like you are aware of. Whether you have an F Rank Skill or whatever, you can choose whether you want to upgrade it to C Rank or even A Rank. That''s all. You''re free to do anything for today. Gather in this ce at 6 AM tomorrow."


    With thatst message, Theo left the room, leaving everyone in shock.

 Chapter 1699 Blame

    "This��"


    The students were staring at each other, never expecting Theo to be from the Star Group and he even had the quota for the skill upgrade. It was no wonder why he wanted to tell them about going past their limit.


    In the teacher''s information, they could only see Theo''s name and curriculum after all. The same applied to the students. There were only the student''s picture, name, and rank.


    The government didn''t want them to rely on their connection because they came here as a student, not representative of their influences.


    And that move backfired on them because they thought Theo wasn''t someone important and tried to go against him.


    Unfortunately, Theo was the person sent by the Star Group and had all kinds of benefits. If Theo wanted them dead, no one could be alive except for Grace, whose father was the Great Magician.


    Though, Grace herself was different from them. She had the best conduct in this ss, making everyone jealous.


    They thought Grace could achieve something like that due to her background, and that was the reason why they were staring at each other.


    "You�� you were the one stopping me from receiving the rmendation."


    "I shouldn''t have listened to your words."


    "You were the one persuading me, not the other way around. If you didn''t try to talk about it, I would have retained my rmendation. Everything was your fault."


    They tried to pin the me on others to make themselves look correct. However, Grace bit her lips, thinking Theo left the room because he knew what they would do after that.


    Since he didn''t like to see them fighting, he just left them alone, thinking there would be another person to stop them. And that person would probably be the next one receiving their rmendation. At the very least, Theo would forget about their mistake previously and they could start doing something to earn the rmendation.


    As she expected, Theo was actually watching the entire ss through the Skylink. There was a camera that recorded their lesson.


    "Hmm�� There is no sound. I guess they want the teacher himself to exin the curriculum instead of watching this." Theo muttered with a frown. Just by arguing alone, they had received another minus point from Theo.


    However, his eyes were glued to Grace, thinking she would be stopping them. But to his surprise, a guy mmed his fist on the table.


    *Bam!*


    The students were startled as they followed the noise''s direction.


    The guy shouted, "All of you are so immature. Have you not learned your lesson? The teacher has told us to improve ourselves and get his recognition. Yet, all of you here are trying to pin the me on others!


    "What are you trying to achieve from ming others? Do you just want to feel good? Do you think our Teacher will ept that you pin the me on others when all of you are at fault? We have no one to me other than ourselves!"


    The guy gritted his teeth, ring at them.


    "Of course, I know that. But aren''t you frustrated when others drag you down?"


    "Of course, I''m frustrated. However, I should be med for even listening to them. If I had some trust in the teacher, I wouldn''t have been in this situation! So, I am at fault."


    They couldn''t say anything after that. On the one hand, they knew they were at fault. The easiest way to escape from this problem was by sacrificing others. On the other hand, they didn''t know whether Theo would simply ept it or not. They hadn''t found out about the hidden camera yet.


    Theo was sitting in the teacher''s room while watching everything live. He was amused that there was someone else who stopped them.


    But when he saw Grace''s expression, he knew thetter had realized it. She just let someone take that opportunity.


    ''This is interesting.'' Theo smiled, assessing them from their gesture alone.


    Suddenly, Ruby opened the door, finding Theo inside.


    "Hmm? Mr. Ary?"


    Theo nced at her and said, "Hello. You''re done with your lesson?"


    "Yes. I have exined to them about the curriculum. So, it''s best to let them have some time to prepare for their lesson."


    Theo nodded.


    "What are you watching?" Ruby asked while taking a peek at the video. "This is�� your students? They seem to be fighting��"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded with a nonchnt expression as if he didn''t have any intention to stop them.


    "Can you even allow a fight like this? Shouldn''t you stop this, Mr. Ary?"


    "No. Why should I even bother with them when they''re the ones who want to fight?"


    "But as a teacher, you should have stopped them and given them the reason why they shouldn''t fight with each other."


    "Unfortunately, the world is not that forgiving. They might be students in one ss, but they''re also experts in one group. If an argument like this destroys their cooperation, then that''s their limit." Theo shook his head.


    "In the real battlefield, you would have died if you did something like this. So, I''ll just let them fight."


    "But it''ll be awkward if you teach the students who have grudges against each other."


    "Not really. They''ll be listening to me when the lecture starts." Theo shrugged, having full confidence that they would do nothing except for listening to his lecture.


    "Well��" Ruby didn''t know how to convince Theo. At the same time, Theo had the full authority of his ss, so it was better to let him handle them as he wished until it was too much.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, it seemed that Theo had been bing a ma, attracting all sorts of problems.


    When he was about to reply to Ruby, a guy mmed the table and entered the room with a smug smile. "Hmph."


    He looked around and found Ruby and Theo sitting in the corner, chatting. Seeing Theo here, the guy couldn''t help but smile, thinking it was the right time to humiliate him.

 Chapter 1700 Outsmart Who?

    "Well, well. Isn''t this Mr. Ary? Take a look at this, your students are fighting and you''re here chilling nonchntly. Do you have a secret hobby of watching your student fight? A disgusting taste you have there." He smirked, looking down at Theo.


    Theo, on the other hand, simply stared at him for a moment before saying, "How I teach my students is not your concern."


    "Haha, you''re just trying to hide yourck of ability by acting that way."


    Theo didn''t understand that this guy kepting to him. He started losing patience in dealing with him.


    "Lack of my ability, huh? Won''t it be clear whether I have the ability or not after seeing their resultter? Besides, I''m pretty sure that they''re going to adapt the transfer system." Theo snorted.


    The guy gritted his teeth, ring at Theo. He wanted to teach him a lesson, but he couldn''t do it with Ruby here.


    At the same time, he remembered that Ruby had been sticking to Theo this whole time, making him wonder whether they had a special rtionship or not.


    He didn''t have any interest in this woman. She might be pretty, but he had tried all kinds of women, so she wasn''t that interesting to him.


    However, he might do something if he just wanted to piss Theo off.


    An evil smile suddenly appeared on his face as he suddenly turned to Ruby. "Miss Ruby. May I have the pleasure to know you?"


    Ruby didn''t know what to say. On the one hand, she had her mission. On the other hand, she was afraid that doing this would make others realize her true identity.


    Still, there was one point she considered thoroughly. Even though he was a piece of shit in her mind, Eric was one of the most important people here. It was clear that there would be a lot to get if she managed to fool him.


    After contemting for a while, Ruby smiled and said, "Yes. I''d love to. Once again, nice to meet you, Sir Eric."


    "Yes. Just call me Eric." Despite smiling, Eric''s face darkened, pressuring Ruby to ept it.


    Ruby felt ufortable, but for the sake of her mission, she had to do it. She made an awkward smile while nodding. "Yes. Nice to meet you, Eric."


    "Yes, Ruby." Eric smiled before noticing Theo ncing at them as if he was jealous. Eric thought Theo was acting hard to get it because he wanted to impress Ruby and it seemed he wasn''t wrong.


    With that action, Eric''s smile became bigger as he said, "That''s right. I know a ce where we can get delicious food. Do you want toe with me? Don''t worry. Everything is on me. Besides, we won''t have so much time from tomorrow onward due to the lesson and all the meetings. This is the perfect time to get something good."


    "That''s��" Ruby looked down, not knowing what to say. She tried to seek help from Theo, but thetter had looked away.


    Eric thought Theo was truly jealous, so he pressured Ruby even more. "Don''t worry. I am Eric Salvatore. We can chat about the lessons too since I should be more qualified than him."


    Ruby, who was pinched between the two guys, had a hard time deciding. Theo didn''t seem to be a bad guy and from the way he conducted himself, he looked respectable and knowledgeable. On the other hand, Eric might have a disgusting personality, but he had a strong connection.


    Ruby and Eric didn''t know one thing respectively. Ruby didn''t know Theo was even more important than Eric. At the same time, Eric wasn''t aware of the fact that Ruby was actually a monster, not a human.


    Theo looked like he was frustrated and ignored them, making Ruby ept the invitation.


    "In that case, thank you for your invitation." She smiled.


    Eric immediately dragged Ruby out while staring at Theo in contempt, thinking he had won. And from this point onward, he would be able to humiliate him further.


    Theo just kept his eyes closed until they left. They didn''t realize that a sly smile appeared on Theo''s face the moment they left the room.


    ''A monster and a douchebag. This is going to be interesting.'' Theo smirked. His objective here was to find out about the monsters, so he had been nning on creating something to make the humans and the monsters go against each other.


    He never expected that someone would be helping him in doing this.


    ''Well�� This is going to be an interesting month.'' Theo muttered inwardly while standing up. Eric''s action had given him a concrete n. ''I love smart people since I can predict their movements. But I also like a fool since it''s easier to make them do what I want.''


    The academy had yet to realize that a force that would shake the entire academy had begun to appear. It was just biding its time to shake the whole event.


    Theo closed his Skylink after getting all the data he needed and returned to his room to prepare for the real lecture tomorrow.


    ��


    The next day.


    Theo walked to his ss with a calm expression. Before reaching his destination, he received a message from the supervisor.


    ''After careful consideration, we''re going to adopt the transfer system. The students are allowed to transfer once a week, but because this is adoptedte, they can only transfer from the fourth day.''


    Theo smiled when he saw his suggestion getting epted.


    ''This is good for me. If I was Akbar, I would have said, ''There is a hundred percent chance that idiot will try to humiliate me by taking away my students.'' Haha, I can''t wait for it.'' Theo chuckled while walking to his ss.


    The centralmittee didn''t realize at that time Theo had a hidden intention when suggesting this idea.


    And Theo was nning to use that system tounch his n.


    Theo smiled and opened his ssroom, finding all his students waiting for him in the room. They were afraid to make a mistake anymore because of what he said yesterday.


    Theo walked to the front and said, "Alright. Let''s start the lesson."

 Chapter 1701 Lesson

    "I''m going to talk about Magic Combat today. As you have heard from Grace, Magic Combat will be simr to being a Magic Knight but focusing on the Magic aspect.


    "For example, if you''re a Magic Knight, you''re going to wield your element around to amplify your strike, right?" Theo raised a stick and conjured a me around that stick. "Just like this, you''re going to send this fire forward. And that''s how they fight.


    "However, Magic Combat is different. How many of you have weapons? Raise your hand if you use one."


    Out of twenty, neen of them raised their hands.


    "Mr. Ary. Staff is important for a Magician since they can help channel their Magic Power and even amplify it." One of them raised their hands, exining the reason.


    Theo nodded his head and said, "Of course. However, a Magic Knight is using a weapon without the staff''s eyes to amplify their power. Do you know why they don''t use one?"


    "Is it because they''recking in time to control their power?"


    "That''s it!" Theo pointed at the student who answered it. "A Magician usually takes their time to channel their Magic Power to form a powerful attack to either crush their opponent or support their team. Meanwhile, the Magic Knight has to handle the opponent constantly, so they can''t channel their Magic Power easily."


    The student smiled, thinking he got their teacher''s praise.


    However, Theo didn''t continue to say anything about her and continued with the lesson. "Then, Combat Magic is different. As a Magician, it''s normal for you to stay behind the vanguard. But the other way is also true�� Because you are a magician, you''re bing the target of the enemies."


    They nodded in agreement since they had experienced it. They became their target because by eliminating a Magician, the enemies would be able to overwhelm the rest of their group.


    And Theo wanted to change this. "That''s why I''m going to teach you a closebat technique but will protect you as a magician. I suggest you take on a Martial ss in your spare time."


    "You''re not going to teach us Martial Art?" Grace asked.


    "No." Theo shook his head. "What I''m going to teach you is Magic Power maniption that allows you to incorporate it into Martial Arts. Anyone can form an ice or stone wall?"


    Five people raised their hands, so Theo picked one of them to summon a stone wall for demonstration.


    "Take a look at my arm." Theo pointed at his right shoulder before moving toward the stone wall.


    After that, the Magic Power began to fluctuate around his shoulder and move toward his hand.


    At the same time, Theo also made a punching motion so that when the Magic Power reached his hand, it was released out of his fist, shattering the rock.


    *Rumble!*


    "��" Everyone was watching him attentively, trying to get as much information as possible so that they could impress himter.


    Theo asked, "What did you see earlier?''


    All of the Supreme Rank Experts raised their hands, trying to answer him. "You."


    "It might be because I''m a Supreme Rank that I could see it. But from what I can see, it seems that you''re releasing your Magic Power when your fist hits, giving an explosive burst of Magic Power."


    "That''s correct, but I can''t give you a full point for that answer. Anyone else?"


    Theo chose another person to answer it, filling in the missing part of the first guy.


    "The Magic Power moved along with your motion."


    "That''s correct." Theo nodded and raised his palm. "Normally, a magician would have gathered their Magic Power first and shot them."


    A fireball appeared and hit the stone before exploding. Its power could be seen by everyone.


    "That''s the normal one."


    Theo waved his hand, this time, and threw away a fireball that formed inside his palm. The moment it was fully created, the ball flew and struck the stone.


    However, everyone could feel that due to Theo forcing his Magic Power to move ording to his motion, his speed increased and his movement looked fluid.


    The students sucked a cold breath, knowing the difference between them. There was no difference in the fireball''s power, but the second approach was quicker and more flexible.


    They could even use it while leaping away when they were pursued by enemies. This fact alone managed to outweigh everything else.


    "Of course, I''m not going to limit you or something. Even if you want to use your staff, then it''s perfectly fine." Theo raised his hand. "Anyone want to lend me their staff?"


    Everyone didn''t hesitate to give him their staff. Even Grace couldn''t stop herself. Her staff was the best, so by letting Theo use it, she would be able to see its potential.


    Theo picked one randomly and channeled his Magic Power. The me looked like a chain hovering around the staff.


    When Theo waved the stuff, this fire chain flew forth, destroying the stone wall again.


    "See? There is nothing wrong with having staff while doing this movement. But due to wielding a weapon, you''re going to learn a different Martial Art.


    "What I''m teaching you in this ss is how to control your Magic Power to follow your movement, allowing you to cast your skill faster. As for the rest, you can go to other sses and join them.


    "I won''t be taking a lot of your time. I only need you to attend my ss for two hours, from 6 AM to 8 AM. The rest will be free. I''ll stay in the ss until lunch, so if you have any problem controlling the Magic Power, you''re free toe to me. If you don''t have one, you can try to practice by yourself or even go to another department. That''s all.


    "Do any of you have a question?"


    None of them raised their hands. No one would reject the ability to protect themselves to the point it made their casting speed faster. It was an important ability to have.


    "Since no one raises their hand, let''s continue with the lesson."

 Chapter 1702 Realization

    "That''s right. That''s how you do it." Theo nodded with a serious expression, observing the student who tried to manipte his Magic Power ording to his teaching.


    The other students also tried to do it on their own. Even though Theo had told them they were free to go after the two-hour lesson, no one stepped outside the ss.


    Of course, Theo didn''te out of his ss as well, considering he was nning to answer any kind of question they had.


    It was truly a bizarre situation. Yesterday, all the students were mocking him for torturing them, but after learning about Theo''s identity, none of them were full of praise.


    Theo knew this reality, so he didn''t bother to do more than what the centralmittee asked. After all, he didn''t n to take in any of these students as his real disciple like Rea.


    Even Grace couldn''t bepared to Rea whether in terms of status or talent.


    Hence, Theo solely answered their question for the sake of finishing his task.


    Before lunch, Theo ended his teaching session and said, "Alright. That''s all for today. I''ll be leaving today. You can spend the rest of your time doing whatever you want. You can go to another ss to listen to their lesson or you can practice more.


    Without waiting for the students to reply, Theo left the room like yesterday and no one could find Theo after that.


    Meanwhile, the students were wondering why Theo only taught them for a few hours. They thought badmouthing him yesterday was the cause. Since Theo hated them, he didn''t bother to fully use this time to train them.


    They regretted what they did yesterday, but there was nothing they could do. If they fought again like yesterday, they were afraid Theo would hear about it again and became even more displeased.


    Since that was the case, Grace had another thought about Theo''s action. She was the only one to get recognized by Theo, so at the very least, Theo didn''t hate her. If he didn''t hate her, then why would he leave?


    The question kept ringing in her mind until she reached a conclusion different from anyone else.


    Soon, her expression brightened as if she had found the answer. Still, it felt like she didn''te to the right conclusion.


    ''Seriously? Doesn''t that mean we have to go to the Physical ss to learn their Martial Art? But we only have a month�� No, he might want us to realize the use of his teaching.


    ''In a month, we would be able to understand a bit about Martial Arts and utilize some of their moves. And suppose we manage to incorporate the ability into this new Martial Art. In that case, we can prove that Teacher''s method wasn''t a mistake. This way, we could learn more about Martial Arts after we go back from this event. There is even a possibility to get scouted from here and we would be able to practice the influence''s Martial Arts.''


    The moment she realized it, she knew Theo was a real teacher. He had shown his ability to see future problems when he introduced himself for the first time, so Theo must foresee this situation and allow them to pick what they wanted.


    With that thought in mind, the hesitation in her mind disappeared. Grace had grasped Theo''s intention and tried to follow it through.


    She instantly rose from her seat and headed straight to the door, nning to leave the room.


    One of the students who saw her couldn''t help but ask, "Where are you going, uhm�� Miss?"


    She was afraid to look rude to Grace, so she tried to ask politely as possible, albeit making it awkward.


    Grace contemted for a moment before saying, "To Physical ss. Bye."


    The student was startled, not understanding why she wanted to go there. Grace also didn''t have the intention to exin it to them. It was enough for them to know where she went. They should be able to understand the hidden meaning if they were a little smart.


    On the other hand, Grace didn''t know that the student was just scared of making another mistake. She thought Theo was torturing them again by locking them in a ss. If they left, they would be in trouble since Theo would catch them and deduct their points.


    Hence, she believed it was better to stay in ss for another few hours.


    Grace didn''t wait for her and left the room. Of course, she went to the cafeteria first to fill her stomach before trying to find the Physical ss.


    The physical ss was using the field behind the hotel, so she didn''t hesitate to go near them to see how they were training.


    As expected, one of the teachers who were supervising the ss noticed her and approached her.


    The teacher was a muscr guy, unlike any other guy who taught the Elemental ss.


    "You are�� not a Physical ss Student, right?" He narrowed his eyes, observing Grace''s stature. It didn''t seem that Grace had a trained body, so he became a bit suspicious. "What are you doing here? Since you''re beautiful, are you trying to find your boyfriend here?"


    Grace shook her head and said, "I''m here to observe the Physical ss Students."


    "Observe? Even if you''re from a good family, you should know that observing them is not your job."


    "No, you misunderstood me, Teacher. I''m not nning to recruit them or something."


    "Then, what? What are you nning to do here?"


    "I''d like to observe their Martial Arts to see if I can use one as well."


    "Hmm?" The teacher was shocked and suspicious at the same time. She was supposed to be learning in her original ss, so it was kind of irresponsible for the teacher to allow her out.


    Hence, the teacher asked, "What''s your name and your ss?"


    "I''m Grace from the Elemental ss." Grace introduced herself without her family name so that no one gave her special treatment.


    "Hmm? Why does an Elemental ss Student want to learn from this ce? You''re not saying that your teacher is so incapable, right?"


    "No, no. I''m here to learn Martial Arts." Grace gave a determined look as if she had gathered her resolve to follow Theo''s teaching.

 Chapter 1703 Weird Occurrence

    While Grace took her step into the Martial Arts, the rest of the students were still confused why she did it.


    But it seemed there were a few talented people in the ss. In just a few minutes, three people had realized Theo''s hidden message and her real intention.


    ''That''s right. Teacher has told us that we have to learn Martial Arts so that we can apply what we learn here. This is his way of giving us time to learn both to fully master this technique. In that case, I should go to the Physical ss as well.


    ''Now that I think about it, the Physical ss is filled with pain, right? Even now, my legs are still in pain because of yesterday''s run�� No, wait. Did he make us run so that we would understand what kind of pain we would have to endure to go on this path? He was just preparing us. Since we had worked hard enough until we almost passed out, we should be able to follow the Physical ss Teacher, considering they would be taking care of us even better than yesterday��'' A Hero Rank student thought of the real lesson and nned to follow in Grace''s footsteps.


    The same applied to the Champion Rank Student next to him. She had the same realization but with a slightly different intake. ''But the teacher didn''t tell us that we would have to go to the Physical ss. He only told us to learn Martial Arts and there are all kinds of Martial Arts.


    ''Normally, one would think of the Physical ss since they''re hosting the Knight, Fighter, and Magic Warrior there. It would be a perfect ce to train since this is the usual path when you think about Martial Arts.


    ''But Martial Arts are all forms of fighting. Although they have different terms, they''re all Martial Arts. For example, we can go to Archery or even Assassination ss��


    ''Instead of Magic Warrior, we can be Magic Ranger or even Magic Assassin��'' She smiled as if trying to show Theo she was special and had the right to get the nomination.


    Hence, she was nning to do things more unique than the others.


    The third guy was also a Hero Rank Expert. He had realized since Theo was giving them a lot of time for them to practice, they should have focused on what he taught them first. If they didn''t even have the foundation of this new ability, they wouldn''t be able to utilize it even if they learn Martial Art.


    Hence, he nned to focus on his Magic Power maniption first.


    These three figured out the hidden message at the same time. So, they stood up in unison and left the room, a little surprised to know that there were other people besides them.


    With those three leaving, the rest of the students began to wonder why they had left the ss. And that made more and more people leave the ss, knowing they had something to do.


    Because most of them followed the normal path, the Physical ss Teachers werepletely overwhelmed by the sudden increase in students. In the end, they ended up taking them in since they had no reason to reject them since they looked eager to know Martial Arts.


    But this sudden influx soon became the topic that everyone talked about.


    There was a group of Elemental ss students who had gone insane and begun to learn about something they weren''t supposed to.


    And all the talks obviously reached the ear of everyone at the event, including the teachers.


    The one who felt happy was obviously Eric. This would be a perfect topic to be talked about during the meeting and he would be able to embarrass Theo during the meeting.


    With that thought in mind, he prepared all kinds of questions that could make Theo embarrass himself in front of so many people.


    He didn''t know that his action had been calctedpletely by Theo. And no one what Theo nned to do by making him do things like this.


    Theo was sitting in his room while smiling. He had no intention of talking to anyone today since tomorrow would be his fight.


    "Well, I have taught the students the in-motion that I got from Fenrir. That should be enough for the time being. I don''t think they can learn the whole thing within a month since they don''t have any basics of Martial Arts.


    "And the students will learn about the transfer system soon since they''re too upied with their own training right now. Tomorrow will surely be interesting." Theo smirked.


    As he expected, when the students finished their training, they returned to their room to get some rest. At the same time, they also received a message about the transfer system. This was an opportunity for them to change sses.


    And if they wanted to transfer sses, they had to submit the transfer after tomorrow''s ss.


    The other students were amused, panicking, or nning to use it. Only Theo''s students had no intention of giving up their ss because this was their chance to rise.


    Unbeknownst to them, this was the first topic that he nned to bring to everyone''s attention in their ss.


    Theo came to his ss, seeing his students had been enduring their muscle pain. They had never moved that much as a Magician, so it was understandable.


    And to make it worse, Theo said, "It seems that you have been doing something else after the ss. I won''t be helping you make your decision because I want you to think about it yourself and try to cope with the situation.


    "In the real world, you aren''t going to receive all kinds of answers to your questions, so you have to do it on your own. Come up with a solution and see it through. That''s all I can say.


    "And now, let''s move to a more important topic. I''m sure you have seen the message, so does anyone want to leave the ss? I''ll help rmend you to another teacher."

 Chapter 1704 Meeting

    No one raised their hands, let alone told him they wanted to leave this ss. In fact, they were actually afraid that Theo expelled them from his ss.


    No one was saying it, but they were begging Theo to not kick them in their hearts.


    Since no one bothered to ask, Theo simply continued his lesson and left them again. Now that the students knew what they should do, they immediately went straight to their own destination.


    Meanwhile, Theo returned to the teacher''s room where they were nning to hold the meeting.


    Of course, since Theo finished his ss four hours early, no one was in the ss when he reached there.


    He simply waited for them.


    After a few hours, the teacher soon came one by one with serious expressions.


    They gathered here to discuss the transfer students. But of course, the story about Theo''s students asking other sses to teach them had reached their ears, so they couldn''t help but look at Theo, wondering if he nned to exin anything.


    Theo remained calm the whole time until Ruby sat next to him and asked, "Mr. Ary. I heard that your students are going to other sses to learn from them��"


    Theo nced at her and said, "Yes. I''m just giving them the opportunity. Since the system has allowed them to transfer, shouldn''t I give them the opportunity to know more about other teachers so that they know what kind of ss they''re getting into?"


    "That''s��" Ruby wanted to refute it with all her might since a teacher should have pride as a teacher, but Theo didn''t seem to have any problem getting his students snatched from him. So, she couldn''t say anything.


    The timing couldn''t be more perfect as they heard the annoying voice again.


    "Can''t you see that he is throwing them away? He doesn''t have the ability to teach, so he leaves them to their own devices. What an irresponsible teacher." Eric''s voice echoed as the person entered the room with a smug smile on his face.


    "As expected of Mr. Eric�� His teaching is so great that his students won''t leave him." Theo sarcastically snorted.


    "You''re just jealous of my ability. You don''t have anything you can be proud of." Eric harrumphed. He didn''t bother to look at anyone else since he had a person to bully.


    "Since you''re so proud of your ability, do you want to bet?" Theo smirked. "If the number of my students transferring to another ss is bigger than you, then I will do anything you want.


    "If the number of students who want to transfer sses is less than you, you only have one thing. Just kneel before me." Theo smirked.


    "Hmph. Who do you think you are? Are you even qualified to bet with me?"


    "Don''t tell me you''re afraid? I guess you''re only bluffing the entire time." Theo chuckled. "You can only unt your affiliation. Even your leveles from your affiliation. You don''t even have a real skill to teach your students."


    "You��" Eric gritted his teeth. As expected of a fool, Eric couldn''t hold back his anger and epted the provocation. "Fine! If I win, I''m going to make you a cripple."


    "Sure." Theo smiled while shrugging.


    The people couldn''t believe what they had just witnessed. The bet was truly extreme. They wanted to stop them, but the deal had been made before they could even say anything.


    And it didn''t take too long for the military personnel toe in to discuss their performance.


    "Thanks for participating in this meeting. We''ll cover three things in this meeting: a story of a certain teacher, the curriculum, and the transfer system.


    "First of all, I''d like to ask Mr. Ary�� Is the rumor correct? Are you letting your students learn from other sses?"


    "Yes," Theo admitted without hesitation.


    "��" He was confused for a moment. "This can be considered abandoning your own students, Mr. Ary. I don''t know what kind of education you had previously, but you need to teach your students."


    "I have taught them for two hours and allowed them to ask me anything for the next four hours. I believe that''s enough." Theo exined.


    "That''s��"


    "I said this earlier, but I simply allowed them to experience other teachers so that they knew the teachers before moving to another ss. Besides, by giving them a lot of free time, they can use them for training. No matter what you say, teaching twenty students is hard and it would be harder to keep track of their progress. They have to know about their own strength and develop it. And when they''re stuck, they cane to me. That''s the reason for my action."


    The guy couldn''t refute it since Theo had given four hours for them to ask anything to him. It should be enough. He just worried that the students didn''t get enough information. But that could be seen from their recordter, so he ended up dropping the topic.


    "If that''s the case, let''s continue to the second topic. Let''s talk about the curriculum. We''re experiencing a problem with the new curriculum.


    "There are two main problems. Since there are a lot of things for them to learn in this harsh world, we''re having trouble allocating their study time. Five Aspects are the most time consuming, so I''d like to ask other teachers about your take on their study time. Just imagine the students learning what other sses taught at the same time. Do you think they can keep up with the rest?"


    Theo was the first one to answer this question. "Haven''t you got the answer from me?"


    "Huh��" The guy was confused for a moment before realizing what he meant. "So, you shorten the lesson because you are preparing them to learn about other things as well? And you even consider their free time to practice."


    Theo nodded. "In this case, we can see which one has the determination to get stronger and which one will be stuck in the current phase forever."


    "This��" The military guy was surprised, never thinking this far from Theo''s system.

 Chapter 1705 Easy Win

    "This��" They were confused for a while. On the one hand, the previous curriculum never had the need to force the students to survive. On the other hand, they could understand why Theo pushed this forward.


    The world wasn''t as peaceful. After the apocalypse, the boundary between the two realms copsed. With the monsters roaming around, it would be clear that if the humans didn''t fight back and conquer the once more, they would face their own extinction.


    Hence, Theo''s suggestion was to force them to continuously improve if they didn''t want to die.


    However, as an opposition, Eric immediately snarled, rejecting the idea. "Did you hear that? You''re going to force the students to quit instead of helping them? You shouldn''t have be a teacher."


    Theo shrugged. "I''m merely suggesting my idea since the military is asking for it. Whether they take it or not, then it''s up to them."


    "You��" Eric gritted his teeth. "I have enough of you."


    Without hesitation, he turned to the military guy and shouted, "Let''s skip the second topic first and move on to the third topic. How many students from his ss are leaving?"


    "This��" The military guy didn''t know what to do. He didn''t want to offend Eric, but it was also inappropriate to continue.


    He tried to seek help from the others, but they simply looked away, not wanting to have anything to do with this problem.


    After some contemtion, the military guy gritted his teeth, forced to continue. This was the risk of his job after all. Having proud people from all kinds of backgrounds could spark some fights. To make sure it didn''t go too big, the military guy agreed to this suggestion and continued to the third topic.


    "I''m going to continue on to the third topic about transfer students. Since they received the news yesterday and had been implored to think about it thoroughly and submit their form after ss, they should have sent everything by now.


    "Hence, I''ll be releasing their information from one teacher to another." The military guy thought there would be a bigger conflict after he announced Theo and Eric''s results. Hence, he decided to start with other teachers first so that they could work on it while these two fought.


    "I''m going to start with Mr. Eugene. In your ss, there are a total of six students who wish to change their teacher. These are the names��" He typed his Skylink a few times before showing the list of the names on the screen so that everyone could see their reason for leaving and where they were nning to go.


    Surprisingly, three of them wanted to go to Eric. Another two wanted to be Ruby''s student, while thest one was another teacher, Harold.


    "Hmph!" Eric harrumphed. No matter what, he was still the most popr one since he bore the name of Salvatore and had the highest level among the teachers. At the very least, Theo didn''t rebuke him since he was the one with the highest level.


    "Look at that! There are three students who want to go to my ss. Unlike you, who is not popr!"


    The teachers just ignored whatever Eric said since it would be troublesome to pick a fight against his influence.


    Since they had to review it first before those students could leave their current teacher, the military guy just announced their names and moved on to another teacher.


    Names by names were shown on the screen. Most of them had around five students who would like to change their teachers. So, no one felt hurt.


    However, a surprise came from Ruby. There were only two students under her who wanted to leave.


    "These are the students, Miss Ruby. They are Agiya Mren and Samuel Grant. The former wants Mr. Eric, while thetter wishes to be Mr. Ary''s student."


    "��" It certainly pissed Eric off. In total, there were thirty students who would be his students, while Theo had six students. It was clear the disparity between them. But Eric was a petty person, so he was angry when Theo got half of it when it came to Ruby, who seemed to be the favorite if he wasn''t here.


    However, with this, there were only two teachers left. The military guy didn''t know how to announce it.


    On the one hand, if he released only one of them, the other would use it to provoke the other party. On the other hand, if he didn''t release them, they would be angry since they wanted the result.


    In the end, he decided to release both of their data together without looking at them too much.


    "This is the result."


    Teacher: Ary Tjahaja


    Student: -


    Teacher: Eric Salvatore


    Student: Brandon Anderson (Ary)


    "!!!" Everyone was stunned the moment they saw the result.


    There was no student that wanted to quit Theo''s ss while Eric had one student. And to put salt in his wound, the student actually wanted to move to Theo''s ss.


    The result was clear. Theo won this battle.


    "This is��" The military guy didn''t know how to say it. In his heart, he wanted them to have a draw so that he could de-escte the situation. But it wasn''t possible anymore. The result was truly embarrassing for Eric.


    "The result is set." Theo smiled and pointed down. "Kneel."


    "You��" Eric''s face became pale and his heart was filled with anger. There was no way he could do that. The reason he epted this bet was because he was assured he could win. But it turned out Theo got the upper hand.


    However, some of the calm ones carefully observed the name.


    "That''s�� Anderson? Isn''t he the brother of Grace Anderson?"


    "That''s right. He is the grandson of the Great Magician. But isn''t Grace Anderson Mr. Ary''s student?"


    "Is he using his sister to persuade him to leave?"


    Theo never did anything. He didn''t scheme anything. However, he believed Grace would persuade her brother toe to the ss since it was an opportunity they had to grasp. So, Theo actually manipted everything even though he was just doing his job as his teacher.


    And Eric, who had just lost, gritted his teeth, shamelessly shouting, "You�� You set me up!"

 Chapter 1706 Conflict

    "You set me up!"


    Eric obviously didn''t want to kneel, so he tried to do anything to frame Theo instead.


    Theo, on the other hand, tilted his head in confusion. "This is truly great. Now that you''ve lost, you''re trying to frame me when I haven''t done anything. So, this is how the Salvatore Family acts."


    "This is the truth. Do you think I don''t know how you used Grace Anderson to manipte her brother?!"


    "I''m simply doing my job as a teacher and teaching her to the best of my ability. As for her actions, I have no control over them. It''s up to her whether she persuades her brother or not. In fact, doesn''t this make you look inferior to me as a teacher?" Theo smirked.


    "This is clearly a setup. You already know that she''s going to persuade her brother and you use it to make me bet with you!"


    "You can make all kinds of excuses, but it doesn''t change the fact that you''ve lost the bet. Hence, it''s now for you to uphold the bet." Theo pointed down and said coldly. "Get down on your knees and put your head on the ground."


    "This�� How about we call it a draw, Mr. Ary?" The military guy tried to stop Theo with an awkward smile. "From the overall number, it''s clear that Mr. Eric has beaten you."


    Theo nced at the military with a cold gaze. "It seems that the military is going to back him up."


    "That''s��" The guy made an awkward smile. He was actually shouting inwardly, ''What backing him up? I''m just trying to solve this peacefully. Both of you are motherfuckers. I''m not paid enough to deal with this shit.''


    Theo rose from his seat and walked toward Eric, stating with a cold tone. "I have told you that a bet is a bet. If he''s the one to win, will you stop him from crippling me? No, right? Don''t give me neutrality bullshit!"


    Seeing Theo approaching him, Eric stood up while ring at Theo, not nning to lose. Nheless, he was the brother of the King of Fighters, so he had a reputation to uphold. His pride couldn''t be lowered that easily for this kind of bet.


    Both of them red at each other as Theo gave an ultimatum. "This is yourst chance. If you kneel right now, I''ll let you off peacefully."


    "A mere plebeian like you dare to make me kneel?!" Eric wasn''t afraid of Theo as his eyes began emitting killing intent.


    The tension began to rise in the room as the Magic Power began to fluctuate.


    "Can��" The military guy tried to stop them again, but that was the time all hell broke loose.


    Theo raised his left hand while Eric formed a wind barrier around him.


    However, Theo was teaching Combat Magic, so his movement was faster than your average magician. Before Eric could form the barrier, Theo''s hand had reached his head and the me sparked,unching Eric to the wall.


    *Bam!*


    Eric sted through the wall and crashed to the ground far away from the building.


    Themotion alerted all the people nearby as they tried to check what was happening.


    When they reached the ce, they saw Eric with a slightly charred forehead. He managed to deflect the fire with his wind at thest second, but he still couldn''t nullify everything.


    "Kh." Eric was angered thoroughly as he saw Theoing out of the building with a cold gaze.


    "What''s this?"


    "Is there a fight break out?"


    "Two teachers are fighting each other."


    "What is happening right now?"


    "We don''t know the cause yet. But it seems to be the teachers from the Elemental ss."


    The people were confused, but they didn''t n to join since they couldn''t understand the situation yet.


    Theo nced at them and decided to ignore them. As long as they didn''t bother him, he wouldn''t fight them.


    Now that Eric had some time to gather his Magic Power, he enveloped his body with the wind.


    Seeing this kind of ability reminded Theo of Mark. Unfortunately for him, he had learned so much from Mark, so Theo jumped forward without hesitation, nning to take him down.


    Eric waved both hands and formed a horizontal tornado that would shred Theo into pieces. Meanwhile, Theo put his hand forward, causing an explosion. The shock wave from the explosion sted the wind, neutralizing the tornadoes.


    "You''re a fool. You are only a mere plebeian, but you want to challenge me, a level 849 Magician, Eric Salvatore?!"


    "You are full of crap. Even your mouth can only spout some bullshit!" Theo snorted and pushed his hand forward. The fire around his arm began to swirl around, moving toward his palm.


    Eric wasn''t afraid of Theo''s me. The only injury he had was due to the sneak attack. He wouldn''t lose against him in a head-on fight.


    Eric raised both hands, forming a wind barrier. The wind was swirling around violently. A leaf flew to the barrier and was shredded apart by the raging wind.


    Despite seeing this powerful wind, Theo kept punching it with his fire.


    The fire suddenly exploded, but this time, Theo was pushed back by the wind. Although he was unharmed, it was clear Theo couldn''t destroy the barrier.


    "Hahaha, this is the power of a level 849 Magician. You can''t do anything against me without sneak attacks!" Ericughed.


    "Excuse me, excuse me." Grace was slipping around, trying to see what had happened. There were also other students and teachers that wanted to see what was going on. When she reached the front, she gasped, finding Theo and Eric fighting. She wondered what actually happened to lead to this kind of fight.


    On the contrary, Theo simply snapped his hand after getting blocked, forming a small fire.


    "Hmph. Do you think a small fire like that can harm my wind?" Eric snorted.


    Theo didn''t care about his taunt since the fire was enough for him. When it touched the wind, the fire began to merge with the wind, turning the wind barrier into a raging me barrier.


    "This is��" Eric widened his eyes in shock, feeling the heat all over his body.


    Theo took this opportunity to move forward and extended his hand. Suddenly, the raging fire began to move toward his arm as if it was getting sucked into his arm, turning into the same fire attack as earlier. But this time, the wind barrier had disappeared, allowing Theo to punch Eric right in his stomach.


    The fire sparked and caused a huge explosion,unching Eric into the air.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1707 Kneel

    "That''s��"


    Grace gasped and couldn''t help but recall what Theo had taught her during the ss.


    Theo was making his me move around his body as if he was doing a performance. "You have to grasp full control over your element like this. Try to move it around your body. I know it''s hard for you to do it, but if you just move along, it can make your body naturally adjust the movement for you."


    "But Mr. Ary, I think you forgot something. In a fight, we might face an element opposite to ours. For example, what if we fight a Water or Ice Element Magician? I am a Water Element Magician, so I think I can suppress Fire Magician due to my elemental advantage. Even if you try to move around them with Combat Magic, you won''t be able to do anything if thetter uses a barrier thatpletely istes them."


    Theo smiled and said, "That''s simple. If my fire is not strong enough, I can simply turn everything into my fire."


    "What do you mean?" She frowned, not understanding what he was saying.


    Theo pointed down, making all people look down. However, all they could see was a wooden floor.


    Seeing their expression, Theo sighed and said, "What if I burn the wooden floor? Won''t I get an additional boost? I can simply burn it and control the extra fire,bining it with my attack. Do you think it''ll be that easy to suppress my fire after that?"


    "That''s��" Grace shook her head. "If it''s only a small portion of the wooden floor, then I won''t have any problem dealing with it. But if you burn the entire floor or even an entire building and use it as your source of power, then I have no way to stop you. Maybe I can do it if I can find a hydrant, but that is if I can find one.


    "After all, you might fight me in a forest. There, you can create a forest fire, burning trees, grasses, or branches. Everything will be your weapon."


    "That''s right. When you''re facing an enemy with an element that can suppress yours, you simply have to create a situation where you get the advantage and begin to overwhelm them. And don''t forget one thing, the first strike is the most important since their guard will be at its lowest. Make sure you deal as much damage as possible to their body."


    Remembering this lesson from him, Grace could see why Theo taught them like that. It was simply his experience.


    The battlefield shifted a bit as Theo jumped into the air, finding Eric, who had a hard time getting up.


    There was a ck circle on his body as Theo''s fire managed to burn his skin in thest attack. This was what Theo meant to deal as much damage as he could.


    That burn didn''t simply go for the skin but also the organs.


    The explosion heated up the organs inside and caused a malfunction.


    Theo stood in front of him with a calm expression as if his win was nothing but assured.


    "A level 849 Magician, huh? You''re truly proud of that? What can a high level person like you do other than unting the level you get from your family? You can''t even hold a candle against someone like me."


    Theo didn''t wait for Eric to recover. Thetter tried to endure the pain and stand up again, but Theo used his explosion around his shoes to boost his speed, reaching Eric in an instant.


    After that, he punched Eric into the air again with his fire, burning his skin again.


    With this, his skin only had two colors. It was either charred ck or red like a lobster. He waspletely burned by Theo.


    Eric tried to stand up again, but Theo simply kicked his stomach without much power.


    "Gah!" Eric coughed up blood as he fell to his knees.


    All the people were speechless. Theopletely overwhelmed a level 849 Magician. It was surreal.


    And with this situation, Theo seemed to be nning to deliver his killing blow.


    "Wait, wait, wait. Please stop, Mr. Ary. I have just received a call from the King of Fighters. Please wait!" The military guy came to the battlefield, trying to stop them. On his hand was a Skylink connected to the King of Fighters.


    He was using the video call, so he could see what happened to Eric.


    Eric already fell to his knees with Theo standing in front of him, ready to deliver the killing blow.


    "You bastard. What have you done to my brother?!" The King of Fighters shouted in anger.


    "We were simply betting. If he won, he would cripple me. If I won, he had to kneel. And I won, so he had to kneel, albeit he didn''t want to do it. I could only force him to do it to make him know that he has to uphold his bet." Theo answered with a calm expression.


    "You bastard? You want my brother to kneel?! Know your status, you''re nothing. How dare a mere ant force my brother to kneel?!"


    "Sorry, this is not about reputation. This is about the bet. He has lost the bet, so he has to kneel." Theo smirked and raised his foot, cing it right on top of Eric''s head. "And to kneel�� not only do you have to fall on your knees, but you also have to��"


    Suddenly, a fire red up on top of Theo''s knees, causing a shock wave to boost Theo''s power for a second, stomping Eric''s head.


    *Bam!*


    In that instant, Eric''s head was stomped to the ground. The power from the stomp caused the ground to turn into a huge crater, showing how much power Theo put into that one stomp.


    Eric''s face was disfigured in an instant and his skull cracked. No one knew whether Theo killed him or not from that stomp.


    And Theo ended it with the rest of the sentence. "You have to ce your head on the ground."

 Chapter 1708 Clash Between Giants

    All of them sucked a cold breath, never expecting Theo to act this way. The other party was the King of fighters after all. He wasn''t someone like Theo could defeat unless Theo was actually overconfident in himself.


    As one would expect from such an action, it thoroughly angered the King of Fighters.


    "You bastard! Do you know what you''re doing?!"


    Theo looked at him with a calm expression. "I know perfectly what I''m doing. I''m simply allowing him to uphold the bet. I am a good person, right?"


    "You!" The King of Fighters gritted his teeth before shouting, "Military. You have seen what he has done, right? Capture him!"


    "This��" The military guy didn''t know what he should do in this situation. On the one hand, the bet was clear. Theo had even risked his life in this bet. On the other hand, the other party was the King of Fighters, so he couldn''t really dismiss those orders.


    He looked around, trying to get someone''s help, albeit all of them were just trying to see what was going on. After all, a sh between Theo and a Transcendent Level Expert was truly exciting.


    They wanted to know how Theo could escape from this situation.


    In the end, the military guy decided to capture Theo. "Mr. Ary. You have to follow me."


    Theo looked at him with a cold gaze, asking, "Are you sure you want to do this? I have done nothing wrong. Can you represent the military with your actions? Depending on your actions, this won''t be a matter between him and me anymore."


    The military guy hesitated once again. He was afraid to antagonize everyone in this ce, but the King of Fighters shouted, "What are you waiting for? Capture him?! I don''t even know him! If his organization dares to threaten you, I''m going to make sure to pay a visit to their organization!"


    The assurance from the King of Fighters was enough for the military guy to get enough resolve. He shouted, "Mr. Ary. I need you to follow me right now!"


    Theo''s expression darkened as he said, "Good, good, good. So, that''s how you''re going to do it. In that case, I''ll also use my own connection."


    Theo immediately took out his Skylink and connected to none other than Maya. As the richest woman in the world, Maya''s face was known to everyone.


    "Well, well, what is this? To think you would call me in this situation, care to tell me what has happened?" Maya asked while looking around, finding the King of Fighters.


    "Maya Hamilton! Look at what your subordinate has done to my brother! He left my brother half-dead. How are you going to exin this to me?"


    "Or so he said. What do you think?" Maya waspletely unaffected by his anger. She simply looked at Theo, knowing that Ary Tjahaja was the famous Theo. There was no way she would be afraid of him since Theo would be the one to visit him instead of the other way around.


    Theo only gave her a simple exnation. "Oh, we just met a bet. If I lost, I would be crippled by him. If he lost, he would have to kneel. But it seemed he didn''t want to kneel, so I simply helped him kneel."


    Maya frowned. Crippling Theo? This was the best offer that no one would be able to receive. So, the stakes were actually so high that he should have killed this person instead of leaving him half-dead.


    Of course, since the other party didn''t know Theo was Ary Tjahaja, she didn''t bother to say that fact.


    Instead, she turned around and stated, "Look, aren''t my people good? He has taught your brother how to do as promised. If he couldn''t even uphold his bet, why did he make one?"


    "You�� Are you going to protect him?!"


    "Of course." Maya nonchntly answered while adding inwardly, ''Of course, I''m protecting someone, but it''s not him, it''s you. If Theo is truly visiting you, then there''s no way you would have survived.''


    "You�� Do you think just because you''re the richest woman in the world, you can do everything you want!" The King of Fighters gritted his teeth. "Do you think you''re above thew?"


    "Come on. You''re already so old and you''re talking aboutws with me? Seriously?"


    Theo suddenly added, "By the way, the military has sided with them, and he wants to capture me."


    "What? Something like that happened? I see, it seems that the military wants to suppress me as well. Damn, who''s the idiot from the military to try to capture you?"


    "Hehe��" Theo took out another Skylink, opening a video that he had just recorded earlier. It was the record of the military guy trying to capture him.


    However, Theo also added the video he took about the continuous provocation made by Eric.


    Each video was short, but it truly struck everyone''s heart. It turned out Theo had been humiliated this whole time.


    Even Maya couldn''t help but shake her head. "Surely�� I''m wondering who is actually above thew now. You have humiliated my people and now you''re asking me to exin his action?


    "Are you insane, old man?" Maya didn''t hold back with her words, unlike Rea, who still had to talk politely to him.


    "Are you going to fight me just because of a simple subordinate?"


    Maya''s expression turned extremely cold. That simple subordinate of hers was actually her boss. If he didn''t dare to fight him, then she would be better off asking someone else to be the Star Group''s CEO.


    She took a deep breath and stated, "I''m sick of this argument. Anyway, I don''t care about what you''re going to say after this. All I want to say to you and everyone else in this ce.


    "I sent him here as the representative of the Star Group. In one month, precisely, three days after the event ends, Theo is going to hold another skill rank-up session again. And that''s why he''s assessing people to see which one of you is going to get a special ticket.


    "And more importantly, that special ticket can allow you to upgrade your skill directly to A Rank with us providing the materials. Of course, you can go directly to S Rank if you bring the remaining material.


    "But��"

 Chapter 1709 Reasons

    When she announced about the upgrade session with Theo, everyone''s eyes lit up. This was actually what they had been waiting for. The union and United Asia had experienced it, so they also wanted to upgrade their skills to get stronger.


    This was an opportunity they were waiting for. They wouldn''t have known about it if this ident didn''t happen.


    However, Maya''s expression became colder as she stopped their imagination. "But��"


    The tension suddenly rose as everyone gulped down, wondering what she would say. After all, they were in the middle of the conflict.


    Maya looked around as if pressuring them one by one. After a while, she finally stated, "All people rted to the Salvatore Family and the military won''t have their skills upgraded even if you''re begging the government to allow you to do it!"


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes in shock. This was a deration of war from Maya.


    Theo had given the ultimatum to the military guy earlier, yet, thetter tried to help them. And Maya was already pissed off by Eric Salvatore.


    Hence, this was the result. Not a single person who bore the name of Salvatore could increase their skill rank. That included the people who were rted to them like inws, friends, or even subordinates.


    "I''m going to ce a strict background check because I''ll show you that my words can''t be treated lightly!"


    "You��" The King of Fighters, as a Transcendent Level Expert, never thought he would be threatened like this by a mere brat whose age was only two years older than Theo.


    Theo''s status might be high because of his extraordinary strength, but Maya? She might be the richest woman in the world, but it didn''t change the fact that she was weak. Even her Star Group would have copsed if Theo didn''t help her.


    That was why he couldn''t take this provocation.


    Meanwhile, the military guy''s face became pale, thinking he had harmed the military by his action.


    "You�� The Salvatore Family is one thing. Why does the military have to suffer too? That guy can''t represent the military!" One of them shouted.


    Judging from his tone, Maya knew this guy also came from the military.


    "Hoh? He can''t represent the military? Why did you not say that before? Why did you let him try to capture my person? If I''m not here, no one knows what will happen to him!"


    "That''s��" He was tongue-tied. He gritted his teeth and tried another excuse that should work. "Because the military represents the people. They''re protecting the people from outside threats! Even you are protected by the military!"


    "In that case, you can have the military in Kentucky retreat! I don''t really mind. As for the people? I think we have done a lot for the people, right? Even here." Maya nced at Theo.


    "The students in my ss are going around to other sses. A lot of them went to the Physical ss yesterday. And there were who went to Archery ss and even Assassination ss." Theo exined.


    "See?!" Maya harrumphed. "He was trying to improve his students while gathering some information from other sses because he''s giving the rmendation not only to his students but also to the students from other sses. We''re trying to do good for the people, but the military and the Salvatore Family are obstructing us, even humiliating us like this."


    "Still, the Salvatore Family is to me, not the military. We''re protecting the people."


    "For the people, huh?!" Maya clicked her tongue. "Yeah, yeah. That''s what people said back then. For the people, Theo has been betrayed over and over again. For the people, he had saved them, developed the area, and even protected them from destruction. Yet, what did he get?


    "The union abandoned him, the government pressured him, and now�� when he sent a representative to help him do something for the people�� What did you do?


    "You allowed the Salvatore Family to humiliate him! For the people? So, Theo is not one of them for you? Such bullshit. Those three words are thest thing that shoulde out of your mouth!"


    Everyone fell silent. They truly had seen everything she said.


    No one could deny how much Theo had sacrificed for them. Yet, the only thing he got was actually a betrayal, humiliation, and so on.


    Everyone couldn''t refute her words.


    Maya snorted and stated, "He is going to continue to teach the students here with his objective in mind. However, I''m going to say this�� the reason why we sent him in the first ce is because no bribe can sway his opinion. In other words, the people he chooses are judged fairly. I won''t be interfering with anything other than the background check."


    Before leaving, Maya stated one more thing. "Besides, you said earlier that you''re going to pay me a visit, Mr. Salvatore? If that''s the case, you''re free to do so�� But in exchange, I''ll ask Theo to visit your family as well. And we can see what will happen next.


    "Haha, of course, Theo is not like you and me. If it were me, I would have given you three options:mit suicide to apologize, have your family disappear from the world, or�� Hehe, I''ll leave thest to your imagination." Maya chuckled. "Luckily, Theo is good, unlike me."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression as he walked away. Despite being surrounded by a lot of people, everyone tried to push back to give Theo a path to leave. No one dared to antagonize him anymore because they might lose their potential rmendation.


    Theo calmly left everyone speechless, especially Grace. She never expected that Theo would be able to deal with this kind of situation. In fact, he even overwhelmed the Salvatore Family.


    The name ''Theodore Griffith'' couldn''t be taken lightly. And everyone knew it from this conflict alone.


    Meanwhile, the military guy, who ended up in the middle of their conflict, dropped to his knees, not knowing what would happen to him after this.


    And everyone could only pity him.

 Chapter 1710 Reactions

    That night, all the people in the event were shocked by the information.


    All people were trying to find a way to get into Theo''s ss, considering they would get a higher chance of being selected. They even went all the way to bribe people.


    For those who had a good background, they could utilize their background to do it, either threatening the ordinary person in Theo''s ss or bribing them in exchange for their position.


    ��


    Anderson Family.


    An old man with a long white beard was calling his dear daughter after hearing what happened in the event.


    "I heard what happened. Did you do something bad to him by the way?" The old man asked.


    Grace winked her right eye with a yful smirk. "Don''t worry, Grandfather. I have done my best to receive the rmendation. In fact, I''ve received one. All I need to do is to behave well to make sure he doesn''t retract the rmendation."


    "Hoho, that''s good." The old man nodded with a smile, proud of her action.


    "Besides, I convinced my brother to switch sses before this blows up, but it seems I was toote."


    "That good for nothing. To think he would actually choose that idiot from the Salvatore Family."


    "Thankfully, he had agreed to switch and it became the reason why Mr. Ary won the bet. Though, I don''t know if this is a plus point or not�� All I know is that he won''t retract my rmendation."


    "Haha, that''s for the best. For now, there''s a thinyer between the government and Theodore Griffith. If thatyer pops, there''ll be a huge sh between the two giants.


    "On our side, the government has a lot of people and the Time God along with the three Transcendent Level Experts like us. Meanwhile, on the other side, they have the Mirage Prince and Mafia Queen alongside the number onepany in the world."


    "Doesn''t it look like our side is losing?"


    "Exactly. That''s why I don''t want to provoke both sides. At the very least, I want to remain neutral, albeit the situation doesn''t allow me to do that. So, I want you to at least not make him an archenemy."


    "I understand. I''ll remember your advice."


    ��


    Salvatore Family.


    "That bastard!" A roar resounded across the entire mansion. The anger could be felt and no one dared to actually say anything.


    The matter was too big. Not only did they receive this kind of punishment, but the government was also ming them. They wanted to mend the rtionship again so that the government could still receive the skill upgrade.


    They were shamelessly putting all the me on the Salvatore Family. And as expected, the people were fast to move.


    Many influences,panies, and organizations were pulling back from the Salvatore Family. At the very least, until they received the skill upgrade.


    Of course, they were also ming the Salvatore Family for creating this conflict. If only Eric didn''t show off and even humiliated Theo, the situation wouldn''t reach this point.


    And Eric only had to kneel to Theo since he lost his bet. Not only did he annul his own promise, but he was also backed up by his brother, the head of the Salvatore Family. There was no escape from it.


    In the end, the situation became extremelyplicated and the Salvatore Family took the full brunt of Theo''s anger.


    They didn''t know that Ary Tjahaja was actually Theo in disguise.


    ��


    Kentucky.


    There was actually someone who couldn''t stop smiling after learning about the conflict. It wasn''t Agata who was Theo''s fiancee. Instead, it was his disciple, Rea.


    She had been reying the video for two hours and the smile still hadn''t disappeared from her face.


    She couldn''t help but remember what Theo told him when she wanted to be his disciple.


    "I want to ask you thisst question. Bing my disciple is forcing me to make amitment. Bing my disciple means I''m going to protect you. If the world wants you to die, I''ll destroy the world itself. If the king of hell wants to torture you, I will bring you back. Do you have themitment to be my student?"


    The target this time was the Salvatore Family. It must be because of her that Theo specifically targeted the Salvatore Family instead of the monsters hiding among the humans.


    The King of Fighters once tried to pressure her when she became the leader of the army for the first time. After knowing that matter, Theo finally let him learn what it meant to touch his people.


    Since he couldn''t easily tell the world that he didn''t ept anyone from the Salvatore Family because Rea was inexperienced at that time, he created this kind of scheme so that he had enough reason.


    And it worked.


    Rea smiled, knowing what it meant to have Theo on her back.


    ''If the world harms me, he''ll destroy the world��'' Rea clenched her fists and swore once again. "I''ll do my best to not disappoint him even if it''s thest thing I''ll do."


    ��


    The entire area was filled with ruckus after what happened earlier. However, the situation waspletely different in Theo''s room.


    In fact, it was filled with a light atmosphere andughter.


    "Hahaha, you''re too good, Theo. You finally taught them a lesson after pressuring your disciple. You''re too overprotective."


    "No, I don''t." Theo shook his head with a calm expression.


    "Well, that doesn''t change the fact the problem lies in the hidden monsters. Now that you have be famous, what are you going to do if they''re going to be careful around you?"


    "Actually, I already have the n to use someone else to be the bait. But that idiot was the perfect bait�� I also wanted to hit the Salvatore Family back. So, I guess I managed to kill three birds with one stone.''


    "Hoh? It means your n has seeded?"


    "Of course."


    "What are you nning to do next?"


    Theo smirked. "You just have to wait. I''m going to show you something interesting."


    "Hoh? I''m looking forward to it. Am I going to participate in it again?"


    Theo gave a thumbs up as the two let out a sly smile as if they knew it was going to be exciting.

 Chapter 1711 Hidden Party

    Not only those who were present in the scene were discussing Theo''s n, but those who could only work in the dark also gathered together.


    And among them were the other race that infiltrated the base.


    In a room, there was a gathering of a few Mythical Rank Experts.


    "What should we do about this?"


    "Are we talking about the Star Group, Theodore Griffith, or the guy they sent?"


    "It''s obviously thest one since he''s the closest one to us."


    "Then, we should ask Rgsawr for this. He''s the only one who has met him previously."


    All people turned their heads, looking at the one Theo had confirmed as a monster, Ruby.


    Ruby nodded with a serious expression, exining everything she had seen so far. "From the looks of it, he''s pretty much harmless most of the time. In fact, he''s pretty friendly and a bit silent most of the time."


    "Then, what have you found about him? Such as his ability, conduct, or some sort of hidden n?"


    "I believe he doesn''t have any hidden ns rted to us. Instead, he simply wants to reform the education system, probably, the knowledgees from Theodore Griffith himself."


    "Now that I think about it, that human was the one who reformed all kinds of systems in the world, right?"


    "That''s right. If it''s Theodore Griffith, then we can understand why he wants to reform the education system."


    "Even that Maya has told us the reason. He has done too many good things for humans, yet, thetter is trying to harm me through their own politics. I somehow pity him."


    "True enough. If he''s one of us, we won''t do something like that. In fact, it''s good for him to be a leader or a high level elder."


    "Yes. Anyway, we''re out of topic earlier. We''re not talking about Theodore Griffith right now."


    Ruby nodded. "In that case, I''ll continue. There are three things he has suggested from the time I first met him. The first is about the teacher shuffle, which is denied by the centralmittee. So, you must haven''t heard about it.


    "The second one is the one implemented not long ago, the transfer student system. Last but not least, spreading his students. This is something we can learn to be honest.


    "He''s currently spreading the students to other ces. By doing this, the students can provide him information while receiving benefits from him. After all, other students and teachers will try to butter them up so that they can get the rmendation for Theodore Griffith''s event."


    They thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.


    "That''s true. There will be a lot of people bribing his students so that they can give a good word for them. And some will even try to get their positions for themselves. There will be a lot of ruckus going on soon, but luckily, it''s announced after the admission for transfer is closed. In other words, until it''s open again, the situation in this ce will be like the calm before the storm."


    "Indeed. We have to watch out as well. At least we can''t do anything suspicious."


    "If possible, we should get the rmendation as well."


    "That''s right. We can try to understand his skill if we can observe him up close."


    "Are you serious? He is simr to our Saint, you know. Do you think he won''t be able to feel the difference between humans and us?"


    "We can''t get too close to him. And if he knows that we have been living among them, he will make his move."


    "Then, what should we do?"


    The people contemted, trying to find the solution. On the one hand, they had to be careful. On the other hand, they didn''t have much time to do it, especially since they were afraid that Theo would get involved in this. After all, no matter how hard the enemies tried to outsmart Theo, he would havee back with a n beyond their imagination. That was how a World ss Monster fell in the previous battle.


    They were afraid they would experience the same failure.


    "First of all, we should observe this guy first and see if we can find any useful information from him. Since Rgsawr has been around him for a while, you will continue to get closer to finding out about his motive.


    "If he''s harmless to us, we will continue our n without shing with him, the Star Group, and even Theodore Griffith. If he''s going to disturb our n..."


    He paused, but the meaning was clear. They had to eliminate Ary.


    "But won''t it rm that human if we kill this Ary?"


    "No, we won''t. After all, there is a perfect scapegoat for us. The government aside, the Salvatore Family will try to fight back in this kind of situation. There is no way they can swallow this easily. We''ll use them as our cover and eliminate Ary. But for now, we''ll wait."


    "That''s the best case, I guess. We''re lucky to have the Salvatore Family to take the me."


    "Yeah. For now, all of you are going to stand by until Rgsawr finishes investigating him."


    They nodded in agreement, thinking about the current situation.


    It was quite tricky because Ary deliberately hid his affiliation. At first, they thought Ary simply wanted to finish his job as a teacher and the representative of the Star Group. But there was no way it would be this simple, considering Theo had sent him personally for the sake of his event.


    So, they believed there was an ulterior motive, which they had to find no matter what.


    As soon as they reached an agreement on what to do, they started to leave, making sure no one spotted them.


    They didn''t know that their n would change so much because of Theo. And the first change came when the Vice President directly came to the event, not to talk about anything rted to the event, but to get Theo''s forgiveness so that the military could receive their rmendation as well.


    Unbeknownst to the Vice President, he had been ying in Theo''s hand.


    Theo was sitting in his bed peacefully before he heard a knock on his door and someone''s voice.


    "Mr. Ary. I''m from the white house. Do you have time to talk? Mr. Vice President would like to talk to you."


    Theo smirked. The fish had taken the bait.

 Chapter 1712 Negotiation

    Theo opened his door with a calm expression, asking, "Yes? What is it?"


    "Could you follow me? The Vice President would like to meet you."


    Theo narrowed his eyes, ring at the guy.


    Thetter didn''t know what was wrong with him. But he knew that if he displeased Ary, everything would be over. After all, the Vice President had gone all the way to this ce just to solve the conflict between him and the military, considering this was an event under him.


    "Please?" He even lowered his head. As long as he could bring Theo there, his mission was over. So, he couldn''t mess this up.


    Theo paused for a moment, making the guy almost have a heart attack. Fortunately for him, Theo nodded his head. "Alright. Lead me there."


    "Yes, Sir!" The guy nodded furiously. His expression brightened since he had aplished his task. All he needed to do was to bring him out.


    Theo followed him to meet the Vice President privately. He wondered how they would solve this situation.


    If they dared to threaten him even after all this, Theo would truly give up at this point.


    When the guy opened the door, surprisingly, there was only a single old man with white curly hair. He was sitting on his couch patiently.


    As soon as Theo arrived, he immediately rose from his seat and smiled. "Wee, Mr. Ary. I apologize for calling you thiste. Even I have just arrived here."


    "It''s an honor to meet the Vice President." Theo nodded with a serious expression while shaking his hand.


    After that, all the people came out to show that this was a talk between the two of them. There wouldn''t be anything to threaten Theo since the Vice President was just a weak Supreme Rank Expert.


    "Please." The Vice President extended his hand, asking him to sit.


    Theo didn''t have a change of expression despite meeting such an important person, making the Vice President wonder what could make him change that expression.


    "Would you like a drink?"


    "There''s no need for us to talk about anything else. This is alreadyte. Besides, you and I already know that we''re here to talk about this.." Theo shook his head, rejecting his offer.


    The Vice President went silent for a moment before deciding to go along with him.


    "Alright. Since that''s the case, then I won''t hesitate to cut to the chase. I have learned about the situation and I can say this with absolute certainty. This must be a misunderstanding.


    "The personnel we station in this event has to remain neutral and since he can''tplete his job, he has been dismissed from the military."


    Theo listened to him and smiled coldly. "Let me ask you a question."


    "Please do."


    "If my background ispletely unrted to the Star Group and even Sir Theodore Griffith, will you do something like this? What if I''m from a third-rate influence, what will you do?"


    The president was shocked that Theo would be this hard-headed. But he remembered that Maya had told them he would judge them fairly.


    Just by doing this, the Vice President had broken his own words. After all, he had to side with Theodore Griffith to get the benefits.


    That was why Theo pressured him more. "So, are you going to side with me or Sir Theo to get the rmendation as well? Doesn''t this mean you''re breaking your own words? Can I truly trust your words when you''re like this?"


    "Of course, we''re not siding with anyone here."


    "So, you''re not siding with anyone��" Theo narrowed his eyes. "If that''s the case, why do you need to invite me here?"


    The anger and frustration in his heart were rising. He never expected Theo to act like this.


    To answer this question, he had to rack up his brain, trying to find the appropriate sentences to answer it. The moment he denied one option, he would fall into the second option trap.


    Theo was nning to use this to checkmate him.


    However, the Vice President didn''t give up and hurriedly thought of a solution.


    "Of course, we don''t side with anyone." He smiled, forming the words to convince Theo.


    "Then, as I said earlier, you don''t need to talk to me."


    "But��" When Theo was about to leave, the Vice President added, "I do believe that someone who has made a mistake should apologize and receive their punishment. Just like thews, there are a few levels of punishment, from house arrest to death.


    "I believe our mistake hasn''t reached the point of getting banned from Mr. Theodore Griffith''s event. That''s why I''m here to understand the situation better and make amends."


    Theo nced at him. As one would expect from a political leader, he was good at making up words.


    Theo stopped for a moment and sat down again. "So, what is your opinion about the previous matter?"


    "We have punished the culprit and we''re ready to receive the sanction. However, we''d like to get the chance to make amends."


    "You should have heard about it, not from me, but someone from the higher level��"


    "That''s��" The Vice President had stumbled upon another problem. Maya had told them that she would ban the people from the military as punishment. She stated it loud and clear.


    Asking for forgiveness meant they wanted Maya to retract her own words.


    That was why the Vice President had a hard time convincing him, considering the problem wasn''t that big of a deal normally. Just this time, the other party was too big.


    "The person you have to persuade is not me. I''m simply following my own task." Theo shook his head and stood up, preparing to leave.


    He turned around and left the Vice President alone in the room. It gave the people outside surprise, but it seemed the negotiation had failed.


    They didn''t know what to do anymore since Theo''s ability was simply too good to pass on.


    Meanwhile, Theo walked away with a calm expression as if there was nothing that could change his opinion other than persuading Maya.


    They didn''t know that the situation would be even moreplicated soon.

 Chapter 1713 Danger?

    After that meeting, Theo continued his daily life without any problems. No other teachers dared to stop him. They tried to talk to him so that they could get a rmendation, but it was useless since Theo didn''t n to know them better.


    He simply put on a cold, emotionless face. He had told them that he would observe everyone he met, but no matter what they did, he would judge it carefully.


    In the end, people began to distance him as usual. But they made sure they did their best whenever they spotted Theo. At the very least, they had to show their greatness.


    This kind of treatment didn''te only to him but also to his students. As expected, there were a lot of people who wanted to be his students.


    They even wanted to back the current students up and buy their rmendation for a high price. After all, when Theo upgraded the skills in the union and United Asia, he could only upgrade someone''s skill once and the rank only increased by one.


    But Theo had told them that after experiencing it a few times, Theo managed to explore a lot of hidden traits in this unique ability.


    And allowing them to rank up their Skill all the way to A or even S Rank, it was worth it even if they had to sacrifice a lot of wealth to get it.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Theo had told them that the rmendation was given to a person and only that person could use it. So, they couldn''t buy it from others.


    At the same time, it also removed a lot of people who wanted to use the students.


    They ended up trying the second trick, which was to buy their spots as Theo''s students. The system was simple. They paid a lot of money so that the students left the ss and they would put a rmendation for a certain student to enter Theo''s ss.


    Unfortunately for them, it didn''t work either because Theo was the one who chose his students. He would know whether they bought the seat or not.


    Even so, this was better because they would have the chance to fill the spot. Although it looked like a gamble, they could lower the number of participants by stopping the people from transferring to Theo''s ss.


    Of course, it brought the third problem, threat. They were threatening the students who wanted to go to Theo''s ss to make them pull back their application. This way, only those who had powerful backgrounds would be able to get the chance to be Theo''s students.


    Theo had told them they didn''t need to be afraid because he would handle everything, but the majority of the people chose to back down since they were scared to deal with big influences.


    Theo didn''t bother the powerful influences this time. It was surprising since he was the one causing a lot of problems for the Salvatore Family.


    For Theo, apetition like this would always happen whenever there was a treasure that piqued everyone''s greed. Hence, he didn''t bother to stop or restrict them too much.


    If there was still a brave student who dared to stand in front of these giants, he wouldn''t mind picking them up.


    Of course, people like Grace, who already had a good influence, would be treated like a queen. They wanted to learn how Grace got her rmendation and even wanted her help to receive the same thing.


    They didn''t know Theo also went around to check their training, seeing the situation with his own eyes.


    And with this, he crossed out most of the people on the list. And no matter how hard they did it, they wouldn''t know if they had gotten the rmendation or not.


    While they were busy with Theo''s rmendation, the Salvatore Family became silent because of what happened earlier.


    It had been three days since the incident and there was nothing major had happened. The Salvatore Family didn''t seem to find Theo for revenge either.


    Though, they could understand it. Even though both Theo and the head of the Salvatore Family were the top experts in this world, Theo was on a whole different level.


    If the Salvatore Family tried to harm him, none woulde back alive. Hence, people thought they were holing up inside their mansions to stay away from worldly matters for the time being.


    Last but not least, the military had also tried to convince Theo to give the rmendation to them. Of course, the Vice President had personally gone to the Star Group to discuss with Maya.


    In the end, they were allowed to do it, but they had to be under another influence instead of the military. And she wouldn''t interfere with Theo''s decision to give his rmendation.


    Of course, Theo warned them not to bribe him since he gave everyone an equal chance.


    But as one would expect from such a huge event. There were a lot of people who wanted to participate, but it also meant there were a lot of brains who thought about something bad.


    For example, threatening Theo. They didn''t know they were nning to threaten one of the top experts. All they knew Ary was a strong magician who could defeat Eric.


    Hence, they thought about a lineup that could threaten Ary. They couldn''t harm Theo, but Theo also wouldn''t go all the way to take revenge for Ary''s life.


    That was why when Theo was walking around after his ss, he stumbled upon a problem. His location was a bit far away from the people, so no one would be able to reach his position in an instant.


    Theo looked up and saw four people standing on top of the trees. They all wore long robes that covered their entire bodies. The ck mask covered their entire faces other than their eyes.


    Theo looked at them while furrowing his eyebrows. "It seems�� the situation won''t be peaceful from now on. I shouldn''t have told about my mission, I guess��"


    The four guys suddenly attacked him without hesitation as if they wanted to eliminate him thoroughly.

 Chapter 1714 Injured

    *Bam!*


    "Haa��"


    "Ha��"


    Everyone was startled when the door was mmed by someone. They turned around and saw Theo, who was covered in blood, panting.


    They sucked a cold breath because, in their mind, Theo was strong. He could even overwhelm Eric Salvatore. Yet, there were numerous wounds on his body, and no one could determine whether he could continue teaching or not after all this.


    "This is��"


    All the teachers stood up, trying to check on Theo. Although they wanted to get Theo''s favor, they were also confused by this sudden situation.


    "What''s wrong with you?"


    "What happened?"


    The teachers frowned while figuring out the situation.


    Theo gritted his teeth as his body became weaker and weaker.


    "Hurry up and call the doctor. We need to heal him immediately." One of the teachers shouted while another one asked, "What happened, Mr. Ary? Who reduced you to such a state?"


    "I�� don''t know." Theo weakly responded as if he wanted to pass out. He pointed at the direction where the fight urred and stated, "That direction. I was ambushed��"


    "This��" The teachers were stunned. There were a lot of possibilities in his mind such as influences or organizations that wanted to threaten him for his rmendation. However, there was one influence that stood out among the rest.


    The Salvatore Family. They thought the Salvatore Family was taking their revenge because of what happened a few days ago and that punishment. Remembering how angry the King of Fighters was yesterday, it was clear that they wouldn''t hold back. Even if they couldn''t hit Theo or the Star Group, they could still kill Ary, who harmed Eric. Hence, this was a perfect ambush.


    However, Theo had strong power. It was impossible for him to go down without a fight.


    That was why he added, "I don''t know how they did it, but there was no sounding out of there. Be careful��"


    Theo gritted his teeth for a moment before passing out.


    "Hurry up! Where is the doctor?!"


    While Theo was still unconscious, they reported the entire matter to the centralmittee. Due to what happened to Theo, the Vice President became angry and assured everyone he would deal with this situation.


    The entire ce was startled by the ambushers who could take down Theo without anyone noticing. If it was anyone else, they might not be able to survive. Hence, this was the biggest threat that they had experienced.


    Obviously, the other influences also wanted to use this to make Ary owe them. So, they tried to shower Ary with numerous healing medicines so that he could recover as soon as possible.


    In the end, the Vice President was the one who took out the highest grade of the recovery medicine to close all his wounds. As for his strength, Ary might be weaker for the time being, but it shouldn''t hinder him from teaching the students.


    Still, all influences began to spread, trying to gather as much information as possible.


    And finally, Theo woke up a few hourster.


    "Mhm��" Theo let out a small groan while looking around, finding Ruby sitting next to his bed. It seemed she was the one taking care of him this whole time.


    "Ruby?" Theo called her name, startling Ruby who was staring at her Skylink.


    "Oh, Mr. Ary. You have woken up!" Ruby''s eyes brightened. "I''m d that you''re alright."


    "This�� how long have I been unconscious?" Theo asked while looking around, figuring out his current situation.


    "You were unconscious for four hours. We were shocked to see you covered in wounds.


    "I apologize if that startled you." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "What about those people?"


    As if knowing Theo had woken up, a middle-aged man entered the room. He had a long white coat and a Skylink about Theo''s information. "There is no longsting injury. The medicine haspletely closed all your wounds, but you still can''t push yourselves too much for the next three days."


    "I''m grateful for your help, but if you don''t mind, can I ask you what''s going on outside?" Theo asked.


    "There are simply too many things going on after your incident. They''re investigating the matter of your incident right now. Hence, you should take care of yourself first before thinking about it." The doctor exined with a calm expression as if it didn''t bother him. "Anyway, I''m going to call the military to get your statement so that it''s easier for them to investigate the situation."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression as if this was a matter of great importance.


    Meanwhile, Theo also took out his Skylink and called Maya.


    Maya was surprised to see Theo covered in bandages. "What happened to you?"


    She instantly suspected something was going on and asked, "Who did it? Give me the name!"


    "I don''t know." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I was attacked by four people."


    "I see. Is it the Salvatore Family?"


    "I''m not so sure about that as well." Theo thought for a moment and said, "I don''t think they feel like humans."


    "Huh?" Maya tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"


    "I have fought a lot of people in the past and I can understand how they fight. On the other hand, when I fought them, they didn''t feel like they were humans. I couldn''t describe it, but that was how I felt�� The instinct that I had honed for a long time told me they weren''t humans."


    Maya''s expression turned grim. "Not a human? Then, is it not the Salvatore Family?"


    "I don''t know about it either."


    "Mhm�� Who did you meet in the past two days?"


    "I don''t think I remember anyone of high level except for the Vice President��"


    "Is this the work of the Vice President? He''s so bold to do it. It seems that banning the military is not enough. I should have banned the entire government."


    "I''m not sure about that as well. Other than that feeling, I don''t know anything else. Maybe I''ll try to gather my thoughts to understand the situation better."


    "You''re someone whose ability I trust greatly, so if you think that way, I''ll believe they''re not humans. But we have to figure out their identity. Well, try to gather some information. I''ll see if it''s enough to rm Theo."


    "Yes." Theo nodded.

 Chapter 1715 Doubt

    "Yes."


    During the call, Theo didn''t notice Ruby had her eyebrows twitch for a split second. She was sweating inwardly, thinking, ''She believed that? Is it because of his ability? But considering he could defeat someone as powerful as Eric, then��''


    She paused for a moment, gradually believing Theo. After all, Theo had shown his overwhelming power. It was clear he had boundless experience on his back.


    ''Not a human? But the only one who is not a human in this ce is me�� and probably the rest of the guys too��'' Ruby suddenly came to a realization. ''Don''t tell me, someone from our side is the culprit? But we have agreed to not make any move before we confirm the situation. Is there anyone betraying us and acting secretly?''


    Ruby was trying to figure out the situation.


    Theo turned around and bowed his head to Ruby. "Sorry for making you wait here, Miss Ruby. Thank you for taking care of me."


    "No, no! You don''t need to worry about that." Ruby waved her hand while smiling, not trying to show anything obvious.


    However, Theo furrowed his eyebrows. His eyes were locked on Ruby as he observed her from top to bottom.


    "What''s wrong?" Ruby moved back a bit, not understanding Theo''s action.


    Theo scratched the back of his head and said, "No, I must have mistaken you for something. I apologize."


    "It must be because you just got ambushed. It''s better if you take care of your body first before thinking about anything else. Besides, I''m sure the military will visit you soon. At that time, I have to leave."


    "I understand. I''m thankful for your help." Theo nodded. "It seems the other teachers have done something as well. So, please thank them on my behalf."


    "Sure." Ruby nodded with a smile.


    Since the doctor had notified the military, a group of soldiers and the Vice President suddenly entered the room with serious expressions. This was a huge blunder from their side because they didn''t expect there would be people ambushing Theo.


    "I apologize for not being able to protect you, Mr. Ary. However, my team is working nonstop to gather the evidence, so we hope we''ll be able to give you an exnation as soon as possible."


    "Please don''t mind about it, Mr. Vice President. I had expected something like this, but four people of that level were beyond my imagination. It was my fault for underestimating them." Theo made an awkward smile as if he didn''t want to burden the other party.


    "That''s�� If you don''t mind, can you tell us about what happened? This would give us some clues about the culprits."


    "I understand."


    Theo told them the entire story about those four people. Maya even called the Vice President during the story to back up Theo''s im, causing them to wonder what was going on.


    Only the Vice President had a heavy heart as if he had known everything from the start.


    But because he couldn''t show it, the Vice President ced a scapegoat for the time being. "I see. We have taken your report. For the time being, the prime suspect is the Salvatore Family. Don''t worry, Mr. Ary. We''ll investigate this properly."


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a calm expression, seeing them out.


    They were confused by Theo''s words, but the only one who knew everything was within Theo''s calction was Maya.


    In her bedroom, Mayaughed out loud. In fact, she had been trying her best to hold herughter. After everything was over, she let out all theughter in her while saying, "Theo is such a drama queen. No matter how strong they are, there is no way they can defeat Theo. Yet, such a person is injured heavily? Who are you kidding?


    "He is such a drama queen. And what? The enemies didn''t seem like humans? It was just a bluff to the person next to him. And with this, I''m afraid there will be a huge conflict between those people."


    Maya had seen through Theo''s n and yed along with him the entire time. It was truly hrious how Theo managed to fool them so easily.


    As Maya said, Ruby hurriedly returned to her group to inform them about what had happened.


    This was a huge problem for them because Maya had mentioned Theo. If Theo truly came to this ce, they wouldn''t be able to finish their tasks anymore.


    Hence, they had to understand the root of the problem and try to figure out the current situation.


    "What''s going on?" One of them asked while releasing his killing intent. "We have agreed not to make any move."


    "I''m not sure as well. But Maya Hamilton believed him and even wanted to call Theo. So, we couldn''t dismiss the possibility of him telling the truth." Ruby shook her head helplessly. She also wanted to know what was going on.


    "Then, I have to ask everyone in this ce. Have you attacked him?"


    No one answered it because they never did it. But as a leader, the guy gritted his teeth and said, "There is no telling whether you''re telling the truth or not. We have to get to the bottom of this. First of all, we have to confirm their identity first by using the camera footage."


    "Rsasawr is gathering it."


    "We''ll try to review it and see if we can catch the culprit. We can''t allow the ones who will ruin our ns to be alive."


    They agreed, knowing they had to do this if they didn''t want to get destroyed by Theo. They had to de-escte the situation so that Theo wouldn''t go there.


    With that thought in mind, they waited patiently for the spy they had nted in the military to return with the recording.


    "How is it?" The guy asked, hoping nothing went wrong.


    "I''m not very sure how to answer it. First of all, the assassinations attempt are too mysterious. Please watch this."


    They fell silent, watching the video carefully. However, one of them picked up something that changed the entire situation.


    "There! Can you see that?"

 Chapter 1716 Among Us

    "There!"


    They looked at the video the spy from the military had got. And there was something interesting they found in this video.


    Although it was only for an instant, the sleeve of the guy was stretched out a little bit, showing a green-colored uniform sleeve. This uniform could onlye from one ce, the military.


    "This is��"


    "He''s wearing a military uniform?"


    "Then, the culprit is from the military?!"


    "How can you be so sure about it just from the clothes? There is a chance that this guy is wearing it to pin the me on the military."


    "But have you forgotten our deals with that old Vice President?"


    "Don''t tell me, that old bastard was trying to trap us? There were a few of us in his ranks, so did he try to use us to bring that Theo here?"


    "You can''t deny the fact that the Salvatore Family has a lot of grudges against him. There is a chance that they use the military personnel to ambush him."


    "But��"


    There were a lot of possibilities, considering they didn''t know anything about those four ambushers. On the one hand, they wanted to believe it wasn''t them who did it. On the other hand, the possibility of them being the culprit wasn''t zero.


    "There are a lot of oppositions to our n. Don''t tell me one of those people from the opposite party is trying to sabotage us?"


    "This might be a possibility as well. They use the military uniform because we have a good connection with the military and thetter must think they''re one of us."


    Their expressions darkened as they could see the pattern of this possibility.


    Whoever did it truly had considered a lot of things to cause all this misunderstanding. And they knew Ary was the key to destroying whatever they were nning to do.


    "What do you think about that teacher, Rgsawr?"


    Ruby shook her head in confusion. "I don''t know too much about him. However, I can assure you that his strength is a real deal. This camera footage alone can prove that. Although he is surrounded by four powerful people, he can still survive. And with how the richest woman in the world believed his opinion without hesitation, all the things we discussed here are possible."


    They looked at each other as if they suspected them to be traitors. If there was indeed someone among us who tried to sabotage their n, it would be an even bigger matter.


    After all, they had all the weapons to harm Ary. The grudge of the Salvatore Family, the Vice President who worked in the dark, and the monsters in Theo''s mouth. All of these were connected to them, so they couldn''t dismiss all kinds of possibilities about them being the culprit.


    Not just them, but the military and the Salvatore Family had found the same clues.


    The Vice President furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Don''t tell me, there is a traitor among us?"


    "We can''t be sure about that, Mr. Vice President. But if there''s truly a traitor, then that traitor is most likely seeking Theo''s wrath. By letting Theodore Griffith fight the government, it''ll be clear that he wants to drive him away from the base just like the union. When that happens, I''m afraid our base will be significantly weaker."


    "Then, who will get the most from this situation?" The Vice President frowned before he thought about a particr existence. He was the only one who would benefit the most.


    Without Theo, conquering this base would be easier.


    The instant that thought appeared in his mind, his face became cold as he gritted his teeth, shouting inwardly, ''Those bastards. To think they''re trying to destroy us. And they''re even more clever by using both of us and the Salvatore Family as the cover��''


    The Vice President was thoroughly angered as he nned to deal with this situationpletely.


    Just like him, the King of Fighters had read the report and watched the video leaked by their spies. He frowned while saying, "They''re truly clever. To think they''re using our conflict to pin the me on us. From the video, it''s clear that this guy was wearing a military uniform�� Is the government trying to destroy us by using this incident?"


    The King of Fighters thought the government was the culprit, while the government believed the other race was the mastermind. Meanwhile, the other race themselves thought all of them had the chance of being the culprit.


    In other words, all of them suspected each other. And whatever they did after this would result in Theoing here. They had to avoid that at all costs because Theo had the power to destroy the Salvatore Family, fight the government, and ruin the other race''s n.


    So, they had to please Theo with all kinds of facts whether they were real or not. At the very least, they had to show the progress of the investigation.


    In the end, all three leaders nned to frame other parties for this incident. But one thing was clear.


    "I don''t know if this is right or not, but there might be someone who wants to destroy our n by creating this situation. And that person��" The monster guy paused for a moment.


    "Yeah, there is someone who is trying to pin the me on us to destroy us. And it''s possible that the people who do this are in this family since he can tell that bastard Theo he has dealt with us to show his loyalty or whatever shit." The King of Fighters narrowed his eyes. "And that person��"


    "By wearing the military uniform, it seems that the culprit wants Theodore Griffith to stay away from uspletely. This is uneptable. I''m afraid whoever did this wants to pin the me on us and create even bigger problems." The Vice President took a deep breath and announced, "And that person��"


    The monster guy, the Vice President and the King of Fighters seemed to have the same opinion as they said the same thing. "��is still among us."

 Chapter 1717 Arguing

    "What have you done? How dare you betray me at this moment?!" The Vice President mmed, ring at a ck-haired guy.


    "I suspect you were the one who did it. You are the one who should give me the exnation!" The guy gritted his teeth, annoyed. He already had a lot of problems with this situation since Theo had told them about the enemies not being humans. "We have lent you some of our people so that you can create a perfect body for us.


    "But to think you''re using the data you''ve got to mess this up. Those four muste from yourbs. You must have gathered enough data and you''re nning to pin the me on us. Do you think I don''t know about it? I''m going to fight it with you!"


    The Vice President obviously never heard that. Even if he was the culprit, there was no way he would admit it. He shouted, "Of course not. Do you think I won''t get implicated when it''s investigated properly? It must be one of those rebels from your side!"


    "We have been handling our side carefully and not a single one of them ising here. So, you should stop lying! I know the problemes from your side!"


    "You''re the one who should stop lying and pin the me on us."


    The Vice President kept arguing with this mysterious person as they suspected each other. Both of them truly had no idea about what happened, but they were the only possible culprit of this attack.


    Because they couldn''t find a single thing about each party, they gave up arguing after a few hours.


    The Vice President and the mysterious guy were trying toe up with a solution that could solve the problem for the time being. At the very least, they had to stop Theo froming here.


    Hence, they thought about the same thing. Since they didn''t want to admit they had made a mistake, they could only use another influence as a scapegoat. And there was a perfect scapegoat for them.


    The only family, who had a conflict with the Star Group not long ago, the Salvatore Family.


    It didn''t take too long for them to reach an agreement, knowing this was the only way. The Vice President had some assurance since the Salvatore Family wouldn''t kill him for this because of the Time God. Meanwhile, the mysterious guy''s existence wasn''t known by many.


    Hence, the Salvatore Family wouldn''t be able to do anything to counter this.


    "And that''s how it is, Mr. Ary. We believe that the Salvatore Family is involved in this and we''ll make sure to bring you justice. Everything will be revealed soon, so please rest assured that we''ll make sure everything is investigated."


    Theo listened to the guy sent by the Vice President and nodded his head. "I understand. Thank you for the help."


    "Yes." The guy nodded and immediately left before any problem could appear.


    Theo was impressed that they could lie that easily for the sake of saving their own lives. At the same time, he was disappointed because the president was actually using the Salvatore Family as a scapegoat.


    If the Vice President didn''t know about this other race, he would have investigated the monsters. But the fact that they used the Salvatore Family meant the Vice President was rted to them. And it was something worth investigating.


    When the guy left, Theo''s expression became serious.


    "Hmm, it seems that I have to step up my game after this." Theo smirked, feeling he had to use another n.


    "Still, the people in this event have be a bit too tense recently. I guess assassination in this event surely brings a lot of tension to everyone since they think there will be more targets. And this time, no one will realize it as they''re not as strong as me."


    Theo looked down, contemting.


    "I see�� Let''s do that then." After getting his answer, he came out of his room and went to the rooftop, looking at the entire area.


    They were staying in a hotel with twin towers and next to them were several buildings prepared for their sses.


    He was staring at thendscape before ncing to a certain spot. "There, huh�� It''s easy for me to infiltrate the enemies, but I don''t know any information about them currently. So, it''s better for me to stay low. At the same time, since the Salvatore Family has been chosen as a scapegoat, let''s use it to my advantage then."


    Theo smiled.


    The next day.


    "Good morning, Mr. Ary." Ruby smiled, greeting him. After that incident, Ruby became gentler and more proactive toward him.


    Since Ruby was also of another race, her intention was clear. She wanted to stay by his side to get information about the Star Group and Theo while ensuring Theo didn''t report this incident directly to Theo. It was a good n from a normal person''s perspective, but this was something they shouldn''t have done if they were dealing with Theo.


    Theo smiled. "Good morning, Miss Ruby. You''re energetic as always."


    "Of course." Ruby pumped her fists. "I''m going to teach more stuff to the children."


    "That''s great. I''m cheering for you." Theo chuckled. "After all, you were the only one who wasn''t cold to me when the others just simply stayed away from me."


    "Haha, I didn''t choose my friends after all."


    Ruby chuckled and waved her hand as she hastened her pace. "Alright. My ss is right on the corner. I''ll go first!"


    "Sure." Theo waved his hand with a smile, seeing her entering the ss.


    Ruby showed a big, energetic smile. Just looking at that smile gave them some energy to tackle the day.


    ? Yet, no one would expect that smile to disappear.


    "Eh?" Ruby''s smile was no more as the person in question was lying on the ground, staring at her own headless body. Yes, her head was severed and she could only look at her headless body.


    "What is��" Ruby didn''t know anything before her head split into two.


    That day, the academy was shocked after hearing about a brutal murder at the event.

 Chapter 1718 Anger

    "You bastard! What do you mean by this?" The King of Fighters roared, ring at the Vice President on the screen.


    "You should be the one to exin your action, Mr. Salvatore. Don''t forget that you''re the one who causes all this. All of our evidence is leading to you." The Vice President narrowed his eyes, pressuring the Salvatore Family.


    "Me? I haven''t even done anything. I have been loyal to the base, yet, you''re treating me like this? Do you know what you have done?!" The King of Fighters gritted his teeth, never expecting the Vice President to betray him.


    Because of his strength and affiliation, the King of Fighters had a lot of friends in the government, including the Vice President. In fact, he was one of his backers who would clean up if he made a mess.


    However, he never expected that because of the incident, he would be framed by his own backer. This betrayal angered him.


    "Do you really want to do this, Sullivan? Do you think by framing me like this, they will give you an opportunity to lick Theo''s feet?"


    "Watch your words, Mr. Salvatore." The Vice President red at him. "Don''t use someone innocent!"


    "You''re the one using someone innocent."


    "Then, you should have told it to the judge in the court." The Vice President narrowed his eyes. Since he had another backer, which was the other race, he didn''t mind losing the King of Fighters. After all, the other party had a Saint among them. Getting help from the Saint would seriously bring a lot of benefits.


    Hence, it wasn''t that hard for him to choose to abandon the Salvatore Family.


    The King of Fighters, on the other hand, gritted his teeth. He had been cornered by the Star Group because of what happened earlier. Even his allies had abandoned him for the sake of getting the benefit. Of course, some of them were just lying so that they could get the benefit before going back to ally themselves with the Salvatore Family, but it didn''t change the fact that the Salvatore Family had been experiencing a massive hit to their reputation.


    That was why they couldn''t do big things that would cause more trouble. Besides, it would be over if Theo decided to make a move himself. Thus, he had been holding back this whole time.


    He just never thought that the person he trusted would backstab him like this, turning him into a scapegoat.


    If Theo truly visited their Salvatore Family, they didn''t know what kind of damage they would have to suffer.


    The King of Fighters pointed his finger at the Vice President and shouted, "Don''t think this is the end, Sullivan! I''ll have my revenge."


    The Vice President furrowed his eyebrows before ending the call, not bothering to answer hisst remark.


    The King of Fighters released his anger that day. He even began investigating everything about the event, trying to find those mysterious people by himself.


    He had some suspicion about the Vice President himself since he didn''t even bother to throw him away as if he had gotten a bigger benefit from the other party.


    It wasn''t that hard for him to see it. The benefit from Theo''s upgrade skill wouldn''t be that big for him. He wouldn''t even abandon him with this alone. He might cut contact, but he would give a secret message to him. However, this time was different. Not only was there no secret message, but thetter even used him as a scapegoat.


    There was clearly a third party that forced the Vice President to abandon the Salvatore Family. Hence, the King of Fighters swore that day he would get his revenge.


    Of course, his revenge wasn''t limited to the Vice President who betrayed him. He also wanted to make sure that Ary experienced hell as well.


    He didn''t know at that time a bigger and more dangerous problem was awaiting him.


    ��


    Theo waspleting his task, teaching the students. While those three parties were trying to hurt each other, he waspletely undisturbed.


    And as expected, Ruby kept meeting him from time to time, gathering as much information as possible.


    She kept reporting to the people behind her about everything she found while making sure Theo didn''t find out.


    They didn''t know at that time, Theo wasn''t the only one who was watching her. Instead, there was one more person who had been keeping a close eye on both of them.


    "This is��" This mysterious person only wanted to observe the guy called Ary Tjahaja at first. But he never expected that he would find something even more interesting.


    In that instant, he thought of what to do to achieve his goal.


    Obviously, there was no way he would escape Theo''s eyes. Theo had sensed his presence and he couldn''t help but smile when he realized it was time for him to begin his second n.


    Theo let this mysterious person leave quietly as if he didn''t even know he was there. Unbeknownst to them, all of those who were scheming around Theo had been ying into Theo''s n this whole time.


    And it all started with Ruby.


    Ruby was smiling while walking to the teacher room, trying to meet Theo again. "Hello�� Or I guess I''m the first one as usual."


    She chuckled as she entered the empty room with a smile.


    However, there was a surprise waiting for her on her table. She never expected it, but this was a surprise that would put her life on the line. Whether she would live or not, everything would be determined by her actions after this.


    "What is this?" Ruby asked with a confused look, staring at a white envelope on her table.


    She nced left and right, wondering if someone was there and left it for her.


    She hesitated for a moment, but she decided to grab this envelope that turned out to be a letter.


    When she opened it, she was dumbfounded to find what was written there. "This is��"

 Chapter 1719 Ruby

    "Eh?!" Ruby didn''t understand anything before she died. Thest thing she remembered was receiving a letter.


    "There is something I''d like to discuss with you. Can youe to the garden in the back after ss?"


    Ruby didn''t know who asked for this, but after observing Theo for a while, she had seen his writing, which was simr to the one in the letter.


    ''This�� Is this human trying to hit on me like the one previously? But this is for the sake of our race��'' Ruby thought for a moment and decided to y along with it. Infiltrating the Star Group or even Theo''s group would benefit them a lot, so she had to do this.


    Yet, when she arrived, there was no one around.


    "Where is he? He must haven''t reached this ce yet."


    Since Theo wasn''t here, Ruby decided to wait for Theo before everything started to be weird.


    Ruby furrowed her eyebrows when she felt a presenceing to her position. She thought Theo had reached this ce and she was about to know what he wanted to say.


    Unfortunately for her, staying in that ce was thest thing she should do.


    Suddenly, the presence disappeared.


    "Huh?!" Ruby widened her eyes in shock as she looked around, trying to find the presence.


    She raised her guards, making sure that presence didn''tunch a sneak attack.


    However, it was already toote.


    A sharp pain suddenly jolted her mind as she looked down, finding her right leg cut. "This is��"


    "Aaaahhhhh!" She screamed in pain, not understanding what had happened to her body. The cut was clean like an assassin, but at her level, she should be able to see the opponent''s attack.


    However, it waspletely useless. Before she could even figure out what had happened, another sh cut her other leg.


    "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" No matter how hard she screamed, no one heard her. She couldn''t help but remember what Theo had said about the incident.


    "!!!" Ruby didn''t expect she would be the target this time.


    ''No way!'' Ruby was horrified and tried to run away with her Magic Power. She tried her best to move her body.


    Sadly, the enemy was ruthless as her head was severed in an instant to kill her.


    Ruby couldn''t understand a single thing as she could only stare at her headless body.


    And this incident would shock all the people in the event.


    ��


    "Hey, have you heard about what happened yesterday?"


    "I don''t know if that''s true, but I heard someone was murdered this time. It was Mr. Ary before, and the next one was Miss Ruby. What''s going on with this event?"


    "I don''t know. But the teachers are discussing whether they should continue or not, thinking about the safety of the teachers and the students."


    "After all these incidents, I guess we''re going to go home soon."


    "Indeed."


    The students were gossiping about the incidents. There were multiple conspiracy theories.


    Some said the Salvatore Family was taking their revenge on both Theo and Ruby. Some said there was an unknown party that terrorized the event because they didn''t like the president. And some rumors were rted to the attackers being not human.


    All these rumors made the students panic, thinking they would be next.


    Hence, the teachers were gathered in one ce to discuss their next n. The enemies were clearly able to kill a high level person, so it wouldn''t be weird for them to target all many students.


    Hence, they had to consider carefully whether they should continue the event or not.


    "And that''s how it is�� Before we decide whether we should close this event prematurely or not for safety reasons, I would like to hear Mr. Ary''s opinion first. After all, you''re the first one to get attacked by them."


    All the teachers turned their heads, looking at Ary.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. "I don''t know how to say this�� Am I being targeted or something? Is it because I refuse to give the rmendation?


    "At first, I thought that was the case and I didn''t think my life here was peaceful from the start�� so, it could be revenge as well.


    "But Miss Ruby was different�� She was a bright person. She shouldn''t have died because of me�� if this was actually the case. Other than the fact that Miss Ruby was the closest to me in this school, I couldn''t really say anything about the incident��"


    The people thought for a moment as one of them couldn''t help but ask, "So, you''re implying that the enemies this time killed her because she was close to you?"


    "That kind of makes sense."


    "Wait a minute. I heard the rumor that the Salvatore Family wants to take revenge��"


    "That''s true. If that''s the case, is the Salvatore Family the culprit?"


    "But from Mr. Ary''s statement, the enemies this time weren''t humans."


    "He might just confuse them."


    The people were confused as they were trying to figure out the current situation. As expected, the Salvatore Family seemed to be the culprit from their perspectives. After all, there was a huge conflict between Theo and the Salvatore Family a while ago.


    At the same time, Theo made them question the Vice President himself by asking the question. "When I was injured, I saw the Vice President as soon as I woke up�� I wonder where is he right now? I''m certainly not trying to be arrogant by making the Vice Presidente upon my call.


    "But the incident this time is more severe than mine since Miss Ruby has��" Theo took a deep breath, having a hard time saying it. It was clear that Ruby had a special ce in his heart because she was the only one who was close to him. So, they understood Theo''s sadness.


    Theo couldn''t finish his words, but his meaning was clear to everyone.


    They began suspecting the Vice President as well, wondering what he did during this incident.


    As for the Salvatore Family, the Vice President, or the Suspected Other Race, all of them were having a war between themselves because of what happened.

 Chapter 1720 Suspicion

    "What have you done?! Do you think you''re above thew just because you are a Transcendent Level Expert?!" The president roared in front of the King of Fighters.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." The other party obviously denied everything. He furrowed his eyebrows while gritting his teeth. "You must be the one who framed me this whole time."


    "Do you think I don''t know what you have done? You have clearly stated that you''re trying to get revenge! Fine by me if you want to act this way, I''m also going to retaliate!" The Vice President gritted his teeth, closing the video call.


    He had enough of all this. Not long after the Salvatore Family dered their revenge, Ruby, one of the other race''s people, died brutally.


    Since they had cooperation with the other race, the vice president could only look at the Salvatore Family. Thest straw that kept the Salvatore Family away from being sacrificedpletely had broken. And the Vice President wouldn''t hesitate to weaken or destroy the Salvatore Family because of this incident.


    As soon as he hung up the call, the Vice President raised his head, trying toe up with a n to deal with them.


    Unbeknownst to him, Ruby was actually still alive after being killed brutally.


    The other race had gathered once again in a certain room, thinking about their next move.


    The mysterious guy, who met the Vice President a few days ago, was staring at a capsule that had Ruby''s body in it. She was sleeping inside the capsule, recovering her human body, albeit a different kind of body.


    She wasn''t the Ruby that everyone knew anymore.


    The guy asked, "How did you feel?"


    "I''m fine." She answered while opening her eyes. She couldn''t help but recall what had happened.


    After her body was butchered, she was discovered by a student that reported this incident to the higher level, who helped recover her body.


    Since her real body wasn''t that of a human, she was still fine even after being chopped like previously as long as her main body was still intact.


    And the mysterious guy before her had recovered her main body, allowing her to enter her new body.


    "So, what do you know about the attacker?"


    "I''m sorry, but I don''t know much. All I sensed was a faint presence that disappeared in an instant before killing me."


    "Mhm?" The guy frowned, wondering what kind of human could do something like that.


    "Also, I picked up a letter with Ary''s handwriting on my table, making me think he was the one who sent that letter."


    "Make you think? So, it''s not him?" The mysterious guy was confused. It was clear that Theo was the culprit, considering he was the one writing the letter.


    But Ruby simply shook her head and added, "As much as I want to think that way, I don''t think Ary will harm me. After all, there is no grudge between us. And there''s no way he''s leaving that kind of message to me�� I''m assuming someone is copying his handwriting to pin the me on him after killing me."


    "Hmm?" The guy looked down as he couldn''t ignore that possibility either. It was true that Ary became the prime suspect after learning about the letter. But there was no conflict between them, especially Ruby, so he couldn''t believe Ary was the culprit.


    At the same time, this kind of killing method was a bit weird. At first, Theo was attacked by four mysterious people who couldn''t be said to be human. Then, Ruby was brutally murdered by another person.


    If the culprit was actually the same, he could somehow understand why Theo said they didn''t look like a human. This kind of killing method waspletely unheard of.


    "Is there another party beside us? But even the government could find us when we''re trying to mix with them. In that case, the government must have known something about this incident��"


    The guy contemted for a moment as his expression became darker and darker. The Vice President might have figured out something they didn''t know and hidden it from them to get some assurance.


    "I have heard how greedy and schemer humans could be�� I don''t want to think about this possibility, but there is a chance that the Vice President is going to betray us. After getting our people as samples, he''s going to eliminate us to erase the evidence.


    "In other words, he wants the result for himself so that he can gain the biggest benefits. There is no telling what kind of result he''s got, but��" The mysterious guy frowned. Although he doubted the Vice President, thetter had been working with them for quite a while. So, he couldn''tpletely doubt him. Hence, he decided to talk with the Vice President first before trying to do anything.


    ''If I truly found out that he''s trying to use us and eliminate us after getting all the benefits, I''ll make sure to ruin him."


    Without hesitation, the guy called the Vice President to check on him.


    As soon as the call was connected, the mysterious guy asked, "What have you done?"


    The Vice President widened his eyes in confusion. "What have I done? I don''t think I understand your question."


    "I know that you''re trying to use us for yourselves. When you''ve got everything you want, you''re nning to eliminate us. That''s why you eliminate her�� You want to weaken us by killing each of us one by one."


    "I seriously don''t understand what you''re talking about. Do you think I would be in this state if I did something to your group? I would have a nightmare thinking about how to solve the problem with your group." The Vice President shook his head, denying it firmly.


    The mysterious guy narrowed his eyes, feeling something weird from the Vice President. He wasn''t someone who would reveal such weakness even if he was joking.


    "��" The mysterious guy paused for a moment as if he was considering the Vice President''s words. "Never mind."


    The guy didn''t hesitate to hang up as if he didn''t want to get bothered anymore.

 Chapter 1721 Proof

    The Vice President was confused because of the guy''s attitude. On the other hand, thetter frowned and muttered, "It seems that the Vice President has done something."


    "But isn''t he helping us by using the Salvatore Family as the scapegoat?"


    "That''s precisely the reason. We have used the Salvatore Family as our scapegoat, so the Vice President is using that fact to the fullest to do something underhanded. He can always use the Salvatore Family as a scapegoat. And eventually, he will get whatever he wants from us while we can''t get anything from him unlike the promise we''ve shared back then."


    "This�� Doesn''t this mean we''ve been betrayed?"


    "I don''t have much proof, but I''ll try to investigate him so that I have some weapons against him as well." The guy nodded, assuring her.


    The tension rose in the room as the guy couldn''t forgive the Vice President.


    They didn''t know that the battle had reached a stalemate. The Vice President was using the Salvatore Family as a scapegoat and worked together with the other race to get some benefits for the sample.


    They also received some benefits in the form of a body to use when they were mingling with humans. In exchange, they gave some of their people so that the humans could learn more about their unique bodies.


    Meanwhile, the Salvatore Family hated the Vice President to the bone after the betrayal and had some suspicion about their race.


    In other words, the moment one of them made a move, the stalemate would be broken and a huge battle between the three parties would begin.


    Unbeknownst to them, the one who caused all this was actually sitting on his bed, enjoying his free time.


    "This is quite good." Theo smiled while yawning. "The situation is getting more and more interesting. I have never thought they woulde this way, but this is certainly something I should do�� The enemies this time are hiding among us, so let them fight."


    Theo was toozy to get involved too much when they could just destroy each other. Hence, Theo decided to work on his part in this event.


    He nced at his Skylink, reading the message he got from the Central Committee.


    ''After a long discussion, we''ve agreed to open the event again. In exchange, the military will observe all ces more strictly so that no incident like this could happen again.''


    The message was simple, but the continuation of this event actually came from him. Theo had suggested something they couldn''t refuse.


    A moment ago, Theo said in the meeting, stunning everyone. "I believe we should continue this event."


    "Hmm?" The people frowned, thinking this was a reckless move. They were simply putting the students and themselves in danger if they continued.


    However, Theo added, "Of course, I''m not telling you to immediately resume it, especially after all this. Instead, we should give the students some fun time, probably one or two days.


    "During that time, we can discuss the continuation of the event again," Theo exined. Despite suggesting to continue, Theo was nning to buy time so that everyone could consider his opinion, allowing them to get a clearer head to decide.


    Since the situation was dangerous, the Central Committee actually agreed. They could investigate, discuss or even solve this matter during the off time.


    Hence, the students might go sightseeing or anything while the teachers had to pair up with one or two people to ensure they weren''t attacked anymore. At the very least, they would have enough time to run away.


    After receiving their agreement, Theo smiled, looking back at the other race.


    "Well, well. There are a lot of things I want to say to this other race, such as we''re not enemies. But I don''t think the situation allows us to do something like that." Theo smirked.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Maya was doing her work as well before receiving a package from Theo.


    She didn''t understand why he would give her this package, but when she opened it, she understood what Theo wanted.


    The King of Fighters, who had been working on the investigation to take his revenge suddenly received an anonymous email, showing him something that even made him feel disturbed.


    It was multiple tubes filled with human bodies. All these human bodies were actually the participants of the event.


    "This is��" The King of Fighters furrowed his eyebrows, trying to locate the sender but to no avail. This anonymous email surely gave him a lot of power to fight back, but he felt he would be someone''s pawn if he went ording to their n.


    "This is enough for me to take down the Vice President and blow up the entire situation. And if I can kill all these people for the sake of ''people,'' I can use it to bargain with the Star Group and Theodore Griffith.


    "In other words, this proof will allow me to regain everything while punishing those traitors."


    The King of Fighters looked down. He had two options. If he became the pawn, he would be able to get everything. If he didn''t be one, he would lose everything because of the Vice President.


    The King of Fighters couldn''t help but remember what happened in the event this whole time.


    "Now that I think about it, my brother was once close to the woman that just got killed�� Don''t tell me, my brother was getting involved in this without knowing anything about it? So, he was used as a pawn so that my family would have to fight the Star Group and Theodore Griffith? No, should I say that they''ve decided to make me their scapegoat this whole time."


    The King of Fighters shuddered, never expecting he had been yed by them this whole time.


    "I would rather betray the whole world instead of letting the world betray me." The King of Fighters gritted his teeth. "Since they''ve betrayed me first, I''m going to make all of them pay for angering me!"

 Chapter 1722 Scheme

    The King of Fighters personally visited the Vice President to pay him back for everything he had done to him. Even though he would be ying in the hand of the person who sent the proof to him, it was enough because he could get his revenge.


    Without hesitation, the King of Fighters red at the Vice President while smashing the pictures on the table. "As expected, no wonder you''re betraying me. It seems that you''ve found another ce to sharpen your fangs."


    The King of Fighters gritted his teeth.


    The Vice President didn''t understand why he was like this and grabbed one of the pictures to understand what was going on.


    The moment he saw the picture, the Vice President was shocked. He had made two facilities during their cooperation. The first facility was the ce to get all the data they needed. The second facility was a ce he gave to the other race so that they could build their own ce to resurrect.


    And this picture came from second ce.


    Despite recognizing this ce, the Vice President couldn''t admit it.


    ? "What is this?" The Vice President asked, ying dumb.


    "You don''t have to y dumb. I know you''re the one who builds this ce." The King of Fighters snorted. "If you''re not going to admit it, then I don''t mind sending it to someone who has higher authority than you."


    The King of Fighters threatened the Vice President by using the President''s name. If thetter knew about it, he would, without a doubt, send the Time God to investigate this ce. After all, it might have vited the Order itself. They were lucky that this ce hadn''t been found yet or else the World ss Monsters or Authority and Order Level Figures from the human race would have gathered in this ce to destroy it.


    Still, the Vice President couldn''t stop the King of Fighters at all, considering he was one of the strongest humans alive. Even his strongest subordinate couldn''t kill him at all.


    But there was one big question in his mind.


    ''How did he find out about that ce? No one could find that ce before, so where did the informatione from? I know for certain that the King of Fighters wasn''t capable of finding this ce.''


    The Vice President tried to find the third party. And there was only one person that might have the chance. Even the King of Fighters had mentioned him.


    ''Don''t tell me, it''s the President? He knows about this ce and waits for this thing to happen to suppress me? Don''t tell me, he''s trying to eliminate me with all this?''


    The Vice President''s heart skipped a beat, though he couldn''t show it. The moment he showed any weaknesses, the King of Fighters would take advantage of it.


    His conduct was a bit different from yesterday which showed a bit of weakness in his conversation.


    The Vice President thought for a moment and said, "It seems that you have found a hiddenboratory. Whoseboratory is this? I''ll help you with the investigation."


    It was an offer for the King of Fighters to mend the rtionship. ''Helping'' the investigation was meant for him to destroy thatboratory before the real investigator arrived.


    But the King of Fighters didn''t n to mend their rtionship. Even though he wasn''t that smart in politics, he still knew that the Vice President simply wanted to wash his hands and find another time to betray him again.


    So, the King of Fighters shouted, "I don''t need you as one of my connections. There is an even bigger ce for me.


    The King of Fighters didn''t hesitate to stand up, nning to leave.


    "Wait! Let''s talk about this!" The Vice President couldn''t stop him with force, so the only way was to use his negotiation skill to persuade him.


    The King of Fighters narrowed his eyes, ring at the Vice President. "Negotiation? Do you think I''ll negotiate with someone like you again? You have betrayed me and you want to negotiate with me? You''repletely shameless and insane. I won''t fall for any of your tricks anymore."


    "Stop!" The Vice President tried to stop him, but to no avail. The King of Fighters was simply too strong for anyone to stop. Unless he could bring another King or Saint, he wouldn''t be able to suppress the King of Fighters.


    But at this moment, there was a call for the Vice President. It came with a peculiar ringtone, stopping the King of Fighters.


    "Hmm?" The King of Fighters frowned and red at the Vice President, who had an awkward expression. This call came from the mysterious guy, so it was obvious he would prove the other race''s existence if he epted this call.


    "What''s wrong? ept it!" The King of Fighters used this chance to put even more pressure on him. The Vice President had made him go through a lot from the betrayal, so he was going to do the same.


    The Vice President looked around, trying to find a way to stop him.


    However, the King of Fighters didn''t care about it and grabbed the Vice President''s shoulder while slipping his hand into his pocket to take out the Skylink.


    The moment he received that call, the mysterious guy''s face appeared on the screen.


    "Good, good, good��" The King of Fighters bit his lips, never expecting he was betrayed because of this guy.


    The mysterious guy was also shocked by the sudden appearance of the King of Fighters, making him realize they had been exposed.


    "!!!" The mysterious guy tried to be calm and pretended to not know anything. "Hello, Sir Vice President. I''ve��"


    "There''s no need to pretend. I have known everything. This is good. It seems that I can sacrifice you and the Vice President to redeem myself." The King of Fighters smirked.


    And to make matters worse, there was something happening behind the scene.


    In theboratory, Ruby was still recovering her body before she felt a presenceing to her ce. She was the only one in this ce since no one from her race had died. So, it was surprising to have a visitor, especially when she felt this presence familiar.


    When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see this familiar face.


    "You��"


    "It seems that you''re still alive, Miss Ruby. I''m sorry, but you have to die today."

 Chapter 1723 Fighting Each Other

    "We have an emergency!" One of the other races informed their leader while gritting his teeth. "Our facility has been destroyed and Rgsawr is found dead."


    "What?!" The guy widened his eyes in shock. He had just seen the King of Fighters during the call and had a hard time de-escte the situation.


    But when he returned, he actually got this kind of news? The mysterious guy instantly became angry as he asked in a loud voice. "What do you mean by that?"


    "The facility and all the equipment have been destroyedpletely. We have found a few abilities that seem toe from the culprit. After some investigation, it seemed the attacker was only one man who utilized Ice Element."


    "Ice Element?" The mysterious guy frowned. He wanted to re up, but that was thest thing he should do as a leader.


    Despite his anger, he tried his best to calm his heart while thinking about all kinds of possibilities.


    "I don''t think I know anyone who uses Ice Element. At the same time, why did this person attack us? Who would get the biggest benefits from destroying our facilities?"


    He muttered the questions, falling into deep thought. He had just met the Vice President through the call and got intercepted by the King of Fighters. It seemed that the Vice President and the King of Fighters weren''t on the same side with how the King of Fighters kept treating the other party coldly.


    "Wait a minute." The guy looked down, confirming the doubt in his mind. In that instant, the realization struck him. "The Vice President was the one who ordered the destruction of the facility? Was it because he was fighting the King of Fighters?


    "To make sure there was no proof he could use against him, he destroyed our ce? But there''s no benefit�� No, there''s no need for benefits. As long as he didn''t get caught in a conspiracy with another race, it was enough for him.


    "In other words, the Vice President gave a secret signal to his subordinate to destroy the facility so that he could wash his hands from this matter. By turning them into an enemy, the Vice President could justify himself.


    "That''s right. The Vice President joined hands with us for the sake of improving his faction. However, the moment this cooperation was known to the people, he would get all the pressure that would eventually destroy him.


    "Hence, the Vice President would crush uspletely, making sure he could justify himself in this situation."


    The guy realized that their facility was just the start. The King of Fighters would surely destroy their entire group, especially due to his hatred toward the Vice President, who made him a scapegoat.


    "This is not good. The King of Fighters is going to hunt us down from this point on. And the Vice President will join hands with him and betray us."


    The guy panicked as he could see what was going to happen.


    On the one hand, he couldn''t afford to be discovered by humans. Even the Vice President experimented on them to get data to create their perfect bodies. On the other hand, they couldn''t simply swallow this defeat, fully knowing the Vice President was the traitor.


    "Since he is going to go all the way to us, then there''s no need to be passive anymore. We have to use this chance to create as much chaos as possible to deal enough damage to slow them down.


    "As much as I want to avenge Rgsawr, we can''t do it now because of the King of Fighters. It seems that Theodore Griffith isn''t the only one we should be wary of��


    "Still, I don''t like to swallow this betrayal that easily. In that case��"


    The mysterious guy became silent, contemting their ns in order to harm both the Vice President and King of Fighters.


    "Alright. Let''s do this."


    It seemed he had determined his next n. Unbeknownst to him, Theo, or specifically Ary, had been standing outside his room, smiling. He wasn''t inside the hotel. Instead, he was flying in the air, looking at him through the window.


    After watching him, he was smiling. Everything had gone ording to his n.


    This was what Theo actually wanted in the first ce. He wanted to pit them against each other.


    Because of the grudge against the Vice President and the suspicion of another race, the King of Fighters would fight them all the way. Due to his betrayal of both the King of Fighters and the other ace, the Vice President had no choice but to fight with all his strength to avoid getting wrecked. Andstly, to avoid getting crushed by the King of Fighters and the Vice President, the other race had to eliminate them first.


    The situation had reached the point where all of them had to fight the other two parties even if they had to sustain some casualty on their side.


    Meanwhile, Theo was simply sitting on the sideline, watching the fight.


    He had three purposes beforeing to this academy. Giving the rmendation was never his reason.


    Instead, Theo wanted to understand the reason behind the current invasion of the other race, the Vice President''s purposes in joining hands with another race, and expelling all these people.


    And he was about to achieve it.


    ''Now that the battle will happen soon, I have to find the location of the Vice President''s base. I don''t know what he has done, but joining hands with another race for research means he has a high chance of messing with the taboo. Hence, it''s only right for me to stop him before he messes with the Order.''


    Theo thought carefully before flying away, returning to his room. After all, Theo had done enough to make them fight. All that was left was to watch them in silence.


    As soon as Theo went back to his room, he received a call from the Vice President asking him whether it was alright for them to talk.


    In that instant, Theo smiled as if he had been expecting this.

 Chapter 1724 Information

    Theo took a seat in front of the Vice President who had an awkward smile on his face as if he was in a pinch. Of course, the weakest party in this fight was none other than the Vice President, since the others had gotten a hold of his secret.


    Hence, he had no other way but to ask for help.


    "Mr. Ary. Do you think it''s possible if I can talk to Mr. Theo?" The Vice President asked.


    As Theo expected, the Vice President wanted to talk to him. He already knew what kind of conversation they would have.


    Hence, Theo asked, "I don''t think I understand what you''re talking about. How could you ask me whether you could meet Sir Theo or not."


    Theo simply showed his low status so that the Vice President gave up.


    But the Vice President had be so desperate that he said, "Mr. Ary. I won''t treat you badly. As long as you''re able to connect me to Mr. Theo, I can give you one billion. What do you think?"


    "Do you think my life can be bought with just one billion? It seems you''re underestimating me. Besides, there''s no way I''m going to betray Theo for no apparent reason. Do you understand what this means?"


    The Vice President''s body trembled. Of course, he knew Theo wanted to get some information about the other race since Theo woulde to wipe them out. That was the reason why the Vice President came to Theo in the first ce. Only Theo would be able to beat them without rming so many people.


    But he had to choose whether he should risk it or not. By telling Ary, who was unrted to this, he would have given another weakness to him. The teacher before him could easily betray him and send the information to the president himself through Theo.


    And that was when his life was over.


    At the same time, the Vice President didn''t have any choice. If he refused to say anything, he wouldn''t be able to get Theo''s help.


    After gathering the sentences in his mind to make sure Theo didn''t find a single clue about their cooperation, the Vice President exined, "I won''t hide it from you. The reason why I need Mr. Theodore Griffith''s help is because I have found another race hiding among humans."


    "Hmm? Another race is mingling with our people?" Theo frowned, bing skeptical.


    "Let me exin everything first. And I''ll tell you the chronology." The Vice President took a deep breath, making sure he didn''t say a wrong word.


    "It all started one year ago. I was suddenly approached by another race who gave me the offer for cooperation."


    "Cooperation? What kind of cooperation do you have?" Theo frowned, judging him.


    "It''s not a big cooperation. We simply exchange intel with each other. Because they''re monsters, they can live around other monsters and get information from us.


    "However, recently, I''ve found out that they''re nning something big." The Vice President exined while observing Theo''s expression.


    "So, you''re saying you have a deal with them?" Theo narrowed his eyes because he couldn''t stand the fact that humans couldn''t do anything on their own.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    However, the Vice President glorified his deeds as if he had done something like a hero.


    "I have a deal with them for one thing. Because they''re scattered among humans, I''m afraid that they will use that to make the people their hostages. Hence, I create a mutual deal with them to gain their trust.


    "This way, I can get more information about them, and after getting enough information, I''m mobilizing my people topletely crush them.


    "I am a human. I might not be as great as Mr. Theo, but I''ll always strive to be a good person. This is my way of contributing to humanity.


    His words were perfect. It would make normal people think he had done a lot for their sake. However, they didn''t know the real character of this Vice President.


    Theo had gotten all the proof stating otherwise. But he didn''t n to act now.


    Before responding to the Vice President, Theo contemted for a moment as if he had found another thing in their conversation.


    "So, you''re doing it for humanity?"


    "Of course. I''m a human as well. If I didn''t fight for my own kin, I would be too ashamed.


    This Vice President was truly shameless, Theo thought. He had betrayed humanity, yet, he dared to say all those words. There was more and more killing intent gathering in her heart.


    Theo shook his head helplessly. "Alright. I can help you since you''re fighting for humans. It''s true that another race shouldn''t havee here. The fact that they''re standing around us already makes everything suspicious. There''s no telling what they will do.''


    Theo expressed his willingness to cooperate with the n, including telling ''Theo'' about it.


    "Still, I have one question for you. Since they''re hiding among us, how are you so sure that you can kill all of them? I mean, they have a lot of people hiding among us. It''s clear that they will be conscious of their surroundings. The only way to defeat them was to bait all of them out and kill them in one single swoop.


    "But the problem is... how and who?"


    The Vice President had prepared an answer like this. He said, "I have gotten close to their leader. I''m going to call him and see if he can call the people near him. After that, Sir Theo wille in and attack them.


    "What do you think?"


    Theo looked down. It was certainly a good proposal, but Theo took a long time before making a decision.


    "It seems to be good enough. In that case, I''ll try to ask Mr. Theo to do this. Still, I can''t guarantee if he''s going toe or not."


    "Yes. That''s enough." The Vice President nodded with a smile. The first hurdle had beenpleted, all he had to do was to watch how Theo wiped the other race out. He didn''t know that Theo had been thinking another thing this whole time and that was the n that would bring down the Vice President.

 Chapter 1725 Operation

    There was no need for Theo to bring up that matter to himself since he had heard everything.


    However, even after two days, there was simply no response from Theo as if he wasn''t interested in this matter.


    "Why is there any response from Mr. Theo? Have you told him about it? Is it because of the grudge from back then that you refused to tell him?!" The Vice President gritted his teeth. The longer he waited, the more dangerous his position would be.


    So, he wanted Theo to kill them immediately.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo didn''t give him a single reply. Well, Theo was the person in front of him this whole time. But the Vice President didn''t know it.


    Theo took a deep breath and said, "I have told everything, Mr. Vice President. The grudge between me and the military won''t outweigh the matter of another race infiltrating the human base. You can feel assured about that. Even then, I don''t have the power to convince him."


    "��" The Vice President gritted his teeth because he didn''t expect Theo to wait like this. If he could, he would have told the Time God about this. But when the Time God got involved, he would investigate the entire case and eventually reach him.


    However, Theo was different. He had been repelling the other races like the sea race or the mutated monsters continuously. In his perspective, Theo was more earnest in repelling the enemies.


    As soon as Theo finished destroying the enemies, he would eliminate all the people involved in the experiment and store the data somewhere else. He could do this because Theo would repel the enemy first before doing an investigation, not the other way around like how the Time God usually acted.


    He simply didn''t know Theo had been manipting the situation this entire time.


    After that meeting, there was another period of silence as if no one was nning to make their move.


    The Vice President became a bit impatient. The other race was preparing for their attacks to eliminate the Vice President. The King of Fighters had been distracted by all the facts that he got from an anonymous email.


    They didn''t know that all of them were going ording to Theo''s n. The King of Fighters had be his dog, trying to find the facility that the Vice President used toplete his experiment.


    The other race didn''t realize Theo actually wanted to attack the Vice President first so that he could film it.


    And making the Vice President impatient would speed up the entire process.


    As expected, the Vice Presidentpletely lost it after five days. Seeing Theo didn''t n to act, the Vice President gathered his people to raid the enemy''s base.


    "Everything is ready?" He asked, ring at the special squad he had prepared to deal with the enemies.


    "We''re ready, Mr. Vice President."


    "Remember. Your targets are the other races. I have managed to locate all of them in this ce, so double-check the list and kill all these people. If there are humans among them, I''ll take responsibility. Understood? Everything is for the safety of the base. I''d rather kill one innocent person than let one monster roam in the base since thetter can cause more harm."


    "Yes, Sir." They nodded with serious expressions.


    They were shocked that there were a lot of people to be hunted.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    However, they had received their missions, so they had to go. Even if they had to be condemned for the rest of their lives, this was their job.


    There were seven Mythical Rank Experts in the group. The Vice President thought they should be enough to assassinate the enemies one by one.


    After double-checking the information, they immediately started their missions.


    The captain, who led the team, waved his hand a few times, giving a signal to his team.


    They nodded their heads while removing their presence. After that, they went straight to their target, a Hero Rank Expert who disguised himself as a student.


    As soon as they opened the door, the entire group entered, clearing the rooms.


    There was a red-haired young man sitting on his chair as if he was nning to practice what he had learned during the day.


    "Wha��" Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t even finish his words before the special squad severed his neck.


    They even used their ability to burn the bodypletely as instructed by the Vice President.


    "It seems the Vice President has been investigating this��" One of them stated while looking at the corpse that gradually turned into translucent red liquid. It wasn''t blood, but something else.


    The others also recognized this weird substance as if this was the real body of the one who infiltrated them.


    They knew that this boy wasn''t a human. When confirming it, they felt relieved because they didn''t have to kill their own kin. Instead, they were going to be a hero who dealt with dangerous monsters hiding among the humans.


    With the newfound resolve, the team immediately went to one room after another, eliminating all their targets.


    They couldn''t afford to slip up or rm the enemies, so they aimed for the Supreme Rank Expert or below first since seven Mythical Rank Experts could kill them in an instant.


    The operation was filled with blood. They missed some of their targets as they turned out to be humans, but the team couldn''t stop because these people would soon go back to their own influences. At that time, the enemies would have sessfully infiltrated the base.


    Unbeknownst to them, the mysterious guy, the leader of their group, felt something was wrong. He was sitting in his room while furrowing his eyebrows as if he was thinking about something.


    "They should have informed me by now. Why have I not received their message yet?" The guy narrowed his eyes before standing up, nning to check on them personally.


    But the moment he came out of his room, the special squad was alsoing out of the emergency stairs.


    Their eyes met and it was the signal to fight.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1726 Ambush

    *Boom!*


    An explosion urred as eight people came out of the hole in the building.


    The mysterious guy gritted his teeth, never expecting to be ambushed today. There were seven Mythical Rank Experts from the opposite side and he wasn''t a King ss Monster or stronger, so it wouldn''t be possible for him to stop all these experts.


    However, he still had pride as the current leader of the infiltration team.


    He let out a roar that no one other than the monsters couldprehend. "Raaaaaaaaarrrrrrsssrw!"


    "!!!" The people from the special squad were confused. It didn''t take too long for them to realize what he was doing.


    As a leader, the mysterious guy had the ability to call his subordinates.


    "There are moreing. Prepare for a huge battle!" The captain of the squad spoke. Luckily, they had covered their entire bodies, making them not recognizable easily.


    However, the moment they were distracted by theing reinforcement, the mysterious guy hurriedly struck one of them with w-shaped energy.


    "Gah!" One of the special squad members spat a mouthful of blood as the ws pierced quite deep into his back. If he wasn''t a Mythical Rank Expert, the enemy would have damaged his spine. "Kh."


    "Attack him! He must be the leader!" The captain pointed at him while ncing at his back. "You two, take care of the reinforcement. Buy us time. At the very least, we have to kill the leader."


    "Understood." The group split into two. There were more than fifty peopleing out of their room to help them. At the same time, some of the humans were confused by the roar from earlier, thinking it wasing from a monster.


    But because none of them saw what happened, they couldn''t determine who let out that roar.


    "You are a monster!" The captain shouted while waving his de.


    The guy repelled the attack with his w-shaped energy before forming a blue-colored barrier that isted him from the world.


    A series of attacks hit the barrier and broke it apart, but the barrier managed to absorb most of its energy, so the mysterious guy managed to escape from the attacks with small injuries.


    Seeing more and more peopleing out, the mysterious guy shouted, "Are you the one attacking Mr. Ary previously? Where do youe from? You''re just a terrorist at this point."


    He wanted to sow discord among the humans. It was clear that the special squad was doing a necessary job. Yet, they looked like the bad guy, considering there was Theo''s incident and the other party was a recognized teacher in this ce.


    That was why they had to kill this guy before the crowd helped the enemy.


    The captain gathered a lot of Magic Power into his sword as he shed the mysterious guy.


    "Teacher Azka!" One of the teachers shouted while flying toward him, trying to stop that attack. At the very least, they had to buy time until more and more teachers arrived to kill these attackers.


    Azka, the leader of the other race, smirked and formed a barrier with all his strength, trying to stay alive no matter what.


    "Haaaa!"


    The captain of the special squad struck the barrier. The sword soon became frozen and the contact area was covered in thin ice, making the surface more brittle.


    As expected from a captain of a special squad, his strength was extraordinary.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    *Crack!*


    The barrier cracked, and he released all his strength to push forward, trying to cut Azka down.


    "Kh!" Azka gritted his teeth and threw himself to the side, albeit the sh took his arm. "Aaaaahhhh!"


    "Tsk." The captain clicked his tongue and shattered the rest of the barrier before waving his sword toward him, trying to cut Azka down.


    Unfortunately, the wind blew him away, causing the captain to get separated from his group.


    "This��" The captain gritted his teeth. They wanted to tell them Azka wasn''t a human, but the Vice President had forbidden them from saying it. No matter how ridiculous the order was, it didn''t change the fact that they had to obey it.


    But because of this sudden development, they realized they wouldn''t be able to continue.


    The captain shouted, "We''re retreating!"


    His squad knew their mission had failed due to the amount of reinforcement and the teachersing to help. They were unwilling to let them go like this, but they had no choice but to retreat.


    If they stayed here, they would only be killed by them. And even if they broke the order by telling them they weren''t humans, the teachers wouldn''t believe them.


    Hence, their only option was to run away, trying to survive.


    "Let''s go!" The squad members immediately pped their hands, releasing their Magic Power. Water and me appeared in the air as the heat instantly evaporated the water, causing white steam to cover the entire battlefield.


    Then the squad members ran away with all their strength. At the very least, they couldn''t be caught by the teachers.


    "Don''t let them run away!" Azka shouted while holding his severed arm. There was anger reflected in his eyes as he wouldn''t stop until they were dead.


    The other teachers could understand it, considering this was another assassination attempt.


    Azka wasn''t someone who had a lot of enemies, so they didn''t know the reasons why those people attacked him. There were also Ruby and Theo''s cases.


    A few questions appeared in their mind as they became more and more scared.


    ''What if the next target is us?''


    ''Who is their leader? To have seven Mythical Rank Experts��''


    The people were trying to figure out their identities while hunting those people down.


    They didn''t realize Azka was smiling while going behind them.


    ''Those people are from the Vice President. As expected, I know he''s going to kill me sooner orter. Unfortunately, it won''t be today. Since you have betrayed me, don''t me me for what I''m going to do.''


    Azka was determined to get his revenge and began formting his next n to destroy the Vice President.

 Chapter 1727 Suspicion

    "Have you heard there were assassins yesterday?"


    "Yes. I heard there are a lot of people who fall victim to their ruthless actions."


    "Are we going to be next?"


    "I don''t know. I don''t think the event will continue at this rate."


    "That''s probably true. After all, the current situation is extremely dangerous."


    "But I heard they managed to kill one of the assassins, and now, they were trying to identify the assassins."


    "I''m wondering who the insane bastard that wants to kill the people here is. We''re the future hope of this base, and we have lost a lot of people from the previous war and the apocalypse. Yet, they''re still doing things like this�� I don''t know what their motivation is��"


    "That''s true. Even though humans should unite to survive in this world, they''re still trying to harm humanity. We need to ask other influences to investigate this matter."


    "Yeah. There are a lot of influential people among us, so I bet they''re going to make their move very soon."


    The students kept chatting about what had happened yesterday. Some were scared, some were confused, but more importantly, the rest were angry. They wanted to crush these assassins but had no resources to do that.


    As expected, the Vice President had begun his move. Knowing that the n was a failure, he had to get the dead body so that they wouldn''t be recognized as his subordinate.


    "Mr. Vice President!" The centralmittee leader greeted him.


    "Mhm." The Vice President nodded. "I''m going to take over this case. We can''t allow these assassins to be spared. That''s why I''m going to mobilize our troops��For that, I need the assassin!"


    "Certainly, Mr. Vice President." The leader agreed without hesitation. The Vice President was the one who hosted this event after all. There was no way he could bepared to him in terms of status. Without hesitation, he was going to hand the corpse to him.


    It was at this time Azka shouted, "Well, isn''t this Mr. Vice President? You truly give me a different treatment. When Mr. Ary was hurt, you provided the best facility to heal him and even came to him personally. Yet, when it was me almost getting killed, you didn''t even spare a nce.


    ? "I find this pretty confusing, considering I can describe the enemy better than Mr. Ary because I managed to escape their initial ambush. I wonder why the Vice President would like to get the corpse."


    The Vice President furrowed his eyebrows. "I''m simply going to make my move personally. There have been a lot of people hurt from this incident, so I''m going to track those bastards down!"


    "If that''s the case, we have all the tools to determine the guy''s identity here. Why do you wish to take him away?"


    Azka kept pressuring the Vice President.


    "Insolent! Who do you think you are to order me around? I''m going to bring him to the best autopsy facility in the military. I''m going to make sure we can find the culprit, but you''re trying to hinder my job?"<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Of course not. I''m simply curious, considering I have been treated differently despite you saying you will ensure the safety of Mr. Ary like anyone else here and give him the best treatment to recover." Azka narrowed his eyes. As expected from the Vice President, he knew how to throw back the question to Azka. "Besides, are you going to me the Salvatore Family again? They have been hiding this whole time due to the recent problem."


    Even Azka was having a hard time finding a way to implicate him.


    However, there was something clear. The Vice President was going to get rid of the body as soon as he received it.


    And this was when Theo came.


    "Excuse me��"


    "!!!" Azka and the Vice President widened their eyes in shock, never expecting Theo toe here.


    "Well, Mr. Ary. What are you doing here?" Azka asked.


    "I''m a bit confused here. I also saw the attackers yesterday, and I feel that they''reing from another faction."


    "Hoh? Is Mr. Ary implying that the attackers this time were different from the people you fought?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. "I could see they were humans while my opponents were not. So I don''t know what this information will do. Of course, I''m just telling you based on my observation."


    "This is interesting. So, there was a group of assassins trying to assassinate me�� The problem is�� for what reasons?" Azka asked with a smile. "Vice President, I suggest that we do an open autopsy. Even the government can''t escape from suspicion, right? Or are you trying to hide something, Mr. Vice President?"


    Theo''s appearance and information were all Azka needed to turn around the situation. If the Vice President rejected this proposal, it would raise suspicion about his action.


    The other teachers would be using their connections to pressure the government to do a trial for the Vice President.


    At the same time, the Vice President couldn''t afford to slip up as well. But it seemed that the condition didn''t allow him to retreat.


    The Vice President gritted his teeth and said, "If that''s the case, then I can''t say no. However, this has to be done immediately, so we''re going to hold the autopsy tomorrow after gathering the students and teachers. With this, we''ll determine whether we should continue the event or not."


    "I agree with it." Azka nodded with a confident smile, knowing he would win in this case.


    Theo, who was unrted to this matter, couldn''t help but raise his voice. "Excuse me. I have a suggestion for you. How about we go inside together to make sure that the corpse is still the same? This way, we can make sure that whoever they are hasn''t changed the corpses or anything."


    Azka''s expression brightened, liking the suggestion. He pointed at Theo and said, "That''s it. Let''s go inside. As someone directly rted to this incident, I think I have the right to know my condition."


    The Vice President gritted his teeth but still gave them the go sign.

 Chapter 1728 Proof

    All of them entered the room without hesitation, looking at the corpse of a middle aged man. There was nothing they could see from his body. This was already a good point for the Vice President.


    However, it would be troublesome if he didn''t change this person or remove his data. If he tried the former, he could shut down all the CCTV in the area and trade this with another person. If he chose thetter, he would have to go through the bureau to handle this issue.


    And most likely, the President would smell this scheme and stop him. So, he had no choice but to change the corpse with someone simr tonight.


    Unknown to him, Theo was ncing at him from time to time, observing his expression.


    He had already known what kind of conflict would appear after this. And there was no way he wouldn''t utilize it.


    "There is nothing that can be seen," stated Azka while looking around the body.


    "Indeed. There is nothing we can use to recognize him. At the very least, we can still scan his face."


    "Indeed."


    They nodded in agreement. Azka thought Theo would be his ally because he was attacked by the assassins as well. Although he was cornering their race before, it was done unintentionally. Theo was simply unaware of them.


    Little did he know, Theo had been manipting him this whole time. Azka wouldn''t know what hit him when Theo revealed all his cards.


    "We shouldn''t touch him or anything to make sure that he''s sterilized for the autopsy. And since we have confirmed the culprit, we can wait until they''re doing the autopsy. I kind of agree to open this autopsy so that everyone knows who this guy is�� Although my attackers didn''t seem to be humans, I couldn''t rule out the possibility of them being humans." Theo exined, trying to pin the me on this organization as well.


    This was what Azka had been waiting for. "It seems that you and I think alike. We have to make sure everyone knows this person''s identity."


    "Yes." Theo nodded in agreement.


    Since they knew what to do, Theo and Azka asked everyone to leave, including the Vice President. Because he was rted to the incident, the Vice President didn''t show anything, considering he nned to switch the guy with someone else with a simr face. And when he was scanned, they would get another identitypletely unrted to the special squad.


    Theo and Azka left the room as Azka would like to chat with him about their experience. Sadly, only they survived this ambush.


    It seemed Azka nned to strike down the Vice President by asking Theo to participate in his scheme. He looked like a real human who had a strong desire to protect humanity. Unfortunately, nothing could escape from Theo''s eyes. He could see his name, which waspletely different from what a human should have.


    Unfortunately, he still couldn''t determine what he was. The only way to figure out his identity was theb where the Vice President conducted his experiment.


    Thatboratory was going to be destroyed soon, so he had to find this ce as soon as possible.


    And the only way to find it was by scheming both Azka and the Vice President. He wanted to know what kind of deal these two had.


    ��<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    As expected, the moment they all had gone. The Vice President began to work again.


    He was staring in front of a few people who operated the security cameras. Of course, these people weren''t the staff from the Central Committee. Instead, they were his subordinates.


    Because of what happened previously, he allowed the people from the Central Committee to rest so that they could take over. Azka prevented him earlier, but he wasn''t smart enough to think about this n.


    Hence, this n was bound to seed. All he needed to be wary of was Theo, but he had made sure that he could see Theo on the monitor, so all that was left was for him to change the corpse.


    Killing another person wasn''t hard for the Vice President. And his people began to move the bodies by covering them in a quilt.


    The operation this time was led by the same captain. Because he was angry that hisrade died, he nned to use this chance to get hisrade''s body back to bury it properly.


    So, he volunteered to do this mission himself.


    The rest of the agents also worked in diverting the people so that no one woulde around the area.


    As soon as they reached the room, the captain opened the quilt and exchanged the bodies without hesitation.


    After that, he came out of the room and pushed the cart back to where it belonged. The Vice President would take care of the rest.


    ''Good. Good��'' The Vice President muttered with a smile. He had confirmed that the bodies had been exchanged and all he had to do was to alter the record from the control room.


    Unbeknownst to him, there was another camera, hiding in one of the corners.


    Not a single of them realized that Theo had been using his illusion before he even approached them.


    The illusion Theo was observing the corpse and talking to Azka while the real Theo was nting another hidden camera in the corner. And since the room would be forbidden to enter, this would be a good weapon to harm the Vice President.


    The special squad captain wanted to cover his entire body, but because he couldn''t make himself suspicious, he had to put on the same clothes as a staff. Hence, a portion of his face was open and that was enough for Theo.


    The Vice President didn''t know Theo had been amassing all kinds of proof to destroy him. All he knew was the fact that Theo was staying in his room, waiting for the autopsy patiently as if he trusted themittee one hundred percent.


    The same applied to Azka. Although he wanted to do more, his movement was also restricted since people were observing him as one of the victims.


    And finally, the day hade for everything to be revealed.

 Chapter 1729 Gathering

    "Look at that, the captain of the Manta Mercenary Group."


    "They''re the rising Mercenary Group, which is famous for their group tactic."


    "They must being here to get justice since Miss Ruby was one of them."


    "That''s right. I have seen multiple leaders from different organizations, groups, and evenpanies."


    "It seems they''re trying to get justice for their people."


    "Then, the result of this test will be whether we can still continue the event or not."


    "That''s right. If not for the fact that there are so many Mythical Rank Experts here, any events would''ve been suspended already as soon as a threat appeared."


    "True. If not for the fact that the Vice President was in charge and that many Mythical Rank Experts, we would be home by now."


    The students were whispering to each other while looking at the important peopleing into the venue. Obviously, all of them had begun to be concerned when the enemies had tantly killed many students and teachers, so they had toe personally so that they could directly pressure the Vice President to stop the event.


    "Wait. That''s��"


    Everyone''s eyes suddenly stopped when a woman came out of her cubicar. There were two reasons why they paid special attention to this woman.


    The first one would be the man who was waiting for her. He was the most famous teacher in the event right now, Ary Tjahaja.


    Hence, the woman''s identity was none other than the current CEO of the Star Group, the richest woman in the world, Maya Hamilton.


    "Wee." Theo smiled, helping here out of her car.


    "Thank you." Maya smiled back as she looked around, finding the stunned people.


    The second reason why they paid special attention to her was none other than her prestige. She had reached the top with her own power. Even though she wasn''t as talented as Theo in a fight, she maximized her achievement in business, allowing her to stand toe to toe with Theo.


    The Star Group business was something everyone wished to get involved in. The Star Group had dominated the weapon market. In addition, they would be opening themercial flight soon. This business would change the whole world because no one could safely cross the sky other than the Star Group for the time being.


    Hence, there would be a monopoly for a while until someone got the technology of the Star Group. Of course, there was Theo''s pir used to protect the airne, so no one could replicate it anytime soon.


    This was why they were stunned to see someone near their age achieve all this. Even the leaders of many organizations and influences wanted to curry favor.


    Unfortunately for them, Maya simply walked to the venue while ignoring them. She wasn''t here for business after all.


    The venue wasn''t open to the public. Except for some students with great connections, only the teachers and the leaders of the organizations could enter.


    They were currently facing an enemy they knew nothing about. These terrorists attacked them, the future hope of this base. They had to thread carefully because there would be a huge problem if future generations werepletely cut off.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    They had sealed the center to sterilize the area so that the doctor could proceed with the autopsy.


    Theo and Maya took a seat. Maya knew Theo had prepared something, so she couldn''t help but look forward to what he was going to show in this ce.


    "This is going to be interesting," Maya murmured while ncing at the people around her, finding the Vice President in the VIP seat. "Hmm?"


    Maya was quite surprised to see the Vice President acting as if he didn''t have any faults. His face was full of smiles. It was something eptable when they had just gone through a big assassination.


    ''It seems that the matter is bigger than I originally thought��'' Maya frowned and asked, "Do you need me to do something?"


    "No. Just watching from here is enough. I''ll handle the rest."


    "Alright then."


    After a while, the seat was filled. All these people hade to this ce despite the sudden invite.


    They all wondered what was happening right now.


    The staff began by bringing the body inside the sterilized room. The Vice President stood up and said, "I apologize for inviting you here despite your busy schedule. However, there is a huge problem we''re facing currently, so we''re thinking about showing what has happened to all of you right here, right now.


    "We don''t like any more misunderstanding because it might lead to another casualty. Without further ado, let''s begin. We have to identify the culprit and punish them."


    The people nodded in agreement. They also wanted this to finish as soon as possible, so they didn''t raise any questions or objections.


    Since no one was talking, the Vice President gave a signal to the doctor to begin.


    "Scanning!" One of the four doctors said while pushing the body into a tube, nning to scan the exterior of the corpse. The machine would be able to recognize facial expressions as well.


    There was a huge screen showing the result of the scan. There were four stab wounds and twelve Magic Power wounds.


    The face was scanned and showed several pictures. Each of these pictures was recorded in the database when they were creating their ID Card. So, all of them paid attention to the face and the result of the ID card.


    "Hmm? There are three people whose faces are simr?" The people muttered.


    One of them was a mercenary, one of them was a Mathematician, and another one was a fugitive.


    The people were trying to see which identity was a Mythical Rank Expert. After all, not many people could be one. And from the look of it, the mercenary and fugitive seemed possible.


    Only Azka furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting there were only three appearing on the screen. This person should be the Vice President''s subordinate, so there was no way they had such a low status.


    Something wasn''t right.

 Chapter 1730 Lies

    ? "So, is it the Mercenary?"


    "But where is the Mercenarying from?"


    "I don''t know. I have to find the information immediately."


    The people began to whisper to each other, trying to find the culprit. They were using all their connections to figure out the enemy''s identity.


    If it was the mercenary, the rest of the group would be implicated since people would think they came from the same group.


    Meanwhile, if it was the fugitive, there was a possibility of an unknown underground group that wanted to bring chaos to this base.


    Hence, they couldn''t afford to waste time finding out about this man.


    Azka furrowed his eyebrows. ''No, this is impossible. Remembering how professional they were, they should be someone with high status, not just a mere fugitive or mercenary.''


    Azka realized the Vice President had changed the body to shift the me. The monster''s way of thinking was still too straightforward. He didn''t realize that the president could easily manipte the entire proof.


    And now, she had to face a conclusion where he couldn''t hurt the Vice President.


    ''No way. Is he nning to attack us again after this? No, I can''t let that happen.'' Azka gritted his teeth, thinking he had to fight before the Vice President could escape and find him another time.


    This was a war.


    Unfortunately for him, there was nothing he could do because he would raise the people''s suspicion if he talked now.


    "It seems that the enemy this time is either the fugitive and the mercenary��" The Vice President furrowed his eyebrows and stood up, pointing at his staff. "We have to check all their information and confirm the person''s identity."


    The staff nodded, not knowing the Vice President had changed the body. While waiting for the data, the others continued watching the process to ensure there was nothing hidden from them during this inspection.


    However, everyone''s concentration soon broke when the staff shouted, "Not good, Mr. Vice President. We have a small problem."


    "What is the problem?" The Vice President asked while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "We have just received the information that none of them are actually Mythical Rank Experts."


    "What?!" The Vice President widened his eyes in shock.


    Even Azka was startled as he didn''t think about this possibility.


    The Vice President might change the body, but he couldn''t change the record unless he wanted to get suspected. There were numerous eyes watching here and those people wereing from big influences, so they would find out if the Vice President tried to change the person''s information.


    However, Azka wouldn''t expect that the Vice President never nned to use a body double to fool everyone. Instead, he was nning to get away by acting like a fool.


    "What do you mean there''s no Mythical Rank Expert among those three? Our tool is the best, so there''s no way the tool makes mistakes!" The Vice President shouted.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Last night''s blunder was too big. Even he wouldn''t be able to escape from it. Hence, the only way to solve this situation was to make a fool of himself.


    He might experience some setbacks after this, but it was minorpared to if they found he was the real culprit this whole time.


    "If none of them are Mythical Rank Experts, then��" The Vice President gasped, making the people think the same thing.


    "Someone has changed the body?" They muttered at the same time. They all knew it could happen. Some of them even had done it in the past for their own purposes.


    And this enemy knew perfectly what it meant to conceal their traces.


    "This is impossible," Azka shouted in anger. He couldn''t contain himself because he was the one attacked by them. There was no way he would mistake someone, let alone change the body.


    Azka pointed at the Vice President. "You must have changed the body!"


    The Vice President was taken aback. "What do you mean I must have changed the body? Even I''m shocked to find something like this. I don''t understand what you''re saying, Mr. Azka. I know that you''re angry because you were the one attacked, but you weren''t the only one hurt. There were so many deaths in this ce�� Even I''m pained to know someone is trying to sabotage my event."


    The Vice President shamelessly shifted the entire conversation from being the culprit to bing the victim.


    Azka, on the other hand, knew the Vice President had nned everything perfectly. In fact, he was angry at how the humans could fool them so easily.


    "Then, if there is someone changing the body, we need to investigate it immediately. Where is the CCTV? Where are the guards?"


    "That''s right. I''m nning to do it immediately." The Vice President nodded with a sad expression as if he understood Azka''s pain.


    They thought the Vice President had done something right to Azka, but they knew this was a huge blunder as the Vice President. His reputation would be affected significantly and he wouldn''t be able toe out to the public for the time being.


    "You��" Azka was angered thoroughly, but he couldn''t defeat the Vice President in an argument.


    He gritted his teeth, trying to find something he could use to show everyone the Vice President was the culprit.


    But before he coulde up with an excuse, the staff had run back and shouted, "Not good, Mr. Vice President. We''ve just received the news from the control room. Someone has tampered with the recording."


    "What? Where are the staff from the control room? Bring them here right now! I also need the guards!"


    "Y-yes!"


    The staff panicked as they tried to do everything they could. Meanwhile, the leaders of the influences were frowning, knowing something wasn''t right.


    There was something bigger looming in the shadows. Because they weren''t here this whole time, they didn''t know what was happening. Even right now, they only brought one or two bodyguards for their protection, not the whole team, to investigate the matter.


    So, they could do nothing but see where this entire scheme led to.

 Chapter 1731 King Of Justice

    Maya had be a bit bored watching this whole mess.


    "When are you going to make your move?" Maya whispered to Theo, wanting to know the time. "Well, it''s quite funny to see how that old man embarrasses himself, but I don''t have time for this. If possible, I want this matter to end as soon as possible."


    "Don''t worry. I also don''t want to listen to the shitty rants." Theo shook his head while closing his eyes, spreading his Awareness. "I''m simply waiting for someone to arrive."


    "Someone? Who?"


    "You should be aware of that person already. After all, I have been asking you to provide information to a certain person." Theo smirked.


    Maya widened his eyes in surprise, never expecting this was Theo''s n.


    "You arepletely insane, you know. What''s next? Are you going to make him your subordinate?"


    "No way. I have enough subordinates. Besides, he hasn''t even apologized to Rea, so there''s no chance of him being my subordinate." Theo shrugged.


    "I see. In that case, I''ll believe you and look forward to the show."


    Theo smiled as he waited for a moment.


    Not long after, the staff returned and brought bad news.


    "This is not good, Mr. Vice President. We couldn''t find anyone from the control room. Even the guards are gone!"


    "What?! Does that mean the guards are the culprit all along?" The Vice President gritted his teeth as if he was frustrated by this matter.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo had waited long enough.


    Suddenly, Theo stood up as if he wanted to say something.


    "Excuse me, Mr. Vice President."


    Everyone''s eyes immediately locked onto him. They already knew who he was, and because he was the first to get attacked, he also deserved justice.


    So, Theo''sint was something they could understand.


    Theo said, "I believe I have the right to say something in this situation. And for everyone''s information, there are four people who confirmed the corpse: me, Mr. Azka, the Vice President, and the doctor in charge."


    All of them listened to him. If Theo wanted justice, there was no way he would hide this person. Even Azka was safe from suspicion.


    In other words, the Vice President and the doctor were most likely the culprits. Although the Vice President had denied it this whole time, they knew that the people who were good at politics also understood the importance of hiding the truth.


    Hence, no matter how pitiful the Vice President looked, they couldn''t believe himpletely.


    That was when Theo dropped a bomb that shocked all the people in the room.


    "I''d like to ask the reason for your action, Mr. Vice President."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What do you mean by a reason? I''m confused by this situation as well." The Vice President frowned.


    "Is that so? Then, I''d like to ask about the rtionship between you and Mr. Azka." Theo smiled.


    "Huh?" The Vice President became even more suspicious. There shouldn''t be anyone who knew about this except for both of them.


    However, this was when Theo stopped and sat down. "I believe I have asked everything I want�� The rest will be continued by��"


    Theo nced at the door as if waiting for someone.


    Actually, it wasn''t that he was waiting for someone. He just felt the familiar presence and gathered everyone''s attention before that person entered.


    He even matched the time perfectly so that when he nced at the door, someone mmed it open.


    *Bam!*


    "You bastard, Sullivan! You are the traitor of humanity!"


    Everyone widened their eyes in shock because they couldn''t believe this person woulde to this ce, intruding on the meeting.


    The Vice President was so startled that he couldn''t help but ask, "Why are you here�� King of Fighters?"


    Yes, the one who entered earlier was none other than one of the transcendent level experts of the base, the King of Fighters. He had be the scapegoat of Azka and the Vice President. But he couldn''t stand it anymore.


    He shouted at the Vice President and Azka. "I know that you two are colluding with each other to make me a scapegoat. I know for a fact the bastard teacher over there is not a human. I''m going to bring justice here!"


    "What do you mean? We might have freedom of speech here, but that doesn''t mean you can say whatever you want! Even if you''re the King of Fighters, you can''t use someone without proof!"


    "Proof? I have all the proof I need!" The King of Fighters walked toward the center where he could gain control of the monitor.


    The Vice President didn''t know what he had prepared, but it didn''t seem that the King of Fighters was bluffing this time.


    "It seems that you''re so daring�� To think you would use me like this��" The Vice President tried to stop him.


    Unfortunately for him, after the setback he had experienced, the King of Fighters didn''t care about any provocations anymore. He simply wanted to tell the truth.


    Without hesitation, he ced his Skylink next to him while ring at the person. "Open my Skylink right now and share it with everyone!"


    He smirked while sneering at the Vice President. "You don''t need to say anything. What are you even afraid of? Are you telling us that you are rted to this incident?"


    "You��" Before he could say anything, the monitor was showing a video of Azka meeting the Vice President privately. And Azka''s condition was perfectly fine, showing this was taken before the incident.


    "Hmm�� You have met that bastard teacher before all this shit happened? This is suspicious. What''s more suspicious than this? Of course, there are a lot of things I''ll show you guys." The King of Fighters smirked, teasing them. "The group that the bastard teacher has, the hidden facility, and even that sneaky slut who should have died but is still alive. I wonder which one I should show first."


    The King of Fighters startled everyone as all of them were pretty heavy information.

 Chapter 1732 Proof

    The first thing that the King of Fighters showed was the video of Azka and the Vice President, talking about something. The video was recorded from the outside, but there was a sound of their conversation.


    "What have you done? How dare you betray me at this moment?" The Vice President was seen mming the table, ring at Azka.


    "I suspect you were the one who did it. You are the one who should give me the exnation."


    Both the Vice President and Azka instantly opened their eyes in shock because they remembered this conversation. Theo just got ambushed, so they argued about the culprit.


    The argument became pretty heated, but everything changed when the Vice President and Azka agreed to me everything on the Salvatore Family.


    "That Ary is in a bad rtionship with the Salvatore Family. Whether they''re the culprit or not, we''ll make them the culprit."


    "That''s right. With this, everything can be solved as soon as possible since we only need to crush the Salvatore Family."


    "What is that bullshit?" The Vice President, who watched the video, couldn''t help but shout. "I never met that guy. If you were trying to create fake information, then you shouldn''t only bring a guy whose face is simr to mine! There''s no way I would do something like that, especially when you are the King of Fighters."


    "Why am I being implicated by this fake video? Are you telling me that the ambush is not enough and you want to deal with me? What have I done to you for you to go this far to beat me?" Azka shouted.


    "Why are you so worked up? Is it because you remember that conversation?" The King of Fighters smiled. Even though he was the one bing the target, he didn''t get angry at all. In fact, he looked even calmer than before. He said, "I''m simply showing you all the information I have gathered. And��"


    Another video of another conversation took ce after Ruby''s death.


    "I know you''re trying to use us for yourselves. When you''ve got everything you want, you''re nning to eliminate us. You want to weaken us by killing all of us one by one."


    "I seriously don''t understand what you''re talking about. Do you think I would be in this state if I did something to your group? I would have a nightmare thinking about how to solve the problem with your group."


    The two were showing a conversation that indicated cooperation between them.


    "This is bullshit. How dare you use me with forged proof? Do you think you are above thew?" The Vice President gritted his teeth, ring at the King of Fighters. "Do you think I don''t know you''re trying to save your own asses? You can do that, but why are you using me of doing something I haven''t done!"


    "use you? I think the leaders around us are already quite experienced in politics. And seeing these two conversations, even I suspect you, Mr. Vice President.


    "Of course, I can''t do anything to you. If that''s the case, let''s change to another method to prove my innocence." The King of Fighters smirked and turned around, looking at an old man. "You are the CEO of the Hazekiel Company and you are the one who should be in charge of that monster bastard, right?


    "So, how about it? How about I kill him right now? If I can prove to you that he''s a monster, you''re not going to hold me ountable. If I can''t prove it�� my life will be in your hands." The King of Fighters grinned as if he wasn''t scared of death.


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes in shock because it was surprising to hear the King of Fighters willing to have his life and death in someone''s hands. This was a bet bigger than anyone could think.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Of course, because he couldn''t really testify to the loss of a single human life, he had to consider it a bit more.


    However, his hesitation cost him almost everything because another person raised his hand, asking, "Sir King of Fighters, I believe you''re trying to show us the group that you believe is a group of monsters. May we see their faces?"


    "Of course." The King of Fighters didn''t hesitate to show them the group that consisted of Azka, Ruby, and the others.


    "This is��"


    Everyone widened their eyes in shock. Some of them were recognized immediately by their own leaders. Some of them were identified by the data of the people murdered in the previous incident.


    "This is��"


    "Some of them were the targets and had died��"


    "Then, is it truly the case?"


    "Now that I think about it, the bodies of the deceased haven''t been returned to us because they''re trying to hold a funeral and build a memorial here."


    "Don''t tell me��"


    The people began to look at Azka and the Vice President with suspicious gazes. They were wondering if the proof was true or not.


    If it was just a video about their conversation, it was easy to create due to the development of the technology.


    But it would be different if they could prove it in front of everyone. And someone had to be sacrificed to do that.


    This wasn''t an easy decision because they were sending them to their death. But at the same time, if they didn''t do it properly, there was a risk of these people bing spies among the humans. When that happened, there would be a huge threat to their base.


    The King of Fighters thought for a moment and released another video. This time, the video was about the facility to treat Ruby.


    "This is��" Both Azka and the Vice President gasped. There was no way they could capture a video this close with Azka leading the group. Yet, there was someone skilled enough to do something like that.


    "What is this��" The others were also shocked, but for another reason. They were staring at another woman''s body and it seemed to be one of the teachers as well.


    A middle-aged man suddenly stood up and said, "Isn''t that Reba from my organization? What is she doing there? No, wait, I have lost contact with her��"

 Chapter 1733 Volunteer

    *Hiss!*


    Everyone sucked a cold breath, finally seeing something off in this matter. They began to believe that Azka and the Vice President were working together and Azka might not be a human.


    As soon as everyone spotted that, the person who recognized Ruby''s new body couldn''t help but raise his hand. "Sir King of Fighters�� I''d like to help you to prove your innocence. And it seems that one student in their group is a person from my organization as well. In that case, I''d like to offer him�� If a Mythical Rank Expert is too big for everyone to experiment with, this guy is only an Elite Rank Expert.


    "Although I''m cold to say something like this, I''m prepared to go to jail if I end up sending an innocent person to their death. But this is for the sake of the base, I won''t hesitate to jump into hell if it can help so many people by finding a monster among humans."


    The guy righteously dered. He didn''t even ask about the bet that the King of Fighters said previously. And thetter knew what he wanted.


    The King of Fighters said, "Don''t worry. I''m the one who will bear the responsibility of killing someone innocent. But thank you foring forward. I owe you for this!"


    "No, please. This is for the sake of humanity! I''ll immediately bring him here!" He notified his assistant to drag the guy here to prove it.


    The King of Fighters nodded his head and red at the people in this ce. "I hope that none of you are trying to be funny by using your Skylink to inform the others. If you''re going to make their escape, I won''t hesitate to take you down personally."


    "You are too much. Do you think you have the control here?" The Vice President roared. He never expected that the situation would be like this.


    If everything was exposed, he would be in a perilous situation.


    "I believe I have like forty percent of the total control here while all these gentlemen anddies have fifty�� Of course, I have to give you some face and allow you to get ten percent of the control. But looking at this situation, I believe that all the people here, including me, would like to get to the bottom of this incident. I hope that the Vice President remains in his seat."


    "Do you know what you''re doing? If you can''t prove it, you are going to be branded as a criminal!"


    "Yes, I''m ready for that. But I believe I have enough proof to justify my action this time. You should think about what you have to do after I prove my information, Mr. Vice President."


    Before the Vice President could say something, there were a few whispers among the leaders attending this meeting.


    "Now that I think about it, the people who have died during the previous assassination��"


    "Ah, I understand what you''re thinking. Some of them are in that picture with Mr. Azka. Don''t tell me��"


    "The situation is probably like what you''re thinking."


    "Then, does that mean all the people in that picture have died and a monster is taking over their bodies or something?"


    The King of Fighters heard their doubts and answered them ording to the data. "I''ll exin that.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "As you can see from my information, the monster seems to be able to take over their bodies, or more like their skins. Please take a look at this��."


    The King of Fighters showed a picture of human skin. Everything was perfect except for everything inside the skin, such as flesh, bones, and even organs.


    "This is��" Some of them recognized the people in the picture.


    "Yes. From the information, the enemy seems to be able to kill someone to this point before wearing their human skins. However, normal human skin won''t work because theyck flesh.


    "Hence, I suspect that the Vice President is working together with them to create a perfect body for them.


    "But because of the incident, they are falling out and attempting to eliminate each other. Luckily, we can have the chance to gather here to prove it." The King of Fighters smirked. "I hope that everyone can sit down and wait until we finish witnessing the proof. And if I manage to prove it, I''m going to share the name with all of you. We have to kill them instead of researching their methods.


    "There is one reason why I suggest this�� They are monsters. Although it will be beneficial if we research the monsters, I have heard that there is a World ss Monster leading them. If we allow them to stay here, there is a chance they can contact their saint to attack this base.


    "We have just experienced a huge attack from those sea creatures, so we have to kill them to end everything once and for all."


    The King of Fighters made a lot of sense. Although it was a shame that they couldn''t conduct some experiments to understand them, they could escape from a huge battle that would inflict numerous casualties on their side.


    When that happened, they would be held ountable for keeping the monster.


    Hence, the best way was for them to wash their hands as soon as possible before getting implicated for protecting their ''employees.''


    *Bang!*


    The assistant came at the perfect time. He was dragging the Elite Rank Boy into the hall as he said, "I have returned, Sir."


    "Good. Bring him to Sir King of Fighters." The guy nodded while ring at the boy. "I promise that if you''re innocent, I''m going topensate your family properly. But if you turn out not to be a human��"


    The student panicked because he didn''t understand what was going on.


    Azka also had the same reaction because he recognized this guy. He was one of the monsters hiding in this ce, so he knew what kind of result it would bring if they got exposed.


    Azka couldn''t help but ask, "Do you think the blood that has been spilled in the previous assassination attempt is not enough? You want to spill more blood in thisnd?"


    "Shut up."

 Chapter 1734 Scheme

    "Shut up!" The King of Fighters couldn''t care less about his opinion, especially since he was still under the assumption that he was the culprit.


    Even the leader of Azka''s organization came to him and said, "Azka. You should stop right now. Everything will be revealed in a moment."


    Everyone was already raising their guard as the tensions soared through the roof. They began to doubt the Vice President and Azka since they had been trying to stop the entire process as if they were trying to hide something.


    Hence, they were going to do everything they could to stop anyone from interfering with the King of Fighters'' actions.


    The King of Fighters red at the boy with murderous eyes.


    He said coldly, "Don''t worry, kid. I''m going to do it painlessly."


    "What is this? Am I going to die? No, no, I don''t want to die!" The guy was screaming, trying to escape.


    Unfortunately for him, the King of Fighters had grasped his arm. He then thrust his hand into the kid''s heart.


    Many people closed their eyes. On the one hand, they couldn''t bear to watch it because this was too cruel since the kid might be innocent. On the other hand, they couldn''t deny the possibility of the kid being a monster.


    "Gah." The kid spat a mouthful of blood.


    But to everyone''s surprise, there was nothinging out of the kid''s body except for blood.


    "Huh? The blood is the same, but that position should be his heart, right? Then��"


    The people gasped because they realized the same thing. There was one question in everyone''s mind.


    ''Where is his heart?''


    The King of Fighters didn''t use his Spiritual Energy and his power wasn''t that strong to the point it would destroy the heart. Hence, the heart shoulde out when the King of Fighters thrust his hand.


    He even pulled his hand back, showing the hole where they couldn''t find the heart.


    "Where is his heart? A human should have a heart!"


    "Does that mean the kid was a monster?"


    "That''s right. It seems that the King of Fighter has proven his information."


    "Sir King of Fighters, one of my people is also included in that group. I''ll bring her to you so that everyone can check it!"


    "If there are monsters among us, it''ll be extremely dangerous since we don''t know when they''re going to kill us all."


    "That''s right. Even if I have to be ruthless, I can''t allow the monsters to sneak into the base!"


    The silent and cold hall turned fiery as soon as they saw the result.


    "Before calling them, you might not believe me if I told you I didn''t crush his heart. Hence��" The King of Fighters pointed at the doctors in the sterilized room. "You four�� Conduct an autopsy to see whether this guy has organs like humans or not."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Everyone shuddered, realizing this was the best way to prove it. And the Vice President had gone all the way to bring the doctors to do it. This was like digging his own grave.


    While the others were discussing their finding, Maya couldn''t help but nce at the mastermind of this entire ruckus.


    "Is everything going ording to your n? Although I can kind of understand your n, why are you using the King of Fighters? Are you going to give him a redemption chance or something?" Maya asked while furrowing her eyebrows.


    Theo snapped his finger to create an illusion so that no one could hear what they were talking about.


    He shook his head. "Not really. It''s true that he has bashed Rea, but that kind of grudge is not enough for me to want to destroy his entire family. I''m not that petty. So, yeah, this can be said as a redemption chance as well.


    "But the biggest reason why I chose him was because he was the scapegoat. As someone who ended up in that situation, he would be trying to take revenge against anyone that hurt him, including us.


    "However, he couldn''t do anything to us because of me�� Or at least, he had to prepare all sorts of ns if he wanted to go against me. Hence, his targets would be the Vice President and Azka."


    "Ah!" Maya finally remembered something. "Is that why you asked me to keep sending all the information we have to him?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. "With this, the King of Fighters wouldn''t hesitate to do anything even if it means bing a huge controversy. No matter what he does today, his reputation has gone rock bottom from opposing us anyway. That''s why if he''s nning to do something, he will do it all the way.


    "And with that, we have nurtured a perfect scapegoat as well." Theo smirked.


    "A scapegoat�� Don''t tell me, you''re also nning to make the King of Fighters a scapegoat?" Maya widened her eyes in shock. This made Theo not look any different from the Vice President and Azka.


    On the other hand, Theo exined the reason why he wanted him to be the scapegoat. "Don''t get me wrong, I have a good reason for it. Suppose I''m showing myself here. In that case, the enemy will point their sword at me, right?"


    "Yes."


    "But since I''m equal to a World ss Monster, what will the World ss Monster or the King ss Monsters do?"


    "Hmm��" Maya looked down, contemting for a moment. "They couldn''t do anything. They were wary of your action, so they were trying to wait and see."


    "That''s right. And when that happens, they''re going to make an even bigger n to outsmart me. But what if they don''t know this is my scheme?"


    "If that''s the case, they think the King of Fighters can be the target of their revenge. He is the one crushing their n, so they''ll do everything they can to eliminate the King of Fighters. Besides, their King ss Monsters or even the World ss Monster won''t be wary of him.


    "In that case, they''re going to do it straightforwardly by killing the King of Fighters. Their n won''t be as good as when you''re their opponent�� I see. So, the reason why you''re making him the figurehead is to lower their guard. And that''s where you strike��"


    "Exactly." Theo smiled. He pointed at the King of Fighters. "Hence, I''m nning to lure them out to kill them by utilizing the King of Fighters. He is a perfect person to do just that."


    Maya closed her eyes for a moment. Even now, she couldn''t predict what Theo was thinking and to what extent his scheme spread.


    And just by listening to him, she felt chills down her spine. If Theo wanted it, the entire Star Group would be destroyed in a single night.


    "I guess this is his fortune and misfortune."


    "Yes. Everything is because I couldn''t afford to show myself yet��" Theo nodded with a grim expression.

 Chapter 1735 Proof

    "This is��" The people were shocked when the doctor opened the kid''s body. There wasn''t a single bone or organ inside. There was only red liquid like blood, but it didn''t seem to be blood.


    But to their surprise, when they checked the red liquid, it was concluded to be blood. Even the machine said the same thing. And the worst part was the fact that this was a human''s blood, except for the fact that it shouldn''t have belonged to the same person.


    "What? The DNA in their blood and their skin cells are different?"


    "Then, no human interior features and blood belong to a different body�� With all these facts, they are truly monsters."


    "In that case, what kind of monster are they?"


    The people were confused. They had just experienced a huge war and now they had to take care of the infiltration.


    "How many monsters have entered this base?"


    "Not good. We have to lock up the entire facility. We need to make sure those monsters can''t spread even more."


    "Then, we have to��" Before they could discuss what happened, the human kid who was being inspected suddenly released a wave of Magic Power.


    "!!!" The King of Fighters was the first to react as he smashed the sses, trying to save the doctors as well as capture this monster.


    Suddenly, a red-colored creature came out of the stomach. It looked like slime, but the red creature gradually formed that of a spider as if it was trying to imitate the real spider.


    "A slime? A mimicry?" The King of Fighters frowned.


    "This is��"


    "It''s dangerous."


    "What''s that monster?"


    "We don''t have any data about it."


    "Is that a normal slime? But the Skylink can''t detect any name�� Does that mean it hasn''t been discovered yet?"


    "This is not good. Don''t tell me, this monsteres from a deeper region that we haven''t explored yet?"


    "We, humans, have only explored around ten to twenty percent of the other world. But before we can even explore everything, it has crumbled."


    "Then, this monster is an unidentified monster��"


    The King of Fighters didn''t exterminate the monster immediately. Instead, he observed the monster and tried to figure out the monster''s characteristics to capture it.


    However, he forgot about something.


    *Bam!*


    Suddenly, a huge explosion urred in the stand, rming everyone.


    "!!!" They widened their eyes and turned their heads around, finding Theo nting Azka''s head on the ground.


    It was clear that Azka was supposed to be near the sses so that he could witness everything. But it turned out he was using the moment of distraction to escape.


    All the bodyguards of those important leaders had raised their guards as if they were nning to fight. But seeing how Theo managed to suppress Azka, they thought it wasn''t necessary anymore.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Why is he running away?"


    "Isn''t it obvious why? Everything has been revealed, so there''s no other way other than escape."


    "But doesn''t that prove they are monsters?"


    "I think that''s not all. It also proves that the Vice President is in this."


    "So, the monsters and the Vice President are mingling with each other?"


    "Isn''t this like Theodore Griffith''s case? He once brought an army of monsters to help the union."


    "You fool. They are two different cases. Theodore Griffith once brought an army of monsters to help the union from the outside. The monsters never entered the city. Meanwhile, the Vice President was trying to smuggle them in and when that happened, no one knew what would happen to this base."


    "��"


    The people began to think carefully while ncing at the Vice President, who turned out to be the culprit.


    It was at this time the King of Fighters'' voice echoed in their ears.


    "My spection is that the Vice President is using this event to smuggle them in. With so many experts from all influences participating in this event, it will be easy for them to be your agents. When this event is over, the monsters will be a part of our society. And at that time, we can only prepare for the worst case scenario."


    "!!!"


    They shuddered in fear. If what he said was true, the monsters would get a huge opportunity, considering they could gain a lot of information from various organizations.


    "This��"


    "So, without the King of Fighters, their n would seed and we would have to suffer a massive hit�� Why do I feel like the monsters are learning?"


    "They can''t be considered monsters anymore."


    Suddenly, Maya stood up and said, "May I get everyone''s attention."


    The people turned around, staring at Maya, who seemed to have critical information.


    "This is the information from Theo himself after observing a lot of monsters from all over the world. He has met more World ss Monsters than anyone in the world right now. You might only know two, but it''s definitely more than that.


    "He has found out that the monsters can''t be called monsters anymore. Instead, we should call them an intelligent race, like us, humans.


    "I know that your ego doesn''t allow you to consider them like that, but I''m merely speaking of facts.


    "It''s true that most monsters are still acting with their instinct. But if we''re talking about General ss Monsters or above, they''re capable enough to create a concrete n, especially King ss and World ss Monsters.


    "After fighting many King ss and World ss Monsters, Theo noticed that they could create a n to trap you in, especially in their territory. And now, they''re trying to invade our territory.


    "So, we can kind of understand why they''re sending spies like this. Though, after rying the information to him about this matter, he is giving me two statements.


    "The first one says, ''The enemy this time has evolved even more than your average monsters. The fact that they''re sending spies among us means each monster has the ability of a General ss Monster. And if they''re mixing some low level monsters, it''s clear that they''re not General ss Monsters anymore. Instead, it''s probably an evolved monster.


    "And the second one��"

 Chapter 1736 Message

    "��"


    Everyone sucked a cold breath when they heard about Theo''s insight.


    "Now that I think about it, only General ss Monsters are able to talk with ournguage. And it''s quite surprising to see Elite Rank Monster as a General ss Monster."


    "That''s true. Even I only found Champion Rank Monster at minimum to be a General ss Monster."


    "So, it''s like that�� They''re evolved monsters. This is a different type of monster than the one we have seen so far. Back in the radiation problem, they''re called mutated monsters due to their characteristics.


    "Then, we call the monstersing from the sea ''Sea Race'' instead of ''Sea Monsters.'' I think that''s for a reason��"


    "That''s true. Theodore Griffith was the first to call them Sea Race, so we just followed along."


    "But if what he said was true, then the monsters targeting our base have evolved��Evolved Monsters, huh��"


    "Isn''t this a huge problem?"


    "Don''t tell me, Theodore Griffith has been trying to figure this out the entire time?"


    "So, he''s not just holing up in his territory."


    "Of course. How do you think we''ve survived so far?"


    "Yeah. If that''s the case, then I think we should be wary of these evolved monsters."


    "We need to prepare."


    *p!*


    "!!!" Their bodies shuddered because they were startled by the sudden p from Maya.


    "I haven''t told you the second statement. And this is much worse than the first one." Maya sighed.


    Everyone widened their eyes in shock, looking at Maya. They began to feel a chill down their spine.


    If Theo considered them bad, it meant they simply had no ability to fight against this second problem.


    Maya''s expression turned grim as she said, "There will be a battle big enough to shake the world. The war that will decide the extinction of a race called humans.


    "Even I can''t predict the oue of that war. So, etch these words into your mind. You are free to fight among yourselves, but I''m not nning to do the same. Whatever you''re doing, I won''t stop preparing for what''s going toe. However, it will be best if you prepare for it yourself because even I might not have the ability to protect my own life."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "!!!" The moment they heard Theo''s statement, their faces darkened, realizing this matter would be beyond their imagination.


    If Theo couldn''t even save his life, how could they?


    Maya let out a long sigh. "That''s all I can say about his statement. It''s up to you whether you are going to take it seriously or not.


    "In fact, looking at some of your faces, I can see that you''re thinking that I''m saying those words because I want to raise his or my prestige, so it''s your choice to believe it or not.


    "You can think about it yourself while I will use all the resources of the Star Group to prepare for the threat. That''s all��"


    One of them couldn''t help but ask, "Why are you telling us about this now? Aren''t there a lot of opportunities to do so?"


    Maya wanted to say, ''Of course, it''s because Theo is using his illusion to tell me about it. And I''m merely rying his words to you.''


    Of course, she couldn''t say that. Instead, she pointed at all the people in the room. "Look at all of you. You are the leaders of organizations,panies, and families in the base. All of you have a certain influence and have the capital to do that.


    "Hence, it''s better to tell you right now since you have gathered in one spot for this. And the fact that the unknown evolved monster has attacked us, I believe you can ept Theo''s words easier.


    "As for the government��" Maya nced at the Vice President whose face had be pale because he knew he had fucked up. She said, "You can do whatever you want. Well, I don''t have any good rtionship with the government anyway since they''ve disappointed me all the time.


    "So, no matter what you do, I''m not going to retract my statement of allowing the military to enter Theo''s session. As for the King of Fighters and your Salvatore Family��"


    Maya paused, ring at the King of Fighters without getting scared. Thetter could easily kill her since they were now meeting face to face. But the King of Fighters knew what he should do after all the setbacks.


    Hence, he only stared at her silently. If she relieved the ban, he would be grateful since the Salvatore Family could get what they wanted. Even the past allies would return to him. But if she didn''t relieve the ban, he didn''t particrly care about it.


    On the one hand, the allies were important to him. On the other hand, what was the use of an ally if they could simply leave just because of one setback? It was clear that those allies would backstab him if the opportunity arrived.


    Hence, whatever her choice, he would ept it.


    Maya let out a long sigh and said, "I don''t think I have to tell you about what you should do after this. If you want to solve the problem, then you should do it. If you don''t want to do it, then that''s fine as well."


    The King of Fighters closed his eyes for a moment beforeing out of the sterilized room and tossed the dead slimy monster.


    "We have to take care of this monster. Find out everything about them. We also have to capture all monsters in this ce and because we don''t know the full group, we have to lock down this ce and check every single participant. For now, we have to call all scientists to help us.


    "As for the Vice President, who is clearly involved in this. I think��" The King of Fighters turned to the military. "The military can handle this, right?"


    The military personnel standing by on the side nodded their heads. After seeing all that proof, they had to detain the Vice President before asking any questions.

 Chapter 1737 A Hidden Danger?

    "So, how is it?" Maya asked with a smile. Since they had to be quarantined until they could determine how to find them, Maya asked to be moved to Theo''s room.


    Although Agata had absolute trust in him, Theo wasn''tfortable sleeping in the same room, so he rejected the request and moved Maya to the room next to him instead.


    And Maya obviously came to Theo''s room after that to talk about this incident.


    "You''re pretty good. Thinking up all kinds of excuses on the spot." Theo smirked.


    "Haha." Maya chuckled. "Though, there are a few problems with this situation. First of all, how do we identify them? Are you going to reveal yourself?"


    "No. The enemies shouldn''t know I''m here and I''m nning to keep it that way. I''m surprised about the red slimy thing because��" Theo looked down while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "Because what?" Maya frowned.


    "Because I have seen a simr slime that is capable of crushing multiple King ss Monsters and forcing a World ss Monster to sacrifice its life to seal the monster. And that slime was only a King ss Monster."


    "!!!" Maya dropped her jaw. "What did you say? Are you serious?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I don''t know if the slime is the same, but I have to be wary of this��"


    "Why is that? We can call a few people like you to help us in this situation."


    Theo shook his head. "That vision came from a few hundred years ago. And if that slime was to awaken now��"


    "A few hundred years ago?" Maya frowned. "If that''s the case, won''t the slime be a World ss Monster? And with that, there is a monster that is capable of killing multiple World ss Monsters. When that happens��"


    "Yes. There is no stopping. And that monster might be stronger and stronger until it reaches the point no one can fight it anymore��"


    "If that monster is on thend, then it will devour everything on that continent until there''s nothing left. If it''s in the sea, the sea races will be devastated. And what if it bes stronger than a World ss Monster? An unknown rank that no one has seen before?" Maya gasped. She couldn''t help but shiver when thinking about that possibility.


    "Yeah. I don''t know if the monster will increase in size or not��"


    "Now that I think about it, slime is a monster whose body is made entirely of liquid. If we''re talking about video games, slimes can devour everything and grow bigger after absorbing things��


    "What if the slime devours the entire sea? Even without us fighting the monsters, we would have died since Earth''s temperature will increase significantly ording to science.


    "And what if the slime devours the entire��" Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. "So, you''re preparing to fight against this monster? But shouldn''t it be sealed now?"


    "No one can tell what''s going to happen." Theo shook his head. "Have you seen the patterns from all these attacks, Maya?"


    "The patterns?"


    "Yes. Starting from the apocalypse!"


    Maya tried to think about it but to no avail. She couldn''te up with a pattern.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Seeing her confused expression, Theo dropped a hint. "What are the biggest problems of humanity?"


    "Trash, chemicals, and radiation!" Maya answered without hesitation beforeing to a realization. "Ah, so that''s how it is."


    "Yeah. We have dealt with the trash problem for now and the radiation has been controlled. So, that leaves chemicals."


    "I see. If that''s the case, the slime looks like it''s formed by chemicals." Maya looked down. "That mean our opponent this time is chemical?"


    "Probably. But I don''t know how this will link to the slime I''ve seen." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "That''s true. If the chemical is rted to this slimy stuff, what about the apocalyptic-level slime? I can''t understand it. But if you''re taking a look at this, doesn''t that mean we''re dealing with a monster rted to humanity''s mistake?"


    "Yes. You can say it that way."


    "How are you so convinced that the enemy this time ising from the chemicals? What about the other problems such as��" Maya thought for a moment. "That''s right. Pollution! How''s that?"


    "Then, how do you rte the pollution with this slimy monster?" Theo asked.


    "That''s��" Maya shook her head. "Let''s change the perspective. Why do you rte it to chemical problems? What about the other problems?"


    Theo simply stated, "To be honest, all those problems are pretty minor. It is not enough to reset this. Just think about the scale of the problems�� Radiation, Trash, then��"


    "Ah, I see. Radiation can wipe out the entire union, while the Trash problem will wipe out all the big bases around the world. Meanwhile, the next problem will be something that affects humanity as a whole��" Maya sucked a cold breath. "If I think about pollution, it will be something rted to tree monsters. So, it''s not rted to the slimy monster."


    "That''s how it is. We have to take care of the chemical problem instead of pollution since it''s only about trees��" Theo suddenly fell silent while frowning.


    "Theo?"


    Theo fell into deep thought, not listening to Maya. "Wait a minute�� This problem might be bigger than I originally thought."


    "What do you mean?"


    "There are many trees appearing because of the apocalypse, right?"


    "Yes. What about��No, wait. More trees? Are they��"


    "Yeah. If the trees are evolving as well, there is a chance that the trees are going to be a big problem as well. But because they have a hard time moving, the problems can be handled in several ways. However, what if I say the pollution problemes out together with the chemical?"


    Maya dropped her jaw. "No way. It''ll be an even bigger problem. Then, are you telling me that the slime might be rted to chemicals, but there is another hidden enemy looming in the shadows?"


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "And I''m d that I''m not showing my hand so early. I''m going to see the situation first before I ask you to do something."


    "Understood."

 Chapter 1738 Warning

    The entire event waspletely shut down and all people were put in quarantine. There was a lot of riot going on, considering the leaders of powerful organizations were forced to undergo the quarantine as well.


    However, the King of Fighters was supervising the entire thing. He even didn''t hesitate to volunteer for the experiment to prove he wasn''t a monster.


    For the time being, they were checking the blood record and the cells to determine whether they were monsters or not. However, there would be a few lucky monsters that didn''t get found out because they somehow had a matching blood record.


    That was where Theo came in. Whenever they missed someone, Theo would record all of them for his next n.


    Still, the matter about the monsters living among them created a mass panic.


    The students and teachers gasped when they learned about the matter. They thought their friends could be monsters and if they tried to help them while they turned out to be monsters, they would be considered a traitor to humanity.


    Hence, people began to put some distance from each other, maintaining their vignce.


    And the panic spread even further.


    The news about the monsters as well as the Vice President''s coboration stunned the base and probably the entire world.


    It invited a lot of reactions from people all around the world.


    ��


    War God Family.


    "Father, have you seen the news?" Marzio came to Leonardo''s courtyard while opening the news in his Skylink.


    Leonardo, who was trying to get some sleep on his couch, couldn''t help but raise his eyebrows. "What is it? For you toe to me, I don''t think it''s a small matter."


    "The Vice President of the US Base has been detained and will face a trial because he coborated with the monsters. There are probably monsters among us."


    "Is that so? If it isn''t rted to the union, then don''t bother me."


    "But Father�� This is important since there is a possibility that the monster has spread to the union as well."


    "So, what are you going to do? How are you going to find them?" Leonardo asked while yawning.


    "That''s�� Conduct the test, then again, we don''t have the budget to do it. Then, a small-scale test or a cheap test? But how can we determine whether they''re monsters or humans��" Marzio tried toe up with a few ideas, but all of them were wed and had to be scrapped.


    Eventually, Marzio shook the back of his head, ashamed for not being able to find any ways to solve the problem.


    "See? There is basically no way to prove it. So, I''ll just sit back and rx, waiting for a certain someone to make his move."


    "A certain someone�� Theo?"


    "If he hasn''t made a move, then there''s no need to panic yet. What you should focus on right now is not this problem�� Instead, it is a current problem we''re facing. Because of the war, we have a lot of construction to finish, so you should finish it so that we can get the first wall to repel any attacks."


    "I�� understand." Marzio nodded. He understood Leonardo''s concern. Instead of preparing against an ''invisible'' enemy, he should focus on their defensive ability so that even if the problemes to them, they have a wall that can protect them from this threat.


    Marzio could only nod his head and continue working on the defense while Leonardo continued his sleep.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Before falling into his unconsciousness, he muttered, "Theo should have been aware of what''s happening right now. The fact that he hasn''t contacted us means the enemies haven''t spread to other bases. So, there''s no need to worry for the time being."


    ��


    United Asia.


    The Heavenly Sovereign spat a mouthful of blood and coughed a few times.


    "Master? What happened to you?!" Zhao Jia widened her eyes in shock because the Heavenly Sovereign suddenly let out so much blood. She thought he was sick, but the Heavenly Sovereign shook his head.


    His face might be pale, but his expression was still collected as if he had everything under control.


    "This might not be good��" The Heavenly Sovereign let out a long sigh. "Heaven and Earth are shaking right now."


    "Huh? Why is that?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. "Who knows? Perhaps a threat that no one can solve has appeared? That''s just my spection."


    "Did you see something earlier?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign nodded. "There are a lot of problems that we''re going to face after this�� In one to two years.


    "There is a ck cloud looming over us right now. However, this ck cloud is not a threat. Instead, it is an opportunity. What you should worry about is the friend next to you. The one that saves you might be the one to kill you.


    "There will be a great catastrophe that will shatter Heaven and Earth. But if people can withstand it, they will find a long summer without any ck clouds.


    "Can you pass this message to Theo?" The Heavenly Sovereign asked.


    Zhao Jia frowned, trying to understand what he said as well. But she couldn''t decipher it in an instant, so she had to agree and call Theo about the warning.


    But before she left, the Heavenly Sovereign called her name. "Zhao Jia."


    Zhao Jia stopped for a moment and nced at him, finding his serious face as if he wanted to say something important.


    "After today, I''d like you to stop working for the government for one year."


    "Stop working for the government? But that''s��


    "I know�� Please, this is my request as your teacher."


    "��" Zhao Jia paused for a moment. "Can I get at least two days? I''ll sort all my matters and hand my job to someone else."


    "One day, twenty-three hours, and fifty-nine minutes are still one day."


    "I understand." Zhao Jia nodded with a serious expression.


    "Thanks." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded with a smile, looking at her back as she left the room. After that, the Heavenly Sovereign grasped his chest while gritting his teeth. "Tsk. An enemy stronger than me? Haha�� This time, even I don''t know if I can survive or not."

 Chapter 1739 Ambition

    "Seriously?" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, listening to the message Zhao Jia ryed. "Thank you for the warning."


    As soon as Theo hung up the call, Maya couldn''t help but ask, "What does she mean by the ck cloud? There are two ck clouds�� Although I don''t know the meaning, I know they are two different ck clouds�� Is the ck cloud referring to the monsters we''re facing right now while thest one is to the slime monster that you''re scared of?


    "This is kinda funny to me since slimes are usually low level monsters in the game while this one slime we''re facing right now is like thest boss." Maya chuckled.


    "There is a ck cloud looming over us right now, but the ck cloud is not a threat," Theo muttered with a serious expression before specting, "I''m afraid there''s no opportunity in this problem.


    "Instead of the current problem, there might be something else that woulde our way��"


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Something that can be an opportunity�� No, wait. There might be one��"


    "What is it?"


    Theo couldn''t help but smile because of how ridiculous the idea was. He raised his finger and said, "An eruption."


    "An eruption? Do you mean a volcano? Is this a normal volcano or a supervolcano? But there aren''t supposed to be any super volcanoes that will�� Wait, is Yellowstone going to erupt?"


    Theo shook his head. "No way that big one is going toe out. It''s not an opportunity for us anymore. Instead, it''s a catastrophe for both the humans and the monsters. So, I believe the eruption wille from a nearby volcano.


    "It will cause a lot ofmotions and send the monsters our way. And this is where the opportunity is�� After all, I can use these monsters to level up even further. Though, I believe this is not the only opportunity we have��"


    "What do you mean? I can understand that raising your level is an opportunity, but I can''t see any benefits for other people."


    Theo shook his head, denying her im. "There is one more benefit. The organic materials from the eruption will make thend fertile. It means there will be more nts."


    "But doesn''t that put us in a bad position? If thend is fertile, the tree monsters who seem to be a hidden problem for us will take that opportunity to get stronger so that they can defeat us." Maya exined her concern since she couldn''t see what Theo was nning.


    "Yeah. Though, the fact that they''re stronger means they''re more confident in defeating us. We''ll let them gain that confidence and expose themselves. That''s where we''re going to strike them, eliminating this problem."


    "Ah!" Maya nodded in understanding. "That way, there won''t be any joint problems anymore. That means we won''t face any catastrophe from two big human mistakes."


    "Exactly. So, I want you to monitor all the movements of the nearby volcanoes. Meanwhile, I''ll try to see if the Heavenly Sovereign''s words can be interpreted in another way."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Maya agreed without hesitation and returned to her room to inform her subordinates. While walking, she couldn''t help but remember the message. ''The one that saves you might be the one to kill you.''


    She could somehow corrte it with the trees. The trees had been saving their lives this whole time, considering the humans had been doing deforestation for thends or the woods.


    And with pollution bing a reality, the trees mighte to them with the help of the fertilend.


    That was why Theo was convinced this was the problem.


    Maya couldn''t help but shake her head. "Is he serious? How could he even connect all this in an instant? I guess his talent is that strong."


    "Though, I don''t understand about the catastrophe that will shatter Heaven and Earth�� Does he mean the slime since it can destroy the entire?


    "If people can withstand it, they''ll find a long summer without any ck clouds. It seems that he is telling us if we can defeat the slimes, we won''t face any more problems. Then again, if Theo could defeat the slime, it means he is strong enough to face any other problems in the world.


    "As for me, I think it''s fine if I can etch my name in a history book. Theo, the savior of the world, thanks everyone for their help, especially Maya Hamilton, who used most of her wealth to provide all kinds of support to him. She was one of the reasons why Theo could save the world��


    "That''s probably going to be an interesting story. Haha, the longer I walk with Theo, the bigger my ambition will be. From being the richest woman in the world to someone whose name shall be etched in the canal of history. Still��" Maya smirked. "I''m fired up. Alright, let''s do it that way. Hamilton Family will surpass the Rothschild Family and the Vandawer Family in the future."


    This was a gamble. She rarely gambled, but because if they lost, it would mean the extinction of human races, there was nothing that needed to be said. She would rather gamble all her money away for victory.


    In Theo''s group, each person had a big ambition that suited their character. However, if one asked who was the most ambitious person in the group, the answer wouldn''t be Theo. Instead, it was Maya.


    However, no one bothered to stop Maya because no matter how big her ambition was, she had to rely on Theo. And since Theo was the one holding her reign, there was no problem in the group.


    While Maya was thinking about her new ambition, Theo remained silent in his room as if he was considering every clue, every piece of information, and every possibility to see the future.


    He might not be able to see the future like the Queen of Destiny or the Heavenly Sovereign, but he could predict them or turn the world so that it matched his prediction.


    After one hour, a smile couldn''t help but appear on Theo''s face.

 Chapter 1740 Third Law

    "This is your result." One of the staff, wearing a full protection suit, handed the document about the test.


    "Hmm��" Theo nced at it, showing he was a human. Maya also tested together with him, so they got the result at the same time. Luckily, no one sabotaged the result just to make trouble for them.


    "How is it?" Maya asked while going back with him.


    Theo simply showed her the result.


    "This test result is wrong." Maya frowned. "Shouldn''t you be called a devil instead of a human?"


    "Then, what should I call you? A blood sucking leech?" Theo chuckled.


    "A capitalist." Maya shrugged. "Though, I still gave them a quite good benefit. At least, better than the majority ofpanies."


    "Well, that''s your problem, not mine. Though, it''s surprising that no one is trying to take advantage of this situation to make trouble for us."


    "I guess my speech was enough to solve that problem for the time being. I heard that some of them had agreed to join hands to make sure the monsters couldn''t escape from this ce. Some who tried to run away were either captured or killed on the spot."


    Theo nodded. "Well, this is going to alert our enemy, but I''m more curious about the Vice President''s trial.


    "I''m not sure about this, but with all that proof, I think the punishment is either death or life sentence."


    "No, I''m not talking about that. The Vice President is essential to their n, especially since they have one more facility. I''m just worried that there will be something outside my prediction��"


    "Now that I think about it, where is the second facility? You haven''t found it?"


    "Nope. The data from that ce is important. Though, I get a general idea of where they are." Theo smirked.


    "Hoh? Interesting. When are you going to make your move?"


    "The test will end in four days, but the quarantine will continue for at least another week. So, I''ll do it tomorrow night."


    "Is it going to be interesting?"


    "Of course."


    The two seemed to have agreed upon something since they were nning something on their own.


    ��


    That night, Theo holed himself in the room to make his preparation. Even though it was a preparation, it was simply him trying to practice his thirdw.


    "Three Big Laws, Third Law, Reverse World!"<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Theo created a gap between her palms, trying to use his Reverse World just within the gap between palms. But in that instant, blood flowed out of his right eye.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. He had been trying to use his Third Law, but there was no result in thest few months.


    "I have three Big Laws that define my Authority. The First Law is the Law of Duplication. Thew basically allows me to copy other people''s abilities by infusing their elements and adjusting them ording to my abilities.


    "That''s the least taxingw I can use since I have seen all the abilities I want to copy, so it''s not that hard to replicate them. Though, I have to thank my Reality Eyes for showing how their ability works.


    "The problem begins with the secondw, the Law of Conversion. Basically, thatw allows me to convert everything in this world into something else. Fire to wind, wind to earth and so on.


    "Because there are too many things to be converted, it also takes a huge toll on my body. Even right now, I have a hard time using it.


    "And the hardest one will be my thirdw, the Law of Inversion. Basically, I am turning something into the exact opposite��


    "Hot turns to cold, soft turns to hard, tangible bes intangible. And even��" Theo raised his hands again, trying to use them again. However, the blood came out again as he failed to utilize it.


    "As expected, I still can''t do it. Well, I can kind of understand why I have a hard time using it. This power doesn''t belong to a Saint. It''s beyond that�� Maybe when I be a Singrity, I could use it. In fact, this might be the key to an ability that will surpass the world''s system just like the God of Mischief''s World Re-Creation Skill.


    "After all, my thirdw reverses everything�� Including the flow of time!" Theo muttered with a serious expression. He should know what it means to reverse the flow of time.


    "Reversing the flow of time will create a disturbance in reality itself. After all, we''re living in a four-dimensional world. Length, width, height, and time. If I reverse the length, width, and height, our world might copse for a bit. And if I reverse time�� I don''t want to imagine what will happen.


    "But this is probably the only skill capable of surpassing S Rank. It''s beyond a Divine Ability��


    "Though, what I''m most interested in is one of its abilities." Theo ced an apple between his palms and tried to use the Third Law. Suddenly, a portion of the apple disappeared and Theo spat a mouthful of blood.


    "Gah!"


    Theo grasped his heart and stated, "I managed to do it a bit�� To think reversing the illusion and reality itself will require this much power��


    "This is a bit different from my usual power where I use the illusion and apply it in reality.


    "By turning reality into an illusion, I can remove somethingpletely. For example, if I use this ability on a human, that person will turn into aplete illusion, including in people''s minds. In other words, no one will know such a person exists to begin with.


    "This is beyond what you call death. It reaches a state of nothingness. Unfortunately, I still can''t use this power. I can only remove a thousandth of this apple�� How much do I need to remove a human?"


    Theo let out a sigh, knowing his journey had just begun here. He didn''t n to stop until he reached the end.


    "Well, I think I should finish my training here and focus on executing my n tomorrow." Theoid on his back, exhausted. "Ah�� I''m too tired to change my shirt."

 Chapter 1741 Hiding Among The Enemies

    "Run!"


    One of the guys shouted while looking back. They had set up a group of five to run away from the facility since their turns were about toe.


    And due to theck ofmand after Azka was taken down, they couldn''t think of anything other than escaping. Some of them who stayed ended up getting found out and killed, so the only choice for them was to escape from there.


    As expected, there were many experts chasing after them.


    "We can''t let them get away from here. Capture them no matter what."


    "They''re shifting their movement a bit."


    There were a total of fifty experts, either Supreme Rank Experts or Mythical Rank Experts.


    The enemies this time were simply too good at taking over one''s body, so they needed the ability to fight them.


    Of course, the one who supervised the surveince was none other than the great King of Fighters.


    He had shown his resolve when revealing the monsters in front of everyone, so he was going to hunt them down until they werepletely wiped out.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred. No matter how hard they were trying to buy time, the experts from humanity would catch up to them.


    When they captured them, they became merciless as they were crippled to make sure they couldn''t use their limbs anymore to escape. The monsters tried to use their real form to distract them but to no avail.


    The King of Fighters crushed them in an instant.


    Still, their effort seemed to pay off. One of the monsters, whose current appearance looked like a young man, came out of the quarantine zone. His body was injured, but he didn''t give up and continued walking in a certain direction as if he had another n after leaving.


    After a long three hours, a shadow suddenly appeared from the ground, turning into a human.


    ? "Skarsaw!" The new figure frowned, staring at his condition. "What happened to you?"


    "It''s not good. I believe we have told you about it. The entire event waspletely sealed off." He shook his head with a serious expression. "We have to get away right away. Judging from the situation, humanity''s hero, Theodore Griffith, will make his move soon."


    "What? Theodore Griffith?" The guy suddenly stepped back as if thinking he had lured Theo to this ce.


    "I don''t know for sure, but there is a rumor that his speech has reached the ears of everyone involved there. I''m afraid we have to go back, not that way��" He pointed at the north as if implying the monster''s territory.


    "So, you''re suggesting that we have to go back to the facility?" Another person asked. The group consisted of twelve people, so it was quite big and would have a harder time moving. However, they possessed a lot of firepowers that could kill a few Mythical Rank Experts.


    Unfortunately, that wasn''t enough if Theo was the oneing to them.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "If we go back to our nest, we might not be able to outrun him. So, it might be good if we go back to the facility."


    "Now that I think about it, thest report stated that they haven''t found anything about theb, right? If that''s the case, we can stay there for a while until some time passes."


    "Yeah. That''s probably the best option right now. We can use that time to think of a n that can allow us to escape from this ce."


    "This is going to be tricky. If we wait too long, those humans must have spread their forces to prevent us from returning."


    "Indeed. And we have to go back to inform you that the n has been ruined by that King of Fighters. It seems beside Theodore Griffith, there is still someone who cares about this ce."


    "I thought all those humans were corrupt and simply epted everything for their own sake. But the King of Fighters��. He was a formidable opponent as well."


    "If only that King of Fighters didn''t have any conflict with Theodore Griffith, they might create a good duo."


    "That''s not important right now. We have to decide whether we should go back or not."


    "Then, let''s just decide as usual. Raise your hands if you agree that we go back after all this."


    Surprisingly, there were twelve votes, stating they wanted to go back since it seemed to be the safest way.


    They exchanged nods since the group had agreed. This was the only thing they could do since they had no leader that would make a decision for them.


    "What''s the situation in theb?" The guy, who escaped earlier, couldn''t help but ask.


    "We have killed all the humans participating in that research. We have crushed all their technology, so there''s no way they could do anything. In other words, we''ll be safe there."


    The people nodded in agreement, knowing it was a safe ce. They had just to hold on for a couple of days before making their escape.


    "Let''s go. We can''t be here for too long. I don''t know if those people are going to chase me again or not."


    They looked at each other and agreed. Without hesitation, they took the guy back to the other facility.


    No wonder it was hard to find, the base had a hidden entrance leading to the underground. Even the paths were filled with traps.


    The guy was surprised to see a lot of corpses in this area.


    But to his surprise, the moment he reached theboratory, it looked fine. The machine might have been destroyed, but he should have no problem bringing it back to recover the data.


    The monsters looked stupid, thinking they had destroyed everything if they just broke the machine. It seemed that the Vice President assumed the same thing. Without their leaders, the monsters wouldn''t be able to do much.


    That was why he managed to take advantage of them this whole time.


    ''So, that''s how it is��'' The guy thought while a sly smile appeared on his face, unknown to everyone.


    Because the facility was hidden, it was also meant to be a perfect execution ground. And the guy, who managed to escape earlier, was not a monster but a human. And that human was staring at them from the back.

 Chapter 1742 Choice

    A few days ago.


    Ever since the test started, there were multiple monsters in human clothing that tried to escape from this facility. They sometimes formed a small group or worked alone.


    "Capture him!"


    *Bam!*


    Theo looked down at the ground, watching how a few people were restraining a guy on the ground.


    "It seems they have captured another one."


    Theo muttered as he continued watching the monsters trying again. They never seeded because the guards were too strong.


    However, Theo actually noticed something from them.


    "Hmm�� Why are they running in the same direction every single time?" Theo frowned, looking at the horizon. "It seems that theboratory is that way. Even if it''s not, there must be a second group that is working in the secondboratory that way."


    From that point onward, Theo just continued observing their movement. After he was so sure that the monsters were running in the same direction, he finally began to execute his n, which was to find the monsters'' hideout.


    Theo used his ability to escape from all these people together at the time another group tried to escape.


    He copied their appearance and continued in that direction while spreading his Awareness, trying to find out a secret base or a certain group.


    And as expected, he could find them. Tricking them into going back into theboratory was nothing but a simple matter to him. He didn''t even have to try hard, and they ended up leading him there.


    As soon as they reached theboratory, Theo immediately scanned the entire room, trying to figure out the basic information such as its size and if there were other people who managed to stay alive.


    Unfortunately, there was no one who stayed alive after this brutal attack.


    Of course, there was no way Theo would reveal everything the moment he got to theboratory.


    Instead of crushing these monsters, Theo, who disguised as one of them, asked, "What''s happening here? Have you destroyed everything?"


    "Of course, we have destroyed everything. Those humans can do something miraculous with this technology, so we have to destroy it so that they won''t be able to gain our information."


    Theo thought for a moment, trying to understand how the monsters were talking to each other.


    After getting that confirmation, Theo fell silent, following them to do whatever they wanted in order to get some information.


    "So, how long are we going to stay here?" One of them asked.


    "We don''t know about that yet. But what''s the situation over there?"


    "They''re conducting a test to determine whether they''re humans or not. The test will be held for another few days and the quarantine willst for another week after that." Theo exined.


    "This is not good. It''s too long. By the time they have finished, I''m afraid we won''t be able toe out anymore because they will be searching for us."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Then, what should we do?"


    They were frowning, trying to figure out the best option they could take in this situation.


    "What if we try to escape when they begin to transition from the test to quarantine?" Theo suggested.


    "Huh? Why do we have to move on that day? Do you know something?"


    "I don''t know much, but I have been observing them. When they''re trying to conduct the test, there are so many people busy preparing their equipment. That should be the same case when they''re leaving��


    "So, we''ll try to make haste when they''re busy. I believe this is our best shot." Theo exined his n, obviously not nning to escape for real.


    However, the others seemed to trust his opinion, considering Theo was the only one who had seen what was happening on the site. It was clear that his opinion mattered a lot. So, they were considering their options clearly.


    After a back-and-forth argument, the team decided to follow Theo''s n.


    "Alright. There were a few arguments before, but it seemed the best way to escape was to utilize their busy schedule to sneak out."


    Although not all of them agreed, the majority decided to use this option.


    Of course, some of them chose not to go and stay here for a while longer because they were scared of Theo''s movement.


    They didn''t realize the person in question was actually among them.


    Theo had two options in this ce. First, he could help them in getting away and sneak into their nest. Or he could kill them here to gather the information they left in this ce.


    Of course, Theo could send his clone to their nest to lower the possibility of him being killed in that nest, but Theo also considered the safest option.


    If Theo used his clone, the clone wouldn''t be able to join him in a battle against what was going toe.


    "��" Theo contemted it seriously, considering he had to fight against a Saint without his clone. He still had no confidence in beating a World ss Monster by himself since the clone was the greatest skill he had.


    This might be the hardest decision Theo had. On the one hand, if the clonepleted its mission, the future battle would be easier. On the other hand, if he had to recall the clone, he would have to face a big problem.


    After some discussion, they split up to get their own room to live in for the next few days. Theo entered a random room that seemed to be the control center.


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows because he thought of something.


    ''This is quite dangerous, but if I do this right, I might be able to deal a significant blow to the enemy.''


    Theo used a few hours to reconsider his decision. But no matter how hard he tried, the result was telling him he had to send out his clone.


    ''It seems I have to challenge a World ss Monster without a clone. I also can''t level up anymore��''


    Theo let out a long sigh but still sent his clone out instead of his real body. He was simply staying there for a while before sneaking out.

 Chapter 1743 Cooperation?

    "Here you go. Recover the data from these." Theo brought a bucket filled with the storage chip of the technologies. Because they were small, it was hard to destroy them since the design of the Skylink was protecting the memory chip.


    Hence, they wouldn''t be destroyed unless they burned the whole time. Of course, there were some that got destroyed by luck since the other party hit the right spot.


    However, Theo managed to save more than half of them, so it should be enough to get whatever data inside.


    "Are you serious?" Maya frowned. "We''re still getting quarantined here. There''s no way I can do it now. At least wait until the quarantine is over, and I''ll get the information as soon as possible.


    "Of course, we can do it now if you''re willing to work for it. But the fact that you''re giving me this means you have another important thing to do, right?"


    "Yeah. If you need help, you can ask Millie about it."


    "Don''t worry. I have a few talented subordinates who can crack something like this." Maya winked her right eye.


    "Alright then, I''ll leave everything to you. Meanwhile, I''ll be visiting another ce."


    "Where is that?"


    "The Vice President."


    "Hoh? You''re doing something interesting now. To think you would meet the guy you locked up�� The Vice President would surely be frustrated."


    Theo shook his head helplessly before disappearing without replying to Maya.


    ��


    In the basement of the hotel, they had made a reinforced istion room where they locked the Vice President up. He had to undergo quarantine like the others, so the trial for him was pushed back for a moment.


    He sat on his table with a messy shirt while ring at the front. There was no resistance from him as if he had epted his fate.


    However, his body suddenly shuddered when he felt someone''s presence.


    There were two guards standing in front of his cell, so they should have noticed him. But when he saw the identity of that person, he realized that there was no way the guards would have noticed.


    He must have used his illusion to make them think there was no one here.


    In other words, he was acting like a ghost.


    "Ha�� Haha��" The Vice President chuckled. "I thought my n was perfect. It turned out you were the one messing with me. I guess that''s the only reason why I''m like this, right, Theodore Griffith?"


    Yes, the one visiting him was Theo. He looked at the Vice President coldly, asking, "Why are you coborating with the monsters?"


    "It''s funny to hear it from you. You also have coborated with the demons."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Indeed. But my cooperation is different from yours since I''m not harming humanity in any way."


    "No, Theodore Griffith. We''re doing the same thing." The Vice President snorted. "I''m not harming humanity. Instead, I''m allowing them to grow even stronger so that we won''t face our extinction!"


    Theo shook his head. "You''re crazy. Do you know what you have done? You''re literally allowing the monsters to enter the city and be one of us. When everything is ready, there will be no telling how many people would have died because of this."


    "You don''t know anything, Theodore Griffith. I''m going to say this because it''s you, and not anyone else. Our vision is the same. I, too, want humans to flourish. I simply don''t care about the method."


    The Vice President stood up and walked toward Theo, ring right in front of him. "Do you know why I epted their coborations? I had three purposes.


    "The first would be gathering their data. What kind of creatures are they? What is their ability? I need to know everything about them so that I can prepare for their attack.


    "The second reason is because I want to gather them in one spot, trying to expose all of them at once. After this event, there will be a gathering where those monsters wille together to discuss their future n. Because they''re going to act separately for a while, they will surely hold a meeting to discuss their future course.


    "And that''s where I was nning to eliminate them. Unfortunately, you were messing with my n.


    "Last but not least, the reason I cooperated with them is simply their strength�� Humanity has no chance of winning against them. Do you know how they reproduce? They''re splitting themselves��


    "And their strongest monster is splitting itself to create a few King ss Monsters and those evolved monsters in your mouth.


    "That''s why I was researching them! How did they produce another life that immediately got the strength of Supreme Rank right after they were born? I was curious because this might be the chance for humanity to rise.


    "I''m sure you remember the time you solved the experiment about goblins. It was said that you could mix a human''s blood with a goblin''s to create even stronger blood.


    "And this time, those monsters are the perfect test subjects. I''m nning to examine them to fuse them with human blood so that in the future, we will be able to raise a child whose strength is already a Supreme Rank after they were born. This is the only way for humanity to survive because we no longer have the ability to level up.


    "Don''t you think this is a perfect opportunity, Theodore Griffith?"


    "Well, that was easy. I thought I had to torture you to get the information from you." Theo frowned as if he was still skeptical about this old man.


    "I''m saying all this because I recognize you more than anyone else. We even have the same vision, which is to save humanity from extinction."


    "If you talk about this with other people, they will surely think you''re crazy."


    "That''s why I''m talking to you. Only you can understand me."


    "Well, I understand you�� I understand that you have be crazy."


    "��" The Vice President was speechless for a moment before grabbing the bars. "Theodore Griffith. I know you understand me. Let''s cooperate!"

 Chapter 1744 Knowing Ones Place

    "Theodore Griffith. I know you understand me. Let''s cooperate!"


    "Hoh?" Theo''s expression became grim. "I don''t see any reason why you want to cooperate with me other than trying to trick me into freeing you."


    "My n was perfect. No one should be able to figure it out."


    "Yet, you''re in prison now." Theo shrugged.


    "I''m in this position because of you. That''s right. You''re the only one who can see through my n. The King of Fighters exposing me? Who are you fooling? I know you were the one providing him with the information.


    "In fact, I should have thought about this possibility when your name was being mentioned.


    "That''s why I''m asking you to cooperate with me. With your brain and my resources, we can trick those monsters and defeat them."


    "Hahahaha! You''re contradicting yourself." Theoughed out loud as he stated, "You said earlier that we couldn''t defeat that monster. And now you said you wanted to cooperate with me so that we could defeat them? This is ridiculous."


    "I am giving you the opportunity Theodore Griffith. I have found out that their cells could be used to improve our lives and insert a monster''s gics.


    "You and I should know that we can''t level up anymore. So, the only way for us to get stronger was to integrate a part of the monsters into our bodies.


    "It wouldn''t be an easy path, but if we worked together, we would be able to create a human having the ability of a monster. We would be able to get even stronger and defeat the monster itself.


    "That''s why join me!" The Vice President shouted, trying his best to convince Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, the only thing he got from Theo was a cold gaze.


    "It seems that you''re forgetting one thing." Theo''s tone became cold. There was even a trace of killing intent from it.


    "!!!" The Vice President couldn''t help but shiver as if his neck was grasped by him. In his eyes, Theo became bigger as if he was standing on top of Theo''s hand where Theo could kill him at any moment.


    ''This is��'' The Vice President was shocked and looked around, confused. His body wanted to move, but his fear paralyzed him.


    His eyes soon turned to Theo. "What are you doing? I''m simply giving you a chance to cooperate with me."


    Theo stated with contempt. "It''s not that you''re giving me a chance to cooperate. It''s that you''re not qualified to cooperate with me. Know your ce."


    "W-what?!" The Vice President widened his eyes. No one would dare to say it to him, even if it was the King of Fighters. He didn''t have the qualification?


    He was literally the number two in this base. He could get a lot of things from that status alone.


    Yet, Theo said he wasn''t qualified? If he wasn''t qualified, no one would be qualified.


    No, there might be someone else who was more qualified than him. And there were only two people who had that power.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Wait. Don''t tell me�� The reason you''re here��" The Vice President gasped while pointing at him. "You�� Did the President tell you about this? Instead of the Time God, he dispatched you here?"


    Theo only smiled at him before turning around as if he was nning to leave.


    "I can only say that you''re not qualified to cooperate with me. Besides, I have gotten the information about that other facility. That''s enough since I''ll be able to solve this problempletely." Theo smirked.


    "What?! How?" The Vice President widened his eyes in shock. There was no way Theo could find out about the other facility. Even those monsters wouldn''t allow Theo to get that information and endanger their people.


    So, he tried to revolve his brain, trying to figure it out.


    If Theo got all the information from the second facility, there was simply no other way to protect himself from the trial.


    Theo smiled and said, "You shouldn''t worry about how I could find the other facility. You should be focusing on whether you can escape death or not after the trial. After all, I might join the trial��"


    "!!!" The Vice President shuddered. Hepletely understood what would happen if Theo joined the trial.


    First of all, Theo''s reputation as a hero was undeniable and had bemon knowledge in the base. If a hero such as him went all the way to prosecute him, the public opinion would shift in Theo''s favor. Even the judge, who should be impartial, would take Theo''s words carefully.


    Then, the second problem would be thewyer. He had to prepare awyer for the court. There should be a few people he could trick, but thosewyers weren''t fools either.


    The moment Theo joined, they knew they had no chance to win. Even if they could win the case, they might receive a huge setback from society.


    Those two reasons were enough for him to be put to death. After all, his reputation alone was enough to do that. The only reason why he hadn''t done anything was simply building up the entire tension.


    The people hated him already after the judge listed his mistakes. And if they knew Theo hade personally, the trial would have been decided before the fight.


    On the other hand, if he could buy some time, he should be able to find a way to contact those monsters and escape from all this. Although he would lose everything he had built so far in this, he would be epted by those monsters because of the previous cooperation.


    And those who knew about the conflict between him and Azka had died too, so the monsters would still think he was their ally.


    By the time they attacked the base, he might be able to convince the monster to spare the humans so that he could rule over them.


    Under one monster, but above all humans. This was his n this whole time. That was why he didn''t resist when he was captured.


    But it seemed that the n had to change when Theo said he would participate.


    "��" The Vice President looked at Theo before dropping to his knees. He had to survive for as long as he could, so there was no other way than to beg.


    "Please�� spare my life."

 Chapter 1745 Agreement

    "Please�� spare my life."


    The situation had changed. The Vice President had finally realized his ce.


    It wasn''t that he gave an opportunity to Theo, but it was whether he had the ability to present that opportunity or not.


    "Aren''t you the one asking me for cooperation?"


    The Vice President''s body trembled. If he said "Yes," Theo could simply feel offended. At that time, Theo wouldn''t hesitate to destroy him thoroughly, showing him his ce.


    But if he said "No," Theo might feel happier after seeing him suffer. In every strong person''s heart, they always had pride no matter how humble they were.


    They had this power. The only difference was whether that person wanted to exert their power or not. If they didn''t, they would look humble. But if they wanted to, they would look overbearing.


    And Theo seemed to be nning to exert that power. Hence, the Vice President knew what to do.


    He had to make Theo as happy as possible even if he had to trash himself. As long as he could survive this ordeal, he could pay everything back.


    "No way. I don''t dare to ask Sir for cooperation. I would be very lucky just to meet you, so how could I overstep my bounds? I was wrong, Sir." The Vice President lowered his head, trying to ask for his forgiveness.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes as if he didn''t like it.


    However, the Vice President didn''t move, making sure Theo was pleased by his action. He simply put his head down as if waiting for Theo''s reply.


    "It seems that you know your ce now." Theo harrumphed.


    "Yes, Sir. I apologize for offending you for not knowing my ce." The Vice President apologized again.


    Theo looked at him for a while without saying anything, building the tension between them.


    There were two thoughts in Theo''s mind. The first would be the monster itself. Since the enemy seemed to be impossible to beat, he had to prepare for the worst.


    Although he thought there was a chance of the Vice President overestimating the enemy, the Vice President should have known about the Time God''s power. So, if he still imed that the Time God couldn''t defeat the monster, then the monster that woulde was stronger than even the Time God.


    He might have calcted him and the Time God together. So, he knew that this enemy would be extremely strong.


    The second one was about the iing attack. There seemed to be a volcano that would erupt soon, so he had to remain vignt because those monsters might be trying to infiltrate them by hiding from among the monsters.


    Hence, Theo said, "There will soon be a big battle unrted to those monsters."


    Theo stood up after revealing that piece of information. It seemed he didn''t n to stay any longer.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What?!" The Vice President was surprised that Theo released vital information like this. But with that big battle, he could finally see his chance to escape from the prison.


    In other words, if he could stay until the monster came, he should have no problem making his escape.


    This was an opportunity Theo gave to him. He couldn''t help but fall to his knees, thanking Theo. "Thank you, Sir. I won''t disappoint you."


    "In exchange, send me the information about the monster. I''d like to see whether I''m capable of saving myself or not."


    "Yes, Sir." The Vice President saw Theo leaving with a smile. He couldn''t help but think, ''It seems I had overestimated him. He might be smart, but in the end, he was just a youngster. His mind was still filled with that edgy stuff.


    ''Just from how he acted this whole time, he wanted to look cool and bossy. He surely loved it when the Vice President himself groveled before him.


    ''Still, I can''t really do anything to displease him. But I can''t really send all the information about that monster since he mighte to the trial to attack me all of a sudden.


    ''In that case, I''ll release the information bit by bit so that the cooperation willst long. And at that time, he would have fallen too far and could be considered an aplice. That was when I could threaten him.


    ''Just you wait, you little bastard. Politics isn''t easy." The Vice President smirked.


    Unbeknownst to him, Theo had a simr thought.


    ''Or so you thought�� You didn''t know that I knew what you were up to the whole time. As expected, making someone underestimate you would be the best choice to make them abide by everything you wanted.


    ''And what I can''t believe is the fact that this person can be a Vice President. I don''t like to get involved in politics, but this surely surprises me.''


    Theo looked down, thinking.


    ''Well, there is nothing I can do for the time being other than waiting for the next disaster. The volcano might cause a monster outbreak, so I have to make some preparation, considering the enemies might be stronger than he thought.


    Theo sucked a cold breath before saying, "There is nothing I can do right now other than waiting for the quarantine to end."


    Theo had tried to figure out what he should do in order to deal damage to the enemy before the war even started. Although it was an opportunity for him to level up, he had to make sure the enemies weren''t able to defeat them.


    As he was thinking about it, he received a message from Rea.


    "Teacher. We''ve got the information you''re looking for. There is a volcano that is about to explode. I''ve attached the exact location and the prediction, so please check them."


    When he saw the message, Theo couldn''t help but smile. The Vice President, an unknown monster, and the nts. Everything would be revealed after this eruption.


    "It seems that I have to push myself even harder. If I see my current level, it will be a while before I reach level 950. I have to be a bit reckless this time and increase my levels as much as possible." Theo raised his hand as if trying to grasp the sky. "Things are getting interesting."

 Chapter 1746 Preparation

    "We have finished the tests as well as the quarantine. We''re thankful to anyone who has been cooperative during the quarantine." The King of Fighters dered in front of everyone.


    There were a few leaders who were displeased because they had to be quarantined as well since they had a lot of business to finish. Unfortunately, not a single of them was spared.


    Even Maya didn''t raise anyints. So, they had no choice but to follow the quarantine.


    Now that everything had finished, they could finally return to their home and office.


    "Haha, we''re free now. My body is rather stiff after all this shit."


    "That''s true. They said it''s the work of monsters!"


    "They''re just fooling around. I bet the King of Fighters did this to pay the Star Group back. The Star Group wouldn''t have their leader during thest two weeks after all."


    "That''s true. And we ended up getting punished for this. It sucks."


    "Yeah."


    There were two students who were far away from all the monsters. When they took their tests, everything happened smoothly. And when the incident happened, they refused to believe that there was an assassination attempt.


    And finally, because they had never seen anything and refused to listen to anyone''s words, treating them as nonsense. Theypletely didn''t believe anything that had happened during the quarantine and med everything on the King of Fighters and the government.


    Some of the people were overjoyed because they could finally return to their safe homes. It was painful to be locked up because of the situation.


    Some of them also began to work on their next project.


    When they were having their moment of joy, there was a girl who left the group while opening her Skylink and sending a message.


    "I''ve escaped."


    It seemed she was passing a message to someone to let them know about her safety. However, there should be no reason for her to hide all this.


    Unfortunately, no one noticed the girl as she took the liberty to send a couple of messages.


    "Alright. It''s done now." The girl smirked before suddenly her entire body was cut apart, revealing the inside that had no organs.


    The girl couldn''t think of anything before her consciousness faded away.


    And this incident didn''t happen only to the girl. There were two more people who died mysteriously, but their remnant only contained blood like the monsters.


    So, when the authorities found them, they were shocked because they had missed a couple of monsters during the test.


    As for the person who killed them, it was none other than Theo. He could easily see their status to know who he should kill.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    After the quarantine, he had some spare time since he had to wait for Maya to decipher all the data.


    Of course, Theo didn''t forget to let Agata know about his current situation before calling Rea to talk about their next n.


    "How can I help you, Teacher?"


    "I need you to do a few things for me. Since the enemies this time are going to be more troublesome than I imagine, I need you to prepare two things. First will be the weapons�� I might truly need it this time since I can''t summon my clone during this war. In other words, I have to somehow defeat the World ss Monster without my clone.


    "As for the second thing, you''re going to prepare soldiers to fight. Tell them that I will lead this war personally. And they''re free to join or not.


    "Considering the volcano is in the opposite direction of our territory, I bet they''re going to send the reinforcement.


    "After preparing for those two, I need you to prepare for an event where I upgrade the people''s skills. Cooperate with Maya about it. Also, I need to finish everything before the volcano erupts, which should be happening sooner orter. The prediction said it was within one to two months, so I had to raise the people''s strength as much as possible.


    "I''ll also send a few names for you to create a special invitation for them.


    "After that, you will work on our defense on that side. Although I''m confident that they won''t be attacking us from behind, it''s not one hundred percent. So, I want you to work with Felix and Ruth to protect the territory while I''m away.


    "As for the people who I will bring this time�� they are Jeff, Eleanor, Isaac, and Ergene. Tell them toe to the Star Group''s headquarters since I''ll be staying there for a while.


    "Last but not least, I want you to follow the instructions in the letter that I''ll send youter."


    After taking note of all the requests, Rea closed the notebook and said, "Alright. I have noted everything. Anything else, Teacher?"


    "No at the moment."


    "Alright. I''ll prepare everything for you as soon as possible. It''s a shame that I can''t follow you when you''re personally leading the n since I can learn a lot from you. But you must have your reason for not including me, so I shall assist you from afar while trying to figure out your thoughts."


    "Yes. I''ll leave everything to you, Rea." Theo hung up and disappeared from the area. No one knew where he went after that.


    In fact, none of them was actually aware of Theo''s movement since he never showed himself. And with the monsters'' appearances disturbing the entire society, all their focus was set on the Vice President.


    Of course, the Vice President didn''t say anything about Theo''s appearance since Theo seemed to be nning to free him soon. So, until that time, he had to endure everything.


    Thewyers should be able to buy enough time for that. As someone as powerful as him, it wouldn''t be that hard to fool a fewyers to work for him.


    Everything was for cooperation.


    That was why the Vice President had a confident face when he entered the court.


    The trial for the Vice President officially started.

 Chapter 1747 Consideration

    "Mr. President. I believe you have to see this." A middle-aged man handed a document to the president.


    The president furrowed his eyebrows while looking at the document. "What is this all about?"


    Despite asking, he was still trying to read it to know about it.


    "This is the report about the recent volcanic movement. We''ve found out about the recent activities, and we''re calcting the potential of the eruption and its effect.


    "ording to what we''ve found, the volcano will erupt in about a month or two. As for the effect�� I''m afraid there will be a mass migration of the monsters near the volcano."


    "��" The President frowned and said, "Mass migration, huh�� Won''t that cause the monsters toe to our base?"


    "The possibility of theming to us is quite high. So, we have to be prepared for the next fight." He nodded with a serious expression.


    "So, that means we''re going to face another war? Our soldiers are pretty exhausted already due to the previous war. And another one in just a month or two?"


    "That''s��" The guy couldn''t say anything about the soldiers. He wasn''t an expert in managing the soldiers as well, so it was better he kept silent.


    "This is going to be a hassle. Anyway, we have to prepare for the war no matter what."


    "I do have good news." The guy paused for a moment. "Actually, we got a message from Theodore Griffith. He volunteers to be the leader of the defense operation and would lead the soldiers to protect the base."


    "Huh? He volunteers?"


    "Yes. However, he does have a few conditions."


    "What are his conditions?"


    "He has to be themander of this war and given the right tomand all troops. Secondly, the base must send a lot of our heavy machinery along with five capable generals that could lead at least fifty thousand people. Last but not least, he needs your permission to do everything necessary to protect the base.


    "I don''t know if I should say this or not, but ording to them, there is a chance that the monsters that will attack us aren''t solelying from the area near the volcano."


    "What?" The President frowned. "Are you sure about that? Is this just a bluff from him?"


    "We do consider that probability, but we''re not sure yet. But if we''re talking about the current incident that involves the Vice President, we can''t really rule out that possibility."


    The President frowned, contemting. On the one hand, the government didn''t have a good rtionship with Theo from the start. On the other hand, Theo''s help would certainly bolster their defense and morale.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    That was why the president had to consider everything thoroughly, making sure they didn''t fall into Theo''s scheme.


    He wanted to ask the Time God to do it, but the Time God would surely refuse him unless Theopletely refused to help them.


    So, the fact that Theo offered to help meant he had to take it no matter what. There was a chance that the Mafia Queen would help Theo during this battle, assuring their victory.


    ''What should I do right now? I can give themand to him, but I don''t know what he''s nning to do. At the same time, there is a mysterious monster incident rted to the Vice President. I can''t rule out the possibility of those monsters appearing on the battlefield.


    ''If I give Theo themand over the army, he should be able to repel those monsters. Looking at how he is asking for our cooperation alone is enough to know those monsters wille. But I still don''t understand why he still chooses to fight for us.


    ''Our rtionship is bad and the volcano is in the opposite direction of his territory. Is he helping us because he doesn''t want to let us die? No. Knowing how Theodore Griffith worked in the past, I''m sure he''s nning something here. But what is he nning?''


    The President fell into deep thought, trying to figure out Theo''s thoughts.


    But no matter how hard he tried toe up with a logical possibility, he shoved it away, thinking Theo wouldn''t do something like that.


    So, he was clueless about Theo''s hidden n.


    "Did he give us any deadline to decide?" The President asked.


    "No. However, we have to decide as soon as possible, considering it will solidify our strengths. We can choose a few generals and boost our morale by revealing themander. So the preparation will go even more smoothly. There is even a chance that many stronger soldiers woulde to fight under Theo''smand to experience the difference."


    "That''s understandable." The President nodded before asking, "Do you have any data about the casualties when he was leading it?"


    "Let me check." The guy took out his Skylink and opened the data about Theodore Griffith. "The battle against the Mutated Monsters. They lost about two thousand men, three thousand were forced to retire, and twenty thousand injuries. Considering it was against the powerful mutated monsters and the betrayal, this kind of result was too overwhelming.


    "The expected casualties reached thirty thousand after all. As for the battle against the sea race��


    "The expected casualties are ten thousand, but on the battlefield, there are only about 1,500 deaths. In every battle, he has performed brilliantly to the point there''s nothing left to be desired.


    "So, I think it''ll be better to choose him and bring a few generals." The guy exined the data and showed his support. Even he felt assured when he heard Theo wanted to help.


    The President, on the other hand, still had to find out about Theo''s hidden n. So, he waved his hand and said, "The decision will be postponed for now. However, you should prepare five generals and the soldiers in case we agree on it."


    "Understood." Although the result wasn''t the best, it was good enough since the President would consider using Theo''s help. He then stepped back and left the room.

 Chapter 1748 Negotiation

    "Well, well�� I didn''t expect you to visit me this soon. Is there something wrong, Mr. Theodore Griffith?" A middle-aged woman asked while lighting up her cigarette.


    There was only one person who was strong enough to help Theo fight a World ss Monster. She was none other than the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric.


    "Pleasee in. Let''s have a talk." She extended her hand, showing Theo his spot to sit. She was wearing a in white shirt and long ck pants. Her tuxedo was lying on the floor as if it had just been taken a moment ago.


    Theo walked to her and sat in front of her with a serious expression. "I think there is no need for me to beat around the bush, right?"


    "Even if you cut to the chase, we''re going to have a long talk." Alexa smirked. "How about a cup of wine?"


    "No, it''s fine." Theo shook his head. "I''ll make it as brief as possible since I don''t have too much time to spend."


    "Hoh?" Alexa thought for a moment before putting off the cigarette she had just lit. She straightened her back and said, "Alright. I''m ready to hear the problems. Can you exin it to me?"


    Theo nodded. "Before that, I''d like to make a deal with you. I need your help."


    "Sure." Alexa agreed without hesitation.


    "Huh?" Theo raised his eyebrows, confused. He hadn''t even said anything, yet, Alexa agreed.


    "I know your character. So, there''s no reason for me to reject it."


    "Even if I said there will be no reward for you?"


    "Sure, I''ll still help you. You''re the one helping me settle down here. Even the government doesn''t dare to touch me carelessly thanks to your reputation. So, there is no reason for me to reject your n. Think of it as a way for me to thank you. Besides, I don''t think you need my subordinates for this, right?"


    "Yeah." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Though, you''ve sessfully made all my preparation go to waste. Should I congratte you on that?"


    "Haha. I''ll take it as apliment." Alexaughed.


    "And in exchange for your help, I''ll help you increase two of your skills into S Rank. Also, the rest of your skills will be A Rank as well. What do you think?"


    "!!!" It was Alexa''s turn to be surprised. She had heard about Theo''s ability, but this was the first time he heard Theo could upgrade all her skills. She currently has three B Rank Skills, five A Rank Skills and two S Rank Skills. So, it was quite surprising that she could have four S Rank Skills and six A Rank Skills after this.


    "I only heard recently that you could raise a skill all the way to A Rank. This is the first time I heard you have the ability to upgrade all our skills."


    Theo smiled. "They''re the ones misunderstanding my abilities. I have said everything that needs to be said. It''s up to them how toprehend it."


    "��" Alexa pinched the bridge of her nose and asked, "Did that British prince fall for this?"


    "Yeah."<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Alexa thought for a moment and said, "Is it possible to give this chance to my subordinates instead?"


    This was a strong word from the Mafia Queen. As their leader, Alexa had to be the strongest among all of them. So, increasing her own strength would help her strengthen her position.


    Besides, she would be even more important if she managed to increase her skill ranks since her support ability would increase significantly.


    Yet, she chose to give it away to her subordinates, there were probably no ones who would do the same thing.


    Theo added, "If you are going to help me, I''ll give you ten rmendation letters so that ten of your subordinates can increase their skill ranks all the way to A Rank."


    "You''re truly not holding back, huh�� You made an offer that I couldn''t refuse." Alexa grinned.


    "Then, we have a deal?"


    "Of course. But let me provide you with the Skill Cards as well. After all, you have given me enough." Alexa paused for a moment. "I want an equal rtionship between us. I don''t want to take advantage of our rtionship to ask for more. So, I''ll provide the Skill Cards for our group, including me. Just tell me about the requirementster.


    "In exchange, I''ll be in yourmand. I don''t know what you''re nning to fight, but it seems to be another World ss Monster. The fact that you go all the way to me means you don''t have your clone to help you or the enemy is simply too hard to beat.


    "I''m assuming it''s the former. Hence, I''ll help you to the best of my ability during the agreement."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. "Thank you. This fight might be a bit more dangerous than I expected, so I really need your help. I''ll tell you about the detailster, but for now, I''ll tell you about the problem.


    "In a month or two, there will be an eruption that will cause the monsters to migrate. And there is a hidden World ss Monster that will appear and direct those monsters to our base.


    "I want you to help me kill this World ss Monster. Although it''s good enough to repel this monster alone, if possible, I don''t want it to be a future problem." Theo exined.


    "Alright. Just tell me about the detailster. Do you need me to release my support abilities to all the soldiers as well?"


    "No, unless there is a special circumstance. You''re my secret weapon, so I don''t want you toe out for the time being. As for the battle, just leave it to me."


    "Got it." Alexa nodded.


    "In that case, it''s time for me to leave. I told you earlier, right? I didn''t have too much time."


    "Alright. If you need anything, just call me. I''m still working on a few projects to make this ce a temporary home, but I''ll do my best to spare some time for you."


    "Thanks." Theo nodded and disappeared.

 Chapter 1749 Craze

    "Hmm? He is the onemanding the army?" An old man frowned while ncing at a young soldier who sent the message.


    "Yes, Sir. There is no confirmation yet, but he has sent an offer to help." The soldier confirmed it.


    "So, the battle will require at least fifty thousand people and there will be fivemanders who handle ten thousand people each?"


    "Yes. As the letter said."


    The old man frowned. "I''ve just retired after thest battle. And now they''re inviting me back��"


    The soldier looked down, having no words to say. On the one hand, he was ashamed that he had to ask a veteran like him toe back to the battlefield. On the other hand, he was only following his task.


    Surprisingly, the old man smirked and said, "Fine. I will agree to this arrangement if the famous Theodore Griffith is the onemanding the army. This is the first time I can see how talented that young man is.


    "Besides, having this battle as myst battle will surely be a st. I won''t have any regret retiring after that." The old man thought for a moment. "Then, tell them to revoke my retirement for a bit."


    "!!!" The soldier raised his eyebrows and saluted. "Yes, Sir�� Lieutenant General Haivan."


    All the soldiers sent by the headquarters also received a simr response from the veterans who would act as the fivemanders.


    They all wanted to see what kind of battle Theo would show them if they agreed to this battle n.


    Although they weren''t famous worldwide, these five had a big reputation in the military.


    So, when the soldiers heard they gathered once again to fight onest battle, the soldiers were shocked and wondered the reason.


    Unfortunately, they didn''t know about Theo''s participation, or they would be crazy. But they were sure about one thing. The five generals were chosen as the Supreme Commander, so there would be an even bigger person that would lead the army.


    Fighting in such an army would surely provide a lot of things like connection and experience.


    So, they were trying to find a way to participate in the battle. A lot of soldiers even requested them to open more slots for the soldiers.


    The preparation was going crazy.


    However, there was another thing that made people go insane.


    It was the opening of Theo''s upgrading skill session. This was the event they had been waiting for, more than the event that gathered all experts from all corners.


    They all wanted to upgrade their skills to strengthen themselves, but as expected, there were many rmendation letters that had spread among them.


    The first day was dedicated to the ones who had received their rmendation.


    And as one would expect, the first one to arrive was the most enthusiastic person among the people who received the rmendation letters. The one who had chosen him when the others didn''t dare to do it, Grace.


    Theo and Grace were sitting in front of each other.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "It seems you have been camping outside since two days ago��" Theo said, not knowing what to say about this girl.


    "I''m your fan, Sir!" Grace admitted without hesitation.


    "Hoh? You''re a fan of mine? If the Great Magician heard it, he might cry, you know." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "You don''t have to worry, Sir. I''ve told my father about it and he told me I have great taste." Grace smirked.


    Theo ignored that remark and nced to the side, reading the information about her. "Also, from the information�� I saw a lot of praise for you. It seems that you''re a bit special."


    "No, no. I was just following my rational thinking and got lucky with my decision." Grace shook her head. "I also heard that Sir Theo was raising an army to fend off the monsters. Is there any chance for me to join your battle?"


    Theo shook his head as soon as he heard her questions. "Sorry, but I''m not nning to bring anyone outside the army."


    After a while, the president realized the reason why Theo only wanted the military to get involved.


    There was a conflict between them previously because of an unknown military guy and Ary. So, Theo gave this opportunity to them to mend their rtionship.


    He knew that the President would ask Theo to forget about that incident and allow the military to participate in his session as well.


    Of course, Theo informed Rea to agree to it as she handled the rest of the negotiation.


    Ultimately, they had agreed that in exchange for agreeing to his request, the military got a quota of ten thousand men, which was a significant number, especially after what happened between them.


    This was the reason why Theo demanded five generals from them. With five different armies, they could choose two thousand people each to get their skills upgraded.


    What made the soldiers go crazy was that Theo would be upgrading the skill twice, increasing their skill ranks by two ranks.


    The rest of the soldiers had the opportunity to upgrade their skills as well, but the treatment was far worse and more challenging. So, all of them wanted to be one of the ten thousand people.


    In that instant, there were a lot of soldiers who wanted to join the battle, believing they had the power to get those opportunities.


    Of course, there were people questioning Theo''s motive, considering he could upgrade those people''s skills first since it would make the casualty less.


    However, most of the rumors were blocked by the fact that he upgraded their skill twice. The treatment was different, so the requirement was also different. They had to fight for opportunities.


    Even if they pped Theo with "for the people," Maya''s statement of how Theo was treated by humans made many of them ashamed.


    Luckily, there was no incident when Theo upgraded his people skills. Ergene was acting as his bodyguard, but she was simply protecting the normal people from Theo, not the other way around.


    She stopped anyone that dared to overstep their bounds. And thus, the sessionsted for a total of ten days before Theopletely disappeared from the base.

 Chapter 1750 Meeting

    Five people sat down at a round table, looking at each other.


    "I have heard that the headquarters have agreed to put him as themander of this defense operation," said a thin old man while showing interest in the decision with his smile.


    "Then, where is he? Will this battle be simr to the previous one where he came out only at the end?" An elderly woman asked while snorting, a bit impatient about themander''s appearance.


    "I don''t think so. He has stated clearly that he will be the one leading this battle personally. So, I doubt he will give anyone his authority this time." A middle-aged man shook his head.


    "Well, it''s impossible for us to know what that man is thinking and doing. So, why don''t we just wait? After all, we still have a few days before the eruption." Another old man sighed. He didn''t want conflict between them. He just wanted to have a chill meeting.


    "That''s true. Although the eruption can happen any time now, we have gathered enough people. They''re elites who have gone all the way here to participate in the battle. So, our five armies might be the strongest one right now in the entire base." A middle-aged woman exined, de-escting the situation by stating facts that boosted their morale.


    These five were the chosen generals that were going to fight alongside Theo.


    Suddenly, a soldier entered the tent, passing the message.


    "We have a message from Sir Theodore Griffith."


    "It''s about time." The old woman red at the soldier and asked, "What did he say?"


    "Tomorrow at 9 AM. Gathered in the meeting tent to discuss the battle n."


    "Tomorrow, huh?" The old woman frowned, wanting toin. But since Theo had said tomorrow, there was no point in arguing about the time anymore. At the very least, he finally wanted to meet them.


    "It seems that he has finally taken everything seriously. Tomorrow and today are the same, so I''ll be patient for one more day."


    The other four generals agreed with her. Although it was disappointing that they couldn''t meet him as soon as possible, meeting a person like Theo was a rare opportunity. It might even be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.


    So, they had to be patient.


    However, the soldier added before they left the tent. "There is one more thing that he wants you to know. You''re to prepare your own tactics to be discussed in the next meeting."


    "Huh? Our own tactics? Isn''t themander supposed to do it?" The old woman waspletely confused about what Theo wanted.


    But another general added, "He might be trying to test us."


    "That''s probably the case. After all, there is no way someone like him needs us to prepare the tactic."


    They seemed to agree with that statement. Knowing Theo''s reputation, they believed Theo had prepared a n that could destroy the enemies. However, he wanted to see whether the generals were smart enough or not.


    His n might need an intelligent general to perform, so they were trying to make the best n.


    All of them exchanged looks as if telling each other that they would show off tomorrow.


    The soldier waspletely clueless about what they were thinking as he could only watch them leave the tent, preparing for their own.


    ��<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The next day.


    Each general walked into the tent with a confident smile. They believed their n was the best.


    "It seems that you''re going to lose this time." The middle-aged man smirked, taunting all of them.


    "Well, if I lose, then I lose. Though, I wonder where ourmander is. There are just five minutes left."


    "Is he runningte?"


    "Well, he''s not from the military. I can forgive his tardiness a little bit."


    When there was only one minute left, they had be impatient, thinking Theo would bete for who knew how long.


    At the same time, a soldier entered the tent, seeing these five. "Excuse me. I''m bringing Sir Theodore Griffith''s words. He��"


    "What?"


    "Is he going to bete?"


    "How many minutes should we wait?"


    They were demanding an answer from the soldier, but the reason why the soldier suddenly fell silent wasn''t because he was interrupted by these five. Instead, it was due to him finding the sixth person in the room.


    And he recognized that face. The soldier instantly straightened his back and saluted. "Good morning, Sir! I apologize if I was toote to convey your message��"


    "Huh?!" They were confused before their bodies shuddered in panic as they turned around, finding Theo in his seat. He was even pouring the hot tea into his cup as if he was waiting for them to notice him.


    "W-what?!" Theo''s sudden appearance startled them. Two of them even stood up while holding their weapons out of reflex.


    "You�� You are Theodore Griffith�� No, Commander!" One of them hurriedly stood up to give him basic respect.


    "When did you arrive, Commander?" Another one asked while furrowing her eyebrows, trying to figure out the situation.


    But an old man called Haivan shook his head. "No. Looking at him, it seems that he has been here for quite a while. The only reason why we hadn''t seen him was due to his ability. We were in his illusion this whole time, thinking there was no one in this ce."


    Theo smiled, looking at them. "Two with great adaptability, one with fast response, one with good perception and another one with good judgment. This is good enough."


    "!!!" They widened their eyes before exchanging looks. It turned out Theo''s appearance was to startle them to see how they reacted. It was clear that he had grasped their characters with this simple performance.


    ? "Well, you are dismissed." Theo waved his hand to the soldier, asking him to leave. After that, he looked at the fivemanders and said, "As for you five�� I won''t go easy on you even if you''re a lot older than me. If you don''t like it, you''re free to leave."


    They gulped down, not wanting to make the same mistake again. Hence, they saluted and shouted, "Yes, Sir. Thank you for the opportunity."

 Chapter 1751 Plan

    It turned out Theo wanted them to make a n to make them feelcent about themselves. They ended up lowering their guards because of it.


    "Well, I think this is enough�� You should know from your experience already that you shouldn''t let your guard down, no matter who is leading you. That kind of attitude can cost a lot of lives. Understood?" Theo looked at them coldly. He was angry because they were careless this whole time.


    As someone who had reached their position from the bottom, they didn''t say anything about Theo''s remark, knowing it was their fault.


    Every single one of them seemed to be aware of it and wanted to change, making sure they didn''t repeat it.


    Theo ultimately dropped the case and said, "Alright. Let''s wrap it here. As for your n, I know you''re trying to devise a n of your own. That n might be of any use, so I don''t mind listening to them. Why don''t we have an introduction first? State your name and n briefly, starting from you."


    Theo chose the youngest among them, a 70 years old female general. "Hello, Sir. My name is Yesenia from Mexico. I have experienced a lot of battlefields, mainly in defense operations there.


    "As for my n, I''m nning to set up several defense lines that we can easily retreat to. The monsters are enraged because they have been kicked out of their homes, so it''s best to avoid direct confrontation."


    Theo nodded and pointed at the second youngest one. "How about you?"


    "My name is Nichs. Although my rank is the lowest among them, I still have a few things I can be proud of, including my n. The defense lines are good, but we''re talking about the monsters here�� They''re pretty brainless, so I believe we have to destroy them one at a time with some explosives to reduce our casualties."


    Theo nodded and pointed at the third guy.


    "Hello, how''s it going? My name is Spencer from Canada. I have been tasked with protecting the Green City. It is one of the major cities in Canada, specifically, the monsters that would attack the base.


    "To be honest, I don''t mind taking on any kind of ns. As long as you''re leading us, I don''t feel like losing. However, I don''t want to leech off your strength.


    "Hence, my decision is to direct the enemies into difficult terrain. The monsters aren''t that intelligent, so we have to take advantage of their inability to think to secure a safe ce where we can bombard them with our firepower."


    Theo understood that his n would probably be the most concrete one so far. So, he pointed at the impatient old woman, wanting to know what she thought about the n.


    Surprisingly, she only said one thing. "Smash!"


    "��" All of them were bewildered, not understanding what she said at all.


    "I am Ka and my n is to smash them head-on. Although this might look rash, with you leading us, I believe we can crush the enemies easily. That''s why rather than having aplicated n that we don''t know whether it''s going to work, it''s better to overwhelm them with our extraordinary strength."


    "As for thest one, I guess it''s you. What do you have in your mind?" Theo asked.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "First of all, my name is Haivan. Before exining my n, I believe we have to go back to the very start. I actually wondered why you volunteered to lead the army despite the fact that this ce is in the opposite direction of your home, and there is a conflict between you and the military.


    "I don''t know if you want to answer it or not, but I''ll tell you about my spection. I believe that you have seen something that we can''t. That''s the only reason why you''re volunteering.


    "And the fact that you go all the way here means the problem is not small. That''s why I believe fighting head-on will probably be thest thing we want.


    "Instead, we have to understand the opponents this time and bide our time tounch our counterattack. In other words, we will have attrition warfare for a while before utilizing all our strength to cripple them."


    Theo was satisfied with thest one. There was no reason for Theo to participate in this battle unless there was a huge risk that woulde into this ce.


    Hence, he believed there was a huge threat that woulde to this ce where Theo''s power was necessary.


    The only way to solve that danger was to let Theo preserve his strength as long as possible.


    What they didn''t know was that he took this opportunity to judge their characters and their judgment.


    After listening to them, he said, "There will be an opponent stronger than anything you''ve faced in your life. And that''s the reason why I''m here��


    "However, it''s impossible to find them for the time being. What we have to do here is to set up a fewyers of defense by taking advantage of the terrain.


    ? "I''ll leave the defense to Yesenia and Spencer. Are twenty thousand soldiers enough to create the defense lines?" Theo asked.


    Yesenia and Spencer looked at each other and nodded their heads. "Yes, Sir. I believe we can finish this within three days with the amount of personnel."


    "Good." Theo paused for a moment, ncing at Nichs. "We also have a lot of heavy machinery from the headquarters, so I''ll leave them in your hand, Nichs. Cooperate with them to ce them in a position where you can support the soldiers."


    "Understood." Nichs nodded with a serious expression.


    "Then, Ka will prepare her assault team when the monsters begin to retreat. Last but not least, Haivan�� You''ll follow meter and help me with something."


    "U-Understood!" Ka was dumbfounded when Haivan was chosen. But she couldn''t object because Theo had begun exining his n. "This is the detail of the defense."

 Chapter 1752 Hidden Enemies?

    "And, that''s how it is�� any questions?" Theo finished his exnation.


    All of their eyes were still sticking to the map Theo presented, wondering if it was possible to use Theo''s tactic or not.


    Spencer and Yesenia first talked to each other first, discussing a few things to check it. Ka was a hot-bloodedmander, so she simply saw the n about her alone instead of matching the others, thinking this was a perfect time for her name to echo inside the base.


    Nichs, on the other hand, raised his hand and asked, "I''m not sure about one thing. Since we''re utilizing the terrain, we will have a hard time moving our machinery. So, we might need a bit more time to follow your order."


    "No, you can position them a bit farther away if you think it''s not safe. As long as they will reach the vanguard, that''s enough."


    "I see. In that case, I''ll move back half a mile. Still, my boys won''t be able to participate in the battle this time, considering we''re stationed in the rear��"


    "Yours will be our reserve army. This battle might be the toughest one you have faced so far, so I know your reserve army will be needed."


    "I see. If that''s the case, we''ll conserve our stamina as much as possible so that when the others are tired, we can unleash all our might to push the enemies back."


    Theo nodded and nced at Haivan, who seemed to have something to say. "What''s wrong?"


    "Ehm, I''m still not sure about my position. It looks like I''m stationed in the middle�� Why is that? Unlike the reserve army, mine should be strong enough to be a vanguard�� no, they should be the ones chosen as vanguards."


    "Don''t worry. I told you earlier that I have a separate n for you, right?"


    "Yes."


    "That''s how it is. For now, wait until the rest agree with the n."


    "I understand." Haivan nodded with a confused look, trying to figure out what the separate n was.


    After a while, Yesenia and Spencer confirmed. "Sir. I believe we can do it as long as we get help from Ka. Most of her army consists of fighters and knights, so she should be able to help us push the monsters away so that we can catch our breath. We''ll repeat that process until we kill all the enemies."


    "What do you think?" Theo asked Ka with a serious expression since her role would be crucial for those two.


    Ka nodded. "I''ll cooperate with them."


    "Good. Since we''ve agreed to the n, let''s end the meeting here." Theo waved his hand, dismissing them. "Haivan. Stay here."


    Since Theo and Haivan wanted to chat privately, they exchanged looks among themselves before leaving the room.


    After observing Theo for a while, Ka couldn''t help but mutter, "Is that it? I have heard about his reputation. Although his n is good and solid, I don''t see anything special in it."


    "That''s true. I can understand why he is the War Saint''s grandson, but I still expect a mind-blowing n."


    They were discussing how Theo didn''t seem to be as they expected. They didn''t know that the reason why Haivan stayed with Theo was to spice the n up.


    "So, what do you need from me, Sir?" Haivan asked.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What if I told you the enemies this time might look like the normal enemies, but that was just on the surface."


    "If we''re talking about the current enemies, I believe there will only be monsters living near the volcano. While they''re at it, they''ll go to the base instead of any other ce, so I don''t see anything beyond those monsters."


    Theo shook his head. "Our enemies this time aren''t those beasts."


    "Huh? If they''re not our enemies, then what are they?"


    "They''re just baits whose purpose is solely to exhaust us. Meanwhile, the real enemies will appear after them, probably one or two days after the first attack."


    "Who are our real enemies, Sir?"


    "nts."


    "nts?!" Haivan was confused. Although he had seen a lot of nt monsters in the past, he believed their poption wasn''t as good as the beasts. After all, ns had a hard time evolving into a mobile monster like a beast.


    However, Theo could see the probleming from the nts. He said, "Just trust me this time. The n''s sess or failure will depend on whether you believe me or not.


    "It might sound weird to you, but I want you to send a thousand men to the front, spreading them all over the area.


    "Tell them to use a smoke signal to inform the movements of the nts. I''m pretty sure they''re going to see moving nts, so after sending the signal, they''re to retreat as far as possible before regrouping with your army."


    "That''s��" Haivan was still unsure about this enemy. The nts might be monsters, but they would have a hard time moving around the area. So, he couldn''t understand why nts would be the greatest threat in this battle.


    But Theo directly said that the n''s sess and failure would depend on whether he trusted him or not.


    "To be honest, I can''t trust youpletely since it''s too ridiculous that the nts are going to be our greatest enemy this time. Though, in the military, you have toplete the order of your superior��" Haivan signaled to him that he would blindly trust him as long as he gave the order.


    And Theo didn''t hesitate to order him. "Then, I order you to send one thousand men forward and spread them on the battlefield."


    "Yes, Sir!" Haivan saluted.


    Theo then waved his hand, dismissing him. When he was alone, a female''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "Well, that''s the n you give to the military. I think the n that you haven''t told anyone yet is crazier�� Do you mind telling me about it, considering I won''t be appearing on the battlefield?"


    Theo nced at her. The female''s voice came from none other than another Saint, the Mafia Queen.


    Theo thought for a moment and said yfully, "You can guess."


    "Tsk. Cheapskate."

 Chapter 1753 Eruption

    *Rumble!*


    *Rumble!*


    The ground began to shake as cracks started to open on the surface of the mountain.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters began to be restless as they looked at the volcano for a while before running away.


    All monsters hurriedly left the area, starting from the flying monsters to the ground monsters.


    There was no General or even King ss Monster near the volcano, so the monsters were scattering without directions, simply trying to leave the area as quickly as possible.


    However, they soon another roar that startled all the monsters in the area.


    *Roar!*


    "!!!" The monsters paused for a moment as if trying to figure out where the roar came from. However, they all understood the meaning of the roar.


    After a while, a simr roar resounded across the area. This time, the monsters confirmed the meaning and began to move toward the east. The monsters in the west even took their time to loop around the volcano as if they heard an order more important than their lives.


    Unbeknownst to them, there were a group of people who maintained a close look at the volcano.


    The group consisted of elite fighters dispatched by Theo.


    "The monsters have begun acting strangely."


    "The rumble earlier must be rted to the next eruption. The mountain is going to erupt at any moment."


    "Yeah. But did you see how the monsters stopped and moved in a certain direction?"


    "It seems that there is another monster controlling them."


    "So, are we going to take a look at them?"


    "No. Themander said we should go back as soon as we confirmed the eruption and the strange movement. It seems that he is aware of the monster. Although we might not know the monster''s identity, it''s enough to prepare for it."


    "In that case, we''ll pack our things up and confirm the eruption before going back."


    "Yeah."


    The group reached an agreement. They didn''t recklessly try to confirm the monster. Although this would be a chance for them to make a name for themselves so that they would get the rmendation, they chose to stop, following Theo''s order.


    As they expected, three hours after the monsters were moving toward the east, a huge explosion resounded across the region.


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" The group turned their head around and saw the rocks copse, spurting out bright red magma. The volcanic cloud rose into the sky, bing bigger every second.


    Lightning strikes became even more visible in this thick volcanic cloud and the monsters became even more restless as if they wanted to leave the area as soon as possible.


    A series of roars filled the area, trying to fight back the eruption sound that had yet to stop.


    The bright red magma began to flow down the volcano and the volcanic rocks started to fall down, crushing everything underneath.


    "��" The group exchanged looks and nodded at each other.


    "Let''s go back."


    They hurriedly turned around and left the area while observing the eruption.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The cloud rose and rose again until it reached two miles into the air. It then expanded the area.


    "Measuring��" One of the guys said while pointing his tool into the cloud. Not long after that, he received the scale of the volcanic cloud. "The height is 2.1 miles and it''s now half a mile in radius. It will continue to expand as the eruption hasn''t stopped. The wind is blowing to the west, so we won''t need to worry about the volcanic cloud."


    They couldn''t stay there because monsters would start swarming that area, so it was best to leave, hoping their information was enough to help the battle.


    Fortunately, the monsters had yet to make their move due to the mysterious monster organizing them. Though, it also meant that the battle would be even more troublesome.


    ��


    Theo closed his eyes while sitting in his office, waiting for the news. They had been preparing for the battle.


    Theo couldn''t help but remember the information that Ne and Alexa had brought. ording to them, the monsters had the ability to pick up a radio signal, so he didn''t give any radio to the scouts so that they wouldn''t be ambushed by the monsters.


    Though, it also made the information slower. Still, it was better than getting ambushed and killed. Everything would be for naught at that step.


    Suddenly, a soldier opened his door and rushed into the room. "Sir. We have received the confirmation!"


    "!!!" Theo instantly opened his eyes wide and stood up. "Good. Tell the twomanders to intercept the iing monsters."


    "Yes, Sir."


    As soon as the soldiers left the room, Theo walked toward the control room, where he could monitor everything.


    There were a total of fifty people working in the control room, handling the soldiers and all their equipment.


    "How is it?" Theo asked.


    "Everything is clear at the moment. We haven''t spotted any monsters yet." One of the guys said while pointing at the screens.


    "There is no change for camera 31st to 60th.."


    They had installed many cameras in the base and in the area, trying to observe all kinds of battlefields.


    "Got it. Continue to monitor the area. Inform me when you spot a monstering to this ce." Theo nodded and asked, "How are Yesenia and Spencer?"


    "Both of them are in their positions. We have spread our wall half a mile wide to catch all the monsters."


    "Nichs?"


    "The support and the reserve army are ready."


    "Ka?"


    "They are next to us, ready to catch all the monsters that escape from our grasp."


    "Good then. Tell Haivan and his army to stand by."


    "Yes, Sir."


    Theo checked all his armies while furrowing his eyebrows, waiting for the iing monsters.


    Suddenly, he took out his Skylink and said, "Ergene. You four can begin."


    "Understood," Ergene replied. Theo had brought Ergene, Jeff, Isaac, and Eleanor here because of their expertise.


    As soon as they got Theo''s confirmation, Ergene waved her hand to Eleanor, asking her to start.


    Eleanor didn''t hesitate to summon her mice and allowed them to dig the ground. They were scattered so that they could inform Eleanor about the movement on the surface.


    "Jeff is good at nts now and I''m curious about this nt monster��" Isaac smirked, hoping the monsters woulde soon.

 Chapter 1754 The Start Of The Battle

    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters'' roars began to resound across the region even before their appearances were caught by cameras.


    "!!!" The soldiers on the battlefield had heard their echoes and some of them checked from the air, finding many trees falling.


    The battlefield this time was a wet but thin forest. They had enough space to move around, but the trees and the wet ground still made the monsters have a hard time moving.


    They chose this area for one sole reason. It was to bait the enemy in.


    They could choose to fight on the farnd, but that area was too open. The nt monsters wouldn''te to them if they fought there.


    ? Although it was safer to fight that way, it would mean nothing if they ended up missing those monsters. They would simply be a hidden threat to the base.


    Yesenia and Spencer were standing in front of their army, looking into the distance. They had made several traps to lower the enemy number, so they weren''t afraid of fighting against the rest of the enemy.


    However, they still needed the support of Nichs to endure the full brunt of these enraged monsters.


    The monsters kept marching forward. Those who didn''t have thick skins were jumping around, avoiding the trees. However, those with tough skin preferred to bulldoze everything in their path, opening the path for the monsters behind them as well.


    Unfortunately for them, this type of monster would also be the first one to fall from the trap due to their confidence.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Roar!*


    Suddenly, many monsters tripped and fell to the ground. If it was just normal ground, they would die from getting stepped over.


    This time, however, when they fell, the ground copsed, revealing a hole that sucked them in.


    The hole spread like wildfire as the monsters began to get trapped inside the holes. Those who couldn''t avoid the holes also fell into the hole, crushing the monster underneath.


    Many monsters screamed in pain as if asking them to stop, but it was useless. With their number, it was impossible to stop. The monsters from behind would continue to move forward until they reached their destination.


    Unfortunately, this was what the army wanted. Afterpletely filling up the holes with their own bodies, the monsters stumbled on the second line of traps.


    This time, there were numerous threads that tripped the monsters on the front.


    When they stumbled, their bodies got stepped on by the monsters behind them. However, there were some whose agility was low enough to do anything. In the end, they crashed into these monsters and formed a wall of corpses.


    The monsters wanted to warn the ones behind them, but because they weren''t General ss Monsters or even King ss Monsters, they couldn''t control these monsters at all.


    They could only continue forward while trying to avoid the traps. But those behind them had their eyes covered by their bodies, so they ended up falling into all kinds of traps.


    The humans had been looking at them from the air, confirming that the traps had worked and reduced their number for a bit.


    However, they also sent a different signal to the other army.


    And that other army was none other than the one that Nichs led.


    As soon as he received the message, Nichs ordered his army. "The enemy has entered the range. Ready all the weapons!"


    His soldiers began to work, preparing all the bullets. The fighter jets also began to take off, ready to drop the package.


    "Commander. Everything is ready!" Nichs stated, informing Theo.


    After that, Theo waited for a while, checking the monitors. The moment he saw a monster appearing on one of the screens, he shouted, "Turn it on!"


    "Yes, Sir!" One of the guys answered while pushing the button. "Releasing the radio signal!"


    *Roar!*<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    *Roar!*


    The monsters'' roars began to erupt again, rming the armies. However, there was a reason for them to act like this.


    They felt the disturbance from the radio wave.


    Their target switched from the soldiers before them to the source of this disturbance.


    "Sir! The monsters have begun toe to the center. They''re affected by the radio waves!" Another guy reported what he found.


    "Send all the drones so that we can see the battlefield from the air," Theo shouted.


    As he ordered, a total of one hundred drones flew into the sky, giving all kinds of views from the air.


    As expected, the monsters noticed the drones. Although they were targeting the source of the signal, they still couldn''t ignore an unknown object before them.


    Some of these monsters gathered their Magic Power, shooting these drones.


    "Evasive Maneuver!" A middle aged guymanded the people who handled the drones to begin avoiding these attacks.


    Because of the number and the monster''s unpredictability, two of the drones got shot down immediately.


    However, Theo didn''t mind since observing them wasn''t its only purpose.


    Now that they were distracted by the drones, Theomanded Nichs. "Shoot them down!"


    "Understood!" Nichs raised his hands and shouted, "Shoot them!"


    The tanks raised their guns, getting into the right angle.


    "Fire!"


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The bullets flew into the air, heading straight to the enemy rank.


    The monsters, who were trying to destroy the drones, were startled as they used their power to shoot the drones. They couldn''t use another ability to strike down the bullets that came toward them.


    That was right. This was the second purpose of the drones.


    With them unable to use their power to release a powerful burst of Magic Power to destroy the bullets, those bullets ended up hitting them or the ground before exploding.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Many monsters died from the explosions, especially the low level ones. The Supreme Rank and Mythical Rank Monsters could withstand the explosion easily, but one of them died because the bullet impaled its body.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters tried to warn the others, but it was useless. More and more monsters came to the area and got blown up by the explosions.


    Seeing the situation, Theo couldn''t help but say, "I''ll be going out. Report to me if something happens."

 Chapter 1755 Man-Made Disaster

    "Attack!" Yesenia and Spencer shouted,manding their armies to confront the enemies.


    Because it was hard to fight on arge scale, both of them used the same tactics. They sent their vanguards to the front, stopping the monsters as much as they could. In the meantime, the Ranger, Magician, and all people who had ranged attacks would release their power to bombard the enemies.


    The healers were standing behind all of them, healing their injuries. On the other hand, Enchanter and Summoner supported the vanguards with their skills or summoned creatures.


    The assassins killed all the monsters that managed to bypass their defense line.


    All people in the army had their own job, ensuring the entire army could work.


    Theo was quite impressed that they could hold the enemies with only this number. Though, he knew a portion of their strength came from the fact he offered the rmendations.


    They were trying to show their strength so that they got picked and became even stronger.


    While they were fighting, Theo was standing in the air, looking at the entire battlefield from afar.


    He asked on the radio, "Have you finished the calction?"


    "There are approximately a total of one hundred thousand monstersing in our direction."


    "One hundred thousand? It''s quite big, huh." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Yes, Commander. We suspect that they''re gathering the monsters on their way here, thus the number. There are only thirty to forty thousand monsters near the volcano."


    "Understood. Maintain the observation." Theo nodded while looking around. He could see a few groups scattered in the vast forest, ready to send the smoke signal. They were Haivan''s people who received the tasks to inform them about the iing nt monsters.


    ''We still have the upper hand in this fight. But what I''m concerned about is what wille after that��" Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "It seems that I have underestimated them�� To think the problems don''te only from human mistakes."


    Theo never thought that natural disasters would be one of the triggers for humanity''s extinction.


    However, Theo had another thought about this.


    "If that''s the case, won''t it be troublesome if we have to take down a tornado, tsunami, or even an earthquake?" Theo was concerned about the destruction that woulde from them.


    The earthquake might not be a natural disaster anymore because it would be apanied by a lot of monsters. The tsunami would bring the sea race to their ce and allow them to fight underwater, not onnd.


    "Well, I will worry about them after taking care of the current problem." Theo let out a long sigh and observed the monsters'' movements. "The trees won''t being for at least a few hours to two days. So, I have time to increase some levels."


    With that thought in mind, Theo informed the army that he would help them on the front.


    His presence was overwhelming because Theo could easily kill a thousand monsters with his power. Although it used quite a lot of Magic Power, Theo was more than happy to use it, considering he expected to get ten to twenty levels from this war.


    The soldiers'' morales also erupted, following Theo. Their suprememander was leading them at the very front, so how could they not help?


    All of them were trying their best to show their strength, hoping Theo would take note of their name personally.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    ��


    As Theo predicted, something happened ten hours after the eruption.


    The trees around theva were supposed to burn. But surprisingly, there was a small ck cloud, raining theva down and decreasing its temperature.


    At the same time, the organic material from theva, ashes, and minerals from the volcano gradually entered the trees, bing their source of energy.


    The trees'' Magic Power began to increase by leaps and bounds.


    This was what everyone didn''t know. The vines on the ground began to move like a snake, searching for their prey. Something simr happened with the roots as if they were trying to find prey underground.


    But more importantly, trees started to move by extending and contracting their roots. With the help of the monsters destroying all kinds of obstacles such as boulders and normal trees, they could travel in thisnd undisturbed.


    Humanity was going to face something they had never seen before. Although they had some experience with nt monsters, this might be the first time they saw arge-scale invasion by the nt monsters.


    Poisonous nts, thorned flowers, living grasses, parasitic vines, and even tall, tough trees. All kinds of nts gathered in one ce, forming an army of their own and invading the humans.


    But the ns also didn''t expect Theo to have known about their movement and prepared to take them on even with clueless soldiers.


    The nts would know what it meant to fight against Theodore Griffith��


    However, there was one miscalction that both the nts and Theo made in this battle.


    They thought that the volcano erupted because it was a natural cycle. They thought this was a natural disaster and just took everything for granted.


    The nts manipted the monsters while Theo prepared for their invasion.


    But both of them didn''t realize it was actually a man-made disaster.


    After the nts moved toward the human base, the ground began to shake before the volcano erupted for onest time.


    *Boom!*


    This eruption might not be bigpared to the previous one, but it shattered the nearby ground that didn''t copse from the eruption earlier.


    When the lightning shed within the volcanic cloud, a massive shadow appeared.


    The shadow was standing with two feet. It had a pair of giant wings that spread at least three hundred feet wide. There were three heads attached to the body and the two hands had long sharp ws.


    *Roaaaaaaaaaaarrr!*


    Suddenly, a huge roar shook the entire region. Filled with rage and energy, the roar felt like it was the sign of death itself.

 Chapter 1756 Coming

    "How is the situation?" asked Theo while staring at the battlefield.


    "The monsters seem to have unlimited stamina since they have been trying to overwhelm us this whole time," Spencer replied while pointing at the west. "We''re trying to shift the defense to that area so that the monsters graduallye to the east where Ka is waiting."


    Yesenia added, "ording to the number, we have sessfully killed a total of ten thousand monsters in the span of seven hours thanks to you killing six thousand of them."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. Theo had been killing the monsters from time to time to relieve some pressure on the soldiers.


    They were going to experience a more gruesome battle soon after all.


    After hearing the report from these two, Theo said, "Maintain your position right now. They''reing."


    "They?" Yesenia and Spencer frowned, wondering what wasing.


    "You''ll know about it soon. For now, maintain a close look at the sky."


    "Understood." The two nodded and immediately went back to their position. They thought the iing enemies woulde from the sky, but Theo only wanted them to see the smoke signal.


    After they left, Theo looked at the sky while sighing. "This doesn''t look good. Are they going toe during the night? If we''re fighting those ns in the darkness, it''s going to be a bit troublesome due to their nature��"


    Theo fell silent for a moment before informing themand center. "Tell Haivan and Nichs to get ready."


    After giving thatmand, he immediately began killing the enemies again.


    While waiting for the trees toe, Theo checked his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 925


    EXP: 30,150,500/77,533,222


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1250, Endurance 760, Agility 772, Vitality 760, Magic Power 2100


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    He was currently at level 925 with only three A Rank Skills left since he had leveled up the Blink Skill from the Skill Cards he got from the upgrading session.


    He thought this would be enough to stop the World ss Tree Monster, but he never expected there would be another World ss Monster that woulde into the battlefield.


    Since Theo didn''t know anything, he simply focused on annihting as many monsters as possible while maintaining his energy.


    The dusk soon came, but there wasn''t any sign of the nts'' movement.


    Theo retired to themand center for the time being, gathering hismanders.


    Surprisingly, there were four people with Theo right now, which were none other than the people Theo brought from his group.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What is this?" Ka frowned, ring at those four.


    "These are the people from my group. I need them for something. So, how is it going?"


    ? Jeff was the first to exin. "The path is cleared. I can see that there won''t be any problems going in our direction."


    Eleanor said, "I''m not sure at the moment. I don''t think they have arrived, but I''m still watching the movement three miles away from here."


    Isaac exined, "I haven''t seen a surge in Magic Power. So, we''re safe for the time being."


    Theo nodded. "Thank you. Maintain vignce right now."


    Ka became even more confused and asked, "What are they saying, Commander? Are we fighting something different?"


    "It''s just a spection for now, but I believe there will be nt monstersing our way," Theo exined to the rest.


    "Huh? nt monsters?!" Ka was surprised that there would be another type of monstering. But she also noticed one of his words. "Spection?"


    "That''s right. It''s only a spection for now since I have no way of confirming it without putting my people at risk. I prefer if they''re noting, but I think they''lle."


    "So, you''re basing all this n for the sake of these nt monsters that you aren''t even sure will being? This is ridiculous." Ka gritted her teeth, never expecting Theo to be fighting against a non-existent enemy.


    "Ka. Watch your mouth. He is ourmander!" Nichs tried to reprimand her while thetter rebuked him in an instant. "But do you think it makes sense to fight against an enemy that might nevere?"


    "Those monsters will most likelye sooner orter. I have been wondering why he''s trying to lead this battle personally�� It turns out to be rted to this unknown type of monster." Haivan sighed.


    Yesenia thought for a moment and said, "Now that I think about it, he has predicted the iing mutated monsters and prepared for the sea race��Just looking at those two facts alone, it''s clear that themander knows something that we don''t�� No, instead of knowing, it''s more like seeing something we can''t."


    "So, the possibility of theming is pretty high." Spencer narrowed his eyes.


    Unlike Ka, the others were looking at Theo''s track record. He had foreseen the iing attack from the sea race and the mutated monsters, so it wouldn''t be so strange if he predicted the nt monsters'' movements as well.


    "I''m afraid they''re going to attack us during the night." Theo nodded, sharing his concern.


    "Huh? During the night? Not during the day? Can''t they do photosynthesis during the day?"


    "They might do it to increase their energy or something during the day and release it during the night?"


    "That''s also a possibility. We have been too focused on those beasts that we forget that the trees are also a threat."


    "If that''s the case, shouldn''t we begin preparing for their invasion?"


    "I''ll immediately put my men on standby after this."


    The fivemanders were discussing among themselves while Theo observed the conversation.


    Suddenly, Eleanor dropped her jaw as she shouted, "Sorry if I interrupted you, but�� one of my mice has just died��"


    "!!!" Theo and the othermanders looked at Eleanor. Theo gasped, "Do you mean��"


    "Yes. They''reing!" Eleanor nodded with a serious expression.

 Chapter 1757 Plants

    "!!!" The moment they heard the confirmation, all of them stood up and hurriedly rushed outside.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to lift them up in the air so that they could get a good view from above.


    Although they hadn''t seen anything yet, Isaac had rmed them.


    "Not good! I can see a few lines of Magic Power extending underground!" Isaac shouted.


    "How many are they?" asked Theo while taking out his weapon.


    "There are seven lines, each containing the Magic Power of a Mythical Rank Monster!"


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes in shock, wondering if they had heard it correctly.


    Theo immediately gave themand. "I need all of you to go back to your��"


    Before Theo finished his words, Eleanor shouted, "Not good. They''reing! Six�� ten�� no, 20 of our men have been killed!"


    "What?!"


    Not long before Eleanor informed them, the soldiers from Haivan''s army were patrolling the area.


    "Is there truly any monstering here?"


    "It''s said to be nted. But they''re just normal trees, right? If they''re monsters, they have attacked us this whole time."


    The soldiers had a light-hearted conversation as if looking down on the nt monsters. They were in a group of five, so they had enough people to react to any kind of threat.


    But they weren''t Supreme Rank Experts, let alone Mythical Rank Experts.


    The roots of Mythical Rank Monsters moved underground so fast that these people didn''t have enough to react when they sensed the fluctuation of the Magic Power.


    "This is��"


    "Everyone��"


    Before they tried to rm the group, multiple roots emerged from the ground, piercing their bodies and heads.


    All of them died.


    Only the mice Eleanor spread managed to survive. In fact, the only reason why it survived was because the trees didn''t consider them as humans. The one mouse that died earlier was pure coincidence.


    There are going to be more and more casualties at this rate!" Eleanor shouted while looking into the distance.


    Before Theo said anything, he pointed forward. "Look."


    All of them turned around and saw a few shadows in the distance. The shadow formed the shape of a tree, so there was no need to confirm it anymore.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "They''reing. I don''t know how many monsters areing right now, but I want all of you to fight ording to the n."


    "Understood." Allmanders, including Ka, received the order with resolute faces. There was no need to specte anymore since the enemies had appeared.


    "Eleanor. Retract all your mice right now since it won''t be wise to rm them. Also, can you inform the Mafia Queen to get ready?"


    "Yes." Eleanor immediately went back to the ground so that she could send a mouse to inform the Mafia Queen, who hid in a secret location.


    "Jeff, you are to predict their movement with your knowledge about nts. Isaac, you do what you need to do. As for Ergene, make sure they''re safe, OK?"


    Jeff paused for a moment and asked, "Do you think I should make some simtion to trap those nts by creating fake paths?"


    Theo smiled. "That''s even better. But the enemy believes they have ambushed us, so make sure to do it secretly."


    Isaac snapped his fingers as if he got excited by this new enemy. "Hehe, I can research nts. Now that I think about it, can''t you increase the number of your Attribute Points by absorbing the herbs? Since herbs are nts, can''t we make something that increases our strength?


    "That''s right. The herbs contain a lot of Magic Power, while cooking meat will disperse the Magic Power�� I don''t know if this is possible, but if I think about those nt monsters�� I think it''s possible for us to increase our strength bybining both the beast and the nt.


    "Ah, this is good research." Isaac smirked, seeing all the possibilities.


    Theo smiled, feeling blessed by good subordinates. Though, he believed this research could only benefit him, who still had ess to the system. Even so, this was different from Theo''s way of using an artificial artifact to boost his power, so it also meant he could bypass the system if Isaac seeded in this research.


    "Do what you need to do. I''ll be looking forward to the result." Theo nodded and sent them back to the ground.


    After that, he looked into the distance with a serious expression, knowing the nts wereing.


    More and more nts became visible from a distance. Some trees were only a few feet high, while some trees reached as high as fifty feet.


    However, their opponents this time weren''t only trees. On top of those trees, there were vines, flowers, and even grasses.


    "Are you serious?" Theo gritted his teeth, not knowing what to say about the iing monsters.


    Unlike the beasts, they seemed to have the ability to work with each other. It was proven by how they carried some smaller nts on top of their bodies so that they didn''t get killed by the bigger ones.


    "Don''t tell me�� The ones attacking us this time are at least Rare ss Monsters?" Theo frowned. "Starting from Rare ss, the intelligence of the monster is opened, allowing them to coordinate with each other.


    "If that''s the case, I''m afraid the monstersing this time are at least Rare ss Monsters.


    "Ah, the Normal ss Monsters might not be able to move yet. They can only cultivate by photosynthesis or anything�� When they reach Rare ss, they can do something like this.


    "If that''s the case, the battle will be even more atrocious because the enemies this time are simr to a group of elites." Theo''s expression became serious. "If the World ss Monsteres�� judging how hard the trees move around, I think there will only be one King ss Monster among them. But I''m sure there are at least a hundred General ss Monsters. I might have underestimated the nts."


    The moment Theo came to the realization, he hurriedly moved toward the enemies as if trying to stop them by himself.

 Chapter 1758 Plants (2)

    "Attack them!"


    The soldiers roared while hitting the monsters with their weapons. A series of Magic Power attacks rained them down, causing a lot of casualties on the monster side. There were even explosive bullets that killed these monsters.


    They had confidence in defeating these monsters since as long as they could kill the most monsters among their group, they had the chance to get the rmendation letter from Theo.


    However, a series of weird monsters began to appear the moment they saw smoke rising in the air.


    "Hey, look! There is smoke!"


    "The forest starts burning? No, the Magician has been raining the forest down with water, so it''s impossible to burn the forest right now."


    "Then, the smoke��"


    "I''ve just received the information from themanders. There will be more monstersing and that smoke is the signal. They''re indicating another type of monster and he wants us to be careful!"


    "Careful huh? I only know one thing!" The soldier smirked while shing down the monster before him. "That''s right. I only know I have to kill the monster in front of me to get the rmendation letter."


    "!!!"


    Suddenly, a vine came out of the ground and wrapped his ankle.


    "What is this?" The guy widened his eyes, looking at the ground. He hurriedly stabbed the vine with his sword, but surprisingly, the vine moved like a snake, avoiding it.


    After that, another vine came out, wrapping his other ankle. From that point, the vines began to climb his body.


    "What is this?!" The guy shouted while trying to sh these vines.


    The other soldiers near him were rmed and looked at him. Two of them saw beastsing toward them, so they hurriedly moved forward to stop them, giving time so that the others could help him.


    However, it was toote. The vines were so durable that no normal swords could cut them. At the same time, the moment it began to cover the guy''s body, it was the same as giving away his life.


    "What is this? I can''t move my body!" The guy gritted his teeth, trying to fight these vines but to no avail.


    When the vines finally reached his hands, the guy began to move again, but this time ording to the vines'' will.


    "What? My body is moving on its own!" The guy was surprised and tried to stop the vines but to no avail.


    The vines wasted no time controlling the guy to move toward his teammates.


    "What is this? Move away. I can''t control my body!" The guy roared while seeing his body moving by itself. "STOOOPPPP!"


    The guy had a horrified expression because he was about to strike his friend.


    "What are you doing?!" his friend raised his weapon and blocked the strike once.


    "I can''t move my body!" He panicked, not knowing what to do. "Kill these vines. They''re controlling me."


    "I''ll stop his sword. You guys help him." His friend shouted to the other two.


    They nodded, nning to cut the vines.


    But suddenly, they heard another scream. "Aaaaahhhhhh!"


    They hurriedly turned around and saw one of the two people that stopped the beast suddenly fall down and get pounced on by the beast.


    The monster itself wasn''t that strong, so he wouldn''t have any problems stopping it for a while. But when they saw his face, they realized something wasn''t right with him.


    "His face is purple?"


    "Look, what are those rainbow-colored vines?"<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Poison?!"


    They realized it toote because the other guy suddenly fell down, losing all the strength in his body. The monster didn''t hesitate to take advantage of the situation and killed the weak soldier.


    Seeing two of them had fallen and one of them was being controlled, one of them shouted, believing they had to inform the other groups as well. "We have to retreat!"


    Staying alive and bringing the information was much more important.


    "Are you kidding me? We''re going to leave them here?" The controlled guy''s friend couldn''t help but shout. Obviously, he didn''t want to leave his friend behind, especially in this situation.


    But that hesitation cost him everything.


    Because of his shouts, the other two had to stop to convince him to leave the battlefield for the time being.


    And due to that, a rose suddenly appeared on top of his shoulder.


    "Eh?!" The guy turned around and saw this rose. Although it didn''t have eyes like the beasts, he could feel the rose''s re.


    But after that, it was a tragedy. The rose''s thorns suddenly expanded a hundred times of its size, piercing through his head and killing him.


    There was no sound since almost his entire head was gone.


    "What?!" The other one was shocked because he never expected hisrade would die just like that. But he was also going to suffer the same thing.


    When he was about to run away, he suddenly tripped because something grasped his ankles.


    "No, no, no. I don''t want to die!" The guy screamed while staring at his feet, trying to move away from the vines.


    But to his surprise, the ones tripping him weren''t veins. Instead, they were grasses. The grasses tied his feet to the ground and when he fell, the remaining grasses wrapped his wrists,pletely sticking him to the ground.


    "What?" The only person who still had control over his body gasped and realized he was surrounded.


    But to his surprise, his friend suddenly moved to the side as if fleeing from him.


    "Yo��" He tried to stop him, but the beasts that killed his teammates earlier stood in his way. "Kh!"


    He tried to search for his friend before finding him standing in front of his teammate, who was pinned on the ground.


    "What�� What are you doing?" The hopeless guy was horrified when he saw the controlled guy raising his sword.


    "I can''t move my body." The controlled guy was also in despair.


    "NOOOO!"


    No matter how they shouted, the result wouldn''t change. The controlled guy cut his neck, leaving only one free person on this team.


    Their gazes intertwined for a moment, showing their own despair.


    When the free guy felt a sudden fluctuation of Magic Power, he knew he would die. At that moment, a few roots came out of the ground, piercing his body.


    The controlled guy couldn''t even speak anymore. All he wanted to do right now was die because he couldn''t endure all these brutal deaths.


    And that was what the vines gave him.


    It began to tighten all over his body, ripping apart his skin and crushing his bones.


    "AAAAAHHHHHHH!"


    That was thest shout of this group.

 Chapter 1759 World Tree

    "Sir. The left side is copsing. We need more soldiers there!" A soldier shouted while gritting his teeth. He had seen the nts rampaging around, killing so many soldiers in one go.


    "��" Spencer, themander of that army, frowned and said, "We''re going to��"


    Though, before hepleted his words, he heard something on his radio. He immediately changed his words. "Wait for a few minutes. The reserve army is on the way."


    "Understood!" The guy nodded. He was aware that there were only three thousand soldiers on the front line while the other twenty thousand remained on the back.


    Since they were going to send some troops, it should be enough to relieve some pressure on their side. At the same time, these soldiers were fresh and had been conserving their stamina and Magic Power from the beginning. Theirbat strength would far surpass the exhausted soldiers on the front line.


    While watching his subordinate leaving, Spencer frowned before raising his head, looking at Theo in the sky.


    "Fresh troops should be able to push the enemies back. Don''t tell me this is the reason why he hasn''t put those twenty thousand soldiers in the front? With this, we can minimize the damage on our side." Spencer had just known about the nt invasion not long ago, but if Theo had been preparing the battlefield for this, all hismands made sense to him.


    Still, the one who faced the strongest monster was none other than Theo himself.


    In the sky, Theo was ring at a humongous tree in the distance. Despite having a one-mile gap between them, the tree managed to stop him without leaving a single opportunity to exploit.


    The tree was bigger than anything else.


    ''Seriously? This is the first time I''ve seen a tree like this.'' Theo narrowed his eyes. ''Its height alone is about 800 feet tall. The branches and roots stretch over a mile in diameter. And the worst part is�� the tree hasn''t released any powerful attacks just yet��'' Theo muttered inwardly.


    He nced to the grounds, seeing the roots as big as a skyscraper.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, believing this tree was more troublesome than he originally thought.


    The tree extended its roots again, trying to squeeze Theo to death.


    Theo waved his swords and cut down the roots. However, cracks soon appeared on the gap between the roots, causing the illusion to break apart and leaving only a small mark on the surface.


    As soon as it recovered, the roots began to attack him again. There were four roots surrounding him.


    Before they reached Theo, thetter snapped his fingers, twisting the reality around him so that the roots bent sideways, hitting the roots next to them and so on until these four roots ended up making a spiral.


    However, Theo could see the roots begin to force themselves, moving toward the inside as if it was trying to tten Theo. The worst part of fighting against a humongous monster like this was the size.


    There were only a few options to leave this encirclement.


    Skill: Blink (S)


    Effect: A skill that allows the user to teleport to five hundred feet away from them. It can be used five consecutive times and brings all the people that touch the users.


    This was the new S Rank he got and it became quite handy.


    Even so, the roots were the size of a skyscraper, both in size and height. Theo had to go near the roots before using his Blink to teleport out sessfully.


    As soon as the tree couldn''t find Theo inside, it immediately snapped the roots to forcefully return to its formal state before moving toward Theo again.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Theo took a deep breath and said, "This is impossible for me to defeat unless I get some help."


    Name: Xditva


    Level: 930


    Skill: Wood Prison, Unbreakable Wood, Thorn Spikes, Golden Leaf, Explosive Fruit, Branch Labyrinth, Root Extension.


    This was why Theo knew why he couldn''t fight this World ss Monster by himself. The tree seemed to only use the Root Extension this whole time while he had to use Blink and his illusion.


    He might be more troublesome if he had his clones, but his clone had another thing to do. So, Theo couldn''t help but call for reinforcement. "I need it now."


    ? As soon as Theo said those words, a rainbow suddenly wrapped around his body, improving his ability. This was Alexa''s ability.


    With the fact that Theo had upgraded her skills to A or S Ranks, the effect of the abilities increased significantly. Instead of doubling his strength, he felt like it was close to tripling his strength.


    When he felt this strength, another root came to him to test the sudden change.


    But surprisingly, Theo stopped the root with only his bare hand. Of course, he used Muscle Enhancement, Enhanced Concentration Capacity, Telekinesis, and Energy st at the same time, but with that difference in size, it was close to impossible for Theo to stop it with only his hand.


    That was why this power up was necessary to win the battle.


    Seeing its root was stopped by Theo, the tree sent other roots to squeeze him to death.


    Theo wasn''t nning to receive all the attacks without fighting back from now on.


    He used his Alter Ego and increased his strength to the peak. With the help of Alexa''s abilities, Theo''s strength reached an unprecedented level. In fact, he might be the first human to finally achieve the strength of the ancient God, whose strength was simr to Loki.


    Theo looked to the side and punched the root with all his might.


    *Bam!*


    The punch caused a huge shock wave, vibrating the ground. Still, what shocked everyone, including the tree, was the huge crack in the tree root.


    "!!!" The tree paused for a moment before retracting its root as if it was afraid of Theo.


    Theo couldn''t help but smirk since he had confirmed all the things he wanted.


    "If that''s the case, I don''t need to hold back anymore." Theo''s body gradually expanded and changed its shape. His hands turned into ws, his back summoned a pair of wings, his head became a dragon.


    Theo used his Metamorphosis to be a huge dragon, whose size was a third of the tree. It might not look big, but this was enough for Theo.


    With a single p of his wing, he released a powerful gale to the ground. He red at the tree before releasing an earth-shattering roar.


    *ROOOAAAARRRRR!*

 Chapter 1760 Overwhelming

    "A Dragon?!" The soldiers on the ground were shocked because they were never aware of Theo''s ability in morphing to another creature.


    "Does ourmander possess the ability to change his shape?"


    "I don''t know. There is no news about it."


    "Don''t tell me, he has been hiding this trump card this whole time?"


    The soldiers werepletely dumbfounded by what they found. At the same time, it also gave them some hope since Theo finally used his trump card to turn the situation around.


    When he became a dragon, two roots came toward him. However, Theo knocked them down with a single punch. It felt like Theo didn''t use all his abilities either likest time.


    Since Theo had be a dragon, he could use his weight and strength to handle the roots himself. That was why the soldiers cheered.


    "GO! Commander!"


    "Kill that tree!"


    The soldiers cheered for Theo. At the same time, numerous soldiers from the reserve army had arrived, pushing back the monsters. These fresh troops were strong, so they instantly crushed the enemies and gave some breathing room to the other soldiers.


    This chain of advantageous situations boosted the troops'' morale.


    Theo had been waiting for this. Now that he had changed into a dragon, he gathered all the Magic Power in his throat before using his Mirage World to copy the lightning.


    He used the sh between the Lightning Saint and the Frost Saint as the image of his copy. Back then, the Frost Saint threw his club while the Lightning Saint released his breath. Even with only a brief sh, the entire area was destroyed and the shock waveing from them swept everything away.


    This was the same. After imbuing the lightning element into his breath, Theo released it forth in the form of aser.


    Even the tree before him seemed to be startled by this strength as a series of wooden gates appeared between them, stopping the lightning beam.


    The wooden gates appeared one by one in clockwise directions as if trying to lock theser up. But because it was in the form of aser, the wooden gates ended up splitting theser into a few parts and gradually destroying it.


    "��" Theo frowned, knowing this was the monster''s Wood Prison. ''Since that''s the case��''


    Theo changed his shape again from a dragon to a snake.


    The tree hurriedly extended its roots, trying to impale him but to no avail. Theo had been using his Supernatural Snake Body to protect himself.


    Although he was upied with a lot of things, he never forgot to continue his practice of the Five Aspects.


    He had mastered Awareness, Control, and Technique. So, there were only Breathing and Endurance left.


    Luckily, his Endurance had improved so much due to the constant beating from his Telekinesis, allowing him to almost reach thest stage of Endurance.


    It might be disappointing that Theo hadn''tpleted his training on Endurance, but even without it, Theo''s skin was pretty hard, especially due to the Supernatural Snake Body, whose power was already close to what the Jormugand had in the past.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    With this kind of skin, Theo moved forward as a snake, avoiding all the roots he could dodge while letting the others hit him. It hurt, but it still didn''t leave any scratches on his body.


    Seeing Theo advancing without fear, the tree utilized another skill, the Branch Labyrinth. This time, the branches began to extend toward Theo as if it was trying to stab him to death.


    However, the branches ended up getting shattered after contact and the others ultimately impaled the ground.


    Theo noticed the sudden change.


    "I see. This is thebyrinth, huh," Theo muttered inwardly, noticing how dense the branches were. It seemed the enemy nned to confuse him for a while before taking him down.


    Since that was the case, Theo stopped and raised his head, spitting out the poison that melted the branches.


    To his surprise, the branches had resistance against poison. Even though it managed to corrode it, the branches were totally fine as if asking Theo to continue moving in hisbyrinth.


    Knowing it would just lead him to a trap, Theo changed his shape back to human. Since the branches were big, it wouldn''t be a problem for him to slip past the gap between them.


    Theo took advantage of their difference in size to move forward, getting as close as possible. He thought the tree had an advantage in ranged battle, so he chose to change it to closebat.


    The tree felt the change in Theo and hurriedly changed its approach. Many spikes began to appear on each branch and suddenly expanded.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and jumped to the side, barely avoiding the spikes. The entirebyrinth disappeared, leaving only some small gaps between the thorns.


    ''Seriously? This tree is so dangerous.'' Theo frowned before flying to the top with his Telekinesis. He wanted to use his World Re-Creation to manipte reality, but the tree was so big that it could simply cover the distance the expansion made just by moving. That was why he hated fighting against a big monster.


    As soon as Theo reached the top, he used his Blink to appear on top of the Branch Labyrinth.


    After that, he changed back into a dragon and released a roar.


    This time, the roar was made of Fire Element. Due to their distance, the wood didn''t have enough time to extend its branches or roots to block it, so the fireball ended up hitting his trunk.


    Unfortunately, the trunk was suddenly covered in gold, spreading the fire evenly on its surface. No matter how hard the fire tried to burn it, the trunk wouldn''t catch fire.


    "Tsk. Even fire is useless��" Theo frowned and flew forward, trying to use his w to scratch that golden trunk.


    The tree also didn''t n to hold back anymore. Suddenly, a tenth of the tree leaves turned gold and began to fall down.


    When Theo saw the description of the tree leaves, he gasped, watching how thousands of tree leaves flew toward him.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1761 Counterattack

    Skill: Golden Leaf


    Effect: Turning a normal leaf into a gold leaf and imbuing it with the power of the explosion.


    Theo was shocked that a tree would even have anything rted to explosion and fire, considering it could burn itself.


    ''This tree is taking the words ''ying with fire'' to a whole new level.'' Theo gasped while pping his wings, stopping his advance. After that, he summoned numerous Magic Bullets, shooting down the leaves.


    Whenever the bullet hit, the leaf would explode and cause a chain reaction with the leaves around it.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    There were thousands of small explosions in rapid session, generating a powerful shock wave. Even Theo got pushed back by the shock wave.


    ''All right. With this, I have seen all the skills of this tree, except for the Explosive Fruit. I thought this fruit was just abnormal, but the tree has a Fire Element. Imagine having a tree with a fire element�� Now that I think about it, won''t this tree be a perfect tree for a campfire? Since its power is fire, it can generate fire endlessly without burning the tree down.''


    Theo chuckled. The battle was already hard, so he tried to make a simple joke in his heart to lessen his pressure.


    Of course, it didn''t mean Theo would lower his guard since the tree immediately sent more golden leaves through the white smoke that the explosions created.


    Theo flew into the sky, avoiding all these tree leaves.


    He soon noticed that some of the leaves had changed their direction.


    "Hmm? Not good." Theo nced at the leaves that flew toward the army. If he let them be, the leaves would explode and kill many soldiers.


    On the other hand, if he stopped and changed his direction, the leaves would hit him.


    "Tsk."


    As if knowing Theo had a hard time fighting the world tree, Alexa said something through the radio, which Theo barely heard due to his current size.


    "It seems that you''re in trouble. I''m going to utilize a bit more of my power. Your raw strength is not the only thing I can increase, my Authority can also enhance your abilities. How about creating a wall that blocks those leaves? I''ll handle the rest."


    Theo was startled at first but decided to trust Alexa since they had an agreement and there was no benefit for Alexa if she betrayed him.


    Theo strengthened the air and formed a transparent barrier. Suddenly, the barrier was enveloped with a blue aura, blocking the leaves.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    To his surprise, Theo didn''t feel too much of a burden when blocking those leaves. It was proof that Alexa''s ability worked.


    Without hesitation, Theo flew back toward the army to ce a barrier that stopped all the leaves.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    After blocking all the leaves, Theo returned to his human form and muttered, "Come on. If you have an ability like that, you should have told me from the start."


    "I was nning to hide it for a bit longer because of the consumption issue. It''s like one of your abilities�� I can see that when you use that ability, your Order Energy is drained by a significant amount. This is the same. The longer I use it, the bigger the energy consumption is. So, I don''t want you to rely on it that much."


    Theo realized the ability was simr to his Alter Ego instead of his three bigws. Still, it was truly a powerful ability, considering his ability could go beyond S Rank for a moment.


    Of course, it couldn''t reach the unknown rank like the peak World Re-Creation Skill, but its strength was in between.


    Still, he found out about this ability a bit toote. He had returned to his original position, meaning the tree would regain its advantage.


    "This might be the hardest opponent I''ve faced so far," Theo muttered. "Even more annoying than the shark and scorpion."


    "Where is your clone?"


    "I wouldn''t bring you here if I had it with me right now. Though, I might have to change my approach after this��" Theo observed the tree for a bit.


    "I understand. How do you want me to help you? Should I make an appearance?"


    "No, not yet." Theo shook his head. "For now, I want you to focus on boosting my defense. Can you?"


    "It''s easy."


    "That''s enough. I''m going to risk my life a bit this time." Theo took a deep breath and took out his Skylink, calling a number. "Please begin."


    "Understood." Surprisingly, Maya''s voice was the oneing out of his Skylink. No one knew what Theo was thinking at the moment, but it was clear he had some methods to defeat the tree.


    However, the Mafia Queen couldn''t help but say something she had noticed for a while. "By the way, you might be too upied with the World ss Monster�� Let''s just call this thing World Tree. Anyway, have you noticed that there is no King ss Monster apanying this World Tree?"


    "Of course. Though, I''m pretty sure the King ss Monster is somewhere around here."


    "So, do you need me to step up? Although I don''t have any confidence in defeating a World ss Monster, I should have no problem in killing a King ss Monster or two."


    "I have told you from the beginning. There is no need for you to make a move in this battle except to boost my ability. Don''t worry."


    "Well, if you say it like that." The Mafia Queen seemed a little bit disappointed that she didn''t have many contributions in this battle, but Theo must have had his reason. In fact, it seemed he was preparing for the next battle that might be bigger than the current battle.


    So, she just followed his instructions this time.


    The tree seemed to notice something different from Theo, considering he hadn''t changed back to his dragon form, which seemed to be the most effective against him.


    And to its surprise, Theo flew forward in his human form, challenging him with that small form.


    Without hesitation, the World Tree raised its roots to stop Theo from advancing.


    But before the roots could reach the height, two explosions suddenly struck the tip of the roots, bending it.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Theo smirked as if he had been waiting for this.

 Chapter 1762 Plan

    "Please begin."


    Maya''s eyes shed when she heard the instruction. "Understood."


    She stood up and walked toward the railing, looking at four giant turrets before her. There were at least thirty people operating one turret.


    "We''re about to begin!" Maya shouted while putting on the noise-canceling headphones.


    As soon as they heard the instruction, all of them instantly began to work on their stations.


    "Loading the bullets!"


    "Loaded!"


    "We''re ready to fire!"


    "Locking the target."


    "Calcting the coordinate."


    "Coordinate set!"


    As soon as they finished locking their target, each supervisor said, "Turret one, ready!"


    "Turret two, ready!"


    "Turret three, ready!"


    "Turret four, ready!"


    At that moment, Maya shouted, "Supersonic bullets, Fire!"


    "Fire!"


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A few explosions echoed as the turrets released the bullets into the sky.


    It didn''t take too long for the bullets to reach the target.


    Theo, who was fighting the World ss Monster, couldn''t help but smile the moment he saw the bullets dropping on the World ss Monster.


    Two bullets hit the target while the other two missed.


    "Turret 2 and 3, adjust your coordinates."


    Maya smirked when she heard the report and shouted energetically, "Good. Continue bombarding the enemies! Kill them! Theo isn''t the only one that the monsters have to worry about, we too!"


    Maya could finally unleash the weapons they had been hiding this whole time. Theo had ordered her to make it a few years ago, and it could finally unleash its might to kill a World ss Monster.


    Of course, these turrets weren''t ordinary turrets. The design was taken from the facility that Theo destroyed with the help of the Shadow King, Dark King and Frost Saint.


    Although the Shadow King destroyed it, she still gave him some of the data to be used as a charge against those people.


    Since he had copied it and given it to Maya when he asked her to build the turrets, Maya had improvised by giving it to herpany''s specialists.


    Unfortunately, these turrets also became a double-edged sword because they were not owned by the military or the country itself.


    When they were fired, they immediately picked it up.


    "We''ve spotted supersonic bullets flying on top of our territory!"<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What? Supersonic bullets on top of our soil? Where did those bulletse from? Hurry up and find it!"


    "There are people who dare to point a gun at our head? Whoever did this should be eliminated!"


    It didn''t take too long before one of them shouted, "We''ve found their locations, but��"


    "Where is it?!"


    "It''s in the southern part of South Dakota. But that ce should be surrounded by monsters."


    "What? Mobilize our troops to capture all of them!"


    "Y-yes!"


    No matter what kind of good purposes one had, when they had a gun that could harm the base, they would be taken down by the base. And this was why Theo had been hiding it this whole time.


    However, Theo had prepared everything for this war. He wouldn''t allow the military to stop him.


    Obviously, Maya had nted some spies on the government. The moment they made a move, Maya immediately heard about the report.


    "Miss. The FBI, CIA, and the military have begun their move. They will most likely arrive at this ce in a moment." Maya''s secretary reported with a calm expression. Although she was worried about the situation as well, she knew Theo wouldn''t give an order without properly thinking about the consequences.


    "Alright. Tell Rea, Felix, and Ruth to get ready." Maya nodded with a serious expression.


    "Understood."


    That was right. Theo ordered Rea to prepare a defense line with Felix and Ruth, but he never specified the ce.


    It turned out he wanted them to make a defense line to protect the turrets for as long as possible.


    As for Agata, who was unrted to all this�� she was actually having a warm talk with Theo''s parents.


    And Ne was the one who invited her. Though, Theo was the one taking the initiative this time.


    Ne was staring at Agata, who was having a chat with Ray and Valerie. She couldn''t help but recall what Theo had said a few days ago.


    "Eh? What did you say?" Ne gasped, thinking she didn''t hear it right.


    "Yeah. You can invite her to talk in your home." Theo nodded, confirming it.


    "You want Agata to talk with your parents?" Ne looked down with a confused expression before asking, "Are you nning something dangerous this time?"


    Theo only smiled at her and walked away.


    Ne was speechless. It was clear that Theo was nning to execute an extremely dangerous n.


    There were two reasons why Theo allowed Ne to invite Agata to his parent''s house. First, it was to show Theo''s goodwill, telling them he might not want to meet them, but it didn''t mean he would be petty. He still allowed them to meet the soon-to-be daughter-inw that he chose.


    Second, the fact that Theo gave Agata to them meant he wanted to hide Agata in a safer ce.


    Although he had prepared a territory that would protect them, it wouldn''t work if the other party sent the Time God. Hence, it was better for his parents to take her in for the time being.


    The Griffith Family was good in this area, so of course, there was nothing to doubt about her safety. Of course, the rest of the group also followed her as ''bodyguards.''


    Obviously, Ray and Valerie didn''t hesitate to take them in. It was a precious chance for them to talk with their daughter-inw. And it was also a sign that their rtionship with Theo slightly improved.


    There was no reason for them to reject it.


    Knowing those reasons, Ne couldn''t help but shake her head, muttering, "This is going to be hard for everyone, but if I know Theo enough, I think the situation will be resolved after the war ends.


    "Though, in the meantime, we have to avoid organizations like the CIA or FBI who will be trying to search for us. Luckily, Theo is not a psychopath who would use his fiancee as a reason to crush the base."


    Ne sighed, hoping for the best in this situation.

 Chapter 1763 Counterattack

    Meanwhile, Theo, who had received the support fire from Maya, smirked while wielding his weapon.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The two bullets that hit the roots bent the tip. Although it wasn''t enough to crush it, Theo was satisfied with the fact they could provide some actual help.


    Maya had told him she had provided enough bullets for a few hours. So, he expected more after a while.


    The monster was big and he was small. Even though he was risking his life here, the enemies would be most likely to get hit by the bullets.


    A few bullets might not have any effect, but it would be a different case if he rained them down with lots of bullets.


    ''Still, the tree has a good defense unlike the Frost Saint. Maybe I should have asked Maya to improve its power even more...'' Theo thought while flying toward the tree.


    The World Tree was startled by the sudden attacks, but Theo was still the most dangerous threat to him.


    So, it only hesitated to move the roots for two seconds before the roots came out again, stopping Theo.


    Theo smiled as he sensed the bulletsing. But because of the bullet''s speed, he only had two seconds to react to the bullet.


    Theo used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality so that the bullet woulde his way.


    *Boom!*


    The bullet hit the roots. Without hesitation, Theo applied his illusion to the root. On the side hit by the bullet, a huge crack appeared after that st. On the other side, Theo left a huge sword mark.


    The World Tree immediately utilized its skill again to neutralize the illusion, but surprisingly, a crater remained on the root.


    "!!!" The World Tree sensed that crack, surprised by how Theo could injure him.


    Theo smirked, knowing his strategy had worked.


    ''The World Tree might have the skill to neutralize my illusion, but this time, I''m applying a real attack on top of my illusion. It won''t be that easy for you to neutralize the illusion since not only has my illusion changed into reality thanks to my Authority, but the bullet alsoes directly from reality.''


    Knowing the situation had worked in his favor, Theo didn''t hesitate to twist the reality again, trying to grab more bullets to destroy the roots.


    ''You might have Fire Element and Explosive Skills, but it won''t work if the explosiones from outside your body, right?'' Theo thought.


    As if sensing Theo''s intention, the branches began to spread, preventing Theo from attacking.


    But the moment the tree panicked, this was when Theo began his counterattack.


    He waved his right hand, expanding the reality to push the roots to the side before making his way toward the branches.


    The roots might be sturdy, but the branches were frail. Hence, Theo didn''t hesitate to cut the branches with his illusions.


    And as expected, some of the branches fell to the ground. Sadly, the branch number far surpassed the roots, so it would take a long time before he could cut down all of them.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Before he continued, he received a report from Isaac. "There are a total of ten roots spreading in all directions. Be careful about the fruits as well since it contains a huge amount of Magic Power. Its explosion won''t be small.


    "ording to Eleanor, there aren''t any more ntsing. Their numbers are only about two thousand, but all of them are elites. Jeff also reported that there is only one path for them to retreat, and it is the direction where theye from."


    "Got it." Theo nodded. The report made everything easier for him. Since all the enemies had arrived, Theo informed one more person. "Everyone has arrived. Make sure to watch the battlefield."


    There was no response, but Theo knew the message had been delivered.


    He could finally focus on this battle.


    Theo flew toward the branches and formed a huge boulder on top of him, pushing it toward the tree.


    The World Tree instantly spread its branches to form a to catch it.


    But this was the time Theo stepped on the ground, releasing all the air to push the boulder.


    Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    *Bam!*


    Some of the branches snapped immediately, some cracked, and some were still holding on. But with this kind of situation, the World Tree had to add more branches to avoid the boulder hitting its body


    Theo thought he would be able to destroy more branches, but the World Tree seemed to be able to predict his movements. Instead of branches, the World Tree actually used some of the roots from the opposite direction to lift the boulder.


    Before the World Tree managed to grasp the boulder, Theo used his second bigw, the Reverse World, to change the boulder''s characteristics. The solid rock turned soft, and the pressure from the Ascension Step crushed it so that the tree couldn''t grab it and throw it to his people.


    ''Although I couldn''t use my Third Law, I could still use the secondw to change its characteristics.''


    After that, Theo applied the secondw to the roots that tried to grab the boulder. He altered their hardness and made them as soft as possible.


    "!!!" The World Tree felt the effect and hurriedly used his ability but to no avail.


    Theo''s Authority was superior to his ability. Even if he could turn it back, it would take some time.


    And before that happened, Theo had appeared next to the roots and waved his hand, releasing a sword strike.


    *Bam!*


    One of the roots was cut down and fell to the ground.


    "!!!" The World Tree didn''t expect that one of his roots would fall like this, but this also showed Theo''s strength.


    After fighting multiple World ss Monsters, Theo had gotten enough experience and strength to fight them on equal ground. There was no need for more tricks.


    "Come!" Theo smirked and pointed his sword at the tree. "Since you dare toe here, don''t expect you can leave here alive. This shall be the ce where you''re buried!"

 Chapter 1764 A Devil In Human Clothing

    Thirty minutester.


    South Dakota.


    "We need backup! We don''t have the ability to fight them."


    "What do you mean?"


    "We don''t need any normal personnel. What we need is the Transcendent Level Experts of this base."


    "What? Why do you need all of them?"


    "The enemies this time are the three Transcendent Level Experts under Theodore Griffith. Do you expect us to fight them with this personnel? We also need to bring three experts so the rest can apprehend the others and stop those weapons."


    As soon as he heard that report, he immediately turned on the emergency line and spoke, "We need the authorization to mobilize the three Transcendent Level Experts as we''re fighting three experts under Theodore Griffith."


    The one who received the call was stupefied because their mobilization required the president''s authorization.


    But they had heard about the situation. It was clear that Theo had broken thews of possessing a weapon of this level. It was clearly threatening the stability of the base.


    Before, they couldn''t really act because Theo hadn''t broken anyws. But since he had given them this opportunity, he instantly informed the president.


    It didn''t take that long for the president to hear the report and he immediately authorized the mobilization.


    "Finally, we have the chance to crush him." The president smirked and said, "Since those three are there, we will also mobilize the Time God�� no, we should capture his fiancee instead of those three. This way, we can make him obey ourmands."


    The president immediately ordered them to move, not caring whether Theo fought for them or not.


    Since the opportunity had arrived, he would take advantage of it. As long as he got Theo under hismand, there was nothing to fear anymore.


    The stability of the base would also be guaranteed since Theo had no choice but to obey them if he wanted his fiancee to be safe.


    Coincidentally, the World Tree seemed to make a different move as well.


    All of a sudden, the World Tree emanated green light from all over its body. The green light gradually gathered in front of the tree, forming a humanoid body.


    Although it was a body, it only resembled a human. Other than the structure, everything was green.


    Theo frowned because this was the first time the World Tree showed something like this.


    Surprisingly, the green figure spoke to him. "Theodore Griffith. I have heard a lot about you. You are one of the humans I can respect. However, do you think you''re capable of stopping me?"


    Theo smiled. "I told you earlier that you''re going to die here. Why do you even bother asking whether I''m enough to stop you or not?"


    "You''re crazy, Theodore Griffith. No one dares to say they can kill an Authority Level Figure easily. You and I know that we have our own trump cards to keep us alive. You might be able to kill that shark before, but it''s because you''re fighting it together with your clone.


    "This time, you haven''t even unleashed your clones." The World Tree snorted as if thinking he had gained the advantage.


    "Hoh? Bold of you to assume I''m the real one." Theo smirked.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Haha, you don''t need to y such a joke with me. I know you''re the real one. Whether you believe it or not, it''s up to you."


    "If you think that way, then it''s fine. Just make sure you don''t say you''re tricked by that personter." Theo smirked. "After all, who knows if I have fooled someone or not."


    The World Tree fell silent for a moment before shouting, "In any case, you''re the one who will lose this battle."


    "We will see."


    "It''s fine to have such confidence, but I know that you don''t have any Kings or Queens helping you in this battle. I might have some trouble gathering all my kin, but even I have a single King under me. And he will be the one to end this battle�� me your people for telling me all your Kings and Queens are standing by there! And they will be upied with three Other Kings from your ce.


    "Hahaha, humanity is so foolish. When you''re here fighting me to save humanity, all those people are trying to backstab you by capturing all your people. I pity you, Theodore Griffith.


    "If you were born in another race, you would be an excellent saint that would lead your people to prosperity. Unfortunately, you were born into the most foolish race. I''m not talking about their intelligence or awareness. I''m talking about their greed and heart."


    Theo wanted to say something, but he suddenly heard another explosion from the side. This time, it didn''te from the bullets. Instead, it came from another tree on the ground that was releasing a purple-colored Magic Power. It was clear that this was the King ss Monster the World Tree was talking about.


    "See?! With this, no one will be able to stop us! Even if you''re confident in taking me on, you will still need a lot of time to do that. By the time you''ve finished, all your people will have died as well!" The World Tree smirked.


    Like the World Tree said, the people in South Dakota also had gathered their strength. Two of the Transcendent Level Experts from the base had gathered. Even though the Great Magician didn''t want to do it, Theo had clearly broken thews, so he had no choice but to do this.


    "Good. We now have two of them here. We only need one more and we can capture all of them!"


    The people were happy since they finally had some strength to fight back.


    But��


    Both the tree and those people had forgotten one thing. Humanity, foolish? Theo knew about it more than anyone else in this world. That was even the reason why the God of Mischief chose him in the first ce.


    That was why one of the people from the CIA came and shouted, "This is not good! We can''t contact the King of Fighters. He is also not in his residence!"


    "What?!"


    While the people were confused by the sudden disappearance of the King of Fighters, thetter actually appeared on Theo''s battlefield.


    "Echo Fist!" With his roar, he punched forward, causing huge destruction that ultimately blew away the King ss Monster from their side.


    "!!!" The World Tree trembled and saw the King of Fighters on Theo''s side. "What?!"


    "It seems that you misunderstand something. I know how foolish humanity is more than anyone else. And I don''t consider their weakness as my weakness. And why does a being like you believe in their foolishness?


    "A famous person once said, you need to fool your ally to fool your enemy. But since my ally is already a fool, I don''t need to fool them anymore since my enemy is already fooled by their foolishness."


    A huge grin appeared on Theo''s face. The World Tree trembled when he heard Theo''s words. Theo knew humans were fools, so he took advantage of their foolishness to fool him and all the spies inside the base.


    To use the weakness of his kin to outsmart his opponent, the World Tree gasped, looking at Theo as if he was a devil in human clothing.

 Chapter 1765 Situation

    The World Tree had just realized all the information about Theo still couldn''t exin everything about him. It thought Theo was protecting humanity no matter how they hurt him, but it turned out Theo simply didn''t care much about humanity as a whole.


    He would protect them, but he would also use them like tools.


    After thirty minutes of fighting him, the World Tree had suffered some injuries. Five of its roots had been cut and a portion of its branches had fallen down.


    Of course, Theo''s condition wasn''t that good either. There were a few grazes on his skin and one hole on his arm. In addition, Theo had exhausted some of his Magic Power.


    Though, with the current situation, it was clear that Theo was at an advantage.


    Not only did he get supported by another Authority Level Figure, but the King of Fighters had alsoe to the battlefield to take care of him.


    Unbeknownst to them, the King of Fighters was ncing at Theo and the World Tree from time to time as if observing them.


    The King of Fighters couldn''t help but recall the day he received a certain instruction from the anonymous mail.


    This time, the mail didn''t give him any information regarding the hidden spies. Instead, it implied that the Vice President was trying to attack the base with the help of this race.


    And because of the grudge between the military and the Star Group, they would be attacked in this battle.


    Hence, the King of Fighters had to go to this ce to bring down a King ss Monster to get enough evidence to prosecute the Vice President.


    There were a few things to consider before he made a decision. On the one hand, he had a deep grudge against the Vice President to the point he prepared to put down all the matters to prosecute him. On the other hand,ing to this battle would mean helping Theo.


    The King of Fighters waspletely unable to choose at that time since he hated both of them. But soon, he realized everything.


    The conflict between his Salvatore Family and the Star Group came directly from Theo. It only had one purpose: to chase after the hidden spies.


    In other words, Theo had pushed him into the corner so that no one paid attention to him anymore. And after capturing the Vice President, it would be time for him to fight against the monsters backing the Vice President to prove his innocence.


    Hence, the King of Fighters didn''t have any choice anymore. If he didn''t fight, his family would start to decline and his reputation wouldn''t be restored. If he went ording to the n, he would be ying in Theo''s hand, but he could reinstate the prestige of the Salvatore Family.


    Theo simply forced him to ept thetter. That was why he came here.


    "Kh." The King of Fighters gritted his teeth but still fought against this King ss Monster. He could only leave after killing this King ss Monster.


    Still, his absence created a huge confusion among the people, especially from the government.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What? The King of Fighters was fighting on Theo''s battlefield? How is this possible? Why is he supporting Theodore Griffith? Shouldn''t he hate him?!" The President gritted his teeth, mming the table. "Hurry up and recall him."


    "I believe it''s not possible, Sir. The King of Fighters is currently fighting against a King ss Monster. If he retreats because of our call, it means we''re abandoning the soldiers and the citizens. Even if we can achieve some result, we''ll end up in a worse position than the union.


    "So, the King of Fighters can only retreat if he has killed the enemy."


    "��" The President gnashed his teeth. "We''ve been had. He has predicted this situation. With only two Transcendent Level Experts, we don''t have enough strength to capture them. How is the broadcast? We have to show the people they havemitted crimes."


    "That''s�� the people''s opinions are diverted. Only a small portion is supporting us in capturing them. The rest are ming us because those turrets are the support for the battlefield."


    "Then, what''s the situation of his fiancee?"


    "The Time God has gone there, but he hasn''t found any trace of his territory. At the same time, he believes that his fiancee has gone to his parents. With the help of the Griffith Family, there is no way the Time God could track them."


    "Kh. Useless. All of you are useless!" The President snarled. He never thought there would be no result despite having this kind of opportunity. Something like this wouldn''te by twice.


    He thought for a moment and shouted, "Tell all the media to portray everything bad about him! After their opinion shift, we''re going to apprehend them."


    "Y-yes."


    There was a group of people he assembled in order to think about the strategy to get a hold of Theo''s weakness. But none of them worked.


    There was one thing he could attack, which was the Star Group. But the Star Group had Maya.


    Even though the person in question was in South Dakota, she still had time to control the Star Group. Even if they closed thepany for a few days, it wouldn''t matter much.


    The government surely wanted the design of the aircraft, but unfortunately for them, she had gotten hold of the design. Unless they came to her directly, there was no way they would get it.


    That was why no matter what the government did, they couldn''t gain anything. And without anything, there was no way Theo would let this go. He would counterattack after the battle was over.


    So, the government was desperate to catch one of his weaknesses. They even tried to use the union to pressure the War God Family, but to no avail since the union didn''t want to antagonize Theo anymore. United Asia, on the other hand, had been Theo''s close ally, so they wouldn''t ept anything from them.


    Thus, the situation transpired in the base. The government was cornered while Theo fought a World ss Monster to increase his prestige again.

 Chapter 1766 Miscalculation?

    Theo and the World Tree red at each other. Knowing that he couldn''t get any advantage from Theo, the World Tree''s green figure scattered into green particles.


    There was no need for more conversation. Theo was nning to kill the World Tree, while thetter wanted to conquer the base even if it meant killing Theo.


    Since both of them had their own goals, they could only fight for their life.


    Theo took a deep breath. The talk might not be necessary, but it provided some breathing room for him. So, he didn''t mind hearing anything the monster had to say.


    After learning the World Tree had no more trump cards against him, Theo could finally go all out in order to cut this tree down.


    The Death Avatar suddenly behind Theo, wielding a huge scythe.


    Before attacking the World Tree, Theo took another look at the four fruits the tree had. As Isaac said, they contained a huge amount of Magic Power, so the explosion would be colossal if he ever used the Explosive Fruit Ability.


    Hence, he had to make sure he didn''t get hit directly by that fruit.


    Of course, even though he didn''t want to get hit by that fruit, it didn''t change the fact that the fruit was the most dangerous weapon the tree had.


    As soon as he raised his sword, he swung it down, releasing his illusion at the same time.


    The tree noticed the illusion and spread its branches around the tree.


    The illusion soon cut down all the branches and the fruit, but the illusion soon cracked, revealing only a portion of the branches got cut down while the fruit remained intact.


    The World Tree didn''t expect Theo to immediately go for the fruit. He only had these four fruits to kill Theo, so he had to make sure he didn''t lose a single one due to his carelessness since it would decrease his chance of defeating Theo.


    Theo, on the other hand, flew forward to get a closer look at the fruit. His Death Avatar had been raising the scythe as well, nning to strike in the spot where the tree least expected to.


    The World Tree hurriedly expanded the roots and branches to stop Theo, but the letter easily avoided them with his Telekinesis.


    "You should have learned it by now. You can''t hurt me unless you''re nning to use that tree�� I thought it was your energy reserve, but the amount of Magic Power in that fruit didn''t decrease at all." Theo smirked, pointing at the yellow fruit hanging on his branch.


    "Since you want to test my fruit, then take it."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes when the fruit fell. The branches caught the fruit and tossed it toward him.


    "So suddenly? I just have to ask?" Theo gritted his teeth and immediately released a barrier in front of him, reinforced by Alexa''s ability.


    The fruit might contain a lot of Magic Power, but it didn''t give any feeling when the World Tree tossed it. In fact, it felt like this fruit wouldn''t do anything.


    But the moment the fruit touched the barrier, a huge light shone, followed by a huge explosion.


    *Boom!*


    Theo''s eyes were blinded by the light as he had to protect himself just by using his senses. Even so, the sudden burst of the Magic Power made him shiver. This was the strongest attack of a World ss Monster.


    The explosion expanded and engulfed the barrier in an instant before making its way toward Theo.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth while using his secondw to change the fire characteristic to cold. At the very least, he preferred to withstand the cold instead of the heat.


    "Haaaaaa!" Theo shouted, releasing every ounce of his energy to convert the heat.<novelnext></novelnext>


    But the explosion was simply too overwhelming. The night turned into the day for a few seconds as the explosion became an artificial sun, evaporating everything near it.


    And Theo was engulfed by this explosionpletely. No one knew his fate.


    "Did ourmander��"


    "No way. He is the hope of humanity. He can''t die."


    The soldiers started to lose hope, thinking Theo wouldn''t survive after that explosion.


    The World Treeughed as a few branches and one root fell from his body due to the intense heat.


    Even though it was an extremely powerful attack, it was a double-edged sword. Even the World Tree had a hard time blocking the explosion, let alone Theo.


    "Hahaha, without your hero, the humans won''t be able to defeat me. It''s time for all of you to��"


    "Oi, oi. You''re reaching a conclusion on your own." Before he finished his words, Theo''s voice echoed on the battlefield. With a single wave of his hand, the smoke produced by the explosion disappeared, revealing Theo''s appearance.


    Some parts of his clothes were burned, but his skin was still perfect. In fact, they were surprised to see frostbite on Theo''s right cheek.


    "Huh?"


    The World Tree was shocked by how Theo managed to withstand the attack.


    "Don''t kill me too early. Our fight has just begun." Theo smirked, ring at the tree.


    But the worst was about toe.


    Suddenly, a huge roar resounded across the battlefield.


    *Roar!*


    The roar was filled with anger and killing intent. Even Theo couldn''t help but tremble, listening to this roar. He turned around, looking in the distance as a dot became bigger and bigger.


    Eventually, he could see what that dot was.


    "Are you serious?" Theo sucked a cold breath.


    With the moon behind him, it was hard to see his real appearance. Even then, it was enough for Theo to see his figure to determine the monster.


    "A dragon?! The Lightning Saint? No!" Theo''s expression darkened, knowing it wasn''t an ally.


    If it was the Lightning Saint, it would release its lightning to let him know before attacking the World Tree together.


    Meanwhile, this three-headed dragon released a red-colored Magic Power from its body, showing it wasn''t lightning.


    Suddenly, a bright red liquid started to drop from its body. Theo gasped and came to a realization. "That bright red liquid�� Don''t tell me, it''s magma? A Magma Dragon? The eruption didn''t ur naturally?


    "��Have I miscalcted something?"

 Chapter 1767 Higher Beings Blunder?

    "Have I miscalcted something?" Theo asked himself. He suddenly felt weird from these two monsters. "I don''t know why but the tree seems to have changed during the battle. I taunted him with the fruit, but the tree shouldn''t have used his trump card that easily.


    "It feels like the tree is calling the dragon�� However, it doesn''t seem the tree is his ally. Then, why did the tree use the explosive fruit?


    "How''s about the dragon? I haven''t heard anything about the dragon. Yet, it suddenlyes into the battlefield. It doesn''t seem to be an ally as well�� Is it going to join hands with the tree? Or is it going to create a battle royal?"


    Theo muttered inwardly, trying to figure out the situation. This was the first time everythingpletely went out of his n.


    Theo saw the dragon gathering bright red energy in its mouth. Because of the dragon''s position, it didn''t point its head toward the tree. Instead, the dragon aimed the breath at Theo as if considering him an enemy.


    The dragon opened its mouth and spat a huge ball of bright red liquid. The intense heating from the ball made Theo realize it was a ball of magma.


    Without hesitation, Theo raised his left hand and used his illusion to erase the magma ball.


    But the illusion soon melted. The magma looked like a lump of liquid that hit a wall. Even so, it still contained some momentum to reach Theo.


    "Kh." Theo clicked his tongue and jumped to the side, avoiding this lump of magma that ended up falling into the ground. Even the World Tree avoided the magma.


    "This dragon is a World ss Monster." Theo determined the dragon as soon as he saw what the magma ball could do. Normally, he would take advantage of the numerical advantage to kill a World ss Monster. But this time, the situation was reversed.


    He had to take on two World ss Monsters in his current condition. Although his injuries were superficial, he had spent a third of his energy fighting the World Tree.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes and saw the dragon halting a quarter mile from him. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Why are you here? I don''t recall picking a fight with you."


    The three dragon heads looked at each other before the right headughed. The middle head shouted at Theo. "I came here for no reason. My slumber was disturbed by the volcano. When I woke up, I saw a huge trail on the ground. So, I was curious."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched. He never expected the dragon toe here without any great reasons. "Are you going to engage in a fight between two races? O'' Dragon Saint?"


    "I think you should change your words, human." The left head grinned. "Before I fell into my previous slumber, I had seen a lot of things that the humans did. And I could say I should exterminate them."


    "What do you mean? I don''t understand. I could say a lot of things about humans, but I still don''t think all humans deserve death." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Even if we kill all the ones who deserve to die, the humans will produce more people like their predecessors. That''s why to avoid future trouble, we have to make humans go extinct. And to think I would wake up at a perfect time." The dragon smirked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I still can''t understand what you''re talking about." Theo gritted his teeth. He suddenly realized something. ''No, wait. The change of the World Tree and the sudden appearance of this dragon for no good reasons�� Don''t tell me, because I have been stopping their attempts in resetting the world, they''re trying to get involved a bit deeper into this situation?


    ''But these illogical things will cause a disruption to this reality. Are those higher beings so desperate to wipe the humans out even if it means this reality will be distorted? When that happens, logic won''t apply to this reality anymore.


    ''If that''s the case��'' Theo narrowed his eyes as he had been getting a message from Alexa.


    "Theodore Griffith. Answer me. There are two World ss Monsters right now. Should Ie out?!"


    Theo contemted for a moment before saying, "No. I''ll stop them by myself."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Yeah," Theo confirmed it without hesitation. The fact that the higher beings tried to get involved in this situation deeper than they should meant there would be a crack in reality itself.


    He had to find that crack so that this reality wouldn''t copse.


    ''Just like Newton''s thirdw, for every action, there will be a reaction. There is going to be a bacsh to those higher beings as well. And this dragon''s appearance will cause another reaction�� Since this dragon is my enemy, it means the reaction will be my ally.


    ''Does that mean the Time God is forced to act this time? Either way, I have to find the crack in this reality first to patch it up while fighting these two World ss Monsters.''


    Theo took a deep breath. Everything started to stop making sense. But like the Heavenly Sovereign said, this was supposed to be an opportunity, not a disaster.


    In fact, the Heavenly Sovereign might have calcted that the higher beings couldn''t contain themselves anymore and started influencing their reality. But because he had predicted it, he knew there would be an opportunity for Theo to get something even more valuable.


    Theo knew if he yed his card right, he could trick reality into giving him another piece to y against the higher beings.


    He couldn''t help but smile as he raised his hand, waving it to provoke the two World ss Monsters. "This is the first time I fight two World ss Monsters at once. In that case, let me take a look at the two World ss Monsters'' strengths!"


    The dragon and the World Tree felt something different from Theo as if he knew something they were unaware of.

 Chapter 1768 Disadvantage

    Theo looked at the dragon and the World Tree. Both of them seemed to be nning to wipe out humanity. The World Tree wanted to destroy humans for the pollution, while the dragon had no logical reasons.


    Either way, if he didn''t stop them here, the situation would be troublesome.


    "Since both of you are nning to crush me and the rest of the humans, I can only stand here and stop you." Theo smiled with confidence as if he had nned something.


    The World Tree hesitated because he thought Theo would trap him. At the very least, the World Tree knew what kind of a threat Theo was.


    On the other hand, the dragon had just woken up from his slumber and followed the trail.


    Theo''s confidence meant nothing to him.


    "What is that smile? For someone who will be crushed, your smile means nothing." The dragon let out a roar and flew toward him.


    "Is that so?" Theo''s smile didn''t disappear as he gradually turned into a dragon.


    "!!!" The dragon was surprised to see another dragon here, but this was Theo. He could see this dragon form was the manifestation of his Magic Power instead of a real body.


    So, he didn''t hesitate to pounce on him.


    Theo also did the same while manipting his strength.


    *Bam!*


    Both dragons collided. Their crash created a massive shock wave that blew away the dust on the ground.


    As expected from a real dragon, he instantly extended his head to the side, trying to bite Theo''s right wing.


    Theo used his Supernatural Snake Body to strengthen his wing. But the dragon still managed to crack with his teeth.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. He didn''t realize the dragon was also shocked to find Theo stopping his teeth with only a transformation technique.


    Still, Theo was a human. Even if he had transformed into a dragon, he would still fight the enemy in a human way.


    Theo spread his arms and legs before locking the dragon''s body.


    "Hmm?" The dragon was surprised he was locked by Theo''s body.


    Theo gathered a huge amount of Magic Power into his mouth, nning to st the dragon.


    "It seems that you haven''t learned anything. As expected of an arrogant human�� my body is made of molten rock and my blood is magma!" The dragon smirked as magma gradually came out of his body, melting Theo''s body.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" Theo screamed in pain.


    This scream made the dragon be even more confident. With a smirk on his face, heughed, "Hahaha, you idiot humans. Since you''re the one clinging to me, it''s time for you to taste my magma."


    Theo kept screaming in pain as a few parts of his body began to melt.


    The World Tree still handled the supersonic bullets from Maya, so Theo still had some time to take care of this dragon. Besides, the fact that the dragon underestimated him was an advantage to him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo smiled and aimed that huge amount of Magic Power toward the dragon''s body.


    "Not good. Watch out!" The World Tree extended its roots toward Theo to stop his attack. Obviously, the roots went straight to the gap between Theo and the dragon, considering Theo would still be able to st him even if he aimed for his head.


    There was still the Time God inside the human base, so the World Tree wanted them together to challenge the Time God.


    The dragon widened his eyes, never thinking Theo would sacrifice his body to injure him.


    Theo released his breath, containing an ice element. This frost breath froze even his magma and covered his skin with a thickyer of ice, making it brittle.


    The roots came and stopped the frost breath, but the damage had been done.


    "Kh. You. To think you would use your own body to inflict some damage on me." The dragon roared and grabbed Theo''s limbs. The World Tree also grasped Theo and removed him from the dragon before throwing him away.


    Theo''s dragon body was melting. His right arm and both of his legs'' skinpletely melted, revealing flesh and blood. Some parts were charred ck.


    "Hehe." Theo smiled despite all the injuries. His face was telling them it was worth it since he could injure the dragon like this.


    Little did they know, there was another reason why Theo locked him within his grasp. Theo wanted to get the feel of the dragon''s skin. It seemed that the dragon''s skin was extremely thick, considering it was made of molten rock. Even if he wanted to destroy it and injure his inside, it would take a long time.


    That was why he had to use something that could harm the dragon from the outside.


    Since the frost breath was effective, he nned to use water, ice, and frost elements to kill this dragon. Obviously, he already knew who he had to copy to fight this dragon.


    ''To kill the dragon, I can use Flora and Frost Saint''s elements. As for the water element, I can supply it through Heavenly Sovereign''s technique. The problem is the World Tree.


    ''He has a powerful defense and a powerful explosive fruit. I guess this tree is an example of a perfect attack and defense. I should have fought him while running away since he won''t be able to chase after me. No, I should have fought him with my clones��


    ''Anyway, enough ranting. I have to find a way to defeat this World Tree. My illusion is effective, but it''s gonna take a while. I don''t think I can defeat the World Tree with the dragon here.


    ''Well, I don''t know if I can still kill these two here, but repelling them shouldn''t be hard.''


    Theo smirked and enveloped his body with a chilling wind. He then flew toward the dragon.


    Knowing what Theo nned to do, the dragon flew back, avoiding Theo for the first time.


    "Where are you going? You''re scared now?" Theo smirked.


    "Hmph. I just let him do it." The dragon snorted.


    Suddenly, multiple roots came out of the ground and grasped Theo''s limbs and wings.


    "!!!"


    "You are too arrogant." The dragon opened its mouth, gathering his magma breath to kill Theo. "This is the end."

 Chapter 1769 Dragons Temper

    "This is the end." The dragon gathered all his strength in his mouth. Just like Theo, he used his arrogance to fool his enemy. But the difference was Theo used his body to inflict damage on the dragon while thetter took advantage of the World Tree to trap Theo.


    Seeing Theo unable to move, the dragon knew this was the perfect time to annihte Theo.


    But before he could release his breath, Theo''s stomach started releasing a massive amount of Spiritual Energy.


    "!!!" The dragon widened his eyes in shock and tried to fly to the side.


    In that instant, a huge burst of blue light flew straight toward the dragon, barely hitting the wing.


    "Kh!" The dragon gritted his teeth and saw his wing covered in ice. And surprisingly, he had been fooled this whole time.


    When he looked at Theo, he realized Theo''s dragon body was just an illusion.


    "!!!" The World Tree was also stupefied when it lost its grip on Theo. He suddenly saw Theo''s dragon body gradually turn transparent, revealing his human body without any scratch.


    In other words, his scream, injury, and body were fake this whole time. Everything was just an illusion.


    Instead of the Metamorphosis, Theo used his illusion ability to create a dragon body and used his Authority to make it real. And they believed it was real.


    "Kh." The dragon gritted his teeth. He had been fooled twice and now he got some injuries. Although it wasn''t that big of a deal for him, the ice that covered his wing was problematic.


    He could melt it with his magma, but it would also make his wing, the most brittle part of his body, be even more brittle. Hence, if he melted the ice, Theo wouldn''t have had any trouble cutting down his wing.


    On the other hand, the frozen part of his body had disappeared. The rock skin might be a bit brittle, but his defense shouldn''t lose against the World Tree in peak form. Even if its hardness decreased a bit, it was still extremely durable.


    So, the magma dragon gritted his teeth, ring at Theo. He couldn''t ept Theo was able to inflict this damage even though it was two versus one.


    Theo grinned. "Ah, I''m d that you''re my opponent. If there had been another monster like this tree, I would have been in danger. I''m d the oneing this time is an idiot."


    "What did you say?" The dragon roared while releasing a red Magic Power from all over his body.


    "Stop it, Dragon! Are you going to burn me?" The World Tree warned the dragon.


    Although the World Tree had a fire element, his heat couldn''t bepared to that of magma. Even if he used his fire element to block the heat, the magma would still melt a portion of its body.


    So, the World Tree had to move carefully if he didn''t want to get hit.


    The dragon, on the other hand, was fuming in anger. "Do you think I can stay calm? He is looking down on me. Don''t forget that I am the mighty dragon. Humans should kneel before me."


    The dragon pped its wings before flying toward Theo. His body started glowing as magma began toe out of his pores.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Seeing this dragon, Theo couldn''t help but smile. Even if he couldn''t fight them together, he could still defeat them.


    Without hesitation, Theo raised his sword before waving it down to cut the frozen part of the wing.


    "Huh?" The dragon widened his eyes and nced to the side as his stable form began copsing due to the broken part of the ice.


    He used his magma to destroy the illusion, but the part was already brittle to the point Theo only needed to maintain his Authority for a second to cut all of them.


    "Aaaahhhhh!" The dragon screamed, feeling a sharp pain jolting his body. He hurriedly stabilized his form while waving his hand. The magma his hand excreted flew off his hand.


    If Theo used his dragon form, this lump of magma wouldn''t be that bigpared to his size. But when he looked at this magma in his human form, it was like a huge boulder flying at him.


    Theo pointed his palm at the magma and used his Twisted Reality to make the magma curve.


    "!!!" The dragon was startled when he saw the magma flying away. But more importantly, Theo targeted the tree''s root.


    The tree hurriedly released a burst of me to catch the magma while trying to hide the root underground. But it was toote.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to stop the root, so the tree could only endure this magma.


    "Dragon!" The World Tree released a high-pitched voice filled with anger. He had fed up with the dragon''s rash attitude.


    The magma that touched his root ended up creating a big hole in his root. And Theo used this opportunity to send thest blow to the root, cutting it.


    With this, he had destroyed a total of six roots. All the roots that had been cut didn''t seem to be able to recover in a short period of time. So, with this, Theo only needed to deal with four more roots and branches of this tree.


    "Hahaha, you''ve got a good teammate, tree." Theo smirked. "He ended up helping me."


    The World Tree wanted to release his anger as well, but if he didn''t remain calm, Theo would take advantage of it. Just like the dragon, he might end up harming the dragon and it would give Theo a chance to defeat both of them.


    The dragon also became silent as if he understood the significance of that root. He realized Theo had been talking brazenly just to anger him, using that temper to strike the tree.


    Seeing how hard he injured the treepared to him, the tree might be a harder opponent for him.


    The dragon realized if he wanted to win, he had to let go of his pride so that the tree could be a vanguard.


    But would his dragon''s pride allow it?

 Chapter 1770 Friendly Fire

    Theo didn''t allow the dragon to reorganize his thoughts. He flew toward the dragon while releasing his Death Avatar.


    Death Eyes.


    The powerful killing intent spread all over the battlefield as the dragon sensed it as an extreme threat. He could even smell blood from the killing intent alone.


    His body shuddered for a moment before gritting his teeth.


    "You bastard!" The dragon raised his hand. "It seems that you''re underestimating me too much. Even without that tree bastard, I''m enough to defeat you!"


    "Wait, Dragon!" The World Tree panicked as he knew what he was nning to do.


    The dragon didn''t wait. The ground started to shake as a pir gradually came out of the ground.


    It was a tall pir, reaching a quarter mile.


    Before the pir reached its highest, Theo used his World Re-Creation to push it back to the ground by expanding downwards.


    "Do you think your ability is superior to mine? You are just a flying lizard who calls yourself a dragon." Theo smirked. "You''re nothing to the dragon I''ve seen."


    "The dragon you''ve seen?" The dragon widened his eyes before his eyes turned bloodshot. "Don''t you dare mention that lightning lizard! He is nothingpared to me!"


    Theo was surprised that the dragon knew about him. But considering they were both dragons, knowing each other was nothing out of ordinary.


    "Haha, I''m just stating the truth. Why are you getting so worked up?" Theo smirked. He used his Telekinesis to snap the pir and turn it into a nail.


    After that, he pushed it toward the dragon, nning to impale him.


    It was at this time, the roots came out again and caught the stone nail before snapping it.


    "I''ve told you to stop. If you use that move, I''ll be affected too. The Organic Material might be nice, but my ability isn''t enough to withstand the magma." The World Tree waspletely speechless, not knowing how to handle this dragon.


    He thought the dragon would provide good support to defeat Theo, but he waspletely at Theo''s mercy this whole time.


    Talking didn''t seem to work as well, so he was out of options.


    He wanted to use his explosive fruit to st Theo again, but Theo was too close to the magma dragon. The explosion would also hit him and at that time, the dragon wouldn''t hesitate to attack him as well, turning this fight into a battle royal.


    This was something he didn''t want since he also needed the dragon''s help to kill Theo.


    Meanwhile, Theo was smiling this whole time. He was d that the dragon actually helped him instead of cornering him.


    He was nning to cause severe injuries to this dragon before he came to his senses and started working together with the tree.


    Without hesitation, Theo flew toward the dragon again as the tree tried to stop him but to no avail.


    As soon as he reached the dragon, Theo gathered his Magic Power into his hands, using his secondw.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "From now onward, your magma shall be cold." Theo smirked.


    "Huh?" The dragon narrowed his eyes and released his magma, but as Theo said, there was no heating out of his magma. Instead, he felt cold.


    "What is this?" The dragon was startled, not understanding Theo''s power. He thought it was an illusion, but he couldn''t do anything to this illusion.


    He didn''t realize Theo was using a huge portion of his Order to trick the dragon. He shouted, "Why don''t you call yourself an Ice Dragon at this point? Magma certainly doesn''t suit you!"


    "What did you say?" The dragon gathered his energy in his mouth and spat another mouthful of magma.


    "Stop, you stupid dragon!" The World Tree kept screaming at the dragon as it tried to move its roots away.


    However, Theo locked the roots with his Telekinesis.


    The dragon harrumphed and shouted, "Since it''s cold, it won''t harm you!"


    "He is--" The World Tree tried to warn the dragon, but it was toote. Theo had retracted his ability, giving back the heat.


    The dragon and the World Tree could feel the intense heating from the magma again, but they couldn''t do anything as the magma hit another root, melting it.


    Theo used his sword to cut another root while praising the dragon. "Nice assist. Why don''t you be my mount? I mean, it''s certainly good to be known as a dragon knight. Hahahaha!"


    "You want me to be your mount?" The dragon red at him.


    The World Tree started regretting his decision to help the dragon. He thought the dragon''s brain had melted and turned into magma, so the dragon didn''t know how to think anymore. Or his temper was truly like a magma, having no way to cool down. It might even be the rules he set before getting an Order.


    The World Tree had no way ofprehending this dragon. If they continued this way, Theo might be able to defeat both of them.


    Since the dragon didn''t care anything about him, the World Tree decided to use the second Explosive Fruit, throwing it to the dragon.


    Seeing the explosive fruit, Theo''s body shivered for a bit, knowing what kind of injuries he would suffer if he took it head-on. Luckily, he had a perfect shield for this explosive.


    Without hesitation, Theo flew toward the dragon. This time, he didn''t n to do anything to the dragon.


    "!!!" The dragon was confused at Theo''s action before misunderstanding his intention when he saw the explosive fruit. "Are you going to drag me down? I won''t allow you!"


    The dragon waved its ws, trying to smack Theo.


    Theo smiled and used his World Re-Creation to shift the explosive fruit trajectory while he utilized his Blink to teleport to the back of the dragon''s hand.


    "Ah?!" The dragon had just realized Theo''s n. The explosive fruit was going to hit him in the stomach, and he had no way to escape. At the same time, Theo was using his body as a cover.


    Unfortunately for him, he realized it toote as the explosive fruit had hit his body.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1771 Argument

    *Boom!*


    The explosion engulfed the dragon in an instant. Theo, who had experienced the bomb earlier, knew what would happen. So, he instantly flew away while letting the dragon take the full brunt of the explosion.


    The battlefield was stunned once again as they never expected that the explosion that shook the entire battlefield earlier could be reproduced.


    Still, this showed the level of the World ss Monsters and Theo. To think there would be someone to stop two World ss Monsters by himself, the people on the battlefield respected Theo on a whole new level.


    They didn''t know what happened inside the base, but the fact that Theo took this position meant he already knew this would happen, but he still promised to fight them even if it meant risking his life.


    Most of them came to the battlefield because they wanted to upgrade their skills. But after seeing Theo fighting so hard, many of them felt ashamed.


    Theo had been fighting for the base wholeheartedly while they were taking advantage of his kindness this whole time.


    Nheless, their thought was irrelevant to the current Theo.


    After that explosion, Theo thought the dragon would be severely injured since it took the explosive fruit with its own body.


    ''Hehe, everything is going ording to the n. Though, I guess this is the reaction to the higher being''s interference by calling this guy. They might be able to change the dragon''s decision, but the dragon would be a fool.''


    Unfortunately, it seemed he had underestimated the dragon.


    Three seconds after the explosion, the dragon released an earth-shattering roar while pping his wings, blowing all the smoke away.


    *Roar!*


    Theo narrowed his eyes, staring at the dragon. He would never expect that the dragon could survive with that little injury after being sted by the explosive fruit.


    Because the dragon''s skin was thick and hard, the explosion could only hit the outer part of the skin. Meanwhile, the inner part was still intact.


    Although it meant the dragon''s defense became weaker, it didn''t change the fact that the dragon escaped almost unscathed.


    The dragon red at the tree and shouted, "Are you nning to kill me?"


    The World Tree had fed up with the dragon''s attitude as well. He had been helping the dragon this whole time, yet, the other party kept harming him and even ming him.


    The World Tree replied, "You can''t even do anything to that human, Theodore Griffith. So, what''s the use of having you here?"


    "What did you say? Who said I couldn''t do any harm to Theodore Griffith?"


    "That''s a fact. You haven''t hit him once aftering here. I thought we could defeat Theodore Griffith together, but it seemed I pinned too much hope on you."


    "You��" The dragon red at the World Tree before turning to the side as if nning to beat Theo to show him his strength.


    However, the moment he looked around, Theo hadpletely disappeared.


    "Huh?" The dragon was dumbfounded and immediately stretched its Awareness to find Theo.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The World Tree also felt something was missing. He felt Theo''s presence earlier, but the previous argument broke his concentration for a split second. Theo took advantage of that split second to conceal his presence and disappear.


    No one knew where Theo was. Even when they used their Awareness to find him, they still couldn''t find anything.


    They didn''t realize Theo had been using his illusion to manipte their senses.


    Theo was actually standing in front of them. They couldn''t see him because Theo used his illusion to make himself look transparent and erase his presence through illusions.


    Theo had been good at manipting one''s senses, so he had just to make them feel nothing when he tried to sense him.


    It looked like he could use this ability to attack them, but if he made the slightest movement, these two World ss Monsters would notice him.


    "Where is he?" The dragon asked, confused.


    "Shouldn''t he be somewhere near you?" The World Tree was confused as well, thinking the dragon was hiding him.


    The dragon couldn''t answer him because he sensed nothing around his body. Theo might have escaped from this battlefield.


    "Don''t tell me�� Because he knows he can''t defeat both of us, he''s running away?" The World Tree narrowed his eyes. Since he knew how shrewd Theo was, something like this wasn''t impossible.


    "Huh? Have I overestimated him?" The dragon was sure that Theo would keep them here and somehow repel them. But it turned out he had been trying to find an opportunity to escape.


    Though, as someone who had witnessed Theo''s battle, or more specifically, learned about his past record, the World Tree remembered something.


    "Wait a minute. In the previous battle, Theodore Griffith was fighting another Saint with only his clone. Don''t tell me, he''s been using his clone this whole time?" The World Tree gasped and started panicking.


    Although the clone didn''t look like a big deal since there were two World ss Monsters, it would be a different case if Theo returned with his real body here. Theo''s clone would recover to its peak state, and both Theo and his clone could take on each of them.


    With their current state, it would be impossible for them to defeat Theo.


    "Don''t tell me, this is his n? Is he nning to use his clone to exhaust us? But the one fighting the whole time should be the real Theodore Griffith. No, I don''t know what kind of Order he has, but it should be a powerful Order that could trick one''s perception.


    "In other words, he might be using the illusion so that I perceive him as a real human��" The World Tree gasped, realizing he had been had.


    The World Tree shouted, "I''m going to leave here right away."


    "What? You''re a coward. To think you would retreat just like this when you have a big advantage."


    "You don''t know anything, dragon bastard." The World Tree snorted. "I can''t afford to die here like you."


    The dragon had no idea why the World Tree was scared like this. He hadn''t heard about Theo''s past record after all.


    And this was when Theo showed his brilliance.

 Chapter 1772 Infighting

    When the World Tree began to move its root to leave the battlefield, a magma suddenly fell on top of its roots, burning it.


    "!!!" The World Tree widened his eyes and turned around, looking at its roots. "Magma? You dragon bastard. Do you think I''m a coward just because I''m leaving? This is a tactical retreat! How dare you attack me like this!"


    The World Tree couldn''t help but blow up after all that infuriating moment with the dragon. He didn''t even dare to ask for exnations as he called his roots to grasp the dragon.


    "What are you doing? I didn''t do anything!" The dragon shouted while flying away.


    "Do you think I didn''t feel the fluctuation earlier? You clearly targeted me!"


    Both of them actually felt the same Magic Power fluctuation. The World Tree felt it from the dragon''s direction and vice versa. Both of them didn''t realize Theo was staying between them while using his World Re-Creation to distort their senses so that they could feel it from where they were standing.


    "I didn''t even do anything. I suspected you were the ones trying to make an excuse to harm me!" The dragon gritted his teeth.


    The World Tree was stubborn as there was only one magma user.


    "One?" The World Tree suddenly fell silent and realized something was amiss. "No, there is another person that can use magma here."


    Yes, the World Tree figured out the n. Theo turned out to be hiding among them to use his ability to copy the dragon''s move to harm the World Tree. And because the Magic Power fluctuation came from the dragon, the tree looked at the dragon, saying, "As expected, the magma earlier came from Theodore Griffith.


    "He should be hiding among your rocks to attack me." The World Tree summoned his branches and roots.


    "What are you doing?" The dragon gritted his teeth, feeling threatened by the tree''s action. There was no way would the World Tree capture him just like this.


    "I know Theodore Griffith is hiding inside the crack on your skin. I''m going to rip it apart to find him."


    "You are just trying to harm me. Who knows what you will do after you grasp my limbs with those roots? Do you think I''m a fool?" The dragon roared.


    Sadly, both Theo and the World Tree actually agreed that he was a fool.


    But more importantly, the World Tree couldn''t let this opportunity go. On the one hand, it would be hard to find Theo within those cracks. On the other hand, this might be the best time to capture him.


    Unfortunately for him, the dragon wouldn''t allow the tree to do whatever he wanted with his body.


    He released the magma from his skin while releasing his red Magic Power. "You have a grudge against me. Do you think I don''t know you''re going to rip me apart under this pretense?"


    "Theodore Griffith can replicate your magma. And since the Magic Power fluctuationes from your body, I know Theo is hiding within your body. That''s a clever way to hide since his Magic Power is hidden by your power." The World Tree spread its roots, surrounding the dragon.


    "You''re ticking me off. I''m here to help you, but you''ve been useless this whole time."


    "Help me? All you''ve done is harm me. You''re helping him, not me. If you want to help me for real, just surrender. I''m going to make it quick."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Even if you can find him inside me, what are you going to do? If you''re going to rip my skin apart, I''m going to burn you down." The dragon started excreting the magma, nning to fight this World Tree.


    The World Tree had two options. He could capture Theo as long as he defeated the dragon or he could just leave without caring about Theo. He might lose today, but it didn''t change the fact he could try againter.


    Still, the moment he had aplete retreat, the nts would be destroyed by Theo, weakening his force for at least decades. By that time, no one knew what kind of existence Theo would be.


    He was making a hard choice, one that might decide his future. After all, the overpowered Theodore Griffith in the future might chase him even if it meant turning the world upside down. So, he had to make a choice right now.


    As if fueling the already heated argument, Theo used his illusion to make a roote out of the ground.


    *Bam!*


    "!!!" The dragon was startled and hurriedly pped his wings, flying away. "You bastard!"


    "Wait. That''s not--!"


    Before the tree could even exin, the dragon had gathered the Magic Power in his throat and released the magma breath.


    "Listen to others, you bastard!" The World Tree used its trunk to withstand the ability with the help of the Unbreakable Wood Skill.


    When the magma touched his trunk, it could do nothing but leave a burn mark that could be scratched offter.


    "That wasn''t me. I haven''t done anything yet!" The World Tree tried to exin.


    "Do you think I''ll believe you? You have been saying Theo this, Theo that. I don''t know anything about him, but I certainly know what you''ve done in my territory. You''ve absorbed all the materials in my territory to strengthen your ability." The dragon had felt the tree''s movement before hepletely woke up.


    When the World Tree wanted to exin, the supersonic bullets suddenly hit the tree and the dragon at the same time.


    *Boom!*


    The dragon blocked the attack with his sturdy skin while the tree caught the bullet with its branches.


    But this just made them feel frustrated since they still had a fight and didn''t want to be disturbed by others.


    Without hesitation, the dragon looked into the horizon and began to fly. "I''m going there and destroying this annoying human''s weapon."


    Before he could go, two roots came out of the ground and tried to capture him. At the same time, the World Tree''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "Don''t go. Theodore Griffith is in your body. Are you going to take him away?"

 Chapter 1773 Choosing Which Will Become Reality And Illusion

    "!!!" The dragon instantly spun his body while releasing another breath. "You''re annoying. If you are that fixated on Theo to the point you''re stopping me, I''m going to kill you right here, right now!"


    The dragon thought he had enough. This time, he was going to fight the World Tree for real.


    The three dragon heads charged the magma again in their throat, ready to release it.


    The World Tree was confused because he hadn''t done or seen anything. In other words, whatever the dragon experienced waspletely an illusion.


    Once again, the World Tree trembled, realizing the depth of Theo''s n. Theo turned out to be pitting them against each other this whole time. He knew the dragon''s temper perfectly and used it to his advantage.


    The World Tree wanted to stop him, but the dragon had released its magma breath again.


    The World Tree used his branches to catch these magma balls. However, the magma breath was never the dragon''s trump card.


    Since he already hated the World Tree to the bone, he fell to the ground and shouted, "Magma World."


    The ground began to vibrate as if the magma underneath the ground started intruding to theyer of rocks on top of them and continued making their way to the surface.


    Theo couldn''t help but be amazed by the dragon''s power. The dragon might have been using either his body or the magma breath this whole time, but the dragon himself hadn''t fully utilized his power.


    His true power was the magma itself. As long as he controlled the magma, he could even create a nature disaster like the previous volcanic eruption.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, observing the dragon. He felt a bit enlightened by what he saw.


    ''So, the power of nature�� Now that I think about it, I haven''t touched anything about nature itself. If I remember correctly, the Heavenly Sovereign used his power to govern the elements in nature.


    ''The dragon is doing the same to create a natural disaster. Even the Wind Emperor could create a huge tornado.


    ''Meanwhile, what have I done with my three bigws? The firstw is copying nature, the secondw changes nature, while the thirdw inverts nature. None of myws are actually governing nature.


    ''If that''s the case, can I do something to govern nature? My ability is not like this magma dragon, the Heavenly Sovereign''s Elements Authority, or the Wind Emperor''s Wind Authority�� My ability relies on the Reality Authority.


    ''In that reality, what is nature to me? Is it the elements in the environment around me?'' Theo contemted, wondering if he could find the answer. ''No, wait. The nature of my reality is the reality itself.


    ''If I want to rule over reality then��Ah!''


    A smile suddenly appeared on Theo''s face. He hade to another realization. He couldn''t help but recall all the battles he had against Human Saints or Monster Saints.


    They all had experience governing nature itself. And since his nature was the reality itself, if he wanted to do the same thing as them, he simply had to choose which was the reality and which was the illusion.


    ''That''s right. Loki has the World Re-Creation to create a world where he fuses both reality and illusion. If he doesn''t will it, the World Re-Creation will turn into aplete illusion like when he fought me. If he wants to, the World Re-Creation could insert a bit of reality to the mix, making it more believable.''


    Theo looked at the fight between the dragon and the World Tree while thinking, ''Yeah. Continue that way.''<novelnext></novelnext>


    Since they were too upied with each other, Theo started gathering his thoughts into this one skill he had just created to boost the World Re-Creation''s power that matched his own characteristic. In other words, he was trying to make Loki''s skill his own.


    As soon as hepleted the thought, Theo pped his hands, releasing the World Re-Creation.


    Because of the new power up, the Magic Power fluctuation became so strong that it startled both the dragon and the World Tree.


    "Hmm?" Both of them locked their eyes on the dragon''s stomach.


    They certainly felt something from that crack. And the only person who could do something like that was Theo.


    It just proved what the World Tree said about Theo hiding inside the crack.


    "He''s truly inside your skin!" The World Tree released his roots again, trying to grasp the dragon. "Standstill so that I can bring that human out!"


    The dragon gritted his teeth and raised his ws, grabbing the particr skin and pulling it apart.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The dragon screamed while looking at the skin.


    "What? You rip your skin apart?" The World Tree was surprised that the dragon would injure himself like this.


    However, the dragon showed no mercy and crushed the skin with his strength as if he was taking all the me. Unfortunately for him, the moment the skin was crushed into pieces, there was simply no Theo.


    "There is no Theodore Griffith?" The dragon narrowed his eyes. All three heads were searching frantically, but to no avail.


    The World Tree, on the other hand, warned him. "He has teleportation ability. He must have teleported to another skin."


    The dragon trembled, realizing he might continue this until all his skin was destroyed. However, there was one more solution to this problem.


    "I have my way of doing this!" The dragon stood on the ground and smacked the ground. Suddenly, the magma that had yet toe out from the ground finally broke through thestyer of earth and reached the surface.


    The magma suddenly flowed up with a single wave of the dragon''s hand before it was forming a ball that would surround him.


    "I''m going to use this ability to coat the magma all over my body so that he has no choice but toe out!" The dragon''s n was clever this time.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo never appeared. They didn''t know where Theo was, but he was certainly near them.


    And Theo was actually smiling as if he was enjoying how he yed those two like marites.


    ''That''s right. Continue�� I''ll choose which one is the reality and which one is the illusion. If both of you don''t die, it shall be an illusion. But if both of you die here, it shall be the reality.''

 Chapter 1774 Fighting Seriously

    The magma dragon had bathed himself inside the magmaing out of the ground. Theo didn''t expect he could find magma underneath the ground, considering this ce was a bit far away from the volcanic zone.


    However, Magic Power itself wasn''t scientific, so he didn''t put much thought into it.


    The dragon kept using his magma to coat every inch of his body, but there was no fluctuation of Magic Power at all. He knew Theo would have to use his Magic Power to protect himself from this magma.


    Yet, it was surprising that Theo didn''te out after all this.


    He knew his body more than anyone else, so there was no way Theo could find a ce to hide in his body. But the reality was different.


    "Hmm?" The magma dragon narrowed his eyes, saying, "There is no one on my body?"


    The magma dragon decided to lower his magma again, looking confused. The World Tree also heard what he said and became even more confused.


    The magma dragon red at the World Tree and shouted, "You must be the culprit. You were the one releasing that Magic Power in my body so that you had the reason to rip my skin apart. I shouldn''t have trusted you.


    "That human has long gone. If I had agreed to your proposal earlier, you would have destroyed all my scales." The dragon gritted his teeth, feeling betrayed.


    "I didn''t do anything. That fluctuation of Magic Power didn''te from me."


    "Yeah, yeah. You kept saying that because you tried to fool me." The dragon let out a roar in anger. The tree kept pushing him this whole time, so he couldn''t contain himself anymore.


    The hesitation he had previously disappeared and the dragon pped its wings, flying toward the tree.


    "I should have killed you first! Both you and that human are Saints, so it''s enough if I only need to kill you!" The dragon waved his hand, gathering the magma on his ws.


    The World Tree wanted to exin it, but after the dragon refused to listen to him so many times, the tree knew it would be impossible to convince the dragon. At the same time, he also didn''t have the strength to defeat this dragon and Theo. So, he had to retreat no matter what.


    The World Tree never expected Theo would crush his n. Those nts still fought the soldiers and killed so many of them. But the humans weren''t losing after they understood what kind of enemy they were facing.


    All the veteranmanders knew what to do when facing an unfamiliar enemy. This was the reason why Theo asked the base to prepare five veteranmanders.


    Although the nts had some advantages against the humans, they gradually lost their advantages after themanders figured out their abilities.


    This battle would be their loss sooner orter, considering Haivan and Nichs had brought their army forward. Since both of their armies were still fresh, they managed to stop the nts'' advance while the remaining three armies took care of the normal monsters.


    Seeing this situation, the World Tree knew his best option was to retreat. It was impossible to destroy humans anymore due to theck of momentum.


    Without ordering his people to retreat, the World Tree began to extend its root to the back, moving away.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Although his size was gargantuan and a single move could cover a few hundred feet, it was impossible to escape from the dragon who was flying in the air.


    Knowing he couldn''t leave this ce without taking care of the dragon, the World Tree sent two of its roots to capture the dragon.


    The dragon increased its altitude but was unable to escape from the roots. In the end, the dragon flew back to the ground and stomped it, calling the magma again.


    Sensing the heating up, the World Tree positioned his roots carefully, avoiding the heat. At the same time, the branches began to spread, surrounding the dragon.


    Wood Prison.


    Unlike Theo, who could slip past the branches, the dragon''s size wasn''t small, so he had to destroy this prison.


    However, the dragon was still a magma dragon. The roots might be able to stop him for a moment, but the branches couldn''t.


    He excreted the magma out of his body before shaking his body violently as if trying to get the liquid off his body. But this time, the liquid was magma.


    The liquid touched the branches and melted them instantly. However, this was nothing but a distraction.


    The moment the dragon released his energy and spread his magma around, burning the wood, the tree used his Thorn Spikes and Golden Leaf in session.


    The Thorn Spikes came out of the branches and stabbed the dragon. Unfortunately for him, this dragon had a thick scale. None of the spikes could pierce through its scale, resulting in the tree using the Golden Leaf instead.


    The branches stabbed the golden leaves and moved toward the dragon, nting the leaves on the dragon''s scales.


    "Huh? What is this?" The dragon widened his eyes while staring at the golden leaves all over his body. Suddenly, the leaves began to explode.


    "!!!" The dragon suddenly felt sharp pain jolting his mind as he let out a cry. "Aaaahhhhh!"


    The dragon was supposed to be tough, yet, the attacks seemed to be useful. Theo was confused at first, but when he realized some of the golden leaves had entered the crack, he realized the trees were taking advantage of their size to destroy the dragon from the inside.


    The scale might be thick, but it didn''t change the fact they could enter the crack and get closer to the dragon''s skin.


    Theo observed their fight carefully, knowing their respective weaknesses. They didn''t realize Theo was still waiting for them to injure each other until they became weak. At that time, he would return to the battlefield and kill both of them.


    It was a perfect n, except for one thing.


    There was another dragon flying toward them. Theo thought the dragon''s foolishness was the reaction to the higher being''s interference, but it wasn''t. The real reaction from reality was this mysterious dragon.

 Chapter 1775 Reappeared

    The dragon released another magma ball toward the World Tree while thetter used its branches to catch it.


    As expected, the magma melted and burned the branches, but due to the World Tree''s Magic Power, the branches withstood the heat for a moment and took that chance to throw it away.


    "There is nothing good that will happen if we fight here, Dragon." The World Tree was frustrated, knowing he couldn''t escape. "If we continue fighting like this, it''s the same as ying in the human''s hands. Even if you defeat me, you will still die because he''ll appear and kill the injured you."


    The World Tree''s words touched the essence of Theo''s n. However, the dragon didn''t seem to buy it as he waspletely unaware of Theo''s wickedness.


    The dragon kept attacking the World Tree, not caring about Theo anymore. In fact, it would be easier if Theo just came out after the World Tree died. He had enough confidence he would be able to escape from Theo.


    The dragon raised his hand, controlling the magma flowing underneath him. He turned the magma into a few balls. Unlike his magma breath, these balls seemed to be alive. They could twist their bodies as if it was a mouth.


    "!!!" The World Tree felt something dangerous from this magma ball. He hurriedly used the Golden Leaf ability to shoot these balls down.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The leaves exploded, sttering the magma balls. But to everyone''s surprise, the sttered magma joined each other near it, forming another ball.


    "Huh?" The World Tree couldn''t believe it. But the dragon seemed to be good at magma maniption.


    Seeing the dragon trying to kill him with these magma balls, the World Tree had prepared his third explosive fruit. He didn''t know what would happen after this, but the dragon was simply too fierce.


    "If only you were not injured by that human, you would have been more formidable." The dragon smirked.


    As he said, the World Tree couldn''t exert more than sixty percent of his strength after all the injuries. The same applied to Theo. He was in better shape though, since he could use seventy percent of his power.


    Still, the dragon was still going strong, not afraid of any risks that would appear after the World Tree''s death.


    The World Tree suddenly dropped its third explosive fruit, throwing it to the dragon.


    "Hahaha. You are baited. Do you think I don''t know about that fruit? I''ve been preparing this whole time." The dragon suddenly stopped. He confirmed the fruit''s trajectory before flying up, avoiding itpletely.


    With this, the explosive fruit would hit the ground, missing him.


    Sadly, the dragon shouldn''t have underestimated a desperate enemy.


    The fruit might not hit him, but the World Tree''s root was still there. Without hesitation, the World Tree extended its root to the air and became the cushion for the explosive fruit.


    The fruit would explode upon contact, so the dragon panicked for a moment, ring at the explosive fruit that hit the World Tree''s root.


    "No way!" The dragon gasped. Never in his wildest dream would he think the tree would sacrifice one of its roots to injure him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "NO!" The dragon shouted while enveloping its body with red Magic Power.


    *Boom!*


    The explosive fruit touched the root and exploded, engulfing anything near it. This was the second time the dragon was hit by the explosive fruit.


    *Roar!* The dragon let out a scream. It was painful. Even his body felt like it was being burned alive, let alone the impact of the explosion.


    The power packed in that explosion hit the dragon andunched him into the sky. Some of his scales shattered into pieces and some were damaged as well. Smoke wasing out of his body as if the dragon had just been burned alive.


    But the dragon was tough. Even after the explosive fruit, the dragon managed to escape. He was injured on the right arm, which took the full brunt of the explosion. The other arm was also charred ck.


    On the other hand, the dragon could see the World Tree suffering as well. The three only had two more roots, half of its leaves, and sixty percent of its branches. If he wanted to defeat the World Tree, he had to be careful against thest explosive fruit.


    After all, his body would be severely injured if he took another hit from this explosive fruit.


    The dragon gritted his teeth. His scales are starting to fall apart naturally as if they had absorbed too much force.


    "Tsk." The dragon red at the World Tree. Although the dragon had extraordinary control and raw strength, he couldn''t fully utilize his strength due to his brain.


    This might be his only weakness. The same applied to the World Tree, with its only weakness being its mobility.


    No matter how strong they were, no one was perfect. They all had weaknesses.


    Theo had been utilizing their weakness to pit them against each other. And it was time for him to kill them.


    "!!!" The dragon and the World Tree sensed Theo''s presence and turned to the sky, finding Theo standing in the air.


    "As expected, you scheming human. You have been watching us this whole time." The World Tree was frustrated, fully knowing everything was within Theo''s n.


    On the other hand, the dragon believed he was tricked by Theo. He never expected Theo to appear here.


    His eyes were staring at them as if they were just prey that he could easily hunt.


    The dragon''s defense had been half-destroyed, while the tree only had one explosive fruit and two roots left. Even if theybined their strength, they might not be able to defeat Theo.


    "Kh." The dragon gritted his teeth. Despite knowing it was his fault, his pride didn''t allow him to admit it.


    Meanwhile, the World Tree didn''t know whether he should fight together with the dragon or not because of the dragon''s behavior.


    Surprisingly, the dragon was the one giving the suggestion this time.


    "Oi, Tree. If we continue doing this, we will die. It''s better if we join hands and fight him."

 Chapter 1776 Stupid Dragon

    That was the most shameless proposal he had ever heard. The dragon was the one who had been hurting him this whole time, yet, he was the first to propose this truce.


    There was no way the World Tree could ept it.


    Still, there was truly no chance for them to survive if they fought for themselves. The only way to survive was to defeat Theo or severely injure him to the point he couldn''t chase after them.


    At the same time, the tree was thinking about the possibility that this proposal was fake. Because he couldn''t move too fast, the dragon might have been nning to escape when he fought Theo.


    After contemting the pros and cons, the tree realized there was one chance that might be able to turn the situation around.


    The World Tree surprisingly epted the agreement. "Fine. But you should be aware that you are not good with your brain, so I''ll be the one giving you instructions.


    "We still can defeat him if you trust me. But if you don''t, both of us might fall here. Do you agree?"


    The World Tree seemed to have overestimated the dragon''s brain. He didn''t think about escaping this whole time. That proposal was simply a means for them to fight together since his pride still believed he could defeat Theo.


    Seeing this kind of situation, Theo hadn''t made his move yet. He was simply staring at them as if he didn''t n to do anything until they were ready.


    The World Tree thought Theo simply gave some courtesy for them to talk so that they could struggle for their lives.


    However, it was impossible to know Theo''s thoughts. Hence, the World Tree didn''t bother to see through Theo''s mind anymore.


    Instead, he focused on giving the dragon instructions.


    "I need you to hold him off for three seconds. I''m sure you can do it with your magma," said the World Tree as his leaves turned to gold.


    The dragon nodded and flew toward Theo, doing his task wholeheartedly.


    The dragon raised the magma on the ground again, turning them into living magma balls. They were floating in the air while moving their mouths up and down as if trying to bite everything around them.


    That bite would be extremely hot.


    Still, the World Tree had shown him the uniqueness of these balls. So, Theo used his Twisted Reality to bend the balls, making them move toward each other.


    "!!!" The dragon was surprised that the magma balls ended up devouring each other. Still, this was his magma.


    With his Authority, all the magma waspletely under his control. Hence, these magma balls simply joined with each other and formed a bigger ball before continuing to swallow everything around them.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, seeing his attack didn''t work. He took another approach, which was the World Re-Creation.


    He expanded the reality backward so that the magma ball bit the dragon.


    Surprisingly, when the magma ball bit the dragon, it was absorbed by the dragon''s skin and gradually turned cold, forming another skin.


    "Hmm?" Theo was astounded by this ability. He thought, ''He can heal himself with that ability? But if that''s the case, why hasn''t he done it in the first ce? Although the dragon is a fool, there''s no way he would be that foolish.


    ''So, the reason why the dragon hasn''t used it must be because he can''t use it easily. It doesn''t change the fact I shouldn''t assist him in his recovery though.''<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo sighed. He nced at the tree, which seemed to be prepared for his attack. After confirming the situation, Theo flew straight to the dragon, nning to challenge him head-on.


    After seeing what Theo was capable of, the dragon thought this was a fake charge. There was no way Theo would fight him with a frontal assault.


    Thinking there was a hidden gimmick in this charge, the dragon flew back, trying to regain some distance.


    However, the tree suddenly shouted, "Don''t go back. There is no hidden trick. Just capture him!"


    The dragon had to believe the tree this time since only with his help could he stay alive.


    As soon as he heard the instruction, the dragon also flew forth while lifting up the magma again.


    As soon as Theo reached the range of his attack, the dragon manipted the magma and turned it into a giant sphere that isted the inside space.


    "In this ce, you have nowhere to go. Unless you can withstand the heat of the magma, it''s going to be impossible for you toe out!" The magma dragon smiled, confident Theo wouldn''t leave.


    Theo didn''t care about his confidence. He simply used the secondw and changed the heat into cold only for a short period of time. The ability also affected only a small area.


    "Huh?" The dragon widened his eyes and saw the affected spot be frozen. However, the magma around it immediately heated it up and slowly turned it into magma again.


    Before it fully changed, Theo teleported right in front of the area and smashed the frozen magma into pieces, allowing a gap for him to escape.


    "Wait!" The dragon gritted his teeth and hurriedly retracted his magma. He flew toward Theo desperately.


    Theo ignored him for a moment and saw the World Tree doing something interesting. He suddenly acted as if he was stunned, stopping for two seconds.


    Seeing this chance, the dragon desperately chased after Theo and grabbed him with his arms.


    "What?!" Theo''s body trembled as he looked down, realizing he had been captured.


    The dragon became even more proud when he heard the World Tree saying, "You must have used your teleportation ability, Theodore Griffith. After using that ability, you can''t use it again for a while. That''s why you can''t escape this time. Good job, Dragon!"


    "Hahaha. That''s because I''m the mighty dragon." The dragonughed. He was proud because he managed to catch Theo. No matter how ugly it was, only the result mattered.


    "Free me immediately, Dragon!" Theo shouted.


    "Do you think I''ll listen to you again? No. We''re going to kill you this time!" The dragon smirked. His focus was still on Theo.


    He didn''t see the tree had released its attack.


    "Unhand me. Can''t you see that?!" Theo shouted in anger, ring at the dragon. "The tree has betrayed you!"


    "What are you say��" The dragon suddenly felt silent. After retracting the magma that required a lot of Magic Power, he could finally sense another strong fluctuation of Magic Powering from the side. He turned around and saw the explosive fruiting toward them. "Wha��!"

 Chapter 1777 Another Danger?

    *Boom!*


    The dragon and Theo couldn''t avoid it because Theo had used his Blink skill to escape from the dragon.


    "Hahahahaha!" The World Treeughed, thinking it had obliterated Theo and the dragon together. He also hated the dragon for everything he''d done, so hitting them with the Explosive Fruit was like killing two birds with one stone.


    With this, even if Theo and the dragon didn''t die, they would be severely injured. The World Tree might not have any more explosive fruits, but it didn''t change the fact that he would be unstoppable by someone who was half-dead.


    When the explosion subsided, the dragon and Theo fell down to the ground, charred ck. The dragon''s scales had almost gone, while Theo seemed to have lost one of his arms.


    "Hahaha. Serve you right, Theodore Griffith, stupid dragon!" The World Tree couldn''t contain his joy. Theo had been an extremely powerful opponent for him, so the joy of defeating him couldn''t be described.


    However, the World Tree was different from the dragon. If the dragon was the one in its position, the dragon wouldn''t deliver the killing blow for a moment.


    That was why the World Tree instantly moved toward them, extending its roots to pierce their bodies.


    With his giant root, it shouldn''t be hard for him to create a hole in the dragon''s body while crushing Theo''s body should be enough for him.


    The World Tree sent the root forth while shouting, "Die."


    Unfortunately for the tree, he forgot about one thing. Theo was a master of illusion and reality.


    The moment the World Tree sent forth its root, Theo, who was lying on top of the dragon, suddenly disappeared.


    "Huh?" The World Tree was stunned. ''He disappeared? Don''t tell me��!''


    The World Tree felt a presenceing from the side. That was right. It was Theo, and there was no wound in his body.


    Theo waved his sword and cut the root with his illusion. The World Tree thought he almost died, so he lowered his guard for a bit. And that made him unable to channel the Magic Power needed to protect the root from Theo''s illusion.


    *Bam!*


    The root was cut down, saving the dragon from death. Of course, Theo never intended to save the dragon. He simply wanted the EXP for killing a World ss Monster.


    After killing two World ss Monsters, he knew how much experience they gave. It wasn''t just two or three times a normal Mythical Rank Monster.


    It was much more than that. After all, a World ss Monster had developed the Authority. It was worth more than a thousand normal Mythical Rank Monsters.


    If he could kill a World ss Monster, he should be able to level up three times or even more.


    With that thought in mind, Theo turned around, shing the World Tree''s body.


    The illusion split the World Tree into two, but the World Tree managed to use its Unbreakable Wood Ability this time, preventing the trunk from being cut like how Theo''s illusion showed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Still, his current condition didn''t allow him to escape unscathed. There was a huge sword mark appearing on the trunk.


    This fifty feet deep sword mark was the symbol of Theo''s counterattack.


    "You�� You have tricked the dragon into following your illusion." After defending the attack, the World Tree finally had some time to think about what truly had happened.


    Theo smiled. "Don''t worry. You believe the dragon is an idiot, I do too."


    ''��'' The World Tree waspletely speechless. That was right, Theo was actually switching his body with an illusion. Because the dragon used a magma ball to iste them from the outside, the World Tree couldn''t see Theo at all.


    The only thing he could sense was his Magic Power through Awareness. He sensed Theo teleporting, so he believed he was using his Blink and the dragon followed him desperately before eventually catching him.


    The reason why Theo was surprised was to lower their guards. If it was the real Theo, there was no way he would stop just like that. He would hurriedly use his Twisted Reality to change the course of the explosive fruit.


    Yet, he didn''t do it. He wanted the dragon to catch him and take the full brunt of the explosion. With this, the dragon would be half-dead and the World Tree would have no more explosive fruit to use.


    In other words, he could focus on the World Tree before killing the dragon. This was Theo''s real n.


    The World Tree simply didn''t expect Theo to use his illusion at thest moment and manage to fool the dragon. No, the fact that the dragon was an idiot might be the reason why his n seeded.


    ''He��'' The World Tree waspletely amused with this human even if he was facing death right now. If Theo hailed from another race, he surely would bring that race to its golden age.


    Unfortunately, he was a human, a race known for their greed and foolishness.


    The World Tree fell silent for a moment before raising itsst root.


    "Even if I''m in this state, I''ll still fight until thest moment. Don''t think you can defeat me that easily, Theodore Griffith."


    Theo shook his head. "I never thought that. In fact, if you knew how to use the dragon''s brain, you would have defeated me."


    Theo didn''t say anything wrong. Theo could take advantage of the dragon''s brain, and that was why he could win despite being outnumbered.


    The World Tree knew that, but unfortunately, it was at hisst stance.


    "Still, dying in your hand might not be as bad as I think. I, Xditva, the nt Authority, recognize you as humanity''sst hope. If you die, humanity will perish. If you live, humanity will strive. Now, where fate will lead you��"


    "Farewell, O'' nt Saint." Theo raised his sword, preparing to kill the World Tree before delivering thest blow to the dragon.


    ��or that was what was supposed to happen until they felt another presenceing fast toward their location.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1778 Reunion

    "!!!"


    Both the World Tree and Theo turned around to see who wasing.


    It didn''t take too long for the World Tree to startughing. "Hahaha, Theodore Griffith. Today is not your lucky day. There is another dragoning and he is also a Saint. Even though you still have some strength left, you wouldn''t be able to defeat him."


    Theo made a grim expression.


    Before reaching their location, the dragon let out an earth-shattering roar, shaking the entire battlefield.


    *Roar!*


    "What is this?" The soldiers also saw the dots in the sky, reminding them of the appearance of the dragon.


    Theo had just fought two World ss Monsters, so if he fought another one, there was no way he would survive.


    The soldiers'' morale plummeted. They thought this would be their end. Although the base would still be standing due to the Time God, the people on this battlefield would lose their lives.


    "Kh." Haivan gritted his teeth, ring at the dot unwillingly.


    Spencer, who had been holding up the front line, clenched his fists. They had fought so hard. Theo almost defeated two World ss Monsters, yet, they would lose because of the third.


    Ka, who was at odds with Theo, couldn''t help but cheer for him after seeing him holding those two monsters back. Yet, he still failed.


    Nichs and Yesenia could only look away, not wanting to see the hero fall.


    Unfortunately, the image of Theo getting defeated by the third monster kept shing in their mind.


    There was only one person who could stop this monster, the Time God. However, that person wouldn''t being. Even if they called him, he still needed time to reach this battlefield.


    But there might be one more person that could stop the third monster. She was the Mafia Queen.


    Although her strength couldn''t bepared to other Saints, she was still an Authority Level Figure. Buying time for Theo should be possible.


    Alexa gritted her teeth while shouting, "I''m going to stop him. Use that time to kill those two Monsters before helping me. We''re going to retreat after that."


    Theo heard her voice through the radio. It was good that she was willing to help, but Theo shouted back, "No. Don''te out!"


    "!!!" The Mafia Queen was startled. The World Tree was confused as to why Theo said those words. It thought Theo still had another trump card he could use. The reason why Theo told whoever on the other side to note out must be because he had some assurance.


    The moment he realized it, the World Tree started to fear Theo. In the past, he might be wary of him to the point he would prepare for everything so that he could gain some advantage against Theo. But after seeing through Theo''s n, he waspletely scared.


    Theo might be more monstrous than he originally thought.


    Unbeknownst to all of them, the dragon that let out the previous roar was a yellow dragon.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Unlike the rash-looking magma dragon, this dragon had some cracks on its face as its skin had started failing. The scales on his body looked rusty. Despite that, his eyes filled with so much wisdom.


    Suddenly, the sky turned even darker. The ck cloudspletely covered the moon and thunder began to shake the world.


    But to everyone''s surprise, there was another figure on top of the dragon''s head. Its figure looked like a human at first nce, but if they looked a bit carefully, they would realize the figure had long ears on top of her head. Its fluffy tail gentlyid down on her back.


    When he saw that figure, Theo couldn''t help but smile, "It''s been a few years�� Do you know how worried I am?"


    The figure could hear his voice even from far away. She smiled, looking at him with a pair of red eyes.


    Lightning began to spark around her body before moving toward her feet. It seemed she was concentrating all that energy on taking a single leap. And with the help of the lightning, she suddenly disappeared.


    *Fwoosh!*


    "!!!" The World Tree widened its eyes because it could feel her movement. From her presence alone, it could determine she wasn''t a Saint. However, it had never seen a Queen moving that fast.


    It thought the momentum would strike Theo and blow him away. But the momentum suddenly disappeared. Even the humanoid figure suddenly turned into a cute little rabbit.


    "Kyu!"


    Theo smiled, looking at her. She had been teleported somewhere after the apocalypse and Theo had been asking Maya to find her. The reason why he also wanted to go around the world to find the pir was to locate her.


    But due to the apocalypse, everything was in a mess. He had a hard time finding any trace of her.


    This time, that familiar figure appeared right before his eyes.


    "Ava��" Theo called her name.


    That was right. She was Ava, the moon rabbit who had been following Theo the whole time.


    This rabbit appeared right in front of him without any momentum. Her appearance had changed from the humanoid form into the cute little rabbit she always used around Theo. And just like how she usually did it, she fell right on top of Theo''s face, hugging him as tight as possible as if she didn''t want to get separated again. "Theooooooooooooooo!"


    "What?" The World Tree waspletely stupefied. It never expected Theo would know a monster around this area.


    But the fact Theo knew this rabbit, who stood on top of the World ss Monster''s head, meant the dragon was actually Theo''s ally.


    The World Tree instantly turned to the dragon, who finally reached their location. His eyes were locked on to the magma dragon''s body.


    *Roar!* It let out another roar, but this high-pitched roar sent a wave of grief. It was sad to see its own kin get destroyed like this. But from the destruction on its body, the dragon knew Theo didn''t have that much power, so it was impossible for him to inflict that much damage.


    That was why the dragon''s anger was directed at the World Tree.


    And that dragon was none other than Ava''s teacher, the Lightning Saint.

 Chapter 1779 Power

    "Wait. He''s the enemy!" The World Tree hurriedly exined that they should attack together. It wished the dragon this time wasn''t as foolish as the magma dragon.


    However, Theo suddenly interjected. "It''s been a while, Lightning Saint."


    "!!!" The World Tree was startled.


    The dragon nced at Theo along with the battlefield behind him. There wasn''t any dragon among them, so he realized this battle was between the World Tree and Theo. The magma dragon wasn''t supposed to be here.


    The Lightning Saint asked, "Did you kill him?"


    "He''s still alive, albeit barely. He got hit by three out of four of that tree''s strongest attacks after all." Theo sighed before asking, "And surely, you aren''t going to me me for doing this to him, right?"


    "From the looks of it, he''s not supposed to be fighting you. That''s why I know you''re simply defending yourself. The fact that you have to fight him along with this tree is enough for me to know how dangerous the fight was.


    "I should be the one to apologize." The Lightning Saint paused for a moment before asking, "You surely don''t mind me taking his body back, right?"


    The Lightning Saint knew how shameless it was to take the magma dragon back with him. If this was any other Saint, they would have lost their lives the moment they fought both the magma dragon and the World Tree.


    So, stopping Theo from killing the dragon and asking him to forgive the dragon wasn''t a simple matter.


    However, Theo wasn''t someone who didn''t know debts and gratitude. Although their rtionship came from the Mountain King or even the Moonlight Queen, Ava''s mother, it didn''t change the fact that the dragon was kind enough to teach Theo a lot of things, especially about Orders.


    Without the dragon, who knew how long Theo needed to learn about Order? After all, the God of Mischief and the others didn''t n to teach him thoroughly.


    He even took care of Ava and allowed her to be this strong.


    That was why when he asked, Theo agreed without hesitation. "Alright. Take him back. Although he''s half-dead, he should be able to recover by absorbing magma, right? Though, I''m sure you know what I want��"


    "Thanks." The Lightning Saint nodded politely. "I promise you that he won''t appear before your eyes anymore. If he breaks that, I don''t mind if you kill him."


    "Uhm." Theo nodded. "I only do this because it''s you, Lightning Saint."


    "I know. Thank you." The Lightning Saint took a deep breath and nced at the World Tree. "Do you need me to kill this tree?"


    "!!!" The World Tree was startled. It thought the dragon was trying to stop the war and allowed him to go back. So, when he heard the Lightning Saint try to kill him, the World Tree hurriedly unleashed itsst root to strike the dragon.


    However, the dragon simply waved its hand down. A bolt of lightning struck forth, hitting the root.


    *Boom!*


    The lightning knocked down the root before it began to shatter its strong defense. But the moment the lightning exploded, the half-destroyed root waspletely obliterated.


    This was the power of the Lightning Saint. He might be approaching his death, but it didn''t change the fact that he had cultivated his power to the very end of his life. The umtion of power he had achieved in this life couldn''t be underestimated.


    "!!!" Theo was surprised. He needed to do a lot to even destroy a single root. To think the Lightning Saint could destroy it with a single wave of his hand, it was simply unimaginable.


    Theo might have reached the same level as Flora and the Sword Saint. However, the Wind Emperor once said that the Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God''s strength werepletely on a whole different level.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Looking at the Lightning Saint right now, he could finally understand the gap between them. It turned out he still couldn''t reach those two figures even with his current power.


    Of course, Theo could only use his Second Law for a bit and just realized the nature of his Reality. If he could master them, Theo might have a chance against them. And that Third Law was used to surpass them.


    Still, Theo clenched his fists, swearing to get even stronger. If any of the Saints heard Theo''s conviction, they would surely stop Theo, telling him he was still too young.


    Ava nced at her partner and smiled, knowing full well what he thought. She could definitely say she never saw anyone more determined to get stronger than Theo.


    Suddenly, Theo said, "Lightning Saint. I have to kill him with my own hand."


    The Lightning Saint nced at Theo. Although he didn''t know why Theo wanted to do it, he agreed without hesitation.


    "Alright. I''ll leave him half-dead." The Lightning Saint''s eyes shed as the lightning strikes started to fall, rampaging thend.


    The World Tree only had the branches left to stop the attack. Even his leaves only remained twenty percent due to the intense fight against Theo.


    The lightning dragon waved its hands again, summoning the lightning bolt.


    The tree used all its Magic Power to strengthen the branches. Because of itsck of mobility, it could only receive this kind of attack.


    The unbreakable defense might work against Theo, but this lightning dragon''s explosive power was far superior to Theo''s.


    There was no way he could stop it.


    *Bam!*


    Another explosion urred as the lightning shattered the branches.


    But because the tree didn''t have any more roots to stop the dragon, the dragon could easily fly straight at him and use its momentum to knock the tree to the ground.


    After that, the Lightning Saint gathered its lightning in his mouth, aiming it at the tree trunk where its Magic Power was generated.


    Unbreakable Wood!


    The tree hurriedly used his skill to protect himself, but��


    *Boom!*


    The lightning breath hit him and the explosion engulfed himpletely. No one knew what was happening inside the explosion, but when it was gone. They could see a seven hundred feet radius crater with the dragon and the tree in the middle.


    The dragon waspletely fine, but the tree had a big portion of its trunk reduced to ashes.


    Theo felt chills down his spine, thinking, ''This is a real dragon''s power�� this is the Lightning Saint.''

 Chapter 1780 Farewell

    The Lightning Saint turned to him and said, "Here you go. Kill him."


    Although the World Tree was badly injured and had no more tricks left, the difference in power was too enormous. Itpletely rendered the World Tree useless.


    He couldn''t help but remember when the Lightning Saint shed with the Frost Saint. He realized both of them hadn''t utilized all their strength. In fact, the Lightning Saint might use a portion of his power to protect him and Ava back then.


    With this, the battle had ended. Theo had no time to hesitate since the longer he took to kill the World Tree, the more chance he didn''t end up killing it.


    So, Theo flew toward the World Tree while raising his sword, cutting the World Tree with his illusion.


    The World Tree was split into two, especially around the destroyed part and the area where it gathered the Magic Power.


    He never thought the situation would turn out this way. After all, he almost killed the two World ss Monsters by himself. However, Theo also realized the real reaction from reality was none other than the Lightning Saint.


    "I''m unwilling." The World Tree uttered itsst words. He also didn''t expect he would end up dying like this.


    He was confident he could defeat Theo with all the preparations, but it seemed it wasn''t enough. Even then, if the magma dragon wasn''t foolish, they would have won.


    That was why hemented the fact that he got a partner that couldn''t do anything.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, giving thest respect to the World Tree. Even though they were at odds, it didn''t change the fact that the World Tree had to be respected. It wasn''t easy to cultivate its power to this level, so his effort should be respected.


    In fact, if Theo was the one to fall in this battle, the World Tree would have done the same thing. Precisely because Theo was a hard opponent that he respected him so much.


    And this time, Theo was the winner.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment before saying, "it seems that you want to say something, Lightning Saint."


    "I do." The Lightning Saint nodded. "Though, Ava is aware of it as well, so you might want to ask her about itter. All I can say is that�� I''m confused."


    "Confused?" Theo frowned, feeling there was another meaning behind those words. At the same time, he also had some idea of what the dragon wanted to say.


    "Well, this battle has ended." Theo sighed.


    "Yeah. I''m going to leave with him. As for Ava, I think it''s fine for her to follow you for a bit. After all, my people have gone. So, there''s no need for her to be restrained on newnd.


    "And with you, I know that she will be protected in your territory. I also have taught her a lot about Authority, so the moment I pass away, she should be able to ascend the throne soon.


    "Hence, it''s time for me to say goodbye." The Lightning Saint smiled, ncing at Ava. He knew Theo would do everything to protect her, so at the very least, his sessor would be in the safe hands.


    "Master��" Ava looked down, feeling sad. She had been aware of the Lightning Saint''s condition.


    She looked like the Wind Emperor. Both of them were approaching the end of their life. Of course, Ava had grown some attachment to this Lightning Saint after learning a lot from him. So, she didn''t really want to leave his side.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo asked, "So, are you going to��"


    The Lightning Saint shook his head. "Of course not. You might not know me, but I choose the ce I die and that would be on the battlefield."


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes, never expecting the Lightning Saint to mention the battlefield. At the same time, he also realized why he mentioned it. "Wait a minute. Did you��"


    The Lightning Saint only smiled but didn''t answer. He flew to the magma dragon and grabbed his body.


    "See youter." The Lightning Saint smiled. He took another nce at Ava before flying away.


    "��" Theo clenched his fists. The Lightning Saint said, "See youter," because he knew there would soon be a battle.


    He had foreseen this battle a long time ago. So, this was actually a good thing for him. On the one hand, it pained him to know that the Lightning Saint nned to die in this battle. On the other hand, he knew there would be a reliablerade that would help him.


    Still, there was something that he had to do before thinking about the uing battle.


    Theo nced at the battlefield where people had witnessed the fight between many Saints.


    With Theo the only remaining person on the battlefield, it was clear that they managed to repel the enemies this time. Theo only had to sweep the battlefield clear and they would achieve victory.


    Theo nced at Ava and asked, "Are you going to help me?"


    "That depends on whether you need it or not. I believe you''re nning to do something by killing that tree, so I wonder if you still need me there."


    "Well, bring me the King ss Monster over there." Theo pointed at the tree that the King of Fighters was fighting.


    "I see. You want me to capture it for you so that you can kill itter?"


    "Yeah. You should know the leveling system, right?"


    "You still have it? I have asked a few people who I met along the way, and none of them couldn''t ess it anymore." Ava frowned.


    "Well, you can say I have the way." Theo shrugged. "I''ll exin it to youter."


    "Alright. Consider it done. I''m going to bring that tree to you. Or you might as well use it to decorate your house."


    Theo and Ava smiled at each other.


    "I''m counting on you, Partner."


    "Leave it to me."

 Chapter 1781 Situation

    As soon as Theo joined the fight, the situation waspletely overturned. The monsters could do nothing but ept their death. Even the elite nts that caused a lot of trouble to the human army were wiped out.


    Theo received a lot of EXP during this battle, especially from those nts. The soldiers cheered because they could finally crush the enemies.


    Despite facing an elite army of nts and two World ss Monsters, they still prevailed. The casualties weren''t as many as they originally expected due to the bombardment from Theo and the King of Fighters'' help.


    Even Ava helped the King of Fighters, not knowing the sh between them.


    It only took four hours to clean up the entire battlefield and Theo could finally return to the camp, resting.


    Seeing the situation from afar, the Mafia Queen narrowed her eyes. "Even two World ss Monsters are not his match. Well, if the dragon was smarter, they could defeat him. But Theo didn''t use his clone this whole time.


    "I guess that means Theo still can take advantage of the entire situation. Still..." The Mafia Queen couldn''t help but look at the messages from her subordinates.


    It was the report of Theo''s group, which was under attack from the government. They had been twisting the public''s opinion by making Theo look bad.


    There were even many people ming Theo. They believed Theo had gone too far with his weapons.


    They didn''t mind if Theo possessed a weaponpany like the Star Group, but he shouldn''t have created a turret that could shoot a supersonic bullet.


    It was a huge threat to their president, considering they could attack the base from anywhere.


    However, some people were also asking for the reasons why Theo would create those weapons. After all, it couldn''t be built overnight. If Theo had predicted this kind of battle, he would know those weapons woulde in handy.


    Still, there was a seed that Theo had nted before the battle began. It was when Maya announced the possibility of a battle that would shake the world. Most of the influential leaders who heard the speech pondered deeply about the reason.


    None of them didn''t act at all, despite all the support from the people. They knew Theo wouldn''t reveal those weapons without any ns. In other words, Theo was nning to strike back as soon as he returned from the battlefield.


    When Alexa received these reports, she couldn''t help but look forward to what kind of attack Theo wouldunch on the government.


    Theo, on the other hand, sat down in his seat with Ava standing next to him. The onesing into the room were none other than the fivemanders. The King of Fighters didn''te because he had left the battlefield.


    "Congrattions, Commander." Haivan, Spencer, and Yesenia were the first ones to congratte Theo for killing another World ss Monster. The situation was extremelyplicated, but the fact that Theo was the only one to remain, the result was clear.


    "I should be praising you guys for being able to hold them back. The soldiers also have done their best to stop the enemies." Theo shook his head, humbly replying to them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Nichs exined in amazement. "Commander has defeated two World ss Monsters and has a connection with another World ss Monster. At the same time, your n looks average, but it doesn''t change the fact that you havepletely predicted the battle, considering you don''t give us any change of n. I am deeply impressed. Congrattions."


    "!!!" All of them had just realized that Theo hadn''t given any change of n. At first, Theo''s n looked ordinary. It was solid, but nothing stood out.


    But when the battle began, Theo never changed his n no matter how many variables came to disrupt the battlefield. In other words, Theo had foreseen their victory and given them a single n to work with.


    It was more impressive than it looked. Even they had to change their ns significantly the moment the nts appeared on the battlefield, so they had nothing but praise for Theo''s foresight.


    Theo took a deep breath and said, "Anyway, the n wouldn''t have worked if all of you were not here. It''s because you''re veterans on the battlefield that I''m assured to leave the armies to you. I know you will ovee the challenge. Thank you for your hard work."


    They couldn''t help but smile. Despite achieving so many things, Theo was so humble that they couldn''t believe it came from a talented young man like him.


    Theypletely forgot about the rabbit that stood on top of Theo''s shoulder, looking at these humans.


    There was still one more person who had yet to say anything. It was Ka.


    It seemed she had changed her opinion of Theo and suddenly came to him with a few pictures regarding the situation on the base. "Are you not nning to do anything about this, Commander?"


    "Hmm?" Theo nced at the news that he had expected. He knew the president would take advantage of his absence to strike his group.


    However, he wasn''t that bothered by it as if he had enough weapons to fight back.


    On the other hand, the other four were furious. Theo had gantly fought against two World ss Monsters, yet, the government actually dared to do something like this against him. It was simply uneptable.


    "What is this? How can they be so ungrateful?" Haivan gritted his teeth, frustrated.


    "He has done so much to the base, but they''re targeting him now?" Yesenia was contemting as if she wanted to make a n to help Theo.


    "Don''t worry, Commander. We''ll testify everything about your achievement on the battlefield. We might be soldiers in the past that could do nothing but obey orders, but we''ll bepletely retiring after this, so we aren''t bound by orders anymore."


    Theo didn''t say anything to them. The smile on his face looked like he was grateful for their help, but he didn''t want to ce the burden on them.


    However, it seemed without their help, Theo couldn''t do much. So, they swore to help Theo in their hearts.

 Chapter 1782 Ava

    "I''m thankful for your help, but you should focus on your soldiers first. They have fought bravely in this battle. Don''t forget to make a list of the rmendations so they''ll be rewarded properly." Theo waved his hand, politely rejecting their help because he didn''t want to trouble them.


    After that, Theo walked away while looking down. He looked sad because he didn''t want to trouble them.


    However, they promised they would spread Theo''s achievement on this battlefield. His contribution couldn''t be dismissed even if it was an order from the higher-ups.


    Without Theo, the base would lose countless people.


    While walking, Ava couldn''t help but say, "They seem to be good people. After this, they''ll surely spread words about you."


    "Well, I''m not the one asking them." Theo shook his head innocently.


    "Hehe, you''re bad to your enemy but kind to your people. That''s also why I''m following you now." Ava chuckled, knowing what would happen to the government after this. "Though, I''m curious. Are you going to leave this ce? If I''m not wrong, you shouldn''t be teleported here��"


    Ava didn''t know much about Theo''s information, considering she had been cut off from Sk since the apocalypse. So, she was surprised to meet Theo here.


    "I''ll tell youter. For now, I''d like to hear your story. What happened after the apocalypse?"


    Ava thought for a moment and started recounting her story. "There weren''t many things happening around me. After getting teleported to nowhere, I began my conquest as the Lightning Queen.


    "I defeated my opponents one after another, whether they were humans or monsters. Eventually, I met Master two years ago and we traveled around together in the snowy field."


    "Hmm?" Theo raised his eyebrows. "You''re teleported to ska? Or maybe the northern part of Canada? Well, should be around there��"


    "Let me see the map again."


    Theo opened the map in his Skylink and Ava instantly said, "I seemed to have gone to ska."


    "Well, I''d love to hear the full storyter."


    "Same with yours." Ava smiled. "Anyway, not long ago, when we were traveling around together, Master suddenly turned around for no apparent reason."


    "!!!" Theo''s expression suddenly turned serious, but he didn''t disturb Ava to know more about the story.


    "When I asked him about this sudden change, he only said, ''There is a sudden shift in the Order like a disruption. However, there is no change in the Order itself. It''s weird, but we have to get to the bottom of this."


    Theo looked down, contemting. As he expected, the Lightning Saint had noticed the higher being''s interference. Although it didn''t change the Order, it still twisted reality. This was the reaction to their change.


    "So, what do you think, Ava?" Theo asked.


    "I personally didn''t feel anything. It might be due to not having an Authority or my senses were simply too dullpared to Master''s, but if I gather all the information I have now, I think��" Ava paused for a moment, thinking about the answer. However, the answer came in the form of a question. "Are you fighting something, Theo? Something that can''t be described but exists��"


    Theo shook his head. "I''m not fighting�� I''m simply trying to survive right now. I don''t have the ability to do it yet, but I''m nning to."


    ? "That means you''re already aware of it?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yeah. More or less. At first, I couldn''t prove their existence, but it became more and more apparent recently. So, I believe it''s going to happen soon." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Soon�� Do you mean the battle? Ah, that was why Master said those words."


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "Are you sad that he''ll die?"


    "I''m certainly sad since he is like a father figure to me. I was raised only by my mother, so I didn''t know what it felt like to have a father. So, of course, I''m sad. I don''t want him to die.


    "However, I''ve seen the change in his appearance in thest few years. His scales are falling apart, his skin starts to crack, and his energy is gradually leaving his body.


    "That''s why I''ve been flying around with him, having some time together. I want to apany him in hisst days.


    "Still, I know that I shouldn''t say something selfish like I want him to continue living. There might be some ways to extend one''s lifespan in this world.


    "But when I saw his face that day, I felt his conviction. The resolve that he wanted to die.


    "It wasn''t that he hade to terms with his lifespan. He just felt he had lived too long and had done all the things he wanted. Hence, the only thing to do is this��


    "That''s why I''m going to respect his wish." Ava sighed. "That''s what I think."


    Theo smiled, assuring Ava. "Don''t worry, Ava. I''m going to help you this time. The battle he mentioned earlier might be the biggest battle that I would experience in my life. It would shake the entire world.


    "Don''t you think he''ll get what he wishes for?"


    The Lightning Saint wanted to die on the battlefield, and Theo prepared the greatest battlefield for him. With this, the Lightning Saint could pass away with a smile on his face, fulfilling his wish.


    Ava nodded. "Yes."


    "And for that, I need your help."


    "I''ll help you to the best of my ability. I''m going to send him off with a smile on my face since he prefers it that way."


    Theo stroked her head, seeing how strong Ava had be.


    "By the way, Theo. How are you nning to handle those people? They''re attacking your people right now, no? Are you not going to do anything?"


    "Well, with the King of Fighters here just a moment ago, they won''t get an advantage anytime soon. The rest of the people are in safe hands.


    "They might get some resources, but they can''t do much with them. As for them��" Theo smirked. "I have nted a ticking time bomb. And it will explode tomorrow."


    "Hehe, it seems there will be a huge show tomorrow. I''m looking forward to it."

 Chapter 1783 Return

    "Give up! You have broken thews. Do you think you can escape from this? Especially you, Maya Hamilton." A middle-aged man shouted while ring at their defense. The enemies this time were truly hard to crush, considering they had three Transcendent Level Experts while they only had two.


    Even the Time God was nowhere to be seen. So, they couldn''t do anything other than threaten them by using the citizens.


    The dawn had arrived, and the sun gradually brightened the world. People would start hearing the news again. There were already a few mediapanies trying to get all the information. They were pointing their cameras at Theo''s group, condemning them.


    People thought Theo had grown too arrogant and started to doubt him as a hero.


    Maya, who stood at the top of the tower overlooking the entire situation, got a call from the one she had been waiting for.


    "Theo? What''s wrong?"


    "Everything is done. I''ll arrive there in fifteen minutes."


    Maya widened her eyes in surprise before a smile appeared on her face. She nodded, "Understood. We''re waiting for you."


    After receiving the news, she shared it with everyone so that they would be more energetic to protect their base of operation for another fifteen minutes.


    "It seems you''re not going to surrender. We''ve had a stand-off since yesterday��" The middle-aged man red at Maya and shouted, "If you''re not going to surrender, then we''ll be forced to utilize our weapons."


    The guy thought Maya wouldn''t point those guns at the citizens, so they would be free to utilize their own weapons to destroy them.


    Maya wasn''t afraid of him since Theo was going toe soon. She had just to buy time.


    "Do you know what you''re doing right now?" Maya shouted back.


    "You''re the ones who don''t know what you''re doing right now!" The middle-aged man gritted his teeth. "You possess a weapon that can threaten national security. You''ve broken so manyws. Do you think just because you''re the richest woman in the world, you can do anything you want?"


    "Not at all. I never nned to build these weapons if not for Theo''s request." Maya smirked. "The same Theo who is fighting on the frontline without any backup. When there is a real threat out there, ready to destroy you, you turn a blind eye to them and decide to attack us. I don''t even understand how your brain works."


    "Theodore Griffith has broken thews. If not for the fact he''s still fighting for the country, he would have been detained already." The guy shouted.


    "Such a shameless government." Maya chuckled. "I guess this is how you treat the hero�� He has been saving your ass so many times, yet, the only thing you''re trying to do is to control him."


    "Don''t twist my words. Theodore Griffith has broken thew. So, he shall be punished ording to thew."


    "Good. Then, I''ll personally suggest Theo leave the base right away. With this, you can rely on the Time God to protect your country." Maya smiled. "Of course, I better follow Theo than this base. You can ask your technicians to build an aircraft for you since I''ll bring it away with me.


    "Haha, shameless government. You want Theo for yourself by using ''for the people'' shit." Mayaughed.


    Although Maya had changed after she seeded in her position as the CEO of the Star Group, not many people knew about her change. People would still think she was just acting like her usual arrogant self.


    That was why Maya could spite all of this without thinking much about the consequences.


    The middle-aged man gritted his teeth and raised his hand. "Since you refuse to acknowledge your mistakes and even publicly nder the government without any proof, I have no choice but to take you down with force. All troops, att��!"<novelnext></novelnext>


    When he was about to wave his hand down to signal the attack, he suddenly stopped. His hand couldn''t move because his wrist was grasped by someone.


    Suddenly, a gentle voice echoed in everyone''s ears. "Let''s stop this here."


    "!!!" Everyone suddenly shivered as they turned around, following the voice.


    At that time, they found a blue-haired man standing next to their leader. There was a white rabbit on top of his shoulder, ring at the middle-aged man as if she was ready to kill him.


    "You�� You are Theodore Griffith!" The man''s face became pale. He couldn''t even feel his presence before Theo grasped his wrist. If Theo had wanted to kill him, he would have died multiple times.


    However, the other soldiers were different. Since Theo appeared between them, they hurriedly regained their calm and pointed their weapons at Theo.


    "��" Theo nced at them before warning them with a poker face. "It''s better if you don''t point your weapons at me."


    "O��"


    "Oohh��"


    The people took a step back. They knew what kind of strength Theo possessed. He was on apletely different level.


    Still, the soldiers might be afraid of him, some of the media knew they were civilians and took advantage of their status to approach Theo. He wouldn''t have attacked an innocent civilian, so they might be able to get his opinions on this matter.


    "Excuse me!" One of the reporters shouted. Although his face was pale as if he was scared of Theo, he still braced himself and asked while running toward him. The soldiers could stop them, but surprisingly none of them actually moved.


    No one realized yet they were already under Theo''s illusion.


    Theo nced at him, listening to his words.


    "Why do you break thew by possessing these weapons?"


    "If I''m the one giving you the answer, people might think I''m just giving you my alibi. That''s why I''ll give you this hint instead.


    "If you wish to know the answer, hire professionals who can analyze the war against those monsters. Make sure they''re neutral."


    The guy didn''t expect this kind of answer from Theo, but he still noted it down. "Then, are you going to surrender yourself to the authorities? No matter how you word it, you have broken thew��"


    Theo smiled and shook his head, asking, "Do you trust the government?"


    "I do." The guy answered without hesitation.


    "That''s good, but our opinion differs. I don''t trust the government�� After all, the one who is bringing the previous wares from them. Why don''t you ask him instead? You should know who I''m talking about."


    The guy gasped. An image entered his mind as he muttered the person''s identity. "The Vice President��"

 Chapter 1784 Leaving

    Theo had given him all the answers. As he said earlier, Theo didn''t give them any alibi, so it meant Theo wouldn''t deny any usation against him. He epted everything.


    And if they could get a professional to analyze the battle, they would receive an answer without any bias.


    Theo had thrown the seed of doubt, making them rethink their opinion about the government. He realized the media had made Theo look evil without giving any exnation.


    Still, no matter how hard Theo stopped them, there was always that one guy who didn''t care about the situation.


    "Haaaa. You are just trash who ims yourself to be a hero. Justice shall prevail!" Someone suddenly shouted while running past the people, trying to stop Theo.


    Theo suddenly stepped forward, raising his right hand to protect the reporter.


    The reporter was startled and felt safe at the same time, considering the hero was protecting him personally.


    Theo sighed, looking at this man who charged at him with his de.


    "You shouldn''t have done that. I have fought together with a lot of soldiers and many of them have fallen in battle. So, I don''t wish to decrease the number of soldiers." Theo shook his head, stopping him before he reached his position.


    "Shut up! You''re just a criminal right now. Prepare yourself." The guy waved his de, trying to slice Theo''s neck.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo simply raised a single finger and coated it with the Supernatural Snake Body. He used the Alter Ego to boost his strength and caught this sword with his forefinger.


    "!!!" All of them widened their eyes in shock. The one who attacked Theo wasn''t weak. He was one of the Mythical Rank Experts the government had. Yet, Theo stopped his swing with a single finger.


    Theo shook his head helplessly and said, "You should go back."


    Without hesitation, Theo flicked the guy''s head with the same finger.


    *Bam!*


    In that instant, the guy gotunched away and crashed into a police car. His head was bleeding, but it didn''t seem he had died.


    "If you still wish to challenge me, I don''t mind. But if you don''t let me bring my people away from here, then don''t me me for not warning you about the consequences." Theo nced at the middle-aged man before staring at the two guys who had the power to injure him a little. Yes, they were the two Transcendent Level Experts they brought, but after seeing Theo''s strength, it was impossible to capture him.


    There was even a King ss Monster on Theo''s shoulder. So, they would only die if they stopped him.


    The leader gulped down, scared. Even if he could fight against those Transcendent Level Experts on Theo''s side, it was impossible to defeat the rabbit on Theo''s shoulder, let alone Theo himself.


    "Do you think you can get away by breaking thew?"


    "Breaking thew, huh�� If the government is more reliable, I won''t have to break thew." Theo walked past them as if ignoring everyone. But before he went to his group, he stopped and turned around, looking at the reporter from earlier. "If you''re stuck when searching for evidence, you cane to my territory. I don''t mind giving you some. I don''t have to exin anything to be honest, since all the evidence will speak for me. That''s all."


    After saying those words, Theo walked toward the half-destroyed building they used to host the turrets.


    Suddenly, the building glowed in golden color before it began to disappear into thin air.


    All the people fell down to the ground, but Theo used his Telekinesis to catch them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo''s group gathered around him to greet him. While Theo looked at the turrets and said, "Since the government doesn''t want us to possess them, let''s just destroy them."


    Since Theo had removed the entire building with his power, everyone could see what had happened to those turrets.


    "Wait, what? Are you trying to destroy them? Do you know how much I spend to produce them?" Maya was the first toin. After all, the resources poured into these turrets were massive.


    Unfortunately for her, Theo had decided. "Yeah. These turrets can help us save people, but I guess there is someone with an inferiorityplex who thinks this toy can threaten national security. So, let''s destroy them."


    "No��!" Maya wanted to stop him, but Theo had pointed his hand at the turrets.


    He used his Telekinesis to lift them up before letting them hit each other. After that, he put a lot of pressure on them, crushing thempletely.


    After that, Theo used his Authority to produce fire and burn the turrets to a crisp.


    This way, the government couldn''t use them as well.


    Maya was in despair as she watched her money being burned away. "You are a devil. How can you destroy them like nothing? Everything came from my pocket, you know."


    "Don''t worry. I''ll properlypensate you." Theo chuckled and patted her shoulder.


    "But you don''t have the money topensate me." She pouted.


    "How about I give you the tool to protect your airne in the air?" Theo smirked.


    Theo was talking about the pir that released a barrier. With it, making the flightmercial would be easy since it would be a temporary solution until she could mass produce something without the pir.


    Maya suddenly pointed at the turrets. "Do you want me to build them again so that you can destroy them again?"


    Theo smiled while Ava chuckled. "You''re always amusing, Maya."


    "Ava!" Maya raised her hand, asking for a high-five.


    "It''s been a while." Ava gave the high-five before waving her paw to the others. "Hello, everyone."


    "Well, everything has been cleaned up. It''s time for us to go." Theo nced at his people and the ones working for Maya. He lifted his hand, using his Telekinesis.


    The ground began to shake. Cracks appeared as the ground gradually moved. Surprisingly, Theo actually lifted the ground underneath them so that they could leave this ce.


    The people were shocked, especially the ones from the base. But they had a problem they had to solve first.


    The people didn''t realize that the moment they returned to their base, they would get devastating news.


    The Vice President�� disappeared.

 Chapter 1785 Analysis

    "I don''t understand why the government treats Theodore Griffith this way." Haivan, one of themanders, was invited to discuss Theo. Despite being ordered to stop or lie, Haivan didn''t care about their opinions and just came here to tell them the truth.


    Haivan was one of the two guests in this show, with another being an expert on the battlefield. He didn''t seem to be affiliated with anyone.


    After hearing Haivan''s opinion, the host asked, "Can you exin what you mean by that, Mr. Haivan?"


    "Before that, you should see the clips of the battle first," Haivan exined, trying to use the clips of the battle to show them what truly happened.


    In that clip, they could see a towering tree whose roots were the size of a skyscraper. If this monster came to the base, no one knew what kind of casualty the base would experience.


    "This is the first clip. To be honest, we''re only told by the base that we''re facing monstersing from the volcano. It was true that we fought them first, but suddenly, a World ss Monster appeared on the battlefield, bringing an army of elites.


    "They gave us a devastating blow. However, we still prevailed because he fought the World ss Monster by himself. Take a look at the second clip."


    The clip showed the Explosive Fruit that exploded and became a sun, turning the night into the day. Even though they were looking at it from the screen, many were narrowing their eyes because it was too bright.


    An explosion of that size and magnitude was simply devastating to the base. Yet, Theo absorbed the st and shock wave so that the battlefield wouldn''t be thrown into chaos.


    "This is the monster''s strongest attack. I''m sure I don''t need to say anything about its power�� Without him, we would have been wiped out with just one attack. On the battlefield, the monster used that attack four times."


    "Four times?" The host gasped. He couldn''t believe the situation was that dire.


    "That''s right. However, that''s not all�� What we should know is in the next clip."


    The next clip showed the appearance of the magma dragon. Theo fought both of them bravely to the point the dragon and the tree fought each other while Theo disappeared.


    Even a fool knew Theo was ying with them. Without him, these two World ss Monsters wouldn''t havee here.


    "Is that dragon��" The host waspletely speechless. He just couldn''t believe Theo stopped two World ss Monsters at once.


    Haivan nodded without hesitation, "Yeah. That''s the second World ss Monster. If not for Sir Theo''s abilities, those two would join hands and attack us. When that happens, are you going to ask the Time God to take action? To be honest, this is the first time I''ve seen someone stopping two World ss Monsters at once. It''s not that I don''t believe in the Time God, I''m simply��" Haivan let out a long sigh, disappointed.


    "Sir Haivan. I believe we have one more clip, and in the report, it''s said there was one more dragon��"


    "Yeah. The dragon came at thest moment. It seemed he knew Sir Theo and aided him in taking down the World Tree. In exchange, the dragon was allowed to bring its kin back." Haivan confirmed it.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "But don''t you think this is a bad move, considering the dragon might attack us again?"


    "Well, what do you suggest then? Do you want Sir Theo to fight three World ss Monsters? If you see the clip, you''ll know that the dragon is on a whole different level since a single wave from his hand could render the tree useless."


    "That''s��" The host had no words to say. Stopping two World ss Monsters was already unprecedented, so asking Theo to fight the third one in that condition was a foolish opinion.


    Since he couldn''t say anything to Haivan''s question, he tried to change the topic by asking the expert next to Haivan. "Mr. Albert. What do you think about the battle itself? Maybe we should cut to the chase. What do you think about Mr. Theo''s turrets?"


    "Alright. First of all, I''m watching the explosions from the screen. Judging from the size of the explosion along with the impact produced by the bullet, I can see that the bullets are Supersonic Bullets. They''re extremely lethal, and possessing them will be a threat to national security.


    "However, I won''t be talking about thews here since I''m not well-versed in that area. Instead, I''ll be looking at the battlefield as a whole.


    "If you think the war is only on the battlefield, then you''re wrong. From the information I''ve received, I can see that the battle was happening inside the base as well."


    "Inside the base? How?" The host asked.


    "I saw the clip about Theo dropping some clues. I think everyone knows about that one person who has be a hot topic recently."


    "Are you talking about the Vice President?"


    "Exactly!" The expert nodded. "If you''re looking at it carefully, the Vice President invited those monsters inside the base. In other words, he could be ssified as their spy.


    "If his n seeded, when Mr. Theo went to the battlefield, the base would be in a panic as well since those hidden monsters would wreak havoc in the base. So, he first cleaned up the spies before heading to the battlefield.


    "He knew the Vice President would snitch about their preparation. As someone who was second only to the President, the Vice President knew everything about our supplies, support, and other weapons.


    "Hence, Mr. Theo built these turrets by himself to shock them. Even the Vice President didn''t know about this, so the enemies would have walked into the trap.


    "Those turrets had done well in assisting him on the battlefield or he wouldn''t have defeated those two World ss Monsters.


    "So, instead of asking about thews, I believe we should ask the Vice President about his reasons first. I think that''s why Mr. Theo said he didn''t believe in the government in that clip. This is my opinion."

 Chapter 1786 Changing Peoples Opinion

    *Hiss!*


    The room fell silent as the host was surprised that the expert would me the Vice President. However, he could somehow understand why he thought that way.


    Although it could be called nder, they had proven that the Vice President was the one bringing the monsters inside.


    However, it was a very sensitive topic.


    As a host, he didn''t have much time to think, so he hurriedly replied, "I''m sorry, but the Vice President hasn''t received his trial yet, so I can''t say much about him. We''re threading in a very dangerous zone."


    "I''m merely speaking my opinion. Of course, it''ll be better if we can get the reasons immediately, considering this battle has involved three World ss Monsters." The expert shrugged. "I also had seen the video about the confrontation between the government and Maya Hamilton.


    "It''s not that I don''t believe in the Time God, but do you think it''s possible for the Time God to stop three World ss Monsters at once?"


    The host was tongue-tied. Although he didn''t want to admit it, Theo had done a great job in stopping two World ss Monsters and befriending another.


    He had never heard of the Time God having a rtionship with a World ss Monster, so if he was in his position, the Time God might only be able to stop one or two of them while the other razed the base to the ground.


    He also remembered one more thing from that conversation. "Mr. Albert. Are you talking about Mr. Theodore Griffith leaving the base?"


    "Yes. He has done it once, so he can do it again." He nodded with a serious expression. "When that happens, there will only be the Time God to protect us. It''ll be a problem if we''re besieged by multiple World ss Monsters, especially if theye in different directions.


    "That''s why I have to agree with Sir Haivan here. I''m slightly disappointed by the government''s stance. When he was protecting the base, the government tried to harm his people.


    "Instead of thinking about the culprit, I think they should be thinking about how to stop Theo from leaving.


    "If you look at this situation, the moment he leaves this ce, Maya Hamilton will most likely go with him. After all, the government is using the turrets as an excuse to seize herpany.


    "And from his current track record, he will go to United Asia after this. There, he has a lot of friends, such as the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint.


    "With the addition of him and Maya Hamilton, it won''t be weird for United Asia to be the pioneer in this new world. I don''t know how much this is true, but I''ve heard he has the backing of the Mafia Queen as well, but that''s just a rumor. If that is true, then no one can contend against United Asia."


    The people who were watching this live discussion gasped.


    They almost forgot that Theo didn''t have any reasons to stay other than Maya and his kindness. Since the government had locked up herpany, Maya wouldn''t hesitate to leave this ce.


    There was one more thing they needed from Theo aside from his protection. It was his ability to increase the skill rank.


    If such a person left, the base would gradually decline. There were simply too many monsters around them, ready to take them down.


    So, the government had to y carefully this time. If they pissed Theo off, no one could stop Theo from leaving. Even if the Time God was stronger, Theo could easily outy him with his brain.


    This was the message Albert, the neutral expert, wanted to give to everyone.<novelnext></novelnext>


    People gasped and couldn''t help butment.


    "We have to spread this information to the entire base."


    "If we don''t have Theodore Griffith, we will experience a nightmare."


    "Does he not care about the innocent people living here?"


    "Idiot. He has been protecting all of them here, only to be backstabbed by the government."


    "Is there any demonstration to get justice from the government?"


    The live discussion wasn''t broadcast on their channel alone. It was also streamed on Skytube and other tforms to spread awareness.


    And people, who watched it, thought the same thing. The government had been condemning Theo before, making him look bad. Most of them believed it because of the turrets.


    However, the turrets had been destroyed by Theo... The same turrets that helped Theo stop multiple World ss Monsters. So, the government had no more reasons other than clinging to theirws.


    After that one show, the people started questioning the government. It might be like what Maya said in the confrontation.


    When Theo was trying to save them, the government was doing their best to get a hold of his weakness so that they could use him as they pleased.


    On the one hand, they agreed that if Theo wasn''t restrained by the government, he could be the same person that destroyed them. On the other hand, Theo''s actions this whole time were that of a hero. He had been helping people despite being betrayed over and over again.


    So, they couldn''t me Theo for leaving. That was why they had to give a reason for Theo to stay.


    The government might try to harm him, but if the people fought for him, the government might need to stop their n.


    That was why the people were asking each other to go to the street and protest Theo''s treatment.


    However, there was one more question that the government had to answer. And it was the trial for the Vice President.


    It was supposed to be held tomorrow, but there was a problem.


    "This is not good." A minister entered the room and gave him a message. "Mr. President. We have a huge problem."


    "A huge problem? I''m already busy dealing with all these people questioning me."


    "But this is a serious problem, Sir." The minister gulped down before stating with a pale face. "The Vice President has gone missing."

 Chapter 1787 Realization

    "!!!" The President widened his eyes in shock. "What? Missing?"


    The minister nodded. "Yes, Sir. We''re trying to find him, but it seems he has been missing sincest night."


    "Huh? Last night? Then, why are you just informing me now?!" The President roared while ring at him. The trial for the Vice President was supposed to be held tomorrow. If he rescheduled the client, the public would lose their trust in the government.


    On the other hand, he remembered something.


    "Now that I think about it, that Theodore Griffith acted calm the whole time�� as if he had prepared for what was going toe. Don''t tell me��" The President gasped. "Did he predict the Vice President would be missing?"


    The minister couldn''t answer that question since they had no proof. But if Theo knew about the Vice President''s n, it wouldn''t be weird if Theo took advantage of it to get the people''s support.


    "Not good. We''ve been had!" The President widened his eyes in shock. "He knows the Vice President will be escaping from the prison. By using it, he can turn the situation around.


    "No, wait. Don''t tell me, he''s the culprit? He''s the one helping the Vice President? Now that I think about it, he didn''t fight with his clone��"


    Both the President and the minister looked at each other, thinking the same thing. Theo must have used his clone to free the Vice President.


    "Then, we should immediately mobilize our people to search for his base to get the Vice President." The minister suggested.


    "Are you insane? The people are supporting him right now. If we are going straight to his door for whatever reason, they''re going to scrutinize us. It won''t be long before the entire government copses. Are you seriously suggesting that?"


    "Then��" The minister scratched the back of his head and asked, "Should we tell the people that he''s in his territory?"


    "Who''s gonna believe it? The people are rethinking the bad opinion of him. If we''re using this card, people won''t believe us anymore. And even the Time God couldn''t find his home, let alone if he uses the Griffith Family''s help to hide him."


    The President bit his lips, realizing he had been ying in Theo''s arms this whole time.


    There was also the matter regarding the King of Fighters, who helped Theo instead.


    "No, don''t tell me�� The King of Fighters isn''t that smart, yet, he managed to capture the Vice President with all the proof. And after that, he came to the battlefield to help Theo.


    "Then, does that mean the one providing the King of Fighters the information about the Vice President was him? In other words, the fight between Theo and the King of Fighters is just a n to get the King of Fighters'' help in exchange for his forgiveness.


    "I didn''t know why he went all the way to offer help against the monsters from the previous battle. It turned out he was nning to make us look bad. He knew we were trying to get a hold of him.


    "He created an opportunity for us to act and knew the Time God would go straight to his territory due to Theo''s mysterious power that could hide his base.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "And he knew we didn''t have the manpower to handle the three Transcendent Level Experts on his side.


    "By making us focus on him, he gave an opportunity for the Vice President to escape. With this, we would be held ountable by allowing the Vice President to escape��"


    The President gasped, realizing Theo''s entire n. He started to wonder how far ahead Theo could see. But if this entire scheme was his n, he didn''t know what to do anymore. After all, Theo might have predicted what he was going to do next.


    The President gulped down and his breath started to be rough as if there was a pair of hands grasping his heart.


    He thought he managed to get some advantage against Theo. Sadly, it turned out to be the other way around.


    He couldn''t help but remember what the previous president had said to him. He was the first president to meet Theo.


    At that time, he warned him, "Whatever you''re doing�� Even if it means putting national security at risk, don''t go against him. Even without strength, he is smart enough to escape from whatever I''m nning. If he has enough strength and backers, no one can tell what he can do."


    It was simply too ridiculous that one person could be above a country. But Theo managed to pull it off.


    And now that he had ignored the warning, Theo was going to make him pay.


    He sucked a cold breath, realizing what Theo was capable of.


    What hero? In the people''s eyes, he might look like a hero who had protected the people from a colossal threat. But for those in the government or people against him, Theo was nothing but a devil.


    Hero was thest thing they thought of when going against him. He tricked the people with his good side and people bought it.


    The President gritted his teeth, realizing he had lost all his advantage. There were only a few options left, but none of them would work for him.


    The President bit his lips and said, "Try to find a solution. If possible, we have to reschedule the Vice President''s trial. During that time, mobilize all units to find him, but you can''t touch Theo''snds. We''ll need toe up with a solution as soon as possible to solve this situation."


    The minister knew they had lost most of their options. And the current biggest option was none other than to beg Theo for forgiveness.


    But there was one more thing they could use, it was the Vice President''s facility. If they could get it, they could burn it down while showing it to the public. This way, there was no need for a trial since they could just tell them the Vice President had passed away.


    People would think the Vice President had been sentenced to death for all his crimes.

 Chapter 1788 Theos Plan

    Theo''s base.


    "Haha. They''re panicking right now." Mayaughed. She was having dinner at Theo''s house since she couldn''t go back right now due to the conflict between them.


    "You''re still in the mood tough? You won''t be able to work anytime soon, you know." Theo sighed.


    "I''ll consider this a vacation. I have hidden my airne and the blueprints, so they can''t really get it from me." Maya chuckled.


    "They might be able to impose somews to get the blueprints, you know."


    "I will have your pir as well as your support. With them, I''m not afraid of the government. Besides, I have separated the manufacturing process so that no one knows the exact process from start to finish. If they want to get the information from my employees, they will be facing a big puzzle I''ve prepared for them."


    "Though, it''ll affect your employees."


    "Nah. I''ve given them paid leaves for this."


    "Even though you''re a capitalist?"


    "Hahaha. True, I might have gone insane by giving them paid leaves. Then, again�� I treated my people well. I have the monopoly anyway, so it''s fine to give them some benefits."


    "Well, they might force you to split yourpanies."


    "Nah, don''t worry. I have prepared for that." Maya smirked. "You don''t need to take care of my business. As long as I''m the one holding the reins, I won''t allow anyone to disrupt my business."


    "As expected from the most talented businesswoman in the world, Maya Hamilton." Theo chuckled, jokingly pping his hands.


    "Even though you said it that way, I''m still going to take it as apliment." Maya shamelessly epted the praises. "Instead of me, let''s talk about your n. I mean, now that you have solved the pollution problem, what are you going to do next? Is it about the chemicals?"


    "Hmm. I guess we''re approaching the final fight." Theo made a small smile. He was happy that the situation would be resolved soon and he would have time to marry Agata, but he was also sad because he couldn''t predict the result of thest battle.


    "Well, aren''t you happy, Agata? Your fiance can finally marry you after that battle?" Maya smirked, teasing Agata.


    Agata chuckled but shook her head. "No. I''m worried instead."


    "Worry? You don''t want to marry him?"


    "No. I''m not talking about that. I''m just worried about the final fight. How about asking him about the probability of our sess?"


    "Huh?" Maya was confused and turned to him. "What''s the chance of us surviving?"


    "Fifty-fifty�� No, should I say, forty-sixty�� in their favor."


    "Huh?" Maya widened her eyes in shock. "Seriously?"


    Even though Theo was unsure about the result, he usually had eighty to ny percent confidence. Yet, this time, Theo had such a low probability. It was simply unbelievable.


    Of course, Theo added, "Ah, by the way, you don''t have to worry. Our marriage will be held, one hundred percent."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Haha. You should focus on your matter first. Just leave the marriage matters to me." Agata chuckled.


    Maya frowned. Theo had just shown his uncertainty, yet, they both seemed calm.


    Agata had blind trust in Theo, while thetter knew no matter what, he would do what he had promised. That was why they were calm.


    Meanwhile, Maya had to consider this carefully. "By the way, what are you nning to do next? Since you have such low confidence, I''ll do my best to fulfill your conditions. Even if whatever I''m doing only increases the chance by one percent, I''ll still do it."


    Theo smiled. "Thanks for the support. You don''t have many things to do to be honest. Just build andmercialize the airne as soon as possible.


    "After that, we''ll be able to step on our next n." Theo thought for a moment. "Well, if possible, extend it to the union first instead of United Asia."


    "Huh? Why union? You have a lot of allies in United Asia. If we connect this base to United Asia, we''ll be able to gain their support��" Maya narrowed his eyes.


    "What do you mean? I want to fly both my grandparents and parents-inw here so they can witness our wedding��" Theo rolled his eyes and said, "Why are you looking at me that way?"


    Maya stared at him with a gaze devoid of emotions as if she didn''t believe Theo thought that way. Knowing how much of a schemer Theo was, that was thest thing that shoulde out of his mouth.


    So, Maya knew Theo had an ulterior motive.


    Theo sighed and said, "It''s just bait."


    "Bait? Who are you nning to cat��!!" Maya paused, realizing the real fish. "The remnant of Griffith Family."


    "That''s not all." Theo shook his head. "There is one more person who has a grudge against me."


    "One more person�� You won''t care about any insignificant person. Then, the only one who can fight you is��" Maya gasped. "The Fist Saint?!"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I''m assuming they have met."


    "Are you nning to invite them here? Are you insane?"


    Theo sighed. "This is why I don''t want to talk about it too much. I''m aware of the risk, but by inviting them here, we can concentrate on the destruction in this ce. It''s better to end everything once for all.


    "If this ce doesn''t seem to be able to hold on, I already have an excuse to leave this ce anyway." Theo smirked.


    Maya trembled when she heard the reasons. She thought Theo was simply cornering the government, but it seemed he had been preparing an escape n if something went wrong.


    When that happened, it was better to bring herpany to United Asia and develop there.


    This was Theo''s real n. He nned to bring the current President, the Vice President, the human''sst mistake, and these three Saints together and kill them in one go.


    However, because all of them came together, the risks would be extremely high. That was why Theo showed such low confidence. In other words, this was a gamble made by Theo.


    Whether it would work or not, no one could tell.

 Chapter 1789 Agents

    "There are tens of thousands of people walking down the street."


    "This is a rare sight where the people are standing together as one."


    "This might be the first demonstration ever held after the apocalypse."


    "Everyone is seeking justice from the government about Theodore Griffith''s treatment."


    "They''re questioning the government''s integrity."


    "It seems they''re also protesting the government due to the reschedule of the Vice President''s trial."


    "Due to his health, the Vice President''s trial couldn''t be held."


    "Is the white house protecting the Vice President after all the proof wasid down?"


    The media went crazy. There were people on the street holding the first demonstration after the apocalypse. They didn''t want Theo to leave. Whether it was for justice or they simply didn''t want to lose Theo''s protection, they still came.


    They were protesting right in front of the new white house, asking for the answer. There was also a separate group that went straight to the court where they were supposed to hold the Vice President''s trial.


    The fact the government rescheduled the trial looked very sketchy. At the same time, how could they even hold a trial when the man was missing?


    Obviously, a lot of people covered the entire process.


    On the one side, someone asked a question. "Why do you participate in this demonstration?"


    "Theo has been my idol. He has risen up from the very bottom, an inspiration to many. That''s why I can''t take it when the government is trying to eliminate him. Just give that dude a rest."


    On another side, someone asked the same question but received a different answer.


    "Back then, I didn''t really care about the corrupt government. However, the current situation is different. We''re surrounded by monsters and no one knows when they will attack us. So, we have to unite this time. A corrupt government will only ruin us, so it''s better if a better person can take the helm."


    There were a lot of opinions. However, most of them had shown their distrust of the government.


    Theo''s matter was the start, and the rescheduled trial was their breaking point. They wanted justice.


    The President was gritting his teeth, looking at the current situation. He had been trying to find a solution but to no avail.


    "How is the situation?" He asked, ring at a middle-aged man next to him.


    "We''re doing our best to find him, but there is no clue yet."


    The President gritted his teeth, not knowing what to do with the situation. "What''s about the secret facility? If we can find it��"


    The guy shook his head in disappointment. They truly had no clue.


    But there was someone they could take advantage of.


    "That''s right. We still have one more person to find the clue. Back then, Theo said when we''re stuck on searching for evidence, we can go to him."


    The President mmed the table and shouted, "Do you think I''ll bow down to him and ask for the evidence?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "No, Sir. There was one reporter who received his words back then. We could use him."


    "��" The President fell silent. This might be the only way. If they could force that guy to be a double agent, they could gain all the proof and the secret facility.


    All of them were enough to prosecute the Vice President without him being present.


    The President nodded. "Let''s do it that way. Immediately go to that guy!"


    Without hesitation, they instantly mobilized their agents to pay a visit to the reporter. This was their only chance to pacify the public''s anger.


    The longer they waited to exin the situation, the angrier the citizens would be.


    So, it only took an hour before two people, one male and one female, arrived at thepany the guy worked for.


    They entered the building and showed their identities. The moment the receptionist saw it, they had no choice but to guide him.


    The reporter was humming while looking at the news. By being the bravest one back then, he gained a lot of benefits. They tasked him to cover the news regarding Theo.


    While he was preparing for the next news, a guy suddenly visited him and said, "Ron, you have visitors."


    "Ah?" Ronald was confused for a moment and said, "Alright. I''ll meet them."


    Ronald tidied up his desk a bit before walking to the hallway to meet the visitors, only to find two unfamiliar faces.


    "Huh?" Ronald was confused for a moment but the two smoothly walked toward him and caught him, preventing him from escaping.


    "What are��" Ronald wanted to shout, but his mouth was covered and the guy said with a calm tone. "Mr. Ronald. We need you toe with us."


    The guy showed his identity which made Ronald''s face pale.


    He realized the government had paid attention to him. He wanted to resist but both of them seemed to be strong enough to restrain him.


    Still, he wouldn''t go down without a fight. He was going to use all his strength to show the people around him he was unwilling to go with them.


    Unfortunately, the female said, "We also have your family with us. So, it''s best if you cooperate with us."


    "!!!" Ronald widened his eyes, staring at the small video sample where they showed his house along with his kids ying in the backyard. It was clear they would harm them if he didn''t follow these two.


    Having no choice, Ronald bit his lips and nodded his head.


    The guy finally released his mouth and extended his hand to the other side, asking him to walk. "Please."


    Ronald might be able to escape here, but he knew there was no one who could deal with the people they sent to his house. So, Ronald followed them and went outside the building.


    There was already a car ready to bring him somewhere.


    They pushed him inside before leaving thepany.


    Ronald didn''t know what was going to happen to him. However, he got a clue as to what reason they came to him after hearing their next question.

 Chapter 1790 Threatened

    "We heard that you can get the evidence from Theodore Griffith regarding the Vice President."


    "!!!" Ronald widened his eyes in shock, realizing what they were talking about. That night, he indeed heard Theo promise him the information if he were ever stuck.


    However, he didn''t count on it since he had to try his best first before relying on him. Theo had done so much for them after all.


    And it seemed that the government wanted that information.


    Taking him with them was enough for him to know they were trying to force him to be their agent. As soon as they received the evidence, they wouldn''t hesitate to discard him.


    But there was one more thing that scared him. The thought of what the government could do to his family shed in his mind.


    On the one hand, he didn''t care much about what happened to him personally since he was in this line of work. On the other hand, he had two children and one wife in his house. If he didn''t give them what they wanted, those three would be harmed.


    So, Ronald had no choice but to give what they wanted.


    "I��" Ronald tried to talk, but the guy stated, "You don''t need to waste your breath. As long as you''re able to get it, we''ll leave your family alone."


    ''As if,'' Ronald cursed. There were two possibilities for his family. The government might silence him and his family, or the government might threaten him and keep him under supervision.


    Both of them wouldn''t work well for him. After all, he had to betray Theo''s trust without being able to speak up for it.


    The guy gritted his teeth and stated with a coarse tone. "Don''t harm my family."


    After he said those words, the woman tapped the driver''s shoulder, signaling him to change their destination.


    They went straight to Theo''s territory. Although they didn''t know the exact position of Theo''s ce, there was a huge area without any monsters around. They believed Theo''s location was near it since Theo should have gotten rid of all the monsters in his territory.


    As long as they could drive this guy to Theo, their mission should bepleted.


    "Remember, we''re going to drive you there, but before reaching the exact location, you''re going on your own. If you betray us, no one will know what happens to your family."


    "If you try to ask his help, we have many agents monitoring you. Unless he can defeat all of us at once, it will be useless. We''ll inform the team in front of your house to immediately INVITE your family."


    Ronald gritted his teeth. He didn''t want to do this but had no choice.


    "Don''t harm my family. If you harm my family, I''m not going to do it." Ronald stated with an angry tone. "Before doing it, I have to call my family."


    "Just do your��"


    Before the guy finished his words, Ronald shouted, "If I don''t know the condition of my family before going there, I will consider you have harmed them and will snitch your activity on Sir Theo."


    "��" The two agents exchanged looks as if discussing whether they should give him a chance or not.


    Rnd''s mental state seemed to be stronger than they thought. He knew that there was a possibility that his family had been silenced while he was doing it, so he had to make sure they were safe first.


    It was a desperate attempt, but this was the only thing he could do for his family.


    Ultimately, both of them nodded. "Alright. But if you say something weird, we''re going to cut the call immediately and give the signal to our team there."


    "I know." Ronald snarled. Of course, it wouldn''t be easy to break his heart, considering he was the bravest reporter that dared to approach Theo first.


    It took a few hours before they approached Theo''s territory. As soon as they arrived at their destination, there was another car prepared for him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Hurry up!" They pushed the guy outside and signaled him he could call his family.


    Since they were suspicious of him, they gave him another Skylink and forced him to call his family with this one.


    "��" Ronald bit his lips and inputted his wife''s number.


    "Hello?" His wife''s voice soon resounded in his ears.


    Ronald wanted to break down because he had endangered them. But he had to keep his calm since he didn''t want his wife and children to panic and worry.


    He took a deep breath and said, "Honey."


    "Ah?" His wife instantly recognized his voice, but before she spoke, Ronald said, "I''m calling you from my friend''s Skylink since I left mine in the office. We''re having a party right now and I might go home a bitte today."


    "Is that so? Do you want me to make you some food?"


    "No. I''ll eat here."


    "Okay."


    "Take care of the children, OK? Do you want me to buy you something on the way?"


    "No, it''s fine. I''ll just bring the children to bed and sleep first."


    "Sure, thanks."


    "Have fun out there. Come back as soon as possible."


    "Yeah. Love you."


    "Uhm. Love you."


    It was a brief conversation, but he didn''t find any change with his wife, so it meant they hadn''t met any contact. He felt relieved, knowing his family was alright.


    After that, he gave the Skylink back while ring at these two people. He was unwilling to take this role, but he was forced to sit in the car and drive it until he found Theo.


    "I don''t know where his ce is." Ronald red at them.


    "Just drive around and someone from his group will find you sooner orter."


    Ronald realized they also didn''t know about Theo''s base. But Ronald could do nothing but obey them.


    He drove around, waiting for his car to be spotted.


    The city looked abandoned, but he knew there were many agents ced in the building, observing his every movement.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he saw fog ahead. That was the weirdest urrence he had ever seen, so he knew he might have gone to the right ce.


    A bit hesitant, he entered the fog.

 Chapter 1791 Meeting

    As soon as he entered the fog, his visibility dropped.


    The hot temperature suddenly cooled down and his mind felt refreshed.


    "Mhm?" The guy was surprised for a moment before he heard Theo''s voice from beside him. "Continue driving."


    "Huh?" Ronald was startled and hurriedly turned around, finding Theo in the seat next to him. "Wh��!"


    He wanted to scream, but Theo used his Telekinesis to maintain the steering wheel and the pedal. After that, he snapped his finger so that his scream didn''te out.


    Theo looked at him with a gentle smile. "Calm down for a bit."


    "That''s��" Ronald was gasping for air, trying his hardest to calm down. He was simply too shocked since Theo appeared like a ghost.


    But he also realized there was no way the agents that brought him here didn''t leave any device that could capture whatever happened inside. There must be a hidden camera and microphone inside the car.


    However, Theo said, "Don''t worry about anything. I''ve taken care of everything. Right now, the camera only shows you driving calmly. The microphone is only hearing your voice. So, yeah, everything is under my illusion. No one will know that you and I are meeting like this."


    Ronald took a deep breath after listening to him. He was worried that he would harm him or end up killing his family for this. But Theo didn''t seem to be that evilpared to the government, who would do everything to achieve their goals.


    "That''s�� Sir�� I''m sorry��" Ronald''s voice started shaking. He was ashamed to do all this.


    Theo, on the other hand, had a calm smile on his face as if he had predicted everything. "Are they taking your family hostages?"


    "Yes." Ronald nodded. "But I can''t do anything. If I ever do something that will harm them, they''re going to give a signal for their team to kidnap my people. Even if I receive your help, they said there are many people observing us right now. So��"


    "What would you do if I told you I could not remove all those people at once?"


    "��" Ronald looked down. Even though Theo was strong and could kill many people with a single wave of his hand, it was a different matter if those people scattered and hid in all kinds of spots. So, he could only sigh, knowing he had no chance of saving his family.


    "However, you don''t have to worry about your family." Theo smiled and asked, "Have you seen your family?"


    "I have called them. They have shown me my house as well."


    "Is it from the back of your house?"


    "How do you know?" Ronald widened his eyes in surprise.


    Before answering him, Theo asked, "Are you ming me for this? After all, if I didn''t tell you toe to me, you wouldn''t face this trouble."


    "I��" Ronald scratched the back of his head, ashamed. "If they only targeted me, I wouldn''t care much about this. It''s just��"


    Theo smiled and opened his Skylink, showing him an image of a car and two people near his backyard. But it was clear the picture was taken from a different angle, meaning this was from Theo''s group instead of the government.


    "This��" Ronald gasped.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Don''t worry. My people are protecting your family right now. If they try to harm your family, they will make their move and protect them." Theo smiled, assuring him.


    "Your people��" Ronald realized Theo had foreseen this event. It seemed he had gotten involved in Theo''s n before he realized it.


    Theo continued, "I know you''re looking for evidence for them. I apologize for making you involved in this��"


    "I��" Ronald didn''t know what to say. He respected Theo from the bottom of his heart for doing so many things for them. But he wasn''t prepared to be involved in this matter without his knowledge.


    That was why Theo assured him, "Don''t worry. Nothing will happen to you and your family. I guarantee it with my name. It''s just��"


    Ronald fell silent, listening to him attentively.


    "The Vice President is missing. I believe he has gotten some help to escape�� Do you think I can just forgive them easily after their blunder? Do you know the reason why those monsters came to this ce?"


    "Is it because the Vice President wanted��" Ronald suddenly stopped when Theo showed him a picture of a ruinedboratory. There were a few human bodies and something slimy attached to them.


    "This is��" Ronald gasped. After getting Theo''s words two days ago, he instantly followed all the news about Theo. He knew there was something simr to thisboratory in the past. It was the incident involving the Safulli Group.


    It was said that a World ss Monster almost went to Italy to destroy it due to the secret experiment.


    And this experiment might be different, but he knew Theo was trying to say this was the cause of the previous battle.


    "Don''t tell me��" Ronald gritted his teeth. "The reason why the battle happened wasn''t due to the volcano but this? No, the volcano must be the one sending normal monsters at us while those nts, including the World ss Monsters, came because of this experiment."


    Theo didn''t say anything. He only showed theboratory and Ronald misunderstood the entire situation.


    Still, it was good for Theo if Ronald thought this way.


    The government couldn''t be trusted anymore. Seeing how the Vice President could still get away from this infuriated him.


    "Wait. If you have this evidence, why don''t you put it so that everyone can see?" Ronald instantly took back his words when he remembered the stand-off between the government and Theo''s group.


    He realized the government was trying to shut Theo up. They couldn''t allow such a thing to spread because the people would lose trust in them.


    At the same time, the government could im they had found the evidence and prosecuted the Vice President without facing any bacsh.


    In other words, Theo couldn''t make his move because of the government even if he wanted to.


    And the reason why he met him here was��


    Ronald''s expression turned grim. He asked with a face filled with determination. "Do you need me to do anything for you, Sir?"

 Chapter 1792 Leave

    While they were observing the car, which turned out to be not surrounded by fog, they suddenly noticed a change in one of their agents.


    "!!!" The agent was calmly observing the car from afar, but he suddenly felt a presence appearing behind him.


    Before he could even say anything, Theo''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "It seems that all of you are determined to get the evidence from me. To think you would use an innocent person to get it from me."


    "��" The agent''s body shook, but he couldn''t move at all. He was simply too scared since Theo was right behind him. He didn''t know whether Theo would kill him or not if he turned around.


    "Connect it to the one in charge," Theo stated with a cold tone.


    "��" The agent didn''t know whether he should do it or not. But Theo could simply kill him and use it himself.


    Knowing Theo was capable of such a thing, the agent connected him with the rest. At that time, Theo opened his mouth.


    "The government is truly shameless for using an innocent person like him. Isn''t your job to protect the people? Why are you using this person toe and get killed for no reason?"


    The people behind them were startled when they heard Theo''s voice. Still, they had expected this situation, so they regained their calm pretty fast.


    They said, "We''re protecting the people."


    "By sending an innocent person to his death?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. Are you nning to kill an innocent person?"


    "Of course not. However, I''m just afraid that he''ll die after being used by you, the government''s dogs."


    "��" The people who heard that statement clenched their fists. It was unpleasant to their ears, but they couldn''t let out their anger right now since this was the most important phase in their n.


    "I know that guy is unwilling to do all this. If that''s the case, you must have threatened him for whatever reason you can find. Exceptional." Theo pped nonchntly.


    "Please don''t nder us, Mr. Theo."


    "nder, huh? That''s quite surprisinging from you. Should I ask the guy, then?"


    "��"


    Theo shrugged while saying, "Yeah, yeah. So, I''m giving you this option. Leave right now, and I''ll give the evidence to him. One of my people will help him get the evidence and make sure none of you are threatening him.


    "If I do find you following him or threatening him before he reaches that ce, I might be a bit merciless��" Theo smiled.


    The people behind them instantly fell silent, knowing Theo wasn''t ying with them. Theo should have seen through their operation and if he went rampage here, they would face a huge loss.


    At the same time, Theo had told them he assured them of the safety of Ronald and his family until he received the evidence.


    In other words, they could demand the information from him after that. There was no need to sh with Theo here.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo had all the advantages he needed to turn the government upside down. If they could get the evidence right away, they would be able to stop him.


    From the looks of it, Theo nned to give the evidence as long as they allowed Ronald to leave and guaranteed his safety.


    After some consideration, they believed cooperating with Theo was in their best interest.


    It took them five minutes before making a decision.


    "We understand. Our people will leave this area and allow him to drive back to his home without anyone following him. Since you''re sending your people to escort him, we can guarantee your people can''t sense our people because we honor the agreement.


    "However, you should know about the situation in the base. So, I have to propose a time limit. If we can''t get anything before tonight, we might have to do anything necessary to get it�� even if it means angering you."


    "Hmph. You have angered me by putting all these people in my territory."


    "��" They didn''t want to talk about it since it was a different matter.


    In the end, Theo stepped back and said, "You better honor your agreement. Or I might be thoroughly angry."


    After saying those words, Theo disappeared.


    The guy who was threatened by Theo was shaking. He felt tremendous pressure from Theo''s presence alone. It wasn''t that he was scared of Theo. He was afraid of making any move that would end up annoying Theo since no one knew what would happen to him if he pissed Theo.


    Since he had escaped death, the guy let out a long sigh of relief. He felt d he was still alive.


    "So, what should we do, Sir?" The guy asked. "Are we going to follow his words? But we have a lot of people here. There''s no way he can find all of us."


    It was a hard question. On the one hand, they were unwilling to let this go easily. On the other hand, Theo might cause a bigger problem, considering he had all the evidence. If it was rted to the secret facility, the government would certainly be destroyed by the public.


    The people here might be ready to sacrifice their lives, but they had to consider what was going to happen if they thoroughly angered Theo.


    After all, the president previously had asked them to find the Vice President without going to Theo''s territory. If not for the fact they were pushed into the corner, they wouldn''t resort to this scheme.


    After some thought, they made a decision.


    "Retreat."


    All the agents heard themand. Some were unwilling, while some felt relieved. They didn''t want to fight Theo, who had saved the base multiple times after all.


    As soon as the order was given, the agents hurriedly packed their equipment before beginning to leave the area.


    It was a big movement and Theo could sense them just fine.


    He closed his eyes for a moment before waving his hand, opening anotheryer of fog to make his appearance.


    He raised his hand, stopping Rnd.

 Chapter 1793 Decision

    As soon as he stopped, Rnd came out of his car with a dumbfounded expression. He started walking as if he didn''t believe he could meet him.


    "Are you��" His voice was shaking as if he was feeling threatened by the government.


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. Meeting Theo two times would be just a pipe dream for most people. But this time, he managed to see Theo again. He couldn''t help but feel proud and honored.


    "Sir��"


    Theo narrowed his eyes, observing the guy before asking, "Why are you here?"


    "Sir�� Have you forgotten your promise? You told me you would give me the evidence if I were stuck in my investigation." Ronald''s face became pale.


    "Indeed." Theo nodded with a calm face. "And that''s why Ie here personally."


    "That''s��" Ronald looked down while scratching his head. He was embarrassed to ask for it, but he had to do it. "Do you mind if I��"


    Ronald was hesitant, but Theo said, "Sure. I''m not nning to hold onto it anyway. In fact, it will be more credible if I publish it under a journalist. It''ll be more believable.


    "I have two options for you. I''ll let you do the investigation yourself or you can collect all the evidence from me. What will you do?"


    "That''s��" Ronald looked down. The first option was a great opportunity for a reporter. He could record everything for himself and take all the credit. On the other hand, he didn''t know whether the government wanted to take the first one or the second one.


    If he received the evidence right away, he could give it to the government, but there was no guarantee he could live. But if he received the location, he could go there by himself and somehow guarantee his safety for a bit longer.


    After all, Theo stated, "If you choose the former, I''ll dump my evidence on you. If you choose the second one, I have to send you together with someone from my group to make sure you go there alone. I''ll tell him to make sure you go home and publish it so that everyone knows the truth."


    "That''s��" Rnd clenched his fists. Since there was no way the agents could contact him like this, Rnd said, "I''ll choose thetter."


    "A good choice." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "If that''s the case, I''ll tell you about the location. Wait here for a while."


    Theo disappeared, returning to his base.


    Meanwhile, the people behind the operation could still hear their conversation since the car had been equipped with all the tools needed.


    "What should we do now��" Behind the operation were three people.


    "Since we can''t really let out a sound if we don''t want Theo to notice us, we can only go along with him. It seems he''s giving those two options because everything is going ording to his prediction.


    "In that case, why don''t we allow them to go to the designated location? Although we can mobilize the Transcendent Level Experts, it doesn''t change the fact he will send someone of the same level.


    "His people are not that easy to capture. So, it''s better to wait. We have a few trackers in both his body and the car, so we should be able to track their destination."


    After listening to his opinion, the two agreed. It was true that this path would pose the least threat.


    Still, they didn''t know how much Theo knew about their operation. With his brain, he should be aware of their hidden surveince system. But they didn''t know how much Theo was aware of their code.


    "Well, we can only do that. Even if he is aware of the surveince system, we can still deduce the location. In the worst-case scenario, we can go straight to that guy to get the information.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We just have to inform the headquarters to make sure they stop every information that Rnd releases. The public can''t know the current situation or else the government will copse."


    They made their arguments and decided they would stick to their original n, which was to follow him through the tracking system inside the car and the guy''s clothes.


    After a while, Theo returned with Felix.


    "Felix. Your job is to escort him to that location. I''ve told you about it, so you should have no problem finding that ce."


    "Are you not going?" Felix asked.


    "No. I''m not nning to do anything right now, considering the situation is still unstable."


    "I understand. I''ll escort him there."


    "Remember. If you spot someone who belongs to the government, don''t hesitate and eliminate all the threats. I''ll leave the information to you."


    Felix nodded, understanding his role.


    After receiving the order, Felix walked forward and extended his hand, shaking Ronald''s hand. "Nice to meet you, I''m Felix, your guide this time. I''m confident in my strength as well, so don''t be afraid. I''m here to protect you."


    "Y-yes." Ronald nodded furiously.


    "Alright then. You guys can have some fun. When you''re back, notify me immediately."


    "Yes." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo smiled and added to Ronald. "You too. Don''t forget to inform me when you''ve published the news."


    "Yes, Sir." Ronald politely shouted.


    "Good." Theo waved his hand, allowing them to go.


    In that instant, Felix moved to the car, startling Ronald, who still had a hard time adjusting to his body due to the shock.


    "Just go straight," Felix instructed. "I don''t like to be tracked, but if I sense something is wrong, I''m going to drop this task immediately. I''ve got the permission anyway, so make sure you remember it."


    "Yes!" Ronald answered as soon as possible. But this warning was actually directed to the people behind the operation.


    After giving that warning, Ronald finally drove the car, heading straight toward the secret facility.


    Those people didn''t know Theo had visited him first before this transaction. And he already knew what kind of facility was waiting for him.


    Thinking about them made him excited. He knew the Vice President had to pay for what he had done.

 Chapter 1794 Laboratory

    Ronald was driving continuously without rest. Felix offered some help, but Ronald refused since he wanted to settle it with his own hand.


    He knew the government was at fault right now, so he wanted to bring some justice to the wronged people.


    While he was driving, Felix kept looking around to check whether people were following them or not.


    Theo had told him about the tracker, so he believed they wouldn''t go as far as following them.


    At the very least, they knew Ronald wouldn''t destroy the evidence. So, they could simply retrieve it and buy some time from Ronald before they published the evidence first.


    This way, they could justify that Ronald had stolen the evidence.


    They waited patiently as Ronald finally went off the road, indicating they were already close.


    Without hesitation, their teams immediately went on stand by, preparing to retrieve it right after Ronald left the area. They also tried to pinpoint the location by using the tracking device.


    Ronald arrived in a small field covered by dried leaves. It was already spring, so the area was covered by orange leaves.


    After that, Felix immediately worked by utilizing his Magic Power to blow the leaves away. ording to the information, there was a secret entrance in this area, and it didn''t take too long for Felix to find it.


    "This way." Felix waved his hand while pushing the dirt with his control.


    "This is��" Underneath the leaves and dirt hid a small trapdoor. He never expected the entrance would be this visible. But since they were quite far away from the road and nearest building, they could understand it wouldn''t be that easy to find unless they found some clues about its location.


    After opening the trap door, Ronald saw stairs leading to an area fifty feet underground. He hurriedly went down to check the evidence.


    "Hmm?" They immediately found a big hall after descending. The hall was in white and had nothing but a few tools to sanitize themselves.


    Since the equipment didn''t work anymore, Ronald continued with Felix while bringing out his Skylink.


    They stopped at the junction where he had to choose one of the three paths. Though, Ronald was sure he had to go to the right first since his reporter''s instinct was telling him he would get a huge scoop in this area.


    As he expected, there was a huge room waiting for him. When he entered the area, they could see a few humans'' skins. There was no flesh, bone, or anything to fill the inside, just like the skin the monster used to upy their body.


    It would grant them a perfect body that could almost fool everything, but unfortunately, Theo was there to stop them.


    Ronald took a picture of the skin hanging on the rail. It seemed they were drying the skin up.<novelnext></novelnext>


    As long as he could get their information, he might be able to find traces of missing people.


    Felix also gathered the evidence by recording their entire journey.


    "This is�� How can they even research something like this?" Ronald gasped. "Look at these skins�� They don''t seem to be skins madepletely from scratch. Instead, it looks like they were ripped apart from the original person.


    "Don''t tell me�� The Vice President captured the people and skinned them alive? And this facility patched their skins so that those monsters could use them?


    "Just looking at these skins alone, I could see around one hundred skins�� Sir King of Fighters had found more than one hundred people as well.


    "I can''t imagine what would happen if they weren''t found. The operation would continue and their number would increase every day. As a result, we would have an army that was ready to backstab us.


    "When that happens, we won''t know how we fall. No wonder Sir Theo wanted me to publicize everything."


    Ronald gasped and started taking pictures again. There were so many pictures that could be used as a headline. It showed how important each shot was.


    After that, he went in the opposite direction and found a simr ce. But this time, it wasn''t the skin. Instead, it was the slimy red liquid that seemed to be filling the body.


    "This�� Don''t tell me�� The liquid itself is not a monster? Instead, it''s a human? They''re formed by human blood that has been extracted from their bodies. After that, they''re using it to create a living creature like that of a monster?


    "The Vice President is still in custody, so we don''t know if there''s a chance this operation will restart or not. Still, there might be another ce like this that is still operating�� Is the Vice President trying to create a monster? No, if I have to say it, it''s more like the Vice President is trying to find a way to turn a human into a monster.


    "That was why the monsters attacked the base. Then, don''t tell me�� The red liquid we hunted were humans? I don''t know how to say this anymore, but this experiment is pretty screwed."


    After getting all the pictures he wanted, Ronald continued to thest path, which seemed to be an office area as well as their dining area. He didn''t find much about them since he didn''t understand what they were talking about in the papers.


    There was no way for a normal person like Ronald to hack the system as well. So, he could only grab a bunch of papers lying on the ground along with some Skylink that could fit in his arms.


    "Well, I could find some technicians to crack open the Skylink to get all the information."


    Ronald believed this was a treasure chest for a journalist like him. However, all the words he had spoken earlier were transmitted directly to the agents that brought him to Theo''s territory.


    And all of them were stumped, knowing how worse the condition would be if the evidence came out from Ronald instead of them.


    Without saying anything, all of them agreed to make sure they got the evidence and publicized it before Ronald.

 Chapter 1795 Evidence

    After taking all the pictures he wanted, Ronald came out with Felix.


    Felix had his hand on his de as if he nned to draw it at any moment. Unlike Ronald, Felix could feel the numerous gazes set on him.


    The people from the government surrounded them. However, the condition was to let them leave first before they could enter. And if they followed Felix and Ronald, they would incur Theo''s wrath.


    So, they could only stay in their position and wait until Felix and Ronald left the area. Of course, they would be following them but from a far distance due to Felix''s strength.


    "What should we do?" Ronald noticed Felix''s change of expression and asked.


    "Nothing. We have done our job here, so we''ll leave as nned." Felix shook his head calmly, knowing everything was in Theo''s n.


    The government had seen through Theo''s agreement as well. By allowing Ronald to publish the evidence, he wanted to prosecute the Vice President. Even if the government could provide the evidence first, people would think Ronald got the evidence from his connection to the government.


    In other words, they thought Ronald worked together with the government to prosecute the Vice President.


    That was why both Felix and Ronald could walk away safely. There wasn''t any ambush and the Transcendent Level Experts from their side had yet to move.


    As soon as they left, the people hurriedly stormed inside the facility to get all the data. They also had notified all their personnel to be ready to crack open the device, finding everything inside.


    "Team 1. Enter the facility and get all the evidence. Team 2, stall both of them and make sure we can publish them before they can do it. However, don''t harm them or make it too obvious to the point we incur Theo''s wrath. That''s thest thing we want right now. Team 3, ready to process the evidence."


    The government worked extremely fast. They gathered all the essential proof first to show it to the public. They wanted to know that the government had it first.


    Meanwhile, Ronald and Felix didn''t care much about their proof. They just headed straight to Ronald''s house to process the evidence so that they were ready to be published.


    Of course, Felix was going to stay outside, making sure none of them dared to harm Ronald.


    This was the only safe ce for Ronald, considering it was protected by Felix and Ruth. If he wanted to publish his report, it should be here. He might not have all the equipment to make it look good, but it shouldn''t be hard for him to publish something decent.


    "How is it?" asked a guy from the corner of the street, staring at Ronald''s house with binocrs.


    "It''s clear right now. There is no problem for the time being. Even if he can publish it, it''ll take a long time to release. Meanwhile, the team will immediately release everything through the government channel."


    Fortunately, they didn''t find anything weird. It seemed Ronald went back to his family just to make sure they were safe and spent some time with his family after all this.


    After they slept, he began to work on his case.


    In the meantime, the government had been working on the evidence. They captured the same thing as the ones Ronald said. In fact, everything looked exactly like how he described earlier.


    As soon as they had enough evidence that could be publicized, they sent it straight to the President and the staff in the white house to be reviewed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "This is��" The President and the people around him were shocked to see the facility. They never expected that the Vice President had been kidnapping people all around the base.


    If his n seeded, the base might be thoroughly destroyed. And no one would know who the cause was.


    At that time, the Vice President might have escaped somewhere. Or the monsters might have made some promises to him.


    "This��"


    "How do we even tell this to the public?"


    "The people from other influences will be applying some pressure on us as well."


    "Although some people are not insignificant to their influences, some of them were at a high level. So, it would be hard to exin it."


    The President frowned. Although he had been sniffing around, he didn''t expect the scale to be thisrge. He had to prepare some countermeasures as well.


    "Still, it''s better if we reveal this first before that reporter. No matter what, we will have to reveal this to shift the people''s focus." The President stated with a grim expression. They truly had no choice, considering the Vice President had escaped and they had no way to track him.


    "That''s right. The only thing we can do right now is to minimize the damage. It''s impossible to wash our hands from this anymore."


    They seemed to have reached an agreement. Although they were afraid of the public''s reaction, they truly had no choice.


    They started choosing which ones they should reveal first so that they could portray themselves in a good light.


    They might be tired after all the pressure from the citizens, but none of themined, knowing it would be the end of them if they lost here.


    Finally, after a long discussion, they finally prepared everything.


    The President had set up a press conference to answer everything.


    Some of the reporters might be on their side, but in this situation, if they didn''t keep a few who were neutral, the public wouldn''t believe anything they said.


    Hence, the President stood in front of everyone with a serious expression. He stated, "I''m here to exin everything rted to the Vice President, from the reason why we have to reschedule his trial to the extent of the damage the Vice President has done.


    "I''m going to exin everything, so please pay attention to it and get ready with your questions."


    The President raised his hand, asking them to start projecting the images they hadpiled.


    "Please take a look at this."

 Chapter 1796 Real Plan?

    "This is impossible." The reporters gasped in shock. They couldn''t believe what they had seen.


    The President hadid out everything in front of them. It was broadcast on almost all channels so that everyone knew what was happening behind the scenes.


    The President ended his exnation by saying, "I know that everyone is angry at the Vice President''s action. Even I can barely hold back my anger.


    "The monsters that came to the battlefield before must be the ones in cahoot with him.


    "The reason why we acted against Mr. Theodore Griffithst time was due to these pieces of evidence. We''d been sniffing around to check the Vice President.


    "When the volcano erupted, it was a golden opportunity. The monsters would show up with the help of the monsters fleeing from the volcano. However, we weren''t sure whether they would unleash all their strength against us.


    "Hence, we attacked Mr. Theodore Griffith without notifying him. We''d like to apologize to Mr. Theodore Griffith for attacking him so suddenly. If we didn''t do it, we were afraid the enemies wouldn''t unleash all their strength.


    "If you all took a look, you should know the situation. The King of Fighters suddenly appeared on the battlefield instead of helping us take down Mr. Theo''srades.


    "The Time God wasn''t in the capital as well. We were ready for the worst oue to deliver a killing blow to the enemies.


    "Fortunately, everyone could y their parts and finally achieve this victory. As for the Vice President, we would definitely make him pay for everything he had done.


    "That''s why we''d like to ask for your support so that the base can remain strong. We won''t go down as the defeated."


    The President''s words made sense. He made it look like the government didn''t go all-out against Theodore Griffith. If they did, they would have released all their air support and missiles to take Maya down.


    Even the Time God hadn''t been unleashed. So, it seemed the President had been working in secret to achieve this victory.


    The evidence and the President''s speech spread like wildfire. Many of them believed it since they had no ws.


    There were many experts trying to analyze everything but found no major issue. It was a brilliant n, considering Theo had to deal with three World ss Monsters and still won.


    Normally, it would be impossible. Theo might be abnormal, but his strength had yet to reach the Time God''s level, so they were a bit skeptical when Theo managed to stop all of them by himself.


    However, some of them denied the President''s words as well, considering they had rescheduled the Vice President''s trial. They shouldn''t have revealed this information after rescheduling as well, since it looked like they had just gotten the evidence.


    At the same time, they didn''t know how to rebuke the President, since he had done his best for the base.


    He didn''t put Theo down and all the bad rumors about Theo that he had released back then had disappeared. It showed how he didn''t want to do it if not for the circumstances.


    However, all of the people from Theo''s group snorted, knowing the President was lying. They might not be attacking their group''s reputation, but he sure knew how to twist the people''s perception of his action.


    "Tsk. This is annoying. What the hell is wrong with him?" Maya gritted her teeth. "He dared to wreak havoc in mypany, but now they''re going to wash their hands? I''m going to sue them for the damage."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "How are you nning to do that? They can simply refuse to acknowledge it." Ergene shook her head helplessly.


    "What do you think?" Maya harrumphed, ncing at Rea.


    "I''m not sure. I don''t know what the teacher''s n is this time. Though, I know his goal." Rea looked down, contemting. She hadn''t finished her analysis of the evidence.


    Theo was the only person who knew about the evidence and the facility, so she wanted to know the real evidence and everything he had taken from the facility.


    Ne was good at espionage and had done an investigation like this many times. She frowned as if feeling something was missing.


    "Is there something wrong, Ne?" Rea narrowed her eyes as if they thought the same thing.


    "What is his goal?" Ne asked to confirm her guess.


    "I''m not sure about this, but I believe he''s nning to weaken the government as much as possible."


    "!!!" Ne gasped and pointed at the screen. "Now that I think about it, all the evidence they have shown��"


    "What''s wrong?" Maya straightened her back, bing serious.


    "Aren''t you familiar with them, Maya? After all, you have been quarantined together��"


    "Huh?" Maya contemted for a moment before gasping. "Now that I think about it, these experiments lookedpletely identical to what they had found when quarantining us. In other words, there is nothing new, except for the fact it looks like they''re doing it in theb."


    "That''s right." Ne nodded with a serious expression. "Do you think there would be multiple World ss Monstersing just from this?"


    "No. Something doesn''t add up��" Maya gasped.


    "Are you saying there is another facility somewhere? And that facility was the one bringing those monsters here? Now that I think about it, I am also one of the protectors of the world''s condition.


    "All this slimy stuff isn''t enough to bring those monsters in. In other words, Teacher must be hiding another facility�� And he''s nning to strike the government with it." Rea gasped, realizing the real n.


    "I''m assuming he''s nning to weaken the government for one reason." Ne raised her finger. "I''ve been working in espionage for a few years now and I''ve learned how to hide among the people so that we can stay hidden as long as possible��"


    "Don''t tell me." Rea gasped. "The Vice President isn''t the only spy? Is there another spy inside the government? By lowering their credibility, the spy will lose their power to inform those monsters?"


    "Yes. If this is truly the case, there will be something interesting happening soon."

 Chapter 1797 Ultimatum

    "So, the government is not on the bad side this whole time?"


    "We''ve been fooled so that the government can fool the enemy?"


    "You mean the defeated enemies? They died on the battlefield."


    "That''s true."


    "I see. Now that I think about it, everything is going ording to n. The result is the best one, considering the base is safe, Theo''s group is not captured, and the enemy has been defeated."


    "Yeah. But the government has rescheduled the trial."


    "There is also the case with the Star Group."


    "Does that mean they are using the trial to bring out the enemies? But after they''re sure the enemies are gone, they''re rescheduling it while revealing the evidence?"


    "That''s probably the reason. That way, the Vice President can''t escape punishment."


    "Yeah. Even with the bestwyer, it''s impossible for the Vice President to escape."


    "Then, are they going to unseal the Star Group soon? I want to buy a new weapon to fight the monsters."


    The people were brimming with energy, knowing the government was on their side this whole time and everything was just a lie.


    However, many of them still couldn''t believe everything, considering Theo hadn''t responded yet.


    Theo could easily deny everything, but he had to prove the government''s involvement. This wasn''t something Theo could easily get.


    After they restored the public''s faith, the President finally called Theo to fix the situation with him. If he could convince Theo to stop the fight between them, they could continue their days peacefully.


    This time, Theo and Maya sat down together since the one who was affected the most wasn''t Theo. It was Maya. She had to reim herpany.


    The President understood what they wanted bying together.


    The President said, "Theodore Griffith, Maya Hamilton. I know what you''re nning to say��


    "I think it''s better to end the conflict between us. If we continue to sh like this, the base will copse."


    Maya snorted, not respecting the President at all. "Wow, how shameless can you be? While Theo defended the base, you used all your power to capture us.


    "It didn''t stop there. You even sealed mypany and tried to steal my blueprints." Maya shook her head in disappointment.


    The President narrowed his eyes. "Don''t forget that you have built the turrets�� You have threatened national security."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yeah. You shouldn''t have forgotten the fact that a person who is only second to you has be a spy. If not for him, we wouldn''t have to take this measure." Maya red back, not scared of him.


    "The Vice President did it on our back as well. We couldn''t expect the Vice President to betray the base. We would give him the biggest punishment."


    "But you rescheduled his trial."


    Maya kept rebutting his words with a nonchnt tone. Even the President had enough.


    He took a deep breath and turned to Theo. "Theodore Griffith. You and I know that we shouldn''t have a conflict if we want to maintain order in the base. Let''s end the matter here. Even if you deny our evidence, you will only look petty."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head in disappointment. He felt the same disappointment as Maya. He thought the base would try topensate them or something, but it didn''t seem like they would lower their heads.


    Theo let out a long sigh before mumbling, "To be honest, I''m disappointed if this is your stance. First of all, you are trying to control me by using all means. There''s no way the government doesn''t know that my group is my weak spot and I''ll do whatever I can to exact revenge for my group.


    "Yet, there isn''t a single apologying out of your mouth. Then, you should know the scale of Maya''s Star Group. By making her close thepany for a few days, she lost a lot of money, you know.


    "You even have harmed me since I have to deal with your nonsense. Unfortunately, you don''t even offer anypensation. You still believe you are in the right and we''re in the wrong��


    "I have defended the base with everything I have. Ask anyone else if they dare to stop two World ss Monsters�� I''m afraid none of them dare to do it unless it''s worth the risk.


    "You should know that one of the top ten experts from India died because he was besieged by multiple World ss Monsters.


    "You didn''t even send the Time God to fight alongside me�� It seems you want me to die. You''ve forgotten how I''ve saved your ass many times.


    "Unfortunately, the only thing you care about is control. I expect too much from a country that emphasizes ''freedom.'' You''re nothing but a disappointment in my eyes.


    "That''s why I''m not going to argue with you. I only have one thing to say. If you don''t set everything straight and let everyone know the truth of what has happened during that battle, then I''m going to make my move.


    "It''s almost night�� You don''t have much time since I don''t like sleeping with a lot of thoughts in my mind. And don''t forget topensate Maya. If I don''t find anything satisfactory, then I''m not going to stand down."


    The President was startled when Theo set an ultimatum. He panicked at first because Theo might start doing something to reverse the situation. But he and his people had thought a lot about the press conference.


    They had set up the evidence and the words to minimize the damage. Even if Theo could turn it around, the damage would only be slightly bigger. They wouldn''t lose all their credibility.


    However, Theo had personally given his words. He couldn''t just brush it off without putting too much thought.


    Although he was tired after dealing with all this, he gathered his people again to discuss what they should do next.


    If they lowered their head this time, Theo would take advantage of it and try to gain control over them. But if they didn''t agree with Theo, they had to prepare everything since Theo was unpredictable.


    And that night, a decision was made.

 Chapter 1798 Real Proof

    "They don''t give us any answer," said Maya with a serious expression. "It seems that we''re going to weaken the government this time."


    "Yeah. At first, I thought about giving them a chance. If we mended the rtionship, we could make the spy send out false information by taking advantage of the government. But��" Theo sighed helplessly.


    "But this time, the government doesn''t want to cooperate with us. If they lower their head, they might get weakened a bit, but they''ll still be pretty strong, considering we''re not going against each other. But since they''re nning to do it this way, we should weaken the government as much as possible so that the spy can''t know much about our n." Maya nodded in agreement.


    "Yeah." Theo nodded before ncing to the side, "Rea. Tell Felix to start."


    "Understood." Rea immediately called Felix to tell Ronald to begin.


    As soon as he received the sign from Felix, Ronald''s eyes shed. This was the time for him to show everyone what truly had happened.


    Without hesitation, Ronald published all the news he hadpiled, shaking the base by storm.


    With the influence of hispany and his rtion, the news spread like wildfire. Everyone was curious about what was going on. After all, the news that Rnd published was different from the government.


    "This is��"


    "There is a second version?"


    "Don''t you think it''s just a conspiracy theory?"


    "But this one told us the information came directly from Theodore Griffith."


    "What?"


    The images that flooded the Sk were actually the tubes that merged the red slimy stuff and a human''s body. One human had his body buffed as if he had worked out for years.


    But the human next to it had a deformed body. Half of his face was destroyed and the slimy stuff came out of his fingers and eyes.


    It was horrifying and some had to be even censored because they were in a more serious situation. However, there was a description of those people.


    They didn''t stop there. Ronald also published the names of the people who had died because of this experiment, including special information regarding the experiment data.


    "!!!"


    "This is��"


    "Isn''t this the same experiment they conducted in Italy? Researching the monsters is still understandable, considering we have to acquire extensive knowledge of monsters if we want to survive. But merging it to one body, especially when it reaches that situation��"


    The people gulped down, realizing this wasn''t ordinary information.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It seemed Theo was nning to reveal everything that couldn''t be revealed. However, those who were more skeptical about the information chose to study the pictures and all the facts stated on the news.


    And there was one statement from Rnd himself.


    "I am the author of the news. As you may know, I was the guy on the video. After going to Sir Theodore Griffith to talk about the evidence, he told me about the real truth of the situation.


    "These pictures came directly from Sir Theodore Griffith. I''m simply his messenger. The information the government provided waspletely wrong. If you took another look at it, all the information was simr to the ones published not long ago about the red slime.


    "Yes, I can undoubtedly say they''re using the quarantine''s information to fool everyone. This ispletely unrted to the battle we faced not long ago.


    "The information they provided only reached the level of destroying the spies, while the proof I provided was the cause of the previous battle.


    "As you already know, the experiment this time is simr to the one in Italy not long ago. And Sir Theo knows it will cause the monsters toe, thus bing the reason for his participation in the battle.


    "He already knows the Vice President is the spy, but unfortunately, he''s not the only one. That''s why Sir Theodore Griffith chose to act separately from the government. He knew the spy would ry the information if he worked together with the government.


    "This was the reason why he built the turrets. He wanted to use it in an emergency so that it could provide him with some backup that even the monsters couldn''t expect.


    "And the government tried to take his group down in order to make him submit by threatening him with hostages as well as the aircraft made by the Star Group. I don''t have extensive proof regarding this matter, so I have to break the vow as a journalist and say this, ''If you want to believe it, do it. If you don''t want to believe it, no one will stop you.''


    "I''m here, as the representative of Sir Theodore Griffith, to let everyone know the real truth."


    The moment the facts had been released, it took the base by storm. On the one hand, the facts were vastly different from the government, which they trusted. On the other hand, they couldn''t believe this information since it also made sense.


    They knew the information from the government wasn''t enough to bring those monsters, especially the World ss Monsters. Only the proof Theo provided could.


    That was why their opinions split. The people thought the government was still hiding some of the information because they couldn''t publish it and lost the trust of the citizens. But some people believed in Theo since he had saved them so many times.


    There was a war between the people who believed in the government and the people who wanted justice for Theo on Sk.


    However, there was one memorable thing from Rnd''s news. It was hisst statement at the end of the page.


    "Theo demands them to hold the Vice President''s trial tomorrow if the government dares to see who is wrong and who is right. The Vice President has been caught, so it''s better to hold the trial as soon as possible��"


    This statement shocked everyone to the core because Theo was implying the government was still protecting the Vice President.


    They didn''t know the government couldn''t do it because the Vice President was missing.

 Chapter 1799 Theos Real Aim

    The President instantly assembled his staff again to discuss this matter. He thought Theo couldn''t destroy their facts again, but it seemed they had underestimated Theo.


    The proof he provided wasn''t something that he could acquire from theboratory.


    "So, give me an idea." The President asked with a grim expression. The public had gone crazy after this sudden change. They thought the government had been silencing Theo this whole time. That was why he hadn''t replied to the government''s im yet.


    And it seemed they were right after seeing the news.


    People were a bit skeptical since it came from Ronald. But Ronald had also built up his credibility over two decades. People knew he was trustworthy. That was why the opinions could split.


    And to deliver thest blow, Theo had also tagged Ronald in the Sk, saying, "Good job."


    In that instant, the people went crazy. And it became their problem again.


    "This is��" His staff couldn''t believe the situation turned out this way. They had discussed their stance against Theo.


    One man couldn''t be above the country. That was what they believed. Hence, they didn''t answer Theo''s requests because they believed they could do anything now with the proof.


    But with this sudden change of information, they were perplexed.


    Of course, there was one solution to this answer. They could think of it right away.


    "How about we invite a few reporters to document theboratory themselves? This way, we can show that the proof this journalist provided is wrong. We can regain our credibility."


    They had already thought about it and became annoyed since someone had to say it. But they really couldn''t think of another solution besides this.


    "Hmm��" The President narrowed his eyes and asked the others. "Is there another suggestion?"


    Suddenly, one of them raised his hand. With an unsure face, he said, "This is not a suggestion but an objection to the n. What if the ce he provided was actually a different one?"


    "Huh? A different one?" The President frowned. "What do you mean? Exin it in detail."


    "Yes." The guy nodded. "Since Theodore Griffith was the one finding the facility, he might dig another ce and build another facility to fool us. In other words, the core information was still with him and that other facility, while the ones he gave us were just a part of them, which he deemed unimportant. As the journalist stated, it was something that would exin the incident in the Academy Event."


    When they heard his statement, they looked down, contemting. They couldn''t help but agree with what he said.


    Theo was strong enough to build another facility like that from scratch, especially with the help of Maya.


    "!!!" One guy suddenly came to a realization after remembering Maya. "Now that I think about it�� we don''t know how long Theo has been aware of this facility.


    "For example, if he''s already aware since a few months ago, that can exin why he managed to build those four turrets. He had prepared for the iing battle.


    "Then, with how the Star Group managed to build those four turrets, we could understand how he created that underground facility. In other words, he knew we would being for the evidence�� No, the reason why he told the journalist about the evidence must be because he knew we would threaten the journalist to get the evidence.


    "That way, we would get and publicize the fake proof�� No, it''s not fake proof. Instead, it''s an iplete proof."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "!!!" The people shuddered because they agreed with what he said. In other words, they had been ying in Theo''s hands this whole time.


    "Doesn''t that mean he wanted us to attack him during the battle? That way, we wouldn''t be able to deal with this problem and get weakened severely��"


    The people gasped, seeing through Theo''s n. How could they not think about this? Theo''s real n wasn''t to mess with the government or even destroy them. He only wanted to weaken them.


    By destroying them, Theo would be seen as a tyrant and the people would begin to protest about his reign. There was no way a monarchy could be established in this ce.


    That was why by severely weakening them, he could take control of the government from the shadows.


    "No way. This is his n? By giving us a portion of the truth, Theo managed to show that he was superior and we were just trying to suppress him. It wasn''t enough to destroy us, but our voice wouldn''t be heard easily by the citizens because they knew we would be hiding something." The woman sucked a cold breath. She realized how scary it was to be Theo''s opponent.


    "How in the world is it possible for him toe up with such a deliberate n?"


    "No. You could say�� he has been preparing for it this whole time. And the moment everything aligned, he began his n."


    "And now we''re trapped��"


    "Then, what? Are we going to say Theo is the mastermind? That will just show us we''re weak."


    "We can''t ept the demand regarding the Vice President as well."


    "Does that mean Theodore Griffith kidnapped the Vice President?"


    "But he was on the battlefield this whole time��"


    "Is there any trace in his cell?"


    "��"


    The room fell into silence. Their expressions darkened, having no good things in sight. They simply couldn''t use anything to turn around the situation.


    "What do we have to do now?"


    "Should we just publish what we have?"


    "We can invite some reporters to show them theboratory and deny the proof from Theo. It won''t be enough to turn around the situation, but it should be enough to buy some time.


    "During that time, we should strike him with the help of the Time God and somehow acquire the Vice President. Only the Vice President could turn around the situation. As long as we could get him, we could force him to admit everything that would weaken Theo''s opinion."


    "In other words, we have to sh with Theodore Griffith. This time, it''s an all-out war."


    The atmosphere became cold as they realized what it meant to start a war against Theo.

 Chapter 1800 Worries

    "It seems they''re nning an all-out war��" Agata looked at the sky. Standing next to her was Theo.


    They were trying to get some fresh air after the heavy discussion. They knew the matter wouldn''t stop for some time.


    After all, they had made the government their enemy this time.


    "Are you worried?" Theo put on a gentle smile as ifforting her.


    Agata gently buried her head in his chest. "No. I''m not worried about this matter. I''m more concerned about your next opponent. You aren''t confident about defeating that monster, right?"


    "I''m afraid so�� I don''t know how strong the monster is right now."


    "What''s about your clone?"


    "Nothing. I haven''t received anything yet. It seems that the monster is hiding somewhere. I am stuck in one random ce right now."


    Agata sighed. "Do you think you can reach that rank before the battle?"


    "��" Theo closed his eyes with a concerned face. "I''m afraid I can''t��"


    "I see." Agata sighed. "The enemies this time will be your grandfather, your real body, the Fist Saint, as well as the monster that could defeat multiple enemies of the same level. If the monster is still a Mythical Rank Expert, we still have some chances.


    "After all, you have gathered your allies." Agata smiled. "You can be counted as two. Then we still have the Mafia Queen. There are also Sword Saint and Heavenly Sovereign.


    "The Sword Saint can handle your grandfather while you settle your business with your real body. The Heavenly Sovereign, the Mafia Queen, and you could stop the monster until you killed your real body.


    "With five Saints, there should be a way to defeat this slime." Agata looked at Theo, hoping everything went ording to his n.


    "Yeah. However, at that time, I saw the slime that was still a King defeating four King ss Monsters�� I don''t know if five are enough.


    "With this situation, the Daemon, the Time God, and the Ice Witch couldn''t move since they had to protect the base while the others fought these monsters. We don''t know whether the slime has expanded its influences to all around the world or not." Theo added in agreement.


    "Well, if it can''t be used, you should have another way, right? Isn''t that the reason why you cultivate your thirdw?"


    Theo raised his hand and looked at his palm. There were three light balls on top of his palm.


    "First Law, the Law of Duplication. I can imitate everything I have seen bybining all sorts of abilities in my repertoire.


    "Second Law, the Law of Conversion. I can change everything ording to my wish. But everything in nature has been produced by its order and something even more basic, the origin itself. With thisw, I have to rewrite their own order, so it requires a lot of Magic Power and Energy.


    "Last but not least, my Third Law, the Law of Inversion. I can reverse everything around me. Inverting the reality itself and turning the slime into an illusion before removing its very existence.


    "That vision told me it was impossible to seal the slime. We had to kill it or even remove itpletely to end everything.


    "But�� the inversion is more severepared to the conversion. If I''m turning reality into an illusion, the entire reality will be affected. That''s why the energy, control, and Magic Power required to remove the slime�� is not something I possess��" Theo sighed.


    Agata frowned. "But you have gained another ally, right? There is Ava and the Lightning Saint."


    "Ava, Rea, Felix, and Ruth can help me stop the King ss Monsters on their side. Even my grandfather mighte here to help with thest battle. But I can''t say for sure��" Theo sighed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "That''s true��" Agata closed her eyes, just enjoying this moment alone. "Theo��"


    "Hmm?"


    Agata wanted to say something, but she hesitated at thest moment before shaking her head. "Never mind."


    Theo already knew what Agata wanted to say. That was why he stated, "The fight this time can''t be avoided. If I didn''t fight, the enemies would destroy the entire world, including you."


    "Haha, this is truly ironic. Do you remember what you said before you got the God of Mischief''s blessing?"


    Theo had shared this story with her. He couldn''t help but remember that he wanted to destroy the world. He wanted to reset the world so that humans wouldn''t be idiotic, greedy, and pathetic anymore.


    If he allowed the slime to destroy the world, it meant he would have fulfilled the promise to the God of Mischief.


    "That''s right. Resetting humanity is something I n to do��"


    "Hmm? You''re still nning to do it?"


    "Yeah. But there is another way to do it."


    "And what is that?"


    Theo shook his head. "I''m not going to tell you right now. However, that''s the only thing I can do after our marriage."


    "Our marriage��" Agata''s body shook. The fact Theo still said after their marriage meant he hadn''t given up. He was nning to defeat the monster and lead a peaceful life with her.


    She couldn''t help but recall what Theo had told her back then.


    "Agata�� Due to the nature of my power, I have lost the ability to lie. Basically, if I lie, I''ll lose my power. That''s why I will say this to you. I never lied and will never lie to you and anyone else. If I told you I could do it, please trust me."


    Agata couldn''t help but smile. If he said he would do it after marriage, it meant he would defeat the enemy and marry her.


    Agata hugged him tightly and said, "Please win."


    Theo smiled and stroked her hair. "Of course. But before that, we have an opponent to face��"


    "The government��" Agata nodded with a serious expression. "Will the Time Gode?"


    "Yeah. But don''t worry, we won''t be shing."


    "Is that so?"


    "I guess this sh will buy you some time."


    "Yeah. That''s my n. Although I don''t have any confidence in reaching Singrity Rank before the final battle, I should be close to level 1,000." Theo nodded. "That''s why I''m going to y with the government a bit."

 Chapter 1801 Began

    "We are going to open the facility to the public so that everyone could witness what was inside the facility. This way, there wouldn''t be any misinformation among you." The government had given their stance.


    By allowing some journalists to cover the entire facility, they would be able to prove their evidence was the correct one. On the other hand, it also allowed them to strike back at Ronald by showing his evidence was fake.


    The people began to talk about the facility, wondering whether the government was right or wrong.


    This was the battle between the government and Theo. Both of them were big figures, so they didn''t know which one was right. Both could be right as well.


    But since the government was going to open the facility they found to the public, they would gain a lot of credibility.


    On the other hand, Theo would lose some the longer he waited to open the facility he found to the public. And if he dared to do it, the government was nning to sabotage his evidence.


    Theo might be able to do something against them, but the Time God had personally made his move this time by protecting the facility.


    "Are you sure you will be alright with this?" The President asked the Time God over the Skylink.


    "Yeah. I have checked the area and found no one that can threaten the security." The Time God nodded with a calm expression as if he couldn''t be bothered by all this. He didn''t want to do it, but since the President had asked personally, he had to do it.


    "Then, that''s good. Make sure no one can destroy our evidence. I''ll do the rest." The President hung up with a grim expression. He was ready to challenge Theo.


    On the other hand, Theo hadn''t made his move just yet as if the government didn''t pose a threat to him.


    As expected, the people were talking about Theo''s stances since he hadn''t done anything yet.


    "So, is Theo lying to us?"


    "Are you saying he has fabricated the evidence?"


    "I don''t say that, but he hasn''t rified anything. The government has opened it to the media so that everyone can see the process."


    The journalists from all around the base had gathered near the location to find the ssified information.


    They somehow trusted the government more in this situation. However, their opinion soon changed when Theo made his move.


    Of course, Theo didn''t personally make his move this time. Instead, Rnd gathered a group of reporters by himself.


    Meanwhile, Theo was standing on top of a tower, looking at the entire town. As expected, the government had stationed some agents to watch him.


    "Let''s begin the show." Theo opened his Skylink and called a few people. They were Rea, Maya, and Rnd.


    "I''ve been waiting for this." Maya smiled and snapped her fingers, getting started with her work.


    "Understood." Rea nodded with a serious expression. She closed her Skylink and turned around, staring at Theo''s past ally, the beggar association.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Andst but not least, Rnd. He was ying a vital role today, since he might have to sh with the government. But Theo had asked Ruth to protect his family while Felix stayed by his side, so Rnd had nothing to fear anymore.


    "I won''t disappoint you, Sir." Rnd hung up and came out of his house, meeting his friends.


    Rea and Maya might be able to escape from the government''s eyes, but Rnd couldn''t. As soon as he left the house, the agents stationed near his house informed the headquarters. "The target has moved."


    In that instant, the atmosphere in the white house turned cold. All of them had to put their focus on this matter, knowing how big of a threat Theo was.


    They immediately followed Rnd to see what they were up to. They couldn''t get anything from his Skylink earlier due to Akbar and Millie''s interference. Hence, they could only do it this way.


    "So, where is he going? We''re lucky that he''s still using the same car. We can track him from afar." The agent said while driving.


    "Yeah. We''ll follow him at a certain distance so that we won''t be hit by that assassin."


    While those two talked, they didn''t realize there was one person who had been locking them with her bow.


    Yes, Ruth had been aiming her bow at them. After they began to move, Ruth released her invisible arrow.


    "Hmm?!" The two agents didn''t realize anything. Their levels werepletely on a whole different level since they were only Supreme Rank Experts while Ruth was a Transcendent Level Expert.


    *Bam!*


    Suddenly, their car was hit from the side,unching the car into the air.


    Panic soon filled the area. People were screaming. Some wanted to know what happened, while some already ran away.


    They were looking at the car that was thrown straight into a wall. The car was destroyed and the wall was crushed, but the building was fine and there were no casualties, including the agents.


    Those two agents came out of the car, confused.


    "What happened?" One of them asked while looking around. The other one checked the car''s condition and realized they had been targeted this whole time.


    "No way. Look at that dent... this is clearly the work of the Phantom Archer. She has an invisible arrow, but how can it be this powerful?"


    The two panicked while trying to find Ruth since they might be assassinated after this. At the same time, they had been reporting to the headquarters to get back up. They needed to follow Rnd, who had changed his car somewhere.


    And this Rnd drove it straight to the meeting spot.


    There were a total of fifteen people that Rnd invited to be his guests. Not all of them came from traditional mediapanies. There were some streamers who would show everything live.


    Rnd smiled and greeted them. "Hello everyone. Thank you for sparing some of your time to hear me out. Since the government is most likely following us to sabotage our evidence, let''s not wait any longer and follow me. I''ll show you the ''REAL''boratory."

 Chapter 1802 News That Shocked The World

    "What''s the situation?" The President asked with a serious expression. He noticed the change in the monitor and wanted to know what had happened.


    "Our agents are hit. We have confirmed the Light Assassin and the Phantom Archer. We haven''t found any trace of Maya Hamilton."


    "Then, how''s about the Sword Saint''s daughter?"


    "We haven''t found her as well. However, we are assuming she will y a part in this matter, considering she is one of the Transcendent Level Experts on their side."


    "Hurry up and find them. We also have to worry about the Griffith Family and Agata Mota. If we can capture one of his people, we can get anything we want."


    "But how do we even get them?"


    They had dispatched a lot of people, but Theo''s strategy had surpassed that of a War Saint. It wouldn''t be easy to capture his people as long as Theo was still inmand.


    That was why they approached this very carefully, like the Time God protecting the evidence.


    However, they soon faced another challenge when Maya resurfaced. While they were talking about the facility, Maya hit the news by giving a big surprise to everyone.


    "Maya Hamilton is nning to open an airline in three months'' time after perfecting the airne."


    This was a major announcement, considering everyone knew how important the airline was at this time.


    If the airline was truly open to the public, the top ten experts could go all around the world to help the base in need. Normal soldiers could also follow them, while businessmen could open their businesses all around the world again.


    In other words, their progress would speed up. There would be a lot of agreement made between the three bases.


    "What? We can travel to another base again?"


    "My wife was teleported to the union and settled down for the time being. But if I could fly her back here, that would be perfect."


    "Everyone wanted to fly, especially since the airne had sessfully carried Theodore Griffith multiple times. It seemed we could trust them."


    While they were talking about the airline, Maya shocked them with a video.


    In the video, there was a Supreme Rank Monster trying to break free from the cage located only one hundred feet from the airne. Everyone could see the fierceness of the monster.


    And when it was released, the monster instantly jumped toward the airne, trying to destroy it. The stomped ground cracked, showing the strength of the monster.


    But the moment the monster struck the airne, it formed a barrier.


    *Bam!*


    The barrierpletely protected the airne, including from the shock wave of that attack. The monster was confused and used all its strength to destroy it but to no avail.


    Everyone was stunned because they could see how the airne''s safety wasn''t their concern anymore.<novelnext></novelnext>


    At the end of the video, Maya gave an exnation of the technology.


    "After giving the design to Theo, he has made some adjustments regarding its safety. The result is that barrier. Humans can pass through it, but monsters can''t. The barrier will stop an attack from Mythical Rank Monsters a few times. During that time, the airne can fight back just to get away from the monsters.


    "Of course, I can''t tell you it''spletely safe, but I can assure you this barrier will be able to hold on for a while, reducing the danger.


    "I don''t know if what he said is true or not, but he told me that the barrier had been toned down due to the size of the airne. If he utilized the true power of that barrier, it could even withstand an attack from a World ss Monster.


    "And with the engine that ourpany has developed, you''ll rarely encounter monsters. In the next three months, we''re going to test the airne''s effectiveness before opening it formercial use."


    The people in the US Base were stunned, the whole world was shocked. Theo had be a pioneer in almost everything. He was the one giving the concept of the current three bases they utilized right now. He also had the ability to upgrade people''s skill ranks.


    And this time, Theo shocked them with a barrier that could protect them from Mythical Rank Monsters. It was truly ridiculous.


    However, Maya stated clearly that she didn''t know what Theo did to the airne to form that barrier. This meant if they wanted to know the secret, they would have to ask Theo personally.


    Even if Maya was forced to split herpany because of the monopolyw, they would only get her blueprints, not Theo''s barrier. There was no way they could get the entire airne from Maya directly.


    "Damn. We can travel again?"


    "In the current world, we can still go to other bases?"


    "I know it''s going to be expensive, but a lot of people will surely line up if they can fly to other bases."


    "True. This is going to be a life changer. Even if they can get her blueprints, there''s no way they can receive the same protection from Theodore Griffith."


    "Damn. This is too good to be true. I''m looking forward to the test in the next three months."


    The people were excited. They almost forgot about theboratory and the Vice President''s incident.


    However, the white house had apletely different atmosphere. It was surely great for the world, but it also meant Theo would be even stronger in people''s minds.


    "Kh. They''re releasing that information right now?" The President gritted his teeth. "Are they trying to overwrite the news?"


    "No, I''m afraid they''re just going to make a stronger image about Theo. This way, the evidence Theo provided would have more impact in their heart."


    "We have to capture Maya right away and get the design and the airne. We have to know the secret of that protection."


    "Do we even know the ne''s location?"


    The people were silent. They wanted to give a suggestion, but they were confused as to what Theo nned to do next.


    And this was when Rea began to move with the beggar association.

 Chapter 1803 Killing Blow

    "I''ll be looking forward to our cooperation." Rea smiled, shaking hands with the beggar association''s leader, Felipe.


    Felipe smiled. "No, the pleasure is mine. We''re grateful that Theo wants to work together with us again. In fact, we have been waiting when we''re getting called."


    Rea nodded. "In that case, please spread the rumors."


    "Don''t worry. We might have gotten weaker a bit after the apocalypse, but it doesn''t change the fact that we''re the best in this field. We''ll make the people believe that the Vice President has gone missing, thus the reason for the reschedule."


    "Alright. I''ll leave it to you."


    "Yeah. Though, I have one question." Felipe paused for a moment as his expression turned serious. "The Vice President�� is not in your hand, right?"


    ? "No. He is not with us. That is something we can assure you�� As for the Vice President''s current location, even we don''t know about it."


    "I see. In that case, I don''t have any hesitation anymore." Felipe smiled.


    After reaching an agreement, Felipe ordered his people to spread the rumors of the Vice President''s disappearance.


    As expected of the best espionage group in the US Base, the beggar association, they spread the rumors across the entire base without being tracked by the government.


    No, even if they were tracked by them, the government had no ability to stop them due to their numbers.


    White House.


    "Damn!" They had received the news about the rumor. And people began to talk about it.


    This time, the people''s opinions began to mix. There were people praising Maya for the new invention and Theo for the protection. There were people questioning the evidence since they were talking about it not long ago. Some wanted to know about the Vice President''s situation.


    "Those beggars. How dare they join him?" The President mmed the table, gritting his teeth.


    He wanted to chase them out right away, but he realized with the help of the Mafia Queen and the Griffith Family, Theo might be able to create the best organization that kept the government in check.


    Instead of throwing the beggars away, they had to find a way to separate them from Theo and hold them so that they could help the government fend off Theo and the Mafia Queen.


    They didn''t realize Theo had a lot of weapons to fight against them. They thought the evidence was the only thing Theo relied on to attack them, but it seemed he had prepared for this.


    "What should we do then?"


    "We have to suppress the news about the airne for now�� At least, until the current situation regarding the evidence is over."


    "That''s right. We should also stop the beggar association. It''s impossible to stop them, but we can try to negotiate with them."


    "But we can''t give them too much. What if they''re trying to take advantage of this situation to bleed us?"


    "We will lose our credibility and influence if we lose this fight against Theo. And the beggar association is one of the biggest cards he has right now. No matter the price, we have to make the association remain neutral."<novelnext></novelnext>


    They were arguing about their next moves, considering Theo revealed his cards in rapid session. He left them no time to react.


    They had decided to put pressure on the mediapanies to stop publicizing the airne''s matter. However, no matter how hard they tried to suppress the news, the demonstration video spread among the people. Even without the media anymore, they still could get it from Sk.


    At the same time, they sent a representative to negotiate with Felipe, who had no intention of working with the government. After all, Rea had convinced him that Theo would win and the government would lose its power. So, it was better to stay on the winner''s side.


    The government waspletely overwhelmed by Theo''s moves.


    Unfortunately for the government, Theo was merciless. Since he was determined to weaken them, Theo gave them a killing blow.


    On top of theboratory, the Time God was maintaining the security of theboratory. He couldn''t help but look at the book, finding the result of this sh.


    "The government will be severely weakened due to Theo''s influence."


    There wasn''t much detail about the sh. But it was clear that Theo would win in this battle. The only reason he stood here was to see whether it would change the future or not.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t seem to change at all.


    While thinking about the possibility of Theo''s attacks, he suddenly felt a fluctuation of Magic Power, not from a person, but from the ground.


    "Huh? This Magic Power�� Authority?!" The Time God gasped and hurriedly turned around, staring at theboratory. He hurriedly waved his hand and froze the time around theboratory. "Oh fuck!"


    The supervisor noticed him and asked, "Sir Time God. Is there something wrong?"


    The Time God didn''t answer him. Instead, he walked toward the Magic Power fluctuation and dug the soil with his hands.


    The supervisor didn''t know whether to help him or not, but the Time God soon stopped digging after finding a golden circle underneath the ground.


    It was at this moment he knew he fucked up.


    "Shit. We''ve been had."


    "This�� What is this circle, Sir?"


    The Time God shook his head helplessly and removed his ability, allowing the circle to release its Magic Power for a few more seconds. After the Magic Power subsided, the mark disappeared without a trace.


    A few seconds after the mark disappeared, someone came out of the ground and shouted in panic, "Please help us. We don''t know what happened, but all the evidence has vanished without a trace."


    "What?" The supervisor gasped before his face became pale. "This��"


    The Time God sighed. "This is the mark Theodore Griffith could use to establish an illusion that will look real by a stable input of Magic Power. Even I wouldn''t be able to feel it when it''s working normally."


    "And that mark has just gone�� along with the evidence��" The supervisor raised his eyebrows as his body shuddered,ing to a realization.

 Chapter 1804 Panic

    "This is��" Everyone was confused. The people underground thought there was something wrong, considering everything disappeared without any trace.


    Meanwhile, the others thought someone sabotaged them since it would be impossible for all the traces to disappear right before their eyes.


    But with the Time God protecting them, there should be no one who could use their power.


    However, the Time God obviously knew about the Covenant Seal. He realized what had happened.


    It turned out Theo dug the underground base before applying his Covenant Seal. He used the same technique as the one that created his territory.


    There was no way the Time God would have noticed. And by the time he erased it, it was toote.


    The Time God could freeze the entire area to stop the Covenant Seal from disappearing, but it also meant the people inside the ground were frozen in time. And the government couldn''t act against Theo without those journalists.


    So, he had no choice but to let the time flow like normal again even if it meant the evidence disappearedpletely.


    And the supervisor who knew what happened from the Time God became pale. He never thought such a situation would ur during his mission.


    More importantly, the journalists that were inside theboratory earlier hade out, demanding an exnation.


    "What do you mean by this?"


    "Are you sure you''re not lying to us?"


    "You said you allow us to get the evidence."


    The people were angry. The government had paid a lot to bring them here. They agreed they would paint Theo in a bad way if the government could show the evidence to them.


    However, looking at this situation, it didn''t seem the government could maintain their public image anymore.


    "Wait a minute. We also didn''t know about this." The supervisor tried to stop him. He had to think about this carefully.


    On the one hand, if he told them about Theo''s interference like what the Time God said. They would doubt the government''s power. After all, they had a lot of personnel unlike Theo.


    On the other hand, if he didn''t say anything, the journalists would destroy their reputations. And with this, the battle would be sealed.


    "We''re confused as well. Right now, the Time God will be conducting an investigation to understand what''s happening right now." The supervisor decided to use the Time God to buy some time.


    Meanwhile, he ran away, nning to inform the higher-ups regarding this incident.


    Unfortunately for him, the only thing he got from them was their anger.


    "What did you say?"


    "Do you know what you''re saying right now?"


    The supervisor didn''t know what to say as well. After all, the one who confirmed it was the Time God. "But the Time God said there is no more proof after that."


    "You can take a picture of that symbol first before it disappears! We can im it''s the work of Theodore Griffith!"


    "But the symbol was almost gone by the time we noticed. There was only a trace of light that couldn''t be traced back to the original symbol, so��"


    The supervisor was trying to exin the situation. He was truly helpless. Besides, before he could even say anything, the Time God had released his power, allowing the mark to disappear.


    With this, they had no proof to attack Theo.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The government waspletely in a bind. They didn''t know how to deal with this situation.


    They couldn''t really me Theo when there was no proof. Throwing a baseless usation would simply destroy their image.


    But even without saying anything, those journalists would devastate them.


    "What should we do? Argghhhh!" The President pinched the bridge of his nose before mming the table in anger. He truly didn''t know what to do in this situation.


    And before they could discuss the situation, there was a call from Theo, specifically from the supervisor that was observing Theo''s territory.


    "Sir. We''ve got a contact from Theo. He''s demanding us to pull our troops back."


    "What?"


    The people were shocked. With the fact Theo had made his appearance near his territory, they should be able to focus on Rnd. However, they were still searching for Theo''s clone, who had yet to make his appearance even in the previous battle.


    They were wondering what Theo was nning to do with his clone.


    "What should we do?" The supervisor asked, not daring to go against Theo.


    The President was ring at his staff, asking for their opinion. Unfortunately, none of them could give him any answer.


    "How about we try negotiating with him again?"


    There was only one suggestion, but they doubted it would work, considering they had been the ones pushing Theo away.


    However, they were out of options.


    "We should negotiate with him to buy some time for our team to stop those journalists from his side. If we can''t publish something good, he also can''t."


    "But they have the Light Assassin and Phantom Archer protecting them. We need our own Transcendent Level Experts too. But because of the recent matter, the King of Fighters is reluctant to move together with us."


    "Then, we should send the other two."


    "We should know the Sword Saint''s daughter hasn''t made her appearance. If those three fight against our two, we will be wiped out. The Time God can''t make his move as well, since there is a distance between them."


    "We''ve been had."


    "Theodore Griffith has set up this trap and made sure it''s a bit far away from each other, so the Time God can''t reach that ce in an instant."


    "Kh. We should call Theo first to stall him."


    "But his clone��"


    "If we''re assuming everything right now, we''ll be toote. He has been striking us in rapid session, so we have to fight back at the same speed or we will lose!"


    The entire room became busy right away. They came up with another n while the President called Theo to negotiate.


    It didn''t take too long for Theo to ept the call, albeit he only had one thing to say before hanging up.


    "I''d given you a chance to negotiate, but you threw it away."

 Chapter 1805 Conversation

    "It seems that your boss wants you to die." Theo looked at the agent before him.


    The agent''s body shook, albeit his mind suddenly became nk as Theo put him under an illusion before killing him. That was thest mercy he could give to an innocent agent who only followed orders.


    As soon as he killed the first one, he moved toward the second one, nning to sweep the entire city clean. Even if some of them survived, they could do nothing to him.


    Meanwhile, the government tried to kidnap the journalists Ronald brought. Their meeting was unofficial, so they should be able to capture them even if they had to sacrifice a few people to stop Felix and Ruth.


    Their two Transcendent Experts had been dispatched as well while the Time God couldn''t move, thinking there was Theo''s clone beside him.


    Felix looked at the clock and said to Ronald. "The government has begun to move. We''re going to speed up to throw them off. And we don''t have much time since we''re going to be besieged."


    Ronald gulped down, remembering what Theo had said during their private meeting.


    "I''ve got a n." Theo smiled at that time as if he was confident in fighting the government. He took out a Skylink and handed it to him. "You should take this."


    "This is��" Ronald was confused for a moment before realizing what this was about. "Are you��"


    "That''s the real evidence. I''ll send Felix to apany you to a certain location where I''ve nted my power to show an illusion that looks real. You can simply describe everything you see there, but if you want to publish something, you should use the evidence I have."


    "But�� I don''t know if this is the truth or not�� although I''m not a good man, I have been doing my best to tell the truth to the people. I don''t��" Ronald wanted to continue, but Theo waved his hand, refuting his words.


    "You don''t have to worry. This is the real evidence. I know. Since I have the ability to fabricate something, you might think I''m fabricating this evidence too. However, you can believe whatever you want.


    "Right now, the Vice President is missing. The Vice President might be a spy from the monsters, but I believe he''s not the only one.


    "You should remember about the battle against the sea races, right? The sea races and the nt monsters are different, so I''m assuming there is another spy or even a mastermind behind all this.


    "I''m nning to weaken the government so that the spy doesn''t have enough power to interfere in the future battle.


    "I simply don''t want to protect someone who will stab me from the back while I''m fighting against a powerful enemy.


    "By weakening them, the spies will be useless. Thus, my reason for doing all this. It''s up to you whether you want to believe it or not."


    Ronald was confused at that time since he was dragged into all this without his concern. But looking at the situation, it was clear Theo was more trustworthy than the government. Even the Vice President was a spy, so there was a possibility that the President or someone in such a high position to be a spy.


    Ronald thought for a moment and asked, "What do you want me to do?"


    "It''s simple. After going home, I want you to use your connections to bring some journalists like yourself and a few Skytubers to cover the entire trip."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Huh? Skytubers?" Ronald frowned. "Are you nning to allow live coverage so that you can make others believe it?"


    "Yeah. Well, it''s the realboratory, so yeah��" Theo shrugged.


    Ronald thought for a moment. Although he was still unsure about this, it was clear there was a big fight between Theo and the government.


    "There is something I''m not sure, Sir�� I don''t know if I can ask you about this��" Ronald scratched the back of his head.


    "Ask away. I''m going to answer you honestly."


    Ronald clenched his fists, gathering his resolve. He looked into his eyes and asked, "Why do you not work with the government like the Time God? Without this conflict, you should be able to reform the government and destroy our opponents like what you''ve done so far. I know how people have treated you, but after seeing you repeatedly helping them when you don''t need to, I don''t think that''s the reason why you don''t want to work for the government."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. A smile appeared on his face. He said, "Have you followed my story?"


    "Yes. From Thernd."


    "I have been ying in someone''s hand this whole time. When I was in Thernd, it was my parents. When I was in Italy, it was the Griffith Family�� and so on. If you were to be caged for the rest of your life and did what people wanted you to do, would you do it? Will you allow your wife and children to be taken away because it''s an order?"


    Ronald looked down before shaking his head.


    "That''s my goal. I want to break free from everyone''s control and live to the fullest. Even with this freedom, do you think I''ll misuse it?"


    "No," Ronald answered without hesitation. Theo had been helping people even when he did all this, so it was clear Theo''s heart was for humanity. Even if he had the freedom, he wouldn''t destroy humanity just because he liked it.


    "That''s basically the reason. I simply wish to be free��"


    "But the way you say it seems like you''re still in��"


    Theo smiled, answering his doubt. He was indirectly telling him that weakening the government was the n to weaken that mastermind.


    And he needed him to help him.


    Ronald took a deep breath and said, "If you can guarantee my family''s safety, I''ll do whatever you want."


    "You have a deal. After bringing the journalists and the skytubers, I know you''re going to be chased by the government. Don''t worry. You just have to get all the evidence you want and leave the rest to my group."


    Ronald closed his eyes. After remembering their conversation, he couldn''t help but nce at Felix. ''His group, huh�� I don''t think he will be alone��''

 Chapter 1806 Kidnapped

    Ronald reached the designated location, finding nothing but an empty ground. He thought it would be the same as the fakeboratory, where he had to go underground first before finding theboratory, but Felix suddenly stepped forward.


    "Is this where theboratory is?" one of the journalists asked.


    "Hello, everyone. We have reached the ce, but it seems to be empty." One of the skytubers waved his hand while pointing at the empty field.


    All the skytubers seemed to be starting their stream while the journalists had begun their recording, nning to publish the tape from their van.


    Felix stomped the ground, causing it to vibrate. Suddenly, there was a fluctuation of Magic Power around them as a huge pit suddenly appeared before them.


    "Huh?"


    "What the��"


    The people were shocked by its sudden appearance. But their eyes were fixated on a box that was sticking out of the ground.


    "This is theboratory. We have dug it, but because of the situation, we can only cover it with illusion so that no one sees it." Felix answered their doubts.


    One of the skytubers came to Felix, asking, "Mr. Felix. You''re Sir Theo''s subordinate. If you have found theboratory, why haven''t you given it to the government since they can conduct the experiment?"


    "It''s not that we don''t want to do it. But seeing how a Vice President can be a spy for the enemies, we simply can''t trust the government as a whole. I won''t throw any usations, but you should understand our stance."


    They nodded in agreement. There were a lot of questions in their minds, but Felix had extended his hands, pointing them at theboratory. "Please follow me. Most of your questions should be answered after seeing theboratory itself."


    They nodded and followed Felix to theboratory. They went down by using gentle stairs unlike theboratory Ronald knew. In fact, it was weird for the entireboratory to have thisx security.


    But when they entered theboratory, their focus shifted. The stench of the deceased permeated the room, making them want to throw up.


    "There are dead bodies here?" One of them asked while frowning. He was a senior journalist, so he had once followed a story like this. He instantly recognized the smell and wished to confirm his suspicion.


    Felix nodded. "We''ve moved them to one ce and covered them, but we haven''t had the chance to bury them due to the previous war and the current problem."


    "Ugh. I want to throw up." One of the skytubers covered her mouth and fell to the ground.


    Felix waved his hand, allowing them to do whatever they wanted. He also brought a few pairs of gloves so that they didn''t leave any fingerprints inside.


    It didn''t take too long for them to find all the equipment in Ronald''s pictures. They had confirmed that the evidence came from thisboratory.


    Theboratory was destroyed. There were a lot of corpses around. And more importantly, they saw the reason why the World ss Monster came to the base.


    The experiment to mix a human and slime was simr to the goblin''s experiment. So, it didn''t take too long for them to believe this information.


    However, during the tour, one of the skytubers fell sick because of the stench and all the things he discovered inside.


    "Ugh�� I''m feeling nauseous due to the smell. Can I get some fresh air first?" He asked with a pale face.


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes in surprise before returning to his poker face. He nodded, "Sure. You should know the way back, right? After sending them to another ce, I''m going toe and get you."


    "Yeah." The guy nodded and waved his hand. He hurriedly walked back to the exit while saying, "I know you''re going to call me weak, but you guys don''t know how foul the stench is. Even with a mask, the smell is just�� ugh."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Skywalker44: We know you''re weak, Eigo.


    Muchimuchi: Don''t worry. Please take care of your health first. Your face is so pale right now.


    HMaster: Yes. Please go around the area to show the surroundings.


    There were mixed reactions from the people. Some even wanted to check the location so that they could go there as well.


    And since there were a few agreements with Felix, and none of them stopped them from doing something like this, he immediately agreed with their request.


    After leaving, he took a deep breath with a smile. "Uh. The fresh air feels so nice, man. While getting the fresh air, let''s look around the area."


    He tried to climb the stairs to reach the surface, but he suddenly found two people that seemed to be trying to walk toward him. They were startled when Eigo came out so suddenly.


    "Huh?" Eigo was dumbstruck while those two realized they couldn''t escape from this. The ce was a bit far from the road, so it was clear that no one was supposed to be near this area.


    In other words, the onesing for him were someone from the government.


    "They are��!" Eigo wanted to say something, but the two people leaped toward him. One of them seized his camera and turned off the stream while the other one pinned him to the ground.


    "What are you doing? Who are you? Unhand me!" Eigo struggled.


    Meanwhile, the people in his stream panicked because they had just seen a real kidnapping case.


    Luckily, Eigo had started the stream from the start. Many people had seen the skytubers that covered the case with him.


    The instant the stream was stopped, they immediately went straight to the other people''s streams to inform them about Eigo''s disciples.


    LuigieUwu: Help Eigo!


    Mitra1234: Help Eigo, please!


    "Wait, wait. What''s wrong with you guys?" The skytubers were asking the same questions as their stream was raided by Eigo''s viewers. It didn''t take too long before they blurted out the situation.


    "What? Two people kidnapped Eigo on the surface?"


    "!!!" Felix''s eyes shed as he turned around. "I''m going to help him!"


    The people panicked while Ronald asked out loud before Felix disappeared. "Felix. Are they from the government?"


    "I''m afraid so. They''re trying to seize the evidence so that they can manipte it. That''s what Theo told me. Anyway, I have to save him! Theo has asked me to protect all of you!" Felix answered before disappearing.


    The rest of the people were still in shock as they looked at each other, wondering the same thing.


    Should theye out as well?

 Chapter 1807 Protection

    The people inside theboratory didn''t know what to do. On the one hand, they had no idea what was going toe after this. On the other hand, they knew the government wouldn''t allow them to spread the news.


    "Ronald. What''s going on?" One of the journalists asked. His heart was filled with anxiety.


    Ronald sighed and exined the whole truth. "You should be aware of theboratory the government has, right?"


    "Yes."


    "The government forced me to ask Sir Theo for the information about thatboratory."


    "Huh?" The people were confused, not knowing what happened behind the scenes.


    "Yeah. They got my family, so I had no choice. Despite knowing I would betray him, Sir Theo helped me. He protects my family and helps me like this. That''s why I''m here asking you guys to cover all the evidence." Ronald made a sad smile as if he was disappointed in himself when betraying Theo.


    But everyone couldn''t help but rte his situation with all the government agencies. It was clear that the government had the ability to do it.


    "So, they''re targeting thisboratory as well?"


    "I believe so." Ronald nodded. "I have no proof about this and I don''t know whether this is true or not. But Sir Theo told me the Vice President is missing. That''s the reason for rescheduling his trial."


    "W-what?!" The people widened their eyes in shock.


    The skytubers'' viewers were crazy after hearing that piece of information. Because he had no proof of it, he couldn''t share it in the news he published.


    But hearing the information came from Theo directly, they couldn''t dismiss it simply.


    "Are you saying the Vice President has escaped?" One of them asked for confirmation, thinking she didn''t hear it right.


    Ronald nodded. "Yeah. Though, I''m not sure right now. But the current spection is�� the government is nning to seize thisboratory and prevent us from releasing the news. That way, they can im they have all this evidence and use it to prosecute the escaping Vice President. For the people, they believe the Vice President has been sentenced to death. But in reality, the Vice President is still on the run."


    "Wait, Ronald. I don''t understand. How the hell can the Vice President escape?"


    "I''m not sure, but he should be escaping when Sir Theo led the army to fight in the frontline."


    The people fell silent. They couldn''t brush this matter off easily, considering everything made sense.


    At the same time, the fact that they had no proof made it hard for the people to ept. After all, it looked like nders.


    Though, the government had been the biggest power in this base, they might do something like this just to maintain their image.


    And they had to check it personally with the people who kidnapped Eigo.


    "Let''s hurry and check outside. Even if we''re captured, there is some footage about us appearing here." Ronald pointed up. "Even if the government tries to shut their mouth, the proof is still there."


    They nodded with serious expressions. They were scared, but Ronald left them no choice since he had no hesitation to run to the exit.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The journalists and the skytubers were following him. The skytubers were watching how the viewers caused a huge ruckus in the chat while the journalists had prepared their cameras along with their Skylink. They were going to move fast to capture and upload everything.


    As soon as it reached the Sk, the government would have a hard time erasing that proof.


    As soon as they were outside, they saw Felix surrounded by many people.


    Felix was frowning, staring at these people. There were around thirty people who surrounded this area. And Eigo was in their custody.


    Seeing how they threatened Felix with Eigo''s life, it was no wonder why Felix hadn''t defeated them yet.


    "Hey, there are more!"


    "Capture them!"


    Felix gritted his teeth and jumped back, shing the ground. Suddenly, a translucent barrier was erected, trying to protect all of them.


    "Go back. I can''t protect all of you if you''re out in the open like this. As for that guy, I''m going to help him in one way or another." Felix waved his hand, asking them to go down.


    "Are we��" Ronald wanted to say something, but Felix waved his hand again, asking them to go back. The situation was extremely dangerous. If they had more hostages, he wouldn''t be able to do anything.


    "This��" Ronald gritted his teeth and turned around. "Let''s go back inside. Protecting us inside is easier for him. He told me he''s guaranteeing our safety, so he can''t do much when Eigo is taken hostage. If we get captured as well, he won''t be able to do anything."


    They were confused, but they ended up going back inside the facility. Some of them managed to capture the situation with their cameras, especially the veteran journalists.


    With many decades of experience, they knew they had to capture everything right at the start as they might not get the opportunity to do so.


    And the journalists also made a synergy with the skytubers.


    "Hey��" One of the journalists approached the skytubers and showed his Skylink, specifically a picture of a guy outside. "Can you check this guy?"


    "Huh?" The skytubers were confused at first, but they pointed their cameras at the picture so that the viewers could take a look as well.


    "So, do any of you guys know about this guy?" One of the skytubers asked.


    "Help us find the information about them, will you? And ce it on the chat�� It might save our lives."


    "I don''t really rely on them." The journalist snorted and said, "I just want a digital record. Since you''ve seen the picture, I''m going to use my connection to find out about them."


    Typerny: What did he say? He''s underestimating us. Let''s find that guy''s identity before him!


    Baturaja: Yes. Let''s go. Make that guy eat his own words.


    The viewers felt challenged as they were immediately getting the picture to find that guy''s identity.

 Chapter 1808 Rescuing Eigo

    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A few explosions resounded inside theboratory. It seemed Felix had been stopping their attacks this whole time, considering there was no change in theboratory yet.


    Their hearts were thumping loudly, knowing they might get captured or killed at any moment. Their activity had been spread as well, making the government lose its face.


    The government instantly denied all the usations, but they might not be able to do it after Felix defeated all of them.


    "What should we do right now?" One of the skytubers fell to her knees. She was scared, considering they were facing enemies that might capture or kill them.


    Even if others tried to show their strong side, the skytuber was just a newbie in this area. They didn''t know how to deal with the authorities.


    "Hey, get up. You shouldn''t be weak right now. What we need to do is to trust that guy��" The journalist helped her up. They had to do everything they needed to do here.


    "Still, we''re stuck here. Do we have anything that can help us escape?" Another journalist looked down, falling into deep thought.


    Ronald couldn''t help but suggest. "What do you think about continuing our work here?"


    "Oi, Ronald. Even you��" The journalist suddenly fell silent, realizing Ronald''s true idea.


    It seemed one of the skytubers also understood what he wanted. "Do you want us to document everything here? This way, we still contribute to something instead of just panicking here. If we can get everything here, there is a chance those people won''t dare to harm us."


    "Yes. It''s better than doing nothing. Right now, I''m also trying to contact people that can help us, but I don''t have too much hope. How about your viewers? Can they help us in this situation?"


    "I don''t know. I have asked them to help us find those people''s identities, but no result for now."


    "Since we have nothing to do here, it''s better if we cover the entireboratory."


    The journalists were trying to make the skytubers mature. At the same time, the skytubers also understood what it meant to be a journalist.


    They might be covering all kinds of news, and on the Sk, it didn''t look that dangerous. But when they came here personally, they understood the risk of their job.


    They grew up and tried to learn many things from the journalists. Even the one who fell earlier stood up after some encouragement from the viewers.


    They immediately headed back inside, trying to find anything that would be useful to fight back.


    Meanwhile, Felix had a hard time fighting against these people. It wasn''t that they were strong. Only one of them was a Mythical Rank Expert, so Felix could y them easily. But the problem was Eigo.


    They had captured Eigo, making it impossible to do a lot of things.


    He wanted to increase his speed to the very limit, but the people came out earlier, causing him to fail.


    So, Felix looked around, trying to find a solution.


    Eigo kept staring at him with pleading eyes. He wanted Felix to save him, but he was also angry that he couldn''t do anything other than be a burden. If he didn''t get captured, Felix would have crushed these guys.


    "We can''t take too long. Who knows if he has any backup or not!" one of them said, informing the rest that they had to get moving.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "If you don''t want anything to happen to this guy, you should give up, Light Assassin!"


    Felix narrowed his eyes and stated coldly, not feeling threatened. "It seems you''re making a mistake. I might be ordered to keep all of them alive, but it doesn''t mean I have to throw away my life just to save them.


    "Nheless, even if that guy dies, I''m still confident in protecting the rest of them." Felix snorted as he raised his sword while releasing white-colored magic power.


    It seemed Felix wasn''t joking with his statement earlier.


    They were startled because Felix suddenly waved his sword down, releasing a crescent-shaped light toward Eigo.


    "Since that''s the case, he can die first. That way, I can kill the rest of you guys without the need to protect someone."


    "!!!" They were shocked by Felix''s boldness. "Hurry up and��"


    Before they finished, Felix suddenly appeared right in front of Eigo. He grabbed Eigo''s cor with his left hand while his right hand sliced the enemies'' necks.


    "Mhmmmm!" Eigo was screaming as two people had just died right before him. He wasn''t a fighter like them, so he had never seen this kind of stuff.


    "Shit! He''s just distracting us!"


    They tried to attack Felix and Eigo, but Felix had turned into light, returning back to his original position with Eigo in his arms.


    Felix cut the handcuff and threw Eigo to the side. "Hurry up and go inside. I''m going to finish all of them. You don''t have to see this brutal scene!"


    Eigo nodded with a serious expression. Although he was angry that Felix stated he wanted to kill him earlier, it didn''t change the fact Felix had just saved him.


    He hurriedly went back into the facility, trying to inform the others about the current situation.


    Meanwhile, Felix began unleashing his power, dealing with all the people in the area.


    It wasn''t a fight anymore, considering their opponent was a King.


    While Felix defeated them, Eigo found the others.


    "Ha�� Ha��" Eigo panted a few times.


    "What? Rick, what happened?!" One of the skytubers asked Eigo by his given name instead of his skytuber''s name.


    "I was saved, but��" Eigo pointed at the ceiling. "I don''t know what to do. It seems that guy is trying to fight all of them."


    "This��" They wondered if Felix could do it since he was outnumbered.


    But Ronald said, "As long as you''re safe, then that guy should have no problem in defeating them. After all, that guy is Sir Theo''s right hand man."


    "!!!"


    They were dumbfounded, knowing the guy''s identity. There wasn''t much information about Felix after all, so they were shocked to know he was Theo''s right hand man.


    It was clear he wasn''t ordinary, so he might be able to defeat all of them.

 Chapter 1809 Finding Information

    It didn''t take too long for Felix to go back inside, finding everyone waiting for him right at the entrance.


    It seemed they believed in him. That was why they were not scared waiting here, considering the enemies might be the onesing.


    "Sir. How is the situation?" Ronald asked politely, wanting to know about the enemies.


    "I have incapacitated them, but I made a bit of a mess up there. So, it might be a little too much to share..."


    "This��"


    "Sir, the viewers are asking us to go up. They have seen all the experiments here and all of them are gross, so they think it''s fine to go up and see the result."


    "��" Felix thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, it''s better to stay here. If you want to go up, it''s better to close the stream for a bit. You surely know that you''re going to be banned after streaming this, right?"


    "Don''t worry, Sir. I believe I''m the only Skytuber that has received a special permit. I have streamed many things on the other side and my target audience is people like them. So, I won''t be banned��" One of the skytubers raised his hand with confidence.


    Felix frowned and nced at Ronald, asking if this was alright.


    As soon as Ronald nodded his head, Felix finally gave the permission. "Alright. Only you can stream. That should be enough, right?"


    "Well��" The other skytubers also wanted to do it, because they could get a lot of subscribers with this content. But since they had got a lot from theboratory, it seemed it would be fine to stop the stream.


    They apologized to the viewers and told them to move to another channel if they wanted to see what happened.


    Meanwhile, the other journalists had prepared their hearts to see the brutality of the battlefield.


    After they were ready, Felix led them outside and showed them the aftermath.


    Out of those thirty people, half of them died. Most of them were due to a slice on the neck. Meanwhile, half of them were still alive, albeit not conscious.


    "For now, I''m going to move the ones who are still alive to one side. Maybe you can check their identities by using their faces or something." Felix told them while pointing to the left where he was going to put the bodies.


    "Do you need help, Sir?" Ronald asked. "We''re not fighters, but we should be able to help you."


    "No, it''s fine. Just make sure you''re not that far away from me since they might have some backup." Felix waved his hand, politely rejecting him.


    "Understood. We''ll try to identify them then�� At least, we have some connections to be used in this situation." Ronald nodded, agreeing with the task.


    He led the people to move to an area where Felix gathered the bodies.


    They took a picture of them and tried to find their faces on the Sk. Of course, they also asked the viewers to help them since they had a lot of power to do so.


    Even if they couldn''t get anything, it still left a digital trace.


    After a total of fifteen minutes, one of the journalists suddenly shouted, "I think I''ve got a lead!"


    As soon as they heard him, all the eyes were focused on him, wondering what he had found.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He opened the file and showed it to everyone.


    "Let''s see. I haven''t read it yet, so let''s see it together!" The journalist showed them the details of the person''s identity.


    And they were stunned when the data stated the person came from the government.


    "This��"


    "Doesn''t that mean all these people are from the same ce?"


    "Who knows? Let''s check it first."


    "There might be a third influence that wants to cause another spark between Mr. Theo and the government after all, so let''s continue."


    They nodded and kept asking for the information.


    Meanwhile, the viewers were the first to act. As soon as they confirmed the person''s identity, they immediately shared it on the Sk, showing how the government nned to put them in the dark.


    They wanted to control everything and when they matched it with the spection earlier, it was clear that the Vice President wasn''t with them.


    In other words, the government had let the Vice President escape. It was no wonder why Theo didn''t trust the government.


    There might be spies or even the entire government itself was a spy, trying to protect the Vice President.


    It didn''t take too long for them to start boycotting the government, telling the others how corrupt the government was. They wanted to destroy their hero, who had been protecting this ce.


    Of course, the government denied all usations regarding their incident. Just because one of their people was in the mix, it didn''t mean the government was involved in this.


    They could continue to deny it until they couldn''t anymore. At that time, they only had to sacrifice all these people by saying, "They acted by themselves. We never authorized such a mission."


    Some might still believe in them, but most people would havepletely lost their trust.


    This was what Theo wanted. And the one who created this situation was actually sitting in his house after cleaning up his ce.


    He had eliminated over a hundred agents, so he thought it should be time for him to head back to the battlefield to get some levels.


    But before leaving, Theo returned to his home to have a meal.


    While eating, Theo said, "Agata. The situation is going to be a bit weird for you, but I''m sure you can do the rest, right?"


    "Don''t worry. Maya, Rea, and Ne are with me, so you don''t have to worry. Besides, it''s not like they have a lot of power left after this incident." Agata nodded with a serious expression before winking at Ne, who stayed with her the whole time.


    Ne gave a thumbs up, knowing her role for the uing clean-up.

 Chapter 1810 Worry

    *Bam!*


    "Shit!" The President mmed the table while gritting his teeth.


    Once again, the people held another demonstration, demanding a lot of things.


    Ronald had yed his part as Theo''s pawn.


    Since everything had been streamed, everyone knew what the government nned to do. Although they couldn''t do anything regarding the people they captured despite showing their identities, they still got the best piece of evidence.


    It might not be that believable at first, but it had two advantages. First of all, Ronald already published the evidence that the government imed to be fake. Second, with the help of Theo''s illusion, the government, who was putting the ''real'' evidence, got busted.


    Between the two pieces of evidence, it was clear that they preferred Theo''s evidence, considering he was the one that remained. After that, Ronald also publicized some data regarding the experiment, not enough to do a second experiment, but enough to show how much the Vice President had harmed the base.


    The government couldn''t show Theo''s interference in their boratory,'' so, in the end, they lost the public''s trust.


    They tried to exin the situation, twisting it to lessen the damage. But it was useless.


    Rea and the beggar association had worked together to spread the news until it reached everyone''s ears. And the government couldn''t do anything to them, considering if they were spotted by the public, it would look like they were trying to stop the information from spreading.


    After losing that trust, Maya and Theo''s names were held in high esteem. Maya was going to open the first airline after the apocalypse and Theo had yed a huge part in creating the defense system.


    Now that the government had lost their trust, no one could stop Maya from reopening herpany. Obviously, no one would dare to harm Maya after this. Not only was the public''s sentiment high, but she also got Theo behind her.


    If they messed with her, Theo might make them experience what the government endured this time. If he could even mess with the government, there was really no more opponent that could hold Theo back.


    They might be able to unite to resist Theo, but at the end of the day, Theo''s strength could bepared to that of the Time God. Unless they nned to bring that kind of force to their door, they better leave Maya alone.


    Meanwhile, Agata was sitting on her favorite chair, looking at the catalog of wedding gowns.


    Suddenly, her Skylink rang. It was an unknown number, so she declined it. But then, it rang again, this time, the caller was her father.


    "Hello, Dad? Did you call me earlier with an unknown number?" Agata asked immediately, wondering if something was wrong.


    "No. I just called you."


    "Oh? Alright then." Agata nodded. "How are you, Dad? Are you living well there with Mom?"


    "You don''t have to worry about it. And I received word from Theo earlier, stating that you two are getting married. Why haven''t you told us about this?" Her father''s tone was slightly sour since they received the words from their son-inw instead of their own daughter.


    "Ah! I wanted to tell you when Maya announced the n for her airline, but because of some problems here, I forgot about it." Agata shook her head helplessly. "Sorry."


    "Some problems? Do you need help?" Boris didn''t care about the apology since there was no need to apologize between them. He was more concerned about the problems. No matter what, his daughter was living in another base, so he couldn''t help but worry even if she lived with Theo.


    "Ah, we had just solved it here yesterday. I''m opening the catalog for wedding gowns right now�� After Mayapleted thest trial and opened the airline to the public, I was about to invite you two here so that we could prepare for the wedding together."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Really? We will definitelye. This is your grand day, so of course, we''ll contribute as much as possible."


    "Ahaha, I don''t n on making a big wedding. Just friends and families wille to the wedding. I think this is the best one for both of us." Agata smiled. Theo never told her about his preference. Meanwhile, Agata also respected him and his reputation.


    If they prepared for a grand wedding, it would surely be the attention of the entire world. But it would just cause a lot of problems for Theo, considering his enemies might be aware of this information and crush his wedding.


    So, she didn''t want to cause unnecessary problems. As long as she could get married, that was enough.


    "Well, we''ll respect whatever you choose. This is your wedding. We''ll just support you and try to offer some advice from our experience."


    "Yep. Thank you, Dad. I''ll just prepare a lot and ask for your opinion when you''re here." Agata smiled.


    "Sure. When is it going toe?"


    "If nothing goes wrong, it''ll be three months before you cane here. As for the wedding, we still have two years to prepare. So, there''s no need to rush."


    "I see. Still, I''ve confirmed it with you. I''m going to tell your mother about this�� and visit the War God Family."


    "Yep. I''m pretty sure Theo has let them know about it."


    "Well, let''s leave this matter for now since we better meet and prepare it together than talk like this." Boris paused for a moment. "So, are you living well? Has your weight gone down?"


    "Haha, you''re worrying too much. I might have gained some weight thanks to Coline''s superb cooking." Agata chuckled. "As for my life here�� I think I have sent you the pictures."


    "What? Are those floating aquarium, flying temple, and the giant towers real?"


    "Yup. Theo made it with his power. So, you could say I''m living in a fantasy right now. I won''t get bored anytime soon and there are matters I have to attend to, so I''ll be upied most of the time. It''s better than having nothing to do." Agata smiled.


    "Then the wedding��"


    "Yup. Maybe I should make a flying wedding hall or hold an underwater wedding�� Well, I''ll have to ask Theo''s opinion about that one. Yeah, I''m living well here, Dad. Don''t worry."


    "Well, I''m d then."


    "Yep, love you, Dad. Tell Mom not to worry about me too."


    "Yup. Love you."


    Agata hung up with a smile as she received another call from the same unknown number earlier.


    She frowned and decided to pick it up.

 Chapter 1811 Determination

    It turned out the one who called her was the President himself.


    "Agata Mota, we are willing to negotiate thepensation for Theodore Griffith. As long as you are willing to ept��"


    Before he finished, Agata stated with a cold tone. "I have nothing to say regarding this matter. I''m not involved with this problem, so if you want to discuss this matter, you should call Theo personally, not me. Thank you."


    Agata didn''t hesitate to hang up, thinking nothing about the President.


    The President gritted his teeth. If he could reach Theo, he would have done so this whole time. But because he couldn''t, he called her.


    He wasn''t aware that Theo wasn''t in the base anymore since he had to increase his level.


    But after that call, Agata never picked up any other call after that, leaving the President frustrated.


    He thought he could convince Agata to persuade Theo to drop this matter, but it was impossible since Agata understood what Theo desired from this oue.


    Having no choice, the President reached Maya. Back then, Theo mentioned Maya''spensation after all, so he should discuss it now.


    The situation wasn''t looking good, so he couldn''t hesitate.


    However, when Maya picked up the video call, her gaze was cold and devoid of emotion. It felt like she was judging him after making that mistake.


    They had given the government a chance, but it seemed they didn''t take it.


    "So, what are you going to say this time?"


    "Maya Hamilton�� We are willing to negotiate thepensation." The President gritted his teeth, lowering his head.


    "Rejected." Maya didn''t give him any face. Without even listening to his n, she rejected him.


    "Wh��" The President was stunned and tried to persuade her, but Maya had raised her hand, stopping him from talking. After that, she said, "You have thrown away your chance. Do you think we''ll give you another chance?"


    "Listen to me first��"


    Maya snorted. "Listen to your reasons? I don''t care. We have been generous this whole time, yet, you have chosen this path. You have to bear the consequences of your actions.


    "There is no need forpensation. Even if you were to seal mypany again, you couldn''t gain anything other than the people''s distrust. So, good luck with that."


    Maya looked away and hung up the call. There was simply no need for negotiation.


    Theo had told her that the government wanted to minimize the damage. In order to do so, Theo had to put down the grudge, making him lose some credibility.


    In other words, the government wanted him to eat his own words. It wasn''tpensation. Instead, the government wanted to hire him as an actor.


    That was why Theo didn''t care about the negotiation. Nothing could stop them anymore and if the government tried to raise an army to subjugate them, they wouldpletely lose the trust of the soldiers.


    That way, it wouldn''t be strange if the current president were impeached.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Well, it seems that the situation has reached this point��" Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. "By opening the airline, the real Theo and his grandfather mighte here to destroy him, this time with a stronger force.


    "Since I''m opening it three months from now, Theo will only have one year left to make his preparation since his enemies have to raise their own force here.


    "I wonder if things will go ording to the n this time. The more it deviates from Theo''s n, the lower our chance of winning.


    "Still, level 1,000, huh��" Maya narrowed her eyes. "No one has ever reached that level. If he truly reaches that level, I''m sure he will be able to defeat his opponent.


    "For now, I have to prepare for everything. Even though I have reached the top of the business world, I still can''t fight against Theo''s reputation�� Well, that''s fine�� The higher Theo reaches, the bigger my target is.


    "Don''t worry. Leave all the preparation to me, I''m going to give you a big present in that final battle." Maya smirked.


    She had been trying to take Theo down in their littlepetition, but she ended up getting help all the time. Even reaching this point was ording to Theo''s n.


    But Maya wasn''t that easy to break. She would never give up in her pursuit.


    With that determination filling her heart, she started preparing for the final battle. This time, she was nning to make the biggest preparation that Theo had no choice but to admit he couldn''t win without her help.


    Meanwhile, Maya wasn''t the only one who got motivated by this result.


    Rea reached the same conclusion as Maya.


    She was staying in a hotel, looking through the window.


    She muttered inwardly, ''After the government is weakened, there will be a new enemy that will give him an opportunity.


    ''ording to the Heavenly Sovereign''s message, there are a lot of problems we''re going to face in the next one to two years.


    ''I have to prepare for that battle. As for the second message��''


    Rea fell silent. The Heavenly Sovereign told him that he should worry about his allies. And the one that would save him was probably the one who wanted to kill him.


    She didn''t understand what this meant, but it was clear that there would be a great catastrophe soon.


    If they could withstand it, humanity would win and enjoy a peaceful life. And if they couldn''t, they would be driven to their extinction.


    Rea sighed. "So, who is the ally and who is the enemy? The one I''m most suspicious of right now is the Mafia Queen. Is this the reason why Theo hasn''t revealed her information? This way, even if she betrays him, no one would think Theo had a spy in his group.


    "But if the Mafia Queen is truly our ally, then�� Who is the one that will betray us?"


    No matter how hard Rea thought about it, she couldn''te up with a single name. It was truly ridiculous thinking there was an ally that would betray Theo after he built his group carefully.


    "Well, I''m not like my teacher�� I''m going to continue thinking this over. I hope I can help him in that big battle." Rea clenched her fists.

 Chapter 1812 Marriage Talk

    Of course, the news of his marriage had been spread both in Agata''s Family or Theo''s War God Family.


    Before Boris could even visit the War God Family, Leonardo had arrived in front of his house. Though, he couldn''t reveal that information yet, so he had to visit him stealthily.


    "��" Boris opened the door of his house and saw Leonardo before him. He waspletely speechless, not knowing what to say.


    "Hello. Do you mind if Ie in to have a chat?" Leonardo asked with a smile. No, he couldn''t actually contain his smile because of how happy he was.


    He had many grandsons and granddaughters. Despite his equal love, it was clear that Theo and Lorenzo were the most astounding among his grandchildren.


    So, he was happy that both of them had someone with them. Lorenzo had married his cold secretary, while Theo nned to marry Agata.


    Since Boris had personally visited him, Boris opened the door wider, inviting him in. "Sure. Let''s go inside since this matter is serious."


    Leonardo nodded. There was no one inside the house other than the maids and his wife. He dismissed the maids for the time being while calling his wife to meet Leonardo.


    The three of them sat face to face.


    Leonardo smiled, "Before I say everything I have in my mind, I think I''m going to apologize to you first.


    "Looking at the situation, it doesn''t seem like it''s possible to reveal the marriage''s n for the time being.


    "That''s why it might be unfair to the bride''s family. I apologize on behalf of Theo. Sorry." Leonardo lowered his head.


    Boris and his wife were shaken when they saw Leonardo lower his head. If someone took a photo of him, it would blow up. After all, Leonardo only bowed down to the people he owed greatly.


    And Agata''s parents were among them, considering if not for Agata being with Theo, Theo wouldn''t open up until another decade.


    "This�� Please raise your head. There is nothing you should apologize for. We also understand his circumstances and Agata has told us that she is happy with this situation. After all, the marriage is already set in ce. And after their marriage, there is nothing to hide anymore.


    "There is truly nothing to apologize for since we know Theo will do everything right. One or two years don''t really matter." Boris scratched the back of his head. In fact, Leonardo lowering his head put more pressure on him.


    Leonardo gracefully raised his head and looked at them with a serious expression. "Alright. Thanks."


    The atmosphere turned awkward after that apology. Boris couldn''t help but shift the topic. "Then, it''s my turn. We''re actually thankful to Theo and Sir Leonardo. Although I don''t like how this sounds, it''s true that Theo has treated Agata like a human. I have seen a lot of people who want my daughter, but their thoughts are just in greed and lust.


    "So, I''m thankful that it''s Theo who she''ll marry. Theo has even helped our family endure a big crisis. And if not for your War God Family constantly watching over us, I''m afraid our family would be in a more dire situation.


    "That''s why I should be the one to thank you and Theo. Thank you for choosing our daughter."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Leonardo smiled. They knew both Agata and Theo relied on each other. Even though Theo was too talented, Agata never lost her heart and constantly improved her ability.


    Even if her strength couldn''t hold a candle against him, she still polished her mind and other skills in order to support Theo. She wasn''t entitled either, thinking she could get anything she wanted just because Theo loved her.


    That was why both of them had to thank each other.


    Leonardo thought for a moment and remembered an item he had brought with him. He took out a small box from his pocket and opened it.


    Inside the box was a small blue pendant.


    "I can''t really give you the entire dowry since it''ll cause a lot of disturbance outside, but I believe I can give you this." Leonardo smiled. "This is a core of a King ss Monster I''ve received from a World ss Monster during my days on the battlefield. You can use this core to build a powerful staff�� It''s perfect for a Mythical Rank Magician.


    "I hope this is to your liking." Leonardo ced the box on the table and moved it closer to them as if handing it over.


    "This�� A King ss Monster''s core?" Boris and his wife were shaken because they knew what kind of existence a King ss Monster was. To think Leonardo would give it away just like that.


    "This�� I''m d that you appreciate Agata, but don''t you think this is too much? If I ept this, I''m afraid it will look like I have sold my daughter." Boris made a wry smile, politely rejecting the gift.


    Leonardo actually chuckled as if he had expected Boris to say those words. "Haha, for Theo, Agata can''t be measured by gifts like this. Do you know what he has been doing this whole time?"


    "Huh?" Boris tilted his head in confusion.


    "Have you forgotten how many World ss Monsters he has killed?"


    Boris'' jaw dropped to the ground. He just realized a World ss Monster''s body was a treasure no matter how bad their condition was.


    And by how Leonardo phrased it, Theo seemed to be nning to use the World ss Monster as a dowry. Even though Theo considered Leonardo as his grandfather, he didn''t want to rely on the War God Family that much. That was why it wouldn''t be weird if Theo was the one bringing the dowry himself.


    If he epted this, Boris would have a reason to reject Theo''s gifts.


    Boris gulped down and took Leonardo''s gift instead. "I''ll take this instead. Thank you very much."


    "No problem. We''re going to be one big family after all."


    Boris'' eyes shed as he immediately corrected himself. "Thank you, Father-inw."


    Leonardo''s smile became bigger. Boris forgot that even if he had a reason to reject his gift, Theo would end up outsmarting him again and make him ept the gifts.

 Chapter 1813 See

    United Asia.


    Zhao Jia received a message from Theo and immediately rushed to her teacher.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was meditating on top of a boulder. The birds perched on his shoulders and head as if they were treating him as an object.


    His breath had assimted with nature to the point Zhao Jia felt his presence was disappearing.


    The closer she was to him, the more she realized the natural energy in the environment.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign suddenly released a little bit more Magic Power, startling the birds that ended up flying away.


    After that, he asked while still keeping his eyes closed. "What''s wrong?"


    "I''ve received a message from Theo." Zhao Jia exined with a serious expression. "He''s inviting us to the US Base."


    "Hoh? When?"


    "Approximately nine to twelve months."


    "I see. It seems we don''t have much time left." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed.


    "��" Zhao Jia looked down, hesitating. She remembered what the Heavenly Sovereign said to Theo back then, so she couldn''t help but ask, "Is our enemy that strong?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. "If I have to fight that enemy by myself, I will probablyst only a few rounds."


    "!!!" Zhao Jia''s body shuddered. Even though her teacher was the number two, he hadn''t fought the Time God to the very end. So, she still believed her teacher was equal if not stronger than the Time God.


    Yet, he actually imed that he couldn''tst a few rounds against this enemy. How could humanity survive?


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "Don''t worry. We have Theo this time. I''m expecting a lot from him."


    "Is he going to be your equal?"


    "His real body has to be my equal, so his clone can exert more power. However, it will be hard to surpass me and the Time God even for him." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed. "We simply don''t have enough time. If we have another decade, Theo would have fully grown��"


    Zhao Jia looked down. His teacher was already hailed as the greatest genius in their county, yet, he held Theo in higher regard. "Teacher. What do you think of him? Is he that��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. "Theo, huh�� He is a miracle born in the modern world."


    "A miracle? No, wait. Modern world?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "Yeah. If he was born on the other side, it wouldn''t be weird to have that kind of talent. But our world simplycks Magic Power.


    "It feels like someone was pulling some strings and giving all that Magic Power that he needs to fully form his talent before he was born.


    "I don''t know how he does it�� Maybe it''s the Time God who did it�� He paused the time of Valerie''s womb to umte the Magic Power needed." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "I don''t know��"


    "Huh? It''s possible to do that?" Zhao Jia gasped, never expecting this kind of revtion.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I''m not sure myself since I''m not the wielder of Time�� But the theory is possible. Of course, one has to have high potential first to achieve Theo''s talents."


    "But if it''s possible, then doesn''t it mean Theo has been frozen in the womb for a while?"


    "That is possible as well." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded with a serious expression. "There are many unknown things in this world. Even I am not capable of learning all of them. But I sure know that��


    "Theo is a miracle of this world, the one who is destined to stand at the top. You could say that the apocalypse and everything that is going around right now is because of his existence."


    "What?! If he''s the cause, should we��" Zhao Jia suddenly fell silent, realizing something.


    "It seems you have realized. This world is reaching its end even without him. So, why not create an existence that can stop it?"


    "��" Zhao Jia shuddered. She didn''t know how her master knew all this, but her master seemed to know everything despite his im. He never told anyone about his secret, even her.


    The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at the sky. "Look at the bright sky, what do you see?"


    "Huh?" Zhao Jia was confused for a moment and answered with what she literally saw. "Nothing? There''s no cloud and the sun is not there�� There is only the sky."


    "Yes. There is nothing�� Even beyond that sky. I always wonder why we''re alone in this world. Why, despite having manys around us, none of them have intelligent beings like us? Are humans alone in this universe?"


    "Teacher. I''m afraid I have to say this�� What you''re talking about is not scientific."


    The Heavenly Sovereign. "Not scientific, huh? What if I tell you, it''s not that my words are not scientific, but it''s that we''re unable to prove it because it has been designed that way?"


    "Designed so that we can''t prove it?" Zhao Jia looked down, frowning.


    "In the past few years, I have been thinking about Theo, the God of Mischief, and their reason for bringing the apocalypse. In addition to my knowledge and insight, I know they exist.


    "The beings who have created us, controlled us, and exterminated us. We have been ying on their palms this whole time.


    "And the God of Mischief was turning Theo into an existence that couldn''t be controlled by them."


    The Heavenly Sovereign became more and more excited as his body subconsciously released Magic Power.


    The amount of Magic Power made Zhao Jia shiver. It felt like she was seeing the sun itself.


    She gritted her teeth and tried to stop her teacher, reminding him that she was there.


    But when she reached him, Zhao Jia saw the Heavenly Sovereign''s eyes.


    There was a bright yellow star in his pupil, shining like the sun. It was the one oozing all this Magic Power.


    She had never seen this pupil in her entire life. And it was probably the core of the Heavenly Sovereign''s knowledge.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was staring excitedly to the front as if he was looking at something.


    He said, "Jia�� I can see it. Your teacher can see it."

 Chapter 1814 Origin

    "Master�� Master!" Zhao Jia kept calling her master. She panicked the moment blood flowed out of his eyes. Her master looked like he was possessed by something.


    After a while, the Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes as his mood began to calm down.


    "Master?!" Zhao Jia checked his condition. Other than the blood, there seemed to be nothing wrong with his internal condition.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled and said, "I''m fine."


    "��" Zhao Jia didn''t seem to buy it as she was still worried about him. This was the first time the Heavenly Sovereign behaved this way. "What did you do, Master?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign sighed, "It seems you have seen my eyes��"


    "Y-yes." Zhao Jia nodded before taking a step back. "Are you going to silence��Gah!"


    Before she finished her words, the Heavenly Sovereign had flicked her head. "That''s not funny even if it''s a joke. I don''t ept any other sessor besides you."


    Zhao Jia gently scratched her cheek as she couldn''t say anything back after that. This was the Heavenly Sovereign''s recognition.


    "I called these eyes of mine, the Heavenly Eyes. Its ability is simple. I can simply see the Magic Power�� No, it''s beyond Magic Power, something smaller than Order and Authority. I don''t know what to call it."


    The Heavenly Sovereign mentioned something Theo had noticed. He used it to trick the world and called it Origin.


    "This Origin is everywhere in the world. Just like the atom, it''s inside the Magic Power, Order, and even Authority. Whenever there is a fluctuation, I can see the change of the world since it''ll affect everything around it."


    Zhao Jia came to a realization and gasped. "Don''t tell me, the reason why you could predict all those things��"


    "Yeah. There is a change in this thing and with my power, I simply calcte which one is rted to it." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded. "You could say that I picked up this power because of these eyes granted by the Heavenly Sovereign, Fu Xi."


    "This�� Are you telling me that I won''t be able to catch up to you no matter what?"


    "In terms of calcting the divine way, yes." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded without hesitation. This wasn''t something a teacher was supposed to say.


    Even Zhao Jia looked down as if her pride was crushed.


    But the Heavenly Sovereign also added, "Of course, you have your own specialty. Just take a look at my eyes, do you have my eyes?"


    "No." Zhao Jia shook her head.


    "That''s right. My eyes are special. I''m afraid Theo has a simr pair of eyes. That''s why he''s strong."


    Zhao Jia bit her lips and asked, "Are you telling me that unless I have a special pair of eyes, I wouldn''t be able to do anything?"


    "Nope. The Time God doesn''t have unique eyes like us. I haven''t fought him yet, but it seems he has a unique brain. That''s where his superiorityes from. The Wind Emperor has a unique heart."


    "Huh?" Zhao Jia frowned. "Why are you talking about this? I still don''t understand what you mean by unique."<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled. "It seems the clue I''ve dropped isn''t that obvious. I''m talking about the thing I exined earlier."


    "The thing? The one you said was even more ancient than Magic Power, Order, and Authority?" Zhao Jia asked, confirming it.


    "Yeah. I''m talking about that. A human has one concentrated spot of this thing. Mine are in the eyes, Theo too."


    "Then, does that mean I also have a unique quality that can allow me to be an Authority?"


    "Yes. I don''t know how many people have realized it, but all the creatures who have received an Order and Authority should have awakened this potential. I''m afraid Theo isn''t aware of his unique eyes. After all, only my eyes could see it.


    "Well, I also didn''t know in the past because I got it from the Heavenly Sovereign. But after some time, I realized that it was impossible to receive these eyes if I didn''t have this thing concentrated in my eyes. In other words, I needed to have the qualification first.


    "And you too have it." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "I''ve been trying to awaken it this whole time since you''ve only opened half of its potential. This time, I''m going to start teaching you how to get Authority."


    "I, too, have it��" Zhao Jia gulped down. This information was heavy, but she was also curious about where she possessed it. "Where does it concentrate?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled and extended his hand as his forefinger rested on her chest. "Here. It''s in your heart."


    "My heart?" Zhao Jia looked down as if staring at her heart. But she also noticed her teacher''s finger was bouncing back and forth as if he was ying with her boobs.


    She was impressed at first before she got angry. She grasped his wrist and pped him, subconsciously releasing her power. "You bastard. This is sexual harassment!"


    The Heavenly Sovereign would jokingly receive this attack, but this time, he actually grabbed her hand, stopping her attack.


    He smiled, looking at her. "There you go."


    "Huh?" Zhao Jia shuddered. Her body understood her teacher''s words, but her brain still tried to find the exnation.


    "The trigger to awaken your true potential is anger. Every time you''re angry, you''ll exert more power. It''s just your anger can only give an explosive boost for a short period, not the stability I''m looking for to get an Authority. In other words, you have to be angry all the time if you want to fully utilize your potential�� Of course, you can do that when you''re in battle�� Unfortunately, you have been suppressing your potential this whole time by being a cold beauty like this. Your teacher is disappointed."


    "What? My anger?" Zhao Jia''s body shook. Her body confirmed her thought. She indeed felt something change whenever she was angry.


    At the same time, she remembered that her teacher always made her angry. "Wait a minute. Don''t tell me you��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign''s smile confirmed everything. "Why do you think I have been teasing you this whole time, Jia Jia?"


    Zhao Jia waspletely speechless, never expecting that her teacher had beenmunicating with her as a teacher this whole time. She just never understood his tease. If she was aware of this potential, she might be immune to her master''s teasing. That was why he never told her about it.


    And this time, the Heavenly Sovereign looked at her with a genuine expression like the first time they met. It was a gaze filled with expectation.


    He said, "Zhao Jia, my disciple. It''s time for yourst lesson."

 Chapter 1815 Clue

    US Base.


    The Time God was meditating like the Heavenly Sovereign. After that incident, the government lost the public''s trust.


    Although they hadn''t been destroyed yet due to the need for a government to grow the base, their power had been severely weakened.


    Even the current president had a hard time holding his power since there was a rumor about his impeachment.


    But no matter who the president was, the government''s strength wouldn''t be the same anymore.


    Unless Theo helped them to restore the people''s faith in the government, it would be close to impossible for them to hold power anymore.


    Since he had done his job, he returned to his home, waiting for another job. But this time, the government wouldn''t be able to order him like usual.


    They wouldn''t even visit him, considering he would be the one bossing them around this time.


    The Time God opened his eyes and walked toward his book. He couldn''t help but read it again.


    This book was a kind of his autobiography, considering the future him was the one writing this. But because it also wrote about future events, he called this book a prophecy book instead of a biography.


    He narrowed his eyes after reading a few lines. As it had been stated, the government lost their power because they fought against him.


    He had told the previous president not to antagonize Theo. The previous president took that warning seriously and even told the next president about it.


    However, the next president decided not to take it seriously. And now that the previous president had passed away due to illness, the current president ended up destroying the government.


    "Everything has begun to move and the string of fate is flickering. This world only has one fate. It''s to be destroyed. And the only one who can change it is Theodore Griffith, the man who is trying to break free from fate''s grasp.


    "Even the time can''t calcte him as if he doesn''t exist��" The Time God fell silent. "It seems that I have to consider my actions properly this time�� One wrong move will result in a disaster."


    The Time God''s expression turned serious as if he had seen something.


    "Anyway, it seems the time for me to unfreeze my ability wille soon. I want to see who will be my opponent��" The Time God smiled. "Who will be my opponent at that time? I''m looking forward to it."


    The Time God and the Heavenly Sovereign weren''t the only ones who made the final preparation.


    Since there were a lot of things that would happen in the next year, Theo also made his preparations.


    Others thought Theo was inside his hideout, waiting for another big event for him to make his move. But the people in Theo''s base believed Theo was roaming around to raise his levels.


    They weren''t aware of Theo''s objective and true whereabouts.


    It took him a whole week to finally reach his destination. Even with his strength, it wasn''t an easy trip, considering he had to constantly fight against monsters. He even met a few King ss Monsters and one World ss Monster.


    Luckily, he managed to negotiate with them and passed without any fuss.


    It was truly a dangerous trip.


    Still, he had reached his destination.


    He looked at the familiar garden, houses, and flying temple in the sky.


    That was right. His destination this time was none other than his previous base, where Hel stayed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    As a Saint, Theo had the ability to cross the sea with his own ability. Even without the use of Maya''s airne, he could simply kill all the threats on his way.


    Of course, the other Saints might not be able to do it, considering Theo outsmarted a few King ss Monsters and a World ss Monster to give him a safe passage. If others were to cross the ocean, they might be attacked by them.


    After reaching his destination, he walked past the barrier and finally entered his previous base.


    As if expecting Theo toe back to her, a skeleton suddenly came out of the ground and bowed to him. It extended its hand as if asking him to go forward.


    Theo carefully walked forward as the skeleton guided him to the temple where he used to stay.


    It seemed Hel had been staying in his temple after they left this ce.


    As soon as he reached the temple, he could feel Hel''s presence inside. He carefully opened it and saw the ck-haired beauty.


    Surprisingly, this time, she didn''t use her Death Armor to mask her rotten skin.


    She was actually using her real appearance to talk to Theo.


    "I have been waiting for you." The Goddess of Death looked at the spot in front of her and said, "Sit."


    Theo nodded and sat at the spot she pointed at earlier.


    His expression was serious as he nned to bring up a few concerns.


    "I don''t think I need to say the reason why I''vee here��"


    Hel nodded. "It seems that you''re already aware of it."


    "Yes. Though, I''m here also to ask you something."


    "You don''t have to worry. I have recovered my power and if the opportunity is aligned, I''ll be there to help you."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded. The atmosphere became awkward since he was asking for a favor.


    Meanwhile, Hel changed back the topic. "Still, the other side has copsed�� Or should I say the original world has copsed. What remains has been absorbed by this realm. There is no way for you to go there."


    Theo shook his head. "I''m not nning to go there."


    "If you don''t want to go there, then why would youe to me?"


    "I''m nning to recreate the other realm."


    Hel paused as if she was surprised. After a while, she said, "It''s impossible to do it. Youck a lot of things. In the past, he brought over dozens of Saints to create this realm.


    "And now, you don''t even have Life Order, let alone other Big Orders and a few normal Orders."


    Theo was aware of it, but he still looked at Hel with determination as if insisting he wanted the way. He believed Hel had a way.


    Hel let out a long sigh as if she had given up. "He has left a clue in the ce that once wasn''t in both realms."

 Chapter 1816 Difference

    "He has left a clue in the ce that once wasn''t in both realms."


    Theo scratched the back of his head. It felt like the God of Mischief had predicted everything. "Is he��"


    "Nope. Normally, there wouldn''t be any trace yet, but because of the incident, you can learn something. You should go there if you wish to know about it, but I''m not sure whether it''s possible or not."


    "I see." Theo contemted for a few minutes before asking another question. "If that''s the case, do you think it''s possible for him to get there in time?"


    "I''m not sure, but he has been watching you this whole time. So, I think you don''t have to worry about that."


    Theo nodded. "Alright then. Onest question, I''m not sure whether I should ask you about this or not��"


    "And what is that?"


    "The energy that is the core of everything."


    "��" Hel closed her eyes for a moment. It seemed she was aware of it, but she didn''t know whether she should speak about it or not.


    "There are a lot of things you don''t know. You should look at the Age of Gods, and you will be able to learn many things. Unfortunately, there aren''t a lot of records left, so I guess�� you should go there to learn about it."


    "Are you not going to tell me about this energy? I call it Origin, but I don''t know if that''s the name or not." Theo exined.


    "Hmm��" Hel contemted for a moment. "I can only tell you three things. Do you know what''s the difference between ancient times and today?"


    "Is it the human poption that causes all the mistakes, resulting in Earth being polluted?"


    "Nope." Hel raised both hands and summoned a few bones on top of her palm. The bones on the right palm looked like a ball, while the ones on the other hand seemed to be a pir.


    ? "This is the World in the past." Hel extended her right hand. "Specifically, the energy reserve the world has. The world continuously releases it until today. Meanwhile, the other one is the reserve the current world has."


    "Are you implying that the world has depleted most of its energy?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "No. The energy circtes." Hel shook her head. This time, the circr bones turned smaller. "This is the other side after this realm''s creation."


    Theo was confused at first but noticed the difference in Magic Power in both realms, Theo soon understood the meaning. "So, the world has a set amount of energy that circtes all around the world. But most of them are concentrated in the original world, which is the other side.


    "Meanwhile, the modern world where we''re living right now has a smaller amount. Is it something like that?"


    "Yes." Hel nodded. "It caused two things. The first would be the person''s potential and the second one is their progress."


    "Potential?"


    "Have you ever wondered why the monsters from the other side are stronger than humans of the same level?"


    "Isn''t it because they have��" Theo paused as if he realized something.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It seems you''ve noticed it. The monsters themselves have so many races, yet overall, they''re stronger than humans. This is weird, right? There are stronger and weaker animalspared to the human on Earth, yet, the other side only has the stronger ones. You must think it''s strange, right?


    "The answer to that question is the intensity of Magic Power circting in that area. Just like when you''re fed the nutrition in your mother''s belly, the monsters are the same. The difference is the Magic Power density.


    "The Magic Power is acting like nutrition. And because the other side is denser, they be stronger species no matter how weak their species are.


    "Hence, this is the limit of humans. No matter how hard you work, you won''t be able to rival the Gods and Goddesses in the past."


    Theo frowned. "Now that I think about it, you are this strong when you''re about my age. No, it''s more like you''re already strong the moment you''re born. And be stronger after that��"


    "Yes. That''s the effect of dense Magic Power." Hel nodded and continued her exnation. "However, I''m confused about one thing in this world."


    "And that is?"


    "You!" Hel pointed at Theo with a serious expression.


    "Huh? Me?"


    "Yes." Hel confirmed without hesitation. "Despite being born in this world, you are able to reach this stage at your age. Your talent is simr to that of the Ancient Gods."


    "What?" Theo widened his eyes in shock. People considered him the most talented human on Earth. But it seemed Hel only thought Theo was as talented as others of her generation.


    In other words, someone with his talent was like a daily urrence during ancient times. The abnormal ones would be the people of this world whocked talents.


    "But how do I even be like this? I don''t think I have experienced something that can enhance my talent?" Theo felt weird, thinking he might have been ying on someone''s hand this whole time. The difference between this one and the higher being was that he knew about the higher being''s existence, but not with this one.


    So, he became extremely cautious as he recounted all his past experiences.


    "To be honest, I don''t know about it. But if there''s someone who knows the answer, it''s probably him."


    Theo''s expression turned serious. The one in her mouth was probably her father, the God of Mischief.


    He contemted for a moment and said, "If that''s the case, then I''m going to get my answer from him. However�� you haven''t exined the second reason."


    "Ah." Hel remembered what she had exined earlier and raised her finger. "Aside from your potential, the density of Magic Power also affects your growth.


    "Do you know why you usually get extra attribute points whenever you rank up?"


    "No." Theo shook his head. But the fact that she mentioned it, he knew there was a meaning behind those ranks.


    If he took another look at the ssification from the system and the Dragon Saint, he realized they were different.


    "Don''t tell me��"

 Chapter 1817 Innate Ability

    Hel raised one finger. "The answer is actually quite simple. It''s the same reason why we have more status points than you right now. I''m pretty sure you are aware of the difference between our points, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded immediately. He also knew the reason, but he couldn''t put it into words. So, he let Hel exin it.


    "If you continuously spend all your time in this modern world, it won''t be weird if you don''t get any extra points. But to increase your level, you have to go to the other side, getting exposed to their Magic Power.


    "Your body will naturally absorb that Magic Power, but because your body has always been exposed to the modern world''s energy, it makes your body repel it.


    "Hence, when you rank up, that''s where the Magic Power enters your body. Basically, your body has reached a certain threshold, so it opens a bit more reserve, allowing you to get more Magic Power."


    Theo narrowed his eyes, noticing something off. "But the amount of attribute points should be rted to the blessing, right?"


    "Nope!" Hel shook her head. "That number reflects the amount of Magic Power that can enter your body. And that also reflects the potential of your body, basically, your talent.


    "Powerful heroes, mythical beasts, or even Gods�� Do you think they have the same amount of power?"


    "Ah!" Theo understood in that instant. "The blessing is a means to expose the human to God''s Magic Power. So, basically, if their body can''t even handle it, there''s no way they will be blessed by God even if the other party is the one who wants it."


    "Yes. That''s why those selections are not random. Of course, if there are multiple people qualified to wield their power, only one will be selected."


    "Then, how do you exin the levels?"


    "I told you earlier. Your body will naturally absorb Magic Power. When you''re dead, your body will release it and your body can start to dpose."


    "So, when the monsters die, the Magic Power their bodies release will be absorbed by us. And the system is just there to make it simpler?"


    "That''s the simplest exnation. Yes, essentially." Hel nodded, confirming his doubt.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. His knowledge was shattered.


    "I see. That''s why the ranks the system has and the ones the monsters know are different. The system is the simplified version while the monsters know the original version." Theo muttered in a low voice. "There is something I wonder�� Since the two realms have merged, what will happen to the next generation?"


    "That should be your task to find out, but I''ll give you some answers. Your talent and growth will be upgraded, but you have lost the ability to level up. That''s what will happen from now on.


    "Now, I wonder who your child will take after��" Hel smirked. "If it''s your gene that is dominantter, your child will basically have a talent simr to yours, probably getting toned down a bit because it''s diluted with your wife''s potential. But if it''s your wife��"


    "Well, I don''t care about that. I''ll just support my child and teach them about everything. The rest will be up to them. Even if they don''t want to get stronger, it''s fine." Theo chuckled. "If it''s to protect them, I simply have to get strong enough to the point my reputation alone can protect them so that they will be safe even if I''m not with them."


    Hel looked at Theo for a moment and shrugged. "Well, that sounds like you. Anyway, I''ll move on to the second thing. I won''t talk about that energy since you should get the answer from him. Instead, I''m going to talk about a different kind of talent. No, should I say�� innate ability?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Innate ability?"


    "Yes." Hel nodded as she pointed at her rotten skin. "Like this one."


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned, not understanding anything about it.


    "Try to use your power to touch it."


    Theo was confused but still followed her instruction. He released a bit of his Magic Power to her rotten skin before he felt something different. "This is��"


    Hel smiled. She knew Theo must have felt his Magic Power rot until they disappeared.


    "This is an innate ability. It''s basically an ability that you''re able to possess. You have it too, though, I don''t know if you''re already aware of it or not."


    "I have it too��" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. He wondered which strength could be called an innate ability.


    However, Hel exined, "It''s an ability that everyone has, but not everyone can awaken it. And you have awakened it��"


    Theo couldn''t find the answer for a few minutes before he noticed two special things about him. The first one would be his brain, since it was the secret to why he could go this far. The other one would be his eyes. But this pair of eyes were granted by Loki, no, the world.


    "No, wait�� My eyes?!"


    "Yes."


    "��" Theo became confused. On the one hand, the God of Mischief stole it from the world at first. On the other hand, the world actually granted him theplete version after that. "Is it because I''m qualified to wield this power?"


    "You are half correct. The innate ability is basically an enhanced version of your organ. In my case, it''s my skin."


    "I see. Don''t tell me, the eyes I have after the blessing have been altered forcefully? Although I''m qualified, I might receive a different ability. So, before that happens, he forced these eyes on me?"


    "Basically, yes. Though, I believe this is the best pair of eyes you can get, especially in this situation."


    "Well, I won''t deny it, but still��" Theo sighed. His past self wouldn''t have realized it, so it was no wonder he would be forced to take that power. "Still, if you say everyone has it, how do you awaken it?"


    "Just stimte that organ continuously. In your case, by giving those eyes, you will use them again and again. And every time you use it, the more you stimte its potential. You should feel the pain, right?"


    "Ah."

 Chapter 1818 Argelia

    "Ah!" Theo remembered all the pain he had endured whenever he used his ability. Now that he thought about it, heter didn''t feel anything when he used these eyes anymore. It turned out he had awakened itpletely. And that was when the world gave him theplete version of the eyes.


    He never expected that everything that happened at first had such a meaning. Itpletely shattered his past expectations.


    "��" Theo looked down for a moment and asked, "You say it''s an organ��"


    "Basically, any body parts." Hel shrugged. "Your wife should have awakened it sooner than you�� That''s why she can even be that beautiful."


    "Doesn''t that mean she was chosen due to that innate ability?"


    "Should be."


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. There was a lot of information to take in. "I see. It seems that the power system of this world has been designed in detail. I thought it was just a mystical power�� it seems that there are a lot of things we don''t know."


    "I don''t care about yourck of knowledge, but yes, everything has a reason behind it. Whether you look into it or not is a different matter."


    "Is there any reason for��" Theo suddenly stopped, hesitating to ask thest question. He wanted to ask about the Five Aspects, but he didn''t want to rely on others a lot.


    He had been living while trying to get everything by himself. So, he didn''t want to get too reliant on Hel.


    However, it seemed Hel had been nning to exin it this whole time as she raised three fingers. "That''s the third thing I want to discuss. Five Aspects. That''s basically the extension of your innate ability and potential.


    "I''m sure you''ve realized by now how you can master both Control and Awareness better than the other three aspects, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Though, I don''t understand how Control is rted to my potential."


    "I''m pretty sure it''s rted to your birth. But since I''m not aware of it, you should ask him about that secret. As for your Awareness, it''s rted to your eyes. I don''t have to exin about the rest."


    "I see�� So, that''s why most people are able to master one aspect. They''re morefortable because of their innate ability. Whether they have awakened their innate ability or not is a different case." Theo nodded in understanding.


    "That''s basically the case. I guess you know now how to differentiate things. That''s all I can say regarding the truth about this world. If you wish to know more about it, you should ask him."


    Theo scratched his head, not knowing how to reach the God of Mischief. But Hel had told him he should go to a certain ce to learn more about the other side. So, he was nning to go there after this.


    After the discussion, Theo just sat there for a whole hour, sorting all his thoughts. And that was when a question was born.


    "That''s right. There is something I''m not sure about. Since you''re talking about growth, I''m assuming that we only get five points per level because that''s how much Magic Power our body can handle at a time.


    "On the other hand, you didn''t have a system like this in the past. So, your power system should be simr to the monsters. If that''s the case, doesn''t that mean you can still get stronger right now?"


    "Yes."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Is it possible to��"


    Before Theo finished his words, Hel shook her head. "No. It''s not possible. Even in the past, there weren''t many people who reached that level. As for those who reached it, they were strong beyond belief."


    "I guess so��" Theo smiled. "I''m just afraid that I can''t do it."


    "Afraid? That''s not like you. If you''re someone who is easily afraid of something, you won''t be here in front of me." Hel shook her head helplessly. "Though, I could say that the system has given you an easier method to reach this rank. It''s just�� the path will be arduous even for you."


    "I know." Theo sighed.


    "That''s all I can tell you. Since I''m done, you should go now. You are in a hurry, right?"


    "That''s�� true." Theo nodded. Although he felt bad just leaving her after getting what he wanted, he truly didn''t have time to waste.


    He politely bowed to Hel. "Still, thank you for telling me so many things. Thanks to you, I can finally understand the roots of my current power system."


    Hel nodded and waved her hand, sending her off. "Don''t meet me anymore after this. The next time we meet will be on the battlefield."


    "I understand." Theo understood her meaning. It seemed she was preparing herself for the final battle. In that case, he shouldn''t bother her and focus on the preparation too.


    He took a deep breath. After taking another look at Hel, he finally left the temple.


    His next trip wouldn''t be that farpared to the trip to his previous base. So, Theo hurriedly flew away, heading straight to a particr country.


    This country had been half-destroyed in the past by a weird ident. And that weird ident was actually the one helping him to understand the apocalypse.


    It was also where he finally met his loved one after so long on anothernd.


    Yes, the identity of that country was none other than Argelia. The country that once had their sky cracked and their teleportation circle destroyed. That incident caused the two realms to merge for the first time.


    However, there was one missing link that Theo got from Hel when she pointed at this ce. Although the bridge, AKA the teleportation circle, was destroyed, there was still another membrane between the two realms. If they copsed, that membrane would pop out as well, causing another change in the world.


    Yet, it didn''t.


    That membrane was the void where Ancient Beings like heroes, mythical beasts, and Gods lived after their deaths.


    What Theo was seeking in thisnd was that void.

 Chapter 1819 Mysterious Pair

    "So�� where should I go this time��" Theo muttered. He was in the town where the disruption happened and devoured the people in it. It was the first case of the merging of the two realms.


    "Well, there should be a clue somewhere in this ce." Theo frowned. Hel had told him that the God of Mischief had left something in this ce. So, he wondered what kind of clue he had left behind.


    Since he could only find the information inside the town, he hurriedly entered and started searching with both his Awareness and his Reality Eyes.


    The possibilities of other Realities shed in his eyes as they scanned the area. Theo''s normal pupils had turned to the real Reality Eyes since he didn''t n to hide it anymore in this ce.


    Unfortunately for him, the city was quite huge. He looked from one corner to another, but there didn''t seem to be any clues. He should have brought Isaac to check the Magic Power in the area. But since he was the only one here, he had to do everything by himself.


    In the end, Theo leaked his Magic Power to the surrounding, trying to rm all the monsters nearby.


    A series of roars filled the city as they came out of their nests, heading straight to Theo.


    "Only a hundred of them?" Theo narrowed his eyes, slightly disappointed with the number. However, that was enough for now, considering his true objective was the clue.


    Theo activated his Order and began shing the monsters. It only took him a minute to kill a hundred low level monsters.


    After killing them, Theo checked all their nests, wondering if there were still humans in this ce.


    It had been a few years since the apocalypse had begun. So, the humans had either died or created a powerful base that could withstand the demons. But they would still sooner orter die if they didn''t join the three big bases.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t tell them about it yet because he had toplete this trip first. Instead of telling them, he preferred to bring them personally. This way, his poprity would increase further.


    "Still��" Theo muttered. He was tired of looking after the scattered people in this area. It seemed that there were no humans left in this city.


    "I don''t know what to say." After that incident, the city was restored. Although the number of people wasn''t as many as in the past, the city should have at least one million people.


    Yet, everyone had died under the monster''s attack.


    Theo med himself for their death since he was the one orchestrating the apocalypse. It also included all the billions of people who had passed away.


    He tried to expand more of his Magic Power. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Theo suddenly picked up living beings with his Awareness.


    "Hmm?" Theo nced at the building while furrowing his eyebrows. "If it''s a monster, I should pick up multiple monsters in that building. So�� is it a human?"


    This ten-story building was half destroyed. Some of its support pirs had gone missing, and it looked like it could be destroyed easily if there was a fight between monsters. So, it was surprising that they could survive in this building.


    Without hesitation, Theo entered the building while looking at the interior. It had been ransacked by monsters. There was blood everywhere, but the corpses had either been eaten or turned into bones.


    But to his surprise, Theo suddenly felt the presence was actually moving after he entered the building.


    "Huh?" Theo was stunned at first and tried to go upstairs. It was then he confirmed that the presence he felt earlier actually moved ording to his action. "This��"


    Since Theo didn''t know what was going on, he tried to go carefully. But the more he took his time to go to them, the more they tried to get away from him.


    In the end, Theo had to use his power to reach a speed beyond a normal human''s. He went straight to the presence he felt earlier, which was located on the fifth floor.


    When he reached that floor, he heard a young boy''s voice saying, "Sister. Watch out. It''s already there!"


    "Huh?" Theo widened his eyes as he arrived in front of them. It turned out they were a pair of a boy and a girl. With how they were calling each other, it was clear they were siblings.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The girl seemed to be around ten years old. Despite living in this horrible world, there wasn''t a single scratch on her body. She even wore a white shirt that looked a bit bigger for her.


    Meanwhile, the boy appeared a few years younger. He had a simr appearance to his sister. But there was one thing that piqued Theo''s interest. The boy''s eyes were closed or probably blind.


    Even though he couldn''t see anything, it didn''t change the fact that the boy was the one rming his sister about Theo''s presence.


    Theo waspletely shocked as he saw their status.


    Name: Lydia


    Status: Normal


    Level: 0


    EXP: 0/1


    Blessing: -


    Skill: -


    Attributes: Strength 3, Endurance 5, Agility 7, Vitality 4, Magic Power 1


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Name: Lyrventh


    Status: Normal


    Level: 0


    EXP: 0/1


    Blessing: -


    Skill: -


    Attributes: Strength 2, Endurance 3, Agility 2, Vitality 2, Magic Power 15


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    It turned out these two children hadn''t even leveled up yet. Looking at their age, they shouldn''t have gone to the other side and killed the monsters to level up before the apocalypse, so it should be the reason why their level still remained at the very bottom.


    But this was actually why Theo became even more perplexed. Even though there were a lot of people stronger than them, they didn''t survive. Only these two kids still managed to live in this empty city.


    When the boy was about to shout, the girl actually gasped and said, "That face�� Are you Theodore Griffith?"


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1820 Hearing?

    "Are you Theodore Griffith?!"


    "!!!" Theo and the boy were shocked. The boy didn''t expect Theo toe here. On the other hand, Theo was quite amused with the fact that the girl knew him. But since he was popr in the past, it wouldn''t be weird if a little girl could know him.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes. I''m Theodore Griffith."


    Theo wanted to know the secret of how they managed to stay alive this whole time. After all, they shouldn''t be able to fight against the monsters he had just killed.


    Yet, even though they were enduring this harsh situation, they seemed to be healthy and unscathed.


    "Are you�� not a threat?!" The boy asked Theo while furrowing his eyebrows. He had heard about Theo, but he never saw his face due to his blind eyes.


    "If you think I''m a threat, then I don''t mind. Though, I personallye here not as your enemy." Theo said with a calm tone. It was fair if they doubted him after all.


    "��" The boy paused for a moment before saying, "Then, you''re not a threat��"


    Theo was amused by the boy''s way of talking. So, he couldn''t help but ask, "Do you wish to leave this ce?"


    "Can we?" The girl''s eyes shed as if she had just seen hope.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a smile, assuring the girl.


    "Isn''t that great, Lyr?"


    The boy frowned as if he was unsure about this. He asked Theo, "But there are threats everywhere. I don''t know if you can bring us that easily."


    "Lyr! You can''t be rude!" Lydia hurriedly rebuked him, but Theo didn''t mind about it. Instead, he asked, "You have been mentioning ''threat'' this whole time. Do you sense something?"


    "��" The boy didn''t n to answer that question, while the girl seemed to be overjoyed that she could meet Theo to the point she blurted everything out. "He has impressive hearing. He can hear everything around us. That''s why we can��Mhp!"


    Before she finished, the boy had covered his sister''s mouth. However, it was toote.


    Theo nodded his head and said, "I see. So, hearing huh��"


    "��" The boy gritted his teeth and considered Theo a threat. But considering he could reach them before they could even run away, it was clear they had no chance to escape.


    On the other hand, Theo smiled and said, "It seems that you have endured a lot in the past."


    "��" The boy''s body shook. Theo''s voice and words felt so soothing.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo might have understood what it meant to have enhanced hearing. He had heard a lot of things from childhood, including how people thought about a blind child. So, he couldn''t really trust the people around him. Only his sister didn''t have any bad thoughts about him. She even argued with everyone that tried to look down on him.


    That was why she was here with him. And Theo understood perfectly the suffering he endured this whole time.


    "I''ll say this again. If you consider me a threat, I''ll leave. If you can believe me, then I''ll do my best to help you." Theo smiled.


    Surprisingly, the boy shouted, "What? You must be saving us because you think we''re useful to you, right?!"


    The boy had grown ustomed to finding people who had hidden intentions. When he said this, they would try to change the topic or answer half-heartedly, but it couldn''t go past his ears.


    This time, he was going to catch Theo''s hidden intention.


    But to his surprise, Theo didn''t hesitate to admit it. "Yes. Though, I won''t be saying you''re useful to me. Instead, you have piqued my interest. That''s the reason why I''m going to save you."


    "Huh?!" The boy was stunned, never expecting this kind of answer. Even his sister was shocked to know that her idol was actually a guy like this.


    However, the boy asked, "You''re not afraid to admit it?"


    "Why do I need to be afraid? Even if I''m not interested in you, I''m going to bring you two back after I''ve finished my objective in this ce. Seeing how you two have survived for so long, I think waiting for a bit more won''t be a problem for you, right?"


    "��" The boy fell silent, not being able to rebuke him. Theo was different from anyone he had seen before. This might be the reason why he could say, "If that''s the case, you can take my sister away. I don''t need your help!"


    "What?!" Lydia was shocked while Theo made a gentle smile. "Is it so hard for you to live like a burden? You are the reason why your sister is still alive right now."


    "Eh?!" Lydia''s body shook. She looked at her brother and realized what Theo had said earlier. It was true that Lydia was the one who did everything, from helping with his daily needs to searching for food. But the reason why they could survive this whole time was because he had warned her about the danger again and again. If not for his warning, she would have been eaten by the monsters.


    That was why she never thought he was a burden. He was her savior. "Lyr, you��!"


    "How do you know��" The boy took a step back. He never thought Theo would be able to read his mind.


    Theo chuckled. "A wise man once said, ''A great listener hears one word but understands two."


    "!!!" The boy gasped. Theo seemed to be telling him that he might have enhanced hearing, but he wasn''t a good listener because he didn''t understand her sister''s feelings.


    "That''s why I''m going to ask you again��" Theo extended his hand. "I''m going to bring you away from here. At the very least, you two should have lived in a better ce. If you reject me, I''m going to kidnap you. If you ept, I''m going to bring you peacefully. Which one will you choose?"


    "��" There was no trace of lies in Theo''s words. In fact, Theo had never lied this whole time. The boy gritted his teeth and decided, "The one where my sister won''t get hurt."

 Chapter 1821 Agreed

    "Mhm�� Hmm�� Uhm��" Lydia was humming happily while bringing the few water bottles they had.


    Theo and Lyrventh were sitting in front of each other.


    After talking a bit with them, they agreed to discuss their n in the ce they lived in.


    Theo realized that Lyrventh was one of the people who had awakened its innate ability since he was very young. It was simr to Alea, whose eyes could capture all the little details.


    He didn''t have any exnation about the uniqueness of one''s body before, but now that he was aware of the innate ability, he knew Lyrventh had one of the most powerful innate abilities. It was hard to find someone that could hear so far like him.


    Due to his ability, he started learning a lot when he was two years old. He knew how a couple fought, someone schemed against their enemy, and other cases. That was why he had developed a trust issue, especially around strangers.


    Theo could understand him and decided to talk about it here.


    "It''s quite surprising that you manage to live in an area like this��" Theo sighed, knowing how hard for children to survive.


    "Well, after the apocalypse, Lyrventh heard the situation around him and decided it would be best to get survival guides. I downloaded everything I could find on Sk and it was still useful.


    "The food came from all around the ce since we could travel around." Lydia returned while exining their situation.


    "I see. That''s admirable." Theo nodded with a smile. "You did great."


    "Ehehe��" Lydia couldn''t contain her smile.


    "So, I''m nning to bring you with me. The humanities have three huge bases currently. The closest one will be the union, located in Germany."


    "You sound distant. Do you not live there?" The boy asked with a serious expression.


    "I used to live there, but because of some reasons, I moved to another base, which is the US Base."


    "Then, are you going to take us there?" Lyrventh frowned, questioning Theo''s intention. He had been skeptical about Theo, so he held nothing back. After the apocalypse, there was rarely any human that would help others without getting anything back. So, he couldn''t trust Theo that easily.


    Theo shook his head. "I''m not sure myself. If I bring you there right now, you might die on the way. After all, the monster that will stop us is a powerful monster that can destroy this building with a p."


    "��" Lyrventh paused for a moment and asked, "So, are you going to bring us to the closest one and leave us there?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Well, I won''t necessarily leave you alone. I know that you might get treated worse after this. And since you have been living alone unlike people who have joined hands to survive, I''m sure you won''t know anyone. In other words, you two might have to live alone.


    "So, let''s just say I''m interested in you. I''ll ask my family to take care of you. There, you can try to find a ce where you belong and eventually be independent. What do you think?"


    Lyrventh contemted for a moment. "But it''s better if we live here. There''s no reason why we should go there. In this ce, we know we don''t have any allies, so we just have to survive. On the other hand, if we follow you, we might have to deal with uncertainty."


    "You don''t have to worry. There will be a new way to travel between bases soon. Using that, I can bring you to the US Base without any danger. So, if living with my family doesn''t suit you, I''ll bring you to my ce. You should be able to find the work you can do and eventually have enough strength to protect your sister." Theo exined.


    "��" Lyrventh didn''t know what to say after that. His sister, on the other hand, didn''t really understand the level of their conversation. Unlike Lyrventh, she hadn''t been exposed to scams, schemes, or negotiations.


    To make Lyrventh understand the situation better, Theo added, "Of course, I''m also concerned about your safety here. Although I know you can avoid the monsters, it doesn''t change the fact that you need a food supply.


    "Right now, I can see that you are eating canned food. They will soon expire, so you have to grow your own food from scratch. Can you do that? Even if you know about it, do you think your sister can handle everything alone?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    This was a big concern because they were, nheless, children.


    Lyrventh bit his lips, not being able to rebuke him. As he said, they would just be dying if they remained here. The only way to get more food supply was through hunting the monster and farming. But both of them couldn''t do it.


    "��" He pondered carefully before asking, "You said you still need to take care of some businesses here."


    "Yes."


    "Then are you going to leave us here?"


    "Lyr?!" Lydia gasped. It seemed Theo managed to convince him. Her brother had been more mature than her this whole time, so she chose to believe his decision. Seeing her brother wanting to leave, it meant they could live together for a better future.


    Theo nodded. "That''s the n. I''m going to be back after a while. In the meantime, I''ll bring you some food, so you can stay in this ce for a while. I''ll make sure there are no monsters in the area as well."


    "��" Lyrventh thought for a moment. "You said we piqued your interest. In that case, you should bring us around. Even if I couldn''t see, I should be able to judge your ability. I want to know whether you are strong enough to protect us or not. No matter what, we''re going to be your burden for a while, so I want to check your capability."


    Theo narrowed his eyes. The thing he wanted to investigate wasn''t dangerous, but it was extremely important. He didn''t know whether he should bring these kids or not, considering the boy could hear anything around him.


    Theo contemted for a moment before saying, "Alright. Seeing how you''re nning to risk your life like this, I don''t mind bringing you."

 Chapter 1822 A Deal?

    Theo and Lyrventh seemed to have reached an agreement.


    Theo didn''t want to waste too much time here, so he suggested they should leave as soon as possible.


    The siblings seemed to be constantly on the run, so they didn''t have a lot of items with them. This way, it didn''t take too long for them to pack up.


    Lyrventh aside, Lydia didn''t seem to be afraid either. She had constantly been running into danger, so she managed to keep calm even in front of monsters.


    "It seems both of you are ready." Theo looked at the two kids. Because he had taken them in, he''d got a pair of clothes that suited their stature.


    Though, Lyrventh refused to use anything to cover his eyes as if he wanted everyone to see his weakness.


    "Yes." Lydia nodded with a serious expression. She held Lyrventh''s hand to guide him.


    Right before they left, Lyrventh suddenly pointed at the street on their right. "Two blocks away. There is a monster roaming in the str��It''sing. We have to hide!"


    Lyrventh tried to warn him, but he soon panicked and grabbed his sister to go back inside.


    However, Theo used his Telekinesis to lift them up so that they didn''t run away.


    "What are you doing?!" Lyrventh knew they were floating, but because he couldn''t see, he didn''t know what was going on.


    Theo nced at him and Lydia with a smile. "There''s no need to worry. A monster like this is not capable of hurting me."


    Lydia didn''t know what Theo was talking about. She was more worried about Lyrventh''s warning instead of Theo''s confidence, considering she had never seen Theo fight.


    Soon, a roar echoed in the area. There was a monster that looked like a lion but three times in size. The tip of its tail was zing.


    ''Since they''re kids, it''s better not to make it too brutal, I guess.'' Theo thought while looking at the iing lion.


    The lion ran as quickly as possible, ready to pounce on its prey.


    Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Theo.


    With a single wave of his hand, the air suddenly cracked.


    ''Huh?'' The air is cracked?'' Lydia was stunned as she couldn''t believe what she had witnessed. The crack actually hit the lion, causing the lion to follow the crack like that of a mirror.


    Theo manipted the illusion and caused the lion''s head to crack in reality.


    The result wasn''t that visible. Other than a few lines on its head, the lion didn''t seem to have any injuries. However, the lion soon stopped and started spitting blood before it fell down lifelessly.


    "Huh?" Lyrventh widened his eyes in shock because he couldn''t hear the lion''s heart anymore. "It''s dead?"


    Lydia gasped because Theo could defeat a terrifying lion with just a single wave of his hand. He didn''t even touch him or use any fancy ability. He just cracked the air.


    "How did you do it?" Lydia''s eyes shed, looking at Theo with admiration. Theo was her idol in the past, but because he forcefully took them away, he lost some respect in her heart. But with that agreement and how Theo defeated the enemy effortlessly, the fire in her heart was ignited.


    Theo chuckled and said yfully, "It''s a secret."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Uuh��" Lydia looked down, pouting.


    "I hear the sound, but it''s weird�� It feels like it''s not real!" Lyrventh, on the other hand, frowned.


    Theo might have recreated the sound to human standards, but Lyrventh''s enhanced hearing was on another level.


    He had been listening to many things and grown ustomed to his enhanced hearing to the point he could separate a raindrop one hundred feet away.


    "��" Theo looked at him with a serious expression. He might have underestimated Lyrventh this whole time. "Interesting."


    Theo put them down gently and said, "Follow me. We''re going around this ce to find something."


    "It sounds like you don''t know where you have to go��" Lyrventh harrumphed.


    "Lyrventh, you shouldn''t say it like that. We''re already a burden to him, so we shouldn''t cause more trouble!" Lydia looked at Lyrventh, concerned. She wasn''t angry because she knew Lyrventh just didn''t like Theo for forcing them through this. At the same time, it was true that Theo was currently trying to save them.


    Lyrventh looked a bit adamant, but after listening to her voice, he looked down, defeated. He ended up apologizing to Theo.


    Theo only smiled. He couldn''t help but admit he saw himself in Lyrventh. Unlike the past him, who couldn''t say whatever he wanted, Lyrventh was bolder. Either way, they would end up dead sooner orter, so getting killed by Theo wasn''t too much of a concern.


    It could also test Theo''s real character.


    Unfortunately, Theo didn''t give him what he wanted. He just chuckled and handed it calmly.


    "Yeah. I still don''t know the exact location, but something I''m searching for is in this city. I just have to roam around to find anything. Though, it might make the search faster if you help me." Theo smiled.


    "We''ll help!" Lydia hurriedly answered, so Lyrventh didn''t make any more rude remarks.


    However, Theo added, "Of course, I''m going to give you something if you help me."


    "A gift?" Lyrventh was confused. He didn''t know what kind of gift Theo thought would fit him.


    "Yeah. I''m going to show you the little gift tonight. I''m sure you''re going to love it."


    "What if I don''t like it?"


    "I''ll grant you a wish." Theo smiled.


    "��" Lyrventh looked down and nodded. "Fine. I''ll cooperate with you."


    "Good." Theo chuckled.


    Lydia was surprised. It seemed Theo knew how to handle Lyrventh. In the past, people would just get angry because of Lyrventh''s behavior and rude remarks. But Theo didn''t seem to think much about it.


    But both Lyrventh and Theo knew that their words didn''t contain a single shred of lies. That was why they both could understand each other. Even Lyrventh became less wary since Theo wouldn''t take back his wordster.


    And thus, the start of their cooperation.

 Chapter 1823 See

    Theo and the children continued searching around. With Theo''s Telekinesis, they could fly around with ease. And there wouldn''t be any problem with monsters since no one could withstand Theo''s strength.


    The more Theo fought against those monsters, the more they realized Theo''s strength.


    Although the first day didn''t bear any fruit, Lyrventh had opened up a little, knowing his sister would be fine if Theo took care of her.


    Eventually, they went inside a ruined building. Theo used his power to clean up the area and started preparing some food. Of course, with the monster''s meat.


    "Alright. Dig in." Theo smiled. Although he wasn''t a chef, he still cooked for himself since Coline wouldn''t be with him all the time.


    The two kids devoured everything as if they had just eaten the most delicious food in the world. Because they couldn''t hunt the monsters and find some herbs, it seemed they hadn''t eaten anything good in the past few years. It was still surprising that these two kids managed to survive this far.


    Theo could see the potential of these two kids. Lyrventh had enhanced hearing which yed a huge role in their survival, while Lydia''s bright personality kept them going.


    "It''s so good." Lydia smiled while lying on her back.


    "��" Lyrventh felt weird, seeing his sister acting like that. This might be the first time his sister was so rxed.


    Soon, he heard Theo approaching him.


    He raised his head as if trying to look Theo in the eyes.


    "What are you going to do?"


    "I''m going to show you the gift." Theo smiled and touched his forehead.


    "Hmm?" Lydia was confused as she watched them.


    Suddenly, Lyrventh opened his eyes in shock, revealing the pupil thatck of life. The gray-colored eyes looked so lifeless that they would either make one pity him or disgust him.


    Lydia didn''t understand what was going on, but Lyrventh suddenly asked out loud. "What is this?"


    Lyrventh spun his body around. His head kept turning back and forth as if he was trying toprehend the situation.


    "Lyr, what''s happening? Why are you opening your eyes? Why are you looking so confused?" Lydia asked, worried about her brother.


    "This��" Lyrventh sucked a cold breath.


    The reason why he opened his eyes was due to Theo''s illusion.


    Everything waspletely ck this whole time. He didn''t know anything. The color, the real shape, and even the change before him.


    But suddenly, everything changed. In front of him, he could see an object suddenly sh out. It was two times his height, and he could hear the vibration the object gave. It was a fridge.


    He turned around and saw a tall man in front of him. He didn''t understand Theo was Theo.


    He looked around and saw all the new objects that he wasn''t unfamiliar with.


    But soon, the familiar voice echoed in his ears.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Lyr, what''s happening? Why are you opening your eyes? Why are you looking so confused?"


    His body shook as he turned to see the origin of that voice. And that was when he saw a figure. Despite not having seen her once, he could recognize her voice.


    "This is��" Lyrventh gasped and tried to walk to her. But because he had been moving without his eyes, he lost his bnce soon because of the shaking of the image in his eyes. "Eh?!"


    Lydia hurriedly caught him and asked with a worried expression. "What is happening?"


    Lyrventh wasn''t aware of this worried expression, but he understood it from her tone.


    "Is this you, Sister?" Lyrventh asked. Tears had starteding out of the corner of his eyes as if he couldn''t believe what he had just seen.


    "Eh?" Lydia was stunned because she didn''t know what Lyrventh was talking about.


    Theo exined with a smile. "I''m a master of illusion. It seems that he can see through which one is an illusion and which one is not.


    "Although it''s just an illusion, I''m giving him an illusion of aplete recreation of this room. In other words, the reason why he''s like this is because I have given him the ability to see everything around him for the first time.


    "All the objects he has used, all the unfamiliar figures, and the most important one�� the sister who has been protecting him this whole time."


    "You��" Lydia gasped, looking at Theo in shock. "He can see?"


    "With an illusion, yes." Theo nodded.


    "So, that means this is you, Sister?" Lyrventh gulped down, looking a bit confused.


    Theo added, "This is the transaction, kid. If you''re going to help me, I''ll project everything around us for a while. That way, your sister might be able to teach you a lot of things��"


    This was a deal that could be described as a miracle. If it was any other illusionist, they wouldn''t be able to show him something like this.


    After all, Theo had applied a bit of his Reality Order. This way, everything moved ording to what happened inside the real world.


    When his sister was moving, he could see the change in that instant and act ordingly.


    "So, how is it, Boy? Do you want to take this deal or not?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    Lyrventh gulped down. He realized that Theo could give him this ability as long as he wanted, but because he had been rude to him this whole time, he made him pay the price.


    If he wanted to see his sister longer, he had to work to earn that chance.


    Lyrventh gritted his teeth and looked at him.


    "I''m going to do it. I''ll cooperate with you. No matter what you''re going to request from me, I''llplete it. Please�� allow me to see�� Even if it''s an illusion, even if it''s just for a while, I won''tin." Lyrventh lowered his head.


    Theo sighed and patted his head. "You''re just a kid right now. I can''t help but see myself in you. But in the past, I didn''t have anyone to ask. Meanwhile, you have me for now. During that time, if you want something, you have to ask.


    "For now, you have thirty minutes since I''m merely showing you my side of the deal. So, treasure that chance."

 Chapter 1824 A Clue?

    After that, Lydia led Lyrventh to learn a lot of things. This was the first time he saw everything, including the humans. So, she taught him all the body parts before moving to all the objects around them.


    Since he couldn''t see, she didn''t let him do anything previously. But with this, he should know about the object around him.


    It was a truly good experience for Lyrventh.


    It truly made Lyrventh realize how important the deal was.


    As expected, the next day, Lyrventh enthusiastically informed Theo about all the things in their surroundings. Even if it was something unnecessary, he would inform Theo.


    Of course, Theo didn''t mind listening to all the details. After all, he didn''t know what kind of clue the God of Mischief had left behind.


    Seeing how the two kids survived in this ce even made him doubt their existence. He thought the two kids were the clues the God of Mischief had left behind. All he needed to do was to use these two kids to find the real clue.


    At the same time, the two kids were simply worth too much to the point he couldn''t ignore them. Lyrventh''s enhanced hearing became even better because he was blind. That way, it made him rely on his hearing a lot.


    And seeing how the kids grew up like this despite listening to all kinds of sounds, it was clear that Lyrventh had a strong heart and mind like his sister.


    In the end, Theo decided to take them to his base when Maya opened the airline.


    Lyrventh had also be grateful to Theo. Every night, he allowed him to see the world. Even though it was ruined, this was the first time he saw them.


    All he could think was how beautiful it was. And due to the fact that all the people and monsters in the city were gone, it became quiet. It was perfect for him since he could rest his ears.


    During that time, he learned a lot under the guidance of his sister. Lydia wanted to show him how beautiful the world was.


    She didn''t care about the apocalypse and all these ruined buildings, she just wanted to show her that they were living in this ce, so they had to enjoy it.


    This kind of positivity was hard toe by. If he left Lydia to Rea, she would surely grow up as a beautiful and energetic woman. All that remained was Lyrventh. He had to take care of Lyrventh personally due to the enhanced hearing.


    There was no way his people wouldn''t talk about him at all. Even if they didn''t do it immediately, they would slip up sooner orter.


    By keeping him with him, Theo could maintain his state of mind. However, it didn''t seem he could make Lyrventh his disciple.


    Although his enhanced hearing was useful, Lyrventh couldn''t get stronger anymore. He might be able to upgrade his skill, but Lyrventh didn''t have a skill and his level was still at the very bottom, so it was impossible to do it no matter what.


    So, he would just take care of him for the time being and see what kind of position suited him.


    It took them three days before they could find something.


    Theo still carried them in the air while scanning the city with his Awareness and Magic Power. Lyrventh was listening to every sound in the area while Lydia remained quiet so as to not disturb them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The situation changed when Lyrventh heard something.


    "This��" Lyrventh suddenly frowned. "Can you stop for a moment?"


    Theo nced back before stopping. He let them levitate in the air so that they could see their surroundings.


    "Is there something wrong?"


    "I''m not very sure, but I feel like I can hear a vibrationing from that direction." Lyrventh pointed at the west.


    There should be no vibration left since the machine had stopped after the town didn''t have any more electricity. So, it was quite surprising to know there was something like this.


    There were only two possibilities for this vibration. One was a monster that was trying to lure them away. Still, they hadn''t even met yet and there was no way a monster would continuously do it after finding no prey for a long time.


    That meant it was the second possibility. It was the clue Theo was searching for.


    "I''m going to check that area. I''m going to drop you in one of the buildings and you have to hide there for a while. I''ll try to go back as soon as possible, but if something happens to me, you two should try to survive for as long as you can. I''ll definitelye back."


    Theonded on top of a building. Before he left, Lydia grabbed his hand, looking at Theo worriedly.


    She was thankful for everything Theo had done. Thest few days were truly the happiest days, so she didn''t want to leave Theo''s side.


    But at the same time, she was sensible enough that it wasn''t her ce to stop him.


    Theo smiled and patted her head. He kneeled down so that he could look into her eyes from the same level. "Listen to me, Lydia. You have to protect your little brother, Okay? You two have been relying on each other this whole time, so I believe you can wait for me, right?"


    "Mhm��" Lydia nodded with a sad expression.


    "Don''t worry. I''m going to clean up the entire area first before checking the vibration. I''ll be back."


    Although reluctant, Lydia released Theo''s hand.


    After looking at them for onest time, Theo turned around and jumped into the air. But before he left, Lyrventh''s voice echoed in his ears.


    "Be careful."


    Theo was surprised to the point he stopped for a moment just to look at him. It was quite surprising to see Lyrventh, who had been suspicious of him, say those words.


    Theo waved his hand while flying away. "I''ll be back."

 Chapter 1825 Ring

    Theo had arrived in front of a building. The building seemed to be a former apartment since he could see a few exposed rooms.


    However, when he spread his Magic Power around the building, he noticed a fluctuationing from the basement.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes and gradually entered the building. He pulled out his weapon. On the one hand, he believed this fluctuation didn''te from a monster. On the other hand, he didn''t know what he was dealing with, so he had to be careful.


    He tried to locate the entrance to the basement. He used his Magic Power to infiltrate the door through the little gap to find which one led to the underground.


    It didn''t take too long for him to find it.


    Without hesitation, Theo approached the door and gently opened it. But since it was locked, he ended up using his illusion to turn the door into an illusion, allowing him to break in without destroying the door.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes as he felt the room was weirdly chilling. It felt like something was freezing inside, but it wasn''t the fridge.


    He climbed down the stairs carefully while covering his body with Magic Power, trying to find the one releasing this Magic Power.


    It seemed the basement was for the utility of the apartment. He could see a few tools and equipment used to maintain the apartment sitting on a table in the middle of the room. The right side was filled with shelves containing a lot of equipment for the rooms.


    But what piqued his interest was the opposite side. There was a blue-colored ring hanging on a small nail nted on the wall.


    "Hmm?" Theo frowned. The ring had the size of a basketball, but it was oozing Magic Power continuously.


    He looked around the room. Despite not being used for a few years, he didn''t see any dust entering this room. Even the temperature was the same as outside due to the venttion.


    Theo thought the ring was the reason. Hence, he approached the ring carefully while trying to check its ability with his Reality Eyes.


    "What is this ring?" Theo muttered. He had seen himself taking the ring in other realities, but there didn''t seem to be any consequences yet.


    At the same time, the Magic Power released by the ring was white in color. It was clear that the energy was an Order. However, he didn''t know why such a thing appeared here.


    "This is weird. This ring should have been noticed by the owner of the apartment this whole time. The owner would have gone to a pawn shop or police to report his finding. But the ring is still here�� It means the owner didn''t realize the ring''s power.


    "There are only two possibilities. The first one is that the ring is ced here deliberately after the apocalypse. And the second possibility��" Theo narrowed his eyes, observing the ring. "The ring just activates like this after the apocalypse. Although I want to say the ring is teleported due to the distortion in the apocalypse, the ring is not a living being. So, it doesn''t get teleported.


    "So, it means the ring is fluctuating like this because of the density of Magic Power. That''s right. There is a big difference in Magic Power density before and after the apocalypse. Because of that sudden surge of Magic Power, the ring is activated.


    "Still, the ring should have been activated when Argelia experienced that incident since this world is fused with the other side."


    Theo couldn''t exin everything. But it was true that the ring seemed to be reacting right now. Although he didn''t know why it got activated, he could grab it and learn more back in his base.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo gulped down and used his Telekinesis to pick up the ring. He spun it around to observe the detail.


    However, he couldn''t find anything other than a smooth surface.


    He didn''t understand this ring, so he used his Order and Authority to check how this Order reacted.


    But to his surprise, the ring was rejecting his energy as if they were notpatible. It wasn''t that the ring repelled his energy because it attacked him, so Theo knew he could pick this ring and check about itter.


    Isaac''s eyes would certainly be necessary since he could see the amount of Magic Powering out of this ring.


    He tried to put it down on the ground to see if there was any change when it touched other surfaces.


    Seeing there was no reaction from the ring, he immediately used his Telekinesis to carry it around and returned to the outside. Since he didn''t know if this was the only clue left, he had to continue the investigation for a while.


    He didn''t waste any time going back since he was a bit worried about leaving two kids in the middle of nowhere. Although he had cleared the area before leaving, it didn''t change the fact there would always be variables.


    Fortunately, it seemed that the kids didn''t have any mishaps. He could feel them hiding in the same building, waiting for him. There was no other presence other than them, so he hurriedly entered the building to find them.


    As if knowing Theo had returned, both Lyrventh and Lydia rushed to meet him.


    "Wee back, Big Brother!" Lydia made a big smile, feeling relieved after seeing Theo was fine.


    Lyrventh was narrowing his eyes even though he felt happy. There was something bothering him.


    It was none other than the vibrating ring.


    "Hmm? Is there something wrong?" Theo asked with a serious expression. He had just returned with an unknown object, so he still hadn''t dropped his guard.


    Lyrventh pointed at the ring and said, "I''m not sure, but the ring is vibrating."


    "Yes. It''s vibrating indeed. It''s also releasing white-colored Magic Power." Theo nodded.


    "I don''t know about the Magic Power part, but the vibration seems toe from not the ring but the inside."


    "!!!"

 Chapter 1826 Mysterious Person

    "Huh?" Theo was startled and looked at the ring. "The inside?"


    "Yes." Lyrventh nodded with a serious expression, showing how much he was determined with his judgment.


    "This��" Theo didn''t know what to do. He wanted to break it apart, but he didn''t know what was inside.


    "Do you feel anything else other than the vibration?" Theo asked.


    "I''m not sure." Lyrventh shook his head. He focused all his attention on the ring but found nothing else.


    "I see." Theo thought for a moment. It seemed like he should go back to Hel first to ask about this ring. She might be aware of it.


    After all, Theo looked like the Frost Saint when he broke the pir, causing the two realms to merge. He didn''t want to repeat the same mistake, so he was going to ask her first.


    "I understand. I''m afraid I can''t do anything about this ring first. But I''m searching for an item like this here, I hope you can help me."


    "I''ll cooperate with you." Lyrventh nodded in agreement.


    After that, Theo began his journey to find other mysterious items. But the longer he roamed around the town, the weirder the situation became.


    First, he found more rings. The rings were different from each other. The second ring distorted the space around it, causing Theo to have a hard time transporting it. He had to constantly use his power to avoid distorting the item it touched.


    The third ring had many colors. It resembled the colors of crystal to measure one''s affinity. There were a total of nine colors like how there were nine elements.


    Because of this third ring, he was d he didn''t break the ring apart at first. He knew there might be something weird happening because of that action.


    With that thought in mind, he got the fourth ring which released some golden particles instead of vibrating. The particles also disappeared not long after and Theo couldn''t feel anything when he touched them.


    In total, he found seven rings. Each ring had its own specialty, so it confused both Theo and Lyrventh since he could hear them vibrating.


    It took them two weeks to gather all seven rings. And everything started to change from the fifteenth day.


    When Theo was about to get some sleep, Theo heard a voice echoing in his ears.


    ''Come here!''


    Theo widened his eyes in that instant as he couldn''t feel anyone''s presence other than the two kids. He was shocked because he never thought there would be someone contacting him and he had no way to determine the person''s location.


    Theo hurriedly released his Magic Power, trying to scan the entire area but to no avail.


    Although it was faint, he could sense the direction of that voice. So, he immediately left his room to find the origin of that voice.


    Surprisingly, Lyrventh was still asleep as if he didn''t hear anything from that voice. It meant only he could hear that voice.<novelnext></novelnext>


    With that thought in mind, Theo used his Telekinesis to leave their room, not wanting to awaken the children.


    He flew a quarter mile away before he saw a guy standing on top of a building.


    The guy had long white hair. Despite looking mature, he seemed to be in the middle of his thirties. He wore a in white shirt and long ck pants, albeit his cool temperament made him look out of ce. It felt like he wasn''t used to wearing this type of clothes.


    The guy noticed Theo and raised his head, staring at him with a smile.


    Even though Theo couldn''t feel the fluctuation of Magic Power from him, his instinct was telling him that he would lose the moment they fought. At the same time, the Reality Eyes actually didn''t give him any information as if this guy wasn''t alive.


    Theo gulped down, not knowing what to do. If he ran away right now, he was afraid it was impossible to do it, considering the guy could rm him from far away without him noticing. The gap between their abilities was simply too big.


    Theo carefullynded in front of him. If the guy wanted a fight, he would have done so in the first ce. Besides, his Reality Eyes couldn''t see any reality where he would meet him as if this guy only existed in his reality.


    This was the first time he saw such a case, so he decided to have a conversation with this guy to see what was going on.


    "I''vee," said Theo with a serious expression. "May I know who you are?"


    "Shouldn''t you be introducing yourself first before asking for someone''s name?" The guy''s voice felt out of the world. Just his tone felt like it wanted to make Theo kneel down.


    Theo narrowed his eyes and decided toply. This was the first time he felt this kind of suppression. "I am Theodore Griffith."


    The guy closed his eyes for a moment. The smile on his face became bigger as he said, "I''m here because of a certain old friend asking me to visit you. I guess his arrangement has truly worked since I have seen this generation of Reality User."


    "Reality?!" Theo widened his eyes. His body shook. There were two important things he picked up from his words.


    It was a request from an old friend. And there should be no one who knew such a strong person and did something like this here other than the God of Mischief.


    And the other one was the Reality User. He said it like he was looking at a toddler, looking down on Theo''s ability.


    "That old friend of yours��" Theo gulped down, trying to confirm his suspicion.


    "You should know about him. And don''t bother to check me with your abilities�� I only exist in this reality and I''m here for one purpose now."


    "What is your purpose? You said you only live in this reality�� You sound like you''re going to possess me or something."


    "Haha, I have died in the past and this current form is just a projection of my power. You have gathered everything after all�� Unfortunately, it seems that you haven''t realized it yet. Well, I can''t expect anything from a new Reality user like you, who hasn''t used that power for a decade."


    "Wha��" Theo''s body shook. He didn''t know how this guy knew everything.


    But the guy stated with a smile, "I guess I have to introduce myself first. Well, we have a simr name. I am Theodon, the god of reality and uncertainty. Nice to meet you."

 Chapter 1827 A Ruler?

    "I am Theodon, the god of reality and uncertainty. Nice to meet you."


    "!!!" Theo was dumbstruck. He was aware of the identity of the guy before him through the myth. Theodon was the god of reality and uncertainty. He was born from the primordial deity Nyx, the embodiment of the night.


    His power could bend reality. Unlike him, who bent reality through Magic Power, his power could actually bend fate and fortune.


    Even with the current mastery of Reality, Theo couldn''t do anything against him.


    He just realized that the voice he heard earlier came from the power of reality. There were a few possibilities like Theodon bending fate and making something whisper his voice.


    Either way, it was clear that Theodon''s mastery of reality was too far aheadpared to Theo''s.


    "��" Theo was hesitating, but remembering he came here because of an old friend, Theo couldn''t help but ask, "May I know why you called me?"


    "You can''t even decipher the seven rings��which leaves me disappointed. That guy had asked me for those rings, believing you could realize their strength. But seeing how you couldn''t do anything about it left me speechless. I guess I ask too much from a new Reality user." Theodon sighed. "To put it simply, you''re too weak. So, I''m here to bully you a bit."


    "��" Theo was speechless when Theodon gave him the short version. Bully him? What could he do against Theodon?


    Theo thought about tricking him, but he knew Theodon didn''t mean any harm to him. If he missed this opportunity, he might not be able to learn anything from the former God of Reality.


    Theodon smiled, looking at Theo''s confused face. He asked, "What is Reality to you�� Ehm, we have a simr nickname, so I''m going to call you newbie! So, what is the reality to you, Newbie?"


    Theo knew he was like a toddler before him, so he didn''t n to rebuke him for using ''newbie'' to call him. Theo ignored that part and answered him, "Reality is Existence. Your existence, my existence, the system that controls this world, and everything that builds this reality."


    "Is that so?" Theodon smiled and shook his head. "For me, reality is uncertainty. That''s where I got my nickname."


    "Uncertainty?" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. Although the wording was a bit different, the meaning between Theo''s and Theodon''s Reality waspletely the exact opposite. For Theo, the reality was everything that existed. Meanwhile, for Theodon, Reality was something that could be changed. They might exist but might not at the same time. Everything was ording to his will.


    That was probably the reason why he could twist reality, resulting in a change of fate and fortune.


    "However, I''m not going to tell you which one is correct and which one is wrong. After all, we both know that our understanding of reality is correct. We just have a different opinion." Theodon waved his hand, telling Theo he wasn''t wrong to believe it.


    Theo looked down, contemting. It felt like he understood something. "Are you telling me that we both are correct, not because the answer can be everything, but because we can bend reality to ept that answer?"


    Theodon was surprised for a moment. His smile became bigger before he chuckled. "It seems I can understand why he wanted me to meet you. But yes, that answer is correct. Well, whatever you''re going to say, I''m going to say it''s correct."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo gulped down. For Theodon, reality existed to serve him. Of course, he nned to bend everything to match his needs.


    Theodon raised his hand. "I''m going to ask you two questions. I hope you can answer it carefully."


    "I understand." Theo nodded. His expression turned serious.


    "What do you think about this reality? Are you the ruler, or are you just someone being controlled by your reality?" Theodon smirked.


    This was a tricky question. Theo seemed to be a ruler of this reality, but it felt like he hadn''t be a true rulerpared to Theodon. If he answered he was a ruler, it felt like he would be partly lying. But Theodon would be disappointed if he chose the other option.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about his answer. Suddenly, he remembered something. He replied with another question. "I''d like to answer it, but I''m confused about something. Do you mind if you answer it first?"


    "Hoh? Questioning back. What a daring newbie�� But you''re quite amusing, so I''ll allow it."


    "Have you ever ventured to other realities? Have you ever thought about someone controlling you? Just like how you can control this reality, what if there is someone who controls this reality, including you?! Can you say you''re a ruler?"


    Theodon nodded in understanding. "I see. So, that''s the reason why I chose you. Well, to answer your question, I don''t have any desire to do something about that. But I do feel it. As for whether I''m a ruler or not, yes, I''m a ruler. At the very least, I won''t let anyone interfere with this reality��"


    "This reality��" Theo stopped for a moment, realizing his words. "So, is this the reason why you only exist in one reality?"


    By existing in only one reality, he could concentrate on his own fate there. This way, no one could control him. And if there was another being that tried to manipte reality, he would know and fight back.


    "However, the fact that you know him means��"


    Theodon nodded. "Yes. I''m aware and that''s the reason I''m participating in his little scheme. I only have one purpose."


    "And that is?"


    "I want to see someone sitting on the greatest throne. The throne that controls the whole world where you can do everything you want with just a flick of your finger. This is the true master of reality. And that answer is��" Theodon smiled and looked at Theo.


    "Hmm?" Theo pointed at himself and realized the answer was him. "Me?"


    "Yeah. I believe you already know how to do it. That''s why I want to ask you, what are you, Theodore Griffith? A ruler? A peasant who can only be controlled?" Theodon smirked.

 Chapter 1828 Blade

    Theo closed his eyes for a moment and said, "I''m not ruler. I don''t wish to rule this reality. A ruler will be thinking about the people he rules, but I''m just a selfish person. I''m using this ability for myself, not for others.


    "If I want to take control over this reality, I already have found the way to do it. Unfortunately, that''s not something I can do right now. That''s why I''m going to say this.


    "I''m not a ruler, but not someone who will be controlled as well. Instead, I''m someone you can call a keeper. I''m the one who will manage this reality."


    Theodon looked at Theo''s eyes for a moment before asking, "And how do you n to manage it when your power is still at this level?"


    "I know my power is stillcking, but I''m not going to stop here. I''m going to the manager of this reality and will make sure that this reality won''t be in someone''s control. I''m going to give myself and all the people in this reality freedom even if I have to turn the reality upside down." Theo stated with a serious tone. He had a clear goal and would keep moving to achieve it.


    Theodon could see that determination and epted that answer. He then raised his forefinger. "One more question. The question is quite simple, but this is what you should answer."


    Theodon paused for a moment, raising the tension between them. Even Theo''s expression turned grim, waiting for his question.


    It seemed that the question was hard to ask, even for Theodon. But after three minutes, Theodon finally released his question. "I want to ask you�� Do you want my power? By acquiring this power, you will be one step closer to your goal."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock.


    He obviously knew Theodon''s strength. Unlike Loki, who mastered the art of illusion, Theodon was the real master of reality. So, acquiring Theodon''s strength would boost his power so much that he might not need to fear the slime monster.


    However, the question would be, ''Does he want this power?''


    Of course, Theo had received skills from Loki, Hel, Jormungand, and Fenrir. It wouldn''t be weird if he received one from Theodon as well. Even if he didn''t learn the skill directly, he could still train it like he did with the Ascension Step or Thunderp Fist.


    Theo clenched his fists as if it was a hard choice. After all, saying "Yes" would mean a better tomorrow.


    Unfortunately, this power came with a price. He might have learned other people''s abilities, but all of them weren''t affected by Order.


    By epting this power, it meant infusing Theodon''s Order into his body. They might have the same Authority, but Theo''s Reality and Theodon''s Reality were different. epting his power would mean causing chaos in his own foundation.


    In other words, Theo might be able to defeat the slime, but he wouldn''t reach the higher being.


    And the moment his thought reached that point, Theo''s eyes became extremely cold as he summoned his spear and pointed it at Theodon. "This might be rude of me since you''re offering a pretty good deal. Still, for me, this is an insult that I can''t take lightly. If you don''t take back your words, I have to fight you!"


    "Do you think you can defeat me?"


    "If the real you fight me personally, I won''t be able to defeat you. But this time, you''re just a mere reality created by the power you''ve hidden this whole time��"


    "!!!" Theodon widened his eyes in amusement. "It seems you have realized it."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yes." Theo nodded. "Those seven rings are the ones creating your reality. Element, Space, Fate, Temperature, Sky, Force, and Earth. These are the seven things you control with your Reality Power."


    Theodon smiled. "Since you have realized it, then I''m going to take back my words. You may consider that I haven''t said those words."


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes. It seemed Theodon had been testing him this whole time. But he still couldn''t decipher his true reason.


    Theodon pointed his palm toward the apartment Theo used to sleep in earlier. Theo realized what he wanted to do and tried to intervene, but the seven rings had flown to their location and ended up hovering around Theodon.


    He pped his hands and the rings suddenly cracked, revealing a beautiful gem inside. The gem was made in a simr shape to the ring and they were shining in rainbow color.


    Theo suddenly felt his de trying to go toward Theodon.


    "!!!" Theo was startled and hurriedly clenched it with all his strength. Suddenly, he felt an invisible force suddenly struck his hand, trying to release the de.


    He realized Theodon was trying to get his de. That was why Theo used his Twisted Reality to bend the Force, directing it elsewhere.


    Seeing it was impossible to release the de by using simple force, the de started releasing heat, burning Theo''s hand.


    However, Theo used his Second Law, turning that heat into cold. The cold became even colder suddenly, so Theo had to retract it back. The fightsted for a minute and after it realized it couldn''t leave its owner''s hand, the artifact subsided.


    Theodon smiled. Suddenly, two gems flew toward the de.


    "Huh?!" Theo couldn''t react as the two gems suddenly shattered into pieces. All the small particles gradually fused and formed a small white jade.


    After the heat, the de seemed to begin disappearing as if it was going to be teleported somewhere. Theo hurriedly applied his Reality Removal, erasing the Space Element around him.


    This way, the teleport was undone and the de subsided again.


    As soon as the de stopped, Theo could see his de being pulled out of his hands in other realities. And it would soon happen in this reality.


    Theo hurriedly looked at all the reality where the de wasn''t taken away and copied their method. It was Alter Ego.


    He used Alter Ego to boost his strength and released all his strength in this grip, preventing the sword from going to him.


    And this was when another two crystals flew toward the de, shattered and fused with the little jade.

 Chapter 1829 Last Request

    Seeing it still failed after four attempts, the space around the sword began to be distorted. Even Theo felt his arm changing its shape as if it was being squeezed.


    Theo clicked his tongue and used his Supernatural Snake Body to resist the space distortion. Meanwhile, he used his World Re-Creation to expand reality, causing the space distortion to move away from him.


    The space distortion started to release its force toward the air and the ground.


    The ground was distorted. One side got pushed down while the other side was pulled up, creating a spike that would stab Theo.


    At the same time, the air was also pulled into the distortion, pressuring Theo from above. This way, there was no way Theo could escape.


    Suddenly, the little jade formed by the shattered gems released their power. To his surprise, the power was directed at him.


    Instead of harming him, the energy seemed to be supplementing his Order Mark.


    "This is��" Theo''s eyes shed as he used his First Law, Mirage World.


    He used the Ascension Step and neutralized the pressure on top of him. At the same time, he imitated the Ice Witch and froze the ground. As for the Space Distortion, he decided to push it until it was too far to affect the battlefield.


    With that, Theo defeated all the pressure and the de finally lost its ability to fight. Thest three gems flew toward the de and fused with the gem.


    This gem shone in rainbow color and started attaching itself to the de.


    The jade that his parents left behind on the sword was destroyed and the jade stuck itself inside.


    Soon, the jade released its power and absorbed Theo''s energy.


    The Golden Magic Power was released naturally from his body and influenced the shining jade. Soon, the rainbow color turned into gold as if it was indicating that the jadepletely assimted itself with Theo''s power.


    "This��" Theo was surprised, never thinking this would happen. After all, the rings were Theodon''s. Theo raised his head, staring at Theodon and asking for an exnation.


    "This is what I''ll give you as the new reality user. Right now, I can''t call you God of Reality�� And to be honest, I don''t know if you have the qualification to be a God of Reality or not, considering your goal lies elsewhere.


    "Anyway, this jade will be a transmitter of your power and will boost it even further. I believe this is what you need to ovee all the difficulties in the future." Theodon smiled.


    "But aren''t they��"


    Theodon nodded. "Yes. These seven rings came from my Reality Scepter. However, I don''t use it anymore since I''m already dead. Instead of letting these gems rot away, you should use them.


    "Don''t worry. It won''t affect your reality since you have repelled my Order from them. All that remains is the pure energy that has been umting for who knows how long��" Theodon chuckled.


    "��" Theo was overwhelmed by this favor. He remembered how his de was releasing all that power and how he neutralized them.


    He understood that when he neutralized them, he also scattered the Order that bound them, leaving the pure gems. This pure gem formed one jade and fused with his de.


    At first, he nned to use this weapon for a long time, turning this weapon into an artifact like the Reality Scepter Theodon had.


    But it seemed Theodon gifted him the jade so that the de could refine it, allowing it to turn into an artifact.<novelnext></novelnext>


    In other words, this de right now has be Theo''s Reality Weapon.


    It would take a long time for him to turn the normal weapon into an artifact, so being blessed by this jade sped up the process by at least one or two decades.


    This was a huge leap in his power. Although he couldn''t use it right away, he should have enough time topletely integrate his power.


    Theo lowered his head with a serious expression. "Thank you."


    "What is this? You shouldn''t lower your head that easily. The more you lower your head, the less it values." Theodon narrowed his eyes as if he was displeased by Theo''s action.


    Theo shook his head. "I''m a fair person. If I''m wrong, I will apologize. If I''m indebted to someone, I''m going to show my gratitude. Who cares about what other people think about me��"


    Theodon smiled. "If that''s the case, treasure that jade. It will surely be helpful."


    "Yes, I will." Theo nodded.


    Theodon looked at his hands which began to be translucent. His body was formed by those seven jades after all, so it wouldn''t be weird for him to disappear right away.


    But because the jade had been influencing the ring, the shattered pieces still contained some of its power, allowing Theodon''s body to materialize for a bit longer.


    "It seems that I don''t have much time left." Theodon made a sad smile. He didn''t want to disappear yet, especially since there was a new generation of Reality users in front of him.


    Theo stared at him as if preparing to see him off at hisst moment. But Theodon chuckled and said, "Why are you looking at me with that expression? I''m not going anywhere for the time being. This body still canst for at least a few hours if I don''t do anything.


    "However, I do have one more wish before I disappear. I hope that you can fulfill it."


    "Please tell me." Theo nodded, agreeing to his request.


    "Although you are a new generation, you are still the wielder of Reality. You should understand the weight of the thirteen Big Orders, especially Reality which is ranked among the top.


    "That''s why I''m not going to let you go and embarrass the name of Reality out there.


    "This is what I want to do��" Theodon stretched his body and hands as if getting ready to move violently.


    Theodon looked at Theo and waved his hand, provoking him. "Theodore Griffith. It''s time for you to show me your power."


    "Fight me."


    *******


    AN: Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you for your support for the past year.


    I''ll end this year with this chapter and will continue working hard next year. Hope to see you around next year~!

 Chapter 1830 Fighting Theodon

    "��" Theo and Theodon were staring at each other. Theo knew Theodon wished to die in a battle. Although it was just a projection of him, it would be a disgrace if he disappeared without doing anything.


    At the same time, he was nning to teach Theo about the Reality power that Theo hadn''t mastered yet.


    They might have a different concept of Reality, but they still had the same Order and Authority.


    Theo hesitated for a moment before nodding his head. "I understand. Though��"


    Theodon nced to the side, knowing what Theo implied. A battle between two Saints would be disastrous. The two kids might end up getting involved in this battle, so it was better if they fought somewhere else.


    Theo and Theodon had the same understanding and moved to the west at the same time until they were far enough from the kids.


    "This should be enough." Theodon took a deep breath. "I hope that you don''t disappoint me."


    "I''ll do my best." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Let''s do it then."


    Both of them were staring at each other. They gradually released their Magic Power.


    "��" Theo noticed something was wrong. When they were releasing the Magic Power, Theodon seemed to stop releasing his Magic Power as if he had reached his limit.


    It was clear that Theodon was severely weakened since he was just a projection of his power from the past. And his gems that used to fuel up his strength had gone to his de.


    If Theo couldn''t defeat Theodon even with this huge handicap, he didn''t know whether he had enough confidence to fight against the slime or not.


    Theo took a deep breath, determined to win this fight.


    They came to a tacit understanding. The Magic Power had been building up pressure between them, but both of them stopped releasing their Magic Power, causing a period of emptiness.


    The situation became peaceful, but both of them suddenly disappeared.


    They appeared right in the middle with their right hand pointing at each other.


    Theodon was trying to change Theo''s fate by twisting reality. On the other hand, Theo used his Reality Removal to erase fate itself.


    Both of them gritted their teeth, knowing it wouldn''t be an easy fight.


    Theodon retracted his hand and waved his other hand.


    Seeing the iing attack, Theo changed his weapon into a spear and attempted to pierce through that hand. He also used his Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity to deal with the energy covering the hand.


    However, he soon noticed that his own energy had bent.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes. The Magic Powerpletely looked without Order, but when they shed, he realized Theodon had been hiding his Order from the Reality Order itself. Just like how he fooled people with his illusion, Theodon could do the same.


    "��" Theo frowned, seeing his spear getting distorted by the energy. He clicked his tongue and hurriedly pulled the spear back before spinning his body. Using that momentum, he kicked Theodon from the side.


    Theodon raised his hand, calling forth the ground.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A stone wall soon emerged and blocked Theo''s kick. At the same time, a hole appeared on the ground and swallowed Theo''s foot.


    ''I can''t move?'' Theo frowned. He hurriedly activated his Mirage World to copy the Heavenly Sovereign and his Element Authority.


    A trigram soon appeared beneath his feet and released its power to neutralize the ground''s movement. But Theodon also applied his ability to rule over the elements. It was one of the seven things he controlled after all.


    Theo lost his control over the elements. In fact, the elements were trying to harm him after Theodon controlled them.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and used his Blink to get away.


    As if knowing what happened when Theo blinked, Theodon applied another power of his Reality, the Space Ability. He tweaked Theo''s trajectory and caused him to teleport to the ground.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes as he fell head first. If not for his reaction, his face would have been covered with dust.


    Theo skillfully rolled and stood back up. At the very least, he was free from Theodon''s grasp.


    ''Hmm�� All my abilities have been neutralized by him. It''s clear�� the previous resistance from my de came from the gems, not himself. If he had been the one challenging me earlier, I wouldn''t be able to remove the gems'' strength that easily.


    "Kh." Theo looked at Theodon. There was a lot to learn. But he also had the pride as the Reality Saint. He wasn''t nning to go down without a fight.


    As soon as he regained his stability, Theo used his Telekinesis to pressure Theodon. But thetter used his Sky ability to remove the pressure.


    Theo tried to attack from the side, but the ''Force'' had been deployed, neutralizing the Telekinesispletely.


    Although the seven abilities looked random, Theo realized it was the most bnced option for Theodon.


    It wouldn''t be that easy to defeat him.


    Theo took a deep breath, trying to find a w. He knew it wouldn''t be that easy to defeat him.


    His expression became serious.


    ''He has a different style of wielding Reality. Unlike me, who is twisting the Magic Power, he''s controlling all those seven instead. In other words, his is focused on those seven, while mine is controlling the general power.


    ''It''s impossible for me to defeat him in the area he masters. But that doesn''t mean I''m going to back away just like that�� Then, how do I n to wield my Reality power?


    ''There should be something�� Something that only I can do. Something that I can use to crush his strength.''


    Theo''s mind gradually cooled down as if he was looking at his strength and trying to use it to ovee the challenge.


    He wanted to crush him. This was the only thing eptable as the oue of this battle.


    Despite witnessing the gap in their strength, Theo pointed at Theodon and said, "I know that you''re severely weakened right now�� No, that''s precisely the reason why I''m going to crush you in this battle."


    Theodon smirked as if taking on the provocation. "Try me, boy."

 Chapter 1831 Theos Way

    "Try me, boy!"


    Theo smirked. He leaped forward while waving his spear.


    Even though he was using a spear, Theo released a crescent-shaped sword wave toward Theodon.


    "Hmm?" Theodon frowned because he felt a different kind of energy from this sword. He hurriedly used his Force to disperse the energy.


    However, there was still some force that didn''t scatter and ended up hitting him.


    "!!!" Theodon was surprised because Theo suddenly showed such a change. "This is��"


    "I have to thank you for asking me what my Reality is." Theo smiled. "Thanks to you, I have noticed something that I wouldn''t have if I''m not looking at my basics again."


    Yes. Theo just thought of something fundamental. He had several weapons: a sword, spear, sniper rifle, and shield. He even used his Fist and Magic Power to defeat his enemies.


    After receiving the Reality Authority, he forgot his root and waspletely reliant on his Reality Authority.


    When Theodon asked about his Reality, Theo realized that the Reality Order was made of his existence and everything that existed in this world.


    The shield, the spear, the sword, and the sniper rifle existed. They existed in everything.


    That was right. Theo had stated in the past that everything he believed in would be the reality.


    With that thought in mind, Theo believed his spear was actually his sword. As a result, the spear could release the sword strike.


    To prove his newfound strength, Theo changed his spear into a sniper rifle and pointed at him.


    Seeing the dangerous muzzle, Theodonbined fire and water together and shot it toward Theo. The fire released so much heat that it evaporated the water, and due to the sudden evaporation, the water volume increased drastically, causing a huge thermal explosion.


    *Boom!*


    This explosion would have hit Theo if not for the fact Theo used his sniper rifle to shoot a shield bullet.


    The bullet looked like the normal Magic Bullet, but when it almost touched Theodon''s ability, it expanded into a huge screen, blocking the explosion.


    "Interesting!" Theodon smirked. "You improve so fast. I guess that''s the reason why he chose you."


    "This is not all I can do," Theo shouted while summoning his Irregr Guardian in the form of a spear. His sniper rifle had turned back into a spear as well.


    Wielding these two spears, Theo marched forward. He waved the two spears at the same time, releasing another Sword Strike.


    "I have seen��" Before he finished his words, the Sword Strike suddenly struck the air as if there was a barrier there. However, it turned out the air started to crack and the Sword Strike ultimately broke it apart, revealing the void.


    "!!!" Theodon knew the Space Ability, so he was aware of this kind of void and what Theo wanted to do with them.


    Without hesitation, he closed this void before Theo released anything. But that allowed Theo to use his Blink to appear behind Theodon.


    He activated his First Law, the Mirage World.


    "!!!" Theodon felt all elements begin to swirl. He remembered what Theo did when he controlled all these elements.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Yes. There was already a trigram underneath their feet. Theo copied the Heavenly Sovereign''s ability and surrounded Theodon with all the elements.


    He was using his Space Ability to stop the void, so there was no way he could control the elements at the same time.


    Theo pped his hands. "Surge of Elements."


    All the elements suddenly erupted and expanded, trying to swallow Theodon.


    But surprisingly, a smile appeared on Theodon''s face. Theo was just one step away from hurting Theodon, but it seemed Theodon hadn''t fully released his strength yet. "Or so you thought��"


    Suddenly, Theodon waved his hand and pressured all the elements together with the void. He used his right hand to suppress the Heavenly Sovereign''s ability and his left hand to suppress the void.


    "It seems that you misunderstand something. I can use all my power at the same time." Theodon smirked as if he knew Theo hadn''t prepared this far.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo remained calm because he had already seen through this possibility.


    As soon as his elements became controlled by Theodon, Theo applied his Reverse World and changed their attributes.


    "Huh?" Theodon widened his eyes, feeling the change. The fire that was supposed to be hot suddenly became cold. The water changed its state from liquid to gas and so on.


    He could control the elements, but this kind of element wasn''t something he had seen.


    Because of theck of information about these elements, Theodon lost his control over the Heavenly Sovereign''s ability.


    The uncontrolled elements became berserk and started to explode, engulfing Theodon.


    "Heh��" Theo smiled as he appeared not far away from the explosion. That was right. This was something he could do.


    Theo''s ability was in his trick. He managed to fool the Frost Saint and trick the world. Of course, he was nning to use this trick as the foundation of his ability.


    He knew Theodon would control his elements, so he had just to change them to something he never saw before.


    Unfortunately, his opponent this time was an Ancient God. His voice soon echoed without any change in his tone as if he waspletely fine.


    "To think you trick me into controlling the elements so that it will get violent and explode on me. You are as tricky as that guy." Theodon smiled and waved his hand. The Force blew away the smoke, revealing Theodon''s body which lookedpletely fine.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes. That explosion might not be that big, but it was made of many elements. The raging elements should be able to break through his defense.


    Yet, Theodon had no change in his appearance as if he controlled the explosion easily.


    "There seems to be something you''ve forgotten." Theodon smirked.


    "No, wait!" Theo gasped, remembering Theodon''s nickname. He was the God of Reality and Uncertainty.


    The moment he saw himself trapped, the Uncertainty part yed its role.


    "So, you''ve manipted your fate to the point you can escape from that explosion." Theo sucked a cold breath. "That''s amazing."

 Chapter 1832 Getting Serious

    "That''s amazing." Theo smiled, impressed.


    Theodon waved his hand. "We have different powers. I''m sure you can do what I can''t, like changing not only the elements but the purpose of the items."


    Theodon was also amused by Theo''s ability. He could use the spear like a sword and a sniper rifle as a shield. It just showed how far he could alter reality.


    If it was the past him, Theo might not be his match, but with the potential he had shown to him, Theo might be able to defeat himpletely. That was what he wanted to see, considering the Reality Order was among the top of the Big Orders.


    Since Theo had been on the offensive, Theodon decided to step up his game.


    He controlled the Elements around him and mixed them together, creating aposite that no one knew would happen if it touched an object. And he sent this power to Theo.


    Knowing it would be useless to change its attribute, Theo waved his hand, forming a crack in the air. This was his Reality Removal.


    He erased all the elements in one go the moment theposite element touched the crack.


    At first, it seemed to be working because the ball gradually disappeared. But after destroying half of it, theposite element became violent.


    "!!!" Theo hurriedly removed it with his power but to no avail. Theposite element had exploded, engulfing both Theo and Theodon inside.


    The explosion was hot, but it didn''te from the heat. Instead, it originated from the dry ice mixed into the element. After that, the wind spread this power all over the body topletely freeze them.


    "Tsk." Theo was slightly annoyed by the sudden burning sensation on his skin. He had been maintaining the barrier to protect him, but as expected, he noticed the sign of freezing. If this continued, he might get injured. That was thest thing he wanted in this area.


    Hence, Theo hurriedly used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality away from him. This way, the explosion would leave him and only burn Theodon, who got dragged away by the reality expansion.


    Theodon waved his hand, sweeping away the explosion. But when the fire and smoke disappeared, he could see a small void sucking all the explosions.


    It turned out he was using the Space Element to protect himself. At the same time, he maintained the Temperature so that it wouldn''t affect him.


    "..." Theo narrowed his eyes. As expected, Theo might have all elements by using his Reality Order, but Theodon had an improved version of the elements he had.


    Theo used his Alter Ego to increase his speed, moving past the speed of sound.


    Theodon managed to see through his movement as he used the Force to st the area where Theo was supposed to go.


    *Bam!*


    The area simply exploded out of nowhere. He missed Theo as thetter had changed his direction.


    Theo looped around, trying to ambush him from behind. Unfortunately, Theodon had used the Earth to create a wall behind him, blocking Theo.


    Theo smashed the stone wall in an instant, but when he saw the other side, Theodon had disappeared.


    He looked down and found Theodon ducking down.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theodon was actually smiling as he punched Theo in the face. Thetter managed to react to that punch and block it by raising both arms.


    But due to the Force being infused into that fist, Theodon blew him into the sky.


    With Theo''s Telekinesis and World Re-Creation, it wouldn''t be easy to attack him in the sky. So, Theodon prepared another trick.


    He used three of his powers at the same time: Fate, Force, and Sky.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes when his Reality Eyes saw the possibility of him getting captured bing one hundred percent. It was clear that Theodon was altering his fate.


    At the same time, the sky felt like it was falling down, pushing Theo to the ground. The Force also enveloped his entire body, making him unable to move.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to negate the power of Force, but the sky still pushed him. Knowing it wouldn''t be good to fall to the ground in this situation, Theo changed his form with Metamorphosis.


    "Hoh?" Theodon was interested in the sudden change of form. After all, he had seen this power in the past. "So, he has given you this ability."


    Dragon Theo stepped on the ground while ring at Theodon. Despite being pressured from above, Theo didn''t flinch as if the pressure wasn''t that powerful anymore.


    Theo gathered all his energy in his mouth and shot it at Theodon.


    *Boom!*


    Another explosion urred, engulfing the entire area. However, the next thing Theo realized, he felt someone stepping on his head.


    "It''s good to be something like this, but you should know more about a dragon." Theodon smiled. "You should have used this ability with other abilities. Don''t just rely on the breath."


    "I know that already." Theo narrowed his eyes as he turned into an eagle, dropping Theodon, who was on top of his head a moment ago.


    Seeing the falling Theodon, Theo pped his wings, creating a crescent-shaped wind strike.


    Theodon frowned for a moment, noticing something different. He used his Earth to block this wind, but surprisingly, the wind pierced through the stone and almost cut him. Theodon was fast enough to notice the attacks and avoid them.


    ''He is using the ws like a sword, huh? It seems I have underestimated his potential. No wonder he is nurturing him.'' Theodon thought before shouting, "Good, good, good. You''re interesting now. I''m getting fired up now."


    Theo was confused at first before he saw a giant void appearing next to his face. Normally, the void would suck everything or just remain still like how he used it in the past.


    But this void was different. There was a powerful stream of energy that came out of the void, concentrating in the middle of the void.


    It then flew straight to Theo''s cheek and punched him.


    "Gah!"

 Chapter 1833 Core Power

    Because he was only a small bird, the force was enough to knock him down.


    Theo was forced to return to his human form andnded on the ground.


    "This is not enough��" Theo muttered in a low voice while observing his opponent. The man standing before him was the best person to be an example of his Reality Power.


    He imagined the giant void and tried to figure out how it worked. He had never copied a Space Element user after all, so it was hard to figure out the trick behind that void.


    Though, he had something that could be used as a recement.


    Theo stepped on the ground using his Ascension Step, umting the power on top of his head.


    Theodon didn''t allow him to gather all that power and pressure him with his Sky power.


    Surprisingly, Theo let out a smile when Theodon was about to destroy the Ascension Step.


    "!!!" That detail didn''t escape Theodon''s eyes. He instantly stopped what he was doing, trying to figure out the situation.


    But that was when Theo released the Ascension Step horizontally.


    Theodon was shocked because Theo was supposed to release the Ascension Step upward. But then, he remembered Theo could expand the reality.


    In other words, the Ascension Step worked properly, but its direction changed due to the World Re-Creation.


    And the one that gave Theo an opportunity tounch this attack was none other than his smile.


    ''Did he just trick me with that smile?'' Theodon sucked a cold breath. He obviously knew how Loki operated. Normally, Loki would be very honest. As long as he could withstand the little trick he yed here and there, he would have a good time with him.


    But when Loki was in the fight, he would be extremely annoying. His strength might not be as strong as others, but their minds couldn''t withstand Loki''s scheme.


    Loki sometimes smiled. That smile could mean anything, including nothing.


    And Theo used that smile to trick Theodon into thinking there was a hidden scheme behind the Ascension Step and that the n would work if they shed. Unfortunately, the truth was there was no trick. Theo just wanted to stop Theodon and use that opportunity to release the Ascension Step.


    Theodon hurriedly utilized his Force power to neutralize the Ascension Step.


    But this was when weird things began to ur.


    The moment the Ascension Step shed with Theodon''s Force, they suddenly merged with each other.


    "Huh?!" Theodon widened his eyes in surprise. He never thought that the Ascension Step and his Force could merge like this.


    However, he soon waved his hand, trying to remove it but to no avail. In that instant, he realized it was just an illusion from Theo where he applied his Reality Order to make it look real.


    "Interesting!" Theodon smiled and saw his Force neutralizing the Ascension Step.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo looked at Theodon with a poker face. His eyes were still filled with determination.


    "!!!" Theodon suddenly felt a fluctuation of Magic Powering from the side. He turned around and saw the raging force from Theo''s Ascension Step.


    He hurriedly raised both hands and covered his body with Magic Power as the Ascension Step struck him, blowing him away like how his Force punched Theo earlier.


    Theodonnded two hundred feet away while smiling, "You''re an insane bastard."


    "I''ll take it as apliment." Theo smiled. It seemed he had understood a bit of his power.


    Theodon narrowed his eyes and analyzed the previous attack. ''As expected, that wind is real. When it was about to touch my Force, the wind moved in another direction, looping around my Force.


    ''And the reason why he put the illusion to cover everything was to lower my guard down, thinking the wind wasn''t real. More importantly, he seeded because of his previous smile.


    ''He knew I would be thinking about that smile and didn''t doubt him for a while because he wouldn''t use the same trick twice. But that was actually the trap.


    ''As expected, he might have realized earlier that his Reality doesn''t lie in Uncertainty like mine. Instead, his Reality''s core is at his trick.


    ''He can make everything around obey him. If it doesn''t go ording to his n, it will just be an illusion. And if it does, it''s the reality.


    ''Can I even call him a Reality User? He''s more like a trickster��'' Theodon gritted his teeth. He couldn''t help but remember the trouble Loki had caused in the past.


    They might have been born in different ces, but he had met Loki and made him his friend. He knew Loki had been nning something. And seeing Theo utilizing his power like this made him realize Theo was Loki''s secret weapon.


    "I see. So, that''s how it is." Theodon smirked. "It seems that I have been rude this whole time. To fight you, I might have to use all my strength even if it means I can onlyst for a moment. I don''t need to teach you anything because you have all the tools needed to advance your power.


    "That''s why Theodore Griffith�� I shall recognize you as an equal and fight you with all my strength."


    Theo shook his head with a smile, humbly replying, "Of course not. I just received this power not long ago, so I can''t bepared to you."


    Theodon gritted his teeth. The God of Mischief often became so humble whenever he was ying with his tricks. And there was no way he would believe Theo''s words.


    "Whatever." Theodon snorted and released all his Magic Power. His body became a bit more translucent in exchange for an extraordinary amount of talent. He suddenly pped his hands, "This is the ability I have honed in my entire life. So, it''s time for you to witness it, Theodore Griffith.


    "I shall invite you to my humble abode. Lakonia Sketjha!"


    A light shone from his hand and became brighter and brighter to the point it blinded everyone that tried to see it.


    Even Theo covered his eyes with his hand while releasing his Awareness to make sure he didn''t get a sneak attack.


    But the light dimmed soon as the entire environment changed.

 Chapter 1834 Find Nothing

    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock, looking around. He tried to spread his Awareness to check the situation, but the dimmed light caused a ckout in the entire ce.


    "This is?" Theo muttered in a low voice. He couldn''t see anything in this pitch darkness. And the area worked like his Death Avatar''s Third Authority, Death Domain. Itpletely blocked off Awareness.


    He thought Theodon would be able to find him in this darkness. So, he hurriedly used his Death Avatar and used the Death Domain. At the very least, he could block Theodon''s Awareness as well if he wasn''t affected by this darkness ability.


    ''What is this?'' The more he was pressured by Theodon, the calmer he became. After all, it was clear that Theodon was getting more and more serious against him. It felt like an achievement instead.


    Theo smiled.


    ''In this situation, there are a few possibilities. The first was a barrier that blocks all light. I have this kind of ability too, but I have to find him first. As for the second possibility, I''m afraid that we''re being teleported to another ce.


    ''He has a Space Element, so it''s clear that he can utilize the space better than me. What I''m worried about in this situation is the ce where we are right now. Depending on the location, it will bring danger to me.


    ''As for the other possibilities��'' Theo fell silent. The two he mentioned were the possibilities with the highest probability.


    Theo focused on his instinct. Although his Awareness and eyes had been sealed by this ability, he still had the instinct he had honed for a decade on the battlefield.


    So, he had to see what Theodon had prepared for him, understand it, and probably try to copy it.


    Suddenly, there was a sh of light on the left side.


    "!!!" Theo could sense the Magic Power fluctuation on that light as he hurriedly jumped back to get some distance to react.


    Suddenly, that light flew straight at him like that of a beam.


    Theo waved his sword, releasing the sword strike that suddenly expanded like what the Sniper Rifle''s bullet had earlier.


    The shield blocked the mysterious light, albeit it couldn''t brighten the darkness before it died two seconds after the explosion.


    "��" Theo sighed. ''I have seen my original body''s power that changes the day into the night. And it can affect a huge area. Is this power also affecting the entirend? Or is it just a small barrier?''


    Theo gulped down. After thinking about the pros and cons, Theo hurriedly turned around and headed in one direction with the help of his Alter Ego. Even Theodon shouldn''t be able to catch up with his speed.


    Theo crossed a quarter mile easily, but to his surprise, he couldn''t find anything. The buildings that were supposed to stop him, the uneven ground, and the edge of the barrier.


    In other words, the entire area was being affected or Theodon actually transported them to a different ce.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and felt a few dangerous feelings from his surroundings. He turned around and saw multiple white lights.


    Theo took a deep breath and prepared to sh them one by one. After blocking an attack earlier, he managed to find out about their characteristics.


    He knew he could cut these lights down.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Without hesitation, the moment those lights were shot, Theo waved his sword and sliced the lights in rapid session.


    However, he soon felt another threating from the right side, but there was no lighting. He followed his instinct and ducked down.


    In that instant, he felt there was something flying near him. He narrowed his eyes, realizing Theodon was mixing some ck bullets to attack him.


    Theo narrowed his eyes. Even though this realm was said to be his greatest technique, he didn''t feel anything ordinary.


    Though, Theo couldn''t help but worry, feeling something bad was going to happen. And that feeling was growing in his heart as time passed.


    "��" Theo thought of a n to see what was going on. When the lights started to appear again, Theo pped his hands, giving Light Elements to the Magic Power around him. In that instant, his ce was glowing dimly.


    It wasn''t enough to cover the entire area, but it should be enough to see everything around him.


    Unfortunately, when he checked the lights, it turned out those attacks were formed like his Magic Bullets. Even the ck bullets only had a change of color.


    There was no sign of Theodon in sight, making Theo confused.


    ''What''s going on here��'' Theo was worried that Theodon was using this darkness to prepare an ultimate attack. That should be the reason why he felt threatened from somewhere.


    Still, Theo couldn''t find a way to illuminate the entire area. After all, this pitch darkness Theodon created was suppressing the light itself.


    Theo was producing a light earlier, but he felt that the light was dimmer than he expected. So, he knew the ability was far greater, but it just hadn''t released its full potential yet.


    He had to try another method to illuminate the area.


    ''No, wait. I don''t need to illuminate the area. There is another method that I can use." He smiled.


    As soon as he saw the lights appearing again. Theo waved his hand and expanded the Reality. But instead of expanding to the outside, he was expanding to the inside, creating an illusion that he was forming a ck hole in the middle and sucking everything inside.


    The lights soon moved toward the center and fused. Due to the conflicting energy between the white and ck ones, they exploded.


    *Boom!*


    Theo narrowed his eyes while scanning the area. The explosion caused a big spark that illuminated the area for a split second.


    But even though he had expanded his field of vision three times the previous one, he couldn''t find a single clue about Theodon''s existence.


    This made Theo even more suspicious. There was something wrong, but he couldn''t find it.

 Chapter 1835 Plan

    "Tsk. What''s going on here��" Theo was gritting his teeth, trying to figure out the situation. He couldn''t shake away the ominous feeling.


    Theo tried to use his Reverse World to turn the darkness into light, but surprisingly, it didn''t change anything.


    "Well, if my trick doesn''t work here, I guess there''s no need for a trick." Theo clicked his tongue and hurriedly gathered all his energy in his fist. He even applied the Alter Ego to boost his strength.


    With all that strength, he punched the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The punch was so powerful that the ground within a mile was shaking. There was a huge crater created from that punch. Yet, Theo couldn''t see anything.


    The darkness didn''t change. He could only feel that the ground had turned into a crater, but there was nothing changed in his surroundings.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and tried to do something else. At first, he thought that destroying the area around would cause some fluctuation in the area, resulting in the darkness ability to be unstable.


    ? But since there was no sign of change, Theo turned into a huge dragon and soared to the sky. Since moving around didn''t work, he tried to go to the sky.


    Unfortunately for him, the more he flew high, he could feel that the oxygen had started to be thin. Although his strength was enough to withstand theck of oxygen, it would be bad to fight in this situation.


    Hence, Theo returned to the ground, unable to escape from this darkness.


    ''I don''t understand how this ability works. Even the Reality Eyes can''t see through this ability. So, how should I do this?''


    Theo contemted for a moment. ''I have tried the horizontal and vertical change, but I''m still trapped. This is also not an illusion. Even if Theodon is applying the Reality Rule here, I should have felt it.


    ''So, what kind of ability is this?'' Theo recalled what Theodon had said earlier.


    "This is the ability I have honed in my entire life. So, it''s time for you to witness it, Theodore Griffith. I shall invite you to my humble abode. Lakonia Sketjha!"


    Theo closed his eyes, trying to figure out the situation. He had turned back to his human form and dodged the light attacks while thinking about how to escape from this ability.


    ''This is his abode�� But why does he want to use darkness as his abode? Is there a clue that I can use to solve this situation?


    ''There isn''t anything special in this ability, but it makes me worried. What should I do��'' No matter how hard he thought, he couldn''t see clues to escape.


    ''I know that I''m not going to be trapped here all the time, and arranging this area should require a lot of Magic Power. I can simply wait until he''s exhausted, but I have told him that I will crush him.


    ''In that case, I should assess this ability as a Reality Saint as well as his seven powers. What kind of power does he use to turn the area into pitch darkness?


    ''Element, Space, Fate, Temperature, Sky, Force, and Earth. Now that I think about it, the darkness shoulde from Element. But because I can''t see anything around me, the space around me might have been distorted. That''s why I can''t escape from this ce. Should I go with the light on then? Maybe I''ll find a clue somewhere. I''m going to examine it first.


    ''Fate? What if he alters my fate to make sure I can''t escape from here? Then, the Sky and the Earth should have been expanded as well. That''s why I couldn''t destroy this ce with all that strength and couldn''t slip past the barrier from the sky.


    ''Then, how about Temperature and Force? Have I sensed any Temperature change? And is there any Force attacking me? No, are the white light and ck lighting from Force? If that''s the case, he should be using the Temperature as well. But how does he use the Temperature?


    ''To manage the humidity?'' Theo felt something was wrong. He also noticed that Theodon utilized all seven abilities at the same time.


    And to break this power, he might have to use all his abilities as well.


    ''Now that I think about it, Theodon considered me as an equal and nned to fight me with all his power. Does that mean I have to do the same thing to break free from this? What''s my ability connected to my Authority then��''


    Theo was thinking about Reality Removal, Alter Ego, Twisted Reality, Mirage World, and Reverse World. He wanted to know if it was possible tobine them into a single technique.


    However, the firstw and the secondw had a sh since one was copying an ability while the other changed its characteristics.


    Theo had also been utilizing his Reality Eyes. But he remembered that Theodon wasn''t registered by the World, so he couldn''t see through him. It should be possible to find someone in this darkness as long as he used the Reality Eyes, but because of Theodon''s power, the Reality Eyes were rendered useless.


    ''Wait a minute��'' Theo suddenly thought about something. ''He isn''t registered in the world''s system? If that''s the case, does he truly exist? Although his Reality only shows him living in this reality, I still don''t have any proof it''s actually true.


    ''He might be lying to me. In that case��'' Theo seemed to have another method that could be utilized in this situation. ''There is one more ability that I haven''t used. The strongest ability that can erase something that existspletely from the world, my thirdw.


    ''Just like my own personal system, I can use this ability to erase it, making me unable to ess my system anymore.


    ''I might be able to use this to fight a being that only exists in this reality. But the problem is��''


    Theo didn''t want to admit it, but it was impossible for him to use this ability currently. After all, he still hadn''t mastered that ability yet and the energy consumption was so great that he still didn''t have enough to erase Theodon.


    ''Still, I have to try since this is my only chance. Third Law, Inverted World.''

 Chapter 1836 Appearance

    Theo''s expression turned grim as he was attempting to use something he hadn''t mastered. This was the hardest technique he had ever used, so he had to be careful.


    The Magic Power in his body starteding out as though they were leaking out of the pores. Yet, when they came out, the Magic Power was swirling toward Theo''s hands like they were sucked into a whirlpool.


    The energy started getting more and more concentrated. Theo''s Third Law was to reverse everything. In other words, the real became a fake, the fake became real. The darkness turned bright and bright became dark.


    That was why he couldn''t mess it up when releasing this power. He might end up getting swallowed by it.


    ''Target, seven powers. Let the darkness be light, the space expansion starts to shrink, destiny bes undetermined, the Temperature is fixed, the sky will be the ground and the ground will be the new sky, and let the Force turn into a vacuum��''


    Theo muttered in a low voice as he gathered his energy into both hands. Suddenly, the sword, specifically the jade that Theodon gave earlier, started sucking the Magic Power and releasing it at the same time.


    The new Magic Power was more refined and harmonious. This was the effect of an artifact.


    Theo never experienced it because his weapon was still too weak in the past. But with the new jade, he could feel the output of his energy was twice the original.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as he finally activated his power. "Origin Reality, Third Law, Inverted World."


    The moment he pped his hand, his power began to spread, turning the darkness into light.


    Theo had to use his power to form sunsses to avoid blinding his own eyes. The space also started shrinking, allowing his power to rapidly consume this ability.


    A weird feeling suddenly struck his heart, but it didn''t make him ufortable. Instead, it brought himfort and peace. He wanted to shout, "I''m free."


    Gravity also began to change its course. Theo''s body started to float as if he was going to fall upward.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to keep his body afloat even if it meant he was standing with his head below.


    He had seen this kind of situation when Loki used his World Re-Creation, so he could adjust his body better.


    But to his surprise, the moment the light shone upon the darkness. It waspletely empty. He looked around and realized that the darkness was still on the very edge.


    The bright area only covered a quarter mile in diameter, but there was no single exit from this ce.


    In other words, he was trapped in this darkness and he wouldn''t be able to escape unless the one who cast this ability released him.


    Despair started creeping into Theo''s heart. This ability was far more terrifying than anyone thought.


    Knowing everything he did was useless would make one lose hope. And even if they didn''t and kept going, they didn''t know how long they had to travel in order to escape.


    The thought that they would be trapped in this darkness forever would eventually crush them.


    Theo spat a mouthful of blood as he dropped to the ground. His Magic Power was depleted because of the Third Law.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth while grasping his chest. He started gasping for air as he looked around while in pain. "Is everything truly useless?"


    Theo''s expression darkened as if he had started losing hope.


    "Is this the difference in our ability?" Theo punched the ground, frustrated. "Did I do something wrong? Why?"


    Suddenly, a voice entered his mind.


    "Eternal Darkness. This is my ability." Theodon''s figure gradually appeared in front of him as if he had been in the exact same ce this whole time. "I have seen it from my mother and developed my own ability.


    "This Eternal Darkness will keep expanding like the beginning of the universe and you won''t be able to break it unless your power can overwhelm the expansion. I know you have that ability, but you don''t know what kind of power my ability has.


    "In other words, the information is very crucial." Theodon pointed at Theo''s eyes. "Your eyes can see through almost everything, giving you all kinds of information that could help you in a battle.


    "But what if your opponent is using something you don''t know? You will fall for their trick. I know that you''re trying to manipte your enemy''s action, but you should know that there will be a time when your opponent surpasses that prediction.


    "No one knows what you''re thinking. Hence, no matter how you manipte them, there is still a chance that everything won''t go ording to your n.


    "That''s why this is actually the real lesson. I don''t want you to be overconfident, thinking you can manipte people easily.


    "Do you understand, Theodore Griffith?"


    "I do understand that not everyone will go ording to my needs even after manipting them. It''s just��" Theo gritted his teeth while looking down. He seemed frustrated. Of course, after being shown the difference in strength, there was no way he would be happy.


    Theodon said, "After this, you should go straight to the north for thirty minutes or so with your speed. He is waiting for you on top of a small hill. It seems��!"


    He suddenly stopped and turned around as another voice echoed in the area.


    "That won''t be necessary."


    Seeing how another person''s voice entered, Theo couldn''t help but turn around to see what was going on.


    A ck-haired man suddenly appeared with a calm expression. He seemed to have predicted the oue and made his appearance.


    The guy had nted eyes and wore sses. He wore a gray shirt covered in a long ck coat.


    "Hmm?" Both Theo and Theodon stopped for a moment as they never expected such a person toe here.


    Theodon frowned as his expression darkened. "What are you doing here, Loki?"

 Chapter 1837 Trickster

    "What are you doing here, Loki?"


    The question made the tension rise. It looked like the agreement was different than what was happening right now. For whatever reason, it seemed that Loki had toe out right now.


    Loki shook his head. "I''ve been watching your fight this whole time. His result is a bit too miserable that I have toe here."


    "��" Theodon didn''t seem to like the answer. The fact that Loki had just intruded in the middle of their battle already displeased him, so he didn''t care about the reason. He just wanted Loki to leave.


    However, Loki added, "I simply want to tell him a few things. It''s not a big deal."


    "Not a big deal? Do you think I''ll agree with that?" Theodon gritted his teeth. It felt like he was ready to fight Loki if he continued disrespecting him this way.


    Theo, on the other hand, mmed the ground with his fist. He cursed, "Shit. Am I too pathetic right now?"


    Theodon stopped for a moment and nced at Theo''s expression. He looked miserable as if he couldn''t ept himself being useless after all this time.


    Theodon didn''t really care about the result. After all, he only wanted to teach Theo about Reality Power.


    "I understand your frustration, but I''m here to teach you about what youck right now." Theodon sighed. He wanted to get angry, but seeing how frustrated Theo was, he felt he had to stop. At the very least, he wanted to fulfill his original purpose.


    "I know. I have seen youbining all your power to use this ability. I don''t even have that kind of ability."


    "Of course, you can''t. Our power is a bit different. It seems you have found your power, but you should listen to this warning. What you''re doing right now is extremely dangerous. That power can even swallow you alive.


    "However, in that danger, you can turn that power to be the strongest power that ever exists. Reality and Fake are just two sides of a coin. If you can''t master that power, you will lose the gap between the two sides, allowing the two to fuse. When that happens, this reality will copse.


    "On the other hand, if you can master that power, you will be able to choose which side you''re using. And that should be enough for you to be people like us."


    "I see." Theo closed his eyes for a moment. He still looked unwilling, but it seemed he listened to his words. "Then, the one that will help me control my power shall be my artifact, right?"


    "The artifact acts as an amplifier. You can use it, but don''t rely on it all the time. Just like how I can still use my power without my artifacts, you have to��" Theodon was about to continue his exnation before his body suddenly shuddered as ifing to a realization.


    "What''s wrong?" Theo asked with an innocent face.


    Theodon couldn''t speak at all. He covered his mouth and started thinking, ''Wait a minute. He hasn''t even admitted defeat. Why am I evening out and exining all this stuff to him? I was supposed to crush him first before teaching him, but why did I blurt everything out��"


    Theodon widened his eyes in shock, staring at Theo. ''Since when��''<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theodon gasped when he saw Theo''s innocent face. It looked like he hadpletely lowered his guard, making him think Theo had given up.


    However, everything felt like it was moving due to a certain someone. And that someone was Theo.


    ''He might be new, but he is nheless someone who has the Reality Order. Even among the current human poption, his talent and strength are among the top. Yet, this same person has lowered his guard and is asking questions innocently.


    ''No way! That wouldn''t be possible!'' Theodon''s body shook. ''This means��everything is already part of his ability.''


    "You��" Theodon took a step back before Loki suddenly appeared behind him, trying to stop him. Theodon angrily turned around and waved his hand. "Begone!"


    In that instant, Loki disappeared into thin air, leaving both of them alone.


    Meanwhile, Theo had pointed his sword at Theodon''s neck and dered his victory. "Is this enough?"


    Theodon stopped for a while before he gradually turned to Theo, finding a smirk appearing on his face.


    "I know you are strong. If I fought the past you when you had the Reality Scepter and all that power, I would have lost. However, thanks to you reminding me that I''ll meet him again, I remember something.


    "Yeah. It''s my identity. There is a reason why the God of Mischief, Loki, chose me as his emissary in the past. It was to grant me a certain title."


    As he said those words, Theo couldn''t help but remember what had happened in the past. In fact, this was actually the purpose of his power.


    He had almost forgotten about it since there was a bigger goal. But at that time, the God of Mischief indeed said his identity.


    His consciousness was fuzzy at that time when he epted the God of Mischief''s offer to be his emissary. When he was acknowledged by it, the God of Mischief''s reply was��


    [God of Mischief has granted you the representative position. Congrattions, you now have be ''The Trickster.'' Mess up this world with your wisdom.]


    Theo remembered those words with a smile as he exined what he did. "When dealing with a powerful opponent, it''s best to lower my guard, making my opponent underestimate me. After all, you will drop your guard when you think you have won."


    "Don''t tell me��" Theodon gritted his teeth, feeling annoyed and overwhelmed at the same time. He couldn''t help but recall what Loki had done in the past.


    At the same time, Theo dered, "That''s right. I have told you that I will crush you, but there is a difference between a normal fighter and me. A normal fighter will defeat you with their strength head-on.


    "But me��" Theo winked his right eye yfully. "I am�� a trickster."

 Chapter 1838 Explanation

    "I am a trickster."


    "��" Theodon''s expression darkened. He knew that Theo had been faking everything this whole time. It turned out his real n was to make him lower his guard instead of defeating him.


    It was true that crushing someone had a different meaning for a trickster.


    For Theo, crushing Theodon meantpletely fooling him until he defeated him.


    And Theo had seeded in doing so.


    "I see. So, that''s how it is��" Theodon was annoyed, but he couldn''t help but acknowledge this defeat. Theo''s way was truly simr to the God of Mischief.


    The only reason why he considered Loki as his friend was due to his trickery that made him lose. And this time, Theo did exactly the same. Though, he didn''t know whether Loki or Theo was superior. He would probably not get the answer since both of them were on the same side.


    "I see. It seems that the ultimate move is not what it seems��" Theodon let out a long sigh.


    Theo''s reply came in the form of a smile.


    ? Theodon finally exined what Theo did. "You were going around to find the exit in a ce with no exit. After confirming that you had no way out, you were tricking me into thinking that you had gradually lost all hope.


    "But if you continue your acts just like that, I wouldn''t believe you. But you actually tried to use your ultimate move out of desperation. This made me believe that you werepletely out of options.


    "Unfortunately, that was actually the trick. By making you look like you have surrendered, you force me toe out. After all, you know that I want to teach you. There''s no way you''re not going to use that opportunity to deal with the killing blow.


    "And I never thought you would use him to distract me." Theodon sighed. "I should have known�� No, even if I tried to see through your scheme, I wouldn''t be able to figure out the situation. After all, you also knew him, especially how he acted.


    "Just like how he told me in the past." Theodon paused for a moment as he closed his eyes, remembering the time when they sat in front of each other.


    "How did you evene up with that trick? I couldn''t even see through anything." Theodon sighed, asking Loki.


    Loki only smiled as he calmly said, "I guess you can say there is one trick."


    "A trick?"


    "Yeah. The secret is simple. I just have to know you and all the things I use as an illusion. If I don''t know how the soil behaves, I won''t know if the sand will fly if the wind is blowing. If I don''t know how you behave, I won''t be able to create an illusion of how you will act��"


    Theodon was stupefied at that time. After all, Loki meant he knew about him. "Why do you even know about me? You''re not even from here. Don''t tell me you have been following me this whole time."


    Loki shrugged while saying yfully, "Who knows."


    Theodon knew that he must have been around him this whole time. He just didn''t know who he impersonated.


    Remembering that conversation, Theodon let out a sigh as he looked at Theo with a serious expression.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Since you have defeated me, I''m going to tell you about three things you need to know about Reality." Theodon raised three fingers.


    Since he had confirmed his defeat, Theo also turned back his sword into the bracelet form and listened to him.


    Theodon asked with a smile. "Do you know what happened earlier?"


    Theo shook his head. "I''m not sure."


    Theodon then raised his hands, projecting a small humanoid figure and a huge barrier that isted him.


    "This is the barrier earlier. But when you''re moving��" Theodon started moving the humanoid figure to the front like how Theo moved earlier. In that instant, the barrier started to change its shape.


    The half sphere was stretched to where Theo was going, matching it so that Theo remained in the middle. When Theo reached one ce, he ended up reaching the middle of the barrier again.


    After that, Theodon showed him what happened when Theo turned into a dragon form as well as flying into the air. Everything was simr to what happened earlier until Theo gave up.


    "This��" Theo sucked a cold breath, never expecting the trick to be like this. "So, you have been matching my movement this whole time?"


    "Of course." Theodon smiled.


    "But I still can''t understand how you hid from me when I used that technique to illuminate the entire area," Theo asked. He remembered that Theodon was nowhere to be seen. And he had even changed the rule of an area with a diameter of a quarter mile.


    Theodon smiled. "It''s simple."


    Theodon formed another humanoid figure, but this time outside the barrier.


    "Wait a minute��" Theo gasped. "So, have you been utilizing a ck screen this whole time? Depending on the material, the ck color can absorb all lightpletely. It can create an illusion that the surrounding area is still covered in pitch darkness.


    "But that color should have been changed when I used that ability��" Theo narrowed his eyes, realizing what he had done earlier.


    "After seeing how your ability reacted, I knew I had to change the color of my screen. So, I simply followed it whileing out of the barrier."


    Theo scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say. He waspletely defeated by this barrier even though he still won the match. It felt like he lost the battle but won the war.


    "I guess I have a lot to learn after this." Theo sighed. However, he noticed something was wrong. "Now that I think about it, I felt something ominous looming in the darkness. What is that?"


    The answer to that question came in the form of a yful smile. It seemed Theodon was annoyed by Theo''s trick earlier, so he also teased him by whispering with a cheeky tone. "You better don''t know about it. Hehehe��"


    "��"

 Chapter 1839 World Travel

    "As for the second thing I want you to know, it''s about the current reality." Theodon''s expression suddenly turned grim. Although he didn''t live in this era, it didn''t change the fact that he was once a ruler of reality. And he sensed something weird with the current reality.


    So, he couldn''t help but talk about it with Theo. He pointed upward, "I''m not sure what is happening right now, and I think you have seen it as well. But the current reality is a bit distorted as if it''s being broken from the outside."


    "Yes." Theo acknowledged his concern as he had understood it as well. "I''m working on it right now."


    "I see. If that''s the case, I don''t have to say anything. If you have a problem in repairing this reality, you should go to the world''s will."


    Theo nodded. He was aware that he could sense the current distortion through the world''s will. However, the distortion would just continue if he couldn''t solve the problem. So, he had to solve the cause first before repairing the reality.


    "In that case, I''ll leave that matter to you. I know you will do just fine." Theodon closed his eyes for a moment. "Last but not least, I''m going to tell you about the secret of this reality."


    "The secret of this reality?" Theo''s face turned serious. He felt something was wrong with this discussion, and when he tried to connect everything he had found in the past, he noticed something.


    "Wait a minute. Don''t tell me, you are one of the people who create this reality?" Theo asked to confirm his doubt.


    "Yes," Theodon admitted without hesitation. "I was the one that created this reality out of nothing. Of course, I got the help of many people to fill this reality with everything you have right now. Where do you think the Magic Poweres from? The elements, the living, the deaths? Everything has been created to perfection.


    "But what I want to talk about is not about this reality itself. Instead, I''m going to tell you about the creation of reality."


    "!!!" Theo''s body shook, fully understanding his meaning. He gritted his teeth as if it was a hard decision to listen to him. After all, knowing this information meant he might try to create a reality where he was the ruler.


    Theo might not be a perfect human who could escape from hypocrisy, but he certainly did his best to avoid doing something that he didn''t like others forcing on him.


    He hated being controlled by the higher being, so he didn''t n to be a creator that would force other people under his control.


    However, there was something Theo had to consider. That was why he gathered his resolve with great difficulty and asked, "Please tell me about it."


    Theodon smiled as if he could see Theo''s character. He paused for a moment before raising his hands. This time, he created ten balls.


    The ten balls formed an inverted pyramid with four balls at the top.


    "Imagine these balls are the world you currently live in. You can say they''re all realities that exist at the same time.


    "We are in this reality." Theodon changed the color of these white balls to red, leaving only one ball at the top middle white.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo focused on the white ball and listened attentively.


    "I''m sure your eyes can see that there are other realities, right?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded.


    "What you have been doing right now is just looking at the realities parallel to you." Theodon made the other three balls parallel to the white ball green, indicating the realities that Theo saw with the Reality Eyes.


    "On the other hand, you can''t easily see the realities below and above you. I''m sure you have understood this already, but I''ll exin it again.


    "The realities below yours are created by your reality or the ones parallel to yours. Meanwhile, the realities above you are the reality that creates your current world right now, including me.


    "And using this method, you can gradually trace the origin of all realities�� In other words, the reality where all worlds are created.


    "Unfortunately, I didn''t have any way to go beyond this reality. In other words, I didn''t have the means to find a trace to go to the reality that created me��


    "So, it was impossible for me to go to the original universe�� which I will call the Singrity.


    "However, it might be impossible for me to do it, but it doesn''t mean you can''t do it." Theodon smiled. "On my deathbed, I finally found a method to find a trace of the original world that created me."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. This was truly something he needed if he wanted to escape from the grasp of his creator. However, he didn''t know why Theodon blurted all this out to him.


    Theodon didn''t care about Theo''s doubts. He simply told him the method by pointing at Theo. "It''s an original technique created by the ruler of reality like us. However, I was toote, and I couldn''t create that technique, let alone hand it to you right now. Are you disappointed?"


    Theo shook his head without hesitation. "No. Even if there is a way, I wish to find it myself. After all, our methods might not be the same and we can''t guarantee that our destination is the same. If we don''t have the same goal and method, I''m afraid I''ll just deviate from my goal."


    "Good." Theodon was satisfied with Theo''s answer. "I might not have the technique, but I certainly have the knowledge about it. That''s why I''m going to pass that knowledge on to you.


    "You should perfect that knowledge and create your own method to go to your own destination.


    "This is the third thing that I want to tell you�� The knowledge to go to the world beyond our reality." Theodon smirked excitedly as he introduced that knowledge. "The method of World Travel."

 Chapter 1840 Warp Tunnel

    "The Method of World Travel��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his resolve.


    As soon as Theo opened his eyes, Theodon began his exnation with a smile on his face. "Do you know our realities are connected to each other?"


    Theodon started forming lines between realities, connecting them to each other. Each ball was connected to the ones next to them and below them. He even added some more balls to show that there were basically so many universes beside them.


    He pointed at the lines that connected these realities. "I call these lines the Warp Tunnel. Well, you can say that this is the tunnel that connects one reality to another.


    "However, you can see these lines? From one reality, it can form many realities. The same applies in reverse. Our reality might be the creation of multiple realities beyond our reality.


    "In other words, even if you find a Warp Tunnel and go to the higher reality, you might not find the one that directly creates our reality.


    "That''s why even if you find one, you have to go there yourself to see if it''s possible to find the real creator. Even I don''t know how to find the creator, so I''ll leave it in your hands when the timees.


    "I don''t have a method to go beyond our reality, but I''m pretty sure that the path is through the Warp Tunnel. This is just knowledge and the ability hasn''t been created yet.


    "If you want to go to the reality beyond this one, you should use that information to find a way to go to the Warp Tunnel. That''s my conclusion."


    Theo closed his eyes for a while, absorbing all the knowledge. He wanted to think about it from his own perspective, but he decided to do itter. For now, he had to listen to everything Theodon said since his knowledge was truly amazing.


    Theodon raised three fingers. "Of course, there are three risks that might happen when you''re traveling between realities. The first will be the chance of the Warp Tunnel getting distorted. Although these Warp Tunnels connect one reality to another, it doesn''t change the fact that they exist solely to maintain the connection.


    "If one goes through the Warp Tunnel, there will be a certain impurity that might cause the Warp Tunnel to change.


    "When that happens, I''m afraid that this reality can be connected to another reality. In other words, the rules of other realities, which might be different from ours, will get mixed and who knows what will happen after that.


    "This situation might also ur in the reality you''re going to. And in the worst-case scenario, you might find yourself having no way back. You can say that the Warp Tunnel is getting too distorted that it''s broken or the Warp Tunnel might get entangled with another, causing the path to lead to another reality.


    "If you wish to go to the Warp Tunnel, you have to consider this properly. I simply don''t want you to regret your actionster.


    "Then, the second problem will be the merging between two or more realities. As you can see here, the Warp Tunnel might get entangled with one another, causing the realities to get pulled together.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "In such a situation, you might find the fighters of the realities around you. You can even find another you from a different reality. So, I have to warn you about it. After all, the world that will be mixed with your realities might not be a good ce to live.


    "What if the world is like an ancient world like us where the fighters are as strong and as talented as you? And there is a possibility that they''ll be far stronger than you. This world might just get devoured.


    "And if you merge it with another reality where you are the strongest person, the humans might find a way to conquer them to either make them their ves or even worse steal their resources and let those people bear the consequences.


    "Last but not least, you might kill yourself in your destination. Well, I can''t say it''s yourself, but it''s you from another universe. You can say that when you go to that reality, there''s no telling what will happen if you meet another you from that universe.


    "For me, personally, I better go to a reality where the me there is already dead. I''m sure your Reality Eyes can see some realities where you are already dead. You should seeplete darkness or you might not see anything at all.


    "If you understand these three risks and somehowe up with a way to go to another reality without causing a lot of problems in that reality or yours, then that''s good.


    "I just want you to heed this warning since I don''t want this reality to be destroyed. Understood?"


    "Understood. I''m desperate, but I won''t sacrifice everything I hold dear just for the sake of my ambition. You can rest assured that I won''t destroy this reality." Theo nodded with a grim expression, understanding the burden he carried.


    "Good. I''m sure you can create a method to travel to another reality in the future. If I''m your age, I should be able to do it not long after this.


    "It''s just�� you might want to progress your strength a little bit more. You will be able to see the world in a different light.


    "Anyway, let''s move on to another topic, still rted to the current discussion. I''m about to tell you about the issue of the rtionship between the realities, including your Reality Eyes.


    "This is very important because it will give you another perspective about your Reality Eyes. So, listen to me."


    Theo nodded. He was ready to listen to everything.


    Theodon had told him a lot of information that was a bit hard to digest. But it didn''t change the fact that all this knowledge was important for his goal.


    Last but not least, he also liked the fact that he would be the one to perfect it ording to his own experience and knowledge. With all this knowledge, he might be able to surpass his past self and create something beyond the thirdw. This might be Theo''s fourthw.

 Chapter 1841 Connection Between Two Universes

    "The rtionship between realities is divided into three categories: parallel, origin, and creation. Basically, above, equal and below you.


    "I''m going to tell you that it''s impossible to create a world beyond your universe. After all, you have created that world, so of course, it''s going to be a universe below you.


    "In other words, creating a universe is so easy that even a baby can create one. That''s why there are so many realities to the point you can''t count them anymore.


    "That''s probably the same as how the universe above us creates us.


    "Then, the difficult but possible way is to create a universe parallel to yours. That''s what I and the others created in the past�� basically, this world.


    "And yes, normally, if you create a universe, it''ll directly go below you. However, all of us have poured our strength and created a world that can be considered the same level as our original world.


    "It''s probably impossible for the current world to do that, unless they have twenty to thirty people like you, who have reached one rank higher.


    "And by the time this world has so many people with that kind of power, I think you will have already found the method. So, I won''t exin the method of creation to you.


    "Instead, I''m going to tell you about the connection between the two worlds. Now that you are aware of the Warp Tunnel, you should have figured out what I''m going to say.


    "The Teleportation Circles were basically the Warp Tunnels that connected the two universes. But because this is an artificial universe, we needed a thousand Warp Tunnels, gradually forming a big tunnel consisting of those tunnels.


    "And the one that glued the Warp Tunnels together to create that giant tunnel connecting the two worlds�� It was none other than the void where all powerful beings resided.


    "When one Warp Tunnel disappeared, you should know that anything inside that Warp Tunnel would leak out, right? And it would cause some problems for the two worlds."


    "!!!" Theo nodded with a grim expression. This was what happened with this country. The Teleportation Circle was destroyed and the two realities started to merge.


    However, Theo was confused about one thing. "If that''s the case, what''s the purpose of the ten pirs?"


    "The ten pirs?" Theodon smiled. "They''re basically the ones bncing the distances between two universes. Basically, the two universes should be staying in their exact spot, not interfering with one another.


    "However, because we''re trying to make a second home after world destruction, we''re using those one thousand Teleportation Circles to connect the two universes. In exchange, these one thousand circles end up pulling the two universes closer. And if that continues after a long period, it will merge the two realities.


    "And those ten pirs are basically the seal that hides all the connections while holding both universes in their ce. This way, the two realities won''t merge."


    Theo looked down, contemting. "I see. So, that''s why when one of the pirs was destroyed, the teleportation circles were revealed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Basically, that pir acts as a seal to hide those one thousand teleportation circles. If that''s the case, your original intention is to let the two universes not interfere with each other?"


    Theodon nodded. "We originally wanted another ce to escape the destruction. That''s why we''re using this reality to bring humans and animals out, preserving our civilizations.


    "Unfortunately, it seemed that everything we did was useless since the two universes ended up merging in the end."


    Theo couldn''t say anything about this matter. After all, to save the entire from the great reset, he had to connect the two universes.


    "Sorry." Theo lowered his head, apologizing for ruining their creation.


    However, Theodon shook his head as if he didn''t care about it. "You don''t seem to be someone who recklessly does something. If you end up merging the two realities, you might have a great reason to do it. After all, this matter is huge.


    "So, I won''t ask about your reason or have you exin your objective. All I need to know is that the two realities have merged together and what will you do after that? We used this reality as our second home to protect our civilization. But now that the two realities have merged, what are you nning to do?"


    Theo thought for a moment before asking, "What happened to the other reality once they merged? Are they merged into a single reality, or is a part of them being absorbed, leaving the other empty?"


    "I''m not sure about it. But from what I know, the other reality should still be there. But because the fusion has beenpleted, the other reality will turn into a void. Basically, it''s in the state where reality can be called exist and not exist at the same time."


    Theo was confused for a moment. He hadn''t reached this step yet, so he had to see everything first beforeing to a conclusion. Though, he still had some spections and wanted to confirm them. "So, what if I want to go to the other universe?"


    "It''s possible in theory, but if you truly want to do it, you have to create another bridge and the supporting pir.


    "Though, that''s only possible in theory. I don''t know if you can do it or not. After all, this is the first creation and we haven''t even experimented with anything yet before the destructiones.


    "So, I won''t be telling you anything concrete. I hope you can understand."


    Theo nodded. "I''ll try to experiment with it. After all, I might find myself in a pinch, so I want to have an escape path. I don''t know if it''s possible or not."


    "Yeah. You are the current user of reality, so you can do everything you want with it as long as it doesn''t break reality."


    Theo agreed with that statement. He was afraid that the slime was simply too much for him to handle, so he had to use something like this. Although he didn''t know how to use it yet, he tried to find the method as soon as possible.

 Chapter 1842 Questions

    Theo waited for a moment to sort his thoughts. He had to make sure he didn''t have any questions for Theodon.


    After a while, Theo found two questions from what he had learned today. He asked, "You said that the Warp Tunnels might get entangled, causing two or more realities to start to fuse.


    "If that''s the case, is there a way to stop it? I mean, can we restore it to the previous state?"


    "A good question." Theodon nodded in amusement. He erased all the illusions from earlier and formed three balls connected to each other. Look at this situation, once the three worlds are entangled, there will be a dominant world that will absorb all of them.


    "Even though these three worlds are at the same level, their�� how do I say it? Their power? Well, basically, there is one world that is stronger. In our case, this world is stronger.


    "I don''t know how to measure it since Magic Power isn''t the measurement. So, I can''t really exin this. All I know is that the stronger one will be a new host.


    "The other two will be a pseudo-world until they''repletely absorbed. And in the form of a merged world, it doesn''t seem that the world will be bigger by absorbing the other one. So, I''m assuming that mass will be stored somewhere in the real world.


    "It''s just you have to find that world. And to restore it�� I do think it''s possible. Maybe you can create a bridge and support again to stabilize the connection between them.


    "However, this is just a theory. So, you might want to experiment with it first." Theodon exined everything he knew.


    Theo contemted the answer and asked his second question. "In that case, what will happen to the other world that gets absorbed?"


    "I''m not sure. But looking at this city, I''m afraid that the main world will get permanent change while the pseudo world will lose all the things transported into the main world."


    Theo fell silent and recounted all the experiences he had after the apocalypse. "In our current situation, all the monsters areing into this world and the Magic Power has been transported as well.


    "There are also a lot of trees, but I don''t think all of them have been transported here. In other words, there are still things in the other world. The trees, of course, but I don''t see any man made or natural structures around. I don''t know about ores yet, so I''ll try to figure out everything that has been transported here.


    "Last but not least, I''m afraid that the Origin is also affected by it. But I don''t know how to measure it." Theo sighed.


    "Origin?" Theodon obviously didn''t know about Theo''s self-made term. He was confused for a moment but soon understood what he wanted to say. "Ah, you mean the Primordial Energy. But yeah, I think Origin can be used as well."


    "I see. So, the name is Primordial Energy." Theo nodded in understanding. "Yeah. I''m talking about this energy."


    "I''m not sure about it as well. I just want to say that the Magic Power entering this world alone can''t be said to be good as well.


    "After all, there will be a different kind of evolution due to the Magic Power. If Primordial Energy steeply increases in this world, I''m afraid you won''t see the world the same anymore.


    "There will be a time where a snake can be so long that it can envelop the world, or there is a possibility you will have a tree that has its root prated deep underground and its leaves covered an entire city.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Of course, humans might change as well. They can be deformed like bing small or they can be a huge human. Either way, I don''t really want the Primordial Energy to be sucked as well.


    "But I don''t know about the situation��" Theodon sighed.


    Theo, on the other hand, sucked a cold breath. Of course, he knew about all this legend. He was talking about Jormungand, Yggdrasil, Dwarves, and Giants.


    In other words, they were once humans. But because their ancestry had evolved, they gradually branched out from humans, creating a brand new race.


    "Wait a minute. Is this the reason why you call them to race instead of monsters?"


    "Yes. Isn''t that obvious? Well, we can call them demons, but we also acknowledge their existence if they form a huge colony." Theodon confirmed.


    "I see." Theo destroyed his previous knowledge about the monsters and started applying all the knowledge he''d just got toe up with a new perspective.


    Theodon waited for a moment but he noticed that his hand had started disappearing. He didn''t have much time left.


    "Is there any more question you wish to ask?" Theodon pressed Theo for another question.


    Theo was still focused on his thoughts as he didn''t answer Theodon for two minutes.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Theo shook his head. "No. There are a few things I''m curious about, but I think I''ll find them myself. After all, the answer I will get this time is simply too specific that I might end up carrying that answer for a long time. Sorry."


    "No, it''s fine. The best way to understand Reality is to go around and experience it yourself. That''s why I quite like you. It seems that guy chooses you for a reason." Theodon closed his eyes for a moment. His expression soon changed to a smile.


    But this smile felt hollow as if he had epted the current condition. He looked at Theo and said, "I''m going to help you one more time, Theodore Griffith."


    "Help me?" Theo was confused, but Theo ignored his reaction as he grabbed Theo''s right hand.


    "What are you doing?" Theo tilted his head, seeing Theodon staring at his hand.


    "A good hand indeed. You have trained a lot to get this rough hand. I know you have put some effort into taking care of the skin as well." Theodon smiled.


    "What are��" Theo wanted to ask again, but his vision suddenly glitched as Theodon utilized his ability. Theo hurriedly removed that power, but the next thing he realized, his hand had already stabbed Theodon''s chest.


    "Wha��"

 Chapter 1843 Last Help

    "Wha��" Theo''s body was startled as he instinctively pulled out his hand, not understanding why Theodon did all this. He could see a huge hole in Theodon''s chest.


    It was empty because his body was made of Magic Power, but he could see Theodon''s body starting to disappear from that hole.


    His body soon became too weak as he fell into Theo''s embrace. He gave Theo a big hug, trying to cheer for him.


    "Reality might be too much for everyone, even for me. However, I know that you will do just fine. There''s no need to understand everything right away. Experience things first." Theodon gave hisst words.


    Theo didn''t expect that Theodon would do something like this. He thought Theodon would die peacefully by disappearing because he was out of power, but it seemed he was nning something else.


    Before Theo said something, Theodon told him, "I''m leaving this reality to you, O'' New Trickster, Theodore Griffith."


    Theodon''s body gradually disappeared as it felt like his body had passed through his skin. Theo was shocked by how Theodon chose to die, but he understood why he did it when he saw the notification from the system.


    [Killing a Singrity Theodon.]


    [EXP+480,000,600]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    ��


    ��


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    Theo instantly leveled up seven times. It was a great boost from Theodon, considering he might need two to three months to get seven levels in his current state.


    However, everything was solved after killing a Singrity. It was amazing to know that he managed to skip seven levels, but Theo couldn''t bring himself to smile.


    Although their meeting was brief, Theodon had been very supportive. He looked at him like a senior, teaching everything he knew while respecting his boundary.


    And in hisst moment, instead of dying peacefully, Theodon chose to help Theo one more time by letting Theo kill him.


    He was grateful but had no way to repay him.


    Theo couldn''t help but clench his fists. Theodon had entrusted this reality to him. If he allowed it to get destroyed by the monsters, it would mean he had failed him.


    That was why Theo''s expression turned grim soon. He knew the weight of this help and swore in his heart that he would make sure to protect this reality.


    Theo lifted up his hand, staring at the new jade in his bracelet.


    As soon as Theo regained his bearing, Theo looked at the north. He wanted to give Theodon a proper burial. But the best ce to do it would be the hill where Loki waited.


    But he truly had taken a lot of time talking, so he might have to go back first to inform the two kids first since he had an unfinished business.


    To his surprise, the moment Theo returned, he found Lyrventh and Lydia awake as if they were waiting for him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "��" Theo looked at these two kids with a confused look. "You two are up?"


    "Thanks to you causing a lot of noises over there, I''m awake." Lyrventh pointed in the direction where Theo fought earlier. Still, he could feel the difference in power between the noises he had heard in the past and the ones Theo released during his fight.


    Obviously, this was the first time he had heard such a thing.


    Of course, when Theodon began talking about his power, he had applied his power so that Lyrventh didn''t hear the content.


    Even though Lyrventh looked like he was ming Theo, he actually added, "Are you alright?"


    It seemed he was worried that Theo was injured. He even noticed Theo having short breaths because he was exhausted.


    So, he had to confirm Theo''s condition.


    "Hahaha, are you worried?" Theo chuckled and patted Lyrventh''s head.


    "I''m not worried, I just have to make sure you can hold your part of the deal." Lyrventh harrumphed and turned his head away, not wanting Theo to see his embarrassed expression.


    Even Lydia chuckled when seeing them this way. At the very least, these two didn''t go against each other anymore.


    "I''m alright. You don''t have to worry. It''s just�� I have unfinished business in the north. So, I''m going there for a bit. I don''t think it will take a long time, but who knows." Theo thought for a moment and continued, "Anyway, I''ll be bringing some meat for you guys so that you can have something to eat for a while. Don''t worry, I''ll return as soon as possible."


    Lyrventh looked at him, annoyed. "I''m sorry to break this to you, but we''re going with you this time!"


    "Huh?"


    Lyrventh wasn''t someone who said something meaningless. So, he didn''t understand how he wanted to follow him.


    However, Lyrventh added some exnations to the decision. "I''m not sure, but I heard a voice from a different direction telling me that I should go with you this time. That''s why I''m thinking of going."


    "A voice from another direction?" Theo looked down, falling into deep thought. The one who knew these two''s existence should be the God of Mischief.


    He was a bit doubtful earlier, but after knowing this, he was certain. It seemed the reason the two kids were still alive this whole time was none other than Loki.


    He didn''t know the origin of these two kids, but it was certain that Loki had been protecting them this whole time. He didn''t know what kind of n Loki had for them, but it was clear that there were some hidden intentions.


    Judging by how Lyrventh''s ears worked and how Lydia had overwhelming positive energy, Theo could imagine some possible reasons why Loki protected them.


    ''It seems I have to bring them right now.'' Theo let out a sigh before agreeing with the suggestion. "Alright. I''ll be bringing both of you. I''ll give you some time to wash your face and change your clothes."


    "Okay!" Lydia smiled, happy that Theo chose to bring her as well. After all, she thought only Lyrventh was invited and that person was just worried that she couldn''t do anything if left alone.


    At the very least, they didn''t need to be separated.


    The two immediately tidied themselves.

 Chapter 1844 Meeting

    As soon as they were ready, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly toward the north until they found a hill.


    Obviously, the first one that picked the signal from the God of Mischief was none other than Lyrventh.


    He was pointing forward while shouting, "He''s there. It''s the same voice."


    Theo nodded as he continued toward the hill. This was probably their first meeting after the apocalypse. And this time, Loki was using his real body.


    It didn''t take too long for them to reach the hill and Theonded at the top. He found a ck-haired guy sitting on top of a boulder, waiting for him.


    The appearance was the exact same as the Loki that he made with his illusion earlier.


    The moment he noticed Theo''s presence, the God of Mischief opened his eyes and looked at them with a smile.


    "It''s been a while since west met."


    "Indeed. I never thought I would be meeting you like this. No, I''m more surprised that you''re asking him to meet me." Theo sighed. The meeting with Theodon was basically the biggest gain of this trip.


    So, he wondered what Loki wanted to say to him after all that.


    "I made plenty of trips in the past, so I believed he was the best person to guide you." Loki shrugged. He started ncing at Lyrventh and Lydia, saying, "It seems both of you are still alive."


    "��" Lyrventh suddenly stepped forward and spread his arms as if trying to protect his sister. He could feel the intention behind those words. "A familiar tone thates not from being overly familiar but from watching us this whole time. It seems you have been around us this whole time even though I couldn''t find you this whole time."


    Loki smiled. "You are truly one smart kid to the point I want to make you my disciple."


    "Your disciple?" Lyrventh gritted his teeth and shouted back, "I don''t even know you. Do you think I''ll be a disciple of someone who didn''t even help us in the past few years despite being around us?!"


    "Do you know me?" Loki asked.


    "No."


    "Then, I''ll introduce myself first." Loki paused for a moment. "I''m Loki Laufeyson, the God of Mischief."


    "!!!" Lydia, as the older one, had been exposed to a lot of information even if she was only six or seven years old at that time. She once read about this name, but he was supposed to exist only in legend. "You are the God of Mischief? But aren''t you supposed to be living only in myth?"


    "I did live there, but you can say I havee to life again in this era." Loki smirked. "I don''t know if you can believe it, but I have been around you this whole time. Even if you don''t know what I''ve done for you, I truly have helped you."


    "You''re lying!" Lyrventh denied him without hesitation. He was shouting frantically as if he was annoyed by what he had heard. On the one hand, Lyrventh could determine if that person was lying or not by how they spoke. On the other hand, Lyrventh''s mind and instinct were telling him that the person before him didn''t lie at all.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Still, how could he believe someone who was supposed to have died in the myth to live again in the present day? He couldn''t.


    Theo scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, I know you can''t believe it, but he''s truly the one from the past. I don''t know how he managed to preserve his life, but yeah��"


    Theo had no exnation. All he knew was that Loki made everything possible. He had fooled the world of his death.


    The same applied to Hel. Unfortunately, they might be the only people left from ancient times.


    Lyrventh gritted his teeth. He believed Theo more than Loki, but the fact Theo rified Loki''s statement just infuriated him.


    He shouted again, "I don''t care. Whatever you''re going to say, I''m not going to be your disciple."


    "To be fair, I only said I wanted to take you in as a disciple, I didn''t say I would." Loki shrugged.


    "Why are you arguing with a kid?" Theo looked at him while shaking his head helplessly. He never thought Loki would be so immature that he ended up talking back to a kid. Though, he could somehow understand why Loki did it.


    He was never a good person anyway. Even if he looked immature, he stayed true to his nature. Whether they were kids or elderly, Loki would simply beat them up without care.


    Lyrventh snorted. "Hmph. Do you think I''ll fall for your provocation?"


    "Right? You snotty brat. You just lost a huge opportunity. Unlike this guy here, I could teach you how to sense your surroundings. And I''m a master of illusion, so I can also teach you how to make an illusion to replicate what you sense, allowing you to see everything around you as if you can see it with your own eyes.


    "Unlike him, I know a way I can use to make you stronger even though you don''t have any level now. I guess you don''t want that opportunity." Loki snorted back.


    "��" Everyone fell silent after those words. It was a big temptation for Lyrventh. Even Lydia thought it was a good idea, considering Lyrventh would be able to see the world.


    Then again, Loki was so immature that he crushed this child with his words alone.


    Lydia made a weird smile, not knowing how to interrupt them. At the same time, Theo had patted her shoulder as if asking her to sit on the sideline with him until these two finished.


    Lyrventh gritted his teeth. His body was shaking. He wanted to ept, but he hated Loki.


    Loki pointed downward, "Why don''t you kneel down and apologize? If you do that, I might forgive you."


    "Why are you so spiteful? So immature, unlike when you were around me." Theo shook his head helplessly.


    "You were mature at that time. Meanwhile, this kid has to know the harsh reality of being a kid!" Loki stuck his tongue out as if he wasn''t in the wrong.

 Chapter 1845 Agreement

    "Well, I''m not going to help in your argument. But for now, you can take care of them. After all, they''re much safer with you and Hel instead of the War God Family." Theo exined.


    "That''s true. Those people will be trying to use his hearing to their advantage." Loki nodded in agreement. He knew what kind of power the enhanced hearing was. Lyrventh was extremely useful as a spy or a lie detector. When they discovered that talent, he would be used by them, especially since they had a hostage, Lydia.


    Lyrventh might know about their scheme, but the enemies could use messages instead of verbalmunication. And with that ability, Lyrventh would be called a monster by normal humans.


    They feared that ability after all.


    So, it was better to leave them in Loki and Hel''s hands. At the very least, they wanted to teach the kids a bit more about their power. And these two seemed to have no intention of taking advantage of their talent.


    Even if Theo wanted to take them, he had to wait until the airne could be used.


    Theo had agreed, but Lyrventh appeared to have some questions.


    "Why are you helping us?" Lyrventh asked with a grim expression.


    "It''s simple. My objective is you." Loki pointed at Lyrventh, admitting his intention without hesitation. He didn''t want to lie about this anyway, so he simply exined the reason. "Your ears are powerful. Though, I don''t care much about it. Your ears might be the main attraction, but what I seek is that maturity of yours. Thanks to your ears, you grow mature so early.


    "In addition to the current world, I''m impressed that you and your sister, who are basically a four years old boy and seven years old girl at that time, can survive like this."


    "��" Lyrventh bit his lips. When the apocalypse started, he obviously had joined a few bases. At that time, he wasn''t fully mature yet even if he had these ears. Still, with how those people were scheming at each other to take advantage of his power, he ended up leaving the base with his sister without anyone knowing.


    And without his power, the base got destroyed not long after. There were a few betrayals, and it also made his sister grow.


    That was why he managed to be this mature at seven years old.


    It seemed that Loki first took his talent into consideration, but his growth was the one that piqued his interest.


    "��" Lyrventh contemted for a moment before asking his second question. "Why are you protecting us this way? If someone with your strength makes a move, you should be able to defeat everyone, right?"


    Loki snorted as he coldly stated, "It seems you forgot something. Who are you? Who are they? I don''t give a shit about all of you."


    "��" Lyrventh was annoyed by his reply. But then again, he was just a random person that he tested. He couldn''t really demand his help just like that. After listening to many people''s schemes, he knew that unless he gave some benefits, not many people wanted to help them.


    That was why he could understand Loki''s stance and didn''t give him any "The strong protect the weak" bullshit.


    Lyrventh raised one more finger. "Onest question. What are you nning to do after teaching me and my sister?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I''m not going to tell that, but this is probably one of the best things you can get." Loki refused to answer as if he knew Lyrventh wouldn''t like it.


    "��" Obviously, Lyrventh became suspicious of his real intention. But he had to consider his circumstances as well. He put on a condition, "You want me and I need you. You have tested me, so I''m going to see what you''re capable of. I''m going to follow you first, but the moment I don''t think it''s good to stay with you, I''m going to leave."


    "Of course." Loki smirked. Even if Lyrventh was mature, Loki was the God of Mischief. The reason why he agreed was simply due to his confidence in tricking Lyrventh in the future.


    "��" Lyrventh felt like he had agreed on something bad, but he knew he couldn''t really be too dependent on Theo, who helped him simply because he was curious. There was someone who would consider him as his disciple after all.


    "Still, my sister will be the one to choose her future. I''m not��" Lyrventh wanted to add another condition, but his sister cut him off by saying, "I''m going with you."


    Lyrventh fell silent and turned to her sister. She had a better life waiting for her out there, so he didn''t really want to drag her with his circumstances.


    However, Lydia seemed to have made up her mind.


    "You have promised that we will always be together and rely on each other. Are you going to take back your words?"


    "��" Lyrventh didn''t know how to reply.


    Loki maintained his poker face, but Theo could see his grin behind that calm face. He was actually enjoying it.


    He knew Lydia was the best weapon against Lyrventh, so he just had to manipte the situation where Lydia would be here as well. And if he forced Lydia to stay, he would be painted as a bad guy.


    On the other hand, if he made Lyrventh and Lydia stay due to their bond, he would look like a justified person who had given them a chance.


    Theo didn''t know what to say. After all, these two had fallen into Loki''s trap.


    Since both of them had started arguing, Theo used a bit of his power to create an illusion of his voice.


    ''So, what are you waiting for me?'' Theo asked.


    The God of Mischief nced at him, paused for a moment, and decided to point at the ground.


    He said, ''I have a few things to talk about with you, but for now, I want you to help me dig a grave for him.''


    Theo was surprised about the request, but he agreed out of respect for Theodon.

 Chapter 1846 Talking To Loki

    After giving a proper burial for Theodon, Theo gave onest bow to him.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath before turning to Loki. "So, what do you want to talk about?"


    "It''s about the situation in this ce." Loki scratched the back of his head. "I''m pretty sure he told you almost everything. So, I won''t repeat it.


    "I just want you to know about three things. First, the battle this time might be beyond your imagination. I don''t know many enemies you''ll fight, but now I''ll be helping you."


    "I understand. Thanks." Theo nodded. He knew Loki was going to fight with him since the enemy this time was too much for everyone to handle. It was good to know that a Singrity Level Individual nned to help.


    It would relieve a huge pressure from his shoulder. He didn''t know how strong Loki was, but he had experienced his power first hand.


    Loki might be his trump card in this battle.


    Theo contemted for a moment and asked, "Are you nning to involve other races?"


    "No. I''m pretty sure most of them are going to kill us. So, I won''t ask them. I think you are already aware of the difference between races and monsters��"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. He had some doubts all this time, so he asked, "I have suspected this, but have you gone around helping me?"


    Loki smiled. Of course, he wasn''t a humble one. He only spoke politely if he could gain something. Since there was nothing to hide, Loki admitted it without hesitation. "Of course. Do you like the sea race?"


    "As expected, you were the one sending them." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose.


    "I think you are aware of the reason, right?"


    "I know. By sending the sea races against me, I can use them to get stronger. At the same time, the sea race will be weakened altogether, removing the potential threat."


    "Yeah. And the culprit for that attack was none other than the mermaid that you once saw."


    "Huh?" Theo was confused for a moment. He went to visit her ording to the Dark King''s rmendation. There were supposed to be no conflicts between them. Even after leaving the area, he had aplished the mermaid''s request as payment for her divination.


    However, he didn''t expect that the mermaid would do something like this. It seemed that everything she had seen made her believe that killing him was necessary.


    And probably, it was the work of Loki, considering he also altered what she saw from him.


    Either way, it didn''t change the fact that the mermaid attacked her.


    He couldn''t help but ask, "So, where is the mermaid? Seeing how you know about her, it feels like you have seen her personally��"


    "I killed her after that battle." Loki chuckled. He had changed into a fish to influence her to attack before eliminating her to prevent future problems.


    "I see." Theo closed his eyes as if trying to understand all his actions. He also noticed something. "It seems that you have been watching my back this whole time."


    "I just happened to do that. You should be aware of my real goal��"


    "Right." Theo nodded. "Then��"<novelnext></novelnext>


    As if knowing what Theo wanted to say, Loki shook his head. "I''m not nning to do anything right now. Instead, you should be the one going around right now."


    "What do you mean?"


    Loki pointed to the east and said with a calm tone. "There should be and of opportunity in that direction. I''m sure you''re already aware of what I''m talking about."


    "Are you going to ask me to handle the World ss Monsters?"


    "Are you not confident?"


    "If I have a clone right now, I won''t be afraid. But this time, I have to consider the risks."


    "Hmm? You don''t have your clone right now?" Loki was surprised. Even he wouldn''t expect Theo to use his clone to infiltrate the enemy''s base.


    Unfortunately, his effort hadn''t given any results. He shook his head helplessly, "I don''t have my clone right now."


    Loki narrowed his eyes. All his ns had considered Theo with his clone. He knew how strong Theo would be if he went with his clone, so he believed this n was extremely dangerous for Theo.


    "If that''s the case, you can ignore my direction earlier. It might turn bad if you follow it." Loki thought for a moment.


    "So, you were nning to tell me where to train?" Theo frowned.


    "The current priority is to make you a Singrity. However, I know how hard it is to be one even with your current path. So, I''m nning to give you a way to close that gap.


    "However, it seems to be impossible for the time being. And I don''t think you have a lot of time left.


    "In that case, I only have one more suggestion." Loki raised one finger with a grim expression. It seemed the information was a secret that no one was supposed to know.


    Theo felt like he knew what Loki wanted to say as he couldn''t help but mutter when Loki told him about the answer.


    "The pirs."


    "��" Loki and Theo exchanged looks. They didn''t seem to be surprised they got the same answer.


    For Theo, this would be a great opportunity, considering it had the ability to help Theo utilize his ability. Still, this journey would be extremely dangerous since he would meet many World ss Monsters scattered around the world.


    Theo contemted for a moment. "This is tempting. The pirs are necessary for the battle. However, their purpose is different than nned because of my ability.


    "In that case, I''m thinking about perfecting my ability during this trip while getting closer to that rank," Theo exined his n.


    "You can do that. I''ll be taking care of these two and bringing them to that ce. What do you think?"


    "Yeah. I think that''s a good n." Theo nodded in agreement. He wanted to take them both somewhere before he left for his objective, but it seemed he had to agree to Loki''s n for everyone''s sake, including his.

 Chapter 1847 Nuke

    "��" Both Lyrventh and Lydia werepletely confused about their discussion. Even if they listened to everything, they didn''t know anything about singrity rank. They couldn''t even fathom Theo and Loki''s strength.


    So, they ended up clueless all this time. They had nothing to do other than wait for the two to finish their discussion.


    Still, they did hear that Theo would be leaving them in Loki''s hands so that he could bring them to a certain ce.


    Although Theo looked like he abandoned them, his rtionship with Loki didn''t seem shallow. This decision must have been considered carefully.


    Meanwhile, Loki asked, "So, what do you think about the enemy this time?"


    "I think I should be the one asking you that." Theo shook his head helplessly. "In fact, I''m just afraid that your existence will cause another disruption in this reality, causing the enemy to be even stronger.


    "I can''t even infiltrate their base, let alone measure their strength�� That''s why I''m a bit scared."


    "Fear of the unknown, huh?" Loki understood it very well. When they knew about the other party''s information, they expected what the target would do to a certain extent.


    But it would be a different case if there was apletely unknown opponent. This unknown opponent might have prepared a big n that would destroy them.


    That was why Theo had to be extra careful.


    Loki had a few ns in mind, but not a single of them suited the current Theo. So, he asked one more question to check his condition. "How many enemies do you expect to fight? How many allies do you expect toe?"


    Theo looked down. "On my side, there are you, Hel, two Saints from United Asia, and me. On their side, the main enemy, my grandfather, the original me, and the Fist Saint. I don''t expect the Daemon and the Ice Witch toe, considering they have to stay to protect their base from any potential attacks.


    "The same applies to the Time God. The government is extremely paranoid right now and can''t be trusted, so I don''t expect anything from them. It looks like we''re in an equal position without you, but I''m afraid that with you being there, the enemy will be far stronger than we originally expected.


    "Still, the monster itself can fight against me and some Saints. So, I''m preparing a lot of things, including my clone.


    "As for the Kings and Queens, I don''t know about them, but I should be able to gather ten Kings and Queens to help us. The main battle will be for the Saints, so I only expect them to keep the bnce.


    "That includes all the normal people below them. Still, I don''t know what their n is, especially with the spies around.


    "I have been trying to make the spy look like he''s a double agent to lose their trust, but I don''t know about the situation. Now that I think about it, I don''t know if the spy that contacted the sea race and the one helping the slimy monster are the same or not.


    "That''s the current situation, I guess," Theo exined the whole situation without hiding anything.


    Loki looked down as he also thought they still didn''t have enough power to go against the current enemy. Still, he understood why they couldn''t muster all the strength due to the human civilization needing some protection.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "If that''s the case, what do you think about using the monsters to help you?"


    "I want to do that, but it''s close to impossible to ask for their help." Theo shook his head helplessly. Although the chance wasn''t zero, he didn''t have high hopes for this scenario. "Instead, I should be asking you. Can you contribute something?"


    "I think my existence alone is already a huge contribution. But well, it doesn''t really matter right now since the enemy this time is beyond our imagination. Even I don''t have the confidence to win. But��" Loki paused for a moment and asked, "What is your goal? Not the goal of this battle, but your ultimate goal?"


    Theo smirked. "Of course, it hasn''t changed yet. I''m going to get my freedom. I haven''t forgotten my promise to you as well, so you don''t have to worry about it.


    "Though, now that I have this artifact along with the newfound strength, I think I have a better shot. I have prepared some secret weapons as well, so I''m not nning to lose." Theo shrugged.


    Loki nodded in understanding. "It''s fine. I know that you will do well. If only you had ten more years, you would be able to solve all these problems with ease. Unfortunately, it seems that those bastards'' maniptions have caused the entire thing to speed up.


    "I still haven''t found their trace yet, but it seems I''m going to find them in thisst battle."


    "I have seen their interference though," Theo replied with a poker face as if he wasn''t excited about their encounter like Loki.


    "Huh? Seriously?"


    "Yeah." Theo nodded. "I can''t really exin it yet, but it seems they''re bound by rules as well. Causing too much disruption will make the entire reality unstable. Hence, from the looks of it, they can''t really intervene too much unless every condition has been met. That''s why I can focus on the enemy right now and not fix the barrier.


    "This way, those higher beings won''t be able to cause any more interference�� Even if they do, it won''t be something big." Theo exined his encounter with the magma dragon back then.


    Loki closed his eyes for a moment and finally revealed a secret, "Since you have encountered them, I guess it''s time to tell you thest truth."


    "Huh? That conversation earlier wasn''t about the third one?" Theo tilted his head in confusion.


    "Of course not." Loki smirked yfully as if he had a huge surprise for him. "Though, I was nning to keep this a secret earlier."


    Theo''s expression turned serious since whenever Loki was this yful, he would be dropping a huge bomb.


    And that was when Loki surpassed his expectation and dropped a nuke. "You''re actually�� a twin."


    "What the��"

 Chapter 1848 A Deal?

    "What the fuck?!" Theo''s expression instantly changed. On the one hand, there was no way he could easily believe what Loki was saying. On the other hand, Loki wasn''t someone who did something meaningless. So, there was a big chance he would tell him the truth.


    If that was the case, he didn''t know what kind of revtion this was. It was simply too big for him to swallow.


    "Are you kidding me?" Theo asked while gritting his teeth.


    "Do you remember your family matter?" Loki shook his head helplessly. Because of the importance of this matter, he didn''t make any yful expression to make him look less serious.


    "Yeah. I do remember. If you''re going to say I''m a twin, then are you talking about my brother who has died due to the Griffith Family?" Theo asked for confirmation. Though, his mother never got pregnant again.


    Loki nodded. "It starts from the revtion about the prophecy. After seven generations, they will have a perfect body to host your so-called ancestor."


    "But it was intercepted by you..." Theo suddenly stopped, feeling something was wrong. Some points started to click with each other, but there were still a few missing links to understand the entire situation.


    "Yes. I intercepted it. However, that prediction was not wrong. After all, it was made by the Destiny Saint in the past. In other words, your ancestor truly predicted the uing generations.


    "However, there was something that the Destiny Saint couldn''t see at that time. It was none other than the fact that your mother would give birth to twins." Loki''s expression raised two fingers. "That''s exactly the reason why I can get a hold of you."


    "What do you mean?" Theo was still confused.


    Loki paused for a moment, recounting the matter back then. "I made a deal with a certain God of Time. Well, it was more like a request."


    "!!!" Theo suddenly remembered the time when he met his big brother in Niflheim. He told him he got some help from the God of Time. However, he didn''t expect the whole situation to be like this.


    "Yeah. I made a deal with him and your brother, telling them about the iing peril. No matter how the God of Time tried to solve the situation or how your parents dealt with it, the moment they knew you were twins, your life was over.


    "You should know what they will do if they know you''re twins, right?"


    Theo couldn''t rebuke him. He certainly knew what the Griffith Family nned to do if he and his brother were born at the same time.


    The first possibility would be both of them died due to the Illusion Elder. The second possibility was both of them were seized by the Illusion Elder and didn''t let their parents meet them in their entire life. It would be a series of brainwashing.


    One genius alone was enough for the Griffith Family to be unparalleled. Two geniuses meant they would be able to conquer the whole world.


    That was why living a normal life wasn''t possible for both of them.


    Loki nodded. "That was the reason why I made a deal with them. I wanted the Time God to grant its power to the young kid to save you.


    "Unfortunately, that power was too big for a baby who had yet to be born. In the end, your brother made a sacrifice and used his life to generate enough power for the Time God to stop your growth.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "In other words, the reason why your brother died wasn''t due to brainwashing or your mother''s trauma. Instead, it was to protect his younger brother."


    "!!!" Theo was shaken. He always thought that his brother had been murdered by the Griffith Family.


    However, the true murderer was actually him. If he wasn''t alive, his brother wouldn''t have sacrificed himself.


    He couldn''t help but imagine the conversation between the two.


    Considering the other was the God of Time whose strength was unparalleled. It was possible for him to elerate his brother''s growth to the point where he could talk to him.


    After getting that agreement, he finally utilized his strength to rewind time while stopping Theo''s time.


    This way, his brother was the only one spotted by him while he was still safe in his mother''s womb.


    Time stopped until the situation was calm enough. That was when Theo''s seal was broken, allowing him to finallye out.


    In other words, it wasn''t that his mother couldn''t get pregnant due to the trauma. Instead, she couldn''t get pregnant because he was still in her womb.


    Still, there was something off, such as his mother''s period. But his focus was on something else.


    He remembered the time he met his brother in Niflheim. At that time, his brother was already so old even though the coldness of the Niflheim should have frozen him.


    In other words, it was actually the real form of his brother that had matured due to the God of Time''s power. He was frozen in that state this entire time, waiting for him to finally meet the brother he had saved.


    He was never angry with Ray and Valerie simply because he was aware that his death was due to the deal instead of his parents.


    It seemed he couldn''t reveal anything at that time. In fact, Loki seemed to reveal this information because of the higher being''s interference.


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, never thinking the situation was actually like this. He was speechless.


    "This is the truth. You''re actually a twin, but your brother has sacrificed his life for you. Not only to use the power to hold back your growth but also to be the Griffith Family''s target."


    Theo formed a chair with his power while looking down as if trying to sort out his thoughts. The truth was actually far different from what he knew this whole time.


    "Ugh. Give me some time to process this." Theo waved his hand while clutching his head.

 Chapter 1849 Savior

    A few minutester.


    "Do you mind answering a few questions?" Theo finally finished sorting his thoughts and opened his mouth. His tone was filled with grief and his voice was shaking. He still couldn''t ept the entire situation yet.


    "I''ll answer it to the best of my ability." Loki nodded with a serious face.


    "It seems like you''re already aware of that prophecy. So, I''m wondering why you''reing to me. There should be many talented people all around the world. As long as they''re guided properly, they can be like me. So, why me and why is it in my generation?"


    "The reason for the time is actually very simple. You should be aware that I once did this because of a prophecy, right?"


    Theo frowned upon this answer. However, he couldn''t refute it as well, considering it was indeed the exact reason why Ragnarok happened.


    "Prophecy, huh. What kind of prophecy?" Theo could figure it out himself, but he chose to answer to avoid any misunderstanding.


    "The world will be destroyed at this time. It''s basically the same as my situation. You have been changing a lot of the oues�� That''s the reason why humanity and all living beings still survive."


    "Then, why did you choose me? Is it simply because my talent is the same as the people of the past? But from what I''ve heard, it seems that you''re using the Time Power to stop my time and concentrate the Magic Power in my body so that I have this talent." Theo had heard a bit from Theodon earlier, so he wanted to find the missing links to the entire situation.


    Loki paused for a moment as if he was a bit skeptical about answering it. Still, Loki gave an honest answer.


    "It''s because of your parents as well as the prophecy. After looking around, I couldn''t find any person to inherit this power. However, it changed when I found a prophecy of your ancestor. In other words, it wasn''t you in the first ce. It was the prophecy that chose you.


    "After finding out about you and your circumstances, I came to the God of Time to handle this situation. And the result is the current you. Of course, your parents have good talents as well, so your original talent should be much higher than other people''s.


    "Even without our interference, you should be able to be an Authority around sixty or seventy years old."


    "��" Theo closed his eyes. It was the average age when people started to reach the Authority Level. Of course, most of them were in their seventies or eighties. Only the most talented, like the Time God and the Heavenly Sovereign, could reach this stage by sixty.


    And now, Theo had surpassed them and reached this stage in his twenties. Though, his achievement was due to outside help.


    Theo took a deep breath. He got a grasp of the situation. "And the reason why you choose me simply because my brother has Time Affinity?"


    "Yes. It''s a perfect situation." Loki nodded.


    "Should I even get angry at you for suggesting the sacrifice?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It doesn''t change the fact that your brother saved you."


    "��" Theo didn''t have the energy to snarl at him. After all, it didn''t change the fact that they had saved him.


    Lyrventh and Lydia were quite surprised. They didn''t expect they could even hear something this important. Of course, they couldn''t understand everything, considering they had been talking in parts since both of them knew what they were talking about.


    Theo was clearly shaken by this revtion. After all, he had hated his parents this whole time.


    Although it didn''t change the fact that they had abandoned and bullied him in the past, they weren''tpletely at fault. His brother died because he wanted to save him. His mother couldn''t ovee her trauma earlier because of him.


    In other words, the one who caused all this was him.


    Of course, Theo acknowledged that the Griffith Family and their prophecy were the true cause. But he still considered himself as the cause.


    Theo didn''t know what to say at this point. He felt bad for ming his parents for his own mistakes. He wished he could find his brother, Owen, once again to thank him. Unfortunately, Helheim didn''t exist anymore and he should have reincarnated somewhere due to the system Helheim had.


    Last but not least, Theo wanted to say something to his adopted brother. He was mixed into this family problem simply because his parents adopted him because Valerie was unable to get pregnant. And the reason was him, who was still sealed in time.


    "So��" Theo sounded tired. It felt like the revtion took a great toll on his mind. He asked, "Everyone who has made a deal with you�� Are they all gone now?"


    "Yeah. They''re gone now. Thest one is him��" Loki nced at Theodon''s grave. He confirmed that the powerful Gods and Goddesses in the past had vanished into thin air after the apocalypse.


    Theo nced at Theodon''s grave before asking another question. "Onest question. It seems like you''re telling me this because I have made contact with the higher being. Is that the sole reason? Why?"


    Loki thought for a moment. It seemed like he was hesitating to tell him the reason.


    After a while, Loki finally opened his mouth, exining the reason. "There are two reasons. First of all, I have to exin the prophecy.


    "Actually, the prophecy didn''t say anything about the world''s destruction. Instead, the prophecy was indicating the great reset. It was said that in the future, there would be a divine being intending to reset the whole world for a reason.


    "No one knows the reason. If humanity wants to survive, they have to stand up and ovee all the challenges. That''s the only way to change the future.


    "And the prophecy told us about the possibility of a savior. The one who wasn''t a messiah but still helped the world simply because he needed it."

 Chapter 1850 Selfishness

    "It didn''t say anything about me." Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "Of course. It would be easy to find a world''s savior, but finding this type of guy is hard. I can say that people are selfish and you might think they''re easy to find.


    "But there is a different level of selfishness. People are selfish, but they don''t have the power to be selfish. They end up fooling themselves, causing them not to save the.


    "Even if they have the strength, they might not have the determination, resolve, potential, and even talent. There are too many thingscking. And someone with your talent is hard to find�� considering most of them wille from a big family.


    "It''s hard to bring those people to do their job because their family will interfere. Meanwhile, your family is different. It''s true that your family is nning to take advantage of you, but your parents will be doing their best to hide your talent.


    "And with your hatred toward your parents and the Griffith Family, it''s easy to make you turn this way. You won''t be affected by your family and your path will be yours alone.


    "That''s the reason why I have chosen you. Of course, a part of your childhood was caused by me." Loki lowered his head. "And I apologize for that. Sorry."


    Theo clenched his fists. The more he tried to find the truth, it felt like the more he couldn''t unravel everything.


    After knowing about the matter of his birth, he somehow wondered what kind of secret remained unknown.


    Theo looked at Loki with a grim expression. "So, is there anything you n to tell me?"


    "No. I don''t have anything to tell you because I have told you everything�� As for what you''ll do after this, it''s entirely up to you." Loki shook his head helplessly.


    On the one hand, it looked like Loki still manipted him. On the other hand, Theo knew that Loki was trying to manipte him. After all, this was actually Loki''s test to prepare him against the higher being.


    Loki knew everything about Theo and had been using his power to make everything go ording to his n.


    Meanwhile, the higher being knew Loki''s knowledge and action and used their power to not only force them to act in a certain way. There was a different level of control.


    If Theo couldn''t escape from his control, there was no way he could go against the higher being.


    Theo wondered how Loki could bring a lot of people together, especially when those people were from different mythologies.


    "Hmm, how did you even meet those people to the point you could create this world?"


    "That��" Loki chuckled and raised a finger. "I often went out. There should be a record of me leaving a couple of times, no? I''m curious and traveling around the world, finding new ces and people.


    "That''s why I could find all of them." Loki gave a thumbs up as if he had done a great job.


    "Ah, like how you gave birth to��Mpfh!" Theo couldn''tplete his words because Loki had covered his mouth with his hand. He was ring at him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It seemed like the legend was true that Loki forbade Odin to talk about the origin of Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse.


    "Don''t say anything unnecessary!" Loki gritted his teeth.


    Theo smiled for the first time after the shock. It felt like he had gotten him back for once.


    "Well��" Theo nced at Lydia and Lyrventh and made a small smile as if he was embarrassed for showing such a side. "Sorry that you have to witness it."


    "N-no." Lydia hurriedly answered it. She could understand Theo''s worry and sadness. She just couldn''t help him even though Theo had been helping them.


    Theo said, "It seems that we have to part ways here. You two should go with him to a safer ce. It is my former base, so I know what kind of facility you have.


    "You should focus on getting stronger, especially you, Lyrventh. You should learn the ability to look at the environment around you.


    "You might not be able to get eyes that can allow you to do it directly, but that should be enough for the solution."


    "I know." Lyrventh nodded with a serious expression. There was no way he could get eyes in this situation. And if he went to the base, he would be considered a monster by them. So, the best shot would be epting his circumstances and learning this ability.


    In the future, he could choose whether he wanted to get eyes or not. Of course, Theo could offer him Aisha''s help since she could regenerate a severed limb. But he didn''t know whether she could do a full regeneration like this or not. So, Theo didn''t want to give him false hope.


    Lyrventh lowered his head. Even though their meeting was brief, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had given him a lot of hope. He even thought about Lydia, whose worth should be lower than his.


    Seeing Lyrventh showing such gratitude, Lydia also did the same. She lowered her head, thanking Theo for everything he had done.


    "We''re eternally grateful since thanks to you, we can still continue living."


    Theo smiled. As expected, Lydia saw the world in a positive way. Still, he had to warn her, "However, you have to remember that you''re the only one who can grasp your future."


    "I know." Lydia nodded. "I won''t give up no matter how hard the situation is."


    "That''s great." Theo patted her head before turning to Lyrventh. "I think I don''t need to tell you. But you should protect her with your power. I know that both of you rely on each other to survive. And that''s how you can even meet me.


    "But if possible, instead of relying on each other to survive, I want both of you to support each other for a better future. Understood?"


    "Yes!" Lydia and Lyrventh answered without hesitation.

 Chapter 1851 Real Threat

    "Fuu��" Theo let out a long breath. After saying goodbye to Lydia and Lyrventh, he finally left for his journey. This was the journey to reach level 1,000.


    He thought Loki would be telling him about the two worlds, but it turned out Theodon was the one behind the creation of this reality. He might be working together with others, but he was the main reason why they could even form a reality.


    On the other hand, Loki actually focused on his identity, regarding him being a twin. He didn''t expect that he was supposed to be born far earlier.


    He had a lot of things to sort out, but he had an ongoing trip.


    "Well, I will sort my thoughts while leveling up, I guess." Theo smiled, looking at the horizon from the top of a building.


    "Two worlds, two realities��" Theo closed his eyes for a moment. This was important for him since it was the essence of his goal.


    After a while, he opened his system to check his progress since the trip was going to be a bit long.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 961


    EXP: 58,122,750/89,533,222


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 2450


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "I''m still halfway to reaching level 1,000. And the higher my level is, the longer it will take to level up. And I''m afraid I don''t have much time left�� I have to go back in six months.


    "Thanks to Theodon, I only need 39 levels again. Assuming I''m going to kill everything that stands in my way, I should be able to level up once every five days. And thest few levels will be extremely hard, so I guess I won''t reach level 997 like nned.


    "Still, I should be able to reach level 990 during this trip. As expected, I should kill another World ss Monster to get closer to my target, if not two��"


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, recounting all his ns.


    "Let''s head to India then. That ce should have a lot of monsters�� I just have to be careful not to fight multiple World ss Monsters."


    With an excited smile on his face, Theo finally took a step forward to India.


    ��


    Manitoba, Canada.


    In the northern part of Manitoba, there was a big fight between a King ss Monster and a World ss Monster.<novelnext></novelnext>


    An area that was once surrounded by vast jungle and the cold temperature had been turned into dust.


    The trees were burned down, thend was scorching ck, and the cold had disappeared.


    "Ha��Ha��" The one who caused all this was panting, ring at the World ss Monster before him.


    The culprit of all the destruction here was a King ss Monster. He had a humanoid body, but unlike humans, his face was wearing a mask as if it had been embedded right in his face since he was born. His blood red eyes were oozing killing intent, looking unwilling to go down without a fight.


    His entire body was red as if it contained the scorching me that scorched this verynd. Some parts were even glowing.


    He was ring at a gigantic red-colored slime that had been suppressing him this whole time.


    The slime was spherical. Instead, it looked like a small hill as the liquid body seemed to be melting continuously. However, at the bottom part, the liquid body gradually entered its body, getting circted until it reached the top again. The entire system was created to make a body that continuously melted and reformed.


    There was a reason for this type of body.


    When the King ss Monster pointed his palm at the slime''s body, he shouted, "Explode!"


    Suddenly, there was a small red light right in front of the slime''s body. That red light expanded in an instant before causing a huge explosion.


    The explosion was a bit bigger than the Supersonic Bullet. But seeing how the King ss Monster was unfazed after releasing this power, it was clear that he could use it multiple times with ease. If Theo had been here, he would have considered this monster a walking turret.


    Unfortunately, the opponent before him was none other than the great World ss Monster.


    The explosion caused a burst of slime from its body, but that red slimy part that came out of its body suddenly joined each other and formed something like a mouth.


    Suddenly, the mouth enveloped the explosion as if it was swallowing it. And after that, the explosion waspletely gone.


    There wasn''t even a trace that the slime took damage.


    "Kh." The King ss Monster gritted his teeth. He never thought he would be attacked by the World ss Monster like this when he didn''t even bother to provoke him.


    "Tsk." He clicked his tongue, feeling helpless. Still, he tried to buy some time by shouting, "Why do you attack me? We don''t have any enmity between us. Every time you expand your territory, I will move away from you. There''s no conflict, so why do you decide to attack me this time?"


    The World ss Monster couldn''t say anything. However, the World ss Monster was capable of taking out a part of its body and forming a humanoid body.


    The humanoid body didn''t have any other features like eyes, nose, or anything. It was there solely for the mouth.


    The humanoid''s body stated, "You are useful to me. Submit to me and I''ll grant you the power that you have never seen before."


    "Impossible!" The King ss Monster refused without hesitation. Of course, he never thought that the World ss Monster wanted him. But he had seen a lot of reports regarding the monsters that joined him.


    "Do you think I don''t know what you have done to the creatures that submit to you? I won''t be your pawn!"


    "Then you leave me no choice."

 Chapter 1852 Explosion King Vs Saint Slime

    The Explosion King couldn''t help but recall the scene where he got a report about a neighboring King ss Monster who decided to submit to the World ss Monster.


    At that time, the King ss Monster gained immeasurable power and still had the ability to think for themselves.


    However, once they messed up, they died with all their cells evaporating because the World ss Monster had changed their body into that of slime. And it could control the body''s condition easily.


    That was why submitting to him meant giving his life entirely to his control. Of course, if a King ss Monster submitted to a World ss Monster before the apocalypse, they were ready to fight for the Saint to their death.


    But there was a huge difference between the normal Saint and the World ss Slime. The normal World ss Monsters treated their subordinates as their people. They protected and cared for them.


    On the other hand, the slime treated its subordinates like they were a part of him and a ve at the same time. It was a huge difference since he couldn''t even question the slime''s action.


    That was why he had been refusing to go under him and chose to move away to govern an area. The slime kept expanding its territory, causing him to relocate again and again.


    He didn''t care much up to that point, but the slime ultimately ambushed him this time. It came personally and tried to subdue him.


    The Explosion King was a powerful king that was equal to the Dark King. So, he could resist the World ss Monster to a certain degree.


    Unfortunately, the opponent this time was a World ss Slime. Its body was like a hill and its ability was enough to subdue a few World ss Monsters.


    All this destruction was simply because the slime had begun its real attack.


    "No matter what you''re going to do, you''re not going to seed. I won''t submit to you no matter what!" The Explosion King dered out loud.


    The slime didn''t even bother talking to him anymore.


    Since the Explosion King had dered his intention, he finally began his attack.


    The slime suddenly took a part of its body, forming a huge meteor.


    "!!!" The Explosion King saw the iing meteor. If this was a normal rock, he would just st it. But this meteor was made of slime. Like how the shattered parts of the slime could still be controlled by its main body, it would be useless to destroy this meteor.


    Hence, the Explosion King formed another explosion right in front of the meteor. It looked like he was about to destroy it.


    But the moment it red up, the explosion actually sted the meteor without destroying it. Not even a single drop of the slime came out from that meteor.


    "!!!" The slime was quite surprised since this was the first time he had seen an explosion that didn''t destroy anything.


    His meteor certainly felt the explosion, but surprisingly, it felt like the slime body was solidified and sted by the shock wave alone, resulting in the body not being ripped apart.


    The Explosion King smiled as if finding a way to fight the slime. He had been using his explosion to find the slime''s weak spots but to no avail.


    Seeing that one of his explosions actually managed to knock the slime without destroying it, he knew there was something he hadn''t tried yet.


    Without hesitation, the Explosion King created another explosion beneath his feet, sting him into the air.


    After that, he pointed his finger at the slime''s body and shouted, "Explosion!"


    A small red dot appeared on top of the slime''s body before it lit up, causing another explosion.


    However, the explosion this time didn''t st the slime, resulting in a part of iting out and ending up swallowing his explosion.


    Instead, the slime felt there was a punch to its body and it couldn''t absorb this attack.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The slime stopped for a moment, making the Explosion King smile.


    "It seems everything I have done is not useless." The Explosion King smirked. "Explosion is an art. It''s not always destruction. You, a slime, won''t understand the real beauty of explosions."


    Without hesitation, the Explosion King created multiple explosions at the slime''s body.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The slime''s body was trembling for a second due to the shock wave. It didn''t do anything as if the slime was feeling hurt from that explosion.


    The Explosion King felt like he was punching a creature''s body multiple times and nned to do it until the slime felt it too much. At that time, he could try to escape.


    The Explosion King pped his hands, forming another wave of explosions.


    Suddenly, the slime started reshaping its body. The part where there were explosions would suddenly turn into a mouth as if trying to swallow the source of energy before they exploded.


    And this was the time the Explosion King smiled.


    The moment the slime swallowed those explosion sources, he snapped his fingers, blowing everything up.


    "!!!" The slime suddenly realized something different.


    The first wave of explosions was filled with destructive explosions, causing the slime body to burst.


    And the Explosion King used the second wave of explosions that he had nted next to the first wave. Now that the sources were inside the slime, it would have a deeper impact on its body.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The explosions startled even the slime to the point the body started to wiggle violently as if trying to shake the explosions inside its body away.


    Seeing how his explosions worked this time, the Explosion King smirked and used this time to cause another explosion beneath his feet, sting him to the north as if to escape from this battle.


    As expected, the slime wouldn''t let him escape. Suddenly, a huge red pir emerged from the ground.


    This was the slime''s body that slipped through the ground, containing him in this ce.


    However, he already found a way to break through this.


    With a confident smile on his face, the Explosion King formed another explosion.


    "You can''t stop me!"

 Chapter 1853 Serious

    "You can''t stop me!" The Explosion King formed another explosion in front of the pir. This time, he had prepared the explosion to bend the pir instead of shattering it.


    *Boom!*


    The pir soon bent backward, receiving the direct shock wave from the explosion. As expected, the pir didn''t break, preventing the slime from turning the pir into a to stop him.


    The Explosion King smirked, finally seeing an escape route. He even used another explosion to boost his speed so that he could reach the destination in an instant.


    Unfortunately for him, the slime seemed to have adjusted to his attack. The pir suddenly returned back up, showing its sticity. This pir was made of slime, so obviously, it would gradually return to its original position.


    The swing of that pir startled the Explosion King as he hurriedly raised both hands and formed another explosion between them.


    *Boom!*


    The explosionunched him back to the battlefield while the pir bounced back like earlier. But this time, the Explosion King didn''t have the momentum or the necessary power to break through it.


    "Kh." The Explosion King gritted his teeth. He had been trying to escape this whole time.


    At first, he was moving in all directions. Unfortunately, the slime would summon another pir in that direction, causing him unable to break through like this.


    When he shattered the pirs, the sttered slime ended up connecting to each other, forming a that caught him.


    No matter how he used his explosive power, it was simply impossible to break through it because the slime was so flexible that it could contain all his abilities.


    ''Is there truly no other way?'' The Explosion King gritted his teeth.


    Surprisingly, the slime actually formed another humanoid to talk to him. As if he recognized the Explosion King''s power, the slime offered, "I give you one more chance. Submit to me and I shall let you be reborn with a more powerful strength.


    "Your unique way of using that explosive power has impressed me. So, I''m giving you one more chance."


    The Explosion King was gnashing his teeth, having a hard time suppressing his disgust.


    He actually spat out while shouting, "No matter what you''ve done, I''m not going to submit to you. No one can control me and my explosion."


    "It seems that you won''t change your mind no matter what. In that case, you leave me no choice."


    The slime finally showed its might. Its body began to release Magic Power.


    "!!!" The Explosion King widened his eyes. The surge of Magic Power felt like a huge tsunami, hitting him and drowning him in that endless amount of Magic Power.


    He had a hard time breathing just from the Magic Power alone.


    ''What is this? How can a Saint have this much power? I have seen a few Saints in my days, but this is the first time I''ve felt something this strong. And this one is only a Saint��'' The Explosion King shuddered. He felt the slime was supposed to be stronger than a Saint.


    But he didn''t know what kind of level was higher than a Saint. After all, he had never reached the Saint level.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''No, he should be a Saint. He hasn''t gone to the next level yet.'' The Explosion King gritted his teeth. He looked at his hands as if gathering his resolve.


    He only had two possibilities. First, he could survive the slime''s attack. At that time, he might be heavily injured. If he failed, he would die.


    Hence, there was no hesitation in his action anymore.


    Feeling the amount of Magic Power, the Explosion King circted all the remaining Magic Power in his body. Unfortunately, it was only a tiny amountpared to the slime.


    The Explosion King gritted his teeth, wondering how strong the slime was.


    "Hahaha. This is good. I''m going to die anyway, so I won''t be holding back from now on!" The Explosion King smirked as if he had gone insane.


    All the fighting intent buried inside his heart came out. He didn''t have to move away anymore because this would be hisst stance.


    "I''m going to kill you!" The Explosion King imed despite knowing their difference in strength. It looked like an empty bluff, but for the Explosion King, it was his resolve.


    With that determination in his heart, he jumped toward the slime, nning to fight him in closebat.


    The slime formed a wall made of its body, trying to stop him from attacking.


    The Explosion King released an explosion and shattered the wall. In that instant, the sttered slime connected with each other by forming a thinyer of threat, creating a.


    The Explosion King went right before the. When the was about to catch him, the Explosion King suddenly punched the.


    Another explosion urred from his fist as it shattered the at point-nk range. Even if the slime tried to use its ability to reform the, the Explosion King had slipped past it.


    Still, if this worked against the slime, the Explosion King would have escaped from him already. In fact, he had tried it earlier.


    And the slime still had the same response. A few more walls appeared before the Explosion Kings, trying to stop him in his tracks.


    Since it would be troublesome to destroy them, the Explosion King decided to boost his altitude for a bit, trying to fly over them.


    The slime didn''t let it happen as the walls turned into giant tentacles, trying to strike him down.


    The Explosion King nced to the side as he gathered another explosion around his body.


    When the slime tentacles approached him, his body released another explosion, destroying them.


    ''I have been observing him this whole time. It seems that this guy''s weakness is at its core. It will be troublesome if I attack it from the side since it''s going to regenerate its body as the flowes from the top. In that case, I should attack the source to block the regenerative body��.'' The Explosion King had thought of a n as he continued climbing the slime''s body.


    Unbeknownst to him, the slime had prepared a trap for him as well. And no one knew whether he could survive or not.

 Chapter 1854 Locked

    The Explosion King narrowed his eyes as he managed to pass a few obstacles. He had a few problems climbing the slime''s body since its height was above two hundred feet. Even if he normally could cross this distance in one second, he had to slow down because of the obstacles.


    And the next obstacle was the same wall, trying to capture him. The air had been covered by the tentacles as well.


    This way, the Explosion King only had one direction to go.


    He continued climbing the slime''s body while causing a series of explosions from his body.


    Another wall emerged and stopped him, but the Explosion King managed to st it with his explosion.


    However, there was suddenly a change in the slime''s body. Instead of summoning multiple walls, the Explosion King felt Magic Power fluctuationing from beneath him.


    "!!!" The Explosion King instinctively used two explosions. One was in front of him to stop his momentum, while the other one was on the side to throw him away.


    Suddenly, multiple spikes appeared from the slime''s body as if nning to pierce his body.


    It was at this time he finally saw the change in the slime''s attack pattern.


    "��" The Explosion King narrowed his eyes, feeling the difference. Before this, the slime had always been attacking him in a way he could capture him alive such as walls, tentacles, and pirs.


    But this time, the slime had begun to shape a sharp object that could prate his body.


    "��" The Explosion King smirked, knowing the slime had finally treated him seriously. Without hesitation, he continued climbing the slime''s body.


    Unfortunately, he had to stop because the slime started doing something even more unusual. The slime was wiggling like he was processing something.


    He couldn''t see it yet, but the slime actually formed a giant hole on top of his body. When the Explosion King stopped climbing for a second, the hole suddenly spurted out a lot of red bubbles.


    The bubbles were floating in the air and gradually fell down to gravity.


    But the moment the Explosion King was about to continue, the bubbles started to glow.


    In that instant, each bubble suddenly shot out a red beam toward the slime''s body.


    "Huh? The slime is attacking himself?" The Explosion King was confused, but he soon got his answer when the slime body suddenly released more bubbles as if the body was reflecting the earlier beam to produce the bubbles.


    That process continued one more time before it finally reached the Explosion King.


    The bubbles shot out another wave of red beams. But this time, the bubbles didn''t attack randomly. Instead, all of them were hitting at the same spot, where the Explosion King stopped for a moment.


    The Explosion King hurriedly stopped his momentum with another explosion and dodged this attack.


    However, the slime''s real goal was simply to bounce the beam back into the sky. Because they were targeting the same spot, they ended up creating a reflection of their bubbles, surrounding the Explosion Kingpletely.


    "��" The Explosion King looked around and hurriedly pped his hands, trying to make another explosion.


    Unexpectedly, the slime started using the bubbles he had spread in the air to dissolve the air around it.


    "!!!" The Explosion King widened his eyes, feeling that the air was sucked into something. Theck of air would certainly cause his explosion to stop. Still, he was the Explosion King.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It seems that you have forgotten something. My explosion is an art." The Explosion King continued to p his hands. This time, he was using an explosion in the sky, trying to disperse the bubbles.


    The slime noticed what he was nning to do but chose not to do anything.


    The Explosion King didn''t understand the slime''s action. Whether he was confident or not, he wouldn''t stop using this explosion.


    "GO!"


    *Boom!*


    The explosion suddenly urred in the middle of the bubbles, sting all the bubbles into the area.


    "Heh��" The Explosion King smiled, thinking he had managed to deal some damage to the slime.


    Sadly, reality spoke differently. The moment the bubbles were scattered, they started moving toward each other to form a giant on top of the Explosion King.


    The Explosion King thought the slime was foolish since a gap this big wouldn''t be able to trap him.


    That was when the slime suddenlyunched a giant red ball to plug the hole. In other words, all these bubbles connected to each other were acting like a. The reason why the slime didn''t use something more solid was to lower the Explosion King''s guard.


    In that instant, the Explosion King realized what the slime was nning. He looked around and noticed that the bubbles at the edge had begun to form a connection with the main body. In other words, the slime was trying to extend its body so that it could swallow the Explosion King.


    "Are you kidding me?" The Explosion King gritted his teeth, starting to feel hopeless. He knew that the slime was beyond his imagination.


    He couldn''t escape from the side anymore since it would take time and the walls had been erected to buy time from him. So, the hole on top of him was hisst chance.


    Without hesitation, the Explosion King hurriedly sted his body toward the top before the giant ball fell on top of him.


    The Explosion King pointed his finger at the giant ball, nning to st it away.


    There was a red light that was going to explode soon.


    "Explode!" The Explosion King shouted desperately.


    *Bo��!*


    The explosion suddenly vanished into thin air as if it was just an illusion.


    "Huh?" The Explosion King widened his eyes in shock, not understanding what had happened a moment ago.


    "You are good. To think you would force me to use my power�� But now that I''ve finally used my ability, you won''t be able to escape. After all, my power is the ability to dissolve everything.


    "Whether it''s your explosion or your hope, I''ll dissolve it. You''ve fought well, so now rest!"


    The slime''s voice echoed in his ears as the giant ball finally plugged the hole, locking the Explosion King inside.

 Chapter 1855 Death

    The Explosion King raised his head before gritting his teeth. He looked around him and saw the slime had gradually covered it.


    Just like this, he ended up inside the slime. The scary part of this slime was not his Magic Power, but how he managed to shape his body.


    He could easily expand, shrink, and manipte his body''s shape ording to his needs. This was why the Explosion King actually ended up getting swallowed by the slime before he knew it.


    "I guess I couldn''t do anything to this big guy." The Explosion King was frustrated. He wanted to at least hit him once, but the slime was simply too strong.


    The Explosion King saw that the slime gradually shrunk to absorb him. As soon as he touched the slime''s body, he would lose his power.


    The Explosion King wasn''t someone who would die without a fight. He took a deep breath while gathering all his Magic Power.


    He then flew toward the top, trying to break through one more time.


    He pped his hands and started concentrating the Magic Power in the gap between the palms.


    "Haaaa!" The Explosion King roared as a small red light gradually expanded.


    The more he gathered his Magic Power, the bigger the light. The Explosion King poured everything in him to the point the light became ten times his size.


    "This is myst attack." The Explosion King smirked. "Take it if you can, you slime bastard. I''ll never acknowledge you as one of the Saints!"


    The slime didn''t respond to him anymore. He kept shrinking his body to kill the Explosion King.


    Since there was no response from him, the Explosion King didn''t hesitate anymore. He threw this huge bomb toward the roof, hoping to destroy itpletely.


    *Boom!*


    The moment the energy bomb hit the slime, a huge explosion urred to the point it swallowed the whole gap.


    The Explosion King couldn''t see what was beyond his explosion, but outside, the slime''s body actually expanded because of the explosion. All the slime that had spread underground was recalled to reinforce the slime''s body. The tentacles and pir had merged into the body as well.


    The red slime was glowing as it almost couldn''t contain its explosion.


    The slime kept regenerating its body and some holes appeared on the slime''s body, causing the fire from the explosion toe out.


    If people took a look at the slime, they might mistake the slime for a volcano that had smokeing out of the crack.


    It took a whole ten seconds before the explosion finally disappeared. The Explosion King''s face waspletely exhausted. If not for his willpower, he would have copsed.


    He maintained his position with the little energy he had left, trying to see the slime''s condition.


    Unfortunately for him, despite using all his strength, there were only a few holes on the slime''s body that could easily be regenerated.


    "Even after all this, I couldn''t even create a big hole in his body��" The Explosion King gritted his teeth. Because of his exhaustion, he had forgotten his previous position.<novelnext></novelnext>


    If he had been calm, he should be able to see that the holes urred in all directions while he was supposed to be captured on one side.


    In other words, the Explosion King was actually in the middle of the huge slime and managed to create holes in its body. And looking at the depth of the holes, it seemed he managed to burn a lot of slime''s body.


    The Explosion King wanted to give up, but the slime actually reached him for the first time.


    *Puk!*


    He suddenly felt a droplet falling on his right shoulder, followed by his right thigh and his left cheek.


    "Huh?" The Explosion King opened his eyes onest time. To his surprise, he saw the slime was actually dropping him with its body.


    And in that instant, the Explosion King felt sharp pain all over his body.


    "Aaaaaahhhhh!" The Explosion King roared while looking at his shoulder. He actually found out that the shoulder was dissolved and his arm fell down to the slime body on the lower part.


    The same applied to his right thigh. The one on the cheek melted a portion of his jaw.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The Explosion King screamed in pain. It felt like his body was being melted. The sharp pain didn''t knock him out simply because he was too strong. This might be the gue of being strong as in hisst moment, he couldn''t even pass out.


    He continued to scream as more and more slime fell onto him. His chest, his stomach, his other leg�� Every part of his body was being dissolved. The fallen parts would be swallowed by the slime below him.


    This was the first time he felt this much pain.


    Horrible wasn''t enough to describe his current condition. His eyes, cheeks, bodies and limbs had melted. His organs disappeared. In normal circumstances, he should have died. Yet, he actually managed to stay alive.


    He fell into despair, wondering if he could even die. This was disrespectful to a warrior like him.


    "No, I refuse to die like this!" The Explosion King muttered those words with thest energy of his body. He wanted to use onest ability to detonate his body, but he didn''t have any more Magic Power.


    His end wouldn''t change no matter what. The Explosion King could only continue experiencing this pain as he watched his body melt.


    The Explosion King fell into despair. He wanted someone to kill him already, so he could die as a warrior.


    Unfortunately, the Explosion King couldn''t die in the way he wanted until his body only had his right chest, neck, and a part of his head left.


    That was when his body finally dropped to the slime beneath him. It felt like a cushion, but the Explosion King felt his body like it was ripped apart.


    The slime dissolved his body until everything disappeared. He even thought his soul was being disintegrated.


    And that was when the Explosion King finally died.

 Chapter 1856 Strength

    After killing the Explosion King, the slime actually stopped moving.


    A day passed and the slime had yet to move. Even the body wasn''t wiggling around as if the slime had died.


    Ultimately, three days passed and the slime finally had a sign of moving.


    Suddenly, the slime began to move to the south by letting its body melt to the south and kept regenerating from the top.


    Its travel speed might not be the greatest, but the slime''s humongous body and strong ability made it look like a fortress, dissolving everything on its path.


    The trees, the boulder, the soil�� everything disappeared, leaving only a part of the lower soil to withstand its giant body.


    Eventually, the slime reached a vast nd where nothing but dirt remained. The slime stopped for a moment as a few monsters approached him.


    The monsters came in a variety. There were some who looked like wolves, some were flying, and some even looked like humans.


    All of them dropped to their knees, kneeling as if greeting their king.


    Suddenly, one of the humans came toward the slime as if it couldmunicate without words.


    "How can I help you?" The monster looked like a human, but his eyes were hollow as if the human had died a long time.


    The slime didn''t let out a sound. Instead, he was moving his body toward this human.


    "��" The human was staring at the slime as he gradually got engulfed in its body. His body was disintegrating like the Explosion King, but he didn''t let out a single sound as if he couldn''t feel anything.


    However, the human body gradually formed again with the same appearance as the one before getting dissolved.


    But this time, the guy had energetic eyes as if he hade back to life.


    The slime suddenly said, "I''ve now granted you a portion of the power of Explosion. Try it."


    The guy was confused for a moment and pointed his palm to the side. Suddenly, a red light appeared like how the Explosion King used his power.


    *Boom!*


    An explosion urred. Its power was minusculepared to the Explosion King, but it was clear that he could use the same power. Even with the current power, it wouldn''t be a problem to destroy a huge building and kill many humans.


    The slime continued, "This is the power of Explosion. Bring all the humans here and I shall convert as many humans as possible. After gaining this power, you have to go to the human base and wreak havoc with this power. Bring as much chaos as possible."


    "Understood." The guy nodded with a calm expression. It felt like he had gotten used to this power.


    He knew that his master had the ability to grant someone''s strength to his subordinates. The power might not be much, but if he absorbed a powerful person, even if the power was weaker, it should be enough to fight against Supreme Rank Experts or even Mythical Rank Experts.


    This time, the slime had gotten a hold of the Explosion King and swallowed his power. Since his original n had failed, he nned to cause as much destruction as possible with this power.


    The n''s failure might be the reason why the slime actually attacked the Explosion King.<novelnext></novelnext>


    In that instant, the slime began to expand itswork, calling all the humans.


    And among those humans were the people in Theo''s group.


    ��


    Ontario, Canada.


    Theo, disguised as a young man that was once a part of them, was sitting in his room. After infiltrating this base, he thought he could see the slime in action, but he was forced to stay in this ce for a long time.


    He looked outside through the window, finding humans and monsters working together to repair the city to host even more monsters and humans.


    Of course, the humans here all had the name of monsters. After so long staying here, he had met all of them and none of them was a human.


    It looked like a utopia where all races lived together. Unfortunately, this would be a perfect city if not for the fact that they were monsters.


    Theo let out a long sigh as if getting disappointed that all races living together were impossible.


    But finally, after waiting for so long, there was a sudden change.


    For no reason, all the humans and the beasts actually stopped moving before turning their bodies to face northwest.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock because he didn''t expect them to behave this way. But it was clear that the monsters were doing something.


    And seeing the scale of this operation, it felt like they were being summoned by the one and only Slime Saint.


    ''This is my chance.'' Theo clenched his fist and observed their movement a bit more before using his illusion to make him look the same as them.


    His eyes soon lost their light as if he was being controlled. He tried to make sure the details were perfect so that no one would be able to find out, including the slime.


    After that, he came out of his room and saw a few humans who had also left their rooms and started walking outside like a robot.


    Theo also did the same, following all of them. He made sure that every action looked the same.


    The humans actually walked out of the city, leaving the monsters there. They gradually ran to increase their pace until they reached the ce where the humans from every single ce under the slime''s territory gathered.


    And Theo could finally see the towering slime, whose body was emitting an eerie Magic Power.


    This might be the first time Theo ever met a monster that gave him fear. With the colossal and flexible body coupled with the otherworld Magic Power, Theo could finally see what it meant that strong enough strength could crush all kinds of schemes.


    He thought no matter how good his n was, it would be useless against such a being.


    And more importantly, the slime actually had a huge army. The number of humans alone was five hundred. If he added the monsters from all around the territory, it felt like the slime had at least one hundred thousand monsters under hismand.

 Chapter 1857 A Huge Threat

    Fortunately, Theo could see the slime from this close. This would give him a lot of information needed to defeat the slime.


    And it seemed the slime had yet to recognize him.


    ''So, what is this slime nning? To gather all the humans here, is he nning to infiltrate the human base again with these humans?'' Theo thought while assessing them.


    Of course, he maintained his poker face as if he was still controlled by that slime.


    The first phase had begun.


    The slime gradually called the monster in the front forward.


    They approached them without fear like they were just trying to rejoin as a part of the slime.


    The slime didn''t seem to be rejecting them.


    As soon as they were close enough, the slime absorbed them and disintegrated them like the first human that received the power of Explosion.


    "!!!" Theo was dumbstruck when he saw their bodies gradually integrate with the slime''s body. But what he never thought of was the fact the slime could easily reconstruct their body and appearance after that.


    At the same time, Theo could see something different from these people.


    ''Hmm? What is that? Their Magic Power��''


    The Magic Power might not look like they were colored by the power of Explosion. However, Theo was a master in Magic Power. His knowledge even covered Primordial Energy.


    When he saw this Magic Power, he could actually find something amusing.


    The human monster might have a normal Magic Power, but Theo could see a red dot on a certain part of their body as if it was holding a certain power.


    Theo wasn''t aware of what the slime was capable of, but he feared and was skeptical about this at the same time.


    On the one hand, he knew that normal people wouldn''t be able to differentiate the red Magic Power since it was overwhelmed by the normal Magic Power. On the other hand, he was surprised because the slime could actually bestow such a power on a monster.


    And the worst part was the fact that the slime created an army of humans for that sake.


    ''This is not good. I''m not sure about what kind of power they have, but the fact that the slime could give them a part of Order to them is already beyond my understanding. No, I feel like this can be considered as breaking the Order.


    ''If this is the case, the slime has to be hunted down to avoid destroying the World''s Orders.


    ''Still, this might be the worst possible oue. After all, the slime seems to be able to bestow this weird power�� and judging how it could absorb and disintegrate the human, I''m afraid the slime steals this power from someone else.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''In other words, the slime is swallowing a powerful monster and distributing its strength. I''m not sure to what extent, but this feels like an extreme threat.


    ''I can''t imagine what will happen when these monsters attack the base. Although their strength can''t bepared to the original monster, it''s still better than your average human.


    ''How many people will die this time? Seeing a situation like this, I''m afraid they''re going to spread these people, causing us to be overwhelmed by their numbers.


    ''I have to know about their motives to share this power. And how many monsters have this slime shared�� I know that this red-colored power is not the only one.


    ''How many�� Thousands�� tens of thousands��'' Theo shuddered just thinking it alone. Even his group might not be able to handle these monsters.


    ''I''m afraid that this battle will be bigger than anyone''s imagination, including me, who has seen all this.


    ''The slime alone is already too much for us to handle, but we have to take care of the Griffith Family and the Fist Saint. Those three saints made the situation even worse.


    ''There is also the spy problem. Until now, I still can''t find the spy. I don''t know if the slime is the one sending the spy or not, but it''s clear that this person is very secretive while staying in a high-ranking position.''


    Theo was contemting the current situation while measuring the slime''s strength as well as his armies.


    Now that the government had lost their power, he could use his influence to move around the military and other organizations orpanies. It should be easier to move them around since he held the biggest power.


    ''Wait a minute. I think the vision from back then showed how multiple King ss Monsters and a World ss Monster were defeated.


    ''In that case, there should be creatures that host their power in their bodies. Maybe the slime can concentrate all that power into one single person. If that''s the case��''


    Theo fell silent for a moment before feeling chills down his spine.


    ''In addition to the Griffith Family and the Fist Saint, the slime should have six or seven Saints including himself.


    ''I''m nning to defeat my original self while my clone is going to deal with my grandfather. During that time, I''m nning to give Loki the opportunity to fight the slime since he is a Singrity. I don''t know if this works or not.


    ''The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint can handle the Fist Saint and one more Saint from their side. That leaves me with Hel and the Mafia Queen. Hel might be able to defeat one Saint and Alexa can help us from behind.


    ''Still, this only means our strength is equal. I have a trump card such as the Lightning Saint, but I can''t rely on him too much, considering his age.


    ''There is also a huge gap in strength between the two armies. The human army will be weaker than them because of this power transfer.


    ''In that case, I''m hoping that Loki could stop the slime by himself while asking Hel to finish her battle as soon as possible to tilt the bnce in our favor.''


    Theo was contemting. However, he forgot he was still in a predicament. Since the slime was trying to grant this power to everyone who had a human appearance, Theo would be among them.

 Chapter 1858 Escaping

    The line kept moving and Theo was only a few minutes away from his turn.


    At this time, he had finished his thoughts and prepared to make an escape.


    ''Unfortunately, I couldn''t see everything today. There are a lot of unknown variables the slime has, but getting all this information right now is quite good as well. I know that slime is extremely powerful.


    ''I''m afraid that I won''t be his opponent. There is only one opportunity if I want to kill this slime. I have to reach the Singrity Rank and utilize my Third Law. Unless I''m capable of doing so, the slime won''t be defeated even with Loki on our side.


    ''Since I have gathered a lot of information...''


    Theo became silent as his turn finally arrived. He was standing in front of the slime with a few others.


    It was time for the slime to absorb him. Obviously, he didn''t n to let the slime do so.


    Even though he was only a mere clone, he was a perfect copy that could be said to be an original. He had the same Authority and Order, so if the slime absorbed him, he could grant Reality Power to others.


    It would cause a lot of problems as he wouldn''t be the sole owner of Reality.


    Just like how there could only be one Saint of a certain power in this world, if there were multiple people having this power, Theo wouldn''t be able to utilize his power the same way as he used to, causing him to be severely weakened.


    The moment the slime was about to engulf him, Theo suddenly raised his hand, pointing his palm at him.


    "!!!" The humans made of slime were startled and the slime could feel a different movement than the one he ordered them to do.


    In that instant, Theo used his Twisted Reality to spin the slime''s body.


    "There is something that doesn''t belong here!" The slime suddenly spoke as if recognizing Theo''s power.


    A part of his body began to rotate as if Theo''s hand was twisting it.


    The slime tried to resist that power. Unlike the Explosion King, Theo''s power was intangible, so it was harder for him to dissolve it.


    Hence, the slime tried to dissolve the Magic Power that powered that ability.


    At the same time, the other humans also started to react to his ability as if they had returned to their human form.


    "What''s that?"


    "Enemies!"


    "Hurry up and surround him!"


    "Don''t let him touch the lord!"


    The humans were going crazy as they were releasing their Magic Power, preparing to kill Theo.


    Theo''s objective wasn''t the slime. He knew that no matter how hard he tried to do it, it was impossible to kill the slime. His best chance was to injure the slime, but it was still a hard thing to do.


    So, there was only one thing that could help him in this battle.


    The moment the slime focused on dissolving his ability, Theo turned around to face these humans. He gathered all his Magic Power in his hand and formed a sword by using his Irregr Guardian.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Die!" Theo''s voice was cold as if he wanted all of them to die no matter if they were a part of slime or a living monster. He applied his illusion, making them see his sh sending thirty heads flying.


    The slime was the first to react as it was extending a part of its body toward Theo.


    "Tentacles?" Theo narrowed his eyes. They were the same tentacles that helped the slime defeat the Explosion King. However, he noticed something that concerned him the most.


    It was the liquid that the tentacles were releasing. They were dropping to the ground and started melting the ground.


    He knew the liquid was absorbing the soil, so it was clear this was the mechanism the slime used to gain his opponents'' power before transferring it to these monsters.


    Since that was the case, Theo used his Blink to teleport as far as possible.


    As if reacting to Theo''s action, a few red walls appeared from the ground, stopping Theo who started flying away after the initial teleportation.


    Unfortunately for the slime, Theo was different from the Explosion King. Thetter was in the life and death situation where his death was guaranteed. That was why he was trying to escape the whole time.


    In the meantime, Theo could simply retract his clone in this battle before he died, making sure the slime didn''t absorb his power.


    So, the moment those walls emerged from the ground, Theo smiled and turned around, heading straight to the humans that had received their power.


    "!!!" The slime was startled by Theo''s decision. The same applied to the humanoid monsters.


    They hurriedly pointed a part of their bodies toward Theo.


    This was another thing he had seen. The slime might be giving them this power, but their power seemed to be different from each other. Someone received power in their right hand while the other got it on his foot.


    It was clear that the slime actually granted the part of the previous owner''s body so that the humanoid monster was able to utilize this power.


    "Haaaaa!" Theo raised his sword again.


    However, this was a bluff. The humanoid monsters reacted by releasing their power.


    Multiple small red lights appeared before Theo. In that instant, Theo used his Alter Ego to increase his speed, avoiding all the red lights that soon turned into explosions.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred, startling the silent field.


    Theo widened his eyes when he saw this power.


    ''Are you kidding me? Explosion? That guy is giving the power of Explosion?'' Theo widened his eyes in shock. He never thought that this power was one of the powers he didn''t wish toe to the base.


    After all, they were like suicide bombers that could destroy the base and cause a lot of ruckus in all areas. At that time, even he wouldn''t be able to control the citizens to stay strong.


    ''This is ridiculous.'' Theo gritted his teeth. He knew what he had to do next. ''I have to kill as many as them to lower the threat.''

 Chapter 1859 Fighting The Slime

    "!!!" The slime seemed to have noticed Theo''s targets. After that showcase of their power, Theo had changed his targets from testing the slime''s strength to killing the humanoid monsters.


    The slime hurriedly extended its tentacles to surround Theo. Thetter had been ruining a lot of his ns, so he couldn''t allow him to do the same thing right before his eyes.


    The tentacles seemed to be spreading their slime to melt Theo. Meanwhile, Theo was raising his sword, applying his illusion to every attack.


    Every time he shed, many people had their heads gone.


    Luckily, the slime seemed to know that the monsters'' strength had to vary so as to avoid suspicion. But due to this, the enemy also had trouble stopping Theo''s attacks.


    Those, whose strength was Supreme Rank or below, couldn''t resist Theo''s attack. Meanwhile, the Mythical Rank Monsters barely managed to avoid Theo''s attack, albeit with severe injury on their necks.


    Theo narrowed his eyes. Despite him killing their people, the monsters seemed to not care about their people as if they hadn''t died.


    ''Their emotion is controlled? But I have seen those monsters expressing their emotions before�� In that case, there might be something��" Theo frowned, observing their reaction.


    While he was thinking, he had to put some effort into avoiding all the slime, including the droplets it had spread. After all, he didn''t want to melt.


    ''Wait a minute��'' Theo jumped to the side, avoiding the tentacle that struck the ground next to him. ''Slime?''


    Theo suddenly remembered something. The slime actually managed to integrate these humanoid monsters and reconstruct their bodies. In other words, the reason why these people didn''t care about their friends was because of this ability.


    They knew they would be able to get their people back after they defeated Theo. So, there was no need to hesitate.


    ''In the base, they were hunted as well. But at that time, they expressed a lot of sadness because they knew their bodies would be either experimented upon or disposed of.


    ''This World ss Slime can''t do anything to their bodies. On the other hand, this World ss Monster is here and has no trouble defeating me.


    ''In other words, I have to find a way to destroy their bodiespletely.'' Theo''s expression turned serious.


    The slime noticed Theo''s change again and started releasing more Magic Power. He had tried to avoid releasing too much of his power because it would destroy all these bodies. Although he could reconstruct them, it required a lot of energy.


    So, he didn''t want to get weakened during this time.


    However, it could sense Theo''s intention and know Theo nned to do something big. If he couldn''t crush Theo here, he might inflict damage that would be hard to recover.


    "Hmm?" Theo nced to the side, feeling the fluctuation of Magic Power. It gradually moved toward his position, forcing Theo to leap into the air.


    In that instant, a huge spike made of slime emerged from the ground.


    Seeing how Theo managed to avoid it, the slime summoned more spikes from the ground.


    Theo didn''t know why the slime would do something like this, considering he had flown up. He had the intention of avoiding all these tentacles while he was in the air.


    Suddenly, the tentacles and spikes glowed, releasing pollen into the air.


    "Huh?" Theo tried to use his Reality Eyes to understand this pollen''s ability.


    But the instant he found it, his eyes began to feel hot as if it was being burned.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. The pain wasn''t the trouble. But he could feel a void being created in the Reality he had seen. "What is this power? Those realities are melting?"


    Theo knew that it was only the vision of reality that was being affected, not the reality itself. Still, the fact that the slime could affect his vision was enough to put him in the same ce as Loki and Theodon.


    "Are you kidding me?" Theo clicked his tongue. He was facing two problems.


    Even though he was equal to the real body, this clone body was made of Magic Power. If the slime managed to melt the Magic Power powering this body, he would be defeated.


    At the same time, he still had to find a way to erase the slime body on the enemies he had killed earlier.


    ''Still, I couldn''t find a way to destroy the enemy''s body right now. Is me good enough? But their body has the power of Explosion��''


    Theo observed the enemy''s movement for a moment before flying straight to the dying enemies.


    "!!!" The slime was startled, not knowing why Theo changed his direction.


    But as soon as Theo reached the ground, the slime instantly understood what he wanted.


    Theo gathered a huge amount of Magic Power around his palms. This Magic Power lit up, creating a zing fire.


    This zing fire burned the dead body.


    The moment the slime saw Theo''s n, it immediately released more Magic Power, trying to suppress Theo''s power.


    Theo noticed his power began to waver.


    ''This is��'' Theo sucked a cold breath. He felt his strength leaving his body and the me started waning. ''The Magic Power is not being sucked�� It''s melting? Does that mean his power is rted to melt�� No, wait a minute. Is it dissolving my power?''


    Theo''s expression became serious.


    Theo raised his head and saw the tentacles approaching him, releasing the same pollen that was trying to dissolve his body.


    At the same time, the spikes were gathering underneath the ground, surrounding him.


    The people around him also pointed their hands at him, using the power of Explosion.


    "Tsk!" Theo used his Blink to escape from the encirclement.


    *Boom!*


    The power of Explosion that had been gathering around him lit up, engulfing both tentacles and spikes.


    "!!!" Theo had a hard time finding a chance to destroy their bodies, let alone harming this slime.


    ''What should I do now?'' Theo asked himself.

 Chapter 1860 Overwhelmed

    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Numerous explosions shook the area as they were trying to get Theo. They knew their strength wouldn''t be enough topletely destroy his body. So, their n was to knock Theo down so that the slime could absorb him. This was the best oue for the monster.


    However, Theo wasn''t that easy to catch. Although his fire and body were weakened due to the pollen released by the slime, it still couldn''t destroy his body and power fully. The me was still burning, albeit it was sted by the explosion. Meanwhile, Theo continuously lost his power, though, at a rate he could ignore for the time being.


    ''I see. It seems that the explosionse in different ways, depending on the way they intend to use it. The slime has the power to dissolve everything. Even with the pollen alone, it can make my body suffer like this.


    ''I''m afraid Loki will have a hard time fighting this slime, considering his illusion might get weakened due to the pollen.


    ''Besides, the slime seems to be able to utilize the strength in three states: Solid, Liquid, and Gas.


    ''And those three states can contribute to how this slime dissolves its opponent. It will be extremely dangerous if we fight this slime alongside the army.''


    Theo jumped back, avoiding the tentacles again. After that, he shed diagonally, cutting the people on the left side.


    Since the fire wasn''t enough to destroy them, Theo improvised his ability.


    Theo applied his illusion topletely erase their existence. This was only his normal illusion, not the Third Law, which he hadn''t fully mastered yet.


    Their bodies gradually disappeared, but he noticed another thing.


    ''Hmm?'' The power was effective, but the slime seemed to have done something as well.


    The slime was actually absorbing the body back through the slime body that had been hiding underground.


    "Seriously?" Theo clicked his tongue as he hurriedly checked the other bodies, finding them being absorbed simultaneously.


    If Theo killed them, their bodies would be absorbed before Theo could erase them. If Theo failed to kill them, they would be invading the base.


    Theo didn''t know that reconstructing their bodies took a toll on the slime''s body. The reason why the slime didn''t attack him aggressively was because it was still weakened due to the continuous power transfer.


    He also didn''t know that by killing as many people as possible, he could prolong the time they needed to attack the base.


    While Theo was thinking about the solution, the slime began a different attack pattern.


    The humanoid people began to turn around and run for their lives.


    "!!!" Theo was confused. He thought they attacked him in order to help the slime, but it seemed they had a different n.


    The slime even released more tentacles and spikes to stop him as if buying time for them to escape.


    And Theo actually misunderstood the slime''s intention.


    ''Wait a minute. I haven''t seen all their faces. It''s possible they''re using this to scatter and regroup somewhere. Seeing how the slime can call them without any instruction, it''s clear that they canunch an attack without saying anything.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''I''m afraid they split up in order to infiltrate the base... This is not good.'' Theo had a hard time finding a solution. On the one hand, he wanted to kill them. On the other hand, even if he seeded, he wouldn''t be able to destroy their bodies since the slime would absorb them. It felt like all his efforts would be futile.


    Theo felt helpless. He didn''t have time to think about a countermeasure.


    World Re-Creation.


    Theo started expanding the reality from the outside to the inside, shrinking the entire area. Those who were running away ended up running backward.


    After that, Theo gathered his strength in his fist, trying to crush the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The slime body that had been hiding underneath the ground started to ssh.


    Just like how Theo misunderstood him, the slime also mistook Theo''s intention. It thought that by destroying the ground, Theo nned to bury all the bodies in one ce.


    That was why the sttered slime immediately caught the bodies and absorbed them to prevent Theo from killing them.


    Seeing how the slime absorbed the bodies, Theo took this opportunity to change his target from those bodies to the slime.


    He pointed his palm at the slime and used his Twisted Reality, spinning the slime''s body.


    "!!!" The slime hurriedly formed a wall around its body to block the attack.


    Theo immediately used his Telekinesis to grab all those bodies and lift them up into the air.


    After that, he pped his hand, forming a trigram underneath their bodies.


    The trigram summoned a fire that devoured all those bodies, trying to burn away as many as possible.


    The slime realized it had been baited into blocking Theo''s attack and hurriedly sent those tentacles to wrap the bodies. The fire inside the tentacles got dissolved by the pollen, while the one on the outside couldn''t harm the tentacles.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and checked around the area, trying to find a body he had missed earlier. Unfortunately, the slime seemed to have captured all of them and nned to integrate them back into its body.


    Now that the slime had absorbed all their bodies, the slime could finally focus on crushing Theo. In that instant, the amount of Magic Power skyrocketed as if the slime released all the Magic Power it had just absorbed.


    Theo hurriedly pointed his palm at the slime, using his World Re-Creation to expand the reality to push the slime away.


    This was the time Theo saw the disparity of their strength.


    The slime''s body gradually shrunk as if its power was being depleted. However, Theo''s Reality Eyes could see the movement underground, albeit barely.


    He raised his sword to cut the ground, but his sword started to disappear.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth, realizing that his body had lost a lot of power to the point he had a hard time maintaining his de.


    And it was at this time, the slime came out of the ground like a geyser, swallowing him.

 Chapter 1861 Defeat

    *Boom!*


    The geyser made of slime emerged from the ground, swallowing Theo. Luckily, Theo was fast enough to react to the situation as he utilized his Telekinesis to make the air hard so that he could step on it.


    The Ascension Step was released, fighting the pressure from the geyser, covering Theo in a thinyer of Magic Power.


    Within that time, Theo''s Blink could finally be used again.


    The escape wasn''t so smooth since the slime controlled the geyser to move ording to Theo''s action.


    Theo summoned numerous Magic Bullets and tried to shoot those slimes down. At the very least, he wanted to buy some time.


    The moment the Magic Bullets reached the slime, it meltedpletely. The slime had a fluctuation of Magic Power as if it became unstable for a moment, but after the Magic Bullet disappeared, the slime got its stability again.


    Theo clicked his tongue. Even though the slime hadn''t seriously fought him, he was already in tatters.


    "I guess this is my limit," Theo muttered while looking at his hand. The fingers had disappeared because of theck of Magic Power. And with that pollen surrounding this area, the longer he stayed here, the weaker he would be.


    If he became too weak, the slime might be able to capture him before he could even disappear.


    Although it was a shame that he couldn''t gain more information, he had to finish this battle.


    With that thought in mind, Theo released the remaining Magic Power and pped his hands.


    The slime didn''t know what Theo was nning to do as he hurriedly smashed Theo with his tentacles.


    But at that time, the Magic Power Theo had gathered exploded as a golden light shone, blinding everything.


    Suddenly, the slime disappeared from the entire battlefield as if it was teleported somewhere. But the reality was different, the slime was actually being removed by the illusion.


    Theo''s face became extremely pale when using this ability as his body began to disappear.


    The illusion soon melted, revealing the slime. There seemed to be no damage on the slime''s body, but the slime could feel the difference in his existence as if Theo was truly trying to remove him from this world.


    The slime was angry and wanted to crush Theo, but thetter had almost disappeared. Thest thing the slime saw was Theo pointing his middle finger at him. Despite being overwhelmed by his strength, Theo didn''t seem to have lost hope.


    The slime couldn''t say anything as if he was surprised by Theo''s action as well. It never expected to have someone at Theo''s level infiltrating his ranks.


    However, he couldn''t help but remember the spy he had on the base.


    The slime had seen how Theopletely outsmarted him this whole time. Even in the previous infiltration, Theo was the one to defeat his people.


    It felt like he already knew what his enemy had been doing, as though there was someone who provided him with all the information needed.


    The slime couldn''t help but suspect the spy he had in the base, believing the spy was the one providing the information. He considered the spy to be a double agent under Theo. This should be the reason why Theo could even infiltrate this deep in their rank.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He somehow lost all trust in his spy.


    Theo wasn''t aware of it, but his action here had caused the slime to slightly change his schedule. Because he had to resummon all the humanoid bodies and lost his trust in the spy, the slime had to move back to his original n.


    ��


    The real Theo also saw everything. He shuddered after his clone returned to his body.


    He was about to go to the World ss Monster in India, but he had to stop for a moment and turn around, looking at the horizon as if staring at the slime.


    "This is not good." Theo gritted his teeth. The slime had a weird ability where he could dissolve everything.


    The reason why Theo only used his illusion this whole time was to avoid getting dissolved. The illusion didn''t have a physical body like Magic Bullet or even Metamorphosis. So, it was the most effective attack against the slime.


    Yet, it still didn''t work against the slime. The problem was that the slime hadn''t used his full power yet.


    Just like the pollen, Theo believed he could dissolve everything around him, especially something he touched. So, fighting him head-on would be extremely dangerous.


    Still, Theo''s main concern was the human bombs. The slime must be nning to spread them all around the countries. So, they had to guard all the borders. After all, those human bombs would most likely sneak into the base between the gap in the border.


    So, Theo had to rm the people inside to work on a countermeasure. He had to prevent that destruction so that the base didn''t copse from the inside.


    Theo couldn''t help but imagine what would happen if the bombers reached the base. With those explosions wreaking havoc in the base, the people would lose trust and think they would die.


    Hence, normal people would immediately begin hoarding the stores and even doing something more like murder and rape. That was why he had to prevent those monsters froming into the base.


    Theo summoned his clone while clicking his tongue.


    "That slime''s strength is beyond my imagination. To think I would be forced to retract my clone�� And with my current position, I''m afraid I have to go back to EU Base if I want to get a connection to deliver the message."


    Theo''s original n was to use the clone to deliver the message since he was confident he could still somehow escape from the slime. Unfortunately, he was utterly crushed.


    So, Theo had to do this manually, hoping that the slime hadn''t made his move yet.


    Without hesitation, Clone Theo flew toward the union as quickly as possible. Theo didn''t care about conserving his strength anymore.


    "I have to reach the union within two days, even if I have to use all my strength to kill the monsters in my way."


    Theo didn''t know that theck of the clone also had fatal consequences.


    The next day, he had an incident where Theo''s body was filled with wounds as he weakly leaned his back on a boulder. His eyes were blurry, but he couldn''t help but find another monster appearing before his eyes.


    "Seriously��"

 Chapter 1862 Another World Class Monster

    After sending his clone back, Theo continued his journey. It wouldn''t take long before arriving at his destination.


    "Still, I don''t feel good." Theo clicked his tongue. He had another concern now that the clone had left him.


    Theo once made a promise to Hel that he wouldn''t lose anymore. However, Theo still lost twice after that promise.


    The first defeat came from Loki, who once crushed himpletely with the World Re-Creation. The second defeat was this slime.


    However, Loki and the slime had a big difference. In the past, Loki might not use all his strength, but he could overwhelm him because Theo''s mastery of Reality and Illusion were still bad back then. This time, Theo would be able to fight better against Loki.


    Yet, the slime managed to crush him in this state. This showed that the slime might be stronger than Loki in a certain area.


    "No. I shouldn''t have lost hope yet. Loki is a singrity, while the slime is still a Mythical Rank Monster. There should be some chances left for us to win this battle."


    Theo didn''t want to give up just yet, considering there were still some hopes. He hadn''t seen Loki''s limit as well, so it was hard to discern whether he would lose or not.


    Though, Theo certainly had seen what it meant to have a monster who could defeat multiple monsters of the same level.


    "When fighting against the mutated monsters, I was pretty lucky that the monsters were only King Rank at that time. Even at that time, I was still forced to create myws so that I could temporarily reach the Authority Level.


    "If that monster was a World ss Monster��" Theo shook his head helplessly, knowing he wouldn''t be enough to deal with a single monster at that time. And currently, he is facing a simr situation.


    However, the slime was slightly a bit too powerfulpared to the monsters.


    "The slime should be made of chemicals. I guess this is the reason why the slime can dissolve everything. Still, the vision has shown a few King ss Monsters and one World ss Monster�� So, I''m afraid the slime will have them.


    "Should I involve the Time God? But he''s only an observer. As much as I want to bring him in, I don''t know what I should do to make him go." Theo clicked his tongue.


    He could still get some help from the Daemon and the Ice Witch, but it meant leaving those bases defenseless. It would create another set of problems, so Theo had to throw away the idea.


    Theo looked down for a moment, finding no answer to the current situation.


    In the end, he decided to continue his haw toward India at a rather slow pace, so he could spare some attention from the slime.


    He was forming a n to defeat the slime. He might have been whining this whole time, but he hadn''t given up.


    There should be a solution, Theo just hadn''t found it yet.


    He kept pondering to find any viable option.


    "I''m afraid that the only way to defeat the slime is to use my thirdw. It''s just I don''t have the ability to do it yet and there are only a few months left.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I have to master it within that time frame, I guess." Theo sighed. "And the Lightning Saint is probably a game changer, considering his strength is among the top. Should I ask the Frost Saint to help me in this battle?


    "I''m not very sure about this since I know how hard it is for the World ss Monster to travel. I can easily cross the sea because I have Metamorphosis and my current strength, but the Frost Saint doesn''t have something like this to help him.


    "Then, the Lightning Saint is the only answer." Theo frowned. Although he knew the Frost Saint would reject him, Theo still nned to visit him to exin the current situation and try to get his cooperation.


    Theo continued contemting his options while flying above the ground. He asionally met monsters, which he easily killed.


    There was one King ss Monster that might be a bit of trouble to him, but Theo ended up killing the King ss Monster since he couldn''t reason with them.


    Because of his pace and strength, Theo ended up killing two thousand monsters just by traveling.


    There wasn''t any big fight that could injure him, but Theo remained vignt as he was already near the World ss Monster''s territory.


    He had heard some reports regarding the World ss Monster, so he had to be careful as a World ss Monster mightunch a sneak attack.


    The journey was peaceful for a while until he reached a town with a huge apartment far higher than any building near it.


    And it seemed the peaceful time hade to an end. Theo suddenly heard a loud roaring from a tall apartment on the horizon.


    That roar shattered the sses as a huge pair of ck wings shattered the building. It caused a lot of ruckus around the building, but when the dust settled down, Theo could see a monster whose size was just a little smaller than the building.


    The height reached twenty feet and the length was beyond thirty feet. This ck dog had a pair of ck wings on its back that spread in both directions. The wingspan alone was more than one hundred feet.


    A single p of its wings caused a gale that swept all the dust and small objects around the apartment.


    And this dog was actually ring at Theo as if feeling its existence.


    Whether it was the smell or the sound, the ck dog was clearly disturbed by it.


    There was a period of silence as both of them stared at each other as if they were saying they didn''t n to lose.


    Feeling the challenge, the dog released a bark that sounded like a roar.


    Its wings started pping as the dog nned to fly to Theo.


    The battle between Theo and another World ss Monster was about to begin.

 Chapter 1863 Unorthodox Power

    The dog was flying straight to Theo. His eyes were bloodshot as if he didn''t want to hear any exnation from Theo.


    Of course, Theo didn''t care about it since his intention remained the same. He wanted to kill this World ss Monster.


    Still, after seeing the slime''s strength, Theo couldn''t help but remember he had to observe the enemy''s strength first beforeunching an all-out attack.


    He pointed his palm at the World ss Monster, releasing the Magic Power from it.


    The air in front of him soon cracked as if it was getting destroyed. The World ss Monster frowned and gathered his strength around his wings.


    As soon as Theo pushed the cracked air forward, the dog pped its wing, releasing a torrential Magic Power.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because that torrential Magic Power actually formed a small line like that of a road.


    That path actually hit the cracked air.


    In the instant they touched, Theo''s Reality Eyes picked up something from other simr realities. He shuddered when the crack gradually vanished as if the broken reality was repaired.


    After that, the dog stomped the ground, causing the soil to shine like the path earlier.


    This time, the path spread in all directions. Theo didn''t know why but he felt dread upon this shining soil.


    He tested this ability by shing downwards, releasing a sword strike.


    "It''s useless." The dog surprisingly spoke. His voice was deep and filled with hatred. It was clear that he would be ripping Theo''s apart with those canines.


    At the same time, the moment the sword strike reached the shining soil, it gradually vanished as its Magic Power seemed to be scattered into the air.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, not knowing what this ability was. In fact, this dog actually showed him that he had been too focused on general ability like Elemental or their specialty.


    Like how the Time God became the man he was because of his Time Element, or how the people knew Sword Saint because he used a sword, Theo was too focused on the general ability.


    It applied to the Ice Witch, Fist Saint, and even the Heavenly Sovereign. Even his Reality was leaning toward the orthodox power.


    Meanwhile, the Mafia Queen''s Enhancement Power was unorthodox. Even the devouring power his original body had was the same.


    And to defeat the slime, whose power was among the unorthodox abilities, he had to get used to it by fighting this dog.


    Theo narrowed his eyes, trying to discern the dog''s ability.


    At the same time, the dog seemed to be confident enough to defeat Theo before he was able to know about his strength.


    The dog charged forward without hesitation. The ground that he traversed was made of light as if he was being guided by an invisible force.


    Still, what made Theo concerned about this path was that the dog''s Magic Power kept increasing the more he traveled this path. It felt like the path itself had given him his strength.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo flew back to gain some distance so that he could learn more about this power. However, the dog became faster and stronger as he traveled, so he soon caught up to Theo.


    The dog leaped into the air and pounced on Theo.


    Theo used his Blink to teleport behind the dog while shing downwards, hitting the dog with his energy.


    Surprisingly, the sword strike didn''t get weakened again as it hit the dog on the back of its neck.


    *Bam!*


    It felt like the sword strike just hit a wall, not being able to prate it.


    "This is..." Theo fell silent, getting amused by this dog. He knew that the dog wouldn''t be as strong as the slime, but he was still very strong. He thought, ''So, his power is rted to that word to that shining path. I don''t know about that power, but it seems to be able to weaken and strengthen something.''


    Theo couldn''t conclude his finding because the fight just began. Hence, Theo started focusing on the path the dog created.


    When thetter turned around, Theo pointed his palm again as if nning to attack the dog with that cracked space.


    The dog didn''t fear Theo as it began running again while strengthening itself with the shining path.


    Theo suddenly lowered his aim and used his Twisted Reality to distort the path.


    "!!!" The dog was startled at first because it was losing power rapidly.


    The dog had to stop to buy some time before it could even begin to repair the path. It seemed like the path wasn''t that omnipotent, considering it took a long time to fix it. Of course, that time was only two seconds, but for a battle at this level, those two seconds could be fatal.


    Theo took that opportunity to get closer to the dog while summoning his Underworld Dominion along with the Irregr Guardian in the sword form so that his avatar could use it.


    The dog didn''t know why but it felt fear when facing the two swords. It didn''t realize that Theo had been using his Death Eyes to release an overwhelming killing intent to scare this monster.


    Still, the Death Eyes had gradually lost its effectiveness because his opponent was far too strong to be affected by a mere killing intent. Even if they could feel death, monsters at this level had faced a lot of life and death battles, so they wouldn''t care if they ended up dying in one.


    That was why Theo only used it to apany any skills that could scare his opponent. By making the dog scared, it could lower the dog''s reaction speed. It was useful even if it onlysted for a split second.


    The dog hurriedly roared to st Theo away with the sound wave. Unfortunately, his n didn''t work as Theo had reached him first, striking his nose with those two swords.


    The jaw that had been opened got hit down, causing it to close again. Still, the dog managed to withstand the full force of that strike and immediately released the road underneath his feet again.


    The soil shone and Theo finally entered the area himself.


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 2450

 Chapter 1864 Counterattack

    The moment the ability was activated, Theo could feel his strength being drained by this light.


    "!!!" Theo looked down and noticed something. It wasn''t his Magic Power that got drained. Instead, it was something else, something far moreplex than Magic Power.


    It didn''t take too long for him to realize it was the strong Primordial Energy.


    He hurriedly used his Alter Ego to boost his Magic Power. As expected, six thousand points in Magic Power were far too overwhelming. The moment it was released, it caused a huge shock wave.


    The dog was startled because it didn''t expect to see a human with this much Magic Power.


    Even though his opponent was shocked, Theo felt his power was a bitcking. He thought his power was still absorbed by the dog, but he suddenly remembered that the Primordial Energy affected one more thing.


    Without hesitation, he opened his system, noticing something different, especially in the status part.


    Attributes: Strength 1250, Endurance 670, Agility 692, Vitality 680, Magic Power 2200


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. After all, his status points had been reduced by around eight hundred points in total.


    And the longer he stayed inside, the more points he lost.


    As if fearing the consequences, Theo actually moved away, trying to get away from this road while checking his points.


    Surprisingly, the points he lost gradually recovered and his strength returned.


    "What is that?" Theo gasped while staring at the iing attack.


    The monster released a few paths surrounding Theo. Theo used his Telekinesis to fly around to avoid all these paths.


    Meanwhile, Theo was carefully pondering the power of that path. After all, it could affect his entire ability when he was inside.


    Theo couldn''t help but feel something different from that attack and he wanted to know how to do it.


    After all, that attack gave him a bit of inspiration for his Alter Ego. All this time, Theo had been boosting his ability with his Alter Ego, not lowering someone''s attribute points with it.


    He had tried using it in the past, but he failed because changing himself and changing other people were extremely different.


    If he changed himself, he could easily see all the realities about him. But if he changed other people, it wasn''t guaranteed that he could find them in other realities, especially their weaker versions.


    And because they would feel that power, it was possible to weaken the Alter Ego that was affecting them. So, it wasn''t that cost effective Magic Power wise.


    But there was something different when the dog used it. He felt he couldn''t resist that power and it even lowered his power continuously.


    He might be able to use his Alter Ego to counter it, but that ability would drain a lot of his Magic Power. So, he chose to escape instead.


    "You have a peculiar power." Theo attempted to start a conversation. He wanted to see if the dog would fall for the same trick he used against Theodon. If the dog was still rational enough to listen to his rumblings, he would surely fall for that trick.


    However, the dog waspletely enraged as it continued moving forward, not caring about Theo''s words.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo clicked his tongue, disappointed that he couldn''t find any secret behind that power.


    A few more paths appeared from the dog''s tail as if it was the extension of its tail. These paths didn''t surround Theo. Instead, they were flying around as if it was trying to go to a certain position.


    "Hmm? An array?" Theo looked around as those paths fell onto the ground in six different spots.


    Suddenly, the ground started shining as those six paths became interlinked to each other. It formed two triangles like a hexagram.


    Theo suddenly felt the change brought by these six paths. His strength, his Magic Power, his Awareness and three other strengths gradually lost their power.


    "!!!" Theo ced his hand on the ground while watching how the dog pounced on him. But before the dog could reach him, Theo activated his World Re-Creation and expanded the reality.


    All those six paths moved away from each other. Their links started to waver before ultimately disconnected due to the distance.


    After freeing himself from the suppression, Theo punched the dog''s paw with Thunderp Fist and Energy st, not scared of the dog''s giant body.


    *Bam!*


    Their sh caused a shock wave that sted everything away. The trees, the dust, and even the rocks were swept clean.


    ''So, this is the strength of one of the World ss Monsters that attacked the Saint from India. I could see why their Saint fell in that battle.'' Theo remembered that the Saint was besieged by three World ss Monsters. If they had the same strength as this dog, it was normal for the Saint to lose.


    That was why Theo didn''t n to waste too much time, fearing that the monster would call another World ss Monster.


    Since he wasn''t suppressed by that ability anymore, Theo leaped into the air and pped his hands.


    Mirage World.


    Theo used this ability to produce the wind on his arms. After that, he pped his hands as if letting the wind collide with each other.


    The wind dispersed for a second and moved toward the dog.


    The dog was confused for a moment. It didn''t see anything special from this wind, but this was the first time Theo used his element, so he had to be careful no matter how angry he was.


    This was the moment Theo started ying tricks on him. Before the wind reached him, Theo used his Death Avatar''s Fourth Authority, Death Descent.


    There were multiple red linesing out of the dog''s body. It looked simr to his power, but their purpose was different.


    The dog was confused and tried to suppress it with his ability. The soil turned bright again, but this time, Theo''s power didn''t disappear. In fact, the energy wasn''t even affected.


    Theo smiled. The wind entered the suppression area and started losing its power, but Theo used the World Re-Creation to expand the reality to the inside, ultimately shrinking the area of suppression limited to the dog''s body.


    ''!!!" The dog was utterly shocked, albeit before he could even react, the wind Theo sent earlier had hit his face.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1865 Unexpected

    "Uuuu��" The dog let out a shrill before rising back up again. It wasn''t that injured, considering Theo''s attack wasn''t that powerful. However, the fact that his attack could hit him was enough to know that Theo could defeat him.


    Theo smiled as if knowing how to defeat this dog. His ability was weird, but it didn''t change the fact that his ability still worked on him.


    The dog was angry as it stomped the ground, turning the ground around him into his own path.


    Theo pointed to the ground, ready to neutralize this ability again. But the moment his World Re-Creation reached that area, the road suddenly released a burst of Magic Power.


    This white Magic Power formed multiple roads in all directions.


    Theo maintained his calm as everything was under his control. He simply raised his World Re-Creation to match the paths'' movements, stopping them.


    It seemed that the speed between the giant area and the small path was far too different. The smaller paths gradually increased their speeds and turned unpredictable as if trying to avoid Theo''s control.


    Unfortunately, Theo only controlled the space around it, so it didn''t matter where those paths were going as they would end up moving toward the dog.


    Thetter found the secret as well and hurriedly changed its direction, trying to escape the shrinking area.


    The dog seemed to have given up as another road appeared underneath his feet. Unlike the previous roads, this one wasn''t affected by his power.


    "Huh?" Theo was confused for a moment because the dog somehow came out without being pushed back by the World Re-Creation.


    After escaping from the suppression area, the dog continued its way toward Theo. At the same time, the road was also releasing a different kind of Magic Power fluctuation.


    Theo hurriedly turned his weapon into a spear and stepped forward. The Magic Power from his body started to gather at the tip of the spear.


    Theo and the dog moved toward each other. The dog waved its paw, followed by a small path that connected the paw to Theo''s spear.


    Theo also used his Energy st and Enhanced Concentration Capacity to fight against this paw.


    Their Magic Power collided. A thunderp resounded across the battlefield and the collision was so strong that the Magic Power ended up crushing the ground beneath their feet.


    Theo and the dog gritted their teeth, unable to proceed. The dog was surprised to find Theo had this much strength, but he didn''t know Theo''s hands were numb after stopping this paw.


    "��" Theo red at the dog while trying to recover his hands'' sensation as soon as possible.


    The monster seemed to have seen another path to his victory as he hurriedly pounced on Theo before he could recover.


    Theo clicked his tongue and changed his strategy as well. He had been trying to figure out the enemy''s ability, but since it was impossible to find it, he wanted to be on the offensive right now.


    In that instant, Theo stepped on the ground with his Ascension Step. The overwhelming wind rose into the sky before falling to the dog like a meteor.


    The dog felt this Magic Power, but because it was still far away from his ability, the wind wasn''t affected.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The dog was forced to form another road to the sky so that it could weaken the wind power before it reached him.


    He was so focused on the overwhelming wind that he didn''t realize Theo had teleported to his back. After that, Theo pped his hands, releasing all his power.


    The sky soon turned dark as if the sun was gone. There were only stars in the sky, and soon, a few huge spheres appeared around them.


    When he was on top of him, Theo felt something unusual. His power was gradually increasing.


    ''It seems that this glowing path gives him a certain ability. No, it''s more like it can give you anything depending on the condition it sets.'' Theo muttered inwardly. He remembered how this path had weakened him earlier.


    Since his ability was boosted, Theo started stimting all the spheres around him.


    At the same time, the dog released another wave of paths that surrounded Theo.


    Theo wanted to let one of them hit him to test his theory. But he remembered there was a path he couldn''t break even with his Reality power, so he didn''t know whether he had the ability to do it or not.


    In the end, Theo jumped into the sky, avoiding all these paths. While stimting the circles with the necessary elements, Theo spun them in a clockwise direction to increase the pration power.


    After that, Theo used his Telekinesis to move all these spheres to the dog.


    The monster saw three spheres: one surrounded by fire, one with spikes on its surfaces, and one made of water. The monster sent forth the paths to these three.


    It seemed the ability also gave him the necessary information about them as the monster suddenly leaped into the one with spikes and smacked it with its paw, blowing it to the water sphere.


    *Bam!*


    The hard sphere dispersed all the water and continued to move away. Still, the dog got a small wound when smacking that spike.


    As for thest one, the dog didn''t seem to be nning to hit it with his ability again. Instead, it suddenly jumped into the air and hit Theo with his tail.


    "!!!" Theo was surprised that the dog chose to go this way. After all, the Ascension Step would hit his head.


    It seemed the monster knew that this was the only strategy where he could catch Theo off guard.


    Even though his head was hit by the Ascension Step and his body was knocked down to the ground, it managed to smack Theo straight to the fireball with his tail.


    "��" Theo hurriedly retracted this giant ball of fire andnded on the ground without any injury since he protected his body with the Supernatural Snake Body at thest second.


    This wasn''t an equivalent exchange and Theo believed the dog wasn''t so desperate to use this kind of strategy. But at this time, he realized the dog''s real intention.


    The tail actually formed another path that now wrapped his left arm. Suddenly, a sharp pain jolted Theo''s mind.

 Chapter 1866 Realization

    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes when the sharp pain jolted his mind.


    The dog, who had gotten up again, smirked and finally spoke. "You dare to intrude on my territory. This is a light punishment."


    Theo was more surprised by his words than the pain. He hurriedly clenched his arm while gnashing his teeth as if he had a hard time containing the pain. "Kh��"


    He gathered his Magic Power around his arm to destroy this path, but it didn''t work.


    The monster snorted. "It''s useless. My ability is creating a road. And that road circling on your arm is the road to pain. And that road will go back to where it starts, creating a loop that you can''t break.


    "That pain will continue until you die because it''s the road to pain." The monster seemed to be happy since he could make Theo suffer after all this time.


    If only Theo had used his spear to block his tail earlier, he wouldn''t be able to use this trick.


    On the other hand, Theo finally confirmed the monster''s ability. As expected, his Authority was unorthodox.


    Even he didn''t expect that there would be a Road Authority. But seeing how the dog behaved, he could somehow rte to this ability.


    ''If that''s really his power, then those lines must have a certain condition applied to them. Maybe when he''s strengthening himself, it''s a road of victory. Then if it''s to weaken the power nearby, it''s the road to decline.''


    Theo never expected that an unorthodox power was so unique that it could give birth to anything. The dog might be able to create a road to destruction or something.


    Theo recounted the information about humans and muttered inwardly, ''And there were only a few humans who had unorthodox power like the Cameraman who has Film Order and the Poet who has Poetry Order.


    ''I have read some of their records. The Cameraman has the ability to avoid all kinds of attacks due to his unique order coupled with Awareness and unique footwork. And due to that unique approach, no one has ever left a scar on his body.


    ''The same applies to the Poet�� He appeared one hundred years ago. When I was looking at his record to improve my illusion, I was surprised that his poetry could be alive as if the words he spoke were the breath of life.


    ''Unfortunately, it seems that my Reality is not an unorthodox power. Though, I can''t really say it''s bad either.


    ''My Reality Order might not be able to be everything, but it has a variety of uses, especially with the help of my illusion.


    ''And there is a reason why there are 13 Big Orders and numerous Small Orders. The 13 Big Orders represent the basic living conditions in this world.


    ''Basic, huh��'' Theo fell silent as if understanding something. It was surprising that the moment the monster spoke about his power, Theo could find something in his power.


    In that instant, Theo immediately dropped all his pretense. He dropped his arms and put on a poker face as if he wasn''t being affected by the pain.


    Although it was painful, he had endured a pain that no one had ever imagined, so this much pain wouldn''t be effective for him.


    "Oh�� Thanks for telling me about your power," said Theo with a calm and collected tone. In fact, that tone felt like an insult in the dog''s ears.


    "!!!" The dog was startled for a moment. There were two possibilities. Theo might be acting tough so that he would be careful against him or Theo was truly not affected by that pain.


    The dog checked his ability and confirmed it was working. Hence, there was only one thing to do.


    He had to continue fighting Theo until he got his answer.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Seeing the doging to him, Theo smirked as his Death Avatar came out again.


    The avatar summoned a huge scythe and started releasing killing intent. The dog felt the overwhelming killing intent again. Feeling rmed, the dog sent forth multiple roads to weaken the killing intent and Theo''s power.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment as he recalled all the information in his head about a certain person in the past.


    A few years ago.


    Theo was staring at his Skylink, reading a description of the person along with his video.


    The guy had long ck hair tied neatly on his back. His expression showed an aura of elegance as if he wasn''t disturbed by anything in this world.


    In front of him was a torrential Magic Power that destroyed anything in its path.


    Before the Magic Power reached him, the guy gradually opened his eyes, revealing beautiful blue eyes. The eyes looked cold as if they were deprived of emotion.


    That gaze seemed to be analyzing the torrential Magic Power. After that, he finally opened his mouth.


    "What is Magic Power? An indescribable creature that embraces both lives and deaths."


    Suddenly, the torrential Magic Power turned around as if it was being reflected by an invisible barrier.


    "Life represents its form. Death expresses its purpose."


    A pair of eyes soon appeared on the surface as if the Magic Power had just turned into a worm. The mouth gradually formed.


    This creature opened its mouth, trying to swallow his opponent.


    *Boom!*


    In the end, the Magic Power ended up returning to its owner and defeating him.


    This was the power of the Poet Order. When Theo saw this, he thought about using illusion to give something life to make it more powerful.


    But after this fight, he realized that life itself didn''t matter. What he had to convey was the meaning behind that power.


    For the first time in his life, Theo was trying to copy an ability from someone who wasn''t in this world anymore.


    He opened his mouth. Theo wasn''t a poet, nor did he have the aptitude for it. However, Theo was a leader whose words ordered everything around him. And that was what he aimed for.


    With a sharp gaze, Theo looked at these roadsing at him andmanded them.


    "Scatter!"

 Chapter 1867 Transformation

    "Scatter!"


    Upon that order, all the shining roads that were about to hit him suddenly dispersed as if they were scared of him.


    "!!!" The monster widened his eyes in surprise. He never thought that Theo would be able to influence his abilities.


    Earlier, Theo could only affect the area around this ability to push the ability away. But this time, the power reached his ability.


    This was also Theo''s first time using this type of power. After all, themand he gave was simr to the Poet.


    Theo couldn''t help but praise the Poet. Even though he was five generations above him, it didn''t change the fact that his power was so unique because it treated everything equally, including an ability.


    The monster didn''t believe Theo could do it, so he sent another wave of shining roads to confirm Theo''s ability.


    Theo was as confident as ever. He concentrated the Magic Power in his mouth andmanded, "Turn around!"


    The shining roads obeyed him and turned around, trying to attack its owner. The monster had to erase them since he didn''t want to be hit by his own power.


    Of course, Theo''s ability was different from the Poet''s. He was just imitating it.


    Theo had been using his Alter Ego to control his own status so that it could boost his strength. Meanwhile, controlling others'' status was hard because of the resistance the enemy had.


    However, their attack was different. They might supply a certain amount of Magic Power, but that was all about it. They didn''t emit more Magic Power, so it was possible to rewrite their structure.


    Theo took advantage of Reality Eyes to take a peek at the ability before using the Alter Ego to change their owner.


    Even though Theo could change the owner, he still had to control it with his own ability such as Telekinesis or Illusion.


    Thebination of these abilities created an illusion that Theo had gotten hold of the enemy''s ability.


    This way, the road abilities this dog had weren''t a threat to Theo anymore.


    "..." The dog was shocked to see someone controlling his ability for the first time. His ability was unique and no one had ever controlled it.


    He instantly considered Theo his arch-enemy and nned to kill him no matter what it took.


    The dog charged forward and wrapped his paws with these shining roads.


    Theo could see that the dog''s ability was increasing. Hence, he also used his Alter Ego to boost his ability and faced the dog head-on.


    Both Theo and the monster punched each other.


    *Bam!*


    The paw and the fist collided, carrying all the Magic Power and strength in it.


    It seemed that the strengthening the dog had in its paw managed to equalize Theo''s six thousand points of strength.


    No one was budging for a few seconds.


    Since the other didn''t n to move, Theo wrapped the monster with his Telekinesis, trying to lift up that body.


    Thetter released his Magic Power to disperse Theo''s control. Unfortunately for him, Theo''s aim was something else.<novelnext></novelnext>


    While he was busy taking care of the Telekinesis, Theo jumped to the paw and pointed his palm at the shining roads.


    "Disappear!"


    He gave them amand. Using Reality Removal, Alter Ego, and Illusion, Theo managed to erase the power.


    As soon as he noticed it, the dog hurriedly pulled back while sweeping its paw to knock Theo away.


    Theo wasn''t afraid of this paw anymore. He summoned the Death Avatar and looked at it the way he stared at the shining roads.


    The Alter Ego didn''t affect only the enemy''s ability. It also worked on his ability.


    This time, Theo used his Alter Ego to rewrite the Death Avatar''s structure.


    The Death Avatar was a humanoid avatar. It wore a ck magician hat and white mask together with a red tuxedo, like that of a magician.


    But after Theo''s Alter Ego, there was a pair of white wings on his back like an angel.


    ''Daemon, I''m going to use your ability a bit.'' Theo smirked.


    Suddenly, the Death Avatar shone as the light gradually moved toward Theo as though it was being absorbed.


    The ck magician hat changed into a pair of ck earrings. The mask cracked open with the right side covering Theo''s face. The tuxedo had turned into a long ck robe and the pair of wings turned into a few ck chains hovering around Theo.


    "!!!" The monster felt something different from Theo''s expression. It felt like he was being possessed by his own avatar. Although he didn''t know what Theo was doing, it was clear that he was using an ability to increase his strength. He must be nning something, he thought.


    The dog had to stop for a moment, observing the change. He wanted to know what kind of power this transformation contained.


    Using this hesitation to his advantage, Theo sent forward the ck chains.


    The dog wasn''t losing either as it released the shining roads.


    Theo controlled the chains with a smile. These few chains suddenly circled around to create a small tornado, but its purpose was to capture these shining roads.


    As soon as they reached the shining roads, they circled around them and wrapped them outpletely before tightening.


    The dog immediately lost control over his shining roads. In that instant, Theo pulled all these ck chains down.


    *Bam!*


    The chains and the shining roads looked like real creatures as they crashed to the ground like snakes falling from the sky.


    The dog had to erase his own power in order to stop Theo from controlling it.


    It was Theo''s turn to make his move. The pair of ck earrings shone and released a vast amount of Magic Power.


    Theo raised his hands, forming thousands of Magic Bullets. But with a single wave of his hand, these Magic Bullets turned ck as if they were being corrupted.


    "!!!" The dog gritted his teeth and wrapped his body with the shining roads while taking all these bullets head on.


    Corrupted Magic Bullets.

 Chapter 1868 Surprise, Surprise!

    Corrupted Magic Bullets.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    There were a series of small explosions on the dog''s body, but none of them seemed to be able to prate his defense.


    On the other hand, Theo maintained his poker face as if everything went ording to his n.


    The dog stomped the ground and turned the soil into his shining roads. In that instant, the ck bullets started to disappear before they could reach his body.


    The monster thought it was safe since the Magic Power seemed to be not enough to reach him. However, he was still worried that Theo had put a trick behind it.


    And he was right. The moment he opened a part of his defense to see if his roads could eliminate all those bullets before reaching his body, there was an impact on that spot.


    *Bam!*


    The explosion was quite big and the impact almost knocked him over.


    "!!!" The monster widened his eyes and looked at the area, realizing the lingering Magic Power.


    There were supposed to be no Magic Bullets with that level of Magic Power, so he was confused at first. But when he stomped the ground to spread the shining road again, he began to see a change in the fluctuation of Magic Power.


    "!!!" He actually found three giant lumps of Magic Power. It was so big that it seemed to be around one thousand Magic Bulletsbined.


    But more importantly, those fluctuations were actually not visible.


    It only meant one thing. Theo actually hid them from his vision. Of course, this ability was from Felix''s light sh.


    He was waiting for the dog to open a defense where he could hit him.


    Since the dog had realized Theo''s real n, he immediately sent forth his roads to weaken these invisible attacks.


    The shining roads were strong enough to make all the Magic Bullets that were about to hit them disappear.


    But he soon noticed another thing. Even when one of the bullets hit the road, it actually didn''t affect the road as though it wasn''t imbued by Theo''s ability to make his road hittable.


    ''Wait. It''s an illusion!'' The dog was astounded. He realized that all the impact and these Magic Bullets were just an illusion. The real Magic Bullets were the ones hiding from his vision.


    He hurriedly challenged Theo with his roads, ignoring all these bullets. He only sent six of his roads to handle the hidden Magic Bullets while sending the other nine to Theo.


    Theo could use his ck Chains or Command to stop these roads, but because he had used the Daemon''s technique, Avatar Possession, he changed his approach.


    Theo waved his hands as the shining roads gradually turned ck as if they were being corrupted. The dog also lost control over these roads.


    This happened earlier, but what didn''t happen was that Theo actually allowed these roads to wrap around his chains as if trying to improve the chains.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Suddenly, Theo''s Magic Power increased abruptly as if the shining roads he used earlier boosted his strength.


    "!!!" The dog hurriedly removed the shining roads to stop boosting Theo. Unexpectedly, he failed to remove the shining roads this time.


    ''What? I could remove it earlier. Was it because he was taking control earlier that I could remove it? And this time, he actually corrupts it and makes it his own.'' The dog gasped, realizing the real ability of this weird transformation.


    Even so, he still didn''t lose. He had to weaken Theo in order to stop this transformation.


    Without hesitation, the monster charged forward, baiting Theo to fight in closebat. He even wrapped his paw with the shining roads to increase his strength.


    As if taking on the challenge, Theo also moved forward. Instead of punching the paw, Theo concentrated his Magic Power on his spear.


    The dog abruptly stopped when Theo was only sixty feet away from him. At the same time, he released the shining road on the soil.


    "!!!" Theo''s body shook as he looked down, finding himself inside the suppression area.


    The Magic Power gradually disappeared as he was losing his power.


    As if he wasn''t nning to lose, Theo stomped the ground as well, imitating the World ss dog.


    Just like the shining roads that were wrapping his chains, the ground gradually turned ck with Theo in the center.


    It felt like it was being corrupted at an insane rate. The white circle that suppressed Theo hadpletely changed sides as the suppression now went to the dog.


    "!!!" The dog felt his ability leaving his body. He was afraid of what Theo was capable of doing with that transformation.


    Although it looked like Theo was using a lot of Magic Power with that transformation, he was afraid that he would be killed first before Theo exhausted all his Magic Power.


    In that instant, the dog jumped away, changing his thought from killing Theo to running away. He had to get some time to find Theo''s weakness first before attempting to kill him.


    His instinct was telling him to release all his Magic Power just to prepare all his abilities.


    But the moment he released that Magic Power, the suppression actually weakened.


    "!!!"


    His ability wouldn''t get weakened even if the others used their Magic Power. The only way to escape the suppression was to move away from that shining road. But this was different.


    "No, wait. Nothing changed this whole time?!" The dog came to a realization. Although Theo began using all those shy abilities, there was no change in his power whatsoever.


    The Magic Bullets, the Alter Ego, the sudden eruption of Magic Power, Theo had used all those abilities previously. And they were actually the same as the ones he used earlier, except for the color.


    In other words, Theo had made him believe that there was something behind those abilities, forcing him to be wary. This way, he had been on the defensive the whole time while Theo unleashed all kinds of abilities to check his limit.


    And all those tricks started from the change in his Death Avatar. There was simply no change. Theo only applied his illusion to make them change. The dog gasped and looked at Theo in shock, uttering, "You�� tricked me��"


    Theo smiled as he appeared above the dog''s head, stomping it with all his might. "Surprise, Surprise! There''s no surprise!"

 Chapter 1869 Desperate

    "Surprise, Surprise! There''s no surprise!"


    *Bam!*


    Those words were followed by a powerful stomp from Theo.


    He had utilized his Energy st, Enhanced Concentration Capacity and Muscle Enhancement before hitting this monster. The umtion of those three skills caused the dog''s head to get knocked down to the ground without any resistance.


    The dog gritted his teeth. His body was sturdy enough to withstand the impact, but when he was about to raise his head to fight back, there was another pressure hitting him from above.


    This was onest trick Theo used in that stomp. He actually utilized the Ascension Step, Tenth Step.


    That wind would go up for a bit before falling, causing a dyed attack.


    The dog wanted to get up, but Theo didn''t n on letting him do that.


    When that Ascension Step hit him, Theo had gathered a vast amount of Magic Power into his spear.


    The dog knew that Theo might be able to injure him with this attack, so it immediately released all the energy to summon all the roads he could muster.


    Suddenly, a total of twenty roads emerged from his back like spikes. All of them surrounded Theo.


    Theo narrowed his eyes because he knew the dog had started to get desperate. It was visible from the conditions these roads had.


    "��" Theo immediately jumped away and used his Telekinesis to fly around, avoiding all the approaching roads.


    At the same time, Theo could finally see the dog''s weakness. The dog might have an unorthodox ability, but he had a huge limitation.


    His Reality Order had the foundation from his non-elemental Magic Power along with his illusion. Meanwhile, the dog''s element was unknown. It might be non-elemental, but it could have an element. And with an ability this unique, the element and his ability weren''t in sync.


    In other words, this unique ability wasn''t supported by anything. It only had that uniqueness, but if that uniqueness was taken away, the dog was nothing but a predictable opponent.


    This was a huge discovery and might be the lead he was searching for in order to defeat the slime. As long as he could decipher the slime''s ability, he might be able to predict everything it nned to do and kill it.


    Theo smiled. He was thankful to the dog for giving him this precious information.


    Theo''s Death Avatar Possession was undone. It had achieved its original objective.


    Theo was a trickster. He was using that ability to make the dog think he had something up to his sleeve, resulting in him revealing his weakness.


    The monster saw Theo able to avoid the roads easily. He realized that his abilities wouldn''t work the same way again. After all, Theo already knew about the secret of these roads. Even if he got one, the pain wasn''t enough to take him down.


    The monster''s expression changed as he desperately leaped away from him.


    Theo hurriedly caught up to him with his Telekinesis and thrust his spear.


    "!!!" Theo suddenly felt something different from this monster''s road. His breathing suddenly became coarse as if the air gradually vanished.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo held his breath for a while, but after that, he felt his skin burning even though there was no heat source around him.


    "This is��" Theo looked down and noticed that his skin had reddened. But to his surprise, the monster''s skin also experienced the same thing.


    The dog''s body even released some steam as if it was being cooked from the inside.


    Theo looked at the road beneath the dog''s feet and noticed a different condition. But he didn''t know what kind of condition this dog would apply to his road.


    But experiencing the burn as well as theck of air, Theo coulde up with a few conditions.


    "Road of Doom?" Theo murmured while jumping to the side to avoid getting into that road. As a result, the dog had the time to get away from him and kept going. It seemed he was nning to run away.


    It was proven further when the dog changed the condition of his road. His speed increased drastically, leaving Theo in the dust.


    Theo clicked his tongue and flew forward, trying to catch up to him. He didn''t want to let this dog go since he was a source of EXP points that he needed to be a Singrity.


    The dog didn''t even nce back to check Theo''s position as he let out a huge bark to rm all the monsters in the area.


    *Roar!*


    *Aooo��!*


    The entire area became lively. There were howls, roars, and even barks that filled the air. The dust was kicked up in all directions and gradually came their way.


    The dog even took advantage of his bark to let them know about his position.


    The dog pped its wings and began to fly like Theo. He hadn''t used these wings the whole time because Theo never flew so high that it required him to fly in the air.


    But it seemed he had to use it to reach the sky, trying to see whether Theo could fly as far as him or not.


    As soon as the dog flew into the sky, Theo also followed. However, the dog''s body was so big that it rmed all the monsters on the ground.


    They immediately found Theo and released their own attacks, shooting Theo down.


    Theo clicked his tongue. He scanned all the attacks first to see whether there was Order in the mix or not.


    After all, a World ss Monster should have been surrounded by multiple King ss Monsters.


    But to his surprise, he couldn''t find any King ss Monsters in this ce. Judging by how the dog actually lived inside a building alone, it seemed the dog had made a road to be alone for himself.


    Theo was the one disturbing his alone time.


    Nheless, Theo didn''t n to change his n. He had to kill this dog, so he pped his hand, using the World Re-Creation to expand the reality in all directions to redirect all those attacks so that they missed him.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1870 Sudden Attack

    *Boom!*


    All the attacks ended up missing and some even hit each other, neutralizing each other. One explosion caused another, creating a chain explosion that covered Theo and the dogpletely.


    Theo and the dog continued to fly, trying to see the limit of each other. Normally, Theo would be losing, considering the dog was a World ss Monster. The fact he was a monster alone meant he had a stronger physical ability.


    However, Theo wasn''t losing either because he still had his Metamorphosis.


    When he began to gasp for air, Theo changed form into a dragon.


    *Roar!*


    Dragon Theo let out a roar while gathering all his Magic Power in his throat. He aimed for the dog''s wing and let out his breath.


    The breath flew like aser.


    The dog noticed the huge fluctuation of Magic Power and was forced to look back, finding the beam. The dog gritted his teeth and maneuvered to the side, albeit it gave Theo enough time to reach him.


    Theo used his hands to grasp the dog''s wings, trying to break them apart. Since they had a simr size now, it shouldn''t be that hard to rip these wings.


    The dog knew he would be in a dire situation if Theo ever ripped the wings, so he formed a huge road that engulfed both of them.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes because his feet and tail suddenly felt numb to the point he couldn''t move them.


    He nced down and saw his feet and tail turning into stone. The same applied to the dog''s lower body.


    It seemed the dog wanted to turn them together into stone,mitting double suicide by breaking apart their bodies from falling.


    Theo clicked his tongue and turned back into his human form so that the petrification was undone. He had underestimated this dog.


    Although he had understood the dog''s ability, thetter was still a World ss Monster. He should have a wide range of abilities to fight.


    After seeing Theo returning to his original form, the dog hurriedly stopped petrifying his own self and removed that power altogether.


    He took advantage of Theo''s transformation to swipe his paw, hitting Theo from the side.


    Theo didn''t have time to dodge this attack, so he ended up getting blown away. At the same time, the dog also released his road on that paw so that the thing it touched would be weakened.


    Of course, Theo had learned from his mistake. Before receiving that paw, he actually used his de to form a shield to avoid direct contact.


    Theo saw the dog trying to get away, so he shrank the reality with the World Re-Creation again.


    The dog ended up running backward as if Theo pulled him back with a chain.


    The dog desperately flew away but to no avail. In the end, the dog turned around and summoned multiple roads to distract Theo.


    Thetter recounted the ability of Lightning Saint and Lightning Queen. He pped his hand before a lightning spark between the two palms.


    The lightning gradually moved to Theo''s right hand. Just like how the Lightning Saint did it, Theo waved his hand down.


    They were already close to the cloud, so when Theo mimicked that ability, the lightning formed in the white cloud. It then flew forth to the dog.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "!!!" The dog was surprised. Theo had been using his illusion this whole time, but this was the first time Theo had used his element.


    He thought Theo had a lightning affinity. Nheless, it didn''t change the fact that he got struck by lightning.


    "!!!" The dog gritted his teeth, feeling the pain in his back. The lightning scorched a small area on his back before knocking him down.


    Since the roads came from his body, they ended up getting pulled down.


    Theo hadn''t finished yet. There were multiple abilities he could mimic to strike him down.


    But as expected, since he was in the air, there was nothing better than a wind ability.


    Theo recounted the battle between the Wind Emperor and the Death Reaper. He could only watch it from afar back then, but he still managed to catch a glimpse of their abilities from time to time.


    The more he remembered the ability, the more Magic Power came from his hands.


    He suddenly stopped using his Telekinesis and started falling like the dog. Thetter thought Theo wanted to attack him with another lightning by using his body as the medium. Hence, the monster formed a made of his rope to disperse Theo''s attack.


    Theo smirked. Hebined the Poet''s ability, the Wind Emperor''s ability and his illusion at the same time.


    Theo pointed his palm at this.


    "Disintegrate!"


    "!!!" The monster widened his eyes in shock because his was ripped apart to the very atom. "What?!"


    Theo used the Poet''s Ability to take control of the road. After that, he used the illusion to make him believe he had lost control over his ability, which resulted in him believing it.


    Lastly, Theo used the same ability the Wind Emperor had once used in the past. The Wind Emperor''s Wind was the Disintegration Wind that could rip apart the time itself.


    He once used it to break apart an entire mansion to catch the one that picked a fight with Theo.


    And this time, Theo used it to disintegrate the along with the Spiritual Energy the dog released.


    Now that there was nothing to separate them anymore, Theo used his Telekinesis to descend faster. The dog nned to do the same, but Theo used his Blink to close the gap between them.


    He then formed an ice flower on top of his palm like the Ice Witch, Flora.


    He wanted to use this flower to capture and even freeze the dog. But when he was about to use it, he suddenly felt a fluctuation of Magic Power from the side.


    He turned around and expanded the ice flower to the side.


    *Clink!*


    The ice was surprisingly destroyed and Theo gasped to find the truth of the object that managed to shatter that ice.


    "A fishing bait?"

 Chapter 1871 Karma

    "A fishing bait?" Theo was stunned, never expecting there was a fishing bait this strong. He immediately followed the string and found a humanoid monster on the ground.


    It might look humanoid, but this monster had an ape''s head but with a human''s body. He also had a pair of white wings like that of a pigeon. But what made him confused was that the monster''s bottom part was made of a pair of lion legs.


    Theo didn''t know what this monster was. At first, he thought it was a faun, but only the body matched the description, not the head nor the legs.


    So, he believed it was another kind of monster.


    Still, there was one big problem with this monster.


    The Magic Power emanating from his body contained a trace of Authority. It was clear that this monster was also a Saint like the dog.


    It seemed he had used too much time to kill the dog.


    He had heard that there were three World ss Monsters near this ce. And those three World ss Monsters were the ones to kill one of humanity''s saints.


    And with him taking too long to kill the dog, the second World ss Monster appeared.


    It would be extremely hard for him to handle two World ss Monsters simultaneously even if he had learned about the dog''s ability.


    The dog seemed to have regained its fierceness, thinking he could win against Theo with the help of his friend.


    The same applied to this new monster that Theo considered a chimera. He believed Theo wasn''t strong enough to do anything. As long as they could wait a bit more, they should be able to buy enough time for the third monster to arrive.


    At that time, Theo would surely die.


    Theo was also facing a dilemma. On the one hand, he wanted to use his clone so that he wouldn''t get outnumbered. On the other hand, his clone was going to the union to get the signal so that he could warn the people about the slime''s attack.


    If he resummoned the clone, the dy might cause the copse of the US Base. Even he didn''t wish to see it.


    That was why Theo thought he had to escape from the battlefield right away. It wouldn''t be toote for him to fight them again after regaining his clone.


    ''Hahaha, I''ve wished so many times that I could create many clones, but this is probably the first time I truly need my clone��'' Theo chuckled inwardly, looking at this irony.


    He had solved a lot of problems with or without his clone. But he knew that fighting two World ss Monsters would only be possible if he wasn''t outnumbered.


    Theo nced at the dog, who had regained its bnce and was ready to stop him.


    Since continuing the fight would only lead to his demise, Theo immediately flew away, trying to escape.


    "You won''t be able to leave!" The dog shouted in anger while releasing multiple roads. These roads were Theo''s Road of Slowness.


    Theo didn''t care about it since the only thing he had to do was to use his Alter Ego to boost his speed.


    However, the chimera monster seemed to have understood Theo''s movement pattern.<novelnext></novelnext>


    When he was circting his energy to activate the Alter Ego, Theo felt the same hook that was about to hit him.


    He didn''t know why but the bait at the hook was so tempting.


    "!!!" Theo bit his lips and immediately woke up from that temptation. It seemed that the chimera monster had an illusion ability. But because Theo was a Reality Saint, he only found it attractive, not go all the way to get it.


    Seeing Theo''s reaction, the monster poured more Magic Power into the hook so that it flew to Theo.


    Theo gathered a huge amount of Magic Power and sted the hook with his Magic Bullets. He didn''t use any fancy skill since his priority was to have enough Magic Power to fight while escaping.


    But the moment the Magic Bullet hit the hook, thetter actually split it apart.


    ''What?!'' Theo was dumbstruck. This was the first time he saw a hook could destroy his Magic Bullet so easily.


    The hook seemed to be following him as if he wouldn''t let him go unless the monster managed to catch him.


    Theo finally understood why the Saint from India fell in battle. He had already met two monsters with unique Order and Authority. And that Saint fought against three, whose power might be simr to these two.


    Even Theo wasn''t confident in fighting those three by himself. So, he had to run away as fast as possible while stopping the hook.


    Unfortunately for him, the enemy''s ability was rted to fishing.


    Even before the bait hit Theo, it suddenly stopped as if Theo had taken the bait.


    "!!!" Theo felt something pull him at thest second. In that instant, the stringpletely stopped and the World ss Monster pulled his fishing rod.


    Theo''s entire body was being pulled by an invisible force. Even Theo was certain that the fishing hook didn''t touch his body.


    But with just a single ''why'' in his mind, Theo got his answer. This ability reminded him of Ruth''s Hunter Order.


    She treated everything as an object to hunt, whether they were intangible or tangible.


    And this fishing hook must have the same ability. It was able to hook his Magic Power.


    With him releasing that Magic Power while moving, the Magic Power would certainly move backward. That was hooked and the monster pulled him like this.


    And after that pull, Theo had to spin his body, finding the dog had reached him. His road also expanded, slowing him down.


    "Tsk." Theo was still overwhelmed by this new World ss Monster. This was probably the first time he got outnumbered by the World ss Monsters as it was usually the other way around.


    ''I don''t believe in karma, but I might believe this phrase. Karma is a bitch!'' Theo muttered while swinging his sword to stop the dog from eating him.

 Chapter 1872 Fisherman

    *Clink!*


    Theo struck the dog''s teeth with all his might, trying to get away from him. At the same time, he felt his speed had dropped exponentially.


    Although the Alter Ego might be able to help him, it wasn''t enough to escape from these guys.


    ? The dog was flying toward Theo while thetter nned to deflect him. However, the dog maintained his bnce with his wings, making sure Theo couldn''t do anything to escape.


    During that time, the chimera monster had closed in and thrown the hook again.


    "��" Theo clicked his tongue. His sword couldn''t be used, so he could only rely on his Magic Power to deflect this hook.


    Theo hadn''t understood the way it worked, so he couldn''t rewrite it like the dog''s road. Ultimately, Theo chose his Death Avatar.


    The giant avatar appeared behind him and used its hands to grab the hook.


    But the moment the hook stuck and the monster pulled it, the Death Avatar''s hands were ripped apart, unable to withstand the sheer power of the hook.


    ''Is he serious?'' Theo nced at the chimera monster that hadn''t made any move other than fishing for him.


    Since the dog refused to let him go, Theo used his Telekinesis to fly both of them in the previous direction so that Theo could move farther and farther away from this ce.


    The dog obviously didn''t allow Theo to leave, especially after almost killing him. He poured everything he had into the roads and surrounded Theo.


    Theo used his Blink to teleport out of this encirclement, but the chimera monster seemed to have predicted him and managed to hook him again.


    "!!!" Theo gritted his teeth as he was being pulled back and had to face the dog again.


    ''Is he really a fisherman or something? Getting a Fishing Order��'' Theo narrowed his eyes, assessing the new World ss Monster in order to find a way to slip past his range.


    It might be because he had experienced the dog''s road, his guess was more and more urate.


    The new World ss Monster was a fisherman. He was so experienced that he knew how the fish, in this case, Theo, moved.


    He might not be able to see through Theo''s n, but he certainly could predict how Theo moved and behaved. By using that information, he threw the hook and captured him.


    Of course, even if Theo struck the hook or even the string, he wouldn''t be able to destroy it.


    This fishing rod was the personification of his power. So, it was enhanced by the very foundation of his ability.


    Theo didn''t guess it this far since he was trying to destroy the string.


    He waved his hand and applied his illusion to make it appear to be cut. After that, he applied the Reality Authority so that it would be cut in reality as well.


    Unfortunately, the illusion worked, but Theo''s power couldn''t cut the string at all.


    This was indeed the weakness of his Alter Ego. He usually got enough information about a monster with his Reality Eyes. But the ability was a different case.


    They might not be releasing a constant Magic Power that could neutralize his power, but it didn''t change the fact he had to understand them. If he didn''t know the concept, how could he even rewrite how they worked?


    Theo kept flying away even with the hook attached to him. At the same time, the dog was releasing three different roads.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The first one was the road to slowness. It worked effectively against Theo''s Alter Ego.


    The second road was a path to weakness. This was the same road the dog used in order to lower Theo''s attribute points.


    Last but not least, the dog used the road to doom.


    If the dog only released these three roads, Theo could somehow escape from it. But the dog released two more roads, not on him, but on the other monster.


    He used the road to victory for the monster and the road to empowerment for the string.


    This way, Theo would be in a very disadvantageous position.


    The chimera monster knew that the faster they injured Theo, the easier the battle would be. Hence, the fisherman poured more Magic Power into the hook.


    Instead of catching Theo, the chimera actually aimed for the dog.


    Thetter actually knew about his n by hooking him. They had fought together many times after all.


    So, the dog actually grabbed the hook and pulled him up.


    The chimera might be able to fly himself by using that pair of wings on his back. But getting pulled by the dog would give him the speed needed to catch up to them.


    At the same time, that momentum allowed him to use the rest of the time to send another hook to Theo, stopping him from attacking the dog.


    *Clink!*


    The hook and the sword collided. Surprisingly, there was a shock wave just from their collision, showing how powerful and sturdy the hook was.


    After deflecting the hook, Theo continued to fly away.


    Meanwhile, the chimera managed to reach the dog back, using him as a mount.


    The dog chased after Theo while the chimera gathered his Magic Power on the fishing rod. He seemed to be nning something else with that rod.


    There was one thing that might be usable in this situation.


    Theo turned around and pped his hands, expanding the reality in two opposite directions to boost Theo''s speed and slow down the enemy.


    The chimera tried to hook Theo again, but his hook ended up going backward due to the expansion.


    That was when the chimera monster released that powerful Magic Power on his rod.


    "Go!"


    Theo felt the sudden fluctuation of Magic Power above him and raised his head.


    A huge appeared out of thin air and dropped on top of him.


    He used his Twisted Reality to distort the and moved it away before it fell onto him, but he didn''t realize the two Saints took advantage of this opening to loop around the expansion and catch up to him.

 Chapter 1873 Combine

    Theo twisted the with all his might while ncing to the side, losing the two World ss Monsters.


    "!!!" Theo was rmed and tried to expand his Awareness to find them, albeit the enemy was too fast.


    Suddenly, he felt his Magic Power was being hooked again.


    "Shit." Theo cursed as the chimera monster pulled him.


    Theo would be able to withstand the pull with his Telekinesis, but the monster changed his role from supporting the dog to taking him down by himself.


    When he pulled Theo, he continued to swing that fishing rod and mmed Theo to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The ground cracked and the dust kicked up. Normally, it would be done and Theo would appear after the dust settled.


    However, the hook was still attached to Theo, so the chimera monster started pulling it sideways.


    Theo was dragged on the ground, crashing into trees and boulders. There was dust all over the ce. Unlike the monsters, humans didn''t have tough skin, so it would be hard to escape from this unscathed. And Theo had used his Blink not long ago, so it was impossible to escape.


    However, Theo had Jormugand''s Supernatural Snake Body. He simply activated the ability and covered himself with this tough skin.


    Even if the monster dragged him for a year, as long as he could maintain the Magic Power, there would be no object that could harm his body.


    In the meantime, Theo was biding his time to find the chimera''s weakness. He believed the chimera still had the characteristic of each body, so he had to be careful when approaching him.


    At the same time, this fishing rod was weird.


    ''A fisherman, huh��'' Theo contemted. He still enjoyed himself while getting dragged here and there, crashing from one object to another. ''The monster is really a fisherman. There is a fishing and this fishing rod.


    ''The fishing rod can grab everything like Ruth''s arrow. And it seems to be unbreakable�� I''m not sure about this, but it looks like Walker''s unbreakable chain. He uses his Authority to reinforce that fishing rod so that it will be unbreakable even against another Authority.


    ''As for the fishing, it doesn''t seem to be that special. I can still twist it around with my Twisted Reality. What I''m worried about is what will happen if that catches me.


    ''Then, what about other fishing tools?'' Theo observed the guy. Except for his outer appearance, he didn''t seem to be wearing any equipment. Theo also couldn''t find any tools he could use other than the fishing rod.


    Theo felt like this guy was hiding his power. It seemed both of them were assessing each other.


    After all, it wasn''t that easy to kill a Saint.


    As soon as he came up with a few ns, Theo finally used his World Re-Creation to expand the reality around the string.


    It ended up moving the string the other way around and tossed Theo to the chimera monster.


    Theo didn''t bother to remove the hook as he used his Telekinesis to focus on closing in and swung his sword.


    The chimera monster remained calm as if he had expected this.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Magic Power around his fishing rod burst as the chimera monster swung the fishing rod like it was a sword, smacking Theo from above.


    Theo wasn''t afraid of this sword because he had used his Alter Ego and Telekinesis to boost his power.


    *Clink!*


    A clicking sound echoed in the area as Theo and the chimera monster were at a standstill. They were exerting the same amount of force and no one seemed to be nning to lose.


    They red at each other for a while before the dog, who had be a mount, finally started acting like the main attacker.


    He wagged that tail and smacked Theo''s body.


    Theo covered his body with the Supernatural Snake Body, but the tail was so hard that the force and momentum knocked Theo down to the ground.


    Theo immediately stood up, but he noticed that the tail also left a few roads behind. His attribute points were decreasing, so Theo had to overwrite the roads and erase them.


    But before Theo could do it, the chimera monster used the hook to pull him back up, destabilizing his body.


    "Tsk." Theo couldn''t concentrate since he was spinning around in the air. The centrifugal force kept changing direction, making him dizzy.


    In the end, Theo used his Blink to escape from the hook.


    It seemed the chimera monster had been waiting for Theo to use his blink again. The moment he escaped, he immediately threw that hook straight to his weapon.


    ''He''s going to attack me?'' This was Theo''s first thought until the hook became closer and didn''t release an exorbitant amount of Magic Power like the first one. He was rmed because he recognized its real target.


    The chimera monster actually wanted to take his weapon away by using this fishing rod.


    Theo hurriedly turned that de into a bracelet, hiding it from him. After seeing how the chimera used his ability, Theo didn''t doubt that the fishing hook could grab his weapon. It was better to create a bracelet since the monster couldn''t pull it off his hand if he didn''t cut his wrist.


    It seemed Theo''s judgment was correct since the chimera poured more Magic Power into the hook so that it could hit Theo hard.


    Theo smiled because this was what he was waiting for. Unlike the other forms, this form didn''t have anything special other than its power. So, this was his chance to attack.


    Theo took a deep breath and raised his hands as if trying to catch this hook.


    His left hand had imbued the Magic Power with an ice element while his right hand had used the wind element.


    When the hook was about to reach him, Theo joined both hands and shot out abination between the two elements.


    Wind Emperor''s Tornado.


    Ice Witch''s Ice Explosion.


    The two elements fused and turned into an icy tornado, engulfing the hook.

 Chapter 1874 New Ability

    The icy tornado swallowed the hook. Since he used the Wind Emperor as the basis of this tornado, the wind actually tried to tear the hook apart.


    At the same time, the Ice Witch''s ice could freeze anything it wanted like the Frost Saint. He had fought the Frost Saint and witnessed his ability a few times, so he was already familiar with this ability.


    The ice continued to freeze the hook and the string while the wind kept disintegrating it.


    Due to the constant freezing and breaking apart, the hook and the string became weaker and weaker. The Magic Power inside them had gradually vanished.


    "!!!" The World ss Monster realized that his power was being ripped apart, so it immediately pulled back, not wanting to get his hook destroyed.


    Theo smiled. This was his third n and it seemed to be working.


    After seeing the dog and the chimera working together, Theo had the inspiration tobine two people''s abilities he copied.


    This was the first attempt and he pretty much liked the power.


    ''It seems I have to thank them for making me realize this. In the past, I tried it multiple times, but they ended up shing with each other.


    ''However, the two World ss Monsters gave me an idea, especially that dog. Two Saints or Kings'' abilities were too violent and tried to best each other.


    ''But thanks to the Poet''s ability, I could rewrite one or even both of them to harmonize them. And with this trick, I could finallybine them.''


    It felt like a whole new world was opened. Theo had so many abilities he could copy and fuse together.


    Of course, he had to make sure those two would work together well.


    After some quick thought, Theo knew there were two good abilities he couldbine.


    This time, he used the Sword Saint''s ability and Ruth''s arrow.


    He took out the sword again and aimed for the string. The Sword Saint''s strike was unstoppable. It could cut everything, even one''s fate.


    However, Theo wasn''t a Sword Saint, so his ability was downgraded. To counter that weakness, Theo used Ruth''s arrow so that this strike could hit everything, including that string that seemed to be unbreakable.


    Basically, he was hunting the string with the power to hunt everything as long as they existed.


    Theo gathered a huge amount of Magic Power to the edge of his de.


    "!!!" The chimera felt danger for the first time as he hurriedly pulled his hook back. At the same time, he finally said to the dog with anguage unique to monsters. "(He''s dangerous. He might be able to destroy my weapon!)"


    The dog was shocked, so it immediately sent forth the roads of Unbreakable to reinforce the string.


    Meanwhile, Theo had gathered enough Magic Power and finally unleashed his strike.


    A huge shock wave appeared out of nowhere, blowing everything near it away.


    The roads were cut apart with the help of Ruth''s ability.<novelnext></novelnext>


    However, breaking the unbreakable string was harder than he originally thought. Despite using all that power, he could only leave a little scratch on that string.


    Still, it was a different matter to the other party. He was so shocked that he wanted to pass out to reject this reality.


    This fishing rod was unbreakable. There wasn''t a single person who had managed to leave a scratch on it no matter their Order and Authority.


    Yet, to think there would be a Saint who had exhausted most of his power fighting the dog would be able to leave a scratch on it.


    It was clear that if Theo could gather more Magic Power, he might be able to break it apart.


    The chimera gritted his teeth while thinking, ''What should I do? I have reinforced the rod with my Order and Authority... This is the strongest reinforcement because I''m literally betting my entire life on this fishing rod.


    ''So, the moment the string gets cut, I''m afraid my foundation will be shaken greatly if not destroyed. At that time, I''m the same as a cripple.''


    Yes, the chimera had bet everything in this weapon on him. This was the strongest reinforcement technique for his ability since he literally gave up his life for this ability.


    However, what he was currently facing was an ability tobine two abilities from Order and Authority Level Figures. Their attacks couldn''t be underestimated.


    Theo changed his abilities again. It was true that having a lot of abilities would make him confused as to what technique to pick. But for Theo, this was like a treasure trove. He had many options he couldbine.


    He just had to rely on his quick thinking to pick which of them could bebined to destroy the fishing rod.


    It seemed his opponents were panicking as the dog rushed ahead while the chimera stayed behind to wait for an opportunity.


    He couldn''t help but smile because he had a perfect ability that could be used against this dog.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar again and ordered it to fuse with him.


    Theo''s appearance instantly turned into the previous one: ck earrings, chains, and wings.


    "!!!" The dog was startled at first, but he remembered that there was nothing special about this transformation. So, he was fearless when facing this transformation. There was also a World ss Monster behind him that was ready to help him at any time.


    Hence, the dog barked, challenging Theo.


    A smile actually appeared on Theo''s face. Unlike the previous transformation, Theo applied two people''s abilities.


    The first one was the same as the Daemon. He was using the Death Avatar to possess him.


    However, he didn''t have the ability to utilize that possession power. Hence, Theo used Rea''s Embodiment Power to get all those unique abilities.


    Obviously, Theo couldn''t get the Embodiment Power. He was just using his Alter Ego. But since he had learned about the Poet''s ability, this Alter Ego wasn''t limited to his attribute points anymore.


    With an evil smile on his face, Theo used the new ability from the transformation.


    Death Reaper.

 Chapter 1875 Mutual Destruction

    Death Reaper.


    "!!!" The dog and the chimera widened their eyes in shock. Strength was leaving their bodies. The sharp pain felt like they were being stabbed by numerous des. Their souls were torn apart.


    They were confused as to how they even got all this pain for a second before they remembered Theo was in front of them.


    In that instant, they realized the pain actually came from Theo''s power. And everything was just an illusion, so they had to release their own power to stop the influence.


    But the moment they did it, Theo appeared in front of them. He was still using the Embodiment with his Death Avatar.


    Just like Rea, who managed to gain the strength of the mythical creatures, Theo also could use the Death Avatar''s power aside from the four authorities. Though, it was more like Theo''s original ability he came up with.


    It was thebined abilities of Death Eyes and Death Descent. He made sure both of them experienced what it felt like to die by getting their entire body and soul ripped apart.


    Unfortunately, the attack was only this effective as the two World ss Monsters managed to escape from this ability in a split second.


    But that split second was enough for Theo''s de to reach them.


    Instead of a sword, Theo actually used his illusion to form a scythe. This time, he really looked like a death reaper, ready to take both of them to the underworld.


    The monsters endured all that pain as it hadn''t disappearedpletely, all so that they could raise their own weapon.


    Theo''s scythe then struck both of them in rapid session.


    The chimera used his fishing rod to stop it while the dog wrapped his paws with strengthening roads and struck the scythe.


    But to their surprise, Theo''s scythe actually passed through both their weapons and bodies.


    ''What?!'' They were asking themselves at the same time, not knowing what had just happened. They had used their Authority and Magic Power to block it, so they shouldn''t have missed it. There was also no fluctuation of Magic Power that indicated the weapons could change shape.


    So, they were confused as to what was happening.


    They turned around to make sure they didn''t lose sight of Theo, only to find their translucent self actually came out from their bodies.


    ''That''s��''


    ''Soul��''


    The two thought the same thing. But before they could think of the reason why their soul came out, Theo''s scythe struck both of these souls.


    "!!!" The two World ss Monsters hurriedly poured their Magic Power into their souls. It somehow worked and seemed to give some restriction to Theo''s scythe.


    Theo seemed to be frustrated that his scythe couldn''t go on. And this made the two World ss Monsters smile and pour more Magic Power to stop him.


    However, Theo also released another wave of Magic Power.


    The two World ss Monsters suddenly felt their bodies being split apart from the direction of the scythe. It was clear that Theo wanted to destroy their souls so that he could kill them in a different way.


    So, they had to resist his attacks.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The monsters wanted to stop Theo directly, but their strength disappeared after pouring the Magic Power into their souls. They could only strengthen their souls until Theo stopped his attack.


    Still, as expected from the dog, whose power didn''t rely on an external tool, while releasing his Magic Power, he also released his road to attack Theo.


    Theo saw the road and panicked. On the one hand, he had to continue to attack their souls. On the other hand, he believed this road would cause him a lot of problems in this fight.


    So, Theo had to choose whether he wanted to sacrifice his body to attack or maintain a safe approach.


    They thought Theo would choose to escape, but it seemed they were wrong this whole time. Theo didn''t choose either option.


    Instead, he created the third option that they would never think about.


    Theo actually used this opportunity to reveal everything.


    The scythe gradually turned back into a sword and the souls disappeared.


    "!!!" At first, it looked like Theo had just retracted his ability in order to move away, but they were wrong.


    Theo took this opportunity to startle them and move toward them at high speed.


    The road was also trying to reach him, but he managed to get to them first. He swung that de while releasing a sword strike that curved like it was alive, cutting their bodies.


    "!!!" The two monsters widened their eyes in shock. After all, they had gotten so many wounds before they realized it.


    Theo hadpletely outyed them with those souls.


    The dogs had seven cut wounds, while the chimera only received five. Even so, the wounds were quite deep, so they would be weakened as time passed.


    Still, Theo wasn''t in a good situation either.


    There were four roads that managed to pierce his body and two more that wrapped around his arms.


    Theo endured all the pain, but these four roads that pierced his body would have the same effect like his sword strike. In addition, there were two more roads that were draining his Magic Power.


    He used his Blink to regain some distance while destroying the two roads that were attached to him.


    "��" Theo took a deep breath. He wanted to use a healing ability, but he wasn''t adept at it. And he didn''t know how to connect the healing ability with his reality authority.


    In the end, he only used his illusion to cover up the holes and the authority to fix those patches. This was the ''healing'' ability he could currently use.


    Still, Theo looked at the two World ss Monsters and smiled. It was truly worth it since he managed to wound two World ss Monsters to this extent even if he had to trade those wounds with the ones on his body.


    Theo pointed at the two World ss Monsters.


    "I''m going to kill both of you," Theo stated with a cold tone.

 Chapter 1876 Burial Ground

    They heard the deration of war loud and clear. This was the first time they found a human to have the nerve like this guy.


    The Saint they fought in the past might be strong, but he was constantly running away from three World ss Monsters, unlike Theo who had the confidence to challenge them head-on.


    It was remarkable and foolish at the same time. But Theo seemed to have the ability to do so.


    If they kept fighting like this, they might be able to kill Theo, but they would be heavily injured as well. At that point, there was no telling whether they would die from injuries or not.


    That was why they felt shivers down their spines, thinking Theo was nning to drag them with him.


    But Theo surpassed their imagination again by turning around. They thought Theo was nning another attack, but they were wrong. They shouldn''t have put so much respect for Theo because he was also a human.


    And facing two World ss Monsters, he also ran away.


    Yes, Theo actually ran away after that deration of war.


    "What?!" The two World ss Monsters were astounded, not understanding how Theo''s logic worked anymore. How could one kill them if he actually ran away?


    They exchanged looks and realized it was just a bluff to stall them. They shouldn''t have expected anything from a human.


    Anger and disappointment started to fill their hearts as the dog and the chimera chased after him.


    "You are only a coward. Where is that big mouth of yours?" The dog barked, frustrated. He kept insulting Theo about the challenge and his current actions that werepletely the opposite.


    The chimera seemed to be doing the same while trying to catch Theo with his fishing rod.


    They didn''t realize that Theo actually feared the third World ss Monster that attacked the Saint from India. He still had some chances to win against these two monsters, but none if the third World ss Monster joined the fight. Though, it was true if he didn''t resummon his clone since thetter tried to give a warning to the people in the US Base for the iing attacks.


    Running away like this was simply a way to avoid the third World ss Monster.


    Theo kept running for twenty minutes while avoiding all the attacks from the two monsters. He had to expend more Magic Power than he originally expected since they were angry and threw a few reckless attacks, which ended up being too big for him to avoid.


    That was why it wasn''t that easy for Theo to run away from them, especially since his condition kept getting worse due to the wounds.


    The monsters also didn''t have a good time either. Their speeds had been decreasing continuously. But the only reason why they kept chasing Theo was due to the amount of Order and Authority Theo was using.


    Theo''s Magic Power might be a lot, but his Order and Authority were a different case.


    He had used a vast amount of energy ever since he fought the dog, so it was clear that Theo was weakened more than them.


    Theo gritted his teeth while ncing back and forth, trying to avoid all these attacks.


    Unfortunately, he was caught by the fishing hook.


    "!!!" Theo knew it wouldn''t be good to be caught like this, but he couldn''t do anything as the chimera pulled the fishing rod to stop him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo''s momentum disappeared almostpletely, but he was also putting up some fight as the chimera ended up getting thrown forward due to that momentum.


    Theo instantly turned around and swung his de while the chimera did the same and struck his sword with the fishing rod.


    The Magic Power covering their weapons collided, causing a huge shock wave that rmed all the monsters nearby.


    Still, this was the ce Theo had to cross to reach these two monsters. He had prepared enough as he annihted all the monsters in this ce.


    No matter how hard the two World ss Monsters asked for help, there would be no more monsters that could help them.


    This was a perfect battlefield to end everything.


    With that in mind, Theo formted two abilities in his mind and tried tobine them.


    Seeing the dog and the chimera''s abilities, there were not many abilities that could be used against both of them simultaneously. So, he changed his focus to the dog first since his condition was the worst after receiving the biggest injury and flying all the way here with the chimera on his back.


    Theo chose his grandfather, Leonardo, and his uncle, Marzio.


    Theo raised his hand andmanded, "Heed my call."


    Sixteen golden circles appeared in the air as each of them summoned a chess piece. After that, Theo waved his left hand, releasing sixteen golden threads to attach to these pieces.


    "Forward!" Theomanded.


    This ability took Theo''s Death Avatar as inspiration. After that, he cloned them with his ability and only one of them, the king, was the real Death Avatar.


    And Marzio''s ability was simply the chains to pour Magic Power to them since it was hard to maintain all sixteen of them at the same time.


    They were surprised that there were sixteen warriors that had surrounded them.


    The bishops were the first ones to make their moves. The first bishop formed a fireball, while the other one created a tornado.


    They released them straight at the two World ss Monsters, where the two elementsbined and created a fire tornado.


    The dog released his roads to stop this fire tornado while the chimera jumped to the side, blocking the knights'' swords.


    They were trying to find a way to escape, but they didn''t realize that the chess pieces arrangement made trigrams.


    This was the time for him to use the Heavenly Sovereign''s ability while the World ss Monsters were busy with the illusion warriors.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as he pped his hands, pouring the energy into the trigrams to manifest them.


    ''This will be your burial ground,'' thought Theo.

 Chapter 1877 Trap

    "This is��" The two World ss Monsters widened their eyes in shock while looking at the trigrams underneath them.


    Each chess piece seemed to be releasing Magic Power, symbolizing a certain power. They didn''t understand how this power worked because each of them was different.


    ''Each of them has a different element?'' The dog narrowed his eyes, wondering which road he should use to handle all these elements.


    He had fought many monsters with different elements, but this was the first time he fought against a Saint with all these elements. The power difference between them was simply too big.


    He had to use all his power to withstand Theo''s power.


    Meanwhile, the chimera shared the same opinion. ''A? I don''t think my can withstand all this power�� What should I do then?''


    They knew they had fallen into Theo''s trap. Although these soldiers weren''t that big of a deal, it was different now that they had gotten an element. And the trigrams underneath them had strengthened them even further.


    If they were not careful, they might get heavily injured just from these sixteen chess pieces.


    Since they were fighting together, the dog and the chimera knew they had to deal with half of them each.


    Unfortunately, they had never heard of chess, so they didn''t realize that each piece symbolized something.


    The chimera handled three pawns, one knight, two bishops, and two rooks. On the other hand, the dog took care of five pawns, one knight, the queen, and the king.


    The chimera went straight to the pawns first since they seemed to be the weakest among the group. Their number was the biggest as well, so it was clear they didn''t possess a lot ofbat power.


    The chimera swung his fishing rod, using it like a sword.


    The pawns weren''t going to be defeated just like that. They pped their hands, stimting the energy within them.


    The chimera narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what they were nning to do. But before he could see through their intention, the knight had charged at him, thrusting his spear.


    The chimera hurriedly blocked it and tried to cut the knight''s hand, but the knight was powered by an ice element. The moment he cut the knight''s hand, the ice burst out and froze the fishing rod.


    The chimera was surprised at first, but he still maintained his awareness. It was then he found out that the two bishops had been gathering their Magic Power.


    "!!!" The chimera felt the fluctuation from below and above him. Instead of elements, the bishops actually wielded the power of Sky and Earth from the trigrams.


    Since the chimera had fallen to the ground after being separated by the dog, he had to be wary of an attack from beneath him as well.


    The ground started to rise as if they were alive, trying to swallow his legs. At the same time, he felt an overwhelming pressure from above, trying to tten him.


    The chimera gritted his teeth while using all his strength to resist the pressure. He even threw his hook once more to grab the pressure before tossing it somewhere.


    But Theo had prepared for this by using the rooks.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They approached from the side and mmed their giant shields.


    The chimera summoned the to capture one of the rooks, which was a sessful attempt as Theo lost control of it. Still, there was one more rook he had to worry about. The knight managed to get in front of it and cut that, so the rook had a clear path to the chimera.


    *Bam!*


    The rook mmed its shield into the chimera, which was blocked by the fishing rod. The chimera had a muscr humanoid body, so stopping this shield with his strength was still possible.


    But this was where the three pawns appeared in front of him.


    ''What is this?'' The chimera was astounded as each pawn was carrying a lot of Magic Power. In fact, the Magic Power hidden in their body far surpassed the queen and the king themselves.


    And this was when Theo activated his n.


    "Promotion." Theo smirked.


    The three pawns gradually changed their appearances into that of a knight, startling the chimera. He never expected that each of them could transform like this. Theo appeared to be giving them the power of his Metamorphosis, but this was only an illusion where he changed the rule of this universe to match the game of chess like the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The knights had wind, fire, and lightning elements respectively.


    "With this distance, I couldn''t use my hook��'' The chimera thought while swinging his fishing rod like a sword, repelling all three spears.


    The fire and the wind spears merged into one, igniting a zing fireball that engulfed him.


    The chimera skillfully caught the fireball with the hook. There was no distance between them anyway, so he managed to attach it and rip it apart with his hook. But that was when the third spear came.


    The third knight threw the spear through the gap and hit the chimera.


    Thetter, of course, blocked it with the fishing rod, but the spear was far stronger than he expected. He got overwhelmed by that power and got stabbed in the shoulder.


    "Aaaahhhh!" His scream filled the battlefield. This might be the heaviest injury he ever got in this battle. And with a hole in his shoulder, he had lost the ability to use his right hand in this battle, which gave Theo a lot of advantage.


    The dog turned around and saw his partner got owned by Theo. He was worried that he would die here.


    He wanted to help him, but it was impossible as he was also surrounded by eight chess pieces.


    The roads had been hovering around him, attacking anyone that came near him. This was probably the biggest weakness of his ability. Those roads might be able to affect a big area, but it would be a different case if there were eight figures at Theo''s level trying to attack him. He could spread it, but those eights could easily avoid it while attacking him from a distance.


    That was why the dog could only call his partner''s name, unable to help him. "Kaimerka!"

 Chapter 1878 Exchange

    "You don''t have time to worry about him," Theo stated coldly while waving his hand down, ordering his chess pieces to attack the dog.


    The queen was the first one to make her move. As she opened both her arms, a few golden lights appeared around her.


    All golden lights flew forth like a beam, making a parabolic movement and raining the dog down.


    The dog used three roads to create ayer of shield.


    Road of Fortification.


    The dog frowned as those lights actually managed to crack his roads. Theo became more and more like his friend that could hook everything.


    The king piece raised his sword and shed downwards, releasing a green-colored sword strike.


    When it touched the roads of fortification, it didn''t destroy these three roads. Instead, the green light turned into vines that spread in all directions. The vines were following the shape of the roads and gradually making their way to the base of the roads, which was the dog''s body.


    Knowing it would be dangerous if the vines touched him since he didn''t know what they could do, the dog ended up letting the roads go.


    The vines ultimately fell down because of the roads'' disappearance, but the knight had been moving toward him when he was focused on the other pieces.


    As soon as the roads disappeared, the knight emerged from behind the roads while thrusting his spear.


    The dog''s body shook as he raised his paw, trying to knock it down.


    Unfortunately for him, the knight''s spear actually pierced through the paw.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The dog was in pain, but the spear gradually disappeared because of the roads on his paw. Realizing it was just an illusion, the dog could see the knight''s true form. It turned out the knight was wielding a sword instead of a spear.


    And with the change of attack range, the paw ended up missing him, allowing the knight to reach the dog''s body.


    The dog hurriedly released all his power to make sure the knight couldn''t kill him. But the five pawns that had been waiting for their turns finally made their move.


    They surrounded the dog and approached him recklessly as if they were doing the same thing as the other pawns.


    It seemed Theo nned to change their forms again, so the dog spread all the roads in his body, stabbing everything around him.


    "Do you think I will fall for this trick?" The dog imed with confidence, knowing what had happened to his partner. There was no way he would fall for the same trick.


    Theo smiled. He had been waiting for this.


    Instead of a promotion, Theo had another use for these five pawns. Three pawns were not enough, but five were certainly strong enough to take down a World ss Monster.


    He waved his hands, stimting the elements inside them.


    "Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, and Earth. Explode!" Theomanded them.


    The elements in their bodies started to revolve like crazy and became unstable.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "!!!" The dog widened his eyes in shock because this wasn''t the same as the one Theo used against the chimera. ''This is�� an elemental�� explosion!''


    A huge explosion urred as it continued to expand until the elemental explosion created a giant ball of sma, burning the dog.


    Theo panted a few times, satisfied with this result. He might still have some Magic Power, but his Order and Authority energy were almost empty. If he continued fighting them, he might lose, so he was happy that the two died in this attack.


    But as one would expect from a World ss Monster, they were resilient and wouldn''t give up no matter how hard the situation was for them.


    "I''m not done here!" The chimera suddenly came out of the encirclement and headed straight to Theo. He actually sacrificed his already useless left hand to escape from the encirclement.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. He was about to kill the dog, but the chimera had to ruin it. He turned his bracelet into a sword while the chimera had the upper hand by ambushing him.


    Both of them shed at the same time as the chimera''s momentum made them pass each other.


    The chimera and Theo were gritting their teeth as if they didn''t like the result.


    The chimera actually shed Theo three times during that split second while Theo managed to release two strikes because he was toote. But due to the chimera''s injury, those three strikes weren''t that fatal.


    Even so, Theo was annoyed because there were two sword wounds on his body now. The one on his waist wasn''t that deep, but a lot of blood still flowed out. What he was worried about was his left arm.


    The wound was a bit too deep to the point it cut the muscles. Theo tried to move his left hand but to no avail.


    It seemed he wouldn''t be able to move it anymore for the duration of this battle.


    The chimera''s condition wasn''t that good either. Theo might be one stepte, but he managed to block one attack while inflicting a bigger injury due to the chimera''s weakened body.


    The chimera had to ept his condition as his right leg fell down.


    Yes, Theo managed to chop off his right leg. With this, the chimera couldn''t use his one leg and one hand, while Theo also lost the ability of one arm.


    It was clear that they were heading straight to the path of mutual destruction.


    The chimera was annoyed by this result. He never expected that Theo would be able to fight them to this point.


    He didn''t know Theo had fought against multiple World ss Monsters. That umtion of experience gave him a lot of advantages in this battle.


    Now that he had started realizing his power more and more. He also got used to the energy from the jade Theodon gifted him, Theo''s strength might be close to the Frost Saint''s at his peak.


    This was what Theo wanted. Not only did he raise his levels, but he also brought back a lot of experiences.


    He was nning to get to the lightning dragon''s level, but he was satisfied if he could reach the level between the Frost Saint and the Lightning Saint before the battle against slime.


    Theo took a deep breath, maintaining his poker face. He didn''t have too much time since there was a possibility of the third monster appearing.


    Theo and the chimera knew that they were nning to finish everything here.

 Chapter 1879 Close Fight

    After fighting for so long, they knew that the battle had reached its end. The dog couldn''t be considered a powerhouse anymore after getting sted by the five pawns.


    Meanwhile, Theo and the chimera had been heavily injured. They were in no position to fight for another thirty minutes.


    Theo and the chimera red at each other, gathering the remaining energy in their bodies.


    The chimera was a fisherman, so he would have a hard time fighting in closebat. Theo was confident he could beat him in closebat, so he leaped forth while gathering all the Magic Power into his de.


    The chimera didn''t seem to be backing down. He also put everything in his fishing rod, turning it into a sword.


    Unexpectedly, the dog suddenly emerged from the explosion.


    "!!!" The bark rmed Theo and the chimera as their heads turned around, finding the heavily injured dog.


    The dog had lost his right paw and half of his right leg. The wings on his back were charred back and lost most of their feathers.


    It seemed that the dog was near his death. Only his willpower pushed him through this. His expression was unwilling, at least, he wanted to make Theo pay a huge price before dying.


    He acknowledged his loss, so this was the time to drag Theo with him.


    The dog was surrounded by multiple roads as he extended it forward.


    "!!!" Theo tried to avoid it, but the fisherman threw his hook.


    *Clink!*


    As expected, Theo focused more on the chimera as he blocked the hook. At the same time, he summoned his Death Avatar to catch these roads, albeit the hook did something else.


    Theo''s body shook when the hook actually caught his Magic Power. After that, the chimera waved the fishing rod to the side, dragging Theo straight to the roads.


    This way, the Death Avatar didn''t have enough time to solve the iing attacks. Even Theo''s Blink wasn''t fast enough.


    Five roads eventually stabbed Theo: one in his waist, two in his legs, and two in his hands.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth because he felt the roads'' suppression. If he got weakened even further, he was afraid that he couldn''t finish the chimera.


    So, Theo used his Blink to teleport to the dog''s back. He used the energy he had gathered earlier and sent the dog''s head flying.


    Instead of grieving and regretting his defeat, the dog actually smirked and said hisst words with confidence. "I''ll be waiting for you in the underworld, Human!"


    [You''ve killed a Winged Musdog.]


    [EXP+ 396,888,000]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    ...


    Theo received several notifications. But he ignored them because the chimera had thrown his hook again, trying to deliver a killing blow.


    Theo used the World Re-Creation to expand the reality above him, pushing him downward.


    The chimera waved his fishing rod so that his hook would follow Theo''s movement. Theo never intended to back away even with all these injuries.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He might not be able to recover here for a long time, but there was a person in his group who could heal him. So, he didn''t mind having all these injuries as long as it wasn''t enough to kill him.


    Hence, Theo immediately used all the points he''d just got to increase his Magic Power, giving a bit more Magic Power to use.


    Then, he gathered all that Magic Power into his de.


    He struck the hook with everything he got, including the Energy st, Enhanced Concentration Capacity and Thunderp Fist.


    *Bam!*


    A sonic boom echoed as the hook and Theounched each other. However, it seemed Theo was stronger as he was only pushed back for thirty feet while the hook wasunched at its owner


    The chimera poured more Magic Power to control the string, but it seemed he had used a bit too much power that the hook was slowing down instead of stopping.


    "Kh." The chimera jumped to the side as the hook struck the ground, turning it into a crater.


    Theo had reached the ground as well and immediately headed straight to the chimera.


    "Haaaaa!" Theo roared, pumping all the spirit he had.


    The chimera also let out a roar, not wanting to lose against Theo.


    They were swinging their weapons at the same time, but Theo made onest tweak before he reached the chimera.


    It was just a simple trick but quite deadly.


    Theo''s Telekinesis actually stopped his momentum and his weapon changed from its sword form to the sniper rifle form.


    "!!!" The chimera was shocked, finding Theo pointing it at him while smiling. He gritted his teeth and tried to move away, but it was toote.


    Theo pulled the trigger as the sniper rifle shot thepressed Magic Bullets. The blue Magic Bullet expanded as soon as it came out of the muzzle and flew forward like a beam. Its size was five times that of the chimera.


    But as expected from a World ss Monster, it managed to move fast enough that the beam only hit his entire arm.


    In that instant, his entire right arm that was holding the fishing rod waspletely obliterated, leaving only the fishing rod. It might be due to the attachment it had with its owner, but the fishing rod wasn''t pushed away.


    The chimera might be struggling, but it still nned to fight until thest drop. He couldn''t use his left hand because of the wound, so it bit the fishing rod and threw it at Theo.


    "You two are amazing. You''ve my words, I''ll give you a proper burial as a warrior." Theo said with conviction as he ducked down, avoiding the hook.


    "Tsk." The chimera clicked his tongue while looking down, finding Theo turning the sniper rifle back to the sword to cut his legs. After that, Theo moved upward and cut his wings before eventually his head.


    Even after his head was severed, the chimera didn''t stop his re at Theo as if trying to resist him until he waspletely gone.


    [You''ve killed a Chimera Rexus.]


    [EXP+ 449,200,299]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve leveled up.]

 Chapter 1880 The Third World Class Monster?

    "Ha�� Ha��" Theo panted a few times. It felt like all the adrenaline was leaving his body, causing him to have a hard time mustering some strength just to even stand.


    In the end, Theo took a few steps back until he reached a tree and leaned his back on the trunk before slowly sitting down.


    Theo looked up to the sky. He couldn''t believe that two World ss Monsters had just died in his hands.


    He had used everything in his power in this fight and found a few things.


    ''Unorthodox power is truly unique. It has extraordinary strength but a fatal w.'' Theo recounted how the Road Authority dominated the fight earlier. And that advantage only disappeared after Theo knew it was the Road Authority.


    The same applied to the chimera. His fishing ability was weird, but luckily, he had seen a simr ability from his subordinate, Ruth. So, figuring out the ability was not a big problem.


    Still, either the dog or the chimera would go down easily. The only reason why he could win this time was due to the trap he had set up.


    He had been lowering the enemies'' guards this whole time by acting weak as if he couldn''t stop them anymore and was forced to run away.


    The enemies fell into that trick and continued to push forward, not realizing that the further they went, the harder their friend would find them.


    And with Theo killing all the monsters in the area before fighting the World ss Monsters, those two werepletely stranded in an empty area where no monsters could inform the third World ss Monster about Theo.


    Theo used all that time to reinforce their beliefs until at one point, he used that sixteen chess pieces.


    He realized that the reason why the enemies could kill one of humanity''s saints was due to their number.


    Each of them had an ability that would work extremely well against a single opponent. So, all Theo had to do was increase that number.


    Those sixteen pieces, along with his Reality Order, tricked them into thinking that each of them was a soldier that had Theo''s power. So, they had to use all their strength to kill them.


    Unbeknownst to them, the only reason why the sixteen pieces were that strong was due to how Theo programmed them. He poured a lot of Magic Power into them and used all of it in one or two attacks.


    If the enemies took their time to take care of the sixteen chess pieces, they would be the winner.


    Of course, Theo also intervened and made sure they didn''t have time or attention to think about it.


    This was the reason they lost.


    Theopletely manipted the flow of the battlefield even though he was at a disadvantage.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Theo closed his eyes for a while, recounting the battle experience. He couldn''t help but mutter, ''I''m currently still too weak. The slime can fight against multiple World ss monsters and will still be fine. On the other hand, I almost died after fighting two of them.


    ''It''s clear that I have to get stronger before thest battle. I have to find a way to kill multiple World ss Monsters while maintaining my condition.


    ''And with my current condition, I''m afraid I can only give first aid with my skill and head back to the base to get treatment from Aisha. Or maybe I can go to the union and receive help from the pope�� I''m sure he doesn''t mind this��''


    Still, there was one thing on Theo''s mind. It was his thirdw.


    He knew that it might be possible to reach a whole new level if he cultivated the thirdw. However, the requirement to use it alone was already too high, so he wasn''t confident he could master it before reaching the Singrity Rank. Unfortunately, he would have to fight against the slime when he was only a Mythical Rank.


    ''There are also multiple King ss Monsters�� It seems I have to consider my moves carefully.''


    It was impossible to win this fight with their current strength. It wasn''t only him, he had to make his people and others grow before the battle.


    ''I have gained a lot from this battle. I have to take some rest before going back to the union. Although I haven''t reached the level I want, I''m satisfied with the current result. Gotta recover first before continuing to hunt monsters.''


    Theo smiled, knowing it was time to go back.


    But suddenly, he felt another presence approaching him. It was so fast that the next thing he realized, a monster was already in front of him.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes and raised his head, trying to fight this monster. It must be because he was tired that he didn''t realize his enemy was actually using a Space Element instead of his speed.


    Theo only raised his head and saw another humanoid monster like the fisherman. But unlike the chimera, this humanoid monster had a structure simr to the human, but its body was covered by fur like an ape. However, looking at the fur and his face, he appeared simr to a lion.


    Theo raised his sword, swinging his de with all the energy he had. He had to use all the remaining strength to resist before finding a way to escape.


    Theo was ready to summon his clone in order to escape. After all, it would be useless if his clone managed to inform the people while the original body died. And this time, Theo had no ess to the underworld and the cycle of reincarnation, so it was impossible to recreate his body.


    That was why Theo nned to fight with everything he had left and figured out a way to escape.


    He knew the enemy was dangerous. It was proven further by how the monster stopped Theo''s de with his paw.


    But before he could use his Blink, he heard the monster''s voice.


    "I''m not here to fight you, Human."

 Chapter 1881 Space Saint

    "I''m not here to fight you, Human."


    Theo and the monster red at each other. Theo tried to move his sword, not believing the monster since he assumed the enemy was the third World ss Monster.


    On the other hand, the monster used all his strength to stop Theo''s sword until he could exin the circumstances.


    Looking at the doubt reflected in his eyes, the monster decided to introduce himself and exin the reason he came here. "I''m Avianar, the Space Saint. I''m here because I''ve felt the disturbance in space and reality.


    "The reason why I''m here is to ask for your cooperation in order to maintain the current world. I''m not here to fight you."


    Theo narrowed his eyes and said with a cold tone, not trusting him. "If you want my cooperation, shouldn''t you have brought me somewhere when I got surrounded by those two?"


    "��" Avianar couldn''t answer it. On the one hand, he used that fight to determine Theo''s strength. On the other hand, he couldn''t say the reason because it would just annoy Theo.


    He thought for a moment. "If that offends you, I don''t really care. However, there is a time when enemies have to join hands. That''s when a new enemy that can threaten both sides appears.


    "Right now, Space and Reality aren''t stable. You, the Reality Saint, should have realized this as well. If we don''t restore stability, this world will copse."


    Theo frowned. The way he spoke had told him enough. He had made sure of three things.


    The World ss Monster before him was truly a Space Saint if he could find something like that.


    Secondly, he was already aware that Theo had the Reality Authority. He had repeatedly mentioned space and reality, so he should have a clear intention when approaching Theo.


    Last but not least, Theo knew that if thetter wanted to kill him, he would have no energy to resist.


    Although he couldn''t trust the monsterpletely, it seemed he could still buy some time without using his clone.


    He could use that time to check the enemy''s intention while recovering his strength.


    With that thought in mind, Theo lowered his sword but still looked vignt. He even took a few steps back, showing his distrust.


    The World ss Monster knew it wouldn''t be that easy to trust him, considering he didn''t help him at all earlier despite needing his help.


    For the Space Saint, whether Theo lived or not, it didn''t really matter. If Theo was alive, he could use Theo''s power and his ability to repair their world.


    If Theo didn''t survive, it meant he had to patch the hole and let the world fix itself. It would take a long time, but it was still salvageable.


    And without Theo, the Reality Saint, there was no one that could manipte or even cause another mess in this reality, so he could afford to wait a long time to repair the world.


    But since Theo survived, he chose the former path. He had to fix the problem as soon as possible.


    Avianar thought for a moment and said, "We should leave this area first. There is another Saint approaching this area."<novelnext></novelnext>


    He mentioned the third World ss Monster, but Theo didn''t know whether he was telling a lie or not. In fact, he suspected the monster before him was the third one.


    But if he was truly the third one, he would have helped the dog and the chimera earlier.


    So, Theo had no other choice but to ept his offer.


    "Alright. Let''s move away."


    Avianar could teleport both of them easily, but he chose to form a gate so that they could pass through it one by one. This way, he wasn''t forcing Theo to leave with him.


    The portal even reflected the scenery around the exit.


    "The end of the tunnel is located five miles to the north," Avianar exined so that Theo didn''t doubt his intention.


    Theo couldn''t see anything weird for the time being, so he chose to follow him.


    "You first," Theo said while preparing to use his clone in case of emergency.


    Avianar nodded and walked through the portal first before waiting for Theo on the other side.


    Theo would absolutely destroy the portal, but Avianar only needed to recreate that portal and catch up to him, pissed. It wouldn''t be wise to fight him in his current condition, so Theo walked through the portal with a serious expression.


    As soon as he reached the other end, Theo nced back and saw the portal disappear. This was the best time for Avianar to kill Theo, especially if he had nted some traps here.


    However, his goal remained the same. He never had any hostility with Theo anyway. So, he said, "Wee, Reality Saint. This is not my ce, but I think we can hold a conversation here��


    "Of course, I''m pretty sure you''d like to recover a bit of your strength and close your wounds."


    Avianar spread his arms and said, "In this area, there are no creatures that can harm us. I''ll protect you until you recover a bit of your Magic Power and close your wounds. I''m sure you have that ability, right?"


    Of course, Avianar knew about Theo''s ability since he had been observing Theo, including the ability that imitated Aisha''s healing skill.


    Theo thought for a moment before raising his hand. The ground shook a bit before four walls around them, isting them inside. He looked at Avianar and said, "I''m sure you don''t mind if I do this, right?"


    "Absolutely. Take your time." Avianar smiled and stepped back. He didn''t need any door since he created a portal to go through the wall.


    He left Theo alone inside, knowing it was better to respect Theo''s decision if he wanted to negotiate with him.


    Meanwhile, Theo closed his eyes while maintaining his vignce. He had to recover as much Magic Power as possible so that he had enough strength to escape in case of emergency.

 Chapter 1882 Instruction

    While Theo recovered from his injury, his clone used all his strength to reach the union as quickly as possible. He had to inform his people first before his main body could recall him.


    Theo was simply buying some time so that he had enough time.


    Because Theo ignored everything on his way and used all the Spiritual Energy to fly, he managed to cover the remaining twenty hours into three hours.


    Of course, Clone Theo had been using his all when the two World ss Monsters ganged up on him. The battlested for more than an hour, so Theo covered the remaining distance during his recovery time.


    Luckily, the clone managed to reach the union before he finished recovering a portion of his strength.


    Theo immediately called Rea.


    "Do you need anything from me, Teacher?" Rea asked with an innocent tone, not knowing how difficult the situation was.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "I need you to connect this call to everyone in the group, including Agata. Right now! I don''t have much time."


    "Understood." Rea didn''t know what had happened, but she followed Theo''s instructions. It only took two minutes before all of them came in, wondering what Theo wanted to say.


    His expression was grim. This was the first time Theo was so serious as if his n wouldn''t work anymore.


    They remained silent and focused on Theo''s mouth.


    Agata was the only one who asked him in the entire group. "Do you need us to do something?"


    Theo took a deep breath to calm his heart a bit before telling them about the current matter.


    "This is going to be absurd, but I have figured out the enemy''s ability. It seems the slime''s ability can dissolve everything and reconstruct them. And the base is facing imminent danger right now.


    "The slime has dissolved the power of the explosion and granted them to a huge number of human-looking monsters.


    "I''m sure you know what will happen if there are multiple explosions and people who wield it in the base. It will cause huge chaos, which can''t be allowed to happen.


    "Hence, I want all of you to create a defense system to handle them. Those humans can easily enter our base since it''s impossible to protect all our borders.


    "And I won''t be there to help you guys�� Simply put, you are on your own. Felix will be the leader, while Agata and Rea will be the vice leader. I want you to listen to their instructions.


    "Maya, I want you to support both of them with all your resources. I know that it''s going to be hard on you and your resources, but I''m afraid you''ll lose everything if we don''t block this iing attack.


    "Do any of you have a question?" Theo asked, ending his exnation.


    Agata thought for a moment while Rea asked, "How do we recognize them?"


    "It''s impossible to recognize them. However, I''ll show you an illusion of my own vision during that attack after this. I have recorded everything, so use it wisely."


    "Understood." Rea nodded. The fact Theo had recorded it meant he would be out of reach during the entire situation. He often left them alone before appearing out of nowhere, but this time, it seemed he didn''t n to go back.


    Meanwhile, Agata assured him with a smile. "It''s alright. You''ve worked hard enough, Theo. Leave the rest to us. Don''t worry. All of them are very capable."


    Theo nodded. It seemed Agata had realized something that they didn''t. And that realization made her realize why Theo would be out of reach this time.<novelnext></novelnext>


    She only reminded him, "Theo. I only have one thing to say regarding this matter�� You do what you should do. I''ll do my part as well. You don''t have to worry about me because we have the same goal."


    Theo looked Agata in the eyes before his expression melted. A small smile appeared on his face.


    As expected, Agata knew him the best.


    They both shared the same goal, which was to survive and live as a family. So, both of them weren''t nning to die. This was the best assurance they could give to each other.


    "Alright. Are there any more questions?" Theo asked. After waiting for a minute, no one seemed to be raising their voice.


    So, Theo wrapped this matter up with one sentence. "Felix. We need to talk after this."


    "Understood." Felix nodded with a serious expression. He still felt overwhelmed when Theo put him in charge.


    Agata and Rea could easily be the leader with their expertise, yet, Theo chose him. It confused him and also made him doubt if he could do it or not.


    The others closed the call, leaving the two alone.


    Now that both of them were alone, Theo finally dropped his Skylink to the table while pointing it at him. This time, his face changed.


    This might be the first time Theo showed such a disturbed expression.


    Theo turned around and said with a tired tone. "Sorry, Felix. I''m sure I have confused you with this responsibility��"


    "No��" Felix was still overwhelmed, but he was also curious as to why Theo suddenly showed this side of him. It seemed the problem was bigger than he originally thought.


    Theo said, "The reason why you''re the leader is because you are the one who follows me the longest in my group.


    "Ergene might have better leadership than you, or Rea might be more suitable to be the leader since she is my disciple. Agata can, but she is already upied with something else.


    "Yet, I choose you to be the leader�� Felix, do you remember what you said to me after I healed Millie?"


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes. His body was shaking because he felt they weren''t separated by the screen anymore.


    It felt like they were inside a single room with Felix kneeling in front of Theo. He would never forget that oath.


    "I haven''t forgotten even a single word and no matter how far we''ve gone, that oath will never change. I''m ready toy down my life for you. What do you want me to do?" Felix asked with a grim expression.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment as if he had a hard time talking about it. He was still hesitating.


    After one minute of silence, Theo finally opened his mouth. "Felix. I''m afraid you have to evolve this time, or you will die.


    "You have to be alive if you want to continue as my right-hand man. You have to survive if you want to kill my enemies. Unfortunately, my strength is not enough to protect everyone right now.


    "That''s why I have to ask you this, Felix. Do you still remember your oath?"


    There was no hesitation in Felix''s eyes. He stated loud and clear. "Even if I have to kill myself to drag you out of the underworld, I''m ready."

 Chapter 1883 Help

    Theo smiled. "I have a few warnings for you. First of all, even I don''t know what will happen in this situation. That''s why you''re going to be responsible for everyone."


    "I understand. I''ll do my best to make sure everyone is safe." Felix nodded with a serious expression.


    "The enemies are going to being from all sides, so it''s impossible to block all of them unless you can spread the defense wide enough. Still, I know that they are able toe up with a n to solve the situation.


    "Still, if people are confused, you just have to tell them that I''ve prepared everything I can. They should be able to work it out themselves. But make sure they don''t ask Alexa''s help this time."


    Felix agreed without hesitation. He knew that Theo wouldn''t leave everything to them without any preparations.


    Since he left the matter to them, he should have made enough preparation and they should figure it out themselves and found a n that suited the current problem.


    "Andst but not least��" Theo''s expression turned serious. "No matter how hard it is, don''t show it. Lead them with your strength."


    Felix didn''t understand what he was talking about, but he still nodded his head. He thought Theo just wanted him to show a strong front and that was what he had done this whole time. So, he didn''t know if he had misunderstood him or not.


    After giving all the warnings, Theo finally closed the call with a sentence. "Felix. I leave them to you."


    Felix closed his eyes for a moment as if steeling his resolve as the leader. He might not be the best leader since others'' abilities were better than his, but it didn''t change the fact that Theo chose him for a reason. And he simply had to prove Theo was right.


    While Felix tried to gather all the people to discuss the iing attacks, Theo sat on his chair with a troubled expression.


    He was staring at the Skylink with an empty gaze as if he was contemting whether he wanted to do it or not.


    The Skylink was showing one number. It was a number he had never called.


    ? After mulling over it for one minute, Theo decided to call him.


    To his surprise, it took only one second before the other party epted the call. It was as if he used all his strength just to increase his speed to the very limit so that he could pick up the call with his life on the line.


    There was no sounding from the other side, but Theo could hear the tiny nervous breath.


    Theo sighed and finally opened his mouth. "It''s been a while��"


    Theo didn''t know how to call him. On the one hand, he had chosen to go separate ways with him. On the other hand, he had heard about the truth from Loki, and the grudge between them had diminished over time.


    Ultimately, Theo called him, "��Dad."


    That was right. The one he called was actually Ray Griffith, his father. Their rtionship wasplex. Even this call was extremely awkward as both of them didn''t know what to say.


    "Yes��" Ray paused for a moment. His voice was shaking as if he didn''t believe he would get a call from here. "Do you need anything from me�� S��"


    He couldn''t finish it as Theo might not like being called that way. Instead, he chose to change the topic to make it less awkward.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The only reason why Theo called him was because of an important matter. Even when the base was attacked, he only informed Agata and Ne. So, reaching him directly meant this matter was at arger scale than he could handle.


    That was why Ray asked, "Since you called me directly, I''m assuming that there''s something big troubling you. So�� how can I help you?"


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling awkward. It felt like he was bossing around the people he had thrown away in his life.


    It felt like a p on his face. But this matter couldn''t be stopped by his group alone. So, Theo ended up exining the situation first. "The base is facing a huge problem and I won''t be there to help.


    "I''ve left the matter to Agata and Rea and I believe they can do just fine. Still, this matter is not as simple as anything they''ve ever faced. They might even lose their lives if they''re not careful.


    "So, I''d like to request you to help them. I also need the entire force of the new Griffith Family��"


    After listening to the brief exnation, Ray thought for a moment and asked for confirmation, "The Griffith Family, huh? Do you need our strength or the informationwork?"


    "That depends on the girls. I''m not there right now, so I don''t know the whole situation."


    "I see. Alright then, we''ll work with them. I guess they will be the ones to exin the situation to us?"


    "Yes. I''m here just to ask for your cooperation since I don''t have much time."


    "Alright. We''ll be cooperating with them fully. The base is our home as well, so it won''t be good if it''s disturbed. But are you alright there?"


    "Yeah, I think." Theo thought for a moment. His body was shaking as if he was having a hard time.


    Meanwhile, Ray knew that it wouldn''t be good to waste his time, so he asked, "Is that all?"


    "Yeah. That''s all."


    "Alright. I''ll bring the Griffith Family to your ce then."


    The atmosphere turned awkward again. They almost hung up the call before Theo finally decided to speak up.


    "And��" Theo paused for a moment while taking a deep breath. It wasn''t easy for him to tell this after everything that happened. But he still did it, "Once everything is over�� let''s have a talk again. But with one condition, it has to be the whole family."


    "!!!" Ray shivered for a second, not believing what he had just heard. To think Theo would still give them a second chance, he couldn''t believe it.


    With how awkwardly Theo phrased it, it felt like Theo had been nning to do it from the start. And this help was just a convenient excuse he used.


    Theo also made it clear that it had to be the entire family. It meant Ray wasn''t the only one who would meet him. Valerie and his brother, Edward, would also be included.


    He wanted to say something, but Theo hung up as if he couldn''t continue the conversation anymore. But he had said everything he wanted.

 Chapter 1884 Discussion

    "Are you done?" Agata asked as the group seemed to have gathered in the meeting room. Maya was the only one who wasn''t present in the meeting room as she was taking care of herpany. Though, she still joined them through the call.


    Felix was thest person to enter since he had to receive Theo''s warning beforehand.


    And there was something he had to tell them first. Felix nodded, entered the room, and said, "ording to him, it''s not the time to reveal the Mafia Queen."


    Agata and Rea immediately frowned upon this matter. On the one hand, the Mafia Queen would be their best fighter and support. On the other hand, Theo must want to hide the Mafia Queen to the veryst moment as his trump card.


    Agata and Rea exchanged looks while Felix took a seat.


    "Alright. Before we discuss our n, we have to see our enemies first." Agata nodded to Millie, who was handling the projector so that everyone could see Theo''s video.


    The video was about Theo using his illusion power to show what happened not long ago. It might not be a video since everything came from his head, so the humanoid monsters'' faces were blurry as Theo couldn''t remember all of them. If this was a video, they might have had an easier time, but due to this ability, Theo could retreat easily without leaking any information through his Skylink.


    They watched the video carefully and started feeling horrified. They never expected that Theo would lose against the slime. And it wasn''t an ordinary loss, it was aplete defeat.


    Felix couldn''t help but remember when Theo told him to evolve in this battle. If the enemy was this strong, they would lose if he didn''t evolve and protect everyone.


    He clenched his fists as he was determined to do everything he could.


    Meanwhile, the others had a headache because of the humanoid monsters.


    They knew what to expect from the enemies.


    As soon as the video was over, Agata immediately stated with a grim expression. "This requires a lot of manpower along with powerful people. I''m afraid we have to get everyone''s cooperation if we want to protect this base. I can''t think of any n to stop them, but seeing how they''re far stronger than anyone in their levels��"


    Agata paused for a moment before saying with a cold tone. "Let''s reveal all our cards first so that we know what we can work with."


    They nodded in agreement. The first one to speak was Rea.


    "Our group won''t be enough to handle this. It''s clear that to attack this base, they can simply sneak in through the gap. After all, it''s impossible to maintain surveince in all borders with only us.


    "So, I''m thinking about using the military to watch the borders. Then again, I don''t know if they can be trusted. Theirmanders might be spies and allow the enemies to enter��" Rea thought for a moment. "So, we have to solve the trust issues first. How��"


    Everyone was turning their heads to Ne. Ne was the next head of the Griffith Family, a family known for their espionage. So, she might be the only one that could solve this problem.


    Ne made a wry smile as she embarrassedly said, "I''m not sure about this since I don''t have full control yet. But I can ask."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Before anyone gave a reply, Felix actually remembered another warning. "That''s right. He has left us with all the preparations. So, we have to use them properly��"


    "What is that preparation?" Rea asked, trying to remember any special things Theo had left behind.


    "The ne? Was he implying the people from other bases?" Agata frowned while ncing at Maya, who was working on it.


    Maya wanted to agree with her statement at first. But she remembered there was another special asion where Theo tricked a lot of people.


    Maya''s expression changed as she never thought that speech woulde in handy. She exined, "I think he meant the people of the base, specifically thepanies, organizations, and big families.


    "He forced me to make a speech in front of those influential figures and somehow convince everyone. So, I think this is the case.


    "Since our opponent is the slime, the onesing to attack us should be the same. So, we can ask them to help us."


    That was right. Maya gave a speech about the iing enemies when they were experimenting with the slime monster. If she handled it right, she would be able to gather hundreds if not thousands of experts.


    There should be at least five hundred Mythical Rank Experts from all of them. This should be enough since three Transcendent Level Experts would be helping them. They also had Rea, Ruth, Felix, and Ava.


    "��" Agata nced at Rea, who nodded her head. "Can you handle the negotiation, Maya?"


    "Leave it to me." Maya nodded. "It seems that this operation will be relying on me a lot. For now, I''ll be using my money to handle this matter. If you need anything, mypany can take out resources from our storage.


    "I don''t mind using most of my resources this time since if those monsters enter the base, mypany might copse. As long as we win this, I can monopolize the market anyway, so you don''t need to hold back."


    "Thank you." Agata nodded while thinking about something.


    Rea seemed to have thought the same thing as she addressed another matter. "That''s right. Do any of you have any connection with the military? Well, it''s possible to move them, but if we don''t have a lot of people to handle them, they won''t perform as we expect them to."


    "Should we gather the fivemanders that once fought with Theo?" Agata asked.


    "We might have to do it. At the very least, the enemies don''t know Theo isn''t here, including the spies hidden in this base. We have to maintain that scenario until we defeat them, so we''ll employ a lot of people, making them think Theo is staying in the base so that he can observe the whole situation," Rea exined and nced at Akbar.


    "What do you think, Akbar?"

 Chapter 1885 Planning

    Akbar lowered his head for a moment before saying, "As long as I get help from the beggar association, controlling the information is easy. As for the military itself�� I''m not very sure. We can try to threaten them, but if we don''t know who is the spy and who is not, then our reach is limited."


    "Hmm��" Rea was contemting while Agata tried to suggest a different thing. "How about using those fivemanders and spreading their influence? As for the stand-inmanders who are focusing on individual regions, how about letting the organization in charge of that area lead them?


    "At the end of the day, we will be relying on their experts as well. So, the military is to bolster their number and supervise their actions while the organizations handle the rest.


    "With this, we don''t need a lot of militarymanders since the spies are high ranking people."


    Akbar agreed with the suggestion, but he had to confirm something. "Still, I don''t think it''s enough to rely on individual organizations."


    "That''s where the Griffith Familyes in."


    "Ah!" Akbar finally understood Agata''s n. She wanted to spread a web that covered the entire base. With the people from the military and organizations taking care of the border, they could create an informationwork with the help of Akbar and the beggar. And to make sure everyone worked together, the Griffith Family would supervise them.


    This way, they didn''t need a lot of militarymanders since the organizations would have their chief nners as well. And if they didn''t have one, they could simply follow the big n from Agata and Rea.


    "It''s possible." Akbar nodded in agreement. "Let''s go with that. Who will handle the negotiation with the beggar association?"


    "I''ll take care of it." Rea raised her hand.


    "Good." Agata smiled. One problem had been solved, so she continued to the next problem. "Then, how should we split our group, especially Felix, Ruth, Rea, and Ava? You four are Transcendent Level Experts, so your strength will be needed greatly in this battle."


    "Since Felix is our leader, he should remain in the headquarters. He will be deployed when the situation has turned for the worst." Rea pointed at herself. "On the other hand, I think it''s possible for me to spread my defense area. Although I''m not as good as you or my teacher, I still can employ a few tactics and tricks."


    "In that case, there are a total of six Transcendent Level Experts that could be deployed, three from us and three from the base. We should form a hexagram with each point being controlled by a Transcendent Level Expert," added Agata.


    "That''s good. Since we''re facing those people from the north, how about I take the northeast point?" Rea asked. Since they were from Canada, they believed most of the attacks would happen in the northern part of the base.


    Of course, they couldn''t deny the possibility of the enemies looping around the base to hit them from behind, so they would put less important people but still strong enough to handle the threat.


    Hence, Agata nced at Ava, asking, "Can you handle the northwest, Ava?"


    Ava, who was watching the entire meeting quietly all the time, was startled since she thought she would just get a less important role due to her being a monster.


    Though, Ava also had a weakness that she had acknowledged herself. "I can work together with Theo, but most of the nse from him. So, I''m afraid I can''t handle everything myself. And they surely won''t listen to a creature like me."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Agata pointed at Ergene. "Ergene will be helping you."


    Ergene was blessed by a general, so her ability tomand the troops was above average. It was a good suggestion to put Ava and Ergene together since one could be the strength while the other could be the brain.


    Ava and Ergene exchanged looks as if asking each other, "What do you think?"


    They ended up nodding at the same time. "Alright. We''ll go ording to your arrangement."


    "Then, I shall take the east point." Ruth was thest one, so she just grabbed one of the less important points.


    And no one objected to her decision. There was only one problem. They were confused as to who to put in the opposite direction.


    They had two candidates, the Great Mage and the King of Fighters. The King of Fighters had a grudge against Theo and the red slime. They might be able to take advantage of that hatred, but his action was a bit unpredictable with all that hatred. The only one who could control him was probably Theo, but thetter wasn''t in the base.


    And this information couldn''t be spread even to the ally since the spy could use it to inform the enemies where they couldunch an all-out attack.


    Though, Agata had another question. "Still, I''m a bit confused about this attack. The slime surely has the army to decimate us, but why is he not attacking us right away?"


    The instant the question was thrown, the room became silent as they didn''t have a concrete answer. In this world, Theo might be the only one to have that answer.


    Of course, Ava also had some clues after following the Lightning Saint for a while.


    "I heard my teacher saying something like, ''If one looks at the history, there will always be an event that wipes the''s poption like a great reset. It annihtes everything and creates everything anew.'' I think Theo has the same opinion."


    "��" Agata looked down. As his fiancee, she obviously had heard about the great reset.


    Still, she didn''t understand the great reset. Only Theo knew that the great reset would happen when the slime reached the singrity rank.


    And due to Theo speeding up the process, the slime couldn''tunch an all-out attack. It was waiting for the time when it could reach the singrity rank before wiping up the.


    That was why the slime hadn''tunched an all-out attack yet.

 Chapter 1886 The Lack Of An Absolute Leader

    Seeing there was no answer after Ava, Agata changed the topic back. "Anyway, that''s not important right now. We only need to know that the attack wille, but it''s still at the level we can handle. As for the west point, I think it''s better to put the King of Fighters there.


    "Theo has taught the Great Mage''s daughter, so their rtionship isn''t that bad. So, we should put him in the southwest point so that he can take care of the King of Fighters'' problem in case something happens. And with Felix standing by in the middle, he can take care of the gap if that area is under attack. What do you think?"


    "That''s a good solution. I don''t know about thest Transcendent Level Expert, but with Ruth stationed near that area, I think we can rest assured." Rea agreed with the suggestion.


    When they had just finished the arrangement, Ne suddenly spoke. "Wait a minute. I just got confirmation��"


    "The Griffith Family will help us?" Agata asked.


    "Theo has contacted them earlier and they''ll give their full attention to this matter�� uncle Ray said��" Ne fell silent after informing them. Her expression was distorted.


    Agata and the others that understood the rtionship between Theo and his parents became serious. This wasn''t a simple matter.


    Theo didn''t want anything to do with his parents. So, him asking his parents'' help showed how severe the situation was.


    Agata clenched her fists, knowing how much burden Theo had. But it seemed she had misunderstood the situation as Ne said, "Ah, don''t worry. The situation doesn''t seem to be that bad. At least, you don''t have to worry about the rtionship between them."


    Of course, Ray had told Ne that Theo already wanted to talk and that this battle was just an excuse to hold it instead of Theo using the talk as a reward for their participation.


    Thetter showed how Theo manipted his parents into fighting for him. He knew that his parents would go all the way to sacrifice their lives to resolve their hatred.


    That was why Theo chose the former. He already wanted to talk, so this battle was used to remove the awkwardness they would have when they met.


    Agata had lived together with Ray and Valerie for a while, so she could understand Theo''s parents a bit. That was why she felt relieved when Ne confirmed their rtionship.


    She could ask them at ater date anyway.


    After taking a deep breath, Agata addressed the next issue. "Then, where should we put them?"


    "Uncle Ray is a powerful Transcendent Level Expert. I still believe that he is stronger than the King of Fighters, so why don''t we ask him to protect the west point?" Ne asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Rea shook her head, rejecting the idea. "I think it''s better if we bolster the front where most fights will ur. This way, there will be three Transcendent Level Experts holding our front."


    "That''s true." Agata nodded. "Au�� Valerie has enough ability to n ahead after seeing the situation. She might not be as good as Marzio, the current head of the War God Family, but she''s not that far off.


    "With her stationed between Ava and Rea, she can handle the deployment of the reserve army."


    Rea frowned and asked Agata, "Why am I not the one in the center? I mean, I can use my reputation as his student to order people around. I''m sure they will listen to my words and I also have the ability to send reinforcements."


    "No. There is a big difference between you and Valerie." Agata shook her head helplessly. "You will be fighting in the front line as a Transcendent Level Expert, while Valerie will be themander that handles the deployment since Ray will take care of the battle. Looking at this setup, it''s clear that Valerie will have more time and attention to formte a concrete n."


    "I see." Rea nodded. Although she wanted to use this asion to show the world that Theo wasn''t wrong in making her his disciple, she wasn''t that hot-headed to stop caring about others'' opinions. She epted Agata''s arrangement without hesitation since Theo would only reprimand her no matter how well she performed if she still insisted on getting stationed in the middle.


    Felix remained silent the whole time because he was observing them. There was also one thing he realized after this meeting. If Theo was in charge, he might ask Agata or Rea to formte the basic n while he worked on the rest. They wouldn''t spend a lot of time nning since Theo''s words were kind of absolute in their mind. Of course, it wasn''t an order, but they believed Theo''s n was the best one, so they had to just follow him blindly.


    Now that Theo wasn''t here, even Agata and Rea had to ask about others'' opinions since they weren''t sure whether the n was right or wrong.


    Felix might be the leader of this operation, but it didn''t change the fact that he was only a figurehead.


    He decided it would be better if he remained silent and listened to their opinions. Though, there was one thing that he had to ask the others. "By the way, how do we approach the Time God?"


    "The Time God will remain in the base, protecting the core of the base in case one of the points is breached. Instead of him, we should think about who will go with who." Agata waved her hand, brushing the matter about the Time God. She wanted to use him as an assurance to the poption that even if they failed, there was still the Time God to protect them.


    Agata looked at the team, picking on the members.


    "Since we have three Transcendent Level Experts, we will split our group into three. Each Transcendent Level Expert will be the leader. As for the team members��"


    Agata fell silent, trying to formte the best team where they could fix each other''s weaknesses.

 Chapter 1887 Lost?

    "Alright. The team shall be as such��" Agata divided the team into four groups instead of three.


    The first group consisted of Ava, Ergene, and Ryoichi.


    Ava could be considered the strongest among them, so she shouldn''t need that much helppared to the rest, only Ergene as the brain and Ryoichi as the defense system.


    Meanwhile, the second group focused on Rea. She had Walker, Coline, Jeff, and Isaac. These five would be a team. Although Isaac wasn''t able to help them in the fight, he could use his analysis to help them.


    Coline and Walker''s prowess couldn''t be underestimated, and Jeff should be able to alter the terrain with his illusion, allowing them to gain a huge advantage in this battle. It was the most bnced team out of the four groups.


    Meanwhile, Ruth wasn''t located near the battlefield, so she only got Christopher on her team. Her task was to maintain their position and kill any enemies that looped around to sneak attack from other directions.


    The most important group was thest one, the support team. They consisted of Agata, Akbar, Millie, Maya, Aisha, and Eleanor.


    Akbar, Millie, and Eleanor were tasked to maintain the informationwork to understand the entire situation when the fight was ongoing. Aisha''s job couldn''t be any clearer. There would be a huge battle in front, so her ability as a healer would prove to be important.


    Maya was in charge of logistics while Agata acted as the adviser of the battle, where she controlled the battlefield from the base.


    Last but not least, Felix, the leader of this operation. He might haven''t said anything special to them, but Felix didn''t mind since Rea and Agata were so capable that they didn''t need him. So, he acted as the leader who supervised everything. And if they failed, he would be the one to take the me.


    Felix wanted to confirm it again. "Maya, Ne. You two are going to set up the informationwork with the help of the Griffith Family, the beggar association, and our group, right?"


    "I''m more focused on the logistics. I''ll try to supply as many weapons as possible. I don''t think it''s possible to help with the informationwork, but I''ll help with the negotiation with other influences, including the beggar association." Maya shook her head


    "I see. Do you think we can get help from the military?"


    "It''s possible with our current power. And with Maya providing their equipment, we should be able to create an army that could fight against those monsters." Agata exined with a serious expression. "There''s nothing for you to worry about."


    "Alright then." Felix nodded his head, finally giving the approval.


    "That''s all for the time being. I want all of you to do your parts and begin to seal the border." Agata waved her hand, ending the discussion.


    The group didn''t seem to have another argument to make, so they ended up leaving to fulfill their own tasks.


    Surprisingly, there were two people that decided to call someone to apany them. The first one was Rea, who asked Ne as if she wanted to say something. The second person was Agata. She actually called Felix, the leader.


    "Ne. Can we take a walk for a bit?" Rea asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Sure." Ne agreed without hesitation.


    "You should know that we''re facing a huge crisis, right?"


    "Yeah. But you don''t have to worry about the center. The Griffith Family will take care of it since we have Uncle Ray and Aunt Valerie." Ne smiled, assuring her that nothing would happen with those two.


    "I know that, but I''m just worried that our enemies are stronger than we thought."


    "Fair enough. We''ll definitely be care��" Ne wanted to reassure her, but Rea suddenly patted her shoulder and looked at her with a serious expression.


    "You have to be careful," Rea stated with a grim expression. "I think you also understand what it means for Teacher Theo to call his parents for help."


    "��" Ne fell silent. It seemed she was a bit too happy that the rtionship between them had improved, but Rea was right. It wasn''t the time to be happy about the rtionship. And Rea seemed to warn not only her but also Theo''s parents.


    She didn''t want them to get worked up just because their rtionship had improved, causing one mistake after another.


    She had made the same mistake in the past because she was overconfident in her status as Theo''s disciple and her abilities. Luckily, she had Theo back then. She had seen the oue when one was getting worked up. So, Ne and Theo''s parents couldn''t repeat the same mistake.


    Ne fell silent for a moment as if considering her words carefully. After a while, she finally nodded her head. "Understood. I''ll be extra careful."


    Rea nodded. Since she had finished the business, she ended up leaving Ne because she had to handle as many negotiations as possible. They had to move as quickly as possible so that the enemies didn''t slip through their surveince.


    Meanwhile, Agata had asked Felix to apany her. She felt something different from Felix, so she had to talk to him to understand him.


    "Felix." Agata called his name while ncing to the side. After making sure there were no other people in the room, Agata continued, "Do you have something to say to me?"


    "Huh?" Felix was confused for a moment. It didn''t take too long for him to get an idea. Instead of worry or concern, Felix actually bowed to Agata. "I''m thankful that you''re helping me all this time.


    "Even though I have this position, I still couldn''t believe myself as one. I''m not as smart as you, not as resourceful as Maya, and not having a lot of connections like Maya. That''s why I''m thankful that you''re helping me when I can''t even do anything."


    Agata frowned, feeling something weird. She surely noticed the change in Felix as she couldn''t help but ask, "It seems that your mind is full of something, making you a bit anxious that your action is a bit unusual. What are you thinking, Felix?"


    "��" Felix closed his eyes with a pained expression as if he was already aware of that feeling but didn''t want to talk about it. Still, the one in front of him was his master''s fiancee, he thought she might be the only one qualified to hear it.


    Felix''s tone was cold and his expression was grim as he stated, "Theo has lost."

 Chapter 1888 Anxious

    "Theo has lost!"


    "Huh?" Agata tilted her head in confusion. "I''m not sure what you''re talking about."


    Agata misunderstood his words. She thought Theo had lost the uing battle. So, it was weird since there was no way Theo would lose before the battle even began.


    Felix seemed to realize that his words couldn''t get through to her, so he exined his sentence with a question. "May I ask you�� After you meet him, have you seen him lose?"


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes in shock. There were only two asions that might fit the criteria of losing.


    The first one would be when Theo defeated Ne and ended up falling unconscious. His team got defeated by the rest of Ne''s team.


    However, Theo had exined to her how he actually won by getting third ce. She could understand that being at the top would require a lot of power. So, reaching that position was enough for Theo to start his journey to get stronger.


    Then, the second time Theo faced defeat was when he fought against the Griffith Family when he was still in Italy.


    Back then, Theo was still a Supreme Rank Expert and had no strength to resist the Griffith Family.


    But Agata couldn''t consider this as a defeat since Theo clearly wanted to escape and use a new identity to get stronger. It was simply ording to his n instead of his defeat.


    After thinking about these two events, Agata came to realize that Theo never lost a battle. Even when he was at a disadvantage, the best the opponent could do was a draw.


    "��" Agata pinched the bridge of her nose. Although she couldn''t put it into words, she could understand why Felix was acting like this.


    "It seems that you have understood it." Felix raised his hand gently before clenching it. "I have never seen him lose to an opponent. I''ve always felt like this��''Everything is fine because he is here. We will win as long as he is getting involved in one way or another. Everything will be going ording to the n.''


    "But I have never thought about this, ''What if he is not here? What if we can''t win because he''s not involved in this fight? What if our defeat is due to theck of his n?''


    "After seeing the video and his defeat, I have realized all this. And what makes it worse is that�� It feels so normal that it never once urred to me. What if we''re fighting against something that he can''t defeat?"


    Felix''s expression turned grim as if he was holding a huge burden. This was the burden of a leader.


    As someone who had followed Theo the longest in the group, Felix knew how much power Theo held in this group. He was their absolute king.


    Now that he had to take on this burden, he felt a bit nauseous. He shook his head helplessly while saying in a disappointed tone. "I''m so pathetic. Even though he has told me to never show my weak side because the group will be lost if they see me like this��"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I''m not a part of the group." Agata could finally understand how much burden Felix had on his shoulders. She obviously had to assure him. "Don''t worry, Felix. Thanks to you, I can understand how severe this matter is. It seems that I underestimated the situation a little bit. I have to adjust a few things."


    Felix looked at Agata before raising his de. "I am Theo''s de. My purpose is to kill the enemy. Because he''s not here, you''re the one who has this de. That''s why��"


    Felix straightened his back and stated with conviction. "I might not be a great leader, but please don''t hesitate to use me as you see fit. I shall kill anyone even if it costs me my life."


    Agata smiled. "I understand. Thank you for your support this whole time. I know how heavy the burden you are carrying right now. But I can assure you that the only one who is qualified to take on this burden is you, Felix. Let''s work together, shall we?"


    "Yes." Felix nodded with a smile.


    After that talk, Felix immediately headed back to prepare himself for the iing fight. Meanwhile, Agata had to find Rea to make some adjustments to their ns.


    Maya had gone to the beggar association to give the proposal to them so that they could join the fight to ensure the base''s safety.


    On the other hand, Millie and Eleanor started working in their informationwork while Akbar tried to handle the officials. He was the master of information, including the one for ckmail.


    He nned to unleash everything to either negotiate or threaten them. Of course, he didn''t n to bring a lot ofmanders to their side since the enemies might be among them.


    As for Ne, she had gone back to the Griffith Family. She was also curious about how the call went since it was a sign of improvement in their rtionship.


    Of course, Ne didn''t forget about her original objective, which was to help Theo''s group. Like Rea predicted, Ray and Valerie were a bit too worked up as they caused a ruckus here and there.


    She knew they just wanted to prepare everything possible, but the more panicked one was, the more they would lose important detail. So, Ne had to stop them and calm them down before helping with the preparation.


    This was the first time Theo''s group fought against a strong enemy without him leading them. He once asked Rea to be a leader, but he had prepared letters to ensure that Rea was on the right path.


    But this time, they didn''t know whether they were going in the right direction or not.


    That was why they got a bit worked up, not wanting to mess this up and embarrass Theo.


    And that was where Agata and Felix came. They made sure that everything went ording to the n and that no one overdid their preparation.

 Chapter 1889 Persuading The Space Saint

    While they were preparing for the iing invasion, Theo had finally finished recovering a portion of his energy.


    Even the Space Saint had been calling him for a while.


    "Are you done?" The Space Saint asked again, staring at the wall as if trying to see through it to check Theo''s condition.


    After finishing all his matters and regaining his clone, Theo finally waved his hand, removing the walls.


    "I''m done. Thank you for waiting," said Theo with a calm tone. He also looked around to see their current situation.


    There seemed to be a few monsters that didn''t have enough intelligence to attack them. But everyone had been crushed by the Space Saint.


    After that, Theo looked at the Space Saint, knowing that he might be as strong as him at his peak. Although he didn''t know whether the Space Saint was the third World ss Monster that ruled the area or not, it was clear that he would have died if the Space Saint had wanted to attack him earlier.


    Theo paused for a moment before asking, "What do you want from me?"


    "It seems that small talk doesn''t work for you. Hence, I''m going to cut to the chase as well.


    "I know that you are the Reality Saint. I have been observing this world and not long ago, the world had a crack that had to be repaired.


    "I''ve tried to use my power to close the crack, but my power is notpatible. That''s when I knew if I wanted to fix it, I had to meet the Reality Saint.


    "I have been trying a lot of things to meet you, but it seems this is the best time. As you can see, I''m a Space Saint. I don''t have problemsing to your base.


    "It''s just�� you have a lot of things to deal with simply because you''re a human. So, I waited for you until youpleted your work.


    "And this was the perfect time for our meeting." The Space Saint pointed upward as if he was trying to point at the world itself. "I need your help in order to solve the problem. Will you lend me a hand to repair the crack?"


    Theo narrowed his eyes. On the one hand, the crack was indeed a problem. On the other hand, this crack was used as a deterrent to higher beings'' involvement.


    Hence, Theo couldn''t really repair the reality, at least, for the time being. Though, Theo knew that the Space Saint would be angry if he refused right away.


    So, Theo paused for a while as if he was falling into deep thought. The Space Saint seemed to be waiting for his answer patiently, thinking Theo might not have the ability yet.


    It would be resolved easily if Theo could simply say he needed time because he didn''t have the ability to do it yet. But Theo couldn''t lie. This was one of the biggest drawbacks of his power.


    So, he ended up asking, "What if I don''t want to repair it?"


    "Hmm?" The Space Saint frowned, observing Theo''s expression. "You don''t want to repair it? You, the Reality Saint, should know about what''s going to happen if this reality copses, right?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "That''s not the problem. If you have visited the US Base, then you should know about the current enemy that we have to defeat. If we can''t defeat him, we won''t be able to escape death.


    "Instead of repairing the reality, it''s better if you go with me and handle him. After this war is over, I''ll be repairing everything that needs to be fixed. How''s that?"


    Theo gave options to the Space Saint.


    But they weren''t epted by the Space Saint very well. His expression was grim and there was even a tinge of anger reflected in his eyes. He was disappointed that Theo didn''t want to do it even though he was the only one who could do it.


    "You don''t want to repair it?" The Space Saint asked, ring at Theo.


    "I want to, but not right now." Theo shook his head, correcting his words.


    "The reality might shatter tomorrow. No one knows."


    "I''m even more confused as to how much you know about Reality. No one knows? Who says that? The current situation is not that severe. So, it''s still salvageable." Theo waved his hand, denying that possibility from his knowledge and experience.


    The Space Saint didn''t like the answer. He wasn''t that adept in Reality, so he didn''t know the extent of the damage.


    He only wanted that everything was restored to normal so that they could live normally again.


    That was why he had to make sure whether Theo was determined or not.


    "Are you sure you don''t want to fix this?" The Space Saint asked once again, trying to confirm his suspicion.


    "I might consider it, but I have to know more about your power. After all, your power might be rted and can help me fix it�� It''s just��" Theo smiled while raising his head. "I have the right to choose, right?"


    "You are threading in a dangerous zone, Reality Saint. Don''t forget that this is in your jurisdiction and if you n to destroy reality, you''re breaking the Order."


    "No. I''m not nning to destroy the Order. Instead, I want to maintain the current situation and fix it when the time is right. This is what I deem to be the best option as the Reality Saint." Theo shook his head.


    The Space Saint gritted his teeth as if he wanted to fight Theo. He obviously wanted to kill Theo right now and let reality fix itself within a hundred years or so.


    But if he did it, it would be better to agree with Theo''s decision since the reality would be fixed sooner.


    Still, fighting against a monster, especially a World ss Monster like him, wasn''t something he wished to do. Theo might even want to take advantage of this agreement to enve him for a while.


    That was why the Space Saint couldn''t agree immediately.

 Chapter 1890 Offer

    Theo knew it would be hard to convert the Space Saint from a bystander to an ally. But he was confident he could somehow convince the Space Saint to trust him.


    Theo added, "I can promise you three things. First, I''m going to fix the reality as soon as it''s over. Second, this crack won''t be worse than the current condition. If it''s by any chance showing any sign of deteriorating, I''ll do everything in my power to fix it, including paying the price with my own life.


    "Last but not least, I assure you that everything will be restored within a year or two. As someone who has a long lifespan, I''m sure one or two years are bearable for you, right?"


    Theo''s promise wasn''t too big but couldn''t be easily epted either.


    As he said, one or two years should be fine as long as the condition doesn''t deteriorate. And Theo even gave his assurance to do everything he needed to fix it in case the worst thing happened.


    Theo might be lying just to fool him, but the Space Saint didn''t feel Theo was lying. He had a sharp instinct, so he could tell when someone was lying or not.


    And to his surprise, Theo had never lied to him despite him making a lot ofplex demands and questions to Theo.


    The Space Saint looked down, contemting. There was no downside to this agreement. If Theo survived, he would repair reality. If he didn''t survive, reality could be restored with time.


    However, there was one thing that didn''t escape his eyes. The Space Saint added a condition, "I won''t be helping you in your fight, Reality Saint."


    "��" Theo furrowed his eyebrows. He believed the Space Saint didn''t understand the severity of this matter, so he had to remind him. "You might not know this, but the moment I lose, this world might be destroyed by the slime."


    The Space Saint didn''t have a change of expression. It might look like he didn''t care about it, but the Space Saint seemed to have confidence that Theo couldn''t describe.


    The Space Saint actually raised three fingers and said, "I have three reasons why I refuse to fight with you. The first one is the simplest. I don''t like humans."


    "You don''t like humans? Yet, you''re asking from one?"


    "No. I''m simply asking the Reality Saint''s help. You just happen to be a human." The Space Saint shook his head, reminding Theo that he didn''t care who to beg as long as they couldplete the job. Theo just happened to be a human, so he had to ask him, of course, as the Reality Saint, not a human.


    Theo understood it perfectly, but he had to ask, "Why do you not like humans?"


    The Space Saint waved his hands as if pointing at their surroundings. "What do you think about this ce, Reality Saint?"


    "Hmm? There''s nothing special?" Theo was confused as to what answer the Space Saint wanted to hear. So, he didn''t give any concrete answer.


    As if he already expected Theo would give this answer, the Space Saint raised one finger. "There is one thing that I can see from this ce. It''s beautiful.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I won''t praise other creatures for being not greedy. I know they are greedy too, but there is a big difference between them and humans.


    "You humans always destroy everything in your way while the others are taking care of it.


    "They might live with their strength as the number one priority, but it''s far better than the humans who are destroying this world just to satisfy their greed.


    "For their own objective, they can do everything. What do you think about those things you called summoners?


    "They are capturing the souls of the monsters'' souls who are supposed to go to nirvana and using them to fight. There are even those who capture the monsters themselves and domesticate them. You treat us like nothing. We are not your pet or ve. We are also the proud race in this world."


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment. Those words had solid proof. And even though he was one of the humans, he didn''t n to fight for them in an argument like this.


    Theo said, "And it seems that because of your hatred of humans, you''re nning to do something�� Even if I fail to kill the enemy, I''m afraid you have prepared a n."


    The Space Saint was surprised that Theo could see through his preparation. He hesitated for a moment. But after remembering how Theo didn''t even protect humans, he ended up giving the answer. "I''m nning to create a tunnel and go back to the other world."


    "��" Theo frowned. The tunnel he was talking about must be to the other world. But that world was in another dimension. So, he didn''t know whether the Space Saint had the ability to do it or not.


    Though, the other world might be the safest ce to live in since it wasn''t bothered by humans anymore. And the monsters he brought back would be the progenitors of all monsters that would popte that world.


    That was why Theo was a bit skeptical about this n. But he also wished he could seed for one reason after another.


    Theo fell into deep thought and came up with an idea. He suggested with a smile. "What is your n about that tunnel? What if I give you some help in building that tunnel?"


    "!!!" The monster was shocked by the offer. After all, he already knew that it was impossible to create the tunnel without the help of multiple Saints. So, he had been gathering people from all around the world to fix the tunnel, but there was no sess yet.


    It seemed Theo had some ideas about the reasons why they failed, making him want to recruit Theo at this instant.


    But he still didn''t know why Theo offered his help when he himself had yet to give something to Theo. There was something fishy, but the offer was simply too big to reject.


    This was a hard decision.

 Chapter 1891 Agreement

    "It''s still hard to believe the deal. It''s simply too good for me." The Space Saint narrowed his eyes. He felt if something was good to be true, it was probably a trap. So, he had to see what Theo wanted.


    "Of course. I also have a condition I want you to fulfill as well as get the necessary information to check on your progress."


    "Hmm��" The Space Saint thought for a moment. "If you think you can use'' I''m going to tell you about the condition after you ept,'' I''m telling you that it''s useless. I won''t agree unless I know the condition."


    "It''s not a big problem." Theo smiled. "I''d like to use your ability."


    "My ability? For what?"


    Theo raised his finger. "I need you to help me teleport someone. You''ve told me that you could easily infiltrate the human base with your ability. So, I don''t think it''ll be a big problem if you use this ability to teleport a few people, right?"


    "��" The Space Saint furrowed his eyebrows. "I''m telling you this, but I''m not going to help you, humans. You should know about that, right?"


    "Absolutely. I''m not asking you to teleport a human." Theo smirked.


    "Then, I only have one condition for that teleportation. It requires a lot of power, so that person has toe to me personally or I won''t agree with this."


    "Alright. I''ll do my best to bring him to you." Theo nodded in agreement. "As for the second condition��"


    "I have been working with a few Saints and Kings to fix the tunnel. We''ve realized how much power is needed to create that tunnel, including theck of a few Saints. Your existence is one of the most needed right now, so if you help us, we should be able to create a prototype.


    "We don''t want to live here because we''re morefortable in that ce��" The Space Saint paused for a moment. "Before I tell you the rest, are you going to leave after this? How do I know that you won''t be leaving for good? Although I have some confidence in finding you, it won''t be easy work either."


    Theo pointed to the side as he summoned his clone.


    "!!!" The Space Saint was startled, finding someone exactly looking like Theo. Even the Magic Power and Authority were identical.


    "I''m nning to send my clone to fetch that guy," said Theo with confidence. It seemed that he had prepared for everything.


    The way Theo summoned his clone had two meanings. The first one was that Theo could fool him with his clone and escape. The second one was a sign of trust. Theo had the option to run away, but he chose not to because he wanted to honor the agreement.


    He didn''t know what Theo wanted to say. So, he had to say, "Alright. I can ept the condition. But you''re going to be with me the whole time. If you fool me this time, I''m going to unleash all my power to set a fire in your base."


    "Of course. I never lied to you. If I say I''ll help, I''ll help." Theo nodded in agreement.


    "Alright then." The Space Saint nodded.


    "I''m going to remind you that the agreement is like this. During this period, I''ll be helping you with the creation of the tunnel. In exchange, you''re going to help me to teleport a certain guy to the base. After the war is over, I''m going to help you restore reality and we hope there''s no war between us. Do we have a deal?" Theo smirked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Space Saint listened attentively, making sure he didn''t leave a single word behind. There was nothing wrong with the agreement, so he epted that deal. "Alright. We don''t want to have anything to do with this world anyway, so there''s no need for a war between us."


    Theo extended his hand, asking for a handshake. "Although you don''t like humans, you''re dealing with one right now. In our custom, if we have a deal, we would do a handshake��"


    The Space Saint hesitated for a moment. But as Theo said, he was a human, so he had to do this. At the very least, this would show that he trusted Theo enough.


    The Space Saint ended up shaking Theo''s hand with great difficulty.


    With this, they reached an agreement. And Theo didn''t hesitate to send his clone away, leaving him alone with the Space Saint.


    Although he had to make another trip, the agreement had given him a lot more options.


    The Space Saint didn''t know it yet, but he had made a deal with a trickster.


    Theo might never lie to someone, but it didn''t mean he would tell him the whole truth. There was always a hidden meaning behind every agreement.


    And Theo hid a big n within that agreement.


    Theo maintained his poker face, but he had a big smile inwardly. If he showed this expression, the Space Saint would have been thoroughly angered.


    "Alright. Please follow me. I''m going to lead you to another ce." The Space Saint sighed, preparing a teleportation.


    "Wait a minute. If you''re going to teleport, won''t it mean you have broken your agreement since I can''t find you after this?" Theo asked, reminding the Space Saint.


    The Space Saint looked down, contemting. Theo was right. He didn''t want to reveal the location to Theo, so there was only one option left. And Theo suggested it.


    "How about we wait here? In the meantime, you can tell me about everything you''ve done so far. This way, I''ll have a great understanding of the situation and what I should do when we get there."


    The Space Saint was actually considering Theo''s words.


    Unbeknownst to him, this was actually a test from Theo. He just wanted to know how far he could manipte the Space Saint.


    "Alright. I''ll stay here and tell you about the situation. But you don''t have a lot of time��


    The Space Saint actually agreed. Even Theo couldn''t help but think, ''How easy��''

 Chapter 1892 Visiting An Old Friend

    "It''s alright. It''ll only take around one week. During that time, I can fully recover while understanding the situation. After going to your ce, we can begin constructing the tunnel." Theo exined with a serious expression.


    The Space Saint contemted again. Everything was going smoothly. Although Theo put up a few conditions here and there, it wasn''t something he couldn''t agree on.


    He could also understand why Theo mentioned all those conditions, considering he was basically asking Theo a favor. He even wanted to kidnap Theo earlier.


    Thetter might even hold a grudge because he didn''t help him. So, there were a lot of things to consider.


    Hence, the Space Saint had to agree with the condition, knowing that it was better to fulfill Theo''s condition than to let Theo leave.


    Seeing how he made a perfect clone, the Space Saint knew that it was possible for Theo to escape.


    After some consideration, he finally nodded his head. "Alright. Let''s do it your way, Reality Saint. But you have to stay here for a few hours since I''m nning to go back to get all the information. If you are not here when Ie back��"


    The Space Saint narrowed his eyes as if threatening him with the lives of all people in that base.


    Theo shrugged while smiling. "I''ll be here recovering. Though, I might wander around a bit to kill the ones that dare to disturb my recovery."


    "I know." The Space Saint agreed.


    They looked at each other for a moment before the Space Saint used his power to teleport himself somewhere else.


    Meanwhile, Theo closed his eyes for a moment, recounting the agreement. The smile he had contained this whole time couldn''t help but appear.


    ''This is good. To think there is someone who wants to create the tunnel again. In that case, I''ll fully support him until the tunnel isplete.


    ''ording to Theodon, it seems that the other world still exists in another dimension. Though, only a part of it remains. The world might still be intact, but the monsters might not find the Magic Power anymore��


    ''In other words, the moment they go there, they might not be able toe back here. It''s the perfect ce to exile things.''


    It felt like there was a door opened for him. The door with countless possibilities within.


    He knew this door was one of the options to defeat the slime.


    The Space Saint might not be trying to help humans when constructing this tunnel. But now that he had invited Theo to the project, he ended up helping them, albeit the person himself didn''t realize it.


    He was just a pawn in Theo''s hand, working for him.


    ''This is good.'' Theo smiled. He could finally find some ways to fight back against the slime.


    It included the condition he put earlier. Theo had been stressed out by how to stop the slime''s invasion, but he had a solution through this condition.


    ��


    A few dayster.


    Theo arrived at the forest where one of his strongest allies resided.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He was standing at a blue-colored hill. The hill was alive as it sensed Theo''s presence and gradually rose, showing its true appearance.


    "To think you would visit me again�� It''s been a while, Theodore Griffith."


    "Yeah. It''s been a while, Frost Saint."


    Yes, Theo was actually visiting the Frost Saint.


    The Frost Saint noticed the change in Theo''s power and couldn''t help but smile. "It seems that you''ve worked hard. To think you would reach this level within a few years. Even I''m speechless."


    "I''m just lucky." Theo shrugged.


    "Even a Fortune Saint can''t have your speed." The Frost Saint shook his head. He paused for a moment as his expression turned serious. "You never visit me without needing something. So, speak."


    Theo scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Well, I will visit you when all this is over so that we can have a peaceful talk. But yes, today, I need your help."


    "Care to exin the situation?"


    Theo nodded. He didn''t hesitate to talk about the current situation, including the slime''s power. He even mentioned how the Lightning Saint nned to help him.


    He hoped that the Frost Saint could help him. Before, he didn''t know how to bring the Frost Saint to another continent, but with the help of the Space Saint, he finally had a way.


    Unfortunately, the answer wasn''t something he liked to hear.


    The Frost Saint shook his head regretfully. "I''m afraid I can''t help you with this, Reality Saint."


    Theo''s eyebrows twitched. He was disappointed, but he couldn''t force him to participate. Though, he still had to understand why he was rejected. "Why do you not want to fight the slime and save the world, Frost Saint?"


    "It''s not that I don''t want to save the world. It''s true that this chance can be used to further enhance the rtionship between monsters and humans.


    "But when you''re progressing too fast, you''ll end up missing a few details. For example, if we continue to protect your race, your race will end up using us more and more, expecting that we''ll alwayse to your rescue. I''m sure you understand that more than anyone else."


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. Of course he knew. Humans would try to find a way to use them. After all, their power was simply too big. There was no way human greed wouldn''t be ignited by this power.


    They could create a bad reputation for the monsters if they didn''t cooperate, so it was better to agree with their proposal. In the end, they would get ckmailed for the rest of their lives until the war between monsters and humans continued.


    That was why he chose to believe in Theo to create a union since Theo would create a perfect rtionship over time.


    In other words, human nature was the one that actually harmed them.


    Theo sighed in disappointment. "As expected, I guess it''s impossible to ask you��"


    The Frost Saint looked at Theo''s expression, pitying him. He knew how big of a burden Theo had on his shoulder.


    "Although I can''t help you, there is someone that you can ask. He might be a King, but his power and strength are enough to reach the Saint Level. You might want to give him a little push so that he can be a Saint and fight with you for a period of time."

 Chapter 1893 Age Of Gods

    "He might be a king, but his strength is enough to reach the Authority Level. He just needs onest push to be one."


    After hearing the Frost Saint''s statement, Theo fell silent, knowing that it was impossible to bring the Frost Saint to another continent.


    However, he could also see another problem. The fact that he was asking the Space Saint to transport a Saint to another continent was a huge thing.


    A World ss Monster was a kind of a ruler of a human''s country. So, moving them to a new ce might cause a conflict with the existing monarch.


    That was why it was better not to send the Frost Saint himself. Instead, they should send the King ss Monster.


    This way, even if the monarch found out, the King ss Monster could be treated as a messenger.


    After thinking about the situation, Theo finally agreed. "Alright. Let''s do it your way."


    The Frost Saint nodded. Before leading him, the Frost Saint asked Theo, "How high is your chance to win?"


    "I''m not very sure right now. Fifty? No, it''s probably forty-sixty in the enemy''s favor."


    "Ho?" The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes.


    "What? You want to help me now?" Theo smirked, teasing him.


    "It''s impossible." The Frost Saint shook his head. "I do want to fight such a being, but I can''t move right now."


    "Despite knowing that if that guy evolves even more, no one can stop it��" Theo sighed in disappointment.


    "It''s not that simple for us to move, unlike you. Sometimes, I wish I could live as a human�� I can be selfish and go all around the world."


    Theo shrugged. "By the way, how many Saints exist in this world? Do you know the number?"


    "Unfortunately, no." The Frost Saint shook his head. "Though, you might need to know this. There is a difference between humans and us, other races. We might get stronger than your average human and can rule over our territory for a long time.


    "But the human can understand this power and generalize it, giving a lot of other people a chance to wield this power. Basically, I''m the only one in my race who has reached this level.


    "On the other hand, you humans have dozens of Kings and Queens and around ten Saints. Our power might be bigger than your average one, but you have the numerical advantage."


    "��" Theo looked down, contemting. Normally, people wouldn''t divide these monsters by their race. ''A monster is a monster, no matter their species.'' This was what was in most people''s minds.


    But after learning a lot about monsters and how they treated other monsters, Theo knew that the monsters were divided in two ways. The first would be by race, while the second one was by territory.<novelnext></novelnext>


    And in the Frost Saint''s race, he was the only one who was able to cultivate this power, unlike the human race that had a lot of Kings, Queens, and Saints.


    That was why the Frost Saint considered this as a huge advantage. And Theo understood it far better than anyone else.


    Theo thought for a moment and said, "We, humans, are weak. We can''t live alone. That''s why we band into a group, one group turns into two, two turns into four and eventually, the group turns into a huge country.


    "If we take a look at the number alone, your race has a better statistic. In other words, the real reason why humans have all this is because they reproduce a lot.


    "And due to the short lifespan, humans try to live to the fullest. That''s why a lot of us can see an opportunity to be stronger."


    The Frost Saint shook his head. "It''s impossible for us to reproduce like that. Even if we can, there will be a huge war between two races and this whole will be engulfed by us."


    "That''s true." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. "There is always a need for a bnce. That''s the reason why I don''t wish to fight against all of you no matter how far superior we are in strength."


    "You''re so confident that you can surpass me in the future." The Frost Saint smirked.


    "Haha. It''s not a fact, but I''m nning to do it." Theo put on a confident smile to show him that he was determined and it was just a matter of time.


    "Then, we''re going to fight a lot." The Frost Saintughed.


    "Indeed." Theo looked at the sky. "What do you think will happen if every race in this world has the same poption as humans along with the number of Saints and Kings��"


    "You don''t have to think about it. It''s impossible. Though, a simr situation urred in the past, albeit the human poption was still small.


    "ording to what I know, that era was filled with territories. Each of the leaders that governed the area tried to separate their territory from others so that they didn''t end up having a lot of conflicts.


    "And each area had a lot of powerful fighters. If they fought, it was certain that the scale of the destruction couldn''t be measured.


    "That era was called the Age of Gods. It''s better to drop whatever you''re thinking right now. The Age of Gods shouldn''t be repeated because the chaos and destruction thates along with it are simply too horrible. It might even destroy the world itself."


    Theo closed his eyes for a while as if absorbing his words. Theo had once asked himself what if he called all the World ss Monsters in the world to defeat that slime. It should be easy for them to crush the slime. But Theo was thinking about the consequences of inviting those monsters.


    What would happen when those monsters met and finished the fight? Now that they didn''t have anything to do, they might end up doing something even more ridiculous than the slime.


    So, he could agree with the Frost Saint''s words to some extent. It was impossible for him to bring the Saints.

 Chapter 1894 The Dark Kings Decision

    "Alright. We have arrived." The Frost Saint narrowed his eyes. There should still be some distance to the Dark King''s house. Theo knew about it since he had visited him on a few asions.


    However, Theo also knew that this was the gate of the Dark King as thetter rose into the air and politely greeted them.


    "This is surprising. To think you woulde back here after this." The Dark King looked at Theo, not expecting him at all.


    But the fact that he came here with the Frost Saint meant they were nning to talk about business.


    He nced back for a moment before asking, "If it''s alright with you, could you follow me to a different ce?"


    Theo and the Frost Saint nodded with serious expressions. They didn''t say anything and followed him.


    The Dark King led them to a ce a bit further away from his home. He stopped, checked their expressions, and asked, "So, what do you want from me?"


    The Frost Saint was the first to answer his question. "You are the one who has followed me the longest. I know that you are the most talented person that I have and you''re only one step away from reaching the Saint Level.


    "So, I''m thinking about giving you the final push. It''s the final push you might need in order to reach that stage."


    The Dark King''s expression turned serious. The Frost Saint never talked about that final push this whole time despite him knowing about it. Even the Dark King could feel the invisible barrier that stopped him from advancing.


    After seeing Theo reach that level in front of everyone, he thought that he could replicate his achievement. But there was actually something stopping him. So, he didn''t know what to do this whole time.


    Still, he had another worry when he reached the Saint Level. The fact that he became a Saint meant he had the same status as the Frost Saint.


    It would create a weird power bnce in this ce. Some trusted him, while most of them believed in the Frost Saint. It was clear that there might be a chance that he would be exiled or killed to maintain the monarchy.


    So, he didn''t know whether to ept this suggestion or not. After all, if he stayed at this level until the Frost Saint passed away, he could be his sessor as a new Saint.


    Still, he was concerned that a new Saint''s strength wasn''t enough to keep the monsters in check.


    This dilemma caused the Dark King to fall silent for a long time as he thought deeply about the pros and cons.


    Everyone wanted to be strong, especially reaching the Saint Level. But they didn''t have the condition, requirements, or even the talents to do it.


    Now that the opportunity was presented to him, the Dark King had to make a hard decision to make sure it was the best oue.


    After a while, he asked, "So, you want me to fulfill his request to be a Saint? Do you not have any opinion about me bing one?"


    The Frost Saint shook his head. "There is none. I sincerely wish for the best. If you wish to be one, I''ll fully support you and give you all kinds of opportunities to reach that stage. If you don''t wish to be one, I''ll respect your decision."


    The Dark King contemted for a moment. The Frost Saint had given all the power to choose his life.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It made the Dark King a bit tempted. However, he still had to confirm a few things with Theo.


    "What do you want me to do?"


    "I want to send you to another continent to help my people. I believe you can get thest requirement to be a Saint. Meanwhile, I can be assured since my people are protected by you."


    "Do you want me to stay there?"


    "No. You have a family here. So, I won''t ask you to stay."


    The Dark King and Theo exchanged gazes for a bit longer before the Dark King agreed to this request.


    "Alright. I''ll follow your n. However, I have two conditions." The Dark King nced at the Frost Saint and said, "The first condition is that you won''t talk about anything rted to Saint and Authority after I go back."


    "Consider it done." The Frost Saint answered without hesitation as if he had already decided on this a long time ago.


    "Then, the second condition is that I want you to allow me to bring my wife and my son for this."


    "Hmm?" The Frost Saint was confused for a moment before ncing at Theo as he was the one in charge.


    "It''s possible." Theo nodded. "Though, I have to ask for your purpose in bringing them with you. What do you wish to achieve, Dark King?"


    "Looking at your situation right now, I don''t think the world is a safe ce anymore. Hence, it''s better to have them stay beside me instead of letting them be unaware of the current situation and getting killed without being able to see their family." The Dark King stated.


    "Hmm? Do you know what happens there?"


    "My wife." The Dark King only had this reply.


    Theo obviously had seen his wife in action. Getting all that information wasn''t that hard for his wife, so he realized that the Shadow King had gotten enough information from the call with the War God Family.


    Theo nodded. "I don''t have a problem with that as long as the Frost Saint agrees. However, I have to tell you this. I''m not nning to lose."


    "I know. That''s why I dare to risk my life with you." The Dark King smiled.


    "Alright then. You''re going to follow him with the rest of your family. I believe you can reach this level there." The Frost Saint smiled. "If you wish to do anything, no one is able to bind you anymore. So, you should choose."


    The Dark King bowed his head to the Frost Saint as a way to express his thanks for his care all this time. But he didn''t have a reply to that statement yet.


    It was clear that he could only decide after leaving, so he didn''t give the answer just yet.

 Chapter 1895 Materials

    While Clone Theo persuaded the Dark King, the real Theo had been learning about the current progress of the Space Saint.


    Theo was staring at the note he took after listening to the Space Saint. He pinched the bridge of his nose as if finding a problem that he couldn''t solve.


    "Is there something wrong?" The Space Saint asked. He was worried about the safety of the people that crossed the tunnels, so of course, he had to make sure that the tunnel was clear.


    Theo nced at him but maintained his silence for a while as if he was still in the middle of his thoughts. Even the Space Saint didn''t say anything during this period because he didn''t want to disturb Theo''s train of thought and ended up losing the entire idea.


    After another fifteen minutes, Theo finally opened his mouth.


    "First of all, I''m going to sum up the progress of your tunnel��" Theo pointed at the notebook and continued, "This tunnel is built with the cooperation of five Saints.


    "I can see how they''re rted to each other and somehow strengthen the tunnels. However, if you want to build a tunnel to another reality, then you need me."


    Theodon once told him that the tunnel for a one way trip could be created by himself. But because Loki, Theodon, and the ancient Gods wanted the tunnel that could bridge the two worlds, they needed a lot of Saints to do it.


    Now that he had faced this situation, Theo had to rack his brain in order to make this tunnel work.


    On the one hand, Theo had no experience in building the tunnel. On the other hand, he believed the knowledge he had was enough to create one. He just had to be a bit more creative and work hard to achieve it.


    After considering a few things, Theo stated, "I think it''s possible to create a working tunnel."


    "Is that true?" The Space Saint was surprised. Although he knew that the Reality Saint was one of the core people who needed to work in the creation process, he didn''t expect much from the new Reality Saint.


    However, he seemed to have judged Theo wrongly. This new Reality Saint seemed to be very capable.


    Of course, he didn''t know that Theo could actually create a tunnel by himself. But because he had just acquired the knowledge and be the Reality Saint not long ago, he didn''t have the confidence yet.


    Hence, it was better to get some help from other Saints to increase the chance of making the tunnel.


    Theo nodded. "Yeah. It''s possible to create the tunnel. But I have to ask you for a few materials."


    "I''ll take care of the materials." The Space Saint nodded with a serious expression.


    "These materials are used by the previous builders of the tunnels between the two worlds. They''re used to maintain a strong but stable tunnel. So��" Theo paused for a moment and wrote down a few materials before handing the paper to the Space Saint. "These are the materials."


    The Space Saint took a look at the names and got confused. After all, he didn''t know about the terms from humans.


    He couldn''t help but ask Theo about the materials'' details. In the end, Theo sketched and even put on some exnations so that the Space Saint could confirm the information.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Space Saint looked at the details for a moment before asking, "I think I have to ask the others first."


    "Sure." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    He knew there was a problem with the materials he asked for. After all, those materials came from the other world. The only way to acquire it was to go to the other world themselves.


    But since they were the ones trying to go to the other world, they had to acquire the materials that the Earth had.


    So, there were only two solutions to the current problem. They could either grab all the materials that the humans on Earth had procured from the other world or rece the material with a simr thing.


    Theo agreed because he knew how hard it was to get all these items.


    The Space Saint thanked him and immediately returned to his hideout. Of course, Theo had been trying to manipte the Space Saint this whole time, trying to see how far he could go.


    In the first ce, Theo could simply go with the Space Saint to his hideout. As for his clone and Dark King, the original Theo could simply inform the Space Saint when they arrived, and thetter could teleport back to the original location.


    In other words, there was no need for them to wait here at all.


    When the Space Saint left, a smile couldn''t help but appear on Theo''s face.


    While the Space Saint convinced his team, Theo was looking at the sky, thinking about the people in the US Base. He knew this would be a huge test for his group. After all, the onesing right now would be extremely dangerous and sneaky.


    One wrong move might cause huge chaos within the base. If the base was unstable, it might copse from within.


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment, imagining the situation.


    In that imagination, he fought the slime outside the base, but the people had been moving away from the base. There would be numerous cannibals and bandits like in any other ce without any order.


    Eventually, the chaos reached the battlefield. The soldiers and the people who fought for the base ended up stopping because their families back home died or met a fate worse than death.


    After those people stopped fighting, the enemies would be able to defeat the remaining people. And even if they fled back to the base, they only met resistance either from the refugees or the vagabonds.


    They ended up fighting two fronts with the few people they had. And with the slime''s overwhelming power along with their extraordinary numbers, they would be able to engulf the base and all the people in it.


    Theo might be able to escape with his own group, but after that slime swallowed the US Base, he would have be too strong for him. So, losing wasn''t an option if he still wanted to save the world.

 Chapter 1896 The Five Saints

    "I''m back." The Space Saint''s voice echoed when Theo was imagining the problem with the slime.


    It seemed he came back with others since Theo could feel their presence. Theo gradually opened his eyes and took a look at the Space Saint''s lineup.


    There were four other monsters beside him.


    The biggest one had a body like a wolf, but it didn''t have any fur. The skin looked slimy and the head had no eyes, making it look more like a mutant than a monster.


    Its height was more than fifty feet. With its exposed teeth, this monster''s appearance was scarier than his strength.


    Next to this monster was a humanoid figure. He was floating next to the wolf''s head, looking at Theo.


    He had a pair of red horns and a gloomy expression. There was a huge ck bag underneath his eyes.


    His skin was green and his body was muscr. Theo could see a boundless strength within that body.


    To his surprise, he actually met another dragon here. Unlike the Lightning Dragon or the Magma Dragon, this dragon was silver.


    He could see some arrogance in those eyes like the Magma Dragon. He thought the Lightning Saint was simply too different since his wisdom was unparalleled, knowing how to treat others. Then again, the Lightning Saint must be older than any dragon, so he could understand where the wisdom came from.


    So, Theo didn''t think much about this dragon.


    Instead, he took a look at thest monster that the Space Saint brought. It was actually a dog. Its skin was ck with some brown color on a few spots like that of a Dobermann.


    He thought this was a dog if the dog wasn''t standing on two feet.


    From their presence alone, Theo knew that these four monsters were the same as the Space Saint, a World ss Monster.


    Theo straightened his back as if giving them a sign of respect.


    The dragon didn''t have a change in posture, while the other three also made a simple gesture as if showing their respect to him. Even though they didn''t know each other, they were still Saints. It was hard to reach this level, so the least they could do was show respect to each other.


    The Space Saint said, "These four are the Saints working together with me to build the tunnel. I have told them about your suggestion, including the materials. And because of some problems, I have brought them here, so we can discuss the problems."


    Theo nodded. His expression remained calm despite being surrounded by five World ss Monsters.


    "So, what do you want to say?" Theo asked.


    The humanoid monster was the first to open his mouth. "I''ll address my problem first. I''m the one in charge of the materials. I have seen the list and their description��<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I don''t have trouble recognizing the materials, but getting them is a bit of a problem. First of all, we''re not in the other world. ording to my observation, this world doesn''t generate this type of material.


    "So, it''s impossible for me to find them. And getting that much material would be impossible."


    Theo listened to his trouble and gave the answer he had prepared a long time ago. "We can start searching for materials within human cities. I have once tried to procure this material because the structure had copsed and a part of the two worlds fused together.


    "So, I tried to fix it with these materials. It worked but procuring the materials was a bit hard since it was a rare material.


    "But ording to my people, the amount of the materials the humans had brought back should be enough to create a few structures to support the tunnels.


    "That''s why I''d like to ask you to procure the materials."


    The humanoid monster fell silent for a moment before agreeing to his request. "I understand. I should be able to get it with my power."


    "Before you continue, I think he should exin what the structure does first��" The humanoid dog stopped the humanoid monster since he still hadn''t trusted Theopletely.


    Theo nodded and showed a picture of the structure. He then told them about the purpose of the structure as the bridge to connect the two worlds.


    There was something that caught their attention.


    "We''re not nning to reconnect the two worlds. We don''t want the two worlds to have anything to do with each other. In other words, we only require the tunnel to work one way and after that, it doesn''t serve any more purpose," said the Space Saint. He seemed to be the one who had the most grudge against the humans.


    Theo maintained his poker face and exined the reasons. "Yes. The structures here are to support the tunnel from copsing. Once they served the purpose, I could simply recycle them so that no one could use them anymore. And I''m the only one who can activate the tunnel, so it should work."


    "How can we trust you? After all, you can activate the portal again and invade the other world using that tunnel."


    Theo shrugged. "I nned to split the structureter and use it to reinforce the airnes. I''m sure you know how humans travel, right? We''re using that machine to fly in the air so that we can cross the ocean. We''re using it to protect ourselves from the monsters.


    "With the help of a few authorities, it''s easy to create a barrier for that. So, I have my own ns after that��"


    They exchanged looks. Obviously, they couldn''t trust Theopletely. But hearing his logic as well as the proof of the airne itself, they felt Theo would truly be using the structures to protect those nes.


    They didn''t have much trouble since the humans would only know about these structures as reinforcement structures for the airnes instead of a structure to create a tunnel to another world.


    They considered Theo''s words carefully before finally agreeing to this arrangement with a few conditions.

 Chapter 1897 Concern

    While Theo convinced the five saints, Maya and the others also made their preparation for the uing invasion.


    Star Group.


    Maya and Rea walked down the hallway, heading to the meeting room. They had been sending invitations to all leaders of organizations and families.


    "How many people areing?" Maya asked.


    "We''ve invited a total of 68 leaders from various organizations and families, 60 of them havee, six have denied our invitations and the other two haven''t responded yet. They mighte unannounced," answered Rea while looking at her Skylink.


    "I see. At least sixty people havee." Maya nodded. "What are you nning to do to those eight?"


    "The ones who have denied our invitations will be cklisted from all our services, including your Star Group. As for the ones who still haven''t given any reply yet, we''ll respond ording to their stance after the meeting."


    "The military and the government?"


    "The government has sent three people while the military has brought eight."


    "Is that enough?"


    "Since they''re only supervising, it should be possible."


    "Is the government nning to use nuclear attack?"


    "I shall be the first to prevent that. The slime is formed by human mistakes, absorbing all kinds of chemicals, including polluted water that''s contaminated by radiation. So, Nuclear will be ineffective. The only thing it will do is harm our people and thend."


    Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. "I guess the enemy this time is far too strong."


    "Don''t worry. I believe Teacher will find a way to fight that monster."


    "Yeah." Maya nodded. "Anyway, I''m going to use all my resources. Do you need my ne to bring someone else from the other bases?"


    "I''m not very sure. On the one hand, it''s the most logical reason. On the other hand, the moment we bring those people, there is a chance that the former Griffith Family will sneak in, causing a huge problem. So, Agata and I believe it''s better if we can solve this problem by ourselves."


    "I see. Anyway, I''ll provide the weapons and all the other equipment you need. Unfortunately, the turrets have been destroyed, so we can''t use them anymore. At least, we can use the military''s weapons."


    "Sadly, they won''t be helping much, considering we have used most of them during the battle against the sea race. I think you haven''t stopped producing them, right?"


    "Yeah. After Theo destroyed it, I still maintained the production of the bullets and the turrets, so we could provide some support. Unfortunately, none of the turrets arepleted right now."


    "I see. I guess we can''t expect any support in this battle." Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    "Yeah. Anyway, we have arrived��" Maya stopped, looking at the door before them. She opened it and walked inside with Rea.


    It was the meeting hall of the Star Group. There were more than one hundred people inside this hall.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They had been invited by Theo''s group, specifically Maya, to discuss the iing invasion.


    Some of them epted it because they were interested in this operation, some of them also didn''t wish for the base''s destruction, and some only took part because they wanted to see Theo in action.


    They had their own goals in participating in this mission.


    When Maya and Rea entered, all eyes were focused on them. However, some of them were confused, not understanding why only both of them came.


    This was an event that involved the entire base, so Theo should be the one to lead it. Yet, the person in question didn''te.


    They couldn''t help but furrow their eyebrows.


    One of them couldn''t help but ask, "Where is Theodore Griffith?"


    Maya nced at that person and recognized him. He was the CEO of the Heartstone Group.


    "He won''te." Maya shook her head. The people soon became disappointed since they expected Theo toe. But she added, "Although he is not here, it doesn''t mean he doesn''t want to meet all of you. The reason he is not here is because he is preparing another weapon."


    "Preparing another weapon?" That statement piqued everyone''s interest.


    It reminded them of what Theo had done during the past two attacks. In the battle of the sea race, Theo was also missing, only to appear on the battlefield and turn around the situation.


    In the previous invasion after the eruption, Theo had been working on the turrets.


    It seemed this battle wasn''t that different either. Theo was preparing a weapon to turn around the situation.


    It made them feel relieved, thinking there would be a safe cushion for them to fall back on.


    However, Maya also warned them. "Don''t feel relieved yet. We are here to inform you that if we can''t join hands for this fight, the base will copse.


    "That''s why I need your help. We have to hold out and make sure the base isn''t in chaos so that we can win this battle.


    "I''m sure you know the consequences of the base falling into a state of chaos. The economy will copse, the safety will be gone, and the people on the battlefield will end up deserting the battle altogether.


    "That''s why we can''t have them enter the base," Maya exined the reason with a grim expression. All the people here were a leader of their own, so they could see the bigger picture.


    They considered this carefully. After a while, one of them asked, "So, how are we going to do it? From the way it looks, the enemy can simply sneak in through the gap in our border��"


    "That''s why we are here." Maya nced at Rea. "She will be briefing you about the basic n and arrangement."


    The meeting was about to start, but one person suddenly stopped them by asking one question. "Excuse me, before we start the meeting, I''d like to address something.


    "Since everyone is here, are you going to be the one leading us? But with everyone being a leader of their own influences, I don''t think we''re that easy to follow your instructions."

 Chapter 1898 Tyrant

    "��"


    That statement silenced the room, making the atmosphere awkward.


    They could agree with that statement to some extent. Some weaker influences might easily ept their roles. But some stronger influences had to think twice because they had to think about their images as well.


    However, that statement also gave birth to another question.


    "Now that I think about it, there are still a few influences that are not here, right? If I''m not wrong, I''ve seen Theodore Griffith''s parents on the battlefield against the sea race. The Griffith Family is a big influence.


    "If they''re not participating in this battle, does that mean they''re conserving their strength so that when we''re exhausted, they''ll swallow us?


    "There are other influences as well, so I don''t know what will happen after that war."


    The people started to look at each other as if questioning their intentions. They were afraid that if they went all out, they would get swallowed by another influence who managed to conserve their strength.


    That was why they became hesitant to send their resources and personnel to aid this battle.


    Still, the military and the government certainly knew what was at stake.


    One of the government officials couldn''t help but m the table, rise from his seat, and shout, "You have to do it. Do you know that there are more than one hundred million people in this base? They need all of you.


    "Our country has been prospering because there are warriors who fight for this country. You��"


    Another person interjected, reminding him of something important. "Don''t forget about this. You''re saying this is our country instead of our base. Don''t forget that not all of us are here because we want to be. It''s only because the situation forces us. And we are not from your country, so don''t forget that."


    But before the argument became even more heated, Rea mmed the table to get all their attention.


    *Bam!*


    "!!!" The people were startled because the source of the sound came from the leader of this meeting. They turned around and found Rea ring at them.


    Rea only stated one thing. "There is no need for you to think about it. Do you remember what happened during the previous meeting? We''ve clearly told you that there are spies inside this base and we haven''t found them yet.


    "Let''s make this simple. We have received help from the Griffith Family and the Beggar Association to create an informationwork to supervise all parties.


    "Those who are found to be cking off shall be considered the spies of those monsters. And I''ll surely inform Theo about it so that he can crush the enemy of humanity!"


    Rea''s cold tone and gaze filled with killing intent stopped all of them. It felt like time had stopped for a moment.


    Her statement wasn''t an empty threat. Theo could easily crush any influence in this base. The only reason why he hadn''t done it was simply because they didn''t harm him or something.


    But if the others were deemed to be spies and became enemies of humanity, Theo would certainly crush them.


    However, there was a drawback of instilling fear in therades that would fight with them on the battlefield. When Rea presented this idea, Agata and Maya rejected it.


    And that concern started to appear.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It seems Theodore Griffith wants to create a tyranny in this base."


    "I see. So, that''s Theodore Griffith''s n. He first weakens the government and the army before going at us. This way, he will soon get a hold of this base for himself."


    "Theodore Griffith is no different than any of us. He is also a power hungry maniac."


    They were ring back at Rea, showing disapproval. This was the concern.


    Theo had seen all this in his hometown, Thernd.


    Even though the president was strong and managed to suppress the mafias and all influences that wanted to control the country, he didn''t destroy them.


    After all, if one became too strong, the people could im he was a tyrant and banded together.


    In the end, people would lose trust and start fighting back. There would also be some spies that lit the sparks everywhere, causing damages at an unimaginable scale.


    This was the reason why Theo never threatened people when searching for allies.


    Rea also had seen this result as well, but she still stayed firm in her decision. She wasn''t Theo, who had enough charisma to control all these people. So she didn''t have to do it the same way as Theo.


    Hence, the moment they showed their disapproval, Rea smirked. "I understand. You''re simply using my statement to go against my Teacher. However, you''ve forgotten about something. I''m not my teacher.


    "Since he has given me the authority to do it, I''m going to do it my way. You''re free toin to my teacher after that, but I won''t change my way.


    "To make people like you obey the instruction for the interest of humanity, I''m going to be a tyrant," Rea red back at them. She seemed to be releasing an invisible oppressive aura.


    This aura made all of them feel submissive as if they were in front of a huge lion, ready to devour them.


    Maya nced at Rea''s state, closing her eyes. This was how Rea convinced her and Agata as well.


    Back then, both of them were surprised by this aura.


    Rea''s power was Embodiment. In the past, she didn''t understand that Embodiment meant everything. She might have possessed their strength and the way they fought, but Rea hadn''t developed their temperament.


    The calm and collected turtle, the sharp and poisonous snake, or the sneaky and yful fox. It was possible to cultivate their temperament.


    And this time, the only way to get what they needed was the overbearing dragon.


    She had to overwhelm these people so that they could get the help needed to fight the enemies.


    It seemed to be effective to some extent, but Maya could see some defiant looks at these people. Agata had left a message to help Rea in this situation. There was a need to bnce everything and the easiest way to do it was to incite their greed.


    With a serious expression, Maya stated, "There is a reward for the people who help��"

 Chapter 1899 Future Generations

    "There is a reward for the people who help��" Maya stopped them before they started revolting. She knew that they wouldn''t even bother to listen to her at this point, so she immediately revealed the reward. "After all of this is over, you are to send one Mythical Rank Expert to our ce and Theo will be holding a training camp with him training your expert personally."


    "!!!" The people suddenly stopped. Their bodies were shaken by the insane reward. They all turned to Maya with astounded expressions. "Training Camp��"


    Maya nodded with a serious expression. "I''m sure you''re already aware of this, but there are currently three Transcendent Level Experts and one King ss Monster in our group. It''s far beyond the three Transcendent Level Experts this base has.


    "And all those three reached that stage not long ago. I''m sure you know what I''m trying to imply, right?"


    Maya narrowed her eyes.


    This statement stunned everyone in the room. This reward was very tempting. The greed in their eyes was visible for anyone to see.


    Meanwhile, the three Transcendent Level Experts from the base immediately stood up.


    The King of Fighters gritted his teeth before shouting, "Bullshit. Do you know what you''re nning to do? You are not a Transcendent Level Expert, so you don''t know what''s at stake. I''m going to pretend to never hear this, but if you''re going to say it again��"


    The Great Mage, who was mostly neutral against Theo, couldn''t help but speak out as well. "I have to agree with the King of Fighters this time. If the world knows about it, I''m afraid there will be a greater disturbance in the future."


    Maya closed her eyes, expecting this kind of concern. However, she had received an answer from Ava, Isaac, and Theo.


    Maya shook her head. "I think you misunderstand something. First of all, not everyone is qualified to reach this stage. I think we can agree on all that.


    "Even though it''s a training camp, the result will depend on their talents. Of course, you don''t have to send a Mythical Rank Expert if you don''t want to. Even Theo has reached this stage when he''s only a Supreme Rank Expert.


    "Then, there is also another concern. Do you know that the apocalypse has changed everything?" Maya narrowed her eyes. "Since we can''t level up anymore, what''s the use of this knowledge? Even if there are one hundred new Transcendent Level Experts, their lineage can''t reach this level.


    "Why? It''s simple. They can''t level up anymore. Even if they reach this level, can they be this strong?"


    "��" The three Transcendent Level Experts suddenly fell silent. They obviously knew what it meant to lose the ability to level up.


    It raised many concerns. After all, if the future generations couldn''t get stronger, it meant humanity would be doomed the moment their generations passed away.


    There wouldn''t be anyone strong enough to go against those monsters. That was why giving this information would only affect this generation.<novelnext></novelnext>


    And what they didn''t know was that Theo could easily change the world''s system. His next aim was to go to the creator that built this world, so changing the power system wouldn''t be that hard, allowing him to stabilize the world.


    That was why this suggestion didn''t really matter to Theo. Even if he wasn''t aware of it and everything was dumped in front of him so suddenly, he would certainly agree.


    Maya smiled, seeing the sign to convince them. "As you can see, the world right now has lost the ability to level up. In other words, future generations will have to endure a hardship that no one has ever seen before.


    "And ording to our King ss Monster, who has been learning under a World ss Monster, it seems that the humans are going to be the same as the monsters."


    "What?" The people were shocked. If humans became the same as monsters, it would mean a lot of things. And the main concern was, "Are you saying that we''ve got to cannibalize our own to get stronger? Don''t joke around!"


    "No. What I want to tell you is that there will be another way to get stronger. And our current assumption is that it will be rted to the herbs or artifacts�� And I''m sure you''ve heard about what happened to the children born after the disaster, right?"


    The people fell silent as one of them exined everything he knew. "The children born after the apocalypse have ended up with a natural affinity of a certain element. The oldest one recorded seems to be able to use an elemental ability.


    "And those who are able to do it are either strong or weak. There is no fluctuation of Magic Power entering their bodies as if their bodies will be stuck at that level of Magic Power.


    "In other words, their talent and future development will be decided the moment they''re born."


    The people listened to him with dark expressions. This was why Flora wanted to give birth to Theo''s child, as it would be the best gene that she could receive. The talent of her child would be enough to reign over the union.


    However, the problem would be with ordinary people. If their child bes less talented than the one from the more powerful people, they would be in a bind. After all, they didn''t know how to get stronger with what they had.


    And with this suggestion, Maya was indirectly implying that the only way to bnce everything in the future was to teach this to all these people.


    They might not reach the Order Level, but they might gain something more. And this knowledge might be passed onto future generations in the form of a downgraded version, allowing the future generations to have a path to get stronger.


    This way, they could bnce things out, allowing future generations to survive.


    When they understood the intention of the proposal, they felt like it was Theo who suggested the whole thing because he was concerned about the future of the human race.

 Chapter 1900 Reas Hidden Intention

    "I''m not sure about the way to get stronger either, but I still want to follow Theo. After all, he has been predicting everything correctly and taking part in those situations. So, I''ll continue to believe him.


    "I don''t know what you want to say or believe, but I have to ask you to see the bigger picture.


    "I won''t talk on behalf of Theo since even I don''t know about his scheme, but it''s clear that there is a huge threating to this base. So, I hope that you can see this with a calm mind."


    "��" The three Transcendent Level Experts looked at each other as if trying to figure out the situation.


    On the one hand, they understood what Maya was talking about and could see the concern happening soon. On the other hand, they only had Order, not Authority. They didn''t know much about what was beyond that level.


    They had seen Saints and Kings, so it was obvious that they seemed to becking some insight and information to predict the future.


    And now, Theo had seen something beyond their knowledge and tried to solve it by giving this training camp.


    At this point, the three Transcendent Level Experts couldn''t say anything since it was already beyond their reach. If a Saint wanted to do it that way, it might be the true path.


    So, they stopped rebuking Maya''s statement.


    As soon as she saw the change in their expressions, Maya immediately added, "I''m sure that you are already aware of what''s going to happen in the future. However, there will be no future if we allow the monsters to crush us.


    "This is just the start, everyone." Maya showed an image of the map, showing the slime and the base''s locations. "Take a look at this. Currently, the slime is sending its armies against us."


    A few human faces appeared on the screen and started moving toward the base in all directions.


    "We''re assuming that they''re going to appear alongside monsters and sneak in as a human.


    "This is the video��" Maya showed them the video where Theo lost against the slime. It showed their power, which managed to overwhelm Theo.


    This was the first time they saw Theo losing this badly. They couldn''t help but suck a cold breath.


    This enemy was beyond what they had faced in the past.


    "Is that real��" The three Transcendent Level Experts gasped. "Are we going to fight that slime?"


    "Yes." Maya nodded.


    "Shouldn''t we call the Time God to the meeting?" One of the government agents asked. Although they had been weakened, they still had a considerable amount of power due to the Time God and their nuke.


    "No, no. Shouldn''t we nuke them? We know their location, so we should strike first."


    Maya shook her head. "No. We can''t nuke them, or at least that slime. That slime is born from contaminated water. And that is not limited to chemicals��"


    "Not limited to chemicals��" They frowned, wondering what liquid was more potent than chemicals.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Some of them had realized what Maya wanted to say and gasped. "Don''t tell me�� the water is contaminated by radiation?"


    "Yes," Maya confirmed without hesitation. "That''s why sending a nuke to this slime will only make it stronger. Theo has been given a vision�� I don''t know if this is correct or not, but ording to him, the slime managed to defeat several King ss Monsters and sealed one World ss Monster when it just became a King ss Slime.


    "Now that it had fully grown to a World ss Monster, its strength was beyond our imagination. And if we take a look at how he makes his army, I''m afraid that there will be more enemies with stronger abilities like those explosive humans.


    "After all, we don''t know the number of World ss and King ss Monsters he has absorbed.


    "Hence, we need all your abilities. They might be born from the World ss Monsters or King ss Monsters, but their strength was only a fraction of the original owner''s power. So, we have a chance.


    "We would like you to spread out and stop any monsters froming into the base. We''ll thin out their number and weaken the enemy''s force. And we need your full cooperation for this.


    "After we defeat them, we''ll fight against the slime. Theo already has the n to handle the slime and that''s probably why he is away right now. I believe that Theo wille back once we''re fighting these monsters. After all, Agata, his fiancee, is still in this base.


    "After all this is over, Theo will be holding a training camp for your experts so that the future generations can continue to prosper. What do you think?"


    The people fell silent. They didn''t like how Rea oppressed them, but it was true that the situation was beyond their abilities. If they lost this fight and retreated, the slime might be able to continue creating his army and getting stronger.


    In other words, if they were defeated here, there was no second chance. It was basically impossible to defeat the slime after that. And who knew what would happen next?


    The King of Fighters narrowed his eyes, ring at Rea. "I don''t mind participating, but I have a condition."


    "A condition?"


    The King of Fighters pointed at Rea and dered out loud. "As long as she is not the onemanding us, I''ll fight."


    "!!!"


    The statement surprised most people. However, they had to agree that they didn''t like Rea''s guts. They almost forgot that when Theo dealt with the situation, he never appeared like a tyrant. In other words, everything that happened earlier came from Rea.


    "I''ll fight as long as she is not the onemanding us!" Another person raised his hand, agreeing with the King of Fighters.


    And as one would expect, more and more people spoke up, demanding Rea to not be their leader.


    "!!!" Maya widened her eyes in shock, realizing something. These people didn''t know that the leader of this operation was Felix. They thought Rea was the leader since she was one during the battle against the sea race.


    In other words, Rea''s true intention in threatening them was to make them unite. That was right, she almost forgot about one fact. People tended to unite when they met amon enemy.


    So, Rea actually tricked all of them so that they could unite under one banner.


    Rea had an ashamed and unwilling expression, but inwardly, she was smiling as everything went ording to her n, a n befitting her identity as Theo''s disciple.

 Chapter 1901 Settling The Meeting

    Maya gritted her teeth while closing her eyes, listening to how people wanted Rea to step down. She never expected them, including her and Agata, to be fooled by Rea.


    It seemed Rea became Theo''s disciple for a reason.


    ''To fool your enemies, you have to fool your allies first, huh��'' Maya muttered inwardly before ncing at the people.


    She stated, "I have to ask Agata first. Give me a minute."


    Without hesitation, Maya walked a bit further from the room and called Agata. Obviously, it was just a fake call as everything had been arranged by Theo previously.


    It seemed that Rea actually used Theo''s arrangement for inspiration. Since she wasn''t the leader and they wanted other people to think Theo was with them, she could easily escape by demotion.


    ? So, these people werepletely tricked by Rea.


    After two minutes, Maya finally returned to the room with a grim expression. Her face alone showed that it wasn''t an easy decision.


    Maya took a deep breath as if he was disappointed with the situation. But she had no other way to convince these people.


    "Alright. We shall ept the suggestion. From now on, the leader shall be Felix, Theo''s right hand man. And Agata will be the one to supervise the entire battle. She might not be at Theo''s level, but she gave solid advice, considering she had worked multiple times for the governments after the apocalypse.


    "And Rea will be another adviser, but her main role shall be on the battlefield. So, the instructions you get mainly wille from Agata."


    These were the roles they had been assigned before even the meeting. There wasn''t a change or anything.


    However, the others didn''t know anything about their assignments. They only thought Rea was the leader and had been demoted to a fighter on the frontline.


    Now that they had received everything they wanted, there was no more objectioning from them.


    "Since there are no more objections, I''m going to discuss the n." Maya let out a long sigh before continuing. "At first, we''re nning to make a hexagram to defend the base. But now that Rea will be deployed in the frontline, she''ll be the seventh point."


    She showed the hexagram and showed the ''new'' update to the people. "This shall be the arrangement."


    Everyone looked at the ns and was surprised. It seemed that they had misunderstood Maya and the others.


    They thought they would be fighting on the very front, making them weakened. That way, Theo would have no problem crushing them.


    But they were wrong. The ones who took care of the front were Theo''s group. Even the Griffith Family handled the center.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We''ll be taking the front, which should receive the biggest damage. Meanwhile, I want the rest of you to expand your range to make sure no one sneaks in. It shouldn''t be that hard, right?"


    They weren''t saying anything, so Maya continued, "Alright. Rea has been demoted now, so I expect your cooperation.


    "In the middle point, the Griffith Family will be assisted by the Beggar Association. Still, I need a few of you to send your people here. The same applies to Rea''s defense point. She will be apanied by the people from my Star Group.


    "As for Ava, she might be a monster, but she is the strongest Transcendent Level Expert in this base right now. And she has followed Theo for so long, so I don''t doubt her ability. As for themanding position, we have Ergene, who has a blessing from a famous general in history. She has received tips from Theo as well, so she will be a goodmanding officer that will help Ava with the arrangement.


    "As for the rest, you can see the respective Transcendent Level Experts that will supervise the entire operation.


    "And so, this is our arrangement." Maya tapped the Skylink a few times before a few panels appeared in front of the points, listing the names that would be under those people.


    As expected, Ava, Rea, and Ray were given to most people. Meanwhile, the othersprised half of their numbers, but they were expected to spread their range to make sure the attack didn''te through.


    Considering they might not get attacked at all, there wasn''t a lot of objection in everyone''s mind.


    "If you don''t like the assignment, feel free to tell me right now. We''ll try to change it based on the current situation. As for the military, you will be expected to send people and yourmanders shall be supervising the entire battlefield. Make sure that they''re not cking.


    "Provide us with enough evidence, we''ll make sure to cklist them from the training camp.


    "As for the government, you will be providing us with the necessary support as well as the weapon. I''ll, too, help provide the equipment, but don''t expect much from a singlepany.


    "This is the best arrangement we can give right now." Maya nced at Rea, indirectly implying that this was the best n after Rea was demoted.


    For Theo''s group toply with their demands showed how severe the situation was.


    That was why Maya had to add with a darkened expression, "And with this arrangement, I hope that none of you ck off. After all, this is the ce you''re living in. If you still find a way to escape the responsibility, then you should get the fuck out of this base.


    "Also, Theo might be teaching you, but I''ll surely put a score on your individual achievements. In other words, he might see that score and teach you ording to your work. So��" Maya asked once again. "Does anyone want to change their position?"


    The people were silent for a while as they looked at each other to know what each other was thinking.


    Eventually, a few people raised their hands, dissatisfied with the arrangement.


    Some groups actually wanted to move to safer areas as if they wanted to preserve their people. But some groups dared to move to a riskier area to get more achievement so that they would get more benefits from Theo.

 Chapter 1902 Sacrifice

    There were some adjustments, but nothing was major enough that they would damage the n itself.


    Since there were no more objectionsing from them, the meeting went without a hitch. In the end, Maya led the meeting instead of Rea until they finished with the arrangement and the system.


    Before the meeting ended, there was one question that piqued everyone''s interest.


    "I don''t know if I should ask this question, but have you contacted the Time God?"


    "��" The room suddenly fell into silence. On the one hand, the Time God''s existence was big in this base. On the other hand, the Time God sided with the government, and his rtionship with Theo deteriorated due to the conflict with the government.


    So, people thought Theo didn''t invite the Time God due to their rtionship. However, the fact that Maya still invited the people from the government and the military meant there might be a special circumstance between them.


    Maya waved his hand as if it was just a simple question. "You don''t have to worry about it. The reason why Agata is not here with us right now is due to her contacting the Time God.


    "However, the Time God shouldn''t casually make his move. I think you understand what it means for thest line of defense to act, right?" Maya paused for a moment before answering her own question. "It''s simple. It will look like we have no more trump cards to turn around the situation.


    "Hence, it''s better for the Time God to stay in the base, assuring people that the situation is not so bad that we have to rely on the Time God yet. For the time being, let''s believe in Theo to handle the situation."


    The exnation made sense. Knowing they still had one more trump card left put their heart at ease.


    And with that question, the meeting finally ended. Maya asked them to prepare their force and station all of them within three days. They didn''t know when the monsters wereing, but Theo''s group thought the monsters woulde in five to seven days.


    So, they had to make sure they didn''t forget anything in their preparation.


    As soon as they finished, Maya and Rea went to the car to return to their base.


    Maya had a frustrated expression, ring at Rea. "To think your real intention in threatening them is to make you the bad one��"


    Rea made a sad smile. It wasn''t a role that she wanted, but it was a role that everyone needed.


    Rea sighed, "I''m not like my teacher. My prestige is far below him, so no matter how hard we try to convince them, they won''t unite easily. Even with that training camp, it''s impossible.


    "So, the only way to unite them is to create amon enemy, which is me. I''m sorry that I didn''t tell you and Agata about this, but the more shocked you are, the more effective this n works.


    "With this, everything is under our control. We have to move carefully so that we can win this battle."


    Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. She never thought Rea would sacrifice her reputation to unite all those people.


    As she said, she expected that a third of them would leave because they couldn''t trust Theopletely.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The only reason why they agreed to attend the meeting was because Maya used the message from back then. She had told them that there would be a powerful enemy that could wipe out humanity, so they had to stand together if they wanted to survive.


    It seemed Theo had foreseen this battle and thrown the seed so that they could use it right now.


    Still, Maya looked at Rea with a frustrated face. "You should know that after this, no one is gonna trust you anymore, right?"


    Rea smiled. "I know. I don''t need everyone''s trust."


    "You are Theodore Griffith''s student. Your path is that of a leader. But with this, you can''t be the leader next time, you know��" Maya gritted her teeth. Although she understood the reason, she still believed Rea should have told them about this.


    But hearing that statement only put a small smile on Rea''s face. She looked at Maya helplessly. "Maya�� If we lose in this battle, there is no next time."


    "��" Maya''s body couldn''t help but tremble. She could feel Rea''s determination.


    It seemed that she was the most concerned about this situation. Unlike Felix, she had taken Theo''s defeat in a different way.


    The burden she felt was not lesser than Felix, but there was a difference between a disciple and a subordinate. As his disciple, she also didn''t want to lose to anyone.


    Her teacher had lost once, and as his disciple, she should surpass him by not losing, even if it meant she sacrificed a lot. This was her resolve as Theo''s disciple.


    Maya took a deep breath before sighing. "Well, Theo should be able to work it out when he returns here. For the time being, I want you to focus on the battle right now. I''ll support you with all I''ve got."


    "Thank you." Rea nodded. "How is the negotiation with the Time God?"


    "It went smoothly." Maya passed her Skylink.


    When Rea opened the Skylink, she saw the message from Agata.


    ''The Time God has agreed to cooperate with us. His role remains as thest line of defense. With this, people will think there is still the Time God and keep their morale high.


    ''For now, I''m going to prepare our team, including the beggars, the Griffith Family, and the military. As for you, handle our logistics with the help of the government. I know that you don''t like them, but we have to cooperate with everyone right now.


    ''I have told the Griffith Family to watch out for the people that don''t attend the meeting, so we will iste them for the time being.


    ''Last but not least, tell Rea to head to her position and make some traps or whatever. And�� thank you.''


    Rea smiled at thest two words.

 Chapter 1903 Useful

    Rea and Agata finally met up after the meeting. Agata didn''t mention anything about Rea''s sacrifice since thetter also didn''t want to talk about it.


    Rea did it for the sake of victory, so ming or stopping her would just dishonor her sacrifice.


    So, Agata talked about their current problem instead of the sacrifice.


    "Take a look at this, we have adjusted the n for the time being. However, I notice a few weak points in this arrangement." Agata pointed at Ava''s defense area as well as the Griffith Family''s. "See whoes with these two?"


    "Yeah��" Rea nodded with a serious expression. "Uncle Ray''s defense area is filled with a bunch of fighters. They might be good at taking the full brunt, but they''recking firepower. Still, the fighters are good at maneuvering, so I think it''s fine to just warn him about the situation. As for the firepower��"


    "Should we focus our air support on this ce? It will remove the weakness unless the monsters put everything they have to pass through here."


    Rea shook her head helplessly. "It''s better if they put everything they have. With our current number, we can still hold them back for a bit. During that time, all the people from the defense points could reinforce them, allowing us to win the battle pretty easily.


    "But if they use the monsters to stop all of us, creating an illusion that they''re attacking with full force�� I''m afraid we will be in deep trouble when the main force arrives.


    Agata looked down for a moment, contemting.


    Meanwhile, Rea was staring at Ava''s defense point and realized she didn''t have a bnced group.


    Because she was a monster, not many wanted to fight with her. However, it didn''t change the fact that Ava was the strongest Transcendent Level Expert in the base, so it wouldn''t be weird if she managed to hold on even with herself.


    But it didn''t change the fact that Ava couldn''t do everything by herself.


    "Ava doesn''t have a lot of fighters. She may have the firepower needed, but it''s not going to work if the frontline can''t stop the enemies. If we could have an equal exchange between her firepower and Uncle Ray''s fighters, we would have solved this problem, but��


    "Yeah." Agata nodded helplessly. That was why it was considered a problem. They had openly allowed them to change, so it wouldn''t be good to change their location again. They might lose the trust of these people as well.


    Agata and Rea exchanged looks as if asking each other whether they had a good idea or not.


    Rea clenched her fists. "Don''t forget that Teacher has been with us this whole time. I think most people think we''re unable to function without Teacher.


    "In other words, we are useless without him. I don''t wish to show such a weakness because Teacher has chosen us because of our expertise.


    "Even without him, we have to show the world that we are still functioning perfectly fine."


    Agata obviously understood her concern. She and the others also had the same principle.


    Agata had learned a lot about management so that she could take care of Theo''s businesses. She knew her talent wasn''t enough to keep chasing after Theo, but she wanted to learn many things so that she wouldn''t be known as a decoration to Theo''s prestige.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Maya was the same. Though, she already had that ambition before even joining the group.


    The others from this group also had one goal, like Christopher, who wanted to create a music world, Coline, who aspired to be the best chef in the world, and so on.


    That was why even without Theo, they were still useful.


    And Agata, the one who had learned the most from Theo, was racking her brain to ensure that they didn''t show any weakness.


    To her surprise, the inspiration came from Rea''s reminder.


    "Wait a minute�� We are not useless��" Agata muttered with a serious expression.


    "Huh? What are you talking about? We are not useless, yes�� But why do you say it again?"


    "No, no. You misunderstand me. We might not be the best and a lot of our weaknesses could be seen through after some research. However, doesn''t this mean our enemy will strike at our weaknesses?"


    "Huh?" Agata wanted to say something but suddenly stopped as if she had understood the meaning. "So, you''re saying that it''s fine to expose these weak points?"


    "Yes. We still have a spy in our base. So, the spy might be telling those monsters about the situation and attack these two points."


    "Are you insane? Are you going to use them as traps? Ava and Uncle Ray are��" Rea wanted to stop her, but she couldn''t find any other way to take advantage of the weakness or even cover it up.


    And if they wanted to use this weakness, they would have to use Felix to deliver a killing blow to turn around the situation.


    This was probably the tactic Theo always used. He allowed the enemies to think they had the upper hand only to shoot them down. The hit was so hard that the enemies couldn''t do anything.


    Rea pinched the bridge of her nose. On the one hand, she couldn''t really agree with this n. On the other hand, it made people think Theo was controlling the battlefield.


    "There is also another reason why I suggest this n. We want to measure the enemies'' intelligence and the spy''s understanding of Theo''s tactics. If they don''t attack these two points, it means the spy has understood Theo''s tactic. Knowing it will allow us to create a n to counter that knowledge."


    Rea waspletely speechless with this n. Still, it would risk a lot of lives if they didn''t n it carefully.


    "It seems that we have to rely on the government a lot, especially their air support."


    "Yeah. Though, we can''t forget about their nukes. For now, we have to make sure they don''t use their nukes for various reasons."


    "We''ll let Akbar take care of the government. We should focus on the battle n first."

 Chapter 1904 Griffith Family

    Griffith Family.


    Ne was walking down the hallway before she saw Ray turning around the corner.


    "Uncle." Ne politely greeted Noel.


    "Oh! Are you going to the meeting room?"


    "Yes."


    "Me too. Let''s go together, shall we?" Ray smiled.


    Ne smiled back. She still maintained contact with her family before the apocalypse. But due to the apocalypse, shepletely had no idea about her parents.


    She had been searching for them but to no avail. So, she didn''t have a lot of hope for it.


    In the darkest hour, Ray was there for him. She felt like she had be his daughter. And Theo acknowledging her as his younger sister made their rtionship be closer.


    In a sense, she had already be their daughter. Though, there was no need to announce it with this kind of situation going on.


    Ne gave a document to Ray. "Uncle. See this."


    "What is this?" Ray grabbed the documents and tried to read them, but Ne had summarized them for him.


    "There are three reports in those��" Ne paused for a moment. "The first one is about Edward.


    "I have made an arrangement for him to go to this base. Thanks to Maya''s help, it''s possible for him to reach this base in two months. He will be among the second batch to cover his identity."


    "Oh! Thank you so much." Ray smiled. It seemed like he had been waiting for this arrangement and couldn''t wait for their reunion.


    "Are you going to have a party for his return?"


    "I want to, but the condition doesn''t seem to allow us. For now, I''d like to settle all the problems first. As for the party, we can make the biggest one after all of this is over."


    "Fair enough." Ne nodded in agreement before continuing, "As for the second report, it''s about the number of our force as well as the n from the headquarters."


    "Agata is the one making the n, right?"


    "Yes."


    "Alright then." Ray read the information for a moment.


    "We have around thirty thousand people, including the people from the Griffith Family and the beggar association.


    "All our forces in charge of espionage have been infiltrating all defense points. They will be reporting to us about the situation. The beggar association has helped us a lot in maintaining thework since weck manpower right now due to us fortifying the base''s defense."


    "Is there a problem with thework?"


    "Not at all. With the help of the beggar association, we can deploy the web."


    "That''s good then." Ray nodded. After a while, he flipped the page to find thest report.


    "That''s the report about the news that has spread all around the base."


    Ray frowned when he saw all the news. "It seems that the situation won''t be as peaceful��"


    "Yeah. The public has been questioning the government and other influences. It''s impossible to hide this kind of operation from the public.


    "And since we''re getting help from other influences, there is bound to be some leaks of information."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I see." Ray murmured something she couldn''t hear before asking, "What has the government done?"


    "The press is making up their own story, but with all the leak of information, the government is going to rify everything.


    "I''m assuming that they will be doing it tomorrow or the day after at best."


    While they were confirming their information, they reached the meeting room.


    Ne opened the doors for Ray since thetter had his hands full with the reports.


    Inside the room stood a woman with three men who seemed to be helping her with the map on the table.


    She was none other than Theo''s mother, Valerie.


    As soon as the two entered, she stopped and turned around, informing them. "We have made a total of fifty simtions with the data we currently have."


    "The result?" Ray asked with a serious expression.


    "We won thirty times. But half of them require a lot of sacrifices."


    "The enemies are that powerful, huh." Ray narrowed his eyes. His expression darkened when she mentioned the sacrifices.


    They had made a lot of sacrifices when they tried to hide Theo, and Ray personally didn''t want to sacrifice things again if possible.


    Ray pinched the bridge of his nose and asked Ne. "How much time do we have left?"


    "We''re not sure about it. Around three days? At best, seven days."


    Ray thought for a moment and asked another question. "What do you think the problem is?"


    "Our number and the support from the government. The fact that we can''t rely on the Mafia Queen deals a lot of damage to us. For now, our numbers have been reinforced by her mafia group, but we can''t expect much," Ne answered while looking at the board.


    Valerie, on the other hand, gave another suggestion. "How about we don''t expect anything from the government?"


    "Do we have a better chance of winning if we think that way?"


    "No, but I think it will make less sacrifice since we don''t hope for anything. It keeps our expectations low. But we have to find a way to keep the morale high."


    "I''ll take care of the morale problem. For now, redo the simtion. Make sure we don''t sacrifice a lot."


    "Alright." Valerie nodded.


    "Ne. I want you to help me with something." Ray dragged Ne outside. Ne was confused but still followed Ray, who seemed to be leading her to another room.


    The room seemed to be where they stored their archives.


    "There are a few organizations that don''t join, right?"


    "Yes."


    Ray walked toward a shelf that had the tag ''USA'' on it. "These are the weapons we have against the people in the US back in the day. Try to find their weaknesses and let them know why the Griffith Family is the number one espionage family in the world."


    "!!!" Ne widened her eyes. It seemed that Ray was nning to go all out. The Griffith Family had a lot of hidden information and he actually wanted to use that information to ckmail them into participating. But this should solve most of their problems.


    "Got it."

 Chapter 1905 Bad News

    Agata walked into the room, finding Felix along with Ne, Eleanor, Millie, and a few other support staff from the Griffith Family and the Beggar Association.


    It seemed that they were waiting for her this whole time as they were staring at her the moment she entered the room.


    She also knew her importance in this room, so she stated with a serious tone. "I need your undivided attention today. We can''t let an enemy slip past us."


    They nodded their heads. There were two headquarters for this operation. The first one is operated by the military.


    They were the ones responsible for maintaining surveince in all areas. Meanwhile, the second one was used as a base for Theo''s group to make sure the rest didn''t ck off.


    As for the chain ofmand, Theo''s group would take priority, but they still had to ry them to both the people in question and the military headquarters.


    "Ne. How is it going?" Agata asked.


    "We have been spreading our people, but we haven''t found any weird movement." Ne shook her head helplessly. "Should we send some people to the enemy''s location to check? We''ve got some locations from Theo, so��"


    "No. It''s better to remain in this base to avoid bothering the enemy too much." Agata shook her head helplessly.


    "How about the spies inside the base?"


    "We can''t do anything right now about them. And with us spreading our people, it''s hard to put manpower into that matter." Agata let out a sigh.


    "I understand. I''ll focus on the enemies from the outside then." Ne nodded and turned back to her monitor.


    Agata pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking about something else.


    The others had also prepared for the invasion.


    ��


    Ava had been standing on top of a hill near her defense area, focusing all her attention on her ears. She had been checking the movement of the nearby monsters.


    The one standing next to her was Ergene, who was tasked to protect her while she was locating them.


    "I believe we should go back soon. Although it''s good to know the enemy is advancing from early on, it takes a toll on your mind. So, it''s better to call it a day and conserve your energy."


    "No, it''s fine. I''ll still go like this for another hour. If we still haven''t found them, I''ll go back."


    Not knowing the real extent of Ava''s strength, Ergene nodded in understanding, leaving the choice to Ava.


    ��


    Just like Ava, Ray had been dispersing his Magic Power into the air.


    His Order was Magic Power. Unlike his father, who focused on the Magic itself, Ray could control the Magic Power like a part of his body.


    By spreading the Magic Power into the air, he could feel anything within a huge radius. Nothing would be able to escape his eyes.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t find any monsters for the time being. Considering this was the first day they were expecting the monsters to arrive, he knew that he shouldn''t put a high hope in finding their movement.


    ��<novelnext></novelnext>


    Rea also did the same. Instead of using herself to figure out the monsters'' movement, Rea summoned a few animals to scout ahead.


    They shouldn''t be attacked immediately. And even if they were attacked, she could summon them again.


    So, she expected a lot from them.


    Unfortunately for her, she didn''t find anything just like anyone else.


    It seemed that the first day was safe. But they couldn''t lower their guards yet since the enemies were going to strike them at the perfect time.


    She also wanted to see how perfect it was since it would prove that the spies could see everything from his position, even though they had weakened the government.


    ��


    However, everything changed when they returned.


    The first one to get the information was none other than the headquarters as Ne shouted, "Not good. We have found a huge dust cloud ten miles to the north. We''re assuming they��"


    Before she finished, Ne got another report. "There is also the same urrenceing from the northeast and northwest. We don''t know their exact number, but we''re expecting more than twenty thousand monsters toe this way."


    "Twenty thousand��" Agata frowned. "It''s not bad, but not good either. We shall intercept them. Report to me any finding."


    "Understood." Ne nodded and focused on receiving the report again.


    Agata turned around and shouted to Millie, "Tell everyone to stand by as the enemies areing. Give them the information and tell them to hold on until we figure out the situation. The rest of the people are to stand by because the enemies might attack their areas as well.


    "We can''t have our base getting destroyed by them. Deal with the humanoid enemies ording to the n.


    "They are the most dangerous enemies, so we have to kill them before they can be one of us."


    Millie nodded with a serious expression. She immediately sent all the messages with Eleanor''s help.


    Meanwhile, Felix maintained his calm while looking at the situation, wondering whether the enemies would attack them with their main force.


    "Good, good. Disperse them��" Agata nodded a few times as if she was happy that the enemies attacked them separately. This would work better for them since they could focus on each point to remove the enemies.


    However, the situation didn''t seem to be going ording to their n.


    Agata had beenmanding the people to intercept them. But the closer the monsters became, the bigger the worry in her heart became.


    "Something is wrong��" Agata muttered. Her gut feeling was telling her that these three attacks were only distractions and the main force that would attack them hadn''t moved yet.


    "Is it��" Agata was thinking about possibilities, but that was the time another piece of information came in.


    "Bang!" Suddenly, someone barged into the room by mming the door. He was none other than the Beggar Association''s leader.


    He was rushing to this ce to the point he was covered with sweat.


    "Hmm?" Everyone was confused by his appearance, but thetter soon shouted, "Not good. We have an emergency. There is chaos everywhere in the city."

 Chapter 1906 Worst

    A few minutes earlier.


    "This is the biggest operation in the US Base''s history. The people have joined hands together to defeat an enemy. Let''s wish our heroes luck. Hope they can protect this base and return to their families."


    The news was broadcast everywhere. After the leak of the information, the citizens demanded an answer so that they understood what was going on.


    On the one hand, it would cause the economy to be unstable. And there was even a big risk of revolts and chaos inside the city.


    They could remove the second concern by utilizing their number and skills, but no one could stop a revolt.


    After all, they didn''t have enough personnel to keep control of the order as well as stop the masses from going outside.


    And this weakness was exploited in this attack.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Three explosions urred in three different regions. It shocked everyone in the vicinity to the point they tried toe outside to figure out what happened, only to find themselves dumbfounded.


    The explosions were quite massive. Each explosionpletely decimated three to four houses at once and their shock wave shook an area within a three hundred radius.


    The sound made people''s hearts skip a beat, thinking there was a war inside the base.


    "What is happening?"


    There were a lot of people questioning the sudden explosions. But the number of people questioning the explosions increased drastically when the second wave of explosions urred.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The explosions shook the base as the sts had just killed more than fifty people and injured more than seven hundred people.


    It was one of the biggest explosion incidents in history. But this wasn''t the only thing they needed to be concerned about.


    Yes, there was a third wave of explosions.


    The people were rmed at this point as everything happened so fast to the point they couldn''t react.


    Normally, if there was a serial bombing, they could lock down the city and evacuate the people so that they could catch the culprit. But this time, the explosions came out of nowhere as if they came from an Explosion King himself.


    The Sk became crazy in an instant and it wouldn''t be long before others realized what was going on and misunderstood them.


    They would end up leaving their houses. If that was the only problem, Agata and the others could rx for a bit.


    But the fact that the people would try to kill people or steal their belongings, especially food, and the base would gradually fall into chaos.


    ��


    "Not good. We have an emergency. There is chaos everywhere in the city."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "!!!" Agata widened her eyes. She was in shock because everything had happened all of a sudden. "What happened?"


    "The cities��" He took a few deep breaths because of how shaken he was. After that, he started telling her the story and how people reacted to it.


    "What?" Agata gasped.


    "The people keep saying that the enemies have reached the base and are attacking them." He exined while gritting his teeth.


    "Kh." Agata gritted her teeth, realizing that the battle started from the worst situation possible. "It must be the spies."


    She was correct. The spies were ying with the explosives so that they could deal severe damage to the base and would question the people participating in the fight.


    The spies used these explosives to sow discord between the people inside the base, which would lead to a weakened front.


    Agata was trying to figure out the situation and find a solution.


    "What should we do next?" He asked.


    There was a hint of desperation on his face. It might be due to him receiving the information from the beggars who were in that ce themselves. So, the exnation must be more detailed.


    Felix closed his eyes for a moment and said, "I see. It seems that the situation doesn''t look good. I don''t know much about the situation, but it''s clear that we can''t return the base to normal.


    "So, let''s talk about what''s going to happen step by step."


    Agata nced at Felix, finding a new side of him. It seemed that Felix was trying his hardest to remain calm as if he had predicted this.


    When the others looked at him, it felt like he had prepared for this kind of attack.


    As ifing to an agreement with Felix, Agata also said, "We''ll bring people from the two points on the back to help the police. They shouldn''t be attacking from there, but because of these power shifts, I might have to ask your beggar association to rece them."


    "Are we going to abandon the informationwork?"


    "Notpletely, but this is the only way. For now, I want your people to focus on getting the information about them." Agata turned to Millie. "Tell the President that we are working on intercepting that attack and we need time right now."


    "Got it." Millie immediately sent the message to the government while Agata called Maya. "It seems that we have to use n B."


    "Alright. My weapons are ready to use." Maya nodded. She was also watching the news regarding the explosions and could see how people were going to be crazy.


    She had prepared for this situation. Although it was sooner than they expected, Maya had to start the n.


    While Maya focused on her task, Agata checked the monitors again to figure out the situation. They were going to handle the two fronts, so they had to be careful.


    However, Maya''s ordeal had yet to stop.


    Suddenly, another report came in.


    "We are finding monsters�� around ten thousand of theming from the south. I''m afraid that they are using their lives to sacrifice so that they can get other people to go in.


    "��" Maya bit her lips. She had to confront the two fronts while looking out for the other possibility. "We are attacked from three sides: two outer areas while the other one is a weak Saint��"


    Maya sighed, wondering what she should do.

 Chapter 1907 Calm

    "We need to find a solution fast. The enemies are trying to divert our attention." Agata bit her lips. She panicked because the situation was beyond her expectation.


    She was certain that there were no enemies inside the base yet. The only people who would do something like this were the spies.


    At the same time, it also meant that they had begun their action, which might ruin the entire battle.


    Felix closed his eyes for a moment, remembering what Theo had said.


    "No matter how rough the situation is, don''t show it. The team will be lost if the captain is confused."


    Felix gradually opened his eyes as if he knew what to do.


    "I see��" Felix''s voice captured everyone''s attention. He might be the leader, but Agata was the one who did everything. In other words, he was only a figurehead.


    But the fact that he stood up at this time meant he had something important to say.


    Felix looked at them with a serious expression and stated, "It seems that the enemies are using the spies to distract us. For now, we should be d that the enemies use the spies, not in the next battle.


    "After all, once we have confirmed them, the spies wouldn''t be as effective."


    Felix appeared to be calm as if he had calcted everything and treated it as a small problem. Felix turned to Agata, "What do you think about using the police to handle the situation? Or do you need the army to do it?"


    "The police won''t be enough. At the very least, we have to show an army so that everyone thinks everything is under control. Unfortunately, we don''t have that." Agata shook her head helplessly. "Also, we have been stretching our people, so if we recall some of them from the battlefield, it will create a gap.


    "I believe this is what the enemies want. Once we''re diverted, they will attack those gaps and break through."


    Felix nodded in understanding and remembered one important detail. "But I heard there were a few influences that didn''t join��"


    "We couldn''t do anything against them for the time being�� We have to solve this battle first before��"


    Before Agata finished her exnation, Ne suddenly interjected. "Ah, if you are talking about those influences��"


    Everyone suddenly turned to Ne, thinking she had a n. It seemed Ne had done something to make them obey them.


    Ne smirked. "Actually, Uncle Ray has given me the authority to use the information gathered by the Griffith Family to ckmail them.


    "We are supposed to use them to bolster our people at thest moment. Since they''re not with us at that time, it''ll be a good surprise if they suddenly appear on the battlefield."


    Agata narrowed her eyes, never expecting that Ne would be using something like this. ckmail? They certainly wouldn''t like it but didn''t have any right to refuse. At the very least, they had to participate in this battle.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It felt like a new door had opened. Although those influences weren''t that much since most of the organizations in the base had joined them, they still had enough people to control the situation.


    "There are two possibilities. I can send those people to the battlefield so that we can bring back some soldiers. Or we can send them to suppress the panic��"


    Agata looked down, falling into deep thought. If she chose the former, those organizations would bear their fangs at them after this battle. If she chose thetter, she didn''t know whether they would do it wholeheartedly.


    There were a few downsides to each option, so she could only focus on the benefits.


    Ultimately, she decided, "Ne. Do you think it''s possible to send them to the battlefield right now?"


    Ne thought for a moment. "I can inform Uncle about it. Since they''re a kind of reserve army, I think it''s possible to make them arrive within twenty minutes."


    "Twenty minutes, huh. It''s too slow. I guess we have to rely on them to quell the unrest." Agata sighed. She knew that those organizations hadn''t deployed their people yet. Even if they had, it would be a bit farther away from the battlefield.


    Instead of creating a gap by moving the troops around, it was better to send the nearest people to the nearest problem.


    "Alright. Tell them to quell the rest with or without a threat. We have to suppress them as soon as possible." Agata turned to Millie. "I want you to inform the police to work with them. Also, tell the other HQ to get ready since the fight is going to start."


    Ne and Millie nodded. They understood their roles and made sure that there wouldn''t be a gap because of them.


    Meanwhile, Felix had returned to his seat. Agata seemed to have realized it as well and gave a thumbs up to him.


    Felix was actually acting the whole time. He also didn''t know much about the situation and n, but because Agata was smart enough toe up with a n with some small hints, Felix only had to throw all kinds of cards they had previously.


    After all, Theo had assured him that he had prepared everything they needed for the war.


    So, it was his job to remind them.


    Still, Felix was curious about one thing. He couldn''t help but whisper to Agata, "Do you need me to help quell the chaos?"


    "If you, the leader, have to move right after the battle has just begun, it''s the same as telling them that we don''t have any preparation. Even a small n can disrupt us, so it will only make the situation worse."


    "I see." Felix nodded. Even after contributing a lot to calming the situation, he still didn''t know what he should do most of the time.


    So, he had to rely on Agata this time and waited until the time when he had to take action arrived.


    Before that, Felix maintained silence as he watched how the battle unfolded.

 Chapter 1908 Approaches

    Rea narrowed her eyes, looking at the iing monsters. There were more than ten thousand monstersing her way. Meanwhile, she had thirty thousand people.


    At one nce, they looked superior to the monsters. But this monster wave was only the opening since the enemies only used them as a distraction.


    All the strong monsters woulde after them. She was afraid that their quality couldn''t bepared to the monsters.


    So, Rea had to watch the monsters for the time being, letting them get closer.


    "It seems that the enemies have arrived. The Magic Power fluctuation is fierce. And we also have another problem. The spies seem to have made their move, causingmotions inside the base."


    Rea nced to the side. The one who reported all the situations to her was none other than Isaac.


    "I see. Thanks." Rea nodded.


    "Are we going to attack? The troops are ready."


    "Hmm��" Rea seemed to be hesitating as if she was thinking about something.


    Isaac and Rea were smart people, but they were in different fields, so they couldn''t understand each other at this time.


    In the end, Isaac asked another question. "How about the chaotic atmosphere in the base?"


    "Agata will handle the base. As for us, we''ll be focusing on the monsters before us." Rea turned around, looking at the armies.


    "ording to the report, we have three thousand Magicians and one thousand Rangers. They can be the ones to start the attacks, suppressing the enemies with their firepower.


    "We can sweep the enemies with the help of the Knights, Fighters, and Magic Warriors. The Healers shall be at the rear and prepare to heal nonstop.


    "The Enchanters can''t stop their support ability while the Summoners are to use their beasts to stop their advance. The Assassins and Illusionists shall help them ordingly. As for the scouts��"


    Rea furrowed her eyebrows. "I need to spread all of them past those monsters."


    "Huh?" Isaac was confused. Sending those people past the monsters meant cutting off their means of reinforcement. If this was Theo''s group or the military, they would dly do it.


    But the organizations weren''t that patriotic or loyal, so they would frown upon this decision. That was why Rea said, "It''s fine if they escape the moment they find enemies. But I''m afraid these monsters are preparing something behind them, so we have to find them first."


    "��" Isaac stopped for a moment. "Alright. I will ry this matter to them. To make sure they''re going, I''ll also follow them."


    "��" Rea frowned, worried that Isaac would die from this.


    However, Isaac smiled while pumping his fists. "When everyone is risking their lives to protect what we want to protect, I, too, have to risk my life. If you are worried about me, then I can bring Walker with me.


    "Besides, my ability to see Magic Power is something we need right now. At the very least, this is one of the rare moments where I can contribute greatly to our group!" Isaac smiled.


    Rea didn''t think that way. After all, Isaac had done a lot of research. His knowledge and research helped them greatly.


    However, Isaac didn''t mean the research. He might be their researcher, but Isaac was also a Supreme Rank Expert whose strength couldn''t be underestimated.


    And this battle gave him an opportunity to finally contribute with his might instead of his brain.


    But before she could say her concern, Isaac already ran away.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ��


    The other two areas also experienced the same attack.


    Ray and Valerie stood on top of a hill, watching the monstersing their way.


    "We have to make our move right now." Ray narrowed his eyes.


    "I''m going to spread our people. After all, we have to protect every inch of our border. So, you will only have ten thousand people to work with. Is that enough?" Valerie asked.


    "It''s enough." Ray nodded with a serious expression. "I''ll be leading the first charge."


    "Alright then. I''ll return to my post." Valerie waved her hand before walking away.


    Ray had a different perspective than Agata. It was true that as a leader, they shouldn''t make their move easily.


    However, Valerie was concerned about the army. The soldiers they currently had came from various organizations. Their disciplines were different and they had their own purposes on this battlefield.


    So, Ray wanted to lead the first battle so that they could work together and gain some confidence.


    Now that he had confirmed their n, he also walked away to find the people that would help himmand their people.


    ��


    Ava also had a different approach. It might be due to her instinct as a monster, but she felt the situation wasn''t as simple.


    "Ava. Everyone is ready." Ergene came to her as her adviser.


    "Do you think you can lead the army in my stead? I think I have to leave the battlefield for the time being to confirm my suspicion."


    "Hmm? Do you find anything?" Ergene tilted her head in confusion.


    "My senses are tingling. Whenever I''m in this situation, there will always be an ambush. However, I don''t know what kind of ambush they have, so I''m going to check it personally."


    "An ambush?" Ergene frowned. "The base has been ambushed as well. But for now, the situation can still be controlled. Do you mean this kind of ambush?"


    "No. I''m talking about the ambush that wille from this direction��" Ava pointed at the north while looking at the horizon as if she was trying to discern something.


    "Is that so? Leading them should be no problem. Though, we aren''t in a good position because we don''t have a lot of people."


    "I''ll be back shortly." Ava nodded.


    "I understand. This will exhaust you a lot, but��" Ergene bowed to Ava. "Thank you for doing everything for the humans."


    "I am not doing it for humans. I''m merely helping Theo. That''s all."


    "I see."


    Ergene nodded while Ava hopped onto the tree and used her small form to slip past the enemy''s rank.

 Chapter 1909 Begin

    Rea furrowed her eyebrows when watching the iing monsters. They came closer and closer with greater intensity.


    A middle-aged man stood next to her. He was themander that would help them in themand center.


    "I think I have to go back to my post," he said while making sure that they weren''t too close to them.


    "Yeah. We''re going to handle them ording to the n."


    "Alright."


    They exchanged nods before themander returned to the control room.


    "Sir, they will arrive in seven minutes," One of the staff reported.


    "Tell everyone to stand by and get ready to attack." He gave themand while walking toward his position where he could monitor the battlefield.


    He was holding the radio hanging on his chest.


    "They will arrive in six minutes. Counting down!" Another staff member put a countdown on the monitor.


    He narrowed his eyes, knowing this would be a brutal battle. After all, this was the first time they fought against monsters that had the power of King Level Monsters.


    The clock was ticking. The people started to get nervous.


    Although the first wave of attack didn''t seem to be that dangerous, they knew what woulde next. So, they couldn''t help but hope for the best in the first wave to get a better situation to handle the next problem.


    Meanwhile, Rea was standing next to the people. She could see their nervousness since they had been trained to hunt monsters, not war. Even in the previous two wars, there were no normal people.


    ''It seems that the situation is worse than I originally thought. I guess I have to step in for a while��'' Rea nced to the side where Isaac was hiding. She hoped Isaac wouldn''t be in trouble.


    She took a deep breath, closing her eyes.


    10��


    5��


    3��


    2��


    1��


    Rea''s expression turned serious as she ordered through the radio. "Fire."


    Themander had also seen the countdown reaching zero. Without hesitation, hemanded, "Magician, Archer, Fire at will!"


    The instant the order was given, all magicians and archers released their power, aiming the space above the monsters.


    They immediately shot their abilities into the skies and gradually fell down in a parabolic movement, hitting the monsters.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    There were various explosions from the Fire Magicians and explosive abilities from other people. They sted numerous monsters and killed more than one hundred in a single wave of attack. There were some injured monsters as well.


    The people who had faster speed ended up shooting the second wave of their attacks, ttening them down.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The vanguards raised their weapons and summoned their helpers. The knights were ready to take the full brunt of the enemies while the fighters and magic warriors would thin out the monsters.


    "Vanguards, move out!"


    The secondmand had been sent. The knights raised their shields while using their abilities to create a barrier. The fighters and magic warriors raised their weapons, ready to help the knights. The Enchanter had used all their abilities to increase those people''s power while the summoner had brought out their summoned creatures.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters let out a series of roars as they finally reached the vanguards and pounced on them.


    They were stopped by the barriers but as expected of monsters that didn''t know fear. They kept charging and tried their best to kill the person before them.


    Some of the stronger knights, mostly Supreme Rank Knights, stopped their advance. Meanwhile, the weaker ones followed their leads, making sure that their walls remained intact.


    There were only two Mythical Rank Knights on this field and both of them were standing right behind them to conserve their power. They would be patching any holes that the monsters managed to create.


    Meanwhile, the fighters and magic warriors began to release one strike after another, killing the monsters to lessen the knights'' burden.


    "Assassins get ready to kill any monsters that slip through them. Illusionists prepare for distraction. Magicians and Rangers are to attack their rears and kill as many as you can."


    The next order was given. They immediately began to move to their positions.


    This was the standard n for the war. It seemed that everyone managed to hold on and started killing those monsters.


    Everything was looking good and people started to get more confidence in winning this fight.


    However, Rea was the only person who was furrowing her eyebrows the whole time.


    "There is something amiss��" Rea muttered. She wanted to join them earlier, but she realized something was missing. "This is not good��"


    Without hesitation, Rea informed themand center. "This is Rea. Tell the magicians and knights to prepare a barrier."


    Themander frowned, not knowing what she meant. On the one hand, everything was looking good. On the other hand, Rea wasn''t someone who gave an order without thinking.


    In the end, he had to ask, "What do you mean?"


    "The situation might seem to be in our favor, but have you noticed? Not a single monster is using their Magic Power to attack us."


    "!!!" Themander widened his eyes in shock. When Rea mentioned it, everything looked clear to him.


    That was right. There should be a reason why the monsters didn''t attack them with their Magic Power.


    Rea had been thinking about this before the battle even started. Now that she had confirmed it, Rea said, "It seems that the first wave is just a distraction. The second wave will being from the back! I have sent people from my group along with a few scouts to locate them. Get ready for everything!"


    "Understood. I shall ry it to everyone."


    After understanding the situation, he immediately informed them to prepare for the second wave. It was deadlier than the first one, so the people tensed up again.


    The soldiers had gone through this multiple times, so they were much calmer than them. Since they were fighting together this time, many soldiers tried to calm down the people near them, making sure they didn''t make any mistakes because of their nervousness.


    As if answering her doubt, Rea got a message from her radio.


    "This is Isaac��"

 Chapter 1910 Second Wave

    Isaac narrowed his eyes after slipping past the enemies from the side.


    "Walker. Do you see that?!" Isaac pointed forward.


    "I don''t see them." Walker shook his head with a serious expression.


    Unlike Isaac, Walker couldn''t see their Magic Power. So, he didn''t notice the monsters that were stealthily approaching them.


    However, Isaac could see the fluctuationing from within the woods.


    "This is Isaac. I have found numerous Magic Power fluctuations approaching. We are going to check them and retreat."


    After saying those words, he nodded to Walker so that he could inform everyone about their next move.


    A few scouts immediately moved around.


    Meanwhile, Isaac kept staring at the fluctuations, trying to measure their strength.


    "This is not looking good��" Isaac gulped down. "The monsters in the first wave mainly consisted of Hero Rank Monsters or below. But this one�� I have seen a few Mythical Rank Monsters in the mix. But why are they sneaking like this?"


    It didn''t take too long for them to get the result. One of the scouts returned and informed him, "There are many monstersing. I don''t know if they have felt us or not, but they are more dangerous than the first wave. I''m going to confirm their number right now."


    "No. No need." Isaac shook his head. "I can roughly see their number from the Magic Power fluctuations. Their number is less than the first wave�� should be around four to five thousand. However, all of them are elites. Most of them are even stronger than the first wave. We have to return immediately�� The monsters should have picked up our radio transmission."


    Walker and the scout narrowed their eyes and immediately informed the rest to return. As they expected, the monsters had truly picked up the radio transmission.


    They had known this fact after the sea race''s attack. The Griffith Family and the Mafia Queen had confirmed that their way to find humans was through the radio signal.


    On the one hand, they could use satellites tomunicate. On the other hand, most of the facilities that controlled the satellites had gone down, causing them to lose a lot of range.


    So, in this area, they could only use radios. And this was the reason why the enemies started picking up their pace.


    "They have noticed us. Let''s go back!" Isaac gave themand after the Magic Power fluctuations began to move toward them more aggressively.


    As soon as Walker and the scouts regrouped, they immediately ran away, heading straight to the base.


    Meanwhile, Isaac reported to Rea. "This is Isaac. We have iing elite monsters, roughly four to five thousand. There are many Mythical Rank Monsters there."


    "��" Rea narrowed her eyes and immediately transmitted it to themander.


    The order was immediately given, preparing for the second wave of attacks.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Rea and themander had confirmed two things. Firstly, they managed to find out about the second wave. Secondly, they found out that the enemies had the ability to use tactics against them.


    Before the second wave came, Rea informed the mainmand, Agata. "It seems that the enemies are beyond dangerous. They are using tactics against us. I am afraid that there will be some sneak attacks or even ayer of traps. We have confirmed the second wave of attack right now and need to inform the other fronts."


    Agata was surprised to find the information. In the sea race''s attack, the enemies might have an overwhelming number and n, but they were simply too easy to predict.


    This time was different. The enemies had a hidden second wave, showing how intelligent they were. If they proceeded without caution, they might lose this battle, especially since the enemies had a humongous advantage.


    When she heard it, Agata contemted for a moment before giving the instruction. "All fronts. Get ready for the second wave of attacks. Those who haven''t been attacked yet shall prepare for a sneak attack.


    "Strengthen the border and make sure that no monster manages to slip past them. Tell the Beggar Association to help us scout the area ahead. The enemies cane stealthily, so we have to make sure there won''t be any sneak attack."


    Agatamanded the group while transmitting it to the military headquarters. They had to make sure that they yed their cards right after all.


    She nced at Felix and said, "I am afraid you will have to make your move sooner than we originally expected."


    "I can understand how dangerous the situation bes when the enemies are this intelligent. And the ce I will be going must be filled with danger. So, there''s no need to hesitate." Felix nodded with a grim expression. He had to make sure that everything went smoothly.


    Millie looked at his father for a few seconds before clenching her fists. If only she had the strength to fight alongside her father, she wouldn''t be stuck here. Then again, she had contributed a lot just by helping them with themunicationwork.


    "How is the base''s situation?" Agata asked.


    "We have just received the news regarding the chaos. With us spreading the people around, especially those from the eight organizations, we have managed to dy the chaotic situation.


    "But as we expected, they aren''t as effective as the military. So, the chaos will explode sooner orter," reported Ne while staring at her screen.


    "Got it. Maintain the current status for the time being. We need to find the right time to attack our enemies to end this battle as soon as possible." Agata nodded in understanding.


    While Agata was maintaining the chain ofmand, the second wave had finally reached their location.


    Rea, who had been standing by this whole time, finally released her Magic Power.


    "Rea. The fluctuations are getting stronger. They are attacking!"


    "Yeah, I know." Rea nodded with a serious expression. Her eyes became sharper and a pair of dragon horns came out of her forehead. Her skin started getting covered with scales and a dragon tail emerged from her back.


    "I am going to stop them myself."

 Chapter 1911 Showtime

    "I am going to stop them myself," stated Rea with a grim expression as if she was going to fight against an extremely powerful enemy.


    Isaac wanted to say something, but Rea had leaped into the air as if making her presence known.


    On the other hand, the monsters from the second wave had reached their destination. They were the support the first wave needed.


    Many of them started gathering their Magic Power inside or outside their bodies. The monsters that didn''t attack ended up moving to the front as if they were protecting the other monsters from iing attacks.


    Meanwhile, the monsters who had gathered their strength immediately released their attacks into the air.


    It looked like they were trying to aim for Rea, but the attacks ended up making a parabolic movement and falling onto the humans.


    "Watch out!" Rea shouted as hard as she could, but it was impossible to let the people know, especially on this battlefield. Not only were the shes'' sounds too loud, but they were also too focused on the enemies before them.


    Luckily, they had been warned before. Most people who had been focusing on the defense immediately released a barrier. Some barriers were made of their abilities, while the others consisted of pure Magic Power.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The barriers endured all the explosions. There were many barriers, so they managed to hold on.


    Though, the attacks somehow cracked a few barriers, mostlying from low level experts.


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes in shock, never expecting they would be attacked from afar. It was especially true, considering the enemies hadn''t released a ranged attack until this one. Though, the ones who thought like that were the vanguards.


    They had received an order to consolidate their defense against these attacks, so some of them ended up moving back to gather their Magic Power.


    While they were focusing on the defense, Rea looked at those powerful monsters. She went straight at them while raising her weapon.


    ''I''m going to distract them for the time being.'' Rea was worried that the people on the back couldn''t catch up to the next volley of attack, so she wanted to buy some time so that they could rearrange themselves.


    But before she could reach those monsters, she had to go through many monsters in charge of their protection.


    Rea narrowed her eyes as her Magic Power started leaking out of her body.


    ? "I can spot a few Mythical Rank Monsters, but I haven''t seen any different color in their Magic Power," Rea muttered in a low voice, confirming their levels.


    The Magic Power around her started to concentrate on her back as it formed a dragon head.


    The monsters immediately charged at her, not allowing her to get closer.


    However, they underestimated Rea a little too much.


    The moment the Supreme Rank Monsters approached her, Rea let out a roar, followed by the dragon head.


    Her voice was reinforced by the dragon head to sound like it was the real dragon''s roar.


    Her temperament had changed as well. Because she had adopted the dragon''s temperament, she looked proud and aloof. In fact, her gaze could make even the monsters shiver.


    "!!!" The monsters were petrified. The stronger ones only stopped for a split second before they realized the situation and ran again.


    Rea smiled. This was what she wanted.<novelnext></novelnext>


    She waved her de, sending the dragon''s head forward.


    Unlike the first wave, the monsters on the second wave could discharge their Magic Power. They did it to stop Rea''s attack.


    Unfortunately for them, the moment they released their attacks, the dragon head released another roar. This roar was different from the previous roar.


    Instead of transmitting the dragon''s temperament, the dragon head actually became the embodiment of a Magic Warrior.


    The dragon head released a roar that transmitted a wave of overbearing Magic Power that would blow away the other Magic Power. This was what it meant to have the dragon''s temperament. Nothing could challenge it.


    Their attacks were shaken. Some ended up disappearing due to theck of Magic Power, while some were only weakened and still hit the dragon head.


    *Bam!*


    The sh between the dragon head and the remnant attacks caused the ground to shake and colored the world into two. The dragon head was emitting a golden light while the monsters'' attacks released a rainbow aura.


    However, the conclusion came all of a sudden.


    The golden shine from the dragon abruptly brightened as Rea caught up to the dragon head and supplied more Magic Power.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon head released another roar, dispersing all the energy in his way.


    Then, the head continued moving forward, swallowing the monsters.


    Thetter released another wave of Magic Power and struck the dragon head, but they didn''t have the momentum their attacks had earlier.


    They managed to stop it for a second, but the bnce started to shift when some of them were injured by the overbearing Magic Power.


    In addition, Rea had reached their position and unsheathed her de.


    "Dragon w!" Rea waved her sword.


    A crescent-shaped sword strike flew out of her sword. This one sword strike suddenly split into three, imitating the three dragon ws.


    The monsters tried to use their Magic Power to block it, but the shes were too sharp for them to stop.


    It cut their bodies apart and continued moving in their way.


    In that one strike, fifty monsters died.


    Rea nced around. She might be able to kill many monsters in a single sh, but it didn''t change the fact that she had to face a few thousand monsters by herself.


    Fifty monsters weren''t that bigpared to the real number.


    And those monsters had begun to surround her.


    "��" Rea nced to the two sides and saw how the monsters looped around to encircle her.


    However, Rea didn''t care. She believed she had enough strength to kill hundreds of them without exhausting too much Magic Power. And before they managed to injure her, she should have escaped.


    ''Alright. It''s showtime.''

 Chapter 1912 Appearance

    The moment she was surrounded, Rea retracted her dragon''s transformation.


    Then, a pair of fox ears came out of her head and nine tails reced the dragon tail.


    This was her Kitsune Form.


    Rea smiled when she saw the monsters gathering their Magic Power to shoot her down. It seemed they had sensed her overbearing presence from the dragon transformation had gone, so this was their best chance to defeat her.


    But before they could attack Rea, thetter had vanished into thin air.


    "!!!" The monsters widened their eyes in surprise. Their senses were tingling and their eyes were sharper than humans, so they managed to find Rea not long after that.


    It turned out she had jumped into the air as if trying to escape from the encirclement.


    The monsters hurriedly aimed at her and released their attacks.


    Rea''s nine tails began to extend to the ground and somehow pierced the soil. After that, the tails shrank, pulling her back to the ground.


    "!!!" The monsters that attacked Rea were the ones who had ranged attacks. So, they were the ones who were supposed to attack the army.


    Now that they attacked Rea and missed, their attacks made a parabolic movement and fell on top of themselves.


    *Roar!*


    The monsters roared, trying to stop these attacks.


    Some of the monsters in charge of their protection leaped into the air and blocked it, but they couldn''t stop all of them.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred, injuring more than a hundred monsters.


    They all looked at Rea and noticed her cunning smile as if she had just tricked them.


    Rea was satisfied that her attacks could cause a lot of destruction around. And before they came up with another way to defeat her, Rea had to keep them busy.


    As expected, the moment she pped her hands, the monsters thought she was nning to use another trick.


    So, some of them charged forth, trying to stop her with closebat. This should be enough to give the rest of the monsters time to reorganize.


    But this was what Rea was waiting for. A pair of red horns reced the fox ears. There was no more tail on her back this time, but her aura was filled with bloodlust.


    "Oni Form��" Rea muttered inwardly while looking at the iing monsters.


    She saw a wolf monster pounce on her, but she took it down with a single swing. And when she made a full swing until she hit the ground, the soil split and the rocks came out like spikes, showing the strength she put behind that swing.


    The monsters were confused because their footholds became uneven, making their aims off.


    Rea took that chance to approach them. She shed one monster after another skillfully.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was impossible for one to go against an army unless they had a big gap of strength. And she already had it.


    The only thing she needed to do was to approach with one of the usable methods. This time, she chose to fight against all these monsters one by one.


    She didn''t fight a hundred monsters at once, but she fought one monster a hundred times.


    Her eyes shed as she leaped around and cut the monsters, making her way toward the monsters that wanted to attack the army.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters were trying to tell each other to stop Rea, but she was simply too strong to be stopped.


    Rea killed more than a hundred monsters in just one minute. Every sh she made took one life and she nned to continue doing it to lower their number as much as she could while preserving her stamina.


    It seemed that the monsters managed to reorganize themselves in this situation. It was surprising, but Rea also felt something fishy.


    There was no way these brainless monsters could do it. Even Rare ss Monsters didn''t have the ability. Only if they had multiple General ss Monsters or a King ss Monster could they do something like this.


    So, Rea started gathering her Magic Power around her body, providing an extrayer of protection.


    Though, it also drained more Magic Power and slowed down her speed. This allowed some of the monsters to catch up to her and surround her.


    Three monsters attacked her at the same time. Anna made a swift swing to hit these three monsters in rapid session, but due to the extra protection, thest monster managed to stop her even though it cost him his entire paw.


    "��" Rea clicked her tongue. She knew that it would be impossible to kill them easily anymore. However, this was necessary.


    So, Rea decided to regain some distance so that she could gather some momentum.


    She jumped back before leaping into the air to trick the monsters again. But before she changed into the Kitsune Form, she received a new form of attack.


    "!!!" Suddenly, Rea felt a few Magic Power fluctuations. She nced to the side and found multiple red lights appearing next to her.


    ''This is��'' Rea gulped down, feeling dangering from these lights. Her gut feeling actually linked her brain to the video Theo sent to them.


    Everything passed so fast, so she didn''t manage to confirm whether the lights were the power of explosions or not. She only trusted her instinct which was moving her body to create a barrier with the help of Genbu.


    The barrier was made of turtle shells and blocked the explosions.


    *Boom!*


    Those lights exploded at the same time, producing a huge ck smoke in the air. However, a green light came out of the smoke, falling to the ground away from the monsters.


    Rea shook her body as if she was trying to get the feel of her body again. At the same time, she raised her head and saw how her barriers cracked.


    ''Seriously?'' Rea confirmed it now. She looked back at the monster army and found several red colored Magic Power.


    The humanoid monsters that carried the power of explosions hade, but their number was far less than she expected.


    "They have appeared."

 Chapter 1913 Fighting The Humanoid Monsters

    "They have appeared." Rea narrowed her eyes, staring at these monsters. She couldn''t help but recall the video of Theo exining this type of monster.


    "When you encounter this type of monster, you have to remember three things." Theo raised his hand and formed a red stick figure along with a few humanoid figures. "Someone at our level has a new source of power.


    "The slime is dissolving our power and engraving it to the new body." The red stick figure was torn apart and gradually moved toward the new bodies. And each body only had a part of the red body.


    There was one with only a finger and one with a whole head.


    After that, Theo continued, "If you encounter them, you have to check the part where they store their power. Depending on the size of the part along with the importance of the organ, their strength will vary."


    Remembering that warning, Rea immediately scanned their entire bodies while attacking them so that the monsters would release their power again, allowing Rea to find their parts.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred as Rea took a few leaps back while locating their red spots. After finding them, Rea recounted the continuation of that exnation.


    "After you have recognized them, you have to separate them into two categories: the strong and the weak. I don''t know if they have the same consciousness or not at this point, considering the slime has dissolved their bodies again, but I want you to focus on the weaker ones first.


    "The weaker one should not be a problem for all of you. They might have the power of a King ss Monster, but their strength was only equal to an above average Mythical Rank Expert. Meanwhile, I''ve recruited all special talents whose strengths are far above average. So, I''m expecting a lot from you guys."


    Rea narrowed her eyes, putting a number on their heads. She was going to prioritize the weaker monster.


    ording to Theo, the slime would be able to reproduce them, but the slime had to move its real body to the frontline. As long as they could kill the weaker ones, they could thin out their members and prevent any unnecessary deaths from them.


    "��" Rea had noticed something and it was rted to the third warning.


    "This is thest warning. It is only my spection, so you have to confirm it first. The stronger they are, the bigger their power will be granted.


    "Why would the slime give all the power to a single Supreme Rank Monster? Using that logic, the humanoid monsters that will have the important organs and bigger parts will be Mythical Rank Experts.


    "That''s why if you find them, just dodge their attacks until you have enough people to help you. After all, the enemies this time might not only have the power of explosions but others as well."


    Rea took a deep breath, muttering inwardly, ''I have confirmed that there is one monster whose brain has concentrated energy. I have to ignore him first and thin out their number before another wave of monsterses.''


    Rea locked on the first three targets while ncing around to make sure that the enemies hit her from out of nowhere.


    It appeared the enemies refused to pay attention to her the moment these explosive humanoid monsters appeared.


    ''I am going then.'' Rea jumped with a smile as if taunting them. She wanted to see if these people had individual personalities or shared ones.


    Unfortunately for her, they didn''t show any change in their expression. Although it could go both ways, she deemed it impossible to spark some feelings in them. Of course, she wasn''t so foolish that she wanted to let the human soul take their body back since the original human had died.<novelnext></novelnext>


    She just wanted to cause discord among them so that she could win without using too much energy.


    But without that emotion, she had to stick to the basics.


    Several red lights appeared in front of her. Rea changed her transformation to Kitsune Form, increasing her speed.


    She leaped to the side, avoiding the st. But after that, she jumped back into the smoke.


    The humanoid monsters were staring at the smoke with poker faces. They simply pointed their palms at the smoke as if they didn''t care how surprising Rea''s action was.


    But right after they released their red lights, Rea suddenly emerged from the smoke, heading straight at them.


    She didn''t follow Theo''s direction as she actually approached the strongest monster first.


    The humanoid monster seemed to be confident to take her on. At the very least, it wouldn''t go down easily.


    So, when Rea was about to reach him, the humanoid monster pped its hands while the others released their detonating red lights.


    This was when Rea changed her form into Genbu. She jumped to the side and erected a barrier.


    *Boom!*


    All the red lights exploded simultaneously, engulfing the most powerful monster. Meanwhile, the barrier managed to protect Rea from both the heat and the explosion.


    This time, Rea aimed at the weakest one, who seemed to be a Supreme Rank Monster.


    She waved her sword, only to find the monster trying to use the power of explosion to st her sword away.


    This was what they should worry about. The fact that the monster didn''t care about its own life meant it could be a suicide bomber, which would lead to numerous casualties.


    Rea took this matter seriously as she changed her transformation at thest second. She turned into an oni.


    With the sudden surge of strength, she stomped the ground to increase her speed for a moment, cutting the humanoid monster''s neck.


    "One down��" Rea muttered while looking at the monster to confirm his death. It seemed everything went ording to the information. The monster was still moving and tried to harm her, but Rea waved her sword once again, separating its body.


    As if predicting her movement, the monster''s body started glowing as if trying to detonate himself.


    "!!!"


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1914 Other Battlefields

    *Boom!*


    Rea clicked her tongue while jumping away. Her shield from Genbu Form managed to block the st at thest second.


    But the impact was quite strong that Rea knew that she would be crushed if some of them ever stuck to her barrier.


    This was the power of the Explosion King. Back when he was alive, the Explosion King managed to injure the slime to the point it stopped moving for several days. So, even if it was only a fragment of his power, it was still enough to threaten Rea if she wasn''t careful.


    "��" She regained some distance while thinking about the situation. She couldn''t help but inform the headquarters first about her finding.


    "The Explosion Power is too overwhelming. If you''re not careful, you might lose your life. They don''t seem to have individual consciousness. If we want to kill them, we have to separate the fused part along with their source of Magic Power, which is in their core."


    Obviously, her information was transmitted to the others who fought on the frontline, especially the ones who had to kill them.


    ��


    Just like Rea, Ava had reached their position. However, she didn''t have Rea''s information when she engaged all these monsters.


    As a fellow monster, she tried to change the monsters'' hearts with her own voice, but because they were following a World ss Monster, her voice wasn''t that effective.


    Besides, they didn''t know her at all, so it was impossible to follow her instructions.


    Meanwhile, the humanoid monsters equipped with the Explosion Power had encountered her as well.


    To test their strength, Ava had to engage them here. At the very least, she wanted to kill a few to confirm their strength so that Ergene could think of a solution for the army.


    Unlike Rea, Ava was nning to overwhelm her enemies.


    The humanoid monsters tried to use their explosions. But the moment the red lights appeared, the lightning around Ava''s body disintegrated them.


    "��" Ava nced at them and pointed her finger at one of them. The lightning came out of her finger and flew straight to the monster.


    Thetter used an explosion to scatter the lightning, but Ava was equal to the Explosion King when he was alive. So, her lightning pierced through the explosion and struck the monster.


    The moment the lightning reached his body, it spread all over the body and started to disintegrate.


    Ava was surprised that her lightning looked so effective here. The Lightning Saint had overwhelming lightning that could destroy everything. But her lightning was a bit different.


    Even though she had a lightning element instead of a light element like her mother, she was still a Moon Rabbit.


    Her mother had moonlight that could evaporate everything. Meanwhile, her lightning possessed some simrity to the Wind Emperor. It disintegrated anything it touched.


    And this slime, who had received her lightning, felt his body was being ripped apart. He tried to use the Magic Power to resist it, but it was useless.


    The gap in their power was too big.


    The monster''s skin started melting and the slime that filled up the body started toe out, piping hot as if it was being evaporated by the lightning heat.<novelnext></novelnext>


    When it reached the ground, the slime seemed to have no ability to reattach its body and die shortly.


    "Hmm��" Ava narrowed her eyes. On the one hand, she felt this was a bit too easy. On the other hand, she didn''t want to underestimate them.


    ''Maybe my power is effective against them? No matter what, my element is lightning while their bodies are made of liquid�� and the liquid seems to be able to conduct lightning��'' Ava thought while furrowing her eyebrows.


    To prove her theory, she came toward a few other monsters and killed them one by one.


    Her theory was confirmed not long after. While the others had trouble fighting them, Ava actually managed to kill ten of them in just five minutes.


    Her lightning numbed the core, making it lose its sensation. As a result, the core couldn''t maintain the slime form and eventually got exposed to the air and died.


    All these deaths pleased Ava since she could stop these monsters by herself. But she hadn''t realized yet that there would be more monstersing toward her.


    She was too focused on killing these monsters.


    ��


    On another battlefield, Ray was panting a few times.


    "Ha��"


    "Ha��"


    Ray wasn''t tired yet since this battle had just begun. He was actually gasping for air because of the enemies.


    Unlike the other two, he actually didn''t fight against the humanoid monster with the power of Explosion.


    His enemies were actually two bonafide King ss Monsters. One was a bird with a human body, making it look like a harpy, while the other one had a full slime body, but instead of red, this slime was blue.


    The harpy had Air Order, thinning the air around Ray. This was the reason why he was gasping for air.


    Ray was a fighter who moved a lot, so he needed a lot of oxygen. And this monster prevented him from using all his strength. It could be said that his situation was the exact opposite of Ava''s.


    And the blue slime actually controlled the water in the area, including the humidity. These two worked together to make sure Ray died because he was out of air.


    "��" Ray looked at them. His face became slightly paler, but he seemed to maintain his concentration even in this situation.


    ''I guess I hit the jackpot��'' Ray smiled inwardly. He believed he should be the one fighting them because the real King ss Monsters were more dangerous than the artificial ones.


    ''How many monsters the slime actually has, especially the King ss Monsters? I have to make sure that these two die in this battle.''


    Ray was determined to kill these monsters so that the battle Theo feared would be slightly easier.


    And his situation was actually observed by Valerie, who seemed to havee up with a n.

 Chapter 1915 Rays Strength

    Valerie raised her right hand as if signaling the people to move.


    Suddenly, the people from the Griffith Family came out of the formation.


    "!!!" The two King ss Monsters widened their eyes, noticing the iing enemies. Although they wanted to ignore them, they couldn''t do it because the people who were advancing toward them were elites.


    Their numbers might only be a hundred, but there were at least ten Mythical Rank Experts in the mix.


    These ten alone should be enough to cause chaos among the monsters.


    Still, the monsters were a few thousand. Among them were many Mythical Rank Experts.


    If the Griffith Family wanted to reach them, they had to take them down first. Meanwhile, Ray shouldn''t have that much time.


    The two King ss Monsters believed Ray would be killed before they managed to help him. No matter what, they were two King ss Monsters while Ray was one. Unless he was as monstrous as Theo, he wouldn''t be able to win.


    "��" Ray nced back as if confirming the n. There were a few ns Valerie had prepared. And this was one of them.


    Ray knew that she was aiming for a certain pattern, so he would need to cooperate.


    As soon as the King ss Monsters took their eyes away for a second, Ray jumped back as if he was trying to run away.


    "!!!" The two King ss Monsters didn''t expect Ray to be running away, especially after the strong front he had this whole time. They thought Ray would be fighting to the death instead of getting humiliated like this, but they were wrong.


    They almost forgot that they were fighting against humans. For their survival, they could do whatever.


    Hence, they exchanged nods before leaping forward, chasing after him. After looking at the human army, they noticed how the enemies didn''t have another King ss Expert, so they didn''t need to be afraid of Ray.


    As long as they were together, they would win.


    The two King ss Monsters used their fastest speed to catch up to him, preventing Ray from regrouping with his people. In the meantime, his subordinates were being stopped by the Mythical Rank Experts.


    Ray gathered his Magic Power in his fist and punched forward.


    The Magic Power expanded and burst, causing a ripple in the air. The force was so strong that it began spinning, ultimately creating a tornado made of Magic Power.


    The harpy waved its wings to create a simr tornado to stop him.


    Unfortunately for them, this was what Ray had been waiting for. Instead of running away, Ray let his tornado hit his own, causing the two to burst and disperse each other.


    But there was one detail the harpy forgot because Ray''s tornado was too powerful.


    The harpy''s Order was Air, not wind. To neutralize Ray''s power, it had to go all out, meaning there would be more air infused into it.


    And Ray took this opportunity to breathe some fresh air, making sure his body got all the amount it needed to function.


    "Ha��" Ray smiled as hisplexion was restored a bit.


    The harpy, who had just noticed her blunder, widened her eyes in shock, realizing everything was within Ray and Valerie''s n.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Those experts from the Griffith Family came forward just to be a distraction.


    During that time, Ray would get into a position where he could defeat them.


    And because of his speed and their need to stop Ray, the two ended up positioning themselves between Ray and the army.


    "Activate!" Ray shouted while using his Magic Power to spread the news.


    "!!!" The monsters were confused as they looked around to see what kind of surprise the human had for them. But to their surprise, nothing happened. There were only people escaping left and right as if they hadpleted their jobs and let their leader take care of the rest.


    But the moment they thought about it, their instinct was telling them about the danger they were about to face.


    Both of them looked down. Because it wasn''t made of Magic Power, there was no fluctuation.


    And the detonator was in Valerie''s hand.


    The moment their people had cleared the st zone, she pressed the detonator.


    The monsters looked down, realizing what the humans were up to. Unfortunately, it was toote.


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred, engulfing them. The explosions didn''te with fire. The st and pure shock wave alone were enough to injure the two King ss Monsters.


    "Aaaahhh!" The harpy got struck by a few stones. Her body was normally strong enough to handle this, but there was something hidden underground. The moment it hit her body, it either scratched the skin or pierced through it.


    "This is��" The harpy saw some shrapnel nted on her body.


    Ray smiled. This was the shrapnel made by the Star Group. It came from a very powerful weapon, so each of them had the ability to prate their skin.


    "Kh��" The harpy gritted her teeth, realizing that each of them was equal to an A Rank Weapon. The injuries might be shallow, but the blood loss would weaken her after some time. She also didn''t know whether there was poison or not.


    Meanwhile, the slimepletely received the shrapnel as if it was nothing. It might pierce through his body, but because his body was kind of intangible, it didn''t do anything to him. All the shrapnel that was supposed to hit the core ended up stopping due to the viscosity.


    "��" Ray narrowed his eyes. The situation might be worse than they thought, but it was still within their expectations.


    At the very least, the harpy was injured.


    Ray took a deep breath while looking around.


    As if she had gotten tired of Ray''s trick, the harpy let out a cry.


    This cry rmed the entire army from the second wave as they turned around as if they had changed their target to Ray.


    "��" Ray was sweating while looking at these monsters. After all, this meant the enemies nned to outnumber him by four thousand to one.

 Chapter 1916 God Killing Spear

    "I am surrounded huh, but this is still within our imagination��" Ray couldn''t help but raise his vision a little bit, looking at his wife. It seemed that they had nned out everything.


    Now that the enemies had fallen into another trap, it was time for them to change their approach.


    "Shower them!" Valerie gave amand.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" The two King ss Monsters were startled when they heard the deafening sound. They felt a few thingsing toward their ce.


    They didn''t know what it was and since their targets were the other monsters, they should be fine to leave it to them since they had quite a good lineup.


    Some of the stronger ones seemed to be able to react. They used their Magic Power to form a barrier on top of them.


    But all the shells dropped on them with all that momentum, causing them to feel as if they''d just got hit by a truck. In addition, each shell exploded.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Some of the shells cracked their barriers, while some managed to break through them. There was only one barrier that managed to escape through all that without a scratch.


    "!!!" Ray nced at that monster. It wasn''t a humanoid monster, but when he took another look at how the Magic Power surrounded his body, he realized that he was camouging as a random monster.


    "That''s��" Ray gasped and immediately informed Valerie while running in the opposite direction as if he was trying to break through from the safest area. "There is another monster, neither a King ss nor a normal Mythical Rank Monster. It''s something in between. I''m afraid it''s one of them but different from the description!"


    Valerie and the monsters were shocked by different things. The monsters obviously didn''t like how Ray managed to see through their ns.


    Meanwhile, Valerie bit her lips because the situation was moreplicated than she thought.


    "HQ, they are camouging as random monsters, you have to be careful!"


    After reporting their findings to Agata, she changed the channel and informed her people. "Execute n D2."


    The experts from the Griffith Family suddenly stopped in their tracks after receiving the order.


    They changed their directions, confusing the monsters. After all, they were actually looping around as if they were trying to hit them from behind.


    Although it would be annoying, it wouldn''t really deal good damage to their rank.


    So, the two King ss Monsters didn''t bother to stop them. On the other hand, the elite monster that was hidden this whole time tried to distract them as if he didn''t believe in everything the humans were doing, so it would just stop everything.


    Unfortunately for him, the moment he stepped outside his rank, he was giving away his position.


    *Bam!*


    Three white spears made of light fell from the sky. They made a triangle with the monster in the center.


    "Huh?" The monster was confused for a moment, but their purpose was clear right after.


    The white spear released white light that would blind everyone who saw it.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The monster tried to cover his eyes, but his instinct was telling him that he would die if he didn''t erect a barrier to protect his body.


    He trusted his feelings and formed a half-spherical barrier that isted him from the outside.


    And in the instant the white light vanished, he heard bumps on his barrier. He widened his eyes because there were several spikes that came out from the spears.


    Like his instinct told him, he would die if he got hit by these spears.


    "I still have to conserve my energy, so I don''t think you will die from this��" Valerie raised his hand.


    "Huh?" The monster was confused. On the one hand, he felt the fluctuation of Magic Power. On the other hand, the fluctuation caused another wave of Magic Power to move, giving a chain of ripples that put his senses in confusion.


    The three white spears that were nted on the ground earlier suddenly flew into the sky. The triangle started to expand.


    "Prism of Judgment."


    The monster raised his hands and formed a shield to protect his body, but the triangle actually released light downwards, turning the triangle into a prism.


    The monster was inside this prism and this was the time Valerie activated her ability.


    The white translucent walls suddenly had a solid color as if isting the monster inside. After that, the white walls began to release one spear after another.


    The monster used his barrier to block all these spears without fail. In fact, he thought the spears didn''t have the power to destroy his barrier.


    Unbeknownst to him, Valerie''s aim wasn''t at this fancy ability without any damage.


    Instead, her true skill was hidden above the sky itself.


    The fluctuation of Magic Power was so high that it rmed all the monsters, including the King ss Monsters.


    "Huh?" The two King ss Monsters widened their eyes, wondering what had happened.


    When they raised their heads, they saw a huge spear creating a hole in the cloud.


    "That woman is dangerous. She might not be one of us, but that attack has the potential to break that barrier. Stop it!" The harpy stated before realizing she was the one who had the ability to fly. So, she ended up flying toward it.


    Unfortunately for her, Ray had been waiting for this. He jumped into the air and punched down with all the strength he had gathered earlier.


    "!!!" The harpy bit her lips and waved her wings, creating enough force to neutralize this punch.


    Their sh was so strong that it produced a powerful shock wave that shook the ground beneath them. And the residual of that force moved toward the prism and cracked it.


    "Where do you think you are going?" Ray smiled, looking at the harpy and the slime. "You are not going anywhere."


    While Ray stopped the two King ss Monsters, the elite monster seemed to have noticed the crack and used his power to expand the barrier to destroy it.


    But that was a mistake.


    He looked up and saw the God Killing Spear. And with him expanding the barrier, it meant it would be more brittle.


    So, there was no way the barrier would be able to stop this spear.


    "Oh�� no��"


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1917 According To The Plan

    The spear shed with the barrier for two seconds. Unfortunately, the momentum, the power, and the amount of Magic Power from this spear were simply too overwhelmingpared to the thin barrier.


    The spear cracked the barrier before crushing it into pieces. The barrier fell down like broken ss, making the monster panic.


    He gritted his teeth, trying to release another ability to stop it. However, he underestimated Valerie too much.


    As the two King ss Monsters said, although she didn''t have an Order, her strength was already approaching that stage.


    This God Killing Spear utilized its full might, causing a fluctuation of Magic Power around the area as if the Magic Power was being pierced as well.


    "Kh��" The guy gritted his teeth and tried to escape. He might not be able to utilize a huge ability that could deflect it, but he still managed to create a small barrier to give him time.


    ? The barrier was shattered in a split second, but that was enough to let him survive.


    *Bam!*


    The spear reached the ground, missing the guy''s body. Though, it still punctured the monster''s entire shoulder.


    At the same time, the spear turned the ground into a crater, making the monster''s poster unstable.


    Seeing this opportunity, Valerie pped her white wings, flying straight to this monster with her spear.


    "!!!" The monster stopped as soon as he noticed Valerie''s presence. He turned around while letting out a roar.


    *Roar!*


    Before Valerie reached him, she noticed the monsters changing their aim. Instead of the human army, they were actually targeting Valerie.


    Valerie might be strong, but fending off all these attacks was still too much for her.


    "Hahaha. You''re going to be finished. Do you think we are fighting like you?" The monsterughed for the first time, showing that he was smart enough to make a conversation in humannguage. And more importantly, it meant the monster was a General ss Monster.


    "��" Valerie didn''t have any reaction. She was staring at this monster behind her helmet as if nothing mattered as long as she could kill him.


    The monster hurriedly used another barrier to stop Valerie''s movement. He nned to use that opportunity to strike her down.


    Sadly for him, Valerie had seen through such a n since the beginning. The moment she saw that barrier, she threw the spear to the ground on her left.


    The spear suddenly had a chain attached to its back. Valerie used the chain to pull her to the side, forcefully changing her direction.


    "Huh?" The monster was dumbfounded because he didn''t expect his opponent to be able to react to his attack. He felt his opponent manage to see through his train of thought.


    Valerie, on the other hand, maintained her calm as though everything was ording to her n.


    After avoiding the monster''s barrier, the wings pped again, changing direction again.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It turned out the chain could be used not only to shift her direction but also to increase her momentum.


    With this, the monster had no time to escape. Valerie waved her spear with precision and speed.


    "Kh!" The monster raised his other shoulder to block this spear. Thetter ended up hitting the upper arm, but it only made a big wound, not cutting it like the God Killing Spear.


    After all, the moment Valerie passed the monster. She didn''t bother to look back or turn around to release another attack. She only pushed her spear backward as the Magic Power formed another spearhead.


    "!!!" The monster widened his eyes in shock while lowering his head, finding his chest being prated by a spear. "Impossible��"


    The monster never expected Valerie to be able to defeat him this easily, especially since he had received power from a King ss Monster.


    Before he fell to the ground, Valerie said, "The power of a King ss Monster is overwhelming, but the strong one is the King ss Monster. Unlike him, you can''t release its mighty power. This is your weakness."


    As Valerie said, the monsters could only receive this power after assimting with the new part. It meant their power was iplete.


    So, Valerie took advantage of thatck of skill to defeat this monster. As long as she could kill this monster before it finished adjusting its power on the battlefield, they would be able to win.


    "I''m done," Valerie muttered while ncing to the side. She knew Ray was still in a predicament.


    Sadly, she didn''t have enough strength to help him.


    Instead of giving him some help, Valerie actually did two things. Firstly, she regrouped with the Griffith Family''s squad and controlled them ording to her wish.


    She wanted to kill as many monsters as possible so that Ray would have an easier time. Even though there was only ten percent that the King ss Monsters allowed the rest of the monsters to attack Ray, she still couldn''t ignore that ten percent. In other words, Ray actually fought two monsters of the same level while worrying about the support attack.


    This situation showed Ray''s current strength. It wasn''t easy to get this strength after all.


    Valerie looked at Ray for a moment before joining the rest of the group to kill the monsters around.


    "What? They are trying to thin out our force?" The harpy frowned, feeling something wrong with Valerie''s action.


    "It won''t be possible. These people might be strong, especially that woman, but they aren''t strong enough to kill all of them. Don''t under��" The slime summoned its humanoid figure tomunicate, but before it finished its words, the slime stopped as though it noticed some movements.


    "��" The slime turned around as if trying to figure out the situation.


    But this was where it got the shock of its life. The slime saw two thousand people slipping past the melee monsters. It turned out Valerie, Ray, and the rest of the Griffith Family were only the bait. Because of the show earlier, especially Valerie''s God Killing Spear, the monsters ended up focusing on them, not realizing that the humans had slipped past their people and started approaching them.


    And by the time they realized it, it was toote.


    "Attack!" Valerie shouted.

 Chapter 1918 Sign Of Counterattack

    "Attack!" Valerie''s shout waspletely overwhelmed by the noise the monsters made. But many people knew what she said. It was clear enough what she wanted to convey, so the people who saw it couldn''t help but raise their weapons.


    "Haaa!"


    "Haaa!"


    They roared like a monster, inspiring theirrades. It created a wave of morale and was pretty effective in fighting against their nervousness, considering they were the ones that were about to sh with the elite monsters.


    They might be roaring, but their thought was as simple as, "Screw it!"


    "Haaa!"


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    The humans had reached their position and started shing. The attackers this time consisted of Fighters, Magic Warriors, and Assassins.


    They were the ones who had the highest mobility and flexibility, so they should be able to react to anything. And with their overwhelming power, they kept crushing the enemies in their sight.


    The battle that involved thousands of Supreme Rank Experts urred. The fluctuation of Magic Power was overwhelming, but because of these humans, the monsters couldn''t aim at the front, afraid they would expose themselves to danger because they had to focus on the other spot.


    In the end, the human army managed to cause some ruckus in their rank. Although it wasn''t that much for the time being, it didn''t change the fact that they couldn''t focus on the army on the back anymore.


    This meant the main army began to overwhelm their enemies, defeating the monsters one by one.


    It didn''t take too long for the monsters to get pushed back.


    Valerie couldn''t help but smile as everything went ording to n. If they yed it correctly, they might be able to capture some monsters and extract some information.


    "This��" The harpy and the slime were shaken by the development. They never thought that their overwhelming number and n would be overthrown by a single human.


    Ray might be the one stopping them, but it didn''t change the fact that Valerie was the one leading this war. She was the one contributing to this war like the angel of victory.


    After seeing how effective her n was, the morale would stay high. And with Ray leading them to get some experience in fighting together, they would be able to ovee most of the enemies.


    And this was what Valerie wanted and managed to achieve.


    Valerie couldn''t help but smile. She might not say anything, but she had shown that she was one of the War God Family members as well as her position within the family, which was ranked among the top.


    While the situation on the battlefield waspletely in their favor, the other battlefield couldn''t be said the same.


    "��" Rea frowned as she stood in front of thousands of monsters. She had been deflected again and again.


    She might not have been injured, but she was a bit overwhelmed because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t stop them. The people from the back couldn''t move either since they were under heavy fire.


    "��" Rea narrowed her eyes, locating the unique monsters. ''This is not good. I have spotted seven unique monsters. All of them have the power of explosion.


    ''But ording to the information, there should be a few hundred of them with the power of explosion alone. And if we talk about other powers, I''m afraid they have at least two thousand unique monsters.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ''Although they will be spread to other battlefields, it doesn''t change the fact that I have to face at least three hundred of them.''


    Rea was worried that the longer the time passed, the harsher the situation would be. So, she didn''t want to waste too much time just to handle these monsters.


    Unfortunately, she had been stopped repeatedly by these people. The people with the power of explosions kept sting her away while some monsters released a support fire that kept her in her position.


    If this continued, the army would be exhausted sooner than they expected. There might be a possibility of a third wave, so the army had to remain strong.


    Hence, Rea wanted to solve this problem as quickly as possible while conserving her stamina.


    ''So, how do I do this? I have noticed two things from these unique monsters. They might have the power of a King, but their strength is too low. No matter what, it''s still a ''borrowed power,'' so they shouldn''t be able to use it to its full potential.''


    Rea took a deep breath as if she had found a way to break through.


    The clue was hidden in her words.


    With that thought in mind, she jumped forth.


    The monsters used their explosions to surround her, forcing Rea to go in a different direction where their ambush was waiting.


    But this time, Rea didn''t dodge these lights.


    Instead, she was confidently moving forth as if she was nning to break through.


    The unique monsters were staring at Rea in confusion. She had done the same thing in thest few tries. But none of them worked, so they thought Rea was a fool who didn''t know how to give up one n and change to another one.


    This time, Rea actually turned into his Oni Form where she could get a surge of strength butcked in defense.


    With her exposing her weakness like this, the monsters hurriedly attacked her, making sure she was defeated in this round.


    But right before the light appeared, Rea struck the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The dust kicked up, causing a smoke screen. However, the monsters didn''t care about it since they simply used their explosions to send forth a shock wave to clean up the cloud of dust.


    *Boom!*


    In that instant, the battlefield was cleared. But to their surprise, Rea wasn''t there.


    The monsters were surprised and tried to locate her. They even used their Magic Power to sense her. But they couldn''t find any trace of Rea.


    ''Where is she?'' This was what was in everyone''s mind. It was true that they could attack the humans since Rea was gone, but Rea wouldn''t be defeated easily by their power. So, there was no way Rea had died from the previous explosions.


    This was the sign of Rea''s counterattack.

 Chapter 1919 Reas Plan

    "Where is she?" Although they wanted to ignore Rea''s disappearance, they couldn''t do it because Rea might ambush them from somewhere.


    They immediately looked in their own direction to avoid getting ambushed by Rea.


    But no matter how they searched for her, Rea was nowhere to be seen as if she had just vanished into thin air.


    The humanoid monsters exchanged looks as if they were trying to figure out the situation.


    Meanwhile, some monsters seemed to be impatient as they started shooting at the human army again, thinking the others would be the ones to take care of her.


    But from this impatience, there were a few monsters that ended up revealing themselves.


    Instead of explosion or barrier like in the other front, there was one more type of ability that stood out from them.


    It was the power of the earth.


    Three monsters stepped forward and stomped the ground. Suddenly, a huge spike appeared in front of them.


    They raised their paws at the same time and the spikes suddenly flew into the air like a rocket.


    The spikes hit the barrier made by humans. Butpared to the other attacks, these spikes dealt a lot of damage. It was proven by how the barrier ended up shaking after getting hit by these spikes.


    While they began their attacks, the humanoid monsters tried to go around the area to find Rea''s trace.


    They were confused because Rea disappeared without a trace. And thest ce they saw her was in the crater that she made when hitting the ground to create a smoke screen.


    And to their surprise, the moment they reached the crater, they saw a sh of light before they suddenly noticed they were actually looking at their own bodies.


    Two heads were sent flying as they didn''t realize what had just happened. But everything was clear from the other''s perspectives.


    After all, Rea immediately came out of the crack and headed straight at the monsters.


    "!!!"


    The humanoid monsters finally understood the situation. Rea actually hid in the crack she personally made.


    Everything was for a sneak attack that allowed her to kill two unique monsters.


    The other humanoid monsters wanted to kill her by sending another wave of the explosion, but they realized they had made a huge blunder.


    By letting the three unique monsters that controlled Earth, Rea had a ce to go. She simply went straight at them.


    They were too focused on their attacks, so they didn''t realize she wasing.


    And she was actually bringing a few red lights with her. If she stopped, the monsters would detonate the light and injure her.


    But this time, she actually stomped the ground to get the surge of energy on her foot so that she could jump to reach them in an instant.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "!!!" The three unique monsters were shocked, not expecting Rea toe here.


    Rea simply smiled at them as if she had found her shield. On the one hand, the explosion monsters had to defeat Rea. On the other hand, doing so would kill those three monsters and there was no guarantee that Rea would be defeated in a single strike like this.


    "��"


    In the end, the humanoid monsters retracted their attacks and chased after Rea so that they could get a better angle to ce their explosion mark.


    Unfortunately for them, this was the opportunity Rea had been waiting for.


    The three unique monsters tried to form a wall to stop Rea. This threeyer wall was thick and contained a lot of energy. If it was a normal Mythical Rank Expert, they wouldn''t be able to destroy it.


    But Rea was different. She was in her Oni Form, which gave her the strength she needed to crush it.


    Without hesitation, she swung her sword, cutting the thick wall like it was tofu. And the de continued until they reached the monsters themselves.


    In that instant, three more heads flew into the air. Nothing could stop Rea''s sword anymore.


    Rea was satisfied with the result. As expected, the trick to defeating them was truly hidden in her thought.


    ''No matter what, it''s still a ''borrowed power,'' so they shouldn''t be able to use it to its full potential.''


    This was the answer Rea had been searching for. They might be strongpared to a normal Mythical Rank Expert, but not the real Order Level Figure.


    Anna had been too careful this whole time, resulting in her getting stopped multiple times by those explosions.


    This time, there was no one who could stop her anymore.


    Once the three hidden monsters had died, Rea changed her focus back to the humanoid monsters. There were nine of them previously, but since two of them and three hidden monsters had died, Rea could go all out.


    "Embodiment��" Rea muttered as her form changed again. This time, she had turned into her Dragon Form, nning to cut the rest down.


    Some monsters had changed direction. They knew that these unique monsters would die if they didn''t help, so they had to save them no matter what it took. After all, they were the weapons the red slime sent.


    Rea also saw a few red lights appearing near her. This was the desperate attempt that these monsters had. As long as they could buy some time from Rea, the other monsters should be able to take over and they would once again distance themselves and regain theirposure.


    There was no way Rea would allow such a thing. When they were about to explode, Rea once again struck the ground, raising the dust to create a smoke screen.


    But this time, the monsters already knew her n. So, they sted the smoke screen and nned to continue to bombard the area so that Rea woulde out from her hiding spot.


    Sadly, they were wrong. The moment they exploded the marks, the shock wave pushed the dust away. But this also meant there was a smoke screen that moved toward them and gradually dispersed.


    And Rea rode on that smoke screen to get as close as she could to these humanoid monsters. When the cloud of dust cleared up, Rea had already reached their position and swung her de.

 Chapter 1920 Worry

    While the people were fighting in the frontline, Agata also encountered a few problems. She was staring at the map as if she was trying to figure out the situation.


    "This is not good��" Agata narrowed her eyes.


    "What''s wrong?" Felix asked while maintaining his calm face.


    "Since the spies have revealed their existence, it means they won''t stop at just the explosions," Agata exined.


    There was no need for the spy to stop. After all, they would be useless after revealing themselves.


    Theo''s group and the government weren''t foolish enough to believe the spies would still be trusted anymore. After all, it could be seen as Theo and the government giving false information because they were aware of them.


    In other words, the moment they decided to make their move, the spies had decided to go all out and make sure the n worked.


    "If we take a look at this map, it''s true that these organizations manage to keep the situation under control with the help of the police. But it won''tst long.


    "And if the spies continue their attacks, I''m afraid it will speed up the impending chaos. So, we have to find out the number of these spies.


    "If they''re big enough, they might attack these people, causing a war in the city. Or they might hit our people from behind.


    "But if they''re not big enough��" Agata fell silent for a moment as if finding a few spots. "They might be using their resources to strike an important ce��"


    "Should I ry your message to Uncle Akbar?" Millie asked.


    Agata nodded. "Tell him to find the spies. At least, we have to find the trace to figure out their number. How about the Beggar Association and the Griffith Family?"


    "The Griffith Family is fully upied due to the appearance of two King ss Monsters and a few unique monsters. There might be moreing, so they can''t give more people." Ne shook her head.


    The Griffith Family had split their forces into two before the battle started, half to supervise the battlefield while the other half to defend their area. So, theypletely had no more resources to spare. Even the organizations they had ckmailed focused on the defense inside the base.


    Though, it didn''t seem they were out of options. Ne said, "Although there are only a few left, we can ask for the beggar association. And if possible, we''ll involve the FBI and CIA."


    "Do it. Tell them that the spies might be a terrorist organization or it might only be a few elites. Nheless, they''re going to cause a huge disruption in the city, resulting in the base bing unstable."


    "Got it." Ne nodded and immediately ryed the message.


    After that, Agata pondered for another minute before saying, "Felix. I''m afraid that you are going to move sooner than expected��"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Am I going to kill them first before heading to the battlefield?" Felix asked.


    "No. You are going to the battlefield��" Agata clicked her tongue. "After looking at their patterns and numbers, I''m afraid that these tens of thousands of monsters attacking the front are just a distraction.


    "We have found about twenty unique monsters. There are Barrier, Explosion, and Stone. Theo once showed us that the Explosion alone could consist of around five hundred people. Even if we think of it positively, it should still be around two to three hundred people.


    "So, with the addition of those two powers, there are close to one thousand people. And who knows how many hidden cards we still haven''t found. So, you might go to each battlefield, assassinate them and move to another one."


    "I see, hit and run." Felix understood the situation. "But when are they going to attack the other areas?"


    "Is there any sign around the perimeter, Ne?"


    "Not at the moment. They might be elites who are capable of hiding their tracks. So, we have to be careful."


    Agata pinched the bridge of her nose. "It would be easier if they had attacked us. Anyway, we have to adjust our n a little bit. How is Ava''s situation?"


    "She is the only one who has obliterated the enemies. It seems her power works wonders to the enemy."


    "Great." Agata pumped her fist. Since Ava could hold on by herself, she could ignore her area for a bit. Ray and Rea should be able to hold on for a while, so she had to focus on the rest.


    "Tell Ruth that the enemies might already be on the way. As for the other three Transcendent Level Experts, they have to spread their numbers evenly. The enemies might attack with a small force to distract us."


    They immediately worked on their tasks, making sure the other battlefields were still careful despite not fighting. In fact, Agata was more worried about their condition since they might end up bing careless as time passed.


    After giving the task, Agata contemted again as if trying to find out about the enemy''s n. If there was Theo here, he would have baited the enemy. But Agata was not as bold as Theo, and because of his absence, she didn''t dare to be too bold because the result might be great, but the risk was also quite high.


    ''Theo is not here right now. I can''t be impatient, but I can''t be slow either. If the enemies react faster than me, they will be able to cause a chain of small disruptions��


    ''If there is Theo, it will be good to let them cause disruptions. But without him, I have to maintain stability.


    ''In that case��'' Agata marked the King of Fighters on the map. "Felix. I want you to head to this ce. You don''t have to join forces with them. After making your presence known, you are to move to Ruth, which is in the opposite direction. I''m going to call Maya to help with the transportation."


    "Got it." Felix rose from his chair. But before he could go, Ne shouted, warning them. "Ruth''s area is attacked!"

 Chapter 1921 Ruth

    Ruth was standing on top of a skyscraper. Just like the others, she had been waiting for the enemies without lowering their guard. They knew that the enemies would ambush them in one way or another, considering this was the best and most effective n. Even after knowing their n, it was hard to stop them.


    Ruth narrowed her eyes, trying to see as far as possible. She was a hunter, so there was no way she would leave all kinds of details that were happening in the background.


    While she was staring into the distance, she received an iing message.


    "The ambush should be appearing at any time now. Please stand by."


    "Copy." Ruth sighed. She lowered her head, seeing numerous people from various organizations. They hade here in order to do something because they wanted to be chosen as one of the students in the training camp.


    Theo never told them about the training camp, so it was clear that they pushed this matter to Theo because that was the only thing they could do to stop them.


    She felt a bit ashamed that they were that powerless.


    "I never thought that a boy who is only in his twenties would bear this much burden." She shook her head helplessly. She couldn''t help but wonder what they had done, wasting away their lives to have fun. In the end, they could only reach this stage when they were already so old.


    Ruth remembered the time she agreed to follow Theo in exchange for his teaching about Order. At that time, she only had her greed like these people. But after following him, she realized that Theo was truly worthy to be their leader. Even the thought about leaving the group gradually vanished from her mind.


    She closed her eyes for a moment as if swearing that nothing would pass her. She had to make sure that she didn''t be a burden and smear Theodore Griffith''s name.


    "Alright. Let''s do this��" Ruth muttered in a low voice while looking at the horizon. But at that moment, Ruth actually widened her eyes in shock.


    As a hunter, she hunted everything. Her eyes could see farther than normal experts. But there was one more thing she could see.


    "That''s��" Ruth gasped. She actually saw the dangering from afar. She could easily strike this danger with her arrow, but it would mean she was alerting the enemies.


    Instead of attacking them, she told Agata, "Enemy spotted. We''re preparing to engage."


    After reporting to the headquarters, she immediately jumped off the building, moving straight to their tent to get themander in charge.


    The one who apanied her was actually one of themanders who once fought with Theo in the previous battle. He was Nichs.


    "I''ve spotted the enemies," Ruth stated with a serious expression. "I need your help."


    "I understand." Nichs nodded. He had dispatched scouts and ced people on top of the building so that they could see around with their binocrs. But he didn''t expect Ruth would be the first one to find the enemies. He even wondered how ipetent they werepared to the people in Theo''s group.


    "I need their position and do you know about their number?" Nichs asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I don''t have their number. I can only find the ''danger'' on the horizon. And because I''m not adept inmanding these people, you''re going to help me with that. I''ll be supporting the army from behind."


    "Got it." Nichs acknowledged Ruth''s order. However, there was one problem that he managed to catch. "This is weird. There is no reason for them to loop around us if they truly want to attack us.


    "Even if they go around us, they are supposed to be farther away to avoid our detections. So, why are they��" Nichs instantly understood the opponent''s objective. Before replying to Ruth, he grabbed his radio and said, "All units, get ready. We have monsters to hunt."


    Their base became lively in an instant. Although it looked weird for Nichs to trust Ruth''s words blindly, Nichs didn''t think the same.


    Before going here, he had received a few words about Ruth. So, he knew that Ruth saw this world differently.


    And as someone who had seen the most monstrous person in the world, Theodore Griffith, he knew such a thing was possible under him. So, Nichs decided to trust her. Of course, he didn''t forget to tell the scouts to check their location to confirm it.


    Meanwhile, Nichs came out of the tent to see the situation. Though, the situation was actually peaceful. There was no monster in sight.


    However, Nichs saw this in another way.


    "This is not good. As expected, the enemies are using the monsters that are not far away from us to hide another wave of monsters behind them. So, it''s clear that other ces will be attacked as well."


    Nichs gritted his teeth. "I am afraid we have to spread our people farther away. It will weaken the link, but this is the only way."


    Ruth thought for a moment. "In that case, I''ll be protecting this area. You should go tomand the rest of the people."


    "Yes. I''m nning to move around to make sure they don''t hit us where we least expected it. But will you be fine?"


    "If we only have to defend the position, I don''t think it''s hard. As long as there is no weird maneuver, we should be fine."


    "I understand. In that case, I''ll be leaving immediately. Happy hunting!" Nichs nodded. He wasn''t worried about leaving this ce to Ruth. After all, she had extremely powerful firepower. It felt like they had multiple turrets that could decimate their enemies.


    Of course, Nichs didn''t leave her just like that. He gave her an assistant that could lead the army in his stead.


    After that, he moved away with ten thousand people. Meanwhile, Ruth stood on top of the building while holding her bow. She aimed at the sky while gathering her Magic Power on her bow.


    "Arrow Rain."

 Chapter 1922 Cannon

    "Arrow Rain!"


    She shot the arrow into the air. This action confused people. After all, they had prepared themselves for a hunt, but they hadn''t been given their instruction. And with Ruth sending the arrow into the air, it felt like they had been left out a lot. They didn''t know what they were supposed to do in this situation.


    However, everything soon became clear.


    The monsters had sensed the fluctuation of Magic Power that was moving toward them. They had expected the enemies to find them. In fact, they were the monsters that acted as bait, so they should be found.


    The moment they noticed this Magic Power, a few monsters let out a roar as if informing the rest of the pack to turn around and engage the enemies.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    One roar led to another until eventually the monsters started approaching them, causing a huge cloud of dust behind them.


    This cloud was the rm for the humans. The monsters they had been waiting for the whole time had arrived.


    They immediately pulled out their weapons and moved forward. The assistant Nichs left behind had begun to instruct their position.


    However, the first attack came from Ruth.


    When the arrow reached its destination, it suddenly turned into a circle.


    "!!!" The monsters raised their vision, confused by the glowing circle in the air. But their confusion turned into panic as the circles began to release numerous arrows.


    *Roar!*


    The stronger ones, who noticed the danger from these arrows, tried to warn the rest as soon as possible.


    Not only were they toote, but they were also in a charge. If they suddenly made a stop just to avoid these arrows, the monsters in the front would be stepped on by numerous monsters behind them.


    So, they had no choice but to take this head on.


    Of course, just like the other battlefields, some monsters released a barrier on top of them, trying to expand it as much as they could to protect the monsters. These were the unique monsters Ray encountered.


    Unfortunately for them, they underestimated Ruth a little bit too much.


    The moment the arrow fell on top of their barrier, they suddenly felt the same amount of power as the one with the stones.


    Each arrow felt like a truck and the barrier soon cracked. It didn''t take too long before the arrows shattered the barrier and started hitting the monsters.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters were screaming in pain. Among the Kings and Queens in Theo''s group, Felix might be the strongest in one on one, while Ava was on a whole different level. Rea was adept in tactics, but if one was asking who was their killing machine, it was Ruth.


    She had the biggest area of attack and each attack contained enough power to kill any monsters below Supreme Rank, injure Supreme Rank, and hinder Mythical Rank Monsters.


    And with these hundreds of arrows falling on top of them, the monsters gradually became separated because there were too many monsters that died or were heavily injured but got stepped on.


    Ruth informed the assistant with a satisfied tone. "I''ve killed around 150 monsters. They''reing from two sides, so get ready."


    "Got it." The assistant immediately instructed the people to split into two.


    On the one hand, this strategy looked foolish since they should be united if they wanted to stop these monsters.


    But the assistant had a unique point of view toward the battlefield. Knowing about Ruth''s power, he immediately asked Ruth to split them into two.<novelnext></novelnext>


    This way, Ruth could focus on one of them and eliminate every single monster as quickly as possible. He deemed this n to be much faster than any other n.


    "Attack!"


    "Don''t let the monsters pass us."


    The people started shouting when the distance between them remained only one hundred feet left. They were raising their shields and preparing their bodies.


    The Magicians and Archers had begun bombarding them with their powerful attacks, slowing down their pace.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    The shes were fierce as the humans had a hard time stopping them with so much momentum.


    The finest soldiers had gone to the harsher battlefields after all. So, they only worked with what they had left.


    However, it was fine. After all, the one who supported them was none other than Ruth.


    Ruth''s eyes were filled with bloodlust. Normally, Ruth would hunt them sneakily since she was an assassin. But this time, she didn''t mind if they saw her.


    She emitted that killing intent and all her power before pouring them into her arrow.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    She released three arrows. Each arrow actually contained so much momentum that it looked like a tank''s shell. And the arrow was made of a wind element.


    The moment they hit the enemies, the wind burst, causing a powerful shock wave that impaled them to the ground.


    The monsters were startled, but it was useless. In front of Ruth, everything was just a hitting target.


    However, the enemies were also smarter than any monster they had faced previously.


    The battle had begun for ten minutes. When Ruth was about to release her arrow, she sensed a fluctuation of Magic Power near her.


    "!!!" Ruth turned around and saw red lights. Without hesitation, she jumped off the building while protecting herself with a spherical wind barrier.


    It turned out the humanoid monsters were hiding among the monsters, approaching Ruth so that they could kill her.


    Unfortunately for them, this was what Ruth wanted the whole time. She had baited them.


    Now that their location was exposed, there was nothing that could stop her from hunting them.


    "!!!" The monsters were startled when they felt death wasing to them.


    They all looked at Ruth and tried to stop her, but it was toote.


    She had gathered a substantial amount of Magic Power into her arrow and released it.


    The arrow suddenly vanished mid way as if Ruth retracted her power. But the next thing they realized, they had been sted by a powerful shock wave. Two of them even had their limbs ripped apart by the st.


    All they could think was, ''What?''

 Chapter 1923 Arrangement

    "What is this��"


    "Aren''t the other parts of the area being protected by weaker people?"


    The monsters were muttering inwardly, staring at theplete devastation. They were attacking the enemies with all they got, but the enemies actually overpowered them with their own firepower.


    And there was one person that stood out in particr.


    She was none other than Ruth.


    A single arrow managed to kill at least five monsters and injure more monsters. And when she released a stronger attack, there would be a huge explosion. The st killed many, while the shock wave injured them. The shock wave was so powerful that itunched the monsters back to the point they injured or even killed other monsters from the collision alone.


    Unlike the other battlefields, they had put all three types of unique monsters in this ce. The barrier unique monsters couldn''t hold a candle against her arrow. The monsters that attacked from behind with their stones ended up getting sniped from afar. Last but not least, the humanoid monsters couldn''t hit her with their explosion and get hunted down after that.


    This was apletely different case from other battlefields. After all, the people banded together to defend their position while Ruth exterminated the monsters.


    This was the second battlefield where the human side managed to gain an overwhelming victory against the monsters after Ava.


    Seeing how Ruth obliterated them easily lit the fire in everyone''s heart. There was no need to give them encouragement or anything. They only needed to see the result to know that their effort wasn''t useless and the soldiers would get fired up.


    Ruth never intended for this, but it was apparent that the situation actually turned her into a hero in this ce.


    This result was reported to the headquarters.


    "Ruth''s area is secured for the time being. Her power is overwhelming the enemies, so there should be no problem."


    Felix and Agata''s expressions mellowed a bit. They felt relieved to know that Ruth could hold on by herself. It meant they only had to worry about the other three Transcendent Level Experts.


    "��" Agata wanted to celebrate a little longer, but she still had a lot of things to do, including thinking about the enemy''s attack pattern.


    "They have some suspicions. It seems that the monsters are using twoyers of attack. The first one is the one that keeps Ruth in check while the others continue to loop around the base to hit our back."


    "��" Agata pinched the bridge of her nose. "This is not good. Looking at this situation, I''m afraid their real objective is the other three Transcendent Level Experts. They arepletely avoiding us."


    Felix suddenly stood up as he had worn his long ck coat. He was ready to be dispatched.


    "Don''t worry. There is no need for Theo to make his move." Felix smiled, assuring Agata.


    Agata looked at Felix in confusion. She was also worried about the situation. But Felix seemed to have a different opinion.


    Felix believed that they would be severely weakened without Theo. However, the fact that Theo couldn''t help them in this battle was not a means to demotivate them.


    It was precisely because Theo was gone that they could finally show their own worth. There was no one that would overshadow them anymore.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Felix smiled at her as if he was telling her, ''This is the time for us to shine.''


    Agata couldn''t help but shudder. She might have underestimated them. It was true thatpared to Theo, they weren''t much. But they were once unique and talented fighters themselves.


    In fact, the others like Rea, Isaac, and Ergene were thinking about the same thing.


    ''We are here.''


    Agata closed her eyes for a moment. It seemed that she was adjusting her mind.


    "I see." Agata''s expression turned serious. "In that case, I have a task for you, Felix. Go to the south and kill as many unique monsters as possible. After that, you don''t have to help them in any way��"


    Agata suddenly paused and fell into deep thought as if she had found another thing. "No. Leave one of them alive. After that, you are free to go to the other battlefield. Focus on the three Transcendent Level Experts outside our group first."


    "Got it." Felix nodded. He didn''t hesitate to leave the room and headed straight to his destination.


    Meanwhile, Ne was ncing at Agata as if she had figured out something. She thought, ''She is extremely sly like Theo. There are two reasons why she wants to leave one alive. First of all, she wants to use them to inform the monsters who are still hiding that the enemies are far too strong and their ns are not effective.


    ''This way, the enemies will fall into confusion, causing a ripple in their n. We can strike them during that time and make them retreat.


    ''Secondly, it will allow the respective Transcendent Level Experts to kill one unique monster. It will make them appear to have contributed to this war.


    ''It seems Agata doesn''t think about this group and the big picture alone. She is also trying to not harm the rtionship between them by using this strategy. It will benefit them greatly after this war.


    ''She has seen the scenario far ahead of us.'' Ne sighed inwardly. She was truly amazed by how Agata had changed after meeting Theo.


    After confirming Agata''s state, she turned back to her monitor, trying to check the condition on each battlefield.


    However, this was the time she began to find all sorts of problems. And there was one ring problem before her.


    She narrowed her eyes to confirm it before turning around and calling Agata. "I think you need to see this."


    "Huh?" Agata was confused. Usually, Ne would report to her instead of calling her.


    Having a bad feeling about this, she hurriedly walked to her and checked what she had found.


    And just like Ne, she was also astounded by what they had found.


    "This is��"

 Chapter 1924 Problem

    "This is��" Agata gasped and pinched the bridge of her nose.


    The thing they found on the monitor was the unique monsters. It came from the Griffith Family''s scout.


    After the second wave, they knew that the enemies might send more monsters. So, Valerie had spread their spies far forward.


    And these spies had found a simr thing.


    It was a convoy. There were less than five hundred monsters in it, but there was one ring problem.


    There were at least two hundred humanoid monstersing in that convoy. And with how these humanoid monsters looked like they were equal to others, it meant the convoy waspletely filled with unique monsters.


    Yes. It meant these four hundred monsters or so were all unique monsters whose power came from King ss Monsters.


    "Kh��" Agata gritted her teeth, never expecting this kind of ambush. She finally figured out what they wanted.


    "I see. So, that''s how they want to do It." Despite knowing their n, Agata was still frustrated because this might be an extremely bloody battle.


    "What are they nning to do?" Ne asked.


    "You should be aware of the monsters looping around the base, right?"


    "Yes. Ruth said that the monsters are creating a shield to keep her at bay while the rest move around." Ne nodded.


    "If I am not wrong, those monsters are just distractions. First, they are trying to attack us head-on to show their power.


    "After that, they start attacking us from the sides and the back. Our front is the strongest, so by putting a lot of monsters and some unique monsters, they should be able to cause some ruckus.


    "Then, they will ask for reinforcement. There isn''t any reinforcement avable other than the soldiers from other fronts, especially the northern areas, which manage to keep the enemies at a standstill.


    "As soon as they send out reinforcements to help the people in the south, the monsters will attack us with full power.


    "Those four to five hundred monsters over there? They''ll be joining the fight and pushing through.


    "In this situation, not only does our troop be pretty tired, but the numbers aren''t that great anymore. In addition, the three Transcendent Level Experts from our side have been engaging the enemies in battle.


    "So, what do you think will happen if all these monsters attack us in one spot?"


    Ne gasped, fully understanding the situation. "An annihtion."


    "Yes." Agata sighed. This situation gave her a headache.


    However, Ne also noticed something. "Still, the enemies should be aware of Theo, right?"


    "Exactly. That''s why they are not going to attack us in the same spot. I believe they are going to split those monsters into three groups and attack Ava, Uncle Ray, and Rea at the same time.


    "They believe Theo will appear in one of them and send the Transcendent Level Experts to help the other front. But that still leaves one area open."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "��" Ne fell silent. The enemies thought Theo was there. So, they must think that if Theo stopped them in the Griffith Family''s area, Ray would go to either Ava or Rea. But with this, one area might be safe with two Transcendent Level Experts, but the other one would be the ce where they tasted defeat.


    So, it was clear what the enemies wanted. And their current situation became worse with the fact Theo wasn''t with them.


    In other words, they had to stop them with only Felix.


    Even Ne couldn''t give any suggestions. They werepletely locked by the situation.


    "We are going to dy them for a bit." Agata gritted her teeth. Even in the face of a tough challenge, she had to remain calm and make a decision. "Millie. Tell your father to move in a clockwise direction. After helping the King of Fighters, I want him to join forces with Ava and kill as many monsters as possible."


    "Understood." Millie nodded and immediately transmitted the order.


    "Wait a minute. If Felix and Ava join hands, won''t they be overwhelming? Shouldn''t we send Felix or Ava to the next battlefield?"


    "No. We have to get aplete victory in Ava''s area. Only in that way can we have a stable foundation to push back the enemies." Agata shook her head. It was true that they could let Ava stay there alone, but she didn''t have enough information about thebined power of these monsters. She was just afraid that the enemies were far stronger than she originally expected, causing a hole for them to exploit.


    "How about the other two battlefields?"


    "��" Agata closed her eyes for a moment. She wanted to handle this personally, but there was really no one that could lead the army at this moment other than her. So, she had to ask for someone''s help to handle this task.


    And there was a perfect person to ask.


    She picked up her Skylink and sent a message to Maya.


    "Alright. The situation should be under control. Tell Uncle Ray that he is to head to Rea on my signal."


    "What?" Ne was bewildered by this instruction. After all, it meant they would lose their most important area.


    "Just do it first. I am going to exin itter." Agata didn''t have the mood to exin it because she wasn''t sure whether Maya would seed or not.


    In the end, Ne decided to do her task while Maya received the message.


    She was sitting in her office this whole time while following the battle news. She was quite surprised to get this message, but since it came from Agata, she didn''t hesitate to pick up the Skylink and check the message.


    The message baffled her. It was a request to ask for someone''s help, and she had to handle the negotiation.


    "��" Maya''s expression darkened. But the fact that Agata sent this distress message meant the situation was beyond their imagination.


    Hence, she began formting the n for the negotiation while asking Agata for more information to convince the other party.


    After ten minutes, she finally called his number. Surprisingly, the other party epted the call so fast that it felt like he had been waiting for that call.


    So, Maya didn''t hold back with her words. "I need your help."

 Chapter 1925 Help

    "I need your help."


    "Hoh? It''s surprising for you to ask me. It seems that Theodore Griffith can''t contain the situation."


    The male''s voice was deep, but his tone was filled with mockery. It seemed that he had been waiting for this moment to mock Theo.


    However, he didn''t know that Theo wouldn''t be here to fight for them. If not, there wouldn''t be any need for this help.


    Still, they had agreed to make sure Theo''s situation wouldn''t be revealed. So, they had no choice but to step back today.


    Maya closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm her down. After that, she said, "So, I''m going to ask this again. Are you nning to help or not? If you don''t, then I won''t ask again."


    The person behind the call was amused by this statement. He seemed to find something from this conversation and asked, "It seems that Theodore Griffith won''t being out in this battle. I wonder what is happening to him�� Is he getting severely injured? Or maybe he''s doing something else."


    Maya clicked her tongue inwardly. She truly wanted to smack this guy herself, but they truly needed his help in this situation.


    So, she answered in a roundabout way. "Hmph. There is no need for Theo to make his move in this situation. It''s still within our means and capabilities."


    "Within your capabilities, huh? Then, why are you asking for my help?"


    "I''m simply giving you a chance to help so that everyone knows your contribution."


    This person fell silent for a moment as if he was thinking about it. He had guessed it right.


    Theo wouldn''t appear here. For whatever reason, they had been using Theo''s name in order to rally this massive force.


    But it also meant that Theo was in another situation. He could be recuperating after fighting World ss Monsters or he might be doing something to prepare for thest attack.


    Previously, they had told the people that Theo was preparing something and letting them handle the rest. It looked like the situation was simr to the battle against the sea race.


    However, there was something that piqued his interest.


    The man fell silent for a moment before agreeing. "Alright. I''ll help you. Where do you want me to go?"


    "To the north battlefield, specifically the area the Griffith Family defended."


    The man seemed to be thinking about it. The silence made Maya frustrated, but she maintained her silence because she couldn''t offend this guy right now.


    Luckily, the man agreed to help. "Alright. I''ll help. I''m going to prepare right now. I''m going to reach that ce in three hours. If you can''t hold them back for three hours, then there is no point."


    "We''ll stop them for that long," Maya answered with a strong tone to show that she wasn''t backing down. There was no negotiation even though Maya had prepared a few arguments.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They might be fortunate, but they had no time to think about it.


    After getting his agreement, Maya sent a message to Agata.


    ''He has agreed to help, but we have to hold on for three hours. The negotiation is sessful without any loss.''


    Maya closed her eyes after that. She felt something was amiss and couldn''t help but rise from her chair, looking at the city through the window.


    "It seems that the situation is far more difficult than we imagine." Maya frowned. She couldn''t help but stare down, finding many people roaming around the street.


    They were still clueless about how big the fight had be. It was true that they would be extremely strong afterbining forces, but they still underestimated the enemies.


    These people who still dared toe out were the ones who hadn''t heard about the danger from the spies. Though, it was better if they stayed this way since they wouldn''t be that hard to control.


    "Rea has a hard time fighting against ten unique monsters. I have no doubt that she can handle twenty to thirty unique monsters at once, but more than that is impossible. She needs help from other Mythical Rank Experts.


    "But they have four to five hundred unique monsters. Even if they split them into three groups evenly, there are still more than one hundred monsters.


    "It''s true that not all of the unique monsters are Mythical Rank Monsters, but each of them is stronger than a normal Mythical Rank Expert.


    "And currently, they are not the main force since the big slime hasn''t attacked us yet. I wonder how big the enemies will be when the big slime joins them��"


    Maya sighed. She had been preparing for everything, but it seemed that the situation was more dangerous than she originally thought. No wonder Theo said even he didn''t have the confidence to win.


    "I need more money. I''ve been using too much money in thest couple of days. I''m afraid that mypany will go under sooner orter. Although this is for humanity, if mypany is bankrupt before the final fight, it''s going to be extremely devastating for Theo as well."


    Maya was thinking about a way to handle the cash flow. She had a few options currently, but she had to consider the risk of each option.


    "I wonder how much money I have spent for Theo��" Maya sighed and returned to her seat. She opened her Skylink and searched for a number.


    It was a number with ''Richard'' name on it. She immediately called this person.


    "Good morning. It''s rare for Miss Maya to call me. May I know how I can help you?"


    Maya bit her lips. She seemed to be pained for letting this go, but she had to do it for Theo''s sake. At least Theo might be able to help her after all of this was over.


    So, she dropped a bomb�� a deal that no one could refuse.


    "I want to borrow money. The stake shall be the blueprints of my Anti Monster Aircraft as well as the three existing nes."

 Chapter 1926 Change In Battlefield

    Rea narrowed her eyes while panting. She had gained some distance from the monsters.


    When she nced back, she saw the monsters were being pushed back. Due to the huge ss, she could see that there were at least one thousand monsters that died in the engagement.


    So, she thought she had done enough for the time being.


    Although she couldn''t defeat all the unique monsters here, she at least managed to reduce their number to a third of what they previously had.


    After killing some monsters, it seemed that themander had enough people to prepare a counterattack.


    More than five hundred people, made of thebination of Fighters, Knights, and Assassins, split up from the main group and headed straight to her position to help.


    She should be able to catch some breath for a moment before eliminating the rest of the unique monsters.


    ''It should be fine to let them fight first. I''m going to catch some breath and get the status report.'' Rea turned around while waving her hand as if signaling the people to attack them.


    They could clearly see the sign and immediately sped up. The monsters also tried to thin their number, but the knights kept their shields high, maintaining a defensive barrier. There were some cracks, but they managed to reach her position without losing a single barrier yet.


    As soon as they passed Rea, a person wearing a military uniform came to her.


    "How are we going to do this?"


    "Commander Orcus, you have to keep them busy for a moment. You don''t have to push yourself to kill them. Just buy enough time for me and the rest of the people to handle the enemies before us. After that, I''m going to eliminate the rest of the unique monsters."


    "Understood." The man nodded without hesitation and immediately picked up his pace to follow these men so that he could ry the message.


    After giving the instruction, Rea finally grabbed her radio and asked, "I need the situation report."


    "We''ve killed roughly 1,500 monsters. Only a hundred of our men have died during the sh and the injured ones are being taken care of by the healing squad.


    "We have received a few reports from the headquarters. Firstly, the monsters are trying to use these monsters as a shield to keep us at bay. Meanwhile, the rest of the monsters are looping around the base to strike us from behind."


    Rea narrowed her eyes. "Shouldn''t we stop them? Do we have enough people in the south?"


    "Wait a second. I''ve just received another report��" Themander fell silent for a moment, reading the report. And he started gasping, confusing Rea.


    "What''s wrong?" Rea had a bad feeling about this.


    "The attack from the south is a distraction. The real attack is from four to five hundred unique monsters that areing here."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What?!" Rea widened her eyes in shock. "There are approximately fifteen to twenty unique monsters per defense area. Fifteen of them are held back here while the rest are spreading. How about them?"


    "Our force manages to hold them back. We have made sure to stop them with two Mythical Rank Experts from our side."


    "Alright��" Rea looked down for a moment, calcting the enemy number. "From the looks of it, they have approximately a thousand unique monsters. No, it can be more than that, but only around one thousand unique monsters that participate in this battle.


    "Still, I don''t have the ability to stop more than a hundred unique monsters at once. And even if the rest of the Mythical Rank Experts help me�� I don''t think we have enough manpower to defeat these monsters.


    "If that''s the case, I''m afraid that the enemies are going to break through before we expect it."


    While Rea was thinking about the situation, themander also gave another report. "Excuse me, but before you think about your next move, I think you have to know that the Griffith Family will be moving to our battlefield in three to four hours."


    "What?" Rea wondered how much the battle had progressed since everything had changed drastically. And the fact that the Griffith Family would be moving toward them meant they would leave that area empty.


    "The monsters will continue no matter how obvious the sign is. Agata should know about this. If that''s the case, it seems that there will be reinforcement in that area. I don''t think I have to focus on that area first.


    "Instead, I should worry about the monsters that wille to this battlefield. The Griffith Family will be here, but if we''re being breached before they arrive, then the battle is already lost."


    Rea gulped down before thinking of another instruction. "I need your help in the coordination."


    "How do you n to stop them? There will be hundreds of unique monstersing, right?"


    "Yeah. Even with the Griffith Family, we won''t be able to stop all of them. So, this will require a lot of coordination." Rea paused for a moment. "We''ll execute n C, E, and F in rapid session. If the Griffith Family has arrived, we''ll change back to the first tactic.


    "Inform each army''s captain to handle the coordination. That''s the only way to stall them."


    Themander fell silent for a moment. He was imagining what was going to happen if they executed the tactics in session. These were the tactics Rea had told him before the battle began. Since it was hard to move the army at arge scale, she programmed a few patterns so that it would be easier to execute.


    Although the movement was hard, it wasn''t impossible. Themander nodded. "Alright. Let''s do it that way."


    Rea''s area would be hit the hardest. After all, both Ray and Rea had a hard time because their power was not very effective against the enemies.


    As for Ava''s area, it waspletely safe since Ava''s ability was effective and Felix would be helping her.


    So, all that mattered was the middle area, which the Griffith Family left behind. Who was the person strong enough to change the Griffith Family?

 Chapter 1927 Trust

    On the other side of the world, Theo was closing his eyes for a moment as if he was trying to think about something.


    "Are you still thinking about them?" A deep, coarse sound came into his ears.


    Theo gradually opened his eyes, staring at the owner of that voice. It was the monster he worked with, the Space Saint.


    "Of course, I''m still thinking about them," Theo muttered with a sigh. "They are facing a huge hurdle right now, so there''s no way I''m not thinking of them."


    "But don''t forget that you have agreed to create this bridge. Before that, I''m expecting you to continue working here."


    "Of course. That''s part of the agreement. But don''t forget your promises as well."


    "Absolutely." The Space Saint nodded with a serious expression. Unlike humans, monsters had the tendency to fulfill their promises without making any excuses. So, the Space Saint would certainly do it. "I''m going to make sure to teleport you back as soon as the bridge ispleted. And I promise you that there won''t be anyone to attack you and your human race after this.


    "We are not nning to stay here anyway." The Space Saint shrugged. It was clear that he was fed up with this world. He just wanted to leave and never came back.


    And Theo wanted to make sure he got rid of them. After all, they could join hands with the slime to kill the humans. He just wanted to get rid of that possibility.


    Currently, Theo was working with a few World ss Monsters, including the Space Saint to create a tunnel that connected the two worlds.


    "I don''t understand you, humans. After infiltrating the human base a few times, I noticed their behaviors, which personally disgusted me. Why would you keep bringing down the one who has saved you?"


    "��" Theo didn''t reply to his question. Though, he knew what he was talking about.


    There were a few instances like that in the past: Theo getting hunted down by the Griffith Family or the US Base trying to harm his people.


    If he was the ruler of the monsters, it was certain that the monsters would follow him. So, he couldn''t understand why Theo still bothered to save the human race.


    Theo shook his head helplessly. "That''s where you are wrong, Space Saint. Why would you keep bringing down the one who has saved you? That''s exactly what makes humans interesting."


    "Huh?" The Space Saint narrowed his eyes, confused by Theo''s points of view. Normally, they wanted stability and loyalty. Yet, Theo actually preferred the opposite.


    Theo smiled. "After you rule the monsters, what will you do after you save them?"


    The Space Saint frowned. "I will simply go back."


    "That''s because you know they won''t attack you, right?"


    "Yes." The Space Saint nodded.


    Theo nced to the side, seeing a General ss Monster holding a huge rock. Suddenly, the General ss Monster dropped his rock and came straight at them, trying to hit the Space Saint.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What are you doing?!" The Space Saint was strong enough to react, trying to stop him to the point he used enough strength to kill him.


    The Space Saint''s finger was covered in a pink aura and touched the monster''s head. The pink light suddenly turned into a torrent, causing the head to be distorted and the brain exploded.


    "!!!" The Space Saint widened his eyes in shock because he didn''t expect that a General ss Monster would attack him. But after that, the General ss Monster vanished into thin air and the original monster was standing in his previous spot, scared still.


    The Space Saint was emitting killing intent and enough power to decimate him after all.


    But as soon as the body disappeared, he realized that everything was just an illusion.


    The Space Saint red at Theo, wanting to berate him.


    That was when Theo smiled and said, "That might happen, you know. You haveplete trust in them�� While I do admire such a thing, I can''t say I approve of it.


    "Just like earlier, your people might harbor such a feeling toward you. They only hid it the whole time�� And when you don''t expect it��" Theo''s smile became bigger.


    "!!!" The Space Saint couldn''t say anything. However, he could imagine what Theo wanted to say.


    There might be a time when he continued his life like normal, but when he was about to do something, his body would fall sick and he would soon die. And at that time, his people were concerned about him.


    He always trusted them, so he thought it was his age catching up to him. So, he ended up passing away without finding the real truth. And Theo indirectly implied that his condition was actually not a natural condition.


    He might be poisoned, cursed, or influenced by something. And that monster achieved his objective after killing him. Everything was simply because he trusted his people.


    "��" The Space Saint gritted his teeth, staring at Theo. "We are not humans. We won''t do such a thing."


    "Alright, then. I''ve warned you."


    Looking at Theo''s nonchnt expression, the Space Saint shouted, "You are sadder than me, human. You can''t trust anyone in your life, including your own partner."


    Theo smirked. "Of course, I can trust my own partner. I can trust my wife unconditionally, I can trust my people to watch my back. If not, I wouldn''t be here with you and leave the problem to my group."


    "Then��" The monster was confused since Theo had just contradicted himself. He thought Theo had forgotten what he said earlier about not trusting humans was interesting.


    As if Theo could see through his head, he said, "Well, other than my wife and my group, I trust no one�� No, should I say, I''ve lost my trust in humanity?"


    "!!!" The monster widened his eyes in shock. Theo''s expression was telling him that it was the truth.


    So, he couldn''t help but wonder why such a person would manage to reach this point and do all that for the humans when he never trusted humans.

 Chapter 1928 Doubt

    "I still can''t find any reason why you find human''s characters interesting! We are different from you!"


    Theo smiled. "That might be the reason why you lose your life in the future. Of course, I won''t tell you not to trust your people. I''m simply giving you a warning."


    "��" The Space Saint thought for a moment and asked, "Then, why can you trust your partner and your group?"


    "It''s simple. They have changed�� They are not a bystander anymore." Theo smiled.


    "Huh?" The Space Saint waspletely confused. He tried toprehend Theo''s way of thinking. But all he could think was that Theo never put any trust in humans. But when they had changed from a normal human to a certain person in his heart, that was where the trust appeared.


    In other words, he didn''t trust humans, but he trusted his people as if he never treated his people like normal humans anymore.


    Although he was not entirely correct, he wasn''t wrong either.


    Theo had lost all hope in humanity. In fact, he fought for them not because he loved humanity, but because he wanted to create a world where his wife and future generations could live.


    In other words, he wasn''t that great of a person either. He was extremely selfish and saving humans was just one of the things he needed to do.


    And this was how Theo had been walking on his path the whole time. He believed there was no need to change.


    But there was another reason why Theo talked about this to the Space Saint. He had been ''abducted'' by the Space Saint to help them. In exchange, they assured him that the monsters in their group wouldn''t attack humans since all they wanted was to return to their original world.


    And the Space Saint even added that he would teleport Theo back to the base as thanks for his help.


    It seemed the effect had be visible. There was a hint of distrust in the Space Saint''s eyes.


    After this, the Space Saint might start to fear the people around him, doubting them. Even if he could achieve everything, he would think that people would try to harm him.


    And there was one more reason why Theo wanted to do this. This world had absorbed the other world''s features. Magic Power, some nts, minerals and so on.


    So, even if they managed to go back, they would be facing a harsh situation.


    As for the Space Saint, who gave all these ideas, he would be facing a lot of criticism. In fact, it might be worse than he imagined.


    All the Space Saint wanted to do was to lead them back to their former world, but when they reached that ce, they might scorn him because of theck of resources in that world.


    And with this distrust feeling nted in his heart, he might be paranoid and stop trusting his people. At the very least, he wouldn''t be so hurt when his people began to show their distrust.


    From this day onward, the Space Saint might have to live his life in fear for the rest of his life.


    The Space Saint frowned and waved his hand as if trying to brush away this matter. "Whatever. You can think all you want about humans. All I need to know is that the way we live is different from humans."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Alright then. I won''t say anything after you say that." Theo shrugged. "You can believe whatever you want."


    "In that case, you should focus on your current progress. Remember, the longer you take toplete this tunnel, the longer you will have to stay here."


    "Of course. Have a good day." Theo smiled.


    "Hmph." The Space Saint harrumphed and walked away. He looked a bit annoyed, but he still maintained hisposure. At the very least, it didn''t look like he was disturbed by what he had said earlier.


    But he didn''t realize that Theo had entered his head. He even subconsciously nced around as if he was observing the monsters.


    Theo was smiling inwardly as his n had seeded. Even though he was ''abducted'' by the monster, Theo wasn''t someone who would go down without a fight.


    He already had another n even if he couldn''t be there for his people.


    But no one knew about Theo''s n. There was no thought about his n in his head. Even Theo couldn''t put his n into words.


    After all, Theo''s n was in the form of a vision. It was a vision where he killed all his enemies.


    But after getting exposed by Loki this whole time, Theo developed a strange habit where he came up with a n without thinking about it. And this habit continued to be developed and polished to the point he knew what to do as long as he knew his goal.


    And this was only the start.


    The monsters didn''t realize that Theo had put a ''root'' underneath the ground. The root stretched so far and would impact all these monsters.


    But whether the root would attack this monster or not, only Theo could decide it.


    Theo looked at the Space Saint until he disappeared. After that, he raised his head, staring into the bright sky.


    He couldn''t help but raise his hand, trying to grasp the sky. He was missing Agata and the others. There were also Lyrventh and Lydia.


    And with the current crisis they were facing, Theo wished that he couldplete his ns before it was toote.


    ''Don''t worry. I am doing something here. Although I can''t be with you guys right now, I know that I''ll be there on time.


    ''Even if the chance is low, I won''t stop trying until thest second. I''ll make sure to create a world for us to live in.''


    Theo closed his eyes for a moment as if trying to shift his focus back to work. When he opened his eyes again, he left one message before going back to his work.


    ''I, Theodore Griffith, never lie.''

 Chapter 1929 Barrier?

    While Theo was working hard with the Space Saint, Rea and the others were facing a hard time.


    Rea actually fell to the ground while spitting out some acid from her stomach. She coughed up a few times while raising her head, ring at the iing monsters.


    ''How did this happen? These enemies��''


    ��


    A few moments earlier.


    Rea wasmanding the troops to handle the elite monsters that threatened the army from the rear.


    "Attack. Kill as many monsters as you can. The more we kill, the easier the battle will be!" Rea''s shout was loud, but the battlefield was louder, causing only the people around her to hear it.


    Still, the moment they got fired up, the feeling was transmitted to the people beside them. Eventually, they reached the edge of their formation and gained another momentum.


    "Oh!"


    The humans roared while killing the enemies. The destruction was massive, considering there were many Supreme Rank Monsters and even Mythical Rank Monsters that shed with the humans of the same level.


    When Theo was a Supreme Rank Expert, he could unleash a powerful blow that decimated everything in fifty feet radius. And with this sh containing more than three thousand Supreme Rank Experts and Monsters, the ground had shattered.


    The remaining force also impacted the people and monsters near them, causing the battle to progress far faster than anyone could imagine.


    This waspletely a brawl between humans and monsters. If not for the fact they were maintaining their line, they would cause a lot of friendly fire.


    Everything worked well for a while. They made progress in slowing down the enemies while the original army started pummeling the monsters down. If this continued, they should be able to kill all these monsters.


    However, Rea couldn''t be happy yet, considering there was one biggest threat left.


    The fact that the monsters still had the trump card of hundreds of unique monsters, they could easily flip the situation around.


    That was why Rea didn''t fight against these monsters while she wasmanding the troops. She was recovering her energy as much as possible, trying to get into her best state before fighting those unique monsters.


    The monsters were far more clever than the ones she had ever met. They used these monsters to exhaust her.


    Rea took a deep breath while looking around, making sure they weren''t ambushed by the monsters. After all, she had seen what kind of ability the monsters had.


    "How is it?" Rea grabbed her radio and asked.


    "We haven''t found them yet. Although we want to increase our search area, we can''t do it due to the enemy''s strength."


    "I know. If you spread our force, the enemies might find one of them and get alerted. We want to let them think that everything is still going ording to their n.


    "Got it. I''ll maintain the surveince then."


    Rea nodded. She truly had a great friend to help her on this battlefield. Even though he didn''t have the strength to fight these enemies, Isaac had a lot of ways to help her, including bing a scout.


    There was no way Isaac would fail to locate his opponents.


    With this thought in mind, Rea continued ordering the people around, wanting to gain aplete victory.


    Unfortunately, fate seemed to be changing. It first came with Richard''s warning.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Not good. I''ve spotted a few sig��" Isaac wanted to say something, but his voice suddenly got disrupted by an explosion.


    "Isaac? Isaac?"


    Rea panicked. From the looks of it, Richard seemed to be under attack. He didn''t know what kind of being dared to attack her, but if she thought about the explosions, the answer was pretty clear.


    "Shit. I have to go." Rea clicked her tongue. She didn''t hesitate to jump away.


    But as a leader of this army, she didn''t forget to lock eyes with themander. She put her fingers in front of her eyes before pointing them at themander as if telling him to watch out.


    Meanwhile, Rea went straight to the location where she sent Isaac and the other scouts.


    She was worried that they would be facing those unique monsters at once.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Multiple explosions urred not far from her. She wanted to fly into the sky to check, but she could see a huge barrier that surrounded the area.


    "Not good. They are trapped inside the barrier?" Rea hurriedly used the radio to check Isaac''s condition. "Hey. Come in! Isaac!"


    The sound remained static as if they didn''t have any connection inside. Rea gritted her teeth while transforming into Oni Form.


    She had to break this barrier even if it cost her a lot of energy.


    The red horns on her head started to shine as the redness of that horn was transmitted to the de, dyeing it.


    She took a deep breath while gathering a vast amount of Magic Power into her sword. Her mind couldn''t help but recall what her father did with his unique sword art.


    As if trying to imitate her father, Rea raised her sword the way her father did.


    But Rea also had her own path. If her father''s path resulted in a strike that could cut everything, her sword strike came from the power of the demon.


    "Haaaa! Singr Strike." Rea shouted while swinging her de down. The red sword shone as its red color suddenly moved toward the barrier and extended to the top.


    And from that red color like a sticker, the barrier started to crack as if there was a hammer cutting it from the ground. This was her most powerful sword strike, the Singr Strike. It might not be able to cut everything, but it crushed everything.


    The crack started to fall apart and the sound of the explosions began to echo in her ears again.


    *Cling!*


    The barrier ultimately shattered like sses, falling into the ground. Rea wanted to head inside immediately, trying to find Isaac.


    But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Isaac and Walker actually appeared before her, almost passing her.


    They recognized each other. But before Rea could say anything, Isaac already shouted with a frantic tone. "Run!"

 Chapter 1930 Trap

    "Run!"


    "Run?! What?" Rea waspletely bewildered by that statement. She didn''t know what was happening, but after connecting the barrier and Isaac''s voice, she knew that they had been trapped inside.


    Although it was for a brief moment, she managed to see Walker''s condition.


    Without hesitation, she followed them while checking them again. As she saw earlier, Walker actually lost a few fingers. Isaac was fine, but he was covered with bruises and superficial wounds.


    "What happened?" Rea asked, trying to get some information.


    Suddenly, she felt a few Magic Power fluctuations and transformed into the Genbu Form. She activated the turtle shield to form a barrier that isted them from the outside.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions hit the barrier, cracking it. Some parts actually crumbled, showing the power of these attacks.


    "Kh." Rea gritted her teeth.


    "We''ve been had," Isaac exined while looking at Rea. Now that she was there to protect them, he could finally get some time to catch his breath and exin the situation.


    "The enemies are already aware of our position. So, while we were scouting their area, they also used many monsters to form a huge barrier to iste us, turning that dome into a hunting ground.


    "��" Rea was speechless. She never thought the monsters would be this cunning and powerful. "How many are they?"


    While asking for information, Rea kept using either her shield or sword to stop these relentless attacks.


    "I don''t know, one hundred? Two hundred? I don''t think it''s more than two hundred monsters. But all of them are extremely strong. I''m afraid they are the group of monsters you informed us earlier��"


    "Have they split up?" Rea frowned, feeling something was amiss. On the one hand, they were already aware of their arrival. On the other hand, barely thirty minutes had passed. Although they were strong, there was no way to reach this ce within thirty minutes.


    "This is not good�� Are they a separate force from the one we''ve seen?" Rea clicked her tongue and tossed her radio. "Contact Agata and tell them about the situation. Tell her to check the enemies again to see whether they have reached this area or not."


    Isaac nodded with a serious expression.


    While he was reporting the situation, Rea kept blocking all these attacks. She could see a few monsters following them, but there should be more that maintained their cover so as to avoid Rea''s detection.


    It seemed that the enemies were trying to execute another n as if they had expected this kind of reaction from Rea.


    Rea gritted her teeth, trying to figure out the situation. "What should I do now?"


    Rea wanted to check the other scouts, but her group was more important. And they could give many excuses for thatter.


    For now, they had to focus on the current enemies.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Another wave of explosions hit her. But right after Rea blocked these explosions, she suddenly changed her form into that of a dragon.<novelnext></novelnext>


    She gathered a huge amount of energy into her sword and thrust forth, releasing a dragon.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon let out a roar to intimidate its opponents while destroying all the obstacles in its way.


    The dragon eventually reached the unique monster and exploded as if it hit the monster.


    But when everything was clear, Rea could see two monsters standing behind a barrier. It was a concentrated barrier made by multiple unique monsters who had barrier ability.


    "This is certainly not good��" Rea''s expression turned grim. She had two predictions.


    First, the enemies would gather in one ce and break through with their overwhelming power. This tactic would give them a hard time since Rea had to mobilize all forces just to stop them alone.


    The second possibility was that the monsters actually split up, causing Rea to not know where she should focus.


    The most effective option would be the second one, but with how the monsters worked, she doubted they would do it. But the possibility was there due to how smart the enemies were.


    While she was thinking, she instinctively formed another barrier to block an iing presence.


    "Huh? There''s somethinging from the left��" Rea turned around and saw another human. But with the red-colored energy around his palm, Rea was sure that this person was the humanoid monster.


    She tried to block his attack, but to her surprise, a red light suddenly appeared within the barrier.


    "Huh?" Rea was utterly shocked. This was the first time she saw an explosion inside her barrier. After all, this wasn''t supposed to happen since her barrier managed to block even the flow of Spiritual Energy.


    But she soon changed her mind when she felt a little bit of a leak in her shield.


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes in shock and enveloped her body with Spiritual Energy.


    *Boom!*


    Rea was engulfed by the explosion, rming Isaac and Walker.


    "Rea!" Isaac tried to look inside the smoke while stopping, ready to provide some support for her. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Rea was actually flying toward them and falling into the ground not far from them.


    So, Isaac didn''t have the chance to stop.


    "Rea! Are you OK?" Isaac asked out loud while trying to reach her.


    Walker, on the other hand, released his chains and sent them around to buy a few seconds for them.


    Rea clicked her tongue while raising her head, trying to regain herposure.


    She managed to protect herself at thest second, but the impact was still hurt enough to injure her. Luckily, there was no internal injury.


    She was thankful for Isaac''s concern, but those few seconds were actually used by the enemies to catch up to them.


    And by the moment she stood up, she saw some monsters stopping as if they had reached her and some were trying to surround them.


    "!!!" Isaac''s body shook, seeing the Magic Power fluctuation. "This is not good. There are 120 monsters in this ce�� roughly. And all of them have a different color of Magic Power."

 Chapter 1931 Reas Full Strength

    "This is not good. There are 120 monsters in this ce�� roughly. And all of them have a different color of Magic Power."


    "��" Rea frowned, looking at this abnormal situation. She never thought that the enemies would be able to outsmart them like this.


    There was one thing that she couldn''tprehend. The monsters were supposed to be in another location and the distance couldn''t be crossed in thirty minutes.


    Yet, these monsters somehow reached their position within that time. On the one hand, she felt like there was another variable that they hadn''t ounted for. On the other hand, no monsters had that ability.


    Unfortunately, Rea didn''t have time to search for the answer. After all, they were surrounded by all these unique monsters with Isaac and Walker near her.


    Suddenly, Walker stepped up as if trying to protect them. "Leave them to me. I''ll buy you some time for both of you to escape."


    "Walker!" Isaac furrowed his eyebrows while looking around. To their surprise, the monsters hadn''t attacked them yet. It felt like they were waiting for them to fall into despair.


    "I have fulfilled everything I want in this life. Thanks to Theo, I can even avenge my fallenrades. That''s why I have no more regrets in this world. If my life can be used to pave the way for the next generation and Theo''s glory, then I can''t find a better way to die."


    Rea''s body was shaken. Walker hadpletely given up because the situation was far worse than they had imagined. Walker knew that he was being a burden, so instead of bing one, he chose to sacrifice his life so that Rea could bring Isaac away.


    This was the best option they had since the human side still needed Rea. If she fell here, the human army would copse and the enemies would crush them.


    However, there was no way Rea wanted to abandon Walker. Theo had recognized her as his disciple. Back then, she had sworn that she would show the world what it meant to be Theo''s disciple.


    Theo had been using his mind to make sure they got their victory without sacrificing his people.


    So, if she truly let Walker die here, she couldn''t call herself Theo''s disciple anymore. This was the biggest disgrace she would ever have and couldn''t be washed away by anything in this world.


    Rea gritted her teeth. "No. Walker, you bring Isaac away from here. I''m going to stop them here."


    Walker wanted to remind her that she couldn''t fall here, but Rea suddenly released all her Magic Power to tell him that it was an order.


    At the same time, a pair of horns appeared on top of her head. It was the Oni''s horns. They were sharp and smooth red horns unlike the dragon horns that had branches.


    This was supposed to be a transformation to Oni Form, but surprisingly, there was a dragon tailing out of her back. Her eyes turned red and started emitting bloodlust, but her skin was covered in dragon scale.


    Suddenly, a dragon head came out of the ground, letting out a roar. But this dragon head wasn''t gold. Instead, it was red and filled with bloodlust.


    *Roar!*


    The roar also didn''t emit the sound wave like usual. Instead, it was sending killing intent in all directions.


    Rea looked at Isaac and Walker, stating with a cold tone. "Leave."


    "!!!" This was something Walker and Isaac didn''t know about. It seemed that there was still hope.


    This transformation might be Rea''s trump card, so they had to leave as soon as possible to avoid bing her burden. A huge amount of Magic Power was leaking from her body after all.


    Without hesitation, Walker grabbed Isaac and started running again.


    The unique monsters immediately formed a few barriers to stop Walker and released various attacks from the explosion marks to iing boulders.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Keep going!" Rea shouted.


    Walker didn''t turn back, following Rea''s order. Suddenly, a dragon head swallowed them. They didn''t harm them, but the explosion marks instantly disappeared when the dragon hit them.


    And the dragon kept going straight and shattered all the barriers, leaving only a few boulders in the sky.


    These boulders weren''t a problem for Walker. He summoned his chains from his back and pierced through all these boulders.


    After that, the chains moved away, throwing the boulders to the nearby monsters.


    Although it could buy them some time, there were still monsters in front of them. They were releasing their Magic Power, preparing to take them head-on.


    However, Rea suddenly disappeared.


    "!!!" The monsters widened their eyes, trying to find her. But their instinct was telling them to look to the left.


    And their instinct turned out to be right. Rea actually appeared on their left, but it was toote.


    Instead of the previous form, she now had nine fox tails as well as a pair of wings on her back. Her eyes turned sharp like a fox, but her skin reddened as if she was being burned from the inside.


    Rea only took a single nce to locate all the monsters and waved her hand.


    The monsters felt the danger, but before they could react, their bodies and head were already severed.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    For an instant, her sword was extended and cut all the monsters along with the trees in the area.


    It was swift, precise, and deadly. This power was something no one had ever seen before.


    But this kind of overwhelming power also had a price.


    Rea suddenly spat a mouthful of blood and fell to her knees.


    "Gah."


    "!!!" Walker and Isaac panicked. They were worried, but Rea red at them as if telling them to keep moving.


    Walker could only grit his teeth, taking the opportunity Rea had given to escape. As long as he had put Isaac in a safe ce, he would go back to assist Rea.


    With this, the two managed to escape and Rea stood back up with her sword in her hand.


    She looked at more than one hundred unique monsters and smiled. "This is the second round."

 Chapter 1932 Full Potential

    This was the first time Rea unleashed this power on the battlefield. Theo once showed her that she could actually merge her embodiment, creating a new form of embodiment.


    And she had been working on it the whole time. This was the answer that could allow her to reach her father''s level despite being less talented.


    However, it was still too early for her. Every time she used it, her Magic Power would be drained and her condition would deteriorate quickly.


    This looked like when Theo first had his Alter Ego.


    ''I have been training this ability the whole time. Tobine two embodiments at once is to merge the existing temperament and power. They are different, so the two embodiments will sh in my body.


    ''I''ve been using my energy and Magic Power to suppress them, but I don''t think I will be able to use them for too long.


    ''Still, buying some time for them should be enough. As long as I can push them back for at least thirty seconds, they won''t be able to catch up to those two.''


    Rea smirked, pointing her sword forward. She saw the monsters trying to loop around her so that they could chase after Walker and Isaac.


    However, Rea simply waved her de upward, releasing multiple sword strikes that suddenly turned around, chasing after these monsters.


    Some monsters managed to avoid it, but some got injured to the point one of their limbs got torn off. There were even three monsters that died with that simple sh.


    Unfortunately for them, that sh couldn''t be called a simple sh since she had changed the fox form into the Genbu Form before mixing it with the Tengu Form.


    Those sword strikes would move like the snakes in Genbu Form, chasing and killing their targets.


    That was why they had a hard time escaping these attacks.


    It seemed that the monsters had changed their target. Since Rea was themander, it would be better to kill her here and show her body to the humans. This way, they would be able to destroy their morale.


    Their thoughts were synchronized and their bodies stopped for a moment, turning to her.


    "Hoh. It seems that they''re going to focus on me. That''s perfect." Rea muttered with a smile. Despite knowing she was in the battle between life and death, she was smiling as if she could finally experience a battle of this level.


    There was always a feeling in her heart whenever she fought under Theo. She always convinced herself that she would be fine since Theo had calcted everything.


    But this time, that feeling never appeared.


    ''Theo won''t be here. If I make the wrong move, I will die��'' Rea suddenly felt something she had never felt before. Before Theo, her father''s position would protect her.


    This might be the first time she had to use her strength alone to escape death.


    "Hahaha�� What is this feeling��" Rea muttered with a smile. She might have gone crazy that she felt thrilled in this situation.


    ''Magic Power, flow in my body��'' Rea somehow could move her Magic Power better. And despite the current condition, her head couldn''t be any cooler.


    She had a clear vision and managed to capture every little detail.


    The unique monsters wouldn''t allow her to attack them. They employed a barrier to protect themselves while the explosion unique monsters pointed their palms at her.


    The explosion marks appeared all around her body, but Rea had no sign of moving.<novelnext></novelnext>


    *Boom!*


    All those marks exploded, swallowing her.


    The smoke they produced was big. They thought Rea had died from the explosions since she took them head-on.


    But suddenly, a shadow emerged from the smoke as the figure waved her sword, cutting another ten monsters down.


    The figure was none other than Rea. She was actually unscathed.


    The monsters were confused, but when they saw her state, they realized how Rea managed to block the explosions.


    The shield from the Genbu Form actually turned into a scale thatpletely covered her. This wasn''t possible before. But she hadbined the Genbu Form with the Tengu Form, which embodied the Magic Power and Breathing. The former helped with the shape, while thetter strengthened it.


    Rea was unstoppable in this form. Even the unique monsters thought they had made a mistake. It was impossible to kill Rea.


    "Hahaha,e!" Reaughed. She knew she didn''t have a lot of time left, but as long as she could kill half of them before leaving, it would help the battlefield tremendously.


    She used the Tengu Form to fly and changed her Genbu Form into the Oni Form. A single sh from her killed multiple unique monsters.


    ''Stop her!'' This was the thought that appeared in every unique monster''s mind.


    However, they couldn''t stop the current her. All the barriers were rendered useless in front of her overwhelming power. The stone couldn''t catch up with her speed and the explosion couldn''t mark her.


    This was Rea''s power and in this one situation where she had no more people to protect her that she finally unleashed her full potential.


    Unfortunately for her, the excitement turned into despair. Fate simply didn''t do her justice.


    *Bam!*


    She suddenly felt Magic Power fluctuation in front of her face which hit her down. She didn''t even realize that she had already fallen to the ground.


    "What?" Rea coughed a few times while trying to figure out the situation. She raised her vision while muttering, "What happened? How could I fall to the ground?"


    And that was when she saw four figures in the sky. Each figure was emitting extraordinary strength and their Magic Power was in a different color.


    They didn''t possess only a part of that power. Instead, their whole body was covered by it.


    A thought suddenly appeared in her head.


    That was right, the slime had been expanding his territory ording to Theo, absorbing and defeating King ss Monsters. However, they never asked this question.


    ''How many King ss Monsters have the slime absorbed and how many of them have submitted to the slime?''


    In the air, there were four King ss Monsters ring at her.

 Chapter 1933 Worst Case Scenario

    "Are you kidding me��" Rea gritted her teeth, ring at these four King ss Monsters.


    The same applied to the other battlefield as well. They never intended to hit the enemies from the back. After all, Theo''s group should already know this was their intention.


    And the spies even confirmed it.


    Hence, the tactic changed. Instead of hitting the enemies from the back, they would attack them head-on, but with a few more tricks.


    ��


    On the Griffith Family''s battlefield, Ray also crashed to the ground far away from the enemies after being sted by an invisible attack.


    He immediately rose from the ground and checked the situation, only to find more King ss Monstersing their way.


    "This is��" Ray gasped while ncing at Valerie, wondering if she also calcted this.


    "Impossible��" If she didn''t wear a helmet, people would be able to see how pale her face was. "The enemies didn''t attack us with two King ss Monsters but five?"


    Yes, there were three more King ss Monsters that suddenly appeared to turn around the situation.


    ��


    Ava was in a better situation. Due to her hearing as a Moon Rabbit, she managed to find the lurking enemies before they ambushed her.


    She hurriedly stepped away, telling the enemies that she already knew about the ambush.


    And just like that, four King ss Monsters appeared.


    "Hmm? To think there are four of them here and the situation bes moreplicated if I add these unique monsters��" Ava muttered in a low voice, staring at the enemies.


    She never expected she had to fight against four King ss Monsters and many unique monsters.


    It was clear that they were trying to crush them.


    "Are they trying to invade the base through this battlefield?" Ava asked Ergene.


    "I''m afraid not."


    "How do you know?"


    "Because I''ve just received that the Griffith Family are facing five�� And we haven''t received any reports from other battlefields. Just by looking at this situation, it''s clear that Rea should also be facing around this number."


    "��" Ava furrowed her eyebrows. "Things are getting dangerous."


    Ergene didn''t say anything, but it was clear that if they didn''t do something, they might lose this battle.


    However, this number didn''te without any calctions.


    Obviously, Agata also managed to see through their ns.


    "No way��" Agata gasped, staring at the map with the new data. "If Rea is also facing four King ss Monsters and multiple unique monsters��"


    Agata''s face became pale. "The enemies are going all out to attack us. The slime might join us�� But Theo didn''t tell us about the slime''s attack�� Does that mean they''re not attacking us for real this time?<novelnext></novelnext>


    "If that''s the case, how do you expect me to figure out their intention in this attack?"


    Agata gritted her teeth. She was racking her brain, trying to figure out the situation. At one nce, it was clear that the battle was as good as defeat.


    However, there was one thing that could bnce this situation.


    It was Theo''s existence.


    Theo simply had to show his face on this battlefield once and the situation would turn in their favor.


    After all, Theo still had his clone, which was extremely useful for protecting one battlefield. In other words, Theo alone could save two of them right away, leaving only one more battlefield to handle.


    And there was still the Time God and the Mafia Queen. The enemies got a hunch about the Mafia Queen and the Time God shouldn''t make a move right away to control the situation inside the base.


    But it seemed that they were forced to make their move if they didn''t want to lose in this battle.


    But Theo wasn''t here. Even if the Time God and the Mafia Queen came to the battlefield, they stillcked one more person capable of turning around the situation.


    "Kh��" Agata bit her lips. As the mastermind behind all themands from the headquarters, Agata had to find a solution to this situation.


    After all, she shouldn''t admit that Theo wasn''t on this base currently and had no way ofing.


    "What should we do��" Agata kept muttering this question. She had toe up with a n fast before the frontline copsed.


    Ne, on the other hand, felt another intention in this attack.


    "If they think they can attack us while knowing Theo is here, then there''s no way they won''t send a World ss Monster.


    "But judging from the situation, I don''t think they''re nning to send a World ss Monster in this battle.


    "What if they''re not nning to attack us for real?"


    "!!!" The question connected all the dots in Agata''s head. "Wait a minute. What if they attack us for the sake of revealing Theo''s trump card?


    "I have seen them using their abilities to suddenly move those unique monsters to their respective battlefield�� I''m afraid that the enemies are using that ability to catch us off guard.


    "This way, Theo has no other way but to use his clone on the other two battlefields. Meanwhile, the Time God and the Mafia Queen haven''t participated or made their preparation, so it will still be a while for them to arrive.


    "In other words, they''re trying to force Theo to use his trump card on the third battlefield.


    "This must be their n!" Agata gasped. It turned out that the enemies never expected to win this war. They simply wanted Theo to reveal all his trump cards so that they could counter it during the next battle, which was also the final battle.


    They were utterly yed by the enemies this time.


    Despite knowing their intention, Agata still had no way to solve the problem. After all, Theo wasn''t here.


    "Are we going to ask for the Mafia Queen''s help?" Ne asked with a serious expression.


    "Can she arrive at the battlefield fast enough?" Agata shook her head helplessly. First of all, she didn''t want to reveal the Mafia Queen since Theo had said so. And she knew that the enemies would be able to break through before the Mafia Queen arrived.


    In other words, they had been cornered by the enemies.

 Chapter 1934 Resolve

    Ava gnashed her teeth while staring at the enemies. She had used her battle form and emitted a powerful killing intent.


    The lightning had rampaged all around the battlefield, shattering the ground.


    "I can''t find any reason for you to help the humans." One of the King ss Monsters said.


    "I should say the same thing. You don''t have any reason to help that slime." Ava snorted. As a monster, she obviously knew the current state of the area around her. After all, she and her master, the Lightning Saint, had been living near the slime''s territory.


    In fact, they had been observing the slime for a while. They were worried that the slime nned to break the bnce in this world. So, they were nning to make their move in case something happened.


    But before they managed to do it, they realized that Theo was living nearby and ended up helping Theo. After all, Theo wanted to deal with this slime.


    So, Ava knew that these King ss Monsters weren''t supposed to be under the slime''s reign. They were the scattered King ss Monsters who had no Saint to serve.


    However, no matter how they tried to glorify it, there was no way they would serve the slime. Just like the Explosion King, they should know what it meant to be under the slime.


    The King ss Monsters didn''t mind bing a vassal of a Saint, but they, by no means, wanted to be a ve.


    But these four were clearly the slime''s ves.


    So, Ava didn''t want to be judged by them.


    Ava took a deep breath.


    ''These three monsters are weaker than me, but that one��'' Ava paused, staring at a monster that looked like a deer. However, she could feel that her power far surpassed what she showed right now. ''That monster seems to be at my level or even stronger than me. It seems I have to get serious if I don''t want to die here. Felix should being over, but who knows when he will arrive�� I am not a battle expert, but there''s no guarantee that they don''t try to divert our attention by sending another King ss Monster to other battlefields��''


    Ava took a deep breath as her face turned serious.


    Since she was outnumbered greatly, she had to make the first move.


    "Ergene. Can you help me distract some unique monsters?" Ava asked.


    "Are you going to fight these four by yourself?"


    "There''s no other person that can help me right now. So, if you can distract those unique monsters, that''s enough. I should be able to buy enough time until Felix arrives��"


    Ergene was shaken. It was clear that it was impossible even for Ava to handle all these four monsters. But they truly didn''t have another person that could stop them.


    So, Ergene swore in her heart that she would make sure to get all the unique monsters away from her. This way, Ava could focus on fighting these four King ss Monsters.


    ��


    Like Ava, Ray Griffith was also nning the same thing.


    Ray said, "There are still more than two hours for the reinforcement to arrive. So, I''m going to fight all these five monsters here. Valerie, I need you to distract the rest of the monsters��"


    "Are you insane? There are five King ss Monsters, you know." Valerie''s concern was justified. After all, most people didn''t know the stage after getting an Order. Because of this very reason that they believed the monsters were stronger than them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    In other words, one King from the human side had little chance of winning against a King ss Monster, let alone five of them.


    However, Ray had decided.


    "This is the only way. You should know about our situation already�� We don''t have anyone to rely on right now, so the only way to escape this situation is to wait for reinforcement. I just hope that the reinforcement is strong enough to kill them."


    Without waiting for her reply, Ray had stepped forward with a grim expression.


    It seemed that the King ss Monsters were surprised by Ray''s determination. However, they still didn''t have any intention to give a handicap. After all, their mission was clear. It was to destroy humans.


    One of the King ss Monsters said, "You are a very brave human. You might be able to win if you fight us alone, but there are five of us now. Even your army can''t help you deal with the rest��"


    Ray smiled while releasing all his Magic Power.


    "!!!"


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    Ray''s Magic Power was violent and robust. The moment all of them came out, they were causing multiple shock waves and the ground around Ray started to crack.


    Ray smirked while waving his hand, provoking them. "Is that so? Then, let me see if you five can kill me today."


    ��


    Rea had also arrived at the same conclusion that the enemies were far too strong to handle, but they had no other choice than to stop them.


    But in Rea''s case, she was far from the army, so there wouldn''t be any helping to handle all the unique monsters.


    That was why her situation was the most severe.


    "You should just give up, human. You might be strong, but we are far stronger than you." The monster was looking down on her.


    Rea was surrounded by four King ss Monsters and close to one hundred unique monsters. That number of unique monsters alone could be equal to two King ss Monsters.


    So, it was clear that there was no way for Rea to even escape, let alone survive.


    Rea smiled. "You are underestimating me too much. Do you think I can''t fight all of you?"


    The monsters shook their heads, thinking Rea was too foolish. She might be able tost longer if she was at her peak, but because she had exhausted a lot of Magic Power to let her friends escape, they were sure she would die within a few minutes.


    The three battlefields were now experiencing the worst-case scenario that even they couldn''t predict.

 Chapter 1935 Sneak Attack

    Rea looked at the enemies while releasing her Magic Power. However, she was only one person. In front of her stood four King ss Monsters as well as many unique monsters.


    The moment they released their Magic Power, the ground started to shake and the wind began to swirl around violently.


    Looking at the difference alone, it was clear that Rea wouldn''t be able to survive.


    Still, Rea didn''t lose hope. She knew that this was the greatest ordeal in her life, especially now that there was no one standing behind her.


    However, she knew that the reinforcement would being. The human army should immediately move forward the moment Isaac and Walker arrive.


    She was waiting for that chance to catch some breath. Although it was still impossible for humans to defeat these many powerful monsters, she believed they could hold them back for a while. So, the battle wasn''t lost yet.


    With that thought in mind, Reabined the Dragon Form and Tengu Form in order to fight against these monsters. The Dragon Form had a robust vitality and the Tengu Form had extraordinary control over Magic Power. These two were the best in keeping her alive while stopping the enemies.


    The monsters immediately roared the moment they saw Rea using her transformation. She knew that they couldn''t let her regroup with the human army.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The roar caused a chain reaction from the rest of the monsters as they began charging forth. The King ss Monsters also got a tacit understanding.


    They split up, trying to surround Rea from all directions.


    Rea knew their aim, so she immediately turned around, running away.


    The unique monsters stood in their way, using barriers and explosions to stop her.


    It took Rea a nce to see through their patterns. But if she started following their patterns, the other King ss Monsters would be able to catch up to her.


    So, she exerted a lot of Magic Power and formed a dragon. This dragon was different from the usual. After all, she had the help of control from the Tengu Form.


    The moment the dragon came forth, it released a roar.


    *Roar!*


    The roar reverberated the ground and shook the trees. There was so much Magic Power contained in that roar alone. And more importantly, that roar actually hit the barrier, striking not the barrier, but the Magic Power that built the barrier itself.


    In that instant, the barriers shattered like sses and the explosion marks disappeared as if they were being disintegrated.


    The unique monsters gritted their teeth, trying to stop her. However, Rea was still strong enough to handle them as a Transcendent Level Expert.


    Unfortunately for her, the one that was tasked to overtake her was a fox. The fox moved so fast that it suddenly appeared in her way as though it used teleportation.


    "!!!" Rea was shocked. She was confident that no unique monsters could stop the current her who couldbine two transformations, but a ''real'' King ss Monster was a different case.


    She waved her de, extending it with her Magic Power. She nned to use the momentum of this long de to push the monster away while there was still distance between them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    But the monster didn''t seem to be afraid of this swing. Instead of running away, the fox actually concentrated all the Magic Power it could muster on its throat.


    After that, the monster released a powerful breath that shot like a blueser.


    The moment their two Magic Powers collided, the world seemed to be split into two. The blue color came from theser, while the gold one came from Rea''s Magic Power.


    Still, Rea had a trick in this de extension. The moment the two energies shed, Rea revealed the trick hidden inside the de.


    In that instant, the de extension shrank before changing its shape into a huge dragon head.


    This dragon head swallowed the energy and made its way toward the King ss Fox.


    "!!!" The fox was quite amused by Rea''s power, but it, by no means, feared this level of power.


    The fox waved its tail, releasing a crescent-shaped Magic Power. The amount of the Magic Power was surprisingly higher than the beam as if telling Rea that she was tricked into thinking the beam was the best the monster had.


    And this crescent-shaped energy soon struck the head. There was a sh of Magic Power, but it onlysted for a second before the crescent-shaped energy split the dragon into two.


    It was clear that the fox was stronger than Rea, but it wasn''t that much better. After cutting the dragon, the crescent-shaped Magic Power vanished into thin air as if it had exhausted all its energy.


    With this, the monster and Rea had no other way but to stop each other in closebat.


    Obviously, Rea didn''t have the intention to get stopped here. She only nned to strike the enemy once before slipping past the fox.


    This was a great idea. The moment they reached each other, Rea struck the fox with all her might.


    The fox also used its paw to strike back. This sh would have caused a shock wave that pushed away all dust and trees around them.


    ? But there was actually nothing happening. Right at thest second, Rea suddenly changed her de''s movement, barely missing the fox.


    This way, both of them missed. Rea also got a consequence for changing the direction abruptly like that. Her sword ended up hitting the ground and piercing through it. If she tried to pull it out, the enemies would be able to catch up to her.


    So, she simply let go of that sword and continued running as fast as she could.


    "Fool, you''re abandoning your swo��" The monster wanted to berate her, but he suddenly stopped the moment he saw Rea using the Kitsune Form and Genbu Form.


    She used the former to improve her speed and the Genbu Form to use the snake to grab the sword while moving away.


    Rea managed to escape�� or so she thought.


    Suddenly, the snake got entangled as if it was being captured by something. And Rea couldn''t move it, causing her momentum to slow down.


    "Wh��" Rea was shocked, trying to abandon the sword, but it was toote. Something struck her from the side,unching her away.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 1936 Another Reinforcement

    *Bam!*


    Rea was still in shock because she only felt something right before the impact.


    She hurriedly raised her head, trying to take a look at the monster that hit her earlier. It turned out the enemy was a chameleon.


    It used its ability to hide. The monster was one of the King ss Monsters, but she never thought that this monster could be this fast, especially while using its camouge ability.


    And because of this attack, she was finally surrounded by all four King ss Monsters without any more path to escape.


    "��" Rea gritted her teeth. It seemed that all hope had been lost.


    Rea still didn''t want to give up. At the very least, she had to struggle for as long as she could in order to buy enough time for the rest to arrive.


    It seemed she had to make some sacrifices in order to do it.


    At the very least, Rea had prepared to lose one or two limbs. She knew that Aisha could regrow them just fine.


    At this point, there was no need to hide Aisha''s strength anymore�� the strength that surpassed even that of the pope.


    Theo was already strong enough to stop any opposition and their group could handle all of them by themselves.


    So, Rea had already thought about the limbs that she was going to lose in this battle so that she could escape.


    She took a deep breath, ring at these monsters.


    "It appears you don''t know when to give up." A humanoid monster whose body was made of rock stepped forward as if nning to destroy her.


    "No. You are the one who should know when to give up. It''s impossible for all of you to kill me." Rea smirked, making a tough front.


    "!!!" Two monsters, the chameleon and the fox, looked to the side, thinking there was already a reinforcementing to their area. After all, Rea''s confident smirk made them think she could see an escape route and the reinforcement was her only escape route.


    Fortunately for them, they couldn''t sense a single soul in that direction. At the very least, the reinforcement wouldn''t being soon.


    Seeing how Rea still managed to fool them, the chameleon immediately used his mimicry to vanish.


    The fox had gathered the Magic Power in his tail, ready to cut her down. The rock had been ramming its fists against each other, feeling fired up to kill Theo''s disciple. And the spider was hissing while moving around as though he was trying to cover the entire area with its web.


    Rea raised her sword and shot the dragon into the sky.


    At the same time, she jumped to the side as if the dragon was only a distraction.


    Without hesitation, all the King ss Monsters chased after him with the rock monster being the fastest.


    Despite its huge body and rough joints, the rock monster was pretty vast as it could keep up with Rea''s speed.


    But the one that contributed the most was actually the spider. Its web could capture even the Magic Power itself, causing Rea to be captured instead of escaping.


    It started shooting the web again, trying to capture her.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Meanwhile, the others tried to position themselves to stop Rea from running away. And the executioner would be the rock monster.


    Rea sent forth another dragon to swallow the rock monster. However, thetter actually grabbed both long fangs and tried to rip the dragon apart.


    "Aaaaaa!" The monster let out a cry, using all its strength to rip the dragon apart. Surprisingly, the rock monster managed to do it.


    Starting from the forehead, the dragon was being split by the strength of this monster.


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes in shock. It looked like she was using the dragon to buy her enough time.


    But the reality couldn''t be more disappointing. The rock monster defeated the dragon and made its way toward Rea, whose speed was slower than his.


    "Kh��" Rea gritted her teeth. After all, she realized the rock monster wasn''t the only one trying to attack her.


    The spider was ready to shoot its web. Meanwhile, she could feel the chameleon''s presence this time. But her reaction speed had be far slower due to the injury. Luckily, the chameleon was there just to provide a fake so that Rea dropped her guard for a split second.


    And this was the reason why she truly had no chance of avoiding this attack. She could only muster all the remaining Magic Power to stop this attack.


    And as expected from Theo''s disciple, she still tried to find a way to get away even in this situation. This time, she nned to use the punch force tounch her away.


    Although this would break a few bones in her body, it was better than dying here.


    So, Rea took thest two seconds to position her body. But right before the punch reached her, a figure suddenly appeared between them.


    "!!!"


    The monsters and Rea widened their eyes in shock as they couldn''t believe there would be another intrudering to this battlefield.


    This wasn''t nned by their master, so the monsters believed this figure wasn''t their ally despite being a monster himself.


    At the same time, Rea obviously recognized this small humanoid monster whose body was coveredpletely with his Dark power.


    And this small person caught the punch with ease and even neutralized the power behind it.


    "Hmm?" The guy blinked his eyes a few times, looking left and right to see the situation.


    "It seems I have been teleported in the middle of the battle��" The monster said before seeing Rea in that state. "Hey, girl. I saw you being with my sworn brother, Theo. It seems you need my help!"


    "Can you not say something obvious?" A feminine voice echoed in everyone''s ears as the rock monster suddenly got entangled by its own shadow and thrown away.


    "Aba!" Another monster that looked like the first monster acknowledged what the female monster said.


    Yes, they were one of the most dangerous families on this: the Dark King, the Shadow King, and their child.


    This was the reinforcement Theo had prepared for them.

 Chapter 1937 Arrival

    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "Stop her!"


    One of the King ss Monsters shouted in anger as they had a hard time besieging another King ss Monster.


    This might be the difference in their power, especially considering their target was a sessor of a Saint.


    Herbat prowess far surpassed a normal King ss Monster.


    "Haaa!" Ava let out a cry as the lightning around her started to gather and form a sphere. The sphere suddenly expanded, pushed, and electrocuted everything it touched.


    The ground was charred by the intense lightning, the trees were shattered by the spark, and a King ss Monster had his hand almost disintegrated by this lightning sphere.


    "Kh��"


    The King ss Monsters were ring at Ava, never thinking she would be this strong. Theo could fight against two to three monsters of the same level without a clone. Although Ava wasn''t as strong as Theo, she still managed to hold back four monsters of the same level.


    However, it came with a price. Ava had been using a lot of her Magic Power.


    There was only half of the Magic Power remaining in her body. If this continued, Ava would be defeated within half an hour.


    Ava red at them, not scared of their attacks. She also picked up a lot of noises from their surroundings.


    With just a nce to the side, Ava could see the unique monsters taking on the humans.


    It was Ergene.


    Shemanded a lot of humans skillfully to the point she managed to force the enemies to use all their strength to stop her. Ergene evenmanded them from the front as she had to fight these monsters herself in order to cause more damage.


    Ergene released all her potential in order to strike them.


    As a result, she was covered in injury as she took down five unique monsters by herself. Luckily, the injury could be treated by Aisha. So, Ergene could utilize her strength without any worry.


    It could be said that without Ergene, Ava wouldn''t be able to stop these four monsters by herself.


    Unfortunately, the longer the battle went on, the more disadvantageous the situation was.


    Ava looked at the four King ss Monsters. She had spent a lot of Magic Power to injure them. One of them couldn''t use his left hand anymore, another one had a whole paw obliterated, and two of them suffered many superficial wounds.


    Still, she wouldn''t be able to kill all of them no matter how hard she struggled. So, she was waiting for the reinforcement.


    "Attack her!"


    The four King ss Monsters released their Magic Power again while approaching Ava. They tried to surround her this time.


    The one behind her was the first to make his move. The monster charged forward while putting the Magic Power into his horn. He had a body simr to a rhinoceros. The Magic Power was amplified inside the horn as it shot a lightning bolt at Ava.


    Ava turned around while putting her paw right at the lightning. The moment thetter hit her paw, it got scattered as if lightning couldn''t injure her.<novelnext></novelnext>


    However, the rhinoceros already knew that it was impossible to kill Ava with lightning. So, this attack had a different purpose.


    The lightning he shot was quite powerful and thick, so when Ava scattered it, each part was big enough to cover Ava''s vision.


    This way, the monster in front of her could take advantage of it and approach Ava.


    "It seems I have been underestimated." Ava frowned. Even though she couldn''t see anything, her ears could pick up the sound.


    The moment the monster reached her, it struck Ava with all its strength.


    Ava used her other paw to stop this attack, catching the monster''s hand.


    "Heh�� Of course, I know that you are strong enough to handle this." The monster suddenly smirked as he suddenly grabbed Ava''s paw with his other hand. Even the one caught by Ava''s paw suddenly tweaked so that it could hold Ava''s hand.


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes and nced to the side. She realized that these monsters were just trying to hold her back so that the other two could injure her.


    Without hesitation, Ava suddenly released a powerful lightning spark from her paw.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The monster that held her hand was screaming in pain. However, his grip wasn''t weakening.


    The monster gritted his teeth while smiling. "Come on. I can hold on!"


    There was an advantage when fighting in a group. And this advantage was shown by the monsters.


    One or two of them could easily sacrifice themselves in order for the others to attack. And since their vitality was strong as a monster, they were most likely to survive the attack.


    Even if Ava could use her feet to stop the other two, it wasn''t enough because her body was locked by these two monsters.


    Ava gritted her teeth, trying to find a way to escape. She had gathered the Magic Power in her belly, nning to release another lightning sphere to kill the monster next to her. But it would mean she discharged another twenty percent of her Magic Power, leaving her only with thirty percent of her peak Magic Power.


    This was the sacrifice she had to make if she wanted to survive here.


    So, Ava took a deep breath as the lightning started sparking all around her body.


    But before she could release that energy, the sky suddenly split as light illuminated Ava and the monster next to her.


    "Huh?" The monsters were confused, but Ava could feel someone''s presence.


    "I''m going to die!" This was what the monster thought before he hurriedly let go of Ava''s hand, trying to get away.


    He was lucky that he managed to stay alive, but suddenly, the ray of light fell on top of his hands and cut them both.


    "Aaaaaahhhhhhh!" The monster screamed in pain as he didn''t know what had just happened.


    "I''m sorry for beingte." A deep voice echoed in Ava''s ears. It was easy to recognize this voice.


    Ava smiled and nced to the side. "Well, betterte than never. d to have you here, Felix."


    Yes, the one who had juste was Felix. He nodded his head with a calm expression, staring at these four monsters. "We''ll split them. Since I''m still fresh, you take the injured ones. Leave those two to me."


    "I guess." Ava smiled, knowing that she was in no condition to argue.

 Chapter 1938 Unexpected Reinforcement

    Just like the other two battlefields, the Griffith Family was facing the hardest fight in their history.


    "Gah!" Ray spat a mouthful of blood as he crashed to the ground. His condition was far worse than Rea''s.


    After all, he had to take on five King ss Monsters instead of four. That one King ss Monster turned the enemies to a whole new level.


    "Ray!" Valerie shouted while gritting her teeth. Her job was the same as Ergene, keeping the unique monsters from bothering Ray.


    But unlike Ergene, who forced the enemies to do it, the monsters here didn''t mind if the unique monsters didn''t help them. After all, Ray was weaker than Ava and there were five King ss Monsters on their side. It was impossible to defeat them.


    So, there was no need to help the King ss Monsters.


    Valerie gritted her teeth, trying to figure out a way to help him. Unfortunately, she had her hands full with the unique monsters alone. Just like the number of King ss Monsters, there were more unique monsterspared to the other two battlefields.


    Even with the Griffith Family''s overwhelming strength, it was impossible to break through them.


    Still, there was one thing she managed to realize.


    It was the number of enemies. Due to their overwhelming numberpared to the rest, she realized their intention.


    They actually wanted to force Theo toe to this battlefield instead of the other two.


    Normally, Theo and his clone could go to Rea and Ava''s battlefield, asking them to head to the Griffith Family''s battlefield to reinforce them. This way, they had three Transcendent Level Experts on their side.


    But if Theo went to this battlefield while sending another one to the side. It would mean that she had to send Ray to the other one while Rea or Ava wouldn''t have enough time to slip past this battlefield and reach the other side. This way, the other battlefield would be overwhelmed and Theo had to use the card he had been hiding this whole time.


    In other words, she realized that the enemy''s aim in this battle was to see all Theo''s trump cards so that they could prepare.


    Unfortunately for both sides, Theo wasn''t here. Neither could he help Ray nor reveal his trump card.


    Still, Valerie didn''t want her husband to die at the monster''s hand. She gritted her teeth, trying to find another way to rescue Ray.


    They might even have to abandon this battlefield even if it meant they lost. But she still remembered Agata telling her their reinforcement was on the way.


    But they still needed to hold on for another ny minutes. It was practically impossible for them tost that long.


    "We can''t really stop them for that long. We need reinforcement immediately." Valerie shouted to the radio, desperately asking for help.


    Sadly, there was nothing they could do at the moment, except for one thing.


    The reinforcement actually came faster than anyone thought. In fact, those three hours actually meant nothing to him to begin with.


    Valerie was trying to call for help through the radio. "Please. Send us reinforcement! If not, our Transcendent Level Expert will die!"


    Instead of the radio, the one who answered her call was actually right next to her.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "There''s no need to worry. You don''t have to call for more reinforcement since I''m here."


    "!!!" Valerie widened her eyes, ncing to the side. She never felt his presence, but when she saw who it was, everything was answered in an instant.


    "You are�� the Time God, Aiden Turner."


    It turned out the reinforcement was the one and only Time God, the strongest human in the world, Aiden Turner.


    He wasn''t supposed to make his move, but they truly had no choice but to ask for his help.


    If possible, they would rather ask the Mafia Queen since they had a good rtionship. But Theo had told them not to ask the Mafia Queen, so they could only ask the Time God.


    And this time, the Time God reached the battlefield far ahead of the schedule. In fact, three hours were far too long for him to reach this ce.


    If he used his ability, it wouldn''t take him thirty minutes to reach this ce.


    But it seemed that the Time God couldn''t leave his position that easily, considering he was the symbol of safety in the base. The fact that he made his appearance meant the base had reached its line of defense.


    The Time God suddenly disappeared from her vision before suddenlying back but with Ray in his hand.


    "Eh?" Ray was confused because everything felt so fast. He could feel the hand grabbing his cor but wasn''t fast enough to see who it was. And the next thing he realized, he was already far away from the enemies.


    When Ray turned around, he was shocked to find the Time God standing next to him.


    "Huh? Why are you here?" Ray gulped down. He thought the Time God and Theo had a bad rtionship, so there was no way the Time God would help.


    The Time God nced at him and exined, "I''m not doing Theodore Griffith a favor. I''m simply saving humanity. Don''t mistake my intention."


    "��" Ray gritted his teeth for being too useless. He realized that the reason why he was asked to go to another battlefield was because the reinforcement was enough to handle all these King ss Monsters.


    "I understand. In that case, I''ll go help the other battlefield right away since I know you''re strong enough to handle all these monsters." Ray lowered his head as if thanking him.


    Before leaving, Ray turned his head to Valerie. "You should remain here andmand the army to handle the rest of the monsters. I''ll assist Rea."


    "But your condition��" Valerie''s tone was filled with worry. There was no way she could leave him here.


    But Ray shook his head. "I''ll recover a bit on the way."


    Valerie wanted to say something, but Ray had left them. So, Valerie couldn''t help but assist the Time God here.


    The table had been turned around with all the reinforcementing to the battlefield. Who would actually win on each battlefield?

 Chapter 1939 The Couple

    Rea let out a long breath of relief after the appearance of the couple. She never thought that Theo was still trying to help them even though he couldn''t be with them.


    Because of the situation, the Dark King and the Shadow King decided to fight two King ss Monsters each.


    Meanwhile, she could focus on the unique monsters. Although she was injured like this, she should be strong enough to handle the rest.


    So, Rea felt relieved. Though, Rea ended up being a babysitter.


    Next to her was actually the Dark King and the Shadow King''s son.


    He waved his hand to her and said, "Aba!"


    Unlike Theo, who had gotten along with them, she had no idea about what he said. But she certainly heard the request from his parents.


    "We''ll leave him in your care. Please take care of our son while we handle these four guys. It shouldn''t be that hard for you, right?"


    Rea sighed, not knowing what to say to him.


    "Well, we have our own task. Make sure you are next to me, so I can protect you." Rea wanted to chase him away because of her condition. Although she had be far stronger afterbining her embodiments, it didn''t change the fact that her Magic Power reserve was quite low.


    If she protected him while fighting those unique monsters, she might end up using more Magic Power in order to block the attacks for him.


    Though, she should be grateful for the fact that his parents took care of the four King ss Monsters.


    "Aba!"


    Rea was confused for a moment before seeing Syk pointing his finger in the battlefield''s direction.


    Not long after that, she started to sense numerous presenceing to their ce.


    "!!!" She could see Walker returning to this ce, trying to help her.


    A smile couldn''t help but appear on Rea''s face as this reinforcement was something she had been waiting for.


    Walker thought Rea had died because he couldn''t hear any sound from Rea''s battlefield. Luckily, the moment he reached the ce, that worry turned into relief for two reasons. One was the fact that the two familiar monsters appeared to help them. The other was because Rea was still safe and sound.


    Although it would be good to have a reunion, they were still in the middle of the battle. So, she instantly gave an order. "Hurry up and ry my order. We need to attack them from afar, trying to grab those unique monsters'' attention. We can''t let them help the King ss Monsters to fight those two monsters that are covered in ck aura. They are our allies."


    Since there was an army, forcing the enemies to focus on them wouldn''t be a problem.


    Now that the battle had reached a stalemate, the Dark King smiled, ncing at his wife. "How long has it been since west fought together?"


    "A few years? Back when we helped Theo fend off that strong human?"


    "Can you really call that fighting together?"


    "I guess not." The Shadow King smirked while stretching her arms. "That''s not important, right?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "True enough." The Dark King smirked, ring at these monsters.


    The four monsters gritted their teeth. Although they didn''t know about these two KIng ss Monsters, they knew that the Dark King was extremely strong. While the Shadow King wasn''t as strong as the Dark King, she still had enough power to fight two of them to a standstill.


    So, the battle would be decided whether they could defeat the Shadow King first or the Dark King managed to y two of them first.


    "Why are you two helping humans?" One of the King ss Monsters asked. His face was distorted and his tone was filled with anger. He never thought that the two Kings would side with humans instead of fellow monsters.


    The Dark King smirked while releasing his Magic Power. He answered nonchntly, "For the same reason why you fight for that slime."


    Since he didn''t want to waste their time, the Dark King immediately flew forward.


    The fox, who was confident in his speed, immediately leaped forth, trying to match the Dark King''s movement to stop him.


    This was the time the Shadow King revealed her prowess. She pped her hands.


    "Shadow, Arise!"


    Suddenly, all shadows from everything in the area. Whether it was a normal tree or the shadow of a King ss Monster, all of them immediately flew to the sky.


    A smile appeared on the Dark King''s face. Since the enemies didn''t know about their elements, he could trap them with this tactic.


    The moment the shadow emerged, the King ss Fox had no time to turn around.


    The Dark King pointed his palm at the fox. His Order was the Dark Order. He could govern everything dark, especially the color.


    The shadow was the perfect object to control.


    The Shadow King used her ability to raise the shadow and the Dark King changed their form into long sharp des. This time, there were three hundred such des in the air, surrounding the fox.


    "!!!" The fox''s body shook. It turned out the Dark King baited him.


    The other three King ss Monsters hurriedly helped the fox. The rock mmed into the ground, raising a lot of spikes from the ground.


    The chameleon disappeared, trying to distract them. The spider spurted a lot of threads, trying to pull these des away.


    The fox also released sharp energy from his tail, but it was still not enough to destroy all these des.


    The spider only managed to capture fifty while the humanoid rock knocked seventy des away. In addition to the fox who destroyed a hundred des by himself, there were still eighty des that came after him.


    "��" The fox gritted his teeth while covering his body with all the Magic Power he had. He used that sharp energy to deflect the des one by one.


    However, the des were far sneakier than he originally thought. With the help of the Dark King''s power that manipted their shape in real time, the des reached the fox''s body, cutting him up.

 Chapter 1940 Dark And Shadow

    "Aaaaahhhh!" The fox screamed in pain. Although most injuries were shallow due to his strong fur and skin, some of them still prated quite deeply into his body. Judging from its look, it seemed that there were three deep wounds, two on his tail and one on his right arm.


    The Dark King knew which one was strong, so he actually concentrated his attack on that area. He wanted to challenge his best abilities head-on.


    However, the Dark King also had one worry. The chameleon had been hiding by using his mimicry, so he had to be wary of his existence.


    Like Rea, the chameleon might sneak up on him and deliver a powerful blow that would overturn the situation.


    Of course, this would only happen if the Dark King was alone. He was actually apanied by his wife, the ruler of the shadow.


    The Shadow King''s eyebrows suddenly twitched and turned to the right. A single wave of her hand controlled the shadow of all objects in that area.


    There were a total of seventeen shadows that emerged from the ground and turned into a thread that seemed to be capturing something.


    "There!" The Shadow King smiled. Her ability was Shadow, so she could easily follow the shadow''s movement.


    Still, the chameleon was a King ss Monster as well. He managed topletely cover his shadow while using his mimicry. So, the Shadow King shouldn''t be able to find him.


    However, the chameleon''s Order wasn''t rted to the mimicry ability. So, hepletely forgot that his mimicry had one big weakness. This weakness didn''t really matter if his opponents were any other people.


    But as the ruler of the shadow, the Shadow King could feel the weight on her shadow. Even if he could reflect the light, the chameleon still had to step on the ground.


    So, the Shadow King easily found him and captured him.


    Using this chance, the Dark King formed a sword in his hand. He didn''t use his big form since Theo had told him that there would be a bigger chance for him to be an Authority Level Figure if he helped them while using this form.


    Although he didn''t have the giant figure and explosive power, the Magic Power contained in this body was far more massive since he didn''t need to use some of them to maintain the giant body.


    The moment the Dark King waved his sword toward the captured chameleon, a huge sword strike ran through the ground.


    The sword strike was forty feet tall and it razed everything to the ground.


    The humanoid stone suddenly appeared between the sword strike and the chameleon. He raised both hands and used the soil to reinforce his entire body.


    "Haaa!" The humanoid rock roared as he received the sword strike with his body.


    The ck sword strike turned the sky dark for a moment. The sh even produced a shock wave that sted all the trees, dust, and rocks around him, turning the woods into aplete wastnd.


    *Boom!*


    Unfortunately, the sword strike ended up losing too much energy and used the rest to explode to cause more damage. But it didn''t manage to slice through the humanoid monster.


    When the dust settled down, they could see the humanoid rock managed to stand without any injury. It was clear that his body was strong enough to handle this strike.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "��" The Dark King furrowed his eyebrows before turning around, seeing the spider release his thread.


    The Shadow King was the one to make her move. She summoned more shadows and used them to receive the thread, so they were the ones captured instead of him. But the spider seemed to be more special than she thought.


    All her shadow somehow melted to the ground. When she took another look at the shadow, she realized the thread contained a powerful poison that could even melt her shadow. Even the ground that the shadow touched wasn''t spared.


    The Shadow King looked at this ability and said, "I''ll take care of the spider and the chameleon. You handle the other two."


    "Oi, oi. The fox is already injured here, I want to fight the fresh one." The Dark King smirked. "I''ll handle the rock and the spider."


    "So, you want to let the fox cut my shadow?"


    "Is that a problem?" The Dark King smirked.


    "Suit yourself. If I defeat them first, you''re sleeping outside for ten years. Is that a problem?" The Shadow King returned his question right back at him.


    The Dark King wanted to chuckle, but he only smiled since people were watching. "Remind me of the past. Gotta kill these two quicker then."


    The Dark King and the Shadow King smiled.


    Rea waspletely speechless when she heard their conversation. They truly had a world of their own. Even the enemies couldn''t interrupt them since they were feeling some pain after receiving their attacks.


    More importantly, Rea recognized their rtionship and their synchronized action.


    ''Dark and Shadow. Two simr powers thatplement each other��'' Rea narrowed her eyes. She realized that the Dark King and the Shadow King used their elemental advantage and the enemy''s confusion to injure that fox.


    And by using that ability, they could see the enemies'' capabilities, which allowed them to pick their own opponents. The shadow worked on the chameleon, so the Shadow King picked the chameleon and the spider. But since the Dark King was strong, he took on the spider instead, allowing his wife to have an easier time.


    "Aba!" Syk suddenly tugged Rea''s arm.


    "Huh?" Rea turned to him, confused. She truly didn''t understand what Syk wanted to say.


    But Syk pointed at his father with his right hand and his mother with his left hand. He then pped his hands as if trying to merge them together. "Aba!"


    Somehow Rea could understand him. It might be a coincidence, but Syk seemed to be telling her that her abilities were like his parents.


    But instead of two embodiments that kept shing, they should be in harmony. And the harmony was like Syk.


    No, Rea should be Syk, the one that harmonized the two embodiments.


    "Is that possible?"

 Chapter 1941 Advantage

    On the other side of Rea''s battlefield, Ava and Felix also managed to control the situation.


    Ava was facing the injured monsters: a tiger whose paw she obliterated earlier and the humanoid monster she electrocuted earlier. Although Felix handled the other two, one of them couldn''t use his left hand anymore, while the other one was covered in superficial wounds.


    So, Ava believed he could defeat one of them while Felix handled those two before helping her with thest one.


    Ava jumped at the tiger while covering her body with lightning.


    The humanoid monster tried to stop her even though his inner injury was quite critical. He just wanted to create a chance for the tiger. After all, Ava''s Magic Power was only enough for one of them.


    As long as they yed it right, they both could survive.


    The tiger understood his intent and gathered his strength in his right paw, waiting for the right time to strike Ava.


    Seeing their coordination, Ava couldn''t help but smile. If she was just a dumb moon rabbit who knew nothing about strategy, she would have fallen into this trap. However, she had been following Theo for a long time.


    It took only an instant for her to see through their n and form a path to avoid them.


    When Ava reached their position, she raised her paw as if she was about to attack the humanoid monster while discharging powerful lightning. Even the humanoid monster had gritted his teeth, waiting for the pain.


    However, that pain never came as Ava actually didn''t continue her motion. She made a spin to dodge the monster and loop around him before making her way toward the tiger.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster and the tiger were utterly shocked. Thetter had condensed a w that covered his paw, ready to take her down. This power should be enough to injure Ava, but ultimately, this power has to fight against Ava''s own ability.


    The two paws shed. The tiger''s paw released a powerful wind that shredded everything it touched. It scratched the ground, took down trees, and destroyed boulders.


    Unfortunately for him, Ava''s strength was far beyond his paw ability. The lightning that was discharged from Ava''s paw pierced through all the wind and Magic Power that protected the tiger. It electrocuted the entire hand, causing the tiger to let out a shriek.


    The tiger didn''t release more power to stop her anymore so that Ava''s power could st him away, stopping this misery.


    Sadly, this was something he shouldn''t do.


    Ava pointed her paw at the flying tiger as the seven lightning balls hovered around her hand.


    "Discharge Cannon." She muttered as the lightning balls sparked, gathering a powerful lightning in front of her palm. After that, it shot out aser made of lightning.


    She was a disciple of the Lightning Saint after all. This Discharge Cannon was inspired by the Lightning Saint''s powerful breath that he once released against the Frost Saint.


    "!!!" The tiger widened his eyes, seeing the humanoid monster was a tad toote to help him.


    "Nooo!" The tiger let out a roar while using all his remaining energy and his abilities to block this one attack that could easily take his life.


    The lightning beam engulfed him entirely, scorching him with the heat from the lightning while electrocuting his entire body.


    "Aaaahhhhh!" The tiger screamed in pain continuously. But the sound kept getting lower and lower before gradually disappearing.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "What?" The humanoid monster widened his eyes in shock, never expecting the tiger to die just like that.


    But when the lightning disappeared, he could see that the tiger was still alive. He had to stop Ava from delivering a killing blow.


    ��


    Just like Ava, Felix easily got the upper hand.


    "Haa��"


    "Haa��"


    The sound of panting was echoing in the battlefield. But the sound didn''te from Felix. Instead, it came from the two monsters before him. The King ss rhino was the one with the best condition, but he still hadn''tnded a single attack on him.


    Meanwhile, the King ss Bird had his left talon electrocuted by Ava and couldn''t be used for the rest of the battle. Luckily, his main attack came from the Magic Power, his wing, and his body, so his condition wasn''t that worsepared to the tiger and the humanoid monster.


    He pped his wings, releasing a powerful gale. But there was something wrong with this gale.


    Felix could see the water particles inside this gale. It turned out the bird had a water element and he might want to drown Felix with this water particle. If Felix continued absorbing these water particles, he wouldn''t realize he had drowned until it was toote.


    Luckily, Felix''s ability had improved since thest battle.


    As an assassin, he had to take down his opponent in a single strike if possible. But after the battle against the sea race, he almost forgot that he was also a bodyguard. Yes, Theo first invited him not as an assassin but as a bodyguard.


    And as a bodyguard, he should pick up some techniques that didn''t kill, but were still devastating enough for the opponent.


    He narrowed his eyes, seeing through the water particles. Then, he waved his hand down.


    Suddenly, the light fell from the sky, illuminating the entire area. At the same time, the gale gradually disappeared as if they were being disintegrated.


    The bird was frustrated as the light truly stopped all of his attacks. He had to get closer to Felix if he wanted to cause any damage, but he was worried about Felix''s de.


    The rhinoceros saw through the bird''s hesitation and tried to provide an opportunity to attack him.


    He charged the lightning into his horn and shot it at Felix.


    Felix struck the lightning with his de, scattering it into the area. However, Felix didn''t have Ava''s Order.


    Right after the lightning hit him, there was a thunderous sounding from the lightning, causing a powerful shock wave that blew him away.


    "Great!" The bird smirked, using this opportunity to fly to Felix''s back while raising his wings.

 Chapter 1942 Mysterious Explosions

    "Great!" The bird smiled, using this opportunity to hurt Felix.


    Although it was true that Felix was still freshpared to Ava, he was still far weaker than Ava.


    Even with Theo''s guidance, it had only been around two years since Felix got his Order. It wasn''t enough to reach that far.


    He currently only reached the third stage. Compared to Ava, who was already at thest stage and was ready to seed in the Lightning Saint''s position, Felix was far weaker.


    This way, the monsters still had some confidence that they could somehow kill Felix if they worked together properly.


    The bird wouldn''t miss this opportunity. He pped his wings again, causing a ripple in the air.


    Felix might be able to use his light, but he had to target these ripples, which required him to see them first. Meanwhile, the bird cleverly scattered them so that Felix couldn''t target them easily.


    He had to turn around to see all of them, but that was thest thing he could do when he was blown away.


    "Die, human!" The bird smirked, thinking this was finally the time to kill Felix.


    Still, he underestimated Felix too much.


    The light suddenly appeared again, illuminating the area. But this time, its target was not the ripples, but Felix himself.


    Felix actually used this light to help him transform into the light itself. Just like how he did it back in Italy, he transformed into light and moved so fast that it looked like teleportation.


    Even without his body going that way, he could still reach his destination.


    "What?!" The bird widened his eyes. He was shocked because Felix moved so fast that his eyes had a hard time following him.


    "Kh��" The bird frowned, trying to stop Felix. This time, he would be the bait and the rhinoceros would be the main attacker.


    He pped his wings again, causing more ripples around him.


    Felix knew that it would be dangerous if he met these ripples without his ability. So, he waved his de a few times to send forth multiple crescent-shaped lights toward all these ripples, cutting them down one by one.


    The rhinoceros took this chance to shoot out another lightning strike. Unlike the bird''s ripple ability, the rhinoceros had a Thunder Order. His lightning caused a bigger thunderous sound than Ava''s.


    This thunderous sound shattered the ground and crushed everything in its way. It felt like there was a huge dragoning at him.


    Felix raised his sword, covering it with light. He didn''t have enough time to use his ability, so he could only hit this lightning strike normally.


    The lightning caused another thunderous sound that tried to blow Felix away.


    However, Felix never had the intention to block this attack. He simply turned his body into the light again and used another light to move away. After that, he jumped straight at the rhinoceros, trying to cut him down.


    The rhinoceros hurriedly moved back to avoid him, but Felix''s aim was not his head but his horn. The horn amplified the lightning, so if he cut this horn, the rhino should be weakened.


    *Cling!*


    "Kh��" The rhino gritted his teeth, never expecting Felix to target his horn. He used the remaining energy to strengthen the horn, but Felix''s strength simply overwhelmed him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    *Crack!*


    "!!!" The rhino widened his eyes. If no one helped him, his horn would surely be cut off.


    Even the bird couldn''t handle the consequences. So, he hurriedly flew toward Felix while grabbing the air with his right talon.


    Surprisingly, the air that the bird grabbed was actually connected to the one near Felix. All of a sudden, Felix felt something grab him and pull him back.


    Felix wasn''t going to stop here. He used that momentum to jump to the bird instead, striking him down.


    The bird tried to fly away, but he still couldn''t match Felix''s speed. Felix seemed to aim at his right talon, wanting to cut the remaining talon he could use.


    Knowing that such injury would result in their defeat, the bird slightly leaned to the other side, causing Felix to cut his left talon instead the right one. With this, he bought enough time to escape.


    "Kh��"


    The two monsters gritted their teeth. This human was stronger than they originally thought.


    Felix had enough confidence to defeat these monsters. But it seemed that the monsters had prepared another present.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred on their back. This time, the explosions were big enough for them to hear even from far away. And judging from the distance, it actually came from the human side.


    "!!!" Ava turned around, looking at the distance. "This is�� no way! There are explosions in the human army. I don''t think it''s an opponent''s ability since this explosion is far different from something a normal monster can produce��"


    "What? Does that mean there are spies in the human army? Are they blowing themselves up?" Felix couldn''t help but shout when hearing her words from a distance.


    Ava couldn''t answer it, but the possibility was there.


    Felix fell silent for a few seconds before going to Ava. His opponents didn''t have the time to react since his position was much closer to Ava''s.


    Felix stated with a serious expression. "Ava. I''m afraid you have to go back there to eliminate the potential threat. Or at least, work with Ergene to keep the unique monsters away while dealing with the problem there."


    "But you��"


    "Yeah, I''m going to fight all these four King ss Monsters. Luckily, their injuries are not light. I might be able to defeat all of them��"


    "��" Ava knew that Ergene and her force were enough to handle the unique monsters for a while. But she had to divide her force to handle this problem, which would cause them to lose against the unique monsters. When those monsters helped these King ss Monsters, even with Felix and Ava joining hands, it was impossible to defeat them.


    And the worst part was the fact that this didn''t happen on this battlefield alone. The other two battlefields also experienced the same thing.

 Chapter 1943 Change Of Plan

    "!!!" Walker received a report and informed Rea. "Not good. There are explosionsing from the army. These explosions are said to being from humans."


    "Huh? Suicide bombers? Or��" Rea widened her eyes in shock. She didn''t finish her words, but the meaning was clear.


    In fact, they were most likely the culprits.


    Walker nodded with a serious expression. "I am afraid that they areing from those unique monsters��"


    "��" Rea''s expression darkened. On the one hand, the battlefield had just found its bnce. On the other hand, she didn''t have any idea how these unique monsters managed to infiltrate their ranks.


    After all, they had put strict surveince to make sure that no spies were mixed into it. Yet, they actually managed to bypass everything they had prepared.


    "This is��" Rea gritted her teeth, ncing back and forth. "What should we do? Should we split our force here? No, if we split them up, there is a chance that the unique monsters will try to attack the couple.


    "Then, what should we do? My current condition doesn''t allow me to handle these unique monsters by myself." Rea frowned.


    She tried to find a solution, but there was no feasible n at the moment.


    It seemed that the Dark King had some spare energy when fighting against the King ss Monsters that he managed to check the situation, including the distress reflected on her face.


    The Dark King knew that something was going on. He nced at his wife and shouted, "I think you should help those humans handle these weird monsters. I''ll handle all the Kings here."


    "!!!" The Shadow King was confused, but when she nced at her surroundings, she understood his concern immediately.


    ? The Shadow King obviously didn''t like this situation. She wanted to fight these two King ss Monsters, relieving a lot of pressure from her husband.


    Although she had some confidence in her husband, four King ss Monsters were still too much.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that this was the best option.


    She took a deep breath before sping her hands. Suddenly, the shadow of all things rose into the sky, turning into a giant ck wall that isted all six King ss Monsters inside.


    The monsters didn''t understand what she was nning to do. But the Dark King had already made his next move.


    With a single wave of his hand, the tip of the wall suddenly flew toward the middle, closing the entire area.


    Because there was no more sunlight entering the cylinder, the entire battlefield was enveloped by darkness.


    "Hmm?"


    "Destroy it."


    The Humanoid Rock mmed the ground with all his strength, causing the soil and rock toe out. The uneven ground kept spreading until eventually it reached the shadow wall, crushing it into pieces.


    And at that time, the light returned and they got their visibility back.


    However, the change in brightness was followed by a scream.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Aaaahhhh!"


    The chameleon was holding his right hand, which had been cut by the Dark King.


    "!!!" They never expected that the Dark King would use that darkness to almost kill one of them. If not for the fact that the chameleon was also a King ss Monster, he would have died from that attack.


    Still, the fact that the Dark King used this ability was a bit concerning. Although the idea and the execution were good, the timing was far from it.


    Now that they had seen this ability, they already knew what to expect the moment they did the same thing. So, this ability wouldn''t work on them anymore.


    Why would the Dark King actually use an ability that he could only use once?


    When they asked that question, an answer came into their mind as they all looked around, trying to find one more figure.


    Surprisingly, the Shadow King had disappeared.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters were stunned, thinking the Shadow King still had a trick on her sleeve. Seeing how one trick could almost kill one of them, another would surely kill them. So, they regrouped in order to strengthen their defense, not wanting to be ambushed again.


    They were trying to find the Shadow King who was nowhere to be seen.


    The Dark King smiled as if he was in control. He started using all his abilities, trying to distract them. This way, their fear would be reinforced and the enemies wouldn''t have the time to think about the Shadow King.


    In the meantime, the Shadow King had been hiding inside someone''s shadow. And that shadow was none other than Rea''s shadow.


    She had escaped from the battlefield and came to ask about the situation.


    "So, the enemies have infiltrated that deep. I don''t know how they do it, but I think you know more than me."


    Rea shook her head. "I''m afraid I don''t have any exnation either. In fact, if I have the idea, I can create a countermeasure.


    "That''s why right now, I''m trying to figure out the situation before making my move. This is the most important battlefield right now because the moment all three of us fall, the enemies will definitely cause longsting damage.


    "So, I have to be careful in givingmands in this situation." Rea bit her lips, frustrated by the fact that she couldn''t handle this problem.


    While she was thinking, the Shadow King gave a suggestion. "It''s better to follow my way then. I don''t like thinking too much, so I''m going to tell you that we''ll crush these people by ourselves.


    "Tell your trusted person to protect my child and send the entire army back to where they belong. Meanwhile, you and I will handle all these weird monsters. I''m curious as to how they can gain these abilities.


    "So, I''m going to fight them while learning about it. I know that you are heavily injured, but you should be able to fight a lot of these monsters, right?"


    Rea contemted for a moment. "With my current strength and remaining Magic Power, killing thirty of them shouldn''t be a problem. I''ll also assist you in the meantime."


    "Good. Let''s do it."

 Chapter 1944 Fighting Alone

    After receiving that n, Rea immediately told Walker to lead their force back into the army to relieve them. She also grabbed the radio to learn about the entire situation and asked to be updated about it.


    She had to make sure that the battle wasn''t going to develop worse than this.


    Of course, Walker was in charge of protecting Syk. Although she was a bit worried that Syk would be targeted, considering he was also a monster.


    She had told themander to spread the words to their current force about Syk and two King ss Monsters. So, when people tried to harm Syk, some or even many people would try to protect Syk.


    Whether it was because killing Syk would incur the wrath of their benefactors or because harming him would be equal to their defeat, she only wanted him to be protected at all times.


    She had even told Walker to move away from the battlefield after telling Isaac about the situation and handed the mission over to him. This way, Walker would be babysitting Syk away from the battlefield while she still got everything she needed.


    After giving the order, she started working together with the Shadow King to handle all these unique monsters.


    Their situation was much betterpared to the Dark King.


    "Kh!" The Dark King gritted his teeth while blocking the humanoid rock''s punch.


    After the Shadow King revealed her position again, which was helping Rea distract the monsters, these four King ss Monsters knew this was their time to attack.


    While those two were distracted, they had to focus on this Dark King, trying to kill him if possible.


    They even ordered the unique monsters to buy them as much time as possible.


    This was a challenge to the Dark King''s strength.


    However, the result was expected.


    Although the Dark King was a King ss Monster who had reached the peak of this rank, his opponents were still four King ss Monsters. Three of them were at the fourth stage, while the other one was at the fifth stage like him, but not close to reaching the Authority Level.


    Still, this was too much for the Dark King.


    The fox waved his tail, trying to cut the Dark King. Thetter easily overwhelmed him with a single strike.


    However, the spider and the chameleon surrounded him from two sides. The spider shot out its string. There was enough pressure to pierce through the Dark King''s flesh. Even if he blocked it, the web was covered with poison, so it would still be fatal to the Dark King.


    But the moment he avoided it, the chameleon appeared next to him, punching him with all he got.


    And because he positioned himself in the opposite way of his direction, the chameleon blew him back to the spider''s web.


    In the end, he had to take on this web with his own power.


    He hurriedly formed a huge ck vortex. His ability wasn''t a swallowing or devouring ability like the original Theo. Instead, it was the Dark Order.


    The moment the web touched the vortex, it gradually turned dark as if it was trying to take control of the web. But the poison inside the web was stronger than the Dark King originally thought, melting the control easily.<novelnext></novelnext>


    While the Dark King had a hard time handling this web, the chameleon had disappeared again, making him wary of his presence.


    At the same time, the humanoid rock charged at him. His speed was the slowest, but he surely had the hardest punch.


    A single punch to the ground caused an avnche of rocking out of the ground, hitting the Dark King.


    Thetter used his other hand to wave his de, cutting all these rocks.


    But it was only for a distraction.


    The real attack came from the fox that hid behind the stone. It waved its tail, cutting the Dark King.


    Thetter also waved his sword at the same time.


    Surprisingly, instead of blocking this attack, the Dark King actually chose to let the tail graze his body. In exchange, he struck the softer part of the tail, almost cutting it.


    "Aaaaa!!" The fox screamed in pain as blood started to pour out of his tail. He tried to regroup with the rest while focusing on the scratch on the Dark King''s body. It was clear that they could defeat the Dark King.


    "Heh��" The Dark King was amused, looking at these four who had regained their confidence.


    Even though he knew he was in a pinch, the Dark King wasn''t frustrated. In fact, he was actually smiling as if something good had happened to him.


    The four monsters didn''t understand why the Dark King was actually smiling. But the Dark King precisely knew what this battle meant.


    The Dark King couldn''t help but recall his conversation with Theo.


    "I only have four things to tell you during the battle. First of all, you are going to help the humans kill as many monsters as possible. Of course, I don''t mind you conserving enough energy to avoid the worst-case scenario, where the humans betray you.


    "Secondly, I''m pretty sure that the enemies you are going to face are extremely powerful. I don''t know if there will be multiple King ss Monsters or a World ss Monster�� But I''m pretty sure there wille a situation where you have to fight alone."


    "Huh?" The Dark King was confused while ncing at his wife, who was taking care of their child in the distance. "What do you mean?"


    "It''s exactly as you heard�� there is no other meaning. However, I also want to tell you that in this situation, you shouldn''t escape. Instead of being frustrated, you should smile.


    "If I''m not wrong, this is your opportunity to break through."


    "A breakthrough?" The Dark King couldn''t believe what he had heard. But Theo wasn''t someone who would give false hope, so his expression became serious again.


    Remembering this conversation made his smile bigger.


    He knew the time had arrived. This was actually the reason why he didn''t hesitate to send his wife away.


    He smiled while muttering in a low voice. "An opportunity, huh��"

 Chapter 1945 Overwhelming

    The Dark King smirked while waving his de. The monsters knew that the humanoid rock would be able to block the Dark King''s attack with his sturdy body.


    So, they made the humanoid rock stand in front of the Dark King, blocking this attack. In the meantime, the spider and the fox moved to the sides, surrounding him.


    The chameleon had disappeared, but there was no need for the Shadow King''s ability to make the Dark King realize that the chameleon had been standing behind the humanoid rock. He would surely attack him the moment the humanoid rock blocked his attack.


    That was why the Magic Power around the Dark King''s de suddenly disappeared, turning it back to a normal de.


    "!!!" The humanoid rock saw the change, finding something weird. There was no way the Dark King tried to fake an attack this whole time. In other words, there was a reason for the Dark King to turn it back. And it must be rted to his next attack.


    But even with his power, he didn''t know what the Dark King nned to do until the de touched him.


    *Bam!*


    A powerful shock wave suddenly urred, but not from the sh between the rock and the de. Instead, the shock wave was generated right behind the humanoid rock.


    And this powerful st knocked the chameleon back.


    "Gah." The chameleon flew for two seconds beforending while holding his stomach.


    ? This was the Dark King''s Invisible Vortex. He had taught Theo and even used it against the Fist Saint. It could transfer the power from the de into a medium before releasing it at the end.


    "!!!" The Dark King''s Invisible Vortex stunned everyone. They never thought that the Dark King had this kind of power. But since they needed to kill him as soon as possible, they couldn''t retreat.


    The Dark King stomped the ground, pouring a lot of Magic Power. In that instant, the ground turned ck as if he had poured ck paint.


    The humanoid rock felt something wrong with the ground the moment it reached him. His body felt like it didn''t belong to him anymore.


    So, the humanoid hurriedly stepped back, trying to get away from the ck ground. However, he was a tad toote.


    The dark power had infiltrated his rock feet. The humanoid rock found his feet to be moving on their own.


    Once he spotted the ck area, he immediately stomped the ground, destroying the rock that had been contaminated by that power and regaining control over his feet.


    Seeing the humanoid rock''s situation, the other two King ss Monsters changed their n. The spider stopped and shot out a web while the fox waved his tail, sending forth a crescent-shaped energy.


    The Dark King smiled as he continued moving forward, avoiding the fox''s attack. In the end, the crescent-shaped energy hit the web, neutralizing each other.


    Meanwhile, the Dark King headed straight to the humanoid rock and the chameleon, trying to take advantage of the situation to defeat them.


    He had used a lot of unique powers, so if he couldn''t at least kill one of them in this opportunity, the battle ahead would be extremely tough.


    The humanoid rock gritted his teeth. Since he was already away from the ck ground, the humanoid rock stepped forward, trying to stop the Dark King.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Unfortunately for him, he was never his opponent. The Dark King simply used his Invisible Vortex to hit him again.


    "!!!" The humanoid rock widened his eyes in surprise, never expecting the Dark King to use this ability again. He immediately turned around to check whether there was someone behind him or not.


    But this was what the Dark King had been waiting for.


    The moment he lowered his guard, the Dark King tried to touch the humanoid rock''s right shoulder, spreading his dark power.


    "!!!" The humanoid rock widened his eyes and hurriedly got away from the Dark King, realizing that he was on the verge of dying. As soon as he let the dark power spread all over his body, the Dark King would be able to control his entire movement.


    So, he had to get away now that his shoulder had been infected. And there was one thing that the Dark King had underestimated.


    He was a humanoid rock. His original body was just a simple rock.


    The moment the shoulder was infected, the humanoid rock didn''t hesitate to cut off his own shoulder.


    It then lowered its body, using the rock underneath its feet to construct the arm back.


    The Dark King frowned when he saw this. He realized that his power was less effective against the humanoid rock. So, he had to aim at the other three.


    Without hesitation, the Dark King raised his sword, suddenly turning it into a ball. After that, he spread his arms as if he was trying to pull a bow.


    "Go!" The Dark King shouted while shooting this small dark ball at the fox.


    The fox didn''t feel anything from this ball. So, he covered his tail with Magic Power and hit it like a baseball, trying to knock it off.


    "Your opponent is me!" The spider moved closer to the Dark King, trying to buy time for hisrades tounch their attack.


    The Dark King, after using that move, truly had no other way to block him. So, he ducked down, avoiding the sharp legs. After that, he positioned himself behind the spider as if he was trying to use him as a cover to hide from the fox.


    But there was actually another reason for this action. The humanoid rock and the chameleon had regained their stance and immediately attacked him, but the Dark King was faster than them.


    The dark ball that the fox knocked away earlier hadn''t disappeared yet.


    "sh!" The Dark King smirked after positioning himself so that the spider was between him and the dark ball.


    "!!!" The spider was dumbfounded, feeling the Magic Power fluctuation. In that instant, the dark ball suddenly released dark light straight to the DaIerk King.


    The light was as sharp as the de. It cut down the ground and hit the spider.


    "Aaaahhhh!"

 Chapter 1946 Way Of Thinking

    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The spider screamed in pain. The de that came from the dark ball was actually linked to the one on the Dark King''s hand, cutting his legs.


    If not for the fact that his legs were sturdier than normal monsters and his reaction speed was faster, all his left legs would have been cut. But this time, only two of them were cut.


    Although it would decrease his speed and stability, he could still continue fighting the Dark King.


    "��" The Dark King clicked his tongue. Despite using this ability, he still failed to kill a single monster. It was clear that his ability wouldn''t work again unless he managed to push the enemies to the point they couldn''t dodge this attack anymore.


    ''It seems that the fight wouldn''t be that easy, so what kind of opportunity can I find in this situation?'' The Dark King asked himself, believing Theo''s words. He was still wondering what kind of thing could result in his breakthrough.


    Unfortunately, the Dark King didn''t have too much time. The chameleon had reappeared next to him, hitting him in the face.


    The Dark King had felt his fluctuation of Magic Power, so he raised his hand, stopping this punch.


    However, the humanoid rock pped his hands as the ground started to shake. Suddenly, two giant blocks of stone emerged from the ground and joined each other, pinching the Dark King in between.


    *Bam!*


    The Dark King gritted his teeth as he pushed both rocks with his hands. Meanwhile, the fox had sent forth another crescent-shaped energy.


    But unlike before, the crescent-shaped energy suddenly shone brighter and turned into multiple beams of light. These lights were moving in a random direction, but they still bounced back to head closer to the Dark King''s position.


    This way, the Dark King would be attacked from all directions.


    Seeing it would be hard to escape from this attack, the Dark King suddenly let the two rocks crush him.


    *Bam!*


    As a result, the lights hit the rock and failed to prate it.


    They thought they had managed to get him, but the stones suddenly turned ck before crumbling into pieces, revealing the Dark King, who seemed to escape unscathed.


    Though, they didn''t know that the Dark King''s hands actually felt numb. No matter what, it was an attack from a King ss Monster, so getting squeezed by it was still dangerous.


    The Dark King furrowed his eyebrows while staring at these monsters. He couldn''t help but remember the remaining two things that Theo had told him.


    "When you fight them, you should see what kind of ability they have. After that, think about this�� ''What makes you different from them?'' This is the question you should ask continuously when fighting them."


    The Dark King was confused. After all, the difference was clear. They were from different species, so it was clear that they were different. And there was no way they would have the same order as him. So, he didn''t have any need to ask this question.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Last but not least, Theo said, "After receiving the answer, you should ask yourself this. ''I have my own principles and that will be how I live. Yet, will my principles affect those people?"


    This was a more concrete question. But it was still connected to the first question, which confused him.


    ''Still, Theo never told me something useless. I managed to grow my strength by leaps and bounds after meeting him. The reason for that is his unique way of thinking�� Wait a minute, unique?''


    The Dark King suddenly realized something. His way of thinking was too general. That was why he had slow progress.


    And with Theo asking this question, the Dark King had to ask himself again. What if the difference were something unique?


    ''Then, what is the difference between them and me? We both have an Order. Every order has five stages, and the strongest one is at the same level as mine.


    ''So, what is actually the difference between us?'' The Dark King looked at the four monsters. He couldn''t help but recall the previous two things Theo told him.


    ''Wait a minute. Theo has warned me that I might have to fight multiple of them. After all, we are at war right now. He has predicted that the enemies will attack us because their leader said so��


    ''Ah!'' The Dark King widened his eyes in shock. ''Don''t tell me�� There is actually one big difference between us.


    ''Their saint, the slime, has forced them to submit. But if I take a look at Theo and even the Saint I serve�� all of them are capable leaders, ones that won''t submit to anyone.


    ''And I have been too unruly this whole time. I''ve fought all those saints, believing that I can surpass them. That''s right. This is the difference between us.


    ''Those people fear their saint and submit to them. Meanwhile, I''m serving my saint because I''m honing my ability under him�� And there is only one purpose for getting stronger; it''s to surpass them.


    ''In other words, I am here to get stronger to surpass the Saints. The only way to do it is to be a Saint myself. That''s right. It''s not about waiting for my saint to hand the sessor title to me. It''s about me creating my own path, fearing no one. There won''t be anyone to stop me from ascending!''


    The Dark King''s heart suddenly felt as if it was being flushed by warmth. However, he felt something was notpleted yet.


    And all that was left was Theo''sst question.


    ''Will my principles or way of life affect those people?''


    ''As a leader, as a Saint, there is no way that my will won''t affect them. But that will has to consider the people around me as well. I shall be a benevolent ruler that knows how to take care of mynd, my people, and the order around me. Ah, so that''s how it is��''


    The Dark King looked at those four monsters. He realized that this was thest step he needed to be a Saint. And those four King ss Monsters were thest task to see how his power would affect them.


    ''It seems that I''ll be using them to break through.'' The Dark King smiled.

 Chapter 1947 Change

    "Haaa!" The Dark King shouted while waving his de, hitting the humanoid rock. But thetter had gradually learned about his unique power. So, he created anotheryer of rock on top of his current body before punching the Dark King''s de.


    "Kh." The Dark King might be powerful, but it didn''t reflect the strength contained in that small body.


    When the humanoid rock hit him with all his strength, the Dark King couldn''t stop the punch.


    The de gradually reached his body along with the fist, blowing him to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    "Kh." The Dark King gritted his teeth while trying to raise his body as soon as possible. The spider had locked on him with that web, so if he didn''t dodge immediately, he would be pinned to the ground as the web gradually melted him.


    After avoiding the spider''s web, the Dark King faced the chameleon and the fox. He struck the fox''s sharp tail while kicking the chameleon.


    Knowing that his kick would cause his body to be dyed, the chameleon stopped, barely avoiding the kick.


    The Dark King used that chance to jump away, regaining some distance.


    He took a deep breath while staring at these four monsters. The battle situation had been flipped multiple times. As of now, the four monsters had learned about his abilities, so it was hard to use them for the second time.


    That was why he was at a disadvantage. Still, the Dark King felt something different in this battle.


    Firstly, his perception became a bit better as if there was something enhancing his senses.


    Despite fighting four King ss Monsters, he still sensed what had happened around him. It seemed that his wife and Rea managed to hold the unique monsters on their own.


    In fact, his wife had been going all out in order to pressure the enemies. Unfortunately, Rea''s Magic Power was running low. If this continued, she had to retreat after another fifteen minutes.


    So, he had to finish the battle within fifteen minutes.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t know how to do it. The only way to defeat these four Kings within fifteen minutes was to be a Saint.


    The Dark King felt like he was approaching that boundary. But the current pace was a bit too slow.


    If he continued at this pace, he would be toote.


    The Dark King took a deep breath. ''My Saint has told me that speeding up the progress needs enlightenment. But Theo has said that if you''re already smart enough to figure it out, you don''t need any enlightenment. After all, every day, you are getting enlightened�� I guess I need one��''


    The Dark King asked the question again. ''How will his Order and Authority affect the people around him?''


    He tried to recount the memory with Theo and the Frost Saint.


    The way Theo led his people shed in his mind. When he visited, Theo treated his people equally despite the fact that there were Kings and Queens among them.


    The Frost Saint had a different treatment for his people. The closer they were to him, the better the treatment was.


    "Are they different?" The Dark King frowned before noticing something. ''Wait a minute��''


    Before the Dark King could think more about it, the four King ss Monsters had attacked him again, preventing him from getting enlightenment.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Dark King was struggling to stop them. Even though the fox was injured heavily, the spider had its legs cut, and the chameleon had one of its arms sliced, they still managed to corner him.


    The Dark King dodging their attack became even more and moremon. It would be easy to think the Dark King would be defeated sooner orter.


    However, there was something different from the Dark King this time. He actually had a question in his mind to himself and his enemies.


    The Dark King struck the humanoid rock with all his strength.


    *Cling!*


    Their sh caused a powerful shock wave that blew away everything around them. There were a few seconds of tranquility after this sh, allowing the Dark King to ask them.


    "What do you think of the slime?"


    "!!!" The humanoid rock was startled by that question.


    That reaction was precisely what he needed. The Dark King couldn''t help but make an awkward smile.


    He felt a bit dejected and defeated, but this might be the only way.


    ''Haha. So, that''s how it is. Now I can see it�� It''s truly about how they treat the people around them.


    ''Theo respects others whether they are humans or monsters. My Saint also respects them. However, Theo and my Saint don''t admire the other party. They only admire their action and characters, not the people themselves.


    ''To think that the way to be a Saint means I have to abandon my belief��'' The Dark King felt a bit sad.


    He had followed the Dark King for so long. However, he felt he was being stuck at this level as if he had just reached his limit.


    Sadly, that wasn''t a limit.


    Deep down in his heart, he actually admired the Frost Saint. He wanted to be like him and aspired to surpass him.


    But he didn''t realize that adoration actually turned into a question in his heart, causing doubt to appear.


    ''What if I be a Saint? Will we still be friends? Will we still have the same rtionship? What if we be enemies after I be a Saint?''


    That question had gued his heart without him noticing. A part of him actually didn''t want him to be a Saint because it would certainly cause a change in their rtionship.


    And Theo''s question actually warned him of his doubt. The moment he reached the Authority Level, his power would definitely cause changes to his surroundings. And how did he want them to change?


    ''That''s right. The only thing thatsts forever is a change. Instead of holding myself back because I don''t want a change, I should be stronger to decide how it''s gonna change instead��''


    A smile appeared on the Dark King''s face as the Order''s Mark on his body suddenly released a ck light, causing a powerful Magic Power fluctuation.


    ''It seems that I can''t call you my Saint anymore�� But this time, I''m going to stand beside you, old pal!''

 Chapter 1948 Dark Saint

    "!!!" The four King ss Monsters widened their eyes when they suddenly saw a change urring on the Dark King''s body.


    "What is happening?" The spider asked, panicking.


    "I don''t know. I feel something bad from that change." The fox gritted his teeth. He felt oppression from that light, but because he wasn''t close to Authority Level, he didn''t know what it was.


    The humanoid rock was the one answering their doubt. "We have to stop him. I''m not sure what''s going on, but he''s getting stronger."


    The King ss Monsters nodded at each other as they charged forward, trying to distract him.


    The spider released his web, the chameleon tried to strike him from behind, the fox released a sharp crescent-shaped energy, and the humanoid rock used his body to smash the Dark King.


    Seeing their actions, the Dark King raised his hand.


    "Obey me." It was amand from the Dark King.


    Suddenly, the shadow or any dark color within the gap of their bodies suddenly shook as if they were kneeling before the ruler.


    They suddenly expanded and bound the enemies'' hands and feet.


    "!!!" The Four King ss Monsters didn''t know what was happening. The Shadow King didn''t help him, yet, their shadow actually moved ording to the Dark King''s will.


    A ck te gradually appeared on top of the Dark King. This was actually his armor, but the Dark King had used his power to turn it into a big smooth te.


    Due to the change of shape, the te became ten times its original size, covering him and the four King ss Monsters from the sun.


    But this was exactly what he needed.


    "Get away!" The humanoid rock shouted, feeling the danger.


    Unfortunately for them, only the fox and the spider, who used a long range attack managed to leave the darkness, while the humanoid rock and the chameleon had to be trapped inside.


    "Gate of Darkness." The Dark King muttered.


    Suddenly, there was a vortex on the ck te''s surface as if it was trying to swallow them.


    However, it was nothing but a distraction for the humanoid rock and the chameleon. They were trying to get away, but the Dark King waved his de down.


    In that instant, the ck te on top of them shot out numerous spikes to their front, causing them to stop.


    The Dark King used that opportunity to swing his de again. This time, the ck te became the medium for his sword strike to travel.


    Just like the small ck ball that turned into a de, the giant te suddenly released a vertical de like the extension of the Dark King''s de, cutting them.


    Three ck des struck the humanoid rock, hitting his body and shoulders. In that instant, the humanoid rock turned into four.


    Meanwhile, the chameleon suffered a much worse fate than the rock. There were actually five des hitting him. One de cut his other hand, two des cut his tails, thest two cut his body, ultimately killing him.


    In that single attack, the Dark King actually decapitated one King ss Monster and killed the other.<novelnext></novelnext>


    This was the strength of a Saint.


    The Dark King looked at his hand, feeling the surge of power from his mark.


    ''I see�� So, this is the difference between a King and a Saint. What a wonderful feeling this Authority has��


    ''No, should I say, this is the feeling of being a ruler�� I have Dark Authority, anything that appears to be dark like a shadow, dark color, and other things, shall be under mymand.''


    The Dark King closed his eyes for a second as if he was trying to get a good grasp on his new strength.


    He didn''t know whether Theo predicted this or thought he had to experience a near death experience first before getting enlightenment. But he was sure of one thing. Theo believed he could ovee the challenge and be a Saint.


    The Dark King smiled. "Well, should I say that I have a big brain and good talent that I manage toprehend it before I''m in a near death situation? As expected of me."


    The Dark King was filled with confidence. It might be because he had dropped his adoration for the Frost Saint that now he didn''t feel any more pressured by his status.


    Even if he didn''t idolize the Frost Saint, the amount of respect he had for him still hadn''t changed. That was enough for him.


    The Dark King smiled while staring at the fox, the spider, and the heavily injured rock.


    "Rejoice, for you have the opportunity to die under a Saint''s hands. I should thank you for making me realize what I''mcking in order to be a Saint!"


    In that instant, the Authority Mark glowed brightly. But because the light was ck, the entire area darkened as if the sun had disappeared.


    The ck colored Magic Power in his body gradually transformed from a fiery ck fire to a smooth, controlledyer.


    "From now henceforth, I am not a Dark King. I am a Dark Saint! And I, the Dark Saint, hereby swear that whoever touches my friend''s people shall die. Because you''ve severely injured Rea, I shall grant you death."


    Dark clouds gradually gathered in the area, covering the sun. Then, from the ck cloud, ck light started to fall, illuminating the area.


    "��" The remaining King ss Monsters felt their instinct was telling them to flee. After all, this ce had be extremely dangerous.


    Just like they thought, this entire area had be an execution ground.


    And they were a tad toote to escape as the Dark King had made his next move.


    ��


    Not far away from the battlefield, the Shadow King suddenly stopped and looked at the horizon as if she was staring at the Dark King. She felt something different from her husband, considering they had each other''s mark.


    The same applied to the Frost Saint, who had been waiting for this moment.


    He was in the middle of meditation when he suddenly felt the change in the Dark Mark he received from the Dark King.


    Knowing what had happened, both of them smiled and said the same thing.


    "You did it."

 Chapter 1949 Worry

    On another battlefield, Felix and Ava also received the same struggle.


    The moment there were explosions in their rank, they were startled, trying to figure out the situation.


    "Huh?" Ava widened her eyes, looking into the distance. With her sharp hearing, it was easy to find the location of the explosion and the type of explosion.


    Ava frowned, feeling something was not right. However, she didn''t know what to do in this situation.


    On the one hand, she was concerned because the type of explosion didn''te from the enemies. On the other hand, he couldn''t leave the battlefield yet because Felix might end up fighting against four King ss Monsters on his own.


    They had one more option, which was to send Ergene back. But it would mean the unique monsters were going to attack them.


    So, if they yed their move incorrectly, the advantage they had this whole time would be flipped around.


    Ava gritted her teeth and let out a shout to inform Ergene. "There are explosionsing from the human side. I''m afraid they''re like suicide bombers. Ergene!"


    Ergene, who was focused on the unique monsters, suddenly stopped, staring in Ava''s direction. She had to think of a way to handle this situation.


    However, fighting against so many unique monsters, even with a lot of people, was still exhausting. She couldn''t divide the army further to contain the problem.


    "What?" Ergene gritted her teeth. Her face gradually became pale as she couldn''t find any solutions.


    Surprisingly, the one who gave her the answer was none other than Felix.


    Felix shouted with a serious expression. "Ava. You should handle the unique monsters. I''ll take care of these four."


    "!!!" Ava widened her eyes. The other two King ss Monsters obviously didn''t want to let her go just like that. The explosions finally caused a disruption in Ava''s mind, so they might gain some more advantages as time passed.


    But the moment the tiger and the humanoid monster approached her, Felix swung his de, causing the light toe out of the ground before turning into a barrier.


    ? The two monsters halted for a moment, ring at Felix. His cool expression was telling them that if they dared to cross that barrier, he would kill them.


    The four King ss Monsters were in a dilemma. On the one hand, they should continue pursuing Ava in order to let those explosions distract her. On the other hand, they might be able to turn around the situation if they could defeat Felix here without any casualty by focusing all their strength on Felix.


    So, they were wondering what they should do.


    Seeing the hesitation in the monsters'' eyes, Ava didn''t hesitate to leap away, running to Ergene as quickly as possible. This way, the monsters were forced to make a decision.


    Because it would be troublesome if they fought the human army with Ava, they knew their best option was to kill Felix.


    "��" The Four King ss Monsters exchanged looks, reaching an agreement. Since the enemies had allowed them to kill them one at a time, they should take advantage of this opportunity.<novelnext></novelnext>


    All four King ss Monsters started to focus on Felix while the bird flew a bit higher to make sure Ava fought the unique monsters instead of nning an ambush.


    Meanwhile, Ava and Ergene had regrouped.


    "I''m going to handle the unique monsters," Ava stated with a serious expression. "What should I do?"


    "What? How about Felix?" Ergene was a bit skeptical about this. After all, Felix''s strength was inferior to Ava''s. Unfortunately, they didn''t have a choice.


    Ava could easily return by herself, but she wouldn''t gain the trust of the soldiers since she was one of the monsters, even if she was affiliated with Theo.


    So, Ergene would probably be the best choice. After all, themander from the army couldn''t really get a hold of Ava or Felix. Hence, Ergene had to return to their original battlefield.


    As soon as she saw this situation, she grabbed the radio and called a name. "Rick! Come here!"


    A minuteter, a middle-aged man who was apanying Ergene in hunting the unique monsters came.


    "What happens?" He asked while ncing to the side where Felix took care of the four King ss Monsters by himself.


    "Ava will be helping you to hunt the unique monsters. I''m going to take half of our force back to handle the problem that urred in our main army. You should know about Ava''s strength, so you should help direct her in order to hunt the monsters. Make sure you don''t leave a single of them alive to disturb Felix.


    "I''m not sure about the problems, but this is a very important moment. If we don''t stand strong here, we might lose. Understood?" Ergene asked with a strict tone.


    "I understand." He looked at Ava, not knowing what to say. On the one hand, he still had some prejudice against the fact that Ava was one of the monsters. On the other hand, she was the strongest fighter they had and she was affiliated with Theo.


    Ava knew this fact as well, so she said, "You don''t have to mind me. I''m going to hunt those monsters ording to your directions without questions. However, I''m going to remind you that your order must be in order to keep the monsters away from Felix. I''m doing this in order to win. So, do you want to win?"


    Themander''s expression suddenly changed. He realized that he had thrown a prejudice without knowing Ava herself.


    He felt ashamed, but it also made him determined. He nodded and swore, "I understand. I shall guide you in order for us to win."


    "Good. Let''s go." Ava nodded and turned back into her small form to get some rest on his shoulder.


    In the meantime, Ergene picked up a few captains to bring their squads to follow her back to the main army.


    They were confused at first, but since theirmander had agreed to the arrangement, they immediately split up with the rest and returned to the main army.


    Still, the biggest fight on this battlefield was none other than Felix against four King ss Monsters.

 Chapter 1950 Evolve

    "Felix. I''m afraid you have to evolve or you will die this time."


    Felix still remembered the day Theo said those words to him. Theo finally showed such a weakness because the enemies were simply too powerful.


    And looking at the situation, he felt this was probably the situation Theo was talking about.


    When he was with Ava, he had an easier time since he could focus on two King ss Monsters. Now that he had lost her, if he didn''t make the correct move, he might die without aplishing anything.


    ''He has entrusted me with such an important task. Right now, there are four King ss Monsters before me. Although they have been injured quite badly, it doesn''t change the fact that I''m not strong enough to fight them.''


    Felix couldn''t help but rte to Theo''s words. He told him that he wasn''t strong enough to protect everyone. And currently, Felix knew he was also too weak to protect them.


    ''What can I do to get stronger? If I don''t evolve, I might die here��'' Felix took a deep breath as his expression turned grim.


    Felix was releasing all his Magic Power, trying to pressure them to focus on him. They could still go to Ava, but it would mean that they would die on the way since he would be hunting them down. And he looked determined to kill anyone that tried to escape.


    Even the monsters had to take him on seriously if they didn''t want to die.


    Since the situation had changed, the monsters decided to kill Felix first.


    The rhino immediately charged his horn with electricity. Still, due to Felix''s sh earlier, the horn was damaged, so the electricity was leaking out of the horn.


    The bird had flown to the sky, causing ripples in the air. The tiger had covered his paw with a w-shaped wind while the humanoid monster had looped around while sping his hands, forming an avatar behind him.


    Felix had known about their injuries. So, he knew who he should target first.


    Without hesitation, Felix leaped toward the humanoid monster.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster frowned while preparing himself to stop Felix even for just a second. At the same time, the other King ss Monsters chased after Felix. As long as they could stop Felix, they could take advantage of the little time they had when Felix had to spin his body to face them.


    Unfortunately for them, Felix''s strength was still greater than they expected.


    The avatar put his hands in front of him, causing a powerful shock wave to blow Felix away. But thetter actually shed downwards, throwing his Magic Power toward this shock wave and ultimately splitting the shock wave and the avatar in half.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster had to think of a way to stop Felix. In the end, he released another avatar, but because the time wasn''t enough, he only summoned the arm alone. This huge arm tried to capture Felix from the side.


    Felix took a deep breath as his body started shining as if he had turned into light.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster widened his eyes. His instinct was telling him to run right away if he didn''t want to die.


    He decided to do it by leaping to the side. But the next instant, Felix elerated by turning into light and appeared behind him.


    The blood waited for two seconds before it started spurting out of his arm. Felix actually cut his shoulder in that instant. The move was so fast that his flesh actually took a while to realize it had been cut.


    "Aaaaahhhh!" The humanoid monster screamed in pain. As expected of a King ss Monster, although his injury was the worstpared to the rest, he still managed to escape death. After all, if he didn''t move, Felix would have split him in half.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Kh." Felix gritted his teeth. He had used this technique before. This technique could elerate his speed to something simr to Theo''s Alter Ego. However, it truly took a toll on his body just like how Theo used his Alter Ego in the past.


    He would have a hard time fighting the opponent this time since he failed to kill the humanoid monster on that asion.


    The three King ss Monsters also had reached him. The rhino shot the lightning while the bird surrounded Felix with the ripples. The tiger was waiting for Felix in case he managed to avoid these attacks.


    Felix raised his left hand, summoning a light to illuminate the area. The light purified the ripples like earlier while weakening the lightning.


    With a single wave of his sword, the lightning was deflected to the side.


    Still, Felix furrowed his eyebrows when stopping this lightning. The thunderous echo boosted the lightning''s power, so it made his already numb body even weaker.


    And this was the tiger''s time to shine. He sneaked up on him, hitting Felix from above.


    Felix tried to block it with his de, but he was a tad toote. In the end, he only managed to raise his arm, barely blocking this paw.


    The w-shaped wind that covered the paw burst, swallowing Felix.


    Felix managed to wrap his body in light, but the wind was violent enough to damage the light itself and graze his body.


    Felix clicked his tongue while pushing his body downward to get away.


    But because of the attack''s power, he ended up crashing to the ground pretty hard.


    The King ss Monsters tried to attack him before he could get up, but Felix''s ability to endure pain was only second to Theo in the group.


    So, his body managed to instinctively get up despite the shock and run away.


    *Boom!*


    Thebined attack ended up missing him.


    Felix hurriedly jumped into the sky again since this was the best position to fight them due to them having either big bodies or flying abilities.


    Felix gritted his teeth, ring at these monsters. He was wondering how to defeat them.


    There was one word that kept reying in his mind.


    ''Evolve.''


    ''Evolve.''


    ''Evolve.''

 Chapter 1951 Die?

    Felix was trying to find the path to evolve. However, he couldn''t find any more clues from Theo''s words. It felt like he was stuck in aplicated matter while he was besieged by four King ss Monsters.


    "Kh." Felix gritted his teeth, blocking the lightning with his sword. The thought of evolution truly distracted him, but he couldn''t easily dismiss it, considering this was the only way to win.


    The other King ss Monsters noticed his doubt and immediately charged at him, trying to take advantage of this opportunity.


    The tiger moved swiftly from the left while the humanoid monster came from the right.


    Felix had a hard time moving because the lightning from the rhino still continued hitting his de. If he moved away, the rhino could change its direction, so it would always be a three -directional attack.


    Felix gritted his teeth. His body turned into the light to boost his speed. His hand was shaking as if he was measuring the strength of the lightning and was about to slice them in the instant they reached him.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster and the tiger slowed down a bit, trying to figure out the situation.


    But Felix actually had been waiting for them to slow down. After all, the next instant, he used his ability to teleport him backward.


    "!!!" The monsters realized they had been fooled by Felix. Thetter might haven''t retreated the whole time despite facing powerful abilities. So, they thought the enemies were confident in their strength. That was why they hesitated for a moment.


    To think he would take advantage of it to escape. They red at Felix, knowing that they didn''t have to be afraid of him anymore.


    Even though Felix was strong and they were injured, it didn''t change the fact that Felix was alone. There was no way he could defeat all of them at once. He just tried to stall for some time.


    This was the reason why the four King ss monsters decided to be more aggressive.


    Looking at the change in their expression, Felix knew there might be something he could use to take him down. After all, he had been following Theo for a long time.


    He knew that the more Theo appeared weak, the higher possibility of him turning the situation around.


    As someone who had followed him for a few years, he tried to replicate Theo''s aplishment.


    Unfortunately, there was a difference in their talent. When Felix tried to find a way to crush them, he realized he didn''t have any cards to use.


    Even the only trump card he could use, Ava, had been sent away. If it was Theo, he would have asked Ava to hide so that they could kill a King ss Monster. If there were only three enemies, he should be able to handle it. That was why this was the biggest mistake he had in this war.


    Felix waspletely in a bind, not knowing what to do in this situation.


    ''Tsk.'' Felix clicked his tongue and jumped forth, striking the two monsters that were about to hit him.


    The sword managed to block the wind paw, but when he was about to hit the humanoid''s palm, his de was slowed down by the lightning from the rhino.


    In the end, he used his Magic Power to cover his body, albeit the humanoid monster had a clean shot at him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He poured a lot of Magic Power and hit Felix. His size was big enough to hit his entire body, blowing him to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    Felix endured the pain while trying to get up. The bird had formed many ripples to surround him, preventing his movement. Although Felix could use his light to destroy them, in the current situation, the other three King ss Monsters would be fast enough to distract him.


    Hence, he changed his strategy. He poured his Magic Power into his sword, waving it a few times. The Magic Power extended the de far away as Felix used that long sword to cut both the ripples and the monsters at the same time.


    "!!!" The humanoid rock and the tiger were struck by the de, stopping in their track.


    However, the rhino kept shooting the lightning, trying to push him back.


    The ripples that Felix didn''t manage to cut also came closer. When it was close enough, the ripple suddenly popped.


    Felix suddenly felt something he had never felt before. The moment the ripple popped out, he felt like his body was being twisted from the inside. The sharp pain from the muscle electrocuted his mind.


    Although he knew that the ripples were dangerous, he didn''t know what kind of power they had, considering he always neutralized or cut them before they could harm him.


    If the pain was the only thing he had to endure, he could easily stop it with his own resistance built by Theo. But the ripple also caused a shock to the air around it,unching him to the side.


    *Bam!*


    The next thing he realized, he had crashed into a boulder with the lightning following from behind.


    Felix gritted his teeth, trying to block it. But because of his position, the lightning managed to pin him inside the rock.


    "Kh��" Felix gritted his teeth. He had to get up and move away, but the power of the lightning managed to stop himpletely.


    He could see the humanoid monster and the tiger appearing in the corner of his eye. They were trying to strike the stone that captured him instead of himself. This way, he couldn''t block their attack but still felt a portion of that impact.


    "Not good!" Felix''s heart skipped a beat. He never expected that it would only take this much for him to get cornered.


    Felix tried to get away but to no avail. He thought he would be severely injured by this attack and eventually lost his life.


    "Kh�� Am I going to die?" Felix muttered. "Die?"


    In that instant, Theo''s voice felt like echoing in his ears, reminding him of his oath.


    "Even if I have to kill myself to drag you out of the underworld, I''m ready."

 Chapter 1952 Hunt

    Felix widened his eyes, realizing that meaning. He suddenly twisted his body to the side as he stopped blocking this lightning anymore.


    As a result, his left arm was shattered by that lightning. However, that arm wasn''t the only casualty. The rock was also destroyed into pieces, freeing Felix.


    "!!!" The rhino gasped, not expecting Felix to give up his hand to escape. However, it also meant the others were in danger.


    The bird tried to stop Felix, but it was toote.


    The moment Felix escaped from the rock, he spun his body, releasing a sh in all directions multiple times.


    "Wh��" The tiger tried to avoid it as soon as he felt the Magic Power fluctuation, but it was toote. His head and brain were sliced by that long de.


    The humanoid monster in the opposite direction had a better condition than the tiger, so he managed to avoid that sh, albeit barely.


    His entire shoulder was cut, revealing his true body.


    It turned out the true body was far too small. The giant humanoid''s height reached as high as twenty feet, but the real body was not even five feet. That was why the giant humanoid managed to avoid the attack this whole time. Even his injuries didn''t seem to affect him.


    Luckily, the sh actually cut both his right foot and right arm, causing him to lose bnce. Even the giant humanoid monster had to abandon its giant body and face Felix himself with only one arm and one leg.


    He didn''t know how many rounds he could survive under Felix''s relentless attack.


    Of course, Felix didn''t stop there. He tried to attack the third nearest monster, which was also in his range, albeit barely. However, he only managed to scratch the wing. It was a shame, but with this, there were only three enemies left. It could be said the third one would have a hard time moving if he still wanted to continue.


    Although Felix''s left hand was cut, he was still strong enough to fight against these monsters. Felix used his sword with only his right hand after all.


    ''This guy is insane.'' The monsters gritted their teeth.


    ''To think he would sacrifice his hand to kill one of us.''


    ''He almost killed me too.''


    The monsters were re-evaluating Felix. On the other hand, Felix finally understood why Theo brought up the oath back then.


    ? ''I guess this is my fate. I''m sorry, Theo�� Even though I have made such a big promise, I''m just a foolish human. If I wasn''t such a fool, I wouldn''t have lost my wife.


    ''The evolution you talked about might be rted to enlightenment, but unfortunately, I''m such a fool that there''s no way such a convenient thing will appear before my eyes.


    ''Instead of that, I should acknowledge that I''m a fool and there will be no evolution. And since I''ve sworn that I''ll fight for you even if I have to sacrifice my life, I think this is the time.''


    Felix smiled.


    He hade to a realization. It might be due to his peaceful life after following Theo that he had forgotten. He was an assassin.


    In his line of work, one wrong move would kill him. But as an assassin, he would use all his abilities and resources in order to kill his target.


    However, after getting used to Millie''s smile and Ruth''spany, his instinct as an assassin had mellowed a bit.<novelnext></novelnext>


    That was why he had never thought about doing everything in order to achieve his goal anymore. This was what made him weak.


    ''That''s right. He knew I''d grown weak. That was why he wanted to remind me by telling me to evolve. It''s not an evolution��''


    Felix took a deep breath, looking at these three remaining monsters. Their injuries, condition, and positions had been recorded in his mind.


    ''O'' God of Light, I have forgotten my oath and strayed from my path for a while.'' Felix muttered inwardly as his consciousness gradually shrank.


    His instinct was taking over him.


    The three monsters didn''t know what was happening, but they felt something was wrong with Felix.


    The current Felix was dangerous. That was why their instinct told them.


    However, they were a step toote to react as Felix approached the humanoid monster, trying to kill the weakest one.


    "!!!" The humanoid monster, who hade out from his giant body or it could be said his avatar body, hurriedly jumped to the side, avoiding Felix.


    But Felix had cut his leg and arm earlier, so his bnce was off and his speed slowed down drastically, causing Felix to catch up to him.


    As a desperate attempt, he tried to summon an avatar to p Felix to death.


    The other tried to use their abilities as well, but they were too far.


    Felix saw this avatar but didn''t pay attention to it attentively.


    He used one of the palms as his foothold as Felix jumped toward the humanoid monster, cutting him down.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The humanoid monster screamed in pain, but it was toote. The monster might be able to twist his body a little, but Felix managed to cut his shoulder and a portion of his body, so even if he survived, he wouldn''t be able to recover.


    Still, Felix could achieve this because he had abandoned all his defenses. He didn''t care whether his body was tattered or not as long as he could kill the enemies.


    Even the previous attack from the avatar twisted his ankle as Felix couldn''t use that foot to run anymore. He could only use it to support his body while enduring a lot of pain.


    The monsters felt chills down their spines. Felix was able to sacrifice all his body parts in order to kill them.


    This felt like Felix was the monster here instead of them. They wondered whether they could still kill him or not. Even if they could kill him, they would suffer permanent injuries.


    Though, that would be the same for Felix if he didn''t have Aisha, who could regenerate body parts.


    An evil smile appeared on Felix as he suddenly disappeared.


    It was time to�� hunt.

 Chapter 1953 Report

    Agata closed her eyes for a moment. On the one hand, she felt relieved that the situation was under control. On the other hand, she never thought there would be so much sacrifice.


    "I''ll be reporting about what happened on all battlefields." Ne came to her. "On Ava''s battlefield, Ava had started to control the unique monsters along with the army. Felix seemed to have found his own advantage. But we are not sure about his current condition at the moment. And Ergene has requested Aisha to help Felix immediately. Also, Uncle Ray has reached the battlefield, so their situation should be under control after all this. There are no monsters inside our searching range."


    "Hmm�� Immediately tell Aisha to do that. There''s no one who requests emergency recovery from Aisha, right?" Agata asked.


    "Not at the moment."


    "Alright. Continue."


    "As for the second battlefield, after Uncle Ray went to another battlefield, Aunt Valerie had been dealing with the unique monsters. And apparently, after those explosions, she had to send the Griffith Family to control the situation. All in all, the condition is pretty stable."


    Agata thought for a moment. The problem on that battlefield was the number of King ss Monsters. Even though the reinforcement was one of the best, she had to ask.


    "What''s about the King ss Monsters?"


    "The Time God has defeated all of them and immediately assisted Aunt Valerie in suppressing the rest of the unique monsters."


    "Good then." Agata let out a sigh of relief. She didn''t know much about the Time God, so she was a bit skeptical about asking for his help. If not for the fact that the situation was this difficult, she wouldn''t have asked him.


    Luckily, the battle turned in their favor.


    After seeing Agata''s relieved expression, she continued. "We''ll move on to the third battlefield. The one that needed Aisha is only Walker. The enemies managed to take out a few fingers, but it wasn''t life-threatening, so we could prioritize Felix first.


    "As for the Four King ss Monsters, we received Theo''s reinforcement. The Shadow King and the Dark King have helped us in taking down the King ss Monsters.


    "Although there were some problems when the explosions happened, Rea and the Shadow King took care of the unique monsters while the rest of the army handled the explosions.


    "The Dark King has also achieved a breakthrough. I guess we have to call him the Dark Saint from now on. This breakthrough allows him to overwhelm his enemies.


    "Still, humans are skeptical about monsters. So, for now, the Dark King has decided to stay not far away from the base. It seems that only Theo is the location, so we''ll have to wait until Theo returns before we meet the Dark Ki��Saint again."


    Agata nodded. "That''s very good. Is Rea heavily injured?"


    "She has exhausted almost all her Magic Power, but her condition is still good enough to helpmand the army."


    Agata took another deep breath. With these, the three most important battlefields had been safe.


    "Should I continue with the rest of the battlefields?" Ne asked.


    As soon as she received a nod from Agata, she continued, "Alright. We''ll move on to Ruth''s battlefield. ording to the report, Ruth has been attacked by a lot of unique monsters as well.


    "Their numbers can''t bepared to the three important battlefields, but they are enough to threaten our position. It seems that our guess is right. They want us to focus on them because of the number of unique monsters before attacking us on those three battlefields.


    "There are no King ss Monsters in sight, so we believe the situation is still under control. Even though it''s a bit concerning, with enough time, we should be able to gain a big advantage.


    "The same applies to the other three Transcendent Level Experts. Although they have received a relentless attack, they''re standing their ground. It seems that they don''t want to lose against Theo.


    "Although they got pushed back a bit, they still managed to recover and contained the enemies at the gate. Felix had been killing some strong monsters over there before he arrived on Ava''s battlefields, so they should be fine.


    "All in all, the war might still continue, but for the time being, we don''t see any sign of ambush or any chance to turn around the situation."


    Agata pinched the bridge of his nose. She felt happy that the situation had resolved well.


    But she couldn''t be too happy since the war had yet to end.


    She looked at Ne and said, "Alright. It''s good that the situation is in our favor right now. However, maintain the surveince to make sure that the battle will end in our victory."


    "I understand. And should we maintain our border''s to make sure the enemies don''t infiltrate after the war?"


    "Yes. That''s necessary. We can''t let them enter without us knowing. I''m not sure when Theo is going to return, but I don''t think it''ll take too long.


    "I will handle the clean up and you will take care of the current battlefields. Inform me if something happens." Agata could finally sit back and rx a little bit. Of course, she still had to make sure that everything went smoothly after this.


    After all, they had been engaging in a psychological battle. It wouldn''t be a surprise if the enemiesunched another surprise attack.


    However, there was one question that still hadn''t been answered in his mind. It was none other than the bombing incident.


    A frown appeared on Agata''s face as she thought, ''So, how did the enemy infiltrate our army before this? I''m pretty sure that Theo hasn''t let go of any single monster with his ability. So, is this the spy''s work? But how in the world did they manage to do that?


    "I believe we have kept a close surveince with the help of the beggar association and the Griffith Family.


    "There is also a bombing incident inside the base. They''ve been suppressed, but this is bugging me. What will happen in the battle against the slime?"

 Chapter 1954 Messages

    On Rea''s battlefield, after the Dark Saint defeated all the King ss Monsters.


    He immediately went to his wife to check her situation. Luckily, she managed to handle the unique monsters with Rea.


    From the way she looked, it seemed that it wasn''t a hard battle. There were no visible injuries on her body and the amount of her Magic Power was still quite high.


    "It seems that you are done here." The Dark Saint smiled, looking at Rea.


    "Thank you for your support this time. We wouldn''t be able to defeat them without your help." Rea politely thanked him.


    The Dark King waved his hand. "It''s true that one of the reasons I joined this battle was because of Theo. However, I couldn''t be a hypocrite to not acknowledge the temptation.


    "Thanks to Theo, I managed to be a Saint. He gave me this battlefield to allow me to take thest step. So, I should be the one thanking you.


    "As for now, I think we will hide nearby to make sure that no other ambush hits you." He nced at his wife. "How about I take care of Syk? You can hide inside her shadow for the time being and inform us if something goes wrong."


    The Shadow King thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. That''s for the best. Although the humans have known us, I''m still ufortable mingling around them. There are a lot of stares saying that they still don''t trust us. So, it''s better to stay away."


    "Good." The Dark Saint nodded. After the Shadow King disappeared, the Dark Saint turned back to Rea. "Also, since the battle has reached this point, I''m going to tell you about two messages from Theo.


    "First, if you manage to win this battle, don''t rejoice. The fact that the enemies show this much power and don''t mind losing them. It means that they have more power than we imagine.


    "Instead of celebrating the victory, you should put all your attention on figuring out their exact number. After all, the next attack will be an all-out attack. So, make sure to give me a full report after I return."


    "!!!" Rea widened her eyes when she heard the first message. As Theo said, the enemies actually threw thirteen King ss Monsters at them.


    This number was far beyond their imagination. If the enemies could actually send this much in the first attack, it was clear that they could send more in the final battle.


    Their number might be more than three times to make it less hurt when losing them.


    "This��" Rea shuddered. She looked at the Dark King and said, "Impossible. There might be at least forty King ss Monsters that will be attacking us next."


    The Dark King thought for a moment. "Hmm. A Saint normally has fifteen to twenty King ss Monsters under theirmand. Though, a new Saint usually only has around five.


    "If we go along with that number, I''m afraid that the enemies also have at least two more Saints. Though, I don''t know why a Saint would be fighting for the slime. I''ve heard a lot from Theo, so it confuses me." The Dark King fell into deep thought.


    Rea also couldn''t understand their motivation. But the fact that the enemies might have two other Saints meant they had to be extra careful.


    After all, the former Griffith Family, specifically the Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint would aid the slime. In addition, the Fist Saint might still hold a grudge, so he might being.


    In other words, they had at least five Saints along with the slime that could fight multiple saints at once.


    "This is not looking good." Rea let out a sigh. Forty King ss Monsters alone were already giving her a headache, let alone those five Saints.


    "Well, I know that Theo will be thinking about it. But I guess it''s better to follow his instructions. And I''ll also be fighting alongside you in the next battle. That''s the promise. If he helped me break through to Saint, I would help him in his next battle. As for the second thing he wanted to tell you��" The Dark Saint paused for a moment. "The spies might act during this battle. Investigate it for a few days and immediately pull up. Make it look like we''re doing a half-ass investigation because we can''t differentiate the saints from the hundreds of millions of innocent people."


    Rea furrowed her eyebrows. She understood what he wanted, but she believed this matter was extremely important. After all, the spies might act again in the next battle.


    But since Theo had given the order, she should follow it. "I understand. Thank you for giving me the message. I''ll ry it to Agata as well. That''s right. Does he tell you when he''sing back?"


    "Approximately one to two weeks."


    "Alright then." Rea nodded. She waited until the Shadow King returned and saw the family off as the Shadow King hid in her shadow to make sure there were no more attacks from the monsters.


    Although the battle was not over yet, the most dangerous situation had been resolved. So, they only had to clean up the remaining monsters.


    ��


    On the center battlefield, the situation was calm as if they hadn''t experienced a harsh battle.


    Everything was because of a single man, the Time God. He single-handedly killed the King ss Monsters, helped Valerie in dealing with the unique monsters, and even massacred as many monsters near the army. The soldiers couldn''t stop praising him.


    ��


    However, Ava''s battlefield had a bit more serious situation since they were the only ones who didn''t have a Saint to help them.


    And the most concerning matter was Felix.


    Felix was lying down helplessly. His left hand and right limb were severed by the enemies and he had lost a lot of blood. The healer and doctor had been trying to maintain his life until Aisha came.


    Unfortunately, Felix only managed to kill three King ss Monsters and failed to kill thest one since thetter ran away and Felix was in no condition to pursue him. Even so, the monstrous Felix, who didn''t care about his injury truly had left a big impact on his heart and he might not be able to recover from it.


    Even though his injury was serious and couldn''t help with the rest of the battle, Ava and Ergene managed to handle the rest of the monsters and would continue doing so until they eradicated every single monster in that area.

 Chapter 1955 Problems

    "Hurry up! Those who still can move help carrying the injured." Rea shouted. She was overseeing the cleaning up on her battlefield.


    Themander, who apanied her on this battlefield, came to her and said, "You have worked hard enough. Let the army do the clean up."


    She shook her head. "Although I''ve exhausted almost all my Magic Power, I still have some stamina left. Remember, the current situation doesn''t allow us to show any weakness. After all, there might be another ambush waiting for us.


    p����d�� ��?�ͨ�1,�㨰�� "For now, I''ll help with the clean up. Meanwhile, you start arranging for people to patrol the border. They still can use our vastnd to find a gap to exploit."


    Themander frowned. They had been warned about them sneaking in through the gap, so they had been working on the countermeasure.


    After seeing the scale of this attack, he truly felt the need for good nning. Without hesitation, he immediately worked on the n with the headquarters.


    While the army was thinking about the defense after the war, Agata was thinking about the thing beyond it. The clean up alone wasn''t that much of a problem, but what happened inside the war would seriously impact how they could move next.


    Agata frowned.


    There were three big questions in her mind. The first was rted to the bombing incident. She still didn''t know how the enemies could infiltrate their army. And without getting the answer, they might have to expect something beyond their expectation in the next battle.


    However, Agata actually felt a bit relieved about this question after Rea called her, rying Theo''s message.


    Agata looked at the base map and muttered, "It seems that Theo had predicted that something beyond our expectations would happen. That was why he wanted this half-ass investigation.


    "But I still didn''t know the reason why we should do it. After all, this matter was very important to the stability of the base and the army.


    "I can''t really say anything since Theo has spoken. From the looks of it, he should have predicted and made some countermeasures. And this kind of n is simply how he''s trying to do something without our knowledge. If that''s the case, I should let Theo handle this matter. We''ll just follow the instructions."


    Agata nodded before recalling the second big question in this war. It was none other than the size of the enemies. It was clear that the size was quite big. The number alone was simr to what the sea race utilized when fighting them.


    And the quality was not that different. The sea race used two Saints along with multiple King ss Monsters. But this time, the slime sent so many King ss Monsters. The fact that they sent them to their death meant the slime had more of them in his possession. These King ss Monsters were only used to probe Theo''s strength and trump card.


    On the one hand, they were lucky that Theo hadn''t made his appearance, confusing the slime. Even though the slime had caused a lot of damage to the army, he still couldn''t learn the hidden trump card. So, no one knew about what would happen in the next battle.


    On the other hand, even if Theo had a trump card, they still wondered if they could fight against more King ss Monsters than the one they had faced so far.


    If all those King ss Monsters fought them in a single battle, they might suffer numerous casualties.


    "Hmm�� I have told the soldiers to burn the bodies. The slime can use their corpses to recreate them, so it''s better if we burn them into ashes. Thankfully, we have Theo''s video. If not, we would have to face those King ss Monsters again.


    "How should we deal with them? Even Ava can''t handle four King ss Monsters. If we try to push all our Transcendent Level Experts, I''m afraid we can only handle twenty King ss Monsters. It''s only half of the expected number."


    Agata pinched the bridge of her nose. It was stated in the message that they had to prepare for the numerous monsters still hidden under the spotlight. It was clear that the slimes could easily break through with their firepower. After all, the base was truly far too big. There was too much area to cover, and if they spread their forces too much, they wouldn''t have enough people to stop the enemies.


    "It seems that we have to shrink our area of defense just for the next battle. It''ll cause panic, but if we do it over a longer period of time, we might be able to prevent a mass panic that will destroy the system in the base.


    "I have learned a lot when managing the family''spany, but this one is at the national economy level. I don''t have expertise on this. I guess I have to talk to Maya��


    "Wait a minute. If we start evacuating the people, it will cause a loss of trust from the people. They will think we don''t have the ability to protect them.


    "Theo didn''t appear in this battle while the Time God came to help us by showing extraordinary might.


    "The government will surely use this to regain their trust while badmouthing Theo. Theo will gradually lose his power in politics and there might be a possibility where he can''t control the next battle. If that happens, we might lose against the slime.


    "Ah, I hate politics." Agata let out a long sigh. "Still, I have to think of a way to lessen the damage and the possibility of evacuation. Those bastards in the government will choose to ignore it so that they can gain an advantage over us. I guess I should think about this with Maya and Rea. It''s impossible for me to find the way alone."


    Agata had a headache just thinking about the problems. But she also had onest problem, which was as important as the other two.


    Agata suddenly closed her eyes when she looked at this trouble.

 Chapter 1956 Theos Preparation

    The third problem was Theo. He had gone for a long time and still couldn''t return. Meanwhile, they had promised these people his tutge.


    Although the promise could wait until the next battle was done, they still needed to see Theo to assure them. Because Theo didn''t appear in this battle, they would question their group.


    p����d��-��?�ͨ���.�㨮�� And when that happened, they might rally the mass to question Theo himself.


    Even though this was for the sake of humanity, their group was also trying to defend themselves from the same humans they tried to protect.


    Agata didn''t know what to say anymore. This was the reason why Theo didn''t like humanity as a whole.


    "This is truly ridiculous. I guess greed is the number one sin in the world. It can move people forward, but it also can destroy them. And this time, if we don''t carefully exin it to them, Theo will lose his influence."


    Agata clutched her head, stressed out because of this problem.


    "What should I do now��" Agata sighed while looking at the ceiling, wondering what Theo would do in this situation. Although she was trying to be independent, she truly wanted Theo to return right now so that he could lead them again.


    ��


    On the other side of the world, Theo was working on the tunnel that linked this world and the other world. They had the locations, but the structure wasn''tpleted yet.


    In the past, there were a total of ten structures that supported the tunnel. And there were a thousand gates to the other world.


    Meanwhile, the current problem was that they wanted to form just a single tunnel. Because there was only one single tunnel, they didn''t need to create so many supports in order to connect the two worlds.


    But still, it was far bigger than the ten structures in the past.


    The structure itself was almostplete. The size was three times bigger than a single structure, but this should be enough to create a support strong enough to handle the tunnel.


    Theo was in charge of the creation of the support pir and made sure there was nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, the Space Saint handled the creation of the teleportation circle to bring them to the other world.


    After some trials and errors, the Space Saint finally found the form to reach the other side. It was proven by the structure itself.


    He felt that the tunnel was being wrapped by something. Although he couldn''t reach the other side, it was still far enough for him to be able to sense the end goal.


    So, the Space Saint believed that if they managed toplete the structure, they could reach the other side.


    Of course, the Space Saint''splexion was worse than when he started this project. It wasn''t because he was tired, but because he felt the pressure from the others.


    Theo''s words had been in his mind this whole time. There was always a question that kept ringing in his ears.


    ''What if his choice is wrong?''


    He feared that the moment they realized it was a mistake to live in the other world, they woulde to bite him.


    And since Theo didn''t have any n to go to the other side, there was no way to return to this side.


    That was why he kept thinking about whether this was the correct choice or not.


    Meanwhile, Theo''s influence seemed to be growing and growing even further in this ce.


    He nced to the side and saw the monsters greeting Theo.


    In the past, they were skeptical about Theo''s presence and kept observing him. However, Theo continued working hard for their sake and the result was also shown.


    So, the monsters were grateful that despite being kidnapped by them, Theo still wholeheartedly helped them.


    Even two World ss Monsters wondered if they should help Theo in his fight or not. Unfortunately, they still had to lead their people, so they dropped the idea.


    Theo understood their reason and didn''t mind about it. He would be lying if he wasn''t disappointed, but they had reached an agreement.


    In exchange for his help, there would be a team that would help Theo with his errands.


    Theo used them to gather all the remaining humanity that managed to survive. The search team kept expanding its range.


    Theo felt happy that there would be three thousand people that would help him in the next battle. And to thank him for his contribution, he had agreed that he would teleport all these people when they returned.


    Although this was just the beginning, the fact that the monsters showed some kindness to the humans and the humans tried to help them while waiting for their time to return meant a lot to Theo. After all, there was a chance that they didn''t have to shed any more blood in the future.


    Of course, because these people had been surviving in the wild this whole time, it was clear that every single one of them was a veteran. He even found three more Kings among these people. They were ranked 30th, 38th, and 40th, respectively.


    Of course, the monsters also handed Theo the material and skill cards they found along the way. This way, they could use the materials to fund their next battle while using the rest of the cards to upgrade everyone''s ability.


    In other words, Theo would be bringing three thousand elites to help with the monsters.


    Theo had also created a n with Loki and Hel.


    Although the people were sad that they couldn''t go to the base right away since they were Theo''s trump card, they were already grateful enough to Theo since he would help them leave this dangerous life. He even showed that the monsters were not as dangerous as they imed to be.


    He might not be able to grasp everyone''s heart, but it didn''t mean that he couldn''tmand all of them.


    This was one of Theo''s trump cards for the uing battle. And obviously, it wasn''t enough to fight against the slime. How many more trump cards had Theo prepared for the battle? No one could answer that question.

 Chapter 1957 Annoying

    While Theo was waiting for everything to bepleted before he could return, the people in the base experienced several problems.


    "Shit." Maya gritted her teeth while hanging up the call. In front of her was Agata and Rea.


    "What''s wrong?" Agata furrowed her eyebrows, feeling something was wrong. "Are there any more problems?"


    "Yeah. The bank has colluded with the government. They''re trying to use this momentum to get the blueprints and the nes?" Maya let out a long sigh. She was annoyed by how they suddenly switched sides. But they must be confident with this momentum.


    "I see." Rea nodded in understanding. She was watching the news on her Skylink regarding the rising government.


    ''Theo is missing?''


    ''Where is Theodore Griffith when we need him the most?''


    ''The Time God''s appearance on the battlefield, crushing all the enemies.''


    ''Monsters are sighted near the base?''


    There was a lot of news questioning Theo. Without even guessing, they already knew who dared to put up this question.


    "Thanks to the Time God''s appearance, the government manages to regain its image. Although it''s not as powerful as before, because Theo hasn''t made his appearance until now, they have a great momentum.


    "If this continues, the government will regain all its glory and strength. Meanwhile, our group will be left behind and won''t be trusted anymore. After all, the people are wondering whether Theo has left the base or not.


    "The news spread like wildfire. We have fought too. Ava, Felix, Rea, and even the Dark Saint�� All of us have contributed more than the Time God or the government. Yet, they''re throwing shades on us. I''m getting annoyed.


    "In fact, I want to abandon this base and let them handle the next enemy themselves. But Theo said that if we left this next battle, the enemy would be unstoppable. That''s why we have to endure this period of time."


    Maya and Agata pinched the bridge of their noses, contemting their next move.


    Agata asked, "Maya. What''s the progress with your airnes?"


    "I have removed Theo''s structures from the airne. That structure is not included in the blueprints anyway, so it should be safe for now.


    "The government and the bank might be able to reproduce the airnes, but they won''t be able to create a safe airne. After all, Theo reserves the right to that structure.


    "So, we can improve the engine and call it a second generation while adding safety measures into the ne. The government won''t be able to take over it next time."


    Agata nodded. "That''s good then. Of course, there will still be many sessful flights�� I''m worried about those flights."


    "Yeah." Maya nodded. "The basic airne alone gives you a 90% chance of survival during the flight. With Theo''s additional support structure, it raises the chance to close to a hundred. As for the threat of those flights�� I''m afraid��"


    "Yeah." Rea sighed. "It seems that more enemies will sneak in those flights like the former Griffith Family."


    "I guess Theo has predicted that in one way or another, the former Griffith Family would be able toe and try to hit us from behind. And they have a lot of time to rebuild their strength. So, it won''t be weird if we find more Mythical Rank Experts or even Transcendent Level Experts." Maya thought for a moment. "I''m not good at things other than business, so what are the problems? I think it''s better toy them down first."


    "Sure. We have three major problems. First, the government''s rising power. They''re trying to attack us with their current momentum. However, we can''t really react to their current rise because Theo is not with us.


    "The second problem is none other than the enemies themselves. Of course, they''re not limited to the slime. There are other enemies like the former Griffith Family. But our current manpower is limited because we have to spread our forces to watch out for a sneak attack. It''s impossible to find these enemies. So, it''s better if we stop the monsters and let those people from the former Griffith Family in.


    "Last but not least, our allies be another problem. The allies I''m talking about are those greedy people that use this chance to be stronger through Theo''s tutge.


    "They are asking for Theo''s presence since they want to receive his tutge. At the very least, they want to get something beneficial no matter how small it is. This way, they can be assured that they truly get the reward they deserve." Agata exined with a serious expression. She also had a headache thinking about this matter. Now that everything wasid out, the others could trying up with a solution.


    "Hmm��" Rea frowned. "In the second problem, I think we should just follow Theo''s instructions. He has told us to spend our resources on figuring out the enemies'' fighting power. The fact that he told us to do a half-ass investigation meant he wanted to focus on the monsters.


    "So, I think we should ask the Griffith Family to search for the iing monsters. Theo will be back in one to two weeks. So, the battle shouldn''t have happened before his return. Or Theo would have used all his power to return before that."


    Maya nodded. "That''s true. I guess we can put this problem aside for the time being. What we should be concerned about are the first and third problems. They''re gnawing at us right now. If we don''t stop them, there might not be anything left when Theo returns."


    Agata fell into deep thought. She had been racking her brain toe up with a solution, but as expected, the momentum couldn''t be stopped easily.


    "The third problem�� I think it''s better to find out who is our true ally right now." Agata''s tone became cold. "There are those who are pursuing benefits. There are those who are helping us because they know Theo and his credibility. And there are those who are waiting for us to fall to swallow us. So, it''s better to find the real ally first."

 Chapter 1958 Solutions?

    "Our real ally, huh?" Rea sighed. "I guess the Griffith Family is one of them. After all, the current leader is Teacher''s father. And probably, the Mafia Queen. She should know that Teacher won''t abandon the base and her. That''s why she has remained quiet this whole time. She is fulfilling her agreement with Teacher."


    Maya nodded in agreement. "You forgot the beggar association. They have be quite close with the Griffith Family. So, I don''t think they''re going to betray us.


    "As for the remaining influences inside the base��" Maya nced at Agata, wondering what she thought.


    "They weren''t that close to those influences. And some of them were even ckmailed by the Griffith Family to participate in the war.


    It wouldn''t be strange if half of them switched sides. They would assist the government in pressuring Theo''s group until eventually, Theo had no choice but to obey them."


    Agata looked at Maya. "You are better in negotiation, so you should talk to each of them to see if they have a change of heart or not."


    "Sure." Maya nodded. "Is there any hidden influence that we don''t know about?"


    "I don''t think so." Rea shook her head.


    "In that case, let''s discuss the first problem. How much damage have we received from the current momentum?"


    "The airnes and the blueprint, the Star Group''s reputation, Theo''s credibility, and public trust. These four are the major damage. There are more, but I think we should handle these four first."


    "I have stripped the safety structure from the nes, so I don''t care much about them. At the very least, we can still recover in the future, and I have received a lot of money from the banks. Right now, I have only spent a third of them, so we have a lot of money for the next expedition. If you need anything, I''m ready to buy it for you." Maya shrugged to make it look like the situation was under control.


    "As for the Star Group''s reputation�� it''s nothing much. We have lost it once, so losing it again won''t cause a lot of problems. Our people have be more loyal after the previous incident."


    Maya was confident that the Star Group wouldn''t copse again. And if Theo had restored the world to normal, she would regain her strength, influence, and money. So, she didn''t mind bleeding for a while.


    "Then, Theo''s credibility." Agata scratched the back of her head. She was the most concerned about this problem since she was Theo''s fiancee. "How do we restore his credibility? After all, we''re the ones bringing it down. Although it can be fixed when Theo returns here, it doesn''t change the fact that we''re the ones who let it drop."


    They had made a lot of promises under Theo''s name in order to gain victory in the previous battle. So, they had to find a way to restore it before Theo returned.


    "Still, the public trust is something we have to gain back. On the one hand, we don''t care about the public that much. Although I''ll be a horrible person by saying this, most citizens are not that good in politics and stuff like that, so they''re easy to control.


    "On the other hand, we still need them. Theo had warned us before. If the public trust was gone, the citizens might cause chaos from one ce to another. If theye out and cause more trouble, even the people who are fighting in the frontline will be affected. That''s why we have to gain the public''s trust again." Maya''s expression was grim. She was more concerned about this than Theo''s credibility. After all, Theo could easily regain it when he returned. Although it would mean they became trouble there, it was easier to fix than the public trust.


    They had been building it over the past few years. Even Maya had been spending a lot of money to provide weapons, shelters, and so on to the citizens to build up trust. Yet, a single problem was all it took to bring it down.


    She was more annoyed than anyone else regarding this matter.


    "Since the situation is like this, I''ll try toe up with a n to restore Theo''s credibility. Maya, you should recover the public trust. After all, the Star Group is the biggestpany in the world. With us focusing on these two problems, that''s left for Rea to supervise our current defense."


    Rea frowned. "So, I''m going to the border?"


    "Yeah. You are more aware of the battlefield situation than us, right?"


    "I can''t deny that." Rea nodded. "Alright, I''ll go. I''ll follow everything we''ve decided earlier. So, don''t ask me about the infiltration or anything."


    "Sure."


    The three women had reached an agreement. Obviously, this was just an internal meeting for Theo''s group. Agata still had to talk with the Griffith Family, especially Valerie, who was adept at controlling the situation. In the end, she asked Valerie to maintain the current situation, not letting it deteriorate even further.


    The same applied to Maya. She had gone to the beggar association to confirm their rtionship before talking to the leaders of all organizations in the base.


    Some were showing their trust, some revealed their concern, some were confident that they could get anything they wanted. Thest ones were the people that had switched sides.


    So, Maya had to use all her connections to figure out their intention.


    As for Theo''s group, they had been working nonstop, especially Aisha. As a healer who could recover limbs, Aisha had been restoring those parts. Of course, people were aiming for her ability since it was simply too powerful.


    Luckily, Felix recovered and joined Ruth and Ava to protect Aisha. This time, the government was nning to take control of Aisha by using public sentiment like saying, ''She should use that overwhelming ability of her to a good use.'' If she rejected their offer, she would be branded with a lot of negative things.


    And it truly put a lot of pressure on Aisha''s shoulders. She tried not to care about it and kept helping people under Theo''s group, but herplexion gradually became worse due to the pressure.

 Chapter 1959 Test Subject

    "Are you ready?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    "Yeah." The Space Saint nodded, ncing at a wolf, who appeared to be a King ss Monster. This monster would be the first person to step into the other world.


    ��


    A few days ago.


    The Space Saint asked, "So, who will be crossing over first?"


    This question was not relevant to Theo, so he stated, making things clear first. "Just to remind you that this tunnel is a one-way path. So, I''m not going."


    The monsters already understood Theo''s concern. Though, they didn''t rebuke or interject with him to show that they respected his decision.


    "Since we don''t know the condition of the other side, we have to make sure that we know your condition. If we manage to send you to the other side for a period of time, then we can call this project sessful. After that, we''ll start transporting everyone one by one. So, the first one should arrange a ce for us and organize everyone."


    They looked at each other, wondering who had the ability to do it.


    Suddenly, one of the King ss Monsters raised his paw. He was a ck-colored wolf. His eyes were sharp, making him look serious.


    He stated, "I should go then. I am the King of Link. My ability allows me to connect with a certain person to gain a bit of their power.


    "So, I''m going to form a strong link with someone. As long as I am still alive, the power will remain active. If I die, the link will immediately disappear. I have tested previously�� It seems that it''s possible to cross the tunnel without having the link interrupted.


    "I tried nting a link to a certain human in the past and I still felt the link even after the human returned to this world. So, I think it''s better for me to go there.


    "However, I''m not good enough to arrange everything. So, you should allow me to bring someone else that can arrange it or teach me how to arrange everyone''s position in the other world."


    "��" Everyone looked at each other. His statement was solid. And among them, there was no one who had an ability that connected them to the other. Since thetter had tested it personally, there should be no problem with sending him to test the tunnel.


    The wolf seemed to have prepared to die in case something went wrong. But Theo and the Space Saint were confident that the tunnel had beenpleted.


    The structure might not be as strong as the previous one, but it should be strong enough to withstand the pressure of sending them. There were even seven Saints who poured their power into this tunnel.


    After some consideration, Theo suggested, "I think it''s better to put a mark on him and vice versa. So, this way, we have two ways of knowing what''s happening to him."


    They nodded to the suggestion. Ultimately, the Space Saint said, "Alright then. You shall be the first one to go there. But we don''t know if the tunnel is strong enough to bring more than one, so we''re going to inspect it when you cross it. Hence, there might be some dy, but we''ll send the second person who can arrange everything."


    "In that case, please send me!" A bird raised its wings to increase its presence. "I''ve been following my Saint for a long time and governing his territory. So, I''m confident in my ability to arrange the living space. And since I can fly, I can scout the area around."


    The monsters looked at each other. It didn''t take too long for them to agree since they had known this bird for a while. The bird was one of the monsters that managed the project, so they knew they didn''t have to worry if they sent this bird.


    "Alright then. Here is the n. We''ll send the King of Link first before sending the Air King. After that, there will be some dys, one day at most, to arrange everyone. And I''ll be goingst since I have to send back our friend, Theodore Griffith. Does anyone have an objection?"


    The Space Saint dered. No one raised their voice, acknowledging the n.


    Although they wanted to send Theo back first to show their sincerity, Theo''s strength was needed to activate the structure. So, Theo had to wait, no matter how impatient he was, to go home.


    Theo acknowledged the n as well. Since he could finally go home, he nned to push himself a bit further so that he could return quicker.


    ��


    Recalling the meeting they had to choose the experiment subject, Theo felt a bit skeptical about this.


    On the one hand, he was confident that the tunnel would work. On the other hand, he couldn''t assure them that it would work perfectly. So, if this didn''t work, he might have to be stuck here for a bit longer.


    Theo took a deep breath and said, "I''m ready."


    The Space Saint nodded and moved toward the structure. He felt the structure''s energy first before sping his hands, linking his energy to the structure.


    Theo then poured his energy into the stone as thetter started to emit white light.


    Theo looked at the King of Link. "Get ready! We are about to open the portal. It''ll require a lot of power, so you should be fast."


    The King of Link nodded and approached them carefully. He was standing in front of the Space Saint, waiting for his ability to fully activate.


    The Space Saint looked at the King of Link and started activating his ability. Pink aura began toe out of his hands.


    At the same time, a pink-colored vortex, the size of the structure, appeared in front of him. There was only a pink glowing from the edge of the vortex, while there was only darkness inside the vortex.


    "Go!" The Space Saint shouted.


    The King of Link hesitated for a moment due to the darkness inside the vortex, but he had to go since he had the ability to fulfill the role.


    He jumped inside the vortex and gradually vanished as if he was being swallowed inside.

 Chapter 1960 Gifts

    The instant the King of Link entered, all of them tried to check their connection to the King ss Monster.


    And as expected, the King of Link''s power was still there.


    Theo and the Space Saint exchanged looks.


    "What should we do?" Theo asked.


    "The portal is sessful for the time being. I don''t feel any obstruction when transporting him. And with the current strength, energy, and stability, I think we can send around a hundred of my size at a time.


    "It shouldn''t take longer than a minute. So, we can move everyone out faster than we originally expected.


    "If the n works, then we have to measure the energy consumption." The Space Saint asked, "So, how''s the situation over there?"


    "As expected, the portal is draining the energy stored inside the structure. But from the current rate, I think the portal canst for two hours before we have to refill it again." Theo answered before turning to the World ss Monsters. "I guess we have to send one of you there for everyone''s safety. Meanwhile, the rest have to stay here to recharge their energy."


    The World ss Monsters nodded to the suggestion. And the Space Saint said, "In that case, we should close the portal after sending the Air King. After that, we shall make the arrangement for the transport."


    "A good idea." Theo agreed with him.


    In that instant, the Air Kingnded in front of him and said, "I''m ready, Sir."


    "Alright. Make sure you two work together."


    "Yes."


    "Now go!"


    As soon as he received the order, the Air King flew inside. After hearing the conversation between the Space Saint and Theo, the Air King knew that the passage was safe. So, he wasn''t that scaredpared to the King of Link, who had no idea whether he would seed or not.


    As soon as they sessfully sent these two people, Theo and the Space Saint agreed to close the portal.


    They stopped pouring the energy into the structure. And the vortex gradually shrank until it eventually vanished.


    "��" Theo and the Space Saint looked at each other, realizing that the link still remained. So, they could continue their work without any problems.


    "The portal is a sess!" The Space Saint dered out loud.


    "!!!" The moment the monsters heard the deration, they let out a roar or cry to the sky, celebrating their sess.


    Their roar made the ground shake. Even Theo had to cover his ears since he didn''t want to hurt his ears.


    However, he understood their joy since this was their chance to return.


    From that point on, they started arranging the monsters to go through the vortex. They had to move as quickly as possible to not waste energy.


    Obviously, Theo became busy. Not only did he maintain the energy in the structure, but he also had to receive thanks from the monsters. Each king and saint came to him to express their thanks again and again.


    After all, Theo had made a great sacrifice for them. He left his family in danger because he had toplete the project.


    Luckily, they also tried to repay Theo''s kindness. Theo had a lot of Skill and Material Cards along with a huge number of elites.


    When he returned, there would be a huge upgrade in their group''s strength. So, he couldn''t help but feel a bit impatient to go home.


    It took half a day toplete the arrangement. After that, Theo and the Space Saint opened the vortex again and started sending the people from the other side.


    More and more monsters were sent through the vortex. The World ss Monsters kept pouring their energy into the structure to refill it since they wanted to create a vortex that at leaststed for a few days.


    Eventually, the number of monsters left in this world shrank to only a thousand. It might be because the number was low that they became a bit more special.


    Once that number reached a hundred, the monsters got special congrattions from the Space Saint and Theo.


    After another while, there were only World ss Monsters left in this world.


    These were the original Saints that worked together on this project. The silver dragon was the first one to leave. But before he left, he ripped a scale from his back and presented it to Theo.


    "Take this, Theodore Griffith. It seems that my kin has put you in trouble before. And because you know the old man, you should take this scale. I am a Silver Dragon. My scale might not be as strong as others, but it has the best conductivity of Magic Power. So, it should be useful for you."


    "Thank you." Theo nodded with a serious expression, receiving this scale. To think that the previous proud dragon would be this thankful to him, it was surprising even for Theo.


    The hairless wolf came to him and extended his paw. "Thank you, Theodore Griffith. I apologize for taking a lot of your time. Although I want to help you in your battle to repay your kindness, I have to leave. That''s why you should take this."


    Theo was confused, but he still extended his hand until it touched his paw. In that instant, he felt energy starting into his body.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes. This energy was simr to the one the Queen of Destiny gave him. But this was much purer. And with Theo''s current expertise, there wouldn''t be any side effects if he absorbed this energy.


    "I don''t have anything to give you other than a part of my energy. This should allow you to expand your reserve for a bit. I hope this is useful."


    "Thank you."


    Then, the humanoid monster came to him and said, "It''s good to work with you. Well, I don''t know if this can be considered my gift or not, but I have sorted all the excess materials and hidden them in the usual location. If you need them, you cane back and retrieve them."


    "Thank you. Those materials are useful."


    After receiving the third present, the fourth World ss Monster approached him.


    It was the dog saint that looked like a Dobermann. He had been helping him to find the humans and materials, so he was grateful for the Dobermann.


    Even so, the dog still left him a small presence.


    "You should take these scales." The dog presented him with a weird pale white scale. This was different from the silver dragon scale. So, the dog told him the origin. "I received these scales from a certain snake who lived under the ocean. The conductivity might be losing against the silver dragon scale, but there are several of them."


    "Thank you very much." Theo received it gratefully as he looked at these four Saint ss Monsters in front of the vortex.


    All of them smiled and said, "Goodbye, Theodore Griffith."


    Theo smiled back as he watched them enter the vortex.


    Last but not least, the Space Saint. But before he could leave, he had to fulfill his promise to Theo first.


    So, he closed the vortex and looked at Theo with a smile. "Sorry for kidnapping you and taking a lot of your time."


    "It''s fine. I gain a lot from here as well."


    "In that case, it''s time for me to fulfill my promise."

 Chapter 1961 Teleport

    "It''s time to fulfill my promise." The Space Saint looked at Theo with a serious expression. He had to do the most important task, which was to bring Theo back to the base.


    Of course, he needed someone to activate the portal. So, Theo immediately summoned his clone.


    "This clone has the same power as I do. Even if you teleport me away, as long as the clone is here, he can activate the structure. So, there''s no need to worry that you don''t have anyone to help you activate the portal." Theo exined.


    The Space Saint nodded. He already understood the ability of the clone. In fact, the reasons why Theo was respected even among the monsters were rted to this clone.


    He had a clone and could fool all of them. Yet, Theo continued fulfilling his part of the agreement unlike other humans. So, it was worth doing Theo some favor in exchange.


    "I guess your clone will be the one bringing the structure away��" The Space Saint nced at Theo''s clone who was standing next to the structure.


    "Yeah. After you enter the portal, I''m going to wait for one minute before deactivating the tower and bringing it back."


    The Space Saint nodded in agreement.


    "I have a question for you, Theodore Griffith. I hope that you can answer this question." The Space Saint''s expression turned grim as if he had been gued by this question for a long time. "Do you hate me for kidnapping you here?"


    Theo smiled, realizing that the Space Saint was still under the pressure he had created upon him. He immediately gave an answer he had prepared beforehand. "Do you feel responsible for those people? Do you feel ashamed that you have asked them to follow you to the other world? If you feel responsible, then you don''t have to care about others'' opinions. You are the leader, so you lead them even if they hate you.


    "If you feel ashamed, you should ask yourself. No one can predict the future. So, am I doing the right thing? As long as you feel this is the right thing to do, then you can continue to do it until you see the result. Whether you will be disappointed or not by the result, you just have to see it through! Don''t look away!"


    "��" The Space Saint looked down, contemting. He knew that he could run away from the problems. Since the portal was designated to teleport the creatures from this world to the other world, not the other way around, it was clear that he would be freed from the responsibility as long as he remained here.


    Yet, he should be ashamed for running away. As Theo said, he had to see it through. There would be regrets along the way and some would even hate him. All he had to do was to face them head-on.


    "I see. It seems that I''m too foolish." The Space Saint let out a long sigh, realizing that he was too foolish to even consider that question.


    "Let''s go then?" Theo smiled.


    The Space Saint nodded. He never expected that he would learn a lot from Theo, a human who hadn''t even lived for more than thirty years.


    He respected Theo more than any human on the, but he didn''t reveal it because he was a bit too embarrassed to utter it after kidnapping him here.


    Instead, he focused on the current task. He teleported them to Theo''s house, which was constructed not far away from the portal.


    He had gathered all the equipment and items he got from the monsters, which would be useful for the iing battle.


    After that, the Space Saint and Theo arrived at the human city.


    They had been told to gather in a small stadium since they would be teleported from there.


    They looked impatient, but Theo had a few trusted subordinates he had just gained when discovering all these people.


    The first one was an old man who had long ck hair. Despite his fierce look, there was a trace of a mellow smile on his face. It seemed that after all the ruckuses happening all around the world, the old man finally enjoyed some time of peace.


    The second one was a middle-aged woman. Despite the situation, she wore only a thin white shirt that was transparent enough for others to see her bra. However, she didn''t have any change of expression when others looked at her. She maintained her confident expression the whole time.


    Thest one was a middle-aged man. Unlike the other two, this man had short ck hair and a tidy shirt coupled with jeans. It could be said that the one who looked the most ordinary was none other than him.


    When Theo appeared with the Space Saint, the three immediately dropped their matter, trying to find the source of the disturbance. As soon as they found Theo, they hurriedly came to him.


    "Wee, Sir." The old man smiled, gently bowing his head.


    "You don''t have to be that polite to me." Theo smiled back, shaking his hand. "I''m sure that you are ready, right?"


    "Yes." The old man nodded. "It''s a shame that we can''t really go back to the base, but looking at our numbers, we are like a small city. So, we should be fine for the time being."


    He was the 30th strongest person in the world, the first Transcendent Level Expert Theo found, the King of Balloon. The monsters Theo sent had saved him, so he was the most loyal person among the three.


    The other two also greeted him.


    "Wee back."


    "We are ready to leave."


    "Good." Theo nodded. He took a look at the people around and said, "I believe you have briefed them about the current situation, right?"


    "Yes. Well, there is still a portion of them who don''t want to wait, but most of them have understood their roles. Even right now, the base must have tight security, so they won''t be able to reach the base easily."


    Theo nodded. "I''ll tell you the rest after we reach the other continent. For now, we should prepare for teleportation!"


    "Got it." The three immediately dispersed, trying to inform the people about the teleportation.


    Meanwhile, the Space Saint stood in the middle of the field, preparing his ability.

 Chapter 1962 Return

    "Sir, we are ready!" The old man came to Theo and the Space Saint.


    As soon as he received the information, the Space Saint immediately sped his hands, activating his ability.


    In that instant, the pink aura from the Space Saint began to ssh in all directions, forming a sphere that covered the entire stadium.


    There was a huge spike in the Magic Power before they suddenly disappeared. For the people outside, it would look like the entire stadium disappeared as if they were sucked into nothingness.


    But from the people inside, there was only one change. The sky suddenly turned orange, indicating that they were in a different time zone.


    "This is��"


    The people immediately looked up, amazed by the changing sky. Some of them who had realized the meaning couldn''t help but burst into tears.


    They felt like they were standing on top of a building, staring at the horizon where the sun was about to set. It looked peaceful. The breeze gently brushed their skins. Even for a moment, they felt like they had attained their peace.


    However, that peace would soon be destroyed by the monsters that roamed thend.


    But this time, Theo had told them that there would be no monsters around them. They could live peacefully.


    The reason to hunt the monsters had changed from survival to job. It felt like they could get a second life here.


    Many people immediately burst into tears, knowing they could finally lead a peaceful life. They were tired from constantly staying awake, avoiding the monsters.


    Many felt a bit nostalgic, wondering if it was alright to drop their guard down for once.


    When Theo looked at them, he turned to the Space Saint. "Thank you for carrying us here. I''ll handle the rest."


    "Sure." The Space Saint nodded. "Since the matter is done, I''m going to recover my power a little bit before going back."


    Theo nodded back. After the Space Saint disappeared, he turned around, facing the three Transcendent Level Experts.


    "I need you three to calm the crowd down. I''ll lift up the stadium and bring you somewhere near the city.


    "Of course, I''ll try to find a way to let all of you enter without anyone noticing. After all, you are our trump cards.


    "However, it can only be done only a few at a time. So, please ask for their patience. As for who will enter, you guys should decide."


    "Understood." The three Transcendent Level Experts nodded and immediately dispersed to follow Theo''s instruction.


    They were trying their best to calm the people down, so they didn''t make any ruckus like attempting to leave the stadium.


    Though, they couldn''t leave the stadium. After all, Theo had begun to lift it up with his Telekinesis.


    The people knew what was going on when the entire stadium vibrated. Some of them were waiting patiently, knowing that they shouldn''t cause more trouble for Theo.


    But some of them were trying to move around the stadium, especially reaching the gap where they could see the outside like windows or cracks.


    They confirmed that the time had changed, indicating that they had reached another continent.


    Of course, the Three Transcendent Level Experts had some people under theirmand too, so they immediately scattered them in order to control the crowd.


    At the same time, they were trying to engage them with the most important matter. They nned to register these people and arrange for them to enter the base.


    More than half of the people were interested, so they immediately signed up. This was Theo''s idea to keep them busy for the time being.


    Meanwhile, he was transporting them to a position near the city. Obviously, even if they tried to enter the base, they would have to stay near Theo and the Mafia Queen.


    Theo would grant them some protection while the Mafia Queen would be the one governing them. This way, the government shouldn''t find out about these people for a while.


    ''It seems that everyone is having a hard time right now,'' Theo thought while furrowing his eyebrows. ''I know what my absence means the most. And I don''t think the government is nning to stay quiet.


    ''I don''t know if they invited the Time God to the battlefield or not. The moment they did it, the government would regain their control.


    ''Well, I have some ns ready, but I don''t think that will matter right now. After all, I should be quiet when preparing for the uing battle��'' Theo let out a sigh. ''I should gather all the important people in the base.


    ''The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint should be on the list. A few kings and queens�� Also, I think it''s better to have my grandfather here and let uncle Marzio handle the matter there.


    ''Last but not least��'' Theo had a smile on his face when he thought about thest pair that he wanted to invite.


    Yes, it was none other than Loki and Hel. They were his biggest trump cards. After all, Loki was a Singrity, while Hel was at the peak of a Saint. So, their support would be the deciding factor in the next battle.


    "I have a lot of things to do as soon as Ie back. But I should be enough to handle all of them and let Agata arrange our marriage."


    While Theo was thinking about a lot of things, the people inside the stadium were amazed by how clean the area was. Theo had chosen this area because his group had killed all the monsters around.


    Of course, it was possible to teleport them inside the base directly, avoiding the government''s eyes while giving what the people wanted.


    But Theo was slightly maniptive in this n. He didn''t want to let them gain everything for granted.


    He wanted to show that he had sacrificed a lot of things just to teleport them to another continent, so it was impossible to gain more cooperation from the Space Saint.


    This way, he could incite the people''s hearts so that they could help him to fight the slime. It was a bit evil, but Theo chose to focus on the result instead of the method this time.


    That showed how much Theo feared the slime.

 Chapter 1963 Reunion

    "Ugh. What should we do this time?" Agata pinched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were a bit tired after reading all the reports she had gotten.


    Unfortunately, finding a way to turn around the situation was harder than she expected. She let out a long sigh.


    She felt like she had forgotten something after all these messes. In fact, she hadn''t got a proper sleep in thest couple of days.


    At that time, it felt like there was a ray of hope shining upon her. There was a familiar voice echoing in her ears.


    "You haven''t got any proper sleep? You should get some sleep, you know. It might affect your skin."


    "It seems that I''m too tired. To think I would hear your voice, Theo��" Agata made a sad smile, missing him. It had been too long and the problem had be too big.


    She didn''t realize it yet, but Theo was standing behind her. He ended up pinching her forehead gently as if trying to help her rx.


    "Huh?" Agata was startled upon the touch. She thought she had be a bit crazy that she ended up hearing Theo''s voice, but this touch was definitely real.


    She hurriedly put his hand down and immediately raised her head, looking at the person standing behind her.


    "!!!" Agata dropped her jaw, not believing who had juste back. "T-Theo��"


    Theo made a gentle smile while stroking her cheeks. "It seems that you have worked hard. Sorry."


    Agata tried to move around, trying to stand up. But because of the shock, she had a hard time getting her bnce and ended up receiving some help from Theo.


    She instantly hugged him. She hugged him with all her might.


    There was no need to say anything. The man she had been waiting for hade back. She felt relieved.


    And the pressure that had been built up in her body suddenly left, causing her body to feel weak.


    Theo smiled, gently hugging her while supporting her body. He knew how hard Agata had worked from her expression and all the documents on the table.


    It seemed that the situation was messier than he expected.


    That was why he only wanted to give her a big hug, trying to make her feel assured. Everything was going to be fine with him here.


    "Are you really back?" Agata muttered in a low voice as if she still couldn''t believe it.


    "Of course. I''m here for you."


    "I can''t even do my job well�� Even right now, I still need your help."


    "You have done a great job. It''s my job as a leader to lead the group. But I''ve failed to appear here in time."


    "Mhm��" Agata closed her eyes for a moment. "Can I leave the rest to you?"


    "Yeah. Leave the rest to me. Don''t worry. Everything is going to be fine."


    It seemed like she had entirely dropped her guard to the point she ended up falling asleep.


    Theo made a sad smile. He tried to do his job, but it seemed that he had put too much pressure on her shoulder. No matter how sessful his n became, he regarded it as a failure on his part. It was his mistake that she and the others felt like this.


    Theo gently supported her body before carrying her in his arms. He quietly opened the door and walked through the hallway, nning to put her down on a bed.


    On the way, he actually met two people. It was Rea and Ne who had been trying to figure out a way to solve some problems with the help of the Griffith Family.


    When they saw him, they dropped their jaws to the ground, not expecting Theo toe back at this time.


    However, Theo winked his right eye, telling them to stay quiet since Agata was sleeping in his arms.


    The two exchanged looks and nodded yfully. Rea pointed at the door where they came out as if telling him that they would be waiting for him there.


    Theo gave the nod beforeing out of the building and approaching his own house. He used the Blink Skill to enter the house and gently put Agata on the bed.


    The quilt was lifted with his Telekinesis as Theoid her down. He covered her with the quilt and gently gave a peck on her forehead.


    Although it was a bit urgent, Theo made some time to stroke her hair while staring at her sleeping face.


    His gentle caress felt like it was telling her that everything would be fine and the problem would be fixed once she woke up.


    Agata might feel it as well because her sleeping face had be rxed.


    Theo gave her onest smile before using his Blink toe out of the house. He had to go to the office building again to discuss the matter with Rea and Ne.


    As soon as he reached the room, Theo took Rea''s seat. Rea and Ne were standing in front of him with some documents in their hands.


    A lot had happened during his leave, so it was clear that it would take a long time to report everything to Theo.


    Obviously, Maya had to be called, considering she had suffered a massive loss from the previous battle, including the blueprints and airnes.


    In the end, it took them four hours just to retell everything that had happened in the past few weeks. Even Maya shared information regarding the government and all the influences that participated in the battle.


    Theo remained calm the whole time, but it felt like this calm was like the calm before the storm. He seemed to want to swallow everything before unleashing his anger.


    Theo took a deep breath to calm his heart down. But his expression soon became serious as he had to make a decision to solve the problems one by one.


    "Alright then. I know that all of you are tired, but I''ll be in trouble if you are sleeping as well. So, bear with me for a few more hours. I''m going to give you my instructions."

 Chapter 1964 Solving The Problems (1)

    Theo looked at Rea. "The most important thing will be my tutge. That''s not a problem to be honest, but this is not an easy path. You should know that unless you have a certain degree of mastery, you won''t even understand my teaching, right?"


    Rea nodded with a serious expression.


    "That''s why I''m going to split it into two steps. First, we are going to invite everyone, including the three Transcendent Level Experts. The second phase will only invite the people who are supportive of us."


    Rea was confused for a moment. "Hmm? Why do we have to give them the second phase? I mean, I can kind of understand if you want to reward them, but this is an important problem, right?"


    "For the first phase, I want you to call the three Transcendent Level Experts for me. I''ll be exining why it''s fine to teach normal people about it. As for the second phase, I want to let them know that I''m grateful for their support."


    "Yes, but you still haven''t answered my question." Rea tilted her head. "Teacher?"


    Theo shook his head helplessly. "So, why do those people be hostile toward us?"


    "That''s��" Rea fell silent for a moment. "Because of the government."


    "Exactly. Since it''s like that, it''s fine to sow discord between them and the government."


    "Ah!" Rea gasped. "I see. They have been persuaded by the government to switch sides. So, if we give more benefits to those who haven''t been swayed, they will frown upon the government''s action, trying to get more benefits if possible."


    "Yes. That''s why you only have to invite them during the teaching session."


    Rea nodded in understanding. They didn''t have to openly invite them. They only had to let everyone see them asking for these people''s time. Then, the rumors would start and cause more problems because of theck of information. It seemed Theo wanted to cause discord among these influences.


    It could weaken the rising government and slow down their pace. At the same time, he would be able to reinforce their current power.


    Rea would call those three Transcendent Level Experts to talk to Theo. Of course, it was better to make an arrangement first so that Theo didn''t have to work twice.


    After that, Theo asked Maya. "So, what do you think about those airnes? Do you n to discard it entirely?"


    "No way. I still want to do business. Weapons, equipment, airne, and materials. Mypany is in a sorry state because of the loan, but money is not a problem right now. Unfortunately, the government is trying to take over the airne."


    "I know." Theo nodded. "You don''t have to stop them."


    "Hmm? What do you mean?" Maya frowned. She still wanted the airne, but Theo told her to just throw it away.


    "It''s simple. Instead of fighting them, just let them take over while you enjoy the dividend. However, state a condition that they have to create the flight path to both the union and United Asia."


    "But the nes��"


    "Of course. It''ll be their property. However, I''m going to give you something better." Theo raised his hand, forming an illusion of the structure. "This is a structure that has been imbued by multiple World ss Monsters and me. It can release powerful energy that can repel the enemy.


    "But unlike the previous pir that I have given you, I am one of the creators of this pir. And since all the monsters are gone to another world, only I can refuel this pir. Do you know what this means?"


    "Ah!" Maya''s instinct immediately picked up the money smell. She said, "I see. Instead of the airne, why don''t we make a business to create a safety field with that structure? You can create that structure after all."


    "Well, it''s a lot of mess, but yes, it''s possible for me to create it alone. By limiting the production��"


    "We can raise the price. And with how desperate they are, we can slowly regain all the power for the airne. It might take a bit longer, but in the future, both the airne and the structure will be controlled by uspletely!" Maya couldn''t help but smile. In the end, she would regain her hegemony.


    Theo winked his right eye yfully. "Also, you have suffered a lot from the battle, right? You should be aware of our rtionship, so I''m not going to let you suffer��"


    "Hmm?" Maya fell silent, wondering what Theo meant.


    "Have you checked your warehouse?"


    "My warehouse?" Maya looked down for a moment and immediately called her assistant. "I need you to check the warehouse right now. Report to me what''s in there!"


    It didn''t take too long before she received a call from her assistant.


    "What is this, Ma''am? How in the world does this happen?"


    "What''s going on? Did someone steal something from our inventory?"


    "No! There are so many material cards. I can''t count them. There are so many rare Material Cards, at least C Rank or above. I can also easily spot some A Rank Materials. Not only Material Cards, but I can also see numerous pieces of equipment, weapons, and items. There might be some artifacts mixed in them.


    "The heck with getting stolen, our warehouse is almost full. With all these items, I''m afraid that it''s equal to more than ten years of our gross profit!"


    "��" Everyone heard that report. As expected, Maya was the most speechless among them. She looked at Theo and gasped, "What did you do? You should know the scale of ourpany, right?


    "The Star Group produces a lot of things and our profits are considered one of the biggest in the entire world before the apocalypse. Yet, you can bring more than ten years of our gross profit�� You, what the fuck did you do, Theo? Did you rob a bank or something? But banks are useless now since the fiat money is gone because of the apocalypse."


    "Well, you could say I robbed everything, but it was not just a bank." Theo made a small smile. Technically, he did it, but the monsters were the ones who did all the work. Still, he couldn''t lie, so he just told her the truth. "I robbed a few countries, including China and Russia. Though, I only give you a portion of what I have."


    "��"

 Chapter 1965 Handling The Problems (2)

    "What the hell? What did you do in the past few weeks? Did you note home because you were robbing those countries?" Maya was stupefied. On the one hand, the countries were empty after the apocalypse, so robbing them wouldn''t be an issue. On the other hand, there were so many strong monsters, including World ss Monsters. So, going there was not necessarily the best idea.


    So, she didn''t know how Theo could do all of that in the span of a few weeks. Even if he managed to kill all the monsters in his way, he had done the work of a thousand people by himself.


    She didn''t know that Theo had an army of monsters, led by a World ss Monster, to ransack all that was left in those countries.


    Still, no matter how he did it, there was one thing that remained. With all these materials Theo got from many countries, he could be said to be the richest man in the world. And it wouldn''t be hard for him to get the buyer for those materials.


    "��" Maya pinched the bridge of her nose. "So, nning to pay taxes?"


    "Of course not. The government is annoying and they don''t know where I hide all those items. Well, you can say that it''s not in the base, so why should I pay taxes?" Theo shrugged.


    "Fair enough." Maya nodded. "I''m assuming you''re going to use those resources, right?"


    "Of course. I think you know what I''m thinking."


    "A facility outside the base, focusing on processing those materials."


    "Exactly. An independent ce that no one could touch." Theo smirked. "After this, I want you to bring all the experts in constructing heavy weapons. I''m going to use the resources to build some weapons."


    "But even a single turret requires a lot of time to construct. I don''t think we have that much time, Theo." Maya frowned.


    "Not at all." Theo shook his head and asked, "Do you remember the time when I destroyed the turrets?"


    "Yes�� Don''t tell me!" Maya suddenly came to a realization.


    "Hehe. It''s just an illusion. I have hidden those turrets in another ce." Theo smirked. "And with the current materials, we can upgrade them and procure the ammunition for it. So, our situation will be a bit better during the battle."


    Maya nodded. "If it''s just ammunition and upgrading a few things, I don''t think it''s a problem. I understand, I''ll gather all those people after this."


    "Thanks." Theo smiled and turned back to Rea. "Alright. There are still a few problems, so I''m going to tell you everything I have in mind. Since the government is trying to harm us, I''m going to handle this matter personally."


    "I understand. What problems do you want to solve right now? Asides from the ones you handled earlier, there are matters about public trust, the giant area to be defended, a huge number of enemies, the investigation of spies�� I think those four are the major problems, while the rest can be covered by us."


    After contemting for a few seconds, Theo asked, "How''s the result of the investigation?"


    "You told us to do an investigation, but since there''s no need to put all our resources into that investigation. There aren''t many things we have learned from the incidents. Should we put in more resources now?"


    Theo shook his head. "No. But the key to the investigation is the battlefield. Do you remember when the monsters suddenly entered our ranks and hit us with explosions?"


    "Yes. But we haven''t found anything about it. After all, the people around the explosions have died."


    "No. I already got the idea about the spy. So, I''ll handle this matter personally."


    "Hmm?" Rea noticed something strange. "Do you mean that the spies are rather special, so we shouldn''t know about them so that we can avoid their detections?"


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "So, let me just handle this. I can assure you that the spies won''t be a problem in the future battle."


    "I understand." Rea agreed, albeit hesitantly. On the one hand, she trusted Theo a lot. On the other hand, she was curious about the identities of those spies.


    "As for the public trust, we don''t have to care about it for the time being. There will be a conflict within them soon, so we''ll just use it to distract their attention. It''s not going to be that long for the next battle to arrive, so we don''t have to care about their opinion right now.


    "All you have to do is to not answer their questions. That is easy enough, right?" Theo looked at Rea with a smile before ncing at Ne.


    "It seems I''m going to ask the beggar association to spread some rumor." Ne nodded in understanding. He just wanted to distract them, so if there were enough rumors circting inside the base, they would be confused for a while.


    "Thanks, Ne."


    "No worries. I can handle this matter by myself. In fact, it feels like everything is so easy when you return. You have brought everything we need in order to handle all our problems. So, I should do my part as well."


    Theo nodded. "Also��"


    Theo wanted to say something, but he appeared to be hesitating. It didn''t take too long for them to realize what kind of matter would make Theo hesitant.


    But when Ne was about to tell him that it was fine to think about the bigger picture first instead of the family affair, Theo opened his mouth.


    "Can you tell them this��" Theo paused for a moment. "The road to other continents is going to open soon since Maya will be handling it. So, it''s time for them to bring all the rted parties here�� After the battle, we will talk."


    Ne made a small smile. She nodded furiously. In the future, there might be a chance when they could finally sit at one table. So, she became pretty eager to tell them about this matter.


    "Of course. I''m going to pass your message from word to word." Ne chuckled.

 Chapter 1966 Handling The Problems (3)

    "Let''s continue to the third problem. It''s true that the base has expanded rapidly to the point it has be too big for us to defend. Normally, the monsters will be away from our base and even if they attack, we will be able to handle them in time since they''re not that strong.


    "But currently, our opponent is an intelligent being�� a monster smart enough to beat us in a mind battle. So, we have to shrink our area. That''s the most logical move.


    "However, I''m aware that the government will be using that excuse to attack us. Hence, we wouldn''t be tackling this problem with such a generic solution. Instead, I want you to spread the rumor about the giant area and use public opinion to shrink the area."


    Ne frowned. "So, you want the beggar association to spread that if we don''t evacuate or shrink the base, we will be destroyed? Won''t it create unrest inside the base?"


    "It surely will. However, the panic won''t create chaos. In addition, the government will be focused on this matter instead of us.


    "I''m pretty sure that they will being to us in order to handle the giant base. So, just tell them that we will be protecting our own area, not the base." Theo exined.


    Ne nodded. She didn''t know what would happen when the people started to panic, but if they were told about the situation earlier, it would mean the panic could be suppressed.


    "Then, thest problem is about the huge number of enemies. Even right now, we don''t have enough people to handle them. After all, there are a lot of King ss Monsters, not to mention the World ss Monsters.


    "On our side, we have like fifteen to twenty Transcendent Level Experts. Only some are strong enough to handle two to three. So, we have to find a way to bring down the enemy King ss Monsters to thirty. This is probably the best number we can get.


    "At the same time, we have to prepare for another battlefield for the slime since we need multiple Saints. By taking everything into ount, we have to prepare an area that can hold ten battles between Saints.


    "After all, our fight will be beyond everyone''s expectation and the sheer amount of destruction that follows is simply too big. So, we can''t have normal soldiers get dragged inside our battlefields.


    "As for the Transcendent Level Experts and the King ss Monsters, they are powerful, but the impact won''t be too much. So, it''s fine to stay not far from them.


    "So, I want you to find that area. I''ll figure out a way to bring the enemy there." Theo thought for a moment. "I think there are no problems with the Saints now. I''m just worried about the number of Kings and Queens��" Theo paused for a moment, thinking about the solution.


    As expected, ten or even twenty King ss Monsters weren''t an easy gap to handle.


    "It seems that I have to pull some strings before engaging the slime. It''s clear that we have to kill a few King ss Monsters before all the saints are stopped by their World ss Monsters.


    "So, you can ignore this thought for the time being since it''ll be entirely up to me to handle it. It seems that we have to use outside influence��" Theo waved his hand as if it wasn''t a big deal.


    "Outside influence? Are you nning to ask the Mafia Queen to handle them? Is this the reason why you have hidden her this whole time?" Rea asked, furrowing her eyebrows.


    The Mafia Queen might not be a good fighter, but she was still a Saint. Her power was enough to kill a few kings.


    Unfortunately, Theo shook his head, denying the possibility. "No. I don''t n to use the Mafia Queen to handle those King ss Monsters. I''ll tell my n to the Mafia Queen personally."


    "��" Rea, Ne, and Maya ended up exchanging looks. On the one hand, they were curious about Theo''s n since it would be better if they knew about it and tried to help him. On the other hand, by not giving them some of his ns, Theo managed to create a ray of hope in their mind.


    So, if they ever thought they would lose, they would remember that Theo still had a few ns that hadn''t been used yet. In other words, the trump card would appear at the right time and turn around the situation. This would give them enough morale to believe in victory.


    Theo looked at Maya. "I also need a lot of money. So, can you give some to me? If possible, a lot of materials for housing and so on."


    "Hmm?" Maya was confused. After all, it felt like Theo wanted to host many people. "I can, but do you need me to do this secretly?"


    "Yes. I''m nning to build a house for a few thousand people. It won''t be that hard for you, right?"


    "A few thousand people?" Maya widened her eyes in surprise. "Where did those peoplee from? From the base?"


    "Nah, they''re from all around the continent. I''ve gathered them. You should know that those who manage to survive up to this day are elites, so they should be useful for reinforcement. As for where I''m going to station them, you don''t have to know."


    "��" Maya nodded. There were already multiple secrets anyway, so she just ignored thest one and chose to trust Theo. "Alright. I''ll procure enough materials for their home."


    "Thanks." Theo turned to Rea. "Can you tell the three Transcendent Level Experts to meet me in two hours? Also, give the invitation for the training camp. I''ll hold it for two days. I just need you to prepare a good ce to hold it.


    "Lastly, contact the Mafia Queen. Tell her that Theo will visit her tomorrow." Theo gave them hisst instruction before finally standing up, ready to leave.


    As soon as Rea acknowledged the instruction, Theo left, nning to meet Agata and make some food for her.

 Chapter 1967 Convincing The Three Experts

    Theo wanted to cook for her, but it seemed that the meetingsted a bit too long. Agata had actually woken up and started cooking already, knowing Theo would be back soon.


    "��" Theo looked at her awkwardly, not knowing what to do since she had woken up. "Ehm��"


    Agata chuckled. "What? You wanted to cook earlier?"


    "Well, you looked tired, so I thought I should cook you a light meal." Theo sighed.


    Agata just smiled as if telling him that she was one step ahead this time. "You shouldn''t have taken too much time if you want to do that."


    "You should know how much trouble we have right now." Theo shook his head helplessly while walking to her.


    "Of course. That''s why I know I should be the one cooking this time. Just sit there. I''m going to finish soon."


    Instead of sitting down, Theo just walked behind her and gently hugged her. He was missing her so much. There were many life and death asions. Theo made it look like he managed to handle everything perfectly, but if he yed the wrong move once, he might never be able toe back.


    Agata didn''t say anything. Theo knew where to put his hands to not hinder her when cooking, so there wasn''t much trouble with her movement. And she knew that Theo must have gone through a lot outside.


    If there was one thing she wanted to say, it was that one. She said with a smile. "You said this earlier, but I should also say it too. You''ve worked hard out there."


    "Mhm��" Theo just enjoyed the moment. It might be short, but at least, he could have a peaceful moment with her.


    After spending some time with Agata, Rea finally called Theo, informing him that the three Transcendent Level Experts were ready to talk to him.


    Albeit reluctantly, Theo left the house to take care of the rest of the matters.


    Theo went straight to his room. This room was usually used by Agata, considering she had to make the important decisions in Theo''s stead.


    Rea put down the Skylink and connected it to the three Transcendent Level Experts.


    The three experts had a lot of questions now that they had seen Theo. The first and most important question was the fact that they were talking to Theo. After all, Theo had been missing this whole time.


    What if Theo actually wanted this to happen? What if Theo wasn''t missing? What if Theo allowed everything to happen because he had another n?


    When they thought of Theo''s way of solving problems, they couldn''t help but shiver. Theo''s group was currently under a lot of pressure. It could be said that they had been cornered.


    And this was usually the time for Theo to turn the situation around.


    p����d�� ��?�ͨ�|,�㨰�� This thought alone made them have a hard time keeping their collected face. They knew that if Theo nned to do something big, it would be now.


    The King of Fighters, the bravest one, asked with a deep tone. "Why do you call us, Theodore Griffith?"


    "I believe you''ve been told about the topic." Theo smiled. He acted as if he didn''t care about their thoughts.


    But this calm smile made the three experts panic. After all, Theo should have learned about the situation and their current predicament, yet, thetter still had the leisure to be calm. Theo must have a big n.


    Their expressions became serious. The Great Mage was the next to open his mouth. "So, are we going to talk about your training camp where you will teach the people about Orders? I apologize if I''m being rude, but I don''t think this is appropriate. After all, the Orders are the biggest secret. If more people know about the Orders, it will be easy to disrupt them.


    "And at that time, I''m afraid that we have to handle all those problems." The Great Mage shook his head helplessly, knowing how much trouble it would be if this secret became public knowledge.


    "I know. That''s why I''m here to convince the three of you." Theo waved his hand, telling him that it wasn''t a big deal. "The world has undergone a great change. We now have topete with the monsters if we want to survive.


    "However, have you ever wondered how the monsters be a King ss Monster or even a World ss Monster?"


    Theo''s question silenced all three of them. On the one hand, they reached this stage because of the depth of their abilities as well as the guidance from the blessings they had in the past. The Gods and Goddesses from the past guided them and told them about Order, so they could attain it as well.


    However, they never considered it from the monsters'' perspective. The monsters didn''t have the same system as them, so it was obvious that they didn''t know anything about Orders and Authorities.


    Yet, they had more Order and Authoritypared to humans. This was a baffling situation.


    And it seemed that the answer was rted to why Theo wanted to teach more people about it.


    "I''m sorry. It seems that it''s due to myck of understanding that I questioned your judgment. After all, your power far surpasses mine, so you might know more than I do." As expected from the wisest among the three, the Great Mage, he instantly acknowledged his mistake and apologized so that he could learn more from Theo. It was no wonder why he could be a King.


    Theo nodded. "What I want to say here is the reasons why I''ll teach more people as well as what kind of materials I will be teaching. And I understand your concern. Even I can see how much trouble it will cause in the future if the knowledge is spread.


    "Hence, I want you to judge whether what I''m nning to do is appropriate or not. You are not my subordinates, so I believe that you can think about my decision more carefully and argue if something is not appropriate."


    With a confident smile, Theo asked, "Shall we start?"

 Chapter 1968 Convincing The Three Experts (2)

    "So, there are four big reasons why I want to spread the knowledge. First, the monsters might have kept it a big secret. But they are more generous in giving knowledge than we do.


    "Of course, you can say that monsters don''t have the wisdom to understand it while even normal humans can do it. However, don''t forget that even with some understanding, you can''t get an Order.


    "You should know that there are a few requirements to get an Order, right? To put it simply, it''s to live by the rules we set. Someone won''t get a Forest Order, if he is destroying the Forest. Someone won''t get a Sea Order if they never see the sea, let alone live in it.


    p����d��-��?�ͨ�|���㨮�� "That''s why even though some knowledge will be spread, it''s impossible for them to get the Order. They have to reach a certain threshold and live by the rules. Only at that time will they be considered by the world.


    "Yes. The world shall decide whether they are appropriate to get the power or not. This is the first reason."


    Theo stopped for a moment, waiting for a question.


    "Still, I''m a bit skeptical of allowing normal humans to learn it. I mean, there will be a lot of research going around it. Humans are never satisfied, so they might be able to get it without the world''s recognition." The Great Mage exined his concern.


    Theo smiled and raised two fingers. "That''s the second reason. Yes, it allows them to understand it. And there might be a time when humans can get it without the world''s recognition. I mean, humans will keep evolving, so the requirement might change in the future or humanity will find a way around it.


    "But you still have to know this. What we know right now might not be relevant in the future. As you already know from the generations that were born after the apocalypse. All of them immediately gain the talent from their respective parents.


    "For example, a child from a pair of Mythical Rank Experts will most likely have more Magic Power than a child from an ordinary family. In other words, the children already have a substantial amount of Magic Power and have no ability to increase it.


    "Unlike us, who cultivate our power by killing monsters. They have to cultivate their power through their understanding.


    "In other words, the future children might be crushed under the prejudice of their talents. That''s not an equal chance, right? Even the people from our generation who don''t have the God Level Blessing still have the chance to be a Mythical Rank Expert and even attain Order and Authority.


    "So, to bnce the uing crisis, I''m nning to let some of the knowledge spread. This way, the children, who might not have a huge amount of Magic Power and talent, might be able to go beyond their rank byprehending the Order.


    "Of course, they might not be able toprehend the Order, but they might find a new way to develop their ability. The future is still unknown, so we can only let them develop themselves. I think you get the idea."


    The three experts looked down, contemting. They somehow agreed to Theo''s concern about future development. Even they had created their own abilities through their understanding, allowing them to defeat others with those new abilities.


    Although it might not be enough to bypass the talent gap, it could shrink the gap. And the future generations will surely have a different system. So, it was clear that they had to prepare for it.


    "But the question is how much knowledge can we spread?" The Great Mage said while frowning. "And I think the answer will be in your exnation about the materials you''re going to teach."


    "Yes. I''m going to give you the other two reasons before that." Theo nodded.


    "To be honest, I''m already convinced by just these two reasons. But I don''t think it''ll hurt to listen to the other two��" The Great Mage sighed, realizing that Theo saw not only the current problem but the future one.


    Even the other two experts understood the Great Mage and thought these two were enough to spread the knowledge. Of course, they had to be concerned about how much knowledge they could give to the public.


    "I have mentioned the third reason earlier. The changing world might cause knowledge to be irrelevant. So, we can''t look pessimistic about the spread of this knowledge since it might be impossible for the next generation to acquire it.


    "Last but not least, the number of people who have got their Orders and Authorities has been reduced significantly. You should have heard a lot of them dying after the apocalypse. So, there is a need to increase it again. After all, when we kill King ss Monsters or even World ss Monsters, they will be able to create a new one soon.


    "By giving this opportunity to other people, we can increase the number again. This will create a bnce between us and the monsters. As you can see right now, the bigger we expand our domain, the higher the number we need to protect it. Of course, I don''t have the ambition to reconquer the world, so I''m just waiting for the bnce to be created."


    "��" The three experts looked at each other, nodding their heads. It seemed that Theo truly had a solid reason for his action.


    "As for the materials I''m nning to share, I''m just going to talk about the general requirement, not directly of course. I''m nning to teach them how to control their power better, as it is the secret to getting this power.


    "I mean, I''m not lying. It''s one of the requirements. As for living by their own rules, I think they have set that up since they became an adult. So, if they can continue living the way they do, they might be able to get the acknowledgment. What do you think?"

 Chapter 1969 The Change

    Theo''s n was immediatelymenced right after he convinced the three Transcendent Level Experts. Of course, the government was trying to take advantage of this.


    Theo only fulfilled the agreement. He allowed the government to send their people, but it had to be ording to their contribution.


    After hearing about the airne, Ray and Valerie were happy, knowing that they could finally have a reunion, not only with Theo, but with his adopted brother, Edward.


    Hence, they worked a bit too hard in reviewing the footage about the battlefields as a basis to choose who was qualified.


    Maya was preparing for the ce, which was located in a hotel outside their current border. It would be a perfect ce for them to grow stronger and test their strength.


    And with the three Transcendent Level Experts apanying them personally to both protect them and judge Theo''s credibility, no one worried that Theo was trying to harm them.


    It was going to be held tomorrow andsted for three days. With the number of materials Theo nned to choose, three days were already more than enough. The rest would have to depend on the individuals after all.


    While waiting for the training camp, Theo did a few things. The first ce he visited was not his own house but the hospital where Aisha worked.


    He knew that after her ability was exposed, her life wouldn''t be the same anymore. If this was before the apocalypse, she might still be able to continue with her normal life. After all, there was no immediate threat.


    But the apocalypse had caused the monsters to be around them, continuously threatening their existence. So, her ability became extremely important since she became the reason why people could fight again after sustaining extreme injuries.


    That was why she came to her tofort Aisha, telling her that it was fine to not do it anymore.


    Of course, Theo assured her safety if she wanted to stop healing people.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Aisha still wanted to continue. But the pressure from the people was too much, so Theo relieved a portion of the pressure by changing the system.


    Instead of letting her do it for free, Theo changed it based on points. Of course, Theo didn''t make it like the normal hospital, which was Maya''s solution.


    He actually revitalized the previous temple''s system but with Maya''s Star Group. They were creating a small temple system with the resources Theo got from the monsters.


    This was an emergency relief that would onlyst for a while since they were in the middle of a war.


    Obviously, Maya worked on the treatment and point system.


    This was the solution Theo had for Aisha and his group. The points could be exchanged for Aisha''s treatment. Because she didn''t treat for free anymore, it was true that people were raging. But Theo didn''t make it based on the money, so the people couldn''t really call him ck-hearted as well.


    At the same time, the point system and the reward were truly amazing. After all, the items he got came from a few countries, including two superpower countries. So, the quality didn''t have to be questioned anymore.


    Many people were signing up for it, trying to get the benefits. This was a simr system to what the Star Group had this whole time. But this time, the people who signed up for this wouldn''t be affiliated with the Star Group and they could take on missions based on their needs, not pushed by the Star Group.


    It became extremely popr for experts who had no influence. And they were actually the target for this system.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    As long as the emergency relief system was up, most people would stop talking bad about Theo''s group. After all, Theo had given them an extremely generous system that even the government couldn''tpare. And since this was a gift, Maya managed to take a way around to avoid tax, strengthening the government.


    This way, the pace of the government''s rise became even slower.


    As expected, they were discussing the matter at hand. The situation changed the moment the rumor about Theo''s return appeared.


    ..


    *Bam!* There was a loud bang from the table inside the room.


    "What is this? Aren''t we supposed to be at an advantage?"


    "Since when Theodore Griffith returns?"


    "Didn''t the Time God tell us that Theodore Griffith was not in the base?"


    They had a lot of questions. But more importantly, they were afraid. They had been beatenpletely by Theodore Griffith. So, if they made one more mistake, Theo might end up erasing the government''s existence.


    In their mind, they didn''t want to fight Theo again, knowing that their scheme might end up being read by him. So, some of them suggested that they became conservative and protected whatever they currently had.


    On the other hand, there were a few people that wanted to attack Theo with this momentum. After all, they had suffered previously, so they wanted to pay him back for what he had done.


    The opinion split and there was a huge debate that mightst for a few days before they could get a decision. That showed how hard it was to take Theo down.


    So, they had to be careful.


    The government didn''t realize that Theo had nned another attack the next day. While they were busy, all the influences that participated in the battle received the invitation to the training camp.


    Those who had been talking bad about Theo stopped for a few days in order to avoid Theo''s wrath. Those who had been neutral or on Theo''s side were eagerly preparing for the training camp.


    The atmosphere around the base shifted once again. All the pressure on top of Theo''s group suddenly disappeared for a moment.


    People had been saying that the only way to destroy Theo''s group was to wait until Theo was gone. And they were right.


    After all, it hadn''t been one day since Theo returned and he actually had solved most of the problems and was ready to counterattack.


    The counterattack started from the three Transcendent Level Experts, who actually came to the training camp with his granddaughter and her father, who was about to be the sessor of the Great Mage.


    "This is exciting. To think I would be able to listen to Sir Theo''s lecture." Grance, the granddaughter of the Great Mage, smiled while looking at the huge hotel where they were supposed to stay.

 Chapter 1970 Questions

    Inside the hotel, there was a huge venue where all the people gathered in order to hear the briefing from Theo.


    "There are so many people here��" Grace looked around, finding more than three hundred people inside the venue.


    They were people who had contributed to the previous battle.


    It could be said that they were the most elite fighters in their respective influence. After all, the materials that were going to be taught in this training camp were the most advanced. If they didn''t have enough skill or knowledge, they wouldn''t be able to understand it.


    That was why all influences sent their best fighters.


    "Hoho�� This is interesting. To think that I would be able to see all these people here." The Great Mage smiled while patting Grace''s shoulder.


    "Well, it''s easy for you to meet a few of them, but I guess, no one can gather them in a single ce." Grace smiled awkwardly.


    "Yeah. Except for one person��" The Great Mage nodded while looking at the stage as if watching Theo exin something.


    Grace nodded. Only one person was qualified to gather all of them, it was Theo.


    Suddenly, there was an echo that silenced the room, followed by Magic Power which filled the room. The Magic Power was overwhelming to the point the people inside felt they were being crushed.


    The people were oblivious and tried to find the source of the pressure. And that was when they started sensing Theo''s presence on top of the stage.


    Theo had already stood on top of the stage. It seemed that he had been standing there for a while, since no one saw him walking in.


    "!!!" They suddenly gasped. Their bodies were shaken, realizing that if Theo wanted to kill them, they couldn''t even fight back.


    No one realized Theo was standing there the whole time. So, could they even realize if Theo killed them?


    They were staring at the man, who had yet to reach thirty years old, but had be one of the strongest in the world. It was clear that Theo would be the strongest very soon and his reign wouldst for a long time.


    No one was able to kill Theo when he was weak. And now that Theo had the strength to go against the world, it was impossible to kill him anymore.


    So, they could either remain neutral or stay on his good side. This was actually the warning from Theo. He wanted to let them know what it meant to go against him.


    Theo''s face remained calm. He looked at them for a few seconds before saying, "I''m kind of disappointed that no one can feel my presence this whole time."


    No one spoke up, not because it was a fact, but because they were afraid of Theo.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    Theo remained silent for a few seconds, building tension inside the hall. After that, he raised his hand, released golden particles and said, "I know what you''re looking for. I''m sure that you are already aware that people who have gone to this step will have a different color of Magic Power.


    "However, have you ever thought why their Magic Power is different? Is it because they have honed their abilities to the limit? Or is it because they have surpassed the limit?


    "The answer is actually none of those." Theo''s statement bewildered them. After all, those two reasons were the most epted rumors. Still, Theo didn''t care about their thoughts and continued, "The answer is simple. It''s not about the limit, it''s about the condition.


    "People set a limit to themselves. They said, ''Look at those people, they have achieved this at this age. They have done those at this age. Why can''t you do the same? Or you should surpass that record, creating a new record.''


    "But�� have you asked yourself, ''Why should I care about the record? Is that really the measurement?'' Technology has evolved continuously. From a humongousputer to a small one that could fit into your bag to this." Theo raised his Skylink. "You are currently seeing the evolution just from this one perspective. You don''t care about theponents that are built into the system.


    "You don''t care about the nanotechnology that was not possible to create in the past, but now it can be easily built. You don''t see the rare raw materials that couldn''t be harvested before but are possible with the current technology.


    "That''s why you don''t realize that this small Skylinkes from many parts that have been evolving through the ages." Theo smiled. "Why am I talking about it? I think you all have figured it out already. Yes, it''s the same if you want to reach this level.


    "The limit is something you have to surpass, yes. However, that''s not all. There are other things you have to consider.


    "Hence, I want to start our training camp with these three questions. I hope that you can think about it during the training camp.


    "Your current strength, is it truly the true you or is it because you have to adjust to the situation that you have to wield your current ability?


    "Have you ever thought what you have been doing might be wrong or right? If yes, then do you think you will continue to do it for the rest of your life?


    "Lastly, if I tell you to drop your ability in order to gain this strength, will you do it?"


    Theo stopped for a moment. These three questions were linked to the requirements to be recognized by the world. So, they had to answer this question.


    The people couldn''t help but look down. Some even had started pondering those questions already.


    Grace, who was smart but still a bit too far from the requirement, couldn''t help but ask her grandfather. "Grandpa, those questions��"


    The Great Mage only smiled. He had already answered those questions in the past, and that was why he could get his Order.


    But as expected, Grace was still a bit far from it. Even though she was smart, she wouldn''t be able to easily reach the answer.


    To answer Grace''s doubt, he pointed his finger to the side, specifically to her father, who had lowered his head as if the questions shook his heart.

 Chapter 1971 Correct Path?

    After giving a little introduction about what he was going to teach in the training camp, Theo split the people into ten groups.


    "You will be divided into ten groups. It''s hard for me to personally teach you something, so I want these groups to help you understand my lesson.


    "The list should have been sent to your Skylink, so you should check it right now. But before you are leaving to your designated venues, I will give you three tasks to do while waiting for me in your respective venue.


    "First, you should try to share about your power. Of course, this is a secret that only you are supposed to know. After all, you will be at a disadvantage if your ability is exposed. That''s why I won''t force you to share your secret.


    "You only have to share the normal things like when you share it with a new teammate.


    "Then, the second task is to question the things you have shared. If you are in a group, after sharing your secret, the others should start questioning you. The questions are rted to your abilities, but you have the right to not answer that question or just answer it in your head. If possible, instead of digging up one''s secret, you should question the essence of the other''s party''s ability and try to give your opinion.


    "As for thest task, it''s simple. You should figure out whether you are going to consider others'' opinions or not. This is your ability, so you should be the one to decide what you''re gonna do with their opinions.


    "That''s all. Do you have any questions?" Theo asked.


    One of Mythical Rank Experts raised his hand and said out loud, "I am Bill from Heffex Group. I''m still confused about the three tasks. It feels like you are trying to question our abilities as if you want us to change. But in the end, you want us to decide whether we want to change or not. Are you implying that our ability is wrong?"


    "No." Theo shook his head. "I already told you to always question yourself, right? I don''t know you. If I ask you to tell me everything about your power, will you do it?"


    The Mythical Rank Expert looked down, contemting for a moment. "If you are the one who asks me, then I''m going to share my ability to the very details. Even without that information, you have the strength to overpower me after all."


    "Yes. Then, if I tell you that your ability is wrong, will you change it ording to my exnation?" Theo asked another question.


    The Mythical Rank Expert nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I haven''t reached your level, so I know that your understanding of this mysterious power is more than mine. So, if you think it''s wrong, then I believe that''s wrong. I want to correct my mistakes so that I can reach the next level."


    Theo smiled. "Then, what will you do if I lie about the mistake? And by changing ording to my exnation, you will end up ruining your foundation."


    "That''s��" The Mythical Rank Expert couldn''t reply. On the one hand, Theo had a reputation to keep. On the other hand, Theo had the ability to do it. "I don''t think you will be lying in this scenario."


    "But that''s possible, right?" Theo smirked.


    "��" He fell silent for a while before nodding his head.


    "That''s what I''m talking about. No one here understands you more than yourself. That''s why I want all of you to question yourself whether the abilities you have been cultivating this whole time are correct or not.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "I want everyone to give their opinion so that you have more information and perspective. At the end of the day, you are the one who should answer whether your ability is right or not."


    "But why are you trying to make us question our abilities? I mean, there are clear limits to ovee. Shouldn''t we ovee our limits first before clearing other hurdles?"


    Theo shook his head and waved his hand, forming two small mountains in front of them. "There are three mountains in front of you. There is a mysterious power in one of them. Which one will you choose?"


    "Three?" The guy was confused, trying to find the third one. There were only two mountains even if he tried to look from every direction, so he didn''t know what Theo meant by the third one.


    Despite his confusion, Theo didn''t make things clear as if he had told him everything correctly.


    He said, "Then, I''m going to climb the left one!"


    "Congrattions, you have climbed the peak. Unfortunately, this peak doesn''t contain the power." Theo shook his head, disappointed with the result.


    "Then, I should be climbing the right one." The guy corrected himself.


    "Congrattions, you have climbed the peak. Unfortunately, this peak doesn''t contain the power." Theo repeated his reply, confusing him.


    "Huh? Is it the third mountain? But there are only two."


    Theo looked lying at this point, but before he replied, Theo snapped his finger. The second mountain suddenly broke apart, revealing a smaller mountain. "This is the third mountain and it contains the power."


    "How do I even know there is a mountain inside there?"


    "That''s what I''m talking about. You don''t know where the correct path is. When you climbed the left mountain, you immediately believed that it was the correct path, not realizing it was actually a mistake.


    "When you climbed the right mountain, you thought it was right as well. It might be right, but because of your doubt, you immediately trusted my reply, thinking it was a mistake.


    "As it turned out, the right answer was within the right mountain. But you don''t know where the third mountain is, right? That''s why you are here. You are trying to find the right mountain to climb, but you don''t know which one is the correct mountain.


    "It might be the one you''re currently climbing, it might be the one next to it, or it might be the third mountain whose whereabouts are still unknown. What I want you to do is find the correct mountain to climb by questioning yourself. No one other than yourself knows the answer. So, I want you to think about it carefully."

 Chapter 1972 Testimony

    That was the first andst question from the participants. The illustration alone was enough to make them question themselves.


    Some of them believed that the path they had taken was the right one. So, they were nning to continue on this path until they reached their limit.


    Some of them wondered if this was correct or not. They nned to use this chance to get the answer.


    But the rest didn''t know whether they had even started climbing or not.


    In the end, they split into ten groups and went to their respective venue where they could talk with the rest of the people.


    Grace, who was walking with her father and grandfather, couldn''t help but ask, "Grandfather. What do you think about that question?"


    The Great Mage smiled and patted her head. "That''s a good illustration. There was a time when I felt so lost. I questioned myself whether the path I chose was correct or not. I


    "It was a dilemma that I had a hard time figuring out. Take a look at your father, he is still wondering about those questions. It seems that it''s a bit too early to take you here��"


    Grace looked down, feeling a bit sad. "It seems that it''s too wasteful to bring me here. You should have brought Uncle Max instead of me."


    "Actually, I want to believe in your potential." The Great Mage shook his head. "You are smart and reached this point while being a Supreme Rank Expert. A part of me wants you to reach the next step.


    "I have been trying to guide you there, but as expected, it''s hard because I''m restricted by a lot of things. The apocalypse, do you know that it''s because of a certain distortion of this special power?


    "If I easily tell you the secret, it will cause another apocalypse. Maybe if I only tell you here, it might not reach that level. But there will surely be some setbacks.


    "That''s why I can only guide you there, but not tell you. However, Theodore Griffith is different.


    "He reached this level when he was only a Supreme Rank Expert. And before long, he had reached the next step.


    "So, he must have a unique understanding of this power. After understanding his intention and method, I believe thating here is the correct choice. His understanding is profound and with his ability to teach, there should be a few people that manage to break through.


    "That''s why I want you to follow all his instructions. Try to question yourself and try to share as much as possible. You can share everything that is not rted to the family''s secret in my opinion.


    "It might give you some disadvantages right now. But if that can allow you to understand your power and attain this unique power, the disadvantages will be gone since you''ll be relying on this unique power more than your previous power."


    "��" Grace looked down, thinking about it. This was a piece of advice from the Great Mage, so it should be correct.


    The others who walked near them couldn''t help but eavesdrop on their conversation. It seemed that they were nning to do the same.


    If these disadvantages could give them an opportunity to break through, it was worth it.


    It seemed that the venues that had Transcendent Level Experts were more open toward each other. They decided to take risks in order to obtain this power.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    Of course, some of them asked for permission from their bosses first. After all, this was a matter of great importance.


    This was Theo''s reason for allowing the three Transcendent Level Experts to participate. He wanted them to convince more people.


    Those three were not affiliated with him, so their opinion shouldn''t be biased unlike the Transcendent Level Experts on Theo''s side.


    Meanwhile, Theo returned to his room for a moment to allow those people to discuss their abilities a bit.


    Surprisingly, Rea entered his room while bringing him tea. "Here you go, Teacher."


    "Mhm��" Theo nodded.


    "Should we start our n?" Rea asked.


    "No. Let''s leave them be for the first day. We can start from the second day."


    "Got it." Rea nodded in agreement. "Let me confirm this. We are going to call the people who are affiliated with the influences that don''t talk bad about us, right? And depending on their intention to our group, we might tell them about the real requirements.


    "If the others see them leaving because of us, they will start wondering what''s happening. At first, we can try to ask them to not give away the information, making them curious.


    "Then, there will be a few people who are close to each other and end up leaking the information.


    "That leak will turn into rumors. As long as we don''t address the rumors, they will believe it''s true. And they''ll consider whether they''re trying to suck up to us or stay with the government.


    "The opinion will be split and there will be some friction in their faction. This way, the government''s rise will slow down or even halt."


    Rea had nothing but praise for Theo''s maniptions. He knew how to incite others'' greed and used it to his advantage.


    He only did whatever he had promised, but the way he handled it could easily bring down his enemies.


    It was truly marvelous. In fact, even she couldn''t help but see her own family''s destruction if they made Theo their enemy. It seemed that her father had seen this far ahead.


    Asking Theo to bring her with him was probably the best decision her father had made in his entire life.


    "Yea. If there is something more, I''ll inform you about it. Just make sure to arrange my schedule properly, so this training camp doesn''tst longer than we anticipated. I have to start preparing for the next war after all."


    "Understood." Rea acknowledged his words and bowed politely before leaving the room.


    Theo left them for two hours before he began to enter each venue to teach them.

 Chapter 1973 Gathering Information

    As nned, Theo began toe to each venue, discussing their abilities. He even gave some personal advice. Though, he also had to tell them that they had to choose whether they would trust his judgment or not.


    After all, he might harm them without them realizing it. So, they had to be careful.


    Even though he gave all those pieces of advice, it didn''t change the fact that his lesson was extremely valuable. There were a lot of people who got a small breakthrough in their abilities.


    They coulde up with some new ways of utilizing their own ability. Even if they didn''t reach the next stage, they still got something big from this lesson.


    They became proof that Theo fulfilled his side of the agreement. So, they couldn''t say anything otherwise.


    "Grandfather��" Grace looked at the Great Mage with a serious expression. She raised her hands and released her Magic Power. The Magic Power actually gathered in one single point and formed a small ball. This blue colored Magic Power had something different from the usual Magic Power.


    Obviously, it didn''t escape the Great Mage''s eyes.


    "Hmm, this is��" The Great Mage squinted his eyes. "Hoo�� It seems that you have found something good."


    "Yes." Grace smirked. The Magic Power on her hands was actually spinning at high speed. It felt like there were numerous vortexes inside, creating a violent current. But because of Grace''s control, she managed to harmonize and contain the Magic Power from going berserk.


    If she just threw this lump of Magic Power, she could create a significant explosion. And this wasn''t even a technique. It was only a way to control Magic Power that Grace found after getting Theo''s lesson.


    "I have never thought that there would be someone who can understand me and tell me about control that somehow suits me." Grace shook her head helplessly.


    "That''s Theodore Griffith. He is extremely talented in learning. He uses his talent to learn and understand you. Then, he learns how to teach others in the best way possible with that information. That''s why there are a lot of people who have managed to make a small breakthrough.


    "In fact, I have underestimated Theodore Griffith''s talent. I don''t think it''s possible for a three-day training camp to be able to achieve anything. But with the current pace, it won''t be weird if one of them manages to attain this unique power." The Great Mage sighed, feeling defeated.


    It was truly amazing. But as much as he wanted to praise Theo, he couldn''t help but notice what Theo was trying to do.


    It was already the second day of the training camp, so he obviously saw Rea and a few members from Theo''s groupe into the room, inviting one person at a time.


    "Are you worried about it, Grandfather?" Grace asked. She seemed to have noticed the same thing, but unlike her grandfather, she didn''t have enough knowledge and experience about it, so she didn''t know what Theo was nning to do.


    "I do�� I don''t know what he''s nning, but I''m sure that he''s nning to do something�� We might have to prepare for it." The Great Mage nodded.


    "In that case, let me go around the hotel to eavesdrop on people''s conversation. We might be able to find something useful." Grace whispered with a serious expression.


    The Great Mage thought for a moment. Although he wanted to do it personally because he was afraid that Theo''s people would try to capture her because she was sniffing around, it seemed that he could only let her granddaughter do it.


    His identity was sensitive after all.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    After considering the pros and cons, the Great Mage whispered to Grace, warning her. "Try to listen to people''s conversations. However, don''t make it too obvious. Theodore Griffith is extremely cunning, so you shouldn''t follow any of his people since it might be a trap no matter how beneficial it is to the investigation."


    Grace nodded with a serious expression. After receiving the instruction, she immediately left the room, roaming around.


    Even though it was useful to share their abilities, they were not forced to learn the whole time they were there. They were free to do whatever they wanted. They could talk with others and form some rtionships with other influences in the hallway. They could practice their new abilities together outside. They only needed toe back when Theo visited their rooms to give them a thorough lesson.


    Although they could choose not to attend it, they didn''t dare to miss a single lesson from Theo due to how useful it was.


    Grace couldn''t help but start to hear something that bothered her when she started going around. She acted as if she was fixated on her notebook, but she was actually listening to people''s conversations.


    "Hey, have you realized that the people from Theo''s group are calling some people over one by one?"


    "Yes. What do you think they are doing? It seems to be important since every single person who has been called has achieved a small breakthrough in their abilities."


    "I know right."


    "I have been investigating those people to be honest. I have a hard time figuring it out, but it seems that Theodore Griffith is giving them an extra lesson."


    "So, who are ''them'' in your mouth?"


    "I''m not that sure. But from what I have seen from the few people that have been called, they are from the influences who haven''t joined the government''s side since their rise."


    "��"


    When that statement was released, they became silent and looked at each other as if thinking something.


    There were two people whose influence was on good terms with Theo, while the other two were not so much. One of them was neutral, while the other had joined the government to suppress Theo, using their rise to get something more from Theo''s group.


    Grace waspletely dumbfounded by their conversation. However, it seemed that their conversation just proved itself when Ergene suddenly approached them.


    "Mr. Sean, correct? Do you have some time? There is something we''d like to discuss with you."


    "Oh��" One of the two people whose influence was on good terms with Theo was startled, never expecting to get chosen. He immediately straightened his back. "I have time. Yes, Sure."


    No one realized that the situation would be worse than anyone predicted.

 Chapter 1974 Shock The World

    Grace kept going after seeing Ergene bringing the person somewhere. Although she wanted to follow her to get some more information, her grandfather''s warning stuck in her mind.


    In the end, she had to drop the idea and start exploring the area.


    She couldn''t help but hear even more secrets.


    "Hey, you were called earlier. What did you guys talk about? To think your abilities suddenly had a leap like this��"


    "I don''t understand what you''re talking about, man." The guy seemed to refuse to share the experience.


    "Come on. We have been friends for fifteen years. Can''t you even give me some hints?" The other guy was trying to coax him.


    As expected from a close friend, the one who had been hiding the secret looked ufortable, confused about whether he should talk about it or not.


    "Still, this is an extremely important secret. I think I have to call my boss about this. As much as I want to share some secrets with you, this is already beyond my jurisdiction, man. Sorry." The guy shook his head in disappointment.


    "Fine, fine. Call him. Come on, I can give you some benefits if you can tell me about it."


    In fact, people like them were not rare. After Theo began to call them one by one, the people were trying to get some information from those who had been called.


    Even the people behind them were trying to get that information.


    Some were hiding the secret the whole time, while some leaked it a bit under permission from either themselves or their bosses.


    In the end, his boss seemed to give the acknowledgement.


    Grace gulped down while fixing her hair so that it didn''t block the sound. She even used a special maniption of Magic Power in order to sharpen her strength along with the technology used to enhance sound.


    It was at this time she finally figured out the situation.


    "It seems that my boss is OK with it. But I can''t tell you the whole reason. I can only give you a small piece of information."


    "Sure, Sure. Thanks, bro."


    The guy whispered in his ears as low as possible but was still big enough to be heard. "He gave extra lessons and it was even more personalized."


    "!!!" He widened his eyes in shock, startled. "Is that why you suddenly get a sudden leap in power?"


    "Sssshhhhh!"


    He red at his friend, trying to stop him from talking out loud.


    When Grace found out about what Theo did, she couldn''t help but start forming her own conclusion based on the information she heard.


    She thought for a moment and muttered inwardly, "If I''m not wrong, then Theodore Griffith has been calling people whose influence is either on good terms with his group or neutral. It seems that he''s trying to thank those people and give them some benefits for supporting his group in the previous situation.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "As expected, due to the rise of the government, many are trying to take his group down in order to control him. The fact that Theodore Griffith hasn''t made his move the whole time�� It might be because he was truly not in the base.


    "Now that he''s back, he''s trying to give the benefits to those who remain neutral or on his side. Although our group doesn''t really side with the government, because of the current situation in politics, our family has to be on the government''s side. So, I guess we won''t be receiving the invitation��"


    She fell silent, not knowing what kind of implication it would bring to the entire base. But with this kind of conclusion, her grandfather might know how to prepare for whates next.


    Without hesitation, she returned to the room to report to her grandfather.


    As expected from a younger generation who hadn''t experienced a lot in this world, she didn''t realize that she had been manipted.


    Although everything she heard was the truth, she didn''t realize that some of these people did not exist among the three hundred participants.


    Some of them were actually people in disguise or even Theo himself, who used illusion to be someone else, spreading the information. This way, people would start to spread rumors after assembling their pieces of information.


    They might havee to a different conclusion, but one thing was clear. Theo was giving benefits to some people.


    It didn''t take too long for the rumor to spread. Before the dusk of the second day, many people had been hearing about them and even reported to their own bosses to know what they should do.


    There were a lot of talks among the upper echelon in the respective influence. Some were ming the government, some were ming each other for persuading them, some were hating Theo for being unfair, not realizing their own prejudice.


    But that wasn''t the end. The situation was amplified when the night came.


    Suddenly, the sky split open, illuminating the world with golden light. But if they looked at it carefully, they would realize there was a person in that gap. It was that person who had been illuminated by the sky.


    On that person''s shoulder appeared a gold symbol as a marking.


    In that very instant, Theo had also appeared. The person was unconscious the moment he received the mark, so he ended up falling into Theo''s arms.


    The person was a middle-aged man with blond hair. His reputation was quite big and he was known to be extremely powerful. So, it wouldn''t be weird for him to achieve a huge breakthrough and attain an order.


    When Theo returned to the ground, the partner from the same influence came while screaming. "Arthur. What''s going on?!"


    He was worried about his partner, but Theo stopped him since it was not a sad moment but a joyous one.


    "You don''t have to worry. I guess I should congratte him along with your Hem and Din Group for getting a new Transcendent Level Expert."


    "What?!" His partner and all the people who witnessed the phenomenon were shocked.


    Theo handed the person carefully and said, "He will be sleeping for a few hours to a few days, depending on his circumstances. You should call your boss toe here to discuss whether you want to let him stay here for the time being or bring him back immediately."


    And this news shocked the world.

 Chapter 1975 Visit

    "What?"


    "There is a new Transcendent Level Expert born from the training camp?"


    "Impossible. Do you know how hard it is to be a Transcendent Level Expert?"


    "But everyone has witnessed it and even the three Transcendent Level Experts from the government side have confirmed his breakthrough."


    "Who is he? Where does hee from?"


    "He is ''that'' Arthur from Hem and Din."


    "This��"


    The information spread like wildfire, shocking the entire world. After all, the US Base wasn''t the only one that paid close attention to the training camp. Even the union and United Asia were trying to see whether Theo had the ability to do it or not.


    And it seemed that Theo didn''t give an empty promise.


    Theo managed to do it within two days. It might look like he was lucky to be able to do it, but no one seemed to deny the fact that Theo gave him the opportunity to reach that stage.


    After all, even if the people who came from the influence sided with the government, they gained a lot of things from the training camp.


    Still, the one who was shocked the most was none other than the leader of the Hem and Din Group. Knowing that his strongest fighter had be a Transcendent Level Expert brought him so much joy that he almost passed out the moment he heard the news.


    Hem and Din Group might be quite big in normal people''s eyes, but with the addition of the new Transcendent Level Expert, they could go directly to one of the top groups.


    That was why the leader dropped everything he had scheduled in order to visit Theo directly while confirming the breakthrough.


    It was already past midnight, but Theo still received him pretty warmly.


    "Wee, Mr. Rick Hemdall." Theo smiled gently as if he wasn''t bothered by his sudden visit.


    The leader was an old man that seemed to be over one hundred years old. But because of the news, he looked like he was twenty years younger.


    He politely bowed to Theo while gently shaking his hand. "Thank you for weing me, Sir Theodore Griffith. I apologize for my sudden visit��"


    Theo nodded. "I can understand that, don''t worry. Let me lead you to him."


    "Please."


    The two immediately walked into the hotel. As expected, the people were taking a peek at their meeting.


    A part of them was jealous of their achievement. A part of them was wondering what they should do to get that opportunity.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But one thing was clear. They were investigating the Hem and Din group immediately. Even the government was trying to take advantage of this to gain another Transcendent Level Expert.


    However, they encountered one big problem. Among the influences that participated in the battle, Hem and Din had always sided with Theo''s group, trying to give some rification about Theo''s group and their role.


    And with the sudden breakthrough, they surely would have a closer rtionship.


    Those who had been called by Theo immediately became the focus. They were trying to get the chance.


    However, Theo didn''t care about their opinion currently. After all, he was sure that there would be a conflict among them pretty soon.


    So, he just focused on bringing Rick to meet the new Transcendent Level Expert, who was obviously guarded by Rea and another fighter came from the group.


    When Rick saw Arthur lying on the bed, he tried to observe him carefully, wondering if there was something different from him.


    "Is he going to wake up?" Rick asked.


    "He should be waking up within a few hours to a few days, depending on his circumstances. However, if you are not sure, you can check his mark," Theo replied while approaching Arthur, showing the mark that had appeared on Arthur''s body. This was the mark of an Order after all.


    Rick frowned when he saw the mark. Theo even pointed at the mark as if telling him to touch it.


    Out of curiosity, he followed his instruction and tried to feel the mark. In that instant, he suddenly felt something different from Arthur, startling him.


    "Haaa��" Rick was taken aback, taking a step back out of reflex. The expert that came with him immediately tried to protect him, wondering if that was an attack.


    Theo didn''t say anything since Rick would be the one to reveal what he found.


    "This is�� so magical." Rick gasped. "Although I''m not as strong as Arthur, I''m also a Mythical Rank Expert. I can feel there is something different from his Magic Power��


    "It feels like there is a new entity in his power and that entity is the one repelling me. Although it''s faint, I think I feel the different Magic Power�� Is this the different color of Magic Power?" Rick looked at Theo with an astounded face.


    "Certainly. The mark is a kind of recognition of the new power. And that mark bes a bridge between him and this new power.


    "However, because this new power is stronger, far stronger than a normal Magic Power, it needs six months to fully integrate with the new power. In other words, you need six months to fully change the color of Magic Power.


    "Before that, he will have some trouble in handling the new power since the Magic Power is still the old one while his ability is a new one. But in the next six months, he will surely have a qualitative leap every single day.


    "That''s what is going to happen to him. So, congrattions, Mr. Rick." Theo smiled.


    Rick shook his head. "No, I should be the one to thank you. Arthur was an orphan that I adopted to the family�� he always helped me without asking for anything. So, I always wanted to give him something big to repay him. I''m d that it works out somehow.


    "Arthur has told me that he has discovered a lot of things after you called him and personally guided him. So, I would like to thank Sir Theodore Griffith for helping him." Rick looked at Theo with a serious expression. "If you need anything from us, please don''t hesitate to reach out to me. I''ll do my best toplete it."

 Chapter 1976 According To The Plan

    "No, no. I should be the one thanking you for standing up for my group." Theo smiled. "Everything depends on his talent, I''m simply pushing him forward."


    "I know that my Arthur is a talented child. But I know that without your help, he might not be able to reach this stage. After all, if it''s so easy to reach, there''s no way there are only around one hundred people in this world that can reach this level." Rick shook his head.


    He paused for a moment and asked, "I know that I am a bit shameless here, but I would like to ask for another favor from you, Sir Theo. Can you let him stay here? At the very least, until he wakes up?"


    Theo knew what he was thinking about. Rick knew that if he brought Arthur back right away. They might get ambushed.


    After all, Arthur was in a vulnerable state. There would be a lot of parties that were interested in him. So, it was better for him to stay here under Theo''s protection until he woke up.


    With his current strength, he doubted there would be a lot of people that could stop him.


    So, Rick asked for Theo''s help once more.


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I can host him until he wakes up. I can assure you that he will be safe here. If you don''t mind, you can also stay here to look after him. Though, I have to ensure fairness, so I can''t give you any lesson."


    "��" Rick hesitated. On the one hand, he had apany to handle. On the other hand, Arthur was the most important asset of thepany if he looked at the situation objectively. He could ask for his subordinates to handle thepany for a few days while he was here.


    Even if he went back now, there might be some ambushes hiding on the way home. So, it was a really good offer.


    Rick politely bowed to him. "Then, I shall take that suggestion. Thank you for hosting me, despite the short notice."


    "No problem. Then, I shall leave you all alone." Theo smiled before leaving the room.


    He had a few things to do. With Arthur''s advancement, the base would surely be lively for multiple reasons.


    Theo and Rea immediately returned to the office while asking Felix to handle the protection.


    "It seems that the n has worked in our favor." Rea smiled. "The government side will start questioning whether they have made the right choice or not. There will be many people interested in the training camp as well, including people from outside this base like the union and United Asia.


    "We are going to be busy in the next couple of days." Rea seemed to have regained her energy after being stressed out by the problems.


    Theo''s absence was truly one of the disasters that couldn''t happen in Theo''s group. It wasn''t that the group was too weak, but because Theo''s existence was simply that significant.


    Theo nodded. "We''ll proceed ording to the n."


    "Got it." Rea paused for a moment. There was a little thought stuck in her mind. "Say, Master�� Is there going to be another person breaking through in the training camp? Tomorrow will be thest day, right?"


    "Hmm. I am not very sure. That Arthur might not be the strongest, but he is truly one of the people who are the closest to Order. There are some who are qualified, but I don''t know if they will achieve it tomorrow or not. All I can say is that there will be one more person who can get it before the uing battle.


    "That''s all I can say after observing those people." Theo shook his head helplessly. It wasn''t that he didn''t want to answer her, but this matter was very hard to predict even for him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I see. Who is that person?"


    "Imelda from Melibe."


    "Melibe�� If I''m not wrong, they are helping us spread information about our good deeds�� They can be said to have helped us restore our reputation."


    "There you have it." Theo shrugged. There were some more people who were close to the Order, but their influence was not on good terms with Theo.


    Although he didn''t mind helping them, he had to make those who harmed his people suffer first.


    After all, a few more people breaking through here wouldn''t bring a huge impact in the next battle. They hadn''t even finished assimting with their new power yet, so their strength was still far away from the real Transcendent Level Expert.


    Theo waved his hand and continued walking back to his office.


    ��


    As expected, the news reached the ears of people beyond the continent.


    "Hmm?" The Heavenly Sovereign heard the news while having a smirk on his face.


    "Why are you that excited when hearing about the news, Master? You should know that it''s a big matter to reveal the information to the public, right?" Zhao Jia, his disciple, red at him, trying to make a serious conversation.


    "Well, it shows two things. First, Theo is desperate right now, desperate for allies. There will be a lot of people flocking to him after this. Secondly, the enemy this time is extremely strong to the point he thinks that everything in his possession is not enough to beat the current enemy."


    Zhao Jia paused for a moment. "Still, you should have heard about��"


    "About me asking a favor from Theo to teach the younger ones, right? There are already a few people calling me��" The Heavenly Sovereign sighed. "Just tell them that they should show goodwill to Theo instead of me."


    "Goodwill? Are you talking about the uing battle that you have been telling me a lot about recently?"


    "Yes." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded.


    "I see. I''ll tell them about that. But what kind of goodwill does he need? I mean, he already has the Star Group with him, so there''s no way he needs money��"


    "I already told you. He needs allies!" The Heavenly Sovereign sighed, giving a sentence to simplify it. "Just infiltrate the goddamn base already. Their government has stolen the airnes, right?"


    "Ah!"

 Chapter 1977 Related Parties

    The Heavenly Sovereign wasn''t the only person who was interested in that matter. The Sword Saint had been honing himself in his house the whole time.


    After knowing that the uing battle would end with humanity''s extinction, he couldn''t help but strive to get as strong as possible during the little time they had left.


    The Sword Saint was standing in the middle of the field, surrounded by a few bamboo figures. His hand was already on the katana''s handle while his eyes remained closed as if he was trying to concentrate.


    Suddenly, his eyes opened sharply as his hand pulled the sword. The energy from the draw itself spread in all directions, cutting all the bamboo figures.


    It was so sharp that the bamboo didn''t feel anything. In fact, it didn''t even drop as if it wasn''t cut at all.


    But if one took a closer look, they would notice the small gap between their bodies. The Sword Saint precisely cut them in a horizontal way to the point there was no angle that would cause the body to fall down.


    It didn''t look hard, but even his son and Rea still couldn''t do something like that.


    He took a deep breath as if he had just finished the training.


    "Father." Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in his ears.


    The Sword Saint nced to the side, finding his son standing at the gate leading to the field. The Sword Saint sheathed his de while walking toward him. "What''s the current situation?"


    "It seems that the Heavenly Sovereign is nning something. I''m not sure what it is, but it''s going to involve you and him along with a few Transcendent Level Experts."


    "I see." The Sword Saint nodded. "In that case, I''ll talk to him after this. There is one more matter I have to finish before I can meet him."


    "What is it, Father?"


    The Sword Saint smiled while looking at his son. "It''s about time for you to seed my position."


    "!!!" His son was obviously shocked. After all, his father still remained in his absolute seat in the n. If he proceeded with the session, it meant that he was nning to do something that might require him to leave the n.


    And the only thing he could think of was the uing battle. Yes, it seemed that the battle would be so hard that his father had to consider the session first since he might fall in the next battle.


    The statement brooked no argument since the Sword Saint had already understood the power of Theo and the slime who managed to defeat Theo.


    ��


    Just like the Sword Saint, the War Saint, Leonardo, was also considering everything for the family.


    "This is it." Leonardo sighed while shaking his head helplessly.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Father�� Are you going to join the battle there?" Marzio, the current head of the War God Family, asked with a serious expression.


    "Of course. Unfortunately, I couldn''t bring you with me. But fret not, this shall be thest battle. I''m already this old, so this is going to be thest battle I''ll participate in before I truly retire."


    "That''s what you said, but you ended up getting involved in a few more battles��"


    "��" Leonardo flicked his forehead casually and said yfully, "You already know how to talk back to your parents, eh, brat? Give your father a little time to look cool, will you?"


    Marzio closed his eyes. That remark was a part of him that didn''t want Leonardo to go there since he might die. There was no way he, his son, would want to see his father leave this world like that. Even Leonardo understood why Marzio said it, but he had made his decision.


    Marzio chose to respect it while stating it loud and clear. "Father. May the fortune bless you with its presence."


    Leonardo smiled, gratified. "I know that the family will be fine with you. This is not a goodbye. This father of yours shall attain the greatest victory in his life here!"


    ��


    Theo''s close allies had been preparing for the uing battle. Unfortunately, the Ice Witch and the Daemon couldn''t participate in this fight, considering they had to remain in their respective base to protect the rest of the people.


    Meanwhile, there was another party that wanted to join the fun.


    They had been hiding themselves this whole time only for this moment. They were none other than the original Theo, the Magic Saint, and the Fist Saint.


    While smoking, the Fist Saint asked with a serious expression. "So, are we going to do this? If we are trying to harm him, why don''t we just attack the union? I mean, we have enough strength to defeat them. If we can do that, won''t it force him toe here? Then again, if the rumor about the battle will decide humanity''s survival is true, I don''t know what I will choose��


    "Although I hate him, the entire humanity is at stake." The Fist Saint stopped when he felt the res of these two people beside him.


    "Don''t forget that we saved you. Without us, you would have died already. And attacking the union wouldn''t quell our anger. It''s better to participate in that battle and wait until the enemy is weakened.


    "We''ll kill him and kill that enemy in session. This way, we can get all the glory and achieve our objective."


    "��" The Fist Saint shrugged, not denying anything. He was just skeptical about their move, not disagreeing with their n. So, if they wanted it that way, he would just fulfill the agreement.


    The Magic Saint narrowed his eyes. He had been waiting for this chance. Now that they could go to the other base safely, he could finally defeat that ''fake'' grandson of his.


    The original Theo was also nning the same thing. The first thing he had to do was to kill and absorb his ''fake'' to gain everything he had lost this whole time.


    There wasn''t a lot of time left to prepare. And all of them were busy creating their own strategy.

 Chapter 1978 Last Preparation

    "This happens because of you joining the government. If we don''t side with them, our son would have gotten a special lesson from Theodore Griffith and achieved a breakthrough already!" A woman red at her husband, who happened to be the leader of one of the biggest influences in the base.


    The argument started in the morning and it still continued even after lunch. The argument was rted to what happenedst night


    Not only did Theo manage to teach someone to reach the Transcendent Level Expert, but he also did it easily.


    If Theo wanted it, he might be able to turn all the Mythical Rank Experts under hismand to reach the stage with enough time.


    That was why many people were angry and helpless. They were ming people or even themselves for the bad decision to side with the government, trying to control Theo''s group. They also couldn''t do anything against the current situation.


    There were a lot of influences that tried to speak up in order to gain Theo''s favor. They wanted the opportunity to be a Transcendent Level Expert since their influence would be one of the best with a single Transcendent Level Expert.


    Some even switched sides from the government to Theo, trying to make amends. It was clear that Theo would rule the world in the future. Whether it was from the shadow or not, it didn''t really matter.


    Unfortunately for them, people were skeptical about their influence, considering they only did it just to get Theo''s support. If they had another chance to betray Theo, they would do it without hesitation.


    Theo didn''t bother with the current situation because everyone was overreacting. Of course, what he did truly shocked the world, but if they didn''t win the uing battle, they would lose everything.


    So, Theo would rather focus on the current matter instead of politics. He had done enough anyway.


    With this, the government might be able to get a say in the n, but they wouldn''t be able to overwrite Theo''smand.


    This was enough for Theo. After all, he still needed the government''s help.


    Theo gathered Rea and Maya again to discuss their next move.


    "Well, the situation has stabilized. So, you don''t have to be afraid of the current matter." Theo turned to Maya. "Is our n ready?"


    "Yes. I have managed to pressure them to set out to both bases. There should be a total of ten flights in a week since safety still has to be measured. I believe they wille through this path." Maya exined. "I don''t know who wille, but they should be contacting me soon. It''s not that hard to hide their identities. So, yeah��"


    "Good then." Theo nodded. "I just want you to focus on this matter. Make sure that you investigate all those people if possible. I''m pretty sure that the old Griffith Family will sneak in."


    "Should we stop them?"


    "No. There is no point in stopping them. First of all, if they can''t enter this ce, they will attack the union. It won''t have a huge impact on us, but it will surely affect the current situation.


    "As for the second reason, they are like a tumor. I''m not nning to let the tumor growrger and affect me. So, I''m going to get rid of everything once and for all!" Theo stated with a cold tone.


    "Understood." Maya nodded. Their leader had stated it loud and clear, so there was no need to stop him anymore.


    After finishing the matter with Maya, he turned to Rea. "I have two tasks for you. First, I want you to connect those influences as well as the beggar association and the Griffith Family. We have to maintain the surveincework."


    "Understood. Although we have enough men to stop the outside threat, we don''t have enough men to handle the inside��"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I have already made an arrangement for the inside threat. So you don''t have to worry about it. Just focus on the monsters from outside."


    "I understand." Rea nodded in agreement. "Then, what''s your second order?"


    "The outside will be extremely dangerous. After all, there will be a lot of Saints fighting there. So, I want you to arrange a barrier that separates the normal battlefield and the Saint battlefields.


    "This will require a lot of manpower, considering the Saints can easily reach your battlefield. Hence, I''m going to ce the Kings and Queens between the Saints and normal fighters.


    "Your task is to lead the group to prepare for an impact and take advantage of the opportunity. Don''t worry. I have made some arrangements in order to reduce the number of the King ss Monsters."


    Rea thought for a moment. "So, there might be some attacks finding their way to us. And you want me to use it against the enemies?"


    "Yes. But be careful, the attack of a Saint will be hard to stop. So, you have to measure the abilities carefully. Just use the one that you can use."


    "Got it." Rea acknowledged the orders.


    "Good." Theo nodded as if he had finished dealing with the matter.


    But Rea had to stop him. "I''m sorry, Master. There is something I''d like to ask. What about the spies? They''re the biggest threats right now, considering they will be able to cause a lot of ruckus inside the base."


    "The spies won''t be able to do much. Even I don''t know how many spies the enemies have. But I''m sure of one thing.


    "My countermeasure will work well suppressing the unrest. So, you don''t have to worry about it."


    "I understand." Rea, although curious, didn''t say anything. She knew that Theo tried to hide the trump card for the time being. So, she just had to wait until everything unfolded.


    Theo patted Rea''s shoulder with a smile. "You''ll be just fine."


    After that, he went to Maya and said, "Don''t forget the turrets."


    "Where is my encouragement?" Maya''s eyebrows twitched, ring yfully.


    "Haha. One billion for one encouragement." Theo made a cheeky smile.


    Maya clicked her tongue as she couldn''t make aeback after that. But before leaving, Theo added, "You are not someone who needs my encouragement. You are a person who wants to be my equal, right?"


    Maya was stunned for a moment before smiling. "Equal? No, I''m going to surpass you."


    Both of them exchanged a smile before Theo left to make hisst preparation.

 Chapter 1979 Review

    Theo was sitting inside his room, staring at his status.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 996


    EXP: 90,599,699/122,466,999


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (A), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (A), Muscle Enhancement (A), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 2975


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "Hmm�� Because of the project, I couldn''t level up easily. Thankfully, I could use my clone to kill some monsters, but I''mcking a few levels. My original n is to reach level 1,000 if possible. If not, I''m satisfied with level 998.


    "But this time, it''s going to be a bit more troublesome. I have some confidence that I can gain one or two levels by killing many monsters on the battlefield along with one or two World ss Monsters.


    "Before, I could gain a few levels when killing one, but one World ss Monster is only equal to one level right now. So, these four levels are truly a big gap.


    "At first, I thought about handling my original self and my grandfather. But that''s not enough anymore��" Theo sighed. He had to kill two more World ss Monsters if he wanted to reach level 1,000.


    Then again, he had to fill up the EXP bar in order to reach the next level and upgrade his rank. So, it wasn''t an easy task to reach the Singrity Rank.


    "Well, I don''t know how many World ss Monsters I can kill on the battlefield, considering it won''t be easy to kill those two. I might get a bit exhausted because of their desperation��"


    Theo thought for a moment, trying to find a n that could work out in his favor. Unfortunately, the picture was too blurry because he didn''t know how many World ss Monsters the enemy side had.


    Only one thing was clear. The number of their Saints would be lower than humanity, but the slime alone could be counted as a few Saints. So, their number was about equal.


    There was only one person who could turn around the situation. He was none other than the God of Mischief, the person who had reached the Singrity Rank.


    After some consideration, Theo sighed. "As expected, I''ll take care of those two. Then, the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint can handle the World ss Monsters on the opposite team. Or the Sword Saint could face the Fist Saint instead��


    "Then, I have Loki, Hel, and the Lightning Saint. The Dark King might have be the Dark Saint, but I don''t think he is strong enough to defeat any enemy Saint.


    "So, I guess I''ll have to pair him up with another World ss Monster. The rest can handle the slime."


    Theo felt something was amiss. Even though he had a lot of Saints on his side, he felt something was missing from his n.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Hmm, I don''t know what is missing. The three bases have their own guardian deities: The Time God, the Ice Witch, and the Daemon. That should be enough to keep them safe.


    "Then, is the problem rted to the number of the King ss Monsters?" Theo frowned. He expected the enemies to arrive with at least fifty King ss Monsters. Even he had some trouble thinking about the solution for them.


    "I guess this is the problem." Theo sighed. He thought the ufortable feeling he had was because of theck of Kings and Queens on their side. So, Theo nned to create a battle simtion in order to let them win.


    But before doing so, he had another task in mind. It was none other than his skills.


    He could see a few A Rank Skills. He had brought enough A Rank and B Rank Skills in order to level them up to S Rank Skills.


    Since he could finally have some time to upgrade his abilities and get used to them, he decided to upgrade them.


    Theo poured the Magic Power into the Skill Cards, sacrificing them in order to upgrade those abilities.


    Skill: Energy st (S)


    Effect: The user can release energy over a target area of their choosing, causing great damage and delivering a tremendous shock wave of pure force.


    Skill: Enhanced Concentration Capacity (S)


    Effect: The ability to concentrate one''s Magic Power to the very limit.


    Skill: Muscle Enhancement (S)


    Effect: Gifting a person the ability to exert almost 120% of the body''s muscr strength, surpassing one''s overall physical strength.


    Theo looked at these three skills with a smile. They were the most ordinary skills out of all Theo''s skills since they came from the monsters, while the others were inherited from the God of Mischief and the others.


    "As expected, the skills that I have inherited came from Order and Authority with the help of Original Skills. So, they''re above average. Even I have some skills like that as well. If I were to give someone my skills as an inheritance�� Then, I can give them��"


    Theo paused for a moment. "Irregr Guardian, Reality Removal, Alter Ego, Twisted Reality, Mirage World, and Reverse World. Irregr Guardian is extremely versatile, so if one is smart enough to utilize it, it can be a deadly skill.


    "Reality Removal is a bit too specific, I think? But with illusion power, it can still be replicated. As for Alter Ego, I''m not sure since they need the Reality Eye if they want to alter the system.


    "As for Twisted Reality, it''s just my ability to control a reality like controlling the space. On the other hand, the Mirage World is dangerous since it creates a domain to copy people''s abilities.


    "Lastly, the Reverse World. It''s also a domain ability that allows me to change the characteristics of everything.


    "I want to consider the Inverted World to be myst ability, but I still don''t have enough strength to use it. I think that''s because the Inverted World is an ability beyond S Rank. Only when I reach the Singrity Rank can I start using that ability��


    "After all, that ability allows me to even erase someonepletely from this reality��"

 Chapter 1980 Another Breakthrough

    After considering his main ability, Theo looked at the other side. "I also have some normal abilities and the abilities I receive from other people. Though, the normal ability I usually use is only the Magic Bullet.


    "As for thetter, I have Ascension Step from the Wind Emperor and the Invisible Vortex from the Dark Ki��Saint."


    Theo felt this wasn''t enough to defeat the slime. Although he nned to defeat the slime with the help of the God of Mischief, Hel, and the Heavenly Sovereign, he still felt this wasn''t enough.


    "What should I do?" Theo sighed, not knowing how to defeat the slime even with such a lineup.


    Since it was impossible to find a way inside, he decided toe out to get ustomed to the three abilities he had just upgraded.


    This might be thest training he could do before the next battle, where humanity''s survival would be decided.


    While Theo remained quiet inside his base, the world had undergone a great change.


    The government''s rise had been halted due to a few issues. After people started to speak up about all the deeds that Theo''s Group had done on the battlefield, the public opinion split. On one side, they were questioning Theo''s whereabouts during the battle. On the other side, they were supporting Theo, who seemed to be preparing for the uing battle.


    It was clear that their reputation was restored after Theo started handling the problem.


    The second issue came from the influences that previously joined the government to suppress Theo''s group. There was a civil war among them, but Theo didn''t interfere with their battle, so they continued for a bit until they reached a stalemate.


    The third issue that the government had was actually Theo''s existence. The name of Theodore Griffith was enough to instill fear in his enemies. So, the government became extremely cautious the moment Theo came back.


    Last but not least, the government feared the change Theo brought this time. He managed to create a Transcendent Level Expert in just two days. So, they might have to consider their stance.


    If they continued doing this, the moment the battle was over, Theo would create an army of Transcendent Level Expert. And with the leader bing stronger than anyone else, even the Time God and the three Transcendent Level Experts on their side wouldn''t be able to do anything to Theo.


    So, they wondered if they had to reconcile with Theo to create a bnce before it was toote. But they had suffered a lot from Theo and the current conflict happened because of their arrogance and greed, so it was hard for them to apologize.


    And Theo wouldn''t forgive them that easily either.


    However, thatst sturdy wall that stopped them from apologizing to Theo copsed a week after the training camp ended.


    In Kansas, specifically inside the courtyard of an expert known as Ediva, a cocoon made of brown light appeared, illuminating the courtyard. It startled all experts around that courtyard to the point they couldn''t help but take a peek.


    They didn''t know what happened and they didn''t dare to enter the courtyard since Ediva was the strongest expert in the St. Adalva Group.


    But everything changed when they started seeing brown colored Magic Power from her courtyard.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Without hesitation, the boss of the St. Adalva Group entered the courtyard and checked what was going on, finding an elderly woman lying inside a brown cocoon.


    "This is��" The leader gulped down and couldn''t help but remember what Theo had said in hisst speech before the training camp was over.


    "I have seen a lot of people here. And I could say that a lot of you have the potential. I''ve seen people that are close to that level, I''ve found a few people who have found their right path�� I won''t tell you who they are.


    "It might be you, it might be someone else. Without these names, I want you to continue striving forward. Make it so that you are among the people I talked about." Theo said those words out of fact. But he didn''t tell the names so that they would think they were the ones in Theo''s mouth.


    This way, Theo kept their morale and determination high.


    And he, the leader of the St. Adalva Group, seemed to be not one of them. Instead, it was the person that came with him to the training camp.


    He approached the woman carefully, waiting for the brown light to dim down and eventually disappear.


    Before the woman fell down, he caught her in his arms and smiled, looking at the woman''s face.


    He was startled because it wasn''t the face he remembered. Some wrinkles had gone and the face regained its energy, making her look ten to twenty years younger.


    ''Is it because of this baptism that my mother''s lifespan increased? She seems to be younger.'' He thought. ''Either way, I know that she has reached the next stage, bing another Transcendent Level Expert in the base.


    Although her strength wouldn''t be as strong as other Transcendent Level Experts, it still put her far above the normal Mythical Rank Experts.


    "Congrattions on your advancement, Mother. It seems that I have to thank Theodore Griffith since, because of his special lesson, my mother can be a Transcendent Level Expert."


    He smiled. His St. Adalva Group had been supporting Theo as well. They were not a corporation but an academic group. Theo was a good student and teacher, so they always wanted to get Theo''s support. Hence, they had been supporting Theo the whole time.


    It seemed that Theo had repaid them beyond what they had done for him.


    "In the uing battle, I swear that I shall lead the people in front. Such a genius has to survive�� The world might progress extremely fast with him at the lead."


    He smiled. This was the second Transcendent Level Expert that broke through with the help of Theo''s lesson. And he was nning to spread the information so that the government would fear Theo.


    Though, the excitement didn''tst long. Ne hade to Theo''s house with a serious expression.


    In front of Theo and Agata, she said, "They have left their nest!"

 Chapter 1981 March

    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    A series of roars echoed, filling up the entire city. Numerous monsters, from small to big, traversed in their path, destroying everything that stood in their way.


    They turned buildings to rubbles, smashed down trees, and crushed boulders. There was nothing that could stop them.


    There were tens of thousands of monsters, if not hundreds of thousands. There was nothing that could stop them. It could be said that all the monsters in the eastern part of Canada had united under one banner, nning to crush the human base located south of their location.


    Nothing could stop them. Most of them were Hero Rank or below monsters, but there were at least ten thousand Supreme Rank Monsters along with more than one thousand Mythical Rank Monsters among them.


    They had been scattered in all areas, heading in the same direction.


    Even the base would suffer some damage if they fought these monsters head-on. That was why Theo had been trying to unite them under the same banner. Whether it was under his control or the government''s control, as long as humanity didn''t unite, they would be overrun by this colossal army of monsters.


    A normal World ss Monster usually had less than twenty King ss Monsters and under those King ss Monsters were numerous General ss Monsters who had their own territory.


    They were the ones in charge of managing the monsters in their area while the King ss Monster ruled over them.


    Still, there were less than ten thousand monsters under a single General ss Monster normally. Even in the past, if they wanted to destroy a single human base, they usually needed a few General ss Monsters at the very least.


    But this time, the monsters had united at an unprecedented scale. There were more than a thousand General ss Monsters in the area and each of them was tasked to lead the rest of the monsters.


    And obviously, these monsters took orders from the King ss Monsters not far from them.


    Some King ss Monsters were marching behind them as if they were monitoring their advance. Some King ss Monsters didn''t bother to do this and just continued at their own pace. And the rest were mixing among the monsters.


    Surprisingly, their march was extremely slow. It looked like they were trying to conserve their energy, but there was another reason for their speed.


    It was the huge slime situated two miles behind them. The huge slime was moving by generating slime from the top and swallowing its own body at the bottom. Due to the regeneration speed as well as the process, the slime moved exceptionally slowly.


    But everything he passed had turned into nothing. The building, the rock, even the ground itself had disappeared, creating a huge trail behind him.


    The slime didn''t have to move since its body could extend for a few miles and its sticity could do almost everything in battle. So, the slime had no weakness in a battle.


    As for the mobility required to rule the world, there was no need for it. If he could continue to grow, he would be able to expand his body at an unprecedented level.


    This was what Theo feared. After the slime defeated them and reached the Singrity Level, there was no one who could stop him anymore. Even if all the World ss Monsters united, they would still not be able to do it.<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    And the slime only had to continue to grow and absorb everything in its path. This way, the slime would gradually cover the entire and absorb all objects and living beings on the, bing the sole existence that lived on this.


    The slime marched at the base in order to kill thest threat to his existence, the US Base.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, their movement was closely monitored by the Griffith Family and the satellite. Due to their size, the humans managed to find their trace, allowing them to get up-to-date information.


    Both Theo and the president were rmed by the news since the great battle that was said to be the battle that decided the human race''s survival had begun.


    ��


    "They have left their nest!"


    Ne reported with a serious expression, looking at Theo and Agata, who seemed to be having their lunch together.


    Theo''s expression instantly changed. Knowing this matter was the highest priority, Agata said without hesitation, "You should go."


    Theo nced at Agata, a bit hesitant. He thought about finishing the lunch with her first, but Agata added, "You are the only one who can determine our survival. So, you should go!"


    "But you��"


    "I''m not that weak. I might not be able to help you in battle, but I have a lot of experience inmanding the army. Don''t worry. There will be a lot of people helping me, so you should focus on the enemy."


    "��" Theo looked at her for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright."


    He was worried that Agata would be alone, but Agata had once stated that she wouldn''t be an essory that Theo put on to fill the missing piece in his achievement.


    So, there was no need to worry about her. She was also a fighter, not on the front line, but the brain that controlled the battlefield.


    She was supposed to go with him, but this time, Theo was enough, considering the report didn''t state any urgency.


    Agata waved her hand, seeing Theo off.


    Theo and Ne immediately headed straight to the office, where he gathered all the talented people to discuss their n.


    The moment he entered the room, everyone was already sitting there, waiting for him. There were the War Saint, the Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, and even the Kings and Queens from the two bases such as the Pope, Zhao Jia, and others.


    Theo had gathered them under one banner and hid them as their reinforcement. The battle this time would be extremely dangerous, so he had to proceed with caution.

 Chapter 1982 Heroes Gather (1)

    A few minutes ago.


    After hearing the report, the people immediately assembled in the office building.


    The first one to arrive was none other than the grandfather, who was overly proud of his grandson''s achievement.


    "Hmm?" The War Saint, Leonardo, took a peek inside, finding no one. "It seems that we''re the first one."


    Yes, the War Saint didn''te alone.


    "That''s because you urged me to use my teleportation to reach this ce." The young man shook his head helplessly.


    There was only one young man who had a Space Element that would apany Leonardo. He was none other than Theo''s brother, Lorenzo.


    "Hahahaha!" The War Saintughed out loud. "It can''t be helped. I just want to finish this matter as quickly as possible."


    "You shouldn''t lie, Leo. Don''t add more sin to your life." Another voice echoed in the hall, heading directly to the entrance of the meeting room, which happened to be blocked by Leonardo.


    As expected of one of the strongest Awareness users in the entire world, the pope, he managed to locate Leonardo easily. In fact, the reason why he could reach this ce not long after Leonardo was because his Awareness picked up the teleportation that Lorenzo used earlier.


    Without even getting the report from the Griffith Family, he already knew what was going to happen. So, he didn''t hesitate to go to this building to wait.


    "Hoho, this old friend of mine." Leonardo smirked, ncing back. "It seems that you are also eager to discuss this matter."


    "This battle is about the human race''s survival. Obviously, I should be at the very front, fighting for humanity." The pope smiled. "Though, I have never thought that we would be fighting together again."


    "That''s true. When was thest time we fought together?"


    "If you''re talking about cooperation, then it was when your grandson made some mess in Italy. But if you''re talking about the battlefield, then it was one month before my coronation as the pope and you seeded your household."


    "I see. Sixty years ago, huh. It''s been a long time, but I guess this is it." Leonardo smiled while extending his hand. "Let''s end this with a st, shall we? And we''ll have the greatest retirement ever."


    "I can''t help but agree with that." The pope smiled, shaking Leonardo''s hand.


    After a simple exchange, the two ended up walking inside. Lorenzo was speechless while staring at the person who apanied the pope. She was Erica, the pope''s disciple.


    "You are here too?" Lorenzo asked.


    "Yes. This is the battle that I can''t pass on." Erica nodded as these two walked next to each other, following the two old men. But before they were about to close the door, the pope said, "There is no need to close the door, since a little darling is about to enter."<novelsnext>�Ѧ���d�� `n?��?| ��om</novelsnext>


    "Hmm?" Lorenzo and Erica were confused, but they soon heard a feminine voiceing from the hallway.


    "I guess I can''t fool the pope."


    A couple entered the room. The female had long brown hair tied neatly on her back, while the male had the same blue hair as Theo.


    The moment they entered, the atmosphere inside the room changed. The female nced at the pope first before nodding her head as a greeting before turning to Leonardo. The guy lowered his head and called him, "Father."


    Leonardo looked at them for a while without letting out any sound. But after a while, Leonardo smiled gently at them, saying, "It seems that yourplexion has gotten better. There are a lot of things that even time can''t heal. But it seems that your problem isn''t one of them."


    The couple, who had just entered, was none other than Theo''s parents, Valerie and Ray.


    Ray looked at Leonardo with an awkward smile, saying, "I don''t know how it turns this way, but I''m eternally grateful for whatever it is that changes things like this. And this time, I''m going to apologize to you, Father. It''s due to my weakness that my family has be like this, and let my son�� your grandson suffered."


    "That apology shouldn''t be directed at me. Someone deserves it more."


    "I know. I won''t stop apologizing for my weakness. Unlike me, who were powerless against the Griffith Family in the past, Theo has passed any obstacles in his way." Ray knew that if he was Theo, he wouldn''t let his son suffer. That was why he only med himself for being weak, not the situation around him, not his wife, and not the Griffith Family.


    "I guess I don''t have to say anything more than this." Leonardo nodded before pointing at the seat next to him. "Come and sit down."


    "Yes." Ray nodded.


    It seemed that they were not the only ones that came from the union. There were two more Transcendent Level Experts.


    The first one was an old woman who Theo helped after the apocalypse. She was the Empress. She wanted to repay Theo back for everything he had done for her people. She was apanied by two people, her disciple, Alea, and her daughter, Ana.


    Alea caught the eye of Leonardo and Theo''s parents since she was close to Theo in the past. People even thought they would be together if Agata wasn''t there.


    But everything had stopped. Alea might look awkward, but there was a warrior aura emitting from her eyes as if she had cut down her emotion in order to gain strength. It seemed she had decided to pursue strength instead of love after the heartbreak.


    The other Transcendent Level Expert that came with her was the Guardian. After considering the lineup they had, it would be better to have someone that could act as a wall to protect the people. So, the Guardian was asked toe with them.


    All these people had disguised themselves and sneaked into the country with the help of the airne that Maya had given to the bank previously.


    Although they couldn''t bring a lot of people, the people that managed to sneak into this base were elites among elites. And they finally gathered in one room.

 Chapter 1983 Heroes Gather (2)

    "Hoh. It seems that everyone has gathered here." A cheerful voice echoed inside the room as the Heavenly Sovereign entered. He might be the second oldest person in this room after Leonardo, but his behavior and appearance were indeed far from his age.


    He waved his hand yfully while greeting everyone. "Hello, everyone. I don''t know if you already know me, but I''m Feng Hao. Nice to meet you."


    "��" All the people inside the room were speechless. They were simply too surprised that the Heavenly Sovereign would act like this.


    Feeling the atmosphere became awkward because of him, he couldn''t help but nce to the side, pulling someone. "Why are you standing there? Come in and greet everyone."


    "Wha��!" The other party seemed to be startled and tried to resist, but the Heavenly Sovereign ended up bringing her inside. "Master. Don''t embarrass me."


    The one he dragged was his disciple, Zhao Jia. In the end, Zhao Jia entered the room while looking down. Her face was red, ashamed of her master''s childish action.


    "Come on. You don''t have to be that serious." The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled while introducing her. "This is my disciple, Zhao Jia. Please take care of her!"


    "��" No one couldn''t say anything. No, they simply couldn''t react to the Heavenly Sovereign''s action.


    In the end, someone tried to stop him. He had just arrived and had already seen this kind of scene, making him shake his head helplessly. "What are you doing? Your disciple will have a scar for the rest of your life, you know."


    Two men entered. They were the Sword Saint and the Transcendent Level Expert that Theo once visited, the former n leader of the Shibuya n, Shibuya Tatsuo.


    Both of them were more formal and dignified as they politely bowed to them. "Nice to meet you, I''m Nasagawa Ken, and next to me is Shibuya Tatsuo."


    Seeing their action, some people couldn''t help but nod to them as if trying to follow the bowing motion.


    "We are the reinforcements from United Asia." The Heavenly Sovereign stood proudly while smirking. "Nice to meet you people from the union."


    They didn''t know what to say again with the Heavenly Sovereigning to them. In the end, they decided to sit while waiting for Theo toe.


    "Is this everyone?" The Heavenly Sovereign asked while looking around. He could see many famous people in the room, but there were only two Saints in this room, the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint.


    So, he couldn''t help but feel it was a bitcking to fight against the current enemy.


    The people knew the Mafia Queen should be in this room, but they remembered that the Mafia Queen lived far away from Theo, so she might not havee to the meeting.


    Instead of her, there were several Transcendent Level Expertsing into the room. They were none other than the Transcendent Level Experts from Theo''s group.


    "Thank you foring." As Theo''s disciple, Rea stepped forward and bowed to them. "We have sent someone to tell him about the meeting. So, he''ll being in a minute."


    The Sword Saint only smiled, looking at her. When he arrived here, Rea had told him to live with her instead of in the ce set up for them. So, he had been listening to a lot of stories from her.


    Although the training was harsh and the battle involved her life and death, it was clear that Rea never regretted bing Theo''s disciple. As a father, the Sword Saint could only smile, knowing that his daughter had found her own path.


    He didn''t disturb her since she was acting as Theo''s disciple and the vice leader of the group, not his daughter. He simply allowed her to do everything she had to do.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Ruth and Felix sat down as a pair. It seemed that their rtionship had be much closer. Although no one said it directly, they had been treating both of them as a pair.


    Meanwhile, Ava was wondering where she should sit. She wanted toe with Theo, but she knew that Theo had to lead the meeting personally, so it was better to sit somewhere else.


    That was when she found Leonardo, who seemed to be waving his hand to call her after seeing her confused expression.


    Ava jumped straight to his table while raising her paw as if greeting him.


    "It''s been a while, eh, Ava?" Leonardo smiled.


    "Yes." Ava nodded furiously.


    "We''ll be fighting together this time. Please take care of me." Leonardo chuckled while extending his finger.


    Ava held his finger as if shaking his hand before asking, "Do you mind if I sit here?"


    "Be my guest."


    While they were finding their seats, Rea looked around to see the preparation. She checked the map and all the data inputted inside, making sure it was the correct one.


    ��


    Five minutester.


    There were footsteps echoing from the hallway, rming the people inside the room. They knew that the only person who woulde thiste was none other than Theo.


    All of them turned serious, looking at the entrance and waiting for Theo to appear.


    When the people saw Theo, they couldn''t help but smile. They remembered when Theo shocked the world in the tournament. They thought he could make it big, but in the far future.


    They never expected that the weak student would manage to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in less than two decades.


    After looking at their faces one by one to confirm their number and identity, Theo politely nodded to them before finally opening his mouth.


    "Wee. I''m sure you''ve heard about the report. Currently, the enemy is marching toward us. So, this meeting will be thest meeting toe up with a n against our enemies.


    "Some of you might have conflict, some of you might be friends. But just for this battle, I hope that everyone can let go of their hatred and grudge.


    "I''m not a hero, so I won''t say this is for humanity. But it''s true that living without the rest of humans sucks, so I''d like to ask for your cooperation to save humanity."

 Chapter 1984 Last Meeting (1)

    "Since the enemy is already marching toward us, let''s skip the pleasantries and discuss how to handle them. We might not have a lot of time left." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    Theo nodded. "Indeed. Then��"


    Before Theo started, the pope interjected him. "I apologize since I have to interrupt you first. I have a question that has to be answered first before we can start. We are here after cooperating with you, but why can''t I see the government or anyone from this base? I have heard that you don''t have a good rtionship with the government. So��"


    The pope didn''t continue, but it was clear that he was worried that Theo''s grudge caused this battle far harder than it was supposed to be.


    Theo shook his head calmly. "I understand your concern. But for the time being, we have more than two-thirds of the influences within the base as our allies. I might have a grudge against the government, but it doesn''t stop me from cooperating with them. So you don''t have to worry about it.


    "For this fight, we are going to fight them with everything we''ve got. I already said earlier, let''s drop our grudge and hatred until we gain our victory."


    The pope fell silent for a moment before nodding his head. There was one more person that felt some impact from Theo''s words. She was none other than Alea.


    The heartbreak was painful to the point she resented Theo back then. But when she looked back at their rtionship, she realized that Theo wasn''t entirely at fault. It was by chance he met Agata, and it was also her fault for not taking the initiative the whole time.


    When he heard these words from Theo, Alea took a deep breath, trying to put the matter aside for now.


    After making sure that there wouldn''t be any interruption, Theo nced at Rea. "Brief us about the current situation first."


    "Yes." Rea acknowledged the instruction and immediately opened the map. There was a big red dot and dozens of red triangles in Canada, symbolizing the enemies. Meanwhile, blue triangles and a few green dots represented their sides.


    "We got the report not long ago that the monsters have started marching. However, their current pace is slow. I''m not sure about the reason. It might be their n, it might be because the force is toorge, or it might be something else. But we are currently sure about one thing.


    "If they continue at that pace, they will only reach the base six dayster. So, we can make a solid preparation before their arrival. Of course, we''ve been stationing people to monitor the situation, making sure we won''t lose track of them.


    "ording to our estimate, there are at least a few hundred thousand marching toward us directly. But if we consider how they operated before, we believe there will be at least a million monsters in total.


    "Of course, this number can''t bepared to our 250 million poption. But due to the apocalypse, a lot of fighters have died in battle. So, we only have roughly five million people if we mobilize all of them.


    "Unfortunately, with the current situation, we need at least two million to handle the stability of the base like police and other jobs.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Hence, we only have three million people spread all over the border. There were ambushes all around the base in the previous battle�� Hence, this time, we have to prepare for the same thing. We estimate�� only around two hundred thousand people will fight on the front line.


    "As for who is going to handle those ces��" Rea stopped while ncing at Theo, telling them he would be the one to decide.


    Theo nodded at her, thanking her for the briefing. "Since you have heard our current situation, before I start the meeting, I have to ask whether any of you don''t like to take any orders from me?"


    None of them voiced a single objection. They knew that Theo was the most qualified person to lead the battle. Not only was he one of the strongest people in the world, but his mind also surpassed that of the War Saint. If he was unqualified, they wouldn''t be able to find another person who was qualified for the job.


    "Thank you for your trust. I might be leading the war, but the one who handles the battle progression will be the War Saint, Leonardo Guerrero." Theo nced at his grandfather.


    They all looked at Leonardo. Theo had to fight their World ss Monsters, so there was no way Theo could lead or see everything from his position. And the War Saint was the greatestmander in this world, so it was obvious why he would be the brain of this war.


    "So, you want me to go to the military?" The War Saint asked.


    "No. We are establishing two headquarters." Theo shook his head.


    This statement confused the people. Theo had said that they would be cooperating with the government, so it was weird to establish two headquarters. It felt like Theo still held the grudge.


    There were only four people who recognized Theo''s reasons for making two headquarters. They were Leonardo, Valerie, Rea, and Feng Hao.


    Leonardo frowned while confirming his doubt. "So, it''s stability and speed."


    "!!!" The people widened their eyes, never expecting Leonardo to ept it instead of rebuking his grandson.


    "Yes." Theo nodded with a smile. "The government will be the headquarters to handle the stability of the battle. Meanwhile, our headquarters shall be the one to react in case of emergency. We need to create two headquarters for one reason."


    "The spies��" Leonardo narrowed his eyes, having a headache thinking about them. He couldn''t understand why people still tried to do something like this when humanity''s survival was at stake.


    "Yes. We all don''t like spies, but we can''t find them either. That''s why the second headquarters is there," Theo answered their doubt before continuing the exnation. "Alright. We shall move on to the details��"

 Chapter 1985 Last Meeting (2)

    "We are going to set up the line." Theo snapped his fingers. Suddenly, three lines of different colors appeared on the map. It wasn''t something added previously, it was just Theo improvising with his illusion.


    The first line was the outer line which was red in color. "The red line is the danger zone. Basically, it''s where we take on their World ss Monsters, including the slime. Since the slime is moving slower than the rest of the monsters, we can set up an ambush after the rest of the monsters pass this line.


    "The green line is the safest line, which is the nearest line to the base. This line will be the battlefield against the normal monsters. We are going to station the normal army in this line.


    "As for the line between them, the yellow line�� it''s going to act as a buffer. As all of you know that the battle against the World ss Monster would be bigger than anyone can imagine; if we fight in the green line, many will die from our attacks. So, this yellow line will act as a buffer to contain our power.


    "So, we''re going to station the Transcendent Level Experts in this area to take on their King ss Monsters. There are going to be a lot, so you might need to use our attacks to kill your opponents.


    "You don''t have to turn every attack into an opportunity. Just take something you can endure. After all, you would be outnumbered by the enemies, so it''s better to prioritize your safety. These are the three basic battlefields that I''m going to set up. Is there any objection?" Theo asked.


    Suddenly, the Empress raised her hand, asking, "I just want to confirm my doubt. Are we still going to protect all borders when we''re already stretched thin?"


    "Absolutely." Theo nodded without hesitation.


    "But won''t this cause our main army to be outnumbered greatly?"


    "Of course, I understand that. That''s why we are going to change the battlefield a little bit." Theo pointed at the map and zoomed it out, showing the base''s map. He then stretched the green line all over the base. "This will be the situation when the enemies arrive.


    "Normally, the enemies would have to spread out to attack our base. In addition, in the previous battle, we failed to kill all the monsters. This would only mean one thing�� They''re hiding and waiting for the big battle to happen before ambushing our base.


    "Thus, I''m nning to set up an ambush for them." Theo pointed at the map, specifically the right side of the base. He formed a small green dot to show and said, "There will be a separate elite group that will sweep away those monsters and travel from one battlefield to another."


    "Hmm?" Everyone frowned, not understanding what Theo said. On the one hand, they were already stretched thin, so it was impossible to arrange another army filled with elites. On the other hand, Theo didn''t seem to be joking.


    "What do you mean? I have seen all the reports and base situations. I don''t think there is another army that you can use to kill those monsters��" The War Saint couldn''t help but frown, questioning Theo.


    "I do have one army." Theo smiled. "They are numbered two thousand. All of them are elites who have survived the brutal apocalypse for a few years without the protection of a base. They even have three Transcendent Level Experts to lead them, so killing those monsters shouldn''t be that hard, right?"


    "!!!" Everyone widened their eyes in shock. Although they had heard about Theo raising someone''s level to Transcendent, they had never heard anything about the additional three Transcendent Level Experts from Theo''s group.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The War Saint thought it was an army from outside, but there was supposed to be no more army near the base. After all, the nearest one who had that kind of strength was the Mafia Queen, who had already joined the base.


    "This is��" The War Saint narrowed his eyes. "Who are those three experts?"


    "I''m not going to tell you right now. You just have to know that there is a separate army to handle that matter." Theo shook his head calmly.


    Leonardo was a bit confused. There was no reason why Theo hid this information. After all, additional three Transcendent Level Experts would be great to the yellow line, so why would he do something like this? And where did that armye from?


    Leonardo muttered, "If there is an army like you said, they should be able to kill those monsters. There is a chance for some unique monsters or even King ss Monsters to hide among those monsters, so having three Transcendent Level Experts will be reassuring.


    "And by not telling us about their information, it seems that you''re nning to hide this army from us and the slime. I see, it seems that the army is from the outside. I don''t know how you get them, but what matters is that they are useful." Leonardo nodded, giving his approval. "Though, you should know that we''re vastly outnumbered, right?"


    "I know you are worried about the yellow line. After all, there are only a handful of Transcendent Level Experts on our side. Even if we add the Transcendent Level Experts from the union and United Asia, it''s still not enough. Even if we stretch it, they might be able to handle thirty King ss Monsters at most.


    "However, you forget one thing. We do have an advantage." Theo smirked while raising his finger.


    "An advantage?"


    "Yes. We outnumber them in one area." Theo smiled confidently before pausing to create some suspense.


    Some of them exchanged looks, wondering about the answer. But as one would expect from the War Saint.


    After listening to Theo, calcting his words, and thinking about the possibility, he managed to find out the reason for Theo''s confidence. He said with a serious expression. "We outnumber their World ss Monsters."


    "!!!" All of them looked at the War Saint in surprise.


    Meanwhile, Theo smirked as if he knew his grandfather would catch on. "Exactly so."

 Chapter 1986 Last Meeting (3)

    "Exactly so." Theo smirked.


    The War Saint''s expression turned grim. "I haven''t asked you about this, but how many people at your level are going to fight from both sides?"


    The War Saint asked for both sides because he knew what kind of terrifying being the slime was. He had to be careful and consider their side as well.


    Theo nodded. "I don''t know if you are already aware of this or not, but there are three parties that will join the war this time."


    "I know. We, the slime, and the old Griffith Family." Leonardo nodded in understanding as if he had known this much.


    But when he mentioned the old Griffith Family, all their eyes were locked on the new Griffith Family, specifically Valerie and Ray.


    Although they knew that the old and new Griffith Families were enemies, it didn''t change the fact that they were the ''Griffith'' Family.


    "There is a reason why I''m giving them an opportunity to use the airne to reach this base. I''m sure they are already here and currently hiding somewhere. But they won''t be making their moves just yet.


    "They will be focusing on me because I''m currently the biggest threat to them. Instead of letting them run rampant in other ces, it''s better to bring them here and solve the problem once and for all."


    Hearing the exnation, Leonardo sighed and agreed with him. "I guess it''s better than to let them attack the union."


    "Yeah. From their sides, there should be three people we should prioritize. The first one would be the other me, who has the Devouring Power. The second one would be my grandfather, the Magic Saint. And thest one is none other than the Fist Saint. He should be trying to kill me as well after that grudge."


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but tease him, "Don''t you think this battle will be easier if you don''t make them your enemy?"


    Theo had expected this kind of question, so he replied with an answer he had prepared before. The answer came in the form of a question. "Don''t you think you are lucky that I''m on your side and not theirs?"


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t say anything after that. As he said, if Theo didn''t make them his enemy, it meant he would lose to them. If they were on their side, there was no telling whether humanity could survive or not.


    And everyone acknowledged the fact that despite the Heavenly Sovereign holding the second rank as the strongest person in the world, Theo would be a bigger headache to deal with.


    When they weighed Theo and the Old Griffith Family, they still believed Theo was much heavier than those three.


    Theo raised his finger. "There is something we shouldn''t forget. Their aim is me. They want to kill me and reinstate the previous Griffith Family so that they can rule the world. They obviously don''t want humanity to lose."


    "Are you saying you can turn them into our allies?"


    "Of course not." Theo chuckled. "I''m just telling you that they might be our enemies, but they will surely not cooperate with the slime. This means there remain three sides for the rest of the battle, which is a big advantage for us. Although the other me is not as good as me in terms of nning, it doesn''t change the fact that we are still the same person. It will be more troublesome if the other me creates a n for the slime, don''t you think so?"


    They couldn''t help but agree with Theo''s exnation.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Seeing there was no more objection, Theo continued with his exnation. "Hence, the first side will have three�� I''m just going to call them Saints at this point. On the other hand, the slime''s side will have the slime itself along with multiple World ss Monsters.


    "I don''t know their exact number, but the slime itself can be counted as four or five Saints on our side easily. So, we should expect another three World ss Monsters at the very least."


    "Hmm? So, three Saints from the Griffith Family and eight Saints from the slime�� This is tricky. Do we have those many saints on our side?" Leonardo frowned while ncing at the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "I don''t know. Though, I don''t think we''recking, right?" The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged before pushing the question to Theo.


    "Yes. Since the Griffith Family is aiming for me, I and my clone will handle the other me and my grandfather. You can say that this is the Griffith Family''s matter, so it''s better if I destroy the Griffith Family that has been guing my life this whole time." Theo stopped for a moment to see if there was someone who wanted to fight them.


    But it seemed that they didn''t want to get involved in this matter. Even Ray could only agree to this solution since he wasn''t strong enough to handle those two.


    "As for the Fist Saint, I''m going to leave it in your hand, Sword Saint."


    "I''m going to fight the muscle brain, huh. Sure, that''s fine." The Sword Saint nodded.


    Theo then pointed at the Heavenly Sovereign, "You are going to handle the slime."


    "Sure. Though, with who?" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, feeling excited that he was going to fight the strongest foe.


    "Obviously, the Time God has to remain inside the base for the time being until we have cleared the spies. So, the Time God will fight with you after some time. But before that, you will be apanied by the God of Mischief."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes while the rest was confused. They must have misheard Theo.


    Seeing their shocked faces, Theo confirmed it. "Do you think I''m the only one pulling the strings?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign had expected this, but he never thought the God of Mischief surpassed his imagination. "He is still alive?"


    "From what I know, there are two people who survived that incident."


    "Let me guess, the mastermind and the one who guides the soul after everyone dies��"


    "Exactly." Theo smiled while giving a big invitation to the Heavenly Sovereign. "I''m going to let you meet him after he reaches this ce. Those two and the Time God, do you think you are still at a disadvantage against the slime?"


    "You know how to make me excited, ain''t you?!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.

 Chapter 1987 Last Meeting (4)

    Theo nodded. "As for the details, he will be the one exining it to you."


    "Understood. I''m curious about the relics of the past. To think I would be so lucky that I could meet such a person during my lifetime." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    Other people were confused. They wondered what these two were talking about.


    Theo mentioned the God of Mischief, but they had never heard anything about this person. The fact that he was helping the Heavenly Sovereign to handle the slime meant the God of Mischief was extremely powerful.


    Then again, the Heavenly Sovereign said he was the relic of the past. They tried to make the connection between the information they had just received and arrived at a pretty bizarre conclusion.


    The Sword Saint couldn''t help but ask, "The God of Mischief in your mouth�� Is he the God of Mischief in Norse Mythology?"


    The Sword Saint, one of the closest people to the Heavenly Sovereign, had obviously heard the Heavenly Sovereign mentioning something simr. So, he was the first one to ask.


    Theo looked at him for a moment before nodding his head. "I guess it''s time to tell you about the other world. I can''t say much, but I certainly can tell you some of the information that you might know nothing about."


    Theo raised his hand and formed two balls next to each other. "The red ball is the other world where monsters roam, while the blue one is our version of Earth.


    "I''m not sure you''ve heard about Ragnarok, the event that ends the age of God, but I''m not going to exin it to you. Just think of this Ragnarok as the beginning point.


    "After the age of God ended, the living almost went extinct. To avoid that, the God of Mischief and a few other Gods and Goddesses formed a copy of that world, which is the we''re living on right now.


    "Some humans were transported to this world to reproduce while the other races, whose resilience was stronger than humans, stayed in that world. That''s the beginning of this world and the other world and why we have a lot of mythologies along with the reason for the other world to be filled with monsters.


    "When the apocalypse urred, the pirs that supported the two worlds copsed. The two worlds began to fuse. However, as you know that after thousands of years, the two worlds have be two separate entities. When they fused, they rejected each other. As a result, only a portion of them was fused.


    "I''m pretty sure you have seen a lot of new things after the apocalypse. There are a lot of nts and monstersing into this world, including the monster that we''re about to face right now."


    "��" The people fell silent, falling into deep thought. Some of them gasped as if they had just known such an important secret about their world. They never thought that their world was not a real world but only a copy.


    Then again, they perfectly witnessed how a clone worked his way up to the point he became the dominant one.


    Thinking about it, they could somehow understand why their world fused with the other world, but the monsters were teleported to this world instead of the other way around.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Sword Saint frowned and muttered, "So, the slime has be our problem because of the apocalypse��"


    "Well, I wouldn''t put it that way. Take a look at the previous problems. The radiation from a nuclear power nt, the trash we had thrown away, and even the current slime��"


    "Hmm?" The Sword Saint''s body shook. "Now that I think about it, we have used nukes in the past when we fight against the monsters��"


    "Yes. In the past, we''ve brought radiation to the other world. And after a while, we have also started dumping some trash into the ocean in another world. The monsters have been evolving due to our interference.


    "The slime is included in one of the changes we brought." Theo closed his eyes for a moment before saying, "I''m not sure how the slime was exactly created, but the slime was surely made of nuke, chemicals, and trash. The slime must have mutated to the point it created its current power�� the ability to dissolve everything."


    The people sucked a cold breath. They wanted to rebuke him, but Theo was merely stating the fact. So, they couldn''t really say anything about all those facts.


    In other words, the one who actually created the monster was them. The monsters in the other world had been putting up a fight to suppress those problems, but after the apocalypse, the monsters they''d created came to bite them.


    They looked at each other, realizing that this was their problem the entire time.


    Theo looked at them with a serious expression. "That''s why I have to say this to all of you. No matter the circumstances, we have to kill the slime. If we don''t kill the slime right now, the slime will keep expanding and dissolve everything. His strength will eventually reach a level where he can dissolve everything on this."


    There was something that Leonardo realized from this story. His expression turned grim just from imagining it.


    "Wait a moment. Lorenzo has a Space Ability. Now that I think about it, you also had a problem with a spy during the previous war where explosions suddenly urred within the army. I don''t think that''s the work of the spy. I think��" Leonardo looked at Lorenzo.


    Of course, he wasn''t suspecting Lorenzo, considering the other party was in the union the whole time. He suspected there was another person with Space Ability.


    Theo shook his head and said, "You don''t have to worry about that. I can assure you that it''s not a Space Ability."


    "How are you so sure?" Leonardo frowned. "I mean, Lorenzo has the ability to do it easily. So, a Space Element user should be able to do it without anyone noticing."


    Theo replied with a smile. "That''s because the reason why I was absent in the previous war was because I had a cooperation with the Space Saint."

 Chapter 1988 Last Meeting (5)

    "Space Saint?" They widened their eyes, never expecting to find another Saint.


    Theo exined, "I''ve helped him in creating a tunnel to return to the other world. And after helping him, he confirmed there was no trace of Space Ability.


    "And I''m sure that the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign could confirm if there is a Transcendent Level Expert or King ss Monster with the same power as we do, right?"


    The two Saints nodded their heads. It meant the Space Saint had confirmed that not only did the enemy not use any Space Ability, but he also confirmed that there was no King ss Monster or Transcendent Level Expert whose Order was rted to Space.


    This meant there was no threat where that person used the Space Element to teleport the slime to a convenient location.


    "Have I answered your question?" Theo asked.


    Leonardo nodded with a serious expression. "Still, this is a little bit too much for us to take right now. Never in our wildest dream would we think the truth is something like this."


    "Well, that''s all I can tell you. I hope that there''s no question regarding the world and the God of Mischief since I can''t answer more than that for better or worse." Theo sighed in disappointment.


    They were surely curious about the whole picture. But they couldn''t help but feel ashamed that a young man like him was able to discover something they had never thought about. It wasn''t that he was a genius in researching history. It was his brilliance that allowed him to find out the truth.


    "If that''s the case, I''m going to continue with my question regarding the World ss Monsters. You mentioned there would be multiple World ss Monsters on the slime''s side, right? So, who is going to deal with them? Is this the reason why you''ve hidden the Mafia Queen this whole time?"


    "!!!" They almost forgot that the Mafia Queen hadn''t joined the battle this whole time under Theo''s request. It was truly a clever way to hide a trump card. But if the spy was among the high ranking people in the base, the spy would surely know about the Mafia Queen''s existence.


    Although it was good to know that the Mafia Queen could stop one of the World ss Monsters, it wouldn''t be as surprising either.


    However, Theo actually shook his head as if denying such a great n. "Sorry, but I''m not nning to make the Mafia Queen handle a World ss Monster. Instead, she will be protecting the base."


    "Huh? The base?" The Sword Saint frowned while Leonardo exined, "I see. The Mafia Queen''s strength can''t bepared to the Time God. So, instead of having the Time God protect the base, it''ll be better if the Mafia Queen does it.


    "The Mafia Queen is the world''s strongest enchanter. She is good at working with multiple people, but it doesn''t mean anything at the scale we''re facing right now.


    "So, it''s better to enhance the people around him so that they can be three times stronger, enabling us to protect the base with fewer people."


    Theo smirked as if confirming his exnation. He added, "You forget something. The enemies are expecting her toe out as my trump card as well."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "By doing that, we can trick them and gain some advantages." Leonardo nodded in understanding. "As expected, you love this kind of battle��"


    Theo smiled. "I''m going to handle the talk with the Time God."


    "Sure. Though, you haven''t answered the question yet. Who will be handling at least three World ss Monsters�� Even if the Time Godes out, he will have to fight the slime��"


    Theo raised three fingers. "I know. I have been thinking about it. The Slime might be able to fight against multiple Saints, but will he be able to fight someone above that level?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Wait a minute." The Heavenly Sovereign''s eyes shed. "Don''t tell me, he is��"


    Theo smirked. "Yes. That''s why I''m nning to have the Goddess of Death handle one of the World ss Monsters first. Although it looks like there will only be the two of you to handle the slime, it should be enough, right?"


    "Well, if that''s truly the case, I''m going to support him. But I''ll have to talk to him first, you know��" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "Of course. Anyway, the other two World ss Monsters shall be handled by the Lightning Saint and the Dark Saint. You should have seen the Dark Saint already."


    "Is he the King ss Monster that helped the base before?" Leonardo asked with a frown.


    "Yeah. He has reached the next level. Although he is still new to this strength, he should be able to hold back a World ss Monster until one of us is free.


    "As for the Lightning Saint, it''s basically Ava''s teacher. He is the World ss Monster that rules the territory on the other side of Italy before the apocalypse. He has agreed to fight against the slime, and my rtionship with him is also good, so I''m sure that he wille."


    "I see. Those are the three��" The Heavenly Sovereign looked down, contemting. He had been trying to figure out the situation through his special eyes. But this one was already beyond his prediction.


    He thought for a moment and asked, "I don''t think there will be a lot of problems regarding the red line. There might be some adjustments needed when the actual fight happened, but as long as we maintained ourmunication, such a change could easily be done.


    "All that is left is the yellow line. This is an important line that has to keep standing no matter what."


    "Yeah. For the time being, we have a lot of people here who can fight against King ss Monsters. As for their positioning, please take a look at the map." Theo showed their positions with the help of the map instead of exining everything.

 Chapter 1989 Last Meeting (Last Part)

    The people were paying attention to the positioning attentively. Some were confused and some didn''t agree, but the one who could see through Theo''s positioning was none other than Leonardo, the War Saint.


    He managed to grasp Theo''s intention.


    "It seems that you have thought it through." Leonardo sighed, feeling defeated.


    Theo smiled.


    Both of them were staring at each other. When Leonardo saw the positioning, he ran a couple of simtions to attack Theo. But most of the simtions ended up in his failure.


    "You know that the Guardian is the best in deflecting any residual power, so you position him a bit farther back. But because his power is focused on defense, you station this cute rabbit near him so that she can help when they''re pushed back.


    "That alone is already enough, but to think you would station another King ss Monster near him�� The Shadow King is it?"


    Theo nodded. "Yes. She has infiltrated Italy a couple of times in the past, yet, no humans spotted her. So, it''s clear that her strength is good and she is the most flexible one."


    "Though, I don''t understand why you would ce two King ss Monsters near him. I trust the King ss Monsters you trust and even one of them is sitting here with us. It''s just�� I don''t understand�� Are you underestimating humans so much?" Leonardo asked.


    "No. The answer lies in your position to be honest."


    "Hmm?" Leonardo frowned and looked at his position which happened to be near Ava and Felix. "Wait a minute�� Don''t tell me, you''re nning to let me go all out because I have this little rabbit and your right hand man��"


    "Yes." Theo nodded. "Your power as a Transcendent Level Expert is necessary to stop those King ss Monsters. But your ability tomand the army is also exceptionally good.


    "The more time passes, the more variables influence the battlefield. That''s why I''m trying to have Agata handle our headquarters for a while. After you have used most of your power, you are to return to the headquarters andmand the army."


    "By doing that, the scent of the battlefield will change since themander has changed. It will cause the enemies to be unable to predict what''s going on anymore. In addition, Agata learned her skills from you, which happened to be extremely different from my fighting style. This will confuse the enemies.


    "Besides, your skill is a bit risky even though the result is quite good. We can employ such a strategy during the first phase of the war because we still have the energy and people to do so. Meanwhile, my style is more conservative. The result might not be as good as you, but I give a solid foundation for our army. It suits the mid phase of the battle.


    "Once I have consolidated themand, I should have rested enough to return to the battlefield during thest phase of the battle. This will be time to clean up the battlefield while giving themand back to Agata."


    When they heard Leonardo''s exnation, they couldn''t help but gasp. To think Theo put such a thought into his n. It was true that they would be confused if they fought Theo and without realizing it, they would have lost.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The reason why Felix, Ava, and the Shadow King were near the edge of the yellow line was so that they could cover up those two in case something happened.


    And since each of them would need to fight a few King ss Monsters by themselves, having strong fighters near them would give them some assurance.


    "��" Leonardo looked at the rest of the positions before nodding his head. It seemed that Theo didn''t need anyone to correct him anymore.


    When they ran a simtion in the past, Theo would have won half of the matches. But this time, Leonardo believed that he would be lucky if he could win against Theo just once every ten matches.


    Aside from the pope who was handling the injured, the rest were expected to fight their respective enemies.


    Still, it didn''t change the fact that they would be facing many King ss Monsters to the point they didn''t know whether they could even survive or not.


    "As for the King ss Monsters, we will be assisting you with our turrets." Theo nced at Rea and nodded his head.


    Rea immediately showed two turrets that had been reinforced by multiple high ranking materials. Even the bullets were specially made.


    Theo smiled, presenting them with their turrets. These turrets were hidden the whole time since Theo used his illusion to crush these turrets.


    "These turrets have been reinforced further. If you remember the powerful turrets that used to reinforce the cities on the other side, you could think of these as the improved version. If normal turrets could barely hurt a King ss Monster, this turret could definitely injure the King ss Monster hit by the bullets.


    "The bullets are made of at least Rank A Materials. As for the turrets, we have mixed one S Rank Material in order to improve its power. And you don''t have to worry about the bullets as well, we have made enough for them tost at least six hours when firing continuously.


    "We are going to grind down the enemies with these turrets. So, we can say that the Transcendent Level Experts have an important role since they will have to watch out for the attacks from the Saints and the turrets. But the faster we solve the yellow line, the faster we can end this war."


    Theo stated it clearly that he was nning to win no matter how disadvantageous their position was.


    He looked at them for a moment and asked, "Are there any questions?"


    None of them raised their hands. Even Leonardo was satisfied with the general n that would decide the oue of the war.


    "Since no one is raising any objections, I''m going to give you the detailed tasks." Theo smiled.

 Chapter 1990 Shock?

    The detailed tasksted for a while, considering there were a lot of details that had to be discussed. Still, everyone was satisfied because they knew Theo had put a lot of thought into the n.


    They might be at a great disadvantage, but they could see a ray of light where they could achieve victory. None of them thought they were going to lose the war.


    That was why no one raised an objection to Theo''s tasks.


    At the end of the meeting, Theo said, "That''s all. Please make your own preparation for the uing war. We have talked to the government about the deployment and we''ll be waiting for their soldiers to arrive."


    Theo gently bowed his head to them as if asking for their help. This was a battle they couldn''t lose. Even that bow was unnecessary, considering it decided their own survival as well.


    But it seemed that Theo did it for a reason. They could only see Theo do it before leaving the room.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes before smiling. "That guy is amazing, isn''t he?"


    Zhao Jia sighed. "Sorry that I can''t be someone like him."


    "You don''t have to worry about that. He simply belongs to a world no one has seen before. You are already perfect for me. With your ability, I don''t doubt you can seed in my position in the future. So, keep fighting." The Heavenly Sovereign smiled while patting her shoulder before rising from his seat as if he was about to leave.


    "Where are you going?"


    "Bathroom!" The Heavenly Sovereign jokingly said while leaving the room before anyone else.


    "��" Zhao Jia was stunned as she couldn''t say anything to her master when he became like this.


    So, she decided to look at the rest. As expected, they were overwhelmed by Theo''s strategy.


    Leonardo and Ava seemed to be having a good time. They always met whenever he visited Theo''s mansion, so their rtionship was quite good.


    On the other side, she saw the pope greeting the Empress.


    "To think you woulde too��" The pope smiled.


    "So, you don''t expect me toe?" The Empress narrowed her eyes as if she was feeling annoyed. How could she not be annoyed? Her disciple had a broken heart due to Theo, yet, thetter saved their lives. She didn''t know how to express her feelings after all this.


    Alea, Ana, and Erica were staring at each other. Erica was still using her blindfold like the pope. However, it didn''t hide the concern she had for Alea. Even Ana was worried that Alea would be overwhelmed after all that.


    Theo had done his best to act like nothing happened. He should have time to greet a past friend, but it would just make things awkward. In addition, Theo was their current suprememander, so it was best not to add more variables into the mix.


    Even Alea understood it. After the heartbreak, she had been swinging her sword nonstop. Due to the apocalypse, she almost lost all her family.


    Just like Phyrill, Theo had given them a prior warning before the apocalypse happened.


    She had been on the receiving end this whole time. So, she knew that it was impossible to stay beside Theo.


    Hence, she chose to put away her feelings and enhance her ability even further. In the past, she looked cheerful, energetic, and kind. Now that they had met again, Alea only had a serious face the whole time. It looked like even Heracles'' teaching couldn''t make her return to her previous self.


    When she saw the concern, Alea politely bowed to her and said, "Thank you for your concern, but I don''t need it. I know that we would be in two different worlds after that time�� And I have moved on from that. Instead of focusing on the past, it''s better to focus on the future, right?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Alea made a wry smile. It looked like she hadn''t smiled for a long time to the point her smile looked forced.


    In the end, they couldn''t do anything.


    ��


    While they were discussing the battles or reminiscing about the past, the Heavenly Sovereign knew his priority. He was curious about the God of Mischief.


    Although Theo had told him that they would meet at ater date, he couldn''t help but go to Theo to ask about him.


    He chased after Theo right away and stopped him in the middle of the hallway.


    "Yo!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. It was clear what he wanted from his expression alone.


    "I believe I have told you that you''ll meet him at ater date��" Theo sighed, knowing the Heavenly Sovereign''s personality.


    "Of course. But I''m a bit curious, you see�� I have a little request and want to see whether you can help me or not��" The Heavenly Sovereign put his hands together as if begging Theo.


    "Let me guess�� Knowing your personality, you want to fight him. Am I right?"


    "You are one thousand percent correct!" The Heavenly Sovereign nodded furiously.


    "��" Theo sighed. "That''s not something I would rmend."


    "Then, how about telling me the rank above Mythical Rank?"


    "��" Theo paused for a moment before shaking his head. "Even I don''t know what''s the difference between Mythical Rank and the one above it. I haven''t reached that stage yet, you know."


    "Hmm? Haven''t? Yet?" The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes. "Don''t tell me��"


    "Ah, you don''t know about it? The reason why I was away this whole time was because I was raising my level, you know." Theo smiled.


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock. "Then, your level��"


    "Should I tell you�� What should I do, I wonder��" Theo yfully replied, teasing the Heavenly Sovereign.


    "Come on�� But looking at your smug, I don''t think you are that far away from that rank��"


    "You can think so. Though, I don''t know if I can reach that rank on time." Theo shook his head helplessly. "NO. I''ll definitely reach that rank during the war. That''s the only way to win."


    The Heavenly Sovereign gasped. He never thought the true trump card was actually Theo''s level.


    He wondered how many things Theo had hidden the whole time. But the biggest shock in his life came three dayster.


    "Eh?" The Heavenly Sovereign looked confused as he was actually looking at the blue sky. In the corner of his eyes stood the God of Mischief, saying, "You''re too young to challenge me, rookie."

 Chapter 1991 Eh?

    While the others were preparing for the iing battle, the Heavenly Sovereign finally had his wishe true.


    He was following Theo to the meeting point where he could meet the God of Mischief.


    As expected, the God of Mischief used the airne to travel. In addition, the Goddess of Death wasn''t the only person to apany him on this trip. The two children that Theo saved previously also visited the base.


    Even Theo was stupefied when he heard the report. After all, this war was bigger than anything humankind had faced before. If they didn''t manage to win, the entire humanity would go extinct.


    Although he admitted that Lyrventh''s hearing was useful in this battle, he wondered if he should let the kid enter the war.


    Though, they would confirm it at the end of this meeting.


    The ce chosen by the God of Mischief was a huge field with nothing on it. There were no trees, boulders, or buildings. It was close to the border, but they were outside the border.


    It seemed that the God of Mischief had known that the Heavenly Sovereign wanted to fight, so he chose this field to meet him as they might need to have a little spar before discussing their n.


    Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign were walking on the field while looking at the horizon, wondering whether those four had arrived or not.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they weren''t that hard to find. The God of Mischief had set up a small tent in the middle of the field, covering them from the heat.


    He was sitting in front of the tent, wearing a thin white shirt and short pants. If he blended with the people in the base, no one would have realized he was the God of Mischief.


    On his side stood the Goddess of Death. She normally served him as a daughter, but this time, she was upied with the two children. It seemed she was the one in charge of their education.


    Considering the God of Mischief''s personality, they would surely have a better future with the Goddess of Death.


    It seemed that Lyrventh had found them for a while since he only nced to the side when the footsteps reached the range of normal vision as if trying to warn the others.


    Lydia immediately followed his vision while the Goddess of Death didn''t even bother to look as if she already knew they wereing from miles away.


    The God of Mischief smiled. It seemed he was amused by the aura that the Heavenly Sovereign was releasing. It was clear that the Heavenly Sovereign was trying to challenge him.


    Theo also noticed the aura, but since there was no killing intent mixed in it, he didn''t bother to stop him. The God of Mischief knew that the Heavenly Sovereign only wanted to know the gap between their strength.


    So, there was no hard feeling between them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign arrived in front of them, the God of Mischief also stood up, looking up and down as if he was trying to measure his ability.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled and politely greeted him. "I am Feng Hao. It''s my honor to meet the famous God of Mischief. I never thought that you were the one behind Theo and still alive today. It''s truly amazing. I can''t describe how I feel right now."


    The Heavenly Sovereign extended his hand, asking for a handshake.


    "Is that so? So, you are the current generation of Elements��" The God of Mischief smiled and shook his hand.


    The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled. "As expected of the God of Mischief, you have even known about it. I guess your ability is not rusty at all after all these years��"


    "Of course." The God of Mischief maintained his smile.


    Both of them suddenly fell silent and stared into each other''s eyes. It seemed that they were judging each other''s ability from the handshake. Theo knew that they were using their strength to crush each other''s hands even though their faces remained unchanged.


    It seemed that the Heavenly Sovereign had to make the first move since the other party didn''t intend to take him seriously. He nced to the side and saw the Goddess of Death standing in front of the two kids, so he knew they would be fine even if he released his power here.


    Without hesitation, the Heavenly Sovereign released his Magic Power. As expected of the rank 2 in the world, the amount of Magic Power he had in his body was truly ridiculous. The Magic Power alone formed a crushing pressure that pinned them to the ground.


    The God of Mischief felt the Magic Power and smiled, "It seems that you are pretty strong for someone from this era. I can see why you are number two in the world."


    "I am the number two because I have never fought that guy. Who knows�� I mighte on top if I fight him." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    "Is that so? Unfortunately, that''s impossible. You will have to be satisfied with being the number two." The God of Mischief shook his head helplessly.


    "Huh? Do you think I''m not qualified to challenge him?"


    "No. I''m simply saying that with your current level, you should be satisfied with number two. After all, if I''m second, no one can im the first." The God of Mischief smirked. He was telling him that the Time God was insignificant to him instead of the rivalry between the Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God.


    "Is that so? Then I hope that Sir God of Mischief could give me your guidance. I would like to see the power of the God of Mischief who survived through many eras."


    "Is that so? I would like to show you my power, but you have to stand up first. I can''t fight you if you are just lying on the ground." The God of Mischief made a calm smile.


    "Eh?" The Heavenly Sovereign blinked his eyes for a split second. And the next thing he realized, he was already lying down on the ground, looking at the sky.

 Chapter 1992 Defeat

    "Eh?" The Heavenly Sovereign was stupefied because he didn''t feel any change in his body before he suddenly fell down like this.


    The God of Mischief smiled and said, "You''re too young to challenge me, rookie."


    The Heavenly Sovereign suddenly realized something as he hurriedly utilized his Magic Power to crush the area. He knew this must be an illusion.


    But to his surprise, nothing changed. The Heavenly Sovereign knew that the God of Mischief was an expert in illusion.


    Even so, his power should still be effective against the illusion. So, the fact that his power couldn''t do anything to the illusion meant they were in reality this whole time.


    "No, wait a minute. Don''t tell me, I have been in the illusion this whole time? And I finally return to reality?" The Heavenly Sovereign gasped.


    He didn''t know since when he entered the God of Mischief''s illusion. He might have entered even before reaching this ce.


    And without him knowing, his body was already lying on the ground. But due to the God of Mischief using his illusion to make him feel like he was still standing, he didn''t realize that he had been defeated before they had fought.


    Theo looked away, knowing this would happen. He once fought the God of Mischief and something simr happened.


    The moment he entered his consciousness, Theo was already under the God of Mischief''s illusion. He didn''t realize until the God of Mischief showed him everything.


    "This��" The Heavenly Sovereign was amazed. This was a different way of controlling illusion. His skill might be simr to Theo, but his Authority and the way to utilize it were different from Theo.


    Theo was a master of Reality. He formed or changed everything in reality while the God of Mischief controlled the illusion world, so of course, they were different.


    The God of Mischief smiled, knowing that the Heavenly Sovereign had dropped his guard down.


    "You have dropped your guard, youngd." The God of Mischief smiled while extending his hand as if trying to help him to get up.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign was speechless. Normally, if someone dared to do this to him, he would be angry and fight that person until he won. But the other party was the God of Mischief.


    He had to let go of his feelings for the time being and reached his hand. Though, he was still childish enough to add, "I didn''t drop my guard!"


    "I''m not talking about the first exchange�� I''m talking about now��" The God of Mischief smiled.


    In that instant, the Heavenly Sovereign felt all the blood rushing into his head. His vision was covered with sand and his body was trying to fall down as they were fighting gravity.


    It didn''t take him a second to realize his body was already upside down. He was stunned. The God of Mischief actually told him that he dropped his guard when he was confused about what happened. At that time, he already fell into his illusion.


    He realized that he had been toyed with by the God of Mischief two times.


    "This��" The Heavenly Sovereign sucked a cold breath. "Truly amazing."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He tried to stand up by himself while looking at the God of Mischief. "I never thought there would be a day where I was toyed with twice."


    "You sure it''s twice?" Loki smirked.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign''s body shook. This time, he had already made sure that nothing escaped his senses anymore.


    And by the time he thought there was no illusion, Loki chuckled and said yfully, "Haha, of course, it''s only twice. I''m not nning to do it more than two times�� What? Do you want to do it again? Maybe you get a reward after falling into my illusion three times?"


    The Heavenly Sovereign was sure that there was no more illusion. But the very thought itself might be an illusion to confuse him.


    "Ahaha�� I''ve lost." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed. He knew that it was too much to fight the God of Mischief without preparation. His ability was already hard to understand without fighting him once. And if he tried to challenge him again after the God of Mischief had forced him to think about the endless loop of illusion, he would only embarrass himself. "I''m convinced that I can''t fight you like this. It''s my defeat."


    "Is that so? I''m going to give you your reward then." The God of Mischief smiled before forming a broken te. "Here you go, your prize. A broken te."


    "Ehm�� What?" The Heavenly Sovereign was startled and looked at the te. Never in his wildest dream would he think about an ordinary thing if the God of Mischief were to give him something. But no matter how hard he observed it, it was just an ordinary broken te.


    "Wait a minute. When did I fall into your illusion?" The Heavenly Sovereign frowned, thinking it wasn''t fair.


    At the same time, the God of Mischief''s body started to glitch as his real appearance was revealed.


    "Huh?" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock, finding no difference in their appearance.


    He was confused. But he soon realized what the God of Mischief did.


    "Wait a minute�� You are talking about how your appearance has been�� changed? No, it''s not changed, but it has been covered by an illusion as me falling into your illusion?"


    "Nope." The God of Mischief snapped his finger and a small card appeared on top of him.


    Name: Loki Laufeyson (God of Gambler)


    "God of Gambler?"


    "I just changed the world''s system for a bit to change my nickname as God of Gambler instead of the original one."


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign''s eyebrows twitched, annoyed. This was something he couldn''t see or feel, so why would he have to be considered to fall into his illusion?


    "This�� I don''t think this is fair." The Heavenly Sovereign tried to appeal.


    But in that instant, Loki''s expression became serious as he red at the Heavenly Sovereign as if he didn''t like the appeal. "Why do you think this is not fair? You can''t realize it? If you can''t realize this, you will end up dying in the near future��"

 Chapter 1993 Using All Resources

    The Heavenly Sovereign was stunned that the God of Mischief would even tell him something like this. Although it looked like he was just teaching him how to handle a situation that he might not expect, it seemed there was a hidden meaning behind that sentence.


    Someone as powerful and experienced as the Heavenly Sovereign didn''t need to hear this kind of warning. After all, if he truly fought against the God of Mischief from the start instead of greeting him first, he would put up a good fight. He wouldn''t easily fall into his illusion.


    That was why this warning served as a reminder of something else.


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but fall into deep thought, thinking there might be another possibility that he didn''t consider.


    The God of Mischief decided to let him think about it first instead of telling him everything. The Heavenly Sovereign had been good at deducting things, so it would just hurt his pride if he answered everything before the Heavenly Sovereign could predict.


    So, the God of Mischief turned around to talk to Theo.


    "It seems that you have made some preparations��" The God of Mischief looked at Theo with a serious expression.


    "Yeah. Though, I don''t think I have made enough." Theo sighed.


    "The Space Saint?"


    "He''s gone to the other side, so there''s no need to worry about him."


    "Good. How about the structure?"


    "I have brought it over. How about you?"


    "I have two pirs that haven''t been destroyed yet."


    "This should be enough, right?" Theo asked.


    "Yeah." The God of Mischief nodded in agreement. "It seems that the situation has be more interesting. The only one who can kill you is yourself, I guess."


    "That''s a good line, but when you hear it in this situation, you don''t really feel good about it." Theo shrugged. The God of Mischief was indirectly implying the existence of his original self.


    Theo looked so talented and strong that there weren''t many people who could kill him. Even the Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God, who looked stronger than him, couldn''t kill him, especially when Theo operated with his clone.


    So, the only people that might be able to kill Theo were the God of Mischief, the slime, and his original self.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Theo let out a long sigh. "Instead of worrying about me, you should focus on the opponent this time."


    "I know." The God of Mischief nodded with a serious expression. "From what I can see, that slime is extremely strong and his power can even dissolve my illusion. So, he has the chance to defeat me. Though, I''m still stronger in terms of raw power. If only that slime was made in my era, the one who destroyed the world wouldn''t be that fire big guy, but that slime."


    Theo thought for a moment. "Anyway, why are you bringing these two? I can understand why you brought Lyrventh, but Lydia��"


    "I have decided to make both of them our sessors. Lyrventh shall be the Saint and Lydia shall be the Saintess." The God of Mischief smiled.


    Though, he wasn''t the only person thatmented on Theo''s concern. Lyrventh, who easily heard their conversation, couldn''t help but interject, "I apologize, Big Brother Theo. I don''t mind if you look down on me, but my sister�� I have never seen anyone stronger than her."


    Of course, Lyrventh was talking about her positivity. Lydia, indeed, had a heart of steel. No matter how hard the challenge she faced, she would confront it directly.


    So, Theo understood why Lyrventh acted this way. But he also said, "I know that already. It''s just the battle is different than anything you have faced so far. I don''t want to involve both of you to be honest."


    "Then, what? Don''t underestimate us. We would rather die trying than face our death helplessly!" Lyrventh gritted his teeth while Lydia, who was stunned by the interruption, tried to stop Lyrventh.


    The God of Mischief added, "I know your concern. But since we have chosen them as the sessors, we are going to have them see through this war. It will be beneficial for them."


    "If you said so." Theo sighed. Even Lyrventh couldn''t get angrypletely since Theo was simply concerned about their safety. Even he couldn''t guarantee his own survival, so how could he guarantee others?


    "It seems that the situation has be moreplicated than we originally thought��" The God of Mischief nced at Lyrventh. "In that case, it seems that we have to rely on you."


    "Huh?" Lyrventh pointed at himself. "Me?"


    "Yeah." The God of Mischief pointed at the north. "In that direction, there are many experts hiding as if they''re nning an ambush. From what I know, they are the ambush this guy has prepared. So, there''s no need to look out for iing monsters that would go for our back from the right.


    "Hence, we should focus on the left. Although I believe that those people can sweep the hidden enemies, it still takes time. There might even be some hidden reinforcement, so it''s better to station you in the west of the base, so you can make sure there''s no reinforcement. Do you think you can do it?"


    "I am not a kid�� Well, I am a kid, but it doesn''t mean I am a coward! Since my ability is necessary, you don''t have to worry about me and my age. Just use me as you please. At the end of the day, I still have my hearing that can allow me to move to a ce where the monsters couldn''t reach me." Lyrventh said without hesitation, showing his determination.


    Theo was still skeptical about it. But he knew it wasn''t the time to think about it.


    "Even in my era, humans used everyone avable to defend the city wall. Even if the women, elderly, and children couldn''t do anything. The elderly could still help with food, the women could still bring water to drink or help the wounded and the children could still carry up arrows or pebbles. That''s why I don''t think it''s time to be picky. We have to use everyone we know even though in this modern era such a thing is not epted." The God of Mischief smiled, exining the urgency.

 Chapter 1994 The Beginning Of The End

    Theo sighed. "I know it''s not the time to be picky. As much as I want to turn those people as soldiers in times of war, it''s not possible currently, especially due to the tension inside the base.


    "All we can do is to force them inside and consider those who are outside to be spies." Theo narrowed his eyes. "In any case, the enemies areing straight at us. If we can''t handle the head-on attack, we will fall."


    Theo looked at Lyrventh and Lydia. "Lyrventh, you have heard your task. Go to the west and find any monster that might be the enemy''s reinforcement. I will send someone to protect you. However, I don''t think you can be with Lydia this time."


    "W��" Lyrventh wanted to protest, but Theo added, "She also has an important task. She is going to the rear, especially near the wounded. Her positivity is one of the things we need to keep the morale of the injured soldiers."


    Lyrventh wanted to say something, but Lydia had dered, "I will do it. I know that I don''t have good ears nor do I have the power to fight those monsters. If I can do anything that helps as many people as possible, I will do it! No, please let me do it."


    Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. He already knew how strong Lydia''s heart was, but when he was confronted by it, he felt a bit helpless.


    Theo sighed. "I know. I shall leave them to you, Lydia. However, I have one thing to say as well. I want you to watch the battle closely�� Look at our battle. This kind of battle mighte again in the far future when everyone here is already gone. When that happens, I don''t know if the humans have the strength to fight them or not.


    "So, I want you to make sure you convey my message. If the humans in the future don''t join forces where all people, who can contribute, contribute to the battle, humanity might lose."


    Lydia nodded with a serious expression. "Yes, I understand."


    "Good."


    After giving the two kids their tasks, Theo returned to the God of Mischief. "It seems that you''re nning something after the battle."


    "Haha. It''s gonna be a bit boring if we ever win this battle. So, I''m just trying to make myself busy. It''s better than me wreaking havoc, right?"


    Theo shrugged. He didn''t give the answer, but everyone would answer the same thing. There was no way they wanted the God of Mischief toe to trick all of them and cause some messes.


    Before they continued with their conversation, the Heavenly Sovereign opened his mouth, finishing his calction. He asked, "You said I would die in the near future, right? I''m going to tell you that I''m not nning my death here. Seeing how you are so friendly to the children can''t help but make me remember the time I spent with my disciple."


    "Humans are interesting. What did they say again when people said something like that before a big battle�� a death g?" The God of Mischief smirked, teasing him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, not afraid of him. He even pointed at Hel. "Well, there is the Goddess of Death here. Knowing that the Goddess who controls the afterlife is this beautiful, I don''t mind dying at all. Hahahahaha! But I''m not nning to die in the battle��"


    The God of Mischief opened his mouth as if he was trying to tell him something. But the Heavenly Sovereign interjected. "To put it simply, I''m telling you that I''ll be following your n."


    The God of Mischief was silent for a moment. He couldn''t help but smirk, "This is going to be interesting though."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Of course. Since this is the n that the God of Mischief devises himself, I''m going to thoroughly enjoy it!" The Heavenly Sovereign smiled.


    "Hehe. Are you ready to troll the world?" The God of Mischief smirked.


    They continued their discussion after that. Eventually, the Heavenly Sovereign and Theo returned to the base. The Heavenly Sovereign looked extremely satisfied since he hadn''t stopped smiling ever since they got back.


    On the other hand, Theo had started focusing on the details in their preparation.


    They only had two days left before the monsters arrived. So, they had to make the best preparation possible.


    The army had spread their army as much as possible, making sure every corner of the base was protected. Even the government had spread the word about the uing battle that involved many World ss Monsters.


    Panic and chaos started urring. They were trying to stock their empty shelves and some even tried to threaten others for those resources.


    But because the government was using all their remaining personnel to keep the chaos down and Theo used his influence to spread the news to calm the people down, the chaos soon calmed down. It didn''t turn into a big riot.


    Although the government and Theo had some friction, both of them knew that if they didn''t cooperate this time, they would be defeated. The president and Theo had agreed on a truce. So, there was no more threat from the government at the very least.


    The rest of the people had reached the border. There were many Transcendent Level Experts and Saints. This might be the first time so many strong people united.


    They had amon enemy they had to defeat.


    Theo was standing in front of the army. Because of the circumstances, the base had to issue the only military rank that would only appear during a wartime.


    Hence, Theo became the Commander of the Army just for this battle.


    He stood in front of many soldiers. There were a lot of cameras pointed at him to be broadcast to all people fighting on the frontline.


    Behind him were the Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, a couple of Transcendent Level Experts, and some generals from the army.


    He looked at them with a serious expression as he opened his mouth, starting thest speech.


    "The war to decide humanity''s survival�� is about to begin."

 Chapter 1995 Unite

    "The war to decide humanity''s survival is about to begin." Theo started his speech with a cold and bold statement that couldn''t help but make everyone feel a bit nervous. Humanity''s survival was a huge burden to everyone after all.


    "I''m pretty sure that most of you, if not all, have seen the video about the slime. It must be hard to follow themand of someone who has been defeated by the slime. However, if we are simply fighting against the usual monsters whose intelligence is lowerpared to us�� Then, the Heavenly Sovereign or the Time God would surely be a bettermander.


    "But this time, our enemies are different. They have grown enough to develop tactics to catch us off guard. They can''t be called monsters anymore! They are races�� other races besides the humans.


    "Yes. I''m telling you right now that the world that we know is no more. We, humans, are not the apex predator anymore. There are other races aiming at our lives. The sea races, the mutated monsters, and even the slime�� We have to fight them sooner orter.


    "However��" Theo paused for a moment as if he imagined their current opponent. It was a tall wall to ovee, but Theo still managed to smile. "However�� This time, our opponent has overwhelming strength and tactics. Even I can''t defeat the slime��"


    Theo looked down as if he was disappointed in his own powerlessness. Even those who saw his expression couldn''t help but bite their lips.


    Of course, they had seen how the slime overwhelmed Theo in the video. Theo was one of the strongest humans, yet, he couldn''t hold a candle against this slime.


    However, Theo opened his mouth again. His voice was brimming with energy as there was no single trace of worry in his heart.


    "But�� this is not the end of our humanity, right?" Theo threw this question to all soldiers or even those who watched him through the screen. There was a smile on his face�� a smile brimming with confidence.


    He pointed at the soldiers and said, "I couldn''t defeat the slimest time because I was alone. This time is different. I have you�� I have all the experts in the base supporting me in this battle.


    "Look at the people behind me. I have the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint. I have all the geniusmanders of the base that would help memand the army."


    Theo took a step forward while pointing downward. "I�� No, we are standing here as the representative of humanity. This fight is not the fight for liberation! This fight is to show our determination!"


    The people couldn''t help but raise their heads again, looking at him. His voice was brimming with energy. It made them feel confident. ''They could do it!'' they thought.


    Theo''s confident smile became even bigger as he stated, "This fight is to show those monsters that we, humans, are not going to surrender quietly.


    "I alone can''t defeat the slime. That''s why I need you. This country�� This base alone can''t ovee this trouble. That''s why we should take a look at the people next to us. Everyone is here�� the US Base, the union, United Asia, the world�� We don''t have to differentiate people based on the color of their skin, their ethnicity, or the countries theye from.


    "Everyone standing here is the representative of the human race! And I have no doubt that��" Theo put on a genuine smile that washed away any worry people had in their hearts as he said, "��with the world backing me up, there''s no way I will lose."


    Thest sentence in Theo''s speech caused a spark in everyone''s heart. When Theo faced a powerful enemy, he would be able to change the course of battle with his ally. And this time, the enemy was not other humans anymore. Instead, the entire world united in a single banner to apany him in this battle. With such an ally, there was no way they could lose.


    As Theo said, there was no need to differentiate people anymore. They�� The person next to them, the one behind them, and even the person in front of them are the representative of the human race.


    The soldiers turned their heads around, looking at the people around them.


    ''That''s right. There''s no need to think about anything else. There''s no need to bother with race or skin color��''


    ''You are a human. I am also a human. That''s all we need.''


    ''Wee together as one.''<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''As the representative of the human race��''


    ''We shall fight for our own survival.''


    ''Today��''


    ''We shall gain our victory.''


    ''Today��''


    ''We shall fight for our tomorrow.''


    ''With all of you here�� For all of us�� For humanity.''


    The soldiers couldn''t help but smile. The me sparked in their heart as their excitement rose further.


    "Then��" Seeing their expressions, Theo added onest thing. The people briefly looked at Theo as he opened his mouth. His tone and voice felt like he genuinely felt that way and believed it. "I''m counting on you guys."


    "O��oh!"


    "Oooohhhh!"


    "OOOOHHHH!"


    They raised their hands while roaring into the sky. They would do it. They would definitely do it.


    Theo smiled as he jumped into the air, stunning everyone. The Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, the Transcendent Level Experts, and even the generals also followed Theo''s action, standing next to each other.


    The soldiers finally saw their backs�� the reliable backs that made them feel like they could defeat everything. Even if their vision was covered by darkness, as long as they found these backs, it would be a beacon of light. They had just to follow them to emerge victorious.


    The cheers became louder. Not only in this ce but the other ces that listened to Theo''s speech through the broadcast. That day, the world was united as one.


    ''Let''s go��'' Theo smiled as he stepped forward while raising his spear.


    ''Let''s go��'' The others also pulled out their weapons and raised them.


    They looked at the horizon as the cloud of dust started to rise, symbolizing the monster''s arrival.


    ''This is not the end.'' Theo muttered as he started releasing his Magic Power. His expression turned serious as he said in his heart. ''This is�� just the beginning.''

 Chapter 1996 War

    The monsters were destroying their path. There were so many monsters that the horizon turned dark. The ck dots gradually became bigger and showed their real appearance.


    The ferocious monsters spread over a few miles due to their number and size. They looked so overwhelming.


    They crushed everything in their path and moved on. Without even being told, the monsters would continue to destroy everything, including the humans standing in their way.


    Theo frowned. They had spread their soldiers as well. And due to their extraordinary scouts, they managed to confirm that the enemies decided to focus their entire strength on a single point.


    The humans had made a small base not far in their back. The reserve army was also in that ce. All they had to do was to contain the monsters in this ce while the Transcendent Level Experts or the Saints broke through and handled their King and World ss Monsters.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled while saying, "Look at them�� There are approximately fifty�� no, sixty King ss Monsters from what we can see here�� That number is quite impressive."


    "Impressive, but that''s not the point. You should know that we don''t have enough people to handle those many King ss Monsters." The Sword Saint sighed.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled as he shouted to Theo. "From what I can see, there are several monsters with the same colors. I think it''s as we expected��"


    Theo nced back and nodded.


    ��


    A few days ago.


    They were discussing the countermeasure with the God of Mischief. And they also discussed this topic.


    "What should we do with their overwhelming number of King ss Monsters?" the Heavenly Sovereign asked.


    "That''s one of the reasons for bringing you here." The God of Mischief smirked. "From what I can see, the slime is able to dissolve the Authority itself and grant it to a slime body.


    "There are two possibilities. If the slime grants it to a single body, that body might retain a portion of the power. In other words, they might be a new World ss Monster, but because of the slime''s power, they won''t be able to retain a hundred percent of its original power.


    "In other words, even if they bring out a World ss Monster, they will be weaker than the original. I don''t think there are any World ss Monsters that want to follow him due to the strict rule of Order and Authority.


    "And by making these new World ss Monsters, they will miss out on a lot of opportunities like the second possibility, the King ss Monsters.


    "Since he can only create a weaker version of World ss Monster, the slime might as well spread it so that it can create multiple King ss Monsters.


    "They might have a number advantage, but we also have an advantage over them. The fact that they are spreading their power like this means we can learn them faster and use the same pattern of attack to kill them.


    "Unlike you and your original self, those slime bodies will act in a simr way. So, that''s an advantage we can use."


    Theo nodded in agreement.


    The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes while looking at Theo and the God of Mischief, who seemed to have a simr thought. In fact, without evenmunicating with each other, Theo and the God of Mischief seemed to be able to coordinate perfectly. The only reason they talked was because of him.


    Theo said, "In that case, let''s hunt some King ss Monsters on the way, shall we?"


    ��


    Remembering their discussion, Theo grabbed his radio and said, "n A. All Transcendent Level Experts step forward. All Saints, take out your weapons. We shall make the first move."


    "Got it." All of them smiled. The Transcendent Level Experts were the first to release their Magic Power, showing them that they were not scared of their number.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The monsters'' roars started echoing in their ears. The closer the monsters, the more the ground was shaking.


    Of course, the ones standing next to him were not the only Transcendent Level Experts or Saints that would fight together with them.


    "I shall make the first move then." The Sword Saint smiled while stepping forward. He poured a lot of Magic Power into his katana, raising it above his head. He closed his eyes for a second as the Magic Power red up.


    The surge of Magic Power created a small shock wave that startled the people. They all looked at the Magic Power on the de.


    To their surprise, there was one more person that wanted to join the Sword Saint for the first strike. There was a ck colored Magic Power rising on the right side.


    It came from none other than the Dark Saint. He had the same motion as the Sword Saint, ready to unleash his sh.


    It seemed that the Dark Saint and the Sword Saint could understand each other''s intentions.


    They exchanged looks while swinging downward.


    The extraordinary amount of Magic Power ran through the ground and headed straight to the monsters.


    The monsters saw the iing attacks and started releasing their Magic Power. Although most monsters were Hero Rank or below, it didn''t change the fact there were many Supreme Rank and Mythical Rank Monsters among them.


    All of them utilized their Magic Power to shoot down these two shes.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The monsters'' attacks werepletely pulverized when they made contact. Even with their strength and number, they were still unable to cause any damage to these two shes.


    The reason Theo didn''t stop them from attacking was to show everyone human strength. Not only the monsters but also the humans had to understand it well. These were the people that would be fighting for them, so they should have confidence in this battle.


    Seeing the overwhelming attack push through raised the people''s fighting spirit. They cheered for the attacks to reach.


    Unfortunately for them, these two attacks had to be stopped.


    A total of eight King ss Monsters jumped forth and used their own attacks to crush these two shes.


    The collision of their attacks caused the sky to turn into a murky color. The shock wave shook the entire battlefield, causing the monsters to slow down and the humans to feel nervous.


    The shsted for two seconds before they neutralized each other as the world returned to normal.

 Chapter 1997 Unleashing Their Power

    "That''s��"


    "Eight King ss Monsters!"


    Everyone was stunned, never expecting that there would be so many King ss Monsters stopping those two attacks. Still, the fact that those many King ss Monsters came out just to stop a simple attack showed how powerful the two were.


    They simply released their energy without using any specific technique after all.


    "I guess it''s not that easy to break through that area��" The Sword Saint sighed.


    "In that case, let''s march forward, shall we?" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    Theo nodded. "All soldiers are to stand by and receive the monsters in your position. All Saints and Transcendent Level Experts are to follow me. We shall break through their formation and push back some monsters to form the lines."


    "Left Wing, Copy."


    "Right Wing, understood."


    Theo nced at the generals that were stationed in the middle and pumped his fist as if telling them that he had left this area to them.


    They nodded their heads with serious expressions, receiving a heavy burden from Theo personally.


    Then, Theo started walking forward, followed by the Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint and all other Transcendent Level Experts or above.


    They all began to separate themselves from the formation and marched toward the iing monsters.


    Their speed increased gradually as they began to run.


    The Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint gathered their Magic Power in their hands. The right wing had the Dark Saint while the left wing only had the Transcendent Level Experts.


    Yet, Theo wasn''t that concerned about them. After all, he had ced a reinforcement in that area.


    "Let me start then!" The Dark Saint smirked as he flew into the sky. A giant armor started to be conjured. The powering out of the armor was overwhelming, causing the ground to tremor.


    And the Dark Saint ultimately entered the armor. There was a pair of blood-red eyes reflected inside the helmet.


    In that instant, the armor started to move. The first thing it did was raise his hand as a huge ck sword made of its Dark Power formed.


    "Dark Anguish." The armor swung downwards.


    Three King ss Monsters sped up, reaching the very front. They immediately raised their hands to form a barrier made of Magic Power. They knew this attack was something not allowed to hit them due to the casualty it would cause.


    Unfortunately for them, they underestimated this new Saint. Even though he had just be a Saint not long ago, he was already close to that level and even fought a Saint a lot, his power wasn''t something that a normal new Saint had.


    The moment the sword hit the barrier, the Dark Power of the sword spread all over the barrier.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters instantly noticed something different.


    "We lose the connection to the barrier?"


    The Dark Saint disyed this kind of power when he fought against the Fist Saint in the past. As soon as the Dark Powerpletely covered one thing, they would be under his control.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was why the barrier immediately shattered into pieces the moment it turned ck.


    The Dark Saint smirked and continued his swing, hitting the ground.


    "No!" The three King ss Monsters felt something different from the sword the moment it touched the ground.


    The Dark Power was actually transferred to the ground, dyeing the ground ck. The ground was also infused with the Magic Power and might cause some sort of eruption.


    And with the monsters marching toward them, the Dark King might be able to kill a lot of monsters in one go.


    Other King ss Monsters also felt the surge of power and immediately came to help them.


    There were an additional seven King ss Monsters, using their strength to form a barrier that isted the Dark Power.


    This was the true strength of the Dark Saint. They might be able to contain it for a while, but the Dark Power began to influence the barrier. Hence, one of them had to go inside and use their power to directly stimte the Dark Power.


    As a result, the surge of the Dark Power burst out of the ground, rising into the sky.


    The King ss Monster that stimted the power ended up dying.


    This was one of Theo''s ns in order to thin out their number. Although they couldn''t defeat other monsters, they managed to kill one King ss Monster.


    Meanwhile, the Shadow King, who apanied the Dark Saint, jumped forth and stomped the ground. Her shadow was soon extended and came out of the ground, catching five King ss Monsters that stopped the Dark Saint''s attack. After that, she pulled the shadow like a rope before throwing them to the back.


    The Dark Saint had to do the same. Hence, he abandoned the armor and flew with his real body. He turned the Dark Armor into whips and caught the remaining King ss Monsters, tossing them in the same direction.


    "Let''s go." The Dark Saint smiled at the Shadow King.


    "I''ll be waiting for you." The Shadow King nodded.


    "Of course. Syk too."


    The couple went together as they crossed numerous monsters. Those monsters wanted to attack them, but the Dark Saint used his power to strike them down so that they could get a smooth path.


    Just like their area, the left wing also performed splendidly. Although they didn''t have any Saints among them, the Transcendent Level Experts were utilizing their own strength to break through.


    But Theo''s n started to show its true might. The King ss Monsters that were about to stop those Transcendent Level Experts were shocked by the appearance of a huge skeleton from the ground.


    *Bam!*


    A huge skeleton hand emerged from the ground, grabbing a single King ss Monster.


    "!!!" The King ss Monster was startled and immediately struggled to get out. But before he could do anything, the skeleton hand had begun absorbing the monster''s vitality.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The King ss Monster screamed in pain as his body was surrounded by a ckish red aura. The wrinkles started to appear and the body became thinner as time passed.


    Before they realized it, the monster had be so thin that there seemed to be only bone and skin left.


    Yes, the hidden card Theo ced in the left wing was none other than the Goddess of Death.

 Chapter 1998 Kill

    After killing one King ss Monster, another hand came out. But this time, the hand didn''t try to grab one of the King ss Monsters. Instead, it mmed the ground and pushed it as if it was trying to bring the real body out.


    "Move!" The King ss Monster shouted, warning the others. By the time they moved, the ground had crumbled as a huge skeleton emerged from the ground. Though, only the upper body came out of the ground while the rest remained underground.


    The skeleton red at them with a pair of red eyes. And a woman wearing a long white gown descended on the skeleton''s shoulder. Her beautiful appearance stunned everyone. They never thought there would be such a beautiful woman hiding from anyone. In addition, her strength could easily defeat a King ss Monster.


    Theo nced to the side. It seemed the Goddess of Death sensed his gaze and turned to him while opening her mouth.


    Even without sound, Theo could see what she wanted to say.


    ''Watch!''


    She only said one word. In that instant, her eyes turned red like the Death Avatar. A purple me appeared in their eyes.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters felt the fluctuation of extraordinary power and hurriedly shouted, "Not good. Stop her!"


    Many King ss Monsters hurriedly surrounded her, trying to stop her. Unfortunately, it was toote.


    Death Avatar, First Authority. Death Eyes.


    She opened her eyes wide when activating the Death Eyes. The Death Avatar''s eyes immediately released a powerful shock wave to the surroundings. The shock wave was actually visible due to the blood red color it carried.


    The King ss Monsters that were about to stop him froze. Their entire world seemed to change.


    It looked like an illusion. They could still sense the Goddess of Death and her Death Avatar.


    But they didn''t know why they felt their heart was grasped by someone. It beat rapidly and seemed to be able to explode at any moment.


    "This is��" The monsters couldn''t help but back away. Even if they could resist this power, they would feel a bit weak when influenced by Death Eyes.


    "Kh��" The King ss Monsters gritted their teeth. Some of them fell on their knees, having trouble standing up. Meanwhile, some monsters, Supreme Rank or lower, were affected badly.


    Those with strong mental power managed to resist, but they fell to the ground. Those with weak mentality immediately dropped to the ground, either passed out or dead.


    This was the difference in power between a powerful Saint and a new Saint. The Dark Saint was able to kill one King ss Monster, but the Goddess of Death could injure ten King ss Monsters at once along with many normal monsters.


    Theo, who witnessed the entire thing, couldn''t help but smile. ''As expected, the Death Avatar is her power. She''s the only one who can utilize its true power. With the help of the Death Authority, she could fully manifest the true meaning of the Death Eyes��''


    Theo knew that no matter how hard he tried to copy this power, without the Death Authority, it was impossible.


    Of course, he had his own technique. There was even one ability that he could develop further and reach the rank beyond S Rank.


    After the shocking attack, the Goddess of Death marched forward, trying to kill some King ss Monsters. The Transcendent Level Experts on the left wing were stunned, but there was Ava among them.


    She was the first to leap forward and utilize her lightning in a big way to kill one injured King ss Monster.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Seeing that action inspired the others to take the same action as they aimed for the weaker King ss Monsters, trying to reduce the number.


    Even if they couldn''t defeat them, the humans would push the King ss Monsters back until they passed the swarm of monsters.


    Meanwhile, there were still some hidden cards that chose to wait. After all, they were the main force against the World ss Monsters.


    Theo also moved forward like this. The Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign were ready to unleash their might.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked and pped his hand. Suddenly, a trigram appeared in front of them. "Hit it!"


    The Sword Saint nodded and waved his sword. "Traverse Sword."


    The sword released a crescent-shaped energy. It might look simple andck power, but if one took a closer look, one would notice that the outeryer was just a shell to hide its true power.


    The moment the sword strike hit the trigrams, thetter shone as it copied the energy of the sword strike and turned it into four.


    "Four Season Amplification!" The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    The sword strike carried each season. The sudden change rmed the King ss Monsters that overlooked the monster army.


    They hurriedly moved forward while using their own abilities to stop it.


    But these four shes were thebination between the Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The sword strike that carried Winter burst first after getting bombarded by the King ss Monsters.


    The explosion released a huge amount of chilling white fog, freezing the ground and the monsters nearby. Even the King ss Monsters that tried to contain it was affected by its freezing power.


    But that wasn''t the only thing they had to take care of. The Summer exploded, lighting up the entire area. The fire cooked many demons alive. It felt like hell descended in that area.


    The Spring caused a powerful gale, blowing away many monsters and King ss Monsters. The monsters ended up crashing into each other, causing a jam in their formation.


    Meanwhile, the sword strike that carried Autumn was brimming with life. Once it exploded, it spread a powerful energy that stimted the ground, specifically any seeds inside the soil.


    Suddenly, the seeds broke apart and fully grew into giant nts, capturing the monsters and even stopping them with their bodies.


    Although their attacks didn''t kill any King ss Monsters, they had caused the front of the monster army to copse. As for the King ss Monsters, there was still one man who hadn''t made his move yet��


    Theo''s expression turned serious.


    "It''s time."

 Chapter 1999 A World Class Monster

    "It''s time." Theo smiled while looking at these monsters. He released a huge amount of Magic Power into the air, rming all the monsters in front of him. Even the normal monsters felt an overwhelming pressureing from Theo.


    The King ss Monsters immediately moved forward, trying to stop Theo. They hadn''t realized that the Goddess of Death managed to force almost a third of the King ss Monsters toe out and the Death Saint managed to force more than ten King ss Monsters to make their appearance.


    However, Theo was nning to surpass their number by releasing this kind of Magic Power.


    The King ss Monsters didn''t know what Theo was nning to do, but they had received the order from the slime regarding Theo. Theo was the most troublesome person on the enemy''s side, so they had to use all their power to at least buy some time from him.


    There were fifteen King ss Monsters that stood in Theo''s eyes. But to their surprise, Theo never did anything.


    He simply ran toward them with all that Magic Power. The King ss Monsters didn''t understand what was happening. Their eyes might be tricking them. But all they could see was Theo running toward them, but the distance remained the same the whole time.


    "What is happening?" The King ss Monsters were confused.


    They were moving toward each other, yet, the distance never changed.


    Their confusion turned into shock when one of them noticed the movement from the left and the right side.


    "Wait�� They�� We are left behind?"


    "!!!" The King ss Monster paused and turned around to check what was going on. When that happened, they realized that they hadn''t moved from their position at all. No, they should have moved, but because of Theo''s power, they looked like they had never made any progress.


    This was the World Re-Creation. He expanded the reality so that the monsters in front of him ended up moving backward. This way, there would soon be a gap between these monsters with the ones on the left and right.


    As expected from the King ss Monsters, the moment they noticed the sudden change, they hurriedly used their strength to resist this power.


    Some of them amplified their speed and used it to exceed the expansion''s speed. Some of them tried to find the edge of the expansion and escaped from it.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile when he saw there were six King ss Monsters that seemed to be able to break past the expansion speed.


    However, that was when Theo''s n started to take effect. The moment they left the expansion the monsters experienced, they soon realized that the distance between them and Theo shrank in an instant.


    "!!!" They widened their eyes because they couldn''t believe they would move so fast.


    It only took a nce to the back to realize that they had been elerated by the same technique. It turned out Theo had prepared an expansion in the opposite direction after the one they experienced, causing them to reach Theo''s position in an instant.


    But they were simply too shocked to the point they couldn''t react to the next attack.


    The first ones that made their move were none other than Rea and Felix. They were stationed right behind Theo, so when they saw their leader using this chance to pull in some monsters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They immediately prepared their strongest attack.


    And the opportunity came. Before the monsters could react to the sudden change of distance, Rea and Felix had moved past Theo while waving their swords.


    "Invisible Light." Felix''s sword shone, causing the monsters to be blinded by its brightness. And the next thing he realized, Felix''s sword had cut his neck.


    Rea also did the same thing. She had transformed into her dragon form and struck the enemy with her ''Dragon Shock.'' The dragon from her sword swallowed and created a powerful shock that crushed the monster''s heart, killing him.


    Meanwhile, the other four King ss Monsters had to face Theo. Theo used his Alter Ego to increase his speed. With the additional eleration from the World Re-Creation, Theo looked like he had disappeared.


    The four King ss Monsters tried to use their strength to at least stop his attacks, but they fell too short. Theo had already cut them in rapid session.


    With this, Theo''s group managed to kill six King ss Monsters by themselves, a bigger number than anyone had aplished in the war.


    Theo smiled. "Good. Now, go to your position." Theo waved his hand.


    Rea and Felix nodded their heads, trying to position themselves while on the run. Even though they had killed a few King ss Monsters, it didn''t change the fact that there were still more than fifty King ss Monsters among them.


    They still couldn''t deal with that number.


    So, unless their Saints were able to kill ten more King ss Monsters, they would be defeated sooner orter.


    And it seemed they were not the only ones who thought about it.


    A huge wolf let out a howl that shook the battlefield. The wolf was fifty feet tall.


    Everyone could see such a figure pretty easily even from afar. And the wolf was excluding a powerful ck-colored Magic Power.


    The wolf raised its head and opened its mouth, gathering all that Magic Power in his mouth. The wolf soon pointed its mouth at Theo and shot forth that ck-colored Magic Power.


    The ck colored beam created a shock wave just by traveling forward. Its power was simr to Ascension Step''s Ninth Step. Even if Theo wanted to stop it, it wouldn''t be that easy.


    Theo certainly knew this. After all, the attack certainly delivered a meaning behind it. The wolf seemed to be telling him that the King ss Monsters weren''t enough to stop Theo, so he had to make his move.


    Yes, the wolf was none other than a World ss Monster under the slime. But it seemed that his will had disappeared since the original wolf had died and the one in front of them was just an imitation made by the slime''s power.


    And the ck beam was soon going to hit them.

 Chapter 2000 More World Class Monsters

    In the face of the ck beam, all existence beyond Saints were trembling. They knew that if they tried to take this on, they would die. Just like how Theo and Hel managed to kill their opponents in one hit, this beam had the same ability.


    Yet, to everyone''s surprise, none of the Saints that were about to be hit by the ck beam nned to do anything. They simply moved forward without any change of expression.


    It felt like they were confident that the ck beam wouldn''t be able to do anything to them.


    However, a ck ball soon flew from the side and stopped on the ck beam''s trajectory.


    The moment the ck beam hit this ck ball, it immediately sshed like a liquid.


    The wolf didn''t give any reaction since it didn''t have any will. But it still looked at the ck ball and the ck beam. He even increased the output of the beam, trying to overpower it.


    Unfortunately for him, it was useless. The ck ball was able to withstand the power like it was nothing.


    Ultimately, the wolf ended up retracting its beam to see who managed to stop him.


    When everything settled down, the ck ball melted to the ground, revealing a small ck figure that stood on the beam''s trajectory, stopping it with its body.


    Yes, the one stopping the beam was none other than the Dark Saint. He nced at Theo with a smile. "As expected, they also have someone at my level. It''s no wonder why the slime is a hard opponent. How many Saints are under the slime?"


    "I don''t know. And it seems you are suited to take this monster on." Theo passed him with a nod.


    "Of course. The wolf''s power�� I don''t know. It''s very simr to mine, but it''s not the same since there''s no way two Saints with the same power exist at the same time. So, Darkness, ck or something along the line��" The Dark Saint nodded, assuring him that he would win against the wolf.


    In the end, both of them moved together. But whenever the wolf attacked, the Dark Saint would be the one to step forward to take it on.


    Theo and the others were to conserve their energy. Of course, Theo still aimed for the King ss Monsters scattered in the area.


    But before he could kill another World ss Monster, there was a shadow of a huge mountain gradually appearing in the distance.


    "Hmm?" Theo narrowed his eyes.


    "That''s�� not a mountain, right?" The Sword Saint frowned.


    "That''s our opponent this time, the slime." Theo nodded with a serious expression. "He is closer than we expected�� I''m afraid the slime already knows about our n and is trying to get as close as possible to our army��"


    "But if that happens, won''t there be a lot of casualties on our sides? After all, the slime seems to be able to move through the ground��" The Sword Saint frowned.


    "Yeah. That''s why we have to speed up." Theo sighed. As expected of another race, they managed toe up with a n to counter his own n. This made the slime even more dangerous than anyone they had faced so far.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The slime managed to force Theo to shift his strategy.


    In the end, Theo stepped in the air while using his Telekinesis to its full power,unching him toward the slime.


    The Sword Saint and the Heavenly Sovereign followed him without hesitation.


    "Hehe�� This is the time for us to fight." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked, feeling excited.


    The Goddess of Death also stepped forward since it was her role to hold back the slime.


    But it seemed that the situation wasn''t in their favor.


    There was a huge trident flying from the right.


    "!!!" Theo and the others felt it and hurriedly stopped. But the Heavenly Sovereign chose to be the first one to make his move. He formed a huge trigram in front of him to block the trident while shouting, "Go. I''ll handle this��"


    Theo and the Sword Saint nodded to each other and increased their speed. They didn''t care if the trident would hit them since they believed that the Heavenly Sovereign was strong enough to stop it.


    When the trident was about to reach them, the Heavenly Sovereign stood in its way with the huge trigram.


    A clicking sound like two metals hitting each other echoed on the battlefield. The collision caused a shock wave that blew away the normal monsters underneath them.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes, feeling something weird from this trident. As expected, the trident suddenly red up and caused a powerful explosion.


    *Boom!*


    The explosion didn''t seem to break the trigram, but the st somehow blew the Heavenly Sovereign away. He ended up crashing a few hundred feet from his location. And the monsters around him immediately changed their direction, trying to kill him. Even the King ss Monsters approached him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign clicked his tongue when he saw the iing monsters. Though, Theo and the Sword Saint didn''t even worry about him. They only nced to the right to see who could beat the Heavenly Sovereign like that.


    Surprisingly, there were two monsters standing in the air. One was a humanoid monster. Its skin was red and it had a pair of red bat wings. It would look like a demon if not for the fact that this humanoid monster didn''t have a face or any other body feature like a human. It only had the same structure and posture.


    Next to him flew half-human, half-fish. It was a male mermaid, a merman. But to their surprise, there was no way a monster that was supposed to live on the sea would appear here. He was even flying.


    But the fish''s body had red skin, and some slime wasing out of it. He realized that the monster seemed to be from the sea race. The slime must have forced them toe and kill this person so that he could use him as his pawn.


    These two were the ones that caused such damage. Even the Heavenly Sovereign wouldn''t expect he would be attacked by two World ss Monsters at once.

 Chapter 2001 Ambush

    "��" Theo nced at the Heavenly Sovereign and two World ss Monsters for a bit before continuing as if he didn''t care.


    The Sword Saint had unsheathed his sword, ready to help. But he was confused why Theo didn''t want to help the Heavenly Sovereign, considering there were two World ss Monsters in that direction.


    But Theo''s priority was the slime. He had to stop the slime as soon as possible before he coulde too close to their army. He believed taking the slime on without any monsters or humans around him was the best situation.


    And the Heavenly Sovereign knew he shouldn''t be fixated on these two World ss Monsters. Although he wanted to repay them for this attack, there was someone more suited to handle them.


    The Goddess of Death, who was in charge of stopping their World ss Monster, had begun moving in their direction.


    "It seems that I''m going to y with them for a while. You should go." The Goddess of Death nced at the Heavenly Sovereign, telling him in a strict tone.


    "Yeah��" The Heavenly Sovereign didn''t know how to reply to her. On the one hand, he felt ufortable talking formally. On the other hand, Hel seemed to be a strict person. He didn''t want to cause any awkwardness before them, considering she was a legend that everyone could only hear from myth.


    In the end, he rose from the ground and chased after Theo without saying anything else.


    Since there was no more distraction, Hel could finally be serious. Her eyes became bloodshot and her body was excluding a blood-red energy.


    When her Magic Power appeared, the monsters around her panicked. The monsters'' instincts were sharp after all. So, they could sense death itself from the aura alone.


    They obviously didn''t want to die. Luckily, the Goddess of Death wasn''t nning to target them.


    Though, the World ss Monsters didn''t n to fight her by themselves. The red-skinned monster waved his hand down.


    Suddenly, more than thirty unique monsters and ten King ss Monsters turned around and tried to attack her.


    Even though they had prepared for the World ss Monster, the enemy still had the King ss Monsters and even the unique monsters. So, she couldn''t let her guard down since they should be able to resist the fear she spread.


    Hel sped her hands as the Death Avatar began to release a red fog from its body. This was the Death Avatar''s Third Authority, Death Domain.


    Unlike Theo''s, the fog had been imbued by the power of death. Not only could it prevent anyone from using their awareness, but it could also cause people to go insane due to the feeling of death when they were exposed to the fog.


    It didn''t look like the Death Domain could protect her from all this attack, but she seemed to be determined to use it. She graduallypressed the fog and nned to scatter it into the area.


    As for the monsters'' attacks, a few lights suddenly appeared around her and shot down all their attacks.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    Every single attack was intercepted, causing the area to be filled with smoke. It onlysted for two seconds before the wind swept it away.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But soon, they found the Goddess of Death surrounded by four Order Level Figures. They were the Guardian, Ava, Felix, and the Shadow King. They had taken down their attacks, guarding the Goddess of Death.


    "Leave the King ss Monsters to us," Felix said with a cold expression as if he nned to bring down every monster that came his way. He didn''t want to lose likest time again.


    But as they began to act, the enemies also stepped forward with their power.


    Seeing their movement made Hel a bit worried, considering the World ss Monsters were a bit too close to the army. So, she immediately dispersed the blood fog to cause the monsters to move.


    Unfortunately for her, it seemed that the other party was a bit impatient. The other party was not the monster, it was the old Griffith Family.


    When she dispersed the blood fog, four ck vortexes appeared in four directions.


    "Swallowing Vortex." A familiar voice echoed in their ears. They thought it was Theo, but when they turned their heads around to follow the voice, they were presented by the original Theo. Without even bothering to check other features, they knew there was only one person who had this Devouring Ability.


    "��" Hel frowned. After all, the fact that this ability appeared meant he didn''te alone.


    As he expected, there was suddenly a huge ball made of Magic Power. The concentration of Magic Power was crazy. The flow was so violent that it could rip apart anything that it touched.


    Hel could see the balling toward her, nning to shred her in one piece.


    Her bloodshot eyes suddenly shed as it began releasing a huge amount of Magic Power. In that instant, the ball began to be corroded by a blood red fire.


    If this continued, the ball might shrink to the point it wouldn''t be strong enough to cause any damage to her when it reached her location. But as expected of the old Griffith Family, he obviously came with enough preparation.


    "!!!" A shadow appeared and approached her. The shadow punched forward as if he was nning to crush her with that fist.


    The Goddess of Death never met him, so she only used her Death Avatar to block the fist.


    But to her surprise, the punch broke the Death Avatar''s hand as the shadow reached her.


    "!!!" The Goddess of Death hurriedly raised her own arm and covered it with a thick bone, blocking it.


    As expected of the Goddess of Death, she even managed to use her Death Energy to cause the Magic Power surrounding that fist to wither.


    In the end, the punch lost its power, albeit the Goddess of Death still received the impact and was blown away to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The sudden attack caused everyone to be rmed since they knew how strong the Goddess of Death was.

 Chapter 2002 Old Griffith Family

    "��" The Goddess of Death was able to stand up without any problem. She might be blown away, but the skeleton had protected her from the fall.


    After regaining herposure, she looked up, finally seeing the one who blew her away.


    "I see�� I never saw you or experienced your strength. I guess, you are the Fist Saint." The Goddess of Death narrowed her eyes.


    "!!!" Of course, she wasn''t the only person that saw him. Many soldiers and cameras had captured his face as well.


    "What? How could the Fist Saint��" Everyone in themand center who saw the Fist Saint was utterly shocked.


    And as expected, they all gritted their teeth.


    "How can this be?"


    "Why is a human attacking our side and helping the monsters?"


    "Does he not know that this battle decides humanity''s survival?"


    The people were angry at the Fist Saint. Normally, even if the Fist Saint managed to kill Theo''s group and the enemies, liberating the base, he would be considered a hero. But with this kind of reputation, there was no way they would be considered as one.


    However, it was a simple matter for the Griffith Family. After all, they could just rule the entire world with fear as long as they managed to win.


    That was why the Fist Saint didn''t care about his reputation anymore.


    The Fist Saint didn''t reply to her. He used his ability to strengthen the air beneath his feet, allowing him to stand in the air. He looked down on the Goddess of Death as if trying to provoke her.


    If Hel actually attacked him just like this, it would mean she wasn''t worth that much since there were two World ss Monsters and two Saints that were ready to ambush her.


    Unfortunately for him, the Fist Saint picked the wrong opponent. He had hurt a certain someone''s family.


    "I see. It seems that you are tired of living." A cold voice echoed in his ears.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint widened his eyes in shock as he hurriedly turned around, trying to punch the source of the voice.


    But the moment he turned around, he saw the God of Mischief already standing right before him.


    The God of Mischief smiled. He was ready to flick his finger.


    Even before the Fist Saint received the attack, he could envision his fate. When the God of Mischief flicked his forehead, his entire body would burst as if it was being ripped apart from the inside.


    However, it seemed he was lucky that he had helped the two monsters earlier. Although it was impossible for them to be friends, it didn''t change the fact that they had a mutual enemy.


    A huge tentacle suddenly emerged from the ground, trying to capture the God of Mischief.


    "��" The God of Mischief narrowed his eyes and jumped back once, realizing that the tentacle was made of red slime. It seemed that the slime had recognized his energy. "It''s hard to be at the top. Everyone has to pay attention to me."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Yes. The red slime sensed the God of Mischief''s energy and recognized him as the biggest threat. He hurriedly used everything he had, including extending a part of his body underground to at least catch him off guard.


    Even though he couldn''t taste the God of Mischief, the Fist Saint survived.


    "��" The Fist Saint''s heart skipped a beat as his back was drenched in sweat. He never thought he would foresee his own death from being ambushed.


    After reaching this stage, it wouldn''t be easy to ambush him, especially when he didn''t drop his guard. Yet, he never expected that there would be someone who was capable of doing that in Theo''s group. And he never saw that person.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he somehow became farther and farther away from the God of Mischief as if he was being sucked by something. He thought this was the Original Theo''s ability that tried to pull him back to regain some distance.


    But he noticed that the slime and even the monsters beneath them had the same motion.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint hurriedly looked around and realized the area he was in was actually being dragged by a mysterious force he had never seen before.


    He also sensed someone''s presenceing toward him at high speed.


    "Harden!" The Fist Saint hurriedly turned around and raised his hand, strengthening the air in front of him.


    *Cling!*


    The Sword Saint''s de struck the reinforced air. The Sword Saint immediately moved back the moment he saw the Fist Saint''s appearance, never thinking he would ambush them this way.


    He gritted his teeth while releasing a huge amount of energy. This sharp energy overwhelmed the strengthening the air received and began to cut it down.


    The Fist Saint hurriedly ducked down as the reinforced air was sliced by the Sword Saint. However, the Sword Saint seemed to be nning something else from this strike.


    It looked like he was trying to cut him down in one fine stroke. But the attack was a bit too shallow.


    The moment the Fist Saint realized a hidden intention, it was already toote. The Sword Saint had kicked him from the right, blowing him far away.


    "!!!" The Fist Saint hurriedly stood up and saw the Sword Sainting at him.


    Realizing that he couldn''t take advantage of the momentum, the Sword Saint slowed down a bit.


    He said while frowning, "It seems that you have gone insane, Fist Saint. Humans have amon enemy, yet, you choose this side�� Although you are a person who bears a grudge, there''s no way you can''t differentiate between right and wrong."


    The Fist Saint smiled as if he wasn''t being affected by those words. "You don''t have to persuade me, Sword Saint. This is a path I''ve chosen. There is only one fitting end for me and I''m going to do it."


    "Then, I don''t need to say anything else. I''m going to cut you myself, Fist Saint." The Sword Saint began to release all his Magic Power.


    "Try it." The Fist Saint also did the same, ready to fight the Sword Saint.

 Chapter 2003 Real Plan?

    The Sword Saint and the Fist Saint had finally met. Even though the Fist Saint ranked lower than the Sword Saint in the past, he wasn''t afraid at all. He still believed that he could still win.


    Still, the Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint were still hiding within the monster''s army. If they couldn''t find them, they would be in trouble since they might take advantage of the confusion tounch an ambush.


    The Heavenly Sovereign, who ended up walking with Theo, asked, "Are you not going to find them? You are supposed to be the one stopping them, right?"


    Theo shook his head. "It''s better this way. The fact that they are not using any tricks like attacking our rear is already good enough. This means that they won''t be able to win without the army. We don''t have to worry about them anymore."


    The Heavenly Sovereign nodded. "Alright then. Let''s go forward, shall we? Let''s draw them out."


    Theo nodded back. He and the Heavenly Sovereign increased their speed while releasing their Magic Power, ready to confront the slime the moment they reached its position.


    The slime also knew that it would be bad to underestimate both the Heavenly Sovereign and Theo. There was also even the Goddess of Death.


    So, the slime only had one option. A head-on confrontation.


    The slime began circting his Magic Power and came to a halt. He started nting more and more slime into the ground, ready to use it tounch his attack.


    However, when Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign were about tounch their attack, they were suddenly surrounded by multiple ck holes.


    The ck holes sucked their Magic Power, causing whatever attacks they nned to use to be weakened.


    "!!!" Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign stopped. With this amount of Magic Power, there was no way they could injure the slime. So, they had to stop to recharge their power before doing something to them.


    Still, the Magic Saint and the slime wouldn''t let this opportunity pass. The Magic Saint had gathered a huge amount of Magic Power and punched the air.


    The Magic Power turned into a shock wave. It was the Griffith Family''s Martial Arts. If they carelessly blocked it, they would end up being blown away.


    And it seemed the slime understood the power behind that punch. It immediately called forth the slime that had been hiding underground.


    *Bam!*


    A huge tentacle sted the ground and stretched itself like a as if nning to catch Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign. If this happened, the slime would be able to dissolve a portion of their power and body part, gaining a bit of their power which would end up causing a lot of problems in their fightter.


    Yet, the Heavenly Sovereign actually smiled despite the situation they were in. He said with a smirk, "Don''t you think it''s time to act?"


    That question put a smile on Theo''s face. "Right?!"


    Theo suddenly snapped his fingers. In that instant, the shock wave disappeared.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "!!!" The Magic Saint, who was hiding on the ground, widened his eyes in shock. He never thought that the attack that had been infused by his power could easily be erased by Theo.


    It was at that time the truth was revealed. Theo''s appearance started to glitch as if he was never real.


    "Huh?" The Magic Saint dropped his jaw as if he couldn''t believe what he had just seen. After all, Theo''s body was burned from the right. But instead of turning into ashes, the fire actually burned the topyer of his skin.


    Theo''s appearance gradually changed. The blue hair turned into ck hair, his young face became a gentle middle-aged face, and even his height slightly increased as if he had just gotten a few years'' worth of growth in one second.


    Theo changed into apletely different person in just two seconds. Even the slime, who was ready to catch them, couldn''t help but feel dread. This mysterious person who used Theo''s appearance was excluding a mysterious power that was different from everything he knew.


    The Heavenly Sovereign, on the other hand, remained calm as if he had already known this n.


    "I''d like to see the God of Mischief in action." The Heavenly Sovereign smirked.


    Yes, it turned out the one who had been impersonating Theo this whole time was none other than the God of Mischief. This was the reason why Theo hadn''t made his move this whole time.


    The only thing he did was manipte reality by expanding it backward, pushing back the tentacle as well as the monsters. This ability originated from him, so there was no reason why he couldn''t use it.


    Though, it also meant that everything they had done this whole time was within his illusion.


    ''If he is someone else and not Theo, then where is he?'' The Magic Saint was baffled for a moment before his instinct kicked in. He raised his left hand while covering his body with all the Magic Power he could muster. Everything purely came out as a reflex, but the next thing he realized, he felt an impact on his palm.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint took a nce before he was blown away. It was actually Theo�� the real Theo.


    He had been hiding this whole time to wait until these two exposed themselves.


    "What?" The Magic Saint couldn''t believe it and checked the original Theo. Unfortunately for him, the original Theo was also blown away by Theo. Whether the one before him was a clone or the one in front of the original Theo, they wouldn''t be able to prove it right now.


    Still, one thing was for sure, they were going to fight Theo if they wanted to cause any change on this battlefield.


    "Kh." The Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint gritted their teeth. They gotunched a few hundred feet away.


    And Theo positioned himself between them and the slime so that they couldn''t ask for help from the slime.


    Both Theo and his clone red at these two while smiling. "You want me, right? Come and get it."

 Chapter 2004 Outsmarting The God Of Mischief?

    The slime realized that he had been tricked. In order to stop him, Theo actually put these two guys before him. Even he didn''t have any information about the God of Mischief.


    After all, the only people who knew about his existence were the people he invited to his base during thest meeting. And they were trustworthy.


    So, the slime never expected there would be someone this strong to stop him.


    The slime''s body was wobbling as if trying to show his shock. But before the two could do anything, the slime actually formed a humanoid body without any facial features. It only had one purpose.


    "To think there is someone like you hiding in the base. You are this strong, yet, the world doesn''t know you until today��" The slime actually tried to engage in the conversation first.


    The God of Mischief smirked. "It''s not like you to even bother to talk. You didn''t even bother opening your mouth when you faced his clone��"


    "I''m more impressed by this strategy. After all, you have managed to outsmart me like this. However, let me see whether your power is as strong as I can feel right now��" The slime started releasing his Magic Power. But instead of using his ability, the slime told them onest thing. "Though, it seems that I managed to outsmart your outsmarting."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign and the God of Mischief suddenly felt another presence.


    At the very top of the slime body, a hole gradually formed, turning the slime into that of a volcano.


    Instead of shooting out a lot of organic materials from the inside, the slime actually released a monster.


    A shadow flew out of the hole, startling everyone. After all, everyone could feel that the existence that came out from the slime was actually a World ss Monster.


    They were shocked because each of them had been pairing up with their respective opponents. The Dark Saint had stopped the Saint with simr power. Theo and his clone had confronted the Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint.


    Even the Sword Saint fought the Fist Saint. The only remaining person that could turn the tide of the war was the Goddess of Death. But she had to fight two World ss Monsters by herself.


    In fact, her role was the heaviest, considering she had to somehow kill these two World ss Monsters and help the Heavenly Sovereign and the God of Mischief.


    The Heavenly Sovereign, the God of Mischief, and the slime knew that someone had to stop the hidden World ss Monster. And between the Heavenly Sovereign and the God of Mischief, it was clear who had to take that role.


    The Heavenly Sovereign stepped forward. "You are someone who has surpassed the Mythical Rank. But the Order and Authority can allow a Supreme Rank Expert to fight against a Mythical Rank Expert like what Theo did back then. Even so, I still believe that the God of Mischief is far stronger than that.


    "That''s why�� leave that monster to me. Please kill the slime." The Heavenly Sovereign stated with a serious expression while raising his head, looking at the monster above them.


    The monster looked like a moth. It was pping its wings gently, but the Heavenly Sovereign could see that the moth was spreading its ability as if trying to affect all of them while the slime was buying time for them.


    "You��" The God of Mischief looked at the Heavenly Sovereign as though he was worried about him. But the God of Mischief''s expression changed after seeing his resolve. He, too, had to do his part. "Alright. Leave the slime to me."


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If the slime had a facial feature, his mouth would have curved. After all, everything had gone ording to his n.


    Even though the enemy managed to outsmart him, his preparation was still beyond their imagination, allowing him to outsmart them again.


    However, that confidence suddenly disappeared. All the happiness turned into shock and worry. Even his body shivered.


    Everything changed when he saw the God of Mischief''s smile.


    "��Do you think I will do something like that?" The God of Mischief had a big grin on his face as if he had just outsmarted the slime once again.


    Even the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t contain his smile.


    The slime was confused at first. He didn''t know why thunder started shaking the ground despite the clear blue sky.


    "You think you can outsmart me? If you want to do that, you should behave like a human first and check the weather''s forecast. Let me tell you, today''s forecast is a sunny day with a chance of��" The God of Mischief paused. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning formed in the sky.


    "!!!" The slime immediately felt the danger and informed the moth to move away. Unfortunately, it was toote. The bolt of lightning had struck the moth and pushed it to the ground.


    Suddenly, a dragon descended from the sky and used all his ws to grasp the moth and pin it to the ground. This dragon was the same dragon that stopped the previous battle against World ss Monsters. He was the Lightning Saint.


    His majestic appearance startled all monsters under the slime as if they could see another leader aside from the slime. The dragon let out a heaven-shattering roar as if telling them, ''Those who dare to fight shall die!''


    *Roar!*


    The slime waspletely stunned by the dragon''s appearance. But the Lightning Saint wasn''t the only one that helped humanity.


    "!!!" The red-skinned monster suddenly felt another pressureing from behind. He turned around but ended up getting knocked by a huge w. The monster raised his head and saw another dragon with magmaing out of its body. This was the magma dragon that the Lightning Saint saved back then.


    Back then, the Heavenly Sovereign gave Theo a message that the one who would save him was probably the one who wanted to kill him.


    No one understood it at first, but when they saw the magma dragon, the meaning behind that message became clear. The magma dragon was the one Heavenly Sovereign was talking about.


    And with this, every single Saint would be matching up with at least one Saint from the enemy''s side. And there was no way Theo would lose.


    "Outsmart me? You are far too young to outsmart me, little guy." The God of Mischief smirked while sping his hands. "Then, let me invite you to my home."


    "World Re-Creation."

 Chapter 2005 Observing

    "World Re-Creation!"


    "!!!" The slime was startled by the change that the God of Mischief brought upon this world.


    Suddenly, the ground started to flip as if it was revealing its true appearance. The sky split and everyone started to disappear one by one as if they never existed.


    The slime felt the connection he had with his army was cut forcefully as if they were not in the same world anymore.


    He never thought that there would be someone this strong that could affect him to this degree.


    His Authority had been trying to dissolve the illusion, but to his surprise, he had a hard time doing it as if this entire ce was real the whole time.


    He knew that this was an illusion, but the God of Mischief''s illusion was so perfect that it looked like reality itself.


    "��" The slime realized that the entire world had changed. The environment was exactly the same, but there was nothing around them. There was no monster, no human, and even no object like rocks or trees. It was a t area with only dirt supporting them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign nced at the God of Mischief, thinking, ''I would have been shocked as well if he didn''t show it to me back then��''


    The Heavenly Sovereign remembered when the God of Mischief used the same ability to show him the illusion that could iste the slime.


    "This is��" The Heavenly Sovereign gasped. He didn''t feel the change in the primordial energy or the element. Everything looked perfect to the point he believed this was a new world that the God of Mischief managed to create.


    Yet, the God of Mischief said, "This is an isted ce that can withstand the slime''s power for a while. I have to supply a lot of Magic Power to maintain all of this, so we have to go all out for the next fifteen minutes after I erect this space."


    "Fifteen minutes��" The Heavenly Sovereign looked down. "It''s impossible to take down the slime within fifteen minutes. But we should be able to cause some injuries on the slime. Though, there''s no telling whether the slime is injured or not."


    "That''s what I''m nning to do. I know it''s impossible to take down the slime within the time limit. However, by going all out, we can learn the slime''s attack pattern as well as its weakness. We''ll use that information to fight him after this ce is gone."


    "Ah!"


    The Heavenly Sovereign remembered the words they exchanged. He should focus on his job.


    By releasing all of his Magic Power, the Heavenly Sovereign could start to manipte the elements in the entire area. He was the ruler of elements after all.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. "It''s time to fight against the strongest monster in the world. Let me see whether the slime deserves its reputation."


    ��


    While the Heavenly Sovereign and the God of Mischief contained the slime within the isted space, the people from the base had begun to make their move.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Agata looked at the screen with a serious expression, observing the entire situation.


    "Each Saint has found their opponent. There are several Saints who seem to have the advantage over their opponents and we are expecting them to finish their fight as soon as possible." Ne reported to Agata.


    Agata nodded. "Are you sure you are going to stay here with me? I mean, you don''t seem to be the type that will remain quiet when there''s a big battle over there."


    Ne shook her head. "I won''t deny it, but I have a more important mission from Big Brother Theo. My priority is to keep you safe so that he can fight on the frontline without any worry. If my little strength can help someone like him, I think I have done my job."


    Agata made a small smile. She knew Ne''s personality. And it was true that among Theo''s trusted subordinates, the only person suited for this task was Ne. Although it would mean they were restraining her, they had to do it.


    "I understand." Agata took a deep breath as her expression became serious again. "What about the Transcendent Level Experts?"


    "We are currentlycking in numbers. Each Transcendent Level Expert is fighting four or more King ss Monsters. Obviously, some of them are at a huge disadvantage, considering their strength is a bit too low.


    "Luckily, a lot of King ss Monsters had a simr power. It meant they came from a World ss Monster that had been split into a few. Although they were strong, they wouldn''t be as strong as a real King ss Monster."


    Agata thought for a moment. "How about the unique monsters?"


    "Although our people are at a disadvantage, we have gained a lot of experience in handling the unique monsters. In other words, we should be able to regain our ground soon.


    "The enemy number is quite huge, but we won''t be annihted in an instant. The pope is working with a lot of Healers to take care of the injured. Even Aisha is there, helping the pope."


    Agata looked down with a serious expression while muttering, "There are about four hundred thousand monsters attacking us directly�� twice our number. Still, we have the pope who can heal thousands, if not tens of thousands. So, we should be able to somehow ovee the battle."


    "Yes. All we can do is react to what they throw at us." Ne suddenly fell silent when she found out something was missing from the screen.


    "!!!" Ne widened her eyes in shock as she immediately reported to Agata. "The slime has disappeared!"


    "!!!" Agata seemed to be startled as well. Theo had told her about a certain sign and this was the time to make their next move. Agata asked, "How about the area around the base?"


    "As we expected, the enemies were hiding this whole time and finally decided to strike us from the west, south, and east."


    Agata nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, it''s time. Deploy the relief squad."


    "Understood."

 Chapter 2006 Cooperation

    Just like Agata, the government was also watching the entire battle directly. They had nted a lot of cameras to check the situation going on.


    As expected, due to the urgency and uncertainty, the government was evacuated. Whether it was bravery or his responsibility, the president actually stayed inside the base. He ordered his people to evacuate the acting vice president, who reced the traitor, and the entire cab for a working government in case something happened. Obviously, since the base was not safe anymore, they were sent to the union or United Asia.


    Not many people actually knew about their current location.


    The president, along with a few staff that chose or allowed to remain in the base, gathered in one room, observing multiple screens to watch over the current battle.


    The military, the police and everyone in charge of the security of the base had been connected to it as well, doing the same thing. They all cooperated with Theo in order to win this battle.


    While the president was watching the biggest screen that showed Theo''s battlefield, the Skyphone in the room rang.


    One of the staff picked it up to ask about the matter, but he soon shouted to inform the rest of the people inside the room. "Not good. There are approximately a hundred thousand monstersing from the east and southeast. They are moving toward the border."


    "!!!" The president and the rest of the people turned around to confirm the authenticity of the information.


    But before they could do so, another Skyphone rang, bringing another piece of news.


    "There are approximately two hundred thousand monstersing from the south. We believe the monsters that have been hiding after the previous war have brought the monsters from Mexico. They are aiming at the base right now."


    "We have spotted more than a hundred thousand monstersing from the west and southwest."


    "!!!" Most people were startled and panicked, not knowing what to do. On the other hand, the president remained calm and asked, "How is our defense on the border?"


    "We have stationed enough people tost for a few hours for this kind of number. We should be able to defend the border if we give some air support to those areas."


    The people thought it would be good to send them right away. However, the president still remembered the negotiation he had with Theo.


    He thought for a moment and said, "No. The air support shall be sent to the north''s battlefield. Not a single of them shall go to other battlefields."


    His people were confused, but the president knew that Theo had been precise in his n and prediction. So, he chose to believe in his judgment instead of his people. Although they were enemies, it didn''t change the fact that the president held the highest authority and Theo was the most reliable man in the world. They knew they had to rely on each other to win this war.


    Since the president had given the order, no one could raise an objection.


    At the same time, the president called the number Theo gave to him back then if he wanted to contact him.


    When he called the number, the one who picked it up was none other than themander in Theo''s headquarters, Agata.


    "Yes? Who is this?"


    "This voice�� Agata Mota��"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Mr. President��"


    Both of them recognized each other''s voice as they knew what this meant. The president didn''t hesitate to say, "There are around four hundred thousand monstersing from all around the base."


    "We have received a simr report, Mr. President."


    "We will be sending everything we have to the north battlefield, so I wonder if you have any n regarding the rest of the battlefields?"


    "The troops stationed there should be enough tost for a few hours. We would like them to keep the monsters outside the base."


    "It seems that we should change to attrition warfare if we want to make this as long as possible." The president thought for a moment. "But we might have a hard time without any support."


    "We have sent our Relief Squad. Although they are small, they are full of elites. So you don''t have to worry. We shall hunt down all the strong monsters and leave the rest to you. That should be enough, right?"


    The president frowned. Although he didn''t know how good this relief squad was, the fact that Agata and Theo relied on them to relieve three directions meant the relief squad should be quite reliable.


    "Alright."


    The president hung up and looked at his staff. "Tell them to maintain their position and stop them as long as possible. If it''s another human, the attrition warfare mightst for days or even months with the number we have. But our opponents are monsters, they''re going to move forward without thinking much about their lives. So, tell them to maintain their current situation until the reinforcement arrives."


    The staff nodded and immediately ryed his words. They were still doubtful, but they could only obey him.


    Meanwhile, Agata had contacted the relief squad.


    There were three people leading the relief squad. They were the three Transcendent Level Experts that Theo saved during his trip.


    "We have received an order. We''ll kill as many monsters as possible and absorb a bit of their army to move to the next location."


    "To think we would be fighting like this�� Is our choice to go here a mistake?"


    "It''s not a mistake. You should have seen how many World ss Monsters are attacking this base from the screens. They will destroy everything in their way, especially that slime.


    "If the world is going to be destroyed if we lose the war, there''s no need to hesitate to participate in this war that involves humanity''s survival. I''m not a patriotic guy, but I don''t like being ruled by monsters more, so yeah��"


    "I guess we have to go out and show the world that we are still here�� Being a hero doesn''t suit me, but I don''t mind bing famous."


    "Well, I''m simply following Theodore Griffith. That''s the only person who can invoke such emotion from me."


    The three Transcendent Level Experts smiled. They immediately rose from their seats and walked out of the room. Despite their argument, all three of them were ready to fight.

 Chapter 2007 Options

    "What? We are to keep them here without any support?" Themander who supervised the battlefield in the east shouted in disbelief. "Do you know how many monsters we are fighting right now? There are a number of unique monsters as well. We will suffer a lot of casualties at this rate."


    "We know about it. But the headquarters have given the order. We have to hold this area for as long as we can." The subordinate who reported it to him didn''t know how to face his angry superior.


    Themander gritted his teeth and mmed the table. "Do they not know that we only have fifteen thousand people while the enemies are about twice our numbers?"


    Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do, considering Theo and the military headquarters had reached an agreement.


    They had to concentrate their strength in the north and leave the rest to the hidden group that Theo had hidden this whole time.


    Themander was frustrated as he came out of the room and looked at the battlefield directly. The battlefield was held not far away from the city. He could easily look at the battlefield from the tallest building they had used for the control room and observation room.


    Themander could see the numerous monsters pushing the army back. Although most of the monsters consisted of those in Hero rank or lower, the enemies had a lot of unique monsters that were said to be stronger than ordinary Mythical Rank Experts.


    Even if they had more Supreme Rank Experts, they would certainly lose sooner orter without any support or reinforcement.


    When themander looked at the battle situation, he was convinced that he had to make his move.


    "It seems that I have to go as well. There is no way I''m going to let my subordinates fight to their death while I''m sitting in the safe spot." Themander gritted his teeth. He had gotten used to deploying his people for missions, but having to watch them directly was truly hard.


    However, themander wouldn''t have his time to shine. After all, there was a long ck line in the corner of his eyes.


    "Hmm? What''s that?" Themander was startled and immediately returned to the room to grab a binocr to check what was going on.


    And he was shocked by what he had just found. "They are�� humans?"


    "Attack!" The old man, who was said to be the 30th in the world, shouted out loud. His body was brimming with energy and his face was filled with fighting intent. Everything excluded from his body was the opposite of his aged appearance.


    The old man pulled his stick, aiming at the monsters in front of them. Before using his ability, he nced at the other two, asking, "Are you two ready?"


    The two Transcendent Level Experts behind him nced at each other, smiling. They couldn''t help but remember the time when Theo gave them options to choose from.


    Back then, Theo had told them to gather all the people to start the immigration process.


    But before they started, Theo dered out loud. "I''m going to tell you this beforehand. If you enter the base, there will be a hugemotion and even chaos that might cause the base to be unstable. And if you stay out here, there will be a chance that the monsters wille to attack you. That''s why I would rather mobilize you to hunt those monsters instead.


    "To put it simply, I''m giving you two options and I''m not going to sugarcoat my words. Choose. If you stay here, I''m going to deploy you. If you enter the base, you might end up fighting the chaos as well and help suppress it."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That deration startled everyone. They all followed Theo because they could live with many people in a safe ce. But they never thought Theo would make them fight.


    "What do you mean?"


    "I''m following you because I''m tired of all this shit."


    "Don''t fuck around with me."


    Even though they were veterans and elites that had stayed in a harsh environment for so long, not everyone wanted to follow Theo no matter how grateful they were.


    Theo understood itpletely and didn''t even bother to reply to them. He only asked, "Choose. Those are the only two options."


    The people were angered. Some of them didn''t want to die when hope was right in front of their eyes. But some actually prepared themselves for something like this, thinking this was the only way to repay Theo. After this battle, they wouldn''t owe Theo anything.


    The Transcendent Level old man stepped forward and asked, "I am ready to fight for you to repay you for giving me this hope. However, I would like to ask a question. Do you n to kill us?"


    "No." Theo shook his head without hesitation. "Inside the base, there will be the Mafia Queen, one of the strongest people in the world to assist you. All you have to do is cooperate with her and everything shall be fine.


    "Outside the base, there will be a lot of monsters, some strong ones. However, I can guarantee that there won''t be any King ss Monsters. If you are injured and can''t continue fighting, you are free to retire there and get a safe ce in the base. But if you can still fight, I hope all of you can continue.


    "You will even find Transcendent Level Experts there. You just have to fuse yourself with the army to sweep the entire battlefield and continue."


    The old man closed his eyes for a moment. "Despite a lot of rejection we have right now, I am ready toy down my life. This battle is very important to humanity. So, I''m going to do it. As for the others, I think it''s better to give some rewards��"


    "I know." Theo nodded in agreement. "Those who choose to enter the base will be considered as separated from me. So, you don''t need to think of anything rted to me after that.


    "As for those who are fighting alongside me, I''m going to integrate all of you near my ce. I''m nning to build an academy and other things like a hospital. I have a very good doctor who can regenerate a limb out of nothing, you see. And even in the academy, I''ll be teaching there from time to time. That''s the only thing I can promise you right now. So, please make your choice. I''m going to respect your decision."


    When everyone heard the reward, they began to hesitate. Although they were sick of fighting, it didn''t change the fact that the world would be even harsher. If they don''t get stronger personally, they might end up with a lot of problems in the future. Meanwhile, if they followed Theo, they might get a lot of benefits that would secure their lives in the future.


    Theo had told them that his healer could regenerate a limb. In other words, as long as they didn''t die, they should be able to continue living like normal. Whether they would retire or not would be their choiceter.


    That was why a lot of people became silent after hearing this. This was an opportunity they could get once in a lifetime.


    And for the old Transcendent Level Expert, he only smiled as if he had decided to fight for him without expecting any benefit.

 Chapter 2008 Three Transcendent Level Experts

    "Balloon!" The old man thrust his stick. The Magic Power that covered the stick flew forward like the extension of the stick. However, Magic Power gradually changed its shape into that bubble.


    The stick looked like a balloon straw attached to a big balloon that was about to pop out. The old man thrust his stick so that he could force the air into his spear and blow the balloon.


    Now that he had a big balloon at the tip of his stick, he cut off the connection between the balloon and the stick.


    In that instant, the balloon immediately flew frantically like a loose balloon, releasing all the air inside.


    The balloon continued to fly toward the monsters until it eventually reached them. Then, the balloon pushed the monster that made the first contact around and started flying uncontrobly.


    It pushed, crushed, or mmed every monster in its path.


    "As expected of the King of Balloon, I''m impressed by how he can use such a unique ability. I can''t really lose against the old man, can''t I?" The middle-aged man, who was known as the King of Pration, raised his spear.


    He gathered the energy like the old man, but when he thrust his spear, the energy didn''t form a balloon. Instead, it flew forth like the extension of the spear.


    The energy crushed every monster in its path and continued prating the enemy''s rank until a few unique monsters ended up using their power to stop it. It was simply too powerful to be stopped by any means.


    "Seriously�� How can all of you be so calm when we are expected to fight against so many monsters." The middle-aged woman shook her head. She was the Coin Queen.


    She took out a silver coin and threw it into the air.


    The coin flew like normal, but when it was about to fall down, the Coin Queen immediately activated the true ability. In that instant, the coin expanded. Its size was something people had never seen before. The coin had a radius of fifty feet and its weight was multiplied proportionally by its size.


    The monsters tried to shoot it down before it reached them, but the coin was simply too heavy and followed gravity.


    The moment it fell down, it crushed more than twenty monsters at once.


    The King of Balloon, the King of Pration, and the Coin Queen. These three were the Transcendent Level Experts Theo found in his previous mission.


    The King of Balloon couldn''t help but say, "King of Pration�� Pfft��"


    "Oi. Is it the time to joke with my nickname? The people around me had joked about everything you could think of. I had already killed all those politicians who wanted to suppress me by spreading that name�� but the damage was already done. Though, I might kill both of you out of anger after this."


    "Haha, it''s not my intention. I simply want to ask you to create a giant hole for me to blow my balloon. I was a clown, so it''s time for me to make people happy with one big balloon." The old man smirked.


    "��" The King of Pration clicked his tongue and said, "I need your coin."


    "Oh my, you want to prate my coin?" The middle-aged woman looked at him in disgust.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The King of Pration gnashed his teeth as he wanted to pierce through their hearts, but he knew that they had to cooperate first.


    Even the Coin Queen had taken out another coin and thrown it to the sky.


    When the coin expanded and fell, it remained standing on its side. "Don''t let it fall, will you?"


    "Don''t worry." The King of Pration pulled his spear and stopped for a second, aiming for the huge coin. He then thrust his spear, sending forth the Magic Power that instantly crushed the middle part of the coin without a single gust. "I can pierce everything with or without power. Your turn, old man."


    The old man nodded and leaped into the air. When he was about to reach the hole, he put the stick in front of him.


    The stick was hollow to make the stick have a tunnel for the air to flow. That was how he released one balloon after another.


    But this time, he was nning to use the coin as the base. And he used the stick to blow the balloon.


    Suddenly, the hole in the coin was covered with ayer of liquid soap and started to expand when the old man blew up the balloon.


    A huge balloon gradually formed, causing the monsters to stop and try to attack it to stop anything that the old man nned to do.


    Unfortunately for them, the moment they popped the balloon, a huge shock wave came out from the inside, sting everything around it. The huge coin, the monsters, and even the soil underneath the balloon were blown away.


    The monsters immediately had a problem moving since a lot of monsters fell down like rain, crashing into one another.


    The King of Pration immediately raised his hand and shouted to the people behind them.


    Although their number remained only a little less than two thousand people, it was enough to cause a huge ruckus on the battlefield. They were going to absorb the soldiers here anyway, so it wasn''t that bad.


    He raised his spear and shouted. "We are going toplete the mission that has been given to us and we shall receive the best retirement n. Let''s survive until the end like how we keep struggling in that wilderness!"


    The King of Pration had used his Magic Power to spread the word. And because of his power, his words actually pierced everyone''s heart, causing them to feel moved.


    They became determined since all they had to do was toplete the mission and everything would be guaranteed by Theo after that.


    They couldn''t help but roar as they marched toward the monsters, not scared of anything.


    Still, the problem didn''te only from the outside but also from the inside.

 Chapter 2009 Mafia Queen

    Inside the base.


    The battle might not be broadcast to the general public to avoid any panic. But the news would find its way to take a sneak peek or inside information to spread.


    Some media had been controlled by the government and spread the information that they wanted to spread to calm the masses. But some media still caused some ruckus with their own news.


    "The base is attacked from all directions. Will our soldiers be able to protect this base?"


    The people could only look at their Skylink, browsing through the news. After all, the government had ordered them to stay at home to avoid panic.


    Of course, the panic had struck the base at a smaller scale earlier. They ransacked the shelves, especially for food and toilet paper. There was some chaos happening all around the base, but they were quickly suppressed by the police and military.


    And this time, there would be huge chaos if they came outside. Numerous people might lose their lives since there were spies hidden among the poption.


    And the government was on high alert and mobilized the police, stationing them in every area. The people that left their houses would be under heavy pressure from the police.


    This was the countermeasure they had prepared.


    A police car stopped nearby and the police inside it rolled down the window, asking, "How is the situation in your area?"


    "There are no people leaving their houses for the time being. I hope this shit ends as soon as possible." He sighed.


    "No shit." The police shrugged. "But right now, we can only do our job without knowing when the war will end. I''ve seen a few angry people trying to leave."


    "For real? I can understand though, but then again, it''s said that there will be an attack bigger than the one we faced previously. I don''t know if it''s real or not, but I guess it''s better to be safe than sorry."


    "Yeah. I''m gonna check other blocks then."


    "Sure. Have a nice��" Before the guy finished, a huge explosion urred.


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" Both of them turned around, looking at the rising fire and a lot of debris flying into the sky. Due to their location, they didn''t feel the powerful shock wave. But they could somehow sense the passing gale as the remnant of the shock wave.


    Both of them looked at each other, realizing that the attack had started.


    "I''m going!" The guy immediately stepped on the pedal to check what was going on while the other one focused on defending his area with a grim expression.


    They didn''t know what was happening, but the line immediately got busy as a lot of them reported about the situation.


    "A van exploded. We suspected there was a bomb inside."


    "No trace of people was found at the moment."


    The atmosphere inside the base started to get worse. The people from the media tried their best to get the scoop and get the rating. They didn''t care whether their action would cause a mass panic or not.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    At the scene, there were a lot of police isting the area. The bomb squad had been called and a lot of experts, either Supreme Rank Experts or Mythical Rank Experts, got involved.


    But more importantly, there was one more person that got involved in this. He held the power far above the others.


    He was none other than the Time God.


    While they were busy discussing the bomb, the Time God arrived at the scene and asked, "Have you found anything?"


    "!!!" The people were startled when they saw the Time God. They immediately greeted them. "Sir."


    The Time God waved his hand to calm them down while asking the same question, "So�� have you found something?"


    "We are not very sure at the moment. Our suspicion is that the van had a bomb inside and it had been here for a while. We have been asking around, but not a single person has seen anyoneing out of the van. They even tell us that the van doesn''t belong to this area."


    The Time God frowned. "This is weird��"


    "Yes, Sir."


    They all looked at the Time God, wondering if he could do something with his unique power.


    But before the Time God had time to shine, a female''s voice disturbed all of them.


    "Yo, Aiden."


    "!!!" The Time God felt something familiar from this voice and immediately turned around, finding a woman that had been hiding inside this base the whole time. He frowned, "You are�� the Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric."


    "!!!" The police obviously heard about that name. They all looked at her in shock, wondering why such a person hade here.


    Even the Time God was confused. He asked, "Why are you here? You are supposed to help the people outside the base, right?"


    "No. There is a change of n. The enemies are stronger than we expected, so it''s better for me to babysit the base and have you go to the battlefield." The Mafia Queen shook his head.


    "Huh? Is that from Theo?"


    "Yeah. There were a lot of World ss Monsters on the battlefield. Instead of adding me, who couldn''t go toe to toe with a World ss Monster, it''s better to have you there.


    "So, I''m giving you his message now. Time God, Aiden Turner. Head straight to the battlefield and help us suppress the slime. Your ability and strength are more useful to be used on the battlefield."


    "!!!" The people were shocked since the message''s tone was high and mighty. It was as if Theo was looking down on the Time God. But if they thought about it, the most terrifying existence in this base was Theo. So, it might be normal for him to say it that way.


    However, the Time God frowned as if he didn''t agree with this arrangement. "This is the first time I heard about it. Are you sure you''re not making it up by yourself? Besides, I''m stronger here, so I''ll be more useful as thest line of defense. We still don''t know about the enemies hiding inside the base."


    The Mafia Queen and the Time God suddenly stared at each other as if they were trying to show their power to make the other follow their idea.

 Chapter 2010 Hidden Plan

    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    A series of explosions urred all over the base.


    "!!!" The police near the two Saints couldn''t help but interrupt them, "We have an emergency. There are multiple explosions urring in the base."


    In that instant, the Time God said, "It seems the situation has be worse. It''s time��"


    The Mafia Queen didn''t let the Time God finish his words before she raised her hand as if telling him to stop.


    Suddenly, the police received another report.


    "What?"


    "There are five peopleing into that area?"


    "Those five are Supreme Rank Experts?"


    "Who are they?"


    "You don''t have their identities?"


    "No, the identities are new?"


    "What is happening?"


    The people werepletely confused. On the one hand, they never expected there would be a reinforcement. On the other hand, those helpers were not from the police or affiliated with the government. So, they could be dangerous.


    But right after their confusion, the headquarters immediately informed them about Theo''s n and the identity of those helpers.


    "What? Those people are under the Mafia Queen? And they have been dispatched by Theodore Griffith and received permission from the president himself?"


    Everything was heard loud and clear as the police wanted both of them to know about the situation to stop the two from fighting.


    But the police involuntarily helped the Mafia Queen.


    After hearing the report, the Time God frowned, realizing everything was within Theo''s n.


    The Mafia Queen smirked and said, "That''s right. There are approximately a thousand people that will be helping the police. Their number might not be much, but everyone is an elite. And you should know my ability��


    "With my enchanter ability, I can turn those elites into top experts. And those top experts have been scattered all around the base topletely suppress the spy. We have received permission from the president as well. Hence, it''s better for you to start moving, Aiden. Your role as an observer has ended."


    The Time God gritted his teeth. He had told everyone that he was only an observer. He might know the future, but changing it would cause a lot of problems. So, the Time God remained as an observer for most of the time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, Theo actually stationed the Mafia Queen in this ce to change the Time God''s role.


    Since the Mafia Queen was protecting the base, he would be dispatched to the front line to take care of the slime.


    The Time God obviously had read his book that gave the details of his future. But there was only a statement regarding those one thousand people.


    He had been searching for them this whole time while wondering where Theo could get such reinforcement. He thought it was rted to the beggar association or another organization. But everything was wrong.


    Not a single person knew their identity. Even when Theo exined it to his allies, he didn''t give much information.


    It wasn''t that he was trying to be secretive so that they would act as a trump card. He actually did it for the sake of not giving the details to the Time God.


    No matter how tight-lipped the Mafia Queen or his allies were, there was a chance that the Time God could get the information. The Future Time God would write it and tell the current Time God about the circumstances, allowing him to change the future and remain as an observer.


    But because there wasn''t a single soul who told him about their identities, Theo managed to create a gap and force the Time God to act.


    And that n started working as he received a call from the president himself.


    "Sir Time God. I apologize for asking this much from you, but the Mafia Queen will be protecting the base for the time being. Please help the front line since this battle involves the survival of humanity. Please help us, Sir."


    The Time God''s eyebrows twitched. He was frustrated, but no matter how he did it, there was no way the Time God could escape from this role.


    He looked at the Mafia Queen and said, "It''s true that I couldn''t get any details about them if no one knows about them in the first ce. But it seems this is the reason why he has been hiding you this whole time, Alexandra.


    "He wants everyone to think you are his trump card in fighting the slime. It turns out you are the trump card to force me to make my move."


    Alexandra smirked. "That''s how it is. You might be able to see the future with your power, but that guy is far scarier�� He can make the future."


    "Hahaha." The Time God chuckled. "I guess this is the end of my role as an observer."


    Alexandra smiled. They both looked at each other as if they wanted to fight. Surprisingly, both of them released their Magic Power at the same time, alerting the people around.


    Their Magic Power was too much for ordinary people to bear. Even the police had a hard time breathing.


    However, the Time God never nned to harm them. Before they started gasping for air, the Time God disappeared while leaving one message. "You won this time."


    The Mafia Queen immediately retracted her Magic Power the moment the Time God disappeared. He must be using all his strength to head to the battlefield. If the God of Mischief, the Heavenly Sovereign, the Time God, and the Goddess of Death were to work together, even the slime couldn''t hold a candle.


    This was Theo''s n.


    The Mafia Queen smiled while looking to the north where the Time God was going. She couldn''t help but muster, "To think you would shock me this much, Theodore Griffith.


    "I have sent the Time God to your ce. With this, humanity shall prevail." The Mafia Queen closed her eyes for a moment. Even though she wasn''t scared of the Time God, her strength couldn''t bepared to the Time God. So, it took a toll on her to challenge him like that.


    "Still��" The Mafia Queen turned to the police. "I''m going to cooperate with the police in suppressing the unrest. Give me all the reports."

 Chapter 2011 Splitting Up

    Chapter 2011 Splitting Up


    Theo and his clone were facing his grandfather as well as his original self. Just like the Goddess of Death, he must defeat both of them and head to the slime, helping the God of Mischief and the Heavenly Sovereign.


    Still, Theo hadn''t done anything big this whole time as if he didn''t n to finish this battle quickly. It was weird since Theo''s role was to defeat the slime, which could lead to the copse of the enemy army.


    That was why Theo should be in a hurry.


    Yet, the Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint could only furrow their eyebrows when Theo hadn''t done anything. When he used his power, he only either neutralized their attacks or released a small amount of Magic Power to distract them.


    "��" The Devouring Saint jumped back, regaining some distance. He frowned, trying to figure out Theo''s n.


    Even though both of them were Theo, the original Theo didn''t have theplete talent of Theodore Griffith. So, he still had a hard time understanding Theo''s intention.


    Meanwhile, the Magic Saint decided to do the same thing, regrouping with the original Theo.


    The Magic Saint nced to the side and said, "Oi, there is something weird."


    "I know. It reeks of a trap." The original Theo narrowed his eyes, wondering what Theo nned to do. Although they hadn''t used their full power as well, it didn''t change the fact that Theo still maintained the upper hand this whole time.


    The Magic Saint took a deep breath, wondering what he should do. He understood that his power was still lower than Theo''s. However, he believed that the original Theo, with his devouring power, was superior to Theo.


    Still, Theo and his clone shared the same sense and vision, so they would lose if they fought them together.


    The Magic Saint and the Devouring Saint seemed to have reached an agreement.


    "We will fight them alone. Although we have understood each other''s ability and are capable of working together, the opponent is a bit special," said the Magic Saint.


    The original Theo nodded his head.


    Then, the Magic Saint and the original Theo moved in the opposite direction. They were heading straight to the yellow zone where the King ss Monsters and Transcendent Level Experts fought.


    Obviously, there was no way Theo would allow it.


    He chased after them without hesitation.


    The original Theo nced at the back. Theo seemed to be using all his strength to chase after him as the distance shrank so fast.


    It seemed that both of them had the same thought at this point.


    Theo used his Blink to teleport himself in front of the original Theo, preventing him from reaching the yellow line. Meanwhile, the original Theo had pped his hands and formed four ck holes in all directions.


    They were sucking everything. The Magic Power in Theo''s body starteding out. It felt like the energy in his body was sucked away.


    Still, Theo didn''t have a change in expression. He simply snapped his finger, using his Reality to crush the four ck holes.


    They started to crack as if they had a tangible form, but what actually cracked was the Magic Power that made the vortex. In the end, the Magic Power was disrupted, causing the ck holes to explode.


    The explosion didn''t release Magic Power due to its property. Instead, it sucked everything andpletely vanished into thin air as if nothing happened.


    "��" Theo waved his hand, summoning thousands of Magic Bullets to surround the original Theo. An attack of this level wouldn''t work on the Original Theo, but it was enough to stop the original Theo for a few seconds.


    During that time, he received news from the headquarters.


    "The First Phase has ended perfectly. Starting the second phase."


    The one who gave that information was Agata. Theo couldn''t help but smile when he heard this news.


    The First Phase in her mouth was simply forcing the Time God to go to the battlefield while the Mafia Queen handled the matter inside the base.


    The Time God''s strength was far beyond anyone''s imagination, so it would be better if he came to the battlefield instead of staying there.


    And the second phase was where everything began to move.


    "Why are you smiling? Do you think I''m not worth your time? I''m going to show you that I''m the original. I will devour you and take everything you have." The original Theo gritted his teeth.


    Theo''s relieved smile changed into that of a taunting smile. "Are you sure about that? You are me, right? Then, instead of taking everything from me, you should be able to create one by yourself. I guess you are the inferior one."


    Due to the hatred between Theo and the original Theo, thetter couldn''t contain his anger. He charged forward while enveloping his body with the ck-colored Magic Power.


    "Die, you faker!" The original Theo roared.


    Since they had begun the second phase, there was no need for Theo to wait anymore. He immediately released his Magic Power to the fullest.


    "!!!" The original Theo was slightly stunned because this was the first time Theo released enough energy to show that he was serious. He immediately slowed down to observe Theo''s movement.


    The first thing Theo did was summon the Death Avatar.


    The huge death avatar released a simr amount of Magic Power. The right eye had been enveloped with purple fire and connected to Theo''s left eye which had a simr appearance.


    Both of them smirked as Theo activated the Death Avatar''s ability.


    Death Avatar, First Authority. Death Eyes.


    The Death Avatar released a killing intent on par with the Death Eyes from the Goddess of Death. Although Theo didn''t have the Authority, the killing intent he had developed to this day couldn''t be underestimated either.


    Theo still managed to manifest the feeling of ''death'' itself in everyone''s heart. And the original Theo surely experienced that feeling as he had slowed down beforeing to a halt.

 Chapter 2012 Original vs Fake

    Chapter 2012 Original vs Fake


    Theo thrust his spear, taking advantage of the Death Eyes''s power tond a hit on the original Theo.


    But as one would expect from the original Theo, even though his talent and experience wereckingpared to the current Theo, they were still the same person.


    Right before the spear hit him, the original Theo smirked as he suddenly elerated to his max speed.


    It turned out he had been acting this whole time.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock when he saw the original Theo avoided the thrust. Thetter even tried to stab his heart as a counterattack.


    Theo used all his strength to throw his body to the side, but it was a tad toote. The spear grazed the side of his chest.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth and jumped back, trying to regain some distance to calm down.


    Obviously, the original Theo didn''t n to let him go. He chased after him and waved his spear while saying, "I can devour everything, including fear. Anything you do won''t be able to touch me anymore!"


    When the original Theo''s confidence reached its peak and their distance was close, Theo smiled as he also did the same thing as the original Theo.


    He elerated and thrust his spear while dodging the original Theo.


    "!!!" It was the Devouring Saint''s turn to be shocked as he used all his energy to shift the momentum, barely avoiding it.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, while the original Theo was angry and frustrated. He realized that Theo had used the same trick to fool him.


    Even the injury on the side of his chest disappeared together with the cut mark on the shirt.


    It turned out the injury itself was an illusion. Theo actually managed to avoid the spearpletely. He just wanted the original Theo to lower his guard down and strike him.


    Unfortunately, both of them were Theodore Griffith. They weren''t that easy to defeat.


    Both of them were staring at each other, wondering what they should do and what their other self nned to do.


    After all, this battle would be decided with their strategy. Even though there was a gap in their strength, as long as their strategy worked, they would be the winner.


    Theo started waving his spear as if he was trying to write something in the air. The original Theo didn''t know what it was, but he felt something weird from the movement.


    It might be a trick with no meaning, but the original Theo couldn''t simply dismiss any small act that Theo used, especially since Theo was known to be this type of person. If he carelessly approached him, he would be the one to lose.


    Hence, the original Theo gathered his Magic Power into his left hand, forming a small ck hole. Despite the size being only five percent of the previous ck hole, the sucking force was more than a hundred times.


    The hair, the clothes, or even the body was moving toward the ck hole. Only the original Theo wasn''t affected by the sucking force.


    Then, the original Theo tossed the ck hole forward.


    "��" Theo squinted his eyes and ended up jumping to the side as the ck hole sucked everything around it. Luckily, they had fought a bit farther from everyone. Even though they were close to the yellow line, there was still enough distance for anyone to avoid that attack.


    Theo used his illusion to create a crack in the vortex again, but to his surprise, the sucking force was so great that the Magic Power to supply the illusion was sucked first before it could activate the power.


    Both Theo had different thoughts about this phenomenon. For the original Theo, knowing that his devouring power would be enough to suck the Magic Power that was used for illusion was good news since this was one of the ways he could use to kill Theo. On the other hand, Theo thought the devouring power was good enough to be used as a weapon.


    Of course, this weapon wasn''t pointed at the humans or him. Instead, he was nning to use this power to kill some monsters nearby.


    ''Hmm�� The illusion is not working. I don''t think Reality Removal will be working against that level of devouring force, I guess��'' Theo thought while assessing the original Theo. He was trying toe up with a way to defeat his original. ''Well, I have been gathering his data this whole time. I can still use the Twisted Reality and Reverse World to challenge him�� Let''s try it slowly, shall we?''


    They were truly the same person. The original Theo also used that time to think about his next move.


    ''The devouring power is enough to stop his illusion. But it uses too much Magic Power. I won''t be able to keep up if I use my Magic Power recklessly.


    ''Then again, it''s impossible to defeat him with weak abilities. It seems that I have to continue using this ability. I just have to find an opportunity to make it count.''


    The original Theo might feel superior, but it didn''t change the fact that he acknowledged the current Theo''s power. He knew how annoying it was to deal with the clone and the illusion that was supported by Theo''s brain.


    Meanwhile, Theo also knew that devouring power was simply too powerful. Although the original Theo looked rash, he was still the same person. So, he should be able to maintain a cool head during the fight. The more he riled him up, the more the original Theo might use it to fake his anger.


    That was why both of them couldn''t be careless if they wanted to win.


    Their Magic Power soared once again as they prepared their next move.


    Theo used his Alter Ego this time, increasing his speed. Meanwhile, the original Theo used the Devouring Power to swallow all the Magic Power in the area to weaken Theo''s ability.


    "!!!"


    Both Theo suddenly disappeared, followed by a powerful shock wave as if there was a sh between them.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 2013 Reality vs Devour

    Chapter 2013 Reality vs Devour


    *Bam!*


    The two Theo reappeared with their spears colliding with each other. The force behind the thrust caused a powerful shock wave that blew away everything on the ground. Only some sturdy trees managed to retain their positions.


    Theo and his original self looked at each other''s spear. Unlike the original, Theo had his spear enhanced by the gem from the previous God of Reality. So, he had the advantage in terms of wielding the Reality Power.


    However, the original Theo had a unique power that could neutralize Theo''s Reality Power. So, both of them tried to find a way to hit their enemies.


    The original Theo made the first move. He raised both hands.


    Infinite Darkness.


    The entire area gradually turned dark. The sunlight still reached them, but it felt like everything had lost its colors.


    This was the original Theo''s Infinite Darkness. He once used it during their fight in Italy.


    And Theo couldn''t help but smile since he didn''t n to fall into the same trick. Without hesitation, he snapped his finger.


    In that instant, the entire world seemed to crack. The crack spread until it was all around the sky.


    The original Theo wouldn''t allow Theo to easily break his S Rank Skill, so he flew forward while gathering his energy around his arms. ck-colored energy started wrapping his lower arms.


    The energy was sucking everything in its surrounding, so the original Theo would never run out of Magic Power at this rate.


    If Theo fought him for too long, he would eventually be at a disadvantage. The only way to defeat the original Theo was to use overwhelming power.


    However, the problem was that the original Theo was strong enough to not be defeated easily.


    The example was this ck energy wrapping his arms.


    Theo could see the name of that skill. It was only a Rank A Skill. There was nothing he should worry about, but Theo ended up using his Energy st and concentrated it on the tip of his spear.


    He thrust forward and let the Energy st explode, causing a powerful shock wave that stopped the original Theo''s momentum.


    "!!!" From the expression alone, it seemed Theo had understood the power of the ck energy. That was why he blew him away.


    The original Theo took advantage of this information to turn around and aim for another person near them.


    Theo clicked his tongue, knowing that he had to keep the original Theo close if he didn''t want him to distract other Saints.


    Although it would be annoying, he had to do it. He knew it was a trap, but Theo had no choice but to go after him.


    The original Theo smirked and sped his hands.


    Two ck holes appeared on Theo''s side, absorbing the Magic Power around Theo. This way, Theo wouldn''t be able to utilize his strength to the fullest.


    At the same time, the original Theo turned around and tried to grab Theo''s neck with the ck-colored arm.


    Theo looked to the sides before thrusting his spear, trying to pierce through the arm even if the Magic Power he poured into his spear was sucked by the ck holes.


    The original Theo grinned because this was his time to shine. He grabbed the spear like nothing then pulled it so that Theo was dragged in his direction.


    His other hand was already moving forward, trying to grab Theo.


    Unfortunately for him, his opponent was the ''Theodore Griffith.''


    Suddenly, the energy around the spear returned as if they were never sucked by the ck holes.


    "Huh?" The original Theo felt the sudden surge of energy and hurriedly dropped the spear, but it was a tad toote. The surging Magic Power caused a shock wave that hit him like a truck.


    "Gah!" The original Theo spat an acid from his stomach as he was blown away. Still, the original Theo managed to utilize his Magic Power to stabilize his body and regain hisposure.


    He looked at the iing Theo and used the little time he had to understand what had happened earlier.


    ''I should have sucked his Magic Power with the ck holes��'' When he nced at the ck holes, he couldn''t help but widen his eyes. He was dumbfounded. After all, the ck holes suddenly disappeared as if they never existed there. However, he still felt the connection between him and the ck holes.


    It was weird. But there was only one possibility. ''Don''t tell me, the ck holes are only an illusion? And this feeling is also an illusion? In other words, he is using his illusion to make me think that I have sessfully used my ability while the reality ispletely different?''


    The original Theo got the shock of his life. He never thought that Theo''s attainment in illusion had reached this stage.


    He didn''t know that the God of Mischief had shown him something like this. It was when Theo fought against the God of Mischief for the first time.


    But because Theo was the Reality Saint while the God of Mischief was the Illusion Saint, he didn''t bother to create an illusion realm to make everything possible. He incorporated his illusion into reality so that the original Theo would be fooled.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as if he understood what his original self was thinking.


    ''As expected of me, you should have understood everything. But this is not the extent of my illusion��'' Theo smirked, challenging the original Theo.


    The original Theo gritted his teeth. Even though they were fighting each other seriously, they didn''t forget that both of them were the same person.


    Obviously, they wanted to see who was really superior to each other.


    Theo gathered his energy in his fist. His body had been covered with snake scales and his muscle had been enhanced to the point he could exert power beyond his limit.


    The original Theo had done the same. He used the Superior Undead Body that he got in Helheim along with the Darkness Possession he got from his blessing. He gathered all the energy in his body into his fist and punched the iing fist.


    *Boom!*

 Chapter 2014 Fighting the Grandfather

    Chapter 2014 Fighting the Grandfather


    While the two Theo fought, the third Theo was facing his own grandfather, the Magic Saint. This might be the first time he confronted his grandfather directly.


    He looked at his grandfather with a grim expression as if he wanted to kill him as soon as possible.


    "To think there will be a day where I have to fight my own grandson. You should have just been grateful to be a part of the Griffith Family."


    Theo only smiled when he heard those wordsing from his own grandfather. "What? Are you going to tell me the blood is thicker than water bullshit? I''m Theodore Griffith, not anybody''s ve. Your ambition is the only thing that destroys the Griffith Family."


    "Ambition? It''s not an ambition. It''s the will of the ancestor. You don''t understand what it means to have an ancestor."


    "Of course. After all, you are the one preventing me from understanding what it means to have parents. How can I even bother with the generations above my parents when I can''t even love my parents." Theo shook his head helplessly. "And today, I shall end everything."


    "Shitty brat."


    Theo looked at his grandfather''s status for the first time. As one would expect from the Magic Saint, he truly had all the abilities needed to be one of the strongest people in the world.


    Name: Mason Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 925


    EXP: 31,555,100/76,100,000


    Blessing: Heka


    ''Heka. Egyptian''s God of Magic. Looking at his skills, it seems that his power is rted to the Magic Power itself instead of any other magic, considering he is also someone without an affinity.


    ''Still, it''s said that he is the person with the greatest control over Magic Power. Even the Wind Emperor has to be satisfied with the second position despite his overwhelming power.''


    Theo narrowed his eyes. This might be the first time he fought someone who focused solely on control. He couldn''t help but wonder how he used his ability.


    ''Nheless, there is only one thing to do. I''m going to defeat him and learn what it means to have peak Control so that my illusion bes even more perfect.'' Theo took a deep breath.


    His expression turned cold and his spear had turned into a sword.


    Theo pulled his sword back while aiming for his grandfather, Mason Griffith, neck.


    Thetter also felt the threat from Theo''s stance and immediately flew forward. His control allowed him to lift his body in the air and move around like Telekinesis despite not having one.


    However, there was no way he could stop this sh.


    Even when Mason was still far away from him, Theo waved his sword. If it was a normal monster, they would find themselves being chopped by the illusion. And Theo only had to use his Reality Authority to make it real. Even if they could destroy the illusion, the longer they took, the more damage their body received. So, Mason had to move fast.


    To his surprise, Mason actually surpassed his imagination. Mason actually mmed his hand down as if he was trying to hit something.


    And in that instant, the illusion broke down before it could take effect.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes, thinking, ''It''s true that to apply my illusion, I have to use my Magic Power and send it toward him. But the Magic Power to activate it is so thin that unless someone has the Awareness like that of the Pope, they wouldn''t be able to see iting.


    ''Don''t tell me, his Awareness is that good? Or is it��'' Theo fell silent and realized it was thetter. The Magic Saint seemed to be able to see the Magic Power and the disruption around him.


    Just like how the Heavenly Sovereign was able to see the primordial energy or what Theo thought to be Origin, the Magic Saint was able to see through the essence of the Magic Power itself, allowing him to smash the iing attack.


    While Theo observed him, the Magic Saint had reached his position. A huge amount of Magic Power gathered on his fist, ready to strike Theo down.


    But before he struck him, the Magic Saint said, "Both of you are monsters�� to even have the time to observe me in a battle like this."


    If Theo wanted to dodge it, he could easily avoid it. But because he focused on observing him, he reacted a bit toote.


    The only thing he could do was twist his upper body while raising his sword, blocking the fist so that his body didn''t receive a direct hit.


    "��" Theo''s eyes remained on the Magic Saint as if he wasn''t disturbed by him. After all, there was something more incredible he managed to learn from his grandfather.


    The Magic Power surrounding his fist actually had threeyers. The firstyer became the outer shell that contained the Magic Power inside. The secondyer contained the Magic Power that spun like crazy.


    When it exploded, it sent forth a violent gale that could easily cut someone into pieces. Even though the Magic Saint didn''t use a weapon, his Magic Power could imitate all kinds of wounds.


    And thestyer contained a powerful Magic Power that sted everything forward. This way, Theo would be blown away while being surrounded by the violent Magic Power that would cut him until he reached the ground. If he wasn''t careful, he might die with just a simple attack.


    The Magic Saint used this power to strike Theo from above.


    Even Theo''s Telekinesis couldn''t stop the momentum and Theo ended up crashing to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    The Magic Saint wondered if he had dealt any damage to him. He thought he got him, but Theo wasn''t that simple, so he had to wait until the dust settled down.


    But to his surprise, Theo was actually standing there with a smile on his face. His body was covered with snake skin that managed to stop all the cuts from Magic Power.


    "Hahaha�� To think Control can reach that level�� Threeyers of Magic Power, huh��" Theo looked at his grandfather with a smirk as if he nned to use the same attack to take down his own grandfather.

 Chapter 2015 A Path

    While Theo fought with his grandfather, there was also another grandfather fighting against multiple King ss Monsters.


    He was none other than Leonardo, the War Saint. As expected, even though Theo seemed to have predicted everything. The number of the World ss Monsters surpassed Theo''s original expectations.


    If not for the fact that the Magma Dragon wasing to help, they wouldn''t have enough people to take care of the enemy''s World ss Monsters.


    That was why they were in the current predicament. Theo simply didn''t have enough time to kill more King ss Monsters.


    In other words, the slime managed to counter Theo''s n with his overwhelming number.


    Still, the slime might be able to win the first battle, but it was still within Theo''s imagination. If the magma dragon didn''te, he could easily ask someone to handle two World ss Monsters. There were a few people qualified to do that like the Goddess of Death or even Theo himself.


    That was why Theo managed to act that casually despite the shock.


    Though, they had another problem. Due to the surprise, Theo couldn''t kill enough King ss Monsters.


    That was why the current him had to face five King ss Monsters by himself. His strength might not be as strong as Felix, but his versatile power and intelligence gave him the confidence to defeat Felix.


    However, five King ss Monsters were still too much for him to handle. At the same time, there were also other King ss Monsters. Even the weaker Transcendent Level Experts had to fight more enemies than they currently could afford to.


    ''Well, well�� How can we win this battle?'' Leonardo looked around. Three of the five King ss Monsters moved forward, approaching him.


    They moved so fast that they easily slipped past the pawns Leonardo summoned.


    Unfortunately for them, Leonardo was known as a War Saint. Even a simple position he used, like it was just a random position, had a meaning behind it.


    When they slipped past the pawns, they were immediately barraged by a number of attacks.


    Two of them met the rooks that mmed their shields to stop them, followed by a strike from the bishops. Thest King ss Monster was stopped by two Knights at once and almost got injured because they were so overwhelmed by the knights that they failed to see the pawnsing from behind.


    As for the other two King ss Monsters, they had beenpletely stopped by the queen and king.


    It looked like the War Saint managed to stop five King ss Monsters, but he turned out to be barely keeping up with them. The only reason why Leonardo was able to stop them was because they wereing at him directly.


    If they just ignored him and continued moving toward the army, even he wouldn''t be able to stop all of them. Even in the current situation, he was using a lot of power. The strategy that kept revolving in order to stop the enemies took a toll on his mind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If the battle continued like this for another hour, he would certainly be defeated.


    Hence, the War Saint took advantage of the current situation to keep the monsters away from the army while thinking of a solution.


    ''This does not look good. I can use all my power here, but I doubt it will be useful since I have to kill at least two of them before returning to the base.


    ''The others are also at a disadvantage. If I don''t help them soon, the yellow line will crumble. That''s thest thing we want since the red line is holding the enemy so well��''


    The War Saint kept racking his brain to find a solution to the current solution. But due to theck of people that could fight against King ss Monsters, there was simply no viable option.


    ''Tsk. This is annoying. The army is holding a huge number of monsters. Even the unique monsters are going their way. It''s already surprising that the army doesn''t copse��


    ''The reason for that must be my old friend��'' The War Saint could easily imagine the pope healing hundreds if not thousands of people at once. That was the reason why the army could hold back a huge number of unique monsters.


    ''If only the Mafia Queen is here, we can certainly have an easier time. But Theo''s n in stationing the Mafia Queen inside the base is correct since we can force the Time God to go to the battlefield.


    ''When hees back, he should be able to kill a few King ss Monsters before heading to the slime.


    ''But we don''t know when he wille. ording to Theo, he wille within thirty minutes after the Mafia Queen confirms it�� But before that, one or two Transcendent Level Experts on our side might have fallen��''


    The War Saint clicked his tongue. He couldn''t find a single ray of hope to turn around the situation.


    ''��'' The War Saint couldn''t help but recall what Theo said beforehand.


    Back then, Theo stated it clearly. "I want you to hear and consider my words carefully. In this battle, I can''t guarantee that you will survive. Even I can''t guarantee my own survival, so I want to warn you that you might die in the battle. That''s how dangerous the enemy we''re going to face. But if you are prepared toy down your life, then please follow me. I promise that I''ll do my best to lead us to victory."


    When he remembered these words, his expression turned grim. His eyes looked cold, not because he was skeptical about these words but because he was ready.


    Even Theo might die in this battle. So, an old man like him would have a high chance of dying as well. The Transcendent Level Experts around him might die as well.


    That was why he changed his way of thinking.


    ''It''s impossible to keep everyone alive. Knowing that fact, what can I do now?'' Leonardo''s expression changed as he looked forward, as if he could see something beyond this world.

 Chapter 2016 Executing The Plan

    It didn''t take too long before Leonardo could see a few paths. It was a path of sacrifice, but there was a way to turn around the situation while waiting for the Time God.


    "I guess this is it��" Leonardo took a deep breath. He nced to the sides. Since he was the brain of the yellow line, he was stationed near the center so that he could take advantage of his location to move the people.


    ''I have Ava near me. That''s great since Ava can be considered the strongest among us right now. But this n has to stretch to��'' Leonardo thought while looking to the right. He wasn''t looking at the battlefield next to him. He was staring at the battlefield beyond it.


    There was one more person that had the chance to understand his n and cooperate with him. However, Leonardo didn''t know whether the person was smart enough to realize it or not, considering he didn''t know how much Theo had taught her.


    Yes, the person Leonardo chose to help him in his n was none other than Theo''s disciple, Rea. If there was someone smart enough and had the ability to see through his n, it would be her.


    ''Well, well�� Little girl, can you keep up with this old man''s n?'' Leonardo smirked.


    Now that he had a n in mind, Leonardo immediately started it so that they could keep the monsters busy for thirty minutes.


    A bishop seemed to have gotten Leonardo''s intention and immediately leaped away, leaving the rest of the chess pieces away.


    "!!!" The monsters were confused because sending his bishop away like this would only put him at a disadvantage. The King ss Monster was at least smart enough to recognize it even though they didn''t have the same consciousness as they had before.


    Two King ss Monsters ended up jumping toward the bishop, nning to take it down. If they could at least break this bishop, they would gain a huge advantage in the battle.


    However, Leonardo had expected their action and immediately sent four pawns to stop them.


    Both King ss Monsters believed that two pawns weren''t enough to stop them. They simply released their abilities and struck the pawns before continuing.


    But to their surprise, two pawns suddenly turned their swords into shields and blocked the enemies'' strikes.


    "!!!" The two King ss Monsters were surprised, but they had to jump back out of instinct. The next thing they saw was the other two pawns that moved far quicker than they were supposed to.


    These four pawns actually managed to stop two King ss Monsters, it was simply too shocking.


    Leonardo was the only person who could smile.


    ''Promotion, Rook, Knight.''


    His ability was rted to chess, so he also could convert his pawns to other pieces with his ability. That was why the pawns could get a surge of strength to repel the two King ss Monsters.


    But as expected, such a powerful move didn''te without a price. Leonardo was clutching his chest as if he was enduring excruciating pain.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Still, the smile on his face didn''t fade. After all, he managed to aplish his objective. The bishop managed to slip past the enemy and head straight to Ava.


    ��


    Meanwhile, Ava was clicking her tongue while wiping the blood on the corner of her lips. Because of her abilities, Ava took on six King ss Monsters at once. Even during the previous battle, he could barely handle four of them. Yet, she was forced to handle six of them during this battle.


    The previous war focused on assessing the capability of Theo''s people and found out about Theo''s trump card. They couldn''t find the second one, but they certainly had essed the ability of the people around Theo.


    If the slime only sent five of them to kill Ava, thetter might still have the chance to turn around the situation. That was why he sent one more monster.


    Even with such an overwhelming number, the monsters didn''t have a good time fighting her. They might be able to injure her, but their condition was also rapidly deteriorating.


    Ava''s lightning was different from the Lightning Saint''s. Thetter had overwhelming and powerful lightning. While Ava inherited a portion of it as his sessor, she was a Moon Rabbit. Her ability was rted to moonlight.


    They fought during the day, but it didn''t change the core power of the moon. It was the light itself.


    Ava infused her lightning into the light, allowing her to weaken the enemy gradually. She even managed to injure two King ss Monsters with her own strength.


    However, Ava also got a few grazes on her body and a bit of internal injury. It might look like she could hold on for a while, but the longer they fought, the weaker Ava would be. That was why she had to find a way to reduce their number.


    When a few King ss Monsters were about to hit her, a powerful Magic Power suddenly swept the entire area, isting the space around Ava.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters didn''t understand what was happening, but they soon saw the bishop entering the isted space. It seemed that something was trying to help Ava.


    They immediately gathered their Magic Power to destroy the isted space.


    On the other hand, Ava waspletely stunned when she saw the bishop. "Huh, you��"


    Before she continued, the bishop formed a few words with Magic Power, giving a message to Ava. "Send your most powerful lightning to Shadow King''s position."


    Ava wanted to say something, but she felt the surge of Magic Powering from the King ss Monsters. She knew that Leonardo wouldn''t send a message without any reason. Although she didn''t admit it, Leonardo was the most capable man on the yellow line.


    Ava immediately turned around. Her seven lightning balls immediately shone with lightning sparking all around them. Ava aimed it at the Shadow King that was a bit far away from them.


    "Moon Lightning�� Cannon."

 Chapter 2017 Killing A King Class Monster

    "Moon Lightning�� Cannon."


    The seven lightning balls concentrated their lightning in a single point before Ava stimted that energy, causing the energy to erupt.


    The burst flew forward like aser. The energy was so overwhelming that it cracked the ground just by passing it.


    This was one of Ava''s strongest attacks. It wouldn''t be stopped easily.


    However, the trajectory was a bit special. Because their formation had a shape of a ''V,'' there was no one standing between Ava and the Shadow King. Hence, the lightning beam Ava sent had no one to intercept.


    All the King ss Monsters and the Transcendent Level Experts that the lightning passed could only feel the shock because they never thought an attack of that level traveled near them.


    But the one who got shocked the most was the Shadow King as this lightning aimed at her.


    "!!!" The Shadow King widened her eyes in shock. In the two seconds she had, there was a train of thought that shed in her mind. And everything led to Theo saying, ''Use the attack from World ss Monster or the saint to kill your enemy.''


    The instruction was clear, but she couldn''t consider this attack to be one from a Saint or a World ss Monster. After all, only Ava could release this kind of attack.


    ''Ava? Why did she attack me? Misfired?'' The Shadow King panicked for a split second. But no matter what, she had to dodge this attack.


    When she was about to jump to the side to avoid it, she couldn''t help but realize another thing. There was no way Ava was this careless. In other words, Ava must be using this ability with something in mind.


    And with the level of the attack, it could definitely severely injure someone if they got directly hit by it.


    The Shadow King ended up reaching a conclusion that might be the reason for this attack.


    The other King ss Monsters had jumped away to avoid it. They had been suppressing her this whole time, but this was the chance for her to make the situation easier.


    Instead of dodging this attack, she gathered her energy in her palms as if she was ready to catch it.


    The King ss Monsters around her also thought this way, but when the lightning beam was about to reach her, the Shadow King took a step to the right.


    The monsters thought she ended up running away, but that was a huge mistake on their part. After all, the Shadow King actually raised both hands and extended the shadow that she gathered around her arm, creating a to catch the lightning beam.


    The lightning was so overwhelming that it shattered the shadow at a rapid rate. But the Shadow King didn''t n to let this perfect opportunity go to waste.


    She struggled and eventually got a good grasp on the lightning beam. Then, she spun her body, using the centrifugal force her body generated to make the lightning beam curve beforeunching it toward a King ss Monster.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The King ss Monster was obviously shocked because he never expected the Shadow King to be that reckless. Bending that power required a lot of energy and one mistake might cause a heavy injury to her body. Yet, the Shadow King dared to do it.


    She was desperate. If they didn''t do this, they wouldn''t be able to defeat their current opponents. And this desperation showed its might. The lightning beam flew straight at the King ss Monster and the shock caused the King ss Monster to react a bit slower, causing him to be hit with the lightning with not much Magic Power to defend.


    *Boom!*


    The lightning caused a powerful explosion that cracked the ground around it. As for the monster that got hit by such powerful lightning�� all of them could see his left arm being obliterated. Judging from the size of the wound, it wouldn''t be weird if the guy would die sooner orter.


    But the opponent was made of slime. Even with such an injury, the thing that flowed out of his body wasn''t blood. It was slime. There was no way the enemies would die just because of that.


    During the meeting, Theo exined the slime''s body and their weakness. He said, "We can''t defeat the slime with a heavy injury. In fact, the slime doesn''t have such a thing as a heavy injury. However, when I fight them, they have a weakness where we can defeat them.


    "In their body, there is a concentrated spot of Magic Power that functions like a human heart, supplying all the energy needed for their bodies. As long as we get rid of it, the slime can be defeated."


    Because the Shadow King knew that she didn''t feel satisfied just by throwing that powerful beam toward the King ss Monster.


    As soon as she threw it, she actually jumped forth, following the lightning beam. When everyone thought it was over, the Shadow King appeared behind the monster.


    "!!!" The King ss Monster was startled, but it was toote. The Shadow King had formed two des on her hands. The right sword shed her brain and the left sword sliced the body, specifically the heart.


    It turned out the monster hid its Magic Power''s reserve on its head. Now that it was cut, the monster couldn''t supply the energy to maintain his form.


    In the end, the body fell and all the slime within it flowed out. This was the first King ss Monster that got defeated by an opponent of the same level.


    The Shadow King smiled because this meant she only had to handle five more King ss Monsters.


    However, there was someone who still couldn''t escape from her shock. She had been observing and trying to find a way to turn around the situation the whole time. And this lightning beam utterly dumbfounded her.


    She was none other than the Transcendent Level Expert that was stationed near the Shadow King. The only one who might be able to understand Leonardo''s n�� Nasagawa Rea.


    She kept ncing at the Shadow King as one question continued to repeat itself in her mind.


    ''Why did Ava attack us?''

 Chapter 2018 Questions

    ''Why did Ava attack us?'' This question kept reying in her mind.


    ''There is no way Ava can betray us.''


    ''In that case, why did she attack us?''


    ''No, Ava is not smart enough to do something like that.''


    ''In that case, who made Ava attack us?''


    Rea gritted her teeth while repelling the monsters'' attacks. She had a hard time doing both at the same time, considering she had to face four King ss Monsters at once.


    Still, Rea was smart. She didn''t simply be Theo''s disciple for no reason.


    It didn''t take too long for her to find out why Ava attacked them.


    ''This must be the War Saint''s n.''


    ''But I have never heard anything about this. Does this mean the War Saint is trying to do something?''


    ''Still, he shouldn''t have attacked this area��''


    ''No, the only reason for him to attack this area is because he is trying to get the people around here involved��''


    ''No, wait. No one around here can understand what he is nning to do. After all, he is the War Saint.''


    ''No one�� No, there is one person who might have the ability toprehend his n. And that person��'' Rea paused for a moment before dering it inwardly, ''��is me.''


    Rea felt overwhelmed because it meant the War Saint recognized her. At the same time, she felt a heavy pressure pushing her down as if trying to crush her.


    The War Saint was trying to inform her something. But she had been too confused this whole time.


    They were talking about the War Saint after all. The only person who might be able to beat him in a mind battle was probably Theo. But she wasn''t at Theo''s level.


    It was impossible for her to understand it.


    Just the thought alone made her feel scared.


    The King ss Monsters around her obviously didn''t allow her to have time to think.


    They immediately attacked her without any mercy.


    There were four iing elemental attacks. Rea clicked her tongue and raised her sword. The dragon that came out of her sword let out a roar before flying forward, swallowing all the elemental attacks.


    Unfortunately, her strength was iparable to four King ss Monsters.


    The four elemental attacks suddenly erupted at the same time, obliterating the dragon from the inside.


    "!!!" Rea clicked her tongue while looking at the movement of the four King ss Monsters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They were surrounding her as if trying to keep her as busy as possible. They might not have realized that the message came from the War Saint, nor they knew that she was the only one that might understand the message.


    However, the change in the battlefield as well as the Shadow King sessfully killing one of them was enough for the King ss Monsters to change their strategy. No matter who their opponent was, they had to do their best.


    After all, if they allowed the humans to kill them and thin out their number, they would surely lose and fail to fulfill the expectation of the great slime.


    That was why they started using all their power. They stopped holding back and nned to suppress her to death.


    But surprisingly, Rea, who was under such overwhelming pressure, somehow managed to befortable on this battlefield. It felt like she had grown ustomed to this situation.


    She might not be calm, but her mind didn''t stop working at all.


    Even under such pressure, she was still wondering about the hidden message that Leonardo put in that action.


    ''What does he want to convey? I don''t understand. I can''t see anything. What is it? Ava? Shadow King? Me?'' Rea gritted her teeth. She didn''t know what she had to do. And the more panicked she became, the harder for her to find the answer.


    ''I might be Theodore Griffith''s disciple, but I''m far from his level. Even Agata��'' Suddenly, Rea fell silent, noticing something. ''I am�� Theodore Griffith''s disciple�� The only one who can understand him is me��''


    "Kh!" Due to the thought, Rea dropped her guard down for a split second. The four King ss Monsters felt it and immediately attacked her from above.


    She hurriedly formed a pair of wings on her back and covered her entire body. She even used the energy from Genbu to form a shield above him, blocking thisbined attack.


    However, the energy was too great. The moment it made contact with her barrier, thebined attack almost cracked the shield.


    Then, the attack exploded, trying to engulf her. Luckily, she had covered her entire body with the wings, so only the wings were being destroyed.


    Still, the remaining power from thebined attack couldn''t be underestimated. The force contained in it immediatelyunched Rea to the ground.


    *Bam!*


    "Gah." Rea coughed blood when she crashed to the ground. She was lying down on the ground, having a hard time standing up.


    In her current position, she couldn''t help but look at the blue sky. In that blue sky, there were a few clouds of different shapes and sizes.


    ''The blue sky�� and the War Saint''s message�� Teacher''s grandfather��''


    She didn''t know why, but her teacher''s words shed in her mind and it was the same thing that woke her up.


    "No, wait�� Teacher��" Rea couldn''t help but drop her jaw in shock when she finally understood what her master had said to her.


    After taking care of the matter, Theo took his time to talk to his people personally, giving them a message that might be useful in this war.


    Back then, Rea was standing in the middle of the field, looking at Theo, who seemed to be staring at the blue sky. It felt like he was watching beyond that blue sky.


    Theo had a calm smile on his face as he raised his palm as if trying to grasp it. He said, "Rea�� Take a look at the blue sky. What can you find from there?"


    It was a simple question, but it opened an infinite possibility in her.

 Chapter 2019 Embodiment

    Chapter 2019 Embodiment


    "Huh?" Rea tilted her head in confusion and raised her head. She answered innocently, "Nothing. There is only a blue sky and clouds��"


    "Yeah. It''s the cloud. Even when humans ssify them, the cloud shape will be different every time it passes. An infinite possibility despite all of them being called the same�� a cloud. Don''t you find it amusing?"


    "An infinite possibility? Are you talking about the illusion? Creating an infinite illusion, but at the very basic, it''s still an illusion��" Rea asked. She thought Theo was talking about his ability, but Theo actually shook his head, denying her words.


    "It''s not just me. It''s about us, Rea."


    "Teacher��" Rea frowned. She didn''t feel moved even though the words felt romantic. Instead, she just became confused. "I don''t understand. What do you mean by us? Are you saying it''s infinite?"


    "If it''s not, then what is it?"


    "Huh? My ability��"


    Before she continued, Theo interjected her with a question. "In that case, I want to ask you�� What''s the condition for your embodiment? Is it only the Divine Beast? And how about other Divine Beasts? Can you use them?"


    "Yes. I need to have extensive knowledge about that Divine Beast so that I can use their power. Right now, five of them is already too much for me to handle." Rea shook her head helplessly.


    "That''s it. Extensive knowledge of the target of embodiment��" Theo smiled mysteriously.


    "Huh?" Rea became even more confused as Theo''s words became too much nonsense.


    "That''s why I asked you if it is necessary for the target of embodiment to be a Divine Beast�� Even the cloud can give you an infinite shape andbination��" Theo pointed at himself. "If you are confused, just look at me. I''m your teacher and I shall guide you. Even if I''m not there for you, you just have to keep chasing after me. After all, I''m the embodiment of that infinite possibility."


    "!!!" The words from his mouth felt like lightning reverberating in one''s ear. She felt like she understood something but couldn''t put it into words.


    And this time, it wasn''t any different.


    "That''s right. I am Theodore Griffith''s disciple." Rea''s expression changed. "My embodiment�� is it truly a power to borrow the power of the Divine Beings? No, it''s the power to be that very being�� It''s not limited to Divine Beings.


    "Teacher said that the cloud had an infinite possibility. In that case, his illusion and my embodiment are the same."


    The flow of Rea''s Magic Power suddenly changed. From the overbearing Magic Power from the dragon''s form to a gentle but resilient. This kind of flow looked like Theo, who was always calm.


    "How can I forget about this�� my teacher, Theodore Griffith, might not be the strongest person in the world. However, I can say this for sure�� He is truly the greatest person in the world.


    "I have been following him, I have been listening to his lessons, I have been observing how he acts�� I have been�� observing him the most. I have all that knowledge about him."


    Just for a second, Rea remembered her brother. "I felt jealous of my brother. He had all the talents and everything. I wanted to make my father proud as well. But deep down, I knew that I was not as talented as him. I kept trying but to no avail.


    "I wanted to be like him. I wanted his talent. I wanted�� I wanted��" Rea knew it was something she could never have�� not until she followed Theo.


    For the first time in her life, she realized that there was a person who had more desire to improve than her. For him, there was no such a thing as good enough. If something didn''t work, he didn''t hesitate to throw it away and found something new.


    "That''s right. If I''m doing the same thing every day, how do I know that I have exhausted everything to find a way to improve? There are infinite possibilities out there. What I find might not be the answer, but I can continue searching for a new answer.


    "It''s a treacherous path filled with the unknown. I might be engulfed by it, but��"


    Rea remembered how Theo confidently said, "If you are confused, just look at me."


    It felt like she could continue forward. She just had to look at him as he would be the beacon of light.


    Theo was a man who never stopped improving. That was why as she continued on her path, Theo would move together with her. She had just to look at her and find all the possibilities in that infinite possibilities. As long as Theo was with her, she could do it.


    She had been wrong this whole time. Her embodiment was not because of her fondness for animals or divine beasts. Instead, it was her desire to be like her brother.


    However, that desire was lost after she met Theo. She forgot the very foundation of her embodiment.


    She had observed both Theo and her brother this whole time. She�� had ''extensive'' knowledge about them.


    "Hahaha�� I have the greatest man in the world as my teacher, how could I forget about this�� He is a man who will continue searching for that infinite possibility. In that case, I, as his student, shall follow my teacher''s lead. That''s why Teacher�� Thank you. If I want to be the greatest student in the world, I don''t need to aspire to be one. After all, I can turn into one myself��"


    Rea released all her Magic Power to use her embodiment. This time, she didn''t use any of the five divine beings in her repertoire.


    Instead, the embodiment was a human�� It was the greatest human in the world.


    "That''s right. I just have to be a person that embodies that very person�� Teacher, I might overstep my bounds, but just for today�� Let me be the world''s greatest."


    Rea finally opened her mouth, muttering in a low voice.


    "Embodiment�� Theodore Griffith."

 Chapter 2020 Weird Plan

    Chapter 2020 Weird n


    "Embodiment�� Theodore Griffith."


    Rea''s eyes and temperament changed in an instant as if she was being possessed. Her panicked expression had changed into a calm and collected face as if everything was still under control. Her eyes became sharp as she seemed to gain the ability to see the entire battlefield.


    Now that she had be this calm, she didn''t feel like talking at all. Instead, everything was resolved within herself.


    ''I see�� So, this is how he sees the world��'' Rea looked around. The four King ss Monsters that had surrounded her felt like children who just wanted to y with their parents. It felt like they were so simple to the point all fear and anxiety in her heart disappeared.


    As for the battlefield, her field of vision became extremely wide. In fact, her Awareness might have enhanced his senses to the fullest. It drained the energy from her body just to maintain this form.


    After all, Theo could grasp everything without even looking at it. She could only produce a portion of his ability with the Embodiment''s power, but this alone could show how great the man called Theodore Griffith was.


    Her mind suddenly became extremely cool, allowing her to think about everything. It even processed her thoughts quicker.


    With just a single nce, she managed to grasp the entire situation of the battlefield, especially the one around her.


    ''Sir Leonardo is on that side waiting for me. There are Ava and Felix next to him. The fact that he is attacking me��''


    As one would expect from the Embodiment of Theodore Griffith, it didn''t take one second for her to grasp the reason that was impossible to find earlier.


    ''He is so reckless. Is he going to sacrifice himself? But the Saints haven''t shot anything to our position, so it seems he is trying to create an opportunity. And it won''t be the opportunity for the Saints�� Instead, the other way around.''


    Rea instantly realized that Leonardo''s n was going to involve the Time God, who was on his way here.


    Leonardo''s way of battle was to lead his people with a conservative tactic. Meanwhile, this kind of tactic where he gambled his life with this high-risk, high-return tactic was Theo''s way of battle.


    He did this to make Rea realize the situation, albeit she ended up surpassing that expectation with her Embodiment.


    ''Sorry, Sir War Saint. I''m afraid that I have to step up my game a little bit.'' Rea apologized inwardly.


    *Roar!*


    The King ss Monsters around her noticed the change in her and tried to keep her busy. Their instinct seemed to be telling them that the current Rea was extremely dangerous.


    Their n might work against Rea and stop her. But it wouldn''t work against Theodore Griffith.


    Rea raised her hand. Suddenly, numerous birds came out of her hands, heading in all directions.


    The four King ss Monsters didn''t know what she nned to do with it. However, the birds didn''t seem to be that powerful. They gathered their energy and covered their body. Meanwhile, they spared some more energy to shoot some of the birds down.


    They kepting forward, trying to reach Rea. However, the moment they reached her position after slipping past all the birds, all they could find was�� nothing.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters were dumbfounded before realizing that the birds were only a distraction Rea used to leave this ce.


    All four King ss Monsters now had to think about what they should do. On the one hand, they could use this opportunity to continue and wreak havoc in the green line. On the other hand, they had to kill Rea first since the Transcendent Level Experts were their main target this time.


    The four King ss were smart enough to make the decision. And that decision was to follow Rea.


    They had to eliminate their target first before going to those normal soldiers. So, they immediately released their Magic Power, tracking Rea.


    They soon realized that Rea was hiding next to the bird that headed to the Shadow King. It turned out she was nning to assist the Shadow King.


    However, they were a bit confused since the Shadow King had to fight more King ss Monsters than her. So, there was no reason for her to do it, considering the four monsters would catch up to her in no time, causing more problems for the Shadow King.


    But this was when Rea released her brilliance. She gathered the energy in her sword and extended it to at least fifty feet.


    She swung this long de, trying to kill the monsters near the Shadow King.


    Obviously, the King ss Monsters wouldn''t have missed this surge of Magic Power. They immediately turned around while dodging the de.


    However, the de disappeared before they reached them. The Shadow King, who hadn''t moved at all because she believed Rea wasn''t someone who would attack her ally, saw an opportunity. But this opportunity was different because she also saw Rea pointing her hand to the west.


    ''She wants me to pay back for that attack?'' The Shadow King thought before she was startled by the sudden shift in her direction. Instead of pointing at Ava, she rotated her body a bit to the north as if telling her to aim at someone beyond Ava.


    They were in the v-shaped formation, so the person she wanted to attack was none other than Felix.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters that surrounded the Shadow King realized they had been tricked. They tried to stop the Shadow King, but it was toote.


    The Shadow King pped her hands as the Magic Power on the ground started to fluctuate.


    "Great Shadow Extension."


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    Numerous spikes suddenly came out of the ground. It continued to extend in Felix''s direction and no one would be able to stop it.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters gritted their teeth, trying to attack the Shadow King. However, they would soon be even more confused after seeing Rea''s movement.


    Instead of fighting her original enemies, Rea actually followed the spikes as if she was nning to switch with the person on that side.


    The King ss Monsters or even the people from humanity''s side couldn''t help but ask themselves.


    ''What is she doing?''

 Chapter 2021 Run Away

    ''What is she doing?''


    No one could understand what she was doing. After all, she had to take care of her own position.


    The Four King ss Monsters decided to follow her, trying to prevent her from doing anything else.


    However, she wasn''t the only person who tried to do something different.


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters fighting Leonardo was shocked by the sudden action from Leonardo.


    Leonardo had been using his chess pieces to form a defensive formation, stopping any attacks from the King ss Monsters.


    But this time, Leonardo suddenly dismissed two Bishops from the formation.


    Three King ss Monsters charged at his formation as usual, trying their best to break it. They slipped past the pawns skillfully while gathering their strength to deliver a killing blow on Leonardo.


    There was also a barrage of Magic Attacksing from above.


    Leonardo didn''t even spare them a single nce as he used his rooks to block them. The two rooks formed a barrier to stop the attacks. Meanwhile, the knights moved toward one of the King ss Monsters.


    They used their long spear to stall the monster as long as possible.


    Now that the rooks and the knights had been used, there were only a few pieces that could stop them.


    The remaining two King ss Monsters sped up, trying to slip past the bishops.


    They could destroy the bishops first, but this was the first time they had gotten so close to Leonardo, so they had to take advantage of this opportunity to at least wound Leonardo.


    Of course, the bishops were doing their best to stop them. They gathered the Magic Power in their staff to shoot the monsters down. But the enemies were too fast this time. They didn''t have enough time to aim for them.


    "!!!" Leonardo looked surprised when he saw the two iing King ss Monsters.


    Meanwhile, his shocked face served as a fire in their heart. Both King ss Monsters sped up to the very limit to the point they couldn''t control their direction anymore.


    And this was the opportunity Leonardo had been waiting for. His shocked face suddenly turned into a smirk as if telling the monsters that they had been tricked.


    The monsters didn''t have any expression due to them being made by slime. However, with their minds, they could clearly feel shocked once they met such surprising action.


    After all, the Queen and the King, the two pieces Leonardo had been saving this whole time, had begun to move.


    As expected from the Queen, she was an omnipotent piece in chess. She moved swiftly and precisely.


    She positioned herself between Leonardo and a King ss Monster. She wielded the Magic Power to form a barrier to iste herself and the King ss Monster.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "��" The King ss Monster couldn''tprehend her action, but he was still confident enough that a single queen couldn''t take him down. So, it charged toward the queen, nning to kill the queen first before Leonardo.


    At the same time, the King piece stepped in front of Leonardo. The King piece symbolized Leonardo himself, so it had been standing behind Leonardo this whole time, protecting him.


    Since there was a target closing in, the King stepped forward and gathered all the Magic Power in his sword. The amount of energy was simr to the strike that Leonardo used to help Theo in the past where he cut a small hill with a single sh.


    The King ss Monster realized that the king wanted to kill him with this sh. Speed might be his forte, but he was confident in his strength as well.


    In addition, Leonardo had spread his Magic Power to all sixteen pieces, so it was clear that the King piece couldn''t use its full strength.


    That was why the King ss Monster dared to challenge the King piece.


    The moment they reached each other''s position, the King waved his sword while the monster swept his paw.


    The collision between the two caused a massive shock wave that startled the battlefield. Even the Queen''s barrier cracked because of its shock wave alone, and the King ss Monster isted inside took advantage of the moment to strike the barrier, destroying it.


    The Queen looked at the monster that came after her as soon as he destroyed the barrier. The monster opened his mouth and tried to destroy her armor with its sharp and hard fangs.


    But when it was about to bite her neck, the Queen disappeared, causing him to bite nothing.


    "!!!" The King ss Monster put too much strength, so it caused his jaws to hit each other, creating a vibration that ran through his body. Luckily, his body was made of slime, so he could easily recover from such a thing.


    But more importantly, the moment he looked around, all sixteen pieces Leonardo hadid out earlier had disappeared.


    The King ss Monsters werepletely confused. Although Leonardo had the ability to summon his chess pieces multiple times, summoning them took more energy than maintaining them, so he shouldn''t have removed them at any cost.


    Still, there were two King ss Monsters outside the formation. If there were monsters that could react to this kind of action, it would be them.


    As expected, the two monsters immediately turned around as they found Leonardo. They jumped toward him, preventing him from going forward.


    Despite knowing he wouldn''t be able to get past these two, Leonardo actually smirked.


    "!!!" The two monsters suddenly raised their heads when they noticed the surge of energy above them.


    To their surprise, there were Magic Bullets above their heads. Each Magic Bullet contained a lot of power. It seemed that Leonardo had poured at least ten percent of his Magic Power just for this one attack. It was a reckless move, considering the battle had just begun, but Leonardo had a reason for it.


    As for the result, due to the amount of Magic Power, each bullet felt like a cannon, raining them down. Even though they weren''t enough to kill them, these bullets should be able to injure them. So, the monsters moved to the side, avoiding it.


    They ultimately gave a passage for Leonardo to cross.


    "Hehe�� Thank you." Leonardo smirked as he slipped past them.

 Chapter 2022 Checkmate

    "Thank you." Leonardo smirked.


    All five monsters instantly realized that they had been tricked. Leonardo turned out to be nning to get away from them.


    However, his direction was weird. Instead of moving toward the green line, Leonardo actually went straight to the red line as if he was nning to help the Saints fight the World ss Monsters.


    He wasn''t supposed to be there. Even if he tried to fight the Saints, he would be too powerless against them.


    That was why the monsters thought Leonardo was suicidal.


    Still, they received information about all the important people on the battlefield, including Leonardo.


    As a War Saint, there was no way Leonardo would do something without any possibility of winning. In addition, Theodore Griffith was there. These two could easilye up with a trick that could overturn the situation.


    Unlike Rea, the monsters didn''t even think about breaking past Leonardo despite the opportunity. For them, Leonardo''s action was far more dangerous than anything else.


    Hence, the King ss Monsters chased after Leonardo without hesitation.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    They let out a roar as if telling Leonardo to stop. But he didn''t even bother to nce at them as if everything had gone ording to his n.


    And yes, everything had truly gone ording to the n.


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    *Bam!*


    A series of spikes continued to emerge in their direction. They wouldn''t stop no matter what, rming the King ss Monsters.


    "!!!" All King ss Monsters turned around and saw the spikes. They finally understood the reason Leonardo went that way. He wasn''t nning to assist Theo. Instead, he was baiting them so that they would be hit by the spikes.


    However, the spikes were a bit too slow. With the distance and their reaction speed, the monsters could easily avoid them.


    With confidence, all of them stopped for a moment, letting all these spikes pass them first.


    But this was another mistake.


    As soon as there was a wall between them, Leonardo changed his direction. Instead of going to the red line where the Saints were, he actually went to the east.


    The monsters were confused at first, but when they chased after him, they saw Reaing in their direction.


    Everything suddenly clicked in their mind. It turned out Leonardo was nning to change position with Rea. Although they didn''t know what they were nning to do, it was a big enough movement for them to feel rmed. They knew these two must be plotting something big, so they had to prevent them.


    Those King ss Monsters chased after Leonardo and Rea, trying to prevent it from happening.


    Meanwhile, Rea and Leonardo had a smirk on their face when their gazes met each other.


    ''I have been waiting for you,'' Leonardo said inwardly, feeling proud that Theo''s disciple was this good. Even he thought Rea wouldn''t be able to understand his intention, considering the clue was extremely vague. Still, her actionpletely showed her talent, allowing Leonardo to know the talent of Theo''s disciple.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Thank you for the lesson.'' Rea smiled. She wouldn''t have been able to understand Theo''s words without him. So, she thanked him for giving her the opportunity.


    Unfortunately for them, the King ss Monsters were going to catch up to them at any moment.


    If they didn''t do anything, they would only be surrounded by all these monsters.


    It seemed that Rea was the first one to make her move.


    Rea raised her sword and gathered the Magic Power in her sword. A dragon head gradually formed, ready to swallow the monsters behind Leonardo.


    On the other hand, Leonardo didn''t seem to be doing anything as if he didn''t n to help her.


    However, the first one to realize what they were nning was a monster behind Rea. It might be due to his position that the monster could see something behind Leonardo and the five monsters.


    He wanted to warn them, but when he let out a roar, the dragon also released its thunderous roar, overwhelming any sound near it.


    *Roaaaaarrrrr!*


    The King ss Monsters were startled, but since they were already so close to Leonardo, they took thest step and released all their strength, striking Leonardo.


    All of them thought Leonardo would die after thisbination attack. Unfortunately for them, they couldn''t reach Leonardo.


    A few sharp white lights suddenly flew past them and sharply cut their paws, hands, or feet.


    "!!!" The five King ss Monsters widened their eyes because they only felt the Magic Power when it was already toote. And the next thing they realized, the attack had cut them.


    They couldn''t help but stop and turn around, finding Felix with his de. It turned out Felix was using his invisible strike to sneak up on them. But they should have seen iting if not for the dragon Rea released.


    The dragon not only stopped the monster from informing the others, but it also caused a disruption in Magic Power awareness, allowing the attacks to reach their targets sessfully.


    Still, even though the five King ss Monsters were injured to this extent, they still didn''t give up. The four King ss Monsters behind Rea also caught up to him since Leonardo or Felix didn''t do anything to them.


    They tried to take down Rea in order to equalize the situation once again.


    But Rea suddenly dove down as if she was nning to escape.


    The monsters obviously didn''t n to let her go. But to their surprise, Leonardo had disappeared from their vision.


    At the same time, there was a surge of Magic Powering from the ground.


    When they lowered their heads to follow Rea''s movement, they saw Leonardo standing on top of the sixteen chess pieces. It turned out Leonardo had summoned them this whole time. Instead of letting them in the air with him, he had been hiding them on the ground.


    With their distance, there was no way they would have realized their movements, especially with all the distractions they had prepared for them.


    This was Leonardo''s n. With this n, he was nning to eliminate the King ss Monsters that Rea had fought before.


    And Rea took the leeway to turn around while saying with a smug smile. "This is�� checkmate."


    Leonardo pped his hands as he activated his power.


    "Grand Chess."

 Chapter 2023 War Saint

    "Grand Chess."


    Suddenly, a golden light erupted into the sky like that of a pir from Heaven. The light gave warmth to those around it, but it extinguished everything inside it.


    The sixteen chess pieces that had created a formation to activate the abilitybined into one, fusing back into Leonardo. Leonardo activated the pir, stimting all sixteen chess pieces.


    Leonardo created the sixteen chess pieces because he saw this world like that of a match of chess. The leader would alwaysmand the people, they would have a lot of subordinates, especially their most powerful subordinates.


    Whether it was a prime minister, a president, or a CEO, their behaviors could always be predicted like a match of chess. And Leonardo, who had seen this world for as long as he could remember, could see so many moves ahead.


    This time, it was no different. He checked the enemy''s king while moving his pieces. And finally, once the situation was ready, he only had to use one move to checkmate.


    And this would be the Grand Chess.


    However, a normal person could never use every drop of their Magic Power in a single attack. Not only would it take too long for them to recharge, but using such an attack would have a huge risk, especially when they failed to kill an enemy at that time.


    But Leonardo was different. He was the War Saint. His calction, way of thinking, and information allowed him to solve thetter problem. He knew that once he used it, his enemies would die.


    As for the former, Leonardo had split almost all of his Magic Power into his sixteen pieces. This would make them hard to break but also grant them strength that no one could underestimate.


    But more importantly, the fact that he almost used all his Magic Power to summon each of them meant he could use all that Magic Power inside their body in a single attack, solving the first problem.


    There were only two situations where Leonardo would use it. The first scenario was when he was fighting for his life. As for the second scenario, it was when he knew he would win.


    Leonardo smiled because he had already envisioned his own victory. He looked at the tower of light, extinguishing anything.


    The King ss Monsters tried to protect their lives with their Order, but they were simply toote. Even if they managed to use their ability fully, they wouldn''t be able to withstand the attack that contained almost all of Leonardo''s Magic Power.


    As a result, the four King ss Monsters that chased after Rea werepletely reduced to nothing.


    "��" Leonardo looked up. The glowing sky affected by his Grand Chess had gradually returned. "Four King ss Monsters, huh? I want to kill more, but I guess my strength is not as powerful as my peak. I guess I''ll leave the rest to the youngsters."


    Leonardo felt his body was empty. He could exert a bit of Magic Power, but he might lose against a normal Mythical Rank Expert.


    But due to his ability this time, he instantly became the target of the King ss Monsters.


    Leonardo had expected it and turned around, ready to face the five King ss Monsters that were about to reach him. But before his body could follow his instruction, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. Sharp pain burst in his heart as Leonardo couldn''t help but clench his chest and fall to his knees.


    "Gah!" Leonardo spat acid from his stomach. Blood flowed out of his mouth and his eyes lost their focus.


    "Sir Leonardo!" Rea, the closest one to him, shouted to warn him about the iing danger.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The danger came from none other than the Five King ss Monsters that were supposed to fight him. They had been stalled a bit by the invisible sh from Felix, but it didn''t change the fact that they were still aiming at him.


    Since he had used that powerful move, the War Saint wouldn''t be able to dodge this.


    "No, you don''t!" Rea shouted. Even without her embodiment, Rea could easily see that the five King ss Monsters nned to kill Leonardo no matter the price. He was too dangerous to be left alive.


    That was why she retracted Theo''s embodiment and turned into her usual dragon form to utilize that power.


    *Roar!*


    The dragon head behind her let out a roar to startle the five King ss Monsters.


    However, the Five King ss Monsterspletely ignored her as if she had never existed. It felt like they were telling her to kill them if she was capable of doing so, but they would definitely kill him.


    Rea gritted her teeth and struck them with all the strength she could muster.


    As expected, even though they were ready for the consequences, three King ss Monsters still nned to stop her.


    *Bam!*


    Their sh caused a powerful shock wave. But this shock wave had another purpose. Rea wanted to generate a powerful shock wave so that she could blow away Leonardo to save him.


    But it seemed that the King ss Monster managed to see through it. Another King ss Monster came in her way and generated a shield that shifted the direction of the shock wave, causing her n to fail.


    "!!!" Rea gritted her teeth, realizing that her n didn''t work.


    And thest King ss Monster finallynded in front of Leonardo. He had raised his giant paw, ready to kill him.


    Despite such a danger, there was no Magic Power around Leonardo. It wasn''t that he wanted to die. He simply didn''t have any power that could stop this blow.


    As Leonardo saw this pawing at him, Leonardo gradually closed his eyes as if he had epted his death.


    His entire life shed before his eyes. His life couldn''t be said to be filled with joy, but there were many joyous moments that kept him going. The War God Family, all his friends, the pope�� and Theo.


    In the face of death, he smiled while uttering hisst words. "This is truly the greatest war I have seen in my life. Unfortunately, it seems that I can''t see through it��"


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 2024 Promise

    *Bam!*


    "Sir War Saint!" Everyone near him couldn''t help but shout. The Great Guardian, Rea, Felix�� Even Ava screamed, never expecting the War Saint to die like this.


    They wanted to think it wasn''t real. They wanted to deny it. After all, Theo had said that the War Saint was to control the headquarters afterpleting his task on the frontline. They thought the War Saint would survive and eventually return to the headquarters.


    Unfortunately, this one m ttened him. The blow was so hard that the ground around it cracked, almost turning into a crater. The dust was kicked into the air, causing them to be unable to see the corpse of the War Saint.


    They all had the same thought. The War Saint fell in battle.


    But to their surprise, the War Saint suddenly came out of the cloud of dust, jumped into the air and kicked the King ss Monster''s jaw.


    "!!!" Everyone couldn''t believe it. They thought they were staring at a ghost, but the War Saint was actually still alive.


    He was even smiling as if everything had gone ording to the n.


    And what happened next allowed them to finally understand why the War Saint managed to keep his life.


    Suddenly, an arrow created by a concentrated Magic Power pierced through the jaw and created a hole through the monster''s head, killing the King ss Monster.


    "!!!" They all turned around, following the direction of the arrow. But even without them looking at her, they had already known the person who released that arrow. After all, there was only one person who had that kind of ability.


    On the east side of the battle, specifically, the battlefield next to Rea''s former position, Ruth was seen in her stance after releasing that arrow.


    Yes, Ruth shot the paw using her invisible arrow, causing the paw to miss its target. The invisible arrow was extremely useful since it was hard to find, but the impact was pretty weak.


    That was why even though Leonardo managed to survive, the giant paw still ended up hitting his left arm and ttening it. This was the only reason why the monster thought Leonardo had died.


    But that shot was enough to change the situation on this battlefield.


    After killing the King ss Monster, Leonardo should have looked at Ruth to give his thanks for saving his life.


    Yet, Leonardo actually turned his head not to Ruth but to someone in the red line, Theodore Griffith.


    "You brat, you truly can''t bear to see your grandfather die, huh. I guess dying because of old age is the only death I can get with you in this world." Leonardo smirked.


    Yes. Everything that happened was because of Theo. Theo''s influence allowed Rea to use him with her embodiment power, giving her the strength to kill multiple King ss Monsters.


    But if not for the second preparation Theo had, Leonardo would die.


    And that second preparation was none other than Ruth.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Ruth looked at the shocked faces of all the people around Leonardo. She jumped back to regain her position so that the King ss Monsters that surrounded her couldn''t kill her.


    During that time, she couldn''t help but recall the time when Theo called her. Theo had given personal messages to each of the members after all.


    "Ruth. To be honest, I don''t have any words that can be used to somehow allow you to grow before or during the battle."


    Ruth was taken aback, thinking Theo''s ability must have its limit. Normally, Theo would be able to give her a lot of knowledge that would be useful for her growth, but this time, Theo looked helplessly.


    Theo smiled, continuing, "It''s not that I don''t want you to grow. However, your current growth is already at its peak. My words might be able to stimte you, but the current you need a long training to consolidate your strength as well as progress.


    "Unless you reach enlightenment, it''s impossible to get a huge growth over a short period of time."


    "Is that so?" Ruth looked a bit disappointed. The others had been called before her, so she knew they had got something from Theo due to their expressions.


    But Theo actually pointed at her with confidence. "But it doesn''t mean that you are not important. In fact, your role is one of the most important. Instead of words to let you grow, I''m going to give you a task."


    "A task?" Ruth frowned. On the one hand, she was a bit sad that she didn''t get anything good from Theo. On the other hand, it seemed that she was the only one who received a task from Theo, meaning she was different from others. She was special.


    "Your task is simple. Do you know why I put you near Rea?"


    Ruth tilted her head in confusion. She tried her best to find the answer, but the only thing she could think of was the simrity of her position with Felix''s. In the end, she shook her head so that Theo didn''t think of her being love-struck with Felix.


    Theo smiled. "It''s because the west side has Felix. So, you''re going to bnce it in the east. If the situation starts to get worse, the only way to resolve it is to have my grandfather do something reckless, which ispletely different from what he has done in his entire life. That''s why the enemies will surely be taken aback.


    "However, the fact that he''s being reckless means he''s exposed to a lot of risk and has a high possibility of dying.


    "That''s your task. I want you to protect him. With your skill, it shouldn''t be that hard to help him even from that far, right?"


    "Y-yeah." Ruth nodded, but she was still confused. They had been told that this battle was so dangerous that even his survival couldn''t be guaranteed. So, it was weird for Theo to do all this so that they could survive.


    Theo understood the contradiction, but he continued, "As you already know, I''m not a hero. I''m just a selfish person. The reason why I want to save humanity is because we need them to continue living in this world.


    "As for why I want my grandfather to survive�� It''s pretty simple. He has done so much for me�� for his country�� and for humanity. That''s why I want to let him rest. I want him to let him retire peacefully. That''s why this is not an order but a personal request."


    Theo lowered his head with a serious expression. "Please help my grandfather."


    When Ruth remembered this, she couldn''t help but smile. "I have fulfilled the promise, Theo."

 Chapter 2025 Satisfied

    "Hahaha, my grandson is truly exceptional." The War Saint looked at the dead King ss Monster. He had prepared to die when executing that n, but it seemed that Theo had seen through him before he even made that n.


    And what shocked him more was how Rea behaved. He nced at Rea, who stopped the iing monsters. Rea had shown a growth that was beyond anyone''s imagination. It was clear that Rea would be able to surpass him far in the future as long as she learned from Theo.


    Still, as much as he wanted to admire the coordination of all the people here, he had to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.


    He only had a bit of Magic Power left. So, he enhanced his feet and leaped back, using the hole Rea left to return to the battlefield.


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    *Roar!*


    The King ss Monsters that were supposed to kill Leonardo were angry. They immediately told the others to kill Theo, but it was futile.


    Leonardo had seen through them and immediately escaped the encirclement while they were stopped by their respective Transcendent Level Experts.


    However, there was one more problem he had to face. It was to handle all the monsters that fought against the army.


    If he wanted to return to the headquarters, he had to go through them. And with that roar, some of the monsters turned around, trying to kill Leonardo as ordered.


    "Tsk." Leonardo clicked his tongue. He searched for the gap between their ranks, but there seemed to be no escape route present.


    If it continued like this, Leonardo would be overwhelmed by the monsters.


    Still, Leonardo came from the War God Family. And this War God Family had one person that could bypass all restrictions from the normal monsters.


    A ck vortex appeared out of thin air as a man, not much older than Theo, came out while pointing at the vortex. "Grandfather. I''m here to pick you up."


    Leonardo smiled as he corrected himself. "Truly, my grandsons are exceptional."


    Yes, he was Lorenzo, the Space Element user from the War God Family. With his ability, no one could stop them.


    The two ended up entering the portal leisurely, frustrating the monsters. Leonardo could still deal great damage to them as long as hemanded the army, so failing to kill here would simply cause a huge loss on their side.


    However, they were simply helpless. They could only watch how Leonardo escaped the battlefield.


    Though, the opinions from the other side were the opposite. Rea, Ava, the Great Guardian, or anyone else who noticed his movement felt relieved, knowing that the War Saint could still lead the war in Theo''s stead.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As soon as they reached the other side, Leonardo couldn''t help but say, "Thank you, Lorenzo."


    Lorenzo felt happy. It was hard to receive thanks from Leonardo, considering the only way to receive it was to surpass his expectations.


    But Lorenzo felt skeptical to ept it, especially when he saw his wound. Leonardo had been clutching his arm this whole time, trying to stop the bleeding.


    Lorenzo''s face became pale as he looked down. "I''m happy to hear that, but unfortunately, I don''t deserve it, Grandfather. You should thank Agata instead�� since she was the one who informed me to bring you back."


    Leonardo felt gratified. He patted Lorenzo''s shoulder while walking, "You can acknowledge that fact alone is enough. It shows how strong you are. I''m truly grateful."


    Lorenzo made a small smile. He then said, "Then, let''s get you treated."


    "No. I can suppress the pain for the time being. We should go to the headquarters and get first aid there. I''m going to recuperate whilemanding the army." Leonardo shook his head.


    "I''m afraid I can''t allow that." Suddenly, a female''s voice echoed in their ears.


    Both of them turned around, finding one of Theo''s subordinates. She was none other than the doctor of the group, Aisha.


    Even though the one standing before her was the War Saint, she wasn''t afraid to re at him. For her, Leonardo was just another patient.


    "I''m going to heal you first. After that, you are free to go." Aisha stated with a cold tone.


    "You don''t have to worry. First aid is enough. Besides, the current battlefield is chaotic, so it''s better for you to use your power on others instead of me. I can wait until this is over." Leonardo smiled, trying to reject her.


    However, Aisha stepped forward while saying with an even colder tone. "You are going to be treated here. Reject it again, and I''ll heal you even if it means I have to force you. And�� rejecting me is the same as wasting my time from healing others."


    "��" Leonardo could see that Aisha wouldn''t stop until he was fine. So, he epted her. "Alright then. I''m in your care."


    Aisha nodded and started pouring Magic Power into her hands. She wrapped her hand around Leonardo''s arm while channeling the Magic Power to stimte the cell in his arm.


    "Hmm?" Leonardo looked at his arm, feeling something weird. It felt like there were a thousand ants moving around the cut area. But he could feel like the energy from his body was being pushed in this direction as if it was trying to stimte cells as well.


    ''This is the first time I have been healed with this power. It feels different from the pope. And this��'' Leonardo fell silent when he saw the cell was being regenerated at a fast speed to the point the cell, muscle, and even the bone gradually grew.


    ''What the heck? She can truly grow everything? I can somehow understand the cell and the muscle, but bone��. The bones are separated from each other, right?'' Leonardo blinked a few times as he didn''t expect that such a powerful healing ability would be in a human''s hand. ''I guess Theo truly has exceptional eyes in recognizing talents. No wonder his group is filled with abnormal people. Hahaha.''


    Leonardo smiled as he enjoyed the healing process.

 Chapter 2026 Good Judgment

    It might be due to his old age or his strength that had transcended, the healing process took twice longer than anyone she had healed until today.


    But the result was truly amazing.


    After it was done, Leonardo couldn''t help but raise his hand again and again as if he couldn''t believe it. His other arm had been crushed by the monster, so he couldn''t recover it anymore. So, he thought he would retire with this wound.


    But Aisha brought him a surprise of a lifetime.


    ''This is amazing.'' Leonardo looked at his arm, recounting all the feelings. He even tried to imbue the new arm with his Magic Power. ''As expected, it''s because the cell is new that it can''t use my Order.


    ''It means I have to start all over again for the hand. But if I have to choose between not having a hand or waiting for six months so that my arm can use my power again�� there''s no way I''m going to choose the former.


    ''Now that the arm has been fixed, there''s no more pain. My body is a bit exhausted due to the rapid regeneration, but it''s easier to manage than the pain. I guess there won''t be any problems with memanding the army now.''


    After Leonardo checked his new arm, he turned to Lorenzo and said, "Bring me to the headquarters. I''m going to take over themand."


    "I understand." Lorenzo nodded with a serious expression. He started releasing his energy as the two disappearedpletely from the battlefield.


    Aisha, who was about to return, couldn''t help but nce at their previous spot before muttering, ''I can only make a normal human arm. I guess I can''t make an arm that can conjure his power�� I still have a lot to learn. Then again, I have done my parts, Agata.''


    Yes, the one who had told her about Leonardo''s arrival was Agata. She had tasked her to heal Leonardo.


    Theo might be the one leading the battle, but Agata was the one who managed it.


    Her role might not be shy, but without her, the battlefield might copse.


    And Leonardo knew this fact too.


    As soon as they reached the headquarters, Leonardo entered themand room with a smile, seeing Agata, Ne, and other Griffith Family members inside.


    "!!!" Agata instantly recognized his presence and turned around. "Sir Leonardo."


    "Haha, when are you going to stop calling me with that formal title? Just call me Grandfather. Hahahaha." Leonardoughed out loud.


    Agata''s reply came in the form of a smile. She was indirectly telling him that she wouldn''t call him that for the time being. She wanted to win and prove herself that she was the only one who could stand next to Theo.


    But it truly brought joy knowing the fact that she had fully earned that respect from Leonardo.


    She said, "Are you alright, Sir Leonardo? Do you want to rest?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "No. My condition is stable. There won''t be any problem with memanding the army. Though, I still need you, who have been observing the battlefield the entire time, to assist me."


    "I understand. I''ll give you the report about the situation first." Agata nodded. "Currently, all the monsters around the base have shown up. We have sent an elite army to sweep them and made great progress.


    "There is an uproar inside the base. But the Mafia Queen, alongside our hidden group, has been restoring that peace. For the time being, we have managed to suppress the hidden terror, but we don''t know when the bombers will appear again.


    "As for the battlefield�� you should have been aware of it already. All the Saints have found their respective opponent. I can''t say much since their fights are already beyond what I canprehend.


    "Meanwhile, we have killed six King ss Monsters in the yellow line. In addition to the King ss Monsters that we kill at the first charge, there are 51 King ss Monsters left.


    "The situation hasn''t changed much, considering you are here. But at least, you manage to drag the same number of monsters that are supposed to fight you, meaning that the situation has returned to its first state.


    "The army is also holding up well against those monsters. They are stopping the unique monsters. There are some losses on our side, but the pope has been a great help, sending a huge number of people back to the battlefield. That''s why the green line can reach a stalemate.


    "There are also no more ambushes from the west and east. If nothing goes wrong, we will be able to gain an advantage pretty soon."


    After listening to the report, Leonardo asked several questions. "How are the air strikes and turrets from the base? Where is the Time God? And how is the hole I''ve left behind?"


    "All the supports haven''t moved. They are ready to be deployed, including our turrets that can harm a King ss Monster. As for the Time God, it''s expected that he will arrive in ten to fifteen minutes." Agata paused for a moment before pointing at the screen. "As you can see, the hole has been patched up after Ava and Felix move closer."


    "It''s great then." Leonardo nodded. "Tell them that we will deploy the air strikes as soon as the Time God arrives at the battlefield. They are to hit the normal monsters. The military turrets shall do the same. But your turrets are to wait for another ten minutes before hunting down those King ss Monsters."


    "Got it." Agata nodded with a serious expression.


    When she was about to go to Ne tomunicate with the people in charge of the support, Leonardo called her.


    "Agata��"


    "Yes?" Agata turned around in confusion.


    Leonardo smiled. "You truly have observing eyes. Lorenzo and that little doctor�� Aisha, was it? It was you who told them to move, right? The timing was perfect. Well done."


    Agata smiled while pumping her fist. "That''s a given. I can''t smear his name after all."


    Leonardo chuckled, feeling satisfied with her answer. "You got that right. Hahahaha! Theo is truly lucky to have you."

 Chapter 2027 Leonardos Direction (1)

    "Let''s go there and break through their rank." The Balloon King shouted while pointing at the numerous monsters.


    The Coin Queen nced at the side. The situation didn''t look that good. There were about a thousand monsters in front of them. Half of them handled two hundred soldiers with them while the other half were behind the rest. They could either loop around to surround the enemies or change their direction to them.


    They had managed to reduce the casualty to minimal with the surprise attack. But if they had to confront them like this, they would still have a hard time.


    She nced at their people, checking their current condition. They had absorbed some soldiers and became two thousand in number. Even though the number was twice of the enemies, the monsters wouldn''t go down so easily, considering they had many unique monsters.


    "Wait a minute. Those monsters are ready to change their targets for us. The distance is a bit too far for us to prevent their maneuver, so it''s best to change our approach." The Coin Queen warned him.


    However, they couldn''t see any path that could lead to a safe approach.


    "If you have an idea, then tell me right now. If not, then we''ll proceed with the original n. We don''t have much time to do this, you see." The King of Balloon shook his head. It wasn''t that he wasn''t thinking about their casualty, but there was simply no other way around.


    But it felt like a miracle showed its presence.


    Suddenly, the army had a slight movement.


    "!!!" It startled all the people that were about to ambush the monsters.


    "Hah? Those monsters are looping around? Are they swallowing the army?"


    "Not good. We have to��"


    When they were about to panic, they noticed a reason for that change. Even though the monsters outnumbered the army, it didn''t change the fact that they had stopped the monsters for quite a while. So, it was impossible for them to suddenly copse.


    It was possible if someone strong died, but there were no important people they should take note of, so they realized that it was a maneuver from the army itself.


    ''The monsters are looping around, causing them to have a blind spot. If we, the three Transcendent Level Experts, stop their rear, the rest won''t realize what happens before it''s toote. It will give an excellent opportunity to crush them.'' The King of Balloon recognized the change and turned to the other two experts.


    His expression was enough to tell them his intention.


    With their current prestige, it was easy for them to see the path. They nodded their heads without hesitation, knowing this was the opportunity they needed.


    They didn''t know whether the army tried to adjust their position for them or if it was just a fluke that the situation changed that way, but the opportunity was for them to take.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The three Transcendent Level Experts immediately stepped forth and used their respective abilities to handle the rear while the rest of the people pierced through the enemy rank.


    Once again, they would dominate the battlefield. Theo had also told them to absorb some soldiers every time they passed arge enemy. This way, some people could choose to give up. And some could choose to treat their wounds and stay there for the rest of the battle.


    Nheless, the casualties would be reduced even further. This was the n Theo presented to them while respecting their opinion. He knew that those people were already sick of fighting monsters. They simply wanted to live peacefully and didn''t want to risk their lives when the chance to stay away from this bloody battlefield was before their eyes.


    And the three Transcendent Level Experts had told them the reason for Theo''s n, making them feel grateful. Most of them treated this battle as thest battle before their retirement. It was nothing but thest day of their life in the wilderness.


    Still, what they didn''t know was that the reason for their low casualty was not Theo alone. It was themander who was there to guide them, Leonardo.


    ��


    Headquarters.


    "Sir Leonardo. The Sweeper manages to break through the enemy rank and further absorb the army. By the time they reach the southern battlefield, they will have at least three thousand men." Agata reported.


    "Good." Leonardo smirked. Just like Agata, he kept an eye on everyone on the battlefield. But Leonardo''s battle sense was more refined than Agata, allowing him to control the battlefieldpletely. Even the government and the military wouldn''t really reject the order from the man who could destroy a country with his intelligence alone after all.


    Leonardo pointed at the screen in the top corner. "That screen, which battlefield is that?"


    Agata followed his line of sight and immediately replied, "That''s the right wing in the north battlefield."


    "Tell them to step back and invite the enemies in. The center army will step forward to rece them. And send a quarter of the reserve army to ambush the enemies from the right."


    "Got it."


    After takingmand, the battlefield had a drastic change. Not only the Sweeper Group that Theo relied on but countless smaller armies had benefited from Leonardo''s instruction.


    They managed to reach a stalemate no matter how disadvantageous their situation was. If before theyined about how they didn''t get any support from the base and had to wait for the Sweeper Group due to the difference in their number, after Leonardo''s arrangement, they realized that they had enough strength to win. It was their misconception that made them think otherwise.


    Leonardo smirked as he gently stroked his chin, looking at the screen while contemting what he should do next.


    In his mind, he was talking to Theo, ''Don''t worry, Theo. Since I''m here, you don''t have to worry about the other battlefield. I don''t have enough power for another round, but I can still control the armies. None of the monsters will slip past me.''

 Chapter 2028 Leonardos Direction (2)

    "Huh? We''re stepping back?" Themander on the right army was confused by the order, but because it was an order, he had to execute it. "Jim, green!"


    He was shouting at the person not far from him.


    The other guy noticed it since themander was sending the message with the help of Magic Power. So, he took out a re gun and pointed it at the sky.


    *Bang!*


    A green re flew to the sky. With such a high re, the monsters were confused while the army understood their assignment.


    On this battlefield that involved hundreds of thousands of people, it was hard for them to follow the order. After all, the army had been stretched widely due to the number. So, they only needed to follow a simple order like the re. The green re meant retreat.


    Once the soldiers saw that, no matter how confused they were, they had to go back.


    Some were reluctant, but most of them had moved backward. If they didn''t move back, they would be left alone in the frontline after all.


    So, they had no choice but to obey orders.


    And with this, the right army gradually retreated, causing the monsters to advance forward.


    There were a lot of enemies pushing forward, thinking they managed to overwhelm the humans.


    But the more they pushed forward, the deeper they fell into Leonardo''s trap.


    It didn''t take too long for the reserve army to finally reach their position and strike them from the side. Their momentum and their strengthpletely overwhelmed the monsters.


    Even if it onlysted for a while, their strengthpletely crushed the enemies.


    It stunned the soldiers because the pressure on their side was lessened greatly.


    "This is��" Themander, who was enduring a hellish fight, finally had time to take a breath. He had been going full power this whole time, but that narrowed his field of vision.


    Now that he had regained hisposure, he finally realized the situation and gradually shifted the army again.


    ''The battlefield is changing in a different way from before��'' Themander thought for a moment. ''I see. It seems we have a newmander. Not bad.''


    This kind of support was happening on all battlefields. Even with their disadvantages, the army could at least stop the monsters in front of them.


    But the most important thing for Leonardo''s presence in themand center was none other than the situation inside the base.


    "We have located the bomb and neutralized it." One of the Mafia Queen''s subordinates reported while ncing at the bomb squad that handled the bomb.


    "There is another one spotted here. The bomb squad is moving right now."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There is another bomb here. But we are a bit far from the bomb squad�� requesting to carry it and ce it in an empty area."


    While taking care of the battlefield, Leonardo was calcting the pattern of the bombing idents. He realized that the spies only wanted to cause a ruckus among the citizens, not destroy any important assets of the base.


    It seemed that the spies wanted the citizens to be in disarray, if possible, cause massive chaos.


    But Leonardo had seen through this and started deploying the people under the Mafia Queen to take care of the bombs.


    They never expected that the bombs would be snatched one by one. And with how they were set at different timing, it became easier to stop the bombs.


    And the Mafia Queen who witnessed all this change couldn''t help but smile with a dark expression. "Hahaha. As expected of the War Saint, he can even predict all this�� This is why despite not having the strength to go toe-to-toe with us or even reach the top 20 people in the world, he is still feared like one of the Saints. Leonardo Guerrero�� you''re amazing."


    The Mafia Queen became even more spirited since they could finally do their jobs properly. If they continued like this, it wouldn''t be long before they could rx or even help the people from the frontline.


    Last but not least, the change came from inside the base. But this time, it was a person who was going directly to the battlefield.


    He was none other than the Time God.


    While he was moving, Leonardo called the Time God. He knew that the Time God would be ignoring him if he called by using the official line of the headquarters, so he used the number Theo had given him previously.


    "Hmm?" The Time God narrowed his eyes and picked it up, considering he didn''t give his number to normal people.


    "Yo, Time God. I guess I don''t have to introduce myself." Leonardo''s tone was filled with confidence to the point it felt like Leonardo was looking down on him.


    "��War Saint, I presume." The Time God narrowed his eyes.


    "You''re correct. I guess you have been taking your time in going to the battlefield. With your ability, you can reach the frontline within ten minutes, no?"


    The Time God''s eyebrows twitched. As the ruler of time, he obviously could elerate himself and reach the battlefield that fast. But the Time God also had his own considerations. "I apologize if that offends you, but considering I have to take down the slime, who is the strongest among them, I have to preserve my energy.


    "That''s why I''m going to use the fastest route while conserving my energy. I don''t think that''s a problem, right? Everyone on the battlefield should be able to wait for that long."


    "Of course. This is the reason for my call�� I have calcted your time and speed. By this time, you should have reached the battlefield, right?"


    "��" The Time God clicked his tongue. As Leonardo said, he had justnded on top of the building not far from the battlefield. He could already see the battlefield from this tower. "Yeah. I guess you want me to do something."


    "Of course. I have one task for you before you join the battle. I''m sure this is an easy task for you." Leonardo smirked.


    What kind of order would Leonardo give to the Time God?

 Chapter 2029 Fist Saint Vs Sword Saint (1)

    On the battlefield, a clicking sound kept echoing from the red line.


    It was the sh between the Sword Saint and the Fist Saint.


    "Judgment." The Sword Saint shed downwards. The energy around his sword exploded and scattered all around the area. However, the remnant of energy seemed to be moving in one direction.


    All the energy headed straight to the Fist King. This was an invisible strike from the Sword Saint. Theo had once imitated it with the help of Felix''s ability, but the power of this strike far surpassed what Theo released back then.


    Still, his opponent was not a normal person either. He was the Fist Saint.


    "Strengthen." The Fist Saint pointed his palm forward while pouring his Magic Power. The air around him started to get reinforced to the point it became solid.


    In the end, the invisible sword strike hit the reinforced air.


    *Cling!*


    The air was so hard that it felt like metal. But more importantly, the Sword Saint, whose sword could cut everything, failed to cut the reinforced air.


    The Fist Saint smirked. "I know your ability, Sword Saint. Do you know how long I have been researching your power? I know that your sword strike is invincible. However, your power is stillckingpared to the Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God.


    "That''s why I have been researching your power�� it''s so that I can challenge and defeat you. I know that your sword can cut everything, but you have a vital weakness.


    "The sword might be able to cut everything, but it''s limited to everything you can see. If that thing is invisible, you''ll fail to recognize it as an object that can be cut. That''s why your sword can''t cut through my ability."


    The Sword Saint remained silent, but his serious expression had told him everything.


    They had been shing for a while. And it was true that the Sword Saint''s sword had yet to reach the Fist Saint.


    This showed how much the Fist Saint had researched his ability. The more the Fist Saint fought the Sword Saint, the more he could understand his power.


    If this continued, the Sword Saint, who was once ranked 3rd in the world, might lose against the Fist Saint, who was ranked 6th in the world.


    The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to calcte the Fist Saint''s power. He had heard a lot about the Fist Saint as well, considering he was known as the youngest Saint in the world before Theo appeared.


    So, it was clear that the Fist Saint had an ability that allowed him to sit on that throne.


    ''The ability to reinforce everything. Unlike the Mafia Queen, who walks in the path of pure enchanter, the Fist Saint has fused the healing ability and enchanting ability. It allows him to generate and strengthen everything.


    ''Like the air earlier, he must have strengthened the air and once my de reaches it, they regenerate the wall, allowing it to withstand my strike.


    ''Even though I can''t cut something invisible, it doesn''t mean that my strength is that weak. Unless he has that level of power, he won''t be able to stop my attack.


    ''I guess the Fist Saint has prepared a lot of things for today. It seems that winning against him won''t be an easy task.''<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Sword Saint took a deep breath before raising his sword.


    "If you deem my sword can''t reach you, then I''ll show you what it means to cut that thought of yours." The Sword Saint smirked. The Magic Power around his body started to leak out.


    Unlike the others, his Magic Power looked like others. It was blue in color and there was no unique shape or anything. The Order and Authority he had, which was the ''Sword,'' granted him something else.


    His Magic Power was extremely sharp. There was a gust of wind that carried the fallen leaves. But the moment they came into contact with his Magic Power, all the leaves were instantly cut into pieces.


    Yes, this was the sharp Magic Power, unique only to the Sword Saint. Even without touching or seeing something, the Magic Power would cut any object around him.


    He rarely used it since he didn''t want to harm anyone around him, especially his family. But since this battle was necessary, he unleashed the Magic Power that had been sealed for decades.


    Even the Fist Saint could feel the change from the Sword Saint.


    "So, that''s the ''Sword'' Magic Power." Even the Fist Saint felt threatened by the sheer amount of its power. From this point onward, the Sword Saint would seriously go after his life.


    Even though he might die from this, he couldn''t help but smile, knowing that he could fight against the former 3rd rank in the world.


    The Fist Saint enveloped his body with his own Magic Power, strengthening his skin, the air around him, and even his fists.


    "Let''s see whether your ''Sword'' is stronger than my ''Fist.'' Hahahaha!" The Fist Saintughed while jumping forward.


    The Sword Saint''s expression was cold and aloof. He slightly raised his sword, nning to intercept the fist with a single sword strike.


    ''This is the fist that I have honed for the rest of my life. Emperor Fist.'' The Fist Saint muttered inwardly and punched forth while roaring, "Haaaaaa!"


    Instead of the raging fighting intent from the Fist Saint, the energy around the Sword Saint was extremely calm. It was so calm that it looked like it could swallow everything.


    The Sword Saint waved down his sword, striking the Fist Saint.


    *Cling!*


    Their sh caused a heaven-shattering sound. The energy that burst out from the collision caused the ground to tremble.


    The sword energy was scattered and cut the ground several times. Even though they were shing in the air, the energy still managed to leave at least twenty feet deep cut on the ground.


    However, the Fist Saint''s strength couldn''t be underestimated either. The powerful Magic Power from the Fist Saint scattered like the sword energy, but this energy hit the ground behind the Sword Saint, creating multiple craters.


    This was just a single sh between the Sword Saint and the Fist Saint.

 Chapter 2030 Fist Saint Vs Sword Saint (2)

    The Sword Saint remained calm, but he also felt the brute force contained from the Fist Saint''s energy. On the other hand, the Fist Saint smirked and became even more excited when he felt that sharp Magic Power that seemed to be able to cut him into pieces if he let his guard down even once.


    "As expected, the Sword Saint is truly different. I guess I should be grateful that you finally released that Magic Power again." The Fist Saint smirked.


    The Sword Saint wasn''t that interested in talking to the Fist Saint. He released this Magic Power so that he could end this fight as quickly as possible.


    Since the first strike couldn''t do anything to the Fist Saint, the Sword Saint swung for the second time.


    The Fist Saint clicked his tongue and punched the sword once again. The sword caused another sh on the ground and the fist formed another crater.


    Even with a portion of the Magic Power from the first strike, they still released a strike powerful enough to leave a huge mark on the battlefield. This was the battle between the Saints.


    The Sword Saint frowned whenever he struck the Fist Saint. He had channeled his Magic Power and even used his ability to cut through everything. But he couldn''t harm the Fist Saint at all.


    When he took a closer look, he realized that the Fist Saint was strengthening the air around his body, turning it into an invisible armor that worked perfectly against his strike.


    The Fist Saint, on the other hand, noticed something from the sword strike as well. Even though none of them hit him directly, the sharp Magic Power gave a sharp pain all over his body. It felt like he was being cut by a thousand swords.


    "��" The Fist Saint took a deep breath, thinking, ''As expected of the Sword Saint, I have thought that even with me researching all your strength and weakness, it''ll still be hard for me to defeat you.


    ''People often said you were a failure who couldn''t make the cut into the battle between the Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God. But for people like us, who understand your strength, you are simply thest gate that keeps away all fighters from interfering in the battle between the two strongest beings.


    ''Obviously, your strength is beyond everyone''s understanding��'' The Fist Saint smirked once again. He knew that the Sword Saint was strong, but he came here intending to win.


    He gathered the Magic Power around his fist once again as if he was trying to punch the Sword Saint as hard as possible.


    But before the Fist Saint struck the Sword Saint, he opened his palm and pointed it at the Sword Saint.


    "��" The Sword Saint sensed the flow of Magic Power. It surrounded him and enhanced the air around him, creating a box that isted him and the rest of the world.


    He understood the reason why the Fist Saint did this. He wanted to create a box to trap him. Since his power was useless against the invisible air, he thought he could create a situation where the Sword Saint had to utilize all his strength to see whether there was an ability that could cut through the invisible air or not. This way, the Fist Saint could prepare for it.


    The Fist Saint smiled, knowing that his n worked. With this, the Sword Saint had no choice but to use his trump card. ''Come and show me. I''m going to learn it so that you can''t use it as a sneak attack.''


    The Sword Saint understood his intention. He only had two options. If he showed that kind of ability, the Sword Saint would be at a disadvantage. If he didn''t show it, there was no telling what the Fist Saint nned to do.


    Still, the one before him was the Sword Saint.


    "It seems that you want to trap me so that I can show you my power��" The Sword Saint said with a cold expression. Looking at the Fist Saint''s face already gave the answer he needed. The Sword Saint continued, giving a little surprise to the Fist Saint. "But�� I''m afraid I have to disappoint you��"


    "You are not going to��" The Fist Saint wanted to shout something, but suddenly, the Sword Saint had unsheathed his sword. The people who didn''t know the Sword Saint would think he had given up. But those who knew his power would realize this was the stance he used to utilize his best ability, the Sword Draw.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The moment the Sword Saint unsheathed his de, the swing was so fast that even the Fist Saint had a hard time seeing it.


    From that sword came out a burst of Magic Power. The burst was far bigger than anything he had shown today.


    Itpletely filled the isted box and began to shine. The blue box started to expand as if it had a hard time containing the energy.


    ''What? His strength�� is beyond my ability?'' The Fist Saint widened his eyes as he hurriedly jumped back to regain some distance.


    When the energy was overwhelming, the box finally reached its breaking point.


    *Boom!*


    The explosion was so big that it looked like there was a second sun on the battlefield. And the one who stood in the center of it was the Sword Saint.


    The Fist Saint was paying attention clearly since he knew the Sword Saint wouldn''t be hurt by something like that. He soon found a shadow that had drawn his sword once again.


    In that instant, the explosion itself was split into two as a crescent-shaped sword strike flew toward him.


    ''No, I''ll be cut.'' That thought appeared in the Fist Saint''s mind. He hurriedly jumped to the side to avoid it, but the moment he saw the sword strike itself, he suddenly felt something amiss.


    The sword strike was actually not as strong as he had imagined.


    "Hah? That strength��"


    The Sword Saint suddenly smiled. "Sorry, but don''t overestimate yourself. Do you think everything revolves around you?"


    "Huh?" The Fist Saint suddenly noticed the trajectory of the sword strike he had just avoided. ''Wait a minute. That sword strike doesn''t go to the slime. Instead, it''s going straight to the human side. He is fighting for humanity, right?''


    The Fist Saint could finally understand the meaning behind that sword strike. It was truly not a strike to cut him down.


    After all, the strike might not be that weak, but it wasn''t that powerful either. It was clear that he adjusted the strength behind that strike carefully before sending it in that direction.


    In other words, the Sword Saint was nning to cut someone in that direction. And he did it during their fight.


    It was clear that the Sword Saint was indirectly telling him that he had spare attention to send that strike.


    The Sword Saint smiled for the first time as if telling him, ''That''s right, Idiot. You are weak. I can fight you while helping others.''


    As someone who considered themselves equal, this kind of action was a big insult. The veins on the Fist Saint''s forehead bulged as the Fist Saint let out a roar filled with anger. "SWORD SAINTTTT!!!"

 Chapter 2031 Felixs Growth (1)

    A while ago.


    Felix had been overwhelmed by the enemies. His enemies consisted of four King ss Monsters like Rea. In terms of fighting ability, he was better than Rea. But to defeat four King ss Monsters, Rea''s brain was better since the battlefield didn''t consist only of them.


    Felix looked at the four King ss Monsters in front of him. The fight had just started not long ago, but his body was already covered in wounds.


    As an assassin, he usually waited until the right moment before assassinating the target. But in this situation, he couldn''t do it. They had been outnumbered already. If he didn''t show himself, the enemies would have overwhelmed them before he could do anything.


    Whenever he fought straightforwardly, he would be at a disadvantage, considering his abilities and experiences mostly came from assassination.


    ''Hu��'' Felix took a deep breath. ''As expected, it''s hard for me to fight someone head-on, let alone four King ss Monsters. When I helped Ava, the four monsters had been severely injured. But this time, all the monsters were in their best state.


    Although he got two monsters of the same kind due to them being created from a fragment of a World ss Monster, it didn''t change the fact that they were still considered a King ss Monster.


    Felix wanted to find a way to defeat the enemies since he wanted to aplish Theo''s tasks. He couldn''t let people look down on Theo because he failed to do his task as his right hand man.


    He still remembered what Theo had said to him back then. In fact, he was the first one to be called to receive Theo''s message.


    At that time, Theo only said, "I have told you everything, Felix. So, I will only tell you to show the world that you are my second-inmand."


    "Huh?" Felix was confused at first. But he soon realized that Theo was referring to the discussion they had in the previous battle. Theo had told him to evolve. Since it was everything, there was nothing more to talk about.


    Felix couldn''t grasp the meaning the whole time. He even lost his confidence, considering he had failed to ''evolve'' in the previous war.


    So, this trust that Theo had entrusted felt so heavy. He wondered if he could even do it this time.


    When his confidence couldn''t go any lower, the battlefield changed in a very weird way.


    He felt the surge of Magic Power in the area, rming even the monsters.


    "!!!" Felix looked at the four monsters first before taking a peek at what had happened. He saw the lightning beam that pierced through the heart of the battlefield and flew straight to the opposite side.


    He recognized the attack since there was only one person who had a lightning element in the area. At the same time, he didn''t understand the reason for Ava to do such a thing. No, it was more like Ava should be as smart as him, so they shouldn''t see any point in attacking the opposite side, unless�� there was someone asking them to do it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "!!!" In that instant, Felix realized that Leonardo was the one asking Ava to do it. It was hard to see him from here, but he could see the slight change on the battlefield. They were supposed to make a v-shaped formation, yet, there was a hole in their formation. It was clear that Leonardo had moved away from his position.


    But he didn''t know why he left such a big hole for the enemies to go through.


    ''Why?'' This question kept echoing in his mind. The four King ss Monsters around him obviously wouldn''t allow him to do anything. They immediately attacked him again.


    "Tsk." Felix clicked his tongue and struck them, albeit the four King ss Monsters were far too strong for him. In the end, there were two more grazes on his body.


    Felix gritted his teeth. On the one hand, he wanted to be reckless again and kill all these King ss Monsters even if he had to die in the process. That recklessness worked once after all.


    On the other hand, if he died, the situation wouldn''t be good. In fact, Theo''s words gued him. He told him to show the world that he was Theo''s right hand man. So, if he died, he would just bring him shame.


    That was why he was in a dilemma. He wanted to defeat them but he couldn''t be reckless. And that waspletely impossible.


    Felix kept being attacked from all directions, but weirdly, his mind became cooler and cooler. It might be due to the fact that he couldn''t be reckless this time that his instinct was telling him to start thinking.


    What Felix didn''t know was that Theo had been working on fixing his habit this whole time. In the past, Felix was truly an assassin.


    But what Theo wanted from him was something else. He didn''t need an assassin.


    That was why Theo had given Felix a lot of opportunities. At first, he exined the formation and array that the Beggar Association used to observe them. And not long ago, he was given the role of amander instead of Agata or Rea, who seemed to be more suitable than him.


    And everything started to take shape in Felix now that Theo put him in a situation where he had to utilize that new concept far different from the assassin path.


    Felix didn''t know it yet, but his mind had grown ustomed to thinking about it. In the previous battle, all he could think was to be reckless. But in the situation where he couldn''t be reckless, Felix was forced to solve it as safely as possible.


    Because he wasn''t aware of everything, he also didn''t know that his expression had be more and more serious.


    Every time he blocked his attack, his mind started calcting any possible move he could take to turn around the situation.


    Yes, without him realizing it, Felix had begun to ''evolve.''

 Chapter 2032 Felixs Growth (2)

    ?


    Felix took a deep breath. ''Kh. Repelling them alone is already hard and I''m still upied with this thought. But I can''t do anything without it��''


    Felix waved his de, creating a circr sword strike to repel the four King ss Monsters.


    Three King ss Monsters ended up taking it head-on and got pushed back, but those three simply slowed down the expansion of the energy, allowing the fourth King ss Monster to use that opportunity to approach Felix from above.


    "!!!" Felix hurriedly raised his sword, blocking the enemy''s paw. But the strike was so powerful that itunched him back to the ground.


    "Kh." Felix gnashed his teeth whileining inwardly, ''What can I do? Even though he said to evolve, what can a man like me do? I''m just an assassin, not a��Ah!'' The instant he realized it, Felix''s field of visionpletely changed.


    It might be because he now saw everything from the ground where he could see the other battlefield that he saw something different.


    ''He never told me to evolve my strength. There was no way a smart man like him wouldn''t know how hard it is to achieve a breakthrough in strength.


    ''It must mean something else�� and that was probably why he gave me the leader position in thest war. He wanted me to evolve not as a fighter, but as amander.


    ''And for themander��'' Felix became silent. It felt like the world slowed down for a while.


    He could recall a lot of memories about the previous war. He didn''t realize it at that time, but even though he had told the others that he wasn''t smart enough to lead the group, he still gave a lot of good insight like that of a leader.


    Even Agata and Rea felt a bit better after listening to his encouragement and way of thinking.


    In that instant, his field of vision became bigger. Instead of the four King ss Monsters around him, he could feel the presence of King ss Monsters on other battlefields.


    ''That''s right. Sir Leonardo must be the one guiding Ava. And what is he nning to do��'' Felix thought. He was looking around while fighting the King ss Monsters.


    Although it was hard to see it from here, he noticed the small change happening on the other side of the battlefield. Yes, it was Rea, who seemed to be doing something else.


    And it started with the Shadow King''s attack that came his way.


    ''Huh? Why did the Shadow King attack me? No, wait. Rea must be the one giving the n�� No matter how hard I think, it''s impossible for me to understand what both Sir Leonardo and Rea are thinking. But what do they want from me? I might have experienced some changes with the current perspective, but I can''t do anything as amander��''


    Felix gritted his teeth. He had to think something fast before the attack came to him.


    ''No, wait. Theo only tells me to show the world that I''m his second-inmand. But he never tells me to abandon my original path.'' Felix widened his eyes in shock as if he had realized something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    And as an assassin, Felix had taken out most of his targets without them realizing it. Meanwhile, the current four King ss Monsters around him were already aware of his attacks and presence.


    So, it was impossible for them to ambush them. In that instant, he finally understood his real target.


    A leader and an assassin�� At first, he thought it was impossible tobine both. But seeing how Theo could be anything made him realize it was just foolish thinking. If he put his mind to it, he could be anything.


    With the new insight he got as a leader, his experience as an assassin showed him the real target and mission.


    ''Hahaha�� that person is truly amazing. I know that I can''t be like you, but please let me stay as your most trusted man�� Master.'' Felix suddenly raised his de while pouring a lot of Magic Power into it.


    "!!!" The four King ss Monsters were rmed by the sudden movement. After all, it looked like Felix was going to use something big. At the same time, there were the Shadow King''s attacks that were about to reach them. Ultimately, they jumped back to regain some distance, but they didn''t realize that was thest thing they should do.


    Now that they had given him some distance, he got the time needed. And more importantly, his line of sight became wider.


    ''There��'' Felix waved his de toward one of the King ss Monsters.


    The King ss Monster thought he was being targeted. So, he gathered the Magic Power to sh with this crescent-shaped sword strike. But right before he hit the sword strike, thetter suddenly split into a few smaller sword strikes.


    The King ss Monster was startled, thinking Felix was trying to take him out by this cheap trick. Hence, the King ss Monster immediately turned around, expecting the sword strikes to hit him from the back.


    But surprisingly, the sword strikes disappeared as if they were never there. But the King ss Monster could feel the Magic Power left behind by those sword strikes, so the monster desperately tried to find them.


    Unfortunately, the moment they realized the sword strikes, they were toote.


    The sword strikes reappeared not far from the King ss Monsters. However, they were not the ones around Felix. Instead, the targets were the King ss Monsters that chased after Leonardo.


    The King ss Monsters were supposed to hold back each human fighter. In fact, their number alone was enough to stop the human fighter from helping theirrades. That was why they didn''t expect Felix to actually try to help others.


    As a result, the sword strikes reached and cut the King ss Monsters from afar.


    Not only Leonardo but Felix was also smiling.


    ''I have made you wait, Master. I, Felix, will show the world that I''m your second-inmand.''

 Chapter 2033 Felixs Strength

    ?


    "!!!" The King ss Monsters around him were dumbstruck. The attacks and Felix''s sudden change had confused them and stopped them from hindering Felix, but they never expected that one opportunity was all it took for Felix to help someone from another battlefield without sacrificing anything.


    After that attack, Rea would surely gain an advantage over the King ss Monsters she had to face.


    One of the Four King ss Monsters could exchange their position to bnce it, but there was no way Felix allowed them to do it. Felix could see their reaction and movement clearly after the change, and their monster''s instinct was telling them that Felix had aplete grasp of their movement. Pulling any trick would simply give Felix an opportunity to strike.


    The Four King ss Monsters knew they had to kill Felix as quickly as possible or Rea would have killed the ones she faced first.


    But they didn''t know whether they could kill Felix or not.


    Felix pointed his sword at them with a serious expression. There was no trace of rushing or panicking on his face. His eyes were calm and collected and his head waspletely cool.


    ''I have three main objectives right now. First, kill these four King ss Monsters even if I have to sacrifice myself. Second, I have to find an opportunity to help the others around me. Third, I need to find an opportunity to change the course of the battle, especially for those Transcendent Level Experts��''


    After confirming his intention, Felix finally made the first move. He waved his sword horizontally, creating the circr sword strike again.


    The three King ss Monsters slowed down the expansion like the previous attempt. Meanwhile, the fourth monster jumped above him. They had proved this strategy worked previously, but Felix had already seen such a thinging before releasing his ability.


    That was why the moment the fourth monster reached him, Felix suddenly retracted the Magic Power he used to float in the air, causing him to fall.


    *Whoosh!*


    The monster''s paw missed, producing a small breeze. But it was nothing against Felix''s attack.


    He pointed his left palm at the monster.


    Suddenly, the sunlight was concentrated on one spot.


    "!!!" The King ss Monster widened its eyes. There was a spot on his back that had an increase in temperature. It was clear that Felix was using his ability, so he immediately tilted his body to the side, avoiding the concentrated light.


    But that didn''t matter. Since the monster had moved away from the light, thetter ended up falling into him, which was reflected by his sword.


    Felix even poured his Magic Power to spread the light so that he could create a powerful source of light that could blind the monster.


    *Roar!*


    The monster was closing its eyes while trying to move away.


    But this was what Felix had been waiting for. In the past, he had always blinded his target with the light before killing them, thus giving him the nickname ''White Assassin.''


    This time was no different. He had blinded the enemy and immediately turned into light itself.


    Since the light between the sword and his body was connected, Felix could use it to pull him up until he reached the monster.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Felix waved his de while changing the characteristic of his Magic Power from reflecting the light into harboring one. The concentrated light filled with Magic Power would be able to cut through the monster''s flesh.


    Felix struck the monster''s de.


    ''One do��''


    *Bam!*


    Felix suddenly crashed to the ground as a blurry figure appeared next to the monster. It seemed he was the one that managed to stop Felix from killing a King ss Monster.


    "��" Felix hurriedly stood up and jumped to the side as numerous attacks rained him down.


    While dodging these attacks, Felix took a nce at the sky. His de managed to cut the monster''s neck, but because of the blow and speed, it only created a superficial wound. Although it would be fatal after some time, knowing the King ss Monster, it should be able to prevent such a thing.


    At the same time, the other unique King ss Monster appeared by using its fastest speed to help this monster, while the other two King ss Monsters, who were born from the same monster, rained him down with attacks to buy time.


    Felix knew that his attack was effective, but it was truly hard to fight these four monsters. They tried to back up each other with their abilities.


    Felix lowered his de as if he was nning to swing upward. At the same time, the light seemed to be brighter around them, creating translucent light pirs that surrounded them.


    The Four King ss Monsters understood this attack and hurriedly moved away. Meanwhile, Felix waved his sword and turned the light pir into a solid light like that of a de.


    Two of the light pirs hit the injured monster. And luckily, one of them pierced through the monster''s body.


    The King ss Monsters realized that Felix might be stronger than they originally thought. They had the data from the previous war, but it seemed that they still hadn''t seen all of Felix''s strength.


    What they didn''t know was that Felix had always been this strong. He was justcking the mind and vision to calcte such an attack.


    Felix suddenly jumped into the air once more while covering his sword with light.


    The injured monster ended up getting protected by the monster next to it while the other two monsters flew toward Felix in order to stop him.


    This was the time Felix put on a smile as if he had expected all this. At the same time, he stopped in the air for a moment and turned around, aiming the de toward the monsters around Rea.


    "!!!" The two monsters suddenly shifted their positions in order to stop Felix''s attack, but it turned out to be faint.


    As soon as they stopped, Felix took the opportunity tounch himself to the injured monster. Instead of fighting four monsters at once, the feint allowed him to fight only two monsters at a time.


    ''Light sh.'' Felix waved his sword with a smile.

 Chapter 2034 Using A Saints Attack

    ?


    ''Light sh.''


    The light around Felix''s sword flew forth. Its strength was simr to the light pir Felix used earlier, but weirdly enough, Felix only used one of it instead of multiple. There was no need for them to be scared if there was only one since it was easily avoidable.


    The monster grabbed the injured monster before flying backward, avoiding Felix''s attack.


    To their surprise, the moment the light almost reached them, Felix suddenly appeared at the tip of the light as if he had just teleported.


    This was Felix''s way to increase his speed for a split second to the point it looked like he had just teleported. He had used it before when fighting against the Poison King, but he poured too much power into it, causing him to be left with empty Magic Power after using it.


    Now that he had be stronger and knew how to control his strength, he managed to use it without getting exhausted.


    And this time, he managed to get close to these two monsters.


    The King ss Hawk that had been preventing Felix from killing the injured monster flew forward. It pped its wings,unching numerous feathers. Each feather felt like knives. Felix had a few grazes on him earlier, so he understood that the feathers had to be avoided.


    Yet, Felix nned to confront these feathers head-on. Even the other two monsters were chasing after Felix from behind.


    If Felix couldn''t stop the feathers, he would be defeated by the two monsters behind him.


    But that didn''t matter. After all, their n had to change.


    "!!!"


    Felix noticed an iing powerful Magic Power. Even the four monsters couldn''t help but stop to look at this powerful attack.


    On the one hand, they were ready for such a thing after the Shadow King''s attack reached their position. On the other hand, the direction of this new attack was not from the King ss Monsters. Instead, it came from the red lines where the World ss Monsters and Saints fought.


    They realized that a Saint sent this attack without caring about what happened in this area.


    ''A sword strike?'' Felix looked at the iing attack and thought, ''No way. It''s the Sword Saint?''


    Theo had told them that the Saints would be sending a few attacks here and there so that the Transcendent Level Experts could use it to kill the monsters around them.


    It seemed that the Sword Saint had deliberately sent this sword strike to give Felix an opportunity. The sword strike looked strong, but it was at the level that he could handle. Still, Felix might get some injuries by utilizing this attack.


    After all, the Sword Saint couldn''t release an extremely weak attack since it would just give away his intention.


    That was why Felix immediately covered his sword with light. He thought about using armor to lessen the damage to his body, but he knew that it would just cause the attack to be not optimal.


    The monsters immediately dispersed to avoid the attack, leaving Felix behind. They thought Felix would do the same, so they had to buy some time from Felix until the rest managed to catch up again.


    But Felix shocked them once more. Instead of avoiding this sword strike, he actually jumped straight into it.


    Insane. That was the only thing they thought about Felix. However, thetter didn''t care about their opinion.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He had one task. It was to use this attack to kill the King ss Monsters.


    With a sword in his right hand, Felix stood on the sword strike''s path and struck it with all his strength.


    "Haaaaaa!" Felix let out a shout to raise his morale and strength.


    The sh between his attack and the Sword Saint''s attack caused the ground to shake. A thunderous sound shook the battlefield as the impact produced a giant shock wave.


    Felix''s hand instantly became numb. He couldn''t help but use his other hand to support the de so that he wasn''t blown away. He was afraid that he failed to utilize this attack and only ended up being more injured.


    Even his right hand felt like it was about to break. The sharp Magic Power leaking from the attack grazed his body, creating a lot of superficial wounds on his body.


    "Haaaaaaa!" Felix shouted once more. It seemed that his effort started to be rewarded. He felt the pressure from the sword strike start to lessen.


    In that instant, his eyes shed as he poured the remaining strength to break apart the sword strike.


    *Crack!*


    The sword strike started to crack as Felix''s sword gradually split the sword strike apart. The monsters were stunned, not only because Felix managed to split apart the Sword Saint''s strike, but also because the broken part ended up getting redirected toward them.


    Felix used his light to alter their courses slightly. With their distance and angle, Felix managed to target three King ss Monsters by utilizing this attack.


    The three monsters hurriedly moved away to avoid it, but they were toote. Two of them even used their power to block it, but they utilized their strength a bit toote, causing their defense to be unstable.


    In the end, two of them got hit on their upper body. One of them had their entire arm obliterated and the other died with the entire upper body destroyed.


    As for the third monster, he had half of his body blown away by the strike.


    In just a single attack, Felix managed to kill two King ss Monsters and heavily injured one of them.


    Though, his condition wasn''t that good either. His right wrist was dislocated and his lower arm was broken.


    He was already holding his sword with his left hand since he couldn''t fight with his right hand anymore. But it was enough since there were only ''one and a half'' monsters left.


    ''It''s time to end this.'' Felix took a deep breath, albeit that thought instantly disappeared the moment Ava appeared on top of the injured monster.


    She suddenly appeared without any notice and killed the monster.


    "You''re amazing, Felix. Sorry for making you wait.."


    "!!!" Felix widened his eyes in shock, calling her name. "Ava?"

 Chapter 2035 Time God

    ?


    "Ava?" Felix widened his eyes in surprise. Even though he had been keeping tabs with all the movements around them, he still didn''t see Avaing here. There was simply no need to do it in their current situation.


    But it seemed that the time had passed more than he originally thought. With just a single nce, he realized that multiple King ss Monsters had died, especially the ones around Ava, the Shadow King, and the Great Guardian.


    Ava didn''t answer him right away. Instead, she turned around and jumped straight to thest King ss Monster nearby and struck him with all the lightning she had gathered on her paw.


    Even though Felix was curious, he could see the priority in this situation. Without hesitation, he helped Ava to take down thest King ss Monster.


    With thebined power of Ava and Felix, thest King ss Monster couldn''tst for three minutes before falling down.


    This was the time Felix asked, "What''s going on over there?"


    Ava made a small smile, feeling a bit awkward. "The Time God��"


    "Ah!" Felix suddenly fell silent as if he had understood everything. "I see. It seems that he has made his move�� How about the base? Is the Mafia Queen guarding it?"


    "Yes." Ava closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn''t help but recall what happened when the Time God appeared.


    She had gathered all her energy to strike the King ss Monsters around her. Because of her power andbat ability, five monsters were tasked to fight her.


    And as expected, it was hard to improve that much within the little time they had. In the end, Ava wouldn''t be able to cover the gap in their strength.


    She might be able to do something with only four of them, but five of them werepletely too much.


    The King ss Monsters were preparing to stop that strike as well. So, they got some distance to make sure their countermeasure worked.


    But their n ended up failing because of one existence. He was none other than the Time God.


    Due to the distance between them and Ava, all of them ended up having some distance between themselves.


    Using this position to his advantage, the Time God suddenly appeared behind one of the King ss Monsters.


    "!!!" The King ss Monster hurriedly spun its body and kicked backward out of instinct. His instinct was telling him that he would die if he didn''t do it.


    But to his surprise, the kick didn''t hit anything. In fact, there was no one behind him.


    ''There''s no on��'' Before the monsterpleted its thought, he suddenly felt a forceing from behind that slightly pushed him forward.


    When he looked down, he saw his heart was being destroyed by a hand. It was impossible to kill the monster even with this because their weakness could be either the head or heart or both at the same time.


    But it seemed that the culprit was already aware of their weakness as the next thing the monster realized, a hand had already pierced through its head, killing him.


    ''!!!'' The monster couldn''t even do anything before it died.


    However, his death alerted the other four King ss Monsters. They immediately shifted their focus toward the dying monster, albeit found nothing as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    *Roar!*


    One of the King ss Monsters suddenly let out a roar and punched to the side. Sadly, he hit nothing.


    By the time he realized, the guy had severed his neck, crushed his heart, and pierced his brain.


    *Roar!*


    The other King ss Monsters tried to rm each other, trying to find the one who had just killed two King ss Monsters earlier.


    It seemed that no matter how fast he moved, the monster''s instinct was still able to locate him.


    They immediately turned around and saw a middle-aged man moving at a speed that wasn''t visible to the naked eye. Even Ava had a hard time looking at this guy.


    It felt like space and time distorted around him and elerated him to this level. And without them realizing it, he had already arrived in front of them.


    This middle-aged man didn''t stop. Even if the monsters could react to his action now that they had found him, the monsters were simply too slowpared to this guy.


    He killed the other three King ss Monsters without breaking a sweat. Only after all threats had been eliminated did he stop and nce at Ava.


    ''Is heing at me?'' Ava hurriedly raised her stance. Even if she couldn''t do anything to him, she wouldn''t go down without a fight.


    Ava instantly recognized him and opened her mouth. "The world''s current number one fighter, the Time God, Aiden Turner."


    "Oh, as expected of the pet that Theodore Griffith keeps. I guess I don''t have to introduce myself." The Time God smirked.


    That was right. The one who managed to kill multiple King ss Monsters so effortlessly was none other than the Time God. He had finally reached the battlefield and helped Ava.


    He opened his mouth. "I don''te here to fight you. Besides, my role is not supposed to be here.


    "However, there is an annoying old man who keeps pestering me to help you, so I kinda do it.


    "Anyway, all the King ss Monsters around you have died. I''m just going to give you the message from that old man.


    "Go to Felix and help him defeat his opponents before killing the rest of the King ss Monsters on the left side. That''s all."


    After saying those words, the Time God disappeared once again. Though, this time, he headed straight to the Shadow King.


    He couldn''t help but remember the order from the War Saint.


    "Haha, I know you can do this and you won''t even need a lot of time to do it with your strength. Just kill the monsters around the Great Guardian, Ava, and the Shadow King before heading to the slime. And don''t forget to pass them my message�� The great Time God surely can do this, right?"


    Even though it was just a call, he could easily picture Leonardo talking like that with a smirk on his face, which annoyed him. Unfortunately, he didn''t have any choice.

 Chapter 2036 Dragon King

    ?


    "Well, I have just understood why that man is considered to be the strongest person in the world." Leonardo let out a sigh.


    The Time God wasn''t the only person who got annoyed by the order. Leonardo also didn''t like relying on other people, especially the Time God.


    He only did it because that was the only n he could use in order to restore Theo''s n.


    They had deviated a bit from the original n after all.


    Now that twenty King ss Monsters had died, humanity finally had enough strength to contain the remaining King ss Monsters.


    Agata nodded her head. "True. He managed to kill a few King ss Monsters so effortlessly. I can kind of see why he can achieve that position.


    "In a head-on fight, even I can''t think of any possible way for Theo to defeat him." Agata shook her head helplessly.


    She must have hated to admit it, but she also had the courage to say it. Even though Theo was strong, his strength was still iparable to the Time God. She could say that Theo had surpassed the Sword Saint and might be equal to the Heavenly Sovereign, but not the Time God.


    However, Agata added, "Still, if a head-on confrontation is all there is to a fight, humans don''t need a brain. It''s because there is a gap of power that a human will be creative and harder to beat. That''s why I can still say this, even if Theo can''t defeat him in a head-on fight, it doesn''t mean Theo will lose."


    Leonardo, who heard her speech, couldn''t help but smile. "You understand it well."


    "That''s right. If a head-on confrontation is all there is to a fight, then we don''t need a brain. And I don''t need to be here." Leonardo smirked and turned around, looking at the screens. "It''s because it''s not all about it that I''m here. And with me here, I will do my best to achieve victory."


    There were multiple movements on the battlefielding from Leonardo''s orders. In all those battlefields, the humans began to push the monsters back.


    It was solely for this reason that Leonardo was feared by the world. And this was why despite not having the strongest strength in the world, Theo was still considered the greatest man.


    After all, it was due to Theo cing him in this position that the Time God ended up getting ordered by Leonardo.


    Many understood this and gave leadership to Theo.


    Theo was a man who had the strength and brain to win against someone stronger than him.


    But of course, even though Theo could win, he never felt good enough. His strength still kept progressing at a rapid rate, and in this battle, he was going to surpass that limit once again and became both the strongest and greatest man in the world.


    ��


    Still, even though the Time God had arrived on the battlefield, he took thirty minutes to reach the battlefield.


    There were a lot of things happening within those thirty minutes, especially for the Magma Dragon.


    *Roar!*


    The Magma Dragon let out a roar while ring at the monster before him. His opponent wasn''t easy, but it didn''t change the fact that he was going to win.


    After all, he had made a promise.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Magma Dragon couldn''t help but nce at the Lightning Saint in the opposite direction.


    He was fighting the hidden monster that the slime had prepared.


    ��


    A few weeks ago.


    After the Magma Dragon recovered most of the outer injuries, he could finally stop for a moment to talk with the Lightning Saint.


    Despite being saved, the Magma Dragon was ring at him. "To think you would be the one to save me. Why are you here? Do you think saving me will make me forget about the past?"


    The Lightning Saint didn''t care about the provocation. In fact, he could still make a small smile as if he was reminded of something.


    "Why are youughing?" The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth.


    The Lightning Saint shook his head and said, "I don''t intend to apologize for my past mistake, nor did I save you from making you forgive me. The reason I saved you was simply because you are my kin."


    The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth and let out a thunderous roar. "Because I''m your kin?! If you truly think that way, there''s no way you abandon the entire dragon race, Dragon King!"


    The Lightning Saint smiled. "That''s exactly the reason. It''s because I love my race that I have to leave. The Dragon Race won''t prosper under my rule. I''m just a nerd who loves to know everything in this world. I''m not suited to be a ruler.


    "However, I still haven''t forgotten who I am. I''m a Dragon. Because of our small poption, I can''t let a dragon die easily."


    The Magma Dragon was frustrated and angry. "I truly hate you. We always respect the strong and you, the strongest of all, are always the target of our admiration. There is no other dragon suitable to be our king other than you. A nerd? You sure are quitefortable with humans to even adopt that word."


    "I am not here to talk about the past or the reason." The Lightning Saint shook his head. "There is another reason to save you. I am already near the end of my lifespan. Yet, in this condition, there is a problem that might endanger all living beings in this world.


    "And I know that my strength alone won''t be enough to fight them. That''s why I need as many allies as I can gather.


    "I told you earlier�� I still haven''t forgotten who I am�� I still haven''t forgotten the pride of a dragon, my strength, and our purpose.


    "The reason I''m here talking to you is for one thing. I don''t ask you to respect me or anything. I know that I have run away from my responsibility.


    "But there will be no more dragon races in this world if the enemies manage to defeat the human race."


    "!!!" The Magma Dragon suddenly fell silent as if he understood what he was talking about. "You�� Don''t tell me��"


    The Lightning Saint smiled. "No matter what prices I have to pay, I will make sure that I don''t run away again this time�� even if I have to die, I''ll make sure that the Dragon Race can live on. That''s why��"


    The Lightning Saint paused for a moment and looked into the Magma Dragon''s eyes. "��I ask you to lend me your strength."

 Chapter 2037 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (1)

    ?


    *Roar!*


    After remembering the purpose of this fight, the Magma Dragon let out a roar that shook the battlefield.


    The roar contained a message. And it was probably for the Lightning Saint. The Lightning Saint wasn''t with him, but he certainly received the message.


    ''I will lend you my strength, not because you are the king, but because I''m a proud dragon!''


    The Magma Dragon red at the humanoid monster. His skin was red and he had a pair of red wings. His appearance looked like a devil, but the Magma Dragon never heard anything about him unlike the Lightning Saint, who had absorbed the knowledge from all races, including the human race.


    The Magma Dragon had three heads. His right head was gathering Magic Power in his lung, the left head opened its mouth as if trying to bite the devil, and the middle head was excluding killing intent.


    The devil might not be able to understand what the Magma Dragon was saying, but it certainly felt its intent.


    The devil frowned. He was releasing his red-colored Magic Power, not afraid of the dragon.


    "Your power is inconsequentialpared to mine." The devil suddenly spoke.


    The Magma Dragon that this devil might be the first monster that opened its mouth to talk. The King ss Monsters might retain their intelligence and consciousness unlike the normal monsters. But the World ss Monsters retained more than that. They not only could have a certain reaction such as emotion or body motion, but also the ability to speak and think like humans.


    They were different from the rest since they had been made with care by the slime. They were the strongest monsters under him after all.


    The Magma Dragon red as if he still believed in the dragon''s supremacy. The right head opened its mouth, releasing a breath filled with magma with the Magic Power it had gathered this whole time.


    The devil surprisingly stayed in his position as if he wasn''t afraid of the magma.


    *Bam!*


    The magma ball that the dragon released hit the devil. It was supposed to melt the devil, but the devil actually waved his hand and blew away the magma.


    "!!!" The Magma Dragon widened his eyes in surprise. The devil actually repelled his magma with a single wave of his hand. It was impossible, he thought.


    ''His power can control magma? No, it''s something else.'' The Magma Dragon recounted what happened earlier.


    When the devil waved his hand, the magma ball actually didn''t disperse. They were still contained inside their shell.


    Then, the ball ended up following the devil''s motion and curved to the right before bursting out of its shell. It felt like the devil could control the magma itself and let it out after he was safe.


    However, he felt something weird. On the one hand, he had never heard anything about Magma Saint in the past thousand years. On the other hand, he still believed that the power was rted to magma.


    After showing his prowess, the devil moved forward while gathering the Magic Power all over his body.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Magma Dragon wasn''t afraid of him. Despite his size, the dragon was quick. He matched the devil''s speed easily and punched forward.


    The devil surprisingly raised his right hand. The whole arm suddenly expanded like a balloon to the point its size wasparable to that of a dragon.


    *Bang!*


    Their punches collided. The dragon had immeasurable strength backed by his momentum and giant body. The force contained in that punch wasn''t that easy to stop.


    Yet, the devil''s fist managed topletely stop the punch. There was no change in his expression or arms as if he had managed to stop the dragon''s punch effortlessly.


    The devil then expanded his other arm and tried to grab the dragon''s neck.


    "!!!" The dragon clicked his tongue and used its other w to stop him. He utilized the sharpness of the w to cut the hand this time.


    But surprisingly, the devil''s fist suddenly turned into a sharp de. The swing was powerful to the point the dragon got pushed back a bit.


    However, there was something that the dragon found from this power. The sh between two hard objects like a sword and his w should produce a clicking sound like a sh between swords. Yet, there wasn''t a single sound as if the de was made of solid yet soft material.


    ''Like the soil�� no, like y.'' The Magma Dragon frowned. He knew that this devil had a power far beyond his knowledge. And it seemed that defeating him wouldn''t be that easy even for a dragon like him.


    He might have been defeated by Theo in the past, but that was also because of the tree and Theo''s maniption. His true strength was beyond what he had shown in that battle.


    The dragon hurriedly caught the de with his w and tried to twist the devil''s body. He even rotated himself mid-air to spin the devil.


    With two giant arms and a small body, the devil should have a hard time moving. So, this action would force him to retract these two hands, allowing the dragon to have time to observe the devil''s power.


    Yet, the devil once again showed that the dragon''s strength was too weakpared to his. He expanded his foot this time, turning it into a giant and long foot. He tried to kick the dragon with this power.


    Of course, as someone who was good at flying, the dragon could easily p his wings to regain his bnce and send his foot to stop it.


    But when it was about to hit the devil''s foot, the devil used its power once again. The devil''s foot suddenly got deformed like that of a liquid before expanding like a rubber. It circled around the dragon''s foot and moved like a whip, dragging the dragon.


    "!!!" The Magma Dragon looked down, realizing that he was being pulled to the ground. In that instant, the devil retracted his two hands and used the rest of its power to swing the dragon to the ground like swinging a rope.


    *Bam!*


    *Roaaarrrrrr!*

 Chapter 2038 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (2)

    ?


    *Roar!*


    The Magma Dragon crashed to the ground so easily. Even the dragon himself didn''t expect that there was an opponent that could do something like this.


    Back when he fought Theo, he could still put up a fight. Yet, in front of this monster, his power didn''t work at all.


    Just as the demon said, his power was inconsequentialpared to his.


    On the one hand, the Magma Dragon believed this was the case after what happened earlier. On the other hand, his pride as a dragon was something that could be overwritten just by something like this.


    He let out another roar to show that this was nothing. He could still fight.


    The devil knew what the dragon could do. So, the devil immediately expanded the other leg and created two giant legs to stomp the dragon.


    The dragon had a hard time rolling his body due to the ground turning into a crater due to his weight and size. So, he hurriedly raised both feet and hands to stop the two giant legs.


    *Bam!*


    The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth the moment he felt the impact. It wasn''t heavy but packed with power. He never thought that there would be something like this.


    ''What is this weird feeling? Where is the weight that apanies the size?'' The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth. He had never seen a power like this.


    Since the feet were in contact with his skin, he tried to use the heat from his magma to melt his feet.


    But to his surprise, the magma flowed down without doing anything. Even the heat was trapped inside that ball of magma. Even if gravity pulled down the magma, the heat should still spread radiatively. Yet, the heat waspletely contained inside the magma ball.


    ''What? How?'' The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth. He tried to control the magma. In fact, there was nothing wrong with the control. He could still feel the connection with them.


    Yet, the magma refused to obey him. It felt so wrong.


    ''What is happening? What is his power? Is he a Magma Saint too? Is he far stronger than me? No, it''s impossible to have the same Authority. He shouldn''t have the Magma Authority, so how could he stop me from controlling my magma?'' The Magma Dragon waspletely confused.


    He had used all his strength and even applied all kinds of variation with his Magma Authority, but there was nothing happening. It felt like whatever power the devil hadpletely suppressed his magma.


    ''What is this?''


    The Magma Dragon looked at the devil in the sky, who seemed to bepletely nonchnt in fighting him. It felt like he wasn''t even his opponent.


    The anger and frustration started to fill his heart.


    *Roar!*


    He let out another roar to show that he refused to go down. Using the anger inside his heart, the dragon excreted all the magma like a volcanic eruption.


    The eruption formed a tall pir of magma, devouring the devil.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Yet, even with such a power, the devil waspletely fine. He isted himself inside a red-colored ball and left the magma pir.


    When the magma started to melt the entire area, the red-colored ball looked unaffected the whole time.


    Still, now that the devil had moved away, the Magma Dragon could finally stand up and soar into the sky.


    It red at the devil as if he wanted to kill this devil no matter the price to show him the might of the dragon race.


    But the Magma Dragon couldn''t deny that he had done a lot of things without any result. Unless he understood the power of this devil, he might not be able to do anything to this devil. In the meantime, the devil would use all his strength to take him down.


    So, it was the challenge he had to ovee if he wanted to win. He had lost once to Theo and needed to be saved by the dragon that ran away from his duty. He felt miserable and frustrated. That was why he didn''t n to lose again.


    The Magma Dragon flew toward the devil. He had to take the initiative so that even if his power was useless against the devil, he could still control the pace of the battle.


    The devil didn''t have any change of expression as if he thought no matter what the dragon nned to do was useless. He had no doubt that the dragon wouldn''t be able to kill him. So, sooner orter, the dragon would die in his hand.


    The devil raised his palm, pointing it at the dragon.


    The middle head let out a breath once again, shooting out the magma ball. This time, the left and right heads stayed to observe the devil''s power.


    Unfortunately for him, there waspletely nothing special in what the devil did.


    He simply poured out Magic Power and the magma ball suddenly turned back to the dragon and hit the middle head.


    Still, this power was from him. There was no magma that was capable of hurting him. So, the dragon lookedpletely fine and kept going straight to the devil.


    The left and right heads moved to the side and surrounded the devil.


    The devil pointed one palm at each head and expanded the hands to a giant wall.


    "!!!" The two dragon heads looked shocked, but they didn''t n to run away. They opened their jaws and tried to crush it.


    *Rrrrrrr!* No matter how hard he bit it, the wall couldn''t break. He tried to use the heat around his head, but every time he used it, the magma would just flow backward as if they feared the devil''s power.


    When the middle head saw how powerless he fought, it gritted its teeth. It wanted to swallow the devil right away, but he might die because of it. After all, the magma couldn''t melt the devil and thetter could expand himself. If he expanded inside his body, he would seriously die.


    However, if this was the case, the devil wouldn''t do anything to stop the right and left head from devouring him.


    This was the first clue that the Magma Dragon found in order to defeat the devil.


    But because of it, he was distracted for a split second. The devil''s feet had turned into a long whip and wrapped his tail before mming him again to the ground.


    *Bam!*

 Chapter 2039 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (3)

    ?


    *Bam!*


    The Magma Dragon fell this time because he managed to find something. Instead of getting angry, the dragon actually calmed down a bit. It felt like he managed to find something useful.


    ''He should be able to expand his body. And killing me by expanding his body inside me was the best and quickest way to kill me, yet, he blocked my head as if he didn''t want to be devoured by me.


    ''Something isn''t right. I don''t know what it is, but one thing is for sure. That weird monster won''t be able to do anything inside me.''


    The Magma Dragon looked at the devil with a serious expression. There were a few things that he could use to check his doubts.


    After thinking it through, the dragon rose into the sky once again. This time, there was a weird confidence reflected in his eyes.


    The devil was stillcent with his ability. There was not a shred of doubt that he would lose.


    The Magma Dragon couldn''t help but smile when he saw that expression. The devil truly had the same expression and feeling as he had previously. But that arrogance resulted in him getting defeated by Theo despite having a lot of advantages.


    After that defeat and the Lightning Saint''s interference, he learned a lot. So, he knew he shouldn''t make the same mistake.


    Since there was already a proven way to counter the devil''s power, the dragon tested it once again. He flew toward the devil while opening his mouth. All three heads attacked him from three directions.


    As expected, the devil expanded his hands to block two heads and his right foot to kick thest head. However, the dragon hade prepared this time.


    When the devil was about to extend the other foot to catch the dragon''s tail again, the dragon suddenly excreted the magma from all over the body.


    As expected, the magma was flowing backward�� all the magma except for the one on his back.


    "!!!" The dragon was happy, finally finding another clue on how to defeat his enemy. It seemed that the devil could only control the magma he could see or sense directly.


    In other words, if it was magma that couldn''t be seen, the devil wouldn''t be able to utilize his power.


    There was also the eruption he used earlier. The devil didn''t even bother to control it or he might not be able to control it.


    ''Does that mean I can simply overwhelm his power with the eruption? But using that ability requires a lot of Magic Power. If I use it multiple times, I might be in a bind after exhausting a lot of Magic Power.


    ''Still, I don''t want to be someone who can''t defeat his opponent. I am the proud dragon and I have to crush the enemy before me. I won''t need any help.''


    The Magma Dragon narrowed his eyes, trying to find a way to kill his opponent. It felt like he already had enough clues to defeat the devil. But he also understood that he still couldn''te up with a conclusion that allowed him to fully understand the enemy''s strength.


    The Magma Dragon tried to crush the red shield but to no avail. The devil, on the other hand, maintained his calm this whole time. He knew that the dragon was observing him, but no matter what he did, there was no way the foolish Magma Dragon would be able to figure it out.


    If he could somehow understand, it would be from his instinct. Even so, he wouldn''t be able to define his power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As long as he couldn''tpletely understand his power, there was no chance for the Magma Dragon to kill him.


    After confirming this was the case, the devil began his counterattack.


    His hands, which had turned into a red-colored shield, started to change their form again.


    The dragon knew it would be dangerous if he continued like this, considering the devil might change the shield into a spear and prate his head, but he had to confirm his suspicion.


    So, the Magma Dragon didn''t release the shields. Instead, he continued applying pressure.


    That was why the devil changed his n. Instead of changing the form, the shield formed a few spikes that looped around the head and tried to pierce the Magma Dragon''s body.


    Even the foot that kept the middle head at bay sent a few spikes.


    "!!!" The dragon panicked for a second, thinking, ''There are iing spikes. My scales are hard, so it''s impossible to prate them. But this devil has a weird power that can suppress my power��''


    The dragon was thinking about whether he should retreat or not. Since he still hadn''t understood the devil''s power, the dragon ended up releasing the devil and pped his wings to regain some distance.


    But the devil used that chance to kick him with the other foot, blowing him away.


    "Kh��" The dragon gritted his teeth, ring at the devil.


    When he was about to approach the devil again, a lightning strike fell on top of the devil.


    "!!!" The devil widened his eyes and turned around, trying to stop the lightning. He even expanded his body to block it, but it was toote.


    The lightningpletely pierced through the red shield that the Magma Dragon never had the chance to break.


    "What?" The Magma Dragon widened his eyes. But he knew where the lightning came from, considering there was only one guy who had this ability.


    But before he could turn around, a roar suddenly echoed from the other side of the battlefield, carrying a message.


    *Roarrrrrr!*


    ''His power is Color, specifically Red. He can control everything that is red. The reason for you to be unable to do anything against him is because of the color of your magma. Magma is a molten or semi-molten rock. What he controls is the liquid state that radiates the red color while the glowing liquid will remain under your control.


    ''But do you think that''s all about your magma? You are the ruler of magma, so you should know about it. That''s the exact reason why he refused to be swallowed. Everything bes dark when the light can''te in. The human called it�� ck-body Radiation Law.''

 Chapter 2040 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (4)

    ?


    ''Color? Red color? ck-body what?'' The Magma Dragon was confused by the roar''s exnation.


    He hurriedly turned around to see the one who had sent that message. But the scene he saw next horrified him.


    *Roar!* He instinctively let out a roar with only one meaning. "Your Majesty!"


    The Lightning Saint''s right arm was actually being ripped apart by the moth. Both of them were covered in injuries, but this arm meant a lot to the Lightning Saint and the Magma Dragon.


    For the Magma Dragon, even though the Lightning Saint had escaped from his role, it didn''t change the fact that he was a former Dragon King. Someone ripping apart the king''s hand was a huge blow to the people underneath him.


    And it became even more serious because he knew that the injury this time was caused by him.


    If the Dragon King didn''t send that lightning and message to help him, he wouldn''t receive such an injury.


    On the one hand, he wanted to scream that he didn''t need his help. On the other hand, the Magma Dragon fully realized that the Dragon King had filled up what hecked the most.


    If he didn''t give that information, there was no way he would be able topletely understand the devil. At the same time, it also reminded him of what the Dragon King said when he convinced him.


    "I''m just a nerd who loves to know everything in this world. I''m not suited to be a ruler."


    These words kept echoing in the Magma Dragon''s mind. He realized that the Dragon King could identify the enemy''s power because he loved to know everything in this world. Without that desire, he wouldn''t be able to exin all that.


    The Lightning Saint might not be able to call himself the dragon king after running away from his duty. But he was certainly a wise dragon.


    The Magma Dragon felt like he wanted to tear up. He wanted to let out a thunderous roar that shook the world to show his anguish.


    Yet, the Lightning Saint''s intention in sending that message was clear.


    He wanted the Magma Dragon to defeat his enemy as quickly as possible while conserving his energy. He couldn''t waste that effort.


    The Magma Dragon red at the devil. His eyes were filled with killing intent. Now that he had understood the devil''s power, he could finally see how to defeat him.


    The devil didn''t understand the meaning of that roar. But seeing the change of expression the Magma Dragon had made him feel scared. He didn''t know why, but he felt he had to take the Magma Dragon on with all his strength.


    The Magma Dragon flew forward while gathering his Magic Power in his throat, ready to shoot it again.


    The devil raised his hand to prepare the Magic Power needed to block it again. He also had a few ns to counterattack.


    The Magma Dragon might have a good instinct, but he couldn''t be said to be a smart dragon. So, he could kill the Magma Dragon by taking advantage of that brain.


    He expanded his left hand and shot numerous tentacles to capture the dragon. Thetter could see the iing tentacles. If it was the previous one, he would try to avoid it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Unfortunately for the devil, the Lightning Saint had told him something about his own magma.


    ''That''s right. There is one more thing about my magma�� When it''s a bit cold��'' The Magma Dragon started excreting the magma from his body.


    The devil didn''t think much about this magma. He simply used the ability to make the magma move away from him.


    But to his surprise, the magma suddenly turned ck, the liquid changed into hard rock, and the glow waspletely retained inside the ck hard rock.


    "!!!" The devil widened his eyes in shock. The tentacles had reached the Magma Dragon, but when it touched the ck-colored magma, he realized that it wasn''t magma anymore.


    The Magma Dragon didn''t know its terms, but if the Lightning Saint was with him, he would know that this was the igneous rock.


    As the ruler of magma, he could control everything about magma: the flow, the temperature, and even the state.


    He decreased the temperature on the outsideyer, so it created this hard igneous rock. Then, he maintained the heat inside the rock. With this, he could maintain the temperature both in his body and the rock. When the tentacles hit him, the heat would be transmitted.


    But as he expected, the heat couldn''t do anything to the red guy. It felt like he couldn''t sense anything that the red tentacles touched.


    Though, it didn''t matter anymore. The dragon only used this so that he had enough hardness to block the iing tentacles.


    As for the real attack, the Magma Dragon had saved it inside his throat.


    The moment the devil entered his reach, the Magma Dragon shot out another magma ball. However, he applied the previous concept to this magma ball.


    The outside was solid igneous rock, while the inside was filled with hot liquid magma.


    Because there was no more red color on the surface, the devil couldn''t control the rock this time. Just like what the Lightning Saint said earlier, the devil wouldn''t be able to control the color if there was no light to show that color. This also proved his doubt earlier when the magma on his back wasn''t controlled by the devil.


    The devil hurriedly moved away, trying to dodge it now that he couldn''t control it. But it was too shocking to the point he moved one step toote.


    The magma ball hit his arm. In that instant, the rockpletely crumbled like that of an eggshell, releasing all the magma inside.


    Now that the magma had hit him, even his power couldn''t control it anymore.


    "Aaaaahhhhh!" The devil screamed in pain as his arm was melted by magma.


    The Magma Dragon let out a long breath while observing the devil. He understood that he couldn''t do something like this without the Lightning Saint. Thetter had even sacrificed his arm to do it.


    "You sacrificed that arm for me. So, I shall take his arm as a repayment. I will win��" The Magma Dragon paused for a moment before a certain thought appeared in his mind, remembering the Lightning Saint. "Maybe�� learning more about the world instead of practicing all the time is a good idea��"

 Chapter 2041 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (5)

    ?


    The Magma Dragon looked at the devil to check his current condition. As expected, even though the devil had his entire arm melted, he didn''t seem to be fazed.


    There was even a red slime flowing out of his body. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the slime extended his ''red'' body again and formed a hand, negating what the Magma Dragon had done a moment ago.


    The Magma Dragon couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows. He had expected something like this, but he could see something different from that arm. It seemed that the devil couldn''t replicate the red slime that filled his body even though he could form an arm with his power.


    It looked like the arm was empty since the Magma Dragon didn''t see any extraordinary flow of Magic Power like the rest of the body.


    ''The liquid must be from the slime. And since the slime flowed outside like that, it didn''t have anything to reproduce it. That arm was only there to contain the flow of the slime, but seeing that it didn''t flow like how a liquid was supposed to be�� I''m sure that there is a seal between the arm and the body.


    ''I don''t know why, but it''s clear that this hand won''t be that powerful.'' The Magma Dragon didn''t realize that after getting Lightning Saint''s advice, he became even more careful and tried to use all the knowledge that he had gathered in his head this whole time.


    Of course, the Magma Dragon didn''t have the same amount of knowledge. In fact, he never properly learned about them. Still, the Magma Dragon had a deep experience with liquid since his power and the ce he resided contained it.


    This was the first change the Magma Dragon had during the battle.


    Although he understood the devil''s power, he remained calm and didn''t rush to end the battle. Instead, he calmly observed the devil''s condition and ability.


    ''I see. He has the ''Red'' Authority, making him the Red Saint. He can control everything as long as they are red. However, the red slime in his body is also like that, but he lets the slime flow out just like that.


    ''It seems that the red slime has a different property from the ''red'' power. Considering the slime is nning to destroy the world itself, does that mean the slime''s power has been disconnected from the world?


    ''No, if that''s the case, he wouldn''t be a Saint anymore�� No matter how hard I think about this, I won''t get anything. I should have learned more��''


    The Magma Dragon let out a sigh. ''Still, this chance�� I will properly take it. From what we know, the way to kill these weird creatures is to destroy both their head and heart. However, I don''t think that''s the only way.


    ''Since the slime can''t be reproduced, I can simply create enough holes to drain all that slime. I''m pretty sure that this weird creature before me would die.'' The Magma Dragon had set his eyes on defeating the devil.


    As soon as he understood the situation, the Magma Dragon finally flew forward.


    The devil seemed to be angry this time. He had believed that his power was far beyond what the Magma Dragon could handle. Yet, he received this kind of injury.


    Even though he still could use the arm by using his power, the strength couldn''t bepared to the original. Unless the slime absorbed him and recreated his body again, he wouldn''t be able to recover.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was why the devil nned to defeat the slime and somehow won the war.


    He raised both hands and expanded them, matching the dragon''s size.


    The dragon smirked. He grabbed both these arms, not fearing the arm anymore.


    Now that they had understood each other''s strengths, they didn''t hesitate to utilize their skills to gain some advantages. The dragon excreted the magma from his skin while the devil summoned multiple spikes from his back. The spikes soon surrounded the dragon.


    In the meantime, the magma flowed backward to avoid the red hands.


    The dragon didn''t mind this since he immediately changed the temperature and formed the igneous rock in the outeryer of the magma.


    The spikes tried to pierce through the Magma Dragon''s skin, but it was useless. The spikes weren''t strong enough to prate the hard rock that covered the dragon''s body.


    But it seemed that the heat couldn''t do anything to the spikes either. Even though the temperature on the surface was enough to melt even a monster''s hand, it didn''t do anything to these red spikes.


    Seeing this ability, the devil smirked while turning the spikes into tentacles. "You can''t defeat me even if you understand my ability. Your magma can''t melt my power!"


    ''As expected, his red color is not a normal power. As he said, the magma can''t do anything to his red body. Unless he is toote to cover himself with his own power, there is no way my magma shot earlier can melt this creature''s hand.


    ''However, maintaining this power requires a lot of Magic Power. If it''s about the battle of endurance, I have no doubt in my ability. But��'' The Magma Dragon fell silent. He couldn''t help but remember the Lightning Saint. Thetter had sacrificed a lot for his victory, so he didn''t want to betray that trust.


    There was only one thing he had to do. It was to kill the devil.


    ''My power should be able to kill him. It depends on how I use my power��'' The Magma Dragon took a deep breath. The spikes had started to circle around his body, but there was no sign of rushing.


    The devil might be confused, but it didn''t change the fact that this was his chance. Even though he couldn''t prate the dragon''s scale, he could still kill him by repeatedly injuring him until his organs couldn''t take it anymore.


    When he was about to tie the dragon up, the Magma Dragon made a smirk. "There it is. My way to win."


    The Magma Dragon suddenly sent all heads to their respective spikes, trying to sever the connections with his teeth.

 Chapter 2042 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (6)

    ?


    The devil didn''t expect that the dragon would do something so foolish. After all, he had tried earlier and it was useless. The dragon couldn''t do anything as long as he expanded that area.


    But the moment the devil expanded the targets, the heads suddenly turned around, finding a different target.


    Surprisingly, there were three spikes that ended up being bitten. They all came from the right hand.


    The devil realized that the dragon was trying to test his power. After knowing that his right hand would always be the weakness, the dragon would aim for this until he defeated him.


    On the other hand, the dragon saw much more than a mere right hand. He observed the reaction speed, timing, and Magic Power.


    He realized that the right hand was still able to utilize the same power. But it required more Magic Power and the timing was slower than the left hand. The reaction speed remained normal, so it just gave away the other two''s information clearly.


    The dragon bit as hard as possible. But as one would expect from the devil, since he controlled the red color, his body was that of a color, not the real body. It was impossible to break the color, albeit the dragon had a way of dealing with that power.


    "It''s useless. You won''t be able to defeat me." The devil shouted. The dragon should just die without fighting back, he thought.


    But the dragon actually let out a smirk of confidence.


    "Is that so? Let''s see whether that''s true or not." The dragon released some magma around his mouth. And suddenly, the magma managed to melt the spikes. It didn''t even flow back as if it was fearing the red color.


    "!!!" The devil widened his eyes when three of his spikes fell to the ground.


    "I finally got you." The three heads opened their mouths again, finding the new target. This time, they didn''t aim for the spikes. Instead, they were biting the expansion part.


    The dragon let the magma flow inside his mouth. The way he bit the expansion covered the entire area from the light, meaning there was no lighting into the bitten area.


    In other words, there was nothing but darkness inside his mouth. And without being able to recognize the color, the devil couldn''t utilize his power.


    Ultimately, the magma melted the expansion part and created a mark as if the dragon had just taken a huge bite of it.


    The Magma Dragon smirked. "My power is inconsequentialpared to you? No, you simply don''t understand how great a dragon can be."


    The Magma Dragon''s hands that had been clenching the giant red hands had started to loosen as if the dragon wanted to get away.


    But instead of moving away, the dragon only created a small gap between their hands, allowing him to excrete the magma.


    He carefully created the gap without opening all sides so that there was a space that was still isted from all the light.


    And this magma began to melt the red hands from its palm. The magma continued flowing inside, melting the enemy from the inside.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "!!!" The devil widened his eyes, not expecting the magma could enter.


    He hurriedly released his grip, but the dragon didn''t n to let him go. He grabbed him as tight as possible, trying topletely melt the devil''s inside.


    If this continued, the magma would eventually reach his real hand and melt it like the other hand, giving more disadvantages to the devil.


    There was no way he would allow it. The devil''s other arm suddenly formed a giant knife, slicing the giant arm before the magma reached his body.


    In the end, the entire lower arm was sliced. The red slime continued to flow out from that wound but was quickly sealed by the devil.


    "Tsk." The dragon clicked his tongue. As expected from a World ss Monster, they were better than he expected. ''I want to take the entire arm, but I guess I have to be content with only the lower arm.''


    The dragon was a bit disappointed since this was a surprise attack. But he knew that there was nothing to fear anymore. Even the other arm had been taken back.


    Now that he had been freed from the spikes, the dragon finally moved forward, trying to swallow the devil.


    ''The Dragon King has allowed me to defeat you. If I can''t defeat you here, I will be the disgrace of the dragon race.'' The Magma Dragon opened his mouth and released three giant magma balls with the igneous rock covering the magma.


    The devil hurriedly raised both arms and formed a huge shield to block it. Even though he couldn''t control the magma in this form, he could still block the attack and let the magma be visible before he used his power to redirect it.


    As he expected, the moment the three magma balls hit the shield, they crumbled into pieces. The magma sshed and covered the entire shield.


    Just like how the magma behind the dragon couldn''t be controlled because the devil didn''t see and recognize its color, due to the size of the shield, he couldn''t see the magma, allowing it to melt the shield in an instant.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, due to the fact that his arms were gone, he didn''t have to be afraid of this magma anymore. As soon as the magma melted the shield, he could see the magma and immediately use his power to repel it.


    But the Magma Dragon surprised him once more.


    The moment he threw away the glowing magma, a cold and brown liquid suddenly came forth, breaking through the gap.


    ''What��'' The devil was dumbstruck. He never expected the magma would have this weird form. It was true that his power couldn''t control this liquid that didn''t have any red color.


    In the end, the cold, brown liquid hit him at full force, blowing him away to the ground.


    The Magma Dragon smirked and said inwardly, ''I am the ruler of magma. I can change the temperature, and the form, and even�� turn it into a byproduct. Meet the coldva.''

 Chapter 2043 Magma Dragon Vs Devil (Last)

    ?


    "Gah!" The devil gritted his teeth as he crashed down to the ground. The coldva weighed a lot, pinning him to the ground.


    At the same time, the Magma Dragon also tried his best to reach the devil, trying to kill him before the devil could recover.


    While approaching the devil, the magma dragon started releasing his magma, ready to shoot him down.


    It seemed that the devil had realized that the Magma Dragon''s change was bigger than he originally thought. If this continued, he might be the one to lose.


    At the same time, he couldn''t really use his power in this situation. He was buried underneath the coldva.


    Without any lighting in, it was impossible for him to use his power since he couldn''t recognize the color.


    He tried to swim inside the coldva, trying to reach the surface. But the coldva started to harden like a rock, causing him to get stuck inside.


    The devil was struggling just to get out of this ce. Nheless, he was still a Mythical Rank Expert.


    The devil utilized all the strength in his body to break apart the rock.


    "Haaaaa!" The devil screamed at the top of his lungs. The rock gradually cracked.


    The Magma Dragon raised his fist and was about to hit him. However, the hard coldva that was used to seal the devil ended up breaking apart before he reached it.


    The devil, who emerged from within, finally found the light once again and started to recognize the color around him.


    The Magic Power in his body began revolving as he pped his hands, causing the body to expand.


    Still, it was toote to escape. So, the devil only expanded the entire body so that he wasn''t small enough to receive the punch.


    In the end, his body became five times bigger than the dragon''s fist. The Magma Dragon excreted the magma where the devil couldn''t recognize it and created a few holes in the devil''s body.


    But that was when the devil shrunk his body, causing the magma to be too big. After that, he jumped to the side,unching himself away from the fist.


    He rolled a few times on the ground and hurriedly stood back up. His hands were pressing on the holes in his body.


    On the one hand, the holes had caused severe injuries to the devil since a lot of slime ended up flowing out of his body. On the other hand, the blow from earlier should have taken him out if he didn''t react fast enough.


    The devil became frustrated. The dragon had all the momentum currently and it seemed he didn''t n to let the opportunity go.


    The dragon was nning to kill him with all this momentum.


    The devil looked around, searching for a way to stop the dragon for a moment so that he could regain hisposure.


    After losing to Theo, the dragon knew that he shouldn''t have talked too much and gave an opportunity to the opponent. So, he didn''t hesitate to spit three magma balls at him.


    The devil clicked his tongue and hurriedly jumped backward.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This time, the magma ball gave a surprise. Instead of the hot glowing magma, what was hidden behind the igneous rock was coldva.


    "!!!'' The devil widened his eyes and expanded his right hand to be a shield. He saw the coldva sshed toward him. Luckily, the devil managed to use the shield to stop it.


    But due to this shield, he ended up stopping since the devil wouldn''t have enough strength to stop the flow of the coldva if he didn''t take a proper step on the ground.


    The Magma Dragon took this opportunity to fly on top of the devil and fell on top of him.


    ''He is going to squeeze me to death? No, he''s going to iste the light around me and start to melt me inside that giant body.'' The devil gritted his teeth and expanded his entire body, turning him into a giant.


    This size allowed him to support the dragon''s weight.


    *Bam!*


    The devil held the dragon''s weight directly, but as expected, the dragon''s weight and momentum caused the ground underneath to turn into a crater.


    However, the dragon had expected something like this. That was the reason why he did it in the first ce.


    Since all limbs had been used to stop his body, the three heads started making their way toward the body.


    "!!!" The devil instantly realized the dragon''s aim. But now that the situation had reached this point, it was already toote.


    The three dragon heads aimed for the devil''s head and the hearts.


    The right dragon head opened its mouth and took a huge bite on the back side of the head. He then used the heat to melt a portion of the devil''s head, causing the liquid slime to spurt out.


    The same applied to the middle and left dragon heads. The left chewed the entire shoulder and the middle head took advantage of that spot to bite a deeper part of the chest, where the Magic Power reserve was supposed to be.


    He instantly melted the two points that could be used for the monster''s recovery and ultimately stopped this monster by himself.


    He could clearly see the frustration on the devil''s face, but it was toote.


    ''I was arrogant like you, but the difference between us was that I got a second chance.'' The Magma Dragon thought as he started melting the devil''s body. Without any supply of Magic Power, the devil couldn''t regenerate his body anymore, causing him to finally be reduced to nothing.


    "One down."


    The Magma Dragon smiled after killing the devil. He couldn''t help but remember who helped him to the point he instinctively said, "Long live the great Dragon King."


    ''Speaking of the Dragon King.'' The Magma Dragon remembered that the Dragon King was heavily injured because he helped him. So, the Magma Dragon hurriedly turned around, trying to check the situation.


    But what he found nextpletely dumbstruck him.


    "Wha��!"

 Chapter 2044 Theo Vs Magic Saint (1)

    ?


    A moment ago.


    Theo smiled after absorbing some knowledge from the Magic Saint.


    The Magic Saint couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows. Even though he had the original Theo with him, he couldn''t help but recognize the talent Theo had. It waspletely at a whole different levelpared to his original self.


    "You are truly different from the original you�� Even though you are fake, you are something that can be better than the original. To be honest, I want to make you my possession instead of him. I''m giving you another chance, Theodore Griffith.


    "Join the Griffith Family and promise to rebuild it under my name. If you agree to such a thing, I don''t mind helping you in this battle and taking down your original self." The Magic Saint smirked.


    It was just a verbal promise�� there should be no problem if he lied here and betrayed himter. After all, the Magic Saint had done worse thingspared to this. If he lied here, he could gain victory and besiege him with all the people around here.


    However, both the Magic Saint and Theo knew that there wouldn''t be any lie in this ce. The Magic Saint could clearly see the Magic Power and its fluctuation. If someone lied, he would be able to see the change in their Magic Power. So, Theo couldn''t lie to him.


    At the same time, Theo had sworn to never lie. If he lied, he would lose his power.


    That was why Theo chuckled when he heard the deal. "Hahaha�� I guess you have indeed gone crazy. Leave sleep talking when you are asleep."


    "!!!" The Magic Saint furrowed his eyebrows. On the one hand, he expected this rejection. On the other hand, that was a sincere deal from him. After all, as someone who had been taking care of the Griffith Family for decades, he had seen all kinds of reactions.


    Yet, to his surprise, Theo didn''t have any fluctuation in his Magic Power. This could only happen when he brushed that matter like it never existed to begin with.


    In other words, everything that came out of his mouth was far worse than trash. It seemed Theo only looked at the way he utilized his Magic Power as it was the only thing that was useful for him.


    The Magic Saint never thought that there was a person like this�� someone who could convey his feeling, maybe a ''lie,'' or even his intention without a single shred of lies. It made him want Theo even more.


    The Magic Saint wasmenting the fact that he didn''t get Theo back when he was small. The Griffith Family had always asked their people to go back to the family if they wanted to seed. But Theo''s brother had special treatment.


    Due to the prophecy, they used force to bind him to the family. As a result, he died in the process.


    He didn''t know anything that happened behind the scenes, including the God of Mischief''s interference.


    However, he thought there was nothing he could do since Owen had died. He thought there would be nothing that scared him anymore.


    When Theo was born, he thought about bringing him back to the family again. Unlikest time, he took his time to observe Theo and his talent.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But he didn''t show any brilliance to the point he started to lose interest in him.


    It was at that time Ray and Valerie chose to go back with them, leaving the small Theo behind.


    At first nce, it looked like a trap. But Theo kept getting bullied afterward, causing him topletely lose his interest. There was no way such a person would be able to host the ancestor of the Griffith Family. He thought that the prophecy ended after Owen''s death.


    In addition, Ray had shown his talent once again, indirectly telling him to look at him instead. Since the prophecy was over in his mind, he began to nurture Ray. It seemed that Ray only wanted to let Theo live without any interference from the outside world. And with his talent, the best he could do was live a normal life or die on the other side. So, he agreed with the condition that Ray had to be loyal to them.


    However, it was the greatest mistake in his life. Ray never showed any mistakes as if he had be a man of steel. Hepletely followed the training and did all the tasks like that of a sessor of the Griffith Family.


    Meanwhile, Valerie looked like a broken wife who could only follow her husband to this wretched ce.


    Even though he had ced some spies around her, she truly didn''t show any clues that she was lying.


    Without them realizing it, Valerie had given all the tasks and targets to Ray. Thetter started expanding his influence while making the new Griffith Family without anyone''s knowledge.


    With such a perfect cover, he ended up agreeing to their request to visit their child back in Thernd. Unfortunately for him, this simply gave them a chance to finallyunch the n they had painstakingly prepared in thest decade.


    They caused trouble for the family by taking down a mercenary. After that, they failed to bring Theo and directed him to his grandfather, the War Saint. Then, they went missing, bringing all the important people who had shown their abilities in recent years.


    In that instant, the Griffith Family''s power decreased by at least a third.


    And they did it for their son, whose talent surpassed anyone else in this world. Despite all the sacrifices, it was true that without them, there might not be a person who was known to be the greatest man alive, Theodore Griffith.


    When he realized all this, the Magic Saint had a sour face. He wished he would realize their intention from the beginning.


    But this was all for naught. After all, the current situation only had two possibilities.


    With him and his grandson on the battlefield, the result was either ''you perish'' or ''I perish.''


    The Magic Saint took a deep breath and stated coldly, "In that case, I shall kill you and have your original self absorb you."


    Theo snorted. "You are the one who will die here. And I don''t lie."

 Chapter 2045 Theo Vs Magic Saint (2)

    ?


    The Magic Saint and Theo red at each other. Theo had long wanted to do this, considering he was the culprit who destroyed his family. Even if the prophecy was in effect, if not for his greed, there was no need for the Mind Elder to attack his family back then.


    The Mind Elder had died, leaving only the Magic Saint. He would end this grudge with his death.


    The Magic Saint gathered his Magic Power around his fists.


    Theo could sense a fewyers of Magic Power from his fists. This was the Magic Saint''s power. He couldpletely manipte the Magic Power. In fact, he could be said to be the greatest user of the Griffith Family''s Fist Style.


    The Magic Saint suddenly vanished from his vision.


    "!!!" Theo raised his head, immediately finding the Magic Saint. But the Magic Saint had punched downward, releasing all the Magic Power he gathered on his fist.


    In that instant, a crushing pressure fell down. The shock wave was able to destroy anything in a three hundred feet radius. The ground turned into a crater, the trees were ttened, and the boulders were reduced to rubbles.


    "��" The Magic Saint suddenly fell silent and nced to the side. He saw Theo reappearing without a single wound on his body. It seemed he used his Blink to escape from that shock wave.


    Since that was the case, the Magic Saint aimed for Theo once more. Since the Blink had been used, Theo wouldn''t be able to use it again for a short period. This was his chance.


    "Die." The Magic Saint shot the fist into the air.


    Despite knowing how powerful the punch was, Theo didn''t have a change of expression as if everything was still within his expectation.


    Theo had fought a lot of World ss Monsters. Each of them had a unique power and was extremely powerful.


    Although his grandfather could bepared to a World ss Monster, Theo still felt he was a bitcking.


    Compared to the refined power of the World ss Monster, what the Magic Saint did was release his overwhelming raw power.


    He could do a lot of things if it was just a brute force. And one of them was the World Re-Creation.


    Theo snapped his fingers.


    The Magic Saint didn''t know why he did it, but he sensed the Magic Power Theo used. It was a skill instead of something rted to his Authority.


    He felt like Theo was underestimating him, considering Order and Authority were the strongest power in this world. Even an S Rank Skill was pale inparison. After all, they had to imbue their Order and Authority to their S Rank Skill first if they didn''t want to lose against a World ss Monster.


    Yet, Theo did nothing like that. He only used his skill to fight against his brute force coupled with his Authority.


    And surprisingly, the shock wave that was about to hit Theo suddenly moved backward.


    ''Huh, it''sing back to me? Did he reflect my attack? No��'' The Magic Saint narrowed his eyes. ''The World is expanding. Even my brute force can''t break through from the world itself��''


    Theo simply expanded the reality toward the Magic Saint faster than the speed of his attack. This way, the Magic Saint''s attack would do nothing but go back to its owner.


    The Magic Saint clicked his tongue. This was the first time he saw an ability like this. At the same time, he felt something different from this ability. It felt like Theo hadn''t gone all out yet.


    ''It seems that you have be so arrogant that you think you don''t need an Order or Authority to defeat me��'' The Magic Saint thought while gritting his teeth. He jumped forward and struck forth, releasing the second wave of energy that would boost the first shock wave.


    Unlike the first one, this shock wave was much morepact, allowing it to have higher prating force and speed.


    The moment it reached the first shock wave, the second shock wave pierced through it and slipped past the expansion, going straight at Theo.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''It seems that his strength can''t affect the entire surrounding. It''s only like ayer�� As long as I can break through it, I will be able to escape from his power.'' The Magic Saint observed Theo''s power. He thought Theo had be a bitcent after achieving all this. So, he nned to take advantage of it to deal a great blow to him.


    But to his surprise, Theo only waved his hand.


    The thinner shock wave that felt like a spear suddenly curved as if it was a living being. It looked like Theo was controlling the shock wave itself.


    The Magic Saint widened his eyes in shock. "Hah?"


    He couldn''t believe that Theo could control his attack. After all, he hadn''t lost connection with his attack.


    The Magic Saint gnashed his teeth. He jumped forward and tried to take on his own attack. But instead of blocking it, the Magic Saint stood next to it and grabbed the Magic Power itself like it had a solid form.


    After that, he spun his body and shot the Magic Power back at Theo.


    It seemed that they would just be sending the attack back and forth. So, Theo decided to stop this power with his own.


    He utilized the Energy st, Enhanced Concentration Capacity, and Muscle Enhancement to shoot his own shock wave from Thunderp Fist.


    But there was one thing that the magic Saint didn''t know. It was true that the Magic Saint was older and had more experience with his power. His raw power was also amazing.


    However,pared to Theo, the Magic Saint was far more normal.


    Theo could see it�� the gap between them.


    Name: Mason Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 925


    Attributes: Strength 991, Endurance 680, Agility 606, Vitality 656, Magic Power 2010


    His status was amazing at first nce. However, there was something fundamentally different. After all, Theo had made a deal with the world to enhance the number of points he received every time he leveled up.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 996


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 2975


    The current him simply had around two thousand points difference.


    Theo''s Magic Power and the Magic Saint''s Magic Power shed with each other. The sh didn''tst long. Despite having infused the Authority into his attack, Theo''s Magic Power ended up obliterating his attack.


    This was the gap between them. The raw power behind these points couldn''t be underestimated.


    "Shit��" The Magic Saint gritted his teeth, looking at the iing attack.

 Chapter 2046 Theo Vs Magic Saint (3)

    ?


    When the two Magic Power shed, it felt like there were two giant meteors hitting each other. The one from the Magic Saint was releasing a powerful brute force, while the one from Theo looked refined.


    However, Theo still had close to one thousand more points in Magic Power than Mason. That gap was enough to make up for the raw brute force the Authority provided.


    Theo''s Magic Power crushed Mason''s and continued its way toward Mason himself.


    Mason never expected that he would lose in terms of Magic Power. He was the Magic Saint. That title came from his Control Ability which was recognized as the number one in the world and the amount of Magic Power he had.


    Yet, Theo managed to suppress him with only his Magic Power. He hadn''t even used his Authority.


    Theo looked at Mason and said with a cold tone. "Did you not do anything when you were away? Your power�� couldn''t bepared to the Devouring Saint��"


    The veins on his forehead bulged. The killing intent started to leak out of Mason''s eyes. It seemed that he had a hard time keeping his calm.


    After all, Theo dared to lecture him even though he was just someone he could crush not long ago.


    He still remembered how Theo would have died if he didn''t get help from Hel.


    "You are too arrogant." The Magic Saint roared while flying toward him. He spread his arms as the two fists started expanding the Magic Power around them, turning them into a balloon.


    There was a violent current inside these two balloons. If he got swallowed by one of them, his body would be torn into pieces.


    Theo only took a nce at them before showing his disinterest. He seemed to find nothing special in this ability.


    Even the Third Layers Magic Power was far more fascinating than this attack.


    As soon as Theo entered his range, the Magic Saint closed his arms, surrounding Theo with these two balloons.


    The Magic Saint''s Control might be better than Theo''s. But Theo had the talent for learning. And he had been training his control this whole time. So, the gaps between them weren''t as far as most people thought.


    For these two balloons of violent Magic Power, Theo chose to summon his Death Avatar and poured the Magic Power into the avatar''s hands.


    The avatar then punched to both sides with the Thunderp Fist.


    *Bang!*


    The thunderp shook the battlefield once again and hit the two balloons. This was simr to the shock wave he shot earlier but a bit weaker since his aim was only to pop the balloons.


    The two balloons were fighting well. Unfortunately, the amount of Magic Power he poured into the Thunderp Fist was enough to destroy both balloons.


    *Bam!*


    The pop caused a heaven-shattering roar that overwhelmed all the sounds on the battlefield.


    However, there was one more secret behind these balloons.


    ''As expected, such an arrogant brat. Let me humble you.'' The Magic Saint smirked.


    Theo nced to the sides. It turned out there was a secondyer inside the balloons.


    Thisyer was protecting the real attack, which turned out to be a sharp and powerful Magic Power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This raging Magic Power immediately flew straight at him. If it was someone else, they would have been shredded apart.


    However, Theo never underestimated the Magic Saint or becamecent. All the things he spoke before were simply facts.


    Right before the violent Magic Power hit him, they suddenly got engulfed by a ck ball.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint widened his eyes and raised his vision a little bit.


    On top of Theo, the Death Avatar stood while creating a giant ck ball from each hand.


    This ck ball swallowed everything and eventually, the Magic Power waspletely gone.


    "Hah?" The Magic Saint widened his eyes. His shock didn''te from the fact Theo managed to stop his attack. Instead, the shock came from where the ability originated.


    "Isn''t that�� the devouring power?" The Magic Saint gasped.


    That was right. The ck balls didn''t look like the ck hole that the original Theo used, but they functioned the same.


    The ck ballspletely swallowed the shock wave to the point it felt like they never existed to begin with.


    "How��" The Magic Saint thought this power was exclusive to the Original Theo. But it seemed he had been mistaken.


    He couldn''t help but recall the information about him, especially the fight that happened in the union.


    When fighting the mutated monsters, Theo showed his copy ability, which allowed him to borrow the Saints'' powers for a moment.


    However, he didn''t expect that Theo would copy his devouring power. What Mason didn''t know was that the copy ability was still limited by Theo''s own power. He simply imitated the ck hole by replicating the Dark Magic Power to create the ck balls and the Reality Removal to make it look like the Magic Power vanished.


    He never had the devouring power.


    Still, this was enough to startle the Magic Saint. As much as Theo wanted this fight tost longer so that he could see everything from Mason, he couldn''t dy his job since the slime was waiting for him.


    For the first time in this battle, Theo finally made the first move by taking a step forward.


    He used the boost from the Telekinesis tounch himself toward the Magic Saint.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint also could feel his intention. It seemed that he had stopped ying around and wanted to kill him seriously.


    Without hesitation, the Magic Saint raised his stance and started circting his Magic Power.


    Theo formed his sword with the Irregr Guardian and activated his Alter Ego, enhancing his Magic Power.


    The surge of Magic Power startled even the Magic Saint because this was the first time he saw this amount of Magic Power in a single person. Even the World ss Monster couldn''t hold a candle to him.


    ''But if the amount of Magic Power is everything there is to a fight, there''s no need for humans to learn Control.'' The Magic Saint took a deep breath as his hands began moving like a wave in the ocean. This time, he was using a refined Magic Power to fight the raw brute force Theo had.


    "Come."

 Chapter 2047 Theo Vs Magic Saint (4)

    p��nd��---no��?1,��o�� ?


    "Come." The Magic Saint took a deep breath, observing Theo''s attack.


    Theo would have a hard time replicating the Magic Saint''s attack. Unlike the rest, who used their unique abilities or elements, the Magic Saint only relied on his fundamental ability, Control.


    By taking it to another peak, the Magic Saint had stopped Theo from copying his ability. After all, the only way to copy it was by using an illusion or having the same level of Control.


    Theo could easily utilize the former, but it wouldn''t harm the Magic Saint.


    "In that case��" Theo gathered all the Magic Power in one point, his fist. This fist might have be the strongest fist, which contained the power of more than five thousand points of Magic Power.


    In addition, Theo used the Energy st to shoot the Magic Power.


    The Magic Power came out like a beam. Its size was a bit bigger than the pir that the Magma Dragon summoned.


    For a human like the Magic Saint, the beam looked humongous.


    However, the Magic Saint was already familiar with this type of attack. After all, he used it all the time.


    He concentrated the energy on both palms and pushed forward.


    Due to the shining beam, the world seemed to be darkened a bit as the blue light from the beam dominated the lighting in the area. And there was a single ck dot standing in front of the beam, doing his best to stop it.


    The Magic Saint managed to grab the beam, specifically the Magic Power that made the beam.


    "Kh." It was heavy and powerful. One mistake might cause the beam to explode and he would be injured. However, the Magic Saint remained calm and carefully waved his hands, twisting the beam.


    "!!!" Theo narrowed his eyes. His beam looked like a carpet that was twisted in the center. And it started to shrink because everything was concentrated in that one spot. Although he wanted to aim for the Magic Saint at this time, even he didn''t want to get hit by his own beam.


    The Magic Saint kept twisting the beam until it started to break apart. Yet, the Magic Saint managed to control the Magic Power and prevented it from exploding.


    Now that the outer part had been ripped apart, the rest of the Magic Power started to leak from the beam.


    The more the Magic Power leaked out, the smaller the beam became. Eventually, the beam became weak enough for the Magic Saint to rip it apart with his bare hands.


    "��" Theo looked at the Magic Saint with a serious expression. He thought that it was impossible to kill the Magic Saint with only that, but he didn''t expect that the Magic Saint would manage to escape unscathed. It seemed he had underestimated the Magic Saint a little bit.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Magic Saint took a deep breath before smirking. He red at Theo with confidence, saying, "What''s wrong? You think that alone is enough to kill me?"


    "Of course, I''m not thinking such a little power will be able to kill you." Theo shook his head with a calm expression. "Though, I''m impressed that you managed to escape unscathed. I guess the trick is within the Magic Power covering your hands. Another fewyers of Magic Power, which have their own purposes."


    The Magic Saint clicked his tongue. As expected from Theo, who had the full talent, he could see through the trick in an instant. Even the original Theo was defeated a few times before learning about this trick.


    There were fouryers of Magic Power that formed gloves for him. The first one was the pure Magic Power that could synchronize with the rest of Magic Power, allowing him to touch the Magic Power itself.


    The secondyer was made for dispersing the Magic Power that slipped past the firstyer. On the other hand, the thirdyer was a violent current of Magic Power that would match the flow of the opposite party''s Magic Power. This was the one allowing the Magic Saint to stop the beam from exploding.


    Last but not least, the Magic Power for protection. Its purpose was obvious since this was the only reason why his hands weren''t injured when working with that much Magic Power.


    Theo looked at the Magic Saint with observing eyes. On the one hand, the battle allowed him to learn a lot. On the other hand, he had to finish this battle as soon as possible.


    ''Ayered Magic Power, huh��'' Theo frowned. ''I had done the twoyers after copying Mark when he showed the twoyers of wind on Antis.


    ''But it can''t bepared to him. His Magic Power can work for a lot of purposes, depending on how he controls the Magic Power. And he can work with around four to fiveyers, allowing him to utilize manybinations, which allows him to work in a lot of different situations.


    ''My illusion can copy his ability, but it won''t be strong enough to do any harm to him. At the same time, my Control is not at that level yet��


    ''Still, the multipleyer of Magic Power is interesting. Is there something I can use with multipleyers of Magic Power? Even if I can only do twoyers of Magic Power, I might be able to use something to strengthen myself��''


    Theo''s expression became serious. It seemed that he didn''t only want to defeat the Magic Saint, but used his ability to grow further.


    After all, Theo still had to face the overwhelming slime. Unless he could enter the Singrity Rank while improving himself, he might not be able to defeat the slime.


    The Magic Saint, on the other hand, realized that Theo was stronger than him. However, the drastic increase in his power caused his foundation to be unstable. Theo still hadn''t refined all his power to the point it could match his current strength. That was why this would be Theo''s biggest weakness.


    And his job was to take advantage of it. He jumped forth and started revolving his Magic Power again.


    Unfortunately for him, Theo''s expression soon changed as if he had figured out something.


    ''This is going to be interesting��''

 Chapter 2048 Theo Vs Magic Saint (5)

    ?


    ''This is going to be interesting.'' A small smile appeared on Theo''s face, startling the Magic Saint.


    "!!!" Mason didn''t know why, but he felt chills down his spine from that smile alone. He thought it was impossible for Theo to do something with his unstable foundation in a battle. So, he kept marching forward.


    Meanwhile, Theo raised his hand and formed a sword with his Irregr Guardian.


    Mason frowned since there was nothing different from Theo''s sword. It felt like the change came from a different ability.


    So, Mason moved forward and concentrated the Magic Power in his fists. This time, he used fouryered Magic Power. If he managed tond a hit on Theo, the Magic Power that had beenpressed in his fists would burst and deal severe damage to Theo''s body.


    In the meantime, Theo hadn''t done anything special to his sword. And he even dared to move forward with only this simple sword.


    Mason''s body shook for a moment. ''Wait a minute. He didn''t do anything�� Is he trying tounch a surprise attack with that sword? Is he doing any trick? Maybe there is something I haven''t seen?''


    Mason didn''t realize that he had fallen into Theo''s trap the moment he thought about this. In fact, this was what Theo''s former teacher had taught him.


    He told him to have more faces than anyone could see so that when people saw him doing nothing, they would think he hadid down the trap.


    Without anyone realizing it, Theo had graduallye closer to Loki''s level. If people fought Loki, who was known for his tricks and illusions, they would think he had done something even though Loki just sat down and did nothing. Even if he told them that he hadn''t done anything, the others wouldn''t believe him.


    And currently, Mason was facing that dilemma where Theo hadn''t done anything special, but he thought there were already traps waiting for him.


    Mason gritted his teeth. No matter how hard he thought, no matter how long he stared, there was simply nothing different from Theo.


    e��glesn?��el In the end, he could only let out a roar to boost his morale as if he was saying, ''screw it,'' and continued to Theo.


    "Die!" The Magic Saint punched Theo with his right fist.


    Seeing this dangerous fist, Theo simply waved his sword as if he didn''t n to do anything.


    Before the Magic Saint''s fist could reach the sword, the Magic Power suddenly disappeared from his right fist.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint immediately spun his body. He had seen this attack pattern before.


    He had long known that Theo could remove one''s ability. So, he had prepared for this and managed to react when Theo used it.


    Theo might use that ability to create an opportunity for his de to reach his bare fist, but the Magic Saint had seen it through and dodged it.


    Then, he punched Theo with his left hand.


    Unfortunately for him, the reality started to expand once again. This time, it expanded only around Theo and pushed him to the side.


    Instead of avoiding the Magic Saint, he pushed himself so that Mason''s left hand would end up hitting Theo''s sword.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Huh?" Mason was confused while hitting the sword. However, it didn''t matter. He smirked while saying, "You fools, there is a trick in this fist."


    In that instant, Theo''s sharp sword ended up cutting the outeryer of thepressed Magic Power, resulting in the Magic Power expanding and causing a powerful explosion.


    Even though he couldn''t hit Theo''s body, with this range, it should be enough to somehow inflict some injuries on him. The Magic Saint had covered his body with Magic Power to protect himself.


    But to everyone''s surprise, the explosion didn''t ur once. It was twice.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" The Magic Saint could see everything happening easily. ''His sword��''


    Yes, it turned out Theo''s sword was hollow. Inside the sword was the Magic Power, which had beenpressed.


    With such a brittle sword, there was no way it would be able to withstand the power of a Saint. So, it broke the moment the Magic Saint hit it.


    These two explosions neutralized each other.


    "How could I not see the flow of Magic Power��" The Magic Saint muttered inwardly. He certainly saw the sword look normal. If Theo hid such Magic Power inside the sword, he should be able to see through it.


    However, that was when the illusion came. The illusion had turned the de into the normal de he usually used.


    Theo didn''t know what the Magic Saint saw, but he certainly knew how it looked in his eyes. He just had to copy it and apply the Reality Authority in order to make it look real. And the Magic Saint wouldn''t be able to find anything.


    Of course, there was no way Theo would stop this attack here.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint widened his eyes and raised his head, finding the Death Avatar above him. Theo summoned the avatar at the same time they shed, allowing him to fully manifest right after the explosions neutralized each other.


    And Theo even used his Telekinesis to prevent both of them from getting blown away by the shock wave the sh produced. Theo even used his Supernatural Snake Body to protect his body.


    This way, the Death Avatar could attack with all his strength.


    The Death Avatar looked like it was smiling. The Magic Saint hurriedly raised both hands to stop the Death Avatar, but thetter swiftly waved his hands, extending his fingers like that of a de.


    He poured as much energy as he could to stop this attack. But the Death Avatar used the two seconds he had to send a total of ten strikes, hitting all over his body.


    "Kh." The Magic Saint gritted his teeth. Most of the attacks could be blocked by a concentrated Magic Power, but because of the little time he had, the Death Avatar managed to pierce through the Magic Power and hit the Magic Saint two times, one at the right waist and one at his right arm.


    Andst but not least, Theo attacked him with his smirk�� the smirk filled with salt in it, which was pretty effective for the Magic Saint.

 Chapter 2049 Theo Vs Magic Saint (6)

    ?


    The veins on Mason''s forehead became visible once he saw that smirk. Despite seeing through Theo''s weakness, he still couldn''t do anything.


    In fact, he was shocked that Theo could use the same abilities. Although it was true that the ability was far too weakpared to him, Theo''s brain allowed him to outsmart him in that area, allowing his ability to fight something beyond its rank.


    However, he might still underestimate Theo''s talent.


    Once he had seen the effectiveness of the multiyer Magic Power, Theo''s brain was formting a few paths he could take.


    "This�� I will call this Multi-Layer Magic�� This ability has a unique trait. Combining the two or more different flows of Magic Power is an overwhelming ability." Theo said inwardly. He couldn''t help but remember the knowledge about the flow of Magic Power.


    ''Magic Power has a lot of uses if exploited correctly. Each purpose has a different flow.


    ''For example, if I want to form a shield or a barrier with my Magic Power, the Magic Power will be circting inminar flow, allowing it to form a solid and reliable barrier. The Magic Saint Fist Style has a swirling flow for the Twister and a raging wave for the Burst.


    ''However, there is somethingcking from the Griffith Family. In order to use this ability, one couldn''t have an element in their body like me and Ne.


    ''But the elements have their respective flow as well. A swirling flow can only be applied to an element in a liquid or gas state, such as fire, water, and wind. But if it''s used on an Earth Element, the rock will just end up bing brittle. That''s why they need aminar flow.


    ''Still, one person can only have one element. Though, there is a genius that has shocked the world by having multiple elements. And once he grows up, he bes one with the Element Authority��''


    Theo''s expression changed. The person he was talking about was none other than the Heavenly Sovereign. It was clear that the Heavenly Sovereign had this kind of ability, and he was actually the clue to Theo''s new ability.


    Theo used the Mirage World to copy people''s abilities. The concept became the foundation of his new technique.


    e��glesn?��el Then, with the ability to imbue an element to Magic Power granted from his Authority, he could replicate all kinds of elements with different kinds of flow.


    Last but not least, hebined these two abilities with the thing he had just learned, the Multi-Layer Magic.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile as if he had just found the form to take the Multi-Layer Magic further. And the only one who could have this ability was probably him and the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The Magic Saint didn''t know what Theo was thinking, but his smile truly frustrated him.


    Although he was beaten by that power earlier, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had a big weakness.


    He jumped into the air, trying it once again.


    Theo pointed his palm at him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Magic Saint furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing what Theo was nning. But it seemed that Theo didn''t n tounch a sneak attack this time.


    After all, a giant red fireball appeared in front of him. Without wasting any seconds, Theo actually shot the fireball at him.


    The Magic Saint wanted to know what Theo was nning this time. He had the experience of being tricked by the illusion earlier, so he was careful from another trick.


    And one of the tricks was in front of him. The Magic Saint could see the twoyer of Magic Power from the fireball, albeit barely. Theo had used his illusion once again to cover the flow of Magic Power, but now that he had the experience, he wouldn''t be fooled anymore.


    At the same time, Mason felt something else. This might be the real n from Theo.


    It turned out Theo was following the fireball, using it as a cover to approach him.


    ''Hmm? He is using the fireball to cover my eyes, no it''s to shift my focus to the fireball instead of him. If I block the fireball, I would have to face the twoyers of Magic Power. If I loop around or avoid it, he will appear from behind the fireball and attack me.''


    Mason was thinking about whether the first scenario or the second scenario was better for him. On the one hand, he had some confidence in fighting Theo head-on. There might be gaps of raw power between them, but as long as he could catch Theo off guard, he could deal serious damage to him.


    On the other hand, he didn''t know what Theo was preparing this time. If he made a wrong decision, he might be defeated quickly.


    Fortunately, Mason seemed to find a method to surprise Theo.


    ''He wants to catch me off guard by focusing on this fireball, right? In that case, shouldn''t I fall into his trap and break the fireball? But since I already know his presence, I can easily react to him and somehow hit him. This might be a chance��''


    Mason''s eyes shed. Now that he had got a brilliant n, he immediately moved forward and covered his hands with fouryers of Magic Power.


    After that, he grabbed the fireball and ripped it apart like a bun.


    "Haaaa!" Mason roared. He had infused the fireball with his own Magic Power, harmonizing it with the secondyer of Theo''s attack. This way, even if he ripped the fireball apart, the secondyer would remain intact.


    But to his surprise, the moment he opened the fireball, a violent gust suddenly burst out.


    The fire and the wind instantly fused together and created an overwhelming fire vortex.


    ''No way.'' Mason widened his eyes in shock. He wanted to leave, but it was toote. The fire vortex had expanded quickly and became a raging fire tornado, swallowing Mason.


    "Burn to cinders." Theo smirked. That was right. He and the Heavenly Sovereign were probably the only ones that could use this ability. Using Multi-Layer Magic and imbuing eachyer with a different element to form an even more powerful ability.

 Chapter 2050 Theo Vs Magic Saint (7)

    ?


    "Aaaahhhhh!" The Magic Saint''s scream echoed from the inside. The raging fire tornado not only tried to shred him into pieces, but it was also burning him alive.


    Even the Magic Saint wouldn''t expect that such an attack woulde. In fact, Theo had predicted all this.


    This was one of the lessons from Leonardo after all.


    ''To defeat the enemy, you should watch how your enemy moves.'' Theo looked at the fire tornado with a serious expression. Understanding the lesson and applying it were two different cases.


    But in Theo''s case, his application was a bit different. Instead of watching how the enemy moved, he actually forced them to take that action. In other words, Theo didn''t react to the enemy''s movements. He actually reacted to the movements he forced the enemy to take. This would allow him to move one step ahead and take control of the battle.


    He had been provoking the Magic Saint this whole time because he wanted him toe.


    Once he was about to arrive, by summoning the fireball and shooting it, the Magic Saint would only have two options. He could either take it head-on or loop around. But either way, the Magic Saint would be doomed.


    After all, if he destroyed the fireball, his life would be in danger from the raging fire tornado. If he looped around, he would simply cut the fireball into two, causing the wind to erupt.


    Either way, the fire tornado would appear and engulf the Magic Saint.


    Thetter, of course, could simply stop and move backward. But with the constant provocation, Theo ruled out that option.


    This was the real concept in Theo''s fighting style. It wasn''t that he observed his movement. Instead, he made them take that action.


    Theo took a deep breath, looking at the situation.


    As expected from a Saint, he wouldn''t go down easily.


    Mason actually managed to disperse the tornado with his Magic Power. But it seemed that he had taken a lot of damage.


    A third of his skin was charred and some parts of the skin werepletely burned, causing the flesh to be visible and the blood to flow out.


    This was the first time he saw the twoyers of elements. This might be the upgraded version of his multiyers of Magic Power. Although he only used two elements, as long as he could understand the synergy between elements, the power could easily overwhelm his ability.


    Mason gnashed his teeth. His eyes were filled with killing intent because Theo would kill him sooner orter. He knew that Theo was stronger than him. But what shocked him the most was that the longer they fought, the more his weakness disappeared.


    Theo had trouble learning from the monsters because their power was too unique. But with Mason''s ability, which derived from Control, Theo could use it to stabilize his foundation.


    In other words, Theo was using Mason as both the mentor and punching bag. Once hepleted his purpose, Theo would definitely kill him.


    Mason didn''t expect Theo to be this monstrous. If he knew Theo could achieve this feat at this age, he would have done anything to grab Theo. In fact, he might even offer anything as long as Theo would join the family, even if it meant killing the Mind Elder personally.


    Unfortunately, it was toote. There was only one person who would walk away from this battle.


    He knew that his death would soone to him. Of course, he never had the intention to beg for mercy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After walking this path for a very long time, Mason had done a lot of cruel things. He had seen all those people begging for mercy, but he still killed them.


    He always prepared for the same situation to ur to him in the future. At the very least, there were a few people who could kill him.


    That was why he wouldn''t beg for mercy. Instead, since he was going to die, he would at least try to drag down the enemy.


    Mason took a deep breath. He raised his stance once again. Now that he had epted his fate, he instantly regained his calm. There was boundless killing intenting out from his body.


    e��glesnovel`c,om Even without him saying it, Theo could see through his intention. Mason would do everything to drag him down.


    He didn''t know whether the one in front of him was a clone or not. After all, it could be either way. If he was a clone, it meant that he could recall it to fight against the original Theo, which would give him an advantage. If this was the real fight, it meant he knew that fighting him would use less Magic Power, allowing him to conserve his Magic Power.


    These two scenarios had their own benefits. So, Mason didn''t care whether the one in front of him was a clone or not. The one in front of him was an enemy. That was all that mattered.


    With that thought in mind, Mason charged forward. He covered his body with Magic Power, preparing for all kinds of situations.


    Theo knew that the current state of the Magic Saint would be dangerous even for him. If he didn''t y his cards carefully, the Magic Saint might be able to reach him.


    That was why Theo wanted to end this fight as soon as possible.


    ''An ability to kill the Magic Saint��'' Theo muttered inwardly before raising both hands. Suddenly, a giant wall made of rock appeared, separating both of them.


    The Magic Saint roared and smashed the giant wall with his fist.


    *Bam!*


    It couldn''t evenst a second before the giant wall crumbled into pieces. However, Theo left the violent wind inside.


    Once the wall broke, the wind would shred the Magic Saint''s body apart.


    "Gaaaahhhhh!" Mason screamed in pain, but his eyes remained focused on his target. Surprisingly, he flew past the violent wind even if the wind cut him many times. All the wounds weren''tparable to the chance to defeat Theo.


    "Die!" Mason shouted.


    Unfortunately for him, his luck had run out.


    A shadow appeared behind him and swung his sword.


    "!!!" Mason nced to the side and realized it was another Theo. "Two Theos�� Then my opponent is the real body?"

 Chapter 2051 Theo Vs Magic Saint (8)

    ?


    "There are two of them." The Magic Saint couldn''t help but smile as he turned around. "As expected, you are the main body."


    The magic power around his hands erupted, causing a small shock wave. The clone Theo marched forward as if it didn''t fear anything the Magic Saint could do.


    He even used the Irregr Guardian to form a sword, nning to cut Mason into two. At the same time, Theo also approached him, but with this distance, Mason would be able to strike the clone first before Theo''s real body arrived.


    As long as Theo could stop the clone once, he would be able to survive.


    Without hesitation, Mason punched the clone Theo with all his might. The magic power on his fist erupted and caused a ripple in the air.


    Theo struck the fist with his de. It was clear that his objective was to stop the Magic Saint from his real body from killing him. This was the only purpose, so Clone Theo used all his might just to stop him.


    But to his surprise, the moment the fist struck him, the sword immediately broke apart. The fist continued straight to the body and obliterated it.


    "!!!" The Magic Saint widened his eyes. Theo''s clone wasn''t supposed to be this weak. The only thing that had this kind of strength would be his illusion.


    However, he couldn''t see the Magic Power once again. He didn''t realize Theo had used his twoyer of Magic Power. And eachyer created the same exact illusion. If Mason could barely see through one illusion, he wouldn''t be able to see anything with twoyers.


    That was why he didn''t realize that the clone was just an illusion. And everything was for the sake of this moment.


    Theo suddenly appeared behind Mason with his sword.


    "This is the end. I am nothing but a trickster��" Theo smirked. He reminded him that his opponent was a trickster. And there was no way he wouldn''t use any tricks in his attacks.


    Since the situation had gone awry after the previous attack, Mason would surelye to attack him.


    With his personality, Mason would surely believe that there would be another Theo if thetter came out from behind the rock.


    He wouldn''t have thought about the possibility of it being an illusion. And by the time he destroyed it, it was already toote.


    Theo waved his sword down, splitting Mason into two.


    As one would expect from a Saint, there was no way they would go down without a fight. Even if he was about to die, he would still struggle by using the Magic Power on his other hand. He let the Magic Power explode, blowing his body to the side.


    The sh that was supposed to cut him down ended up only taking his entire arm.


    Mason hurriedly moved away to regain some distance. But Theo used his Blink to appear right in front of him and struck him from above.


    "Kh." Mason used his Magic Power to stop the de, but Theo nned to kill Mason right here.


    So, he applied the illusion into his swing and took a step back, resulting in the de not touching Mason. This way, Theopleted his swing and he utilized the illusion to make Mason believe he had been cut down.


    Theo replicated all the pain from being cut and sent it straight to his mind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    e��glesn?��el Due to his injury, Mason couldn''t help but believe it was real for a second. But he still had enough mental fortitude to see through the illusion and break it with the remaining Magic Power.


    However, a small portion of the illusion had been applied to reality. And that one second caused a huge sword mark on Mason''s face, almost cutting his skull. If he had just got another second, his de would have reached the brain and killed Mason.


    But this wound was enough. Even Mason would have a hard time moving now that his skull had been exposed to the outside.


    And without hesitation, Theo swung his sword once again to kill Mason.


    Mason gritted his teeth. Even though his consciousness was about to fade away, he still had one more thing to do before he died.


    He shouted with the remaining energy he had. "ABSORB ME, SLI��!"


    Before he finished, Theo had severed his head, killing Mason.


    [You''ve killed a Magic Saint.]


    [EXP+170,089,000]


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    Theo took a deep breath as he finally finished his task. Yet, despite such an achievement, his expression became grim.


    The reason was thest words Mason said. He was trying to have the slime absorb him.


    Before he died and the world retook the Saint''s Authority, if the slime managed to absorb him, the slime would gain another powerful ally, nullifying the advantage they had.


    But luckily, he managed to kill him first before the slime could react. It was truly frustrating.


    Theo took a deep breath first before looking around to make sure the slime didn''te to this ce. Luckily, the slime fully knew that he wouldn''t gain anything from a dead man. So, he was satisfied with the current conclusion.


    Theo had leveled up once more.


    "I am level 997, almost level 998. If I can kill my original self, it might give me another level or even two�� allowing me to reach level 1,000. Still, it''s not enough to evolve. I still need to fill the bar of my EXP. So, I might have to kill a lot of monsters or one more World ss Monster. But��" Theo thought for a moment.


    He didn''t know who he should kill at this point. He wanted to kill either a World ss Monster or the Fist Saint, but he didn''t know if he had the time to do it or not.


    All he could do right now was to go to the original Theo and outnumber him. The quicker he ended the fight, the better the chance to kill another Saint.


    With that thought in mind, Theo disappeared from the battlefield.

 Chapter 2052 Theo Vs Theo (1)

    ?


    A moment ago.


    Theo raised his sword, pointing at the original self. He had shed with him a few times, but it seemed that the original Theo was stronger than he originally thought.


    ''We have only fought for five minutes, but we have used a lot of abilities. I guess we know what each other is thinking, allowing us to counter each other perfectly.'' Theo thought with a serious expression.


    As he thought, the fight only started a few minutes ago. There was still no significant change on the battlefield.


    Each Saint and King still focused on their respective opponents.


    Even though the situation forced him to take down his opponent as soon as possible, Theo still took his time to gather his thoughts.


    ''The n is to kill our respective opponent as quickly as possible, even if it means sacrificing a few things. There is Aisha, who can regrow our bodies as long as we aren''t dead, so it''s possible to be reckless for a little bit. That''s why this n is feasible.


    ''However, each of us has different strengths. If there were two people whose strengths were at a simr level, the battle wouldst for a bit longer.


    ''The Sword Saint vs the Fist Saint, there is a big gap in their ranking, but I don''t know if the Sword Saint can finish the battle or not. As expected, the only thing I can rely on is the Lightning Saint and the Goddess of Death.


    ''The Magma Saint shouldn''t be that strong and the Dark Saint might lose against his opponent. So, he willst long enough until the Sword Saint finishes his battle to help him.


    ''As for my other self�� this is probably the battle with the biggest gap in our strength. That bastard grandfather might be annoying, but his strength is good. So it might take a bit longer.


    ''In that case, I have to injure my original self as much as possible. After killing my original self, I will find another enemy to kill. The Goddess of Death and the Lightning Saint will probably kill their opponents since they have to go to the slime to help the other two.


    ''I don''t think the God of Mischief will lose that easily, but I still can''t predict the extent of strength the slime has��'' Theo took a deep breath.


    After recalling the n and assessing the current situation, Theo knew that he had to focus on his current opponent.


    The quicker he could reach the Singrity Rank, the higher the chance they could win this battle.


    So, his expression became grim as if he was instilling the pressure from the entire battlefield.


    His look was telling the original Theo that he would surely kill him as quickly as possible.


    The Original Theo narrowed his eyes. On the one hand, he didn''t like how Theo thought he had enough strength to defeat him. On the other hand, Theo surely hadn''t used all his strength.


    He hated the fact that his loss was still possible.


    The Original Theo raised his spear as if challenging Theo. He indirectly dered that he would be the one who lost.


    Once they had regained their breath, both of them jumped forward.


    The Original Theo thrust forth while Theo swung his de.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    *Cling!*


    The clicking sound of metals echoed in the area. The sound was amplified with the Magic Power infused in the respective weapons.


    eaglesnov?1,��o�� "You originally used a spear. To think you would have abandoned your own identity." The Original Theo gritted his teeth while exerting more strength on his thrust.


    Theo''s poker face remained, but he didn''t seem to be repulsive in talking with his original self. Even though they experienced a different thing, it didn''t change the fact that they were the same.


    Though, due to Helheim, the Original Theo seemed to be unable to calm himself. In fact, he looked like the rage Theo would release to the world if he didn''t encounter all the people in his life.


    Considering the Original Theo died after he got struck by the turtle, he knew that this was also his personality.


    Theo said, "Identity? Both of us know that we are able to learn something far quicker than anyone else. So, why can''t you ept that I can learn how to use another weapon?"


    Theo also exerted a bit more strength, sliding his sword on the spear''s de before repelling it.


    However, it didn''t stop them from swinging their weapons again. More than ten shes urred in two seconds before both Theo leaped away.


    "I don''t care." The Original Theo waved his left hand. "Devour."


    A ck fog came out of his hand and extended itself toward Theo.


    Theo waved his de and applied his illusion, causing the ck fog to be cut into two.


    Both of their eyes shed at the same time.


    The Original Theo used the Death Vision Skill to invoke Theo''s death while Theo used his Death Eyes from the Death Avatar to send the killing intent. This killing intent was so strong that the Original Theo could see his own death.


    But as someone who had lived in Helheim for a long time, the death didn''t bother him anymore.


    At the same time, Theo had tortured himself with the Death Eyes, so the vision of his death that the Original Theo had sent to his mind was nothing.


    Both of them ignored their own deaths and approached each other again.


    Theo used the Death Descent to show the original Theo his way to die. Meanwhile, the original Theo utilized the Darkness Descent, causing the entire area to be surrounded by darkness to the point Theo couldn''t see the death strings from his ability.


    The original Theo could easily see in the dark, so he immediately came toward Theo. Meanwhile, Theo used his Awareness to locate the original Theo.


    In the darkness, multiple clicking sounds echoed again. Each sound was stronger than the other. And ultimately, the strong was so big that it created a sound wave that broke the Infinite Darkness, restoring the battlefield.


    Both Theo red at each other, trying to find a way to outsmart the other.

 Chapter 2053 Theo Vs Theo (2)

    ?


    Both Theo observed each other''s movements. Since they were the same person, their train of thought was simr. Even with Theo''s brain and experience, it was still hard to outsmart his original self.


    So, he needed to find some weaknesses to exploit. There was one big difference between him and the original Theo. He had an insurmountable amount of experience, while the original Theo didn''t. This was the advantage he could take advantage of to defeat him.


    With this thought in mind, Theo moved forward while gathering his energy all around his body.


    The original Theo also did the same thing. Once they were about to sh, the original Theo pointed his hand toward Theo.


    Soul Poison.


    Theo''s eyes shed as he threw himself to the side. ording to the system, the Soul Poison directly attacked his consciousness which could be considered his soul. Although he had some training with the Death Eyes, he wouldn''t underestimate Theo''s original skills.


    So, he tried to avoid it.


    eaglesnov?1,��o�� The original Theo knew about this power and immediately shifted his palm to the side, following Theo.


    Theo couldn''t help but frown. He wondered if the skill could be directed so easily, but without that information, he decided to avoid that palm.


    Of course, Theo alsounched a counterattack. He used his Twisted Reality to distort the reality around the original Theo. This way, even a real body would be twisted like that of a cloth. Theo had been using it to twist the Magic Power, but if he applied his illusion, the original Theo wouldn''t realize it.


    As long as he got hit long enough for him to apply the Reality Authority, the damage would be huge.


    However, the original Theo wouldn''t be that easily defeated. Once he felt the distortion, he immediately retracted his Soul Poison and turned it into the devouring energy.


    The devouring energy soon swallowed the Magic Power and Authority that Theo used to distort reality, ultimately neutralizing it.


    Theo didn''t stop there. He used the Ascension Step to strike him from above.


    Once the original Theo sensed the energy, he looked up and formed a ck-colored te on top of his head. The te became the shield that protected him from this extraordinary pressure.


    Even though the enemy had a devouring power, the unique technique of the former number three in the world wasn''t that easy to deal with.


    Due to the strong flux of Magic Power, only a portion of it was being engulfed by the ck te. The rest was stuck on top of the ck te, waiting for their turn to get absorbed.


    The original Theo simply didn''t make the ck te big enough to absorb all the energy, causing the excessive energy to start pushing him down.


    "Kh." The original Theo gritted his teeth, ring at Theo.


    As expected, Theo took this chance to head straight to him, nning to take him down with everything he got.


    However, the original Theo had seen thising. He knew that Theo would be attacking with overwhelming force. Even though he hadn''t seen Theo for a long time, he knew that Theo wouldn''t be stuck with that amount of power.


    Judging from the situation, it seemed that Theo had found a way to get stronger even in the current situation. He didn''t know how Theo could get all this Magic Power, but it was clear that Theo had reached a point where his current self couldn''t bepared to him.


    Still, Theo could only use one body instead of fighting with his clone. After all, he had to take care of Mason Griffith first.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If it was only one on one, he still had some confidence in winning. After all, that was the purpose of his ability.


    Once he saw through Theo''s intention, the original Theo utilized his skill.


    Curse Bestowal.


    A ck colored skull suddenly appeared in front of his stomach.


    Theo immediately furrowed his eyebrows, seeing the description of the skill. If he received this attack, his body might be subjected to a lot of things, not just pain. He might lose control over his body due to this weird power.


    However, this was a curse. A curse never had the chance to defeat Theo.


    A translucent barrier suddenly came out of Theo''s body, creating a sphere that isted Theo from the outside.


    But more importantly, the barrier actually stopped the curse.


    "!!!" The original Theo widened his eyes in surprise. This skill couldn''t be blocked by anything, or that was the description.


    Even an Order and Authority had a hard time stopping this kind of curse since the Curse Bestowal was an ability simr to that of a blessing.


    No one could reject a blessing in the past, so there was supposed to be no one who could stop this curse as well.


    Unfortunately for him, his opponent was the Death Avatar, Second Authority, the Underworld Body.


    He used his Awareness, specifically the Sense of Touch, to form a barrier for his Underworld Body.


    Hel''s Underworld Body couldn''t be underestimated since she was the ruler of the dead. Poison, curse, or any ailment wouldn''t be able to pass through the underworld and get inherited after reincarnation.


    That was why the Underworld Body managed to stop it easily.


    Seeing his shocked expression was enough for Theo to know that this was the best time to strike him. He used Telekinesis to boost his speed further, trying to reach the original Theo.


    The original Theo gritted his teeth. The Ascension Step had stopped him from moving and Theo was about to reach him. If he didn''t do anything soon, Theo might give him some damage which would be advantageous for him soon.


    Bottomless Stomach.


    The original Theo increased the output of the ck te above his head. The increase allowed the ck te to suck all the remaining energy at a quick rate.


    Even if it wasn''t fast enough to suck all the energy before Theo reached him, the original Theo could push the te into the air as it began to suck all the energy around it. This way, the original Theo finally had the freedom to move.


    He immediately used the Superior Undead Body and prepared to receive Theo''s attack. Theo also used the Supernatural Snake Body to challenge the original Theo.

 Chapter 2054 Theo Vs Theo (3)

    ?


    The original Theo thrust his spear while Theo waved his sword.


    Theo applied the illusion to cut the original Theo into two, but the energy for the illusion ended up getting sucked into the ck te above him.


    In the end, the two weapons shed with each other. Since they were only powered by the Magic Power, their sh only caused a small shock wave.


    Theo clicked his tongue and struck him a few times, only to be blocked by the original Theo''s spear.


    If this continued, the ck te would have finished sucking all the energy from the Ascension Step, allowing the original Theo to use the next move.


    Hence, Theo immediately used the Reverse World, his second original ability. The Reverse World allowed him to change the character of everything around him, especially the ck te.


    Since it had a sucking force, the Reverse World turned it around. In that instant, all the energy that had been sucked by the te suddenly came out, neutralizing the remaining energy from the Ascension Step.


    But it was fine since his aim was something else. Since the original Theo tossed the ck te up, it coulde back down.


    He maintained the position with the help of Magic Power, but once the ck te started bursting out Magic Power, it gained a lot of power to break past the energy that held it.


    As a result, the ck te flew down like a rocket, hitting the original Theo''s head.


    "Gah!" The original Theo screamed out of pain. The burst of energy was so strong that the velocity became so high even with a small distance. He tried his best to hold Theo back, making sure he didn''t take advantage of this moment.


    But it was impossible. Theo had prepared himself for this.


    Once the original Theo got hit in the head, his sword immediately slid down the spear''s body before moving away. Theo then spun his body and struck the original Theo from the side.


    The original Theo tried to stop it, but the swiftness and flexibility of the sword allowed him to increase his speed further and finally break through his defense. The sword cut his waist, albeit it was too shallow.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue, trying to find another target.


    But the original Theo had used his Magic Power to control the ck te, allowing him to let the te face Theo. As a result, Theo got blown away by the intense pressure.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes. Even though he had done a lot of things to catch him off guard, it was truly hard to find a big opening that allowed him to deal severe damage.


    At the same time, the original Theo was angry because he was the first one to be injured. He always believed that his power was superior to Theo, so this injury truly angered him.


    Without hesitation, the original Theo turned around and used the Infinite Darkness again.


    The world soon darkened. In the past, it was the horizon that darkened, but it seemed that after improving his ability, it felt like the night hade.


    ''There are two ways to use the Infinite Darkness. By concentrating on it, you can create a sphere with absolute darkness. But if you spread it, you can create a world like this�� The concentrated version will take away your sense, but what is he nning to do with this?'' Theo thought.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    e��glesn?��el However, there were soon a few ripples appearing around Theo.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. The ripples excluded powerful energy and made him feel tremor even though they were floating in the air. At the same time, the violent energy seemed to be releasing some vibration.


    He took a look at his hands and realized that he was losing some strength.


    ''This is Rampaging Darkness. The power is less because the Infinite Darkness is not concentrated, but I guess this allows him to camouge the real size of this Rampaging Darkness.''


    It was truly an annoying technique. On the one hand, he could ignore the Rampaging Darkness. On the other hand, the decrease in his strength might lead to the original Theo''s counterattack. When that happened, their power wasn''t equal anymore.


    So, he ended up shifting his focus to the Rampaging Darkness instead of the original Theo for a moment.


    He used Reality Removal to erase the ability, but the original Theo instantly retracted the Infinite Darkness itself.


    "��" Theo frowned. If the original Theo removed his Infinite Darkness, the Rampaging Darkness skill couldn''t be used after all. However, it turned out the original Theo was nning something different.


    The Infinite Darkness wasn''t retracted. Instead, it was being swallowed by the original Theo.


    A ck mark gradually came out from his heart. The mark looked like a living creature that kept growing, but Theo could see another skill from this growing ck mark.


    Darkness Possession.


    In that instant, he suddenly saw an increase in the original Theo''s status. He realized that the original Theo used the previous two techniques to distract him.


    The moment he got the surge of strength, the original Theo immediately moved faster than Theo expected.


    He slipped past Theo''s de and thrust his spear against Theo.


    Theo clicked his tongue and raised his de, trying to block it. Unfortunately, the spear was about to reach him due to its long attack range. In the end, Theo could only strike the spear''s handle and push it to the side, causing the area next to his chest to be grazed by the spear.


    With this, they managed to equalize the damage done to their body.


    As one would expect from Theodore Griffith, the only one who could defeat him was probably himself.


    With them having simr thoughts, they tried to outsmart each other.


    Theo and the original Theo decided to jump back to regain some distance. They had some visions regarding their opponent''s next move, but they didn''t know whether they would outsmart the other again or not.

 Chapter 2055 Theo Vs Theo (4)

    ?


    Theo took a deep breath. On the one hand, he had a hard time fighting against the original Theo. Even though their experience and strength were different, it didn''t change the fact that Theo had the upper hand.


    On the other hand, the original Theo''s unique power allowed him to reduce the gap between them. In addition to the simr way of thinking, they couldn''t outsmart each other easily.


    Theo managed to injure the original Theo, but he also had a superficial wound next to his chest.


    ''What should I do�� I can kind of understand that our way of thinking is simr. However, I am the Reality Saint while he is the Devouring Saint. His Magic Power might never run out because of his Authority, but I should be able to outsmart him, considering I have walked on the path of a trickster.''


    Even though Theo muttered those words, he still had a hard time finding the path to win against the original Theo.


    ''Still��'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows. Although he hadn''t found anything useful yet, he had seen a lot of the original Theo''s abilities. Including the previous fight a few years ago, he knew that this information would allow him to win.


    ''Since I have seen his abilities and to what extent they can be used, I think I should be able to start overwhelming him��'' Theo muttered inwardly.


    After reassessing the original Theo''s power, Theo began his next n. He jumped forth while gathering his Magic Power around his hands.


    The original Theo had a n of his own, so he did the same thing. It seemed that they had a simr n once again.


    Theo waved his hand, scattering the Magic Power in his hands. The Magic Power joined each other and formed a few invisible circles in the air.


    "!!!" The original Theo seemed to have the same thought. Instead of a few circles, the original Theo only used one big ck hole to suck the energy in the area.


    As a result, the Magic Power that had formed from the Invisible Vortex got sucked into the ck hole.


    However, Theo immediately used his Reverse World to change the character of the ck hole. It then started blowing out Magic Power, but because it was in Theo''s direction, thetter had to escape before his own attack hit him.


    Surprisingly, Theo maintained his position as if he wasn''t bothered by all this Magic Power.


    The original Theo was confused, thinking Theo wouldn''t allow himself to get hit without any reason. Yet, the closer the Magic Power was to Theo, the more Theo didn''t do anything. In fact, he looked like he was simply standing with a nk look, waiting for everything to pass.


    This was absolutely impossible for Theo.


    ''Is it a trap? Why doesn''t he react to his own attacks?'' The original Theo frowned. He felt something bad and immediately thought, ''Don''t tell me, there are traps?''


    Despite Theo not doing anything, the original Theo decided to crush the invisible vortex with his own power, causing the two attacks to neutralize each other. In other words, the original Theo decided to pull off his attack even though Theo didn''t do anything. This was shocking, but it didn''t seem to be that weird either.


    Theo was a master of tricks. Just like the God of Mischief, he couldn''t be trusted even though he told the truth.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was why the original Theo decided to wait first and check what Theo was nning to do.


    But to his surprise, the moment he stopped his attack, Theo suddenly smiled as if he had fallen into his trap.


    In that instant, the original Theo realized that he had been tricked by Theo. ''Don''t tell me�� He never nned to do anything�� He wanted me to think that he had already prepared a trap, forcing me to stop?''


    The original Theo gritted his teeth. He gathered the ck energy in his right hand, ready to shoot it straight at Theo. But before he did it, he remembered another thing.


    He had been just tricked by Theo. If he immediately attacked him, Theo might use it as proof that he had fallen into his next trick. After all, Theo did nothing to force him to retract the attack before. And this time, Theo might trick him into attacking him so that he would be vulnerable.


    That was why he stopped once again to observe the situation.


    Unfortunately for him, by the time he thought about all the possibilities, Theo had defeated him in the psychological war.


    Theo knew how he thought about himself. And the original Theo, who knew not much about him, would fall into this trick.


    By not doing anything, his existence alone could make one doubt his intention. And after that, they would be more careful since Theo might use their anger to trick them.


    And it was just another trick. The moment they realized everything was just Theo''s way of fooling them, they would attack him for real.


    The original Theo didn''t care about what Theo had nned in mind anymore. He was flying toward Theo. Even though he had to be careful, he couldn''t be that careful either or Theo would take advantage of his own doubt.


    That was why this might be the best way to fight Theo.


    The original Theo thrust his spear, shooting out the ck energy. This ck energy had a sucking force even though it was far away from the original Theo.


    It seemed that the original Theo wanted this ck energy to touch him so that a portion of Theo''s Magic Power would be absorbed. If the one in front of him was a clone, the attack would surely impact him greatly.


    Theo obviously had seen through his n. He didn''t n to let him get the answer. At the same time, letting the Irregr Guardian hit this ck energy would be useless since the Magic Power to form the Irregr Guardian would end up being sucked.


    So, Theo waved his sword, shing downwards.


    In that instant, the ck energy started to split into two as if they had a body.

 Chapter 2056 Theo Vs Theo (5)

    ?


    The ck energy was split by a single wave of Theo''s sword. It didn''t have any strength or skill behind it. There was only a huge amount of energy from Theo''s body. The energy utilized the illusion and the Reality Authority applied it, causing the ck energy to be truly split.


    Of course, the ck energy kept sucking the Magic Power that hit it. Unfortunately, Theo could see that his attack didn''t get absorbedpletely. He knew that the original Theo''s power was overpowered, but it wasn''t undefeated.


    It was clear from the previous attack that the energy had an absorb speed. As long as he could calcte the energy and time topletely absorb an ability and use something beyond it, he should be able to win.


    With that thought in mind, Theo started moving forward, avoiding the ck energy.


    "It''s useless." The original Theo shouted while pping his hands. The ck energy that was about to split suddenly came together, forming a thicker energy to stop Theo''s illusion from slicing it apart.


    As soon as Theo''s illusion stopped, the original Theo spread his arms. In that instant, the ck energy dispersed. A portion of them was about to reach and surround Theo.


    But Theo had expected this, so he used the World Re-Creation to expand the reality far from the ck energy. This way, the expansion would still continue without the ck energy being able to suck the Magic Power.


    Realizing that Theo still had a trick up his sleeve, the original Theo tried to fight him in closebat this time. Every time they did this, they always left it to their weapons. But this time, he wanted to grab Theo with the ck energy, sucking his energy.


    The original Theo moved forward with his spear in the front. Theo wasn''t scared of him and chose to take him on with his sword.


    The original Theo enveloped his spear with devouring energy. If Theo used any of his energy to coat his sword, it would only get sucked. At the same time, if he didn''t release his energy, the original Theo would have an overwhelming advantage.


    The original Theo knew that Theo must do something in order to not lose. Yet, he couldn''t see some tricks.


    Both of them ended up shing with each other. Theo didn''t release any Magic Power, let alone his ability. He simply withstood the original Theo''s blows with his physical body alone.


    The existence of Magic Power could allow someone to release an attack at least three times its original physical strength. So, Theo wasn''t supposed to be able to stop him with his current strength.


    Yet, Theo remained calm even though he had to face the unstoppable thrusts from the original Theo.


    ''Huh?'' The original Theo gritted his teeth, not being able to gain any advantage over Theo. All his attacks were blocked effortlessly as if Theo wasn''t affected by the devouring energy.


    The energy had even approached the Magic Power in Theo''s body, trying to suck it out of his body. Yet, Theo''s poker face remained, causing the original Theo to wonder once again whether Theo had prepared a trick or not.


    Theo kept ring at him in their sh as if he wasn''t bothered by his weapon. He only wanted to face the original Theo.


    This kind of action annoyed the original Theo since it looked like Theo underestimated him. He wanted to force Theo to use all his strength. Yet, a part of him was saying that he should defeat Theo when he was this weak.


    The original Theo knew that the result was more important than the process. So, he immediately let the devouring energy erupt, trying to surround Theo.


    Theo nced to the side and chose to jump back, avoiding the devouring energy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The original Theo followed him, not wanting to let him go. He struck him once again, but Theo actually smiled.


    "!!!" The original Theo suddenly widened his eyes and his body instinctively stopped. That smile made him think everything went ording to n.


    And once again, nothing happened.


    Theo had fooled him again with only a normal smile.


    "Kh." The original Theo gritted his teeth. His anger was gradually increasing. He couldn''t be reckless if he wanted to defeat Theo, but he was truly frustrated by Theo''s trick.


    He wanted to use the same tricks, but with Theo''s experiences, it would be easy to see through his intention.


    That was why he would be the only one to get frustrated in this battle. And the longer the fightsted, the higher the probability of Theo defeating him.


    The original Theo ended up charging again. He used the Superior Undead Body and Darkness Possession to increase his durability. With this, he should have the reflex to react to anything and the body that could melt everything around him.


    Theo maintained his poker face, thinking it wasn''t a big deal.


    He had grasped almost everything he needed to know about the original Theo.


    He also hadpleted his preparation, so it was time for a counterattack.


    Theo gathered the Magic Power in his sword as if he was trying to enhance its power.


    The original Theo couldn''t help but smile, knowing that Theo had be impatient enough. With this, Theo would end up draining more and more energy while he kept absorbing his energy. It would be clear who would win soon.


    They approached each other while swinging their respective weapons.


    Once the original Theo thrust his spear right at the sword, the ck energy started devouring the Magic Power that was used to form the sword. Theo used the Irregr Guardian to maintain the sword form, but this time, he had another surprise for the original Theo.


    Once the devouring energy scraped the outeryer of the sword, the wind energy inside the sword that had beenpressed this whole time suddenly burst out.


    "!!!" The original Theo widened his eyes. He wanted to block it, but he couldn''t even react to the sudden burst of wind.


    The wind ended up blowing him. The powerful energy struck his left arm, breaking the bones.


    This was Theo''s preparation. Since both he and his clone shared their senses, they could replicate each other''s ability, including the power of Multi-Layer Magic. And with this, the original Theo''s fate had been sealed.

 Chapter 2057 Theo Vs Theo (6)

    ?


    *Bam!*


    "Gah!" The original Theo spat a mouthful of blood. Theo once again surprised him with his Multi-Layer Magic, striking him right in the stomach.


    His organs felt like they were shaking. And the force from the attack ended up blowing him to the ground.


    The original Theo gritted his teeth.


    He looked at Theo in the sky with killing intent. He still intended to kill him.


    Even though he had injured him like this, Theo had also suffered some injuries aside from the graze on the side of his chest.


    He might have expected to see Theo with overwhelming power due to his growth, but he never saw the possibility of Theo bing this strong just by fighting the Magic Saint. It seemed that bringing the Magic Saint and the Fist Saint was a mistake since they were useless.


    ''Useless�� Why can''t any of you even make yourself useful? One gets stopped by a mere Sword Saint while the other is strengthening him��''


    Theo surprisinglynded on the ground instead of attacking him. It felt like he had the overwhelming advantage that nothing the original Theo would do, he wouldn''t be able to turn around the situation.


    And that was why Theo stood in front of him and asked, "I still can''t understand. Even though we have experienced a different thing, our personalities won''t change. You and I both know that fact since we are the same Theodore Griffith."


    The original Theo gritted his teeth before roaring back, "You don''t know a single thing."


    "Yes. The closer one''s to the truth, the more confused they will be. And that is also the exact reason why I think it''s important to talk to you." Theo''s expression became solemn. This might be the first time he looked at the original Theo in his eyes as if he wanted to understand what the original Theo had experienced.


    Even though the original Theo acted like this, he couldn''t imagine himself bing someone like him without any reason. He had experienced a lot of hardships in his childhood, so he didn''t think there would be a lot of things that could turn him into a madman.


    That was why he wondered why the original Theo had a different personality. He thought the original Theo might have met the higher being that turned him this way or he might be pretending this whole time. Either way, knowing what the other had experienced was a good thing, considering both of them were the same Theodore Griffith.


    The original Theo gritted his teeth. Because of that question, he couldn''t help but remember the past he didn''t want to remember.


    Almost a decade ago.


    ''Huh�� this is��'' The original Theo looked down to the ground, looking at his body that suddenly started recovering once again. ''Huh? I was fighting the Hard Rock Turtle a moment ago��''


    The original Theo didn''t expect that he could look at his own body from a third perspective. However, his train of thought suddenly stopped once the Hard Rock Turtle rammed his body into the tree that supported his body earlier.


    *Bam!*<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The original Theo widened his eyes in shock. After all, his body managed to avoid it even though he was floating up here.


    In that instant, he realized something was wrong. He couldn''t help but look around and notice he was floating above the trees in the area.


    The view instantly widened as nothing covered his eyes anymore. At the same time, this majestic sight allowed him to recall the moment before he became like this.


    ''Now that I think about it�� I was asked whether I wanted to be the God of Mischief emissary or not��'' The original Theo looked at his body, wondering what happened to that message. After all, it was an invitation for a blessing.


    He, who had endured a lot of hardships to the point he believed hisck of talent, thought this blessing was his chance.


    Yet, he could do nothing other than float here.


    He also saw his body moving away from the turtle as if it had its own consciousness.


    "Now that I think about it, since we''re talking about the God of Mischief, I''m sure that it''s one of his abilities. So, what am I doing here?" The original Theo looked at his hands, realizing that his body was translucent. "Whoa?"


    He was startled and confused. On the one hand, he wanted to understand the current state of his body. On the other hand, his real body was about to leave this area as if trying to run away from the turtle.


    "What should I do? Can I move my body?" Theo tried to shake his body to see if he could move in this situation. Even though he was curious about the state of his body, he had to follow his real body first.


    Fortunately, he was able to float around like that of a bird. It didn''t take too long for him to be able to fly freely. Though, he focused on following his real body, wondering what happened to the real body.


    "The God of Mischief must have a weird ability to do this, right? I mean, he must be taking over my body to let me escape��" Theo, who was still quite innocent back then, thought this was the only possibility, considering he didn''t have enough strength to fight the Hard Rock Turtle.


    To his surprise, the real body suddenly split into two.


    "Woah? What? My body has split into two? Is that a skill? So cool." The original Theo was happy that he finally had a unique skill. He couldn''t help but imagine how to utilize this ability once he got back to his body.


    And eventually, the real body reached the giant cliff, where he used the sturdy rock to nt the spear right into the Hard Rock Turtle''s head.


    "That''s right. This is also possible. I was just thinking about it��" The original Theo nodded in satisfaction. "That''s what I probably would do if I had a clone ability. With this, I can finally return to my body."


    The original Theo didn''t know at that time his fate couldn''t be any more different than the one he had in mind.

 Chapter 2058 Theo Vs Theo (7)

    ?


    Once the Hard Rock Turtle died, he could see that he had leveled up a few times.


    The original Theo couldn''t help but float next to his real body. He gently scratched the back of his head, wondering what he should do. "Right�� I should get back to my real body. But what should I do right now? Sir God of Mischief�� Do you have any instructions?"


    There were no words from the God of Mischief. After a moment, the original Theo couldn''t help but touch his real body. "Maybe I should just enter this body�� After all, this is my body��"


    Once he aligned himself with his body, the original Theo was stunned once again because nothing had happened. His body moved on its own as if the owner of this body had changed.


    "Huh? What is happening to my body right now? Why can''t I go back to my real body?"


    The original Theo became even more confused. After all this, he wanted to return to his body and try to find a way to reach a higher level. This might be his opportunity to finally shake free from all the bullying he had.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything to his real body. He entered it, touched it, or even said all the words that might allow him to return to his body. Yet, he couldn''t return.


    "What''s happening to my real body? Why can''t I go back? Is there something I have to do? I have learned a few things about Blessings�� The figures from the past could bestow us strength through blessing, but I don''t think I have heard anything about them taking over our bodies.


    "In that case, who is the one controlling my body right now?" The original Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "That''s right. Sometimes, we will have a period where the ones who give their blessing can''t talk to us as if they have used a lot of energy just to connect with us.


    "Since he has just given me his blessing, there might be a period of time that he can''t contact me. As long as I wait for a bit more, I might be able to go back. I only need to wait for the God of Mischief." The original Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    In the end, the original Theo followed his body back to the base, wondering what he would do with his body.


    Surprisingly, his body went to a mask store to buy a mask.


    "Hmm? A mask?" The original Theo frowned. "If I were to buy a mask�� I would only do it to hide my identity. Ah, right�� There is that Material Card. It''s a big deal for someone like me to sell it since I''m not supposed to be strong enough."


    The original Theo nodded in understanding. He continued to follow the original Theo, wondering what he wanted to do next.


    His body reached the teleportation circle and was about to go back. So, the original Theo also floated next to him since he would follow his body until the God of Mischief talked to him again.


    After all, he had a lot of things to do once he got back.


    But to his surprise, instead of being flown to the other side, the original Theo was transported to another ce.


    "Huh?" The original Theo widened his eyes. Instead of the Earth he remembered, he was teleported to a ce with a red sky. "Where is this?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He looked around, finding many new things in this world. He found a few living beings whose bodies had be translucent. In fact, they seemed to be in the same state as him.


    But he couldn''t find any intelligence in their eyes as if their brain didn''t function anymore.


    "What happens to these people? And where am I? This ce is kind of eerie." The original Theo couldn''t see much of his surroundings since the fog around him was too thick.


    He kept staring at these people and even did everything he could to gain their attention. Yet, they didn''t even bother to look at him as if he didn''t exist.


    Even though his talent had been suppressed, Theo was still a smart guy. He tried to think about his current situation.


    "Hmm�� I have a translucent body like these guys�� it feels like I''m a ghost or something�� But there are a lot of situations like this from what I know such as Astral Body and other things like that��" The original Theo looked down, falling into deep thought.


    Without him realizing it, there was a pair of red eyes appearing inside the mist. Suddenly, a giant red tongue came out and circled around Theo''s body.


    "Huh?" The original Theo widened his eyes in shock. "What is this? Why is this red thing tying me up? It''s warm��"


    The original Theo didn''t realize it was a tongue until he turned around and heard a voiceing from behind.


    "To think there is a soul that still has its own consciousness�� It seems that there is an anomaly from this soul."


    The original Theo looked at the pair of eyes, panic-stricken. Fear started to well up in his heart. He wanted to say something, but his tongue couldn''t move due to the fear.


    As the tongue pulled him closer, he could gradually see the one who had such red eyes in the mist.


    A snake? Theo asked a question in his mind, but that was the only thing he could think of. Judging from how the snake could see him alone was enough to tell him that this snake was extraordinary, considering all the monsters that he passed by when following his real body couldn''t see him at all.


    And the snake also said something about ''soul,'' which confused him.


    ''A soul? I am a soul? But��'' Theo wanted to reason with the snakes, telling him that he had juste out from his body for no reason and he couldn''t return to his real body. But the fear had scared him still.


    "It seems he is still capable of experiencing fear. I guess he still has all his reasons and functions like a consciousness��" The snake spoke again while dragging the original Theo into the mist.

 Chapter 2059 Pain

    ?


    The snake brought the original Theo to another ce. Though, there was no way he would be able to remain silent during the entire trip.


    "What are you doing? Release me. Who are you?!" The original Theo gritted his teeth, struggling with all his might. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he used his strength, the tongue didn''t budge. At the same time, the snake also didn''t use all its strength since the grip was tight but only enough to restrain him.


    The snake looked at Theo without any change of expression. It seemed that the snake didn''t have any intention of engaging in any conversation with him.


    "What are you? Where am I?" The original Theo kept asking, trying to find out about his situation. Unfortunately, the more he asked a question, the more indifferent the snake became.


    He wanted to start insulting the snake since it might be the only way to change that expression, but he knew that he would die if the snake truly wanted to kill him.


    In addition, the snake said he was a soul. So, he couldn''t help but think that he had died, especially after seeing all those lifeless souls moving in the same direction.


    For unknown reasons, his soul came out of his body and got taken over by someone else. He wanted to think this was the result of epting the God of Mischief''s offer, but it was public knowledge that the ones giving the blessing wouldn''t be able to do something like that.


    So, he was confused. He wanted to know about his situation, but the snake didn''t even bother answering a single question.


    After ten minutes of struggle, the snake finally let him go, putting him down.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. He immediately turned around since the snake wouldn''t put him down for no reason.


    It turned out they had reached another ce. This time, there was a bridge separating thisnd into a uniquend in front of him.


    The uniquend had a tower of light that shot to the sky as if they were connected. With his strength, he couldn''t see the details around it, so he could only focus on the bridge.


    He thought the snake would tell him another thing, but he suddenly noticed a ck-robed female. Half of her body looked like a human, but the other part was rotten like a zombie.


    He couldn''t help but freak out seeing such an appearance. Even though he didn''t scream, he still took a step back, feeling scared.


    As if knowing his anxiety, the female asked, "Who are you?"


    "Me?" Theo''s body shook. On the one hand, he felt weird that the female was talking to him. On the other hand, the snake was the one who brought him here. So, he looked at both the female and the snake first before deciding to answer out of fear. "I am�� Theodore Griffith. Who are you? Why am I here? Why did you bring me to this ce?"


    The female fell silent for a moment.


    "I see�� an anomaly within the soul." The female closed her eyes for a moment.


    The snake asked, "Do you think you can send him to the reincarnation cycle?"


    The original Theo turned around. He thought the snake was mute, but it seemed that it just didn''t want to talk to him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I have to check his condition first." The female started walking across the bridge while exining, "It seems that you are confused. So, I''ll give you a brief exnation of this ce.


    "I don''t know if you are aware of this name, but this ce is called Helheim."


    "Helheim? One of the realms in Norse Mythology?"


    "It seems that you are aware of this name. That makes it easier. Helheim is thest ce where we assign the soul to the afterlife. Judging from your soul, I can see that you die in battle. Hence, you are going to Valha�� Basically, you are going to enter the cycle of reincarnation.


    "However, before entering the cycle of reincarnation, the soul has to undergo a cleansing process. To put it simply, your memories have to be wiped out and your personality has to cease to exist."


    "!!!" Theo instantly understood what she was talking about. Even though he was scared, he still opened his mouth, asking with a shaking voice. "Are you saying that I have died? And I have to reincarnate�� But you say I''m an anomaly��"


    The woman was a bit amused by Theo''s reaction. She nodded with a calm expression. "Indeed. It seems that you have already connected everything in your head. That''s why��"


    Before the woman finished, Theo shouted, "Wait a minute. I haven''t died. It''s true that I was heavily injured after that attack, but I still saw my body moving."


    "��" The woman suddenly became silent. Theo didn''t seem to be lying in this situation. But she still couldn''t believe everything Theo said.


    The woman approached Theo with a serious expression. Meanwhile, the snake asked, "So, what should we do?"


    "I have the task to guide the soul to the cycle of reincarnation. This is the first time I''ve encountered such a situation. Either way, nothing will change. We still have to erase his personality and memory before guiding him to the cycle of reincarnation.


    "After all, letting someone reincarnate with their memory intact will cause a disturbance in the world''s order." The woman looked at Theo and said, "We are going to forcefully remove it."


    The woman didn''t have any emotion when giving the instruction, as if she was just following the protocol.


    The snake nodded and said, "Alright. I will help you. It will put a burden on his soul, though."


    "It''s not a problem. He won''t remember once he gets to the cycle of reincarnation." The woman replied without hesitation.


    "What are you nning to do?" Theo couldn''t help but feel chills down his spine. He took a step back, wanting to run away from this ce.


    But before he could do it, the snake''s tongue had circled around him, capturing him again.


    "!!!"

 Chapter 2060 Condition

    ?


    "What��" Theo wanted to struggle, but the woman suddenly appeared in front of him in a sh. He couldn''t say anything before her two hands arrived next to his head.


    The hands were excluding ck-colored energy. Once they seeped into his body through his ears, nose, and mouth, Theo suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs.


    "Aaaaahhhhhh!" A sharp pain started entering his body. It felt like he was being stabbed by numerous needles from the inside.


    Once the energy reached his brain, the sharp pain turned into a hot, burning pain as if he was being incinerated. Theo kept shouting.


    He wanted to pass out at this moment, but no matter how painful it was, his consciousness remained awake.


    Tears flowed out of the corner of his eyes and his eyes gradually turned nk.


    Theo couldn''t even think of anything at this point. It felt like his entire existence was being erased one by one. The memory of his parents, his reason for bing stronger�� More and more memories started to disappear from his head.


    And the pain he endured was beyond what anyone could imagine. It felt like he was being ripped apart continuously.


    The process took more than a week. As expected, removing sixteen years of memories manually was a hard task.


    Not only for the woman, but also for Theo. The pain continued and Theo gradually lost his reason due to the pain.


    He just wanted to die under his pain, but he couldn''t.


    He started begging the woman just to kill him to stop this pain. But he couldn''t let out his voice due to the unimaginable pain.


    In the end, the entire week passed with Theo being tortured alive. It was a long process and once it finished, Theo was left with an empty gaze.


    He looked like a broken toy, not able to reason anymore. He only wanted to die and end all this pain.


    Yet, the moment the torture ended, blue particles started to surround him as a new memory began to flood.


    This was the memory that the clone Theo experienced during the torture.


    Obviously, the snake and the woman witnessed the anomaly.


    "This is��" The woman looked shaken while the snake frowned, asking, "What is happening? Shouldn''t he have been released from memory? He has undergone such pain. All I want to do is end everything for him so he can reincarnate��"


    The woman shook her head. "I''m not sure right now. This anomaly doesn''t seem to be that simple. There is an influx of memorying into him along with some Magic Power. It feels like he is getting stronger as time goes�� But I don''t think that''s all there is to it��"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "What?" The snake frowned. On the one hand, he couldn''t believe what she said, considering it was too absurd. On the other hand, he knew that Theo was an anomaly that they had never encountered before.


    They had found a few souls with their memory and personality from time to time. But once they erased them, the soul could easily go into the cycle of reincarnation.


    But this was the first time they found a soul that received new memory and even Magic Power after the cleansing process. It was as if Theo was supposed to die but couldn''t.


    If this continued, Theo would just keep getting a new memory. Even if the woman kept erasing it, they couldn''t send him to the cycle of reincarnation due to the influx of memory.


    "Can you block the flow?" The snake asked.


    "No. It''s impossible." The woman shook her head. She also wanted to end Theo''s pain. Even though this was her job, she could still sympathize with Theo. But this was something beyond her control.


    The woman thought for a moment. "If he keeps getting the memory, it''s impossible to erase them continuously. It will be the same as having endless torture�� But at the same time, we can''t allow him to roam with the memory intact since it will cause chaos in Helheim.


    "As for his condition, after working with his memory, it seems that he has received a weird skill called ''Clone.'' This skill seems to be able to copy everything from body to soul.


    "To put it simply, the one who is controlling his body seems to be his own clone. And it seems that his body has started decaying, but because the clone''s body is still alive, it can''t perish."


    The snake seemed to be pitying Theo as he said, "Are you telling me that he can''t die yet? What happens if his clone dies?"


    "That''s��" The woman thought for a moment, trying to find the solution with her ability. "If the clone dies, then the clone''s soul will enter this ce as well. But with all the memory intact as well due to this anomaly.


    "When that happens, we only have three possibilities. The first possibility is that the clone is absorbing the real soul. This is the safest route�� which is basically waiting for the clone soul to die and merge with the real soul.


    "But because I have erased the real soul''s memory, there will be a gap that will cause friction when they merge. Hence, the solution is to erase his memory once again. With the real soul bing a nk te, the clone soul should be able to absorb the real soul.


    "With the soul bingplete, we can finally cleanse him once more and send him to the cycle of reincarnation."


    "��" The snake frowned. Just hearing the exnation allowed him to imagine the pain both of them would endure. The real soul seemed to be the winner in this case, considering the pain that the real soul would have to endure was gradual while the clone soul would endure the cleansing process for a longer time.


    But it seemed that Theo didn''t have the same opinion as the snake.


    When he heard his clone would devour him in the nk state, he couldn''t help but mutter inwardly, ''My own clone will devour me? Devour? Me?''

 Chapter 2061 Insane

    ?


    ''Devour who? Me?'' Anger started to swell in his heart. The nk gaze gradually regained its light. Even though the memory was wiped out, he could still see the new memory.


    Judging from the conversation and what he received, Theo could see what was happening to him.


    It didn''t take too long for him to show his anger. But before he could utter a single word, the woman had decided what to do with him.


    "We will have him stay in that ce and I will erase his memory every year. This is the least painful option I can give to him." The woman let out a long sigh.


    "What will happen if he escapes?"


    "It''s impossible to escape from this ce. The blizzard outside will freeze anything, whether it''s a living being or a dead soul. Unless he can get the underworld me from this ce, which is guarded by us, it''s impossible."


    The snake nodded his head, agreeing to the woman''s decision. He immediately grabbed Theo again with his tongue and started carrying him to another ce.


    They never expected that this was the biggest mistake they would evermit in their life.


    Theo was thrown away into the in field. The soil was red as if it had been painted by blood. There were numerous skulls scattered. And the mist still trapped him inside.


    Judging from the time it took them to arrive at this ce, Theo could roughly calcte the distance between this ce and the bridge.


    However, Theo couldn''t really act up at this point. There was a chance that they would destroy his soul entirely, so he could only appear to be lifeless.


    The snake put him down on the ground. Even though he had seen a lot of dead souls, he still empathized with the anomalous soul.


    Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. After dropping him to this ce, the snake returned to the bridge.


    Theo gritted his teeth as he kept getting new memories about his clone''s life. When he saw Theo making a mistake, he couldn''t help but berate him, saying, ''Why did you do something so foolish? You are the God of Trickster''s emissary? Idiot.''


    Although the memory had been wiped, his personality and talent remained. In addition, he could see the memory without experiencing it himself. That was why he could berate him all he liked.


    After all, he wouldn''t be able to think about such a thing if he experienced it personally. The condition of his body, the toll on his mind, and many other factors would affect his judgment. That was why the original Theo thought Theo was so foolish.


    However, there was also another problem he had to face in Helheim. There were numerous dead souls in this ce.


    Those who died in battle might be able to go to Valha, but those who died in another way, especially the ones who had done a lot of bad things in their lives, would be tortured in this ce.


    Of course, it wasn''t that dangerous for him. But all those screams and anguish started to get into his head.


    The burning flesh''s smell made him want to vomit. After experiencing the pain of having his memory wiped, he could somehow imagine their pain as if he had experienced the same torture.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Without having anyone to talk to, Theo began to hallucinate.


    There were numerous things happening in his life, starting from the sudden appearance of the woman because he feared her to the sudden ambush from those souls.


    It wasn''t real, but Theo''s state of mind kept the hallucination going, gradually making him insane.


    But that wasn''t all. He also kept receiving the Magic Power from his real body. And the memory made him lonely. He also longed for such an achievement, especially since that opportunity was originally his.


    He didn''t expect that his clone would take over his body.


    Unfortunately for him, he could do nothing other than watch them. If they found out about his current state, the woman might return to this ce and capture him.


    His mind was tortured by the hallucination. His body kept moving away to hide from all the hallucinations, keeping him fatigued.


    When he couldn''t go any lower, the happy memory Theo had with his friends burned him in jealousy.


    There was Alea, who seemed to be fond of him. After enduring all the loneliness, Alea''spany was the best thing he would ever have. That was why without hesitation, Theo would choose Alea.


    Yet, the clone Theo didn''t even n to choose her. The hatred, jealousy, and envy ended up guing him.


    It didn''t stop there. He saw Theo''s great achievement in the Grand Tournament. Theo had been able to outsmart the clone Theo due to him watching all the memories instead of experiencing them himself.


    That was why Theo thought he would be able to achieve higher as long as he was the one possessing his body. The frustration added another torture in his mind.


    There was also the matter with his step brother as well as parents. Since his memories had been wiped out, he didn''t know what happened to him in the past.


    That was why he couldn''t help but miss his step brother and his parents even though he first didn''t recognize them. Once again, Theo threw them again.


    He didn''t know how much he called the clone Theo ''idiot.'' But it surely reached a point where he believed that Theo was aplete idiot.


    It then reached the point where he found Agata. Just like Alea, Agata''spanion was one of the best memories that kept him going in this treacherous ce.


    The clone Theo finally epted her, but Theo became even more frustrated. All the achievements, Agata, Alea, and all the families should have been there. They were supposed to be with him.


    But he could only see it through the influx of memory while listening to the people''s anguish during their torture.


    Theo didn''t realize it, but he had be insane.

 Chapter 2062 Knew Nothing

    ?


    "What should we do?" The snake asked. After a year, they had returned to check on Theo to wipe his memory. But after wandering around, Theo was never seen again as if he had evaporated into thin air.


    On the one hand, the ce made it look possible. On the other hand, Theo should have no involvement with them.


    After all, Theo was only kept in that ce, not ''tortured'' directly.


    They thought Theo jumped into one of the ces and got himself reduced to nothing.


    "Well, this is also convenient for us." The woman sighed. "You should remember our rule, right? Our priority is to guide the soul to the afterlife. So, we won''t do anything to destroy them even though that might be the best option.


    "But since the soul is the one destroying itself, we can''t do much about it. If the clone soul arrives at this ce, his memory should go missing since the first anomaly has disappeared."


    The snake looked down, falling into deep thought. "Still, I am going to search for him a bit more."


    The woman didn''t stop him. So, the snake returned to the forsaken ce where they tortured bad souls.


    Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried to find Theo, he didn''t see any trace.


    In the end, they concluded that Theo had thoroughly disappeared.


    They didn''t realize that Theo was being tortured in a different way. It was indirect, but the torture was perfect for the current state of Theo.


    The memory kept umting in his mind. Theo had also be stronger and stronger over the years.


    The two guardians in this ce thought Theo wouldn''t be able to get stronger that fast. But they didn''t expect that Theo was the most talented man in the world. He grew by leaps and bounds.


    Eventually, the rage and anguish in his heart had been filled to the brim to the point he couldn''t feel them anymore. It was as if he had fused with them.


    The current Theo had be the embodiment of them. Still, it didn''t change the fact that the Magic Power and the memory had kept him going this whole time.


    He wanted to get everything that Theo had achieved in his life, believing he could rise to a higher peakpared to his clone.


    And eventually, that desire turned into an obsession.


    He wanted the life of his clone, the rtionship, and everything he had.


    He kept swallowing the memory and Magic Power to strengthen himself, and eventually, his obsession came to life.


    Without him realizing it, he was granted the Devouring Order due to his obsession.


    After going insane, Theo had be calmer and calmer as this forsaken ce had be his backyard. The screams and anguish the people experienced in this ce were like a song ringing in his ears.


    He didn''t know how many times he imagined the clone Theo was tortured in this ce after taking over his body.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The desire to kill Theo and devour everything he had became stronger as time passed.


    And his first change came when Theo knew the existence of his grandfather, the Magic Saint, not the War Saint.


    At this point, he considered all Theo''s enemies as his allies. As long as he could turn them into his allies and absorb the clone Theo, he could get everyone to be his allies. This was the situation he could imagine.


    And his second change came the moment clone Theo reached this ce, dering that he was the ''Theodore Griffith.''


    He couldn''t ept it, considering he was still alive here. Unfortunately, if he went back to that ce and captured Theo to get everything back, he would be stopped by both the snake and the mysterious woman.


    In the end, he could only watch it again without doing anything.


    Last but not least, he underwent a third change. Clone Theo killed the Death Saint.


    That was right. It was like an opportunity. As the ruler of Death, the Death Saint easily became an anomaly herself.


    She refused to die just like that and ended up fleeing.


    In the end, the two met with each other. And this was the meeting thatpletely changed Theo''s life from being helpless to bing a hunter.


    The Death Saint helped him reincarnate his body even if it meant Theo could die. The Death Saint knew that Theo was so talented that it was impossible to kill him by using someone else.


    The only person who could kill him was himself. That was why he resurrected the real Theo even if it meant exhausting her life.


    Remembering all those tortures he endured in Helheim made the original Theo grit his teeth. This was thest thing he wanted to remember.


    His anger soared once again as he red at Theo, who did everything ''wrong.''


    Yet, Theo managed to corner him like this. There was no way he could ept it. In addition, there was the statement that triggered him the most.


    ''Talk to me?'' The original Theo gnashed his teeth. If all those tortures could be forgotten with just a talk, he wouldn''t be here. If he didn''t need to endure all those pains as long as they could just discuss it, he wouldn''t be insane. If only he could live as Theodore Griffith, he would achieve a greater height.


    The more he thought about it, the more anger swelled in his heart. The anger incited the devouring energy in his body.


    The dark-colored energy started leaking out of his body. The original Theo''s expression darkened.


    Theo couldn''t help but jump back when he saw this change. Even though the original Theo had been cornered, he hadn''t lost yet. That was why he had to be careful.


    Suddenly, the ck energy erupted. A massive amount of Magic Power came out, giving birth to a pressure that crushed the ground around him.


    The original Theo shouted while leaping forth as if he wanted to reach Theo. He roared, letting out all his anger. "You don''t know a single thing about me. Just get devoured, and you will know!"

 Chapter 2063 Flaw

    ?


    "!!!" Theo slightly furrowed his eyebrows. He felt something strange from this power and immediately jumped back, avoiding it instead of taking it head-on.


    Even though the original Theo had been cornered, he was still a powerful fighter. There might be a stronger trump card he was hiding this whole time.


    The devouring power seemed to have gotten fiercer as well. They began to take over his body.


    ''The devouring power�� Don''t tell me��'' Theo thought of something unbelievable. He believed that the devouring power was a double-edged sword.


    In exchange for the ability to devour everything, the devouring power also had the ability to swallow its own host.


    This was a huge matter. On the one hand, the fact that it had such a setback might be rted to the nature of the power itself. On the other hand, Theo couldn''t dismiss the fact that the Order and the Authority were not that absolute.


    If his theory was correct, his own Reality Power might be a double-edged sword. But he didn''t know when and where it would harm him.


    Seeing this kind of change made him consider numerous possibilities and it couldn''t help but remind him of what the world once said.


    "I loved all beings living on me."


    The world made it look like he only loved them in the past and he couldn''t love them anymore due to some circumstances.


    When he thought about it, there might be something that made the world stop loving the beings in this world. And as a reaction, the world provided a w in its own power.


    However, there was one thing that made him concerned. When did the world stop loving them?


    Unfortunately, the original Theo didn''t let him think. Once he got a bit distracted, he reached his position and struck him with the devouring power.


    Unlike the previous way of using the Devouring Power, this time, the original Theo''s power was overbearing and uncontroble as if it was a raging tornado.


    Theo stopped it at thest second, but the sucking force made him stuck. Ultimately, Theo had to let go of his weapon and jump away.


    The original Theo chased after him, but Theo used his Telekinesis to use all the objects around him to stop the original Theo for a few seconds. At least, it should be enough for him to sort his thoughts.


    ''If that''s true, then there might be a w in everyone''s ability��'' Theo thought as he assessed everyone who got their power recently, including him.


    "Die!" The original Theo roared and appeared on top of him.


    Theo clicked his tongue and used his Reverse World to change the character of the devouring energy.


    But the original Theo used that force to punch Theo. All the Magic Power gushing out of the power boosted his strength a few folds,unching Theo away.


    It might be due to that punch, but Theo could see something with his Reality Eyes.


    "This is��" Theo gasped. His Reality Eyes allowed him to see numerous realities that currently went on like him. Some of them had a simr timeline. Some of them had a different time, but the battle was happening.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But there was one new thing he found among those realities. One of the realities suddenly disappeared. He didn''t die in that reality, but somehow he simply lost his connection to that reality.


    "What?"


    Theo wanted to think about the reason for its disappearance, but the original Theo had been chasing after him, preventing him from analyzing his finding.


    ''How did that reality disappear? There are only two possible reasons that I lose a connection to a certain reality. First, I die in that world. Second, the reality copses.


    ''I didn''t die there, and there was no way a reality would copse for no reason. The me over there should be able to figure it out.''


    Theo looked at the original Theo and gasped in disbelief.


    The original Theo was smiling. He stopped chasing after him for some time as if he had gained something.


    His expression was filled with bliss and his Magic Power became even more unstable.


    But what shocked Theo the most was the words spoken by that mouth.


    "Ah�� So, this is what it means to devour my clone�� It seems that there is not only one of you�� It''s no wonder that you suddenly be smarter than me��"


    In that instant, Theo knew that the original Theo was the cause of what happened to that reality. It turned out the original Theo used his power to devour one of the realities. It was impossible since it wasn''t connected, but there was something he couldn''t help but notice.


    ''He can absorb another reality? But how? Our two realities are not connected. Even with the Reality Eyes, I can only��'' Theo suddenly fell silent.


    There was one thing that could connect the two realities. It was their Authority. When the Space Saint and a few other Saints joined hands, they managed to create a portal to another world.


    So, there was a way for the original Theo to devour it.


    However, Theo did forget one thing. He hadn''t heard about it for some time, but it certainly created Order and Authority.


    "Primordial Energy," Theo muttered the answer inwardly. That was right. The way to connect two realities was Primordial Energy. He had learned something about this power from the previous God of Reality.


    Still, the previous God of Reality would have mentioned it if such a thing could be affected. After all, the fact that a Space Authority could distort Primordial Energy to open the tunnel by himself would be a big matter.


    That was why he must not know about it. In other words, this was a w that was created recently.


    In other words, this was the w of his Reality Authority, just like the w of Devouring Authority that could swallow its own host.


    "No way��" Theo gasped. If there was someone who could do it, it would be the slime with its unique power. And this should be the exact reason why the world said it didn''t love all living beings anymore.


    "Don''t tell me�� Through the Primordial Energy, the Slime dissolves the world''s love?"

 Chapter 2064 Mastermind

    ?


    "Don''t tell me�� Through the Primordial Energy, the slime dissolves the world''s love?"


    Theo widened his eyes in shock. How could he not be in shock? He had just figured out the reason why the world stopped loving everything on it.


    And due to thatck of ''love,'' the world had be wed, resulting in the abilities given to others bing wed as well.


    "Die, you bastard!" The original Theo screamed while jumping at him.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue and leaped to the side, avoiding him. He started running away as if he was scared of his change. But all he wanted was a bit of time to sort his thoughts.


    Unfortunately, the more he avoided the original Theo, the more thetter tried to kill him. It seemed that his obsession was the only thing that kept him going.


    Theo never expected that the w of his power was this extreme. Before, he had just fought the original Theo, who had refined control over his power. Yet, the next second, he suddenly became berserk like this.


    He wanted to think that this was just an irregrity, but he couldn''t shake the thought that the w was in him as well.


    He didn''t know how the Primordial Energy was connected to the w of his Reality Power, but he refrained himself from using it for a bit. He was scared that the w would appear so suddenly.


    If that happened, this war might end in their defeat. That was why Theo wanted to consider all kinds of conditions first.


    "You are annoying," Theo shouted in anger while using his Telekinesis. He tried to stop the original Theo''s movement for a bit.


    Due to the loss of his rationality, the original Theo should move only by his desire, so there was no way he could break free from the Telekinesis so easily.


    But it seemed that the devouring energy was far stronger than he expected. It devoured the energy used to power up the Telekinesis.


    Theo gritted his teeth, starting to get frustrated.


    "It seems that I have to kill him first even if I have to use my power under this uncertainty." Theo took a deep breath. He wanted to find the w of his Authority at first, but it seemed that he had to change his n and take this risk.


    Just when he was about to kill the original Theo, slime suddenly burst out from the ground.


    "Wha��!" Theo widened his eyes in shock. The slime created a pir thatpletely engulfed the original Theo.


    Due to its translucent color, Theo could see the original Theo being trapped inside. But in that instant, his berserk stopped as if the slime had dissolved his anger.


    However, Theo could see that the original Theo''s body had begun to disappear.


    "No, wait!" Theo shouted while waving his sword, using his illusion to cut both the slimes and the original Theo in a single sh. He couldn''t allow the slime to melt the original Theo. After all, he was the source of EXP that would allow him to reach level 1,000.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The sh surprisingly cut both the slimes and the original Theo into two, but to his surprise, he couldn''t apply his power.


    After all, he truly had indeed cut the slime. But the slime melted the part where Theo was about to cut the original Theo, causing him to split before Theo''s attack reached them.


    As a result, Theo couldn''t get anything. And the original Theo melted inside the slime.


    He never expected that the original Theo, who he thought to be someone important in this battle, would die as if he was just an ant being crushed.


    This made Theo realize that just like the original Theo, he might just be someone''s pawn that could be easily killed.


    ''What? What is this? The slime wouldn''t have acted without any apparent reason. In fact, if he could do something like this, he would have made an attempt to devour the Magic Saint.


    ''In other words, the slime has changed its n in this battle. There might be a mastermind behind the slime�� And that mastermind knows that I can go beyond Mythical Rank and try to prevent me�� And I think I know who that person is��''


    For the first time after getting his Reality Authority, Theo finally doubted something in his heart. He always believed that there was someone in the upper dimension controlling everything.


    But when he realized that there might not be someone in the upper dimension and it was just a lie to shift his focus on something else, he couldn''t help but realize this entire war might be caused by one person.


    And there was only one person who had the ability to create this grand scheme.


    The moment he looked in the slime''s direction, finding all three people who had once been trapped in the World Re-Creation ability return as well as the Time God who had arrived on the battlefield, everything was answered.


    He saw the one thing that would shake the world.


    The God of Mischief, Loki, stood in front of the Heavenly Sovereign as well as the Time God. The Heavenly Sovereign''s expression was inplete shock as if he couldn''t process what was happening.


    Meanwhile, the Time God had a pained expression as he was holding his severed arm.


    That was right. Loki''s hand pierced through the Heavenly Sovereign''s heart and crushed the Time God''s arm.


    Theo couldn''t help but remember the first ever message that Jormugand gave him. It was said that the message came from the God of Mischief. But now that he had seen it, he couldn''t help but understand the message.


    "Have you ever thought of these questions�� Will a man be called ruthless if he killed fifty people to save a million lives? Will a man be called a bad guy when he joins the enemy side to protect the people on his side? A tricky question, but the answer wille to you sooner orter. And you shall understand the weight of these two questions in the future."


    It might be the first message. It might be the beginning of his lesson. But that message might be his own end.


    "Loki��"

 Chapter 2065 Testing The Slimes Strength

    ?


    A moment ago.


    The God of Mischief and the Heavenly Sovereign were facing the slime inside the illusion Loki had created.


    Even though the God of Mischief''s rank was beyond Mythical Rank, the slime didn''t seem to be losing in strength and Magic Power.


    Feng Hao nced at the God of Mischief and said, "It seems that this slime is stronger than we expected."


    "It doesn''t change anything," said Loki with a serious expression.


    Unlike the others in this era, Loki only had eight skills registered in the system. Even then, it didn''t change the fact that he was the current strongest person in the world.


    Loki observed the slime carefully. He had passed down the Reality Eyes to Theo, its rightful owner, so he couldn''t see the registered information in the system.


    However, he could still assess the slime''s strength even without it. After all, he had gone toe to toe against all those strong people in his era.


    In the mythology, he didn''t seem to have any real achievement inbat. In fact, some sources even believed he was weak.


    But that wasn''t the case. Even if he didn''t have any brilliant achievements like the God of Thunder. It didn''t mean that he was weak.


    Loki simply exerted his strength in a different way, allowing him to defeat his opponent without them realizing it. That was why he coulde up with a lot of ways to gain something from a deal or bet.


    In fact, Theo might not realize it, but he had done a lot of things to help him. In the war against the sea race, he had killed the mastermind of the sea race, allowing them to stop another war that woulde soon.


    Because of that brain of his, he was lonely and got bored easily. This was the reason why he always yed around.


    However, today was different. There was a clear enemy in front of him. Loki, who had been restraining himself this whole time, could finally start using all his power and wits.


    Upon such a strong opponent, Loki couldn''t help but smile.


    "Let''s test your strength, shall we?" Loki smirked and raised his right hand.


    Suddenly, a huge sword appeared above him. With a single wave of his hand, the sword moved downward.


    The slime felt something different from this sword. At first nce, the sword might be an illusion. But there was something mixed into this sword.


    To check Loki''s strength, the slime shot out a tentacle to the sky, trying to grab the sword.


    But to his surprise, his slime couldn''t touch it.


    "!!!" The slime was startled. Even though he couldn''t touch it, he should be able to dissolve the Magic Power that formed it.


    Yet, despite being able to sense the Magic Power, the slime couldn''t dissolve it.


    And this sword started to fall on his body.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once again, Loki surprised him. The sword that fell on top of his body could actually sh his slime body.


    "!!!" The slime never expected there was a power that could sh his body like this. Luckily, the sword wasn''t big enough to split him in half or he would be in trouble.


    There was still a portion of his body that got connected to each other, so by using that connection, he could easily restore his body. But before that, he had to dissolve this sword.


    The slime body burst, releasing a huge amount of slime that tried to cover the sword. But the sword actually repelled the slime.


    "You won''t be able to do anything. In this realm, I am absolute." Loki looked down on the slime as if he treated the slime like that of an ant.


    The slime wobbled its body around. Suddenly, numerous tentacles came out of its body, surrounding Loki. Even if Loki could use this weird power, the slime still had the advantage of body size and raw power.


    The slime''s power was able to dissolve one''s strength. So, it wouldn''t be weird if the slime could actually absorb a monster''s Magic Power. And due to the apocalypse, the slime might have killed a lot of humans and stolen a portion of their status points.


    That was why the slime could fight against multiple enemies of the same level easily. His strength was beyond what this current era could offer.


    With that strength backing him up, the slime chose to fight Loki head-on, believing that his strength was beyond him.


    Unfortunately for the slime, Loki wasn''t someone from this era. His Status Points were far above anyone in this world.


    When he saw the tentaclesing toward him, Loki only waved his other hand. Loki summoned as many swords as the tentacles and sent them to hit the tentacle.


    If the slime couldn''t dissolve this power, he only had to create a situation where Loki couldn''t use the same ability.


    For the first step, the slime was trying to use the number to see the limit to Loki''s strength.


    Unfortunately, he managed to match the number. And once the sword hit the tentacle, it generated power that sted the tentacle, causing the slime to stter on the ground.


    The slime didn''t stop there. It immediately sent a burst of slime from the ground, trying to catch him off guard.


    But right before the slime devoured Loki, a barrier appeared beneath his feet, blocking the slime.


    "!!!" The slime noticed something different from this barrier. Unlike Loki''s power, he could dissolve the Magic Power from this barrier.


    At first, he thought the barrier was Loki''s limit, but he almost forgot that there was one more person he fought in this ce. He was none other than the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The Heavenly Sovereign had been erasing his presence this whole time. And it seemed that he was preparing for an all-out attack this whole time.


    The moment the barrier disappeared, a huge translucent dome appeared out of nowhere, isting the slime. This dome was thick enough that the slime wouldn''t be able to melt it within a few seconds.


    Loki couldn''t help but smile, saying, "Good job."

 Chapter 2066 Finding Several Flaws

    ?


    "Good job." Loki smirked while raising his hand.


    "!!!" The slime was startled when he saw the barrier gradually approaching him as if it was alive.


    He didn''t sense any power that moved the barrier, but it was because the Heavenly Sovereign''s job was only to create a container.


    Once it waspleted, Loki used his World Re-Creation and expanded the reality from all around the slime. Because the expansion came from all directions to the inside, it looked like the barrier was beingpressed.


    And it seemed that Loki nned topress the slime to the limit to reduce its size.


    The slime hurriedly expanded his slime, trying to dissolve the barrier as soon as possible. He also wanted to spread some slime on the ground so that he couldn''t capture himpletely.


    But Loki had already seen through his n. Before he could spread the slime, Loki used the World Re-Creation to alter thews of physics in the area. What he removed was the gravity, causing the slime to float with a single push.


    Using that change to his opportunity, the Heavenly Sovereign used the wind element to throw him into the air.


    The slime was angry. He never thought that the Heavenly Sovereign would be this annoying when he just forgot about him for a moment. He expanded his body continuously and began to dissolve the barrier.


    But to his surprise, the slime had a hard time dissolving the barrier.


    "!!!" The slime''s body wobbled a few times as if it was showing its surprise.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked and said, "As expected, to dissolve something, you need a certain degree of knowledge about that power. However, my barrier is made of all elements that keep changing every second. Before you canprehend it, the elements have changed, resulting in you restarting the progress all over again."


    The slime didn''t expect that the Heavenly Sovereign would be this annoying. If he knew about him, he would have killed him first before taking on Loki.


    But it was toote. His body had been almost separated into two by Loki''s sword and he couldn''t dissolve this barrier.


    In the end, his entire body was lifted into the air, contained inside a spherical barrier. The slime was gradually dissolving the barrier, but it would take some time to be able to escape from this.


    During that time, Loki used the World Re-Creation topress the slime.


    On the one hand, this action forced the slime''s body topletely cover Loki''s sword. On the other hand, if this continued, there might be some damage to his body since he was neverpressed to this degree.


    The slime tried to find a solution, but because his body didn''t touch the ground, he couldn''t sneak attack those two. So, his only way to escape was to rapidly expand himself, countering thepression power.


    Unfortunately for him, the World Re-Creation caused the change in the realm itself, not touching the slime. That was why no matter what the slime did, it wouldn''t be able to stop the World Re-Creation. The slime could only dissolve the barrier and escape from that ce.


    *Wobble!*


    The slime released a huge amount of Magic Power, increasing the speed of dissolving the barrier.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Heavenly Sovereign narrowed his eyes. It seemed that the slime concentrated its power in one ce. He said, "It''s not good. I can only contain it for another�� eight seconds."


    "It''s enough," Loki said while pping his hands. It seemed that Loki also did the same thing as the slime. He released the 5,000 points of Magic Power from his body, influencing the strength of the World Re-Creation.


    Hepressed the slime faster, but as a result, the friction also helped the slime break the barrier apart.


    When the barrier was thin enough, the barrier started to crack.


    "!!!" This was the chance. The slime immediately slipped inside the crack and expanded itself, causing the crack to shatter.


    With this, there was nothing that contained the slime anymore.


    He started dissolving the Magic Power around him, weakening the World Re-Creation. At the same time, the slime flowed out of the barrier, albeit it couldn''t fall to the ground due to the change ofw of physics.


    "��" The slime was confused because no matter what it did, it still floated for no reason.


    Seeing that the slime wasn''t aware of its situation, the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but say, "It seems that the slime can only absorb one''s power, not their knowledge. Or it might be thinking that the knowledge is useless. Nheless, this is convenient for us, right?"


    "Of course." Loki nodded with a serious expression, observing the slime. Since the slime continued to float, he had a few more abilities to try.


    He summoned the giant sword from earlier as if he was nning to mutte the slime in the air.


    The slime didn''t realize that the reason why he couldn''t do anything to this sword was because the illusion was only in his head. It wasn''t in the real world.


    Loki used the Mind Image Skill to nt an image of a sword in the slime''s consciousness. Unless the slime dissolved the Magic Power in his own consciousness, he wouldn''t be able to escape from this ability.


    But due to the amount of Magic Power the slime had, the sliver of Magic Power used to nt that image would never be discovered.


    That was why this was the best attack against the slime. It might not give any harm to its body, but it could buy him some time after all.


    During that time, Loki could use other techniques to harm the slime such as the World Re-Creation. Due to the previouspression, the slime''s body seemed to be more solid and its size had shrunk a tenth.


    Even though the slime was in a liquid state, it seemed that there were some solid and gas parts, which becamepressed, giving an illusion to the slime that the power was effective.


    They were lucky that the slime didn''t have extensive knowledge of science.


    ''Well, its power is simr to that of a Singrity, but I can''t really say he has reached that stage. In that case, there should be some ways to defeat the slime��'' Loki thought while waving his hands. ''I have a lot of things to try after all. I hope you stay interesting for a bit longer, slime bastard.''

 Chapter 2067 Pressuring The Slime

    ?


    The slime sent numerous tentacles. Instead of sending them to the God of Mischief, all those tentacles headed straight to the ground.


    Loki raised his hand and formed a huge de, trying to cut all these tentacles in one swing.


    But as expected, the slime poured more power into the ones near Loki, making it thick enough to stop Loki''s attack.


    Still, Loki managed to cut down half of the tentacles easily with his power. Unfortunately, the other half managed to reach the ground.


    The slime immediately did two things. First, the tentacles pulled the slime back to the ground.


    Even though there was no gravity in the area, the slime could still return to the ground by attaching itself to the ground.


    That led to the second thing. Some of the tentacles didn''t attach themselves to the ground. Instead, they started pouring more slime into the ground to reinforce it in case Loki used its weird power again.


    The slime knew that Loki wouldn''t be able to keep this ability up for a long time. The World Re-Creation could reconstruct a world and create a realm for only them, but the Magic Power used to maintain such a realm was extraordinary.


    Loki also didn''t have any intention of using this ability for a long time. It was true that this ability allowed him to gain a massive advantage against the slime, but the slime would soon realize his trick sooner orter. So, it was better to just use it to probe the slime before saving it for the important moment.


    Once the slime attached itself to the ground, Loki looked at the slime with a calm expression as if he didn''t care what the slime did.


    It seemed that their battle had just begun.


    Although the slime looked like he was focusing on Loki, his slime was still tracking the Heavenly Sovereign, trying to prevent him from using another trick.


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign obviously sensed the moving slime underneath the ground. He looked down before jumping back into the sky, making him easily visible.


    He turned to Loki and said, "It seems that the slime is more cautious this time. What should we do?"


    "There is nothing much. This realm will be destroyed in six minutes. So, I''m going to probe its strength for a bit. I am amazed that there is such a creature born in this world." Loki narrowed his eyes, wondering how this slime came into this world.


    On the one hand, he wanted to believe that this was one of the cmities that came from humanity''s biggest mistakes. On the other hand, he still couldn''t connect all the points that led to the creation of this slime.


    "Dissolve, huh." Loki narrowed his eyes.


    "Have you figured out something?" The Heavenly Sovereign asked.


    "I''m not sure for now. Besides, we should do our best while this realm is intact." Loki shook his head helplessly. He moved forward while waving both hands.


    Two huge swords appeared next to him. It seemed that Loki knew that one sword wasn''t enough if he wanted to kill the slime, so he used his extra Magic Power to form the second sword.


    The slime had experienced those swords, so he didn''t n to take these swords head-on anymore.


    When Loki swung the first sword, the slime immediately shifted its body. The slime might have a slow movement, but it could easily change the form of its body to circle around the sword, making it miss. This way, he wouldn''t be touched by the sword or affected by Loki''s power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was a miraculous power that he couldn''t evenprehend, so it wasn''t good to take it head-on.


    The slime also avoided the second sword. Then, he formed multiple tentacles to attack Loki before he could recover the two swords.


    Loki looked at these tentacles for a moment before waving his hand. Suddenly, multiple tentacles appeared out of thin air. Instead of red slime, these tentacles were made of blue slime.


    The tentacles faced each other. Surprisingly, when the red slime used its power to dissolve the blue tentacles, thetter were doing the same thing. It felt like his red slime was being erased to nothing.


    It made the slime wonder if it was safe to approach him or not.


    Loki finally used another skill called Illusion Reflection. He managed to recreate the tentacles and even their characteristics.


    The red slime had no choice but to pull back to understand Loki''s power better. He never expected there would be someone like Loki on humanity''s side. Still, it didn''t mean Loki was better.


    It was true that Loki didn''t have overwhelming battle power after all. Also, Loki might be in an advantageous position, but he couldn''t kill the slime that easily. That was why this fight might take longer than expected.


    The slime knew about that fact as well, thus the reason why he was still confident even though Loki had been winning the battle the whole time.


    The Heavenly Sovereign nced at Loki for a moment as if he was trying to say something.


    Before he finished, he had pped his hands.


    It seemed that the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''ty low anymore.


    Even though the slime''s power was effective against him, he was still the current number two in the world.


    He couldn''t ept that defeat easily.


    Without hesitation, he jumped forth.


    A huge fireball appeared on top of the Heavenly Sovereign from the p earlier. The fireball suddenly took the shape of a giant humanoid, trying to evaporate the slime.


    The slime sent a few tentacles to grasp its limbs while the otherspletely dissolved its source of power.


    But right after he captured the humanoid giant, Loki snapped his fingers. Two big swords appeared in front of the giant''s hands.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled as he controlled the giant to grab the two swords and cut the slimes that captured it.


    Then, it continued on its path while carrying these two swords. It seemed that Loki was nning to use this giant as his unique sword wielder to cut down the slime.

 Chapter 2068 Getting Cornered?

    ?


    Surprisingly, the sword didn''t have the repelling effect like it did to its slime. This showed the true nature of Loki''s power.


    The giant humanoid ran straight toward the slime. Thetter had sent numerous tentacles to stop the giant, but the giant managed to sh one tentacle after another, swiftly making its way toward the slime.


    Eventually, the slime sneaked in some fluid underneath the giant me and let it erupt simultaneously.


    The slime instantly covered the giant me, dissolving its me.


    But as expected, the slime still couldn''t touch the swords.


    The giant body used the swords to push away all the slime that covered its body, but the slime sucked some energy, causing the giant''s size to shrink to two-thirds of the original.


    The two swords became a bit too big for the giant humanoid to handle, but it didn''t give up. The giant tossed one of the swords and used two hands to wield the other. This was the only way for it to continue.


    The slime wobbled once as if it panicked for failing to stop the giant. It hurriedly used another burst, trying topletely engulf the giant.


    But after seeing it, the Heavenly Sovereign could easily find the spot and immediately control the giant to move away, avoiding all the iing bursts like that of a real expert.


    This giant made of fire truly looked like a human. And the slime had to face a human of his own size. This was the first.


    It immediately changed its body form again and started extending to the sides as if it was going to split into two.


    The giant and its controller, the Heavenly Sovereign, were confused. They didn''t know what the slime was trying to do. At the same time, they had to deliver a killing blow if they wanted to defeat it. But if they didn''t know where they could strike for it to be a killing blow, there was no chance they could attack it.


    The giant looked around, trying to sense the body''s parts that seemed to be the real body.


    Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the slime actually didn''t try to split its body. It was just trying to create a thick wall that stretched over a quarter mile. And this wall actually curved, about topletely surround the giant.


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign frowned and immediately stopped supplying Magic Power to the giant, causing it to disappear for no reason.


    The Heavenly Sovereign clicked his tongue. He wanted to sh with the slime, but the situation didn''t allow him to be reckless.


    So, he could only swallow his pride and focus on getting more information from the enemy.


    Surprisingly, the slime wall gradually surrounded both Loki and the Heavenly Sovereign. If this continued, the slime might do something ridiculous and kill them inside.


    Loki looked around and said, "I think after this, we will have tounch ourst attack. Make sure it counts."


    The Heavenly Sovereign was concerned about the wall, but it seemed that Loki was looking at what came after blocking this attack.


    Since Loki was so confident, there was no need for him to be afraid. But there was one thing that he had to ask Loki. "So, have you understood the slime?"


    "Kind of. I don''t have time to exin it, but you can say that this slime is bad news. I can understand the entire situation just by observing this slime." The God of Mischief let out a long sigh.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Haha, the slime is so like you. You have destroyed your world once, and this slime is nning to do the same."


    Loki shook his head. "No, the slime is different."


    "Huh? What do you mean?"


    Unfortunately, his question couldn''t be answered as Loki had pointed forward. When Feng Hao followed his line of sight, he found that the gate had beenpletely closed.


    In that instant, the Magic Power could begin to circte all around the wall and shoot out a translucent barrier that isted both of them from the outside.


    The Heavenly Sovereign clicked his tongue. After looking at the amount of Magic Power, he realized that he had to go all out if he wanted to break through from this ce.


    His body started emitting Magic Power while Loki remained calm as if the wall couldn''t even injure him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised his right hand while pointing the other way around with his left hand.


    Two trigrams appeared, one on the ground and the other in the sky. The trigrams were emitting golden light that soon became connected to each other, creating a cylinder.


    After that, Feng Hao rotated the cylinder so that it could roll on the ground.


    With a push, the cylinder started to roll toward the wall. There was nothing inside the cylinder, making the slime confused. He thought that the Heavenly Sovereign was trying to bluff his way out.


    So, it allowed the cylinder to get close to the wall.


    Unfortunately, it was a mistake. Once the cylinder reached the wall, the cylinder suddenly opened up.


    The translucent light that connected the barrier suddenly became hardened, turning the cylinder into a scroll that had just been opened.


    In that instant, a few inscriptions started to appear as the translucent barrier turned into hard bamboo.


    The words came out of the scroll and shone, confusing the slime. This was the first time he saw an ability like this.


    On the one hand, it didn''t look dangerous and the time it took to activate the skill was longer than most abilities. On the other hand, this attack came from the Heavenly Sovereign.


    So, even though he was curious about this ability, he had to crush it. Without hesitation, the walls spurt out slime and turn it into spikes, trying to stab the words to dissolve the power.


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but smile. The moment the spikes were about to reach the words, the words let out a light that became connected to each other. And to the slime''s surprise, there were a total of eight words that made a trigram with the scroll forming the symbol of yin and yang.


    Feng Hao smiled and activated his ability to the fullest. "Eight Trigrams activated."

 Chapter 2069 Too Strong

    ?


    Suddenly, the trigrams summoned ten elements. Each side represented their own element: Fire, Earth, Lake, Heaven, Water, Mountain, Thunder, and Wind. Meanwhile, the yin and yang symbol represented light and dark as well as the power to bnce all eight elements.


    The slime might be able to dissolve people''s power easily. But the Heavenly Sovereign knew that the slime needed to process the element first. So, by giving a different attribute to the attack, the slime would take a bit more time to process, resulting in the attack actually hitting him.


    Those ten elements flew straight to the wall made of slime.


    The fire was immediately dissolved by the slime''s power, but the earth managed to reach the slime''s body and pierce it. It didn''t look like it had any effect, but it was enough to touch the slime.


    After all, there were other elements. The Lake and Water sent a simr power, but the Lake produced fresh water while the Water Element spurted our saline water.


    The Fresh Water could easily be stopped, but because of the difference in salinity, the saline water hit the slime. And it exerted a lot of pressure to the point it pushed back the fluid that made the wall.


    Heaven Power formed a pressure from above, pushing the slime as if the sky was about to fall. The Mountain Power lifted up the ground as if trying to create a new mountain. As a result, both powers squeezed the slime into the middle, causing the slime to slightly getpressed.


    The Thunder produced both Lightning and Thunderous Sound. The Lightning struck the slime and with the help of the roding from the Earth Power, the lightning could slip inside the slime and spark, causing a burst of slime. It created a small dent in the slime''s body.


    Last but not least, the Wind Power used the small dent to drill the slime, creating a hole that somehow connected to the outside.


    Meanwhile, the Light and Dark disappeared without a trace. They were used so that the eight elements could be in harmony as well as sacrificing themselves to avoid the slime from dissolving the other elements.


    And it worked.


    Seeing there was a hole in the wall, Loki and Feng Hao immediately jumped toward this opening, trying to escape from this ce.


    The slime poured all his Magic Power to close it, but this small hole was what Loki needed to escape.


    He used the World Re-Creation to expand the area between the hole, causing the hole to grow.


    No matter how hard the slime tried to close it, the hole would only be bigger and bigger. By the time they arrived, the hole had be like a circle gate in a traditional home.


    Loki and Feng Hao easily escaped from this ce, causing the slime to start to gather its body into one again. He couldn''t let Loki take advantage of this body to wound him after all.


    Unfortunately, Loki had nned to do just that.


    Once he came out, Loki said, "Get ready."


    Feng Hao frowned. He didn''t understand, but he would adjust to help Loki.


    Loki raised his hands.


    Soul Mirage.


    Suddenly, a huge Loki appeared from the ground, rising to the sky. This Loki looked the same as Loki, other than the fact that the body was translucent.


    By using the Soul Mirage, Loki could duplicate his soul. And this soul went one step further by using Metamorphosis.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He had one form that he could copy to challenge this slime. It was one of his children.


    In that instant, Loki''s soul turned into a giant serpent. The length wasparable to the slime wall, and its size was a bit bigger than it.


    Still, it wasn''tparable to the actual size of Jormungand.


    Even so, this was enough, considering he made it from Magic Power and his own soul.


    The serpent started moving, circling the slime that was about to gather in one spot.


    The slime used his power to dissolve this snake, but to his surprise, he could do nothing to this snake.


    Even a real human could be dissolved, yet, he couldn''t help but wonder what Loki did to make this snake this weird.


    In the end, the slime poured its body part into the ground before turning into tentacles that circled around the snake''s body like a rope. Theypletely captured the snake so that it couldn''t do anything.


    But this was what Loki wanted in the first ce. Now that the slime had expended a lot of slime from its body, it shouldn''t be able to do a lot of things.


    Loki jumped to the front and pped his hands.


    Omni-Phantasm.


    The moment he used another skill, the snake turned into stones. Since the snake had circled around his body, the slime suddenly fell into a predicament. He realized that Loki was waiting for this moment to attack him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign''s eyes shed as he pped his hands, pouring his energy into the stone wall.


    "Element Bestowal." Feng Hao shouted, signaling Loki that he was ready.


    The God of Mischief smiled as he fully activated his skill, Omni-Phantasm.


    In that instant, numerous spikes emerged from the body of the spikes.


    As the name implied, Omni-Phantasm allowed Loki to control the unlimited illusion that came from his imagination. And Feng Hao''s Element Bestowal granted his energy that contained all the elements inside.


    Once it burst out, the spikes hit the slime. With all the elements appearing all at once, there was no way that the slime could block everything.


    The fire thorns evaporated some of the slime, water spikespletely dissolved the slime, and the earth spikes scoped out some slime. Each element used its own characteristic to thin out the slime. As long as they continued doing this, the slime would gradually be smaller and they would have an easier time to kill it.


    But as expected of the almighty slime, even with this power, its body only shrank by five percent.


    And with this attack, the realm made by the World Re-Creation disappeared, returning all of them to the real world.


    Feng Hao was disappointed that they could only give this much damage to the point he couldn''t help but say, "Damn. Why does a slime, the usually weakest monster in the game, have to be this strong?"

 Chapter 2070 Ambition

    ?


    Feng Hao nced at Loki. "So, what will we do now that your realm has disappeared?"


    Loki remained silent. They certainly had some problems. The reason why he could easily utilize his power to the point the slime had a hard time dissolving it was because of that realm where he could use the infinite illusion from his imagination.


    Also, the Mind Image was useful because the slime focused too much on the realm instead of thinking about another possibility. Now that the realm had disappeared, if Loki used the same trick, the slime would have realized that the change was in his mind, not the real world. He would be able topletely dissolve the power this time.


    That was why if Loki didn''t have any more trump cards, the situation would get worse and worse as time passed.


    Loki smiled. "You don''t have to worry. I''m already prepared to fight this slime for three days and three nights, so there''s no way I''m losing all hope fifteen minutes into the battle."


    As expected, Loki''s strength piqued the slime''s interest. The slime couldn''t help but summon a humanoid figure so that he could speak to him.


    "To think there is a human as strong as you. I can see that your strength has reached a level above me, but you must not be that strong in battle. You might be able to confuse me with your power, but you can''t kill me.


    "Join me, human. I will let you be reborn with the strongest body. Once I have destroyed this world, you can still live as a humanoid slime."


    Loki looked at the slime before shaking his head helplessly. "Do you think I don''t know how you get this power?


    "The world once loved all the beings in this world. However, it stopped because of a certain creature�� That creature dissolved the world''s love, disconnecting it from the world itself.


    "However, the system that the world created could still be taken advantage of. It was like having your own son pointing a gun at you as your son tortured you by shooting continuously. He even took a video and shared it so that he could get more benefits like money.


    "What a ridiculous bullshit creature��" Loki snorted.


    "You don''t know that this world is broken. If you follow the world, you will be restricted by the world''s limits. But if you are disconnected from this world, you can take advantage of the world and eventually gain a strength that is beyond this world itself."


    "You don''t understand a single thing." Loki shook his head.


    "No, you are the one who understands it. Have you ever thought that a microorganism that you think is such a tiny thing has the ability to think like that of a human?"


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock. ''Now that I think about it, the slime is a single-cell monster, right? If you think about it, what if the slime starts off very small with that kind of consciousness?


    ''It''s said that the gap between atoms is like the distance between Earth and others. And if you think about it, what if�� this is just what if��


    ''What if the microorganism is like a human? However, their world consists of the micro world. Inparison, humans are living on this and we can bepared to that of others.


    ''What if all thes in the Sr System are like a few atoms, creating a molecule? And other sr systems and even gxies are simr to molecule and molecule and even bigger?<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''What if humans are like microorganisms but just on a bigger scale? What if we are just something insignificant to a giant being?


    ''Our existence is like a tumor that destroys the cell, which is our. And we are getting erased like this so that the giant being can recover?''


    The Heavenly Sovereign gasped. He could see what the slime wanted to do if he truly was born from a microorganism.


    The slime had reached their consciousness after evolving to this degree. By absorbing this and everything inside it, he could be a bigger existence and eventually reach others. Once that happens, there might be a higher consciousness, which might be the gxy itself.


    That was why the slime wanted to kill everything in this ce.


    But his intake of the slime''s ambition was different from Loki''s. There was one thing that could connect him, the slime and Theo.


    They all wanted to see the higher being that controlled them like nothing. However, their way was different. Loki wanted to see the higher being by constantly annoying him. He created all those unpredictable elements that made everything a mess.


    Meanwhile, the slime tried to be a higher consciousness. He might be doing the same thing over and over again until he became the biggest. In other words, the highest being was the giant ''creature'' that contained all theses and gxies.


    On the other hand, Theo tried to find the higher being through other realities. He might not be able to do it with all these threats around, but he still believed this was the correct thing.


    Their path might be different, but the goal they pursued was the same.


    For Loki, who nned to do everything to find them, this kind of option might not be as bad as he thought.


    On the one hand, he was still Theo''s ally. On the other hand, joining hands with the slime might give him a better chance.


    Loki fell silent for a moment as if he was tempted. But before he could say anything, a deep voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    "To think there is such a powerful monster in this world. I have seen it in the video, but this is the first time I have witnessed it with my own eyes. It''s no wonder why Theodore Griffith is not capable of defeating him."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes and turned around. There was a middle-aged man standing in the air, but unlike the others, he stopped the air beneath him, creating a hard surface for him.


    There was only one person in this world with this kind of power and had the nerve toe here.


    "Time God, Aiden Turner��"

 Chapter 2071 Time Gods Arrival

    ?


    "Time God, Aiden Turner." The Heavenly Sovereign looked at this man with a serious expression.


    The Time God had finally arrived on the battlefield. It seemed that he rushed into the battlefield since he came earlier than expected. But what truly happened was that Leonardo had pushed him to the corner where he could do nothing but help.


    In the end, he finished his task in the yellow line and reached this ce. The situation didn''t seem to be that good either.


    Loki was frozen while the Heavenly Sovereign was confused. Upon seeing their condition, the Time God said, "I have a lot of things to ask, but this is the first time I have heard about a human who has reached the stage above Mythical Rank��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign smirked. "You are lucky to witness it, right? Though, you should havee sooner and fought this slime before the illusion ran out. We would have dealt serious damage to him if that was the case."


    "I don''t really care. Even if the slime can fight against multiple Saints, it doesn''t change the fact that the three strongest people in the world are fighting the slime together. That''s all we need to know."


    "��" The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. "You goddamn right."


    "In that case, let''s kill the slime, shall we?" The Time God looked at the slime, which had gotten a bit thinner.


    "Well, we can''t see who is stronger among us, but one thing is for sure. We can kill this slime��" The Heavenly Sovereign raised his hand, summoning a trigram.


    This time, only two elements were awakened.


    ''Represent the Big Yang and Big Yin, Heaven and Earth." The Heavenly Sovereign muttered inwardly.


    Suddenly, the ground trembled and the sky split. All the pressureing from within them was so fierce that the moment it touched the slime, the body seemed to be splitting.


    "!!!" The slime hurriedly utilized his power to dissolve this power, but it seemed that the power contained in ''Heaven'' and ''Earth'' was trying to connect with each other. And he, who was in the middle, would be split in half if nothing was done.


    The slime''s dissolving power reacted and the pressure gradually disappeared. The slime body that was about to be cut suddenly returned to normal.


    If this continued, the attack would be a waste.


    The Heavenly Sovereign knew about this and that was the exact reason why he used this ability. After all, there was one more person on their side.


    "eleration." The Time God pointed his finger at the slime as green light started to shine on his fingertip.


    In that instant, the production of the force from Heaven and Earth became even faster, causing the pressure to return.


    The slime could only hold back this power for a moment, not stopping it. So, it used the remaining time to send forth multiple tentacles toward Feng Hao.


    Loki suddenly stepped in between and waved his hands. Multiple swords appeared around him, cutting the tentacles down.


    The slime knew this would happen, so he added another trick to the tentacles.


    When the tip of the tentacle was cut down, the body started to grow another head by spurting out more slime. That slime connected the body and the tip, allowing it to recover.


    Loki tried to cut it again, but the slime tentacles had reached Loki and the Heavenly Sovereign.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Tsk." Loki clicked his tongue and jumped to the side. Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereign had to retract his power first before avoiding the slimes.


    The Time God pointed his other hand to the tentacles. Suddenly, those tentacles were wrapped by green Magic Power before theypletely stopped as if they were frozen in the sky, allowing the Heavenly Sovereign to retreat safely.


    As the strongest person in the world, the Time God didn''t like to be passive. His body started to glitch before hepletely vanished into thin air.


    The slime suddenly raised multiple tentacles from the ground. They all moved to the back.


    All of a sudden, the Time God appeared behind the slime, but because of the tentacles, he had to stop advancing.


    "��" The Time God frowned. The slime was able to follow him by dissolving his power. It acted like a tracker and its ability also stopped the Time God''s eleration.


    Now that the Time God had stopped, the slime split the tentacles into smaller tentacles to create a cage to capture the Time God.


    The Time God maintained his calm as if he wasn''t pressured by this situation.


    In fact, he didn''t have to move as the God of Mischief had appeared on top of him and cut the slime tentacles, creating an opening to escape.


    The Time God smiled. He was assessing the God of Mischief''s power, but it seemed that his rank reflected his ability.


    It would be hard to rely on an ipetent person after all. So, he had to test the God of Mischief first, considering the information about him was nowhere to be found.


    Now that he had found out that Loki was reliable, he started focusing on the ability that might kill the slime.


    The Time God raised both hands. A green aura started to envelop his hand and the pressure around him began to increase.


    The slime felt something bad from this attack and immediately raised more tentacles to stop it.


    The tentacles surrounded him once again. Unlike the previous ones, these tentacles carried the dissolving ability. It tried to dissolve the Magic Power in the area itself.


    This way, the Time God wouldn''t have enough power to utilize his strength.


    However, the slime underestimated the number one person in the world.


    The moment the slime activated his dissolving power, everything suddenly stopped. The wind, the world, the flow of Magic Power, and even the dissolving power itself came to a halt.


    The Time God stopped the world for a moment. Within that time freeze, he leisurely flew out of the encirclement and stood in the air above the slime.


    Instead of doing anything, the Time God simply stopped. He wanted to observe the slime for a while as if trying to learn its weakness.


    "I see��"

 Chapter 2072 Betrayal

    ?


    "I see��" The Time God furrowed his eyebrows.


    It seemed he took too long to observe the slime. The slime actually had finished dissolving the time power that stopped the flow of time itself, so the tentacle could finally move, trying to smack him.


    The Time God nced at the tentacle before elerating one more time to return to the Heavenly Sovereign''s side.


    "It seems that the slime has a core somewhere�� The core that produces all this slime. It''s too thick to find its location, but it should be there. If we can destroy it, we will be able to defeat this slime." The Time God exined.


    "That''s easier said than done. We have to thin out the slime first." Feng Hao let out a long sigh.


    The slime wobbled a few times. This time, the slime used its body to form something besides the tentacles.


    It was actually a wave of red slime as if this was an ocean wave of death. Whatever the wave came across, they would disappear without traces. And this giant wave was going straight to them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God raised their altitude by using their pure control over Magic Power.


    However, there was another trick to this wave.


    Multiple sharks suddenly flew out of the wave. The sharks werepletely made of red slime. They didn''t even have any skin like other monsters.


    "!!!" Feng Hao hurriedly waved his hand, forming another trigram. He used the wind to blow the sharks away.


    But as expected of the slime, some of the sharks had more powerpared to the others, allowing them to slip past the gust of wind.


    Luckily, they couldn''t reach Feng Hao because the Time God had frozen the time around them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign took this opportunity to escape while saying, "This is not good. The slime is getting serious��"


    "Are you saying that he hasn''t gone serious this whole time?" The Time God''s eyebrows twitched.


    The Heavenly Sovereign only witnessed the slime using tentacles, so this was the first time he saw other things besides the tentacles. So, there was no more exnation other than the slime getting serious.


    "Just take it as it is." The Heavenly Sovereign shouted while pointing his right palm at the sky.


    Another trigram appeared above him. The trigram was almost a hundred feet in diameter. This was certainly bigger than anything he had used in this battle.


    "Heaven, Lightning." Feng Hao shouted while waving down his hand. "Come forth, Lightning Tribtion."


    A fierce lightning suddenly came forth. This lightning strike was even stronger than Ava''s Lightning God Cannon.


    If there was anyone who could release this level of attack, it would be the Lightning Saint. It might not reach the level of its roar, but the Lightning Saint had to get serious to produce this level of lightning.


    The lightning went to the top of the slime, trying to destroy it from the very top.


    The slime started to change its form from a normal mountain to that of a volcano. From the inside, he released the ''magma'' slime that devoured the lightning and dissolved it.


    "��" Feng Hao couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows. "Seriously�� That can''t even reach him? Oi, Time God. Do you have anything you can use to harm the slime?"


    "Just call me, Aiden. It''s far faster and more convenient." The Time God corrected him while adding, "I do. But I need your cooperation."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Feng Hao smiled. "Nice. I''ll match your movement."


    "Got it." The Time God started emitting green Magic Power.


    Seeing the level of Magic Power, Feng Hao knew this attack was extremely powerful. So, he also started releasing his Magic Power.


    However, they suddenly heard Loki''s voice.


    "Stop. Conserve your energy for a moment. I have an idea."


    "!!!" Aiden and Feng Hao turned around, looking at Loki with confused expressions.


    Aiden took a deep breath and retracted his Magic Power while saying, "Although your level is above Mythical Rank, if you say something foolish, I''m not going to forgive you."


    Feng Hao chuckled. "Well, you are the God of Mischief, Loki. So, I''m sure you have a good idea."


    Loki finally regrouped with Feng Hao and Aiden. He said, "The slime is having trouble moving its giant body. That is something we can take advantage of.


    "That''s why it''s going to be a battle of attrition. As long as we can weaken the slime continuously, my daughter and Theo can participate in the battle and defeat the slime."


    "That''s true. I guess we have to fight this slime for three days and three nights." Feng Hao chuckled, exaggerating it with a joke.


    Aiden nodded with a serious expression, agreeing to the suggestion.


    "As for the idea��"


    Before Loki finished his words, the slime actually released a huge amount of Magic Power as if trying to attack them. However, that attack had a different purpose.


    The slime only wanted to grab their attention for a moment. In that split second, some slime slipped past them.


    "!!!" The God of Mischief, the Singrity Rank Expert, was the first to notice it. He turned around as if trying to look at Theo. "That is��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign and the Time God also turned around, trying to follow his line of sight.


    They were shocked by the appearance of slime and wanted to help Theo.


    Sadly for them, the God of Mischief had just done the unthinkable.


    "Wha��!! Why?" The Heavenly Sovereign spurted a mouthful of blood as he looked at Loki in shock. He couldn''t help but take a nce at the hand that had just pierced his heart.


    Loki was their ally, and Theo had even confirmed it. That was why he lowered his guard around him, but to think Loki took advantage of that to kill him.


    The Time God didn''t have a good time either. His arm was also taken away by Loki.


    Loki smiled at them and said, "I don''t have grudges against you. The only reason why you have to die is because you are a nuisance to my goal. That''s all��"

 Chapter 2073 Time Lock

    ?


    "Kh." The Time God gritted his teeth. He managed to grab the severed arm and put it on the correct arm before applying his time.


    There was a glow between the gap of the severed flesh and time looked like it had stopped in that area, causing the severed arm to be reattached.


    Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t say anything. He could only re at the God of Mischief in shock.


    He never thought that Loki would do such a thing. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do as his consciousness began to fade and his energy had left his body.


    When Loki pulled out his arm, the Heavenly Sovereign could only fall to the ground, dying.


    On the other hand, the number of enemies had increased. The slime was already hard to deal with, and with Loki, whose strength was beyond any human in this world, this might be the catastrophe the humans had to endure.


    The Time God gritted his teeth, shouting, "What are you doing?"


    The shock spread in an instant. There were a lot of people watching this fight.


    ��


    In the base, the president and all the cabs that remained in the base couldn''t help but drop their jaws.


    One of them smashed the table with his fist while shouting, "DAMN!"


    That anger was enough to provoke other people''s reactions.


    "Why did that guy help the slime?"


    "This is why Theodore Griffith should be under us. Just look at the current situation, we should have controlled them from the beginning."


    "We won''t have to pay such a high price if we can control Theo''s group this whole time."


    "To think that a strong person like him would betray the human race."


    "He has even killed the Heavenly Sovereign."


    Some of them were angry, thinking they could do a better job. But some of them understood their situation and fell into despair.


    "No way. If the Heavenly Sovereign is dead and that weird guy is helping the slime, humanity would be doomed."


    "We have no way to stop them."


    They didn''t know what they could do to reverse the situation. Even with Theo''s brain, they couldn''t fight against an absolute power after all.


    ��


    In Theo''s group headquarters, the situation was as chaotic as the white house. Even the War Saint, Theo''s grandfather, didn''t expect such an oue.


    "What? How could he kill the Heavenly Sovereign��" Leonardo gasped. A part of him was thinking about this kind of scheme, wondering if Loki was trying to confuse the people. A part of him was already looking ahead and began to think of a solution. After all, facing the slime and the God of Mischief would be close to impossible unless there was a miracle.


    "Is this for real?" Agata sucked a cold breath. She couldn''t predict this kind of oue. She had put a lot of trust in Theo, including the trust Theo put in someone.


    Yet, Loki actually betrayed humanity. It was clear that this situation was beyond anyone''s imagination.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Even Ne couldn''t help but look down while clutching her head. She started losing all hope, thinking it was impossible to fight those two even with Theo and the Time God. And the current situation might cause the Goddess of Death to defect as well since the other party was her father.


    That was why this was impossible.


    The news wasn''t transmitted to other ces, but those on the same battlefield couldn''t help but feel the same despair.


    "This is��" Due to the sudden shock, some people were distracted for a second, resulting in the monsters killing them.


    There were a series of screams and shrills echoing in the area, making them fall deeper.


    "Don''t lose your focus. Maintain your position!" Themanders were trying to instruct the soldiers and other fighters.


    They might have been shocked by such a situation, but this wasn''t the time for it. If they didn''t fight, they would be run over by these monsters. They had to keep fighting to the very end�� At the very least, they still had to fight until a miracle appeared.


    All the Mythical Rank Experts released all their strength, trying to keep everything under control.


    However, the shock earlier had caused at least a thousand people to die in an instant. This was the biggest and fastest loss they had during the whole battle.


    "Shit. We have more than two thousand people injured. They are now treated in the rear, if our formation copses, we might face a lot more casualties��"


    Themanders gritted his teeth. One of them shouted, "Bring all the injured to the back. No matter what, we have to keep fighting to the very end. We have tost long enough so that a miracle has the opportunity to bless us with its presence. Fight, Fight, Fight! Even if your feet give up, keep fighting!"


    Those shouts were hard to be heard even if he used his Magic Power to transmit the Magic Power. However, some people who heard his speech couldn''t help but shout the same thing.


    "Fight, Fight, Fight!"


    "Fight, Fight, Fight!"


    From one person to another, they raised each other''s spirits and continued shouting. Before long, the shout reached the other side of the battlefield. Its sound became louder and louder to the point it somehow overwhelmed the monsters'' roars for a second.


    In that one instant, the message became extremely clear. They had to fight. Whatever happened, unless all the fighters on the yellow line and the red line died, they had to keep fighting.


    "Fight!"


    *Bam!* There was a loud bang sound echoing through the battlefield. The formation that was about to copse suddenly became solid once again, stopping the monster''s advance.


    The battle was not over yet.


    The Time God suddenly raised his hand, shooting out a green light. It was so bright that the entire battlefield could easily see it.


    "Haha, a Singrity? Do you think you are the only one who has reached that step? You are underestimating me too much!"


    In front of the Time God''s chest, a clock suddenly appeared.


    "I know that in the future, I will lose my life. That''s why I know that I have to keep my trump card all this time." The Time God smirked. "And thankfully, I did. It''s time�� for my frozen status to start moving again."


    "Time Lock Released."

 Chapter 2074 Hope

    ?


    "Time Lock Released!"


    The God of Mischief widened his eyes. He understood what the Time God meant.


    "You�� You have frozen your own system?" The God of Mischief gasped.


    "As a Saint, you should have known that our power can affect everything in this world, including the system that the world has made." The Time God smirked.


    He wasn''t the only one who had done such a thing. Even Theo had used his Reality Authority to form a fake identity under the world''s system. Then, there was the slime that used its power to dissolve the world''s love. Loki had done a lot of things as well.


    That was why the God of Mischief knew it was possible.


    However, he didn''t expect that the Time God would do something of this level. He froze his own system so that his experience didn''t go up and his level remained still.


    Even if he killed many monsters, the EXP couldn''t increase. After all, the time of his system had stopped.


    Now that he had released this power from the system, all the EXP that was supposed toe in could finally enter.


    The Time God couldn''t help but smile once he saw it.


    Level: 921


    ��


    ��


    Level: 941


    ��


    ��


    Level: 980


    There was a surge of powering into the Time God''s body.


    The God of Mischief waspletely stunned. This was the first time he saw such a lunatic.


    The Time God stopped his own time and progress just because he wanted to make his trump card. And that trump card was born because he had read his own future.


    The Time God took the book that contained everything he had written, whether it was his future self or his current self.


    He showed it to the God of Mischief. There was one ring sentence that covered the entire paper.


    [06 August 2780]


    [I go to the battlefield.]


    This was thest message ever written in this book. That was right. This battle was the battle where he fell.


    Even after changing his future by messing with some matters in his timeline, the ending didn''t change.


    And this was also why he was a bit skeptical when the Mafia Queen reced him as the guardian deity.


    If he ever came to this battlefield, he would surely die. But now that he could do nothing bute, he had let go of everything and revealed his path.


    "In this battle, I might die�� That''s why I have been stopping my time this whole time. I am going to rewrite my own history. After defeating you and the slime, I shall write that the path I''ve walked is the correct path." The Time God smirked.


    Name: Aiden Turner


    Level: 1,000


    Rank: Mythical


    There was still a sudden surge of powering into his body.


    The God of Mischief hurriedly raised his hand, trying to stop him. The slime also summoned a few tentacles to attack him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, Aiden only smiled as he waved his hand. Suddenly, the time around him seemed to be frozen.


    He was the only one that could move in this ce. And the EXP was finally filled to the brim.


    Even though he had frozen his system, he never stopped killing monsters. He might have killed hundreds of thousands of monsters just for this moment alone. And his hard work didn''t betray him.


    Aiden smiled.


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    Name: Aiden Turner


    Level: 1,001


    Rank: Singrity


    He finally broke thest stage and stood toe-to-toe with Loki. There was a mysterious power that entered his body.


    Just receiving it alone made him feel like he could do everything.


    The EXP continued to rise, allowing him to get one more level.


    Name: Aiden Turner


    Level: 1,002


    The Time God smiled.


    "This is truly the best feeling��" Aiden hurriedly froze the time of his system again. This system had reached the time when he stopped hunting the monsters, so he had to allocate his status points first before the time his system reached the apocalypse. At that time, he couldn''t allocate the status points since the system had gone for good.


    After allocating the points, Aiden retracted his power again, looking at the system gradually disappearing from his vision. Yes, the system had reached the time when the apocalypse began. And he couldn''t ess the system anymore.


    However, this was enough. With this, he could finally fight Loki and the slime.


    But as expected of Loki and the slime, he had used the surge of power to momentarily overpower them, but they managed to resist it to a certain degree.


    Although it was faint, the slime and Loki began to move in this frozen world.


    Aiden took a deep breath and finally retracted his power, allowing them to move freely again.


    They might not see everything, but from the aura Aiden''s body emitted, they could understand what kind of transformation Aiden had a moment ago.


    "You have reached the Singrity Rank?" Loki gasped. He immediately pulled back, not knowing what the current Aiden was capable of doing.


    Meanwhile, the slime continued its attack, but the tentacles were suddenly cut into pieces.


    In addition, a male''s voice echoed in the area, startling all of them. The sound contained anger in it, and there was only one person who was free enough toe to this ce.


    "LOKIIIII!!!"


    The God of Mischief nced to the side while the slime retracted its tentacles. There was one more challenger that was going to stop them.


    Since the slime had absorbed the original Theo, obviously, the one facing him would be free as well.


    Yes, the one who came just now was none other than Theodore Griffith.


    With this, their number was even.


    The Time God red at Loki, thinking he should be fighting someone of his level. Meanwhile, Theo might not be strong enough to handle the slime alone, but he should be able to do something with his current strength.


    Theo wanted to fight Loki, but it seemed that he wouldn''t have the opportunity.


    Theo gritted his teeth and summoned his clone.


    The hope that was gone earlier suddenly appeared once again.

 Chapter 2075 Fighting Loki And The Slime

    Theo and the Time God stood side by side. Theo was ring at the slime while the Time God knew his opponent was Loki.


    "Loki��" Theo gritted his teeth.


    "What? You should have thought about this kind of situation with your brain, right? I am merely choosing the option where I can get the most benefit. I want to go to meet those bastards, you surely don''t think this is just a pipe dream, right?"


    Theo didn''t answer him. But as someone who pursued the same thing, he obviously couldn''t deny it.


    There were many theories about the higher being. What the slime believed in was the theory that took the concept of ''scale'' to a whole new level. Theparison of a microorganism to a human was like a human to that higher being. So, they had just to surpass this world and continue climbing that path.


    The world itself had its consciousness, so the others should have their own consciousness and even something bigger than it like the sr system and even the gxies. That was why the theory was still understandable in the face of this unique power.


    However, Theo''s path wasn''t that different. As the ruler of Reality, he believed the higher being was just a normal being in a higher dimension. All he had to do was to find the coordinate of their dimension and use his power to connect this world to that reality.


    He could cross that boundary and meet the higher being.


    Meanwhile, Loki had been trying to make the higher being annoyed to prove their existence.


    On the one hand, it might look like he never had the ambition to go beyond it. On the other hand, if Loki didn''t have a grander ambition, he would soon be bored.


    Theo bit his lips. He shouted, "I will win this battle."


    Loki smirked. He knew what Theo meant by stating that sentence. At first nce, Theo looked like he was just showing his determination. But for Loki, who actually gave that rule to Theo, this word was a statement where Theo only had two choices. If he didn''t fulfill this statement, he would lose his power.


    Loki had groomed Theo as someone who could defeat him both in strength and mind. However, Theo was still right in front of that gate. He was still not at the God of Mischief level just yet.


    Loki took a deep breath before summoning his clone. The Clone Skill originated from him after all, so once he summoned his clone, there would be two Singrity Rank Experts.


    Even so, the Time God wasn''t scared of Loki. He stood not far away from Loki while saying, "Your power is simr to Theo�� I see. It seems that you are truly the God of Mischief, Loki, from the Norse Mythology. Fighting against a God is something that I haven''t done before.


    "Even if you are considered to be two, I am not nning to lose in this fight." The Time God began to release his power. "I have seen your power earlier. It seems that you are not that adept in battle. Even if you split your body, you won''t still be my opponent. It''s time for the god of old to meet his end."


    Loki smirked. He also released his power, but this Magic Power contained all five thousand points of Magic Power. Once it erupted, the amount overwhelmed the Time God''s Magic Power in an instant. In addition, the clone was releasing the same thing.


    At first nce, it looked like there was no hope for the Time God.


    But the Time God actually jumped forth, approaching Loki.


    There was an hourss appearing on top of his palm. When he crushed it, a translucent sphere suddenly appeared. It was a hundred feet in radius and everything inside the sphere looked frozen.


    The slime saw this sphere and tried to stretch its tentacle to dissolve this time power, but Theo appeared in between.


    He waved his sword, cutting the tentacles easily. Unfortunately, this was only an illusion. The slime dissolved the illusion easily.


    The slime knew that Theo''s strength was iparable to Loki''s. Even with all his strength, he wouldn''t be able to create an illusion that couldn''t be dissolved.


    That was why the tentacles kept approaching the sphere without any fear.


    Still, even though Theo should be angry because of Loki, his expression gradually became even more serious. It felt like he had forgotten Loki''s matter for the time being and focused on the opponent in front of him.


    Someone who wasn''t disturbed by whatever happened earlier was strong. Even the slime wouldn''t underestimate Theo. But it didn''t mean the slime would retract its tentacles.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Seeing multiple tentaclesing, Theo let out a long breath, calming his heart down. His mind was concentrating on one thing.


    There was something from the slime that piqued his interest.


    He had done it before and even the Time God showed something that gave him this inspiration.


    Theo pointed his palm at the tentacle. "Inverted World."


    "!!!" The slime suddenly felt dread and instinctively stopped its tentacles. It felt like the slime was ring at Theo, specifically his change.


    All of a sudden, a huge whirlpool appeared on one tentacle. And the slime around the whirlpool was sucked into it and disappeared without a trace.


    "!!!" The slime was shocked when he experienced it. After all, hepletely lost connection with the slime that got sucked into it.


    ''What is that? What did he do?'' The slime thought. Theo''s power felt different than anything he had shown this far. ''It feels like my slime�� no, a part of my body suddenly vanishes all of a sudden�� As if they never existed before��''


    Theo took a deep breath after using that power. His experiment worked. This might be what he needed in order to utilize hisstw, Theo''s Third Law, Inverted World.


    With this power, he could invert everything. He could even invert someone''s existence. When that happened, that person would be gone for good from this reality.


    And that was what Theo used earlier. He inverted the slime''s existence, creating the whirlpool that acted as his eraser.


    But as expected, the toll it took to use the thirdw was humongous. Even after his level was close to one thousand, he still couldn''t ignore that amount.


    ''Still, I finally seeded��'' Theo looked at the slime, who was confused by his power. ''Just like the slime using his Dissolve Power to erase the world''s love, I have used my Reality Power to affect the world itself.


    ''Instead of removing the slime in front of me, I am removing the slime''s existence that is recorded in the world. By doing that, a part of the tentacle doesn''t have an existence in this world anymore. With that, it''s obvious that the slime won''t be able to feel them anymore. All I have to do is to create something to camouge my power. This way, the slime won''t be able to realize that I erased his tentacle before using my illusion to make it look disappear. Without the connection to that part, the slime will believe it and my reality power will gradually erase it like how I apply my Reality Power to my illusion.''


    Theo''s experiment finally worked. Before, he forcefully used the reality power to remove it, causing him to use the Mirage World and Reverse World first before applying the Inverted World. Doing it used too much power.


    Meanwhile, with this method, he managed to cut the Magic Power consumption by two-thirds. The power that was impossible to use in the past finally reached the level where his current level was enough to utilize it.


    Of course, he had to thank Reality Eyes for connecting him to this reality. Without it, he wouldn''t be able to affect this world.


    This might be the only thing that could defeat the slime for good. Unlike Loki and Feng Hao, who chipped away its body, Theo erased it after all.


    The slime couldn''t help but feel dread for the first time in his life. He knew what would happen if Theo continued to use this power.


    Even so, he could see that the amount of Magic Power to use that ability was abysmal.


    He finally opened his mouth again, saying, "Theodore Griffith. To think you would be able to kill me for good�� I am impressed. You are far stronger than the one I''ve faced back then."


    "You don''t need topliment me. It won''t stop me from killing you." Theo snorted.


    The slime rebuked him, "You can''t kill me. You don''t have enough energy to utilize that power long enough until I''m gone for good. No matter what you do today, you won''t be able to defeat me today.


    "That''s why I''m giving you this chance. I know that you are someone who is loyal to your group. Come and submit it to me. I will let you and every person that is close to you be reborn and witness my glory."

 Chapter 2076 Collapse?

    ?


    "This��" The president and his cabs were speechless after seeing such a development.


    "The Time God has actually reached a stage beyond level 1,000?"


    "Impossible. There are no registered names that have reached that stage ever since the portal to another world was opened."


    "Then, the Time God is the first person to reach this stage?"


    "This is a blessing for our base."


    "But why did he keep it a secret this whole time? If we had known about this, we would have gotten a lot more benefits."


    "A power that is too strong will cause more chaos than benefits."


    "That''s true. If the Time God doesn''t hide it, the other countries will do everything they can to kill him."


    "When that happens, I''m afraid there will be a union between a few Saints. I have no doubt in the Time God''s strength, but even with that kind of strength, it''s impossible to escape from multiple top ten experts, right?"


    "That''s true. Nheless, no one could see this kind of development. At the very least, we still have hope to win."


    "Then, what about the other person that Theodore Griffith brought? That woman."


    "I don''t know. Is she going to betray the human race as well?"


    "This��"


    No one could answer that question. They tried to observe Hel''s movement, and it seemed that thetter hadn''t made any suspicious move.


    She kept fighting the World ss Monster. In fact, her progress was quite good. The opponent had been injured severely, and sooner orter, the Goddess of Death would finish her battle.


    Even though the Saints and the World ss Monsters had the strongest power on the battlefield, their battle somehow was one of the quickest. It was not that they didn''t have the strength to fight longer.


    In fact, if they wanted to, they could prolong the fight for a few days. However, every single Saint and World ss Monster knew that if they fought for too long, the other battlefield would end soon.


    It was because they had the strongest power that they had to end their battle as quickly as possible. They were the ones who had the power to change the overall battlefield after all.


    Hence, the Saints and the World ss Monsters were doing their best to kill their opponents, even if it meant ying an extremely risky game. If they were careless even for a second, they would be either heavily injured or die, just like the Lightning Saint who helped the Magma Dragon in exchange for a heavy injury.


    Nheless, the hope was there. If the Goddess of Death wasn''t actually a traitor, she would help Theo stop the slime. In addition, the Magma Dragon was in the process of helping the Lightning Saint. As long as they finished their fight, they could move to the slime as well. This way, the battlefield would turn in their favor again.


    Although they wanted to me Theo for this predicament, they knew that no matter how badly they smeared Theo''s name, it wouldn''t change the fact that Theo was the one stopping the slime currently. If they caused more ruckus and Theo escaped with the rest of his group, the battle would be over.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was why they decided to not reveal this kind of information for the time being, preventing more panic in the base.


    Although it was a shame that the Heavenly Sovereign had to die under Loki''s hands, at the very least, they could find out the Time God''s true strength.


    Currently, the hope was there. So, they had to keep going.


    "ming him can be der. What we have to do remains the same. Fight!" The president gritted his teeth, dering, "Do whatever you can to win. Inform all our soldiers!"


    The atmosphere in the room became heavy again. The president would always be the one with the highest authority. Since he had ordered them, they immediately dropped the matter of betrayal and started working on their next n.


    And the biggest problem they had to worry about was none other than the green line. The monsters had been pushing them back. Even though themanders managed to stop the monsters for a moment, their casualties were simply too great. Without additional support, they wouldn''t be able to do anything.


    Unfortunately, they had sent everything. Even Theo''s turrets had been supporting them this whole time. It was due to the change that they had to stop helping the Transcendent Level Experts and focus on the normal soldiers. Luckily, the Time God had helped the Transcendent Level Experts and some of them had finished their battle, allowing them to help other Transcendent Level Experts.


    At the very least, the yellow line wouldn''t copse.


    Hence, there was only one ce they had to send a message. It was none other than the rear.


    ��


    In the rear, the pope and all other healers, including Aisha, had been healing the soldiers nonstop.


    Even Aisha felt a bit tired after helping a few hundred people.


    Because of her power, she was working in the same ce as the pope as well as the Saintess, Erica.


    "You two should get some rest." The pope said with a calm tone.


    "No, Sir. I can still help people." Aisha hurriedly answered while ncing at the pope''s works. She couldn''t help but feel amazed at the pope''s strength. He actually healed two times more people than her without breaking a sweat. She had some confidence in her strength as well, considering the saintess could only treat a third of her number. This showed her strength. And the pope was far beyond that.


    The pope smiled, feeling happy with her answer. But he added, "Then, what if you copse right now?"


    "That''s��" Aisha looked down, not being able to say anything. The answer was clear. If she copsed, she wouldn''t be able to heal more people.


    "Taking a break is also important. You should focus on recovering your own Magic Power if you are truly concerned about them. If you fall right now, more people won''t be able to receive the treatment. Understood?"


    Aisha felt ashamed and nodded her head. But before she could do anything, a soldier approached him and said, "Sir�� Pope. We have an order from the headquarters. Due to the current situation, we have to move back to our camp. The green line might copse!"

 Chapter 2077 Sacrifice

    ?


    "The green line might copse!"


    "!!!" The pope raised his eyebrows while Aisha widened her eyes.


    "What? The green line might copse, you say? How?" Aisha asked out loud.


    "ording to them, there are a lot of casualties in the green line. There is also a sudden influx of injured people that are sent here. We are going to organize them and transport them a bit further away from the green line.


    "Although there are some soldiers stationed here, it won''t be enough to stop the monsters. So, we have to move our camp a bit further away."


    Aisha gritted her teeth. "An influx of injured people? How many?"


    "Approximately fifteen thousand people."


    "��" The mood suddenly turned heavy. All of them knew what this number meant.


    Even if all the healers tended to the injured, they could only help two thousand people per three minutes. But now that they had worked too hard in the past thirty minutes, many of them had gone to recover their Magic Power. Even Aisha and Erica were supposed to leave their post for a moment.


    If there was a sudden influx of injured people, especially at this number, it would be impossible for them to take care of them. Also, that number was very important to the frontline. It was no wonder that they dered the demons mighte to this ce.


    Erica and Aisha, who were about to recover their Magic Power, immediately stood up, nning to help them again. This time, they might push themselves.


    However, the pope suddenly stepped forward while raising his hand, stopping the two. "Wait. You two go back and recover your power immediately."


    "But��" Aisha gritted her teeth. This time, she didn''t n to back down.


    Knowing Aisha''s emotion from her voice, the pope added, "This is an order from the head of the healer division. You two are to recover your Magic Power. I will be the one taking care of them."


    The pope turned to the guy who brought the message and said, "Told them that we are not going to move our camp."


    "But, Sir��"


    "I''m going to heal everyone. If they can return to fight, we should be fine, right?"


    "That''s�� true. But��" The guy doubted the pope''s ability. Even though he could heal faster than anyone else in this ce, it didn''t change the fact that fifteen thousand people were a huge number.


    However, Erica was the only person to notice his intention. "Wait a minute��"


    "Erica!" The pope raised his voice while taking out his ne that turned out to be a key. He took it off and handed it to Erica. "You should know where this key will lead you. Right now, I dere that you are qualified to read that book. I know that the future will be harsh, but I''ll leave everything to you."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "But you��" Erica looked pained and filled with worry. Aisha didn''t know what the pope was nning to do, but it seemed that this was going to be dangerous.


    The pope smiled and walked with the messenger, ignoring her plea.


    "What is he nning to do?" Aisha asked Erica with a frown.


    "He��" Erica gritted her teeth. Before answering Aisha''s question, she chased after the pope.


    Of course, the pope could easily sense her presence and understand her intention.


    "Erica��" The pope took a deep breath. "You don''t have to follow me anymore. You can take off your blindfold and see the world."


    Erica''s body shook. She still remembered the reason why she put on the blindfold. Back then, the pope had asked her to do it to train her Awareness. But after a long time, she felt there was a hidden intention behind it. She never knew about it, but it seemed that the pope was finally willing to talk.


    The pope even took off his own blindfold but hadn''t opened his eyes yet.


    "Training my Awareness, that''s the reason why I put on a blindfold. However, that is not all the reason. I am nothing but a coward��


    "I am afraid that my faith will be shaken when I see this world with my own eyes�� When I witness all the world''s darkness�� When I watch how my own cowardice makes me fall into depravity. That''s why I put on that blindfold and convinced myself that the blindfold was for my own training.


    "I have always thought I want to be stronger, even now. Unfortunately, there is no pill for regret. I have forced you to take on the same path despite knowing you are braver than me.


    "But at this point, I don''t know why��" The pope gradually opened his eyes. His eyes shone in golden color as if they were divine eyes blessed by God. "He won''t stop believing in me. He still gives me a chance, even after I run away for so long. I can see that he is opening the door to home and even preparing for a huge party to celebrate my return."


    "That''s why��" As he said it, they had reached the ce where there was a huge influx of people. The pope suddenly fell to his knees and his hands joined together as if he was about to pray.


    Suddenly, a spherical translucent barrier appeared around him and gradually expanded, engulfing more than a thousand people at once. Every person inside the barrier witnessed a miracle.


    Their wounds were closing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Their strength gradually recovered and they felt like there was a warm embrace as if trying to encourage them.


    Erica waspletely terrified. "Divine Blessing�� Teacher''s Divine Technique. By epassing the people with the Sense of Touch, he sacrifices everything in exchange for people''s recovery. First, it will burn the Magic Power. Then, it will continue to his body parts�� his eyes, his limbs, and eventually his own lifespan�� He�� is nning to heal those fifteen thousand people even if it costs him his life."


    Erica knew that the pope was ready to sacrifice his own life in exchange for all these people''s lives.


    He could hear her words. That was why he suddenly turned around with a smile on his face. He looked at them with a gentle expression, but it was visible that the glow on his eyes gradually disappeared, turning the bright eyes into lifeless and pale eyes.


    Even then, he said, "I am not God, I can''t replicate his feat. Moreover, I am just a coward. But if this coward can at least help a lot of people, then I am satisfied. That''s why you two�� go recover your Magic Power so that you can help people in my stead."

 Chapter 2078 Request

    ?


    "I know you are someone who is loyal to your group. Come and submit to me. I will let you and all the people close to you be reborn and witness my glory." The slime spoke, trying to rope Theo.


    Although he didn''t admit it, the slime had recognized Theo''s strength. If he wanted to kill him, there would be serious consequences. Besides, having someone like Theo would be beneficial to him.


    That was why he gave this offer, trying to make Theo switch sides like the God of Mischief.


    However, Theo''s face didn''t have any change of expression. He simply stared at the slime as if trying to buy some time. He even asked, "That''s all? That''s the only thing you can offer to me? What bullshit."


    The slime was surprised. He thought Theo couldn''t be persuaded. But if he could somehow convince Theo to join him without fighting him, it would be the best situation.


    He said, "I can give you everything. After ascending from this world, I''m going to a higher ce. If you want this world, I will give it to you. No, you are going to rule it in my stead. You are going to literally stand above everything and only below one person, me."


    Theo let out a long sigh. He even shook his head in disappointment as if the offer didn''t excite him at all.


    Normally, people would be overjoyed if they could be the king of the world. It was true that he was still below the slime, but at that time, the slime wouldn''t even be around since his existence was already bigger than the world itself.


    That was why this offer gave him the chance to rule the world.


    "What? You are dissatisfied with that offer?"


    "Yeah. That offer is too small for me." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    Theo looked like it was possible to persuade him with enough reward. So, the slime wondered what kind of thing Theo wanted aside from this world.


    "In that case, I''ll ask you. What do you want? Be it a woman, riches, or glory, I can give it to you." The slime stated with full confidence.


    Theo''s smile was warm as if he could finally get what he wanted. Theo pointed at the slime and said, "It''s simple. If you can offer your life to me, then I''ll consider the agreement."


    "��" The slime suddenly stopped wobbling as if he was too dumbstruck. He was angry because he thought Theo could be bought off, but it turned out it was his foolish thinking.


    Even if Theo didn''t ask for his life, he could ask for the God of Mischief''s life. The God of Mischief was currently one of the strongest people on his side, so it would be better if he remained on the battlefield.


    That was why the slime knew that Theo was simply trying to annoy him.


    The slime suddenly burst out of the ground, rising like a volcanic eruption.


    It seemed that the slime was thoroughly angered this time. Even if Theo changed his mindter, he wouldn''t even consider it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The slime shouted. His voice suddenly became high-pitched, and there was killing intenting out of the slime''s body.


    "You don''t know what is good for you, Theodore Griffith. As expected of a human, unlike the God over there, you are just foolish. Even if you can buy some time from me, it''s still impossible to win against me.


    "Not only that, your army will copse first. No matter what you can do to turn around the situation, you simply can''t fight against absolute power.


    "To think you would fail to see it, it seems I have overestimated you. Just take a look at those soldiers behind you, my underlings have managed to deal severe damage to them. Before long, they are going to copse."


    Theo maintained his silence as if he understood the graveness of the situation.


    However, it seemed that the battle didn''t go ording to the slime''s prediction.


    There was suddenly a burst of cheers, shaking the battlefield. Suddenly, there was an influx of soldiersing from two sides, reinforcing their army. Due to the sudden ambush, a lot of monsters were ughtered and the humans managed to regain their momentum.


    Even if they couldn''t push the monsters back, it should be enough to stop their momentum and reach a stalemate.


    When the slime saw this, he was baffled. It was clear that the demons had achieved a small victory. Even the data he got from the spy should be urate. So, he didn''t know where these people came from.


    But if one took a look at it, despite their energetic roar and powerful momentum, their clothes hadn''t been repaired. Just looking at the blood on their clothes, it was clear that they were the people who were defeated earlier.


    "You��" The slime didn''t expect that Theo had this kind of trump card.


    On the other hand, Theo smiled, remembering the conversation he had with the pope.


    Back then, Theo was carefully thinking about his n in his house, but Agata suddenly entered the room while saying, "Theo. You have a visitor. It''s the pope. It seems he wants to talk about something."


    "Can you send him here?"


    Agata nodded and returned with the pope not long after. Theo nced at the pope for a moment before his gaze returned to the map on the table. "Sorry if this looks rude, but I have to work with my n, you see."


    "Hoho�� It''s fine. I havee without any notice after all." The pope chuckled. He paused for a moment as the atmosphere suddenly became empty. It seemed that the topic was something hard for the pope.


    Since Theo focused on the map, he just worked on his n while waiting for the pope.


    Only after three minutes that the pope said, "Theodore Griffith�� Do you think it''s possible for you to help my student? In the future, there will be a huge setback by making her my sessor, sadly because of her gender. That''s why��"

 Chapter 2079 Bad

    ?


    When he heard that request, he understood the pope''s intention. It seemed that he had understood that there was no guarantee in the future battle.


    Theo had stated that even he didn''t know whether he would survive or not.


    The pope took this seriously. If there woulde a time when his power would be needed in order to not lose, he would be the first one to sacrifice his life for the sake of the human race.


    Without him, the church would be weakened, especially with the problem of his sessor.


    On the other hand, if the human race managed to defeat their enemies, Theo would surely gain immeasurable strength and influence. It should be enough to help Erica.


    That was why he could clearly see it. The pope was nning to use his life to pave the way for his students.


    Remembering that request, Theo couldn''t help but smile. He didn''t know why, but the curse that he uttered that day shed in his mind.


    It was the time when he almost died in the Hard Rock Turtle''s hand.


    "Humanity is idiotic, greedy, prideful, resentful, depraved�� In the face of death, betrayal is what most people think. To save their own life, they could do whatever�� Humanity is a fucking piece of shit.


    "How wonderful it would be if I had the power to reset mankind once again? They won''t be any worse than this, right?"


    Theo stated it once again. When he said this, he couldn''t help but look at the slime.


    Currently, he was fighting for the sake of humanity that he hated and cursed so much. Meanwhile, the one standing in front of him was the ''power'' that could reset mankind. If he took the slime''s offer, his wish could be a reality easily. And if the world was controlled by him and the slime, it would surely remove a lot of problems from the world.


    The words back then somehow came back to bite him.


    But it was because of those words that he couldn''t help but smile.


    "Because I know humanity is so bad that I can say this for sure�� Humans will always be humans.


    "Humans are the darkness of this world. They have destroyed, harmed, and caused changes. However, even in that darkness, there wille a light�� a light that is strong enough to illuminate the darkness.


    "If I choose to use everything just to aplish my goal, how could I be any different from them? I don''t like strong people to suppress me for no reason, that''s why I have tried my best not to suppress others for no reason.


    "If I want to change the world, I am going to get that power myself. Besides, do you think there is only one way to reset mankind?" Theo smirked while pointing at the slime. "I am going to achieve all that without anyone''s help. No one will be able to control me in the future. That''s why in order to fulfill my dream, I am going to defeat you here."


    "It seems that trying to persuade you is my wishful thinking. In that case��" The slime that erupted from the ground earlier suddenly gathered in one ce, forming the second body of the slime. It was clear that the main slime had gotten thinner due to using its body to form the second body, but he could clearly see that this was an ability like his Clone Skill. And with two bodies, the slime suddenly summoned almost twice the tentacles he had summoned in the beginning. All those tentacles instantly surrounded Theo while dissolving anything around it. "��It''s time for you to die, Theodore Griffith."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Theo and his clone looked around. As expected of the slime, it was indeed possible to split its main body into two. However, Theo knew that the two bodies were connected. If not, how could he supply the slime and Magic Power to the second body? In other words, this second slime was there for the sake of improving his overall offensive ability.


    Theo looked down to the ground. When the tentacles started to move, Theo retracted his Magic Power, causing his body to fall to the ground.


    Meanwhile, his clone raised his hand and used the Inverted World once again. Unlike the slime, which had to use its main body as the reserve of its power, Clone Theo could easily use the ability that would usually take a toll on his main body without any setbacks.


    Even if the clone was to die, Theo could easily summon it once again.


    That was why the clone used the Inverted World and tried to erase as much slime as possible.


    On the other hand, Theo kept falling and was about to fall on top of the slime''s second body.


    The slime was already prepared to receive him, but surprisingly, instead of the Inverted World, Theo took out his sword, the sword that had been reinforced by the previous God of Reality''s power.


    "!!!" The slime didn''t know Theo''s target, but it was clear that he had a n in his mind. The slime erupted once again to dissolve Theo.


    But Theo used his Blink to teleport to the side, avoiding the slime. After that, he waved his sword downwards.


    The Magic Power that had been concentrated on the de suddenly flew forth, turning into a crescent-shaped sword strike.


    The sword strike seemed to be missing the slime, but it was fine since his target wasn''t the slime.


    *Bam!*


    The sword strike hit the ground and formed a huge and deep hole in the ground. But from it, Theo could see the red slime flowing inside.


    This was the connection that the slime used to maintain the second body. If he could erase the slime with his Inverted World, he would be able to cut the connection to the second slime, which would result in the loss of a huge amount of slime.


    Theo pointed his palm at the hole and released his ability.


    Inverted World.


    Erase.

 Chapter 2080 Fighting The Slime

    ?


    Inverted World.


    Erase.


    The slime hurriedly expanded the connection, causing the slime underneath the ground to burst. This way, Theo wouldn''t be able to erase it since he had to handle the burst first.


    The eruption forced Theo to stop and move away to avoid getting covered by the slime. However, the slime wouldn''t be able to make a reckless attack anymore. After all, he had identified the slime''s weakness. One wrong move would cause a huge blow to the slime.


    The slime became more and more annoyed by Theo''s intelligence. He thought that it was impossible to persuade Theo. In fact, if Theo would ever be persuaded, he must be plotting something. He would be too dangerous to be kept alive.


    Even if his life could be controlled if he were to be reborn with the slime body, Theo might be able to outsmart him.


    That was why the slime had changed his approach toward Theo. There was no need to be good to Theo anymore. He had to be removed.


    When the slime thought about it, his body subconsciously emitted the killing intent.


    Theo felt the overwhelming killing intent, but he wasn''t afraid. If it was killing intent, he also had it.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar and used the First Authority, Death Eyes. The immeasurable killing intent was released.


    Theo''s killing intent was so powerful that itpletely overwhelmed the slime''s killing intent and took control of the atmosphere.


    The slime immediately sent forth multiple tentacles toward Theo, trying to stop his killing intent.


    Although killing intent wasn''t really affecting him, it didn''t change the fact that it looked like he had lost to Theo.


    Hence, he had to take back the superiority.


    The slime around the area started dissolving the killing intent itself while those near Theo surrounded him.


    Theo looked around, noticing the power of this slime. He realized that Blink wouldn''t be able to help him get out since the power would be dissolved first before he could even reach the other side.


    This would be a grim situation if only his opponent wasn''t Theo. Suddenly, a few whirlpools appeared on a few tentacles. These whirlpools erased the slime''s existence. Theo used that gap to escape.


    However, these whirlpools weren''t created by him. Instead, it was Theo''s clone. The clone suddenly appeared next to Theo when he came out.


    The slime became even more annoyed. He never thought that Theo would have a power that couldpletely counter his advantage.


    He never lost to anyone because he could continuously regenerate his slime that was bounced away. Even when Loki and Feng Hao chipped away his slime, he could generate it after some time.


    That was why if they wanted to defeat him, they had to chip all his body away in a short period of time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, Theo''s power was different. He couldpletely erase his slime. No matter what he did, he couldn''t generate his slime if there was nothing to generate. In other words, Theo''s power was trying to reduce him back to nothing.


    If this continued, Theo would surely win.


    Of course, Theo didn''t have enough energy to use the Inverted World until the slime waspletely erased. However, he did have his clone that could continuously use that ability and have his energy replenished by simply making another copy of the real Theo.


    In other words, what he had to do was either force the real Theo to spend his energy or kill the clone every time he appeared.


    Thetter wouldn''t do much to Theo, but the former was hard to do. Theo was a master of illusion.


    When he fought him and his clone, there was no telling whether the one he hit was the real one or the clone.


    That was why the slime had no choice but to attack both him and the clone simultaneously.


    The second slime body tried to attack the second Theo while the main body nned to kill this first Theo, who seemed to be more threatening.


    The first slime bodyunched multiple bubbles into the air. These red bubbles had different shapes and sizes.


    Theo looked at them while clicking his tongue. He tried to fly around with his Telekinesis, but it seemed that the bubbles were formed by the things it had swallowed previously.


    He could find a car, a tree, a small brick, or even a huge building among them. Due to the difference in speed, size, and shape, he had a hard time flying around because there might be something small that suddenly sneaked up on him or a humongous bubble that swallowed him with its huge body.


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes. The slime was clever. The bubbles seemed to be made of water vapor instead of the slime''s body. This way, the slime wouldn''t really lose any body part if Theo decided to use his power to erase the bubble.


    Meanwhile, the second slime body had a different approach. Due to its smaller size, it couldn''t reproduce the attack that the main body used.


    Hence, the second slime body actually changed its body shape from a half sphere to aplete sphere. Then, a few tentacles appeared, but this time, the tentacles seemed to have a hole in the tip.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in surprise. The slime was actually bursting out water from the hole.


    ''The tentacles are hollow?'' Theo thought while trying to avoid the water. Because of the number of tentacles, his movement was limited. He even had to use his Magic Power to create a barrier that blocked the water for some time.


    At the same time, he also noticed that the water had a simr attribute. It could dissolve his power, but because it was water, not slime, it had to touch the target to dissolve it.


    Still, there was something that perplexed him.


    ''Is the water the slime''s element? Or is it the groundwater buried underground? Since the slime can prate the ground, it is possible that there is something that sucks the groundwater if there''s any�� This might be a bit more annoying than I thought.'' Theo took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart.

 Chapter 2081 Pressuring The Slime

    ?


    Theo tried to take on all kinds of possibilities, considering the enemy was the strongest monster in the world.


    But by the time he thought about it, the slime had changed its approach as if it didn''t want Theo to find out about his pattern.


    The hole in the tentacles was suddenly covered with excess slime, but surprisingly, the cover was perforated, causing the water to be sprayed.


    And with the amount of tentacles, it was practically impossible for Theo to escape.


    "Tsk. I showered a few hours ago. Don''t need it now." Theo clicked his tongue while forming a barrier in front of him. Luckily, when the water hit it, the dissolving power was not as strong as the previous attack.


    He could easily form another barrier to block the water before the previous barrier melted.


    Still, it cost him a lot of Magic Power just to maintain it. Sooner orter, he would run out of Magic Power to form a barrier while the slime could generate water for a long time.


    Theo''s expression became serious.


    "It seems that I have to use that��" Theo let out a long sigh. Theo pointed his hand at the tentacles.


    All of a sudden, the pressure from the water increased and the speed became so fast that Theo was being pushed back.


    It looked like the slime was releasing more power as if it had be a bit impatient to deal with Theo.


    Yet, the water pressure kept increasing to the point it became so big that the perforated lid that covered the tentacle''s tip was being ripped apart.


    As a result, the water returned to its original state, allowing Theo to avoid them pretty easily.


    "��" The slime was speechless. He thought, ''Did he just amplify my power to his advantage?''


    This was the first time he had seen someone like this. Normally, an enchanter would boost his or his allies'' abilities to overwhelm their enemies. But Theo actually used his power to imitate an Enchanter and boost the water, causing the enemies to slip up.


    However, the slime didn''t realize there was one more reason for Theo to use this ability.


    He was trying to check the amount of the water to recognize whether the water was made of Magic Power and his element or originated from the ground itself.


    ''Tsk. Groundwater.'' Theo gritted his teeth. ''I don''t know how deep the slime prates the ground, but there should be a ridiculous amount of water inside. In other words, the slime will be able to use that water until I die.''


    It would be troublesome if he let the slime do that. So, all he had to do was to force the slime to be unable to use the water.


    Unfortunately, he wasn''t Loki, who could change the gravity in his realm, causing the slime to float in the air. Even if he did it, the slime was connected to the main body and the connection was buried underneath the ground. So, even if he erased the gravity, the slime could easily remain on the ground.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Well, that''s the only option, I guess.'' Theo thought while pointing his hand at the slime once again.


    "Reverse World."


    He tweaked the elements in this world. Suddenly, the water crystallized and became harder to push. And because of the influx of water that turned into solid, the tunnel that connected the tentacle and the water underneath became plugged. If the slime continued to pour all the water, his body would be disoriented.


    "��" The slime knew that it was hard to kill Theo even if his power was stronger than him. So, the slime actually stopped sucking the water and changed his method. He also dissolved the solid water inside him.


    Seeing the slime had stopped, Theo immediately dove down while swinging his de. Multiple tentacles were chopped off in an instant due to his illusion.


    The slime immediately sent forth a tiny tentacle to reconnect them. This way, Theo''s illusion would be broken as well.


    But when the slime did it, Theo used his Inverted World.


    "!!!" The slime was startled when it lost connection to three of its tentacles. And there seemed to be two more whirlpools that appeared on top of the sliced parts as if it was trying to engulf his real body.


    In that instant, the slime retracted all the tentacles and abandoned all those tentacles that had flown.


    Without him realizing it, the slime had lost the same amount of slime that Feng Hao and Loki chipped away. On the one hand, it didn''t look much, considering it was just five percent of its original body. On the other hand, Theo did it alone and at a much faster speed.


    It was clear that the one who got a huge advantage against him was not a Singrity like Loki, but Theo.


    The main slime body also faced a simr challenge.


    As soon as Theo realized that the water hade from the ground and their power wasn''t as good as the red liquid, he immediately used his slime to open a path.


    Just by spreading his arms, the building, the car, and even a small boulder were split. This way, there was a path straight to the hole where he produced all those bubbles.


    Without hesitation, Theo flew straight toward it while using his Twisted Reality to pinch the hole that caused the eruption.


    Since it was a part of the slime''s body, it had the dissolving power, but because the slime was focusing on removing Theo''s previous illusion, he didn''t put enough power into it. As a result, the hole of the eruption was shut tight.


    With this, Theo had reached close enough to the slime''s body. He activated his Alter Ego to increase his Magic Power before using the Inverted World to erase it.


    Due to the surge of Magic Power, the speed of the removal was three times faster, causing it to look like Theo was drilling the slime''s body.


    The slime gritted his teeth. Looking at how both Theo easily spent his Magic Power made it hard to recognize which one was the clone.

 Chapter 2082 Annoying

    ?


    The slime looked at both Theo. Normally, the clone would be using all his power in order to inflict the most damage, while the real Theo conserved his energy so that he could replenish his clone''s energyter.


    That was what the slime would do if he was Theo.


    However, Theo was different. Both the real body and the clone tried their best to kill the slime in front of them without caring about their energy reserve. This way, it was impossible to find the real Theo among the two.


    However, what the slime didn''t know was that Theo was extremely vignt about the slime''s ability.


    After all, the slime had just dissolved the original Theo. Considering the slime could produce other humans or monsters with someone''s original power, the slime might do the same thing in order to stop Theo from getting the advantage.


    If the original Theo was resummoned by the slime, the situation would be two versus three. In addition to the slime''s ability, it would be impossible for Theo to defeat them.


    That was why Theo wanted the slime to be upied with the thought of finding him instead of the original Theo.


    ''So, the slime''s ability�� can it reproduce someone that it''s just absorbed right away? Can it grant power to other people easily? Or can the slime use the power itself?''


    Theo observed the slime for a while. But he hadn''t done anything to the original Theo''s power that he absorbed earlier.


    He thought the slime would create a few more soldiers with the original Theo''s devouring power. But if he wanted it, he should have done it right away.


    That was why he thought the slime was preparing something.


    ''It seems that the slime won''t be using that ability for some reason. It might be because it will make him vulnerable or�� it might be because it''s his trump card. Either way, I won''t get the answer without pressuring him.''


    Theo took a deep breath. He seemed to have made some resolutions. It would be too hard for him to continue without putting everyone on the line. Hence, he knew that he had to take a bit of risk to kill the slime.


    With that in mind, Theo finally began his move.


    The one in front of the second slime suddenly raised his hands, forming a huge ball fully with Magic Power.


    The slime didn''t feel anything different from this ball. So, when Theo threw it at him, the slime only formed a to catch the ball and use the Dissolve Power to make it disappear.


    But the moment it touched the, a tremendous pressure suddenly fell on top of him, pushing the ball.


    "!!!" The slime widened his eyes in shock. It turned out the ball had threeyers of Magic Power. They all had different characteristics as well as elements.


    Theo had seen the slime having a hard time stopping Feng Hao''s attack, so he knew that this kind of attack would be effective.


    The slime couldn''t dissolve his magic ball in an instant. At the same time, when it was caught by the, the magical ball felt like all the air inside suddenly came out, turning the big ball into that of a thickyer of Magic Power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Thisyer of Magic Power became the nket for the slime''s unique power. Then, the pressure started to increase as Theo sent forth the Ascension Step to crush the slime.


    The slime used all his strength to counter the pressure. He wanted to dissolve the pressure, but the magic nket was hindering him. That was why he had to focus on dissolving the nket first before the pressure.


    However, the slime didn''t realize that Theo''s original purpose was something different.


    Now that the slime was focusing on the nket, Theo used his Inverted World and tried to remove the slime.


    "!!!" Both the second body and the main slime had realized something.


    The Inverted World that Theo used was different from the previous attempts. The energy poured into it and the speed of him removing the slime was far faster than the previous attempts.


    If this continued, the slime might lose ten percent of its body before he finished dissolving the nket and the pressure.


    It turned out that the Theo in front of the second body was a clone. However, even though he had identified that the opponent in front of the first slime was the real one, he couldn''t attack him yet because the second slime needed the help from the main body.


    Without hesitation, the slime formed numerous spikes. They emerged from the ground and headed straight to Clone Theo.


    "��" Clone Theo nced at the spikes but chose to ignore them. He used everything he had in order to remove the slime.


    When the slime was about to reach him, he suddenly disappeared.


    The slime wobbled as if it was annoyed by Theo''s disappearance. However, one thing was clear.


    Theo had just retracted his clone. Although that attack had given him some damage, it wasn''t as significant as revealing his identity.


    Theo, on the other hand, didn''t have any change of expression. It seemed that everything was still within his n.


    In addition, Theo resummoned his clone with the help of the illusion. This illusion confused the slime once again.


    ''Is he using the illusion so tantly to let me know he is trying to hide his clone?'' The slime thought. It was true that the new Theo should be his clone. But with the tant illusion, it made the slime think there was a possibility that the new Theo was just an illusion on the outside while being the real Theo on the inside.


    That was why, even though he could believe ny percent that the new Theo was the clone. He still couldn''t forget the remaining ten percent where the new Theo was actually the real Theo.


    This was basically like flipping a coin. And Theo had a huge advantage in a mind battle like this.


    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Theo''s face as if everything had just gone ording to his n.

 Chapter 2083 Inverted World

    ?


    The slime had a hard time fighting against Theo. It seemed that after the previous defeat, Theo had done everything he could in order to deal with the slime.


    He realized that the slime might be strong and a trick wouldn''t be useful against absolute power. That was why he increased his strength to a level where the gap between them could be closed with a trick.


    And the more annoyed the slime became, the more everything went ording to Theo''s n.


    Though, Theo couldn''t really feel that happy. The slime might be annoyed by all these cheap tricks, but the longer the battle passed, the more the slime got used to it. By that time, all kinds of tricks he used would be useless.


    That was why he had to finish this battle as soon as possible.


    One of the two Theos pointed his hands at the slime, using the Inverted World once again.


    The slime suddenly changed its tactic. The reason why Theo could easily remove the slime was because he was moving pretty slowly due to his giant body.


    Hence, the slime changed his approach. He knew that he couldn''t move that quickly, so instead of moving quickly, he used something that disrupted Theo''s movement.


    "!!!" Theo was startled when numerous rocks suddenly flew toward him. The other Theo used his Magic Power to form a shield while the other Theo continued removing the slime.


    However, among those rocks hid a few rocks that originated from the water that was crystalized earlier.


    With it being covered in slime, the moment this crystalized water hit the barrier, it cracked the barrier. Then, the second one hit, widening the crack. The third one shattered the barrier.


    With this, there was nothing left that separated him from the rocks.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. Theo grabbed the other and used the Blink skill to escape.


    When they got out of the slime''s range, Theo couldn''t help but think, ''As expected, the slime hasn''t used all his strength yet. So, what should I do next?''


    Everything went ording to Theo''s n. He also knew that this wasn''t the limit of the slime, considering he was equal to several Saints. There was no way the slime would be this weak.


    That was why the first phase of his n consisted of how to make the slime reveal his strength.


    The answer was to annoy him. This way, the slime would attack him with full strength subconsciously. At the same time, Theo also managed to chip away some slime.


    Still, when the slime used this kind of power, he realized that the slime might have contained many things inside its body.


    ''Crystallized water�� If I''m not wrong, then the slime must have stored many things. Just like the rocks earlier, he might shoot trees or even real buildings instead of forming a bubble of such a thing.


    ''There is also a probability of another enemy appearing out of nowhere��''


    Now that Theo had finished the first phase of his n, he stepped up his game. It was obvious that the Inverted World might be the biggest weapon to kill the slime, but that alone wasn''t enough.


    So, Theo came up with another way to deal with the slime.


    He took out his artifact that had been reinforced by the previous God of Reality''s abilities.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Element, Space, Fate, Temperature, Sky, Force, and Earth��'' Theo muttered those seven abilities. It was different from the core of his Reality, which was filled with trickery, but it didn''t mean they weren''t important.


    To have an understanding of all seven forces, Theo could even create a better reality to be used in his trick.


    That was why when he raised this sword, the air temperature started to decrease. There was an invisible forceing from the sky and the slime suddenly received a vision.


    "!!!" The slime''s body was shaken because what he saw was Theo cutting his second body.


    He thought it was just Theo''s illusion at first, but Theo used the Fourth Authority of the Death Avatar, summoning all kinds of red threads from his body. And one of the threads was connected to the second body.


    He could dissolve this power, but Theo used his Blink to appear on top of the second body while waving his de.


    "!!!" The slime instinctively summoned numerous spikes from its body, targeting Theo or probably covering Theo''s eyes. Without his vision, there was no way Theo could apply his illusion.


    However, if he wanted to do it, he had to cover his clone''s eyes as well.


    By taking advantage of his clone''s vision, Theo used his illusion to split the second slime in half.


    The slime easily recognized the illusion and began to dissolve it, but the other Theo approached the main body while using the Inverted World.


    The main body hurriedly formed a shield in front of its body, trying to block the whirlpool. At the same time, there were a few tentacles that shot rubbles.


    If Theo remained, he would be beaten to death.


    Surprisingly, Theo didn''t care about it. Instead, he used the Irregr Guardian to form a spear. He imbued the Space Ability into this spear.


    The spear that would distort the space. Theo believed this in his heart. And with that thought in mind, Theo activated the Inverted World.


    Since Theo could erase a part of the slime from the world''s system, he could also do the reverse.


    In other words, by using the Inverted World, he added the spear that could distort the space into the world system and made itpletely real.


    He usually used his Authority to make the illusion real, but this was different. The former came from everyone''s belief, while thetter was built and registered by the world itself. It had be a fact.


    With a single wave of his hand, the spear flew toward the slime.


    "!!!" The slime felt something different from this spear and used a few of its tentacles to stop it.


    But surprisingly, let alone dissolving it, all the slime that came near the sword suddenly got distorted and pushed away. They simply couldn''t touch this spear at all.


    ''This is��'' The slime was truly shaken by this weird power that he seemed to need his trump card to stop it.

 Chapter 2084 Trump Card

    ?


    Theo''s spear continued on its path, distorting everything that stood in its way. This kind of spear shouldn''t have existed in the first ce. But Theo applied the space element into the spear while using his Inverted World to make an imagination exist.


    Unless the slime had another trump card, he wouldn''t be able to stop this spear. And with that, he could easily defeat the slime by making multiple containers with this kind of power and sealing the slime before erasing them one by one.


    However, the slime didn''t n to let everything go ording to Theo''s way.


    When the spear entered its body, the slime emitted a faint glow.


    "Huh?!" Theo furrowed his eyebrows as if he had just sensed something out of this world. "This is�� Don''t tell me��"


    The temperature in the air began to increase as the slime looked like it was releasing extraordinary heat. In addition to the glow, the red slime looked like that of a burning magma.


    "Magma?"


    In that instant, the spear had to take on both the Dissolve and Magma Power. At first, the spear could distort the space around it, including the power that tried to influence it.


    But the slime knew that Theo could only input a singlemand into it. In other words, the distorted space was only his body.


    In that case, what would happen if he changed his body?


    The slime was actually turning its body into magma. This way, the space enveloping the spear began to melt.


    In the end, the spear was reduced to nothing without being able to harm the slime at all.


    "��" Theo frowned. That magma alone was enough for him to specte a lot of things.


    ''Don''t tell me, the reason for the battle after the volcanic eruption is him? He is actually trying to use the magma for himself? No, with his power, he should be dissolving the magma and absorbing it.


    ''In that case, there was nothing such as the higher being''s interference? Everything that happened was actually caused by him?''


    Theo gritted his teeth. On the one hand, he was annoyed that he had made a wrong assumption. On the other hand, he realized that the situation was worse than he originally thought.


    The fact that the slime could turn into magma meant he could actually turn into anything that he absorbed. If he had absorbed a diamond, he might turn into one, increasing his toughness. There were also a few other minerals that were supposed to be harder than diamonds in the other world.


    If he had absorbed everything in this world, the slime could literally be anything. In addition, there was a possibility that this kind of power was not limited to an object.


    He might be able to alter his appearance since he had swallowed monsters and humans.


    If the slime turned into a human that had a concentrated slime or even became a flying monster that could fly around freely, the situation would be dire in that instant.


    Theo couldn''t help but click. The information he had to process increased drastically. And one wrong move might allow the slime tounch a sneak attack.


    ''Well, I guess he should at least be able to do this much if he wants to be the strongest monster in the world, right?'' Theo''s expression darkened.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He used his Inverted World to create something, but if the slime turned into something else that could counter his power, all kinds of attacks would just be useless.


    In other words, if he wanted to win this, he might have to ask for other people''s help. They could release other elemental attacks, which would be effective to him since the slime should only be able to transform into one single thing, not mixing it.


    ''Still, I have another question�� Can he use the power of the thing he absorbed?'' Theo frowned.


    He wouldn''t be able to find an answer no matter how hard he thought. So, he chose to attack the slime to experiment with it.


    With a single wave of his hand, Theo summoned a giant scythe with his Irregr Guardian.


    At the same time, the Death Avatar emerged from his shadow and grabbed the scythe.


    Theo applied the ice element and put it into an absolute zero. It shouldn''t be able to exist since it was the lowest temperature where there was no motion and heat.


    However, it was possible with the help of the Inverted World that turned his imagination into reality.


    The Death Avatar''s hands began to freeze due to the extraordinary coldness from the absolute zero.


    That was why Theo used the Death Avatar instead of wielding it himself.


    The Death Avatar moved forward, confidently swinging the scythe to hit the slime.


    When the magma slime got hit by the absolute-zero scythe, it started to freeze.


    "!!!" The slime was surprised by the strength of that absolute zero. But still, there was an exchange of energy.


    Even though Theo had used his ability to maintain the state of absolute zero, he still couldn''t beat thews of physics.


    So, the scythe gradually warmed up, leaving a state of absolute zero. However, the energy was still strong and continued to freeze the slime.


    The slime wasn''t nning to lose either. Before Theo could do anything to the frozen part, the slime actually absorbed all that part and covered it with anotheryer of slime. In addition, that area was turned into ice as if it was trying to match what Theo was nning to do.


    This ice was stic and could easily be reshaped. Meanwhile, the magma had warmed up the scythe to the point it was warm enough that the heat could prate the scythe.


    The slime took advantage of it by slipping some slime onto the scythe. And those slimes turned into magma. Instead of heating up the scythe, it actually jumped into the Death Avatar''s hands, melting it.


    "?!" The Death Avatar wanted to finish his swing, but he soon realized that the weight instantly disappeared as his arms werepletely severed from his hands. When the Death Avatar raised his head, the slime had already created a wave of slime and engulfed the Death Avatar, dissolving itpletely.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth, ring at the slime.

 Chapter 2085 Change Of Plan

    ?


    "I have swallowed every material in this world. No matter what you do, it''s useless. You might be strong, but my power is superior to yours. You have no chance of winning, Theodore Griffith. And you shall me your foolishness when you rejected me!" The slime spoke again.


    However, it didn''t really matter. Theo had chosen his path, and no matter what, he would win this battle.


    Theo summoned another spear with his Irregr Guardian. This time, he imbued Light Element into it.


    The slime began emitting golden light. The light was so strong that it would blind everyone near it.


    Theo threw this spear toward the slime.


    Before, the slime was still adjusting to his trump card. But now that he had gotten used to it, he sent forth three tentacles to stop this light.


    The tentacles had a simr appearance. All of them were ck and they seemed to be able to absorb everything.


    That alone was enough to let him know that this was Original Theo''s ability.


    The Devouring Power was like that of a ck hole where the light couldn''t escape.


    Theo''s expression became worse and worse.


    It seemed that all his power wouldn''t work against the slime.


    Hence, Clone Theo chose to attack this time. He pointed his palm at the slime and used the Inverted World in its original form. He tried to erase the slime''s existence.


    The slime started to disappear. Even the Devouring Power couldn''t deal with it. However, once the slime turned into a blue metal, the distortion suddenly stopped.


    "!!!" Theo was startled because the information he had to work with had changed.


    Noticing the slight change in the ability, the slime couldn''t help but be happy. "It seems that your power is simr to mine. You can erase something that you have understood. Just now, I have used that dead human''s power to change my body continuously. That way, you wouldn''t be able to erase me without processing the new information."


    The slime didn''t even bother to hide what he had done earlier. After all, Theo should already know what the Heavenly Sovereign was capable of. And it wouldn''t really take a long time for Theo to realize it.


    In fact, by telling him, he could taunt Theo even more. At first, Theo might not be someone who could be easily disturbed by cheap provocation. But if he kept doing it while pushing Theo back, there woulde a time when Theo snapped. He had just to wait for that opportunity.


    Theo hadn''t given up.


    He and his clone moved in opposite directions while pointing their hands toward the slime.


    Thetter sent forth multiple tentacles. They seemed to be ready to change into anything to counter Theo''s ability. When they were close enough, they would then dissolve Theo.


    Still, Theo didn''t hesitate to release his attack.


    *Bam!*


    With a single punch, a thunderp reverberated in everyone''s ears as the shock waveing from the sound exploded and blew away the tentacles.


    Surprisingly, the slime got sttered from this kind of attack. So, the slime changed its form into that of a metal so that it couldn''t be blown away.


    But this was what Theo had been waiting for. A sword suddenly appeared in front of his hand.


    The clone grabbed it and swung downwards by using the illusion. The tentacle that hardened earlier suddenly got cut with the illusion.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The tentacles around the clone ended up hitting and dissolving him, but the clone had done his job.


    Now that a part of the tentacle was cut from the main body, Theo immediately used his power to remove it.


    "!!!" Theo''s actions startled the slime. Since the connection had been severed, even if it was just an illusion, the slime couldn''t pour any Magic Power into the tentacle, let alone change its form.


    And during that time, Theo used the Inverted World to erase that tentacle.


    Theo couldn''t help but smirk, saying, "Thanks for being a fool."


    The slime''s body shook. He never thought Theo would sacrifice his clone just for a single attack. In addition, Theo even waited for the slime to turn into something else.


    "As expected, you can''t turn back or dissolve my power when you are changing your form��" Theo said.


    As he said, the slime had changed the attribute of his body. This way, the dissolve power should hide for the time being since he didn''t want to absorb his own body because it was made of different things from his slime.


    But Theo took advantage of that timing to cut his tentacle and remove it. With this, Theo had cut more than ten percent of his body.


    "��" The slime became more and more cornered as time passed, even though the slime had just released his trump card.


    "It seems that your body is not the only thing that is big. Your mouth is equally big. Unfortunately, you are all bark but no bite." Theo snorted.


    Instead of Theo, the slime ended up getting provoked.


    "Time!"


    "Time? Are you sure you''re stopping the time now? Maybe everything is just an illusion."


    Suddenly, two people''s voices echoed from near them.


    Theo and the slime couldn''t help but stop for a moment.


    It turned out Aiden and Loki ended uping here or it might be because their battle was so fierce, they ended up reaching this ce. They didn''t have any intention to intrude on other battlefields, but it seemed that their opponent''s strength was stronger than they expected.


    Loki couldn''t help but nce at the slime. "Oi, oi. How can you be pushed back by him? You should have the strength to kill him, no? Should I tell you about his weakness? No, let''s change the strategy. Let''s fight together."


    Aiden also appeared next to Theo while stating with a calm tone. "It seems that they are nning to get rid of you by fighting together. What are we going to do, Theo?"


    Theo and the slime seemed to have the same decision as they replied at the same time. "Yeah. Let''s change our n."


    The slime knew that Theo''s power might not beparable to his, but his brain allowed him to surpass him.


    Meanwhile, Theo knew that the God of Mischief had seen everything about him. So, he would be at a disadvantage if they fought together. So, it was better to ept the Time God''s offer.


    However, there was another ident that shook the entire world.


    "Gah!" All of a sudden, Theo spat a mouthful of blood with eyes full of shock. "Huh?"

 Chapter 2086 Death

    ?


    Theo Group''s Headquarters.


    "Huh?" Leonardo, Agata, Ne, and everyone in the room couldn''t help but drop their jaws. They simply couldn''t believe what they saw.


    On the one hand, the situation had already reached a point where one mistake could kill them. On the other hand, they realized that it was only limited to them, not theirs.


    "Theo!" Agata couldn''t help but shout, calling his name. She waspletely horrified because she never thought the situation would be this ridiculous.


    Leonardo, who sat next to her, was also dumbstruck. Hepletely had no idea what to say.


    He wanted to call Theo''s name, but it was useless since the other party wouldn''t hear it. It wasn''t that he hated them or anything. He just didn''t have the energy to do it.


    "This is�� Why?" Leonardo gasped. "Why would he do such a thing? Does he not know that the entire army would copse if he did such a thing? Or is it his aim?"


    Leonardo''s body was shaking. Even he never expected this.


    Ne couldn''t do or say anything. She waspletely frozen.


    There was no one who expected something like this. That was why they were thrown into chaos.


    Leonardo said with a cracking voice. "Why did the Time God kill Theo?"


    Yes. What they saw was the Time God killing Theo by stabbing his heart with his right hand like how Loki killed the Heavenly Sovereign.


    On the battlefield, Theo was staring at the slime, his current opponent.


    However, he noticed the fluctuation of Magic Power from the Time God. It was obvious that the Time God was nning to use his power to fight against the slime and Loki.


    But it turned out the Time God actually used his power to freeze time for a moment. He used that split second to appear behind Theo and pierce his heart.


    "Gah!" Theo spat a mouthful of blood as the blood cirction in his body was interrupted. The pain wasn''t something he couldn''t handle. But the shock made him look down, trying to find the cause of the pain.


    It was at that time he realized that the Time God was the culprit.


    "You��" Theo''s head turned around weakly.


    The Time God didn''t say anything as he pulled out his hand, letting Theo fall down.


    "!!!" There was also one more person that was shocked after witnessing this betrayal. He was none other than the God of Mischief.


    "What? What did��!!!" The God of Mischief suddenly felt another fluctuation of Magic Power, but this time from the side. "Not good!"


    The slime actually extended its tentacle, trying to swallow him and dissolve him. After seeing how Theo died, he realized that the slime and the Time God was in cahoots.


    He nced to the side, finding the other Theo. He didn''t know whether this Theo was the real one or the clone. Nheless, as long as Theo was still alive, he could do something to the other self.


    He was the same. He had his clone with him, but the slime seemed to have expected it and sent two tentacles, each to their respective target.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    In other words, the slime wanted topletely dissolve him since he was capable of doing so, unlike the Time God, who had limited power and size.


    Unlike Theo, the God of Mischief was a Singrity Rank. In addition, he had seen what happened to Theo. So, it wasn''t that hard to specte what the slime was nning to do.


    As soon as he connected the dots, he immediately moved away, trying to escape from this ce.


    However, everything changed when he was about to move. His body suddenly stopped as if something invisible was restraining him.


    Normally, it would be impossible to restrain him even with Magic Power. But the God of Mischief somehow couldn''t move.


    "Kh. I can''t move? No, wait!" The God of Mischief gritted his teeth, looking at the Time God. He realized that the Time God actually froze the time around him. With that, there was no way his body could move past the frozen area.


    And with that, the tentacles swallowed both Loki while using the Dissolve Power to start melting him.


    "No��!" The God of Mischief released all his Magic Power, but it was toote. The slime had dropped on top of him, covering his body.


    When he used the Magic Power, the Magic Power was dissolved immediately. Even if he nted the illusion right inside the slime''s mind, it didn''t matter anymore since his body was already covered in slime.


    That was why the God of Mischief gradually disappeared inside the tentacles.


    However, the God of Mischief didn''t forget to utter onest thing, confirming the doubt that everyone had this whole time.


    "You�� are the spy."


    He was ring at the Time God. Yes, the Time God turned out to be the slime''s spy.


    To think the world''s strongest man would submit to their enemy before the fight, it was a huge blow to the human race. In addition, the Time God had done a lot of things to help the slime, including killing one of Theos and helping the slime eliminate the God of Mischief.


    There was no way everyone could believe it. In the previous battle, the Time God appeared on the battlefield, protecting the people. He had even killed multiple King ss Monsters.


    In this war, the Time God also killed a few King ss Monsters and even aided the human race. But to think that everything was just his n to make them believe him�� it was so mortifying.


    Everything the Time God did was to make them believe that he was his ally. But when they thought about it, the Time God rarely made a move because he called himself an ''observer.''


    Yes, he referred himself as the ''observer.'' On the one hand, he looked like he was trying to do his best after having the book about his future. On the other hand, he had never lied to them. He was indeed an observer but for the slime. That made him the spy.


    And Theo, who witnessed all this, knew that he had to escape right away.


    Thest Theo was humanity''s hope. They couldn''t lose, so he had to do everything to escape.


    Unfortunately, it was toote. The Time God had stopped the time once again as he approached Theo in this frozen world.


    "Goodbye, Theodore Griffith. You are strong but not strong enough."

 Chapter 2087 Despair

    ?


    "What? What had just happened?" The president mmed the table while rising from his seat, staring at the screen in disbelief.


    No one in the room could exin it as well.


    "Huh?" The one who scolded Theo earlier dropped his jaw as if he had just made the biggest mistake in his life.


    The others who hated Theo suddenly fell silent. ''Hate'' might already be a luxury for them.


    After all, with two of humanity''s strongest fighters dead, there would be nothing to stop the enemies anymore. In addition, the person they trusted the most, the Time God, had actually betrayed them.


    It was shocking beyond belief. If they could somehow wake up from this dream, they would do it without hesitation.


    However, this was the reality. It turned out that the fighters they hated the most were the savior of the world. Meanwhile, the person they trusted the most as well as the one who was registered as the strongest man in the world had joined the other side.


    Looking at how they cooperated, it was clear that they had been working together for a long time. Even a fool would realize that the Time God was the actual spy of the slime.


    "This is impossible."


    "No. This can''t be true."


    "Oi. You can''t break down like this. We have to think of a solution!"


    "What solution? Can''t you see what happened there? The Time God has betrayed us and Theodore Griffith has died. Do you think there are any other people who can turn around the situation?"


    "Not good. The monsters are gaining momentum again. If this continues, they will be able to break through within fifteen minutes."


    "Humanity�� is done for."


    Everyone, who witnessed what happened, fell into despair. No matter how hard they tried to think of a solution, there was nothing that could change the oue of this battle.


    No one had ever predicted this oue. That was why they couldn''t find any hope in this battle as well as the entire human race.


    ��


    Theo''s death actually had an impact on one more person. It was Maya.


    Maya had been supporting the group with all her money. Theo would always be there, standing on top of her like a true leader. She had been chasing after his back, trying to defeat him.


    However, when she witnessed Theo''s death, everything suddenly crumbled. She might have gotten ustomed to Theo''s presence that she never asked these questions.


    What if Theo couldn''t surpass me? What if Theo couldn''t even be my opponent again? What would I do if there was no one who could push me further? What�� would happen if he was not there anymore?


    Maya realized that she had lost her goal, the goal that drove her forward.


    From behind the screen, Maya muttered in disbelief. "Oi, you gotta be kidding me. Oi, Theo! Theodore Griffith! What the fuck are you doing right now? Are you dying?"


    Maya clenched her fists. She started to be in denial. "Oi, you motherfucker. Get up right now. I know that you''re better than this. You should have seen through this kind of scheme, right? You are Theodore Griffith, right?"


    She suddenly realized that Theo had done a lot of risky things. In fact, all his ns carried a huge risk every time. The reason why he could achieve a lot of things within a few years was because the risk he took was as big as the reward.


    He managed to overwhelm his enemies this whole time, but this was the first time he saw someone outsmarting Theo. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ��


    Just like her, the other soldiers, who saw what happened, couldn''t help but fall into despair.


    Some of them even dropped their weapons. They had been fighting vigorously, trying to stop the monsters from reaching the rear.


    However, when they saw their top fighters die and their Time God betrayed them, the result was clear. There was no way they could do anything against all these enemies.


    "Impossible."


    "There''s no way we can win this battle."


    "There''s no hope anymore."


    Those who had been chanting ''Fight, fight, fight!'' stopped and became horrified. They couldn''t encourage the others anymore since the enemies were simply too strong.


    While those people started dropping to their knees, the Time God looked at the slime with a serious expression. "I have finally done my parts."


    "Good work. You have trulypleted your tasks. I am impressed, Aiden Turner."


    "We already have a deal." The Time God snorted.


    "Of course." The slime seemed to be happy about the current predicament. He extended his tentacle.


    The Time God furrowed his eyebrows and tried to dip his right hand into the slime.


    The slime dissolved the Time God''s body. But one secondter, a new hand was formed. This hand was made of red slime.


    After seeing that, the Time God finally entered the tentacle with his whole body.


    It only took an instant for his body to disintegrate and return to its form but with the red slime filling his inside.


    "How are you feeling?" The slime asked with a confident tone.


    The Time God looked around his body and smiled. "This is perfect. A body that doesn''t age and a situation where I won''t be the one to die."


    The slime remained silent, but he knew what he was talking about. They had met in the past. And the Time God offered to work with him in exchange for an immortal body.


    That was right, the Time God had once said that he had done everything, but the end of his life never changed.


    That was why he had to take extreme measures. He asked the slime an immortal body and with his help, they should be able to ovee anything. This was the Time God''s answer to continue living after this battle.


    And this action truly made all humans fall into despair.


    "There is still one more thing to do." The slime reminded him after getting the confirmation about the new body.


    The Time God looked at the human soldiers and said, "Of course. I''m ready. It''s time to wipe out the rest of humanity."

 Chapter 2088 Fooling The Mischief And The Trickster?

    ?


    "The Time God and the slime. This is impossible," said one of the soldiers on the battlefield. Since his position was slightly leaning to the back, no monsters were near him for a while. That was why he had time to look at the battle far ahead, even though the distance was quite big.


    However, without sound or concrete image, if he tracked those dots that moved around in the red line, he would realize that the Time God and the Slime had joined forces. Meanwhile, Loki and Theo had been defeated.


    After such a betrayal, their morale plummeted. With the Time God focused on them, it was better to just ept their fate.


    And he wasn''t the only one who saw such a thing. There were countless soldiers who witnessed their battle.


    They reacted in a different way. Some, who were still trying to be positive, tried to encourage others. Some, who were looking at their condition realistically, couldn''t help but fall into despair while muttering their conditions to let others know. Meanwhile, those who were negative ended up dropping their weapons. Their actions made the people around them curious. Once they knew, they reacted differently as well.


    Ultimately, the information spread and it didn''t take too long for the people to know about it.


    And the frontline started to copse because the result would remain the same.


    Even themanders didn''t know how to encourage the people anymore.


    But before the army copsed, a huge ray of light suddenly appeared from the ground, shining brightly.


    "!!!" The soldiers were confused and surprised. On the one hand, they didn''t know why someone would still fight and even use this kind of power since the oue wouldn''t change. On the other hand, the light actually gave them a warm feeling as if it was trying to encourage them. Some of them even felt a surge of strength that would allow them to stop the monsters.


    They were shocked because there wasn''t anyone capable of turning around the situation�� except for one person.


    The person was standing in the air, using her Spiritual Energy to let her float. With a sharp re, he looked down on the people as well as the monsters.


    She took a deep breath with her cigarette before shouting at the top of her lungs. She even transmitted her voice with the Magic Power. And the amount was so big that everyone on the battlefield would hear her voice.


    "Don''t you dare to fucking give up! If you give up, I''m going to kill your entire family!"


    "!!!"


    Those who weren''t fighting had the time to raise their heads, finding the woman.


    "That''s��"


    "The Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric."


    That was right. The person who hade to encourage them and turn around the situation was none other than Alexandra Boric.


    Her words were crude, but the meaning was clear, especially in this situation.


    ''The battle is not over yet, so don''t you dare to give up.''


    They didn''t know why, but there was a kind of admiration that suddenly appeared in their hearts when they saw Alexandra Boric. She might not be a strong fighter among the top ten experts, but she never gave up.


    Alexandra Boric stated once again. "Rather than getting killed over nothing, you better use that useless life of yours to drag your enemy down with you, Motherfuckers!"


    The people ground their teeth. There was always a bad brand regarding the mafia. Yet, they, who were supposed to fight until the end, gave up and got encouraged by the mafia.


    They felt ashamed. They wanted to dig the ground just to hide themselves from the embarrassment.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, they were in the middle of a war. There was only one thing they could do to wash away their shame.


    It was to fight.


    "Fight!"


    "Drag them down."


    "We might die after this, but not after taking ten monsters with us!"


    "Die!"


    A lot of soldiers shouted as they released all their abilities in order to turn around the situation.


    They stopped the monsters'' advance and tried to turn around the situation. Alexandra used her abilities to increase their abilities.


    With this, the battle would soon reach another stalemate.


    Of course, that would only happen if there was no one interfering. Obviously, there was no way the slime and the Time God would allow them to regain theirposure.


    The slime said, "It seems those humans have managed to stop the momentum��"


    "I''m going to destroy their morale once again." The Time God nodded. He understood the slime''s intention when talking about it.


    Although the Time God had been reborn with his slime, he still had his own consciousness. That was why he had to make sure the Time God was on his side. The only way to do it was to make him the enemy of humanity by destroying those people.


    With this, there was no way to turn back.


    But when the Time God was about to move, a huge body suddenly appeared from above.


    "!!!" The Time God sensed no power behind it, so he just used his hand to deflect it, allowing the body to fall down to the ground.


    When he nced at it, he realized that the body was half-fish, half-human.


    "Hmm?" The Time God frowned, ncing at the body. "Isn''t that the merman, one of the World ss Monsters from our side?"


    The Goddess of Death suddenly descended in front of them with a cold expression. She was actually ring at the slime as if she hated him for killing her father.


    But the Time God said, "What are you doing? The battle is over. Even if you try to stop us, you won''t be able to do anything. We have killed both that guy and Theodore Griffith. There is no more hope for humanity."


    "That''s what he said��" The Goddess of Death shook her head helplessly as if she was disappointed in him.


    "Hmm?" The Time God suddenly felt a fluctuation of Magic Power from the ground in front of him. Even the slime focused his sense on that spot, realizing there were two people sitting in that ce.


    One of them had blue hair, while the other had ck hair. The blue hair was holding a bottle of drink while the other had a bag of popcorn.


    The one with the ck hair leaned to the other while asking, "Look at them, Theo. To think those two fools actually think they can outsmart the God of Mischief and the God of Tricksters."

 Chapter 2089 Hidden Scheme

    ?


    "Look at them, Theo. To think those two fools actually think they can outsmart the God of Mischief and the God of Tricksters."


    Theo rolled his eyes. "I''m a human and will refer myself as such. Though, if it''s just a title, I guess it''s pretty suitable for me. But yeah�� those with obsession are always easy to control."


    With a single wave of his hand, the bottle and the popcorn disappeared since everything was just an illusion.


    They just let the slime and the Time God think they had killed them.


    The Time God''s expression turned grim. "You�� How are you still alive? I thought I had killed both you and your clone��"


    The God of Mischief shook his head in disappointment. "Look at this dude, he asked me again even though I''ve told him the answer a few times already��"


    "Well, whatever." Theo shrugged. He lifted his body in the air, showing to the world that Theodore Griffith hadn''t died.


    The God of Mischief shrugged his shoulders, doing the same. With their sudden appearance, the world was shocked once again.


    The slime wobbled his body as if he hade to a realization. Meanwhile, the Time God gritted his teeth while shouting, "How�� I should have stopped your��!"


    Before he finished his words, trigrams appeared both on top of his head and beneath his shoes.


    "!!!" The Time God hurriedly used his Time to stop the trigrams, but surprisingly, the trigrams couldn''t be frozen. They continued to release their Magic Power and eventually erupted their elements.


    The top released a fiery red me while the other summoned a chilling ice crystal.


    The Time God gritted his teeth, using his Time to elerate the movement of his body. His body glitched before it suddenly disappeared.


    It only took a second before he reappeared next to the slime. His right shoulder was charred by the me while the ice crystal grazed his left thigh.


    "Kh." The Time God raised his head, finding the real culprit of that attack. After all, there was only one person that had this kind of ability. "Feng Hao."


    Yes, Feng Hao had stood next to Theo and the God of Mischief while smirking. "How could my ambush fail? This was my first attack of the day�� Tsk, what a bummer."


    "I already told you that a surprise attack wouldn''t work that well for an opponent of that level." Theo sighed.


    With this, Loki, Theo, Hel, and Feng Hao were standing side by side, ready to fight the slime and the Time God.


    "I see�� We''ve been had." The slime, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke up. It seemed that he had realized everything, especially from Feng Hao''s words. "You have seen through everything before the battle even begins�� That''s why you used your own clone to imitate the so-called Heavenly Sovereign��"


    "Hahaha!" The God of Mischiefughed.


    "��" Feng Hao smirked while ncing at Loki and Theo. He was truly shocked when the two discussed their ns with him. The method was absurd and unorthodox.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But if their allies couldn''t even predict something like that, there was no way the enemies could see through them.


    Feng Hao couldn''t help but remember the discussion they had beforehand.


    Back then, Feng Hao asked, "So, I''m going to fight the slime with you?"


    "Well, yes and no." The God of Mischief made a mysterious smile.


    "Huh? Which one�� I couldn''t split myself, you know."


    "I''m telling you this��" The God of Mischief pointed to the right. A trigram suddenly appeared all of a sudden. This trigram looked like Feng Hao and could easily form any kind of element. In addition, the trigram actually formed another body, which lookedpletely the same as Loki."


    "This is�� Clone. And you can even use my trigram? No, should I say it''s an imitation?" The Heavenly Sovereign gasped. "So, what you mean by your answer is that�� your clone will be the one to apany you in battle, but you''re going to use my form��"


    "Yeah." The God of Mischief nodded with a smile.


    "But why should we do that? I mean, I can see that you can imitate me perfectly. But do you mean I won''t be fighting the whole time?"


    "Of course. You''re going to conserve your energy."


    "But why do you use such a n? I mean, if we''re going to fight the slime, it''s better if we go all out from the start." Feng Hao frowned, confused.


    The God of Mischief raised one finger. "Have you forgotten about the spy?"


    "Ah! So, you want me to find the spy among us? That''s why you''re going to fool everyone�� I see. It''s a clever n. Once the spy reveals himself, I will defeat the spy before helping you."


    "No, you''re misunderstanding something." The God of Mischief shook his head helplessly. Feng Hao was eager to prove himself. That was why he tried to reply to him. However, he was wrong the whole time.


    "We have already found the spy."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock. On the one hand, it would be better if they killed the spy before the battle started. On the other hand, there must be some reasons why they didn''t do it. The Heavenly Sovereign looked down, falling into deep thought.


    "Well, it will take too long if you try to suspect it�� But the clue is this�� Why do you think Theo made a half-hearted investigation regarding the spy? How did those monsters suddenly appear on other battlefields? And the answer was not Space Element."


    "Huh�� Are you saying that the spy is someone who helps them? But if he wants to transport them to other battlefields without the Space Element, then�� Wait, don''t tell me." The Heavenly Sovereign looked at Theo in shock. "The reason why you couldn''t do anything to the spy right now��"


    Theo smiled. "You should have heard something like this, ''You are innocent until proven otherwise,'' There is one person who has the ability to transport monsters without Space Element since the only thing you have to do is to elerate their time. And with the state of the previous war, it''s kind of obvious who the spy is and why we couldn''t do anything to him.


    "That''s why we have to show the world that he is the spy before dealing with him�� Yeah, we have to make that bastard reveal himself first. Yeah, that bastard, Aiden Turner, the Time God."

 Chapter 2090 Reverse

    ?


    "Ugh��" The Heavenly Sovereign was speechless for two different things. First, he never thought that the Time God would be the spy. But when he thought about it carefully, the only person that could be a spy was him.


    He was at the level where he could oversee everything and even had a certain degree of influence. However, the Vice President would have spilled some secrets regarding the Time God if that was the case.


    The fact that he didn''t tell them anything meant they didn''t know each other. After all, the Vice President might have a high position, but it couldn''t bepared to the Time God.


    That was why the Vice President didn''t know anything about it to avoid spilling the beans.


    The second reason was even though they knew the Time God was the spy, how would they even n to kill him?


    The Heavenly Sovereign asked, "I know that we have to reveal his identity as a spy first, but there is one big problem that you have solved beforehand. He is the guardian of the base, right? Won''t it be a problem if hees out? So, you should think of how to lure him out first before even thinking about revealing his identity."


    But to his surprise, both Loki and Theo had a poker face, devoid of interest. It was just a stare, but it seemed that both of them were asking whether he was a fool or not.


    With a tint of disappointment, Theo sighed while saying, "I have already made my preparation, you know. Why do you think the Mafia Queen stays hidden this whole time?"


    "Huh?" Feng Hao paused for a moment, contemting the situation. It didn''t take too long for him to realize Theo''s n. "Wait a minute. Don''t tell me, you are nning to have the Mafia Queen to rece the Time God��"


    "The Mafia Queen''s ability is more suitable to work within the base." Theo raised one finger. "There is also one more person who will be responsible for forcing him to leave the base."


    Feng Hao gasped, recalling the n Theo had given earlier. "The War Saint."


    "Exactly. The War Saint is basically the bestmander you will ever have. Even if the Time God doesn''t want to lower his head, he will have to. After all, this is an order from the bestmander in the world. Refusing it is the same as not wanting the human race to win. So, in order to keep the facade a bit longer, the Time God will have to leave.


    "And once he leaves, there won''t be any dangers that befall the city, allowing the Mafia Queen to leave after some time.


    "I have brought a lot of experts from the outside. With their presence, there should be a feeling of security inside the base. So, taking advantage of it, we can create a situation where everything is going to be fine."


    Feng Hao nodded in understanding. It seemed he still underestimated Theo. He thought it would be hard to find the spy. Yet, Theo actually had found out about the spy and had already made a n to expose him.


    If the Time God was truly the spy and they could bring him out of the base, all they had to think of was how to expose him.


    Feng Hao asked, "Still, the Time God won''t be helping the slime right at the bat. So, how do we create a situation to expose him?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The God of Mischief and Theo looked at each other.


    "Do you remember the first message I gave you through that little snake?" The God of Mischief smirked.


    Theo nodded with a smile. Just thinking of it was nostalgic.


    "Have you ever thought of these questions�� Will a man be called ruthless if he kills fifty people to save a million lives? Will a man be called a bad guy if he joins the enemy''s side to protect the people on his side? A tricky question, but the answer wille to you sooner orter. And you shall understand the weight of these two questions in the future." Theo muttered those words as if it had been stuck in his mind for a long time.


    The God of Mischief smirked. "So, have you gotten the answer?"


    "Of course." Theo smiled. "The answer is obvious. That guy can''t be called ruthless or a bad guy. Instead, we should call him weak."


    It was indeed a tricky question as the answer was not within the question itself. And that answer truly came to him sooner orter.


    Theo had seen a lot of things, including his own weakness. When he was weak, he couldn''t even retaliate. When he didn''t have the ability, the Griffith Family pushed him around and forced him to flee, leaving his loved one behind.


    When he was powerless, fate was the one that controlled him. That was why he could understand the questions when he gained strength.


    "I guess it''s true that if you want to see someone''s real personality, you should give him the power and influence." Theo smiled. "Thanks to it, I have also seen my true nature."


    The God of Mischief had the same cunning smile as Theo''s. Both of them had understood the weight of those questions. If they wanted to make something impossible possible, they needed strength. Now that they had the strength to do it, what would they do?


    The God of Mischief asked, "So, I think what we''re going to do is obvious, right?"


    "Of course." Theo chuckled. "It''s time to troll the human race at least once. You call me a trickster, so I think I have to fulfill my role for once."


    When Feng Hao heard their conversation, he couldn''t help but take a step back, feeling something bad from their discussion.


    "Oi, don''t tell me, you guys�� are you nning to��" Feng Hao gulped down. There was only one type of troll that could fool the entire human race.


    And that was exactly what they were nning to do. Both of them answered at the same time. "Let''s make the hero a viin, and make the viin a hero!"

 Chapter 2091 Fight

    ?


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but smile when he remembered that n. They said it without any heavy feelings, but that decision surely put a lot of pressure on their shoulders.


    After all, a lot of soldiers ended up dying due to their decision. However, he couldn''t think of any better idea.


    They made Loki, the human race''s hope, be a viin. By joining hands with the slime, they created a situation where the Time God could be a hero.


    However, everyone knew that the Time God was the spy. And there woulde a time where the Time God would make a move. At that time, he would make sure that Theo and the God of Mischief died.


    Of course, there was a chance that the slime wouldn''t attack Loki, considering he had switched sides. But the slime surely knew that Loki was a shrewd man. Having him on his side would be dangerous.


    Hence, the slime would definitely make a move when the opportunity arrived. He had to turn Loki into slime first so that he had control over his life. It would be fine if Loki''s personality remained intact after being reborn since he could easily make his life disappear with just a thought.


    Sadly, the slime didn''t have the ability to capture Loki by himself even with a surprise attack. That would be where the Time God took part.


    In that instant, the Time God would show his true nature and kill Theo, who was adamant about staying on the human race''s side while helping the slime stop Loki.


    That was where both Loki and Theo managed to troll the world. They knew what kind of implication would ur once the Time God showed his true identity.


    That was why Theo and the God of Mischief had the same thought back then.


    "Still, wouldn''t it be too dangerous if you take this kind of risk?" The Heavenly Sovereign frowned. "I mean, one wrong move will cost you your life."


    "Nope." Theo shook his head. "I have always felt something different from the Time God whenever I see his status. As you might already know, my eyes allow me to see your status directly, including your skill.


    "And despite being called the strongest in the world, the Time God feels�� a bit too normal. That''s why I know he has been hiding something. I analyze his power and even get the help of the world and I find out that he has been freezing his own system for a long time. It''s already weird for someone to still have their system after the apocalypse, so�� something like this is already within my expectation.


    "When the time that has been frozen this whole time starts moving again, it will not stop until the very end. That''s why Loki will be fighting the Time God." Theo looked at Loki as if asking him to continue.


    "Right. There is a possibility that he is close to Singrity Rank, but although the possibility is rtively low, he might have surpassed the Mythical Rank. That''s why I''ll be his opponent. I want to make him think that everything he sees might just be an illusion.


    "When the decisive momentes, he will think otherwise, especially if both of me and my clone are dead.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That''s where Theo wille in. He will use his illusion to make it look like we both have died. With this, the Time God will show his true nature, reversing the situation around. And then boom, hahahaha, you''re fooled. We''re not dead yet." Lokiughed out loud as if he imagined the shock everyone would experience when they realized both of them were still there.


    Theo sighed and exined it. "Basically, we''re going to have Hel to stop them. Well, you can say that Hel will be holding back during the whole fight and only finish it when we''re ''dead.'' Then, we will pop back up with you. This time, it will be four of us fighting the slime and the Time God.


    "This is the ideal situation. There mighte a time when their power can ovee our trick, but yeah, Loki and I will make adjustments. All that''s left is for us to act."


    "Right? Maybe I should be a citizen and strive to be an actor?" The God of Mischief looked down as if he was thinking about that option seriously.


    Theo sighed. "Well, that''s our n. I want you to hide the whole time. Of course, I have a separate task for you."


    After listening to them, Feng Hao couldn''t help but think, ''Haha, Trickster and Mischief are bad news. Even if you manage to fool them, they will make it so that you think you have fooled them, while what truly happens is the other way around. And if you can''t fool them, then you are just going to dance in their palm. I feel kind of bad for our opponents to deal with these two.''


    Feng Hao gradually opened his eyes, feeling confident. He had conserved his strength this whole time. So, he was nning to go all out to chip away at the enemies'' strength.


    Feng Hao blinked once before his eyes started to emit a golden light. "Since my Magic Power is still full, I am going to work extremely hard. The rest of you can rest for a while."


    "Don''t think highly of yourself, human." Hel snorted while releasing her ck-colored Magic Power. She stood on the left, stating, "Lest you will be disappointed."


    "Heh." Feng Hao smirked.


    Loki rolled his eyes while summoning his clone. "Well, I''m still the one responsible for that annoying time guy."


    Theo also summoned his clone. "Even though I''m not at the singrity rank yet, we still can win this fight."


    All of them couldn''t help but smile, knowing how true his words were. They could finally see the ray of victory in the battle that was supposed to end up in their defeat.


    Theo, Loki, Hel, and Feng Hao. Four of humanity''s strongest fighters stood side by side to fight against the world''s strongest monster and the strongest traitor.

 Chapter 2092 Way Of Utilizing Ones Ability

    ?


    The Mafia Queen, Alexandra Boric, was smiling when looking at the lineup from afar. It was truly the strongest lineup she could think of.


    She couldn''t help but remember when Theo came to her doorstep. Unlike the others, the Mafia Queen was excluded from thest meeting because she was to remain hidden the whole time.


    "It''s surprising to see you visiting me like this. Does this mean I will have a role in the uing battle?" The Mafia Queen smirked, teasing Theo. Of course, she already knew he wanted to hide her just for this battle.


    Theo shrugged his shoulders, ignoring herments. "Well, Ie here to request your help. I want you to rece the Time God to protect the base. However, you are to head to the battlefield ten minutes after the Time God leaves."


    "Hoh? If I have to be thest line of defense, shouldn''t I remain in the base? I mean, we have a spy that is lurking around to cause some chaos."


    "You don''t have to worry. I have made preparations for the slime and the safety of the base. The reason why you''re there for a while is to make people believe that you are still around. Meanwhile, you are actually heading to the battlefield to help us. There will be a big problem happening on the rear, so your help will be able to solve all those problems."


    "Interesting." Contemting, Alexandra narrowed her eyes as though she was trying to see through Theo''s n. After two minutes, she raised a finger, asking, "Sorry, but do you not need my power to assist you?"


    "I need your power, but I think I can manage without it. That''s why I want you to focus on the rear. If it''s consolidated enough, you can consider joining us. Nheless, as long as you solve the problem on the rear, the contribution should be enough to etch your mark in history. And you should get a quiet ce in the new world."


    Alexandra Boric was quite interested in the idea. She would be a prominent figure in the world after the war. And with Theo''s help, there was no way her people would be mistreated. Of course, she had to govern her area better so that the people were not afraid of the stigma regarding the ''mafia.''


    In addition, there would be a lot of benefits that Theo could provide himself. So, it didn''t take too long for her to decide.


    "Alright. I''ll follow your n. After listening to your n, it seems that the reason you want me to hide this whole time is to create an illusion that I''m there as a trump card. And since you want me to rece the Time God, it will make people think my role is only to rece him, not join the battlefield. I see. It can increase people''s morale and strength when I suddenly appear on the battlefield."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, I can leave everything to you. I haven''t told my grand�� I mean, Sir War Saint, about this. So, you should find the right timing yourself."


    "You don''t need to mind. Because of my abilities, I am already trained for that. I know the best timing and the best position to help the bigger picture."


    Theo and Alexa smiled at each other as they shook each other''s hands, reaching an agreement.


    After remembering the n, Alexa was satisfied with the progress of the battle. "It seems that everything is within his calction."


    Since the situation was already within Theo''s expectation, she should also y her parts so that they could win this battle.


    ��


    The Time God and Loki red at each other. Loki knew that the Time God would be the biggest hindrance for the others when fighting the slime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    So, he had to move the Time God away.


    Of course, Theo was the first one to use the World Re-Creation.


    He expanded the reality between the slime and the Time God, trying to separate them.


    "!!!" The slime and the Time God instantly reacted. The slime was using his power to dissolve the World Re-Creation while the Time God tried to freeze the moving reality.


    Surprisingly, the World Re-Creation was stopped. Unlike any other opponents he had this far, they were the only ones that could stop the World Re-Creation. Even the original Theo couldn''t do it.


    Theo knew that these two were on a whole different level. However, Loki didn''t n to let everything end in vain.


    He activated the Mind Image, nting an image that the reality was still expanding in both the slime and the Time God''s minds.


    They were confused because they should have stopped it. They even poured more power, but it didn''t change anything.


    After fighting the God of Mischief for a moment, the Time God and the slime knew he had a power that couldn''t be affected by their power unless they understood the concept behind that ability.


    In the end, they got separated�� or at least in their mind. As for the reality, they hadn''t moved a single spot since they were still using their power.


    But Theo could feel the change.


    ''Their power�� is decreasing?'' Theo looked at both their expressions and realized it was the Mind Image. ''I see. One body and mind�� That''s the concept of the Mind Image. If, in the illusion, they fall from high ground, they might get some injuries even if, in reality, they haven''t moved a single inch.


    ''However, if the God of Mischief uses his ability like that, it would give away the identity of his power. That''s why he is camouging his ability with this kind of trick. As expected, he is a monster as well��


    ''To think he would be able to use an A Rank Skill to fool a Singrity Rank Expert and the World Strongest Monster.''


    Theo took a deep breath. Even though he had some confidence in fighting Loki, it didn''t change the fact there were still a lot of things he could learn from Loki.


    Loki also smiled. As if he understood Theo''s thoughts, he muttered inwardly, ''A high-ranked ability doesn''t mean a powerful ability. If you are creative enough, choose the correct timing, and form a perfectbination, even an F Rank Skill can kill a normal Mythical Rank Expert.''

 Chapter 2093 Anger

    ?


    The more he used this ability, the more they decreased their power in stopping Theo''s World Re-Creation.


    Not long after, the power was low enough that the World Re-Creation could be activated again.


    Without hesitation, Theo reactivated the ability and started to split them. Loki used his ability to let him see the distance between them in the illusion, so Theo could put the same amount of distance to make them think what they saw was real.


    Theo obviously cooperated with him.


    As soon as the gap in reality was the same as the one in illusion, Loki jumped forth, positioning himself between the slime and the Time God.


    With Loki blocking the Time God, the trio could fight the slime without worrying about interference.


    The Heavenly Sovereign positioned himself behind Loki so that the slime didn''t move in his direction, disturbing the other fight.


    On the other hand, Theo approached him from the other side while his clone moved to the back of the slime. Last but not least, the Goddess of Death took the original position. They now surrounded the slime in all directions.


    "Do you think you can defeat me? Even if you are strong, you are not strong enough!" The slime merged with the second body, strengthening himself.


    At the same time, a few tentacles emerged from the ground. All four of them had their fair share of tentacles.


    The Heavenly Sovereign snapped his fingers. Multiple trigrams appeared around the tentacles, creating a tower that isted the slime. It looked like they were surrounding the tentacles like a rope tying down a few sticks together.


    Because each trigram represented one element, the slime had a hard time dissolving them. Even if he had to do it, he had to remove oneyer at a time.


    As a result, the tentacles stopped, failing to hit either the Heavenly Sovereign or the God of Mischief.


    The power the Heavenly Sovereign exerted was far stronger than Loki in his form. In that instant, he knew that the Heavenly Sovereign in front of him was genuine. He wasn''t like the cheap copy from earlier.


    This was the real 2nd ranked person in the world''s list, the Heavenly Sovereign, Feng Hao.


    "Come. No matter how many things you throw at me, I will show you that I''m not someone you can easily defeat."


    Simr to the Heavenly Sovereign, the Goddess of Death was nning to overwhelm the slime as well.


    At the same time as the slime emerged from the ground, a huge skeletal hand came out and grabbed them.


    Then, a pair of red eyes shed in the darkness beneath the ground as it cracked the ground. The whole upper body came out, grabbing the tentacles.


    The skeletal hand was releasing a ck-colored Magic Power while the slime was utilizing its Dissolve power.


    The skeletal hand started to melt, but the slime seemed to be underestimating the power of Death.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The ck-colored Magic Power might get dissolved and dispersed around, but because of it, the Magic Power ended up shrouding the tentacles.


    The Magic Power that carried the power of Death started to enter the slime.


    To the slime''s surprise, the tentacles began to wither.


    "!!!" The slime felt something was wrong with the withered tentacles. The feeling he had might not be simr to when Theo used his ability, but he certainly lost his connection with the tentacles.


    It was no wonder that Hel was the Goddess of Death, and became one of the most feared and strongest gods in the mythology. Her power was far stronger than her peers.


    Although she used a fair amount of Magic Power and had a hard time causing the slime to wither away, her power still managed to erase the slime. Now that she worked together with Theo, there was a possibility that they were going to kill him for good.


    Meanwhile, both Theo and the clone already knew what they had to do. Both of them used the Inverted World to suppress the iing tentacles.


    And seeing the Heavenly Sovereign gave him some inspiration.


    Instead of using the Death Avatar like Hel, Theo used his Irregr Guardian and the Mirage World to create multiple strings imbued with multiple elements. He gathered the tentacles in a single spot and erased all of them at once. This method was more effective than the previous one. Though, it required more Magic Power.


    The slime didn''t expect that he would suffer this much from just a single attack. But it also helped him measure his opponents'' strength.


    "It''s no wonder that you three are confident, especially that guy with multiple elements. The cheap copy is not as strong as you�� I guess your title as the second strongest guy on the list is deserved."


    The Heavenly Sovereign shrugged. "Well, thanks."


    Theo chuckled and used this chance to provoke the slime. "Look at the slime. He didn''t talk a lot previously. I guess he understands the idiom, the louder the bark, the smaller the bite."


    "Hahahaha! Nice one, Theo!" Feng Haoughed out loud before asking the slime with a tone full of mockery. "What''s next? Are you going to say that you''re not a bad slime?"


    The slime wobbled once as if it was startled by their reaction. But the silence that came after that felt like it was gathering his anger, ready to release it at once.


    Of course, the Goddess of Death wasn''t nning to allow him to do that. The skeleton formed a scythe and swung it at the slime''s body.


    Severing Soul Scythe.


    The scythe cut through the slime, but surprisingly, the Goddess of Death didn''t receive any feeling from it.


    "!!!" The Goddess of Death widened her eyes and raised her head, realizing what happened. After all, some parts of the scythe had begun to melt.


    "As a slime, I can shape my body however I want. I simply reshape my body to match your scythe. You didn''t hit me with that swing." The slime''s voice increased as a few eruptions of red slime urred all around them. Filled with anger, he stated, "And you three shall be the first people who will die in this conquest to wipe the entire human race."

 Chapter 2094 Equal Love?

    ?


    "Your body is the only thing that needs to be big, you don''t need to talk big as well." Hel snorted. The slime might have sessfully avoided the previous attack, but that wasn''t her best as well.


    She raised her hand as ifmanding the Death Avatar.


    A pair of red eyes shed within the skull as the Death Avatar''s hands started to move toward each other, leaving only a ten feet gap.


    Death Lordship.


    "!!!" The slime felt something weird the moment the skull joined its hands. At the same time, the skull was releasing ck-colored energy.


    Suddenly, an invisible pressure surrounded the slime, trying to crush him.


    ''This is�� her power?'' The slime hurriedly used his Dissolve power to disintegrate the surrounding pressure.


    If she was the only person he fought, his ability would work. But Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign were there.


    With a flick of his fingers, the Heavenly Sovereign summoned a trigram. Eight elements emerged from it and erupted.


    These eight elements flew toward the Goddess of Death, specifically the area around her.


    "Hmm?" The slime felt the power of eight elements near the Goddess of Death, causing a disruption in his own power. He had been using his Dissolve power like radiation, allowing him to dissolve everything around him.


    But the Heavenly Sovereign had seen through it and used his power toplicate his process just by having all the elements near it.


    Theo, of course, didn''t n to let the Goddess of Death hog all the glory. When she and the Heavenly Sovereign restrained the slime a little bit, Theo and his clone sped their hands, using the same technique.


    Reverse World.


    They turned the elements that the Heavenly Sovereign sent into something else,plicating the process even further. With this, there was no way the slime could dissolve the power from both of them.


    In addition, Hel''s power could finally show its true might.


    "!!!" The slime was startled because the attack didn''t hit physically. Instead, it hit his very own existence.


    The pressure that she exerted earlier was superficial.


    The slime felt himself return to the beginning when he was only a small creature. He had been trying to survive and swallow everything around him.


    But eventually, he reached a ce where he swallowed one of the most polluted water. In addition to the Magic Power''s existence that allowed him a small microorganism to grow, the contaminated water gave him a chance to grow even further.


    The polluted water contained nuclear waste, chemicals, and even other industrial waste discharge.


    Due to it, he, who wasn''t supposed to be this big, managed to ovee the limitations of his species and evolved within a short period of time.


    The more he dissolved and swallowed the others, the further his ability developed. The world also acknowledged his existence, but the smarter he became, the more his heart was filled with desire.


    Before long, he killed King ss Monsters and World ss Monsters. At that time, he finally realized that the world was also there. That was the time he dissolved the world''s love.


    It was said that an equal love was fair and just. But the slime had a different way of thinking. Equal love was just a restriction for someone to get more.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The world''s equal love meant they were given the same chance and opportunity. They had the same system and simr abilities.


    But due to it, it became a restriction for others, who were more capable of achieving a bigger thing. That was why there were two people that would get the most benefits in front of equal love.


    The first person would be the one that managed to be the favorite. They would be showered with a lot more things and be the leader.


    Unfortunately, this was impossible for the world. The world had maintained its bnce for a very long time. That was why the slime knew he couldn''t be the favorite child of this world.


    Hence, he took the second path, which was to be someone who wasn''t affected by that love.


    That was right. He dissolved the world''s love for him, allowing him to gain a freedom that no one ever had before.


    The power system the world had didn''t affect him anymore. And he could finally do things more and gain a lot more things than anyone in this world.


    And one of them was the ability that he was going to show.


    "It seems that you have underestimated me too much." The slime''s voice was full of anger. There was a strange confidence mixed in it.


    Theo narrowed his eyes before seeing one of the realities. Theo shouted, "Move away!"


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign and the Goddess of Death were confused by that reaction. But when they saw Theo and his clone had already leaped away, they tried to do the same.


    All of a sudden, a red light appeared in front of everyone.


    The Death Avatar covered Hel''s body, protecting her. The Heavenly Sovereign formed a trigram that became solidified, turning it into his shield.


    Meanwhile, both Theo and his clone used the Blink Skill to get away.


    The red light shone brightly before they exploded.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    "!!!" All of them were utterly shocked when they saw the explosions.


    "What? An explosion? This power�� isn''t it��" The Heavenly Sovereign gritted his teeth as though he was frustrated despite sessfully blocking the explosion.


    The Goddess of Death clicked her tongue while saying, "That''s possible. Just for a moment, I see the Death Energying from him. His body has dissolved and absorbed a lot of things, so it won''t be strange that the body still has the remnants of the things that have been absorbed."


    Theo narrowed his eyes, finding another thing. That explosion earlier wasn''t registered by the world''s system. There was only one instance when it happened.


    Theo warned everyone. "All of you have to be careful from now on. That ability earlier��es from the power of an Order or Reality. I''m afraid the slime can utilize that kind of power��"

 Chapter 2095 Slimes True Power

    ?


    That warning dumbfounded them. On the one hand, the slime would be an extremely strong opponent with the addition of this ability. On the other hand, this type of thing should be impossible since they are still living in the same world.


    Theo sighed, exining a bit further. "As much as I don''t want to admit it, the slime has dissolved the world''s love. That''s why he manages to free himself from the world''s restrictions, which causes us to only have one Order and Reality."


    "!!!" The Heavenly Sovereign gasped. After all, that statement could lead them to one more possibility. "Oi, how long has the slime lived on this? How many monsters has he swallowed? And how many King ss and World ss Monsters are among them?"


    Their bodies couldn''t help but shiver when they thought about it. They didn''t know the answer.


    The slimes, without a doubt, had swallowed numerous monsters. And from the vision he had, he should have devoured one World ss Monster in the past, let alone the original Theo in this battle.


    "This is no joke." Theo gulped down. He had expected this kind of possibility, but the real thing had surpassed his expectations.


    "Be careful, if we take into ount all those King ss Monsters and World ss Monsters. The slimes should have at least twelve different powers. What we should note is the Authorities. I only know that he has the Sealing Authority, the Time Authority, and the Devouring Authority. I don''t know if he has taken out everything about the Time Authority, but we should be careful."


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised his hand while ncing at the trigram he left near Hel. It seemed that the slime hadn''t broken it. So, he nned to use it to attack the slime, trying to find all his power.


    Although the Order was powerful, it couldn''t bepared to Authority. That was why Theo warned them only about the Authority.


    As if feeling Feng Hao''s intention, the slime started releasing his Magic Power. Surprisingly, the eight elements near Hel suddenly disappeared as if they had never existed.


    This kind of situation made Theo even more frustrated. That was the power of the Devouring Reality.


    ''I can''t dissolve it easily, but I can devour all of them at once.'' The slime thought while looking at the trio. Now that he had used his trump card, there was only one possible oue. It was none other than his victory.


    Theo could easily see his victory as well. The slime''s body might have shrunk for a bit. In fact, its size was already reduced by twenty percent.


    However, the slime''s Magic Power was gradually increasing. This was the original Theo''s Devouring Ability. He was swallowing the Magic Power and converting it in his body, allowing him to have an unlimited amount of Magic Power.


    The slime, who already had a huge amount of Magic Power from the beginning, became even more ridiculous. With this power, he could be a bit reckless.


    ''That must be the reason why he absorbs the original me instead of the Magic Saint��'' Theo thought with a darkened expression. The situation was grim and one wrong move would kill one of them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised his hands, forming multiple trigrams. This time, he had to be wary of the Devouring Power that seemed to be able to counter him. Of course, he was one of the strongest people in the world. There was no way he would take this beating without a fight.


    The trigrams around him created more trigrams and eventually surrounded the slime.


    The slime could swallow them with the Devouring Power, but Hel wouldn''t allow him.


    She waved her hand, releasing a ck-colored shock wave toward the slime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When the slime used the Devouring Power, it would also swallow her Death Energy, withering the power from the inside.


    Due to it, a ck spot appeared in the slime''s body that was soon excreted out.


    And all of the trigrams that surrounded him were activated at the same time. If he allowed them to use the power they had stored up, he wouldn''t escape unscathed.


    That was why the soil started to rise and cover his body. At the same time, multiple yellow-colored barriers isted half of the trigrams.


    The Heavenly Sovereign clicked his tongue and activated all of them a bit prematurely.


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    *Boom!*


    The trigrams that were isted by the barrier exploded while the ones that were free released their attack. Their elements were diverse so that the slime couldn''t handle it.


    However, all of their attacks hit the soil that covered the slime. As a result, only the soil crumbled to the ground and the slime waspletely unscathed.


    Theo clicked his tongue. He remembered that the World ss Monster that sealed the slime also used the ground to bury him. It seemed that the slime could utilize his power easily.


    ''Although he can''t fully manifest its power, he should be able to use seventy to eighty percent of their ability. That alone is annoying." Theo furrowed his eyebrows, trying to find a solution.


    He chose to remain in his position this whole time because he had to find the slime''s weakness.


    But when the trump card was revealed, he had to learn all the abilities that the slime had devoured first before he could find the weakness.


    ''What should I do?'' Theo frowned. ''It''s true that the slime has all that kind of overpowering ability with an unlimited Magic Power, but the slime is still within our grasp. At least, that''s what I think.


    ''In that case, we should find a weakness and chip away the slime''s body.'' Theo realized that the most effective way was to kill the slime when he hadn''t used all his power.


    That was why he and his clone pointed their hands at the slime, activating the Inverted World.


    "!!!" The slime felt this unique ability. He tried to use the Devouring Power to stop it, but surprisingly, Theo''s ability could bypass the Devouring Ability. Though, thetter still absorbed some of the Magic Power to utilize the Inverted World.


    But despite all this, Theo''s group seemed to be the one enduring.

 Chapter 2096 Experiment

    ?


    "��" Theo narrowed his eyes, observing the situation. ''The slime should have more than this kind of power. He only uses something that we have known beforehand. He must be waiting for us to lower our guard down and use a new ability.''


    Theo was a bit frustrated with the current situation. It was true that they were in an advantageous position currently, but the moment an unknown variable came, the situation would change drastically.


    Theo took a deep breath, trying to find a way to catch the slime off guard.


    Seeing the slime using all these abilities, Hel thought she was supposed to be the one in charge. After all, her power was still a bit superior to that of Theo.


    She shouted, "Theo. I''m taking the lead."


    Theo couldn''t help but notice the hidden intention behind those words. It seemed that Hel was nning to exert all the Magic Power she had conserved this whole time in order to inflict great damage on the slime. This way, Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign could somehow defeat the slime.


    She might not be able to exin it, but with her death power, she should be able to sense the ''death'' of everyone around her, including herself.


    "Got it." Theo nodded with a serious expression, knowing that was the only thing they could do at the moment. "I''ll support you."


    The Heavenly Sovereign remained silent, but she was observing the movement of Theo and his clone. The slime seemed to have put him to the lowest priority as well.


    The Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t help but smile since this situation was more convenient for him.


    Hel pped her hand. ck-colored energy suddenly came out of her body, creating a sphere and expanding it.


    This was Hel''s skill called Death Force. ording to the description, the Death Force allowed her to borrow the power of the deceased, not in the form of a living dead, but in their soul.


    And this was a perfect ce to borrow the power.


    There were already a lot of monsters and humans dying on this battlefield. It was true that the monsters were formed by the slime body and they didn''t have a consciousness. But the humans were different.


    Since the connection with Helheim or any other Underworld in the other world had been severed and the void where the souls resided had been destroyed, there was no ce where the soul could go in this new world.


    That was why they would remain here for a long time unless a new path had been created. Hel was nning to create that path once again, but that woulde after defeating the slime.


    After all, the slime would absorb the entire world if he won this war. So, there was no need for that kind of ce if they lost.


    Hel gradually opened her eyes as if feeling everyone''s energy. The ck-colored energy was leaking out of the ground and gradually flew toward her ck sphere.


    The slime immediately sent forth a few tentacles. Since he didn''t have anything to hide anymore, the slime split the tentacles into two. The first side contained the Dissolve power to disintegrate this Death Force. The second side utilized the Devouring power to swallow the Magic Power.


    However, he was still underestimating the Goddess of Death. The second type of tentacles got withered the moment they received the Death Energy. Like the slime, who could have an unlimited amount of Magic Power due to the Devouring Power, Hel could borrow people''s power, allowing her to damage the slime without using her own Magic Power. All that was left was a battle of endurance.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As for the tentacles with the Dissolve power, they could easily disintegrate the Death Power itself, but the Dissolve Power also withered due to her power.


    They seemed to be neutralizing each other at a massive rate. Both had an ''unlimited'' Magic Power in this case, but Hel would surely lose first if they chose a battle of endurance.


    Theo knew this, so he aided Hel in this battle.


    The slime obviously wouldn''t allow him to interfere. He shot out numerous objects that contained different elements to stop him. But Clone Theo stood between them and protected the real Theo until he reached Hel''s side.


    After that, the real Theo used Metamorphosis for the first time in this war.


    He turned into a dragon and his size wouldn''t really lose to the slime.


    *Roar!*


    The slime had expected this, but Theo truly looked like a real dragon.


    Theo gathered his Magic Power in his throat before letting out a huge Magic Bullet like a dragon''s breath.


    The slime hurriedly used his Devouring Power to take in more Spiritual Energy, but surprisingly, the beam managed to go through the Devouring Power as if it had never existed.


    "!!!" The slime was confused because this ability was simr to Loki. However, Theo actually used World Re-Creation between his breath and the slime''s Devouring Power.


    He pushed the Devouring Power back, so the breath could continue. In reality, they never touched each other.


    Of course, the Devouring Power also absorbed a lot of Magic Power from Theo, but that was fine.


    After all, the Magic Bullet was already in front of the slime. It was at that time Theo changed his power from the World Re-Creation to the Inverted World.


    He changed his Magic Bullet to a Dragon''s breath that could obliterate everything.


    "!!!" The slime noticed the change of power as he instinctively changed his power from absorbing to dissolving.


    Unfortunately, he realized it toote as the Magic Bullet hit the slime, destroying a part of its body. Though, the slime managed to save half of it by changing his shape like how he dodged the scythe earlier.


    Theo smiled, thinking, ''As expected, this is better. If I use Inverted World from the start, the Magic Power consumption will drain me pretty quickly. But if I use something else first and use it at thest minute, I don''t have to maintain the Inverted World, greatly reducing the consumption.''

 Chapter 2097 Death

    ?


    Even though this was an important battle, Theo still experimented with his new ability. It couldn''t be helped since this Inverted World was the only ability that was effective against the slime.


    Theo had another n that could allow him to inflict some damage on the slime. Clone Theo stomped the ground with all his might, releasing a surge of wind pressure to the top of the slime.


    ''Ascension Step, Tenth Step!'' Theo even used the Mirage World to imbue the Wind Power, making it look like the Wind Emperor himself was the one that used this technique.


    The torrential wind was so violent that it looked like it could prate the ground easily. But for the slime, this was something easy to handle since he had both Dissolve and Devouring Power.


    The wind was disrupted, losing some of its energy. However, Theo persisted in it and pushed through.


    At thest moment, Theo changed the wind''s attribute with the Inverted World from a raging wind to one filled with Disintegration power.


    This was the same disintegrating wind the Wind Emperor once had. It could disintegrate everything, including the Devouring and Dissolve Power. So, it should be effective against the slime''s body as well.


    But before the wind could touch the slime, a translucent barrier appeared. The barrier formed in all directions, isting the wind from the outside world.


    When it touched the barrier, it began disintegrating everything around it, albeit only limited to the barrier.


    "Do you think it will work the way you intended to? You are thinking too highly of yourself, Theodore Griffith." The slime seemed to be annoyed and angry. Theo had done a lot of things to him, including being the biggest contributor to removing his body.


    Theo couldn''t help but smile when he heard that remark. "Of course, I''m not underestimating you. I know that you can stop my attack just fine. But��"


    The slime suddenly felt a huge fluctuation of Magic Power. He suddenly shifted his focus from Theo to the Goddess of Death.


    That was right. The Goddess of Death was preparing something this whole time. He forgot about her for a second.


    However, if he took a closer look at the situation, he would realize that Theo had made him forget about her. First, he distracted his attention before using the illusion so that the energy around her and other things couldn''t be sensed by the slime.


    When he saw the Goddess of Death, he couldn''t help but feel something beyond this world.


    Hel''s blood-red eyes shed and emitted killing intent that was so strong that it released a small shock wave that sucked all the lives of everything around her. The trees withered in an instant, the boulder turned into sand, and the soil became dry.


    The world around her felt like they were not allowed to live anymore.


    When she pped her hands, a huge red gate appeared on her back. The gate reached as high as two hundred feet. Just from left to right, it stretched for at least fifty feet.


    Even Theo, in his dragon form, couldn''t help but feel chills down his spine, making him return to the human form if he didn''t want to get caught in the attack.


    "Afterlife Border," Hel muttered the name as the Death Avatar behind her moved toward the gate.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This tiny skeleton was cing both hands on the gate before it began releasing the ck Magic Power that gave him enough strength to push the gate.


    "!!!" Theo''s body trembled instinctively as he couldn''t help but mutter, "Is this seriously an A Rank Skill? No, I''m afraid that the gate itself is an A Rank Skill, but that skill is connected to something even more ridiculous. As expected of Hel, I can still learn a lot from her even after all this."


    When the gate was opened, there was a red eye from behind the gate. Because it was only opened slightly, they could only catch a glimpse of it.


    But when they saw this eye, Theo''s soul was trembling as though the eye was sucking the life out of him. Even the slime seemed to be corrupted from the eye as multiple ck spots began to form on the slime''s body.


    There was a huge ck cross appearing out of nowhere.


    The slime noticed the positioning and realized it was a cross that marked him. It was no wonder that he was the one most affected by this power.


    He hurriedly used his power to disintegrate the cross while forming multiple tentacles around the gate. Some of them captured the Death Avatar, while some hurriedly closed the gate.


    *ng!*


    Theo gritted his teeth, never thinking his reaction speed would decrease tremendously from that eye alone.


    At the same time, the Goddess of Death seemed to be unable to do anything when the gate was still there. It was an overwhelming technique, but the risk was also huge. And because she used all the Magic Power she harvested from all the dead on thisnd, it was clear that this was something she could only use once.


    However, the power could easily be seen.


    The slime had to excrete all the rotten parts from his body. Just from that attack alone, he had to expel at least ten percent of his body.


    With this, they managed to weaken the slime even further. The slime was also still shocked by the power Hel was hiding.


    ''As expected of the Goddess of Death, one of the strongest Goddesses in the mythology. And ording to some sources, she didn''t leave Helheim during Ragnarok because she had to take care of all the souls because of Ragnarok. I wonder what would happen if she took part in that fight?''


    Theo gulped down. However, the excitement was cut short when Hel suddenly spat a mouthful of blood.


    "Gah." Hel''s face became pale. Theo hurriedly visited her to check her condition. "Are you OK?"


    "Yeah. I used a bit too much power�� That technique was a double-edged sword, you see��" Hel sighed.


    "Though, what is that eye? I feel like it''s alive��" Theo sucked a cold breath.


    "Alive? You couldn''t be more wrong. That is�� death itself." Hel smiled with a pale face.

 Chapter 2098 Thirteen Big Orders

    ?


    "That is�� death itself." Hel smiled.


    "!!!" Theo was utterly shocked. There were two reasons why her answer was so absurd. The first one was that if the one behind the gate was Death itself, it meant Death was a kind of living creature. In other words, there was a chance that a stronger and more terrifying world existed.


    Of course, as a master of reality, Theo knew it was possible. In fact, he could see a few realities that looked more terrifying than the current world. However, if Hel could use that kind of gate and bring forth the so-called ''death,'' it meant there was a chance that the creature from the other side could reach this ce.


    When that happened, the world wouldn''t be able to defeat it. After all, just his gaze alone could injure the slime to that degree. There was no way the slime could do anything if the creature fought him with everything he had.


    The second reason was forming that kind of gate without the help of Space or Reality Power. It was impossible to be connected to the other side without it and Hel''s ability didn''t contain it. That was why it felt weird to call that creature ''death.''


    Obviously, after that kind of attack, there was no way the slime would allow Hel to continue living.


    Without hesitation, the slime sent forth multiple tentacles that contained different powers.


    But before they reached them, a translucent barrier appeared around them, stopping each tentacle. Surprisingly, a trigram appeared outside each barrier as though it was strengthening the barrier itself.


    As a result, the tentacles couldn''t move at all.


    The Heavenly Sovereign shouted from a distance. "I''ll take over for the time being. Check her condition!"


    Theo nodded. The Heavenly Sovereign hadn''t made his move this whole time, so he should have prepared a lot of abilities to stop the slime, including these barriers.


    So, Theo focused on Hel''s condition.


    Hel was still panting, but her eyes seemed to be confused. She nced at Theo and said, "Let me tell you a few things about that power from earlier. I think you should know about this since you are going to reach a Singrity Rank.


    "In fact, this is one of the secrets of the Singrity Rank. I don''t know if that time guy knew about it or not, but I''m going to tell you about the secret right now.


    "There are two things you have to remember about the Singrity Rank. You will know and recognize the first one when you reach the Singrity Rank. In fact, you are already aware of it now�� but no one has ever exined it to you. It''s regarding Primordial Energy."


    "Don''t tell me��" Theo''s eyebrows twitched.


    "Yeah. Once you reach that rank, ording to my father, you can faintly sense the Primordial Energy itself. You should know that the Primordial Energy is the one that creates everything, including physics and something beyond it like ghosts or supernatural things.


    "Sensing it will give you a lot of advantages. In fact, that''s one of the reasons why that time guy could keep up with him. This is just a public secret, but the next one is something that you have to discover yourself.


    "But considering our current situation, I think I have to tell you about it." Her head moved closer to his ear, and she whispered, "The second reason is rted to the ability I showed you earlier. That Death is not a living creature. Instead, it''s the personification of the Primordial Energy itself.


    "You can say that the Primordial Energy takes the Authority and Order of ''Death'' to manifest.


    "Normally, you would have to reach the next rank before you could manifest it, but this is my secret. That''s why I was one of the strongest in the past.


    "As for how to do it, to be honest, I don''t know. I only know that Authority and Order can manifest themselves in the raw form. And all I have to do is to create an ability to connect it. You should have seen my power. Yes, that''s why the rank of that ability is low. After all, it''s only acting as a bridge, and the one that fuels it is myself.


    "So, you can try to attempt this. I''m sure you can do it with your intelligence. However, you can also choose to wait until you reach that rank before attempting it. That''s all I can say."


    Theo narrowed his eyes. He felt like he understood something from her exnation. But there was a kind of restraining feeling that seemed to be stopping him from attempting it.


    Theo deemed it as theck of connection between his Order and Authority with the Primordial Energy.


    ''I see. A gate to connect it forcefully. It''s a huge price to pay, but I think I can somehow make it.'' Theo had some confidence in forming the gate to connect them.


    After all, he had the thirdw, Inverted World. He could create something that wasn''t supposed to exist.


    However, if he attempted it recklessly, he might be the one that would get injured. So, there was only one person that could try it. It was none other than his clone. He could simply resummon the clone after using it. So, this might be his best shot at defeating the slime.


    Theo took a deep breath. Before attempting it, he asked the Goddess of Death. "Are you alright, then?"


    "I have some inner injuries after using that technique, but I should be able to rejoin the battle after recuperating for ten minutes."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Alright. I will protect you for ten minutes while my clone will try to use that power." Theo nodded.


    "Got it." The Goddess of Death nodded.


    Theo knew that the Goddess of Death wouldn''t be to hurt the slime anymore even if she rejoined the fight, but helping them take care of a few abilities was still helpful enough.


    So, Theo grabbed her waist and jumped back, gaining some distance from the slime.


    The slime was still handling all the tricks the Heavenly Sovereign was using. It seemed that he was going all out as there were at least a hundred trigrams around the slime.


    And all these trigrams were not simr to the ones he had used previously. Each trigram was unique and their power was like a powerful punch from a Saint.


    In the meantime, Clone Theo was narrowing his eyes as if he were trying to formte everything that could form the gate.


    ''A gate, huh. Normally, it is something that only a Singrity can use. After all, only when you are a Singrity can you sense the Primordial Energy.


    ''So, I might be able to use the Inverted World, but I need a basis to form it. If I don''t make it correctly, I will only receive a bacsh.'' Clone Theo''s expression became grim.


    It seemed that the slime knew Theo would be like the Heavenly Sovereign if he left him alone. So, he tried to attack him with multiple tentacles.


    Theo formed a sword with his Irregr Guardian and cut all the tentacles with the help of his Reality Authority.


    The slime recognized the illusion and dissolved it, but it was toote.


    Theo had already formed a simr gate to what Hel summoned earlier.


    He wanted to stop Theo, but the gate would be opened before he could reach there.


    ''Personification of Reality, huh? Unlike Death itself, which can be represented by a creature like a death reaper or a scary monster�� the Reality itself is like an abstract concept.


    ''There is also the Primordial Energy. I have to connect everything and materialize it��'' Theo pped his hands.


    A tremendous Magic Power came out of his body as Reality Power started influencing the gate itself.


    "Come forth, Reality."


    A cracking sound echoed on the battlefield as the gate was about to open. But surprisingly, another sound followed right after, stopping the cracking sound.


    "Huh?" Theo nced to the back. "What''s that��"


    Theo was inplete shock. After all, the gate was supposed to be white, followed by a rose pattern on each door.


    But to his surprise, the gate turned green, causing it to be different.


    "This is��" Theo''s body trembled. There was something that scared him when he saw this change.


    The slime must have known the ability''s power. Although he was hiding it because Theo had stated all the Authority he had seen, it didn''t change the fact there were a few asions where he should use it to avoid injuries.


    Yet, he still held back this whole time. And this might be the reason.


    "Don''t tell me�� one of the trump cards he has hidden this whole time is�� rted to color." Theo couldn''t help but shudder. "One of the thirteen Big Orders, Color Order. But this might only be the small one since it''s only rted to Green Color. But if I''m not wrong, one of the enemies had the Red Order��"


    Theo couldn''t help but think of the possibility that the slime had one of the Thirteen Big Orders. If he truly had the Color Authority, the situation would be grim.


    "Time, Space, Elements, Reality, Life, Death, Destiny, Light, Darkness, Gravity, Direction, Rationality and Color. These are the thirteen Big Orders. Each of them is important to create a world.


    "My Reality power is troublesome because it can connect me with other realities and even control a portion of this world. And Color is the same. If the slime can control Color in a world full of colors�� I don''t know how I can defeat the slime��" Theo gritted his teeth, feeling frustrated.

 Chapter 2099 Worst Situation

    ?


    "It seems that you have realized it." The slime seemed to notice the change in Theo''s expression. In fact, he had the intention to reveal it to finally give Theo a sense of despair. "You don''t have to think too hard. After all��"


    There was suddenly a movement in the ground, but surprisingly, they weren''t heading in Theo''s direction. Even the Heavenly Sovereign could only look at it, wondering what the slime was nning to do.


    However, Theo instantly understood what he wanted.


    "Not good! I have to stop��" Theo turned around, trying to destroy the ground to expose the slime.


    However, the slime didn''t need a lot of time to absorb a part of him. The one that he absorbed was none other than the World ss Monster that the Magma Dragon fought earlier.


    Theo never thought that the situation would turn out like this. This monster possessed the power of color, specifically the red color.


    Once the slime absorbed the ''Red'' World ss Monster, the red slime suddenly changed its color. No, it should be that his color was reverted to the original color.


    Feng Hao, Loki, Theo, and Hel were dumbfounded.


    The red color gradually faded, turning the slime into transparent.


    "Oh shit." Theo''s body trembled. He could still see the slime. There was a tinge of white and blue color when the sunlight illuminated his body. But the fact that the slime finally regained all his parts, it meant that he was going to seriously fight them from now on.


    "One of the thirteen Big Orders, Color," Theo muttered while sucking a cold breath.


    "What? His Order is also one of the thirteen Big Orders? No, should I say that he has absorbed a World ss Monster with that power?" The Heavenly Sovereign''s face became pale. Although his Order was also one of the Big Elements, it didn''t change the fact that his elements had a color. As long as the color was recognized, the slime would be able to control them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign knew that the slime had an overwhelming advantage against him. Even if he used his Trigrams, he didn''t know whether he could fight against the slime.


    They might have to turn the entire world into ck and white if they wanted to seal the slime''s power. But there was no one who was capable of turning the world that way currently.


    "I never thought that the slime would be this strong." The Goddess of Death frowned. "I shouldn''t have used my power. It seems that he has been waiting for me to use that power to turn the situation around."


    Theo couldn''t say anything. Even he thought the Goddess of Death''s decision to deal a huge amount of damage to the slime was not wrong. But they were simply unable to predict that the slime would have one of the thirteen Big Orders.


    Theo frowned. He had toe up with a way to stop the slime. The only ability that could defeat the slime was something that didn''t have color like his Inverted World or the wind. But limiting themselves would just give a tremendous advantage to the slime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sir Feng Hao, you should use something like the wind or Heaven for the time being. I''m going to think of a solution as quickly as possible. My clone will assist you in buying some time from him."


    Feng Hao nodded. Even though color was an overwhelming ability, people like Enchanter could still use their abilities to boost their strength. Even Knights, Fighters, and Magic Warriors could withstand the slime. Or there was one more method they could use, which was Ruth''s invisible archery.


    But Ruth was not strong enough. The Goddess of Death and the Heavenly Sovereign weren''t people who used a weapon as well. So, only Theo could do something against the slime''s power.


    This showed how strong the power of color was. Even the red demon could only control the red color, while the slime could control everything.


    The Heavenly Sovereign looked down, feeling a vibration from his clothes. Without hesitation, he released a tremendous amount of Magic Power until the vibration stopped. It seemed that the slime was nning to control the color of his skin or his clothes to kill him.


    However, the control was too weakpared to the energy the Heavenly Sovereign released. In addition, the farther the color was from the slime, the weaker the control would be.


    That was why the Heavenly Sovereign spread his arms. Suddenly, a huge gale appeared all around the slime. The gale was not too strong to the point that it was concentrated enough to create a tornado. This way, the gale remained transparent and the slime wouldn''t be able to control it.


    The slime changed from color to Dissolve Power, neutralizing the gale. After that, the slime sent forth multiple tentacles to surround him.


    However, Theo used his sword to slice the tentacles. His Inverted World removed the thin parts of the tentacles from the world''s system and erased them, causing the tips to fall down.


    "��" The slime was a bit annoyed by Theo. As he said, the color was overpowered, but it was by no means invincible.


    All they had to do was to use something that didn''t have a color.


    While the Heavenly Sovereign and Clone Theo held back the slime, the real Theo narrowed his eyes, observing the slime''s power.


    ''I see��'' Theo remembered the scene that the world showed him.


    ''Back then, the Mountain Saint, who had a Sealing Authority, was trying to stop the slime from growing with his own body. And he asked his subordinates to bring other Saints to help him��


    ''It seems that the sealing was sessful, causing the slime to be sealed for a long time. However, as a result, the slime managed to defeat all those Saints. Those Saints are probably the Color Saint, as well as the two Saints that Hel and the Lightning Saint fought.


    ''But seeing that the slime didn''t even bother absorbing those two, it meant that they were inplete form. He will have a long time to absorb them again, unlike the Red World ss Monster, who is only a part of his power��''

 Chapter 2100 A Mess

    ?


    Theo thought for a moment and asked inwardly, ''Should I use myst trump card? But if I use it, I have to leave everyone��''


    Theo couldn''t help but remember Agata and all the people who were close to him. Agata would surely cry if he used that trump card. Even Leonardo, his grandfather, as well as Valerie and Ray, his parents, would be devastated. He couldn''t keep his promise to his parents as well.


    As for his group, it would be the biggest disaster. Rea might be able to rece him, but the fact that Theo was gone would be a tremendous hit to them.


    Although he could still retain some power by asking the Heavenly Sovereign or Hel, it didn''t change the fact that the group would basically be unable to function anymore.


    That was why Theo never wanted to use thest trump card, if they could still somehow fight the slime.


    ''Still, I don''t think the slime is going to reabsorb the other power since it''s going to take a long time. Even the Devouring Power can only be used after a while�� But as a precaution, we should move them away from the slime and cut all kinds of approaches the slime is making toward them.


    ''Even then, we still have to fight the slime which has four Authorities: Seal, Dissolve, Devour, and Color.


    ''My illusion can bypass the Color Authority, but the damage won''t be huge. After all, the slime has the other three Authorities.


    ''Besides, the slime can use all four Authorities simultaneously,plicating the situation even further.'' Theo narrowed his eyes, remembering the time when the slime used both Dissolve and Devour Authorities at the same time.


    ''Then, what if I be a Singrity? Can I do anything for him? There are two things that will be certain. First, I''ll be able to rank up the World Re-Creation beyond S Rank. Second, I will be able to sense the Primordial Energy, but I don''t know if I can manifest reality or not��''


    Theo was racking his brain, trying toe up with a solution. But the addition of Color was truly tremendous. The slime''s fighting strength had be stable.


    Theo''s expression darkened as he couldn''t see any more weaknesses the slime had. The speed might be a weakness, but with the addition of Seal and Color, there was no need for the slime to move anymore.


    That was why it seemed that there was nothing he could do at the moment.


    Theo nced at Hel and asked, "Can Loki do something against him?"


    "I don''t know. I believe it''s hard, but it''s not impossible." Hel answered without hesitation.


    "In that case�� we will fight the slime for a while to make it certain." Theo sighed.


    "You should go there. I will try to protect myself while recuperating from my wounds." Hel pointed at the slime.


    "No. Even though you are this injured, you can still fight. Your power is still needed in this battle. So, don''t say anything like that." Theo thought for a moment and said, "It seems that we have to bring the Mafia Queen here if we want to win."


    "The green line might copse, you know. Won''t it be a problem?"


    "It''s going to be a hassle, but it''s better than letting this slime win. We can still somehow suppress the rest of the monsters and recover from the monsters'' attack, but if we can''t defeat the slime, it''ll be a game over."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "In that case, we still have one more card we can use." Hel let out a long sigh. "Although I don''t really want to use it, it seems that we have to ask them."


    "Them? Who?" Theo frowned. They were supposed to have no more people to use.


    But Hel ignored him and took out the radio, asking, "You two�� Are you ready?"


    "We have sent them to your location."


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes when he heard the familiar voice. "That voice�� Lyrventh?"


    Hel smiled. "Yeah. Do you remember the time we brought back Lyrventh and Lydia with us? Father had taught them a lot of things."


    "What? I want to say a lot of things about their involvement, but I still don''t understand what you''re nning."


    Hel made a weird smile, remembering the conversation.


    Back then, Loki was standing in front of Lydia and Lyrventh.


    "Alright. Let''s have our daily lesson now. Hmm�� What should I teach you today?" Loki looked up as though he wasing up with a topic. "That''s right. I am the one who lends my strength to Theo. So, he is a kind of trickster.


    "Still, he has a lot to learn on how to be a trickster. That''s why whenever I make up my n, I will prepare anotheryer of protection against him.


    "If there is a war in the future, and Theo is sending some people to the rear. He must not trust them very much. That''s why I want you guys to think otherwise. If he doesn''t trust them, then you should trust them and take advantage of them."


    When she remembered that lesson, she couldn''t help but chuckle. "It''s not that he doesn''t trust you. It''s just that�� sometimes, a desperate time requires desperate action. And it seems that those two have understood that lesson.


    "After the war starts, we all gather here while Lyrventh and Lydia are stationed in different areas, right? That''s how it''s supposed to be, but Lydia is my disciple and Lyrventh is his student.


    "Obviously, both of them will follow our words more than yours. And our words are�� to bring the three Transcendent Level Experts from the base to our ce as soon as the battle begins and remain hidden for a while."


    "Wait�� Don''t tell me." Theo''s eyebrows twitched as he raised his head, looking at the horizon.


    There were three people suddenly rampaging on the battlefield. They attacked all the monsters on the green line, trying to turn around the situation. They were none other than the three Transcendent Level Experts from the base, with the King of Fighters leading them.


    "Tsk." Theo clicked his tongue. "I shouldn''t underestimate Mischief indeed�� He''s messing with my n."

 Chapter 2101 Enchanter

    ?


    "Yo. It seems that I''m needed here." The Mafia Queen smirked, looking at Theo and Hel.


    Theo had a small smile. On the one hand, leaving their back exposed like this was a problem. On the other hand, the three Transcendent Level Experts should have no problem with leaving their position. After all, Theo had sent a separate group to sweep the monstersing from the south.


    Those people might suffer a bit, but they should be able to stop the monsters. That was why Loki''s n to mess up his n was proved to be effective.


    Theo said, "Well, I don''t know how different it would be with you here. But your power is one of the keys to defeating the slime, who has the Color, Devour, Seal, and Dissolve Authorities."


    "Holy shit. That slime has four Authorities?"


    "There are more, but we should be able to push the World ss Monster''s corpses away, so the slime wouldn''t be able to reabsorb them. So, those four should be the only power he would have at the current moment."


    "No, no, no. That''s not a problem. The actual problem is how the slime can even possess more than one Authority. I can understand if he''s absorbing it, but having more than one Authority makes you break the bnce the world has set."


    "That''s exactly the problem. The slime has dissolved the world''s love. That''s why he has this kind of power. Though, we are a bit lucky. It seems that the previous sealing saint has managed to seal him.


    "Although it cost him his life, the slime should have been in slumber this whole time. He broke through that seal not long ago. That should be the reason why he didn''t have a lot of power."


    The Mafia Queen''s eyebrows twitched. Of course, she was annoyed with how the slime could use that much power, but they indeed should feel happy with the fact that the slime had just woken up.


    Theo pointed at himself and said, "I want you to boost our power with your enhancement. However, you have to remember that the slime has Dissolve and Devour Authorities.


    "If he uses the Dissolve Authorities, your enhancement will surely be disintegrated. If it''s thetter, you should try to retract your power to avoid giving him more Magic Power."


    The Mafia Queen nodded with a serious expression. Theo''s exnation was enough to get a grasp of the slime''s abilities.


    As the number one enchanter in the world, she obviously had fought against other people whose abilities could counter her. So, she knew what to do in this battle.


    The Mafia Queen snapped her fingers.


    Suddenly, a rainbow circle appeared on the Heavenly Sovereign and Clone Theo.


    "Hmm?" The Heavenly Sovereign didn''t notice her arrival, so he was slightly surprised by the sudden surge in power.


    However, this enhancement was useful to amplify his power.


    With a single wave of his hand, he activated three powers from his trigrams.


    As expected of the number two in the world, the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t use his fire directly. But he could still activate the characteristic of his element.


    The fire didn''t appear, but the temperature gradually increased.


    The second element was the wind. Instead of concentrating the wind, he only created a gale to carry the heat.


    Last but not least, he used the Lightning Element. Of course, he didn''t summon the lightning this time. Instead, he called forth the thunder.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The sound of the thunder caused a sonic boom and the shock wave that came from it pushed the gale even further, boosting its speed.


    "!!!" The slime thought he could use the color to stop the Heavenly Sovereign, but all he got was an extreme heat that struck his body like that of a truck.


    *Bam!*


    The heat tried to evaporate the slime and the impact sttered some slime to the ground.


    The slime tried to absorb the Magic Power, but the Heavenly Sovereign''s power was beyond his expectation.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. His power was obviously not that strong, considering he couldn''t fully utilize his power after that Color Authority. However, the Mafia Queen had helped him get the power needed to fight the slime.


    The Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand a few times, taunting the slime. "Come. I, Feng Hao, am not that easy to bully."


    Of course, Clone Theo also distracted the slime earlier.


    When the slime was about to stop the Heavenly Sovereign''s attack, Theo activated his Twisted Reality.


    With the help of the Enchantment, the power of the Twisted Reality became simr to that of the Inverted World.


    The slime felt like it was being distorted, so he couldn''t help but use the Devouring Power on this side instead of the other.


    However, this was just a trick. As soon as the slime absorbed his power and returned to the Heavenly Sovereign, Theo used the Inverted World. He adjusted his power to be simr to the previous one.


    The slime was confused, thinking this must be the same power. But that was when Theo amplified that power, drilling the slime''s body.


    The slime was forced to use its remaining power to solve Theo''s attacks first, allowing the heated gale to reach his body.


    Theo and the Heavenly Sovereign smiled. They had achieved initial sess.


    Even though the slime could adjust to this kind of attack sooner orter, they had confirmed that their power was still effective.


    Unfortunately, the slime also noticed the appearance of the Mafia Queen on the battlefield.


    ''Hmm? She should be in the base, right?'' The slime frowned. On the one hand, the slime thought she was leaving the base exposed. If they attacked the base right now, they would be able to destroy it. On the other hand, the Time God had told him that the Mafia Queen was recing him.


    That was why the slime remained silent, thinking about the possibility. After all, attacking the base might be Theo''s hidden n that would eliminate all the remaining monsters.


    So, he couldn''t be reckless.


    The slime was observing the situation once more before deciding what to do next.

 Chapter 2102 Color

    ?


    Seeing he was surrounded by Theo and Feng Hao from two sides and the Mafia Queen maintained a good amount of distance from him, it was clear that he wouldn''t be able to turn around the situation easily even with Theo and Hel resting on the side.


    Still, the slime had an overwhelming advantage against all of them.


    The slime sent forth thirty tentacles, each was as big as a skyscraper. Each tentacle contained a single Authority.


    "��" Theo frowned, assessing the slime''s power. ''The golden Magic Power should be the Seal Authority, the ck one is the Devour Authority, the rainbow one should be the Color Authority, and the murky white Magic Power is rted to the Dissolve Authority.


    ''It''s a bit hard to see because the slime is transparent. It uses the light that the body reflects from the sunlight to camouge the color.


    ''It''s a bit annoying, but this should work.'' Theo raised his right hand, using his illusion not on the slime but on the Heavenly Sovereign.


    Since the real Theo had leisure time on the rear, he could easily recognize each color. With the shared senses, the illusion Theo could easily see all the colors.


    So, all he needed to do was to use the illusion to make the Heavenly Sovereign see the color better.


    The Heavenly Sovereign smiled, thanking him inwardly. Because he was in the middle of the fight, the Heavenly Sovereign didn''t say anything and started charging at the slime.


    He also activated a small trigram behind him, so the slime couldn''t see it.


    But to his surprise, the trigram suddenly malfunctioned and the trigrams were suddenly extended toward the Heavenly Sovereign''s back, trying to pierce through his stomach.


    "Gah!" The Heavenly Sovereign widened his eyes in shock while spitting a mouthful of blood. His organs shook for a split second and his body got weakened, causing him to fall to the ground.


    Theo used his Telekinesis to stop him from falling, but he didn''t know what happened to the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The Magma Dragon had fought against the Red Authority, so the tricks should work. As long as the slime couldn''t see it and recognize the color, he wouldn''t be able to use it.


    Yet, the slime could do it and strike his body. This was something he couldn''t understand.


    "Huh?" Theo''s body trembled, thinking there was something about the slime he didn''t know yet.


    His clone hurriedly came to the Heavenly Sovereign, helping him fend off the tentacles that took advantage of his condition to absorb him.


    Meanwhile, the real Theo had to fight as well since the slime didn''t want Theo to think about the slime''s power.


    However, Theo had given a secret message to Hel.


    It didn''t take too long for Hel to understand what had happened to the Heavenly Sovereign earlier.


    "Theo. The slime can use other bodies to see." Hel shouted.


    "!!!" Clone Theo was shocked while checking the Heavenly Sovereign''s condition. He seemed to be recovering since he could say, ''I''m alright,'' but he still brought him to the rear to regain someposure.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Meanwhile, the real Theo furrowed his eyebrows. They were on a battlefield. There were a lot of monsters and a few World ss Monsters near them. If he truly used their eyes to see them, the situation would be far moreplicated.


    ''This is��'' Theo narrowed his eyes and said, "Sir Feng Hao. There''s no need to use a color anymore. Even your trigrams are a no go for the time being. Just focus on activating the element without any color."


    "Yeah." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded and stood back up. Even though it was still hurt, there should be no problem in joining the fight.


    "That Color Authority is too restricting��" Feng Hao let out a long sigh.


    "For now, I''ll be the main fighter. Please back me up." Clone Theo stated while approaching the slime.


    Theo formed a de behind his body as if he didn''t learn from the Heavenly Sovereign.


    The slime activated his power to control the color of that de, but all of a sudden, a smile appeared on Theo''s face.


    ''Hmm? A smile? That''s right. He should have known about my power, yet, he is using the same technique. With his intelligence�� don''t tell me, he is baiting me to use that power?''


    The slime had just realized Theo''s intention and stopped using that power at thest moment.


    However, that was a mistake.


    Theo suddenly swung that de forward, cutting a few tentacles before using the Inverted World to remove them. He also retracted the sword so that the slime couldn''t use it.


    ''!!!'' The slime hurriedly sent forth a few tentacles to push Theo away while thinking, ''What? He is tricking me into thinking that?''


    The slime still seemed to underestimate the man who was known as a trickster. Even a single smile from him could make other people overthink, let alone his action.


    After all the build-up in his life, the world had known that Theo was an extremely intelligent and cunning person. So, his little action should have a hidden meaning.


    To think Theo would use that perception to trick him, it was unbelievable. Even if Theo used the same trick again, he might still fall for it, thinking Theo must want to make him think he wouldn''t fall for the same trick.


    ''I see�� So, this is the trickster. It seems that if I want to defeat him, I have to use all my power.''


    A few tentacles formed a tunnel in the middle of them and shot out a lot of bubbles. There were numerous bubbles in different colors.


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows when seeing these bubbles since they were flying slightly away from him.


    But surprisingly, a few bubbles seemed to have the same color. They all became connected due to the Color Authority and formed a string. It was multiplied by at least a hundred. And some of the bubbles didn''t have any strings attached, making people think there might be a matching color, but the slime was waiting for the right timing before connecting them.


    The strings were so dense that they looked like they would shred him into pieces once they passed him. But he couldn''t avoid it either since behind him was Hel.

 Chapter 2103 Getting Serious

    ?


    Theo nced to the back. Since Hel was behind him, he had to stop this attack no matter what.


    ''The strings are too many to the point it looks like a wall��'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows. He raised his sword and infused his illusion power.


    With a single wave of his sword, he cut down more than fifty strings. However, there was only a small gap that became visible after cutting that many strings.


    In addition, the bubbles seemed to be trying to reattach themselves. Even those that were not attached before began to extend their color.


    It seemed that the slime was trying to take in the


    ''There should be a thousand of them at the very least. The strings aren''t that small either. But more importantly, the strings are excluding something else.''


    Theo recalled what happened when he struck those strings. He noticed that his Magic Power was diminished rapidly. That was why his illusion could only hit fifty strings.


    ''So, that''s how it is. The ''Color'' is a bit tough to cut. In addition, those empty bubbles are hiding the Devour, Seal, and Dissolve Authorities. And judging from their distance, he should be aware that my Blink has a limit.


    ''Hel has finally begun healing her body seriously, so if I wake her right now, she might receive some bacsh.'' When healing one''s body, they had to circte their energy to improve their natural regeneration in the said area. Theo knew that if they stopped the cirction, that energy would go berserk and even explode, causing even more injuries.


    That was why the only thing he could do was use his Blink to transport the Goddess of Death.


    However, the slime seemed to have taken some precautions. He stretched his attacks farther than the blink''s limit.


    So, Theo had no choice but to use his illusion to break apart the slime''s attack. Of course, he could easily recall the clone and use him to improve the Blink with both of them, but there was one more problem.


    The slime had been scattering the slime on the ground.


    The moment he summoned his clone, the slime would burst out of the ground and release his energy to either devour Theo''s energy or dissolve the blink.


    That was why the slime was leaving Theo no choice other than crushing the ''Color'' attack.


    Theo took a deep breath. There was something that he could imitate with his Mirage World. And that was something that he could use to escape from this predicament.


    Theo summoned his Death Avatar.


    The Death Avatar was still wearing his tuxedo like usual. However, dark energy soon warped his entire body before a skeletal hand broke it apart. The shock wave dispersed the remaining energy, showing a new form of the Death Avatar.


    Instead of the gentleman-looking Death Avatar, the current appearance was simr to Hel''s Avatar. It was a skeleton. The Death Eyes were emitting an extraordinary killing intent, the Death Body was forming a barrier around it, and the Death Domain had surrounded the area with mist.


    However, there was one more thing that changed from the Death Avatar. It was the size. Its height seemed to have increased by two times and the wingspan only increased by half.


    The Death Avatar spread his arms fully and tried to hug all the strings to put them together.


    At the same time, the skeleton was releasing the same ck energy like Hel''s Death Avatar. But instead of Death, this ck Energy contained the Illusion.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    All the strings that the Death Avatar gathered were cut as though a de had just passed them.


    The Dissolve Power made the Death Avatar vanish, but due to its size, the Death Avatar still managed to retain its form for three seconds before the Devouring Power sucked all the remaining Magic Power.


    However, the Death Avatar''s sacrifice paved the way for them as the wall finally crumbled.


    Theo cut the remaining strings with his de, allowing the bubbles to pass.


    Knowing there was no need to maintain the bubbles, the slime retracted his Magic Power.


    He had seen this kind of power from Theo since he was in the union.


    But as expected, fighting it was harder than he thought.


    Theo''s three greatws: the mirage, the conversion, and the inversion.


    In addition, the Heavenly Sovereign and Clone Theo still hadn''t given up on stopping him.


    The Heavenly Sovereign raised both hands.


    The sky was split open and suddenly, indescribable pressure fell on top of the slime. The pressure was so incredible that the ground turned into a crater even with the slime reinforcing it.


    It seemed the Heavenly Sovereign was trying to create ake where it could store all the slimes. This way, they could prevent the slime from moving.


    However, the slime formed a translucent blue barrier with a part of his body. This body was controlled by the color, so it was impossible to destroy it with mere pressure like how the Magma Dragon failed to destroy the shield.


    The slime knew that the Heavenly Sovereign couldn''t use any color to attack him and he wasn''t big enough to cover him. That was why he had no weakness unlike the previous Red World ss Monster.


    "Kh." The Heavenly Sovereign clenched his fists. He had tried his best, but all his power was rendered useless by thebination of four Authorities. Even with the help of the Mafia Queen, it was still impossible to break through the slime''s defense.


    Clone Theo couldn''t help bute to him, asking, "So, do you have any idea how to kill this slime?"


    "I should be the one asking you." The Heavenly Sovereign sighed in frustration. "It''s hard to break through his defense and with the help of the Devour Authorities, the slime was like a fortress that wouldn''t run out of Magic Power.


    "If this continued, we would be the only ones that got exhausted. So, I have to ask you, do we have another way to defeat this slime? No, just breaking his defense is fine."


    "Well�� I do have a method. But executing it is a bit hard. We have to wait until the Goddess of Death recovers first. So, another five minutes," said Theo while furrowing his eyebrows.


    "Five minutes, that is. I''ll buy you that time."

 Chapter 2104 Another Problem

    ?


    "Five minutes, that is. I''ll buy you that time." The Heavenly Sovereign smiled. It seemed that knowing there was a way to defeat the slime made him energetic again.


    He formed a ball of water on top of him. But he chose the purest water and without the container, the water didn''t look like it had any color. This way, there was no way the slime could control it.


    He threw this water at the slime as if he was ying with a snowball.


    The slime was confused because this water ball didn''t seem to be extraordinary. But when it was about to reach him, the water started to boil.


    Even the slime instinctively used the Devouring Power to absorb it.


    But the moment the outeryer that contained the water was absorbed, the water inside had evaporated and turned into steam.


    The steam had more volume than the water. With the outeryer that contained it disappearing, a steam explosion urred.


    *Boom!*


    The force was so big it caused the earth to tremble. The slime''s body also got hit by it, causing a huge portion of the slime to beunched away. A portion of the slime was even blown one mile away from its original location.


    With this, the slime would have a hard time retrieving it.


    The Heavenly Sovereign didn''t stop there. With a wave of his hand, the tremor on the ground became even bigger, causing the soil to split.


    Surprisingly, the crack only stretched near the slime, causing the slime''s body to fill up the gap. This way, the slime on the surface looked like it shrunk significantly.


    The Heavenly Sovereign waved his other hand.


    The thunder reverberated from the sky, sending forth a shock wave that pushed the slime down, forcing it to fill the gap when it tried to do otherwise.


    After that, a light broke apart the cloud in the sky. The light was simr to that of sunlight, so there didn''t seem to be any color that could be seen with the naked eye.


    After all, the color itself came from the item''s reflection of the light. So, the Heavenly Sovereign chose to pure light itself.


    Without any reflection, the light could easily reach the slime''s body.


    The slime looked like it was evaporating.


    Both the slime and Theo were utterly shocked since they never thought the Heavenly Sovereign had this kind of trump card.


    ''So, the Heavenly Sovereign hasn''t gone serious this whole time��'' Theo thought before recalling the Wind Emperor''s power. ''Well, Sir Wind Emperor is that strong even after losing a lot of his strength. And ording to him, the Heavenly Sovereign defeated him fair and square. He should at least have this much power if he wants to fight against the wind that can disintegrate everything. It''s no wonder people said the Heavenly Sovereign was equal to the Time God even though he ranked below him.


    ''Though, the Time God had proven himself to be the rank one from that Singrity Rank alone.''


    Theo finally saw some hope. If they could continue like this, they could gradually weaken the slime.


    The battle mightst a bit long, but they should be able to win against him.


    Of course, Theo had to use his n if he wanted to weaken the slime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Heavenly Sovereign pointed at his head and asked, "So, what''s the n? I can buy you five minutes, but I have to know about your n.''


    Theo nodded. The simple gesture from the Heavenly Sovereign was telling him that he should use his illusion to talk directly to him. This would prevent the slime from hearing their conversation.


    Theo created an illusion where his voice was echoing in the Heavenly Sovereign''s ears.


    ''As soon as Hel returns to the battlefield, I will change my target for a bit. As you can see, I''m only one step away from reaching Singrity Rank. At most, two more World ss Monsters should suffice.


    ''That''s why after this, I''m nning to kill the World ss Monster that the dragons and the Dark Saint are fighting. This should be enough to break through to Singrity Rank.


    ''While I''m at it, I''ll try to convert the Fist Saint to rejoin our side. The two Saints from the Griffith Family have died, so there''s no reason for him to fight us anymore. It''s better to atone for his sins by fighting the slime.


    ''This way, we will have you, Hel, the Sword Saint, the Fist Saint, the two dragons, the Mafia Queen, and the Dark Saint fighting the slime. And with me reaching the Singrity Level, it should be two Singrity and seven Saints fighting the slime. We should be able to kill the slime this way.''


    The n indeed sounded great. Even if they weren''t in their peak condition, with that many Saints and Singrity Level Theo, it should be enough to kill the slime.


    The Heavenly Sovereign agreed with this n.


    However, it seemed that fate didn''t agree with it.


    All of a sudden, a huge roar shook the entire battlefield.


    *Roar!*


    The roar came from the west. And there was only one person that could release such a thing.


    "Huh?" The Heavenly Sovereign and Theo nced to the side, seeing the Lightning Saint falling together with the moth.


    The Magma Dragon was nowhere to be seen. But due to their size, both Theo and Feng Hao could easily see the Lightning Saint''s condition.


    His right arm was ripped apart and his tail was cut. Even his wings were tattered. It was already a miracle that he could fly with those wings.


    However, the moth''s condition wasn''t that different from the Lightning Saint. One of its wings was gone and the left side of the body seemed to have been obliterated with the lightning.


    The situation changed greatly as the Magma Dragon descended from the cloud. In fact, he was the one releasing the roar from earlier.


    Theo didn''t expect that the Lightning Saint had lost. In fact, he was already shocked enough that the moth could even do that much damage to the Lightning Saint. Even though the Lightning Saint''s condition was far from the peak, his power was still one of the strongest.


    ''Wait a minute�� The Lightning Saint shouldn''t fall that easily, especially if the Magma Dragon is helping him�� Don''t tell me, the strongest World ss Monster among the creatures that the slime creates is the��''


    As he thought about it, there was a fluctuation of Magic Power underground. And it was moving in the moth''s direction.


    "Oh shit!"

 Chapter 2105 Dragon King

    ?


    "Oh shit!" Theo was one step toote.


    The slime was about to reach the moth as well as the Lightning Saint.


    Suddenly, magma fell down from the sky and melted the ground, burning the slime that nned to reach the Lightning Saint.


    The Magma Dragon even grabbed the Lightning Saint as though he was nning to bring him away. He wouldn''t allow the slime to swallow the former Dragon King.


    "If you want to hurt my king, then you have to step over my dead body!" The Magma Dragon dered out loud.


    The slime knew that it was impossible to slip past the Magma Dragon''s defense within a short period of time. By the time he managed to do it, Theo would have reached their location and stopped him.


    So, the slime focused on retrieving the moth.


    The slime split the ground open and came out, enveloping the moth''s entire body.


    "No! He is going to absorb the moth and use the moth''s power!" Theo shouted in order to rm the Magma Dragon.


    Even though he had an anger issue and ack of knowledge, the Magma Dragon was sensitive enough to know what was going to happen.


    Without hesitation, the Magma Dragon released a chunk of magma toward the moth, trying to burn it before the slime could reabsorb it.


    Unfortunately, the magma only hit the lower part of the body and melted it. The remaining body was reabsorbed by the slime.


    By the time Theo reached their position, the slime had finished absorbing the moth.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth. He wanted toin, but he knew that the Magma Dragon wasn''t at fault. In fact, he had underestimated the moth''s power.


    "Human. That moth has the power of Life. It''s brimming with life force. In fact, take a look at your surroundings." The Magma Dragon warned Theo, thinking he needed the information.


    "!!!" Theo looked around and realized that the trees around here had grown taller, as though they had unlimited growth.


    ''Another thirteen Big Orders��'' Theo thought while sucking a cold breath. One alone was already making the slime a hard opponent to deal with. Yet, it turned out he had another one.


    In fact, this might be one of the first Orders the slime had. After all, only with this kind of power could the slime grow this big and strong.


    "What is that power?" Theo asked with a serious expression.


    "I will exin it to you." The Lightning Saint''s voice suddenly reverberated in their ears.


    "!!!" The Magma Dragon and Theo turned around. They were trying to protect him, but because of what happened, they almost forgot about him.


    The Lightning Saint was lying down on the ground, not having the strength to even stand back up.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Magma Dragon wanted to say something, but the Lightning Saint had opened his mouth first.


    "Theo. I''ll tell you about the Life Authority. In exchange, please win the war and fulfill two of my requests. It''s not a hard request. I just want you to take care of Ava, my sessor, just like how you have always been. And the second one is�� whenever you see a dragon, you can beat them up or whatever, but please don''t kill them. You can always drag them to this little magma boy as he will exin everything to them.


    "If you promise me those two things. I''ll tell you about the Life Authority as well as allowing you to kill me."


    "What?!" The Magma Dragon opened his eyes wide. "That can''t be done!"


    The Lightning Saint chuckled and said, "You should help the others stop the slime for now. This conversation will just be me and Theo. Besides, my death will be more beneficial if the one, who still can level up, kills me."


    The Magma Dragon wanted to refuse, but seeing the Lightning Saint''s eyes made him realize two things. First, they didn''t have enough time. Second, this might be thest request from the former Dragon King.


    "I understand. But please allow one of my heads to see you off, Your Majesty."


    "Mhm." The Lightning Saint smiled. Even though the Magma Dragon was like a brat, he still cared deeply about the Dragon King and the Dragon Race. That was why the Lightning Saint was never angry and even did his best to help him.


    As soon as he got the answer, the Magma Dragon pped his wings, flying toward the slime. At the very least, he would use all his power to stop the slime from going to Theo and the Lightning Saint.


    Of course, his left head kept turning back, watching the interaction between the Lightning Saint and Theo.


    Theo was using his Telekinesis to float in front of the Lightning Saint''s right eye.


    "Theodore Griffith��" The Lightning Saint muttered his name. His eyes lost his focus not because his consciousness faded away but because he recalled the first time they met.


    Back then, the Lightning Saint was flying toward the goblin experiment''s facility after noticing the change in the bnce.


    "Maybe I should expel all those humans altogether. Or should I destroy their base to make sure they don''t disrupt the bnce? Monsters and humans can live side by side, but that only applies to a small portion of humans. And those who are causing this shouldn''t be among them."


    The dragon had that kind of thought when he was flying. But everything began to change when he arrived at the scene.


    It was at that time he discovered Theo and Ava.


    Of course, Ava was hidden in Theo''s pocket, but her lightning element piqued his interest.


    ''There is a monster among them?'' The Lightning Saint frowned and realized there was a small rabbit that seemed to be living together with Theo. Her strength was close to the Order, so it was more noticeable.


    And that was when the shock came to him. A rabbit that strong actually befriended and even lived together with a human? It was ridiculous.


    When he checked on the human, Theo, he realized there was a King ss Monster protecting Theo. And that monster might be rted to the rabbit. It didn''t take too long for him to see the connection between Ava, Avarice''s Seal, and Theo.


    Thest human that managed to pique his interest was twenty years ago. It was Leonardo. However, it seemed that at the end of his life, there was one more life he wanted to converse with.

 Chapter 2106 Dragon King (2)

    ?


    After that meeting, the Lightning Saint turned back to his nest, asking his subordinates to look after Theo.


    Though, he was kind of surprised that Theo ended up meeting the Mountain King and used his Seal to meet him.


    After seeing all his efforts and all the coincidences, the Lightning Saint decided to take both of them in. He thought this might be onest joy he could have before he passed away.


    Ava was extremely talented and smart. And Theo had a direct influence on her achievement.


    Meanwhile, Theo could only be described as a monster even from his perspective. This was the first time he saw someone who could absorb all the knowledge and apply it within a short period of time.


    He even became a Transcendent Level Expert the moment he received that information.


    As a former dragon king, he decided to befriend Theo and even make Ava his sessor. He knew that Theo would be someone big in the future, far bigger than his grandfather. And Ava, who was directly influenced by Theo, would reach the same level as him�� at least, with Theo''s help.


    That was why he helped Theo cross the ocean and even fought the Frost Saint.


    When recalling all those memories, the Lightning Saint couldn''t help but say, "Theo�� With how smart you are, you should have known the reason why I''m good to you, right?"


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. "Everything bes clear the moment I know you are a former Dragon King. Although this sounds like I''m overconfident, you should have seen something in me and tried to bet on it.


    "You take on Ava, who is directly connected to me as your sessor, so I will help her to reach your level and even protect her. Meanwhile, the reason for you to approach me lies in the second request. You don''t want me to ce my eyes on the Dragon Race."


    The Dragon King smiled as Theo was spot on. "That''s right. Are you disappointed?"


    "Not at all." Theo shook his head. "Without your help, my progress would definitely be slower. And I might not be ready to fight the slime.


    "Besides, you are a man with integrity. You are a former Dragon King, who leaves your seat to someone more capable. I believe that is a wise and hard decision to make. You are prioritizing the dragon race because they are your kin. The same applies to your request.


    "If I happen to win, my group will surely be the biggest threat in this world. And you don''t want any mishap to befall your race. Just like how I want to protect my kin for my personal reason, I can also respect your choice, Lightning Saint."


    The Lightning Saint smiled. He was satisfied with Theo''s answer.


    "It seems that I don''t have to worry about the future." The lightning Saint paused for a moment. His breath became weaker as time passed. His blood was flowing out through his wounds.


    He didn''t have a lot of time left.


    "I''m sure you''re curious about how I know you still have the system. But I don''t think it''s hard to guess from your rapid progress and desperate face."


    Theo didn''t say anything, but he didn''t deny it either. It would take others longer to notice it, but as one would expect from the wise Dragon King.


    The Lightning Saint finally became serious. "The Life Authority has three big purposes. The first is to grant life to others. You can say that the reason why he has his army is because of this Authority.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "But in this situation, even if he regains the Life Authority, I don''t think he will use it to produce another living creature. Of course, that Time God is reborn because of a part of this Life Authority that still remains in his body.


    "The second ability is rted to the life of everything. Basically, if you shoot a lightning bolt at him, the slime could grant life to that lightning bolt and make it turn around for him.


    "From what I can see, you can use invisible attacks to approach it. But the problem lies in his Color Authority. If hebines both Life and Color, I''m sure you can imagine the problem.


    "Last but not least, the Life Authority can increase one''s life force. Basically, the slime will be able to recover rapidly. That''s why you don''t have much time if you want to kill the slime. You can''t let him recover or everything will be toote."


    Theo nodded with a serious expression. The ability was indeed troublesome. If the slime regenerated the body part to its peak, there was no more hope for them.


    The Lightning Saint knew this and didn''t talk too much. He only asked one thing before telling Theo to kill him. "How many more World ss Monsters do you have to kill before reaching the next rank?"


    "I''m afraid I still need one more. That''s why I''m going to retreat and aim for the one that the Dark Saint fights this whole time."


    "I see. I guess you have nned for everything. In that case, I''ll leave everything to you, Theo. Protect this world''s future." The Lightning Saint smiled. It felt like he had unloaded every matter in his life. All that was left was his death.


    Dying in the hand of the man he approved instead of the enemy sounded much more fulfilling for him.


    That was why he couldn''t help but smile when he saw Theo standing on top of his heart. He could see Theo''s sad face. He must want to let out tears, but Theo refrained himself as the Dragon King was going to pass away with a smile. He couldn''t ruin it.


    "It''s a farewell��" Theo thrust Lightning Saint''s heart and used his Magic Power to destroy his heart, killing the Dragon King as painlessly as possible.


    The Dragon King smiled when he felt what was happening inside his body. He was about to close his eyes. But he heard onest word that came out of Theo''s mouth. And surprisingly, it was his name.


    "Olrenth, O'' Wise Dragon King."


    It had been a long time since someone called him by his name. His smile couldn''t help but be bigger as his consciousness faded away.


    Theo closed his eyes with a pained look, trying his best not to shed any tears.


    Meanwhile, the Magma Dragon, who witnessed the Lightning Saint''sst moment, couldn''t help but let out a roar.


    This roar only had one message.


    "I see off, the Wise Dragon King!"


    The former Dragon King, known as Lightning Saint Olrenth, had passed away.

 Chapter 2107 Another Surprise

    ?


    [You have leveled up.]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 1,000


    EXP: 102,200,500/140,699,444


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (S), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (S), Muscle Enhancement (S), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 3020


    Free Attribute Points: 15


    Theo closed his eyes for a second, paying his tribute to the Lightning Saint. He was a kind of mentor to him, considering the Lightning Saint had helped and taught him a lot of things.


    So, it was truly painful to lose him here.


    However, Theo knew that when there was a beginning, there would be an ending. The Lightning Saint had lived his life and even at the end of his life, he still tried to contribute to the world by allowing him to kill him.


    Theo took a deep breath, looking at the Dragon King''s corpse. His death also shocked a lot of people.


    Ava, as his sessor, was the first one to notice his death. She couldn''t help but stop for a moment, looking at the horizon. She found Theo standing on top of the Lightning Saint while the Magma Dragon was protecting him. It was clear that the Lightning Saint was the one requesting him, so Ava knew Theo only fulfilled the Lightning Saint''sst request.


    "Master��" Ava muttered with a sob voice. "Don''t worry. I will make sure I can reach your level. I''ll protect the ones you want to protect in your stead. I am d that you were my teacher."


    As a Dragon King, his influence spread far. There were some World ss Monsters that had received his Friend Seal. With his death, the seal would disappear. All these World ss Monsters felt the same thing. They knew that the Lightning Saint had died.


    However, the ones that got hit the worst were none other than the people under the Lightning Saint. There were King ss Monsters like the Mountain King or Thunder King. They all bowed to the sky as if trying to give him thest farewell.


    Unfortunately, they couldn''t do anything to reverse it. Even the Lightning Saint already knew that his death was approaching, so he chose this ce as hisst battlefield.


    After that simple tribute to the Lightning Saint, Theo''s face turned serious again. As much as he wanted to mourn and thank the Lightning Saint, the war had yet to end. If he was swallowed by grief and caused the war to lose, he wouldn''t be able to fulfill the promise to the Lightning Saint.


    "Don''t worry, Lightning Saint. I''ll definitely stop the slime." Theo took a deep breath as he assigned his Attribute Points to his Magic Power.


    At the same time, he looked at his EXP, knowing that there were still close to forty million EXP left.


    A single King ss Monster usually gave three to five million EXP. But a single World ss Monster could give him more than a hundred million.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Just by looking at the amount of EXP he needed to fulfill the bar and break through to the Singrity Rank, he knew that it was better to kill another World ss Monster.


    "Alright. It''s time to take onest step." Before going to his next target, he returned to his position to inform the Heavenly Sovereign, Goddess of Death, and the Magma Dragon.


    "I am going to have a breakthrough," Theo stated. "My advancement will be different from the Time God. Unlike him, I''m nning to take my time to understand everything that the world gives me once I be a Singrity. That''s why it might take a bit longer. I hope that you can stop the slime for a bit longer."


    The Heavenly Sovereign and the Goddess of Death nonchntly. That was what they were nning to do with or without Theo anyway. And it seemed that in the process of breaking through to the Singrity Rank, Theo had to recall his clone. So, they assured him that they could stop him to some extent.


    Theo also used his illusion to tell them about the power of Life.


    The Magma Dragon, however, was annoyed by the slime because it killed the Dragon King. Since that moth was a part of the slime, the Magma Dragon considered him to be the one who killed the Dragon King.


    So, without Theo telling him, he was nning to fight the slime. If he could do it, he would even kill the slime.


    Unfortunately for him, the slime was extremely strong, especially now that he had regained the power of Life. It was theplete opposite of Hel''s power, which made it even trickier.


    Theo also used his clone to carry the Lightning Saint''s body away, so the others couldn''t do anything to it.


    With this, he had settled all the problems before moving to his next target. But as one would expect from the slime, he noticed the reason why Theo killed the Lightning Saint. He would do everything to stop Theo from advancing to the Singrity Rank.


    However, it seemed that fate was ying with them.


    "THEODORE GRIFFITH!" A shout suddenly sounded across the battlefield, rming everyone.


    Everyone, including Theo, turned around. They could see the Fist Saint approaching Theo.


    ''Huh? The Fist Saint is here? Does that mean he has defeated the Sword Saint?'' Theo thought in shock as he raised his de.


    Suddenly, a huge slime tentacle came out of the ground and stood between them. Theo was surprised that the slime was trying to stop him, but he realized there was another purpose.


    The Fist Saint punched forward, blowing the tentacle away from the air pressure the punch generated.


    The path to Theo was clear. The Fist Saint pulled his fist once again as though he wanted to punch Theo.


    Theo clicked his tongue and covered his sword with Magic Power. He waved his sword, striking the Fist Saint''s fist.


    But another surprise struck him. His de actually reached the Fist Saint and created a huge sword wound from the top of his shoulder to the waist on the other side.


    "Huh?"

 Chapter 2108 Why?

    ?


    The slime was able to see everything around clearly.


    ''Huh? Why did he kill the Dragon King? In that situation, the Dragon King would die sooner orter��'' The slime was confused, watching how Theo stabbed the dragon''s chest.


    However, there were only a few possible reasons. And with how Theo became stronger day by day, it didn''t take too long for him to realize that Theo actually had the system. Yes, his system actually remained after the apocalypse.


    ''How can he even have that system? As expected, it must be rted to his secret. Nheless, I still have to stop him from reaching the next rank. It will be even more troublesome if he reaches that rank after all.''


    The slime understood what he had to do. But before he could attack Theo, another surprise shook the battlefield.


    "THEODORE GRIFFITH!"


    The slime was startled. He thought, ''Huh? That Fist Guy? Wait a minute. He is at odds with Theo, so attacking him is also something normal. But did he truly defeat the one who is known as Sword Saint?''


    The slime could share his senses with his other parts. It only took him a split second to find the Sword Saint, who actually flew behind the Fist Saint.


    Normally, the Sword Saint would be rushing to stop the Fist Saint. But the expression on the Sword Saint''s face waspletely calm as though he allowed the Fist Saint to do something like this.


    ''Still, it doesn''t make sense. The Fist Saint shouldn''t know about his system. Then, what is he nning to do? If he is truly going to attack Theo, then the Sword Saint will be rushing to stop him. Judging from the looks of it, he is nning to reach this ce in the pretense of charging at Theo.


    ''Does that mean he wants to hit me with his power? I am sure that it''s effective, but he surely doesn''t think I''m that foolish, right?''


    The slime was suspicious of the Fist Saint''s action. On the one hand, the Fist Saint joined the Griffith Family to wreak havoc on the battlefield. His action truly put Theo''s group in a problem. On the other hand, it didn''t mean that the Griffith Family and the Fist Saint were on his side.


    In other words, he couldn''t trust thempletely. Now that the Fist Saint was doing something this suspicious, he had to stop him.


    After making a decision in his mind, the slime sent forth a tentacle to stand between Theo and Fist Saint. This way, he could see the Fist Saint''s intention.


    If he truly came to deal with Theo, he would definitely loop around to make an agreement with him. But if the Fist Saint was nning to kill him, then he wouldn''t hesitate to destroy the tentacle.


    It didn''t take too long before the answer came.


    The Fist Saint didn''t hesitate to strike his tentacle, obliterating it.


    ''What is that power? I feel like my slime is being frozen�� No, should I say hardened? It''s different from the Time God.'' The slime was confused by the Fist Saint''s power. But his intention seemed to be more concerning.


    Now that the Fist Saint had destroyed his slime, it was clear that the Fist Saint was targeting him.


    The slime was ready to take him on anytime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Wait a minute. He doesn''t go to me? No, wait. He hasn''t changed his direction. He''s still going to Theo. Then, is Theo his true target?


    ''But with the Sword Saint behind him, I know that the Fist Saint doesn''t intend to harm Theodore Griffith. Then, a conversation?''


    The slime thought of another possibility. There was a chance that the Fist Saint woulde to Theo to negotiate. If he and the Sword Saint joined the battle, he would still have some problems defeating them even with the power of Life.


    The slime was determined to stop their conversation. But when he was about to send another tentacle to disturb them, the Fist Saint did the unthinkable.


    ''What? He is still charging at Theo? He doesn''t have any sign of stopping.'' The slime was dumbfounded. He thought it was impossible, but it seemed that the Fist Saint was nning to fight Theo.


    Theo also raised his sword, ready to fight him. In the end, Theo swung his sword in order to block the Fist Saint''s punch.


    Once again, the Fist Saint action caused another shock to all the people in the area, especially to the slime.


    The Fist Saint was indeed charging at Theo. But that was all. He didn''t do anything else. He didn''t protect himself, he didn''t stop Theo''s de.


    In other words, the Fist Saint came to this ce so that Theo could strike him down.


    ''Huh? What''s going on? The Fist Saint shouldn''t have known about it. He shouldn''t know about the system. After all, Theo and the Fist Saint have already been at odds far before the apocalypse. Then, why does he allow Theo to strike him down?''


    The slime was utterly confused. He could see how the Fist Saint''s body was supported by Theo''s body because of his momentum.


    The Fist Saint was actually smiling when Theo struck him that deep. He never expected this one possibility.


    The Fist Saint had been going strong all this time. He might be reckless and fearless, but it didn''t change the fact that he was one of the youngest Saints in the world before Theo appeared. He shouldn''t be that foolish either.


    So, why would he allow Theo to cut him down?


    The slime couldn''tprehend it. And he was not the only one.


    Even Theo was shocked when the Fist Saint didn''t do anything.


    "Huh?" Theo looked down. The Fist Saint''s body crashed onto him and thetter used his head to hang on his shoulder.


    The Fist Saint smiled and said, "And now�� my mission ispleted."


    "Mission?" Theo was startled. He looked at the Fist Saint in shock, wondering if there was another conspiracy that he didn''t know. "What do you mean by mission? Why do you let me kill you?"

 Chapter 2109 The Message From The Future

    ?


    A few years ago.


    The Fist Saint visited a fortune teller who had a Fate Order. It was simr to the mermaid Theo met in Antis.


    Back then, he wanted to know about Theo''s movements in order to win against him. He was going to cooperate with the Death Reaper, who was ranked third in the world to defeat Theo.


    Her name was Madam F. And because she owed him in the past, Madam F had agreed to read his future.


    He wanted Madam F to read both him and the Death Reaper''s fate. But the favor she owed only allowed him to read one person''s fate.


    "In that case, I want you to read the old hag''s fate."


    Madam F agreed. However, she needed the Death Reaper''s picture. While the Fist Saint asked for her picture, Madam F couldn''t help but think, ''So, what''s going on with the Fist Saint and the Death Reaper? It''s rare for the two strongest people in the world to do something like this. Maybe I should read his future as well? I can keep the information hidden and read the Death Reaper to fulfill the favor.


    ''If the Fist Saint''s future is important, I can make a separate agreement with him. Having one of the strongest people to owe me doesn''t seem to be that bad.''


    Madam F nned to read the Fist Saint''s future first before the Death Reaper. After all, the Fist Saint was right here. It would be hard if the Fist Saint left this ce.


    ''My ability allows me to read the person''s most important moment that will happen in the future. So, I wonder what the Fist Saint will show me.''


    Madam F thought while ncing at the Fist Saint''s face. The Fist Saint didn''t understand what she wanted, but since the other party didn''t say anything, he remained silent and let her do whatever she wanted.


    Madam F lowered her body and put her face right in front of a face mirror.


    ''This is��'' Madam F''s vision abruptly changed. She was still looking from the eyes, but they were not her eyes. The vision she had right now was the vision of the Future Fist Saint.


    She could see the Fist Saint standing in the air, dumbfounded. There was a huge slime moving toward him.


    However, there was one more detail that piqued her interest. A blue-haired man suddenly turned around and looked at the Fist Saint.


    He was none other than the adult Theo. It seemed that he noticed the change in the Fist Saint.


    "Interesting." Theo smiled. He looked at the Fist Saint, or more like Madam F inside the Fist Saint. He stated, "I can see a string of fate. This might be my lucky day. Whoever you want, I want you to pass this message. I became a Singrity in this world a tad toote because I couldn''t kill thest World ss Monster. As a result, the world is going to end.


    "One, who preaches fate�� I shall warn you. The world is about to be destroyed. And if you use this power to change fate, this world will just be another reality where the world ends. Meanwhile, your world will continue to strive for a better tomorrow. If only I didn''t try to persuade you to switch back to my side. Well, go back."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    With a single wave of Theo''s hand, she felt like her consciousness returned as though the connection between the Fist Saint and her vanished for no apparent reason.


    At the same time, the mirror cracked as though the Theo, in that reality, destroyed it so that she didn''t enter that ce anymore. The blood that came out of the mirror at that time was her blood. That was the reason why the divination was called Blood Divination.


    Madam F couldn''t help but scream.


    "AAAAHHHH!" Madam F was in pain. She used her hands to cover her face. This was one of the side effects of being disconnected forcefully.


    The Fist Saint grabbed her and checked her condition, noticing her body was convulsing uncontrobly.


    "Madam F. What''s wrong? Who do I need to call at a time like this? Do you want to go to the hospital?"


    Madam F didn''t answer immediately. Instead, she was thinking about the message that Theo gave to her.


    ''If only I didn''t ask you to switch sides�� Does that mean the blue-haired man was the Fist Saint''s enemy previously? And what about the slime? Is it the Fist Saint''s friend? But looking at how he described the world''s end, I feel like there is more to it.


    ''Don''t tell me, the blue-haired man convinced the Fist Saint in order to stop the slime from destroying the world? But because he persuaded the Fist Saint, he couldn''t kill him? He couldn''t level up?''


    The apocalypse or the idea of an apocalypse hadn''t appeared at this time. So, the only thought she had was leveling up. In other words, the Singrity Rank was the rank beyond the Mythical Rank and thest resort the humans needed to prevent the world''s destruction.


    ''Does that mean the Fist Saint has to die? No, he should remain as an enemy so that he dies. He has to sacrifice himself for mankind. But what will he do if I tell him that?''


    Madam F''s face became pale. She had to word this correctly if she didn''t want humanity to be destroyed.


    And since the blue-haired man and the Fist Saint were enemies, they should remain as an enemy. But first, she had to identify the blue-haired man. She wiped the blood on her face while keeping her eyes closed to buy some time.


    After a while, she asked with a heavy tone. "Who have you offended?"


    "What?" The Fist Saint tilted his head in confusion, not understanding her question. "I have offended many people, but no one is stronger than me."


    "NO!" She shouted desperately.


    The Fist Saint couldn''t understand anything. So, he asked straight to the matter in question. "What did you see earlier?"

 Chapter 2110 Win...

    ?


    "What did you see earlier?"


    ''The agreement was to see the Death Reaper''s fate. But the one I saw was the Fist Saint''s�� I couldn''t let him know. I should mix some truth in my lies.'' Madam F thought before answering his question. ''I didn''t see anything. Only blood. And that''s exactly the problem.''


    The first sentence was regarding the Death Reaper. She didn''t see anything indeed. However, the second statement was for the future she saw. Only blood meant the destruction of humanity. There would be nothing left other than blood.


    And that was exactly the problem. She wanted to make sure that humanity wasn''t destroyed even if she had to lie to the Fist Saint.


    "There is someone blocking my eyes the whole time. That bloodied thing prevented me from seeing anything! Do you know what this means?


    Her tone was filled with anger, while the Fist Saint had no words to say as he truly didn''t know anything. However, those statements were actually exining the situation about the slime and future conditions. ''That bloodied thing'' in her mouth was none other than the slime. Because the slime was destroying the world, she truly couldn''t see much of the future.


    Last but not least, she wanted to make sure the Fist Saint knew about that expert, she said, "This means there''s a stronger existence than the Time God who can block my eyes from seeing the future. Only someone at that level can do it! Who did you offend, Fist Saint? Out with it!"


    Madam F worded it differently. But she was indicating Theo''s power. In the current time, there was no one who reached the rank beyond the Mythical Rank, including the Time God.


    That was why she said there was a stronger existence than the Time God. And instead of blocking her eyes from seeing the future, it was more urate to say that Theo sent him back.


    Of course, the Fist Saint didn''t have any idea about that existence. He said, "I don''t know. I truly don''t have any idea of a person who is strong enough to cause all that. If that person is stronger than the Time God, wouldn''t I be dead already?!"


    ''Yes, you should die. I might be cruel to say this, but if you don''t die, the world will be destroyed.'' Madam F gritted her teeth. If she wasn''t involved with this entire scheme, she wouldn''t be this angry.


    "You make that existence aware of my presence. I don''t even know what my future will be from now on! You fist bastard! I''m going to curse you for this."


    She didn''t lie. Theo was indeed aware of her presence back then. She just made it look like she was afraid.


    And she even cursed him as though she wanted him to die. Of course, that curse was simply her wish so that the Fist Saint would die in the future, killed by that blue-haired person. The Fist Saint told her that he would already die if there was someone stronger than the Time God, but with that curse, it was as if she was telling him to be killed by that person.


    The Fist Saint thought, ''Madam F''s uracy is extremely high. However, she always says that if she tells others about their future, it won''t happen. That''s why she will only tell you about it in a roundabout way. And this is far worse than I imagined�� It seems that I have to return to decipher it.''


    Yes, just like the Fist Saint, no one actually knew this existence since they couldn''t imagine a person stronger than the Time God. After all, the Singrity Rank is not known in the world right now. It was different in the future though.


    ��<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Fist Saint continuously tried to decipher the meaning of her revtion. In the end, he lost against Theo and kept hiding.


    Little by little, he finally began to understand what Madam F had said to him. He realized that someone who was stronger than the Time God would be Theo. After all, Theo had the strongest potential and it wouldn''t be long before he reached their levels. Since Madam F told him about the future, that scene should happen in the future. In other words, the Future Theo had be stronger than the Time God.


    The more he thought about it, the more he understood the meaning. And before long, he realized that he would take an important part in history. Unfortunately, to do it, he had to be a viin. He should be the world''s viin and die.


    He didn''t know for what purpose, but he knew what would happen in the future.


    When the Griffith Family came to him, he obviously agreed. Though, he didn''t join them because of his hatred of Theo. Instead, he just wanted to be a viin to get in the front seat.


    That was why when the Sword Saint asked, he told him that he was determined to do this.


    And when everything began to take shape, the Fist Saint finally took action. He was prepared to die. He might hate Theo because of the suffering he had to experience, but in front of amon enemy, his heart still belonged to humanity. He was a human after all.


    Now that he had fulfilled his role, he felt like a huge burden had been lifted up from his shoulders.


    The Fist Saint smiled. He obviously didn''t want to die. But as one of the strongest humans, he had to fulfill his role.


    With a smile on his face, the Fist Saint said, "And now�� my mission ispleted."


    "Mission?" Theo was startled. He looked at the Fist Saint in shock, wondering if there was another conspiracy that he didn''t know. "What do you mean by mission? Why do you let me kill you?"


    The Fist Saint''s consciousness began to fade. So, he said hisst words. "My death is necessary for the victory of this war. I might hate you, but I''m also a human. I once got a divination about my future�� In that future, I didn''t die. But since I''ll die now, the future should change. People call me a muscle brain, but I guess I''m not that foolish. With this, I have beaten the future with the help of the message from the future. And I might be famous because of infamy, but I guess I still manage to etch my name in the canal of history. Not bad."


    Theo was speechless. He couldn''t say anything because there were simply too many things the Fist Saint was talking about. However, he could understand a portion of it.


    The Fist Saint became weaker and weaker. Finally, his consciousness fadedpletely and his body started to fall.


    However, Theo could hear onest word from the Fist Saint.


    "Win��"

 Chapter 2111 Meeting The World

    ?


    "��" Theo looked down, watching the Fist Saint''s body fall down. His body would be destroyed if he fell like this. After a moment of silence, Theo used his Telekinesis to let the body float right on top of the ground. He didn''t know what to think about the Fist Saint, but he believed it wasn''t right to let his body get destroyed because of the fall.


    After all, due to the Fist Saint''s sacrifice, Theo could finally reach the next level.


    [You''ve killed the ''Strengthen'']


    [EXP+91,100,121]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 1,000


    EXP: 140,699,444/140,699,444


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (S), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (S), Muscle Enhancement (S), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar(S), World Re-creation (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 3035


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Theo felt something he had never experienced before. In the past, he woulde to his consciousness where he could meet Loki and the others.


    Now that the system had been broken, it was clear that he wouldn''t be transported there anymore. In addition, he was going to reach the Singrity Rank, so there was no way he would return there. Only Loki would be qualified to do anything to him.


    At the same time, he had seen how the Time God reached the Singrity Rank with his power. He surprisingly didn''t meditate in order to perceive his ability.


    Theo didn''t feel a headache like usual. Instead, he felt a surge of strength directly entering his body. The strength was different from his Order, Authority, Magic Power or even the EXP.


    ''Don''t tell me�� this is Primordial Energy?'' Theo furrowed his eyebrows. The strength didn''t only increase his power, but it allowed his body to evolve.


    ''The cells in my body are screaming, not because of pain, but because of joy.'' Theo felt like his body was shaking because of this energy. His body epted it and rejoiced.


    Since he was still too close to the slime, he hurriedly flew away. He needed some distance so that the slime didn''t bother him inprehending this power.


    The slime obviously tried to stop him by sending forth multiple objects made of the slime. However, all of them were suddenly cut into nothingness.


    Since the Sword Saint didn''t have to fight the Fist Saint anymore, he could finally help Theo.


    He opened the path for Theo with a smile as though saying leave everything to me.


    Theo smiled and hurriedly moved away.


    "Do you think I will allow you to do it?" The slime knew Theo would be a more formidable opponent once he came back. So, without hesitation, he sent the signal to all the slimes in the area to turn around and stop Theo.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    All the King ss Monsters recognized the orders. They split up. Some still fought against Ava and the others to stop them, while some came to Theo. There were at least a few thousand monsters that came from the green line that turned around as well.


    With this, Theo wouldn''t have any time toprehend his power.


    All of a sudden, there were four Kings standing in their way. They were none other than Ava, Felix, Rea, and Ruth.


    "!!!" Even Theo was surprised by their sudden appearance, but there was only one person who could do something like this.


    On the horizon, Lorenzo was standing among the trees with a smile on his face.


    "You are truly a great brother, Theo. I wish I could fight alongside you, but even if I''m weak, I hope that this present can help you a little bit. I wish you luck, my brother." Lorenzo smiled.


    Lorenzo had never left the battlefield. He had been using his teleportation ability to help the people around. And when he saw Theo needed his help, he sent forth the people close to Theo.


    Of course, Lorenzo had understood the war''s situation as the young master of the War God Family. If he sent all the Transcendent Level Experts to Theo''s position, the King ss Monsters might turn around and attack the green line.


    So, he only sent a few and they were Theo''s trusted subordinates. This way, Theo would feel at ease with them protecting him.


    "Thanks." Theo couldn''t help but smile. When he saw these four, Theo immediately sat down on the ground, preparing to meditate.


    "There are approximately seven King ss Monstersing at us. Their objective is you, so they might do something reckless as long as they can harm you." Felix assessed the situation and reported it to Theo. They were already tattered after the long fight as well, so the chance of those monsters slipping past them was quite high.


    However, Theo only had one question for Felix. "Is that a problem?"


    Theo had no doubt that they could stop them. And the rest of them smiled upon that trust, not nning to betray it. They all faced the King ss Monsters as Felix left his answer before confronting them. "No, please take as long as you need, Master."


    With that assurance, Theo finally closed his eyes as he beganprehending this new power.


    The Primordial Energy was entering his body like a torrential wave. He felt a bit overwhelmed in fact.


    However, Theo''s expression remained unfazed. He was still searching for the uniqueness of this energy.


    The power seemed to be strengthening him. But there was something else that piqued his interest.


    The power was actually focusing on five spots: his brain, his eyes, his heart, his bones, and his flesh.


    ''This is��'' The moment Theo noticed it, a ray of light suddenly shed before his eyes. It was weird since he had closed his eyes.


    However, Theo couldn''t help but smile as though he recognized this ray of light.


    Without him opening his eyes in real life, he could still see what was before him. The ball of light descended upon him.


    Theo ended up greeting him. "Yo, it seems that we finally meet again, World."

 Chapter 2112 Five Things

    ?


    "Yo, it seems that we are meeting again, World."


    "Theodore Griffith." The world''s sound was transmitted directly into his brain. "You should be aware of this level, right?"


    "Yes. Though, I still don''t know the full difference between the Mythical Rank and the Singrity Rank," said Theo while checking his body.


    "I''m going to exin a few things to you regarding this rank. However, you have to find out about the rest by yourself."


    "There are five things you have to know about Singrity Rank. Once you reach this level, you basically be my apostle, the representative of myself."


    Theo furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you telling me that I''ve be your ve now?"


    Theo worded it to the extreme, but the point remained the same for Theo, who wanted to escape from anyone''s palm.


    However, the World immediately resolved the confusion. "As an apostle, you don''t have any real job other than preventing the world from destruction. Even without me asking, you don''t want it to happen, right?"


    "That''s true. Though, I don''t like how it sounds. I guess I''ll just forget about it and focus on the meaning of Singrity." Theo shrugged.


    "I don''t care about that. So, I''ll move on to the second thing. Singrity Rank means you will be able to sense the power that has been maintaining the world. And from what I can see, you are already aware of Primordial Energy.


    "This energy is different from Magic Power, Order, and Authority. To put it simply, the Primordial Energy is the core of everything, while the others are just there to fill up the bnce. If the bnce crumbles, the core can still function. But if the core is destroyed, the world will be destroyed."


    "Well, I can understand. Though, I still don''t know the purpose of the Primordial Energy." Theo fell silent for a moment before realizing the organs that had been enhanced by the Primordial Energy. "Wait a minute�� Can I open my eyes for a moment?"


    "I believe it''s better for you to see it personally."


    Theo opened his eyes and was shocked by what he found. The world was suddenly filled with color.


    The blue color that filled up most of the air was none other than the Magic Power. However, he could see ck energy traveling in the air like a wave. It was the Dark Saint''s Dark Authority.


    He didn''t know why, but he could understand and recognize all of them. It might be because he had grasped the core and looked at the world from the center of it.


    Theo nced to the side and found multiple colors that came from all the Saints. Their Magic Power certainly had different colors, but he could see the faint light that seemed to be able to cause a ripple in the world. That ripple was their Order and Authority.


    "I see. The Primordial Energy is the Core. Magic Power is like thest thing you need to fill up this world. Order and Authority are the powers that can directly influence the world."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Theo nced to the side and found a sliver of pink energy traveling weakly in the air. He extended his hand and grasped it.


    He recognized this power and couldn''t help but smile.


    "I see. Fate, huh? To think the Fist Saint truly got the help of someone��" Theo fell silent for a moment. After getting a new kind of understanding of Primordial Energy, he could finally understand Time a little bit. Since he had been saved by Time, he said to this sliver of Fate energy.


    "The time can be reset, but you can, by no means, control it. Once you make a change, the time will split and two worlds shall be born. Please be careful if you y with time and thank you, one who seeks for fate." Theo was truly helped by this unknown person through the Fist Saint, so he gave her a warning to the past Madam F, which might affect the past Theo. Either way, the time wouldn''t go backward, so no matter what he did, the current situation wouldn''t change.


    After giving her the message, Theo crushed the sliver of energy and extinguished it with his Inverted World.


    Then, Theo closed his eyes again to meet the world.


    "Are you angry?" Theo asked the world, wondering if it had anything to say when he crushed a sliver of energy that came from Fate.


    "No. However, I have to continue with the third thing. Right now, your eyes, brain, heart, bones, and flesh have been enhanced by the primordial energy. With the heart, brain, and bones getting enhanced, you are able to wield the primordial energy to some extent and influence it. You should understand that since you can crush the sliver of Fate energy."


    "That''s true." Theo nodded in agreement. "What about eyes and flesh?"


    "Your eyes can faintly see it, but you should see a different type of energy among the blue ones, right?"


    "No, I feel like I can see it easier around the Order or Authority."


    "That''s also one of the examples. By seeing it, you should know how useful it is, right?"


    "That''s true." Theo nodded. If he could see it, he could make direct contact and even destroy it. It would take his ability to another level.


    "As for your flesh, it''s basically simr to the Magic Power. Once your body has been baptized by the Magic Power, your lifespan increases. Now that you have been baptized by Primordial Energy, I''m afraid your lifespan has surpassed all humans in the world. I have to congratte and apologize to you."


    Theo smiled. "Congrattions to me since I can finally be far stronger than anyone else in the world. But humans can do a lot of things in a short period because they are aware they don''t have enough lifespans for leisure. Now that I have this kind of lifespan, my drive will slowly disappear because I can still live long enough to do it. And by that time, I might have to see my wife, my child, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren die first before I be old enough to die. That will surely be a lonely and painful life."


    The world knew about it. The curse of having a longer life than the others. However, Theo added, "But you shouldn''t underestimate me. In fact, you should fear me for having this kind of lifespan. Who knows what I can achieve in the future? I might even find the person who creates me and change you through him. Nheless, that''s for the future."


    Theo''s expression became serious as he asked, "So, what about thest two? I don''t have too much time, you see."

 Chapter 2113 Singularity

    ?


    "The fourth matter is rted to your existence as the Singrity. Now that you have reached this level, you are subjected to the world''s stability. You can exert your power and all kinds of power in the world, but as a result, if anything happens, I''ll be the one to deal with you directly. You might be able to exert your trick, but in the end, I''m still the one holding your power."


    After hearing about the situation, Theo didn''t feel anything wrong with it. Since his power had surpassed anyone''s, even if he were to be besieged by a lot of Saints, he could still do something about it. That was why the world would have priority over him in controlling his power since the world was the one who gave it to him in the first ce.


    "Alright. I understand the fourth one." Theo nodded with a serious expression.


    "Last but not least, it''s a matter of the agreement between us."


    Theo''s eyebrows rose. He, of course, remembered the previous agreement. He asked the world for three requests. The first one was to make him able to get fifteen Attribute Points every time he leveled up. The second one was to release a huge amount of Magic Power all over the world. As for thest one, Theo still hadn''t said it.


    "The agreement between us remains in ce. However, with your current power, you are at a level where you can easily meet me."


    Theo thought for a moment and nodded. "Indeed. I can sense Primordial Energy. And just by looking at you in my mind, I can see that you are filled with this Primordial Energy. If I want, I can use my power to connect with the Primordial Energy. I see, I can summon you that way."


    "That''s right." The world acknowledged Theo''s privilege.


    "Though, I think there aren''t many things where I have to meet you. I guess even with that kind of privilege, we won''t be meeting each other that often."


    "It''spletely up to you."


    Theo nodded his head. "Alright then. It seems that we have talked a lot. So, I will be going back if you don''t have anything to add. I have to defeat the slime, you see. He has dissolved your love for him, right? That''s why you said you didn''t love all beings in this world anymore." Theo asked, confirming it.


    The world didn''t reply to him. Instead, it disappeared from his wind as if telling him to find it out himself.


    Theo gradually opened his eyes, finally achieving the Singrity Rank. The first thing he did was none other than check his new status.


    [You''ve leveled up.]


    [You''ve achieved the Singrity Rank.]


    [You''re granted 200 Attribute Points.]


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 1,001


    EXP: 0/???<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (S), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (S), Muscle Enhancement (S), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (S), World Re-creation (???)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 3035


    Free Attribute Points: 200


    Theo never expected that he would gain this much. But considering he could sense the Primordial Energy, two hundred points might be a bit small.


    However, his focus was on something else. He immediately put his Attribute Points into the Magic Power without any hesitation. Then his eyes were glued to one of his skills.


    The skill was the World Re-Creation. He had been waiting for this moment. The World Re-Creation was originally at a rank beyond S Rank. It wasn''t something that was registered in the world''s system.


    Even his EXP changed to ''???'' instead of one or two hundred million. He knew that Singrity was already the peak of this world.


    As for the World Re-Creation, he ended up getting it as an A Rank Skill. The skill only became S Rank because he reached the Authority Level.


    Now that he had gone one step further, the restriction on that ability was lifted, and finally, the World Re-Creation had reached the level beyond S Rank.


    ''The World Re-Creation...'' Theo muttered the skill name. The moment he became a Singrity, his point of view changed drastically. Just the fact he could see the Primordial Energy around him had changed the way he utilized his ability fundamentally.


    "I see." Theo looked down for a moment, falling into deep thought. "With my current strength and ability, I feel like I can make some changes to my threews.


    "For example, my firstw, the copy. I can copy everything while imbuing the power into it so that the ability can imitate the real thing as closely as possible. However, now that I can see the faint energy of Order and Authority in the air, I can drag them into my ability, infusing it with my copy ability. This way, the simrity will go up tremendously.


    "Before, I could probably recreate seventy to eighty percent of the original. But with this, I could bump it up to ny percent at the very least.


    "Then, I also have the secondw. It''s the same. Instead of changing them myself, I can simply use my power to rece them with another power. This way, they change not because of my ability but because the world has changed it.


    "Last but not least, the Inverted World. Thisw is the most powerfulw I have. In fact, it''s not losing against Loki''s World Re-Creation in any aspect. In fact, if Ibine the World Re-Creation and the Inverted World��"


    Theo fell silent. He felt like he had just grasped something he shouldn''t have. His Inverted Law alone was already ssified as an ''???'' Skill if he ever passed it to someone, but if hebined two ''???'' Grade skills, the power would be unimaginable.


    ''Should I try my new power?'' Theo thought while looking around. Soon, a voice of distress echoed from the side.


    It came from none other than Felix and Rea. They had fought a lot of King ss Monsters since the start of the war, so they were already tattered. So, he figured out that he should help them first to test this power before challenging the slime with full power.

 Chapter 2114 Testing The New Power

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    "Kill them! We have to get to him before he finishes his transformation." One of the King ss Monsters shouted while hitting Felix.


    *Clink!*


    "Kh." Felix was pushed back with a single wave of its w. His body was covered in injuries. In fact, he could only let out half of his original power because of all these injuries. And this strike tore his muscle a bit.


    Felix became even more battered. He didn''t know whether he could keep them at bay anymore. He saw one of them taking advantage of this situation to slip past him.


    Felix clicked his tongue and turned his body into the light again. He instantly appeared in front of the monster and stopped him with his sword.


    However, the monster seemed to have predicted this. He spread his arms and let Felix''s sword hit the hard scale on his chest. Due to theck of power, the sword bounced back. And the monster immediately closed his arms while coating them with Ice.


    ''Shit. I''m going to be frozen.'' Felix gritted his teeth, realizing that once the arms hit him, he would be frozen. And soon, the big arms would crush him into pieces.


    But all of a sudden, the ice vanished without a trace. It didn''t break nor did it evaporate. It simply disappeared.


    "Huh?" The monster was confused, but his instinct soon picked up a threat that he never felt before. He felt so small in front of this threat.


    He couldn''t even think about it before a shadow suddenly punctured his heart with a single thrust of his bare hand.


    "What?" The monster was stunned. Even Felix''s sword couldn''t do anything to his scale, but this hand could do it. He waspletely terrified. However, a de severed his neck, ultimately killing him.


    "!!!" All of the people on the battlefield couldn''t help but gasp, noticing the appearance of this threat.


    When they took another look at him, the threat turned out to be Theo.


    "Are you alright, Felix?" Theo asked with a smile. "Bear with me for a bit longer, will you?"


    Felix clenched his fists before saying, "Yes."


    He didn''t know what Theo did, but it didn''t change the fact Theo had reached the level of the Time God and God of Mischief.


    He was so powerful that a King ss Monster died without being able to do anything.


    However, Theo actually used two of his powers, the Inverted World and the Reverse World. He used the Inverted World to change his arm and register it as a sword that could prate everything. Then, he used the Reverse World to turn hard into soft. Thebination of these two abilities allowed him to strike down a King ss Monster in an instant.


    All of them realized the level Theo was in. The King ss Monsters hurriedly shouted, "Retreat. We are not his match. We can''t let them kill��"


    Theo didn''t even bother to wait for them to reorganize. He used his Blink to appear in the second person while using his clone to aim for another monster.


    However, he noticed something from his clone. The clone couldn''t enter the Singrity Rank.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It might be because the clone was an S Rank Skill that it was limited to Mythical Rank. In fact, the people had been thinking about it, not realizing the clone was actually an S Rank Skill.


    Now that it had reached its peak, the clone remained at the peak of Mythical Rank. It was weaker than the real Theo, but still, it was enough to deal with the rest of the King ss Monsters.


    ''It''s a shame, but the clone has helped me enough. It''s time for me to rely on myself.'' Theo muttered inwardly. Instead of returning to the battlefield in the red line where the slime was besieged by multiple Saints, Theo actually visited another person.


    He was none other than the Dark Saint.


    The Dark Saint was fighting a World ss Monster who seemed to have Water Authority.


    The Dark Saint had a hard time fighting it since its ability was as versatile as his. So, they had been neutralizing each other''s abilities the whole time.


    But the situation changed all of a sudden when Theo appeared between them.


    "Hmm?!" The Water Saint had prepared for it. In fact, he was the reason why the slime could release all the bubbles from earlier. So, he tried to form a huge bubble to iste Theo first before returning to the giant slime.


    Unfortunately for him, he suddenly lost control over his Authority. He didn''t even know the reason why the Authority began to leave the water bubble.


    The Water Saint waspletely shocked. He noticed how Theo actually pulled something in the air. It was something he couldn''t see, but it was certain that the Authority began to leave when he made that motion.


    "You�� can separate the Authority?!" The Water Saint waspletely shocked. However, Theo didn''t bother to reply to him.


    He had used the Inverted World to turn his hand into something that could grab the Authority. Now that the path had opened, Theo took advantage of it to reach the monster.


    After that, Theo used his Inverted World again to create a vortex on the monster''s body, erasing the monster''s existence. He wanted to know how much energy he needed to use this ability now that he had be a Singrity.


    But as he expected, it remained the same since bing a Singrity only allowed him to sense the primordial energy. Still, this was enough.


    "Thank you, Theo. Since the World ss Monster has died, I''ll help you face the slime." The Dark Saint''s expression became serious.


    However, Theo shook his head and pointed at the monster''s corpse. "Bring the corpse and the other one far away from here. If possible, the Lightning Saint''s body. I don''t want the slime to absorb them and be even stronger. After that, you should help the Yellow and Green Lines."


    "!!!" The Dark Saint was unhappy to help them, considering he was one of the Saints too. But when he looked at Theo''s expression, he ended up nodding his head.


    "Alright."


    After helping the Dark Saint, there was no other World ss Monster on the slime''s side except for the Time God. The final battle was about to start.

 Chapter 2115 A New World

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    The Magma Dragon spurted out a few magma balls from its mouth. The slime could easily recognize the color whether it was in glowing form or hardened form. After all, his ability was not just about the Red Color, but all colors.


    The magma balls ended up stopping in mid-air, ready to return to their owner. However, the Magma Dragon didn''t even bother blocking the magma as it ended up hitting him without doing any damage. He was the Magma Dragon, so there was no way magma could do anything to him.


    However, his attack wasn''t that simple. He actually produced the magma balls in order to create intense heat. And the Heavenly Sovereign used his power to control the heat. The Magma Dragon pped his wings while Feng Hao sent forth a gale, pushing this heat toward the slime.


    The slime noticed the boiling air that seemed to be capable of melting or evaporating his body.


    He hurriedly used the Life Power to generate life within the heat.


    All of a sudden, the heat stopped, as though it had hit a wall. Even the gale couldn''t push it forward.


    However, the heat seemed to have gained its own consciousness and flowed back.


    Feng Hao and the Magma Dragon had grim expressions. They never thought that the Life Power would be this troublesome.


    The Goddess of Death had to influence the life within the heat and kill it with her power. But the slime had used the Devouring Power and the Dissolve Power to weaken it, forcing Hel to release arger amount of Magic Power just to kill the consciousness of the heat.


    "��" All three of them were ring at the slime. They had done their best, but they were truly not the slime''s match.


    The most important reason why the slime could be counted as multiple Saints was because of his multiple Authorities. Having them alone was enough to create numerous possibilities. In addition, the slime had a huge Magic Power reserve in his body, and the Devouring Power was there toplete him.


    If this continued, they would surely lose. So their best chance was to kill him when Theo returned.


    The slime formed a few tentacles and cut them. He then granted these few tentacles their own consciousness, allowing them to move like a snake.


    "!!!"


    "Here theye." The Sword Saint shouted while drawing his de. All of a sudden, all the slimes were cut. Even though he just waved his sword once, the slime seemed to be cut millions of times to the point where it disintegrated into nothing.


    The Sword Saint let out a long sigh. He felt a bit exhausted taking care of all the attacks. In fact, he had been defending the other three from the slime, so he was the most exhausted person among them.


    However, the slime seemed to have begun understanding his own attack. When the tentacles were reduced to nothing, the slime formed a box that isted the tentacle from the outside world.


    In the end, the Sword Saint''s power was able to cut so many times that it sttered the slime like it was being reduced to nothing. However, it had by no means disappeared. If the slime isted the tentacles inside a box, the tentacles would soon return to their original form.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Shit." The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, knowing the slime had understood his power and had begun rendering it useless.


    The tentacles immediately made their way to the four fighters as soon as they regained their original form.


    All four of them were ready to stop the tentacles with their own power. However, before they could do anything, a figure suddenly appeared in front of the tentacles.


    With a single wave of his hand, the tentacles suddenly dropped to the ground, as though the life within them had vanished. Then the tentacles were sucked into a whirlpool and disappeared from the world.


    "!!!" They all widened their eyes because this man was the one they had been waiting for. Even the slime couldn''t help but be a bit more careful.


    "Theo!" Hel and Feng Hao called his name while the Sword Saint smiled, thinking that his daughter had truly be the student of the world''s strongest man.


    The Magma Dragon had a different thought, but he certainly didn''t feel disappointed that the Dragon King entrusted the future to Theo. He might be truly capable of doing it.


    "Sorry that I took so long." Theo looked at the slime. Before he left, the slime''s size was half of its original size. But after only leaving him for a while, the slime had restored twenty percent of its size.


    "It seems that you have recovered to a certain extent," said Theo to the slime. In this situation, Theo should be panicking and trying to stop his recovery. But his calm demeanor made the slime even more nervous, thinking of the trump card Theo had gained when he became a Singrity.


    "You won''t be able to defeat me, Theodore Griffith. No matter how strong you''ve be, it''s impossible to be that strong just because you''ve advanced a level. I will still reign supreme even with only five Authorities. You can push all those corpses away, and it won''t affect me."


    "Is that so?" Theo suddenly smiled. A calm smile that felt like a calm before the storm.


    Theo''s body started emitting an insane amount of Magic Power. The slime actually recognized this ability. He never thought he would see Theo be able to use the same ability. No, he already knew Theo had this power, but not at this level.


    It seemed that bing a Singrity was all it took for him to wield it.


    "World Re-Creation," Theo muttered the ability''s name. However, Theo also had his Inverted World. When Loki used it, the world he created was just an illusion. But with the power of Theo''s Inverted World, he turned something that was not supposed to exist into something that actually existed.


    The light from his body became brighter and brighter, to the point where it looked like the sun had descended. All of them were closing their eyes, but they could hear Theo''s words when activating this ability.


    "Let''s create an entirely new world."

 Chapter 2116 Monochrome

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    The entire world seemed to have fallen apart. The sky crumbled, and the ground was erased. They were standing on top of nothing for a moment.


    However, when there was an end, there would be a beginning. The world that crumbled was soon restored.


    They could see gray sand gradually appear out of nothing. The sky also became gray, and the trees and everything around them seemed tock color. In fact, even they couldn''t escape from theck of color.


    "Hmm? This is a ck and white world, like in a manga?" The Sword Saint furrowed his eyebrows, feeling something familiar. "A monochrome world, huh?"


    If Theo wanted to deprave the power of the slime, he should at least do this much, he thought.


    However, the slime seemed to beughing at Theo''s efforts.


    "Hahaha. This is ridiculous. Do you think you can stop my Color Authority with just this? I can simply recognize all these colors as gray and its variants!" The slimeughed, looking down at Theo.


    He was scared for nothing.


    "I''m going to teach you that this is not enough to stop��" The slime was using his power to control the color of the soil. But surprisingly, the soil refused to move. That was when he began to realize something was wrong. "!!!"


    There didn''t seem to be any disadvantages to disclosing the information. In fact, he could make the slime more panicked in this situation if he told the slime about the current situation he was in.


    After weighing the pros and cons, Theo finally decided to tell him about the world he had just created.


    "Color is indeed good, but have you ever thought about what makes color? In the end, the color is just the ability of an item to reflect light." Theo pointed at the sky.


    "!!!" The slime had just realized there was no sunlight. Even the other four people were confused as to how Theo could create this world.


    "How can we even��" The Heavenly Sovereign wanted to say something, but Hel understood the principle of this power because she had seen it multiple times.


    Both Theo and Loki could use their illusions to allow Lyrventh to see the world. However, no matter how hard they worked, everything Lyrventh saw was an illusion, not the real thing. The color he saw was not the reflection of the light but the concept of color that had been embedded into the illusion. If there was no light, then there was simply no color.


    "I see. It seems that the world Theo creates is nothing but a world that is deprived of light." Hel breathed out of relief. They might be able to see the items around them as if they were in a monochrome world. However, this was just an illusion.


    Their real bodies might be standing in the middle of darkness, as light was not a concept in that world. This was the world that Theo created with the World Re-Creation and Inverted World, a world without light.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Of course, Theo could easily use his illusion to grant the other items their original color. However, doing so for six people simultaneously would simply require too much power and take a toll on his mind.


    That was why he created this monochrome world illusion to allow them to see everything around them without using too much Magic Power.


    Theo stated, "I have sealed his Color Authority with this world. However, the slime is still very strong. Hel, I want you to help me destroy the life he creates. Sir Sword Saint, help me cut all his seals.


    "Ehm, Dragon, you can help me evaporate his body. As for Sir Feng Hao, you might not be restricted by the Color Authority anymore, but please refrain from using Fire and Light.


    "Even with Hel and Sir Sword Saint stopping the Seal and Life Authorities, he still has the Dissolve and Devour Abilities. So, we have to be careful." Theo gave them the instructions.


    The Goddess of Death, the Heavenly Sovereign, and the Sword Saint sped their hands, getting excited to fight. The Magma Dragon didn''t want to admit it, but he was certainly in awe of this certain human.


    The Magma Dragon dered, "Theodore Griffith. You will be my eternal friend. I''m from the proud Dragon Race. That''s why I''ll fight alongside you. You are far smarter than me, so if you have any instructions, then there''s no need to hesitate to order me."


    Theo smiled. It seemed that the Magma Dragon had recognized him. It was quite a development, considering they were shing with their lives on the line not long ago.


    "In that case, help me protect this world''s future."


    The Magma Dragon smirked. "Certainly."


    The slime hadn''t attacked them yet, and he allowed them to discuss their n because he was still confused about this world. He tried to find a solution for his ability. On the one hand, Theo had said that light and fire elements could give him the ability to see color and temporarily regain his Authority. But he didn''t have any abilities that could produce them. So, it seemed that he was stuck with only four Authorities this time.


    Seeing that Theo and the others had begun to move, the slime didn''t have any choice other than to fight them.


    He sent forth multiple tentacles. Because the Dark Saint had moved away all the World ss Monster''s corpses from the battlefield, he couldn''t regain two more powers, especially the Water. In other words, he couldn''t use the bubbles to their full potential. With Theo''s current strength, that ability wasn''t dangerous anymore.


    So, the slime could only send forth multiple tentacles toward them. He mixed the tentacles with four Authorities to confuse them.


    Unfortunately for the slime, Theo had gained the ability to see the flow of Authority. He could easily recognize all the Authorities infused into the tentacles. And his clone was in charge of creating an illusion to mark them, allowing the others to know what the power inside the tentacle was.


    All of them smirked as Hel and the Sword Saint stepped forward.

 Chapter 2117 Suppressing The Slime

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    Hel and the Sword Saint stepped forward. Being able to recognize the Authority contained in the tentacles was enough to boost their confidence.


    The Sword Saint could see four tentacles that contained the Seal Authority while Hel found five tentacles with the Life Authority.


    The Sword Saint waved his sword toward all four tentacles.


    "!!!" The slime, sensing the impending danger, hastily employed the Seal Authority to erect a defensive barrier, aiming to shield his tentacles from the oing assault.


    But surprisingly, all the barriers suddenly got hit simultaneously, as though they had been targeted in the first ce. The sword strike continued on the tentacles and disintegrated them.


    ''My Sword can''t be stopped by mere barriers.'' The Sword Saint smiled inwardly.


    Hel wasn''t nning to lose against the Sword Saint. She summoned her Death Avatar. There were multiple tentacles with Dissolve and Devouring Power around her, but since her target was clear, they could harm her Death Avatar in any way since she would destroy her target before the avatar disappeared.


    The Death Avatar raised both hands and grabbed two of the tentacles. The two tentacles were emitting Life Force like crazy, countering the Death Energy hidden in the skeletal hands.


    "What shouldn''t have lived should remain dead," Hel muttered after withering the two tentacles. She pped her hands, forming a gray-colored circle. The circle was oozing out the Death Aura to the point where it was too much and expanded.


    The expansion was rapid, as though there were a ck wave moving in all directions. The dark circle brushed all the tentacles.


    The slime hurriedly used the Dissolve and Devour Authority to stop this attack, but surprisingly, the part of the circle that hit the tentacles with this power was unimaginably weak.


    With the tentacles emitting the two Authorities, the part of the circle vanished without a trace. In exchange, the part of the circle that hit the remaining three tentacles that had Life Authority was exceptionally strong, as though all the energy had been concentrated in all three.


    In just an instant, Hel and the Sword Saint managed to stop all the tentacles that had Life and Seal Authorities.


    Seeing that the threat had vanished, the Magma Dragon started the fight against the slime. He shot out a ck ball from his mouth. This was a magma ball, but he made sure to coat it with ck molten rock so that the light from the glowing magma wouldn''t spark anything in the dark world.


    A few tentacles hurriedly stood in the ck ball''s way, catching it. However, the ck ball was so hot that it melted the tentacles.


    Still, the slime chipped away at the ck ball''s energy with the Dissolve and Devour Authority. The ck ball gradually became smaller and smaller, making the slime confused.


    He wanted to open the outer shell of this ck ball and use the magma to his advantage. Yet the ball only shrank instead of the outeryer disappearing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It took him a moment before he realized that he had been fooled. The magma ball was actually a hard, molten rock. It still carried the heat from the magma, but there was no magma inside. It had only been heated up in the dragon''s stomach.


    This magma ball ended up reaching the slime''s body. The heat from the ball began to evaporate the slime.


    The Heavenly Sovereign didn''t want to lose to this dragon. With a single wave of his hand, the Heavenly Sovereign surrounded the slime with multiple trigrams. Each trigram contained an element. However, Feng Hao used Heat instead of Fire and removed the light entirely.


    The slime could feel numerous attacksing from all directions. Before, he could use his Color just to push all these attacks away. But now that Theo had sealed his Color Authority, he had to use the Seal Authority to form a barrier to block a third of the attacks. Then, he used the Devour Authority to absorb another portion while the Dissolve Authority removed the remaining attacks.


    But the number of elements was more than he imagined. It seemed that the Heavenly Sovereign was ready to sacrifice a lot of Magic Power in order to deal great damage to his body.


    The slime ended up missing twenty percent of the attacks, resulting in them hitting the body. Some attacks sttered the slime around, while otherspletely reduced the slime to nothing.


    ''Kh. How did they do all this?'' The slime was frustrated, never thinking the situation would be this dire in a monochrome world. ''Death and Sword can find out about my tentacles and specifically target them. Elements and Magma''s attacks start working on me.''


    While the slime was confused, Theo finally made his move. He and his clone approached the slime.


    Obviously, the slime used the remaining tentacles to stop Theo. Even his body began to form something in order to stop him. After all, Theo was the greatest danger here.


    Once he became close enough, the real Theo used his Inverted World to turn his hand into a hand that could touch the Authority in the air. This was how he grabbed and removed one''s power. He lifted up the Dissolve and Devour Authority from the tentacles, turning them normal again. The Dissolve and Devour Authority obviously retaliated and removed Theo''s power, but since they were already outside the tentacles, it didn''t matter anymore.


    Since they had be normal tentacles, the tentacles could easily be removed with his illusion. Then Clone Theo approached the slime''s body.


    The slime formed a barrier in front of its body and even used the Life Power to form consciousness for the barrier. This way, Theo would feel like he was fighting an existence instead of a mere barrier.


    However, a skeletal hand emerged from beneath the barrier and touched it, spreading the Death Power. In an instant, the barrier lost its consciousness. Then, the Sword Saintunched a sword strike from a distance, splitting the barrier into two so that Theo could reach the slime.


    "!!!" The slime panicked. He hurriedly used the other two Authorities to stop him, but they were removed again by the real Theo.


    This way, the clone could use his attack to remove the slime.


    "Begone. Inverted World."

 Chapter 2118 Singularity

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    "Begone. Inverted World," said Clone Theo while activating the ability.


    A huge vortex suddenly appeared on the surface of the slime. It began to suck the slime inside.


    The slime waspletely stunned. He never thought a single attack from him would deal this much damage. He tried to use his power to stop it, but because of Theo''s new power, the effect was far less than he expected.


    If this continued, arge portion of his body would be destroyed.


    ''No way, Theo''s new power is far too powerful. It seems that I have underestimated the power of the rank beyond the Mythical Rank. But what should I do? I can''t do anything since my power is sealed. Normal tentacles won''t be enough to stop them.


    ''There is also no more World ss Monster that I can use since Theo has killed thest one. Maybe I should have focused on retrieving their power�� Letting Theo remove them from the battlefield is a huge mistake.''


    The slime realized that if he had regained two more Authorities, especially the Water Authority, he could have turned the situation around.


    However, there was one more possible move he could use to prevent all this damage. Since his senses are shared with the other slime monsters, he could see the situation from the outside.


    Theo might have created this dark world, but they were by no means teleported to another world. They had vanished from this world, but this space was a kind of subne, a reality that existed inside another reality.


    He might have lost connection to the outside world, but he could still order the people outside toe to this ce and reconnect this world to the real one.


    However, the Dark Saint had helped the people in the yellow line and the green line. He had obliterated a few King ss Monsters and at least five hundred normal monsters. As long as the Dark Saint remained there, there would be no monster from the yellow and green lines that coulde to this ce.


    There was only one more existence that could break this power apart. And the slime had no choice but to use that existence, even if it meant breaking the promise.


    Theo and the others had destroyed all the recovery he had made so far. In other words, he returned to being half of his original size. And all of them were still using their power to destroy his body.


    If this continued, the slime would at least be reduced by another thirty percent of its original size. In other words, from a size that could match a small mountain, the slime would be reduced to the point where it could barely be considered a hill.


    And Theo''s vortex on his body would have the most impact on his body. That was why, if he wanted to target something, he should stop this vortex first.


    All of a sudden, the vortex stopped, as though it had been frozen.


    "Hmm?" Theo widened his eyes, feeling something weird. After all, he could see the ability that stopped his vortex. And there was one keyword that gave away the opponent''s ability. It was ''Time.''


    "!!!" The Time God suddenly appeared in front of him, ready to crush his head. However, it seemed that Loki had done his best as he took one of the Time God''s arms. No, it was more like the Time God sacrificed his arm so that he could help the slime.


    Luckily, the God of Mischief caught up to him, turning the frozen time into an illusion. And this illusion was Theo''s forte. He could move and grab the Time God''s hand, trying to destroy it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, the Time God didn''t really care about all that. He allowed Theo to take his hand, but in exchange, he pushed his hand forward and scratched Theo''s neck.


    "Kh." Theo gritted his teeth, barely avoiding it. If he had beente, even for a split second, a huge portion of his neck would have been destroyed.


    Now that two of his arms had been removed from his body, the Time God retreated to the slime.


    "I have stopped your doom and even injured Theo quite heavily. Restore my arms." The Time God stated. He was disappointed that the slime couldn''t hold a candle against Theo and the others, but he could somehow understand since Theo had be a Singrity.


    The slime formed a tentacle and said, "Here."


    The God of Mischief regrouped with the rest of the people while saying, "We have to stop them. Theo, you��"


    He wanted Theo to cover his injury for a bit, considering the one that got injured was his real body instead of his clone. But before he could finish his words, there was a sudden screaming from the Time God.


    "Aaaaahhhh, you slime bastard!" The Time God was screaming. His shoulders were touching the slime since thetter could rebuild his arms inside of him.


    The Time God knew that there was no other option except to work together. He had been branded as a traitor to humanity, so there was no turning back. He had to cooperate with the slime to defeat all of them.


    Yet the slime betrayed his promise. Instead of letting him live, the slime began to dissolve his entire existence the moment his body touched the slime.


    He tried to use his Time Power, but because his body was made of slime, the slime''s order was absolute. He had to be reabsorbed into the slime.


    It was an irony. The traitor to humanity was being betrayed by the same person who caused him to betray humanity.


    However, for Theo, this was a different matter. He didn''t care if the slime betrayed the Time God. But there was one thing that he never thought was possible.


    Beforeing here, the slime could dissolve everything from one''s body except for their power, allowing him to use their power or even grant it to someone else. But in this battle, the slime managed to grasp the original Theo''s devouring power.


    In other words, the slime could finally grasp and turn the ability into his. And with the Devour Authority perfecting his ability, that power was not limited to absorbing someone''s ability. It could absorb almost everything, including his rank.


    Name: Slime


    Level: 909


    Rank: Singrity.

 Chapter 2119 Overpowered Slime

    ?


    "Seriously?" Theo sucked in a cold breath. In his head, there was only one thought. If the slime could handle several Saints when he was on the same level, it would mean he could handle several Singrity Rank Experts now that he had be one of them.


    And in this ce, there were only two people who had reached that stage: Loki and Theo. They could use their clones, but their clones were limited to S Rank or Mythical Rank.


    In other words, no matter how they tried to push it, there were only two people who could stop the monster, which should be able to fight several people of the same level.


    Theo nced at Loki, asking, "Oi. Do you have any idea about this?"


    "How about you? You shouldn''t rely on me all the time, you know." Loki clicked his tongue and replied with a yful tone.


    But both of them knew that they were just putting on a tough front. They simply didn''t have any idea how to defeat the slime when he reached this stage.


    "His level remains the same, but his rank has reached Singrity," Theo stated while observing the slime.


    "The most important thing is the rank, as it''s the one giving him the true power." The God of Mischief pointed at the slime. "In that case, we have to kill the slime before he grows ustomed to the new power."


    Theo nodded in agreement.


    They both stepped forward, leading the group. The others followed them, wondering what change the slime had undergone.


    The magma dragon let out a breath that didn''t have any color. The slime raised its tentacles to catch it. But like before, the superheated ball managed to prate all the tentacles except for thest one.


    Yes, the slime somehow managed to stop the superheated ball with thest tentacle.


    It seemed that the slime was experimenting with the change in his body once he had the power of a Singrity.


    The Sword Saint waved his sword, and the Goddess of Death sent forth the death energy.


    The slime used the same thing in order to stop them. There was a barrier that stood in the sword strike''s way.


    The moment the strike touched the barrier, the barrier was cut, but the power suddenly vanished after cutting half of the barrier.


    A simr urrence was visible with the death wave. The death energy was trying to take away the Life Power. The Death Power was able to overwhelm it at first, but as soon as it grew ustomed to the Death Power, the Life Force solidified and stopped getting corroded, as though the Death Power had disappeared from the energy wave itself.


    "!!!" Theo and Loki furrowed their eyebrows. The Heavenly Sovereign was stunned.


    Feng Hao had a special eye that could see Primordial Energy. But it wasn''t at the level of a Singrity where he could see the flow of Order and Authority itself. So, he didn''t understand why the attacks from Hel, the Magma Dragon, and the Sword Saint failed to produce the same result.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, there was one thing that he could see. The Primordial Energy in the air was fluctuating like crazy. He could see the same thing whenever Theo or Loki used their abilities.


    Meanwhile, Loki and Theo could fully understand what the slime did. He used the Dissolve Authority topletely erase the flow of everyone''s authority. That was why he managed to stop their attacks.


    But with how the superheated ball almost pierced through the tentacles, how the sword strike was able to cut half of the barrier, and how the Death Authority managed to overwhelm the life force at first, it was clear that the slime hadn''tpletely mastered this new power.


    This was their only chance to kill the slime. Once the slime mastered this new power, even with their brains, they wouldn''t be able to stop its absolute power.


    Theo and Loki surrounded the slime from all directions. They had their clones do the same thing even if they couldn''t utilize the power of a Singrity.


    The slime started summoning tentacles all around his body as though he were ready for any form of attack Theo and Loki were going tounch.


    The first one to make the move was Loki''s clone. He flew forward while using the World Re-Creation to push the slime toward him. In addition, he used the Mind Image to put an illusion directly into the slime''s consciousness.


    However, it seemed that the slime had figured out how the ability worked.


    When Loki was about to hit him, Loki and his illusion began to disappear.


    "!!!" Another Loki appeared behind the vanished Loki, making people realize it was just an illusion. This was the illusion that managed to fool Theo at that time. This continuously deceived even the Time God.


    Yet, the slime actually recognized it through the sense of a Singrity. He then used the Dissolve Power and made the illusion disappear.


    It wasn''t that Loki became weaker. Instead, the slime had aplete elemental advantage. Earlier, the reason the slime couldn''t do anything to Loki was that he didn''t have the sense to perceive the illusion. Now that he had solved that problem, Loki didn''t seem to be a threat anymore.


    Clone Theo and the real Loki moved at the same time. Clone Theo used his Inverted World to create a vortex on the slime''s body.


    Loki also created an Illusion Reflection to copy the slime''s tentacles. He nned to restrain the tentacles with his own tentacles. This way, the slime wouldn''t be able to stop Clone Theo.


    Unfortunately for them, the slime had prepared for such a thing. The slime actually let Loki restrain his tentacles as though it didn''t matter. Meanwhile, Theo''s vortex suddenly stopped.


    "!!!" Clone Theo widened his eyes, as he couldn''t control his vortex anymore. "Hmm?!"


    "I see. So, that''s how it is." The slime spoke. "You actually removed my existence that had been registered in this world. But you couldn''t do it anymore now that I had frozen my own information."

 Chapter 2120 Never Give Up

    ?


    "!!!" Theo gritted his teeth, never thinking the slime would use the Time God''s tactic to stop his system from reaching the Singrity Rank.


    Unless he could stop the frozen time, Theo wouldn''t be able to remove his body anymore. And the Life Authority would continue to regenerate his body.


    Still, Theo had the God of Mischief. He used the Illusion Authority to turn the frozen system into an illusion. Then he removed that illusion, allowing Theo to continue removing the slime''s body.


    The slime tried to attack the God of Mischief. However, the other Saints rushed to help Loki.


    The Sword Saint waved his sword, releasing a huge sword strike. Once hit, even a mountain could be split in half.


    Yet when it reached a barrier, it waspletely stopped.


    "Huh?" The Sword Saint widened his eyes in shock.


    "Your ability to cut everything in this world is truly powerful. But my seal has been registered in this world, and I have frozen it. So, unless you cut the connection to the world, you won''t be able to destroy my shield."


    The Sword Saint obviously had the power to do so. But he never did it, unlike Theo. So he didn''t know whether he could do it so cleanly. In addition, if he had to focus on cutting that connection, he wouldn''t be able to release the second strike to destroy the barrier.


    Seeing that the Sword Saint had failed, the Magma Dragon approached from the side and shot out a few superheated balls.


    The slime raised his tentacles and caught all these balls effortlessly.


    "!!!" The Magma Dragon was as surprised as the Sword Saint when the slime stopped him.


    "Your power is quite troublesome, but that''s all. Now that I can see the Authority that is wrapping your power, I can use my power to focus on Dissolving and Devouring that Authority. This is far faster than devouring everything without being able to identify theponents to make it."


    The slime was teaching the Magma Dragon, telling him that no matter what he did, it would be impossible to harm him anymore.


    The slime looked extremely confident when he reached the Singrity Rank.


    The Goddess of Death was there to stop him with her Death Authority. Unfortunately for her, the slime could easily spread the Life Authority that surrounded the Death Authority that boosted her ability. When the Death Authority was overwhelmed, the nature of the attack changed as the Life Authority took over her abilities.


    He once again rendered someone''s ability useless. The Heavenly Sovereign was thest one to try it.


    He activated his Elements Authority. But when he activated the elements, the Devouring Power and Dissolving Power showed their new might.


    They devoured his power far faster than his imagination.


    "You are like anyone else. Your power is not enough to go against me. I can simply decelerate the speed of your element summoning while using my Devouring Power for a specific element. This way, the sucking force is far faster. And the same can be applied to the Dissolving Power. Hahahahaha!" The slimeughed out loud as if he were mocking them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He wanted to tell these people, who had been resisting him the whole time, that no matter what they did, the result wouldn''t change.


    "��" Theo and Loki''s expressions darkened. Both of them never expected the slime to be this troublesome once he figured out his power. And the slime had yet to master his power.


    There was a gap between figuring it out and mastering it. The former simply meant he realized its potential, while thetter meant he could fully utilize that ability.


    But it seemed that the slime was learning his new abilities at a rapid rate. If this continued, he would be unstoppable.


    "Don''t think too highly of yourself, Slime," Loki stated with a cold expression.


    Even if the slime managed to reach that level, they still had two Singrity Rank Experts, two clones, and four Saints to fight him. This would be the most powerful lineup the humans could have. If they still failed to stop the slime, it meant there was no more chance for humanity to survive.


    Theo moved forward, using his Inverted World to turn his spear into something that could destroy the slime.


    The slime used his Time Authority to stop the information about him from being removed from the system. However, a sharp sword strike hit it, causing the time to fluctuate


    As a result, the spear managed to graze the slime, causing a portion of its body to be sttered on the ground before getting removed.


    "!!!" The slime noticed whose power was there to disturb him. "Sword��"


    The Sword Saint had just drawn his de, targeting the connection he had with the world. This way, Theo could injure him again.


    Though, this was the first time he did it. He didn''t manage topletely cut the Time Ability itself. Still, as one would expect from the Sword Saint, who was known to be able to cut everything, he managed to hit the time even though it didn''t even have a form.


    The Sword Saint was ring at the slime as if telling him, ''Don''t underestimate me. Even if you''ve gotten stronger, I''m still going to cut you down.''


    Loki also nted an illusion in the slime''s consciousness. Like earlier, the slime used his Dissolving Power to remove the image. But surprisingly, the removal became extremelyplex when he realized the illusion was filled with elements.


    "Huh? This is��" The slime noticed elements being imbued into the illusion. As a result, the illusion of him being cut by Loki''s illusion urred, allowing Theo to remove the sliced part.


    The slime noticed the reason why he failed to remove the illusion. It was none other than the Heavenly Sovereign.


    He was also ring at the slime like the Sword Saint. His expression was indirectly telling him, ''That''s right. Don''t underestimate us. Don''t underestimate humans. We are going to stop you.''


    The Magma Dragon and Hel saw their performances, knowing they couldn''t lose to them

 Chapter 2121 Decision

    ?


    The Magma Dragon pped his wings, sending forth a powerful heat toward the slime.


    The slime was not scared of this trick anymore, knowing that there was no way the Magma Dragon would be able to harm him in this scenario.


    He even used the Seal Authority to form a barrier to redirect this power.


    But to his surprise, the moment the heat touched the barrier, thetter melted at a rapid rate, causing the rest to reach the slime''s body.


    The extreme heat immediately caused the slime to evaporate. It forced the slime to use the Time power to freeze the evaporation in time.


    Meanwhile, the slime couldn''t help but notice the reason why he failed to block the previous heat wave. He had used the Seal Authority topletely seal the Authority itself. This way, the heat shouldn''t be able to melt the barrier.


    However, the Seal Authority suddenly disappeared at thest second.


    There was only one person who could be suspected. She was Hel.


    She used her own power to cause the Seal Authority to wither, preventing it from sealing the Magma Authority.


    They were not going to lose against the Heavenly Sovereign and the Sword Saint.


    Even if they couldn''t defeat the slime by themselves, they could still cooperate with each other tounch an attack.


    Loki and Theo also began to move. Loki and his clone cooperated with each other.


    Loki formed a huge scythe on top of his real body, waving it down to cut the slime. Thetter formed a few slimes to catch the scythe.


    Surprisingly, the slime managed to catch the scythe as he said, "You won''t be able to trick me anymore."


    Previously, Loki could still use his Mind Image to fool the slime into thinking the scythe was real. But this time, the slime used the Time Ability to stop the illusion itself.


    That was why he managed to stop the scythe.


    However, Loki never nned to lose like this. He waved his hands down while using another power.


    Omni-Phantasm.


    All of a sudden, numerous scythes appeared, surrounding the slime.


    "!!!" The slime widened his eyes in surprise. This was the first time he had seen all this. He shouldn''t have any problem stopping some of them, but simultaneously stopping all of them was a bit too much with the current mastery of his power.


    The slime hurriedly used all his Authority. A seal formed, time froze, the power dissolved, the ability was absorbed, and a new consciousness took over the power. Unfortunately, even after utilizing all his power, he still failed to stop a third of the scythes.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There was only one reason he failed to do so.


    "Tsk. You''re annoying. Theodore Griffith."


    Yes. On the side, Theo and his clone also attempted to injure the slime. He and his clone used the same ability, the Inverted World. They formed a spear that could destroy the slime and then threw it.


    When the slime used his tentacles to stop these two spears, the real Theo activated the jade that Theodon, the previous God of Reality, gave him.


    He fully activated his artifact and used the power of Space to allow the spears to teleport past the tentacles. The slime had to summon a few more tentacles to stop it.


    However, that was just a trick. Yes, Clone Theo actually used his ability to cast an illusion, making the slime believe that Theo used his teleportation ability to send the spears.


    Meanwhile, the real spears still went on their way toward the tentacles that were supposed to stop them. Yes, everything was just a trick.


    Once the spears hit the tentacles, they started moving around, destroying all the tentacles in the area.


    After that, Clone Theo stepped forward and used the Inverted World to remove all these severed tentacles.


    It was true that attacking the slime''s body would be more effective. However, the difficulty was not worth the risk. So, he chose to y it safe by erasing the tentacles, destroying his body bit by bit.


    In addition, the slime ended up being forced to summon more tentacles and power to stop him, not the God of Mischief.


    The slime was thoroughly angry. He knew that the humans were cooperating with each other in order to reach his body. If this continued, he might die before he could fully master the power of the Singrity Rank.


    "As expected, it seemed that these people were not going to go down without a fight." The slime muttered inwardly. They truly refused to die.


    Of course, the slime also nned to win. In fact, this felt more like Theo and the others'' desperation to survive than confidence. It seemed that Theo and the others knew that they might not be able to kill him.


    Hence, they tried anything in order to kill him. Whether their struggle was effective or not, it didn''t really matter.


    "��" The slime seemed to have figured out their attack patterns. Now that he could see the Authority and the Primordial Energy, he could easily stop them by himself. That was why they created a pair. One of them would stop his ability while the other attacked him.


    Knowing this fact, the slime immediately sent a series of tentacles. But these tentacles weren''t directly attacking them. Instead, the tentacles were hollow in the middle. They pointed the tips at them and started spurting out liquid from the inside.


    "!!!" Theo widened his eyes in shock while Clone Theo used the illusion to warn others of the danger of this attack. Even though the slime hadn''t fully fused with the Water Authority, he still retained a portion of its power.


    The slime seemed to be nning something with the water, considering the water contained Life Authority.


    All of them jumped away, avoiding the water. However, there were so many tentacles that they had a hard time moving around. As a result, the Sword Saint unsheathed his de and said, "I''ll take care of all these tentacles."

 Chapter 2122 Chance

    ?


    "I''ll take care of all these tentacles." The Sword Saint spoke with a grim expression. It seemed like he had steeled his resolve.


    The slime seemed to begin learning about his new power. If this continued, he would master his ability before they could finish the slime.


    Hence, the Sword Saint was ready to use all his power to create an opportunity for all of them.


    "In that case, I''ll give you that opportunity!" The Magma Dragon realized the Sword Saint''s intention and hurriedly flew toward him. He then spread his wings while his body began to heat up.


    He surrounded the Sword Saint with his entire body and his wings, trying to stop the water from reaching the Sword Saint.


    As a result, he would have to bear the power of the water that contained the Dissolve and Devour Authority.


    His body was releasing heat that was so hot that it evaporated water before it reached his body.


    But the Devour Power absorbed the heat while the Dissolve Power tried to dissolve his wings and body.


    "Kh." The Magma Dragon gritted his teeth. The pain of melting down was something he experienced for the first time. The sensation was simr when he first dipped into the magma. He was being melted alive.


    However, the Magma Dragon had to stop all the tentacles no matter the consequences. He realized that this battle would be as good as lost if they allowed the slime to improve. So, the Sword Saint preparing to sacrifice all the remaining Magic Power in his body was the only solution if they wanted to kill the slime.


    He could sense the Magic Power the Sword Saint''s sword was emitting had been increasing exponentially.


    ''A sword that can cut everything.'' The Sword Saint didn''t say anything to the dragon that covered him. He focused on activating his power and reached something beyond his level. This was the only way to stop all those tentacles.


    ''Can it cut the slime? Can it cut the time? Can it cut the seal? No, can it cut the connection with the world?''


    The slime took a deep breath. He nced at the tip of his de. If he waved it down, let alone a mountain, there might be a new record for a giant hole on Earth.


    ''I am going to cut everything, the time, the connection, or even the world itself.''


    The Sword Saint gradually opened his eyes. He said, "Can you lift me up on your wing? I''ll end it within one second."


    The Magma Dragon saw the sincere expression of the Sword Saint. He also measured the Magic Power concentrated on his sword. This might be thest swing that the Sword Saint could use in this battle.


    The Magma Dragon released a roar to push away the water that hit him. After that, he lifted up the Sword Saint on top of his wing and raised him upward.


    ''My hand feels so heavy.'' The Sword Saint gritted his teeth. He wanted to wave his hand, but after releasing all the remaining energy from his body, he felt the sword suddenly gain weight.


    Just trying to swing his sword made him feel like the muscles in his body were being torn into pieces.


    He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Haaaa! I am the Sword Saint. I shall cut everything!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He waved his sword horizontally.


    All the energy from his sword traveled in all directions. The tentacles were suddenly being cut. The slime tried to use the time to stop himself, but to no avail. The time was also cut and caused a distortion, allowing the sword strike to cut the slime''s body.


    However, because he was on top of the Magma Dragon, he could only cut the top part of the slime, which measured up to a fourth of the slime''s total body.


    But the Sword Saint''sst sh was beyond anything the world had witnessed so far.


    There was a tall building that was located a few miles away from the battlefield. But surprisingly, the top part of the building was also cut. Everything on that level seemed to be cut, including the cloud in the sky.


    Theo, Loki, or even the slime couldn''t help but gasp. They were surprised that the Sword Saint could exert this kind of power.


    Hel felt something familiar about this power. A manifestation of the authority itself. Just like her, who could manifest Death itself through her ability, the Sword Saint burned up his lifespan, potential, and all the remaining bits of energy in his body to use that one strike.


    It was shocking. But as a result, the Sword Saint let his sword fly to the side as though he couldn''t hold it anymore.


    "Arghhhh!" He was holding his right lower arm while screaming in pain. He was paying the price for utilizing that ability.


    And it seemed the price was being unable to hold a sword anymore. The Sword Saint felt like all the muscles on his arm were torn apart, his flesh was being distorted, and his bones were shattered into pieces. The condition was so bad that he thought he would be unable to swing his sword another time.


    However, the Sword Saint gritted his teeth while ring at the others. He endured the pain while saying, "Go. Don''t waste my effort."


    Loki, Theo, Hel, and Feng Hao''s expressions turned grim. This was a precious chance that the Sword Saint had created for them.


    The Heavenly Sovereign sped his hands. "Understood. I shall do my part as well."


    Suddenly, a huge trigram appeared on top of the slime. It was so big that it could cover the entire slime body.


    "All elements activate." The Heavenly Sovereign poured the remaining energy into his body.


    Hel also summoned her Death Avatar as numerous skeleton hands began to emerge from the ground.


    "Death Lordship."


    "Necromancy."


    Hel stated with a cold tone. "I will be destroying all the tentacles with the rest of my power."


    "I''ll weaken the slime." The Heavenly Sovereign nodded in agreement. They both looked at Theo and Loki as if telling them to use that moment to deliver a killing blow to the slime. This might be theirst chance to kill the slime.

 Chapter 2123 Not Enough?

    ?


    "!!!" The slime felt something different from this attack. The Goddess of Death actually separated her power into thousands of skeletons.


    They all started approaching the tentacles and hugging them. Because they were coated with death energy, the tentacle started to wither.


    The slime could use his Life Force to overwhelm the Death Force like earlier. But as expected of the Goddess of Death, she realized that the slime still couldn''t control his powerpletely.


    Even if he used the Life Power, he couldn''t split them into thousands to overwhelm her skeletons. She could only use it to strengthen her tentacles.


    Unfortunately for him, the sheer number of skeletons waspletely overwhelming. In the end, the tentacles began to fall down one by one.


    When they reached the ground, the rest of the skeletons touched it and spread their Death Force, withering the tentacles.


    "Kh." The slime never expected that Hel would use this gap to her advantage. However, the attack didn''t stop there.


    Hel wasn''t the only one who attacked him after all. The Heavenly Sovereign pped his hands, fully activating the trigrams in the sky.


    "Fire, Earth, Lake, Heaven, Water, Mountain, Thunder, and Wind. Converge." All elements in his trigram appeared. However, only the Fire was represented by something else. It was Heat.


    The slime could feel an extraordinary power in this trigram. It was something different than any trigrams he had used this whole time.


    "Your existence is a mistake, slime." The Heavenly Sovereign looked at the slime with a serious expression. His eyes were glowing as the Heavenly Sovereign was looking at the Primordial Energy to fuse all eight elements. "That''s why I have to correct the mistake that the world has made�� by killing you."


    "Killing me? You talk too much!" The slime refuted him. However, he couldn''t attack the Heavenly Sovereign because his tentacles had been destroyed by Hel.


    Meanwhile, the trigram in the sky started emitting a scary amount of Magic Power.


    Blood started to flow out of the Heavenly Sovereign''s eyes, but he paid no mind to it.


    "I shall correct everything!" The Heavenly Sovereign dered it out loud.


    Suddenly, a bell rang and shook the entire battlefield as though it were trying to tell the people that the sovereign had given the decree.


    The slime''s body was startled, trying to figure out the power that the Heavenly Sovereign was nning to use. He had released his Devour and Dissolve Authority. There was even a barrier on top of him. He was confident that he could stop the Heavenly Sovereign with these three powers.


    Despite seeing such a strong defensive power, the Heavenly Sovereign smiled.


    "I am the Heavenly Sovereign." The Heavenly Sovereign shouted while raising his hand. "Bow down and receive your decree!"


    Suddenly, a gray-colored pir emerged from the trigram and connected both the trigrams and the slime.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The slime tried to dissolve that power, but it contained all the elements, making it hard to dissolve. At the same time, the barrier that was supposed to stop the pir ended up being prated. The Devour Power wanted to suck everything that made this pir, but the energy that the Heavenly Sovereign used to power up this technique was beyond his imagination. The slime couldn''t suck everything up before the attack wasunched.


    "Heaven''s Decree!" The Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand down as though he were transmitting the decree. "Heavenly Tribtion."


    The pir suddenly expanded and covered the entire slime. The pir matched the trigram''s size.


    All eight elements were transmitted and reached the slime. The Heat instantly melted the barrier; the Earth and Mountain hit the slime, causing a ripple on its body. The Lake and Water started flooding inside the slime, trying to dilute the slime content.


    Meanwhile, the Heaven was excluding a vast amount of Magic Power so it was only its Magic Power that got devoured by the Devour Authority.


    The Wind caused a big vibration on the slime''s body, sttering the slime. And the Thunder formed a bolt of lightning that dispersed all over the slime''s body and evaporated it.


    "Kh." The Heavenly Sovereign suddenly fell to his knees. His vision started to be blurry. "I seem to have used too much of my power��"


    He tried to check on Hel, who worked together with him. But because of his blurry vision, he couldn''t fully see Hel''s current condition.


    All he could see was that Hel had dropped to her knees. Her hands were ced on the ground, supporting her body.


    If he didn''t have a problem with his vision, he would be able to see her coughing up blood.


    Half of her body began to melt, exposing her rotten flesh. This might be her true appearance, but she had been hiding it by using the Death Armor.


    But this time, she had used all her Magic Power to the point where she didn''t have anything left to even maintain her Death Armor.


    If she was hit by the slime in this state, there was no doubt she would die.


    Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereign''s condition wasparable to hers. To activate his most powerful ability, he had to use the eyes that could see the Primordial Energy to harmonize the elements.


    But he exerted that power too much, causing his eyes to lose their vision. He didn''t even know if he could recover his vision after this.


    However, this was a necessary sacrifice if they wanted to win. The Fist Saint, the Lightning Saint, the Sword Saint, and even Hel had sacrificed so much in order to win. There was no way he, the Heavenly Sovereign, would choose to y it safe just because he was scared to die.


    The only thing he could think of was that if they failed to stop the slime here, the entire world would be destroyed. So it was better to sacrifice his eyes for the greater good.


    Still, even though his vision was blurry, he could see the slime standing tall. In fact, the upper part of the slime that the Sword Saint cut hadn''t been vanquished. "Kh. Is it still not enough?"

 Chapter 2124 Trump Card

    ?


    "Is it still not enough?" The Heavenly Sovereign gritted his teeth.


    However, he heard Theo''s voice echoing in his mind. "No. This is enough."


    Theo looked at the slime. The upper part might remain, but the slime had shrunk considerably. In fact, it seemed that the slime only retained twenty percent of its original size.


    They truly had done their best.


    This was the time for Loki and Theo to make their move.


    Loki and his clone approached the slime.


    Metamorphosis.


    Clone Loki suddenly turned into a huge dragon.


    "!!!" The slime didn''t know what Loki wanted, but the dragon suddenly grabbed his body. Since there was already physical contact, the slime could begin to absorb Loki.


    But like the slime, Clone Loki opened his mouth and took a big bite of the slime''s body.


    The slime made an effort to control the portion that Loki swallowed. Multiple spikes suddenly came out of the dragon, and all of them were made of slime. It seemed that the slime could control his body even though it had been swallowed, unlike the Red Monster.


    However, the dragon was never the real attack.


    When the slime was upied with the dragon, Loki fully activated his ultimate ability.


    "World Re-Creation!"


    The slime widened his eyes when he was suddenly lifted off the ground.


    Because his size had shrunk significantly, there was not enough slime to attach himself to the ground. And Theo took advantage of it to help Loki. Thetter erased the existence of Gravity and the former used Telekinesis to lift up the slime''s body.


    After that, the World began to shrink.


    "Huh?" The slime felt something different from this World Re-Creation. He should be able to use his Authority to counter the force.


    But surprisingly, his ability didn''t activate. "I can''t control my power?"


    The God of Mischief smirked. "You underestimate my ability too much."


    Skill: World Re-Creation (???)


    Effect: Bing the absolute creator of the illusion, giving the authority to govern allws and physics inside the illusion.


    The slime didn''t know what it meant to be the absolute creator. Having the word ''absolute'' alone was enough to weigh the power of this ability.


    With a single wave of his hand, he erased the slime''s power. Then he shrank the world, nning topress the slime.


    Meanwhile, Clone Theo had pointed his palm at the slime, ready to use his Inverted World to create a vortex that would destroy the slime at once.


    "No!" The slime struggled. He began to release all his Magic Power, trying to overpower Loki with brute force.


    Loki frowned. His hand started shaking as he kept maintaining the World Re-Creation.


    ''Just a bit more.'' Loki thought while keeping his poker face.


    Still, the shaking hand was enough for the slime to know Loki''s situation. That was right. Loki, Theo and everyone else here had been exerting their power like there was no tomorrow.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Meanwhile, he kept using the Devour Authority to absorb their power and the Magic Power in the area, allowing his Magic Power to remain full.


    There was a huge gap in terms of Magic Power even if Loki had more Magic Power at the start.


    "Hahahaha! You are exhausted. It seems that the Time God has worn you down." The slimeughed as he kept exerting his Magic Power.


    The shrinking illusion started to overflow with Magic Power.


    Seeing this situation, the real Theo also used his World Re-Creation to stop the shrinking illusion from breaking.


    However, the slime actually used this power not to overwhelm the enemy but to create a gap in their attack.


    The moment the illusion was pushed back, the perfect illusion started to deteriorate. The previous flow of Authority that couldn''t be seen earlier finally appeared.


    The slime immediately extended his body toward it and tried to reach the Authority, allowing him to stop the Illusion Authority from removing his ability.


    "Got it!" The slime reached it and was ready to pull it out. But the moment he did it, nothing actually happened.


    "!!!" The slime suddenly realized something. "Wait a minute."


    His senses were locked on Theo. "You��"


    Theo made an evil smile. It turned out the wisp of Authority he saw earlier was Theo''s illusion.


    The slime couldn''t forget that his opponents this time were known as Mischief and Trickster. Everything he is witnessing right now might just be an illusion.


    The real Theo maintained the illusion, helping Loki. Clone Loki had been destroyed, but Loki hadn''t summoned it again as he was too focused on getting rid of the slime.


    Clone Theo was the only one left who could make a difference. He pointed his palm at the slime and started using his Inverted World, beginning to erase the slime from this world.


    "Aaaahhhh!" The slime was frustrated. He couldn''t escape this power. If this continued, he would surely disappear from the world. "Still, you don''t have enough Magic Power to kill me!"


    As long as he kept exerting this power, Loki and Theo wouldn''t be able topress him, and Clone Theo would have a hard time removing him as the Magic Power confused the flow of Primordial Energy.


    "Yeah. That''s why I have prepared for this." Theo smiled. "I am nothing but a trickster. I might look like I don''t have any other trump card, but in the end, you get tricked�� I only want you to think that I have no more trump cards."


    "Huh?" The slime was startled. Suddenly, thend began emitting a ridiculous amount of Magic Power.


    "This is��" Not only the slime, but all the people on the battlefield couldn''t help but look down, feeling the surge of Magic Power.


    "Magic Power ising out of the ground?"


    "What is this phenomenon?"


    "What is happening?"


    The people were confused, but only Theo could smile in this situation. After all, the world had finally fulfilled its promise.


    Back then, Theo made an agreement with the world in exchange for three wishes. The first wish was to have fifteen points every time he leveled up.


    Meanwhile, the second wish was to have the world release a massive amount of Magic Power.


    Theo and Loki nned to use this Magic Power to maintain their power. With this, they had the same condition as the slime. And there was no way they would lose.


    "Die." Theo pped his hand, using the Magic Power in the air to erge the vortex that would remove the slime from this world.

 Chapter 2125 Despair

    ?


    ''I know that I''m going to die if I don''t do anything.'' The slime thought, looking at his condition.


    The Magic Power that the world exerted had given Theo and Loki the necessary Magic Power to kill him.


    At the same time, Loki had been utilizing his power to make sure the slime couldn''t use any of his abilities. In fact, the World Re-Creation had created aplete illusion world where Seal, Dissolve, Devour, Life, and Time Authority didn''t exist.


    It seemed that he used all his power in order to maintain this power. Meanwhile, Theo used this opportunity to reinforce that world while trying to erase him with the vortex.


    The vortex had already devoured a third of his body. With the addition of Magic Power, he would disappear from this world within two minutes. That was why the slime had to find a solution if he didn''t want to be defeated.


    The only thing he had was the Magic Power. And it seemed that both of them had made him underestimate them. To think they would release this trump card and release this kind of power at thest minute, itpletely astounded him.


    However, there was one more reason why Loki was able to seal the slime''s power. In fact, his World Re-Creation seemed to be beyond what Theo could aplish with his Inverted World and World Re-Creation.


    But it turned out Loki was using the same power as Hel. Yes, Loki actually used thest bit of his power to manifest the ''Illusion'' itself in order topletely seal his power. This was the only way to win.


    Just like Reality, Illusion was more like a concept. He manifested the entire concept and created aplete illusion world where he truly became the absolute being.


    But what seemed to be an advantage turned out to be a disadvantage. Now that the slime could experience the same power the second time, he could finally understand how to manifest it.


    ''So, that''s how it is��'' The slime could finally see the small gap that could turn this situation around. ''Still, I don''t think I can fully manifest all my powers�� If that''s the case, I should only use the one thing I''m familiar with the most.''


    The slime kept exerting his Magic Power, trying to buy time for as long as possible.


    If Loki''s manifestation allowed him to create an illusion world where his ability didn''t exist, the slime''s manifestation allowed him topletely dissolve everything in this world. And Theo''s power gave him inspiration.


    That dissolve power would also reach the world''s information. In other words, if he wanted to dissolve something, he would dissolve the target''s data from the world first and take it one step further.


    "Hmm?!" Loki suddenly widened his eyes as he felt his power seep away. "What?"


    The World Re-Creation gradually disappeared, leaving only the reinforcement of power from Theo.


    "This is�� You��" Loki gasped and red at the slime. "You manifested the ''Dissolve'' and used it topletely erase my World Re-Creation?"


    If Theo looked at Loki, he would definitely find the difference.


    Name: Loki Laufeyson


    Status: Singrity


    Level: 1023


    EXP: 101,222,977/ ???


    Blessing: Laufey


    Skill: Clone (S), Hallucination Solidification (A), Illusion Reflection (S), Mind Image (A), Metamorphosis (S), Omni-Phantasm (S), Soul Mirage (S),


    Attributes: Strength 2233, Endurance 700, Agility 1700, Vitality 1283, Magic Power 5210


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    Yes, the World Re-Creation was actually being dissolved by the slime''s power. The World Re-Creation was the foundation of his ability even though Authority, Primordial Energy, and Magic Power were the ones that developed it further.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    So, the moment the World Re-Creation Skill got dissolved, everything would crumble. However, the slime was actually one step further.


    Instead of dissolving Loki''s ability, what he removed was actually the ability called ''World Re-Creation.'' In other words, Theo would also lose his power.


    Name: Theodore Griffith


    Status: Mythical


    Level: 1,001


    EXP: 0/???


    Blessing: God of Mischief


    Skill: Blink (S), Clone (S), Energy st (S), Enhanced Concentration Capacity (S), Muscle Enhancement (S), Metamorphosis (S), Supernatural Snake Body (S), Telekinesis (S), Underworld Dominion: Death Avatar (S)


    Attributes: Strength 1350, Endurance 790, Agility 802, Vitality 790, Magic Power 3235


    Free Attribute Points: 0


    "!!!" Theo and Loki widened their eyes in shock when they saw the World Re-Creation crumble into pieces.


    In the instant the World Re-Creation disappeared, the slime instantly used Time Power to freeze the vortex.


    He might only have ten percent of his original body, but currently, no one would be able to stop him anymore.


    Loki had used most of his power by manifesting his Illusion. The slime also used a lot of power by manifesting his Dissolve. Unlike Loki, the slime still had the Devour Authority and Life Authority, allowing him to recover at a rapid rate.


    "Hahahahaha! You truly almost killed me." The slimeughed. "I shall recognize you two as the strongest foes I''ve faced in this life. When I''m done, I''ll make sure that all the creatures I create will learn about your existence."


    Loki gritted his teeth, ring at the slime. He wanted to stop him, but he didn''t know how to do it anymore.


    Theo, on the other hand, still had enough energy since he was the only person who hadn''t manifested his power.


    But Theo and the slime looked at each other. Thetter believed that no matter what Theo could do, he wouldn''t be able to defeat him. That was why the slime actually said, "It''s useless, Theodore Griffith. Even if you are strong and your ability is strong. You alone won''t be able to defeat me."


    The slime was stating a fact. Theo had to join hands with the others to defeat the powerful slime. But this time, everyone had exhausted all their power. Even if Loki, who had used most of his power, helped him, he wouldn''t be able to defeat him.


    The people already knew what would happen in this battle.


    The Heavenly Sovereign, the Goddess of Death, the Sword Saint, and the Magma Dragon gritted their teeth. "It''s still not enough to defeat the slime?"


    Rea, Felix, and all of Theo''s subordinates couldn''t help but look at him. No one actually med him. He always created a miracle to turn around the situation. But it seemed that the enemy held the absolute power that could render even the miracle useless. Theo had done everything he could.


    The War Saint, Agata, Ne, and the people from the headquarters couldn''t only look away while shutting their eyes, as they couldn''t believe that humanity would lose.


    Even the president and all his cab members, who had been watching over the battle this whole time, gritted their teeth. The president said with a pale face, "So�� despite all this, we still fail to change the fate of humanity��"


    Humanity had lost.

 Chapter 2126 Last Trump Card

    ?


    Humanity had lost.


    When they realized that they couldn''t do anything more to turn around the situation, the people began to fall into despair.


    The slime enjoyed watching them fall into despair. They had struggled so much, so when they began to break, it was truly the best feeling.


    However, there were still two people who refused to give up.


    Theo and Loki had the same expressions. They were nning to continue to resist him until the very end.


    Seeing their expressions, the slime said, "It''s useless. No matter what you do, you won''t be able to defeat me."


    Loki pped his hand, forming a huge box that isted the slime, Theo, and himself.


    Hallucination Solidification.


    Theo also began to release all the remaining Magic Power.


    When the people saw their actions, they could only clench their teeth with regret. They had done everything. Even if Loki and Theo hadn''t given up, they knew it was only a futile struggle.


    After all, they had seen the fights this entire time. All the twists and all the power had shown them that even with their full strength, the slime couldn''t be defeated.


    They just wanted to say to Theo and Loki, ''You have done enough. Please rest. There''s no more hope.''


    Theo raised his hand and shouted, "If you want to fall into despair, then do it after we win this war. I still haven''t given up!"


    Even though Theo had stated it that way and tried to inform all the people, he still couldn''t rouse the people''s morale.


    Seeing his useless effort, Theo looked at the slime and said, "This is not the ce where I die."


    The slime realized that Theo was nning to use hisst attack. The only way to make Theo give up was to crush hisst attack, like he did to Loki. That was why the slime stated, "No matter what you do, it''s useless."


    Theo seemed to be about to fall into despair. His only hope was in thatst attack on him. The slime immediately extended his tentacles, trying to crush Theo.


    When the tentacles were all around him, Theo didn''t flinch. In fact, he actually made a small smile as he looked at Loki, saying, "I''m sorry. But it seems that I have to trouble you again."


    Loki nodded. "It''s fine. You can trouble me all you want."


    Their interactions and their expressions made the slime feel like they were saying their parting words. It seemed that both of them were ready to die to unleash this attack.


    Theo sped his hands as he reinforced the box Loki had with his Reality Authority. After that, Theo''s Reality Power began to manifest.


    "Take this if you dare!" Theo formed a golden light on top of his head.


    The slime didn''t know what it was, so he extended his tentacles to destroy it. However, before the slime could reach it, the light started shining brightly to the point where it filled up the entire box, turning it into a kind of block-shaped sun.


    Even the others had to close their eyes because of the brightness.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But to their surprise, the moment the light disappeared, everything that happened inside the box was revealed.


    Nothing actually happened. The slime still remained and his size didn''t change. Loki and Theo stood there together, staring at the slime. All they could see was that both Loki and Theo didn''t have any Magic Power.


    When she saw this, Hel couldn''t help but say, "It seems that even you can''t do it. You two have exhausted all your Magic Power��"


    The others looked away, not wanting to witness Theo and Loki''s defeat. Even with all their efforts, it was still impossible to ovee the gap between them and the slime.


    All hope had finally been lost.


    But the moment they turned their heads away, they suddenly heard the slime screaming, "What is this? My Magic Power? My Order? My Authority? And even the Primordial Energy is gone! There is nothing here!"


    "!!!" They all widened their eyes and looked at the box once again.


    "Wait a minute�� What is Theo''s manifestation?" Hel widened her eyes in shock and nced to the side, finding Clone Theo floating near the box,pletely unaffected by that power.


    Theo smiled and said, "This is my Reality Manifestation. By looking at other realities, I can manifest one of them. And right now, we are inside the manifestation of that reality�� And the reality that I choose is�� A world where the humans didn''t find the portal to another world."


    That was enough for the answer. It turned out that Theo actually chose a world without Magic Power, Authority, and other magical things. In other words, Theo, Loki, and the slime inside the box were justplete mortals.


    Still, the slime could easily find the w in Theo''s logic. Heughed, "Hahahaha! It turns out you use this kind of ability. However, you forget one thing, Theodore Griffith. By applying this rule, you won''t be able to ess your power either. Even if your clone sends an attack here, he will end up breaking this box.


    "I know that destroying this box will nullify your ability. In other words, you won''t be able to kill me whether from the inside or the outside. And you are a fool. You can''t defeat me with physical prowess alone." The slime started expanding his body. He had confidence that he could defeat them. Even if he had to remain here for a long time, it would be impossible for the people outside to kill him.


    It turned out that Theo''s n was to seal him until the end of time in exchange for his and Loki''s lives.


    However, right after he said those words with confidence, Loki appeared beneath the box, putting down the structure that Theo, the Space Saint, and other Saints formed to connect this world to another world.


    And the one who brought it was actually Clone Loki. It turned out Loki had summoned his clone this whole time, but instead of helping him fight, he went away to grab this structure.


    As soon as he saw this structure, Clone Theo descended to the ground.


    "It seems that we have no choice." Theo smiled.


    "Yeah."


    "I shall act as the Space Saint. You shall act as the controller of the structure." Clone Theo stated this with a serious expression as he used his Inverted World and Reality Authority to give him the Space Element.


    Meanwhile, Loki released his power to activate the structure.


    "What�� what are you doing?" The slime was stunned.


    Theo said with a smile, "You are going on a trip with us. We can''t kill you, but that doesn''t mean that we can''t exile you. Though, if you have your power, you will be able to stop it from happening. That''s why we are here with you, so that you can''t use your power. I told you earlier. I just wanted you to think that I don''t have any more trump cards. I guess Loki and I can get an award after this. Hahahaha!"


    "!!!" The slime finally understood what they were nning to do. A huge vortex suddenly appeared on top of the box, ready to swallow them and teleport them to another world. "No, wait�� NOOOO!"

 Chapter 2127 Sacrifice

    ?


    "NOOOO!" The slime''s voice echoed until the moment the vortex disappeared.


    The people were shocked that they managed to teleport the slime somewhere else. But they werepletely confused, not knowing where the slime went.


    After all, only Loki and Theo knew about this n.


    As soon as they teleported the slime, Clone Theo and Clone Loki looked at each other before using theirst Magic Power to ruin this structure. With this, there wouldn''t be any more structure that could be used to open the gate to another world, preventing anyone in this world from helping the slime.


    The Heavenly Sovereign, the Sword Saint, Hel, and the Magma Dragon couldn''t help but approach these two, wanting to get an exnation.


    Hel was holding the rotten side of the body as though she were trying to cover it. The Sword Saint was using his left hand to grab the sword, but instead of using it to swing the sword around, he used it to support his body.


    Feng Hao was looking at them, but he kept narrowing his eyes as though he had a hard time looking at them. The Magma Dragon was still energetic, but there were a lot of wounds on his body.


    They all stood side by side, staring at Loki and Theo.


    "You are going to exin it." Clone Loki shrugged. "I''m going to help the main body."


    Without wasting any more seconds, Clone Loki disappeared. So, all eyes shifted to Theo.


    "Hmm�� I also don''t have a lot of time to exin what''s going on. So, I''ll be telling you what has happened." Theo thought for two seconds before exining the entire situation. "As you can see, the slime was impossible to beat. Loki and I had made an agreement that if even our best efforts couldn''t defeat the slime, we''d be exiling him to another world. To be honest, it was my idea, so yeah.


    "Anyway, it was impossible to send the slime to another world because he would resist. Meanwhile, this structure didn''t have a function to render him useless.


    "Hence, we had to stop the slime from using his ability first. We''d been mulling over how to do it, but it seemed that the manifestation of my Reality Authority was the key.


    "By changing the reality to one that didn''t have Magic Power and everything, the slime wouldn''t be able to exert his power. However, to trap the slime like that, it required both me and Loki. We had to be isted from the slime if we wanted to prevent him from escaping.


    "In the meantime, our clones would be using the structure. My task was simr to that of the Space Saint, providing the Space Element into the structure. Meanwhile, Loki took over the role of activating the portal.


    "You could say that exiling him to a different world was the best option. The other world should be ruined. And with us destroying this structure, there was no way they could connect to this world anymore.


    "Even if the slime absorbed everything in another world, it was impossible to recreate the portal. So we didn''t have to worry about the future invasion. After this, I will disappear to help the real body fight the slime over there."


    "Wait, doesn''t that mean you��" Hel furrowed her eyebrows.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Theo''s answer came in the form of a smile. It seemed that he''d rather not talk about it.


    "I can only say one thing for sure. This battle is about to be over. All you have to do is eliminate the rest of the monsters, which shouldn''t be a problem."


    Hel gritted her teeth and said, "Still, you��"


    The Heavenly Sovereign closed his eyes. He already knew the answer. Theo might nevere back. It could be said that Theo sacrificed his life in order to exile the slime. Theo, who never ced his heart in the human race, actually sacrificed his life for that race.


    The Sword Saint stepped forward and said with a serious expression, "Do you have any message you want to pass on?"


    Theo shook his head. "I have left all the messages in my house. Agata will surely give it to youter."


    The Sword Saint''s face darkened. He didn''t understand how Theo could say all this nonchntly. He should know that Agata would be the most hurt by his actions.


    However, Theo said, "That''s all I can say right now. I have to return to the main body. I''m sorry to trouble you, but can you kill the remaining monsters for me? It would be good if you could do it."


    The Sword Saint raised his sword with his left hand. "I will. Even if I can''t wield my sword with my dominant hand anymore, as long as I can still wield my sword, I''ll cut down everything!"


    The Heavenly Sovereign nodded. "I''ll make sure that your group doesn''t face a problem because of your absence."


    The Magma Dragon lowered his head. "Theodore Griffith. You are the first human that I respect from the bottom of my heart. You are my eternal friend. If your group everes to me, I shall convince the entire Dragon Race to help them!"


    Theo smiled. "Thanks. I''ll leave the rest to you guys."


    After Theo said that, he finally disappeared from this world.


    "��" Hel closed her eyes while biting her lips. She never thought that these two were ready to die. Loki was her father, and Theo was like a family. These two were the closest to her, but unfortunately, they ended up leaving her alone in this world.


    The Sword Saint, the Heavenly Sovereign, and the Magma Dragon could only look at her lonely back before turning around. They had onest thing to do.


    Without hesitation, the Sword Saint returned to the yellow line, cutting down King ss Monsters. The Heavenly Sovereign used all the remaining energy in his body to kill as many monsters as possible. His vision was too blurry, so he went to the green line and hit the ce filled with monsters.


    Meanwhile, the Magma Dragon summoned magma from underground, trying to burn the remaining monsters. At the same time, he let out a huge roar, stating, "Theodore Griffith shall be my eternal friend. He has sacrificed his life to defeat the slime. If any of you dare to trouble the group he left behind, I shall bring the entire Dragon Race to decimate them, even if it means making the entire human race our enemies!"

 Chapter 2128 Reactions

    ?


    This deration was received differently by the people. Some people thought this was something to be celebrated, considering Theo managed to defeat the slime even if it cost him his life.


    However, those who were close to Theo couldn''t believe that he had died.


    But every single person who attended that meeting couldn''t help but recall one thing that Theo once said.


    "Even I can''t guarantee my own survival, so I want to warn you that you might die in the battle."


    And the result of this battle was extremely horrifying. The Fist Saint died, the Lightning Saint sacrificed his life, Hel couldn''t even maintain her Death Armor, the Sword Saint wouldn''t be able to wield the sword like he used to, and the Heavenly Sovereign almost became blind.


    Theo and the God of Mischief, their greatest fighters, ended up sacrificing their lives in order to exile the slime instead of killing him. That was how strong the slime was. This sacrifice felt heavy.


    But the heaviness was far different from the one Agata experienced. The moment she heard Theo had died, Agata dropped everything on her hand while mming the table in front of her. She shouted, "What? Theo died?!"


    She was horrified. The battle was so fast that she thought the teleportation was just another trick from Theo. But it turned out that moment was actually when Theo sacrificed his life.


    "No. How can he die?!" Agata tried to deny it. Theo should be thest person to die because of his wits.


    "Agata!" Leonardo was as shocked as she was, but he had to remain as calm as possible, trying to stop Agata from doing something reckless.


    Agata didn''t listen to him as she hurriedly ran away from the room.


    "Agata!" Leonardo stood up, nning to chase her. However, Ne suddenly came to his side and said, "I''ll chase after her."


    Ne''s expression wasn''t that different from Agata''s, but she still maintained a bit of her rationality. Leonardo knew that he should remain here to properly close the battle. He was also hurt after losing one of his grandsons, and Theo was the brightest among them.


    Unfortunately, he could only nod his head, saying, "Please."


    Ne hurriedly chased after her.


    Meanwhile, the people from Theo''s group had a different type of shock.


    "What?" Ava gasped. Her anger and sadness were mixed in her heart. Theo had always been there for her, but in this battle, she couldn''t even help him.


    Felix, on the other hand, experienced a mixture of anger and shame. There was one single thought that kept reying in his mind. It was his oath to Theo.


    "I, Felix Holt, don''t have any more fear. If the enemy is stronger than me, I will be even stronger and kill them. If you end up dying in the process, I will dly kill myself to go to Hell and kill the King of the Underworld so that I can bring you back to life."


    He had failed. There was only one thing he had to do. He had to kill all the monsters before killing himself so that he could bring Theo back.


    He let out a roar, releasing all that anger. It seemed that he didn''t care about what happened to him as long as he could kill all these monsters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Ruth maintained herposure, but she was also inconsble over their loss. However, she was a bit worried about Felix''s state. Ultimately, she used her remaining power to assist Felix so that he didn''t die.


    On the other side of the battlefield, there was a pair of husband and wife, who fell to the ground,pletely overwhelmed with sadness.


    They were none other than Ray and Valerie. Just when their rtionship was about to get better, Theo had to leave this world.


    The utter shock in their hearts stopped everything they were doing, as though it was not worth it anymore.


    Theo had told them that he would sort out their rtionship after this battle. But it appeared that day would nevere.


    Other people from Theo''s group were also rampaging. Christoper, Coline, Jeff, Akbar, Ryo, Walker, and Ergene. All of them used thest bit of their strength as though they were nning to bury all these monsters so that they could apany their master.


    However, the calmest one was actually Rea. It wasn''t that she didn''t want to avenge Theo. She was his disciple after all, so the desire was there.


    But she had to face one more problem. The moment Theo had gone, everything about the group would be ced on her shoulder. If she couldn''t remain calm, the entire group would crumble.


    Even if she had to cut away her emotions, she had to remain calm and lead the group.


    Still, Rea stopped for a moment, looking at the horizon where Theo had previously fought. She kneeled on the ground and ced her head on the ground, as if giving him the respect he deserved.


    Rea had achieved all this because of his guidance after all.


    She said, "Please leave everything to me, Master. I''ll make sure to protect this group."


    However, there was a different reaction when they heard Theo had died along with the slime. Instead of anger or sadness, they actually felt relieved.


    They were none other than the president and his cab members.


    "Theo has died with the slime?"


    "And that powerful person is also with them?"


    "As much as I hate to admit it, it is kind of relieving. I mean, if we talk about the future, if Theo and that person are helping each other, no one will be able to touch them. It can be said that Theo will be the one to control the whole world."


    There was a sense of relief and even excitement, knowing that there would be no more threat to the government. It was a shame that the Time God betrayed them, but it didn''t change the fact that the biggest problem had been solved as well.


    Only the president remained silent the whole time. He kept staring at the screen. No one knew what he was thinking, but it appeared he was the only one hurt after losing Theo. His heart might be filled with ambition and politics, but in the face of amon enemy, he could easily drop every grudge in order to fight them.


    Unfortunately, no one knew what he would do after this battle.

 Chapter 2129 A Message That Conveyed A Thousand Words

    ?


    In the city center, millions of people came out of their houses and went down the street. They all gathered in a spot near the center of the city.


    They all looked at the road, witnessing thousands of vehicles, from police cars to military vehicles. The war had just ended. There were a lot of soldiers who died.


    They had a parade to honor the fallen soldiers, including Theo, who sacrificed their lives for the human race.


    Despite the base trying to honor the people who had fallen for the human race, not a single person from Theo''s group actually visited the procession.


    People said that they couldn''t believe Theo died, so they remained in their base because they didn''t want to admit it. They looked like they were in denial, but no one could say anything to them.


    After all, the Sword Saint, the Heavenly Sovereign, the Magma Dragon, the Goddess of Death, and even the Transcendent Level Experts near Theo had made it clear that if they tried to harm Theo, the hero of humanity, they wouldn''t stand by and let it happen.


    However, what truly happened in Theo''s base was far from what they currently thought.


    Instead of being filled with sadness, the entire group actually gathered in the field. They weren''t holding any funerals. In fact, their faces were filled with smiles and joy.


    "Here you go! I did my best for this!" Coline smirked while putting down a te of giant lobster.


    "Coline. Can I get my favorite food today?" Ne asked with a smirk.


    "Of course. I''m going all out today! So, eat anything you want." Coline pumped her chest while ncing at Agata, "Oi! You should rx for a day!"


    Agata looked at Coline before shaking her head. "No. I''m busy and will be busy for a long time!"


    "Is that so?" Coline tilted her head in confusion. Even Ne looked at her and had a small smile. There was no more sadness on Agata''s face, unlike yesterday. Instead of crying, she seemed to be happy because she was expecting something.


    ''I''m d that she''s fine now.'' Ne let out a sigh of relief, remembering what happened yesterday.


    ��


    "Agata?" Ne knocked on the door of her house with Theo. The war was already over. After that deration, Agata returned to this house and locked herself in. There was not a single sounding from this house, making the people worried.


    ''She is not trying to kill herself, right?'' Ne thought as her face became pale. It would be a problem if she did it. She used her Magic Power to sense everything inside the house, finding Agata on her bed. She seemed to be crying, not epting the fact that Theo had sacrificed his own life.


    Ne gritted her teeth. She was also not over it yet. In fact, the entire group was depressed. Even Felix wanted to kill himself in order to follow Theo. If Ruth and the others didn''t stop him, it would be a huge problem.


    On the bed, Agata covered her face with the pillow, crying. She remembered all the times they had together.


    ''Why did you leave me?''


    ''Why did you sacrifice yourself without telling me?''


    She was depressed. She wanted to kill herself.


    Both of them had faced a lot of problems together. They had to be separated on a lot of asions. Now that Theo was gone, she felt that the world without him was not worth it anymore.


    However, there was a basket on the side table. The basket was filled with a lot of Skylinks. Each Skylink had a name attached to it, including herself.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Do you think I can live here without you?'' Agata screamed inwardly. ''All this creation of yours��"


    She wanted to let out all her emotions, but when she said thest sentence, she suddenly came to another realization.


    That was right. The Magma Dragon told the people that Theo had sacrificed himself and that Hel had told them the entire situation.


    Theo and Loki dragged the slime to another world. He had, by no means, died.


    After all, if he passed away, this ce that he had used his power to create would be the first thing to disappear.


    Agata stopped for a moment and looked at the basket. She couldn''t help but reach the Skylink with her name attached to it. It was at the very top, as though it had been arranged so that she would be the first one to listen to it.


    That was right. Clone Theo had told Hel that he had left the message for Agata. Theo actually wanted her to listen to hisst words.


    Agata couldn''t help but open the Skylink to see what Theo had to say. But it was hard to calm down after crying so hard. She was still sobbing while searching for his message.


    In Skylink, there was one file that seemed to have been created only a few days ago. It was a voice message.


    She tried to listen to it but felt extremely disappointed when the message was only a few seconds long. There wouldn''t be a lot of messages that could be conveyed in just a few seconds.


    But the moment she yed it, everything changed. The message was simple.


    "Agata. If you ever find this, then I only have one thing to say to you. I have never lied and will never lie to you."


    "��" Agata looked down as though the message caused her to contemte a lot of things. This simple message conveyed thousands of words to her.


    In fact, this message was something that only Theo could prepare.


    "Never lie��" Agata muttered in a low tone.


    While she was falling into deep thought, Ne kept waiting outside the house, knowing Agata needed time to ept reality.


    "Theo. What am I supposed to do now?" Ne let out a long sigh, wondering why Theo would do all that without telling anyone about it.


    But her thoughts were suddenly disrupted as the door was opened.


    *ck!*


    "!!!" Ne turned her head around with a shocked face, as though she believed Agata wouldn''te out of the house for a few days.


    To her surprise, Agata came out while carrying the basket. Her eyes were still red, but her face seemed determined.


    As soon as she found Ne, Agata asked, "Can you gather everyone here? Not just the people from our group, but all the people rted to Theo, like his grandfather, his parents, or even the Sword Saint and Heavenly Sovereign."

 Chapter 2130 Theos Messages

    ?


    It didn''t take too long for Ne to gather all of them. In fact, the moment she requested it, she called Theo''s parents to help them deliver the message. This was the most important request, so they invited all the people rted to Theo.


    The Heavenly Sovereign was wearing ck clothes in order to show his condolences. Leonardo and Lorenzo joined up with the Sword Saint and Rea. His parents were leaning on each other while doing their best not to cry.


    There were so many people that the entire area became crowded in an instant. Considering this was Theo''sst message, they came as quickly as possible.


    To everyone''s surprise, Agata stood in front of them with no grief on her face. Agata said, "Thank you for answering my call. The reason why I ask for your presence here is to give you Theo''sst message."


    Agata''s action weirded everyone out, but they were also curious about what Theo had to say to them.


    Felix''s Skylink had both Ruth''s and Millie''s names on it. When they checked the voice recording, they were utterly shocked.


    "Felix. You must be trying to kill yourself, right? But look at you; you''re not being a good subordinate. Our base is made of my power, so if you kill yourself to drag me back, won''t it mean you die for nothing? Instead of killing yourself, I have a better suggestion. Why don''t you marry Ruth? I''m sure that Millie is not against it. In fact, you are already a thing in my eyes. It seems that you''re holding back the marriage because I haven''t married Agata. Hahaha!"


    Other people couldn''t help but hear it since they were so close. But they also began to open their own ears to listen to what Theo had to say.


    "Rea. You are my disciple, so I have to ask you to lead the group in my stead. You are not me, so there is no need to replicate what I''ve done. Just do everything at the level that you''refortable with. But don''t forget to keep progressing. Though, I have to apologize to your father since I have to steal his daughter and not let her go home to take care of her family."


    "Maya! I''ve given you the location of my storage. You can get everything from there. Continue to be yourself and challenge me. Though, I still hope that you can remain with the group and continue to help them."


    "Jeff, you are one of the earliest people to follow me. I have promised you to create a world of painting, so there is no need to hesitate to use my illusion ability to paint this world. Turn this ce into something that can only be seen in a fairy tale."


    "Chris. There was a lot of friction between us when we first met. But you never backed down and continued to support me. I apologize for my actions back then, and I know that it''s shameless for me to say this, but please continue to support the group."


    "Ergene. I hope that I have be the kind of leader who has taught you a lot of lessons. You are talented at leading a group. Rea will face a lot of problems from now on, so please help her."


    "Isaac. You have to take care of Levina. She is the granddaughter of the man I respected so much, so make sure she bes the happiest woman in the world whenever she is with you!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Aisha. You have a healing ability far above anyone in this world. There might be a time when it might haunt you in the future, but fret not; the group will always support you."


    "Sir Feng Hao, thank you for assisting me this whole time. Your help has truly given me a lot of options for all my problems. There won''t be any more danger in this world, so you should take care of your disciple a bit more dearly. Don''t tease her too much."


    There were a lot of messages that could be heard. However, some of them decided to listen to it from afar so that the others wouldn''t hear the message. Or some of them just wanted a peaceful atmosphere to listen to Theo''sst words, like Leonardo.


    "Grandfather. I''m sorry that I put you in a difficult position. However, let me say this: I''m truly d that you are my grandfather. You are the one who allowed me to learn the word ''family''which which had once been erased from my dictionary. Without you, I won''t be able to achieve this far."


    "Lorenzo. I''m sorry I couldn''t attend your wedding. You are talented as well, so I know that you will do just fine when it''s your time to lead the War God Family. Also, please take care of Sister-inw."


    Lorenzo and Leonardo gritted their teeth when they heard their messages. They all wanted to say, ''There''s no meaning if you''re not here,'' but no matter how they said it, Theo wouldn''te back here.


    "Father, Mother. I know that you have been through a lot. I hated both of you! However, that''s all in the past. You promised to bring back Brother Edward, so I hoped that you could bring him here. He had been gone for far too long. And if it''s not too much for me to ask, can you help Agata? She will be extremely busy after this."


    "Ne. I''m d that you are my sister. I have made you shoulder a lot of burdens. But I have to ask shamelessly once again. Please help, Agata."


    Last but not least, Hel received an important message.


    She couldn''t help but look down, as though falling into deep thought. After all, her message was simple, like Agata''s, but carried a lot of meaning.


    "Hel. I look up to you like my elder sister. But you should do just fine even if you''re alone. That''s why I only have to tell you this. He is ''Mischief'' and I am ''Trickster.'' That''s all you need to know."


    The most important message was actually something that she had known and acknowledged the whole time.


    But that message actually put a smile on Hel''s face as she said, "I see."

 Chapter 2131 Marriage

    ?


    Three monthster.


    "Come on!" A woman in herte twenties waved her hand while energetically running to a shop.


    "Wait for me." The guy chased after her, but the moment he reached her, he started panting. It was clear that he couldn''t keep up with her pace.


    "What are you doing? You''re so slow. It''s because you have never left yourboratory!" The woman pouted.


    "I mean, the new world needs me. I have to continue working on my research so that people can get stronger."


    "You''re too serious, Isaac."


    "No, no. You should be the one who needs to consider this seriously, Levina."


    Yes, the two of them were Isaac and Levina. They had run for a few hundred miles on an errand.


    "Still, the big day is tomorrow, huh?" Isaac couldn''t help but smile, looking at the statue in front of him.


    "Yeah." Levina nodded. "He will definitely return, right?"


    "Of course. He always fulfilled his promise." Isaac smiled while raising his head and looking at the statue that the government had erected. That statue belonged to none other than Theodore Griffith. He gantly led the entire troop to repel the slime that wanted to destroy the world and sacrificed his life in order to defeat the slime.


    It had a good public image. People treated Theo like a hero, but they knew that the government only did it because they had finally taken back control over the base from Theo.


    "Theo has be the world''s hero. Rea grows to be a capable leader. Maya has reached the peak of the business world, with no oneing close. The others have also grown exponentially�� I can''t really lose to them!" Isaac clenched his fists, determined to work harder so that he wasn''t left behind.


    Levina couldn''t help but smile after looking at his determination.


    "Well, we have seen it, so it''s time for us to return. We''re on an errand, you know." Levina raised the bag in her right hand while winking yfully.


    "How about we wait for a bit more? No, how about using public transportation?" The determination from before was gone as he started making an awkward smile.


    Levina thought for a moment before sticking out her tongue. "Nope!"


    Without hesitation, she rushed back at full speed. Isaac could only shake his head helplessly before chasing after her. "Wait for me."


    ��


    A few hourster.


    "Here you go!" Levina handed the bag to Coline.


    "Oh! Thank you!" Coline smiled at Levina before ncing at Isaac, who was lying down on the ground with his face touching the ground. She thought, ''Is he dead?''


    "How about Agata?" Levina asked.


    "She is testing the gown for tomorrow."


    "Oh!" Levina raised her eyebrows before rushing to the grand hall, finding a few women gathered in the side room. She took a peek at the inside and suddenly froze.


    In the center of the room stood Agata, the woman known to be the world''s most beautiful woman. Agata was wearing a gown that seemed to have been crafted perfectly for her grace and elegance, making her beauty transcend.


    The dress shimmered with the brilliance of a thousand small crystals. Their glow made them look like a thousand stars in the sky.


    The gown was truly a masterpiece of craftsmanship. Flowers and vines were embroidered delicately on the side.


    The dress that made Agata appear like a fairy who had descended to this mortal world had already mesmerized her without her being aware of it.


    She couldn''t help but smile and quietly close the door, allowing them to prepare for the event tomorrow.


    "Well, it''s going to be dark soon." She smiled yfully and came out, finding Ne, who was entering the hall.


    "Levina? What are you doing here?" Ne tilted her head in confusion.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I took a peek at the changing room. I feel like Theo is blessed by Heaven." Levina chuckled.


    "Is that so? Well, I kind of feel that''s true." Ne giggled.


    "By the way, have all of them arrived?"


    "Yeah. We''re going to get busy tomorrow." Ne looked at the hall, which had been decorated perfectly for the wedding. "How about you help too?"


    "Nah, I have to take care of Isaac. I have dragged him a bit too fast after all." Levina looked away while giving an awkward smile.


    "Is that so? Well, good night, then. Isaac is surely lucky to have you."


    They waved their hands at each other as they headed to the ce where they needed to be.


    ��


    The next day.


    Finally, the promised day had arrived. The wedding of the century was held.


    The event might not have been big and invited thousands of people, but every single person who came here was a famous powerhouse.


    On one side, the family of the groom and bride lined up. There were Ray, Valerie, Lorenzo, Leonardo, and Ne as the groom''s representatives. The entire Mota Family also came as the bride''s representatives.


    Behind them were the people who were close to the groom. There were Jeff and the others, including Maya and Rea.


    Meanwhile, the other side was filled with their acquaintances, like Heavenly Sovreign, Feng Hao. There were also a lot of prominent families that had a Transcendent Level Expert to lead them. All of them were anticipating the appearance of the man who had disappeared for a few months.


    However, it seemed that they forgot about him for a moment as their eyes were glued on the bride, who had stood in front of the podium. And surprisingly, the one who led the entire procession was the man known as the pope. He had retired after thest war, and he ended up in a wheelchair. But he seemed to be still energetic as he smiled at the bride as if thanking her for inviting him to this marriage ceremony.


    All of a sudden, the double gate leading to the hall mmed open.


    *Bam!*


    "!!!" Everyone was startled and turned around, thinking the groom had finally arrived.


    Yet, they were surprised by the sudden appearance of a monster.


    "Monsters?" The people suddenly stood up, ready to kill the monsters.


    But surprisingly, the monster didn''t do anything other than open the gate. Instead, he stepped back, revealing what happened outside.


    More and more monsters appeared out of nowhere, as though they had been teleported to this ce.


    They all let out a roar to the sky like a trumpet, which started the procession.


    There were thousands of monsters outside, and they all roared as though they were celebrating this marriage.


    Agata couldn''t help but smile when she saw all this. "Seriously�� He overdid it again."


    Suddenly, two people appeared out of thin air. The first one was a ck-haired man who wore ragged clothes. He seemed dirty, but the second man was worse. His body might not be covered with wounds, but he should wash himself if he wants to do anything.


    Yet, the two men didn''t flinch. With a single flick of their fingers, theypletely changed.


    Their hair became neat and tidy, their bodies were clean, and their clothes had changed.


    The blue-haired man was wearing a white tuxedo as he walked into the grand hall. The ck-haired man smiled as he apanied him. If the bride was apanied by her father, then the groom was apanied by a father-like figure.


    As he walked, he couldn''t help but say with a smile, "I''m back."


    After a long-standing battle, the man, who was known to be the strongest in the world, Theodore Griffith, had returned.

 Chapter 2132 Several Years Later

    ?


    The groom and the bridge stood next to each other.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, we gather here today to celebrate the union of two beautiful souls, Theodore Griffith and Agata Mota. Today, we witness the merging of two lives, two hearts, and two families into a single bond of love andmitment."


    "Marriage is a journey that begins with the exchange of vows, but it is so much more than that. It is a promise to stand by each other''s side through thick and thin, to cherish and support one another, to build a life together filled with love, trust, and understanding."


    "As you stand here before us today, remember that love is a gift to be nurtured and cherished. It is a me that requires care, attention, and selflessness. May you findfort and sce in each other''s embrace, and may your love continue to grow with each passing day."


    Theo and Agata smiled as they turned around, facing each other.


    "And now, I ask you both, Theodore Griffith and Agata Mota, the most sacred question of all. Do you, Theodore Griffith, take Agata Mota to be yourwfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?"


    Theo''s smile was filled with emotion. He remembered how they first met. They had been separated on a lot of asions because of hisck of ability. He, who had lost the meaning of love, finally regained it because of her. Finally, he had arrived at this point. He could say without hesitation, "I do."


    Then the former pope turned towards Agata. "And do you, Agata Mota, take Theodore Griffith to be yourwfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?"


    Agata also reminisced about the past. She had dered to Theo that she never wanted to be his essory. Even if she couldn''t grow stronger to catch up to his strength, she continued to work hard in all other aspects. That was why she could stand in front of him today, on this most important day. She could proudly dere that she could stand next to him. "I do."


    "With the power vested in me and the love witnessed by all present here today, I now pronounce you husband and wife."


    ''Here I am.'' Noel thought while looking at Agata. ''I must have made you worry and sad. I have to create all those scenes so that the world thinks I have died, so no one bothers us anymore. The government will surely see me as a thorn or a shadow leader, after all. That''s why I have to go to another world and destroy the pir connecting it.


    ''The world has agreed to fulfill three of my wishes. And thatst one was to create an exact copy of that structure so that I could return to this ce. It''s just that it takes a bit too long since I have to find those people because they are not supposed to die because of my weakness. I have made you wait for too long.''


    Agata''s expression looked like she had understood everything. ''I know that you have been working hard all this time. That''s why I will always believe in you. You have told me that you never lie. I know that you wille back and marry me. That''s why there is no need to mull over the past.


    ''We are standing here to face the future�� the future of both of us. That''s why Theo, I''m here. Everything doesn''t matter anymore because��''


    Both of them leaned toward each other, their hearts brimming with love and excitement. They were like the young boy and girl who had met each other in thepetition for the first time.


    ''Yeah. Because��'' Both of them had the same thought. ''I''ll be your husband (wife).''


    The pope dered it with a voice filled with reverence and joy. "You may seal yourmitment with a kiss."


    Their lips met, sealing their vows in a tender and passionate kiss. The room erupted in jubnt apuse, and the outside was shaken by the thunderous roars, celebrating the beginning of their shared adventure as husband and wife.


    ��


    Time flew quietly by. Several years passed in the blink of an eye.


    During those years, a new world was created. The monsters that Theo brought from the other world hade to an agreement. That agreement was immortalized as the pact of all races.


    Theo had gathered all races to discuss the world''s rule. As the supreme Singrity, Theo didn''t wish for his life to be filled with blood, fully knowing that he had the strength to defeat all the races in the world. That was why he reached an agreement where they could live together in peace.


    As for Theo, he often disappeared from the world. After all, Theo had promised Agata an unforgettable honeymoon.


    And that honeymoon was held in another world. Thanks to Theo''s power, the trip was made possible.


    It didn''t take too long before the two settled down because they had more important business.


    In a grass field, there were two people crossing the field. The first one was Agata. She was holding a little girl who was about seven years old. She was pretty, with blue hair and an energetic expression. Her big, bright eyes were gleaming. She tied her hair into pigtails, making her look yful.


    She was Theo and Agata''s daughter, Mia Griffith.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Dad. I brought Mom here! You are going to fulfill your promise, right? I also want to go to another world!" Mia puffed her cheeks like a squirrel.


    Just looking at her cute face melted Theo''s heart. Theo hugged her and grinned, "Of course. We are ready, you know."


    "Yosh!" Mia pumped her fist as though she had won a huge victory. "By the way, where are we going now?"


    "Hehe. We are going to a special ce this time. The ce where everything begins!"


    "The ce where everything begins?" Mia''s eyes brightened as though they would be leaving for an adventure.


    "Yep. This time, we''re going to the world where we can finally meet the one who created this world. I have dered in the past that I will make sure to reach the one in the other dimension. That''s why��" Theo smirked while raising his hand and making a gripping motion as though he had grasped the sky. "��Let''s meet the creator."


    (The End)


    Or


    (To be continued�� in ''I Can Read People''s Comments,'' the second novel. The genre is different, so I have to separate it. Both stories can be read as a standalone, though, I wish that you could read it as well.)


    Author''s Note:


    It''s been more than two years, but this long ride is finally over. As I said earlier, ''I Can Read People''s Comments'' is the next novel if you still wish to follow Theo''s adventure as he is nning to meet me. You, readers, can participate in the story and help him to reach me.


    Alright, alright. Promotion aside, I don''t know how I can express this right now. Theo''s growth is truly amazing. I know that most of you are expecting the sudden change of Theo into an intelligent trickster, but when I''m thinking back, I''m d that Theo can grow wiser and wiser as time passes. He might make mistakes, he might make dumb decisions, but more importantly, he improves.


    I would especially like to thank all the patrons who make me believe that I can still continue writing this novel. *Bow*


    If you haven''t written any reviews for this book, I would love to hear what you think about this story. I''d really appreciate it if you could take a little time and share your thoughts in a review. Let me and the potential readers know the good, the bad, and whatever you think I should improve for my next writing.


    Thank you for taking part in my and Theo''s journey.


    See you in the next book.


    ��


    New Novels:


    1. I Can Read People''s Comments


    2. Oil Tycoon: Let''s Search for Oil in Martial World


    Other Novels:


    1. System vs Rebirth


    2. Gacha Sovereign


    3. The Magician of Sound


    4. Reincarnated To Bonk in Another World


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!